As we approach 2012 we have, yet again, a cry that the end of the world is approaching. People believe that because the Mayan Calendar ends in 2012 it must signify the end of the world. The irony, not lost on me, is that these are the same people who believe the Bible is fiction. To sum up their beliefs, it is silly for people like me to believe in God and the Bible, but an ancient civilization calendar ends and that means the end of the world? Where is the science in that? As usual I digress.
The fact of the matter is that I believe we do have much to worry about. I don’t believe in end of the world scenarios, I have seen it play out at least twice before, the last of course being the Y2K nonsense. So what should we worry about? The United States is on a path that ends with loss of the freedoms provided by our constitution as well as a currency that soon enough could be utterly worthless.
For whatever reason the media in this country continues to spin the yarn that ‘we are on the road to recovery’ and the economy is ‘..picking up’. I submit to you that the things that have happened over the past few years are alarming and we need to wake the giant that only seems to have hit the snooze button on 911.
Most Americans are content with their lives, at least enough to put politics out of their minds the minute an election is settled. We long to return to our ‘reality’ television shows. We don’t want to burden ourselves with the problems our government is creating for us. Well this is your wake up call. Ignore it at your own peril.
In the 1930’s the worlds economy was in turmoil following WWI. Many nations used Quantitative Easing to finance war debts leaving, for the first time, the gold standard. Many people believe that the gold standard is a pillar of a free society in such that it prevented a government from debasing the currency. We have long been off of the gold standard, but it is important to mention this as our government continues to debase our currency with Quantitative Easing.
So as the media continue to spread the ‘gospel’ of recovery this is what we have seen:
The collapse of US automakers, the failure of our investment bank and the worlds largest mortgage firms (Fannie and Freddie) and the biggest insurance company (AIG). Housing markets have collapsed and the US Dollar is losing value faster than one can make it. If you doubt that the dollar is losing value, just look at the value of Gold and silver. Just look at the cost of gasoline, bread or milk. The other word for it is inflation. In addition I don’t think the effects of the quantitative easing has even hit yet. The December unemployment figures said that we went from 9.8 to 9.4 % unemployment and the media took it as a sign of recovery. I have two problems with this. 1. Since when is 9.4% unemployment acceptable in the United States of America? 2. It is a pretty small change and I believe it is caused by people who no longer qualify for unemployment (they used it all up) and are no longer being tracked by the Bureau of Labor statistics. For the last few years some pretty bad stuff has been happening. Most Americans have been cutting back, reducing their spending and what has our federal government been doing? Expanding. Health Care, green energy, bailing out failing companies and making sure CEO’s get paid, continuation of two wars now 10 years old. Iran and Korea are testing nukes, uprising in Egypt and on and on. Additionally, and here is the scary part, efforts are under way to limit the freedoms provided in the Constitution. “Anthony what do you mean?” I will tell you what I mean.
1. ‘The Fairness Doctrine’. Ever wonder why they give every bill such a sweet sounding name? Because in the press you would sound like a terrible person if you spoke out against fairness. There is nothing fair OR Free about the fairness doctrine. This is legislation aimed directly at conservative radio talk shows. Now even if you are a liberal and don’t care for talk radio, you must support free speech right? Shouldn’t everyone be afforded the ability to question publicly their government? That is what the First Amendment is all about. Obviously the founders felt pretty strongly about it since they made it the First Amendment.
2. Gun Control. Once again gun control is rearing its ugly head. The founders provided for a right to bear arms in order to protect ourselves from an oppressive government. If you understand history it is completely illogical to believe anything else.
“When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” – Thomas Jefferson
In order to declare our independence from the oppressive government of England, we needed to have guns. Incidentally I would be remiss if I did not mention that the first thing Hitler did when he came to power was to take away the peoples guns.
“This year will go down in history. For the first time a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will follow our lead into the future” – Adolf Hitler
3. Government run health care. It seems silly that anyone would want the same people who run the postal service, social security and the education system in America to run their health care but the point of this argument is freedom. If the government takes over your health care who can you appeal to? Currently if you have a problem with your health care you can either get a different insurance company or take your insurance company to court. If the government is in charge who will you appeal to? Supposedly they will ‘allow’ you to opt out. Even if they allow you to opt out, you still pay. Take a close look at your taxes. Your social security tax is now, in most cases, more than your state income tax and it is still not enough to cover the cost. (link to the debt clock below) Did you know that our honorable men and women in congress will not be participating in government run health care? Doesn’t that seem strange? If it is to be so great; why wouldn’t they participate? More importantly how can a body of people make a decision that big and have it not apply to them?
4. Fiscal responsibility. I believe that a cornerstone of freedom is a stable currency. Nothing we can do about the gold standard, it is long gone. However that doesn’t mean we can’t tell our representatives in DC that if they want to keep their jobs they need to show some fiscal responsibility. Our current total debt now exceeds $55 Trillion. That number is so big it is hard to wrap your head around, but consider this; our total GDP (Gross Domestic Product – in other words total income to the United States) is just over $14.5 Trillion. Our debt is more than three times our GDP! The deficit (the amount our debt increases each year) is $1.3 Trillion. As it stands now our debt will increase by 1.3 Trillion every year. The US unfunded liabilities (Social Security, Medicare and Prescription drug) is $112 Trillion. Because our government doesn’t have enough money to pay for these things, it must print money (AKA – Monetize the debt or Quantitative Easing). Every time they print money, the money in your wallet or purse is worth less than it was before they printed the money. Every action produces an equal and opposite reaction. You can’t just print money without consequence. They call it inflation. I call it larceny.
5. Internet Kill Switch. I can not believe that people are not up in arms about this one. This is the sort of thing of third world dictators, the Soviet Union and communist China. This is Iron Curtain stuff designed to control information. Of course they will say that it is for national security, and their intentions may well be good. But no matter their intentions, this will limit your access to information. This is another limit to our freedom.
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety” – Ben Franklin
So this is your wake-up call. Now is not the time to rest, now ia the time to take back our government. It is time to make our representatives represent us. They need to know we are watching them and they need to know that if they do not follow the will of the people we will vote them out of office at the next election. Now is not the time to be partisan. I don’t care what letter comes after your name I only care that sanity and honor is restored to Washington. Pay attention to what your representatives do. Talk about it with your friends and neighbors. Write, email and call your congressmen and women. Let them know that you don’t support these attacks on our freedoms and you won’t stand for it. Always remember they know you hold their pink slip and you may fire them at your convenience. To you and I the election may seem a long way off, but to our representatives in Washington, it is always on their mind. We are not here to do their bidding, they are there to do ours.
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