Hyperventilating on Phony Outrage

In the predictable back and forth of all American elections today that are completely driven by Party considerations it is now the turn of Ron Paul to be brought down a notch or two by political pundits of the Left and Right whose attacks, while justified to a limited extent, often do not become them and serve only to reveal a certain sycophancy either in the service of a failed president or a false and failed political Party.

The main thrust of the attacks of the Left has been the alleged "racism" of Paul for some highly charged racial language used in fundraising letters. Paul probably did not write these himself, although someone close to him probably did. If he wrote them he should say it and challenge anyone to claim they have never used a racial issue in a way that was divisive. If someone else wrote it he should ask them to admit it. Enough with this phony outrage regarding racial language in politics. It is a bitter and sad consequence of the racial games played by both parties. It is an open secret among political consultants that race still plays a huge part in American politics in BOTH parties. This is because race still brings out powerful emotions in many people and that is too often what gets people to vote. The Left Democrats ALSO use race and racial language in exactly this divisive way.

The Left has systematically attempted to claim that virtually any attempt to place any limits on Federal spending to slow a catastrophic expansion of debt is "racist" in its philosophical underpinnings because "cuts would disproportionately fall on the poor and many poor are blacks ergo any reduction in federal spending is racist." This is simply an attempt by the Left to increase voter turnout among racial groups they think are "their people". If this is not using race and some might say racism to divide the population, raise money, and win elections that is at least as egregious as something written in a Paul newsletter in 1995 then apparently every issue of Federal taxing or spending is racist?? Paul wants to cut off bailouts for a gaggle of white, rich, Federally enabled bankers. Is this racism against Whites because 99.9999% of crooked federally bailed out bankers are white bastards?? I have always said that if the government would simply spend money helping TRULY poor people of all races, and not the middle or upper classes there would be no debt at all.

As an aside one of the most frankly ridiculous arguments I recently read attacking Paul from the Left was in regard to his non-interventionist foreign policy. The writer said that although she was anti-war like Paul, she did not agree with Paul because his views were based on an "isolationist hatred of the world" and not on "love for the world." (Oh God, where do I begin with this idiocy.) Um oh, sorry, to be polite, where do I begin. First of all, Paul has never expressed any "hatred for the world" unless being pro-free trade with all nations is "hating the world." The only evidence the writer gave for Paul's supposed hatred of the world is that he opposes foreign aid. Paul opposes foreign aid not because he "hates the world" but because he has read and respects the constitution. What he hates are the criminal regimes that foreign aid props up like the current Military regime in Egypt placed there by the "Arab Spring."

Frankly, the writer's argument about "hating" or "loving" the world is an intellectually lazy argument and belongs more in a tweet of 40 characters than a serious article. I assume she prefers Presidents Bushobama who, while professing to be "defending the world" behind smirks and toothy grins, set out to intervene in virtually every country in the mideast while destroying the fiscal and moral credit of the United States.

Well, as disingenuous as the attacks on Paul from the Left are, the one's from the Right or the "right" are even more so. There are many, including jumping on the Left's back and crying phony crocodile tears about racism. However, the main thrust is that Paul is "a nut" because he wants to "legalize heroin" and he "wants Iran to have a nuclear bomb." This was encapsulated recently on Faux News by the slimy chameleon DICK Morris.

First, Paul is exactly right on the decriminalization of drugs. This would rapidly and systematically destroy the major dealers of all types of drugs both nationally and internationally because the US is the biggest buyer. (talk about loving the World!! :) As far as heroin goes legalization might hurt the profits that the US government is making off guarding the poppies in Afghanistan and then flying them out to all corners of the earth but (oh gosh) that is only a conspiracy theory. (A conspiracy theory is any piece of news harmful to the US government that goes unreported in the US but is an open secret in the rest of the world.)

Second, Paul has never said that he "wants Iran to have a nuclear bomb." He has said that he understands the strategic reasons they might want one and that starting a war in the mideast again to root out the Iranian bomb is a catastophic strategic error for the United States. This might be wrong in terms of its reasoning (although I think not) but it is certainly not "crazy". It is exactly the way an American President should be thinking in a strategic way about foreign policy. "Crazy" policies are those of the other Republicans and of Bushobama who turn the issue into an emotional stand-off that closes off most opportunities to solve the problem short of entering the darkroom of war.

