I've been 'working hard' at buying nothing made in China. It was
kinda tough in the beginning but it has amazingly gotten easier as I have
gone along. I've found that I can do without China products if I stop and
ask myself: "Do I absolutely have to have this item?" Almost always the
answer is "NO!"
Believe if I work at it, I don't have to buy any Saudi gas either! Try it;
you might be surprised how easy it is to say "NO" after a week or so!
Please pass to your friends.
*This message even tells us who does not buy from the Saudis...... ......
......... Interesting*
*WHERE TO BUY AMERICAN GASOLINE. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW READ ON.*
*Gas rationing in the 70's worked even though we grumbled about it. It
might even have been good for us!* * *Are you aware that the Saudis are
boycotting American products? In addition, they are gouging us on oil
prices.
*Shouldn't we return the favor?** Can't we take control of our own destiny
and let these giant oil importers know who REALLY generates their profits,
their livings? How about leaving American Dollars in America and reduce
the import/export deficit?**
*
*An appealing remedy might be to boycott their GAS. Every time you fill up
your car you can avoid putting more money into the coffers of Saudi
Arabia . Just purchase gas from companies that don't import their oil from
the Saudis.*
*Nothing is more frustrating than the feeling that every time I fill up my
tank, I'm sending my money to people who want me, my family and my friends
dead.*
*The following gas companies import Middle Eastern oil:*
*Shell............. 205,742,000 bbl
Chevron/Texaco. ..144,332, 000 bbl
Exxon Mobil....... ......130, 082,000 bbl
Marathon/Speedway. 117,740,000 bbl
Amoco....... ......... ........62, 231,000 bbl*
*CITGO oil is from Venezuela, the "President" is Dictator Hugo Chavez who
openly hates America and vows to cause our economic destruction! (We pay
Chavez's regime nearly $10 Billion per year in oil revenues!)
*
*The U.S. currently imports 5,517,000 barrels of crude oil per day
from OPEC. If you do the math at $70 per barrel, (today's price) that's
over $386 million PER DAY ($141 BILLION per year!) handed over to OPEC,
many of whose members are our confirmed enemies!!!!! *
*It won't stop here - oil prices could go to $200 a barrel or higher if
we're not careful and keep buying their products.*
*Here are some large companies **that do not** import Middle Eastern oil:*
**
*Sunoco..... . ......... ......... .... 0 barrels
Conoco...... ....... ......... ........ 0 barrels
Sinclair.... ......... ......... ...... 0 barrels
BP / Phillips.... .......... ..... 0 barrels
Hess.. ............ ......... ......... 0 barrels
ARC0........ ......... ......... ...... 0 barrels
Maverick.... ......... .......... .. 0 barrels
Flying J. ............ ......... .. 0 barrels
Valero...... ......... ......... ...... 0 barrels**
***Murphy Oil USA* ......... 0** *
*Note: Murphy is sold at Wal-Mart , the gas is from South Arkansas and
fully USA owned and produced.** **
***Not only that but they give scholarships to all children in their town
who finish high school and are legal US citizens.*
* **All of this information is available from the U.S. Department of Energy
and each company is required to state where they get their oil and how much
they are importing**. * *But to have a real impact, we need to reach
literally millions of gas buyers With the help of the Internet, it's
really simple to do. Now, don't wimp out at this point.....keep reading
and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!* *I'm
sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you send it to at
only ten more (30 x 10 = 300)....and those 300 send it to at least ten more
(300 x 10 = 3,000)...... .and so on, by the time the message reaches the
sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION
consumers!!! !!!!*
If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each,
then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level
further, you guessed it....THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE-the entire
population of the United States of America !!!!
*Again, all you have to do is forward this message to 10 people. How long
would that really take you? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten
more people, within one day all 300 MILLION people could theoretically be
contacted during the next eight days!*
MISSION: U.S. Veteran and Author Revealing Reality with Daily Reading / Sharing of Select, Intelligent, and Informative Articles, Columns, and Commentary.
Bias? Get Over It!
