Be a Dad Worthy of Being Honored

Yes, it’s Father’s Day – the 100^th anniversary of the occasion as a matter of fact.

But, while it’s nice to be recognized for our role in the family, it’s a great opportunity to give, yes give, a gift to our children and grandchildren that will serve them well.

–> Take the time today – hell take the time every day – to tell them the story of George Washington, a man who lost every battle he fought against the British for almost two years, who never quit and who became known as the father of his country.

–>Tell them about the hardships and desperation of the men at Valley Forge who survived and then won the first great battle in Revolutionary War that led to our independence and the freedoms we enjoy.

–>Read them the Declaration of Independence and explain how radical the concept was that our rights, freedom and liberty did not come from a king or government but from “the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” – that we were born with those rights and that no man, no group, no government could take them away.

–>Talk to them about the greatness of the Framers of our Constitution, about the reasons why we have three branches of government and a system of checks and balances so that our freedoms would be protected.

–>Discuss Article 1 Section 8 – the enumerated powers given to the legislature and how everything else, under the 10^th Amendment was left either to the states or to the people themselves.

–>Go over the Bill of Rights and explain what they mean and why they were included.

–>Analyze and explain the difference between equal rights under the law and equal results regardless of effort or skill or intelligence.

–>Give the older ones a copy of The 5,000 Year Leap or The Making of America or The Federalist Papers and have discussions of each chapter and what it means to their lives, their liberties and their future.

If you do these things – today and for a few moments every day – you will truly be a dad worthy of being honored.

I, the people…

Little kids know the truth – without realizing it.

“I want to be a fireman…” “I want to be a doctor…” “I want to be a soldier…”

Kids dream of riding on fire trucks and saving people and property, of being heroic and proud and respected members of society. They dream of finding the cure for cancer or going off to defend freedom and liberty.

No youngster ever says, “If I become a fireman I’ll be able to retire when I’m 50 years old, have an incredible pension, can get another job with the government and double dip at the public trough.”

They just say what they want to be for whatever reason they want to be that. And, it changes because they are free to grow and learn and start to reason and, finally, actually make plans that take them – individually – toward their current goal in life.

This country was founded under the simplest of principles – although radical to the extreme at the time – that the individual person, each and every one of us, had been endowed under “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” with inherent rights which no sovereign or leader (elected or otherwise) had the ability to deny us.

It may say, “We the people” but it really means I the person, you the person, he the person, she the person – each of us individually have the freedom, without the shackles of government or the edicts of a leader, to pursue our personal vision of happiness…just so long as that freedom does not impinge on the next individual’s equally valid and inherent rights.

Had I been alive in 1789 when the Constitution was being debated I would have understood that if I wanted to prosper, to provide for my family, to grow to my full potential that I needed a government which could provide for the common defense, enforce the rules of society, punish the criminals who might jeopardize my freedoms.

And so I ceded a minimum of power to the government so that I would have a greater opportunity to live my life as I saw fit. I did this. You did this. He and she did this. Only after each of us, individually, had done this could it be said that “we” did this.

And, the United States prospered and grew as no nation in all of history.

There were excesses, even criminal activity along the way. The era of the Robber Barons was notable. But, still an individual, joining with other individuals – a group of I – built railroads that spanned the continent, steel mills that fueled mighty cities, invented the cotton gin and the grain reaper.

The auto was invented in Europe but an American – one individual with a vision and quite likely a dream of more wealth than Midas – invented the production line that made it affordable to millions of other individuals.

Wherever you look you will find an individual – an army of one to borrow a phrase – who tinkered and toiled, failed and failed and failed again and again until they succeeded or moved on to the next dream.

Edison said that each filament that didn’t work, that didn’t produce the light he wanted was a success because he learned what didn’t work and that, he was certain, would lead him to the one that did.

Look around you!

Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, Steve Case, the Google boys – they are just a tiny number of the American individuals who, in just one industry, have changed the world in the past 50 years. And, they grew rich beyond anyone’s – most assuredly their own – wildest dreams. Along the way they made thousands of other individuals rich too.

And I benefited, you benefited, he and she benefited because we sit at our personal computers or handheld devices and communicated with millions of other individuals across the country and around the world.

Such success, the amassing of such incredible wealth, always creates a disparity in society. Some enjoy mythical wealth while others have not waxed quite so well. It used to be that parents would tell their children, “Look! See what you can do if you dream dreams and study and work hard to achieve your dream?”

Now millions – and worse yet the government itself – says, “You, yes you, have too much. You’ve made enough. Give us everything we consider your excess so that we can give it to others who have so much less.”

That’s criminal, of course. It’s theft. The Founding Father’s, the framers of the Constitution, wrote often that no individual could cede to the government any power which was not theirs individually.

I can’t go next door where my neighbor has four cars and I, having only one, take one of his. I would be arrested for grand theft auto. But, the government feels it can take the money I would use to buy a new computer or flat screen television or, perhaps, a really good steak for dinner and use that to buy something for someone else. Theft!

We are being told that the era of the individual – the period where I decide what I want and why I want it – is over. I am told that I need to do something because someone else wants me to.

