Govt Shutdown - Report from Out Here: Day 11

DAY 11:

Okay...I've skipped some days.  But during days 5 - 10 I was going about my business, living my life, working my job...not feeling any real effects at all form the so-called government shutdown.

But then today, I see the real results...how society is beginning to break down.  Criminals are running the streets.  Look at this article and be afraid...be very afraid.

Govt Shutdown - Report from Out Here: Day 4

DAY 4:

I saw something this morning that really surprised me...a school bus....with kids on it.  Yes, I found out the schools are still open.  Huh...how can that be?

I talked to a neighbor and they told me that there would be school on Monday too...that will be day seven of the shut down and they still haven't closed the schools.  Once again, I'm amazed.  How can we hope to educate our youth without the ever present Federal bureaucracy?

Well, probably the same way we always do...at the State, county and local school district level.  The US Department of Education does nothing to educate children.  They only get in the way of the local school boards and skim money from the tax roles that could be better used to pay teachers and improve schools.  The US Department of Education has only been in existence since 1979, and in that time the US has steadily slipped in test scores and is now ranked 17th in the world for education.  A lot of good that $68 billion a year does for us.

And remember, like every other department and program, the money for the Department of Education...including the money it gives out in grants...comes from the people of the States.  First, they skim their sizable share off the top, and then they use what's left to bribe States and local schools to operate in the way the central planners think best.

Hmmm...one more reason we don't need an all-intrusive Federal leviathan.  Hey, I'm thinking we really do need to keep this shut down going!

Govt Shutdown - Report from Out Here: Day 3

DAY 3:

Looking out my windows, it is a little more overcast and dreary today than yesterday...not sure if this is an effect of the shutdown or not.

But, water continues to flow from my faucets, I have electricity, and my phone and internet services still work.  This is curious to me.  Why, I thought that without the Federal Government, all infrastructure just falls apart.  I thought the local water, power and telecom companies were just a front for Federal workers who busily went about making sure that all the important features of modern life were maintained...and yet three days into a Federal Government shut down there is no apparent impact on these vital services.

What I have heard about is government agents putting up barricades around federal landmarks, such as the WWII Monument.  These are monuments that many people visit every day without the need for government tour guides or  any interaction with government at all.  But, even during a horrible shutdown, the Feds do seem to have the ability to send agents to bar 80 and 90 year old WWII veterans from visiting their monument.  They also seem to have the ability to place barricades around Mount Vernon, which is privately owned and operated.

This is pretty pathetic, if you ask me.  This is a blatant attempt to use our monuments as a very visible sign of the effects of a government shut down.  One of the first things they bring up in every discussion of possible shutdowns over the last few years is the closing of national parks and monuments.  They want you to know that poor little school children may not be able to visit their favorite park.  Now remember, this is almost all they have...Parks and the fact that Federal workers may not get paid...except of course the big mean officers barring access to monuments.  What else are we seeing?  What other catastrophes have befallen us?

Once again I call on the States to take up this issue also.  Find for me in the Constitution...anywhere...the clause giving the Federal government the power to run tourist attractions.  In the last more than 100 years, the Federal government has confiscated millions and millions of acres of land within the boundaries of many States for the purposes of establishing parks.  They have no legal right to do this under the narrowly enumerated powers given them by the federation of States through the Constitution.  Don't get me wrong, I think many of these parks are beautiful and amazing places, but they should not be under Federal control.  Most, if not all States run and maintain their own parks.  They could also maintain the Federal parks instead of sending their money off to Washington to have sent back for this purpose after a large portion is skimmed off-the-top for bureaucratic overhead and graft.

So...Day 3 and no real noticeable effect for the VAST MAJORITY of the population..."curiouser and curiouser."

Related post:
Why Feed the Pig?

Govt Shutdown - Report from Out Here

DAY 1:
Well, the government shut down and I looked around my neighborhood...drove through the area...Traffic lights were still working...businesses still operating...People were going about their lives as if nothing has changed. How can this be? I thought if we had a government shut down, it was the end of the world as we know it. I'll have to wait a few days...maybe weeks...and check again. I'm sure the world will have come to a crashing halt by then.

