Desert Conservative » Education

The WARPED MINDS OF LIBERAL PROGRESSIVES IN OUR CLASSROOMS!

Lee S. Gliddon, Jr. — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 21:37:25 +0000

Submitted by: Donald Hank

Why teach chilren about sex and not about Reading? Sex instead of writing? The only arithnetic is about human reproduction! Sad and despicable!

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/teach_my_child_that_and_youll_be_sorry/

NO MATTER WHAT LIBERAL PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS SAY – IT DOES MATTER!

Lee S. Gliddon, Jr. — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 20:55:10 +0000

Submitted by: Robert Cooper

The Fundamental Transformation of America

Ø When Obama wrote a book and said he was mentored as a youth by Frank, (Frank Marshall Davis) an avowed Communist, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When it was discovered that his grandparents, were strong socialist, sent Obama’s mother to a socialist school, introduced Frank Marshall Davis to young Obama, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When people found out that he was enrolled as a Muslim child in school and his father and step father were both Muslims, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he wrote in another book he authored “I will stand with them (Muslims) should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.” people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he admittedly, in his book, said he chose Marxist friends and professors in college, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he traveled to Pakistan , after college on an unknown national passport, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he sought the endorsement of the Marxist party in 1996 as he ran for the Illinois Senate, people said it doesn’t matter.

Ø When he sat in a Chicago Church for twenty years and listened to a preacher spew hatred for America and preach black liberation theology, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When an independent Washington organization, that tracks senate voting records, gave him the distinctive title as the “most liberal senator”, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When the Palestinians in Gaza set up a fund raising telethon to raise money for his election campaign, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When his voting record supported gun control, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he refused to disclose who donated money to his election campaign, as other candidates had done, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he received endorsements from people like Louis Farrakhan and Moammar Kadaffi and Hugo Chavez, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When it was pointed out that he was a total, newcomer and had absolutely no experience at anything except community organizing, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he chose friends and acquaintances such as Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn who were revolutionary radicals, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When his voting record in the Illinois senate and in the U.S. Senate came into question, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he refused to wear a flag, lapel pin and did so only after a public outcry, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When people started treating him as a Messiah and children in schools were taught to sing his praises, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he stood with his hands over his groin area for the playing of the National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he surrounded himself in the White House with advisors who were pro gun control, pro abortion, pro homosexual marriage and wanting to curtail freedom of speech to silence the opposition people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he aired his views on abortion, homosexuality and a host of other issues, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he said he favors sex education in Kindergarten, including homosexual indoctrination, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When his background was either scrubbed or hidden and nothing could be found about him, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When the place of his birth was called into question, and he refused to produce a birth certificate, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he had an association in Chicago with Tony Rezco, a man of questionable character, who is now in prison and had helped Obama to a sweet deal on the purchase of his home, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When it became known that George Soros, a multi-billionaire Marxist, spent a ton of money to get him elected, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he started appointing “czars” (a communist term) that were radicals, revolutionaries, and even avowed Marxist/Communists, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he stood before the nation and told us that his intentions were to “fundamentally transform this nation” into something else, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When it became known that he had trained ACORN workers in Chicago and served as an attorney for ACORN, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he appointed cabinet members and several advisors who were tax cheats and socialists, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he appointed a science czar, John Holdren, who believes in forced abortions, mass sterilizations and seizing babies from teen mothers, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he appointed Cass Sunstein as regulatory czar who believes in “Explicit Consent”, harvesting human organs with out family consent, and to allow animals to be represented in court, while banning all hunting, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he appointed Kevin Jennings, a homosexual, and organizer of a group called gay, lesbian, straight, Education network, as safe school czar and it became known that he had a history of bad advice to teenagers, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he appointed Mark Lloyd as diversity czar and he believed in curtailing free speech, taking from one and giving to another to spread the wealth and admires Hugo Chavez, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When Valerie Jarrett was selected as Obama’s senior White House advisor and she is an avowed Socialist, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When Anita Dunn, White House Communications director said Mao Tse Tung was her favorite philosopher and the person she turned to most for inspiration, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he appointed Carol Browner as global warming czar, and she is a well known socialist working on Cap and trade as the nation’s largest tax, people said it doesn’t matter.