Simply put that is a path to the destruction of the United States of America. The first victim will be the individual’s dreams. Why bother dreaming when you’re waiting for a letter for the government to tell you what you will be allowed to do with your life? Why tinker in the garage, build computers in your dorm room, invent an absorbent that can pick up 50 times its volume in oil in the Gulf of Mexico?

You won’t be allowed to pursue your individual dream unless it coincides with the vision of the leaders in government. And, of course, that system doesn’t work. It flies in the face of human nature – it is why millions risked their lives to escape from behind the Iron Curtain, why a student stood in front of a line of tanks in Beijing, why Iranians are dying in the streets of Teheran.

I – one individual – will not go quietly into that still night. I will not allow that to become the life my son and my three grandchildren live.

I will begin by writing, by voting, by speaking out about the rule of law and in defense of the Constitution of the United States.

I will pledge my life, my honor and my sacred fortune in defense of the America I was born to, believe in and see as the greatest hope for the freedom of individuals just like myself around the world.

I cannot speak for you. I, the people give me no right to do that. Only you can stand up and say, I too! I too! I too!

Only then will it be “We, the people…”

The Only Way To Preserve The American Way of Life

Everyone know the story of the little Dutch boy who saved his nation by putting his finger in the dike to keep the sea from flooding the country.

These days there’s a lot of little Dutch boy in American conservatives. We keep trying to put our finger in the dike of the American way of life — reacting to the progressive’s Health Care Reform bill and Cap and Trade and the Financial Reform bill and Stimulus I, II, III…

Let’s be realistic, the progressive agenda being pushed by the Obama, Pelosi, Reid junta is like the sea — it just keeps coming. And, we keep reacting, racing to the site of the next leak and sticking our finger in the dike. The problem, of course, is that we’re running out of fingers and the sea keeps coming.

All those bills we’ve been running around and fighting, gathering on the Capitol steps to protest, tweeting our hearts out over are really just skirmishes in the war for the heart and soul of the United States. And, we’ve been fighting the war on the progressive’s terms and any military person will tell you that’s a prescription for defeat.

Saying no — hell, shouting NO! — to the progressive agenda is not and never will be a winning strategy. You don’t, can’t, win a war just by defending your own turf. You’ve got to go on the offensive, carry the battle to the enemy.

We know what we stand for: a smaller, limited-power Federal government along with the lower spending that would result; paying down and eventually eliminating the debt; defending the nation against “all enemies, foreign and domestic,” and assuring equal opportunity for all citizens.

Noble goals all! But, if we were to go a step further to develop the actual battle plans to accomplish each of these goals we would soon find ourselves splintering. Eliminate this; no, save that, eliminate the other.

My last post, Alienating Voters and Losing Liberties…, pointed out that the only way we were going to find someone who agreed with us on every issue was to look in the mirror. There’s an old joke that if you put 10 Israelis in a room you’d have 11 political parties. American’s really aren’t much different.

If we just pause for a moment to analyze the situation we’d discover a really simple answer to what built our nation into the richest, most prosperous the world has ever seen.

The individual.

It was the first nation ever founded on the concept that the individual citizen was born with inalienable rights, that those rights were granted by the “laws of Nature and of Nature’s God”; that the individual created, empowered and held dominion over the government.

At its founding, The United States of America literally turned the entire concept of government and its people upside down. “We, the people” became the supreme arbiters, the holders and wielders of power. The government was created to serve our needs; we did not exist to serve the government.

Of course, it is the Constitution that codified these principles; that set the limits on the Federal government, that created an intricate system of checks and balances between the three branches of government; that provided the means — intentionally difficult — for altering the “rules of the game”.

That, my friends, is what we must be for.

We must stand for the Founder’s vision of the Constitution (as lawfully amended). We must demand that those we elect — at every level of our government — agree with that simple and easily stated premise: the Constitution is supreme!

We must ask every candidate a few simple questions:

–Do you believe in and accept the original intent of the Constitution as the supreme law of the land?

–Will you examine every piece of legislation that comes before you in that context to assure it is Constitutional?

–Will you oppose all legislation — without compromise — that falls outside the purview of a strict interpretation of the enumerated powers listed in Article 1, Section 8?

Then, we must tell candidates who answer yes to all three questions that we are willing to give them a chance to prove they are worthy of our trust, of being our representative. One chance!

We must understand that these elected representatives will not always vote exactly as we would were we in office. Why should we expect total agreement with us when we don’t always agree with each other?

We must, however, put their actions to the “is it Constitutional?” test and on that basis decide whether to continue our support or to find them wanting and turn them out. If we do that there is no need for term limits. The good ones — the keepers — can continue to serve us and the bad ones can return to civilian life and find their own path.

A caution: you can not, have no right to, demand compliance with the Constitution if you do not know and understand what it says and means. So get a copy, online or from the Heritage Foundation, study it — and what the Founders intended (try The Making of America). Then live by it, promote it, defend it!

In honesty, it was our — we the people’s — ignorance and laziness that brought us to our current state of affairs. If we are to go on the offensive, if we are to win The War of Constitutional Restoration, we better be certain we know how our weapon functions.

