I Didn't Do My Fact Check, But...

Common Metrics of Prosperity January 2009 January 2011 % chg Source Avg. Retail price/gallon gas in U.S. $1.83 $3.95 115.8% 1 Crude oil, European Brent (bbl) $43.48 $99.02 127.7% 2 Crude oil, West TX Inter. (bbl) $38.74 $91.38 135.9% 2 Gold (oz. troy) $853.25 $1,504.50 90.5% 2 Corn $3.56 $6.33 78.1% 2 Soybeans $9.66 $13.75 42.3% 2 Sugar $13.37 $35.39 164.7% 2 Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall 7.6% 9.4% 23.7% 3 Unemployment rate, blacks 12.6% 15.8% 25.4% 3 Number of unemployed 11,616,000 14,485,000 24.7% 3 Number of federal Employees 2,779,000 2,840,000 2.2% 3 Real median household income $50,112 $49,777 -0.7% 4 Number of food stamp recipients 31,983,716 43,200,878 35.1% 5 Number of unemployment benefit recipients 7,526,598 9,193,838 22.2% 6 Number of long-term unemployed 2,600,000 6,400,000 146.2% 3 Poverty rate, individuals 13.2% 14.3% 8.3% 4 People in poverty in U.S. 39,800,000 43,600,000 9.5% 4 U.S. Rank v. World in Economic Freedom 5 9 -80% 10 Present Situation Index 29.9 23.5 -21.4% 11 Failed banks (in past 12 months) 140 164 17.1% 12 U.S.. Dollar v. Japanese yen exchange rate 89.76 82.03 -8.6% 2 U.S.. Money supply, M1, in billions 1,575.1 1,865.7 18.4% 13 U.S.. Money supply, M2, in billions 8,310.9 8,852.3 6.5% 13 National debt, in trillions $10.627 $14.052 32.2% 14 Just take this last item: In the last two years we have accumulated national debt more than 27 times faster than during the previous 233 years of our national history.

Metaphorically speaking, if you were driving in the right lane doing 65 mph and a car passed you going 27 times faster, it would be doing 1,755 mph!

Sources:
(1) U.S. Energy Information Administration; (2) Wall Street Journal; (3)Bureau of Labor Statistics; (4) Census Bureau; (5) USDA; (6) U.S. Dept. Of Labor; (7) FHFA; (8) Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller; (9) RealtyTrac; (10)Heritage Foundation and WSJ; (11) The Conference Board; (12) FDIC; (13)Federal Reserve; (14) U.S. Treasury

My Mother's Memories...

My mother is descending into that shadowy valley of Alzheimer's Dementia.  For the past 15 years she's had "trouble remembering" some things.  In the past 10 years it's become apparent that something is definitely wrong.  And in the past 2 years I've seen her "forget" who I am, where we are, and what we're doing.  And then, in an instant the confusion clears and she's overwhelmed with embarassment and shame.

When we talk on the phone she sometimes doesn't connect me with my family - my wife and children.  Her memories are highly emotional and often are complete fabrications of the mind.  Her illness at first made some of us angry.  We thought she was faking memory loss to avoid taking responsibility for things.  My brother, Paul, died believing that she was playing a game of "convenient amnesia." 

I wondered, but now I'm convinced he and I were mistaken.

One of the dearest women in the world has been a friend to my mom for 40 years.  Now she spends Fridays talking with my mom.  She asks her to tell stories, prods her with questions, records the interview and has transcribed some of them.

I'll put one of them here, with my input in (parenthesis).

"My father (Jack Frampton) grew up in Los Angeles, in the city of Los Angeles.   They were poor people and lived in a small house.  His dad left the family and so my grandmother is the one who brought the children up all by herself. 

(My grandfather used to meet his dad, Eugene Frampton, at the end of each work day.  Jack would run to the streetcar stop where his dad got off and they would walk home together.  One day when Jack was 10 years old he ran to meet his father, and his father never got off the streetcar.  He left no note, no reason and no support for his family.  Years later, Jack's children heard a rumor that they never verified - that Eugene had moved to San Francisco and started a new family there.) 

"She was a schoolteacher though, and she was very bright.  My dad had a younger brother who was killed in World War II – Douglas was his name, Douglas Frampton.  That hurt the family a lot but I guess they got over it.  I never heard the thing explained but I didn’t hear of them being sad about it.  

(Douglas Frampton was lost at sea while flying in a bomber over the South Pacific.  His body was never recovered.  Among his personal effects was a leather bomber jacket with his name inside that my grandfather kept.  His children loved to wear it.)  

"My dad’s sister was married to a really, really nice gentleman – a very intelligent man – and so my dad and Iris’ husband were good friends.  They talked a lot together, those two.  They were the around the same age.  So that was how my dad’s family grew up.  They were in Los Angeles.

"My father never even finished high school but he always could work and he liked his jobs.   When my dad got out of school he got a job to depend on, money wise.      He joined the military (United States Marine Corps) when he was about seventeen – I can’t remember what level he was at.  He probably stayed in for four years.

