With the healthcare debate, cap n' trade and all of the other things going on I believe it is time to start questioning our government.

Why is it that the President has surrounded himself with socialists and admitted communists?

Why are people that believe in euthanasia, radical animal rights, forced sterilization, and state control of a body for organ donation getting confirmed by the Senate?

Why does every piece of legislation proposed ignore free market principles and lean toward the collective?

Why is no one on either side of the aisle seem to even consult the Constitution before proposing legislation?

Why won't legislaters read a bill and vote "no" if they can't understand it?

Why does everything need to be done "right now" or else?

On the day of the seeming "crash" where did almost $1T disappear too?

Why, when asked, did Axlerod dismiss open state border health insurance competition as "not the kind of healthcare reform that we want" (paraphrase) 

These are only a few of the questions that have been boiling inside me for some time. I believe the answer is that we are in a battle for the soul of the nation. What happens in the next year or so will determine whether we are still free people with all of the risks and rewards that come with that or will we become at the minimum subjects or at the worst slaves to a government that provides all of our needs without allowing us to reach for our wants? 

Where do the majority of Americans stand? I don't know. The Tea Party movement seems to be taking hold but does it have the staying power to fight the free lunch policies of an ever more powerful federal government? Are we to become a bunch of groups each thinking it OK to take the other guys subsidy or will we stand up and take out lumps and dial ourselves back to personal responsibility?

I will stand for freedom. I am willing to live under a bridge in order to leave my children and grandchildren a country where they have the freedom to live their dreams rather than be trapped in a system that tells them whats best and provides some pre-determined standard of living. Will anyone stand with me?

I've been thinking and I know that is usually dangerous but here goes. Ayn Rand writes of being forced to live insanely. The Bible warns about being "doubleminded".

Everyone looks out for their own best interest. We have allowed ourselves to become as children grasping at the apron strings of mother gov't. We scream in order to get "Mom" to give us the last piece of pie or the bigger piece of candy.

Everyone should be looking out for their own best interest within the scope of the law. The current system is forcing everyone to be "doubleminded". Companies are supposed to look out for employees, citizens are supposed to be happy to let the gov't take their money, Banks are supposed to loan on "moral grounds" and government is supposed to somehow be this benign guiding entity. It is creating an insane environment where nothing works.

I propose the following to "Stop the Madness"

Unions quit trying to get government to pass healthcare and card check. Create benefit packages with dues money that make people want to join.

Companies: start thinking about how to build a better mousetrap without asking government to wrap a chain around the leg of your competitor.

Banks: Those that did something wrong, put 'em under the jail. Those that ran good companies promote them. And quit asking government to fix your F... up.

Citizen: Quit trying to get your government to steal from the person that earned his wealth in order to give it to you. If your down and out go see the Salvation Army or better yet come see me I've got some vegatables to pick and some cowsh.. to shovel.

Government: Sit Down, Shut Up, Close the Fed, and get OUT OF THE WAY

With the auto industry on the ropes the unions should consider becoming in reality what they pretend to be. An advocate for workers.

A company's goals and the unions goals are at odds. The Company's goal is to make money. The Unions goal is to make life better for the employees. Unions should get out of the political arena and focus on "providing" benefits for workers instead of "getting" benefits for workers. Unions should start their own health plans and pensions for the membership instead of passing the job on to the government or employer.

If the unions would step up and create these programs for members people would flock to join unions. They would look for union shops to work for because they could take a defined benefit pension plan and benefits from job to job. As it is every time you change jobs your union pension stays with your company.

The goal of the union and the goals of the company are at odds. It creates a form of insanity for a business to have to spend time and energy to "take care" of employees. The unions should take  dues money and create the programs that they want everyone else to provide. Instead of pension plans and healthcare they should take those dollars and do that work themselves. Then each party could use their energy in the actions that naturally come for their goals.

With the system the way it is there is no benefit to joining a union.  If you lose your job you carry nothing foreward. I worked in USWA shops almost 20 years. With each plant closure I lost what I had built up.

 The 30 year job is over. Unless the unions change with the times they will end up in the dust bin of history.

We need to pass the following law or ammend the constitution to say this, "All members of the federal legislature, both House of Representatives and Senate, will sign a sworn affidavit, under penalty of perjury, stating that they have read and understand any piece of legislation prior to voting on said piece of legislation".

Once upon a time there was a shining nation with a golden door. She welcomed all who wanted to come and work hard. By her free access to opportunity she created the wealthiest society in history, her citizens enjoyed the freedoms to excell or simply just get by as they saw fit.

Soon her citizens began to see that those who lived principaled lives began to have a greater share of the wealth. Those who lived by hard work, thrift, and honesty grew successful and wealthy.Those who failed to live but those principals, while they still lived better than everyone else on the planet, began to demand from their government that they confiscate the wealth of those who earned it in order to cover their mistakes. This demand was not only made by those who wanted to lay around and do nothing it was made by those of great wealth and stature, who believed that by the nature of their status they were "too big to fail".

