A Tea Party Manifesto

I do not typically post other people's material, but this speech is so powerful I had to include it. I have my Betsy Ross Flag on order. Count me in!

How We Can Win the Second American Revolution Without Firing a Shot

A Tea Party Manifesto
by James Ostrowski

Ladies and Gentlemen.

I have news for you. Barack Obama is not the problem with America. He is merely the symptom. When big government failed, the people, not knowing what went wrong, went for the fresh face who promised that government would solve the problems the people didn’t know government caused in the first place.

America went off course many, many decades ago. Blaming Obama for our problems is like saying a 500 pound man is fat because he just ate three pizzas. Obama is the captain of the Titanic and his ship is speeding recklessly along, but he did not design the ship nor place that giant iceberg in its path.

The tragedy is that the American people do not know why the economy collapsed. They do not know the nature of the regime that runs the country. They do not know that this regime is not the regime for which the Founding Fathers fought. They do not know what the regime was that the Founders fought for. Finally, they do not know that the solution to our economic collapse is to restore that regime.

What were those Minute Men fighting for at Lexington and Concord? A republic of largely independent states. They weren’t fighting for the Constitution. There was no Constitution. They were fighting for a republic that would protect their natural right to liberty.

What is a republic? There’s much confusion about this. We must get this right. John Adams once complained that he “never understood” what the guarantee of republican government meant “and I believe no man ever did or will.” With apologies to John Adams, by “republican,” I mean a government exercising limited powers delegated to it by the people, whose officials are answerable to the people in regular, free elections.

Distinguishing between a republic and a democracy is critical. Both forms of government feature voting by the people to select officials. The difference between them is that while republican voting is done for the purpose of choosing officials to administer the government in the pursuit of its narrowly defined functions; democratic voting is done, not only to select officials but also to determine the functions and goals and powers of the government. The guiding principle of republics is that they exercise narrow powers delegated to them by the people, who themselves, as individuals, possess such powers. They cannot spring as they do in democracies, ex nihilo, from the mob’s collective whim.

Only a republican government can be truly limited. A republican government may only exercise powers delegated by the people that the people actually possess. The people do not have the right to steal from their neighbors so they cannot delegate to the government the power to create a welfare state. The people don’t have the right to counterfeit so they cannot delegate that power to the Federal Reserve. The people do not have the right to rule the world so they cannot delegate to the government the right to create a global military empire. You see where I am going with this? If we had a republic, we wouldn’t be in the bloody mess we are in.

In a democracy, there are no real limits to government power. If you object, you will always be told, hey, majority rules.

Long before Barack Obama was born, America traded in its decentralized libertarian republic for a centralized, democratic, corporate state with a global military empire. You can’t destroy a great country immediately. By the 1970’s, however, the corporate state, the welfare-warfare state started to cause economic stagnation and an endless series of domestic and foreign crises. Middle class living standards have been frozen in place for decades. Our standard of living was only maintained by smoke and mirrors: young mothers joining the workforce, parents working three jobs, credit card and mortgage debt, huge federal deficits, inflation and foreign borrowing. What is happening now is judgment day, the day of reckoning, the day the national Ponzi scheme collapsed. To con the people into thinking that all was well, our puppet masters created a lot of phony money and the bill is now due.

Now, the solution to all this is quite simple. Here’s what we need to do.

1. Liquidate the global military empire, ending the two Asian land wars that George Bush got us into and the Democrats and Obama helped pay for.

2. Take the savings, trillions, and liquidate the federal welfare state, buying out all Social Security recipients with lump sum payments.

3. Abolish all the unconstitutional departments and programs like Education, Energy, HUD, HHS, and Agriculture.

4. Then we can repeal the damned Income Tax Amendment, the worst thing that ever happened to this country, except for possibly–

5. The Federal Reserve–abolish it. Repeal the legal tender laws and gold and silver will automatically become market money.

6. Now, add a couple of amendments to bring the moribund Constitution back to life. Ban all corporate welfare so we never again have bankster heists and corporate bailouts. And, since true federalism was destroyed in the Civil War, let’s recognize what the Founders understood in 1776, that any republic has the right to withdraw from a union when it so chooses. That will guarantee that the federal government will never again turn into a monstrous, murderous, counterfeiting kleptocacy.

Now, that was easy, but if that platform was put up to a vote, it would lose, big-time.

So our real problem is how to put this plan into effect, how to restore the Republic, in short, how to win the Second American Revolution.

History—Pickett’s Charge; The Charge of the Light Brigade–shows what happens when a smaller army attacks a larger army in a heavily fortified position. They lose!

The sad truth is, though we want to restore the spirit of the American Revolution, we are outnumbered by Red Coats!

The vast majority of Americans now support Red Coat government: an arrogant King in a big castle, with a large court, ruling by edict from a distant capital, endless wars across the ocean for a global empire, and heavy taxes to pay for those wars. And we are now embroiled in two land wars in Asia in countries that previously expelled the British! That’s why Rudyard Kipling wrote:

When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier of the Queen!

Maybe the Loyalists who fled to Canada should come back home. After all, the British ultimately won the Revolutionary War. Their ideas prevailed. The Revolution is dead—unless the tea party movement can revive it.

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that about ten percent of Americans are fed up and ready for radical change. That means that 90% are not. That’s a huge problem.

Remember that at Lexington, when the government gun controllers and tax collectors came up the road, the men of the town greeted them with muskets ready to fire. Today, if we did that, most of the men of the town would side with the federales.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are in 1770 again, when there was a small number of radicals who wanted independence but most people wanted to stay with England.

Being outnumbered doesn’t mean we can’t win. History also teaches that a smaller, more dedicated army, with a just cause, can prevail against a larger, mercenary force. But we need to become more dedicated, more committed, and at the end of the day, we need to get larger. We need converts just as the Patriots did.

So, our first task is obvious: education. We need to educate ourselves before we can educate others. We need to study the history and principles of the American Revolution. We need to study war and peace. War is the health of the state. We need to study economics.

Let’s take a quick look at the American Revolution.

• England needed money for war.
• They taxed the Colonists.
• The Colonists didn’t want to pay.
• England sent troops and tax collectors armed with general warrants to find taxable stuff.
• The Colonists got angry and threatened resistance.
• The English decided to seize the Colonists’ guns.
• War broke out.

Lessons:
• War means high taxes.
• Taxes mean invasion of privacy.
• To steal your money and violate your privacy, the government must disarm you first.
• You have the natural right to resist tyranny.
• Gun control was the proximate cause of the American Revolution.
• America was born in an act of resistance to gun control!
***********
Economics. Did you know that if the American people understood one simple principle, that we could shrink the size of government by 90% in three months. What principle? All resources are scarce. If we could only understand that principle, which just happens to be the first law of economics, then all the politicians’ lies about adding new programs like the bailout and stimulus would be laughed at.

So, we need to teach ourselves economics at home school—the living room laptop or the desk top computer in the attic or basement.

What does the free market have to do with the Republic? Everything! Republican government exists to protect private property. The free market is the free exchange of private property. A true republic can only have a free market economy.
Why can’t a republic have a global military empire?

An empire is designed to rule other nations for their benefit or ours. If it’s the former, it violates the purpose of a republic as limited to protecting the rights of its own citizens, not the planet’s. If it’s the latter, then the republic violates its own premise, the natural rights of all human beings. Empires require huge armies and bureaucracies and oppressive taxes which violate our right to private property, the right to keep what we earn. Empires, as Washington taught us, invite retaliation and thus the government betrays its only true purpose by jeopardizing the lives and security of its citizens by pointlessly manufacturing foreign enemies.

Once we understand our own history, the dynamics of war and peace and the principles of market economics, we need to start making more Patriots. Start with your family and friends, then co-workers, customers, clients, neighbors and members of your church or your gym if fitness is your religion.

Can you all convert 25 Patriots this year? If not, we will lose this fight.
What else can we do?

Remember, a direct assault when you are outnumbered will fail.

But we do not have to wait till we make more coverts to move towards our goal.

Let me back up and discuss strategy generally. We neglect strategy at our peril. Keep in mind that no movement such as ours has succeeded in its goal since Jefferson’s day.

There are only three ways to change politics.

Violence, political activity and direct citizen action.

Violence is out of the question. That’s our adversary’s tactic. That’s why we are here today. We favor liberty over violence, peace over war. Liberty = Peace = Order. Pierre Proudhon was wrong. Liberty is not the “Mother of Order.”
Liberty is order.

What about politics—lobbying and elections? Politics is rigged. Most politicians are corrupt degenerates and couldn’t care less what we think. And the last time an election led to smaller government in America was—-guess—-1800!

