Life Outside the Beltway
Washington elites, pontificating pundits and media types would be very surprised to know: There is life outside the beltway. Millions of largely invisible, average Americans live there. And these Americans are living lives totally alien to the thousands of so-called experts and talking heads who claim to represent them.
For instance: These Americans, (I'll call them 'we' Americans, as I belong to their ranks), aren't waiting breathlessly for the latest word on high from Hillary. We really don't care what she says, having learned long ago that much of what comes out of her mouth is designed for political expediency, not conveying truths.
We're also not marveling over the new media messiah, Obama. We've been around awhile and we know what all the experts don't, namely, that a 15 minute flash in the pan does not a president make. As far as we're concerned, the job of running this, the greatest country in the world, requires more than being able to give a good speech. And even though some of us wear checkered shirts and have been known to drink beer on occasion doesn't mean we don't know the difference between socialism and capitalism.
Instead of spending all our time dissecting the nuance and context of the latest sound bite du jour, we have better things to do. Like earning a living, spending time with family or just plain having fun.
We have lives that are not dependant on political fortunes or government largesse. We live in the real world. A world, unlike the inside of the D.C. beltway, where hard work and merit are appreciated and rewarded. A world where a man's word is still his bond and Christian values still mean something. A world where acquiring power and money mean less than earning an honest living and the respect of our neighbors.
The latest polls mean less than zero to us. We know that in politics, 24 hours can be a lifetime and there are many lifetimes to go before we cast our votes in November.
We 'invisible' Americans know when we're being patronized and we have enough common sense to take with a grain of salt any pronouncements claiming to be 'for our own good.' We know best how to run our lives, not some yahoo who's only accomplishment was fooling enough of the populace to get elected to a position of political power.
To most of us in flyover country, political correctness is the hallmark of a herd animal - one who follows the group and lets others do his thinking for him. One who is more concerned with group status than doing what he thinks is right. You know who I mean: the guys and gals that appear on TV, gravely giving us peons the benefit of their vast knowledge. The ones who claim the 'truth' is relative yet insist that their version is the only acceptable truth.
The difference between those that inhabit the rarified real-estate inside-the-beltway and us average Americans is, we are held accountable for the decisions we make. And when we endorse or promote a cause or an idea, we do it with our own money, not the taxpayers'. And we do it quietly, for the right reasons, knowing that the virtue is in the doing, not the talking about it.
Here in the heartland, we all practice capitalism without shame and we don't apologize for making a profit. A lot of us still lower our voices to a whisper when discussing race, but we're working on that.
Words still have meanings and we know that relabelling a donkey as a princess doesn't make that ass a princess. We know a rose is still a rose, even if a self-annointed expert says it isn't. We really don't need or want all the inside-the-beltway experts telling us how to raise our own kids, what kind of car to buy, or how to celebrate diversity.
Mostly, we'd just like to be left alone by all the do-gooders who's main talents are manufacturing crisis' in order to save us from them. We'd sure appreciate it if you'd limit your mischief making to inside the beltway and leave us all alone. We can live our lives just fine without your help.
by Nancy Morgan
Nancy Morgan is a columnist and a news editor for RightBias.com
She lives in South Carolina, where she writes "Culture Watch" weekly.
Article may be reprinted with attribution. Bio available on request.
images:
* fabricspray.com
* myslewski
From the Library of Email Knowledge
The question was put to a man who worked in Saudi Arabia for 20 years: "Can a 'good' Muslim be a good American?
The following are his replies:
Can a "good" Muslim be a good American?
Theologically -NO.
Because his allegiance is to Allah,
the moon god of Arabia
01
Religiously - NO.
Because no other religion is accepted
by his Allah except Islam (Quran, 2:256)
02
Scripturally - NO.
Because his allegianceis to
the five pillars of Islam and the Quran (Koran).
04
Geographically -NO.
Because his allegiance is to Mecca,
to which he turns in prayer five times a day
04
Socially - NO.
Because his allegiance to Islam forbids him
to make friends with Christians or Jews.
05
Politically - no.
Because he must submit to the mullah (spiritual leaders),
who teach annihilation of Israel and Destruction of America
the great Satan.
06
Domestically - no.
Because he is instructed to marry four women and
beat and scourge his wife when she disobeys him (Quran 4:34).
07
Intellectually - no.