'Paying Attention'
To most U.S. Citizens, politics is too slow and
boring to stay involved because it takes sometimes long
periods of time to accomplish things. Unfortunately our
attention deficit in this area has come to haunt us in that
a government which is not overseen by its people will
take advantage of them and their complacency by
enriching themselves and increasing their power. We
must again force ourselves to make the difficult choice
and choose the uphill battle to get back control of our
runaway government to the point where it again
understands its purpose is to work for us instead of their
self perceived purpose of doing what they think is best
for us.
The difference in these two purposes is drastically
different and we are now seeing what living under a
system based on the latter feels like. The latter includes
an obvious assumption of intellectual superiority on their
part and I do not know about you but this citizen does
not like it. I am starting to feel more and more like being
boxed in or herded into doing things and following so
many government mandated regulations and guidelines
it is beginning to affect me. I am feeling less like a free
citizen of my country and more like a controlled subject
whose purpose is to produce and consume for the good
of the federal government and its needs and goals. Our
government should not have needs and goals other than
providing for security against our enemies, and helping
its citizens increase their freedom and standard of living.
What is going on now is not the American Way.
This may be an agreeable way to govern in other
countries around the world but not here in the United
States. This is the destination where people go when
they do not want to live under that type of system. We
have to stop this from happening here because we
unfortunately have no sanctuary of sanity to run to. We
must stop touting term limits and start making
government oversight a citizen participating endeavor
instead of a spectator sport!
An AmericanThinker.com commenter initials CEW
wrote on Feb. 18, 2010, “Reminds me of a number of
friends of mine who have said they have no interest in
politics. I would normally remind them that this is
foolish – since politics most certainly has an interest in
them.” Truer words have never been spoken in my
opinion. Thank you CEW.
Polling and the News
We now live in a world of continuous news and
continuous polling. This continuous polling is supposed
to help everyone understand what others think about an
issue but I think these polls are too numerous and in
many cases biased from the get go. Many are biased in
the questions they ask by loading the question. For
example: How bad do you think ____ is for America?
This type of question has built in a premise assuming
____ is bad and the pollster is just trying to see how bad
people think it really is. Then to make it worse, the poll
is done using only readers of a certain newspaper whose
reader base is already biased to the paper’s political
slant. So a slanted question is polled to a slanted base of
responders and the results are treated as kosher? If it
favors a politician’s cause it is used time and time again
and I never hear anyone mention a concern regarding the
accuracy of the poll, as long as the margin of error is
shown. This kind of poll looks credible and is used to
persuade the uninformed. The only way to fight this is to
become informed so when you see this kind of polling,
an automatic light goes off in your head making you
think who, what, and most important – why was this poll
done. Why was this poll done and who will benefit from
the conclusions it makes? Fact is, polls are done for a
reason and I think when the reason is to persuade instead
of inform we must be on the lookout. Lastly when a poll
is used as evidence against a politician’s cause, the
politician will usually just say they do not believe the
poll anyway.
News, does it exist anymore?
People report the news
with a bias based on their ideological beliefs. That is all
there is to it nowadays in my opinion. Tom Brokaw said
once that journalists will always be needed to interpret
information for the public. Inherent in his statement is an
elitist assumption of superiority and it should insult
anyone who hears it. It is a nice way to say you are too
stupid to understand the news on your own. The problem
is Tom, your interpretation if I wanted it from you would
be biased to your beliefs and ideology. There is no way
around it.
More journalists are simply liberal thinkers, artsy,
and creative right brained people. It is what they do. It is
what they are! Their talent is geared to story telling and I
think a lot of times reporting what happened gets mixed
up in a creative person’s need to tell a story and gain
recognition. People are going to write a story they find
interesting and a story they believe in. I don’t think they
will expend much time, energy, and creative talent trying
to make sure they show a side of a story which goes
against and diminishes their personal opinions. For
example, do you or I spend a lot of time doing things we
do not like to do? A logical conclusion would be a
journalist probably does not either, would it not? It
would be like trying to use your right hand to write if
you are a left handed person, no pun intended. You just
cannot do it. Well, very few can and I think this applies
to news and broadcast journalists as well. They simply
gravitate to other people and organizations who think
like they do.
