There can not be much doubt that our government, especially federal but also state, needs major reform. But what kind of reform is needed? Would this include more 2000 page legislation that lawyers can haggle over endlessly, thus creating more work for themselves? Oh, I hope not, but what needs to be done to reform our government?
You know what? The government can not reform itself. We the people need to reform our government. No one else can do it. For when the government tries to reform itself, it just gets in deeper and deeper. The government trying to reform itself is like a dog chasing its tail. The faster it goes the dizzier the politicians get. And the dizzier they get the more madness/confusion we get from the government. The government passes reform which it then has to reform which it then has to reform, etc. Do you see where this ends? We finally end up spinning ourselves right into the ground.
James Madison could have told us that 235 years ago. Those gullible, unscientific, aged, old-fashioned founding fathers knew human nature. Listen to James Madison: "(The sober people) have seen, too, that legislative interference, is but the first link of a long chain of repetitions; every subsequent interference being naturally produced by the effects of the preceding. They very rightly infer, therefore, that some thorough reform is wanting which will banish speculations on public measures, inspire a general prudence and industry, and give a regular course to the business of society." (The Federalist Papers; Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay; Bantam Dell, 2003; p 273)
The legislative interference is but the first link of a long chain of repetitions. Does that sound familiar? Congress passes a law and then realizes all kinds of unsuspected consequences for which they have to pass another law to clear up which leads to all kinds of other unsuspected consequences for which they have to pass another law to clear up which leads.... You get the picture.
So James Madison states that a reform is wanting which will banish speculations on public measures. But what kind of reform? Won't this just lead to Congress chasing its tail some more? How can this cycle be broken? What kind of reform is needed?
There is only one answer: GET THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF OUR LIVES. REPEAL GOVERNMENT. Oh, not all of it, but repeal all the laws that are beyond and outside of what the Constitution requires our government do for us. What would that be?
Well, our Constitution requires our government to defend us from enemies external and internal. And internal enemies do NOT mean business enemies, competitive enemies, sports enemies, but enemies that would destroy our freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And notice it does not mean people who prevent us from being happy, but prevent us from pursuing happiness. We may pursue happiness our whole life and never get there. So be it! The government is not commissioned to give us that happiness, but just protect our right to pursue it. And by the way, pursuit of happiness originally meant the freedom to own property, to own what we have earned by our own labor.
The Constitution also requires our government mediate between states in any disputes between them. That does not mean that the national government has the right to create a relationship between the states, but to only mediate if the states cannot agree with each other and to monitor it so that those states do not go to arms in their dispute. Nor does that mean that the national government can dictate to the states how they may do business in their own states or even between each other unless it interferes with the business of another state. And even then, the national government is to only mediate in the dispute, not dictate. The states are to find their own solution to the dispute and to use the national government in the dispute only if necessary and desired by the states.
So what do we do with the rest of the national government, all the bureaucracies, agencies, czars and every other structure the government has created. All these creations of the government has created nothing but confusion and burden.
REPEAL THEM! Sounds quite simple, doesn't it? Well, just try it. You will find a bunch of screaming, crying idiots.
Well, what do we do? Do we just go along the way we have and sink right down the toilet or do we shrink government down to survive and put up with the whining and crying? The choice is ours. It will take a horrendous amount of work. It will be a life-time job. Indeed, the reason the job has gotten so big is that we have not been paying attention to it all along. We thought our officials, elected and appointed, were taking care of business, but you know what? IT DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY. We the people are the responsible ones and if we are not paying attention why should we expect our officials to pay attention? The buck stops HERE! Not in WDC or the state capitols or the county courthouses/city halls. No, the buck stops HERE at "we the people". And if we are not taking care of business, no one else will do so. So let's get to work and let's expect to work for decades, indeed for life, because that is what it takes to manage our freedoms and protect them. God bless our efforts!
Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
No Trust In The Government?
Why does it seem that the public has no confidence or respect for our government? Why is BO ridiculed so relentlessly? Why is a Senator chased out of a restaurant in his home state? Where has the civility gone?
