…They must be kidding me

I wasn’t going to blog about such things. I really do mean to focus on my primary objective and avoid wasting time on anything else.

However, just moments ago I just opened the Final Order/assessment of a $503.68 “civil” penalty to the Horning for Governor campaign for what was, perhaps, the all-time most trivial offense against Indiana Election Commission paperwork.

We failed to properly close-out our meagerly funded campaign and report the money we didn’t make by their deadline.  That’s it.

But  the whopping fine, amounting to a huge percentage of what my campaign raised, is not what I’m writing about.

And no, it’s not that I’m miffed that Obama or Charlie White got away with much more serious violations of campaign and civil law, while a poor schlemazel like me has to cough up the dough.

(though, in case you’re wondering, I am miffed about all that).

No, I’m really writing about the two (2) quarter-sheet notices slipped into the envelope.

The two sheets were identical, and said,

ATTENTION

The styrofoam cube enclosed in this envelope is being included by the sender to meet a United States Postal Service regulation. This regulation requires the letter or package to be ¾ of an inch thick at its thickest point. The cube has no other purpose and may be disposed of upon opening this correspondence.

For any further questions or comments about the styrofoam cube only, please call 1-888-624-5990.

Now, there is so much wrong with this, that I hardly know where to start. Forget that Styrofoam^TM is a trademark of the Dow Chemical Company and should …by law,  be so noted. Forget that the enclosed bit was not a cube at all (it was supposed to be a parallelepiped, but it was smashed into a rhombus). I don’t care so much about clumsy or incorrect grammar and such (“is being included,” or “disposed of upon opening”). And I’m assuming I was given two notices by mistake (may I never find out that this is another regulation!)

No, this is just one of those freakishly weird regulations that none of us could possibly know about unless we’re in the business of sending dangerously, criminally thin packages. I see this as analogous to having to duck under a sign that says “WARNING, Low Sign / ¡ADVERTENCIA, Señal de baja! placed in accordance with the Officious, Unnecessary and Badly-Worded Signage Act of 2010” 

I’m quite tempted to call that 888 number and…  No, strike that.  I don’t even want to know how many people staff that line at taxpayer expense.  I think I’ll just slip the “cube” and the little sheets into the documents I’m mailing to the Governor (
http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/713/
).  Maybe he’ll be amused.  Maybe the package will look suspicious and get “special attention.”

Sigh…

We must oppose this unregulated regulation/lawless lawmaking madness with all our wits and might; and we must not waste any more time in this important endeavor.

Please join me.

Andy’s Annotated US Constitution

With all the disinformation and historical revisionism buzzing like flies on politics (even with the “Tea Party” as much as anywhere else), I just had to present what I believe to be the facts.

So here’s an annotated USA constitution again:
http://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/the-united-states-constitution.pdf

Summer 2010 Indiana Policy Review

Here’s the latest Indiana Policy Review summer 2010 journal - “A Tea Party Primer.”  Please pass it on to everybody you know.  Tell them to pass it on to everybody they know.

Etc.

It’s now or never, my friends…

Here’s one last column before I take down this site:

I have never believed in the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, or that creepy Tooth Fairy thing. 

But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t nurtured other baseless, nutty beliefs until some painful paroxysm jolted me awake. 

Many years ago, under horrible personal circumstances, I endured the same spiritual upheaval you’re feeling right now.  Just as with you, my religion turned out to be a big lie.  My false god turned against me, just as it’s turning against you now.  So like you, I can no longer believe in the charity, peace and love of …politicians. 

While initially painful, there is relief in this truth that sets you free. 

But there’s another problem.  Nobody alive remembers how liberty works.  We cannot imagine how schools, roads jobs, healthcare, or food ever existed without a political genesis, subsequent bailouts, lawsuits and bipartisan bickering.  Only if you’re over 100 years old did you even exist when there was such a thing as a free market; with all the innovation, competition and rapid advancement that entails.

So as we endure the agony of Change that’s not working, we must thoughtfully prepare a better way forward.  I suggest we first retrieve what we’ve lost from the past.

All federal authority is still clearly written into the Constitution for the United States of America (Article I, Section 8; Article II, Sections 2-4; Article III), which you could read in just a few minutes.  All other powers are still very clearly denied by one short sentence (Amendment 10).  Similarly, all Indiana government powers are spelled out in the Indiana Constitution, while every other conceivable power is still denied by a single sentence (Article I, Section 25).

