If Only?

With the new President Elect moving forward to establish himself with the choosing of his new staff, there are many ominous warnings ……on the horizon.

Google and Facebook announced their way of addressing the issue of false news, which they concede, is becoming more prevalent. (Here). This however is part of a larger article that is being covered by the Washington Post. The idea being that because some fake news is abound, ….. then it (according to them) must be rife.

The Washington Post (again) accuses many publications of assisting the fake news that is on the web. In addition it claims that many of these publications actively assisted the election of Trump. (Here) What is so much worse is that the Post does this without a single shred of evidence, making the wild claims (it appears) to suit their benefactor (Soros?)

What is a real concern is that any effort to curb this phenomena will lead to censorship!

Passive resistance has for many years proved itself to be an excellent means of putting your point across. From MLK protests to the Tiananmen Square protests, John Lennon, and Vietnam, all quiet rightly believing, that the violence they were protesting, can only be countered by peaceful protest. But sitting down to passively obstruct has long been forgotten.

To this end almost all protests are accompanied by their own videographers that  are in an instance at the scene of any confrontation at all, which is good for a police brutality claim.

Passive protest can also be seen in this clip where Ben Shapiro (who is an incredibly smart guy) is very patient with protesters that by virtue of their universities position to allow peaceful protest, which is very effective in their aim which is to silence the opposing view to theirs.

Ben is very good at shutting down many people with FACTS, but only when he could get a word in edgeways. But this so called passive protest only succeeds in drowning out the others point of view, which is of course the aim of most passive protests. Its not dialogue! its not fact, its tyranny!

The Presidential Election also saw polls that for whatever reason, did not produce the intended results. Only to find in the subsequent autopsy that many voters (Democrats included) simply did not tell the pollsters who they were really going to vote for because of the physical backlash. (Hence the pr-empted celebratory fireworks were hastily cancelled)

That backlash came in the very real violence that manifested itself in the worst possible way from so called ‘Passive protest’

Today we see much of the same thing but for slightly different reasons, in that they do not want to give authorities an excuse to go to the next level of physical counter resistance. But the omission of violence part has been forgotten.

Protests are now therefore at the level of a designed art. Bus leaders in, agitate the mob, push to the point of making law enforcement break, then film the mayhem. When the looting and the fires start simply blame an alternative group and dissociate yourselves from them.

But more significantly…its the left that creates the violence, the ones who swear by passive means and who we have seen the very worse of…. NOT the Right!

In addition when and if you lose ……simply contest (in the same above fashion) until you either you get a recount, or cause so much damage (financially as well as physically) that those in authority shall not forget the power of your demonstrations.

Hillary Clinton said this when Donald Trump said that he will consider whether to respect the outcome of the election.

Today Hillary joins with Jill Stein to overthrow the system and would probably do it were it not for the fact the Republicans control the house, and it is to them who make the final decision. But overthrowing the system is the aim. To win at any cost., but it is not American!

For some looking in, there appears to be a more wide ranging issue afoot that has little to do with fake news, reds in the beds, or who won the election, but a more ominous role that has even wider ranging implications. Rule of force!

Its that win at any cost mentality of the youth that support every possible dysfunctional cause from gays to abortion, from black to white, legitimizing drug pushers to being classed on how they identify themselves. BUT WIN!

Berni Sanders talked about revolution many times. Not winning the election…… but a revolution that encompasses everyone with the monies drained from the rich and redistributed to the poor. Increasing the welfare state, paying for University tuition, free healthcare,  free handouts, free, free …FREE everything.

On face value a benevolent society is in so many respects a good society. It was once said that if your not a socialist by the time your 20 you have no heart, and if not a capitalist by the time your 30…… you have no brain.

The trouble with this whole scenario is the pure ignorance of the demonstrating youth in respect of the things they are demonstrating, and the rhetoric of what they have been taught, stifling thought and discussion and drowning out any sort of reasoning.

Question any demonstrator as to the actual reasons for their protest and most retort to what they have been told by someone else instead of actually finding the truth themselves. They have no logical proof of their aims.

What the left wing youth that seem to miss is that for every cent given in benevolence has to be earned. They believe that somehow this redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor is an infinite cash cow…… that solves their every concern.

What they never consider and never will, is that investment is the backbone of a society. If there is no cash to invest, then no money can be made, and we wonder after all the wealth has been distributed to the poor….just where will this investment come from?

