Just like the rest of us, the Amish are not exempt from life’s two certainties
– death and taxes. However, there is a reason behind the persistent myth
 that the Amish do not pay taxes. The Amish live within self-sufficient
 communities and do not collect Social Security, unemployment, or
welfare benefits. According to their religious beliefs, paying Social Security,
an insurance premium for the elderly, is tantamount to not “taking care
of their own.” Amish people who are self-employed are not obliged to pay
 Social Security tax, but they do still pay all other taxes, including property,
income, and sales tax. If an Amish person decides to work outside
 of the community, he or she must also pay Social Security tax
 like any other American.

In 1955, the IRS extended the Social Security Act of 1935 to include
farm operators. At the time, some Amish people immediately complied
with the tax, while others conscientiously objected to it. Many felt that it
violated the separation of church and state, some did not want to
accept monies for government programs, and still others believed that
paying a commercial insurance for the elderly went against
their trust in God to take care of them.

The IRS and the Amish played a convoluted shell game for close to a
 decade, until it all came to a head with the seizure of a struggling farmer’s
horses in 1961. The Amish elders stuck firmly by their principles, and the
 ensuing media and community outrage over the incident led the IRS to
 relent four years later. Tucked away in the 1965 Medicare Bill was a clause
exempting the “Old Order Amish” and other religious groups that
conscientiously objected to paying insurance premiums from Social Security tax. To
 be exempt, the group or sect must have been established prior to 1950 and
maintain reasonable provisions for their elderly.

The Newsweek poll alleges that 67 percent of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed and 69 percent of the country is unhappy with the performance of the president.  In essence 2/3s of the citizenry just aren’t happy and want a change.

Define Happy

So being the knuckle dragger I am, I started thinking, ”What we are so unhappy about?”

Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?  Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter?  Could it be that 95.4 percent of these unhappy people have a job?  Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time and see more food in moments than Darfur has seen in the last year?

Maybe it is the ability to drive from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers as we move through each state?   Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we  would find along the way that can provide temporary shelter? I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around the world is just not good enough.  Or could it be that when we wreck our car, emergency workers show up and provide services to  help all and even send a helicopter to take you to the hospital.

Perhaps you are one of the 70 percent of Americans who own a home.  You may be upset with knowing that in the unfortunate case of a fire, a group of trained firefighters will appear in moments and use top notch equipment to extinguish the flames thus saving you, your family and your belongings.  Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a burglar or prowler intrudes , an officer equipped with a gun and a bullet-proof vest will come to defend you and your family against attack or loss.  This all in the backdrop of a neighborhood free of bombs or militias raping and pillaging the re sidents. Neighborhoods where 90 percent of teenagers own cell phones and computers.

How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we enjoy that are the envy of everyone in the world?  Maybe that is what has 67 percent of you folks unhappy.

Fact is, we are the largest group of ungrateful, spoiled brats the world has ever seen.  No wonder the world loves the U.S. ,  yet has a great disdain for its citizens.  They see us for what  we are.  The most blessed people in the world who do nothing but complain about what we don’t have , and what we hate about the country instead of thanking the good Lord we live here.

I know, I know.  What about the president who took us into war and has no plan to get us out?  The president who has a measly 31 percent approval rating?   Is this the same president who guided the nation in the dark days after 9/11?  The president that cut taxes to bring an economy out of recession?   Could this be the same guy who has been called every name in the book for succeeding in keeping all the spoiled ungrateful brats safe from terrorist attacks?

The commander in chief of an all-volunteer army that is out there defending you and me? Did you hear how bad the President is on the news or talk show? Did this news affect you so much, make you so unhappy you couldn’t take a look around for yourself and see all the good things and be glad?

Think about  it……are you upset at the President because he actually caused you personal pain OR is it because the “Media” told you he was failing to kiss your sorry ungrateful behind every day.

Make no mistake about it.  The troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have volunteered to serve, and in many cases may have died for your freedom.  There is currently no draft in this country.  They didn’t have to go.

They are able to refuse to go and end up with either a ”general”  discharge, an ”other than honorable” discharge or, worst case scenario, a ”dishonorable” discharge after a few days in the brig.

So why then the flat-out discontentment in the minds of 69 percent of Americans?  Say what you want but I blame it on the media.  If it bleeds it leads and they specialize in bad news.  Everybody will watch a car crash with blood and guts.  Ho w many will watch kids selling lemonade at the corner?  The media knows this and media outlets are for-profit corporations.  They offer what sells , and when criticized, try to defend their actions by “justifying” them in one way or another. Just ask why they tried to allow a murderer like O.J. Simpson to write a book about how he didn’t kill his wife, but if he did he would have done it this way……Insane!

