Littlestuff Weekender-4-9-2011

The Associated Press reported that “an embarrassing government shutdown” was averted by the “historic” deal between Harry Reid and John “what’s his name.” The President will take credit for the massive $38.5 billion in cuts from his $1trillion 650 billion deficit (a painful 2.3% of the DEFICIT, not the budget). Meanwhile Planned Parenthood can continue running their gruesome charnel houses thanks to your tax dollars. The AP story also said that Boehner was applauded by his caucus for his toughness and courage in working out the deal. Someone tell those clowns that the bar has been set too low. It’s like the praise that public school kids get for just showing up. Sarcasm aside: Are they really happy with this? You’ve read it from me many times, and you’ve heard it in my speeches: Every time they compromise in Washington or Columbus, I lose more freedom and more money. Well, their record is still unblemished. Now, that invisible 45% of the government that was going to close won’t….until sometime in the future when no one buys our bonds and the money runs out.

Welcome to a warm weather weekend. We’ll be appearing at the “Finding Common Ground” Rally and Seminar at the Lyman Harbor Event Center in Sandusky, Ohio today. It runs from 10:00am this morning until 7:00pm this evening with lots of great presentations and interaction among patriots who want to take our country back. I’ll be on the program from 10:15 to 10:45am, but will be in the building for the entire program. I will have some of my new books available at the Libertarian table. Whatever you want to chat about, please stop by and say “Howdy” because I really would like to meet you.

Next Saturday (the 16^th) I’ll be speaking at Canfield, Ohio on the green. It’s a Rally for the Constitution from 12:00noon until 3:30pm. I’ll be speaking on “Why Liberty?” The rally is being sponsored by the Libertarian Party of Ohio and the Campaign for Liberty. Northeastern Ohioans and Western PA’ers….y’all come.

We have bushels of issues at the local, state and national levels of government, but the bottom line is liberty. Does government spend too much? Regulate too much? Tax too much? They’re all matters of liberty. You own yourself (your life). You own your labor, and you own your property. No one, no government has any right to deprive you of your life, your labor or your property without your permission. Without liberty it is all meaningless. Without liberty, they own you. Without liberty, you become a slave, a serf or a corpse.

Most of us have a tolerance level for discomfort. After all, that is what marriage is about…tolerate idiosyncratic behavior from someone whose positives outweigh the petty annoyance associated with their sometimes goofy habits. In my view that level of tolerance has allowed government to grow and interfere with so many aspects of our lives. For me, it has grown from goofy habits to oppression….from quaint little tics to overbearing intrusion into every facet of my life. I want my liberty back. I regret that I was so uninvolved while law after law, rule after rule and regulation on top of regulations gnawed away my freedom to select my own choices. I want my liberty back.

Have you ever noticed how your dog can hear a siren while it is still miles away? I wish that I had the wisdom and foresight to see the glacial growth of our massive government back in the day when I was fat, happy and stupid. Because I was so tardy in recognizing that government was gobbling our freedoms, I now attack the issue with fury and frenzy.

My indoor starter seeds are coming along quite well…particularly the peppers. The Perrysburg Farmers’ Market opens the second week of May, so I’ll be looking to pick up some fresh produce from greenhouses and high tunnels.

Had an enjoyable chat with Fritz Wenzel on WSPD yesterday. We covered a broad range of issues and events. He had me follow a Charlie Sheen clip. I hope people could tell the difference.

Indians on a five game winning streak. Savor it Tribe fans. After all, they are the Indians.

Comments:  cearlwriting@hotmail.com   or   www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Face book:  www.facebook.com/pages/Earl-for-Ohio/

Intervention

For the past three months I have been very critical of the Congressional Republicans for lacking the courage to lead. This past week Congressman Paul Ryan introduced his pathway budget proposal as an attempt to restore some fiscal sanity to our nation’s capitol. I wrote some rather harsh things about what I believed were obvious weaknesses in the Ryan plan, and I continue to prefer Senator Rand Paul’s proposal for shrinking the annual outlays.

Allow me to backtrack just a tiny bit. Congressman Ryan’s plan is a step in the right direction,……but we need a marathon (26 miles, 385 yards…more than a step). My preference for Senator Paul’s plan rests on his willingness to eliminate whole agencies and departments. If they aren’t “zeroed” out of the budget, they will continue to lobby and clamor for money while fulfilling functions that are unconstitutional and largely counter-productive. So, that is why I would rather have Senator Paul’s remedy for lurching toward fiscal sanity. I understand, however, that Congressman Ryan is in a much stronger position for implementing his blueprint than is the Senator. Ryan heads the committee responsible for drafting a plan and his party has the majority in the House. The Senator, on the other hand, is not well placed within the committee structure of the Senate, and his party holds the minority.

