The primaries are coming, the primaries are coming.

"Is anybody out there?" -- Roger Waters

So, I've been so deeply disenchanted with the current Administration and the media's ongoing "War on my common sense" that I started to withdraw from caring about any of the issues that need addressing in this nation. Both the conservative and the liberal rhetoric is so extreme, that there's no way that any of it can be taken seriously. I'm not a fan of the current administration and their proclivity to sponsoring an ever larger centralized government, oh and laws that benefit corporations over the rights of the citizen, but I equally (if not just a touch more) dislike a bleeding heart, tree hugging, "feel your way through life" liberal.

Let's face it, at the end of the day they both want the same basic thing. BIG government(police force) to hold your hand(watch you like a hawk) until the day you die. They want you under control, and dependent on the government for your daily existence in at least one way.

Where's my personal liberty? Where's my right to screw up my life as much as I want until I start interfering with someone else's right to do the same? Where's my freedom? I have been certain that it finally died with the end of the Clinton administration. Not that President Clinton's administration was any great shakes, but at least I wasn't in a war (that wasn't a war) that was never declared as such by the legislative branch of the government. At least I wasn't living in a country that thought the Patriot Act (and the dissolving of the checks and balances, and wire-tapping, and labeling someone a combatant was enough to hold me for years with no charges, and habeas corpus can go to hell, and...) was okay because "If you have nothing to hide, then your fine".

I shouldn't have to prove my innocence, and I should be able to say the word bomb in an airport without being held for questioning for 36 months. I'm not saying it's okay to run down the concourse screaming the word, but if I'm in conversation and the word happens to come up, i.e. "I drank like ten Irish car bombs that night.." I shouldn't be worried that I'm going to be dry humped by my government. If you're overheard in this day and age someone will decide they want to be a good "citizen" and report it to some well trained TSA jerk...next thing you know it's Midnight Express, and my life is screwed. Over a bad anecdote! THAT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. Hyperbole? Yes! It's at least as bad as Brokedown Palace, though.

ANYWAY, the only reason I'm writing this now, is I've finally found someone from within the current system that I believe can change the system, or at least get the ship back on the right course.

If you don't have any idea who I'm talking about, Dr. Ron Paul is his name. Although Republican he may be, Dr. Paul is the closest thing to a Constitutionalist/Libertarian that you're going to get in the two party system. His platform makes sense if you believe that the government needs to get back to the basic ideals of our founding fathers. No candidate is perfect, but this man is the closest thing I've seen to a true conservative in my entire voting life. He's a true Republican, and I think in a somewhat fractured GOP, he has a real shot if the conservatives who don't support the current administration (the so called neo-cons) will get in there and vote. People are starting to notice Dr. Paul's campaign and what started as a grassroots type effort has become a real concern for the other Republican candidates.

Am I late to the Ron Paul party? Maybe a little, but I'm right on time for the election. That's the good news right there. Anyone who's read anything I've written (yes, you two) knows it's a good thing that I live in a state where political party registration is unnecessary, as I think the two party system has lived it's out it's useful life. With that said, this may be the best shot to change the system a little from within.

If you don't know about his campaign, or his platform visit his site. It's free and informative. That should appeal to you Socialists.

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/

Goodbye Constitution of the US. You served us well.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070717-3.html?1

I now am fully convinced that the "War on Terror" is a tool to keep us in a "State of Emergency". I mean terrorists have NEVER had the capability of hijacking airplanes before 2001 and the George W. Bush administration.

We have lost so many small, but important rights in the past seven years. Now the big guns are coming out. We the people are unimportant at this juncture. That's what we get for a few decades of reliance on the government tit, and (paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson) not tending to our freedoms.

I'll leave you with a few quotes from people who saw this coming a long time before anyone reading this was born:

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin_Franklin

"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves." - Bertrand_de_Jouvenel

How's that?

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/protests%20come%20early%20to%20disneys%20princess_1030749

It seems that even when someone is trying to exercise their politically correct bestness, someone somewhere is going to get all pissy. Now Disney pictures can't call a movie "The Frog Princess" because it might offend the French? The French can bite me. In all likelihood they're going to get offended at something American anyway. Our kids shouldn't get a decent animated flick out if it? How about we call the movie, "The Cheese loving, capitulating, surrender loving princess", that should get their goat. Christ on a crutch why is everyone so sensitive.

Then because the heroine of the movie is going to the first black princess, they can't call her Maddy (which I assume is short for Madeline, or some other name no one uses anymore) because....get this now.....it might be construed as being close to resembling Mammy. Here I thought that Disney having an African American princess would be a good thing that everyone could agree on. Can't be good because it "might be construed" as "close to resembling" something that if you change the spelling, and infer some secret plot to subliminally undermine an entire segment of the American population would be a slap in the face to people.

