Archive for the ‘Liberty’ Category
An Attempt To Clarify
I often write articles predicting the end of the United States of America. I realize that, taken in the wrong context, this sounds a bit extreme. Therefore this attempt to give the intended context.
First, if asked whether the physical entity the United States of America is going to disappear from our maps in the foreseeable future, my response would be no. Then, you may well ask, why all the predictions of doom and gloom? This requires a far more detailed explanation.
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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.
The War On US
After a 45 minute wait in the security line at the Miami airport, I once again realized that the terrorists in the so-called “war on terror” have won this phoney war.
Our “leaders” seem to have no idea what terrorism is really all about. They act as though this is a traditional form of war with pitched battles and conquest of territory rather than a technique intended to cause the targeted society to lose faith in its institutions, in its culture, indeed, in every aspect of its existence.
Clearly, this has worked. Why else would a once free people willingly surrender a major part of its traditional and constitutional liberty in exchange for a phoney “security” system that treats them like a bunch of criminals who simply have not yet been caught in the act?
Or, could it be that our government has itself become the primary threat to our liberty rather than the so-called “terrorists”? Do you consider this an irresponsible or misleading question? Read the rest of this entry »
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:
Are We Insane?
According to recent news, the DHS (Department of Homeland Subjugation) is planning to extend ”trusted Traveler” status to Saudi Arabians.
No, I am not joking. Agents from an extremist nation that funds international Islamic terrorism, that supplied 15 of the 19 terrorists who planned and executed the massive attack on September 11, 2001, will soon be allowed to put their citizens on a “fast track” for entering the United States.
Per the cited report: ”Foreign nationals enrolled in the program can enter the country with almost no effort. When they arrive at an international airport, so long as they provide a passport and fingerprints, they can bypass customs entirely.”
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How Low Can They Go?
Watching the repeated attempts by progressives to exploit each and every tragedy, particularly those involving the slaughter of children – purely for whatever political advantage they might milk from them – has been nothing short of disgusting. But, the performance put on by Senator Harry Reid, on the floor of the U. S. Senate, was truly sickening.
Senator Reid, while ostensibly honoring several U. S. Marines who were killed in what was clearly an accident, made clear and repeated attempts to link this tragedy to the sequester.
It is a pity that the limbo has gone out of style because Senator Reid (and all his kind) could slither under a limbo stick as it lay flat on the floor. One simply cannot sink lower than that!
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The Reality Of Choice
I have long been a frequent and vocal critic of what passes for an education system in our nation. Sometimes, when stewing over the human tragedy resulting from the substitution of indoctrination for true education, I ask myself – were I empowered to determine one thing to stress in our attempts to educate, what would that be?
Certainly we must try to instill and build the basic skills – the traditional “3 R’s”. But, this alone is not enough. Then I think that teaching the discipline of “critical thinking” (the skill of taking in unfiltered information then using it to make rational decisions) would be an obvious benefit. While it surely would, this too is not enough (nor is it about to happen in the foreseeable future). So, I once again consult with myself, asking what other thing, preferably a simple thing, do our people need to help them better navigate the endless stream of choices that constitute human life?
Amazingly, myself somehow suggested an answer; It occurred to myself that, in general, our people do not know or understand what I call “The Reality Of Choice”.
What do I mean by this? Several different but intertwined things:
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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 »
Thank You Rand Paul
For the first time in months, I am encouraged by something that happened in our Capital. Whatever your opinion of the drone program, the filibuster is having the effect of making various politicians show their true colors. I was very heartened to see that other Senators and a few Congressmen openly supported Senator Paul, some going so far as to help with the filibuster. I am especially proud of our newest Texas Senator, Ted Cruz. Electing him was the best thing we have done in years.
On the other side, John McCain and Lindsay Graham in particular have shown us that they have been in the Senate far too long. Their net opinion seems to be that it is an outrage for anyone, especially an elected official, to stand in the way of increased government power and its concentration in the Executive branch. As prime examples of the GOP “establishment”, they have also shown us how rotten said establishment is – to its very core. The establishment’s only “cause” is its own continued power and position. Any service or benefit to the nation and its citizens is purely coincidental.
Predictably, most of the Lame-Stream Media are condemning Senator Paul and his helpers just as they condemn anyone who dares question the Obamanation and his quest to destroy the United States of. America. And, equally predictably, most of that condemnation comes in the form of ridicule and attempts to trivialize.
