Welcome to the Front Porch. Say 'hello' to Yossarian. If you haven't read CATCH-22, you've missed out. If you haven't read it in 10 years or more, treat yourself!!
If you didn't read the book or seen the movie(read the book), Yossarian is a WWII Bombardier who has tired of his "job". So, like many of his mates, he wants a way out. Doc Daneeka could certify him insane, which could send Yossarian home. There's just one catch:
----------------------
..."You're wasting your time," Doc Daneeka was forced to tell him.
"Can't you ground someone who's crazy?"
"Oh sure. I have to. There's a rule saying I have to ground anyone who's crazy."
"Then why don't you ground me? I'm crazy. Ask Clevinger."
"Clevinger? Where IS Clevinger? You find Clevinger and I'll ask him."
"Then ask any of the others. They'll tell you how crazy I am."
"They're crazy."
"Then why don't you ground them?"
"Why don't they ask me to ground them?"
"Because they're crazy, that's why."
"Of course they're crazy," Doc Daneeka replied. "I just told you they're crazy, didn't I? And you can't let crazy people decide whether you're crazy or not, can you?"
Yossarian looked at him soberly and tried another approach. "Is Orr crazy?"
"He sure is," Doc Daneeka said.
"Can you ground him?"
"I sure can. But first he has to ask me to. That's part of the rule."
"Then why doesn't he ask you to?"
"Because he's crazy," Doc Daneeka said. "He has to be crazy to keep flying combat missions after all the close calls he's had. Sure, I can ground Orr. But first he has to ask me to."
"That's all he has to do to be grounded?"
"That's all. Let him ask me."
"And then you can ground him?" Yossarian asked.
"No. Then I can't ground him."
"You mean there's a catch?"
"Sure there's a catch," Doc Daneeka replied. "Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy."
There was only one catch, and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.
"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed...
-----------------------
Hope you had as much fun reading this as I had re-telling!! Pass that jug over here....
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Why...what?
Everyone, meaning my cat, is asking: why hasn't there been new conversation on the Front Porch this week?
Good question. So let's chat.
Let's make this "Seinfeld" day---and talk about "nuthin'". I can do that!!
---Was thinking about another pontification on how OBVIOUS it is that you want experienced farmers making farming decisions, retailers making retail decisions, industrialists making industrial decisions, engineers making engineering decisions, doctors making doctorin' decisions, plumbers and electricians making plumbing and electrical decisions, and parents making parental decisions.. Etc. All that as opposed to someone who has no experience in these areas, no accountability, such as say, politicians and corruptocrats making these decisions. Why we'd be CRAZY to allow that to happen!!
So, that's so obvious, goes without sayin'.
---Past 2 or 3 articles here were ill-timed I have to admit. At least until Nov. 2, and after we've all read BROKE, there's plenty to occupy our mind without complicating things with more 'saving the world' ideas. Sometimes I can be a real bonehead. Will pick up the conversation a little later. Of course the holiday season is coming up. I know---let's save America as a Christmas present to ourselves!! (and a stocking full of coal for Soros and his band of gremlins...)
---Was, um, listenin' to the local Maine talk radio for a few select minutes about an hour ago. 2 real cool things:
1. A caller-in told how he had tried to explain to his congressperson, Chellie Pingree, D (for dumb as a pound of rocks), Maine, why cap and trade and Obamacare were bad ideas for Mainers. Now this boneheaded relative in spirit of John Kerry replied by saying something to the effect that she "Didn't view herself so much as a representative of Mainers," but that instead instead her job was to mold the entire country into a better society. (Hay, I told you it was a bad idea to drink milk during these chats! Here's a handy-wipe...)
2. Moments later it was announced that the Republican opponent of Chellie, who at least SAYS responsible things, has now emerged from nowheresville in the polls a few weeks ago to a 4 point lead over Chellie. That should get you smiling---bet it's happenin everywhere except California, which we should give to Mexico.
---Last, enjoy the pre-election writhing of State Media and State worshippers. I know, sometimes they're downright ugly, but keep your sense of humor. This is one for ages!!
So what's on your mind?
Good question. So let's chat.
Let's make this "Seinfeld" day---and talk about "nuthin'". I can do that!!
---Was thinking about another pontification on how OBVIOUS it is that you want experienced farmers making farming decisions, retailers making retail decisions, industrialists making industrial decisions, engineers making engineering decisions, doctors making doctorin' decisions, plumbers and electricians making plumbing and electrical decisions, and parents making parental decisions.. Etc. All that as opposed to someone who has no experience in these areas, no accountability, such as say, politicians and corruptocrats making these decisions. Why we'd be CRAZY to allow that to happen!!
So, that's so obvious, goes without sayin'.
---Past 2 or 3 articles here were ill-timed I have to admit. At least until Nov. 2, and after we've all read BROKE, there's plenty to occupy our mind without complicating things with more 'saving the world' ideas. Sometimes I can be a real bonehead. Will pick up the conversation a little later. Of course the holiday season is coming up. I know---let's save America as a Christmas present to ourselves!! (and a stocking full of coal for Soros and his band of gremlins...)
---Was, um, listenin' to the local Maine talk radio for a few select minutes about an hour ago. 2 real cool things:
1. A caller-in told how he had tried to explain to his congressperson, Chellie Pingree, D (for dumb as a pound of rocks), Maine, why cap and trade and Obamacare were bad ideas for Mainers. Now this boneheaded relative in spirit of John Kerry replied by saying something to the effect that she "Didn't view herself so much as a representative of Mainers," but that instead instead her job was to mold the entire country into a better society. (Hay, I told you it was a bad idea to drink milk during these chats! Here's a handy-wipe...)
2. Moments later it was announced that the Republican opponent of Chellie, who at least SAYS responsible things, has now emerged from nowheresville in the polls a few weeks ago to a 4 point lead over Chellie. That should get you smiling---bet it's happenin everywhere except California, which we should give to Mexico.
---Last, enjoy the pre-election writhing of State Media and State worshippers. I know, sometimes they're downright ugly, but keep your sense of humor. This is one for ages!!
So what's on your mind?
Monday, October 25, 2010
Now let's get serious...!!
In the 2 previous articles I proposed a 3 part means of unleashing liberty and human creativity like we haven't seen in 200 years. The 3 components were:
1. Reduce the federal tax code to a one page document, easily understandabe, and applicable to all.
2. Eliminate ALL federal programs presumably designed to help certain "needy" groups of voters at the expense of the productive class. Replace this conflicting, incredibly costly morass of corruption and waste with a GUARANTEED INCOME for everyone. No variations, no exceptions. Let independent charity address the folks who aren't adequately covered (families of disabled and deceased veterans of foreign wars, for example).
3. Sell off the half of the US real estate and resources kept inert and useless by the Feds and pay off all, or most, of the national debt and bankrupt social programs.
At first blush, this seems like a tall, and perhaps questionable, order. That's why I asked that the 'how-to' part of the equation be set side, along with the other 'yahbutts.' No human endeavor is completed unless it's first envisioned and WANTED. Did WE know 'how' to invent a light bulb? A vaccine for polio? A telephone?
This blog assumes a certain level and intelligence on the part of its participants. To wit, we understand the free market and the stifling deficiencies of state coercion in any realm. We can't recite Economics in One Lesson, Human Action or Atlas Shrugged here. For the majority of current citizens, therefore, this conversation won't make sense. This, folks, is, for now, between US!
That having been said, we visionaries need to plug our imagination in and WANT what we're talking about. First things first. If we get entangled in the 'yahbutt thickets' we'll never achieve our goal.
I'm not going to do it here, because WE don't need me to explain what would happen if...
---billions of man-hours, trillions of dollars, currently spent by public and private institutions to implement, enforce, interpret and adjudicate the labynthine federal tax code were instead freed up for productive human ventures.
---the same can be said of all government transfer payment, welfare, and social programs.
---we weren't saddling ourselves and future generations with obscenely impossible future debt, in oder to buy a grandiose lifestyle for today's politicians, union leaders, State funded academicians, and corporate welfarists.
The results defy imagination!!
For today's conversation, a few gritty observations:
1. WE understand the government can't provide something it didn't first plunder from someone else. I marvel at the current bromide that 'Republican's have no ideas' (wish that were true) and we need Harvard-trained socialists to solve our problems for us. What WE need is to let the people who know how to get things done in their fields of endeavor provide the new ideas. And test them at their expense, learning and, yes, PROFITING therefrom.
2. Our 'job', thinking-wise, is profoundly simple: get out of the way of people who create!! And keep the gnarly hands of government out of their pockets, sapping their resources and energy for the aggrandizement of a sub-class of mediocrities whose 'entitlement' to impose their rules on the rest of us is certified by a phony college diploma from a phony educational institution.
3. 'Yahbutt', how do we persuade the sheep that the good news is they're really responsible for themselves? Best way to start is by example. Remember when it went without saying that America is the place to be if you wanted, freedom, independence and a shot at life? This time it has to start in our own backyards. More on that later.
4. 'Yahbutt,' what about all the entrenched special interests that will assemble to oppose making America 'America' again? Step One: let them finish killing the goose that laid the Golden Egg. They are well on their way. The parasite cannot survive if its host dies. Step Two: What we're really talking about here is a national Second Coming. What, think we can't do it?
5. 'Yahbutt,' what if I find taxes of any kind, never mind a GUARANTEED INCOME, morally reprehensible? I understand. I find voting morally reprehensible and, for many years did not participate because that would be 'sanctioning the system.' How did that strategy work?
6. Let's face it, civilization is a Team Sport. And continuing the metaphor, we must keep our eye on the ball. We are drowning in red tape, entitocrats, lawyerfare becuse we 'need' them to 'manage' the mess they are creating. Stop it!! Imagine none of that stuff---but a simple one-payment floor connected to the federal tax code. to which everyone is entitled. If your imagination is operating full speed, you'll understand why this concept was abandoned by the Progressives who first advocated it. The saw their own immediate demise. They saw relase of human energy to pursue happiness (which is their greatest anathema). I posit, through these rose-colored glasses, when there would ultimately be a time when NO federal guaranteed income was required, or desired by those pure of intent. Regardless---the resultant benefits of freeing up those resources of time and energy, and putting folks to work in real occupations, would make our First National Coming insiginificant by comparison.
7. 'Yahbutt, the devil is in the details.' Let's all open our eyes and see: we are "in the details NOW". It's time to get rid of the details. And please remember, this IS a Team Sport. You don't have to have all the answers. You just have to decide your team is gonna win!!
Now let's get serious!!
1. Reduce the federal tax code to a one page document, easily understandabe, and applicable to all.
2. Eliminate ALL federal programs presumably designed to help certain "needy" groups of voters at the expense of the productive class. Replace this conflicting, incredibly costly morass of corruption and waste with a GUARANTEED INCOME for everyone. No variations, no exceptions. Let independent charity address the folks who aren't adequately covered (families of disabled and deceased veterans of foreign wars, for example).
3. Sell off the half of the US real estate and resources kept inert and useless by the Feds and pay off all, or most, of the national debt and bankrupt social programs.
At first blush, this seems like a tall, and perhaps questionable, order. That's why I asked that the 'how-to' part of the equation be set side, along with the other 'yahbutts.' No human endeavor is completed unless it's first envisioned and WANTED. Did WE know 'how' to invent a light bulb? A vaccine for polio? A telephone?
This blog assumes a certain level and intelligence on the part of its participants. To wit, we understand the free market and the stifling deficiencies of state coercion in any realm. We can't recite Economics in One Lesson, Human Action or Atlas Shrugged here. For the majority of current citizens, therefore, this conversation won't make sense. This, folks, is, for now, between US!
