Ain't Gonna Happen

First of all, Scotland's recent (Sept. 18, 2014) referendum proves it won't happen in America.

No, we are not Scotland, those people tend to be way more socialist than Americans are.  That just more than doubly proves my point.  Up until Sept.17, 2014, the vote was close, and at one point the secessionist vote was slightly ahead, but they still couldn't do it.  If a territory of people who mostly like big government and all that comes with it could only come close to a simple majority, then there's no way a land that ostensibly prides itself in "God, guns, and guts," but can only muster a bare 14% of strong support for seceding from the Union,  is going to pull away.

We are like the typical 14-year-old who wants to stomp our feet and demand to be treated like an adult when we want our way, but ten minutes later we are excusing our fear or stupid behavior by saying, "But I'm only a kid!"  The bottom 50% of income earners in the U.S. not only do not pay any income tax, but most of them are likely to get the "Earned Income Tax Credit."  Not the Orwellian title.  Then note that probably better than 15% of the people who are ostensibly working to earn a paycheck now are doing so by working for some government agency.  No, that's not an exaggeration. Take into account city, county, state and federal.  It really is that high.  But we can't just take into account the direct employees of government.  Think about all of the businesses that depend on government contracts to be in business.  Defense contractors.  Infrastructure. Welfare. Subsidies for business and farms.  The social security Ponzi scheme.  True free-enterprise has not existed unfettered since we got three things:  An income tax, a private central bank called the Federal Reserve, and Social Security.

The people who make up those percentages on the map above are rugged individuals who want to be free to succeed and be left alone.  But the vast majority don't care what government does as long as they can have their booze, drugs, cigarettes, sports or other mindless TV programming.  Politics is boring, dontcha know?  Until, that is, that the system implodes due to a collapsed, worthless dollar, and the sheep who survived the first couple of waves of riots over food and other necessities get herded into the FEMA camps.

Nope.  Americans haven't felt near enough pain yet to even start thinking about taking back control of the government, let alone learn the names of their congressmen or what the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution says.

And you also have to remember that there are way too many examples of this in the United States:

Origin of Government

Morgan over at House of Eratosthenes got me going on this subject with this post.

My perspective on this is so divergent from his that I decided to make it my own stand alone post on my blog here.  I couldn't just comment on his blog.

For the purpose of this discussion, trying to keep it in as narrow and controllable forum as possible, I'm going to define Column A and Column B in my own terms and maybe give them catchier names.

Severian says Column A people are:  "A group of individuals, each as sovereign as his physical power can make him, agree to cede some of their rights to a collective, in order to better secure their remaining rights. The key player here is the individual."   The only problem I have with that definition is that there is no need to cede any rights.  This is a misconception that has crept into our republican society.  Just because I agree with forming a local government with a police force and courts does not mean that I cede any rights or any sovereignty.  I simply LEND my authority to those entities as a matter of convenience.  I refuse to give up or cede anything to government.  To do so would be to misunderstand and negate the very words of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Until I come up with something better, I'll call the Column A group, "Indies."

The Column B group is made up of people who cover a wide range, as surprising as that may seem.  At the worst end of the spectrum are those who are ravenously power hungry and mean to rule others. Such people have learned to parlay their narcissism and sociopathy into lucrative careers. At the mildest end of the spectrum are those who desire to be ruled under the guise of having security and believe that all others should feel the same way, believe the same way, and by God we will give whatever power necessary to our champions to enforce it.  Probably the greatest rallying cry of this crowd is; "There Ought To Be A Law."  So, I'll call them the TOTBALS.  The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.  If it protects ONE child . . .  Such are the self-proclaimed "liberals" who justify the most intolerant, totalitarian government for the purpose of enforcing what they believe is best for everybody at the point of a gun.  And yes, there are more than enough of such people proudly bearing the labels of Republican and Conservative.  They are just as bad.  Don't talk to me about how evil abortion is and then in the next breath defend the so-called "war on drugs."  Shut. UP.  Don't you dare defend subsidies for industries and corporations and even farmers and then gripe about WIC and food stamps.  All of the policies and bloated bureaucracies of government need to be destroyed or scaled back to make none of those things necessary.

