Of the government, by the government, and for the government.

Or was it supposed to be of the people, by the people, and for the people?
For those not familiar with this phrase it is the ending line of President Lincolns Gettysburg. An address which starts with an even more often quoted phrase "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal". I think of these two phrases now more than ever before as I wonder what has happened to America. Lincolns war, the civil war was a war to provide freedom and equality to every one in the United States. I have to wonder if I'm still in the same America. Cause it sure seems there's some folks at the top who are being treated as a little more equal than others.

Indeed I more and more often feel like this is not the America that I was brought up in. I'm speaking specifically of the blatant hubris, greed, and corruption at every level of big business and government in this country. Each and every day I turn on the news and am amazed by some new story of a CEO, or board of directors who has run their company into the ground, begged, ..........and then gotten money from the government. And then turned around and just as irresponsibly as before gone on some self indulgent spending spree as if it was just business as usual.

These folks are no better than heroine addicts, except that your typical heroine addict at least has the common courtesy to remove the needle and rubber band from his arm before going out into public so that the rest of don't have to be offended by his vulgar habit. This differs from the corrupt corporate execs who, are asking for yet more money with the shame of their most recent failures still fresh on the days news. Also in defense of the heroine addict the hubris which they commit doesn't really harm anyone but themselves. Oh sure there's the occasional failed attempt at a liquor store robbery to get his fix, but that pales in comparison to the damage that is being done by these incompetent, unethical, immoral white collar bastards who are destroying our country purely for the sake of their own gluttony. And make no mistake it is gluttony. There are very real people in this country who are every day losing their jobs, their homes indeed everything they have. All the while our government is subsidizing the lifestyles of the evil corporate execs, and doing so at our expense.

Of course there are other differences between a corporate exec and a heroine addict. Specifically, if you or I see a heroine addict on the street begging for money with a needle still dangling from his arm we would almost certainly walk away disgusted by him. Our government it seems doesn't operate on any sort of similar principals.

In fact it seems our government has no problem at all funding these white collar addicts, and they are doing so at our expense, and at the expense of our children. Because when our government is paying for something that really means it's us the taxpayer who is paying for things. And we are paying for it on credit, and sooner or later the interest will be coming due.

The original idea of America, and the reason this country that was so appealing to the rest of the world was because of the belief that in America anyone can come here and the only limitation they had was their own intelligence, drive, and ambition. If you build a better product or service you will succeed because people will want to have the better product to the inferior one. Oh yes I recall now, that's what they call capitalism and free markets. However, it seems as though we have recently moved away from that idea.

These people are utterly without shame. It used to be that if you were caught committing acts of such an egregious nature that you were at the very least ashamed of your self. Not these bastards. No sir. They don't even seem to feel as though they've done anything the least bit wrong. And our the response of our government is to continue to supply them with a fresh set of needles. How is this ever going to get any better? Until we have a government that is willing to do the hard thing things are just going to get worse, and I will continue to ask what happened to America?

I started this out with a quote from one of my favorite president, and I'm going to close it out with a quote from one of my favorite four fathers Benjamin Franklin:

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Liberals, Libertarians and sea kittens

I was watching an interview with the comedian Bill Maher recently during which he described himself as a libertarian. Being a staunch libertarian myself, I found this notion quite disconcerting. From the many shows of his that I have watched I had pegged him as liberal, and I'm not generally wrong about these things.

Which put me thinking recently how interesting it is that these two groups have the same root word and yet are radically different in the very core of what each believe. The root word that I'm talking about here is of course the Latin word liber, meaning free. While the libertarians have taken this name because it reflects the core tenet of their belief in the personal freedom, and the rights of the individual, it seems that those folks on the far left must have a different interpretation. I suspect that the reason liberals have chosen this moniker or perhaps had it placed upon them is the notion that they are free thinkers. The intention of being a free thinker is of course a noble aspiration. Would that we could all be free of the notions and emotions which cloud all of our decisions and judgments. However, when I hear so much of the nonsense spewed out by the far left it seems the opposite must be true. It seems as though their goal is not so much freedom, but rather the exact opposite. Their goal it seems is not to strengthen the rights of the individual, but rather to use whatever means possible to limit those freedoms, and impose their own beliefs regardless of how absurd on everyone else.

A poignant, albeit harmless example of this is the far left group PETA, and their sea kitten campaign. While I'm sure the good folks at PETA have only the noblest of intentions and the greatest assurance in their own beliefs, this a classic example of folks on the left trying to do anything they can to foist their narrow little views on the rest of us regardless of the costs or the impact to the freedom to anyone who does not share their views. However, speaking in the voice of libertarians across our country I'd like to say if you folks want to call fish sea kittens, then more power to you, and I will wholeheartedly defend your right to do so. However, I'm wondering if between the wringing of and hands, and the printing of signs, and the planning of protest marches could you please take a few seconds out and pass over a pair of chop sticks, because I for my part prefer my sea kitten served raw and with a healthy dose of wasabi.

