I little late but still applicable
I know this is a little late but I wanted to make a connection to Reagans comments on socialized medicine. In 1961 Ronald Reagan made a speeach regarding the pitfalls of moving towards universal health care. He was 100% correct then and still correct today. Listen to the speech and you’ll see the path that Obamas healthcare plan will take us.
Follow up regarding our childrens indoctrination…
This is a follow-up post regarding my comments on House Resolution (as I was so rightly corrected) 1388. Thank you Glenn Beck for continuing to report on the Liberal’s insidious efforts to undermine the traditional conservative values this country was founded on.
Replacement for the New York Times
As newspapers across the country continue to fail, in my area we are seeing an upsurge in local papers. These news services offer local commentary on national news stories that is both poignant and well written but also gives a point of view that is probably the most main stream you’ll find. Check out the Buffalo Gap Round Up and you’ll see what I’m talking about. So if you’re tired of reading a newspaper that doesn’t reflect your point of view, check out your local news papers, most likely you’ll find that your neighbor sees the world just as you do.
Liberty versus Freedom
A lot has been said about liberty and freedom recently, especially since the inauguration and this régimes ever expanding government. Most people have a rudimentary understanding of these two terms but to my knowledge no one has looked at both of them together and how they interact to create the core beliefs of what our country stands for.
Thomas Paine authored what some believe is the foundation of the government of the United States when he wrote the pamphlet “Common Sense.” Early in this writing he outlines how he believes society develops to need a system of government and how all people start out free and equal. As the population grows, the need to have a larger government replaces the basic one and eventually evolves into what we know today. The people at first start out with equal and individual voices in the government but as things evolve eventually this becomes impractical and is replaced by the representative system. Of course human history obviously doesn’t make direct connections from the prehistoric tribal system to the modern democracies of today, instead it’s an evolutionary path paved with the oppressed populations of our past. We got here not because people said “Hey that sounds good, let’s try that” but by countless trial and error attempts to find a system of government where the people are happy, productive, and safe. Each of these three traits are key concepts to how freedom and liberty tie together to enable our representative style of government to not only be successful but become the reason our country is so great.
Freedom in its simplest terms means to be able to do anything you want. You have the freedom to go anywhere do anything, not bound by any restrictions. To be truly free means you are not hampered in the least but we all know this is not so. Friction and gravity are limitations to physical freedom to some degree; it restricts our motion, tires us when we exert ourselves, and holds us to this planet. These are examples to oppression of freedom that we have no control over yet live with every day. Basic human freedoms such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are freedoms we do have control over. Every human is born to this world with these freedoms but it is Man that restricts them creating the antithesis to freedom; oppression. Of course this isn’t the case with everyone but to some degree we are all limited in some way or another. After all, we can’t just go out and murder someone just because we want to. Society puts limits on true freedom; these limits are what we call liberty.
When we in the United States talk about liberty what we’re talking about is freedom limited by societal norms to create a harmonious environment for all its citizens. We create laws to protect us and regulations to set standards all in the pursuit of as much freedom as possible without infringing on the freedoms of others. As in the murder example from earlier; if I kill someone I put upon them the ultimate limitation to freedom, society is what says this is an unacceptable practice. We use morals and common sense to delicately restrict the population so they can grow and expand and yet do it without stepping on each other’s toes. When Patrick Henry uttered the battle cry “Give me liberty or give me death” to the Virginia Convention of 1775, he wasn’t saying to give us all unlimited freedom, but to give us a society so Americans can govern themselves. He recognized that true freedom equal anarchy and that society would perish under that scenario. The liberty he was describing allows for the people of a land to establish a government which provides for the security and protection of our human rights. A government which positively limits freedom just enough so society stays on a moral and positive path. Too many limits or a limit not embraced by the population however leads to oppression, so the balance is a delicate one at best.
As you can see freedom and liberty go hand in hand to create the happiness, productivity, and security we love in our country. There is no place anywhere in the universe that offers true freedom since the laws of nature oppress us all in some way or another. Human society has learned to restrict human freedom beyond the natural restrictions so that we can all live together. In the past those restrictions are so great that the population stopped being happy, productive, and safe to some point and people suffered. We have evolved to a point to know what can and can’t be restricted so that all three of those core ideas are balance with the morals society decides is positive. I have always said that the main reason we have religions is to define what good behavior from what is bad is. These teachings become the basis for our laws and how they limit ultimate freedom so society remains on the “good” side of morals. Of course there have been those wayward cultures that decide twist morality so evil is redefined as good such as Nazi Germany and Communism, but good normally prevails and places correction to prevent them from recurring. In some cases these little corrections further restrict our freedoms but this is how society tweaks our liberty just enough to allow for growth in society while maintaining order. This is what liberty is, small limitations to freedom based on the moral beliefs of society.
