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Essay by Hilaire Belloc

Being part of the 90 percent of Americans who want to work, and the 80 percent of them who actually can, I was not able to spend a day standing in line for Obama tickets. Nor was I part of the privileged mystery class who received the other 850 tickets. So, I thought I might voice my question to the president here. Quite simply, "Mr. President, where is your plan?" One of the key characteristics of a republic, one of the aspects that makes it the most fair, is its reliance on the rule of law. From the Roman Republic to ours, fair governments are ruled by written laws and not by men. Now in the throws of ÔdebateÕ over ObamaÕs healthcare magnum opus, shouldn't he actually have a plan? He has traveled far and wide, spewing countless tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, yet what is he promoting? This is no intellectual exercise, we want and deserve an actual plan in print.

Yet, even Obama seems to believe that such respect for the public is a good thing, or at least he thought we might like it. In Manchester, N.H., on June 22, 2007, he announced his "Sunlight Before Signing" promise: "When there is a bill that ends up on my desk as the president, you the public will have five days to look online and find out what's in it before I sign it." Of course this policy has been broken many times.

And now, with no Obama plan in print, we are forced to critique the Houses bill, HR 3200 and Obama past statements. Then having done so accurately,we are labeled as a swastika toting racist mob, attempting to create an astroturf movement. How despicable. Yet the question remains, Òwhere is your plan, Mr. President?Ó

I can't believe that of all the problems in the world you have nothing better to do that encourage the state to multiply nanny laws. The state has no right to remove personal decisions in the name of safety. Now you have the audacity to frame it as for the children.

Of course driving is a right, because inherently it damages neither person's nor property. The roads are not yours they are ours. Your little string of logic about being thrown from your seat and therefore not in control of your vehicle is insane. Honestly think for a second. Can you even conceive of a situation where that would be the case? And besides losing control of ones vehicle is already illegal, as are damaging persons or property.

Leave us alone and find something better to do, like getting rid of the myriad of existing, redundant laws, which as you pointed out are also an infringement of our freedoms. Contrary to the new bent of our law enforcement officials, we are not all guilty until proven innocent. The worship of statistics, leading to these witch hunts, is out of control. Consider the unintended consequences of your actions. A government big enough to 'protect' everyone is big enough to totally control everyone. It has happened a million times before. You say "if it saves one child it's worth it". The theories which made this country great say "if it protects one right, it's worth it".

Or, you could just take your historically ignorant position to it's logical conclusion. If pulling over seatbelt violators is going to be so helpful. Why stop there? There was a study from Colorado State University, showing a link between bumper stickers and road rage. Maybe we should pull over people with bumper stickers. I mean driving with bumper stickers is a privilege not a right. Or better yet, why don't we just pull over everyone all the time? You could hire thousands of new cops and provide all those wonderful jobs. And after all this, we will surely enjoy peace and harmony. I am getting the Marxist tingle.

First of all, I implore you to stop the spending, be it the bill today or any other. Then, tell the businesses of this country that you are going to stop the spending. Assure them that they can move on with their lives, without always having to wonder if the rules are going to change and put them out of business. That is real stability. That is a real prevention of the disruption of the economy. That is real taxpayer protection. And my personal favorite:"and for other purposes."

It seems to be the position of the Republican party that this 'stimulus' bill simply needs to include more tax relief. This is little more than pandering. Devaluing our currency, through inflation, thereby taxing everyone who has money, in order to provide tax relief, is one of the crazies things I have ever heard.

What this stimulus bill really needs is to be thrown out the window, where it can gently land on the slums created by it's predecessor FDR. It needs to be replaced with capitalism, that is to say the realization that real-world consequences work. Responsible actions should be allowed to result in success, and foolish ones in failure.

This 111th Congress has been rewarded for their failures, in discord with what they deserved. It will no doubt take a great deal of humility to stop the cycle of irresponsibility. But it must be done. The banks of this country have been loaning each other hot air for over 100 years. But, despite their best attempts, when they jump out that 100 story window, the laws of gravity still apply. All the bubbles from the past, encased in more bubbles, do little but delay the inevitable. This bill does nothing to solve the actual problem, to create actual value. It is simply another bubble.