DAY 2:
Beginning of day two of the shutdown...or "Slimdown" as some are beginning to call it. Still, the lights are on...the Internet is operational (thank you Al Gore, LOL)...and life, for the VAST MAJORITY of us, continues as normal...Hmmm.

I propose that we insist that this continues for at least one month. That way, we can see the real effect of less government in our lives. At the end of that month, I suggest that we could discontinue most of what we have done without during the experimental period...permanently. And, I think, that is what government fears most and why they are so shrill in their predictions of doom...they fear you...we the people will realize that we *CAN* do with much less of them.

May I also suggest that this is the time for the State legislatures to stand up to their responsibilities.  In our Federal system, the States are *NOT* subjects of the central government in Washington...but rather sovereign entities who have entered a pact with other states to form a federation to their mutual benefits. Each State should look after the welfare of their own citizens and businesses with jealous zeal, not allowing anyone to cause them harm or limit their freedom...even the Federal government.  If the shenanigans in D.C. can truly have such a huge impact on the economy of the entire country, I stand with James Madison who declared in the Virginia Resolutions that the States "are duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil."

It is time for the States to reverse the usurpation of their sovereign powers and insist that we return to the principles of the United States Constitution which is the bedrock document on which all other Federal law rests.  If roads need built in a State...the state should not send their money to the Federal government and beg to have it returned to build the road.  Likewise, if a State's people are in need, it is for that State to see to these needs...not to allow their own treasure to be used to control them so that some central politburo can decide how best to meet the needs.

The Federal government is rotten to the core...hopelessly corrupt.  It is time for the States to stand to their feet, reclaim their power, interpose and place the checks on the Federal government that the Constitution intends.

Obama Scandals: More of the Same?

With all of the scandals swirling around the Obama administration, I keep hearing apologists appeal to the fact that others have done it before.  "JFK, Nixon, Clinton all used the the IRS against their enemies,"  they say.  "Bush started the gun walking into Mexico first," is their cry. "It was the Patriot Act under George W. Bush that began all the surveillance of communications in the first place," they rightly point out.

"Yes," I say, "and that is exactly my point!"

To me, it doesn't matter which power grabbing statist abuses his power, and therefore tramples our rights.  The point is that THEY ALL DO IT! And, I would add, they all get progressively (pun intended) worse.  If President X gets away with such-and-so...President Y sees this as precedent which allows him to expand on the issue.  Then, President Z sees that there is no real resistance to this recently fabricated power and doubles-down.

This trend has continued, with very little interruption for the last 100 years or so.  It has gone on so long that the typical, government-educated citizen believes that it is normal...proper...inevitable.  A country, once heroically and uniquely founded on the principles of individual responsibility and a limited-power, republican government, now largely believes that nothing can be accomplished in this modern world without big government.

The fact that abuse and corruption have been done in the past does not excuse or legalize it.  The Constitution is very clear on the limits of power for the central government.  It is not the Constitution or the Bill of Rights that are  failing us.  Our founding documents are based on timeless principles of human nature and the nature of power.  These principles are true, regardless of the technology of the day. It is The People who have failed to insist on maintaining their rights and the rights of their fellow citizens. Too many are perfectly happy to allow "other people's" rights to be trampled when they don't agree with those people. For a recent example, consider gun rights. But these people are too ignorant...or brainwashed...or invested in their own dogma to understand that if the government can trample "other people's" rights, they can just as easily trample yours.

You cannot have a centralized, all-powerful, all-encompassing state without this kind of abuse.  Absolute power corrupts, absolutely! This is what we get when we look to government to solve all of our problems and provide for all our needs. When we turn our heads and ignore corruption and abuse, so long as we can suckle at the teat of mother government, we get the Nanny-State Overlords we must now endure. The founders knew this...even though they never foresaw cell-phones, e-mail or nuclear weapons.

“The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”~ James Madison; Federalist 47.

