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British athlete James Cracknell was recently caught citing North Korea and Cuba as examples of how to get a handle on obesitywhich both regimes have done by starving their people.

Cracknell posted a half-hearted apology, and I dont want to be too hard on him, because in all likelihood he is simply not very bright and just needs to refrain from speaking in public ever again. This is unfortunate for him, since he has ambitions of running for Parliament.

The problem is that Cracknell has clearly been educated and lives in an environment where the reasons for starvation in Communist regimes are considered to be vague and complex and maybe can just be chalked down to behavior modification. Cracking jokes about the Holocaust is a line not to be crossed, but insensitive offhand references to brutal communist dictatorships? No big deal.

This sort of thing is not new. As Elizabeth Nolan Brown points out, by way of The Federalists Bre Payton, there was once a craze about the Cuban diet, telling us how healthy it is to be starved by your government. (Id like to link you to the original article, rather than just a screen-shot of it, but it has not-so-mysteriously disappeared from the Web.)

If you want to find another country that is really doing something about obesity, you can look to Venezuela, which is providing a wonderful model for involuntary weight loss.

But a lot of people dont seem to want to look at Venezuela, because that would be uncomfortable. A few years back, a lot of them were praising Venezuela as a model of socialism, the same way they praise Cuba. Heres just a small sample: David Sirota in Salon proclaimed Venezuelas economic miracle thanks to Hugo Chavezs full-throated advocacy of socialism and fundamental critique of neoliberal [i.e., free market] economics. Left-leaning celebrities traipsed to Caracas to pay their respects. Bernie Sanders declared just a few years ago that the American dream is more apt to be realized inVenezuela than here. He concluded by asking, Whos the banana republic now?

Were seeing the answer to that. Today, Venezuelans are starving and the remainders of the Chavez regime are sending gangs of armed thugs into the streets to attack anyone who protests. And all of the people who praised the Venezuelan regime as a paragon of socialism? They suddenly dont want to talk about it.

This is just the tip of an iceberg of insensitivity, ignorance, and denial aboutsocialisms ongoing and historical track record. The bodies keep piling up, but the ideology that produced those bodies always gets a free pass.You know what this is? Its the equivalent of Holocaust denial for the Left.

There has long been a ritual, which I sincerely hope will continue, in which young people are required to immerse themselves in the horrors of the Holocaust. There is no shortage of books and movies and documentaries and first-hand accountsreally harrowing stuff that keeps you up at night and gets seared into your brain so you cant forget it. And thats the point. Youre supposed to remember it and have it haunt your nightmares so that you will never allow it to happen again.

But our culture never did that for the horrors of socialism, which is how you get a majority of young people having a positive view of socialism.

What have they missed that they can believe that? Heres what theyve missed: the artificial famine in Ukraine, the Soviet Gulags, the forced deportation of Lithuanians, the persecution of Christians, Chinas Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, the killing fields of Cambodia, North Koreas horrific prison camps and famines, the systematic impoverishment of Cuba, and now Venezuelas collapse into starvation and mass-murder. All of this should be absolutely required background knowledge for any educated person.

I didnt provide links for the second half of those examples. If you dont know them, your assignment is to go look them up, because youre precisely the sort of person who needs to learn about them.

Now when I cite all of this history, theres always someone who insists that it isnt fair to pin all of these crimes on socialism because those examples werent really socialism. The only real socialism is the warm, fuzzy welfare-statism of a handful of innucuous Western European countries. This is a pretty obvious version of the No True Scotsman fallacy, and a good way of disavowing responsibility for the disastrous results of a system you praised just a few years earlier.

But these crimes follow inevitably from the basic idea behind socialism: the idea that the good of society as a collective is more important the rights or even the life of the individual. Thats the social in socialism, and by throwing out the rights and liberty of the individual, it serves as a rationalization for an endless amount of carnage. Who cares if this particular personor a few million peoplesuffer, so long as you can claim that mankind collectively benefits?

Consider the name of the roving thugs who are beating and killing dissidents in Venezuela right now: they call themselves collectivos. That says it all.

