Author Archive
Support a War on Us
You are right, of course, Troy; but I am not so sure a war on 'us' is such a bad idea. 'I' for one, am sick and tired of 'us' and all of the perpetual wars, real and phony, used to keep American sheeple bunched up in collective herds, bleating for wise and kindly shepherds to protect them from rumored wolves.
Without an external enemy, there would be no need of a Federal government. Without natural enemies, they have to create them to justify their existence. Without a Federal government, there would be very little use for competing State governments.
The only reason folks in Texas give a damn about how the folks in New York organize their lives, and visa versa, is our predisposition to consider each other fellow Americans. That, and the propensity of each, to desire the establishment of their own societal preferences, as universal for all Americans.
Cold Facts and Hot Quotes
I just stumbled across an incredibly lucid post, by the ‘Administrator’ of a blog I had never heard of called, “The Burning Platform,” which I look forward to perusing further. It is simply entitled, “Available,” and I would implore anyone with the slightest interest in (and ability to handle) the stark truth, regarding the condition and future of our economy, to read it. Although lengthy and chock full of facts, figures, and charts, it is easy reading, and anything but boring. The author (I couldn’t find his name) uses some quotes that are keepers, starting the article with:
“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” – Aldous Huxley
He then proceeds to offer them in abundance, during his sobering analysis. Along the way, he injects another keeper:
The mainstream corporate media that is dominated by six mega-corporations (Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch’s News Corporation, Comcast, Viacom, and Bertelsmann), has one purpose as described by the master of propaganda – Edward Bernays:
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
More hard cold facts and cogent analysis follow, leading to his closing quote, by one of my favorite sages:
Liberty vs. Piety
Much is made in conservative political discussions, of our inalienable natural rights to Life, Liberty, and Property. The right to Property is central to our conflict with the Politically Correct altruists on the Left, over their egalitarian ‘social justice’ agenda. They claim the moral authority to employ coercive government agents, to confiscate what they regard as ‘excessive’ earnings of producers, for redistribution among their celebrated victim class mooches. The right to Life, of course, underpins and defines the anti-abortion issue, central to the Piously Correct altruists on the Right. They regard the unborn as the more compelling class of victimhood, and claim the moral authority to employ coercive government agents, to compel a woman to give birth to an unwanted child.
Yet, in the strident Left/Right culture war raging across our land, one finds little discussion of our natural right to Liberty. Is this because few among these authoritarian-minded combatants understand what Liberty actually means, or because it so fundamentally conflicts with their political agendas? Either way, they effectively reject the premise that Liberty is an inalienable natural right, common sense and our Founders assertion notwithstanding. One cannot coherently, at the same time champion Liberty, and advocate employing the coercive powers of government, to regulate the wealth OR social mores of its individual citizens.
Liberty is essentially the antithesis of coercive government. To our arguably libertarian Founders, the primary purpose of our experiment with self-government, was to defend the natural rights of free sovereign individuals, from the threat of tyranny of any sort. They dismissed as incompatible with their thesis of individual sovereignty, any statist form of government lacking the consent of the governed. Not just despotic monarchy, dictatorship, oligarchy, et al, failed that test; they also specifically rejected the tyranny of what they called ‘mob rule’ democracy. Read the rest of this entry »
Syria Is Not America’s Problem
Jim Geraghty, over at National Review, makes a powerful argument in a piece entitled, “The Demonization of the Iraq War Ensures No Syria Intervention,” which deserves international attention:
No, World, We’re Never Going to Militarily Intervene in Syria.
…
Everybody knows we’re not going to intervene in Syria, right?
Part of this is because we have Obama as president, part of this is because Americans consumed with our own domestic issues right now — a consistently floundering economy, immigration — but mostly it’s because of Iraq.
Dear world . . . do you remember how you greeted the invasion of Iraq?
The invasion of Iraq was treated as the greatest crime against humanity in the history of the world, denounced far more frequently and loudly than any act by Saddam Hussein, Bashir Assad, the Iranian regime, or North Korea.