So, nice try, Congressman Ryan. Your plan, if implemented, would postpone our day of financial reckoning by 10 to 25 years. For me that’s not too bad of a deal. I’ll either be dead or so senile that I won’t care, but my children and grandchildren will have to navigate the financial collapse of our country. That is not acceptable for me. I heard a gentleman on the radio the other day (Gary Rathbun, Private Wealth Consultants, WSPD 1370, Toledo) describe our fiscal situation as being something like having gangrene in your leg. Treatment can be either a quick and effective amputation, or we can allow a cluster of rats gnaw away at the diseased limb and hope it improves. Congressman Ryan, and, to a lesser extent, Senator Paul you have given us rats when we need an amputation to save the body of the nation.

Brutal reality is ahead. Any reasonable person can understand that the pain will be less devastating if the situation is corrected now. The longer we wait, the more disruptive the remedy becomes…or we will collapse under the weight of our debt before any correction can be employed. Members of Congress, state officials and legislators, local officeholders and managers…your political careers have the value of spit in the ocean so stop lusting for reelection and do your sworn responsibility. Every level of government must get with the program to save our country and our national economy. Instead of whining about reductions in state or federal aid, local politicians and school board members must face the music and learn to sing a new tune. Rather than complain about federal mandates and diminishing federal dollars, state politicians must nullify unconstitutional requirements and downsize their operations. Citizens must look to their own solutions for problems and difficulties. We can no longer expect our neighbors, our children and our grandchildren to cover for our mistakes in judgment and lousy choices.

Senator Paul and Congressman Ryan, I applaud your willingness to face the wrath of the looting class, but let’s face it; you might as well go for it all. They will denounce you and loathe you for whatever prescription that you may propose. Personally, I consider it a badge of honor when statists and progressives hate me. We need more than a band-aid. Our situation has developed to the point that we need much more than painkillers. Clearly, our politicians at every level need an intervention to wean them from the crack of taxpayer dollars and borrowed money. When one goes to any county seat here in our state of Ohio, one sees buildings that were formerly thriving enterprises now housing government agencies with dozens of bureaucrats and portfolios for doing tasks that people should do for themselves.

Actually, we need massive amputations at all levels of government.

Comment:  cearlwriting@hotmail.com      or     www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Face Book:  www.facebook.com/pages/Earl-for-Ohio/

Dire Education

If you want to succeed, you must go to college. Since the end of World War II, that has been considered conventional wisdom in our society. We are constantly bombarded with facts and figures supporting the idea that without a college diploma, a person will not be capable of living a financially satisfying life. So, one would assume if all that were true, a college education would be as important as any staple such as bread or milk. Higher education, as a necessity, has been infused into our marrow, melded into our subconscious, and branded into our epidermis. In other words, the absolute requirement for one to matriculate from an institution of higher learning is sheer propaganda. Oh certainly, it may be helpful. Four or more years of learning to do one’s laundry, managing one’s pocket money, and attempting to avoid a drunk and disorderly citation are valuable learning experiences that can pay dividends for a lifetime.

When I was teaching, my favorite students were those who in mid-life decided to pursue higher education. There were a number of reasons that they had not done so earlier such as an unplanned pregnancy, flunking out, military service, tired of school and bevy of other personal circumstances. They truly appreciated the classroom. Because of their life experience, they would challenge anything I said that tripped their “b.s.” alarms. Their work was timely and well done. The adult students would engage in vigorous debate as we examined issues that impacted mass media. They were older, wiser and more mature than their fellow students, and ……….they paid their own bills. They wanted a 3 credit-hour course to contain 3-credit hours or more of content and value. The bottom line is that the value of a formal education is directly related to the effort of the student. Personally, I have more than seven (7) years of college and university education, but my greatest learning was acquired on my own by reading and studying outside my academic field.

