Category Archives: Obamacare

JusJoJan: Liberty

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Haha! I get to suggest today’s prompt for the Just Jot It January challenge. The word for today is: liberty.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but liberty is very important to me. In fact, I completely agree with Patrick Henry when he said “Give me liberty or give me death!”.

I would really rather be dead than to ‘live’ without liberty. I really don’t consider it living if I don’t have the freedom to live my life in the way I choose to. In fact, I consider it a long, drawn out slow death. A death of my creativity, of my happiness, or my loves, of my life. I don’t think I’m out of line at all. In fact, I can quote all kinds of things that show that America was founded to promote liberty and that it is the ONLY legitimate purpose of our (or any) government, is to protect and promote the liberty we all were born with.

Let’s define our terms…

noun, plural liberties.

1. freedom from arbitrary or despotic government or control. 
2. freedom from external or foreign rule; independence. 
3. freedom from control, interference, obligation, restriction, hampering conditions, etc.; power or right of doing, thinking, speaking, etc., according to choice.

 

Looking at that definition, can anyone seriously argue that we have NOT lost most of our liberty in the United States over the last few years? How many people can read the Declaration of Independence or the Bill of Rights and argue that they do NOT argue for the liberty of all men (and pleeease remember the times they were written in)?

How can a country specifically formed ONLY to protect our natural rights (liberty) turn around to such a degree? To the point where that government, formed ONLY to protect our liberty instead spends all its time (and our money) to violate our liberties every chance it gets?

I’m perfectly aware that most people couldn’t care less about the loss of liberty we’ve suffered in the United States over the last few decades (and increasingly since 9/11). I hear from  almost everyone that they don’t care what anyone does to them as long as ‘it keeps them safe”.

Really? Safety is all important? I don’t think the people who say that have really considered what they’re saying when they say that. After all, liberty is not really the sort of thing you can divide up. You’re either free or you’re not. It’s like you’re only a little bit pregnant. No, you either are or you’re not. You either own your own life or you don’t! If you don’t, then someone else must and you have become a slave.

Government is nothing but the monopolized use of force. If you study how governments came about, that’s very obvious to see. When you give up any of your powers to the government, you are ‘agreeing’ that they have the right to use force against you (whether you agree to it or not). And (they say) you don’t have the right to protect yourself against it!

At this point, we have given up almost all of our freedom. All of our liberty. We have very, very little of our natural rights left that we can exercise fully. You think I’m exaggerating? Try going to a law library and taking a look at the Federal Register!

Hundreds of thousands of pages of incomprehensible legalese. Shelves of big fat books full of ‘laws’ we’re all supposed to know and obey. How could that possibly equal freedom?

George Orwell wrote 1984 as a warning, not as a roadmap. But left him choking  in the dust by 1985! Our ‘big brother’ doesn’t only keep an eye on us from our home TV sets, he tracks our every move through our cell phones! He uses the EZ pass (toll roads) to keep track of where we go in our vehicles. He can tell our habits through tracking our spending on our credit/debit cards. He can get all kinds of information through our ‘smart’ devices. He’s already testing driverless (completely controlled by government) cars. And we can’t fly anywhere anymore without government permission (TSA)!

Big brother has already convinced fearful parents to chip not only their pets, but their kids and their parents! Scientists have already invented pills that inform your doctors if you take them or not. Soon they will report all your health information. Cashless societies are on the way, where every dollar you spend will be tracked (to cut down on tax cheats).

Just think of how the government controls everything now a days. What, if anything, don’t they have their hands in? They regulate the food you eat, the drugs you take, the doctors you can talk to about your health issues. Oh yeah, they also regulate what your doctors can say (and your churches if they want to remain tax free which is a form of coercion).

Free speech? Not so much any more with all the ‘political correctness’ BS going around. If I like Trump for one thing, I do love him for the fact that he is most definitely NOT PC!  They regulate the amount of water you can use to flush your toilet and the type of light bulbs you can use in your house (forcing dangerous mercury filled bulbs to replace previous incandescent bulbs).

Think you can choose what jobs you’d like to work at? Nope, big brother is enforcing hundreds of regulations restricting the rights of people who choose to work in professions as diverse as hair braiders, to animal massagers, to interior designers, to merchant marines. They’ve manipulated most businesses in the country to coerce us into submitting to giving up our rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. Do you call it freedom to be forced to beg permission from the government in order to go to work?

I don’t! I don’t call it freedom because it ISN’T!

Think you can just pick up and leave? “If you don’t like it here, you can just go back to where you came from?” Well, I would if I could, but I came from HERE! I grew up in the good ol’ USA. I believe 100% in the principles this country was founded on “LIBERTY and justice for all!”.

I believe everyone, everywhere in the world SHOULD be able to exercise those same liberties we here in America are promised. But the fact is, America is the only country, anywhere, ever in the history of the world to form specifically in order to promote and protect the individual rights of all of us.

I wish the American people would wake up and take back our freedom before its too late. I don’t think we have much time left to turn things around.

Sorry to all the democrats who think its all Trumps fault. Or the republicans who blame it all on Obama. Fact is, it’s ALL of our political ‘leaders’ fault! And ours, for continuing to believe that any politician from either of the mainstream parties will ever change anything!  For the last 100 years (at least), they’ve ALL conspired to strip us of our liberties and give themselves more power and control.

It’s sad how easily they manipulate us. They keep us divided and fighting over such stupidities as the word “shithole” and how many ‘illegal’ votes were counted. It’s time to stop wasting our time fighting each other and come to understand who we really SHOULD be fighting. Look beyond the party lines. I can promise you, you will find the same people are running things on both sides.

There is nothing to be gained by continuing to support these political parties who want nothing more than continued CONTROL. I want my freedom back! Do you?

Who Is…

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…keeping up with politics? Anyone subject themselves to the carnival on TV today? Trumps inauguration?

I do my best to avoid all that. I hardly saw any of the circus leading up to the election. I don’t like or trust any politicians and my greatest wish is for all of them to just leave us all alone!

In accordance with that, I did not vote for Trump. I voted for Gary Johnson and the rest of the Libertarians. They at least say they want to do that- leave us all alone.

Almost everyone I talked to did not like either Trump or Hillary. Most of them liked the Libertarians, but refused to ‘waste their vote’. I’ll never understand how it’s a waste to vote for someone you believe in. Continue reading →

SoCS: Anarchy

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The Just Jot it January challenge is almost over. Only 1 more day!

That’s a good thing, cause I’m leaving early Monday morning. I’ll be in school for a month in Mexico. I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to spend online (and I’m sure I won’t be wanting to spend much!).

Today’s prompt is: SoCS – “an” as a word or at the beginning of a word

Anarchy.

That’s my “an” word. I’m a libertarian. I thoroughly believe that each and every person on this planet owns their own life and should be able to do everything and anything they want (as long as they don’t hurt anybody else), and they will take the consequences of their choices. I believe in the absolute MINIMUM government possible.

That really ought to be possible, and a good way to run a society. In fact, the United States was founded on that principle. The country was set up to have an EXTREMELY LIMITED government. There are only about 8 things that the US government is authorized to do! EIGHT! Yes, that is true.

Read Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution. There it is, right there in black and white.

So, how in the HELL did we get from that to the situation we have today, where we have millions of “laws”. “Laws” that restrict and regulate every tiny little detail of our lives? Adding thousands more EVERY SINGLE DAY! Almost every one of them in violation of the Constitution which IS the SUPREME law of the land!

