Of Darkness and Hope

I've been reading a lot here: http://www.journalof911studies.com about the 9/11 attack. I'm left with the conclusion that we have been duped into waging a war in Afghanistan and Iraq against people, who may not have liked us, but certainly had no means to attack us as occured that fateful day. If you think me crazy, go to the site and read for yourself. Before I did, I passionately disagreed with those who thought the Trade Center towers were not destroyed by the airliners. That is not the case now.

Once you cross that Rubicon, you choose a path that leads to the disturbing realization that Americans (or at least people who bare US Passports and birth certificates) have murdered thousands of of their countrymen in an attempt to get the rest of us to support their selfish aims: aims which they have draped in the folds of our flag.

Like I said, you may think me crazy. But when you look at facts and draw conclusions from what the facts present you must either be honest with yourself and make decisions based upon those conclusions or live in denial and pretend that they don't exist. You must choose for yourself, but as for myself, I desire to see the world as it really is, even when it's not the world I wished it were.

The only hope I draw from this is that I know virtually all American's would be outraged at those who caused this atrocity, especially if it were their own country men. And I take great hope in my faith that there is a God who presides over the affairs of men and that He supports those who stand up for truth and justice. He may let wicked men prove their wickedness to the world, but His justice is inescapable. Those who caused this will ultimately pay for what they did.

Where to begin!??

So many issues, so many decisions. I feel like the little Dutch boy staring at a dike that is leaking like a sieve and wondering... "Where do I start? Which is the worst leak that needs the most attention now?"

Our government today is a constitutional republic in name only. In reality, we are a classic Greek democracy. And if you don't understand why that's a problem...then you are victim of the next two problems.

As I see it, the best control on government behavior is an educated, informed and civic-virtue minded populace. We have very few people like that today. The majority of American's today are neither well educated nor well informed nor civic minded. They tend to look upon those who are as modern Don Quixote's.

That brings up another major problem: the public education industry in America today is not designed to produce well educated, civic-minded people, let alone people who want to know what their government is up to. Schools today are designed to produce children who are comfortable living under the chains of socialism and content to hold menial hourly-wage type of jobs making someone else rich. (To all you public school teachers out there...I'm not talking about you, but the system you work within. There is a huge difference... more on that in a future post.)

This wouldn't be such a grave problem if it weren't for the fact that so many checks on government misbehavior have also been removed from the Constitution! We have judges legislating from the bench in a direct usurpation of power. We have the president likewise usurping power and legislating by executive fiat. We have the bureaucracy legislating simply because it can. We have a Congress that is so self-absorbed in making enough money to run for office it doesn't care about these ills. And, as mentioned in an earlier post, a major structural check on spending has been removed as a consequence of passage of the 16th and 17th amendments.

And lastly, we have a news industry today that regularly lies to the American people. The guardian of our liberties, the free press, has been co-opted into an entity that now works to undermine those very liberties the Founder's thought it would protect.

Despite this, I am not discouraged nor dismayed. I am convinced that God does have a hand in the affairs of our nation. He wont do our job for us. But those who commit themselves to the work at hand, will receive his help. And for that reason alone, I'm confident that things can be changed for the better.

Our Serious Condition...

The United States of America is no longer founded upon nor governed according to the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence nor enumerated in the Constitution. The problem is worse than just the government having abandoned and trampled upon the principles defined by those two documents: the populace at large has abandoned the civic virtue and integrity that must exist for a free country to endure.

John Adams said "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Ben Franklin issued an equally dire warning to that effect: "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."

Sadly, our condition today accurately reflects the degenerate nature of our national character and the aggregate absence of virtue from the people. Before we can right our government, we must first right ourselves.

Before we can reclaim our liberties, we must personally reclaim our civic virtue. And before we can reclaim our civic virtue, we must reclaim our faith in God. We would to well to consider the comment by General Douglas MacArthur: "History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster."

Reigning in the National Government... the right way

I read an opinion piece Gary Andres the Washington Times commenting on the fact that people in this country want more state control of the services the "Government" provides to the people. "Power to the people"

He offered polling data that shows there is a significant fraction of the country that want the National government's power dilluted if not returned to the states. It didn't mention how that would happen however. That's where this blog takes off...

There's only one real lasting solution: change the government structure so politicians can say "No" to creating government agencies without committing political suicide. Otherwise, whenever a pet project gets cancelled the Representative or Senator has to run for cover or face the wrath of the special interest group who's ox he gored. This ability to say "no" must also be balanced by keeping the government responsive to the collective will of the people. We don't want a government that runs roughshod over our rights, although a strong case can be made that, that is what's happening now...

So, how to do this balancing act? It's easy to say, but it'll be very hard to do. Repleal the 16th AND 17th Amendments. That's all. "How will that work?" you ask. This is how...

The 16th Amendment allows the national government to tax the incomes of the electorate directly. Repealing this amendment will force the government to do it the way it did for 120 some odd years, by getting the money from the states and forcing the states to raise the money. This puts the level of "fund raising" at the state level. Which is one level closer to the people. But this alone isn't enough.

If this is all that happened, the national government would be free of the onerous task of raising the money it spends. Spending would spiral out of control much faster than it is now. That's where the second step comes into play: repealing the 17th Amendment.

This amendment changed to constituency of Senators from state governments to the people at large of the state, a role that was prescribed in the Constitution to be done by the House of Representatives. It in effect turned them into Congressmen with six-year terms of office. But with the Senators beholden to the states they are insulated from the wrath of the electorate and can make the tough decision without fear of direct electoral reprisals.

Since just the states will have the task of raising money for the national government, they will feel the wrath of the electorate for the taxes they must enact to raise their portion of the federal budget. Fear of this wrath will be the wellspring of an enormous incentive to the Senator to say "No" to spending bills: He keeps his job only if he says no to spending so the states don't have to raise so much money and therefore can themselves stay in office longer than a couple of terms. It also gives sufficient political cover to the Senator to survive saying "no." Members of the House of Representatives can point a finger at those "stingy" Senators for the failure of a spending bill to pass and the Senators can take comfort in knowing that their constituency, the state government is happy with them for doing so.

Consequently, an environment where fiscal sanity can exist at the national level and equally importantly, States will have a much bigger voice in the operation of the national government.

The True Benefits of Social Security

Me and spreadsheets are really tight. I like doing random "what ifs" everynow and then with them just to see how things are really going. "Do I really save money buying a new fuel efficient car compared to keeping my older, paid-for car?" Those kind of questions... Well, I was doing a "what if" exercise last night about Social Security and came up with some rather interesting information.

The question: "Which pays more, Social Security or your own personal retirment account?"

The rules: You earn $9.00/hour. You work 40 hours a week with paid vacations. You're 21 years old and you'll retire when you're 68. Throughout your career, you'll never make more than 9.00/hour. Inflation is not taken into account in any of these numbers.

In scenario A, the money you and your employer would have paid into Social Security, and Medicare etc. would be paid instead into an investment account that returns five percent per year, compounded monthly. These are not unreasonable numbers, by the way. Many investment portfolios beat those numbers consistently.

In scenario B, the money is paid into Social Security as it is now.

The monthly payout:
Scenario A: $2,200.
Scenario B: $964.

The details:
Scenario A, You'll have accumulated more than 500,000 dollars. Your monthly payout is just the interest off of that money. Meaning, you'll have that money until you die.
Scenario B, you'll have accumulated nothing. The money the government gives you will be taken from two other people's monthly wages.

Where would you rather be?