The Greatest Generation? …A Hundred Years Ago

One hundred years ago, an ordinary citizen could, without license, approval or red tape, own a water-cooled heavy machine gun.  A hundred years ago, somebody could start a business by just going to work at it and telling everybody you know.  In fact, a hundred years ago there were more minority businessmen, scientists, capitalists and farmers than there are today.  (…Seriously.  I’m not making that up.  Hoosiers should know that the first female millionaire was Madame Walker, a black woman)

A hundred years ago there was no income tax, no “federal” programs, no undeclared wars, and practically no restrictions of any kind on what citizens could drink, eat, say or do.

Today, our central planners decide how much water a toilet can flush.  They regulate our “rights” to religion, speech, press, assembly, petition in literally thousands of ways.  They tell you whether you can start a business, or not.  They tax you for everything in such an insidious, hidden way that you don’t even notice that over half of what you do, you do for politicians.

This is sick.  This is stupid.  This cannot last and it will die; either by planning and considered replacement, or to our slack-jaw horror as this nation is squashed under the juggernaut of our own incessant, invariable and stupid history.

I hate that we’re failing.  I hate that so few see it.  I hate that I am unable to do much about it.

You, however…you could turn this around.  The collective “us” can easily fix all that’s wrong and get the government we had a hundred years ago (still the newest thing ever) with all the technology of today.

We just need to ask.  …And then demand.

We must never again waste our votes on the criminals currently stealing us blind.  We must vote only for those who’d obey the written constitutions as written. 

Is that so hard?

A thought for to-day

If I, an ordinary citizen, were to write a law, would you have to obey it?  

Of course not.   Certainly not.

Now, if a policeman, sworn to uphold the law, were to write a law, would you have to obey it?

Well, this is a little hazier if his hand is on his gun, right?  But theoretically, no, you’d not have to obey any law that’s not written by a lawmaker. 

If a cop writes a law and makes you obey it, he’s a criminal cop, right?  If I write a law and make you obey it, I’m a criminal citizen.  In fact, if a judge writes a law, we all know that’s illegal, though we never do anything about “activist judges.”  

Hmmm…that will be another post on another day.

Anyway, we all know that only lawmakers should write laws.

But what makes a lawmaker?  What makes it legal to write laws?

The state and federal constitutions are very clear in this.  Only those who uphold the constitutions that created their jobs and empower them in the first place are authorized (by authority of constitutions and elections) to write laws.  The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1799 reinforced this in a very nearly Second Revolution kind of way.

Constitutions are contracts, you know.

So when lawmakers throw aside constitutions, they are no longer authorized by any authority to make laws.  If they abrogate the constitutions that give them power, then they’ve abrogated their power.

In still other words – words that seem far more 1799 than 2007, perhaps – when lawmakers break the laws that protect us from them, we’re no longer bound to the laws that protect them, from us.

More than One out of Two…

You know, it’s kind of funny. We’ve had very few USA Presidents under whom Nothing Bad Happened, and those presidents are generally called “do-nothing” Presidents. Under Rutherford Hayes, for example, the nation thrived and grew like no nation ever before or since, yet he’s swept into the dustbin of Do-Nothing Presidents.

However, there are those presidents who drag us into terrible turmoil, typically by design and deceit, trashing civil liberties and leaving a wake of poverty, crime and lost dreams…and these are the lionized, canonized Presidents whose names are spoken with hushed reverence: FDR, Woodrow Wilson, and maybe someday, hopefully after I’m dead, George W. Bush.

I take that back. There’s nothing funny about this.

Since Teddy Roosevelt (a truly bad one in my book – he gave us anti-business laws, a wave of new “federal” agencies, the first “universal healthcare” proposal, income tax…income tax!…and a whole lot of foreign policy madness that dogs us still), government has been growing fast.

Interestingly, the fastest bloating/rate of “government” (remember that the word “govern” means restrain) expansion started after WWII, and now has reached such a level of depravity that today, over one-half of the nation lives off of political largesse.

Police, armed forces, political agencies, welfare, etc., etc., et cetera now consumes more than one-half of our nation’s wealth…

Over one-half.

That means for every one person making a living, there’s at least one person siphoning off tax money for his/her living.

That’s more than one-out-of-two.

Over one-half.

And I’m talking about YOUR taxes.  …YOUR money. 

Over ONE HALF!

Has that ratio hit you yet?

Well, don’t let it tarry for too long in your head, because that ratio is getting worse as we speak…

It’s a simple thing. Let’s do it.

My request is simple, but I’ll repeat it since it bears repeating every day. 

I want politicians to obey written laws, as written, just like you and I have to.  No “interpretation” from the bench; no “legal precedents;” no ifs, ands or buts.  If a law is unclear, politicians can clarify it in print.  If a law is bad, then change it, or delete it, in print.  They are lawmakers, right? 

No more fudging or cheating.  I want politicians to obey what’s written, as written.

That’s it.  That’s what I want. 

