Goodbye America, I Hardly Knew You

The United States Federal Government has become a clear and present danger to the Republic and to the United States Constitution.  It is too big, too bloated, too ineffective, too inefficient, too pervasive, too omnipresent, too counterproductive, too corrupt, and simply too destructive.  This leviathan indiscriminately consumes and devours everything in its path.  Long ago it unhinged itself from its constitutional moorings and has taken on a life all its own unfettered by constitutional restraints and laws, functioning on the whims of a handful of highly placed masterminds.  We are becoming a nation of men, not laws.  We are becoming a nation of majority mob rule which leads inexorably to anarchy, chaos and tyranny.  The federal monster is devoid of common sense, devoid of reason, devoid of rationality, devoid of any link to The People, and devoid of any sense of responsiveness to wishes and needs of The People.  In the few instances where the federal government has clear responsibility it has proved itself wholly derelict in its duty, that being defending our borders, printing the money, and delivering the mail.  Any projection of power outside of these areas is unwise and unconstitutional.  The federal government has no constitutional power or authority in the areas of agriculture, education, energy, environment, health care, housing or private business.  It is taxing and spending and regulating and meddling our country into oblivion.  It is systematically attacking and usurping the freedom and liberty of the people by ignoring and convoluting the Bill of Rights.  Please take note Washington; it is the Bill of Rights, NOT the bill of needs.  These rights come from God, not government.  They are inalienable, they cannot be taken away.  It is the function of government to defend these rights, not squash them.  The People do not need the approval or permission of the Courts or the Government to hold and exercise these rights.  We fought a bloody war at our nation’s founding to secure these rights for the People.  I used to think that it is beginning to look like 1776 again but the more I observe our current dilemma it reminds me more of France, 1789.  Our pampered politicians, judges and bureaucrats live like kings and queens while the People suffer.  They are blind and deaf to the underlying misery and unhappiness throughout the land.  They live in a protected bubble; wining and dining, traveling, playing golf, enjoying concerts, just yukking it up and telling each other how great they are.  The emperor has no clothes.  We know this is all a lie, an illusion.  The economy is actually crashing down all around us.  The moral societal fabric is unraveling.  The People do not believe, do not like, and do not trust our politicians, our judges and the bureaucrats.  I believe that the motives of some of those in government are, simply put; evil.  For some reason the States, the foundational building blocks of our nation, the agencies that formed the federal government for their benefit now seem unwilling to exercise their constitutional 10^th Amendment duty to reign in this runaway federal behemoth by holding its feet to the constitutional fire.  The States are the vehicles by which the People project constitutional power over the federal government when elections alone fail the need, which they have.  Most people believe that elections are rigged and fraudulent.  It seems that we are headed down the same path of destruction as all of the great nations and empires of history.  And sadly, I don’t know if there is anything that can be done to stop this inexorable decline into dissolution.  May God help us and have mercy upon us.  And please, please bless the United States in America.

Politician Control

Gun control zealots seem to be motivated by an unhealthy, pathological fear of guns and a complete lack of understanding of the criminal mind.  They also suffer from the delusion that the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment does not say and mean what it says and means.  Quite simply, it says that the right of all U.S. citizens to keep (own) and bear (carry) arms shall not be infringed (limited, constrained).  Period.  Short of a constitutional amendment this is the supreme law of the land. 

