Total disgust …and new hope

I just sold my cherished tractor.   I hated to do it.  But worse, I asked far too little money, and my greatly underappreciated wife Wendyl bore the burden of endless phone calls and inexcusable idiots while I was in Louisville. 

Watching the selfish, dangerous drivers carom and jockey over the I-65 bridge, and hearing of the lying, cheating fools my wife had to suffer with the sale of my D-15 makes me more fully understand why we’re going to get a ruthless, lawless dictator.  Oh yes.  We’re going to get one good and hard. 

We have corrupt government because we Americans are corrupt.  But there’s more to it than just that.

The saying, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me” just doesn’t do justice for we of European descent and/or Judeo-Christian beliefs. 

What do you say to people who’ve been completely self-hoodwinked every election cycle for a hundred years?  What witticism can you impart upon a people that rebuff their traditions and self-professed beliefs to rebuild self-deceptions every day throughout their lives, and defend their foolishness with idols and slogans?  What sooth applies to a culture whose flowering gave freedom and wealth to more people in more ways and to a greater degree than had ever happened before in human history…and then threw it all away?  What do you say to a people that call themselves brilliant and wise, only to then just stop having babies and disappear from the earth leaving behind only their debt and destruction?

By the numbers, fewer than five percent of all Americans (about two percent in most places) vote for Rule Of Law, governed government, sound money, and/or the simple logic that applies to all physical objects and creatures.  I have no figures on how many people have actually read their state and federal constitutions…the contracts that determine their wealth, education, longevity, freedom and security; but I’m guessing far less than one-half of one percent.  It’s my experience that even among those who share my views on most things political, a tiny fraction actually knows their rights as citizens. 

Those who have anything like a Judeo-Christian system of morality have a birthrate of about 1.6 – a dying breed indeed.  We give well over half of everything (time, money, service and debt) to our politicians who we know are full of, well…whatever.

Now, despite the wheezing death-rattle of “liberty movement” energy that I’ve seen lately, I’m afraid we’re just too late and too few to rebuild this nation according to constitutional design.  The USA has been dead for too long to revive it, and most have no interest in it anyway.  At least 98% of your neighbors have chosen your fate. 

I confess it’s hard for me to even look at people knowing that they’ve sold themselves into serfdom, their children into slavery, and their heritage into oblivion.  I am flat disgusted that to most people, those with a record of lies and errors are called “Honorable…” while those who’ve been right all along are called “fringe,” and “losers.”  I’ve met too many people who’ve smugly called me “a dreamer,” while they have personally chosen a slithering, beheading nightmare for us all.

I want a simple thing, but one that doesn’t exist anywhere in the world right now.  I want Rule of Law under existing state and federal constitutions, as written.  That’s all. 

What we have instead is humanity’s ancient default state of political idolatry, authoritarian violence and self-destruction.

Maybe Texas has enough patriots within its borders to effectuate sanity, but probably not.  Maybe China will learn from our mistakes and become the light of the world.  But probably not. 

Liberty is a rare and precious thing.  Historically speaking, it almost never happens.  The liberty enjoyed by Americans 100 years ago never happened before.  It may not happen again.

We will certainly have to live our remaining years in ways quite unlike what we know today.  Political promises have turned to massive corruption and debt, so we’ll have to depend upon each other once again.  We’ll have to learn that caveat emptor never died.  We’ll have to relearn healthcare and how to warmly, sympathetically deal with aging and mortality without the cold, tax-paid/tax-deferred institutions that sweep our family issues under a rug.  And amidst the rising crime of an unjust, insane culture, we’ll have to protect ourselves, because government protects only itself…against you.

So, with such grim prospects determined by my fellow citizens, I need to readjust my thinking.  And I need to readjust it according to my own Christian understanding.  I should walk my talk, in other words.  I’m just a visitor here.  All the madness around me shouldn’t affect me.  I must try harder to do my best and let my heart be untroubled.

And amidst all the ugliness of a people prone to evil and slothful in good, I must recognize and cherish what’s good and wholesome.

My wife, first and foremost, has, through all my political and business sturm und drang, been a hardworking, supportive, loving and noble companion.  I can’t say enough about that woman.  She is certainly my better half, and has made my eccentric family work.

Then there’s my church family.  The Bloomington Reformed Presbyterian Church is a wonderful branch on God’s vine.  I will miss them greatly; but I’ll do my best to support their cause while I’m in Houston.

I’ve lately found another family that I feel like calling my own. 

Some of you may know that I’ve been working in Louisville for the last few months, and that on most weekdays, I’ve crashed at the home of my friend Dr. Eric Schansberg.

Every now and then you meet someone who gives form to the phrase “fruit of the spirit.”  The Schansberg family has been a welcoming, encouraging and strengthening comfort in my life at just the time when I needed them.

