I like america.. or at least the idea of america. I am as smitten as a new immigrant with the depth & wisdom that the early founders of the us displayed. I like the idea of personal freedom, & limited govt. I know it is hard to implement.. especially with statists in every generation wanting to drag us back to Big Brother govts. Maybe it's over. Maybe the days of individual freedom & liberty have fallen. Maybe everyone in the us wants a socialistic system & more state controls. I'll just reminisce & read history of the most amazing experiment man has ever made. I'll sit in my rocking chair & reread the constitution & the declaration of independence. I'll die in peace, knowing my ancestors worked & died to build this nation, & it worked for a while. It may pass, but as long as i live, there will be one free american.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
Thomas Jefferson

"We the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts--not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
Abraham Lincoln

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
Edmund Burke

America divided

Is America divided?  I think most of the 'division' in america is more philosophical.. we are choosing between federalism/statism/socialism on the one side, & states rights/personal responsibility/free markets, on the other. It is my contention that the free market is a better system for a nation such as the us. With our size, diversity, & population, a smaller socialistic state model doesn't work. We cannot just plug the successes of sweden into the us & expect it to work. There are too many variables.

But i am in favor of simple, fair regulations for the free market, otherwise we will have unscrupulous exploiters who will take advantage of people, & use their wealth & power to oppress the common man. These regulations are pretty simple.. child labor laws, truth in lending, full disclosure, insider trading, etc. Most have been around a long time, & arose from necessity. There is a risk of the state overstepping its bounds & using the power of the govt to pick winners, as was done in railroads in previous centuries, and more recently in defense contracts, 'green' industry lending, bank & corporate bailouts, etc. Better oversight & checks & balances can offset those problems. Corruption can never be fully eliminated, but we can try to keep it down, & not let it flourish like it has been doing lately.

Balance is necessary. We cannot thrive in unregulated free markets, where the money people can run roughshod over the common people, but neither can we have excessive regulations where the state is managing to the point of being socialistic. I believe the founders of america came upon a good system of checks & balances, & a balance of power. It maximizes freedom for the individual, while encouraging entrepreneurial ventures. I do not want to see the socialist policies take over in the us, with the left claiming capitalism & open markets have failed. It is not free market & capitalism that has us in $15t debt & rising. It has been socialistic programs & policies. Let us phase those out, since they are bankrupting us, return to a more balanced approach with more power given to the states, & let the federal govt stick to international & interstate affairs, not micromanaging every aspect of the individual's life.

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government. 
Thomas Jefferson


I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. 
Thomas Jefferson 


"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests."
Patrick Henry


“I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such: because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no Form of Government but what may be a Blessing to the People if well-administred; and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administred for a Course of Years and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other.” 
Benjamin Franklin


"If I were asked the difference between Socialism and Communism, I could only reply that the Socialist tries to lead us to disaster by foolish words and the Communist could try to drive us there by violent deeds."
Winston Churchill

Eternity & the existence of God

For me, the existence of God is THE most important question in the universe. If there is no God & life is a cosmic accident, then nothing really matters. You're alive for a few years, then die. Eternity past & eternity future have no meaning. Your short time of existence is a blip on the radar screen. Eternity & the universe take no notice of you.

But if there is a God & an afterlife of sorts, then that seems to me to be the most important factor in our lives.. if what we do & think during this short time affects us for eternity, then the stakes are much higher. IF there is a spiritual realm, then finding out about it would seem to be a fairly important part of our world view, & would affect our plans, lifestyle, interaction with others, & overall outlook.

IF there is a God, then another thing can be deduced: God has shrouded himself in mystery, & has not plainly revealed himself to his creation. He seems to not be bothered by dogmatic assertions from the religious or irreligious alike, & lets us bicker, fight, & kill each other to defend or promote our ideas of what he is like. I cannot deduce what his purpose in that might be.

