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.

 

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?