Urf Day Lamentations
Pundit's Note: These are my opinion. They are borne out by years of listening and looking around. If you want proofs on this, I will not be your research monkey. Do the leg work and prove or disprove me to yourself. If you want to tell me about something and introduce some new information to me, go right ahead. Be warned, I look at human behavior and the source and take all reports with a grain of salt. What you may think is true, I may see other traits behind it.
I am not a fan of Earth Day. As a matter of fact, I'm an out and out detractor of what I see as a fraud perpetrated on humanity. What makes it all the worse for me is the ubiquitous nature (bad pun not intended) of this fraud being ramrodded down everyone's throats, especially children! These poor kids are being terrorized with images of drowning from melting icecaps, dead polar bear cubs and burning sun! I mean it's like this was produced by Monty Python. "And now the Penguin on top of your TV set will now explode."
So, why do I say that Earth Day is a fraud?
1. Man cannot, never has and never will affect the way that weather and the climate works.
A friend of the family was a Doctor of Vulcanology. He put much of man's impact on the globe into perspective for me as a kid. One small/moderate volcanic eruption will put out more pollution in our atmosphere than all mankind ever did in it's history. I remember when Mt. Pinatubo erupted in 1990ish, there was one year that we had practically no summer. It was a cold year but not so cold that it was insurmountable. Even the eruptions of Mt. St. Helens wasn't so bad. Krakatoa's explosion only dealt a blow to the world climate for 2 years. This is why mankind cannot possibly affect the atmosphere.
What mankind CAN do is poison our environment, make species extinct and generally kill ourselves off, but the Earth will survive. We can make the air impossible for us to live with. We can poison the water. We can irradiate the soil. This will not stop nature. It will adapt and survive. What it will do is change the nature in which it WILL survive, most likely without us. Nature put the dinosaurs out of business after millions of years. Will we be able to knock ourselves off in the brief period between ice ages? Could we destroy the world in a scant 7 thousand years? Hardly.
2. All the solutions for this bogus climate crisis only serve to enslave people and control them with big government.
I call them Watermelons. Green on the outside, red on the inside. They basically started with the solution: World Socialism (Fascism really) The problem was, nobody was gonna buy what they were selling. They knew they needed to create a situation where people WOULD accept their control, and started to look for solutions. Then we get Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir. Suddenly the concept of the environment having rights starts to crop up. It explodes in the 1960's under Rachel Carson's fraudulant thesis in "Silent Spring" equating bird deaths to DDT. Since then the tests have proven her theory false, but yet the laws created banning the substance continue on. Before Rachel Carson, Malaria was on the run all over the world. Mosquito populations had plummetted. You do realize of course that as pests go, mosquitos are the #1 killer of mankind than any other animal? After Rachel Carson? Malaria has rebounded as well as yellow fever, scarlet fever and many other mosquito borne illnesses. To save birds from a threat that did not exist.
So you continue on, building on the little steps created by those before you. Next, you have the population bomb theory and "Soylent Green is People!" nonsense. Hollywood gets in on the act because apocalyptic stories are always en vogue helping amplify the terror visions in adults and children's heads. You start saying things like this is a problem for the whole world. Nobody can be left out or we all die. The Ozone hole (which has been shown to have it's own cycle, and not manmade), still holds sway over many thinking CFCs did it. Then you get a crazed former VP and presidential candidate to make a slide show based on false data and force feed it into as many schools as you can as "irrefutable truth" to corrupt the minds of kids in a form parents won't notice till it's too late.
Then the ground is prepped for your solution. And the only solution to a problem this big? Government. Oppressive totalitarian governmental control over your entire life. It's a crisis covering the whole world, we all must act together or die together. That's the joke. Collectivism on the march for a crisis that doesn't exist. International agreements, treaties, limits, cap and trade, economic measures to stop you from living the life you want because they wish to control you, and this is the crisis that makes you panic enough to enslave yourselves to them.
3. The science is NOT settled, and there are many many reputable detractors showing that it has become politically manipulated for the ends of others.
Lord Monkton is often a constant source of good information on bad science. You can look up what he's found. But here's a website you can find to prove that this "sudden rise" of temperature is based on faulty data collection. www.surfacestations.org This site catalogs NOAA surface stations, where they collect data about the atmosphere and turn it into the weather reports you see on TV. For decades these surface stations have become compromised due to sprawl and poor location, but yet the data has been taken as unaffected. We need this fixed.
Oh, and the computer models? Well, small error in one of them. The hockey stick graph which is often used, forgets to take into account that the atmosphere is not infinitely deep! Yes, it has a top to it and then space! Kind of changes the parameters of the test now, doesn't it?
Garbage in, garbage out.
BTW, the NASA scientists who suddenly spoke out against this growing threat ignored by the Bush administration? They were protecting their pet project of trying to prove the effects of man-made global warming. That couldn't have had any effect on their choices to speak out, could it?
4. Those pushing the hardest are demogogues and looking for personal wealth. Many have and will profit from insane government overreach for a problem that does not exist.