Their quest to limit the kinds of guns citizens can own, to limit the amount of ammunition and size of magazines, to require gun registration, to require enhanced background checks and waiting periods and to limit where citizens can carry their arms is simply unconstitutional.  Furthermore, it flies in the face of logic.  Criminals intent on doing harm will buy guns on the black market, they will buy any sort of gun they want, they will not undergo background checks, they will buy all of the large magazines and all of the ammunition they want, they will not register those guns and they will carry and use those weapons anywhere and everywhere they choose, particularly in places they know that citizens are precluded from carrying weapons, such as schools.  Criminals are not going to obey any laws, hence the term criminal.  It seems that politicians are of the opinion that they can do anything, they can defy logic, they can simply pass a law and a problem is magically solved.  They are omnipotent.  They can go on television and claim how much they care and point to what they have done to stop crime.  In fact, they have done nothing of the sort.  In reality they have made it easier for criminals to do their dastardly deeds.  But, they have assuaged their delicate egos and garner the adulation of the uninformed, unthinking faction of the electorate.  Politicians need to own up to the fact that some problems are out of the reach of government and politicians to solve.  Be honest for once with the people.  Crime is not a political issue.  Evil is an inherent part of human nature.  Vigilance, preparation and overwhelming resistance is the answer to protecting people from crime.  It is ultimately a personal responsibility, not public.  Politicians cannot protect people from criminals.  Law enforcement cannot protect people from crime.  Taking a proven, effective tool (carrying weapons) out of the hands of law-abiding citizens puts them at greater risk of being a victim of crime.  That could, and should be construed as a crime. 

Gun Rights, or Wrongs?

The discussion of gun rights with gun control zealots often reverts to the concept of restrictions of other constitutional rights, classically the proscription of yelling ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.  This is actually a very good teaching point.  Of course, if there is a fire in the theater alerting other patrons is an act of heroism, not terrorism.  But if there is not fire and the intent is malicious, such an act could lead to harm or even trampling death of moviegoers.  This obviously is a crime.  But the crime is not in having the right of free speech, rather using it in a dangerous and malicious manner with intent to harm.  In this country we do not engage in prior censorship of speech or written word.  People are free to say or write anything, understanding that if this speech or writing is intentionally malicious and harmful it could result in criminal prosecution and punishment.  This is the deterrent function of the law.  The right of free speech remains unalienable.

Likewise, the right of private citizens to keep and bear arms is an unalienable right ensconced in the constitution, which means it too comes from God not government and it is the specific role of government to protect that right.  Similar to the example above, if a gun is used in a dangerous and malicious manner with intent to harm a crime has been committed with the gun.  That crime is proscribed by law and may result in arrest, prosecution and punishment which might include incarceration and the loss of the right of that individual to legally own a gun in the future.  The Second Amendment right still stands in the general sense.  There has been no prior censorship to gun, ammunition or magazine ownership by the general public at large.  Rather in specific instances individuals either with criminal records or clear dangerous mental instability may be lose the right to own a gun.  This is a very narrow sliver of the population and this practice must be cautiously monitored for government abuse. 

We do not gag people or cut out the voice boxes of people with propensities to speak dangerously or take typewriters away from subversive writers.  To proscribe gun ownership, ammunition ownership, or high-capacity magazine ownership or make such ownership so convoluted, complicated and monitored as to de facto make such ownership near impossible, is a general prior proscription of the Second Amendment right of the citizenry to keep and bear arms.  Clearly this is not the intent of the constitution or the proper role of government.  This is shades of Pre-Crime a la “Minority Report.” 

The proper role of government is to strain as far as possible to protect these God-given rights found in the constitution.  The constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens must not be adversely affected by the actions of government in prosecuting individuals who may have committed crimes in the exercise of their constitutional rights.

Let's REALLY Fix Things!

Here is what I think is needed to save the Republic:

1)  Abolish all Executive Departments, their budgets and regulations except for Treasury, Defense and State.
2)  Abolish the federal income tax and replace it with a National Sales Tax, NOT a Value Added Tax (V.A.T.).
3)  Abolish the estate tax and the capital gains tax.
4)  Repeal the federal minimum wage.
5)  Begin the phase-out of Social Security, MediCare/MediCaid by rolling them out to the states to continue, abolish or privatize as they see fit.
6)  Repeal ObamaCare completely.
7)  Limit federal judges to a 10 year term at each level of the courts, up to and including the U.S. Supreme Court.  Pension and benefits will continue past retirement for only the total number of years served in the system.
8)  Limit the President/Vice-President to two four-year terms, Senators to two six-year terms and Representatives to six two-year terms.  Pensions and benefits will continue past retirement for only the total number of years served.
9)  Return all federal lands to the states.
10)  Return our currency to a gold standard.
11)  Limit federal spending to only revenues received.
12)  Audit the Federal Reserve and bring it under control of the Treasury Department.
13)  Withdraw from the United Nations and expel it's headquarters from the United States.