Alienating Voters and Losing Liberty…

We are engaged in a great civil war to determine whether this nation, conceived in liberty…can much longer endure as a bastion of personal freedom and as the shining light of opportunity that has attracted tens of millions from around the world for over two centuries.

At the moment that civil war is being fought with words — with a vision of what the United States of America was meant to be, how it has evolved and, many of us believe, wandered far astray from the Founding Father’s ideas.

Let us all hope and pray that it remains a war of words and of ballots for the alternative — a war of bullets and bombs — will destroy us every bit as much as the path we now seem to be following.

This brings me to the point of this post. We are engaged in a civil war which must be fought civilly. I’m active on Twitter as @sonof_liberty and for the past year have seen a great deal of idealism and wisdom expressed but also a great deal of mean-spirited and highly derogatory name calling and demeaning of the opposition.

Anger is understandable. Believe me; my television set won’t talk to me because of the abuse I hurl at the screen when people who seem to have no understanding of the Constitution and the nature of our republic make — what I consider — inane and ludicrous statements.

But, my television set can’t vote and therefore being abusive is not self-defeating — it won’t alienate a voter and cost my side an election.

Here’s a reality that Constitutionalists or Conservatives or Tea-Party participants or Libertarians must recognize and utilize as a guiding light for their words and actions.

We can’t win an election!

Almost nowhere are we a majority (although it’s certainly possible we could be a plurality of voters in some small, highly contained places).

Neither, I’m happy to state, can the Liberal/Progressives. They are, according to polls, an even smaller minority than we are.

Elections are won and lost by independents, people who are not aligned with either major political party. The side that attracts more of them will see their candidates elected, will see their vision for America prevail — assuming, of course, the people we supported don’t sell us down the river as many have before.

So, what attracts independent voters? By definition it isn’t the R or D following the candidate’s name. It’s a clear enunciation of principles supported by sound reasoning, by a demeanor that gives respect to, and earns respect from, people with differing views.

Would you like to meet someone who shares your views on every single issue facing our country today, who believes exactly what you believe on all the controversial matters we face?

Stop reading now! Go find a mirror. There they are — all of you who think exactly the same way on everything. Can you win an election? Are you lonely?

One day on Twitter a fellow conservative was in a back-and-forth exchange with another person (a high school student it turned out). Unable to get agreement from the young man, the conservative had begun a string of invective-filled tweets when I (against better judgment) got involved.

To make a long story short (isn’t that a ridiculous phrase?), when the student and I were done he admitted the possibility that what he was being taught was erroneous — we’re all painfully aware of that — and clearly stated a willingness to read The Federalist Papers and, hopefully, The 5,000 Year Leap.

I’d also learned, because I asked, that less than two weeks of class were ever spent on the Constitution and the thoughts of the Founding Fathers in fashioning the document. Showing civility and concern for a soon-to-be voter rather than derision and demeaning hopefully made a difference.

Here comes trouble. I know it, I feel it, and I see it heading my way. Many of the people I follow on Twitter — and who follow me — consistently put out word that believing in Jesus will save America from the Liberal/Progressive programs of President Obama and his minions.

Reality check: neither Jesus, Yahweh, Mohammed, Vishnu, Confucius nor any other God can save the United States, can restore a strong respect for the Constitution and the visions of the Founders. Americans can!

Americans united around common ground and common principles, around respect for the rights and beliefs of others; Americans who are Christians and Jews and Muslims and Hindus and Shinto and every other faith — including atheists and agnostics; Americans who judge you by the character of your heart and the virtue of your behavior and not by where you choose to pray or not pray.

I, and millions and millions of other American voters, don’t want to be told by some “come to Jesus, Bible-thumping” zealots (that phrase is really hurtful and derogatory, isn’t it? well, that’s how many are made to feel) that we’re doomed in some way because we don’t share your faith.

I respect your beliefs, I’m glad you have them as long as they don’t impinge on my freedoms and liberties. But, expressed as they often are, they definitely will alienate people you need in order to win elections so, for the sake of the nation, the sake of restoring the Constitution, the sake of saving our children and grandchildren from impossible debt, pack the zealotry away, hold out your hand and welcome support from whatever quarter or faith or non-belief it comes.

Lose the “F” bombs and the personal attacks on the opposition — there is more than enough to go after using Pelosi’s and Reid’s and Obama’s and Grayson’s and every other Progressive’s  own words.

Keep the fervor for freedom! Fight to restore our Founder’s Constitution! Work tirelessly to elect candidates who will stand on principles of limited government and fiscal sanity.

Just do it civilly.

A Parable of Liberal-Progressives & Constitutional-Conservatives

A Liberal-Progressive of considerable means travels on a road — or perhaps an inner city street — toward his destination. He comes upon a man squatting by the side of the road. He is gaunt, covered in dirt and clutches his meager possessions in a threadbare sack.

The Liberal-Progressive stops and as the man starts to rise, the Liberal-Progressive holds up his hand and says, “Stay as you are, my brother. There is no reason for you to rise at my approach. I can see that society has not treated you well, that you do not share in the riches our nation has to offer.”

Reaching into his pocket, the Liberal-Progressive takes out a coin and tosses it toward the man. He then turns and continues down the road on his journey.

