What happened to the people who would stand in front of the crowd and say exactly what they meant to say, who spoke with certainty and conviction, who had examined the problems that they were proposing to solve and could set forth a way to attack those problems that everyone could understand?

Where are the people of moral conviction who are willing to stand up and speak the truth to their fellow men and women, who can tell the difference between good and evil and can explain that difference to their fellows, who know what is wrong or right, who know why it is wrong or right and are willing to stand up and say so?

Where are the people who know the difference between freedom and slavery, between independence and dependence, between winning and losing, between surviving and succumbing; who can make a decision based on the concepts of freedom, independence and survival as opposed to slavery, dependence and failure?  

Where are the people with confidence in their fellow men and women to do the right thing, to step up and help move things forward; who know that a people with good leadership, along with goals that lend themselves toward survival and principles that lead to independence and responsibility will quite willingly contribute all their strength and all their energy to achieving those goals and living by those principles?

Where are the leaders today? The very concept of leadership has deteriorated to the point where we don't know where to look anymore. Those people who purport to be leaders aren't offering any concrete plans to solve the problems facing this nation. Instead they offer platitudes, bromides and generalities, or they blame the problems on someone else and offer nothing of their own. Neither our President, nor his advisors, have a clue as to how to increase prosperity, reduce our national debt, grow the economy, keep the peace, or solve any other problem we are currently experiencing. No, on the contrary, President Obama, his advisors and his minions in Congress only offer less freedom, higher taxes, fewer incentives, more government control, more restrictions, more obstacles and more confusion.

Where are the people who understand that more government is never the answer to any problem involving human freedom and prosperity? Government produces nothing, adds no value to the economy, and can only take away and restrict already existing freedoms. Where are the people who understand that government needs to get out of the way and let people get on with producing and trading and living and thriving?

Where are they? I don't see any of them in our current administration, nor do I see any in the House or in the Senate. I don't see any in the current crop of candidates seeking election in November. Perhaps the people we need aren't politicians at all. Perhaps they are business men and women and artists and spiritual leaders.

Could it be that the people who would make the best leaders for this nation are already hard at work trying this keep this ship-of-state afloat, providing the products and services we need to survive in this modern world? Could it be that they don't have the time to make speeches, appear on television and radio, or any of the other tasks required to make themselves into viable candidates for public office? Or could it be that they realize that once they declare themselves a candidate for some elected position, they would become a target for the muck-raking, disparaging, character-assassinating, destructive news media?

Who could blame those people, the productive, moral, law-abiding pillars of the community, for not stepping down into the slimy, stinking pit that politics has become? They're already doing their best to keep us from economic and social collapse in the only ways they know how, in the only ways that work, by producing and providing and creating and employing, by setting an example among their fellows. They are laboring among us right now, and the United States Government is doing its very best to suck the lifeblood from them, because the only way that government can survive is by taking the wealth from those who create it and appropriating it for its own needs. If government protects and encourages the producers and the creators, then everyone wins. However, if government takes the wealth from those who create it and gives that wealth to those who do not, then ultimately production and creation will be destroyed. Thus does the society fall, and the economy collapse, and then whatever remains will feed upon itself until there is nothing left for it to eat.

We must turn from this self-destructive path before all of the productive, creative people have been destroyed. We must elect leaders who understand the fundamentals of a free, creative and productive society. We must elect leaders who have read and understand the Constitution of the United States and are willing to enforce it as it was written. We must elect leaders who understand the meaning of personal responsibility, who are willing to stand upon their principles, who can tell a right action from a wrong one, who will do the right thing, even if it isn't the popular thing to do. We must elect leaders whose principles cannot be bought, sold or traded. We must elect leaders with a proven record of honesty and integrity. Unfortunately, it's probably going to prove very hard to find people of this caliber who are willing to serve in public office, given the reputations of the previous holders of those offices. And if we do find them, we'll have to help them clean up the muck and corruption that has become attached to most public positions. It's a job worth doing, though, a job challenging enough even for the most able of leaders. With the right leaders and enough support for them, we can turn this country around and make these United States a place our Founding Fathers would be proud of. If they showed up here today, I'd be rather embarrassed by what they'd find, wouldn't you? We've made an awful mess of what they originally created. Still, the founding principles are right there for us to read and there may yet be enough time for us to re-dedicate ourselves to those principles and see that they are applied. It'll take some work, but most of us aren't afraid of hard work as long as we can see that it's for a good cause. What cause could be better than to take out all the trash and restore our country to a place we can all be proud of?

 The President of the United States is nothing if he is not a leader. One of the tasks of the leader of these United States is to further the goals of the nation which he leads by reminding members of that nation what those goals are, making suggestions as to how best to achieve those goals, and inspiring fellow members to live up to those goals. The Founders of the United States of America laid out those goals in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Those men acknowledged that the purpose of government is to secure the unalienable rights which are endowed to us by our creator. Among those rights, they told us, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They also acknowledged that government derives its power from the consent of the governed, not from divine right, not from the President's notion of what is best for us, and certainly not from any dictator's idea of how to control a population. That is why those brilliant men, who had seen what happens when a nation's leadership becomes all powerful, wrote a Constitution for these United States. The Constitution lays out the rules government has to follow in order to allow the citizens to enjoy their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. The Constitution was designed to protect the people of the United States from too much government burden.  The President, the Vice President, the Senators and the Representatives, among others, have all sworn an oath to play by the rules found in the Constitution.

