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	<title>We Declare</title>
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	<description>We Declare that politicians must obey written laws as written.  No "interpretation," no ifs, ands or buts.  This is the official blog of Andy Horning.</description>
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		<title>Yes to Dr. No?</title>
		<link>http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/yes-to-dr-no/</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:28:13 +0000</pubDate>
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				<category><![CDATA[Candidate]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Ron Paul]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[I really haven&#8217;t taken the time to verify everything I&#8217;ve read about Dr. No.  But I&#8217;ve met him several times &#8211; even went to his birthday party a couple of years ago &#8211; and, full disclosure, he sent me money for a political campaign.  I am very highly biased in favor of this man&#8217;s integrity and purpose.  [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=wedeclare.wordpress.com&amp;blog=1639019&amp;post=813&amp;subd=wedeclare&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I really haven&#8217;t taken the time to verify everything I&#8217;ve read about Dr. No.  But I&#8217;ve met him several times &#8211; even went to his birthday party a couple of years ago &#8211; and, full disclosure, he sent me money for a political campaign.  I am very highly biased in favor of this man&#8217;s integrity and purpose.  So, I&#8217;m just posting something here that somebody sent me.  I believe (but don&#8217;t know for certain) that it&#8217;s all true:</p>
<p>In his high school years Ron Paul became the 220-yard dash state champion, he played football and baseball, and was student council president. An injury ended Ron&#8217;s career in sports, but he still managed to become the only Congressman in history to knock the ball out of the park in the Congressional Baseball Game.</p>
<p>He began working at his father&#8217;s dairy at age five, and later delivered newspapers and became a milkman upon reaching driving age. He paid for his first year at Gettysburg College with saved lemonade-sale and lawn-mowing money. In the later college years he started delivering mail and also managed the college coffee shop called &#8220;The Bullet Hole&#8221;. He earned a medical degree from Duke, became a &#8220;career obstretrician&#8221; and delivered over 4000 babies. In his practice, he refused Medicare and Medicaid payments, instead treating the poor at a discount rate or for free.</p>
<p>Ron Paul&#8217;s been married to his spouse Carol for over 50 years. He has 5 children, all of whom believe in him and support him.</p>
<p>He is a Southern Baptist and a Christian of deep faith, but never uses his religion in political fights.</p>
<p>Ron Paul is the only veteran in the race and he served part of his time close to the Afghani-Pakistani border back in the 60s. He gets three times as much donations from active military duty personnel as all other republican candidates combined, and 10 times the amount the next candidate, Romney, gets. That&#8217;s because Ron Paul is the one who wants to use the military with a clear goal &#8211; to defend the country. This means that if necessary he would send the troops to war, fight it, win it and get the troops back home. Other candidates want to continue the policy of sending the troops to wars without specific goal, nation-building missions without end, where soldiers risk their lives and they don&#8217;t know what for. Soldiers want to know that what they&#8217;re doing makes sense and they believe Ron Paul is the one who will not put them into fight without good reason.</p>
<p>Ron Paul entered politics not for personal gain, but because he was worried about wrong economic policies Washington was pursuing. He wanted to stop the out-of-control growth of the federal government. He opted out of the lucrative congressional pension plan and over the years returned over (&#8230;) million dollars from his budget to help pay off the national debt.</p>
<p>He is known to be incorruptible and the lobbyists don&#8217;t even bother to go to him. They know he will follow the Constitution and not what they tell him.</p>
<p>Ron Paul is the only Congressman in the last 20 years with a 100% Constitutional voting record. How is it possible? Simple. Before he decides on a bill, he always checks if it&#8217;s allowed by the Constitution. If it&#8217;s not, he votes against it.</p>
<p>He has always stood on principle, regardless of the political winds. He gave his support to Ronald Reagan long before it was popular, when Reagan was still sidelined and mocked by the establishment in 1976.</p>
<p>While the top campaign contributors of all other candidates are Wall Street and big corporations, Ron Paul gets almost all of his support from ordinary people who give him 50 or 100 bucks at a time.</p>
<p>Ron Paul is the only candidate with a deep and proven understanding of economics and monetary policy, far beyond the talking points other candidates use.</p>
<p>He&#8217;s been the only politician in Washington to predict the housing bubble, suspected it was coming in 2001 and was certain of it in 2003. You can check his old writings and congressional testimonies if you don&#8217;t believe it. He almost single-handedly raised public awareness about the Federal Reserve Bank, the institution which used to operate entirely in the shadows for decades. He is the only candidate with the knowledge needed to reform the banking sector and resurrect the economy after the financial crisis.</p>
<p>Thanks to an audit that Ron Paul pushed through Congress, we learned that the Federal Reserve had been bailing out foreign banks to the tune of 5 trillion dollars, and had given 30 billion to Qaddafi&#8217;s Bank of Libya, when Qaddafi was still in power. Ron Paul is the only candidate in the race, who has opposed the bailouts from the beginning and has never flip-flopped on the issue.</p>
<p>Ron Paul is the only candidate in the race who offers a plan to cut spending. None of the other candidates wants to cut any spending, what they&#8217;re talking about is cutting the proposed increases. Instead of raising spending by 500 billion they want to raise it by 400 billion, and they call it a cut. All other candidates guarantee that America will have a debt crisis like the bankrupt welfare states in Europe and the Social Security and Defense budgets will have to be slashed in a chaotic manner.</p>
<p>The establishment in Washington already discussed plans to take over the people&#8217;s pension funds to pay for the government spending. Ron Paul will avoid this by cutting wasteful and unnecessary government spending in a sensible fashion, so that people&#8217;s IRAs, the Social Security fund, and Defense of the Homeland are not sacrificed.</p>