The last few months would have been painful indeed, and may not have turned out so well at all if it weren’t for these people that God put in my path.

I have so many good friends.  My friends in the freedom movement are my brothers and sisters.  I’ll not try to name names here; the list would be too long, and I’d feel awful should I offend by omission, or by putting the names in the wrong order.

I love you guys.

This is the perspective I should keep.  It’s certainly the one I prefer. 

I love to know those I love.  I should let evil nonsense fall past me like water off a duck’s back.

I have been Blessed.  I’ve been shepherded through life and I’ve never really wanted for anything.  Not really, anyway.

Yes, it grieves me to see the violence my fellow humans are doing to themselves. 

But I’ve offered to help many, many times in very public ways.  Having two-and-a-half-million people tell you to buzz off on a single day should tell me that they have what they want.

And I have what I want. 

Good friends, and a God who’s smiled on me for over a half century.

Andy goes to the Lone Star State

¡Ya salgo para Houston!

Well, I never wanted to leave my Freedom Farm, but God has other things in mind for me.  As I can no longer stay in Indiana, I’ve flipped a coin (one with a secession-leaning state on either side).  So life is taking me and my little family to Houston, and the thing for me to do, is embrace it.

So, I’m renting the farm out – one trillion-fillion Federal Reserve dollars per month, Or Best Offer.  Actually, it’d be dirt cheap to the right person; I’m just trying to minimize my losses.  We’ll auction off a lot of stuff we’ve accumulated over the years.  We’ll sell all the animals we can sell, and then probably donate Doofus to science.* 

Anyway, we’ll sell down to our clothes and Bibles and head to the land of Ron Paul.

In some ways, nothing will change.  I’ll still be able to walk anywhere without being recognized.  I’ll still be toward the bottom of the peon, political-outsider, tax-serf class. 

Oh, and I’m still not giving up on Rule Of Law under existing constitutions, as written.

But some things will change a great deal.  I will miss all the friends I’ve made in Indiana.  I’ve made some very, very good friendships.  I hope y’all stay in touch.  Or maybe join me for the secession.  I don’t know if we’ll ever find a church like Bloomington RP, but I’m entrusting that one to God. 

I need to make a special thank you and farewell to the Indiana Libertarians.  I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to the convention this past weekend to accept the award you’d generously bestowed.  I will miss you all a great deal.  But more importantly, I’m not quitting – I’m only changing tactics and locations in the ongoing quest for Liberty and Justice for All.

While Southern Indiana summers are hot and humid, Houston does get even hotter.  And we’ve had remarkably few hurricanes in Indiana…  Yikes.  I will greatly miss the quiet, verdant beauty of our Freedom Farm…

Of course there’s Dr. No.  And I’ve been very encouraged by what I’ve seen of the Oath Keepers’ Texas connection.  I’m hoping that, while I’ll not run for public office again, I’ll be more effective, and in a better context, in my struggles for right and truth.

Doggone it; I’ve been a Hoosier (whatever that means) for over a half-century.  I don’t know how I’ll do in cowboy boots.

Please pray for me.

Oh, and if you’d like a Doofus, let me know…

 

*About Doofus – My son Hark was the one who first discovered that the so-called “puppy” we saved from destruction was no puppy at all.  He is actually a “pliffle” – a coarse lampoon of the noble canis lupus familiaris known as Man’s Best Friend.  This species of perdition, callus doofus dammitis, may look something like a dog, but unlike any dog that ever lived, he’s completely useless, annoying, unbelievably persistant and …sticky.   Yes, he’s affectionate, but you’d rather the pliffle just go away…

Rule Of Law Citizen Tribunal

This is not a blog.  It is an addendum to all my previous blogs.  So my statement that I won’t blog anymore still stands, OK?  OK. 

This is just a proposal that I should’ve made long ago…OK?  OK.

Constitutional Tribunal of 2009

For generations now, Americans have known about our government’s growing string of lawbreaking and abuse of power.  Somehow, we have rationalized and abstracted it such that it doesn’t bother us.  This must be the “frog in the cook pot” scenario by which life is slowly, but strangely tolerably boiled away.

Over the years I’ve found few people who have demonstrated any interest in jumping out of the pot.  Sure, many will accurately describe our impending doom, but they then stubbornly refuse accountability for their predicament, and they do nothing to solve it.  This wouldn’t be such a problem if it weren’t for the fact that they’re getting us all boiled. 

It’s perhaps understandable that from the inside of this boiling pot of collective madness, I’ve not always seen things so clearly myself.  I’d never read any constitution until I was thirty.  I was forty when I first read the Indiana Constitution.  I’ve had varying types and degrees of “AHA!” moments and epiphanies ever since.

Perhaps I’ve just had another.  I hope so.