This is ultimately summed up with the energy crisis the world is currently facing. Once again, it's a fraud. It is brought on by political machinations and an out and out lie of "Peak Oil". For those who don't know, Peak Oil is the theory that we have found all the easy deposits of oil, and there are no more. We have not only plateaued in oil productions, we have started to fall and once out of oil, it's all over but for the screaming. I'm not a real believer in "Abiotic Oil" or other forms of constantly renewable oil, but I do think we have been fooling ourselves in saying we looked the world over and found nothing more.
Summed up? Horse hockey. Here's WHY we haven't found more: Governments are preventing companies from looking for and exploiting new resources for political gain. Those people who are desiring the success of the Green movement are working hard to prevent cheap energy, especially hydrocarbon based energy. They want to starve the world of energy so they will enslave themselves to the nihilistic theory that mankind is the problem and needs to be depelted. Read Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six to see this theory of "mankind is evil" in action. I haven't read it yet myself, but Michael Crichton's last book "State of Fear" is basically a dissection and decimation of the whole global warming theory.
They want to force us into "effective alternate forms of green renewable energy". Bravo, good thinking. Small catch, the only thing that's really true about that statement are the words 'alternate' and 'energy'. Ethanol is neither green nor effective. It will raise food prices as it diverts crops from feeding people and will cause massive starvation if not stopped. It produces more "greenhouse gases" that petroleum. It destroys your engine, making it less reliable and breaks down easier. Most of all, it's an inefficient fuel that produces less energy than it takes to produce it. Solar is decades away from prime time, plus works only 30% of the time when the sun IS shining. Same with wind power, that requires it not be run on too windy of days for fear of breaking the turbine and blades. Not to mention the chopped up birds phenomenon.
Oh... and these are all heavily subsidized by governments, and if this money was removed, it would be far far more expensive than current petrochem or nuclear or hydro forms of power.
So why is it pushed? The people who stand to profit or who are CURRENTLY profiting from this fraud are protecting their gains. They are charletains worse than Enron ever could have been. Al Gore is profiting billions, personally, from his green energy enterprises being given your tax dollars. He also is a major shareholder in the carbon credit exchange that is due to be implemented by President Obama once the legislation is passed. Conflict of Interest? Noooooo..... I don't see any here!
T.Boone Pickens, former oilman has invested so heavily in windpower, he started putting out "public service announcements" showing how windpower is going to save America. Right, more like save his bank account.
These are frauds and charletains who should be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail, assets from these dog and pony shows given back to the people.
5. The Green Movement has become a religion. No proof is neccessary, mankind is the threat and needs to be stopped. It is anti-human and nihilistic.
If it gets cold it's proof of the globe's warming. If it gets too hot it proves global warming. This is the mantra of a blind zealot. They believe, like a Christian believes in Jesus, that the world is burning up and it is mankind's fault. You cannot debate people like this, you can only shut them down, get them out of power and isolate them. They are insane. Their religion leads towards only one end: the extinction of the human race. If they want to die as a species, they should lead the way as far as I'm concerned, I'll be following shortly after (yeah, right).
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These are the basic tenents for my hatred for Earth Day. I refuse to be caught up in such hackery, and feel that those tormenting our children should be confronted, called out and shut down. We need to seriously look at ways to expunge this religious holiday, from our nation's schools and television program. Conservatives and Libertarians who believe that government is selling us down the river have to start getting angry enough to fight back instead of saying 'yeah yeah whatever." That time has long since passed.
We need a new movement in this nation: Anti-Green. It doesn't mean that you are against clean water, clean air, food and animals. It means you are against the socialist solutions and your forced sacrifices to a nihilistic religion of death.
So when someone asks you to "Go Green", tell them "No, I've gone Black." Fight the tide of enslavement and death that is slowly creeping towards us all.
Don't go Green, go Black. It's time to fight back.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Unsolicited Punditry #7
Feel the Need, the need to Secede?
It has been coming to my mind more and more as of late, that the central government has grown out of control and has become a cancerous mass of politics. What used to be the binding glue of commonality between the states has evolved into an oppression of power run amok in our name’s sake. The people seem to have less and less of a voice as those who are in power are securing it more firmly than ever by creating a protective wall of courtiers in the government bureaucracy who wish only to continue their sense of entitlement to their current way of life. Our suffering does not matter as long as they maintain power. What used to be only a sensation only felt by radical fringes is becoming a creeping note of unease in the populace as a whole.
When Governor Rick Perry, stood on the steps of the Austin, Texas City Hall and reminded people that Texas may at some point feel the need to secede from the union, it was like a loud warning bell. Trust me, although people are trying to shout down this statement as the act of a crazed right wing radical, it is far from true. Governor Perry is putting into speech for the first time, from a respected office, a feeling that has long since been growing. After all, how long had secession fever grown in Colonial America with our founders wishing to shake off the shackles of Mother England? How many decades of the Anti-Bellum period of the US were there fights over who has the final say of how we live our lives in the form of states rights?
We have now entered our own second Anti-Bellum phase I suspect, where the stresses build and the players choose sides. The War on Terror not withstanding. We are seeing our economy collapse, with possible hyper-inflation to come. States rights having been trampled, realistically speaking, since 1865. The speed and severity of this trampling only increasing as time wears on. People who were once willing to get along with what was happening because it did not affect them, or, because they had had their senses dulled by the opiate of the masses purveyed by the media, are waking up.
