The Civilian Conservation Corp

You want free healthcare? Here's the answer:   Then you gotta give the CCC (from Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal") at least 10 hours a week!

The "CCC" -- that's the "Civilian Conservation Corp" for those of you that are too young to remember or historically challenged...!

It's also the answer to curing entitlement, fixing our crumbling infrasturcture, training the unemployed (think of it as free college, except geared toward the trades -- for you weird Uncle Bernie lovers)... 

You don't have a job? Lack skills? Well, here's the keys to a D8 dozer, get to work!

How I Caught (and Released) the Colorado State Record Rainbow Trout

I drove up to do some lake fly-fishing in northern Colorado a couple of years ago during mid-March. It was just after first ice-out, with plenty of snow on the ground, and only a small section of the lake open on the north side of the lake.

I hiked around the lake from the public launch area to a small beach area that was relatively shallow adjacent to a rip-rapped dam that created this reservoir-lake.

I was wading casting black tunghead wooly bugger and catching 12"ers, one after another. I look down, and there is a huge trout near my feet, nosed into the rocks.

I was alone at the time, but after a few minutes, another guy shows up and takes a spot just down the shore.

After closer examination, I could see the fishes huge gills working, so I knew it was still alive. I guess the icy water was still cold enough to slow the fishes metabolism down or maybe it was old age. In my best estimate, the fish looked to be four feet in length, or possibly longer.

Having caught great lakes steelhead in the 28"+ range, I knew this fish was probably 20+ pounds and most likely a state record.

After fishing for an hour or so and observing this gigantic fish, I decided to reach down to see if the fish would respond. I reached down into the water and grasped the fish by the tail, and in one swell swoop put my other hand under it's belly and lifted it out of the water. At the same moment, I yelled to the fisherman down the beach to take a look.

His expression was one that can only be described as dumb-founded.

The fish was so large that when I lifted it, it could only shimmy side-to-side in a slow-motion wag. Forty-eight inches (48") was a base minimum. After a triumphant whoop, it occurred to me I had to make a decision. Turn and walk back to shore with my trophy, or release this magnificent fish.

With little regret, I gently placed the fish back in the water, head first, still grasping the tail. After a couple swishes back an forth to revive him, he gave a mighty thrust of the tail and with a splash returned to the icy water.

You would have to have used a shovel to wipe the smile off of my face as the perma-grin stayed resident for quite some time.

Author's note:  The current Colorado state record rainbow trout is 34", caught in 2003 in the Morrow Point Reservoir, Gunnison County. It's weight was 19 lbs. 10 oz.  The fish I caught was 14" longer.  The Colorado state record "by length" is 40 1/4", caught in the Taylor River.  My fish was easily over 8" longer than that fish.

Wahhabism and ISIS: "Hatred's Kingdom"

Wahhabism: The driving force behind ISIS, Saudi Arabia and Jihad.

Just read Dore Gold's (Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations) "Hatred's Kingdom" and you will understand. 

Wahhabism, the Sunni Muslim Islamic extremism taught by clerics in Saudi Arabia is the root of all Muslim terrorism.

The United States and all peace loving countries need to accept this fact:  That Saudi Arabia, our so-called ally, has been and remains, the chief ideological and financial enabler of our most virulent enemies. 

It is this Wahhabi Islamic sect that is teaching the ideology of hatred in the schools and mosques of Saudi Arabia.

There is an interesting symbiotic relationship between the Saudi Royal Family and the Wahhabi clergy: The royal family gives the latter power and influence in order to maintain favor. Oil money has funded the export of radical Wahhabi ideology and the terrorist activities conducted by the latter. And paradoxically, because of Western dependence on oil, the money came from the very countries the Wahhabi ideology holds in contempt!

Now throw in ISIS.

ISIS is a Wahhabi sect that doesn't recognize the Saudi royal family as deity.

