How much do you love Freedom?

Freedom. What is it exactly? I believe that freedom is a word that is too loosely tossed about and carelessly regarded. Before I go on, take a look at some of these quotes on freedom:

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself. ~Thomas Paine

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. ~Mahatma Gandhi

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. ~George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, "Maxims: Liberty and Equality," 1905

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. ~Edmund Burke

Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves. ~D.H. Lawrence, Classical American Literature, 1922

Freedom is something that is not easy. Freedom comes with hard work, toil, and danger. Freedom means that there unfortunately will be losses. Freedom from government surveillance means that there may be another 9-11. Freedom from unwarranted searches mean that there is a risk that those who despise freedom may do us harm. These are simple facts. Having the freedom to succeed conversely means that there is a freedom to fail. Removing the failure inevitably removes the success. Totalitarianism, socialism, marxism, and communism all place the power in the hands of a few while Capitalism and Democracy place the power with the individual. Greed is in human nature. When we place total control in the hands of the government; be it a king, or a court, only the ruling class have the opportunity to succeed. When we place control in the hands of the individual, every man has opportunity to succeed.

However, it must be noted that when we place control in the hands of the individual there will always be a small percentage who fail. This failure may be by poor decisions, lack of effort, or some uncontrollable event. At any rate, taxing 100% of the people to pay for 5-15% of the people's failure only inhibits the opportunity to succeed for that 85% or more of the population. In doing so, the economic growth, freedom, and well being of the majority of the population is retarded.

So I ask, "How much do you love freedom?" Do you love it enough to fail? Do you love it enough to suffer for it? Or do you simply prefer security as you're told what you will and will not do? Those who came before us, those who died to create this country, and those who died to preserve this country loved it enough to suffer and to die for it. I ask you to consider these things when you hear of the next social program designed to help people.

Lastly, name one government program that created prosperity for anyone other than a politician or political interest group? When you vote for well intentioned social programs, who are you sending your dollars to?

Afghanistan - Viet-Nam

Every time that the U.S. enters into any combat operations, the question is always asked, "Is this another Viet-Nam?" No two conflicts are alike therefore making it truly difficult to concretely say with any real certainty. What I like to look at when playing arm-chair General is how we conduct the war combined with the popular support of the American public. These two things are never the same and are the delicate tight-rope that is routinely crossed by politicians and senior military. Acquiescing to the tight-rope at all is part of the problem in and of itself.

With regard to Afghanistan, there are two major flaws that I see. I believe these tactical errors could cause us to lose in Afghanistan. I don't believe that we'll actually "lose" however we will prematurely leave and allow the country to fall right back into the hands of the insurgents just as we did in Somalia.

First we must realize that we will NEVER win the hearts and minds of the local populace. They don't agree with us, they are a completely different culture and will never see eye-to-eye with us. I believe that the great majority of them (as in Iraq) are happy that we are there because of the horrific oppression and brutality of the respective regimes. Their being happy that we are there to oust the insurgents or regime(s) does not win their hearts and minds. Spending any amount of time in the middle east and reading just a small bit of history will show that these cultures deal largely in fear. Fear of the leadership, fear of Allah, and even fear of ones own family. Power is gained by fear and brutal domination. Understanding that, let's take a brief look at how we handled Iraq and then how we are handling Afghanistan.

In Iraq, you can see a distinct shift between the first few months of the Iraq war and the last few years. This was because in the beginning it was an actual war and we were fighting against a clearly defined military. The country was siezed in a relatively short period of time. Once that was done there was a dramatic shift in the manner with which we dealt with the populace. Our intent was to convince them to side with us in ousting the insurgents.

Let's just stop and think about the logic from the Iraqi peoples' perspective. They have a choice to make. The insurgents will torture, rape, pillage, and murder them if they do not comply in hiding personnel and weapons. The Americans will not. Even if they do support America's toppling of the former regime and working to establish a democracy, they must think of the immediate. They must think of the immediate safety of their families and of their own lives. Our philosophy is all wrong.

Counterinsurgency is a fancy word for police action. We are not fighting a war as history would define. We are creating a temporary police state where we can attempt maintain control as the newly formed local military is built to a point where it can actually defend and maintain a government. If this is what we wish to do then we must be willing to stay for many years. The simple answer is that the American populace does not have the intestinal fortitude for this. This approach is failed from its conception.