(He served abord a Navy ship in the Pacific before the Second World War.  He got hookworm walking barefoot on the beach in Guam.  While on board ship, Jack attended Protestant worship services and learned the hymn "Let The Lower Lights Be Burning," which became his favorite song.) 

"Before the children came along I’m not sure where he worked.  He was a carpenter and in the military he built things.  That was right in Long Beach.

"When he was older, he came home from work and he just sat in the kitchen in a chair and had us kids running around.  It was wonderful, just wonderful.  There were six of us kids, very close in age.  We just loved being near him.  I never really asked him about what things were like though he liked to tell us stories about what he had done.

"He was twenty-four years old when he married.  I’m not sure where he lived when he met my mother.   They met one evening in a – I would call it a saloon now – but it was where they came and had a drink and talked.  Wow – they both liked each other, so that was the beginning of their life together and about six or seven weeks later they married.

"My mother was twenty–six.  She was two years older than my father and he thought she was beautiful and I think my mother felt the same way about my dad.  She thought he was very handsome.  I have the pictures of their wedding – nothing very fancy.  My dad wore a tie and a coat.  They were very, very happy all those years. 

"My mother came from (Remsen,) Iowa – that’s where her roots are. She was maybe twenty or twenty-one and she needed to get some money. She also had asthma. Asthma bothered her chest all the time and so her folks, who were on the farm in Iowa, they said, “Marion, you’d better go out to California where the air is better for what you have.”  So that’s what she did. She went into these homes and they brought her in, gave her a room and board and she was the one who cooked all the food to eat.  She was not the maid.  The families were very pleased with my mother’s food.  They thought she was a very, very good cook.  So she did that all those years.

"When my mom and dad went out on a trip in the car that was their opportunity to go out by themselves.  Then they finally got married and then started their family.  It was bing, bing, bing – six kids after about eight years.  (John, Mary, Anne, Douglas, Peter, and Donald)  It was good.  My mother worked after she was married but not after the babies came.  I never asked her, but she was a teacher too and maybe she quit when the children came.  I never paid much attention to that.

"My dad had work down on the ocean and so they moved to Long Beach into a one- bedroom house.  They had four babies in that small home until they got a new house.  They saved up enough money to get a house with three bedrooms about three miles north of the water in Long Beach.  So they got that larger house and I was in a good school district and we all went to a Catholic school that my mother wanted us to be in.  My mother was Catholic – very much so.  My dad – he was a very good man – just had no faith.  But we all went to a Catholic school about a block from our own house.  All of us kids went to that school all those years.  We were there for eight years."

Machiavelli and The Welfare State...

In the early 1500s, Niccolo Machiavelli lived and wrote in Italy. One of his best-known works is "The Prince" in which he undertakes to advise the "Magnificent Lorenzo Di Piero De Medici" on how to govern his newly found principalities.

Reading this has enlightened me to the reasons for the behaviors of some of the people for whom I have worked, and with whom I have associated in the past.

Today, though, I would like to draw your attention to a sentence that struck me as I read.

I have long said that the reason liberals or statists have such an infatuation with creating and maintaining a dependent class of citizens via welfare programs and expansion of the government payroll is to solidify and secure a bloc of votes.

Compassion, the greater good, and general welfare are the declared reasons for the statist's generosity with other people's money.

Here we see the lie in that assertion. Since at least the 16th century, tyrants and would-be dictators have heeded the axiom outlined by Machiavelli. I quote it below.

"Therefore a wise prince ought to adopt such a course that his citizens will always in every sort and kind of circumstance have need of the state and of him, and then he will always find them faithful."

We must, as Americans, refuse two things. We must refuse to cede any of our individual liberties to the State. And we must refuse to allow the State to take or accept any more personal responsibility from us or our fellow citizens. Programs that are designed or that can be used to perpetuate the personal abdication of our responsibilities must be abolished or reformed.

Much like narcotics used as pain medication, welfare programs are excellent means to get individuals through a low spot in life. However, they are addictive and can become the master and make the addict a slave. Even worse, once addicted to the drug, one is liable to give any or all of his liberties to the drug dealer.

In today's America, we have statist law makers - most of them affiliate themselves with the Democrat party, but many are Republicans - who play the part of the dealer and make entire groups of people their junkies. And when one attempts, as Newt Gingrich did, to point out the supreme offensiveness of a system that encourages and rewards indolence to the point that a portion of our population is NOT AWARE that an alternative called "honest work" exists, the cries of "racist" and "bigot" are deafening.

We will not, today, shout down the statist media. But in our private conversations, in our replies to questions, in our own outlets, let us quietly, confidently and relentlessly speak the reasoned and plain truth. We are creatures designed by a God and given by our very natures the means and the faculties to experience happiness in life and realize joy in filling the purposes of our creation. As such, the proper role of government is to protect God-given liberties and prevent injustice. Any action by government that infringes on liberties or imposes injustice on one - even in the interest of helping another - or seeks to remove personal responsibility from its citizens is patently offensive to Nature and Nature's God.

And it ought to be offensive to every person - and especially every American.

What I Wish They Were Saying...