Giant protests in lots of American cities. Giant protests in every foreign capital. The 2004 Guinness Book of Records described the anti-war movement around the globe as the largest mass protest movement in history — eclipsing any popular opposition to any act of the Soviet Union or any other totalitarian regime around the globe, ever. Among the elites in Paris, Berlin, and most corners of London, the Iraq War was the single-most important issue, and denouncing the evil of George W. Bush was the most important goal, not building a stable and peaceful Iraq. You recall Kofi Annan denouncing it, and the United Nations delegates scoffing when Hugo Chavez called our president the devil. Read the rest of this entry »
Rogue Party Proposal
…for Re-founding the Original American Republic
Incumbrepublocrats: n. The sham duopoly of incumbent ruling elites, tricking complaisant sheeple into believing they need frequent sheering for the welfare of the herd, and have a choice of shepherds promising, yet never quite providing, eternally green pastures in wolf-free zones. See: Incumbrepublocrats
Those of us who are political junkies, and/or passionate about an issue or ideology, tend to lament so-called voter apathy and how uninterested so many of our neighbors seem to be, about political matters we regard as critically important to the future of our country. These sheeple are content to blithely follow any glib demagoging bellwether, and foolishly trust their shepherds to keep them in clover. While we spend an inordinate amount of time and effort attempting to awaken them from their indifference, they cavort blissfully through much simpler lives, oblivious to any good reason to allow political squabbling to complicate them.
Perhaps we should be noticing what so many of them do, which enables them to tune out obsessive political debate. It seems to matter not how actively engaged we become; our prodigious efforts rarely make much difference in the end. The inexorable slide into the pits of tyranny is continuously advanced by ambitious oligarchs, in both wings of the Incumbrepublocrat duopoly. For the most part, after a busy year of selecting, campaigning hard for, and even electing worthy candidates promising reform, little actually changes in Sodom by the Potomac. Alas, power corrupts… rather quickly, and nearly always.
Whomever we might vote for, the entrenched bureaucracy effectively wins every election. Perhaps we should rethink the Civil Service system, which was supposed to be an improvement over the ‘Spoils System,’ of patronage jobs for government servants. At least before, we could throw ALL the rascals out with a change election. Now, this unelected, under-worked, and grossly overpaid cabal of bureaucratic busybodies merrily carries on, growing their budget and micromanaging our daily lives. Once again, they bemusedly watch our freshly elected reformers being schooled by the old Pro’s, in the art of maintaining incumbency – job one for a career-minded Incumbrepublocrat.
A Thousand Words…
An Israeli School Teacher Minding Her Class
…such as responsibility, prudence, duty, courage, honor, and Liberty come to mind. How I envy her ability to live in a land of the free, and home of the brave…
Excise Tax vs. Income Tax
I haven't thought this through nearly enough, as it only just popped into my head while reading a comment to a post about reforming the Federal Income Tax, so I decided to blog it so we can kick the idea around a bit. It just might be an elegant solution to funding a properly limited Federal government. A basic truth is that taxes are often more about control than revenue. To encourage behavior, governments subsidize it; to discourage something, they tax it. Punitively taxing income and savings is counterproductive to a free market economy; if anything we should be taxing consumption. This is why I have long been an advocate of the Fair Tax; but even that is convoluted and messy in its implementation.
I would like to do away with the IRS, or at least its interface with individual citizens in any way. How much income we have, how we earn it, and how we choose to spend it, is none of the Federal government's business. What if we were to fund it entirely with excise taxes instead of income taxes? What if banks and all other financial institutions that provided banking services, were charged a small excise fee as a percentage of every transaction on the debit side of their ledger, and permit them to pass that cost on to their customers as a transaction fee? That way, depositing earnings and other income from whatever source would not be taxed. Only the act of withdrawing funds, one way or another, to spend them for whatever purpose, would be effectively taxed. No exceptions or deductions would be necessary or desired.
Abandon All Hope
They walk among us…
…and they vote! ◄Dave►
I Quit
This needs to go viral. I concur completely:
They can have the country. I will take back my life.
It is our misfortune that the political class – elected officials [public sector unions], consultants, pundits and hacks of every stripe – has transformed our nation's Constitutional government and therewith our polity and civl discourse into a stinking cesspool of constant conflict. As a consequence, their campaigns to attain office, their method of gaining power over YOU and me, have degenerated to the point where their most successful tactic is to make 50.1% of your neighbors hate, resent and demean you.
With their unintelligble tomes of laws, with their divisive rhetoric and gargantuan government programs, they have destroyed every hint of civility among men of good will. I, as you, hate none of my friends, neighbors or countrymen. Conversely, I grow weary of being the target of vitriol and the victim of vile attacks merely because I dare to renounce the false premise and immoral rationale behind every act of government beneficence.
I resent that our government [and the mass media] perpetuates the destructive, inhumane lie that a stranger's need or misfortune is a mortgage on my life. I detest that our elected officials enact illegitimate laws that collect tribute from me to be doled out according to an unknowable formula that varies according to which man or group is best at licking the boots of the thieves or adept at avoiding, outrunning or siding with the plunderer.