The banking structure of this country has been devaluing our efforts for too long, Congress included. It is time they be held to account, yet the beauty of this world is that if you step out of the way, consequences will resolve the issue. Pass a law allowing a new class of financial institution, one which is not bound to the Federal Reserve. One which can set it's own interest rates, and manage it's own risk responsibly. Crazy as it may sound, they might actually only loan what they have. It would not be long before, our thirst for value would put today's Federal Reserve out of business.

Perhaps we can still reclaim the work ethic of Benjamin Franklin at his printing press. When men had incentive to work hard and spend responsibly. When debt was seen for the risk that it is. When men were seen for the power hungry risk that they are. When the reserves of our labor were tied up in tangible commodities, rather than the whims of men printing paper.

This is a great country and capitalism is a great philosophy. Please do not contribute to the failure of the former, because you doubted the latter.

Earlier this week, after I found myself hanging from a rain gutter, having nearly fallen 15 feet, I got to thinking about a few things. First of all, why doesn't my life flash before my eyes when such things happen. Not that this is a regular occurrence, but it has happened a few times. I just feel kind of gypped, I didn't get any slow motion images or theme music or anything.

But more importantly I was thinking about the nature of laying over that concrete wall with no one around to stop the bleeding. Now the prideful side of me was glad that there was no one around to see my almost fall. But the reality is that these words were never more true to me:

What a day for women, as one of the best is give the opportunity for the second highest office in the land. Unless of course you are a member of the costal elite media. In which case you are a little put off that the sex you thought was yours to twist and use as a political weapon, was being used against you with more accomplishment and grace than you could imagine. Which seems to have lead to one of the most irresponsible mischaracterizations of a candidate by way of spurious attacks on her family, which I have ever seen. The clean campaign which they claim to dream of has gone by the way side.

On this day of attack on the fairer sex I would like to submit my praise. I am not even sure that generalizations of the female sex are even possible. When given in the negative I have never been able to get away with them, perhaps the positive will be another story. I think the first characterization should be to note that each women is very much her own distinct creature. Each both a queen and and princess, with her own set of rules. Once enforcing them and the next weeping when they are broken in the least. The attempted discovery and the poetic braking of such rules has been the beloved task of man for as long as he has walked this earth. I can think of nothing more fun.

It seems that woman will always take her work and the execution of it with more seriousness than her male counter parts. Which, when not scary, is an awesome thing to behold. It is very much like the daily production of a garden. She bears fruit according to her kind with astounding constancy.

I have also marveld at the ability of women to assess the complete feel of every situation. Thought things were not said or not done, they are still sensed. She makes them real with her countenance, and translates them into a language fit for men. This is not unlike the ability of an infrared camera to go beyond the visible, and open up for us another world and it's intricacies.

And they do all this while manifesting their love with their earthly form, an image which often borders on the heavenly. While each of us are given a earthly vessel, the care and manifestation of beauty in that vessel is the individual responsibility of each. One cringes to imagine the barren world which might exist if it were not for woman and her diligent fight for beauty in herself and her men.

Perhaps my rough utilitarian style can be forgotten as a failure and be remembered as a contrast to the soft elegant creature that is woman. Though I do hope she will kick some butt tonight.

Well, let's see it all started at about age 2, when my parents brought my sister home and I tried to dump her out on the floor. Continuing on through kindergarten where, I thought girls were for throwing snowballs at, or just generally freaking out. Then somewhere around high school, girls became something I actually wished to pursue. Then it became evident that scarring them off was in fact not under my control. Since then the list of women running for the hills, has of course grown.

I have an expanding theory, which is of no practical use. It seems to me, that an honest statement of one's intentions is fairly off putting. I think that the expression of intentions was meant to be present in a father suitor relationship and the suitor girl relationship was meant to be a playful chase. Well of course, now, where have all the fathers gone. There is of course the other fact, that most girls my age have been through a number of bad relationships. I blame stupid guys for this, and I verbally slap them whenever I can. But, it makes it hard to recapture the playful magic, or whatever it is that moves women. If you happen to remind them of one small detail of their ex, you are done. It's sort of like speaking a language you don't know. Every once and a while you accidentally announce that: "I am just like 'him.' "

Then you get the coldness of Chloe, expressed by Chesterton:

"Most men if they spoke with any sincerity would agree that the most terrible quality in women, whether in friendship, courtship or marriage, was not so much being emotional as being unemotional.