What are they waking up to? Simply put? The end of their life as they know it. A consolidated central government that has franchised itself over states rights, forming a homogenous whole. You will no longer be able to “vote with your feet” to another state, for the laws there will be the same. You may be able to emigrate to another nation, but then the question becomes, who is better? Unfortunately, there almost is none better, evening this insane state of creeping oppression. Yes, we face a soft constriction of our lives to the oppression and total power of the central government.
You may ask, ‘what is there to fear?’ from this creeping ‘consolidationism’. The fears are many actually. If you disagree with a law that legalizes homosexual marriage or drug use or prayer in school, you will have no where to go. You cannot change states, you would have to become an expatriate because of this franchising of the American Way ™ over the whole land instead of allowing the 10th Amendment to take affect in it’s proper place. And of course, with a remote and insulated central government, you have very little avenue to redress your grievances. Much better paying and organized interests will be able to bury your voice without worry of reprisal. Your local authorities will be bound by central law.
That leaves the final response of the states, secession, as the only line of defense. You don’t like the way the federal government is oppressing your rights in violation of the constitution, you have to, as a population of a state, fight to leave the union. Unfortunately, precedent is not on your side, as the confederacy has shown. Although the factors then do not mirror the troubles and factors now. Secession is the final protest and threat of a state to the federal government: Change course or we will leave you, by force if necessary. I do believe we are rapidly coming to that point in some parts of this country, but we are not there yet.
To combat secession fever, the consolidationists will employ many tools to try and quash this natural flow towards the dissolution of the union. The first is already in play en masse: mockery. Yes, the traditional media outlets are in full discredit mode. They are mocking those who have the audacity to foist such statements. They are smearing character of those who even mumble such words as being treasonous, or lunatics devoid of all rational thought. They will get louder and louder as time goes by too till it is either clear that words alone will not stop people from saying it. This is the point when government will start criminalizing these words and crack down on those who push for redress of grievances in an effort to head off secession fever, at the cost of consolidated power. This will be the equivalent of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry or the Bleeding Kansas affair. They will push tensions even higher and more acutely drawing lines between friends and kin.
The question remains what would be the tipping point. That was given to me tonight by Jason Lewis in one of his monologues. The central government could dissolve any state legislature by declaring a state a disaster area and declare martial law. This I think is the key point. Trying to silence leaders of the rhetorical revolution will fail as it often causes a “hydra” like effect. For every one head cut off, two will rise. Same will most likely hold true if human character remains the same. But dissolving state governments with military force I think will be the point that goes to far. Of course a crisis of some sort will have to be manufactured or exaggerated. The willing accomplices in the major media will be all too happy to do this. They are the consolidationist’s mouthpiece. Like Pulitzer and Hearst before, they can manufacture a war out of pictures and their own elaborate exaggerations. The media are nothing if not experts at wagging the dog.
So here we sit, staring at the opening symptoms of what could ultimately become our next Civil War. What worries me the most is that instead of mirroring the American Revolution or Civil War, it will take its inspiration more from the French Revolution. When classes turned on each other with frightening ferocity, and the guillotine’s reign of terror fell heavy on all. Can we dodge such a result? Absolutely, but not until the American people stand up and take back the electoral process and political parties from the consolidationists and socialist radicals who wish to make us in Europe’s or even Asia’s image.
Those who stand on the founding principles need to fight to get back into the system they have neglected for other duties or desires. Those who see this attempt to pave over the constitution with consolidationist clap-trap need to be opposed at every turn. Their arguments debunked at even the local level. The fraud of benevolent socialism must be exposed for what it is. Run for local office, get involved in party politics, or if your party is abandoned to the consolidationist goals, join a new party willing to fight them.
If we do not stand up for what is right now, when will we ever be able to?
It has been coming to my mind more and more as of late, that the central government has grown out of control and has become a cancerous mass of politics. What used to be the binding glue of commonality between the states has evolved into an oppression of power run amok in our name’s sake. The people seem to have less and less of a voice as those who are in power are securing it more firmly than ever by creating a protective wall of courtiers in the government bureaucracy who wish only to continue their sense of entitlement to their current way of life. Our suffering does not matter as long as they maintain power. What used to be only a sensation only felt by radical fringes is becoming a creeping note of unease in the populace as a whole.
When Governor Rick Perry, stood on the steps of the Austin, Texas City Hall and reminded people that Texas may at some point feel the need to secede from the union, it was like a loud warning bell. Trust me, although people are trying to shout down this statement as the act of a crazed right wing radical, it is far from true. Governor Perry is putting into speech for the first time, from a respected office, a feeling that has long since been growing. After all, how long had secession fever grown in Colonial America with our founders wishing to shake off the shackles of Mother England? How many decades of the Anti-Bellum period of the US were there fights over who has the final say of how we live our lives in the form of states rights?
We have now entered our own second Anti-Bellum phase I suspect, where the stresses build and the players choose sides. The War on Terror not withstanding. We are seeing our economy collapse, with possible hyper-inflation to come. States rights having been trampled, realistically speaking, since 1865. The speed and severity of this trampling only increasing as time wears on. People who were once willing to get along with what was happening because it did not affect them, or, because they had had their senses dulled by the opiate of the masses purveyed by the media, are waking up.
