Beware Those Who Intentionally Use Words To Lie

Beware Those Who Intentionally Use Words To Lie

By Dr. Thomas Patterson |

The word “liberal” was once considered a compliment. It meant fair, principled, and thoughtful. The Age of Enlightenment was birthed by “classical liberals” with their then-fantastical notions about government by consent of the governed, legal equality of all, and individually owned rights.

Later as ideologies like collectivism and class oppression gained favor among the intelligentsia, the word “liberal” was hijacked and mangled beyond recognition. It was used to describe almost anything from well-meaning do-gooders to hard-bitten class warriors, from big government socialists to tyrants who silence and ostracize their opponents, for the good of society.

With time, “liberal” lost favor. When the label became a political epithet, Leftists dropped it like a hot potato, moving on to “progressive” as their new favorite label, even though “socialist” and “Marxist” are also accurate.

Here’s the point: in the unceasing war of democratic persuasion we call politics, what you say often matters less than how you say it and the phrasing you use. Somehow, the Left always seems ahead in the game of word messaging.

Take abortion. Since the heyday of the eugenics movement, Democrats have generally been for abortion and Republicans not. The two sides were labeled pro-abortion and pro-life.

Eventually Democrats, realizing that “pro-abortion” was off-putting to many, changed their label to “pro-choice” which made the decision to terminate a pregnancy seem more like a normal consumer transaction. “Pro-life” came to mean that Republicans demanded all babies must be carried to term.

Most Americans are abortions centrists, willing to support legal abortion up to 12 weeks or so. Yet Gallup polls reveal that 60% of “pro-choice” Democrats believe abortion should be legal at any time until the moment of birth, while less than a quarter of “pro-life” Republicans believe all abortions should be prohibited. Thus the Left, by the adroit use of labels, is able to obscure the fact that their views on abortion are much further from the mainstream than are Republicans’.

“Racist” might be the most abused word in the language. During the civil rights movement, there was a broad consensus that “racism” meant the practice of judging fellow humans by their skin color rather than by the “content of their character.”

But even as race relations broadly improved, for race hustlers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, that definition wasn’t good enough. They denied that color blindness was a positive goal in itself. They insisted instead that racial identity was our defining, inherent attribute that explained virtually all human behavior.

In support, the media and the Left subtly changed the language around racial equality. Equality before the law is a precious right bequeathed to all Americans under the Constitution. As a substitute, the Left devised a new definition for “equity,” now meaning equality of outcomes, a supposedly superior goal that assures permanent employment for the professionals in the field.

Nevertheless, the SAT, welfare reform, legitimate law enforcement, and anything smacking of merit were all deemed racist. Consequently, today the charge of “racism” has lost much of his coherence. “Playing the race card” is recognized as being bereft of real arguments for your point. Worse, if all racial discrepancies are blamed on “racism,” then the hard work of addressing the real causes of racial inequality can be deflected.

Institutions typically don’t like to admit that they use gender and racial discrimination in personnel decisions. Rather than come clean about their practices, however, they adopted the term “affirmative action” which did exactly the same thing. A majority of Americans are neither fooled nor amused.

There is obviously a world of difference between the legal immigration that has nurtured and defined America and the tsunami of lawlessness now plaguing us. Yet media commentators use “immigrant” to describe lawbreakers and lawful immigrants alike, as if only bigots believe there are real differences.

Finally, congressional bills are often given intentionally deceptive names. The Inflation Reduction Act was a recent laughable example. The bill was actually a package of green subsidies still chasing the climate chimera and other outrageous handouts that had zero possibility of reducing inflation.

Words can be powerful tools in the pursuit of truth or falsehood. Classical liberals should call out those who deliberately use words to lie.

Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.

The Far-Left Has No Case Against Voter Registration Laws, So Now They’re Crying Racism

The Far-Left Has No Case Against Voter Registration Laws, So Now They’re Crying Racism

By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |

When all else fails, cry racism. That seems to be the playbook the Far-Left utilizes any time it can’t make a coherent argument against election integrity laws. And here we are once again. The latest accusations of racism come amidst a series of depositions along with closing arguments in a lawsuit filed by a cabal of liberal organizations against two commonsense voter registration laws: HB 2243 and HB 2492.

Passed in 2022 and signed by then-Governor Ducey, HB 2243 ensures that only eligible voters remain registered by requiring regular voter roll maintenance. And so far, it has proven to be effective—revealing that over 78,000 individuals have been identified on Arizona’s voter rolls as either noncitizens or nonresidents. When you consider how close some of our state’s races were in 2022, these numbers should be great cause for alarm. But of course, many of those close races went in favor of Democrats, so the Left doesn’t want to ask too many questions.