No state or federal constitution was ever amended, altered or suspended to authorize most of what governments now do to citizens.  Nullification of anything unconstitutional is already law at every level of government in the republic.  So we have the right, the power, and the duty, to tell politicians to back off; all the way back to the constitutions.

Here’s a summary of what that means:

1. Citizens can do whatever they want to as long as they don’t harm anybody else, or take what’s not theirs.
2. We’d have no more government than necessary to maintain #1
3. We invite others around the world to emulate our success, but otherwise leave them the heck alone.
4. Your major civic duty is to disobey, invalidate and otherwise eliminate all unconstitutional taxes, mandates, organizations and agents.  Yes, civil disobedience is a duty. 

So caveat emptor would replace the FDA, FTC, FDIC, FCC and a zillion other F’agencies.  Common sense, family ties, competition, voluntary associations, charity and free market options galore would replace union/corporate monstrosities, Medicare, Social Security, lobbyists, regulations, litigation and price controls.  And because of the preceding, you get to keep what you earn, buy what you like (smoke it if you’re fool enough – and as long as you don’t blow it in my face), and live however and with whomever you want…as long as you leave others, and their stuff, alone.

No federal tooth fairies, no President coming down the chimney with presents, no more bogus political promises; just a reality proven to work better than anything else ever tried.

That may not be a Square Deal or a New Deal.  But it’s a fair deal, which makes it the best deal in all of human history. 

Can you live with that? 

People used to call that “freedom.”

And they liked it.

A Constitutional Convention Can Do …What?

Would a Constitutional Convention fix our constitutional problems?

The tiny percentage of us who’ve actually read any constitution, federal or state, know very well that all levels of our government operate in violation of these proven, fundamental, once-cherished and now-ignored laws.

So it’s no surprise that most of us sense a problem with the state of our union.  It’s similarly predictable that most of us misdiagnose the problem and then promote bad ideas as a cure.

But this problem of ungoverned government (a.k.a., anarchy) isn’t that our politicians are “out of touch.”  Far from it.  The problem is that our politicians represent us perfectly. 

We The People have completely violated “the supreme Law of the Land” at every level – federal, state, local and personal.  A constitutional convention now would only muddle matters with more laws written by lawbreakers in a society that has no respect for law. 

The real cure is to snap out of this madness, read the law and obey it as written:

The federal constitution’s tenth amendment decrees that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”  So whatever power isn’t specifically delegated in the constitution is completely denied. 

All state constitutions say something similar.  The Indiana constitution’s Article I, Section 25 says, “No law shall be passed, the taking effect of which shall be made to depend upon any authority, except as provided in this Constitution.”  In other words, not even legislation can create authority; only constitutions do that.

No constitution was ever amended to authorize most of what governments now do to citizens.

Even the Texas Constitution, the longest and worst (due to “runaway” amendments and usurpations some claim never happened and couldn’t happen in a new constitutional convention), obviates the need of any new laws in its 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.” 

Nullification of anything unconstitutional is already law in every state of the union. 

Let us pray that we do this soon, before somebody invokes Article 10 of the New Hampshire constitution: “…whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.”

Unfortunately, we get exactly what we want…

Update:  Here’s a much more civilized version of what’s written below:
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100407/EDITORIAL/4070332
 

Well, I got all agitated over a very bad idea from some very good folks, and sent a response to several people.  So I might as well air it out here.  In case you don’t know, Indiana HB 1065 acknowledges anti-constitutional “federal” and state firearms restrictions as law as it attempts to legalize what’s already legal by the clear wording of both state and federal constitutions.  It also, not incidentally, pushes aside property owners’ rights. 

It’s of course intended to be a positive step toward individual gun rights, but it’s yet another ”incremental,” and “pragmatic” step backwards.  It is, in other words, why the good guys are losing, and why we’re quickly reverting to our ancient, crude and ruthless authoritarian default state.  Anyway, here’s pretty-much what I wrote a few days ago:

Indiana’s HB 1065 is a good example of everything bad…with us.

If we would only insist upon the constitutions, as written, then why in the world would we allow such a thing as HB 1065 to weaken the constitutional mandate? Have a look at Article I, Section 32 of our state constitution (
http://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/indiana-constitution-book.pdf
).

It is crystal clear:

“The people shall have a right to bear arms, for the defense of themselves and the State.”