So, while I certainly don't endorse everything that was ever written in some Paul newsletters, I think his candidacy in 2012 has been a refreshing change from the elementary, hidebound, party oriented campaigns we have seen so much of in the last few decades. IT HAS STIRRED THINGS UP BABY!!! It has been a remarkably well-run and disciplined campaign whose themes of non-intervention abroad and constitutional individualism at home are the exact opposite of the racism and insanity that he is accused of.

And actions speak louder than words

And songs combine the two (this song is fornicating brilliant/smash the Left Right paradigm)

Karen L. O'Grady 1941-2011

Tonight at 6:32 PM Pacific time, my mom Karen L. O'Grady died from complications due to multiple sclerosis. She had contracted double pneumonia. Strength, kindness,bravery and always a smile even when she was groping to breathe were the characteristics of my mom. She is now again being sheltered and protected by her father who was killed in an auto accident when she was only 13 years old.

My mom battled and fought to standstill one of the deadliest neurological diseases on the planet for 21 years. Two examples of her character stand out. When I was a boy she took me to bookstores often. I was looking in the history section with her as a boy of about 7. A young employee there came up to us and said, "he (me) is a little too young for this section, take him to the children's section." My mom stood a little taller than her 5' 8" frame and looked the clerk straight in the eye and said, "my son will read whatever book he chooses to read. Thank you but we are staying here."

Another example of my mom's character is that when Teresa, the other of my mom's caregivers besides me, first came to work for her Teresa was embarrassed about speaking english to alot of people because spanish is her first language. My mom said to her, "don't worry about your english Teresa, when you need to talk to someone, you can always talk to me.'

My mom realized that dying with dignity does not mean accepting an inevitable fate. It means fighting for your life. We are all dying in some way or another, so its time to fight for your dignity.

My mom loved a poem by William Blake:

He who bends to himself a joy

Doth the winged life destroy;

But he who kisses the joy as it flies

Lives in Eternity's sunrise.

My mom will forever live in Eternity's sunrise and in my heart forever.

The Real China

Here is a fabulous antidote to the growing number of sycophants for the Chinese government in the American corporate-media-government complex, led chiefly by Thomas L. Friedman. They have a barely hidden admiration for highly authoritarian if not Totalitarian practices that the Chinese people are trying vainly to struggle against every day.

The facts are that almost all the "rise from poverty" that happened in China since 1978 began to dramatically slow in China by 1990 and has now virtually stopped. China today is the definition of plutocratic fascism with a facade of Capitalism to keep the Western capital flowing in. Chinese economic statistics are as phony as a three dollar bill (even more phony than US :) The numbers are collected by the CCP Central Committee in each province indivually and then all added together to get a total. Each province is given incentives by the CCP Central Committee in Beijing to put out the best numbers possible. They have a farcical relation to reality in China.

A wonderful historian once said to all those who laud the Beijing regime for its "progress" to take a bike ride in China from Shanghai to Xinjiang and then a bike ride from Maine to California and then say which society is healthier, wealthier, freer, and happier. Peasants riot against the ChiComs everyday in China. They get rounded up or slaughtered, it just never makes the news.

Bachmann's References to Chinese Issues

I am no supporter of Michelle Bachmann but there was a basis in fact to the references she made regarding Chinese counterfeit chips and the underground submarine base. From my perspective it never pays in the long-run to underestimate the capabilities of a historically powerful nation like China. It is one thing to underestimate Iraq or Libya. It is another to underestimate the capabilities of a nation that is potentially a military and economic power equal to or greater than the United States.

FREE FREE FREE CLICK HERE!!!

Over forty?? Having trouble paying all those bills with rising prices?? Feeling like only "half" the man you once were?? Want to feel like its 1999 again and you are in your 20s?? Well CLICK HERE!!!! Direct from Asia! Direct from Asia! Direct from Asia! :)

Pulling out of Iraq but......

Leading from behind an Israeli operation.......perhaps......although I tend to think all of these bursts of jingoistic talk toward Iran are designed for effect.

Buckle Up

Anyone who thinks the economies of the world are slowly "healing",as we so often hear from economists on the payroll of governments,is drinking from a scalding chalice of delusion that will burn their throats and boil their stomachs. (or maybe they are just drinkin' the cool aid :)

But never to worry. We can rely on the technocratic experts to manage the economy. We know so much more than we did then.

Joe Frazier

In memory of Joe Frazier. dead at 67.

Happy "Contrail" Day!!!

Today is the first anniversary of a miracle!! An aircraft contrail spontaneously ejected out of the ocean 30 miles off the coast of Los Angeles!! Just because it appeared to be an SLBM don't worry about. NORAD tells us it was never a threat. And governments never lie to cover their asses. Especially ours :)

why read poetry?

why read poetry?