Request for Medical Privacy

Request for Medical Privacy

I,_______________________________________ , date of birth,_____/_____/________; hereby inform and instruct Dr.______________________________, all associates, employees, staff and any affiliated company(-ies) of the following:

1)  My Social Security Number is not to be used as a medical or patient identification number.  I will not provide it and it is not to be recorded or kept anywhere by you in any form.

2)  If you use any form of electronic medical/demographic/billing records my information is to only be stored on your office computer/server system alone.  It is not to be stored/archived/backed-up on any system or server off-site.  No one other than you may access this information.

3)  You may release billing information only to my insurance company to include only basic demographic data (name, address, phone number, date-of-birth, non-SSN identification number), CPT and ICD-9 codes, dates of service and amounts billed.  You are not to release any medical information to my insurance carrier, including but not limited to vital signs, height/weight/BMI, or any particulars regarding test results, symptoms, physical findings, diagnoses or treatments beyond CPT/ICD-9 codes.

4)  You are not to release any information to any case management, disease management or wellness program or any similar such group.

5)  You are not to release any information, whether personally identifiable or not to any local, state or federal agency or any private or public for –profit or not-for-profit agency, business, university or organization for any reason.

This request remains in force until changed or revoked by me.

Thank you very much for respecting my privacy and my wishes.

Signed:________________________________________________________________

Name:_________________________________________________________________

Date:_____/_____/_________

Will We Survive?

November 25, 2012

To Whomever Has the Courage to Read This:

It has become painfully clear to me that the U.S. Federal Government is not working, and the situation is getting worse.  Dire.  Many would argue that we just need to send better people back to Washington.  Well, we have been sending politicians back there for over 220 years and things are going downhill faster than ever.  It doesn’t really matter whether the Republicans or the Democrats are in charge, the path is downward, and elections have become essentially irrelevant.  Witness unconscionable spending, deficits and debt; mostly for things that the federal government is not even Constitutionally authorized to be spending tax dollars on in the first place.  American Idol, homosexual marriage, legalized marijuana, condoms, abortion and contraception capture the politicians’ attention while terrorism, open borders and voter fraud chip away at our history, heritage and culture.  Nero fiddles while Rome burns.  I have absolutely no faith that the federal government, politicians or political parties will or even can reverse course and fix our problems.  Sadly, I am not even convinced that many accept that there is a problem or really want to do anything about it if they believe there is.  The fiscal cliff is a done deal.  That was sealed many years and many trillions of dollars ago, there is no avoiding it.  It is only a matter of when, not if.  Only cutting several trillion dollars a year from the federal budget (hell, what budget?) in spending would even be a nod toward trying to fix our fiscal fiasco.  Is that going to happen?  Ummm, no, no matter who is in charge. 

Our only hope lies with the States and the People.  How some bottom up solution would be constructed or play out I have no idea.  I do know that short of it though, we are done.  Our future will be one of a bitter, divided, balkanized, bankrupt third world society.  You people up there in Washington are just going through the motions.  No one believes or trusts you anymore.  You have become a joke, a laughingstock, irrelevant.  Your time has passed but you just don’t know it yet.  We are now a post-Constitutional, post-federal government society.  I think more and more we will see States and groups of People striking out to do their own things.  Take ObamaScare, for instance.  No one really believes it is going to work or last.  A lot of people are simply going to ignore it, like doctors in a big way.  We will see cash-only transactions, barter, black markets and off-shore commerce in medicine and most other elements of society become the norm.  This is the brave new world that your policies, both Republican and Democrat have wrought.

I just pray that the People rise up and exert their Constitutional authority over this federal leviathan before it is too late.  May God have mercy upon us all.