Archives for February 2004

I’ve been in the Orlando, FL area since last Saturday for a little R&R. Returning next Saturday (2/21).

I recently got wind of a new Blog via Billy Beck.

Well, turns out that I also know Bruce McQain from way back, ’95 or ’96. Bruce and I once teamed up on Usenet in thread called “Taxation is Theft.” It was us against a slew of lawyers and tax professionals. Their claim: that taxation is not theft because it’s a “lawful taking” (fancy words that mean it’s Ok, because Uncle Sam says so).

Ok, fine, that’s what the law says. But is that what morality provides? Are not laws [supposed to be, at least] a mere imperfect reflection of our moral sense about things? And, did we need laws hundreds and thousands of years ago to tell us that theft and robbery were wrong? And, was not one of America’s founding moral principle that the government is subject to the same morals as individuals are?

Believe it or not, the lawyers maintained against all reason that the concept of theft exists only because it’s a codified legal principle—as if primitives in caves didn’t understand that it was wrong for the next guy to take their stuff. Bruce has a good grasp of anthropology, and that certainly didn’t hurt.

Needless to say, it was very easy to make them look stupid.

Here’s his Blog.

By the time you read this, the news will probably already be out in the major networks regarding Kerry’s alleged [recent] dalliances with an intern.

Drudge scoops again.

Dear Mr. Schwarzenegger:

I just heard your spot on the radio drumming up support for your program to solve California’s fiscal problems.

A word of advice; stop using phrases such as: “after all, it’s your money.” This kind of talk just won’t fly politically. Have you any idea at all of the implications of that phrase, and what sort of a moral condemnation it represents for the government and “constitution” you have sworn to uphold? I shudder.

Let’s get this straight. When the government collects less revenue, it is an expense to the government, which is why politicians and the news media always refer to tax cuts as too expensive. Got that? As you have been so successful at everything you’ve ever set out to do (bodybuilding, acting, investing, business entrepreneurship), I assume you want to be a successful politician too. So, here’s how. First, heed the above. Next, you’ll need to adopt the Hillaryesque demeanor that we are all your little children and need your guidance in every aspect of our lives. Everything accrues to you and your government. You need to begin saying things like our homes, our jobs, our paychecks, our children, etc. Use the word we a lot.

That should get you started.

In my last entry, here, I proposed an inelegant choice: fraud on the part of Republicans or dishonesty on the part of Democrats. I’ve received some curious input from several sources, so I’m motivated to elaborate.

The main thrust of that post was to express my stern disapproval over the very real lack of a sound and concise moral foundation amongst Republican politicians. The result is that they are continually waving in the wind, standing up for nothing—except in times when the moral justification to engage in war is saleable to the public. It seems they can only stand for something when it comes to a menacing USSR, international terrorism, or the next perceived national threat to come along. But when it comes to how the founding moral principles of this country (strange notions such as the moral right to own and dispose of one’s life and property as one sees fit) should dictate political actions in domestic issues, they are either silent, or worse, violate those principles while giving lip-service to those yearning for a small sign of moral fortitude from their politicians.

Equally frustrating is the tendency of the many good, value-upholding people who call themselves Republicans to simply refuse to admit that the orgy of socialism that has become the U.S.A. is never going to change unless, at least, they completely withdraw their support and demand moral accountability from their politicians. Don’t they know that participation in the political process, as configured, only hastens the impending slide into utter socialist mediocrity, if not outright practical destruction of everything America was about? But, alas, hoping for a grassroots change is probably just a silly and naïve dream on my part. Too many Republicans now are not good people; that is, they too have become seduced by the cult of: “what will you do for me, Mr. Politician?” Of course, whatever Mr. Politician will do is not the real point of the question. The underlying point of the question is: “at someone else’s expense.”

Which brings me to the Democrats. While the Republicans perpetrate a fraud by continually—year after year and decade after decade—wooing their base of support with the same small-&-limited government rhetoric, only to do just the opposite, the Democrats embrace a core political philosophy that, once clearly understood, is difficult to characterize in any way other than evil. The Democrats push this political philosophy relentlessly until it permeates society like an out-of-control virus. The Republicans, in response, run scared like a hen-pecked male who has just been asked when he stopped beating his wife. The political philosophy of which I speak is embodied in the dual doctrines of envy and hate.

Usually when we hear references to “hate” in everyday political discourse, it is targeted at Republicans. Everyone knows that Republicans hate racial minorities, women, gays, small and large animals, the poor…oh, and, lest we forget, they want to first poison and then starve your children. Though that is the sort of “hate” we get all up-in-arms about, it’s not the sort of hate I’m talking about.

I’m talking about when children are taught to disrespect and hate their dad’s and mom’s employers. I’m talking about scorn for the great industrialists (“robber barons”) of the past; loathing for those perceived as “greedy;” envy of the most successful to the point of wishing for their doom and destruction—as Ayn Rand put it: “hatred of the good for being the good.”

Now, It is indeed a shame when a black man is hated, or treated as less of a man because of the color of his skin. But that brand of hatred is patently ignorant, and has been on the decline for centuries. Yet, you would think that the whole of western civilization hangs on the issue of a relative handful of ignoramuses who hate minorities and gays. It’s an issue, but it’s not the issue.

At the same time, civilization as we know it does hang on the fortunes of the most productive, resourceful, talented, intelligent, disciplined and successful businesspeople. You know, the ones whom the Democrats teach us to, at worst, hate and envy, and at best, to view with extreme suspicion.

This is evil. It is evil because it is unjust—and there is hardly anything more evil than injustice. But that’s only the beginning. Democrats in power are certainly not ignorant enough to believe such utter and contemptible nonsense. What they do understand is the power of ideas and the power of guilt. Together, used skillfully, they perpetuate a series of “good-sounding” myths designed to influence those who lack the knowledge to know that they are being utterly duped and used. Who takes the time anymore to bother with the intricacies of history, philosophy, economics, and so on, in order to reach conclusions about things that, at least, have some connection to reality? Nope, everyone just believes what they are fed by the local and national news, newspapers, periodicals, and yes, talk radio.

While there is plenty in this world that is open to honest disagreement amongst people of good will, the moral foundations of America, the capitalism that those moral principles necessarily gave rise to, and the effect it has made on our lives and the lives of millions all over the world is undeniable.

In plain English: America was born of a moral foundation of individuality and freedom, the direct and unavoidable consequence of which was capitalism, and the direct and unavoidable consequence of which was wealth—an uplifting of the average man to heights utterly undreamed of in all of his history. “Democracy” had not one thing to do with it. Democracy is the antithesis of capitalism, and serves only as a looting mechanism, whereby clever Democrat politicians stir up hate and envy against the hands that feed in order to extort an unearned livelihood. Business-people are by nature bottom-line thinkers, so rather than fight, they find it easier to just pay off the muggers and get back to work, just as many a local mom-&-pop used to do back in "the neighborhood." The leeches are happy with such as an arrangement, as it means they can make their rounds again and again, like an ATM machine.

The Democrats attack America at its core foundational morals and values of individuality and freedom, and that is why they are evil.