What Is the Constitution?

What Is the Constitution?

ABSOLUTELY!!! Read and internalize!

Farms-to-forest plan worries Vilsack - Washington Times

Farms-to-forest plan worries Vilsack - Washington Times

Quick Synopsis - Hunger pays less than carbon sequestration in the new green economy. Effin' brilliant. Love our new touchy feely regime...

Secure the blessing of liberty to whose posterity?

What?! What in the hell is our government thinking?

The AIG bailout was tough to swallow. The Freddie MAC and Fannie Mae supports were grit chasing the spit. The TARP was an acid chaser. Cash for Clunkers, senior social security COLA buy-off, Stimulus Part Two, Cash for Caulkers were insults added to injury. Cap and Trade and Obamacare are God knows what at this point but I can assure you it isn't anything good. But....perhaps what truly breaks my heart is the following: Freddie and Fannie now have, for at least the next three years, an unlimited financial backing from the U.S. Treasury...this latest jewel of the ongoing follies announced on Christmas Eve.

Merry Effin Christmas John Q Public. The ruling kleptocratic elite and their cronies think you are too stupid to notice that they are robbing you, your children, and your children's grandchildren blind. Not only are we being robbed of our financial well-being but of the previously secured "blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity"... we our being robbed of our birthright as American citizens. And all because we are thought to be (are we?) too complacent to do anything, much less give a damn.

So, our once great nation, a beacon of liberty, a pillar of free market capitalism, a triumph of individualism and spirit, is now brought low...stooping before the altar of socialism and fascism. Our government at this point has proven itself incompetent at many things and adept at precious few, none of which benefit the general public. For example, our government has proven itself incompetent in following the intent - implicit, explicit, or otherwise - of our Constitution, especially with regard to in whom the power of the government resides. The People and their Representatives in their respective State Governments? Pshaw! However, our government has proven incredibly, disgustingly adept at redistributing wealth to bought constituents, poor or wealthy really makes no difference as long as there is a vote to be had and the caster of the vote can be depended on to be dependent. Further, if a corporation exists with political ties to the party in power, then it can be assured that the two are in bed together to secure the blessings of posterity to each other and screw the liberty of the little guy!! (Socialism and Fascism in my hackneyed attempt to loosely define the two.)

So why the rant? Because...I spent the past couple of days taking my family on that quintessentially American vacation to Disneyland and, although I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with my family, it did not escape me that the probability of my kids experiencing the same 'pilgrimage' with their children would be very low. It is not that I am a pessimistic person (in fact I am probably optimistic to a fault) but rather, the continuing slew of wrong-headed political and economic decisions being made in Washington seems to assure this grim outcome.

And so, I truly believe that there will come a time in the relatively near future that the fiscal and political house of cards that our government has built will collapse and our American way of life as we know it now will cease to exist. I pray that I am wrong...

Giving and taking away care - Washington Times

Giving and taking away care - Washington Times

Tocqueville’s Predicted “Soft Despotism”

Tocqueville’s Predicted “Soft Despotism”

Exactly! Newspaper ink is seriously annoying and "someone should do something" about it!

Yeah...and then maybe "someone" will be waking me up in the morning, telling me what to eat, telling me how to dress, what to drive, where to work, what to watch, what to read, when to go to bed...and if I am really lucky, "someone" might even tuck me in at night!

The insidious need to "do something" is, for now, cloaked in the benevolent clothing of the sheep but make no mistake, there is a wolf lurking beneath the paternalistic assurances and laws coming from the government. And, the wolf is hungry.

Dropping the Bomb on Health Care by Peter Schiff

Dropping the Bomb on Health Care by Peter Schiff

This is a short-version argument about the validity (and long term prospects) of Obamacare. I think Peter Schiff calls it correctly.

More doom and gloom...but from a credible source.

