What Liberal Political Correctness Got Us

Liberal political correctness is to blame, not for the shootings at Fort Hood, but for not being able to prevent it. The shooter is to blame. There are multiple reasons for the shooting, but the blame starts and ends with the shooter. However, liberal political correctness is to blame for creating a culture of fear that prevented anyone from acting to prevent the shooting. Army officials were so scared of saying the politically incorrect thing that they did nothing.

Liberals have pussified the United States. People can't say what they really mean without being personally attacked (think Joe the Plumber). Men go to day spas. No one keeps score and all kids get trophies. Nanny-state regulations protect us from ourselves. TV personalities lose their jobs for speaking the uncomfortable truth. We no longer fight wars to win. Pussified.

Liberal political correctness has gone beyond an annoyance. It is now costing lives. Check my previous post regarding the book Lone Survivor explaining how liberal political correctness cost the lives of US soldiers in Afghanistan. Add that to the 13 innocent people just killed at Ford Hood.

It's time for everyday Americans to do what they know in their hearts, and stand up to political correctness that has moved in these times from ridiculous to dangerous.

Petit Family Foundation Food and Wine Event November 15th 2009

The Petit Family Foundation cordially invites you to a Food & Wine Event to benefit the foundation and to honor the memories of Jennifer-Hawke Petit, Hayley Elizabeth Petit and Michaela Rose Petit on Sunday Nov. 15th 2009 5:30-8:30p.m. at Carmen Anthony Fishhouse, 1770 Berlin Turnpike, Wethersfield, Ct.
The foundation’s funds are given to help foster the education of young people, especially women in the sciences; to improve the lives of those affected by chronic illnesses; and to support efforts to protect and help those affected by violence.
Please call Beth Tracey for reservations at 1-860-677-1223 Ext. 23

Here’s a sneak preview:
"Wines To Be Paired With All Food Courses"

Reception:
Fruit & Vegetable Crudités
1st Course:
Campagna Salad
Mixed field greens with gorgonzola cheese, red onions and tomatoes,
with our house vinaigrette
2nd Course:
Capellini Piedmontese
Capellini pasta tossed in a creamy pink sauce with Prosciutto, peas & Parmesan cheese
Served Family Style
3rd Course:
Petite Filet Mignon Trio
A filet trio cooked to perfection accompanied by sauces of blackberry bordelaise,
green peppercorn au poivre and béarnaise served with baby vegetables
Dessert:
Chocolate Torte
Coffee or Tea

We look forward to seeing you at our first Wine/Dinner Event!!
Petit Family Foundation~http://www.petitfamilyfoundation.org/Use GoodSearch for The Petit Family Foundation http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=863000%7E

Conservative Internet Radio

AM talk radio is one form of media dominated by conservative commentators. Many radio shows also simul-cast over the internet.

I've written before about some local Connecticut shows available on WTIC 1080 in Hartford.

I stumbled upon a station that plays all the big national shows back-to-back-to-back and is available over the internet. "The Big Talker" AM 1210 out of Philadelphia broadcasts Glenn Beck at 9 AM Eastern, followed by Rush Limbaugh at noon, followed by Sean Hannity at 3 PM. They also have local personalities before and after these national shows. I'm able to fire up AM 1210 over the internet starting around 9 AM, and leave it on for rest of the work day.

If you're looking for a one-stop-shop for conservative talk, check out AM 1210. I've included the link below.

http://www.thebigtalker1210.com/

Please let Liberty Alert know if you have other favorite radio shows available over the internet.

USA Today Vote on Second Amendment

I had this message emailed to me today:

USA TODAY IS TAKING A POLL ON 2ND AMENDMENT - GUN CONTROL

Obama's new Attorney General, Eric Holder, has already said this is one of his major issues. This takes literally 2 clicks to complete. Please vote on this gun issue question with U S A Today. It will only take a few seconds of your time. Then pass the link on to all the interested friends you know. Hopefully these results will be published later this month. This upcoming year will become critical for gun owners with the Supreme Court accepting the District of Columbia case against the right for individuals to bear arms. Here's what you need to do:

VOTE

The Question is: " Does the Second Amendment give individuals the right to bear arms?"
Answer choices are: Yes or No or Undecided then click on V OT E now white tab!

