My latest book is now available at book stores everwhere. You may purchase it on Amazon and Barns&Noble. You may also buy it directly from me free shipping. This book is a complilation of the posts listed on Banging the Drum Blog
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
ETFs. OMG, HERE WE GO AGAIN
ETFs. OMG, Here We Go Again
It was announced today that ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) have now reached $1 Trillion dollars. Please take the time to research ETFs and if you can filter out most of the esoteric BS, you will find that ETFs are gussied-up derivatives. Brothers and Sisters, ETFs are not Capitalism; they are simply another way to make money off of money. Capitalism is when you invest your hard earned money into a business that is engaged in productive enterprise and the business makes a profit by producing something that people need or want. This adds to an economy. MONEY is not an economy. Money only enables commerce that makes it easier to grow an economy. Making money off of money cannot grow an economy and the growth of ETFs will be the next bubble that can destroy our fragile economy. Yes Gordon Gekko, greed is still alive and well.
It was announced today that ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) have now reached $1 Trillion dollars. Please take the time to research ETFs and if you can filter out most of the esoteric BS, you will find that ETFs are gussied-up derivatives. Brothers and Sisters, ETFs are not Capitalism; they are simply another way to make money off of money. Capitalism is when you invest your hard earned money into a business that is engaged in productive enterprise and the business makes a profit by producing something that people need or want. This adds to an economy. MONEY is not an economy. Money only enables commerce that makes it easier to grow an economy. Making money off of money cannot grow an economy and the growth of ETFs will be the next bubble that can destroy our fragile economy. Yes Gordon Gekko, greed is still alive and well.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
We Can't Win At The Ballot Box
You say you want to cut Big Government down to size and regain our freedoms by using the ballot box? Good luck with that. It can’t be done and here is the reason why. VESTING. That’s right fellow citizens, VESTING. What is vesting? Vesting is when you invest your money, time or other good and valuable resources into a program and then expect a return on your investment. Let me give you a real life example of how our elected Government uses Vesting as an insidious device to perpetuate and expand power by creating basically social programs that cannot ever be stopped or curtailed because of vesting. Let’s take Social Security as an example and here is how it works. You start a safety net program for old age and pass a law that says you must participate in the program by paying taxes to support the program. Viola, you are now part of the program and you can’t get out without losing all of the money you have paid in even if you could. After time passes you realize that you have paid a great deal of money into the system and you then demand that the program be continued in order that you receive your fair share of what you have invested into the system. In short, you have become VESTED regardless if you wanted to be or not, and the program can never, never ever, be terminated because the citizens have become VESTED in the program. It only gets better. The Government keeps on expanding the program (Social Security) into other areas and forces you to pay more taxes because you can’t or won’t get out of the program due to VESTING. I bet most people don’t realize that Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, Aid to Dependant Children, etc. were all enacted under the Social Security Act. Insidious because those who don't even pay into the system are now VESTED. Now multiply all of the others program that use vesting to perpetuate themselves and you have a situation where the citizens of this country will never allow anyone to stop these programs because of VESTING. For these programs to be fair, they should include an “Op In” clause so that if you want the Government to run your healthcare or retirement, then you must Op In into the program and only you and others who Op In to pay the taxes to support the program. I am now laughing out loud! You should live so long. I’m sorry Brothers and Sisters, you can’t fix our Big Government via the ballot box, our big Government was designed to be unstoppable.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Psst, Wanna Know a Secret?
Wanna know a secret? A secret that multi-billion dollar Pharmaceuticals Companies don’t want you to know? They don’t want you to know because if you knew, they couldn’t sell you a $5.00 pill that requires a $6.00 pill to address side effects the first pill caused and on and on. Ya know what I’m talking about here, don’t you? I’m talking about a way to prevent the common cold, that’s what. That’s right, it works every time and only costs pennies. Alright, stick with me now, think back to previous winters when it turned cold and your house got really dry inside and all of a sudden you started blowing small amounts of blood into your Kleenex. What happens is that the capillaries inside your nose are very close to the surface, and when it gets dry outside, the inside your nose starts to dry out too, exposing the capillaries and causing them to leak blood. You now have exposed blood vessels inside your nose that will permit the direct introduction of germs into your blood stream. So when you breathe in through your nose, you are providing an avenue for cold and others viruses that are in the air a way to get directly into your blood stream. Viruses and germs that have a direct path into your blood stream will ensure infection. This nonsense of washing your hands to prevent virus introduction into your mouth is a bunch of hooey. This is not how most colds are caught. Most colds are caught because the virus has a way to get into the blood stream (inside the nose) and directly causing a cold infection. What to do? Every morning grab a Q-Tip and dab a generous amount of Neosporin on it and then put it inside your nose to thoroughly spread it around in there. Do it for each side of your nose. What happens is that the petroleum base of the Neosporin will reverse the dryness inside your nose and thereby permit the openings in the capillaries that are leaking blood a chance to heal and no longer be an avenue for virus to infiltrate into the blood stream. This simple step will prevent most viruses from gaining an avenue to infect you. Also, the antibiotic compounds in Neosporin will kill any bad guys that are still in there. Rather simple and oh so logical. Try it, it really works, and you will enjoy a cold free winter without all of the colds remedies and misery.
Monday, November 8, 2010
MONEY, MONEY,MONEY
Bloomberg News reports that the Federal Reserve has "bought" $1.7 Trillion dollars of Federal Government Securities (Bonds) through March of 2010. The Federal Reserve will buy an additional $600 Billion of Federal Government securities through next June of 2011. Combine these "purchases" with some $300 Billion of Mortage bonds the Federal Reserve has already "purchased" and you have a reported $2.6 Trillion dollars added into the economy. Please bear in mind that these amounts are what has been reported by the Federal Reserve. The books of the Federal Reserved are closed to the public so we really have no knowledge of any other Federal Reserve "purchases". To gain perspective to this number, I just paid $2.88 per gallon of gasoline. $2.6 Trillion is:
$2,600,000,000,000 and will buy a lot of gasoline. It's unclear what this "created out of clear air" money means, but it can't be good, can it? For example, the Federal Government issues a Bond for X amount of dollars and those dollars go to pay for highway construction or whatever. That money goes into the economy as wages paid and materials are bought. If the Federal Reserve buys the Government debt bonds they are in essence creating the money that goes into the economy. Bear in mind this money was not created by productive enterprise so it has no value other than the value assumed by combining with real money and thereby reducing the value of all dollars. So what happens when when the Bonds bought by the Federal Reserve mature? Does the Federal Government pay back the Federal Reserve back with tax dollars? Does anyone really know what is happening here?
$2,600,000,000,000 and will buy a lot of gasoline. It's unclear what this "created out of clear air" money means, but it can't be good, can it? For example, the Federal Government issues a Bond for X amount of dollars and those dollars go to pay for highway construction or whatever. That money goes into the economy as wages paid and materials are bought. If the Federal Reserve buys the Government debt bonds they are in essence creating the money that goes into the economy. Bear in mind this money was not created by productive enterprise so it has no value other than the value assumed by combining with real money and thereby reducing the value of all dollars. So what happens when when the Bonds bought by the Federal Reserve mature? Does the Federal Government pay back the Federal Reserve back with tax dollars? Does anyone really know what is happening here?
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
2010 Election, Cities Versus The Rest of the Country
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this election is the patently obvious Cities versus the rest of the country outcome. Look at the 2010 election Red/Blue map. Don't underestimate the decades long development of the entitlement constituency among the mass population of the urban areas by the professional politicians. In other words, political and constitutional philosophy means little to the entitlement electorate and the historical schism between the Cities and the rest of the country is now fully realized within the body politic. This is the same schism that brought Rome to it's demise along with many other civilizations throughout history. The Tea Party movement and other political movements must understand this city/country schism in order to be effective in achieving political power.
Monday, October 4, 2010
HIGHSCHOOLS
HIGHSCHOOLS 1957 vs 2010
Scenario 1:Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck's gun rack. 1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack. 2010 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.
Scenario 2:Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school. 1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies. 2010 - Police called and SWAT team arrives -- they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged them with assault and both expelled even though Johnny started it.
Scenario 3:Jeffrey will not be still in class, he disrupts other students. 1957 - Jeffrey sent to the Principal's office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again. 2010 - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie. He is then tested for ADD. The family gets extra money (SSI) from the government because Jeffrey has a disability.
Scenario 4:Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt. 1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college and becomes a successful businessman. 2010 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist is told by Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has an affair with the psychologist.
Scenario 5:Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school. 1957 - Mark shares his aspirin with the Principal out on the smoking dock. 2010 - The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. His car is then searched for drugs and weapons.
Scenario 6:Pedro fails high school English. 1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.. 2010 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English is then banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.
Scenario 7:Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed. 1957 - Ants die. 2010 - ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents -- and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated. Johnny's dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.
Scenario 8:Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him. 1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing. 2010 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.
(Thanks to Mr. B. Franklin for this post.)
Scenario 1:Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck's gun rack. 1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack. 2010 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.
Scenario 2:Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school. 1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies. 2010 - Police called and SWAT team arrives -- they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged them with assault and both expelled even though Johnny started it.
Scenario 3:Jeffrey will not be still in class, he disrupts other students. 1957 - Jeffrey sent to the Principal's office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again. 2010 - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie. He is then tested for ADD. The family gets extra money (SSI) from the government because Jeffrey has a disability.
Scenario 4:Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt. 1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college and becomes a successful businessman. 2010 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist is told by Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has an affair with the psychologist.
Scenario 5:Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school. 1957 - Mark shares his aspirin with the Principal out on the smoking dock. 2010 - The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. His car is then searched for drugs and weapons.
Scenario 6:Pedro fails high school English. 1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.. 2010 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English is then banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.
Scenario 7:Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed. 1957 - Ants die. 2010 - ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents -- and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated. Johnny's dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.
Scenario 8:Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him. 1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing. 2010 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.
(Thanks to Mr. B. Franklin for this post.)
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Education, It's Time To Roll
Education Initiative
There is little controversy regarding the dismal state of public education in the country nowadays. Perhaps it’s time for the citizens of this country to roll up their sleeves and take up this issue because it is much too important an issue to continue to let Politicians and Special Interests keep using it as a political football while our children grow more ignorant by the day. As a matter of fact the time is now for Parents, Citizens and Tax Payers to insist that they be at the head of the table, as the number one special interest, when Educational reform is considered. What I’m suggesting here is that we all think deeply about this issue and then use our respective citizens forums to thoroughly and carefully discuss the issue so as to come a consensus of opinion as to facts, philosophy, problems and solutions concerning public education. We can then distil the results of our deliberations in order to codify a statement of facts and problems within the our educational systems and then set forth a set of recommendations to take to the appropriate Governor for action. If we all can do this, we can gain the initiative from the professional special interests and finally become a positive force that the politician and educational system will have to listen to. I will start the ball rolling with some comments to start fleshing out this important issue.
1. It is patently obvious that more money does not equal better education.
2. Lawyers must be taken out of the classroom.
3. Strict discipline in the classroom must be regained in order that our children have the proper environment to learn.
4. Culture is the most important factor that determines if children have a desire to learn.
5. Parents and citizens must approve textbooks and curriculum to ensure our children are being educated and not indoctrinated.
6. Teaching is one of Man’s most honorable professions and is not a job. Unions are for protecting and representing workers that have a job, so therefore, teacher’s unions cannot represent the honorable profession of teaching.
How is that for starters? This is a big issue and perhaps this can be a great test to see if Parents and Citizens can effect important change divorced from the political class. Come on Patriots, let’s roll!
There is little controversy regarding the dismal state of public education in the country nowadays. Perhaps it’s time for the citizens of this country to roll up their sleeves and take up this issue because it is much too important an issue to continue to let Politicians and Special Interests keep using it as a political football while our children grow more ignorant by the day. As a matter of fact the time is now for Parents, Citizens and Tax Payers to insist that they be at the head of the table, as the number one special interest, when Educational reform is considered. What I’m suggesting here is that we all think deeply about this issue and then use our respective citizens forums to thoroughly and carefully discuss the issue so as to come a consensus of opinion as to facts, philosophy, problems and solutions concerning public education. We can then distil the results of our deliberations in order to codify a statement of facts and problems within the our educational systems and then set forth a set of recommendations to take to the appropriate Governor for action. If we all can do this, we can gain the initiative from the professional special interests and finally become a positive force that the politician and educational system will have to listen to. I will start the ball rolling with some comments to start fleshing out this important issue.
1. It is patently obvious that more money does not equal better education.
2. Lawyers must be taken out of the classroom.
3. Strict discipline in the classroom must be regained in order that our children have the proper environment to learn.
4. Culture is the most important factor that determines if children have a desire to learn.
5. Parents and citizens must approve textbooks and curriculum to ensure our children are being educated and not indoctrinated.
6. Teaching is one of Man’s most honorable professions and is not a job. Unions are for protecting and representing workers that have a job, so therefore, teacher’s unions cannot represent the honorable profession of teaching.
How is that for starters? This is a big issue and perhaps this can be a great test to see if Parents and Citizens can effect important change divorced from the political class. Come on Patriots, let’s roll!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
BALLOT BOX REVOLUTION
Conventional wisdom is that the American democracy provides for periodic revolution at the ballot box, therefore negating the need for the more historic type of revolution. I am beginning to question if that wisdom can prevail for the ballot box revolution to disestablish the huge federal establishment that the Tea Party agitates for. And here is the reason why. Most all of the federalization of everything has become institutionalized into the entire fabric of American life and we all have become “vested” in it. It is the INSIDIOUS way to build a new government that is not constitutional. Just one example of “vesting” is the Social Security act. SS was promoted as a safety net for old age that has now morphed into a social engineering vehicle to promote a socialist fabric people can become comfortable with (bet you didn’t know Medicare and Medicaid, as well as Obamacare was enacted under the Social Security act). Here is how the “vesting” takes place. The Govt. taxes you for your share of Social Security, and after time passes, you demand your “fair” share of social security because you have your money invested in it. INSIDIOUS. Do you recall the incredible sound bite during the run up to Obamacare that had an elderly lady saying, “We don’t want socialized medicine and don’t be messing with my Medicare either”? INSIDIOUS. I fervently hope we can affect a revolution at the ballot box on 2 Nov., but when push come to shove, I really don’t think the “vested” population will support a real disestablishment of the Federal Government back to Constitutional size.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
SALARIAT
SALARIAT, The Fourth Branch of Government
Breaking News: The Federal Government work force is growing. Perhaps I engaged in a little hyperbole here because this really isn’t breaking news, but then, what is breaking news nowadays anyway? Ready for some numbers?
Total Federal Employment (less Postal Service)
Year 2007 3,776,000
Year 2008 3,919,000
Year 2009 4,188,000
Source: US Office of Personnel Management, Federal Employee Statistics
http://www.opm.gov/feddata/HistoricalTables/ExecutiveBranchSince1940.asp
There are the numbers, but what does it mean other than it takes a lot of Bureaucrats to run the Federal Government establishment? Well for one thing, all of these federal employees are salaried, i.e., they are not paid wages for their labor, they are instead, paid a salary. The romantic word for those who work for wages is the Proletariat. Those who work for a salary also have a word to describe them and that word is the Salariat. Salariat is not a new word. Socialist and Communist intellectuals coined the word to describe the necessary Government salaried Administrators to turn their esoteric political philosophy into mundane everyday practice. But what is so important to our benevolent Socialist and Communist intellectuals about the distinction of being a salaried government Bureaucrats rather than being a wage paid government Bureaucrat? Wages are normally paid for work associated with producing a product and so the expense of labor is part of the product price. This arrangement means that there are customers required to purchase the product being produced and this means that the one working to product the product is therefore connected to the customer, i.e., no product, bad product or too expensive product, no customer and no more wages. That is to say, wages are part of the production expense. Salary paid to government Bureaucrats are simply an administrative expense born by the taxpayers and the one receiving the salary is only required to administer the laws, rules and regulations assigned to them and so they are only connected to the salary paying Bureau or office they belong to. That is to say, the Bureaucrats will continue to receive their salary regardless what taxpayers or citizens say or do because they are only connected to the Bureau or Office that pays them their salary. This distinction of salaried Bureaucrats is so important that both Bernard Shaw and John Maynard Keynes said that salaried Bureaucrats (the Salariat) is the administrative vehicle designed to operate the Socialist society.
So, if one wanted to fundamentally transform a Democratic Republic into a
Socialistic Government, one would have to establish a salaried Bureaucracy big enough to do the job. That is exactly what has been happening as President Obama appoints Czars without Congressional approval, takes over the healthcare system that has untold numbers of new boards and offices to administer the new program, and on and on. Lets just look at the new national Healthcare program. Not only is there over 2,300 pages to describe a new law that no one understands, Bureaucrats are busy creating thousands of new rules and regulations that will have the force of law without the necessity of having the peoples congress being involved. Hey, who needs that messy democratic congress thing when we will have salaried Bureaucrats that will, for all intents and Socialistic purposes, become the fourth branch of Government?