Ø When he appointed Van Jones, an ex-con and avowed Communist as green energy czar, who since had to resign when this was made known, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When Tom Daschle, Obama’s pick for health and human services secretary could not be confirmed, because he was a tax cheat, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When as president of the United States , he bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia , people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he traveled around the world criticizing America and never once talking of her greatness, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When his actions concerning the middle-east seemed to support the Palestinians over Israel , our long time friend, people said it doesn’t matter.

Ø When he took American tax dollars to resettle thousands of Palestinians from Gaza to the United States , people said it doesn’t matter.

Ø When he upset Europeans allies by removing plans for a missile defense system against the Russians, people said it doesn’t matter.

Ø When he played politics in Afghanistan by not sending troops the Field Commanders said we had to have to win, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he started spending us into a debt that was so big we could not pay it off, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he took a huge spending bill under the guise of stimulus and used it to pay off organizations, unions and individuals that got him elected, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he took over insurance companies, car companies, banks, etc. people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he took away student loans from the banks and put it through the government, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he designed plans to take over the health care system and put it under government control, people said it didn’t matter.

Ø When he set into motion a plan to take over the control of all energy in the United States through Cap and Trade, people said it didn’t matter.

When he finally completed his transformation of America into a Socialist State , people finally woke up…….. But it was too late.

Any one of these things, in and of themselves does not really matter. But…. when you add them up one by one you get a phenomenal score that points to the fact that our Obama is determined to make America over into a Marxist/Socialist society.

All of the items in the preceding paragraphs have been put into place. All can be documented very easily. Before you disavow this, do an internet search. The last paragraph alone is not yet cast in stone. You and I will write that paragraph. Will it read as above or will it be a happier ending for most of America ? Personally, I like happy endings.

If you are an Obama Supporter, please do not be angry with me because I think the President of your choice is a socialist, but there are too many facts supporting this. If you seek the truth you will be richer for it. Don’t just belittle the opposition. Search for the truth. I did. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Constitutionalist, Libertarians and what have you; we all need to pull together. We all must pull together or watch the demise of a society that we all love and cherish. If you are a religious person, pray for our nation.

Never before in the history of America have we been confronted with problems so huge that the very existence of our country is in jeopardy. Don’t rely on most television news and what you read in the newspapers for the truth. Search the internet. Yes, there is a lot of bad information, lies and distortions there too but you are smart enough to spot the fallacies. Newspapers are a dying breed.

They are currently seeking a bailout from the government. Do you really think they are about to print the truth? Obama praises all the television news networks except Fox who he has waged war against. There must be a reason. He does not call them down on any specifics, just a general battle against them. If they lie, he should call them out on it but he doesn’t please, find the truth, it will set you free.

Our biggest enemy is not China , Russia , and Iran ; no, our biggest enemy is a contingent of politicians in Washington DC .

Obama – A DISGRACE TO THE U.S.A. – AN EMBARASSMENT

Lee S. Gliddon, Jr. — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:00:24 +0000

Submitted by: Elizabeth Cowan

The President Without A Country
By Pat Boone

“We’re no longer a Christian nation.” – President barack obama, June 2009

” America has been arrogant.” – President barack obama

“After 9/11, America didn’t always live up to her ideals.”- President barack obama

“You might say that America is a Muslim nation.”- President barack obama, Egypt 2009

Thinking about these and other statements made by the man who wears the title of president. I keep wondering what country he believes he’s president of.

In one of my very favorite stories, Edward Everett Hale’s “The Man without a Country,” a young Army lieutenant named Philip Nolan stands condemned for treason during the Revolutionary War, having come under the influence of Aaron Burr. When the judge asks him if he wishes to say anything before sentence is passed, young Nolan defiantly exclaims, “Damn the United States ! I wish I might never hear of the United States again!”

The stunned silence in the courtroom is palpable, pulsing. After a long pause, the judge soberly says to the angry lieutenant: “You have just pronounced your own sentence. You will never hear of the United States again.. I sentence you to spend the rest of your life at sea, on one or another of this country’s naval vessels – under strict orders that no one will ever speak to you again about the country you have just cursed.”