<p>The health care system in the United States is costly and often ineffective. Instead of fixing it, president Bush added to the costs by introducing the prescription drug program and president Obama introduced the Mandated Insurance, taking control over medical expenses further away from the patients. All that the other Republican candidates are capable of is repealing Obamacare. Ron Paul has a plan to empower the people to take control of their money, bring the competition back into health care and restore the doctor-patient relationship.</p>
<p>Ron Paul&#8217;s health care plan provides the employees with the same tax deductions that today apply only to employer-provided insurance. It empowers the people to take full control over their health care money themselves. Everyone will be allowed to put together an individual medical plan that best suits one&#8217;s needs. Ron Paul will allow the people to purchase insurance over state lines, ending the local insurance monopolies and bringing prices down. The excessive restrictions put on the medical personnel by lobbyists will be undone, and the nurses will once again be able to perform easier procedures, bringing the costs down. A tax credit will encourage doctors to provide services charitably to the poor. Finally, the out-of-control legal liabilities which force hospitals to spend hundreds of billions of dollars every year on unnecessary procedures in fear of the lawsuits, will be in most cases eliminated and replaced with the medical insurance contracts. Allowing the hospitals not to perform unnecessary procedures will bring down the cost of health care by additional 3000 dollars per household every year.</p>
<p>Health insurance is now 1/4 of the whole worker&#8217;s compensation. Lower costs of health insurance will bring down the cost of work and employers will be able to hire a lot more people. With health care costs reduced, the people will have more money left to spend and invest. Ron Paul&#8217;s health care plan alone would be enough to kick-start the economy.</p>
<p>The other politicians constantly invoke fear: fear of global warming, fear of people having guns. They need it to grow the size and power of the government, because the scared population is more likely to give away their rights and their money. Ron Paul has been a staunch defender of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, fighting to protect the 2nd amendment, to protect the right to privacy, to protect the right to a fair trial.</p>
<p>Ron Paul&#8217;s opponents scare the people with a nuclear bomb being smuggled to the USA and exploding in one of the American cities, yet none of them has any plans to secure the American border. If some ordinary criminals can smuggle weapons and drugs through the border, the terrorists could do the same with the bomb, if they had one. Ron Paul understands that the leaky borders are a great threat to national security. He will save money on fruitless nation-building in the Middle East and use it to protect the borders and expand the Coast Guard, to insure that no terrorist can infiltrate the United States either by land or by sea. Ron Paul is the only candidate with a serious plan to make America substantially safer, by protecting the border, concentrating the defense forces that have been spread thin, and avoiding a financial debacle.</p>
<p>Ron Paul is the only candidate with enough conviction, knowledge and integrity to shape the course of events in these difficult times. None of his corporate-funded opponents has a credible plan to reform the banking system, avoid a debt crisis and secure the entitlements for the people that have paid into them all their life. None of these establishment candidates is willing to put the rule of law, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights first, like Ron Paul does. Every one of his opponents supported the bailouts. None of them has a plan to secure the border. None of them has a plan to fix the health care system.</p>
<p>The opponents of Ron Paul are not going to challenge the status quo on the issues that matter. They are guaranteed to go with the tide, bringing the country closer to national bankruptcy and endangering the accomplishments of generations of hard-working Americans. Learn about Ron Paul, search the Internet, ask your children to find more information about him for you, and you will see that he&#8217;s the best candidate for President America has had in a long time. You have a choice, your actions matter. Register to vote in the state Republican primary, become a delegate to the caucus, choose Ron Paul and help restore the American Republic.</p>
<p>RON PAUL 2012</p>
<p>Ron Paul is totally different from any of his opponents and most other politicians. Compare and contrast and you&#8217;ll see that every time he&#8217;s different, it&#8217;s for the better. Hire a friendly show host or someone alike who can pump up the crowd with a speech. Distribute the message in print so that the rally attendees take it home. Attach it to the Super Brochure mailings. Spread it. Do something with it. Ron Paul&#8217;s ideas are great, but their greatness can be recognized a hundred times better when compared to the others&#8217;.</p>
<p>The community needs to spread this. I don&#8217;t know who would reject this reasoning. Someone with better writing skills could rewrite it more eloquently. Ultimately I wish we will create a polished text similar in content to the one presented and make it into a pdf file that anyone could download, print in large amount (even at home) and distribute. What do you think?</p>
<p>Please VOTE UP &amp; COMMENT.</p>
<p>Nice link about Ron&#8217;s life: <a title="http://streetsmartdirect.com/ronpaul.html" href="http://streetsmartdirect.com/ronpaul.html" target="_blank">http://streetsmartdirect.com/ronpaul.html</a></p>
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		<title>Putting the constitutions on the ballot&#8230;again</title>
		<link>http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/putting-the-constitutions-on-the-ballot-again/</link>
		<comments>http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/putting-the-constitutions-on-the-ballot-again/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:55:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>wedeclare</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Candidate]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Andrew Horning, Candidate for Indiana US Senate December 12, 2011 Freedom, IN: There’s been some noise about this year’s National Defense Authorization Act.  The December 5 Forbes.com published the ominous-sounding article, “The National Defense Authorization Act is the Greatest Threat to Civil Liberties Americans Face.” Oh hogwash.  The Act is just a bunch of words.  [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=wedeclare.wordpress.com&amp;blog=1639019&amp;post=810&amp;subd=wedeclare&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;">Andrew Horning, Candidate for Indiana US Senate </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;">December 12, 2011 </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Freedom, IN: There’s been some noise about this year’s National Defense Authorization Act.  The December 5 Forbes.com published the ominous-sounding article, “<em>The National Defense Authorization Act is the Greatest Threat to Civil Liberties Americans Face.</em>”<br />