The Gifts of Poetry

The idea for Mark Edmundson’s excellent book Why Read? came to him when he read the lines of William Carlos Williams: “It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.” What is it in poetry that condemns us to the agonizing, slow “death” of quiet desperation when we lack it, that Williams suggests? What gifts does poetry bestow upon us? Many come to mind: the national pride from an epic like the Aenead, the aid to memory that poetic form imbues and countless others. However, specifically poetry can rescue us from “death” in three primary ways. First, it can instill in us a sense of irony which can in turn foster our imagination. Second, poetry can help us discover objective Truth through a subjective lens. Last, poetry can bring to light our personal self.

Irony in both the use of words and in the incongruence between expectations and actuality can well be expressed in poetry leading to the stimulation of the imagination. Here is a poem I wrote while viewing the horrors of the recent Japanese earthquake. It is called “The Wounding World.”

The wounding world breaks the heart upon its shallow shoals/It shades the mind in the fickle fog of fortune/Suffering saints meet murderous fools/Truth and Tyche seem fated to oppose/Man and Nature rare is their common repose/If this be Justice it is in justice we must obey.

In imagining this poem in a literal sense I tried to express the inherent irony of the world in that the good seem to suffer. Imagining the words of the poem itself as I observed them also produced an ironic reaction in me. Reading to myself the last line I was saying Justice must be obeyed. In hearing the poem aloud I might have said that in a “just” world like ours, it is injustice we must obey. We see in this example how the same words, when written in poetic form can produce two completely opposite meanings; one the literal meaning, the other the ironic meaning.

When comparing the message of the poem to the same message written in prose the stimulant to the imagination through verse becomes obvious. “The world often punishes the Good and rewards the Evil. The rational nature of Man is often defeated by the random fortune of his internal non-rational nature and the non-rationality of the world. Still, we must carry on stoically and pursue our life’s journey.” The prose, whether literally true or not does not stir in the writer or reader any image of the conflict between Man and Nature or Reason and irrationality. It simply states a proposition leaving the reader to either agree or disagree but not stimulating any thoughts about the essential idea or its opposite that the writer is trying to convey. That is; what is Man’s relationship to the world? These are the imagination questions that poetry can stimulate especially through irony.

Irony flows throughout the very nature of poetry in that through it objective Truth can be discerned through a subjective lens. This discovery is the second gift of poetry warding off “death.” The World War One poet Wilfred Owen wrote, “above all I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the Pity.” (Bate 101) In his brilliant poem “Dulce et Decorum est” Owen shows how that objective Truth about war can best be uncovered through the subjective perspective of the men doing the fighting. In the poem (100) Owen describes the sensation of being under gas shell attack, “Whew…..fup…..fop…..fup”, “Then stinging poison hit us in the face.” This is the objective reality of war told through the subjective experience of one soldier. It is through poetry that we can best see the congruent relationship between subjective and objective truth.

Through poetry what William James said about the nature of Truth may be discerned. We arrive at Truth by discovering our subjective truths. The immensity of Truth precludes our discovery of it objectively. But through a patchwork of subjectivities, including our own, we can at least approach the Truth and more importantly gain proof of its existence. The melodic form of verse, and the human ability to recognize that melodic form is that animating spirit of the rational order of the cosmos called Truth. If no such order existed then Poetry and its forms would be incomprehensible to us. Truth is the subjective and the objective. It is the binding that unites the two and the separation that differentiates them. It is the beautiful irony of the nature of poetry that allows us to see the unity of the subjective and the objective; at least for a fleeting moment to whisper and grasp the gift of Truth precluding “death.”

A third gift that poetry can instill is a discovery of the self. Walt Whitman in his “Song of Myself” wrote of his two selves, his poetic self and his “me, myself.” This was his inner core, his “I am.” Whitman’s poetry allowed him to answer the question “what am I?” (Bloom 91)

The great Marcel Proust author of “Remembrance of Things Past” wrote of his readers, “it would be my book but it would furnish them with the means of reading what lay inside themselves.” (Edmundson 107) Throughout Why Read? Edmundson describes the writer as also a reader of his reader. In other words, the writer tries to stimulate the reader to discover truths about himself. In a modest way the poem I wrote above attempts to do this. The eye sees the words as an exhortation to continue on and have faith that there is a pattern and order to the world that is Just even if we cannot see it clearly. The ear might hear the poem as a call to rebel against the unjust order or disorder of the world by obeying injustice. Depending on the way the reader thinks of it he or she can discover something about themselves. Is the reader a Job dedicated to faithful obedience to God and the Truth despite the seeming injustice of the world? Or is the reader a Candide, seeing the Lisbon earthquake and questioning whether the world is truly a just and rational order? Often, depending on our place in the journey of life we may read the poem one way or another. Either way, it is this discovery of our internal being, our true self that poetry can help to uncover. This self awareness is another gift poetry bestows to ward off “death.”