And so it was. Philip Nolan was taken away and spent the next 40 years at sea, never hearing anything but an occasional slip of the tongue about America. The last few pages of the story, recounting Nolan’s dying hours in his small stateroom – now turned into a shrine to the country he fore swore – never fail to bring me to tears. ��And I find my own love for this dream, this miracle called America , refreshed and renewed. I know how blessed and unique we are.

But reading and hearing the audacious, shocking statements of the man who was recently elected our president – a young black man living the impossible dream of millions of young Americans, past and present, black and white – I want to ask him, “Just what country do you think you’re president of?”

You surely can’t be referring to the United States of America, can you? America is emphatically a Christian nation, and has been from its inception! Seventy percent of her citizens identify themselves as Christian. The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were framed, written and ratified by Christians. It’s because this was, and is, a nation built on and guided by Judeo-Christian biblical principles that you, sir, have had the inestimable privilege of being elected her president.

You studied law at Harvard, didn’t you, sir? You taught constitutional law in Chicago? Did you not ever read the statement of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and an author of the landmark “Federalist Papers”: ” Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers – and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation – to select and prefer Christians for their rulers”?

In your studies, you surely must have read the decision of the Supreme Court in 1892: “Our lives and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian.”

Did your professors have you skip over all the high-court decisions right up till the mid 1900’s that echoed and reinforced these views and intentions? Did you pick up the history of American jurisprudence only in 1947, when for the first time a phrase coined by Thomas Jefferson about a “wall of separation between church and state” was used to deny some specific religious expression – contrary to Jefferson’ s intent with that statement?

Or, wait a minute . were your ideas about America’s Christianity formed during the 20 years you were a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ under your pastor, Jeremiah Wright? Is that where you got the idea that ” America is no longer a Christian nation”? Is this where you, even as you came to call yourself a Christian, formed the belief that�� “America has been arrogant”?

Even if that’s the understandable explanation of your damning of your country and accusing the whole nation (not just a few military officials trying their best to keep more Americans from being murdered by jihadists) of “not always living up to her ideals,” how did you come up with the ridiculous, alarming notion that we might be “considered a Muslim nation”?

Is it because there are some 2 million or more Muslims living here, trying to be good Americans? Out of a current population of over 300 million, 70 percent of whom are Christians? Does that make us, by any rational definition, a “Muslim nation”?

Why are we not, then, a “Chinese nation”? A “Korean nation”? Even a “Vietnamese nation”? There are even more of these distinct groups in America than Muslims. And if the distinction you’re trying to make is a religious one, why is America not “a Jewish nation”? There’s actually a case to be made for the latter, because our Constitution – and the success of our Revolution and founding – owe a deep debt to our Jewish brothers.

Have you stopped to think what an actual Muslim America would be like? Have you ever really spent much time in Iran? Even in Egypt? You, having been instructed in Islam as a kid at a Muslim school in Indonesia and saying you still love the call to evening prayers, can surely picture our nation founded on the Quran, not the Judeo-Christian Bible, and living under Shariah law. Can’t you? You do recall Muhammad’s directives [Surah 9:5,73] to “break the cross” and “kill the infidel”?

It seems increasingly and painfully obvious that you are more influenced by your upbringing and questionable education than most suspected.. If you consider yourself the president of a people who are “no longer Christian,” who have “failed to live up to our ideals,” who “have been arrogant,” and might even be “considered Muslim” – you are president of a country most Americans don’t recognize.

Could it be you are a president without a country?

All who love their Christian Belief’s and your Country. Forward to all in your address book.

The President Without A Country
By Pat Boone

We have a President who is INANE IN THE EYES OF THE WORLD!

Lee S. Gliddon, Jr. — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:10:28 +0000

Submitted by: Myke

And you thought Bush was embarrassing? Obama’s

policies are leaving Americans red in the face

S E Cupp

Americans today don’t embarrass very easily. Just ask MTV progeny Heidi Montag-Pratt-Montag [pictured above] (and her plastic surgeon), Rod Blagojevich or the Salahis. Tiger Woods had no problem showing his face at the U.S. Open less than a year after ruining his squeaky-clean image (and perhaps his marriage). Eliot Spitzer could become the next Larry King. As for me, I’m a cable news pundit, so clearly my standards of dignity are fairly low.