You’ve no doubt seen that the world loves a trial.  Whether it’s OJ, Perry Mason or Judge Judy, we seem to become transfixed by legal battles.  As you know, our government is fond of “tribunals” when regular courts just don’t fit the objectives.   And if you’ve ever tried to fight our government, you know that existing “courts of law” are anything but legitimate courts of law.

Well, we have the makings of what should be the greatest legal battle of all time – citizens against their own Golem.  The nation that started with a legal/political argument against an oppressive regime (Declaration of Independence against crazy King George) has actually been gone for decades, we now have the opportunity to peacefully create the dream that our founders never fully realized – a nation where every citizen has inalienable rights, and where the foul-tempered pit-bull we call government stays behind a fence of laws.

I’ve come to believe that we should immediately convene a Constitutional Tribunal.

We should assemble the best minds of our movement to serve as a judicial panel. 

We should gather our best arguments. 

We should employ all means possible to promulgate our findings (blogs, conventional media/press conferences-releases, social networking, twitter) to the general public.

We should invite our rulers to rebut.

We should publicly convict and sentence our rulers…and ourselves as their masters, as I am certain that we will find that we’ve all broken the law, turned on the flame, and jumped into the pot.

I’ve started arguments many times over many years; for instance HERE, HERE and HERE, and, of course, HERE.  But we need to make use of our best brains and technology to make a coherent case in the form of a public trial…a public movement on behalf of the proven, already-law, best-ever-compromises, world-renowned Rule of Law under our state and federal constitutions.

Finally, my last blog. This time I mean it.

Well, I have to hand it to them; they’re clever.  Our opponents know the power of words, and they wield that power ruthlessly.

They rename the cruel, ancient ideology of Nero “progressive,” so we’d seem regressive to oppose it.  They call the entrenchment of concentrated power, privilege, theft and violence “liberal,” when …wait a minute; weren’t the Founding Fathers the liberals of their time? 

Like the serpent to Eve our politicians call left right, and right wrong so that we’re so darned confused we think they must be brilliant.

Well, now Obama has been taking the phrase “Rule of Law” in vain.  A lot.  Obama’s Polo ponies in the mainstream media have gotten themselves all in a lather about this new Rule Of Law direction in justice, equanimity and, of course, freedom. 

“Freedom” was George Bush’s most common Golden Calf incantation:

We pay taxes for freedom.  We spend even more than we tax, for freedom.  We send our children to foreign wars for freedom.  We give up liberties …for freedom.

Sheesh. 

Freedom has become almost as bad as “security” as a hex-word of oppressors.  And now they pervert my “Rule Of Law” too?  It’s too much to bear.

But even the most nefarious word-abusing rulers aren’t our problem.  We liberty-loving patriots are our problem.  We need no others. 

Since my last blog, I’ve heard a resounding “Amen, we’re with you, brother” from several people, only to be told, almost without so much as a comma or parentheses, “but first we ought to do something about this flu scare (…or the supply of ammunition …or wild government spending…or this or that or that or this)”  Or they’d say “Great; let’s start a new political party! (or chat group, or 501c3, or…)”

I know I’ve asked for a paradigm shift of the greatest magnitude.  Consciously or not, we’ve come to idolize the abstraction we call “government.”   We’ve been trained to think of it as a thing, and that’s a hard paradigm to shift.

Government is, in fact, us.  It’s not anybody, or anything else. 

What we’re talking about, no matter how you slice it, is the dynamic of our choices and our consequences.  Yes, we delegate and infuse the political abstraction with our most violent, greedy and horrible choices.  Like an inner demon we want this deadly abstraction to make the choices that we, as individuals, find too abhorrent for us to make alone.

All this violence and terror is ours.  We can say “enough,” and push away from the feeding trough of public money and serf labor.  We can put a leash on the dogs of war and live the way we would, for ourselves, choose to live.

It’s our choice.

But from all but a tiny few I hear that “it’s out of our hands,” or “only a revolution will save us now.”  I hear that we must ignore the root of the problem and nibble at the branches since “we must be pragmatic.  That’s the just the way it is.”

That is self-destructive nonsense.  That is the reality and pragmatism of failure and death.  As a truly progressive liberal (in the most fundamentalist and radical sense), I’m disgusted that we’re pulling ourselves into the slaughterhouse by our own nose-rings.

Anyway, I’ve said my bit about what, I think, we should do.  I’ve said it plenty.  It’s all in the pages that precede this one. 

And I don’t want people to call or email me calling me “negative” or “defeatist” again.  I’m not going to blog anymore, but I’m not giving up.  I’m just giving up on what I can plainly see isn’t working.

To the small band of brothers who’ve replied to my earlier calls, I’ll be in touch shortly.  We have things to do.

There’s only one thing that, I think, needs to be said here:

 

Jeremiah 18

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.”

So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.  But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

Then the word of the LORD came to me.  He said, “Can I not do with you, house of Israel, as this potter does?” declares the LORD.

“Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.  