Every time I get into a political discussion and bring up my distrust and skepticism of the government, how it has grown into a tyrannic police state, people bring up Somalia.

They seem to think limited government is the same thing as NO government, which it is not. They also seem to think that the situation in Somalia is due to anarchy. It is not.

I am not an anarchist. Although the more I learn about it, the closer I come. Probably just because the more I learn about government, the more I am against it. I read a lot of history (also philosophy). I can’t imagine how anarchy could possibly be any worse than government. At least then, people wouldn’t expect the people they pay to take care of them to continually abuse them. Maybe they would actually fight back and take control of their own lives again.

Maybe governments might start out decent, but eventually the concentration of power completely corrupts them. They just get worse and worse until the people finally have enough and revolt. They abuse people basically at will. They supposedly have the monopoly of the use of force, but they use it against their own populations and the people can’t fight back. They control the education (propaganda) and teach the people that they SHOULD bow down to ‘the authorities’. How in the HELL is that a good thing?

I’ll never understand why so many people seem to think they DON’T have the right to live their lives the way they choose, that they somehow OWE their lives to some supposed ‘authority’. That just because they happened to be born on one particular spot on this planet, they owe their entire lives to whoever happens to take power in that locale. They bust their asses every day just to survive and their leaders steal whatever they feel like and they’re supposed to be thankful that they don’t steal even more. That just makes NO sense to me.

I better stop now.

Sacrifice

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Today’s prompt for Just Jot It January is: sacrifice.

3. the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.

For the sake of today’s post, I’ll use this definition, and this quote (some versions add “and lose both”).

I feel extremely isolated in that I agree completely with that quote. I seem to be 1 out of many millions. 🙁 Most people today seem totally willing to sacrifice ALL their freedoms (and mine too), in return for a (false) ‘promise’ of safety.

I can barely stand it; waiting in line for the TSA to grant me permission to travel. It’s all I can do to keep my mouth shut so I don’t lose that RIGHT forever. And the worse thing about it is, listening to the people around me in line making comments like “If you don’t have anything to hide, you don’t have anything to worry about”, or “I don’t care what they do as long as they keep me safe”, or “they’re only doing their jobs’.

Yeah, so were the NAZI’s!

We have given up SO many of our freedoms already, I can’t even begin to count! Just for a start, we have all the violations of the TSA, PATRIOT ACT, NSA spy programs, NDAA, etc. Restrictions of our rights to travel, to earn a living, to defend ourselves, what we can eat and drink and smoke, to choose how to take care of our own health, insane threats of fines and/or imprisonment dictating every single thing we do down to what kind of light bulbs and toilets we can have!

And yes, along with every other right listed in the Bill of Rights, even our right to speak freely has been violated (to all those who inform me how I would be imprisoned for what I say in North Korea or Iraq!).

I am NOT a North Korean or Iraqi! I was NOT brought up idolizing their dictators or ayatollahs as having the god-given right to run my life! I was raised as an American, one who believes whole-hearted in the ideals written down in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Those ideals that millions of Americans before me sacrificed everything up to and including their lives for. Things like individual liberty and freedom.

I can’t believe so many here are just forgetting all that, just throwing it all away, just giving it all up without any fight, without even a feeble protest. What the hell has happened to the American people that they put up with this? All I hear is how ‘times have changed’, ‘we have to go with the flow’, ‘the constitution was written 200 years ago’ and best answer yet- ‘you’re a real nut-job’!

All I have to say to that is: our founding fathers were RIGHT and  principles NEVER change, FREEDOM and individual liberty deserve all those sacrifices made in their name, ‘safety’ and ‘security’ do NOT, even if they were possible to achieve (which they’re not).

Conspiracy Freaks

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I’m about to head out to my weekly political meeting. Or, as most people refer to it as “those crazy conspiracy freaks going at it again”!

Does it REALLY matter if it’s a conspiracy if whatever you’re concerned about IS really happening?

Personally, I couldn’t care less if it’s technically a conspiracy or not. I just want it all to STOP! I’m not nearly as involved/informed as some of the other members of the group. I just don’t have the time (or the inclination) to spend SO much time investigating and following up research on SO many different things.

Things like:

  • Fluoridation
  • Chemtrails
  • Federal Reserve, debasing our money
  • Global warming
  • Weather manipulation, HAARP, California drought
  • GMOs
  • False/Shadow government, failure to legally reconvene congress after the civil war
  • Drug wars, prison state, prison-industrial complex
  • TSA, NSA, PATRIOT ACT
  • Obamacare screwing up our healthcare system even worse than it was
  • Common Core, government schools, TV, etc dumbing down the population
  • Agenda 21
  • Rising taxes and inflation, forced to work longer to survive, less free time to think
  • Families breaking apart, kids and elders left on their own
  • More and more and more rules and regulations, run jobs and businesses out of the country, huge loss of personal freedom

The list goes on, and on, and on. I don’t know if every one of these things is really going on, is really as bad as some of my friends there make out. I DO know that SOME of them are, that’s enough for me to keep going. to keep fighting.

There are SO many ways we are being used, and abused. I go to the meetings to TRY to find ways to deal with it all. To TRY to find solutions. To TRY to find ways to inform and educate enough other people so they’ll come to care about all this stuff and join in the fight.

My friend Mike thinks I’m nuts. He tells me I shouldn’t worry about any of those things, I should just let Obama (or Hillary) do their thing and everything will be fine. It’s all the Republicans fault according to him (yeah, I’m simplifying a little bit, but not by much). Sorry, but it’s NOT just the Republicans fault! It’s the fault of BOTH parties and I get SO tired of hearing one side argue about the other!

BOTH parties are STATIST! That is the problem and THAT is the reason we have so many of those problems I listed above! Until we get the population of the USA to believe in FREEDOM and LIBERTY like we all used to believe in, then things are just going to keep on getting worse.

In America, we the PEOPLE are the supreme rulers! Individuals are MORE important than the state! The government works for US, NOT the other way around!

Harry Browne asked a question when he was running for President a few years back. He asked people “Would you give up your favorite federal programs if it meant you never had to pay income tax again?”. Sadly, almost no one would.

 

Politics Tonight.

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It’s Tuesday. That means its time for the weekly meeting of my favorite local political group, the Texas Liberty Campaign of Brazoria County We meet every week at a local restaurant for good food and interesting discussions.

We’ve been meeting at the Mediterranean Gardens for a while now (since we moved from China Town). Plenty of good Greek (and Cajun) food.  I’m looking forward to it tonight since I haven’t been in so long.

I miss being able to talk about all this ‘crazy’ stuff, politics outside of the 2 party system, REAL freedom and liberty for America, things not really covered in the mainstream media.  Yeah, most people think we’re a bunch of tin hat conspiracy theorists. 😉

Sometimes I do too. But sometimes I think there really might be something to it (like all the completely unconstitutional spying on everything and everybody the US government does for just 1 example). And sometimes I even think it’s worth doing something about.

I only wish I knew just exactly WHAT to do about it all (other than speak out).

If anybody is interested, come on out and join us! We’re there from 7:00 til closing. 🙂

Taxman

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Gotta go see the accountant and pay the taxman today (again). Ugh!!!

I got an extension again, so now have until October 15 to deal with the mess instead of getting it all over with in April like most people do.

One more reason to get off my ass and figure out HOW to move out of here! If I can move, the first $100,000 or so of earned income will be tax free. Of course, I have no idea how I would ever earn anywhere close to that amount outside of the Gulf of Mexico, but that’s beside the point!