Here's what I wish I were hearing candidates running for president saying this year:

"My approach to leading this nation from our current crises and into sustainable prosperity is three-fold.  First, I will focus on foreign policy and freeing us from dangerous entanglements around the globe.  Second, I will focus on an energy policy that will both promote American energy independence and prepare the nation to use fewer non-renewable resources.  And third, I will focus on the specific areas of bureaucracy, policy and regulation that inhibit growth of jobs in the private sector and will encourage Congress to review and revise legislation that does the same.

"Our foreign policy will be made with only these purposes in view:  To promote the sovereignty and security of the United States of America.  I will not entertain treaties or organizations whose objectives or views are contrary to those two principles.  Arms reduction treaties which give advantage to another nation or which may embolden an enemy will not be considered.  Participation in conclaves or summits which have as a purpose to debase one nation in order to yield a perceived benefit to another is out of the question.  The sovereign debt of the United States of America must not be sold to our enemies.  We must not put ourselves in a subordinate or indentured position relative to those nations whose ideals are antithetical to the American Ideal.  Our relationships with other nations will be conducted with the express goal of defending the Constitution and the Nation from all destructive forces.

"Our energy policy is closely related to our foreign policy.  In order to be free to be an actor, and not simply a reactor, on the international stage, we must be free from dependence on others.  We must be free from financial dependence, and we must be free from energy dependence.  The United States of America has tremendous natural advantages, including access to unimaginable reserves of natural resources such as oil, coal, water, sun, wind and timber.  The mineral deposits found on our soil are among the richest and most diverse of any nation in the world.  We will exploit the oil and natural gas reserves we have by using extraction techniques which minimize both the surface footprint of the operations and the impact to water, air and wildlife.  While doing this, we will develop the technologies required to efficiently and effectively capture wind and solar energy, as well as develop the next generation of safer, cleaner, scaleable nuclear energy.  We will pursue this with the same intensity and zeal that those before us enjoyed while racing to the moon.  Energy research will be based on science, and not be driven by environmental, political or other agendas.  Funding for this research will be modest, but adequate.  Private companies will not have access to research money, but will have access to technology developed in government labs.  We will, by 2025, be a country that imports less than 2% of the energy it consumes. 

"Since 1787 the size and scope of federal government has steadily outgrown the constraints placed on it by the Constitution.  In many cases federal agencies and departments have no foundation in anthing remotely resembling the Constitution.  During my administration the Department of Justice, assisted by the Supreme Court, will review each federal agency and assess the Constitutional mandate for its existence.  Agencies and organizations found to have no Constitutional basis will be dissolved at the end of the fiscal year in which their baselessness was discovered.  At the same time, the Department of Treasury will be assisted by the Government Accountability Office in evaluating the programs and budgets of those agencies clearly authorized by the Constitution.  They will identify expenditures that are misaligned with either the mission of the agency or the mandate of the Constitution and will recommend both structural and financial adjustments.  Where multiple agencies perform similar or identical duties, redundancies will be eliminated.  In four years I will have reduced the budget of the executive branch of the United States government 50%.  The United States of America will no longer borrow its 'operating capital.'  Where federal agencies have imposed regulations on business and industry, the Department of Treasury will assess the adverse impact of those regulations, as well as weigh the real benefit to society of each.  Those regulations found to be unreasonable, unconscionable or unfounded in the Constitution will be removed.  Where regulations, though burdensome, exist but are beneficial to society or national security, the reason for not removing them will be clearly and plainly articulated by the heads of those agencies.  By the end of my first term, American business will be unshackled and America will indeed be 'open for business.'

"This is my plan and my platform.  I thank you for your support in 2012."

There Is A Lie...

There is a lie that is told and believed by many who simply don't understand.

One of its most common forms is in the platitude meant to give that uniquely bitter comfort to the disappointed.  A worker who, in his own estimation, has done an outstanding job for years now finds himself on the outs with his employer.  As he leaves the office for the last time he thinks, "They'll be sorry when I'm gone." 

That night at the bar, an older, more experienced friend hears the phrase repeated, "They'll be sorry when I'm gone."  And in a perverse attempt to wake the young man from his fantasy of the company's implosion upon realizing that their star performer has left the building, he says, "You want to know how much you'll be missed?  Fill a bucket with water, then stick your fist in.  When you pull it out, measure the hole it leaves.  That's how much you'll be missed."

The idea is that no one is missed.  Because no one is important.  And nothing they do is meaningful.

While it is true that all of us can be replaced functionally, it is equally true that all of us leave indellible marks in the lives and hearts of those we meet, work with and live with. 

Surely our employers can find other accountants, agents, managers.  Our spouses can even find new husbands or wives; our children can be adopted by other parents.  Functionally we are interchangeable with many others.

What we do, how we treat people, and the marks we leave on the souls of those around us cannot be duplicated.  Kindness to a child or an old person.  Generosity to a stranger.  Forgiveness to a spouse.  Thoughtfulness to a friend.  A listening ear.  A gentle smile.  A cheerful greeting.  A warm embrace.  A soft kiss.  A soothing touch.  A word of honest encouragement.  These are the things that leave a mark on the soul of another.  And on our soul we receive a reciprocal mark.  A wear mark, to be certain; but a wear mark that upon contemplation evokes the deepest sensation of warmest joy. 

