Japan’s population peaked in 2004 at about 127.8 million and is projected to fall to 89.9 million by 2055. The ratio of working-age to elderly Japanese fell from 8 to 1 in 1975 to 3.3 to 1 in 2005 and may shrivel to 1.3 to 1 in 2055. “In 2055, people will come to work when they have time off from long-term care,” said Kiyoaki Fujiwara, director of economic policy at the Japan Business Federation.

…

The transformation of developed societies – either into old folks’ homes (like Japan) or semi-Islamized dystopias (like Amsterdam, Brussels, etc) – will lead, in fact, to emigration. A young German or Japanese circa 2040 will have no reason whatsoever to stay in his native land and have most of his income confiscated in a vain attempt to prop up an unsustainable geriatric welfare system. So many will leave. Where will they go? At one time the obvious answer would have been America – but Good King Barack seems determined to saddle us with the same unaffordable entitlements that have scuttled the rest of the west.

For much of the developed world, the ”credit crunch”, the debt burden, and the rest are not part of a cyclical economic downturn but the first manifestations of an existential crisis.

The Western world (and I define that as any country that has been become integrated into the Western Industrial/Human Rights regime – Europe, Australia, New Zealand, U.S.A, Canada, Korea, Japan) is poised on the edge of a demographic cliff.

The decline of working age populations in these nations will large scale ramifications in the last half of the 21st century.

The United States is, statistically, in the best overall shape to weather this storm (to switch my metaphor).  Massive immigration (both legal and illegal) have kept the United States population growth above replacement level (2.0), but at the cost of an increasingly separatist Latin American and Muslim immigrant population.  Likewise, what population growth is occurring in Europe is mostly immigrant based, though their trends far more to the Muslim groups.

There are ways to ensure the continuation of Western culture, and America is the example – EVERYONE in America is descended from Immigrants. But we have been the most successful nation since Rome in actually integrating other peoples into our nation, and transferring our values to them. 

If we want to see America – and it’s values and culture – continue, there are steps we can take:

-English Language Only in Education and Government:  A common language is vital to a single national identity.

-A return to the teaching of Western History, and American History, in the public schools.

-Supporting through changes to the tax codes, zone regulations, and other function, a return to the extended nuclear family.

These steps are the total solution, but they are a start.

The alternative is that those of us in our 40s are going to watch our nation, and our culture, slowly dissolve…

An ugly pattern’s emerging in our president’s beliefs:

He’s infallible. This is rich, given all the criticism of the Bush administration’s unwillingness to admit mistakes. We now have a president with Jimmy Carter’s naivete, Richard Nixon‘s distaste for laws, Lyndon Johnson’s commitment to the wrong war, and Bill Clinton‘s moral fecklessness.

Democracy isn’t important. Our president seems infected by yesteryear’s Third-World-leftist view that dictatorships are essential to post-colonial development — especially for Muslims.

Look where Obama has gone and who he supports: the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, his groveling speech in Egypt, his embrace of Hamas, his hands-off approach to the gory regime in Sudan — and now his dismay at the protests in Iran.

Strict Islam is true Islam. This is bewildering, given Obama’s childhood exposure to the tolerant Islam practiced in most of Indonesia. The defining remark of his presidency thus far was his Cairo demand for the right of Muslim women to wear Islamic dress in the West — while remaining silent about their right to reject the hijab, burqa or chador in the Middle East.

History’s a blank canvas — except for America’s sins. Of course, we’ve had presidents who presented the past in the colors they preferred — but we’ve never had one who just made it all up.

Testify, Brother.

Today’s Recommend Reading.

“All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.”

President George W. Bush
Second Inaugural Speech
January 20, 2005

President Bush’s made this pledge to political dissidents and freedom activists in 2005, “We will stand with you.” And, the oppressed took him at his word. There was an Orange Revolution in Ukraine, a Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan, and a Cedar Revolution in Lebanon that spring. There were democratic elections in Afghanistan where women were not only allowed to vote but took seats in parliament. There were democratic elections for the first time in the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia released political dissidents. There were Arab democracy conferences in Qatar and women were allowed to vote in Kuwait. Egyptian judges stood up against a regime. Another regime in Libya opened up to the West. And who could forget the Iraqis who walked for miles, braving terrorist death threats, to vote in free democratic elections for the very first time.

