Ranting and Raving

I was forwarded this email. It is apparently from an Obama's supporter, and shows us what they think on this year's issues. Have a go at it.

1. I Agree with Obama on NOT drilling off shore. Americans need to be weaned from addiction to oil, and the materialistic life style manipulated by companies peddling their non essential wares, in 'consumer economy'.

America has 3% of the world oil reserve. Drilling off shore is a short term, short sighted measure, and catering to interest of oil companies to make profit. This is capitalism running amok. It is the most sensible thing to invest heavily in renewable energy sources. Look at how Denmark became independent of oil after experiencing the oil shock of the 1970s. Newt Gingrich had a book just out 'Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less'. Oh my God!!! Talking about feeding a bad habit, short term pandering!!!

2. Many things in the Constitution are not clear, and need interpretation. Also they were written at a much simpler time, and if they are no longer good for the country in light of the new environment, then they need to be revisited. Nothing wrong with the Supreme Court Judges making interpretation based on their assessment.

Also there are laws that are obsolete, and clearly wrong, written at a particular time. Are the laws in the South that deny education to blacks just and should be enforced? Should the laws that deny blacks access to public facilities be enforced because they are 'Laws' passed at one time by bigots?

3. Service in the Military: Remember that after Vietnam, the military is all volunteer, and no more draft. The vast majority of young people below the draft age when the draft was abolished do not serve in the military. There are many ways to serve one's country, and joining the military is not the only way. Fighting to defend your country is admirable, and the people in the military deserve the thanks from the people. However, shutting down your thinking mind, taking orders even though they are clearly bad and wrong is not a desirable thing.

4. The US SHOULD introduce a health care system where EVERYBODY is covered. It is a matter of running it efficiently. It will cost a lot less than having 45 millions people without health insurance, do not have the knowledge or means to maintain good health, and go to the emergency room and burden hospitals, and in the end society, when they are gravely sick. I do not want to be tied in to a job because of the need to get health insurance. With my recent experience with the health care I need (I have 2 health care insurance policies), and the sheenanigan that both service providers and insurance companies are playing, I am leery of the slogans 'you are in charge of your own health care, you have choices'. Watch the programs on public TV on the health care systems in other countries such as Canada, England, Germany, Sweden, Taiwan, and yes even Cuba. America, one of the richest country in the world, is ranked in the 30s in healthcare.

5. Obama did NOT say 'pull troops out of Iraq immediately'. He favors a clear time frame for disengagement, getting the Iraquis to take primary care of their nation, and consistent with a safe withdrawal for US troops. This is what the Iraquis now are saying, and now Bush and McCain also adopt.

6. I don't have any problem with not having guns in my house, if I can rely on the police and government to protect me and my family. I don't have problems with people keeping guns in their houses to protect themselves, as the government and the police have not been able to provide adequate security, especially in many poor areas. I have problems with people owning guns to show off the gung ho, 'manly' behavior, to go hunting deers when they do not need the meat (I don't have problems with deer population control), and yeah, hunting quails too for fun. I wonder whether Dick Cheney needs the quail meat.

7. What's people do in their bedroom is their business. I thought that Republicans are for getting the government out of regulating people's life. Sex is only one aspect of life, at a certain stage where hormones are raging, and it is also as a natural built-in instinct. There are other aspects of human relantionship such as companionship, caring for each others. With the number of people in the world now, with wars all over the place, and human's means for mass destruction, and behavior not conducive to a sustainable world, I can see the time when homosexual people, not only being allowed to get married, but might be even rewarded for not bringing kids into this world. And by the way, if they adopt children and really take good care of them, they should be lauded. How about looking at homosexuality as nature's, or creation's mistake?

8. Money is not everything. Nobody likes taxes, but if they provide the means for programs to benefit society at large, they are justified.

9. English has become the defacto language of the world, because of the advances in technologies, and the freedom of speech and democracy in England, Canada, Australia and the US. People who do not know, or learn it is short changing themselves. There is no need to make it a law. Talking about less government and regulations!!! The children of immigrants here all learn and speak English. Why the need to make life miserable for older people who do not have the time, the means, or ability to learn a not so easy language?

10. What does it mean by give 'Social Security benefits to illegals?' Social Security is given to people who pay taxes, and contribute to Social Security. What's wrong with returning benefits to people to contribute into the fund?