I simply believe based on my experience with
understanding people that more right brain creative type
people go to journalism school and attend liberal arts
oriented universities. More left brain analytical, reason
focused people go into science, business, finance, etc.
Not all but most. So everyone talks about how the media
is biased and I think it is true but to understand why
might be just as important to understand.
These right brained creative people are not the kind
of people who are content or feel good about themselves
or their work if they were to only report the news.
Reporting to them would be simply listing or showing
the events which unfolded during the day and would be a
rather boring endeavor for creative minded people. I feel
today a journalist wants their work to be influential and
have tremendous meaning but if that journalist is biased
politically, to what cause will the story look to benefit?
If a story pushes right or left, democrat or republican,
liberal or conservative, is this really reporting the news
or just another interpretation of the news? Both sides of
the media are indeed guilty of this and I do not believe
there is any way around it save one.
Each individual person must have the ability to
decipher the news as reported to them and stop
complaining about the media bias because it will never
change or go away. It is not media bias; it is personal,
individual bias. They are who they are just like we are
who we are. To become an informed and educated
citizen, ready to defend the Constitution and the rights it
preserves, there is only one way. It is a long and
sometimes difficult process but a necessary one. The
difficult task is to learn the skill of reading and I am not
simply talking about the act of reading. I am talking
about reading with the ability to filter difficult and
sometimes confusing material. The material should be
American history, world history, biographies,
economics, capitalism, socialism, communism, fascism,
textbooks, business books, finance books, economics,
and politics of course. Anything and everything you can.
Reading this material gets easier over time and you will
start honing in on the subject which interests you most.
From there you will love reading because when you
finally get to a point where you realize how much
information there is out there, you will hunger for more.
The best thing I have ever learned is that I now know
how much I still do not know and it bothers me.
The key to being able to become your own filter for
what is put out as news daily is to become informed and
well read. The point to strive for when absorbing the
news today is to not only focus or concentrate merely on
what is being reported. You must also be consciously
aware of how the news is being reported. Once this skill
is attained, paying attention to what is going on in the
United States and in the world takes on a whole new
meaning.
If we turn our attention to discover what
exactly the journalist is trying to convince us into
believing, we can only then make our own conclusions.
This way we are not subject to the news event which
took place wrapped tightly in the journalists’
assumptions and opinion of how we should think about
it. When we have the skill and knowledge to make our
own individual conclusions, we will truly have
reinvigorated and are ready to carry on the American
spirit.
This U.S. Citizen
Enemies of the United States
This Marine’s thoughts on war, military, and our
Enemy.
It is time we accept the fact there are foreign
enemies of the United States of America who are highly
determined and able to harm the American system and
kill U.S. citizens. We must do what it takes to stop them.
The war in Afghanistan is now in its 10th+ year as I am
writing, already lasting twice as long as WWII when we
helped defeat the Italian, German, and the Japanese
empires. Why is it taking so long to end our involvement
in Afghanistan? I am a Marine but not a war fighting
expert and I have not been in combat but I call things as
I see them. The mission is flawed in my opinion. I saw a
Frontline special in October, 2009 showing what was
happening on the ground in June, 2009 in Helmand
province. I was amazed and shocked the 20 year old
Marine’s mission had morphed into trying to convince
locals they were there to help them. The Marine was also
asking them to help defeat the Taliban and convince
them it was safe in the area. The locals said “you have
tanks, guns, helicopters, etc. and we do not even have a
sword so what can we do?”
I thought this to be profound not only in the
response but in the entire situation regarding placing that
kind of responsibility on a 20 year old Marine. He is not
a diplomat. He is a rifleman, sworn and trained to protect
the United States and the Constitution by killing the
enemy. Diplomacy is for the diplomats. The people in
Afghanistan have been living their tribal ways for a
thousand years and they are not going to change simply
because we are there. They are not going to respect and
follow a centralized government they never see in a far
away capital city. They just do not think that way and
will not anytime soon. Does this justify a permanent
presence there until they get with our idea of how to live
their lives? I don’t think so. These Afghans are being
told how to live their lives by an out of touch Afghan
government and a foreign military presence which keeps
them in a permanent state of nervousness. They probably
feel much like we U.S. Citizens today being told how we
should live our lives by our government. Our
government that tells us what kind of car we should be
driving, how our healthcare should be managed, what
kind and how much energy we should use, what kind of
food we should eat and on and on. We do not like it and
I do not think the Afghans do either. I think it is time to
leave them alone to figure out how to run their own
country and start worrying about our own again.
