On 17 Aug, 2009, I wrote a letter to my congressvermin. I got the standard typewritten thorazine from each of them, but today (16 Sept.) I got an email from one of Senator Udall's staffers that just blew my mind!
Here's the letter I wrote to them:
I have a very serious question that occurred to me in the context of national health care, but I believe has far wider implications to the relationship between the American people and their government.
Could you please show me where in the Constitution the national government is given authority to send a man with a gun to take money from my neighbor, (and please do not be so disingenuous as to claim the IRS is not a lot of men with guns) give me a few pennies on the dollar of my neighbor’s money, and keep the rest to pay the wages of the guys with the guns.
I have searched the US Constitution over and over, but can’t find that. Could you please point out to me what I’m missing?
And here is the letter I got today, from Michael Bales. Do these guys really think the question was about the authority to levy taxes? They can't possibly be that stupid! This is terrifying! This clown seems to actually think the Constitution intended the authority to levy taxes equates to the authority to enslave.
Thank you for contacting Senator Tom Udall with your question of where in the Constitution the Congress is given the power to levy and collect taxes. The Senator asked that I contact you with the answer. The power to tax is delineated in Article I, Section 8, clause 1, of the Constitution which states:
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States;
There is only one express exception to federal taxing power found in the United States Constitution. Article I, Section 9 provides “No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State.” I hope this answers your question.
Best,
Michael Bales
Legislative Correspondent
Office of Senator Tom Udall
Michael_Bales@tomudall.senate.gov
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Lower costs, my foot!
The current flap about “controlling health care costs” baffles me on several points. Here’s one. The government is talking about health care insurance, and paying all these medical bills.
Hmmm, says I.
Let’s say I were buying a loaf of bread, and the storeowner wanted $100 for it. I’m filled with despair because I have about five bucks, and I’m hungry. Along comes this tall, good-looking black fellow in a really sharp suit, and he says, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll take some money from this fund I have here, and I’ll pay the other $95.”
“Great,” says I, and out I go with the bread. But later, I hear the black fellow say on TV that he has lowered the cost of bread.
Like bloody hell, he did! If anything, he guaranteed bread will ALWAYS cost at LEAST a hundred bucks a loaf! He didn’t lower the price; he just paid what the jerk in the store was asking. You don’t seriously think the store owner, having tasted blood, and knowing where he can get more, will ever actually lower his price, do you?
But then comes the really aggravating part. I gets to thinking, “I wonder where that fund he mentioned came from?
And then it hits me; that fund was taken from me, in the first place! That crooked sonofabitch took my money – and a lot more than the $95 he paid for the bread – and invested it in a guaranteed level of inflation that would choke a Weimar banker, and then had the unmitigated gall to brag to me that he’d lowered the cost of my bread! He didn’t lower a flippin thing! All he did was make sure the cost would never come below $100, and took from me the money I might have used to pay for the bread, in the first place.
Let’s break this down a little more. The government has passed laws and allowed – nay, encouraged and mandated – practices that have caused medical costs to go through the roof. Now, rather than actually doing anything to reduce those costs, they are going to rob me, my children, and every future generation of Americans in order to pay the costs they have created. And, of course, pay themselves a handsome wage for their hard work.
Ah, Fascist America! Ya gotta love it!
Hmmm, says I.
Let’s say I were buying a loaf of bread, and the storeowner wanted $100 for it. I’m filled with despair because I have about five bucks, and I’m hungry. Along comes this tall, good-looking black fellow in a really sharp suit, and he says, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll take some money from this fund I have here, and I’ll pay the other $95.”
“Great,” says I, and out I go with the bread. But later, I hear the black fellow say on TV that he has lowered the cost of bread.
Like bloody hell, he did! If anything, he guaranteed bread will ALWAYS cost at LEAST a hundred bucks a loaf! He didn’t lower the price; he just paid what the jerk in the store was asking. You don’t seriously think the store owner, having tasted blood, and knowing where he can get more, will ever actually lower his price, do you?
But then comes the really aggravating part. I gets to thinking, “I wonder where that fund he mentioned came from?
