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Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 19:32:00 -0400
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Subject: [watchalert] Candidate Gore, the Pagan?
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(NOTE: Oh, wonderful. Now Al Gore is derided as a superstitious pagan,
because we all know that modern Paganism is all about liberalism and feeling
good about ourselves, right? We found this article especially offensive
because of its use of the Solstice and Pagans as a tool to bash a political
figure. One has to wonder how vehement the outcry would be had Mr. Ponte
sought to discredit a Presidential candidate by comparing him to Jews or
Catholics. Mr. Ponte should be written by any and all who object to his use
of Pagans in this context. - The Watch)

-----Original Message-----
From: Lowell McFarland 
To: Lowell McFarland 
Date: Monday, June 26, 2000 6:27 PM
Subject: Candidate Gore, the Pagan? 3


FrontPageMagazine, has an article by Lowell Ponte, about the Solstice and
Paganism and references presidential candidate Al Gore in strong opposition:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/archives/ponte/2000/default.htm

    Excerpts are included.
    The entire article should be read for accuracy and completeness.
    FrontPageMagazine offers a printer friendly version of this article.

    "This November, approaching the shortest day of the year, Americans will
elect either a rational modern person or a Pagan pantheistic worshipper of
nature spirits, Al Gore, who would have been at home four millennia ago as a
priest demanding human sacrifice [???]  in the name of superstition at
Stonehenge. "

    "This November offers a clear choice to Americans. We can elect Al Gore
as President and Democrats to congress, fulfilling Oscar Wilde's observation
that America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence
without civilization in between. We can turn back onto that road to a new
Dark Age of Paganism, with government and poverty for all."

Loch Sloy!
Tuan Today
"Tuan MacCarrill/MacParthalon, forever the Celtic story."
Lowell McFarland 
--------------------------------------------

Turnaround
FrontPagemag.com | June 21, 2000
by Lowell Ponte
URL: http://www.frontpagemag.com/archives/ponte/ponte06-21-00p.htm

OUR LONGEST DAY, the Summer Solstice, passed Tuesday. It once was a day of
awe and celebration, of hilltop bonfires and perhaps human sacrifice, in
pagan Europe. Almost by coincidence my wife and I visited Stonehenge, whose
builders in 1,800 B.C. aligned its calendar stones to mark this celestial
event. We witnessed what turned out to be the last day until this year that
latter day Druids, other modern pagans, and the public were allowed free
access.

Nowadays most of us merely call the Solstice "the first day of summer," a
doorway into months of hot weather and vacations. But these hot days are a
lagging indicator. After the Solstice the blazing sun begins its annual
sojourn southward towards winter, and the length of our daylight begins
shrinking by about one minute per day.

To the ancients this was a cosmic mystery requiring expiation and rituals to
the gods. Standing stones like Stonehenge allowed the wisest among them to
identify the Solstices as pivotal days when the seasons turned.

Our scientists now recognize that Earth's tilt on its axis brings more
sunshine north of the Equator half of each year and south the other half.
The summer solstice in London is thus the winter solstice down under in
Sydney, Australia, where for the next six months days will now grow longer.

Despite our age of science, paganism endures and flourishes. People want to
live through their senses, to surrender to fate and the moment rather than
take farsighted responsibility, to believe summer is forever and ignore that
daylight grows shorter each day. Many Baby Boomers in their hearts still
live in the 1960s and want to ignore the aging of their bodies. A part of
all of us wants to believe in Santa Claus, to remain a carefree grasshopper
and not become a laborious ant storing provisions for the winter that is
coming.

This November, approaching the shortest day of the year, Americans will
elect either a rational modern person or a pagan pantheistic worshipper of
nature spirits, Al Gore, who would have been at home four millennia ago as a
priest demanding human sacrifice in the name of superstition at Stonehenge.
Come to think of it, that's the same kind of hocus pocus snake oil Vice
President Gore has been trying to sell to Americans in recent days.

For weeks Mr. Gore has denounced Texas Gov. George W. Bush's plan to allow
individuals to invest a small fraction of their annual Social Security
payment in the stock market as a "risky scheme," as "roulette," as
"dangerous." [Mr. Gore made no similar criticism of the nation he loves, and
that helped fund his re-election, the Peoples Republic of China, for
allowing its workers to invest part of their income privately. This
communist country is in that sense less "socialist" and economically freer
than the United States.]

But only days ago Vice President Gore, reading polls that show two-thirds of
Americans favor Bush's privatization idea, again waffled with the winds of
our pollocracy (from the Spanish pollo, "chicken") and came forth with his
own scheme for private "Retirement Savings Plus" accounts.

Gore's proposal would do nothing to reform, rescue, or even touch the
present Social Security ponzi scheme with its $10 trillion unfunded
liability, headed inevitably for insolvency. Gore instead would provide
government matching funds and tax credits for those who contribute to these
new retirement accounts, which could also be used to pay for first-time home
purchases, catastrophic medical expenses, or a child's college costs.

Welcome to Clinton II, the horror sequel, a Gore-y rehash of President
Clinton's "USA Accounts" proposal of last year. This time it's Gore wearing
the Santa Claus suit, trying to gull the gullible into believing that he
will give them something for nothing.