Breaking News: The Federal Government work force is growing. Perhaps I engaged in a little hyperbole here because this really isn’t breaking news, but then, what is breaking news nowadays anyway? Ready for some numbers?
Total Federal Employment (less Postal Service)
Year 2007 3,776,000
Year 2008 3,919,000
Year 2009 4,188,000
Source: US Office of Personnel Management, Federal Employee Statistics
http://www.opm.gov/feddata/HistoricalTables/ExecutiveBranchSince1940.asp
There are the numbers, but what does it mean other than it takes a lot of Bureaucrats to run the Federal Government establishment? Well for one thing, all of these federal employees are salaried, i.e., they are not paid wages for their labor, they are instead, paid a salary. The romantic word for those who work for wages is the Proletariat. Those who work for a salary also have a word to describe them and that word is the Salariat. Salariat is not a new word. Socialist and Communist intellectuals coined the word to describe the necessary Government salaried Administrators to turn their esoteric political philosophy into mundane everyday practice. But what is so important to our benevolent Socialist and Communist intellectuals about the distinction of being a salaried government Bureaucrats rather than being a wage paid government Bureaucrat? Wages are normally paid for work associated with producing a product and so the expense of labor is part of the product price. This arrangement means that there are customers required to purchase the product being produced and this means that the one working to product the product is therefore connected to the customer, i.e., no product, bad product or too expensive product, no customer and no more wages. That is to say, wages are part of the production expense. Salary paid to government Bureaucrats are simply an administrative expense born by the taxpayers and the one receiving the salary is only required to administer the laws, rules and regulations assigned to them and so they are only connected to the salary paying Bureau or office they belong to. That is to say, the Bureaucrats will continue to receive their salary regardless what taxpayers or citizens say or do because they are only connected to the Bureau or Office that pays them their salary. This distinction of salaried Bureaucrats is so important that both Bernard Shaw and John Maynard Keynes said that salaried Bureaucrats (the Salariat) is the administrative vehicle designed to operate the Socialist society.
So, if one wanted to fundamentally transform a Democratic Republic into a
Socialistic Government, one would have to establish a salaried Bureaucracy big enough to do the job. That is exactly what has been happening as President Obama appoints Czars without Congressional approval, takes over the healthcare system that has untold numbers of new boards and offices to administer the new program, and on and on. Lets just look at the new national Healthcare program. Not only is there over 2,300 pages to describe a new law that no one understands, Bureaucrats are busy creating thousands of new rules and regulations that will have the force of law without the necessity of having the peoples congress being involved. Hey, who needs that messy democratic congress thing when we will have salaried Bureaucrats that will, for all intents and Socialistic purposes, become the fourth branch of Government?
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
VERITAS THROUGH A LOOKING GLASS
Veritas Through a Looking Glass
Roger said, “I am lying.” Is what Roger said the truth or a lie? When you consider what Roger said, there is no truth to be found, only a paradox. So how is one to know the truth (Veritas) when the truth is always viewed through the subjective human looking glass like the Roger statement above? How about another anecdotal example of Veritas through the subjective human looking glass? In 1809 the Miami Indians, in what is now the central area of Indiana, reluctantly agreed to a treaty (The treaty of Fort Wayne) to sell some 3,000,000 acres of their land so that white settlers could establish homesteads in what is now central Indiana. The treaty was signed by the Miami, Potawatomi, Delaware, Wea and Kickapoo Indian tribes for subsidies and payments that amounted to about 3 cents per acre (the treaty is also known as the 10 O’clock Line Treaty). The Miami War Chief, Little Turtle, did not trust the white man’s instruments because he said the white man could manipulate what the surveying instruments indicated (as relating to the agreed upon true direction of the boundary line) and so he would only sign the treaty if the boundary line of the tract of land to be sold was determined by the direction of a shadow cast on the ground by a spear at ten o’clock in the morning. I can’t imagine why Little Turtle did not trust the white man, can you? But I digress. So where is truth as to the direction of the boundary line to be found? Is the truth to be found in the white man’s scientific surveying instruments or the local sun at 10 o’clock in the morning casting a shadow of a spear thrust onto the good soil that the Miami Indians were currently living on? It mattered little where the truth was hiding because Tecumseh, who was living just north of the ceded lands, took much exception to the treaty. Tecumseh traveled to Vincennes with 400-armed warriors and met with Governor William Henry Harrison to demand that the treaty be rescinded. Harrison said no. Tecumseh said he would ally with the British to void the treaty with armed force. The battle of Tippecanoe ensued and all of this eventually led to the war of 1812 with the British. So was the truth concerning the direction of the boundary line instrumental in what happened later as consequences, unintended and otherwise, unfolded? Not really because Veritas is subjective and always subject to interpretation by whomever has the most power or is victorious. All of this leads me to question the veracity of the notion that President Obama will oversee a fundamental transformation of the United States of America. Will knowing the truth in this matter really make a difference to you and me? I doubt it because if the transformation is to be from a democratic Republic to a socialistic Government, then all freedom and independent loving citizens will take exception to the transformation and gather together to defeat the notion rendering it false. If the transition to a socialistic Government occurs and we all yearn for a utopia where all men are forced by Government to be equal, then the notion of transformation will be made true. Regardless what the President really meant when he said he was going to fundamentally transform America, the truth will not be known until all of the consequences of all of the actions relating to this matter have played out. So Veritas will likely never be served until we are no longer upright on the sunny side of the grass. Nevertheless, I really like the word Veritas. I like it because it sounds like a more authoritative word than the English word Truth does, don’t you think? Well, if you are searching for the truth, or Veritas, in what President Obama is doing nowadays, I urge you to spend some time reading the following authoritarian account of John Maynard Keynes at Harvard University. Why read about Keynes at Harvard? What you will discover upon reading the account is that President Obama is a student of Keynes and the true agenda of his Presidency can most likely be found in the pages detailing the life and time of John Maynard Keynes.
Click here: http://www.keynesatharvard.org/book/KeynesatHarvard-ch04.html
Long live Veritas.
Roger said, “I am lying.” Is what Roger said the truth or a lie? When you consider what Roger said, there is no truth to be found, only a paradox. So how is one to know the truth (Veritas) when the truth is always viewed through the subjective human looking glass like the Roger statement above? How about another anecdotal example of Veritas through the subjective human looking glass? In 1809 the Miami Indians, in what is now the central area of Indiana, reluctantly agreed to a treaty (The treaty of Fort Wayne) to sell some 3,000,000 acres of their land so that white settlers could establish homesteads in what is now central Indiana. The treaty was signed by the Miami, Potawatomi, Delaware, Wea and Kickapoo Indian tribes for subsidies and payments that amounted to about 3 cents per acre (the treaty is also known as the 10 O’clock Line Treaty). The Miami War Chief, Little Turtle, did not trust the white man’s instruments because he said the white man could manipulate what the surveying instruments indicated (as relating to the agreed upon true direction of the boundary line) and so he would only sign the treaty if the boundary line of the tract of land to be sold was determined by the direction of a shadow cast on the ground by a spear at ten o’clock in the morning. I can’t imagine why Little Turtle did not trust the white man, can you? But I digress. So where is truth as to the direction of the boundary line to be found? Is the truth to be found in the white man’s scientific surveying instruments or the local sun at 10 o’clock in the morning casting a shadow of a spear thrust onto the good soil that the Miami Indians were currently living on? It mattered little where the truth was hiding because Tecumseh, who was living just north of the ceded lands, took much exception to the treaty. Tecumseh traveled to Vincennes with 400-armed warriors and met with Governor William Henry Harrison to demand that the treaty be rescinded. Harrison said no. Tecumseh said he would ally with the British to void the treaty with armed force. The battle of Tippecanoe ensued and all of this eventually led to the war of 1812 with the British. So was the truth concerning the direction of the boundary line instrumental in what happened later as consequences, unintended and otherwise, unfolded? Not really because Veritas is subjective and always subject to interpretation by whomever has the most power or is victorious. All of this leads me to question the veracity of the notion that President Obama will oversee a fundamental transformation of the United States of America. Will knowing the truth in this matter really make a difference to you and me? I doubt it because if the transformation is to be from a democratic Republic to a socialistic Government, then all freedom and independent loving citizens will take exception to the transformation and gather together to defeat the notion rendering it false. If the transition to a socialistic Government occurs and we all yearn for a utopia where all men are forced by Government to be equal, then the notion of transformation will be made true. Regardless what the President really meant when he said he was going to fundamentally transform America, the truth will not be known until all of the consequences of all of the actions relating to this matter have played out. So Veritas will likely never be served until we are no longer upright on the sunny side of the grass. Nevertheless, I really like the word Veritas. I like it because it sounds like a more authoritative word than the English word Truth does, don’t you think? Well, if you are searching for the truth, or Veritas, in what President Obama is doing nowadays, I urge you to spend some time reading the following authoritarian account of John Maynard Keynes at Harvard University. Why read about Keynes at Harvard? What you will discover upon reading the account is that President Obama is a student of Keynes and the true agenda of his Presidency can most likely be found in the pages detailing the life and time of John Maynard Keynes.
Click here: http://www.keynesatharvard.org/book/KeynesatHarvard-ch04.html
Long live Veritas.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
STIMULATING STIMULUS
Stimulating Stimulus
A drunk once confided to me: The reason God created booze and brewski was so that ugly people could enjoy sex too. I really don’t know why the fellow directed his observation about ugly drunk people in my direction but I did think at length about what he apparently said in humor. You know things like, if God wanted to ensure that the planet would always be fully populated, creating booze and brewski would be an easy way to do it. You know, a sort of Divine Stimulus Program. Nevertheless, I did curtail my alcohol consumption several-fold to test the drunk’s hypothesis and to lose some weight, what the sunshine boys call a Win, Win situation. On second thought, given that the hypothesis might indeed be correct, then perhaps it could end up being a Lose, Win situation. All of this brings to mind the famous quotation attributed to Sir Winston Churchill when Lady Astor accused him of being drunk, to wit the grand man was reported to have said, “Yes, madam, I am drunk. But in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly." But I digress. The Divine Stimulus Program to keep the planet populated got me to thinking about the Washington (Divine) Stimulus Program, you know, the one where the Government is creating money and the created money will somehow be injected into the economy which will then “stimulate” demand, which will then stimulate the economy to produce more goods, services, etc., which will stimulate the creation of jobs, which will stimulate the payment of money for labor (physical and intellectual), the payment of money for labor will then stimulate more demand for goods and services and, voila, a functioning and viable free market economy where only ruin and wreckage had once prevailed. Yeah, right. In days gone by, I was a Program Manager and I had to go to Washington DC to pitch my programs at Navy Headquarters in order to get money to execute my programs that the Navy wanted. The pitch was usually a view-graft presentation showing all of the elements of the program and how it would all come together, on time and within budget. Usually somewhere in the presentation things would inevitably get a little hazy on how a key element would occur (like requiring a technology that did not yet exist) and this is the place where a miracle would need to take place to make the program successful. Well in reality there are no such things as miracles and the so-called Government stimulus program requires a miracle somewhere in there to make it successful, and here is the reason why. First, there are two basic kinds of economies, a Top Down Economy (managed economy, e.g., USSR) and a Bottom Up Economy (free market economy, e.g., USA), with many variations in between. The USA has a free market economy even though with each passing day it becomes more and more a managed economy. The government intervening into a free market place by throwing artificial money into the system (the stimulus program, with more about artificial money later) transforms the functioning of the free market because the intervention is an attempt to manage the economy rather than let the free market place manage the economy. Just like you can’t really pay off a credit card with a credit card, you really can’t manage a free market place by intervening in it. If you attempt to manage a free market, you can only further disrupt the functioning of the economy. This counterproductive situation should be patently obvious even to Flim Flam Politicians. Let’s talk about money. Money is a wonderful invention by man to facilitate the functioning of an economy. Without money, we would be reduced to barter, and we all understand that an economy based upon barter would leave us stuck in the Stone Age. Real money is the medium of exchange (gold, paper certificate, ones & zeros, etc.) that we all agree has the same value as our labor, goods or property. Money relies exclusively upon the faith and trust of the people that money is as valuable as their hard work, property and productive enterprise. Real money can only be produced by productive enterprise because only real money represents real value. The Government cannot produce real money, only productive enterprise can produce real money and only real money is viable in a free market place because it alone represents real value. Government can only produce artificial money because it (the Government) is not engaged in productive enterprise in a free market economy. If the Government produces (prints or borrows) artificial money, that artificial money can only dilute the value of real money (inflation) because it (artificial money) was not produced by productive enterprise. Unless a miracle occurs, throwing artificial money into a free market economy cannot possibly grow the economy because the artificial money does not represent real value and the intervention is doomed to eventual failure. The only possible way to restart the economy and cause it to grow is to create the conditions favorable to productive enterprise. This can be done by a moratorium on business taxes, eliminate capital gains tax, provide incentives for business to do business here rather than outsourcing factories and jobs to more favorable locations. The most important change that must occur before any long term improvement can occur is that our economy must change from a 70% consumer driven Gross National Product (GNP) to a more sustainable productive enterprise GNP. So here is the situation that we are stuck with in this Government Stimulus Intervention. We will all get drunk on artificial money, but in the morning we will be sober, and the economy will still be ugly.
A drunk once confided to me: The reason God created booze and brewski was so that ugly people could enjoy sex too. I really don’t know why the fellow directed his observation about ugly drunk people in my direction but I did think at length about what he apparently said in humor. You know things like, if God wanted to ensure that the planet would always be fully populated, creating booze and brewski would be an easy way to do it. You know, a sort of Divine Stimulus Program. Nevertheless, I did curtail my alcohol consumption several-fold to test the drunk’s hypothesis and to lose some weight, what the sunshine boys call a Win, Win situation. On second thought, given that the hypothesis might indeed be correct, then perhaps it could end up being a Lose, Win situation. All of this brings to mind the famous quotation attributed to Sir Winston Churchill when Lady Astor accused him of being drunk, to wit the grand man was reported to have said, “Yes, madam, I am drunk. But in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly." But I digress. The Divine Stimulus Program to keep the planet populated got me to thinking about the Washington (Divine) Stimulus Program, you know, the one where the Government is creating money and the created money will somehow be injected into the economy which will then “stimulate” demand, which will then stimulate the economy to produce more goods, services, etc., which will stimulate the creation of jobs, which will stimulate the payment of money for labor (physical and intellectual), the payment of money for labor will then stimulate more demand for goods and services and, voila, a functioning and viable free market economy where only ruin and wreckage had once prevailed. Yeah, right. In days gone by, I was a Program Manager and I had to go to Washington DC to pitch my programs at Navy Headquarters in order to get money to execute my programs that the Navy wanted. The pitch was usually a view-graft presentation showing all of the elements of the program and how it would all come together, on time and within budget. Usually somewhere in the presentation things would inevitably get a little hazy on how a key element would occur (like requiring a technology that did not yet exist) and this is the place where a miracle would need to take place to make the program successful. Well in reality there are no such things as miracles and the so-called Government stimulus program requires a miracle somewhere in there to make it successful, and here is the reason why. First, there are two basic kinds of economies, a Top Down Economy (managed economy, e.g., USSR) and a Bottom Up Economy (free market economy, e.g., USA), with many variations in between. The USA has a free market economy even though with each passing day it becomes more and more a managed economy. The government intervening into a free market place by throwing artificial money into the system (the stimulus program, with more about artificial money later) transforms the functioning of the free market because the intervention is an attempt to manage the economy rather than let the free market place manage the economy. Just like you can’t really pay off a credit card with a credit card, you really can’t manage a free market place by intervening in it. If you attempt to manage a free market, you can only further disrupt the functioning of the economy. This counterproductive situation should be patently obvious even to Flim Flam Politicians. Let’s talk about money. Money is a wonderful invention by man to facilitate the functioning of an economy. Without money, we would be reduced to barter, and we all understand that an economy based upon barter would leave us stuck in the Stone Age. Real money is the medium of exchange (gold, paper certificate, ones & zeros, etc.) that we all agree has the same value as our labor, goods or property. Money relies exclusively upon the faith and trust of the people that money is as valuable as their hard work, property and productive enterprise. Real money can only be produced by productive enterprise because only real money represents real value. The Government cannot produce real money, only productive enterprise can produce real money and only real money is viable in a free market place because it alone represents real value. Government can only produce artificial money because it (the Government) is not engaged in productive enterprise in a free market economy. If the Government produces (prints or borrows) artificial money, that artificial money can only dilute the value of real money (inflation) because it (artificial money) was not produced by productive enterprise. Unless a miracle occurs, throwing artificial money into a free market economy cannot possibly grow the economy because the artificial money does not represent real value and the intervention is doomed to eventual failure. The only possible way to restart the economy and cause it to grow is to create the conditions favorable to productive enterprise. This can be done by a moratorium on business taxes, eliminate capital gains tax, provide incentives for business to do business here rather than outsourcing factories and jobs to more favorable locations. The most important change that must occur before any long term improvement can occur is that our economy must change from a 70% consumer driven Gross National Product (GNP) to a more sustainable productive enterprise GNP. So here is the situation that we are stuck with in this Government Stimulus Intervention. We will all get drunk on artificial money, but in the morning we will be sober, and the economy will still be ugly.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
AMENDMENT XXVII
Amendment XXVII
(Proposed)
Section 1. The seventeenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed in its entirety.
