Do you know what a Farmer looks like? 2-Ingredient Biscuit Recipe, More

Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…

http://PoorManSurvivor.net

 

ISSN 2161-5543

Two Ingredient Biscuit Recipe

It’s miraculous to make a biscuit with only two ingredients, particularly when making such an impressive biscuit, light and tender, capable of convincing anyone that the cook was born holding a biscuit bowl. This recipe is a good fallback for anyone who hasn’t made a biscuit for a while or has to hurry up and get some baked. If using a cream with less fat (heavy cream has 36 percent) start with less and use only what is needed to make a moist, slightly sticky dough. Half-and-half just doesn’t work well enough to use by itself. This is really a hurry-up recipe, but the directions are detailed. 

Ingredients

o    2 1/4 cups commercial or homemade self-rising flour, divided

o    1 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided 

o    Butter, softened or melted, for finishing

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Select the baking pan by determining if a soft or crisp exterior is desired. For a soft exterior, use an 8- or 9-inch cake pan, a pizza pan, or an ovenproof skillet where the biscuits will nestle together snugly, creating the soft exterior while baking. For a crisp exterior, select a baking sheet or other baking pan where the biscuits can be placed wider apart, allowing air to circulate and create a crisper exterior. Brush selected pan with butter or oil. 

3. Fork-sift or whisk 2 cups of the flour in a large bowl, preferably wider than it is deep, and set aside the remaining 1 ⁄ 4 cup. Make a deep hollow in the center of the flour with the back of your hand. Slowly but steadily stir 1 cup of cream, reserving 1 ⁄ 4 cream, into the hollow with a rubber spatula or large metal spoon, using broad circular strokes to quickly pull the flour into the cream. Mix just until the dry ingredients are moistened and the sticky dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. If there is some flour remaining on the bottom and sides of the bowl, stir in just enough of the reserved cream, to incorporate the remaining flour into the shaggy, wettish dough. If the dough is too wet, use more flour when shaping. 

4. Lightly sprinkle a plastic sheet, a board, or other clean surface with some of the reserved flour. Turn the dough out onto the board and sprinkle the top of the dough lightly with flour if sticky. With floured hands, fold the dough in half and pat it into a 1 ⁄ 3- to 1 ⁄ 2-inch-thick round, using a little additional flour only if needed. Flour again if sticky and fold the dough in half a second time.

5. If the dough is still clumpy, pat and fold a third time. Pat dough into a 1 ⁄ 2-inch-thick round for normal biscuits, a 3 ⁄ 4-inch-thick round for tall biscuits, or a 1-inch-thick round for giant biscuits. Brush off any visible flour from the top. For each biscuit, dip a 2-inch biscuit cutter into the reserved flour and cut out the biscuits, starting at the outside edge and cutting very close together, being careful not to twist the cutter. The scraps may be combined to make additional biscuits, although they will be tougher.

6. Using a metal spatula if necessary, move the biscuits to the pan or baking sheet. Bake the biscuits on the top rack of the oven for a total of 10 to 14 minutes, until light golden brown. After 6 minutes, rotate the pan in the oven so that the front of the pan is now turned to the back, and check to see if the bottoms are browning too quickly. If so, slide another baking pan underneath to add insulation and retard the browning. Continue baking another 4 to 8 minutes, until the biscuits are light golden brown. When they are done, remove from the oven and lightly brush the tops with softened or melted butter. Turn the biscuits out upside down on a plate to cool slightly. Serve hot, right side up. 

Variations: 

o    For Sour Cream or Cream Cheese Biscuits, substitute 1 cup sour cream or cream cheese for the heavy cream. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. This makes a moist biscuit. 

o    For Yogurt and Cream Biscuits, use 1 ⁄ 2 cup yogurt and 3 ⁄ 4 cup heavy cream or half-and-half.

o    For Yogurt Biscuits, add 1 teaspoon salt to the flour and 1 cup plain yogurt for the heavy cream. Add a bit of milk or cream to moisten if a “drier” yogurt is used. Yogurt biscuits are a bit “bouncy.”

o    For Strawberry Shortcake, add 1 or 2 tablespoons sugar to the dough. Line a cake pan with parchment paper. Pat the dough into the lined cake pan. Bake as above. Remove from the oven, brush the top with butter, and turn upside down on a rack to cool slightly. When cool, slice in half horizontally. To serve, sandwich with sugared strawberries and cream or serve a bowl of each separately. 

Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking by Nathalie Dupree & Cynthia Graubart.

 

Use orphan socks when you run out of sheets for your wet/dry mop.  Just dampen with your favorite cleaning solution, stretch around the mop head and use.

 

How To Build Your Own Solar Bottle Bulb And Get Free Off-Grid Lighting

The DIY solar bottle bulb is improving lives all over the world. Here’s the original story if you’ve missed it, and in the video below you’ll learn how to build your very own solar bottle bulb (not suitable for climates where water can freeze).

http://www.resilientcommunities.com/solar-bottle-bulb/

Related stories:

Microgrids Aren’t a Fad…They Are the Future

Brian Kerkvlies small compost pile on Inspiration Farm provided 500 hot showers over a 2 month period from just 90 minutes of work.

http://www.resilientcommunities.com/how-to-heat-500-showers-from-one-small-compost-pile/            

Good to the Last Cent

Receiving rebate prepaid cards in the mail for $5 or $10 is always a welcome surprise, but what do you do when the balance left on the card is less than one dollar? I make sure not to lose a single cent of my rebates by purchasing stamps. The post office has never refused the prepaid card, and I am always ready when the cost of postage increases because I have the extra stamps available to make up the difference.
Cynthia S. in Claysville, PA

 

Cure toe nail fungus with Vicks Vaporub.  Swab it on a couple of times daily.  Another solution includes soaking your feet in diluted bleach which kills the fungi and it will lighten those yellowed nails – use about 1 tbs. of bleach to 1-gal. of warm water and soak for 15 minutes, then cleanse with soap and water.  Do this twice daily before applying any kind of topical remedy.

 

 

 

 

Think You Know What a Farmer Looks Like? Think Again.

Preliminary results from the 2012 Census of Agriculture show the increasing role of women in U.S. agriculture—especially on organic and small-scale farms

 

http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/think-you-know-what-a-farmer-looks-like-think-again?utm_source=YTW&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=20140418

 

 

Recipes for homemade toiletries
read more here

 

 

DIY Toilet Bowl Cleaner

This recipe harnesses baking soda's gentle abrasiveness, vinegar's acidity and the stain-lifting power of the fizz created by mixing the two, plus tea-tree oil's antibacterial capabilities.

Prep: 2 min.

Cost: 48¢

Yield: 1 cup (enough for 1 use)

 

YOU'LL NEED

Measuring cup

Toilet brush

 

INGREDIENTS

½ cup baking soda

10 drops tea-tree essential oil½ cup

distilled white vinegar

INSTRUCTIONS

Pour baking soda directly into the toilet bowl, add oil, then vinegar—in that order. Let water effervesce for several minutes, then scrub bowl with brush. Flush.

 

This week’s winning tip :

 

Why Washing Soda

I love washing soda. It's an economical cleaning product. I found it in the laundry aisle of the supermarket.

I had well-used baking dishes, loaf pans, pie plates, etc. The baked-on black spots from years of use remained no matter how hard I scrubbed. Washing soda cleaned the baking items and made them look as if I just bought them. It was as simple as filling my sink with water and adding about 1/2 cup of the soda. I let the items soak for a while and then I gave them a light scrubbing.

It's also good for a lot of other cleaning jobs. You will want to wear rubber gloves. It's non-toxic, but it can dry your hands.

 

 

This week’s prize:  a copy of my new book…

We’ll post the tip and the winner gets a prize!

Scroll to the bottom of the page to submit your tip…

http://www.poormansurvival.com/Pages/Homemade.aspx

 

 

Tired of seeing your standard of living hijacked? Fight back!

 If you would like to learn more about the US economy's phony foundations, how the whole mess will come crashing down, and what you can do right now to protect yourself, consider reading our NEW book…How to Survive the War on the Middle Class.

http://www.poormansurvival.com/Pages/WaronMiddleClass.aspx

 

Yours in freedom,

Bruce ‘the Poor Man’

 

Got a News Tip or Resource to Share With the Poor Man?

