In case you’re on the fence, I’ve been thinking of some reasons one might want to be an Obama supporter (in no particular order of importance).

1. BIG NEWS

Obama is your man if you respect and trust the principle news media–The New York Times, The Washington Post, The L.A. Times, NBC, ABC, CBS, etc.  All have shown a tilt toward Obama and these newspapers already have or soon will endorse him outright.

My2SenseWorth: Over my lifetime, I have found these particular news organizations to be consistently against nearly everything I value and stand for.  What are the chances of them suddenly getting it right?

2. BIG PHARMA

Obama is your man if you believe strongly in full government (taxpayer) support of the mental health industry (psychiatry and psychiatric drugs).  Obama says this:

“I strongly support mental health fairness. In Illinois, I passed the state’s mental parity law. In the U.S. Senate, I co-sponsored the Mental Health Parity Act of 2007 and have been a strong supporter of the bipartisan Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007. I believe we should prohibit group health plans from imposing treatment or financial limitations on mental health and substance-related disorder benefits that are different from those applied to medical or surgical services.”

If you are in agreement with this, you will be thrilled to read the rest of Obama’s answers to the NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) questionaire.  Also on your side are Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.

My2senseworth: The trouble with this is that there is no objective test for mental illness.  Psychiatrists decide what is “mental illness” by committee and a show of hands.  Official “disorders” include: Caffeine Related Disorder, Mathematics Disorder and Non-compliance With Treatment Disorder.

Psychiatrists admit that they have no cures but drugs are prescribed and administered at great profit.  Among other damaging side effects, there is known to be a strong connection between the use of these drugs and violent behavior.

With a Democrat-controlled House and Senate and Obama as President, these laws will be passed and the psychiatrists and drug companies will bleed the country dry, not to mention the damage to every segment of society caused by wholesale dispensing of dangerous drugs to the populace… at taxpayer expense.

3. BIG GOVERNMENT

Obama is your man if you think it is a good idea to expand government programs—health care, housing, education—and pay for it by raising taxes on “wealthy” people.  If this resonates with you, you will love the theories of Karl Marx, who famously said “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”

My2senseworth: It is productivity that is the economic engine, not government.  It is the “wealthy” business people and entrepreneurs who create the jobs that produce the income for everybody else.  The wealthy also buy things with their wealth, which spurs production, creating more jobs.

The Marxist/socialist approach of penalizing success and rewarding mediocrity and failure is not just unworkable, it is destructive.  And the more we unearth about Obama’s past, the more obvious it becomes that he is a construct of the far, far left, who is poised to lead our country down the garden path toward reduced individual liberty and responsibility and massive government intrusions.

4. BIG CHOICE

Obama is your man if you believe in abortion-on-demand.  He is a real champion on this issue.  Not only does he defend partial birth abortion (where the baby is killed by the abortionist just prior to delivery) but, when an Illinois senator he voted, more than once against a law that would require medical assistance for a baby who survived an abortion.  Per this position that Obama supports, the baby who survives an abortion is to be set aside and let die.

My2senseworth: I think there is life in the womb from the moment of conception.  I think it is the mother’s inclination to protect this life.

Though inconvenient in some cases, I would prefer to see a pregnancy brought to term and the use of adoption as an alternative when the mother doesn’t want the child or is not in a position to raise the child.  But don’t kill the child–please.

5. BIG TROUBLE

Obama is your man if you believe our Constitution is flawed because it does not provide for a redistribution of wealth and power.  In his view, the Constitution “…says what the states can’t do to you, says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf.” Further “…maybe I’m showing my bias here as a legislator as well as a law professor. But I’m not optimistic about bringing about major redistributive change through the courts.”

That was in 2001.  But now, if you are of this mindset, you will be happy to know that, if elected, and with Democrats in charge of the House and Senate, it is likely Obama will be able to appoint two or three new Justices of the Supreme Court who will undertake to help the Congress make the needed Constitutional interpretive adjustments.

My2senseworth: The Constitution has served us well and has been the model for the advance of individual liberty across the globe.  It is arguably the best document of its kind in existence. The proof of its workability is in the fact that the U.S. has become the preeminent economic power on the globe.  And we are also the most free.  That is why millions of people gravitate to this country from all over the world.