I have been fighting the political machine for 35 years and I firmly believe that direct citizen action is the only way we can beat them.

What is direct citizen action? Instead of convincing some bought-and-paid-for politician to change his little mind, or spending all summer trying to beat them at a rigged game and get good people elected, you choose your own battle ground and you choose courses of action that are designed to achieve your goal.

Direct citizen action is hardly a new concept. Ever hear of the Boston Tea Party? And it’s what Gandhi used to topple the British Empire. It’s what Martin Luther King used to fight Jim Crow.

We need to think about the things we do every day and figure out how we can integrate our movement into those daily routines. One thing we do every day is spend money. We buy things. We buy services. We pay bills.

How do politicians win elections? By buying TV time. Where do they get the money? Much of it comes from private businesses or private persons who run or own business firms. We know who they are and so I say to you: stop slitting your own throats. Stop buying things from business firms that fund the political machine and fund the corporate state and fund big government.

Now you can go down to Congressman Higgins’ office and talk to his staff till you’re blue in the face about getting rid of the Federal Reserve. They will ignore you and, when you leave, they will have a good laugh at your expense. Or, you can stop giving your money to his bankrollers. One tactic is a complete waste of time. The other will hurt his ability to raise money. If he can’t raise money, we can beat him when our numbers grow.

Boycott the bankers of the political class. Starve the Red Coats and Loyalists!

Now, if you are boycotting those fat cats and their firms, you are going to have to spend your money elsewhere. Here too you can directly aid the movement with each purchase. If we have ten percent of the population on our side, we probably have twenty-five percent of small businesses. Small business owners are natural libertarians. You don’t have to tell them how taxes are oppressive and how government regulations can strangle them. They know it because they live that nightmare each day. So I say, buy from Patriots. They will return the favor later in too many ways to imagine now. To hell with Red Coat companies. In this country, money talks. In politics, it’s the only thing that does.

You want to win this fight? You want a free country? Buy it!

How do we know which businesses to patronize? Easy. Look for the Betsy Ross flag, the flag the Patriots flew.

We need to get people’s attention. We need a new symbol because the current symbols of patriotism have lost their meaning. What does the current flag stand for? Limited government? A true republic? Minding our own business in the world as Washington advised? Obviously not. In fact, the flag is used to glorify a regime that would make the Patriots sick to their stomachs.

So I propose that we use the Betsy Ross flag to symbolize our movement. Our adversaries have their symbols; we will have better ones.

There is a great symbol out there for the taking that is universally understood to stand for the old republic. I propose we bring it to life again as the symbol of our movement and, further, to use it as a battle flag. Battle flags serve the critical function of identifying allies during the chaos of battle. When we see that flag, wherever we are in the country, we know there will be a kindred spirit behind that door.

As this movement grows, these flags will start dominating the landscape and we will know that victory is near.

Here’s another form of direct citizen action you can take. The original Patriots did not trust government, including prosecutors or judges. They knew the only way to restrain the power of government was by external checks and balances. They gave us two: the right to bear arms and juries. Naturally, they have tried to take both of these rights away from us. The right to bear arms is safe for the moment but let’s talk about juries.

The original concept of a jury was that it could override the judge on matters of law. Call that jury nullification. Every prominent founder who was a lawyer stated explicitly that juries have the right to judge the law itself and whether it would be unjust to convict a defendant for violating that law under the circumstances.

Tyrannical judges have ruled otherwise, thus overruling the Constitution by judicial fiat.

The bottom line is this. The founders believed you have a constitutional right to judge the law in a criminal case and any judge who says otherwise hasn’t studied our constitutional history.

The purpose of republican government is to protect the individual’s right to life, liberty and property. The Founders created a jury system to ensure that no one was convicted of a crime unless they violated the life, liberty or property of a fellow citizen. If you get a jury notice, don’t grumble. Show up and assert your rights and keep in mind that no one can tell you how to cast your vote in that jury room.

Now, just for the record, I’m not saying jurors should violate the law and lie to judges about their willingness to follow their instructions on the law. What I’m saying is that judges should follow the law and should not lie to jurors!

So, there are things you can do yourself and right now to move toward restoration of the Republic.

Make a list of the people you know and who respect your opinion. Family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, clients, customers. Write them a letter and tell them you have joined a movement to restore the American Republic and save the nation from the Red Coats who have destroyed it. Invite them to do the same. Host a meeting at your home to discuss the matter further.

Before that meeting, educate yourself about the history of your country, about economics, about the Federal Reserve, the income tax and the true nature of the present regime. We have created a web page with all the resources you will need.

PoliticalClassDismissed.com/teaparty

Immunize yourself from the lies of politicians. If any politician tells you they will improve your life, they’re lying. Don’t believe them. How do know a politician is lying? Their lips are moving. Teach your children not to believe them either. A politician will tell you face to face he will do this or that for you, then, as soon as you turn your back on him, he will pick your pocket to pay for the same promise he made to your neighbor.

Tolstoy wrote the politician’s credo:

“I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back.”

So, you need to withdraw your support for the corrupt regime the federal government has become. That’s easy. Just stop. Stop voting for those degenerates and don’t vote for their opponents either unless they are Patriots. Stop being silent when people talk about politics. State your opinion clearly. Tell people you’ve joined the Second American Revolution and urge them to do so as well.

You can also start to support the new media sites that are already fighting this battle. A website is no better than its traffic. If you patronize sites such as www.PoliticalClassDismissed.com, you make us more influential so we can fight harder for you. When you’re surfing the web, consider if the sites you frequent are part of the problem.

And stop supporting authors and magazines that led us astray in recent years. Stop funding organizations whose policies have failed. Stop supporting websites whose policies have failed. You need to go out and find those authors, groups, websites, books and magazines such as Ilana Mercer of World Net Daily who got it right the last ten years. We have created a page with those links.

Use the Betsy Ross flag; patronize business firms that fly or display the flag; stop patronizing Red Coat firms that take your money and hand it off to the political class. Stop slitting your owns throats. Stop giving your money to the bankers of the political class.

If you serve on a jury, educate yourself about your constitutional right to decide the case based on your conscience. No judge or fellow juror can tell you that you must convict someone of a victimless crime if you believe there is reasonable doubt.

To sum up, here’s a 12-step program for how you can start to restore the American Republic.

1. Decide that you’ve had enough. You want to do something to reverse America’s economic collapse. That something is nothing less than restoring the American republic. America’s problems of today were caused by the abandonment of that Republic slowly over a long period of time. Pledge allegiance to the principles of the American Revolution.
2. Write a letter to your family, friends and neighbors declaring your support for restoring the American Republic.
3. Invite them to a meeting.
4. Educate yourself on American history, politics and economics.
5. Hold the meeting and explain to them what you have learned and urge them to do the same and then hold their own meeting with their own social circle.
6. Display the symbol of the restoration of the republic, the Betsy Ross flag.
7. Patronize businesses that display this flag.
8. Boycott businesses that bankroll the political class.
9. Educate yourself on the rights of jurors. If you are called for jury duty, understand that the founding fathers designed the system as a check on government power. Remember that when you are in the jury room deliberating.
10. Patronize books, blogs, websites, newspapers, magazines, think tanks, and political groups that were right about the economic collapse. Mises.org., IlanaMercer.com and others. See our page for a complete list.
11. For political activism, join an existing Patriot group. Don’t reinvent the wheel. See our page for recommended groups. While I believe that politics is not our best field of battle at the moment, as our movement grows, we will soon be able to launch a successful frontal assault on the political class.
12. Follow these websites for continuing developments:

PoliticalClassDismissed.com
FreeNewYork.org
BuffaloLiberty.com

Will this plan succeed? I believe it will if it gets a good start. I believe if it gets started, it will be unstoppable, like an idea whose time has come—back.

But this I know for certain. If we do not try to spark a Second American Revolution, we will fail and you, and your children, and your grandchildren, will never know what it is like to live in the America that was supposed to be. And, with the government always strengthening its stranglehold on the schools, they won’t even have a historical memory of it.

George Washington, who led the fight in battle for the American Revolution, and knew a thing or two about adversity, about temporary defeat, about being outnumbered, about being accused of treason, and about being shot at by Red Coats, said, “Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.”

So in closing I urge you make this pledge. I pledge allegiance to the principles of the American Revolution, stated by Jefferson, and for which the Minute Men and Washington’s Army fought: that government’s only purpose is to protect our natural rights to life, liberty, and property; that any government that does “more” than protect our natural rights must thereby violate those same rights and become a tyranny that the people have the right to alter or abolish. I pledge to resist that tyranny by peaceful means if at all possible.