"(The people's) confidence in and obedience to a government, will commonly be proportioned to the goodness or badness of its administration." (The Federalist Papers; Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay; Bantam Dell, 2003; p 156) Alexander knew what it took for a government to be respected and for civility to rule in the country. It took good administration of the government.
When BO and his minions complain about the civility in this country, Alexander Hamilton would have them look at themselves. The tone of the country is set by the leaders, elected and appointed. Does the public seem to lack civility? Is it because the administration of our government, the actual work being done in WDC lacks civility or as some want to call it, common sense? Lack of civility by leaders leads to lack of civility by the public.
The founding fathers were very wise. Let us not think them unsophisticated. Let us not think them old-fashioned, unscientific. Times have not changed. Oh granted, we have technology and medical science and other scientific achievements they may not have had. Yet they were just as intelligent as people today, and sometimes even more intelligent and at least civil. Now we have leaders who tell bold faced lies and don't care. Why would we think the public would be any more civil than that?
Don't complain about the civility, the morality, the industriousness of the public today unless you are willing to look at yourself.
"(The people's) confidence in and obedience to a government, will commonly be proportioned to the goodness or badness of its administration." (The Federalist Papers; Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay; Bantam Dell, 2003; p 156) Alexander knew what it took for a government to be respected and for civility to rule in the country. It took good administration of the government.
When BO and his minions complain about the civility in this country, Alexander Hamilton would have them look at themselves. The tone of the country is set by the leaders, elected and appointed. Does the public seem to lack civility? Is it because the administration of our government, the actual work being done in WDC lacks civility or as some want to call it, common sense? Lack of civility by leaders leads to lack of civility by the public.
The founding fathers were very wise. Let us not think them unsophisticated. Let us not think them old-fashioned, unscientific. Times have not changed. Oh granted, we have technology and medical science and other scientific achievements they may not have had. Yet they were just as intelligent as people today, and sometimes even more intelligent and at least civil. Now we have leaders who tell bold faced lies and don't care. Why would we think the public would be any more civil than that?
Don't complain about the civility, the morality, the industriousness of the public today unless you are willing to look at yourself.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Was James Madison A Prophet?
I am totally stunned by the wisdom and foresight of James Madison. Listen to this: "I will add as a fifth circumstance in the situation of the House of Representatives, restraining them from oppressive measures, that they can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of the society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together...without which every government degenerates into tyranny...what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular class of society? I answer...above all the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America, a spirit which nourishes freedom and in return is nourished by it. If this spirit shall ever be so far debased as to tolerate a law not obligatory on the Legislature as well as on the people, the people will be prepared to tolerate anything but liberty." (The Federalist Papers; Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay; Bantam Dell, 2003; p 349, 350)
No wonder there is such a chasm between the "ruling class" inside the beltway and the "country class", the rest of us. Congress passes a law and the law exempts the Congress and government employees from the law. Talk about creating two classes, the ruling class and in the eyes of the ruling class, the hicks, the country class. The representatives and senators and their staffs and the bureaucrats are exempt from the law and the rest of us are subject to the law and also pay for the law. So the members of the ruling class sit on their high and mighty thrones inside the beltway and the rest of us kiss their feet and thank them for passing such intelligent laws. This is one impetus that has been leading us towards tyranny. Without the bond of living under the same laws, we will degenerate into a tyranny.
The fact that we have allowed this to happen is really sad. We need to demand that all exemptions for employees of the government, elected and appointed, be repealed retroactive. Maybe we need to consider an amendment to the Constitution that states that no law shall exempt government employees from its obligations. It is a shame that we would even have to consider such an amendment. Certainly the employees of government are moral enough to consider such an exemption an outrage. It also is a shame that the lawmakers don't consider their laws to be worth living under. If we continue to allow this we will tolerate anything "except liberty." What a sad state of affairs we have allowed to government to come to! We have been running toward tyranny, but thanks to BO we have come awake.
Thank you, James Madison, for being so clear minded.