Mark Edmundson wrote about a type of humanistic faith. (Edmundson 136) A great work or poem should challenge one to live it as if it were a guiding text, a “bible” if you will. His concern is that with the demise of religion nothing, no values, will take its place and humanity will be degraded to the level of what it seems we are becoming: self-conscious to the point of self-destructiveness. We value nothing that is internal to ourselves but only the value others place on us. We are Nieztche’s “Last Men”, eating, blinking, snorting, farting but ultimately unfeeling, uncaring, and unconcerned: dead. Edmundson’s concern itself is a mild irony in that religion, to the extent it is based on the Bible, is “faith in literature.” That being said, it can be poetry in which part of this faith in our selves may be restored and the “death” that Williams’ wrote of averted.

Embedded in poetry is the restoration of the self and a return away from death to life. Through a restoration of the imagination through the use of irony, through the recognition in poetry of both the subjective and objective nature of truth, and through the interweaving of irony, imagination, and Truth we can discover our true and inner self. This then is the lesson we learn about Life from Poetry. At the heart of the lesson is the great irony that we can arrive at Truth through Faith thus averting the death of our soul. Courage and bravery are the harvest of Faith in the knowledge that through the gifts of poetry we are not condemned to die miserably from their lack. The unique nature of poetry with its ability to be at once verbally and meaningfully ironic, simultaneously subjective in form and objective in essence and always imaginative throughout is an affirmation of the self.

Works Cited

Bate, Jonathan. English Literature: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford. 2010.

Bloom, Harold. How to Read and Why, Scribner, NY. 2000.

Edmundson, Mark. Why Read?, Bloomsbury,NY. 2004.

Ron Paul 1988

For all you Paulites and anti-Paulites. 2008 and 2012 are not Paul's only run for President. Here he is during his first run in 1988.

Expectations

One of the things the second Depression has brought is a corruption of the language of economics. This is ironic in that the word "Depression" was never used as an expression of an economic condition until President Hoover was trying to find a psychological explanation for the failure of his ineffectual interventionist economic policies.

Well, today we constantly hear the term in economics that a certain economic indicator whether unemployment, or housing, or whatever was "better than expected." This is very convenient for those who want to avoid and deny the very deep and structural economic problems that are prevalent today. Those that want to avoid the enormity or the economic problems facing the country who are virtually all major media and both major parties, are the ones that create the "expectations." So then when horrible or tepid economic numbers come out they can just smile and say "better than expected!!"

This also occurs in a negative way when elites in both parties want a certain bill passed like the massive bailout in late 2008 that BOTH Obama and McCain personally lobbied for. The expectations were built up that if the bill didn't pass there "will be a second Depression". Well, the bill eventually passed because of these awful "expectations". For one day it was said that there would be "auctions" to sell off the bad debts. Then it simply became the bailout that OWS and Tea Parties are so livid over today.

So I say beware of expectations. You will get the disaster you say you expect with a wink and a nod. It will come in forms you least expect in ways that you cannot avoid. Problems avoided simply find other ways of manifesting themselves like energy that can never be destroyed. There is no statute of limitations on economic depressions. So I say no more expectations.

Words on Sunbeams

In the present, which is the future, it is a revolutionary act to write and think in words that expand the breadth of our minds as we seek to break the shackles of ignorance that the circumstances of modern existence have placed as a noose around our necks.

Open your eyes that see inward and then look up. This is the path to knowledge and wisdom that is within you and therefore is your most cherished possession. Our lives are bound only by the limits of our thoughts. Our thoughts are only bound by the limits of our ability to express them.

Even when our bodies are bound by disease or death or afflictions of weakness we can transcend this by speaking and singing and writing out in words as if illuminated by sunbeams and brought forth with the power of lightning.

Canada 1970

When revolutions go bad

"The Arab Spring"??

Effects of war. but it was "authorized" by the UN so its all for the greater good in that we need to set a precedent whereby world bodies can transcend national legislatures. yeah, ok. So this is all for the greater good. yeah, ok. It won't be a "one world government." It will be a one government world. Sound democratic?? How an Empire falls.

