Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Global Warming & the Precautionary Principle & the Road to Totalitarianism
Emboldened by a United Nations report regarding global warming, President Barack Obama with his continuing high poll numbers proposes an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to protect Mother Earth from humanity’s depredations – this would be the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. After all, "science" has determined that global warming (which has a "high probability" of being human-caused) is going to decimate untold numbers of animal and plant species. Americans, accordingly, came to a strong consensus that political action, as guided by the "precautionary principle," was the only way to save the environment, let alone the entire planet. President Obama's election mandate has delivered a message to all 50 state legislatures that his proposed "Precautionary Principle Constitutional Amendment" must be ratified posthaste.
It is early 2009 and Obama has just taken the Presidential Oath of Office. One of President Obama's first priorities is to prod each state legislature into ratifying the 28th Amendment. He brushes aside critics who have declared that the Amendment will hollow out the Constitution. During a "Keynesian" moment of candor, President Obama quips: "The Bill of Rights really won’t matter if we are all dead." With Americans clamoring for environmental and human salvation, all 50 state legislatures ratify the 28th Amendment with the same rapidity, foresight, and studiousness as the U.S. Congress exercised when passing the Patriot Act.
Barack Obama, and the Democratic Party, celebrate one of the most astonishing political victories in U.S. history. Now, Mother Earth herself will have a "voice" in domestic and world politics. The precautionary principle has become enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. The body of the 28th Amendment reads as follows:
Amendment XXVIII
Section 1: Congress shall take any necessary action in advance of scientific proof of evidence, that the environment may be harmed, on the grounds that any delay of action would be more costly to society and nature. Precaution is not simply the prevention of manifest or predicted risks that have been scientifically proven. Rather, the precautionary principle goes beyond the notion of prevention in the sense that it insists that Congress move to anticipate problems before they arise or before scientific proof of harm is established.
Section 2: The actions of human beings, corporations, and other entities shall be subject to examination of identifiable social and environmental gains or losses arising from any course of action.
Section 3: The precautionary principle shall be enforced so that the overall capacity of environmental systems will act as a buffer for human well-being. However, any error in risk calculation shall be to the advantage of the environment. This entails leaving a sufficiently wide natural cushion in the functional equilibria of natural systems. In effect, this means that humans must learn to widen the assimilative capacity of natural systems by deliberately holding back from unnecessary and environmentally unsustainable resource use on the grounds that exploitation may prove to be counterproductive, excessively costly or simply unfair to future generations. Nature's assimilative capacity cannot always be taken for granted.
Section 4: As a matter of moral right, vulnerable and critical natural systems and entities, namely those close to thresholds, or whose existence is vital for natural regeneration, shall have equal standing to human beings.
Section 5: No real property shall be developed without the property owner demonstrating that no unreasonable harm will come to the land.
Section 6: All Congressional spending decisions must integrate environmental policy from certain and known concerns that occur in the present, to future and more uncertain issues.
Section 7: The international environmental treaty, known as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, its Kyoto Protocol, and all further updates, are hereby integrated into the Constitution.
Section 8: Any Constitutional interpretations, conflicting with this Amendment, shall be settled in favor of this Amendment.
Section 9: The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
During the ratification process, opponents of the 28th Amendment were quite vocal. Such critics advised that the proposed Amendment essentially voids the Constitution itself. Detractors argued that the unintended consequences, of giving the environment legal standing equal to humankind, will be economically and socially devastating. Additionally, the intentional vagueness of the precautionary principle will allow for arbitrary and tyrannical rule. It will be only a matter of time before chaos ensues.
In a stunning turn of events, with respect to the Section 3 of the 28th Amendment, pro-life advocates immediately seek to overturn Roe vs. Wade and, by default, make abortion illegal in the United States. Pro-life advocates assert that giving legal standing to future generations inherently makes abortion murder.
This thorny issue (abortion) has been haunting the U.S. Supreme Court for decades. The court immediately takes up the case and hears both sides of the argument. With breathtaking speed, the Justices rule 9-0 in favor of the pro-life advocates. In a brief summary of the unanimous decision, the Justices state: "In light of Sections 3, 4 and 8 of the 28th Amendment – the law of the land – an unborn child has full legal standing in the United States. Hence, abortion is murder."