But two years into his first term, President Obama is proving we are not entirely without shame.

Thanks to a slew of gaffes, blunders, miscalculations and alarming personality revelations, Obama has become a surprising liability where our reputation abroad is concerned – surprising not only because he was elected, in part, to restore our supposedly damaged image overseas, but also because he was touted as a smooth and charming diplomat.

But whatever generosities we afforded the inexperienced junior senator from Illinois, smooth and charming he is not, it turns out. And these rookie mistakes are getting downright embarrassing.

The latest came last week, when the President sent the G-20 a pointed but pleading letter imploring Europe to quit it already with all the sensible spending cuts. He apparently believes that if we are going to spend our way into oblivion, then Europe should have the good manners to join us. Misery loves company, after all, and so does bankruptcy.

It’s unlikely Europe was moved. In fact, Germany and Britain, which just announced major spending cuts, are probably laughing at us, with a sharp view of Greece in their rearview mirror. Obama’s letter wasn’t only myopic but terribly arrogant – the kind of thing that would have earned his predecessor another colorful “cowboy” descriptor from the oft-offended liberal press.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico hasn’t put the White House in a good light, either. For an administration that famously refuses to let a good crisis go to waste, its total failure to capitalize on an opportunity to show real leadership is perplexing, to say the least. Promising to kick someone’s ass in between a rock concert and a round of golf is not, it turns out, a very impressive show of political agility.

In Britain, where our once-special relationship is growing increasingly ordinary, Tory Lord Tebbit called Obama’s ineffective response to the BP oil spill “a crude, bigoted, xenophobic display of partisan political presidential petulance.” The staggering alliteration aside, those are some harsh words. And Maureen Dowd, The New York Times‘ usually fawning Obamafan, called him “bloodless” and “self-destructive.” Yikes.

But these are just the latest in a string of global embarrassments, the kinds that were supposed to be a relic of the previous administration. Our self-righteous reaction to Israel’s flotilla incident earned us some much-deserved scorn from Israel, which apparently cannot defend herself (or even build condos in East Jerusalem) without Obama’s express permission.

The President’s tepid response to Iran’s and North Korea’s nuclear promises undoubtedly has the leaders of both nations in stitches as they try not to lose sleep over the threat of . . . drumroll . . . more sanctions. We hardly need to impress Kim Jong Il or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but it would be nice if they were just a little afraid of us.

Also embarrassing is Obama’s audacity in Afghanistan, where he’s haughtily asking for more international support while simultaneously chirping on about our looming withdrawal date. It appears that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who delivered shockingly candid (and highly inappropriate) remarks to Rolling Stone about the President, isn’t particularly pleased with Obama, either.

I thought Obama was finally going to make us look good. Starting when? For his sake, let’s hope it’s in time for his reelection bid in 2012, when his critics are likely to point out that our enemies are still our enemies, and so, too, are some of our former friends.

For our sake, let’s hope he can figure out how to represent us with a little more panache and pride. Because you know it’s bad when us shameless Americans blush.

U.S. DEMOCRAT LED Congress – A FAILURE!

Lee S. Gliddon, Jr. — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:51:28 +0000

Why is Congress’ Popularity at 11 Percent>

By: Lee S Gliddon Jr

The Approval Rating of Congress is at 11 percent! How has this happened? More importantly, WHY?

Look at Nancy Pelosi asking the House to pass a Bill to allow MORE HEALTHCARE! Her assertions of, “This will lower the deficit by $68 BILLION within 8 years is not only laughable but as big a lie as anyone could imagine!

In adding a hugh expenditure to our government I suppose some anonymous entity will see that as worthy of donating billions upon billion to the U.S.A. with a no repay advisement!

Next you see Charlie Rangel FINALLY being held responsible for his tax evasions and other illicit actions. Nancy Pelosi held up any actions as long as she could but…nothing lasts forever!

Outlandish spending…withholding information to get Bills passed that will cost TRILLIONS…criminality…ignoring of American citizens…refusal to allow meaningful Amendments to Legislation that would solve many problems…secretive meetings that deny any opportunity to allow the gaining of knowledge…hiding of illegal acts of Congress members…refusal to read Bills before voting on them…lie upon lie…writing of Bills that contain endless taxation…failed Stimulus program…Obamacare…failed foreclosure program…failed TARP…failed auto Bailout…NEED I SAY MORE?