What are they waking up to? Simply put? The end of their life as they know it. A consolidated central government that has franchised itself over states rights, forming a homogenous whole. You will no longer be able to “vote with your feet” to another state, for the laws there will be the same. You may be able to emigrate to another nation, but then the question becomes, who is better? Unfortunately, there almost is none better, evening this insane state of creeping oppression. Yes, we face a soft constriction of our lives to the oppression and total power of the central government.
You may ask, ‘what is there to fear?’ from this creeping ‘consolidationism’. The fears are many actually. If you disagree with a law that legalizes homosexual marriage or drug use or prayer in school, you will have no where to go. You cannot change states, you would have to become an expatriate because of this franchising of the American Way ™ over the whole land instead of allowing the 10th Amendment to take affect in it’s proper place. And of course, with a remote and insulated central government, you have very little avenue to redress your grievances. Much better paying and organized interests will be able to bury your voice without worry of reprisal. Your local authorities will be bound by central law.
That leaves the final response of the states, secession, as the only line of defense. You don’t like the way the federal government is oppressing your rights in violation of the constitution, you have to, as a population of a state, fight to leave the union. Unfortunately, precedent is not on your side, as the confederacy has shown. Although the factors then do not mirror the troubles and factors now. Secession is the final protest and threat of a state to the federal government: Change course or we will leave you, by force if necessary. I do believe we are rapidly coming to that point in some parts of this country, but we are not there yet.
To combat secession fever, the consolidationists will employ many tools to try and quash this natural flow towards the dissolution of the union. The first is already in play en masse: mockery. Yes, the traditional media outlets are in full discredit mode. They are mocking those who have the audacity to foist such statements. They are smearing character of those who even mumble such words as being treasonous, or lunatics devoid of all rational thought. They will get louder and louder as time goes by too till it is either clear that words alone will not stop people from saying it. This is the point when government will start criminalizing these words and crack down on those who push for redress of grievances in an effort to head off secession fever, at the cost of consolidated power. This will be the equivalent of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry or the Bleeding Kansas affair. They will push tensions even higher and more acutely drawing lines between friends and kin.
The question remains what would be the tipping point. That was given to me tonight by Jason Lewis in one of his monologues. The central government could dissolve any state legislature by declaring a state a disaster area and declare martial law. This I think is the key point. Trying to silence leaders of the rhetorical revolution will fail as it often causes a “hydra” like effect. For every one head cut off, two will rise. Same will most likely hold true if human character remains the same. But dissolving state governments with military force I think will be the point that goes to far. Of course a crisis of some sort will have to be manufactured or exaggerated. The willing accomplices in the major media will be all too happy to do this. They are the consolidationist’s mouthpiece. Like Pulitzer and Hearst before, they can manufacture a war out of pictures and their own elaborate exaggerations. The media are nothing if not experts at wagging the dog.
So here we sit, staring at the opening symptoms of what could ultimately become our next Civil War. What worries me the most is that instead of mirroring the American Revolution or Civil War, it will take its inspiration more from the French Revolution. When classes turned on each other with frightening ferocity, and the guillotine’s reign of terror fell heavy on all. Can we dodge such a result? Absolutely, but not until the American people stand up and take back the electoral process and political parties from the consolidationists and socialist radicals who wish to make us in Europe’s or even Asia’s image.
Those who stand on the founding principles need to fight to get back into the system they have neglected for other duties or desires. Those who see this attempt to pave over the constitution with consolidationist clap-trap need to be opposed at every turn. Their arguments debunked at even the local level. The fraud of benevolent socialism must be exposed for what it is. Run for local office, get involved in party politics, or if your party is abandoned to the consolidationist goals, join a new party willing to fight them.
If we do not stand up for what is right now, when will we ever be able to?
Monday, March 30, 2009
Unsolicited Punditry #6
The Inconcievability of Hope (with many pop culture references)
Every time I hear of a new government initiative or wrinkle to the bailouts, spending packages and government intervention, I keep flashing back to the movie "Demolition Man". Now before you think I've taken complete leave of my senses, consider the source material. A world that went through such turmoil, pain and agony they turned to anything possible to restore the peace, and fulfilled Ben Franklin's proto-prophetic words of "Those who desire peace and security at any cost deserve neither."
So, I keep thinking of a single quote from the movie when Westley Snipes, playing a horrific villain from "pre-utopian" days was set loose to end the last threats to this perfect world realizes what kind of a person it was who reanimated him from cryo-stasis. One of the best lines in movie history in my opinion: "THAT'S who you remind me of! An evil Mister Rodgers!"
This is what we are seeing the beginnings of today.
You've heard of Compassionate Conservatism?... Now let's meet it's twin sibling: Benevolent Fascism! Yes, that's right. The State is good for you, and will be good TO you! It will provide all your needs and wants. All you need to do is obey. Obey and be happy little sheep and work hard for your State.
