Thursday, December 20, 2012

We live in a insane world... But that doesn't mean we need to go insane...

The world we live in isn’t what it appears to be, there are a great deal of forces at work behind the scenes that make it appear to be something it is not. It is not a rational world, it is an irrational one.

This is primarily because: One, most people are ignorant of facts; Two, people have been taught to make decisions based on emotions rather than logic; Three, they have been handicapped by a public school system and media that serves as propaganda distribution networks and indoctrination institutions rather than serving as education or information outlets.

Luckily, we have the internet. And, similar to the time of the introduction of the printing press, which resulted in a period of turmoil and enlightenment we have an opportunity to break from the current paradigm into something much more beneficial to the common man and woman than anything before.

I will use the current gun debate as an example. First of all, the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution as well as all the other ten amendments that make up the Bill of Rights does not grant anybody any rights… it is recognizing the rights that people have and making it clear to those in government that in the conduct of their duties to govern, they have boundaries. The federal government was granted the authority to defend the nation from attack, set up a legal system, coin money, “regulate” (make regular) trade and commerce between the states and other nations and to impose taxes in the form of tariffs that are direct but also equally distributed as to be fair… and a few other minor things… and that’s it!

To make it even clearer to those in the Federal government, the Bill of Rights was added that in carrying out those duties there were things that were completely off limits. Was the Constitution perfect? No. But it was very restrictive to those in power.

By comparison, let’s say you have a pool and you hire a pool company to clean your pool once a week. You give them the authority to enter your back yard once a week and clean the pool and for that you will pay them an amount. You might add a few extra stipulations like the pool company’s representative is not authorized to enter your house, or drive your car, or eat your food, or use your credit card… etc.. Obviously, those things would generally be obvious but just to prevent any misunderstanding you make it clear. Essentially that was the function of the Bill of Rights.

Unfortunately, as Lord Acton said many years ago, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” And as John Marshall (one of our famous Supreme Court justices) stated “The power to tax is the power to destroy.” Put those two together and you can see where we are headed.



So, back to the gun debate… The real issue is, and it’s something you will rarely hear, does each person has to right to defend their own life, their family and property? If you read the Declaration of Independence as well as English Common Law all the way back to 1100, it’s pretty clear this right is inherent to the individual. Yes, every person born on this Earth has the right to defend themselves. If they don’t exercise that right, or they don’t have the ability to do so… they risk the potential that they will be victims. They have given up the freedom to self-determination or that freedom has been taken from them by those who raised them, ruled them or instructed them.

The world isn’t a perfect place, accidents and misfortune happens all the time.

There are 700,000 doctors in the United States and each year about 190,000 deaths results from mistakes doctors make. Which means that about every four years a doctor accidentally kills someone.

There are somewhere around 285 million vehicles in the United States, each year about 40,000 people die in auto accidents. Which equates to something like 14 people being killed for every 100,000 vehicles. Most of the 11 million crashes that take place each year are a result of alcohol, intersection, speeding or a combination. But you still see plenty of beer commercials! Cargo that could be carried by trains still goes on being transported by trucks. And although most people could get around with cars with 50hp motors… the average is much closer to 250. And the number of stoplights and intersections continue to go up. (And that’s a whole other discussion of money and political influence)

There are about 3 million people in jail or in the legal system as criminals in the USA. About 14,000 people are murdered each year. About 8,500 involve firearms. (Which means criminals are a great deal safer than doctors. You might consider this the next time you get a cough or feel a pain)

There are 80 million gun owners in America. Each year about 1,500 people are killed from gun accidents.

There are 315 million people in the USA. 25,000 die from falls each year. 32,000 die from poisoning. 6,000 from suffocation. 3,500 drowned. 3,500 burned in fires. 1,500 from nature (lightning, storms, bees). 1,100 as pedestrians.

Do you start to get a picture that nothing is absolutely safe? To live life is to accept a certain amount of danger? Did you notice that terrorism wasn’t on the list yet we spend trillions of dollars on it? Less than 100 deaths are attributed to "terrorism" each year.

This gun debate isn’t about facts, or even deaths, it’s about control. Who controls your life? Is it you or the government?

If you think the government is looking out for you… consider that the only solution the government has is violence and ultimately death. Every law on the books is backed up by violence. If you don’t obey the “law”, say, for not serving a soft drink larger than 32 ounces in NYC, you will be given a ticket, if you refuse to pay that ticket, you will be arrested and thrown in jail, if you resist or make a strange move you will be shot. And that’s the way government works.

“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” ~George Washington

One final thing, in the 20th Century somewhere between 170 million to 300 million people were killed by their own government. Rounded up and shot, poisoned, starved, worked to death, etc. That’s 1.7 to 3 million people each year and that doesn’t include accidents, or wars or heart attacks. ( The Earth’s population in 1900 1.6 billion, 1999 6.0 billion according to the UN).

Governments are very dangerous mechanisms, much more dangerous than even atom bombs.



Would you really want to make a choice between knowing you can protect yourself or trusting government?

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