Stop buying the negativism you are fed everyday by the media. Shut off the TV, burn Newsweek, and use the New York Times for the bottom of your bird cage.  Then start being grateful for all we have as a country. There is exponentially more good than bad.

We are among the most blessed peoples on Earth and should thank God several times a day, or at least be thankful and appreciative.”

“With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, “Are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?”

Love him or loathe him, he nailed this one right on the head……….

By Rush Limbaugh:

I think the vast differences in compensation between victims of the September 11 casualty and those who die serving our country in Uniform are profound. No one is really talking about it either, because you just don’t criticize anything having to do with September 11. Well, I can’t let the numbers pass by because it says something really disturbing about the entitlement mentality of this country. If you lost a family member in the September 11 attack, you’re going to get an average of $1,185,000. The range is a minimum guarantee of $250,000, all the way up to $4.7 million.
If you are a surviving family member of an American soldier killed in action, the first check you get is a $6,000 direct death benefit, half of which is taxable.

Next, you get $1,750 for burial costs. If you are the surviving spouse, you get $833 a month until you remarry. And there’s a payment of $211 per month for each child under 18. When the child hits 18, those payments come to a screeching halt.

Keep in mind that some of the people who are getting an average of $1.185 million up to $4.7 million are complaining that it’s not enough Their deaths were tragic, but for most, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Soldiers put themselves in harms way FOR ALL OF US, and they and their families know the dangers.

We also learned over the weekend that some of the victims from the Oklahoma City bombing have started an organization asking for the same deal that the September 11 families are getting. In addition to that, some of the families of those bombed in the embassies are now asking for compensation as well.

You see where this is going, don’t you? Folks, this is part and parcel of over 50 years of entitlement politics in this country. It’s just really sad. Every time a pay raise comes up for the military, they usually receive next to nothing of a raise. Now the green machine is in combat in the Middle East while their families have to survive on food stamps and live in low-rent housing Make sense?

However, our own US Congress voted themselves a raise. Many of you don’t know that they only have to be in Congress one time to receive a pension that is more than $15,000 per month. And most are now equal to being millionaires plus. They do not receive Social Security on retirement because they didn’t have to pay into the system. If some of the military people stay in for 20 years and get out as an E-7, they may receive a pension of $1,000 per month, and the very people who placed them in harm’s way receives a pension of $15,000 per month.

I would like to see our elected officials pick up a weapon and join ranks before they start cutting out benefits and lowering pay for our sons and daughters who are now fighting .

” When do we finally do something about this?” If this doesn’t seem fair to you, it is time to forward this to as many people as you can.

How many people

CAN YOU send this to?

****************************
And now the the Challenge……
How many WILL YOU ?

Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High School in Little Rock , did something not to be forgotten.  On the first day of school, with permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she took all of the desks out of the classroom.

The kids came into first period, they walked in, there were no desks.

They obviously looked around and said, “Ms. Cothren, where’s our desk?”

And she said, “You can’t have a desk until you tell me how you earn them.”

They thought, “Well, maybe it’s our grades.”

“No,” she said.

“Maybe it’s our behavior.”

And she told them, “No, it’s not even your behavior.”

And so they came and went in the first period, still no desks in the classroom.  Second period, same thing, third period.  By early afternoon television news crews had gathered in Ms. Cothren’s class to find out about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of the classroom. The last period of the day, Martha Cothren gathered her class.  They were at this time sitting on the floor around the sides of the room. And she says, “Throughout the day no one has really understood how you earn the desks that sit in this classroom ordinarily. ” She said, “Now I’m going to tell you.”

Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it, and as she did 27 U.S. veterans, wearing their uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. And they placed those school desks in rows, and then they stood along the wall. And by the time they had finished placing those desks, those kids for the first time I think perhaps in their lives understood how they earned those desks.

Martha said, “You don’t have to earn those desks.

These guys did it for you. They put them out there for you, but it’s up to you to sit here responsibly to learn, to be good students and good citizens, because they paid a price for you to have that desk, and don’t ever forget it.”

My friend, I think sometimes we forget that the freedoms that we have are freedoms not because of celebrities.  The freedoms are because of ordinary people who did extraordinary things, who loved this country more than life itself, and who not only earned a school desk for a kid at the Robinson High School in Little Rock, but who earned a seat for you and me to enjoy this great land we call home, this wonderful nation that we better love enough to protect and preserve with the kind of conservative, solid values and principles that made us a great nation.

“We live in the Land of the Free because of the brave”

Remember our Troops

Please send this to all of your friends even the Liberals.

I think they have forgotten how this country came to be and have lost the backbone to protect it.

Bloggers Note: I don’t think this really happened, but it’d be easy enough to check with the local school and TV station…Someone want to do that and send a Comment?