</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;">Oh hogwash.  The Act is just a bunch of words.  Granted, a big bunch of words at 926 pages for S.1867 alone – that’s many, many times the number of words in the entire constitution as amended…plus the Declaration of Independence…plus some historical commentary…plus my local phone book.  It’s another 908 pages for H.R. 1540.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;">These words are not law.  These words are, in fact, illegal.  Null and void at best, the Act is clearly unconstitutional:</span></p>
<ul type="disc">
<li><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;">The United States of America hasn’t constitutionally declared a war since WWII, so the authorization bill, an annual crime for the past 48 years, could constitutionally authorize only the maintenance of navies (we’ve never amended the constitution to allow for the maintenance of anything else outside state militias).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The Act could be legal only as far as the limits of the US Constitution’s authority grant (see Amendment 10 for clarification on this).  </span></span></li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;">Americans do face threats to their civil liberties, but only those they’ve voted for themselves.  We can at any time choose to leash our unrestrained politicians; I’m running on that hope, in fact.  I aim to govern our government to what’s clearly written for all to read.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;">It’s all here (</span><a href="http://lpin.org/files/2011/12/THE-UNITED-STATES-CONSTITUTION-1211.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;color:#0066cc;font-size:small;">http://lpin.org/files/2011/12/THE-UNITED-STATES-CONSTITUTION-1211.pdf</span></a><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;">); we only need to choose it.  It will be on the ballot for 2012 under the name, Andrew Horning (L).</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p align="center">###</p>
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		<title>Calling all Antiestablishmentarianists!</title>
		<link>http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/calling-all-antiestablishmentarianists/</link>
		<comments>http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/calling-all-antiestablishmentarianists/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 08 Oct 2011 14:27:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>wedeclare</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[If you&#8217;ve been looking for a wholesome, constructive way to thumb your nose at the entrenched, corrupt, violent and stupid “Two Party System,” I&#8217;ve a suggestion&#8230; Join my campaign team for US Senate! This will be a practically zero-dollar campaign that I mean to run with mostly newbies.   I&#8217;m looking for people who love [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=wedeclare.wordpress.com&amp;blog=1639019&amp;post=802&amp;subd=wedeclare&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If you&#8217;ve been looking for a wholesome, constructive way to thumb your nose at the entrenched, corrupt, violent and stupid “Two Party System,” I&#8217;ve a suggestion&#8230;</p>
<p>Join my campaign team for US Senate!</p>
<p>This will be a practically zero-dollar campaign that I mean to run with mostly newbies.   I&#8217;m looking for people who love life &#8230;and mistrust politics enough to track it down, beat it down with a club and keep it hungry on a short leash.</p>
<p>I plan to fill all key positions in the next month or so.  I&#8217;ll need people to update lists, blast emails, coordinate volunteers, make movies, chalk sidewalks, perform street art, and so on.</p>
<p><a href="mailto:andrewhorning@hotmail.com">andrewhorning@hotmail.com</a></p>
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		<title>For those who couldn&#8217;t make it today&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/for-those-who-couldnt-make-it-today/</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Jul 2011 20:37:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>wedeclare</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Today was Step #1.  I think it&#8217;d be great to do pretty much the same thing again on Constitution Day, Saturday, September 17.  We had a good band of patriots in attendance today, but hopefully, Constitution Day will be much, much better. Here&#8217;s pretty much what I&#8217;d said today: Eleven score and fifteen years ago, our [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=wedeclare.wordpress.com&amp;blog=1639019&amp;post=777&amp;subd=wedeclare&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a title="Press Conference" href="http://youtu.be/NheTE_PT0tU" target="_blank">Today was Step #1</a>.  I think it&#8217;d be great to do pretty much the same thing again on Constitution Day, Saturday, September 17.  We had a good band of patriots in attendance today, but hopefully, Constitution Day will be much, much better.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s pretty much <a title="Press Conference" href="http://youtu.be/NheTE_PT0tU" target="_blank">what I&#8217;d said today</a>:</p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">Eleven score and fifteen years ago, our founding fathers waged war against their own government.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">Yet it seems that to many Americans today, Independence Day is about flags, fireworks, and a day off work. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">Let us humbly recognize that because of our founders&#8217; sacrifices, We The People have what We The People have chosen. Our votes and our daily actions leave us nobody else to blame for any of the injustice, corruption and violence around us. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">Indeed if the so-called “Arab Spring” of uprisings in the middle east teaches us anything, it’s that ALL government, even the most oppressive, is by consent of the governed. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">Here in the USA, we can simply choose how we&#8217;d like to live; and we can do it in safe, air-conditioned, button-pushing comfort. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">After generations of choices, it&#8217;s obvious that the life we have chosen is not at all what our founders sacrificed, fought and died to bequeath us.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">Out of the 27 specific complaints listed in the Declaration of Independence, there is only one, rather minor mention of taxation. Obviously there were no complaints about healthcare or Social Security. The colonists weren’t mad about working conditions or Daylight Saving Time. They weren’t asking for anything special or even new. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">Our nation’s founders’ first and underlying complaint was that they’d been denied what was due all English people: They were denied English Law.