A few weeks later, the Liberal-Progressive is traveling the same road and comes upon the same man squatting by road. The man makes no attempt to rise, simply looks up at the man of means who gave him a coin the last time they chanced upon each other.

“Ah, I see society still does not value you,” the Liberal-Progressives says, “You still do not share in the bounty of our nation. The rich man still lives on the hill and you are here by the side of the road covered in mud and clutching your few possessions in a sack.” Again the Liberal-Progressive takes out a coin and tosses it to the man, turns and continues on his journey.

The following year, the Liberal-Progressive once again travels the same road and comes upon the same man in the same condition. This time the man extends his hand and waves his fingers in the obvious “give-me” motion. The Liberal-Progressive smiles, says nothing and — once again — tosses a coin.

On another road — or another inner-city street — a Constitutional-Conservative of means comes upon a gaunt man squatting by the side of the road, covered in dirt, with pieces of cardboard as his only shelter against the elements and with all his meager possessions in a threadbare sack.

He stops and as the man starts to rise, the Constitutional-Conservative says, “Come here, my brother. I can see you have not done well in our wonderful country, filled with opportunity. Here are three coins. With the first buy food for you need your strength. With the second, buy a bucket so you may draw water from the stream and clean yourself. With the third get a plastic tarp that you may have shelter from the elements.

“When you have eaten and cleaned yourself and erected your tent for shelter, I would ask that you walk back the way I have just come and you will see the home of an old widow woman whose yard needs pruning and whose fence needs repair and a fresh coat of paint. Do these things for her and she will pay you for your services. Will you do these things?”

The man takes the coins, picks up his sack and starts up the road in the direction the Constitutional-Conservative had come.

A few months later, the Constitutional-Conservative is traveling the same road. He notices that the widow’s yard is mowed and flowers fill the once empty beds. The fence looks sturdy and boasts a fresh coat of paint.  Across the street he sees a man repairing a porch while the elderly owner looks on.

When he comes to the spot where he had met the man covered in dirt squatting by the road he sees that a house is under construction and that there are eight tarp tents in the field in front of the house. As he stops to observe the scene the man he had given the coins trots up.

He is clean and neatly dressed in coveralls. The Constitutional-Conservative smiles and says, “You look much better than the last time we met. Have things gone well with you?”

“Yes, sir, they certainly have, ” he replies. “I did as you asked when you were kind enough to stop and offer help. I ate because I was hungry; I washed because I was covered in dirt and I made a tent so I would be sheltered from the weather. Then I went and asked the widow lady up the road if perhaps I could help her by cleaning up her yard and repairing and painting her fence.”

The man stopped, looked up at the house under construction and waved his arm to encompass it and the tents scattered in the field. “What you see,” he said, “is the result. As you suggested she paid me for my services and told her friends about me. I did work for them as well and soon there were more people who wanted my services. More, actually, than I could handle.

“So, I took three coins and gave them to another man and told him what you told me. This,” he smiled, “is the result. That’s my house being built and I have eight people doing work for people living all over the area. Thank you.”

The Constitutional-Conservative smiled broadly, patted the man he had helped on the back. “You have done well my friend,” he said. “And, best of all you have taken the lessons you learned and are passing them on to others.”

If you are ever squatting by the side of the road, hungry, covered in dirt and in need of shelter, which man do you hope comes along?

Two Years Later

The Constitutional-Conservative was traveling the same road looking forward with anticipation to seeing what progress had been made by the man he had helped two years ago.

As he passed through the town he was disappointed to see that the yard of the old woman was once again overgrown with weeds, the flower beds wilted and dead.

When he came to the spot where he had met the man, gaunt and covered in dirt, squatting by the side of the road he found nine men, covered in dirt, squatting by the side of the road.  The house was still unfinished and there were no longer any tents spotted about the field.

The man he originally helped saw him, rose slowly and approached.

“What happened?” asked the Constitutional-Conservative. “Why are you all here by the side of the road instead of working on your home and doing the chores your neighbors down the road need help with?”

The man shuffled his feet and replied, “Well, sir, shortly after your last visit a car from the county arrived. They said I did not have the required permit to build my house, that I hadn’t filled the plans and been certified that they met the local building code. So we stopped work while I prepared the necessary paperwork and took time to accumulate the money necessary to go forward with the process.

“But, the next day a mini-van arrived with officials from the state. They told me I didn’t have a contractor’s license and that I couldn’t work on anyone’s home without one. And, that I had better collect sales tax on all my work or I’d have to pay it. In fact, they wanted to see all my records and based on the work I — and these other men had done — I owed them $26,000 in back sales tax plus penalties and interest brought it to nearly $38,000.

“So, I couldn’t work until I paid it, I couldn’t raise the money necessary to get the permits to built my house.”

“Oh my,” said the Constitutional-Conservative, “that is quite a dilemma, isn’t it?”

“That’s not the worst of it,” the man said. “The next day a bus arrived filled with men from Washington. Some were from the Department of Labor who told me that because I provided shelter to the other men I had to consider them employees and that I would have to pay FICA and Medicare taxes on the money they made. And that if my company continued to grow I’d have to provide health insurance to each person.