If I don’t have to give up close to 50% of my income in taxes, that means I can easily afford to live on 50% less income. And, I can probably avoid getting ripped off for another $10-15,000 in the obamascam!  I’m SURE there are many places around the world where I could manage to live nicely on 50% of my income.

Now, the issue is: how do I come up with ANY income if I’m not working in the Gulf of Mexico?

Great song by the Beatles! Who would’ve thought anyone could make a great song about taxes? Now, just think about the lyrics for a minute. 🙁

Taxman
The Beatles

Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me
Cos I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don’t take it all
Cos I’m the taxman, yeah I’m the taxman
If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat
If you get too cold I’ll tax the heat
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet
Taxman!
Cos I’m the taxman, yeah I’m the taxman
Don’t ask me what I want it for (Aahh Mr. Wilson)
If you don’t want to pay some more (Aahh Mr. Heath)
Cos I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
Now my advice for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes
Cos I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
And you’re working for no one but me
Taxman!
And just in case that’s not enough to get you going, here’s an even better one from Stefan Molyneux on Freedomain Radio! Warning: some ‘bad’ language, if that kind of thing bothers you, try your best to ignore it, this guy is worth listening to!!
For some reason, I can’t get the video to open up here (and the editor won’t let me fix the spacing anymore either!!). But please take a look at it through the link. I know a lot of you don’t like my politics, but I really do think if more people took the time to really think through what we’re dealing with, things would change for the better. Yes, better for ALL of us!

LOVE IT

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I get so discouraged working out here sometimes. I used to love coming to work offshore. I actually looked forward to it and was eager and excited to come back to work. I wanted to go places, to catch up with old friends and meet new ones.

I loved working outside on deck, where I could enjoy the weather. I loved the feeling of the wind in my hair and the sun on my skin (even tho I sunburn easily). I loved looking out and seeing nothing but the blue, blue water all the way to the horizon.

I loved to see the beautiful constantly changing seascape. I loved to watch the waves and clouds. I looked for signs of life around me. Birds: pelicans, sea gulls, terns, herons. Fish: mahi-mahi, ling cod, tuna, sharks, and dolphins (mammals, not fish). Even things like seaweed and jellyfish were of interest. I loved to watch the intense colors of the sky when the sun rose or set.

I loved the fact that my job depended only how well I did my job. It didn’t matter what I looked like, how I talked, my level of formal education, how much money I had in the bank, what kind of car I drove, how I dressed. I loved being able to work dressed in an old pair of shorts, t-shirt and a pair of flip-flops.

I loved slow days offshore when we would throw a line over and catch a few fish. We always caught something. Mahi-mahi, ling cod, rainbow runners, sharks, kingfish, snapper, grouper, catfish, etc. Sometimes we kept them to eat, sometimes we threw them back.

I loved standing lookout at night and seeing the stars so blazingly bright at sea when there was nothing around for hundreds of miles to blot out their light. I loved watching the dolphins play in the bow wake when we were underway and seeing them pass by at the rig. Continue reading →

Dear Leader

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If your government (local or national) accomplishes one thing this year, what would you like that to be?

That is the topic of the day from the Daily Post.

Oh boy, that is a good one for me! I had to think about it for awhile since there are SO many things I would like the government to do, or really NOT to do.

Here are just a few of the things I would LOVE to see them do: end the drug war, repeal the (misnamed) Patriot act, repeal the NDAA, abolish the TSA, abolish the NSA, bring our military back to the states and stop using them to interfere with other sovereign nations, stop the government from giving special favors Continue reading →

ROCKEFELLER MEDICINE : CORBETT REPORT

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If more people knew and understood the truth about our system, we would not be stuck with obamacare now. We MIGHT actually still have a decent health care system! I wish more people would pay attention to what goes on in the world around them, maybe we could make things better instead of worse.

Isn’t it obvious? If Operation Jade Helm were happening in any other country, it would be immediately labeled a military drill for martial law

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Is this STILL not enough yet? WTF is it going to take for people to wake the hell up and put a STOP to this shit!?

Walk the Line- Live and Let Live

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Today’s prompt from the Daily Post…

Have you got a code you live by? What are the principles or set of values you actively apply in your life?

I don’t usually think too deep about that kind of thing. But after I thought about it again, in response to the prompt today, I realize that yes, I really DO have a code I live by.

That code is simple:

LIVE AND LET LIVE

I’ve always thought that philosophy would make the world a MUCH better place if more people would live that way.

I thought when I was growing up I was alone in my thought processes. For so long, it seemed that everyone else around always thought for some strange reason that someone else (god, family, state, etc.) had some sort of ‘right’ to dictate how others should live their lives.

It was very encouraging for me to learn a few years ago that there are actually a lot of other people who think the way I do. Who believe in the philosophy of liberty and value freedom for all (actually, Americas’ founding fathers thought the same way and tried hard to form a government that would protect our rights to live this way- too bad their vision has been totally destroyed in only 200 years).

I only found out about the libertarians when my local Texas congressman Ron Paul was running for President as a Libertarian. It was SO nice to find that there were other people I could talk to who actually agreed with me. 🙂

(On most things- or at least the basic principles. Of course, if you’ve ever been in a room full of libertarians, you’d never believe that since we can argue for hours over the minute details of some proposal.)

But, the BASIC principals are not really an issue.

Self ownership: YOU own your life! No one else!

Everything else comes out of that most basic principle. Things like personal responsibility, honesty and respect for others. Everything comes together in a very sensible, ethical way for people in society to live. Each person is free to chose how to live their own lives in the best way possible for them (live according to their own values), taking into consideration their personal circumstances, and remember that they’re free to do whatever they choose as long as they don’t hurt anyone else while doing it (and, that they’re responsible for their own choices/actions!). That brings up a biggie.

There is also the non-aggression principle. Here is a good explanation of that by Dr. Mary Ruwart…

QUESTION: What is the libertarian “non-aggression principle” (or “non-aggression axiom”)?

MY SHORT ANSWER: Libertarianism is based on a single ideal, the non-aggression principle, so libertarian rhetoric tends to be remarkably consistent.

Libertarians oppose the initiation of force to achieve social or political goals. They reject “first-strike” force, fraud or theft against others; they only use force in self-defense. Those who violate this “non-aggression principle” are expected to make their victims whole as much as possible.

This “Good Neighbor Policy” is what most of us were taught as children. We were told not to lie, cheat, steal, not to strike our playmates unless they hit us first. If we broke a friend’s toy, we were expected to replace it.

Most of us still practice what we learned as children with other individuals, but we have grown accustomed to letting government aggress against others when we think we benefit. Consequently, our world is full of poverty and strife, instead of the harmony and abundance that freedom (i.e., freedom from aggression) brings.

Simply put, libertarians take the non-aggression principle that most people implicitly follow in their interactions with other individuals, and apply it to group actions, including government actions, as well.

You might have heard the Libertarian Party (LP) referred to as the “Party of Principle.” This is because the LP bases its programs and policy positions on the non-aggression principle.

Yeah, I really DO believe in these principles and yes, I do live by them.

If I haven’t gone too far off the deep end for you, and you’re interested in learning more, try taking the quiz (that’s why I keep it as a sticky first post on my blog). Check out the links in this post, or try the Advocates for Self-Government or the International Society for Individual Liberty, they’re both full of good information and more links to other resources for the liberty movement around the world.

