Mindless Drones in Action

So this is how far we have come, children in a public school visiting a public space silenced for... pick one:

1. Political Correctness

2. $35.00

Totalachusetts

True to their Puritan heritage, Massachusetts busybodies are once again attempting to control the behavior of their fellow citizens through government.

THE SCARLET LETTER

On Wednesday, the Westminster, Massachusetts Board of Health will hear public comment on a proposed regulation that could make Westminster the first municipality in the United States to ban sales of all tobacco products within town lines.  AP

 

"I Am An American"

A fabulous remix of the U.S. government-funded "I am a Ukrainian"!  Good video up to 2:50...

And while we are at it, a prescient film from 1946 that hits a little too close to home:  "Despotism".

- Hugh

We're Not as Free as We Used To Be

In a First Amendment Center/AJR survey, nearly half of those responding said they think the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees. And about the same number said the American press has been too aggressive in asking government officials for information about the war on terrorism. (AJR - Too Free?)

We don't need to invite the world's huddled masses; we ourselves are turning into a shivering, whining huddled mass...

The freedom celebrated on July 4, 1880, entailed a person’s right to live his life any way he chose — responsibly or irresponsibly, healthy or unhealthy — so long as his conduct was peaceful. Drug laws were nonexistent because freedom entailed the unfettered right to ingest harmful or unhealthy substances.

Unfortunately, in our time Americans have rejected our ancestors’ philosophy of freedom in favor of a “freedom” in which the state’s primary role is a paternalistic one. Today, the “freedom” celebrated is the collective power of the state to take care of people in society by taxing them.

John Quincy Adams’s statement to Congress on the Fourth of July, 1821, that America does not go abroad “in search of monsters to destroy” is now considered a quaint and obsolete philosophy of foreign policy. “Freedom” now entails an enormous standing army whose mission is to invade and occupy foreign nations with the supposed aim of taking care of their people, protecting them from tyranny or oppression.

How is the domestic policy and foreign policy celebrated as “freedom” by Americans today different from the philosophy that guided King George in 1776? (FFF-Hornberger)

A government vested with the power to fix everything also then has the power to break everything

Crashing around with impunity overseas acts as a societal corrosive that eventually eats through the firewall of us and them, here and over there. A government that can get away with it “over there” will eventually bring it home and turn the technology and tactics on its own people.

Also, when you allow government to advocate for certain protected groups instead of for the good of all, and when you cheer when government tramples the rights of your hated political enemies, how can you complain when that monster goes rogue and starts goring your sacred cows?

Jonathan Turley gives us 10 Reasons Why The US is No longer The Land of the Free.  It's full of good civil liberties stuff, and although he's a liberal, he's an honest one with a strong libertarian streak.  

The kooks at MSNBC and Daily Kos stood up on their hind legs and cheered him when he was calling for Bush and Cheney to be tried for war crimes.  They changed their tune when he lambasted Obama over his serial violation of our civil rights.  Those same lefty loons now resemble a horde of rabid Muslim nutballs screaming and burning over a flushed koran when his name is mentioned.

Here's more from a website called End of the American Dream...

In America today, you do not have the right to say whatever you want. If you say the wrong thing on a blog or a website it can have dramatic consequences.

In America today, you do not have the right to raise your own children as you see fit.

In America today, you do not have the right to grow whatever food you want and you do not have the right to eat whatever food you do grow.

In America today, you do not have the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.

In America today, you do not have a right to privacy. In fact, you should expect that everything that you do is watched, tracked, monitored and recorded. (12 Signs)

For those misguided souls who think this started with Obama, here's an article from 1994:  FFF – Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberties

Freedom!

"Truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred." -- Vaclav Havel

Matt Welch's piece in Reason Magazine on his visit to the Czech Republic to celebrate the life of Vaclav Havel is a beautiful tribute the man, and also provides a caution against believing that electing a philosopher king will solve everything.  There is no salvation in politics, even when a beloved hero of the people takes the reins.

Havel spent 5 years in jail as a dissident against the state dictatorship and led his country through the Velvet Revolution, a playwright turned president breaking down tyranny's barricades and wedding his nation to Western Europe. As president, he remained a champion of freedom and moral clarity, but could never gain the whip hand over the new republic's rumbustious politicians.

"Many ridiculed Havel for his words about truth and love," Schwarzenberg said. "Yet it is the essence of the human struggle. And we must never give up that struggle....Only love makes us listen to the truth of others."