What they prefer is violence, censorship of argument, calculated protests for maximum impact, and revolution as the battle cry! and at ANY cost! And of course the infinite cash cow that can pay for their whims forever.

And that ominous scenario is really something to be concerned about! Reality is a lost cause!

Fidel Castro Dies

Its interesting the amount of venom that is evident at the death of Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz the leader of Cuba.

Most, leave out the good Castro did for his country and coupled with Marx ideology and hate for Americans led his country against many opportune moments that led to attempted assassinations and even a invasion that went badly wrong.

Castro from an early age decided that as the son of a wealthy farming family he headed for University and polical future. He read and was influenced by the Marxist writings of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Lenin

He decided his own country was headed in the wrong direction under Batista and when he left he proclaimed “”leaving Cuba because all doors of peaceful struggle have been closed to me … As a follower of Martí, I believe the hour has come to take our rights and not beg for them, to fight instead of pleading for them.”

Now think for a moment …is this any difference at all to The American Revolutionary War and was the first successful colonial war of independence against a European power. Americans had developed an ideology of “republicanism” asserting that government rested on the will of the people as expressed in their local legislatures. They demanded their rights as Englishmen and “no taxation without representation”. The British insisted on administering the empire through Parliament, and the conflict escalated into war.

Cuba was no different. They had Batista in power who achieved his reign by overthrowing Gerado Merchado. They had many things in common.

Batista’s increasingly corrupt and repressive government then began to systematically profit from the exploitation of Cuba’s commercial interests, by negotiating lucrative relationships with the American Mafia, who controlled the drug, gambling, and prostitution businesses in Havana, and with large US-based multinationals who were awarded lucrative contracts.

With prohibition and avoidance of taxes, Cuba and its peoples were at the whim of the USA…Castro was the antidote.

To quell the growing discontent amongst the populace—which was subsequently displayed through frequent student riots and demonstrations—Batista established tighter censorship of the media, while also utilizing his Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities to carry out wide-scale violence, torture and public executions; ultimately killing anywhere from hundreds to 20,000 people.^[6][7][8] For several years until 1959, the Batista government received financial, military, and logistical support from the United States.

Fearing Castro was a socialist, the U.S. instructed Cantillo to oust Batista.^[109] Cantillo secretly agreed to a ceasefire with Castro, promising that Batista would be tried as a war criminal;^[109] however, Batista was warned, and fled into exile with over US$300,000,000 on December 31, 1958

And you wondered where American politicians got it from?

In response to popular uproar, which demanded that those responsible be brought to justice, Castro helped set up many trials, resulting in hundreds of executions. Although widely popular domestically, critics–in particular the U.S. press–argued that many were not fair trials. Castro responded that “revolutionary justice is not based on legal precepts, but on moral conviction”.^[125] Acclaimed by many across Latin America, he traveled to Venezuela where he met with President-elect Rómulo Betancourt, unsuccessfully requesting a loan and a new deal for Venezuelan oil.^[126] Returning home, an argument between Castro and senior government figures broke out. He was infuriated that the government had left thousands unemployed by closing down casinos and brothels. As a result, Prime Minister José Miró Cardona resigned, going into exile in the U.S. and joining the anti-Castro movement.

Militarily weaker than NATO, Khrushchev wanted to install Soviet R-12 MRBM nuclear missiles on Cuba to even the power balance.^[182] Although conflicted, Castro agreed, believing it would guarantee Cuba’s safety and enhance the cause of socialism.^[183] Undertaken in secrecy, only the Castro brothers, Guevara, Dorticós and security chief Ramiro Valdés knew the full plan.^[184] Upon discovering it through aerial reconnaissance, in October the U.S. implemented an island-wide quarantine to search vessels headed to Cuba, sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis. The U.S. saw the missiles as offensive; Castro insisted they were for defense only.^[185] Castro urged Khrushchev to threaten a nuclear strike on the U.S. should Cuba be attacked, but Khrushchev was desperate to avoid nuclear war.^[186] Castro was left out of the negotiations, in which Khruschev agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for a U.S. commitment not to invade Cuba and an understanding that the U.S. would remove their MRBMs from Turkey and Italy.

In other words the missiles in Cuba was at a direct result of the USA putting missiles in both Italy and Turkey and aimed at Moscow.