Have you ever heard of libertarians before? Do you agree with these principles? If you don’t mind me asking, why or why not?

(Yes, I am hoping to start a discussion here). 🙂

 

Ron Paul: "We now live in a police state"…

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Yes, Ron Paul is right about this (as he was about so many other things). Most Americans refuse to open their eyes to this truth (or about the rest of them). They seem to be either just slogging through the daily grind with no time to think or anything else. Or they’re completely convinced that the OTHER mainstream political party is the cause of all the problems in the world.

Truth is that BOTH the mainstream political parties are in reality the SAME and they ARE the cause of most of Americas problems. Try getting people to see the truth to that, keep on banging your head against the wall.
Yes, we ARE living in a police state! Thanks to Ron Paul for all his work, from another head-banger. 🙁

Mediterranean Gardens: Great Gyros!

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I just got in from my regular Tuesday night meeting. Lately we’ve been going to the Mediterranean Gardens, a local Greek/Cajun restaurant. They have the best gyros in town (and really great French Dip sandwiches). Also, the baklava is really good.

But I don’t actually go there for the food. I go there for our weekly Campaign for Liberty meetups. I go there to get my weekly political fix. I can go out, have a good meal and talk politics with people who (mostly) agree with me. That’s a nice change. 😉

We talk about all kinds of things… The history of the United States, the proper function of government, the role of the Federal Reserve, the situation with our money/dollar/debt, who’s running for office (local, state, national) and do we like their plans or not…

Then we try to come up with projects to work on and things to do to increase our membership. We started a community garden (pesticide and GMO free), we’ve shown a couple of movies (Behold a Pale Horse, Atlas Shrugged), gone to a few rallies, etc. It’s really hard to do much if you don’t have a very large group of people involved. People are just so busy trying to survive now, they don’t have the time to get involved.

It’s a catch 22 situation. People are too busy to get involved, but if they don’t get involved, things will only continue to get worse and they’ll have even less time to do the things they would really like to. Instead they’ll be working harder and longer to pay the bills (and TAXES).

I have to admit. I don’t have the ability to do as much as some of the people that go. I just don’t have the energy, but I sure am glad that those other people are working so hard to keep it all going.

I wish more people really understood and took to heart the founding documents of our country. We are unique in the history of the world. These principles, that the government is made to serve US and NOT the other way around, are what made this country special. The Declaration of Independence says it perfectly…

http://calibloom.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/DeclarationOfIndependence.jpg

Self Ownership

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This (principle of self ownership) is what I was referring to in my earlier post (treasure).Yes, I REALLY DO treasure freedom and individual liberty above everything else.

Please watch the little video and let me know what you think. I’d appreciate hearing your objections (if any).

Also any thoughts on why you think we have (as a society) come SO far from this principle.

Thanks. 🙂

Photography Challenge 101: Treasure

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I’ve been busy with other things again and falling behind on blogging. Here’s my post for Day 16: Treasure of the photography challenge.

No, not the flag (or the moon). In fact, I treasure my (and your) right to trash it if you so choose. What I really treasure are the principles that flag (or the country behind it) represents. Or, I should say, USED to represent.

Principles we mostly seem to have forgotten. Principles “our government” now seems hell bent on squeezing out of us.

The most basic of those principles is not stated explicitly in our founding documents, but it’s there. It is the principle of self-ownership. This simply means that YOU own YOUR life. No one else. Period! All else derives from that (fact).

The founding principles of America were all based on that very simple premise.

Principles announced to the world in statements like these from the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

–That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

 

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Those are the things our government was established to PROTECT. Today, it does everything it can to destroy those things. So, I treasure what little there is left of them.

Home: Get Ready to Work

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I’m home. But only for a short stay. I got home from my FRC (fast rescue craft) class last night. I’m leaving for my course in Leadership (management level) on Sunday. FRC was only 3 days. Leadership is 5 days. All these courses are required (by law) for me to keep my license.

So, I really only have today and tomorrow to catch up on a lot of stuff. I’ve got to go for an eye exam this morning (also required for my license- yearly). I’m going to the dentist tomorrow morning. I need to get a haircut. I need to try and get my computers fixed. I need to see about getting my house exterminated (pretty sure I’ve acquired mice since I’ve been gone- and some sort of LARGER creature that is rampaging around my attic at night).

When I get back from the leadership course (in Baltimore at MITAGS), I’ve got to get my USCG physical done (required yearly so I can keep my license). That entails blood tests I’ve got to get done for my Dr to renew my prescriptions. I’m trying to do that through an online service since it’s MUCH cheaper (and I REFUSE to get sucked in to the Obamacare trap!!)

After I get done with all the medical crap (and “training” crap) I need to do in order to keep my license (without it I am not ALLOWED to work), then I need to try to figure out my tax situation.

Since I am not working for an American company now, they don’t take anything out of my paycheck for taxes. This is the first time I’ve been in this situation. I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to pay my own taxes quarterly now. All I know is, I’ve got to get my accountant on it so I don’t get screwed (any more than usual) by the IRS next year.

I’m still in the pool at work so I’m figuring I’ll be due back around Dec 4 (leave Houston Dec 2). That means that in my “month off”, I’ll have had 14 days at home. That’s pretty typical now a days, considering all the required courses and not required (except by the company) “training” we have to take in order to keep working.

How the HELL did it come to this? A free country where most of your time is spent trying to complete government mandates (license to work, TAXES)?  A job at sea once was the ultimate in FREEDOM. You just had to do your job and nothing else mattered. Now, it’s almost the complete opposite.

First of all, if you piss in the jar and it somehow ‘fails’ the test, then you’re OUT, completely and totally. You can not work for ANYONE for a LONG time. You might as well forget about ever working at sea again. What that piss test has to do with your job is totally beyond me, it’s just a bunch of pure BULLSHIT that has tied it to your ability to do your job, but it has become all important. 🙁

After you manage to pass that hurdle, of the company deciding that they OWN your time OFF the job as well as on it, then you can try and pass the ‘physical’ hurdle. Some (very few now) companies are happy enough with the required USCG physical (which gets harder and harder every time there is some sort of incident that gets some news coverage).

Most companies now have their OWN standards. They have their OWN doctors they send you to for things like MRI’s and even psychological tests! Here’s an example of what one recently thought was important that I could do: balance on one foot on a trampoline for a couple of minutes. Another thought I needed to be able to climb up and down the stairs for 20 minutes while carrying a weight of 50 lbs (for a company where it’s not allowed to carry weights of over 35 lbs)! Remember, you can’t set off the BP/pulse monitor either while you’re doing all that!!

Then, once you pass all that and you’re actually allowed to show up on the job, you have to complete a ream of paperwork before you can actually START even the simplest job (JSEA, risk assessment, PROMT card, etc). Oh yeah, you have to be dressed to the hilt in all sorts of ‘safety’ gear: steel-toed boots, hard hat, hearing protection, safety glasses, coveralls, gloves, lanyard for your hard hat.

But NO knife! They are ‘prohibited’ as DANGEROUS. WOW! What twisted logic we have to live by offshore.

So, here I am, a person who chose to go to sea for the FREEDOM it once offered, now suffering from an overdose of ‘safety’ which has completely destroyed the freedom. The same thing is happening on shore. All over the country.