Send it to:  PoorManSurvivor@Gmail.com

A Shallow Planet Production

Sooner or later, the Middle Class will not exist.

Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…

http://PoorManSurvivor.net

 

ISSN 2161-5543

What a free society offers to the individual
is much more than what he would be able to do
if only he were free."
-- Friedrich August von Hayek

 

America is a pressure cooker.  While some are ready to fight, the majority have their head in the sand.

Every one of our Founding Fathers would be considered a terrorist according to the DHS.

The Death of the Middle Class

Most of our politicians are con men that tell us what we want to hear during their campaigns, and then after they are elected they forget all about us. Dissatisfaction with these politicians has risen to unprecedented levels in recent years, and that could be a good thing.

America’s middle class is literally vanishing. Millions have already been squeezed out - having gone from comfortable to struggling. Some are barely surviving financially. And millions more are about to follow. We all know or have heard about people who were once comfortably middle class, but are now fighting to keep their heads above water.

 

As financial guru Suze Orma puts it: “The people who call my show used to be middle class. They are all now in poverty. Sooner or later, the middle class will not exist.”

 

 

Why Your Savings And Retirement Will Soon Be Gone »
What’s left of the U.S. middle class is under economic assault like no time in American history. Federal Reserve money printing is finally catching up to us. One hundred years of money printing is coming to a head. We are seeing the beginning phases of hyperinflation. More »

 

 

America is a pressure cooker with no steam valve, and things are about to blow. This is what happens when a parasitical government muzzles the citizenry, fences them in, herds them, brands them, whips them into submission, forces them to ante up the sweat of their brows while giving them little in return, and then provides them with little to no outlet for voicing their discontent.

Still, there are many who simply do not care or feel too helpless to do anything so they sit back and whine “what’s the use, we can’t stop the government from screwing us.”

 

The government has been anticipating and preparing for such an uprising for years. For example, in 2008, a U.S. Army War College report warned that the military must be prepared for a “violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States,” which could be provoked by “unforeseen economic collapse,” “purposeful domestic resistance,” “pervasive public health emergencies” or “loss of functioning political and legal order”—all related to dissent and protests over America’s economic and political disarray.

 

Consequently, predicted the report, the “widespread civil violence would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.”

One year later, in 2009, the Department of Homeland Security under President Obama issued its infamous reports on Rightwing and Leftwing “Extremism.” According to these reports, an extremist is defined as anyone who subscribes to a particular political viewpoint. Rightwing extremists, for example, are broadly defined in the report as individuals and groups “that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely.”

 

Standing Up To Government Is Now Domestic Terrorism »
Within just a few hours, three of the top four most post powerful politicians in the country unabashedly revealed the low opinion they have of liberty and the American people and a willingness to persecute, prosecute and lie to those who advocate and fight for Constitutional government. More »

 

The document also took pains to describe the political views of those who would qualify as being a rightwing extremist. For example, you are labeled a rightwing extremist if you voice concerns about a myriad of issues including: policy changes under President Obama; the economic downturn and home foreclosures; the loss of U.S. jobs in manufacturing and construction sectors; and social issues such as abortion, interracial crimes and immigration. DHS also issued a red-flag warning against anyone who promotes “conspiracy theories involving declarations of martial law, impending civil strife or racial conflict, suspension of the U.S. Constitution, and the creation of citizen detention camps.”

 

All that we have been subjected to in recent years—living under the shadow of NSA spying; motorists strip searched and anally probed on the side of the road; innocent Americans spied upon while going about their daily business in schools and stores; homeowners having their doors kicked in by militarized SWAT teams serving routine warrants—illustrates how the government deals with people it views as potential “extremists”: with heavy-handed tactics designed to intimidate the populace into submission and discourage anyone from stepping out of line or challenging the status quo.