That having been said, we visionaries need to plug our imagination in and WANT what we're talking about. First things first. If we get entangled in the 'yahbutt thickets' we'll never achieve our goal.
I'm not going to do it here, because WE don't need me to explain what would happen if...
---billions of man-hours, trillions of dollars, currently spent by public and private institutions to implement, enforce, interpret and adjudicate the labynthine federal tax code were instead freed up for productive human ventures.
---the same can be said of all government transfer payment, welfare, and social programs.
---we weren't saddling ourselves and future generations with obscenely impossible future debt, in oder to buy a grandiose lifestyle for today's politicians, union leaders, State funded academicians, and corporate welfarists.
The results defy imagination!!
For today's conversation, a few gritty observations:
1. WE understand the government can't provide something it didn't first plunder from someone else. I marvel at the current bromide that 'Republican's have no ideas' (wish that were true) and we need Harvard-trained socialists to solve our problems for us. What WE need is to let the people who know how to get things done in their fields of endeavor provide the new ideas. And test them at their expense, learning and, yes, PROFITING therefrom.
2. Our 'job', thinking-wise, is profoundly simple: get out of the way of people who create!! And keep the gnarly hands of government out of their pockets, sapping their resources and energy for the aggrandizement of a sub-class of mediocrities whose 'entitlement' to impose their rules on the rest of us is certified by a phony college diploma from a phony educational institution.
3. 'Yahbutt', how do we persuade the sheep that the good news is they're really responsible for themselves? Best way to start is by example. Remember when it went without saying that America is the place to be if you wanted, freedom, independence and a shot at life? This time it has to start in our own backyards. More on that later.
4. 'Yahbutt,' what about all the entrenched special interests that will assemble to oppose making America 'America' again? Step One: let them finish killing the goose that laid the Golden Egg. They are well on their way. The parasite cannot survive if its host dies. Step Two: What we're really talking about here is a national Second Coming. What, think we can't do it?
5. 'Yahbutt,' what if I find taxes of any kind, never mind a GUARANTEED INCOME, morally reprehensible? I understand. I find voting morally reprehensible and, for many years did not participate because that would be 'sanctioning the system.' How did that strategy work?
6. Let's face it, civilization is a Team Sport. And continuing the metaphor, we must keep our eye on the ball. We are drowning in red tape, entitocrats, lawyerfare becuse we 'need' them to 'manage' the mess they are creating. Stop it!! Imagine none of that stuff---but a simple one-payment floor connected to the federal tax code. to which everyone is entitled. If your imagination is operating full speed, you'll understand why this concept was abandoned by the Progressives who first advocated it. The saw their own immediate demise. They saw relase of human energy to pursue happiness (which is their greatest anathema). I posit, through these rose-colored glasses, when there would ultimately be a time when NO federal guaranteed income was required, or desired by those pure of intent. Regardless---the resultant benefits of freeing up those resources of time and energy, and putting folks to work in real occupations, would make our First National Coming insiginificant by comparison.
7. 'Yahbutt, the devil is in the details.' Let's all open our eyes and see: we are "in the details NOW". It's time to get rid of the details. And please remember, this IS a Team Sport. You don't have to have all the answers. You just have to decide your team is gonna win!!
Now let's get serious!!
Friday, October 22, 2010
The Panacea to Fix Everything
Welcome to the Front Porch!!
VERY IMPORTANT: Please note, if you have not already, read the preceding post ("What if...?") FIRST.
Below is the response I sent to inquirers regarding the previous post:
Hi!
I'm so excited. Thanks to seeing what can be accomplished when we work together, like the Tea Parties, my sieve-like mind just burped this up 5 days ago.
"Thanks for asking about my panacea to 'fix everything'! :)
"Actually, I'm half serious. About the 'fix everything' part!
"As I said in the intro article, I'm being careful about how I put this on the table. In our ideal world, presentation should not matter as much as substance, but in the real world, the 2 are functionally inseparable.
"For my initial response to your inquiry, let's be minimalists. If this strikes a chord for you, then we'll dive in!! Please let me know 'how I'm doing'!
"With one caveat and one request, here it is in a nutshell. First the caveat:
"Contemplate the end result, not how we would get there. That unconstipates the creativity.
"The request: leave the yahbutt's for later.
"Three components:(Something for everyone of every stripe to hate!)
"1. A one page uniform federal tax code applicable to all. (a la Steve Forbes)
"2. A 'guaranteed income' floor for every American---abolish all other government assistance. (this was a popular concept for folks like McGovern 4 decades ago, until someone figured out who would be the real, if short term, 'losers')
"3. Get the feds out of the real estate and natural resource business by selling off all fed-controlled property to the private sector (a la the Liberty Amendment) and using the money to pay down the debt we've incurred for our children's children.
"Disregarding the selling and implementation (which I'm now confident can be done) this is the biggest plausible 'get rich' scheme with no innocent victims I've ever seen...
"We release literally billions of dollars and man-hours into productive enterprises, guided by the experts in the special fields of endeavor: farmers, the medical profession, pharmaceutical industry, developers, successful entrepreneurs, etc. The possibilities are only limited by our public education stultified imaginations!
"Whaddya' say so far...?"
Jack
VERY IMPORTANT: Please note, if you have not already, read the preceding post ("What if...?") FIRST.
Below is the response I sent to inquirers regarding the previous post:
Hi!
I'm so excited. Thanks to seeing what can be accomplished when we work together, like the Tea Parties, my sieve-like mind just burped this up 5 days ago.
"Thanks for asking about my panacea to 'fix everything'! :)
"Actually, I'm half serious. About the 'fix everything' part!
"As I said in the intro article, I'm being careful about how I put this on the table. In our ideal world, presentation should not matter as much as substance, but in the real world, the 2 are functionally inseparable.
"For my initial response to your inquiry, let's be minimalists. If this strikes a chord for you, then we'll dive in!! Please let me know 'how I'm doing'!
"With one caveat and one request, here it is in a nutshell. First the caveat:
"Contemplate the end result, not how we would get there. That unconstipates the creativity.
"The request: leave the yahbutt's for later.
"Three components:(Something for everyone of every stripe to hate!)
"1. A one page uniform federal tax code applicable to all. (a la Steve Forbes)
"2. A 'guaranteed income' floor for every American---abolish all other government assistance. (this was a popular concept for folks like McGovern 4 decades ago, until someone figured out who would be the real, if short term, 'losers')
"3. Get the feds out of the real estate and natural resource business by selling off all fed-controlled property to the private sector (a la the Liberty Amendment) and using the money to pay down the debt we've incurred for our children's children.
"Disregarding the selling and implementation (which I'm now confident can be done) this is the biggest plausible 'get rich' scheme with no innocent victims I've ever seen...
"We release literally billions of dollars and man-hours into productive enterprises, guided by the experts in the special fields of endeavor: farmers, the medical profession, pharmaceutical industry, developers, successful entrepreneurs, etc. The possibilities are only limited by our public education stultified imaginations!
"Whaddya' say so far...?"
Jack
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
What if...?
Welcome to the Front Porch!! I'm terrifically excited by the idea I will start presenting to you here. I so hope you share in this excitement as we begin this unveiling of what will be "our" plan!!
A major take home lesson for many of us over the past couple of years is the recognition of what an open expression of ideas can achieve. I cite the success of those groups of whom the Tea Party folks would be an example.
"What if..." 3 years ago someone had accurately shared a vision of where we'd all be today? What would you have said?
If you were like me three years ago, you felt relatively alone in your concerns regarding the decline of liberty and civilization in America. I won't review the conditions as they appeared then, as you can no doubt remember how that felt at the time. Near hopeless.
Thanks to a confluence of circumstances, events, and the emergence of a new set of American heroes, all that has changed. We've gone from quiet resignation to glowing hope for a better future. Again, I won't review the assemblage of causes which have brought us here...with one exception.
Somewhere along our recent way, we regained a lesson from our childhood. It's all about teamwork. Metaphorically, if you're the ONLY person on your athletic team, and you're playing against organized, dedicated, and fully manned opposition, your efforts will be futile. You could be Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Joe Montana. Your efforts would be pathetic and futile if you stood alone. If George Washington had rowed across the Delaware by himself, we'd be subjects of some European dynasty today.
For years I didn't vote. Statistically, I could prove my 'insignificance'. Many of us 'libertarian' cats have maintained a resistance to joining political causes because the numbers, special interests, and prevailing ignorance seemed prohibitive. We CHOSE relative apathy, and reaped its harvest.
In the past 2 years, we've been dazzled and have participated in the greatest team sport on earth: The quest for human liberty. We re-learned that no one of us has to have all the answers. That sometimes the 'coaches' may commit tactical errors, but they're right there with us to responsively correct their course. (Contrast that with Hitler running the defense of Western Europe from his Berlin bunker, while leaders of the opposition were there on the invasion scene to adjust to the changes and vagueries of battle minute-by-minute.) We've re-learned that there are times for us to be the coaches, and other times when we support the other coaches. If there was ever an example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, it's been our unification into a loose-knit, but purpose focused team with common goals.
It is with these thoughts in mind I would dare even think what I'm thinking about our 'next steps'.
Nothing is ever achieved with 'yahbutts,' with the possible exception of paralysis by analysis. I do not have all the answers to the questions this concept will raise. What I've re-learned is: I don't have to. You don't either!! Give yourself the permission of free-flowing, imaginative thought rooted in your understanding of how the 'Mainspring of Human Progress' works.
What if...
What if their were a simple socio-political plan that would free up humans to produce to their fullest potential like we haven't seen since the latter 1800's?
There were a unifying concept that would effectively bring together sincerely compassionate Liberals, free market Conservatives, and 'real-world' Libertarians in this cause?
What if all the human time, energy and resources currently scandalously wasted away by private business, government bureaucrats and private individuals in interpreting, enforcing, and paying for mounds of tax regulation, stayed, instead, in the hands of their rightful producers and owners? Can we even put a 'number' on the energy and vitality that would release into the flow of human progress?
What if there were no resources, time, energy, money, going into a labyrinthine, conflicted and corrupt bureaucracy purportedly designed to address the needs of those who can't take care of themselves? What if there were a simple, straight-forward, and, consequently, much less expensive way to actually achieve more in the arena of helping others less fortunate, for whatever combination reasons? What if the resultant savings in these resources stayed in the hands who know best how to produce from them, their originators? Can we begin to qualify what that would mean in technological and medical advances?
What if the Feds sold all except the most 'essential' land and resources---half the country---that they're holding and mismanaging 'off-market' and used the proceeds to pay the "national" debt and to restore hard currency?
What if large numbers of folks had a clear idea of how this plan could and would work?
Now, we're all vulnerable to the "yahbutts," including me. Just ride with me on this. Set aside all the interest groups currently in control who have a vested interest (or so they think) in maintaining the status quo. (How many of those could we 'peel off' if they understood what the 'status quo' is costing them and their loved ones in quality of life, longevity...? But I get ahead of myself.)
I believe this is doable. Not by me. By us. Starting with you and me. But we will have the help of those we already admire because of what they have achieved in the past 2+++ years. Plus those coming along whom we don't know presently. After 60 'effin' years of being one of those herd-resistant 'libertarian' cats, I've watched the pay-off of massive teamwork. We will not be alone. You and I do not have to start out with all the answers. We merely need the clarity of purpose and vision...the rest will fall into place.
I've intentionally been vague about the specifics up to this point in order to leave your mind free to comprehend the possibilities..."what if?"...without many "yahbutt" doubts and entanglements. The next step, off-blog will include the 3 specific, simple components to what, if I may say, is an ingenius concept. But since the first 15 seconds of an intro sets the pace for the presentation, my first 'experiment' is on you, the reader. You can only be intro'd once.
So how'm I doing?
