Sunday, April 19, 2009

Chipping Away

Listening to Dan Carlin's latest podcast, "Searching for Security", my mind kept wandering beyond what he was talking about. The point of the first half of the show was the erosion of the fourth amendment of our constitution. In case you haven't read it lately, here it is:


"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Dan was talking about the warrant less wire taps, illegal searching using "bots" to find people that look at certain types of websites, even seizing of library records and searching of Internet service providers e-mail records for suspicious words and phrases.

The question ended up being whether the fourth may or may not be outdated in today's society. He spoke about Louis Freeh, the FBI Director under president Clinton. He used a quote from Freeh that loosely said "if you ask someone if it is acceptable to tap their phone, they will absolutely say NO. If you ask them if they want a device to help find where their children are, they are all for it."

All the while, I was thinking, "Wow, think about the rest of the constitution and where that has gone too?" The first amendment. Freedom of press, religion, assembly, speech and petition. These words too, have been slowly bastardized to the point of being nearly useless. It too often seems that all laws have to be completely anti religion today. The press is pressured to not be the watchdogs of government. Check out this link: http://www.iptv.org/iowajournal/story.cfm/31 . In order to assemble where we live, there are countless permits and costs. You can't just organize a good ole sit in and not be arrested. Hundreds of thousands of people did manage to make it through the red tape on April 15th only to be played off by the major media outlets as right wing extremists, and as one major unnamed news outlet (name looks like it could mean Communist News Network) said "tea bagging rednecks". Suppose they may have felt a little pressure from the administration or the "party"? Don't even talk about how well you shot at the sporting clays range yesterday while you are in the airport today.

The second amendment. Probably THE most attacked part of the constitution, other than the tenth amendment. I happened across Huckabee's show on Fox News today. He had Charles Grodin on to talk about his new book. Grodin hadn't even been completely introduced yet when he went into a tirade about gun violence. Was the Clinton gun ban an erosion? Is the following proposed bill http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h45/text an erosion of the constitution? I find it ironic the guy proposing it , long time Clinton family friend and Chicago's own Bobby Rush, is a co-founder of the Illinois Black Panthers and went to jail for felony possession of firearms.

The list goes on. There are examples of infringement on every piece of the Contract that our nation was founded upon. At times, the document is used against itself. In today's age of mass transportation and instant information, the necessary and proper clause and the interstate commerce clause are used consistently to destroy the tenth amendment. Read the text of the gun ban proposal at the link above for a classic example. Interstate commerce of firearms is used as the excuse for national licensing. The Second and Tenth are taken away, as they are written, in favor of a part of the body of the text.

This document is the foundation of our nation. Although it is written in far more proper English than we are used to reading in today's lowest common denominator (the bottom number in a fraction for you lefties) age, it is still pretty straight forward and forthright. Why it needs to be "interpreted" has always bothered me. If it outdated, let's not just chip away at it. It's illegal to do so. Let's man up and change it according to the law.

I believe, as Dan said, that the American people would never go for this and the politicians know it. What he left unsaid however, is the fact that politicians are smart. They have figured out that the American public is largely full of people who feel they are too busy to pay close attention. Law is boring and complex so it's extremely easy for them to get around that little stumbling block that holds our Nation together. My fear is now that folks appear to be waking up, it may be too late. The difference between left and right seems to be more like the difference between Valencia and naval oranges rather than apples and oranges.

We have to remember the body of the document had zero chance of passing until a Bill of Rights was included. These ten items secured a small national government free of tyranny in favor of strong local governments of the people. This security is only possible if we the people ensure OUR EMPLOYEES (the Congress and President) live up to the law.

Please check out Dan Carlin's Common Sense and Hardcore History podcasts. He truly is half Ann Coulter and half James Carville. You can find him at http://www.dancarlin.com/ . He never fails to make me think; a lot.

A couple pertinent quotes from Ben Franklin:

"He that lives upon hope will die fasting."

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."



There's power in them there words!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Work

Tonight's post really boils down to the following link:

http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/

This, my brothers and sisters, is a very important set of documents. This site is a fantastic reference for the understanding of our country. If you have never given them a read, please, please do so. The three folks responsible for these writings were very much in the heart of the struggle at the beginning of our Nation. Please, put in the work. It's worth it.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Anchor Babies

There were 4,000,000,000 "anchor babies" in 20008. Maybe after we attend the Tea Party tomorrow, we should go have a rally at the southern border.

Think about that, will ya?

60,000 pages in the tax code. We are paying for 4,000,000,000 additional "dependents". Hmmmmmm.....................