HB 2492, which was also passed in 2022 and signed by then-Governor Ducey, bolsters safeguards to our voter registration process to require proof of citizenship ensuring that only U.S. citizens are voting in our elections. Where’s the controversy here? U.S. citizens cannot go into France, Australia, or any other country throughout the world and vote in their elections, so why should citizens from other countries be allowed to vote in our elections?

Not too long after both bills were signed into law, the Left filed a lawsuit against them and recently made a part of the proceedings about…the Arizona Free Enterprise Club (who is not a party in the lawsuit)…

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America’s Next Door Neighbor Is Taking Anti-Fossil Fuel Craziness To A Whole New Level

America’s Next Door Neighbor Is Taking Anti-Fossil Fuel Craziness To A Whole New Level

By David Blackmon |

Imagine this: You invest a couple of hours towards watching “Juice: Power, Politics, and the Grid,” the excellent new documentary produced by Robert Bryce and Tyson Culver.

It’s a documentary that advocates for greater use of nuclear energy, but also has positive things to say about the need to continue using natural gas and coal to maintain stability in our energy grids. Or, you read the outstanding book by author Alex Epstein, “Fossil Future,” which advocates for the proposition that oil, natural gas, and coal will play significant roles in the global energy mix well into the future.

But then, you wake up the next morning only to find that these three men have been arrested and charged with the crime of, well, of saying nice things about fossil fuels.

Don’t laugh: If one Canadian member of parliament has his way, that will become law up in the Great White North. That MP, Charlie Angus of Timmins-James Bay, Ontario, introduced a bill Monday that would invoke criminal penalties for saying positive things about oil, natural gas, and coal, even when those things are manifestly true. The bill reads, in part, “It is prohibited for a person to promote a fossil fuel, a fossil fuel-related brand element or the production of a fossil fuel.”

The Toronto Sun reported this week that Angus made repeated promises to treat the oil, gas, and coal industries in the same way western governments went after the big tobacco companies in the 1990s. The liberal member of Justin Trudeau’s New Democrat Party claimed his bill was about stopping the spread of falsehoods about these fossil fuels, which the climate alarmist movement has done its best to turn into global boogeymen to which every environmental and weather ill is to be ascribed.

“The Big Tobacco moment has finally arrived for Big Oil. We need to put human health ahead of the lies of the oil sector,” Angus told the House on Monday.

So, Angus says the bill is about “stopping the spread of falsehoods by the oil industry,” but the bill actually says it is about making it a crime to “promote a fossil fuel, a fossil fuel-related brand element or the production of a fossil fuel.” The actual language in the law would make it a crime to advertise the price of gasoline on gas station billboards or for Chevron to run TV ads bragging about the additive it calls “Techron.”

The language in the bill would make it a crime for advocates like Bryce and Culver to produce their documentaries and for Epstein to publish his books. All these would be deemed illegal and indeed heretical to the doctrines of the climate alarm religion under Angus’s bill.

The actual language, in other words, has nothing to do with objective truth. It has to do with banning speech this Canadian MP doesn’t like.

For several years, the great standup comic Jeff Foxworthy hosted a TV show called, “Are You Smarter Than a 5th-Grader?” Obviously, MP Angus would flunk that show since every 5th-grader who ever appeared on it would immediately notice the logical conflict between the bill’s language and the promotion of it by its author.

The simple truth is that Bryce, Culver, Epstein and many other advocates who try to bring some level of sanity to our energy and climate debate are right about the future for fossil fuels and nuclear generation. Those energy sources currently supply roughly 85% of the primary energy mix, a level that has been intractably consistent for the past quarter century despite the spending of trillions of dollars on subsidies and tax breaks for wind, solar and electric vehicles.

Indeed, the nuclear renaissance advocated for by Bryce and Culver could even cause that percentage to rise in the coming decades.

Here’s a thought: Perhaps a better approach here would be for Canada’s Parliament and America’s congress to enact laws making it a crime for MPs or members of congress to spread falsehoods about the bills they’re trying to pass.

That would be a real public service, which of course means it can never happen.

Daily Caller News Foundation logo

Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

David Blackmon is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation, an energy writer, and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

Black History, Black Lives Matter, And Critical Race Theory In Public Education

Black History, Black Lives Matter, And Critical Race Theory In Public Education

By Tiffany Benson |

Every school district that hosts Black Lives Matter at School (“BLM at School”) perpetuates discrimination while committing intellectual fraud against our youth. Parents and taxpayers should be outraged at the National Education Association for its endorsement and promotion of this race propaganda in public schools.

The Mesa Education Association put Arizona to shame kowtowing to the race narrative. Note that the demographic of black students in Mesa Public Schools is less than 5%.

