Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Happy Election Season!
In the red corner, fighting for Corporate Welfare, bloated government spending on “Conservative” ideals, restrictions upon the social Liberty of individuals, and a massive American Empire of nation-building and war-hawking. The party that has brought you the deaths of countless numbers of American citizens since the days of Abraham Lincoln, the Republicans!
And, fighting out of the blue corner, battling for socialized everything, union labor power over the rights of individuals, tyrannical Federal reach, and the ultimate destruction of the Constitution. The party that has brought you institutionalized Slavery and seeks to enslave you still through its Nanny State policies, the Democrats!
When you go out to vote this November, remember who is on your side… neither party.
What is Government?
Ok, so maybe that was a little much, but seriously, does anyone ever think to ask themselves about the nature of the being to whom we relinquish our Liberty? And, no, that question was not too much. Think about it for one second. The Federal register is what, some 70,000 pages long? Those pages aren’t empty, filled with fluff and well meaning, they are filled with restrictions of our basic Liberty. When you finally get your paycheck at the end of every week or two weeks or whatever your pay schedule is, the 30 something percent that does not get deposited in your bank hasn’t just magically disappeared, it was stolen. When a smoker goes to the corner store to buy a pack of cigarettes, that 100 percent markup between Delaware and New Jersey isn’t because the tobacco sold in New Jersey is that much rarer and in that much higher demand. The vast majority of bankrupt families evicted from foreclosed homes are not in those situations because they are bad people who attempted to take advantage of the boom but lost, they are victims of failed Government policies. The sugar you buy at your local supermarket is not significantly higher priced than what the people of rest of the world pay for the hell of it. And the list goes on and on and on…
Government cannot be described in any manor like I exaggerated in the first paragraph. It is simply a cartel made up of people like you and I, politicians whose only claim to fame is their ability to sell you a covered wagon of horse manure without you questioning what is underneath the canvas. There is not a single member of Congress, except only one, who has even an ounce of altruism in their blood. Remember that saying about their being no honor amongst thieves? Well, the Capitol Building hosts the largest single gathering of thieves the world has ever seen almost every day. So why in the hell do people blindly trust these elected criminals without ever questioning a thing?
Doesn’t anyone realize that this mess we find ourselves in was created solely by Government? The billions of dollars of phony money pumped into the economy fueling the mal-investment in housing and stocks. The risky loans foisted upon banks under penalty of fines and the like. The implicit and explicit guarantees to banks enabling the continuance of irresponsible and dangerous lending habits. The GSE’s (Government Sponsored Entities) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac further pushing irresponsible lending through their purchase of suspect mortgages on the secondary market and then packaging them as securities and pushing those ticking time bombs off into Wall Street. The hundreds of billions of dollars doled out to favorite banks and corporations to help bail them out of the mess that they partook in. All this and more, created at the whim of 534 despots (1 has been purposely left out), and these are the people we seek to entrust further with our future? Throughout history, just as in the last decade, every major calamity has been one of Government. The wars and conquests. The slavery and torture. The depressions and recessions. The riots and protests. Again, Government is made up of ordinary people, but ordinary people are not so ordinary when they have unchecked power in combination with a blank checkbook.
Call me crazy, but I’m checking out of the matrix, and I’m seeking people to join me. The red and blue pills sit in front of us all. You can choose the blue pill, and go back to your normal life, indentured to a system of Government that will continue to suck the life out of you and further indebt your children until they are born with a tab that far exceeds their potential output. Or you can choose the red pill. You can read the works of John Locke, Trenchard and Gordon (Cato’s Letters), Frederic Bastiat, Count de Stut de Tracy, Lysander Spooner, Ludwig von Mises, Albert Jay Nock, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, Ron Paul, Thomas Woods, and many more. You can enlighten yourself on Liberty and the true nature of Government and its rightful purpose (if any). You can spread the word and try to awaken your neighbors. You can bring about change, real change, through elective politics by doing your homework on those who are running and by dumping the thieves from office. The worst is certainly yet to come, but remember, it is always the darkest before dawn.
Do We Still Need to be Lied To?
Now that Obamacare is law – one that could potentially be the final nail in the coffin for American Liberty – those useful idiots who have done nothing but try to sell this disaster to all us ‘nonbelievers’ are still at their snake oil ways. It’s simply adding insult to injury; pouring a little extra salt onto the wound. The thing is, I cannot determine whether these are the actions of salesmen concerned about losing the deal, or frankly just disgusting attempts to make themselves feel better about the damage that they have done.
Nonetheless, let me show you what I mean.
