Socialists, Begone!

Let’s pretend, for a moment, that there were two types of people. Each type is inherently incompatible with the other.

Naturally, these two types of people will begin to affiliate with their similar type and disassociate with the other type. Eventually, two groups, each representing each type, will form. Ultimately, they will draw a geographic line between them and declare that that line should not be crossed. Or, if it must be crossed, it must be crossed in a way that will leave the two groups at peace one with another, despite their differences.

This is the natural way of things. As long as the two types are separated, and the boundaries for where those two types are allowed to be natural are set, there won’t be any fighting or warfare between the types. However, as long as there is a disagreement over the boundary or the acceptable behavior when visiting the other’s territory, there will be trouble.

Why is this important? Because for many, many years, the United States was the one place in the world where you could go to get away from the Socialists. (Socialism really is, fundamentally, equivalent with tyranny in any form, be it from the crown, the pope, the elected dictator, or whatnot.) Once you crossed the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Rio Grande or the 49th Parallel, you were welcomed to a land where the government was limited and the citizens were expected to govern themselves.

Today, this is no longer the case. Perhaps we were too welcoming and not discriminating enough. Perhaps we allowed socialists into our country who came here for the money but didn’t want to leave their socialism behind. Whatever the reason, today, capitalists are trapped, unable to flee to any country on earth who welcomes liberty and despises tyranny.

I have a simple request, a request that if honored will save a lot of lives and a lot of arguments and a lot of fights. It is simply this:

Socialists, begone!

If you think government is a wonderful idea, why don’t you go live where government is king? North Korea, Cuba, Red China, these are the countries where great people rise through society to become great government leaders. In these countries, the power of government is wielded mercilessly on behalf of the people’s welfare, not their rights. Their inspiration is drawn from a long list of bloodthirsty tyrants, starting with the Babylonian and Persian kings, moving through Alexander the Great and the wonderful Roman emperors. Then it moves through the European feudal system that eventually, with the blessings of freedom, were efficiently optimized into the Fascists and Communists of Europe.

If those countries are too harsh for you, there are a hundred countries with varying degrees of socialism. You can experiment with government-run health care just by moving a few miles to the north! Or catch a flight and land in any number of European countries where health care is as free as the air and sunshine. I hear Venezuela doesn’t have a problem with those nasty opposition news outlets. FOX news doesn’t exist down there, and Rush Limbaugh’s voice cannot be heard!

I simply want to live free from tyrants like you telling me what to do. Go live somewhere where change isn’t needed, where the status quo is your idea of utopia.

Socialists, begone!

Go Email Rep. Adam Smith, Right Now

Go visit this URL: https://adamsmith.house.gov/

Note that Adam Smith said in recent history:

“Sustainability requires that the burden on the American taxpayer and the federal budget be limited. To that end, we will be unable to support any health care legislation that doesn’t meet the President’s goal of driving down and holding down the cost of health care, as determined by the CBO.” (Rep. Adam Smith, Letter To Speaker Pelosi And Leader Hoyer, Link, 10/14/09)

Adam Smith is one of those Blue Dog Democrats that Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama despise so much. While 99% of the time he is voting along with the most radical elements in his party, every once in a while he can be the wrench in the gears that brings their most radical ideas to a standstill.

Make no mistake: If this legislation passes, we will have to live with it for the next hundred years or more.

On Adam Smith’s page, respond to him about what you think about the health care bill. This is what I wrote:

Please oppose Pelosi’s health care bill. Imposing taxes and conditions on the people, insurance companies, and health care providers is not how to lower the total cost of health care.

We need a system with fair tort laws and tax code. These are two things that government can, and should, do right.

Medical care doesn’t come from government mandates and bureaucrats. It comes from doctors, nurses, drug researchers, and administrators who choose to be the most professional in the world at what they do.

The incentive is either money or charity or both. We should build a system that delivers the maximum value to consumers and producers, and signals the true cost of things through prices, and that means keeping government’s hands out of the system.

Our tax code should be written to reward those who either buy insurance or pay for their medical expenses out of pocket. It should also reward those who contribute to the health care of the poor. Our government should never reward poor choices that lead to financial problems, either in our hospitals or among the poor.

