Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-03B: Government “health care”

Posted on 2014-01-15 by TPOL Nathan

The entire idea of government health care gets sillier and sillier by the day, as more and more people realize what a ride they’ve been taken on – and how they are NOT allowed to stop the train or truck and get off,  like that woman in the LA area who had to jump from a moving police car to get away from her arresting-molesting cop.

Abominable Act (ObummerCare)
HHS: 5.6M of 6M Who Signed Up on Exchanges Will Get Federal Funding
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: More and more troubles for our beloved “messiah” and his signature plan that was to get him anointed in the history books forever, eh?  Not only this, but it is also pointed out that only 25% instead of the 40% of the critical, low-maintenance 18-35 year old age group was in the six million that signed up.  That 40% is essential, so that the older ones signing up can suck the younger’s blood to pay for the thing.  Ain’t gonna happen:  Millennials would rather pay the penalty than get sucked into another Social Security scam.  Meanwhile, Uncle Sugar continues to bleed ALL of us dry, and this piece of garbage just speeds up the process.  Theft, theft, and more theft, and they can’t leave well-enough alone.

Mama’s Note: Since the older folks didn’t set up this scheme, it is hardly fair to characterize them as “blood sucking.” In any case, even if the 6 million figure is accurate, and even if it were composed only of seniors (which it doesn’t seem to be), there is a big disconnect with the rest of the 300+ million strong population. And that is very good news, of course. This is one batch of kool-aid that most people are not prepared to swallow. But, as I’ve said before, this “failure” was intended, to set us up for the next part.

Theft by government – Ex-minions of the “messiah”
Former DOT Secretary LaHood: ‘Let’s Raise the Gas Tax’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Always thought this guy’s name was appropriate. Once more, he shows what a thug (hood, hoodlum) he is.  I just wrote an analysis of the demand for more government spending, especially by local and state agencies; this is right along with the demands for more local funding.  The excuse is roads and bridges and the trillions of dollars of backlogged/deferred maintenance and repair, but the WAY this money will be used is to subsidize all the good-feely, unmarketable dreams of the controllers:  more bike paths, more hiking trails, more “alternative transportation” like light rail and fancy trolleys and so forth, more “street art,” and more dubious environmental “improvement” projects.  And of course, government agencies will grow their (nonproductive) budgets, contractors will get rich on unnecessary work, and politicians will line their pockets with more campaign cash, all sucked out of taxpayers’ pockets.  It is GOVERNMENT that makes the most profit from selling a gallon of gasoline at $3/gallon or a gallon of diesel at $4/gallon:  nearly 60 cents on average, while the dealer: the guy or gal who owns and operates the fuel station, might get 5-10 cents.  Who is gouging whom?

World wars: State Department Stupidity – Culture wars: Same-sex “marriage”
Kerry ‘Deeply Concerned’ By Nigeria’s Ban on Same-Sex Marriage
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Sure wish he were as concerned about the way Muslims in Nigeria kill more and more people every Sunday.  But his masters have told him what his agenda is, and he’s sticking to it.  Like Edwards, like Dukakis, like Teddy and others, the man’s brain cells (what he had) have atrophied into something that probably resembled dead, dried-out coral, and we are lucky that he doesn’t just collapse into a drooling blob as he walks out of the plane on one of those foreign airports.  Of course, that COULD be fun.

Congress in action – Culture wars: “Homosexual marriage”
Prompted by Utah Gay Marriage Case, Weber Introduces Bill to Protect State Sovereignty
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Too little, too late, Mr. Weber.  The cows are out of the barn.  Of course, if you and the others in DC and the Fifty State capitols had been more concerned about your vaunted “state sovereignty,” then this case would not have even shown up.  If you and the others had done ANYTHING serious to restrict government, this would not be an issue today.  But you sold out… and will do so again.

Politics 2014
Feds investigating Christie’s use of Sandy relief funds
(CNN)  Just days after dismissing two top advisers for their roles in the George Washington Bridge scandal, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is facing questions over the use of Superstorm Sandy relief funds. CNN has learned that federal officials are investigating whether Christie improperly used those relief funds to produce tourism ads that starred him and his family….

Nathan: Do YOU smell a rat?  I surely do.  Sounds like the Dirty Tricks Department has decided that Christie needs to be taken down several notches, and that the White House is doing the same thing that the NJ governor’s staff did to Fort Lee…

Mama’s Note: I just love it when politicians fight…  As for White House “dirty tricks,” it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy than Christie. He just radiates sleaze.

Local government tyranny – Theft by government
Analysis Of National Data Finds No Benefit To Red Light Cameras
(The Newspaper.com) Peer-reviewed statistical analysis finds insurance industry data actually proves no benefit to red light camera use.

Nathan: Apparently, once again “science” has been used to lie by twisting the way a study was done and coming up with false conclusions.  I know we should be used to this, but too many people have this deep, abiding (and totally misplaced) faith in science.  And too many people in government and contractors who salivate with greed know that.  So they keep on doing things like this.

Mama’s Note: I have a feeling you mean the original “studies” used to “prove” that the red light cameras would save lives. The analysis by the insurance industry, itself suspect in many ways of course, seems to mesh with what has actually been happening wherever these cameras are used.

Economy 2014

NFIB (National Federation of Independent Businesses) [Hardcopy magazine, not found on line] survey participants were asked what is the single-most-important problem facing their business:

  • 29% said “poor sales.”
  • 22% cited taxes
  • 15% cited “government regulations and red tape”
  • 7% cited “cost and availability of insurance” — which IS a government-created problem.
  • Only 4% cited availability of credit.

Nathan: My oh my. isn’t it great that we spent billions in bank bailouts in the last six years to keep the lines of credit open, isn’t it?  Small (Independent) businesses know (or should) that one of their worst enemies is GOVERNMENT.  The government does not like small business, as they are just that: independent.  They do things without making sure that their campaign contributions and other donations to government, government officials, and government employees are up to date.  They are harder to force to do things, unlike national businesses which can go from profitable to bankruptcy in a matter of a few days of negative media coverage.  And since their margins of profit are small, they are not the cash cows of the big, multinationals.  No, government really does NOT like small business, and so regulations are slanted against them (except for a very few, really heavily publicized ones that really don’t help that much).  Of course, government, being collectively stupid, is always skating the edge – or coming close to butchering the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Culture wars: killing babies
Planned Parenthood Did 1 Adoption Referral Per 149 Abortions
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Making sure that supply is always less than demand?  Which is why people go to Vietnam, China, and other places to adopt when they find themselves childless?  Keeping population down, of course.  Keeping a demand for border jumpers to do work, also.  And according to some reports, keeping crime levels down.  Ah, the love of the Tranzis for their rituals and sacraments!

Mama’s Note: Abortion is still a very personal decision made primarily by the pregnant woman, regardless of the agency, and many factors influence their decisions. I highly doubt that immigration or population control are included. Those may figure into the agenda of the agency, of course, but I suspect it is far more a matter of money. The good news is that abortion numbers seem to be falling, and that most people believe abortion is wrong or a serious problem.

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What’s going on? County and Tribal Government Deteriorate Still More

Posted on 2014-01-14 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton – with commentary by MamaLiberty

Looking back to 2013 and in the first few days of 2014, one trend stands out very much to me, and to a number of the people I work with, on projects, politics, and religion.

That is very much the decline in the quality of local government, especially county and tribal governments.  I’ve seen it in municipal governments, as well, and we have ALL seen it in state governments and DC.  But the situation is accelerating, or so it seems, in local governments.  Some of it is stuff that has just come out, and in some pretty big cities, but has been going on for a long time, like the New York City-centered arrests of 100 first responders who have been bilking the taxpayers of $400 million dollars in bogus disability payments.  And like that scumbag mayor of Toronto (now running for reelection on his record) or the similar mayor of Detroit or tribal officers tried and convicted of forging checks after nearly killing themselves by DUI.

I am going to avoid names and locations, simply describing events and persons.  I’d appreciate some feedback, to see if we all are noticing it.

I won’t address the fact that police forces seem to be raging out of control in more and more places, tazering people with abandon, beating (kicking, slapping, thumping, throwing them against walls and floors), and just outright shooting people (even children) in cold blood, and one even said, “because we don’t have enough time for that.”  City (and other) police forces are a bad idea anyway, because they don’t even have an elected leader or chief: supposedly the boss is always a “professional”  and a “sworn officer,”  reporting to a bunch of (or just ONE mayor or city manager) cruddy civilian pukes.  Not that elected Sheriffs are much better these days; for one thing, they almost ALL have to have years of experience as “sworn officers” and “professional law enforcement” to even be allowed to get on the ballot.  As with all other elected officials, they supposedly have the power of incumbency AND a following of trained thugs, but when do you hear about the electors recalling one?