…

“Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the LORD says: Look!  I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’

But they will reply, ‘It’s no use. We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts.’ ”

 

Get ready.  I don’t know how much time the USA has left, but short of a miracle, it’s not long.  Don’t be fooled by the gambling houses we call the stock market, or by the shamen some call “experts;” this ain’t about “the economy.”  We’ve not seen the real economic conflagration yet, and there are things faaar worse than hyperinflation and just plain broke.

Love your family, cherish your time, and get down on your knees in prayer.  Collectively, we have made our choices, and now it’s coming time for the consequences.

The REAL “Free State Project?”

It seems to me that, increasingly these days, truth is not so much relative as it is democratic.  In other words, truth is exactly and only what the majority say it is.  Even in matters where the scientific method should cool judgments, “9 out of 10 doctors” or “most scientists agree” conclusively trumps the minority’s truth. 

This phenomenon goes double where right versus wrong, good versus bad is involved.

There are plenty of currently newsworthy examples, from “Climate Change” to the economy, in which wrong is somehow voted into truth, and people suffer as a result. 

But let us consider the Republic of Texas.  There is still a slim chance that, at least in a way, truth could prevail over majority madness.

Of course “everybody knows” that states have no right to secede.  The majority has concluded that the matter was settled conclusively with the Civil War – and States’ Rights lost.  Because the majority so strongly believes this, a sort of perverse “Tinker Bell Effect” makes it so. 

Legally, as far as written law goes, states do have the unambiguous right to secede.  Even after the Civil War, the federal constitution was never amended to prohibit it, and the Texas Constitution is both clear – and couldn’t be more up-front about it.  Here are the very first words of that contract:

(Article I, Sec. I)  Texas is a free and independent State, subject only to the Constitution of the United States, and the maintenance of our free institutions and the perpetuity of the Union depend upon the preservation of the right of local self-government, unimpaired to all the States.

Then consider Article I, Sec. 29:

To guard against transgressions of the high powers herein delegated, we declare that everything in this “Bill of Rights” is excepted out of the general powers of government, and shall forever remain inviolate, and all laws contrary thereto, or to the following provisions, shall be void.

While it’s the longest of all state constitutions, the Texas Constitution has no “commerce clause” or other vague wording like “necessary and proper” that could be “interpreted” to authorize anything outside the black-and-white written words.

So, right off the bat, we see that Texas’ subservience to the Constitution for the United States of America depends upon the federal government’s obedience to that contract.  If the federal government breaks its side of the contract, we technically no longer even have a federal government, and even the contract, as written, is wholly void as far as Texas is concerned.

It’d be their duty as both Texans, and as citizens loyal to the US Constitution, to oppose such a rogue power.

Could there be any doubt that the federal leash has snapped?  Do any states have anything like “self-government” anymore?  What law, what action can’t be overturned by federal courts, federal legislation, or federal action?  

The real argument is not whether Texas should secede, but whether the federal government has already seceded from the USA.

The words in the federal and state constitutions are in this case quite plain.

OK, so y’all could vote on whether any of this matters or not.  Anything is equivocal if you really want it to be.  But consider this:

If the words that guarantee states’ rights don’t mean what they say, then neither do the words that guarantee any of your rights.

If constitutions don’t mean what they say, then pick a favorite part of the Bill of Rights…and then consider it gone.

Without constitutions, you have no legal rights to property, pursuit of happiness, liberty …or life. 

Are you ready to wave those legal words away?

Nothing Else Will Do.

The good news is that more and more people “get it.”  The bad news is that those few of us comprise a tiny, tiny speck.  The rest, even including 90% of those who are in almost every way our allies, have a maddening mind block against the very simple concept of government on a leash of written law.  They somehow cannot understand even asking for Rule of Law under existing constitutions, as written.  An analogy goes something like this:

I’ve just staggered into a pub on the edge of the desert, and as I fall to the floor, I cry out for “WATER!” 

A fellow pushes a napkin into my hand and says, “Is there anything else you need?”

“Thank you for this fine napkin,” I say, “but, I NEED WATER!”

The fellow walks away mumbling something like “…@#$%?! fringe zealot.”

A sympathetic young woman hands me a box of crackers.  “Ignore that guy.  Here you go.”

I smile numbly and dryly croak out, “Thank you, but I’m very, very thirsty.”

A hundred well-intentioned people load me up with chocolate, beef jerky, clothes, a violin, etc., etc., et cetera until, at long last, as I’m about to take my last breath, a bright young Purdue engineering student, the last fellow in the room, and who’s been watching the whole thing with increasing curiosity while hardly touching his glass of St. Bernardus says…

“Hey, wait.”  He seems to have struck an idea.  “Do you mean that you need water?”