The Constitution has as its purpose to ". . .establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity . . ." It is within this framework that the President should lead and inspire his country to secure the aforementioned life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. That is how this country was intended to function.

There is no provision in the Constitution for the President to blame his predecessor for the current state of the union, and a Leader couldn't be bothered to waste time looking for someone to whom he could attribute the nation's problems. No, a Leader would gather data, consult with experts, carefully evaluate the situation and then propose a solution, one which would move the nation towards it goals, one which would endow its citizens with more life and liberty and more ability to pursue happiness.

A Leader would say to his people, "Look, here is what the government can do within the bounds of our Constitution. Government cannot and should not solve your problems for you. That is your responsibility. Government's job is only to insure that you are not constrained in your efforts to exercise that responsibility. Government can't create a job for you, only private enterprise can do that. Government doesn't create any wealth, it can only destroy or protect wealth. Government's job is not to provide you with food, clothing or income. Government's job is to protect your right to provide those things for yourself and to assure an atmosphere in which it is possible for you to do so. Government's job is not to decide what is best for you to eat. It is your job to seek out the experts in nutritional science and decide that for yourself.

"In short, it is not this government's job to do anything at all for you with the following exceptions: 1) Defend the borders from foreign invasion, 2)Provide a structure in which legal conflicts can be fairly heard and decided, 3)Provide a way of controlling and removing the criminal element from within your midst, and 4) Stay out of the way while you get on with living, loving, producing, consuming, trading, creating, inventing and otherwise exercising your right to pursue happiness.

"From now on, the Federal Government is only going to do what the Constitution says it can do. Everything else is going to be up to you. We will be cutting taxes and eliminating all those programs which should be done at a state, city or community level. I recommend that the states and cities do the same, cut taxes and programs and let the people of this great nation get on with living, get on with solving their own problems, get on with working things out among themselves, because those abilities are what have kept this nation alive for 230 plus years. This is what the people of the United States of America do best, they solve problems, they create new and better ways of doing things, they exceed expectations, they provide help to those in need, they flourish and prosper, they build, they beautify and they succeed. From now on the Federal Government is going to get out of the way and let the people of the United States of America do what they do best."

That's what a Leader would say. We don't have one of those at this time. In Barack Hussein Obama we have a delegator, a man waiting for someone to solve his problems for him, a man seeking someone to blame for the conditions in which he finds himself, a man in need of adoration and admiration, a politician, a committee organizer. What is required of a Leader is the ability to make decisions, propose solutions, accept responsibility, inspire confidence and encouragement, recognize and acknowledge ability, and move the nation forward.  Barack Obama is President of the United States in name only. He is not leading this country. He is not preserving, protecting or defending the Constitution of the United States, instead he is ignoring that document. He is in violation of his Oath of Office.

It is time for the people of the United States of American to roll back the Federal Government and return it to its proper functions as described in the Constitution. Only in that way can we regain our Lives and Liberties and, thus, be free to Pursue Happiness. Only in that way can we remove the pervasive web of parasitic bureaucracy with which we have allowed ourselves to be burdened. We must rid ourselves of the oppressive and invasive rules and regulations, the fees and taxes, these barriers that make it ever more difficult for us to produce and provide the good and services which we need to survive and prosper. We need to get government out of our way.

Why does a species become extinct? Primarily because it can't adapt to changing conditions in its environment. If you base your source of nutrition on only one specific type of plant or animal and, for some reason, that plant or animal is no longer available, you die of starvation. If the ambient temperature must be within a certain narrow range for you to survive, then when it suddenly gets warmer or colder and you can't find a way to warm up or cool down, you die. If you can only live under the water and the water dries up or if you can only live in the air and you are submerged in water, you die. If you can't receive and store information about changes in your environment and use that information to predict what will happen in the future, you will eventually become the victim of your environment. Most animals operate in this manner. They can't control their environment, nor can they predict or adapt to changes therein. The more successful species do indeed adapt and make themselves at home in a changing environment, as evidenced by rats, coyotes, some birds and lots of insects.

The human species is rather unique in its ability to adapt the environment to its needs, rather than adapting to it. Using our intelligence and creativity, we have the ability to find ways to survive nearly every place on earth and under almost any conditions. If humans are deprived of their intelligence and have their creativity inhibited or destroyed, they become subject to all the liabilities of being a simple animal.