If this interests you, I would like to disclose this plan to you under separate cover via email. Please leave your email address in the comment section below or email me personally:
jgreene2@maine.rr.com
To coin a phrase, "this may not be your cuppa tea", which is certainly OK. I would like to have private off-blog discussions with those of you who ARE interested enough to at least inquire!!
Cheers!!
A major take home lesson for many of us over the past couple of years is the recognition of what an open expression of ideas can achieve. I cite the success of those groups of whom the Tea Party folks would be an example.
"What if..." 3 years ago someone had accurately shared a vision of where we'd all be today? What would you have said?
If you were like me three years ago, you felt relatively alone in your concerns regarding the decline of liberty and civilization in America. I won't review the conditions as they appeared then, as you can no doubt remember how that felt at the time. Near hopeless.
Thanks to a confluence of circumstances, events, and the emergence of a new set of American heroes, all that has changed. We've gone from quiet resignation to glowing hope for a better future. Again, I won't review the assemblage of causes which have brought us here...with one exception.
Somewhere along our recent way, we regained a lesson from our childhood. It's all about teamwork. Metaphorically, if you're the ONLY person on your athletic team, and you're playing against organized, dedicated, and fully manned opposition, your efforts will be futile. You could be Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Joe Montana. Your efforts would be pathetic and futile if you stood alone. If George Washington had rowed across the Delaware by himself, we'd be subjects of some European dynasty today.
For years I didn't vote. Statistically, I could prove my 'insignificance'. Many of us 'libertarian' cats have maintained a resistance to joining political causes because the numbers, special interests, and prevailing ignorance seemed prohibitive. We CHOSE relative apathy, and reaped its harvest.
In the past 2 years, we've been dazzled and have participated in the greatest team sport on earth: The quest for human liberty. We re-learned that no one of us has to have all the answers. That sometimes the 'coaches' may commit tactical errors, but they're right there with us to responsively correct their course. (Contrast that with Hitler running the defense of Western Europe from his Berlin bunker, while leaders of the opposition were there on the invasion scene to adjust to the changes and vagueries of battle minute-by-minute.) We've re-learned that there are times for us to be the coaches, and other times when we support the other coaches. If there was ever an example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, it's been our unification into a loose-knit, but purpose focused team with common goals.
It is with these thoughts in mind I would dare even think what I'm thinking about our 'next steps'.
Nothing is ever achieved with 'yahbutts,' with the possible exception of paralysis by analysis. I do not have all the answers to the questions this concept will raise. What I've re-learned is: I don't have to. You don't either!! Give yourself the permission of free-flowing, imaginative thought rooted in your understanding of how the 'Mainspring of Human Progress' works.
What if...
What if their were a simple socio-political plan that would free up humans to produce to their fullest potential like we haven't seen since the latter 1800's?
There were a unifying concept that would effectively bring together sincerely compassionate Liberals, free market Conservatives, and 'real-world' Libertarians in this cause?
What if all the human time, energy and resources currently scandalously wasted away by private business, government bureaucrats and private individuals in interpreting, enforcing, and paying for mounds of tax regulation, stayed, instead, in the hands of their rightful producers and owners? Can we even put a 'number' on the energy and vitality that would release into the flow of human progress?
What if there were no resources, time, energy, money, going into a labyrinthine, conflicted and corrupt bureaucracy purportedly designed to address the needs of those who can't take care of themselves? What if there were a simple, straight-forward, and, consequently, much less expensive way to actually achieve more in the arena of helping others less fortunate, for whatever combination reasons? What if the resultant savings in these resources stayed in the hands who know best how to produce from them, their originators? Can we begin to qualify what that would mean in technological and medical advances?
What if the Feds sold all except the most 'essential' land and resources---half the country---that they're holding and mismanaging 'off-market' and used the proceeds to pay the "national" debt and to restore hard currency?
What if large numbers of folks had a clear idea of how this plan could and would work?
Now, we're all vulnerable to the "yahbutts," including me. Just ride with me on this. Set aside all the interest groups currently in control who have a vested interest (or so they think) in maintaining the status quo. (How many of those could we 'peel off' if they understood what the 'status quo' is costing them and their loved ones in quality of life, longevity...? But I get ahead of myself.)
I believe this is doable. Not by me. By us. Starting with you and me. But we will have the help of those we already admire because of what they have achieved in the past 2+++ years. Plus those coming along whom we don't know presently. After 60 'effin' years of being one of those herd-resistant 'libertarian' cats, I've watched the pay-off of massive teamwork. We will not be alone. You and I do not have to start out with all the answers. We merely need the clarity of purpose and vision...the rest will fall into place.
I've intentionally been vague about the specifics up to this point in order to leave your mind free to comprehend the possibilities..."what if?"...without many "yahbutt" doubts and entanglements. The next step, off-blog will include the 3 specific, simple components to what, if I may say, is an ingenius concept. But since the first 15 seconds of an intro sets the pace for the presentation, my first 'experiment' is on you, the reader. You can only be intro'd once.
So how'm I doing?
If this interests you, I would like to disclose this plan to you under separate cover via email. Please leave your email address in the comment section below or email me personally:
jgreene2@maine.rr.com
To coin a phrase, "this may not be your cuppa tea", which is certainly OK. I would like to have private off-blog discussions with those of you who ARE interested enough to at least inquire!!
Cheers!!
Monday, October 18, 2010
Bob Livingston Exposes The Essence of all Politicians---Brilliant!
The Politician
October 18, 2010 by Bob Livingston
"You have a choice between the natural stability of gold and the honesty and intelligence of the members of government. And with all due respect for those gentlemen, I advise you, as long as the capitalist system lasts, vote for gold." –George Bernard Shaw.
I have written to you in the past that we must know the mind of government or pay a huge price and perhaps pay with our lives. Ask the people of World War II Germany.
They didn’t think that the National Socialists would be too bad. Then they thought that things would get better. Then they lost everything, and many lost their lives.
The U.S. today is a fascist state no different from Nazi Germany. The only thing missing is the swastika and the jackboots. American fascism is far advanced from the German National Socialists.
The State has had many years to build on the Nazi state. The machinery is fine tuned and the propaganda is far, far advanced over Herr Goebbels. This means that American fascism can advance its agenda much further without detection.
But our subject today is the politician. Moreover it is about the mentality of the politician/bureaucrat and the fringe big business and the investment bankers. The point is, if we know the mind of the politician, we know all the above. They are all in “the club.”
Right off purge the thought that “your elected representatives” are yours. They belong to the government. The government owns them and the government pays them. They don’t vote for you. They vote for the government.
One thing here, we are talking about politicians, not statesmen. Dr. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is the only statesman in Washington as far as I know.
What we’re about to do is describe and define the mentality of the American politician. We will profile them so that in the future we can read, decipher and know their minds.
Of course, it really is simple. If we believe the opposite of what they say (as I have taught my children) we will be on terra firma and we can know their Ponzi mentality and their despicable demeanor.
Politicians, bureaucrats, et al are wordsmiths. They twist words that sound good to us but lead to opposite conclusions. This semantic trickery is used in everything and in every proposed legislation.
Many are lawyers, and doublethink legalese is their forte. Their political life is all about deception. This is their cover so that they hide the fact that they work for the government.
I should now go back to explain the source of this evil stealth empire with moral rot that has become endemic. The source of this crescendo of total moral breakdown is the paper money syndrome.
Paper money fiat is directly the foundation of Machiavellian mentality. Politicians, et al have a defective gene which draws them toward politics and they feed on fiat no different from a cow feeding on grass. The politicians’ fiat mentality can be described as a parasite that attracts other parasites of like mind.
The fiat (paper money) mentality is rot and decay that attracts likes because they can’t survive independently as creators of wealth. They are destroyers and consumers of wealth. They love the politics of envy, they are the epitome of greed, selfishness, laziness and physical dependence on authoritarianism. They are vipers who eat their young. A police state is their ultimate dream.
They protect the power elite and they want power over the people at the people’s expense. They want the world in a concentration camp. They harbor a perfect hate for humanity and they would love the Gestapo. You remember, of course, that they almost unanimously passed (rubber stamped) the Homeland Security Act and the USA PATRIOT Act which police the American people.
They have not objected to turning America into a national concentration camp.
Politicians don’t know the truth from a lie and they live it. They live and breathe deception. The rule of law is for the peasants. Force should be used along with the mass murder of war if necessary. Tyranny is a prerogative of power.
Politicians want the political state in which they have the status of untouchables. Yes, politicians have the same psyche and privilege the world over, but at this point in history greed is more contained outside the U.S.
Politicians want to regulate everybody who is not in “the club.” They act as if they despise the people and reserve for themselves privilege. They are perpetually embittered at the producers and creators of wealth. They want to pile on horrendous taxes as perfectly wished by the bureaucracy.
They justify everything in their behalf. They are the frontline of a vindictive power elite culture, the worst in world history. Not a politician alive can understand that their orgy of oppression of the public and prestige and privilege for themselves is a house of cards built upon the quicksand of fiat money. They couldn’t possibly care about the generations yet unborn.
The truth is anathema!
Double jeopardy is a cruel joke. Incarceration without charge and trial is unannounced and the system drunk on the blood of the unsuspecting public will not admit it.
U.S. courts and Federal judges (U.S. prosecuting attorneys) have become Star Chambers. U.S. citizens cannot file criminal charges in the Federal system. The only judges to ever get prosecuted are the few who rule for the people and the Constitution.
More people are arrested and in jail in the U.S. than in the rest of the world which doesn’t have habeas corpus. Bush negated habeas corpus and it was reinstated for public consumption.
Everything in the U.S. is for sale. When will Americans ever discover that the foxes are in charge of the henhouse and that politicians are in secret league with the system like a wolf pack devouring the population?
The public has been trained to think in terms of what is legal and what is illegal. The politicians and their elite bosses operate above the law and outside the law. They place themselves outside the law, just as in Obamacare they placed themselves outside their health legislation. This is contempt for the people.
Their Achilles heel is that they all have a paper money mentality, the paper money syndrome. They are infected with rot which makes them believe that this inflated myth will go on forever with perfect bliss for themselves with privilege.
Politicians hate gold because their whole purpose is to stay in office, and fiat paper money is perfect for them. Have you ever heard any politician or bureaucrat mention gold in a positive way… other than Paul?
But thank God some Americans are waking up. They can see that higher and higher prices translate into cheaper paper money. No problem to see who loses in the paper money game.
At least some Americans are beginning to see that the Emperor has no clothes and that they see a culture within a culture. Obama a Muslim? The five pointed red star is an esoteric Muslim Order. Obama is not alone. Follow the trail of the serpent!
Politicians, bureaucrats, judges and their friends are untouchables. They are a parasite culture which produces nothing but organized crime at the highest levels.
Parasites in time consume their host. This is an organic phenomena that applies to criminal politics.
The saturation point is coming and it can’t be stopped. Sociopathic political behavior self destructs over time. Satan rends himself. Ethics and decency in politics are anathema. A politician is not a statesman and a statesman is not a politician.
Politics is power and politics creates predators. Money has surpassed self worth and dignity. Politics in America is incest with the government. “Just show me the money.”
Do we hear politicians warning Americans that the money creators (quantitative easing) are destroying their savings, their retirement and their purchasing power, as well as that of future generations?
The system is now beyond resolution. We are in the final stages of economic, social and moral collapse.
Investment banks have made billions while destroying America. They create financial products that are designed to fail, market them to the unsuspecting and then take short positions against them. They are a show-me-the-money culture and the system protects them in their financial crimes. The giant real estate collapse is their work.
The word “conspiracy” is an establishment word to imprison multitudes of non-violent people (who are not in favor of the power structure) and confiscate their property outright without due process and under a feigned color of law. The politicians know this.