Now on the other side, I need to speak as a former
member of the military and give my opinion of what this
citizen believes should have happened in Afghanistan.
First of all Afghanistan is a country which harbored
terrorists and terrorist groups that unleashed and
succeeded in a plot which killed 3,000 people on
American soil. They caused billions in dollars damage to
our economy. They attacked the head of our military, the
Pentagon. They attacked our financial center and
destroyed forever an American icon; the Twin Towers of
the World Trade Center and an icon which stood in one
of our nation’s and one of the world’s greatest cities;
New York City. This was the largest and costliest attack
to ever have been executed against the United States of
America. This was an act of war and should be treated as
such. This justified going after them. We should have
gone into Afghanistan and killed them. That should have
been and should now be the only mission. Quick, hard,
and fast should have been the tactic to fight this war.
Nation building, trust of the locals, stable government;
these things are good long term goals but they should be
the internal goals of the Afghans, not ours.
If the Afghans are not ready to change to a
democratic system, they will not just because we think it
best for them. Hunting down and killing the enemy is the
goal. It is simple, straightforward and most of all it is a
mission those in the military are ready to execute on a
moments notice and give their lives for. It is this U.S.
Citizen’s opinion that it is not worth the life of a single
Marine or any soldier to see to it a mud hut street
market is open so locals can trade vegetables. Is that a
goal really worth risking a serviceman’s life to achieve?
Does the fact we go into a country who harbors the
enemy or terrorist in order to kill them mean we owe
said country a Marshall Plan to take them from the Stone
Age to the Modern Age? I’m sorry but NO!
We, the United States should focus directly on
killing the enemy. War is hell and people die especially
when they bring it upon themselves. Innocents will die
when they are in close proximity to our enemy and is a
reason why wars should end as soon as possible.
Sometimes innocent people die but that is part of the
price you pay in war when you attack the United States
or any other free society. We may not get all the enemy
but we will get many of them. Then we leave and go
home, mission accomplished and to hell with what
others say about it. As time goes by we monitor the area
and we keep people there on the ground and in the area
learning, watching, and listening for the enemy and
when we see the enemy rise again or reform, we attack
again and kill them. We let them know constantly we
will be back on a moments notice if we see them again.
This mission is an offensive mission instead of the
defensive mission of staying too long and becoming a
permanent target. Some think once we take an area and
clean it of the enemy we must hold it. Why? To prevent
them from taking it back? So what, let them come back.
At least we know where they are then and then we attack
them again and kill even more of them. Am I getting my
point across here? Eventually they will get the idea the
United States means business and it probably is risky to
one’s life if they continue in their ways. It gives them the
choice: keep fighting and die, or stop and live a life.
Either choice means it ends quickly which is good for
America.
War should not be a choice based on party politics.
If attacked we have the right and duty to end the attack
and stop it from happening again. Another thing that
seems to have arisen lately is the notion of a measured
response. To my understanding this is retaliation only
using similar force which was used against you. What
sense does this stupidity make? How is this expected to
end a situation? Also in Feb. 2010 rules of
engagement have changed for our soldiers in that they
cannot return fire unless they can actually see a weapon.
What do politicians think just whizzed by a
Serviceman’s head making that distinctive crack as a
round goes by, a spitball? Again this is a moronic way to
fight a war. This is not fighting a war; this is trying to
manage a war and its political problems. If you doubt
me, read Sun Tzu.
If someone has a knife and you have a gun, you do
not put your gun away thereby risking losing a knife
fight and your life do you? No, you tell the other party to
put down the knife and if they do not and they come at
you, you take action with the gun putting an end to the
threat, permanently.