If you took a young human and allowed it to grow to adulthood without attempting to teach it anything useful, but instead taught it that humans are no different than any other animal on earth, that they are only a collection of chemicals incapable of true creativity, that any desire for achievement and accomplishment is bad for the other humans because it makes them feel bad, that all humans are the same and so all deserve to receive the same things from life, that suffering is a virtue, that poverty is good and striving for abundance is evil, that possessions are meaningless and degrading, that no one ever really wins or loses, that activity and enthusiasm need to be controlled, that obedience is good and questions are bad, that you only get this one chance at life and then it's back to the dirt from which you came, then you would have made a very, very good start in rendering that young human incapable of survival. If you then declared the human spirit to be a thing of fantasy and tried in every way to remove it from the public discourse, if you made nothing of all those who would infuse their fellow humans with a sense of right and wrong, a sense of moral behavior, of honesty, integrity, loyalty, courtesy, dignity and honor, you'd have gone a long way towards convincing your fellow humans that they are indeed inferior to animals and should be eliminated from the earth. If you then managed to convince your young human that all thought was illusion, that all effort was futile, and that nothing it could do would make any difference, you'd have created a rather perfect slave, just waiting for you to tell him or her what to do next.

Of course, when everything you are trying to teach your young human is based upon a lie, you won't get quite the 100% result you are trying to achieve for your bold new world. You can't eliminate the spirit by saying it doesn't exist. Oh, you can suppress it, sure, but you can't kill it. There will always be that spark of creativity, that irrepressible flare of unexplained ability, which shines like a beacon to those who can still see. Even in the darkest of times there are those among us who shine and think and lead, who create, who build, who encourage, who act. The truth is that each of us has the potential become able. To be "able" is to think, to decide, to create, to solve, to enrich, to enlighten, to enjoy. The only way to kill the spirit is to get him or her to agree that they're dead. The lie only works if one agrees with it. You and you alone are responsible for what you have become. To the extent that you have agreed with the lie, that is the extent to which you have become unable. So, disagree. Create something, make a decision and stick with it, solve a problem, think a thought, express an emotion, make a speech, write a letter, talk to a friend, talk to a stranger, go for a walk, light up a dark place, build a house, go to the moon, build a dam to control a river, light a fire to keep warm, grow your own food, start a business, invent a new product, start a movement to make government responsible to the governed. Adapt the environment to better suit your needs, it's what we spirits do best. We aren't here to wait around for someone to do something for us. We need to do things for ourselves.  Take control, move mountains, tame lions and set an example for your fellow beings of what it is to be an indomitable spirit!!

 I recently had occasion to stand outside the entrance to the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank while union members who work in some of the Disney hotels in Anaheim were parading up and down the sidewalk protesting their lack of a contractual agreement with the company. As they walked, they were led in a number of chants by an individual with a portable P.A. system. The leader would start the chant and the membership would respond. One of the chants began: "We make the magic," with the response being, "Not Mickey Mouse." I was immediately struck by how thoroughly wrong that statement is and by the multitude of ways in which is it wrong. Taken literally, it is absurd, or course, but even if you allow the chanters some poetic license to have Mickey Mouse represent the entire Walt Disney Company, it is still about as wrong a statement as can be made.

Now, I am sure the union hotel workers do indeed contribute to the care and comfort of the guests who come to Anaheim to visit the Disneyland Resort, but to claim that they "make the magic" that is Disneyland is just silly. Sadly, though, the leadership of those socialist organizations that we refer to as "unions," have managed to convince their members that the "sacred" worker is the originator of all products and that all good things flow from the hands of the union laborer. Their leaders tell them that the company executives are just parasites living off the fruits of their labor, and that they, the worker, should make the rules. Nowhere does the union leadership give credit to the vision, the creative spark, and the dedication and sacrifice that is required to bring an idea into the marketplace. Somehow the end product simply springs to life at the hands of the collective labor force. Ideas are nothing, labor is everything.

This sort of nonsense is quite typical of Leftist political philosophies, where the heart has run amok and the mind is irrelevant. Feelings, needs, wants and desires rule the political Left. The actual creators, the problem solvers, the producers and the leaders, on the other hand, though they have a heart and all the feelings that go with that concept, realize that intelligence must guide their heart, that actions have consequences, that creation requires discipline and dedication, that freedom requires responsibility and that there "ain't no such thing as a free lunch." Sadly, union leaders fail to educate their membership in the realities of the marketplace, that wages and benefits must somehow be offset by production and value added to the company's products. But then the very concepts of living within one's means, or that you can't spend more than you make, or that a debt comes with an obligation of repayment, all seem to have been forgotten. Ignorance is only bliss, though, until the bills all come due. When the cost of labor and benefits exceeds the value in the marketplace of what is produced, then eventually there must come a day when there is no money left to pay those bills. The company goes out of business. The workers are not needed anymore. Did the union help the company survive so that the workers could continue to have their jobs? Will those workers now be able to create, produce, market, sell and deliver a product that someone will buy? I think not. So, who does make the magic?

 A friend of mine e-mailed me the other day with a request by an organization in need of photos showing the effect of the U.S. commitment in the Middle East. This organization was looking for scenes of deterioration and poverty and joblessness to use in a video showing the results of war on U.S. citizens and the economy. She commented that though she hadn’t investigated this organization she didn’t like war because it was “wasteful.”