Our National Debt Road Trip

Assault Rifle Confiscation Resisted by Armed Extremists

BOSTON (AP)--National guard units seeking to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault weapons were ambushed on April 19th by elements of a paramilitary extremist faction. Military and law enforcement officials estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw.

Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement.

Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents if vandalism directed against internal revenue offices. The governor, who described the group's organizers as "criminals," issued an executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has interfered with the government's efforts to secure law and order.

The military raid on the extremist arsenal followed widespread refusal by the local citizenry to turn over recently outlawed assault weapons. Gage issued a ban on military-style assault weapons and ammunition earlier in the week. This decision followed a meeting earlier this month between government and military leaders at which the governor authorized the forcible confiscation of illegal arms.

One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out that "none of these people would have been killed had the extremists obeyed the law and turned over their weapons voluntarily."

Government troops initially succeeded in confiscating a large supply of outlawed weapons and ammunition. However, troops attempting to seize arms and ammunition in Lexington met with resistance from heavily-armed extremists who had been tipped-off regarding the government's plans.

During a tense standoff in Lexington's town park, National Guard Colonel Francis Smith, commander of the government operation, ordered the armed group to surrender and return to their homes. The impasse was broken by a single shot, which was reportedly fired by one of the extremists.

Eight civilians were killed in the ensuing exchange. Ironically, the local citizenry blamed government forces rather than the extremists for the civilian deaths. Before order could be restored, armed citizens from surrounding areas had descended upon the guard units. Colonel Francis Smith, finding his forces overmatched by the armed mob, ordered a retreat.

Governor Gage has called upon the citizens to support the state/national joint task force in its effort to restore law and order. The governor has also demanded the surrender of those responsible for planning and leading the attack against the government forces. Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock, who have been identified as "ringleaders" of the extremist faction, remain at large.

(The day and month you know, but the year was 1775.)

From Boston’s Gun Bible by Boston T. Party (Common Law Copyright 1997-2008, Javelin Press. www.javelinpress.com).

How do you think this event would play out in modern media? I would say this is a pretty accurate example.

Quote of the Week

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

-- John Stuart Mill

Wake Up! (A Call to Arms)

I picked this up from M.D. Creekmore over on The Survivalist Blog. I know some of the videos I post tend to be a kind of long. I highly recommend taking 20 minutes out of your day to watch these! Stop getting distracted by Supreme Court nominations, and the other common misdirection the media is throwing at you. Those things are important, but they are symptoms of the problem, not the problem itself. The Tea Parties were a beginning, not a onetime whim. It scares me how quickly America forgets things.

I have sworn an oath to support and defend the Constitution not once, but numerous times. Some may think that this oath only matters while on active duty. I took that oath as a lifetime affirmation. Until the day I die, I will stay true to what I have sworn. I count this Devil Dog as a brother, not just as a fellow Marine but also as a fellow Patriot. What he is doing takes real guts. His message is as pure to the heart of the freedom movement as I have found. This is what mom, apple pie, and the American Flag is really about. Semper Fi brother! See you at Concord Green or Galt’s Gulch!





**UPDATE** 6/18/09 These videos were set to private on the user's YouTube channel. My guess is that his command caught wind of it and gave him the choice of NJP or Court Martial. I knew this took balls since he was still on active duty. I wish him the best! Semper Fi brother!

Quote of the Week

"[W]e've got to stop telling people they can't do it. I've come to realize that one of the main keys to success in the capitalist system is simply to believe in it. When you think success is possible, you spend more time thinking about how to achieve it and less time complaining..."

--Glenn Beck, An Inconvenient Book

The Police State Mentality in Your Child's School

“We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control. No dark sarcasm in the classroom. Teachers leave them kids alone.” --Pink Floyd

Hat tip to Ryan over at TSLRF for finding this article.

School Shaves Head Of Boy With Mohawk

This is the most intrusive, abusive, and violating story I have heard in a long time! A six year old boy in Barlett, Kansas had his head shaved by a teacher because he came to school with a short cropped Mohawk. The boy had been sent home the previous day, and his parents trimmed his hair to look like a high and tight military cut. The next day the principal had a teacher shave the child’s head. If that had been my boy, I would be handing out ass whoopin’s up and down the halls in that school!

Courts have ruled that, in the public education system, children loose some of their rights when they step onto school property. The only two other institutions that do this are the military and the prison system. This all operates on the premise that the government owns you. Can someone say police state? This is one more reason to choose private schools for your children. Choose schools where you have a say in policy and curriculum. Better yet, home school your children and avoid the entire system altogether. I understand the need to keep students from causing distractions, but this goes too far. The parents of this child should not back down.

National Sales Tax

The idea of a national sales tax is being debated in the media today. I thought I should weigh in with my opinion. First of all, as a libertarian (small L) I believe all taxation is theft. That being said, I see the idea of a Fair Tax (national sales tax) as the only way to make taxation fair for everyone across the board.

There are two things that have me a little worried about the current plan. First, I am not sure how this is being proposed. If this 25% national sales tax is in addition to our current tax code, I vehemently oppose it. The Fair Tax plan is a proposal to completely do away with all federal taxes and REPLACE them with a sales tax. That is an idea I can get behind. Second, the bait and switch aspect of the current proposal has liberals looking at it as a way to pay for nationalized health care. I don’t like that at all!

The Fair Tax would do away with the double, triple, and quadruple taxation that happens all the way down the line. I will try to keep this example as simple as possible. Company A makes widgets. They pay taxes on their materials, they pay capital gains tax, they pay social security taxes, they pay property tax for the plant where the widgets are made, and about a hundred other taxes. All of these taxes affect Company A’s bottom line, so they raise the price of their final product to compensate. Company A sells its widget to Company B. Company B uses this widget as a part in a larger product that they sell. They pay the higher price on Company A’s widget, widgets from Company C, Company D, and Company E, plus all the aforementioned taxes for their own company. This high price is then passed on to the end consumer.

With the Fair Tax Plan, all of these taxes are taken out. The government stops taxing the middle man and only taxes products in their end form when they are sold to the consumer. These products are only taxed once. For example, if you buy a new car, you pay the sales tax on it. If you choose to sell your used car to someone else, that tax no longer applies. It has already been paid once! This, in theory, would lower the cost of doing business so much that the end consumer would never see a change in price on products even with a national sales tax added to it. It would make America into the greatest tax-haven in the world, and all of our businesses that have moved overseas would come back to do business here again. Other businesses that have never operated in America would see the benefit of doing business here, and move their operations here as well. More workers would be hired, more people would have jobs; and by allowing the workers to keep 100% of what they make, they would be able to purchase more goods and services that are taxed. The government gets its cut, the economy flourishes, people are working and keeping all of their earned money, and everyone wins!

If this national sales tax is being proposed as a way to implement a system like I described above, I am all for it. If it is in addition to all the taxes we already have on the books, it will be the single biggest economic mistake in history.

As I stated earlier, some proponents of this idea are thinking of it as a way to fund national health care. If that is the outcome, I want nothing to do with it. I would rather continue paying my bullshit income taxes. I won’t take the bad with the good and have national health care. It seems like a bait and switch deal to me. The worst scenario I can think of would be implementing a 25% national sales tax in addition to our current tax code, and implementing nationalized health care. If that happens, you’re going to see me run to the hills! That will be the final straw that turns America into a socialist democracy. It will be the end of everything we know.

For further study on this topic, read The Fair Tax Book, by Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder. It will really open your eyes to a common sense plan for taxation. It has been said that the only things sure in life are death and taxes. With 99% of people believing that, I think we need to first focus on ways of making things fair for everyone. After that, we can talk about doing away with taxation altogether!

And the Truth Shall Set You Free

Check out this video clip of Henry Waxman getting PWNED! Yep, I said it, whatcha gonna do about it?



This is the kind of crap I was talking about a few days ago when I posted on Global Climate Change. They don't read the bills that they claim to write! And they are jumping all the way to government control before asking simple questions about the topic in the first place. This has to change!

Unions and the Auto Industry

Well, it has happened again. I was going to do this post when it happened to Chrysler, but I bit my lip and thought maybe it was just a fluke. Now we are seeing the same thing happen with General Motors. What is it that I am speaking of? The United Auto Workers (UAW) buying a large stake in the auto companies. Does this seem a little sketchy to anyone else but me?

UAW is, like any labor union, supposed to be helping the “little guy.” The poor, suffering worker who would get taken advantage of if not for the good ol’ boys in the union helping him out. The little guy always gets screwed over by “the man” or “the management.” This seems like a big conflict of interest to me! The union is now “the man.” The union is the management! UAW now owns 20% of General Motors, and We the People now own the other 80%. So if the taxpaying worker communally owns part of the company, he is in essence working for himself. If the union that the little guy belongs to now is the new management, who is going to look out for him?