“Another group was from the Department of Housing and Urban Development who said that the tents didn’t constitute suitable housing and that since I was the landowner I was responsible for installing plumbing and water supply to each ‘living unit’.

“Then there were the bunch from the Environmental Protection Agency who wanted to see our toxic materials book for all the paint and lawn products we used to make certain we weren’t contaminating the soil.

“When we first met you told me about the old lady who needed her yard cleared and her fence mended and painted. I provided a service and she paid me and things were wonderful. I followed your example and did the same thing with man after man until we were all doing better, had a self-pride we had lacked before and looked forward to the future.”

“Now,” he said wearily, “look at us. We are covered again in dirt, hungry and without shelter to protect us from the weather. We squat here day after day waiting for the government to send us a check so we can stay alive.”

Is America freer today with the government “protecting” us?

Do you want to spend your life squatting by the side of the road waiting for the government to provide you sustenance?

American Medicine: 2044

New York, NY 3:30 AM

The Mercedes 500 glides up the ramp from the underground garage onto Park Avenue. The driver, silver-haired, in his mid 80s, enjoys the feel of the powerful car and wonders why he doesn’t drive it more often rather than having his driver behind the wheel. He looked over to remind himself that he had brought the attache case.

Overhead lights gleam off the polished exterior but the darkly smoked glass keeps the exterior dark and impenetrable. Anyone who noticed might wonder why the immaculate car has mud covering the license plate.

He turns north, makes a left heading west on 97th street. As he passes Madison he glances to his right and sees the perpetual lines outside the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and — he remembers — the Central Park West Community Clinic.

The federal government had taken over half the Mount Sinai facility when enrollment plummeted around 2013. Smart American kids had begun to shun medicine early in the 21st century when lawsuits soared and government control of their ability to earn money made the 10-plus year, more than quarter-million dollar investment in education not worth the effort to most of them.

Many of the teaching hospitals, especially at the great universities, had become federal facilities. They needed to, all the student loans were controlled by Washington and, really, how many parents could come up with the kind of money it took for a child to become a doctor?

Now there just weren’t enough doctors to treat everyone. He remembered the headlines when doctors started retiring, closing their practices and walking away from medicine. Around 2011, if his memory was correct.

At first the lines had started forming around 6 in the morning hoping to cut the wait after the 8 AM clinic opening. Then you had to get there by 3 AM if you didn’t want a 10-hour wait. Eventually, many just decided it wasn’t serious enough to bother and still the lines grew. He remembered when the local TV station had interviewed people who had been in line for over 36 hours…camping out. The clinic had brought in portable toilet facilities because human waste in the streets wasn’t quite the environment they wanted for their hospital.

The doctors and nurses had done the best they could, working 10 and 12 hours shifts, trying to examine, diagnose and treat as many people as they could. But, hell, there had been 30 millions more people with health insurance than the year before.

Eventually, they burned out and got out. The government started paying the entire college and medical school tuition for anyone willing to work in a community health facility. That had worked for a few years but the new crop soon were exhausted so the government turned overseas offering tuition, room, board and citizenship to anyone willing to serve for 10 years.

Enrollment boomed — and so did the drop out rate. The best and brightest weren’t interested and the standards continually dropped. Today, you were lucky if you could find a nurse in her late 60s who knew what she was doing for a simple injection. Soon she’d be gone as she neared the age of 72 and would be eligible for her Social Security benefits.

He entered Central Park taking the 97th Street Transverse, skirting the northern edge of the Jackie Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. What had it been called before? He continued west, cut south to 96th Street, got on the Henry Hudson Parkway northbound, crossed under the access roads to the George Washington Bridge.

He had the exact change ready for the toll booth. He’d been warned not to use his automated toll payer or even to be seen by an attendant. Entering Westchester County, he took the Yonkers Avenue exit made a left and another. His destination was at the end of the dead-end street.

It looked like any other manse in the well-heeled neighborhood except it was gated. Pulling up he entered the code  they’d given him, a code that could only be used once, waited as the gate swung open and pulled up to the front steps.

Almost immediately a neatly dressed bruiser of a guy came out, walked around to the driver’s side and asked, “Mr. M?” He noticed the gun peeking out from the jacket, nodded and was relieved when the man opened the door for him. “Leave your keys sir and we’ll take your luggage up to your room. Everything will be there before you’re done checking in. Don’t forget your case,” he said, nodding to the passenger seat.

As he mounted the steps the door was opened by what seemed the first man’s twin. Probably also armed, he thought. He was directed to the admissions desk where a nurse waited. It wasn’t quite 5 AM and the place was alive, ready to handle the select few who could afford the best in medical care.

She handed him the forms, indicated where to sign, pointed discreetly to the cost and sat back waiting. He snapped open the case, turned it to face her. She nodded, rang a bell and another nurse appeared to take him to his room and prep him for the procedure. He was confident it would be counted before they ever began his operation but it was all there…all $110,000.

It was a lot of money, probably about 50 percent more than it should have been but what could he do. He’d been turned down by the government’s review panel. If he wanted to live to see his granddaughter married he needed the operation and the intensive follow-up treatments. So he’d made the decision, sold the necessary stocks and bonds and accumulated the cash.