No, I think I need to address the growing incompetency, greed, and power-madness of those “cruddy civilian pukes” and their counterparts:  city council members or aldermen or board members; tribal officers or council members or delegates; county commissioners or directors or judges and their like from the tip of Maine all the way to San Diego and Guam.  Oh, and don’t leave out school district board members, directors of special districts, and various and assorted APPOINTED officials from dog-catchers to treasurers and town clerks and health department bosses and so forth.  Anyone with a tiny bit of (steadily increasing) power: anyone who is becoming less and less productive and therefore more and more a parasite, from county road and bridge superintendents and town engineers to social workers and welfare directors and – dare I whisper it? – county extension agents!  I would like to think that there are places they aren’t that bad, and since I only pay a lot of attention to a hundred or so municipalities and counties and tribes, there probably are  a few good ones here and there.  But I sure ain’t seeing them.

Nor are my friends and associates and correspondents.  I had one business partner ask me this week, “Nathan, how do we keep electing good guys who turn out to be corrupt, stupid b******s as soon as they get into office?”  Another was telling me, “that council [in a tribe] has two hundred years of business and management experience, and ever’ durn bit of it got washed away between election day and when they took over.”  (Sounds close to jokes Mama Liberty and I were making about brains and Congress and such.)

Here are some examples:

A tribal council where the members have turned on each other to the extent that they are impeaching one another – since multiple impeachments of the tribal president have not given them enough excitement and change.

A county commission which started its term in office by immediately (and without any planning or examining the consequences) fired the longtime county attorney AND his aide, and THEN decided to see if they could hire a new one.  Their reason for firing him?  Basically, he was too old and tired.  They then followed up by angering their county administrator so much he quit – effective immediately.  The next year, again without planning for transition they fired both the road superintendent and his deputy.

Another tribal counsel allowed a minor dispute over who authorized a private company to cut down a tree on privately-owned land (which was in trust) to turn into a situation where an unscrupulous council member was able to avenge “an insult to his ex-wife” by causing the tribe to spend more than $200,000 more to build a trash facility than they would have needed to if they had awarded the contract to the low bidder – which also happened to be owned by tribal members, instead paying $200K more to an outside, Anglo-owned firm.

Another county which created an elaborate bureaucracy with half-a-dozen employees, most of whom used their positions to threaten people that they didn’t like, and which created such a mess that attempts to develop property and even build new buildings and houses dropped from 100 a year to less than 10 a year.  One by one, they fired the planning and development employees, or they quit, until today, the only employee left is the receptionist/clerk who used to work for both the planning department AND the road department.  But in the process, the corrupt county administration and commission bankrupted their county, drove businesses to their deaths, and in essence destroyed development.

There are hundreds of other examples, and some have been going on for decades, but the trend is obvious:  local governments are more and more dysfunctional and provide less and less service to their constituents.  Things are going downhill rapidly, and we better learn to live without them.  Even a rollback to 1950s level will trigger massive temper tantrums among their residents/enrolled members and businesses, but if not done, there may be virtually NOTHING surviving.  (Which isn’t necessarily a bad idea, except that states and the fedgov would try to take on the responsibility themselves.

And we don’t need that.

Mama’s Note: The fulcrum is the power to tax. None of this tyranny and insanity would be possible without the ability to confiscate the productivity and property of their far, far more numerous victims. It could not happen without the false “authority” to redistribute that wealth, and distort the economy as they do today.

The amount of theft, corruption or insane behavior is only incidental to the core problem. People have been conditioned, for many centuries, to believe that the “rulers,” the elected “officials” and their stooges have some legitimate authority to do what they do. When all is said and done, most people can see absolutely no alternative to the tax, spend and control type government, and most don’t even look for one.

The “war lord” with brute force, the “divine right” of kings, and lately the vast fraud of socialism and “democracy” of all flavors, have all been used to impress the common people that they have no real authority over themselves in the long run, and that they have no real choice except to hope for the least harmful tyrants. They have been convinced that, in the end, the government actually does own them and, by extension, everything they have or ever will have – including their children.

The Most Dangerous Superstition, by Larken Rose, gives the best and clearest description of this false belief. The truth is that nobody has any legitimate authority over another person without their consent. Each person owns their own life, body, and is personally responsible for themselves and their voluntarily chosen dependents.

The idea that there is no need for rulers, officials or tax collectors is fairly new, but is gaining strength. Self ownership, and self government is the ultimate answer, and that’s why our non-voluntary government hates and fears those who choose to own themselves and refuse to be slaves any longer.

But we outnumber the tyrants and their goons significantly. When enough people give up this most dangerous superstition of “legitimate” tyranny, they can begin to find liberty and justice for all.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-03A: Regulators (stupid government)

Posted on 2014-01-14 by TPOL Nathan

Stupid government – Regulators
West Virginia Chemical–Spill Site Avoided Broad Regulatory Scrutiny
(Wall Street Journal) The site of a West Virginia chemical spill that contaminated the water supply for 300000 people operated largely outside government oversight, …

Nathan: It is not hard to imagine what the response to this chemical spill is.  It is of course the usual panic, and with lots of screams of “we MUST have more government control,” and “we MUST pass new laws to prevent this from ever happening,” and of course, “We MUST punish this company and all the people that let it happen.”

But that is NOT going to solve the problem:  this plant was under government oversight at the county, state, and federal level for more than 20 years, in one of the states with the highest concentration of government agencies and regulators in the nation, and subject to tens of thousands of pages of regulations.

All these regulations and oversight were SUPPOSED to keep something like this from happening.  And they failed.  As with gun laws that do NOT prevent aggressive gun violence, and harm peaceful and innocent people, these laws, most on the books for forty years or more, have FAILED.  It is time for something different.  The best way seems to be private insurance companies, who can keep track of their clients and would be liable for ANY actions.  When there are companies who have a vested interest in NOT letting things like this happen – where profits and jobs are on the line – and where the companies canNOT just get “permits” to allow things to happen that would otherwise be illegal, then this won’t happen nearly as much.

Stupid government – Regulators
DOE Plugs Energy Rating for Homes, Similar to MPG Rating for Cars
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This makes sense only if you wish to see government expand, still more, into more and more of the economy, and have people grow more dependent.  It will NOT result in more energy-efficient homes, just in more paperwork and blather.

Stupid government makes stupid companies
Ford Introduces a New F-150 Made of Aluminum
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This is NOT “Ford has a better idea,” but rather, “Ford is getting beat on by government.  It is also crazy: doing the same thing over and over again.  Aluminum has been tried, time and again, and it just does not work.  It is not the strength, it is also the durability, and the cost.  And a whole host of other issues.  MAYBE Ford will get it right where they and Chrysler and General Motors didn’t in the past.  And maybe pigs will fly.

Mainstream Media
Study: Network News Viewers at All-Time Low; Half under Age 30 Never Watch News
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This should come as no surprise.  More and more of us are sick and tired of seeing the MSM cooking up nonsense to serve to the adoring public.  Of our family of four, my wife watches more news than the rest of us: maybe an average of a whole five minutes a day – most of which is weather.  We can listen to radio on or off line, we can READ.  And I dare say we are more familiar than 95% of television watchers – indeed, the public – with what is going on and going down.  As with newspapers, network news is less and less useful, and less and less tolerable, as time goes on.

Theft by government
New Rule Could Cut Into Restaurant Workers’ Tips
(Watchdog.Org) A new IRS rule now requires that gratuity automatically collected for large parties be added into payroll, which means that workers will have to pay taxes on the tips and wait up to two weeks to get them…

Nathan: Oh, taxes are not going up, are they?  Of COURSE not – because this isn’t a “tax increase” but just “better enforcement.”  It is STILL theft, because that is what government does.  While trying to get through a “minimum wage” increase, they steal with the other hand.

Mama’s Note: The whole “tip” thing is a grotesque joke these days in so many ways. A “tip” was originally supposed to be a gift, a way to thank an especially helpful servant. This was basically destroyed when the “tips” became part of their wages, and ludicrous when they became “automatic” and expected. I don’t go out to eat much, and I don’t travel anymore, but I have never given in to the pressure to “tip” that way, and tip only if I actually feel it is appropriate –  putting the cash into the hands of the person I believe merits it with my verbal thanks.

