All That Is Necessary

"Justice" Ruth Ginsburg - Pathetic

Just listen to these comments from Ginsburg in an interview in Egypt(!).  From Fox News:

"I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012," Ginsburg said in an interview on Al Hayat television last Wednesday. "I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, have an independent judiciary. It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done."

"Why not take advantage of what is else there in the world? I'm a very strong believer in listening and learning from others," Ginsburg added.

Indeed, Ginsburg's comments are not foreign to her overall philosophy. The justice has previously stated that she weighs foreign law as well as U.S. law when forming a legal opinion.

Look at that highlighted portions.  Unbelievable!  She is a U.S. Supreme Court justice who is supposed to rule on whether something is constitutional based on OUR Constitution, not South Africa's!!

With justices like Ginsburg we are completely screwed.

What a disgrace to the Supreme Court.

 

New "Universal" Flu Shot?

I'm a bit of a hypochondriac, so when I see an article like this one I am very pleased.

Universal Flu Vaccine Could Be Available by 2013

"Annual flu shots might soon become a thing of the past, and threats such as avian and swine flu might disappear with them as a vaccine touted as the "holy grail" of flu treatment could be ready for human trials next year."

Inovio Pharmaceuticals is working on the vaccine.   Private enterprise is awesome.  If this were a government lab it would NEVER happen.

I hope Obamacare doesn't kill off such research and innovation.

 

 

Americans Come in ALL Colors

Just saw this political ad by way of The Jawa Report.  This woman is running for Congress in Utah as a Conservative.  This commercial makes me almost want to move to Utah so I can vote FOR her!

As you can see, she also happens to be black. But guess what? Freedom-loving conservatives don't care about the color of one's skin. It is the content of her character and her beliefs that matter. Go figure.

Real Americans come in ALL colors and persuasions.

No Constitution/No Country

Just reading about Obama's latest unconstitutional move of making recess appointments when Congress is not in recess.

Just add it to the list of unconstitutional moves by Obama and Congress.  Throw in the utter corruption of these same characters and we really don't have a worthwhile country anymore.  We have become a very bad joke.  A disgrace to the men who founded the USA and the men and women who gave their lives defending out country.

We get the government we deserve.

Freedom Is Not Winning

I have been reading the blogs, the WSJ, etc., and I believe freedom, the ability to live your own life without unnecessary interference, is losing ground in a big way.

Freedom/liberty has already been severely beaten over the past 100 years, with most of the damage happening since the 60's.  If freedom were a person she would be lying in the ICU with all sorts of tubes and stuff attached to her.

(Yeah, I know, two days from Christmas, but what the Hell.)

Where are we losing our freedom?

1.  The Department of Justice - Eric Holder should be behind bars.  Instead he is overseeing a DOJ that is beyond corrupt and criminal.  The rule of law is now irrelevant.  We have the rule of men - NOT a good thing.  No freedom there.

2.  Obama - Obama's hatred for the US Constitution, as well as anything remotely considered "American", is evident by every one of his actions.  Nope, no freedom there.

3.  Congress - Democrats are mostly to blame with their never-ending assault on individual freedom.  They simply despise the thought of people living their own lives without government involvement.  The Republicans are almost as bad, as shown by their actions when they had control of both houses of Congress.  Taxes and spending go only one way - UP!  No freedom coming from this place.

4.  Voters - About 53% of voters were stupid enough to elect Obama in the first place.  'nuff said.

5.  Moochers/Looters/Government Employees - These people feed of the government, which, in turn, feeds of the productive part of society.  They will never vote to cut their benefits or income.  This is the greatest danger to domestic freedom, in my opinion.

6.  Islam - This is a worldwide problem, and we are not winning.  As Winston Churchill said, "How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.

The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.

No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."

Absolutely no freedom in Islam.  I am continuously amazed how the leftists make excuses for the degenerate cult of Islam.  Freedom and Islam are totally and eternally incompatible.

That's enough for now.  I could go on and on, but I am getting bored.  You get the point, I hope.

Always keep fighting for freedom, but recognize that we are NOT winning at the moment.

 

More Screw U.S. Citzens Abroad

Saw this article over at American Thinker entitled "FATCA: A Ticking Time Bomb for the Economy".

It is a disgusting attempt by the US Government to grab and tax every conceivable source of money that Americans may have, anywhere in the world, regardless of the reasons or consequences.