ISIS, with their unique blend of anti-western hatred and jihad have been poised, waiting to fill that vacuum created by propped-up U.S. sponsored democracies in these feudal tribal-based countries of the mid-east.

The United States foreign policy and post-war exit strategy has been intent over the past 25 years on converting every allied country to democracy. 

At least the Republicans in one of the most recent debates all seem to acknowledge this fact: Countries that have been feudal societies for centuries (going back to Persia), cannot culturally support democracy.

And that the vacuum created by their inescapable collapse, creates the perfect opportunity for ISIS to infiltrate, emerge and dominate.

That's why there has been such heated debate over the most sensible U.S. approach to Syria.

Progressivism = Socialism = Entitlement

Recently on a popular form of social media, I saw a meme going around about Bernie Sanders.  It went so far as to proclaim "#feelthebern"!

Now, I have spent some time this winter watching both the Republican and more recently the Democratic debates.  As I watched the last debate, Bernie Sanders had the opportunity to speak on the rising cost of college tuition, and how the government should make college free for all who desire it.  He also touted "Income Equity", but didn't detail how he would accomplish this.  Maybe by taxing the 1%ers or the corporations sheltering money in offshore accounts in the Caribbean -- not sure.

My first and enduring impression:  "This guy is a SOCIALIST"!

No earth-shattering news there.  He calls himself a "Democratic Socialist" or prefers "Progressivism". 

Because what's in a label, right?

Some thoughts on socialism from historical figures that have dealt with it personally and directly:

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery".  -Winston Churchill

"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money".  -Margaret Thatcher

"The goal of socialism is communism".  -Vladimir Lenin

 

"Socialism has no moral justification whatsoever; poor people are not morally superior to rich people, nor are they owed anything by rich people simply because of their lack of success. Charity is not a socialist concept - it is a religious one, an acknowledgment of God's sovereignty over property, a sovereignty the Left utterly rejects".  -Ben Shapiro

Charity is not a socialist concept - it is a religious one.  I like that.

Many politicians recently have countered with:

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else". -Winston Churchill.  Which by the way, according to snopes.com -- he never actually said, but was attributed to him, because it "sounds" like something Churchill would say...

 

I think we can ALL agree that Americans did the right thing from the very beginning when they created the U.S. Constitution (after they tried British Colonial rule)...

Under a Constitutional government, the power of the government is limited. Limited government allows the citizens to rule their country.

Under the Socialist brand of government, sometimes called an "Administrative state", citizens do not rule their country, bureaucrats do, and with them the elite intellectuals. At least THEY think they are elite!

 

Socialism is like a cancer.  It creeps up on you and pretty soon after being given everything by the government, you begin to expect it.  You feel ENTITLED to it.

Entitlement is the scourge of our generation.  Thank you Obama.

 

What ever happened to the "American Dream" -- where if you worked hard you could buy a house and provide for your family and possibly have enough saved up to send your children to college?

Bernie Sanders says he's going to get it from the "Billionaires" and the other 1%er's and then he's going to tax Wall Street and change banking laws to prevent offshore tax shelters used by big corporations...  Of course! 

But here's the catch:  Middle-out economics with a progressive tax is an interesting idea, as long as it can encourage entrepreneurs and create jobs... but can it???  In trickle-down economics, at least the free market in and of itself decides the outcome.  In a Middle-Out system, bureaucrats and the intellectual elite decide.  Now the outcome is decided by a human factor that most likely is influenced by special interest and entitlement.

 

Some random somewhat thoughts regarding separation of church and state: 

Separation of Church and State was intended to prevent the government to from dictating a religion to us (ref. Great Britan).  The catch was, much of the constitution was based on Christian morals.  So yes-- there is a separation of church and state in our version of democracy, but it also relies heavily on Christian values as a moral compass.

Important to note, that Hitler promoted a brand of "National Socialist Populism", and that is significantly different than the brand of populism we are experiencing today in the United States.