There is Truth. There is an ultimate Reality. Most (if not all) of us just do not know what it is. We speculate, deduce, & reason with what information we have, but we do not know.

Eccl. 8:14 There is futility which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked. On the other hand, there are evil men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I say that this too is futility. 15 So I commended pleasure, for there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry, and this will stand by him in his toils throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.

16 When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the task which has been done on the earth (even though one should never sleep day or night), 17 and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, “I know,” he cannot discover.

Defending the Constitution. The US Military & foreign involvement

I find it ironic that some fiscal conservatives support the huge military budget & our military involvement in other countries.  Military costs account for 25% of our budget.  That's not much as a percentage, but when you factor in the enormous deficit spending, & the vast amount of fraud & waste, it is a tidy sum.. over $1T/yr, according to many estimates.   When you add up the results of our massive spending in our military ventures, it is not worth it, neither in bringing peace to the world, nor in furthering the cause of freedom & self determination for all people.  Is the world a more peaceful place with our military involvement?  Or do we use Obama's justification saying it would have been much worse, had we not done the spending (or bombing, etc)?

We have ~ 130 bases throughout the world.  Obviously they cost a lot, & what is their purpose?  Our military are often used as an enforcement tool for businesses.  The result is also loss of respect for american values in the countries we are occupying.  The ugly american syndrome is furthered, taxpayer money is wasted, & the worst consequense of our military philosophy: lives are lost.

We also cannot afford the foreign aid we have been giving to other countries.  Why should american taxpayers be giving  money to other nations in the world?  Certainly, if there is a catastrophe, americans can & do give to relief efforts.  But most of our foreign aid is tied with military involvement, or buying the politicians in other countries.  We pretend to be indignant with politicians' link to money & political corruption, but engage in the same practices on a policy level.

Here are some ideas for saving money & promoting the cause of freedom in the world:

1.  Start at zero all foreign aid.  Some of the new repub candidates are promoting this idea.  I will take it one step further:  Keep it at zero.  Handing out money only breeds corruption.  Corruption in the country we pretend to be helping causes resentment & usually reduces the freedom in that country.. corrupt dictators use american tax dollars to oppress their own people, & we have their blood on our hands.  Propping up corrupt regimes should never be in our global interests.  We could more easily justify sending these tyrants a few drones, rather than supporting them.

2.  Close all foreign bases.  Bring our troops home.  Secure our borders, & use diplomacy & intellegence to secure our interests.  Let businesses take risks when opening up ventures in unstable countries, & not look to the us military to reduce them.

3.  Get out of nato & the united nations.  These have become corrupt organizations controlled by either money people, looking to profit from military action, or ideologues using american tax dollars to promote their agenda.

4.  Define American 'interests'.  This term is used to justify military action & the massive wasting of american tax money.  It is not in our interests, i submit, for us to be the world 'policeman'.  We are a test model for freedom.  200 years ago, our forefathers fought for this experiment in individual freedom.  The military was never intended to become what it is now.  Many of the founders warned of this.  I think our 'interests' should be protecting the american citizens' rights to life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness.  This is not a guarantee of any financial venture in foreign countries.  If we have a vibrant, free society, with a solid financial basis in our economy, we have the power to exert tremendous economic pressure on other countries.  Let us use that as a weapon.

5.  No wars or military action without full congressional approval.  No police actions.  No joining in with nato or the un to promote their agenda because a president thinks it is a good idea.  Committing our military is & should be a last resort, & should have a united us govt to back it.

6.  No deficit spending on military action.  We should have a balanced budget amendment, anyway, but especially in our military endeavors.  Future generations should not have to pay for the imperialistic desires of the past.

We have lost too many young americans in questionable military engagements.  We have wasted trillions of dollars blowing up other nations & killing their people.  I don't see any justification in these sacrifices.  Our military people are brave & loyal to the nation.. their principal charge is to 'defend the constitution of the United States of America'.  These police actions do not threaten our constitution, but our politicians do, with their manipulating of the military.  Lets get back to a more constitutional view of the military.  Many lives will be spared, money will be saved & can be spent on building, not destroying, & the image of america as a beacon of freedom will not be marred by the hypocrisy of our politicians & money peoples' special interests.

Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose—and you allow him to make war at pleasure.
Abraham Lincoln


Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn


It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. 
Thomas Jefferson 


The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.
Charles-Louis De Secondat


We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security.
Dwight D. Eisenhower


War is just a racket...I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else.
General Smedley Butler

Student loans & fannie mae lending

If there was a pure open market, then only the very wealthy could afford to send their kids to the plush schools with the high prices, unless they get a fat scholarship.  The rest of the schools would have to compete for the majority student dollar.  That is how it has been for most of the last century.  You could start at a juco, then finish at a decent state university & not be in debt for the rest of your life.

But the politicians/bankers/academians decided that was not good enough.  Why should only rich kids or smart scholarship kids get to go to the expensive schools?  Lets provide easy money for people to go to school anywhere they want!  It's not really a low interest loan, either.  Currently it is more than twice as much as a home loan.

I have no doubt that there have been a great number of students who partook of the program & managed it wisely.  For them, it has not been a problem.  Those responsible, financially sensible kids would have done fine with or without it.  But the problem is the great number of less sophisticated borrowers.  A great number of them racked up huge debt for fluffy degrees.  Yes, it can be argued that they shouldn't have taken out such huge loans for a degree that was unlikely to provide a return on their investment.  The same argument is directed toward the borrowers of housing loans.  All those poor people who bought high priced houses but did not have the means to pay it back.  THEY caused the housing crash.  THEY were irresponsible borrowers.  But a greater number of people see the predatory lenders as being the problem.  They packaged the loan in a pretty wrap with a nice ribbon.  Neither the poor house buyer nor the poor student could lose!  Why would they not want to take the loan?

But here is the main difference, & what makes the student loans much more insidious:  The house borrowers can just default on the loan.  Their credit will suffer for 7 years, and they can go on without the burden of the debt.  But the student cannot.  The student is saddled with the debt forever!  They cannot bankrupt out of it.  Only death will release them, & i'm sure the bankers are looking into how they can beat that & pass it on to someone else, like their other dark ages practices.

The socialistic house lending policies only put us into an economic tail spin for years, bankrupted thousands of people, leaving millions more upside down in their houses, & ended thousands of construction related businesses.  It will eventually turn around.  But the student loans stick to them like hot tar.  And the interest just continues to rise!  A french poetry major with $100k in student loan debt is accruing interest at the rate of $8-10k per year, and that is only if they got an extension & have the loan deferred.  If they are in default, the interest & penalties are more.  They cannot afford $2-300/month payment on a loan.. & that wouldn't even cover the interest.

Any solutions?  Here's some of mine:

1.  Stop the program.  Make it a regular loan like any other.  It may be harder to get for a while (tried to buy a house lately?), but lenders will make the loans to good risks.  Poor kids can get scholarships if they are smart, & they can work their way through school, too.  Smart, hard working people will find a way to get ahead in a free market system.  Lazy, spoiled, entitled people will continue to be a burden on society, as they always have been.  That is another topic.

2.  Let the banks & academia take some of the hit.  Let them cut back the amount owed.. do a 'making education affordable' plan that helps kids who are upside down in their student loans get out of them.  Or cancel the credits they have, & cancel the loans.  But demanding that all of these young (& some not so young) people repay the huge loans they have incurred, without any escape from them is a return to dark ages lending policies.  Our student loan borrowers have become modern day indentured servants.  They will have to work for years to make a dent in their loans, if they can even cover the interest.  The risk & consequences of these predatory loans was not adequately disclosed, & they should never have been allowed, anyway.  Our politicians & academians were not looking out for the students' interests, but only their own & the banks' profit.