This is no different from the old Star Chamber motivated by the word “treason” (today it is “conspiracy.”) Then came the thumb screw and the rack to extract confession and an excuse to hang the victim. So what’s the difference today?
There are clearly privileged classes in America; those in political power backed by illegal police power. They act against the people outside the law and the Constitution. My friends, it has become so obvious.
While we slept the political regime has shifted the “burden of proof” to the defendant. One is entrapped, charged and prosecuted under Merchant Law without his knowledge. This is the new democracy. Democracy is rule of the rabble by the elite.
The possibility of reform has passed. The point of saturation of the full measure of disgust is near. Sparks can trigger revolution.
Morality has collapsed. Politicians, Federal judges and prosecutors will eat their young for fiat money, power and aggrandizement. They all have a lawyer Ponzi mentality.
Scripture condemns scribes, lawyers and hypocrites: “Woe unto you scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites…”Mat. 23.13, 27; Luke11.42,44.
Shakespeare in King Henry VI, pt ii, Act IV Scene 2, line 72: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”
Corporations have no rights, therefore corporate officers have no rights. A corporate person can be imprisoned with no limit, even without charge or habeas corpus, denied the right to appeal, denied counsel, denied the use of one’s own funds for defense or other purposes. The corporate officer can then be left in jail to die because he worked for a corporation. Next will be torture and denial of medical care.
John Stuart Mills wrote in his On Liberty in 1859, “let us not flatter ourselves that we are yet free from the stain of legal persecution.” Oxford World Classics pp 34, 1998 edition.
The soul of America has been penetrated with toxic greed. Political rigor mortis is everywhere. The State is collapsing of its own corruption.
Politicians beware, you “elected” vipers!
October 18, 2010 by Bob Livingston
"You have a choice between the natural stability of gold and the honesty and intelligence of the members of government. And with all due respect for those gentlemen, I advise you, as long as the capitalist system lasts, vote for gold." –George Bernard Shaw.
I have written to you in the past that we must know the mind of government or pay a huge price and perhaps pay with our lives. Ask the people of World War II Germany.
They didn’t think that the National Socialists would be too bad. Then they thought that things would get better. Then they lost everything, and many lost their lives.
The U.S. today is a fascist state no different from Nazi Germany. The only thing missing is the swastika and the jackboots. American fascism is far advanced from the German National Socialists.
The State has had many years to build on the Nazi state. The machinery is fine tuned and the propaganda is far, far advanced over Herr Goebbels. This means that American fascism can advance its agenda much further without detection.
But our subject today is the politician. Moreover it is about the mentality of the politician/bureaucrat and the fringe big business and the investment bankers. The point is, if we know the mind of the politician, we know all the above. They are all in “the club.”
Right off purge the thought that “your elected representatives” are yours. They belong to the government. The government owns them and the government pays them. They don’t vote for you. They vote for the government.
One thing here, we are talking about politicians, not statesmen. Dr. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is the only statesman in Washington as far as I know.
What we’re about to do is describe and define the mentality of the American politician. We will profile them so that in the future we can read, decipher and know their minds.
Of course, it really is simple. If we believe the opposite of what they say (as I have taught my children) we will be on terra firma and we can know their Ponzi mentality and their despicable demeanor.
Politicians, bureaucrats, et al are wordsmiths. They twist words that sound good to us but lead to opposite conclusions. This semantic trickery is used in everything and in every proposed legislation.
Many are lawyers, and doublethink legalese is their forte. Their political life is all about deception. This is their cover so that they hide the fact that they work for the government.
I should now go back to explain the source of this evil stealth empire with moral rot that has become endemic. The source of this crescendo of total moral breakdown is the paper money syndrome.
Paper money fiat is directly the foundation of Machiavellian mentality. Politicians, et al have a defective gene which draws them toward politics and they feed on fiat no different from a cow feeding on grass. The politicians’ fiat mentality can be described as a parasite that attracts other parasites of like mind.
The fiat (paper money) mentality is rot and decay that attracts likes because they can’t survive independently as creators of wealth. They are destroyers and consumers of wealth. They love the politics of envy, they are the epitome of greed, selfishness, laziness and physical dependence on authoritarianism. They are vipers who eat their young. A police state is their ultimate dream.
They protect the power elite and they want power over the people at the people’s expense. They want the world in a concentration camp. They harbor a perfect hate for humanity and they would love the Gestapo. You remember, of course, that they almost unanimously passed (rubber stamped) the Homeland Security Act and the USA PATRIOT Act which police the American people.
They have not objected to turning America into a national concentration camp.
Politicians don’t know the truth from a lie and they live it. They live and breathe deception. The rule of law is for the peasants. Force should be used along with the mass murder of war if necessary. Tyranny is a prerogative of power.
Politicians want the political state in which they have the status of untouchables. Yes, politicians have the same psyche and privilege the world over, but at this point in history greed is more contained outside the U.S.
Politicians want to regulate everybody who is not in “the club.” They act as if they despise the people and reserve for themselves privilege. They are perpetually embittered at the producers and creators of wealth. They want to pile on horrendous taxes as perfectly wished by the bureaucracy.
They justify everything in their behalf. They are the frontline of a vindictive power elite culture, the worst in world history. Not a politician alive can understand that their orgy of oppression of the public and prestige and privilege for themselves is a house of cards built upon the quicksand of fiat money. They couldn’t possibly care about the generations yet unborn.
The truth is anathema!
Double jeopardy is a cruel joke. Incarceration without charge and trial is unannounced and the system drunk on the blood of the unsuspecting public will not admit it.
U.S. courts and Federal judges (U.S. prosecuting attorneys) have become Star Chambers. U.S. citizens cannot file criminal charges in the Federal system. The only judges to ever get prosecuted are the few who rule for the people and the Constitution.
More people are arrested and in jail in the U.S. than in the rest of the world which doesn’t have habeas corpus. Bush negated habeas corpus and it was reinstated for public consumption.
Everything in the U.S. is for sale. When will Americans ever discover that the foxes are in charge of the henhouse and that politicians are in secret league with the system like a wolf pack devouring the population?
The public has been trained to think in terms of what is legal and what is illegal. The politicians and their elite bosses operate above the law and outside the law. They place themselves outside the law, just as in Obamacare they placed themselves outside their health legislation. This is contempt for the people.
Their Achilles heel is that they all have a paper money mentality, the paper money syndrome. They are infected with rot which makes them believe that this inflated myth will go on forever with perfect bliss for themselves with privilege.
Politicians hate gold because their whole purpose is to stay in office, and fiat paper money is perfect for them. Have you ever heard any politician or bureaucrat mention gold in a positive way… other than Paul?
But thank God some Americans are waking up. They can see that higher and higher prices translate into cheaper paper money. No problem to see who loses in the paper money game.
At least some Americans are beginning to see that the Emperor has no clothes and that they see a culture within a culture. Obama a Muslim? The five pointed red star is an esoteric Muslim Order. Obama is not alone. Follow the trail of the serpent!
Politicians, bureaucrats, judges and their friends are untouchables. They are a parasite culture which produces nothing but organized crime at the highest levels.
Parasites in time consume their host. This is an organic phenomena that applies to criminal politics.
The saturation point is coming and it can’t be stopped. Sociopathic political behavior self destructs over time. Satan rends himself. Ethics and decency in politics are anathema. A politician is not a statesman and a statesman is not a politician.
Politics is power and politics creates predators. Money has surpassed self worth and dignity. Politics in America is incest with the government. “Just show me the money.”
Do we hear politicians warning Americans that the money creators (quantitative easing) are destroying their savings, their retirement and their purchasing power, as well as that of future generations?
The system is now beyond resolution. We are in the final stages of economic, social and moral collapse.
Investment banks have made billions while destroying America. They create financial products that are designed to fail, market them to the unsuspecting and then take short positions against them. They are a show-me-the-money culture and the system protects them in their financial crimes. The giant real estate collapse is their work.
The word “conspiracy” is an establishment word to imprison multitudes of non-violent people (who are not in favor of the power structure) and confiscate their property outright without due process and under a feigned color of law. The politicians know this.
This is no different from the old Star Chamber motivated by the word “treason” (today it is “conspiracy.”) Then came the thumb screw and the rack to extract confession and an excuse to hang the victim. So what’s the difference today?
There are clearly privileged classes in America; those in political power backed by illegal police power. They act against the people outside the law and the Constitution. My friends, it has become so obvious.
While we slept the political regime has shifted the “burden of proof” to the defendant. One is entrapped, charged and prosecuted under Merchant Law without his knowledge. This is the new democracy. Democracy is rule of the rabble by the elite.
The possibility of reform has passed. The point of saturation of the full measure of disgust is near. Sparks can trigger revolution.
Morality has collapsed. Politicians, Federal judges and prosecutors will eat their young for fiat money, power and aggrandizement. They all have a lawyer Ponzi mentality.
Scripture condemns scribes, lawyers and hypocrites: “Woe unto you scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites…”Mat. 23.13, 27; Luke11.42,44.
Shakespeare in King Henry VI, pt ii, Act IV Scene 2, line 72: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”
Corporations have no rights, therefore corporate officers have no rights. A corporate person can be imprisoned with no limit, even without charge or habeas corpus, denied the right to appeal, denied counsel, denied the use of one’s own funds for defense or other purposes. The corporate officer can then be left in jail to die because he worked for a corporation. Next will be torture and denial of medical care.
John Stuart Mills wrote in his On Liberty in 1859, “let us not flatter ourselves that we are yet free from the stain of legal persecution.” Oxford World Classics pp 34, 1998 edition.
The soul of America has been penetrated with toxic greed. Political rigor mortis is everywhere. The State is collapsing of its own corruption.
Politicians beware, you “elected” vipers!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
"I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now."
You'll want your own copy of this...reprinted from a forwarded email...
Dr. David Kaiser
History Unfolding
I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books on history that have been published in six languages, and I have studied history all my life.
I have come to think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is simply a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.
Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because
I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten to fifteen years.. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.
We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why?
We learned just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no
real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms.
That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the $700 billion we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of "we the people," who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not.
We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy..
Why?
We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity..
Why?
We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that
it simply wants marriage to remain defined as between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?) We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?
Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government. Our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and I know precisely what I am talking about)
- the list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x ten...and we are at war with an enemy we cannot even name for fear of offending people of the same religion, who, in turn, cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.
And finally, we have elected a man that no one really knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla , Alaska .. All of his associations and alliances
are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe are more important.)
Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: CHANGE. Why?
I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.
This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure.
Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again.
And that is only the beginning..
As a serious student of history, I thought I would never come to experience what the ordinary, moral German must have felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the "savior" was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they should have known was that he was associated
with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory.
Conservative "losers" read it right now.
And there were the promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and frowned and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully and beat them into submission. Which they did - regularly. And then, he was duly elected to office, while a full-throttled economic crisis bloomed at hand - the Great Depression. Slowly, but surely he seized the controls of government power, person by person, department by department, bureaucracy by bureaucracy.
The children of German citizens were at first, encouraged to join a Youth Movement in his name where they were taught exactly what to think. Later, they were required to do so. No Jews of course,
How did he get people on his side? He did it by promising jobs to the jobless, money to the money-less, and rewards for the military-industrial complex.. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe, and across the world. He did it with a compliant media - did you know
that?
And he did this all in the name of justice and . . .CHANGE And the people
surely got what they voted for.
If you think I am exaggerating, look it up. It's all there in the history books.
So read your history books. Many people of conscience objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and ridiculed. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though. And the world came to regret that he was not listened to.
Do not forget that Germany was the most educated, the most cultured country in Europe . It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And yet,in less than six years (a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency) it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors.
All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them.
