Supreme Court Shifts The Spotlight

I know, I know, you've all been on pins and needles to know what the guy who just started a blog about freedom thinks about the Supreme Court's decision to uphold "Obamacare."  Well, after watching many people on the right and the left virtually masturbating over their respective positions on the Court's ruling yesterday, here's what I think.

First of all, as one who racked up over $16,000 in medical bills for two uninsured emergency room visits so a doctor could tell me to lay off caffeine (it was doing funny things to my heart), I would say I am happy for those who will be able to afford coverage going forward.

And I am glad that the Court found that upholding the law under the Commerce Clause was overreaching and unconstitutional.  Congress has needed to be reined in on that front for decades.  I'm also glad that the Court decided to uphold the law under the taxing power of Congress.  I think it's a good thing to move the spotlight over there so people might start debating just how far that power ought to go.  It's no secret that the rights of free people can be taxed into oblivion (see: the Revolutionary War).  Let's revive that long-neglected debate and see what ideas may arise.

My free e-Book is meant to help get the debate started.

Appreciate The Difference

It was once legal to keep women from voting.  It was never legitimate.  Miss Anthony understood the difference.  We should all be so wise.

A Short Statement Regarding Gay Marriage - That Is, Regarding Liberty

The quest for freedom includes struggles on more than one front.  There is economic freedom, religious freedom, freedom of ideas, political freedom, etc.

I would just like to point out that religious freedom includes the freedom to not be religious, the freedom to not follow religious doctrines.  This does not give anyone license to harm others - there is nothing particularly religious when it comes to refraining from killing or stealing from your neighbor.  That's just common sense - that's just getting along with folks.

The choice to not be religious also does not automatically mean that one chooses to be anti-religion.  I am personally no longer a religious person, but I am not categorically against religion.  I am only against what people do in the name of their religion which harms other people.  I am against liberty loving (so-called), flag waving people when they strive to impose their religious views on civil society.  It is hypocrisy to claim to love liberty and at the same time try to dictate who gets to enjoy it.  There is no such thing as dictated liberty.

One last thought: accepting that people outside of your religious beliefs and practices are free to live their lives without your approval does not mean you have forsaken your religion.  It only means that you have learned to discern between religious and civil affairs.

A Grateful Nation Remembers Jay Gould [sarcasm]

 

Jay Gould: "the mightiest disaster."

One of the books I took with me on my deployment to Kuwait was a history textbook: “The Gilded Age,” by Sean Dennis Cashman (1993).  I chose it because I wanted to learn more about that particular time in our history which saw the rise of the “robber barons.”  One character whose name kept cropping up in the book was a fellow by the name of Jay Gould (1836 - 1892), who dealt in railroads and the stock market.  Here are some references to him and his kind:

“There were in fact two distinct types, or generations, of robber barons.  Strictly speaking, the first were not industrial entrepreneurs at all but rogue financiers.  Many had made fortunes in the war and were still anxious to make a killing, especially in railroads and public utilities.  It did not matter to them that the cost might be economic or political stability.  To this category we can assign the unholy trio of Jay Gould, Jim Fisk, and Daniel Drew.  Their nefarious activities spread through whatever aspects of public life they could penetrate and defile.  ‘His touch is death,’ exclaimed Daniel Drew of Jay Gould.”

Later in Cashman's book we read this:

“John Reagan, congressman from Texas, advised his constituents in 1876: ‘There were no beggars till Vanderbilts and Stewarts and Goulds and Scotts and Huntingtons and Fisks shaped the action of Congress and molded purposes of government.  Then the few became fabulously rich, the many wretchedly poor...and the poorer we are the poorer they would make us.’”

I am currently reading Mark Twain’s autobiography, and guess whose name popped up?

Mark Twain

“Jay Gould had just then reversed the commercial morals of the United States.  He had put a blight upon them from which they have never recovered, and from which they will not recover for as much as a century to come.  Jay Gould was the mightiest disaster which has ever befallen this country.  The people had desired money before his day, but he taught them to fall down and worship it.  They had respected men of means before his day, but along with this respect was joined the respect due to the character and industry which had accumulated it.  But Jay Gould taught the entire nation to make a god of the money and the man, no matter how the money might have been acquired.  In my youth there was nothing resembling a worship of money or of its possessor, in our region.  And in our region no well-to-do man was ever charged with having acquired his money by shady methods.