So when we are tempted to believe that we don't matter, or that what we do is not important, let us drive that deceitful thought out of our minds.  We do matter.  What we do is important.  The ripple of our presence expands eternally and if we are deliberate it can expand for eternal good.

Thoughts on South Africa, Liberalism, and Hand Outs...

We have a monthly book club in our home. Our group is fairly diverse, and we try to read significant literature (ergo, we avoid the Oprah Winfrey Book List!). We recently read and discussed John Carlin's book, "Playing the Enemy", which describes the 10 years between Nelson Mandela's release from prison and his retirement from the Presidency of South Africa.

The world was so caught up in the end of a wrong - but effective - system of government called 'apartheid' that they completely ignored what any student of post-colonial Africa saw coming as soon as the world gave credence to the ANC. I remember even as a young man, I feared for the white Africans, the boer or Afrikaner, because of the retribution that I knew would come when the African socialists came to power.

Did Nelson Mandela play a key part in ending apartheid? Certainly. Was he also a socialist terrorist responsible for thousands on thousands of black and white African deaths? Absolutely.

Support for the ANC and Mandela then and now comes down to the old addage, "If the ends justify the means, then the means must be just." This is simply not so. Ends cannot and will never justify means of any type. Means must be just in themselves.

The outcome of the South African Socialist experience remains to be seen, but to date the fruit of the ANC is bitter indeed. It cannot be argued by any reasonable person that South Africa is, as a nation or as a people, better off today than they were in 1986. Their economy is in shambles. Their society has disintegrated. The crime rate - especially the violent crime rate - has soared. And the immense volume of scenes of cruelty and wholesale barbarism make any snapshot from the apartheid era look tame.

I don't support apartheid in any way, but I believe that revolution without a well-considered direction and outcome will always lead to tyranny more brutal than the one it replaces.

This book was a reminder that we have friends in Zimbabwe from whom we have not heard in years. They are - or were - white farmers. When they were first married we got photos of their idyllic citrus groves and cropland. As time went on, pictures were fewer and signs of stress showed in their messages. Now, I believe they are dead.

I guess that reading put me to thinking about Kipling's oft-maligned poem, "The White Man's Burden". It's a sad reflection on the price a colonial power pays in blood and treasure in trying to better the world, and the thanks it receives in the end.

The White Man’s Burden
by Rudyard Kipling

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

Take up the White Man's burden--
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper--
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.

Take up the White Man's burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up the White Man's burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.

Take up the White Man's burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!

For those interested in the state of South Africa today, I invite you not to miss this website in your research. It - like South Africa - is disturbing.

www.genocidewatch.org/southafrica.html

Now for some thoughts on this poem.

Many – especially liberals – find this poem jarring in its patriarchal approach to indigenous peoples living in lands colonized by European powers.

It certainly reads like an ode to soft tyranny. Or to benevolent dictatorship.

But how does it read when we say, “Take up the Socialist’s burden--”?

Or, “Take up the Progressive’s burden--”?

Or, “Take up the Enlightened and Understanding Person’s burden—“?

Now we are not talking of saving people of a different skin color. We are talking of “saving” people of a different ideology – people whose ideas of individualism or personal liberty are remnants of a dark and distant time from which, although he does not now know it, the Conservative longs to be liberated.

I think that the guilty white liberals who hate this poem are simply not reading it in the proper light. Indeed, this poem should be the anthem to all those would-be masterminds who are so much smarter than the average person.

And to the Conservative it should be a sobering warning that those not willing to invest in their own liberty and well being will never appreciate something handed to them on a plate. They will take it from you.

And they will hate you for it.

They may not understand why they hate you, but they hate you for taking away their humanity; for taking away their dignity; for making them dependent; for your condescending benevolence; for your plunder of others in their behalf.

An Appeal To The State of Arizona...

To State Officials in Arizona:

I implore you to immediately cease the racist practices and policies that infringe disproportionately upon the basic rights of Americans of historical minority heritage who live within the borders of the State of Arizona. Reverse this racist and inflammatory legislation immediately.

By your racist and xenophobic laws you deprive minorities of all backgrounds - and indeed of all ages - of the Right to the Pursuit of Happiness. You seek to marginalize and stigmatize the underprivileged while, at the same time, ensuring that white people are free to enjoy the Pursuit by virtue of their privileged status.

Your bigoted law disenfranchises MILLIONS of your citizens and especially has a negative impact on immigrants, women and children. It is a well-established FACT that these most valuable contributors to our society CANNOT, due to expense, travel restrictions, or onerous documentation requirements, obtain valid state issued identification. Further, it is well-established that white people receive discounted rates, travel benefits and assistance, reduced waiting times, and are not required to show the same set of identifying documents as minorities when they visit the Motor Vehicle Department or the Social Security office.

I issue a call most serious and solemn to repeal the state law requiring state issued identification in order to purchase alcoholic beverages. This law prevents thousands upon thousands of minorities in Arizona from purchasing these products, and thus enjoying the recreational opportunities so freely available to whites in their communities.