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">The very first-listed complaint against the king was that “He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">That&#8217;s important; let me repeat that. “He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">Now, to those who don’t know anything about Libertarians, it may seem odd that I would stress that our libertarian founders wanted laws.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">But what we have instead of laws today is an endless stream of contradictory words, spit out like machine gun bullets by bureaucrats, judges, lawmakers and executives that produce the effect of power without authority; politics without any restraint &#8230;ungoverned government. Rules change daily, corruption is everywhere, and the violence is incessant. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">This lawless, politicized anarchy is just not working.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">It’s a basic human need that we must know the rules by which we must live. It’s the most basic justice that these rules should be applied in a way that’s fair, or at least predictable.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">So here’s what we’re asking for:</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">We want rules that are few enough that everybody can know them; simple enough that everyone can understand them, and important enough that every one of them is to be obeyed by everybody without exception, all the time. We want these rules to stay put for long enough to plan a business or a retirement; or better yet, to raise a child to see that law and order is a thing to be desired, and chosen.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">OK, so we’ve all had reasons to oppose such simple order and justice. Maybe our fear of foreigners, our political tribal loyalties and hatreds, the past sins of slavery or our greed and ignorance made us use the constitutions as tug-of-war ropes. We’d grab onto our favorite rights to yank away somebody else’s.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">But those of us here today have learned our lesson. We will sacrifice our pet violations, or even the degree of freedom we think the constitutions deny us, in order to gain some measure of liberty and justice, for all.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">We want to know the rules. And we’re all fine with what is already the proven, signed and once-revered Law of the Land. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;">Bottom line: We want our constitutions, state and federal, as written, back.</span></p>
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		<title>&#8230;They must be kidding me</title>
		<link>http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/they-must-be-kidding-me/</link>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 02 Jul 2011 00:40:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>wedeclare</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/?p=767</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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 &#8220;civil&#8221; penalty to the Horning for Governor campaign for what was, perhaps, the all-time most trivial offense against [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=wedeclare.wordpress.com&amp;blog=1639019&amp;post=767&amp;subd=wedeclare&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I wasn’t going to blog about such things. I really do mean to focus on <a href="http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/we-need-to-know-the-rules/">my primary objective</a> and avoid wasting time on anything else.</p>
<p>However, just moments ago I just opened the <strong>Final Order</strong>/assessment of a $503.68 &#8220;civil&#8221; penalty to the Horning for Governor campaign for what was, perhaps, the all-time most trivial offense against Indiana Election Commission paperwork.</p>
<p>We failed to properly close-out our meagerly funded campaign and report the money we didn’t make by their deadline.  That&#8217;s it.</p>
<p>But  the whopping fine, amounting to a huge percentage of what my campaign raised, is not what I’m writing about.</p>
<p>And no, it’s not that I’m miffed that <a href="http://conservativebyte.com/2011/06/report-obama-breaks-the-law-films-campaign-ad-in-white-house/">Obama</a> or <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/28/us-white-indiana-idUSTRE75R6BM20110628">Charlie White</a> got away with much more serious <a href="http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2010/dec/judicial-watch-announces-list-washingtons-ten-most-wanted-corrupt-politicians-2010">violations of campaign and civil law</a>, while a poor schlemazel like me has to cough up the dough.</p>
<p>(though, in case you’re wondering, I <em>am</em> miffed about all that).</p>
<p>No, I’m really writing about the two (2) quarter-sheet notices slipped into the envelope.</p>
<p>The two sheets were identical, and said,</p>
<p align="center"><strong><span style="font-family:Courier New, monospace;">ATTENTION</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Courier New, monospace;">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.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Courier New, monospace;">For any further questions or comments <strong>about the styrofoam cube only</strong>, please call 1-888-624-5990.</span></p>
<p>Now, there is so much wrong with this, that I hardly know where to start. Forget that Styrofoam<sup><span style="font-size:x-small;">TM</span></sup> is a trademark of the Dow Chemical Company and should &#8230;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 <em>two</em> notices by mistake (may I never find out that this is another regulation!)</p>
<p>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 / <span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;">¡</span>ADVERTENCIA, Señal de baja! <span style="font-size:x-small;">placed in accordance with the Officious, Unnecessary and Badly-Worded Signage Act of 2010</span>” </p>
<p>I&#8217;m quite tempted to call that 888 number and&#8230;  No, strike that.  I don&#8217;t even want to know how many people staff that line at taxpayer expense.  I think I&#8217;ll just slip the &#8220;cube&#8221; and the little sheets into the documents I&#8217;m mailing to the Governor (<a href="http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/713/">http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/713/</a>).  Maybe he&#8217;ll be amused.  Maybe the package will look suspicious and get &#8220;special attention.&#8221;</p>
<p>Sigh&#8230;</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><a href="http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/713/">Please join me</a>.</p>
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		<title>We need to know the rules</title>