Most of the rest is history, but one that Fidel Castro is seen as the bad guy because he would not become a pawn like Batista.

The press today are being unfair, possibly because they do not know or care to know. Young people are taking to the streets in Miami because they hear only what their parents say, and most of those being descendants of those who had much to gain from a sue do occupation of the Mafia and the USA.

What Castro did was to manage to keep his country autonomous from the USA no matter how hard they fought against him. It is to his credit he did, because do you really think Cuba would be any better off if the current rules of the USA were applied to Cuba?

I dont think so!

Read more

 

Just a little twinge

Xmas through New Year gave me two visits to the hospital an unlimited amount of pain that given the option I would have preferred to have given birth to twins. A seemingly innocuous movement rendered this grown man whimpering like a baby.

Xmas rush and general tidy up on 23rd Dec left me facing a rather heavy attachment for a vehicle lying in my garage, which at first glance had to be moved a few inches to allow me to slide another piece of equipment by. The first attempt resulting in zero movement of the offending equipment and a simple increase in effort (whilst considering my capability of years gone by) confirming that I had maxed out the effort that fell far short of what was to be required.

Xmas Eve saw some tingling between the shoulder blades gradually culminating to my first ‘Aleve’ by early afternoon, to to a second ‘Aleve’ by Mid afternoon and my wife reminding me that the correct dosage is one every twelve hours, I downed a couple more.

The involuntary tears rolling down my cheeks forced me to neglect her advice and continue taking the only relief available to me which meant that by bed time, and, (no doubt near to overdosing) at 6 of these tablets (in twelve hours) was actually able to lie on my bed and close my eyes which eventually led to sleep and for all I know would have rendered me comatose. Which I have to say at that point would have been a welcome relief.

The seemingly easy unconscious movement of rolling over in my sleep brought me back to reality with the twenty thousand volts of electricity going from head to toe actually woke me up very quickly. The thoughts of possible paralysis only relieved by the fact that I had not over dosed, which as I tried to revert to the previous position made me wish I had.

DONT MOVE!!!!!

The next three or four minutes seemed like three of four hours as the pain subsided with me biting on my pillow so as not to scream, which would have confirmed to my wife that her He Man of so many years had exhausted his Cryptonite and was in fact human after all.

More Aleve came to mind with overdosing being a secondary consideration under the circumstances. Just have to get to the bottle……..

At this point doubled up in agony but with the tantalizing relief to my predicament about twenty feet away I embarked on a slow but precise attack on a movement test to see if anything was possible.

I tried to lift the leg farthest away toward the edge of the bed……. and… twenty thousand volts again……..another four minutes subsiding…….

Another try but this time sliding across and wait for the jolt ………… which never came……. which gave me an opportunity to actually see past the previous tears rolling down my face.

Faced with this enormous giant step for mankind gave me the will to try again, putting me in the position of now being face down and one knee on Terra Firma and congratulating myself on my success. I now slide my left leg in the same direction allowing my body to pivot in the same direction eventually achieving the position of both knees on the floor and my upper body slumped like a rag doll on the bed.

The natural thing to do now would be to just lift the shoulders but having learned the hard way that I did not like 50 megawatts of energy going through my back like a knife ripping open my spine I decide to give it a little more thought.

OK… right hand slide back an inch……. left hand an inch …. right hand an inch until both hands are now at the edge of the bed and with zero voltage again and congratulate myself on how smart I am. It left the delicate manoeuvrings of simply putting my torso in the upright position which I elected to do by only pushing up on my hands and leaving my back relaxed.

I am now in the position of a child facing the bed on my knees saying their prayers, and without even realizing it reciting “My soul the Lord should keep” as I start to shuffle one knee at a time to my left which allowed me to face the wall being my intended support for the all too important lift as the next stage, to my feet.

Tuck toes in and PUSH …… sliding up the wall……….

Not really sure how long the pain was this time, my life past before my eyes but I could not really see it through the tears that came, and left me with the conclusion that I will be dead very shortly from the pain that felt like it was ripping open my spine, and there must be blood everywhere.

Screaming was the first thought, but pride forced me to bite my tongue rather than humiliate myself in front of my wife, and just wishing I could reach my cryptonite that will end the pain.

With my own Everest conquered to the last camp before the final accent, I shuffle one foot then the other with having only to suffer volts in the hundreds now rather than in the thousands I soon get to the elixir of life that would hopefully end my pain and suffering.