What the HELL has happened to America? A country founded by people from all over the world who once valued their FREEDOM above all else? We’ve turned into a country of whiny-baby scaredy cats, willing and able to sue anybody and anything and blame anybody but ourselves, we need to be ‘protected’ from the big bad world and even ourselves. 🙁

I wonder is it some sort of disease? Something that causes people to lose their common sense? Or is it some kind of intentional mind control, something put out by ‘our leaders’ to get us to stop thinking for ourselves and just do whatever they tell us, no matter how stupid (no knives, airport strip searches, etc).

My guess would be the second one. 😉

Disappointed

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I tired to vote on election day. I always try to (even tho I seriously doubt it does any good). Since I knew I would be at work on the ship, I filed for an absentee ballot. I sent it in. I even checked off the box for EMAIL. I had some slim hopes that the mail would deliver my ballot in time for me to vote in this election.

It seems they can’t get an envelope from Texas to Angola in 3 weeks, never mind that I never would have been able to mail it back to them in order to be counted before it was too late. So, NO, I did NOT get to vote in this election. 🙁

I am very disappointed, mostly because in contrast to the people who constantly tell me I’m wasting my vote by choosing to vote Libertarian, I am NOT wasting my vote at all. In fact, my vote counts 100 times more than theirs will.

By voting 3rd party, I am making my voice heard. I am emphatically stating that the way things have been going for the last 100 years is NOT acceptable!!!

I try not to pay any attention to politics. My friends will probably disagree with that statement. Especially since it may seem like that’s all they ever see me posting about on Facebook.

Sometimes I get carried away with it in personal discussions. Some have even accused me of ‘ranting’ on certain issues.

Yes, I have to admit, it’s almost impossible to avoid the politics any more in the USA. I have come to envy certain people. I really don’t know how they manage to do it. To completely ignore everything that’s going on in the world around them.

They’re happy to just live in their own little world and ignore all the continual and constant additional rules and regulations being piled upon us every day. The constant violations of our ‘god-given’, or as I prefer to call them, natural rights.

It helps to be retired, or otherwise not concerned with a job. It helps to not have to leave the house. I think even if I could live that way I would still be bothered just by the fact that any time they want, the government could choose to destroy you personally (KILL YOU on a WHIM, read up on the PATRIOT ACT and/or NDAA) and everything you’ve ever worked for in your life (Google asset forfeiture).

I’ll never understand how so many people just continue to totally ignore that fact and just go on with their lives like everything is perfectly fine.

It’s NOT. 🙁

LAS

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Well, I made it through another security theater without blowing my top.

I waver between frustrated anger at the fact that these people all think they’re doing me some sort of favor by stripping me of my ‘god-given’ (Constitutional- Natural) rights along with my clothing and my dignity, and incredible sadness and depression over the fact that the American people put up with all this TOTAL BULLSHIT with barely a whimper of submission.

I wonder how in the hell did a country full of risk takers, who ALL (other than the Indians) came here from somewhere else, leaving everything behind to make a new life for themselves in the land of the FREE, turn into such a bunch of whiny, irresponsible, scared shitless morons every time ‘our’ government whips up a fear frenzy?

I wonder how many people REALLY believe that “our government” has our best interests at heart, is only doing what it “has to” to ‘protect us’, is only ‘doing its job’? I wonder how in the hell they could POSSIBLY still believe all that CRAP when it’s been proven over and over and over again that ‘our’ government is full of evil bastards who would kill their own grandma if it would get them even an ounce more power!

I wonder how is it possible they’re still willing to give ‘our government’ the benefit of the doubt when it’s been proven over and over and over again how it has stolen our wealth to grow it’s own power. It’s committed numerous unjustifiable attacks against too many countries to name here. It’s committed crimes against humanity (against it’s own citizens, not just against foreigners)- MANY times in its history.

Doesn’t ANYBODY pay attention to history? Doesn’t ANYBODY think about what the hell they’re REALLY planning?

Does anybody think Americans will ever grow some balls like the people in Hong Kong have?

I wish them all the luck in the world over there. I hope they can save themselves and their country. I hope the Chinese rulers turn out to be more sensible than ‘ours’ are here. I hope they’re successful in saving their freedoms in Hong Kong and I HOPE the Americans can learn a lesson and STAND TOGETHER to fight our common enemy!

Time Flies!

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Well, it’s over. My brain is overflowing with too much information from all the great presentations and interesting people I’ve met here in Las Vegas. I’ll be heading home tomorrow. Then heading back to work already on Tuesday. Wow! Time flies!!

When I came to the IL conference “Fast Track Your Retirement Overseas” this year, I thought I had my mind made up. I had pretty much decided on Panama.

The main reason is because I’m really not old enough (or rich enough) to ‘retire’ yet. I needed to find some place. ANY place, that would allow me to continue working so I could support myself outside of the USA.

Not many places offered that as an option. In fact, in over 7 years of looking, Panama was the ONLY place that I could find that would allow me to continue to work in my profession. Or even anything remotely resembling the profession I’ve spent over 30 years of my life becoming proficient in.

Most places would not allow me to do anything other than teach English (since I don’t know how to do anything else their own people can’t possibly do). The restriction is to keep me from stealing a job from a local. OK. I get it.

I was seriously thinking about teaching English. I still think I might do that some day. I think it would be pretty interesting. The thing is, I don’t want to have my work visa and ability to stay in country totally dependent on my job.

Lots of times I see language schools will give you a job and they will do all your paperwork for you. Then your work visa (and ability to stay in country) is tied up with that school! They sign you up and promise you health care, housing, etc. OK, all that sounds great.

What happens when you take them up on it? You show up in some foreign country, you’ve never been there before, you don’t know anybody, you don’t speak the language, and the housing they put you in looks NOTHING like the photos they sent you beforehand.

Are you expected to just shut up and live with it? You’re in some small town in China in some freezing cold, dirt floored hovel with a squat toilet. Or a tiny room in Thailand you’re sharing with another couple of teachers that has no AC.

Yeah.

Now what?

The whole idea of looking outside of the USA is to find OPTIONS!

I’m not saying things wouldn’t work out perfectly with a teaching job. I might wind up in the most beautiful situation ever. My point is, I don’t really have any idea WHAT I’d be getting myself into. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that level of risk at this stage in my life.

Soooooo…

I’ve been searching for years to find a country that would allow me to move there and continue to WORK as a mariner. It’s been a very hard thing to find. Panama recently started a program that would work so I figured I had better get down there and start the process.

Too bad my new job switched around my schedule and I had to cancel my trip to Panama.

Over the last couple of days here at the conference, I’ve learned that there might be other options. I’m almost certain someone told me that Mexico has some new programs. Uruguay too.

I’ve signed up for more information from all of those places, along with Belize, Philippines, and even Malaysia.

If nothing else, maybe with this new job I can FINALLY move out of the USA. At the very least escape obamacare before I get sucked into that humongous trap!

I’ll be heading back to the ship on Tuesday. I hope I can work out some kind of schedule with work so they can get their ‘training’ done so I can have the time off I’ve earned the next time home.

That’s a whole nother issue I don’t really want to get started on right now. I think I’ll go enjoy my last night in Vegas and try my luck on a few games.

Las Vegas: Conference

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The IL Conference starts this afternoon. This is the real reason I came to Las Vegas.

I sure hope I can get some useful information. Enough good info so I can FINALLY make the move!

Work is driving me CRAZY! Even on vacation these people bother me. Usually, when I’m off work, I’m OFF. No one bothers me at all. Never hear from them til I get my plane ticket.