If we are to win in Iraq and/or Afghanistan then we must treat it as a war and fight it like a war. The plain and simple truth is that war is horrific. Once we (as a Nation) have decided that there is no other alternative and we must commit lives then we must have the courage to fight with all of our might. We must do this to save the lives of ours as well as the enemy's men and women. Prolonged efforts only equate to more death and prolonged suffering by both parties involved. The only humane thing to do is to win quickly and decisively. Only when the United States fights so ferociously that the enemy cannot bear to resist further or no longer exists have we won the war.

It should never be our intention or aim to hurt non-combatants however we should have little concern over collateral damage resulting in the loss of civilian life. I know that seems too harsh for most but it is a simple fact that too many military leaders and politicians have the courage to actually say. Once the non-combatants realize that simply having and insurgent near them puts there live in jeopardy, you will see the tides turn rapidly. This would apply to Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and even Pakistan. We must face facts, our enemy will stop at nothing, no matter how brutal or inhumane to kill Americans. We will only win when they no longer exist or do not have the will to fight and it can be done.

Understanding that we will not fight a war like a war, understanding that we will not win the hearts and minds of the local populace, and knowing that the American people will not tolerate a prolonged police action in Afghanistan I predict that we will not win.

America will simply redefine our objectives, claim success, and leave the region. The Taliban and Al Queda will then march right back in and regain control. You will not see much of this because it will not be in the left wing media's interest to show you that news. Watch carefully and you will see it.

If you wish to truly support your troops you can do two things. First, write your Senators, Congressmen, and the President demanding they remove all rules of engagement and allow our men and women to fight with all of their means to win the war(s) quickly. Second, write to and boycott any news agency that produces reports/stories that in any way shines a less than patriotic light on our men and women fighting for our country.

We should make it politically incorrect to utter even one word against what our men and women in uniform are doing. If you disagree with the war itself, let your representatives know. However, do not ever allow the media to demonize our troops while glorifying or running pity stories about our enemy.

How do you vote?

Please don't tell me Republican or Democrat because neither of those matter.  The Republican party and the Democrat party are merely political affiliations for which one or the other will more closely represent your values but voting for a party has become more and more detrimental.

All that you've got to do is look at the legislation that's making its way out of our nation's capital to see how people vote. We routinely see legislation designed to provide for, or in some way protect the citizenry from themselves. Ask yourself, who needs help in these desperate times? The answer is everyone. Everyone is struggling. The question is: Do you need the government to take care of you or to enable you? By continuing to convince you that things are bad and that you need change, the politicians are by way of repetitive sound bytes convincing you that you are unhappy, your life is miserable, and that you can't make it on your own. John Kerry actually place a "Misery Index" on his website when he was running for President. The misery index is there to inform you of how miserable you are. This is exactly why we have welfare and social security, and now healthcare. Those in the government convinced us that we couldn't make it on our own and that we must have them and their programs. As I stated in a previous post, the government deals in disparity, not prosperity. If you actually believe that it's so bad that you are incapable of caring for yourself then you should continue to vote for social programs.

There is a place for "safety net" programs but that place is extremely small. The fact is that the vast majority of Americans are full well capable of caring for themselves without the aid of the government. Safety net programs should focus solely on those who truly cannot support themselves and have no one else to help. A couple of examples might be orphans, those that are truly physically handicapped and cannot work to earn a living, and those that may have been incapacitated by some extreme illness or tragedy. These safety net programs used to be run by churches, local charities, and local governments where they could closely match the needs of the respective local community. The more that we support these local groups with money and time (time is the real key), the more that we will not need the federal government.

Back to the question at hand, how do you vote? Ask yourself, do you vote the party line and where has that gotten you? Do you vote on your emotions, for social programs? Do you vote for your own personal gain, to preserve your own benefits? I can tell you that none of those are the answer and if you do, I'm sorry to say that you are part of the problem.

Voting the party line only emboldens the party devaluing your input. Voting emotions is a surefire way to socialism, as is voting to preserve benefits. Voting to enable men and women to have the opportunity to succeed is America. Voting to protect individual freedom is American.

You must vote to protect and preserve what is America! I would encourage each of you to read the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Revisit what our founding fathers created for us. Revisit what so many have died for and ask yourself, is that what I'm voting for? Ask yourself, is that what my Senators and Congressmen are protecting in Congress?

I believe that you should vote for the same values that you teach your children. We teach our children to be honest, obey laws, work hard, have honor, and accountability. We teach our children to help the poor, not support them, and not enable them. Do you make your children give half their allowance to a perfectly capable man or woman panhandling on the street?