You might ask why I am discussing this subject when we have budget showdown underway and military conflicts in a number of areas around the globe. The cost of higher education slides into our current environment because we are focused on the costs for government, healthcare, energy and food. Over the past two decades college costs have been at the top of escalating outlays. In other words, the cost for higher education has increased much faster than for many other sectors of the economy. Why? Why should students and their parents pay so much for something that may be of questionable intrinsic value? Why should parents and students pay so dearly for four or more years of steady leftist indoctrination from instructors and professors who are refugees from the turmoil of the 1960’s?

Because of the upward spiral of college costs, many students face years of student loan debt repayment after graduation. In a small way this is a good thing. They learn rather quickly how oppressive debt can be, and maybe can translate their personal situation into a basic understanding of how deadly debt for the country can be if it becomes too unmanageably huge. In addition after the graduates have been out of school for a few years, they’ll begin to understand what real learning is about. They’ll use the tools they developed in college to equip themselves for real life. Self discipline is something that many college students develop in their forays through the halls of academe. It is extremely difficult to sit through the political and philosophical garbage spewed by many college teachers without suffering from a massive gag reflex.

Neal McCluskey wrote in a February, 2008, article that the primary accelerant for the rising costs of college was the myriad government programs for loans and grants to allow our children to advance their educations. All the programs have done is to provide a huge pot of money for schools to tap and has allowed them to escape true fiscal responsibility. In defense of the colleges and universities of America, they really need those funds in order to provide a higher level of pay for their U.S.-hating, aging hippie faculty. Think of it as a welfare program because a large number of those faculty members could not survive in the real world. They must have the nest of the academy to nourish them and protect them because they cannot fly on their own.

Comment:  cearlwriting@hotmail.com    or   www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Face Book:  www.facebook.com/pages/Earl-for-Ohio/

   

Last Private Sector Worker

Biff Buffer: Hello, Everyone, welcome in to tonight’s “Spotlight on Oddity Show.” This program will be a special treat for you as I interview the last private sector worker in Amerika. He has been living under the radar and out of government scrutiny in the little decrepit village of Toledo, Ohio. Our producers have done an amazing job of investigative work to discover tonight’s subject for our interview. He was reluctant to speak on mic with us, but Guido and Tony, our Associate Producers, were quite persuasive.

We’ll be right back with tonight’s scintillating interview after this time out from your friendly, caring Government Health Service and Sexually Transmitted Disease Warehouse:

Biff: Welcome back. As promised, our guest today is the last private sector worker in the United States. Please tell the folks at home your name, Sir.

G.A.C.: My name is George Armstrong Custer the Ninth.

Biff: Interesting. I find it fascinating, George. May I call you George?

G.A.C.: I prefer to be called “Nine.”

Biff: Well enough. Nine, many of our listeners are surprised that there is a private sector worker in this country because the most benevolent, benign and loving government is providing employment for all. How did you miss out on the wonderful and secure opportunity for government employment?

G.A.C.: Well, I never applied for the mandatory government employment control subsidy because I was too busy with my small business when everything was nationalized.

Biff: Just what is your “business,” Mr. Nine?

G.A.C.: Just call me Nine. No “Mr.” needed. I am a handyman. I clean gutters, repair windows, fix bicycles…all kinds of useful things that the government workers never get done.

Biff: Is it a lucrative business? It must be difficult to carry on without the government worker card or the tattoo of approval. How much do you earn?

G.A.C.: It is somewhat difficult dodging all the inspectors and regulators, but my services are in great demand because the government agencies never fix anything. My earnings average around 27 million dollars per week, but with gasoline at 42 dollars a gallon, it’s becoming more and more difficult to get by.

Biff: You use gasoline? Are you an environmental sloth, Nine? Do you not care about the planet and your fellow citizens? Twenty seven million dollars per week makes you a rich person. Does your wealth matter more than your fellow citizens and the health of our planet? You must be the sole remnant of the greedy selfish capitalist class of bygone days. With your me-first attitude, how can you justify being alive?

G.A.C.: Well, I have to use gasoline to operate my 1977 Chevy 1500. It has never been converted to burning food like the other vehicles have. Rich? Yes, I earn 27 million dollars per week, but I receive no free housing, no free food, no free healthcare, no free transportation, no free cable and no free censored internet, or any of the other benefits the government forces on the citizens.

Biff: You sound just like all the robber barons we learned about in school. You are the richest man in Amerika, and you have managed to duck the system while avoiding paying your fair share. You are a disgrace. You violate the very structure of our society, then complain because you’re not receiving benefits like the honest people are.