The “messiah” – Tyranny at work
Obama Plans to ‘Mobilize’ Americans Around a ‘National Mission’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This is right on the checklist of “how to be a successful tyrant.”  Napoleon did it, Bismarck did it.  So did Lenin and Stalin, Il Duce (Mussolini), Onkel Adolph, and all the rest.  A “national mission” becomes a jihad, a holy crusade, which allows MORE money and MORE liberty to be stolen from the people.  Making government fatter (in both gut AND head) and giving more power, and more reason to crack down on anyone who is not on board.

Stupid people and ideas
Carrier Pigeons Eyed As Way to Foil Hackers, Government Snoops
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This is what we are back to?  Give into the NSA, the FBI, all the other alphabet agencies and government contractors and private firms that want to (or have to) suck up to government? Does it surprise any of us to hear that this stupid proposal comes from a UN bureaucrat?  Or that the article talks about ancient Egyptians, Julius Caesar, and the failed “Bridge Too Far” attack in 1944?

Mama’s Note: Really, really dumb for anything beyond very local applications. The pigeons must first be taken TO the area from which the message is to be sent. As useful as they were at times in the past, that was always one major limiting factor.

Energy
Report: U.S., Canadian Energy Resources Could Provide 100% Domestic Liquid Fuel Needs by 2024
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: This assumes, of course, that the various governments will allow the fuels to be produced, and allow people to burn them.  A look forty years back to the “Energy Crisis of 1973” shows that the potential has always been there for this “100% domestic liquid fuels” but that various agencies and people have worked incredibly hard to keep it from happening.  No reason to expect that they will not continue to do so in the next 10 years.  It won’t be a direct attack, but where are the new pipelines?  the new refineries? the new rail lines and off-load facilities?  All locked up – some for decades – by bureaucracy and NIMBY-nuts who will NOT go away.

Politics 2014
Republican Party Chairman: ‘We’re a Young, Fresh Party’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Isn’t that what they advertise for hookers?

Mama’s Note: Indeed. Good grief, if “young, fresh” was all that was needed, we could install five year olds in every government office and reap far superior results.

Politics 2014 – Theft by government
Rubio: ‘Significant Number of Americans’ Don’t Have ‘Equality of Opportunity’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: That is undoubtedly true:  MOST Americans don’t HAVE much opportunity any more, equal or not, because government has stolen that along with everything else.  And the GOP has done MORE than its fair share of that theft.  Here, I assume, he is talking about just “economic” opportunity.  But let us consider some OTHER opportunity that government has stolen:  the opportunity to get a decent education, the opportunity to get good medical care of your choice, the opportunity to keep all the money you earn, the opportunity to do what you want with your property, and of course, the opportunity to defend yourself and others.

Mama’s Note: All of those things are part of “economic opportunity,” as well as every other kind. Obummer isn’t really concerned with “opportunity” at all, but with outcome – as are all statists and socialists. And the outcome is only important to them as a measure of what they can use to inspire envy and hate among the “have nots,” while whipping up the false guilt in those who “have” a bit more. It’s a ploy as old as the hills and, unfortunately, about as effective at divide and conquer as it ever was.

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Paying for Highways

Posted on 2014-01-13 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

The Tax Foundation just released a study on how states pay for highways, and you can read it here.

The National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) (in their daily e-zine) released a summary, which has some telling numbers: Only Half of State Road Spending Is Covered by Gas Taxes and User Fees

Most funding should come from user fees (such as tolls) and user taxes (such as a gasoline or vehicle license tax), so as to ensure that those who are using the roads are bearing the largest part of the cost. If funding is taken out of general revenue funds the roads appear to be free, which can lead to overuse or congestion.

I am showing their numbers as a table, and calculated out the rest:

2011 State/Local Transportation Spending

Highway user fees and taxes                                  $153.0 billion spent

State/local:     User fees and tolles                      12.7

Fuel taxes                                                                41.2

License fees                                                             23.2

Total state/local                                                     77.1 (50.4%)

Federal  Aid (mostly fuel excise tax)                 46.0 (30.1%)

General state/local revenue (general fund)     29.9 (19.5%)

Nathan: The article goes on to explain: Delaware, Hawaii, Florida and California raise at least two-thirds of their transportation spending from user fees and taxes, while in Alaska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Louisiana, most spending comes from general revenue funds.

The Federal Highway User Trust Fund (called by various names in various states) was created about 95 years ago, and originally provided federal assistance for primary and secondary roads to states, which usually passed much of that down to counties and municipalities.  In fact, virtually ALL roads in the nation are designated as “Federally Assisted Primary” (FAP), Federally Assisted Secondary (FAS), and Federally-Assisted Interstate (FAI) highways, the FAI designation coming along in the 1950s.  Originally this assistance was 10% of the cost of building and improving roads (for FAI it was, as I recall, either 20 or 25%).

Of course, this was intended to spread out the cost of roads and to balance the fact that someone buys fuel in Kansas but drives on I-70 in Missouri, and fills up again in Illinois.  And because it was politicians robbing Peter and paying both Paul and Peter with stolen money.  Oh, and it was also used by Congress to do a little bit of “social engineering” along the way.  Actually quite a bit: like destroy the privately-owned passenger railway system that once served this country, in part because the “big railroad tycoons” didn’t pony up as much campaign contributions as the auto industry and the heavy construction industry.  And in part because the highways, unlike the railroads, were PUBLICLY owned and not privately owned.  (There WERE a few privately-owned roads: all long since bought by governments.)

You notice that in 2011, the Feds pay a whooping 30%, not the 10% or 20% of days of yore.  And as always, that money has strings – cables, in fact – attached.

And THAT, of course, is the problem.  Federal and state fuel taxes (and don’t get me started on local taxes) and all the license fees and tolls and such are NO LONGER “user fees” because over the decades, LARGE percentages of this money, which is supposed to build and maintain highways for truck and car traffic, has been diverted over the decades to pay for government boondoggles, starting with Lady Bird Johnson’s highway beautification (litter control was just one part of it) and continuing to fund “alternative transportation.”  So this $153 billion in 2011 was split into a LOT of slices.  Subsidizing bus lines (especially inside cities) and handicapped on-call taxis and bike paths and hiking trails and overpasses/underpasses to serve as chokepoints (sometimes literally) for kids walking to government-ruined, theft-funded schools and light rail and more.  And worse: “public art” – things that sometimes look like what tow-trucks pull OFF the highways after a bad accident, and more.  And “safety campaigns” like seat-belt and helmet and anti-drinking campaigns.  And travel promotion campaigns (admittedly, to get people to drive more, at least in the past, and therefore buy more fuel).  And law enforcement agencies who have long rejected their origins as “courtesy patrols” to help travelers, and grandiose rest areas and “travel information centers.”  And of course, MASSIVE bureaucracies to shuffle paper back and forth, and meet all the hyperactive demands of the fedgov for red tape.  All of these little welfare schemes were added, leech-like, to the basic “build and maintain roads” scheme.

In other words, like virtually ALL government programs, it lost its way and became corrupt.

So the Tax Foundation’s recommendations are good, but not necessarily right.  The FIRST thing to do is get the spending under control.  And part of that is naturally, getting the FedGov OUT of the road business, except for those things that are actually authorized in the Constitution (which amounts to ZERO spending, near as I can figure).  Then states can fix their funding systems – and the best way to do that is to commercialize (not “privatize”) the road network, so that the money isn’t frittered away on things that have nothing to do with Truck X and Car Y going from point A to point B.

Then, we’d have one less political football, and one less reason to grow government in DC and the Fifty States.

Mama’s Note: Unfortunately, that can’t happen until the same thing is done for all government programs, spending and theft. Pandora isn’t going back into the box easily or willingly.

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Crime Rates drop except in NY DHS (Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-02E)

Posted on 2014-01-12 by TPOL Nathan

Home front – Technology
Are the Xbox and unleaded gas helping keep you safe from violent crime?
(NBC News)

Mama’s Note: And, of course, not a single word about the role played by an increasing number of people both willing and able to defend themselves.

Nathan: This is quite an astonishing list: I really AM as surprised as you are that both concealed carry AND open carry expansion in the past three decades are not also listed.  Other studies, many peer-reviewed, have indicated the huge impact.  In fact, L. Neil Smith just mentioned that, going back to 1971 in Florida, and the huge impact in Florida in just over four decades.  We’ve both seen articles on some of these “causes” and the logic and numbers aren’t always there.  For example, the causation between abortion rates and crime.  Or that between lead (based paint and gasoline additives).  Now that the last known lead smelter in the US has been closed, does that mean that crime rates will again come down?  (Of course, now that I think about it, the vast majority of those currently in power from town hall right up to the White House) were children during those lead-present eras: is THAT why they are so stupid?)  And sometimes, his logic is just plain missing.  White collar crime is STILL crime, even if the yuppies and Gen-Xer criminals prefer on-line theft to the honest old-fashioned way with a sap from a dark alley.