11. Now on the issue of taxes. I do not know where the details come from. I saw on TV Obama stating that he will cut taxes for people making less than $250K a year, but will abolish the tax breaks that Bush and the Republicans introduced that help make the rich much richer, and the middle class and the poor having much harder time. In America, if you take advantage of the opportunities, work hard, stay healthy (not ingesting all those food, drugs and chemicals that companies are peddling), you should be able to have a decent life, with all basic needs taken care of. Beyond the basic essential needs for yourself and your family, what's having hundreds of millions, and billions for? especially if you have to work your ass off, and fight and squeeze everybody else? If the rich have the ability, and the drive to make and accumulate tons of money, let them do it. If they have to work 12 hours a day, screw others and take advantage of other people's labor and fear, and are unhappy, I think they are out of their minds, and need to be checked for the good of society. Is it right for managers of Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac to get millions of dollars in compensation in the 'good' time, and millions in severance pay, then when the financial sheenaneegan finally cause the housing bust (and yeah, due to less regulations, and letting the 'free market' govern), the tax payers are left with ante up the money to bail out (perhaps just a bigger deficits, and pushing the problems to your children's generations). Talk about family values!!!.

12. On inheritance taxes: I think the right, and best way is to bring your children up right, provide them with opportunities, and teach them to take care of themselves properly. Squeezing other people, make millions, try to hang on to the money and give them to your children is a good way to spoil them. There are plenty of tax break to give adequate help to your children ($12K/year from each parent), and tax loophole for the rich to give to their children (setting up a non profit charity, put their children in charge, and pay them tons of money as salary is one way). I have seen plenty of rich kids who become good for nothing, and sometimes even unhappy. When at Cornell, my room mate taught at a special school for children who are sent there by the court for committing some crimes, and plenty of them come from very rich families. They are smart, mischievous, unhappy, and have plenty of axes to grind against their parents.

13. On new taxes proposed by Obama: I want to see the real sources before making too many comments. No problem with me on more taxes on gasoline, if this is needed to wean Americans against oil addiction, and love for the automobiles (perhaps a necessity because of the way America was developed, with plenty of lands and resources at one time, and the frontier spirit and 'individualism', so no good public transportation facilities were built). If this helps cut down on the consumption, it is a good thing, for America's independence from foreign oil, and the environment.

I don't have anything against McCain per se, but funny that he is taking the theme of 'change' from Obama, knowing that the vast majority of Americans are sick of the Bush Administration and the Republicans for the last 8 years, and think that America is on the wrong track. Note that now he is touting the 'maverick' image, while voting for Bush policies more than 90% of the time, even reversing his original strong position against torture.

What alarms me most was his catering to the religious rights by selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate. She is clearly a strongly 'religious' person. From Yahoo's news 'Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a 'task that is from God.' and will try to advance the religious agenda. And look at her family. I remember watching Jimmy Swaggart on TV crying 'I have sinned', and then 'God forgives him'. The same kind of theme over and over. What kind of God would forgive these transgressions, just because people say they have repented, and now believe in Him, while bringing his wrath and Armageddon on people who use their minds that God give them, and question the words of people who claim to be speaking for him. The world would be a much better place if there are less of those 'religious' people who profess to serve their God, follow the teaching of their faith, and killing each others, and by-standers.

Funny thing is they believe in the same God, except different prophets (perhaps God made plenty of mistakes, and needed to send different people at different time to correct?). Even just different people who fought to take over the whelm when their prophet died would kill each others (the Sunnies and the Shiites).

And some of them even actively try to help God bring about his 'Armageddon' so they can go to Heaven. See the attached article I received from a friend Nov 5, 2004. I would not want to go to Heaven to see again these people who believe they act to bring about God's will. I wonder how God is going to deal with all these people when they go the Heaven to bask in his presence.

Dont'get me wrong on religions. There are plenty of good things that religions bring, and plenty of good religious people. They might bring courage, and solace at difficult time. There are Mother Theresa and Desmond Tutu, then also there are Jim Jones, Jimmy Baker, Jimmy Swaggart etc. But I believe religion and faith is a personal thing, and should be kept that way. Nothing wrong with trying to convert others to their faith. It might even help some people to have simple faith. Only when religions get institutionalized, when religious people get power, and try to impose their faith, thinking and way of life on others that I have problems with.

There are plenty of religious people who do good deeds, and also plenty of agnostics and atheists who do good deeds. And what deeds are good depends on how you assess them, from what viewpoint.

God give me a mind to think, and question. If not God himself, at least those who profess to speak for him, want me to shut down my mind, to have blind faith in the sheenaneegan they preach.

A McCain ad earlier this week twisted newpaper quotes to ridicule Barack Obama's record on education reform. The McCainites are using a similar technique to claim that Obama has 'air-dropped a mini-army' of lawyers and opposition researchers into Alaska in an attempt to 'destroy' the reputation of Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin.'

A new McCain ad caricatures Barack Obama's education record by claiming that his only achievement is to pass legislation ensuring 'comprehensive sex education' for kindergartners. The Facts: 'the principal purpose of the bill was to make them aware of the risk of inappropriate touching and sexual predators. Other states, including California and Massachusetts, have passed similar legislation.' CA and MA are bllue states, of course.