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Got To Get Those Guns
President Obama on Sunday said he would make gun control a priority in his new term, pledging to put his “full weight” behind passing new restrictions on firearms in 2013. “I’m going to be putting forward a package and I’m going to be putting my full weight behind it,” said Obama in an interview aired on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I’m going to be making an argument to the American people about why this is important and why we have to do everything we can to make sure that something like what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary does not happen again.”
More at: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/274881-obama-hopes-to-enact-new-gun-control-measures-in-2013
So – the move toward total dictatorship is about to begin, just as we knew it would if the Obamanation got re-elected.
Of course, the proposed actions have nothing whatever to do with Sandy Hook. Instead, it is about voiding the 2nd amendment, the only real barrier between the progressives and the one-world dictatorship they have lusted after for so long.
If you can put aside the tragic parts, some of what would happen under the dictatorship would actually be amusing. For instance, do the traitors in academia and in the main-stream-media really think their new masters will reward them for their “service”? Not a chance. All prior history tells us that the traitors will be the first to go. After all, if they sold out their own nation and their own people, how could they possibly be trusted by the new regime? Yet, traitors, being actually idiots disguised as ideologues, never seem to figure that part out.
Back to the coming push for gun control. Might it be wise to stock up on the totally legal, easily accessible parts for constructing IEDs then (seemingly) willingly give up all of our registered/traceable guns when the goon squads drop by? I figure a realistic resistance would be far more effective if focused on the crippling of infrastructure rather than shooting a few goons, goons being far easier to replace than infrastructure. Besides, infrastructure does not usually shoot back.
Think about it.
Troy L Robinson
The True “Miracle” That Made America
I have long been convinced that the founding of America was a sort of miracle. Not in the sense of magic or some manner of mystical intervention, but in the sense of what had to happen to allow and cause that founding.
Now that the Republic that was founded is likely coming to an end, it seems only proper to reflect on the why and the how of both the beginning and of the end.
For sure, the establishment of our Constitution seems a sort of miracle in itself and I revere the document and all it stands for. Yet, that Constitution is actually a result of the true miracle and not the miracle itself.
So, what then is this “true” miracle that I refer to? It is simply that fact that a particular group of people occurred at the same place, at the same time, and with a common goal that they were willing to risk everything for. I refer, of course, to the likes of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, John Adams, George Washington and a host of supporting players. Truly, what are the odds that such a group would coalesce just when and were they were needed? How seldom has such a thing happened in the known history of mankind (if ever)? And, please note that we-the-people did not chose our Founders. They simply occurred, hence the “miracle”.
We Americans are prone to say that we are “a nation of laws, not of men”. While I admire the sentiment intended by this, it is not now and was never actually true. The “laws” in question were the work of men (men meaning humans). They are obeyed (or not), are enforced (or not) by men. And, they have been slowly but surely destroyed by men – through a process of neglect combined with intent.
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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.
Speaking Of Gun Control…
So, we have yet another school shoot-up and yet another outcry for gun control. OK, let us pretend we really do want to “control” guns… what would that mean? Do we control only certain kinds of guns? Do we simply control magazine capacity? How about controlling ammunition instead? After all, how useful is a gun without ammunition?
My friends, please step back and think about what we are really talking about here. Set aside, for the moment, such ideas as basic rights, the 2nd amendment to our Constitution and other such and let us discuss the actual mechanics of real gun control.
First, how many guns are there already in the hands of civilian Americans? A Google search yields an estimate of 200 million
Second, would anything short of a total ban on future sales and total confiscation of ALL guns be effective in eliminating “gun violence”? Recent events suggest it takes only one gun, in the wrong hands, to do appreciable damage. Does anyone reading this actually believe that such confiscation could be accomplished in anything less than a “police state”?
Third, what of the estimated 150 million guns in the hands of military and law enforcement personnel? Can we be assured that these will never be misused? Can we assume that the increased value of such guns (after confiscation of civilian guns) will not tempt their being sold on the inevitable black market?
Fourth, what about that black market? Are we to believe that the United Nations, an organization that has yet to accomplish anything meaningful in its entire existence, is going to peacefully eliminate all guns worldwide? If not, will there not develop a black market in guns and ammunition that would put the narcotics market to shame?
The simple truth is that a gun ban in America (or worldwide) is not in the least feasible. We have a gun culture here and a majority of us are quite happy with it.
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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.
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.
Think Up/Down not Left/Right
Please also join us here. ◄Dave►