Obama’s CALCULATED DECEPTION(S)

Lee S. Gliddon, Jr. — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:19:54 +0000

Submitted by: Myke

lick here: President’s rhetoric = ‘calculated deception’ (OneNewsNow.com)

WHY JUNIOR CAN’T READ…WHY SALLY CAN’T ADD

Lee S. Gliddon, Jr. — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:29:04 +0000

Sex in the CLASSROOM…WRONG!

http://lisarichardsusa.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/let%e2%80%99s-bring-kindergarteners-to-abortion-clinics-for-sex-ed-consequences-classes/

TEACH READING, WRITING and ARITHMETIC and LEAVE SEX ALONE!

Lee S. Gliddon, Jr. — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:13:22 +0000

Teach The Three Rs

By: Lee S Gliddon Jr

We must come to the realization that our school systems are not only infringing on America’s parents’s rights but are showing just why there are so many drop outs!

While it may be true that many parents are not readily able to discuss sex with children it is just as certain that our teachers are just as unable to do that as well. A teaching Certificate does not enable a single teacher to be more knowledgeable in matters involving sex than any parent.

America is constantly being told, “Drop out rates are high,” and “The school systems are failing to teach the basics as all too many children cannot read or write.”

We are being beset by the Progressive Liberals that are more interested in teaching their ideological programs to childern that the fundamental basics of what we used to call, “the three Rs. Reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic.”

Where are the moral values of those that place sexual education ahead of the truly needed basics of all education?

School Boards must ask themselves, ‘What is more important; Teaching a child to read, to write or to perform mathmatical problems or to have sex?’

Sexual Education has its place. It’s place is in the home unless parents ask for assistance in such educational matters. Why else are there P.T.A. gatherings?

Additionally, there should be no sex aids provided to children without parental consent. To hand out condoms indiscriminately is to invite promiscuity! It is just as simple as that! Any teacher that questions that is out to do no good!

OBAMA NEWS – NOY VERY FLATTERING – GREAT!

Lee S. Gliddon, Jr. — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 23:31:59 +0000

CENTER FOR INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM
	20 Questions for the Obama Regime As the headlines remind us daily, the Obama Administration is quickly moving towards its halfway mark. Thus, it’s now time to subject the White House to a midterm examination. Here are 20 questions for the panjandrums of Pennsylvania Avenue: 1. The stimulus program was sold to the American people partially on the promise that it would keep the national unemployment rate below 8%. Yet in each of the 17 months since the bill was passed, unemployment has been over 8%. If such basic empirical claims are repeatedly disproved, how can they provide a basis for national economic policy? Read more now.

	Eric Holder’s Department of Injustice The Obama Justice Department’s decision to sue Arizona for copying federal immigration law is more than just the latest example of political calculations trumping sound legal reasoning. Combined with its refusal to press charges against members of the New Black Panthers for voter intimidation and fighting for a terrorist’s right to a civilian trial, the Arizona lawsuit confirms the Obama Administration’s unyielding commitment to weaken the rule of law. At first, the hyperbolic reactions by President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to Arizona’s newest illegal immigration law were dismissed by many as political posturing. Since neither of them took the time to read the law, surely they must be pushing an agenda other than strictly legal. Read more now.

	*World to Obama: No, You* Just Don’t Get It** So the nationwide – nay, suddenly worldwide – debate continues: Is President Obama being dishonest, or does he really just not get it? Regrettably, that particular question carries an additional element of irony this week. In his weekly radio address last Saturday, Obama leveled the curious accusation that opponents of his latest economic brainstorms “just don’t get it.” Read more now.


	20 Questions for the Obama Regime As the headlines remind us daily, the Obama Administration is quickly moving towards its halfway mark. Thus, it’s now time to subject the White House to a midterm examination. Here are 20 questions for the panjandrums of Pennsylvania Avenue: 1. The stimulus program was sold to the American people partially on the promise that it would keep the national unemployment rate below 8%. Yet in each of the 17 months since the bill was passed, unemployment has been over 8%. If such basic empirical claims are repeatedly disproved, how can they provide a basis for national economic policy? Read more now.