Among our founding documents, the Right to the Pursuit of Happiness is mentioned BEFORE the right to bear arms, the right of privacy, and even the right to VOTE! If, as so many reasonable voices in politics today point out, requiring positive, state issued identification at polling places is a violation of our country's constitution, then Arizona's alcohol ID laws must necessarily be the same.

Strike them down! Repent of your persecution of the immigrant! Cease to repress children in their formative years! At last, free the slave! ALL must be equal in their opportunity to pursue the happiness envisioned by our founding fathers - the happiness unique to America.

A Russian Wink and a Nod...

This is a conversation that REALLY took place between President Obama and President Medvedev, of Russia recently.

Obama: "On all of these issues, but particularly on missile defense, this, this can be solved, but it's important for him [referring to Vladimir Putin] to give me space."

Medvedev: "Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you."

Obama: "This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility."

Medvedev: "I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir. I support you."

Why do you suppose that President Obama, leader of the free world, is begging the prime minister of Russia, a second-rate post-communist wasteland, for "space" on the issue of missile defense - and "all these issues", too?

Is President Obama really planning to cede so much of our national security and sovereignty to the former Soviet Union that even his loyal base would revolt?

His cavalier response to questions about his statements has included his assertion that he's not "hiding the ball". And he's right. Mr. Obama has been very transparent about the types of "change" he wants to bring to America. His lap dogs in the media have simply chosen to mislead the voting public by failing to inform them of Mr. Obama's prior statements.

Single-payer national healthcare, back-breaking energy prices, a diminished role on the world stage, withdrawal from Middle Eastern conflicts regardless of the outcome, allowing the terrorist state of Iran access to atomic materials, weakening the US military, and abandoning allies are all things the President wanted to achieve before his election. They are things he has spoken freely of and things he continues to pursue by fiat and by legislation.

If this is "progress" then we must fight against progressivism in every aspect and every political party of our national, state and local government. We must find candidates for every office who will push back the tide of government solutions and liberate citizens everywhere to make for themselves what they would enjoy in this life.

President Obama Stunned At North Korean Conditions...

President Obama has recently demonstrated both his naivete and his inability to recognize his own kind and the fruits of their common labors.

During a recent tour of South Korea, the president got a firsthand look into North Korea, ruled by Communists since the early 1950s. He was visibly shaken by what he saw. Even hours after the event, he continued musing.

"It's like you are looking across 50 years into a country that has missed 40 or 50 years of progress."

And, "If a country can't feed its people effectively, if it can't make anything of use to anybody, if it has no exports other than weapons, and even those aren't ones that in any way would be considered state-of-the-art; if it can't deliver on any indicators of well-being for its people, then you think you'd want to try something different. There are certain things that just don't work; and what they are doing doesn't work."

Mr. President, with all respect, North Korea is in the mess it is in because it has a government and a leadership that is ideological in the extreme. They, like you, are a "one trick pony". They do not try another approach because their ideology will not allow for another approach. You are the same in that you know only one thing: government control via taxation, regulation and redistribution.

Mr. President, with all respect, what you and other statists have been doing to the American Experiment for the past 80 years is not working. Someone once said, "You think you'd want to try something different." But the answer is the same. You will not try freeing markets and liberating your citizens from onerous taxation because you know nothing different. In your ideology there is no place for different.

Until you open your mind to the possibilities and reeducate yourself on the facts of America's exceptional foundation, you will continue to lead us down a road of economic destruction and despair. Indeed, 50 years from now, Canadians and Mexicans may well peer across the border into our country and wonder how we could have stopped so suddenly in our progress and regressed toward the Stone Age, like North Korea.

The principles of the Founding are as valid today as they were 250 years ago. Nature has endowed man with unalienable rights and NO GOVERNMENT founded by man has the legitimate authority to restrict those rights. Further, man was created to improve on his surroundings. Free markets and representative government, imperfect as they may be, are still the BEST way to allow the greatest number of people to achieve the highest level of well-being.

A Thought From Patrick Henry...

On 23 March 1775, Patrick Henry stood before the Virginia Convention in Richmond and spoke.

Among the many things he said, he is most remembered for the profoundly thrilling line, "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

In that speech he also said the following.

"It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. ...

"We are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of Nature has placed in our power. ...The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. ...

"If we wish to be free; if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending; if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained - we must fight!"

The siren song of illusory "hope" is sung by weak-minded dreamers and would-be tyrants in our day. They speak of "social equality" and "economic justice". They tempt our ears with "peace" and "unity". The price they ask to lead us all to this Utopia is our own, God-given liberty. Listening too long to that siren song will, as Patrick Henry says, turn us into beasts. Mere animals not free to choose their actions, but who are fit only to be acted upon by "masterminds" and social architects.

If we are to maintain the liberty handed down to us through hundreds of years and thousands of lives, we must fight!

How do we fight today? We do not fight with swords and guns. We do not fight with ships and cannon.