President Bush later met with democracy activists from Burma on the twenty year anniversary of the bloody 8888 Protests in Burma. And before he left office in December 2008 President Bush met with dissident bloggers on Human Rights Day.

But those days are over. There’s a new administration in town with a new set of rules and a new set of priorities. Persecuted political dissidents and brave democracy activists do not rank high on the list.

Already this year the Obama Administration has waived sanctions on Syria, considered opening travel to Cuba, announced plans to drop sanctions against the murderous junta in Burma, reportedly approved Sharia Law in the tribal regions of Pakistan in exchange for a bogus peace treaty, praised the Venezuelan “democracy,” discussed holding talks with the Iranian regime, and accepted China’s human rights abuses. That’s quite a record and it hasn’t even been 200 days since they took office.

In February seven former Iranian student prisoners wrote a letter to President Obama and urged him to support the democratic movement of the Iranian people. Their letter went unanswered. It should come as no surprise then that as chaos broke out this weekend in Iran over a very controversial election result the Obama Administration fell silent.

Less than 24 hours after the flawed results were announced by the official media the Obama Administration announced that they would engage with the regime.

Whatever else his flaws, G. W. Bush was a vocal supporter of people around the world, of all faiths and races, who wanted to be free.

B. H. Obama, like most on the left, does not believe that Freedom and Democracy should be “imposed”, or, for that matter, that what we think of as American (or even Western) values are superior in any way to the oppression suffered by people in other nations, in the name of Religion or any particular brand of Politics.

Newsweek editor Evan Thomas brought adulation over President Obama’s Cairo speech to a whole new level on Friday, declaring on MSNBC: “I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above – above the world, he’s sort of God.”

…”Reagan was all about America, and you talked about it. Obama is ‘we are above that now.’ We’re not just parochial, we’re not just chauvinistic, we’re not just provincial.”

Thomas elaborated on Obama as God, patronizingly explaining: “He’s going to bring all different sides together…Obama is trying to sort of tamper everything down. He doesn’t even use the word terror. He uses extremism. He’s all about let us reason together…He’s the teacher. He is going to say, ‘now, children, stop fighting and quarreling with each other.’ And he has a kind of a moral authority that he – he can – he
can do that.”

Now beyond the obvious issue that anyone and everyone should have with a supposed Journalist and editor of a national (purported) News magazine likening a President to God, I have a greater issue with the other things that he said.

Reagan was President of The United States, and he was our greatest advocate and standard bearer.  Whatever else may be said about Reagan, he believed in this nation, and had unending pride in our accomplishments and our potential.  America is, after all, even today, the only nation on earth where literally MILLIONS of people struggle to emigrate to, so they can live in freedom of thought and religion, and (at least for the moment) have economic freedom.

What Thomas is saying is that Obama is ABOVE being America’s advocate.  That he has a higher calling.

And if Obama were President of the United Nations, I would probably not have a huge issue with that.

But it’s not his JOB to be the worlds Messiah, or Teacher on the Playground, as Thomas asserts.  His JOB is to represent the United State, and to look out for our best interests.

If Obama doesn’t, or can’t, put aside his own ambitions or personal feelings about America, he should resign his office.

The United States of America needs a President that has our best interests at heart, first and foremost.  We do NOT need a man dedicated to tearing America down to everyones elses level.  To taking away what makes America a special place.  And yes, a BETTER place that most other nations on this earth.

As an aside, in a recent speech, Obama made the following statement:

“I know there has been controversy about the promotion of democracy in recent years, and much of this controversy is connected to the war in Iraq. So let me be clear: no system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other.”

I have a serious problem with this, as should anyone who lives in freedom, enjoys freedom, or yearns for freedom, philosophically.  It is also patently untrue in a historic sense.

Indeed, in the ashes of World War II, which, coincidentally, is a subject today due to the anniversary of the D-Day invasion, America (and in some cases, our Allies) “imposed” representative forms of government on several nations, which remain in power today.

Iraq’s “imposed” Republic is stabilizing by the day.