I’m barely able to speak.  “Yes,” I say, “but, can I finish your beer while you get me some water?…”

Here’s the thing:  When you’re dying of thirst, not even an Alfa Romeo Giulia convertible will help.  You need water.  A dusty bag of concrete mix is not simply unhelpful, it actually hurts as it sits there on your back.

Am I making this plain enough?  I do not want “tax relief.”  I do not want a new law.  I want to hold every level of government to the already written, already law, already proven to work constitutions…as written.

No “interpretations” from the bench.  No caveats, provisos, ifs, ands or buts. 

Our politicians (and the powerful few who control them now) have stolen our constitutionally-defined nation and I want that back.  We only have liberty and self-determination when government stays on its side of the law.

I’d like to hear from you about this.

I don’t know if anybody passes any of it around to others, but I don’t see staggering numbers of people reading this blog.  But I’ve gotten emails and calls (often the not-so-nice ones) from people that I know can’t be reading this blog regularly.  And there are enough of you out there that I’ve never heard from that I’d like to now know how I’m doing in the most important sense, and whether I should bother to continue.  In fact, even if you’re one of the very few who’ve told me “I’m in,” please respond again.  It will determine what happens next, as far as I’m concerned.

This time, contact me at andrewhorning@hotmail.com.

Do it quick.  We’re all dying of thirst, you know.

 

Here’s the plan

 

It should now be apparent that for the past hundred years our own government has advanced a campaign of theft and violence against us on the canard that it’s for “the common good.”  Flying in the face of this commonly believed fib is the easily observed fact that we have not solved any problems at all despite worsening taxation, prohibitions and wars. 

We’ve not had a year’s peace since the War to End All Wars.  Surely the “war on…” drugs, poverty and homelessness have been busts.  With the FDA’s suppressive power we have more “snake oil” con men and dangerous, counterproductive drugs than ever.  We are working longer hours, taking fewer vacations and spending less time with our children than just thirty years ago.  Shockingly, there are probably at least 150 thousand actual slaves (not tax serfs – actual chained-to-the-worktable, arrived-in-shipping-containers slaves) in the USA right now.  The CIA estimates that 50000 slaves travel into or through the USA each year.  Human trafficking is up several hundred to a thousand percent in just the past ten years!

We are less secure and less free than ever.  We have immeasurably more crime and corruption, less access, less control over our lives, and even our health statistics are tipping downward at a time of marvelous medical technology.

Why do we so numbly submit our lives, wealth and rights to a protection racket that does not protect?

We should not need more motivation.  I assume that if you’re reading this, you already know that something must be done. 

But not just any action will do, since history shows us nothing if not that humans mostly fail and rarely succeed; and that both success and failure is by invariable patterns set at least several thousand years ago.

So here is my summary of the problem and what’s to be done about it:

Problem: Politicians and their agents act in violation of all of the laws that protect us from them.

Solution: We must stop that. 

It really is that simple, and we have not even tried it.  Our attempts to strategize and pick apart our social disease into only marginally-related “pragmatic” bits have been counterproductive to the effect that we have so far divided and conquered …ourselves.  Democrats and Republicans who should ally against their common foe are instead locked in a battle over idolatry, deceit and ignorance.  We do not even expect our leaders to obey their oaths of office; nor, in most cases, do we have any idea what the oaths say, what they mean, or to what laws these oaths pledge obedience.  We must converge upon this solution- to demand Rule of Law under our existing state and federal constitutions…as written. 

Here is how, I am convinced, we must solve our problem.

1. Read and completely understand your state and federal constitutions.  If you have questions about what you’re reading, I volunteer to help.  You should become confused when you first read these contracts.  I did.  I thought, “what the heck do these have to do with the way our government works today?”  Bingo.
2. Do NOT write letters, call your congresscritter, protest or hold press conferences about tax policy, the Fed, drug laws, public schooling or any other distraction.  Concentrate.  Think.  Every millimeter we give to our leaders becomes a mile.  We must not any longer allow them to divide us against ourselves with equivocal sub-issues and dubious solutions.  As long as politicians violate every law that protects us, we have no issue other than this: we cannot tolerate this anarchy, this ungoverned government.  We have one issue only: wrestle our lawbreakers down to the law.
3. Do employ every strategy, medium and means you can think of to address this problem: we must have Rule of Law under existing constitutions …as written.  If you have no idea what to do, ask, and I’d be happy to help.  But I’m betting you’ve already been doing things for lesser goals that’d be enormously helpful if directed toward Rule of Law under existing constitutions as written.  Go to meetings, talk to friends, whatever…use your mind and body and time in any ways that seem useful.
4. DO NOT allow yourself to be divided against your allies and dragged into an argument about details when we must first address the basics.  Don’t even give the Second Amendment or Gay Marriage as an example of anything.  No matter how well-intended, it only allows people to pigeonhole and dismiss you.  STAY ON POINT: our politicians even admit that, in the words of Henry Hyde, the US constitution is “…inappropriate, anachronistic; it isn’t done anymore.”  You don’t need examples other than the admitted lawlessness of our politicians.  They arrogantly declare that they’ve snapped their leash!  This is unacceptable, and it’s time we say so.  Loudly, repetitively, and with pitchforks and flaming torches.
5. Report back any observations, suggestions or whatnot that you think would help.  Report to all allies and friends in this cause.  Share ideas and experiences.  Let’s talk.  A lot.  It may not be so easy to communicate for much longer.
6. I have proposed various constitutional compliance timetables over the years.  Nine years ago, when I predicted we’d have ten years before The Big Trouble hits (and no, The Big Trouble hasn’t hit us yet…you’d better hope I’m wrong about what’s coming) I’d said that we could offer ten years.  I don’t think we can do that now.  I’d love to hear discussion on this, but I now suggest that in our current crisis, with so many people hurting, that we demand government strips down to its constitutional skivvies within two years.  That means full by-the-written-word constitutional compliance.  No decoder keys, no fudge words from the bench, no cheating.
7. Do you want a leader?  I’ll not shy away, but don’t miss my point: we have too many leaders, too many organizations, too much wasted money and time without converging on any common goal.  We must converge all our energies, passions and talents upon a single goal.  There are too few of us, and we have too little time to do anything else.

