Posts Tagged ‘Iron Curtain’

Matthew Vadum

Soros Wants IMF To Subsidize His Green Investments

by Matthew Vadum

Leftist troublemaker George Soros has already made it explicitly clear he wishes to destroy capitalism.

Maybe the Third World will help the hedge fund manager and currency manipulator do it.

The preeminent funder of the left in America wants the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to become a kind of globetrotting Bernard Madoff, offering low-interest loans to poor countries so they can invest in the doomed global warming industry.

George Soros, owner, Democratic Party

George Soros, owner, Democratic Party

According to Soros, the loans would allow developing countries to “jump-start forestry, land use, and agricultural projects – areas that offer the greatest scope for reducing or mitigating carbon emissions, and that could produce substantial returns from carbon markets.”

Soros, who personally wants to invest $1 billion in “clean” technology, wants the IMF to help stimulate demand for the technology he plans to underwrite.

(more…)

Gregory  Conko

Fall of the Wall: The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance

by Gregory Conko

Twenty years ago today, a figurative and literal tear appeared in the once seemingly impenetrable Iron Curtain–the Berlin Wall came tumbling down.  Soon after, millions of East Germans and others under Soviet domination would rise up and demand their freedom.

That day, November 9, 1989, will be remembered forever as one of the greatest in the history of human liberty.  Throughout the East Bloc, communism would begin to fall.  Millions would begin to experience political and social freedom for the first time. Families, separated for nearly 30 years would be reunited. And, throughout Eastern Europe, the fall of the Berlin Wall would create an opportunity to expose communism’s violent and merciless legacy.

In the United States, though, the anniversary will pass with barely a mention.  With a few noteworthy exceptions (see here and here), the American media has treated the event as an opportunity to praise Mikhail Gorbachev, condemn the West, and lament the coming of crony capitalism in Russia.

Not wanting to let the opportunity pass, some of my colleagues at the Competitive Enterprise Institute have produced a short video commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall .

(more…)

Nick Gillespie

Remembering the Victims of Communism

by Nick Gillespie

Twenty years ago today, the Berlin Wall was breached and Soviet communism, at long last, entered its death spiral.

After claiming approximately 100 million victims in the 20th century,communism was dismissed to the ash heap of history. But those who suffered under its boot heel have largely been confined to the history books when not forgotten altogether.

Author and historian Lee Edwards set out to correct this oversight with the creation of the Victims of Communism memorial and online museum, dedicated to those who perished because of Communist regimes between 1917 and 1989.

(more…)

Publius

Monday Open Thread: Freedom Edition

by Publius

Twenty years ago today, the Berlin Wall fell. The picture below isn’t from that day, but it speaks volumes about what the Wall represented. In this photo, an East German guard takes his chance to run for freedom as the Wall was being constructed in 1961.

1961-08-15-schuman_1516547i

The guard’s flight to freedom should inspire us. In the comments, tell us where you were on this day in 1989. Commit to remind at least one person of today’s anniversary. We don’t expect Big Media to note the date.

Thomas Del Beccaro

Reagan Was Noble, But Obama Got the Prize

by Thomas Del Beccaro

In an age where style trumps substance in so many ways, few can be surprised that a fledging President would receive a Nobel Peace Prize.  It bears repeating that Obama was President for just a matter of days before the nomination process was closed.  Nevertheless, and without any substantive accomplishment, Obama was awarded the Prize – unanimously – apparently for things to come.  No wonder 58% of Americans believe that politics was behind the choice.

reagan

By contrast, consider the accomplishment of Ronald Reagan who, last I checked, did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize.  According to Margaret Thatcher, Reagan won the Cold War “without firing a shot.”   In the words of Henry Kissinger, it was “the most stunning diplomatic feat of the modern era.”  In the wake of that victory, millions upon millions of people were set free – and, as history has shown, a free people are far more likely to be a peaceful people.

So why didn’t Reagan get the Prize?  The answer is simple, the political Left, including the Nobel committee, didn’t like the way Reagan went about setting people free.   Reagan, we well remember, installed missiles in Europe.  He did so because he believed what Thomas Jefferson told us long ago:  “Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace.”  Reagan, in time, would modernize Jefferson’s wisdom by advocating “peace through strength.”

(more…)