Your response can be similar. Here are some guidelines:

1. State the action you want him to take at the very beginning. His staffers likely organize responses into piles. You want your response in the right pile.
2. Be polite and treat him like a human. He is, after all, very human and susceptible to emotion and reason.
3. Support your position with your personal reasons. He doesn’t want to read spam any more than you do. He does want to hear what people are really thinking.

Now go do this, today, right now.

Uh Oh

If you’re following the election results nationally, you’ll not a few interesting things.

One, Virginia is now a solid red state. Two, New Jersey is now a purple state. Three, RINO’s like Scazzofava are unelectable even in the Northeast.

Here in Washington State. you’ll note that R-71, the referendum that was supposed to pass by a wide margin, is still too close to call.

Something happened, and I think it’s best described as “Uh oh.”

First, credit were credit is due. I think we can all thank Obama, Reid, Pelosi, and other hard-left democrats for the radical shift to the right the country is experiencing. Then we must turn to people like Red State’s Eric Erickson who are helping conservatives feel bold enough to actually behave like they should.

The conservatives in the country are now a plurality—40% to be exact. That’s 4% more than the moderates and 26% more than liberals. We are, once again, a conservative country. Conservatives only need to attract the attention of less than a third of the moderates to win the day in a national election.

If conservatives campaign as Reagan did, on the bold assertion that individual, unalienable rights are the foundation of our country and the only good government is a limited one, then they will easily win. See, even liberals agree that government shouldn’t control people’s lives. Their beef tends to be that the government should enable people to enjoy their freedoms through wealth redistribution and recrimination for inequality.

That is, as long as they are doing the redistributing and recriminating and not suffering on the bad end of that stick.

Conservatives have a duty to do the following in the coming months.

1. Run for office, at every level, or support honest conservatives who do.
2. Destroy the moderates and liberals, politically, even if it means shooting oneself in the foot. It is better to have a Pelosi in office than a Reichert at this point.
3. Expound on their ideals, which are simply this: individual, unalienable rights and limited government.

In short, it’s time to behave a little more like libertarians.

Here are a few issues that we must absolutely support:

1. A dramatic, permanent cut in government spending and revenue at the cost of socialist programs.
2. A return to the originalist interpretation of the constitution.
3. Wielding political power to do the right thing, not to gain more political power. Fall on your swords, so to speak, in defense of the people’s individual rights.

That means there are a few issues that the federal government should get behind that traditional, moderate republicans wouldn’t strongly support. Things like the War on Drugs and the constitutional mandate that states must honor  marriages made in other states need to be fixed.

I believe that we are on the cusp of another 1980 or 1994. If we play our cards right, and stand up for liberty and limited government, then I believe we can see a more productive 2010 as we get a congress that actually “gets it”.

Ha Ha

Is murdering the former president a part of civil discourse? (link)

I guess my sense of humor isn’t finely tuned. Let me try to tell a joke then:

Perhaps we should just get the next civil war over with sooner rather than later. At least when it’s over with, people like Gore Vidal won’t even have a tombstone to mark their remains.

I’m sorry, you’re not laughing at my funny joke?

On Crime and Punishment

Seeing an “expert” in the field of crime and punishment post his thoughts on how to reform our judicial system to get less crime and punishment has got me thinking: Why is this so hard in the first place?

I think the answer lies in complexity. We, as humans, do terrible with complicated things. The more complicated something becomes, the more likely we are to get it all wrong. The tale of the blind men and the elephant wouldn’t be so fascinating if they were examining something simple, like a stick.

I don’t think the reason why we have so many criminals is because they don’t understand the law. I doubt there is anyone in prison today who thought they were keeping the law when in fact they broke it. (If there is, it is an injustice to keep them in there.)

The reason why we have so many criminals is because the law is so complicated that crime actually pays. See, if you pull of a massive fraud on investors, it will take twenty years for investigators to discover the crime, another ten to put together a case, and then a couple more years to actually hand down your sentence. That’s a long and full life of crime, where you are untouched by the law. Crime does pay.

If the law were simpler, then crime would be easier to punish. And if it were easier to punish, we would punish more criminals. And this would be a deterrent.