So my war fighting and military philosophy is pretty
straightforward in having a strong, ready military to take
care of threats quickly and come home. That’s it. That is
the “This U.S. Citizen” Doctrine on war. Is this not a reasonable
policy which will end the enemy threat as quickly as
possible and risk as few American lives and innocents as
possible? If the rest of the world knows this to be our
policy will it not deter those who want to harm us?
Regarding the rights of the enemy.
Finally let me make on additional point regarding
giving constitutional rights to the enemy. I am
specifically referring to not only the Gitmo prisoners
who may be tried in U.S. courts but the most recent
enemy terrorist captured on Christmas day, 2009. This
person is a Nigerian. He is not a United States Citizen.
Rights of United States Citizens are just that. He is the
enemy, NOT a common criminal. What he did was to
attempt to commit an act of war against the United
States of America and it citizenry. Those who give this
enemy the rights of U.S. citizens and a trial by a jury of
his peers are absolute fools as to the understanding of
our country, our customs, our culture, our Constitution
and our right to eliminate those who threaten our
existence. This enemy attempted to destroy the property
of and slaughter citizens of the United States for
fanatical and ideological reasoning.
Although his plot failed, it was a failure on his part
due to blind luck. His act was equivalent to lining up 300
U.S. citizens including men, women, and children during
wartime, putting a pistol to each of their foreheads and
pulling the trigger with the intended expectation he was
about to blow their brain through the back of their head.
The only thing which stopped it was a misfire. Sorry
about the graphic description of my example but what is
the difference in this and plunging 300 people which
could have been you or me or any of our family
members in a crashing fireball, probably killing even
more victims on the ground?
These people are our enemy and should be treated as
the Germans were in WWII when they attempted to
enter the United States as saboteurs. They were found
guilty by military tribunal and six went to the electric chair.
I would have preferred firing squad.
One was given hard labor for life and
another was given thirty years in prison. At least FDR
did the right thing in this instance. This Nigerian should
be interrogated for information, then given a military
tribunal and hopefully found guilty and sentenced to
death by the aforementioned firing squad. DONE! No
prison, no Gitmo, dead. Now that is a deterrent.
History does not long entrust the care of freedom to
the weak or the timid.
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
This U.S. Citizen
The Natural Progress (of Government)
As time passes and as government grows, the more
it takes from us so the less we as individuals are left to
deal with. The human mind can do wonderful things and
learn a great deal but if the challenges in life have been
solved by the government, what are we left to do? By the
act of trying to do everything for us they are condemning
us to over reliance on the government and killing
individualism. Is it on purpose? This is not good for the
soul of America and I think can only lead to stagnation
of the mind and therefore of the country. We need
challenges and we need to figure things out for
ourselves. When we do, we grow our confidence and self
esteem and feel good about ourselves having cleared
life’s hurdles on our own. If problems are solved for us,
what does that leave our minds to do? The word solved
being a very weak word here because I do not think a
government bureaucracy is capable of solving problems,
only exacerbating them.
A system which subsidizes too long someone who is
having difficulty only lengthens the time where they
would find a solution for themselves. Government
prevents growth and inhibits innovation for the sake of
compassion. Is it compassionate to keep people in a state
of anxiety? Yes it will be hard but left alone, a good
person will find a way. They will make changes in their
life but not as long as they have the permanent
government teat to run back to when there is a bump in
the road. People should fall back on family, community,
or their church, and not on a permanent government
program.
When I say a good person, I mean someone who
will get their hands dirty and do what it takes legally to
succeed. A criminal will cheat and steal and there will
always be those who work that way. This is one of the
necessities of government. To catch and punish those
who cheat the system thereby making it safe for the rest
of us to live lawfully. I am more than glad to pay my
share of taxes for this role of government. The problem
is that government does not know when to stop. The
mere fact our so called representatives sit in Washington
makes them think they should be doing something which
leads to more government intervening in our lives. I
believe this is a fault with our government and should be
addressed potentially by having shorter legislative
sessions or possibly term limits. They just have too
much time on their hands and feel they need to do
something to justify their next election.