The Question of Occupation

It is a fundamental divide among many of us on the Right about what the Occupy movement means. I think of it maybe in the mirror opposite than many democrats think of it. The hope for the movement is to NOT let it be co-opted by the ideological Left. The "George Soros Crowd" if you will. To the extent that the movement becomes simply a chanting party to fulfill the wishes of large interests whose agenda is global, that is to the advantage of the Right as that is not a movement that will translate into electoral results. These global Left wing interests do not represent or care, frankly, about the extremely pressing real economic problems of Americans that most on the Left AND the Right are up to there last dollar in right now. These GLOBAL left-wing interests want to leverage the fear of ALL Americans and the physical bodies and occupations of the occupy movement into a phalanx to achieve global results that really have nothing to do with the economic conditions of real Americans on the ground in our severely economically depressed cities and small towns.

To my mind the question for the occupy movement is what does it want to continue to occupy?? Does it want to continue to physically occupy as many cities in the country and become simply a tool to achieve the global agenda of some of the Left wing and extremely wealthy interests that it purports to be opposed to?? Or does does it want to transform itself into a spiritual and emotional occupation of the agenda and attention of the American people?? If the movement can transform itself into an "occupy yourselves" movement it will redeem itself. "Occupy" a nursing home where elders are being abused (which is most of them.) "Occupy" a street where hungry people are eating out of garbage cans and feed them. (many streets in my town) "Occupy" town meetings as did the tea party and ACTUALLY speak THEIR minds using words of their own to express ideas. "Occupy" themselves, in short, in the business of creating an equality of caring souls helping each other at the grass roots level where people are hungry and hurting and slowly dying in the slow motion economic melt-down.

To the extent they can "occupy themselves" it is a movement that many good people in the nation will still embrace perhaps not completely at the polls, as we all have varying ideas, but in our time and effort to slowly transform the nation away from one that is obsessed with material consumption and "material occupations" into one that embraces spiritual and personal occupations, the kind that can truly change a person's life and therefore change the nation.

WORLD WAR III IN 72 F%#^&@ HOURS!!!!

I know the world must be near ending. I have agreed with Alec Baldwin and Barrack Hoover Obama in the same week!!! :) This is a sign of impending end of the world events. Baldwin recently defended Capitalism (sort of). And I agree with the Iraq troop withdrawal. Now knowing Obama and his weird passive aggressive foreign policy look for him to enter two more wars for every one he withdraws from. It is official (this is not a joke). I do not know how many wars we are fighting in now. I have literally lost count. I am quite serious. My last count was 6 but maybe 5 after Iraq. But oops I forgot about Uganda and maybe now Mexico so maybe 7?? Could not tell you :( The number of wars we are fighting will soon equal the number of jobs created since 1999.

I will not give Obama any "credit" for any actions in Libya because no actions there should have been taken in the first place. I find the UN call for war crimes investigations of the Kaddafy killing odd as it was the UN itself that dragged our ever too willing asses in there in the first place. It was a war for LSC baby!!! Light Sweet Crude my friends. I am talking oil here people NOT my winning personality!!! lol.

More soon. Here is some great rock and roll and here

Talks With OWS

I like this kid but he needs to read some history. Capitalism can't survive under conditions of anarchy.

Kennedy in 1960

Here is an interesting interview with JFK in Jan of 1960 just before the presidential contest with Nixon really began in earnest. Notice JFK thoughts on power.

The Essential Knowledge for Americans

I cannot recommend this set of lectures highly enough. It is really essential for Left Right and Center. We often forget that all of us can find find examples of champions of our particular politics throughout American history right back to the founding of Virginia and Massachusetts Bay. For those of you on the Left I recommend studying the lives of Roger Williams and Joel Barlow. I wish this lecture could be played at every t party and ows gathering anywhere. This is probably the most lucid, cogent, broadly knowledgeable talk on American history and its essential characteristics that I have ever heard.

Rise and Fight

The nation is more vulnerable than it has ever been. The hour is too late for a national revival of the strength, spirit, and humility that built the nation. Our People are divided. We have forgotten what we once knew, what once bound us as a nation and individuals. We have forgotten that our Liberty only was defended by us as a People, confident that though circumstances divided us, our humanity bound us to inalienable God-given rights. We sap our strength in wars of self-aggrandized hubris falsely confident of our military invulnerability to foreign powers feigning friendship and peace.