As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another latte,and ignoring what is transpiring around me..
I choose to believe the evidence. No doubt some people will scoff at me,
others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or both. To some degree, perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe-and why I believe it.
I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am. Perhaps the only hope is our vote in the next elections.
David Kaiser
Jamestown , Rhode Island
United States
Dr. David Kaiser
History Unfolding
I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books on history that have been published in six languages, and I have studied history all my life.
I have come to think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is simply a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.
Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because
I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten to fifteen years.. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.
We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why?
We learned just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no
real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms.
That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the $700 billion we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of "we the people," who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not.
We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy..
Why?
We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity..
Why?
We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that
it simply wants marriage to remain defined as between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?) We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?
Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government. Our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and I know precisely what I am talking about)
- the list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x ten...and we are at war with an enemy we cannot even name for fear of offending people of the same religion, who, in turn, cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.
And finally, we have elected a man that no one really knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla , Alaska .. All of his associations and alliances
are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe are more important.)
Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: CHANGE. Why?
I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.
This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure.
Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again.
And that is only the beginning..
As a serious student of history, I thought I would never come to experience what the ordinary, moral German must have felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the "savior" was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they should have known was that he was associated
with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory.
Conservative "losers" read it right now.
And there were the promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and frowned and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully and beat them into submission. Which they did - regularly. And then, he was duly elected to office, while a full-throttled economic crisis bloomed at hand - the Great Depression. Slowly, but surely he seized the controls of government power, person by person, department by department, bureaucracy by bureaucracy.
The children of German citizens were at first, encouraged to join a Youth Movement in his name where they were taught exactly what to think. Later, they were required to do so. No Jews of course,
How did he get people on his side? He did it by promising jobs to the jobless, money to the money-less, and rewards for the military-industrial complex.. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe, and across the world. He did it with a compliant media - did you know
that?
And he did this all in the name of justice and . . .CHANGE And the people
surely got what they voted for.
If you think I am exaggerating, look it up. It's all there in the history books.
So read your history books. Many people of conscience objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and ridiculed. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though. And the world came to regret that he was not listened to.
Do not forget that Germany was the most educated, the most cultured country in Europe . It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And yet,in less than six years (a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency) it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors.
All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them.
As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another latte,and ignoring what is transpiring around me..
I choose to believe the evidence. No doubt some people will scoff at me,
others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or both. To some degree, perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe-and why I believe it.
I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am. Perhaps the only hope is our vote in the next elections.
David Kaiser
Jamestown , Rhode Island
United States
Monday, October 11, 2010
An appeal to the folks on the side-line....
"After losing so many battles, I'm sure George Washington felt like an army of one. I know I often do."
This wasn't said by some victim-mentality whiney-ass. He said it to me yesterday, in an email. Depending on your perspective, (more to follow on that) if you ARE more from the outside looking in on the skirmishes in the cultural wars, you would think this fellow is enjoying the gratitude and help of many. The last thing you'd think is he often feels 'alone.' He has high visibility, and is a regional hero, at least for the cause of liberty. We who understand the stakes( hopefully 95 % of the choir reading this), owe a lot of thanks to those like him who are taking time out of their lives to devote to a multi-generational cause. Not everyone who has taken up the mantle enjoys the process.
My anonymous friend is one of them. There is little in his background to suggest he would be inclined to 'saving' the nation in a political setting. If you only knew...
This 'aloneness' has been felt by some of the greatest fighters for freedom ever. Whatever prompted George Washington to say, when the country turned to him to save it again, "Haven't I given enough of my life for my country?" Then he proceded, once again, to leave the life and land he loved, to become the first and only reluctant US President. Regardless of egalitarian envy and moral subjectivism, some of us are really nobler than others of us.
There is a contemporary example of a real-time hero on the level of the Founding Fathers, whom you may know by the following description. I'm not going to name him because he, rightfully, has asked that we not site his name, because it enables a segment of the population to discount the subject of the moment because he is being associated with it. The machinery of the Dark Side knows it has no substance to support its purposes, so it personally attacks the messenger, to discredit the message. And succeeds with the lazy and weak-minded in doing so.
Just days ago, this icon of miraculous courage, dedication, insight and valor implored his listeners to pray for restoration of his passion for the work. After an amazing extended period of study and reporting (things historians and media folks used to do) he in effect said he had hit a mental and physical wall. Burn-out. He quickly reassured he would not stop, but that he was running on emotional fumes.
We are all people. Some just better people than others, depending on the standards of judgment. When I say 'better,' I mean benevolent, productive, self-responsible and adherent to a profound belief in the Power of Truth. As humans, we all share traits passed along in our DNA, including 'social' needs, good and 'bad' inclinations, the desire to be valorous and the component of fear and envy that prevents many from being valorous. When WE win, this man will be remembered like the noble risk-takers over the years who have fought, lost fortunes, bled, died for their belief in human good.
Meanwhile, we are not all wired exactly the same. While some go into the burning building, some stay safely on the sideline. That's where their birds of a feather are and where they feel 'safe'. This tribal instinct to belong is shared to one degree or another by all of us, which is slowly getting me to the real point of this discussion. Like other 'instincts,' when this one prevails inside of us, the best that can happen is: nothing. The worst that can happen is on the pages of every history book.
We are limited by our own mortality, and a finite amount of time and energy. For too many years we've been squandering our precious time, energy and resources in trying to make sheep into eagles. Literally, they will never fly!
To maximize the return on our own personal investment, we'll get the biggest bang for our buck more acively encouraging, through word and deed, those who are out on the front lines. They need our support. They will not quit when they feel alone, but letting the energy flow to them will be inspirational, energizing, and a too-rare blow for justice to the good guys. They deserve it, and we'll deseve the greater results.
If you're a reader already 'out there' on the front lines of this war for freedom, you know exactly what I mean. I'm addressing this to the agreeable fellow traveler amongst us, who has seen and is seeing the light, but is 'too busy' or involved in other, perhaps very worthwhile things---family, career, hobbies. Take the time to demonstrate some form of support for those 'serving' the cause---it could be a kind word, an occasional constructive suggestion, or, if you can and want to, something on a larger scale.
I'm not asking you to give attention, support or resources until it hurts. I am asking you to be aware of the pay-off for you when you upgrade your level of involvement, not until it hurts, but just until it feels good!!
Now, start by engaging below!!
This wasn't said by some victim-mentality whiney-ass. He said it to me yesterday, in an email. Depending on your perspective, (more to follow on that) if you ARE more from the outside looking in on the skirmishes in the cultural wars, you would think this fellow is enjoying the gratitude and help of many. The last thing you'd think is he often feels 'alone.' He has high visibility, and is a regional hero, at least for the cause of liberty. We who understand the stakes( hopefully 95 % of the choir reading this), owe a lot of thanks to those like him who are taking time out of their lives to devote to a multi-generational cause. Not everyone who has taken up the mantle enjoys the process.
My anonymous friend is one of them. There is little in his background to suggest he would be inclined to 'saving' the nation in a political setting. If you only knew...
This 'aloneness' has been felt by some of the greatest fighters for freedom ever. Whatever prompted George Washington to say, when the country turned to him to save it again, "Haven't I given enough of my life for my country?" Then he proceded, once again, to leave the life and land he loved, to become the first and only reluctant US President. Regardless of egalitarian envy and moral subjectivism, some of us are really nobler than others of us.
There is a contemporary example of a real-time hero on the level of the Founding Fathers, whom you may know by the following description. I'm not going to name him because he, rightfully, has asked that we not site his name, because it enables a segment of the population to discount the subject of the moment because he is being associated with it. The machinery of the Dark Side knows it has no substance to support its purposes, so it personally attacks the messenger, to discredit the message. And succeeds with the lazy and weak-minded in doing so.
Just days ago, this icon of miraculous courage, dedication, insight and valor implored his listeners to pray for restoration of his passion for the work. After an amazing extended period of study and reporting (things historians and media folks used to do) he in effect said he had hit a mental and physical wall. Burn-out. He quickly reassured he would not stop, but that he was running on emotional fumes.
We are all people. Some just better people than others, depending on the standards of judgment. When I say 'better,' I mean benevolent, productive, self-responsible and adherent to a profound belief in the Power of Truth. As humans, we all share traits passed along in our DNA, including 'social' needs, good and 'bad' inclinations, the desire to be valorous and the component of fear and envy that prevents many from being valorous. When WE win, this man will be remembered like the noble risk-takers over the years who have fought, lost fortunes, bled, died for their belief in human good.
Meanwhile, we are not all wired exactly the same. While some go into the burning building, some stay safely on the sideline. That's where their birds of a feather are and where they feel 'safe'. This tribal instinct to belong is shared to one degree or another by all of us, which is slowly getting me to the real point of this discussion. Like other 'instincts,' when this one prevails inside of us, the best that can happen is: nothing. The worst that can happen is on the pages of every history book.
We are limited by our own mortality, and a finite amount of time and energy. For too many years we've been squandering our precious time, energy and resources in trying to make sheep into eagles. Literally, they will never fly!
To maximize the return on our own personal investment, we'll get the biggest bang for our buck more acively encouraging, through word and deed, those who are out on the front lines. They need our support. They will not quit when they feel alone, but letting the energy flow to them will be inspirational, energizing, and a too-rare blow for justice to the good guys. They deserve it, and we'll deseve the greater results.
If you're a reader already 'out there' on the front lines of this war for freedom, you know exactly what I mean. I'm addressing this to the agreeable fellow traveler amongst us, who has seen and is seeing the light, but is 'too busy' or involved in other, perhaps very worthwhile things---family, career, hobbies. Take the time to demonstrate some form of support for those 'serving' the cause---it could be a kind word, an occasional constructive suggestion, or, if you can and want to, something on a larger scale.
I'm not asking you to give attention, support or resources until it hurts. I am asking you to be aware of the pay-off for you when you upgrade your level of involvement, not until it hurts, but just until it feels good!!
Now, start by engaging below!!
Saturday, October 9, 2010
"Education"---meaning...what?
I'm assuming I'm addressing the choir here. If you find yourself in serious disagreement with these conclusions, this article is not for you.
We've spent some time chattin' about how some folks substitute new words for older words that communicate non-PC information. (See earlier Front Porch conversations). We've talked about how this is nothing new. It's been done for centuries, observed by gentlemen such as William Shakespeare, one of whose pearls is "A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet." That was his nice way of saying, "You can call a turd a magnolia blossom, if you want to, but the little feller will still stink."
There's a corollary form of word perversion, where the word doesn't change, and is supposed to mean what it used to mean, only it doesn't. It's a form of intellectual counterfeiting that lets some people rob each other of things tangible and intangible, with the sleepy acquiescence of the robbed.
The word I have in mind today is "education." It is used with religious deference by folks who, consciously or not, are robbing us and our descendants blind of true and necessary real-world living information, in the form of history, basic economics, basic reasoning techniques, reading in general, literacy, and what used to fall in the general category of 'common sense.'
This isn't brand new. It's been going on for decades and decades, like slow decay of civilization's foundations.
Today, what passes for education is, to those of us courageous to note the emperor's lack of what he claims to be sportin', NOT education. It's, at best, drivel. It's at worst indoctrination. And wherever you place it on the spectrum of human mind destruction, it's costing us, billions of dollars and the most critical learning years of our lives and our children and our children's children. It is a sanctimonious fraud that is far deadlier, at multiple levels, than the Social Security Ponzi Scheme. I will wager that it makes all the raging stupidity around us possible.
It's time to confront the counterfeiters: the people who ask us to worship at the alter of today's "education" for their own enrichment, aggrandizement, and maintenance of power. Not only do they ask us to blindly accept what their idea of "education" is, they're perfectly fine with making us foot the bill. This is one of those nuclear atrocities that's so big that we don't see the magnitude of it, and get tangled up in phony issues like wind power instead.