UAW supports the Democratic ticket hook, line, and sinker. They are one of the big donors that help the Democrats get elected time and time again. There is something fishy going on here. The government and UAW in bed together owning one of the nation’s largest companies, sounds an awful lot like conspiracy to me. “You funded my campaign, so now we will cut you in on this deal. This deal helps you make more money, which you can then give to me to get me reelected next time.” I am a long way off from being able to prove quid pro quo, but you only have to look at the major players and their history to see the connection. The majority of the White House cabinet’s power players are former Illinois politicians! Looks like it is business as usual again, they’re not going to let this crisis go to waste.

This is the kind of crazy circular reasoning we end up dealing with when we stray from capitalism, and start talking in terms of, “Each according to his ability, each according to his need.” Call it socialism, call it totalitarian rule; this is the wrong direction for our great nation. I wonder what the “little guy” is going to say about all this hopey changey crap in three years. It’s going to be really hard for anyone to blame this on George W. Bush or Carl Rove.

Precious Metals (Survivalism 101)

I will start out with a disclaimer. I am just a regular guy. I am not an investment expert, so any advice given here should be taken as a matter of opinion and not professional investment guidance.

In today’s uncertain economic times investments in precious metals can provide stability. Gold has been the traditional investment vehicle to hedge against inflation. Silver is great, and if bought in large quantities, it may provide a decent return on your initial investment. It can also be used as a means of barter if times get really tough. The barter aspect will be the main point of this post.

In the survival community, most investments in silver revolve around pre-1964 US coins with no numismatic value, commonly called junk silver. This can be bought in bulk from many different sources. Many out there believe that after serious economic meltdown (hyperinflation), you will be able to use this junk silver as a barter item for food or other essential supplies. My view is that most people will only look at the old value of the coin; a dime, a quarter, a half dollar, or a dollar. You can argue with someone until you are blue in the face and explain that pre-1964 coins are 90% silver, they are just going to see 10 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents, or one dollar; and they will apply their old notions of monetary value to the trade. This may even happen with modern Silver Eagles. At the time of this post a 2009 US Silver Eagle sells for about $19. A 2008 Eagle will cost you about $30. These coins are legal tender and are marked on the face with a monetary value of one dollar. So, you are paying the current spot price on one ounce of silver, plus a premium markup for the numismatic value of the coin. Again, in a barter system, people will only see “one dollar” and apply their preconceived notions about what goods and services used to cost. And, with hyperinflation, when it takes 500 Federal Reserve Notes to buy one loaf of bread, one dollar in official minted silver will be the same as a one dollar Federal Reserve Note. I would recommend staying away from actual minted coins at all costs.

I have had discussions on other blogs about hyperinflation and the role of precious metals in that kind of situation. If you own silver, it can be sold for paper money at the current spot price. Then that paper money can be used to purchase needed items. The guy at the gas station probably isn’t authorized to give you a full tank of gas for an ounce of silver, but if you sell that ounce of silver for 1000 Federal Reserve Notes, you can take the cash to the gas station and make your purchase. After hyperinflation sets in, there is the possibility of societal collapse, commonly referred to as (TSHTF) The Shit Hits The Fan. This is when the barter system comes into effect, and your sliver will be used in direct trade. Anyone smart will not only plan for hyperinflation, they will also plan for the worst case scenario.

So, what to buy? There are a lot of sources out there that are available. American Precious Metals Exchange, MonEx, and North West Territorial Mint are all places to start. My recommendation is to choose Credit Suisse, PAMP, or Pan American Silver rounds or bars in small weights. Stick with one ounce rounds for silver, or possibly a few 5 or 10 ounce bars. If you can find gold in 1/10 ounce denominations, it will probably be your best bet. You may choose to get some ¼ ounce, ½ ounce, or full ounce bars just to hold on to if you are not worried about hyperinflation, but 1/10 ounce will be the easiest to sell during tough times. Anything bigger than one ounce in gold is just foolish if you are planning for a survival scenario. A 100 ounce gold bar, while being a great investment as a hedge against inflation, will be pretty hard to sell in a TSHTF scenario. Also, stick with standard weights that people will understand. Ounces and fractions of an ounce are best. Trying to do the math on 3 grams compared to an ounce will just be confusing if you are trying to barter with Earl and Emma down the street.

As you can see, the market has its ups and downs. Keep an eye on things and buy when the price is low. If you can get an ounce of silver for under $10, jump on the deal! Also, try to stay away from little known products like platinum, palladium, and rhodium. Unless you are an experienced investor, you won’t be able to do much with these metals. Platinum is an industrial material found in catalytic converters. At its all time high, it was going for about $1800 per ounce. With the auto companies in the toilet right now, that price has dropped considerably.

Now, for the scams. I would be wary of anything that seems too good to be true, especially online sales. Many people have expressed their displeasure with North West Territorial Mint. They have silver on about a four month back order. I have used them in the past, and besides the long wait for your product, I have no complaints. The biggest scams I have run across recently are the Free Lakota Bank and Midas Resources.

The Free Lakota bank is not affiliated with the Lakota Nation of American Indians.  That just seems like false advertising to me.  Midas Resources has a good video on their homepage that explains fractional reserve banking to kindergartners. If you don’t understand how the system works, you can check it out there. However, this is where the good stops. Midas has been in lawsuit after lawsuit for its shady business practices.  It’s just too fishy for me. There are plenty of other places to buy. Shop around.

Finally, I should discuss privacy and storage. In 1933, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102, outlawing the private ownership of gold. Coins with numismatic or rare value were exempt from this as they were seen as collector’s items and not bullion investments. This was Roosevelt’s way of allowing his rich friends to keep their gold. The average man at the time didn’t have the money to invest in rare gold coins, but the rich did. Talk about helping out the working man! Anyway, gold across the country was confiscated. Gerald Ford rescinded this order in 1974, allowing the public to once again own gold. I don’t really want to get into the entire history of gold, the gold standard, and the Federal Reserve in this post. I would highly recommend looking this information up and doing a study on it for yourself.

My only point here is that confiscation has happened before, and in the time of national economic “crisis”, it could happen again. For this reason, many people do not feel comfortable making online purchases for precious metals. This leaves a paper trail that can ultimately be traced back to you. In many cities there are stores that specialize in selling precious metals. Some will give you a good deal, and some will rip you off; you just have to shop around. There are laws that require purchases over a certain monetary value to be documented by the dealer and filed with the US Treasury Department. If you are concerned with your privacy, I would recommend purchasing your precious metals in small quantities from local dealers who will agree not to take your name or print it on a receipt. They will usually charge you a higher premium on the spot price, but the privacy may be worth it.

Storage is another concern. A safe deposit box at a bank would be everyone’s first thought, but this raises one big issue. During an economic crash or a total SHTF scenerio, the government may call for national bank holidays. This is the one time you want to make sure you have your precious metals close at hand, and during a time like this, your bank will likely be closed. This leaves you with a couple other options. 1- Keep it in your house. If you have a safe or a really good hiding spot, this may be a good choice for you. Remember though, criminals can crack safes, and they know all the typical hiding places in a person’s house. That fake can of Campbell’s soup with the false bottom may not be the best place to put things of importance. 2- Keep it somewhere NO ONE but you can find it. A one foot length of 4 inch diameter PVC pipe, two end caps, some pipe glue, and a post hole digger can hide just about anything. I will let your mind do the rest of the work on that, but the possibilities are endless. If you choose the PVC option, be sure to pre-wrap your silver in a Mylar plastic sealing. PVC has a tendency to corrode silver if left in contact during long term storage.

In summary, precious metals can provide stability for you and your family. Not just financially, but also mentally and emotionally. Knowing that you always have a small backup stash can go a long way in tough times. Whatever you buy should be extremely personal. Keep it quiet and keep it away from prying eyes. In the end, you can’t eat your precious metals, and no amount of gold or silver will buy food for your family when the entire town is starving. So before investing, be sure you have some food saved up. Don’t break yourself making these purchases. An ounce of silver per month will go a long way after a few years. If you want to plan for every eventuality, precious metals are a must. Be smart, and invest safe. See you at Galt’s Gulch!

The Prop 8 Debate

Prop 8, the California proposition that bans gay marriage has been upheld. The California Supreme Court voted 6-1 to uphold Prop 8. Razor thin margin there! I wonder who the nay vote was? How can a vote of the people be unconstitutional? But I digress.

Here is what I have to say about this. I am glad that this issue is being handled on the state level. If the people of a state decide that they want to allow gay marriage, then by all means they should be allowed to do it. This is not an issue for the federal government to get involved with. Some states have already legalized gay marriage. That is their prerogative.