We fight by educating ourselves about the foundation of this nation. We fight by making the values and virtues that animated our forefathers our own. We fight be teaching our children that THIS is the greatest nation on earth; and the greatest nation in the history of the WORLD.

We fight by taking a stand for liberty and against tyranny wherever we are and with whomever we find ourselves. We fight by letting go of petty fears and embracing the spirit of bravery that led 50 men to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause of LIBERTY.

American Media May Be Asleep, But...

American media may be asleep, and content to report the White House talking points without much thought; but in Denmark, at lease one reporter has been listening.

And what he hears makes him skeptical about the sincerity of President Obama.

Danish TV Host Mocks Obama for His Rhetoric

Freedom to Fail - Essential for Success...

I saw this at UnleashingFreedom.com.  I thought the author had a number of good points.

Freedom, so called, with no option is no freedom at all.  If we are allowed only to succeed - as long as we don't succeed too much - then where is our freedom?  The tyranny of forced success is as evil as scripted failure.

The liberty to inform oneself of the risks inherent in a venture, and then to choose to embark on it despite them, is a basic, foundational, Natural right.  It belongs to all mankind; it cannot be justly infringed upon by any power on earth or in Heaven.

By seeking to enforce equal results philosophers and states alike undertake an act that is expressly forbidden by the laws of Nature.  The violation of any of Nature's laws brings consequences as immutable, as sure and as final as those of Gravity.  Can one really wonder at the implosion of the European Socialist countries?  Soft though it was, the glove of the well-meaning tyrant's hand, in the end it will not - it cannot - support its unwitting victims.

A Valentine's "Tape" for Tina...

Tina,

Thank you for giving me our five little Valentines.  They're wonderful and I am so very grateful that you are their mother.  And my wife.  You make me complete.

These two years have been hard for me.  I can't even fathom how hard they've been for you, my love.  But my heart is full of gratitude and amazement at your love for me and for our children.  You've been patient, strong, and so steadfast.  I don't believe there are many women in the world who could come close to being your equal.

Your support and your faith in me has helped me through the deepest Hells of my life.  These last 2 years have been times that would surely have destroyed my faith in myself and in God if it weren't for you.  You're wonderful.

You're the "total package", Tina.  I got the best on earth when I got you.  I love you with all my heart and I'm so glad that "forever" really means forever with us.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Always,
John

Memories (5)...

When I was a boy, just after I turned 10 years old, we moved from Colorado to California.  Now, I was born in California and we'd moved away when I was just 5 years old.  I was excited to move back "home".

We moved to a house that was in the middle of an almond orchard.  The almond orchard was surrounded by grape vineyards and the grape vineyards were interspersed with tomato and corn fields, as well as apricot and pistachio orchards.

Grandpa noticed that there was a small section of almond orchard near our house that was not being worked.  He found out who the owner was and called him.  The man lived in Florida.  Grandpa wanted to know if the man would let us harvest the almonds that grew wild on the property, and the man said he would.

So Grandpa bought a heavy rubber hammer that looked like a cross between an axe and a club.  He also bought an almond scoop that looked like a heavy wire basket that had been turned into a shovel.  We got some long bamboo poles and our old utility trailer and we went to work.

Every day in September, after school, we came home and started harvesting almonds.  First we took that big mallet and hit the trees as hard as we could.  That would shake the branches and make most of the almonds fall into the sandy soil under the trees.  Then we would take the bamboo poles and reach high into the trees and knock the stubborn nuts out one at a time.

When all the nuts were on the ground we raked them into piles and scooped them into our utility trailer.  As we scooped them up, we made sure to shake the scoop so that the sand and grass and sticks fell through the wire basket, leaving only almonds.

Now, almonds don't look like the ones you buy in the store, or even the ones you get in your Christmas stocking when they come out of the tree.  They're covered in a fuzzy green hull that splits open when the nuts are ripe, exposing that hole-y, beautiful buff-colored woody shell.  So we loaded our trailer full of nuts with the hulls and shells still on them.

When the trailer was so full that almonds were piled above the edges and the springs were pushed almost flat, we hooked it to our Volkswagen bus and pulled it to the almond processing plant that was in the middle of one of the orchards near us.  We drove onto a giant scale and got weighed.  Then we emptied our almonds into a machine that spun them and knocked them around.  That machine knocked the hulls off and spat out golden-shelled nuts.  Then the nuts went into another machine that cracked the shells and separated the nut meat from the shells.

This process took some time, so we left the almond processing plant, got weighed on our way out, and went home.  We knew how much to pay the almond processing plant owner for his work because he subtracted our empty weight on the way out from our loaded weight on the way in and charged us a certain amount of money per pound to hull and shell the nuts.

Later in the week, the plant owner called and we went and picked up our shelled almonds.  They were in burlap sacks that weighed more than you do.  When we got them home we divided the nuts into smaller bags that weighed between 1 and 5 pounds.  And we sold those nuts to neighbors and friends.

We saved all the money we made from those nuts and in the middle of winter, after Christmas vacation was over and all the kids were back in school, we would rent a condominium at a ski resort near Lake Tahoe and ski for a whole week.  Uncle Eric, Uncle Dean and Uncle Paul and I would ski with Grandma and Grandpa.  And we would ski all day.  At night we would stay in the condo and do our homework we'd brought with us and the assignments our teachers had given us to work on during the week.