Read this:

FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) is the brood of FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report).  FBAR requires that U.S. persons divulge foreign accounts to the Treasury Department, but few knew about or ever complied with it.  To stanch the bleeding of U.S. capital into secret bank jurisdictions like the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, Congress introduced FATCA into law as part of the HIRE Act.  FATCA requires that foreign financial institutions (FFIs) reveal the accounts of U.S. persons to the IRS.  The FFIs will then have to collect tax withholdings for the IRS from these clients.  If by January 1, 2014 the FFI is unwilling to reveal its U.S. clients' accounts, the IRS will impose a punitive 30% withholding on all payments to the FFIs, on dividends, interest, and gross sales of stocks, bonds, and financial derivatives.

Let's suppose that a foreign investor trades stocks on a U.S. exchange, but his broker is FATCA non-compliant.  One day he buys 10,000 shares of XYZ at $25 per share, and the next day, he takes advantage of a nice uptick of $1.00 in XYZ and sells at $26 per share.  He makes a tidy profit of $10,000.  But because his broker is non-compliant, the IRS now withholds 30% -- not of the profit, but of the gross proceeds of the sale!  So the client now receives the sum of $260,000 minus 30%.  The foreign investor is unhappy because his $250,000 investment has become $182,000.  If he wants his money back, he must file a U.S. tax return.

No investor would accept such conditions.  Hence, an FFI must either comply with the invasive regulations of FATCA or simply abandon the U.S. markets.

US expatriates are the hardest hit by this monstrosity.  It is already hard for a US citizen abroad to do banking and comply with US tax laws.  With this law it will be impossible.  Many US citizens will renounce their citizenship, which is already happening in record numbers. 

The utter stupidity of our government is really beyond belief.  It is nothing more than a criminal enterprise at this point.

 

 

TSA - Police State

Over time I see the USA becoming more and more like a police state.  Small steps over time, or big ones, like the latest TSA power grab.  Harassing people at airports isn't enough.  I know they had moved on to bus stops and train stations.  Now they are on the highways doing random stops for "terrorists".

They are at weigh stations, for now, just harassing the truckers.  How soon until they are at rest stops?

People gradually get conditioned to this stuff and accept it as normal.  Then the government steps it up a notch.  Some people complain, but not many, and now we have another new "normal".  Then it is stepped up another notch, and so on

Most people probably don't realize just how many laws they break in an average day.  Face it, if you piss off the wrong people you could be arrested right now for breaking some law you know nothing about.

I think that is the plan.  Land of the free?  Don't think so any more.

We Have A Broken Government

The United States of America was founded as a Constitutional Republic.  What is that?  From Wikipedia:

"A constitutional republic is a state in which the head of state and other officials are representatives of the people and must govern according to existing constitutional law that limits the government's power over all of its citizens. Because the head of the state is elected, it is a republic and not a monarchy.

In a constitutional republic, executive, legislative, and judicial powers are separated into distinct branches.

The fact that a constitution exists that limits the government's power makes the state constitutional. That the head(s) of state and other officials are chosen by election, rather than inheriting their positions, and that their decisions are subject to judicial review makes the state a republic."

This is a great form of government, in theory.  Unfortunately, we are human.  From the second this Republic was formed people set about tweaking, twisting and "re-interpreting" every part of the Constitution.  These new interpretations were virtually always in the direction of more government and control over the average citizen.  That is just the nature of humans, since the beginning of our history.

So, here we are today, October 2011, with something in Washington, D.C. that bears virtually no resemblance to what our Founders intended.

What do we have today?  Looking through the definitions of government we have a lot of the characteristics of Socialism, Communism, Fascism, Democracy.  The ones I chose are Oligarchy (a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small number of people), Crony Capitalism and Elitism, with a huge portion of permanent bureaucracy.  The three forms of government are closely related and intertwined, sort of kissing cousins.  The rulers in these groups use their power to instruct the millions of bureaucrats on how to do things to their liking.  Citizens are irrelevant.

In my view, we have a broken government.  It no longer governs, it rules.  We are so far from a Constitutional Republic at this stage it is pointless to even discuss out how our Constitution has been thoroughly ignored, after it was destroyed.