I was OK with my previous job. Too bad obamacare forced me into taking a permanent job. I HAD to do it in order to get insurance. What a SCAM!

I need to find SOME way to retire. NOW!

I need to get out of the USA. NOW!!

Writing 101: Contrasting Views

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…

But Mike, a free country would never FORCE someone to buy anything.

But Jill, they already force us to buy car insurance.

I don’t HAVE to have car insurance Mike, in fact I don’t even HAVE to have a car! But that’s not right either. So, according to you, 2 wrongs make a right?

Nooooo, but people NEED ‘health insurance’.

Who says?

It’s just common sense Jill.

Really? I think it’s a HUGE scam!

Scam? Come on Jill. Health care is so expensive, if anything happens to you, you can easily get financially wiped out.

And the reason for that is the fact that ‘our’ government has become so involved with the health care system. It is not anything remotely resembling a free market anymore. Before they started screwing it up (100 years ago), it was the best in the world. We had a system that was affordable and innovative. The few people who couldn’t afford what they needed were helped out by charities, as well as friends and neighbors.

WTF are you talking about Jill?

Well, lets see. To start with, they went right along with the requests of the ‘doctors’ to restrict entry to the medical profession. They created ‘licenses’ and ‘accredited’ medical schools. People could no longer see the health care professional they wanted to, they were restricted to only those approved by the government. Of course, when you restrict the supply of something, the price goes up. Just like those doctors ordered.

Then, they created the FDA (not called that to begin with). That created the same problems with the supply of drugs and other products to do with health care. Now, it’s to the point where a company has to spend multi-MILLIONS of dollars to get an ‘approved’ drug on the market. No wonder the prices for drugs are so high here when the same things cost 90% less everywhere else. And, most places you don’t need to get a prescription either (saving you more doctors fees).

Are you nuts Jill? You want to let the snake oil salesmen loose again and allow people to buy adulterated products?

No Mike. I want to let the free market work. If you would ALLOW it to, there would be PRIVATE groups that would take over those functions that we really NEEDED. Just like the UL and Consumer Reports checks out many things now and informs people of whats up. There would be groups doing the same thing for health care providers and for drugs and other items related to health care.

But there would be no force behind those groups!

Yeah Mike, that’s the idea. No FORCE. Why do you think people need to be FORCED into doing things all the time?

If they won’t do what they ought to on their own, then someone needs to find a way to get them to do it.

REALLY? So who gets to decide what everybody OUGHT to do? You? Me? The President? Some irresponsible government bureaucrat?

Well, since Congress passed the law, then we all ought to follow it!

REALLY? Last time I looked, the LAW (the Constitution) said we are still a Constitutional Republic, NOT a democracy. The Bill of Rights still stands and there is NOTHING in there that authorizes Congress to write any such law, therefore regardless of what they may pass, it is NOT valid.

This country is SUPPOSED to be one that respects individual rights. It was formed specifically to do just that! When it violates that principle, then it is our right and duty to protest, up to and including civil disobedience and refusal to follow such unconstitutional so-called ‘laws’.

Oh Jill, you kill me. Go ahead and do that and go to jail. Get yourself shot for your beliefs.

No Mike, really its you and people with your attitude who are killing me. With every ‘fix’ your people put into effect, to ‘fix’ the things they screwed up before, it makes it harder and harder for me (and everyone else) to get decent health care in this country! I haven’t even got into the REAL drivers of the high cost of health care.

Oh?

Yeah. Do you realize that pretty much NOBODY ever had or needed health insurance til the government enacted wage and price controls towards the end of WWll? Health care was very affordable up until that time, even with the restrictions on providers and drugs. Because of the restrictions on wages, companies had to offer something ELSE to get the workers they needed. That something just happened to be health insurance.

That started the whole deal of tying insurance to your job (a HUGE problem), and it started the big problem we have now. That being no real price control. When people don’t have any concern about what something costs, then usually those costs are going to go up. Company paid health insurance started that ball rolling.

Medicare and Medicaid started in the 60s and really started pushing that ball!

So, now you’ve got restrictions on supply and a humongously increased demand and what could you possibly expect but that prices will go up?

Yeah, but SOMETHING needed to be done. People are dying because they can’t afford health care! Do you just want to let them die? That’s pretty harsh.

Mike, no one is turned away from an emergency room if they can’t pay. The hospital is required to take them (that’s another problem). Then they’ll have HUGE bills to pay (which they’ll either stay in debt forever or just walk away).

What I think is that we need to actually try to fix the REAL problem, which is government interference with the market.

Oh yeah, always back to the government. The government boogyman. You’re a broken record Jill.

If I am, it’s only because the government IS the root of most of our problems!

Yeah Jill, whatever.

…

Las Vegas!

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I’m heading to Las Vegas early in the morning. I have to get out of here by 0500! Much earlier than I like to get up. I didn’t want to waste a day and only get there in time to find my hotel and hit the sack, so I took the early flight.

I’m going specifically to the “Fast Track Your Retirement Overseas” Conference. I’ve been trying to find a way to get out of here for a few years now. Nothing I’ve tried so far has worked.

Now that I’ve finally found another job where I’m working overseas again, things are looking up! I think I ought to be able to make a move soon.

Actually, I was ready to go back in June. I had tickets bought already. Too bad I just started this new job. I didn’t think it would be a good idea to tell them right off the bat I couldn’t go to work when they asked me to.

So, I cancelled that trip. Too bad. Now I don’t know how long it will take me to get back down there. At least with this new job I shouldn’t have to worry too much about getting thrown in prison for lack of totally unnecessary and ridiculously expensive obamacare scam ‘insurance’!

I’ll have a couple of days to explore Las Vegas itself before the conference starts. It’s actually outside of town at the Red Rock Casino. It looks pretty nice, but it’s way out in the middle of nowhere.

Anybody have any ideas of interesting things to do around town?

Conundrums

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Conundrum
The definition of the word Conundrum is: something that is puzzling or confusing.
Here are six Conundrums of life in the United States of America:
1. America is capitalist and greedy – yet half of the population is subsidized.
2. Half of the population is subsidized – yet they think they are victims.
3. They think they are victims – yet their representatives run the government.
4. Their representatives run the government – yet the poor keep getting poorer.
5. The poor keep getting poorer – yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.
6. They have things that people in other countries only dream about – yet they want America to be more like those other countries.
Think about it! And that, my friends, pretty much sums up the USA in the 21st Century.
Makes you wonder who is doing the math.
I didn’t come up with the above, a friend sent it to me in an email. I thought it was worth putting it out there for a few thoughts from the rest of you out there. This part is all mine. 🙂
How did we turn into such a socialist country from what was once the most free country on the planet? How did we turn from a country founded SOLELY to support and protect INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY into this mess we have now?
Any thoughts? Comments? Insults? Rants??

The Daily Post: Can't Watch This

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When was the last time you watched something so scary, cringe-worthy, or unbelievably tacky — in a movie, on TV, or in real life — you had to cover your eyes?

 

The question from the Daily Post got me thinking…

I LOVE scary movies! I used to stay up late at night every weekend to watch “Creature Feature”. I still love to read good horror stories and watch scary movies. I like to read disaster stories, I like to hear about how people managed to avoid the worst and survive against all odds.

The thing that scares me more than anything now is what I see happening in real life, every day. The loss of our freedom here in America, more and more every day.