I don't know about anyone else, but this seems to be the philosophy put forth by Jonah Goldberg in his book "Liberal Fascism". If you have seen the cover, you'll get my drift. Fascist Utopians will come, not with the strength and fury of militarism, but with a kind and compassionate yellow smiley face button. They will constrict you with kindness, feelings and saccarine platitudes and ideals of "caring", "tolerance", "diversity" and "good intentions". They won't mean to enslave you, but their ends will justify the means they use on you. It's all good, after all.
Don't forget one of the hallmarks of any totalitarian philosophy is summed up with the old joke about the World Workers Party (a stalinist front group) which is: "You Work; We Party". It's nothing less than old nobility based systems where a special class gets all the benefits, but the vast majority of civilization suffers under the yoke. Another pop culture reference that springs to mind is an episode of the BBC Sit Com "Black Adder 3" called 'Nob and Nobility'. When talking to an exiled French Aristocrat during the French Revolution BlackAdder asks him if he'd like to earn some money. The response is exactly what I see our current liberals and political class wishing: "No, I would like ze people to earn it, and give it to me."
Now P-BO is firing exeutives at GM. Only one so far, but don't worry, that I suspect is a trial balloon wrapped up in the warm blanket of "it's a condition of your bailout". How's that supposed to be comforting? I mean SERIOUSLY? How would you feel if the President of the United States said to your company and the American People at large that he would provide you capital for your business to survive... only if you resigned? I find it outrageous and untenable.
What is even more disturbing is that this successful move by the administration now sets precident. It is just a matter of time (possibly only days or weeks at the rate this administration is moving) before it is abused. If the state can fire people, I'm sorry, I meant request they resign, they may as well own the company. They are exerting direct control over it, without risk of financial investment. At what point does the administration come to the realization that it can control any business by this fiat is unknown, but when it does, we will cease to be a republic and become a "constitutional" dictatorship... till that becomes an inconveinence and is done away with as well.
Power by fiat of the state, I can see why it corrupts so effectively.
Every time I hear of a new government initiative or wrinkle to the bailouts, spending packages and government intervention, I keep flashing back to the movie "Demolition Man". Now before you think I've taken complete leave of my senses, consider the source material. A world that went through such turmoil, pain and agony they turned to anything possible to restore the peace, and fulfilled Ben Franklin's proto-prophetic words of "Those who desire peace and security at any cost deserve neither."
So, I keep thinking of a single quote from the movie when Westley Snipes, playing a horrific villain from "pre-utopian" days was set loose to end the last threats to this perfect world realizes what kind of a person it was who reanimated him from cryo-stasis. One of the best lines in movie history in my opinion: "THAT'S who you remind me of! An evil Mister Rodgers!"
This is what we are seeing the beginnings of today.
You've heard of Compassionate Conservatism?... Now let's meet it's twin sibling: Benevolent Fascism! Yes, that's right. The State is good for you, and will be good TO you! It will provide all your needs and wants. All you need to do is obey. Obey and be happy little sheep and work hard for your State.
I don't know about anyone else, but this seems to be the philosophy put forth by Jonah Goldberg in his book "Liberal Fascism". If you have seen the cover, you'll get my drift. Fascist Utopians will come, not with the strength and fury of militarism, but with a kind and compassionate yellow smiley face button. They will constrict you with kindness, feelings and saccarine platitudes and ideals of "caring", "tolerance", "diversity" and "good intentions". They won't mean to enslave you, but their ends will justify the means they use on you. It's all good, after all.
Don't forget one of the hallmarks of any totalitarian philosophy is summed up with the old joke about the World Workers Party (a stalinist front group) which is: "You Work; We Party". It's nothing less than old nobility based systems where a special class gets all the benefits, but the vast majority of civilization suffers under the yoke. Another pop culture reference that springs to mind is an episode of the BBC Sit Com "Black Adder 3" called 'Nob and Nobility'. When talking to an exiled French Aristocrat during the French Revolution BlackAdder asks him if he'd like to earn some money. The response is exactly what I see our current liberals and political class wishing: "No, I would like ze people to earn it, and give it to me."
Now P-BO is firing exeutives at GM. Only one so far, but don't worry, that I suspect is a trial balloon wrapped up in the warm blanket of "it's a condition of your bailout". How's that supposed to be comforting? I mean SERIOUSLY? How would you feel if the President of the United States said to your company and the American People at large that he would provide you capital for your business to survive... only if you resigned? I find it outrageous and untenable.
What is even more disturbing is that this successful move by the administration now sets precident. It is just a matter of time (possibly only days or weeks at the rate this administration is moving) before it is abused. If the state can fire people, I'm sorry, I meant request they resign, they may as well own the company. They are exerting direct control over it, without risk of financial investment. At what point does the administration come to the realization that it can control any business by this fiat is unknown, but when it does, we will cease to be a republic and become a "constitutional" dictatorship... till that becomes an inconveinence and is done away with as well.
Power by fiat of the state, I can see why it corrupts so effectively.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
A Bit of Unsolicited Punditry #5
This was originally posted on hannity.com forums while discussing the concept of healthcare as a right on 3-29-09. It just felt appropriate here.
***
Your rights end where mine begin.