Our best rest on the laurels of their fortune, content to wallow in unearned riches. Our worst seek to aggrandize themselves by playing to the envy of the frightened majority cowering in fear of economic collapse. Our corruption blinds us to the urgency of the hour and temptation leads us into the forest of blindness. Our enemies from the East and South, despotic all, salivate at the sight of our wounds, confident in their ultimate victory. We are valueless, leaderless and rudderless.

We as a nation are all these things. But you, all of you as people are not. National revival begins with personal revival. Self-government depends in the first instance on the governance of oneself, self-discipline and self-control. Elevate again your soul and your mind. Resist the mindlessness that surrounds us. Gird yourself for that coming and now present storm that inflicts us from within and is soon to descend upon us from without. Remember again those mystic chords of memory that once bound us, were torn asunder, but can bind us again in the recognition that we are not class, we are not race, we are not creed. We are Free because we are human beings with a spirit that chafes and wails at the hint of despotic tyranny and slavery of our minds and bodies. That spirit is what makes you an American. That spirit, when it is offended will remind you of your duties to yourself and therefore to your nation. It is that Spirit of defiant justice that will again reunify our nation.These are Truths and Truths must be defended if they are to survive.

I expect that every American will do their duty when the time comes. The time has come. Rise and remember. Rise in the bitter tears of your old enemies expected victory. Rise and fight!

When that is done you will have honored yourselves and earned a victory that will ring and shout in the annals of time as a reminder of what is the destiny of all free people in the past, now, and throughout the tapestry of time.

a revolutionary with something to say

Cash

Hitchens

An excellent interview. My political interlocutors often accuse me of being a reactionary, semi-pompous, overrated pseudo-intellectual asshole and I am guilty :) Here is Hitchens a revolutionary, extremely pompous, overrated hyper intelligent intellectual asshole and that is why this Righty loves this Trotskyite Marxist in the grand tradition of the Democratic Left.

Notice all the books in the background appear to have been read and THAT is why he has something to say that is specific, knowledgeable, and always direct and logical.

The young, aliterate, protesters(although I agree with their criticism of the corruption of the American elite) should take notice. IF IF IF you want to be a real revolutionary, you gotta put in the work kiddies. Shoutdowns, monotonous semi-literate chantings led by a leftist professor, flash mobs, incoherent "DEMANDS!!" (how democratic of them), and hand signals to replace the words that are passe in your world of twittering gibberish aren't going to change the world. Put in the hard work of studying and thinking about the kind of country you want or you will continue to be what you are: the mobs and cannon fodder of any Right or Left Wing totalitarian who wants to use your "Demands!!" for his own ends. You are not the prelude to a revolution you are the beginning of a great devolution into a mind-numbing authoritarianism unless you remember again that the respect for a pluralism of thought and the plethora of words that they depend on is the only thing that will "change the world" for the better and not for the worse.

Right Wing Utopianism

the fallacy of the pursuit of a perfect world

A Fabulous BBC Documentary

Here is an excellent piece on the importance or reading.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdwFFFBCPzw%feature=related

The Division of Sovereignty-An American Concept

Sovereignty can take two forms. One is that sovereignty is the authority to rule. The other form is that sovereignty is the power to rule.

The sovereignty of the authority to wield political power is more in line with the federalist American ideal from a constitutional perspective than is the meaning of sovereignty as simply an expression of the POWER to rule, that is brute force. The authority to rule is in line with a concept of American liberty. This means that sovereignty, in its manifestation as the AUTHORITY to rule, can be DIVIDED within one polity. It is a sovereignty of JURISDICTION not of NATION.

Sovereignty in its other manifestation, that of the POWER to rule, is more in line with the modern vulgar way that is currently taught in our political science departments. That is, that politics is about POWER and who GETS IT!!!! This is usually called national sovereignty, or the sovereignty of the nation. This kind of sovereignty dismisses the notion of divided, shared, or concurrent sovereignty and subsumes all jurisdictional sovereignty into one centralized, administrative hub. It is this sovereignty that is the sovereignty of Empire and statism. It is difficult for individual liberty to exist for any length of time within a polity when this idea of sovereignty is in the ascendancy. It also breeds conflict between national and local authorities as neither recognizes that in the United States sovereignty must be jurisdictional and not territorial or national if it to be constitutional.

In the United States the People in their political capacity are Sovereign. They have the authority to rule. They also have the power to rule. However, they in their political capacity also have the authority to delegate power to any level and/or branch of government or reserve it for themselves. In this sense, sovereignty in our country is not divided, it rests ENTIRELY with the People in their political capacity. From a practical view however, the people disseminate the sovereignty among the levels and branches of government. Under the Constitution of the United States no sovereign power whatever exists within the government. It ALL resides with the People in their political capacity. The People then delegate certain powers to government as they see fit through a written constitution allowing the government to exercise certain powers in the name of the People of the United States.

