Woman with 4″ toe-nails

This is what the Welfare State has spawned.

No employer — not even the politically-correct indulgent government — would hire or tolerate an employee who has 4″-long toe-nails.

CAUTION: EYE BLEACH ALERT!!!

Ayanna, who calls herself the toenail “goddess”

Victoria Wellman reports for the Daily Mail, March 6, 2012, that a woman who was once addicted to growing the nails on her hands has now grown her toenails to a staggering four inches, limiting her motion and jeopardizing her health.

Known as Ayanna, the 54-year-old is the latest quirky character to appear on TLC’s show My Strange Addiction on which she refuses to cut her curly claws calling them her “babies”:

“They are 50 per cent of who I am. They’re just sexy and sassy. I am considered a long-nailed goddess,” Ayanna told the lifestyle network’s cameras much to the dismay of her godson Kuwait and friend Vincent.

As if Ayanna’s addiction does not already impinge on everyday life, she was recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, a disease which requires activity and exercise to beat.

But the extreme nail-enthusiast is adamant, despite what her family say, that she ‘will fiercely protect them at all costs.’

Forced to walk slowly like a penguin on her heels and climb stairs sideways, Ayanna rarely sleeps on her back because the blanket feels like a ‘brick is sitting on top of my toe nails,’ she explained.

Furthermore, she can’t wear socks or any other shoes except flip-flops which she must endure year round, changing only into tennis shoes when she can cut the end out of the foot.

At the age of 24, Ayanna began growing the nails on her hands freakishly long but five years ago, her addiction spread to her feet.

Her longest toenail she estimates measures four inches.

See also a companion post to this one, “Woman has nails 20ft long.”

~Eowyn

The Fall of America – in 12 striking graphs

A picture is worth a thousand words.

A few days ago, Jeff Gundlach gave a big presentation titled “Getting There,” to a group of investors at the New York Yacht Club.

Using a series of graphs, Gundlach showed how America got into the state in which we find ourselves. Here are some of the most evocative slides:

~Click graph to enlarge~

~Eowyn

Colorado’s welfare parasites spent taxpayer dollars in strip clubs

Amerika’s Welfare State is bloated, riddled with fraud, and rotten to the core.

In September 2010, we learnt that welfare agencies in the United States are aggressively registering new voters.

In October 2010, news came that although the state of California is dead broke and broken, millions of taxpayer dollars handed out to welfare recipients parasites were spent in Las Vegas casinos, luxury cruises, and vacation sites of Hawaii, Miami, and Guam.

In May 2011, we found out that a welfare recipient in Michigan used taxpayer-paid food stamps to buy cold water lobsters and Porterhouse steak. According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, food stamp fraud totaled nearly $100 million since 2007. Abuse of the food stamp program accelerated when debit-style cards replaced paper coupons in the 1990s.

In April 2011 came the frightening news that America had reached the tipping point – government handouts totalling $2.3 trillion exceeded tax income ($2.2 trillion).

Then on February 23, 2012, came news that 1 of every 2 Americans (49.5%) don’t pay federal income taxes.

Now we are told that welfare recipients in Colorado are abusing taxpayers’ largesse by using their welfare payments in strip clubs, casinos, bingo halls and amusements parks.

Not only is this a gross injustice, this entire corrupt rotten-to-the-score scheme is unsustainable.

H/t our Miss May.

~Eowyn

Jeremy Jojola reports for Denver’s 9News, Feb. 27, 2012:

After a three-month investigation, 9Wants to Know has uncovered welfare cash-withdraws at ATMs in strip clubs, casinos, bingo halls and amusement parks despite a state law banning such transactions at some businesses.

9Wants to Know also discovered more than $1 million in welfare is also going to ATM owners and banks through transaction fees per every year.

9Wants to Know reviewed 222,000 transactions involving Colorado Quest cards, the state-issued debit cards welfare recipients use to access cash at ATMs. The transactions occurred during a six-month period in 2011.

“When you see the type of obvious abuses that you’ve shown, it says there are people on welfare that should not be,” Jon Caldara, of the conservative watchdog group The Independence Institute, said. “And people are throwing that away.”

While current state law bans welfare transactions at casinos and liquor stores, it does not prohibit cash withdraws at strip clubs. Violating the law does not result in any penalties either.

A new federal law signed by President Barack Obama last week forces states to ban all such transactions within the next two years or face the consequence of losing federal funding. The federal ban is part of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012.