Why water that down? Why not insist upon it?
We vote for friendly demisocialists like Mitch Daniels because we’re idiots (today’s note: I have nothing against Mitch; it’s the people who voted for him that bother me). We rally around anti-constitutional bills as though they’re our friends because we’re idiots. We cast aside those who’ve been right for those who’ve always been wrong, and we throw away the best laws ever written for blithering nonsense that’s never worked.
Do we really think that new laws are better because they’re new? Why do we think future politicians will pay any more attention to them than to the foundational law that is the very basis of the lawmaking process…and to which they already swore an oath of support?
There are no shortcuts. Either we return to the constitutions as written (even if we have to write new ones), or we’re done…as a nation and as a free people.
Words must mean what they say. We must mean what we say.

We must know what we want, and say what that is…
People who promise to obey a flag and then step on the constitutions are not just stupid idolaters; they’re marauding oppressors.
I’ve personally seen an angry mob fire a mayor and city council.  I’ve seen angry letter/email/phone call-wielding people pass bills, defeat bills, and even overturn laws.  Having twice had 2.5 million people tell me to buzz off and take my constitutions with me, I know where the real power lies.

I’ve met the enemy, and it’s us.   …Not our ideological foes…us.

We who claim to love liberty need no other enemies as long as we oppose what’s already been done on our behalf.
We can fix our problems anytime we want to. But we apparently don’t want to.
We rally around half-@$$ self-destructive nonsense and refuse to unite over what we really want.
Sigh… I tried.

But it’s not up to me.
I can only watch as otherwise intelligent people do the same dumb things over and over and say that it’s the only way to go. As we plunge headlong into failure and oppression, the rallying cry is “that’s just the way it is!“
Sigh…

The law is already written that would make you free.  If you compromise, you can only lose.

Just cleaning out my closet…

As always, I’d thought I’d had the best of intentions.  But, as always, my best ideas weren’t worth spit to anybody with money and power…

Here’s the first of a set of demo “Liberty Minute” segments I’d hoped somebody would air/sponsor/touch with a ten-foot-pole:

Liberty Minute #1

Another one

And another one

I had a whole bunch of them…

But, to no avail. 

Sigh…

I really wish somebody would’ve taken me up on the liberty-themed bluegrass band (my banjo pickin’s rusty, but I could get my chops back), or the liberty-comedy videos, or the “Citizen Soapbox” night-out events, or the…

…well, none of those liberty-themed ideas worked.  Too much effort, I suppose. 

Perhaps we’re plunging toward our brutal default state because I just couldn’t get people excited about libertarian mime.  Maybe that whole constitutional ballet thing was badly conceived, but I’ll try anything if it promotes liberty and justice for all.

But I’ve been thinking a lot lately about liberty-based sports.  Americans know and care more about sports than anything else, apparently; and I’ve got this idea that’s a little like the winter games’ Biathlon, except without the skiing.  It’s even a little bit like football, in that things happen fast and you’ve got to know who’s on your side and who’s not. 

But it’s really like gladiator games or Ultimate Fighting, except these games are not in a stadium!

It’d be terribly exciting. 

OK, so just like other sports, there’s a possibility of serious injury or death.  Isn’t that part of the attraction?

But the prize for winning is liberty and justice for all! 

What could be more wholesome and fun?!?

…Anybody interested?

Eh…I suppose not.

What he should’ve said

I’m not breaking my vow to never blog again…I’m just sayin’ that our President’s speech was too long, and all wrong. 

Here’s what he (or McDonnell) should’ve said:

My fellow human beings, over the past hundred years, American voters have gradually surrendered their property, initiative, freedom and security to politicians, and that was a stupid thing to do. 

Now our debts and fears, crime and perversions have grown so big and obvious that, frankly, I’m embarrassed that you still think that you can trust politicians with your life, liberty and pursuit of health insurance.  The whole point of our constitutions was to put a leash on politics, so that real people could live by their own choice, generosity, sweat and ingenuity.  But we rob you blind, tell you we saved you from worse, and you’re still voting for our two-headed, Demorepublicrat monster.

Dang, people.

It’s by your choice that those who’ve been right all along are called “fringe,” and most accurately, “loser;” while those who’ve been wrong, or worse, deceived you intentionally, are called “expert,” “wonk,” or of course, “The Honorable so and so.” 

I cannot apologize for your choices, but I am truly sorry that we politicians did what comes natural to us, and that you still have much to suffer before our mess can be made right. 

I’ve already said that I’d rather be a good one-term President than a mediocre two-timer.  So whether voters have learned from our collective mistakes or not, I now intend to do what’s right.

And what’s right is to recognize that, while any fool can wield power, only the great restrain it. 

My fellow Americans, I am the President who will wean you off politics. 

