• I'll be sharing my testimony at all five services this weekend at Shepherd of the Hills in Porter Ranch, twice on Saturday at 500pm and 630pm, and three times on Sunday at 830am, 10am, and 1130am, including 11am at the Westside Campus near UCLA. For info, go to theshepherd.org.
400-408 – Here's the story from yesterday….
• AP (7/16/2012) Calif. cities eye plan to seize mortgages.
What do you do if you can't pay your bills? Default, bankruptcy, bailout – whether it's Stockton, Mammoth Lakes, General Motors, or Greece – and now it's the city of San Bernardino and soon San Bernardino County, Ontario, and Fontana. Here's the scenario they're considering. Say you're current on your mortgage with Bank of America, but you're underwater – like over 100,000 homeowners in the county. The city of Fontana will seize your mortgage from BofA, and pay them the current market rate for your home. BofA will incur a huge loss, over 50%. The city, which now owns your house, will sell your mortgage to a new lender at the current low interest rates. You get to stay in your house at a lower payment, the city avoids suburban blight, and the loser are the BofA shareholders.
So the government is picking winners and losers – and seizing your private property to do so. The is the essence of communism – no private property, and the state provides you with what the "experts" say is what you really need. How is this different than when Cuba nationalized American-owned businesses for the benefit of "the people?" Can't you hear the new program? "For the good of the people, we're going to seize all the businesses and all the homes, determine their fair market value, and issue new mortgages and stock values, to avoid national blight." Who's the losers? The obvious ones are the original investors. The not-so-obvious ones are the American people, who've just lost their private property.
Steven Greenhut, Vice President of Journalism at the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity (franklincenterhq.org), and senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute (pacificresearch.org), joins us to talk about the San Bernardino County proposal. Steven is quoted in the Blaze piece below.
• Blaze (7/17/2012) OBAMA DONORS WITH SOROS TIES CONSIDER EMINENT DOMAIN POWER GRAB IN CALIF.
• CBS Local (7/17/2012) Trash Collection Expected To Drop During San Bernardino Fiscal Crisis.
• Newsbusters (7/17/2012) Media Fail: Chevy Volt Makes NO Money, Costs Taxpayers Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars Per Car.
413-423 – Steven Greenhut, we talk about his book Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation (2009) (Amazon).
Public employees have become the new American elite. In the past, Government workers earned less money but had slightly better job security and benefits than Americans working in the private sector. These days, government workers not only earn more than other Americans, but they have vastly superior benefits, including pension plans that often allow them to retire as early as age 50 with 100 percent or more of their final year's salary. These pensions often to $100,000 a year and come with cost of living adjustments and free lifetime medical care. Getting a government job and sticking with it is like winning the lottery. This plundering of treasuries, made possible by aggressive union tactics and spineless politicians, results in higher taxes and massive debts that ultimately will be borne by our grandchildren. The current situation is "unsustainable." The problem goes beyond finances. Government unions protect even the worst public employees from accountability. Schools don't attempt to fire incompetent teachers-and union protections make it nearly impossible to even fire ones accused of abuse and other misdeeds. As government gets bigger and more powerful, government officials have more uncontrolled power over the rest of us-to enrich and protect themselves at the expense of the public good. The public's servants have truly become the public's masters.
428-438 – Steven Greenhut,
443-452 – Steven Greenhut,
458-508 – [K] Dr. Martin Eaton, licensed clinical psychologist, former graduate professor at USC, and owner of LearningRx in Anaheim Hills (learningrx.com/anaheim-hills, 714-769-7600) with learning centers in Anaheim Hills, Newport Beach, San Gabriel Valley, and Simi Valley. Scientists used to believe that our IQ was fixed, but the latest research has proven "neuroplasticity" – the ability of the brain to create new neuro connections through proper training and practice. At LearningRx, Dr. Eaton's clients see an average improvement of 12-15 points in their IQ. Many medical professionals are aware of this, which is why 20% of Dr. Eaton's patients are physicians' kids. The first signs of a cognitive problem often manifests around age 8 or 9, when the child begins performing poorly in school, and research indicates that 88% of the time this is due to underdeveloped cognitive skills. These are what LearningRx is able to improve. If you hear the word "boring" from your child, that's code for "I'm struggling, this is difficult, and I'd rather avoid it."
• Last Thursday, July 12th, I had the full assessment done ($299), and learned that my short-term memory is my weakest skill. So, Dr. Eaton is going to give me some things I can do to improve.
• Here's what you need to do. Download the free assessment pdf from the website, and complete it with your child. Next, make an appointment to get your child the $99 assessment. You'll then know the precise cognitive skills your child needs to improve, and how to actually improve them. The $99 screening is only available at their Newport Beach and Anaheim Hills centers, and only until Saturday, August 4th.
512-523 – Dr. Martin Eaton, Difficulties in reading?
528-539 – Dr. Martin Eaton, Difficulties in math?
544-554 – Dr. Martin Eaton, Success stories?
558-608 – Jay Richards, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Wealth, Poverty, and Morality at the Discovery Institute (discovery.org), and visiting scholar at the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics in Washington (tifwe.org), has a dual-track Ph.D. from Princeton in both philosophy and theology, and he's the author of a wonderful Christian defense of capitalism entitled Money, Greed, And God: Why Capitalism Is The Solution And Not The Problem (2010) (Amazon) – now in paperback! His latest, co-authored with James Robison, is Indivisible: Restoring Faith, Family and Freedom Before It's Too Late (2012) (Amazon).
612-623 – Jay Richards,
• Washington Times (7/15/2012) PICKET:(VIDEO) Obama - 'If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen'.
President Barack Obama addressed supporters in Roanoke, Virginia on Friday afternoon and took a shot at the business community. President Obama dismissed any credit business owners give themselves for their success:
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me -- because they want to give something back. They know they didn't -- look, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don't do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.
628-639 – Jay Richards,
644-656 – Jay Richards,
• LINER – KKLA invites you to our free Financial Restoration Conference on Saturday, July 28th, from 830am – Noon, at the Glendale Hilton. This event feature experts discussing real financial solutions for real financial problems. Come out early to enjoy a free light-breakfast on us! Register now at kkla.com!