I try not to watch the regular news any more. It’s not really news. It’s just an on going litany of all the horrible SHIT going on in the world every day. Nothing good about it. Nothing helpful about it. Nothing any of us can do about any of it. It’s so depressing.

I can’t STAND to watch that show “COPS”. It almost makes me physically sick. I can’t believe that show is so popular and people actually believe those thugs in uniforms are doing anybody any good. It’s disgusting to watch them strut around. Yes, it’s ‘cringe-worthy’ for sure. 🙁

Is There Something Wrong With Me?

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I haven’t mentioned much about politics on here lately. Maybe it’s because I’ve been traveling outside of the country (I was in Korea for a month).

It’s nice that I can get out of the US occasionally. I would love to leave more often for longer periods of time. I’m even thinking I might want to leave permanently. It’s SO nice to get away where the politics isn’t constantly in my face.

Sometimes I wonder if there’s something ‘wrong’ with me. Most of my friends don’t really care about what’s going on around them. They always tell me to ‘just chill out’, or ‘just ignore it’, or best of all ‘just do whatever you have to do to get around it’.

I wonder “WHY should I have to do any of that”? Why should I have to leave to find the freedom I was guaranteed at birth? I was born and raised here.

I was brought up to believe that THIS country was formed specifically to PROTECT our rights! WHY should I have to try to ignore it when I see our government doing the exact opposite more and more often?

People call me crazy (paranoid) because I’m always aware of how much freedom we have lost in this country, even just in my lifetime. They say I’m crazy to think the things that have happened in other countries (Germany, USSR, N Korea, China, etc) could ever happen here.

But I see that we are following the same footsteps that led those other countries down the path of socialism/communism/tyranny. Why COULDN’T  it happen here?

I wonder what’s wrong with everybody ELSE, that they DON’T care what’s happening in this country?

Why don’t THEY get upset that they have lost the same freedoms I have? Why do they clamor to give theirs away (and mine along with theirs)????

I feel more and more like an outsider in my own country. I feel like most of the people in this country have completely abandoned the ideas and ideals that our country was founded on. What made this country so unique in all of history…

The idea that “we the people”, (ALL people), have certain INALIENABLE rights. Rights inherent to us, that belong to us simply because of the fact that we are all human beings. We are all equal under the law (supposed to be here). That our government’s main job, (its’ only legitimate function), was to PROTECT those rights (it did NOT create or give us those rights).

Most people have been distracted and disoriented by the corruption of the language and twisting of the meanings of the words. Rights for example, there are those basic human rights that we are all born with, part of our nature as human beings. Then there are government created rights like voting rights for example. People treat them as interchangeable. They’re not.

People are busy arguing about media created hoopla over free speech (political correctness) and racism (freedom of association) and on and on and on. Too caught up in the small issues that tear us apart instead of fighting together for what’s really important. Our FREEDOM as individual human beings!

Yes, I realize that we are all very busy. I understand that most people have so many things taking up their time and energy now a days.

Most people are so exhausted by the time they get home at the end of a long day, all they want to do is chill out in front of a TV set. They don’t want to think, they want to vegetate til it’s time to go to bed.

Maybe as a sailor, I’ve had too much time to think in my life. Maybe it’s because I’ve always loved to read. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been an explorer. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been a skeptic.

But for whatever reason, I do think and I do care. What I see happening around me here flat ass scares the SHIT out of me.

OK, now before you all go running for the doors, please stick with me just a little longer.

Yeah, I’m fishing for comments here. I’d really like to hear from a larger sample of people around the world than just my personal friends and friends of theirs I’ve been arguing with on Facebook. 🙂

OK, just one simple question to start off with…

What do you know about the principle of self-ownership? 

Have you heard of it before? Where? What do you think it means? Do you think it’s valid? How would you go about justifying it? Do you think principles like this one change with the times? Should they?

Here’s another one to go along with that, it’s really part of the same question… If you DON’T own yourself, who does?

OK, I’ll leave you all to think on that for a while. PLEASE comment with your thoughts here!

 

If you’re wondering why I put that video on the top of the post, here’s why. I love that band! I really like this song.

I also think it’s relevant to this conversation I’m trying to start. I do think there’s a war going on. It’s a war for our hearts and our heads. It’s a war for the principles we’ll stand and fight for. It’s a war between the great masses of “we the people”, the common people, (you and me), and the elites.

It’s a war between freedom and tyranny. YES, it really is. So far, it’s happening mostly in the background, behind the scenes. You can see it easily if you look around (don’t count on the mainstream media for your information).

“This is Why We Fight”:                                                                                    “When we die, we will die with our arms unbound.”                                               THAT says it all to me.

“This Is Why We Fight”

Come the war
Come the avarice
Come the war
Come hellCome attrition
Come the reek of bones
Come attrition
Come hell

This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
And this is why
This is why we fight

When we die
We will die
With our arms unbound

And this is why
This is why
Why we fight
Come hell

Bride of quiet
Bride of all unquiet things
Bride of quiet
Bride of hell

Come the archers
Come the infantry
Come the archers
Of hell

This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
This is why
This is why we fight

And when we die
We will die
With our arms unbound
And this is why
This is why we fight
Come hell
Come hell

This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
This is why
This is why we fight

When we die
We will die with our arms unbound
And this is why
This is why we fight

So come to me
Come to me now
Lay your arms around me
And this is why
This is why
We fight
Come hell
Come hell
Come hell
Come hell

 

Video: Freedom From Choice

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I got this in my email today, I just HAD to check it out. This film looks like it will be a real eye-opener and I sure hope it gets the attention it deserves.

The email (from The Dollar Vigilante) said that the first official screening of the film will be at the Freedomfest (Las Vegas Jul 9-12).

I went to Freedomfest a couple of years ago and had a great time. I hope to go again this year. I’m not sure of my schedule yet, so I haven’t made plans. I definitely recommend it for anyone who is into freedom and individual liberty. There is SO much good information there, SO many interesting people, and the atmosphere is just amazing!

Positive energy for a change. 🙂

Here’s what Jeff Berwick (the Dollar Vigilante) has to say about Freedomfest and the new film… “… Freedomfest is probably the largest conference on freedom in the world and so I decided I couldn’t pass it up.  Also, at Freedomfest, they will be screening the first public airing of “Freedom From Choice” a film on the state of the US tyranny today with appearances by Peter Schiff, G. Edward Griffin, myself and many more.“

I checked out the link on the email from TDV and liked what I saw. I can’t wait to see the full movie. I even donated a few bucks to help make that happen. (You can too if you want). I think Kickstarter is a great idea (and another example of the free market at work)!

Check it out and let me know what you think. Do you like stuff like this? Do you care about these kinds of issues? Are you concerned about the way things are going in the USA (or the world)? Are you involved in any projects to help change things? I’d really like to know. 🙂

Nullify the NSA!

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I hate to say it, but I screwed up. I had heard of this event a couple of weeks ago and meant to get involved a whole lot more than I managed to do. I actually heard of it the first time from a post by Gene’O at the Sourcerer Blog. He had a great page on his blog all made up especially for this event (and of course it’ll be an ongoing fight, so check it out and follow it to keep informed).