On his website today, Brad Delong – an almost constant object of my ire – decided to peddle the thoughts of another fiscal expansionist, Mark Thoma, on more reasons why Obamacare is such a fantastic idea. Perhaps I should be addressing my ire elsewhere, but Delong does so much to poison the minds of the public that his mere re-posting of Thoma’s ideas are an insult to those of us who can think independently of what the government tells us. So, onto business…
I was surprised that arguments about the impact of health care reform on labor mobility got so little attention during the debate over the legislation. It’s an important benefit to include in the evaluation of health care reform…. It’s difficult to put a dollar value on mobility, but having observed people stuck in jobs they hate — really hate — just to keep health insurance, I’d guess it’s worth a lot.
Good grief, so now we are to believe that cheapened government coverage should be lauded. And I thought that the seeking out of sympathetic support ended at the idea that ‘affordable’ coverage was going to made available to all. Boy was I wrong. So let’s examine what is especially egregious with this premise.
I get his idea of enhanced labor mobility, and it sounds sweet and caring, however, it is absolutely b.s. First off, insurances of any type, as has been said over and over again, are not a right. In the case where insurance programs are offered by employers, they are done so as benefits, the perks of employment at the specific company. (That medical insurance has become such a critical part of employment terms is truly a testament to our society – ie laziness, poor nutritional habits, terrible hygienic maintenance, etc.)
Secondly, as far as mobility goes, labor is always mobile, and the laborer is free to choose where he/she would like to work. The idea that people are hamstrung in their decision-making by the choice of employment based upon medical insurance is an unfortunate reality that is the product of two negatives: our societal failures (as mentioned above) and the government. Please allow me to quote myself:
Government regulation has stifled competition in the healthcare market, making it easy for insurance monopolies to arise and wreak havoc upon the purse-strings of the average American. Those same regulations force employers to provide coverage to their employees, and because they are mandated to offer coverage, the government’s favorite insurance companies can willfully rape employers year after year for higher premiums.
The reason it is damn near impossible to affordably pay for insurance outside of employer-based programs? Government regulation. When you lose your job, and your healthcare is tossed among the very few lions of insurance companies offering “competitive” rates to private citizens, you can blame the government for enforcing the monopolies which grant those few companies the privilege of servicing your healthcare needs. The Chairman says you are concerned that if you “move” you will lose your coverage? Thank the government for enforcing laws making portable health insurance an impossibility.
If you hear a story about someone losing insurance coverage during an illness, or being denied service because of yearly or lifetime caps, seek no further for someone to blame than the government. The regulations are so stifling that it would be impossible for a company or companies to arise and offer high risk insurance options, plans which would cost more, however would specifically offer protection in the event of the most costly of health emergencies.
Why, in the name of sanity, would anyone then expect Government to be the savior for problems which it has itself been the cause?
Then we have this gem:
When you hear about the net cost of health care reform in terms of what it will do to the deficit and the accumulated government debt, those are just the costs and revenues that the government must bear, it does not net out all the implicit and explicit benefits to the private sector that come from the legislation (implicit and explicit costs to the private sector should also be added in, but I’d argue that the benefits to the private sector very clearly exceed the costs).
Mind-boggling, truly and simply stupefying. One has to question the sensibilities, the integrity, and the overall basis for this line of thinking. For such a statement to be made, the author conscientiously expects that his readers are to accept at face-value that “government” is a separate entity from the individuals which comprise the state. That idea is completely fallacious, and when made in terms of explaining away costs, it is quite possibly the most treacherous lie that can be spoken.
The monetary costs of Obamacare, anticipated at approximately $2.5 trillion, are not costs that will be borne by an entity separate from those individuals that make up the funding source for government: taxpayers. That is reality. What Mr. Thoma is so carelessly trying to do is make you and I believe that the supposed net benefits of this program will outweigh the massive costs that will be added to the deficit, something that you and I are responsible for. However he does not even have the decency, the integrity to admit that you and I will be responsible for them! We are to believe that a fictitious, nonexistent entity will be absorbing the cost!
Newsflash! That fictional entity, comprised of “representatives” of We the People, have since created a commission, the Debt Panel, to figure out how the massive monetary burdens that the government has amassed (including Obamacare) are to be taken care of. Taxes on the rich, I’m sure. (And if you couldn’t sense sarcasm in that last sentence, I’ll blame that on that lack of voice inflection due to this being text rather than speech.)
Brace yourself. The future looks very bleak.
Libertas Omnibus Iustitiam Spondet
To the RNC, With Love
After a few years of politely discarding any RNC donation requests, I think I’ve finally had enough. With how the Republican Party has treated Ron Paul, and their general treatment of all things Liberty, I’ve reached my breaking point. So when I received this in the mail today, I kindly wrote this note, folded the receipt as requested, placed it into the prepaid envelope they so thoughtfully provided, and put it back into my mailbox.
