Our ancient habit of failure

I am running for the constitutional office of Indiana Governor.  That job is all about governing government, not governing you. 

The good news is that I am running for that office unopposed. 

The bad news, however, is that the overwhelming majority of voters don’t care about constitutions, and will almost certainly choose a “Governor” who’s job and powers are unrestrained by any laws, or even customs.  I don’t blame the candidates for that.  No, I grieve for what it says about just who Americans have become.

Despite Obama’s lofty rhetoric about “the American spirit,” modern Americans are no longer the self-governed patriots who kept their politicians on a leash, and who placed their trust in God instead.

Nope; just as foolish, barbaric people have done for thousands of years, we have once again bowed low to the Golden Calf of State.  We are not the Land of the Free or the Home of the Brave.  We are the Land of the Fearful, and the Home of the Dependent.

In other words, we vote for, and bow to, human kings.  Minor kings, major kings…their power is limited only by the king(s) above and the tolerance of oppression below.  Our tolerance is nearly unlimited, and their kingly power reaches into every aspect of our lives in a most destructive way.

They tell us what we can and cannot eat; who and how we marry, hire, live and die.  They take our money because we think they know best what to do with it, and they decide who works, how we work, and how much our wages are worth. 

Of course with that power comes a lot of greed, deceit and supplication. 

This is where the Golden Calf thing becomes truly grim – because such a political faith/ religion requires priests that today we call “lobbyists.”

As with the ancients, it’s all about robbing Peter to pay Paul, once again.  And your job in this Brave New World is to do whatever you can to be more Paul than Peter.  You join or form a special interest group in order to collectivize your power under a lobbyist to get a piece of the pie.  But as more special interest groups are formed and start their battle for the best priests and the best parts of the pie, the Golden Calf itself and the priests who serve it take a bigger and bigger cut.  The pie itself gets smaller through corruption, your piece of it becomes a smaller percentage; so you work harder and harder for less and less until, ultimately, the bread and circuses don’t work anymore, and the whole thing topples.

I’m afraid that our triune Golden Calf god (comprised of Democrat, Republican and Federal Reserve Bank) has won another, perhaps final victory over us.  Obama has turned away fears of his arrogance and terrorism ties with a really good speech (is a teleprompter another sort of god?  Hmmm.); and McCain has brushed aside conservatives’ righteous disgust with a pandering pick for Veep. 

(She’s a fine woman, and if she were the GOP’s pick for President, I’d think a lot differently about this election.  But they’re suckering you in knowing you’ll hope McCain dies or something.  Don’t fall for it.) 

You’re not even voting for President these days, you know…you’re now voting for his funding mechanism, his entrenched party’s leaders, and a system gone terribly, tragically wrong.

So I’m guessing that once again, we’ll vote the way we’ve been voting, and the Golden Calf will grow bigger, fatter, hungrier and more oppressively intrusive until, maybe 18 months from now, you’ll see just what the Federal Reserve and all our new debt instruments (credit cards, 40 year mortgages, etc.) have really wrought.

Disaster.

Please turn us away from this ancient pattern of destruction.  Demand Rule of Law under the state and federal constitutions which are already law and have been proven to work better than anything else ever tried.

Don’t let us fall back to ancient failures older than Hammurabi.  Don’t let them tell you that their schemes of shifting more power into fewer hands is “modern” or “a fresh start,” when it’s as old as the fall of Adam.

Do you want change?  Well, you’re headed for it one way or another.  You can choose change that goes the way of all fools, or you can do better.

Choose wisely.

 

No More Speed Traps Until…

Who: Andy Horning

What: Polishing the Badges of State Power

When: Thursday, August 28 at 6pm

Where: FOP Lodge 100 – 4711 Middle Road, Jeffersonville, IN 47130

Contact: Andy Horning; http://www.horningforgovernor.com/

 

 

Restoring Legal and Moral Authority

 

Jeffersonville, Indiana –

I apologize for the late notice.  But don’t let the impossibility of attending this event bother you; I’ll go anywhere anytime to talk about this with anyone.  Call me on the phone.  Show up at my door.  This is important.