There are still small towns in the US that ban dancing. I still remember vividly the reaction some people had watching Elvis Presley Rock-n-Roll dancing (Exercising Citizen arrest laws). Now Rock-n-Roll is played in Churches, with religious themes to attract the 'young generations'. How time has changed.

There are plenty of spins, twisting of the facts in their favors by all politicians. I look at these as part of human nature (a God's creation?). Politicians change their tunes depending who they are trying to get the votes from (cynically), or looking at it from different viewpoint, they need to respond to/take in the views of all constituencies (kindly). This is particularly amplified in the US.

When you are attacked viciously by the other sides by false rumor spread, you need to fight back/correct. Playing nice (or looking at it from another viewpoint, stupid) like John Kerry against the Swift Boat Attack puts you at a disadvantage. Look for more vicious attacks, twists and lies from both sides from now to November, and use your head to make decision, with view toward the welfare of all, Americans and Human Kind at large, as guiding principle, or cynically, choose the lesser of the 2 evils. Anyway, go and vote what you believe is good for America. I hope that there are enough good Americans who use their logical mind to make the right choice, not only for America but for the world, so America can prosper, and become a real beacon for the world.

When you are attacked viciously by the other sides by false rumor spread

Yeah, I wish this guy Barry would stop spreading the false rumor that Bill Ayers is merely an English teacher who just 'lives in his neighborhood'...

"This is a guy [Bill Ayers] who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis."

Source: ABC News - Transcript: Obama and Clinton Debate, April 16, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/DemocraticDebate/Story?id=4670271&page=2

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From Investor's Business Daily (IBD), August 27, 2008:

"Ayers, now a tenured distinguished professor of education at UIC, works to educate teachers in socialist revolutionary ideology, urging that it be passed on to impressionable students.

One of Ayer's descriptions for a course called 'Improving Learning Environments' says prospective K-12 teachers need to 'be aware of the social and moral universe we inhabit and ... be a teacher capable of hope and struggle, outrage and action, teaching for social justice and liberation.'

The Annenberg papers are quite extensive — 132 boxes containing 947 file folders with 70 linear feet of material. They undoubtedly contain more surprises regarding Obama's relationship with Ayers, one of many relationships Obama has sought to hide."

Article: Annenberg Papers: Putting On Ayers?
http://www.ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=304729375940845

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[Obama] is named Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge founded by Bill Ayers
(article typo has Ayers instead of Obama)

In late 1993, Bill Ayers, now an associate professor of education at the University of Illinois Chicago Circle Campus, organized a team to put together a grant proposal to secure nearly $50 million from the Annenberg Challenge. The money was to be used by Ayers and co. to bolster the radical Local School Councils reform project that Ayers and Obama had championed back in 1988 through the ABCs.

The grant application was successful and in early 1995 Barack Obama was named chairman of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Ayers was named co-chair of the Challenge’s operative and strategic body, the Chicago School Reform Collaborative. Ayers and Obama work together for the next five years on raising an additional $60 million in matching money from local foundations and corporations and using the money to intervene in the governance of the Chicago public schools.

The Challenge through a multi-million dollar Leadership Development Initiative intervened in the School Council elections in the middle of what was known as the Chicago School Wars. At the same time Chicago Mayor Richard Daley was pushing, successfully, to gut the power of the Councils.

http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/08/12/the-obama-ayers-top-ten-highlights-of-the-20-year-obama-ayers-connection/

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"The Small Schools Workshop was founded in 1991 at the University of Illinois at Chicago to provide support for teachers who were trying to create new smaller learning environments. Its director is Michael Klonsky, a former professor of education at UIC."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Schools_Workshop

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Some background on Bill Ayers' SDS comrade, Michael Klonsky
(Chicago Annenberg Challenge-related)

"One of Bill Ayers’ and Bernardine Dohrn’s comrades in the late 60s Students for a Democratic Society was Mike Klonsky. When Dohrn and Ayers moved in one direction toward the violent tactics of the Weather Underground, Klonsky, in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, dropped the pro-Russian communist politics of his parents and became a committed Maoist. As leader of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) in 1977 [not to be confused with Communist Party USA. CPML no longer exists, CPUSA formed decades earlier and is still around-ETL], he travelled to Beijing and was toasted by the senior Beijing leadership.

When the crazy left of the 70s died in the 80s, Klonsky went to graduate school in education in Florida and then moved to Chicago.

While driving a cab there he [Michael Klonsky] was recruited by his old friend Bill Ayers to head up a new project called the Small Schools Workshop in 1991. It’s offices were in the Department of Education building at the University of Illinois Chicago Circle Campus where Ayers taught.

In 1995 the newly formed Chicago Annenberg Challenge headed by Ayers and Obama gave the Workshop a grant of $175,000.