Feminists and women’s rights groups, throughout the nation, express outrage at what the Democratic Party has wrought upon American women.
To add another unintended consequence into the mix, veterinarians are now refusing to euthanize terminally ill and infirmed animals. A cautious interpretation of the 28th Amendment reveals its biocentric nature – all entities, which naturally include animals, have equal standing to humans. Therefore, to euthanize an animal would be tantamount to murder. Pet owners, across the nation, are confused and exasperated.
Shall the police be called in to investigate the death of a goldfish?
Heartened by the newly found "rights" of animals, animal-rights activists press to have hunting and fishing banned in the United States. As a response, every state suspends the issuance of hunting and fishing licenses. Lawsuits begin to flood the state courts.
Being that the precautionary principle is inherently vague and broad, the anti-gun lobby leaps into action. Citing Section 1 of the 28th Amendment, anti-gunners mention how it is incumbent upon Congress to both "anticipate" and "prevent" problems.
With murder rates, in Washington D.C. and New Orleans, at alarming highs, anti-gunners declare that an outright ban of guns is the only solution to the "murder problem." As the anti-gun lobbyists argue, "…guns kill people." To add weight to their case, President Bush’s war in Iraq is cited as an example of the precautionary principle. Poor implementation of the war aside, Congress did agree to allow the Commander in Chief to militarily remove the Iraqi regime and then seek out and confiscate Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. Congress determined such preemptive and precautionary military actions were necessary in order to prevent Iraqi WMDs from ever harming the American people. Based upon Congressional precedent (i.e. the precautionary war against Iraq), and now buttressed by the 28th Amendment, anti-gunners demand that the right to bear arms be immediately revoked for the sake of preventing further murders in the United States. The Supreme Court’s docket is starting to get full.
Animal-rights activists, not surprisingly, have expressed their solidarity with the anti-gun lobby.
And now, back to the present. With environmentalists playing the role of Mother Earth’s savior, welcome to the moral, intellectual, and legal quagmire that the green movement is attempting to thrust upon humanity.
If global warming is real, and I seriously doubt it, then let free-market solutions emerge instead of adopting the failed command and control systems advocated by environmentalists. The eminent Austrian economist, Dr. George Reisman, has written forcefully on this matter:
Whether global warming comes or not, it is certain that nature itself will sooner or later produce major changes in the climate. To deal with those changes and virtually all other changes arising from whatever cause, man absolutely requires individual freedom, science, and technology. In a word, he requires the industrial civilization constituted by capitalism.
This brings me back to the possibly truly good objectives that have been mixed in with environmentalism, such as the desire for greater cleanliness and health. If one wants to advocate such objectives without aiding the potential mass murderers in the environmental movement in achieving their goals, one must first of all accept unreservedly the values of human reason, science, technology, and industrial civilization, and never attack those values. They are the indispensable foundation for achieving greater cleanliness and better health and longer life.
If you do not believe green totalitarianism can take root in the United States, then I suggest that you take a look at what is happening in San Francisco. Under the guise of the precautionary principle, it has already begun.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Voices on the Left
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Are You A Racist?
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Chief HeDog
He Dog took part in the Great Sioux War of 1876. When the United States was unable to get control of the Black Hills, the President had a message sent to the northern bands to come in or be forcibly taken in by the U.S. army. He Dog was encamped with the Soreback Band at the time the ultimatum was delivered. He Dog's brother, Short Bull, said that most of the northern Oglala resolved to comply and head in to the Red Cloud Agency in the spring of 1877.
In 1876, He Dog married a woman named Rock and with the Soreback Band, stopped briefly in Wyoming Territory. That spring, a group of troops under Colonel Joseph Reynolds attacked the band, essentially starting the Great Sioux War.
During the summer of 1876, He Dog took part in the Battle of Little Bighorn. He eventually surrendered to American troops at the Red Cloud Agency with Crazy Horse in the spring of 1877. After Crazy Horse was killed, He Dog accompanied the Oglala to Washington, D.C. as a delegate to meet the President.
