Happy Independence Day

In spite of all the festivities, pomp and circumstance, are we any freer than we were 235 years ago? Some may see this as a rhetorical question, some as a ridiculous one, still others won't care a whit, having become accustomed to the hamster wheel.

Recently, I had read a quote by the new age philosopher Vernon Howard, who said: "Our freedom can be measured by the number of things we can walk away from." He also said: "Freedom begins as we become conscious of it." Vernon was one interesting cat and I encourage anyone to check him out. In this context, how many things can we walk away from? Are we conscious of our freedom or lack of it?

To expound on the first question, I'll further ask, can you give up your iPhone or other smart phone, computer, fast food, alcohol, drugs, the need for a bigger house, better car, crappy job, great job, wife, husband, children, petty grievances and desires, hatred of others, hatred of self, religion, god, malignant self-importance, the need always to be right? What are we running from, what are we running to? Some of these, such as family, have certain obligations that are a trade off in whatever perceived freedom might be gained. Some are trade offs that we perceive for some benefit that the do gooders like to call the common good. Still others here are mere objects of desire and delusion that we use to reinforce our sense of self-importance, relevance and perceived fecundity. While some are useful tools, they still latch on like spidey's web, creating dependence that is in fact anathema to being free. Are you willing to walk away, give it up?

To the second question, are we aware of it? Certainly not in a conscious and caring way that would want to remediate it. While in some ways, the impetus of our founding, to be free of the king, is looked on with such anti-monarchial pride, the yoke of taxes, or social, economic, and political burden we have taken on since, makes or genesis seem mild in comparison. Part of it is based in paternalism or what I call the ideology of Farm Animals®, and part in the distraction of meaningless bullshit that we encumber ourselves in everyday life.  Basically we would rather give up personal sovereignty to ensure some sort of guarantee of existence. In other words, safety. In our own hearts be true, we know this and we know how feckless we have become. So we surround ourselves with more stuff in an effort to delude ourselves of what it is real. If you don't believe me, look at it in the extreme with Horders, which is all the reality show rave now. All addiction is based on disconnecting with reality. Reality is harsh, it can suck. Buy more stuff, drink more alcohol, eat more food, do more drugs. It'll all be better in the morning.

Now, back to our collective independence day. Are we more free than we were then? I think not. Collectivism makes it harder if not more difficult to walk away and in a way is the ultimate addiction that is a necessary and purposeful distraction for those who are behind that curtain. Like a cow with a nose ring, we are led around by our noses by those that are less than us and worse, who we appoint, encourage, reward and enable. Democracy has allowed us to become masters of our own enslavement and while not by divine right of a king or queen, we are still slaves, indentured servants and fools.  we still have an awfully long way to go if we want to be considered truly free.

Thank you for reading this blog.

And Today Makes 234

Today marks the 234th anniversary of the signing of The Declaration of Independence. It is the day we told our colonial masters that we'd had enough of their statist control and that we would enforce our free will, our right to self-determination and exercise our responsibilities in creating a new nation.

This document was the culmination of years of abuse from the crown and also years of resistance and grievance from us, the colonies. Some would say if it weren't fro Samuel Adams and his circular letters as well as his outspoken criticism of the crown, this independence would not have come about. We owe a debt of gratitude to this man.

Just as then, now we face the same increasing statist control over our lives, we face an abusive and ever growing government and a government that is a threat to our freedom, our self-determination and free will. The question remains, who is our Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson or Thomas Paine today? Some will say Rush, Glenn will say it is himself, Sean isn't even close, and then there is Mark and Michael, the mighty mishpucha powerhouses of the right. Still, no one I can se is in the same league. The reason is simple: Read the last line of the Declaration. None of these people, including any of us writing and reading here have put it on the line like the founders. That time has not come yet and circumstances make the man. We shall see.

So here below is the Declaration of Independence. Read and re-acquaint yourself with what this day really means and think about it's relevance today.

Thank you for reading this blog.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

It's 1773

Is it 1773? Are we ready for our own version of the Coercive Acts? If our current situation doesn't mirror in some way the history of our country leading up to 1776, I don't know what does. We have a leader and politicians that disregard what the people want, that seek to oppress us with more taxes and laws. The difference is that we have elected these mountebanks and still they act poorly with impunity and without regard to their tenure. At the very least the democrats face a reversal of fortune never seen in the country. Beyond that, to the extreme, if Obama continues his progressivist socialist/fascist agenda regards of electoral outcomes in 2010, he risks breaking The Union. Unlike 1865, he would be on the losing side.