The Indies are those who would love to not need any courts or any police or any government, except for the fact that they recognize that human nature won't allow it.  Indies recognize that anarchy is not viable because there will always be evil people who mean to abuse other people, innocent people, and so we must establish and ordain at least some limited form of government in order to restrain the evil.
The biggest problem in this scenario is that the true-to-the-core Indies who would be the best and most trustworthy at executing that role don't really want the job.  They just want to be left alone to pursue a multitude of worthwhile goals and just taking care of themselves and their loved ones.

Unfortunately, the kind of people who actively seek to get the jobs in government are the TOTBALS.  And they actually think of themselves as really good people who are doing us a favor by sacrificing and working for far less than they are actually worth.

I get extremely irritated by anyone who thinks that the American Revolution and the French Revolution had anything remotely in common.  Even if you don't want to study them in depth, at least read "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens.  The former was a righteous attempt to redress grievances and establish a proper government.  The latter was just an excuse to go on a cathartic blood-bath over a corrupt Church-monarchy cabal.

I don't know if there is much more that I should add to this post.  Let me know.

To Celebrate or Not To Celebrate

I have to make up my mind that I need to be positive today.  I will need to do it tomorrow as well.  Yes, I'm happy that 60 seats were lost to the Socialist Democrats on Tuesday.  I'm not happy that Reid and Boxer and several others who should have been soundly defeated are still going to be in the Swamp of Maryland.

You see, there is no guarantee that those 60 seats in the House are going to translate into a rollback of the socialist agenda that has been tearing our freedom away and crapping on the constitution for so long.  I'd like to think that it will, but I'm old enough to be very familiar with the Republican takeover of the House in 1994 and what happened for the next four years after that.

Put all that aside.  The real thing troubling me is that the Federal Reserve has announced that they are going to start printing enormous amounts of paper notes (some call it cash), in order to monetize the debt.  Now I know that the vast percentage of the populace has never tried to learn about economics, just like they don't want to have to think about politics.  Of course, this is what causes the catastrophic mess that we are heading toward and what causes the disaster in Greece and France, with riots and breakdowns in society.  It's because too much of the populace has buried it's head in the sand when it comes to understanding politics and economics, that we are heading for a major meltdown. It is going to happen, it's just a matter of when.

What does it mean that the Fed is going to print about $600 billion in fiat currency?  Some of you probably understand that when a commodity gets scarcer, the price of that commodity goes up.  You could call that inflation, but that would be wrong, since only that one commodity has an effect on that price.  Inflation is caused when a government creates more currency which then chases after goods.  When there is suddenly a lot more "cash" available to purchase things, prices go up across the board.  What then happens to the cash you already have?  The value of it goes down.  History is full of examples to show that such laws of economics are irrefutable.

If you don't truly understand what money is and how it works, it will eventually bite you.  If you don't understand money and politics and how they work together, it will be your total undoing.

This is why I think the people who have been trading all their stocks, bonds, and other debt instruments for gold are pretty silly, especially in the face of a real economic meltdown. Why?  Because when the proverbial fecal matter strikes the pneumatic impeller, gold won't matter.

Let's say you are John Doe in the suburbs.  The U.S. has reached the point of default and finally has to announce such.  The riots in Greece and France will pretty much look like a Boy Scout Jamboree in comparison to what will be happening in the major metro areas here.  Oh, but you were smart and cashed in your 401k before the lame duck 111th Congress seized it, and you bought gold.

What you gonna buy with it?  Who is going to want it?  Let's say I'm Farmer Brown a few miles out in the country.  I don't have any cash, I don't have any gold.  However, I do have a lot of grain stored up.  I'm sitting on 20 acres of arable land. My wife has been keeping a root cellar stocked up with more than a year's supply of food.  I've got a few cows and goats and chickens and hogs.  There's a creek that runs between me and my neighbor.

If you could even hike from there to here, because all fuel has been commandeered by the military, or martial law is in effect and movement is restricted, why would I want your gold in trade for my food?  What would I do with it?  What could I buy?

In a total breakdown of society, all forms of money become meaningless. In every war that has ever occurred in history, survival is all about basic necessities.  Food and water are the only things that mean anything.

Benjamin Franklin replied to the question, "What government have you given us?"  To which he replied, "A republic, if you can keep it."   Ronald Reagan was right when he said that we are ever only one generation away from slavery.  We were never designed to be a democracy.  The founders had nothing but contempt for such a form of government, and rightly so.  I leave you today, with this quote from Alexander Tyler:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."