OK, well, I’d like slightly more than only that, I suppose.  I’d love it if our laws were few enough to actually know, simple enough for everybody to understand, and important enough that everybody must obey them without exception, proviso or caveat.

What I really want, in other words, are the written, signed constitutions for which so many generations of Americans fought and died, to be enforced.  I want officeholders and officers of law to keep their oaths of office.  

I want the Rule of Law under constitutions here that we say we’re fighting for in Iraq. 

I want everybody to know that laws are laws and that nobody gets special deals even if they’re special people.

Yes, I know.  Constitutions are called “living documents;” and even “agrarian,” as if that somehow means, “outdated.” 

It’s no surprise that politicians say such things.  You’d never expect an unruly child to obey rules without adult supervision.  You’d never expect a rabid dog to willingly take a leash.  So it is of course the job of citizens to snap the constitutional leash on our politicians.  They’ll never do it themselves.

…Ah, but here’s the rub. 

We haven’t even asked that politicians obey written laws as written.  And the reason why we have not is highly embarrassing.

You see, we have had our own reasons to twist and stretch and cheat the law. 

For example, a lot of citizens who say they’ll fight for free speech, fight against the freedom to own guns.  And a lot of citizens who want to bear arms won’t allow the freedom to smoke pot.  Many who say it’s OK to smoke pot, would snatch trans-fats and cigarettes from your mouth.  Those who support abortion oppose the death penalty, while those who want to nuke the Middle East say they’re pro-life…

Democrats wield parts of the constitution against Republicans, and Republicans invoke parts against Democrats …nobody, it seems, will allow that the whole thing is not only a good idea – it’s the law! 

Surely I cannot be the only one willing to drop this insane personal fascism if we could live in justice and peace instead…

So enough already!  Politicians won’t be any more sensible than we are, and we’ve been quarreling and posturing like playground bullies.

I say let’s do this:  Let’s demand compliance with written laws, as written, from ourselves and our politicians by, say, 2012.  That’s plenty of time, and we don’t want to waste too much more of that.

Then if we want war, politicians would have to take pains to declare it legally.  It’d be for the first time since WWII! 

If we want to subsidize pro sports or foreign corporations, politicians will have to go through the deliberation to amend the constitutions.  And if we really want that books are not a part of tax-paid school, but stadiums and cafeterias are …well, change what the constitutions say now, and write the nonsense down in black and white so that we all know that the rules, wise or stupid, are the rules.

Call, write, picket and otherwise inform our politicians that we’ve learned our lesson. 

It’s time for all of us, especially politicians, to read plain words of law and obey them, as written, or face the consequences as lawbreakers.

It’s a simple thing.  Let’s make it so.

Constitution Day…by “federal mandate?”

Now, this is fascinating.  In the most incredibly ironic way, it is very, very fascinating. 

 

As of May 24, 2005, “federal law,” (look up “federal” and compare it to “unitary” government) in the form of the Federal Register, Volume 70, Number 99, says that “educational institutions receiving Federal funding are required to hold an educational program pertaining to the United States Constitution on September 17 of each year.”

 

Also, and perhaps even more ironically fascinating, is that “…the U.S. Office of Personnel Management will be making available to all Federal agencies, information to help train and educate Federal employees on the Constitution and, in particular, its relationship to the Oath of Office Federal employees take.” (I added the red italics just because this is so darned fascinating.

 

OK, so if you know anything about me, you know that I’m all about constitutional education and the Rule of Law it really should entail.

 

But what’s fascinating about a federal mandate to educate people on the constitution, is that it’s an unconstitutional mandate!  It’s completely illegal!

 

 

 What’s fascinating about the constitution’s “relationship” to constitutional office-holders’ oaths of office, is the very nature of each pledge to uphold and defend the constitution, typically “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

 

…Relationship?  It’s all about the constitution! 

 

And what is a constitution, after all?  It’s restraint on power.  It’s a leash on politicians, not on you.  And who should be controlling the leash – politicians, or you?

 

Which brings me to what is most fascinating about a mandated Constitution Day, and all the “educational resources” the government pushes onto us:

 

How would you feel about a fox teaching hens self-defense?  How’d you feel about Stalin preaching brotherly love?  Well, that’s how I feel about politicians feeding us “information” about the constitution!

 

It’s up to you to leash your dog.  You need to clean up its messes too.  Please start here, and then read this.

 

It won’t take long for you to educate yourself.  You don’t want politicians to help you; because if you read it yourself, you’ll learn that most of what they do is illegal! 

 

And isn’t reading it yourself, and holding your politicians to this precious contract, what Constitution Day should be all about?

Public Service Message:

As much as we may dream it, there is, sadly, no such thing as anarchy.   Somebody always leads, and most of us always follow…typically to destruction, and typically with  the trumpets and banners of patriotism.  It takes only a few of your neighbors to foist a king upon the rest of us.

There is no true anarchy. Mankind has never, ever, ever suffered a lack of rules. There are always plenty of those for citizens.

The fear of anarchy is a red herring shoved down your throat by archists; the rulers.  They tell you how much they’re needed, and they warn you about the bedlam that will ensue without their constant, loving, trustworthy care.