And then it hits me; that fund was taken from me, in the first place! That crooked sonofabitch took my money – and a lot more than the $95 he paid for the bread – and invested it in a guaranteed level of inflation that would choke a Weimar banker, and then had the unmitigated gall to brag to me that he’d lowered the cost of my bread! He didn’t lower a flippin thing! All he did was make sure the cost would never come below $100, and took from me the money I might have used to pay for the bread, in the first place.
Let’s break this down a little more. The government has passed laws and allowed – nay, encouraged and mandated – practices that have caused medical costs to go through the roof. Now, rather than actually doing anything to reduce those costs, they are going to rob me, my children, and every future generation of Americans in order to pay the costs they have created. And, of course, pay themselves a handsome wage for their hard work.
Ah, Fascist America! Ya gotta love it!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
The real reason for this blog
What do y'all think about this? As of right now - 1242pm, mountain daylight time, on 3 Sept., 2009, this is an original email. It isn't being forwarded from some unknown source. I wrote it and am sending it to my friends and family.
I'm thinking we need to clean house in our government. I mean, get every incumbent out of office. Every, stinkin' one of them, whether Democrat, Republican or Independent, liberal, moderate, or conservative, left, right or middle. Just nuke the government, from the city level to the federal legislature.
Won't that mean getting rid of some good ones, too? Yup. All two or three of 'em. The point we need to make, right now, is not about what we judge good or bad, but that the government answers to us, the voters. There are very few innocent parties in government, anyway, and those that are decent will be welcome to come back later. In fact, it might be a good idea to do the same thing again in two years.
How can we get all sides to agree to this? That's why I say just get rid of everybody. The point, again, is not so much with whom they are replaced, but that we kick their miserable behinds out of office. If you want to replace a Democrat with another Democrat, or a Republican with another Republican, that's fine. Remember, we aren't trying make a point of what we want right now. This is a show of pure, brute power, to let all who would run for office that they are dealing with some highly incensed voters.
The instant we start picking and choosing, whether based on party or quality, the whole thing will instantly disintegrate into the kind of mindless bickering that got us here, in the first place. I'll give up all of my incumbents if you'll give up all of yours. Mine are demonstrably as despicable as yours, anyway. I'd like to replace them with candidates I like, but at this point, the main necessity is to show them who's boss.
Can you imagine the impact on people with entrenched power - those who have been in office for 15 to 30 years - of suddenly finding themselves sitting on the curb with their suitcases at their feet? I honestly believe that, if We, the People of the United States, (neat turn of phrase, that!) can pull this off, we will be rewarded with a government that is VASTLY more responsible and responsive.
What do you think? I'd like to ask that this be forwarded as much as possible. If there's any merit to it, at all, it will be accepted and forwarded again. If not, it will be trashed and forgotten.
I'm thinking we need to clean house in our government. I mean, get every incumbent out of office. Every, stinkin' one of them, whether Democrat, Republican or Independent, liberal, moderate, or conservative, left, right or middle. Just nuke the government, from the city level to the federal legislature.
Won't that mean getting rid of some good ones, too? Yup. All two or three of 'em. The point we need to make, right now, is not about what we judge good or bad, but that the government answers to us, the voters. There are very few innocent parties in government, anyway, and those that are decent will be welcome to come back later. In fact, it might be a good idea to do the same thing again in two years.
How can we get all sides to agree to this? That's why I say just get rid of everybody. The point, again, is not so much with whom they are replaced, but that we kick their miserable behinds out of office. If you want to replace a Democrat with another Democrat, or a Republican with another Republican, that's fine. Remember, we aren't trying make a point of what we want right now. This is a show of pure, brute power, to let all who would run for office that they are dealing with some highly incensed voters.
The instant we start picking and choosing, whether based on party or quality, the whole thing will instantly disintegrate into the kind of mindless bickering that got us here, in the first place. I'll give up all of my incumbents if you'll give up all of yours. Mine are demonstrably as despicable as yours, anyway. I'd like to replace them with candidates I like, but at this point, the main necessity is to show them who's boss.
Can you imagine the impact on people with entrenched power - those who have been in office for 15 to 30 years - of suddenly finding themselves sitting on the curb with their suitcases at their feet? I honestly believe that, if We, the People of the United States, (neat turn of phrase, that!) can pull this off, we will be rewarded with a government that is VASTLY more responsible and responsive.