But the plain fact is, government and the nanny state did little or NOTHING to create this drop in crime (and of course, we are assuming it IS a real drop, not just a failure in reporting and recording – or criminal manipulation of the data), and there is NOT ONE EFFORT to try and claim “100,000 extra cops on the streets in year X” had effect Y, or “a 10% increase in spending on law enforcement resulted in a XX% drop in crime in location Z.”

And of course, I see that the author did not compare ANY of these factors to the crime rate among serving and ex-Congressmen.  That would probably not help his thesis at all.

Of course, in SOME places the crime rate is going up, like the NY DHS underground bunker:

New York Homeland Security Director uses laser target designator as pointer:(Times-Union) Jerome M. Hauer, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s director of homeland security, took out his handgun and used the laser sighting device attached to the barrel as a pointer in a presentation to a foreign delegation, according to public officials. It happened Oct. 24 in Albany at the highly secure state emergency operations center below State Police headquarters.

Nathan: This just popped up (so to speak) here.

I had to share this example of a bureaucrat’s stupidity with our esteemed publisher.  She wrote: Hmmm, and none of us can be trusted with a gun? He was, of course,  immediately tasered, or at least tackled and smashed to the floor with a thug scrum of 20 “officers” and handcuffed, facing life imprisonment…
No? Hmmmm…..

Nathan: I pointed out: triple standards: one for us, one for grunt cops (who surely would not have gotten away with this), and one for the elite.  Of course, the gutless people of NY will do nothing to squawk about this, and Swedes?  In 200 years they’ve gone downhill faster than the French. (Yes, I realize I am being disrespectful of both Sweden and France.)

Mama’s Note: You know… I missed this originally. It might well be that this was done deliberately to impress the foreign delegation with the idea that all Americans are insane, especially those who have guns. Could be…

Nathan: Of course, even Swedes are aware of the great cultural differences found in the Fifty States.  But understanding a tiny bit about the way New York State Government operates, there may be SOME strange and bizarre reason for him doing this.

Mama’s Note: Most criminals have “strange and bizarre” reasons for the things they do. Blatant disregard, or incredible ignorance of, the absolute rules of safe gun handling may be a “reason,” but of course is no excuse.

  1. Never put your finger on the trigger until you have your target sighted and are ready to shoot.
  2. Never point a gun at anything you are not prepared to destroy.
  3. All guns are considered “loaded” at all times, and treated accordingly.
  4. There is no such thing as an “accidental discharge.” All unintended discharges are due to negligence. Guns do not fire unless the trigger is pulled. (see rule #1)

On to other news:

Stupid government tricks
DOD Reviewing Its ‘Equal Opportunity’ Training–After Anti-Christian Materials Exposed
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Well, you’d hardly expect them to review BEFORE it came to light.  Several people have pointed out, with strong justification, that the DoD’s Equal Opportunity Program and the EEO officers and NCOs required to be appointed in every unit and office, are in fact the American (post-Republic) version of Political Officers or Kommissars (and are the replacement of “chaplains” mimicking the role chaplains played in the military of religious dictatorships). There is much to be said for it.

Stupid government tricks – The “messiah”
Krauthammer: ‘How Can a President Commit Troops If His Heart Isn’t In It?’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Krauthammer is speaking like an idiot here.  He knows that MANY occupants of 1600 PA have “not had their hearts in it” – or indeed, not cared about anything except what political power they keep or gain by using the troops.  No different than Congress.

Stupid government tricks – Congress in Action – Tranzis
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: Change the Word ‘Welfare’ to ‘Transitional Living Fund’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Exactly what we can expect for her.  Like using “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” (SNAP) instead of food stamps.  Liberals seem to be such childish people, who are satisfied with calling something a different name in order to pretend that it is different.  Or redefining the definitions of simple English words, to twist them into reflecting their world-view.  And the rest of us let them get away with it.

Mama’s Note: I’d say that SOME people let them get away with it. Others have been battling this problem for a long time.

First Minion – Ex-Minion – Politics 2014 (2 stories)|
Gates bashes Biden in memoir
(Washington Post) Former defense secretary Bob Gates, in his new memoir, reserves some of his harshest criticism for Joe Biden, saying the vice president is almost always on the wrong side of foreign policy. “I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades,” Gates wrote of Biden, according to the New York Times.

Nathan: Takes one to know one: Gates has a wonderful track record of being wrong on foreign affairs AND defense.  Especially when he was in office.  Biden is your typical ne’er-do-well scion of a wealthy and successful man:  a problem faced by most American family-held corporations, Mafia families, and of course, royal dynasties.  We are so LUCKY to have him.  Of course, the White House couldn’t leave well enough alone:

White House responds to Gates’s criticism of Biden
(Washington Post) In an e-mailed statement, the White House weighed in on former defense secretary Robert Gates’s judgments about President Obama’s leadership and his commitment to the Afghanistan war, as well as his harsh criticism of Vice President Biden, both contained in Gates’s new memoir, “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War.”

Nathan: Harsh?  Harsh would be exaggerating what an idiot the First Minion really is, how he is incapable of keeping his mouth shut, and how his chief talent is to be a clown. Not a GOOD clown, maybe, but a clown.  If Gates wanted to be nasty, he could have included a modification of THIS story in his book:

Last Saturday afternoon, in Washington, D.C. , an aide to former     House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the Cardinal in the Catholic cathedral in D.C. He told the Cardinal that Nancy Pelosi would be attending the next day’s Mass, and he asked if the Cardinal would kindly point out Pelosi to the congregation and say a few words  that would include calling Pelosi a saint. The Cardinal replied, “No. I don’t really like the woman, and there are issues of conflict with the Catholic Church over certain of Pelosi’s views. Pelosi’s aide then said, “Look, I’ll write a check here and now for a donation of $100,000 to your church if you’ll just tell the congregation you see Pelosi as a “saint.” The Cardinal thought about it and said, “Well, the church can use the money, so I’ll work your request into tomorrow’s sermon.”

As Pelosi’s aide promised, Nancy Pelosi appeared for the Sunday worship and seated herself prominently at the forward left side of the center aisle. As promised, at the start of his sermon, the Cardinal pointed out that former Speaker Pelosi was present. The Cardinal went on to explain to the congregation, “While Ms. Pelosi’s presence is probably an honor to some, the woman is not numbered among my personal favorite personages. Some of her most egregious views are contrary to tenets of the Church, and she tends to flip-flop on many other issues. Nancy Pelosi is a petty, self -absorbed hypocrite, a thumb sucker, and a nit-wit. Nancy Pelosi is also a serial liar, a cheat, and a thief. I must say, Nancy Pelosi is the worst example of a Catholic I have ever personally witnessed. She married for money and is using her wealth to lie to the American  people. She also has a reputation for shirking her Representative obligations both in Washington, and in California. The woman is simply not to be trusted.” The Cardinal concluded, “But, when compared with President Obama, Speaker Pelosi is a saint.”

I could not resist sharing that – it just took a while to find a story where it matched!  Thanks to Gillie for sharing it with me.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-02D: Light bulbs and News Quickies

Posted on 2014-01-11 by TPOL Nathan

Stupid government tyranny and theft – New religions: environists.
More Incandescent Lamps GO AWAY – BUT!|
(RumorMill News.com): Still smaller wattages of Edison incandescent lamps are now banned as of the first of the year.  However, there ARE alternatives.

Nathan: The Light Bulb Store of South Hackensack, New Jersey (Yes, I know it sounds like Rush Limbaugh’s “Spatula City” ads.) is offering “Newcandescent Lamps” in sizes up to 300 watt.  (PLEASE NOTE:  This is NOT a commercial endorsement; I know nothing about this company’s reputation or business, except that they are trying to provide a product, made in the USA, which sticks it to Congress, the EPA, and all the rest of the Nannies, from the heart of the evil East Coast (the “Other” Left Coast).)  Going to their websites is fun, especially their splash page, and their history page. Larry, the owner, claims to be the grandson of an associate of Thomas Edison, so they go way back.  You can buy their stuff at their customer page. (Again, this is NOT an endorsement, and I don’t know these guys and they haven’t paid me a dime, but I will probably buy some of their stuff.)

