NEAR COMMON SENSE

Every now and then, everyone involved in the political arena needs to do a “reality check” and redefine, or at least revisit, their philosophical roots. It is so easy to get caught up in the heat of partisan politics that we often forget that one’s political beliefs should grow from, or be part of, one’s total philosophical world view. It is not enough to know that this person is against “whatever” and that that person supports “whatever.” In order for these partisan positions to have any merit, they must be explainable and supported by a philosophical belief system.

Every philosophical framework must begin with a foundation which defines our personal view of humanity. I believe each of us has been created in the image of our God, and that each of us is a free and sovereign person (the exclusive right to complete control over oneself) and that each of us owns our bodies, our minds and our time. The only limit to our individual freedom should be that none of us use our personal freedoms to harm anyone else. We are also gifted with free will, the right to make choices in our lives. And the right to choose, the right to try comes with the responsibility that we accept the reality that we may fail.

Each of us is born with certain rights that come from our Creator. Among these rights are those which are defined in our Bill of Rights; the right to free speech, the right to free assembly, the right to freely worship, the right to self-defense. Our individual sovereignty and our God given rights pre-date societies and governments and will exist even when governments no longer exist.

In the most simplistic view, governments exist for the purposes of defending their citizens (or subjects) and providing an orderly structure for people to live their lives and transact their commerce and affairs; to wit: 10 men can better defend a small village than 1 man can defend his hut and farmstead. Without some orderly structure for the transaction of commerce, individual people would be at the mercy of vandals, thugs, bandits and bullies. Simply put, governments should exist to protect the weak from the tyranny of the strong. When people organize governing entities, the surrender some of their individual liberty to the well-being of the society. It is the tension between complete individual liberty and societal, or government control, that is one of the major driving forces of history.

Our American government is unique among all governments throughout the long history of the world, in that our government was created with its main purpose of protecting the natural, God given rights of the American citizens. No other government in the history of the world was created for this purpose. No other government in existence has ever defined those rights in its governing charter as our government defines them in our Bill of Rights. And our American government is also unique in that our Constitution was designed to define and to limit the scope and power of our government.

As a Libertarian, I believe that all governments should be as small as possible, and as limited in scope as possible while still being able to fulfill those two fundamental functions listed above. As a Conservative, I believe that our federal and state governments should be limited to those functions clearly defined and delimited in their respective Constitutions. From my philosophical perspective, I see that much of what our state and federal governments are doing now is far beyond the limits of the authority granted to governments in our several Constitutions. As a Conservative, the extreme growth of the federal government concerns me greatly, because the Constitution, the authorizing document of our federal government is a compact among the states and not between the citizens and the federal government.

Following my belief in small government and guided by my belief that we own our minds and time, I believe that taxes should be no more than is absolutely required to fund government and that taxes should be equitably applied to all citizens. In my world view, our current “progressive” income tax is immoral as it punishes creativity, risk taking and hard work – and, as currently applied, it uses the threat of the use of force to take money (time) from some people and gives it to others. There is no moral, nor rational justification for that.

Considering my belief that we are free and sovereign individuals, created in God’s image and bestowed by God with rights that pre-date and transcend all governments, and my belief that governments should be as small as possible but still provide national security and a peaceful environment, it is logical that I am also a free-market capitalist. There can be no other logical conclusion. My belief in the free-market system grows, not only from my philosophical roots, but also from observation and a knowledge of history. America’s free-market, capitalist economy has provided Americans with the highest, most comfortable standard of living that the World has ever known. History also clearly shows that the first economic system that societies adopt when they move beyond subsistence economies, is always some form of a barter system and all barter systems are pure, market driven, supply and demand economic models. Free market economies are the most natural of all economies.

As we continue our discussions in the years to come, Faithful Readers, I hope that you will be able to see how the foundations of my philosophy guide the positions that I take on issues of our time. I encourage each of you to take some time and think about how you arrive at your political positions. I challenge our progressive letter writers to set forth their philosophical foundations for our review. Conservative and Libertarian philosophies always triumph because they are based upon the divinity of man and are built upon the lessons learned and upon the successes of the past. No other political philosophies even come close.