The doctors here — and he was sure at the 60 or so other facilities around the country — were among the best in the country. They’d gone “underground” in 2014 when they’d “retired” and virtually disappeared off the grid……………

Prophesy or fiction? You decide.

History’s Greatest Bankruptcy!

It’s not Enron. Or General Motors. Or the Soviet Union.

It’s not even the likely, eventual, inevitable collapse of the United States’ economy — although that will certainly be a whopper with ramifications around the world.

We know our country’s debt is unsustainable. We have trillions and trillions in unfunded “entitlements”…Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and, of course, the new “right” to health care.

When the U.S. economy folds in on itself like the house of cards that it is rapidly becoming, the ripples will go out in ever-widening circles. We won’t be able to buy fruit from Chile, cars from Japan or Korea, a million different products from China or, for that matter, pay back the hundreds of billions they hold in our debt.

The ripples will continue. Without the United States’ earth-contaminating consumerism, how will the Saudi’s keep up the royal-family lifestyle; how will the EU continue to support their overwhelming pensions; who will be buying South Africa’s diamond and Russia’s natural gas?

It will truly be apocalyptic…and, truly, nothing compared to history’s greatest bankruptcy!

For over 200 years the United States — brash, noisy, uncultured, overbearing, pompous, sexually repressed — has been the guiding light to people around the world.

Millions, nay tens of millions, came to these shores during the past 230 years from every corner of the globe — from Europe and Asia, South America, the Indian sub-continent, from Africa and the Middle East. No nation anywhere, anytime has ever been able to trace the heritage of it’s citizens to so many nations, so many cultures, so many belief systems.

They came in waves — the English, Irish, Italians, Japanese and Koreans, Indians and Pakistanis, Egyptians and Kenyans, Cubans and Mexicans and, in 1904, my grandparents from the Ukraine — because they heard tales of riches, of streets paved in gold.

Don’t laugh. Don’t for a moment think they literally thought the streets were paved in gold. These were hearty, brave folks who risked everything they had in search of a better life for themselves and their children…and their posterity for generations to come.

They came because word raced around the world, without benefit of internet or satellite phones, that there was a nation where they could pursue their dreams, work hard and succeed, educate their children and practice their religion — a nation where opportunity existed regardless of class or previous condition of servitude. A nation where the king or czar or warlord didn’t send his forces in the middle of the night to take what you had, burn your home…or kill you.

The revolution against tyranny, the great experiment, the United States’ Constitution — the rule of law, not the rule of men — was exported…no, that’s not accurate — was imported into other nations. Only perhaps the French won’t recognize that without our revolution there would have been no French republic. Well, let them eat cake.

And, because of these people, these millions and millions and millions of people, each bringing their ideas, their thirst for freedom and opportunity, their sweat and their muscle the United States grew into a titan.

The country absorbed these hundreds of divergent nationalities, customs, cuisines, religious beliefs and blended them, gave them hope and opportunity, gave them a common language melted them down in the societal cauldron and — like the great steel mills — poured them out into a new, tougher, more durable mettle.

An American!

An American with a better idea. An American with a dream impossible in much of the world. An American who would take up arms not just to defend their own freedom but that of millions across oceans.

An American farmer blessed with great soil but, more importantly, with the grit and fortitude to withstand drought and dust storms and floods to raise food not just to feed themselves and their fellow countrymen but the entire world.

An American industrialist who wanted everyone to own a car, another who wanted everyone to have a computer, another who thought we should have music in our pockets. Americans all.

Americans who saw an opportunity and grabbed onto it. Americans who risked everything they had, Americans who worked out of garages and basements and built companies and industries that made them rich beyond even Midas’ dreams.

While they were doing that they made hundreds and thousands of other Americans rich as well. How many American millionaires owe their fortunes to the risks and hard work of the likes of Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Samuel Goldwyn?

America is the place where there was a true middle class, people sufficiently rewarded for their labors and ideas that they could own their own home, work their own land, drive their own vehicles, watch television with their families and see their children rise in society to a level not possible just a few generations before.

Now, Lincoln’s words ring true again. We are engaged in a great civil war to determine whether that nation shall long endure.

Yes, we face financial bankruptcy and it will wreck havoc around the world. But, if the American Spirit is broken; if the independent, steel-spine fortitude, the “we can do anything attitude” is shattered that is a bankruptcy the world may not survive.

We — freedom loving, hard working, charitable Americans — must keep the candles burning in “that shining city on a hill”.  If we fail the world will be plunged into darkness.

Rewiring America’s Political Third Rails – Part 1

What’s the dirtiest word in American politics?

To some it’s liberal or progressive or democrat. Others believe it’s conservative or republican or tea-party.

My choice: entitlement.

The goal of protecting the aged from being destitute, of providing health coverage to the elderly and the poor, or helping a person who has lost their job survive until they can find another certainly appear noble.

Unfortunately, they usually become political weapons wielded by those in power to retain — and even accrue more — power. Citizens come to expect them, use them as the basis of planning their own futures and, eventually, it become that dirtiest of words…an entitlement.