Boycott The Book (The Cheshire Home Invasion)

For those of you not familiar with this story, below is a letter regarding the rape, torture, and murder of 2 daughters and the wife of Dr. William Petit of Cheshire, CT. This letter is attributed to Dr. Bill Petit. I can not verify for sure that this is from Dr. Petit, but I have reason to believe that this letter is authentic. Regardless of the source of this letter, the message remains the same. No criminal should benefit from a crime, especially a crime as hideous as this one. It seems like an easy decision to stay away from this book. You'll have to make up your own mind, but see Dr. Petit's words below before you make your decision.

===========================================================
Please Help Boycott This Book
Share
This is the illegally obtained book written by one the defendants who killed Hayley and Michaela. He illegally met with the author in jail before he was stopped by the DOC and released it prior to the trial in Contempt of of the gag order, that has been in place over a year. The book was common knowledge but Donovan, his defense attorney has reacted like a moron as if he had no knowledge of this. Judge Fasano had a hearing yesterday and ignored the entire topic-of course the session was in chambers so it is hard to know exactly what was said-our justice system is far less than transparent. This allows this animal to give his side of the story without cross-examination or forensics and then causes the other side of the defense to whine that they cannot get a fair trial. Amazon The author, Brian McDonald, acts like he did nothing wrong-it was only his job to write a book no matter who it hurts. St. martin Press is the division of McMillan that published the book and it is out at Amazon, Barnes and Noble etc. None of them care that an 11 year old was terrorized, raped and burned alive and that a 17 yr old was beaten and burned alive while a 48 year old mother with MS was strangled while she tried to save her children. They are all the epitome of the American blood lust for money and publicity at all costs. Shame on them. they will get their final rewards in their afterlife of hell. Now 26 months later there is no thought of starting the trial and the judicial system wants me to cheer because this is faster than most trials come to court. Yes I am angry, and suspect I will get angrier, but if you have a minute send an email or call or boycott. Thank you for caring about Jennifer, Hayley, and Michaela.
Bill Petit

Book Review: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers – The Story of Success is an international best seller. There are scores of articles and reviews by “professional” book reviewers available for this book, but I'll still add my take to the pile of information available on this book.

Outliers explores the role circumstances have in the creating success. The basic thesis is that although talent and hard work are certainly necessary for success, they are a bit over rated when reviewing what creates success. As the thesis goes, circumstances and even luck can have just as important a role in creating great success, or outliers.

Besides what I gleaned from this book, I know little about Malcolm Gladwell. I have not read any of his other best sellers. However, based on what I learned from this book, I would say that Gladwell is a statistician and a sociologist. He uses data to make correlations, then draws conclusions about the cause and effect of these correlations.

Outliers was quite interesting, and somewhat eye opening. It was fascinating to see the pieces that had to all fall in just the right place to create a great success like a Bill Gates or even a Malcolm Gladwell.
The tone of the book was tough to pinpoint. One of the messages of the book was that there are other factors out of your control that determine your success. Regardless of how hard you work, or how talented you are, you will have a difficult time becoming a true success outlier without good fortune. For example, if you are a young kid starting hockey in Canada, even if you have great natural talent, you will likely not get anywhere unless you were born in one of the first 4 months of the year (You’ll have to read the book to see the reason for this.). At the same time, there is some message of hope in the book. Gladwell contends that talent is overrated. He believes that in many cases, people viewed as great talents were really of average talent but through hard work and lucky circumstances, were able to become successful. Therefore, there is some hope in believing that although you may not be born with great talent, you can still become a success outlier. However, I believe this hope message is drowned out by the fact that Gladwell puts such a large emphasis on luck as a key factor. It’s a little disconcerting to become aware of the fact that regardless of your hard word and talent, whether or not you become successful is in large part due to luck. Even if it is likely true to some degree, it’s still a tough message to face into. I think we all internally know that circumstances are a big factor in life, but to have it laid out in black and white with supporting data can be a bit depressing, unless of course you are one of those on the good side of the luck equation (which is all relative)!

One point that is critical to understanding Outliers is that Gladwell makes generalizations based on data. He does a good job pointing out that he deals in just generalizations, not hard rules. For example, it may be easier to become a hockey star in Canada if you were to be born in February, but not impossible if born in November. One always needs to be careful when making generalizations about people. Gladwell points this out.

One criticism of Gladwell is that he does not discuss any data contradicting his conclusions. This is an understandable criticism, but it’s also understandable why Gladwell leaves most contradictory data out. His intention is to write a book in everyday terms, not create an academic research paper.