After long and serious thought, I realize that people who hold the kinds of attitudes as I do are standing in the way of real SOCIAL PROGRESS. It is high time for this writer and other stupid Conservatives to come into the 21st century and leave all of those REACTIONARY ideas behind. It is high time that USIANS accept that health care is a GOVERNMENT GIVEN right. I have no doubt at all that the very first thing President Obama or President Clinton will do will be to get the new Democratic controlled Congress to pass universal, FREE health care for all USIANS.

We will have to CHANGE how we view health care once the government takes it over. Since we will all be paying for one another’s health care, we must demand that the government do everything in its unlimited power to protect us from threats to our health care system. The very first thing that the government must do to protect us from ourselves is to outlaw the growing, processing and use of tobacco. All smokers, like me, need to be rounded up and sent to re-education centers where they can treat us with electric shock therapy and/or lobotomies to cure us of our nicotine addictions. The government can cover the cost of this re-education by seizing the assets of “big tobacco” and the personal wealth of the tobacco company executives who should be executed for crimes against humanity.

Now, to make sure that all USIANS are forever safe from the evil of tobacco, the government should deploy the “Screaming Eagles”, the 101st Airborne to the tobacco growing regions of our nation to destroy all growing tobacco, all tobacco greenhouses and all of the tobacco curing sheds. The government should seize all of the assets of the tobacco growers and processors and execute these villains for crimes against humanity.

Once tobacco has been eliminated from USIAN life, the government can turn to the next biggest health threat, which is obesity. Fat people, like me, should be put on diets where we will only be fed the North Korean bark and grass pellets that have no nutritional value at all. Those of us who cannot reach our idea Body Mass Index within 60 days will have to be sent to re-education centers where they can treat us with electric shock therapy and/or lobotomies until we no longer want to over eat. The government can pay for this by giving the North Koreans 4 or 5 light water nuclear reactors and by seizing all of the assets of “Big Fast Food” and that of their corporate executives and execute – you know the drill.

To keep us safe from the evils of artery clogging MacDonald’s-like burgers and other horrible foods, we should demand that the government out-law fast food restaurants and move to protect us from the empty calories of soda pop and junk foods. We should demand that the government outlaw soda pop and junk food and seize all of the assets of MacDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Pepsico, Frito-Lay and all other junk food corporations and execute these corporate “fat cats” for crimes against humanity.

Because we have shown that we are incapable of making intelligent choices for ourselves, the government should take control of food allocation in the United States. It just isn’t FAIR that some USIANS have more to eat than others, and government inventory management can ensure that this never happens again. The total inventory of available food in the US should be equally divided among all USIANS, with no one getting any more food than anyone else. Highly trained government nutritionists will be responsible for meal planning for all of us and highly trained government logistic specialists will make sure that our individual, daily allocation of food is delivered to every household in the country. There is no room for individual tastes and preferences – every USIAN will be expected to eat their allocation of healthy, perfectly balanced, perfectly proportioned government provided food every day. Persons who cannot, or will not, eat the food provided will be sent to re-education centers where they can treat us with electric shock therapy and/or lobotomies until we are willing to eat whatever the government provides us.

We all know that exercise is critically important to staying healthy. The government should order every company employing more than 5 people to provide a complete cardio-vascular exercise area and to give all of their employees an hour and a half of paid time every day to exercise and shower after exercising. Companies employing fewer than 5 people will be required to pay health club memberships for their employees and to provide paid time for exercising, showering and traveling to and from the gym.

I’m really excited about how all of this will CHANGE and improve life for all USIANS. I just cannot believe that it has taken me so long to come to my senses! Yeppir! FREE health care is long overdue in this mean, evil, capitalist country. In just a few years we should be able to have a HEALTH CARE SYSTEM just as good as that of the PEOPLE’S PARADISE OF CUBA. I can hardly wait!

APRIL FOOL!!

But it’s only SEX!!!

It is really hard to believe that the New York State Attorney General would be willing to waste taxpayers’ hard earned dollars to prosecute Governor Spitzer for hiring prostitutes. Holy Cow!! After all, it’s just sex, it’s a personal matter!!

Oooopppps! As I type this, I am listening to the governor speak. No, resignation. Egads!