And we fall for it every time.

So, sorry; there is no anarchy possible.

However, there is hope in the perennially-attacked (by politicians), always mis-taught, and therefore almost completely misunderstood Rule of Law.

“Rule of Law” is NOT about stop signs, taxes and anti-smoking laws for citizens while rulers wallow and frolic in absolute power.   It’s easy to make citizens obey laws, and there are always laws that apply to citizens. What’s hard is making politicians obey laws.

Rule of Law is the opposite of Rule of Tyrants, Rule of Politicians, Rule of Whim.   Rule of Law is more about politicians, in fact, than about us; with the only excepting being that ROL works best for everybody.

Civilizations thrive with ROL, and they die without it.   Look it up. From Urukagena and Hammurabi to the Magna Charta and our own Constitution for the United States – society works best with its bad-dog politicians on a leash!

So isn’t it time we put our politicians on one at last?

A little perspective, maybe?

We all know that 911 should have been a wake-up call.  We apparently can’t agree, however, on what “waking up” actually entails. 

I say it should be recognition of an ancient, repetitious and invariable fact: Political government doesn’t work as advertised, and it is always, to at least some degree, corrupt.

But instead of awakening to a refreshed and healthy mistrust of politicians, we’ve gone all twitterpated in love with our politicians.  We now trust them with everything; and to a degree never before seen on earth.  That will be fatal if we don’t snap out of it quick.

So as a public service, I’m posing a few perspective questions to ponder and share with friends:

1. Are box-cutters more dangerous than nukes?  When the USSR had a thousand multi-megaton nuclear devices fueled up and ready to launch at us, ten-year-old kids had firearms and we were proud of our liberties.    But we gutted the last of our freedoms (we have only illusions now) when we were told that we got sucker punched by a handful of zealots armed with only box-cutters…  I don’t believe the official story on this, but that’s another matter.
2. What are we afraid will happen to us?  We’re spending a gazillion dollars sending planes, ships, people and supplies overseas to beat some people up, and we’re not doing so well.  It’s hard to cross an ocean and make people submit to us.  Don’t you think it’d be even harder for an amorphous mob of fanatics to organize a serious threat to the USA?
3. Don’t political interventions always make things worse?  WWI caused the spread of socialism/ fascism/ communism/ corporatism, which caused WWII, the Korean conflict, Vietnam…  We’ve not had a year’s peace since the Spanish American War, you know.  We helped create Iraq in 1920, and it never, ever works to fiddle around with other countries.  You know that, right?
4. Don’t we have other things to worry about?  Our dollar is worth 4 cents, the Case-Schiller Index is pointing to a housing-finance bubble collapse, the world is primed for a pandemic of hostilities and economic woes that no American has ever endured, and in less than a year I’m betting you’ll be very sorry we’ve been fooling around in other countries when our economy gets sucker punched.  There are lots of nations that have nuclear weapons; several can lob nukes around the world.  But our biggest fears should be reserved for the dangers within our own government.  That is, after all, where trouble always starts and ends.  Are we still worried about box cutters and exploding shoes?

I certainly don’t mean to denigrate the suffering of those who lost loved ones on 9/11.  But it happened because our government screwed up; and we’re letting our government make things much, much worse.  There should be a point at which we say enough’s enough, right?

Most of us understand, at least at some level, that the USA had the greatest socioeconomic system in the world a hundred years ago.  But that was the Old Deal.  We’re living with an ever-devolving New Deal, which happens to be an awful lot like all the ancient oppressions…

Wake up.  You can’t hit snooze again.  Time’s up.  We must act now.

The Plan

We can’t expect to get what we’ve never even asked for.  And we have never even suggested that our politicians should obey written laws, as written.  We’ve never expected them to hold themselves to any limits at all, let alone written laws simply as written and intended.

We know that you and I can’t get away with “interpreting” speed limits or income tax rules, but we somehow think it’s OK that politicians “interpret” our rights away.

What’re we thinking?

Well, enough’s enough.  We’ve seen the light, right?

Constitutions were most definitely meant to be obeyed as written.  If something’s unclear, politicians can clarify them by amendment.  If politicians don’t like the constitutions at all they can legally scrap them and write new ones. 

So what we intend to do is very simple, though it’s never been done before in the USA at the individual/citizen level.  It had been done once by state governments (the Kentucky Resolution and Virginia Resolution of 1799), but not by anybody since:

Basically, we’re taking the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights, as they’re written, to every branch of federal government, particularly the Supreme Court, to demand that our leaders simply obey written law as written. 

That’s it. 

We demand that our government become legit.  The only real issues to resolve are:

1. What first?  I suggest we start with the Indiana Common School system.  It’s badly broken, as you know.  But you may not know that the law would fix it.

2. By when?  I am open to 2012 as the target date for total compliance with the law at both state and federal levels.  That gives us a couple of election cycles and more than enough time.  My only concern is that it’s giving politicians too much time…

How about 2010?

Let’s Just Do It.