A person who uses welfare named Curtis was outraged when he heard about the welfare abuse. “I think it pretty much sucks,” Curtis said. He uses the Colorado Quest card to survive. “There are people who are getting it who shouldn’t be getting it. That’s backing up the system for the people who do need it,” he said.

Liquor stores – Prohibited

9Wants to Know calculates more than $40,000 was withdrawn from ATMs located inside liquor stores in the Denver area between May 1 and Nov. 30, 2011.

The top three busiest locations are located Colfax Avenue
- Josh Liquor – 6569 W. Colfax Avenue – $5,880
- B&B Liquor – 7035 E. Colfax Avenue – $5,020
- E&A Liquor – 3230 W. Colfax Avenue – $3,880

“I think it’s wrong,” Steve Ziporlin, who works at a grocery store near Josh Liquor, said. “The money is supposed to be used for groceries and sundries.”

Casinos – Prohibited

9Wants to Know found numerous transactions at ATMs inside casinos in Black Hawk. The most transactions occurred at the Wild Card Saloon Casino, with 208 transactions through its ATM for a combined withdrawn amount of around $15,000. In one case, a welfare recipient withdrew $500 during one transaction at the casino.

9Wants to Know also found 56 transactions at the Bull Durham Casino and a handful of transactions at the Black Hawk Station Casino.

“The state is giving them money and to come up here and play with it, I think that’s defeated them and their families,” Pat Schmidt said as she walked out of a casino. “It comes out of our pocket.”

Bingo halls – Prohibited

9Wants to Know found 29 transactions at bingo halls around the state, including in Turn 2 Bingo in Denver and Bingo World in Colorado Springs.

Strip clubs – Not Prohibited

Current state law does not prohibit welfare recipients from accessing cash from ATMs inside strip clubs.

9Wants to Know counted 14 transactions at strip club Shotgun Willie’s for a combined amount of $1,500. Taxpayers also covered the $6.50 ATM fee for each transaction. 9Wants to Know found a handful of transactions at other strip clubs, including Diamond Cabaret, La Boheme and Dandy Dan’s.

Elitch Gardens Theme Park – Not Prohibited

Thirty-three transactions were found inside Elitch Gardens Theme Park during the six-month period reviewed by 9Wants to Know. A handful of the transactions occurred at an ATM inside the water-park section.

Out-of-state transactions

9Wants to Know also identified two transactions totaling $160 at Disneyland, one transaction for $140 at Universal Studios and $1,000 worth of transactions in a liquor store in Los Angeles.

Several transactions were found at ATMs along the Las Vegas strip.

Banks and ATM owners getting a piece

Out of the 222,000 transactions reviewed by 9Wants to Know, 80 percent occurred at ATM that applied a fee to the welfare accounts. 9Wants to Know estimates ATM owners and banks collected $540,000 in fees during that six-month period.

The local banking industry in Colorado says the fees are the cost of doing business. “Annual maintenance on such a machine will be $12,000 to $15,000 per year. That’s a lot of money that you have to recover,” Don Childears, president of the Colorado Bankers Association, said.

After 9Wants to Know inquired about ATM fees, the Colorado Human Services Department said it’s sending out updated flyers to welfare recipients to help them avoid surcharges on their accounts. The flyers encourage recipients to use Chase Bank ATMs, where there are no extra surcharges. Chase still collects 85-cents-per-transaction regardless of what ATM is used. “I don’t like ATM fees,” Julie Kerksick, of Colorado’s Health and Human Services Department, said. “But do I think it’s right and that I want to see it continue? No.”

State law lacks penalty

Neither welfare recipients nor businesses face a penalty under the law that bans transactions at casinos and liquor stores.

Rep. Dan Pabon (D-Denver) tried to pass a stronger law that would have included a ban on transactions at strip clubs during the 2011 legislative session. The bill was killed after some other lawmakers said it’s impossible to prove cash coming out of ATMs was actually used to buy liquor or lap dances. “The primary beneficiaries of these benefits are kids,” Pabon said. “If there’s money being pulled out at liquor stores and casinos, it makes you wonder if those benefits are going to the people that they should.”

Other lawmakers think it’s unfair to block welfare access at certain ATMs. “If you place some of the limits you talk about, you place recipients at a further disadvantage,” Sen. Betty Boyd (D-Lakewood). “Why is it that the ‘haves’ are always suspect of and stereotyping of the ‘have nots?’” Boyd is the chair of the Health and Human Services Committee that killed Pabon’s bill.

