Littlestuff Weekender-3-3-2012

Washington State is caucusing on Saturday, and ten states will be selecting delegates while choosing their presidential preferences on Super Tuesday. Perhaps the race for the GOP nomination will become much clearer….perhaps not.

Meanwhile….Germany announced that Greece can either accept the austerity measures mandated by the EU or resign from the European Union. If neither of those actions is undertaken, Germany says it may withdraw from the mega-state. In my view that’s unlikely and business will go on as usual until we have a severe European economic collapse followed by global economic devastation reminiscent of the sound of clicking dominoes as they tumble down.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced that forensic evidence proved that President Obama’s “birth certificate” was fraudulent. Obama’s defenders remarked that the ‘copy’ was not an original, therefore likely to be considered a counterfeit. The President laughed and his minions are still pursuing the sheriff for a number of “violations” of federal law regarding treatment of prisoners.

Toledo City Council decides to spend significantly more than $700 thousand to install cameras to observe perpetrators as they commit crimes in Toledo. Meanwhile there’s a shortage of police and cash in Toledo…..as well as common sense. Big Brother lives in Toledo….which is a good thing because others are moving out. The good news is that the videos can be uploaded to You Tube and people throughout the world can laugh at the brazenness of Toledo criminals and the ineffectiveness of Toledo’s finest to prevent their activity.

The conference tournaments are almost underway as we merrily trip into March Madness. As a sports fan, I typically limit my viewing/listening to teams that I care about or follow. March Madness is different. If I have time, I will watch two unknown teams from “directional” (NW, SE, Western, Eastern, Northern etc.) universities play 40 minutes of sloppy basketball. I will dutifully fill my brackets for my son-in-law’s contest and silently contribute my $10. If the pattern from previous years holds true, I will be one of the leaders in the first two rounds and will finish far out of the pack by the completion of the NCAA tournament.

Yesterday (Friday March 2^nd) Pat and I had our 43^rd wedding anniversary. I feel especially blessed that she has been so willing to suffer by staying with me all these years. I know that she could have done better, and I know that my ranting and complaining may have become tiresome for her. She has hung in there for more than four decades and deserves a medal plus the eternal reward that she has been promised and will surely redeem.

Going to an auction today (Saturday). It is 35 degrees and windy. Maybe the weather will discourage other bidders or they’ll show up because it is too miserable to do anything else.

There hasn’t been much publicity surrounding Tea Party challengers to incumbent Congress members of either old fossilized party. Has the focus on the presidential race taken the wind from the sales of local groups? Or are they finding it difficult to attract good candidates who are willing to take on the high-dollar P.R. machines of the current office holders? Given how much energy was lost following the 2010 election, I expected Tea Party, liberty and patriots groups to come back with fire in their eyes this year. Of the 83 or so T.P. candidates elected last cycle only about 20 of them held fast when Boehner and the leadership twisted their arms. Without more new people to help out, those remaining 20 may backslide because Washington D.C. can be a lonely place if your leadership is angry with you. Win the state legislatures and nullify unconstitutional federal meddling then run things constitutionally at home.

The Republican strategy is rather apparent. They didn’t initiate anything of true significance so they wouldn’t anger portions of the population. They hope to win the Senate, but I truly doubt their courage will increase. Unless there is a Republican or third-party President who is ABSOLUTELY COMMITTED to down-sizing government, massively cutting spending and restoring individual liberty, the Congress will not lead and it will be business as usual. The only appreciable change will be the rhetoric as they adjust their words to stop us from charging the Capitol with pitchforks and torches. We’ll be fooled again.

Have a great first weekend of March. Now I will enjoy my prime rib/hashbrown breakfast (leftovers from dinner) before leaving for the auction.

cearlwriting@hotmail.com

www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

  

Olfactory Identification

Undoubtedly you are familiar with the canine greeting dance involving frenzied anal sniffing. Even when encountering other dogs with whom they’ve played in the past, the pups will vigorously sniff and snort one another to positively identify each other. Obviously their method is much more effective than any “Voter I.D.” implemented by government (are you thinking what I’m thinking? Maybe it would work at the polls. What scares me is the type of volunteer we might attract). Nevertheless, olfactory identification is an extremely useful tool for humans…..particularly those of us who have become cynical, skeptical or jaded by government mismanagement, misfeasance, malfeasance and massiveness. If it “stinks to high heaven,” it is not a good thing for us.

We hear a politician’s voice or look into her or his eyes seeking a glimmer of integrity. In the tiny recesses of their feeble minds they see us as kissing their ample arses as we humbly beg for crumbs from Big Brother’s table. They have a point. Just as our friendly canine critters have a fool-proof system for discerning friend from foe, as we stoop to smooch their beneficent behinds, we should inhale deeply so as to detect their true natures. I suspect that if we peer closely as we engage in our olfactory exercise, we may see a head….the politician’s head…firmly lodged in the anal cavity. Hey…I understand that this is a ludicrous metaphor for the way things are, but once in a while I must deviate from the concrete….the cold harsh reality of the tyranny of Big Government. Perhaps I’m overly sensitive regarding expansive government power and its increasing misapplication, but it seems to me that it has grow exponentially in recent years.