The point is, ONCE AGAIN, Congress and the White House have shoved something about the size of one of those old 200-watt clear incandescent bulbs down our throats with NO authority except the guns of EPA, DOJ, and all the rest of the hired thugs.  And made a worse mess: CFLs present significant hazards to everyone from your pet cat or dog to your kids and your grandmother.  Yes, we can deal with them, but why should WE not individually decide what and which risks we want to take?  (And frankly, spiral CFLs are UGLY and collect insane amounts of dust and grit. And unless you buy them by the pallet load, they probably do NOT break even unless you are paying 25-cents a KwHr.) LEDs are WONDERFUL – but only if you can afford to replace a 50-cent item with a $15 item.  Do you know how many bulbs you have in YOUR house or business?

Self Defense – Home front
Miami man fights off home invaders with AK-47
(NBC Miami via Eagle Rising) A Miami man is very thankful for being a proud gun owner after he was the victim of an armed home invasion. Last week three armed men entered a man’s apartment, pistol whipped him, and proceeded to beat him. At some point in the altercation the man was able to get a hold of his AK-47 and fight back.

Nathan: Details are sketchy, and the report seems to contradict itself in several places.  The Davie Police captain is a poor spokesperson, in my opinion.  But it appears that the police believe that the man (“the attacker” according to the TV) who used his AK-47 to shoot and kill one invader and either scared off or wounded and chased off two others was acting in self-defense in accordance with Florida law, since the police have released him.  (Fate of his weapon is unknown; pray he has something to deal with the other two men if they return.)

Mama’s Note: This is something I’ve pointed out to several new gun owners… if you ever actually have to use the gun for self defense, you’d better have a backup gun or you will wind up with NONE. And the way these things go sometimes, you may never get the original gun back anyway. The key, then, is to carry an adequate gun that is not too expensive, and keep at least one in reserve. In some places, that would need to be kept very well hidden.

Stupid government tricks – Stupid people tricks
San Francisco:  Can’t have anything but automobiles in your garage [?]
(Institute for Justice) In San Francisco, one of the examples of leftist policies that are just simple outgrowths of leftist philosophy, is the micromanagement of a community. In this case it has to do with your garage.

§ 603 GARAGES. [Added by Ord. 399-89, App. 11/6/89; amended by Ord. 161-92, App. 6/4/92; Ord. 350-95, App. 11/3/95; Ord. 256-07, App. 11/6/07]

(a) No automobile or other motor vehicle shall occupy any portion of an apartment house or hotel except in a garage which meets the requirements of the Building Code and other provisions of the Municipal Code.

(b) Use. Private and public storage garages in apartment houses and hotels shall be used only for storage of automobiles.

(c) Separation. See Section 406.1 of the Building Code. When approved, existing separations in existing buildings may be acceptable.

What’s that? You want to put your old Christmas decorations in a box in the garage? Well you could… but you’d be breaking the law. Want to store your bicycle in your garage instead of your living room? Criminal. Read more here.

Nathan: WHY THE QUESTION MARK ON THE HEADLINE? Because I believe that, after reading the ordinance, the people reporting this are stupid. San Francisco is full of single family dwellings as well as “apartment houses and hotels” as stated in the ordinance.  It therefore ONLY applies to apartment houses and hotels, and NOT to townhouses, rowhouses, detached and semi-detached (duplex) houses.  It still may not make sense, but the IJ and whoever else is spouting this stuff needs to READ THE ORDINANCE (and probably consult both an attorney and a shrink) before they write this stuff.  Secondly, this law has been on the books for at LEAST six years and possibly TWENTY-FIVE YEARS.  Last I checked or heard, there has been NO huge roundup of scofflaws, even IN “apartment houses and hotels.”  This ordinance MAY actually be a dead letter that is NOT enforced or only enforced when a tenant (apartment houses and hotels are seldom owner-occupied) has done something to tick off a landlord.  COME ON, PEOPLE.  There is ENOUGH REAL TYRANNY and abuse by government going on in this country that we don’t have to go out and twist things and make them up.  It makes YOU look stupid and makes anyone who passes it on without bothering to read or investigate look silly.

Theft by and from government
The War on Poverty turned 50 yesterday.
(HotAir.Com)

Nathan: Ain’t that just disgusting?  Unfortunately I know a lot of people who are around fifty that seem to have been on welfare for that whole time; maybe with a brief break now and then to get fired from some job or another.  No wonder that idiot in Congress wants to rename it to Temporary Transition Assistance or Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard or something equally silly.  If it WERE temporary and transitional, the best way to do it would STILL be for private, volunteer, local people and groups to pay for it and give it away.  All LBJ and the goonies in Congress in 1963-64 did was institutionalize AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL what had already proven to be unworkable and accomplishing NOTHING at the state level.

Politics 2014
Did Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) use his authority to inflict a traffic nightmare on his opponents?
(CBS, New York)

Nathan: “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” (wink, wink)  Still, folks, he is a POLITICIAN: of COURSE he will do someone else, especially a podunk mayor who dissed him, dirty.  It IS NEW JERSEY: that light bulb guy is an exception to the way government AND a good deal of business (see them right there on the other pillow in government’s bed?  Rented by the hour, I admit, but still) ACT in New Jersey.  The only way you tell the OFFICIAL bad guys from the government and business bad guys is that the bodyguards for the OFFICIAL bad guys (you know, the mobs) usually dress better.  And smile now and then.

Islamic wars: Persian front – The “messiah”
Iraq’s Ambassador had some harsh words for President Obama and some kind ones for President Bush.
(Washington Times)

Nathan: Hmmm.  Why kind ones for George W?  Because at least they knew where he stood?  Or just in contrast to the present squatter in 1600 PA?

Politics 2014 – The “messiah”
So the guy heading the investigation into whether or not the IRS was persecuting conservatives is an Obama friend and donor.
(Breitbart)

Nathan: As the guy (thanks, Mark) who sent this to me said, “Business as usual in Washington, D.C.”  But even more blatant than what everyone from JFK to GWB did:  the Spoils system on steroids, I guess.  What better way to award a donor and buddy, than give him a chance to GET PAID to whitewash you?

Here is a HUGE LIST of all the things that global warming has been predicted to have done/do.
(NumberWatch.co.uk)

Nathan: thanks to several folks for this.  The list of links appears not to have been updated in a while, but it is truly astonishing, and more than reason to laugh out loud.  Keep in mind that many of these SAME things were predicted of “global cooling” (AKA the “New Ice Age”) back in the 1970s.  And the solutions were always the same: Zero Population Growth (kill the babies, kill the old folks), Stop Harming the [FILL IN BLANK] (more government control and taxes to pay for it), and of course, Buy my books to see what to do/not do.

East Asian front – The final decay of “Communism”
Dennis Rodman has turned into a “useful idiot” for the North Korean regime.
(Fox News)

Nathan: Turned into?  Of course, the “useful” part (except maybe on a basketball court) is highly debatable.  But then, Kim himself is hardly way up on the useful intelligence scale:  kind of a Caligula studying to be a Nero, but without the brains or the looks or the charisma.  Communism today is such a sideshow/carnival event:  China, Vietnam, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea.  Obviously, TRAZI-ism is the way to go.

Congress in action – Politics 2014
The GOP is turning up the heat on President Obama when it comes to jobs and immigration.
(Breitbart)

Nathan: Which might be FINE if he hadn’t jumped out of the pot a while ago.  This is like watching the NYPD cracking down on drug-dealers, child-abusers, and scam-artists: we know it is all just kabuki theatre.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-02C: Theft BY/THROUGH Government

Posted on 2014-01-11 by TPOL Nathan

Theft by government
New York: More Than 100 Cops and Firefighters Rounded up in Connection to Massive, $400M Scam
(The Blaze) Prosecutors say the group worked at the scheme for more than two decades. The suspects rounded up Tuesday are accused of scamming millions in disability benefits by falsely claiming to suffer from stress-relates illnesses.

Mama’s Note: The politicians and bureaucrats certainly don’t tolerate much competition. Their scams come FIRST!

Nathan: This is creme dela creme: NYPD, NYFD, City Attorneys, doctors, and more.  The “elite” of municipal government from not just the three states (NY, CT, NJ) have been bilking the taxpayers for DECADES. Was it Will Rogers who once said, “Don’t steal – government doesn’t like the competition?”  I know I refer to ALL taxes as theft by government (because they are here in the United States and all free nations).  But then that money gets stolen over and over again: by elected officials and appointed ones, who get paid for doing little or nothing, by corruption and cons like this one, by welfare queens (whether they are living in a housing project or driving to their corporate offices in a limo) and many other ways.

