I have a confusing day ahead of me (including a mandatory meeting with my specialty supervisor -- BLEEP!ing matrix-management -- about "career development." Moan. Weep.), so please allow me another grab-bag.
1. Resistance To Tyranny.
There are simply too many books that I simply must read and simply haven't been able to get to in good time, owing to the pressure of work and other necessities. Joseph P. Martino's Resistance To Tyranny is one of the more prominent entries on that list.
The author has a most impressive resume:
Dr. Martino is a retired Air Force Colonel. He served in Thailand where he conducted research on counterinsurgency. He later was Chairman of the Counterinsurgency Working Group of the Military Operations Research Society. He teaches a course in Just War Doctrine at Yorktown University. He holds degrees in Physics, Electrical Engineering and Mathematics.
More, his book has been heavily praised by others of my acquaintance. I've moved it to the top of the stack. Given the outlook for the immediate future, you might want to consider doing the same.
2. And Speaking Of Books...
...you might have noticed my leering mug in the right sidebar, next to the words "Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid." That's the link to the site I recently built specifically for the promotion of my fiction, and for the posting of articles on related subjects. I'm nobody's Web guru -- my occupational specialties are about as far removed from Web stuff as you can get and still be in the field of computer software -- but I'll be straining to make it more functional and attractive over time. Suggestions from those of you more skilled in this stuff would be welcome.
(What's that? All this time, and you had no idea I'm "Web challenged?" Why do you think I use Blogger?)
3. Tipping Point.
Have we who yearn to see a restoration of freedom in these United States reached a point of no return? Scott Johnson provides a few ominous numbers:
Americans who were recipients of means-tested government benefits in 2011 outnumbered year-round full-time workers, according to data released this month by the Census Bureau. They also out-numbered the total population of the Philippines.There were 108,592,000 people in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2011 who were recipients of one or more means-tested government benefit programs, the Census Bureau said in data released this week. Meanwhile, according to the Census Bureau, there were 101,716,000 people who worked full-time year round in 2011. That included both private-sector and government workers.
That means there were about 1.07 people getting some form of means-tested government benefit for every 1 person working full-time year round.
The Census Bureau counted as recipients of means-tested government programs “anyone residing in a household in which one or more people received benefits from the program.” Many of these people lived in households receiving more than one form of means-tested benefit at the same time.
This has been the goal of America's statists, especially the Democrats, and most particularly the Obamunists, for some decades now. The idea is clear: he who receives alms from the State is unlikely to oppose its further expansion, nor will he listen with approval to those who argue for its reduction or limitation. And indeed, the tableau has a rather 1984-ish feel to it, though our "proles" aren't yet 85% of the population of the United States. But then there's that little matter of our nonexistent border control, and the inclination of the Incumbent Party to grant our illegal aliens legalization and a "path to citizenship."
Perhaps we should all recur to the book mentioned in topic 1 of this post for further ideas.
4. A Little More Tyranny, Maestro.
No, the policeman is not your friend. Just ask Phyllis Bear or the widow of Jerry Waller.
Please read the whole thing. For my money, the haymaker of the piece comes here:
[A]ll citizens are incipient slaves, subject to detention, abduction, and other abuse at the whim of uniformed slave-keepers.A slave is somebody who cannot say “no” – as in, “No, I can’t talk to you right now because I’m on the clock and there are paying customers ahead of you.” This is because the slave doesn’t exercise self-ownership in any sense in the presence of a slave-keeper.
A slave-keeper is somebody who claims the legal right to take ownership of another person at his discretion, and use physical violence to compel submission.
This is the specific definition of the peculiar institution called “law enforcement,” as demonstrated by the following statement from the annual report of an entirely typical sheriff’s office: “A law enforcement officer’s authority and power to take away a citizen’s constitutional rights is unmatched anywhere in our society.”
Refute it if you can. Given recent news about the acceleration of police misconduct, with emphasis on the uniformed offenders' immunity from prosecution by the "justice system" and from redress via lawsuit, I refuse to try.
5. An Expatriate On Fire.
There is no one writing today doing more valuable service to America and its ideals than author and commentator Mark Steyn. Among the services Steyn renders us is the critical one of saying what must be said, however unpleasant:
On The Hugh Hewitt Show this week, I said that the Republican Party is "simply not good enough":MS: Today happens to be Budget Day in Canada. I know you always lose at least 47 affiliates every time I mention Canada, but I will mention it.HH: I hear people hanging up all over the country. Yes, go ahead.
MS: Well, that's, Jim Flaherty, the Canadian Finance Minister, presented the federal budget in the House of Commons today. They will have - they had a budget deficit all of $18 billion dollars last year. That's a rounding error in just one federal program down here. This year, they will have a surplus of $6 billion dollars. And New Zealand's paying off its national debt. This is the only country among the English-speaking powers around the world, this is the only country where both parties are committed to institutionalized fiscal debauchery until the end of time.
For some time now, I've been convinced that Mark Steyn loves this country above all others, including the one of which he's a nominal citizen. That is, he loves what America was and deplores what it's becoming, as must anyone who understands and loves freedom. And he's put his prodigious talents to the task of attempting to haul it back from the lip of the abyss.
There is no more important service a lone individual of mature years can render to our nation than to remind it about what it's supposed to be in the hope of turning it from the path of self-destruction. And no one does it better than Mark Steyn.
Gahh. It's time to discuss my "career" with a perfectly well-meaning functionary who has no idea what I do or how I do it. I must smile, and nod a lot, and somehow refrain from reminding that poor soul that I've already announced my retirement date.
Later, Gentle Reader.
3 comments:
My response to point #3 is that you can see the same thing in who pays the taxes. The last numbers I saw showed that almost 50% of the population pay no federal income tax. Tyranny of the majority.
Unfortunately, Francis, I suspect the proles ARE 85% or more of the population. It is simply the case that their collective wealth hasn't been entirely exhausted yet.
Of course, like many things, it depends on the definition of the word. I define a prole as someone who is utterly, hopelessly dependent on government -- on the system. They could not survive outside of it. When I see the suburbanite helicopter moms crying over a child's split lip or scraped knee, it occurs to me that despite their relative prosperity, they are still proles.
That's why I worry about the future of America as much as I do. The independent mindset, something we used to call the pioneering spirit -- that very same drive that conquered a continent and sent a man to the moon -- has been exhausted. There are few of us left anymore. And, in any event, the Progressive-Left and even the supposedly conservative Republican party have made it clear that there is no place for that sort of thinking in the New America they have envisioned.
There are an awful lot of proles, good sir.
Re: folks on the dole
I wonder what the percentage would be if you excluded children? That is, if you looked at what percentage of people 18-65 work full time or are on the dole? There would also be a portion of that age group that are homemakers.
Just a thought.
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