Why would anyone want to upset this apple cart in favor of Marxist socialism, the most troubled and discredited political system in recent history by actual test?

Since there is no evidence of this approach ever working for the populace at large, it must be that its high-level proponents view themselves as the elite few who will run things–the Commissars.

6. BIG CHARMER

Obama is your man if you like a good-looking, smooth-talking, feel-good guy for President.  If that’s your criteria, he’ll make you proud to be an American, because he REALLY excels at this.

My2senseworth: For the most important executive position on Earth, I’d kind of prefer someone who had actually done something or run something successfully–besides a political campaign–a grocery store, gas station, Amway business, anything.

As a community organizer, Obama spent lots of the government’s (taxpayer’s) money but to no apparent result… unless you count the poor school system and high crime rate in Chicago as plus factors.

7. BIG SARAH

Obama is your man if you are worried about Sarah Palin’s qualifications to be second in line for the Presidency.

My2senseworth: Uh oh!  Sarah Palin has had way more executive experience than Obama and he’s running for first position.

There are lots more reasons I can think of but I’m going to end off for right now.

Vote as if the fate of free enterprise and your individual liberty depends on it.

A MAGIC FORMULA

Some years ago I figured out an easy way to resolve burning political questions and issues.

I decided that a simple determining factor regarding politics, politicians and political parties, is the concept that if you penalize production or reward non-production, you get a worsened economic situation, not a bettered one. It’s a natural law.

And if an economic situation gets bad enough, all the other issues and principles you care about will collapse under the weight of it. So we’ve got to get this one right.

If you had an NFL franchise and you wanted to win games, you would not fine your star running back every time he made a touchdown. Neither would you increase a player’s salary on the basis of most fumbles, dropped passes or missed field goals.

It’s just inherent common sense that good works and success be rewarded… if you want to improve things.

When a candidate or party promotes activities that run counter to this principle regarding rewards and penalties, I know they are either ignorant of this natural law and its importance or they don’t care what turmoil they create in pursuit of their own political aims and power. Either way, it’s extremely dangerous to society’s success and good health.

THE WORKER’S PARADISE

In general terms, the political philosophy most closely associated with violating this principle is socialism or, at its extreme, Marxist communism.

A well known Marxist principle is “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”

Here you have an attempt to create a society where everyone is “equal”—no winners or losers—as in the old Soviet Union. There is also no individual freedom… and the leadership class is a bit more equal than others.

To ensure that no one has an unfair advantage—to housing, to jobs, to health care, education, travel, food—the government owns and controls it all, and bureaucrats decide who gets what and from whom.

If we have a lot of ability and work hard, we give. If we have a lot of need, we get… and large walls and fences are built to keep us from leaving the “worker’s paradise.”

BY THEIR WORKS SHALL YE KNOW THEM

Politicians in favor of this socialist system see themselves as a special breed of individual, ideally suited to the task of deciding things for the rest of us. They know what’s best.

I guess you could say that anyone who aspires to public office has this attitude to some degree—a sense of specialness—but that doesn’t make them all the same.

You can look at a person’s past record and see what was done. And you can look and listen to the candidate in present time and determine what he or she has in mind for us.

This can be tricky because the politician is trained to tell us, in a charming and convincing manner, what the polls have suggested we want to hear. So you can’t necessarily go by what is said.

But, if he says he will “help” the American people by expanding government programs—health care, housing, education—and the way we will pay for it is to raise taxes on “wealthy” people, this is a Marxist approach and a clear indicator of someone who will worsen conditions. It runs counter to the natural law. It is penalizing production and success, and rewarding mediocrity and failure.

Its purpose is to weaken the successful and the strong so they may be replaced, via an all-powerful government, with the politicians and their shadowy overseers, the ones who are behind this socialist movement.

WHAT TO DO?

There are lots of issues in an election—the environment, the economy, the war, abortion rights, gay rights, rights to life.

And there is a lot to like or dislike about the candidates, be they eloquent, friendly, handsome—old, nasty, slick.

And there can be emotional issues—party loyalties and animosities, such as loving or hating Bush or Clinton.

