Bob from Brooklyn asks:Q: Charlie: Your tax/social proposals are absurd, and unworthy of comment. I’m surprised that anyone would listen to your rantings in An American Fable, or in your Q&A blog answers.
You’re a pathetic old man who denounces everything I believe in--global warming; elimination of carbon emissions; green America; Federal administration; welfare; Federal crackdown on atomic energy, oil fields and coal mining; free passes for illegal immigrants; legalization of marijuana; felony gambling and prostitution laws; appeasing foreign policy; support for OPEC and Kyoto; gay/lesbian marriage; super taxation of corporations and the rich; and nationalized health care.
A: That’s quite a mouthful, Bob. Yes, I’m an elderly gent, but not yet demented, otherwise I could not respond to your “drive-by” bashing.
A: That’s quite a mouthful, Bob. Yes, I’m an elderly gent, but not yet demented, otherwise I could not respond to your “drive-by” bashing.
Yes, we should go balls-out to create a million new domestic energy jobs and kill OPEC in the process. This is true energy independence.
Global warming is an outright hoax, as is "cap and tax" energy consumption. Should we be so naïve as to follow Obama, China and India with more than half of the planet’s population, will not be so accommodating. It’s a fool’s errand at best.
We can be justly criticized for many faults in the past 2 centuries, but we have never been fools! We saved Western Civilization in two 20th century World Wars, and a 50-year Cold War with the Russkies, by producing and consuming to the hilt—this is our American ball game, and we have always made the rules, and always eventually won, because our underlying strength has no limits.
We may be somewhat errant at times, because we are still a relatively young nation as nations go, but we are not brain dead. We just need to pick up the flag that Betsy Ross stitched together, and call to action the band of patriots that Virginia Colonel George Washington stitched together in 1775. Are we less today than our Founding Fathers? I think not.
No one need preach to us about revolution—we invented modern era revolution, and will continue to re-invent it as time goes by, including my own “peaceful revolution.” Your ‘green America’ is in good hands, so don't fret. Ten times as many tree saplings have been planted than existed when our Pilgrims landed at Plymouth; there will be no dearth of redwoods or sequoias in our future, although you probably haven’t gloried at either marvel from your Flatbush flat in Brooklyn.
Carbon emissions? Shall all God's creatures and 7 billion humans stop breathing? A carbon tax? Another $1,000 family energy tax on top of all the other bail-out/stimulus taxes to come? Paid for by the 5% rich and our struggling companies, from mom and pop to G.E.?
Somebody's crazy, but it’s not me! My proposals are about as sane as it gets when it comes to revolutionizing our tax bite into easy daily doses, while promoting our lower class to middle class overnight, with a working couple minimum wage of 50 grand; a solid T-bond pension account for their golden years; a tuition-free National University for their kids, and automatic entry for the military/Peace Corps volunteers. This alone is worth 200 grand for a Bachelor’s Degree, 500 grand for an M.D. Degree; and one mil for a tenured Professor. The “queue to serve” will be at least 6 months, and we will finally take care of our deserving veterans properly.
With regard to legalized gambling and prostitution, I’m just acknowledging the facts of life since history was first recorded, and taking 10% off the top for town coffers—some of which will provide free Muni transport for New York tourists, and subway commuters like yourself.
Balls out oil and coal production? It should be obvious, but apparently not for you. We have enough natural gas to last us 100 years; enough coal to last us 600 years; and 200 billion barrels of oil to kill OPEC, if we have the will to drill, pump, and refine, with no restrictions. We've held our noses before to achieve critical national goals, especially World War II.
Atomic energy? We need at least 100 new power plants. Hell, the French have 105 atomic plants today, and we invented atomic power in 1945, when Harry Truman dropped a couple of A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and saved the lives and limbs of 1 million G.I.’s and Marines, ready to invade the Honshu mainland, an onslaught that would have made Genghis Khan look like a Boy Scout!
Bob, you have no idea of the sacrifices we made spontaneously to guarantee our countrymen their American heritage. Perhaps you will never learn, but I’ll finish with a parting shot of undisguised nationalism regarding future foreign policy.
Pax Americana? No other nation on earth can even begin to pull off this 21st century World Peace gambit. Don’t look elsewhere, because there is no elsewhere, elsewhere—just you, me, and our town folks. It’s all here in Hicksville, USA, and Brooklyn, USA, just as it was in Boston more than 2 centuries ago, when we first defied the mighty British Empire at Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill, and Boston Harbor, under the Continental Congress leadership of Virginal Colonel George Washington.
Today, we must again defy the rest of the world to show that America—the inventor of modern era revolution - represents the best path to human dignity. Pax Americana foreign policy is perhaps in some ways our 21st century national albatross, but cannot be ignored. We conservative patriots will never bow to a Saudi prince as our President just did, but rather, these potentates will learn to kneel before our Commander-in-Chief, once we wrap up the first phase of Pax Americana by taking out Iran, Syria, and North Korea.
Homosexual marriage? Neither my Catholic belief in traditional man/woman coupling, nor my belief in Christian/Judeo millennial preachings, can accept this aberration of God’s design for mankind.
Super-taxation for corporations, entrepreneurs, and the rich? You mean the folks who provide 80% of all new jobs? Surely you’re jesting! My solution takes a very different "trickle up" approach, which overnight converts the lower class, and anyone else with an ounce of gumption , into a 95% American middle class—the historic backbone of our capitalist society.