The people of this country must never forget that their Liberty and that of countless Americans into the endless future depends upon their maintenance of their power to defend the authority of their sovereignty. Any people wallowing in an ignorant decadence will never remain free.

An Incident of Consequence

My mom had terrible anemia on January 8th of this year. She had to be in the hospital for a few days for a blood transfusion. At one point it looked as if she would surely die. Her blood pressure had dropped to 38 over 15. At that moment I looked to the heavens out of the fifth floor window. The sun was in the window. I closed my eyes and put my face directly in the light letting it bathe the inside of my eyeballs. I prayed to God to help my Mom have the energy and strength to stay living. I then went to her bedside, held her hand and told her "now its time to fight!" About 10 seconds later her blood pressure began a steady upward ascent to stabilize around 110 over 60. She felt better.

This incident showed me that God exists. This was proof on a personal level. It was not anything public that could easily sway masses of chanting converts. God does not act upon "the public" if any such monstrosity exists other than in the minds of socialists and fascists. If any force acts upon such an abstraction it is the Devil.

God acts in the lives of individual humans. By acts I do not mean doing favors for people. I mean that God is the necessary will, strength and courage that allows for humans to rise and create and think and achieve and sometimes just to continue to live on. This is the simple yet profound truth that Life is better than death, that to fight for Life is that only path to a noble death. This nobility of spirit is the warm and steady strength that God provides us even if we don't know how or why or float on an ocean of doubt. As Churchill said, Man is Spirit.

The Paradox of Social Democracy

The problem for social democracy is that over time it subverts the democracy and trust that it purports to uphold. The large national projects that it assumes must be undertaken on a national basis necessitate government cooperation with the large corporations that have the know how and capital to undertake large projects. Large numbers of employees must be hired using public funds that by definition are extracted from the private economy.

Because of these two elements of social democracy over time it subverts both democracy and trust. The first in that it inherently creates projects and partnerships with large corporations that are "too big to fail." In other words, the project or agency or fund or whatever, must ultimately be backed by public money because it becomes so large a part of the economy that its failure would destroy that entire economy. The choice of funding or defunding is taken away from Congress, the democratically elected representatives and place in the hands of unelected agencies, thus subverting democracy. And trust is diminished by social democracy because it tends to turn government into a faction. Government ceases to become the arbitrator of society but increasingly becomes the employer of last resort in the economy. Government and those it employs become the ends in themselves, not the brokers among interest groups but an interest group with the force of law behind it incessantly grasping, grabbing and griping for a bigger portion of a diminishing economic pie that it plays no role in expanding. This faction of government by its nature creates an atmosphere of us versus them. Government ceases to become an agent of the People and a trusted arbitrator and regulator. It becomes a group competing for the succor and sustenance of a declining pool.

Listen to the words of Ben Franklin writing in 1774 about the dangers of allowing the Colonies to be more closely controlled by London,

"I cannot but apprehend more mischief than benefit from a closer Union; their(the British ruling class) wide-wasting prodigality and profusion is a gulf that will swallow up every aid we may distress ourselves to afford them. Here (London) numberless and needless places, enormous salaries, pensions, perquisites, bribes, false accounts and jobs devour all revenue and produce continual necessity in the midst of natural plenty. I apprehend, therefore, that to unite us intimately will only corrupt and poison us also."

Can we not say in our own time we see some of the same elements in our own government? Can we not see the breakdown of Democracy and Trust that in the 1770s led to a revolution?

Social Democracy

The argument for social democracy rests upon the premise of the idea of "public goods". This is an idea taken as self evident by social democrats and most America "progressives" today. The idea is that there are some goods and services, for instance railways and education, that are simply impossible to do exclusively in private economic ways. The state must, if these goods and services are to exist, must fund these activities.

If these goods and services do not exist then, so the theory goes, there is simply no nation. (so this progressive idea ironically accepts the idea of nationalism or a strong nation, supposedly a conservative idea) So, for the progressive social democrat, the existence of the nation itself depends upon some form of social democracy.

Another idea upon which social democracy rests is that of the corrosive effect of inequality. Where inequality is rampant any democratic government is at best dysfunctional, at worst impossible. This is because democratic government depends upon the trustful bonds of citizens to one another. This idea was first introduce in the 13 century by Ibn Khaldun, the Arab political philosopher. His idea of "Asabiya", societal trust, was considered to be the bond under which society thrived. With the diminishing of asabiya comes the decline of society. For the social democrat "rampant free markets" diminish trust or asabiya and thus lead to social decline

An Educated Person

The ancient Greeks believed that one could not know if they were truly happy until the end of their lives, until death. This presupposed that life was a process of development in the Aristotelian teleological sense. This is true as well for the process of educating oneself.