Now, the people of California voted, the people of California chose this, the California Supreme Court upheld the vote. Get over it. Quit bitching. Quit moaning. If you don't like it, move to Massachusetts, and shut your damn mouth!

And People Wonder Why I Left…

Just when you think things can’t get much worse in Kalifornia, you read a story like this. It seems the city of San Diego is at it again. Apparently they sent a city worker to a private residence within the city limits to ask about private Christian bible studies that were being held at the location. Using police state strong-arm tactics, the city worker told the homeowner that they would have to file for a Major Use Permit to continue their free practice of religion. The permit costs $10,000 and is used to enforce environmental concerns, traffic, sidewalk usage, and parking regulations. If the home owner refused to comply, they would be issued a string of fines. I am sure that Donna “the Bassett Hound” Frye is elated.

Our rights do not come from the Constitution or from the government. They are God given. The purpose of government is to protect the rights of the individual. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” That is our guarantee that things like this do not happen! The thing that really gets to me is the lack of outrage in the media. If this had been a meeting of the Unholy Temple of Estranged Vampire Worshipers, Keith Olberman would be losing his mind! “What about the civil rights of these UTEVW people?” But because it is a Christian group, the story goes largely unnoticed.

Now, the question is, what are you going to do about it? My guess is, nothing. You’ll read this and say, “Well that’s a bunch of crap!”, and that will be the end of it. I propose this: flood the San Diego City Council with phone calls. There was a national movement to keep the Mount Soledad Cross in place. Take action. I know that writing letters, sending emails, and making phone calls isn’t high on the activist’s list of things to do; but it is a start. Let the crazies out in Kalifornia know that people all across the country are taking notice of their unconstitutional policy.

Again, I am for equal rights across the board. If the Unholy Temple of Estranged Vampire Worshipers wants to hold meetings on private property, by all means, the people should be able to practice their religion in peace. Let’s keep the pressure on. Everyone knows this isn’t right!

Damn Right!

Break the Matrix

Came across this website last night. Thought it was a really interesting idea. I signed up. There is a ton of information on here and it would take days to go through it all. The internet TV station features some really awesome content. Check it out!

BREAK THE MATRIX

Why You've Never Heard of the Great Depression of 1920

I have been wanting to do a post on this for a while, but I came across this video, and the speaker explains things a lot better than I could. This video was produced for the Mises Institute and features Thomas E. Wood Jr., author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History and 33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to Ask. Both of these books will open your eyes to a lot of things you never knew. His new book, Meltdown looks informative as well. I have it on order and will be reading it in the next few months.

I know the video is pretty long, but if you can find the time, I would highly recommend checking it out.

Even More Second Amendment Musings

The Motor City Madman hits the ball out of the park here!



Can someone answer these questions for me please?

• If guns are effective enough to be a criminal's preferred tool, why are they not good enough to use for protection?

• Why do politicians insist their bodyguards be armed, but not you and I?

• If you and your children were face-to-face with a male attacker twice your size, what would you do; If you weren't armed? If you were armed?

• If guns are "too dangerous" to be in our society, how come our leaders want to be the only ones who have them? Do you trust our leaders implicitly to protect you at all times?

• Which is better – more gun control and the eventual banning of all guns in our society, or not sitting by helplessly watching as an intruder repeatedly rapes your 13-year-old daughter?

• If we ever completely ban guns, do you think there will be no more armed criminals in America?

• With so many gun laws already on the books, why do "gun crimes" still exist?

Important Questions on Global Climate Change

There are a few questions we all need to ask ourselves about the entire global climate change debate. I will list them below and go into the a bit more in depth.

1- Is Global Climate Change real?
2- If Global Climate Change is real, did humans cause it?
3- If Global Climate Change is real, and we caused it, can we stop it?
4- If Global Climate Change is real, and we caused it, and we can stop it, is government regulation the way to solve the problem.


So, first off, is it real? I think it is. The climate is changing all the time. Science has shown that the Earth goes through certain periods of warming and cooling. I believe, however, that this change is cyclic. I remember reading in my Earth Science textbook that the climate would change so much that we would end up in a new ice age. That was in the early 90s when I was in 8th grade, and it was a reference to a theory from the 1970s. See how far behind public education was? They couldn’t even keep up with the lies they were telling twenty years before. Then we started hearing about global warming. That has been the standard term for about the last 20 years. Now, with people still shoveling snow in early May in some parts of the country, we get the term global climate change. What a catch-all phrase. I guess when they can’t make their minds up and prove anything conclusively one way or the other; they cloak their funny science in generalities. It’s cyclic, get over it.

So now that we have established that climate change is real, is it caused by us? My view on this is no. Maybe we have altered things to a very minor degree, but we have not done anything that will have catastrophic effects on us in the future. Carbon dioxide emissions are not a problem.

Argon is the third most prevalent gas in our atmosphere. Carbon Dioxide is the fourth. Argon is a poison, Carbon Dioxide is not. Carbon Dioxide is essential to plant life. Someone tell me how CO2 is bad! To demonstrate how much CO2 is actually in our atmosphere, I will use an analogy. Imagine 1000 pennies laid out on a table. If you were to pick up one penny and cut it into thirds, lay down two thirds, and keep the other 1/3 in your hand; you would be holding the entire amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere right now. Do you really think that driving an old pickup truck is going to affect this amount that much? How about cows that pass gas? Give me a break!

Question three is irrelevant at this point since I don’t think we have anything to fear, but I will cover it anyway. If global climate change is real, and we caused it, can we stop it? Who knows? This 2005 article from the San Francisco Chronicle explains that it may be too late already. Like putting a Semi-truck in neutral and pushing down a mountain road, there isn’t anything that we could do to stop it. Some might make the argument that we should try to prevent getting to that point. I don't think we have anything to worry about, but if we did, I don’t think we could do anything to stop it anyway. The only thing that might work in that situation is completely doing away with all fossil based fuels. I don’t see that happening anytime soon since the only other real option would be nuclear power. The same environmental nuts that are against fossil based fuels have lobbied for restrictions on nuclear power as well. We haven't built one new nuclear power plant in over 20 years. Solar and wind power sources are a good step towards energy independence; but nuclear power is just as clean and safe as any other option out there. Does this make sense to anyone? If you want to do away with fossil fuel energy, use all available options!

"Giving society cheap, abundant energy...would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun." --Paul Ehrlich, president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford, 1978

Now we come to government control. Our bureaucrats in Washington seem like they have bypassed all of these simple and logical questions and gone straight to the end. They say, “Look, the climate is changing, we need to fix this!” I’m glad they didn’t do any fixing back in the 70s when they thought we were headed for a new ice age. One proposal back then was to cover the polar ice caps with a black coating causing them to melt. I call that "playing God." This isn’t about the climate, it’s about control. The politicians know what is really going on. They see an opportunity grab control of business, and pass legislation for higher taxes. This is just another way to misdirect the populace into giving up more individual freedom. The kicker is Cap and Trade. This is a new proposal for a Global Tax on carbon emissions. Even though the Senate turned down a proposal to get in on the Kyoto Treaty by a narrow margin of 95-0, Obama is bringing the topic back up again. We have one foot already in the door here, and are about to step into a new era of a one world government. Wake up people, you are being misled!

[Kyoto is] “the first component of an authentic global governance.” --Jacques Chirac

Do you know the number one reason for buying a Prius hybrid? Top result is, “It says something about me.” What does that really say about you though? That you care about the environment? Give me a break! I can understand if you buy a hybrid for the sole purpose of saving gas money. But even then, doing a cost analysis will show you that over a five year period you are not really saving any more money since you are paying more for the hybrid in the first place. To me, driving a Prius says, “I am a lemming. Look how stupid I am!”

Do I think that a textile mills should be able to dump toxic waste into the water supply? Hell no! I think there should be reasonable restrictions on these kinds of things, but the key word there is reasonable. If restrictions and taxes are forced onto companies and individuals due to funny science, we are all going to end up paying higher prices in the end. And if we let this get too far out of control, we are going to see our national sovereignty fall by the wayside, and start giving up all of our freedoms in the name of global wellbeing. That is a price I am not willing to pay!

“To capture the public imagination, we have to offer up some scary scenarios, make simplified dramatic statements and little mention of any doubts one might have. Each of us has to decide the right balance between being effective, and being honest.” --Stephen Schneider, lead 2007 UN IPCC report author

If you want to do something that will help the environment, volunteer with a local group to go pick up roadside garbage, or plant trees in a washout area. Join a hunting or a fishing group. Outdoorsmen do more to help the environment every year than all of the environmentalist whackos ever thought of. Supporting politicians who favor tougher restrictions for the environment is not the answer. They just want your vote for their own selfish ends, and you are playing right into their hands.