I wanted to do something to help promote this event. I wanted to rouse people up to take a stand and get involved. I meant to make at least a post of my own (and hopefully a page) about it, but I’ve been so busy lately, the best I could manage to do was to sign the petition, email my congressmen, and post on my Twitter and Facebook pages. I hope at least a couple of people noticed it yesterday and took some action. 🙂

Today I got an email from the ‘Campaign to Stop Government Spying’,  ’cause’ I signed up for it a while back. They sent me an update on how things went yesterday and a reminder that the fight is far from over. Here’s what’s they reported…

The numbers were astonishing.  The Day We Fight Back was featured on over 5,000 websites, generated 84,000 calls, and 172,000 were emails sent while our petition here on Causes reached over 25,000 signatures!

 

In addition to the tremendous online success Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has filed suit against the NSA in what will surly become a landmark case against mass surveillance.

 

It’s a good start, but obviously not good enough since the congress is not yet willing to completely throw out the NSA (and TSA, and the PATRIOT ACT, and Obamacare, etc) and get back to Constitutional government!

Personally, I wish I could throw out (with appropriate punishment) every one of those politicians who allowed this to happen in the first place. Every single one of them who voted to support the NSA in ANY way.

The NSA is an affront to every principle this country was founded on. Its entire purpose is at war with the 4th amendment (and the 5th)(and all the rest of them too!).

I can hardly believe how far we have come in just MY lifetime. We’ve moved from a place where most of us could all live our lives in (relative) peace and prosperity, almost like in the TV shows “Leave it to Beaver” or Andy Griffiths Mayberry,…

To now we’ve somehow wound up in George Orwells 1984, or Huxleys Brave New World. Maybe a mixture of those 2 with a big bunch of Kafkas Metomorphosis thrown in.  In all reality, we’ve far surpassed even the worst nightmares of those visionary authors.

The NSA (along with the TSA and a bunch of other alphabet agencies) are a BIG part of what’s wrong with America.

I don’t agree with those who say we’ve got the government we ‘deserve’. I don’t believe ANYONE ‘deserves’ a government like this. One that treats us as criminals. One that thinks it has the right to track and CONTROL EVERY aspect of our lives.

Why in the world would ANYONE think anybody deserves that? It reminds me of the self righteous hypocrites who think everyone but themselves are sinners and belong in hell. They get a huge enjoyment out of feeling so smug and superior. But no one is perfect (including them), so they deserve to go to hell (and will) too.

The people who think we deserve this are just the same. So, we deserve this suck ass government we have because of what, exactly?

We’re ALL in the same boat! We need to figure that out and stand together to do something to save ourselves from sinking. We need to throw overboard the ones who are bashing holes in our hull and sabotaging our pumps!

Maybe then we can save ourselves and find a way to repair our country to one that will help better our lives again instead of the opposite.

This campaign was called “the Day We Fight Back”. We don’t need A day we fight back, we need to fight back EVERY DAY until they get off our backs and give us back our freedom!

Illegal government spy programs are not the ONLY things we need to fight. We can START with that, then take on the next. We need to keep going until we have ALL of our freedom back.

I hope I can see that someday. I hope I can even see a serious START to it. I know I’m not the one, but there must be SOMEONE out there who can come up with something effective, some way to make some progress, some way to wake people up to what’s REALLY going on and get them to take an interest…

Anyone?

Statism is Dying

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Statism is Dying.

I sure as hell HOPE so! Nothing deserves it more. Nothing would make me happier!

I REALLY want to be able to live at least part of my life with the freedom I was promised as a child! Instead of watching it slowly stolen from me day by day here in the former “land of the free”.

I got this article from The Dollar Vigilante in my email today. I just HAD to pass it on in it’s entirety. I thought it was an excellent explanation of my views on government and the state. The videos are excellent, especially the second one by Josie the Outlaw.

I have been in an extended argument with some of my friends on Facebook over this kind of thing. I can’t seem to get them to understand the benefits of freedom and the sick, soul killing abuse of statism (or rule by others in any form).

I always have a hard time explaining what I mean and why the way I think about things actually makes much more sense than the way things are. Why I am still a ‘dreamer’.

My basic premise is that I own MYSELF. The principle of self-ownership is what everything else comes from. I think it’s pretty self evident, but apparently it’s not. Too many people just don’t seem to get it.

I don’t get it. I don’t understand them at all. Why do SO many people argue against that most basic principle? Why do SO many people feel they do not, could not, SHOULD not own their own lives?

IMHO, we are all born free, we all deserve to live as FREE human beings, since we ARE free from birth! Regardless of what other people say or do, they do NOT own you! IF they try to act like they do, then they are WRONG and you DO have a right to overthrow them in any manner you choose!

In my eyes, there is a very basic struggle going on world wide. It is the fight for individual liberty vs Statism; slavery and power over others.

I will ALWAYS be on the side of individual liberty and will do whatever I can to help that side.

I am still waiting for my friends (or anyone else) to come up with some good (LOGICAL) reasons for why anyone (other than a sociopath/psychopath) would support the other side.

Any takers?

The NSA Speech: Obama Accepts the Logic of Staying Terrorized

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The NSA Speech: Obama Accepts the Logic of Staying Terrorized | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

SSDD. (Same Shit Different Day). That’s about all I can say for Obama and his ‘promise’ to correct the abuses of the NSA (and the rest of the total surveillance state we live in today). 🙁

Anyone out there who seriously thinks Obama is really going to fix anything or rein in these people to their Constitutional limits, read this again…

1. The phone metadata still exists.

2. It will be kept, at least in the short-term, by the government until Congress figures out what to do with it. (And don’t think the telecom lobby won’t play a role in that.)

3. It will be searched.

4. Searches will be approved by a court with a record of being friendly to the government, one without a new privacy advocate.

5. National security letters can still be issued by the FBI without a court order.

6. Much of this activity will remain secret.

Can anyone really believe that ‘our’ government needs to keep track of ALL of your (personal) information? That any kind of freedom can survive this kind of all out attack? That society will really be better off if we are forced to live under these conditions? That YOUR life will be better?

That they are doing all of this for your safety, rather than their sense of power and CONTROL?

Does anyone seriously believe that they REALLY need to know about (and store forever) every single phone call you make? every single website you visit? everything you’ve ever said online? every single thing you buy (unless you use cash)? every single place you go? every single detail of your medical history?

I’m sure that last paragraph doesn’t cover the half of it. I’m only mentioning what I KNOW they are presently collecting (and keeping).

We are already in a state SO much worse than George Orwell ever imagined! Maybe we don’t have ‘Big Brother’ watching us through our TV sets yet.

But we DO have ‘our’ government watching us through our computers. We DO have them following every move we make through our cell phones (and soon enough directly through our cars). We DO have them watching everything else through financial tracking and the countless cameras invading every public space.

We have TSA agents to violate our RIGHT to travel freely (along with our dignity) every time we travel. We have a ‘Constitution Free zone” extending 100 MILES from every border (which covers about 65% of the American population)!

We have the PC thought police to harass us anytime someone gets a little upset with something we say.

We have the FDA to fine us or throw us in prison if they object to the food we choose to eat or the medicines we prefer to take.

We even have Obamacare to (eventually) imprison us if we refuse to allow un-elected government bureaucrats to control our most personal decisions. We can no longer choose how to manage our own BODIES! (How is this different from slavery? oh yeah, WE have to pay for our own abuse!)

I keep hoping that one day soon I’ll wake up from this nightmare. Or rather, that the rest of the American people will finally wake up and come to their senses!

That they will realize that there is something horribly WRONG with what has been going on here lately (intensely ramped up since 9-11). That they need to put a stop to it before it actually hurts THEM (instead of just that “other guy who must’ve done something to deserve it”).

Here’s hoping that day comes soon.