It’s not easy to make an objective, sensible choice in the whirl of such issues, opinions and emotions, but it can be done by applying this simple test of logic.

Ask yourself the question: will he or she reward success or reward failure? This effectively bypasses most of the other issues and takes the emotion and bias out of it. It is a completely objective test along the lines of: when dropped, do heavy objects fall down or up?

THE PERFECT CANDIDATE

None are closer to perfection than you or I. In other words, the perfect candidate doesn’t exist. No matter the party or the candidate we vote for and support, we all must hold our noses to some extent.

Just recognize that the most socialist-inclined, high-taxing, big-government candidates and parties need to be defeated or we will be a giant step closer to a socialist super state.

I’m sorry if the correct choice, by this standard, might not be the cutest or most charming or clever. And it may seem that you are sacrificing some issues that are close to your heart.

CHOOSING SIDES

If I lean toward Republicans and shy away from Democrats, it’s not because I was born a warmonger or was indoctrinated at an early age to favor the rich. I have made the choice based on what I have observed.

What I noticed, over the years, is that Democrat politicians, to an increasing degree, like to reward victims and punish success. As in the NFL example, this doesn’t make sense to me and nowhere in life have I found this approach to work.

Does the Republican Party need work? Absolutely. They drive me nuts some times, most recently in regards to the financial bailout, which is a socialist program in itself.

But at least, in terms of basic principles, they espouse the right idea—less government, more individual responsibility. They just need to have their feet held to the fire and be made to walk the walk that they like to talk.

Then there is the alternative party option.

Unfortunately, though there is much to like about certain alternative party candidates, a vote for them, right now, or a non-vote, is a missed opportunity to vote against the socialist candidate.

And as the left consolidates its power, it will eventually squeeze out all dissent.

WHAT? ME WORRY?

This is what happens when a militant socialist party comes to power—as in the National Socialists of Germany (NAZI) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

And then, more recently, there is Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, as he nationalizes industries and the press, while snuggling up to Castro and Putin. Do you think the voters in Venezuela really knew what they were getting when they elected this charming, blustering, U.S hating Marxist? I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time.

From the World Book Dictionary

“Communism and socialism are systems of social organization under which the means of production and distribution of goods are transferred from private hands to the government.

The classic difference between the two systems lies in the different means they take to establish themselves: communism emphasizes the impracticality of replacing the social order by any means other than force or outside intervention; the advocates of socialism seek to establish it by peaceful means, through legislation rather than force.”

Thanks for small favors.

NAMING NAMES

Barack Obama is a nice looking, smooth talking community organizer, schooled and drilled in the classic methods of “peaceful” social-political takeover. He has been groomed and moved up the political ladder by radical socialist operatives, at home and abroad.

This is with the willing or unwitting help of the Democrat Party and their backers in the news media. The target is the Presidency of the United States, arguably the most powerful position in the world.

From such a position of power, and with socialist Democrats also controlling the House and Senate, every aspect of government can be peopled with like-thinking operatives and the U.S. will, effectively, have been overthrown from within, just as the socialist agenda predicts.

As well, the socialist candidate and party will be least likely to support Supreme Court nominees who are strong constitutionalists. In other words, they will be able to alter the country’s bedrock policy to suit their social engineering and political ends.

And it is a fact that Barack Obama is an outspoken proponent of widespread “mental health” screening. That is a nightmare scenario, in terms of loss of individual liberty and sanity. It is right out of “Brave New World” and “1984.”

It’s looking like a duck, walking like a duck and quacking like a duck. Do you suppose it might be a duck?

YOUR MISSION, IF YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT…

Like them or not, we can at least slow this process down by voting for the Republicans. You don’t have to tell anybody. Though flawed, they are more apt to resist this headlong dash towards socialism, with its loss of our culture and our liberties.

Thus, buying a bit more time, we can continue to use all means possible to educate the populace to life’s laws and truths, so they will be more prone to nominate and elect sane leaders to replace the seriously tainted ones we are currently having to deal with.

EPILOG

I know there is a lot more to all of this than can be covered in one posting. I’m just trying to provide a shortcut answer, based on this one principle that I know to be true, in order to get us through this election, upon which so much is riding.

Reward success and you will get more of it. Reward mediocrity and failure and you will get more of that!