Trying to curb abuse

“We are very concerned if people are using their very scarce resources on things beyond the basic needs,” Kerksick said. Kerksick oversees the state’s welfare programs. She says it’s impossible to monitor every single welfare transaction but that her department is trying to curb the abuse.

Within the past year, Kerksick says letters were sent to liquor stores, casinos and bingo halls asking business owners to comply with state law by programming ATM to block Colorado Quest cards. “I would like to say that merchants would cooperate with us, but they don’t all cooperate,” Kerksick said. “What’s the point of having the rule if the vendor is not going to comply?” 9Wants to Know asked Kerksick.

“We have fewer than 1 percent of all transactions that are out of compliance. That tells me businesses are cooperating, but it also tells me that most individuals who are receiving these benefits are using them appropriately,” Kerksick said.

New federal law

Obama’s new law – the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 – will require all states, including Colorado, to come up with plan to block transactions within the next two years. States can lose federal funding if they fail to comply with the new law.

+++

Here’s contact info for Betty Boyd:

BETTY BOYD
President Pro Tempore
Colorado State Senator, District 21
Office Location: 200 E. Colfax
Denver, CO 80203
Capitol Phone: 303-866-4857
E-mail: betty.boyd.senate@state.co.us

Woman complains about her taxpayer-paid rent-free apartment

In August 2010, there was a near-riot in Atlanta, Georgia, when 30,000 people stood in long lines in the sun in 90+ degrees heat, just for a chance to obtain an application form for a Section 8 public housing voucher. Some had waited in line for two days for the applications.

Like everywhere in America, public (i.e., taxpayer-paid) housing is in great demand in New Orleans.

In the wake of the terrible Hurricane Katrina disaster that put so much of the city of New Orleans under water, the federal government labored to provide public housing for the disaster victims and the poor. According to a report by D. Weaver for Nola.com, Dec. 18, 2007, Department of Housing and Development officials assured residents that the local public housing supply greatly outstripped demand, 1,762 public housing units were occupied and nearly 300 were available or within weeks of being ready at 8 Housing Authority of New Orleans complexes and at other scattered housing authority sites. Another 802 public housing units across the city were being repaired and would be put to use in the coming year.

In addition to the units available or scheduled to open soon, federal and local housing officials said their agencies would provide a total of 3,343 public housing units in the next 4 to 5 years, including nearly 900 units in planned mixed-income developments. The “mixed-income developments” would include 900 market-rate rental units and 900 homes for sale, many of which would be reserved for first-time home buyers, with financial subsidies designed to allow former public housing families to become property owners.

But public housing advocates were not satisfied. They complained that the target of 3,343 public housing units in New Orleans is still a drop of about one-third from the 5,100 units occupied before Hurricane Katrina.

Public housing officials responded that other demands for housing can be met through use of vouchers that can be used for private apartments that are inspected by the government. Nevertheless, housing activists complained that the “poor conditions” of those private apartments “deter renters,” that is, free-loaders.

Regardless of the conditions, many former public housing residents avoid privately owned apartments because they typically face utility and deposit expenses not charged in public housing.

The housing activists, aka Alinsky community organizers, then trooped out a victim of the “poor conditions” of those taxpayer-subsidized private apartments.

Meet Sharon Jasper, a former St. Bernard complex resident, who bitterly complained about her subsidized private apartment, which she called a “slum.”

Sharon Jasper in her well-appointed living room of her taxpayer-subsidized apartment. Note the large-screen TV. (photo by Ted Jackson/Times-Picayune)

Although a government voucher covered her rent on a unit in an old Faubourg St. John home, she griped about having to pay several hundred dollars in deposit charges and a steep utility bill.

Jasper said: “I might be poor but I don’t like to live poor. I thank God for a place to live but it’s pitiful what people give you. I’m tired of the slum landlords, and I’m tired of the slum houses.” Pointing across the street to an encampment of homeless people at Duncan Plaza, she said, “I might do better out here with one of these tents.”

Jasper allowed a photographer to tour the subsidized apartment. She complained about missing window screens, a slow leak in a sink, and a warped back door. The reporter noted that her subsidized apartment “otherwise appeared to have been recently renovated.”

H/t beloved Wendy.