As you look at what’s happening in the world today, watch for increases in these limitations. We have seen a recent upsurge in the limitations to our freedoms which are reaching a tipping point for our society. Many people look at politics as a pendulum swinging between the core beliefs of limited government and an overly oppressive one. Somewhere in the middle is the level of liberty we desire while the tips of the pendulum swing come very close to anarchy and totalitarianism. It’s liberty that we most desire though. Our liberty provides us with the security blanket we so need and yet ensures the freedoms our humanity requires. This is what truly makes us happy but the balance is very tenuous at best. Do we want to continue to lose freedom like we’re seeing? Is our liberty so ill defined that we can’t see what we’re losing? History is replete with examples of an over reaching government who’s mass engulfs the freedom of its population to a point of revolt. Yet in almost every case the governments stand was that it was creating these limits to human freedom for the betterment of its people. Look at the concepts of Communism. They limit their people’s freedom to a point that they take everything from them and dole out only what the government decides is what they need. They have no freedom to pursue a better lifestyle because if they do it will only be taken away from them so the government can give it to who they decide has a greater need. This form of government squelches the basic human desire of self improvement by oppressing the ability to better ones self. Look at almost any dictatorial or totalitarian style of government and you will see the same problem. But the other side isn’t any better.
When there were very small pockets of government surrounded by massive frontiers of anarchy, people lived on the fringes and experienced almost total freedom. Look at the frontier era in the 18th century and you will find examples of how human vices taking over individuals who had no moral center. Alone in the wilderness they lost their desire to adhere to the moral standards of society and became wild men living on their own, little more than savages. Most of the time this happens when desperation and survival instincts overcome a group of people with a massive cataclysmic outside influence thrust upon them. A great example of this is the Donner parties attempt to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains and becoming trapped by massive blizzards. Hunger, starvation, and isolation created the perfect environment to force the group into cannibalism just to survive. The madness that ensued due to this group’s deviation from established morals had long standing affects on the region and the country. The group’s abandonment of their morals led to their path to anarchism and almost all of them died because of it. Of course this example is an extreme but it does show that without some restrictions humans can revert to the savages that true anarchism defines.
What is our course now however? Are we going to allow the pendulum to swing all the way to the totalitarianism side as its heading? What is our society’s breaking point when it comes to allowing government to limit our freedoms? How small are we going to allow our liberty to shrink before we stand up and put a stop to things? Each and every one of us owes it to ourselves and our country to find the answers to these questions in our hearts so that we know what our breaking point is. As our pendulum approaches its apex, we need to know when to put into affect the balances so that we don’t break that plain and destroy the democracy we enjoy. This is how liberty and freedom intertwine themselves into each other to ensure our happiness, our productivity, and our security. These are the core beliefs of our country and something we should all hold dear.
Chicago Tea Party??
Here’s a nice CNBC video showing the frustration of the people about all these bailouts and throwing money at failed practices. I think the interviewers got a little more than they planned on.
Schumer’s World – The American People Don’t Care
Wow, sometimes this stuff writes itself. I think I know what Senator Schumer is talking about here but I think his statement is a little too broad. Sure some people don’t care what he does, after all, he is an elected official. The folks that really don’t care are the people who put him into office, the rest of us… well lets just say that thankfully the good Senator from New York doesn’t speak for everyone. There is a group of Senators and Congressmen in Washington who actually believe things like this and for some they’re right; some people don’t really care what they do. Those people are the uninformed, the unintelligent, and for the most part clueless as to what is right in the world. You all know who I’m talking about… we call them Liberals. That all encompassing umbrella word that categorizes those who think that Washington doesn’t do enough to control our lives, that think Washington is the “Holy See” of environmentalism, and that the United States is the ultimate doom to human existence. These people don’t care what Mr. Schumer does or how much he lines his pockets with our tax dollars as he’s doing it. You know the type; the ones that protest our response to an enemy that attacked us, the ones that feel that just because they’ve been in a movie they’re intelligent, the ones that sit in their air conditioned private jets gallivanting around the globe to promote some “cause” all the while telling us to only use one piece of toilet paper. Yes Senator Schumer some people in the country don’t care what you do but they are the MORONs of the country! As for the rest of us, we do care. Don’t include me in your constituents of idiots who elected you to that office.
Do you folks not see the real problem in Washington? It’s people like Senator Schumer that don’t give a damn how much money they spend nor do they care where it came from. They could care less how much sweat equity you put into every tax dollar, all they want to do is spend it on some “special project” so they can be re-elected. These people are drunk with the power they have surrounded themselves with and have lost touch with the roots of their position. The don’t care what you think and have the audacity to tell you that you don’t care either. If there was ever an argument for term limits Senator Schumer is it. His total disregard for the people who elected him is a travesty. He was elected into a position of responsibility; as a steward for our money, and he has squandered it. To the folks in New York, don’t wait for the next election year, do a recall and get that idiot out of office, in other words show Mr Schumer how much you do care.