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Feral Cats

We have a cat here at our place. We live in what the rest of the world may call the "boonies". Our nearest town is only four miles away, but it's a couple miles of gravel to get out, and that town only has the main streets paved. Our grocery store would fit many times into a regular city grocery store. Before you begin to think I am a bumpkin never having left the country, please know, I have lived in and visited some very large cities both in this country and others. Oh yeah, back to the cat.....
This cat, here on the farm, was as feral (wild for the lefties here) as you can imagine. She was always dragging dead things up on the front porch to eat. Anyone that would come near would get a horrific hiss followed by the waving flag of her tail as she ran away. If you attempted to touch her and she was cornered, you were most definitely going to bleed. That was a guarantee!
You see, she was a pilgrim on our place. This cat was a free spirit. Living on her own and surviving just fine.
She made a mistake, however. She let my wife and I (with good intentions) tempt her by leaving food out every night. You see, we thought it would be good to have a "mouser" around our new country place. And it was great that she was independent. We could go away for the weekend and not worry about our "stray" cat.
Well, this cat, two years later is nothing but the regular old house cat that you are used to seeing. It is completely dependent upon us. We feed it every meal now. It rubs against us and gets under foot constantly hoping for a little bonus morsel or scratch on the head. I can't remember the last time I saw her hunting mice in the pasture. She just had kittens, and they are living comfortably in the garage without a care in the world. A new dependent generation has been born. They will never learn their food comes from the animals outside the house.
Its an amazing parallel isn't it? Theirs happened quicker, but it happened just the same. I just really, really, hope there is a wild one in that bunch of kittens that I can relate to.

Until next time, keep your powder dry and your eyes open.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

And the Truth Shall Set You Free

90% of the guns in Mexico come from the United States. You have heard that load spewing forth from Madam Pelosi's mouth followed by repetition after repetition on MSNBC, CNN and your nightly network news. What I wonder is why aren't they "reporting" this:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/04/02/myth-percent-guns-mexico-fraction-number-claimed/

Here's a VERY interesting poll. Vote and then view the results. It's only one question.
I know this is an antique and non scientific poll, but its results are interesting just the same.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/quickquestion/2007/november/popup5895.htm

Where are the torches and Pitchforks?!? Fred/Fan get huge bonuses after the AIG outrage, but there is almost no public outcry. Still don't believe the "administration" was behind the AIG craze? These two are Government owned, union pension backed institutions. Don't believe? Prove me wrong. Anyway, here's the article.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKN0335729620090403

Ever hear of Transnationalism? This is a word that is popping up all over the news and even in our "administration". Take a look at the link below and let me know where you believe our way of Government fits into this theory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnationalism

The tin foil hat conspiracy theorists keep bringing up Executive order 10998. They seem to think this little snippet of non-legislation signed by JFK gives the government control of all transportation, minerals, etc.... Really it didn't, and by the way, if you don't believe me you can look here: http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/1962.html

But, then there is this: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-645

More ammo for the tin hats or reason to be very afraid? You decide......

Until next time, keep your powder dry and your eyes open.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Hey, Palo Alto, Talk to me

I have been doing this for a little while now, and I feel as though sometimes I am beating my head against the proverbial wall. I see that I have many readers. Palo Alto, California. Someone there reads all my blogs faithfully. Same with the "Central District" in China. If your Domain begins with 173, or 69, or 63, you are watching regularly as well. Do any of you have opinions? I believe you are all watching me go over the deep end slowly. I hope it is amusing. For your knowledge, I don't plan on committing seppuku (Harakiri for the lefties in the bunch) any time soon. I want to keep being a thorn in the side of the Lefties as long as I can. I have several disjointed things to think about today:

Transnationalism. Look up the meaning of that word, and then think about what the Founders would have believed. - Is what the world wants best for America? Think a little about it.

Have you read Washington's farewell address? Might want to check it out.

Why are the Newspapers failing? I ask you to comment....

Pay for Performance act. Geitner gets to set your salary. What do you think? EVERYONE gets to make $251,000.00 this year, so we can charge you 75% tax. HAHAHAHA! Immigrants can still work for $7.00 an hour so we keep a class of "them".

$4,100,000,000,000.00- What does that number mean to you? Ask your congressman where that's gonna come from. That's over 30% of our GDP. If you told your loan officer that you owed Ten times what you earn every year, and you have only been making interest payments, but you wanted to borrow 30% of this year's pay, what would he/she say?

A great American, I mean Frenchman..

I have been reading about Lafayette recently. This is a story everyone should know. You can find at least a little about him at Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_de_Lafayette Check him out, 'cause he is one cool cat.

I apologize for being all over the place with this, but there's a lot going on right now.

Until next time...

Tax Them Until They Quit!

Ok, I have to admit, I am a smoker. Dumb move ever starting. I get that. Stupid thing to do because it kills people. I now pay additional taxes because of my habit. Lets look at this new tax for a minute. We are told the reason for the additional tax is to get folks to quit. Noble idea. Those that want to continue may do so at a higher cost. I have seen rants on Utube and the news from people that believe this is a great idea. "Tax it until they have no choice". "Tax it out of existence."

You folks crying out for these taxes may want to be careful what you wish for. Remember we are funding government programs with this additional revenue. My question for the anti's is the following. Who is gonna cough up (pun intended) the dough when you get rid of the tobacco? Is the program going to just go away?

Think about it and post an answer, I can't wait to see what you have to say.

The beginnings...

here is a very interesting link to an article in the American Spectator. Thanks to Thunder Tales for bringing this to light. Normally, I am not a Spectator fan because they have a tendency, in my opinion, to be a little sensationalist. Well, we are in a Sensational time....That wasn't meant positively.

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/04/02/il-duce-redux

Scary stuff.

My research recently has taken me down some strange paths. Good posts are on their way, my friends.

Until next time, keep your powder dry and your eyes open.