And once again what Gore offers is nothing more than the old welfare state
socialist dog food rejected by the enlightened world, all wrapped up with
shiny new paper and ribbons. Surprise! It's another Democratic entitlement
program, one that will cost taxpayers at least $200 billion from the
purported federal budget surplus over the next 10 years and at least $35
billion per year forever after.

And, surprise, its essence is the usual Democratic Party class warfare and
redistribution-of-wealth politics. If you earn less than $30,000 per year,
Gore would match your account contribution with $3 taxpayer dollars for
every one you put in yourself. If you earn $50,000 per year, this government
matching shrinks to $1 for every $3 you put in. And "the wealthy," whoever
they are, get no matching benefit at all – but their taxes will
disproportionately pay for this latest federal giveaway.

Gore's scheme has natural appeal to those IQ 85 drones who comprise the bulk
of Democrats and who as adults still believe in the something-for-nothing
politics of Santa. Until now they have been unwilling to eat the Gore dog
food, but maybe with this extra coating of sugar he can hypnotize them into
voting Democrat one more time.

But look logically at what Gore is proposing. Bush, he says, was "risky" by
letting the most successful among us invest a bit of their own Social
Security retirement funds in the stock market. But Gore proposes letting
people invest hundreds of billions of taxpayer money from the federal budget
in the stock market, in what Gore likens to a roulette game gamble.

And because he does nothing to reform Social Security, those general funds
surpluses Gore wants to give away to buy votes will be needed to keep Social
Security from collapsing.

But Gore wants to give most of that money for investment not to the best,
brightest, and most successful – but precisely to those Americans with the
lowest education, achievement, and income.

Gore, to put the truth simply, is insane.

You or I would be hard pressed to think of any scheme riskier, dumber, or
less likely to succeed than what Al Gore is now proposing. It is a formula
for disaster. Any society that confiscates the capital earned by the
productive merely to transfer the fruits of their labor to the
unproductive – that society is committing slow suicide.

Socialists like Al Gore, of course, think otherwise. As Ronald Dworkin
argues in his latest book Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of
Equality, the egalitarian goal should be the greatest good for the greatest
number. Utilitarian Jeremy Bentham divined that the marginal importance of
each extra dollar of income declines as income increases – e.g., an extra
$100 means more to somebody earning $1,000 a year than it does to someone
earning $100,000 a year. Therefore, Bentham and every socialist since has
argued, happiness is maximized in society when government uses its power to
redistribute wealth equally.

Among the problems with such thinking, of course, are the vast examples of
government redistributing not wealth but poverty. The next time you need a
job, go seek employment from some welfare recipient. Who will do more
long-term good for society with a billion dollars – Bill Gates of Microsoft,
or a billion poor people to whom government gives $1 each?

And, of course, for society to distribute wealth equally it must distribute
political power and the impact of such power unequally. How is it
egalitarian – or equal treatment under the law – to impose as President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt did zero income tax on some Americans but a 98
percent confiscatory tax on the income of others?

Al Gore and the Democrats love such taxation because it makes them wealthy –
not just with cash, which they can spend on themselves and their friends and
allies as if they owned it, but also with the coin of power. They can force
others to comply with their wishes, values, and standards in order to
receive politically-allocated largesse.

Many Americans share the delusion, for example, that Social Security "owes"
them a specific amount of money each month when they retire at a specified
age.

Few know that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that no citizen has any legal
right to collect anything from Social Security. "Under Gore's proposal,"
writes Michael Tanner, director of Health and Welfare Studies at the
libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., "Social Security benefits
would remain politically determined, leaving retirees dependent on the
political process for their benefits."

In the South American nation of Chile, by contrast, workers actually "own"
their own Social Security account and may invest it in any of five or more
government-supervised, highly-diversified private investment accounts. After
an average lifetime of contributing to such an account, the ordinary Chilean
can retire with a lump sum amount of about $750,000 – 5 percent insured bank
interest on which would produce annual income of $37,500, or $3,125 per
month.

Upon death, a Chilean (or citizens of at least six other Latin American
nations with privatized Social Security) can leave this $750,000 of
untouched principal to his or her children.

The Democrat Party's socialist system here, by contrast, sucks most wage
earners' lifetime payments to Social Security back into government coffers
at death. Nothing can be passed on to grown-up children.

And true to Al Gore's racist nature, the rip off of the Social Security
system he defends hits Black families hardest of all. Black men die younger
than others in our society, so they and their families receive less than
others from all the money they are forced to pay into Social Security during
a lifetime of labor.

For that reason alone, liberal Democrats should be demanding a repeal of the
present racist Social Security system. They do not because grabbing that
wealth and political power for themselves is infinitely more important to
them than treating black men and black families fairly.

Democrats love the present racist system because, by sucking away from
people the increment of income they would have available to save, it makes
them dependent on handouts from politicians. The welfare state breaks
people's legs economically so they cannot stand on their own, then tells
them to be grateful and vote Democrat because the government offers them a
crutch.