 

It’s not just the Cliven Bundys of the world who are being dealt with in this manner. Don Miller, a 91-year-old antiques collector, recently had his Indiana home raided by the FBI, ostensibly because it might be in the nation’s best interest if the rare and valuable antiques and artifacts Miller had collected over the course of 80 years were cared for by the government. Such tactics carried out by anyone other than the government would be considered grand larceny, and yet the government gets a free pass.

 

In the same way, the government insists it can carry out all manner of surveillance on us—listen in on our phone calls, read our emails and text messages, track our movements, photograph our license plates, even enter our biometric information into DNA databases—but those who dare to return the favor, even a little, by filming potential police misconduct, get roughed up by the police, arrested, charged with violating various and sundry crimes.

 

When law enforcement officials—not just the police, but every agent of the government entrusted with enforcing laws, from the president on down—are allowed to discard the law when convenient, and the only ones having to obey the law are the citizenry and not the enforcers, then the law becomes only a tool to punish us, rather than binding and controlling the government, as it was intended.

 

This phenomenon is what philosopher Abraham Kaplan referred to as the law of the instrument, which essentially says that to a hammer, everything looks like a nail. In the scenario that has been playing out in recent years, we the citizenry have become the nails to be hammered by the government’s henchmen, a.k.a. its guns for hire, a.k.a. its standing army, a.k.a. the nation’s law enforcement agencies.

Indeed, there can no longer be any doubt that militarized police officers, the end product of the government—federal, local and state—and law enforcement agencies having merged, have become a “standing” or permanent army, composed of full-time professional soldiers who do not disband. Yet these permanent armies are exactly what those who drafted the U.S. Constitution feared as tools used by despotic governments to wage war against its citizens.

 

That is exactly what we are witnessing today: a war against the American citizenry. Is it any wonder then that some Americans are starting to resist?  Why aren't more of you acting?

 

More and more, Americans are tired, frustrated, anxious, and worried about the state of their country. They are afraid of an increasingly violent and oppressive federal government, and they are worried about the economic insecurity which still grips the nation. And they’re growing increasingly sick of being treated like suspects and criminals. As former law professor John Baker, who has studied the growing problem of overcriminalization, noted, “There is no one in the United States over the age of 18 who cannot be indicted for some federal crime. That is not an exaggeration.”

 

To make matters worse, a recent scientific study by Princeton researchers confirms that the United States of America is not the democracy that is purports to be, but rather an oligarchy, in which “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy.” As PolicyMic explains, “An oligarchy is a system where power is effectively wielded by a small number of individuals defined by their status called oligarchs. Members of the oligarchy are the rich, the well connected and the politically powerful, as well as particularly well placed individuals in institutions like banking and finance or the military… In other words, their statistics say your opinion literally does not matter.”

 

 

Tired of seeing your standard of living hijacked? Fight back! [Open now in case of an emergency]

 

If you would like to learn more about the US economy's phony foundations, how the whole mess will come crashing down, and what you can do right now to protect yourself, consider reading our NEW book…How to Survive the War on the Middle Class.

http://www.poormansurvival.com/Pages/WaronMiddleClass.aspx

Yours in freedom,

Bruce ‘the Poor Man’

 

Got a News Tip or Resource to Share With the Poor Man?

Send it to:  PoorManSurvivor@Gmail.com

A Shallow Planet Production

Get off your ass and do something…

The Patriot Act, which few in Congress ever read prior to signing, is the single most anti-American, anti-freedom Act ever signed into law…

Sign the Petition to Repeal the Patriot Act

http://wh.gov/lfgGf

Secret Tips You've Shared

Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…

http://PoorManSurvivor.net

 

ISSN 2161-5543

 

Life isn’t waiting for the storm to pass; it is about learning to dance in the rain! >>Unknown

 

Secrets you have shared with me…Tidbits of useful things!

 

     As was recently reported, the middle class of Canada is doing better than the residents of our country.  With that in mind many of you are saving money in some imaginative ways and thanks for sharing your tips with us. 

 

Each person that shared a tip with us this month gets a free copy of our new book How to Survive the War on the Middle Class and a packet of survival seeds!  You won’t win if you don’t enter!