Section 2. Senators appointed by their respective State Legislature to the Congress shall be compensated exclusively by the State Legislature that appointed them for all expenses and wages associated with the execution of their appointed office. Acceptance of any compensation or gift whatsoever by the Senator from any source other than from the appointing State Legislature shall be cause for immediate removal from office.
Section 3. Representatives elected to the Congress shall be compensated exclusively by the Congressional District from which they were elected for all expenses and wages associated with the execution of their elected office. Acceptance of any compensation or gift whatsoever by the Representative from any source other than the electing Congressional District shall be cause for immediate removal from office.
(Proposed)
Section 1. The seventeenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed in its entirety.
Section 2. Senators appointed by their respective State Legislature to the Congress shall be compensated exclusively by the State Legislature that appointed them for all expenses and wages associated with the execution of their appointed office. Acceptance of any compensation or gift whatsoever by the Senator from any source other than from the appointing State Legislature shall be cause for immediate removal from office.
Section 3. Representatives elected to the Congress shall be compensated exclusively by the Congressional District from which they were elected for all expenses and wages associated with the execution of their elected office. Acceptance of any compensation or gift whatsoever by the Representative from any source other than the electing Congressional District shall be cause for immediate removal from office.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
POLITICAL PARTIES, ENDURING NEMESIS
Political Parties,
Enduring Nemesis of the Republic
I believe it was Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote in his 1513 Tome, The Prince, “What doctors say about consumption applies here: at the beginning the disease is easy to cure but difficult to diagnose, but in the course of time, when it was not diagnosed at first and treated, it becomes easy to diagnose but difficult to cure. Thus it happens in the affairs of state: if the evils that are developing are diagnosed from afar (which only the prudent man can do), they are quickly cured, but when they have not been diagnosed and are allowed to grow so that everyone recognizes them, then there is no longer any remedy for them.” It is my considered opinion that Political Parties, and the intellectuals who shape and control them, is ever much like the disease of consumption that Machiavelli used as a metaphor for the evils that can destroy a State. Just as the disease of consumption (tuberculosis) has a germ that is the basis of the disease (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and is the evil that can destroy a healthy body, there is also an evil that can also destroy the healthy body of a Constitutional Republic. The evil that can destroy a healthy, liberty-loving Constitutional Republic is a disease called factionalism. The disease of factionalism can destroy a healthy, liberty loving Constitutional Republic just as easily as consumption can destroy a healthy active human body. The disease of factionalism also has a germ that is the basis for the disease, and the deadly germ that causes the disease of factionalism is called a political party. Political parties are created for the expressed purpose of representing factions and then gaining power to prevail over other created factions. Political parties are therefore the very antithesis of a freedom-loving people seeking ways to come together for common cause. American political parties began with the establishment of the Federalists (strong federal government) and Anti-federalists (fearful of a strong federal government usurping a state’s sovereignty) and continue until this day. As Machiavelli pointed out, now that the disease of factionalism is finally diagnosed, the likelihood of curing the disease is a most difficult endeavor. Perhaps you are thinking that I’m overstating the importance of political parties being antithesis to our beloved Republic. Fair enough. Then perhaps you will consider the farewell address of President George Washington wherein the first President devoted most of his remarks about the evils of political parties. I have included a portion of his historic remarks on the subject below:
“They (political parties) serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
Even though it will be nearly impossible for the American people to cure the disease of factionalism caused by political parties, by the grace of liberty, it can be done. We can kill the germ of political parties by not supporting them in any fashion whatsoever. Come on America, don’t you really think it’s time for us citizens to think for ourselves and renew the Republic on an individual basis. I know it will be extremely difficult for a people conditioned by an entitlement culture fashioned by political parties to create lifelong constituencies, but it can be done by becoming independent citizens and voters and giving all political parties the boot.
Enduring Nemesis of the Republic
I believe it was Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote in his 1513 Tome, The Prince, “What doctors say about consumption applies here: at the beginning the disease is easy to cure but difficult to diagnose, but in the course of time, when it was not diagnosed at first and treated, it becomes easy to diagnose but difficult to cure. Thus it happens in the affairs of state: if the evils that are developing are diagnosed from afar (which only the prudent man can do), they are quickly cured, but when they have not been diagnosed and are allowed to grow so that everyone recognizes them, then there is no longer any remedy for them.” It is my considered opinion that Political Parties, and the intellectuals who shape and control them, is ever much like the disease of consumption that Machiavelli used as a metaphor for the evils that can destroy a State. Just as the disease of consumption (tuberculosis) has a germ that is the basis of the disease (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and is the evil that can destroy a healthy body, there is also an evil that can also destroy the healthy body of a Constitutional Republic. The evil that can destroy a healthy, liberty-loving Constitutional Republic is a disease called factionalism. The disease of factionalism can destroy a healthy, liberty loving Constitutional Republic just as easily as consumption can destroy a healthy active human body. The disease of factionalism also has a germ that is the basis for the disease, and the deadly germ that causes the disease of factionalism is called a political party. Political parties are created for the expressed purpose of representing factions and then gaining power to prevail over other created factions. Political parties are therefore the very antithesis of a freedom-loving people seeking ways to come together for common cause. American political parties began with the establishment of the Federalists (strong federal government) and Anti-federalists (fearful of a strong federal government usurping a state’s sovereignty) and continue until this day. As Machiavelli pointed out, now that the disease of factionalism is finally diagnosed, the likelihood of curing the disease is a most difficult endeavor. Perhaps you are thinking that I’m overstating the importance of political parties being antithesis to our beloved Republic. Fair enough. Then perhaps you will consider the farewell address of President George Washington wherein the first President devoted most of his remarks about the evils of political parties. I have included a portion of his historic remarks on the subject below:
“They (political parties) serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
Even though it will be nearly impossible for the American people to cure the disease of factionalism caused by political parties, by the grace of liberty, it can be done. We can kill the germ of political parties by not supporting them in any fashion whatsoever. Come on America, don’t you really think it’s time for us citizens to think for ourselves and renew the Republic on an individual basis. I know it will be extremely difficult for a people conditioned by an entitlement culture fashioned by political parties to create lifelong constituencies, but it can be done by becoming independent citizens and voters and giving all political parties the boot.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Soak the Rich?
At what point does it finally sink in that 47% of American households pay no taxes at all. Honest. Really. No S---. Try to visualize that down trotten 47% when they get out of their new Beamer to go to a MEDICAID appointment (this actually happened) and whip out their food stamps to buy that choice Angus steak you loving look at but can't afford. The good and hard working citizen of this country have become pathetic dupes that are as easily manipulated as a child can be with a hand full of candy.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
SPLENLICIOUS
Splenlicious
Wretched souls that bask in darkness on a sun shiny day
And finds comfort in misery any old way
Only rattles a young man’s spirit
And hurts a loving woman’s heart
But let me be the one that can always say
Listen; listen with all of your heart
And you will gladly hear once more
Hushed whispers dancing on perfumed air
Drifting away from fresh brow and shinning hair
Pushed outward by youth and urgent desires
And flowing into my memories long put away, put away
Oh to drink again from your loving cup
Just one more sip from your loving cup
Wouldn’t that be so Splenlicious
When I see a love bent down with age and despair
And can find no brightness to share anywhere
Can there be a way to bring back the light
To feed a hungry soul and beat back the dark
Let me be the one that can always say
Listen; listen with all of your heart
And you will gladly hear once more
Hushed whispers dancing on perfumed air
Drifting away from fresh brow and shinning hair
Pushed outward by youth and urgent desires
And flowing into my memories long put away, put away
Oh to drink again from your loving cup
Just one more sip from your loving cup
Wouldn’t that be so Splenlicious
Wretched souls that bask in darkness on a sun shiny day
And finds comfort in misery any old way
Only rattles a young man’s spirit
And hurts a loving woman’s heart
But let me be the one that can always say
Listen; listen with all of your heart
And you will gladly hear once more
Hushed whispers dancing on perfumed air
Drifting away from fresh brow and shinning hair
Pushed outward by youth and urgent desires
And flowing into my memories long put away, put away
Oh to drink again from your loving cup
Just one more sip from your loving cup
Wouldn’t that be so Splenlicious
When I see a love bent down with age and despair
And can find no brightness to share anywhere
Can there be a way to bring back the light
To feed a hungry soul and beat back the dark
Let me be the one that can always say
Listen; listen with all of your heart
And you will gladly hear once more
Hushed whispers dancing on perfumed air
Drifting away from fresh brow and shinning hair
Pushed outward by youth and urgent desires
And flowing into my memories long put away, put away
Oh to drink again from your loving cup
Just one more sip from your loving cup
Wouldn’t that be so Splenlicious
Friday, July 9, 2010
THE BIG LIE
The Big Lie
Are you old enough to remember the Nazis? No, no, not the wacky and oh so funny Nazis of Hogan’s Heroes, the real Nazis that rose mass murder to a scientific endeavor and wanted to rule the world as the Master Race. Perhaps you also forgot that the term NAZI was an acronym that stood for the National SOCIALIST German Worker’s Party. It is no accident that the word Socialist always shows up when you examine fascist, despotic and repressive Governments. Perhaps you also remember the infamous quote by that lovable Nazi Propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, to wit: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
The above quote came to mind as I, and others, have watched the Obama administration with abject fascination when time after time it gears up to push through its latest program to secure ever more power to further an agenda that has never been fully explained to the citizens other than, “Hope and Change.” The above quote came to mind because of the modus operandi used by the administration’s Intelligentsia when it is charged by the President to carry out his latest political command. I have noticed that the intelligentsia always employs the Big Lie to further the administrations goals in such a manner that it seems to follow the Goebbels cynical observation about the Big Lie like a cookbook recipe. Let’s look at some of the Big Lies that the Government has advanced to either manufacture or take advantage of a “crisis” to further their opaque political agenda. The Financial Meltdown, Man Caused Global Warming, Broken Health Care System and the Broken Immigration System, are just some of the really big “crisis” that come to mind. If one examines these “crisis” objectively, some common traits soon become apparent when the Governmental propaganda machine, ably commanded by the Joseph Goebbels clone, i.e., White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, revs up to full speed to advance the latest Big Lie. The first common trait is that the Government itself precipitated the “crisis” by advancing a Governmental action that was enabled either by design or fortuitous circumstances. In the case of the Financial Meltdown, the Government caused the crisis by repealing the Glass-Steagall act to enable a complicit Congress to force the Financial community to lend Government backed money to any and all Americans regardless of financial means so that all may own their own home. The Governmental propaganda machine then hypes the resulting “crisis” to a compliant fourth estate until the country demands swift Government action to “fix” the “crisis”. Of course the Governmental action required to “fix” the problem always results in the Federal Government acquiring more political power to affect ever more control over the citizens and country, but never mind that, the Government will “fix” the problem for us all and the “crisis” will be ended. This kind of Governmental activity has a scientific basis. It is called a Physiological Feed-forward System in which feed-forward control can be likened to a learned anticipatory response (Cass Sunstein’s Choice Architecture creation) to known cures (Government control). Brothers and Sisters, the Obama administration is not incompetent, the administration’s Intelligentsia are cynically using scientific principals to force an opaque political agenda upon an unwilling country. The second common trait in using the Big Lie is that Government always blames a selected target for the crisis to justify the Government taking control over a vital new portion of the country. In the case of the Financial Meltdown, Wall Street Fat Cats and an out of control, out of date free market system is to blame for the Financial Meltdown “crisis” that requires complete Governmental control in order that this “crisis” will never be allowed to happen again.
The Big Lie of Man Caused Global Warming is that Mother Earth is dying because of warming of the environment that will destroy us all due to mankind’s uncontrolled activity. The truth is that man’s activities account for less that 1% of a natural warming trend. The Big Lie for the Health Care System is that it is broken. The truth is that the US Healthcare System is the best health care system the world has ever seen and is not broken, it only costs too much because it is the best in the world. The Big Lie for Immigration System is that it is broken. The truth is the Government will not enforce a perfectly functional Immigration System thereby making it appear that the Immigration System is broken. If all of this doesn’t scare you, you are fearless.
Are you old enough to remember the Nazis? No, no, not the wacky and oh so funny Nazis of Hogan’s Heroes, the real Nazis that rose mass murder to a scientific endeavor and wanted to rule the world as the Master Race. Perhaps you also forgot that the term NAZI was an acronym that stood for the National SOCIALIST German Worker’s Party. It is no accident that the word Socialist always shows up when you examine fascist, despotic and repressive Governments. Perhaps you also remember the infamous quote by that lovable Nazi Propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, to wit: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
The above quote came to mind as I, and others, have watched the Obama administration with abject fascination when time after time it gears up to push through its latest program to secure ever more power to further an agenda that has never been fully explained to the citizens other than, “Hope and Change.” The above quote came to mind because of the modus operandi used by the administration’s Intelligentsia when it is charged by the President to carry out his latest political command. I have noticed that the intelligentsia always employs the Big Lie to further the administrations goals in such a manner that it seems to follow the Goebbels cynical observation about the Big Lie like a cookbook recipe. Let’s look at some of the Big Lies that the Government has advanced to either manufacture or take advantage of a “crisis” to further their opaque political agenda. The Financial Meltdown, Man Caused Global Warming, Broken Health Care System and the Broken Immigration System, are just some of the really big “crisis” that come to mind. If one examines these “crisis” objectively, some common traits soon become apparent when the Governmental propaganda machine, ably commanded by the Joseph Goebbels clone, i.e., White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, revs up to full speed to advance the latest Big Lie. The first common trait is that the Government itself precipitated the “crisis” by advancing a Governmental action that was enabled either by design or fortuitous circumstances. In the case of the Financial Meltdown, the Government caused the crisis by repealing the Glass-Steagall act to enable a complicit Congress to force the Financial community to lend Government backed money to any and all Americans regardless of financial means so that all may own their own home. The Governmental propaganda machine then hypes the resulting “crisis” to a compliant fourth estate until the country demands swift Government action to “fix” the “crisis”. Of course the Governmental action required to “fix” the problem always results in the Federal Government acquiring more political power to affect ever more control over the citizens and country, but never mind that, the Government will “fix” the problem for us all and the “crisis” will be ended. This kind of Governmental activity has a scientific basis. It is called a Physiological Feed-forward System in which feed-forward control can be likened to a learned anticipatory response (Cass Sunstein’s Choice Architecture creation) to known cures (Government control). Brothers and Sisters, the Obama administration is not incompetent, the administration’s Intelligentsia are cynically using scientific principals to force an opaque political agenda upon an unwilling country. The second common trait in using the Big Lie is that Government always blames a selected target for the crisis to justify the Government taking control over a vital new portion of the country. In the case of the Financial Meltdown, Wall Street Fat Cats and an out of control, out of date free market system is to blame for the Financial Meltdown “crisis” that requires complete Governmental control in order that this “crisis” will never be allowed to happen again.
The Big Lie of Man Caused Global Warming is that Mother Earth is dying because of warming of the environment that will destroy us all due to mankind’s uncontrolled activity. The truth is that man’s activities account for less that 1% of a natural warming trend. The Big Lie for the Health Care System is that it is broken. The truth is that the US Healthcare System is the best health care system the world has ever seen and is not broken, it only costs too much because it is the best in the world. The Big Lie for Immigration System is that it is broken. The truth is the Government will not enforce a perfectly functional Immigration System thereby making it appear that the Immigration System is broken. If all of this doesn’t scare you, you are fearless.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
NO STINKING POLITICAL PARTIES
We Don’t Need No Stinking Political Parties
Those of you who are aware of or have read the seminal book, The 5000 Year Leap, http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-5000-Year-Leap/W-Cleon-Skousen/e/9780880801485/?itm=1&USRI=5000+year+leap will recall one of the main principals the Founding Fathers all agreed upon was that fundamental Government was about political power, not political parties. They reasoned that complete political power exercised by Government on one extreme is called Tyranny while the other extreme is Government with no political power or control at all is called Anarchy. Both of these Governmental extremes were the historical norm up to the time of the American Revolution and these historical Governmental extremes always ended in abject failure and much human misery. The founding fathers all agreed that the new American way was to be an exceptional way that would enable People’s Law to occupy the political middle and therefore strike a careful and enduring Governmental balance between Anarchy and Tyranny. In order to do this, the framers of the Constitution knew that political power cabals (political parties) representing this political view or that political view would by necessity be excluded from the drafting process, because if People’s Law was to occupy the political middle, then all of the people would have to agree on all of the political principals that would be codified within the new American Constitution. Indeed, it took over 60 ballots for all of the framers, in secret conference, to finally come to a consensus on the Constitution. Note that I said a consensus, because the Founders believed that majority rule was an invitation to Tyranny and for People’s Law to be viable, consensus, not a majority, will always be necessary. Even the consensus obtained on the new Constitution was based upon a condition that the citizens at large would have an opportunity to make amendments immediately after signing in order for the states to ratify the new Constitution. This was agreed upon because the Constitution was drafted in secret, and if there was to be a political middle, then the people would be required to have an input in order for the middle to truly represent the People’s Law. Input indeed. The people, via the states, submitted 189 amendments that would eventually be codified into our precious 10 Bill of Rights along with the 11th and 12th amendments to protect them.