Not to sound morbid, but a truly educated person is one that is preparing to die. By this I do not mean the death of one's body but the transition that comes with living through its various stages all the way until death.

To be truly educated is to gird oneself for these various stages; all the joy, pain, sadness, "the sling and arrows of outrageous fortune." To this one must have a sense of both comedy and tragedy and one other thing: independence of mind.

With independence of mind one can transcend the problems of the moment, the infirmities of the body, the physical, the merely temporal. Independence of mind is the essential element for living in and maintaining a free society of free individuals. Without it we are subject to the buffeting winds and tides of the crowd, the advertisement, the demogouge with solutions for all our problems if we will only submit our judgment, our money, or our votes to the siren song of their temptations.

As for me, I choose to develop independence of mind through reading anything that I can. I have a love and obsession for History. I find that subject to encompass many others so that it is the shortest cut to at least some knowledge regarding varied topics. In this age of the internet and brilliant but aliterate 20 something face book addicts, I find myself feeling a bit like the dinosaur just after that comet hit the Yucatan. However, in my (too few) brighter moments) I have faith that there will always be a core of people who believe that the written word is key to the independence of mind that is essential to the educated person.

When asked why I read so much, if I am feeling whimsical, I say that I am preparing to die. I say it with a smile on my face :)

John.

The Precarious Gamble

The economy is still in a precarious position. Recently the Federal Reserve resumed the purchase of treasury bonds on a massive scale in an attempt to hold down long term interest rates and keep the massive American debt manageable and able to be serviced. It also an attempt to lower the value of the dollar so as to try to force China to unpeg its currency from the dollar standard it has adhered to. China cannot afford to do this yet because many Chinese banks holdings are denominated in dollars while their liabilities are valued in Yuan the Chinese currency. If the holding are devalued vis a vis the liabilities a collapse of China's entire banking system is possible.

It is unclear whether a Chinese collapse is one of the Fed's ultimate intents. It is hard to imagine how such a collapse would help the US in an economic sense. Although in the geopolitical sphere, to the extent that a collapse of the Chinese banking system lessens China's overall power, this is no doubt beneficial to the relative power of the US.

It is questionable, however, whether a collapse of China's banks would hurt China in the long-term. Its Communist leadership (yes, the CCP still runs almost every aspect of Chinese economic activity) knows the extent of over-leverage in Chinese banks. As Communists, they most likely believe that any banking system is prone to collapse eventually. This is one of the historical givens driven by the historical determinism of Marx. Therefore, they have probably planned for a collapse of their banking system just as a snake can plan on its skin shedding. An event that a nation plans for is rarely catastrophic for it in the long-run. This is especially true of an inherently powerful and great nation like China. Conversely, nation's prone to optimistic fantasy driven by the pop psychology of the "power of positive thinking" (the Americans) are susceptible to catastrophic shocks because their optimism, over time, becomes a disincentive to plan for less than pleasant historical eras.

The danger for the Fed's policy of both simultaneously keeping interest rates artificially low through bond purchases and devaluing the dollar through those same purchases is that this can only work, if at all, in the short run when no other economic inputs come into effect. The laws of economics show that as the dollar declines interest rates rise, or as the dollar increases in value interest rates decline. The Fed's policy wishes and fantasies run directly counter to this reality which will come to fruition over the long run. Somehow, at present, a double disaster is occuring for the Fed. That is, the value of the dollar is rising at the same time interest rates on the 10 years US bond are rising. This is the opposite of the Fed's intent. The problem is that other inputs are coming into play that are having unintended consequences (the bane of all economic "planning). The problem seems to be that the systemic European bank weakness is raising the value of the dollar faster than the Fed can lower it through bond purchases. At the same time, China's central banks are easing their buying of US bonds, but that is not collapsing the dollar yet because of crises elsewhere that are driving people to the dollar as a safe haven. However, the other effect of China's easing off the buying of US bonds IS happening; that is that US interest rates are rising quite rapidly.

This simultaneous strengthening of the dollar and rise in interest rates, if it continues for any significant period, is a witch's brew of disaster and financial collapse for the debt-burdened US economy. The Fed itself, over the long-term, could be in danger of insolvency and collapse.