So, for example, if you decided to perpetrate a fraud on the people, investigation would take an afternoon, the trial would last another day, and sentencing would be a few hours. And then you would be suffering the punishment for your crime, rather than enjoying a lifetime of benefits from your criminal acts.

We have built up traditions and practices and policies, and even laws, that prevent us from doing the above. We are so sensitive to people’s rights that we forget the victim’s rights in all of this. The law is supposed to balance the two, not give preference to one or the other. Traditions and practices and policies are supposed to expedite the application of law, not hold it off its application for as long as possible.

To change our judicial system, I propose we go back to a simpler time when laws read more like the 10 commandments and less like legalese you’d find on the back of your credit card statement. I am confident that we can boil down all of our civil laws into a few simple statements focused around individual rights. All of court procedure and investigation procedure can likewise be boiled down to a few lines of text. The entire state and federal code should be something you can read in a few hours, maximum. Little children should be able to memorize the principle concepts and adults should be able to memorize the whole thing.

But we’ll need the cooperation of the courts. As long as appellate and supreme courts keep themselves busy overturning lower courts on the most trivial of technicalities, cases are going to drag on and on. Appellate courts and supreme courts should only act in obvious cases of injustice.

Most importantly, if we, the people, begin to demand a simpler judicial system and the faster application of the law in criminal cases, we will get what we ask for. Simply evaluate candidates and determine whether they will help you get what you want or stand in the way, and vote appropriately.

How Obama Treats the Constitution

It seems that President Obama doesn’t like constitutions. He has openly shredded the Honduran constitution, and forced the Honduran government to behave outside the parameters of that sacred document. (link)

Why is a constitution sacred? Because it confers on government its very existence, and the parameters of its behavior. It is sacred in the same way that God’s empowering of the people with natural rights is sacred, because the people are the god of the government, empowering it with a portion of their individual liberties to protect the same.

It is obvious, based on Obama’s behavior, that he doesn’t consider constitutions as important. What does he think of our own? When he took the oath of office, did he swear a false oath to protect and defend our constitution from enemies foreign and domestic?

Based on his behavior, and based on the bills he is supporting, it is apparent that he did make a false oath.

If we have a government that refuses to be limited by the very document that created the same, what is the recourse of the people? Why should we support a government that doesn’t support our constitution?

I declare, that we live today under tyranny. Our President Obama is no better than the King of England. We are not free. We have no sacred rights. And it will remain so until our government comes to believe again that the constitution binds it in a sacred contract between the people and itself.

All those who believe we have no constitution, or that a constitution is “living”, or that a government need not worry about what the constitution actually says, I declare you to be enemies of freedom and advocates of tyranny. Enjoy your feast while it lasts, because kings and tyrants have an interesting habit of eating their own. The flesh you dine on will soon be your own.

It is interesting to note that the first people to go are people like me, who refuse to bow down and worship government as a god. The second are those who advocated for the destruction of people like me and yet retain some sense of morality and will express shock and outrage when the government they supported begins openly raping, torturing, and abusing the people in unheard acts of brutality.

Stand up now while you still can, or bemoan your future.

My Platform

Here’s my political platform.

The government spends too much. Limit government spending.

The government borrows too much. Limit government borrowing.

The government taxes too much. Limit government taxes.

The government regulates too much. Limit government regulation.

The government is too big, too powerful, and too much for the people. Limit its size. Let the people live in peace.

Discuss.

Haunted Houses spookier than Al Gore

The latest pew poll on climate change has identified that Americans are more likely to believe in haunted houses than Al Gore’s yarn about catastrophic human-caused climate change. (link)  Of course, the greenies are concerned about this. (link) It’s very hard, after all, to impose communism on a people when they are not scared of the demons you’ve invented.

(Hat tip: Climate Depot.)

I think the global warming movement is officially dead. It is unlikely they can do or say anything to convince enough Americans to slit their collective throats, economically speaking, with an insance energy policy whose net effect is to transfer wealth from the poorest among us to Al Gore.

After they’ve lied about the temperature going up in the past decade, lied about the polar bear population diminishing, lied about the ice caps melting, lied about the true impact of CO2 on the climate, lied about the oceans rising, and lied about pretty much everything they’ve claimed, I think the American people are sensing a pattern.