I thought about her comments for a moment. My first reaction was to think to myself, “No one likes war, especially those people who are fighting and dying.” When I looked at the website of the photo-seeking organization I discovered that it was a left-wing anti-war organization wanting to make a video specifically against the war in Afghanistan. Again, I found myself thinking about war and the fact that sometimes it seems to be a necessary action when there are threats to life, liberty and property to an otherwise peaceful people.

Sometimes war is simply self-defense, not much different from the action one would take if a criminal broke down the front door of your home while you were inside. Sometimes it’s a choice between your life and someone else’s and you can either die or you can defend yourself. Of course, self-defense doesn’t always, or even necessarily, require deadly force to accomplish its purpose, but when confronted with the threat of loss of one’s life, there is sometimes no other clear choice. If another person is actually attacking you with a weapon capable of ending your life there is sometimes no choice but to use deadly force in defense. Even then, there is a choice of rendering the attacker incapable of continuing the attack by disabling him/her, or by killing them. No one except the criminally insane has any desire to simply kill anyone who attacks them, but sometimes it seems to be unavoidable if one is to survive such an encounter.

The same is true of war. In other words, contrary to the bumper sticker slogan, sometimes war is the answer. When it seemed every other car in Los Angeles had a “War is not the Answer” sticker on the rear bumper, I made up one of my own which said, “Not the Answer? It Depends Upon the Question.” It does indeed depend upon the question or questions. If a nation or a group or a movement arms itself with deadly weapons and expresses a desire to invade, conquer, or take possession of another nation, group or country, a great many questions may arise. Governments question other governments, citizens question each other and their governments, diplomats meet, negotiations are attempted, but, after all the questions have been asked and answered,  the fact is that there is evil in the world and it must be indentified for what it is and in one way or another eliminated. Certainly war is an act of the absolute last resort, especially for a democratic republic such as ours, but when all the other possibilities have been explored and the choice is between loss of sovereignty and freedom, sometimes war is the answer.

 The optimum way to wage war is with swift, precise and overwhelming force with a specific goal and purpose which when achieved will result in the elimination of the threat and the evil behind it. However, no matter how good the plans or how perfect the strategy or how large the force of arms, war is always deadly, bloody and destructive. No sane individual likes the killing and destruction that is war, but if evil is to be confronted and destroyed, then sometimes it is necessary to kill and destroy those who create and support it. Until the day comes when there are no more individuals, groups, religions or governments that desire to conquer, subjugate, oppress or otherwise inflict punishment and death upon those with whom they disagree, war will sometimes be the only answer. So, don't break down my door and threaten my family, and don't cross the U.S. borders and threaten my country, unless you are willing to suffer the consequences of your actions.

 

When I'm driving along on the Los Angeles freeways and I observe one of those careless, inconsiderate, speeding, lane-changing hazardous drivers, I will often remark that I don't mind if bad drivers kill themselves in their cars, but I don't want them to take me out as well. I feel the same way about the careless and foolish people in powerful positions within the United States government.

History clearly shows that all forms of tyranny result in disaster for the economies and societies over which they rule. Conversely, on those rare occasions when the market is allowed to operate freely and when people are allowed to make their own decisions, guided by a moral code, economies and societies flourish and prosper. Always, when there is a trend toward less government control and more individual freedom, people's lives get better. When productivity is rewarded, the result is more productivity. When it is penalized, you get less of it. When upright, moral behavior is rewarded, again, you get more of that sort of behavior. When sloth, depravity and criminality are tolerated, or even praised, rewarded and applauded, you'll see lots more of it.

More and more, we have federal and local governments which tolerate and reward all sorts of criminality, sloth and depravity. Under the influence of those people who try to find justification and approval for their own crimes, we are told that nothing is our fault, no one is responsible, that human beings are simply helpless victims of their environment. Our elected officials pass laws making it a crime to differentiate between good and evil, between survival actions and suicidal actions, between moral and immoral. It is a hate crime to publicly proclaim immorality as such. One exposes oneself to public condemnation if he holds criminals responsible for their own actions. Morality, Christianity, patriotism, loyalty, integrity, and honesty are subjects of ridicule to many high ranking officials and media commentators.

None of this would be a problem, if it only affected the politicians, criminals and commentators who espouse this philosophy of moral equivalence. Unfortunately, in their rush to change this once great nation to one where all behavior is tolerated and no judgment is allowed, they are driving the rest of us off the cliff along with them. It's time to revoke their license and get them off the road so that the majority of us can begin to repair the damage that has already been done. The election of 2010 is a good place to start, but we can't afford to wait until November. We must find candidates who have read and understood our Constitution and are ready to enforce the limitations on government which our Founding Fathers wisely included in that document. We can't let mainstream media control the message, we must make sure we run and elect principled, courageous candidates and we must hold them accountable to the people who elected them. We can no longer afford to allow someone else to decide what is best for us, we must take the wheel, assume control and never again allow government to have this much power. It isn't too late, it's never too late, but it would be much more desirable to accomplish this without any bloodshed. Let's have a peaceful revolution this time, while we still can.

