Johnny Appleseed: 3/18/1845

70-years-old, he visited his friend William Worth one evening, ate some milk and bread, read out loud from the Bible, laid down on the floor to sleep and never woke up. This was how John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, died on MARCH 18, 1845.

Johnny Appleseed's father, Nathaniel, was a Minuteman who fought the British at Concord in 1775. Johnny Appleseed collected seeds from apple cider presses in western Pennsylvania and planted nurseries from the Alleghenies to central Ohio, giving thousands of seedlings to westward bound pioneers. He lived at harmony with Indians, bringing them medicinal plants. During the War of 1812, Johnny Appleseed heard the British had incited an Indian attack, so he ran 30 miles from Mansfield to Mount Vernon, Ohio, to warn settlers.

Bare foot, wearing a mush pan over his eccentric long hair and an old coffee sack over his shoulders, Johnny Appleseed had a unique devotion to nature and the Bible. He called an apple blossom a "living sermon from God" and often quoted the Sermon on the Mount. Poet William Henry Venable wrote: "Remember Johnny Appleseed - All ye who love the apple - He served his kind by word and deed - In God's grand greenwood chapel."

American Minute with Bill Federer

"But wait, this is insane: they will kill the golden goose..."

The New America?

The result is that we are witnessing a quiet but insidious revolution. At home, if successful, the state and its vast array of newly hired employees, will administer our health care system, as well as education loans (and that will need a sort of new agency like the Postal Service or DMV). We now take for granted take-overs of much of the automobile industry and financial organizations. Should cap and trade pass, the administration would be dictating energy use. If you add it up — going to the doctor, driving a car, stopping by an ATM, flipping on the lights, taking out a student loan — you could run bump into a lot of new federal bureaucrats. And that’s the point, isn’t it after all?

I doubt anyone in the administration believes that these new public sectors of the economy will be better run. (After all, the Obamas themselves did not wish to live in a city-run housing tract, or send their children to an inner-city public school: wishing to be paid by the government is rather different than relying on the government).

So What’s the Plan?

So the point instead is I think fourfold:

a) those who profit from running these new agencies will be our new anointed class, at the top, Ivy-League technocrats, and lower down among the ranks, the politically deserving: power and patronage;

b) the resultant cost increases will require more taxes on those whose ill-gotten gains should be properly redistributed to the commune; gorge the beast;

c) in political terms, a constituency that either administers or receives federal larges (think of an ACORN/SEIU hybrid) will prove a predictably loyal base in future elections: dependent future voters;

d) federal and state wages and pensions will remind us all during tough times that government “service” is the only steady, reliable, and fair employer: we will all end up the same.

Some readers point out — “But wait, this is insane: they will kill the golden goose. What fuels redistributive government are taxes from the creation of private wealth that demands open markets, incentives for profit, reasonable taxes to allow enjoyment of profits, principled exploitation of natural resources, and government enhancement rather than restriction of business.”

Why Do They Do it?

But I think the Obamians either have not read history and so do not appreciate how statism/socialism/communism have impoverished all that they have touched, or they assume capitalism solely is run by nice-guy billionaires like Buffet, Gates, and Soros who apparently clapped their hands, made a few billion, and then are happy to live on a billion or two and give the rest away to progressive causes.

There is no appreciation that scrappy, often grubby Americans this minute are scrambling on their computer terminals, on their forklifts, in their commuting cars to run a business, provide a service, or move up the employment ladder in hopes of improving their lot and leaving behind something for their kids. They are the engines of capitalism and they don’t often go to Yale, or Rev. Wright’s church, or work at Human Resources Department. And when they all do, we will be in sorry shape.

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White House: Hey, if we get away with this, we may not even vote on other bills either!

White House Won't Rule Out That Obama Will Sign Other Bills--Such As Immigration Reform--That Are Not Put to Yea-or-Nay Votes in Both Houses

Healthcare Nazis: IRS to confiscate refunds if there are penalties for not buying health care

House Ways and Means Republicans on Thursday assailed a provision in the proposed health care reform bill under consideration this week.

Subcommittee on Oversight ranking member Charles Boustany (R-La.) said the IRS provision in the bill "dangerously expands, in an ominous way the tentacles of the IRS and it's reach into every American family," he said today during a press conference.

"This is a vast expanse of power," he said.

Read more

UNDERSTANDING THE NEW HEALTH RECONCILIATION BILL

Frm Keith Hennessey, former senior White House economic advisor to President George W. Bush: Since things are moving quickly, I’m going to repeatedly update this post. You might want to bookmark it and return for updates...