Socialism has been tested out more times and in more variations than probably any other social system, It has been implemented in every continent, every culture, every stage of economic development. It has always led to disaster, to the extent it has been implemented. If youre lucky, your country gets off with a mere economic crisis, as in Greece. At the worst, your country is in for decades of living hell.

This, too, should be seared into our brains so that we never forget and never repeat it again. Because it hasnt been, somebody is always trying to make us repeat it.

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For The Left, Socialism Denial Is Holocaust Denial - The Federalist - The Federalist

The year 2017 marks several anniversaries for socialists across the world.

It has been 150 years since Karl Marx published Das Kapital, a book that criticized capitalism and helped spark the socialist movement. It has been 100 years since the Russian Revolution, led by Vladimir Lenin. It has been 50 years since the death of Che Guevara, who led many guerrilla campaigns during the Cold War.

While there will be leftists who intend to honorthese anniversaries, it is also worth remembering what an absolute failure socialism has been.

The University of Wisconsinhas numerous socialist groups on campus making the case such a trashideology should be tried over and over again.

These groupsspout the typical rhetoric of ending a system they believe only rewards the few and exploits the many. Socialism, in their eyes, will end oppression of the workers and create equality.

The only problem with this argument is socialism creates oppression and poverty, while capitalism generates income mobility and prosperity.

Consider what has happened since the publication of Adam Smiths The Wealth of Nations in 1776 and the rise of the Industrial Revolution. As economic analyst and American Enterprise Institute fellow James Pethokoukis has pointed out, since the 18thcentury, gross domestic product per person has skyrocketed. In real terms, the average income of Americans has increased from less than$5,000 to nearly $45,000.

Also, it isnt just Americans who have benefited from the power of free market capitalism. GDP per person in Europe has risen from less than$5,000 to more than$25,000. Throughoutthe rest of the world, there has been an increase from roughly the same starting point to more than$5,000. The implementation of capitalism in the west and the expansion of it across the globe is simply the greatest achievement in human history.

Capitalism has allowed for technological innovations that have vastly improved the quality of life.An August 2015 study published by Deloitte found technology has created more jobs than it has eliminated while simultaneously removing workers from repetitive and dangerous work.

Using employment data from England and Wales, the study found the number of people in the agriculture industry has decreased by 95 percent since 1871. The number of people who have jobs that provide care and nursing to others has increased from only 1.1 percent in 1871 to almost 25 percent by 2011. Jobs that use muscle power have been merely replaced by knowledge-intensive work.

Technology has lowered the costs of essential goods and services, expanding the disposable income of consumers and thus creating more demand. Do you have a smartphone or a laptop? Have you ever travelled via car or commercial airlines? Have you ever eaten or shopped at a restaurant or retail chain? If so, then you have benefitted from the free enterprise capitalism has provided.

Marx was always worried that capital would be concentrated among the very wealthy. In fact, a majority of Americans are able to obtain capital through stock market investments,according to Gallup. This comes from individual stocks, stock mutual funds, stocks in a 401(k) or through an IRA. The ownership of corporations is widely dispersed, meaning a great number of people benefit, not just a handful of millionaires and billionaires.

Not only has capitalism increased quality of life wherever is it adopted, but it encourages the establishment of democratic forms of government. The hypothesis of the link between economic freedom and political freedom was put forward by Nobel laureates Friedrich A. Hayek and Milton Friedman. When put to empirical examination, the hypothesis holds up very well.

In March 2010, the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization published a paper by economists Robert A. Lawson and J.R. Clark analyzing123 nations as far back as 1970. They found only a handful of cases where democracy and capitalism do not exist together. Furthermore, these cases have been declining over time. Other research has found similar results.

Wherever theres socialism, crisis often follows.

Just look to Venezuela, the latest example of the failure of an already disproven economic system.For years, socialism was maintained in the Latin American nation without reform under Hugo Chavezspresidency, but as Margaret Thatcher once warned,Eventually you run out of other peoples money.