Quote of the Week

In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.

-- Mark Twain, Notebook, 1904

Doodiepants' Grand Launch

A friend of mine just launched his website. Elements of what I offer here may be similar, but for some reason, I think he may have a little more success than I do.

ABOUT DOODIEPANTS (from Doodiepants.com)

Doodiepants.com is a site dreamed up by 2 mild mannered internet pioneers by the names Caleb and Thad. After years of silly ideas, injuries, and failed attempts at greatness; the ‘moment of clarity’ fell upon us like a leper at a revival meeting. It’s funny where ‘clarity’ takes you. And it’s a very odd string of coincidence that got us here; but now………here we sit with a website, a bunch of tshirts, 2 coffee mugs, and the future staring us down.

Some of the poets of our era are already calling us “artists of the vernacular” and “wordsmiths of blogality”. The simple fact is, you can’t deny that the the word “doodie” makes nearly anything funny. We realize this and we have since age six. The term, “doodiepants” functions with perfect elegance and furious schoolyard sting. It’s a term for all the world to use. Why should kindergartners get all the fun?

Our mission will be to bedevil idiotic people, concepts, and websites with a good dose of common sense and reality along with help from our thousands of readers. We hope that the posted issues can bring about some entertaining and productive debates and that some of our more humorous postings bring on some hardcore LOL’in.

Don’t be a doodiepants. Enjoy!

Penn Jillette Talks Libertarianism With Glenn Beck

A down a dirty crash course on Libertarianism. If you look at the Bill of Rights; liberal Democrats cherry pick a few that they stand up for, and conservative Republicans cherry pick the others and fight for them. All the while, the populace is being misdirected into fighting for only the social issues that they care about. I am for freedom across the board. Get the government out of everyones lives! People know how to make decisions that will benefit them most.

The argument that is made here on marriage is a perfect example. Get the government out of the mix, and let people's personal beliefs and/or religious institutions handle it. It is none of the governments damn business.

If you want freedom of religion, you are going to have to tolerate other peoples freedom of speech on that topic. If you want the right to keep and bear arms, you are going to have to tolerate peaceful assembly for a cause that you don't understand. Equal rights, means equal rights. The pothead needs to learn to get along with the gun nuts, and vice-versa. Otherwise, all we are going to end up with is further expansion of our current federal nightmare.

**AUTHORS NOTE** I couldn't find this video on YouTube, so I had to take it off of facebook and then upload it to Blogger. Sorry if the quality isn't up to par.

Are you freakin' kidding

It has been a while since I have posted under this title. The last one I did was on the PETA Sea Kittens Campaign. When I came across this story it blew my mind, so I had to ask the question: Are you freakin’ kidding?

Keni Garcia of Haverhill, Massachusetts was arrested recently on illegal weapons charges. Three counts of possession of high capacity firearms, one count possession of ammunition, one count illegal storage of a firearm. The district attorney who prosecuted the case made a big deal out of the fact that Garcia had 30,000 rounds of pistol ammunition in his possession. He is quoted in the article as saying, “…if he were to fire a gun for eight hours a day, it would take weeks for him to use all of it.” So effing what? What the hell is wrong with buying ammo and storing it for later use? Talk about a croc of shit! All rounds were 9mm, .38 Special, and .22; hardly what most people in the gun culture would consider “man stoppers.” I guess the gun laws in Massachusetts are worse than in Illinois.

I see no malicious intent here. In fact, I see no crime here at all. Does it matter how many rounds the guy had? I don’t care if you own a gazillion rounds, it shouldn’t be against the law. If it is, I sure as hell wouldn't move to that state!

The worst part is, the Feds popped this guy on the same day he was to be granted his American citizenship! After reading through the comments on this article, I came across the gem: “Am I the only one who noticed that this guy is not a US citizen? Thus, that wonderful constitutional right to be as gun-toting nutty as we like doesn't apply. As a side note, I suspect that this arrest has less to do with what he actually purchased and a whole lot more to do with the fear that he plans to smuggle these weapons to his native country. If this is the case, I expect that the purpose of his arrest was to aid an investigation into those sorts of charges, rather than to get 'a dangerous gun-loving maniac off our streets.'"

I am sure this douche-bag is one of the same guys who has been protesting against Gitmo. You can’t have your cake and eat it too buddy. His arrest had more to do with the fear he would smuggle it out of the country? So we prosecute people on suspicion and not proof now? Until he makes a move to actually try to smuggle something out of the country, there is no crime. I would love to give this idiot some boxing lessons!

So I guess the lesson learned here is this: If you are a legal immigrant seeking citizenship here in the US, and you have legally purchased firearms and live in New Hampshire, don’t move to the Peoples Socialist State of Massachusetts. The Feds will stick it in you, and break it off.

Are you freakin’ kidding?

ANTI GUN BILLS ON THE MOVE – YOU MUST ACT NOW

URGENT ALERT – IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED

ANTI GUN BILLS ON THE MOVE – YOU MUST ACT NOW

HB 48, a bill banning private firearm sales will come up for a vote in the Illinois House this week. This bill is a direct attack on your 2nd Amendment rights!

HERE IS WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO:

1. Contact the Sponsor of HB 48, Rep. Harry Osterman, (217) 782-8088, and politely tell the person on the phone that you are a law-abiding gun owner and that you resent being targeted by Rep. Osterman and his gun control bills. Please make calls to Osterman’s office on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

2. Contact your state representative and politely advise him or her that you are a law-abiding firearm owner and that you oppose HB 48 and that you would like them to vote against HB 48 when it comes up for a vote. Contact your representative only once. If you do not know who your state representative is, then go to the Illinois State Board of Elections' District/Official Search Tool and follow the directions for identifying your representative.

3. Send copies of this alert to all your gun owning friends and ask them to call as well.

4. Post this alert to any and all internet bulletin boards and blogs to which you belong.

Remember, only you can save your gun rights!

A copy of this alert is posted on the ISRA website. www.isra.org

The ISRA has the current status of this bill posted here on the ISRA legislative home page.

Navajos Largely Unscathed by Recession

Picked this up over on JWR’s Survival Blog. It seems that people with traditional skills are doing well. Growing your own food, living debt free, keeping livestock, and owning your own property all sound like good things to me. Go figure!

Navajos Largely Unscathed by Recession

Update on States’ Rights, Judge Andrew Napolitano’s Recommendations

Four days ago, I wrote a post on States’ Rights. I discussed constitutional amendments that would clearly define the “Interstate Commerce”, “General Welfare”, and “Necessary and Proper” clauses mean. Judge Andrew Napolitano has written an article on this very subject titled How To Curtail the Federal Beast. It is well worth the read. Be sure to get this in circulation. Pass it on to all your friends.

Also, I am interested in reading his book, “Dred Scott’s Revenge: A Legal History of Race and Freedom in America.” I have been reading up on gun laws throughout American history, and have found that most of them stem from the old Jim Crow laws enacted by the states during reconstruction. I intend to write a whole post on this, so check back soon.

See you at Galt’s Gulch!

The H1N1 Swine Flu Hype and What We Can Learn From It

Well, I think the verdict is in. This whole swine flu thing turned out to be another false scare. Given the amount of media coverage on it at the time, you would have thought the world was coming to an end. We are still seeing news stories every once in a while, but nothing like the frequency we had three weeks ago. I knew it wasn’t a big deal. I got on an airplane right after our Vice President let his tongue slip, and I didn’t think twice about it.

Could this have been as devastating as the media predicted? Yes, I think it could have. This brings me to my next point. How many of you are really prepared for a situation like this? If a National Guardsman came to your door in full MOPP gear (chemical suit), and told you that your entire town was now under quarantine, how would you react? If they told you that you had to either stay in your house for the next two months until the situation could be resolved, or you had to come with them to a FEMA camp where the infected were being treated; what would you do? I know my first choice would be to stay in my home instead of risk infection. Do you have supplies for that? Could you sustain your family for two months without walking out the door?

If you went into panic mode when you saw all the reports on TV, there are two very important things you can all learn from this experience. One: This is a wakeup call. You are not ready to deal with a real threat like this. Even if the swine flu didn’t turn out to be the great tragedy that the media predicted, it still could mutate into a more deadly strain over the summer and come back with a vengeance this winter. Will you be ready then? Just like the Boy Scout’s Motto, “Be Prepared.”