HAT TIP: Instapundit

FDA Issues Final Rule Restricting Access and Marketing of Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco Products to Youth

Manufacturers and retailers who do not comply with the rule may be subject to enforcement action.

For the HHS Press Release, click here.

4 more things you can do to stop the Democrats' health care bill

From Tea Party Patriots

There are 4 more actions you can take regarding stopping government takeover of health care.

1. Many people are emailing us requesting we be available in DC on Saturday, March 20. For that reason we will be back in DC on Capitol Hill Saturday, March 20 at 10:00 am, we are asking for those who can come to DC, to come back. We will have a brief rally and then divide up to go walk the halls of Congress. Before the House vote on government takeover of health care in November, there are lots of government health care advocates walking the halls of Congress keeping track of how the Congressmen would vote. We are asking you to do the same. You are the ordinary citizen not a lobbyist or other special interest. They are elected to represent you. They need to be reminded one last time who you are and why you do not want this bill to pass.

2. Keep calling and visiting the local district offices of the targeted Congressmen. We have been advised that 6 - 10 constituents visiting an office in 1 day is a lot. If you are a constituent or know someone who is a constituent of those who are undecided on the health care bill, stop in their office and tell them why you want them to vote no.

3. Call your Governor, State Senator, and State Representative. Ask them if they have told the Congressmen to vote no on health care. Remind them that they have political influence and you want them to exercise it.

4. If you are in the Fairfax, VA area Friday morning very early and want to watch President Obama speak or to protest outside of where he will be speaking, contact Diana Reimer (philatppatriots@gmail.com). President Obama will be speaking at the Patriot Center at George Mason University. Tickets are not required for this event which seats 10,000 people and is first come first serve. The President will be speaking about government takeover of health care

Your Tea Party Patriots National Coordinator Team,
Debbie Dooley, Mike Gaske, Rob Gaudet, Ryan Hecker, Jenny Beth Martin, Mark Meckler, Sally Oljar, Diana Reimer, and Dawn Wildman

Visit Tea Party Patriots at: http://teapartypatriots.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

ObamaCare's Worst Tax Hike

For the first time, payroll levies will hit investment income...

St. Patrick: 3/17/461 AD

MARCH 17, around 461 AD, St. Patrick died.

As a teenager, the Roman Legions guarding his community in Britain were withdrawn to defend Rome from invading tribes such as the Huns. Unprotected, Britain was attacked by raiders, who carried away thousands.

Patrick was captured and sold as a slave in Ireland, which was ruled by the Druids, who practiced human sacrifice. For six years Patrick herded animals until he escaped.

In his forties he had a dream calling him back to Ireland. In his Confession, Patrick wrote: "In the depth of the night, I saw a man named Victoricus coming as if from Ireland, with innumerable letters, and he gave me one and while I was reading I thought I heard the voice of those near the western sea call out: 'Please, holy boy, come and walk among us again.' Their cry pierced my very heart, and I could read no more, and so I awoke."

Patrick returned to Ireland, confronted the Druids, converted Chieftains, and used the three-leaf clover to teach the Trinity. Baptizing 120,000 and founding 300 churches, he wrote: "Patrick the sinner, an unlearned man to be sure. None should ever say that it was my ignorance that accomplished any small thing, it was the gift of God."

American Minute with Bill Federer

St. Patty's Day Riddles

Why can't you borrow money from a leprechaun? - Because they're always a little short.


How can you tell if an Irishman is having a good time? - He's Dublin over with laughter!


What's Irish and stays out all night? - Patty O'furniture!


What do you call an Irishman who’s continuously bouncing off of the walls? – Rick O'Shea!


What did one Irish ghost say to the other? - Top o' the moaning to ya!


What do you call a big Irish spider? - Paddy long legs!


How do you get an Irishman to climb on the roof? - Tell him that the drinks are on the house.


What do you get when you cross poison ivy and a four-leaf clover? – A rash of good luck.


Why should you never iron a four-leaf clover? - You shouldn’t press your luck.


How can you tell if an Irishman is having a good time? - He's Dublin over with laughter!


What do you call a fake stone in Ireland? - A Shamrock.


"Doc, I can't stop singing, 'The Green, Green Grass of Home.'

So his doctor said, "That sounds a lot like the Tom Jones Syndrome."

"Is it common?"

"Well, 'It's Not Unusual.'"


And,


What has four legs, is big, green, fuzzy, and if it fell out of a tree would kill you? - A pool table.