 Does history actually repeat itself? At first glance, it would certainly seem that occasionally it does. On the surface, it appears that the Obama administration is offering a  Progressive agenda very similar to that which Franklin Delano Roosevelt imposed upon this nation. The proposed healthcare legislation does seem to be an expansion of the socialist programs which FDR saddled us with half a century ago. Throwing taxpayer money at problems best left to the private sector to solve was also a favorite tactic of that era, as was the concept that government should be thought of, and looked to, as the solution to almost every problem. So, yes, it would seem that history could indeed repeat itself, except for a couple of new twists that may be the key to saving us from ourselves.

First of all, we have access to a great deal of information about the consequences of all those Progressive programs. We can look at the statistics and see that instead of making things better, all the make-work programs, the welfare handouts, the redistribution of wealth, the confiscatory tax rates, and the government's attempt to control the economy and the banking system made things worse, deepened and extended the depression and slowed the recovery of the private sector. So, we know from history that the Progressive road simply leads us off a cliff and leaves us to make our own way back out of the abyss.

The other thing we have going for us that we didn't have back before WWII is talk radio, cable TV and the internet. With these tools, we have the ability to access information and communicate with each other at speeds and levels that only science-fiction writers envisioned. We can instantly research and verify almost anything we are told by our government, and when we find that what we are being told is less than true and less than factual, we can report on what we've found broadly and immediately.

If we use the tools we have, our knowledge of history, our ability to obtain information and our ability to communicate, we can make the truth known and nullify any would-be propaganda effort our government might attempt to use. We can call into question the personal histories of the people involved, we can show the actions of government as opposed to the words that flow from our alleged representatives, we can turn over the rocks and we can shine lights into the dark hidden places. In the United States of America, we can turn back the forces that would oppress us, shout at those who would silence us, and create our own bright future. We can look at our founding documents and insist that our leaders hold them sacred and apply them in the manner in which they were intended to be applied, to limit and hold in check the very government that our founders established. Our Founding Fathers knew that governments tend to expand and take more and more control of the people's lives. They gave us a Constitution as an attempt to prevent that expansion and maintain the freedoms so dearly won. That is our best tool, the Constitution. It's up to us to see that our country returns to the foundations upon which it was built. It is our Country to keep, our freedoms to maintain, or ours to lose.

 If you want to know what the United States Government is up to, stop listening to what our leaders say and start watching what they do, or what they don't do. For example, President Obama has finally made a decision in regard to our commitment in Afghanistan, he's sending half as many troops are requested and has informed the enemy of the date their withdrawal begins. In addition, the administration has decided that the fate of the POWs in GITMO should be decided by a civilian court and that the prisoners deserve all the rights of American citizens.

What else has this current administration done? Well, they seem to have taken over and are currently managing two car companies, along with a few financial institutions that were "too big to fail." The President has asked those who disagree with him on his desire to put government in control of the health insurance industry to just shut up and get out of his way. Our President has also encouraged members of Congress to pass without reading this massive legislation that would put government employees in control of a great many aspects of our person lives, such as what to eat, how much exercise to get, how best to raise and educate our children, what health services we can purchase and more.

President Obama has travelled the world bowing and shaking hands with dictators, tyrants and madmen, enemies of freedom, all the while snubbing, insulting and ignoring our allies. He has apologized for all the things we have done right and ignored or belittled the anniversaries of our triumphs and victories. He has surrounded himself with advisors who are avowed Communists, Socialists, and Marxists. He has embraced a philosophy wherein those who produce the wealth of this nation are the enemies of those whom they willingly employ, that those who own the companies which provide the goods and services that make life possible in an urban society are not the creators of wealth but the suppressors of their employees. Instead of uniting the citizens of the United States, he has divided them. He demonizes the productive and successful people of this country to garner support from those who are increasingly dependent upon government handouts. He is bankrupting the national treasury and undermining the morale of the last, best example of a free nation on this planet.

Look at what he has done to this great nation in just a few months. Can you see where we are headed if we maintain this course? Are you willing to give up your freedom to make your own decisions about your own physical and mental health? Do you think that your government, or any government, knows what is best for you? Is qualified to make decisions for you? It isn't. The founders of this great nation gave us, through our Constitution, a representative republic. They knew that government should be limited and muzzled. They knew that moral, productive, educated individuals were, and are, the key to the survival of this nation. They knew that governments tend to expand their control of the citizenry and attempted to limit that tendency. For a time, they succeeded, but through the years the "progressives" have undermined the foundations that were laid down by our Constitution to the point, today, where we have elected a President and a Congress who believe that it can now be ignored, that the Bill of Rights, those first ten amendments, were simply suggestions and no longer apply to this modern world. In reality, that Bill of Rights has never been more important and it is up to us to hold our elected representatives accountable to the principles enumerated therein. If is up to us the remind them that this is a Representative Republic and that they, as representatives, work for us, the citizens; that they each swore an oath to uphold the Constitution; and that they are responsible for upholding the principles outlined within it. If our representatives fail in their obligation, then it is up to us to remove them from office and replace them with someone who fully understands the duties and obligations one has as a citizen of the United States of America. As citizens, it is our responsibility to remind our representatives of their obligations, daily if need be. It is our country, we own it and we must insist that those we choose to represent us hold true to the ideals which have made this country great.