Vote sensibly!

Parts 1, 2 & 3 at YouTube = http://youtube.com/solaricomm

A FILM IS BORN

I spent the better part of 1983 making a documentary film called The Measure of America, which was released in 1984. 

In the decade prior, my wife Cam and I had been producing audio/visual marketing for a lot of corporate clients.  In the course of doing that we met and photographed and interviewed hundreds of working people at every strata from machine operator to CEO.

What was striking to me was what good people these were and how hard they worked and how much they loved their jobs! This was not the picture of America I had picked up in college or through the hippie days of the 1960s.  Neither was it the image of America as portrayed in the media. 

In fact, through the 70s, one would be hard pressed to find anything positive about America anywhere! 

Most schools had been taken over by a “psychology” that was fully dedicated to examining, exposing and promoting the flaws in humanity, not its rightness or goodness.  And a major target of this black PR campaign was the country itself and all of its values and accomplishments.

I finally resolved to do something about this - to fill the void.  With the financial backing of the wonderful CEO of a manufacturing conglomerate called VSI Corporation, I embarked upon this film project.

WHAT NO DIGICAM?

Strangely enough, it was shot in 16 mm and edited using a system of cutting and splicing together pieces of celluloid motion picture film.  In those days, there was virtually no such thing as small format video or computerized editing, much less digital anything.  (Kids, all the phones were wired to the walls!)

The film got some recognition and some play.  It sold to city school systems, universities and various patriotic groups, was a Finalist in the American Film Festival and it was given an Award of Excellence from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge.  On the 4th of July it was featured on the local PBS affiliate, KCET.  In a couple of years the film had run its course and it was retired from circulation.

911

Then the country was attacked on 9/11/2001, and I was asked to screen the film for a gathering of friends.  It seemed everyone could use a patriotic boost.  Soon after that, a distributor asked me to re-release it in video, which I did with the help of more friends.  I performed some minor editing and changed the title to, simply, AMERICA!

Now, in the age of YouTube, I have decided to release it again on the Internet.  To satisfy YouTube’s length requirement I have divided it into three sections, each about 8 minutes long.

GROUP EFFORT

Despite the funny hair styles and vintage automobiles, I think you will agree that the ideas are as relevant as ever, for it is a film about ideas, as voiced by American working people – some of whom you may recognize.

In fact, some of you who are reading this are in the film!  Thank you very much!  And others of you helped make it!  You know who you are.  For example, it features a hauntingly beautiful original score by Geoff Levin and Steve Bach.

May I recommend, for the full effect, that you watch the film in its entirety.  The emotional impact is cumulative and just about guaranteed.

Here is the link to Parts 1, 2 & 3 at YouTube  = http://youtube.com/solaricomm

Happy July 4th!  Enjoy!

Tom Solari

My2senseworth

It’s time to address, again, the connection between school shootings, other murderous incidents and psychiatric medications.

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In April of 2007, America was horrified by the shootings at Virginia Tech, where over 30 people were slaughtered by a lone gunman with a history of taking psychiatric medications.

More recently, on February 14, 2008, another lone gunman with a history of taking such medications, burst into a geology class at Northern Illinois University, killing 5 students and wounding many others before killing himself.

But these were just the latest in a long string of shootings in past years by individuals taking these drugs: Westside Middle School in 1998, 5 dead; Columbine High School in 1999, 15 dead; Red Lake, Minn. in 2005, 10 dead, to name a few.

MEDIA COVERAGE

It is interesting to note how the news media have treated these incidents through the years. Often it is several days before it comes to light that the killer has been taking some type of psychiatric drug—usually one or more anti-depressants.

With this last incident, however, at Northern Illinois, it was less than 24 hours before the word got out about the shooter’s psychiatric drug history.

Perhaps the reality is beginning to sink in.

As I watched the early reports, I fully expected to hear the news anchor say to the reporter at the scene, “Do they know yet which types of medications the shooter had been taking?”

Based on the history of this type of incident, that would not be an unreasonable assumption. It certainly is always my first thought when confronted with such news.

It is simply a fact that, in nearly every one of these cases, psychiatric medications are involved.