There’s a good reason why Outliers is a best seller. I highly recommend this book.

Getting to the Heart of the Healthcare Debate

Millions of protesters at “tea parties” and town hall debates are an obvious indicator that there are clearly differing views throughout the American population regarding government provided healthcare.

Polls have indicated for quite some time now that more people are opposed to government provided healthcare than support it.

Whether against the present Obama-supported healthcare plan due to fear of high costs, poor performance, government intervention, or any number of reasons, in the end all these reasons really funnel down to one central idea – mistrust of government.

The debate over government provided healthcare in the United States is in essence a debate between people who generally trust government, and people who generally mistrust government.
The words “generally” in the statements above are crucial words. Few people always trust or always mistrust government. It is a general perspective of trust versus mistrust that is at the heart of this debate.

To the chagrin of big government supporters, the United States was founded under a purposeful mistrust of government. The United States Constitution was set up to give people maximum liberty precisely because the founders did not trust government. The second amendment to the US Constitution is a direct descendant of the founders mistrust.

The left may not like this built-in mistrust of the US Constitution, but unfortunately for them (and fortunately for the rest of us), the Constitution is the law of the land.

This idea of governmental mistrust is something that most liberals don't understand. The US Constitution is meant to err on the side of too little government, not too much. It is why the left is wrong in the healthcare debate.
Keep in mind that just because the left is wrong in this debate, does not mean that they will not prevail. For this reason, liberty-loving Americans need to continue to stand up to the anti-Constitutional socialization of America.

Book Review -- Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell

Lone Survivor is the true-life chronicle of a Navy Seal team that was ambushed in the mountains of Afghanistan. The author was the lone survivor of this ordeal.

This book was a national best seller with plans in the works for a movie.

The book focuses on the events in Afghanistan, but it traces Luttrell’s journey from small-town Texas kid to highly skilled soldier. Luttrell was already preparing to become a Navy Seal during his high school years. The book spends a lot of time giving the background of Luttrell’s Seal training. It also explains the events taking place back at Luttrell’s Texas home while he is fighting for his life in Afghanistan. This background sets the stage for the hardships Luttrell and his Seal team battle in Afghanistan.

The story of operation Redwing is a powerful true-life war story. Just the dramatic events that unfolded on the mountains of Afghanistan alone would make a fine book. However, the book sets itself apart by the detail the author spends on the non-battlefield aspects of this story. Though the battlefield adventure is the climax of the book, Luttrell intersperses the themes of honor, valor, love, family, dedication, excellence, and leadership as much with his off-battlefield stories as he does with the actual war story. Luttrell also gives his own matter-of-fact assessment of the battlefield impact of political events back home. He pulls no punches as he explains how the soldiers fighting in hostile lands are handcuffed by the ridiculous rules of engagement thrust upon them by liberal politicians back home. He also discusses the negative impact the liberal-slanted media has on the fighting soldiers. Luttrell explains how tactics that are the absolute right thing to do from a military strategy perspective are second-guessed because of the potential for negative media coverage. Luttrell makes the case that these policies cost actual American lives. To the soldiers, they are not abstract. They are living with the result of policies implemented by Washington Liberal do-gooders.

The book is an interesting look into the mindset of an elite soldier. It’s an action packed, and often gruesome war story. It’s an interesting political commentary. It’s a reassuring story about family, community, and ideals. This book is a recommended read.

Liberal Voters Would Not Be Satisfied with True Government Health Insurance

This post builds off my previous post.

Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, we can all agree that government health care as it is presently being pursued by the Obama administration would be an expensive proposition. Health insurance as it is presently constituted is expensive whether it's paid for by an employer, or a government. We can all agree on that.

There are a number of people uninsured in this country. The number differs depending on the source, but I've seen estimates between 12 and 44 million. The true number probably lies somewhere between these two extremes.

We hear hyperbole in the main stream media about people dying out there because they can not get the life saving medical procedures they need. Making the big leap that this is true, instead of the government providing very expensive health insurance like our employers generally provide today, what would be the reaction of the left if the government provided cheaper catastrophic-only health insurance? I am not saying I support such a move, but it would be an interesting compromise. The plan would have a high deductible. Much like car insurance. The individual would be responsible for anything under say for example $3000. Insurance would cover anything after that number. The government could institute a tax deduction for the money spent under $3000. The government would not be involved in any medical decisions or end-of-life issues. The government would put the contract out to bid to existing private insurance companies.
There are a lot of advantages to this type of plan. This type of plan would be much less expensive than full government health insurance. It would cover catastrophic medical needs, but still require the individual to be responsible for their day-to-day health charges. It would also require people to pay attention to their health care costs and introduce market forces into the system, which would drive competition, which would in turn drive up service and drive down costs.