Be prepared that we may have to inviolate international treaties that, admittedly, are constitutional.  Such treaties have been increasingly used by the nefarious to destroy the constitutional design, and Obama is going gangbusters against us right now.  But other than these treaties, our leaders have no legal authority to fight back.  And by usurping our rights, stealing our property, shortening our lives and destroying our nation, they’ve relinquished all moral authority.  We’re right, they’re no more than criminals.

That is all.  Any questions? 

 

All right all right. I give. Uncle.

I was too negative in my last blog.  I was arrogant.  I was dismissive and intolerant.  I apologize!  From a barrage of emails, phone calls and posts in various places, I have learned a lesson.  Thank you.

What follows isn’t to negate any of the above apology, only to respond to a few of the criticisms that I think are at least a little unfair or off-base (a more constructive, positive blog will follow next week):

1. I am not asking you to follow me!  Just the opposite; I want y’all to converge on a single goal.  I am not that goal.  Neither Ron Paul nor Chuck Baldwin is that goal.  I already ran for Governor, twice, for goodness sakes.  That was a bust.  I’m apparently not the leader type!  I am an ordinary mortal like you…unless you’re the kind of person who can actually get elected, that is.  I’d like us all to stop obsessing over leaders and get serious about the real “situation at hand.” 
2. The “situation at hand” isn’t Obama or anything he’s doing.  Two different people used the same phrase, “situation at hand” to describe pretty wild scenarios.  But even if UN helicopters land on your property, soldiers point guns at you and you must immediately act on this surprising development, the “situation at hand” is actually that our nation is no longer under the Rule of Law authorized by our written constitutions.  UN control of our money and rights is unconstitutional.  Fiat money is unconstitutional.  Corporate laws and legal interrelationships that inherently oppose free market accountability are unconstitutional.  Most spending and taxation is unconstitutional.  Tying rights to marriage (gay or not) is unconstitutional.  This, that and the other oppression are all unconstitutional.  The problem isn’t all these symptoms, the problem is that our government is unconstitutional!  Our government is ungoverned!  Anarchy is the situation at hand!
3. I am not lashing out at others who’re more successful than I am.  I don’t mean to do that, anyway.  Sure, I know I can’t fundraise my way out of a paper bag.  God knows I can’t make a living off liberty.  But I’d be happy to help anybody in any way I could if the goal were simply this: Rule of Law under existing state and federal constitutions, as written.  You have that goal?  I’m with you.  If you can find ten with that goal, you’re better than I am; I can’t find five.  But if you can find anybody at all, I’d be happy to join your team.  You have another goal?  Well, God Bless you, but I’m not about your goal.  Personally, I’ve sacrificed too much of my family’s time and property to failed political endeavors.  I’ve helped others in too many counterproductive ventures, and I simply cannot do that any more.  I am not just being stubborn (not just stubborn), I’m picking my fights.  Lashing out at others isn’t my fight. 
4. I certainly don’t want people mouthing my words!  I want us to truly converge on a goal, and use all of our individual energies, talents and chutzpa to achieve our goal.  I do truly believe in free markets – I want to unleash that power now.  In fact I would like nothing more than to see others do far better than I with this goal!  I have failed so far, y’know.  I want Rule of Law under existing constitutions as written; I don’t care if it arrives in a silly ditty, a bumper sticker, or by performance art.  The more angles we try, the better and, maybe, more fun this could be.
5. All constitution-“oriented” goals are not the same!  You have no “second amendment” rights without Rule of Law!  You can’t have any <fill in the blank> amendment rights without the contracts that were amended, you know.  So converging on the second amendment is not the same as converging on the Rule of Law as our goal.  Besides, people who don’t want the second amendment may become your ally if you are willing to give them their constitutional rights too.  The constitutions are still the best compromises ever.

