We are constantly being told that forcing people to buy health insurance with the threat of fine or imprisonment is just as harmless as requiring drivers to purchase auto insurance.  The analogy is comparing apples to kumquats and fails on several counts:
The requirement for auto liability insurance is a state mandate.  The states may impose such a mandate in accordance with the 10th Amendment of the Constitution.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

That the states can require liability insurance says nothing about the federal government’s ability to make any similar requirement.  In fact, the states’ ability to do so implies that the requirement is not a legitimate power of the federal government, having been delegated to the states.  Proponents of forced insurance coverage should be arguing the opposite, that the states have no right to mandate insurance since, as they say, it is a power of the federal government.
The Constitution is a relatively concise, easy-to-understand document.  Unlike the 1000+ page bills in Congress, the Constitution does not require a team of lawyers to understand what it says.  It says the federal government does not have any such power.
The auto insurance requirement is for liability insurance, to insure against any actions of an individual which may harm others.  This is the novel idea of holding people responsible for their own actions, not analogous to health insurance covering only the individual himself.
The liability insurance requirement is for an optional activity (driving a car).  If one wants to drive, one has to have liability insurance.  Mandated health insurance is not for an optional activity (if one wants to live).  It is no less than a tax on living itself!
Both Nancy Pelosi and President Obama argue that forcing people to buy health insurance is needed to prevent people from “gaming the system,” ultimately forcing others to pay their bills since they are uninsured.  Huh?  What do you call all the millions of people who will be getting others to pay for their insurance under the new plan.  They aren’t “gaming the system?”  What “system” will there be to “game” anyway if this law isn’t passed?
The argument continues that those with insurance coverage are already paying for the uninsured.  The proposed solution goes something like this:
Presently, the hospital bills of millions of uninsured are paid for by others.
Therefore a very complex law with a huge new government bureaucracy will be passed so that…
the hospital bills of millions of insured will be paid for by others.

MY PLEDGE

I pledge:

• I will not pay for government-mandated health insurance.
• I will not accept government (some else’s) money to buy mandated health insurance.
• I will not pay any fine levied on me for refusing to pay.
• I will oppose any attempt to extract a fine from me by force.
• I will oppose this use of force by my own government against me by all peaceful means at my disposal.

These I do solemnly swear.Who will join me in this pledge?

Gary Horne
Wentzville, Missouri
November 10, 2009

This will go to all those representing me in Congress, even in the house where another vote would be required should the Senate join this madness.  If Congress understands the resistance that will come as a result of such a bill, they may have second thoughts.

President Obama recently tried to make the case that it was a moral obligation to support his health care ideas.
Pardon me, Mr. President. If you want to pay someone else’s medical bills, be my guest. If you propose to put a box on tax returns to be checked for a voluntary contribution, that’s fine, but that is not what you are proposing.
You want to force all of us to be “our brother’s keeper.” That, Sir, is not Christian!  What Christian principle do you think allows taking from another under threat of force? You tried to use one of the Ten Commandments against your opponents, but seem to have overlooked some others. One of the Ten Commandments is “Thou shalt not steal,” which, by the way, applies to politicians and community organizers. Another is, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house.”
You want the minister to send the sheriff down the road to tell the neighbors that, if they want to stay out of jail, they have to pay for Brother John’s appendectomy. Christianity does not advocate theft or the use of force. Once you try to force others, you have left Christian County and crossed over into Marx County.
I hope you enjoy your stay there. Most Americans don’t care much for the place.

Unfortunately, Senator McCaskill “represents” me in the Senate.  The following is my response to her canned response to me.

I appreciate your response to my letter about Cap and Trade.  However, the response did not address any of my concerns, seemingly a canned piece.
I have an engineering degree and know science when I see it.  Global Warming is not.
I have researched the issue, which, judging from your response, you have not.

1.  There is NOT a consensus on the issue.  There are thousands of scientists who disagree.

2.   The model used to predict warming was constructed by throwing out data from earlier periods which did not fit.  Such a model should never have been taken seriously by any ethical scientist.  I can make a model to predict anything you want if you let me throw out what doesn’t fit!