I deserve better. You deserve better. We were each born free. They have deprived us of our right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for long enough. I swear to you on my life, my fortune and my sacred honor, that I will not suffer their tyranny another day.
Join me. Scream louder.”
– Jeffrey T. Neal, Washington, D.C., November 4th, 2012.
Sobering View From Afar
What if the economy wasn’t the most important issue in our coming election after all?
What if the underlying motive for the deliberate destruction of our economy, was to convince Americans that we can no longer afford to shoulder the burden of defending Western civilization, from the global forces of tyranny?
The FED Cartel
Here is an excellent interview of G. Edward Griffin, the author of “The Creature From Jekyll Island,” which is well worth the time to watch:
He makes several very cogent observations which are worthy of discussion.
Muhammad the Movie
This is what is engendering murderous rage among the Muslim fundamentalists?
This is what our State Department is apologizing for, rather than condemn the assault on our embassies? Really?
Why Taboo?
Worth the time…
This film explores how, four years ago, America's Survival, Inc. unmasked Barack Obama's communist mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, and released his 600-page FBI file. Davis had been under surveillance for 19 years, suspected of espionage, and on the FBI's “security index.” ASI President Cliff Kincaid discusses how Davis was identified and his identity confirmed. Kincaid also examines how the media continue to ignore the story of the century. See: www.LeninandSharia.com for conference videos and reports from ASI's July 19 “Vetting Obama” conference.
Dishonorable Disclosures
More like treasonous…
In case you haven't seen this, please watch it. It is very well done.
Who Owns a Child?
I am very comfortable with my libertarian philosophy, which propounds individual sovereignty and Liberty for freemen and women, with the natural right to live their lives as they choose to live them, as long as they do not forcefully interfere with or violate the natural rights of others. I have carefully worked out in my head, how such free individuals can live at peace with their neighbors, meeting in the commons for commerce and fraternity, as free traders giving no more than they take, in entirely voluntary value for value exchanges, which enrich each other's lives.
Thus, I regard one's home as his castle, and his real estate as his sovereign domain, where he gets to make the rules, which visitors are bound to abide. When he steps off his private property, however, he must abide by the standards, social customs, and rules of the community. If there were no social compact and universally accepted basic rules, to insure that any vehicle coming around the next bend would be on the other side of the road, it would be chaos. I am fine with that, and wouldn't have it any other way.
Where my philosophy falls completely apart, however, is when it comes to the welfare of children. Having discussed this issue with folks of all political persuasions, I can assure all that empathy for an innocent child is a sincerely held universal human trait, The question becomes, what are parental rights and responsibilities vs. any sort of societal rights and responsibilities vs. children's rights.
Fair Questions
In his post below, Troy asked a fair question, yet was somewhat apologetic for its source. In my reply to him, I also felt constrained to distance myself from that less than reliable source. In today’s world gone mad, conspiracy theories are so ubiquitous, and many of their adherents so gullible, strident, and quick to repeat as fact any rumor they hear, that without doing one’s own research, one is loath to trust anything one reads. Yet there is a serious downside risk to this knee-jerk skepticism, of anything that smacks of a conspiracy.
Simply put, conspiracies happen. A lot. Especially the variety that entails coverup of blunders and/or nefarious acts of government officials. Our political history is littered with well-documented examples of them. It is also littered with the unconscionable tragedies that befell Patriots brave enough to try to expose them. Anyone who is awake enough to look around today, should recognize the huge apology this country owes to Joseph McCarthy, for one cogent example. I am reminded of the clever aphorism, ‘Just because I am paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get me.’ To automatically condemn anyone asking honest fair questions as a ‘conspiracy nut,’ is as foolhardy as those who automatically believe every rumor that confirms their prejudices.
The advantage this gives to those engaged in coverup is immeasurable. All they have to do to short-circuit an honest inquiry into their mischief, is to visit the websites focused on them, insert ridiculous and easily provable false rumors into the discussions, wait for them to go viral, and then expose them as silly myths. The legions of so-called ‘Obots,’ diligently focused on discrediting all legitimate inquiry, into the now well-documented lies regarding Obama’s personal history, have this technique down to a science. Since few influential citizens in government or media, are willing to risk their careers by being labeled a ‘birther’ or ‘racist’ or ‘conspiracy nut,’ the coverup continues unabated. This in turn so frustrates and infuriates those Patriots having done the necessary research to grasp the truth, that this in and of itself appears to be a massive conspiracy.
Read the rest of this entry »
Think Up/Down not Left/Right
Please also join us here. ◄Dave►