Common sense, once upon a time, would be all we need to understand that if "wind power" were desirable by those actually supporting the rest of the world, it would be developed privately and profitably in a competitive environment and would already be found everywhere. Instead, thanks to the corruption of formal "education," half the population sees nothing at all unusual or wrong about making the other half pay for something they wouldn't voluntarily buy. But hark---this actually makes sense!!
For faux "education" to sell itself as the real thing, it has to have dumb-assed people in large enough numbers to support it, and be supported by it. I include those who get paid in some way for being part of the fraud as 'dumb-assed' because: being human, I'll bet even the inadvertent participants have lost loved ones who would have lived had resources gone, over the years, where the producers want them to go. (E.G., if you had your own druthers, would you give more to cancer research, or under highway turtle tunnels?) Of course, they'd have to have active and analytical, independent minds to comprehend what their short term gains are costing them.
I humbly submit, whisper timidly, that it's time we get actively and proportionately passionate about this issue. The next time we hear some Statist Freak extolling the virtue of his/her idea of what education is and why they should be able to extort our ability to handle this most precious treasure at our individual discretion, treat them with the humor and astonishment you'd give a burglar who, in broad daylight, tells you he's here to 'help you.'
Remember, being properly and humorously exposed as a fool is far more dreaded than insulting confrontation. You'll enjoy the immediate results!!
What say you?
We've spent some time chattin' about how some folks substitute new words for older words that communicate non-PC information. (See earlier Front Porch conversations). We've talked about how this is nothing new. It's been done for centuries, observed by gentlemen such as William Shakespeare, one of whose pearls is "A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet." That was his nice way of saying, "You can call a turd a magnolia blossom, if you want to, but the little feller will still stink."
There's a corollary form of word perversion, where the word doesn't change, and is supposed to mean what it used to mean, only it doesn't. It's a form of intellectual counterfeiting that lets some people rob each other of things tangible and intangible, with the sleepy acquiescence of the robbed.
The word I have in mind today is "education." It is used with religious deference by folks who, consciously or not, are robbing us and our descendants blind of true and necessary real-world living information, in the form of history, basic economics, basic reasoning techniques, reading in general, literacy, and what used to fall in the general category of 'common sense.'
This isn't brand new. It's been going on for decades and decades, like slow decay of civilization's foundations.
Today, what passes for education is, to those of us courageous to note the emperor's lack of what he claims to be sportin', NOT education. It's, at best, drivel. It's at worst indoctrination. And wherever you place it on the spectrum of human mind destruction, it's costing us, billions of dollars and the most critical learning years of our lives and our children and our children's children. It is a sanctimonious fraud that is far deadlier, at multiple levels, than the Social Security Ponzi Scheme. I will wager that it makes all the raging stupidity around us possible.
It's time to confront the counterfeiters: the people who ask us to worship at the alter of today's "education" for their own enrichment, aggrandizement, and maintenance of power. Not only do they ask us to blindly accept what their idea of "education" is, they're perfectly fine with making us foot the bill. This is one of those nuclear atrocities that's so big that we don't see the magnitude of it, and get tangled up in phony issues like wind power instead.
Common sense, once upon a time, would be all we need to understand that if "wind power" were desirable by those actually supporting the rest of the world, it would be developed privately and profitably in a competitive environment and would already be found everywhere. Instead, thanks to the corruption of formal "education," half the population sees nothing at all unusual or wrong about making the other half pay for something they wouldn't voluntarily buy. But hark---this actually makes sense!!
For faux "education" to sell itself as the real thing, it has to have dumb-assed people in large enough numbers to support it, and be supported by it. I include those who get paid in some way for being part of the fraud as 'dumb-assed' because: being human, I'll bet even the inadvertent participants have lost loved ones who would have lived had resources gone, over the years, where the producers want them to go. (E.G., if you had your own druthers, would you give more to cancer research, or under highway turtle tunnels?) Of course, they'd have to have active and analytical, independent minds to comprehend what their short term gains are costing them.
I humbly submit, whisper timidly, that it's time we get actively and proportionately passionate about this issue. The next time we hear some Statist Freak extolling the virtue of his/her idea of what education is and why they should be able to extort our ability to handle this most precious treasure at our individual discretion, treat them with the humor and astonishment you'd give a burglar who, in broad daylight, tells you he's here to 'help you.'
Remember, being properly and humorously exposed as a fool is far more dreaded than insulting confrontation. You'll enjoy the immediate results!!
What say you?
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
The Obama Gang---Dumbasses or Descendants of Lucifer---Aha! Both!!
Most "Aha's" are two-sided coins. On one side, there is the glow of discovery of the awareness of new paths down which it may lead. The other side is the teeth-grinding, head banging that you've been had at your own hands.
Rush Limbaugh provided one of these experiences for me today on his radio show. At one time, I'm saying "Holy Cow, that helps me make more sense of everything!" On the obverse side, however, there's the galling realization that I've restricted my own conceptual growth and thus have forfeited the gains I may have otherwise enjoyed before now. What's more embarrassing than discovering you've been shouting naivete' at the the top of your lungs for all to hear and see?
Well, OK. It is what it is. This:
For 5 decades or so, I bought into the premise that, when trying to understand why politicians do what they do, repeatedly and seemingly not "learning" from their failures, I had 2 choices:
1. Believe they're that incredibly ignorant and stupid (present Prez for example). Usually, that's where the journey ends for most of us, because explanation #2 just doesn't seem possible. We can't relate to it.
2. Believe the politicians, academicians and media sycophants actually know what the consequences of their actions will be, AND WANT THOSE CONSEQUENCES!! Now that's a leap that few of us dare make. Actually, thanks to folks digging around in the hidden ruins of the past 150 years of history, this explanation seems far more likely as it is far more sinister as well.
Either they're really dumbasses, or they're descendants of Lucifer.
Somehow, that choice seemd to linger in the air, not really offering a satisfactory conclusion. Either/or.
Well, thank you Rush. Today you flipped off the veil of uncertainty that has restricted my understanding of this. So, I'm happy. But humiliated. It's so simple.
The 2 explanations are NOT mutually exclusive. #1 actually explains #2. Crap. Why didn't I think of that?
Our current Prez is a classic example. First, by the means of those who raised him and later 'educated' him, he is a case study in ignorance beyond our wildest imagination about Economics 101. Let's save you from innumerable examples: one should do. Obama and his fellow travelers actually believe that 'demand' creates 'supply'. I'm trusting we Front Porchers do not need to explore the pure childishness of such fairy dust belief.
Ergo, if magic wealth is possessed by some and not by others, then the former must have stolen it from the latter. The answer is: forced redistribution, which always, always, always has ended in the death of countless members of the wrongdoing tribe.
I like the example of my friend Paula the Polar Bear. What if Max, the polka dot bear shows up at her family's lair one day and suggests she share the contents of her home with the other bears 'over yonder'. Does she invite him in for tea? Civilized discussion? Or is it more likely Max will leave her doorstep minus an appendage or two?
Well, we humans are a bit more trusting. Up to a point. And the parasites always eventually overstep that point, and hell breaks loose. Frankly, given the brashness and decadence of current day 'violated people of entitlement', ya' gotta believe we're damned close to repeating history. And if we don't get our Paula on, we'll just be damned.
Summarily, the path to understanding the seeming nonsense going on in the world, especially in formerly esteemed places, is to understand that ignorance is the fertilizer of the weeds of wickedness. When do we stop spreading the manure of social indoctrination, disguised as 'education', and bite the damned Polka-dot Bear in the ass.
I'm just sayin'.
Rush Limbaugh provided one of these experiences for me today on his radio show. At one time, I'm saying "Holy Cow, that helps me make more sense of everything!" On the obverse side, however, there's the galling realization that I've restricted my own conceptual growth and thus have forfeited the gains I may have otherwise enjoyed before now. What's more embarrassing than discovering you've been shouting naivete' at the the top of your lungs for all to hear and see?
Well, OK. It is what it is. This:
For 5 decades or so, I bought into the premise that, when trying to understand why politicians do what they do, repeatedly and seemingly not "learning" from their failures, I had 2 choices:
1. Believe they're that incredibly ignorant and stupid (present Prez for example). Usually, that's where the journey ends for most of us, because explanation #2 just doesn't seem possible. We can't relate to it.
2. Believe the politicians, academicians and media sycophants actually know what the consequences of their actions will be, AND WANT THOSE CONSEQUENCES!! Now that's a leap that few of us dare make. Actually, thanks to folks digging around in the hidden ruins of the past 150 years of history, this explanation seems far more likely as it is far more sinister as well.
Either they're really dumbasses, or they're descendants of Lucifer.
Somehow, that choice seemd to linger in the air, not really offering a satisfactory conclusion. Either/or.
Well, thank you Rush. Today you flipped off the veil of uncertainty that has restricted my understanding of this. So, I'm happy. But humiliated. It's so simple.
The 2 explanations are NOT mutually exclusive. #1 actually explains #2. Crap. Why didn't I think of that?
Our current Prez is a classic example. First, by the means of those who raised him and later 'educated' him, he is a case study in ignorance beyond our wildest imagination about Economics 101. Let's save you from innumerable examples: one should do. Obama and his fellow travelers actually believe that 'demand' creates 'supply'. I'm trusting we Front Porchers do not need to explore the pure childishness of such fairy dust belief.
Ergo, if magic wealth is possessed by some and not by others, then the former must have stolen it from the latter. The answer is: forced redistribution, which always, always, always has ended in the death of countless members of the wrongdoing tribe.
I like the example of my friend Paula the Polar Bear. What if Max, the polka dot bear shows up at her family's lair one day and suggests she share the contents of her home with the other bears 'over yonder'. Does she invite him in for tea? Civilized discussion? Or is it more likely Max will leave her doorstep minus an appendage or two?
Well, we humans are a bit more trusting. Up to a point. And the parasites always eventually overstep that point, and hell breaks loose. Frankly, given the brashness and decadence of current day 'violated people of entitlement', ya' gotta believe we're damned close to repeating history. And if we don't get our Paula on, we'll just be damned.
Summarily, the path to understanding the seeming nonsense going on in the world, especially in formerly esteemed places, is to understand that ignorance is the fertilizer of the weeds of wickedness. When do we stop spreading the manure of social indoctrination, disguised as 'education', and bite the damned Polka-dot Bear in the ass.
I'm just sayin'.
"...Prosperity Foregone is Invisible..."
"...The more important reason is that prosperity foregone is invisible.
"In other words, we can never tell how much richer we would have been
without today's level of congressional interference in our lives and
therefore don't fight it as much as we should." ---Walter Williams, see bbelow
My response----"Thanks Mr. Williams. This should be broadcast out into every corner of the cosmos. Man's capability for good, versus his own propensity to throw chains on himself, has denied us unimaginable treasures, physically and in spirit. No science fiction writer could ever envision the universe we'd live in without this insidious propensity to envy, unearned riches, and power over others.
The good news is, if we keep working at it, as you do, there's still a chance for future generations to realize their incredible potential. If anything is worth the effort, here it is! "
jg
>
> POLITICIANS EXPLOIT ECONOMIC IGNORANCE
> Opinion Editorial by Walter E. Williams
>
> Many politicians and 'progressives' often try to hide their true
> intentions or lack of knowledge by playing semantics games with the laws
> of economics. Let's see some examples.