– Because our crime rates are rising…within our own government!  Judicial misconduct, bad cops, jury tampering/abuse, school building scandals (e.g., AEPA/Tremco no bid scheme), and of course lawmakers are breaking laws at every level and in every significant way.  As our government has broken the laws that protect citizens from oppression and war; and as citizens lose their jobs, homes and even lives for no good reason; it’s time to take a stand for justice and decency. 

Our government surrendered the moral authority to lay traps for decent citizens when politicians have trampled their own legal authority -the state and federal constitutions. 

I propose we stop issuing unmarked cars (like hot rod Mustang Cobras) at once.  I propose we stop entrapping and extorting citizens with speed traps and “infraction deferral” programs until our crime rates (civilian and government crime) are substantially reduced.

We must stop putting our police into ever-more adversarial roles against our citizens.  We must allow them to protect and serve instead.  And we absolutely must restore respect for law and order by policing our police and by governing our own government at last.

 

 

 

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Andrew Horning, Libertarian for Governor

Freedom, IN 47431

andrewhorning@hotmail.com

http://www.horningforgovernor.com/

Thoughts on the Presidential Election

Enough with the strategizing, poll-watching and fears of “the wasted vote.”  Here’s what each Presidential Election vote really means:

A vote for Obama:  Nothing.  Everybody hates George Bush.  If you think that your vote is finally putting racism behind us, you’re wrong.  Very wrong.

A vote for McCain:  This vote shows that you are a battered-spouse Republican.  The GOP can do anything to you and you’ll come back begging for more.  You are more than masochistic, however; you’re damaging yourself, your party, and all of your neighbors.  Stop.  Take a deep breath.  Seek help at once.  On the other hand, if you’re a Democrat voting for McCain, I have to say that you’re pretty clever.  …Kill the enemy from within, and all that.

A vote for Nader:  You’re an ardent socialist/collectivist of course.  You are aware that the major party machines are bad, and that “special interests” are problematic, but you don’t really understand why that is, because you flock to special interests yourself.  You may even want to shoot gun rights activists.  You’re a little confused, but you’re not really hurting anybody with your vote.  It may do some good, in fact.

A vote for Baldwin: You are a fine person, and I would like to know you.  You really want the constitutions/ Rule of Law, and are willing to write in a vote that may not even get counted (yes, our elections are rigged to a degree).  You have my respect.  I know I’m running as a Libertarian but I confess I’m conflicted.  I really like this man a lot.

A vote for Barr:  You’re sick of the entrenched and corrupt major parties, and are making a stand for the constitutions/ Rule of Law.  This vote will be counted, and the major parties will be watching with sweaty palms.  Good for you.  There’s lately been a very unfortunate, mishandled misunderstanding and miscommunication between the Ron Paul/Chuck Baldwin  and Bob Barr camps, and that has me even more confliced.  Haven’t we conservatives divided and conquered ourselves quite enough? 

<Sigh>

 

No more fooling.

The saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”

Well, after a hundred years of continuous betrayal, I think that anybody even contemplating any vote for the fancypants, entrenched power parties has got some ‘splainin’ to do!

It’s as simple as this:

We’ve left the major parties alone with power for too long.  They’ve felt unaccountable because they’ve been unthreatened.  And just as “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom” (Prov. 1:7), fear of its citizens is all that keeps a government from becoming the oppressive, enslaving, genocidal monster that is its natural, default state.

Here is, I think, a good summary on the nature of power in politics (brilliant, in fact).  But the bottom line is that it is time to show some tough love; or, if that doesn’t work, some hard-nosed determination to put a leash back onto our junkyard-dog government.  It’s time to make politicians obey written laws as written, or it is time for us to go the way of all foolish nations.

We must choose which it’s going to be.

Don’t give me that “incremental improvement” stuff.  It’s not working.  Don’t ask for Term Limits when we vote for incumbents 98% of the time.  Don’t whine about “the effect of money in politics” when we vote for it almost all the time, and call people like me “underfunded.”

There are no shortcuts.  No easy ways out.  There is no strategy, there are no tricks.

Choose.

 

 

 

Would you like to be frightened?

My previous blog contained what I think is an interesting, informative graph.  Here’s one, on the other hand (here’s the article it came from), that does more than sate a little curiosity.