David Walker - former US Comptroller General

A 400 Percent (and Higher) Excise Tax by Michael S. Rozeff

A 400 Percent (and Higher) Excise Tax by Michael S. Rozeff

Wow - I cannot say that this necessarily applies to me (yet) but then again, just selling and buying shares to reallocate my investments probably puts me in the cross hairs. This tax is a big, bad, idea and as the author points out, a killer to the movement of capital and hence economic growth. Why are there so many idiots out there?????

C.J. Maloney as featured in Lew Rockwell's site...

I am not a gun freak or nut by a long shot however this line from an article by C. J. Maloney gave me pause...if anything for the sheer simplicity and literary brilliance of it!!!

"Who says that God has no sense of humor, if a rather dark one, when He gives for us the ironic fact that of all the forms of political organization that humans herd themselves into there has been none more reactionary, bloodthirsty, or political than Stalinism, and that’s the one which gave us the cheap to produce, lethal, and amazingly low maintenance AK-47. Besides corpses and vodka, the AK-47 was the only thing communist Russia was ever able to mass-produce."

Gotta love it!! Most especially the last sentence...as I sip my vodka! :-)

Health Care Nullification: Things have just gotten underway | Tenth Amendment Center

Health Care Nullification: Things have just gotten underway | Tenth Amendment Center

Great point by Michael Bolden of the Tenth Amendment Center. As I mentioned yesterday, the impetus for change clearly lies with the individual states and the people they represent. The axiom that "all politics is local" still holds true... And thus that is where the change will begin. Our representatives in Washington (Republican and Democrat alike) are representative of nothing but their own political interests.

What Is a Right?

What Is a Right?

Great words from Judge Andrew Napolitano. The biggest punch however comes in his final paragraph. Although the paragraph doesn't deal with rights per se, it wonderfully illustrates our country's current state of theft by taxation...increasingly unrepresented taxation.

Just Say No | Oregon Tenth Amendment Center

Just Say No | Oregon Tenth Amendment Center

There are a whole raft of reasons as to why I think nationalized insurance & health care are a baaaaad idea. This article touches on a few of them. But, to keep it simple, I think I will stick to the basics. For example, how is health care or insurance a God-given right? Ergo, where is that right in our Constitution? It is not. Legislating it into a 'right' is not going to place our country onto the road to social utopia. Indeed, just the opposite will happen as this program, and others like it will beggar us all and be the demise of our republic. The only thing utopian about the outcome will be that we are all equally shafted!

The National Debt Road Trip

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Instructional video on our government's debt spending.

Rumblings from the Lone Star State | Texas Tenth Amendment Center

Rumblings from the Lone Star State | Texas Tenth Amendment Center

Interesting to note that Texas is not the only state beginning to more visibly assert its sovereignty as understood in the U.S. Constitution's 10th Amendment. As the notion of the U.S. Republican (not the party) foundations regains currency, the states' may find that they, and not DC, are the major determiners of where our nation goes and how that journey will unfold. Key to that process however is to dislodge the power and money sycophants from the levers of state control. Vote them out. Replace them with citizens that love their country over party and freedom of the individual over the tyranny of the state.

Officials and Experts Warn of Crash-Induced Unrest

Officials and Experts Warn of Crash-Induced Unrest

I came across this article, or one similar to it, the other day. Dug a little and sure enough, there is substance to some of the cited sources. I suppose, as is the premise of the cited military paper, it is not beyond the realm of the possible to have a major disruption of the social fabric in the U.S. as a result of a strategic shock...debt default, perhaps?

Here goes...

This blog, for whatever it amounts to, is in large part a by-product of my wife's insistence that I quit posting my views on Facebook as people just didn't want to read them... So, now I can write and post what I like here and still have people not read my ramblings. I suppose that is a win for all??

In any event, although I have no interest in constraining myself to any one particular topic, I expect that the majority of my musings herein will deal with economics, politics, the intersection of both, and perhaps a sprinkling of whatever else may strike my fancy on any particular day. Perhaps more to the point regarding my future postings is the discipline I may (or more likely, may not) muster in posting with any sense of regularity. We'll see.

So...until the next 'outrage' prompts my urge to post...

Cheers all -

Damien