You want somebody to care for you?  Make some friends, join a church or voluntary service association, and raise a good family.  If you can’t get people to care for you voluntarily, I’m sure not going to sqeeze taxpayers for you.

As for a financial stimulus?  I will suggest that Congress gets double-pay to just stay home and leave you the heck alone. 

About terrorism…we never should’ve gone weak-kneed over zealots with exploding underpants.

I’m telling all you red-blooded game hunters out there, that as of right now, it’s open season on terrorists.  Have at ‘em, but of course try not to make too many mistakes. 

Does that scare you?  If so, then you have no idea how much suffering takes place in the homes of our soldiers; and you have no idea how much our endless wars cost you in money, social disorder, freedom, security and opportunities lost forever.

Overnight, ordinary rednecks could end and forever scare away terrorism at a tiny fraction of the current cost in dollars, corruption and human life; and allow us to bring our troops home.  Not just from Afghanistan and Iraq, but from all over the world.  We’d no longer flex our muscles or play nanny on foreign soil, because the world would know that we are impenetrable here at home. 

As far as job creation goes?

I know economics was supposed to be two-thirds of my speech.  But government is violence, not business.  Government is more about oppression, slavery, genocide and war than anything else it may pretend to be.  It never creates.  It cannot give without first taking.  You should never have let us rob Peter to pay Paul.  Not only is it morally wrong in its essence, but you should have known that you are not Paul.

To wrap this up, let me say that I have read the Constitution that I swore to uphold against all enemies, foreign and domestic; and I now aim to do just that, as written in both black, and white.  People have fought and died for this precious contract, and I will never again let anyone in my administration treat it with anything other than respect. 

Then again, it’s up to you, American voters, to hold me to that.

Thank you, and may God bless us all.

Things would’ve been worse!

I take personal offense when politicians claim that their bailouts, color-coded alerts, regulation, litigation and other silly actions saved us from worse socioeconomic troubles.  Not only has their paper money and corporatist fetish been enormously destructive (the worst is yet to come), but it is actually I, Andy, who have saved us all from greater calamity so far.

That’s right.  Me.

You can’t imagine how much worse things would be now without my protests and angry letters to politicians about all the voodoo that they do.  My efforts have spared you from foreign marauders, socioeconomic collapse, and even the Ice Age that would’ve happened in the 1970′s if, well …

If it weren’t for me.

What; you take their word over mine?

Which government program has ever done what it was supposed to do, on time and within budget?  How’d the “War on Poverty” work out?  How about the “War on Drugs?”  Have we had a year’s peace since the “War to End All Wars?”  So far, the “War on Terror” has lasted longer and cost more than did WWII, and it seems we’re now looking for new enemies. 

Just imagine how much worse this could’ve been if it weren’t for me!

Politicians raise taxes to stimulate the economy and cut taxes to stimulate the economy.  They subsidize sports teams and rich bankers and pornographers and foreign dictators to stimulate the economy.  We should’ve been stimulated past Pluto by now but for one key fact: politics doesn’t work. 

Check any history book and you’ll see a perfectly unbroken, ancient and ongoing record of corruption, oppression, slavery, genocide and war.

So our once-precious Rule of Law gave way to violently Robbing Peter to Pay Paul; and you are not Paul. 

No, don’t thank me.  I expect nothing from my tireless efforts on your behalf.  But quit the Stockholm Syndrome with politicians.  They’ve got your money; they don’t need your praise, too.

A Short History of Health Care: Let Doctors Be Doctors

I just ran across this on another website.  It’s a column I wrote for Indiana Policy Review a couple of years ago that seems more appropriate than ever now.

A Short History of Health Care: Let Doctors Be Doctors
By Andrew Horning

Healthcare is an odd business in that it has always been both expensive and unpleasant. Until the 1920s, the average doctor couldn’t even help with the average ailment. While medicine then included a range of arts like phrenology, acupuncture, homeopathy and allopathy it really was a coin-toss whether you’d be saved or killed by a doctor’s work.

Then the 20’s brought insulin, sulfa, other “miracle” drugs and sterile fields that meant, for the first time, that healthcare actually worked more often than not. From there, doctors, scientists and medical engineers really took off; rapid advancements increased life expectancies and decreased suffering. And because of increasing effectiveness and supply, healthcare was even becoming cheaper in real cost-benefit terms.