Culture wars: homosexual “marriage” – Nazgul
The Supreme Court just hit the pause button on homosexual marriages [sic] in Utah
(Los Angeles Times, via Last Resistance)) A federal district judge had overruled Utah’s state constitutional ban on homosexual marriage, stating that Utah’s citizens had a federally-protected constitutional right to homosexual marriage if they wanted it. The Supreme Court, in so many words, said “Nuh-uh.” This decision has left many people puzzled. It had seemed that the Supreme Court was positive about homosexual marriage. Just last year, the Supreme Court decided (in a 5-4 decision) that homosexual marriages sanctioned by states could receive federal tax benefits.

Nathan: Thanks to Last Resistance for this; see their whole discussion here.

This makes little sense, given what I understand of the Court and its recent decisions, but it still amounts to Judicial tyranny.  Frankly, this just raises people’s hope for logic in the court, while there is no chance at all of that.  I am reminded of a story I saw posted on USA Today about how political considerations (votes and campaign contributions override basic scientific knowledge and training of politicians, who will lie about ANYTHING to get those votes and dollars (or D-Marks, or Euros) that they are so greedy for.  Even in non-elected positions, (like monarchs), this trend is clearly seen throughout history.  Utah has always been a sore, sticking point in the federal craw, which was a major reason for the FEDERAL ban on polygamy which was shoved down Utah’s throat 120 years ago and now apparently overturned.  But THIS action shows that the Federal government (including its courts) are STILL unwilling to cede back the sovereignty to the Fifty States.  Another form of government theft: not allowing people to decide what is right and wrong, responsible to God for their own actions.

Congress in action – Economics
Murkowski urges end to US ban on crude oil exports
(Business Week) “The top Republican on the Senate Energy Committee urged President Barack Obama to end a 39-year ban on exports of U.S. crude oil, joining what is shaping up as an election-year debate over energy policy. … Most exports of U.S. crude oil are prohibited under a 1975 law meant to counter surging gasoline prices after an Arab oil embargo. Advances in drilling techniques have led to increased production, and the Paris-based International Energy Agency projects that the U.S. will surpass Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer by 2015.” (01/07/14)

Nathan: No doubt this would be a BIG boost in the fortunes of Alaskan oil patch companies and workers, and it is one more stupid law that has been around for far too long.  But anything SHE has her fingers in will have to be checked very carefully.  She is slimy and a politician and conniver through and through.  Be very careful with anything she touches.

New religions: Global warming – The “messiah”
White House: Global Warming Probably Responsible for Polar Vortez
(The Blaze) The White House on Wednesday released a video suggesting that the “Polar Vortex” responsible for record lows throughout the U.S. was actually caused by global warming. “If you’ve been hearing that extreme cold spells, like the one we’re having in the United States now, disproves global warming, don’t believe it,” President Barack Obama’s science adviser, Dr. John Holdren says in the video posted to the official White House YouTube channel. … “A growing body of evidence suggests that the extreme cold being experienced by much of the United States as we speak is a pattern that we can expect to see with increasing frequency as global warming continues,” he adds. …

Nathan: Once more, I am reminded of this quote by Douglas Adams: “Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.
The argument goes something like this: “I refuse to prove that I exist,'” says God, “for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.”
“But,” says Man, “The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn’t it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don’t. QED.”
“Oh dear,” says God, “I hadn’t thought of that,” and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
“Oh, that was easy,” says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.”

Nathan: HE and his advisors are clearly running scared on this (and why not).  The pitiful appeals to esoteric logic and mystery science and hidden wisdom is worse than what people claim for the Kabbalah and Illuminati.

Mama’s Note: Anyone who wants the straight answers to the “climate” thing would do well to visit this website.  Watts Up With That? explores the real science behind a great number of things, climate being a specialty. Informative, and very often quite humorous besides.

Islamic wars: Afghan front
Ten Year Old Girl Caught With Suicide Vest – Not Saddest Part of Her Story
(The Blaze)  The sister of a prominent Taliban leader was beaten by her father after she failed to cross a river to kill a group of Police with her bomb, and fled her home (still with the bomb) to surrender herself and ask for protection from her family.

Nathan: Of course, here in America we do worse: we sacrifice our unborn daughters and sons on the altar of feminism, “choice” and a better standard of living.  Doesn’t make this right, of course: she could have been better used as an incidental casualty of the next NATO-US drone strike.  (Like the Syrian or “Palestinian” family who was attacked by Israeli monsters in the Gaza Strip and then a few months later attacked by Syrian government monsters in the fighting east of Damascus.  Is there really that big a difference between being a “victim” of war and a weapon of war?

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Why are Americans so Discontented? (Part 3 of 3) A Baker’s Dozen reasons

Posted on 2014-01-10 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

A good friend of mine sent me an article, which readers of her column (to remain anonymous for now) had sent her several times.  I could not find a source, but still wanted to share my own responses to the claims and the “solutions” presented in the original article.  It is entitled, “Discontented?”  I commented extensively on that article in Parts 1 and 2 of this column.

This third part is my own thoughts on the subject.  Why are we so discouraged and discontented and disgruntled?  I’ve cut back on my own news reading and listening because it is such a drain on me.  Even so, just hearing from friends, family, neighbors, and even acquaintances, it seems that things decline month by month.

Here are some thirteen reasons: a Baker’s Dozen (TM), reasons why so many Americans might be upset and angry.  Note, they really don’t have all that much to do with the media: more to do with government.

A BAKER’S DOZEN (TM) REASONS WHY AMERICANS ARE UNHAPPY (DISCONTENTED)

  1. Each month, a US dollar buys less and less: food, clothing, services, other products.  Yes, some products (like fuel) are very volatile in price, but overall, the trend is UP, UP and UP!
  2. Each month, the governments (federal, state, local) tell us more and more lies about more and more things:  whether it is heath care, or spying on us, or telling us that we really can’t do what they told us we could do; the lies are bigger and better all the time.
  3. Each month, we discover more lies that the governments told us in the past, back when we trusted government a little bit more, and find out that their lies cost us more money and more freedom.
  4. Each month, we hear two to four stories about children in school being suspended or expelled or otherwise disciplined for such hideous crimes as pointing their finger like a gun, drawing pictures of guns or crosses, wearing a Jesus tee-shirt, or kissing each other (unless they are the same sex).
  5. Each month or so, we have a “mass shooting” (four or more shot or dead), usually a school, where no one is armed and prepared to defend the students and teachers against murderous nut jobs or drugged-up shooters.
  6. Each month, while a few (maybe a dozen) children and teachers and others are killed in horrific mass shootings at schools or theaters or malls, hundreds of children are gunned down one at a time in the big cities where the gun laws are the “best.”  They don’t make the national news, of course.
  7. Each month, we read multiple stories about how celebrities are caught drinking or drugging and driving, and also multiple stories about how celebrities think America is a totally evil nation and filled with bigots and this-and-that-phobes who need to give up God and common-sense morality.
  8. Each month, we see another list of dead (but not the much longer list of severely wounded) American soldiers sent by the White House (with collusion of Congress) to “fight terrorism” or “keep the peace” or something else that has little or nothing to do with protecting the nation and our freedom.
  9. Each month, while American troops are protecting other people’s borders (and maybe freedoms), we see more or less immigrants, terrorists, drugs, and whatever else slide across our borders (especially the Southern border) while being told it is wrong to try and protect our own borders.  And we hear of cops killing and beating and abusing and robbing more and more people of their money and their freedoms here at home.
  10. Each month, we see politicians squander billions, including millions and millions for their own pleasure in travel and entertainment and paying off their own families and foreign governments, and stupid studies and subsidies for this and that, often in remote locations far from home.
  11. Each month, we are told how more and more government services are being reduced or eliminated because they don’t have enough money, at the same time as they pass or jury-rig new taxes on more and more things, at all levels, and waste the billions. (#10).
  12. Each month, we read of judges who decide that yet another part of American and biblical morality is unconstitutional and must not be not allowed, but the destruction celebrated and embraced by all of us.  And we see the judges and media and others punish people for trying to maintain old standards of morality.
  13. Each month, we are made subject to more and more laws that make things we have always done illegal, while being spied upon more and more, and being forced to do more and more things that we don’t want to do, but have to do because government said we should (or shouldn’t).  And we hear politicians and their supporters who claim that all these laws and agencies are “keeping us free” and “keeping us safe.”