		<link>http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/we-need-to-know-the-rules/</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 27 Jun 2011 23:56:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>wedeclare</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[I think we should meet at 11:30-11:45am on the east steps of the Statehouse in Indianapolis to get ourselves composed and our story unified.  I don&#8217;t know how many want to speak, but let&#8217;s do our best to make it only a few, and make it brief.  It&#8217;s never good to give too much rope to the [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=wedeclare.wordpress.com&amp;blog=1639019&amp;post=760&amp;subd=wedeclare&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I think we should meet at 11:30-11:45am on the east steps of the Statehouse in Indianapolis to get ourselves composed and our story unified.  I don&#8217;t know how many want to speak, but let&#8217;s do our best to make it only a few, and make it brief.  It&#8217;s never good to give too much rope to the media when they get to determine who, or what, gets hanged.</p>
<p>Who: Citizens who want to know the rules</p>
<p>What: Asking the Governor to do his job, as written</p>
<p>When: July 4, 12:00 noon</p>
<p>Where: East steps of the Statehouse, Indianapolis, IN</p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size:large;">We need to know the rules</span></p>
<p>Freedom, IN – The time is long past when we could fuss about “big government” versus “small government;” or about raising or lowering taxes. Even war versus peace, or freedom versus oppression are irrelevant abstractions right now.</p>
<p>We need to know the rules. We need to see them in print so we can judge infractions, or whether they&#8217;re even rules, as opposed to excuses. We need to know that our rules will be rules long enough to start a business, plan a retirement, or raise a family. We&#8217;ve lived for too long without this simple, foundational understanding on how we humans are to get along.</p>
<p>Ignorance of the law is no excuse? <em>Nobody</em> knows the laws that we&#8217;re supposed to live by! Nobody could. It&#8217;s debatable, in fact, whether we have any laws at all out of the billions of contradictory word-strings woven into the incomprehensible and corrupt tangle that our judges, lawyers, bureaucrats and other politicians call “laws.”</p>
<p>None of their words apply equally to all. None are enforced as written. All of us know that our tribal, crony lawlessness is corrupt, immoral and destructive to our society&#8217;s peace, prosperity and life. It is madness. And history shows that our lot will grow much worse if we don&#8217;t come to our senses very soon.</p>
<p>It is the heart of sanity to establish simple rules by which we can live. The most basic justice demands that these rules apply equally to all. It&#8217;s only reasonable that these laws must be knowable by all.</p>
<p>So this is what we&#8217;re asking for: rules that are few enough that everybody can know them; simple enough that everybody can understand them; and important enough that all of these rules must be obeyed equally by everybody all the time.  And we’re fine with the rules (the real rules) that are already written, already proven to work, and already the Law of the Land.</p>
<p>###</p>
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		<title>Do you really want to live like this?</title>
		<link>http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/do-you-really-want-to-live-like-this/</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 29 Mar 2011 01:20:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>wedeclare</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/?p=734</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[According to our Declaration of Independence, governments derive “…their just powers from the consent of the governed.”  But as demonstrated in the Middle East today, all government powers, just or unjust, are by consent of the governed; and that consent can be withdrawn from even the most oppressive dictators.  So the problem with despotism is [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=wedeclare.wordpress.com&amp;blog=1639019&amp;post=734&amp;subd=wedeclare&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>According to our Declaration of Independence, governments derive “…<em>their just powers from the </em><em>consent of the governed</em>.”  But as demonstrated in the Middle East today, all government powers, just or unjust, are by consent of the governed; and that consent can be withdrawn from even the most oppressive dictators. </p>
<p>So the problem with despotism is never really the despot.  The problem is that for every despot there is a majority of citizens who empowered that despot.  Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Caligula and countless others didn’t kill hundreds of millions by themselves, you know.   Do not fool yourself; people like Kim Jong Il, Charles Taylor, Hirohito, Mugabe, Quadhafi, Nebuchadnezzar II, Nero or even Vlad the Impaler are everywhere and always among us.  They are nobody special by themselves.</p>
<p>Here in the USA, we can conveniently, painlessly choose how we are to live.  Deny it or not, we have exactly what the majority of us have freely chosen.  We may say we want change, but we vote for mostly elites and incumbents. We may say we don’t like the corruption and money in politics, but less than 10% of us ever vote for anything else. Many dictators of the past century, including Benito Mussolini, were elected by people just like us.</p>
<p>So consider what we’ve chosen.  We’ve not had even a year’s peace since the War to End All Wars.  The Home of The Brave has sacrificed freedom for empty promises of security.  The Land of The Free has the world’s highest percentage of citizens in prison.  We really do tax people out of their homes to pay for homelessness programs; and we tax, regulate and litigate away businesses to stimulate the economy.  We guard borders everywhere in the world except at home.  For the first time ever, we’re working longer hours, taking fewer vacations, spending less time with our kids, and living more poorly than the previous generation.  The rules we must live by are unknowable and ever-changing – law has now become little more than incantations, as high priests of law in grand courts decree, apparently on whim, how things are to be.</p>
<p>Are you happy with this?  Is this how you want to live?</p>
<p>Humans <em>can learn</em>.  When we want something, we know all about our choices of color, flavor, engine size, craftsmanship, price or caliber.  We spend crazy amounts of time on sports, or romance novels.  I know people who can tell you the vertical jump height of their favorite basketball stars, or can detail Oprah’s diet ups and downs.</p>
<p>But by what I’ve personally seen in tens of thousands of average voters, We The People apparently don’t care about the injustice and madness we’ve chosen to make of our lives.  We know less about those we’ve chosen to lord over us than we know about movie stars.  We certainly don’t know anything about our state and federal constitutions. </p>
<p>Despite what we may <em>say</em>, our <em>votes </em>say that we want unaccountable people of status and money to tell us what to do.  Our behavior in the voting booth is beckoning a dictator.  I believe we’re going to get one soon.</p>
<p>May I make a request?  I’d like for you to read your state and federal constitutions and see what we’ve thrown away…and could have back anytime we choose.  They are still law, though we act otherwise.  They would still work better than anything else ever tried, if we’d only try them. </p>