If graphs could bare fangs and snarl, this one would:

Uh oh...

Uh oh…

What always happens after a graph does this?  We are headed for a housing market crash very soon…maybe just weeks.  And it will ripple far beyond the banks and lenders.

My friends, we don’t have a lot of time to put this right.  We’ve already waited too long to avoid pain.  We must, if we care for our children and our children’s children, govern our government.  We must radically, constitutionally chop political powers, agencies and “services” if we’re to keep this nation out of the hands of tin-pot dictators or collapse.

The constitutions, as written, would work.  What we’re doing now is not working. 

Please do remember that when it comes to human governments, failure is not just an option; it is a certainty.  Let’s try to put it off for a little while, at least, as societal collapse makes a horrible mess.

When will we learn?

Here’s an interesting article; but this graph says it all:

This says it all

This says it all

 

It’s been long understood by anybody who thinks, that poverty and hunger in lands of plenty is solely a political problem…ungoverned government literally robs and kills.

Well, I struggle to think of any serious civilization problem that doesn’t share the same root.

Ultimately, of course, the disease of ungoverned government is a social/moral problem.  Citizens are always to blame for their government.  Whether by numb voting or lack of resistance to oppression, we get what we tolerate, and too much tolerance has become our personal problem.

While we’re told we must tolerate more and more…who’s to blame when we, like sheep, just do it?

We’re to blame, that’s who.

Unless we destroy the monsters we’ve created (the “Federal Reserve” and the unconstitutional monstrosities we call “government”) and replace them with truly governed government, then we’ll meet the fate of all fools.

That’s not good.

 

Fairness Doctrine?

Dear friends of Liberty and Justice, I have a problem, and I’d like your help.

We all know where all the “money in politics” comes from and who it goes to, but we gauge candidates by their campaign funds, right?  Voters ask for term limits, but then vote for incumbents almost all the time.  Voters claim to hate lying politicians, but then dismiss it as “that’s how the game is played” and then vote for the liars.  

So we all know, really, if we’d only think about it, that elections aren’t so much about candidates, money or even “issues” at all.  

Elections are about us – voters.  It’s our one day to rule.  It’s our ONE and ONLY day to be heard, really.  And the days leading up to Election Day are the only days, sadly, when voters are doing any political listening at all.

Unfortunately, voters require the imprimatur of legitimacy, and whatever information presented, through the (increasingly distrusted) major media.

In short, elections are about voters, their information, and their resulting choices.

Elections can be a peaceful revolution; or more commonly, an acquiescence to the ever-devolving “status quo.”  Success or failure of our culture depends entirely upon the quality of information upon which voters make their decisions.

Let me tell you my problem:  Voters have been blindfolded, hoodwinked, lead around with a red herring and then duped.  Voters could, in a single election cycle, end the corruption of money, the entrenchment of power, and the abuse of their lives, property and rights if only they had the information necessary to do so.

The problem is that they don’t ever get this information.  Instead, they are told that their only choice is the corruption of money, the entrenchment of power, and the continued abuse of their lives, property and rights.

As applied to the gubernatorial race, here’s how it works:

When the “incumbent” (the putative owner of the Governor’s office) has an issue statement, the media call Jill Long Thompson for her view.  When Jill’s got an issue, they ask Mitch for his take on it.  Generally, all the answers are about the same with about 10% difference in numbers at most.  Nobody in the media questions whether their words are true or whether their plans will work (they certainly haven’t worked yet). 

Media report the “He said, She said” and nothing more.  …And only about Democrats and Republicans!

This isn’t entertaining, it’s not informative, and it’s certainly not right.  Particularly when the sole alternative view is completely missing.

I’m the only candidate with substantially different answers and positions.  I’m the only constitutional candidate!  And I’m on the ballot. 

I’ve had too many issue statements and press conferences with zero coverage.  This media blackout is flat wrong and there is nothing that I personally can do about it.  I don’t have a voice without the aforementioned “money in politics” or media coverage. 

So I’m asking you for a favor.  Could y’all please write letters and make phone calls to your local media folks to ask them to include me?

I don’t care what they write.  I’ll take overt insults as an improvement.