But it is kinda funny. Usually when a Democrat gets in trouble over sex, it’s no big deal.

(Do you really want those assholes back in Washington??)

       About two weeks ago, radio talker, Rush Limbaugh was discussing Jesse MacBeth of Washington, who became the rage on the Internet with his stories of US soldiers murdering Iraqi citizens.   According to McBeth, he was an Army Ranger who participated in mass hanging of Iraqi citizens from “the rafters of mosques.”  MacBeth has been convicted of faking his military record.  According to US District Attorney Jeff Sullivan, MacBeth was never in Iraq, he was never a Ranger, he was kicked out of boot camp after 40 days for being unfit.  Limbaugh referenced MacBeth and other “phony soldiers” who are telling stories of war crimes to gin up anti-war sentiment.

            In an unprecedented attack on freedom of speech and against a private citizen, Democratics in the House and Senate have gone to the floor to condemn Limbaugh, even though Limbaugh was clearly referencing people who had not been soldiers nor been in Iraq, nor witnessed atrocities.   The “Shame of the Silver State” Harry Reid sent a letter to the CEO of Clear Channel Radio demanding that Clear Channel force Limbaugh to apologize. One Senator has even called for the Senate to “censure” Limbaugh, claiming that Limbaugh had “maligned” soldiers opposed to the war.  Democratic Senator Salazar from Colorado is apparently unaware that the Senate can only censure Senators – but Democratics have never been known to let facts get in the way.

            Rush Limbaugh does not need this columnist to defend him and this column is not about defending Limbaugh.  This column is about the Left’s use of “phony” soldiers and their drive to silence all opposition.  These are the salient points of this “issue” and the ones that should be discussed and remembered.

            Many of us who are old enough remember this statement very well, “They told stories that at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Ghengis (pronounced “Jenjus” in that phony Boston accent) Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam . . .” It was with these words that John F. Kerry began his “testimony” before the United States Senate in 1971.  Kerry’s antiwar testimony ratcheted up anti-war sentiment and led to the ultimate abandonment of South Vietnam and the murder of over a million Vietnamese by their Communist “liberators”.

            Unfortunately for the million Vietnamese who were slaughtered, the testimony that Kerry presented to the Senate was false and had come from men who had not witnessed, nor participated in war crimes.  Many of the men who testified in Kerry’s “Winter Soldier” hearings had never been to Vietnam – many had never been in the Army.  They were, in Limbaugh’s words, phony soldiers.

            Back in 1971, Americans had only the mainstream news media from which to get their information on current events.  By the time of the “Winter Soldier” hearings, the mainstream media had become actively anti-war (more accurately anti-Nixon) and was not interested in presenting facts, but only in pursuing their agenda.  By the time Americans learned about the phony soldiers and phony testimony, our nation had been humiliated, Nixon had been driven from office and millions of Vietnamese were paying the ultimate price for our betrayal.

            It is not surprising that the anti-war left has resorted to using phony soldiers to pursue their goal of securing another American military defeat, after all, it worked so well back in 1971.  The difference between 1971 and 2007 is the emergence and power of the “new media”.  Between talk radio and the  internet, Jesse MacBeth was outed for the fraud and liar that he is long before his story became “irrefutable fact”.  Limbaugh and the bloggers have done a great service to our country by outing the new “phony soldiers”.

              It was almost surreal to hear Harry Reid condemning Limbaugh for something Limbaugh never said – and acting like no one knew he was perpetrating a lie.  Listening to Democratic Senators condemn Limbaugh reminded me of that other great progressive, German national socialist Joseph Goebbels, who said that “if you tell a lie often enough people will begin to believe it.”

            The motivation behind the Democratics smear of Limbaugh is their desire to silence all opposition to their agenda.  Had it not been for Limbaugh and the Internet, the anti-Bush, anti-American, anti-war left would have had another John Kerry with Jesse MacBeth and now the Left needs to silence opposition.