BLM at School’s parent organization, Black Lives Matter (“BLM”), is a civil rights hack with virtually no ties to the black community. At its core, BLM is anti-God, anti-America, anti-traditional family, anti-police, and anti-white people. Rather than confront overwhelming statistics of black-on-black homicide, BLM’s mission is to “eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on black communities by the state and vigilantes.” BLM claims police brutality is an existential threat to black people. Thus, when black criminals die at the hands of white cops, looting and rioting are perceived as morally justified.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, there’s no significant difference in the amount of whites versus blacks who encounter police on an annual basis. Despite representing just 13.8% of our population, a 2019 FBI report shows individuals within the black community committed the highest numbers of robbery and murder. These perpetrators are not victims.

BLM at School advocates for racial equality in public education with four demands:

  1. “End zero tolerance implement restorative justice”
  2. “Hire and retain black teachers”
  3. “Mandate black history and ethnic studies”
  4. “Counselors not cops”

Anyone in their right mind knows this absurd call to action has nothing to do with K-12 instruction.

“Restorative justice” says, if someone is attacked (e.g. sexual assault, violence, bullying), the victim must engage in “peace circles” and “problem solve” with their abuser. That’s insane. “Hire black teachers” is a directive to practice racial discrimination on its face. If an applicant—who happens to be black—is not qualified to teach, don’t hire them. “Ethnic studies” is Critical Race Theory (CRT), which is Marxism. And last I checked it’s resource officers, not counselors, who keep children safe at school.

Race propaganda in the United States is intimately linked to the Civil Rights Movement and its most notable icon, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Because he was a powerful and effective orator, sincere conservatives and sincere leftists quote Dr. King when the need arises. His rhetoric fundamentally improved societal conditions for (black) Americans though he was an economic socialist who believed in reparations and the welfare state. Dr. King was also a supporter of affirmative action with close ties to the radical activist and communist sympathizer, Jesse Jackson. Judge for yourself whether these facts discredit Dr. King or simply provide a more grounded view of history.

Of course, less than a century ago, many parts of society were segregated and in need of civil rights reform. A hundred years prior to that, the deadliest war in our nation’s history served as the catalyst to abolish slavery. No doubt, the United States had problems and progress was slow. Still, these are not present-day issues. Full-blooded, black Americans living in 2024 are not slavery survivors, and no school-aged child has experienced legitimate, pre-1964 discrimination. It’s also important to grasp that serious threats of white supremacy and systemic oppression throughout history are primarily credited to the Democratic Party.

Rather than teach falsified history through a CRT lens, educators should give students all the facts and allow them to form their own opinions. Make sure they know that BLM was wholly inspired by a radical Marxist, racist, white male named Eric Mann. Talk about the Transatlantic Slave Trade that was facilitated by powerful Africans selling off their countrymen. Inform young minds that one of the earliest accounts of slave ownership in America is attributed to a freed black man named Anthony Johnson. Explain that black people make up a mere 14% of our population due to Margaret Sanger’s genocidal Negro Project (a.k.a. Planned Parenthood) that lives on under the guise of “reproductive rights.”

Much of our nation’s K-12 curriculum is polluted with “The 1619 Project”—a debunked, victimhood manifesto authored by Nikole Hannah-Jones. I listened to the entire podcast from The New York Times and found it to be a gaslighting falsehood that lacked intellectual prowess. Sure, I was gravely disheartened that America’s sinful past provided substance for her sadistic narrative. And yet, it never entered my mind to loot a Target or torch a police station. Thankfully, my emotions are not easily triggered by someone else’s perception of reality.

By Hannah-Jones’ account, every part of America—our Founders, the Constitution, capitalism, healthcare, education—is infected with white supremacy. Thus, black people will never succeed unless current systems of morality, economics, and government are overthrown by toxic anti-white legislation. “Diversity” and “equity” are now propagandist terms intended to make racism palatable and undetectable. You have to be deeply deceived or willfully ignorant to believe “The 1619 Project” or BLM created positive outcomes for black Americans.

In “Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black and White,” David Barton wrote:

“Today, black history is too often presented just from a southern viewpoint, describing only slavery and its atrocities as well as the numerous civil rights violations that continued well beyond the end of slavery. Yet there was also what may be called a northern viewpoint with many praiseworthy events; and to be completely accurate in the telling of black history, the story must be told not only of the martyrs but also of the heroes…”

Barton goes on to list William Nell, Carter Woodson, Benjamin Quarles, Joseph Wilson, Booker T. Washington, and Edward Johnson. To this esteemed lineup, I’ll add the brilliant and powerful contributions of Dr. Thomas Sowell, Col. Allen West, Dr. Carol Swain, Dr. Ben Carson, Winsome Earle-Sears, and the like. Acknowledging the achievements of prominent black Americans shouldn’t be relegated to the shortest month or reduced to skin color. Authentic diversity (of thought) should be celebrated by everyone year-round. Lastly, invoking the phrase “black lives matter,” even while attempting to dissociate from the organization, is an affront to this overwhelming fact:

All human lives—born and unborn—matter.