If you had no health insurance, wouldn't one think this kind of plan would be welcomed? Mama always said beggers can't be chosers, right? This would give people the assurance that they would not die or be saddled with high health care debt, while possibly not totally bankrupting the government. What would be the liberal voter reaction to such a compromise plan????

I suggest that the liberal voter would not be satisfied with such a plan! I portend that the liberal voter does not really want health insurance for the uninsured. The liberal voter does not appear to care about federal spending and the damage to our economy. The liberal voter does not want the responsibility for their health care. What the liberal voter truly wants is "free" health care. The liberal voter wants to get any prescription they want, go to the doctor whenever needed, and not have to pay a dime out-of-pocket. They want the so-called rich to pay for their trip to the doctor or pharmacy. They want free health care, not health insurance. The statists-socialists running our government today are all to happy to push for such an all-powerful, all-encompassing bureaucratic option.

As we all know, nothing works that way. Nothing is free. Everything has a cost.

The cost of the current Democratic health care plan will result in lower quality service and care, and will be incredibly expensive. The people know it, hence the public backlash we are witnessing in town hall meetings etc. all across the country. Reports of the death the American public as a powerful entity are greatly exaggerated!

Healthcare Insurance We Have Now Is Not Insurance

The healthcare insurance debate rages on in the United States, with President Obama in the middle of the lion’s den…a place nobody belongs. He’s a statist and he just can’t help himself, but that’s a topic for a different day.

There have not been many posts on Liberty Alert of late. There are two reasons for that. One is business. The real life of a no-name blogger is definitely at odds with the blog. The second reason post have been sparse lately is that I want Liberty Alert to be a place for original thinking, not just retreads of the crap spewed by the main-stream media, and non-main stream talking heads. I’m not always successful at it, but I try not to be sucked into the trap of basing my opinions (and blog posts) on the points made and developed by others. I like to try to use my own original logic here. Again, I’m not always successful at it, but that’s the idea anyway. That does not mean that I can’t take ideas and learn from others. I just want to avoid repeating the babbling of others. This means that sometimes I’d rather write nothing at all, until I have something original in mind.

I’ve been doing some travel to the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico this past week. Although Puerto Rico is a part of the United States, it is not a state, and has a totally separate culture from the mainland. Therefore, it’s interesting to read some of the opinion pieces in the local newspapers to get a unique viewpoint on national matters, especially the current healthcare debate.

One letter-to-the-editor I read in a Puerto Rican newspaper raised an interesting point. The way we pay for healthcare is not insurance at all. We call it insurance, but it really is not. It’s closer to pre-paid healthcare than insurance.

This letter made me contemplate other insurances that we have. The most common insurance that nearly everybody uses is auto insurance. Think of the contrast between how we use auto insurance versus health insurance.
Auto insurance has a set premium based on how much of a risk you present. This premium can be raised or lowered based on the risk assessment of the insurance company. However, you have the freedom to shop around and switch at any time. With auto insurance, there is a deductible. The insurance is meant to cover catastrophic events, not everyday maintenance activities. The insurance company does not pay every time you enter the auto body shop. Does this mean you should stop doing maintenance like oil changes on your car? No, of course not. The driver is still responsible for the upkeep of their automobile. The incentive for the driver is to do the maintenance in order to keep their car running well longer.
When an accident occurs, the driver is free to address the issue as they please. They can take the money from the insurance company and leave the damage on the car, or they can use the money to pay for repairs at any garage or autobody shop of their choice.
In addition to insurance, most new cars come with warrantees. These warrantees cover unexpected mechanical breakdowns, but the driver is still responsible for general maintenance.
Contrast this insurance model to our current healthcare insurance model. In our current health insurance system, we expect insurance to cover every trip to the doctor. We expect to take no financial responsibility for our own healthcare. We have no concern toward cost (since insurance is paying for it), and we have restricted choice. In essence, we ask the insurance company to pay not only for accidents, but for every oil change, tire rotation, brake job, radiator repair, tune up, etc. regardless of our lifestyle choices and risk. This is not insurance. I’m not sure what one would call it, but insurance it is not.