What do you think? I'd like to ask that this be forwarded as much as possible. If there's any merit to it, at all, it will be accepted and forwarded again. If not, it will be trashed and forgotten.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Health care - the current issue
LETTER TO ALL three of my congressvermin, plus Obama 17 AUG 09
I have a very serious question that occurred to me in the context of national health care, but I believe has far wider implications to the relationship between the American people and their government.
Could you please show me where in the Constitution the national government is given authority to send a man with a gun to take money from my neighbor, (and please do not be so disingenuous as to claim the IRS is not a lot of men with guns) give me a few pennies on the dollar of my neighbor’s money, and keep the rest to pay the wages of the guys with the guns.
I have searched the US Constitution over and over, but can’t find that. Could you please point out to me what I’m missing?
I have a very serious question that occurred to me in the context of national health care, but I believe has far wider implications to the relationship between the American people and their government.
Could you please show me where in the Constitution the national government is given authority to send a man with a gun to take money from my neighbor, (and please do not be so disingenuous as to claim the IRS is not a lot of men with guns) give me a few pennies on the dollar of my neighbor’s money, and keep the rest to pay the wages of the guys with the guns.
I have searched the US Constitution over and over, but can’t find that. Could you please point out to me what I’m missing?
What's your angle?
It would be helpful to me - and maybe others - to see the kind of letters folks are writing to their congressvermin and the vermin-in-chief. If you have a letter or letters that you are proud of, I'd like to read 'em.
Most especially, if you have letters that have drawn anything other than the canned, staff-written puss that I've been getting from my own vermin.
Do you suppose maybe my opinion of them as vermin is affecting their response? I hadn't thought of that! Oh, crap! What if I'm going to have to be civil to them?
Most especially, if you have letters that have drawn anything other than the canned, staff-written puss that I've been getting from my own vermin.
Do you suppose maybe my opinion of them as vermin is affecting their response? I hadn't thought of that! Oh, crap! What if I'm going to have to be civil to them?
This isn’t about health care. It isn’t about green jobs. It isn’t about bail outs or bonuses or stimuli. And it sure as the devil isn’t about race. It’s about liberty, and liberty is about life.
People create their wealth by labor, intelligence, and their own value judgments. People can redistribute – ie, spend or invest – their wealth as they see fit. They are capable of doing this entirely on their own. They may choose to not support some causes or programs that are favored by folks in the government.
The problem isn’t that The People don’t have the wealth to do something. The problem is that they won’t do it if left to make the decision freely. The folks in government, being certain that their own decision-making ability, or morality, or value structure is superior to that of the folks outside government, feel the need to override the freely-made decisions of the latter.
No government can claim more wealth than the combined, aggregate wealth of its People. Folks in the government can’t create wealth to support their causes because a government produces nothing but force. They can only take wealth from the People and give it to those causes or programs of which they in the government approve. How do they take that wealth? Under threat of force. Try not paying your taxes for a while. Sooner or later, some character with a gun will come to your door and invite you to go with him. Refuse, and you’ll get a better look at that gun.
Things the folks outside government approve of survive on the value judgments of the People. Things the folks in government approve of survive on wealth taken from the People and from the things of which they approve by force of arms.
No government exists as some soulless thing, entire of itself, with its own being. A government is a collection of individual human beings. When someone says the government can do something better than the People, they are really saying that this group of folks over here is smarter than that group over there.
By whose authority does anyone say such a thing? By what omniscience do they say who is smarter? What on earth or under Heaven gives one randomly-selected group of people the right and the power to deprive another group of the right to make their own value judgments? From whence comes this authority for an all-knowing government to say, “My values are superior to your values, so by the power of this gun, I hereby lay claim to the work of your heart and hand in order that I might use it for my own purposes?”
That’s what this is about. That’s why I, like Thomas Jefferson, pledge undying hostility to any form of tyranny over the mind of man.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
On soap and education
Mark Twain said, "Soap and education may not be as sudden as a massacre, but are probably more deadly in the long run."
Throughout my life, I've tried to make myself clean and smart, but some folks have said I'm just dangerous. We'll see.
Throughout my life, I've tried to make myself clean and smart, but some folks have said I'm just dangerous. We'll see.
Just starting
Well, this is sort of like walking into what you didn't realize was a biker bar. I'm standing just inside the door, letting my eyes adjust, wondering what the hell I'm doing here. Y'all be gentle with me; this is my first blog.
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