We could add a baker’s dozen more reasons, but this is enough to show that although we live in a wonderful land and have so many blessings, many of us are disgruntled and discouraged.

The real question, though, remains unanswered: WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT IT?  Perhaps, with thoughts from readers and others, I can come up with a Part 4.

Mama’s Note: The one thing that each person can “do about it,” immediately, with full integrity, is to stop thinking that any government, any group of people, has any legitimate authority to control their lives or property. It is this false, utterly diabolical superstition of authority which binds most people to the abuse and outright destruction going on all around us. They simply cannot imagine being true self owners, and self responsible. They have been conditioned for centuries to NEED and believe in the need for permission of their overlords, even when they hate and resent them. That’s what has to change.

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Why are Americans so Discontented (Part 2 of 3)

Posted on 2014-01-09 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

A good friend of mine sent me this article, which readers of her column (to remain anonymous for now) had sent her several times.  I could not find a source, but still want to share my own responses to the claims and the “solutions” presented in the original article.  It is entitled, “Discontented?”
My comments are in italics, following the quotes from the article.

PART 2  (Click here to see part 1)
 Meanwhile, we enjoy the freedoms that are protected by an all-volunteer army that is out there defending us.  Make no mistake about it.  Our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas have volunteered to serve, and in many cases have died for our freedoms. There is currently no draft in this country. They didn’t have to go. They are able to refuse to go and end up with either a ”general” discharge, an ”other than honorable” discharge or, worst case scenario, a ”dishonorable” discharge after a few days in the brig.

I write this as a serving (Reserve) officer:  the Army and other services today are NOT protecting our freedoms, especially not OVERSEAS.  They are serving the self-serving Congress and White House in maintaining an immoral and illegal empire. And keeping people who are angry at the US government (for good or bad reasons) from figuring out better ways to kill us and attack the US and our allies.  The dead have not died in vain, but they are NOT dying for our freedoms.  Not now.  Indeed, the more that have died in Aghanistan and Iraq and other places, the more our freedoms have been stolen by Congress and the White House and our state and local governments (overall) – see New York, Connecticut, California, and Colorado for RKBA, or ObummerCare.  He makes good points about the draft (and how many of us prayed for a long time to end that travesty of freedom).  But he misses the point: what is in the past is no longer true.

So why then the flat-out discontentment in the minds of 69% of Americans?  Say what you want, but I blame a lot of it on the national media.  If it bleeds, it leads, and they specialize in bad news.  Everybody will watch a car crash with blood and guts.  How many will watch kids selling lemonade at the corner?  The national media knows this, and media outlets are for-profit corporations.  They offer what sells.  Just ask why they were going to allow a murderer like O.J. Simpson to write a book and do a TV special about how he didn’t kill his wife but if he did, how he would do it.  Insane!  And we tune in to this stuff day and night!

The MEDIA?  You know I never hesitate to bash the mainstream media, but this is an incredibly shallow excuse for what this writer sees as the problems.  We are often talking about things that would never have made the news outside a small-town weekly, twenty years ago – that the media just ignored (not saying suppressed) and information that wasn’t available unless you could go directly to the source for the data and records.  And how is the media really different than it was in the days of yore: say 1898 or 1917 or 1929.  I don’t know about Ben Franklin, but it seems that almost every big-city paper since him has specialized in bad news.  And O.J. Simpson?  When did this get written?

Stop buying the negative venom you are fed everyday by the media.  Shut off your TV, set aside your electronic gadgets and use the negative news pages for the bottom of your birdcage.  Then start being grateful for all we have in our country.  There is exponentially more good than bad.

Again, simplistic and just not a solution,  maybe not even true.  You notice that the writer did not address the immoral acts and lack of responsibility exhibited every day by millions of Americans – from the White House down to the drunk passed out in the town park.  He did not talk about corruption of governments (tribal, state, local, national, “world”).  And a lot of people gave up on TV and the dailies (“big dailies” like RCJ and SFAL and such, not just the NYT and WaPo and Chron) a long time ago.  And those electronic gadgets are the ones that also bring GOOD news like people who have saved some one or prevented crimes or helped out where needed.  He is throwing the baby out with the bathwater!  AND proposing things that don’t make a bit of difference.

I close with one of my favorite quotes from B. C. Forbes in 1953:
”What have Americans to be thankful for?  More than any other people on the earth, we enjoy complete religious freedom, political freedom, social freedom.  Our liberties are sacredly safeguarded by the Constitution of the United States, ‘the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.’  Yes, we Americans of today have been bequeathed a noble heritage.  Let us pray that we may hand it down unsullied to our children and theirs.”

This may have been true in 1953 – my grandparents and parents thought it was (I was still two years from being born, then).  It might have even been true in 1973 or 1983.  By 1993, the Constitution was a virtual dead letter, and “complete” freedom in anything dying.  By 2003, the opposite was true, and in 2013, we have less and less freedom by the day, and the Constitution is not just dead and buried, but condemned and ridiculed by the judges and lawyers and elected officials who swore to uphold it – and are damned by their betrayal.

I suggest we sit back and count our blessings for all we have.  If we don’t, what we have will be taken away.  Then we will have to explain to future generations why we squandered such blessing and abundance.  If we are not careful, our generation will be known as the ”greediest and most ungrateful generation” – a far cry from the proud Americans of the ”greatest generation” who left us an untarnished legacy.

Any idea when this was written?  Even 30 years ago this might have helped, but today, many of our blessings HAVE been taken away, in greater or lesser degree.  We DO have to explain to the future WHY and HOW we threw them away.  It was not just THIS generation that squandered our liberties: we CAN blame much of the “greatest generation” including such prominent names as John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson and Richard M Nixon and Gerald Ford and Robert Dole and millions of unknown people who didn’t pay attention and didn’t stand up for their liberty and that of others, or let their fears trade liberty for a false security against the USSR and China and Islam and terrorists and poor health and all the rest.

More to the point, what is he proposing?  Is this it?  Stop listening to the media (1), Be thankful for things that don’t exist, (pretend that they still do?) (2), and count our blessings (3).

Maybe I am being a Bible thumper, but what about (1) Repentance, (2) Prayer asking for forgiveness and help and strength, and (3) Action to correct these things?

What about what Joel said to the people of Israel?  What about speaking up to counter all these things?  Why did he write this article?  To blow off steam, or was he really trying to present a problem and a solution?  What he seems to have come up with is a whitewash – what a wonderful place and what a wonderful people we are, with just a few things, like insufficient pride and thankfulness.  He sounds like the Pharisee of whom Jesus spoke.  He was thankful, too: Luke 18:11: The Pharisee took his stand and was praying like this: “God I thank you that I’m not like other people – greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. …” Of course, if most people who claim to follow Jesus today even DID as much as this Pharisee – he gave a tenth of “everything I get.”  Would that half of christians today gave just 5% of what they get to preach the Word and help the sick and homeless and all the other things that could turn the country and the world around!

If you have never been in any country other than America, you don’t realize that you never had it SO GOOD!

Almost, I can agree.  But he is still wrong: it is NOT “never had it so good,” but rather, “once upon a time, it was much better in American than any place else in the world, and than it is today.”  This writer is a jingoist, though.  In so many ways.

God Bless America!

At last, something I can agree with.  This kind of article is so common today: we must have black or white:  but no one seems to want to take a position that says, “As wonderful as America has been and still is, we have severe problems and have lost much of what made us a free people and nation;  those problems are the result of our own actions and failure to act, individually and collectively.  They are a result of our pride, our rejection of God (partial or complete), and our refusal to require responsibility of ourselves and others.  For years, we have swept problems under the rug or found quick and easy, bogus solutions that really didn’t solve the problems, just put the inevitable off, and more and more divorced ourselves from God and common sense.  We let crooks and evil men pander to our weakness and lead us into sin, but we ourselves are responsible for what has happened, and only each of us, individually, can start doing things to fix the problem.

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Why are Americans so Discontented (Part 1 of 3)

Posted on 2014-01-08 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

A good friend of mine sent me this article, which readers of her column (to remain anonymous for now) had sent her several times.  I could not find a source, but still want to share my own responses to the claims and the “solutions” presented in the original article.  It is entitled, “Discontented?”
[Editor’s note: If you have a link to this article, please leave it in comments below.]

My comments are in italics, following the quotes from the article.

A Newsweek poll alleged that 67% of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed, and 69% of the country is unhappy with the performance of the president.  In essence, 2/3 of the citizenry just ain’t happy and want a change.