I’d be delighted if they’d call me a loser, a vote stealer, a wasted vote, a libertine, a terrorist…whatever.  But they should say SOMETHING about the one true alternative on the ballot!

Don’t ya think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Constructive Destruction for Indiana

Who: Andy Horning

What: Overhauling State Government

When: Saturday, August 16 at 2pm

Where: Crawfordsville Public Library, 205 S Washington St., Crawfordsville, IN

Contact: Andy Horning; www.HorningForGovernor.com

 

 

Helping Citizens, not Government

 

Crawfordsville, Indiana –

Andrew Horning, the Libertarian candidate for Indiana Governor, will lay out a plan for Indiana citizens, not for Indiana Government.

Unfortunately, it has become necessary to make that distinction, as our “government” has become an OPM-addicted (Other People’s Money) parasite. 

The constitutionally authorized government intended to protect citizen lives, property and rights from those who’d take them from us, must be restored. 

To do this, entire agencies and powers and costs and prohibitions must be eliminated so that Hoosiers can rebuild what’s been stolen over the last 70 years.

Does this mean Horning agrees with other plans to “streamline” government by consolidating more power into fewer hands?  Not a chance.  The complete opposite, in fact.  Horning aims to do what’s been proven to work better than anything else ever tried in all of human history.

Come to the Libertarian Party of Montgomery County’s Convention on Saturday, August 16th at 1:45pm to hear about real leadership, and tough love, in a time of need.

 

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Time to bite the bullet, or take it in the gut

I’m happy that there seems to be more and more good information popping up out there.  But I’m not so happy that this effusion of information seems to be a death rattle.

Every day now I read or hear about another ungoverned-government story like this.  I’m no longer shocked, of course; I’m just deeply grieved and more than a little scared for my children.  More and more of us are asking for the chains and whips of oppression, and we’re about to get what we’ve asked for.

Not that we’ve not been punished already, of course.  Mostly since the 1970’s, our crime rates have skyrocketed such that now we’re looking at around 600 times the per-capita crime Americans/Hoosiers experienced a hundred years ago.  We have by far the world’s highest percentage of citizens in prison, and lawmakers are devising new crimes every day.  This dissolution of order is of course because we’ve flouted the constitutions that made this nation work.  Our politicians propose fixing this problem by breaking more laws and commandeering more liberties. 

That stinks.

On of our greatest orator-thinker-politicians, Frederick Douglass, wrote:

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

Of course justice is denied these days.  Poverty is always enforced by politicians (In a land of plenty you can’t have poverty without politicians’ help).  Ignorance is taught in government schools and reinforced by legislation.  And has there ever been a society with so many classes and cliques?  We have an endless stream of new laws separating and opposing gay versus straight, male versus female, black versus white versus Hispanic versus Haitian versus whatever the heck we can imagine…

And everybody is robbed and degraded on behalf of somebody.  Everybody’s got hooks in everybody else.  I don’t want you to eat trans-fats because I have to pay for your healthcare.

We’ve “spread the costs” so broad and deep that we really have no idea how much healthcare, driving, food or anything else actually costs, or how to make rational decisions about resources and savings.  And so we make decisions based upon illusions.  …Taxes and subsidies, prohibitions and perks, lies and more lies all manipulated and served hot by politicians we know to be drunk with power.

This isn’t as good as it sounds.

It is time for pain, I’m afraid.  It’s either constructive destruction or total failure.

Douglass had something to say about this as well:

Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without plowing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will.

One more Douglass quote…  I think it’s important to hear from this man who was once a slave:

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

Can there be any doubt as to the truth of this?

For the past 90 years we have been coasting on the wealth earned by our great grandparents.  But over that time the once rebellious and self-reliant Americans have become dependent, weak and obsequiously loyal to their political idols.  You know what happens next.  Either we take difficult action and make sacrifices with grim determination and hope for a better future, or we continue our current course and wait patiently for destruction…and madness.

I pray we choose wisely. 

And may God have mercy.

Andy on the radio

In case you missed Abdul’s show (WXNT 1430 AM in Indy) on Thursday morning, here’s the podcast: http://hosted-media.podzinger.com/wxnt/archive/Abdul/2008-08-08_Andy_Horning.mp3