Concerning a Second American Revolution

May God forbid either another American Revolution or another American Civil War. The Civil War was fought over secession, and I have already expressed my views (at LinkedIn.com) on that, so I will not opine further here on that matter.

As to a second American Revolution, Thomas Jefferson warned us that it may be necessary to have a revolution every 200 years or so, just to set government again on a sound footing. Here, however, is the danger: This is NOT 1776 and we will never again, in this nation, have group of people like the colonists (many of whom had experience tyranny and oppression first-hand) nor such staid leadership as was present in our Founding Fathers. I cannot imagine what an ill wind might arise were we to take men of power and influence today and ask them to construct for us an entirely new Constitution.

You must remember, if one were to start an armed rebellion, we would not be supporting our nation and our Constitution, for even though many in the battle might hold to the ideals expressed in our present Constitution, it would be necessary to violently overthrow the existing government and establish an new one. That is the nature of violent revolution.

We have a method for changing our government in a non-violent way. You and I have forsaken that way through our own idleness and indolence, through self-serving and an unwillingness to fight the fight for liberty EVERY DAY instead of just when things "get too bad."

Plato warned us millennia ago that for preservation of a republic there are ONLY TWO IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:

1. WHO gets to teach the children, and

2. WHAT do they teach them.

More than an hundred years ago, the American citizenry decided that state-run schools were an acceptable solution for the education of our children. Despite warnings to the contrary, the vast majority of citizens took the path of least resistance and surrendered their children to COMPULSORY MIS-EDUCATION promulgated first by the states, and then, ultimately (under Jimmy Carter), by the federal Department of Education.

When our children are educated by the state, what in your wildest imagination makes you believe that these children will not ultimately be conformed to believe that the government is the solution to EVERY PROBLEM?

This has gone on for so long now that even our colleges of education are wholly contaminated by this philosophy. Almost every new teacher and administrator comes into the state-run school system fully saturated with nothing but foolishness about government, economics, politics, the environment and more.

This present generation in the U.S. has never KNOWN tyranny, never FOUGHT AGAINST tyranny, never really STOOD UP for anything much more than their own SELF-SATISFACTION. (Sometimes that self-satisfaction involves making themselves feel better by "standing up for the poor" or "hugging a tree," but, in the end, it is self-satisfaction.) That's why it is much simpler to establish a solid constitution, a new government, free markets and a sound monetary policy in places like the Czech Republic today than it is to do the same thing here in the U.S. The people in the Czech Republic -- most of them -- experienced 40 years of oppression and tyranny and they know what they DON'T WANT again! Many in the U.S. electorate that voted for Obama, on the other hand, considered their vote of no more significance than casting a vote for their favorite on "American Idol."

I believe there is a way back. I have written an article that describes that way. It is available here.

Thanks.

Thoughts Worth Recalling

1.
In my many years I have come to a conclusion
that one useless man is a shame,
two is a law firm
and three or more is a congress.
-- John Adams

2.
If you don't read the newspaper
you are uninformed,
if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.
-- Mark Twain

3..
Suppose you were an idiot.
And suppose you were a member of Congress.
But then I repeat myself.
-- Mark Twain

4..
I contend that for a nation
to try to tax itself into prosperity
is like a man standing in a bucket
and trying to lift himself up by the handle .
-- Winston Churchill

5..
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul
can always depend on the support of Paul.
-- George Bernard Shaw

6..
A liberal is someone
who feels a great debt to his fellow man,
which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
-- G. Gordon Liddy

7..
Democracy must be something more
than two wolves and a sheep
voting on what to have for dinner.
-- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

8..
Foreign aid might be defined
as a transfer of money
from poor people in rich countries
to rich people in poor countries.
-- Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

9..
Giving money and power to government
is like giving whiskey and car keys
to teenage boys.
-- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

10.
Government is the great fiction,
through which everybody endeavors
to live at the expense of everybody else.
-- Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

11.
Government's view of the economy
could be summed up in a few short phrases:
If it moves, tax it.
If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
-- Ronald Reagan (1986)

12.
I don't make jokes.
I just watch the government
and report the facts.
-- Will Rogers

13.
If yo u think health care is expensive now,
wait until you see what it costs when it's free!
-- P.J. O'Rourke

14.
In general,
the art of government
consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens
to give to the other.
-- Voltaire (1764)

15.
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics
won't take an interest in you!
-- Pericles (430 B.C.)

16.
No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in
session.
-- Mark Twain (1866)

17.
Talk is cheap...
except when Congress does it.
-- Anonymous

18.
The government is like
a baby's alimentary canal,
with a happy appetite at one end
and no responsibility at the other.
-- Ronald Reagan

19.
The inherent vice of capitalism
is the unequal sharing of the blessings.
The inherent blessing of socialism
is the equal sharing of misery.
-- Winston Churchill

20.
The only difference between a tax man
and a taxidermist
is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
-- Mark Twain

21.
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill
the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

22.
There is no distinctly native American
criminal class...
save Congress.
-- Mark Twain

23.
What this country needs
are more unemployed politicians.
-- Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)

24.
A government big enough
to give you everything you want,
is strong enough
to take everything you have.
-- Thomas Jefferson


[From my friend and colleague, Dan Smith.]

Political cartoon from Chicago Tribune (1934)

In Opposition to the DHS Report Against 'Rightwing Extremists'

Here's a message I just sent to many in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate in reaction against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report regarding "rightwing extremists."