G.A.C: I’m not complaining. I’m explaining why I’m not rich. And I do pay my fair share. My weekly tax bill is 26 million, 999 thousand, 988 dollars and 87 cents which leaves me with $11.13 per week. How can that be interpreted as my not paying my fair share?

Biff: But YOU ARE RICH and you are ignoring your responsibility to the less fortunate in our society. Besides…something is odd here. How can you survive on eleven dollars a week?

G.A.C.: You’ve got it all wrong. I do help the less fortunate. I do their work for free. As for how I manage to live. Well, I’ve been drawing down my savings.

Biff: SAVINGS! Savings! There you go. You rich people hiding money from the government. Wait a minute! Where are you going? We aren’t done yet.

G.A.C.: (climbing into his truck). I’m leaving. I can’t live here any longer now that you’ve put me on the air. I am going away forever.

Biff: You can’t leave. There’s no place to go.

G.A.C.:  “Galt’s Gulch.”

Summary:  Those two words were the last ones that anyone heard from George Armstrong Custer, IX.

Biff and his crew saw the old truck fade away into the distance until the two tail lights merged into one red dot. And there was no more private sector to pay its fair share.

Comment:  cearlwriting@hotmail.com    or   www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Face Book:  www.facebook.com/pages/Earl-for-Ohio/

Strike Force

OK, here I go. I’m placing myself on every “watch list” imaginable. After reading about the draconian GOP budget which will leave us with a $26 trillion debt in ten more years and hearing so-called “good government” types praise it and Democrats sniveling as they condemn it, I have decided that we the people should go on strike. The Democrats will spend us into oblivion over night. They will promise the moon, and when the government is too broke to deliver, they will implement their perfect collective society. The Republicans cry about big unconstitutional government and whine about overspending, but lack the courage to take the REALLY BIG STEP to correct the lousy course we’re on. Nickel and dimeing is precisely what they propose…nickels and dimes when trillions are needed.

How do we implement a strike that would be effective? If you are one of those taxpayers who pays quarterly, and you have a payment due on the 18^th, escrow that puppy…apply for an extension…use every delaying tactic you can to gum up the works. After all, the politicians and bureaucrats have been gumming the works for years. Every time you get one of those “Alert” letters from either party or the AARP, write something educational on the form and send it back without money…WITHOUT MONEY. Make them pay the bulk return postage.

If any government agent from any government agency comes to your property for any reason, demand a warrant before you grant access. Community survey agents, health inspector, agriculture department…any government agent should present a warrant (remember, a warrant requires probable cause that a crime has been committed). Ninety per cent of government visits do not involve a crime, so the demand for the warrant will be like throwing sand in their gears.

Vote against every tax at every level. You might lament, “What about the schools?” Well, when the feds stop interfering in education (a state and local matter), and the federal Department of Education shrinks to nothing, then you and I might have the resources to help the local schools. Another option is to get the local school board to resist and prohibit ANY federal involvement in the school. It would be “nullification” on a mini scale.

The boneheads and clowns in government do not listen to us. They hear only that group of takers who want more from government…more from your sweat, your taxes. It’s time we stopped listening to them. Stop inviting them to your social affairs. Stop giving them free meals and places of honor. Treat them like the 3^rd century lepers they resemble. They ignore you, lie to you, or they say what they believe you want to hear, and then do as they please while mollifying the looters of the world. Banish them from your functions. They are unworthy of your consideration because it’s clear they truly do not value you or our country more than their own pathetic careers.

We see the disaster ahead as our nation, states and communities rush toward the precipice at break neck speed. We are horrified by what we observe, and yet, the politicians and bureaucrats are holding the throttle wide-open until the next election cycle…as they always have. Speaker Boehner, Mr. Cantor, Mr. Ryan…$400 billion per year is like peeing in a hurricane when the annual short fall is $1.65 trillion. Majority Leader Reid, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Schumer…go home. You’ve done enough damage already. If you continue the destructive path you’re following, you should read some French history from the final decade of the 18^th century.

Can this little strike be effective? Probably not unless it goes viral. I am so darn frustrated with liberals, progressives, socialists, statists, moderates, neocons, conservatives…a pox on them all! All I want are patriots…patriots…patriots who will defend my personal liberty…my life, my labor and my property. What we have is a bunch of looters who want my labor, my property and want to control my life. Give me Liberty.

Comment:  cearlwriting@hotmail.com     or   www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Face Book:  www.facebook.com/pages/Earl-for-Ohio/