He Dog left the Red Cloud Agency after its relocation to the Missouri River during the winter of 1877. He joined Sitting Bull in Canadaian exile over the next two years. He Dog and the northern Oglala were ultimately transferred to the Pine Ridge Reservation in the spring of 1882, where he lived the rest of his life. He Dog died in 1936. Photo taken around 1930.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Utopia: Socialist Paradise
A socialist paradise has been evolving for years, in which the ideals of government caring for the welfare of its citizens is held in high regard. In this Utopia, government regards itself as a partner to business. And there are many businesses willing to be a partner, receiving grants and interest free loans from the mother state. The utopia has a few problems, like the emperor's naked posterior revealing itself from beneath his fine robes. Whenever this happens, some of Utopia's system flaws and shortcomings become know.
Several of Utopia's citizens are classified as "working poor" and "working homeless". In this latter case, these are people who go to a job, even a professional job where they wear a shirt and tie or even business suit. When they come home after work, home is a shelter for the homeless. This situation came about a few years after some of the city and provincial governments decided to eradicate slums and regulate the rental housing market, with the aim of improving rental housing. What soon happened was that people who rented a basement or a room in a private home, stopped doing so. People who built economy rental accommodations got out of the market, because of the heavy handed manner in which Utopia's bureaucrats began to enforce their authority. So Utopia has a shortage of affordable rental accommodation in its major population centers. The lower wage earners who most urgently need low-rent housing now have to seek accommodation in shelters for the homeless, most of which are run by private charities.
The more fortunate citizens who live in Utopia, pay a very high rate of taxes, which are amongst the highest in the world. Utopia's businesses also pay high taxes, which are usually collected by hidden and indirect means. This leaves the impression that businesses and banks in Utopia pay little or no taxes, which infuriates the defenders of Utopia's social programs. Every now and then a free market supporter will undertake a study that reveals that Utopia's banks actually pay 57% of their profits to the government via hidden and indirect taxation.
Utopia's social left usually responds with outrage to such findings, claiming that it is "merely rightwing propaganda". Of course at no time do Utopia's social defenders ever produce any factual information that can stand up to any scrutiny to substantiate any of their claims against private business. The Utopian social left is united in their conviction that a firm and heavy hand by government is needed to regulate the business community, for the "greater good". Of course they also demand that all businesses be domestically owned, because they regard foreign ownership of Utopia's businesses as being detrimental to Utopia's national identity. Utopia's main airline operator which was previously state owned, is now state-regulated with a very firm hand and operating near the brink of bankruptcy. It would benefit from a combination of new foreign investment and deregulation, or even outright foreign ownership of Air Utopia. Except such blasphemy is not even open to discussion in Utopia's central government chambers.
The Utopian government claims to have the best interests of its citizens at heart, so it maintains a firm hand regulating many sectors of Utopia's economy. To ensure credible regulation, large numbers of professionals are kept on the staff, while outside consultants including university professors are engaged to guide the government’s regulatory efforts. Example, Utopia managed an ocean fishing industry by giving out licenses and permits, while the fish stocks were continually studied and strict quotas enforced. Utopia's officials would board offshore fishing vessels to inspect the catch, as a means of enforcing compliance. The idea of fish farms was regarded as reprehensible by Utopia's social left, who had supreme faith in the government's ability to manage the offshore ocean fishing industry.
However, something went astray and the offshore ocean fish stocks became depleted. Utopia's government officials were dumbfounded: they could not explain what happened, after all, there were at least 24-people on government fisheries staff who held Ph.D. degrees as well as equally well qualified outside fish consultants and university professors, all united in their efforts in guiding Utopia’s government to act for the greater good.
The central government is of course very concerned about improving Utopia's economy. A recent study commissioned by Utopia's Department Of Industry claimed that "Utopia's tax rules were killing innovation." The study recommended that "inheritance taxes be increased". Now the central government has a multi-billion dollar proposal planned to boost high-tech innovation. Most of this revenue will come from hidden and indirect taxation of Utopia's industrial and business sector, some will come from personal taxation, while the remainder will come straight from the printing presses. In order for business to receive government funding, it is a good idea to be politically well connected and chant the mantra of the benefit of the partnership between government and business, for the greater good. Other businesses which prefer to remain politically neutral or even apolitical, have to forfeit profits the may otherwise have been able to allocate to new, innovative product development. In Utopia, the government absolutely has to be seen as the facilitator of industrial innovation.
