Saturday, October 30, 2010

Thirteen Trillion And Growing


Sometimes it is useful to compare one thing with other things in order to get a grasp of it’s true size. So let’s compare some numbers.

The circumference of earth is 24,902 miles. The distance between the moon and the earth is 238,857 miles. The distance between the sun and the earth is 92,935,700 miles. The distance between the sun and Pluto, the most distant planet in the solar system, is 3,670,052,070 miles.

But get a load of this. The U.S. national debt is approaching $13,700,000,000,000--and is still growing! That's a huge number, an almost unfathomable number, a number that exceeds even the physical dimensions of our solar system.

So what do we learn from this? We learn that God was nowhere near as expansive and extravagant in creating the earth and the solar system as congress has been in creating a bigger government and national debt.

Furthermore, God knew when to stop. When He was finished, He pronounced His work “good,” and He rested.

When will congress be satisfied with the size of its dreadful and disordered creation? When will it stop and rest?

God only knows.

Friday, October 22, 2010

A Pre-Election Review of Fundamentals



We are a fortunate people. We inherited from our ancestors a free coun-try. But freedom permits us to make choices, and if we make a series of bad ones, or allow our leaders to, we can lose what we inherited.

In a totalitarian regime the government makes all the major decisions regarding human conduct. The people make few or none. In one sense it is an easy life. A citizen hardly has to think. He just has to do as he is told.

In a free country, however, it’s different. In a free country the people have important individual responsibilities to carry out. They must think and plan for themselves. And that can be hard work, work that requires intelligence, courage, discipline and determination.

But if one makes prudent choices and plans well, the work, effort and sacrifice can ultimately yield enormous dividends. And not just in money alone, for men and women need more than money to make their lives satisfying and complete. They need to feel that they are personally accomplishing something. I think that is what the Founders were referring to when they proclaimed that among man’s inherent rights was the right to pursue happiness. Or in other words, the right to seek contentment and fulfillment.

So what are some of the responsibilities free men and women must bear in a free society? First among those responsibilities is the duty to take care of one’s self. Free men and women must be self-reliant. After all, how can anyone expect to be free if he or she is partially or wholly dependent upon someone else?

Furthermore, in America we the people govern ourselves. Ours is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The people are an integral and indispensable part of our governmental apparatus. When we voluntarily take ourselves out of that apparatus, or permit our political leaders to ignore us or bypass us, the very substance and form of government are significantly altered, which creates a serious imbalance of power, an imbalance that greatly favors government officials and bureaucrats.

If we wish to remain free and preserve our priceless heritage, it is absolutely imperative that we stop neglecting our constitutional role in the government. We must get involved again, deeply and intensely involved, which will mean a substantial reordering of our personal priorities. On occasion we may even have to make some sacrifices--like the Founders and our ancestors did.

Additionally, we must become much better informed. We have to be able to separate the real issues from the imaginary and contrived ones. We have to start providing some meaningful guidance to our public servants, servants who have demonstrated that they cannot be left unsupervised for even short periods of time. This goes for presidents as well as for most members of congress. All have shown us that they require a firm hand to keep them on track, and we must provide it.

Over the past several decades, a long string of highly detrimental federal laws and regulations were conjured up and enacted by our so-called representatives in Washington. These largely unconstitutional orders and edicts now are bearing their noxious fruit, and are creating a suppressive atmosphere wherein it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for even the most honest and willing among us to earn an adequate livelihood. Or even to hold on to what they’ve already acquired. This has led to a deep sense of frustration among the working middle class, who more and more are seeing themselves being squeezed out of existence.

So what does all this add up to? Simply this: Americans with drive and ambition are being denied a fundamental and inherent human right--the right to pursue happiness. The government has so poisoned the economic environment in this country that working Americans no longer can feel confident that their careful planning and hard work will improve their lot in life.

My friends, while we still can, we must resume our rightful place in the government. Freedom is about choices, and we need to start making better ones as individuals and as citizens. This election is no ordinary election. It is not just about electing candidates. It’s about electing candidates who support the Constitution, and dismissing those who don’t. In a very real sense it’s about choosing between a constitutional government and an oligarchy. It’s about choosing between a government of the people or a government of the few.

I don’t think it’s too strong to say that this November 2nd will either be the beginning of a fresh start in America or the last pitiful sigh of a dying republic.

We are at an important crossroads in America. The course our nation takes over the coming months and years will be determined in large measure by what we the people do on this election day. Let’s start working together to get our country back on track.

Freedom is a tenable objective only for responsible individuals.--Milton and Rose Friedman in Free to Choose: A Personal Statement