Stop Your Lying!

 

By William L. Garvin

 

“Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.”  We are currently seeing the American dream become an American nightmare.

For a prime example, look at our leadership in Washington, D.C.  First of all, they lurch from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis like an alcoholic on a cheap whiskey bender stumbling from lamppost to lamppost.  Grasping their temporary support, they pause long enough for inebriation to temporarily subside only to lurch forward in their stumble bum gait to the next temporary respite.  When confronted for their irresponsible behavior, they first deny having had more than one drink.  Then they concoct a fantasy that the world faces impending doom without them being allowed to proceed along their sotted way.  Finally, they blame the bartender for having built a bar where they were served alcohol.  Apparently one thing they will never admit is the truth—they are economic drunks about to reach a certain disastrous end.

Naturally, the current discussion about sequestration epitomizes the model for lying.  You see, one side (which includes ABC news) says that there are no actual cuts in sequestration.  In fact, the government will spend more this year than they did last year even AFTER sequestration occurs.  In fact, the government will spend more each and every year than they did the year before until 2020 UNDER sequestration.  All this artificial device does is slow the rate of increase.

Of course the other side says that times will immediately become apocalyptic.  Police, firefighters, and other emergency responders will lose their jobs.  Thousands of teachers will be turned out of the classroom.  Planes won’t be falling from the sky but it will take you hours longer to get on them.  Our military will be decimated and national security will be compromised.  Plagues and locusts are soon to follow!  Naturally, the President blames the Republicans.  However, even Bob Woodward and the New York Times point out that sequestration was a White House proposal (thank you, Jack Lew) and was signed into law by Barack Obama.

So who is the biggest liar?  One thing to immediately note is that the federal government has only a minor role in paying the salaries of teachers, police officers and firefighters.  Those costs are borne by local governments which by law have to balance their budgets.  Many state and local employees have not only foregone pay raises but have also taken pay cuts, much like their private sector counterparts.  Not so the federal government payroll.  Not so the congress or their staffs.  They continue merrily along their tipsy way.  With fiscal Armageddon less than a week away, the President jets off to Florida to play golf and the Congress goes on vacation!  To paraphrase Ricky Ricardo, “D.C., you got some ‘splaining to do!”

Then there’s the whole gun control debate.  When the administration and its media propaganda arm want to terrorize the low information voter, the nom de plume is “military style assault rifles.”  However, when the Department of Homeland Security wishes to purchase 7,000 rifles which use NATO ammunition and are suitable for “personal defense use in close quarters,” the assault rifle magically morphs into “personal defense weapons” or PDW’s.  This newly coined pseudonym also requires thirty-round magazines and is “select fire,” read FULLY AUTOMATIC.   In addition, DHS is also requesting another twenty million “hollow point” bullets to go along with the 1.6 BILLION bullets it has acquired over the last ten months!  Additionally, the President has signed legislation to allow the use of drones in the United States.  Some estimates predict as many as 30,000 drones will be in use domestically in the next ten years.

Ben Franklin once said, “Never trust a government that doesn’t trust its own citizens with guns.”  He probably was part of a conversation with Thomas Jefferson who said, “The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”  Further founding father wisdom came from George Washington who noted, “A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.”

If your home is broken into and you are in danger of being robbed, raped, beaten or murdered, you can follow Joe Biden’s advice and “go out on the balcony” and fire both barrels of your only weapon, a shotgun, into the air.  This is wrong on so many levels.  You could also follow the advice of Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin.  It’s your choice, America…for now.

Our American Monarchy

By William L. Garvin

This isn't about the current resident of the White House who laments that he's only the President of the United States, not the "Emperor of the United States."  It isn't about the supposed Constitutional scholar who boasts "If Congress doesn't act, I will" and threatens that he will write a bill and Congress will have to vote on it.  It isn't about the fact that he unilaterally defines laws as unconstitutional and orders the Department of Justice to refuse to defend them as he did with the Defense of Marriage Act.

This isn't about him promising to "work tirelessly" until every American had a job then dashing off to Florida to play golf with Tiger Woods on a private course closed to even the press.  It isn't about his $1,000 per hour golf lessons while his wife spirits off on another multi-million dollar ski trip in Aspen.  It isn't about the nouveau riche jet setting that exceeds the travel budget of Britain's royal family and would have made the Gatsby's jealous.  After all, four years from now, they will have packed their bags and moved on.  Metaphorically speaking:  "The King is dead; long live the King."

No, this is about the permanent aristocracy, the Congress.  Presidents come and presidents go but "the institution" retains its members as if they had a lifetime employment contract.  Maybe it's because they do.  Despite having only an eighteen percent current approval rating, there is little danger of being fired.  Over the last century, ninety percent of incumbents were reelected.  In 2004, for example, 396 of the 401 House of Representative incumbents running for reelection succeeded.  In the Senate, 25 of the 26 incumbents won their races.  It's probably just coincidental, but that year incumbents in the House outspent their challengers by an average of $700,000.  In the Senate, challengers were down by $4 million dollars in the money ball game.  With the additional advantage of visibility and the subsequent name recognition, along with taxpayer funded staff and organization, the King may be dead but the King's Court is alive.  It doesn't matter if you're a convicted liar, thief, tax cheat, or mentally unstable, you can and probably will be reelected.