Look at Social Security which, if we want to be honest about it, is the greatest Ponzi scheme ever perpetrated. Spawned during the Great Depression of the 1930s, it was constantly and consistently referred to as a “safety net” intended for “the poorest among us.” Noble intention.

It was enacted when the life expectancy of the average American was less than 65 so, obviously, most people would not live long enough to collect a cent. Today the average person expects to live well into their 70s; in fact, the life expectancy is getting close to 80.

At the same time the demographics of the American population is changing rapidly. The baby boomers of the post World War II era are nearing Social Security eligibility while the size of the average family has declined dramatically. That means there are fewer and fewer workers contributing the money necessary to meet the “entitlement” of more and more seniors. Unsustainable.

When I began my post-college working life the FICA rate was just two percent of the first $5,000 in earnings — $100.00 a year. Of course, my salary, working in mid-town Manhattan, was just $4,380…and there was no health insurance, 401k, IRA or pension.

You hear the argument all the time, “I’ve paid into the fund and I’m entitled” — that word again — “to those payments.” What nonsense!

Fifty years after starting my working life, in my seventh year of receiving monthly Social Security payments, I’ve already gotten several times what I paid into it and, based on my family history (an aunt lived to 96, another is 92, an uncle is 94 and mom made it to 87), I’ll be getting money earned by my grandchildren aged 16, 13 and 10. Dastardly!

Politicians — people whose career choice makes it imperative to win an election and re-election and re-election — lack the self-interest to fix the problem. It’s called the third rail of politics…touch it and you’re dead.

Well, conservatives, blue-dog dems, tea-party members it’s time to step up, to put our money where our mouths are, to start the process of stopping and reversing the unsustainable programs which are pushing America to the brink of insolvency.

So, here’s one septuagenarians plan.

1. Means test Social Security eligibility so that while it won’t only be for “the poorest among us” it will not go to those who were smart enough and industrious enough and successful enough not to need it for survival in their later years.

2. Because a contract is a contract, all those currently receiving Social Security will continue to receive the benefits they’ve been told for 70 years were there for them. Don’t worry, it’s still called “life expectancy” and eventually we’ll all pass on.

3. All those over 55 years of age should be given the choice of continuing with the present system or freezing their Social Security benefits at the current level and investing their 6.2 percent contribution privately in an IRA or 401k plan.

4. Those between the ages of 25 and 55 will have their Social Security benefits frozen (without a choice) and will switch to a privately held retirement fund using a minimum of the 6.2 percent already withheld from their paychecks.

5. Everyone else — those under 25 and all future wage earners — will be responsibly for their own retirements with contributions not less than the 6.2 percent figure they would have paid into Social Security (assuming the rate wasn’t increased by the ruling political class in the future).

What’s the benefit of a plan like this?

First, it is taken out of the hands of the politicians who use the power vested in them for their own self-preservation — it’s called vote buying.

Second, eventually it will remove the government from the process of securing the American citizen’s future and well-being…returning them where they rightfully ought to be, in the hands of the individual.

Third, it removes the burden from our children and their children and their children. That’s the righteous thing to do!

Fourth, it lessens the tax burden on business so they can invest in their companies, hire more people and be more competitive in the world markets.

Fifth, and this is one of the hallmarks of American society which has been tattered and torn since the progressive movement began, it restores the obligation of the family, the religious institutions and our local communities to care for our own, to assure the well-being of our fellow citizens and to do so without ceding more and more power to the government.

We did not reach this point of looking to government for our sustenance overnight and we can not wean ourselves from the teat of government in days or months. It will take years but it must be done.

In a future post, we’ll show how this same approach can be used to free the individual citizen from government control in the areas of health care and even unemployment.

It can be done…with your support and with your demand that those who want your vote stop trying to buy it.

The Glory of No!

While President Obama says the Constitution is a document of negative rights, the Framers — Franklin, Madison, Adams, et al, knew exactly what they were doing.

Starting with the premise that our rights came from our Creator — be it Jesus or Yahwe or Allah or Buddha — the understood that government was not the source of freedom but the necessary evil from which our liberties needed to be protected.

So, what does the Constitution say?

It says that Congress shall make NO laws respecting an establishment of religion; that Congress shall make NO laws prohibiting the free exercise thereof; that Congress shall make NO laws abridging the freedom of speech; that Congress shall make NO laws abridging freedom of the press; that Congress shall make NO laws restricting the right of the people to peaceably assemble; and, Congress shall make NO law restricting the right of the people to seek a redress of grievances.

And that’s all in just the First Amendment.

The Second Amendment, of course, says Congress CAN NOT pass any law which infringes on our right to bear arms.

The negatives roll on: NO troops may be quatered in any house without the owners consent; government may NOT do unreasonable search and seizures and definitive restrictions  are placed proper ones; excessive bail shall NOT be required, excessive fines shall NOT be imposed, cruel and unusual punishment shall NOT be imposed.

The Ninth and Tenth Amendments — no less important because they come last in the Bill of Rights — say: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall NOT be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people” and “The powers NOT delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”.

Imagine…so much freedom, liberty and opportunity from so much negativity.

Today, the Republican Party and Tea-Party folks are decried as being the party and individuals who only say “NO!”