To fulfill FDR's vision of "tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and elect,"
the average Democrat must be so stupid that he or she focuses only on how
much they depend on that government check. They must never notice that had
government not taxed them oppressively, the government check would be
unnecessary. In our time, after the "end of history," it is not religion but
government that is the opiate of the addicted people.

This is why Al Gore is frantic in the face of George W. Bush's privatization
proposal. It could break his pagan voodoo spell. If people come out of their
trance and see reality for even a moment, the Democratic Party is doomed.

Also terrifying to Gore is the secret power in Bush's plan. Just as private
property is most secure in a society where most people are homeowners, so
privatized retirement is most accepted in a land where a majority of people
are stockholders. That's what America has become today. Capitalists are us,
and that makes it hard for Gore and other Marxocrats to stick pins in a
voodoo doll called "evil capitalists." He would be sticking it to a majority
of Americans, and by preaching class warfare Gore and the Democrats would be
declaring war on that same majority they need to stay in office.

Privatized Social Security would make it much harder for Gore and his fellow
Marxocrats to attack large companies like Microsoft. The Clinton-Gore payoff
to Bill Gates' Silicon Valley competitors, big contributors to the
Democrats, has backfired. The economic slide Gore's highhanded arrogance
created has cost American investors at least $250 billion out of their
company pension and 401-K plans, and these working people understand
perfectly that Gore and the Democrats are directly responsible for this huge
act of theft from their pockets and childrens' futures. The intelligent
among them will never vote Democrat again.

Just as the Clinton-Gore conversion of much of our national debt into
short-term notes saved interest in the short run, it also put Democrats in a
position of adopting policies to keep interest rates low. They could no
longer, as in the past, deliberately cause inflation to boost government
income by bumping folks into higher income tax brackets. And this has forced
Clinton-Gore into a Rube Goldberg realm of bookkeeping gimmickry in which,
e.g., they must pretend that the cost of living does not include the $2 and
higher per gallon cost of gasoline – a soaring price caused largely by
Clinton-Gore foreign policy incompetence and Gore extremist environmental
policies.

And just as with the national debt, any privatization of even a portion of
Social Security sows the seeds that will paralyze Democratic attacks on the
free marketplace and eventually turn the whole retirement system private.

But this tide of history is beginning to run so strongly that it cannot be
stopped. No thinking person will buy Gore's phony alternative to
privatization. And nobody with an IQ higher than a turnip accepted the
Clinton-Gore scheme of years ago to allow government, but not individual,
stock market investment of Social Security funds. (Imagine that politicized
nightmare – "IBM, we in the Clinton-Gore Administration are thinking of
investing $1 billion of Social Security funds with either you or your
competitor. Now, how much money did you say you were donating to the
Democratic Party?" Or equally evil, imagine sincere but incompetent
government bureaucrats tilting investments to companies favored by Jesse
Jackson, the Sierra Club, or the whim of some political appointee who likes
wind power? Hey, maybe we should let Cattle Futures Hillary or
multi-millionaire successful investor Ralph Nader place the government's big
chips in this roulette game!)

Civilizations and empires have cycles of their own, as many have observed.
Typically an ordinary people are inspired by some great leader or vision.
With passion and hard work they arise. While the work ethic and passion
endure, their greatness and success grows. But then they begin to replace
vision with vice, production with consumption, work with leisure.

And for a brief summer a great civilization peaks, becoming apparently more
happy and satisfied than ever before as it devours its moral seed corn and
takes pleasure in running up debt on its cultural credit cards.

Few notice at first that its summer solstice peak has passed, that a little
less light arrives every day to grow the crops or warm the land. A dark and
cold time is coming, but it is so much more fun to be a grasshopper than an
ant. Break open the larders now, and feast. Distribute the wealth to those
who produce little or nothing to replace it. Sell out the jobs and military
secrets to nations overseas if that is what can elect Al Gore this November.
Do not count the cost in lives or effort or treasure to rebuild what Gore
now gives away. What are Golden Ages for, after all, if not to grab and
spend the gold now? That's the life philosophy of socialist
redistributionists, and that's why they fail.

This November offers a clear choice to Americans. We can elect Al Gore as
President and Democrats to congress, fulfilling Oscar Wilde's observation
that America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence
without civilization in between. We can turn back onto that road to a new
Dark Age of paganism, with government and poverty for all.

Or we can vote to privatize Social Security, shrink government, and
repudiate the greed, arrogance, and Big Brother paternalism that those like
the Clintons and Al Gore embody. Great civilizations live and die in the
heart and mind and values of each citizen. The American Republic can renew
the springtime of freedom inspired by founders such as Thomas Jefferson, or
we can sink into the authoritarian winter of FDR, LBJ, and Clinton-Gore. The
choice is yours.



Mr. Ponte hosts a national radio talk show Saturdays 9 PM-Midnight EDT that
can be heard live via TalkRadioNetwork.com or KAOK.com. His live show’s
call-in number is 1-800-876-4123. A professional speaker, he is a former
Roving Editor for Reader’s Digest. Write to radioright@aol.com to send him a
message.

© 2000 FrontPagemag.com
http://www.frontpagemag.com/archives/ponte/2000/ponte06-21-00p.htm


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