Political Parties are about power and political power is always used to force political views upon others, either by majority rule or by contrivance. So in a strict sense, Political Parties are basically un-American, because a Political Party can never foster a political consensus among all of the people because Political Parties are by their nature created to represent one or another particular political viewpoint. In order to obtain and maintain power, Political Parties have a perpetual finger waving into the political winds so that they can discover which way the popular political winds are blowing. They do this in order to determine what the voting public will respond to so that the Party can fashion a Platform that will get the most votes and therefore get more power. How Political Parties operate proves the point that Political Parties are about power, not about maintenance of People’s Law in order to conserve an enduring political middle. And political party platforms are little more than advertising sheets that try to entice people to vote for the party not unlike the endless auto dealer advertisements of urgent “Sales” of new and better belchfire 8 super cars. Go to http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/platforms.php and you can read all of the political party platforms from 1840 until today. And so I say again, We Don’t Need No Stinking Political Parties and I think the American people are being to agree, because as of today, more people consider themselves Independents rather than being affiliated with one of the Political Parties. There really is hope for the good guys, uh, that would be us.
Those of you who are aware of or have read the seminal book, The 5000 Year Leap, http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-5000-Year-Leap/W-Cleon-Skousen/e/9780880801485/?itm=1&USRI=5000+year+leap will recall one of the main principals the Founding Fathers all agreed upon was that fundamental Government was about political power, not political parties. They reasoned that complete political power exercised by Government on one extreme is called Tyranny while the other extreme is Government with no political power or control at all is called Anarchy. Both of these Governmental extremes were the historical norm up to the time of the American Revolution and these historical Governmental extremes always ended in abject failure and much human misery. The founding fathers all agreed that the new American way was to be an exceptional way that would enable People’s Law to occupy the political middle and therefore strike a careful and enduring Governmental balance between Anarchy and Tyranny. In order to do this, the framers of the Constitution knew that political power cabals (political parties) representing this political view or that political view would by necessity be excluded from the drafting process, because if People’s Law was to occupy the political middle, then all of the people would have to agree on all of the political principals that would be codified within the new American Constitution. Indeed, it took over 60 ballots for all of the framers, in secret conference, to finally come to a consensus on the Constitution. Note that I said a consensus, because the Founders believed that majority rule was an invitation to Tyranny and for People’s Law to be viable, consensus, not a majority, will always be necessary. Even the consensus obtained on the new Constitution was based upon a condition that the citizens at large would have an opportunity to make amendments immediately after signing in order for the states to ratify the new Constitution. This was agreed upon because the Constitution was drafted in secret, and if there was to be a political middle, then the people would be required to have an input in order for the middle to truly represent the People’s Law. Input indeed. The people, via the states, submitted 189 amendments that would eventually be codified into our precious 10 Bill of Rights along with the 11th and 12th amendments to protect them.
Political Parties are about power and political power is always used to force political views upon others, either by majority rule or by contrivance. So in a strict sense, Political Parties are basically un-American, because a Political Party can never foster a political consensus among all of the people because Political Parties are by their nature created to represent one or another particular political viewpoint. In order to obtain and maintain power, Political Parties have a perpetual finger waving into the political winds so that they can discover which way the popular political winds are blowing. They do this in order to determine what the voting public will respond to so that the Party can fashion a Platform that will get the most votes and therefore get more power. How Political Parties operate proves the point that Political Parties are about power, not about maintenance of People’s Law in order to conserve an enduring political middle. And political party platforms are little more than advertising sheets that try to entice people to vote for the party not unlike the endless auto dealer advertisements of urgent “Sales” of new and better belchfire 8 super cars. Go to http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/platforms.php and you can read all of the political party platforms from 1840 until today. And so I say again, We Don’t Need No Stinking Political Parties and I think the American people are being to agree, because as of today, more people consider themselves Independents rather than being affiliated with one of the Political Parties. There really is hope for the good guys, uh, that would be us.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
THE ECONOMIC ENDGAME
The Economic Endgame
I may not be the sharpest arrow in the quiver, but sometimes things become so obvious that even a dumbbutt like me can finally see organization and purpose in today’s carefully constructed economic chaos. In other words, I believe I can finally see some method to the madness that marks the Government handling of the Country’s Economic System. I’m sure most of us are confused, perplexed and downright scared about how the Government seems to be spending us into third and fourth world status by continuing to spend like there is no tomorrow. And it’s not just the spending, but what the spending is doing. For example, the $787 Billion “Stimulus”, the trillions in bailouts that are seemingly without end and always ends up with the Government either becoming a part of free enterprise business or a complete takeover of free enterprise, like the case of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Government generated duplicitous notion that the Health Care system is broken and only a Government takeover can fix the system when the truth is we have the best health care system the world has ever seen but it costs too much and the Government takeover will only increase healthcare costs, Cap and Trade that will put the Government in charge of our energy industry, and on and on. I know that there is a notion out there that the current administration is simply incompetent and inexperienced and that is the reason why we are heading inexplicably down a road to utter ruin. Au contraire, mon frere’! There really is method to their madness and the method has the hand of “create a choice architecture” Cass Sunstein in it and the madness has the mind of Barack Obama all over it. The “choice architecture” that ole Professor Sunstein is cooking up is starting to surface within the opinion making sphere nowadays. The “Choice architecture” will take the form of a new buzz that will occupy talking heads and the Intelligentsia debating over the new age relevance of “Democratic Capitalism” versus “State Directed Capitalism”. Remember those two terms, “Democratic Capitalism” (current free market driven capitalism) and “State Directed Capitalism” (ala Communist China). Yes, that’s right, the world Intelligentsia is beginning to make the case that “Democratic Capitalism” is so yesterday and cannot possibly complete with the roaring success that modern China is experiencing with “State Directed Capitalism” (Orwell must be grinning from ear to ear with the double-speak that the words State Directed Capitalism represents). So what does out of control Government spending and the Government taking over “failing” free enterprise business (that are failing because of Government intervention and regulation) has to do with Democratic Capitalism? When the world and US Intelligentsia finally conclude that State Directed Capitalism is the only “HOPE” in today’s modern world environment because the evidence is overwhelming that Democratic Capitalism is failing left and right and so the obvious conclusion is that there is a need for a “CHANGE” to a new way. And the new way is State Directed Capitalism. With this “choice architecture” now in place, the American people will surely make the correct decision and embrace enlightened State Directed Capitalism as the way out of today’s economic malaise. So what is the endgame other than the obvious Federal Government taking control over all aspects of American life? The United States of American cannot be apart of the coming One World Government while Democratic Capitalism is running amuck so State Directed Capitalism will be one more step to finally get to the final Utopian One World Government. Are you beginning to see the light, Brother and Sisters?
I may not be the sharpest arrow in the quiver, but sometimes things become so obvious that even a dumbbutt like me can finally see organization and purpose in today’s carefully constructed economic chaos. In other words, I believe I can finally see some method to the madness that marks the Government handling of the Country’s Economic System. I’m sure most of us are confused, perplexed and downright scared about how the Government seems to be spending us into third and fourth world status by continuing to spend like there is no tomorrow. And it’s not just the spending, but what the spending is doing. For example, the $787 Billion “Stimulus”, the trillions in bailouts that are seemingly without end and always ends up with the Government either becoming a part of free enterprise business or a complete takeover of free enterprise, like the case of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Government generated duplicitous notion that the Health Care system is broken and only a Government takeover can fix the system when the truth is we have the best health care system the world has ever seen but it costs too much and the Government takeover will only increase healthcare costs, Cap and Trade that will put the Government in charge of our energy industry, and on and on. I know that there is a notion out there that the current administration is simply incompetent and inexperienced and that is the reason why we are heading inexplicably down a road to utter ruin. Au contraire, mon frere’! There really is method to their madness and the method has the hand of “create a choice architecture” Cass Sunstein in it and the madness has the mind of Barack Obama all over it. The “choice architecture” that ole Professor Sunstein is cooking up is starting to surface within the opinion making sphere nowadays. The “Choice architecture” will take the form of a new buzz that will occupy talking heads and the Intelligentsia debating over the new age relevance of “Democratic Capitalism” versus “State Directed Capitalism”. Remember those two terms, “Democratic Capitalism” (current free market driven capitalism) and “State Directed Capitalism” (ala Communist China). Yes, that’s right, the world Intelligentsia is beginning to make the case that “Democratic Capitalism” is so yesterday and cannot possibly complete with the roaring success that modern China is experiencing with “State Directed Capitalism” (Orwell must be grinning from ear to ear with the double-speak that the words State Directed Capitalism represents). So what does out of control Government spending and the Government taking over “failing” free enterprise business (that are failing because of Government intervention and regulation) has to do with Democratic Capitalism? When the world and US Intelligentsia finally conclude that State Directed Capitalism is the only “HOPE” in today’s modern world environment because the evidence is overwhelming that Democratic Capitalism is failing left and right and so the obvious conclusion is that there is a need for a “CHANGE” to a new way. And the new way is State Directed Capitalism. With this “choice architecture” now in place, the American people will surely make the correct decision and embrace enlightened State Directed Capitalism as the way out of today’s economic malaise. So what is the endgame other than the obvious Federal Government taking control over all aspects of American life? The United States of American cannot be apart of the coming One World Government while Democratic Capitalism is running amuck so State Directed Capitalism will be one more step to finally get to the final Utopian One World Government. Are you beginning to see the light, Brother and Sisters?
Saturday, June 12, 2010
SCARE CONTINUUM
The Scare Continuum
We are all hapless residents bouncing along within the Scare Continuum as Scare Inc. goes full throttle with the latest “environmental catastrophe”. Scare Inc. is now running at top speed with the BP Oil spill providing all of the nitro-laced fuel necessary to spew out hyperbole at a rate that surly exceeds the rate of the spilling oil that the undersea camera faithfully records for all to see within the Scare Continuum. If we only had a BS camera that could faithfully record all of maneuvering to find oil-covered birds, tar balls fouling befuddled Granny’s pristine beach, finding just the right stretch of oil covered water suitable for a fearless reporter to dive headlong into, pretty little girls with bouncing curls and limp beach toys hanging down staring wistfully at destroyed sugar white beaches, primordial marsh flora drenched in the “Toxic” stuff that stupid humans use to willfully destroy the beautiful blue Planet. If only we had that BS camera operating right alongside that Scare Inc. camera, then perhaps we could get a “fair and balanced” account about what is really happening. But wait, there is such a thing as a BS camera and it is the exclusive property of the Fourth Estate. Oh no! The Fourth Estate is a charter member of Scare Inc. and fourth estate natural law dictates you can’t operate both cameras at the same time. Fourth Estate natural law being that law that requires profit regardless how obtained, (you know like industry profiteering from war). Perhaps ideology advancement might be part of the natural law that rules the Fourth Estate nowadays, I’m just saying. Suffice to say, The Scare Continuum is a very broad river that offers many opportunities for all willing to add content to the swelling confluence. Maybe even the Government sees opportunity to not let a good “crisis” go to waste and can advance treasured policy to obtain even more power and influence by encouraging Scare Inc. to pour it on. Because I’m not a member of Scare Inc., I have a few observations that might be useful in understanding the BP oil spill. Make no mistake, the oil spill is not a good thing other than for those wanting to profit (politically, competitively and howeverwise) from the misfortune. No doubt primary blame is BP’s alone and the free market will punish the crap out of them for their mismanagement. Profit that was to go to investors will now be required to mitigate damage and the loss of profit could well wreck the Company. This is how the free market works. There is more fundamental blame if anyone is interested in spreading blame. The United States is sitting on a sea of oil but cannot drill for it or use it because of Government restrictions. Such restrictions drive up the price of oil (greeniks nirvana) and drive those producing our required fuel to go into ever more risky environments, such as deep water to obtain our necessary oil. As far as the environmental “disaster, catastrophe, (take your pick)” is concerned, petroleum is a natural occurring organic compound that seeps constantly into the oceans naturally and there are many microbes out there bulking up on the oil bonanza. Indeed, the Ixtoc 1 oil spill in Campeche Sound 30 years ago gushed 3.3 million barrels into the sea for nearly 10 months. The environment scientists predicted all life would die as a result, but to their astonishment and embarrassment, the Sound recovered completely in little over 2 years. I bet you didn’t hear much about that from the Government or Fourth Estate.
We are all hapless residents bouncing along within the Scare Continuum as Scare Inc. goes full throttle with the latest “environmental catastrophe”. Scare Inc. is now running at top speed with the BP Oil spill providing all of the nitro-laced fuel necessary to spew out hyperbole at a rate that surly exceeds the rate of the spilling oil that the undersea camera faithfully records for all to see within the Scare Continuum. If we only had a BS camera that could faithfully record all of maneuvering to find oil-covered birds, tar balls fouling befuddled Granny’s pristine beach, finding just the right stretch of oil covered water suitable for a fearless reporter to dive headlong into, pretty little girls with bouncing curls and limp beach toys hanging down staring wistfully at destroyed sugar white beaches, primordial marsh flora drenched in the “Toxic” stuff that stupid humans use to willfully destroy the beautiful blue Planet. If only we had that BS camera operating right alongside that Scare Inc. camera, then perhaps we could get a “fair and balanced” account about what is really happening. But wait, there is such a thing as a BS camera and it is the exclusive property of the Fourth Estate. Oh no! The Fourth Estate is a charter member of Scare Inc. and fourth estate natural law dictates you can’t operate both cameras at the same time. Fourth Estate natural law being that law that requires profit regardless how obtained, (you know like industry profiteering from war). Perhaps ideology advancement might be part of the natural law that rules the Fourth Estate nowadays, I’m just saying. Suffice to say, The Scare Continuum is a very broad river that offers many opportunities for all willing to add content to the swelling confluence. Maybe even the Government sees opportunity to not let a good “crisis” go to waste and can advance treasured policy to obtain even more power and influence by encouraging Scare Inc. to pour it on. Because I’m not a member of Scare Inc., I have a few observations that might be useful in understanding the BP oil spill. Make no mistake, the oil spill is not a good thing other than for those wanting to profit (politically, competitively and howeverwise) from the misfortune. No doubt primary blame is BP’s alone and the free market will punish the crap out of them for their mismanagement. Profit that was to go to investors will now be required to mitigate damage and the loss of profit could well wreck the Company. This is how the free market works. There is more fundamental blame if anyone is interested in spreading blame. The United States is sitting on a sea of oil but cannot drill for it or use it because of Government restrictions. Such restrictions drive up the price of oil (greeniks nirvana) and drive those producing our required fuel to go into ever more risky environments, such as deep water to obtain our necessary oil. As far as the environmental “disaster, catastrophe, (take your pick)” is concerned, petroleum is a natural occurring organic compound that seeps constantly into the oceans naturally and there are many microbes out there bulking up on the oil bonanza. Indeed, the Ixtoc 1 oil spill in Campeche Sound 30 years ago gushed 3.3 million barrels into the sea for nearly 10 months. The environment scientists predicted all life would die as a result, but to their astonishment and embarrassment, the Sound recovered completely in little over 2 years. I bet you didn’t hear much about that from the Government or Fourth Estate.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
POLITBURO
Politburo, American Style
Politburo. A decidily unamerican word most of us are familiar with due to cold war politics. Most of us became familiar with the word while trying to understand the workings of the then Soviet Union and it’s Communistic Government. A little history. A Politburo was first established in 1917 during the Bolshevik Revolution in order to provide political leadership during the transformation of Russia from a Republic into a Oligarchy based on the political theories of Karl Marx. The first Politburo was disolved after the coup was completed by the Bolshevics. So what does the Soviet Union Politburo have to do with todays America? Well, if you recall, the candidate Barak Obama promised to “transform” America. Remember that? And you probaly thought the “transformation” being promised was a transformation from corrupt politics as usual into a transparent and pluralistic Government that truly represented all of the people. Is that what you thought the charismatic Barak Obama was promising? Well just like the Bolshevics needed a means to provide political leadership for the country while they transformed Russia, President Obama also needs a means to provide direct political leadership without all of that messy voting in congress thing while he transforms America. Volila, an American style Politburo that can directly implement policy while the country is being transformed into something that is most definitely not American and definitely unconstitutional. Here is the list of the current Czars that make up President Obama’s Politburo:
1. Technology Czar: Aneesh Chopra.
2. Drug Czar: Gil Kerlikowske.3. Copyright Czar: Not appointed yet.4. Energy Czar: Carol M. Browner.5. Car Czar: Ed Montgomery. 6. Terrorism/WMD Czar: Gary Samore. 7. Health Care Czar: Nancy-Ann DeParle.8. Education Czar: Not appointed yet.9. Economic Czar: Paul Volcker. 10. Mortgage Czar: Not appointed yet.