However, politicians had nothing at all to do with this, and that was apparently a problem. Teddy Roosevelt proposed a German-style, cradle-to-grave “socialized” healthcare system, but it was assailed as “the Prussian Menace” in those anti-German years before WWI, and Teddy’s scheme died. Even so, politicians wanting to seem compassionate started promoting socialized healthcare. The July 1919 issue of the Insurance Monitor made this prescient assertion: “The opportunities for fraud upset all statistical calculations. . . . Health and sickness are vague terms open to endless construction. Death is clearly defined, but to say what shall constitute such loss of health as will justify insurance compensation is no easy task.”

No matter. Between The Revenue Act of 1939’s health-related tax breaks, and 1943, when the War Labor Board excluded employer-paid health insurance from its wage freeze, American politicians charged into health care on their favorite horse, income tax.

In a nutshell, here’s what happened: Tax breaks for employer-paid health insurance meant that health insurance became a part of employment, and insurance became an integral part of healthcare. This inserted middlemen, which of course made everything more expensive. But who cared? The tax-subsidized, payroll-deducted cost was invisible enough that Americans started using insurance to pay for routine visits, dental checkups, eyeglasses and even plastic surgery. Group insurance offered large corporations better plans than small companies could muster, giving large corporations even greater advantages in hiring and competition than corporate laws already gave them. This also meant that the poor, or worse, the self employed, were even further distanced from the rich and incorporated in a very serious way. Obviously this created problems, but politicians never admit error, do they?

Four days before Tax Day, 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower established the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, giving government even more direct control over some of humanity’s most precious commodities. More political money and power meant more reasons for businesses to make campaign contributions and lobby. Of course, politicians at every level of government have used healthcare policy to reward their friends and punish their enemies. That’s their stock in trade.

Now tax money and policy is sifted and sorted through political appointees, immortal bureaucracies and defense-contract-style arrangements to feed a dwindling number of profit-starved insurance companies who then deny your claim. Doctors hire legions of workers to manage the regulatory, litigative, and insurance paperwork hassles; or leave private practice to become an employee within a clerically staffed healthcare corporation. So healthcare is still both expensive and unpleasant. But now it’s only because politicians, not doctors, are practicing medicine. Our healthcare injustices and vital statistics have decayed into an embarrassment at just the time when technology should make healthcare cheap, effective and available to all.

It is hard to imagine what politicians could have done to make our healthcare situation any worse. Yet, according to a July 2006 Harris Poll, Americans rate the issue of healthcare well-behind Iraq, the economy, immigration and even gas prices. Even more strangely, most people now think we must, to some degree and by some unspecified method, “socialize” healthcare just as Europe, Canada and other nations are now scrambling back toward free market reforms. What are we thinking?

Let politicians have their way with Iraq, the Colts and toll roads. Let them run lotteries and practice voodoo. But please, let doctors do healthcare at last; they’ve earned the right.

Rotten, worm-eaten, stinking-evil contemptible…

I didn’t easily find more recent data, but as of about ten years ago, the average sentence for murder in the USA was about 16.5 years, meaning about 12 or so with good behavior (this last statistic as of 2005). 

Granted, your mileage may vary.  If you’re a famous ex-football player and movie star, you can kill a couple of people and walk away free; if you kill a cop, you’ll probably be dead before you can reload.  If you’re a senator or president, you can get away with just about anything. 

But typically, the average bloke can murder for the price of about 16.5 years.

Sexual assault may carry an average sentence of around 8 years, but you’ll be out in about 5 (again, 2005 statistics).  From there, the sentencing goes downward for robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and larceny, for which you can get out after about 18 months.  As you know, we have a lot of drug “offenders,” who’ve made our prisons something like revolving doors.  Sometimes you have to free murderers and rapists to make room for the pot smokers, but no matter; in an odd variation on Andy Warhol’s “15 minutes” of fame, it seems that nearly everybody will at some point be in prison for about 15 minutes for some kind of statutory offense (seatbelt laws, airbag laws, drug laws, medical coding laws, business licensing laws…).

Now here’s what I think is interesting:

Bernard Madoff never threatened anybody; he only talked people out of their money, and got a 150 year sentence.

Robert Kahre paid his employees a mutually agreeable wage using USA minted gold and silver dollars according to their face value and reported it all to the IRS according to the letter of the law.  But the IRS didn’t like it.  So he’s about to be sentenced for up to 296 years in prison.

So here’s what I think:

Your government, the one that you and your neighbors vote for with a 98% reelection rate, is evil and deserves only contempt and destruction.  Our laws mean nothing, our money is worthless, our culture is depraved, and if we don’t wake up and reform ourselves from bottom to top, we are doomed in the worst and every sort of way.

That’s all.  Have a nice day!