 

8 Rules For Preparing On A Budget »
The greatest way to prepare for disaster with limited resources is to make the best decisions with your money and ultimately explore methods to obtain goods and services without having to spend money. More »

My Friend's Garden

I am slowly learning how to garden, but I don't want to spend a lot while I am still learning to care for plants. Whenever I am visiting with someone who has plants I admire, I ask them how they care for it and ask for a cutting. People are touched that you want to include them in your home this way and glad to help you share their passion for plants.>L.

 

Keeping Bugs at Bay

Here’s a low-cost, chemical-free way to stop mosquitoes from ruining your outdoor day. Make your own bug spray by combining 1 cup of water, 1 cup of witch hazel and 20 drops of lavender, tea tree oil or eucalyptus (alone or in combination) into a spray bottle, seal, swish and combine.  [NOTE: coming soon we’ll feature information and resources on essential oils based on interviews I’ve done with two of our new subscribers.]

Deter Pests with leftover cola.  Fill a few  jar lids with the cola and place strategically around the plants.  Bugs are attracted to the sweetness and will crawl inside where they’ll be trapped.  Another idea I used to get rid of houseflies on my back porch (I always left the light on) was to wire an aluminum pie pan filled with soapy water to from the light fixture.  Worked like a charm to drown the little buggers!

Note:  Cola can also be used to clean chrome on your car or to tenderize a tough cut of meat – just pour a can over the meat and let it sit for an hour or more!

 

Recipes for homemade toiletries
read more here

 

Weed Killer

Here's a spot weed killer. Mix 1 part dish soap, 2 parts vinegar, and 2 parts water. The dish soap makes the vinegar stick to the weed longer. And the vinegar burns the weed.
Brad

My Neighbors Mulch My Garden
Many gardeners may not have considered the free or extremely cheap sources of mulch available in both town and country. Many of these materials can also be used in making compost, which in turn can be used as an enriching mulch.

 

How to get rid of snakes…The USDA parachuted 2,000 dead mice loaded with acetaminophen into Guam to kill snakes which are poisoned by the pain reliever.

The Beginner's Guide to Co-Op Buying
You may have assumed that co-ops were exclusively for buying affordable organic food, but think again. Most of the non-food items and even services that your family consumes, such as electricity or clothing or day care, can be purchased through co-op buying!

Cheap 'Air Conditioning’

I recently found a way to make a homemade air conditioner! Using a styrofoam cooler ($1 at a dollar store), we made three small holes the size of a toilet paper tube in one side. Then we stuck those tubes in the holes. Last we cut a circle in the lid and put a small fan on top that was facing down. Inside the cooler, we placed blocks of ice. The cold air lasted several hours! Once the ice melts, you can re-use it by freezing it again. My husband who gets hotter than me was even comfortable with just the fan.

There are more elaborate homemade air conditioners out there, including videos on how to make them. Just Google "homemade air conditioner."
Julie S.

 

Natural Deodorant

I read that vinegar works well for underarm odor. It changes the pH of the skin, so bacteria that cause the odor are not able to grow. Since I like natural products, I decided to give it a try.

After my morning shower, I soaked a plain cotton ball in vinegar and ran it under my armpits. I still perspired, but there was no odor. I'm really happy to get rid of one more set of unpronounceable chemicals from my bathroom.
Robyn

 

 

EVERYONE who submitted a tip this week received a copy of my new book…

This week’s prize: a copy of my new book…How to Survive the War on the Middle Class

We’ll post the tip and the winner gets a prize!

Scroll to the bottom of the page to submit your tip…

http://www.poormansurvival.com/Pages/Homemade.aspx

 

Yours in freedom,

Bruce ‘the Poor Man’

 

Got a News Tip or Resource to Share With the Poor Man?

Send it to:  PoorManSurvivor@Gmail.com

A Shallow Planet Production

Petition to Repeal the un-American Patriot Act

The Patriot Act, which few in Congress ever read prior to signing, is the single most anti-American, anti-freedom Act ever signed into law

In addition to eliminating the privacy of ALL Americans, it contains dozens of un-Constitutional elements including unlawful detentions and killing of US citizens, restrictions on travel, and warrantless searches. 