Because he cannot accept the American Constitution
since it is based on Biblical principles
and he believes the Bible to be corrupt.
09
Philosophically - no.
Because Islam, Muhammad, and the Quran
do not allow freedom of religion and expression.
Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist.
Every Muslim government is either dictatorial or autocratic.
Spiritually - no.
Because when we declare 'one nation under God,'
the Christian's God is loving and kind,
while Allah is NEVER referred to as heavenly father,
nor is he ever called love in The Quran's 99 excellent names.
Therefore after much study and deliberation....perhaps we should be very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country. They obviously cannot be both 'good' Muslims and good Americans.
Call it what you wish....it's still the truth.
If you find yourself intellectually in agreement with the above statements, perhaps you will share this with your friends. The more who understand this, the better it will be for our country and our future.
Pass it on, Fellow Americans.
This war is MUCH bigger than most Americans know or can understand.
by RidesAPaleHorse
images: RAPH
Sources:
* Can a Good Muslim be a Good American?
* Can a Good Muslim Be a Good American?
DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
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Reuters published a story today about gun ownership in the USA. In the course of their meticulous research, they made an amazing discovery.
American gun owners are not all drug dealers and urban criminals.
Reuters then ran the story, YahooNews picked it up and the world NOW knows that there are a few gun-owning Americans who are not criminals--they're just gun nuts.
(Reuters) - An odd contraption in retired firefighter Alex Black's cluttered garage looks a bit like the hand winch at the top of a well. In fact, it is a machinegun.
Turning the shiny brass handle spat out a withering hail of bullets that transformed modern warfare.
"You march in to battle in straight lines against this, and nobody comes back," said Black, standing beside the hefty, carriage-mounted Colt Gatling Gun, which he restored over the course of a decade.
Reuters then reveals to the world that in a country of 300 million, there are 200 million firearms.
What's wrong with that?
Some Americans would maintain that that's not enough.
Black, who lives in this sleepy ranching town on the Arizona-Mexico border, is one of millions of gun collectors in the United States, where authorities estimate that there are more than 200 million firearms held in private hands in a country of 300 million people.
The American affinity for guns may puzzle foreigners who link high ownership rates and liberal gun ownership laws to the 84 gun deaths and 34 gun homicides that occur in the United States each day and wonder why gun control is not an issue in the U.S. presidential election.
It isn't an issue--yet.
But the next paragraph in the Reuters story is where the wire service unveils either its ignorance, political view or, most likely, both.
The owners are not just urban criminals and drug dealers. There are hunters and home security advocates, and then there are the gun collectors.
And, of course, if you own many guns you are a gun nut.
Reuters can't believe, apparently, that anyone would describe themselves that way.
Black's friend Lynn Kartchner is another self-described "gun nut" who lives in Douglas. He has a private arsenal of around 100 handguns, shotguns and rifles of all sorts which he uses for everything from hunting prairie dogs and rabbits to target shooting.
Europeans--Reuters is based in Europe--have a hard time understanding the American Second Amendment and why gun ownership is so important to many Americans.
Of course, Europeans who did understand the concept immigrated to the U.S. in years past.
The individual right to bear arms to protect home, family and neighbors and the notion of self-defense will get tested in the Supreme Court case set for next Monday, Heller v DC.
Reuters ends up the article with a quote from gun-owner Kartchner that they probably thought would chill the blood of most European readers.
But it likely elicited nodding of heads and smiles in most of the USA.
Kartchner has meticulously prepared the defense of his home.
He keeps a semi-automatic shotgun loaded with buck shot and heavy lead slugs behind the bedroom door, and a high-powered AR-15 assault rifle loaded in the next room.
"Guns are for projecting force," he says matter of factly, distinguishing firearms from other collectibles.
"Mao Zedong said 'power grows from the barrel of a gun,' and indeed it does."
The temptation is to file this story under "Dumbass".
Europeans are beginning to have to deal with a wide variety of problems on the continent that the political elites have been ignoring.
Criminal lawlessness, murders, honor killings, riots and other threats to the safety of individuals make a lot of Europeans wish, no doubt, that they had a right to bear arms.
The prediction is that the situation will get worse before it gets any better.
Perhaps then, Reuters will make an amazing discovery that there are some Europeans who own guns that are not criminals or drug dealers.
by Mondoreb
image: jerseynut
Source: For some in the US, Guns are a hobby, like any other
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