11. Urban Affairs/Housing Czar: Adolfo Carrion. 12. Guantanomo closure Czar: Danny Fried. 13. Great lakes Czar: Cameron Davis.14. Stimulus accountability Czar: Earl Devaney. 15. Cyberspace Czar: Not appointed yet. 16. Border Czar: Alan Bersin (Former US attorney).17. Intelligence Czar: Admiral Dennis Blair.18. Regulatory Czar: Cass Sunstein. 19. Pay Czar: Kenneth Feinberg 20. Iran Czar: Not appointed yet.21. Tarp Czar: Herb Allison. 22. Middle-East peace Czar: George Mitchell. 23. Science Czar: John Holdren.24. Green jobs Czar: Van Jones.25. Afghanistan Czar: Richard Holbrooke. 26. Sudan Czar: J. Scott Gration. 27. Mideast policy Czar: Dennis Ross. 28. Information Czar: Vivek Kundra. 29. AIDS Czar: Jeffrey Crowley. 30. Faith-based Czar: Joshua Dubois.
31. Climate Czar: Todd Stern.
See an Updated List Here :
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-320934
If I were a really cynical person, I could be convinced that the Military equal Civilian National Security Force that President Obama has talked about creating will provide the necessary “Brown Shirts” to help force the transformation that the Politburo is directing. I’m just saying.
Note: See DOD Directive 1404.10 and House bill HR675 that seems to be setting the requirement to build the Civilian National Security Force.
Politburo. A decidily unamerican word most of us are familiar with due to cold war politics. Most of us became familiar with the word while trying to understand the workings of the then Soviet Union and it’s Communistic Government. A little history. A Politburo was first established in 1917 during the Bolshevik Revolution in order to provide political leadership during the transformation of Russia from a Republic into a Oligarchy based on the political theories of Karl Marx. The first Politburo was disolved after the coup was completed by the Bolshevics. So what does the Soviet Union Politburo have to do with todays America? Well, if you recall, the candidate Barak Obama promised to “transform” America. Remember that? And you probaly thought the “transformation” being promised was a transformation from corrupt politics as usual into a transparent and pluralistic Government that truly represented all of the people. Is that what you thought the charismatic Barak Obama was promising? Well just like the Bolshevics needed a means to provide political leadership for the country while they transformed Russia, President Obama also needs a means to provide direct political leadership without all of that messy voting in congress thing while he transforms America. Volila, an American style Politburo that can directly implement policy while the country is being transformed into something that is most definitely not American and definitely unconstitutional. Here is the list of the current Czars that make up President Obama’s Politburo:
1. Technology Czar: Aneesh Chopra.
2. Drug Czar: Gil Kerlikowske.3. Copyright Czar: Not appointed yet.4. Energy Czar: Carol M. Browner.5. Car Czar: Ed Montgomery. 6. Terrorism/WMD Czar: Gary Samore. 7. Health Care Czar: Nancy-Ann DeParle.8. Education Czar: Not appointed yet.9. Economic Czar: Paul Volcker. 10. Mortgage Czar: Not appointed yet.
11. Urban Affairs/Housing Czar: Adolfo Carrion. 12. Guantanomo closure Czar: Danny Fried. 13. Great lakes Czar: Cameron Davis.14. Stimulus accountability Czar: Earl Devaney. 15. Cyberspace Czar: Not appointed yet. 16. Border Czar: Alan Bersin (Former US attorney).17. Intelligence Czar: Admiral Dennis Blair.18. Regulatory Czar: Cass Sunstein. 19. Pay Czar: Kenneth Feinberg 20. Iran Czar: Not appointed yet.21. Tarp Czar: Herb Allison. 22. Middle-East peace Czar: George Mitchell. 23. Science Czar: John Holdren.24. Green jobs Czar: Van Jones.25. Afghanistan Czar: Richard Holbrooke. 26. Sudan Czar: J. Scott Gration. 27. Mideast policy Czar: Dennis Ross. 28. Information Czar: Vivek Kundra. 29. AIDS Czar: Jeffrey Crowley. 30. Faith-based Czar: Joshua Dubois.
31. Climate Czar: Todd Stern.
See an Updated List Here :
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-320934
If I were a really cynical person, I could be convinced that the Military equal Civilian National Security Force that President Obama has talked about creating will provide the necessary “Brown Shirts” to help force the transformation that the Politburo is directing. I’m just saying.
Note: See DOD Directive 1404.10 and House bill HR675 that seems to be setting the requirement to build the Civilian National Security Force.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
IMPERIAL RELIGION
Imperial Religion
I am very aware that commenting on religion carries much risk. People lose all perspective when theology is discussed because of deeply held beliefs supported by faith alone. For much of mankind’s existence, divine intervention in the affairs of man is a universal belief regardless of race, creed, nationality or circumstance. And because of this universal divine belief, anything relating to the practice of one’s religion carries with it a divine imperative that at once makes it impossible for a secular perspective to exist on the same level as divinity inspired faith. This reality alone makes religion a contentious subject. However, I really don’t want to discuss virtues of theology when discussing today’s religion, I just want to point out an a curious circumstance that is common to both of the world’s most organized religions, the Catholic Church and Islam. For centuries, the Catholic Church has existed as a divine inspired state that knows no national boundaries and throughout history has employed politics to advance the church’s wealth, power and authority by a well-organized Holy See incarnated as the very voice of God. Indeed, the secular meddling in nations affairs by the Catholic Church was largely responsible for the Reformation that continues to diminish the Global authority and power of the Holy See today. The salient point being that the Catholic Church is a global organization that employs church politics to advance its wealth, power and authority by using religion as a tactical vehicle to do so. The Holy See is the governmental administration that merges Christian Theology with secular requirements in order to advance the Church whenever and wherever possible. That the Church was just another global organization trying to expand its power and authority became apparent to me as I was trying to understand the position of the Catholic Church with regards to illegal immigration into the USA. The Church’s political position on this matter coincides with the One World Government movement because the Church is a global political entity and unrestricted movement of people across national borders will quite naturally increase the Church’s global reach and authority. Let me hasten to make it as clear as possible, the Catholic Church uses Christian Theology to promote its global ambitions, it does not authorize the use of physical force or terrorism to advance it’s religion. Nevertheless, it is called Imperialism when a Country endeavors to extend their power and authority over other people and when an organized religion, such as the Catholic Church and Islam, also endeavor to exert global control, it is also Imperialism, albeit Religious Imperialism. Islam is another globally organized religion but does not utilize an easily recognizable vertically organized administration structure like the Holy See to rule its church. Islam is organized in a less recognizable horizontal structure that unites an infinite number of local religious organizations by theology alone and lets each local Mosque administer its own local church, however, each local Mosque can also issue orders that all Muslims everywhere are required to obey. The way in which Islam is organized also is its inherent organizational strength because there is no central authority, like the Holy See, to present an easy target for those wishing to pressure Islam in general to cease it’s imperialistic ways. And here is the biggest problem. Islam is comfortable with using force, including terrorism, to advance its religion and those who use force, like terrorism, cannot be linked to any central authority because each local organization acts independently. This means that all of Islam can support terrorism without being directly connected to those who are perpetrating the violent acts in the name of Islam and do so without being held accountable by the world at large. They do this because Islam decrees all people of the world must become Muslims, either voluntarily or by force if necessary, and if there is no central authority to direct terrorism in the name of Islam, then how do you stop Islam from its Imperial ways? In other words, there is no way to stop terrorism being done in the name of Islam short of attacking the whole of Islam, and no one is willing to do such a thing, because no doubt, most all of Muslims do not endorse terror to advance Islam, but what difference does it make when Islam itself justifies the use of force to promote it’s Religious Imperialism? The fact is that all Muslims are united by theology to support Islam and Islam says all of the world’s people must become Muslims and if some use force to that end, then so be it because most Muslims are not directly involved with the violent acts themselves. However, it is important to note that names are important and there is an ongoing struggle to even name terrorism being done in the name of Islam. This inability to even attach a name to terrorism being done in the name of Islam makes combating terrorism even more difficult. I believe you can attach a correct name to what is going on and the name is Imperial Islam.
I am very aware that commenting on religion carries much risk. People lose all perspective when theology is discussed because of deeply held beliefs supported by faith alone. For much of mankind’s existence, divine intervention in the affairs of man is a universal belief regardless of race, creed, nationality or circumstance. And because of this universal divine belief, anything relating to the practice of one’s religion carries with it a divine imperative that at once makes it impossible for a secular perspective to exist on the same level as divinity inspired faith. This reality alone makes religion a contentious subject. However, I really don’t want to discuss virtues of theology when discussing today’s religion, I just want to point out an a curious circumstance that is common to both of the world’s most organized religions, the Catholic Church and Islam. For centuries, the Catholic Church has existed as a divine inspired state that knows no national boundaries and throughout history has employed politics to advance the church’s wealth, power and authority by a well-organized Holy See incarnated as the very voice of God. Indeed, the secular meddling in nations affairs by the Catholic Church was largely responsible for the Reformation that continues to diminish the Global authority and power of the Holy See today. The salient point being that the Catholic Church is a global organization that employs church politics to advance its wealth, power and authority by using religion as a tactical vehicle to do so. The Holy See is the governmental administration that merges Christian Theology with secular requirements in order to advance the Church whenever and wherever possible. That the Church was just another global organization trying to expand its power and authority became apparent to me as I was trying to understand the position of the Catholic Church with regards to illegal immigration into the USA. The Church’s political position on this matter coincides with the One World Government movement because the Church is a global political entity and unrestricted movement of people across national borders will quite naturally increase the Church’s global reach and authority. Let me hasten to make it as clear as possible, the Catholic Church uses Christian Theology to promote its global ambitions, it does not authorize the use of physical force or terrorism to advance it’s religion. Nevertheless, it is called Imperialism when a Country endeavors to extend their power and authority over other people and when an organized religion, such as the Catholic Church and Islam, also endeavor to exert global control, it is also Imperialism, albeit Religious Imperialism. Islam is another globally organized religion but does not utilize an easily recognizable vertically organized administration structure like the Holy See to rule its church. Islam is organized in a less recognizable horizontal structure that unites an infinite number of local religious organizations by theology alone and lets each local Mosque administer its own local church, however, each local Mosque can also issue orders that all Muslims everywhere are required to obey. The way in which Islam is organized also is its inherent organizational strength because there is no central authority, like the Holy See, to present an easy target for those wishing to pressure Islam in general to cease it’s imperialistic ways. And here is the biggest problem. Islam is comfortable with using force, including terrorism, to advance its religion and those who use force, like terrorism, cannot be linked to any central authority because each local organization acts independently. This means that all of Islam can support terrorism without being directly connected to those who are perpetrating the violent acts in the name of Islam and do so without being held accountable by the world at large. They do this because Islam decrees all people of the world must become Muslims, either voluntarily or by force if necessary, and if there is no central authority to direct terrorism in the name of Islam, then how do you stop Islam from its Imperial ways? In other words, there is no way to stop terrorism being done in the name of Islam short of attacking the whole of Islam, and no one is willing to do such a thing, because no doubt, most all of Muslims do not endorse terror to advance Islam, but what difference does it make when Islam itself justifies the use of force to promote it’s Religious Imperialism? The fact is that all Muslims are united by theology to support Islam and Islam says all of the world’s people must become Muslims and if some use force to that end, then so be it because most Muslims are not directly involved with the violent acts themselves. However, it is important to note that names are important and there is an ongoing struggle to even name terrorism being done in the name of Islam. This inability to even attach a name to terrorism being done in the name of Islam makes combating terrorism even more difficult. I believe you can attach a correct name to what is going on and the name is Imperial Islam.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
WAR NUEVO
War Nuevo
Someone once said, “War is the last act of diplomacy”. I invite you to reread the previous and consider what it truly means. It very well could mean that all nations, and groups of people, are constantly engaged in diplomacy as each nation and interest group rightfully attends to its self-interests within the world body, particularly in today’s modern and connected world, because nations and people nowadays cannot exist completely isolated from one another. So if a nation or a people cannot exist totally isolated from other nations and peoples, diplomacy is the time honored and civilized way of finding ways to cooperate with one another in such a way that each nation and people will reasonably address their self-interest and thus avoid using overt force to press the issue. Of course, war is the final negotiating tactic that uses force to pressure a reluctant party to accept terms that it would not otherwise agree to without the use of overt force. War is indeed the last act of diplomacy that can force a settlement that would not otherwise be forthcoming and can take many forms. War can be conducted militarily, economically, politically, and as many other ways as the creative human mind can conceive. For example, Nazi Germany came to believe that its people were the master race because “survival of the fittest” had enabled evolution to select them as the master race. Needless to say, nations and peoples of the world would not negotiate in good faith about how they would become subservient to the master race so Germany would be required to use more pervasive forms of diplomacy, namely war, to force acceptance of their self-interest. Now because Germany lacked the economic and political clout to force acceptance of its master race position, military power was the only remaining option available if it was to proceed to subject the rest of the world to its master race position. Well, we all know how that turned out, and Germany’s final negotiating position in its diplomacy effort to subject the world to its master race thing failed. There is another type of war becoming more common today due to being enabled by modern technology, global communications and the surging “One World” political movement by the intellectual cabal entrenched everywhere. This type of war is not really new because it has been used throughout human history with limited success, but nevertheless, it appears to be enjoying new success in Man’s never ending struggle to dominate one another. The war I am referring to is what I call the “Population” war. This war is currently being used by Imperial Islam to force its negotiating position that all of the world peoples must become Muslims. This war is being waged throughout the world at large and Europe is about to be conquered by Imperial Islam by sending waves of child bearing Muslims immigrants into Europe to overwhelm the local population and culture. It’s about all over except the shouting. China has been successful in using this type of war by sending waves of Han Chinese immigrants into Tibet and now Tibet is China. Closer to home, Mexico and others are sending wave upon wave of immigrants into the United States in a population war to overwhelm the local population and convert our culture. Soon there will be little distinction between the Mexico border and the United States border. By all accounts, this Nuevo Population War is a war that most of the world is not fighting because they still don’t recognize that this is a war. Most nations and people are still trying to establish negotiating positions within their diplomacy while Imperial Islam, China and Mexico are using population war to advance their self-interests in their final acts of diplomacy. I invite you to consider what is now happening at the border of Arizona and Mexico. Can there be any doubt that this is a population war being waged by Mexico and others and to the utter dismay of citizens, this war is being aided and abetted by the current crop of Intelligentsia within Government that secretly welcomes the war as a way to advance the “One World” Government agenda and to gain political advantage. God, I hate war.
Someone once said, “War is the last act of diplomacy”. I invite you to reread the previous and consider what it truly means. It very well could mean that all nations, and groups of people, are constantly engaged in diplomacy as each nation and interest group rightfully attends to its self-interests within the world body, particularly in today’s modern and connected world, because nations and people nowadays cannot exist completely isolated from one another. So if a nation or a people cannot exist totally isolated from other nations and peoples, diplomacy is the time honored and civilized way of finding ways to cooperate with one another in such a way that each nation and people will reasonably address their self-interest and thus avoid using overt force to press the issue. Of course, war is the final negotiating tactic that uses force to pressure a reluctant party to accept terms that it would not otherwise agree to without the use of overt force. War is indeed the last act of diplomacy that can force a settlement that would not otherwise be forthcoming and can take many forms. War can be conducted militarily, economically, politically, and as many other ways as the creative human mind can conceive. For example, Nazi Germany came to believe that its people were the master race because “survival of the fittest” had enabled evolution to select them as the master race. Needless to say, nations and peoples of the world would not negotiate in good faith about how they would become subservient to the master race so Germany would be required to use more pervasive forms of diplomacy, namely war, to force acceptance of their self-interest. Now because Germany lacked the economic and political clout to force acceptance of its master race position, military power was the only remaining option available if it was to proceed to subject the rest of the world to its master race position. Well, we all know how that turned out, and Germany’s final negotiating position in its diplomacy effort to subject the world to its master race thing failed. There is another type of war becoming more common today due to being enabled by modern technology, global communications and the surging “One World” political movement by the intellectual cabal entrenched everywhere. This type of war is not really new because it has been used throughout human history with limited success, but nevertheless, it appears to be enjoying new success in Man’s never ending struggle to dominate one another. The war I am referring to is what I call the “Population” war. This war is currently being used by Imperial Islam to force its negotiating position that all of the world peoples must become Muslims. This war is being waged throughout the world at large and Europe is about to be conquered by Imperial Islam by sending waves of child bearing Muslims immigrants into Europe to overwhelm the local population and culture. It’s about all over except the shouting. China has been successful in using this type of war by sending waves of Han Chinese immigrants into Tibet and now Tibet is China. Closer to home, Mexico and others are sending wave upon wave of immigrants into the United States in a population war to overwhelm the local population and convert our culture. Soon there will be little distinction between the Mexico border and the United States border. By all accounts, this Nuevo Population War is a war that most of the world is not fighting because they still don’t recognize that this is a war. Most nations and people are still trying to establish negotiating positions within their diplomacy while Imperial Islam, China and Mexico are using population war to advance their self-interests in their final acts of diplomacy. I invite you to consider what is now happening at the border of Arizona and Mexico. Can there be any doubt that this is a population war being waged by Mexico and others and to the utter dismay of citizens, this war is being aided and abetted by the current crop of Intelligentsia within Government that secretly welcomes the war as a way to advance the “One World” Government agenda and to gain political advantage. God, I hate war.