With that in mind, the permanent ruling class feels "entitled" to confer special privileges upon itself.  It lavishes health benefits and retirement perks upon itself that the serfs, the peasants, the workers, the taxpaying citizens can never afford.  It profits on insider knowledge which results in the accumulation of wealth that far exceeds the salaries that they earn on the books.  Their cozy relationships with lobbyists often result in sinecures on boards and corporations should they ever be voted out or choose to retire from the government gravy train.  They also exclude themselves from the laws they foist upon the country class, the little people, those they think need Big Government to assist them in every aspect of their daily lives.  In reality, they act in an antithetical manner to the self-anointed noblesse oblige they affect on stage.

Naturally, the aristocracy needs a herald to incessantly proclaim honorable motives to their continual meddling (and their failures!) and to cover up the continuing expansion of their power and their kingdom.  That is the designated role of elite education and elite media.  Move along, nothing to see in "Fast and Furious."  Move along, nothing to see in Benghazi.  Don't worry about the Muslim Brotherhood ruling Egypt or Iran gaining nuclear weapons.  Move along, there will never be a negative impact from "quantitative easing" and the Fed pumping $40 billion each month of freshly printed money into the economy.  Never forget that Fox News, talk radio, the Tea Party and conservative principles are likely to be the ruin of America.  Don't worry about national debt, trillion dollar deficits, unemployment numbers, everything is just peachy keen!   "Don't think twice, it's alright."

The court wouldn't be complete without the jester, aka "the fool."  That is the low information voter who is incapable of separating fact from fiction.  They are the voters who are completely ignorant of government processes, our American history, the rule of law, personal responsibility, limited government and basic economics.  The traditional liberal education in arts, science and the humanities has morphed into an expensive, unemployable, progressive propaganda brainwashing.  Increasingly reliant on government, the low information voters will soon outnumber the voters who work and pay taxes.  The tipping point in America may soon result in a permanent American monarchy.    

The Demise and Death of Respect

By William L. Garvin

Several events have occurred recently to signal that respect is no longer a core cultural value in the United States.  First, the New York school system has decided that it will no longer suspend students for cussing out a teacher.  Then an eighteen-year old reprobate curses at her judge, flips him off and then seems genuinely shocked when he takes offense and gives her even more jail time. 

On a more serious level, convicted double-murderer Nathan Burris mocked his death penalty sentence.  “I cannot or will not express remorse or regret—it’s not gonna happen,” Burris taunted.  “I’m in California, and there ain’t no death penalty in California.  The way I see it, I have good 25-30 years left before anything happens.”  Burris murdered his ex-girlfriend (who had broken up with him) and a man he suspected was now involved with her.  As far as Burris is concerned, he’s got “three hots and a cot” for the rest of his life.

Taking personal vengeance to an even more disgusting level is ex-cop Christopher Dorner.  After being fired from his job, after exhausting all his due process, all his administrative and judicial appeals and still being found guilty, he was unable to get on with his life.  Instead, he swore vengeance not only against the Los Angeles Police Department but also against members of their families.  True to his malevolent threat, he murdered the daughter of the LAPD captain who defended him against the charges resulting in his termination.  Dorner also killed the young woman’s fiancé and later, ambushed and killed a police officer in another city.

Curiously and morbidly, the internet is abuzz with defenders of all three individuals.  Some actually see Dorner’s murderous rampage as some sort of legitimate crusade against oppression.  They view the monomaniacal ramblings he posted on Face book as some sort of “manifesto” of political significance.  None of this bodes well for society.

Maybe it’s because of a degraded culture that has become all too acclimated to lying and law breaking with no substantial consequences.  Presidential prevaricators abound.  President Nixon was not a crook and President Clinton did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.  President Obama blamed Benghazi on a non-existent demonstration and video and shoots shotguns “all the time.”  Television edits and alters their videos to totally distort the content in order to further their assumptive biases.  Television pundits went to extreme lengths to tie the Aurora shooter and the Giffords shooter to non-existent conservative sources.  However, they don’t even mention Dorner’s glowing paeans to liberal politicians and progressive commentators and political voices.  Political campaigns saturate the airwaves and mailboxes with deliberate falsehoods and half truths.  They feel free to demonize anyone who gets in their way if it will score a cheap political point.

Maybe it’s because they see bankers earn millions while their clients lose more and nothing happens.  Maybe they see politicians criticize Wall Street on one hand and take their cash with the other.  Maybe they see Al Gore make millions selling his television station to oil money and al Jazeera and the hypocrisy nary makes a ripple.  Maybe they’ve gotten used to millions of law breakers coming across the borders and the government doing nothing about it.

Maybe it’s because they’ve grown up being told how special they are and how they should be extremely proud of whom they are even though they’ve never accomplished anything of any special significance.  Maybe their self-esteem has exploded into such full blown narcissism that they think they are smarter, better, and more deserving than anyone else.  Accordingly, they don’t need the normal restrictions of society, laws, or the legal system or see the laws as pertaining to them.  Maybe they somehow feel that they are entitled to be judge, jury and executioner.  Maybe they think they too should have the president’s drone policy.