My money is my property and I am entitled to it for it is my means in which to pursue happiness and facilitates the means in which I exercise my right to life and liberty. You want food, water, shelter, clothing, work, TV and healthcare, you need to work for it yourself and not take what is my property and deny me the way I wish to live my life and use my liberty as long as it also does not take from yours. If my life is not able to provide for my wants, I must learn to work harder and better for what I desire in my life or learn to deal with what I cannot have.
Now, I have entered into a social contract to provide some assistance to others in the form of government, but government has no more rights than I allow it. Unfortunatley our government is out of control for certain citizens have turned it into a thief to profit themselves and their own moraes and philosophies regardless of my opinion of them forcing me to participate against my will. In this same manner, I cannot require a similar sacrifice from you.
This needs to stop, and it is my duty as a citizen to do just that and stop all those who support this type of life as well. I am seriously beginning to wonder how extreme an end needs to be reached in which I must go to secure my rights in this day and age if people will not agree to follow the same social compact.
Government is a means for social harmony... not a charitable foundation or religion or experiment in utopia.
Fairness as it relates to equality of results is incompatable with freedom, equality under the law and liberty.
***
Your rights end where mine begin.
My money is my property and I am entitled to it for it is my means in which to pursue happiness and facilitates the means in which I exercise my right to life and liberty. You want food, water, shelter, clothing, work, TV and healthcare, you need to work for it yourself and not take what is my property and deny me the way I wish to live my life and use my liberty as long as it also does not take from yours. If my life is not able to provide for my wants, I must learn to work harder and better for what I desire in my life or learn to deal with what I cannot have.
Now, I have entered into a social contract to provide some assistance to others in the form of government, but government has no more rights than I allow it. Unfortunatley our government is out of control for certain citizens have turned it into a thief to profit themselves and their own moraes and philosophies regardless of my opinion of them forcing me to participate against my will. In this same manner, I cannot require a similar sacrifice from you.
This needs to stop, and it is my duty as a citizen to do just that and stop all those who support this type of life as well. I am seriously beginning to wonder how extreme an end needs to be reached in which I must go to secure my rights in this day and age if people will not agree to follow the same social compact.
Government is a means for social harmony... not a charitable foundation or religion or experiment in utopia.
Fairness as it relates to equality of results is incompatable with freedom, equality under the law and liberty.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Unsoliscited Punditry #4
Uncle Sam’s Courtiers
For a while now, I’ve become more aware of a disturbingly dangerous trend. Really I’d been aware of it since college back in the early 1990’s, but never quite pinged the radar as to what was really going on. That is the training of a political class of people. Poli Sci programs in university churn out people who want to spend the rest of their life on the public dole in a public role. Now this doesn’t sound bad till you start considering the ramifications of it all.
I suspect it’s perfectly involuntary at first. Kids and adults are desiring to make the world a better place by their own participation in it. Some intoxicated by the potential power they may wield someday and go for that express purpose into public service. As to what proportion of these people they are, I’ve no idea, but I doubt it’s more than a significant minority. Others fall into the life and just never seem to find their way out. But far too many become permanently ensconced in the bureaucracy and elected offices.
The danger starts creeping in under the guise of voter apathy and government manipulation. Administrative politicking with cabinets and the agencies often leaving large swaths of the bureaucrats and government services untouched and unchanged for sometimes many decades. The People were supposed to watch and be vigilant of these kinds of entrenchments. There was never to be a permanent class of people devoted to the service of government, only temporary services that were to be considered sacrifices by those who partook of them.
Of course, when you look at it more thoroughly, you see many of these jobs are little more than chefs and servers, and cashiers and janitorial staff, maintenance staff, accounting staff, human resource staff and many of the day to day operations of the government. So what would the big deal be anyway? It is good to have people who are good at their jobs providing the best service possible for government. The answer is that the question itself is deceptive.
There are two major threats to the American People through this current arrangement. Over time, these public servants develop a sense of entitlement and idea of class “otherness” from the rest of America. They do not have to worry about the standard stresses of business. Their pay is protected by both taxation and unions. They are safe from consequences of poor performance and incompetence except for the most egregious mistakes. There is no profit motive to protect, no real ability for the public to threaten the safety of the operation as is often the result of poor business practice and policy. The People cannot simply find another vendor for government assistance; there is no where else for them to go. A de facto monopoly by the nature of national structure. Plus, when this is compounded by federal, state, county and municipal levels of government bureaucracy, it is amplified all the more. At least elected officials have, to some degree or another, prove their worth on the campaign trail and prove their effectiveness to their electorate.
The second threat comes from unionization and organization of these services. Not only do the officials and bureaucrats have a monopoly that is not effectively beholden to the public by dint of force, it now is demanding more and more pieces of the monetary pie regardless of economic reality. Thanks to unionization of government work, it has become that public sector jobs are the best paying, best benefited jobs in the country for similar work at a private concern… but with no danger caused by poor performance. Furthermore, when the public sector unions lobby for pay hikes and more benefits, they have conflict of interest with the American People since they can use their close proximity with their fellow political classmates to gain raises and benefits despite the objections of those who actually pay them: the American Taxpayer. There is no real performance incentives or controls on when and why raises and cost increases happen. This rapidly spirals out of control, as we have seen since the creation of government unions and since 1980 when Reagan busted the Air Traffic Controller union. This was probably the last time any government union was effectively fought.