Thank you for reading this blog.

The Straw Man And The Magician

Sorry for the delay, but I've had the flu and then bronchitis.

I wanted to post this a while ago, and usually such stories are timely, but here goes. Lately we have ben bombarded with populist drivel in an effort to create straw men that keep us from dealing with the real issues and real culprits. Much has been made about the management at AIG getting bonuses, but what has been lost in the miasma is that Senator Dodd was the one that put in the bonus structure in TARP which allowed the AIG management to take bonuses. Wether or not you believe that they deserve it is irrelevant because they did something that was legal, and our congress and senate passed, and the president signed. While I think it is ill-advised for them to take the bonuses, they are legally entitled to them. Too add to the drama, some politicians want to haul the AIG head before congress, but wait, he was appointed by congress to run AIG...

Right now, Paul Shanklin was prescient with his rendition of "Barack the Magic Negro". I am not endorsing the song per se, but Barack is a magician. He has managed to distract with one hand while deceiving with the other. The demonization of wealth, success, and capitalism go beyond just a plain vanilla socialist agenda. It's about creating a constituency of voters that will keep Barack in power, by any means necessary. If you look at his election, he did not go the normal route that politicians take: Country Club republicans or Limousine Liberals. He took smaller donations from a much larger base. While the wealthy have contributed to political endeavors, their numbers are small and when it comes to actual votes, their voice is also small. When You look at the past, look at Napoleon, Lenin, and Hitler (lets throw in Castro as well), in this context. They used economic populism as a straw man to galvanize people to a common goal, that in the end was detrimental to their freedom, well being and safety. With the exception of Hitler, their policies in praxis actually set their countries back technologically, and financially on the outset and in some cases down the road as well.

Make no mistake, it is not a mistake in anything Obama does policywise and strategically. Tactically, he makes mistakes, but the press covers up for him. With the latest GM debacle, having Wagoner step down was an effort to one, show who was in charge, and two, to create a straw man to blame for the auto industries problems. The auto industries problems are come in a few flavors. One, they have taken on too much debt with the unions, particularly as with the benefits and pensions with retirees, and non-competitive wages. Toyota and Honda clean the big three's clock over this issues alone. They kept feeding the dragon instead of killing it. Two, there is too much government regulation which has had a negative impact on the vehicles they build. having to put more money into research to meet ever tightening emissions standards is a waste of time. You could argue the japanese car makers did it, and that is true, but they do not have to eat that all by themselves. Lastly, for a long time, they made cars no one wanted to buy and by the time they did, the perception was that they still couldn't make a car like that. Too Little too late.

Back to Barry. God is my judge, you will see Detroit, at least in the form of GM and Chrysler, be dictated to on what to build by the government (Right now, Go bless Ford). In that context, I think Obama wants the bailout to fail for GM et al and anything else (Can you say Chapter 11?). If the bailouts succeed initially, the government may not have the control that Obama envisions. Obama needs to create a dependent society for his agenda to succeed. That is the key. The society must look to government for solutions to all its problems. To this extent, Obama will even denigrate and subjugate the United States to the will of other countries. His success depends on destroying the idea of American Exceptionalism, of destroying our very truths, and our values in order to substitute his own. Marx called for the destruction of the whole social order and a call to destroy traditions. This is in contrast to the president we had at the turn of the last two centuries: Thomas Jefferson did not bow before royalty, but insisted on a hand shake, as did Theodore Roosevelt, whose presidency established the United States as a first class world power. This president sees us less that we are in the context of the world at large.

Obama is the first president since FDR to want power at any price. Whereas I am not convinced that FDR was a socialist, at least initially, he came to crave and keep the power even if it meant keeping the country down in the face of rational alternatives. Obama is much more ideologically centered than FDR. Obama wants the power all right, but he also has a dream that most of us would not want, but like FDR will create, foment and promulgate conditions for the attainment of both. Obama is both gangster and crusader, whereas FDR was pure gangster.