A great number of the OWS crowd are college graduates with huge student loans.  They are blaming the bankers, who are greedy & predatory, to be sure.  But they should be protesting the govt & academia, who allowed the greedy money people to do this.  The money people are always greedy, & always want to screw us.  ..always have, always will.  We the people have had to regulate them to keep that from happening.. or at least reduce it.  Protesting the banks is misdirected.  We need to change the politicians.  We need financial regulations from politicians who are not in the pocket of the money people.

It was socialistic policies that caused this mess, & many think more socialism will get us out.  Can we not see the folly of that?  Do we think that protesting bankers will cause them to be generous?  Do we think that letting the govt control all of the financial sector will bring efficiency & lessen corruption?

Free markets.  Fair regulations.  Freedom.  This will work.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. 
Thomas Jefferson 


"The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. The banking powers are more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. They denounce as public enemies all who question their methods or throw light upon their crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe."
Abraham Lincoln


"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with a result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always followed by dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years."
Sir Alexander Fraser Tyler


We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
Winston Churchill

Student loans.. the new indentured servitude

The education loan flood is eerily similar to the fannie mae & freddy mac debacle. It is based on the same assumptions. Free money! The principal difference is the house mortgage borrowers can default if they can't make the payment. They can just dump the house. But student loans stay with you forever! It is a financial policy return to the dark ages. It also caused, it can be argued, the massive spike in education, just like when housing went up.

How about we let the kids who are up to their eyeballs in debt for a useless degree, give it back? Since they got talked into 'buying' this degree, let them give it back. They don't get the piece of paper for the cushy job that was promised, & the banks & academia have to cancel the loan. Let them take a hit on their predatory lending practices, not just dump it on the student (and their parents).

The promise of easy money is never kept. It may drag on for a while, but like any ponzi scheme, there will be an end, & it is usually bad for those left holding the bag. The housing loan scam from the politicians with easy money for everyone was one. The student loan scam will be next.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.
Oscar Wilde

"Those who steal from private individuals spend their lives in stocks and chains; those who steal from the public treasury go dressed in gold and purple."
Marcus Porcius Cato

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
Albert Einstein

Politicians & Big Money.

We have an unholy alliance between politicians and the big money people.  The banks, unions, big manufacturing (slowly going to china, now), big corporations & their lure of money to our leaders is at the root of most of our problems. Add to that the socialist leanings of the populace, & you get the chaos we have now.

Here are some of my solutions:
1. End all fed govt subsidies.. business, farm, academic, foreign, domestic. We'll have to phase some of these out, since so many people have come to depend on them. But why should we support a violent totalitarian regime like mubarek's? Or why pay someone to not work or grow things? And why should the american taxpayers do it, anyway? That won't end all corruption, which will always be with us, but it will limit it & not allow it to explode like we see today, with over $15 T debt.

2. Stop the drift or lean or tendency toward socialistic policies. Go with a regulated open market. That is america's heritage, & it works. The rest of the world longs for that, why in the world would we want to emulate their failures? Our jeffersonian democracy is the envy of the world. Lets keep it going & be a truly free people.

3. Change the culture of Washington. Too many for too long have seen public service as a grab bag of free money & a ride on the gravy train. We need to limit the money that is available to the fed govt, & we need to have better watchdogs & prosecute when the crooks break the law.

4. Cut back the military. I'm going ron paul on this one. Close all our foreign bases. Stop meddling in other countries' affairs. Support free people with public encouragement, not secret arms deals. Stop supporting totalitarian regimes. Let other countries fight for their freedom & liberties like we did.. sure, we can make treaties or alliances, but we shouldn't be occupying. If we have to send troops somewhere, there should be a formal declaration of war, voted on by the entire congress.. no presidential police actions.

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
Thomas Jefferson

When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.
Thomas Jefferson

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.
Cicero

People say that money is not the key to happiness, but I always figured if you have enough money, you can have a key made.
Joan Rivers