These two factors have created in essence “Uncle Sam’s Court”, the same way any king would create a group of “courtiers” to serve his needs. As long as the king is satisfied, they can do anything they want. Except with no king only related politicians who decide their own worth, there are few bulwarks against corruption, graft and other horrid aspects of human behavior and abuses of power. Ultimately the majority of the political class feels that they are separate from the rest of America as special and better than those they “serve” or “rule”.
Don’t get me wrong, the American public has been extremely delinquent in dealing with this problem and should not be excused much as well. This is partially due to ignorance, willing stupidity and the unwillingness to believe the evidence before them. Currently, the bureaucracy often pays better than other similar private sector jobs, with benefits that are the best in the nation. Low retirement ages with massive pensions that are known to be unsustainable. Benefits that extend to spouse and family at large, and this is just the highlights. The political class has created an environment that doomed to collapse, and they are doing their best to “get theirs” and get out before it tumbles down and they are held accountable.
So what are we to do? If we cannot get the apathetic public to do it’s duty towards liberty and be vigilant consistently, we must offer an alternative. Currently the best one out there is term limits. Take the choice out of the hands of people being pandered too, or benefiting from corruption. We are, after all, a nation of laws, and sometimes laws are needed to force us to do the hard things that need to happen. This is especially true when the people are being seduced by promises of personal gain to sway their better judgment.
But even if we slap term limits on elected officials that solves only half of the problem. Bureaucrats who have been in the ranks of “government service” also are problematic. This means there needs to be a maximum total time in government for all contractors, civil servants and employees. I personally like the figure of 25 years in government service at any level or elected office as a lifetime total allowed, including military service. You should be forced to live under the laws you’ve helped create, enforce or facilitate. Not only that, there should be a 10 year bar on all elected officials from any career associated with lobbying government from the private as it often leads to corruption as well. There must be time spent where inside connections need to wither and die off as to help prevent nefarious corruption from without.
Next, we should de-incentivise government service over private sector. Currently, because the private sector is not as secure as the public, it can never compete with wage and benefits offered by a monopoly like government. Although government workers should not be penalized, they should get equal benefits and wages to the mean private sector in similar jobs at about the 25%-50% percentile in the wage range for that job. If there are no private sector jobs similar, then you need to look at value and need of the job among other factors to determine salary and benefits.
Lastly, public sector unions need to be banned. Workers DO have the need to unionize, and private sectors show good reason why. But when you have a monopoly and the ability to demand nearly by fiat of taxation more money from the public, it is a direct conflict of interest and needs to be ended.
Another solution in this vein would be to privatize as many government services as possible, and put them out for bids, effectively making the government unions private with no ability to demand by fiat anymore. Allow for the creation of competing services that are non-union and see who can and will perform the duties better as to break an industry wide monopoly as well on all shops that had become privatized.
Of course, the major struggle in doing such things is the people affected themselves will band together and fight tooth and nail against any trimming of the way their life has gone regardless of sustainability. A parasite will not give up it’s growth till the host is dead, and that is too late. With the economy is going south and the private sector is getting pummeled, the public sector jobs are snug as a bug in a rug…and apparently laid eggs if you look at the current Administration’s proposed deficits. This will have to be a grass roots effort, and possibly a very long and hard struggle to pass these limitations on an out of control government.
On the other hand, we should never let a good crisis go to waste in justifying the trimming of government at all levels. Now is the best time possible to start pushing for thrift and reorganization from those who serve us. If not through this administration, the next. If not at the federal level, then try the states. If not there, try local. Work upwards, if starting at the top fails.
It worked for the radical left in the 1960’s, why not for the patriotic right in the 2000’s?
For a while now, I’ve become more aware of a disturbingly dangerous trend. Really I’d been aware of it since college back in the early 1990’s, but never quite pinged the radar as to what was really going on. That is the training of a political class of people. Poli Sci programs in university churn out people who want to spend the rest of their life on the public dole in a public role. Now this doesn’t sound bad till you start considering the ramifications of it all.
I suspect it’s perfectly involuntary at first. Kids and adults are desiring to make the world a better place by their own participation in it. Some intoxicated by the potential power they may wield someday and go for that express purpose into public service. As to what proportion of these people they are, I’ve no idea, but I doubt it’s more than a significant minority. Others fall into the life and just never seem to find their way out. But far too many become permanently ensconced in the bureaucracy and elected offices.
The danger starts creeping in under the guise of voter apathy and government manipulation. Administrative politicking with cabinets and the agencies often leaving large swaths of the bureaucrats and government services untouched and unchanged for sometimes many decades. The People were supposed to watch and be vigilant of these kinds of entrenchments. There was never to be a permanent class of people devoted to the service of government, only temporary services that were to be considered sacrifices by those who partook of them.
Of course, when you look at it more thoroughly, you see many of these jobs are little more than chefs and servers, and cashiers and janitorial staff, maintenance staff, accounting staff, human resource staff and many of the day to day operations of the government. So what would the big deal be anyway? It is good to have people who are good at their jobs providing the best service possible for government. The answer is that the question itself is deceptive.