What comes next, you ask? Expect more diversionary tactics from the Obamessiah Time is of the essence and I bet he will not wait for the midterm elections to enact things such as nationalized healthcare, forced volunteer service, carbon credit climate plan, nationalized banks, wage control, nationalized auto manufacturers, and the The Free Choice Act, to name only a few. More straw men will be created, and if necessary, his henchmen will be thrown under the bus (Imagine Geitner's prospects in a year) for the purpose of pushing his socialist agenda on the citizens of the United States, putting us in such debt that we will never be able to get out of it and in the process curtailing our freedoms. It will be indentured servitude for the ages, and unwanted obligations that will destroy innovation, ambition and expectations of generations of Americans to come. While the prospect of becoming a quasi-socialist country like Denmark, Sweden or the UK (at best) may be appealing to some of you, I think that you really have lost the perspective of what it means to be a US citizen and what the US stands for. This loss is due to the fact that what is not earned is not appreciated. Read Eric Hoffer if you want a translation, specifically True Believer.

What can we do? Remain vigilant, vote for candidates that are not simpatico with Obama, and Think Freedom. Don't be fooled by the straw men that politicians will use to sway you and beware of mass movements in general. Your most powerful asset is your vote and it is your only voice. Also beware of movements that offer symbolism rather than real change. Symbolism is but a vent of your frustrations, whereas real change (and not Obamas type of change) requires personal responsibility, and action. Without action we are just playing with ourselves in the corner. No offense to Glenn Beck and his "We Surround Them" non-sense, but that is just an outlet that has no bite and only serves to peacefully quell the masses. The same with these bullshit tea parties. The signers of the Declaration of Independence did so at their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. They had no intentions of symbolism, especially as it exists today. They were men of action. They were successful. Can you say the same, or is your Playstation and HD TV more important?

Thank you for reading this blog.

We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor?

The senate passed a monstrosity of a bill with more pork than an Iowa hog confinement. It's disgusting and shows the lack of gravitas on the part of the senators. If we are truly in trouble here, then get a bill through that fixes the problem, not adds to it. We have a bunch of self interested buttholes, Grassley and Harkin included, that have passed a bad bill. 451 pages? We need to hold these senators feet to the fire. In the last line of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote what is in the title of this post. These fake, phony and fraudulent politicians have forgotten the meaning of those words and in their actions have demeaned them. 

It is time for a new revolution, and one that does not include Obama or McCain. They both talk a good game and both voted for pork as well (Biden too). Where is the hope? Where is the change? It's all rhetoric. I call on my fellow Americans to kick these people out of office, as they have no honor and they have lost our trust. They do not deserve our respect or our vote. Let's get them out. Below is a list of Senators that voted no. Remember their names, as they have courage. 

Allard (R)
Barasso  (R)
Brownback  (R)
Bunning (R)
Cantwell (D)
Cochran (R)
Crapo (R)
DeMint (R)
Dole (R)
Dorgan (D)
Enzi (R)
Feingold (D) 
Inhofe (R)
Johnson (D)
Landrieu (D)
Nelson (FL) (D)
Roberts (R)
Sanders (I)
Sessions (R)
Shelby (R)
Stabenow (D)
Tester (D)
Vitter (R)
Wicker (R)
Wyden (D)

Here are the earmarks supported by our ersatz senators; the price for selling this country down the river, thank you Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin:

Sec. 505. Certain farming business machinery and equipment treated as 5-year property. 

TITLE VII—DISASTER RELIEF 

Subtitle A—Heartland and Hurricane Ike Disaster Relief

Sec. 702. Temporary tax relief for areas damaged by 2008 Midwestern severe storms, tornados, and flooding. 

Subtitle B—National Disaster Relief 
Sec. 706. Losses attributable to federally declared disasters. 
Sec. 707. Expensing of Qualified Disaster Expenses. 
Sec. 708. Net operating losses attributable to federally declared disasters. 
Sec. 709. Waiver of certain mortgage revenue bond requirements following federally declared disasters. 
Sec. 710. Special depreciation allowance for qualified disaster property. 
Sec. 711. Increased expensing for qualified disaster assistance property. 
Sec. 712. Coordination with Heartland disaster relief.

Thank you for reading this blog.