It's time that we apply these same standards to our government. If we all think of these things when we carefully read proposed legislation most bills wouldn't pass at all.

Think about this logic the next time that there's a "bond" on the ballot. Bonds are nothing more than loans. How many times have you ever borrowed your way out of debt? When you can't make the bills, another credit card never helps.

How is it that we allow our government to do what we know in our hearts to be foolish?

What is "Political Correctness"

In short, political correctness is the new buzz word (okay not that new) used to silence what is currently unpopular in mainstream media.  It is in reality nothing more than a form of terrorism.  I know, sounds extreme right?  Follow me for a minute:

Wikipedia defines it as: "Political correctness (adjectivally, politically correct; both forms commonly abbreviated to PC) is a term denoting language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social offense in gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, handicap, and age-related contexts."

Webster defines it as: "1936 : conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminatedpolitical correctness noun"

Look closely as each of these definitions and you see that it is basically used to squelch your freedom of speech.  I do not know of any actual laws federally or in any of the states that make being politically incorrect a crime however the media has taken this matter up in the court of public opinion for which they largely control.  If a person voices an opinion that in any way might offend any minority group the PC police will jump in with both feet.

Keep in mind that I am not advocating going out and trying to offend people, on the contrary I believe that we should all be courteous to all people.

That being said, being courteous does not mean that we cannot voice our opinions (or opposition) to what is becoming the secular norm.  We see that moral relativism has taken hold and there are many societal norms that you may not agree with; however the "liberals" of society will have you publicly flogged (metaphorically speaking) for openly stating such.

What this means is that many Americans now refuse to speak publicly or act upon their core convictions for fear of reprisal in the media, at the work place, and elsewhere.  Simply put, intimidated.  Having said that, let's look at the definition for terrorism:

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines terrorism as: "n.  The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons." Found on Dictionary.com

Take special note to the threatened use of force.  What force are we speaking of? Could it be the full force of the negative media?  Could it be the full force of an employer demanding that you not speak out under threat of termination? Could this mean the full force of some coalition group protesting?  Read the definition further, do you believe that this is their "intention"? I do.

Stand tall and allow no one to silence or attempt to silence your free speech. The constitution does not say friendly speech, or popular speech, or non-offensive speech. The Constitution simply says FREE speech.

Most importantly. Lash out at political correctness and those who attempt to use it as a tool to silence others. Do this even when you don't agree with the speech itself. Protect all free speech, not just that which you personally agree with.

When the political correctness tactic doesn't work they'll come up with something new like... oh... let me make a stab in the dark. Something like the term, "Hate Speech". More on that later...

Me, Me Society - How did we get here?

Take a look around you.  Have you ever noticed or does it seem that American's are becoming ever increasingly selfish?  I ask myself from time to time just how did we get here.

How do I keep this from becoming more than just another rant?  The answer is in solutions.  I believe that the solutions are simple and easy.  I believe that if each person makes one or two simple changes in their respective daily life we'll bring about global changes rather quickly.

All of this selfishness spills over into every aspect of our lives from the way we drive to the way we treat our neighbors and on up to the very policies that we vote for or against.  It seems that we are concerned only with what will serve ourselves individually.  I'll be addressing this in more detail in another post that I'm currently working on however it does apply here as well.

I believe that the very simple answer lies in courtesy and concern for your fellow man.  This isn't just some cliche that we hear during the Holiday season or something that the preacher tells us and then we go on with our lives.  No.  This is something that is real and is absent from society.  How do you fix this? You.  You take one simple step which is to serve another person.  This is easy.  Allow someone the right-of-way at the next four way intersection.  The next time someone says something that you may find offensive, give them a pass and let it go.  Wait the fifteen seconds that it takes for the next person to get to the door so that you can hold it open for him or her.

The solution, the very core of the solution can be found in the willingness to humble yourself before others.  As a manager, you can work harder to enable your employees to do their job.  Focus on things that make it easier for them to be more productive.  When you see your neighbor putting up Christmas lights, ask if you can help.  When you rake the leaves in fall, make sure that you start part of the way in your neighbors yard and rake them into yours and then pick them up.  Do you see where I'm going with this, the list is endless and each item on the list is simple.  The key is that it's not a list, it's a mindset that will become habit if you only focus on one or two small things regularly.