There are two major threats to the American People through this current arrangement. Over time, these public servants develop a sense of entitlement and idea of class “otherness” from the rest of America. They do not have to worry about the standard stresses of business. Their pay is protected by both taxation and unions. They are safe from consequences of poor performance and incompetence except for the most egregious mistakes. There is no profit motive to protect, no real ability for the public to threaten the safety of the operation as is often the result of poor business practice and policy. The People cannot simply find another vendor for government assistance; there is no where else for them to go. A de facto monopoly by the nature of national structure. Plus, when this is compounded by federal, state, county and municipal levels of government bureaucracy, it is amplified all the more. At least elected officials have, to some degree or another, prove their worth on the campaign trail and prove their effectiveness to their electorate.
The second threat comes from unionization and organization of these services. Not only do the officials and bureaucrats have a monopoly that is not effectively beholden to the public by dint of force, it now is demanding more and more pieces of the monetary pie regardless of economic reality. Thanks to unionization of government work, it has become that public sector jobs are the best paying, best benefited jobs in the country for similar work at a private concern… but with no danger caused by poor performance. Furthermore, when the public sector unions lobby for pay hikes and more benefits, they have conflict of interest with the American People since they can use their close proximity with their fellow political classmates to gain raises and benefits despite the objections of those who actually pay them: the American Taxpayer. There is no real performance incentives or controls on when and why raises and cost increases happen. This rapidly spirals out of control, as we have seen since the creation of government unions and since 1980 when Reagan busted the Air Traffic Controller union. This was probably the last time any government union was effectively fought.
These two factors have created in essence “Uncle Sam’s Court”, the same way any king would create a group of “courtiers” to serve his needs. As long as the king is satisfied, they can do anything they want. Except with no king only related politicians who decide their own worth, there are few bulwarks against corruption, graft and other horrid aspects of human behavior and abuses of power. Ultimately the majority of the political class feels that they are separate from the rest of America as special and better than those they “serve” or “rule”.
Don’t get me wrong, the American public has been extremely delinquent in dealing with this problem and should not be excused much as well. This is partially due to ignorance, willing stupidity and the unwillingness to believe the evidence before them. Currently, the bureaucracy often pays better than other similar private sector jobs, with benefits that are the best in the nation. Low retirement ages with massive pensions that are known to be unsustainable. Benefits that extend to spouse and family at large, and this is just the highlights. The political class has created an environment that doomed to collapse, and they are doing their best to “get theirs” and get out before it tumbles down and they are held accountable.
So what are we to do? If we cannot get the apathetic public to do it’s duty towards liberty and be vigilant consistently, we must offer an alternative. Currently the best one out there is term limits. Take the choice out of the hands of people being pandered too, or benefiting from corruption. We are, after all, a nation of laws, and sometimes laws are needed to force us to do the hard things that need to happen. This is especially true when the people are being seduced by promises of personal gain to sway their better judgment.
But even if we slap term limits on elected officials that solves only half of the problem. Bureaucrats who have been in the ranks of “government service” also are problematic. This means there needs to be a maximum total time in government for all contractors, civil servants and employees. I personally like the figure of 25 years in government service at any level or elected office as a lifetime total allowed, including military service. You should be forced to live under the laws you’ve helped create, enforce or facilitate. Not only that, there should be a 10 year bar on all elected officials from any career associated with lobbying government from the private as it often leads to corruption as well. There must be time spent where inside connections need to wither and die off as to help prevent nefarious corruption from without.
Next, we should de-incentivise government service over private sector. Currently, because the private sector is not as secure as the public, it can never compete with wage and benefits offered by a monopoly like government. Although government workers should not be penalized, they should get equal benefits and wages to the mean private sector in similar jobs at about the 25%-50% percentile in the wage range for that job. If there are no private sector jobs similar, then you need to look at value and need of the job among other factors to determine salary and benefits.
Lastly, public sector unions need to be banned. Workers DO have the need to unionize, and private sectors show good reason why. But when you have a monopoly and the ability to demand nearly by fiat of taxation more money from the public, it is a direct conflict of interest and needs to be ended.
Another solution in this vein would be to privatize as many government services as possible, and put them out for bids, effectively making the government unions private with no ability to demand by fiat anymore. Allow for the creation of competing services that are non-union and see who can and will perform the duties better as to break an industry wide monopoly as well on all shops that had become privatized.
Of course, the major struggle in doing such things is the people affected themselves will band together and fight tooth and nail against any trimming of the way their life has gone regardless of sustainability. A parasite will not give up it’s growth till the host is dead, and that is too late. With the economy is going south and the private sector is getting pummeled, the public sector jobs are snug as a bug in a rug…and apparently laid eggs if you look at the current Administration’s proposed deficits. This will have to be a grass roots effort, and possibly a very long and hard struggle to pass these limitations on an out of control government.
On the other hand, we should never let a good crisis go to waste in justifying the trimming of government at all levels. Now is the best time possible to start pushing for thrift and reorganization from those who serve us. If not through this administration, the next. If not at the federal level, then try the states. If not there, try local. Work upwards, if starting at the top fails.
It worked for the radical left in the 1960’s, why not for the patriotic right in the 2000’s?
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