OK, maybe the energy behind the Tea Party events will translate into something ultimately more positive than the “Ron Paul R3volution,” that, I admit, had me praying out loud.  I will do my best to think positive about the energy displayed on Tax Day; and ignore some of the people, motivations and rhetoric that were apparent.  I will put out of my thoughts the fringy incompetence, silliness and mouth-breathing nonsense that some in the media (we do have some excellent allies in the media…I apologize for painting with a spray gun) love to draw out of our movement.

 

Maybe there is more mass motivation than existed during what should have been Ron Paul’s victory over the GOP idolatry machine.  Though it rankles that we’ve been so collectively blind for so long, our economic/social problems are now somewhat more obvious.  It did, in fact, take a lot of disturbing governmental violence to motivate our Founding Fathers, and such violence doesn’t exist today. 

Clearly, Kent State was too far in the past for us to consider that as any part of today’s social trouble, and it was just students, after all.  Events like Ruby Ridge are too unknown, and involve weirdoes anyway.  Operation Northwoods never actually happened; it was only a plan.  Waco was certainly all about weirdoes, so that can’t count.  And the discovery of Thermite at the WTC site notwithstanding, people who claim anything odd about what happened on 9/11 are tin-foil-hat crazy.

So, OK, maybe we’re motivated now, by the economy…

 

Could be. 

At any rate, I will do my best to avoid being once again a Nabob of Negativity.

The media were right to dismiss our “Tea Parties”

I shouldn’t say “I told you so.”  So I’ll just say, instead, that being right has never done me any good at all.  In fact, it’s been a costly annoyance to both me, and to all my loved ones.  Being right is no advantage in the voting booth; it seems absolutely detrimental in electoral politics.  It’s no advantage in any way I can think of.  And it’s downright dangerous to be right when the government and its media are wrong.

I hope, in fact, that I’m desperately, completely and astoundingly wrong about what’s coming next.  I pray that I am very, very wrong.

So I’ll not say “I told you so” about all the warnings, predictions, admonitions and sermons I’ve written, spoken and kinetically harangued upon my friends in the ongoing battle for liberty and justice.  No, I will restrain myself by means of superhuman humility and magnanimous spirit…

But we should admit that the media got it right.  They have correctly portrayed the “tea party” hubbub, and the liberty movement in general as undirected, vague, and ultimately, pointless blather.

It pains me to say so, but my allies in liberty and justice are not just wasting their own time and money.  Rather they are destroying our combined credibility.  They discredit truth, and are, in effect, stealing from us all by spoiling the opportunity for those who’d do the right thing.

What is the right thing?  I’ve said it many times on these pages, but maybe it’s just too simple to comprehend.  Maybe it’s too basic to seem like a clever tactic or even a pragmatic first step.

We all have to agree to what it is that we want.  And there is only one thing that I am aware of that all of us actually want…Rule of Law under existing state and federal constitutions as written.

We’re out of time for all this fooling around.  We must stop thinking of tactics and games.  We must stop thinking of others as our enemies when we need no enemy other than ourselves.  We will never convince others of anything as long as we are ourselves such doddering fools that we can’t articulate for the media just what the heck it is that we want.

Before I go and say again what it is that we should be doing, here’s the setup:

“The media” are not anything other than people.  While these particular people tend very strongly toward soviet-style authoritarianism, it’s not their ideology that causes us problems.  It’s the usual human laziness, mental weakness and idolatry that plagues us all.  Like us, they worship celebrities and disparage those who attempt to become one, and fall back to earth.  They kick such people.  Trust me. 

They love excitement, but see it in all the wrong places (sports, celebrities…and weather).  And like the rest of us, it takes the firm administration of a baseball bat to make them change their ways. 

So when you get a microphone in your face, “the media” will try to label you as quickly and dismissively as possible.  If you offer ten minutes of Patrick Henry-like rhetorical brilliance, they’ll air the one point at which you stumble and say, “ummm…”  If you speak convincingly about something they don’t understand or don’t like (Rule of Law under existing constitutions as written), and offer, for example, income tax, you’ll be dismissed as a “tax protester,” and nobody will ever hear what you said about the constitutions, or the sweetness of politics on a leash.

This last point is my whole point.

We must, immediately and without any waffling, converge on a single message and deliver it without any side trips, divergence, hesitancy or missteps.  We must simply, firmly, passionately yet reasonably present the demand that politicians, policemen and soldiers keep their oaths to the laws that protect us from them.  They must obey the written constitutions, as written.  No “interpretation” from the bench, no caveats, provisos, ifs, ands or buts.