3.  Recent data contradicts the model.  See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/5955955/Weather-records-are-a-state-secret.html

4.  Such legislation is economic suicide since nations like China and India are not going to do it.

5.  The real agenda behind Cap and Trade is under-the-table taxation and drastically increased government control.

I suggest you do two things:

a) Research the issue and think for yourself.

b) Listen to your constituents.

Gary Horne

I’m sure this will anger some, but I am fed up with all the attention to Michael Jackson.  The guy sang like a shrill little girl and talked more like Mickey Mouse than a real person.  Here was a man(?) who liked to sleep with little boys and whose skin mysteriously turned white.  A man apparently addicted to prescription drugs which may have led to his death.  Now I don’t like to speak ill of someone who died but my beef is with the media and all the adoring fans who seem to believe this was some kind of great man who left us. What does this say about the state of our culture?   Please spare me.  My TV will NOT be tuned to the funeral.

My father ran a barbershop on Main Street for more than forty years, known to many in Piedmont who enjoyed a talk about politics or a good joke while getting a trim.  Dad was a man of iron will and integrity who ran his life his way and thought for himself.  His sister Louise said, “Like our father he was truly an individualist.”  He taught himself how to repair small appliances, watches, radios, and TVs.  His opinions were his own, not parroted from someone else.

Dad would never let anyone else win an argument.  After college, I went to California where I spent most of my life, often working overseas.  I wasn’t a very good son, but I came to love and respect my father greatly in later years.  Visits home were especially enjoyable for the subtle humor of my parents, things you would have to think for a second before realizing what it meant.  At my father’s funeral, the operator of the funeral home, who knew Dad, had managed to put an expression on Dad’s face that reflected him perfectly.  One I used to see often, a sly smile that seemed to say he knew a secret no one else was going to find out.   I struggled for many years to find what I believed in.  I could have avoided a lot of mistakes had I just listened to my father when I was young, much of what came to be my philosophy of life was the same as his.  Sadly, much of what I now would like to tell him, I never did in the “living years.”

I would say the hallmarks of my father’s philosophy were, independent thought, self-reliance, respect for reality, integrity, and respect for others (when deserved).

I used to have a friend in California who seemed to always have an informed opinion about everything.  After listening to him carefully, I realized that it was just what he had read in the latest news magazine, even down to the phrasing of the sentences.  Not my father!  He arrived at his own opinions.  If it was difficult to argue with him, it was because he had thought about the issue already, and could back up his arguments.  I think he understood if you don’t think for yourself, you are destined to be a slave to someone else.

I think the most abhorrent concept for my parents was to accept a handout, I honestly believe they would have starved rather than live off someone’s charity.  They made it through the Depression, and provided for the family by their own labor, on their own terms, despite never having the training or opportunity to have a “safe” job with a big company.  My father believed firmly in the value and virtue of hard work and self-reliance, starting me out shining shoes in his shop when I was about 11.

While my mother would often cringe at what she saw on the nightly news, my father knew this was the real world.  He had no illusions that one could create a Garden of Eden from a pig farm.  He knew some people were cruel, some lazy, some ruthless and not to be trusted.  He could spot bull at a distance, and felt free to call it that no matter who the source.  He knew if you tried to fake or deny reality, you would get fleeced.

I think one of the finest things about my father was his integrity.  What he believed in was a rock from which he operated, and I never saw him waiver from standing on that rock.  His values determined how he should act and respond to others, something we should all do.  He was not always happy with what people did and he wasn’t always liked for taking a stand, but take a stand he would.

My father was always respectful to people unless they demonstrated to him that they didn’t deserve it.  When he sold his mother’s home after her death, he gave the buyer a no-down, no-interest, affordable monthly payment arrangement because he felt the buyer was an honest man.  Dad would gladly pay a little more to buy something from someone he knew and trusted, rather that trying to get the best deal at some unknown business.  If someone came into the shop that Dad didn’t especially like, he would be courteous but not engage the person much until he left, then Dad would feel free to be bluntly honest.

My dad’s character and values are worthy of consideration by anyone seeking to clarify their own philosophy of life, something sorely lacking by many in my generation.  I hope something from him will live on to help us on our way.
Thanks Dad

To the Honorable Ronald Wilson Reagan

Dear Mr. President,

I never met you, but it would have been a distinct honor to have shaken your hand.  As I watched your funeral procession, tears came to my eyes, along with millions of your fellow Americans.  To the extent that our country is that “Shining City on the Hill,” you, Sir, relit the lantern.  Sadly, the wheel has turned, and you are no longer with us.