This is why I believe the best government ever devised was the limited, decentralized form the founders gave us.  It is our only hope to avoid the erosion and eventual elimination of all of our rights.  And the only hope for the restoration of this form of government is for The People to wake from their 100-year slumber and insist that their government be run according to the law of the land, the Constitution.  We must truly hold those in office accountable for violations of their oaths to uphold this law.  And...we must be willing grow-up and stand on our own two feet without the constant aid of good ole' Uncle Sugar.

Today's "Logic" Applied to the Past

It's 1929, Al Capone has recently ordered the  St. Valentine's Day Massacre.  Top FBI G-Man, Elliot Ness has been tasked with taking Capone down.  Ness looks into the situation and reports back to J. Edgar Hover:

"Look boss, This Capone thing...I think it's all blown out of perspective.  Yes...MAYBE some other gangsters got whacked by lower level functionaries.  They do seem to have been targeted because they were rivals of Capone.  You know, he has a big organization.  He can't be expected to know what's going on with all of his employees. And maybe he is involved in running illegal booze...prostitution, etc.   Its all reprehensible, I agree  but, hey, all the other gangsters are doing it.  You know, I mean, this kind of thing has been going on since long before prohibition.  You had your Jesse James, your Billy the Kid...you know, they killed people too."

"I think this is all just a ploy by the John Dillinger/Baby Face Nelson faction to draw attention away from all the good things Capone is doing for the Italian community in Chicago...The Italians love this guy.  Dillinger has been known to make disparaging remarks about Italians, you know.  He and all his type are just Italian-haters anyway."

"You know, most of the stuff he's done was months and years ago.  That's too long to care.  We should really not worry about the past and get back to doing the work of the FBI.  I don't think there's anything here...What?  Well, sure...I've met with Mr. Capone.  Yeah...he did offer me a job...He is using my brother's company to transport his products...Yes, he did say that my family would be well taken care of...but, I don't see what that has to do with any of this.  I think we should just drop the whole thing."
Reductio ad absurdum

North Korea: The Mouse That Roared?

In 1959, a film starring Peter Sellers, called The Mouse That Roared, was released.  The Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) describes the plot like this:

"An impoverished backward nation declares a war on the United States of America, hoping to lose, but things don't go according to plan. The Duchy of Grand Fenwick decides that the only way to get out of their economic woes is to declare war on the United States, lose and accept foreign aid. They send an invasion force to New York (armed with longbows) which arrives during a nuclear drill that has cleared the streets."

This reminds me of current day North Korea.  North Korea is a country devastated by years of corrupt, centralized, communist control of the economy.  The CIA World Fact Book estimates the entire GDP of the country is only $40 Billion.  It further describes their economy:

North Korea, one of the world's most centrally directed and least open economies, faces chronic economic problems. Industrial capital stock is nearly beyond repair as a result of years of under-investment,  shortages of spare parts, and poor maintenance. Large-scale military spending draws off resources needed for investment and civilian consumption. Industrial and power output have stagnated for years at a fraction of pre-1990 levels. Frequent weather-related crop failures aggravated chronic food shortages caused by on-going systemic problems, including a lack of arable land, collective farming practices, poor soil quality, insufficient fertilization, and persistent shortages of tractors and fuel. Large-scale international food aid deliveries as well as aid from China has allowed the people of North Korea to escape widespread starvation since famine threatened in 1995, but the population continues to suffer from prolonged malnutrition and poor living conditions. 

This is a country on the verge of collapse...if it weren't for foreign aid, they would have already collapsed and starved.

There is no way they can believe that they can actually prevail in a military contest against the South...let alone the United States.  In 1990, I remember the media telling us all how dangerous Iraq was.  We were told that they had the fourth largest standing-army in the world...the largest tank force...and they knew how to wage desert warfare.  The war was, in effect, over in 100 hours.  And, at least Iraq had oil money.  North Korea has no chance what-so-ever.  Even if they do have a nuclear weapon...it is probably only one, or two.  Then they have to be able to deliver it and set it off.  I think chances are better than even that, as in the movie, the bomb could be nothing but a dud.

It would not surprise me if Kim Jong Un's current saber rattling and bluster is nothing more than a scheme to get foreign countries to make concessions, in the form of pay-offs, as an attempt to keep his regime in power. I cannot think of any other possible reason for such foolhardy brinkmanship by North Korea other than hoping to get bought off for "peace."