Instead of attempting to force-feed a series of unwieldy and unworkable legislative acts down the throats of the American people, the President might want to consider letting the free market come up with its own solution. Unless public education, political correctness and moral equivalency have entirely killed the American Spirit, we, the people, ought to be more than capable of solving our own problems without being misguided by the Federal Government. Solving problems is what we do.

Need an inexpensive automobile? Henry Ford steps out of the crowd and figures out how to make one. How about some long distance communications? Or a way to generate power by splitting atoms? How about powerful, inexpensive desktop computing systems? Anybody ever heard of Steve Jobs? Or Bill Gates? How about a system of government that gives its people the maximum amount of freedom with the minimum amount of government interference? Yes, that's another American invention.

Instead of acting as if he were ashamed of American Exceptionalism the President would be much better served if he were to embrace it. Instead of suppressing input from entrepreneurs and innovators in the private sector, the President should welcome it, encourage it, recognize it as a likely source of a solution to nearly any problem. Instead of attempting to stifle debate, he should encourage it, demand it. President Obama, instead of attempting to force Americans into some sort of mold from which we would emerge as quiet, obedient followers, eager to comply, should encourage us to do what we do best. And what we do best is come up with creative, innovative solutions to heretofore unsolvable problems.

Set us free, Mr. President. Turn the problems over to the American people and let us get on with the kind of work we have always done. Government, by its very nature, is incapable of doing creative work. Groups don't create anything. Individuals do that. Get out of the way, Mr. Obama. Get out of the way, Legislators. Get out of the way, Judges and lawyers. Set us free to create, innovate, inspire, produce, and expand. Turn the work over to someone who knows how to do it and has a proven history of getting it done. Set us free!!

 

There is nothing new about this battle we are fighting to keep the United States of America a free and prosperous nation. It has been going on since before we had a Constitution. There have always been those who believe that they know what is best for their fellow citizens and, in spite of any evidence to the contrary, sought the means to superimpose their vision over whatever current agreements might exist, by force if necessary. Dictators, monarchs, and tyrants all would have us believe that what they envision as their ideal form of government is so superior to whatever has existed heretofore that anyone who disagrees must be eliminated. There have been utopians and socialists gnawing at the roots of freedom since government was invented. Sometimes they succeed for a time in controlling parts of the planet and the residents therein. Sometimes they are forestalled for a time, as has been the case in the United States, but the battle continues to rage. The forces of freedom (that's you and I, by the way) cannot allow themselves to become victims of this latest assault on our unique republic. Our Constitution was designed to protect our freedoms and to limit the scope of government, we the people need to enforce the Constitution and return government to its proper role as a servant of its citizens and prevent it from become our master.

We have come to a point in our history where the size of government in the United States has grown to an unsustainable level, yet the scope and vision of this huge leviathan has become self-serving, narrow and shortsighted. Our Founders saw this possibility on the horizon and sought to prevent it by giving us limited constitutional government. They also left us their reasons and philosophy in the legacy of their writings. They knew that the tendency of government is the grow larger, impose more control, tax away the products of productivity, and restrict freedoms. They told us that without a fundamental moral code such as that outlined by our Judeo-Christian heritage, the republic would not work. The Founding Fathers, you see, had studied history and knew what evils government was capable of.

Over the last two hundred plus years, we the people have allowed government to gradually take away our freedoms. By granting government more power and giving it more responsibility we have made ourselves dependent upon government for such basics as retirement, medical care, clean water, clean air, wholesome food and self-defense. Once you give away power and freedom to the government, you will find that it is very difficult to get them back. Look back at our history and see how far we have diverged from the republic our Founders gave to us.

In 2009, the citizens of the United States are viewed more as objects than as people. Government now seeks to control the people rather than lead them. Instead of seeking cooperation, this administration wants to enforce agreement with whatever plan it might have. President Obama seeks obedient followers rather than willing participants. In American today, the government has decided that man is no different than any other animal, with no spirit, no creator, no future, no hope, no need to be consulted. Creativity is an illusion, self-awareness is only a bit of low-voltage electrical activity in the brain, emotions are only the result of chemistry, and man is just a hairless ape with delusions of grandeur. The problem with all of this is that it's a lie.