<p>If you’ve taken the hour or so it takes to read the federal constitution, you already know that federal government should be invisible to almost all of us almost all the time.  The Indiana constitution is the contract most relevant to Hoosier life.  It’s a longer read, but still not terribly long or complicated.  Both comprise rules of life that are few enough to know, simple enough to understand, and important enough that everybody should obey them without exception, all the time.  The free life these contracts describe is simpler, safer, and in every way better than the politicized lives we’re living now.</p>
<p>You can read these constitutions (with my annotations)here:<br />
<a href="http://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/the-united-states-constitution.pdf">http://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/the-united-states-constitution.pdf</a><br />
<a href="http://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/indiana-constitution-book.pdf">http://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/indiana-constitution-book.pdf</a></p>
<p>Please ask other people to read them too.  If you know somebody who wants to read them, and has no internet access, and you&#8217;re too cheap to print them out yourself, then contact me at <a href="mailto:thefreedomfarm@gmail.com">thefreedomfarm@gmail.com</a>, and I’ll get you copies.</p>
<p>Yes; it’s that important to me. I have to live here too…</p>
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		<title>We never asked&#8230;</title>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Mar 2011 04:36:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>wedeclare</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[authoritarianism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Central Bank]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Common Schools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Constitution]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Indiana]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Mitch Daniels]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[I intend to deliver the following to the Governor’s Office with a press conference at noon on July 4 on the east steps of the statehouse. I believe this is the the most appropriate date (and a date upon which I’d staged yearly protests until 2008). I think it&#8217;s the most appropriate place to start [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=wedeclare.wordpress.com&amp;blog=1639019&amp;post=713&amp;subd=wedeclare&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">I intend to deliver the following to the Governor’s Office with a press conference <strong>at noon on July 4 on the east steps of the statehouse</strong>.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">I believe this is the the most appropriate date (and a date upon which I’d staged yearly protests until 2008). I think it&#8217;s the most appropriate place to start for this Step One (a polite request to the correct officer). </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">I hope a good number of people, including you, can show up to join me:</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p>
<p>Dear Governor Daniels,</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p lang="en">We have read our state and federal constitutions. We understand their purpose and legal authority. And now we both understand, and suffer, the breadth and depth of our society’s transgressions against these fundamental laws.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p lang="en">These transgressions have occurred by public choice, and progressively over many generations, so we did not see the damage we were doing. But we do see that damage now.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p lang="en">It would be both tedious and unnecessary to detail the errors and resultant harm done, or to list our many reasons for wanting the illegality to end.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p lang="en">We will supply at least a partial list of serious grievances and injuries if that would help you remedy the breach of social contract that caused them. But our requested remedy is both simple and proven to work better for liberty, security, prosperity and justice than anything else yet tried in the history of human governance:</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>We ask only that you execute Rule of Law under existing Indiana and federal constitutions, exactly as these laws are written. </strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p lang="en">Governor Daniels, we want these laws to be enforced without exception, all the time, as soon as possible. They are few enough that everyone can know them; simple enough that everyone can understand them; and important enough that everyone, particularly agents and officers of government, should obey them all without exception, proviso or privileged classes, all of the time.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p lang="en">The laws leave no room for selective enforcement, or preferential treatment by corporate abstraction, class or process. All citizens are to be equal under the laws, and no person is above the laws. No legitimate political authority exists outside of that granted by the plain sense of our constitutions. All governing agencies, actions and rules that exist outside constitutional limitations are, by the clear words and purpose of the constitutions, null and void.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p lang="en">If any part of a constitution is so unclear as to prohibit enforcement, there is a constitutional process for clarifying it in print. But we herewith submit annotated copies of each constitution on the expectation that you will see little that is vague or open-ended in either contract. These annotated constitutions are also freely available online at:</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><a href="http://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/the-united-states-constitution.pdf">http://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/the-united-states-constitution.pdf</a></span></span><br />
<span style="color:#0000ff;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><a href="http://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/indiana-constitution-book.pdf">http://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/indiana-constitution-book.pdf</a></span></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p lang="en">We understand that as seriously as we have failed over the generations, it will take some time to restore legitimate authority to our civil government, and peel back the false accountabilities and destructive dependencies accumulated over generations. We propose that five years is more than sufficient to phase out all illegal political entities, processes, rules, precedents, actions and taxes; and to enact amendments and phase-out plans necessary to ensure full constitutional obedience.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p lang="en">Yet current budget and social conditions demand all possible speed, and history demonstrates an invariable and harsh penalty for delay. Please do immediately employ the legal and political authority that is yours, to restore what is, by law, ours.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p lang="en">