From where you rest, it is well you cannot see what has happened to us.  The country, I fear, has made a hard left turn onto the road to tyranny.  The Democratic Party, which left you, has now left a lot more of us, and has begun to abandon the principles of our founding.  Yet this party today controls the Congress, which has become the most radical, corrupt, arrogant, and mean-spirited in my long memory. This Congress seems intent on dictating every aspect of our daily lives, as if the Constitution gave them unlimited powers.  I choose not to say what I really think of them, the words would not be fit for this letter.

The major media today (with some notable exceptions) have become little more than a propaganda arm of the state.  For the most part, unbiased reporting has to been found in the British press or, ironically, in the English Edition of Pravda.  The American media put its substantial wind behind the sails of the most radical and least qualified candidate for President in history, a man with a list of questionable associations as long as Paul Bunyan’s arm.  He now sits in the oval office.

This President’s foreign policy is based on pandering and apology, in contrast to yours of strength and speaking the truth, evidenced by your remarkable speech before the British Parliament in 1982.  In that speech, you said:

If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly.

This line has clearly not been read or comprehended by the policymakers today, whose approach to dealing with enemies would be more correctly described as Chamberlainesque

As if years of government overspending were not enough, Congress and the President now propose grotesque increases in spending and levels of debt which may exceed the ability of any future generation to repay, and which threaten the very creditworthiness of the United States.   California, where you spent much of your life, and loved to ride on your ranch, has spent itself to the edge of bankruptcy.

The civility which existed in your time has gone.  For those in power today and their allies in the media, no smear is too ugly, no trick too underhanded, no lie too audacious, and no twisted distortion of language too outrageous. 

There are many of us who resist.  The memory of your optimistic smile, honesty, character, and integrity help us to carry on.  If we keep those values with us, I am sure we will not fail.

With my most sincere respect,

Gary H. Horne

The storm clouds of liberal taxation are once more looming on the horizon.  In spite of Joe Biden’s reassurance that it is patriotic to pay even more, it’s time for some straight talk.  What does it mean to “pay taxes?”  According to my little Webster’s New World Dictionary (2003), the word “tax” is defined as:

a compulsory payment of a percentage of income, property value, etc. for the support of a government.

I would take “support of a government” to mean paying for the operations of government (like salaries, buildings, operations costs, etc).  I am fine with that. The government is entitled to bill me for costs of operating.  After all, they work for me, or at least they are supposed to.

In the same dictionary, the word “pay” is defined as:

1.    to give to (a person) what is due, as for goods or services  2. to give (what is due) in return, as for goods or services.

My wife loves to have trees and plants on our property, so we ordered some from the nursery.  Everything was delivered and the trees planted.  I paid the bill…. End of story.  This was a voluntary agreement freely entered into, goods and services in exchange for money.  Suppose I had decided not to pay the bill.  The nursery would have legal recourse to collect the money owed, as they should have.  Suppose, after the bill is paid, the owner decides he “needs” another $500 (never mind why).  He has no legal right to collect (at least not until more judges are nominated that rule on the basis of empathy). 

Certainly, I would agree to pay for the goods and services the government provides.  I can’t think of any goods the government has provided for me lately.  So, mostly it comes to what services does the federal government provide for me?  The duties of the federal government as defined in the Constitution are services for me:  protecting me against foreign enemies and criminals, providing for courts, running the mechanisms of government, such as Congress and necessary government entities. 

For example, how about the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, an agency with a budget of 37.4 billion dollars in 2008.  What services do they provide for me?  I don’t even live in a city.  I think the answer is none.  Have I ever requested a service from them?  No.  Were government funds allocated for community organizers a service for me?  What about the “investment” the government made in Chrysler?  What was the rate of return on that one?  I think -100%, a total loss – great investment!  I don’t recall asking the government to invest my money for me.  Was that one of their Constitutional duties?  What about protecting the salt marsh harvest mouse, a service for me??  Why don’t they send the mouse the bill?  What about food stamps for the guy in front of me in the supermarket who drove away in his Cadillac?