To Sharon Jasper:

I’m one of the suckers who pay for your “subsidized” rent-free apartment, being among the 53% of Americans who still pay federal income taxes. My husband and I paid for our house with decades of hard work and savings. We don’t have a 60″ HD TV!

~Eowyn

Two-thirds of children of young mothers are out of wedlock

Goal #40 of the 45 Communist Goals for America:

“Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.”

Throughout human history, the family has been the bedrock of society. But the traditional husband-wife family in America is crumbling.

Using government statistics, Washington research group Child Trends found that two-thirds of children in the U.S. born to mothers under the age of 30 are out of wedlock. Across all ages, a staggering 4 in 10 women are not married when they have children.

The UK’s Daily Mail reports, Feb. 19, 2012, that compared to the 1990s when a third of Americans were born out of wedlock, now 41% of babies do not have married parents.

The fastest growth of single mothers in the past 20 years is among white women in their 20s with some college education but no four-year degree. In contrast, most college graduates marry before they have children, suggesting family structure is becoming a new class divide. In fact, the less education a woman has, the more likely she is a single mother:

• 92% of college-educated women are married when they have a child
• 62% of those with post-secondary schooling are married when they give birth
• 43% of women with a high school diploma are married when they give birth

Family structure in America is also a racial divide:

• 73% of black babies are born outside marriage
• 53% of Latino babies are born outside marriage
• 29% of white babies are born outside marriage

The reasons for the increasing rate of unwed mothers are said to include the economy (there are fewer “marriageable men” because people are earning less) and changes in social mores that have reduced the incentive to marry.

Amber Strader, a 27-year-old single mother of two children from different men, is skeptical about marriage. The former nursing student-turned-bartender told the New York Times: “I’d like to do it, but I just don’t see it happening right now. Most of my friends say it’s just a piece of paper, and it doesn’t work out anyway.”

For 25-year-old single mother Teresa Fragoso, it’s because women no longer need men to be providers. “Women used to rely on men, but we don’t need to anymore. We support ourselves. We support our kids.”

Other single mothers said that if they married, their household income would rise, costing them government benefits like food stamps and child care. That means these women would rather live in poverty than do without welfare!

In other words, unwed mothers are unwed by choice. And they are making that choice because of the Welfare State. Women no longer need husbands to provide for their children because the government (i.e., taxpayers) now provides for them. The welfare state is corroding the family in America.

Shorn of the responsibility to care for a wife and children, the American male lives in a state of perpetual adolescence. Increasing numbers never leave their parents’ home. U.S. Census Bureau data show that while the share of adult women living with their parents has remained at around 10%, the share of young men living at home has increased sharply, from 14.2% in 2007 to 18.6% in 2011 — the highest level since the Census Bureau first started tracking the measure in 1960.

Worse than the effect on men is how the breakdown of the traditional family affects children — America’s future.

Study after study has found that compared to children born to married couples, children born out of wedlock are more likely to be poor, to struggle in school, and to have emotional and behavioral problems.

~Eowyn

Bill Whittle Video: The Vote Pump

-Dave 

(h/t: boortz.com)

What have we learned in 2,066 years?

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC)

“The budget must be balanced, the Treasury must be refilled, public debt must be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom must be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands must be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” – Cicero, 55 B.C.

+++

Nothing, apparently.

H/t my friend Bob W.

~Eowyn

Brazil Under the Left Foreshadows America’s Future

Our guest writer, Siegried, is familiar to this site’s readers.

A regular commenter on Fellowship of the Minds, Siegfried is a fellow conservative and a lawyer by profession. Though she’s not American, Siegfried finds U.S. history and our founding principles at once fascinating and compelling.

Having lived in Brazil and Denmark, she knows more about them than most Americans. I therefore asked her to impart her knowledge and perspective on the shadow cast by the Left on the two countries. Siegfried graciously agreed!

Here’s her first op-ed for Fellowship of the Minds. Please give her your warm and enthusiastic welcome and appreciation. 

~Eowyn

THE LEFT’s impact on Brazil

To understand the left’s impact on Brazil, it is necessary to know a bit of its history.

After the 1964 coup d’êtat by the Armed Forces, Brazil became a military dictatorship. In 1961, the right wing opposition elected Jânio Quadros, whose electoral campaign had been critical of his predecessor and government corruption.