In spite of what you are told by the media on daily basis, and contrary to what you might have been taught in public school and college, you are not a soulless automaton, nor are you a hairless ape. You are not a random collection of chemicals and electrical impulses that arose from the primordial slime. What you are is a spirit, a soul if you like. You are a thinking, feeling, powerful being, unique in the universe. You can make your own decisions on how best to survive. You don't need the government to tell you what to do, or provide you with a job, or defend you. You can do all that for yourself. As a matter of fact, you absolutely must to that for yourself, because if you don't, if you give the responsibility for your own well-being to the government, you will find that you have lost it. No government can take responsibility for you. Government is not a thinking, feeling being. Government cannot exist without your permission and without your help and you can choose to withdraw that permission and that help at any time you wish. You can decide that your government is not serving your best interests and you can withdraw your support. You can demand that your government change its course and you can seek out and find others who will likewise make the same demand. You don't have to agree with President Obama, you don't have to agree with your Congressman or Senator, you can make up your own mind. You can observe for yourself whether your government is leading you toward survival or towards destruction and you can demand that it reverse course. You have the power. The government belongs to you, it serves at your discretion. Take back control of your government, because if you don't, rest assured that it will most certainly control you.

That's right, it's too late. Too late to take back all the information that has been published in books and on the internet. Too late to remove the vision of a free society that the United States of American has given to the rest of the world. Too late to stop people from thinking for themselves, from doing their own research, from studying both sides of an issue, and making a rational decision. Too many people own a copy of the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence. Too many people own too many books and too many have actually read most of them. There is too much knowledge available and no way to stop people from getting more of it. It's too late, unless we choose to allow ourselves to be led down a path to darkness.

If we choose to put responsibility for our lives into the hands of government, if we choose to be silent when our freedoms are threatened, if we decide someone else knows what is best for us, if we fear so much for our own lives that we choose slavery over liberty, if we choose to be helpless rather than to be a helper, then we can be conquered. If we sacrifice our moral code on the altar of political correctness, we will lose the battle. If we let our own good judgment be subverted by moral equivalency and agree that there are no right or wrong actions, no incorrect answers, no consequences to our actions, we are doomed to a world of misery and hopelessness. If we reward irresponsible behavior, if we stigmatize the whole concept of responsibility, if we punish productivity, belittle moral behavior, condemn those who speak the truth, restrict the free flow of information, and stifle debate, than we are lost.

But we do have a choice and it's too late to forget all the virtues that made The United States of America a place where people can still succeed, can still speak their minds, still worship God or not as they choose, can still get the information they need to decide what is best for themselves, their family, their neighbors and their country. We still have enough information available to us to be able to see whether our elected representatives are leading us toward survival or toward destruction. We can compare the words of the Constitution and the writings of the men who debated and created that very unique document with what we see happening today and decide if we are going forward or backward. We can look at those fundamental beliefs on which this Nation was established and see where they have been undermined, perverted and destroyed. And we can still see the glimmer of what makes the United States of America unique among all the nations on this planet. In spite of the progressives, the socialists, the communists, the fascists, in other words, in spite of those who would dictate to you your every action, our fundamental virtues have remained. And though you are continually bombarded by a news media who would have you believe otherwise, you are still able to practice those fundamental virtues. You can still choose not to steal, or murder, or commit adultery, or lie, or be dishonest in other ways. You can evaluate the actions of your representatives by the light of these fundamental virtues and decide if they are worthy of your support, and you can withdraw your support if they prove unworthy. You can still make your own judgments based on whether or not any given action will lead more towards survival of those things you value, or whether such action will destroy those things.

It's too late. You have the freedom. You have the knowledge. You can't go back to being ignorant or uninformed. You live in the United States of America and because of that you have a choice. You can choose to keep your freedom by supporting those who contribute to your own survival and that of your fellow citizens, those who reward virtue and productivity, those who would continue to support your ability to make your own decisions about how best to live your life. Or you can give it all away to some government employee and let someone else tell you how to live. You can choose responsibility or slavery, and you can look at history to see what each of those choices will bring to you. Only by acting can you choose freedom and responsibility. You can study history, listen to what your representatives say, speak your mind, write to your representatives, join like minded people to make your voice heard, evaluate the candidates and the issues and vote. Or you can choose to do nothing and give those who would enslave you a free hand to do so.

 I read a brief report the other day about how some psychiatrists were revisiting LSD and other hallucinogens to see if there might be possible health benefits available from their use. Yes, that's right, the same folks who created ADHD so that they could chemically lobotomize whole classrooms full of bored school children, now want to see if adding LSD, pot, ecstasy and other mind-killing drugs to the mix will complete their mission of reducing the human race to mindless, obedient robots.

When, in all of human history, did drugging people into zombies do anyone, other than those doing the drugging, any good? Apparently, the horror that is our public education system isn't working fast enough to create the slave army we need, so we need to drug the ones who are still thinking for themselves to complete the process. And if the drugs we have now aren't enough, let's revisit some of those old-fashioned ones that we know will do the trick.

Anybody see a trend here? We've got some sort of mandatory health-care on the near horizon. This will almost certainly include mandatory mental health screenings. The psychiatrists, in partnership with the drug companies, are constantly creating new names for normal behavior so as to be able to label that behavior as a syndrome and thus prescribe medication to control it.  Welcome to your mental health screening.  Worried about the direction the Obama administration is taking the country? Take this pill. Angry at the level of corruption and irresponsibility of politicians at all levels of government? Here, this pill will calm you down.