OPPOSE the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report that labels citizens opposed to new firearms and ammunition restrictions, returning veterans and other conservatives as "rightwing extremists" and associates them with white supremacists and violent anti-government groups. This is none other than a blatant attempt by DHS director Napolitano and the Obama administration to silence political dissent and other liberties granted under the U.S. Constitution.

AS A SWORN SUPPORTER AND DEFENDER OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION, YOU SHOULD CONDEMN THIS KIND OF RHETORIC BY THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION WITH A LOUD VOICE.

Obama's recent trip to Mexico City and recent Congressional debates make it appear that Congress and the Obama administration are MORE CONCERNED about Mexico and the SOUTHERN border of Mexico than they are about SECURING OUR OWN U.S. BORDERS, PROTECTING THE SANCTITY OF THE U.S. CITIZENS' (NOT illegal aliens') RIGHT TO FAIR AND HONEST ELECTIONS (NOT elections intentionally diluted by massive abuse and fraud), and OUR RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS.

It also appears that the Obama administration is far more prepared to LIMIT THE RIGHTS OF U.S. CITIZENS in the name of "homeland security" than they are prepared to stand against ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS or the foolishness of ENVIRONMENTAL EXTREMISTS. In fact, the Obama administration and FAR TOO MUCH OF CONGRESS appears to be populated with those who have SOLD THEMSELVES OUT to ENVIRONMENTAL PSEUDO-SCIENCE as an excuse of all manner of violations of STATES' RIGHTS, FREE MARKETS, LIMITED GOVERNMENT or even SOUND MONETARY POLICY.

GIRD YOURSELVES UP AND TAKE A STAND FOR THE U.S. CONSTITUTION by CONDEMNING SUCH ACTIONS BY FELLOW MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, THE FEDERAL COURTS or THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.

What are YOU going to tell them? Something, I hope!

Please listen to the WARNINGS!

Here's a message I just sent to many members of Congress:

Recently, an essay published by the governor of the People's Bank of China appeared to favor the creation of an IMF currency to replace the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency. This, of course, is a tragic sign as the U.S. has been the safe haven for investors from around the world for the greater part of the last century.

In Europe, the outgoing president of the European Union, the Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, described America's current plan to fight the widening global recession as the "road to hell." Then British Member of the European Parliament Daniel Hannan made worldwide news headlines by rebuking the UK's own inflationary and debt-focused policies.

Meanwhile, Pres'ent Obama's administration carried on an effective public relations campaign to convince the U.S. citizenry and the rest of the world that if the world just worked together, everything would be "okay" -- even if they worked together mostly doing the WRONG things. That seemed to pretty much put most everyone back to sleep.

The Washington drumbeat is that our economic woes result from a lack of consumer spending. Therefore, Pres'ent Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress seem intent on making up for all the U.S. citizens by spending money the government does not have. It hardly seems reasonable that the cure for the sick man's disease is to drain blood from his leg while trying to inject it back in his arm.

To postpone inevitable (formal) tax increases, it seems the Obama administration is content with a strategy of printing money. Of course, printing money is just another form of taxation. Rather than taking money out of the citizens' pockets, the administration is satisfied with simply robbing the currency itself of its purchasing power.

The things that are lacking in the current worldwide recession are PRODUCTION and CAPITAL (trillions of dollars of capital having been destroyed in the bursting of the "bubble"). It is PRODUCTION, not spending, that will building capital and restore purchasing power -- not the printing of currency that is ever more diluted in value. Besides, if the government simply prints more money, it won't allow Americans to buy more things because the things. They will just be able to buy less stuff at higher prices.

Obama's economic advisers seem to have convinced themselves -- and Congress -- that more debt and government spending will restore growth and ultimately allow the repayment of the huge debt. However, when all of the entitlement obligations come due over the next decade (i.e., Social Security, Medicare and other welfare), these obligations will amount to TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS and the federal government will have NO ALTERNATIVE but to repudiate much of the debt (perhaps through hyper-inflation as other nations have done).

But, even if that were not true, Pres'ent Obama's assumption that additional borrowing and spending will restore growth is wrong on the face of it. IN FACT, MORE CONSUMER DEBT AND GOVERNMENT SPENDING WILL UNDERMINE OUR ECONOMY AND KEEP IT FROM GROWING. We borrowed and spent ourselves INTO this current situation. We must now SAVE AND PRODUCE ourselves OUT of the recession.

However, as long as the Pres'ent Obama administration and Congress are intent on propping up the FALSE ECONOMY, rather than letting it COLLAPSE, their CAN BE NO REBUILDING of a GENUINE ECONOMY.

Calls from other nations that actually see things clearer than do we will simply get LOUDER AND LOUDER until we are willing to FACE THE UGLY TRUTH.

What are YOU going to tell them?

Keep the Internet Free and Open

Here's a message I just sent to many Republican senators:

Keep the Internet free of government controls and manipulation by which those of such a mind might conceal from the American electorate the workings of the government or their agenda. Remind this administration that Obama promised "MORE TRANSPARENCY," not more manipulation and obfuscation. The Internet does NOT belong to the government, it belongs to the people.

KEEP THE INTERNET OPEN AND FREE. DO NOT LET LEFTISTS IN GOVERNMENT TAKE CONTROL OF YET ANOTHER MODE OF COMMUNICATIONS AMONGST A FREE CITIZENRY.

Thank you.

Oppose Senate Bill Nos. 773 and 778. Write to your Senators, too.