It's gotten so bad that we have to police ourselves for things that aren't offensive, but may be if someone can't spell so good.

Wow. Just wow. Where's the bar?

Wait... I'm of Irish/Scottish ancestry...I think I just offended myself.

Atlas is beginning his shrug

http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/01/news/international/bc.venezuela.nationalization.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes


So Chavez is privatizing everything he can get his hands on. Of course, he's doing it "for the people". I suppose there's no gain in it for him or his party at all is there? Isn't that how Castro started? Isn't that how the Socialist Republic of Russia started, or the Communist Party of China started? Bolivia? Peru? This should be more familiar [read: CLEAR WARNING] to people in Central and South America than to anyone else. Has it ever worked? EVER? This is the moment we'll be able to look back on and say, "That's when".

I'm aware poverty and difficult living conditions are hard to swallow, especially for an extended period of time. I also realize that sometimes it takes extreme measures to pull a country out of a deep hole. [The New Deal springs to mind. That was thisclose to Socialism, and we're still paying for that little project in some ways.] However, the answer cannot be to have everyone live off the backs of those who are producing. There has to be some level of personal responsibility and reward. At least in a free market there are reasons for people to have ambition. That doesn't happen when someone knows that no matter how hard they work, they get the same as everyone else. YAY socialism!!

This lack of ambition will turn most into drones. The ones it pisses off will look for away to get over. This will lead to two classes. The ruling party and everyone else. Say what you will about socialism and it's model, there will be a ruling party. There's simply no utopia where we can all join hands and live on the commune. People need leaders. Leaders will see themselves as entitled to more than the "common man". Inevitably that leads to a ruling class. It can be a singular entity; be it a dictator, or a monarch or an emperor, or it can be as it is in China or the former Soviet Republic where the party became the old boys network.

Pure socialism is just as pie in the sky as pure Democracy. The only place either of these ideals would hold up is a place where the population is small and easily controlled. Call me crazy, but the evils of a Republic Democracy aren't as vile as the evils of socialism turned to communism anywhere. I mean honestly, who doesn't want their voice heard? Only the apathetic, or the robots.

Read the book...Atlas Shrugged. It seems almost a road map. It's gonna be a bumpy ride

No. This is not freedom

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003681580_essay26.html

How can you arrest an 18 year old for writing an assignment?  They arrested this young man because his paper made the teacher uncomfortable!  This is what a politically correct, over reactionary, police state will harvest.  This is what the seeds of "Let's not offend anyone ever" will grow.  This is the path we've been set upon for at least a decade.  Keep in mind this is a CREATIVE WRITING class.  I sure hope nothing in my blogs ever offends or disturbs anyone.  I could be arrested for it.  The thought police are a reality.  Fascist bastards.

Did anyone else hear that?  It was the sound of the Constitution being erased, and burned.  That noise you'll hear next is the forefathers rolling over in their graves to cry.

"Let's ban 'em".

I was reading an article in a New Hampshire regional newspaper (their
on-line edition) about a small airplane that had to make an emergency
landing on a golf course.  You know how you can post comments about stories on a lot of newspaper sites now?  Well this site had the ability, and there was one response... this response was so ludicrous I HAD to respond.  I mean register on the site and everything.  It was maddening in it's absolute lack of thought and rationality. Keep in mind that the story ends as well as could ever be hoped for, with the pilot landing with no damage to the plane, or anyone.

I give you this:
"It seems that every day now I read about some small airplane crashing
somewhere. This one ended safely by[sic] it would be a different story if
someone had been hit. I really don't understand why people are allowed to
fly these deathtraps anymore. The danger is not acceptable in the post-9/11
world. The sooner we ban them, the safer we'll be"

Christ. on. a. crutch.

And my reply:
Banning small aircraft because of a few equipment failures would be like
banning automobiles for one fatal traffic accident.  If you looked at the
number of flights vs. the number of accidents, it's the stellar safety
records which makes an incident so newsworthy.
Also your reference to 9/11 was absolutely ridiculous.  HIJACKED commercial
airliners were the cause of those horrible events not equipment failure.
Are you keen to take away another freedom from Americans?  Live free or die
indeed*.

Am I wrong?

*In case you weren't aware, "Live Free or Die" is New Hampshire's state motto, and they take it very, VERY seriously.  

Wow. Mr. Buchanan making a rational, reasonable argument.

I generally do not agree with Mr. Buchanan. He has a tendency to let his very narrow vision of things slant his views very heavily. I guess we all do, but he's an abrasive tool about it. This however, I agree with.

Link obtained from http://www.drudgereport.com