Every day of the week.  Until it was time to go home.

I remember the first time I tried to ski.  I was pretty sure I didn't like it.

It was a cold day with snow and rain mixing in the uniquely Sierra Nevada season of "springter".  The beginner slope didn't have a chair lift to sit on and ride up.  Instead it had what we called a "pommel lift".  The pommel lift was a cable that moved up the slope.  And attached to the cable was a rope with a disc-like seat on it.  The trick was to catch the rope, put it between your legs, let the disc catch you on the bottom, and stay on your skis as the cable pulled you up the hill.

I was already cold and wet and scared and discouraged before I had to face that contraption.  When it was my turn to ride up, the lift caught me off balance and I fell into the snow.  My skis tangled and I couldn't get up.  I was crying and mad.  And then a nice woman skied over to me and picked me up.  I must have been saying something about "stupid skis" and "hate this" and "don't want to" because she made me look at her and very calmly and confidently told me that I just needed to give it another try.  By the end of the day, she assured me, I would be loving it.

Sometimes it's good for a young boy to have a beautiful older woman be confident in his abilities.  When she was done with her pep talk, I would have done anything she told me to, because I believed she believed I could.

I mastered the pommel lift on my next try and only let it throw me once or twice more that day.  When I got to the top of the slope all I knew was that pointing my skis downhill would make me go fast and that pointing my toes together and pushing my heels out would slow me down.

And so I went down.  When I felt like I was going too fast I pointed my toes and pushed my heels.  When that didn't work, I bailed.  Down I went in an explosion of snow and skis.  Then I found my gear, put my skis back on, and started over again.

And by the end of the day I was LOVING it!

For the next 7 years we made it a tradition to have our ski week and we found every other excuse we could to get to the mountains to ski.

In January 1988 I was in the middle of my senior year of high school.  We rented a condo at Squaw Valley and on the first run of the first day Uncle Eric and I took on a short and fairly straightforward black diamond run for expert skiers.  Less than halfway down, I got stuck in the bottom of a mogul and when I made my hop-turn everything on my body turned.

Except my right leg below the knee.

For years I'd wondered how embarrassing it was for those skiers who had to be pulled off the mountain by the heroes in red jackets that worked for the Ski Patrol.

Now I was finding out.  Grandpa took me to the ski resort clinic where I got a brace to strap onto my swollen leg.

And that was the last time I skied with my brothers.  I spent the rest of the week in the condo with partially torn ligaments in my knee that would prevent me from doing much normal walking for most of my last semester of high school.

After I joined the Army I was stationed in Germany.  I bought a great pair of skis and boots and skied all over Europe.  It was fun, but it wasn't the same as skiing with my brothers.

This January I got to ski with my brother again.  Uncle Eric and I met in Park City, Utah with our kids.  They learned to ski and snowboard while he and I got to enjoy each other's company as we rode up and tore down the mountains.

Just like old times.

The Death of The Fourth and Sixth Amendments...

Late on Saturday, New Year's Eve, 2010 President Barack Obama signed into law a bill sent to him by John Boehner and Harry Reid.  It was innocuously called the "National Defense Appropriation Act" and, contrary to the title's tone, constitutes one of the most broad reaching and egregious abrogations of the Natural Rights of Americans protected until this year by the United States Constitution.

Section 1020 (c-1) of the act provides for the "detention under the law of war without trial until the end of hostilities" of any person, regardless of citizenship, accused (interestingly it is not "charged" or "convicted") of terrorism or supporting terrorism against the United States or any person who has "substantially supported" any "associated forces" of terrorist organizations.

The act further allows the military, at the discretion of the president, to detain Americans without arraignment or filing charges and without trial for the duration of hostilities.

Disturbingly, President George W. Bush outlined exactly how long that will be.  On 20 Sep 2001 he said, "Our 'war on terror' begins with Al-Qaeda, but it does not end there.  It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated."

Now, I'll be the first to say that terrorism is evil and that there is no place on the face of the earth for a terrorist or someone who supports terrorism in any way.

And I'll also be the first to say that Americans are exceptional in part because we are protected in the exercise of our unalienable rights by the most remarkable document ever penned by man.  We call it the Constitution.

Our rights as citizens do not derive from the Constitution, as many think.  Rather, our rights - all Natural Rights, and not only those listed in the Bill of Rights - derive from "the God of Nature".  He grants them to all mankind, and they are guaranteed to Americans by the Constitution in that the Constitution prohibits the government of the United States, or any agent thereof, from abridging or restricting them.

And so we see a continuation of the unchecked infringement of our Natural Rights by a government - a "bi-partisan" government - in the "National Defense Appropriation Act" of 2011.

The Fourth Amendment secures all Americans in their persons, papers, property and effects from search or seizure without a duly sworn search warrant that is specific in defining the location and the nature of the items to be found and seized.

