The Revolution continues...

Last night Dana and I participated in our first ever caucus. Had I not received a short video from the RP2012 campaign I would have been completely confused. We gathered with people from our precinct (basically our zip code) and all together there were about 50 people, which according to our precinct chair, was more than double the number of people since 1996 when he began caucusing. We went through a number of formalities such as electing precinct chair, co-chair, secretary, etc. to start the meeting and then took the presidential straw poll. Dr. Paul won our precinct with 19 votes to Santorum with 15 votes. The other 2 were in single digits. After still more formalities we finally got to the point of electing delegates which was the most important part of the evening for us. Dana nominated me and there were at least 3 other overt Ron Paul people who were also nominated. We were each given a few minutes to speak prior to the election. I was the only one who prepared a speech (which was a bit surprising) and there were only 10 people vying for 8 delegate positions. Fortunately all 4 Paul supporters were elected as delegates to move on to the county caucus in a couple of weeks. We will hopefully be successful there as well!

Here's my speech. I prepared it about an hour before the caucus...still pretty good I think!

In 1770 Alexander Tyler said this about the cycle of democracy:

We move from bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage

I ask you friends, in what phase are we? With welfare rolls exploding, foreign owned debt crushing our economy, the legislator knocking down our doors telling us what we are allowed to do under the law instead of how the law will offer us freedom, when patriotism means we can’t question our leaders and liberty is the choice between a body scanner and a pat down. I ask you again my friends, how have we come this far?

We are all here tonight because we believe that America can break free from the bondage of debt, class warfare and dependency offered to us by this administration. Our hope isn’t in the next bailout, but the free market. We believe social justice is about tearing down the walls that separate us, not lifting some over at the expense of others; that Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem!; and that the Constitution cannot be interpreted to mean just anything, for it would then have no meaning at all.

I am part of your community, your neighbor, and I’m asking you to allow me to be a part of the biggest turn around in our country’s great history.

My name is **********. Thank you.

Revolution!

Yesterday afternoon Dana was visiting the Ron Paul website to see what was new and found, much to her delight, that ahead of Tuesday's primary Dr. Paul would be making a visit to Rochester. Thankfully it was in the morning allowing both of us to attend.

We got an early start and arrived at the high school he was speaking at about 1.5 hrs early and were able to secure front row seats, which was important not only for visibility reasons but also because following his speech he came down and Dana was able to get his signature on our placard!

The speech and the atmosphere were awesome. Not only is the message true but watching him speak and only need to glance at his (what I assume anyway) bullet notes 3 or 4 times in a 40 min speech speaks to the consistency of the message.

The audience was diverse but had a large number of 30 somethings and under as well as families. It warms the heart to see the pre-teens holding their Ron Paul placards high. It also provides comfort to see the next generation ready to take up the cause of liberty as Dr. Paul it preparing to hand it off.

You Cut

This is for real. I had my doubts when I originally saw this site but it has been confirmed that Republicans are allowing YOU to vote on spending cuts to the federal budget. Every week House Republicans will offer a vote on cutting the program that receives the most votes. Check it out, and vote!

http://republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut/

Ehh, say that again?

I'm having trouble reconciling these two videos (as most people do I presume). It is funny to watch him get caught in the second video. This guy is the AG! Another talking head in the propaganda machine.

Congressional...you decide

This is real video footage of Rep. Hank Johnson (D) from Georgia. This guy is making decisions about your health care. This is almost too dumb to mock.

Self Limiting

We have been working our way through a series of lectures mainly centered on economics by Ron Nash. The one we listened to yesterday was a guest lecturer who is a law professor from Mexico City. His point was simply this: For every right there is a corresponding duty. That is to say, for every right you have (i.e. the right to life) someone else (in this case everyone else) has the duty not to take your life. You can see this work in other examples; property, liberty, etc. In essence, each right, or law, has a negative effect on your freedom. The vast majority of people would gladly limit their own freedom to protect against murder and theft but the relationship gets sticky the deeper you delve into the theory. This country has thousands of laws and hundreds of politicians passing laws almost daily to make a more "equitable society." Laws at the federal, state and local levels, tax laws, civil rights, entitlements galore, each of which limit the freedom of every individual not protected under those rights. In the next day or two a new right and law will be signed enforcing everyone to obtain health insurance or face fines, basically a tax on breathing. The system is fraught with contradiction which is most evident with the issue of abortion.

