MyLibertopia

I appreciate that the President has an opinion, made a decision based on that opinion, and has stuck by his decision. I can respect that. However, his decision is based on his moral ideas and that I take issue with.

In the office of the President he should be acting with the intention of representing the people of this country and our posterity. The decision he made is obviously NOT with that intention but with the intention of imposing his moral ideas on the rest of the country. That is just plain illegal. Is it not in complete opposition to the Consititution which I believe mentions something about the separation of church and state? If our highest office is not held to follow the constitution then who should be? We've seen more than one instance of the executive branch of the government trying to set itself apart from the others. This is NOT what the founding fathers had in mind.

How can we remain safe from religious repression or any repression for that matter? The highest officer of our country is using his elected EXECUTIVE POWER to promote his own personal opinions and ideas. Despite all fact or fiction. Despite data and opinion in the other bodies of the government, he makes decisions about the health and future of all based on ideas that do not belong in the government arena.

First, I have a joke.

Ted Nugent was recently being interviewed by a French journalist.  The journalist asked, "What do you think the last thought is in the head of a deer before you shoot it? Is it,"Are you my friend?` or is it `Are you the one who killed my brother?'" 
Nugent replied, "They aren't capable of that kind of thinking. All they care about is, "What am I going to eat next, who am I going to screw next, and can I run fast enough to get away. They are very much like the French in that way." 

ROFLMAOPMP

Now on topic, I've seen the trailer for this new movie about 9/11. I don't want to talk about the movie itself. I don't plan on seeing it. It's the topic that is getting me. The voice over talks about a heroic city, a brave people. All the things that are true. You gotta give the whole town the nod for dealing with all of it as well as they did. Better than New Orleans did with Katrina. I bet they make a movie about that too.

Disasters like this happen every day all over the world. When they do happen, wherever they happen, people pull together and work to help. Take Israel and Lebanon. In the stock footage you see on the news and photos, you see people working to clean up, helping victims. The Everyman on the street anywhere in the world will pretty much be as brave as anyone in New York. If it happened right here I know I would. Now yes there is the New Orleans example. However, as soon as the waters receded, the Everyman got to work. We raised money and goods to replace what was lost. I don't even know how much was donated money wise.

What's really bothering me? That is has been turned into entertainment. Maybe its too soon. They've made movies about Hitler and WWII and those don't bother me as movies in and of themselves. But those things happened so long ago. Most of us didn't witness it so personally, so a movie is a great way to get into the feel of it. Fine, make a movie then. I'm still not going to watch it.

After the recent headlines about the government mining out internet data. I read some line about companies keeping track of our information in exchange for us taking a discount card for shopping at the store. All kinds of stores do this. All the book stores, the grocery stores, they all have discount cards and it keeps a running record of everything you buy. At what point will the government decide to demand that information to protect our national security?

Okay to get around specific stores keeping track of your purchases, you just don’t use the cards. No problem. But what about our banking information? I use my debit card to pay for pretty much everything. At what point will that information be used to protect our national security?

Now think about it. If the government decided to demand our information from bank, how many people will say, “Oh okay. Who cares,” and how many will go pull their funds and start paying cash?  Personally I could not pay cash for everything. Certain bills and such would stay at the bank. But I would not use a debit card any more. I still pay cash at certain places. I don’t care what it will show up as on the statement.

All that being said, can’t the government still access our records? How much of it is public and how much of it is private? It's a really frightening though. I know that much.

Preface, this is my attempt to break out of critical style writing and just go with my train of thought. Please do not grade me on grammar here.

After the civil war was over life was not pretty in the South. Heavy structural damage, population and labor loss were difficult on everyone. Why did things fall down around the Southern way of life? Because the source of free labor was cut off. That could have been prevented had we never enslaved a race and built our society dependant on their free labor in the first place.

Who owned the most slaves? The plantation owners benefited the most from slavery, the richest of the rich. The few with the power to influence and manipulate people to their will. Not everyone in the South owned slaves in the 1800’s. Not even close to every man that fought in the civil war was a slave owner. In fact, I’m sure most of them weren’t. I doubt a rich plantation owner would let his son go fight, or go fight himself for that matter. I naturally deduce from this that the common man was out fighting a war so the rich could preserve their way of life. 

This sounds familiar. Back to Rome, Caesar restricted the slavery trade and forced the nobles to hire commoners for wages. His logic was that there was so much free labor from slavery that the common man was starving in the street. He could not find work. Why would someone pay him to work when they have slaves to work for free? Of course the nobles were outraged by this because it cut into their profits. They hatched a plan to kill Ceaser and try to maintain their way of life. Of course they reasoned that he was a tyrant trying to destroy Rome but hey, everyone has their own brand of logic. And no doubt Caesar had his own agenda. But my point is who benefited from slavery here? The nobles. The few richest people that had power and influence to manipulate others.

I could also insert the Iraq war into this scenario. Who is benefiting from the war in Iraq? I’m not sure I’d say the Iraqis. They are pretty much sitting in a war zone. The good of humanity was served because Saddam is gone. That’s true. And our economy is picking up which is natural for war time. I’ve personally not seen any benefit from the war. The only thing that has affected me so far is that the price of gas has gone up. Which I won’t blame entirely on the war. But I do see some benefiting. The people who make the guns and tanks. The contractors that get to go over there and rebuild after we’ve destroyed it all. They are all benefiting for sure. But I think we are still too close to this to really see it for what it is. We might not ever really the whole story. But it will come out in history. Just like it always does. What I can see is that a few people with enough influence and power to manipulate got us into a war.