The temptation to swallow the whole bottle was there, but sensibility said one pill under the circumstances may in itself give an overdose, which it seemed to me would end the torment either way.

Five minutes of standing very still (because I was scared to move) seemed to alleviate the situation somewhat, and after ten minutes I could actually breath without it hurting. Twenty minutes and I could actually move, as the Aleve did its work.

The injection at the hospital came as a welcome relief…. morphine, cocaine, whatever…. I was thankful to get something and whatever it was..it worked.

I felt this tantalizing warmth shoot up my spine and after a few moments I could relax, a few more more moments and I could move……. another minute or so i am wondering what all the fuss was about.

NEVER again will I move something too heavy for me……

 

Transgender Inequalities

Always a sensitive point about transgender issues, but being brought up in a world where things were easily distinguishable with two groups and all the others in a closet somewhere, it was somewhat easier. Not for the transsexuals you might say, because they only saw the inside of the closet.

Today there is sympathy for recognizing all people and all sexuality, But is it possible to get the balance right? after all who is to say who is one gender or the next?

Democrats recently picked a transgender person to speak at their convention as they are always keen to show inclusion in all aspects of life (helps with the votes too)

This week in Philadelphia, a male-to-female transgender will speak at the Democratic National Convention. The Hill reports that Sarah McBride, the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, will address DNC goers, making history as the first openly trans individual to speak at a major political party’s convention. (here)

Not a problem at all. The democrat left leaning want all people included and so they should be. However this is not a practical application of relaxed gender rules that are being forced on communities.

Some communities are having a difficult time being torn between our new social rights charters and the actual workings when it comes down to practicalities.

Bathrooms being open to all sexes and genders has been in force in France for years and today you still go into bathrooms where you might meet the opposite sex.

The Obama directive telling you that you MUST allow it has caused eyebrows to be raised at the very least.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity.see Here

All well and good for everyone, except in an age where there are more and more predators, and a good amount of them are teachers, it would appear to be foolish to me to allow say, a ten year old girl, and a forty five year old teacher that has sexual tendencies towards pedophilia, to be brought together in the same bathroom.

I do not see that from a practical perspective that things work out well. In sport for instance there have been many cases of athletes outperforming their associative gender by a long way. We have see it as high up as the Olympics, but is also prevalent at local levels.

In case you missed it, boys are now allowed to compete against girls in female sports in the name of equality. Seems fair, right?

One mother, who has personal experience with such faux equality, is crying foul. Jennifer VanPelt’s high school freshman daughter was bumped off Alaska’s track and field female state finals’ podium for a boy—and she’s furious. see here

It does not stop there as one guy has competed in a woman’s bicycle race and has hammered the field as you might expect.

Last weekend, a 36-year-old man raced in a massive annual Tucson cycling competition against thousands of women, and–shocker–he won big time. According to the Arizona Star Daily, the biological male raced the 106-mile route in 4 hours and 36 minutes, a winning time for the women’s division, though a whopping 25 minutes longer than the men’s first-place finisher. (here)

What this actually does is make sure of the death knoll for woman’s competitive sports, because more and more guys that exercise their right to compete mean that women (who have no confusion of which sex they are) fall lower and lower in the rankings.

Ultimately they will simply stop competing because the rule is tantamount to making sure they never win. If we were to say all genders should compete as one where, transgender, male, and female all compete in the same race the stronger male would win every race.

We do not do that because there are some very obvious reasons why it is not practical, or fair. So why do we accept it on a local level? Its not accepted at the Olympics , and that is why gender tests are carried out and defined by DNA.

If a transgender competitor wants to compete surely he should compete in the event that most associates with their DNA rather than his mental association. This of course should be across the board.

Me? I have little sympathy with those that wish to compete physically against the opposite sex based on gender association. You do not see women competing as men in this huge conundrum….why? …..Well… we all KNOW why!

What is fact is that regardless of which gender you most closely identify, DNA dictates what you ARE.

I am a very firm believer in nature.It decides when your born, and it decides when you die and almost all things in between. I cannot push the tides back because I mostly associate with the desert (ridiculous as it may sound) or making the sky a pretty pink instead of blue!

And where does it stop? Could you for instance drive on the opposite side of the road in a different country, because that’s what you feel and its what you more closely associate with?