In addition to fueling the bankruptcy of the nation, it is unlawfully targeting several categories of citizens including religious and conservative groups, returning US war veterans, journalists and more.

Do you want live in a country run more like a Communist Regime?  If you said no, I encourage you to sign the petition which would eliminate this Act.  Please share this with like-minded friends!

Always remember, just because something is 'law' does not make it moral, ethical or right!

Sign the Petition to Repeal the Patriot Act

http://wh.gov/lfgGf

Where is Your Spine America?

Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…

http://PoorManSurvivor.net

 

ISSN 2161-5543

 

 

 

The unveiling of the dictatorial debacle that is Obamacare absolutely flabbergasts me.

 

 

 It is stunning on so many levels, but the most shocking aspect of it for me is watching millions of free Americans stand idly by while this man, his minions in Congress and his cheerleaders in the press systematically dismantle our Constitution, steal our money, and crush our freedoms.

The President, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (with no small help from Justice John Roberts) take away our health care, and we allow it. They take away our insurance, and we allow it. They take away our doctors, and we allow it. They charge us thousands of dollars more a year, and we allow it. They make legal products illegal, and we allow it. They cripple our businesses, and we allow it. They announce by fiat that we must ignore our most deeply held beliefs and we allow it.

Where is your spine, America?
Yes, I know people are complaining. I read the news on the internet. I read blogs. I have a Twitter feed. So what? People in the Soviet Union complained. People in Cuba complain. People in China complain (quietly). Complaining isn't the same thing as doing anything about it. In fact, much of the complaining that we hear sounds like resignation: Wow. This sucks. Oh well, this is the way things are. Too bad.

Perhaps you need reminding of a few important facts. Here goes:

1. The President is not a king. Barack Obama does not behave like a President, an elected official, someone who realizes that he works for us. He behaves like a king, a dictator and someone who believes that his own pronouncements have the force of law, and who thinks he can dispense with the law's enforcement when he deigns to do so. And those of us who object? How dare we? Racists!

And while he moves steadily "forward" with his plans to "fundamentally transform" the greatest country in human history, he distracts people with cheap, meaningless trivialities, like "free birth control pills"! (In fact, let's face it: this administration's odd obsession with sex in general - Birth control! Abortion! Sterilization! Gay guys who play basketball! -- is just plain weird. Since when did the leader of the free world care so much about how people have sex, who they have it with, and what meds they use when they have it? Does he have nothing more important to concern himself with?)

2. It isn't just a failed software program; it is a failed philosophy. People are marveling that Healthcare.gov was such a spectacular failure. Well, if one is only interested in it as a product launch, I've explained some of the reasons for that here. But the larger point is that it isn't a software failure, or even a product failure; it is a philosophy failure.

I have said this before: Obama is not a centrist; he is a central planner. And this all of it: the disastrous computer program, the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted, the lies, the manipulation of public opinion, the theft of the public's money and property, and freedom (read insurance, and premiums, and doctors) -- IS what central planning looks like.

The central premise of central planning is that a handful of wunderkinds with your best interests at heart (yeah, right) know better than you what's good for you. The failure of such a premise and the misery it causes have been clear from the dawn of humanity. Kings and congressmen, dictators and Dear Leaders, potentates, princes and presidents can all fall prey to the same imperial impulses: "we know what is good the 'the people.'

And they are always wrong.

There is a reason that the only times communism has really been tried have been after wars, revolutions, or coups d’état. You have to have complete chaos for people to be willing to accept the garbage that centralized planning produces. Take the Soviet Union, for example. After two wars, famine, and the collapse of the Romanov dynasty, why wouldn't people wait in line for hours to buy size 10 shoes? Or settle for the gray matter that passed for meat in the grocery stores?

But communism's watered-down cousin, socialism, isn't much better. Ask the Venezuelans who cannot get toilet paper. Toilet paper. Â Viva la Revolucion!

Contrary to what so many who believe in a "living Constitution" say, the Founding Fathers absolutely understood this. That is why the Constitution was set up to limit government power. (Memo to the President: the drafters of the Constitution deliberately didn't say "what government had to do on your behalf.") They understood that that was the path to folly, fear, and famine.)