Friday, April 23, 2010
WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO
I’m Just Saying
Perhaps you have been troubled and frustrated over the years by the realization that the Federal Government seems to go its own way with little regard to whomever it is that occupies the Presidency or rules the Congress. Of course, there are always exceptions to generalizations such as this and in this case the Regan years were somewhat a welcome relief from an ever expanding and duplicitous Federal Government. However, even the Regan years did not bring about any fundamental reform of the Federal Government that would make our Government compliant with Constitutional requirements, and in fact, Government continued to expand, albeit more slowly that before, even under the stewardship of Ronald Regan. So what is going on here? I invite you to consider the possibility that it matters little who is sent to Washington nowadays because it is impossible for any well meaning and reform minded representatives of the people to address the fundamental problem preventing Federal Government reform. The reality is that over the past 100 years, the Progressives have very carefully, and patiently, implemented “institutional” changes that defy reform. There are several reasons why this is so, and here are just a few of those reasons. Most of the institutional changes, like Social Security, have citizen vesting as a strategy to ensure perpetuity. For example, once Social Security became law, you were required to participate and part of your income, including what your employer pays on your behalf, goes to fund the program. Voila, you are now vested in the program and cannot afford to have the program reduced or discontinued. Here is another reason. Constitutional amendments, like the 16th (federal income tax) and the 17th (direct election of US Senators), provide the foundation for Government expansion and power and cannot be easily repealed. Another reason is the Progressive inspired lawsuits that have resulted in Supreme Court decisions that have usurped the Constitution instead of defending and upholding it. Indeed, it has become so bad that one only requires the Commerce Clause to justify anything. For example, the new law authorizing the Federal Government to “manage” all of the country’s waters will be justified by the Commerce Clause because if a migratory bird happens to land upon your pond, that construes that interstate commerce is being affected and so empowers the Federal Government to exercise power over all waters. This is no more a joke as is the Environmental Agency having power to control all commerce by regulating CO2 (CO2 is what you breathe out). I bet you didn’t realize that your breathing was affecting interstate commerce. The Commerce Clause will also be the means to enable the Supreme Court to judge that Obama Heath Care is Constitutional, just as the Civil Rights act was. Another reason is the explosion of US Governmental Departments and Agencies that adopt rules and regulations that have the force of law. For example, go to http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/All_Agencies/index.shtml and you will find hundreds and hundreds of Departments and Agencies reaching into and controlling every aspect of citizen life. Your Senators and Representatives have little or no control over these Departments and Agencies, other than the purse. Good luck with that.
There are probably more reasons to prove the point but the reality is the current situation prevents any meaningful reform to be taken by well meaning people regardless of stature or standing. So when you hear soaring rhetoric by patriots bent on reforming Government by being sent to Washington, be hopeful, but be a realist too. They can do little, no matter how well intentioned, to effect reform. Indeed, any action taken by our Representatives is truly like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic in the hope that by moving the deck chairs around, somehow the Grand Ship can be prevented from going down. What to do? The only thing that seems viable is for the several states to call a Constitutional Convention and remove the offending institutional changes built up over the years. I’m just saying.
Perhaps you have been troubled and frustrated over the years by the realization that the Federal Government seems to go its own way with little regard to whomever it is that occupies the Presidency or rules the Congress. Of course, there are always exceptions to generalizations such as this and in this case the Regan years were somewhat a welcome relief from an ever expanding and duplicitous Federal Government. However, even the Regan years did not bring about any fundamental reform of the Federal Government that would make our Government compliant with Constitutional requirements, and in fact, Government continued to expand, albeit more slowly that before, even under the stewardship of Ronald Regan. So what is going on here? I invite you to consider the possibility that it matters little who is sent to Washington nowadays because it is impossible for any well meaning and reform minded representatives of the people to address the fundamental problem preventing Federal Government reform. The reality is that over the past 100 years, the Progressives have very carefully, and patiently, implemented “institutional” changes that defy reform. There are several reasons why this is so, and here are just a few of those reasons. Most of the institutional changes, like Social Security, have citizen vesting as a strategy to ensure perpetuity. For example, once Social Security became law, you were required to participate and part of your income, including what your employer pays on your behalf, goes to fund the program. Voila, you are now vested in the program and cannot afford to have the program reduced or discontinued. Here is another reason. Constitutional amendments, like the 16th (federal income tax) and the 17th (direct election of US Senators), provide the foundation for Government expansion and power and cannot be easily repealed. Another reason is the Progressive inspired lawsuits that have resulted in Supreme Court decisions that have usurped the Constitution instead of defending and upholding it. Indeed, it has become so bad that one only requires the Commerce Clause to justify anything. For example, the new law authorizing the Federal Government to “manage” all of the country’s waters will be justified by the Commerce Clause because if a migratory bird happens to land upon your pond, that construes that interstate commerce is being affected and so empowers the Federal Government to exercise power over all waters. This is no more a joke as is the Environmental Agency having power to control all commerce by regulating CO2 (CO2 is what you breathe out). I bet you didn’t realize that your breathing was affecting interstate commerce. The Commerce Clause will also be the means to enable the Supreme Court to judge that Obama Heath Care is Constitutional, just as the Civil Rights act was. Another reason is the explosion of US Governmental Departments and Agencies that adopt rules and regulations that have the force of law. For example, go to http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/All_Agencies/index.shtml and you will find hundreds and hundreds of Departments and Agencies reaching into and controlling every aspect of citizen life. Your Senators and Representatives have little or no control over these Departments and Agencies, other than the purse. Good luck with that.
There are probably more reasons to prove the point but the reality is the current situation prevents any meaningful reform to be taken by well meaning people regardless of stature or standing. So when you hear soaring rhetoric by patriots bent on reforming Government by being sent to Washington, be hopeful, but be a realist too. They can do little, no matter how well intentioned, to effect reform. Indeed, any action taken by our Representatives is truly like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic in the hope that by moving the deck chairs around, somehow the Grand Ship can be prevented from going down. What to do? The only thing that seems viable is for the several states to call a Constitutional Convention and remove the offending institutional changes built up over the years. I’m just saying.
Monday, April 12, 2010
THE DARK SIDE OF KNOWLEDGE, REDUX
The Dark Side of Knowledge, Redux
I hope that you have had a chance to read my previous offering entitled “The Dark Side of Knowledge”, posted on 3/13/20009, where the misuse of knowledge for nefarious, and often times destructive purposes, was examined in detail. Upon much reflection, I believe that this subject deserves even greater examination because it’s importance in the affairs of civilized mankind cannot be overstated. In particular, it has occurred to me that throughout the history of civilization the most egregious harm done to man and country alike has most likely occurred whenever the intelligentsia has obtained the reins of political power. Of course, when we speak of the “Intelligentsia” in the political arena, we mean those intellectuals who have come together as an elite group for political or ideological purposes. You have a textbook example of an intelligentsia coming into political power today within the current administration of Barack Hussein Obama. Now just as it is incorrect to say that all Italians are great tenor singers just because most of the greatest tenors are Italians, it is also incorrect to say that all political intellectuals are autocrats just because throughout history most of the worst despots were intellectuals. To prove the point, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Winston Churchill and William F. Buckley were all worthy intellectuals who never used their obtained knowledge for tyrannical purposes. Why some intellectuals become part of a political intelligentsia that uses their superior knowledge to rule over their fellow man has always been a phenomenon worthy of serious investigation. I say that because you would think that those who have been privileged by their intellect to obtain far more knowledge than their fellow man would by the strength of their intellect be humbled, not emboldened, by the experience. So why do some intellectuals gather together into an elite group in order to impose their will upon others? I’m sure that the answer must lie somewhere between psychobabble and common sense but I’m also sure that if we knew the answer it would provide little practical benefit for us working stiffs trying to elect worthy leaders for our Republic. It certainly didn’t work out very well for the last election cycle, did it? But of course there is this old saw about “knowledge is power” and whether one is a dumb butt or an Einstein, power is a mistress all want to be intimate with. We all want power for many reasons and not all of the reasons for wanting power are for evil or selfish purposes. So I believe that the intelligentsia in charge today within our Government is not necessarily an evil or tyrannical group of intellectuals just because they are busy obtaining power in order to effect complete control over their fellow citizens. Rather, I believe that the cabal intellectuals are intoxicated with a shared abundance of knowledge that promotes an imperial benevolence towards their, less endowed with the benefit of superior knowledge, fellow man. The imperial benevolence I speak of is a result of a communal intellectual conviction that the less endowed citizens need guidance toward a more utopian society, for the good of all, of course. Therein lies the problem. Free American citizens really don’t guide very well, that is, free people are hard to herd so it takes a great deal of power to herd them towards a place they don’t want to go. The other problem for the intelligentsia is that the American form of Government accommodates the nature of man thereby enabling the very freedom that the intelligentsia must somehow overcome with the application of power. And now we come to the Voila moment. The intelligentsia must somehow change the American form of government that enables personal freedom into a form of government that promotes the application of power and restricts personal freedom in order that government will have necessary central control to direct society, as the intelligentsia requires. The changing of American government is now in full swing as the current intelligentsia is replacing free enterprise with central government control in all aspects of American society with regulations, executive directives, and the like, without bothering with Constitutional requirements. Voila, socialism. Socialist type of governance is the model for power politics because socialistic ideals must always try to change the nature of man by the application of power in order to accommodate the lofty ideals of utopian society that Socialism always promises. Because the nature of man is a free man, if you try to change the nature of man then you will not have a free man. This is why knowledge intoxicated intellectuals are always drawn to Socialism because Socialism is the tried and proven way to obtain and exercise the power necessary to impose their will upon their fellow citizens. Say goodbye to personal freedom. So whenever you head towards the election booth to mark your ballot, don’t forget that the American form of Government is a citizen government and not for the professional intellectuals that always make up a tyrannical Intelligentsia. I’m just saying.
I hope that you have had a chance to read my previous offering entitled “The Dark Side of Knowledge”, posted on 3/13/20009, where the misuse of knowledge for nefarious, and often times destructive purposes, was examined in detail. Upon much reflection, I believe that this subject deserves even greater examination because it’s importance in the affairs of civilized mankind cannot be overstated. In particular, it has occurred to me that throughout the history of civilization the most egregious harm done to man and country alike has most likely occurred whenever the intelligentsia has obtained the reins of political power. Of course, when we speak of the “Intelligentsia” in the political arena, we mean those intellectuals who have come together as an elite group for political or ideological purposes. You have a textbook example of an intelligentsia coming into political power today within the current administration of Barack Hussein Obama. Now just as it is incorrect to say that all Italians are great tenor singers just because most of the greatest tenors are Italians, it is also incorrect to say that all political intellectuals are autocrats just because throughout history most of the worst despots were intellectuals. To prove the point, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Winston Churchill and William F. Buckley were all worthy intellectuals who never used their obtained knowledge for tyrannical purposes. Why some intellectuals become part of a political intelligentsia that uses their superior knowledge to rule over their fellow man has always been a phenomenon worthy of serious investigation. I say that because you would think that those who have been privileged by their intellect to obtain far more knowledge than their fellow man would by the strength of their intellect be humbled, not emboldened, by the experience. So why do some intellectuals gather together into an elite group in order to impose their will upon others? I’m sure that the answer must lie somewhere between psychobabble and common sense but I’m also sure that if we knew the answer it would provide little practical benefit for us working stiffs trying to elect worthy leaders for our Republic. It certainly didn’t work out very well for the last election cycle, did it? But of course there is this old saw about “knowledge is power” and whether one is a dumb butt or an Einstein, power is a mistress all want to be intimate with. We all want power for many reasons and not all of the reasons for wanting power are for evil or selfish purposes. So I believe that the intelligentsia in charge today within our Government is not necessarily an evil or tyrannical group of intellectuals just because they are busy obtaining power in order to effect complete control over their fellow citizens. Rather, I believe that the cabal intellectuals are intoxicated with a shared abundance of knowledge that promotes an imperial benevolence towards their, less endowed with the benefit of superior knowledge, fellow man. The imperial benevolence I speak of is a result of a communal intellectual conviction that the less endowed citizens need guidance toward a more utopian society, for the good of all, of course. Therein lies the problem. Free American citizens really don’t guide very well, that is, free people are hard to herd so it takes a great deal of power to herd them towards a place they don’t want to go. The other problem for the intelligentsia is that the American form of Government accommodates the nature of man thereby enabling the very freedom that the intelligentsia must somehow overcome with the application of power. And now we come to the Voila moment. The intelligentsia must somehow change the American form of government that enables personal freedom into a form of government that promotes the application of power and restricts personal freedom in order that government will have necessary central control to direct society, as the intelligentsia requires. The changing of American government is now in full swing as the current intelligentsia is replacing free enterprise with central government control in all aspects of American society with regulations, executive directives, and the like, without bothering with Constitutional requirements. Voila, socialism. Socialist type of governance is the model for power politics because socialistic ideals must always try to change the nature of man by the application of power in order to accommodate the lofty ideals of utopian society that Socialism always promises. Because the nature of man is a free man, if you try to change the nature of man then you will not have a free man. This is why knowledge intoxicated intellectuals are always drawn to Socialism because Socialism is the tried and proven way to obtain and exercise the power necessary to impose their will upon their fellow citizens. Say goodbye to personal freedom. So whenever you head towards the election booth to mark your ballot, don’t forget that the American form of Government is a citizen government and not for the professional intellectuals that always make up a tyrannical Intelligentsia. I’m just saying.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
REALITY GOVERNMENT
Just a reminder to all of us who might have forgotten a basic tenet of Government, any and all Governments. Government is a political organization, so therefore, Governments can only make political decisions. Translated that means, if you let the Government make healthcare decisions for you, those decisions will be political decisions, not personal healthcare decisions. If the Government takes care of your retirement, decisions concerning your retirement will be political decisions, not personal retirement requirements. If the Government runs industry or business, decisions made will be political decisions, not business decisions. If you need an example of how this works, investigate how the USSR worked in its final days.
Monday, March 22, 2010
21 MARCH 2010
21 March 2010
21 March 2010 is another date that shall live in infamy. Just like Judas when he sold his eternal soul for thirty pieces of silver, Americans on 21 March 2010, completely sold their heritage of liberty and self-governing soul for an escape from personal responsibility and moral dignity. And just what is the “thirty pieces of silver” that we are exchanging our priceless liberty for? Why the “thirty pieces of silver” is the promise by the Intelligentsia and professional politicians that Big Mamma Government will sweep you and yours into her loving and benevolent arms and pay for and arrange for all of your personal health care needs forever and ever. I am reluctant to finally say that I have little remaining respect for my fellow Americans who have become the ultimate Flim Flam marks because we keep on believing that we can get something of value for nothing of value. What a sorry legacy we have become of a once proud and free people that paid in blood and treasure for the inalienable rights of freedom that was to be passed on to our children. We have been slowly changing from the self-assured freedom loving people we once were into self-serving entitlement craving wimps forever crying over life’s “unfair” demands and expecting Big Mamma Government to fulfill all of our needs and wants. But of course this is not the first step that Americans have taken in their headlong rush away from land of the free and home of the brave that our forefathers brought forth. Oh no, we are now rushing into an elite controlled social utopia that the Intelligentsia is manipulating for the good of us all, of course. Good luck with that America. The first meaning step that was taken was the implementation of the Social Security Act (Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance, OASDI) in 1935. That program was to be budget neutral and has morphed from the original OASDI that included unemployment benefits into these additional programs:
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
Health Insurance for Aged and Disabled (Medicare).
Grants to States for Medical Assistance Program (Medicaid).
State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
The cost for the Social Security Program is now conservatively estimated to be $19 Trillion dollars and counting with the new Obama Care to add to that obscene number as it is implemented in the next 10 years. Indeed, as of today, the Social Security program will be funded by Government IOUs (borrowed money) and general tax dollars instead of being budget neutral as originally promised. So if you think the CBO cost estimate for the 21 March 2010 Healthcare program will be $950 Billion and reduce the Budget deficit in the out years, there is absolutely no hope for you in your naivety. Money is important because money can only come from the citizen’s labor and wherewithal, and when the Government takes most of your hard earned money to pay for “taking care of you”, there can be no meaningful freedom or liberty. Way to go America.