The Venezuelan economy is now collapsing. Food supplies have dwindled, leading many people to rob supermarkets and food trucks. Soldiers and police have to guard loading depots from being overrun by starving Venezuelans.

One cannot blame the poor for resorting to thievery in this desperate situation, as government currency mismanagement has led to a massive devaluing of the bolivar, driving prices through the roof. People cant even fit enough money in their wallets anymore. The result is that nearly 75 percent of the population has lost an average of 19 pounds.

When faced with the choice between capitalism and socialism, the answer is always clear capitalism has proven to be the superior system. It has improved the lives of billions of people and given them opportunities socialism has not. There will always be dissenters, but no one can deny the tremendous accomplishments of capitalism.

John Graber ([emailprotected]) is a junior majoring in history and political science.

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While socialism breeds oppression, capitalism spurs democracy, economic prosperity - The Badger Herald

Early in 2009, the tea party was formed by Republicans who were upset at the election of Barack Obama and the new Democratic majority in Congress. Tea party advocates held anti-Obama rallies and marches. They also crowded town hall meetings to question and shout at Democratic members of Congress. Also, they attacked establishment Republicans as RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) when they were not radical enough for the tea party. They began a campaign to unseat more moderate (but still conservative) Republicans who did not agree with the tea party.

The reaction from Democrats was disdain over such tactics. The tea party was extreme, outrageous and uncivil. Indeed, Democrats were ecstatic over the divisions in the Republican Party, including contested primaries and the unseating of more traditional Republican politicians.

Fast-forward to 2017. The scenario is repeating itself. The only difference is which side is doing what. The tea party advocates are in power now, including in the White House. Republicans control the Congress, including many who were tea party darlings.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are on the outside. They have learned the lessons of observing Republicans, and particularly the tea party, over the past eight years. And they are ready to mimic them.

Now it is Democrats who are packing town hall meetings and shouting down Republican members of Congress. Now it is Democrats who are threatening to primary Democratic members of Congress who work with President Trump. It is Democrats who are attacking other Democrats for not being sufficiently purist in opposing the Republican agenda.

However, Republicans should not be too quick to criticize the Democrats current tactics. Many Republicans are likely to do the same thing once Democrats take over again in four or eight years. The cycle will be repeated.

Yet it need not be. Our political system was not always this way. There was a time when politicians were encouraged to work together to find solutions, regardless of party. Granted, they used electoral campaigns to offer alternatives to the other party. But once in power they were as likely to cooperate as conflict.

For example, it is hard to believe today that Social Security passed with overwhelming Republican support in 1935. Only 20 of the 127 Republican members of Congress voted against it. The same occurred in the 1960s when Medicare won overwhelming bipartisan support. Nearly half the Republican members of Congress supported it in 1965.

Such cooperation is difficult to achieve today. Intense partisanship is the order of the day. Neither side wants to end the cycle. If one side is criticized for being hyper-partisan, they blame the other side for starting it in the first place. The blame is widespread, as is the responsibility to end it.

Similarly, the end of civility is a problem both sides have created. There was a time when members of Congress could hold town meetings and get respect from constituents who came to ask questions and carry on an exchange of views with their member of Congress. Now, there is too much yelling, chanting and name-calling to conduct an intelligent conversation.

Democrats may view this behavior as the way to success. After all, the Republicans succeeded in doing it. But it is not. It only cheapens the process further and leads Americans to dislike and mistrust everybody in politics.

The way to gain the respect of the American people generally (rather than the approval of the extreme activists) is to find common ground and solve problems. That respect also comes through providing a reasonable, civil alternative to the current administration rather than acting as a dangerous mob unwilling to listen to anyone else.

Just as the tea party earned the disfavor of most Americans, so the Democratic version will suffer the same fate. Indeed, it is more likely that recent Democratic efforts to take over town hall meetings are engendering more disapproval than support. Democrats should oppose the new administration in areas where agreement is not possible. But they also should recognize that agreement is possible in many areas, and that civility goes a long way in achieving common ground and encouraging civic engagement rather than civic disgust.