It is really a simple, intuitive idea that I'm ashamed to say I had not properly comprehended. The Constitution originally only guaranteed the rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Really that should have been enough. Now we've signed away our own liberty in the name of fairness.

No You Can't!

I have to admit that after the crushing victory Obama had in the election last year I thought that America was ready for socialism. It turns out that America was just naive. I couldn't have predicted there would be such a backlash to Obama himself but it looks like it has begun.

Obamania

I've spent the last 3 days of this week being congratulated by one person after another on my new president. My only response is, "he's not my president!" There aren't too many people with whom I can have an engaging conversation at work. On Monday one of the doctors was saying she loves Obama and thinks he'll be the best thing to ever happen to America. When asked why, what makes him great, I got the same answer I seem to get from everyone over here. "He's brilliant, such an eloquent speaker, gives people hope." While I don't argue with the fact that effective leadership involves intelligence, powerful oration and the ability to motivate and inspire I think the fact that to what end that leader may direct us is infinitely more important. That question never gets answered over here.

The infatuation may be short lived. The front page of Thursday's paper reported of the upwards of 100,000 jobs that could be lost in Ireland when Obama's tax plan takes effect. Currently, companies the operate over-seas receive tax breaks but Obama wants to bring jobs home and plans to make it fiscally impossible for companies to continue operating over-seas. This will not only effect American economics as companies will not be able to afford the labor force it currently employs and will consequently suffer losses in productivity but the economies of some of the poorest countries where the majority of employment is via American contracting. Think of India where AOL, DELL and other technical support is routed through. It would be a devastation from which those people could not recover. And if you think tech support is bad now then wait until you have a 2 hour que on the phone because of the cuts in personal. That is just one example and probably not even the best one.

On a side note. Dana's been talking to a lot of foreigners trying to learn English and met some Iranians. To her shock they told her that they love George W. Bush and where hoping McCain would be elected because they thought he'd be like Bush. They said all the Iranian people loved Bush. Funny, that's not what you here on BBC or CNN.

The social system

I have to vent. Let me know if I'm off completely.

I read in the paper this morning that senior government officials have received around a 15% pay increase. This is amidst a huge budget crisis in which many hospitals are having to cut back service and all hiring has been suspended. It will cost over 19 million euro per year to cover the pay increases, which by the way were revealed the day before a holiday weekend. The chief of finance is now making over 370,000 euro per year. I suppose the saying "Socialism works great if you have the right people running it" can again be shown a farce. The government is reporting that it will have to raise taxes next year to accommodate its spending. I am still not being payed over-time (I worked 12 hours today) and people that can't do their job correctly are giving themselves enormous raises. The physicians I work with have been offered a 37 hour work week and will not be paid for any time over that (which means they probably won't be paid for working on Thursdays or Fridays because they'll be over their hours by then). The free market system could accommodate raises because they are in fact based on productivity and share holders won't pay for poor results. Even in the government voters approve such increases or show the government employees the door. These government officers now make more than the President of the United States, who is (throat clear) the leader of the FREE world. It is sad how dependent people become on such an inept group of leaders.

We just go about our business and hope for the best. Hopefully we won't be corrupted by this sour system. Be thankful for what you have, it could always be worse. I could go on but I'll sum up with this: When Hillary is elected urge your congressman to VOTE NO on government run health care, and send your HMO a thank you card!

Yeah, that'll fix it.