You must not protest government spending, taxation, or even overt oppression.  Do not mention Ron Paul, though this is his cause too.  Don’t talk about central banking or “The Fed.”  You must not write letters, campaign or speak to neighbors about the myriad symptoms presented by our collective social disease.  We must address only the disease.  Quit nibbling at branches; it’s time to strike the root.

What’s the root that we can all agree upon?

The existing state and federal constitutions are still the best, most practical, most proven, most fair and just social contracts ever signed into law.  So let’s agree that these are exactly, and only, what we want.

We have easy communication now.  We can still move freely.

Do not assume that this will last much longer.  And most definitely do not assume that a “revolution” will get you what you want if you can’t even agree now what it is that you hope to accomplish with violence.  The hour is late, and our side is losing.  Your choice is not up to your enemies.  It’s all up to you.  Personally.  Right now.

Read It…Now.

It may be oddly written, and I’ve learned that it’s not the best office-party icebreaker.  But every Hoosier should read, understand and memorize Article I, Section 25 of the Indiana Constitution.  It is short, unambiguous, and very, very important right now.

“No law shall be passed, the taking effect of which shall be made to depend upon any authority, except as provided in this Constitution.”

What could these words mean, but that even legislation does not create authority; laws depend upon authority. 

It’s not only the Indiana Constitution that expresses this.  All throughout our constitutional republic, all political authority comes from our constitutions.

In other words, here in Indiana, as elsewhere under the Rule of Law established by our state and federal constitutions, politicians are not allowed to authorize themselves.  All of their power is written into constitutions, or that power is denied.

Just as you mustn’t allow a bad dog to hold his own leash, we mustn’t allow politicians to “interpret” the constitutions that restrain them.  “Legal precedent” and “case law” do not exist in our constitutions and have no legitimate power over constitutions.  Therefore, for example, no federal official can interpret away any first amendment rights because federal authority over religion, speech, press, assembly and petition is very plainly prohibited (see the First Amendment to the US Constitution).  All of our constitutions say this many times and in many ways; and constitutions were agreed upon and signed as solemn contracts (see the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1799).

Yet most politicians are routinely violating all of the laws that protect us from their historically demonstrated tendencies.  They have thus abrogated their legal authority, and rule by force alone.  Dick Cheney’s “nation of men, and not laws” is not just scary, it’s literally criminal.  This affects you more than you’ve been told.

Perhaps the most every-daily-relevant example is in your wallet.  State and federal constitutions mandate the use of gold and silver coin as money; and they’re clear that only our legislative assemblies have authority over this money. 

But that’s not how your money works now.  And the way your money works today, is to rob you right into your grave.

With all our record-breaking taxation, regulation and litigation, there is only one private enterprise in America that has never been regulated, audited, taxed or brought to justice.  It is the so-called “Federal Reserve” Bank that’s been printing Monopoly money and charging you plenty for it since 1913.  It’s not federal, there’s no reserve, and it’s most definitely unconstitutional!

Frustratingly, many of even my political friends and allies tell me that “we’re too far from the constitutions now; we can’t demand compliance.”  But that’s like saying that once a criminal has done his deed, we, as a culture have failed, and that the criminal must therefore go free. 

That is not sane.  That is self-flagellating madness.

Others claim that this is a democracy (why minorities want majority rule is beyond me), and voters can choose anything – even self-destruction. 

I concede that this is pretty much what is happening.  But that’s both unconstitutional, and suicidal. 

In each of my political races, and through all the years since 1995, I’ve proposed various plans to sunset all unconstitutional laws, agencies, powers and practices, and make the armed thug we call government go legit.  That is the law, it is morally right, it is proven to work…

…and our current path has proven to fail every time.

The Russian Revolution dreamed of liberty, justice and equality for all, but produced Stalinist nightmares and social collapse.  The French Revolution wielded the rhetoric but not the laws of our founders, so it was more about beheadings than freedom.  Even our own nation’s not-so-distant history illustrates oppression, slavery, genocide and war.  How can we think that now, with our government more powerful, secretive and intrusive than ever, we have put our ugly past behind us?

If you were to get curious and take the couple of hours necessary to read both the state and federal constitutions (yes, you really can read them without a federal judge telling you what they mean), you’d see that all of our biggest problems are unconstitutional. 

Most taxation and government spending is unconstitutional.  All military engagements since WWII have been unconstitutional.  Pork, corruption, spiraling healthcare and education costs and tumbling dollars are all unconstitutional.

And every American constitution, both state and federal, codifies our right to alter or reform our government.  The Texas constitution couldn’t be more clear that should the federal government break its side of the constitutional contract, then Texas is specifically free and sovereign.  And that’s in the document’s very first paragraph.

You ought to read it!

Say what you will about our constitutions.  Call them outdated, call them “agrarian.”  But then read them.  We have nothing better, and we’re headed toward a truly ancient and horrible default state without them.