Indeed, the most immoral thing possible is to ignore our brothers and sisters who even today suffer under repression and oppression.

Obama is a “…sort of God?”  What a horrible, sad thought for free people everywhere, and all those who yearn to be free.

…what we need is an ex post facto international regime with real teeth: You test a bomb, and you face certain and total economic embargo, one that will make the pre-emptive sanctions we have in place now seem like a day at the polo club. Right now China should be closing its border with North Korea, cutting off everything except food. It is only when the lights go off in Pyongyang that the North Koreans will seriously consider giving up the bomb.

I would go a little farther than Mr. Baer.

The US should announce a policy of overwhelming retaliation in case of Nuclear Attack against ANY of our allies; to include the bombing of all medium and large cities (say, over 50,000 population) and all military facilities.

I would also inform the North Koreans that any attack on South Korea, or ANY US ally, will be considered an act of war, and will result in the complete destruction of their nation, and, more importantly, their military.

I would also have charges brought before the United Nations of Crimes Against Humanity against the entire ruling party of North Korea.  There is ample evidence of their prison labor and “re-education” camps, the the routine use of starvation as a tool to keep the population in check.

But then, unlike the Obama administration (and pretty much all the administrations since 1953), I actually care about the suffering of the Korean people who are trapped in Kim Jog Il’s “workers paradise”…

Overall, the basic tenants are familiar:  Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, just expanded upon.

After reading through the UDHR, it occurs to me that there are less than a handful of nations where even a majority of the 30 (that’s right, 30!) enumerated rights enjoyed by the population.

In the vast majority of nations in the world, few if any of these “rights” are enjoyed by any but the societal elite; the United States being a one of the exceptions.

The first 21 articles deal with fairly fundamental issues, though a few venture somewhat far afield.  I think the Bill of Rights did a better job, far more succinctly.

ARTICLE 1… All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

ARTICLE 2… Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status

ARTICLE 3… Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

ARTICLE 4… No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

ARTICLE 5… No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

ARTICLE 6… Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

ARTICLE 7… All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

ARTICLE 8… Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

ARTICLE 9… No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

ARTICLE 10… Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

ARTICLE 11… (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

ARTICLE 12… No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

ARTICLE 13… (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

ARTICLE 14… (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

ARTICLE 15… (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

ARTICLE 16… (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses. (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

ARTICLE 17… (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

ARTICLE 18… Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

ARTICLE 19… Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

ARTICLE 20… (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

ARTICLE 21… (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country. (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

A few of the “rights” listed aren’t rights at all, but sound like Obama Campaign bullet points, or planks from the Socialist Democrat party platform:

ARTICLE 22… Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

ARTICLE 23… (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Note that the Obama Campaign supports, and the Socialist Democrat House and Senate are poised to pass the “Card Check” bill, which would do away with secret ballots for Union formation elections, setting the stage for massive growth in labor unions, as the union thugs will know who votes against them, and can take measures to re-educate “correct” their thinking on the issue.

ARTICLE 24… Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

ARTICLE 25… (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

ARTICLE 26… (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Really?  Leisure and Vacation are a “Right”, not a Benefit?  You have a “Right” to a standard of living (one that, as stated, is out of reach for the vast majority of people living today)?  The problem with calling EVERYTHING a Right, is that then nothing is a benefit.  If you deserve a decent paying job, a house, and all the rest, just by virtue of being born, then what is the incentive to work any harder than absolutely necessary?  Or improve yourself?

ARTICLE 27… (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

ARTICLE 28… Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

ARTICLE 29… (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society. (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

ARTICLE 30… Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

So, essentially, everyone has a Right to pretty much everything.  Since you have a Right to everything, you don’t need to worry about achieving anything, and you will automatically be provided for, according to this document.  After all, it’s your Right.

The operative portion of the Bill of Rights of the United States in enpowered by the Second Amendment – which includes the right to keep and bear arms.  I know that it is not fashionable to say this in 2008, but the 2nd Amendment is not talking about Hunting, but about an armed populace, ready – and able -  to defend the rights they won in the Revolution.  I notice that there is no such language in the UDHR. The only Right that can guarantee the others – the right to act against agression when those rights are taken – is not present in these articles.