Being President Means Never Having To Say You’re Sorry

What if I were to say to my justifiably angry, insulted and hurt wife, “I could have calibrated those words differently”??

What if I were to saunter into work six hours late after hosing up a multimilliondollar project and call it a “teachable moment” for all Americans?

Oh for crying out loud.   Is it so hard for a President to simply say “ I screwed up and I’m sorry?”

The constant twisting of words, arrogance, continual and prideful invocation of his office should convince us, once and for all, that Barack Obama is just another politician.   No different from the previous one, or two, or six.

He is not “The One.”   He is not our “Saviour” or any other lofty abstraction publicly applied to this Chicago machine tool.   He is no better than the least of us.

…Except, of course, that this man has access to armies, cops and nuclear weapons.  And he likes using force and intimidation to get what he wants.

We should humbly, seriously reflect on that.

In fact, this really should be a teachable moment for all Americans.  We should wonder out loud and with our friends; not just why his mistakes are America’s lesson, but also why the violent, failure-doomed ideology of Nero, Stalin, Hitler and Che is “cool.”  Why do bumper stickers, logos and banner waving, cheering crowds of young people promote oppression?  How did hip young people, within just a generation or two, transmogrify their ideology from the 60’s-70’s mistrust of power and armed agents of government, into today’s violent disarmament of citizens to make them submit under authoritarian rule?  How did that get cool? 

How did the totally voluntary interactions between adults in a free market become a bad thing, while the inherently armed aggression of politics is …hip?

Words are powerful.  Obama knows that.  That’s why he almost never uses any real words, and instead butters our ears shut with fairy-dusted snot.   It was an accident that he actually said something of meaning.

The inconveniencing of his elite friend raised emotions in this typically cold creature, and he said something revealing.  

Words send armies to war.  Words heal bruised feelings.  Words comfort the frightened and frighten the wise.   It’s insidious necromancy that “government” sounds good when it’s the same thing as “politics;” which we all know sounds bad.

Pseudo-smart young kids think that (often because they’re taught to) it’d be cool if “government” were to take a role in every aspect of business, education, health and welfare.   But who’d think it’d be so swell if “bickering and corrupt politicians” were to get their mitts on those things?  This isn’t just words we’re playing with – it’s oppression, slavery, genocide and war we’ve made into catchy slogans.

It’s time for some idol-smashing.   Look hard at that man we’ve elected to be the savior of humanity.   Look hard at the history of “In Politicians We Trust.”  

The collection of swaggering elitists who’ve been both law-breaking and dead-wrong about everything they’ve said for over a hundred years shouldn’t be called “experts” and “your honor.”   They should be called the criminals and liar-fools they are and dealt with accordingly.

Or, what the heck?   Maybe we should all act like that.   Maybe we just keep ignoring the blossoming of crime and injustice we’ve been ignoring for decades (admit it; you’ve ignored the headlines of human traffic/slavery and exploding corruption, rape and murder), and just go with the examples set from the top.   Never say you’re sorry.   Never admit anything, in fact.   Try to never say what you mean or mean what you say.   Make horrible plans that you know are stupid and can’t happen, and watch them come true before your eyes!  

And then, above all, forget about “please” and “The customer comes first.”   It’s every man for himself and Rule Of Tyrants instead of Rule Of Law.   Yee haw!   Grab your guns and leave morality behind; we’re all politicians now!

Maybe I have finally figured out why the bumper stickers say “Power of Pride” instead of, “how about some humility?”  Maybe I more fully understand why we train our kids to be confident instead of competent.

Sheesh.  What have we become?

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? 

 

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.

…You think TAXES are a problem?

Before all the “Tea Party” events swirl through the news, there’s something I have to get off my chest.

Despite what you’ve been told about the cause of our Revolutionary War, you’ll be half-way through our Declaration of Independence before you see taxation mentioned, and then only in regard to imposing taxes on us without our consent.

