Updated Annotations to the US Constitution

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve edited this…

http://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/the-united-states-constitution.pdf

Watching the eyes go cold…

I had to kill a rooster about an hour ago.   He’d been attacking people, including me.  We all agreed that, while he was a prize-winning-beautiful bird, we had too many roosters and this taloned terrorist had to go.  So I finished my workday, and put on some gloves and safety glasses.  My youngest son Hark locked the dogs inside to avoid undue excitement (you don’t want your dogs to develop a taste for your chickens), and he also put on gloves and safety glasses.

Yeah, the rooster was mean and could jump high.  His spurs are sharp and his beak drew blood too.  A few weeks ago, Hark accidentally blinded the rooster’s right eye while fighting him off, but that only made the rooster even more fearful and aggressive.

I think he knew what was coming, as Hark and I started across the field toward the free-ranging flock. Maybe the saddest part for me was when he ran behind his favorite hen; the one whose back he’d plucked completely bare.  The cocky bully turned chicken in his final moments, and my heart sank.  I almost called the whole thing off.  Maybe I should have.

I don’t know.

Anyway, while my son and I both chased him down, I got the short straw as the one able to grab the rooster first.   I scooped up the squawking chainsaw of beak, feathers and two-inch spurs, and swiftly broke his neck.

I suppose it was as quick a death as possible, but man, I hated doing that.   It’s not as easy as it looks in movies; but worse, I took a life that was fighting for life.   He wanted to live, and I killed him.

Damn.

Since moving to the farm, I’ve had to kill many animals, for many perfectly understandable reasons, but I’ve never gotten used to it.  My hands shake and my spirit is heavy for a long time after strangling, shooting or twisting the life out of even the most vicious creature.  If anything, it’s getting harder every time.

Do not take me for a saint.  When I was very young, I had little trouble extinguishing the life of frogs, squirrels, or whatever else was on the wrong end of my shoe, slingshot, bow or gun.

But a more mature perspective has revealed to me the preciousness of life, and the horror of stealing life.  I don’t kill from childish fear or flippancy.  While I don’t at all begrudge hunters their sport, killing is never a sport to me.  It’s just something that sometimes has to be done in the real world.

Yes, this is about politics.   Damn it all, this is most definitely about politics.

What is politics, after all, but the delegation of reality to somebody else?   Politics is about taking somebody else’s money for our convenience and comforts.   It’s about risking somebody else’s life for our sense of security.   It’s about blaming somebody else for our choices and making somebody else pay for our mistakes.  Mostly, it seems these days, it’s about getting other people to do your violence for you.

Right?

Why else would we put up with it?

Anyway, the original societal design written into our state and federal constitutions is quite different from what we delude ourselves with today.

We citizens are supposed to take account for our own violence/killing…personally.  We are still (the laws of the land haven’t been altered) to be citizen soldiers, trained in the use and accountability of deadly force.  We are to consider what it means to look into another person’s eyes before snuffing out all his or her opportunities.  We are to think long and hard before entering another person’s nation to serve some political whimsey.  We are, in point of fact and fact of the point, to be responsible adults who treat others as we’d like to be treated.

It’s by no accident that we’ve laid most of the personal risks of war upon our young and ill-informed.  We know the human brain’s ability to assess risk and benefit is undeveloped and fragile in today’s soldiering age-range of teens to thirty.  It’s too easy to whip up  the young into a Hatfield v McCoy, or Colts versus Bears tribalism.  They are too brave, too fearless, too free of adult restraint, to be the antiviolent force that freedom requires.

It’s too easy for the fearful, selfish, greedy and foolish among us to direct these young bucks to do our evil for us in the name of patriotic duty.

Maybe this is a long way to come to my core point, but I didn’t want to just come out and directly state that I abhor that “…thank a soldier” mentality.

I have great respect for soldiers.  I’ve seen the service to great things for people who serve.  I’ve met very few rotten soldiers and plenty whom I admire.  Pretty much everybody in my family forever has been in the military at some point; some for their whole careers.  My dad was a decorated war pilot and POW.

But exactly who is it that ever takes away liberty?   Who is able to oppress, enslave and steal on a large scale?   Was it Stalin or Mao themselves who killed so many millions of their own citizens?

…Or did they have professional help?

Isn’t it obvious from even the most brief examination of humanity’s historical record that the permanent, professional standing armies that our founders warned us against are still our greatest threat?

Yes, it’s a bloody horrible thing to take a life with your own hands.  We should hate it.  We should avoid it as though it’s a stain upon our soul.   It is a taste of hell.

But it is a far worse, insane and wicked thing to delegate our killing to others and act as though it is some hallmark of civility.