There is an awful armor of ice which may be the legitimate protection of a more delicate organism; but whatever be the psychological explanation there can surely be no question of the fact. The instinctive cry of the female in anger is noli me tangere."

There is this other part of my theory, that women are now provided for by society in general, rather than fathers and husbands. Circles of friends mostly fill the natural void for relationships. So we single men have to compete with all of society, which is kind of a loosing battle. It's sort of like the way women might feel at having to compete with supermodels on every magazine cover.

Now of course all of this would be irrelevant except that I hope one day to daily try to figure out one woman. Further, these aimless thoughts should not minimize the fact that my eccentricities are legion.

In case you haven't heard, today the Mitchell Report was released, which 'outed' a number of professional Baseball players for using steroids. Which makes me wonder. Remember the good old days when the national investigation on everyones mind concerned deadly ideals like Communism? Now we issue lists of men who 'cheated' while creating a form of entertainment. You can attack our country and the heritage that made it great but don't mess with our entertainment.

We are currently in the clean up stages of one of the most successfull wars in history and yet most pople would rather watch the mock wars of football. I suppose you could consider the riots which ensue at the end of the Super Bowl a real war, but that only on personal property. Not that there is anything wrong with football but what happend to believing in large ideas and fighting for them to the point of death? Our heritage in western civilization is one of holding our ground on important matters. Crusades, inquisitions, burning heritics and burning wiches. Yet few people today care enought to fight for such things. Obama did get in a good burn of Hillary last night but that doesn't really count.

There is one exception, however. If you do stand up for something, you immediately expose yourself as the one true enemy. "How dare you judge me!" As if all the great men upon whose shoulders we stand on were in fact not standing but sitting. Sitting around just loving one another. And those men, while sitting around as we do, probably entertained themselves with various things as we do. Historical couch sitting demands it. And so on our couches we must conclude that those great men of the past also took their couches. Only rising to start a war now and then when some vile enemy questioned ther apathy or cut off the oil.

We moderns tend to worship Copernicus for liberating us from the ethnocentric dark ages. But, I think we were much the better for believing the earth as the center. Perhaps we could say that the earth as center is more true. For certainly according to the scripture the universe was created for man to rule. And while what object revolves around the other matters little, the purpose of those objects is of course everything. That purpose has all but been lost in culture and 'science.' If only we would see the earth as the center, then we could spend money on real science instead of trying to colonize Mars and searching for aliens to give us the answers.

Which brings me to another flaw, the modern inability to understand anything but the literal and rarely that. Now whatever you think of Bush, this is ridiculous. Recently Bush was asked where Mandela was in Iraq. He replied,"Mandela is dead, Sadam killed all the Mandelas." Then the chain of ignorant hate, which passes for news these days, began. This is an obvious metaphor, yet still we have the story everywhere about how the stupid frat boy president blew it again. People in mass were told that Bush said that Mandela was dead. Later, Mandela's people reacted saying that Mandela was still alive. Come on people get a clue.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

In the above clip Miss South Carolina tries to answer a question about why US kids are so bad at geography. Unless her answer is some form of ironic self-example of how poor our educational system is, it is hilariousl. She responds in a fashion which reminds you of malfunctioning robot in those future movies. Which is of course the real answer to why US kids can neither locate the US on a world map nor answer simple questions in a beauty pagent. They are poorly programmed robots, designed to enter the workforce and fuel or economic machine. Now there is nothing wrong with economic machines, as machines go. Unfortunately there is so much more, there is strange, peculiar, wild, life.

Just dont ask her to give you a word which rymes with 'orange' or her head might start smoking. They really can't get rid of the swimsuit contest now, or there would be nothing left.

Whoops, I guess McCain doesn't put his money where his mouth is. But, he cetainly puts other people's money where it can benefit him. Read the story and please don't ever vote McCain.