No wonder there is such a chasm between the "ruling class" inside the beltway and the "country class", the rest of us. Congress passes a law and the law exempts the Congress and government employees from the law. Talk about creating two classes, the ruling class and in the eyes of the ruling class, the hicks, the country class. The representatives and senators and their staffs and the bureaucrats are exempt from the law and the rest of us are subject to the law and also pay for the law. So the members of the ruling class sit on their high and mighty thrones inside the beltway and the rest of us kiss their feet and thank them for passing such intelligent laws. This is one impetus that has been leading us towards tyranny. Without the bond of living under the same laws, we will degenerate into a tyranny.
The fact that we have allowed this to happen is really sad. We need to demand that all exemptions for employees of the government, elected and appointed, be repealed retroactive. Maybe we need to consider an amendment to the Constitution that states that no law shall exempt government employees from its obligations. It is a shame that we would even have to consider such an amendment. Certainly the employees of government are moral enough to consider such an exemption an outrage. It also is a shame that the lawmakers don't consider their laws to be worth living under. If we continue to allow this we will tolerate anything "except liberty." What a sad state of affairs we have allowed to government to come to! We have been running toward tyranny, but thanks to BO we have come awake.
Thank you, James Madison, for being so clear minded.
Prophesy
I found a very interesting comment about legislation as it is written today and especially about Obamacare. It is: "It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood." (The Federalist Papers; Hamilton, Alexander; Madison, James; and Jay, John; Random House, 2003; p 380.) It sounds like these words were written about the thousands of pages of Obamacare. The problem is it was written by James Madison in the late 1700's.
How many times have we heard that even the members of Congress had not (and probably have not) read the legislation for Obamacare? Nancy Pelozi so smartly said that they had to pass it to find out what was in it. Talk about bold faced stupidity. No wonder our government is in so low esteem with the public. When the members of our government make such ridiculous statements, it makes them look like fools. And so James Madison wrote: "(T)he most deplorable effect of all is that the diminution of attachment and reverence which steals into the hearts of the people towards a political system which betrays so many marks of infirmity, and disappoints so many of their flattering hopes. No government any more than an individual will long be respected, without being truly respectable, nor be truly respectable without possessing a certain portion of order and stability." (ibid, p 381)
What is frightening about this is how it exposes us to our enemies in the world. "America...finds that she is held in no respect by her friends; that she is the derision of her enemies; and that she is a prey to every nation which has a interest in speculating on her fluctuating councils and embarrassed affairs." (ibid, p 380)
Another side effect of such foolishness is the suffering it causes the people, the ones watching from the sidelines by giving an advantage to the insiders. "Another effect of public instability is the unreasonable advantage it gives to the sagacious, the enterprising and the moneyed few, over the industrious and uninformed mass of the people. Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue, or in any manner affecting the values of the different species of property, presents a new harvest to those who watch the change, and can trace its consequences; a harvest reared not by themselves but by the toils and cares of the great body of their fellow citizens. This is a state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws are made for the few not for the many." (ibid, p 380-381; italics in original) No wonder George Soros, Mitch Romney, Rick Perry and others like them love this chaos. They have experts who can guess the "consequences" of these laws with much greater accuracy than the rest of us can. No wonder the law profession has done so well in this society. They like laws that are so complex and so susceptible to misinterpretation that they will have work for themselves and earn large bucks "defending" the "great body of their fellow citizens."
This is another side effect of large government. If government were so small that it could write its laws on pages that can be numbered in single digits, there would be little need for lawyers.
And please notice that James Madison wrote that these "laws are made for the few not for the many." These laws are not written to protect us, the populace, the many; they are written to benefit the few, the moneyed, the enterprising. They are not written to protect the industrious and uninformed, but for the moneyed and favored. Why do you think we have so many lobbyists?
James Madison was indeed a prophet.
