Some decades are defined by how people act during the span, there was the Roaring 20s, the "me decade, the "we decade”, the “Age of Aquarius”, etc. Others decades are defined by what happens during the period, the 30s will always be known by the Great Depression, and the 40s by WWII, etc.
When we look back at the period from 2000-2009, we may very well define it by three crises. The crisis that didn't happen, the crisis that wasn't supposed to happen, and the crisis that we don't realize is Happening. We haven't learned the lessons of the first two crises, and our ignorance of the third may doom us to be slaves to our government, rather than the other way around.
Leading into the change-over from 1999-2000 we faced Y2K, the crisis that didn't happen. Many people thought computers’ dates would go from 1999 back to 1900, causing our computer dominated world to fail: bank accounts to disappear, air-traffic systems (and airplanes) to crash, leading to an economic collapse and a return to the Stone Age.
Scientists told us the world would end, but it didn't. The worked like crazy to find a fix and were brilliantly successful. Even better, their solution didn’t necessitate everyone throwing out their computers and buying a new one.
We should remember the Y2K crisis when thinking about global warming. Rather than encouraging the disposal of present energy systems, putting our economies and lifestyles into a tailspin, scientists who believe in man-made global warming should apply their knowledge to find a solution with-in our present energy usage patterns.
On September 11th 2001, America faced a crisis that wasn't supposed to happen. Islamists attacked our biggest city/financial center and the headquarters of our nation's military. This is America; we have the most powerful military in the world, the best intelligence, etc. How could it happen?
A major cause of the September 2001 attack was our own negligence, political correctness and refusal to learn lessons from previous attacks such as the bombing of our barracks in Lebanon, the attack on the US Cole and the first Trade Center bombing.
Immediately after 9/11 it seemed as we had learned from the attack. Rightfully so, our government’s first priority was to fight the Islamist terror threat, US citizens were willing to do whatever it took to ensue that a horrific attack like 9/11 never happened again.
Today the lessons of that September day, eight years ago, have long since been forgotten. We have lapsed back to a "9/10" perspective. Our politically correct government is refusing to call our enemy by name, Islamists.
We looked weak to our enemy when we developed a strategy to fight what our ruling party called “the good war," Afghanistan. Four months after the new President changed the war strategy; it was time for a new one. He spent three additional months weighing the nation's safety vs. the desires of his political allies. In the end he announced a compromise surge that pleased few, coupled with a disengagement that emboldened our enemies. We also look weak as our government continues to reach out to Iran, and keep on giving them one more chance, every time they slap our hand away.
We are living with a "9/10" mentality, when a terrorist can be on a t watch list, but isn't put on the no-fly list, receives a visa to enter the country despite the fact that his father tried to turn him in to the US as a potential terrorist. We forget 9/11 when our Secretary of Homeland Security looks at the near fatal attack on Northwest Flight 253 to and announces that the system worked.
Gene Simmons of Kiss (born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel) suggested that how we should be looking at terror, in a May 2007 interview with Radar:
“...once a graduate of any madrassa in the Middle East straps on bombs that can take out cities, you're done....there's a guy with a gun a mile away, I think it's the same thing as if that gun is pointed right at my head. We don't want to die by some madman's hand. The difference is, I'm very proactive and want to take that guy out before he becomes a menace. In other words, I do think there's a military option with Iran.The third crisis is one very few Americans realize (or admit) is happening. Yet this one may very well be the crisis that defines the next decade; a government takeover of our lives. This trend did not begin with the present administration. The Obama team however, has accelerated the takeover and brought it to new heights.
In terms of this Republican administration, some views about stem cell research, gay rights, separation of church and state, and on and on—I don't agree with any of them. But you can worry about the trees and the environment and gas emissions later. Right now there's a bigger problem, and it's a guy who doesn't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat; he wants to blow himself up and take you out. That's the problem. I think racially profiling anybody from the Middle East ... as an Israeli; I want you to look at me first. I want you to search my anal cavity and look at my tax records. I want you to look at me first, and then at every guy named Muhammad.
Our largest manufacturing industry automotive, was taken over by the government. During the take-over primary investors, who by law should have received the lion's share of equity ,were bullied by the President to give up their fair share, so he could hand it over to the United Auto Workers Union.
The banking system was taken over after a crisis caused by government meddling which forced to make bad loans to people who could not afford them. Government has taken over setting salaries for certain industries. A pay Czar is setting salary levels for businesses we have taken over, and making salary "recommendations" for others.
Government spending has increased speed so incredibly fast, a new popular bumper sticker begs "Please don't tell the President what comes after a trillion." Government spending now represents 40% of the US gross national product, and government debt threatens to crowd out private enterprise.
The Congress is now run by progressives who believe government can solve any problem faster and more efficient than the private sector, even though that has never happened in the history of our country. Directed by the President, the Congress is working to take over the health care system over the objections of the American people. The threat of this bill is more than simply controlling another 16% of the economy. The Obamacare bill creates government control over our lifestyles from what we eat, what we put in vending machines, to how we die (and maybe even how many children do we can have).
Our government is working on controlling how we consume energy. They have prepared legislation which will put in government hands, everything from transportation, to creating a smart grid that will move the thermostat in our houses without our permission. They cynically tell us we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but refuse to tap our own energy resources still in the ground, which are larger than any other country on this planet.
None of this takeover, none, is supported by the US Constitution that has kept us free for some 222 years.
Our government is protecting their allies over the rights of the American people. Groups such as ACORN, and the New Black Panthers have received favorable treatment from this administration despite the fact that they have been caught trying to suppress the voting power of the rest of the Citizens. Our government attacks whistle blowers who try to protect our rights, AmeriCorps AG Gerald Walpin, fired by the POTUS, the “Pimp/Hooker” ACORN investigators, James O'Keefe III and Hannah Giles have been “rewarded” with the threat of prosecution.
None of this should be a surprise. Presidential Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel warned us in November 2008:
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," Emanuel told a Wall Street Journal conference of top corporate chief executives, "Things that we had postponed for too long, that were long-term, are now immediate and must be dealt with. This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."That ‘thing that could not be done before,” as described by Emanuel, is reversing the relationship between the American people and government. It is as if we have forgotten the words of Patrick Henry:
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people; it is an instrument for the people to restrain the governmentEmanuel isn’t the first "Israeli” who, after rising to power in a strange land, used a crisis to facilitate government takeover of people’s lives. That honor belongs to the Biblical Joseph. He became the number two guy in Egypt by predicting seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. During the years of plenty, he executed a plan of storing the excess grain in the name of the Pharaoh's government.
When famine hit, Joseph didn't let a crisis go to waste. Pharaoh's storage buildings were the only place to get food. So Joseph used that crisis to make the Egyptian people totally dependent on government. In exchange for food, Joseph had the people give the government their land and livestock. Before Joseph was done, everyone found themself working for the government.
The downside of Joseph's government take-over was when a Pharaoh "who knew not Joseph” arose, his descendants, and all the descendants of his 11 brothers were enslaved for 210 years.
Will the result of Emanuel's “not wasting a” crisis, facilitate the rise of a President who knows not the Constitution? Will the people of Emanuel's adopted land become the slaves of their government? That can only be stopped by the American people acknowledging and understanding this crisis, and their will to fight off the loss of their constitution. If that happens, the next decade will be called the Decade of Government by the People.
A different version of the post appeared in American Thinker earlier in the week
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