Qu'ils mangent de la brioche

Charlie Rangel, Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, writes the tax law that rule our land. Yet this leader did not pay his own taxes on NYC apartments and villas.

Neither did Timothy Geithner pay his taxes on time or in full. He now heads the IRS.

Several other administration officials pay their taxes- men and women who reign over the bureaucracies that rule our lives were not subject to the same laws as the ordinary folk.

Us.

Recently John Kerry tried to dock his $7 million toy in Rhode Island to avoid tens of thousands of dollars in taxes. These would be the same taxes that he we have to pay, but that he and Tim and Charlie et al want to avoid. Did avoid.

John Kerry also served in Vietnam, in case you forgot.

Then there are the hypocrites.

Al Gore. Al Gore has made a fortune- literally a fortune- dictating how we should live, how much gas and paper we should use, how big our "carbon footprint" should be. I'm assuming it should be smaller than his new $10million mansion in Malibu...

John "two-Americas" Edwards. Here is a man who made himself immensely rich by duping individuals into suing major corporations because of their own individual negligence and stupidity. Mr. Edwards owns the largest house in North Carolina yet decries the plight of the poor and wants government to bring about equitable redistributive process. Maybe we should all sue to government.

Bill and Hillary threw a multi-million dollar wedding for former first daughter Chelsea. I wish Chelsea and her husband Mark the best yet marvel that two parents who are civil servants have made so much money.

Barack Obama- spread the wealth around "there comes a time when you've made enough money" loves to vacation in $40k a week beach compounds and exclusive resorts around the nation (except the gulf coast). Barack talked a nice campaign about us not being able to drive the cars we want and keep the thermostat where we want... notice he said nothing about vacationing where we want...

And finally Michelle and her voyage to Spain where rooms cost $2500 per night according to news sources. A fun trip with 40 of her closest friends (plus about 100 secret service agents).

And all this has happened in the midst of a terrible, government made recession. This frivolity, the opulence, this esprit de versailles while Americans close business, stand in lines for food stamps and struggle. The image, the callous image sent by all of the aforementioned but most especially the first lady and the President is one of total disconnect, indifference and pure disgust for the average Americans.



Remember the arugula comments during the campaign. Remember the Hyde Park, the Harvard Yard, the Upper West Side. The Obamas hate flyover country. They despise Americans who cling bitterly to their guns and religion. They look with disdain on Joe the plumbers. "How much do they make!" Barack once snidely joked. Sure, the Obamas play the part. But when you wear $400 sneakers to ladle out food in a soup kitchen, you are telling people who you really are. Your are Sidwell Friends. You are Martha's Vineyard. You are elite.

You are the type of person the shut down traffic and airspace for hours spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to go see an August Wilson play.

And call it a "date night".

In the late 18th century, in her clueless and frivolous world, Marie Antoinette commissioned the "hameau de la reine" at enormous expense to the french treasury. There in her hamlet of rolling pastures, ponds, wildflowers, mills and barns, she donned a simple dress and played the part of a peasant. It was her retreat, her escape from the world where she could pretend she was a regular person. But she didn't clean the stalls, she didn't empty the bed pans, didn't shovel horse manure or skim the scum off the pond... she didn't do any real work. She produced nothing. She neither sewed nor reaped nor harvested. She didn't plant or till or fertilize or irrigate. She didn't sweat or blister.

She just pretended.

And the public- mired in poverty and depression hated her for pretending to be like them. Because their toil was real. Their sweat smelled bad and their blisters hurt. And their bellies ached and they longed for liberation. And this monster of a queen spent fortunes- more fortunes then their entire villages could amasse- to pretend.

Go to the Gulf Shore said Obama. Yet he vacationed in Maine. It's all just pretend.

Charlie, Tim, Bill & Hillary, Kerry, Edwards, Barack and Michelle all pretend. They pretend to be public servants, they pretend to be regular Americans. But they are the extreme powerful leaders that typify a corrupt democrat party. The are the oppressors of the very people they claim to champion.

Who can tell them apart from the court of Versailles or the guests at the Winter Palace? Are they us, or are they something other than us? Did we not chose them to represent us yet... who have they become? They demand we pay taxes and live soberly, conscientiously, efficiently while they live in realities of couture and private jets, often times at our expense.

"Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

My un-Christian thoughts for the Day

I took July off- not intentionally but too many things either disinterested me or were talked/blogged to death and I was bored...

I'm waiting for Mad Men to start and there is nothing on TV. I got stuck watch "Extreme Makeover" and tonight's episode angered me. It was about the something family and they are poor and struggling because they run a soup kitchen and make no money. So ABC swoops in and builds a house, pays their mortgage and finds 5 18-wheelers full of food for their "work".

Sounds nice, right?

It's my belief that these actions are to a certain extent "un-Christian" and I know that's a tough stand to defend. But here goes:

1. Regarding the soup kitchen these people run. What love for mankind is there in fostering dependency? Does that respect their dignity? Does it treat them as equals? Often times charity makes us feel good but doesn't really DO any good. It may relieve a temporary problem but it has no long-term viability.

The thousands of people (that's what they claim) who go to this food pantry have been robbed of their adulthood. Of their maturity. It treats them as perpetual children and dependents.

That is un-Christian.

2. This family has brought misery to itself. And now there is nothing inherantly Christian about that... one may feel a sense of martyrdom, but I can also cut myself and cry to the Lord that I am bleeding for Him. Makes no sense.

Charity is important and necessary. And no doubt people fall on hard time and need temporary assistance. But temporary. If your career is feeding people, you just perpetuate a cycle of poverty that will not end.

This administration acts in a similar manner. By creating a government benevolence that encompasses education, housing bailouts, credit card debt relief, food stamps, etc etc etc... they create a class of dependents. A class of children who must nurse at the government's teet for sustainance.

And there is nothing noble about that. Nor Christian. Nor dignified.

The people tonight on ABC are misguided, but probably good intentioned. The Obama administration is not misguided and has nefarious intentions. They know what they are doing and do it willfully because a class of people dependent on their government will keep them in power forever. And that is always the goal of the left: power.

We need to learn self-sufficiency. A mother bird throws its chick out of the nest. If only we would do the same.