The government listened to the screaming masses locked in the cities and began to demand that those who were in the middle "do their patriotic duty" and make sure that those on the ends of the economic scales be taken care of. Those who were poor needed this money, "For the children" those on the other end needed the money to "stave off economic collapse" . At first it was only the highest of income producers but as they slowly gave up and stopped producing the government moved down the food chain. Slowly, those at the bottom of the middle began to find themselves in the top of the bottom with no way to move back up because they have been trapped in bondage of government assistance. At first they fought back to regain the status they had had before they accepted the chains but soon the chains began to set lightly. Then their masters convinced them that those with wealth had stolen it from them because the wealth of a nation belonged to all of the people and somehow they must make everyone equal.

As things got worse the government soon sold the golden door and replaced it with one of woven straw. Then those who only wanted to rape and pillage the nation broke through the door of straw. They too demanded that those in power give them what they had not earned. Those in power soon realised that if they continued to give all thing to all people that the people would allow them to rule them forever. So the government  gave more and the people demanded more because if they dreamed to earn more they knew the the government would take it and give it to somone else.

In the end the once shining nation became a garbage dump. Where once the majority lived in great oppulence and splendor there now was a small walled city at the top of the heap. The only way into the city was through "pull", or "connections". Everyone else picked through the garbage thrown down from the city, but they were happy because through the years they had been told that bondage was the natural state of man and they would be provided with all of their needs, but the experts would decide what those needs are.

One day those in the walled city could no longer provide for the needs of those on the garbage heap and those on the garbage heap attacked the city finding nothing left to eat. As they looked at the monuments of the once great nation, broken and tarnished, they cried because it was only then that they realised the lies they had believed and that now they would all starve together because their greed had destroyed the very thing that had given them wealth.

I have heard over and over that we can't allow the big three to go bankrupt because we need the manufacturing capacity in case of war. This argument is just another smoke screen in order to pay back the UAW for its support of the DNC. Even if this argument  was true we don't produce enough of the raw materials (steel etc) to support the assembly lines of the big three. That capacity was destroyed 40 years ago thanks to the EPA and Jimmy Carter.

Now the UAW is going to meet with the Obama administration to discuss what happens to the retirees if GM and Chrysler go bankrupt. Why is the UAW more important than the USWA? The USWA had retirement benefits similar to the UAW when the steel industry crashed in the late 70's. Those folks had their pensions thrown into the PBGC. In many cases if you were under 60 payments were stopped and almost everyone lost their healthcare insurance. I personally witnessed this. Nobody liked it but everyone survived.

The government has no business trying to decide which industries live or die. Although government regulations kill more industry than labor costs and international competition combined.

google the following: SB 277, HR 1388, and HR 28547. "The Give Act". If this thing passes the government will have a new version of Hitlers Brown Shirts.

Call Congress

Glenn Beck has started this. I think it is worthwhile to get involved.

www.the912project.com.

It appears that our new president has a double standard when it comes to bad mouthing the rich. While bad mouthing those who produce wealth by the sweat of their brow and the building of products, he hobnobs with the gliteratti in DC and eats $100 a pound beef.

The president clearly believes that the second tier wealthy have clean hands where the first tier wealthy are dirty. Let me explain what I mean. The first tier wealthy are the actual producers of stuff. Those who own factories, construction companies, plumbing companies, grocery stores etc. These folks produce the wealth that what I call the second tier wealthy use to maintain their lifestyle. The second tier wealthy are the artists, actors, politicians, inheritees, etc. Those folks seem to fell guilty about the oppulent lifestyles they lead. probably because deep in their souls they feel guilty about the way they live on other peoples money. Money that they didn't earn. For some reason most of the hollywood elite act as though they feel guilty about the money they earn, although they have no problem spending it. Which confuses me.

How long will the first tier wealthy take the abuse of the second teir wealthy before they seek a shelter where they will no longer be abused?

I've been reading " Libertarianism a primer" by David Boaz.

I'm probably preaching to the choir but long story short, the heart of libertarianism is personal property rights and that the only purpose of government is to protect those rights by enforcing contract law. The book traces libertarianism back to Gods warning to the Isrealites of the danger of having a king. In biblical history prior to the kings the Isrealites had judges, enforce contracts........

I am finding that what most of us are calling conservatism is actually libertarianism. This book explains the freedom that the libertarian phylosophy gives mankind. I was totally unaware of the number of mutual aid societies that existed prior to the government getting involved in social engineering, and how these mutual aid societies policed fraud and demanded certain behaviors in order to receive the benefit of the society. It also explains how government intervention starves out private inovation to problems. Many of the mutual aid societies had a doctor on retainer for members to use. This practice was largely killed when government started regulating the insurance industry. Most recently a doc in NY wanted to charge his patients a flat $89 retainer per month, unlimited visits. He was not permitted to do this by the NY insurance commission.

Is it possible that everything old is new again, that rather than look to our government to fix the problems that we face we need to look to ourselves? Perhaps instead of begging for the legislature to fix these things the states need to recall their legislaters, stop collecting all federal taxes and look to themselves to fix these problems.

I've read that the original wording in the Declaration of Indepence were "Life liberty and property". Wouldn't things have been much clearer if we had allowed those words to stand? About 90% of current government operation is unconstitutional, but we have allowed ourselves to turn a blind eye to the errors because we wanted to vote ourselves largess from the treasury.

Where are we headed? Can we turn around or do we want to?