Study Your History

Winston Churchill said, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” I believe that. I also believe this: Those who fail to learn from history do so because they never learned their history! Most citizens have no idea that today’s government doesn’t even faintly resemble the government our founders set up. Their vision was never a huge, over-reaching centralized federal government. To the contrary...

Thomas Jefferson said: “I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: that “all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people... To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition. The capital and leading object of the Constitution was to leave with the states all authorities which respected their own citizens only, and to transfer to the United States those which respected citizens of foreign or other states....Can any good be effected by taking from the states the moral rule of their citizens and subordinating it to the general [federal] authority?...Such an intention was impossible and...[would] break up the foundations of the Union.... I believe the states can best govern our home concerns, and the general [federal] government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore...never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold as at market. Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single [federal] government. Public servants at such a distance, and from under the eye of their constituents, must, from the circumstance of distance, be unable to administer and overlook all the details necessary for the good government of the citizens and...will invite the public agents to corruption, plunder, and waste.”

James Madison agreed with Jefferson. In 1792, when it was proposed the federal government bailout a failing industry and prop it up with federal subsidies , he condemned the measure, saying: “Those who proposed the Constitution conceived [i.e., believed]… (and those who ratified the Constitution conceived) that this is not an indefinite [unrestricted] government…but a limited government tied down to the specified powers….It was never…supposed or suspected that the old Congress could give away the money of the states to bounties to encourage agriculture, or for any other purpose they pleased.” Madison warned that if federal government wasn’t kept limited, it would soon usurp state jurisdictions: “If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the ‘general welfare’, and are the sole and supreme judges of the ‘general welfare’, [then Congress might] take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every state, county, and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the union; they may assume the provision for the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads...; in short, everything from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police would be thrown under the power of [the federal] Congress.”

Sound familiar?

Inmates Running the Asylum

For a very long time, the only news the nation got came from the (mostly left-leaning) networks and newspapers. For those of us who listened and read, but shook our heads in disbelief and disagreement, that was all there was. With no other information options, we listened, read, disbelieved and disagreed, and did the best we could to separate fact from liberal fiction. Then... Ta-dah! Along came talk radio, then Fox News. At last, we were hearing the other side of the issues... the conservative side. At last, our voices were being heard, and our views were being presented, in the public square. The irony is that no one is more unhappy about that development than the people who have always pounded their chests, and patted their backs in pride, because they (allegedly) believed in everyone's right to free speech. Now that we have access to information beyond what those seeking the power to control this country, and its people, have wanted us to have, light is being shone into a lot of dark places, and the truth really is starting to set us free. And, we're seeing the writing on the (capitol) walls: "Everyone has a right to free speech... as long as that speech lines up perfectly with this government's liberal ideology."

A good example? The Tea Party movement. First, let me point out that the Tea Party is defined by MSNBC, no less, as "conservative-libertarian-leaning"... not far-right. These are hard-working, tax-paying, people with legitimate concerns about things they see destroying their lives, not to mention their country: too much spending, huge deficits, too-big government, and the amount of control this government wants to have over the people. Obama's their president, too.. yet, he and his people have expressed great disdain for some citizens simply because they believe in the 2nd Amendment and God... and that their government should answer to the people. Of course, that's when he's not ignoring them. Guess he's unaware that ignoring them is not a wise thing to do. Because, according to a Marist poll cited by the definitely-not-far-right Huffington Post, Obama ghas a 47% disapproval rating. Or perhaps he thinks it's a Democrat-Republican thing, which it's not, as there's been a huge shift in Independent voters, 57% of whom disapprove of the job he's doing.

Unfortunately, D.C. isn't the only government losing its mind and perspective. Right here in Central Florida, according to the Orlando Sentinel, we have a mind-boggling example of off-track leaders: While trying to figure out how to make up a $41 million deficit, Orlando paid more than $200,000 to end its lease, 8-years early, with the non-profit Florida Safety Council... in order to turn the property over to a new charter school being started by Deputy City Attorney, Jody Litchford. The kicker here is that the school will occupy the property RENT-FREE for the first 3-years! School backers say the school will eventually repay the city for its short-term losses. They also say there's no guarantee it will happen.

Sheesh! No wonder this country's in trouble... from the local level to the federal, the inmates are running the asylum!!

Dear Grandmother... uh, Mr. President

Last Tuesday there was yet another Obama appearance and speech at a "Town Hall" meeting in Nashua, NH. I don't know what his audience came away with, I just know that I came away with a 3 item Wish List: (1) I wish he'd get off the campaign trail (2) I wish he'd get off the campaign trail, and (3) I wish he'd get off the campaign trail. If he'd do any one of those things, he might be able to get back into the Oval Office and work on some things that we really, truly, need; not what he's decided we need.
Actually, his approach to "giving" reminds me of my paternal grandmother. Every Christmas and birthday from when I was old enough to know what was going on, I got a pair of huge, old lady's underwear. We weren't poor, so she couldn't have thought I needed them, and if she thought she was helping me stockpile for a "rainy day", that didn't work, either... I never got big enough for them to fit me. (Thank God!) Nevertheless, I was expected to send Thank You notes. They all said the same thing: "Dear Grandmother, Thank you for the nice gift." Of course, if I'd been left to my own devices, they would have read: "Dear Grandmother, What were you thinking? Why would a 6-year old... 12-year old, etc.,... want underwear that she doesn't need, that's ugly, and big as a parachute, to boot? If you insist on giving me things, it would be nice if you could get to know me and give me what I really need."
Since polls, etc., haven't convinced Obama that he's way off base and that we really don't want all the "stuff" he's determined to give us, maybe we should do what I, as a child, couldn't do... maybe we should start a "Thanks, but no thanks!" campaign... maybe we should inundate the White House mailbox and our representatives' (I used that word loosely) mailboxes and ask them, "What are you thinking? Why would we want you to dismantle and bankrupt our health system, our banks, our corporations, our contracts, our real estate market... not to mention our Constitution. Why would we want you to keep printing money, going deeper in debt... why would we want you to put us in the position of having a foreign, communist country, like China, own and run our country?"
Yeah, yeah... you inherited this mess. Get over it... it's yours now and we expect you to work as hard at fixing it as you're working to make it even worse than it already was. Oh, and by the way, when you're broke, you're broke... continuing to spend like a lunatic will not turn our country's bottom line from red to black. We don't need all this shuck and jive, smoke and mirrors, lies and deception... we need a whole lot of common sense, truth, transparency and hard work. We've already done our hard work... now, start doing yours. I know it's easier to play Santa than to be Scrooge, but Christmas is over. Grow up. Deal with it.

Dear