	Eric Holder’s Department of Injustice The Obama Justice Department’s decision to sue Arizona for copying federal immigration law is more than just the latest example of political calculations trumping sound legal reasoning. Combined with its refusal to press charges against members of the New Black Panthers for voter intimidation and fighting for a terrorist’s right to a civilian trial, the Arizona lawsuit confirms the Obama Administration’s unyielding commitment to weaken the rule of law. At first, the hyperbolic reactions by President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to Arizona’s newest illegal immigration law were dismissed by many as political posturing. Since neither of them took the time to read the law, surely they must be pushing an agenda other than strictly legal. Read more now.

	*World to Obama: No, You* Just Don’t Get It** So the nationwide – nay, suddenly worldwide – debate continues: Is President Obama being dishonest, or does he really just not get it? Regrettably, that particular question carries an additional element of irony this week. In his weekly radio address last Saturday, Obama leveled the curious accusation that opponents of his latest economic brainstorms “just don’t get it.” Read more now.

GOVERNMENT IS SPENDING US INTO UTTER CHAOS

Lee S. Gliddon, Jr. — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 22:50:40 +0000

Submitted by: Donald Hank

Being strangled by government

There isn’t a shred of evidence that government spending us into oblivion makes us better off — in fact the evidence shows that it’s the opposite.

Star Parker, founder and president of CURE

A cab ride in Washington, DC on a weekday afternoon in June gives you a feeling of the national mood. It’s oppressively hot and humid and the traffic is horrible. By the time you reach your destination, you feel strangled and oppressed and just want relief.

Amidst the current lethargic economic recovery, with unemployment still just under 10%, the one growth stock remains government. Washington, DC is a boom town today as the answer our current administration proposes for every single problem and challenge facing us is more government.

Government spending is now 25 percent of our GDP. This is five percentage points higher than the average of the last fifty years.

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll reflects the nation’s nasty mood. Sixty two percent now say the country is “on the wrong track,” compared to 43% saying this a year and a half ago.

A fascinating online dynamic map display, called “The Decline: The Geography of a Recession“, shows color coded unemployment levels county by county throughout the country. Areas where unemployment is 4-6 percent are orange and red. Areas of 7-10 percent unemployment are purple. The map display starts in January 2007 when national unemployment was 4.6 percent. It shows a sea of orange and red across the nation. You then click, and it changes by month, getting increasingly purple, until ending in March 2010 with national unemployment at 9.7 percent.

Looking at this picture of the whole nation swathed with the purple color of high unemployment, you can’t miss the tiny island of orange and red in the midst of all this. It’s, of course, the region of our nation’s capital.

Another bold graphic of our dismal state of affairs is an outstanding series of charts on the nation’s fiscal situation put together by Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation. You just can’t get a clearer picture of the cliff we are about to drive over.

Total government spending (federal, state, and local) per American household is now $47,000. This is almost triple what government spending per household was in 1965.

But consider further that this $47,000 government spending per household is almost equal to the nation’s median household income – about $51,000.

In 1970 government spending per household was about half of median household income.

Needless to say, all of this would be just fine if there was a shred of evidence that government spending us into oblivion made us better off. Not only is there no such evidence, but the proof in the pudding is the opposite.

Look around the world. The economies that are the most free are the ones that are the most prosperous. Those with the largest encroachments of government are the ones that perform the worst.

A study released a few weeks ago by three professors at Harvard Business School boldly challenged common perceptions about the benefits of government spending.

Incumbent members of Congress, particularly if they are powerful committee chairmen, often tout their value to their districts by the amount of federal money they bring home.

According to this new study, it turns out that this isn’t such good news. The government money simply displaces the private sector. According to the study, “the average firm in the chairman’s state did not benefit at all from the increase in spending.” Rather, “firms significantly cut physical and R&D spending, reduce employment, and experience lower sales.”

Economics, the joke goes, is common sense made difficult.

It just takes common sense to appreciate that our economy is not recovering because it is being strangled by government.

This will continue until we start going in the other direction. Cutting back government – spending and taxes – and unleashing again private American citizens to work and live free.