>
> Go here to read the full article:
>
> http://www.theatlasphere.com/columns/101005-williams-economic-ignorance.php
"In other words, we can never tell how much richer we would have been
without today's level of congressional interference in our lives and
therefore don't fight it as much as we should." ---Walter Williams, see bbelow
My response----"Thanks Mr. Williams. This should be broadcast out into every corner of the cosmos. Man's capability for good, versus his own propensity to throw chains on himself, has denied us unimaginable treasures, physically and in spirit. No science fiction writer could ever envision the universe we'd live in without this insidious propensity to envy, unearned riches, and power over others.
The good news is, if we keep working at it, as you do, there's still a chance for future generations to realize their incredible potential. If anything is worth the effort, here it is! "
jg
>
> POLITICIANS EXPLOIT ECONOMIC IGNORANCE
> Opinion Editorial by Walter E. Williams
>
> Many politicians and 'progressives' often try to hide their true
> intentions or lack of knowledge by playing semantics games with the laws
> of economics. Let's see some examples.
>
> Go here to read the full article:
>
> http://www.theatlasphere.com/columns/101005-williams-economic-ignorance.php
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Brain Stingers?
Brain Stingers...
I issued myself a challenge. Since brevity is the soul of wit, I decided to take a few thoughts that could fill volumes into three sentences or less of savory chocklit morsels. You're invited to play, too!
---You, too, can be a bank vice president---but phony prestige has its price. Decades ago, banks discovered people would work for peanuts if they could be 'Vice Presidents'. Everyone short of 'maintenance technician' got business cards in place of money, and loved it.
---Generosity is cheap with OPM. Ah, the thrill of confiscating from B, ostensibly for C, for the real enrichment and aggrandizement of A, who is moi.
---The real geniuses that keep markets stabilized (y' don't make 'em in academia), are the very people scandalized by the envious parasitic class. I'm referring to speculators, middle men of all ilks who grease the skids of commerce by moving products and services between differing markets, over both space and time. Dig it.
---The phony 'experts'----certified idiots. College-degreed 'experts' are the bane of the existence of enlisted men, farmers, people in commerce, the trades, shakers in the medical industry, who actually have learned through experience how to complete real-world tasks successfully. Welcome to Wonderland, Alice, where we all pretend ignorance is smart and task-completers are unsophisticated Homer Simpsons.
---"Specialization's" Achilles Heel----Ignoramusism and Arroganciasis. The 'best' in their fields of endeavor, science, commerce, sports, entertainment , typically got to the heights of their professions with ruthless focus and obsessive passion for their area of expertise---and we owe a lot to them. However, they are typically spoiled children in other subject areas, who expect their opinions to be respected regarding whatever the topic they wax embarrassingly on, especially politics.
---You'd think the eco-fascists would understand natural law in human behaviour---and you'd be right---just not the way YOU think. Seriously, an eco maniac can explain to you in copious detail how we all depend on each other's existence, up and down the plant and animal chains, and what a disaster it would be if we couldn't get our hands on a snail darter. Then when it comes to human action (praxeology), their knowledge of eco-NOMICS can fit into the thimble of a bacterium.
---'Pay' and 'Profit take many forms---the price of myopia is we have to put up with the snottiness of those who present themselves as not being so basely motivated.. Somehow those who take the benefits to themselves of their actions in forms 'other' than money, feel justified at looking down their noses at those engaged in financial endeavors. Fact is, money is thankfully, simply (!) a medium of convenient exchange so we can get what we really want: safety, security, food, sex, praise, shallow adoration, power, and a really big flat screen TV's.
---Pin-hookers : geniuses in overalls, the real experts in flannel shirts. Capsule lesson in what really makes the world go around: 'pinhookers' were (are) tobacco wholesalers who would go from community to community buying and selling and keeping the razor thin margins for themselves. This brought stability and general liquidity to whole regions, and has its application at all levels of commerce.
---Country to country, state to state, community to community---how the lie of 'selflessness' robs us of recognizing real contributors to the human condition. Using 'Pin-hookers' as a localized example, by bestowing unearned 'prestige' on the the worthlessly pedigreed among us, at the expense of those getting the real work done, we encourage parasitism and discourage useful enterprise. So absolutely EVERYTHING costs us more!!
---Good bacteria: Roses by another name. 'Pin-hookers', for example. Speculators; 'Profiteers.'
---the visible 'Invisible Hand'. It ain't invisible. Been right in front of us the whole time. We've just been listening to the 'experts' who want unearned appreciation, adulation, wealth and, most importantly, the best the opposite sex has to offer(last one doesn't work, if brains is a part of the 'most desirable' package).
---in a real emergency do you call your neighbor or your congressman? Why? Because you want something done efficiently, inexpensively and responsibly in a timely fashion?
---What would stuff cost without regulation: including medicine and everything else? Doctors will often work for 'half price' or thereabouts if you offer them cash. That gives us an idea of what medical assistance would cost us in a competitive free market unencumbered with layers of regulation, bureaucrats and ancillary professions who depend on congress to keep them on their white collar welfare.
JGreene
How'd I do?
I issued myself a challenge. Since brevity is the soul of wit, I decided to take a few thoughts that could fill volumes into three sentences or less of savory chocklit morsels. You're invited to play, too!
---You, too, can be a bank vice president---but phony prestige has its price. Decades ago, banks discovered people would work for peanuts if they could be 'Vice Presidents'. Everyone short of 'maintenance technician' got business cards in place of money, and loved it.
---Generosity is cheap with OPM. Ah, the thrill of confiscating from B, ostensibly for C, for the real enrichment and aggrandizement of A, who is moi.
---The real geniuses that keep markets stabilized (y' don't make 'em in academia), are the very people scandalized by the envious parasitic class. I'm referring to speculators, middle men of all ilks who grease the skids of commerce by moving products and services between differing markets, over both space and time. Dig it.
---The phony 'experts'----certified idiots. College-degreed 'experts' are the bane of the existence of enlisted men, farmers, people in commerce, the trades, shakers in the medical industry, who actually have learned through experience how to complete real-world tasks successfully. Welcome to Wonderland, Alice, where we all pretend ignorance is smart and task-completers are unsophisticated Homer Simpsons.
---"Specialization's" Achilles Heel----Ignoramusism and Arroganciasis. The 'best' in their fields of endeavor, science, commerce, sports, entertainment , typically got to the heights of their professions with ruthless focus and obsessive passion for their area of expertise---and we owe a lot to them. However, they are typically spoiled children in other subject areas, who expect their opinions to be respected regarding whatever the topic they wax embarrassingly on, especially politics.
---You'd think the eco-fascists would understand natural law in human behaviour---and you'd be right---just not the way YOU think. Seriously, an eco maniac can explain to you in copious detail how we all depend on each other's existence, up and down the plant and animal chains, and what a disaster it would be if we couldn't get our hands on a snail darter. Then when it comes to human action (praxeology), their knowledge of eco-NOMICS can fit into the thimble of a bacterium.
---'Pay' and 'Profit take many forms---the price of myopia is we have to put up with the snottiness of those who present themselves as not being so basely motivated.. Somehow those who take the benefits to themselves of their actions in forms 'other' than money, feel justified at looking down their noses at those engaged in financial endeavors. Fact is, money is thankfully, simply (!) a medium of convenient exchange so we can get what we really want: safety, security, food, sex, praise, shallow adoration, power, and a really big flat screen TV's.
---Pin-hookers : geniuses in overalls, the real experts in flannel shirts. Capsule lesson in what really makes the world go around: 'pinhookers' were (are) tobacco wholesalers who would go from community to community buying and selling and keeping the razor thin margins for themselves. This brought stability and general liquidity to whole regions, and has its application at all levels of commerce.
---Country to country, state to state, community to community---how the lie of 'selflessness' robs us of recognizing real contributors to the human condition. Using 'Pin-hookers' as a localized example, by bestowing unearned 'prestige' on the the worthlessly pedigreed among us, at the expense of those getting the real work done, we encourage parasitism and discourage useful enterprise. So absolutely EVERYTHING costs us more!!
---Good bacteria: Roses by another name. 'Pin-hookers', for example. Speculators; 'Profiteers.'
---the visible 'Invisible Hand'. It ain't invisible. Been right in front of us the whole time. We've just been listening to the 'experts' who want unearned appreciation, adulation, wealth and, most importantly, the best the opposite sex has to offer(last one doesn't work, if brains is a part of the 'most desirable' package).
---in a real emergency do you call your neighbor or your congressman? Why? Because you want something done efficiently, inexpensively and responsibly in a timely fashion?
---What would stuff cost without regulation: including medicine and everything else? Doctors will often work for 'half price' or thereabouts if you offer them cash. That gives us an idea of what medical assistance would cost us in a competitive free market unencumbered with layers of regulation, bureaucrats and ancillary professions who depend on congress to keep them on their white collar welfare.
JGreene
How'd I do?
Sunday, October 3, 2010
When Paula the Polar Bear Bites...
Amazing. Statists have been mouthing their own BS for so long, they are surprised when:
Folks are telling Statists to go screw themselves and get their hands out of their pockets and off their freedom, when the dumbasses get into OPS (Other People's Space).
Mess with an animals' home and what do you expect? Warm greetings? Then you're really stupid and deserve the removal of several of your limb's at the animal's convenience. Go ahead. Disagree. Would Paula the Polar Bear invite you into her lair for tea and for a nice discussion about how she should feed and raise her young? And what part of her stuff you should confiscate for the benefit of bears in Mozambique?
You know what's cool? Not too many year's ago it seemed no one cared about questions such as these. They were happy sheep, blissfully being shorn on April 15 and the remainder of the year's days, as long as they could watch American Idol on their flatscreen TV. I guess the intruders have gotten a tad unsubtle, and the sheeples are not only restless, some are actually biting the hands that steal from them.
Meanwhile, Statists are blaming the rejection of their benevolent tyranny on Homer Simpson stupidity. The reality is, the sheeples WERE painfully stupid, going for years not paying attention to being robbed blind of their treasure and freedom. Grindingly stupid. But, despite the desperate efforts of media, academia and DC to obfuscate the direction they want to take us, the Sheeples have been aroused. The proverbial cooker of the frog in the water on the stove has gotten predictably greedy. The burner has been turned from medium to high, and, woops, froggy has jumped out!! :)
I'm entertaining a 'premonition.' Remember how the media generally overestimate the election results in favor of their Statist shepherds? (Could it be to keep the money flowing in from their ignorant sycophants?) And how, there's usually confounding 'surprise' results, much like the ones economic witch doctors experience predicting economic trends on a weekly basis? And how 'bout those forecasters of weather 50 years from now? (Sorry, couldn't help myself)...
If you were there, then perhaps one of your favorite memories is the night of the Presidential election of 1980, when this primitive cowboy turned the election maps red, and the stomachs of the 'experts' everywhere. Until they could formulate a reason for the surprise that didn't reflect on their own phoniness or incompetence (you pick).
November could be fun. Will be fun. 'Surprises' could happen again---on YOUR flat screen.
Just sayin'.
Folks are telling Statists to go screw themselves and get their hands out of their pockets and off their freedom, when the dumbasses get into OPS (Other People's Space).
Mess with an animals' home and what do you expect? Warm greetings? Then you're really stupid and deserve the removal of several of your limb's at the animal's convenience. Go ahead. Disagree. Would Paula the Polar Bear invite you into her lair for tea and for a nice discussion about how she should feed and raise her young? And what part of her stuff you should confiscate for the benefit of bears in Mozambique?
You know what's cool? Not too many year's ago it seemed no one cared about questions such as these. They were happy sheep, blissfully being shorn on April 15 and the remainder of the year's days, as long as they could watch American Idol on their flatscreen TV. I guess the intruders have gotten a tad unsubtle, and the sheeples are not only restless, some are actually biting the hands that steal from them.