I, as a common citizen, not part of any elite, not part of the oligarchy, not rich enough to participate in crony capitalism, and not part of the government bureaucracy, am left with no representation.  I have no voice or say in how I may live my life.  I have the illusion of freedom, but not the reality.  Don't agree?  Try and start a business, buy some land, or drive a car without the approval of some level of government.  You can't.  You life is totally regulated.

The corruption, favoritism, bribery, cronyism, elitism run so deep in our federal government one can scarcely see any representative governance going on.

I see no way to change our current government.  The Ruling Class is too deeply entrenched and will NEVER give up their power voluntarily.  Government will continue to grow until it collapses.  Then the process will start all over again.  I hope it collapses soon so my kids can be part of a new Constitutional Republic wherever it may form.

Supreme Court Obamacare Decision Should Be A No-Brainer

The lawsuit by 26 states against the Individual mandate is headed for the Supreme Court.  Should be a no-brainer, but it won't be.  We have at least four complete idiot liberals who will probably use international law or sharia law to determine that the mandate is totally OK.

If the majority finds that it is OK for the federal government to force people to buy something than we simply have no Constitution at all.  The state of the Constitution will go from comatose to dead.  This will be a huge decision.

My frame of mind right now is that I am waiting for two things; first, the result of the next election, and, second, the result of this Obamacare decision.  Taken together they will let me know if the USA still has a chance.  We'll see.

Bastiat's 'Broken Window' For Today's Youth

Frederic Bastiat wrote a piece in 1850 titled "That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen". 

I thought it might be a good idea to takes each of the sections of the paper and re-write them using modern language, terms, circumstances and dollars.  The whole thing is well worth your time to read at the above link.  My version will be quicker, though maybe not as satisfying.  It is written with the hope more people will think about the economy and governance with freedom in mind.

The first section is THE BROKEN WINDOW:

I'm sure you've seen the convenience store where a car inevitably manages to drive right into one of those big plate glass windows.  Not a pretty sight.  And no doubt you've said, in consolation to the manager - "It is an ill wind that blows nobody good. Everybody must live, and what would become of the glaziers if panes of glass were never broken?"  OK, maybe you didn't say it the way Bastiat said it, but you probably thought that at least the glass company will get some work.

Wrong!  That is not the way to think about it, even though most people do so, particularly the ones currently in charge in D.C.

Those windows are big and expensive.  Suppose it cost $500 to repair the damage.  You figure the glass company now has $500 it didn't have before.  You are correct.  You can see that the glass company has an additional $500.  All this is that which is seen.

This might lead some to think that if breaking one window generates new business, than we should break more windows!  Generate a LOT of new business.  NO!  You are only thinking about that which you can see.

What you do not see is that now that the convenience store had to spend $500 on a new window he cannot spend that $500 on other things.  He cannot buy more stock for his store or a new bicycle to ride to work.  (He lives close to the store.)  If this accident had not occurred he could have spent that money in other ways.

OK, pay attention, this is key.

Thinking of the overall situation, you can see the glass company got $500.  You cannot see the bike store will not get $500.

$500 was spent to repair a window.  The owner now has $500 less just to get back to his original position.

If the window had not been broken the owner would still have his window AND a new bike.

Looking at the big picture, with the broken window, society has lost the $500 it cost to repair it.  With no broken window, society still has the window and a new bicycle.

Here is Bastiat's explanation.  (It is plain in any age.)  When we arrive at this unexpected conclusion: "Society loses the value of things which are uselessly destroyed;" and we must assent to a maxim which will make the hair of protectionists stand on end - To break, to spoil, to waste, is not to encourage national labour; or, more briefly, "destruction is not profit."

You must always take into account that which you cannot see.  In this instance you see the convenience store owner has a window again.  You see the glass company has $500.  You do not see the bike store has lost $500.  It is the "bike store" that remains in the shadow, never seen.  "Society" is out the new bike.

We see this idea even today.  Recently "renowned" economists were stating that the destruction by the recent hurricanes would lead to economic growth.  Billions will have to be spent to only bring us back to where we were before.  That is money that cannot be spent on other things.  Nope.  Destruction is not profit.

Also, even though we are talking about destruction of a window, this also applies to government restrictions on the store owner.  What must be spent complying with rules and regulation is as lost to society as that new bike.

(I do recommend you read the original in the link above.  My attempt should be considered the "fast food" version.)