 | | | 5/17/2022 7:00 PM | Politics | Let's clear things up.
Socialism is NOT:
Public schools
Public roads
Police departments
Fire departments
Taxes
Gas Taxes
Tolls
Hospitals
Armies and Navies
National borders
A court system
Public libraries
The National highway system
A 40 hour work week
Income taxes
These are examples of GOVERNMENT. The concept of government, of a centralized agency that collects money from the people who live in a certain area in order to provide services to ALL the citizens of that area, is as old as civilization and is for the most part, quite fair: It taxes everyone more or less equally to provide services to everyone more or less equally. These are things you could probably take care of yourself, but it's easier to centralize them a little. You may not use these services every day, but you pay for them so they are there when you need them. It predates the concept of socialism by several millennia. Also, most services are provided at the lowest level possible, like the city or county.
Socialism IS, by varying degrees:
Minimum wage
The Alternative Minimum Tax
Social Security
Welfare
WIC
Food Stamps
Rent Control
Free College
The Earned Income Tax Credit
The New Deal
The Green New Deal
Ethanol subsidies
Farm subsidies
Anything subsidized by the Federal Government
Solyndra
The Paris Accords
Global Warming schemes
All the horrors of the Soviet Union, China, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, Kampuchea, and other socialist countries
"You have earned enough money"
"Paying it back to the community"
Any government plan that specifically targets certain people or industries to take money from them, and specifically GIVE money to certain groups of people.
That's socialism. It is justified by a hundred different reasons, and it is called many things: Collectivism, Communism, Socialism, Democratic Socialism, Progressivism, Marxism, Fascism, and even Liberalism. It has the same arguments it always had, that they are "making things fair" or "leveling the playing field" or just simply "punishing the rich". It is always coming from the left, and it always spreads the misery equally, whereever it is attempted. They also lie to you about it, and try to equate government with socialism, and they are very much not the same thing.
It is responsible for the death of 100 million people in the last century.
Time to let socialism die. For the sake of all it's future victims.
| | | | | 4/30/2022 5:00 AM | Masonry | Going to the movies can be a fun and even magical experience. You buy a ticket, and for around two hours you are entertained, maybe even uplifted. Add in the overpriced food or drink from the concession stand, and that's the extent of your commitment. You paid a little bit of money, and were rewarded with a little bit of entertainment for your afternoon.
But I think too many Brothers treat Masonry like a movie theatre. They think the cost of admission is their annual dues. They paid some money up front for the degrees, some time invested in learning a catechism, if at all, and then write a check once a year for dues. They have met their obligation. Quite a bargain, they think. For the cost of a dinner out a month, they get regular entertainment and enlightenment, or just the privilege of wearing a ring and telling people they are a Freemason, without even the need to go back to Lodge. After all, wearing that suit is such a bother. Why can't we be more casual?
But they would be wrong. The dues are just enough to pay to keep the lights on, to give us a place to meet. That paltry sum in no way pays for the experience you just received, not even close. In order to provide for you a single night's experience, whether it's a degree, a stated meeting, or a dinner, took work and dedication from a dozen or more Brothers. And the only way to pay that back is to put in the work yourself.
Freemasonry is paid for by those who donate their time and talents to make a memorable experience. The Brothers who spend hours learning a ritual part, and even more hours rehearsing together to make that degree come alive. The Brothers who pay the bills, who run the meetings, who sweep and mop and vacuum and wax the floors, who change the lightbulbs, who prepare the meals, who serve the meals, who wash the dishes, who set up and tear down the Lodge after each meeting, who write the speeches, who repair the building when it needs a little TLC. Every evening you experience at your Lodge was only possible because a lot of men worked hard to provide that experience for you.
Ours is a working organization. It is incumbent on you, my Brother, to donate YOUR time and talents to the Lodge, whatever they may be, to ensure the experience for the next new member, and all of the current ones, is just as memorable as your experience was, and maybe even better.
If every single Mason would donate just a little bit of his time, who took his natural born abilities and donated them to his Lodge in sweat equity, if every single one of us would put in the work equally... just think how much we would accomplish!
| | | | | 3/15/2021 10:00 AM | Politics | Comrade Cortez has no understanding of basic economics. No surprise, since she has a DEGREE in the subject from a major university. It shows how ideology, not thought, is what drives our colleges today. She is critical of capitalism, claiming that to pursue profit is somehow evil. What she fails, utterly, to understand is that without capital, without profit, YOU HAVE NOTHING ELSE. A government does not generate money. The money has to come from somewhere, either taxes paid by the people, or taxes levied on good from somewhere else. A prosperous economy raises all boats. Each sale, each transaction, makes money for the owners of the company. But that’s not all. It makes money for each employee in the company. It makes the life better of the person paying for the sale. Each employee can then spend their money on something. Each purchase by another company allows that company to make and sell goods and services, and the cycle continues. When an economy is growing, it only brings MORE money into the government, which allows the government to provide for the needs that the people decide the government has to provide. Without money, government can do nothing. If the simple desire to have a socialist government and provide for the needs of the people was the ONLY thing government required, then the people of Venezuela wouldn’t be starving in the streets. So why doesn’t the government of Venezuela provide for the people? Because socialist policies, the very same ones that Bernie and Comrade Cortez want to force on you and me, have destroyed Venezuela’s economy. No economy, no profit, no government. So no one produces, and everyone starves. Well, everyone expect the people who are running the government. Please, please, please, my liberal friends, prove to me where I am wrong. Explain to me why you would want your country to look like Venezuela. Or Cuba. Or North Korea. Or the Soviet Union. Explain it to me why living there is better, and why you haven’t moved there to experience it.
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