While I don't think we should take any threat of nuclear attack lightly...I also can't quite take these clowns completely seriously either.  What will their price be?  $40 Billion and Starbucks franchise rights?  Maybe a McDoanlds in Pyongyang?  Whatever it is, we cannot pay it...we cannot allow ourselves to be shaken down by this ridiculous boy dictator.

The best thing for a roaring mouse is a simple mouse trap.

The More Things Change...

It's as true today as it was then...people don't know history...they are clueless about how the economy works...and don't know or care about the consequences of the way they vote.  People STILL believe that the Great Depression was a failure of the Free Market.  Why?  Because those really at fault, government, told them so.  But Friedman tells a different story:

"So the Great Depression was not produced by a failure of business.  On the contrary, it was produced by a failure of government...and a failure of government in an area in which responsibility had been assigned to government since the founding of this country...We have learned from that failure.  The Federal Reserve will not fail in the same way again.  This time it will fail in a different way.  This time it has been failing, not by producing a Great Depression, but by producing an inflation.  Because just as you will hear the story that it was business that was responsible for the depression, so you will today  hear the story that it is labor and management that are responsible for inflation.  It is the same kind of a myth."

The inflation he is speaking of here is in the 1970s when interest rates were in the double-digits and much of the American manufacturing base, such as steel, collapsed.  President Gerald Ford ran on a W.I.N. platform, which stood for Whip Inflation Now.  It was a time of what was being called "hyper-inflation," and it was devastating to our economy.

Today, we are on the verge of another devastation to our economy.  The Federal Reserve is printing more and more money.  This causes the value of the dollar to drop, and therefore, prices to raise...this is inflation.  But who is to blame.  Once again, Friedman tells it like it is:

"Inflation is made in one place, and one place only...Washington D.C.  And in Washington D.C., the chief source...immediate source of inflation...is a Greek temple on Constitution Avenue, which houses the Federal Reserve Board.  An accomplice, and a major accomplice of course, sits in the halls of Congress in Washington.  They are a major accomplice because you tell 'em to be.  The American people have been telling Congress for many years, 'Spend more money on us, please.'  But they've been telling us, 'Don't raise our taxes.'  Congress has been listening.  It's been spending more money on you, but, on the other hand, its been very unwilling to raise taxes.  As a result, its imposed inflation as a tax. That's one tax you don't have to vote for...but you have to pay."

I fear, though, that things are building to be even worse.  With the debt as high as it is, many in government today seem to have no problem both causing inflation and increasing taxes.

Watch the whole video.  It's an interesting history lesson, one that is very relevant for today.

Ashamed?

http://www.cato.org/blog/sequestration-cuts-perspective

On his March 21st show, Rush Limbaugh made the following statement: "Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time in my life, I am ashamed of my country." Audio can be found here.

Rush lists as his reason for shame the way we are having "our common sense and intelligence insulted the way it's being." The latest insult to our intelligence for which Rush has gotten so incensed is the maelstrom that is being whipped up over the so-called sequestration cuts to the budget.  As Rush said, it is only "44 billion dollars...that's the total amount of money that will not be spent that was scheduled to be spent this year.  And, in truth, we're gonna spend more this year than we spent last year...There is no real cut below a base-line of zero."  But we are to believe that any cuts at all to the planned spending of our bloated bureaucracy will cause a collapse of all of our necessary government services.  It's as if the line from the movie Ghost Busters is about to come true:

"What he means is Old Testament...real wrath of God type stuff...Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!...Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...The dead rising from the grave!...Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria! "

All this over a $44 B cut to the baseline budget.  As Larry Kudlow states, "According to the CBO, budget outlays will come down by $44 billion, or one-quarter of 1 percent of GDP (GDP is $15.8 trillion). What's more, that $44 billion outlay reduction is only 1.25 percent of the $3.6 trillion government budget."  And remember, that is 1.25% of the proposed increased budget over last year...so no real cuts.  Kudlow also observed that:

"Federal outlays as a share of GDP peaked at 25.2 percent in fiscal-year 2009, fell to 24.1 percent in 2011, and came in at 22.8 percent in 2012. The long-term historical norm is about 19 percent, so spending is still way too high. But some progress has been made. And if the GOP sticks to its guns and implements the current sequester, a lot more progress will be made, opening the door to a stronger economy."