Thank you</p>
<p lang="en"> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Here are a few specific conclusions drawn from a simple reading of the constitutions, and requiring immediate action:</span></span></p>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Precedents, in courts or in policy, are not law; nor are “Executive Orders” law. Only the legislative branch can write laws, and then only in the domain authorized. Courts may not write laws, bureaucracies may not write laws, and executives may not write laws. Therefore, all such illegal “laws,” regulations, orders, rules and mandates are null and void. They must be declared so, and denied enforcement, as quickly as possible. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Baseless currency is illegal. Mandated, monopoly currency issued by unconstitutional transnational private banks, is illegal. Therefore, we ask for a restoration of specie payments and gold and silver-based currency as quickly as possible. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">It makes no sense, nor is it constitutionally permissible, to tax private property owners for our Common Schools. We certainly don’t need taxation to facilitate the current wide and deep discrepancies between rich and poor, and it is illegal. We ask for the restoration of a constitutional Common School fund as quickly as possible. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">There can be no serious doubt about what a Common School system actually is. No other education system is in the authorized domain of state or federal government. We ask for the end of any political involvement in education outside of what’s authorized as a <span style="font-size:small;">legitimate </span>Common School system; or at least amend the constitution to describe new limits.  </span></span></li>
</ol>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">The following are additional thoughts for our consideration only:</span></span></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Note</span></span></strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">: In case you’re wondering why I don’t address our Governor as “The Honorable;” titles like “The Honorable” or “Esquire” are specifically unconstitutional…and for good reason.<br />
</span></span><strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Note</span></span></strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">: some media folk (particularly the Indianapolis Star) will do their level best to cubbyhole you to something easily dismissed. Resist their attempts to brand us “Tea Party,” “anti-government,” “anti-union” or anything else in the news. Stay on subject. Do not allow them to draw you into another subject that they’ll quickly apply to all of us.<br />
</span></span><strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Please</span></span></strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">: </span></span><em><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Anything</span></span></em> <span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">you say outside of Rule of Law under existing constitutions, as written, will ruinously derail our message. DO NOT BRING UP ANYTHING ELSE. No gay marriage, war, tax…anything but ROL under existing constitutions, as written.<br />
</span></span><strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Please</span></span></strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">: Dress nicely, and come neatly groomed. Be as pleasant and yet firm, as possible. This would </span></span><em><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">not </span></span></em><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">be a good time for joking around or bringing/wearing props. This is serious; we must be serious, solid citizens.<br />
</span></span><strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">DO NOT FORGET</span></span></strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">: </span></span><em><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">We</span></span></em> <span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">are the </span></span><em><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">pro</span></span></em> <span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">government people. We want to govern our government, restore legality to our lawmakers and justice to our judiciary. </span></span><strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">We</span></span></strong> <span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">are the ones who are legitimate, correct, and on the </span></span><em><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">legal</span></span></em> <span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">side of the law.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"><strong>PLEASE NOTE:</strong></span></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"> This is more of a </span></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"><em>mea culpa</em></span></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"> than a protest. We The People have what We The People have chosen repeatedly through the past hundred years. We must admit the error of our ways, and choose better. We have no cause for anger&#8230;not yet.<br />
</span></span><strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Extra Special Double-Note</span></span></strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">: I repeat: we have gotten into our mess because nearly everybody has chosen it, progressively, and over generations. Most people still cannot imagine what kind of trouble we’re in. If they could, they would not believe that they’re to blame. Remember, we’re not asking so much of our politicians as we are of We The People. We’re asking voters/citizens to </span></span><em><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">change </span></span></em><strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">themselves</span></span></strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">. It is a big enough task to get people of extraordinary political understanding to join us… let us try to show patient understanding to those who still just don’t get it.<br />
</span></span><strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">PS</span></span></strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">: I wrote that last note largely to me.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Here’s the key thing:</span></span></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Tell everyone you know to check out the letter to our Governor, send it to their state legislators, and ask them to add their in-person support to our little endeavor.</span></span></strong></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Liberty or Bust!</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Andy Horning</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;">Freedom, IN</span></span></p>