The Annenberg Challenge also had its office space in the same building as Ayers Department and the Workshop, rent free courtesy of the University.

In 2008 Klonsky ran a blog on the official Obama campaign website on education policy and “social justice” teaching. When discussion of the Klonsky blog emerged in the blogosphere, it was promptly shut down by the campaign and all of the posts made by Klonsky were removed from the site."

http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/08/12/the-obama-ayers-top-ten-highlights-of-the-20-year-obama-ayers-connection/

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In 1977, the October League was reorganized as the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) [again, not Communist Party USA (CPUSA) -ETL] and former SDS activist Michael Klonsky became party chairman. Also in 1977, Klonsky traveled to China and the CPML was recognized by the Chinese Communist Party as its official sister party in America.

(snip)

In January 1981, Michael Klonsky resigned as party chairman, and the CPML disbanded that same year.

The previous Red Encyclopedia description of the CPML was incorrectly combined with that of the Communist Party USA (Marxist-Leninist).

http://reds.linefeed.org/past.html

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Bill Ayers TODAY (April 6, 2008), from his own red communist star-headed website, begging to debate communism vs capitalism with Sean Hannity and STILL calling for revolution!

"Imperialism. I’m against it, and if Sean Hannity and others were honest, this is the ground they would fight me on. Capitalism played its role historically and is exhausted as a force for progress: built on exploitation, theft, conquest, war, and racism, capitalism and imperialism must be defeated and a world revolution—a revolution against war and racism and materialism, a revolution based on human solidarity and love, cooperation and the common good —must win.

We begin by releasing our most hopeful dreams and our most radical imaginations: a better world is both possible and necessary.

Source: Bill Ayers' own website:
http://billayers.wordpress.com/2008/04/page/2/

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"a better world is both possible and necessary"?

Looks to me like Bill Ayers stole (or borrowed) this phrase from Bob Avakian, chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party. Both the Weather Underground and RCP have roots in the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organization.

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"The following is an excerpt from an historic talk by Chairman Bob Avakian, soon to be available on video and DVD from Three Q Productions-REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About. This talk, delivered in 2003, followed by questions and answers, is a wide- ranging revolutionary journey, covering many topics."
http://rwor.org/a/1238/introbaspeech.htm

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Voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA [Maoist]
Revolution #63, October 1, 2006

Interview with Bill Ayers:
"On Progressive Education, Critical Thinking and the Cowardice of Some in Dangerous Times"
http://rwor.org/a/063/ayers-en.html

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From David Horowitz's FrontPageMag.com/DiscoverTheNetworks.org:
"FBI files from 1976, recently made public under the Freedom of Information Act, confirm the connections between Weatherman, Havana, and Moscow. Weatherman leaders like Mark Rudd traveled illegally to Havana in 1968 to engage in terrorist training. There, camps set up by Soviet KGB Colonel Vadim Kotchergine were educating Westerners both in Marxist philosophy and urban warfare."
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6808

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"Their founding document [the Weather Underground's] called for the establishment of a "white fighting force" to be allied with the "Black Liberation Movement" and other "anti-colonial" movements[1] to achieve "the destruction of US imperialism and the achievement of a classless world: world communism."..."-Berger, Dan (2006). Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity. AK Press, 95.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherman_Underground#cite_ref-Berger_0-0

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Much more on the ObamaRat-commie connections at my FR Profile/Home page. Everything there is linked directly to its source. I've now added within-page links and a 'clickable' table of contents which makes it easy to hop around to the various sections:
http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl

I know this is a long reply, but send this back as a reply.

Cycle of Democracy

Alexander Tyler (in his 1770 book, Cycle of Democracy)

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over a louse fiscal responsibility, always followed by a dictatorship. The average of the world’s great civilizations before they decline has been 200 years. These nations have progressed in this sequence:”

From bondage to spiritual faith;

from spiritual faith to great courage;

from courage to liberty;

from liberty to abundance;

from abundance to selfishness;

from selfishness to complacency;

from complacency to apathy;

from apathy to dependency;

from dependency back again to bondage.

I have long heard George Putnam recite from this. But until Mike Reagan posted it on his site December 20, 2000, I did not know the entire quote or its source.

We are here!

From this site.

http://www.geocities.com/politalk/comment/cycles.htm

Communist Goals (1963)
Congressional Record—Appendix, pp. A34-A35

January 10, 1963

Current Communist Goals

EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, January 10, 1963

Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.

At Mrs. Nordman’s request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following “Current Communist Goals,” which she identifies as an excerpt from “The Naked Communist,” by Cleon Skousen:

[From “The Naked Communist,” by Cleon Skousen]

CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a “religious crutch.”

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture—education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.

From this site.

http://www.uhuh.com/

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