Two: Your favorite 24 hour news channel dominates your life! CNN, MSNBC, and Fox all ran the story into the ground. You need to learn to differentiate between real news and hype. I am guessing this was a test run by the government to see how everyone would react. I saw through the ruse, but I am also aware that these things are real and can happen. Don’t let this experience slip out of your mind in two or three months. If it really happens, you want to be ready.

What has me worried is the David Copperfield aspect of the whole mess. While you are looking at one hand, the other hand is doing something totally different. While the media was running 24 hour coverage of the coming pandemic, and everyone ran out to pay hundreds of dollars for the almost nonexistent supply of surgical masks; the real movers and shakers in Washington were probably doing something else. Any ideas on what that was?

Dick Proenneke’s Legacy at Odds With JWRs Assessments

I frequent a lot of blogs on a weekly basis. The one that really got me started down the path I am on is James Wesley-Rawles’ Survival Blog. Rawles also wrote a book, “Patriots (Surviving the Coming Collapse) which I highly recommend. It has quite a bit of useful information cleverly disguised as fiction. I am, however, at odds with a few of the recommendations he gives. A recent article, Letter Re: Prince of Wales Island, Alaska as a Retreat Locale? caught my attention, and as Mr. Rawles does not allow comments on his blog, I thought I would post my views here.

In his section on Retreat Locales, Rawles does not include Alaska as a viable option. In fact, he has an entire section at the bottom of the page that argues against Alaska as a possible retreat location. Although I do not wish to go north to Alaska (Montana is my first choice), I think the State has a lot more to offer someone who is rugged enough to handle the conditions. After all, isn’t that what building a homestead is all about?

I recently received a copy of a documentary called Alone in the Wilderness. It follows the life of 50 year old Dick Proenneke and his Alaskan odyssey. In 1968, Proenneke moved to Alaska and built his own cabin on a patch of land near the Twin Lakes area. Keep in mind; he was 50 years old when he started this. The year before, Proenneke had gone up to scout the area for his cabin, fell some trees for timbers, and begin making preparations for the move. The initial move was to a friend’s abandoned cabin nearby. He commuted by canoe every day for a month while building his cabin. The only supplies he used in building were the tools he carried in on his back. There is no doubt that the man was a master craftsman. Occasionally, supplies were flown in by another friend who was a bush pilot, but for the most part Dick Proenneke was on his own. Dick lived at his twin lakes cabin from 1968 to 1999. He had his own garden, he fished, he hunted, he smoked all of the meat for long term storage, and he dug his own in-ground food coolers in the permafrost. At age 82 he finally gave up his life of solitude and moved back to the lower 48 to live with his son. He died four years later.

I would highly recommend watching the DVD as I can’t do the entire story justice here. The point I am trying to make is this: Dick Proenneke lived the last years of his life on his own in the wilderness. While many men his age would be content to sit in front of the TV and watch football, he was out chopping firewood, hunting, fishing, and gardening to survive. I understand that times may be different now, and people might not have the skills that he possessed, but isn’t that all what we are doing in the survival community now? Learning these skills. With a little bit of willpower, some solid wilderness skills, and an appreciation for solitude; I think Alaska could be a great retreat location.

Rawles argues that there would be no travel without gas. In a real TEOTWAWKI situation, what is wrong with just staying put for 10 years? He argues that game will be hunted off quickly. How can people hunt game in an area that is not readily accessible? I can understand his point if a greenhorn tried to go up there and live. Look at what happened to that jackass Chris McCandless back in the 1990s! Sean Penn and Eddie Vedder might think he was a brave kid; I think he was a booger pickin' moron. But I digress.

Alaska has fertile ground, and to boot, during the growing season you get 24 hours of sunlight! This is why you end up seeing 140 lbs cabbages grown there. Anyone with the determination, time, and money could pre-build their retreat in the outback, stock it up with enough foodstuffs to get through the first two years, and have enough canning and hunting supplies on hand to live as long as needed. The only major obstacle I can see is actually getting to it at the right time. You would have to have a perfect bug-out plan in place, and be able to execute it with perfect timing. We sometimes forget that men lived in these conditions back in the 1800s. It is possible. We have all just grown too used to our creature comforts to even consider a solitary life. Rawles has a ton of survival information on his site, and I agree with about 95% of his philosophy, but in this case he is wrong. If ever there was a place that offered a true survival environment away from all the hazards of the “Zombie Apocalypse”, the Alaskan outback would be it!

**AUTHORS NOTE** Sorry for all the links in this post. I was dealing with some topics here that some of my readers may not be familiar with, so I wanted to supply as many references as I could. See you at Galt's Gulch!

Format Changes

Well, I'll never do that again. I have been making some adjustments to how my blog layout works. I tried adding a new feature called Intense Debate. It was some new-fangled thing that was supposed to replace my comment box on my posts. Long story short, it sucks. If you have a blog, don't use it. I have since uninstalled it, but my last two posts do not have a comment section. I apologize for the inconvenience.

I now have a link enclosure feature and a link back option. You can now see what other sites have linked to my post. Not that any have recently, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Anyway, thanks for reading. See you at Galt's Gulch!

Quote of the Week

"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege."

-- Wilson v. State of Arkansas 1878

50 Year Old Cartoon Predicts the Future

While surfing around the WWW, I stumbled upon this: Total Survivalist Libertarian Rantfest Wow, what a great blog! It has a wealth of information. I will be checking it regularly. As I scrolled through all of the posts, I saw this cartoon. I really thought it needed a re-post on my blog, so here it is.

Please feel free to comment.

Montana, State’s Rights, and Our Expanding Federal Nightmare

This post is going to be a little more personal than some of the others. I have been planning to move to Montana for the last year. I figured with the resources that are available to me, I should be able to complete this plan by 2011. I have seen Montana as one of the last bastions of freedom left in the country, and recent events have helped solidify this fact in my mind. I just hope the time table I have put myself on doesn’t turn out to be too long. The clock is ticking, and I really don’t want to be late for the party!





Individual and State’s Rights is something I have been reading up on quite a bit lately. Terms like Interstate Commerce, General Welfare, and Necessary and Proper have been perverted into something totally different than their intended meaning. Gradually over the years, the federal government has used these terms as a green light to expand itself into the kind of nation we fought against during the American Revolution!

The framers of the Constitution set up a system that put the local government in the strongest position. The state government had a little less power than the local, and the federal government had a little less power than the state. This experiment in self government worked. It allowed people to come up with their own way of living, and set their own regulations on the local level. The federal government was there only to make sure that the local and state laws remained within the boundaries of the Constitution.

Now, let’s look at the Bill of Rights. Except for a select few, the 55 Philadelphia delegates did not want a Bill of Rights in the Constitution. Not only did they exclude one from the original document, they fought against adding one before the Constitution was ratified by the States. Hamilton in Federalist #84 insisted that “bills of rights,…are not only unnecessary in the proposed Constitution but would even be dangerous.” You see, if you read the Constitution in its entirety, you will realize that our rights do not come from government. Rights do not come from the Constitution or from the Bill of Rights. Rights do not come from man. All of our rights are God given. The Constitution is the document that protects those rights. Having added a Bill of Rights to our Constitution, the founding fathers were specifically reaffirming what could not be taken away. The 9th Amendment was the “catch-all” amendment. In laymen’s terms it says, “Just because we didn’t mention it here, doesn’t mean that it isn’t a right.” The 10th Amendment says, “If we didn’t mention it here, the federal government can’t do it.” Oh how far we have come. The three clauses I mentioned above have become the loopholes to these amendments.

The biggest mistake the founding fathers made on the federal level was the organization and power of the Supreme Court. They gave the court an ultimate authority to deem laws unconstitutional with the stroke of a pen. They did not allow the people to vote for these members, but instead allowed them to be appointed (for life) by the Executive. Over the years, the Supreme Court has been used to dissolve certain elements of the Constitution and grant more authority to the federal government. In essence, the court has used the three “federal loophole” clauses in the Constitution to declare other parts of the Constitution, unconstitutional. A child can see the idiocy of this.

This Montana law is not about seceding from the Union. I do not advocate that in any way. Can you imagine the Montana National Guard trying to stand up to the entire might of the US military? This is the reason the founding fathers warned against standing armies. They are an assault on our personal freedoms. The Montana law really isn’t a 2nd Amendment issue either. The issue is about us as individuals and the individual States reasserting constitutional sovereignty and taking back the power that was originally stated in the 9th and 10th Amendments. This movement is not exclusive to Montana. Thirty other states have similar bills that are going through the legislative process right now.