<p><a href="mailto:thefreedomfarm@gmail.com"><span style="color:#0000ff;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">thefreedomfarm@gmail.com</span></span></span></span></a></p>
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		<title>Let&#8217;s &#8220;Outsource&#8221; education&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/lets-outsource-education/</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:58:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>wedeclare</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[church]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Horace Mann]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Over 60% of the 2011 Indiana budget is going to whatever politicians and their lobbyists call “education.”  Over the past several decades, the percentage of those billions that gets to the classroom has dropped to less than 60%.  Our embarrassingly high percentage of administrative buildings and personnel, and the absurd cost of sports programs that [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=wedeclare.wordpress.com&amp;blog=1639019&amp;post=710&amp;subd=wedeclare&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;">Over 60% of the 2011  Indiana budget is going to whatever politicians and their lobbyists call  “education.”  Over the past several decades, the percentage of  those billions that gets to the classroom has dropped to less than 60%.   Our embarrassingly high percentage of administrative buildings and  personnel, and the absurd cost of sports programs that serve a tiny percentage  of elite students is inexcusable as average students get fat and  fall behind their overseas peers.  American schooling is by far the  most expensive, and among the least effective, in the world.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;">So it’s fine that  there’s been talk of school funding, teachers’ unions, pensions, student  nutrition and the taxation and spending rules that we’re told have something to  do with learning.  Yet amidst all the chatter over vouchers,  Charter Schools, “investment in our future,” and of course, sports, I’ve so far  heard nothing that is both workable, and <em>legal</em>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;">It is suspicious that  Article 8 of Indiana’s Constitution appeared on the last day of the 1851  constitutional convention without a word of debate.  The person who  transcribed the article (perhaps he wrote it himself?) was Robert Owen, Jr., son  of the New Harmony commune’s founder, and ally of the “progressive” educator,  Horace Mann.  Yet commie plot or not, the Indiana Constitution’s  Article 8, Section I, does now “<em>provide, by law, for a general and uniform  system of Common Schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally  open to all.</em>”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The constitution  and historical context are unmistakable.  “Common Schools” were the  uniform (as in identical) system of tax-subsidized schools promoted by Mann as  the “ladder of opportunity” to educate poor kids without religious  influences.  And Common Schools are not compulsory; parents are  free to choose non tax-funded alternatives.  And the phrase,  “<em>tuition shall be without charge,</em>” has been clarified many times over the  years as meaning <em>only</em> tuition.  So legally, even poor parents must  find money for books, lunch, transportation, and in fact everything but  tuition.  Sports were certainly not part of school.   Besides, that’s what parks and public gymnasiums were for; so that even  kids who weren’t in school had something to do.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Article 8,  Section 2 mandates a Common School Trust Fund derived from corporate taxes and  other statewide sources that forbid any local funding, like personal property  tax, because we don’t need the brute force of politics to achieve  inequality between rich and poor areas.  In fact, Article 4,  Section 22 says, “<em>The General Assembly shall not pass local or special laws…  Providing for the support of common schools, or the preservation of school  funds</em>.” </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Of course  Article 8 wasn&#8217;t necessary.  There already was a rapidly-developing  system of “Free and Fee” schools, but almost all of the tuition-free schools  were run by churches.   Churches had been America’s Department of  Health, Education and Welfare before we gave everything unto Caesar and his  non-voluntary collection plate.  However, churches are, as you have  no doubt heard, <em>religious</em>.  And Article I, Section 6 of the  new constitution decreed that “<em>No money shall be drawn from the treasury, for  the benefit of any religious or theological institution</em>.”  So  yes, Indiana legally gave at least something unto Caesar. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">However, both  state and federal constitutions forbid politicians and bureaucrats the monopoly  power over education they now exert.  And though many of us are  opposed to any socialized education on moral, religious and practical grounds,  Indiana’s original socialists came up with a far more reasonable scheme than  what we’ve devolved to now. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;">Maybe online education  from India and China could break our governments’ unconstitutional, monopolistic  stranglehold, and drop the now crazy costs.  I hope so.   It would be the best thing to happen to Hoosier kids in decades.   I wish I could be the one to sell it. </span></p>
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		<title>Andy&#8217;s Annotated US Constitution</title>
		<link>http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/andys-annotated-us-constitution/</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Jan 2011 02:04:55 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[With all the disinformation and historical revisionism buzzing like flies on politics (even with the &#8220;Tea Party&#8221; as much as anywhere else), I just had to present what I believe to be the facts. So here&#8217;s an annotated USA constitution again: http://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/the-united-states-constitution.pdf<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=wedeclare.wordpress.com&amp;blog=1639019&amp;post=698&amp;subd=wedeclare&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>With all the disinformation and historical revisionism buzzing like flies on politics (even with the &#8220;Tea Party&#8221; as much as anywhere else), I just had to present what I believe to be the facts.</p>
<p>So here&#8217;s an annotated USA constitution again: <a href="http://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/the-united-states-constitution.pdf">http://wedeclare.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/the-united-states-constitution.pdf</a></p>
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