Limited Government - STILL a Necessity!

Lonnie Schubert writing for The Patriot Post has some timely wisdom we all need to heed...

GOVERNMENT

"The EPA is now considering designating CO2 a dangerous pollutant. The regulation of essential elements of life by our government scares me. It should scare us all. I am devastated by the notion that our own government founded on freedom would regulate and control the most fundamental aspects of life on earth. Regulation on life's important things is certainly tyranny.... If we regulate carbon dioxide or water, we will all be subject to the regulations because we cannot avoid producing both and releasing them into the environment. Me and my children, and yours too, will become polluters as we simply live and perspire. I cannot comprehend it. ...[C]arbon dioxide is the basis of the energy cycle for life. Without sufficient carbon dioxide plants stop photosynthesis. Without plants, the whole chain breaks down, and we all die. ... Government stepping beyond its basic essentials always harms more than it helps. Government can never be efficient. It is not in its nature. The scorpion stings because it is a scorpion. Government oppresses because it is the governing power. Our founding fathers tried to control the beast, and it can probably not be done better, so do not thwart the controls. The controls are to be on the government, not we the people. Reduce the EPA, not carbon dioxide. In the end, that will save our children." --columnist Lonnie Schubert (writing for Patriot Post)

Its gonna be a scorcher!

Well, sizzlin' summer has finally arrived here in Northern California. Time for the annual praises to our Maker for the invention of air conditioning as the hot sun makes everything look washed out and hazy while the heat slowly melts your frontal cortex. And it usually takes a LONG time to cool off at night.
Oh well, it was eventually going to happen. But just to make a monkey out of ole Al Gore, it took a lot longer than usual to get scorchin' hot. I'm cool with that (both the longer cool season and making a monkey out of Al Gore).
Hope everyone is being safe in the heat! Have a great scorcher!

They are Right to Worry about a "Bubba Summer."

It's good to see that Americans are not the only ones fed up with an unresponsive and corrupt government. Iranians, who have long been simmering in resentment over the oppressive ayatollah's ruling their once proud and glorious culture, appear to have finally reached the boiling point. Many of us in the U.S. can relate to that kind of frustration I think. In fact, as the nation wide Tea Parties demonstrate, there are an awful lot of people out there who are sick and tired of watching their government NOT be of the people and for the people, of watching politicians do whatever they please despite the clear indication of what the majority of their constituents want. Their frustration over their apparent inability to rectify these grievances at the ballot box has reached possibly the highest point since the Civil Rights riots in the 60's. In short, people are darn mad and they aren't going to take much more. As ole Doc Holiday said in a Hollywood movie a few years back, one day soon there is going to be "A Reckoning."

A month or so back I saw a piece in the news about the fear of a "Bubba Summer." I guess that somewhat derogatory term is supposed to describe what can happen in the heat of summer when a bunch of good ole boys realize the government has become the problem and decide to make the government their enemy and DO something about it. They bantered the idea around a bit and chuckled about it.

But in all likelihood, we won't see a Bubba Summer this year. For one, Americans are just too busy amusing themselves to death. But who knows....at the rate that "change" is happening in government these days, that could change rather quickly - especially given the arrogant nature of politicans lately. They just aren't getting it. And though everyone on the left speaks with horror and threatens to call Homeland Security at the mere whisper of disgust with the government - our own Declaration of Independence speaks about what to do in such a situation. I didn't make those words up - look them up yourself.

A fellow blogger wrote... "If change is what people want and they cannot get it through the ballot box and are wholly ignored by those who pretend to lead them - then the images we are seeing (in Iran) are truly the result." So I guess you could say that the ayatollahs have got themselves into a Bubba Summer in Iran.

Then he goes on to quote from 2 well loved Americans.

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."
- John F. Kennedy

"And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance?...The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson

Food for thought and contemplation (and discussion). I would LOVE to see an honest and vigorous debate about dealing with government tyranny per the Declaration and Constitution and our own national history without the participants being labeled as kooks or led off in chains.

This Just Cannot Continue...