Since I mentioned term limits, let me take a moment
to put in my two cents worth. Term limits would be a
good idea as an initial thought, but what would it do? I
think it might just give us, the people one more reason to
not pay attention to our government officials. We
already have the ability through elections to make a
House member or Senator a one term official, but we
don’t! That simply needs to change instead of focusing
on term limits. To get term limits changed, the
representatives and senators have to write a bill about the
potential problems they themselves might create. Do you
really think they are going to do that? Be self critical, a
politician? Doubtful.
What does need to change is how our senators are
chosen as I discussed briefly before. Originally senators
were appointed by state legislators per the Constitution
instead of by popular vote. This changed in 1913 by the
17th Amendment making popular vote the method of
choosing Senators. Oddly this was the same year only
two months and five days earlier the 16th Amendment
passed giving Congress the power to tax our incomes.
Hmm…
Although on the surface this sounds like a freer way
to choose but the Founding Fathers were not fools. The
reason they were to be appointed by the state legislators
was to keep them under control of the people of each
state and not subject to the whims of a federal
government. Because of this I think people are less
involved in their state governments because they see
little reason to be. Any effect from not being involved in
state government is difficult to understand when trying
to relate it to their personal situation. So today, senators
are not extensions of or a voice of the states any longer
as intended but are only accountable to a majority of
people who can be swayed to vote for them every six
years. This I believe was a move to a mob rule or
democracy mentality and to consolidate federal
influence on future elections. It was a move away from
the representative republic the Founding Fathers so
carefully crafted.
Just a side note, the word democracy does not appear
in the Constitution because the Founding Fathers wanted
no part of a society based on mob rule, which is the
definition of a true democracy. For example, we have
laws against murdering other people. If you murder
someone, you broke the law and you will be punished. It
would be a travesty to change the law to make murder
legal. We know it would not be right. That is why we are
supposed to send only very trusted lawmakers to
Congress and throw them out if they falter. This is a
system which keeps us safe. Laws are made by 535
highly trusted people to represent the people and signed
into law by a trusted president. Then the law if contested
is reviewed by the Supreme Court to assure the law is
Constitutional. Those on the Supreme Court are chosen
by the sitting president. This again shows the importance
of having a president who has been properly vetted, is
understood to be of sound character, and believes
wholeheartedly in the Constitution as written and the
patriots who drafted it. If a true democracy existed
where every person’s vote was used to create laws, he
who could sway 51% of the voters could do anything.
With 51% of the vote, murder could be made legal. This
is how a true democracy works and why it was avoided
by the Founding Fathers completely. So whenever I here
someone say we live in a democracy, it makes me cringe
because I know they really do not know what are talking
about.
When our representatives and senators think and act
as if they know what is best for us, it is time to take
action by the citizenry. Our opinions have been cast
aside in lieu of an overriding agenda. The only time
when our opinion matters is when elections are at hand,
which they soon will be. Even then these officials seem
to focus on a goal of trying to sway opinion to win an
election instead of merely doing what is right for the
country. I wonder if they think there is a difference in
the two. It is our duty to participate, to be informed, and
to be in control of our government. If we do not get
involved, we affirm the actions of those who will
increase governmental power, increase taxes, and over
burden the people with excessive bureaucracy. It is again
the very nature of government. The decline of freedom is
inherent in these actions.
Those who believe they know better than you have
no interest in consulting with or listening to you. When
your leaders get to a point where they believe listening
to their constituents is a hindrance to their legislative or
party goals, this is an example of the ultimate in
arrogance of our government. To them it is a waste of
their time.
Those in charge of our government and those
in Congress have now reached this point. The problem
for them is we now realize it as a fundamental issue and
a danger to our freedom and our republic. When it is the
case that consulting with constituents is not part of the
process of governance, the necessary oversight and
accountability of government by the people is
eliminated. The streamlining of power held by elected
officials begins to run a muck. Such is the state of our
government today.