The Bureaucratic-Industrial Complex is Crushing Us

There's some wisdom there.  Even the OWS crowd is onto something, if in a one-eyed, twisted way.  As they scream for the death of bankers and corporations and demand free college and a minimum wage for doing nothing, they fail to realize that it is government that has enfeebled and impoverished us.  

Government told us to stop working so hard, don't worry, it's not your fault...  It's a nice sentiment, to remove a burden from the downtrodden (albeit with other people's money), but government also ended up snuffing self-sufficiency and rewarding failure and ignorance as it shouldered its way in to every last corner of our lives.  

Meanwhile the Government-Corporate Complex continued building great bureaucratic bulwarks against competition, protected by concertina wire tangles of laws and regulations preventing the little guy or gal from challenging Walmart and Microsoft, or from even selling food on a street corner.  And forget about manufacturing; too fraught with legal liability.  Better to take your investment cash to China, or Vegas.

Our politicians are not listening to us, and the bureaucratic class is out of control.  We want our lives back.

Truth without Love...

Truth without love is like facts without context, like music without passion, like a sermon without faith. That is to say, it is finally not truth at all. Parsing words to gain momentary self-advantage at the expense of deeper understanding spreads a kind of moral rot, one that inhibits development and blunts joy.

Havel found kinship with and inspiration from crazed rockers who insisted on living according to their own code despite an all-smothering state, which is how Magor probably intended the phrase that Havel would take and run with. Here, ultimately, is where truth fuses with love–love for music, for life, for Prague, for getting your drink on, and for taking advantage of every cracked-open door to bloody well do something with your life.

Can we all resolve, in this upcoming year, to evaluate the sausage coming out of Washington, DC not by our partisan lights, but based upon whether it advances or destroys personal liberty?  Don't try looking for love there.  You will not find it.

Instead, look for politicians like this...

Vaclav Havel’s Funeral: Why Truth Needs Love
The Welfare State’s War on Religious Liberty
Scrooge-Like Predictions for the New Year

Australia vs. Germany

I'm still stuck in the Thomas Sowell "Compared to What?" mode, so I thought I'd do a quick economic comparison between the US, Germany and Australia.
 
We've been arguing a lot over economics here at Western Hero and around Right Blogistan.  I want to present a few basic economic facts to help us keep it in perspective.  All information is from The Heritage Foundation 2011 Index of Economic Freedom.

It is useful to state statistics as a percentage of GDP, since GDP is the generally accepted (although imperfect) expression of a nation's total economic output.   It's the whole pie.

A Tale of Three Countries

Here are a few facts about America, Germany and Australia.  I include Australia because it ranks #3 on The Heritage Foundation's index and it is a model of small government.  I list Germany because liberals, with reason, like to cite that country as a successful example of enlightened progressive governance. 

United States of America
GDP:  $14.2 Trillion
Total Revenue:  26.9% of GDP
Total Government Expenditures:  38.9%

Germany
GDP:  $2.8 Trillion
Total Revenue:  40.6% of GDP
Total Government Expenditures:  43.7%

Australia
GDP:  $851.2 Billion
Total Revenue:  30.8% of GDP
Total Government Expenditures:  34.3%

One thing that immediately stands out is that all three countries spend more than they take in. Must be an international contagion.

Liberals want us to be more like Germany

I at least credit them with ignoring Communist North Korea and Castro's Socialist island paradise to pick a pretty good model.  In order to emulate Germany, we'd have to tax everything, making the price of everything go up.  Imagine a 19% sales tax.  Denmark, Sweden and Norway have a VAT of 25%!  We'd also have to strip states of their remaining rights, since the federal government only collects 18% of GDP, with the other 10% collected unevenly and unfairly among the states.  Get that done and you still have to figure out how to squeeze another 15 cents of every dollar out of the taxpayer.

Note the small difference in expenditure/GDP between Germany and the US.  We're almost on par, yet our social services stink in comparison to Germany's.  I think this points to horrible inefficiencies in how our government operates.  This also explains why Obama and his liberal fellow travelers are demanding draconian tax hikes to feed the voracious beast.

Conservatives should point to Australia

Australia is the gold standard of how a country should operate. It is ranked #3 in the world in The Heritage Foundation index.  Only Singapore and Hong Kong are higher (but who wants to live where you can get sick breathing the air or get your ass caned for chewing gum in public?).

Australia has a relatively small and efficient government, low corruption, and light but effectively enforced regulations on the economy and banking. It is an excellent business climate, and that translates into Joe Biden's favorite three-letter word:  J-O-B-S.

I would glady pay taxes for a government like Australia's that provides a great return on taxpayer money and doesn't stifle freedom in the process.

See also:  Western Hero - How to run a Country:  Australia