Regarding illegal immigration - some serious food for thought from the L. A. Times (they are right in the heart of the whole issue for sure!)...Here are some uncomfortable facts:
1. 40% of all workers in L. A. County ( L. A. County has 10.2 million people)are working for cash and not paying taxes. This is (the LA Times concludes) because they are predominantly illegal immigrants working without a green card.
2. 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.
3. 75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens. (WHOA!)
4. Over 2/3 of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal , whose births were paid for by taxpayers. (Hmmn, immigration has NO impact on our budget deficit Mr. Gubernator?)
5. Nearly 35% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally (ditto)
6. Over 300,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in garages.
7. The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.
8. Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal. (ditto)
9. 21 radio stations in L. A. Are Spanish speaking.
10. In L. A. County 5.1 million people speak English, 3.9 million speak Spanish.
(There are 10.2 million people in L. A. County . )

(Note again: All 10 of the above are from the Los Angeles Times - not a conservative newspaper)

Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops, but 29% are on welfare. Over 70% of the United States ' annual population growth (and over 90% of California , Florida , and New York ) results from immigration. 29% of inmates in federal prisons are illegal aliens.

We are a bunch of fools for letting this continue. America has always welcomed immigrants and we should continue to do so. In the past, immigration may have temporarily depleted some jobs but in the end, contributed to our society far more than took anything away. Immigration, it could easily be argued, is what made our nation great.
Now, however, we have become something we have not been until now - a massive welfare state. And the flood of immigrants through our southern borders is an altogether different kind of immigrant. They are typically not skilled laborers or professionals (we have had waves of this kind of immigrant before though this was before the coming of the welfare state). Now-a-days, these immigrants are the poorest of the poor (though 2% DO pick crops according to the LA Times above). And our country has decided that poor people get a free ride (or at least massive assistance esp. when children are involved). O.K. that's fine if you can afford to pay for it - it may not always be the BEST way to help folks in the long run but I really don't think that it's bad to help the poor at all. IF you can pay for it.
Now-a-days this is a bigger and bigger IF isn't it? Fact is, it's killing our economy. Government spending is racing out of control just as all the boomers hit retirement and strain that system to breaking. The bottom line - our big heart is so big it is going to burst our pocketbooks and endanger the entire nation and economy.
I don't know what the answer is. I don't want to harm the poor and I don't want our economy to collapse or to have the government swell to tryannical proportions to try to "do it all." Sometimes you have to make your priorities and make hard choices to keep to them. Let's be committed to our poor and help them. O.K. But I don't think America can afford to be committed to the rest of the world's poor in the same way.
The best way to resolve this crisis is to make the borders work for real. Control immigration, send home those who aren't here legally and can't show how they make a vital contribution to our society (letting skilled laborers remain) and send all illegal alien prisoners back to their home countries with our borders shut to their quick return.
Then go to town on finding ways to fix the problems of our poor. We can go ahead and contribute to humanitarian aid to other nations if we like - fine. But letting them flood in to help them just can't keep happening anymore. We are running out of sane ways to fund it. The jig is up.

Lack of Moral base has ruined our Republic

Many of the founding fathers said it - without God and the Bible it will be impossible to govern this nation (paraphrasing Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Madison etc). Despite the multiculturalists rantings, the Judeo-Christian worldview is the best "nest" for democracy because it's moral code requires the kind of honesty and integrity required to avoid abuses of power and tyranny. Certainly not all Christians live out these moral requirements perfectly, but it drives them and if others around them practice their faith properly, there is added accountability as well. Few other religions offer democracy such "help." As our nation throws away it's Judeo-Christian roots we are cutting our own throats politically, which explains why politics has become SO dirty, so dishonest and untrustworthy, so pointless if you aren't one of the political elite.
Straining against this moral compass is the almost irresistable temptions of Party Politics and Money bought influence. And the founding fathers warned us about these deadly things as well, calling on the nation to avoid the entanglements and compromising loyatlies political parties create and urging the nation to cling to the Rule of Law and of sound moral principles instead of just granting the requests of those who have lots of cash.
I think anyone from those first generations of Americans (immigrant or not) would be revolted by this nation today. I think they would reject almost everything we have come to see as "the way it is." After all, they rebelled against the mightiest nation in the world at the time to pursue these "silly" little principles like liberty, the rule of law, limited government, and individual freedom and responsibility. They would puke when they observe this nation trying to become a nanny welfare state that robs from the rich to give to the poor, empovershing them both. The more I read their writings, the more ashamed I am of what this nation is becoming - has become over the last 100 years. We have thrown away the Republic that was entrusted to us for a cheap fix that make us feel warm and fuzzy but only hastens our own demise.
Unless a new generation of Americans raises up and embraces the concepts laid down by the founding fathers, our nation is a goner. I don't think it can be turned back now - those gluttons who feed from the trough of government will not willingly walk away. They must be replaced by a new generation that understands the truth about the nature of government and our Republic. I wonder how long we will have to wait for that generation to come?