During his brief tenure as president, Quadros moved toward resuming relations with some communist countries. In the last days of August 1961, Quadros resigned, apparently hoping he would be reinstated by popular demand. His vice-president, João Goulart was outside the country at the time, visiting Communist China. Believing him to a communist, the Brazilian Armed Forces tried to prevent the nomination of Goulart as president. To placate the military, a parliamentary system was implemented to reduce Goulart’s powers as president.

As his support among the middle class plummeted, Goulart tried to mobilize the lower class. The military, with the middle class’ support, took control. That, in turn, radicalized the students. Not finding support among the populace, the students resorted to extra-procedural action modeled after the Red Army radicals in West Germany.

In 1968, the students undertook nation-wide protests and demonstrations. In response, the government declared a state of siege, issued AI-5, which suspended habeas corpus and concentrated power in the executive branch by shutting down the legislature and the judiciary. The protests were suppressed with violence.

That, in turn, further radicalized the students into an armed uprising. By the end of the decade, the urban guerrilla movement swelled to include some 20 organizations. The recruitment was carried out in schools and universities, initially with lectures in Marxist theory.

In 1985, the military returned power to civilian rule. A law pardoned both the military and the urban terrorists for their deeds. Leftist ideas proliferated — in music, books, journalism, and throughout academia. Even the most extreme and subversive leftist notions became common currency. Members of the urban guerrilla movement now moved openly into civil life. One of them was Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Lula da Silva

Lula, as he now is popularly called, was the president of the Steel Worker’s Union of São Bernardo do Campo and Diadema. Along with many of the guerrilla “intellectuals,” he had founded the Worker’s Party (Partido dos trabalhadores or PT). In 2002, after many attempts, he was elected President of Brazil and showered with international acclamation.

Lula’s presidency was marked by a successive series of scandals involving corruption in every single branch of government — the executive, legislative, and judicial. Although those scandals were investigated and culprits identified — among whom was Lula himself — almost no one was punished.

As president, Lula financed many projects for the poor by redistributing taking wealth from rich families like the Fome Zero and the Bolsa familia. That boosted Lula’s popularity.

Hoping to secure a permanent seat for Brazil at the United Nations Security Council, Lula implemented educational reforms ostensibly to increase literacy. School curriculum was infused with his Worker’s Party’s socialist beliefs and ideals. Tests were eliminated in the name of equality, which only produced a generation of illiterates or functional illiterates with high school diplomas.

By the end of his eight years in power, Lula had increased Brazil’s national debt by 1 trillion US dollars. Sounds like someone else you know in a country north of Brazil? LOL

This is Lula’s legacy:

1. Lula claimed to have fixed the economy, but he only harvested the good work of President Itamar Franco that, with the help of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, created the economic success, the Plano Real (real plan).

2. In 2009, Lula signed into law a project that aimed to legalize abortion, censor the media and take away the right of land owners to protect their land against invasions. He later claimed he had signed the law without reading it and so was unaware of its contents.

3. In 2010, with the support of the Brazilian Supreme Court, Lula violated a bilateral agreement with Italy by refusing to extradict Cesare Battisti, a convicted murderer and terrorist.

Rousseff and Lula

4. Lula’s handpicked successor Dilma Roussef, Brazil’s new president is also the first woman to hold the office. Like Lula, Roussef is a socialist. She had participated in the militant activities of the Comando de Libertação Nacional — COLINA (National Liberation Command) and advocated Marxist politics among labor union members. Her role in COLINA is unclear, but it is presumed that she had handled weapons. Rousseff was also the main leader of VAR Palmares — an organization that was a self-avowed “political-military organization of Marxist-Leninist partisan orientation which aims to fulfill the tasks of the revolutionary war and the establishment of the working class party, in order to seize power and build socialism.” As one of the principal masterminds of Var Palmares, Roussef led strikes and advised bank robberies. Many people died as a result of her militant activities.

5. In his eight years as president, Lula worked to make homosexuality socially acceptable:

• In 2011, the Supreme Court changed the text of the Brazilian Constitution to allow gay marriage. But according to Brazil’s law, the Judiciary does not have the authority to change the Constitution; only the legislature, representing the people, has that power. In other words, gay marriage is still unconstitutional, as is the decision that allows it.
• Similar to California’s new law SB 48, the Brazilian government also plans changes in the country’s public school curriculum by teaching children as young as 6 that it is normal and acceptable to be a homosexual. Further, transgenders should not only be accepted but should have the right to use public restrooms according to their “real” sexual orientation, instead of their biological gender.
• Priests will only be allowed to preach about the biblical views on homosexuality inside a church and during Mass.
• Gay parades and slut walks are celebrated by the media while religious marches are ridiculed.
• The government also plans to pass a law against homophobia, which will criminalize any act that might offend or injure — physically, psychologically, philosophically or emotionally — homosexuals. The law is so vaguely worded that you might be arrested if a homosexual feels offended by the way you look at him/her. Worse still, even though the law hasn’t yet been passed, some people are already being prosecuted for the crime of homophobia. This violates the maxim of legal thinking: Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali (“No crime, no punishment without a previous penal law”).