How many times have we heard that even the members of Congress had not (and probably have not) read the legislation for Obamacare? Nancy Pelozi so smartly said that they had to pass it to find out what was in it. Talk about bold faced stupidity. No wonder our government is in so low esteem with the public. When the members of our government make such ridiculous statements, it makes them look like fools. And so James Madison wrote: "(T)he most deplorable effect of all is that the diminution of attachment and reverence which steals into the hearts of the people towards a political system which betrays so many marks of infirmity, and disappoints so many of their flattering hopes. No government any more than an individual will long be respected, without being truly respectable, nor be truly respectable without possessing a certain portion of order and stability." (ibid, p 381)
What is frightening about this is how it exposes us to our enemies in the world. "America...finds that she is held in no respect by her friends; that she is the derision of her enemies; and that she is a prey to every nation which has a interest in speculating on her fluctuating councils and embarrassed affairs." (ibid, p 380)
Another side effect of such foolishness is the suffering it causes the people, the ones watching from the sidelines by giving an advantage to the insiders. "Another effect of public instability is the unreasonable advantage it gives to the sagacious, the enterprising and the moneyed few, over the industrious and uninformed mass of the people. Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue, or in any manner affecting the values of the different species of property, presents a new harvest to those who watch the change, and can trace its consequences; a harvest reared not by themselves but by the toils and cares of the great body of their fellow citizens. This is a state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws are made for the few not for the many." (ibid, p 380-381; italics in original) No wonder George Soros, Mitch Romney, Rick Perry and others like them love this chaos. They have experts who can guess the "consequences" of these laws with much greater accuracy than the rest of us can. No wonder the law profession has done so well in this society. They like laws that are so complex and so susceptible to misinterpretation that they will have work for themselves and earn large bucks "defending" the "great body of their fellow citizens."
This is another side effect of large government. If government were so small that it could write its laws on pages that can be numbered in single digits, there would be little need for lawyers.
And please notice that James Madison wrote that these "laws are made for the few not for the many." These laws are not written to protect us, the populace, the many; they are written to benefit the few, the moneyed, the enterprising. They are not written to protect the industrious and uninformed, but for the moneyed and favored. Why do you think we have so many lobbyists?
James Madison was indeed a prophet.
Mad At Obama
The left is mad at BO. They have been mad for a while, but now they are daring to express their anger. He has not given them what they wanted. (And I am not only talking about Democrats here. The left I refer to here also includes the Republican establishment. Since BO seems to have failed, the Republican establishment is panicking and pleading for some establishment candidate to run, someone like Christie. It seems obvious that Romney, Perry and other establishment candidates cannot cut it. So the Republican establishment is furiously looking for someone who can continue this trek. So, the Republican establishment won't even give a look to Cain, Palin, Bachman just like they would not even give a chance to J C Watts and others like him.)
Rush claims that BO has given the left, the progressives what they wanted and more. And when you think about it, he has given them a lot.
But he has made them look bad. Look at the polls. Look at election 2010 and the possibilities of 2012. It does look like the country is turning against the left, against socialism, against statism, against nanny government. It seems quite evident that the majority of the country is turning against the government providing everything for them all the time. What the country is discovering is that the government is not god. The majority of the country is turning against the government because it has not provided solutions to all their problems. The majority of the country is becoming disaffected by the government because it has not given them, the people, a utopia. BO has made socialism look like an utter failure. The left, the socialists, the statists, the supporters of a nanny government are mad. And they are mad because they are scared. "What will happen to us, if we cannot get socialism/nazism/statism/nanny government to work?" They honestly have no answer to that question. "If this does not work, then the future is very bleak; in fact, it becomes a black hole swallowing everything up, including us." So their anger is just the back side of panic and fear. If a person does not know what is causing all the pain and suffering, then that person will strike out at anything close at hand. Guess what/who is close at hand! BO!!
But what did they expect? BO is not god, even though originally they may have thought he was and they treated him like he was. The lame street media is turning on him. But what did they expect?
They expected utopia. They wanted him to set up the granddaddy of all nanny governments and to make it look, smell and taste so good that all the people would fall right into step and everyone would be happy ever after. Sounds like a fairy tale, doesn't it?
You know what! It is a fairy tale. We cannot have utopia on this earth. It shall not happen. BO did not realize this when he started this trek. He honestly thought he could transform America to create a utopia in this world.
What he did not do was read history, even recent history. Why did the Berlin wall fall? Was it because President Reagan was so tough and strong? Not really. He was tough and strong and a very good president (not a perfect one, but a good one). What caused the Berlin wall to fall, what will cause nazism, fascism, and now "progressivism" to fall is that all these philosophies are mortally defective. They have their own destruction planted right in their seed. The mortal defect is that such utopia is impossible. It is a pipe dream. It will collapse under its own weight.