Dig a little deeper into the politics of Iraq and you’ll find that the former ruling party, the Sunni’s, were the few wealthy while the Shi’ites were the many and poor. They are having their day now aren’t they. Just like all the others have.

I’ll sign off with a question. When was the last time the US pursued a preemptive military strike against another country?

I’m seeing a bigger picture. Think globally right? Let’s scale it down.  My dad went to work for Southwestern Bell at 21 and retired at 55. He worked as a laborer, made good money, lived a comfortable life, and retired with pension. Had it not been for the union my dad would have been fired at 22 instead of getting to retire at 55. My dad, more than once, punched people in the face at work. They probably deserved it, but still now you’d get fired for that and taken to jail. Daddy’s pushing 70 now and still living comfortably, still punching people in the face too actually. He hasn’t been to jail yet.

A guy like my dad today is building televisions in Indiana let’s say. He’s making good money, benefits, retirement. He has the whole package. But then the plant goes out of business because of Walmart. Joe Blow is suddenly not so comfortable. He doesn’t have benefits much less retirement. Joe Blow has to go to work at Walmart. He’s making a lot less money so now but he can afford to shop at Walmart.

Who am I to say that people overseas should not get to improve their lives so that mine can stay comfortably the same. If I want to do better then I’ll have to work harder than the other guy. Otherwise shut up and be happy with what you get at Walmart.

Think about the different parts of the US. Just go with the metaphor.

Dallas is a nice area. Good mix of corporate and industrial. It is a more affluent area. Lower crime rate. Mostly white collar. Middle class people live here.  

Detroit is more industrial. More blue collar work. The area is not as affluent. The houses not as nice. Higher crime rate, more poverty. Lower class people live here.

Seattle is a beautiful city. The home of Bill Gates and his giant. Some very smart and now very rich people work for  Microsoft. They are dominate in our lives. Because the technology is where everything we have comes from. The science that creates our televisions and video games. The advent of the internet and myspace. The thinkers, the leaders. The upper class live here.

Now take that globally. Dallas becomes say India. Detroit becomes China. And Seattle becomes the US. We are the leaders. The thinkers. We live the best, most comfortable lifestyles. Remember my dad, pushing 70 and still living comfortably? His grandson will be a programmer instead of a lineman.

I found on myspace. Most interesting.

"An acre of hemp produces four times as much paper as an acre of trees. Every pot-smoking hippy in the country knows that. The problem is, why doesn't anyone else? In this short article, I will attempt to educate you, the reader, of the many ways in which hemp can Save the Planet. No kidding

    "Herbicides are also virtually unnecessary, as the plants grow 6-16 feet tall in only 110 days. The complex root structure prevents erosion and decays quickly after harvest

    "That's all well and good, but what do you do with the hemp? Well, as I mentioned above, it's great for making paper. That's most of the reason that industrial hemp is illegal in the United States. See, in the mid-1930s, there were two industries that had just made breakthrough machines that would make paper productions much more cost-effective. One was the hemp industry, the other was DuPont. Coincidentally, the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act was passed, effectively making hemp illegal by charging transfers $1/ounce or, for unregistered dealers, $100/ounce, even for industrial-grade hemp.

    "So with hemp out of the way, DuPont was free to become the giant corporation that it is today, and to produce the great majority of the toxic sludge that contaminates our Northwestern and Southeastern rivers. Had hemp become our primary paper source, this pollution would have been vastly reduced, and here is why: Hemp means no deforestation, which results in less topsoil erosion, more oxygen, less carbon dioxide, less destruction of natural habitats, etc. Hemp paper is much easier to bleach, and does not require chlorine, which means no more thousands of tons of toxic sludge pouring into the water. Scientists in Sweden have developed a hemp-bleaching process that uses only natural enzymes and some pounding of the pulp.

    "Cotton, the other big evil, is grown on 3% of the world's arable land and uses 26% (wow!) of the world's pesticides and 7% of the world's fertilizer annually. It requires heavy irrigation, depleting the water supply even as it poisons it. Many developing countries grow cotton as a cash crop, trying desperately to pay off foreign debt. While the country's land and water is being destroyed, food crops are neglected, so the people go hungry.

    "Hemp can be used to make clothing that is, if treated properly, soft like cotton and far more durable, thus rendering cotton unnecessary. Adidas and Ralph Lauren already have hemp products, and Calvin Klein insists that hemp will hit the fashion industry full force in the years to come

    While an acre of trees is about 60% cellulose, an acre of hemp is nearly 75%. How much hemp is necessary to meet current U.S. energy needs? Somewhere between 10-90 million acres, depending on how efficient the production is. Every year, the U.S. government pays farmers (in cash or 'kind') to not farm what they call the 'soil bank,' which happens to be about 90 million acres of farmland. The math is pretty simple.

    "Hemp seed oil is very similar to petroleum diesel fuel, and produces full engine power with reduced carbon monoxide and 75% less soot and particulates. Hemp stalk (different than the part that can make paper and textiles) can be converted into 500 gallons of methanol/acre

    "It seems so simple, you must be saying. If this is true, why are we still using petroleum and paper and cotton? Well, there are corporations who sponsor politicians that have a reason to keep hemp down, like, the oil industry, etc

SOURCE: http://www.whiskeyandgunpowder.com/