21 March 2010 is another date that shall live in infamy. Just like Judas when he sold his eternal soul for thirty pieces of silver, Americans on 21 March 2010, completely sold their heritage of liberty and self-governing soul for an escape from personal responsibility and moral dignity. And just what is the “thirty pieces of silver” that we are exchanging our priceless liberty for? Why the “thirty pieces of silver” is the promise by the Intelligentsia and professional politicians that Big Mamma Government will sweep you and yours into her loving and benevolent arms and pay for and arrange for all of your personal health care needs forever and ever. I am reluctant to finally say that I have little remaining respect for my fellow Americans who have become the ultimate Flim Flam marks because we keep on believing that we can get something of value for nothing of value. What a sorry legacy we have become of a once proud and free people that paid in blood and treasure for the inalienable rights of freedom that was to be passed on to our children. We have been slowly changing from the self-assured freedom loving people we once were into self-serving entitlement craving wimps forever crying over life’s “unfair” demands and expecting Big Mamma Government to fulfill all of our needs and wants. But of course this is not the first step that Americans have taken in their headlong rush away from land of the free and home of the brave that our forefathers brought forth. Oh no, we are now rushing into an elite controlled social utopia that the Intelligentsia is manipulating for the good of us all, of course. Good luck with that America. The first meaning step that was taken was the implementation of the Social Security Act (Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance, OASDI) in 1935. That program was to be budget neutral and has morphed from the original OASDI that included unemployment benefits into these additional programs:
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
Health Insurance for Aged and Disabled (Medicare).
Grants to States for Medical Assistance Program (Medicaid).
State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
The cost for the Social Security Program is now conservatively estimated to be $19 Trillion dollars and counting with the new Obama Care to add to that obscene number as it is implemented in the next 10 years. Indeed, as of today, the Social Security program will be funded by Government IOUs (borrowed money) and general tax dollars instead of being budget neutral as originally promised. So if you think the CBO cost estimate for the 21 March 2010 Healthcare program will be $950 Billion and reduce the Budget deficit in the out years, there is absolutely no hope for you in your naivety. Money is important because money can only come from the citizen’s labor and wherewithal, and when the Government takes most of your hard earned money to pay for “taking care of you”, there can be no meaningful freedom or liberty. Way to go America.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
LITTLE ROUND GREEN THINGS
Little Round Green Things
Once upon a time in the fabled land called Hoosierdom, there lived a worthy man of modest means and a gracious woman of venerable demeanor. Fortune neither smiled nor ignored this husband and wife as they faithfully followed the rhythm of everyday life within their cloistered and cherished home. Part and parcel of that rhythm of living was the hurrying home after a full day of labor for the both of them so that they could escape the dehumanizing effects of the commercial world by taking full measure of the domestic tranquility that their Indiana home afforded. As was his habit upon arriving at his conjugal sanctuary, the Lord of the Manor would find sweet rest and spiritual renewal while lying prone upon his majestic Lazy Boy recliner. A nodding light slumber was the usual result of his repose while his strong right hand firmly clutched the television remote in a death grip that would ensure the familiar feeling of security that the electronic device always faithfully produced. Meanwhile, the Lady of the Citadel usually fortified her calming time with a generous glass of chilled white wine while his worship was gently rejuvenating upon his throne. On just such an ordinary day as this, when the sweet and perfumed Indiana countryside was wafting gently past opened windows, there was a old familiar stirring within the Madam of the Manor as she looking longingly at the Potentate of the Palace reclining in masculine splendor upon the Lazy Boy. She answered the stirring within her by coming to the side of her soul mate, and thereupon, she began to gently stroke and whisper promises of love to the old dog resting there halfway between sleep and awareness. What the Madam could not have known was that the old dog was experiencing a vision while simultaneously responding to the urgings of his one and only. Now, it is well known that men are prone to unusual dreams and visions, but a vision of Lady Gaga beckoning him to engage in worldly delights is a little beyond the pale. So, in a state of blathering Simi conscientiousness, the man responded to his loving wife by sputtering, “Lady Gaga, Lady Gaga, I’m coming, I’m coming”. This response to the call of love that the Lady of the House had offered caused a major disruption in the force. In fact, the words “Lady Gaga” muttered by the hapless man transformed the Lady of the Citadel forthwith into the Dominatrix of the Domicile. Where gentle love had once reigned, there was now a sudden desire for hurtful revenge. With billions and billions of neurons urgently firing away in the brain of the Dominatrix, a satisfying revenge was settled upon. Off to the kitchen she went, and with purpose strong, the Mistress of the House began to prepare dinner. When all was ready, she called to her shipmate to come and take his exalted place at the head of the table. The man stirred and rose to take his dinner with his loving wife. The man at once noticed that there was a strange smell mixing with and overpowering the delightful aroma of the Indiana countryside. It was a foul smell and he soon discovered from whence the dreadful aroma originated from. It was right there in front of him. It was right there on the dinner plate that his wife had placed before him. There they were, little round green things. They were just sitting there like the spawn of the Devil and producing a scent that surely originated from the depths of hell and fanned into resisting nostrils by the switching of old Scratch’s tail. The man looked at his wife. His wife was smiling with an unusual sweetness that alerted the man at once that he had done something very wrong. Men know this because they are always doing something wrong that they did not know was wrong and men have forever relied upon their wives to sweetly notify them that they have indeed mussed up big time. Well, a man has to do what a man has to do, and with a fork reluctantly sequestered in his stabbing hand, he speared one of the little round green things and put it in his mouth. Oh the humanity! The taste was equal to the smell as his grinders crushed the little round green thing and released a taste so disgusting that the man nearly hurled onto the dinner table. After the man had eaten all of the little round green things placed before him by his wife, he knew he would be forgiven for whatever he had done even though he knew not what it was that he had done. So men, when you wife places Brussels sprouts before you, go ahead and take your medicine. This is so because Brussels sprouts were only created to punish man for his transgressions against women and the universe cannot be make right again until the little round green things have went down the pie hole.
Once upon a time in the fabled land called Hoosierdom, there lived a worthy man of modest means and a gracious woman of venerable demeanor. Fortune neither smiled nor ignored this husband and wife as they faithfully followed the rhythm of everyday life within their cloistered and cherished home. Part and parcel of that rhythm of living was the hurrying home after a full day of labor for the both of them so that they could escape the dehumanizing effects of the commercial world by taking full measure of the domestic tranquility that their Indiana home afforded. As was his habit upon arriving at his conjugal sanctuary, the Lord of the Manor would find sweet rest and spiritual renewal while lying prone upon his majestic Lazy Boy recliner. A nodding light slumber was the usual result of his repose while his strong right hand firmly clutched the television remote in a death grip that would ensure the familiar feeling of security that the electronic device always faithfully produced. Meanwhile, the Lady of the Citadel usually fortified her calming time with a generous glass of chilled white wine while his worship was gently rejuvenating upon his throne. On just such an ordinary day as this, when the sweet and perfumed Indiana countryside was wafting gently past opened windows, there was a old familiar stirring within the Madam of the Manor as she looking longingly at the Potentate of the Palace reclining in masculine splendor upon the Lazy Boy. She answered the stirring within her by coming to the side of her soul mate, and thereupon, she began to gently stroke and whisper promises of love to the old dog resting there halfway between sleep and awareness. What the Madam could not have known was that the old dog was experiencing a vision while simultaneously responding to the urgings of his one and only. Now, it is well known that men are prone to unusual dreams and visions, but a vision of Lady Gaga beckoning him to engage in worldly delights is a little beyond the pale. So, in a state of blathering Simi conscientiousness, the man responded to his loving wife by sputtering, “Lady Gaga, Lady Gaga, I’m coming, I’m coming”. This response to the call of love that the Lady of the House had offered caused a major disruption in the force. In fact, the words “Lady Gaga” muttered by the hapless man transformed the Lady of the Citadel forthwith into the Dominatrix of the Domicile. Where gentle love had once reigned, there was now a sudden desire for hurtful revenge. With billions and billions of neurons urgently firing away in the brain of the Dominatrix, a satisfying revenge was settled upon. Off to the kitchen she went, and with purpose strong, the Mistress of the House began to prepare dinner. When all was ready, she called to her shipmate to come and take his exalted place at the head of the table. The man stirred and rose to take his dinner with his loving wife. The man at once noticed that there was a strange smell mixing with and overpowering the delightful aroma of the Indiana countryside. It was a foul smell and he soon discovered from whence the dreadful aroma originated from. It was right there in front of him. It was right there on the dinner plate that his wife had placed before him. There they were, little round green things. They were just sitting there like the spawn of the Devil and producing a scent that surely originated from the depths of hell and fanned into resisting nostrils by the switching of old Scratch’s tail. The man looked at his wife. His wife was smiling with an unusual sweetness that alerted the man at once that he had done something very wrong. Men know this because they are always doing something wrong that they did not know was wrong and men have forever relied upon their wives to sweetly notify them that they have indeed mussed up big time. Well, a man has to do what a man has to do, and with a fork reluctantly sequestered in his stabbing hand, he speared one of the little round green things and put it in his mouth. Oh the humanity! The taste was equal to the smell as his grinders crushed the little round green thing and released a taste so disgusting that the man nearly hurled onto the dinner table. After the man had eaten all of the little round green things placed before him by his wife, he knew he would be forgiven for whatever he had done even though he knew not what it was that he had done. So men, when you wife places Brussels sprouts before you, go ahead and take your medicine. This is so because Brussels sprouts were only created to punish man for his transgressions against women and the universe cannot be make right again until the little round green things have went down the pie hole.
Friday, February 26, 2010
BLESSED MUSIC
Ah, Blessed Music
One day God was in an especially good mood. Perhaps the reason God was in such excellent sprits was due to some sort of transcendent encounter with another of his kind. You know, perhaps the Almighty’s luxurious disposition was due to a little afternoon delight with Miss or Mrs. Almostasbig (sorry Ladies). I’m just saying. But the important thing here is that regardless of the reason, Mr. Big had an attitude adjustment, and because of that attitude adjustment, Mankind has been forever blessed. Let me further explain. While God’s sprit was meandering aimlessly about the Universe, savoring the afterglow of his afternoon delight, he happened upon Earth and looked down. What he saw when he looked upon the Earth threatened to disturb his well-earned repose, and he was much troubled as a result. What He saw when he looked upon the Earth was grubby humans fighting in the dust for the attention of a particularly fetching maiden who was nonchalantly looking on with satisfying regard at the spirited goings on. And by so doing, the Maiden was contributing to the nasty mayhem as much as the actual competitors. God was appalled that something so important as a little afternoon delight should be decided by the ability to kick the butt of another for the privilege. And I have it on very good authority that He was none too pleased by the Maiden’s attitude either because it was obvious that she was enjoying being fought over while watching her brethren beat the crap out of each other during their combat in the dirt. After contemplating what he was seeing, the Almighty pointed his finger at the Earth and caused a mind expansion of the visceral humans. Where there had been nothing but pointless rage driven by pointed instincts before, a syncopated rhythm began to emerge. There was now measured beats pounding in the human’s brains in time to the liberated emotion of love (or lust), you make the call. Sweet notes soon began to merge in time with the newly discovered sensuous rhythms and the sweating Humans unclenched their fists and sheathed their teeth. The struggling humans began to make music to the object of their desire. Even though the Maiden still preferred a primordial struggle for her favors, the beauty of the music being beamed her way by the hapless combatants nevertheless moved her. She responded by taking both to her breast. God immediately saw that he had more work to do in Human relations but that was a job for another time and another place. When God saw that the newly found music was replacing the ugly competition with love and beauty, he was much pleased. In fact, He was so pleased that he rushed to be with Miss or Mrs. Almostasbig again in order to reprise the luxurious disposition that the original afternooner had begat. So there you have it. Man has been forever blessed by the beautiful music that God in his infinite wisdom caused with a pointing of his finger so that the sprit of Man could ascend to a higher plane of existence. It has been said that music is the most elegant expression of emotion ever endowed upon humans and I couldn’t agree more. We are blessed.
One day God was in an especially good mood. Perhaps the reason God was in such excellent sprits was due to some sort of transcendent encounter with another of his kind. You know, perhaps the Almighty’s luxurious disposition was due to a little afternoon delight with Miss or Mrs. Almostasbig (sorry Ladies). I’m just saying. But the important thing here is that regardless of the reason, Mr. Big had an attitude adjustment, and because of that attitude adjustment, Mankind has been forever blessed. Let me further explain. While God’s sprit was meandering aimlessly about the Universe, savoring the afterglow of his afternoon delight, he happened upon Earth and looked down. What he saw when he looked upon the Earth threatened to disturb his well-earned repose, and he was much troubled as a result. What He saw when he looked upon the Earth was grubby humans fighting in the dust for the attention of a particularly fetching maiden who was nonchalantly looking on with satisfying regard at the spirited goings on. And by so doing, the Maiden was contributing to the nasty mayhem as much as the actual competitors. God was appalled that something so important as a little afternoon delight should be decided by the ability to kick the butt of another for the privilege. And I have it on very good authority that He was none too pleased by the Maiden’s attitude either because it was obvious that she was enjoying being fought over while watching her brethren beat the crap out of each other during their combat in the dirt. After contemplating what he was seeing, the Almighty pointed his finger at the Earth and caused a mind expansion of the visceral humans. Where there had been nothing but pointless rage driven by pointed instincts before, a syncopated rhythm began to emerge. There was now measured beats pounding in the human’s brains in time to the liberated emotion of love (or lust), you make the call. Sweet notes soon began to merge in time with the newly discovered sensuous rhythms and the sweating Humans unclenched their fists and sheathed their teeth. The struggling humans began to make music to the object of their desire. Even though the Maiden still preferred a primordial struggle for her favors, the beauty of the music being beamed her way by the hapless combatants nevertheless moved her. She responded by taking both to her breast. God immediately saw that he had more work to do in Human relations but that was a job for another time and another place. When God saw that the newly found music was replacing the ugly competition with love and beauty, he was much pleased. In fact, He was so pleased that he rushed to be with Miss or Mrs. Almostasbig again in order to reprise the luxurious disposition that the original afternooner had begat. So there you have it. Man has been forever blessed by the beautiful music that God in his infinite wisdom caused with a pointing of his finger so that the sprit of Man could ascend to a higher plane of existence. It has been said that music is the most elegant expression of emotion ever endowed upon humans and I couldn’t agree more. We are blessed.
Monday, February 22, 2010
DUPLICITOUS GOVERNMENT
Duplicitous Government
By now most of you have become aware that Athem Blue Cross of California (A part of the Wellpoint (WLP) insurance giant) is threatening to raise premium rates for California INDIVIDUAL policyholders some 39% (Indiana was also notified of a similar rate increase). Make note that the initial rate increase is for individual policyholders, not group policyholders. This is a very important distinction in the continuing political battle for Government healthcare, and we will see why later. Let me ask you something. Do you think that the Athem Blue Cross rate increase at this particular time is incredibly stupid? Really? Do you really think a for profit business like Wellpoint would raise rates some 39% while the Government threatens to take over the healthcare of all Americans and this “fortuitous” rate increase would dramatically prove to one and all that healthcare costs are completely out of control and in need of Government takeover? Do you really think that the Grand Pooh-bahs of these insurance conglomerates, who annually receive millions of dollars in bonus payments, could actually be that stupid? Of course there’re not. So what is really happening here? The fact is that the three largest Insurance Conglomerates, United Health Group (UNH), Aetna (AET), and Wellpoint (WLP) all have a major role in Government healthcare regardless how it finally comes down on our heads. At the very least, 50 million new healthcare customers will be forced by the Government to carry Health Insurance offered by these Companies. But wait, there’s more. These Companies (behind those famous closed doors) all had a major role in crafting the healthcare bill now before Congress and they stand to make untold profits under Government controlled healthcare without the constraints that competition imposes on the free market place. Brothers and Sisters, are you beginning to see the light? It is far easier to payoff politicians in the Government than to do business under the uncertainty of competition within the free marketplace. After all, payoffs are only a business expense while competition is a business uncertainty. So why make this announcement of a 39% rate increase at his particular time? It seems obvious to me that a Cass Sunstein “choice architecture” is being formulated here that can “nudge” the dumb-butt American people to make the correct choice on this healthcare matter. The threatened rate increase is one of the prime components for the “choice architecture” that will offer a contrived choice for the American people to determine which is better, (a) out-of-control healthcare costs by the money-grubbing, unscrupulous Insurance Companies and fat-cat wall street moneymakers (just dramatized by the unwarranted and massive 39% rate increase) or (b), Big Mama Government that is only concerned about healthcare for all citizens regardless of economic status, because after all, Big Mama Government is in the people caring business, unlike the healthcare industry that is only concerned about making obscene profits off of people’s sickness and misery, right? Besides, this is American and as an American you can always vote out the Government if you are unhappy with Government healthcare but you can’t vote out the money grubbing healthcare industry, right? This “choice architecture” will be presented to the public on C-Span television during the so called “Summit” meeting with the stupid Republicans on the healthcare bill, that, by the way, is now being rewritten behind even more closed doors. The insurance conglomerates have already been convinced that it is in their best interests to make a very large rate increase announcement at this time to support the “choice architecture.” You don’t think this is happening? Let me give you a similar local example. Some time ago, Indianapolis wanted a large trash-burning incinerator to satisfy the EPA and to reduce costs of landfills. The people said no thanks. City Government hurried out and surveyed multiple landfill sites within upscale neighborhoods and said that the new landfills would be required to take care of the trash in the coming years. Of course, the citizens went ballistic about landfills in their backyards and the City Government rebutted that a large incinerator would rescind the need for the new landfills. Voila, incinerator voted in with astonishing ease by the successful implementation of a “Choice architecture.” Come on now, don’t be surprised, if there is one thing we all should have learned by now is that all Governments speak with forked-tongue, i.e., that is in modern Americanspeak, they are duplicitous when dealing with the unwashed masses. Just keep in mind the timeless and universal maxim, to wit: All politicians lie, some just lie more than others.