It is very clear how the left ideology has damaged Brazil.

At first, the minimum wage was raised, social-engineering projects were created — all of which appeared to be first steps toward fighting poverty. The logical next step should be to educate the populace, thereby equipping them to work and become self-reliant.

But the social-engineering projects instead became an end in itself, creating a spoiled and entitled population. As more and more people grew aware that they could collect government welfare checks, they became lazy, to the point that many decided to stop working and just live off the government. Education lost its value as many young Brazilians started to believe it is not important or necessary to study.

Lula added to that anti-education mindset by repeatedly declaring he had solved Brazil’s economic problems despite not being educated. No wonder then that more and more young voices chanted: “If Lula, a man with very little education became the president of the nation, why is there a need to learn?” Those Brazilians who still respected education and wanted to learn are now subjected to a curriculum of Marxist indoctrination.

Not having learnt to think for themselves, and being manipulated by a complacent and politically-correct media that praises every move of the president, the population became mere pawns. When a man is unable to think for himself, he is unable to understand concepts of justice, moral, ethics and freedom.

Brazil is moving in direction of economic collapse. It is impossible to maintain all those social projects with so few Brazilians paying taxes to support them. Inflation is already on rise and I believe, very soon, the country will break. When that happens, the Left will seize the opportunity, blame all of Brazil’s problems on “the elite,” subvert the Constitution and the rule of law, and seize complete control of what remains of the country.

Brazil foreshadows what will become of the United States of America. As in Brazil, so it is happening in America today: A populist President with Marxist ideals, intent on wealth redistribution, aided by a complacent media and a popular culture of political correctness. I fear for you!

~Siegfried

How the Left Harm America’s Moral Character

Dennis Prager has an excellent article that perfectly explains why liberals are narcissists — a conclusion I’ve arrived at from experience and observation.

~Eowyn

The liberal entitlement mentality

Ten Ways Progressive Policies Harm Society’s Moral Character

Dennis Prager – July 19, 2011

While liberals are certain about the moral superiority of liberal policies, the truth is that those policies actually diminish a society’s moral character. Many individual liberals are fine people, but the policies they advocate tend to make a people worse. Here are 10 reasons:

1. The bigger the government, the less the citizens do for one another. If the state will take care of me and my neighbors, why should I? This is why Western Europeans, people who have lived in welfare states far longer than Americans have, give less to charity and volunteer less time to others than do Americans of the same socioeconomic status.

The greatest description of American civilization was written in the early 19th century by the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville. One of the differences distinguishing Americans from Europeans that he most marveled at was how much Americans — through myriad associations — took care of one another. Until President Franklin Roosevelt began the seemingly inexorable movement of America toward the European welfare state — vastly expanded later by other Democratic presidents — Americans took responsibility for one another and for themselves far more than they do today. Churches, Rotary Clubs, free-loan societies and other voluntary associations were ubiquitous. As the state grew, however, all these associations declined. In Western Europe, they have virtually all disappeared.

2. The welfare state, though often well intended, is nevertheless a Ponzi scheme. Conservatives have known this for generations. But now, any honest person must acknowledge it. The welfare state is predicated on collecting money from today’s workers in order to pay for those who paid in before them. But today’s workers don’t have enough money to sustain the scheme, and there are too few of them to do so. As a result, virtually every welfare state in Europe, and many American states, like California, are going broke.

3. Citizens of liberal welfare states become increasingly narcissistic. The great preoccupations of vast numbers of Brits, Frenchmen, Germans and other Western Europeans are how much vacation time they will have and how early they can retire and be supported by the state.

4. The liberal welfare state makes people disdain work. Americans work considerably harder than Western Europeans, and contrary to liberal thought since Karl Marx, work builds character.

5. Nothing more guarantees the erosion of character than getting something for nothing. In the liberal welfare state, one develops an entitlement mentality — another expression of narcissism. And the rhetoric of liberalism — labeling each new entitlement a “right” — reinforces this sense of entitlement.