After that, guess what?  Taxation doesn’t appear again.

Even “taxation without representation” (not in the Declaration, and the phrase was popularized later in the conflict) isn’t so much about taxation as it is about colonists’ right to proxies in the seat of power.

You see, the real reason our founders declared independence from England was King George’s “refusal to assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.” The Declaration cites the King for 27 violations of rights that Englishmen were due by written law. It was Rule of Law instead of rule of tyrants that our founders wanted — not anything unreasonable or even new.

Of course, from the moment the US Constitution was made law, politicians resisted its limitations on their power, such that by 1799, just ten years after ratification, both Madison and Jefferson wrote the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions to reassert federalism …or face annulment and dissolution of the union!  They demanded Rule of Law under existing constitutions as written…and they meant it.

Right now, we do not operate under Rule of Law by the constitutions as written.  We are under Common Law, or law by judicial decree.  The difference is huge; and as predicted by our founders, ultimately fatal.

No political power is any longer bound by any written laws.  In fact, as the courts are servants of the greater political/finance machine, there are no real limits on political power at all. 

So you have no rights.

You have no second amendment because you have no constitution.  You have no first amendment because you have no Rule of Law.  You’ve got nothing that can’t be taken away from you.  Not your property, your rights, or your life.

I’m scratching my head wondering why we think we have any other issues?

But no.  We divide and conquer…ourselves.  Second Amendment advocates campaign against our constitutional right to sin without civil punishment (as long as we don’t hurt others).  Those who call themselves “First Amendment Champion” typically oppose the very first right mentioned in the Frst Amendment’s five enumerated rights.  We each have our favorite rights, but we doggedly, stupidly, deny others’ their rights.

And so we have none at all.

And we think, on Tax Day, that how much of the Fed’s monopoly notes we feed the meter is, in itself, a problem?

Taxation out of control is only a minor symptom of a fatal disease, and we’re running out of time.

Right now we can communicate with amazing ease.  We can travel unimpeded.  We can form groups and meet.  But because we won’t even ask for constitutional Rule of Law, these are not rights; they’re conditional privileges with increasing conditions and decreasing privilege.  Soon, we will lose these privileges to the degree that opposition to our oppressors will be very, very difficult.

You think I’m kidding?  You think I’m in mouth-breathing hysteria mode beyond any reason?  You think that happy days are, as the experts tell us, just around the corner?

Actually, our government is blowing the great bubble even bigger for one huge, stinking, bloody pop.

Read any history book.  Then look at current events and see that those who’ve been wrong every time before are today called “pundits,” “experts” and “leaders,” while those who’ve always been right are called “fringe” and “losers.” 

Look at all the fallen nations before us and imagine what they must have been thinking in their final days.  I’m betting they all thought, “surely not!  That could never happen to us!”

Well, on a happier note, God is in control. 

He knows that we’re not!

In that, I find some comfort.

Time out for a fond farewell…

I just wanted to say goodbye to J. Patrick Rooney; a former gubernatorial candidate himself, and a man who earned a lot of money…and did a lot of good with it.

While he didn’t fund my campaign (the best possible use for anyone’s money), he did put his money where his mouth was in education choice, healthcare/insurance choice, and from time to time, politics. 

The last time I saw him was at a Friedman Foundation event just a few weeks ago.  He spoke some very, very encouraging words for me; and I am very, very sorry that he’s gone.

Even so, he lived to a ripe old age, and as far as I can tell, he has even better times ahead of him now.