Believe me when I tell you that none of these things have anything at all to do with creating a healthy mind. They have everything to do with creating a population that can be easily and readily controlled, dominated and indoctrinated. You see, when it was discovered that you could simply give someone who was bored and inattentive a drug that made them docile and compliant, then you didn't ever have to address the reasons that they were bored and inattentive. You could get a roomful of quiet students, content to listen to whatever you wanted to tell them. Now you could give them the information they needed and they'd never question it's veracity or it's applicability. When it's time to take the test, they'd be able to parrot back the data perfectly. Never mind that they couldn't apply any of this data to do anything useful. Never mind that some of the side effects of the drugs are homicidal and suicidal tendencies. Never mind the jump in suicides and homicides. You got what you were after. You got quiet, docile, students indoctrinated with the knowledge that government is good and that all problems can be solved by the government. Now, it's time to start on the parents. Welcome to your mental health screening.

 

It's been said that you can't legislate morality, and I believe that is true. Morality must be adopted and practiced by each individual by choice, with full knowledge of what is and is not moral. Moral behavior constitutes those actions which contribute to the survival of oneself, one's family, one's community and ultimately all mankind, as well as one's living space. Those actions which cause the destruction of these things can be considered immoral. Defending oneself and others from destruction would be a moral act. Taking by force, life, liberty and property from an individual or a group would be an immoral act. To the degree that our laws and our legal system aid in our survival they are force for morality, but moral behavior has to originate with the individual. Threat of punishment does not create moral behavior. Thus, legislation is the attempt by a society to enforce an agreed upon moral code, but the moral code came first.

It appears, though, that it may just be possible to legislate immorality. If legislation gives the government the power to take property from one individual under threat of force and give that property to someone else, that legislation, constituting theft, would be immoral. Making it possible for some individuals to live off of the efforts of others with no exchange of value, is a fundamentally immoral act. Unless the contribution from one individual to another is voluntary, that transfer of property constitutes robbery. Likewise, removing an individual's right and means to defend his own life and property from those who would take it by force is immoral. It would seem that anything a government does beyond defending an individual's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is technically immoral.

 

What the heck is wrong with saying "NO" to all the recent moves by the Obama administration to bring socialism to the United States of America? It's perfectly appropriate for Conservative Republicans to shout a resounding "NO!!" to government bailouts of private corporations, government takeover of banks and insurance companies, and government-run healthcare. All of these actions are completely beyond the scope of the Constitutional powers granted to the United States Government.

If this makes the Republican Party the party of "NO," then so be it. Wear the name proudly. Carry giant signs with only that word on them and stand outside the Whitehouse. In fact, why not just surround the entire perimeter of the White House with people all carrying signs that say "NO!" Perhaps, then, President Obama would start to get the idea that anyone who actually understands where he's taking this country doesn't actually want to go there. No, we don't want to be like France, or Canada, or England. No, we don't want a bunch of government clerks and regulators making our healthcare decisions for us. No, we don't want the government to decide where or on what we spend our hard-earned dollars. No, we don't want the government spending our money on social programs which keep people dependent upon them forever. No, we don't want more and bigger government.

What we want is less government, more freedom, lower taxes, more responsibility, fewer regulations, less government control, more private industry, more entrepreneurs, fewer bureaucrats, few government services, and less interference in our lives. What we want is for government to get out of the way and let us do our jobs, live our lives, make our own mistakes, suffer the consequences of our own actions, and rely on the good will of our friends and neighbors for help when we are in trouble. We can handle it, and we can do it a cheaper and more efficiently than any government will ever be able to do.

 

To the Republican Campaign Committee,

If you are wondering why contributions have fallen off and people are hanging up on you when you call them for donations, have a look at the NY-23 Congressional race. This is a perfect example of why the Republican party is in trouble with its base. As long as the moderate (read liberal) wing of the party is making the decisions on which candidates to support, you will continue to have trouble.

As soon as you start engaging this administration and the noisy Democrats in the Legislature, as soon as you start backing candidates who reflect the views of your Conservative base, watch your donations skyrocket, and watch the enthusiasm return. As soon as you give us candidates to cheer for, candidates who are unashamedly Conservative, candidates who are not afraid to disagree with the Obama administration and its thinly disguised goals to subvert the Constitution and create a Socialist "paradise" in the United States, then you will see what can happen when you campaign on principles, on the fundamentals of what made American the shining beacon of freedom on this planet. Give people someone to cheer for, someone who will champion their beliefs, someone with the intestinal fortitude to stand up for our Republican platform of smaller government, lower taxes and more freedom. Give us candidates who are proud of their beliefs, who are proud of our history, who believe in the power of the individual over that of the collective, who celebrate American Exceptionalism, who believe that the Constitution means what it says, and who aren't so much interested in "getting along" as in doing the job they were elected to do. Give us those kinds of candidates and we'll win. We'll win because voters will be excited about those candidates, because they'll be voting for someone rather than against the other party.