Perhaps I could associate with being a completely different being… a dog or cat perhaps because that is what I believe I am associated with? The mind boggles once we decide to dictate to the world what nature supposedly made a mistake on.

It seems to me that those who wish to alleviate problems for those that are confused where they stand on the DNA ranking, only create some very serious and real problems for those that know exactly where they are on the DNA ranks.

A bit like going into a madhouse and declaring everyone sane that resides there because we say so! on the single premise that….. who is to say just WHO is mad!

 

 

 

Fake News?

Today we have, yet again disgruntled Politicians bemoaning so called Fake News.
Angela Merkel has vowed to regulate ‘fake news’ after blaming social media for the rise of populist politics and ‘making it harder to form people’s opinions than it was 25 years ago. (here)

Just a couple of days ago Obama said this:
President Barack Obama weighed in on the growing debate over fake news, warning that it could poison politics to the point that “we won’t know what we’re fighting for.” (here)

Of course you do have news that may be deemed as fake, but in most cases its pretty obvious whats fake:
A former Canadian defense minister has claimed that aliens are real and has accused world leaders of keeping their presence on Earth, a secret. (Here)

But in the case of Politics just how prevalent is fake news and is it relevant? Or perhaps there is a little more of a sinister angle on this?
In the case of the Trump election, there were many complaints (but only coming after the voting) that there was fake news out there. But both parties pollsters have already said that most of the voters had already made up their minds many months ago. So probably had little or no effect on voting.
There is however a more underlying angle that is apparent. For instance just who would say a piece is fake. What would be the guideline to assess its position?

It is all too convenient for politicians to want to control the public in general by restricting comments they do not like.
Would they take it further by restricting newspaper publications they deem to be false and where is the line between reporting and fake?….. It sound like a whole mass of censorship is on its way if left to politicians.

Oh Wise and Smart

Of course there are many that knew the outcome of the elections.

Preparing for War!

There are two interconnected things that really bother me today.

The first is the misconception that Russia is preparing for war. Reports  this morning are that Russia is beefing up its missiles on its border :-

Russia has announced it will deploy its nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in retaliation for NATO’s military shield on Russia’s western borders. (here)

Russian President Vladimir Putin also said Russia had to react to what it perceived as being a threat from US-led forces in eastern Europe.

‘Why are we reacting to NATO expansion so emotionally? We are concerned by NATO’s decision making,’ RIA quoted him as saying.

He added: ‘What should we do? We have, therefore, to take countermeasures, which means to target with our missile systems the facilities, that, in our opinion, start posing a threat to us.’

NATO orders four additional battalions to Russian border

That was on June 14th 2016 (here) where under the guise of defending Europe against attacks from Iran (Go figure) they need to place hundreds of missiles along Russia’s border. They have been increasing ever since.

America Trashes NATO Founding Act; Rushes Weapons to Russia’s Borders

The NATO Founding Act was agreed to between the US and Russia in 1997 in order to provide to Russia’s leader Boris Yeltsin some modicum of assurance that America wouldn’t invade his country. (here)

The USA told a bare faced lie to the Russians and yet…we claim HIM to be the aggressor.

What NATO is doing is so very foolish and at the beck and call of Obama, is not a smart thing to do.

The first point is that appeasing Obama is all well and good, but in the event of war it will be Europe that suffers the most.

Additionally perhaps the US thinks its insulated, and that perhaps it would not feel any potential threats? But realistically the Russians have been building less tanks and more subs like all the main countries in the world, and, what is the betting there a couple sitting within striking distance of NY right NOW.

That is apart from EMP Electromagnetic Pulse that have now been effected by most governments that can render all electrical machines and communications useless… from a couple of hundred miles UP! (here) As hard as Europe gets it …. so would the USA!

The second is the very real threat to Donald Trump. Over the last few weeks you have had more and more threats to him as he progressed towards the Presidency.

This would be convenient to some and has been suggested by media sites like the Conservative Tree-house many times. Obama wants war, and to stop Trump! What a perfect scenario for that happening!

I wont…. whatever happens!

An interesting announcement came from the fashion designer Sophie Theallet. The woman obviously thought her expertise sufficiently sought after enough to decline dressing the Trump ladies. She has not been asked so I guess she pr-empted the request. (here)

What strikes me is that this lady makes the case for many reasons she does not wish to dress the Trump family. Her reasons I am sure are made of the best intentions, and, her list seems to show a certain conviction.