Horrible, evil things happen.  Horrible, evil things must be opposed; sometimes by force.  Deadly force is very rarely necessary, but it does happen that it is necessary to kill.

But shouldn’t we bring that force into the light and make it both accountable, and personal?

Yes, taking life is ugly.   It is hellish horrid.   We really should own up to that.   We should personally weigh that evil against the comforts we claim from it.

It is a shame that’d make our founders shudder that we have turned this abhorrent thing into a career for so many, for so long.

Looking for a few good voters

I plan to place a series of large-format ads in the Indianapolis Star and a few other key newspapers around the state (donations made out to Horning For Senate, if you’re so inclined).  It will be a simple ad, with a simple logo, maybe a picture of me, some contact information, and something like this:

Looking for a few good voters

If you think this nation can keep going the same direction we’re going, then, please, read no further and have a nice day.

If, however, you’re concerned about our future, then please, read on.  We may need you.

OK, the bad news is that we have nobody but ourselves to blame for the cronyism, the violence, the injustice and self-destruction of our culture.  We The People have exactly and only what We The People have chosen with our wallets, our actions, our voices (and/or silence) and our votes.  We certainly cannot blame the politicians and political abstractions we’ve chosen over and over again.  They’re just doing what comes natural, what they can get away with, and what we ask them to do.

The good news, however, is that We The People can have exactly and only what We The People choose.  We don’t have to turn to anybody else to fix our problems.  It is not too late to clean up our messes and choose the life we want to live.  It’s never too late; and there is currently no need for a “revolution” anywhere but in our own minds and voting arms.

Of course, the bad news with that is that we don’t get what we want, we get only what we choose…and we’ve felt as though there are no choices but that two-headed crony network we call the “two party system.”  We have been betrayed and deceived.  It’s understandable that your trust in any politician, even ones you’ve never given a chance, is very low.

Then again, the good news with that is that there never really has been a “two party system;” that’s just an abstraction of some pretty bad choices on our part. We can fix that with just a little information.

Alright, so the bad news is that most people can’t even imagine how this country could work better. Trained in government schools and suckled on government handouts, surrounded by government actions and always aware of our wars, nobody alive remembers how life worked before we had all the “programs,” taxation, regulation and litigation that are now sucking us dry. Nobody alive remembers how “national security” worked before we began endless games of international “whack a mole” with our children’s lives.  Nobody alive can remember how we could have schools, roads, jobs or healthcare without giving everything unto our new Caesars.  We are all caught in the monkey traps of Social Security, Medicare, “national security,” “education” and “welfare.”

Ahh, but there is more good news.  The good news that outweighs all the bad is that it’d take only a little more than a third of Hoosier voters to set this nation to a better direction, a proven direction.  It’d take only slightly more than a third to crack the cronies’ pedestals and govern our government by rules that are few enough that everyone can know them; simple enough that everyone can understand them; and important enough that every single one of them is to be obeyed by everyone (even the rich and mighty) equally, without exception, all the time.

And my fellow Hoosiers, those rules exist; they are proven to work better than anything else humans have ever tried; and they are already the Law of The Land. They can be ours again as soon as we choose them.

This is not fantasy.  The fantasy, though a very bad one, is what we’ve been doing.  The dreamers are those who think we even can preserve the authoritarian, lawless status quo.  The fools are those who keep voting for it.

We all make decisions every day that impact our families, our careers, our children’s future.  I’m asking only that you give more thought to your vote than you have ever dedicated to it before.  I’m asking that you read your state and federal constitutions to see what you have been missing, how you have been misled, and how you can fix it all on Election Day.

We can fix this country.  We can live in peace, prosperity, security and freedom if only we choose to. That choice will be at least in part represented as Andrew Horning (L) for US Senate.  But the choice is yours.

Who’s been bought off?

It makes news when some foreigner (like Henrique Capriles Radonski) challenges a foreign, long-entrenched murderous thug (like Hugo Chavez).  Such news makes headlines and waves all over the world.  In foreign politics, sports, and even in real life, we love a “come from behind” “Cinderella Story” of bravery challenging the odds.

But what do we hear about those who’d challenge the world’s longest-running and most-corrupt crony network operating here in the USA?  Do we admire the underdogs who’d offer an alternative to a machine of war, theft and deceit that’s been left alone with near-total power in the USA since 1913?

From personal experience, I must say, no.  In fact, we call them “fringe,” “lunatic,” or at best, when we don’t want to come out and say, “loser,” we call each of them a “wasted vote” with “no chance” in that entrenched, violent, stinking-rotten and generally disliked two-faced regime we’ve come to call (because we’ve been told to) “the Two Party System.”