3. Obama is deceitful. Just as the collapse of the computer program should not surprise anyone, neither should we be shocked that the President lied about his healthcare plan. Have any of you been paying attention over the past few years? Obama has made no secret of his motivations or his methods. The philosophies which inspire him espouse deceit and other vicious tactics.

(Don't take my word for it: read Saul Alinsky.) Obama infamously told reporter Richard Wolffe, "You know, I actually believe my own bullshit." He has refused to be forthcoming about his past (where are his academic records?). His own pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, told author Ed Klein, that Obama said to him, "You know what your problem is? You have to tell the truth."

Did Obama lie when he said dozens of times, "If you like you plan, you can keep it. Period!"? Of course he did. That's what he does.

4. The media is responsible. And had the media been doing their jobs, we would have known a lot of this much, much earlier.

The press is charged with the sacred responsibility of protecting the people from the excesses of government. Our press has been complicit, incompetent, or corrupt. Had they vetted this man in 2008, as they would have a Republican candidate, we would have known far more about him than we do, even now. Had they pressed for more details about Obamacare, Congress' feet would have been held to the fire. Had they done their jobs about Eric Holder, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the IRS scandal, NSA spying - or any of the other myriad betrayals of the public trust that this administration has committed, Obama would likely have lost his 2012 reelection campaign. (A fact that even The Washington Post has tacitly acknowledged. Well done, fellas! Happy now?)

Instead, they turned a blind eye, even when they knew he was lying, abusing power, disregarding the limits of the Constitution. It was only when he began to spy on them, and when the lies were so blatant that the lowest of low-information voters could figure it out that they realized they had to report on it. (Even in the face of blatant, deliberate and repeated lies, The New York Times has the audacity to tell us that the President "misspoke.") They have betrayed us, abandoned us, and deceived us.

5. Ted Cruz was right. So was Sarah Palin. The computer program is a disaster. The insurance exchanges are a disaster. What's left? The healthcare system itself. And this, of necessity, will be a disaster, too.

Millions of people have lost their individual insurance plans. In 2015, millions more will lose their employer-provided coverage (a fact which the Obama administration also knew, and admitted elsewhere).

The exorbitant additional costs that Obamacare has foisted on unsuspecting Americans are all part of a plan of wealth confiscation and redistribution. That is bad enough. But it will not end there.

When the numbers of people into the system and the corresponding demand for care vastly exceed the cost projections (and they will, make no mistake), then the rationing will start. Not only choice at that point, but quality and care itself will go down the tubes. And then will come the decisions made by the Independent Payment Advisory Board about what care will be covered (read "paid for") and what will not.

That's just a death panel, put politely. In fact, progressives are already greasing the wheels for acceptance of that miserable reality as well. They're spreading the lie that it will be about the ability of the dying to refuse unwanted or unhelpful care. Don't fall for that one, either. It will be about the deaths that inevitably result from decisions made by people other than the patients, their families, and their physicians. (Perhaps it's helpful to think of their assurances this way: "If you like your end-of-life care, you can keep your end-of-life-care.")

6. We are not SUBJECTS. (or, Nice Try, the Tea Party Isn't Going Away). We have tolerated these incursions into our lives and livelihoods too long already. There is no end to the insatiable demand "progressives" have to remake us in their image. Today it is our insurance, our businesses, our doctors, our health care. Tomorrow some new crusade will be announced that enables them to take over other aspects of our formerly free lives.

I will say it again: WE ARE NOT SUBJECTS. Not only is the Tea Party right on the fiscal issues, but it appears that they are more relevant than ever. We fought a war once to prove we did not want to be the subjects of a king, and the Boston Tea Party was just a taste of the larger conflict to come. If some people missed that lesson in history class, we can give them a refresher.

The 2014 elections are a good place to start. Call your representative, your senator, your candidate and tell them: "We are not subjects. You work for us. And if the word "REPEAL" isn't front and center in your campaign, we won't vote for you. Period."

Laura Hollis is an attorney and teaches entrepreneurship and business law at the University of Notre Dame. She resides in Indiana with her husband and two children.

 

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