Link:
The new tea party activists ... the Democrats - Deseret News

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Battle Creek Enquirer 4:51 p.m. ET April 25, 2017

A view of downtown Battle Creek.(Photo: Al Lassen)

The public is invited to the next Calhoun County Tea Party meeting, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Kool Family Community Center, 200 W. Michigan Ave.

Local radio talk show host, Renk from the "Live with Renk" show will be the guest speaker, presenting a"Great Start to a Renewed America."

His program airs on WBCK 95.3 FM in Battle Creek and onWKMI in Kalamazoo.

Read or Share this story: http://bcene.ws/2q2yh4a

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Renk to speak at Tea Party meeting - Battle Creek Enquirer

Hop on over to the Women's Club with some bunny special for a fancy tea party, featuring Peter Rabbit tales, a May Pole dance, special treats to take home, and of course delicious delicacies. Apr 30 from 2 - 4, for children ages 3 - 12 with an adult. Reservations may be made by calling 301.739.0870; cost is $20. per person. The event will be at the Women's Club, 31 So Prospect St, Hagerstown.

Toot Uncommon Flutes will present their annual Spring concert on May 20 at 4:00 pm at First Christian Church, 1345 Potomac Ave. in Hagerstown, MD.

The concert is free and will feature the following selections:

"Three Pieces from Sleeping Beauty," "Ashokan Farewell," Jig from St. Paul's Suite,"

"Flower Duet from Lakme," "Three Korean Folk Songs," "Variations on an Ancient Pavane,"

"Grand Valse Brillante," and "Tournament Galop."

Under the direction of Dora King, Toot Uncommon Flutes is a flute orchestra featuring 20 flutists playing both common and not so common flutes.

Congregation Bnai Abraham will host its Jewish Food Festival from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 7.

The first food festival was held more than 25 years ago, and it remains a popular event, not only for the congregants of Bnai Abraham, but for the Tri-State community.

Food such as brisket, stuffed cabbage, blintzes, chopped liver, kugel, matzo-ball soup and many other Jewish delicacies will be offered a la carte to eat in or carry out.

In addition, there will be homemade baked goods.

Informative tours of the sanctuary will be offered at 1 and 2 p.m. The synagogue is at 53 E. Baltimore St.

Have you ever wondered how non-English-speaking students learn English in our county schools?

Would you like to find out the strategies used to teach ELL students (English Language Learners)? Are you a parent of an ELL student and would like to learn more about how you can help?

Join Paula Moore, supervisor of English Language Learning for Washington County Public Schools, and the Washington County Friends of the Library on Wednesday, May 3, at 5 p.m. in room 334 at the Hagerstown Fletcher Alice Virginia and David W. Fletcher Branch Library.

Moore will talk about English as a second language, with emphasis on parents and students. A brief Friends of the Library business meeting will follow.

For more information, contact Siri Young at 240-310-3280.

Haven Lutheran Church is holding its spring yard sale on Saturday, April 29. Rent a table and sell your stuff. Spaces are $10 each, which includes one table and a chair. Extra tables cost $5 each. There are a limited number of tables available. To reserve space, call 301-733-5056.

Nancy Mullenix and Sherri Abler were the best TOPS losers for the week. The best KOPS losers were Kathy Renner and Joan Gilbert.

Monday, May 1, is the Spring Fling. The group meets on Monday mornings at First Christian Church, 1345 Potomac Ave. in Hagerstown. Weigh-in is from 7 to 9:15 a.m. The meeting is from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.

Contact Patsy Price at 301-582-2292 or Patsy Martin at 301-733-1905 for more information.

The Washington County Master Gardeners will offer a workshop on conservation landscaping on Tuesday, May 9, from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Washington County Agricultural Education Center, 7303 Sharpsburg Pike in Boonsboro.

Participants will learn how to create gardens that preserve habitats and conserve natural resources. They will get tips on cutting their water use, managing insects without chemicals, using native plants and attracting wildlife.

The cost is $10. Register at the Extension office, or call 301-791-1304.

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Women's club hosting tea party - Herald-Mail Media