I'd like to close this week off with a quote from another of my favorite authors, Ayn Rand
"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights can not claim to be defenders of minorities"
he smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defen

Then there's those other guys........

They're abrasive. They're obnoxious. They're annoying. And they all have that same sense of self righteous fascistic smugness that you can only be imbued when you know without a shadow of doubt that God is on your side.

Who are they you ask? Why they can only be the republicans.

In truth however that caricature is not entirely fair. I like to think that I've taken a pretty objective look at the various components that comprise the substrata of each of the two major parties in the United States, and here is what I have found.

The Democrats seem to be comprised of a vast and almost incalculable collective of tiny minorities each with their own highly specialized agenda (which by the way is the most important issue facing the human race at this time). Save the whales. Save the planet. Save the jack Russel Terriers. Gay and lesbian rights. Hippie rights. Minority rights. Gay and lesbian Jack Russel Terrier rights. And the list goes on and on and on and on....... It's toooooo confusing for me to keep track of.

The republicans aren't nearly as complicated. They keep it simple. If you take a hard look at the republicans there's really only three groups of people there. You got your crazy far right wing Christian religious zealots. You've got your cold hearted ultra capitalist pigs. And you've got all those dangerous gun nuts. Although recently I've noticed more and more of trend toward a new group slipping in, the nationalistic rednecks. But so far they've still got to be lumped in with the far right wing religious zealots and the dangerous gun nuts. If they're still around after Bush leaves office maybe they can have they're own group.

The republicans are a very binary party, everything is either black or white, yes or no. You're with us or our against us. There's no lengthy logical syllogisms to determine what the meaning of the word is is. No sir, there will be none of that. You're either a terrorist or your not. You've either got WMD or you don't, well maybe you're hiding them, or you could've moved them when we weren't looking, but we know you're up to something.

All that being said the republicans ain't what they used to be when old Dutch was running the party. Then there was a clarity of purpose. There was an unbridled sense of optimism for the future of the country. America was carrying on the legacy of greatness from it's past and moving it into the future. The government was there to do only what needed to be done and get out of the way, so the people could build for themselves. The republican party today is a mess. Allegations of corruption, and racism, coupled with incompetence and cronyism. Sealing off the deal we have Hank Paulson writing open ended checks to his corrupt fat cat buddies to live the good life while millions of tax payers and stock holders get screwed. I seem to recall from my macro economics class that is was John Maynard Keynes who talked about priming the pump to stimulate the economy, but Paulson's actions sure seems a lot more like robbing the till after shooting the clerk on the way out the door.

I'd like to close this off with a quote from one of my favorite authors, the incredibly perceptive P.J. O'Rourke: "The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it. "

Why I am not a democrat

First let me begin by stating that I have a good many close friends and family that are democrats. Many of whom are near and dear to my heart, and all of whom I think very highly of for their intelligence and passions. I suppose that these many friends look on me as a decent enough fellow who has just been misled on some key issues. Or perhaps they feel that even though I have some good arguments I'm missing some crucial point they are aware of and that I am just not capable of perceiving. Or perhaps they think I'm just a bit of a dullard and they tolerate my antiquated purile views entirely out some sense of their own superiority. Much like a contemporary man trying to explain Wittgenstien's Tractus Logico to a cave man, they take pity me on because I'm just not able to grasp the complicated abstract concepts of what they are talking about.

For all of these folks and for any others who might stumble upon this little essay I'd like to give a brief explanation of why I am not a democrat. My biggest issues of disagreement with my democrat friends are the notions of self reliance and fairness. This is because when I speak with my many democrat friends their biggest concern is what the government is doing enough for the people. Which I often find ironic considering that it was a JFK who is noted for saying "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask rather what you can do for your country". However, the pressing concern of all the democrats that I speak seems to be "What can the federal government do for me". There seems to be a firmly held belief that the Federal government should be responsible for fixing all of their problems. And on that note I must agree with Gerald Ford in his quote: "Any government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take it away".

It all comes down to the notion of personal freedom and responsibility. My belief is that people should be responsible for their own actions, our destinies should be ones of their own creation. With every action we take we roll the dice, and we alone should bear the consequences of those actions. And yes sometimes life can deal out some pretty rough hands to us, and some pretty cushy hands to others. And yes sometimes we can make some pretty rough mistakes. That is how we learn. However, if we constantly look to the federal government to provide for us and bail us out of every hardship we will eventually be handing over every freedom which our forefathers risked their very lives for. It doesn't really matter that we can't take care of ourselves. Not to worry big brother will take care of us.

In closing I think the best way to some up my point of view is a quote from one of my favorite founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin:

"The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. "