To develop a powerful business sector in the emerging technologies, Utopia needs many scientists and engineers. However, fully half of the students from Utopia who are in university specializing in these fields, are attending institutions outside of Utopia. Most of them are likely to remain to work in the country in which they are studying, following graduation. They may of course come home to Utopia for an occasional visit. A large number of Utopia's university graduates will also leave to work outside Utopia, a kind of brain drain which also includes members of Utopia's socialized medical system, doctors and nurses who prefer to work in a freer environment, like in America. Yet despite shortcomings such as the few mentioned here, the United Nations claims that Utopia, which is located just north of the US border, is one of the best places in the world in which to live.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Utopia and the Socialist
Ron Russell
The New Fuhrer is at the Door
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Liberalism and Barack Obama
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
TOTUS Monument
Obama: The Snake-Oil Salesman
Few times, in the history of this great Republic, have we faced such a threat to the survival of this nation; this is one such time and we must fight back or give up not only our freedoms, but that of our children.
Obama: A One-eyed Jack and Danger to American
I generally, like to poke fun at this new occupant of the White House thinking like most that this is only another president and that things will change after the next election. But I'm beginning to face the stark reality that this maniac, this madman, could in just a few years destroy what its taken this country hundreds of years to build. I suppose the final straw for me was the new budget plan. Obama with his twisted understanding of history and his alien social and economic ideals, many of which he learned from the years he spent in the pews of Pastor Wright's church; will in the end not only change this country, as he has promised, but will destroy the very fabric of this great nation. He plan represents a threat far more formidable than any invading army could mount. Great nations generally fall from within, their fate sealed by the common masses who fail to see or understand the onrush of events. Events that are obvious to a few and invisible to the many. Such is the position we find ourselves in now. This man, this misguided fool, must be stopped. I beg, I plead, I pray that each of you raise the alarm---the enemy is not at the gates, but in the house; its not the Russians, its not the terrorist, its not the Iranians--its a charming, likable, young man who wants change. Unfortunately, its a change that will destroy this nation and its way of life. All despots think theirs in the road to greatness for their peoples and this leader is no different. No doubt about it, he is a leader and his followers love and adore him and they wait with eager anticipation for his next words and the next words come and flow over the masses and they believe. They compare him to past great leaders and look to him to provide them with a better life. He promises more and more and the people believe and revel in the changes he trumpets. Changes that will give birth to a new nation, changes for a new millennium. A casting aside of the old order and the establishment of a new Utopian-like society where all the needs of the common man will be met. He tells the masses that our problems are so great that only government can solve them and he will lead us to greatness again. His vision of American is a dark one, remember he sat in Pastor Wright's pews for years and was completely indoctrinated by his message of an "evil and corrupt" nation. He disavowed him when it suited his purpose, but gradually we are seeing his true feeling about the Pastor's teachings emerge. Obama, in the end will reveal himself, but by that time it may be too late for this great nation to recover. Help me reveal, help me expose the other face of this "One-eyed Jack". This is the great leaders goal and now you've seen the other side of the "One-eyed Jack.
Reflections in a Mirror
Famous Quotations
Facts are stupid things.
Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx or Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.
No arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.
One way to make sure crime doesn't pay would be to let the government run it.
Politics is not a bad profession.If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.
Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
The Government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a healthy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
Franklin Roosevelt:
A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car, but if he has a university education he may steal the whole railroad.
A radical is a man who has both feet planted firmly in the air.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
Will Rogers:
Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock.
Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else.
It doesn't matter if you're on the right track, if you don't move, you'll get run over.
The minute you read something you can't understand, you can almost be sure it was drawn up by a lawyer.
I'm not concerned about the return on my money, I'm concerned about the return of my money.
My folks didn't come over on the Mayflower but they were here to meet the boat.
Everyone is ignorant, only on different subjects.
We can't all be heroes because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.
Therodore Roosevelt
Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.
The most successful politician is he who says what everybody is thinking most often and in the loudest voice.
Harry Truman:
The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.
I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.
It's a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it's a depression when you lose your own.
Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.
Napoleon Bonaparte:
Ability is nothing without opportunity.
Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.
A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.
Winston Churchhill:
A Diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you look forward to the trip.
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him. Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.
Any man who is under 30 and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping that it will eat him last.
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees all the others.
Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount, and the tigers are getting hungry.
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future.
Kites rise highest against the wind: not with it.