Educators with integrity, who care about future generations, will refuse to disseminate BLM at School’s segregationist propaganda. Tell students the truth.

Black History is American History.

Tiffany Benson is the Founder of Restore Parental Rights in Education, a grassroots advocate for families, educators, and school board members. For nearly two decades, Tiffany’s creative writing pursuits have surpassed most interests as she continues to contribute to her blog Bigviewsmallwindow.com. She encourages everyday citizens to take an active role in defending and preserving American values for future generations.

Here’s Why The Economy Isn’t Out Of The Woods Just Yet

Here’s Why The Economy Isn’t Out Of The Woods Just Yet

By Alfredo Ortiz |

Friday’s jobs report is not the home run that Democrats and the mainstream media claim. In their rush to champion topline job creation, they overlook how the jobs report is actually made up of two surveys. And the other doesn’t look so good, though it’s far more reflective of the economic reality facing ordinary Americans and small businesses.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys business establishments and households each month to generate its report on labor market conditions. The establishment survey of payrolls produces the monthly job creation number the media is quick to champion. Yet even the BLS admits the household survey is “more expansive” because it also measures self-employed workers and those employed privately in households. This survey produces the unemployment rate.

For years, these surveys have tracked each other in terms of employment growth, as you’d expect. However, beginning in mid-2022, they began to diverge, with the payroll survey showing far more job creation than the household survey. Over the last year, the payroll survey finds 2.9 million jobs have been created, while the household survey reveals only 1.1 million new jobs.

In stark contrast to the 353,000 jobs created in the payroll survey, the household survey shows employment actually declined by 31,000 last month. Full-time jobs declined by 63,000. That’s a far cry from today’s headlines about a booming economy.

These household survey numbers are in line with other anecdotal and empirical data. On Thursday, the job placement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas reported a historic 82,300 layoffs in January. This week, UPS announced 12,000 layoffs. Major companies such as Zerox, Spotify, and Hasbro have recently laid off at least 15% of their workforce. There’s also a jobs bloodbath currently occurring in the media sector.

On Wednesday, ADP reported that only 107,000 private-sector jobs were created in January.

There are other technical problems with the jobs report. Seasonal adjustments and annual revisions to population estimates have made January jobs reports notoriously untrustworthy. I can’t understand why we need opaque “seasonal adjustments” to the job numbers at all. Americans are smart enough to understand that job creation will be higher in some months and lower in others for seasonal reasons. We don’t need green eyeshades smoothing them for us.

Bipartisan tax cut legislation passed this week in the House of Representatives can turbocharge job creation in both surveys in the months ahead. The legislation, brokered by House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO), extends key tax cuts passed as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, making it easier for small businesses to invest, expand, and hire.

This legislation is overwhelmingly supported by Main Street, with small businesses calling the immediate expensing provision “a game-changer.” The Senate should quickly pass this legislation and send it to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law.

In the meantime, let’s see if the payroll and household surveys continue to diverge in the jobs reports ahead. If they do, it will be more confirmation that the economy is not out of the woods yet.

Daily Caller News Foundation logo

Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Alfredo Ortiz is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation, president and CEO of Job Creators Network, author of “The Real Race Revolutionaries,” and co-host of the Main Street Matters podcast.

Katie Hobbs’ Silence On The Texas Border Fight Is Deafening

Katie Hobbs’ Silence On The Texas Border Fight Is Deafening

By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |

If all else fails, run and hide. That seems to be the motto for Katie Hobbs anytime she’s confronted with a challenge. We saw it during her 2022 gubernatorial campaign when she refused to debate Kari Lake. We saw it when she ducked reporters asking for her reasoning behind refusing to debate Kari Lake. We saw it when she hid in a restaurant bathroom after another reporter asked her why she didn’t like discussing politics. And now that she’s governor, it should come as no surprise that Hobbs has chosen the same approach when it comes to the border crisis.

During the last three years, the Biden administration has completely abandoned its constitutional duty to protect each state from invasion, and Texas had enough. The state moved to defend itself from an unprecedented flow of illegal immigration due to the federal government’s negligence. And it has so far been supported by governors from 25 states who signed a joint statement standing with Texas.

Given Arizona’s dangerous situation at our own border, you would think Governor Hobbs would sign on or at least have something to say. But once again, she has chosen to run and hide…

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