Given the cold we have been experiencing here the last month. I was surprised to find a few women who were still able to maintain the appearance that they wished to share the contents of their blouse with everyone. Now that is dedication, albeit to a lie.

It is often said that Christians should be immersed in the culture, that we should study it in order to be able to reach people. From my experience any conversational or metaphorical fodder which is to be gained from pop culture is the sort that it can't be avoided. I have not watched TV in a long time I don't read any pop media or listen to the radio all that often. Yet I am apprised of most of the pop situations. Which I find so thin and ridiculous that that no study is necessary or even possible. Perhaps the real reason for all the talk about getting to know the culture is, but an excuse to be like everyone else.

I have come to realize that the Boulder, in which I live, is a sort of Neverland. Neverland a place of never growing old, remaining always a child. The land of no responsibility of boy's clubs and above all play. While a youthful heart of play in the face of a bent world is a rare and valuable thing, Boulder has taken the metaphor quite literally. Though the spandex training attire of the Boulderite, has little on true children dressed as pirates and indians. Still, in Boulder they run chased by the fear of old age, of maturity and responsibility. Marriage is something for people who are thirty, who has time for such a commitment? Plus you don't want to involve someone else until you are your own person, having completed your 25 years of school. Children are of course out, for they bring responsibility, ruin your figure and cramp your style. Yes, a dog makes much more sense, they are cute cuddly and you can take them hiking. From time to time the fantasy world is attacked by any number of pirates who bring the realities of weather, economic forces and evil, we'll call these pirates Captain Bush. Unfortunately the realities do catch up and ignoring them does little but fail to prepare us for them. Some day, ages and ages hence when the Boulderite lays on his death bed, about to be euthanized in his wind powered hospital room. Will he relish his taking the narrow path from the road of humanity? They chose the joys of life; children, responsibility and commitment. He has chosen self and so he shall die alone.

It is often said that we must get the money out of politics. The absurdity of that is another conversation.* In this conversation I would like to submit that we get the money out of a few more areas of our life, such as education. Lets start off at the elementary to high school years, in the town where I grew up the district spends and average of about $8,000 per year per student. Multiply that times those 13 years and you come up with $104,000 wow. I don't happen to think I got my money's worth. Personally I would have rather spent those thirteen years wandering around in the world learning and discovering for myself only to have a huge check at the end plus the interest. Oh wait I did spend those years wandering in my own, thoughts that is, however I failed to receive that check. Too bad, I could have bought myself a nice house, and then my property taxes too could have gone to a more worth cause buying a house for some other youngster.

Next we have come to the college years, the high school of a few decades ago in performance, but in price resembling the sticker price of a new Hummer. As the prices skyrocket the quality continues to plummet. I am continually amazed at how small an effect college has on the average person, except of course in the arrogance department. Here again, what if all those grants and state funds had been put into that new car or perhaps a couple cars. Our theoretical young person would have many varied experiences from having wandered throughout the universe all those years. He would have been spared the arrogance of being handed a few pieces of paper and told he was something whether he was or not. And he would be set with no debt, a home and few cars, to pursue his dream. He would be free of the burdens of narrow thought which is contemporary liberalism. He would enter whatever job, at which time he would be trained for real, similar to how it is now and would probably perform better. That would be a better world.


*One which I would also like to have. I suppose one could just as plainly say we out to get the people out of politics. Because, for the most part in this country money is but a unit of human effort. Under capitalism in order to receive monetary units one must provide a service warranting said units. Also under capitalism each is free to part with his money only for that which will cure his wants. Often mans greatest want is the saving of energy, more efficient ways to live, the modern man at least. Of course we only have the remnants of capitalism, but the fact remains that money is little more than human energy. So let us get rid of the money, then perhaps people would be forced to give their time to these political efforts in place of their money. We would be confronted with armies of people rather than annoying ad campaigns. The real problem of course is lack of character in the presence of great influence, great power. What we really need is to get the politicians out of politics. In their place those who would rather not be there, the statesmen of yesteryear.