This U.S. Citizen
Morally Treasonable -Gov't Officials-
It’s our fault we have waited this long. It’s our fault
we have not stood up for American exceptionalism and
passed down those traits which make America great. In
order to get things done we have to have the backbone to
tell those who are wrong, they are wrong, give the facts,
and move on. Many times those who are wrong do not
want to accept it so they push back. The push back is
where sometimes I think we falter. We do not like
confrontation and those who are wrong may not take it
well when pointed out by others so they raise a raucous
and in the past we have backed down. It is time for that
to stop. One person who might be wrong or offended by
something should not be able to control an important
conversation.
How did we get to a point in a country where our
rights including the right to freedom of religion which is
protected by the Constitution is being changed to
something more like freedom from religion? Christmas
trees are now offensive and cannot be put in public
places because one person is offended. How is this
rational? Having freedom of religion does not mean it
gives you the right that you will not see it around you,
less you be offended. This mentality is just petty, and so
are those people.
This mentality I think comes from people being so
scared to say what is right or wrong because someone
will take offense and is inherent in the reason behind the
statement saying it is best not to talk about religion or
politics. It is time we started talking about these things
and get past the awkwardness so we can face and
understand the real issues in these areas. We only solve
problems when we address them clearly, based on facts,
and not controlled by emotion. Supporting or joining a
political party and simply supporting without
questioning the authority, the reasoning, and facts is
detrimental to our way of life. Everyone at all levels
should be criticized and questioned and often.
To announce that there must be no criticism of the
president, or that we are to stand by the president, right
or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is
morally treasonable to the American public.
-Theodore Roosevelt
In 2009 we had a president who took an oath to
protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
This president stated on Chicago public radio in 2001
that quote “the Constitution was a charter of negative
liberties. Says what the states can’t do to you. Says what
the federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say
what the federal government or state government must
do on your behalf.”
Now answer me this question, how can someone
fulfill the oath to the Constitution if he does not
understand that the Constitution was created to protect
people from an oppressive government when his whole
goal is to do things to people or do things on our behalf?
His basic assumption is not only backward but insulting
to me in that he thinks we want and need things done for
us, let alone to us. So what is it he thinks the government
must do that the Founding Fathers were so ignorant they
obviously overlooked in 1787? I would like to know,
wouldn’t you? It is my understanding these so called
negative liberties imposed on the federal government are
essentially permanent handcuffs on the government to
prevent it from controlling the people and everything we
do. It seems the current administration has unlocked the
handcuffs with the assistance of the Congress and has
revoked these negative liberties to achieve their goals,
whatever they might be!
We can no longer trust, at least for the next few
decades, those who have been trusted with the power of
our government. The government exists of the people,
by the people, and for the people. It is time we the
people enforced this notion again. As stated in the
Constitution; the government can only act with the
consent of the governed. Do you feel like you have been
giving your consent regarding what the government has
done in the past few decades? I certainly do not.
When we as parents create and enforce rules on our
children, it is done because we actually do know what is
best for them based on our experiences, our beliefs, and
our culture. We know they do not possess the knowledge
or experience necessary to properly weigh risks and
costs involved in their actions so we take actions
limiting these risks and costs on them as well as on us,
the parents. This is the same approach I believe our
government uses to justify what they do to us; fully
grown United States Citizens. The problem for them is
that we are not their children! We should not be bound
to whatever rules they decide to put upon us based on
their supposed superior knowledge and their perceived
lack of ability to make proper decisions for ourselves.
When they do this year after year they are essentially
boxing in free people, making our lives more and more
confining with the expectation we will grow accustomed
to their changes and life will go on. What they fail to
realize is people accustomed to freedom will take this
kind of treatment for a long time. However a point will
be reached where people will refuse to be boxed in and
controlled any further. How far away is this tipping
point? I believe with the emergence of the tea party
movement in 2009 and the contempt shown toward
citizens by many representatives, we just might be there.
In January 2010, I made my first monetary
contribution to an out of state election candidate. It was
to Scott Brown, the MA Senate candidate in an effort to
do what I could to end the supermajority in the senate
which existed at that time to possibly derail the current
administrative agenda and stop the healthcare takeover.
He went on to defeat his opponent I am glad to say.