There is no hope that exists in the current Republican regime. The only saving grace that could pull this dying body from the grasp of the withering old hands of Imperial Warhawks is an infusion of young, Liberty-minded, flesh and blood. Keep pushing away Dr. Paul, and that will be extremely hard to do.
The Conservative Hypocrisy
When politics first became a passion of mine, I most certainly considered myself within the Conservative spectrum. I had naively thought that they (Conservatives) were exactly what the name stood for – a group of people steeped in the tradition of the Founding and bent upon returning this nation to those principles of Liberty and Justice. Maybe they were at one point, but for all my intents and purposes, boy, was I wrong.
What makes Conservatism (as represented by the modern Republican party) even more distasteful and worse than the “Liberalism” of Democrats is the fact that Conservatives lie about their ultimate aims straight to your face and expect you to swallow every bit that they spew. At least “Liberals” are forward with their anti-liberal designs, even though one could say that their self-given label as “Liberal” completely obfuscates the true nature of those designs.
Now, do not take this as me saying I’m all for the “Liberals.” (Anyone who knows me, or has read anything that I have written would know better, but if this is your first time reading – which, in that case, thank you – then you may have needed me to state that.) I am simply stating that I no longer, in any way, want to be associated with the Conservative movement. Period.
You may be asking yourself what this stems from; with the Democrat Congress and Administration reeling in defeat from both New Jersey and Massachusetts, not to mention on every major agenda issue from Healthcare to Carbon Tax, why would I say this? To provide a more thorough and better insight into my reasoning, I’d like to share with you a glimpse into the dangerous hypocrisy of Conservatism…
Yesterday, I received an email from the American Spectator regarding a little event that occured recently concerning some of the “Conservative” leadership. Apparently, a decent sized group of “thinkers and organization heads” gathered at Mount Vernon, once home of the hallowed George Washington, to produce some sort of a unifying document for all “Conservatives” to gather under as the rally cry for a return to the Founding principles. What result truly ensued though was quite the opposite of what the Founding Fathers had envisioned for this nation.
“We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding[,]” the opening statement proudly proclaims. Well that’s nice, I thought. “They sought to secure national independence, provide for economic opportunity, establish true religious liberty and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government.” Right on, my heart cried.
Each one of these founding ideas is presently under sustained attack. In recent decades, America’s principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities and our politics. The self-evident truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist. The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant.
You can see how I, and anyone like me, would be extremely moved by this rhetoric. But then you realize, it is simply that: rhetoric. You get through a little more rah rah drumming up, and then you slowly begin to be fed the truth.
“It reminds… national security conservatives that energetic but responsible government is the key to America’s safety and leadership role in the world.” Now that may seem like a rather innocuous affirmation, but it is truly a cunning and crafty distortion of our history. “Energetic” government is the very opposite of the limited government they profess to desire. During the ratification debates over the Constitution, one of the early points of contention was the supposed need for “energetic” government, which Ralph Ketcham, in his book “The Anti-Federalist Papers”, states was “the favorite word of the day… for a more powerful…, central government (p.189).” Is a more “energetic” government really what we now need?
Then you get to the meat and potatoes, so-to-speak, the causa sina qua non:
A Constitutional conservatism based on first principles provides the framework for a consistent and meaningful policy agenda.
…
It supports America’s national interest in advancing freedom and opposing tyranny in the world and prudently considers what we can and should do to that end.
Really? Was that proclamation really just mentioned within an article that professes to be a reaffirmation of our Founding principles? Were the author(s) able to write that with a straight face, or was the smirk just too difficult to hold back? Are We the People expected to be that stupid?
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible…
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world…
Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing (with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support them) conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard… George Washington, Farewell Address 1796
Don’t see any inconsistencies between what Mr. Washington has to say and what those phonies who stained his house by their very being there wrote?
[W]hat has America done for the benefit of mankind?
…
She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own…
She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart…
Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own…
She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.
The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force…
She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit…
[America's] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.
John Quincy Adams, 1821
Make no mistake, they made no error that can be chalked up to a faulty or incomplete view of history. Those “Conservatives” who occupied Washington’s residence a few days ago are deliberately distorting history to try and drum up the blinded, party faithful into amassing behind another banner for foreign conquest. It is only after they unify the masses behind some other “patriotic” endeavor that they can then use their most “energetic” government to strip away more and more of our liberties. Another Patriot Act anyone?
I can only hope that the American people wake up and smell the Sanka. This “midterm”, everyone should go out and vote Independent across the board. Find a Liberty candidate, and get them into office.
It is not too late for us to take back our Liberty, our Justice, our Country.