            Earlier this summer, Venezuelan national socialist dictator, Hugo Chavez shut down television stations that were broadcasting news and reports that Chavez didn’t like.  Cuban national socialist dictator Fidel Castro silenced free press in Cuba in 1960.  The Soviet Union and Communist China allowed only highly censored press to exist.  National socialist, progressives and other totalitarian regimes cannot exist with a free and open press and neither can the Democratic Party in the United States.  Soviet dictator Josef Stalin created the model of the controlled press in his ruthless, blood thirsty reign of terror.  It is a tragedy in the making that American Democratics are modeling themselves after Castro, Chavez and Stalin.

            A free society can only exist with a free and open press – and we must constantly be on guard to prevent the Stalinists in the Democratic Party from censoring our free press, seizing control of our government and destroying our Constitutional freedoms.

It has been interesting to hear the repercussions from yesterday’s ICE raid of Reno’s McDonald restaurants. Citizens and patriots are cheering ICE and hoping out loud that the feds will open a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement here in “The Biggest Little City in the World” to root out and deport the thousands of people in this city illegally.

An Hispanic woman was interviewed on local radio this morning. She said, “I understand that they are ‘undocumented’, but they have not broken the law. They are only trying to support their families.”

How friggin’ stupid can people be? If it is acceptable to violate immigration laws because you need to support your family, would it also not be acceptable to rob a bank in order to support your family?

Coming to America illegally is not one bit different from robbing a bank. It is law breaking pure and simple. It is unacceptable conduct and should be punished, not rewarded.

It is time for all Americans to stand up and DEMAND that our government enforce ALL laws, not just those that they want to enforce.

The big story here in Reno today is that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has shut down all of the McDonalds’ restaurants in Reno and have raided McDonalds’ corporate headquarters here in town. One can only hope that this is the first of many raids here in Reno.

There is no logical nor sound argument to support the position of illegal aliens in the United States. People who come here illegally should be deported immediately. We will not have our country for much longer if we do not stop the flood of people entering this country illegally.

We must all demand that the federal government build the border fence and get it built NOW.

Life in post-modern America tends to be hectic and fast paced, so much so that it is rare, if ever, that we have the opportunity for some real down time, some honest to goodness just kick back and “smell the roses”, time to just “be”, without defining ourselves by “doing”. I often find myself defining myself by what I am doing. I become agitated if I am not at the desk “doing” something. The energy that propelled me through 20 years of dairy farming continues to push. I cannot simply sit and watch TV, I have to be also surfing the web, or writing next week’s column, or experimenting with Open Source Software – doing something, anything.

It is a habit that I cannot control. I believe that I might be, as Leonard Cohen once wrote, “a very willing victim”.

And so it was rather unique and simply wonderful whence last Friday I found myself in the marvelous company of two gentlemen, brothers of our friends George and Sharon, thereby making both Mark and Buddy brothers-in-law as well as brothers. Sharing the connection with George and Sharon Buddy, Mark and I were not total strangers and were able to begin the process of sharing of ourselves without that lengthy “getting to know you” period.

We had all gathered at George and Sharon’s for the wedding of the oldest granddaughter the next day. Grandma Sharon was doing the cooking, with barbecue help from Mark. So by mid-afternoon, Sharon, along with my wife Gennie and Mark’s wife Cindy went into town to check on all of the preparations at the church – leaving Buddy, Mark and I to our own devices.

The three of us gravitated to the front porch of the little house which overlooks the tree-clad mountains of Central Oregon. You couldn’t have asked for a nicer day – the temperature was in the 70’s and the air was so incredibly soft and gentle – almost a nearly perfect day.

In the process of getting to know one another better, Buddy decided that we needed to jointly to explore what he believed to be an excellent Petit Sirah wine. In Buddy’s world, one cannot truly appreciate an excellent wine without an excellent cigar to round out the experience.

And so it was that I spent the last day of summer sitting on the front porch of a neat little house in the Oregon woods sampling good wines and enjoying a Cuban cigar. The poet may have written, “what is so rare as a day in June?” - but I would counter by asking “what could be more perfect than a September afternoon with good wine, good cigars and good men around me?”

Thanks for a great day, George and Sharon.

Welcome to Near Common Sense - online! One of the drawbacks to writing for a weekly newspaper is that the world moves around us at near warp speed and so much goes on that I cannot comment on in my weekly column.

I hope this blog gives me that opportunity. Check with me often to see where my thoughts have wandered.