Meanwhile, Statists are blaming the rejection of their benevolent tyranny on Homer Simpson stupidity. The reality is, the sheeples WERE painfully stupid, going for years not paying attention to being robbed blind of their treasure and freedom. Grindingly stupid. But, despite the desperate efforts of media, academia and DC to obfuscate the direction they want to take us, the Sheeples have been aroused. The proverbial cooker of the frog in the water on the stove has gotten predictably greedy. The burner has been turned from medium to high, and, woops, froggy has jumped out!! :)
I'm entertaining a 'premonition.' Remember how the media generally overestimate the election results in favor of their Statist shepherds? (Could it be to keep the money flowing in from their ignorant sycophants?) And how, there's usually confounding 'surprise' results, much like the ones economic witch doctors experience predicting economic trends on a weekly basis? And how 'bout those forecasters of weather 50 years from now? (Sorry, couldn't help myself)...
If you were there, then perhaps one of your favorite memories is the night of the Presidential election of 1980, when this primitive cowboy turned the election maps red, and the stomachs of the 'experts' everywhere. Until they could formulate a reason for the surprise that didn't reflect on their own phoniness or incompetence (you pick).
November could be fun. Will be fun. 'Surprises' could happen again---on YOUR flat screen.
Just sayin'.
"...does calling a turd a magnolia blossom make the stink go away?"
"A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet." Mr. Shakespeare, an incrediby wise observer of the human condition, expressed that in such a gentlemanly way centuries ago. Not much changes, does it?
Although it begs to be mentioned: a high school diploma once required the demonstrated ability to read and understand his wisdom as well as other geniuses from the distant past. Now we know old people and dead people are...passe'. :) Our children are smarter. But I digress. At least I got it over with so I won't be doing the digression from identifiable subject matter!!
Without William's historical perspective, we could be thinking that the attempt to change perceptions by changing the words we use to identify them was invented by Madison Avenue, or current day tinhorn politicians and academicians. Did I say 'tinhorn'? Tells you how old I am...I think 'tinhorn' has been replaced by 'esteemed.' So much for the life cycle of a word...soon to be 2 words....
So here's the question, more crudely put: does calling a turd a magnolia blossom make the stink go away? No? So far so good. And you see where I'm going. Welcome to today's rant!
Is shit Shinola if we say it is? Would you polish your shoes with it? Apparently there's a swarm of elitist bastards out there who think if they can get you to accept a change of nomenclature, they can continue keeping you under their thumb and kissing their toes for it.
It pleases me to see the comeuppance of the language counterfeiters has arrived. Think about it.
If being patriotic and productive and wanting to make your own choices makes you a racist, then do you really care nowadays if you're called a racist?
If being older, non-violent, and cleaning up after yourself makes you a hater, do you change your behaviour?
If you have more widgets than your neighbor, does that mean you're a thief?
If ignorance of history, fundamental economics, logic and critical thinking mean you're 'educated', does it really bother you to be called Homer Simpson? Should you spend $500K+++ and 4-10 years of your life getting your certification that you are amongst those ignoranti?
If feeding , caring for, and educating your own family is 'dangerous' to The State', then do you turn the welfare of your family over to these reptiles?
Now don't get me started on nonPC stuff about race(if we call ourselves by another name every 15 years, we won't be stereotyped by prior behaviour---unless we're white or Oriental)), gender((if I'm the same as what I'm not(!), when convenient, then I can demand the results of what I'm not)) ethnicity(If I say I'm part of a religion, you must respect my intent to live next to you until I choose to remove your head), intelligence(if I'm not as smart in a given area as someone else,but we change my name from idiot, to moron, to imbecile, to retard to 'cognitively challenged',we can...can..what?) ...figure those out yourselves so I won't go to jail. As soon.
If 'freedom' is 'slavery', is slavery desirable?
I think we've reached a point where there's a bunch of us choosing not to flee reality and remaking the world to our liking by playing word games. Ironically, that's when we can re-make our world for real. Metaphorically, we can re-introduce DDT to the pests of our culture and civilization.
I think anonymous is bringing the sweet tea this evening. Stick around. Share your own rant with us!!
Although it begs to be mentioned: a high school diploma once required the demonstrated ability to read and understand his wisdom as well as other geniuses from the distant past. Now we know old people and dead people are...passe'. :) Our children are smarter. But I digress. At least I got it over with so I won't be doing the digression from identifiable subject matter!!
Without William's historical perspective, we could be thinking that the attempt to change perceptions by changing the words we use to identify them was invented by Madison Avenue, or current day tinhorn politicians and academicians. Did I say 'tinhorn'? Tells you how old I am...I think 'tinhorn' has been replaced by 'esteemed.' So much for the life cycle of a word...soon to be 2 words....
So here's the question, more crudely put: does calling a turd a magnolia blossom make the stink go away? No? So far so good. And you see where I'm going. Welcome to today's rant!
Is shit Shinola if we say it is? Would you polish your shoes with it? Apparently there's a swarm of elitist bastards out there who think if they can get you to accept a change of nomenclature, they can continue keeping you under their thumb and kissing their toes for it.
It pleases me to see the comeuppance of the language counterfeiters has arrived. Think about it.
If being patriotic and productive and wanting to make your own choices makes you a racist, then do you really care nowadays if you're called a racist?
If being older, non-violent, and cleaning up after yourself makes you a hater, do you change your behaviour?
If you have more widgets than your neighbor, does that mean you're a thief?
If ignorance of history, fundamental economics, logic and critical thinking mean you're 'educated', does it really bother you to be called Homer Simpson? Should you spend $500K+++ and 4-10 years of your life getting your certification that you are amongst those ignoranti?
If feeding , caring for, and educating your own family is 'dangerous' to The State', then do you turn the welfare of your family over to these reptiles?
Now don't get me started on nonPC stuff about race(if we call ourselves by another name every 15 years, we won't be stereotyped by prior behaviour---unless we're white or Oriental)), gender((if I'm the same as what I'm not(!), when convenient, then I can demand the results of what I'm not)) ethnicity(If I say I'm part of a religion, you must respect my intent to live next to you until I choose to remove your head), intelligence(if I'm not as smart in a given area as someone else,but we change my name from idiot, to moron, to imbecile, to retard to 'cognitively challenged',we can...can..what?) ...figure those out yourselves so I won't go to jail. As soon.
If 'freedom' is 'slavery', is slavery desirable?
I think we've reached a point where there's a bunch of us choosing not to flee reality and remaking the world to our liking by playing word games. Ironically, that's when we can re-make our world for real. Metaphorically, we can re-introduce DDT to the pests of our culture and civilization.
I think anonymous is bringing the sweet tea this evening. Stick around. Share your own rant with us!!
Friday, October 1, 2010
"...the most bizarre, morbidly ironic New Years Eve 'Going Out of Business' sale ever!
Get ready for the Mother of All 'Going Out of Business' Sales this December!!
This is going to be huge. Unprecedented. Historic. Great for certain niche businesses---funeral homes for instance!
With the sunset of the law protecting folks from losing 55% of their inheritance to 'Estate Taxes', untold thousands of folks will be jamming the turnstiles to die before January 1, 2011.
Talk about chaos, hysteria. This could well be history's most epic mass suicide! Not surprisingly, the 'experts' in the media and government will BE surprised. There will be lines, waiting lists, people literally dying to die in the streets!
What?
Yesterday, while musing over something else equally ridiculous, I got to thinking about how godawful expensive our 'protectors' plan to make dying in 2011.
Correct me if wrong, but I recall the estate tax ('death tax' to greedy conservatives and other social anomalies) will go from 0% December 31, 2010, to an astounding, 'only Nancy Pelosi could think this was sane', 55% on Januray1, 2011.
Now, for those of us who've had a whiff of this type of confiscatorial robbery coming, we're fortunate enough (maybe) to have removed ourselves from owning stuff that the state knows about. How much do you keep in YOUR checking account? "Own" your own home?
But, what about the majority of that fleeced minority: productive Americans? The unaware will be toasting in the New Year having seen 55% of their post-mortem net worth go poof into the coffers of Unions, third world countries, and the funding of air fleets fo US politicians looking to limit YOUR carbon footprint.
Contemplating the 'unforseen' consequences of this, I came onto the realization that December would be a great month to be in the funeral, cemetery and cremation business. Those folks will be the 'unexpected' beneficiaries. Occurs to me there will doubtlessly be a federal 'windfall tax' on these folks for their 'unearned' good fortunes, even as the December business is being pulled from the first quarter of 2011.
To foresee this coming, all I had to do was put myself in the position of someone with means, who has their own priorities for the use of their after-death resources: their own families, friends, charities, favorite causes, etc. If I were anyone remotely within the crack of death's door, I'd make DAMNED SURE I croaked while I could have a say in the disposition of things that I've earned. And, I'd make DAMNED SURE, as best as I could, that none of that treasure fell into the hands of those who would redistribute it to the likes of ACORN, SEIU, 3rd World hooligans, and other ne'er- do-wells worldwide who need, less than anything, more props to keep them dependent.
I would stop taking my medicine, disconnect from any life extention machinery, and, if necessary, have it arranged for me to fall down 18 flights of stairs. And I'm a coward!
So get ready. It's going to be the most bizarre, morbidly ironic New Years Eve 'Going Out of Business' sale ever!
(C) Jack Greene, Oct. 1, 2010
This is going to be huge. Unprecedented. Historic. Great for certain niche businesses---funeral homes for instance!
With the sunset of the law protecting folks from losing 55% of their inheritance to 'Estate Taxes', untold thousands of folks will be jamming the turnstiles to die before January 1, 2011.
Talk about chaos, hysteria. This could well be history's most epic mass suicide! Not surprisingly, the 'experts' in the media and government will BE surprised. There will be lines, waiting lists, people literally dying to die in the streets!
What?
Yesterday, while musing over something else equally ridiculous, I got to thinking about how godawful expensive our 'protectors' plan to make dying in 2011.
Correct me if wrong, but I recall the estate tax ('death tax' to greedy conservatives and other social anomalies) will go from 0% December 31, 2010, to an astounding, 'only Nancy Pelosi could think this was sane', 55% on Januray1, 2011.
Now, for those of us who've had a whiff of this type of confiscatorial robbery coming, we're fortunate enough (maybe) to have removed ourselves from owning stuff that the state knows about. How much do you keep in YOUR checking account? "Own" your own home?
But, what about the majority of that fleeced minority: productive Americans? The unaware will be toasting in the New Year having seen 55% of their post-mortem net worth go poof into the coffers of Unions, third world countries, and the funding of air fleets fo US politicians looking to limit YOUR carbon footprint.
Contemplating the 'unforseen' consequences of this, I came onto the realization that December would be a great month to be in the funeral, cemetery and cremation business. Those folks will be the 'unexpected' beneficiaries. Occurs to me there will doubtlessly be a federal 'windfall tax' on these folks for their 'unearned' good fortunes, even as the December business is being pulled from the first quarter of 2011.
To foresee this coming, all I had to do was put myself in the position of someone with means, who has their own priorities for the use of their after-death resources: their own families, friends, charities, favorite causes, etc. If I were anyone remotely within the crack of death's door, I'd make DAMNED SURE I croaked while I could have a say in the disposition of things that I've earned. And, I'd make DAMNED SURE, as best as I could, that none of that treasure fell into the hands of those who would redistribute it to the likes of ACORN, SEIU, 3rd World hooligans, and other ne'er- do-wells worldwide who need, less than anything, more props to keep them dependent.
I would stop taking my medicine, disconnect from any life extention machinery, and, if necessary, have it arranged for me to fall down 18 flights of stairs. And I'm a coward!
So get ready. It's going to be the most bizarre, morbidly ironic New Years Eve 'Going Out of Business' sale ever!
(C) Jack Greene, Oct. 1, 2010
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