Thom, here is a suggestion. Maybe you could have Dale Ahlquist of the American Chesterton Society on your show for two segments. He may be able to share light on how G. K. would be thinking about our current issues and problems, such as the wide gap in money between the rich and the poor and on immoral and wrong wars.

Groping is here to stay! Since I am a heterosexual, can I ask to have a woman grope me?

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/11/26/movement-grows-for-halt-of-fullbody-airport-scanners.aspx

I HATE TAXES
But I like: Roads,
Firemen, some cops,
traffic lights,
National Parks,
the Coast Guard,
various TLA’s, etc.
So I pay them anyway.

Thank you for taking on this issue. It is the root of a huge and fast growing invasive poisonous plant. People are wasting energy hacking at the branches of the plant. We need to get educated about this issue and educate each other about it so that we can join together to pull up the root.

Louise,

I agree with everything you have written in your blog. Because of the disconnect with Congress and the people, we have depended on Obahma to take the lead in rectifying this inbalance. However, he is too congenial, or is getting poor advice from his "experts." Even the polls and media seem to be giving a false picture of what is going on with the Countries economics.

Because companies are making such vast profits without helping workers, both working and unemployment, it appears that our leaders must find a way to legislate some ways to level the playing field so that the poor and middle class are not at the mercy of corporations. If money is power we are headed for a feudal monarchy. The monarchs are corporations with facist ideals. How rich do you have to be before you develope some compassion for others? Also, if the inheiratance laws are reformed, we can only hope that there will be less insentive to amass unlimited wealth before the "monarchs" meet their maker.

We have to do a better job of communicating to the press and others the reality of the ecomic picrure in ways that they understand. I am, obviously, an optimist. I know of no other way than to plott a plan to win. Giving up is not an option. Even corporations will fail when nobody can afford their products.

Eric Anderson Southfield, MI

Obama will pardon this criminal!!!

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Tom-Delay--Al-Capone-and-by-Rob-Kall-101125-13.html

Our nation's liberty is in jeapordy as never before since Hitler.
The dictatorship of China has us over a barrel with over 2 trillion
of our dollars that they can use to blackmail us. Large (supposedly)
loyal American companies with factories in China making record profits
that have shown absolutely no loyalty to American workers. A President
that has no kohonies when it comes to designing the trade agreements (ie.
GAT, NAFTA etc.), and enacting strong trade tariffs. We need trade tariffs
now not later. I understand why the President doesn't enact powerful
trade tariffs because the Chineese dictatorship would revolt by flooding
the world with dollars causing extreme inflation in the USA. I say
go ahead, bring it on (as Bush would say). We could simply enact a new
paper money making all old money outdated, and print new money only good
in free countries eliminating China, and others.

I have a difficult time celebrating Thanksgiving. Obama spared the life of two turkeys. I wish that he would spare the lives of our soldiers and the lives of God's children in the Middle East. He can spare lives by returning our soldiers home and end these immoral and wrong wars.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Peaceful-Countries-do-not-by-Elizabeth-Young-101124-343.html

“I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.” G. K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, April 29, 1922!

The American Chesterton Society has a new book on their shelves. John Medaille is the author. The title of the book is “Toward a Truly Free Market: A Distributist Perspective on the Role of Government, Taxes, Health Care, Deficits, and More.” Maybe Thom can have the author on his radio show. This book is a refreshingly clear case for Distribution. But what really sets this book apart from others is that Medaille demonstrates that even apart from the moral imperative, Distributism prevails over other economic theories even on purely economic arguments. Along the way, he shows how we can slash the federal budget in half, streamline the bureaucracy, end the bailouts, and actually fix the health care mess. This book is new and it may not be at the libraries. A brief description of the book sounds good but who knows the real motives of the book. Below I have tried to share with you some of G. K. Chesterton’s thoughts on Distributiveness.

Government and commerce should not grow too large because the people will not control government and commerce. They will control us. You cannot have a moral government from an immoral government.

Industrialism is too crooked and complex. The voice of God is important in a democracy. Enemies of the family are the enemies of democracy. For democracy to work we must value the family. (Do you sense that there are politicians and corporations who care very little about families in our country?) Democracy is from the bottom up and not top down. Freedom is independence. Self-denial is the test of self-government. Self-government is thinking for your self. We must do things for ourselves. Big business and big government are bad for democracy. When you lose a common heritage, you lose common sense. We live by the wage. Wage slavery is still slavery. The servile state is inconsistent with democracy.

Property is a form of democracy. Distributiveness is necessary for democracy. Human happiness should be our end in a democracy. A small salary is eternal slavery. (Today, we are seeing eternal slavery in the USA with small salaries and the loss of the middle class.) Democracy is difficult. Democracy must be concerned with justice. For a democracy to work we must love God and we must love our neighbor.

G.K. Chesterton argues politics. In a democracy people should govern themselves. Corporations and the rich are governing us. Common sense is better than a corrupt government. Government and commerce are ugly necessities. They control the people and the people do not control them. CAPITALISM IS NOT A FRIEND OF DEMOCRACY. Democracy MUST serve both God and man. Both capitalism and communism are too materialistic. We cannot give everything to the government and commerce. Rich men would rather starve the people.

Industrialism is an indirect system. The voice of the people is the voice of God. Enemies of democracy are the enemies of families. For democracy to work the best interests of the family must be considered. (Single payer health care reform plans is democracy and it serves the families.) Self-denial is important in the world. We cannot rely on other people. We should do something for love.

Mob rule is democracy in its purest sense. Government and democracy isolate people from each other. We have cut off ourselves from each other.

Property and money need to be distributed to the people. We need more skill trades. Society declines when there is a great difference in salaries between the rich and the poor. (Our minimum wage law has not kept pace with the cost of living. If our minimum wage law had kept pace with the cost of living since it was enacted, the minimum wage would be at nineteen dollars per hour.) For democracy to work we need to be concerned about justice.

"When are we going to realize our nation's relationship with corporate CEOs in no longer mutually beneficial?"

This is such a daunting question, one that is not easily answered. I believe it will involve generations of re-educating ourselves and our children about what is important in society, that our focus should not be on our own personal success, greed, and wealth but on the successes of our country or the "collective" and its economic health for all. We need to re-learn the tenants of all organized religions that is better to give than receive and take care of each other. But before we can do that we need to learn how to recapture the ability to deliver the message and counter the invective from the right.

pdvossen here's something I scribbled down a while back that I think answers your question. I've spent enough time arguing with conservatives that I think I have found the definitive answer:

There are two basic ways that people can process information. The first is what you might call the "scientific method". You gather facts and form conclusions. When new information becomes available that conflicts with your conclusions you draw new conclusions to include the conflicting information. This is called "learning".

The second is what I refer to as "faith based" information processing. You start with the conclusions. Generally they are accepted in whole cloth from an authority figure and they are NEVER to be questioned. When new information becomes available that conflicts with that belief system you simply reject the information. That makes learning IMPOSSIBLE. But it protects the belief system. Otherwise the belief system could not stand since it conflicts with reality. The more factual information that is rejected the further one's world view gets from reality. At some point the views are so divergent from the real world that the person becomes certifiably insane.

The reason liberals and conservatives conflict is because they operate in different modes. When "faith based" information processing is challenged with facts and reality it protects itself by getting angry. People cannot think when they are angry. Thus the cycle continues.