This is the first step in what I see to be a long, drawn out battle. If this Montana law goes to the Supreme Court and is upheld, it is going to overturn an entire century’s worth of federal expansion rulings. If the law is overturned, I expect to see civil unrest in mass proportions. Ultimately, we as free people need to push for three new Constitutional amendments. They will need to specifically outline what the terms Interstate Commerce, General Welfare, and Necessary and Proper mean. Then, and only then, will the Supreme Court finally be bound to do only its strict constitutional duties. Then, and only then, will the federal government reset itself back to its original purpose. Then, and only then, will we have true freedom in America again. We need to close the loopholes!

Montana is starting to carry out some of the plans that were laid out in the Wyoming Free State Project. As I said at the beginning, I am headed for Big Sky country. I will arrive as a political refugee from the People’s Socialist State of Illinois. I just hope I get there in time to be part of the new freedom movement, and before others like me catch on and drive the real estate market into that Big Sky. See you at Galt’s Gulch……Montana!

Pelosi and Torture

Good God! It was torture just listening to her. Talk about lying through her teeth. Wow! The game is up Nancy. You’ve been caught, and everyone knows it. All you had to do is tell the truth, and you might have walked away from this; but I think I just watched your career and your credibility go down the toilet.

I am not sure where I stand on this whole thing. As a hardened military man, I do not think water boarding is torture. Have there been human rights violations? Yes, what happened at Abu Ghraib was unconscionable. That trailer trash looser Lynndie England should stay behind bars for a long time for what she did. But, the stuff at Gitmo, who knows? I don’t have enough information to make an informed decision yet, and no one else in the general public does either!

The one thing I am sure of is this: Nancy Pelosi is D-O-N-E!

Hell Just Froze Over!

Last Thursday, a Wisconsin court of appeals upheld a decision that allows police to secretly track private citizens with GPS units without having first obtained a warrant. This proves, yet again, that a police state is just over the horizon for us. Get ready people! This decision, like so many other invasions on our liberty, was clothed in the “what is best for the people” argument.

The case centered on a stalker who had been harassing a woman. The police secretly attached a GPS tracking device to his car, so that they could prove his whereabouts at any given time. Is the guy guilty of stalking? You betcha! But the police need to do things the right way. What happened to good old fashioned police work? It shouldn’t be too hard to get a warrant for this. If a judge decides that he will not issue a warrant, then the police need to try something else.

Some out there might say, “Well, this will help us. It allows the police better tools to do their jobs.” What a load of crap. This is striping your Constitutional freedom from you! Wake up people! We all know firsthand how these things work out. The USA Patriot Act was intended to allow warrantless wiretaps on domestic terrorists. Now, with the Obama administration at the helm, we read that the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) singles out Libertarians, Constitutionalists, Ron Paul supporters, and self proclaimed patriots as domestic terrorists. Some people are too blind to see the danger in these things until it is too late. Things are great when your party is in power, but when someone new takes over you realize that you just handed them a whole bag full of weapons to use against you.

The reason this post is titled “Hell Just Froze Over” is that the ACLU is fighting this. I never thought I would see the day when I agreed with anything the ACLU did, but I am behind them 100 percent on this one. What in the hell is going on?

SOURCE

SOURCE

The 2010 Census, ACORN, and Your Constitutional Requirements

**AUTHORS NOTE** I had planned on writing this post in 2010, closer to the time of the actual census, but I feel there is a need to put this information out now. I will re-post this next year, so the information is fresh in everyone’s minds when you sit down to fill out your Big Brother Anti-Freedom and Invasion of Privacy Report. Please note that I am not a lawyer. This article is a matter of opinion and should be treated as such. You are personally responsible for your own actions. Consider yourself disclaimed!

“Then Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel." --1Chronicles 21:1, NIV

The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) is in hot water again. I have posted about these thugs a couple times in the past. They have been accused of voter fraud, they have some big questions about how their finances are handled (possible embezzlement), and now the Obama administration is doing everything in its power to put them in bed with the US Census Bureau. If Big Government is Big Brother, ACORN is the little toady brother that acts as enforcer. Our recent pork-bucket stimulus bill even gave these Mafiosos over $4 billion to operate. What’s next, a new uniform for all ACORN employees that includes jackboots and Luger pistols? I don’t think we are too far from it. With them being given the power to collect census data, we are opening up a Pandora’s Box! That being said, let’s talk about the census.

Here is some information taken directly from the >US Census Bureau Home Page

What is the Census?

•The census is a count of everyone living in the United States every 10 years.
•The census is mandated by the U.S. Constitution.
•The next census is in 2010.
•Your participation in the census is required by law.
•It takes less than 10 minutes to complete.
•Federal law protects the personal information you share during the census.
•Census data are used to distribute Congressional seats to states, to make decisions about what community services to provide, and to distribute $300 billion in federal funds to local, state and tribal governments each year.

Let’s take a look at these points. The census does take place every 10 years, it is mandated by the Constitution, and your participation is required by law. Though it is true that it takes less than 10 minutes to complete, this statement is a bit misleading. A proper constitutionally directed census should take less than 10 seconds. More on this point later. It says that Federal law protects the personal information you share during the census, but who is it protecting your information from? We have heard numerous stories of government computers and flash drives being lost or stolen. Personal information is leaked all the time. But how can Federal law protect your information from a government who might use that information for its own selfish needs? It can’t! The census is used to rearrange congressional districts, and depending on who is in power at the time, this can have devastating consequences on the political landscape for the next ten years. I love how they throw in the $300 billion in pork earmarks, to make you somehow feel guilty about not cooperating.

Article I Section 2 of the US Constitution reads:
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. (This last sentence was obviously repealed by the 14th amendment.) The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.

The two key phrases here are 1: Enumeration and 2: in such a Manner as they shall by Law direct. Enumeration is the only thing mentioned here. The Constitution is mute on collecting data such as age, race, religion, marital status, sexual preference, household income, political preference, genealogy, fertility of women between the ages of 14 and 50 living in your home (I KID YOU NOT), number of toilets, televisions, and telephones in your home, etc. So, as per the Constitution directs, the only information you are required to give is the number of people living under your roof. That is it!

Someone long ago decided to take the second key phrase I mentioned and pervert it into an information gathering scheme. “In such a manner as they shall by law direct” only applies to how the count shall be taken. It does not mean that Congress can pass new laws on other information that can be gathered in a census.

The “controlling law” for the US Census is found in Title 13 of the US Code. The head count is the only part of the census that is called for by the Constitution. The code for the enumeration can be found in 13 USC 141. In this code, the census is directed to be taken in 1980 and every ten years thereafter, and that the count is to be taken on April 1. The returns must be completed within nine months for use in apportionment of representatives. The code also specifies a mid-decade census be taken in 1985 and every ten years thereafter. This count need not be a head count (sampling may be used) though the data cannot be used for apportionment. This last part, I view as completely unconstitutional!

There are fines for non-response and for false response as well, though the amount has risen from the 1790's $20. Today failure to respond can result in a $100 fine; providing false answers is a more severe offense, and carries a $500 fine. News reports from the 2000 census, however, indicate that punishment for failure to respond is not usually enforced. The controlling section of the Code is 13 USC 221.

So what does all this mean for you and me? It doesn’t matter if they send me the short form, the long form, or the new-fangled American Community Survey; the only answer I will fill out on the 2010 Census paperwork is the number of people in my household. I plan to take a red fat-head Sharpie marker and write in big uppercase letters the word, ONE! That’s it, that’s all; they won’t get anything more from me! I am pretty sure that this will be followed by the Census Bureau (ACORN) with a phone call or a visit in person to my home. I will gladly give the newly released ex-con ACORN worker a $100 Federal Reserve Note, take a receipt for the payment of that fine, and send them on their way.

Be sure to take extra care when dealing with these people. Don’t be surprised if they go to your neighbor’s homes and ask them questions about you. This is what they are getting paid to do. Collect information on you and your family. If they will stoop as low as registering Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse to vote, be assured that they will do anything and everything in their power to make a buck by collecting data on you.

The US Census Bureau already has a back-door program in place for those of us who will not comply. If they can’t get you, they will go after your kids. Now, I am sure that any freedom loving person who frequents my blog will probably not send their children to public schools, but if there are some of you out there, be sure to take a look at this. CENSUS IN SCHOOLS

In the end, if you refuse you will get letters in the mail threatening legal prosecution. You will get phone calls from the Census Bureau threatening prosecution. Get informed and know your rights. If you really feel threatened, contact a lawyer and let him deal with it. Call your Representatives and Senators and let them know how you feel. Read through Title 13 of the US Code. Write an editorial for your local newspaper. A simple web search will find thousands of blogs and message boards with people who have done this very thing. Educate yourself; stand up for your right to privacy, and DON’T BACK DOWN!

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Letter From House Republicans to Census Bureau Regarding ACORN

Glenn Beck Transcript on ACORN and the Census Bureau