This is not too far off: current (December 2013) poll numbers show as high as 75% unhappy with the nation.  And 65-70% unhappy with the guy living it up in Hawaii and at 1600 PA.

So being the knuckle dragger that I am, I starting thinking, ”What are we so unhappy about?” Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?  Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter?  Could it be that 95.4% of these unhappy folks have a job?  Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time and see more food in moments than Darfur and Sudan and other war-torn countries have seen in the last year?

Raining on the parade, but who is this person speaking for?  Someone who lives in Soldier Creek or Manderson? (Reservation towns in South Dakota.) There are a LOT of people who are on the verge of losing their running water and electricity each month, if they don’t pay – and often can’t.  And there are many who DON’T have these.  And 95.4% of us have jobs? In whose dream world?  The bogus “official” unemployment rate is 7.3% (92.7% employed) but a lot of people are pointing out the REAL unemployment rate is 30% or close to it which would mean ONLY 70% HAVE jobs.  And what I see in Montezuma County, in Rapid City, in Greeley and Evans, and Denver, looks like it is closer to 30% than 7.3%: 70% not his claimed 95.4%.  And notice, I’m not talking about the Rosebud or Pine Ridge (again, Indian reservations in South Dakota with very high unemployment).

As for grocery stores – well, ignoring what you and I do NOT see at Turtle Creek Crossing store, seeing it and being able to buy it is a big difference. (A tribally-owned grocery store in South Dakota where theft, poor business practices, and a lack of capital mean that 50-80% of the store’s shelves are empty most of the time.) Prices have gone up by 8-10% in the last year, 25% in the last 2-3 years.  And with each storm, each change in regs, I see less and less rapid restocking.  I don’t argue we are much better off than South Sudan or Zimbabwe, but it doesn’t mean that people are not worried, and don’t have a reason to be worried. Actually, if he is looking for good things to not be unhappy about, shouldn’t he have mentioned that at least 47 million of us get enough to eat because of food stamps, paid for by about 10% of us – or the next X generations? (When the old philosophers in the tribes talked about the Seventh Generation, surely they didn’t mean that is how long the taxes should have to be paid for what the Zeroth Generation spent!)

Maybe it is the ability to drive from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers as we move through each state?  Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we would find along the way that provide temporary shelter?  I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around the world is just not good enough.  Or could it be that when we wreck our vehicle, emergency workers show up and provide services to help all involved?  Whether you are rich or poor, they treat your wounds and even, if necessary, send a helicopter to take you to the hospital.

I suppose that 70-80% of travelers (not counting truckers of course, who DO have to present ID papers at EVERY state border) don’t have to, if they are lucky.  But every state now claims that they have the authority to detain and demand ID from EVERY vehicle for EVERY person in the vehicle (including proof that that is really YOUR child or baby).  A police officer just told us yesterday that he has been taught that EVERY traffic stop is a de facto arrest and that if the driver (and passengers) attempt to do ANYthing that they are not specifically given directions to do and permission to do, the officer can use deadly force against them, and can haul them off to jail with NO other reason than that they did not obey him.  And that ANYthing can be searched.  And that is not just within the 100-mile “no Bill of Rights” zone along the borders and around international ports, but everywhere.  I have personally seen hundreds of cars and trucks backed up on an Interstate highway almost 200 miles from the nearest border, in broad daylight while Border Patrol and State Police went “papers please” to every vehicle.  Of course, that is just driving: still more free than trying to take a plane, a train, or a bus, courtesy of TSA.  So I suppose that is a relative blessing.

As for motels and restaurants – again, if you can afford it.  Any wonder more and more people sleep in their cars, maybe in the WalMart parking lot, when they travel?  So they can buy food that they can afford in the WalMart, since the restaurant prices are also going up and up and up.  As for wrecks and medical service and medevac copters – yeah, MOST people. But you and I know that there are a LOT of places where help is hours away, and helicopters are nothing but a TV fantasy.  I remember the woman standing on the side of the road in Wyoming, holding her purse and her (useless) cellphone (no signal) as everything she owned including her retirement home, an RV, burned to the hubs, because it was a thirty-minute trip to a place with a signal, and a 40-minute response time from the fire service. And you and I both know or know of people who could have been saved if a copter had been available or if they had been close enough to a location where a copter could have gone. (Referring to availability of good medical service on South Dakota reservations and other rural areas.)

Perhaps you are one of the 70% of Americans who own a home, or you may be upset with knowing that in the unfortunate case of having a fire, a group of trained firefighters will appear in moments and use top-notch equipment to extinguish the flames, thus saving you, your family and your belongings.  Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a burglar or prowler intrudes, and an officer equipped with a gun and a bullet-proof vest will come to defend you and your family against attack or loss. This all in the backdrop of a neighborhood free of bombs or militias raping and pillaging the residents – neighborhoods where 90% of teenagers own cell phones and computers.

Now we are going from the “most people” to the totally imaginary.  Firefighters in seconds?  Even in DC or Denver? (Yeah, right, a policeman friend of mine who spent most of his career in Denver says, very sarcastically.) Not where we live:  neighbors in Whispering Pine, our neighborhood, lost their house in a fire several years ago, that was totally engulfed in less than five minutes.  The fire house was a half-mile away and responded in less than 10 minutes (AAAA rating by insurance) and could do nothing.  The cops?  Today, the ones that show up for a burglary in progress (a virtual impossibility) are more likely to shoot you or your dog than the evildoer, in many towns and cities.  Yeah, we don’t have “militia” raping and pillaging our neighborhoods, just cops… especially in poor, minority neighborhoods in the big urban areas.  And there are bombs – just not as many as Mesopotamia or Afghanistan.  But not from lack of trying, and the real reason is possibly that we only have 1-2% Muslims in this country, and many of those are refugees from their fellow Muslims.

How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we enjoy that are the envy of everyone in the world? Maybe that is what has 67% of U. S. citizens so unhappy.

Complete!  Oh, yeah – Phil Robertson ring a bell?  Or how about the dozens of incidents in the last few weeks: Dallas children can’t give hospitalized vets cards that have “Jesus” or “Christmas” on them?  Churches that are taken to court because they have a billboard with a flag that says “Support our Troops”?  Ron Paul supporters thrown out of state and national conventions, or confined to “free speech” pens.  Five year olds suspended for spraying another student with a water pistol at a bus stop; five year olds suspended for kissing a classmate on the hand (with her permission). Eleven-year-olds disciplined for showing a picture of their daddy, a soldier, because he was carrying a gun! High school seniors arrested for having a multi-tool (with a knife blade) in the glove box of their pickup in the street outside the school parking lot.  A Medal of Honor winner and retired state governor and major general detained (arrested) for having a sharp point on the pin on the back of his Medal at an airport. Teachers fired for telling each other “God bless” or having a Bible on their desk?  Soldiers told in training that Catholics and Evangelicals are terrorists?  National Guard soldiers told that they can’t call their fundraising sports competition a “Christmas” event, just a holiday event.  People that are condemned for ANY criticism of the guy at 1600 PA as being racist?  Envy of the world?  Please.  What universe did this man write this in?

Fact is, we are the largest group of ungrateful, spoiled brats the world has ever seen. No wonder the world loves the U.S., yet has a great disdain for its citizens. They see us for what we are: The most blessed people in the world who do nothing but complain about what we don’t have and what we hate about the country, instead of thanking the good Lord we live here.

Well, I almost agree with that first statement – except that “we” are not the group:  A LOT of Americans are brats – they’ve never grown up, and let us not get started on their parents or schools or government that let them avoid growing up.  But not all of us, by any means: like those volunteer firefighters, and the honest, reliable peace officers that still exist.  And business owners, and the soldiers he talks about later.

Actually, and I realize that we are talking about perceptions here, I’ve heard a LOT more people from other countries that speak very highly of Americans as individuals and families, but disparagingly of the US as a nation, and of the US government.  This guy has it just reversed.  And he also has it reversed about whether we complain or thank God.  (For one thing, it isn’t an either or… my daily at 7 PM prayer for the nation (the idea that you passed on to me) always thanks the Lord for what we have and for our nation but includes a lot of petitions for helping restore what we ONCE had.).  Again, maybe the brats, like the ghetto gangs and the elite liberals only complain and whine and don’t thank God (perhaps because so many of them don’t believe in Him), so I think this writer is dead wrong about most Americans.  But ignoring the problems is NOT the solution, and is NOT coupled with thanking the Lord for our people and our land.

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