The Sixth Amendment ensures that the government will not hold a person without notifying them of the nature of the crime they are accused of, will allow them to confront their accusers, will allow them to present witnesses on their behalf, and will provide for a speedy and public trial by jury.

There is some contradiction between the wording of the act and the wording of the amendments.

I know some of you whose names start with "K" don't always read the articles I link to.  In this case, please take the time to visit:

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/01/03/the-ndaa-a-dangerous-precedent-even-with-the-signing-statement/

It's a short-ish article that does a great job of getting to the meat of the detention issue.  I will say that they gloss over the fact that there appears to be an out in that the act does not "require" the military to detain a US citizen indefinitely.

But "not requiring" and "forbidding" are not the same thing.

Call me a cynic, but my head wants to explode when I think that the act does not prohibit the indefinite detention of US citizens.  

Memories (4)...

Two years ago today my entire family was together, celebrating a new year.

Here's the story for my kids:

It was New Year's Day, 2010.  We'd rented a huge house on the beach in Dana Point, California and had spent a week there together.  My brothers were all there with their families.  My parents were there, too.  We'd planned that time with the distinct feeling that it would be our last time together as a family.

My dad had been struggling with his third round of cancer for more than 5 years.  He was losing weight and was in constant pain.

I was 18 years old when the Army sent me to Germany.  I was stationed with the 12th Engineer Battalion in the 8th Infantry Division at a remote site called "Anderson Barracks".  I'd been there only a couple of months when I got a letter from my mom telling me my dad had found a lump and had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

He beat that with chemotherapy and surgery, then when my second son was born in 1998 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Again, he beat it with radiation and surgery.

My dad was always good-humored about things.  When he had his mastectomy we teased him that he was only "half a man" now.  When he had his prostate surgery we laughed that he was only "a third of a man."

When he came home from a backpacking trip and noticed persistent migratory pain in his lower back, he was diagnosed with cancer again.  This time, the breast cancer was back, but had metastasized in his lungs and on the bones of his pelvis, spine and rib cage.  The doctors in 2004 gave him a 50% chance of living another 6 months and declining odds every month after that.

When he called to tell me about the cancer's return he told me, "John, this time it's going to get me."  He wasn't sad or dramatic.  He wasn't overly brave or cavalier.  He was just telling me the truth.

But my dad had a great attitude and was a naturally happy person.  I believe that God's blessing rested on him and he lived more than 6 more years after his diagnosis.  By the end of 2009 we knew the end was close for him.

And so we all arranged to meet in Southern California for one last time.  It turned out to be the last time we were all together.


We played in the sand and in the water.  We played in the hot tub.  We even went to Disneyland.  It was a great vacation.


Paul was always a big hit with his fan club.  My kids, Eric's kids and Dean's kids all looked at this huge, adventurous, motorcycle-riding teddy bear like he was a cross between a mystic icon and a favorite play mate.  They loved, as only children can, the idea that Uncle Paul had one metal leg.  He was easily their favorite because they felt safe and welcome when they were around him.

Grandpa was still healthy enough to hold the grandkids on his lap.  He walked on the beach and watched them build sand castles.  Although he was getting weaker, he had a smile.

One evening, when the pain was overwhelming and the medication was fogging his mind, Grandpa decided that he wanted everyone to watch a short video that he had recently seen and that had impacted him greatly.  It was called "The Christmas Orange".  But the grandkids didn't want to pay attention to a movie.  They wanted to play with each other and talk with their aunts, uncles and grandparents.

We, Uncle Eric, Uncle Dean, Uncle Paul and I, tried to get Grandpa to forget about the movie and let the kids play.  But Grandpa wouldn't let go of the idea.  The pain, the medicine and the frustration worked together and Grandpa got really upset.  Some of the older kids realized this and tried to start the movie, but it was too late.  Grandpa was so upset he didn't want to show the movie then.

This is when I realized just how sick my dad was.  This is when I think I understood that my dad was going to die.  Really.

And we really enjoyed that time together.  Uncle Paul and I went swimming in the cold ocean water more than once a day.  We swam together, climbed on rocks together, then soaked in the hot tub or sat in the sauna to warm up together.

I think it was the best vacation I've ever been on.

I remember standing on the beach with your mom.  Standing very close.  And thinking to myself that this was perfect.  The fresh ocean air, the sinking winter sun, the love of family, and the most beautiful and wonderful woman in the world.

I never wanted to go home.  I never wanted that time to end.  I never wanted to be apart from my family again.

And now life has changed.  Before the next new year Uncle Paul had died.  Grandpa had died.  My job had changed and I was home only a few days each month.  The world as I knew it - as I had always imagined it - had changed forever.

Today, as I walked in the pleasantly cool winter air of Houston, Texas, I looked at the blue sky and the red leaves on the trees and whispered out loud, "I miss you, Paul.  I miss you, Dad."

And I thought I felt them close to me.

It didn't take away the missing.  But it did help ease the pain.  And I have hope along with the pain and the missing.  I have hope because I know we'll all be together as a family again, after this life is done.  And when we are, we won't have the sicknesses or the weaknesses or the demons that dog us here on earth.

We will be healthy and peaceful and happy.  Together.  Forever.