So, the next time the IRS calls, I will tell them I would be happy to pay for the services the federal government is providing.  Just send me an itemized statement, and I will pay for every one that is for me.

Suppose a fictitious individual (I’ll call him Jack) decides he needs some extra funds.  After living a life of excess, he finds himself in need of some medical procedures, and, by the way, some Viagra would be nice too.  So Jack comes to my door and asks me to help.  I tell him no.  In a rational, civilized society, that would be the end of it.  But Jack is more persistent.  The next time he comes to my door there are a couple of burly-looking guys waiting in his car.  He points to his “friends” and warns of serious consequences if I don’t hand over the dough.  Now this is also in my little dictionary.  It’s called “extortion”

to get (money, etc.) from someone by force or threats

Extortion is, of course, illegal.  Not easily intimidated, I refuse again.  But Jack tries again, this time sending one of his burly-looking friends.  Since I answered the door with a mean looking hammer in my hand, he goes away. 

Jack really needs that Viagra, so he calls his Congressman.  Later an IRS agent appears at my door.  The IRS is not deterred by a hammer.   The IRS agent carries the threat of incarceration in his briefcase.  If I resist, I may find myself sharing a cell with one of Jack’s burly friends.  The conversation might go like this:

Me, “What are you in for?

The burly guy, “Extortion, what about you?

Me,  “Resisting extortion.”

Who can tell me why when Jack’s friend visits, it is extortion, and when the government agent visits it isn’t?  No one can, because logically there is no difference.  In fact, government employees are liable for prosecution for extortion under US Code,  Title 18, Chapter 41, Section 872.  I am sure lawyers have been able to determine that this is no problem, using some convincing arguments that A is really not A and red is really blue, but that’s the subject of another article.  Ayn Rand in fact gives a slight moral edge to Jack’s friend (from Collectivized Ethics in The Virtue of Selfishness):

In fact, the private hoodlum has a slight edge of moral superiority:  he has no power to devastate an entire nation and his victims are not legally disarmed.

So, from now on all income tax returns I send will be accompanied by the following, signed and notarized:

Since the taxes I am paying are not used exclusively for my goods and services, I would choose to pay only that portion that does.  However, since you have unlimited legal authority to take whatever the government chooses from me, I cannot refuse, but my payment is sent under extreme protest.

I can hear the left’s response already.  But Jack needs the money.  You shouldn’t be so selfish.  Look Mr. Benevolent, it is none of your business whether I am selfish or not!  In fact, I will do everything in my power to prevent you from forcing me to conform to your standard of “unselfishness.”  I will oppose your attempts to extort money from me (or from anyone else, for that matter).  If you intend to force me, why don’t you come to my door in person?  I still keep that hammer under the bed.

This is, of course, a continuation of Part I.  Resistance is not futile, but we have to figure out what exactly to do:

3.  BRAINSTORM

This is the place, Red State and other sites.  I don’t know what to do, I’m groping in the dark.  I will say what I think, but good ideas are desperately needed.  Who among us has all the answers?  This is where ideas can bubble up for discussion and consideration.  Some have appeared already,  How to Talk to a Liberal, Defeating Political Ridicule

4.. GET ELECTED

More talented individuals are needed to pursue elected office, people like I see here who want to return the country to it’s roots, as it was founded.  People who want a rational society instead of a fantasy one.   I don’t know if conservative is even the right word,  maybe anti-tyrannist.  One has to start, of course, locally.  I’m too old, too ugly, and have a terrible speaking voice (not to mention all those skeletons in the closet).  All the same, I will do what I can.  If you have values you are willing to stand up for, go for it.  That is what people really yearn to see in a candidate, character and integrity.  That was really the basis for Ronald Reagan’s popularity, as reflected in Peggy Noonan’s book title, When Character was King.  To quote from the book:

He started out with little, and rose very far.  And the great thing with him was not his personality or charm, celebrated though they were and are, but his character.

Herbert Meyer addresses this issue in an American Thinker article:

We need to launch a counter-offensive, so to speak, and the place to start is at the local level.  Working with our county and state political parties when we can — or working around them when we must — our objective will be to elect as many people as we can to public office who understand what a democracy is and how the free market works.  This will include city council members, county commissioners, school board members, judges, sheriffs and even members of the local parks commission.  With the strength and political momentum their elections will provide, we can surge to the state level and then — before it’s too late — take back the power in Washington DC.