“The gospel left behind by Jay Gould is doing giant work in our days.  Its message is ‘Get money.  Get it quickly.  Get it in abundance.  Get it in prodigious abundance.  Get it dishonestly if you can, honestly if you must.’... Jay Gould – that man who in his brief life rotted the commercial morals of this nation and left them stinking when he died.”

So, what did you really think of him, Mr. Twain?

A Toast

About four months ago I was taking a long plane ride from Kuwait back to America.  My year-long deployment was finally over.  I had a lot of time to think on that trip home, and at one point I was picturing what it was going to be like to be reunited with all the friends I’d left behind for the year.  I pictured it probably just as you might, like a scene out of a movie – there we all are at some local pub, enjoying ice cold beers and slaps on the back and ribbing each other about this and that; lots of laughter and celebration.  The “war hero” is finally home, and he made it back safe and sound – he served his country with honor.

That big celebration didn’t happen, and I’m savvy enough to understand why.  There is a lot of cynicism regarding our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there has been from the beginning.  Very few Americans feel compelled to throw a ticker tape parade for our last ten years in the Middle East.  People have too many questions – too many reservations – about what the last decade has meant to want to hoist a soldier or sailor on their shoulders and parade them around the bar.  Frankly, I share some of that cynicism and would feel uncomfortable being welcomed back in such a high-spirited manner.

But as I sat on that plane picturing the Hollywood homecoming, I imagined a moment where someone might have given me the floor to share whatever thoughts I might have in light of my experience overseas, and this is what I heard myself saying:

“I was away for over a year from the two people who mean everything in the world to me – my two boys.  That was a long haul, and I’m glad it’s over.

“I would like to encourage anyone in this room who feels a certain cynicism toward what America is doing in the world lately...to not lose that cynicism.  It’s good to be skeptical; it’s good to question things.  It is necessary and healthy.

“I was also reminded while over there how important it is to have a sense of humor.  This helps to keep you and your friends from going insane.

“And I was reminded that, when all is said and done, the only thing we really have in this world that is worth anything is love.

“So, a toast: to a healthy cynicism, a sense of humor, and love.”

That’s what I would have wanted to say; that’s what I brought back from the desert.  The central theme of this blog is freedom.  You might be wondering what this post has to do with freedom.  I don’t know.  Maybe nothing; maybe everything.

We Can't Take Freedom For Granted

I think it is the nature of most blogs to “preach to the choir,” since the most likely visitors to a blog will be those who are interested in its topic already.  The audience for a blog on American freedoms is bound to be small at this point, because the fact is, many Americans have not felt the actual sting of injustice, have not felt their rights trampled upon by others (and that’s a good thing).  The result is that many Americans take their freedoms for granted, and so rarely think about what those freedoms are (and that’s a bad thing).  It has wisely been said that, until you are affected by something, you just don’t really think about it.

Personally, I had taken my freedoms for granted for most of my life; I had been apolitical for most of my life.  It wasn’t until my parental rights were suddenly and substantially violated in 2005 that I came to a rude awakening: ignorance of my rights, my freedom, my liberty, is dangerous to me.  Ignorance makes me vulnerable.  It was a very scary time in my life, and I had to learn quickly in my efforts to restore my rights as a parent.

If you’re reading this post, chances are you have an interest in its topic – freedom.  If you’d like, I’d invite you to “share with the class” how you became interested in the concept of liberty, or freedom, or human rights.  What has affected you and caused you to think?

And to those who are visiting here because one of your FB friends just started a new blog and you’re being polite (gotcha!), and maybe you’ve never really had to think much about your freedom, I would invite you to revisit some of the legislation that has been passed in recent years in the name of “national security” and see if you can’t identify some unprecedented threats to your liberty – and I mean YOUR personal liberty.  Though nothing may have happened yet and you still live your daily life as you always have, just remember the story of the frog in the slowly heating water.  Wouldn’t it be tragic if you only recognized the need for change after it was too late?

Welcome to The North Star.  The quest for freedom continues in this country, and I hope to help with that quest by sharing observations - my own as well as others, perhaps even yours!  We have definitely not arrived where freedom is concerned, but we have come far since the nation's founding.  However, it seems we have been losing ground lately, especially in the last hundred years or so, and that is cause for concern. 

One tremendous challenge to individual liberty has been the adoption of the income tax in this country.  I have written a short eBook on the subject which you can download for free right here. 

A Question of Liberty: Rethinking the Income Tax In the Land of the Free
(FYI: the internal links from the Contents page to individual chapters only work in the Download version, not the View version.)