What was once viewed, as one of the most sacrosanct right of every American -the right to own property - seems to be under siege from the very institutions the citizens depend upon to protect those rights.
Few noticed (and it did seem so far away), when other municipalities and state governments started to use the power of "eminent domain" to seize private property. Hey, in some instances "a case might have been made" that it was a good idea to force unwilling sellers to give up their property for "the public good"!
Unbelievably, here in Orange County Florida, we are looking at our own "shot across the bow" and the private property debate is a "game afoot". "County Leaders", wish to coerce an unwilling owner to surrender property that was tamed, settled and farmed by their ancestors nearly 100 years ago. This property is not some "ill gotten gains" stolen from the public. Instead, it was property fairly purchase by early pioneers who had the determination and grit to survive the hardscrabble life, and lean times - pre air conditioning, pre automobiles and pre insect repellant!
Purchase and acquisition of property by willing sellers and buyers is not at issue. Instead, it is the power of government to compel an unwilling sale or worse yet; condemn and confiscate private property that should have every resident uneasy. For today it is someone else "stuff", tomorrow it may be your house, your car or even your MP3 player that must be taken for the "greater good". All of us should be ill at ease with the notion that "property can be taken for community reasons from unwilling sellers". This taints the legacy that belongs to all Americans and aides and abets those that wish to "abolish all private property."
Senator Lott should resign his position as senate majority leader - not because he has been deceitfully accused of being a racist; but because he is not much of a leader!!!!
I say that because he is now giving handing-back to the liberals something that the conservatives just won at the ballot box - confidence of the electorate, control of the political landscape and agenda. It is even quite possible that control of the Senate may revert back to the liberals not by electoral mandate; but, by back-room political machinations. This means more failed government solutions to everyday issues; no additional tax cuts for all Americans; continued Liberal Judicial advocacy; placing the desires of labor union management over the security of the country and the list goes on and on.
Of course you can't take back what Senator Lott said; and you certainly can't change the fact that he said it. But the liberals and their willing myrmidons in the media have performed the largest political conjuration in American history: they have stolen over 140 years of Republican Civil Rights advocacy and redistributed it to the Democratic party.
And of course the sad shame of it all is that this convenient theft of history won't end with Senator Lott - whether he stays or goes. Republicans and especially white Southern Republicans will be painted with the factually inaccurate broad brush of bigotry and racism.
Senator Lott's off-the-cuff remarks have certainly buttered up a fine crumb of political 'foot in mouth disease' now to be served to all in the Republican Party. That's a crumpet we can all do without.
Well it seems as if congress is at it once more - proving you can't fetch water with a sieve. Instead, congress gives us airline security legislation that provides no security. Moreover, the new airline security measures had they been in place on Sept 10th, 2001 would have done nothing to prevent the terrorist actions the following day!
Senator Daschle's assertion that you can't "professionalize unless you federalize" is completely feckless. In place of airline security, we now have tens of thousands of newly unionized, federalized, beholden to the liberalized party line, bureaucratic workers that are worth no more per hour today than they were prior to the passage of the legislation.
Furthermore, artificially manipulating increased compensation for basic tasks reduces the circumstances for those left to pay for them - actually cheating the payer for the benefit of the newly protect federal payee. To further punctuate this public swindle, one politician was quoted as saying; "these type duties are best performed by dogs!"
Federally protect employee or well trained animal, what say you? As both my grandmothers were often heard to remark; "you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear!" Or as a friend once plainly said (while viewing a cheap guitar); "you can't shine a turd."
Since the government owns nothing unless it confiscates it from its citizens via taxes, how can politicians delude themselves into thinking that they can create by fiat what they do not possess - wealth, prosperity? The only answer can be that those that pass these laws know exactly what they are doing and are complicit in legalized plunder which undermines the incentive of the population. This is done to further their own political party's agenda at the expense of the nation. Does this sound treasonous to anyone else? . For who will left to stoke the fires of "the gravy train" if everyone is already on-board expecting a free ride?
Tucked away on the back page of our Oct 16th (2001) Orlando newspaper's "A" section was a brief paragraph from Harare, Zimbabwe. This little 'nugget' contained the following "...Zimbabwe is abandoning market based economic policies and returning to a socialist-style economy, President Robert Mugabe announced Monday that Businesses opposed to the move should 'pack up and go', he said... "
The Zimbabwe government (such as it is) is actually perpetrating this worn out idea of economic-terrorism on its own citizens. The most heinous aspect of this plan is that yesterday the government of Zimbabwe boldly declares to its people that they no longer own themselves and thus the benefits of their own labors. Instead and without apology, the Zimbabwe government declares that they own the labors of its citizens. As a consequence President Mugabe has again forced servitude among his people and returned slavery one more time to the continent of Africa.
Taxpayers around the world (and particularly American taxpayers) should be quite disturbed by these recent actions. For it will be from our own pockets the next set of demands will be made. The government of Zimbabwe by its own actions is rendering the economy fruitless and is creating a system of catastrophe, malfunction and failure.
When a government deprives from its people an incentive to provide for themselves, the next step is to demand from others that which they have prohibited from providing for themselves: A remedy to a self induced crisis.
This sets up the age old question: how can a cart be pulled if everyone is inside the cart waiting to be pulled, and there is no one left willing or able to pull?