THE AUSCHWITZ ALBUM

The only surviving visual evidence.

"We lit the candles to pray for America"

Today, the lot of us did something we haven’t done in a very long while.

We went into a little Catholic church here in Boystown, and we lit every candle in the place, dropping a good $50 in the donation tin for all that fire and wax...

Read more

Reform Threatens Alternative Medicine

If you're an alternative healthcare consumer, the money you will be forced to spend subsidizing other people's establishment healthcare, through premiums and higher taxes, is money you can no longer spend on holistic and natural medicine for you and your family. It's as if the government forced you to join and pay for a food shopping club that didn't include natural food stores. After you finished paying thousands of dollars up front to the big supermarket chains you rarely if ever visit, where would you find the money for the natural food you really want?

Read the whole thing

Idaho became the first state today to sign into a law legislation against Obamacare...

Similar legislation is pending in 37 other states...

When the government says that they can manage YOUR money and your health better than you can, on what basis do you believe them?

There is NO track record to support such a silly notion. So, on what basis is there any support for nationalized health care?

More Obamacare Follies

CODE RED: AMERICAN POWER

Thousands protest Obamacare in Washington, D.C. today...

HAT TIP: GatewayPundit

SOCIALISTS AND COMMUNISTS HAVE TAKEN CONTROL OF OUR GOVERNMENT

The Truth about Progressives, aka Marxists
SOCIALISTS AND COMMUNISTS HAVE TAKEN CONTROL OF OUR GOVERNMENT
by JB Williams, ©2010

Karl Marx, 1818-1883: "Democracy is the road to socialism."
(Mar. 16, 2010) — To fully understand the progressive movement and its current rush to grab one-sixth of the US economy via unconstitutional federal health care mandates, one must follow the trail that leads from the Maoist Movement of the ‘60s that started in Berkeley, California, and the Marxist Movement that has culminated in the joint venture between the Communist Party USA and Socialist Party USA, today’s Democratic Socialists of America.

You do not have to believe what I tell you in this column. But if you study the sources linked in this column, no reasonable mind can come to any other conclusion.

Read more

UPDATE: From Jesse Petrilla (1/29/09)

I just returned to America from Europe where I led an incredible delegation to meet with European leaders in an effort to see a glimpse into a possible future for America by viewing the end results of years of failed liberal policies on European nations. Let these experiences and facts serve as the warning to what will be the result if we blindly continue on a path of destruction sewn by politicians who believe socialism, appeasement, and other leftist policies will benefit America in any way.

The Seeds of Liberalism

The recording of Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli puts him on a growing list of elected leaders, members of Congress and state officials who have addressed concerns over Obama's eligibility to occupy the White House...

A newly unearthed recording reveals a state attorney general explaining how the president's eligibility could be tested in the courts by a lawyer defending a client against an accusation brought under legislation signed by Obama.

The recording of Virginia Attorney General puts him on a growing list of elected leaders, members of Congress and state officials who have addressed concerns over Obama's eligibility to occupy the White House.

Read more

ARCHIVE

A Republican, a Libertarian, and a Democrat walk into a coffee shop...

A Republican, in a wheelchair, entered a restaurant one afternoon and asked the waitress for a cup of coffee.

The Republican looked across the restaurant and asked, "Is that Jesus sitting over there?"

The waitress nodded "Yes," so the Republican requested that she give Jesus a cup of coffee, on him.

The next patron to come in was a Libertarian, with a hunched back.

He shuffled over to a booth, painfully sat down, and asked the waitress for a cup of hot tea.

He also glanced across the restaurant and asked, "Is that Jesus, over there?"

The waitress nodded, so the Libertarian asked her to give Jesus a cup of hot tea, "My treat."

The third patron to come into the restaurant was a Democrat on crutches.

He hobbled over to a booth, sat down and hollered, "Hey there honey! How's about gettin' me a cold mug of Miller Light?"

He too looked across the restaurant and asked, "Isn't that God's boy over there?"

The waitress nodded, so the Democrat directed her to give Jesus a cold beer. "On my bill," he said loudly.

As Jesus got up to leave, he passed by the Republican, touched him and said, "For your kindness, you are healed."

The Republican felt the strength come back into his legs, got up, and danced a jig out the door.

Jesus passed by the Libertarian, touched him and said, "For your kindness, you are healed."

The Libertarian felt his back straighten up and he raised his hands, praised the Lord, and did a series of back flips out the door.

Then, Jesus walked towards the Democrat, just smiling...

The Democrat jumped up and yelled, "Don't touch me... I'm collecting disability!"