Why is that?  Why do we voluntarily choose to live in a downward-spiraling, robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul cronyism, lawless and brutish debt bomb?

Well, I think it’s because we’ve been bought off with our own money, that’s why.

Who among us doesn’t at least at some point in the day feel a part of some arbitrary abstract “class” of citizen that has a “special interest” in our adversarial system of politics?  Whether it’s the struggle of men versus women, gay versus straight, black versus white, or something even more abstract like activated Reserve, beneficiary, incorporated businessman or taxpayer, we all seem forced to “take a side” in a system that is now entirely based upon taking something from somebody, and sometimes, giving it to somebody else.

Sometimes it’s just taking; and we hope to keep a little more than the next guy gets to keep.  Sometimes we’re on the receiving end (Medicare, Social Security are the biggest, broadest examples), and we have come up with all manner of justification for what we take from our neighbors.

Always, it seems, one half of the “two party system” is “on your side;” while the other half is “against you.”

It’s hard for me to imagine why we’ve not demanded at least a year’s military peace since the War to End All War, but we’ve been told that our whole system will crash down like dominoes unless we keep ferreting out and smacking down the hobgoblins and demons always lurking somewhere overseas.

Anyway, you have invested, and you feel stuck.  You’ve witnessed “rope a dope.”

That it is immoral in the extreme as well as very clearly illegal doesn’t matter.  It is, we’re always told, and so we always say, “The Way Things Are.”

Well, life is what you make it.  We The People have exactly and only what we choose.  It’s in your power to keep “The Way Things Are” the way things are; or change it to whatever you want.

I have a proposal.  I offer rules that apply to everybody equally – written rules that are few enough that everybody can know them; simple enough that everybody can understand them; and important/useful/critical enough that everybody must obey all of them without exception, all the time.  The rules are proven to work if obeyed, and they’ve been called brilliant and exemplary by people all over the world.  They are also the law, right now.

It’s all here, and here.

I’m not holding my breath that my quixotic campaign will do any better than ever before.  I’m not even saying that I’m a brave person to offer such a challenge to our corrupt status quo.  And please don’t call me Cinderella.

I’m just putting rule of law under existing state and federal constitutions on the ballot under the name Andrew Horning (L).

Whatever happens next isn’t my decision at all.

It’s all yours.  You’re the one who must decide if you want to keep doing what you’ve been doing, or something else for a change.  A real change.  It’s up to you, and the time to choose is just around the corner.

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

IPR SERIES | A Tea Party Primer for July 4

If you’re in Indiana, please ask your local paper to print this…

IPR SERIES | A Tea Party Primer for July 4

via IPR SERIES | A Tea Party Primer for July 4.

Of course, if you’re not in Indiana, you should tell your local paper to at least read it.  The Rule of Law is Law everywhere in the USA, and we seem to have forgotten this to our dismay.

And the Immigration column is appropriate all across the country; particularly in Arizona and Texas right now…

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.

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.

Where are Samaritans when you need them?

I’ve had it with “religious leaders” spewing socialism.

If Satan has a Bible, I’m sure this is in it: that people should, with all the best intentions, delegate their own, personal role on earth, to politicians.

Where in the Bhagavad-Gita, Torah, Tipitaka, Bible or Koran could you find such evil sophistry?

Universal Healthcare isn’t charity – it is putting a gun to your neighbor to make him do what you won’t do yourself. Social Security isn’t caring for your mother – it’s the hole you personally push her, and your children, into to assuage guilt and allay fears. And you already know that “Homeland Security” has nothing to do with peace and liberty, right?

Our nation’s founders intended that citizens should defend themselves; not just against petty criminals, but against all enemies, foreign…and domestic, as citizen militias. They intended that our churches and voluntary associations, working without the armed aggression of politics, would comprise the departments of Health, Education and Welfare, so that the abstract and erratic junkyard dog we call “politics” would stay in the junkyard, restrained by the tall fence we call Rule of Law.

All of this required that individual citizens, personally, serve the needs of their neighbors; and that we remember, with cold chills, the true history and nature of politics, and people.

Imagine a man was just starting his Corvette after a sales call in northwest Houston, when he was beaten, stripped and left for dead where his car used to be. A TV preacher saw the man, and noted that he really should call 911, but this gave him a sermon idea, so he hurried on. A well-regarded politician saw the man, and said, “dang, I sure don’t want to be seen with a naked man!” And so he also scurried on. But a Mexican, fresh over the fence and scared, hauled the man into his rusty Corolla, took him to the hospital, and even gave his contact information to the ER admitting staff, just if he could be of any help at all, or could pay in any way, for the man’s care.

Who should we emulate? Are there any lessons, in any religion, that tell you otherwise?