The actions of our government today, the state of the
economy, and the security threats which exist have in
my opinion, nationalized the concerns of this U.S.
Citizen. I have faith I am not the only citizen who has
come to this conclusion.
What is the role of our government?
I believe the United States Government should be a
partner, not a parent of the people. It should not be a
provider for some citizens at the expense of other
citizens. The terrible approval numbers prove this
currently is how the government is viewed by the
majority of citizens. My thoughts of our government
when it takes actions are in terms of wondering just how
negative their latest legislative venture will affect me
because the positive aspects as touted rarely emerge. The
policies created by government rarely create outcomes
which make me happy but rather create more uncertainty
in my life. To exist in a permanent state of uncertainty is
no way for free people to live and yet this is where we
find ourselves today.
What would it feel like to have representatives, a
congress, and entire government we could trust to do
what is right regarding creating opportunities in the
context of protecting our freedoms instead of protecting
their positions of power? One can only wish I am afraid
to say. Protecting our freedom can no longer be a
spectator sport by the citizens of the United States.
Active and permanent participation as the duty of
citizenship must become the norm if we are to maintain
the liberty we enjoy.
One of the other problems with current government
is in order for them to push the need to create more laws
and regulations, they must continuously push the notion
things are bad in America. I am sad to say this tactic
works. We are many times lulled into believing a crisis
exists because we hear it day after day. The lawmakers
release statements to the press which are repeated on
today’s continuous news cycles. Eventually we get tired
of hearing it, tune it out, and try to worry about
ourselves and stop paying attention. Again I think this is
how we are taken advantage of. Lawmakers have all day
everyday to come up with new ideas to pursue while we
try to earn a living everyday and have scarce time to
watch over them. We work to feed our families and to
support the lawmakers’ ideas and programs with our
taxes. Well, it is really the other way around because
they take our earnings first for their ideas through tax
withholding and payroll taxes then we get what is left for
our families.
The way of thinking lawmakers have when it comes
to our earnings appalls me. When a tax cut is talked
about, those in government who oppose it say it is too
much of a cost. A cost to whom? If someone thinks of
letting people keep more of their earnings as a cost to
them, what does it say about how they think of all of our
earnings? They approach it from a stance where all of
our earnings is theirs to do with what they please. They
are inclined to take as much as they can up to the point
where people will not see it as worth it anymore to work.
This is how they have control of us and it is not right.
The government drives the people in its desired direction
by rewarding or punishing citizens’ action through the
use of the Income Tax Code. The Founding Fathers in
1787 did not give the Congress the power to tax our
incomes which remained the case until in 1913 when
that was changed with the 16th Amendment. Less than
100 years of taxes on our income and I ask, are we a
better, more opportunistic nation because of this?
It is not right to force us through the use of the tax
code to do what they happen to feel is right on a whim
year after year. The more we have to work to make up
for what they take from us, the less time we have to pay
attention to what the are doing. It is a vicious cycle the
Founding Fathers would never have supported. Fact is,
they did not support taxing the incomes of the citizens.
This change came about in 1913 along with creating a
central banking system, which was vehemently opposed
to by Thomas Jefferson during his time. This central
banking system called the Federal Reserve controls the
cost and price of money by interest rates and by having
total control over the country’s currency. This is central
planning and price fixing within our monetary system.
Although the Federal Reserve in name sounds like it is
part of the government, it is not. It is a totally private
banking entity which works in secret in pursuit of its
own interests, not the interests of the citizens of the U.S.
The Fed as it is called does not disclose its actions to
anyone, even the Congress of the United States. 1913
also saw the change in how Senators are chosen by
taking the choice away from the state governments in
lieu of direct elections. This drastically reduced the
power of the states in relation to keeping the federal
government in check. 1913 was a very bad year for
citizens’ freedom but very good for creating more levers
of control over the people by the government.
The privately-owned Central Bank is an institution
of the most deadly hostility existing against the
principles and form of our Constitution… if the
American people allow private banks to control the
issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by
deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up
around them will deprive the people of all their property
until their children will wake up homeless on the
continent their fathers conquered.
-Thomas Jefferson
This U.S. Citizen
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