Not only elected office, but we need to populate the other “infected” areas of our society, teaching, media, and entertainment.  By default, these have gone to the far left.  Time now to start moving in people of character.

5.  VACCINATE THE CHILDREN

There was a joke circulating in the natural gas industry a few years ago when prices seemed forever depressed.  The executive of a gas distribution company went to Heaven.  He asked God when gas prices would go higher.  God answered, “They will, but not in my lifetime!”   This war will not be over in my lifetime.  Even if the 2010 and 2012 elections massively overturn things (they might just do that), only a major battle would be won, the war will continue.  For that reason, children have to be vaccinated against the relentless viruses from the media, mass entertainment,  and universities.  Mark Levin in Liberty and Tyranny:

Parents and grandparents by the millions can counteract the Statist’s indoctrination of their children and grandchildren in government schools and by other Statist institutions simply by conferring their knowledge, beliefs, and ideals on them over the dinner table, in the car, or at bedtime.  If undertaken on an intimate, purposeful, and consistent basis, it will shape a generation of new conservatives.

6. BUST THE MEDIA

The major media have in their abandonment of journalist principles, betrayed the American people.  Readers here are well aware of the blatant malpractice.  Though I never turn on the acronym channels, (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN), my wife had on the CBS evening propaganda hour news just before the election.  I was stunned to the extent that this “news” program was propaganda for the Democratic candidate.  It was frighteningly Orwellian.  The local major newspaper in my area, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, endorsed Obama saying what he learned as a community organizer trumped any inexperience.  They praised Obama for forgoing the politics of smear (huh?) then proceed to smear Sarah Palin in the next paragraph.  I had to paraphrase these since I refuse to even visit their website, having angrily canceled my subscription.  (They didn’t print my rebuttal to the endorsement.)

So we together must in every respect avoid these media outlets.  This is one area where our candles can together make a lighthouse.  This is one area where impact is most needed and most possible.

– Do NOT watch or read any of these outlets.  Avoid even the websites because ad revenue is based on the number of hits.

– Boycott owners and advertisers.  GE would be a good start.  Somehow we need to get this organized.  An effective boycott would focus attention on the problem.  Notify advertisers that you do not appreciate their sponsorship of biased media outlets.  A mass of e-mails would give pause to a company advertising there.

– Support the good guys.  There are still responsible newspapers out there, e.g. The Washington Times.  Subscribe to their on-line services if you don’t live in the area.  Take a small local paper (Make sure it isn’t owned by one of the “Pravdas”)

– If you win the lottery, buy a media outlet and clean house.  (well…it’s an idea)

7.  DESTINATION 2010

We all know this is the next opportunity to derail the statists.  I will do everything I can to influence the outcome, however meager that may be.  This again is the place.  Here we can combine our candles into a ever growing flame.  Here we can organize, exchange ideas, plan strategy, and get intellectual ammunition.

Help or contribute to candidates or organizations opposed to the statist (usually Democratic) incumbents.  For example, I contributed to a campaign to oust Harry Reid (boy, that would be a relief!)

Let’s roll!!

I never thought I would say this, but, President Obama (my, how that sticks in the throat!)  I want to thank you.  You and Senator Reid (I sent him a letter already), Speaker Pelosi, and all the other Democrats on my rogues list have awakened me, aroused me from a semi-slumber, caused me to realize the danger posed to my beloved country.  Had it not been for you, I wouldn’t be here writing this.  I would probably still be coasting along thinking things weren’t that bad.  I would probably be at home thinking I could never write very well, and simply enjoying a good movie (an old one).  I and many others have been aroused, called up, just like calling up the militia.  We are ready for action.  You will be surprised at how many have been awakened.

In appreciation for what you have done, I want to offer the wisdom I have gained in my nearly 64 years on this Earth, having lived and worked all over the planet, and studied about anything you could imagine.  The wisdom I have now is no less than the secret to all that presently ails us.  I offer it to you even though I know you will refuse to do it.

GET OUT OF THE WAY!!