Question of the Day

Would you want your tax preparer to have been caught cheating on his or her taxes?

Transparency in Legislation

The link that follows should concern each and every citizen.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Congressional-leaders-fight-against-posting-bills-online-8340658-63557217.html#

What is generally the case if someone is asking you to agree to something or sign a contract without allowing you to read the associated documents or study the agreement? Dishonesty. Corruption. It is simple.

This is not a plague reserved for only the current administration. This is rampant at all levels of government, within all parties, without exception. It has to stop.

William J.H. Boetcker, 1916

The Ten Cannots:

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves.

Well said

"I'm a Marine Corps vet. And, like you, I did swear an oath to defend my Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. ... Now, I heard you say tonight ... that you're going to let us keep our health insurance. Well, thank you. It's not your right to decide whether or not I keep my current plan or not. That's my decision. ... I've heard recently in the media you and some other people on the national political stage call us 'brown shirts' because we oppose [government health care]. ... A little history lesson: The Nazis were the National Socialist Party. They were leftists. They took over the finance. They took over the car industry. They took over health care in that country. If Nancy Pelosi wants to find a swastika, maybe the first place she should look is the sleeve of her own arm. ... What I want to know is, as a Marine, as a disabled veteran that served this country, I've kept my oath. Do you ever intend to keep yours?" --Marine Corps vet David Hedrick at a town hall meeting in Clark County, Washington, speaking (with resounding applause) to Democrat Rep. Brian Baird

Exactly.

Liberty is Responsibility

I'm compelled to write that I'm concerned about ever-growing encroachments on my liberty and freedom.

That's right, it's mine. My freedom does not belong to any representative, congressman, justice, czar, general, or president. But, without my direct involvement, they will act as if it did.

Over time, a long time, time before I was born, time before my parents were born, my freedom has been slowly, incrementally removed. Sometimes, it has happened under the guise of security. Sometimes, under the veil of safety.

Until recently, I didn't think of it. I took my freedom as a human for granted, probably because I had never seen any of it physically removed. But more and more, the slow, incremental reduction in freedom is turning to bold, in-your-face attempts at removal. I am concerned to the point that action is called for.

If you see something on the web, read something in the paper, or see something on TV that you're not sure of, that sounds in opposition to our nation's fundamentals, do something. Call your senator. Call your representative. Ask them to explain to you the issue. Ask them to tell you their thoughts on the topic. Then tell them yours. Call your friends and family. Discuss these issues, no matter the difference of opinion. Discussion and constructive debate drive optimal results.

We can no longer sit by, apathetically watching our liberty being taken. We are blessed with a system in which we have the ability to participate. No, it's not an ability, it is a responsibility.

Thoughts on Our form of Representative Government

"Congressmen (and women), with due apologies to F. Scott Fitzgerald, are different from you and me. Privilege makes them soft where life teaches the prudent to be hard, cynical where their constituents must be trustful. The congressional entitlement to privilege, wrought not by talent or inheritance but by legislation, explains the typical congressman's blindness to tint and deafness to tone, revealed in the angry 'town hall' confrontations over health care legislation. Instead of reassuring frightened constituents, Democratic congressmen (and women) denounce the voters who sent them to Washington as Nazis, Brown Shirts and the 'un-American.' Harry Reid, the leader of the Senate Democrats, calls the critics 'evil-mongers.' Congress is dead to anything outside the bubble it has created for itself. ... The rage at the town halls is particularly irksome because congressmen are not accustomed to anyone talking back to them." --Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden

These Town Hall meetings are exactly how our republic is supposed to function, and the reaction by some representatives to passionate opposition should make it clear they are out of touch. If they were so opposed by well-connected lobbyist groups, I'm sure the reaction would be different.

Regardless of your stance on Universal Health Care, you should be concerned, if not appalled, at the behaviour of some of your elected officials. I am.

Inalienable Right...

To Healthcare? There is currently a push to have everyone in the US receive healthcare insurance. Let's put the cost of this, the track record of other government health care systems, and the regulations that currently bind up our private healthcare system aside, and answer this question:

Do you have a right to healthcare?