Government power and abuse is not an onion (sorry, another metaphor). It cannot be peeled back or removed incrementally. The malignant power permeates every bureau, every directorate and every department. The courts play along in the corruption of liberty game by relying on precedent for justifying the preeminence of the state. As a result, the power continues to grow and individuals’ abilities to affect the process are drastically diminished. Peeling the onion cannot be accomplished quickly enough to rectify the harm …..  it will merely cause us to cry. I know. This whole thing stinks. That’s why I chose “Man’s Best (earthly) Friend” as the symbol of the metaphor.

Our governments at all levels have exceeded their purposes. They have transformed from the servants to the masters of the people. I wish that I could confidently assert that we can turn this monstrosity around, but I fear that the choking tendrils of government have permeated and poisoned every level of our social and political structure. It is imperative, therefore, if we are to survive in this milieu, that we engage all of our senses. If we have any hope of turning this situation around, we must place our senses on “hyper-alert.”

We must see through our career politicians. We cannot, we dare not take them at face value. We must be suspicious and discerning.

We must hear the words of government and politicians, but consciously pursue the unspoken and unsaid facts that they insist on withholding. We must listen carefully for the small still voices that join our pleas for freedom.

We must reach out and touch those who are unaware or unwilling to recognize our present circumstances. We must handle the truth with tender care and crush deceit whenever we encounter it.

We must learn our history and recharge our memories to recapture the divine sweet taste of liberty. We must transmit its flavor to everyone we know and those we meet.

We must use the smell test whenever we encounter an advocate for government. The sweet scent of freedom must not be covered by the odor of tyranny. The joyful aroma of liberty cannot be overcome by the stench of despotism.

We must engage all our senses all the time because nearly everything that government does fails to pass the “smell test.”

cearlwriting@hotmail.com

www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Disturbing Pragmatism

The purpose of this column is to inform Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R) that, in my view, his priorities are misplaced. Governor Snyder has so far exhibited the aura of competence. His persona suggests that he is a highly competent manager and technocrat. His style is reminiscent of Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R) and GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney. All appear to be very proficient managers who are unwilling to allow ideology or political doctrine to interfere with their manipulation of the existing government apparatus. A Democrat from more than a quarter century ago projected a similar mindset. His name was Michael Dukakis. In a nation of more than 310 million people a technocrat is not needed or desirable. A principled focused leader is preferable.

It is always good to have a competent engineer at the controls when a train is hurtling down the track, but it is important that the engineer who designs the track and lays out the route has vision and a sense of direction. Competent engineers can work to keep the train on the rails, but they cannot change the direction of the track. We need visionaries to choose the direction for the nation and for liberty. Following the current track will not resolve our problems. We will continue to be bound by a rigid unyielding system that leads to more government and less freedom. We need leaders who have the courage to jump the track and forge a new path that restores the Republic and defends our liberty.

Proverbs 29:18 begins with “Where there is no vision the people perish….,” and my fear today is that we have no vision and our liberty is dying. Our leaders must have a burning desire for freedom and the will to secure liberty for all. Merely managing the ultimate enslavement of the citizenry is not visionary leadership. Accepting the status quo and its deadly direction is not acceptable. Visionaries, not functionaries, are needed to restore the Founders’ and Framers’ dreams. Our predecessors rightfully understood that our own inertia would result in the gradual erosion of our freedom, and they predicted our need for virtuous visionaries to lead the way. Now is the time. Petty competence and technocracy are too little, too late.

“Good enough” is no longer good enough. While business acumen is helpful, a passion for liberty is crucial. While an understanding of balance sheets is important, an awareness of the balance between the individual and the state is more critical. With the exception of Governor Romney the other two people that I mentioned at the beginning of this column are sitting Republican governors. Governor Daniels reluctantly signed Indiana’s Right-to-Work legislation and remarked on a Detroit radio station two weeks later that he was pleasantly surprised at the interest expressed for doing business in Indiana by some companies. Governor Snyder has publically stated that he does NOT want right-to-work legislation to cross his desk because it is too divisive and will distract from the important work of the state. Anal bureaucrats generally resent distracting anomalies. With our national trend on the wrong track, we need, we must encourage those who will bravely disrupt the old “business as usual” paradigm.

It’s true that visionaries are often idealists who foresee perfect outcomes for their grandiose initiatives. It is frequently desirable that visionaries must be surrounded by pragmatists who can implement their ideas and bring them to fruition. Pragmatism without vision becomes a number-crunching same old-same old. Pragmatists often revert to the routine and commonplace when facing monumental challenges. Pragmatic leaders should lean on the talent and enthusiasm of their more creative and passionate dreamers for solutions that are bold and striking. Clearly….sound leadership must include a mix of vision and competence, but people of vision are much rarer than managerial functionaries. We respect the top-notch manager, and we follow the idealistic dreamer. These perilous times require visionaries who will artistically describe the beauty of freedom and inflame the passions of the people to share their dreams.