What is going on in Deutschland? Extremism seems to be the way of the land. In a country where marijuana and prostitution are as legal as driving a car and clearly more accessible than a fire-arm, we see the same scope represented in the political and religious views of it's leaders. Anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders has recently called for the Koran to be banned calling it a "fascist book," and the leader for the "committee of former Muslims" has just been attacked fueling already tense relations within the country. How do you solve such ill-relations?? Bishop Tiny Muskens thinks a resolution would be accomplished if people of all faiths called God "Allah." The statement received quick praise from the country's Muslim community, however, 92% of those surveyed disagree with the Bishop. Well, what do you expect from a guy named Tiny?

Y2K - Global Warming Connection

The DailyTech reports on how the Y2K hoax may have actually been more real than global warming. You can read the full story, but a brief synopsis is that while inspecting NASA's climate graphs, Steve McIntyre noticed a strange jump in the climate graphs centering around January of 2000. NASA would not provide him with the algorithm used to generate the graphs which was created by NASA's Reto Ruedy and James Hansen who became headliners when they accused the Bush administration of censoring there dire predictions. NASA has since released an updated version which shows that the hottest year on record was actually 1934 (not 1998) and that 5 of the 10 hottest years were pre-WWII. It turned out that a Y2K bug had corrupted the handling of their raw data. It seems that Y2K not only lead to pre-2000 panic over airplanes falling from the sky, banks losing all of their account information and economic destruction but can also be blamed for the current hysteria surrounding global warming.

Wisconsin Sickos

The debate in America is coming to a head and I've had numerous discussions with people regarding the potential consequences of converting to government run health care. It seems that we may not have to wait much longer to see the plan in action. Wisconsin's Democratic governor and senate have already passed legislation for such a plan which has been thus far rebuffed by the Republican run House. See the whole story here, but basically it will cost the average Wisconsin worker $510 more per month while becoming a haven for people who want free health care (you don't have to be employed to receive benefits) and driving out workers who can do the same job and save a big chunk of their check.

Social Gospel

I saw this article on the "Social Gospel-100 years later" and wandered who is ultimately responsible for social justice and reform. Being conservative I am in the camp that supports individual efforts while others see that as a governmental responsibility. Government waste surrounding programs designed to deal with social issues is the very reason many on the conservative side support the "Faith-Based Initiative" that has yet to find its wings. Providing means without bureaucracy makes sense.

The article deals with other issues such as the dissociation of Christianity in its point of practice. I have yet to understand "liberal Christianity" in any sense. It seems like an entirely different religion to me.

The sky is falling

I take offense to all the climate change talk that is suddenly headlining every media outlet. Let me preface by saying that I'm no climatologist and I don't pretend to have studied the science (and I do believe it is science) of changing global climate. I am educated and with the sword of logic I feel the need to tap into the fight - though clearly only to be heard in my local circle.

We've been tracking and recording climate change for around 100 years which in my opinion makes it impossible to predict future events with any accuracy having no knowledge of climate cycling. For example, I've heard that we may be in the middle of warming trend that melts polar ice caps to a critical level, lowering ocean temperatures, which in turn leads to colder average temperatures and the reformation of the ice caps. This may or may not be true but I think its worth consideration.

Secondly, I think the scare tactic that the poor will starve because of SUVs is pitiful. If you've followed the course of the headlines over the past few months you'll see that every new counsel, organization or whatever makes a greater apocalyptic forecast. First off, water does not vanish into space. I understand that small (very small) amounts are bound up and form another molecules but realistically if one place is in a drought, another is being flooded. It is just basic science.

What we have are people who risk ruining global economies (which would truly lead to starvation) to add another signature to the Kyoto protocol.

Defensively offensive

Bill Clinton's tantrum seen here is a reminder of the roots of failure in fighting terrorism. The blame game is pathetic. There is documented evidence of terrorist activity aimed at American interests every year from 1993-2000 with limited if any response. It's time to admit it...you messed up.

Time for change

The New York Times got taken out behind the woodshed by a federal appeals court which ruled that federal prosecutors can subpoena phone records from former reporter Judith Miller. Miller is alleged to have tipped off two Islamic charities to impending FBI raids. The Times is of course protesting that the phone records will reveal confidential sources and violate their first amendment rights. The court rightly ruled that the subpoena has to do with a tip off and is not covered under the first amendment.