In a way, I feel sorry for BO. He was led on by many who used him to try to accomplish their goals and when he ultimately fails, as he will because of the mortal defect of his philosophy, he will be their fall guy. He was set up by those who supported him. Some who originally supported him are now saying: "I guess he was not ready for the job." Others are saying he compromises way too much, that he just does not have the guts it takes to be a statist, socialist, nazi, fascist president. Whatever! He just did not get the job done.
The problem is that not even Hitler, Stalin, Tsetung, Castro, FDR, Mussolini, Woodrow Wilson, etc. could get it done. Why not? It was because progressivism has a mortal defect: it cannot happen. And when it does not happen, the nazis, fascists, socialists, progressives look for someone to blame. And guess what? They blame the person they has placed their hopes on. It certainly looks like BO is going to get thrown under the bus. I can't imagine what he is feeling now. He started with such "great possibilities" and look at where he may end up: run over by the bus driven by his very own supporters.
So now those very BO supporters are seriously suggesting we cancel elections for 2012. Why? Well, they are fearful that 2012 will make 2010 look like a spilled glass of water compared to a tsunami. They are scared, terrified. They are trying to stop what they see as a disaster.
What a bunch of fools! What they don't realize is that EVEN if they could cancel the 2012 elections, that would not help their cause. Their cause has a mortal defect, certain failure. That is what happens to utopia in this world. And if such a drastic move, like canceling the elections, should ever happen, it would cause even more torture and turmoil for them than they already have, because what they want to happen cannot happen. It is impossible; it is utopia.
And it would not have helped to have Hilary Clinton or John McCain as president. It will not help to have a Romney or Perry or Christie as president. All that would mean is that the death of the movement would much slower and more painful. More people would have suffered a very slow agonizing death of the dream of utopia. And then despair would still have set in just like it appears to be setting in now.
But they are stubborn, if nothing else. In the face of certain defeat, in the face of utter failure, in the face of severe pain, emotional and even physical, they just keep ploughing on, even suggesting the cancellation of the obvious, failure of their philosophy, by canceling the 2012 elections or maybe even canceling 2012 altogether. Or maybe we should cancel life. After all, if utopia cannot happen, then life just leads to a black hole that swallows everything and everyone up---utter destruction.
This is sad. It is so sad to see BO in such pain. It is sad to see the socialist progressives in such pain. But what is even worse is the pain they cause everyone else, people who just want to live their lives and provide for their families and be left alone. NO, these progressives cannot leave people alone because that would be admitting their philosophy, political structure is a failure. So, even if it causes people on the sidelines pain, these progressives must press on. Yes, they are doubled over in pain, they have been severely, mortally wounded. That is bad enough in itself, but they are causing the same kind of pain for those who stand on the sidelines watching this tortuous struggle.
So what needs to be done? What can we do to end this struggle?
NOTHING! No matter what we do, it will play itself out. All we can do is triage whoever is willing to be triaged and work to soothe the pain and suffering. We cannot prevent the struggle. Even trying to prevent the struggle is a form of utopia. What our job must be is to soothe the pain and suffering as best as we can.
Rush claims that BO has given the left, the progressives what they wanted and more. And when you think about it, he has given them a lot.
But he has made them look bad. Look at the polls. Look at election 2010 and the possibilities of 2012. It does look like the country is turning against the left, against socialism, against statism, against nanny government. It seems quite evident that the majority of the country is turning against the government providing everything for them all the time. What the country is discovering is that the government is not god. The majority of the country is turning against the government because it has not provided solutions to all their problems. The majority of the country is becoming disaffected by the government because it has not given them, the people, a utopia. BO has made socialism look like an utter failure. The left, the socialists, the statists, the supporters of a nanny government are mad. And they are mad because they are scared. "What will happen to us, if we cannot get socialism/nazism/statism/nanny government to work?" They honestly have no answer to that question. "If this does not work, then the future is very bleak; in fact, it becomes a black hole swallowing everything up, including us." So their anger is just the back side of panic and fear. If a person does not know what is causing all the pain and suffering, then that person will strike out at anything close at hand. Guess what/who is close at hand! BO!!
