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.

 

President Obama has apparently decided not to decide what to do with the recommendations presented to him by the on-the-ground commanders in Afghanistan. Not doing anything is the decision, but rather than standing up and plainly stating his intentions in front of the American people and the men and women  of our military who are voluntarily putting their lives at risk to help the Afghan people find their own way to self-government, the President has chosen not to choose.

It seems Mr. Obama believes that nothing must stand in the way of his domestic agenda, nothing must distract us from the propaganda war his administration and most of the media is waging against the wishes of the majority of the people he promised to serve when he took office. Until we achieve his socialist dream of "free" healthcare for all, nothing else will be done. Apparently, he is willing to sacrifice almost everything on our behalf to achieve this goal, including freedom of the press, freedom of speech, private property rights, defense against enemies foreign and domestic, and whatever or whomever might stand in the way.

Since he took office, though, he never actually states his real intentions, never tells us what his actual agenda is. He shifts the blame and the decisions around so that he can never be held accountable for anything. He speaks to us in bromides, clichés and platitudes. We have to look to his past to find out what he believes and what his intentions are, and we have to look at his carefully selected mentors and advisors to see where he wants to take this nation. If you look, if you see, if you listen, you will discover that it is a place where most of us don't wish to go.

 Let's see, since Obama took office we've nationalized some banks, given some car companies to the labor unions, apologized for being a force for freedom in the world, begun destroying the value of our currency, and demonized anyone who disagrees with the President's agenda, just to name a few of the most outstanding achievements. Now, the Administration has decided that there are some laws we should just ignore, like the ones that make possession and use of marijuana illegal. We will only ignore them in certain cases, of course, but ignore them we will. I thought it was the legislature's job to make the laws and the President's job to enforce them. This must be more of that "change" we heard so much about.

If these keeps up, even if Republicans manage to put some slightly-right-of-center candidates into office in 2010, and they, in turn, try to reverse some of the damage already done to the country, the Obama administration will just ignore any legislation they don't like. Goodbye, Nation of Laws. Hello, Cult of Personality.

 

In the contest for the most oppressive state government in the U.S., California has again chosen to punish its law-abiding citizens with new gun control legislation. You have probably read the news that the governor has signed into law a bill that requires all pistol ammunition sales to be face-to-face transactions, and that such transactions must be recorded, including fingerprints and a driver's license number. It's another triumph of symbolism over substance.

The purported purpose of this law is to reduce instances of crimes where guns are used. In reality, of course, it is just another step towards complete control and eventual confiscation of all guns in the hands of the non-criminal citizens of the state. Criminals will ignore this new law along with all the other laws they ignore such as those against robbery, murder, burglary, car theft, etc. Criminals are criminals so that's what they do. The only thing that will change is that all the people who are not criminals will now find it more difficult to defend themselves from those who are.

The right thing to do would have been to make it easier for honest citizens to defend themselves, not more difficult, but when, in recent memory, has California Government gotten anything right?

 

I believe that it is a well-known fact, or at least it used to be, that whatever sort of behavior one rewards is the sort one would expect to see more of. If you reward production, you get more production. If you reward virtue, you get morally upright behavior. If you encourage thrift, you will get financial responsibility. Likewise, if you teach people to think for themselves and give them the resources to find the answers to whatever questions they might have, you get intelligent, resourceful individuals able to make rational decisions based on available information. In this manner, people become productive, valuable members of a group. They contribute to the survival of themselves and to the other members of the group. When the other members of the group behave similarly, the group prospers and grows, not because it's a group but because every member is contributing something to every other member, some one thing and some another depending upon what each member chooses to do. Some of the members of the group decide to grow food, others mine the earth and bring forth raw materials which can be made into tools, others make tools, others use the tools to make other tools which help make everyone more productive, and so it goes. Some of the members have big ideas and so they get help from some other of the group members to set these ideas into motion. Together they are able to create things they couldn't make by themselves, projects and forms and constructs that sprang from imagination and were brought into being by productive people who learned to think for themselves. People who know that if anything is to be done it will only be done by way of hard, honest work. And they take the hard-earned fruits of their labors and they exchange them for the fruits of the labors of other members of the group. They have no desire, nor interest in taking anything which they have not earned in some way, or for which they have not given fair exchange. These are people you would be proud to call friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Most people are more like this than not.

What would happen if you chose to reward the opposite of all of the above items. What if you rewarded sloth and depravity? What if you encouraged debt and spending? What if you chose not to teach, but instead to dictate? What if you discouraged independent thought, rewarded thoughtless emotion instead of rationality, distorted and disparaged the available information? What would happen to your group? What would the members have to exchange with each other? What sort of things would be created? What ideas would the group set into motion? It wouldn't really be a group anymore, but more of a mob. It would need to be controlled from without since it had no direction from within. It would be easy to control, since the mob produces nothing but is instead dependent on those who do produce for its survival. If you give the mob what it needs, it will be your friend, right up until the time when the needs of the mob become more than you can provide. At that point you will have anarchy and chaos, where those who produce are consumed by those who have been taught not to produce. But it happens slowly, so slowly that you might not even notice it until the balance tips and the chaos is inevitable.

Perhaps it's time to consider which direction we are headed at present and decide if that is really where we want to go. Perhaps it's time to ask ourselves a more fundamental question. Which group do we wish to belong to? Do we want to be a part of the group that creates, produces, contributes, gives, earns and lives? Or do we just join the mob?