"In other words, lower spending and limited government are the exact right medicine for free-market prosperity. The sequester cuts are pro-growth. Finish the job, please."

So, should this make Rush ashamed of his country?  Well, it makes me ashamed.  I love this country and what it has stood for in the history of the world.  But there are many things I am ashamed of when it comes to the current state of our country.  I am ashamed that as a whole, through our votes and indifference, we have allowed our country to come under the control of unscrupulous, power hungry statists.  I'm ashamed that the majority of citizens have given up on the founding principles that made this the freest and most prosperous country in the world.  More than that, they don't even know what those principles are, other than a few platitudes, and worse, don't care.

I am ashamed that after once being the most prosperous, productive and innovative country on the face of the planet, we have become a debtor nation, owing more in debt than the entire GDP of our economy.  That we have fallen behind in education and manufacturing. And that those on the government dole nearly exceeds those who make their own way.  I am ashamed that we seem to have become a country of spoiled, irresponsible children with an entitlement mentality who would rather pass their debt to posterity than give up their government freebies.

I am ashamed that after so much progress has been made since the struggles of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, so many have abandoned Dr. King's dream that people would "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."  Too many people follow the purveyors of multiculturalism and class warfare who seek to divide and weaken us...benefiting only the purveyors themselves.  I am ashamed that so many voted for a presidential candidate with no qualifications for the job, an unknown and questionable background with very anti-American associations only because of the color of his skin, or because they believed he would deliver the goodies...like free cell phones.

I'm ashamed that our First Amendment rights are under assault from political correctness....that our Second Amendment rights are being attacked so viciously by the Progressive statists...and most people just shrug and say, "What are you gonna do?"  I'm ashamed that no one can seem to recognize any more that if the government can take rights from those you don't like...they can take them from you.

 Yes, I am ashamed of many aspects of the current state of affairs in this great country.  I am ashamed and afraid that my generation and my parent's generation may have allowed the erosion of our liberties to come to a point where they cannot be reclaimed.  That we may be witness to the final demise of the great American experiment in freedom.

What about you?

Informed Mistrust

Thanks to my friend Rich for sharing the video below.

I do not trust centralized power, and in this sentiment, I stand with the Founding Fathers who strove to define a small, limited and decentralized form of government for the United States of America.

The gun control issue is about far more than guns.  It is about whether a small group of hypocritical, ruling-elite totalitarians in Washington can nullify our basic rights at their own whim.  It is about whether we are a nation of laws, based on the bedrock of a Constitution, or are to be ruled by the "tyranny of the majority," swayed by every wind of populist frenzy which would see every "good crisis," real or manufactured, as a reason to usurp our rights.

The participation of legal gun owners in crime has been characterized, from the FBI crime statistics, as statistically insignificant.  Gun bans will make no one safer since criminals, by their nature, do not obey laws.  But, if these usurpers can in effect nullify our 10th Amendment rights, they can also nullify our 1st Amendment rights or any other they choose.

Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it:

The Nazis confiscated guns from the Jews.  The Soviets and the Red Chinese confiscated guns.

John Adams effectually nullified the 1st Amendment through the Sedition Act, imprisoning many.  Lincoln imprisoned tens of thousands of people for the crime of publicly disagreeing with him with no due process...you were probably never told about that.  FDR imprisoned thousands of AMERICAN CITIZENS of Japanese decent in internment camps.

No, I do not trust centralized power.  If you do, you ignore the whole of human history, and you do it at your peril and the peril of your posterity.  There are many, many examples of centralized power gone bad...and I would say none of it turning out well.  We have only lasted this long, because of the work of the founders, through the Constitution, and many others who fought to uphold it.  We are at a dangerous time, I fear...a time when too many are willing to "give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety."

So no, I do not trust them when they tell us that they don't want to take our guns.  I know from history, past and recent, that they do.