COMMON RATIONALE

Now, I understand the argument that says “Of course he had a psychiatric history, he was mentally unstable.”

It’s true that psychiatrists have positioned themselves as the “experts” in the field of mental health, so any troubled individual will be referred to a psychiatrist for diagnosis and treatment.

But let’s examine the methods psychiatrists use to “treat” these problems, and let’s look at the actual results.

We can start with the fact that, by their own admission, psychiatrists do not claim to know what mental illness is nor do they claim that any cure is possible. (Reference: http://www.flixxy.com/psychiatry-no-science-no-cures.htm)

CATALOG OF MENTAL “DISORDERS”

What they do offer is a laundry list of observed symptoms and behaviors that they consider to be “abnormal.” (See the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – DSM.)

These “disorders” are carefully cataloged and numerically coded for billing purposes. They are actually voted on by psychiatrists for inclusion into the manual. There is no objective test. It is by consensus, by opinion.

So much for the scientific method.

CHEMICAL IMBALANCE

After these labels are dreamed up, the psychiatric profession offers the theory that these “disorders” are caused by an imbalance in one’s “brain chemistry,” for which the inevitable treatment is some kind of drug—one they hope will restore the “brain chemistry” to a “normal” state.

So, let me see if I have this straight.

They don’t really know what mental illness is.

They think it is a chemical imbalance in the brain but they have no medical test or proof of this.

Then the pharmaceutical companies concoct a variety of drugs which the psychiatrists prescribe and administer to alter the chemistry of the brain, not really knowing how they work or what the result will be—except it has become increasingly obvious that a substantial number of people who are given these drugs, particularly young people, will be aggressive or suicidal, and a noticeable number will commit mass murder.

TARGETING CHILDREN

The major tragedy of this situation is that more and more children are being given these drugs. This is setting up the prospect of whole generations mired in this insanity—the insanity of a “solution” that greatly worsens the problem.

In fact, it is already upon us.

“BUT THE DRUGS WORK ON SOME PEOPLE!”

Yes, and a beer might calm you down, or a couple of martini’s at lunch can help you through the day, or a stiff shot of scotch when you get home can take the edge off.

I’ve known pot smokers who swear by it and the 60s offered wonderful pills to pop that made us more “peace loving.” Who can dispute the occasional “good trip?”

But what about the bad trips? What about the ruined lives? What about the late Heath Ledger and Brad Renfroe and River Phoenix and Jimi Hendrix and Janice Joplin and Jim Morrison, and, and, and…

Just watch an E-Channel documentary about some rock group—ANY rock group—and tell me the drugs were a good thing.

Anyone who has looked squarely at this area of people taking drugs and the overall effects, will tell you it is insane and destructive to go down that road. Look at Britney Spears!

Yet, through the drugged-out madness of the 60s and 70s, everyone, including the most depraved rock star, agreed that you do not give mind-altering drugs to kids.

BIG PSYCH/PHARMA

So what does this tell us about the character of the people who are now pushing these drugs into the general populace in the guise of “help?”

Your friendly heroin or cocaine dealer is offering you a “high.” He’ll make you feel “good.” He does it for money. If you O/D at some point, that’s your problem.

The “legitimate” drug industry and the drug-pushing psychiatrist are really in the same business and for the same reason. It is an enormously profitable enterprise.

That they gleefully target school kids, the elderly, pregnant women, toddlers and now even pets, to expand their markets, puts the psych/pharma people into a class by themselves.

The 14th century poet, Dante Alighieri in his Inferno, would have had something choice to say about these folks, but his levels of hell did not go that far down.

SOME LIGHT AT THE END OF A DEEP, DARK TUNNEL

So what do we do about it?

It starts with raising public awareness.

There is more attention being given the problem by some segments of the media and there are people in government who have a genuine concern. They need the help of grass roots public and energized groups to keep this on the front burner.

And enlightened members of the psychiatric community need to work within their own ranks to take responsibility for the profession and clean up the mess.

WHY DO THEY KILL?

It will help greatly if people know exactly what it is about these drugs that turns people into killers.

With that in mind, I have written another blog entry called INHUMAN BEINGS – The Chemicalized Personality.

You might know someone for whom this could bring some clarity and understanding. It could save a life. Pass it on.