No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right than to be responsible and wrong.
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.
The Americans will always do the right thing... after they've exhausted all the alternatives.
The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.
The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.
There is no such thing as a good tax.
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
Squirrel Nut Politics
I'm older now and live in the city. Sad to say, squirrel hunting days are over. I have noticed, however, that the squirrels here (city squirrels) don't gather nuts in the same way as their country cousins did. I'm sure some misguided progressive will say that's because of global warming--warmer winters and the squirrel doesn't have to prepare as much!! This conservative thinks otherwise--the city squirrel knows that even on cold winter days he can go to the park and someone on a nice park bench will give him a nut--or even a handful of them. Are you like the country squirrel--preparing for hard times, or like the city squirrel waiting for the handout from (big government).
Systemic Revolution and the Protracted Conflict
The purpose of this article is to give an overview on "History of Western Civilization". We will begin with the city-states of ancient Greece and proceed to the modern period. This is a very short piece intented to cover a vast time--short and to the point as I like it! No bullsh*t and just facts and broad generalizations.
The city-states of Greece such as Athens, Sparta, Corinth and others gave us many contributions to our present day society--democracy, philosophy and literature, just to name a few. They were the dominate force in the ancient world, but due to internal and external forces that period passed. The forces which caused this to happen we will refer to in this piece as the protracted conflict--this is an ongoing struggle between the old order and the new. With the old order always being the stronger in the beginning, but gradually giving way to the new order in the end. This, again, is a continuing struggle in history.
The city states eventually gave way to the Roman Empire, a system which,also, lasted for hundreds of years contributing a great deal to modern society-laws, architecture and literature. But again, this system would soon pass away into history because of internal struggles and the pressures from outside forces--the effects of the protracted conflict. The fall of the Roman Empire was indeed, a defining moment in world history, leading to one of histories darkest periods--appropriately called the Dark Ages or middle ages.
The Dark Ages lasted for hundreds of years. It was similar in some respects to the Greek city-state period in that there were many small seats of power--there the similarities stop. To recap for a moment--we had the disunity of the city-states followed by the unity of the Roman Empire to the disunity of power in the dark (middle ages). Not much good came from that period-- it was, indeed "dark". Probably not a good time to live in. That period begin to come to an end during what we call the Renaissance--a time of enlightenment. But again, the "city state' form of government continued to exist fora time-Florence, Genova. It was appropriate that this period started here in the heart of the old Roman Empire. Gradually, the old city-state form of government in Europe would give way to the larger kingdoms of France, Spain, Portugal, England and others. Here we have the beginnings of--The age of exploration, the Colonial Period. So far we have seem the Greek city-states (decentralized government evolve to the Roman Empire (centralized government) and that in turn giving way to the Dark Ages (decentralized government) to the beginning of the Colonial Period (centralized government)--all part of what we have called the systemic revolution.
Before we move into the colonial period, I need to point out again that this is a continuing revolution brought about by a protracted conflict--the struggle between the old and new orders. History does repeat itself over and over again--it is systemic in nature.
The Colonial Period lasted as those before it for hundreds of years. Its primary players were Spain, Portugal and England--there were others--these, however were probably the most predominate. This was a time when power was centralized in a few of the capitals of Europe, although there were conflicts between the various powers. These struggles would continue up to and including WW1 and WW2. These two world wars will bring an end to this period and carry us to the modern period which will we refer to as the age of Rampant Nationalism. This is the time we live in. Rampant Nationalism, our current period, could possibly be one of our most dangerous times--due to the influence of modern technology on weapons of war. New nations are popping up right and left. Who can keep up with the pace--I can't! The old colonial systems have totally collapsed and the vacuums created by that collapse have helped this process along. I don't know where this will lead, but it doesn't seem to be a pleasant place. Dangers are always out there, but this is, indeed, a troubling period. I hope by this time you have seen the continuing process that has occurred--decentralization to centralization and back, again and again. A continuing process--A Protracted Conflict within the Systemic Revolution.
Monday, March 23, 2009
TOTUS Monument
Mystery has surrounded this structure. What is it going to be? What is its purpose? Will it be a great monument to America's first black president. Finally the truth is out and we have the full picture. Welcome to the "Age of TOTUS". by Ron Russell
TOTUS