NO to government mandates that we buy health insurance; NO to higher taxes; NO to government ownership of private enterprises; NO to taxpayer money being used to pay for abortions; NO to control of what we choose to eat; and, NO to burdening future generations with impossible debt.

Saying NO to government intrusion into every aspect of our lives is not negativism. It’s the most ringing, most positive support possible for the American way of life — the individual liberties that have made the United States a beacon of hope for people seeking freedom around the world.

The Framers of the Constitution understood the evil that was inherent in government and in those who held the power. And, even the most cursory reading of their letters and other writings will clearly show that they knew the freedoms insured by the document they gave us would only endure if we took responsibility — for ourselves and in the defense of our form of government and our way of life.

We have a responsibility to say NO!

NO votes to politicians who would impose their will on us; NO sitting back and waiting for someone else to defend our freedoms; NO ignorance when it comes to the price of personal freedom.

We are tending toward a totalitarian state and away from the great opportunities — our God-given rights — the Constitution tried to assure would be ours for all posterity.

Are you, are we, prepared to defend them with a resounding “NO!”?

We Hold These Truths…

The nation is divided — who could argue that?

The Democrats are divided — extremist progressives versus more moderates.

Republicans are divided — does the term RINO ring a bell?

The list of issues that divide “We the People” go on and on, far too numerous to count. And, it is these divisive issues that get all the media attention, that consume the talking heads and the editorial and op-ed writers, the pundits and the demagogues.

These divisions in the national psyche have been a long time festering, growing more and more cancerous and pitting Americans against Americans for generations.

This cancer would have best been treated at Stage 1. It was ignored and the deadly cells continued to multiply and infect more and more parts of the body whole.

Now, we have reached Stage 4. Treating the cancer in one area will no longer solve the problem. It will, in fact, wreck havoc on large portions of the population who have come to depend on government largess for their survival.

There is no longer a “simple” treatment that can reverse the course of the disease that threatens the very life of the American experiment. No single vote, no single election, no one person has the ability to cure the patient.

What is saddest about the disease that is killing us is that, unlike cancer, it is a communicable disease and we are seeing it transmitted to our children and our grandchildren and — God help us — if the nation actually survives, to their children.

So what’s to be done? A disease that has been within us for 100 years will not suddenly decide to disappear. Even if it did our organs have been corrupted, had bits and pieces destroyed.

We must start a new process, a new treatment that will first slow or stop the progress and then, understanding that it might take several generations, begin to regenerate the parts and, by doing so, cure the disease before it kills our great grandchildren.

We hold these truths…

As messy and as cumbersome as the American republican form of government is, there has never — in the entire history of humankind — been one that afforded the individual so much liberty, so much opportunity or so much personal responsibility.

We must believe every American has the freedom to rise to the highest level that their talents and their perseverance, grit and determination can take them. That does not mean that the playing field is always level; some will be born to money and others will not. Some will inherit genes that make them better looking, taller and, yes, even smarter. Some will be white and some of color, some from European heritage and some from Asian, African or Middle Eastern. This polyglot citizenry has been one of our strengths throughout our history and remains so today.

We must return to the Constitution — to the original intent of the framers — who so clearly believed that our freedoms, our liberties, our rights did not come from the government but in fact had to be protected from the government.

We must accept that our rights came from our personal God as we are wont to believe (or not believe). Your God may not be my God and neither should you want to impose your dearly held beliefs on me as you would not want mine imposed on you.

We must understand that our actions — whether as citizens or as elected officials — have consequences, often unintended and counterproductive to the initial goal. The greed of a Bernie Madoff destroyed the retirement plans and dreams of thousands of people while many of those that lost their life savings are equally guilty of believing in something that was really too good to be true.

We must accept that while Social Security and programs like Aid to Dependent Children have very humanitarian aims they contributed to the diminishment of the American family. Children feel less obligation, less responsibility for their parents; the government will provide them with money. ADC requires a single parent to qualify for assistance and so one parent must, at least legally, not be part of the family group.

We must return — no matter how long it takes for the journey — to the enumerated powers in the Constitution which limits the scope, power and influence of the Federal government. We must return to having whatever role we want our government to have in our life be handled at the lowest possible level.

We must, as individual citizens and families, learn to vote in two ways: at the ballot box and with our feet.

We must demand that those who wish to represent us at the local, state or federal level adhere to the appropriate national or state Constitution. That does not always mean they will vote as we would, but that they will adhere to the principles they swear to uphold.

We must be willing to demonstrate to our townships, villages, cities, counties and states that we will not allow them to impose onerous burdens on us — whether through taxation or excessive regulation of our lives. We must be willing to vote with our feet, to move from one locale to another whether for greater opportunity, better schools for our children or a lesser tax burden.

We have to defend our liberties, our freedoms, our individual choices every day against all attempts to diminish them from whatever source.

And, perhaps, most importantly of all we must agree to pay — today — for whatever we do ask from our government. The greatest sin of all is the debt we are leaving as an inheritance to our children. That is truly taxation without representation and a crime for which we will never be forgiven.

Is there more? Indeed!

But we need to begin somewhere and this may be as good a place as any. I hold these truths to be self-evident. Do you?