Why Didn't I Write That?

Trying to seem like a fair guy, I almost took the wrong side in this issue.  I even started to sympathize with David Petraeus. My own wife had immediately come down on the side of the preacher wanting to burn the copies of the Koran.  She was right, and on more reflection, understanding that Islam is not, and never has been a "religion of peace," I agree that we should remember who we are as Americans and that Islam is not and can never be compatible with this constitutional republic.  In case you are still under some illusion, let me help you out.  "Islam" doesn't mean peace, it means "submission." The word for peace in Arabic is "salaam."  And NO, we are not a democracy and if the founding fathers were alive to hear someone say it they would condemn the idea. The founders understood and stated quite plainly in their writings that this republic could only work for a people who were devoutly Christian.  They used the word religious, but at the time, they only knew ONE religion.  I've thoroughly done my research, so don't waste your time with the "deist" stuff.

I came across the letter below at Eternity Road, and being encouraged to pass it on, I re-post it here with only one bad adjective deleted even though the expletive really does seem fitting. If you do go there, read the post about sh'riah law as well. It's titled "Life In The Crosshairs."  The original post of this letter by Chuck Prime is here.

OPEN LETTER TO GEN. PETRAEUS (Please re-post to anti-jihad sites)

“Were the actual burning to take place, the safety of our soldiers and civilians would be put in jeopardy and accomplishment of the mission would be made more difficult.” 

– Gen. David Petraeus 

General, I ask you this: what in hell is your “mission” if We The People jeopardize it by exercising our First Amendment rights in our own homeland? Is your “mission” to defend our rights against foreign enemies, or to defend foreign enemies against our rights? 

You made your choice, and you justified by claiming that you and those under your command have been taken hostage by our 7th Century terrorist enemy, and that the ransom demand you deliver to us is that we submit to your captor’s restrictions on our natural and constitutional rights – or they’ll kill you. 

I remind you and your captors that we do not negotiate with terrorists. 

And I remind you that you are the most revered general in the present day, commanding in the most powerful military in all of history, during the most justifiable war in the last seventy years. So please either remember your priorities and slaughter your captors, or resign in disgrace so that we may replace you with a warrior. And if you resign, you should do so right along with President Obama, Gen. Caldwell, Pentagon Spokesman Lapan, Sec. of State Clinton, Atty. Gen. Holder, NATO Sec. Rasmussen and all others in all branches of government and in all alliances who echoed your request, whether they did so mindlessly or with surrender aforethought. 

To have our own military leaders beg us to refrain from exercising our Constitutional rights on our own soil is completely un-American. And to have you make that request of us in the name of cowardice is a shocking and unthinkable perversion I still don’t have the words for. 

But I do have the plan for it. We The People will force the issue right here and now. We don’t want harm to come to our military, but if peacefully exercising our rightful freedom on our own property here in our own homeland endangers you, then we will endanger you! 

We will burn the Koran for freedom and post the videos for all the world to see. We can be overt or covert, named or anonymous, sparse or numerous – but ultimately we will be unstoppable, and eventually we will be effective. 

We will do this because you have no $%&$ right to sell our freedom down the river for the sake of our enemy’s sensitivity. We will do it because you more than have the power to defend yourselves against that enemy if only you would use it. We will do it because facing danger to defend our rightful freedom is why we pay you, train you, equip you, promote you, appoint you, deploy you, and – formerly! – revere you. 

You work for us, General, not for our enemy. Therefore we will regain control over you and over this war from the command center of our own backyards. We will force you to end any of your appeasement and nation-building which would restrict our Constitutional rights. We will force you to defend yourselves and us, and to do the job you were appointed to do: destroy the enemy in defense of our freedom. 

Our military has the power. We hired you to use it. Now we’ll make sure you do. 

When Americans can burn our own copies of the Koran on our own soil without credible threats from jihadists or appeasement of those threats from our President and our Generals, then we will gladly stop burning them. 

We are a free people, and although we clearly live in occupied territory psychologically, we do not yet live in occupied territory legally or physically. We will do as we please, and we will continue to expect all branches of our government to secure our right to do it. 

I remind you that securing our rights is the only legitimate reason that governments are instituted among men in the first place, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. 

And not everybody among the governed consents to surrendering our rights to terrorists. 

Freedom for all,