Well as Frederic Bastiat wrote in 1850 "... there is also another tendency that is common among people. When they can, they wish to live and prosper at the expense of others. ...This fatal desire has its origin in the very nature of man -- in that primitive, universal, and insuppressible instinct that impels him to satisfy his desires with the least possible pain" (The Law).
Well I'm heartbroken; but I'm not surprised! Terrorism has finally come to America. For years we have been warned: that the world is not such a warm and cozy place. Frankly, there are many who that hate America - not because of who we are; but, because of what we can and do accomplish.
To most in the world, Americans live in unimagined freedom surrounded by the full bounty that this freedom provides. Yet rather than encourage emulation, the bounty from our way of life (truth, justice, self reliance and personal responsibility) seems to evoke covetousness, theft and even inspire the desire to shed innocent blood.
Even as our enemies conspire against us, we must guard against those from our own shores -some even entrenched in our own political system, willingly complicit to erase the distinctions between justice and injustice. This is not a time for creation of imbalanced moral equivalencies that allow for the acceptance of all actions against us.
Terrorist attacks on America and the freedoms we have earned diminish all the citizens of the world and for that, the entire body of world civilization has become poorer for it.
... may be coming to a neighborhood or civilization near you! These are the same old crimes - just meted out by a new overseer. Evil carried out - not by the Goths, Vandals or other Old-World looters; but, by a more heinous monster of the home grown variety - "the Majority" inculcated with the doctrine: 'EVERYONE BORN IS ENTITLED TO EXIST WITHOUT LABOR'!
But, the new overseers are "Moral Cannibals" who proclaim that it is everyone's Birthright to receive minimum sustenance: all of their food, all of their clothing and their shelter with no effort. To further their creed the 'Overseers' have succeeded in their deception that: everyone is entitled to receive their Birthright from the efforts of others.
While these same "burden shifters" decree that PRODUCTION is not a problem - they declare the only problem is the redistribution of production profit. As the masses have demanded it - it must be made so - even if contrary to all laws of reality.
Where does the future lie? And what of the "selfish unenlightened" who dare to continue to produce, to work, to endeavor? What is to become of them and society when they realize: they no longer own the result of their own creation and ideas - that all property, ideas and result have been claimed by the Overseers - based on power granted by "the Majority" - to be redistributed capriciously and arbitrarily to those who demand it - based not on what has been earned; but, upon the creed of need.
What of a society who's masses permit this "Moral Cannibalism" to exist? When the overseer and the masses recite from the same liturgy: "EVERYONE BORN IS ENTITLED TO EXIST WITHOUT LABOR"? History reminds us that there are no actions without consequences. Q.E.D. a society that fails to follow the laws of reality will bear the consequences of those actions.
Well, to listen to the congressional rhetoric about the pending 2001 tax cuts, - you would think that congress thinks that most of the money you make is their money!
Yep, that's right, not only are you NOT entitled to the fruits of your own labor (until the government gets it's cut); but, you are damn lucky if they let you keep any of it.
Before the government can confiscate your money - it must be made. But, how is money created?
Money is the result of merit - the best effort of honest men and women. (For in general, most are not rewarded for their worst efforts and in a free marketplace worst efforts are swept away by the choice of purchaser.)
Money is the mode whereby all persons of honorable intent exchange their "merits" with others voluntarily - for their own mutual benefit. Ayn Rand (in Atlas Shrugged) said, "Money is the tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value."
If you believe that you own yourself (and that the government does not own you) then you must also believe that you own the product of your own ideas and efforts. Anyone or any government seeking to seize by force or unjust fiat the results of your own efforts is stealing the product of your labor - enslaving your efforts for their own benefit. These people should be condemned for the thieves and looters that they reveal themselves to be and this theft should not be allowed to stand.
The Reverend Jesse Jackson has announced that he has fathered a child out of wedlock. I suppose the genuine news is not that the Reverend has committed adultery, but that his supporters (by the legion) tell us; "Jackson's Moral authority hasn't been diminished... He's to continue his stewardship and fight for moral justice" and "His work is very important because somebody has to speak out" while others indicate, "Jackson's political work should not be connected to his personal life".
The real story is ( at least in the New Millennium United States) violating a fundamental precept of core beliefs is not quite enough to lose your leadership status - if you are among the preferred. By the way, just how many of the Ten Commands is one (of Judeo-Christian faith) allowed to break before they lose their (hard earned) right to call themselves a leader?
Sound Familiar?
Damn right it does. This is the same "advice" we received from this moral leader when President Clinton was 'on the lamb' from his moral compass and receiving "ethical guidance" for his own sex scandal. But, what happens when a "leader" who's 'trick-bag' includes leveraging the "need" for moral and ethical conduct and uses the tools of morality and conscience to garner support for his agenda is found to be immoral? Obviously (and if you are 'among the preferred') the post Clinton legacy requires that "we forgive and forget, as this is just a personal matter." The 'religion of politics' is now recognized as a higher calling'- exhalted above all else.
What happens to a Society that abandons it's fundamental precepts? In the absence of principle we have anarchy. Leaders without their own firm values are standing in the quicksand of shifting mores and are ill equipped to guide us through this chaos.
When we follow or allow ourselves to be lead by the immoral "stewards of justice" who have abandoned their own core believes are we too tainted by following their path?