Governor Snyder, I respect your task-oriented approach. Michigan’s plate of problems is heaped full. The previous administration (Granholm) was a socialistically oriented group of dreamers, but Michigan needs a counter dream to offset the smothering reality of the old one. Michigan must have a dream that leads to liberty and rejects misery. Michiganders must be able in their minds and hearts to share the glorious opportunity that individual freedom will deliver. They must hear it. They must learn it. They must know it, and they must want it. Positive leadership will stir the people of Michigan (and anywhere else) to seek freedom….to desire self-reliance….to thirst for opportunity.

We need leaders who will mount the white horses and lead us into battle. We will not follow those who ride the day-to-day donkeys of mere competence. We want inspiration, and we want it now. Pragmatically speaking, of course.

cearlwriting@hotmail.com

www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

   

       

Mutual Exclusion

Government and liberty are mutually exclusive. As government grows larger, individual liberty is diminished. All levels of governments are vampires that suck the blood of freedom from citizens. Typically when we discuss the oppressive growth of suffocating government we focus on the federal aspect, but as the national footprint grows larger, the state and local entities follow suit. Our liberties are squeezed and reduced at all levels. Given this context, there are two dominant approaches to restoring our liberty under a constitutional government. One view is that we must begin with the local governments where it may be easier to generate support because of people’s knowledge of how their rights have eroded. A second course of action is suggested for attacking at the federal level because of the noxious mandates that tie the hands of many local governments. Their position is that local and state governments are generally hamstrung in their opportunities for maneuvering around and beyond the oppressive federal apparatus.

They are both correct. We have negligently allowed our state and local governments to become mirror images of the tyrannical federal leviathan. We may have become a little queasy as we watched our local governments embrace new duties and programs, but our internal alarm bells were muted by the magical words….”federal grant or federal cost-share.” In the mystical magic world of government funding we often overlook that all grants from government—federal, state or local—are funded by taxpayer dollars….or borrowed money. Many people go to work every day and labor for many hours so that government can confiscate a portion of their labor to ladle out among communities and earn the loving adoration of the recipients. It represents a scam of the highest level. It is a redistributive technique that seeks to buy votes and minimize the differences between communities. It is a nefarious method of denying individuals and their local neighborhoods their own unique ways of dealing with their very local problems. The local leadership and citizens may celebrate the infusion of state and federal money as a serendipitous event….maybe even something earned because of their histories as dutiful taxpayers, but the final analysis is that it’s all a shell game financed with borrowed money. The government takes taxes (actually EARNED PERSONAL PROPERTY) from all who pay and trickles it back to selective communities to maintain their goodwill and eager compliance. Con men have gone to jail for doing less on a smaller scale.

While the financial, fiscal and economic aspects of the shell game are not defensible, the immoral elements are worse. Individuals and their local communities must forfeit their taxes while facing financial and criminal penalties if they do not. They must petition the state or the federal government for crumbs in order to address their most pressing local problems. The petitioning process is weighted with massive amounts of paperwork and the communities must justify and rationalize why they should be placed on the ever-growing “waiting list.” The communities lose control of their own wealth, their own priority lists, their own remedies and their dignity. Meanwhile the levels of government involved in the allocation of funds extract their “cut” of the action…..and the final result is a costly project that could have been completed more efficiently and more quickly if the local areas had kept their dollars at home and addressed their problems themselves.

The communities and the individuals who support them sacrifice their freedom for a falsehood. When the 30% government carrying fee is deducted, when the mandatory prevailing wages are paid, the locales yield around 55% of their 100% tax contribution. They can take some solace in the fact that their payment of the government carrying fee (overhead) does help to alleviate unemployment by assuring that hordes of bureaucrats will be available to harass the communities at every step of the desired project. Freedom and big government are not compatible. Morality is the essence of liberty. A moral person will exercise a full measure of freedom by not infringing upon the life, liberty or property (including labor) of another. By demanding a portion of a person’s labor through taxation or by restraining or constraining an individual’s use of her or his property, government treads into the world of immorality.

Clearly some element of lawful coexistence is necessary for people to enjoy their communities. Government therefore assumes the role of arbiter for contractual disputes and for protecting the community from outside threats. In addition, government is the mechanism for assuring that individuals observe the moral mandate of non-interference in one another’s lives, liberty and property. The ultimate result is that legitimate government’s primary and sole duties are conflict resolution, community defense and the protection and preservation of individual liberty. When government at any level exceeds its mandate, it becomes a threat to freedom and forfeits its legitimacy. Growing government or big government and liberty are clearly mutually exclusive. They cannot exist in the same space, the same time and the same hearts.

cearlwriting@hotmail.com

www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

On the air Tuesday from 6:00-7:00pm on the Talk of Toledo,

1370  WSPD. Our guest will be Doris Herringshaw, candidate for Wood County Commissioner.  www.wspd.com