By now most of you have become aware that Athem Blue Cross of California (A part of the Wellpoint (WLP) insurance giant) is threatening to raise premium rates for California INDIVIDUAL policyholders some 39% (Indiana was also notified of a similar rate increase). Make note that the initial rate increase is for individual policyholders, not group policyholders. This is a very important distinction in the continuing political battle for Government healthcare, and we will see why later. Let me ask you something. Do you think that the Athem Blue Cross rate increase at this particular time is incredibly stupid? Really? Do you really think a for profit business like Wellpoint would raise rates some 39% while the Government threatens to take over the healthcare of all Americans and this “fortuitous” rate increase would dramatically prove to one and all that healthcare costs are completely out of control and in need of Government takeover? Do you really think that the Grand Pooh-bahs of these insurance conglomerates, who annually receive millions of dollars in bonus payments, could actually be that stupid? Of course there’re not. So what is really happening here? The fact is that the three largest Insurance Conglomerates, United Health Group (UNH), Aetna (AET), and Wellpoint (WLP) all have a major role in Government healthcare regardless how it finally comes down on our heads. At the very least, 50 million new healthcare customers will be forced by the Government to carry Health Insurance offered by these Companies. But wait, there’s more. These Companies (behind those famous closed doors) all had a major role in crafting the healthcare bill now before Congress and they stand to make untold profits under Government controlled healthcare without the constraints that competition imposes on the free market place. Brothers and Sisters, are you beginning to see the light? It is far easier to payoff politicians in the Government than to do business under the uncertainty of competition within the free marketplace. After all, payoffs are only a business expense while competition is a business uncertainty. So why make this announcement of a 39% rate increase at his particular time? It seems obvious to me that a Cass Sunstein “choice architecture” is being formulated here that can “nudge” the dumb-butt American people to make the correct choice on this healthcare matter. The threatened rate increase is one of the prime components for the “choice architecture” that will offer a contrived choice for the American people to determine which is better, (a) out-of-control healthcare costs by the money-grubbing, unscrupulous Insurance Companies and fat-cat wall street moneymakers (just dramatized by the unwarranted and massive 39% rate increase) or (b), Big Mama Government that is only concerned about healthcare for all citizens regardless of economic status, because after all, Big Mama Government is in the people caring business, unlike the healthcare industry that is only concerned about making obscene profits off of people’s sickness and misery, right? Besides, this is American and as an American you can always vote out the Government if you are unhappy with Government healthcare but you can’t vote out the money grubbing healthcare industry, right? This “choice architecture” will be presented to the public on C-Span television during the so called “Summit” meeting with the stupid Republicans on the healthcare bill, that, by the way, is now being rewritten behind even more closed doors. The insurance conglomerates have already been convinced that it is in their best interests to make a very large rate increase announcement at this time to support the “choice architecture.” You don’t think this is happening? Let me give you a similar local example. Some time ago, Indianapolis wanted a large trash-burning incinerator to satisfy the EPA and to reduce costs of landfills. The people said no thanks. City Government hurried out and surveyed multiple landfill sites within upscale neighborhoods and said that the new landfills would be required to take care of the trash in the coming years. Of course, the citizens went ballistic about landfills in their backyards and the City Government rebutted that a large incinerator would rescind the need for the new landfills. Voila, incinerator voted in with astonishing ease by the successful implementation of a “Choice architecture.” Come on now, don’t be surprised, if there is one thing we all should have learned by now is that all Governments speak with forked-tongue, i.e., that is in modern Americanspeak, they are duplicitous when dealing with the unwashed masses. Just keep in mind the timeless and universal maxim, to wit: All politicians lie, some just lie more than others.
Friday, February 12, 2010
RULE 12 POLITICS
Rule 12 Politics
I encourage you to use a “benchmark” when trying to make sense of the various political arguments bombarding us in our new, and improved, Information Technology environment we now live in. I know it is difficult to distinguish between pure political argument and regular news in today’s “spin doctors, leaks, trial balloons, misinformation campaigns, and other devious (creating choice architecture to nudge us to make the “correct” decision) news and propaganda environment, but I believe the benchmark I’m proposing can help resolve the matter. The benchmark comes from Saul Alinsky’s political cookbook, “Rules for Radicals” and is his Rule 12 for radicals striving to force change upon the world. But before we get to the actual Rule 12, listen to what Mr. Alinsky said in the forward of his book, Rules for Radicals, “What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be.” Remember I have said that the US Constitution was designed to form a Government that accommodates the nature of man while socialism seeks to change the nature of man to accommodate the lofty ideas (“from what it is to what they believe it should be”) of today’s Intelligentsia. Well, Mr. Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is the proven way to force the change that the Socialists want to force upon us, and if you study Community Organizing as it was practiced by Barack Hussein Obama in Chicago, you will quickly determine that all 12 Rules for Radicals were followed with Robot like efficiency. Indeed, the politics of President Barack Hussein Obama has been characterized as Community Organizing on a national scale. Some have even suggested that he wants to Community Organize the entire Planet. But I digress. Here is your Rule 12 benchmark.
“Rule 12. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct personalized criticism and ridicule works.)”
You will note that there is nothing in Rule 12 that addresses what is good for the country or the citizens therein, only how too destroy your opposition so that rational argument cannot proceed. Indeed, I believe Rule 12 can be greatly simplified and be more succinct, to whit: Destroy the Individual. So there is your benchmark to use in order to determine if what you are hearing is rational argument or is Rule 12 in operation. You make the call, but it certainly helps when you are aware of the rules of the game, don’t you think?
I encourage you to use a “benchmark” when trying to make sense of the various political arguments bombarding us in our new, and improved, Information Technology environment we now live in. I know it is difficult to distinguish between pure political argument and regular news in today’s “spin doctors, leaks, trial balloons, misinformation campaigns, and other devious (creating choice architecture to nudge us to make the “correct” decision) news and propaganda environment, but I believe the benchmark I’m proposing can help resolve the matter. The benchmark comes from Saul Alinsky’s political cookbook, “Rules for Radicals” and is his Rule 12 for radicals striving to force change upon the world. But before we get to the actual Rule 12, listen to what Mr. Alinsky said in the forward of his book, Rules for Radicals, “What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be.” Remember I have said that the US Constitution was designed to form a Government that accommodates the nature of man while socialism seeks to change the nature of man to accommodate the lofty ideas (“from what it is to what they believe it should be”) of today’s Intelligentsia. Well, Mr. Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is the proven way to force the change that the Socialists want to force upon us, and if you study Community Organizing as it was practiced by Barack Hussein Obama in Chicago, you will quickly determine that all 12 Rules for Radicals were followed with Robot like efficiency. Indeed, the politics of President Barack Hussein Obama has been characterized as Community Organizing on a national scale. Some have even suggested that he wants to Community Organize the entire Planet. But I digress. Here is your Rule 12 benchmark.
“Rule 12. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct personalized criticism and ridicule works.)”
You will note that there is nothing in Rule 12 that addresses what is good for the country or the citizens therein, only how too destroy your opposition so that rational argument cannot proceed. Indeed, I believe Rule 12 can be greatly simplified and be more succinct, to whit: Destroy the Individual. So there is your benchmark to use in order to determine if what you are hearing is rational argument or is Rule 12 in operation. You make the call, but it certainly helps when you are aware of the rules of the game, don’t you think?
Thursday, February 11, 2010
THE 17TH AMENDMENT
The 17th Amendment,
and the rise of Special Interests
There is a date other than 7 December 1941 that will live in infamy. The other date is 8 April 1913; the date that the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified. On that date the Congress and states changed Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution that required each State Legislature to select two Senators for representation in the United States Senate. The Amendment requires instead that each Senator be elected by popular vote of the people rather than be selected by their respective State Legislators, to wit, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years, and each Senator shall have one vote”…….. The 16th, 17th, 18th (Prohibition) and 19th (Woman right to vote) Amendments were conceived during the dawn of the “Progressive” movement that was gaining influence at the time and you will of course recall that the 16th Amendment allowed the Congress to lay and collect taxes on incomes. The Progressive movement morphed into the Liberal and then back into the Progressive movement of today and these two terms are just words that in truth mean Socialism and Socialism means that force is required to change people’s actions for the good of all. And Brothers and Sisters, as I have said on many occasions before: Taxes Are Power and the 16th is the single most important enabler of the power requirement that can force change. This Amendment was the legal basis for enacting legislation that began the collection of payroll taxes in 1937 for the Social Security Program. The 16th Amendment eventually enabled Franklin D. Roosevelt to sign into law the Payroll Withholding Tax Act in 1943, another date that infamy should lay claim to. But I digress. The importance of the original Constitutional requirement for Senator selection cannot be overstated because the Article 1, Section 3 requirement was carefully crafted to complement the Bicameral organization of the legislative branch of Government and support the concept of a Republic, not an unbridled Democracy. I really don't think I command enough of the reader’s respect to provide the reason for this, but perhaps one of the Country’s founding fathers could. I'm referring to James Madison and in the Federalist Paper No 10 he explained the reason for the Bicameral design, to wit: “Before taking effect, legislation would have to be ratified by two independent power sources: the people’s representatives in the House and the State legislatures’ agents in the Senate.” This requirement would not only provide the means to ensure the concept of Federalism but would thwart the influence of special interests because of the requirement of satisfying two separate constituencies. Mr. Madison further explained the concept in Federalist Paper No 51: “In republican government, the legislative authority, necessarily predominate. The remedy for this inconvenience is, to divide the legislature into different branches; and to render them by different modes of election, and different principals of action, as little connected with each other, as the nature of their common functions and their common dependencies on the society, will admit.” You may be surprised to learn that the original method of Senator selection was so important that it was one of the few principals that enjoyed nearly unanimous approval by the founding fathers. Because of the Seventeenth Amendment, the authority of each State has been greatly reduced and due to the power of incumbency, each Senator has become a Potentate instead of a State Agent in a Senate that is coming to resemble the Senate of Rome in its last days. Also, because the Senators are now elected, special interests have a corruption avenue equal to that in the House of Representatives to funnel money and power to ensure election and satisfy plain old greed in exchange for favors in the legislative process. Indeed, the current financial catastrophe we find ourselves in can be traced directly to the influence of special interests in causing the Gramm-Leach-Blily (GLB) act in 1999 to become law. That law was enacted in spite of repeated warnings by knowledgeable and responsible people that its enactment would produce a financial crisis of Biblical proportions. The GLB act repealed part of the Glass-Steagall act of 1933 that was enacted to prevent the same kind of financial crisis that produced the great depression. The GLB act removed most all restrictions and separations between commercial banks and all other investment and financial entities. Viola, financial crisis circa 2008, and all because special interests have gained a foothold that the founding fathers tried with all of their wisdom to prevent. I could even make the case that Article 1, Section 3, of the Constitution addressed the most fundamental special interest problem indigenous to a mature society. The special interest that I'm referring to is the special interest of the Cities versus the rest of the country. The cities always attract the most intellectual and financial capital and this concentration of wealth always demands more and more resources from the rest of the country. The ever-increasing demands of the Cities always causes a schism to develop between the whole of the people because one cannot exist without the other yet the cities keep making demands that would cause the rest of the country to fall into ruin (much like Rome in its final days). The cities can do this because they have the greater population concentration and can easily overwhelm the rest of the country with superior political power especially within a non-constitutional “one man, one vote” system that the Supreme Court pulled out the air. I refer you to the USA Today 2004 Presidential Election map down to the county level (commonly referred to as the “Red/Blue map) that clearly shows the cities (population areas) voting one way and the rest of the country another. The requirement that Senators be agents of the State instead of being directly elected by the people addressed the City/Country schism in a remarkable and effective way and supports the concept of a Republic rather than an unbridled Democracy. I invite you to consider other areas that the 17th Amendment ratification may have influenced, but suffice to say, the consequences of the 17th Amendment are far reaching and quite possibly damaging to our Republic as well.
and the rise of Special Interests
There is a date other than 7 December 1941 that will live in infamy. The other date is 8 April 1913; the date that the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified. On that date the Congress and states changed Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution that required each State Legislature to select two Senators for representation in the United States Senate. The Amendment requires instead that each Senator be elected by popular vote of the people rather than be selected by their respective State Legislators, to wit, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years, and each Senator shall have one vote”…….. The 16th, 17th, 18th (Prohibition) and 19th (Woman right to vote) Amendments were conceived during the dawn of the “Progressive” movement that was gaining influence at the time and you will of course recall that the 16th Amendment allowed the Congress to lay and collect taxes on incomes. The Progressive movement morphed into the Liberal and then back into the Progressive movement of today and these two terms are just words that in truth mean Socialism and Socialism means that force is required to change people’s actions for the good of all. And Brothers and Sisters, as I have said on many occasions before: Taxes Are Power and the 16th is the single most important enabler of the power requirement that can force change. This Amendment was the legal basis for enacting legislation that began the collection of payroll taxes in 1937 for the Social Security Program. The 16th Amendment eventually enabled Franklin D. Roosevelt to sign into law the Payroll Withholding Tax Act in 1943, another date that infamy should lay claim to. But I digress. The importance of the original Constitutional requirement for Senator selection cannot be overstated because the Article 1, Section 3 requirement was carefully crafted to complement the Bicameral organization of the legislative branch of Government and support the concept of a Republic, not an unbridled Democracy. I really don't think I command enough of the reader’s respect to provide the reason for this, but perhaps one of the Country’s founding fathers could. I'm referring to James Madison and in the Federalist Paper No 10 he explained the reason for the Bicameral design, to wit: “Before taking effect, legislation would have to be ratified by two independent power sources: the people’s representatives in the House and the State legislatures’ agents in the Senate.” This requirement would not only provide the means to ensure the concept of Federalism but would thwart the influence of special interests because of the requirement of satisfying two separate constituencies. Mr. Madison further explained the concept in Federalist Paper No 51: “In republican government, the legislative authority, necessarily predominate. The remedy for this inconvenience is, to divide the legislature into different branches; and to render them by different modes of election, and different principals of action, as little connected with each other, as the nature of their common functions and their common dependencies on the society, will admit.” You may be surprised to learn that the original method of Senator selection was so important that it was one of the few principals that enjoyed nearly unanimous approval by the founding fathers. Because of the Seventeenth Amendment, the authority of each State has been greatly reduced and due to the power of incumbency, each Senator has become a Potentate instead of a State Agent in a Senate that is coming to resemble the Senate of Rome in its last days. Also, because the Senators are now elected, special interests have a corruption avenue equal to that in the House of Representatives to funnel money and power to ensure election and satisfy plain old greed in exchange for favors in the legislative process. Indeed, the current financial catastrophe we find ourselves in can be traced directly to the influence of special interests in causing the Gramm-Leach-Blily (GLB) act in 1999 to become law. That law was enacted in spite of repeated warnings by knowledgeable and responsible people that its enactment would produce a financial crisis of Biblical proportions. The GLB act repealed part of the Glass-Steagall act of 1933 that was enacted to prevent the same kind of financial crisis that produced the great depression. The GLB act removed most all restrictions and separations between commercial banks and all other investment and financial entities. Viola, financial crisis circa 2008, and all because special interests have gained a foothold that the founding fathers tried with all of their wisdom to prevent. I could even make the case that Article 1, Section 3, of the Constitution addressed the most fundamental special interest problem indigenous to a mature society. The special interest that I'm referring to is the special interest of the Cities versus the rest of the country. The cities always attract the most intellectual and financial capital and this concentration of wealth always demands more and more resources from the rest of the country. The ever-increasing demands of the Cities always causes a schism to develop between the whole of the people because one cannot exist without the other yet the cities keep making demands that would cause the rest of the country to fall into ruin (much like Rome in its final days). The cities can do this because they have the greater population concentration and can easily overwhelm the rest of the country with superior political power especially within a non-constitutional “one man, one vote” system that the Supreme Court pulled out the air. I refer you to the USA Today 2004 Presidential Election map down to the county level (commonly referred to as the “Red/Blue map) that clearly shows the cities (population areas) voting one way and the rest of the country another. The requirement that Senators be agents of the State instead of being directly elected by the people addressed the City/Country schism in a remarkable and effective way and supports the concept of a Republic rather than an unbridled Democracy. I invite you to consider other areas that the 17th Amendment ratification may have influenced, but suffice to say, the consequences of the 17th Amendment are far reaching and quite possibly damaging to our Republic as well.
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