Good bye, sir.  I trust you have now heard the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

NewSpeak

I wrote this column about 5-6 years ago.  But I think it’s still relevant:

The word “egregious” comes from a Latin root that means “outside the flock.” Originally, and for quite some time, “egregious” meant “illustrious,” or exceptionally good. But ours being a brave new world, “egregious” now means exceptionally bad.
The word never meant “average” or “centrist;” not even briefly. It just flipped from one extreme to another with no stops in between – just like quantum physics. This phenomenon is odd, but harmless in common speech.
Quantum political speech, however, is another matter. In politics the stakes are wealth and poverty, life and death, peace and war. And in politics, words are law.
“Federal” used to mean a limited, distributed trust between sovereign states. What we call federal government now is actually its opposite; an all-powerful central force that should be called “unitary.”
“Liberal” used to describe our libertarian founders view of limited government; now the word means its exact opposite, socialism. “Conservative” meant a desire to keep status quo. But modern conservatives spend more money, and increase the size and scope of government to a degree and speed that “liberals” must surely envy.
JFK gave the rich their biggest tax cut ever. In 1932, FDR called Hoover a socialist and campaigned for fiscal restraint. The anti-communist Nixon was more socialist than Bill Clinton. Republican Teddy Roosevelt was a tree hugger. And Democratic Senator Byrd of West Virginia is called “Sheets.” …You know why.
Every label, every stereotype, every concept of party we apply to American politics has flip-flopped in the most egregious manner.
So with all the talk about “Democracy” in Iraq, I’d like us to pause, take a cleansing breath, and think before we leap into yet another brave new meaning.
Alexander Hamilton wrote of the early USA, “We are now forming a republican form of government. Real liberty is not found in the extremes of democracy.”
Benjamin Franklin was more to the point, “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”
I hope you know that we don’t live in a democracy. Democratic elections are merely the method by which we select our proxies in a Republic. And as any minority should know; real democracy, or majority rule, can mean slavery, Jim Crow, and that the angry mob gets its way.
After the democratic rise of Hitler, Mussolini, and a gaggle of tin-pot dictators around the globe, we really should ask ourselves which we’d rather have; democracy or liberty, because you can’t have both. We should ask if it’ll be democracy, or rule of law, because you can’t have both.
And as we speak the word “democracy” in reverential tones, let’s remember that less than half of our eligible citizens vote. So we may claim great wonders from our democratic process, but it’s only in ignorance of the real blessings of citizen freedom and might, and of all the wealth and opportunity made possible by a “liberal” form of government kept on a constitutional leash.
We need to restore the proper meaning of “liberty,” because even to the imperfect degree that we’d ever achieved it, liberty is what made the USA strong, prosperous, and egregious, in the best sense of that word.

When you need a job done right…

I’m running for the constitutional office of Indiana Governor, and I’ll be seeking the nomination of the Libertarian Party, since the GOP has proven that it is more enemy than friend of liberty and justice. 

The GOP has chosen to cast Ron Paul into the dustbin, so things aren’t looking great on the Rule of Law front nationally.  Since Indiana is number 45 in the primary crapshoot, and the “contest” will be decided by then, we won’t even have a national say in the matters of liberty, security, peace and prosperity. 

…Or will we? 

I’ve decided that I must offer ROL here in Indiana.  Nobody else has stepped up to do it.  I expect I’ll be the only candidate for the constitutional office of Indiana Governor. 

But one is better than none, eh? 

I need all the help I can get.  It doesn’t matter what you think you know, or what skills you possess.  This is all about spreading the message that liberty works/ that politics does not; and I need your ingenuity and personal connections to do this.   

You can start working on the campaign this very minute.  Tell everybody you know to do the same.  There is an alternative.  We can govern our government.   

The constitutions are already written, already proven, and already the law.  We just need somebody to dust them off and use them …just as the constitutions demand. 

I would honor the oath ““to support the Constitution of this State, and of the United States…” (Article 15, Section 4 of the Indiana Constitution).  And if you’ve read anything in this blog, you know that says a whole lot that needs saying right now.  Honoring that oath would mean a drastic, immediate and cleansing change for Indiana…and the USA. 

If you’re interested in joining the fun, let me know immediately!

Also, we’ll be setting up a website at http://www.horningforgovernor.com and http://www.horning.2008.com/ Tell everybody.  Start now.