I have heard a lot of people submit that John McCain is a fine politician even perhaps one of these statesman. I assure you this is not the case. Few men have made bigger attacks on the Constitution than he. In this very area, in an attempt to "get the money out of politics," he has blatantly attacked the free speech of us all. He is the McCain of the McCain-Feingold bill which limits the amount air time which a candidate or party can purchase. Therefore limiting free political speech, the entire purpose of the first amendment. Of course for those who already own established media outlets no harm is done whatsoever. This may be why the media has so lovingly latched on to McCain as the savior of the world. Because, if you limit the ability to purchase media those who already possess it become very powerful. Of course the bill which was later passed as Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 accomplished little but make a bigger mess of things. A loophole which allowed for the creation of "527" groups, left the money in politics and drew perhaps even more as every fringe nut group was given a greater voice.

The recent 'natural disaster' in Denver, leads one to question a system which functions so poorly when tested. I would able the culprit Big City Liberalism. Most big cities seem to have it, seem to go the way of the liberal. Characteristics include large number of people dependent on the government, some legitimate most not so much. When circumstances bring a testing of an establishment, on simple fact is brought to light. If everyone simply took care of themselves there would really be no problem. In the aftermath there is much complaining and whining, "I was not provided with x or y." Apparently a former mayor of Denver had is political career come to an end from a past storm. Hey people, why don't you provide yourself with x or y and perhaps put in a little extra effort to provide x and y for those who truly are unable. No the Big City Mentality marches on, in search of the mythical free lunch. It invades other sectors as people seek their just due and then some from their insurance companies, health care organizations, employers and schools. Such people seem to become so adept at whining, and less and less adept at being responsible, cities of children. They leave the governing authorities little choice but to treat them like children, which of course severely limites the productivity of those of us who would rather take responsibility for ourselves. If I want to drive on the 'dangerous' road, leave me alone.

Letter to the Editor, written shortly after 9/11/01

Do you know where you were when you first heard the news? Ah yes, the clichŽé of the mighty disaster. The actual facts of the disaster seem to be lost on our generation, at least to those not directly involved. Instead we focus on what we will tell our children and how we will look back on this day. Which is weird considering that in reality that day was no different from any other. In fact the effect it seemed to have on people truly amazed me. People's idea of the world they live in and of the way the world works was drastically changed. This makes absolutely no sense to me. First of all, as Christians, our conception of God should be no different. No matter what circumstances are brought our way what we know to be true is still true for the very same reasons. We are still as safe today as we ever were, in the hands of creator God. Do the truths of scripture really lead us to believe that this sort of thing will not happen?

Well, perhaps we have found the real problem, our thinking was wrong before. Could it be possible that we misplaced a bit to much faith in our government? Or maybe we convinced ourselves that evil really does not exist, because our culture has so thoroughly swept it under the carpet of terminology. Maybe the terrorists were experiencing air rage (road rage). But, seriously, the aftershock benefits to our country are amazing, and will continue for generations.

So I wish not to minimize the impact of this event but I instead place it among the many others. As abortion continues in this country and genocide continues in others, our isolated brush with evil will still ring loudest in our ears.

I found the following in a recent issue of Popular Mechanics. It echoes a few thoughts I have had on the subject.

"There is something about a well engineered product that is pleasing in itself. And when something doesn't work right, there are a few things more aggravating. I think of this every time I open the vegetables bin in my refrigerator. It is a simple plastic tub that slides smoothly in an out on twin plastic runners. Except that it doesn't. Invariably, when you try to slide the drawer back in, it goes slightly askew and jams. Then you need to pull it all the way out, reposition it on the runners and try again. Sooner or later the door begins to crack and fall apart. (The occasional stout kick might have something to do with that.) I've replaced it twice.
&nobs;&nobs; I often wonder, did the engineer who designed that drawer actually try it out? Did he notice its tendency to jam and think, close enough? The entire apparatus is made of molded plastic. It wouldn't cost any more money to design it properly--just more effort and ingenuity. When I was growing up, may dad always talked about craftsmanship--she satisfaction you get from doing a job better than it needs to be done. Here's a job that wasn't done as well as it should have been. Did the designer even care? Then there are those things that make you happy just because they work so well--a quality knife, my laptop, a really fine automobile. . ."