6. The bigger the government, the more the corruption. As the famous truism goes, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Of course, big businesses are also often corrupt. But they are eventually caught or go out of business. The government cannot go out of business. And unlike corrupt governments, corrupt businesses cannot print money and thereby devalue a nation’s currency, and they cannot arrest you.

7. The welfare state corrupts family life. Even many Democrats have acknowledged the destructive consequences of the welfare state on the underclass. It has rendered vast numbers of males unnecessary to females, who have looked to the state to support them and their children (and the more children, the more state support) rather than to husbands. In effect, these women took the state as their husband.

8. The welfare state inhibits the maturation of its young citizens into responsible adults. As regards men specifically, I was raised, as were all generations of American men before me, to aspire to work hard in order to marry and support a wife and children. No more. One of the reasons many single women lament the prevalence of boy-men — men who have not grown up — is that the liberal state has told men they don’t have to support anybody. They are free to remain boys for as long as they want.

And here is an example regarding both sexes. The loudest and most sustained applause I ever heard was that of college students responding to a speech by President Barack Obama informing them that they would now be covered by their parents’ health insurance policies until age 26.

9. As a result of the left’s sympathetic views of pacifism and because almost no welfare state can afford a strong military, European countries rely on America to fight the world’s evils and even to defend them.

10. The leftist weltanschauung [worldview] sees society’s and the world’s great battle as between rich and poor rather than between good and evil. Equality therefore trumps morality. This is what produces the morally confused liberal elites that can venerate a Cuban tyranny with its egalitarian society over a free and decent America that has greater inequality.

None of this matters to progressives. Against all this destructiveness, they will respond not with arguments to refute these consequences of the liberal welfare state, but by citing the terms “social justice” and “compassion,” and by labeling their opponents “selfish” and worse.

If you want to feel good, liberalism is awesome. If you want to do good, it is largely awful.

PC Obituary of the Year

Entrepreneur (noun): One who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise. (Merriam-Webster)

It appears Larmondo and his entire extended family are skillful entrepreneurs in ripping off U.S. taxpayers. Here’s a list of the “entrepreneurs”:

LARMONDO “FLAIR” ALLEN

His Companion: Kawanner Armstrong

At the tender age of 25, Larmondo had 9 children:

3 sons:

1. Christian Allen
2. Kwan Allen
3. Larmondo Allen, Jr.

6 daughters:

1. Deidra Allen
2. Larmenshell Allen
3. Lamonshea Allen
4. Larmomdriel Allen
5. Larmerja Allen
6. Korevell Allen

Larmondo’s parents:

• His Father: Burnell Thompson
• His Mother: Esther Allen
• His Stepfather : Bruce Gordy

Larmondo’s brothers:

1. Burnell Thompson
2. Edgar Thompson
3. Wil Willis
4. Danta Edwards
5. Reshe Edwards
6. Mattnell Allen
7. Burnell Allen
8. Lester Allen

Larmondo’s sisters:

1. Shannail Craig
2. Lekiksha Thompson
3. Gwendolyn Carter
4. Jessica Willis
5. Katina Gordy

Larmondo’s grandparents:

1. Delors Allen
2. J.C. Allen
3. Anna Laura Thompson
4. Will Thompson

The New Orleans Police Department’s Press Release of February 8, 2004 says that Larmondo was one of two men murdered shortly before 11:00 p.m., at 2339 Martin Luther King Boulevard (Guste Public Housing Development), New Orleans. The other victim was identified as 22-year-old Edward Taylor.  Both men were convicted felons. In May of 2003 Allen was arrested on two (2) counts of attempted murder and one count of First Degree Murder. In December and October of 1999, he was arrested on two separate First Degree Murder cases.

An anonymous e-mail had this comment on Larmondo’s obituary:

It took me a couple of minutes to get it, but imagine. He’s 25 and has 3 sons and 6 daughters. NINE welfare recipients collecting $1500 each. That equals $13,500 a month!  Now add food stamps, free medical, free school lunches, on and on and on. Now that, to me, is a real Entrepreneur.

With the death of Allen, they will collect Social Security until they are 18! Do the math, that’s over $156,000 a year. Anybody out there sittin’ on their behinds while reading this message making that kind of money?

And people wonder what is wrong with this country….

H/t beloved fellows May & Doc’s wife.

~Eowyn