But what did they expect? BO is not god, even though originally they may have thought he was and they treated him like he was. The lame street media is turning on him. But what did they expect?
They expected utopia. They wanted him to set up the granddaddy of all nanny governments and to make it look, smell and taste so good that all the people would fall right into step and everyone would be happy ever after. Sounds like a fairy tale, doesn't it?
You know what! It is a fairy tale. We cannot have utopia on this earth. It shall not happen. BO did not realize this when he started this trek. He honestly thought he could transform America to create a utopia in this world.
What he did not do was read history, even recent history. Why did the Berlin wall fall? Was it because President Reagan was so tough and strong? Not really. He was tough and strong and a very good president (not a perfect one, but a good one). What caused the Berlin wall to fall, what will cause nazism, fascism, and now "progressivism" to fall is that all these philosophies are mortally defective. They have their own destruction planted right in their seed. The mortal defect is that such utopia is impossible. It is a pipe dream. It will collapse under its own weight.
In a way, I feel sorry for BO. He was led on by many who used him to try to accomplish their goals and when he ultimately fails, as he will because of the mortal defect of his philosophy, he will be their fall guy. He was set up by those who supported him. Some who originally supported him are now saying: "I guess he was not ready for the job." Others are saying he compromises way too much, that he just does not have the guts it takes to be a statist, socialist, nazi, fascist president. Whatever! He just did not get the job done.
The problem is that not even Hitler, Stalin, Tsetung, Castro, FDR, Mussolini, Woodrow Wilson, etc. could get it done. Why not? It was because progressivism has a mortal defect: it cannot happen. And when it does not happen, the nazis, fascists, socialists, progressives look for someone to blame. And guess what? They blame the person they has placed their hopes on. It certainly looks like BO is going to get thrown under the bus. I can't imagine what he is feeling now. He started with such "great possibilities" and look at where he may end up: run over by the bus driven by his very own supporters.
So now those very BO supporters are seriously suggesting we cancel elections for 2012. Why? Well, they are fearful that 2012 will make 2010 look like a spilled glass of water compared to a tsunami. They are scared, terrified. They are trying to stop what they see as a disaster.
What a bunch of fools! What they don't realize is that EVEN if they could cancel the 2012 elections, that would not help their cause. Their cause has a mortal defect, certain failure. That is what happens to utopia in this world. And if such a drastic move, like canceling the elections, should ever happen, it would cause even more torture and turmoil for them than they already have, because what they want to happen cannot happen. It is impossible; it is utopia.
And it would not have helped to have Hilary Clinton or John McCain as president. It will not help to have a Romney or Perry or Christie as president. All that would mean is that the death of the movement would much slower and more painful. More people would have suffered a very slow agonizing death of the dream of utopia. And then despair would still have set in just like it appears to be setting in now.
But they are stubborn, if nothing else. In the face of certain defeat, in the face of utter failure, in the face of severe pain, emotional and even physical, they just keep ploughing on, even suggesting the cancellation of the obvious, failure of their philosophy, by canceling the 2012 elections or maybe even canceling 2012 altogether. Or maybe we should cancel life. After all, if utopia cannot happen, then life just leads to a black hole that swallows everything and everyone up---utter destruction.
This is sad. It is so sad to see BO in such pain. It is sad to see the socialist progressives in such pain. But what is even worse is the pain they cause everyone else, people who just want to live their lives and provide for their families and be left alone. NO, these progressives cannot leave people alone because that would be admitting their philosophy, political structure is a failure. So, even if it causes people on the sidelines pain, these progressives must press on. Yes, they are doubled over in pain, they have been severely, mortally wounded. That is bad enough in itself, but they are causing the same kind of pain for those who stand on the sidelines watching this tortuous struggle.
So what needs to be done? What can we do to end this struggle?
NOTHING! No matter what we do, it will play itself out. All we can do is triage whoever is willing to be triaged and work to soothe the pain and suffering. We cannot prevent the struggle. Even trying to prevent the struggle is a form of utopia. What our job must be is to soothe the pain and suffering as best as we can.
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