Here is another lady who also said a similar thing in principle.

A same-sex couple says they were saddened last week when a Longview bakery refused to bake their wedding cake, and the business owner said it would have offended her faith for the business to be linked to the event. (Full story)

Can ANYONE tell me the difference between the two?

She was ordered to $135 thousand dollars

Here is another Lady who had a similar principle.

 

The Kentucky clerk who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples is seeking to close the book on a contentious case that made her a pariah to progressives and a hero to some religious conservatives.

 

She was brought before the courts and threatened with jail.

Both cases have an objection they wish to make, but what is the difference with a fashion designer that wishes to discriminate on political Grounds and others that wish to discriminate on moral grounds?

If I were refused service on any grounds by a business, I don’t think I would argue.

It is actually something I cherish, being able to chose who my customer is the only way I would work. I don’t think being Gay is enough to stop me working for you, but I don’t go to church a couple of times a week, and, my whole life does not revolve around God.

Perhaps a child molester, or a particularly violent person, a bad parent, or someone who has murdered would get the same result from me. I don’t care if he has paid his price to society or has now been touched by the virgin marry… the answer would be no!

The other point is I am not a left wing Liberal who is preaching for those that she believes are being victimized by the system.

In both cases the couples seem to have been testing the system, not legitimate couples in the vicinity wanting their marriage license or cake…. they were there as a protest.

Perhaps as there are many ways to discourage someone wanting to use your services and even more to make sure they don’t come back, but in both of these cases these two ladies did not seek out the clients, instead the clients sought them, and would not take no as an answer!

But to me…if it is Ok for a cake-maker and registrar…. its ok for fashion designer full of her own self importance.

 

 

Persuasion

Trey Gowdy has become an icon to me. I love the subtle way he puts his point across. Possibly one of the most inspirational speeches he has ever made is below!

On January 13, 1982

News media outlets followed the story with diligence. Notably, The Washington Post published a story about the then-unidentified survivor of the crash, Arland D. Williams Jr., who had handed the lifeline to others and drowned before he could be rescued:

He was about 50 years old, one of half a dozen survivors clinging to twisted wreckage bobbing in the icy Potomac when the first helicopter arrived. To the copter’s two-man Park Police crew he seemed the most alert. Life vests were dropped, then a flotation ball. The man passed them to the others. On two occasions, the crew recalled last night, he handed away a lifeline from the hovering machine that could have dragged him to safety. The helicopter crew who rescued five people, the only persons who survived from the jetliner, lifted a woman to the riverbank, then dragged three more persons across the ice to safety. Then the lifeline saved a woman who was trying to swim away from the sinking wreckage and the helicopter pilot, Donald W. Usher, returned to the scene but the man was gone.^[14]

Rise and Fall of the Democratic Empire

“The trouble with the popular notion of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is that, at bottom, it may have very little basis or relevance. The facts are often distorted. Centuries are compressed into decades; the eras are transposed- profligacy being assumed to flourish at the end, while stoic virtues are believed to characterize the years in power. The reverse is true. As the celebrated “gravitas” – weightiness, seriousness- of the republican character deteriorated, the empire increased in size. Such are the effects of fun and games with the Hollywood warping of the imagination. Profligate Rome endured and endured, and the easy moralizer will find little of the fibre and fire of the sermon in the story. Why Rome fell in the end is something else again.

“The policy of exploiting the provinces, in turn, was an expression of the Romans’ conviction that they were entitled to live at the
expense of their empire. This conviction is remarkably similar to that of Western farmers, who think that in exchange for their votes they have a right to be subsidized by the taxpayers….It might be too much to hope that free trade could take the bitterness out of Islamic fundamentalism. Fanatics with a grudge against the world and a propensity for showy violence may be simply a fact of modern life. There is nothing new about organized terror: it goes back at least to some strains of anarchism, to the Western Federation of Miners, and to the Industrial Workers of the World. On the other hand, these were all responses to economic pressures
associated with the rise of international protectionism late in the nineteenth and early in the twentieth century. However that may be, it is certain that Islam’s unhappiness with modernity is not entirely unrelated to policies giving expression to Western farmers’
conviction that they should not have to meet the challenge of international competition”. Read More: http://www.fee.org/pdf/the-freeman/jones0504.pdf

The full article here