A certain bit of humor provoked and worth while inquiry. The clip is below and the inquiry follows.

"Guide a horse with a whip, a donkey with a bridle, and a fool with a rod to his back!" Proverbs 26:3

I love finding that yet again scripture is sufficient to clear up simple issues which we tend to muddle. Guide a fool with a rod at his back. So simple. Yet the Christian community seems to have adopted this strange idea that "you can't legislate morality." Which seems to mean that punishment is out and 'just loving' is in. Now, I am not denying the power of the Gospel to change heart of man, but let us not forget the place of the rod in also bringing change. I suppose our God could have created a world in which we laid hands on a donkey and prayed and he would no longer require a bridle. Or one in which a horse could be loved into running a race, free of whip. But ours is not such a world. We are, however, free to choose the way of the fool ourselves. We might ignore the way of the world, remove the discipline from society and reap the consequences. Wait a minute. . .I think we just may have.

More on the nature of government from Chesterton:
This is the first essential element in government, coercion; a necessary but not a noble element. I may remark in passing that when people say that government rests on force they give an admirable instance of the foggy and muddled cynicism of modernity. Government does not rest on force. Government is force; it rests on consent or a conception of justice. A king or a community holding a certain thing to be abnormal, evil, uses the general strength to crush it out; the strength is his tool, but the belief is his only sanction. . . All government then is coercive; we happen to have created a government which is not only coercive; but collective. There are only two kinds of government, as I have already said, the despotic and the democratic. . . But for the moment the essential point is that in self-governing countries this coercion of criminals is a collective coercion. The abnormal person is theoretically thumped by a million fists and kicked by a million feet. If a man is flogged we all flogged him; if a man is hanged, we all hanged him. That is the only possible meaning of democracy, which can give any meaning to the first two syllables and also to the last two. In this sense each citizen has the high responsibility of a rioter. Every statute is a declaration of war, to be backed by arms. Every tribunal is a revolutionary tribunal. In a republic all punishment is as sacred and solemn as lynching.
- What's Wrong With the World

"A woman who is beautiful but lacks discretion is like a gold ring in a pig's snout." Proverbs 11:22

I would say today that; "A woman who is beautiful but lacks discretion is likely to have a gold ring in her snout."
Story

There are a few things out there which I am not allowed to do. It is very frustrating and I am definitely considering suing. For instance I am not allowed to apply for this job from the Colorado Daily News: "Cash hiring bonus. Now hiring for sensual massage. $2K/wk. Attractive fems 18-25. 720-938-5851." It is so unfair. I am also not allowed to put on a sports bra and walk my dog around town. I suppose I have to settle for a jock strap. But my biggest pet peeves is my inability to wear short shirts which expose my hairy belly to the sunshine which it deserves. Such clothing is simply not available for men. Yet I have to sit back an suffer while I watch every other woman enjoy the freedom of the exposed belly. Us guys need to unite. There are serious issues at stake here. Womankind simply cannot be allowed to continue to suppress the male sex with these clothing shackles. I dream of a world where someday a man can walk down the street in his underwear and then sneer and any woman who would dare look at his breasts.

First a bit of humor, and let us ignore that he so truly represents your average college graduate.

There is an amusing parallel example in the case of what is called feminism. In spite of all the pseudo-scientific gossip about marriage by capture and the cave-man beating the cave-woman with a club, it may be noted that as soon as feminism became a fashionable cry, it was insisted that human civilization in its first stage had been a matriarchy. Apparently it was the cave-woman who carried the club. G.K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man

I have a similar amusing parallel. In a world where we have more women than men pursuing undergraduate education, article I find it hard to believe that women are not being given the opportunity to pursue whatever they wish. Instead of institutions and organizations and huge ad campaigns designed to convince more women to enter the fields of math and science, shouldn't we just accept that women don't choose math and science? Perhaps nature is trying to tell us something and we need to embrace that genetic diversity. At least that's what the gays are always telling us about their preferences.

With this, the first of many blog comments to come, I would like to set the tone, establish a precedent which I can only hope to live up to in the future. But, I simply must ask how does a company get away with putting actual butt cheeks in their logo? Would it not be as effective to simply use inferred cheeks?