The “stake in the heart” has been the revelation that CO2 is actually not that great of a greenhouse gas, compared to gasses such as water vapor. In fact, even if we dramatically increased the CO2 levels in our atmosphere, the only effect we would see is more abundant plant life across the world. Oh, and perhaps a marginal temperature increase, barring the other effects that we can barely consider but seem to actually exist.

In fact, as our Middle Age ancestors realized, the sun has a far more powerful effect on the weather and the climate than anything we can produce here on earth. A good indicator of how hot or cold it will be is to simply count the number of sunspots. This is a better predictor of climate than anything else, so much so that any honest scientist cannot ignore the evidence. And this is also, surprise surprise, the secret to the Farmer’s Almanac’s impressive record of weather prediction.

Many people look down on Americans because we are not as gullible as they look. This is evidenced by our sincere and unshakable faith on the “Sky God” and his Son. This is also evidenced by our skepticism towards the new theories science invents from time to time, such as evolution. For all the predictions that evolution makes, it won’t forgive our sins or clear our conscience of guilt. Fat lot of good that is, I say.

May we forever be known as the odd nation who refuses to bow down and worship the gods of science and imminent global catastrophe that can only be diverted by a massive government takeover of our private lives.

Request for Comments

I’m being quite serious here.

Question: What is the difference between Obama’s vision of the role of the federal government and Kim Jong Il’s vision of the role of the North Korean government?

Please respond with your answers below.

This is deathly important. See, this year, North Korea is likely to produce only 60% of what it produced last year—in food. (link) While South Korea is rapidly becoming an economic powerhouse, North Korea is exploring new depths of poverty unseen in our world’s history.

For those of you who don’t understand why this is important, let me share with you what I, and the majority of the United States citizenry, believe the role of the federal government is.

The federal government exists solely to protect free trade between the states, ensure that contracts are enforced across state borders, and to protect the states from physical threats, foreign and domestic. The federal government also exists to represent the states in international politics. These functions are outlined quite clearly in the Constitution of the United States.

The things that President Obama is attempting to do do not lie within the realm of the role of the federal government. It is not supposed to provide for your retirement or provide health insurance or health care (except as compensation to its employees). It does not exist to keep our streets safe or to limit the trade of potentially harmful substances. It does not exist to tax and distribute those taxes to schools and state governments. It does not exist to control the banking industry, the auto industry, or the medical industry. The only industry it can hope to control is the military industry, and that only because congress writes the checks.

Our view of government as a limited government is where our freedom truly lies. And it is because of our freedoms, not our government, that we have been the most efficient producers of economic wealth in the history of the world. It is also why, even in our poor economic condition, we still continue to run circles around the rest of the world.

When you’ve identified any difference between Kim Jong Il’s vision of unlimited control over the lives of the people and President Obama’s vision of the same, let me know in the comments below.

Remember to keep the comments clean and free from ad hominem attacks.

Mormons and Politics

From the newsroom of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

Furthermore, the Church views with concern the politics of fear and rhetorical extremism that render civil discussion impossible. As the Church begins to rise in prominence and its members achieve a higher public profile, a diversity of voices and opinions naturally follows. Some may even mistake these voices as being authoritative or representative of the Church. However, individual members think and speak for themselves. Only the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles speak for the whole Church. (link)

If you are confused about how Glenn Beck, Mitt Romney, Harry Reid, or other members of the LDS church in the public sphere represent the church, the above paragraph should clear things up.

In addition to the above statement, the church is concerned about the lack of civility in public life. Civility is defined simply by treating others like you would want to be treated. If you’re not doing that, you’re not being civil.

The fruits of incivility is the lack of domestic peace, civil war, and eventually, the complete breakdown of society. We are well approaching that as members and organizations that do not agree with President Obama are ruthlessly attacked in the public sphere.

It is well worth noting that the communist plan has been, and still is, the complete overthrow of traditional society. Their plan is to drive us to hate each other to such a degree that we will destroy whatever is left of our constitutional republic. The communists imagine that world peace will follow this kind of destruction.

President Obama is clearly driving our ship of state into the ground.

Those who have a modicum of common sense know exactly what follows the communist plan: the silence of death.