In closing this post I ask two things: First, please stop and ask yourself, "How will this affect everyone else?"  Second, ask yourself, "What small thing can I do today to server another?"  When we as a community truly look after the needs of each other, there'll be no room for the government to do it.  Remember the government doesn't deal in prosperity, the government deals in disparity.  Just take a look at any government program designed to help people.  You will find disparity; not prosperity.  Only hard work, motivation, and preparedness by a collective of individuals brings about prosperity.  No government has or will ever be capable of providing prosperity, they can only protect the freedoms that allow the opportunity.

Pressed Uniform and New Ribbons

When I was just a Private First Class in the United States Marines we had many uniform inspections.  I could never understand why this was so darn important?  In typical fashion the words came flying out of my mouth before I could even realize it.  Luckily for me the Corporal who happened to be doing the pre-inspection took me aside and talked with me for just a couple of minutes about it.
In retrospect I thought of this young man as having years of wisdom (and he actually did).  He asked me if I was proud to be a Marine?  The answer was yes.  He asked if anyone ever had ever bought me a beer in a bar?  The answer was yes.  He asked me if my Mom and Dad were proud that I was a Marine?  Again, the answer was yes.
The wise (young) Marine Corporal then reminded me of all the Marines like Lewis Puller, Smedley Butler, and Daniel Daly.  He reminded me of all the men who had died for this country and for freedom and for the Honor of being a United States Marine.
Here I walked around as the beneficiary of all these men's ultimate sacrifice.  I wore the uniform and carried the title, with all it's prestige and honor.  I was thought of as the baddest thing on the planet.  I was revered as the protector of freedom and a member of the greatest lineage of all time yet I was complaining about ironing my uniform and paying a couple dollars for fresh new ribbons (one at the time).
Needless to say I thought a lot differently about preserving the values, courage, and commitment that had come before me.  I only tell you this story so that I can ask; do you think about those who fought and died and earned your right to be an American?  Do you consider these things when you think that it takes too much time to write your representatives?  How much of a sacrifice is required of you when put in perspective?

The reason for Healthcare

We are increasingly being told about the need for the Government to grab control of healthcare.  In some way or another the Federal Government is going to take control of the private healthcare industry which comprises roughly one-sixth of the US economy.  That being said, we must take some real time to ask ourselves why and what are the real reasons?  We are told that healthcare is too expensive for millions of Americans (who are now not covered).  We are told that millions of Americans do not have access to healthcare.  We are told that millions of Americans could not financially withstand the costs of a catastrophic illness.  We are further told that big insurance companies and big pharmaceutical firms are driving up costs.  We must also look at who supports a government run healthcare industry.  In this article I'll break down these issues to determine the true reason(s) for government run healthcare.

• One of the most recurring statements given is that millions of American's do not have access to healthcare.  This is easily addressed.  First, we know that any person, American or otherwise, can go to any emergency room in this country and receive emergency medical care irrespective of economic stature - with or without health insurance.  Secondly, the majority of medical and dental practitioners absolutely will take monthly payments for services that would otherwise be labeled as preventative or non-emergency medical aid.  Having personally taken advantage of this, I know that the payment structure can be as low as $40 per month; of course this is variable as well as negotiable.  To put this in perspective, a monthly cell phone bill starts in the range of $40 per month.  Therefore, stating that millions of American's do not have access to healthcare is simply not true.  
• The only one argument that even holds a little water are the statements about American's inability to financially withstand a catastrophic illness.  However, this would then apply to ALL Americans equally because nearly every health insurance provider has spending caps on policies.  Beyond that, the two proposed plans currently being mitigated by the congress also contain spending caps as well as limit procedures that can be performed by physicians.  What is astonishing here is that one of the only real reasons for the Government to take any action is not simply ignored, the problem is actually perpetuated.
• It's certainly not a myth that the cost of health care is radically increasing and there are innumerable arguments that cite the reasons for this.  This discussion could cary on for pages and pages because of the many micro-issues that could be cited.  I prefer to take the most "macro" approach because we are discussing changes that affect the entire country and therefore need to be dealt with at a very "macro" level.  It is my firm belief that any time you interject a third party payer into any provider-consumer system, the processes of the free-market are greatly crippled.  When Americans flatly pay cash for products or services, the definition of "need" comes into play.  The healthcare system is further complicated because it is not simply a third party payer.  There are many layers between the consumer and the service provider.  Those layers are employers, unions, and healthcare providers to only name the major players.  Each of these layers insulate the provider from the power of the consumer.  Each of these layers removes control from the consumer.  The crime now being perpetrated upon the American taxpayer and healthcare consumer is yet another layer of insurance.  The newest layer is one that you can do virtually nothing about.  The newest layer is the hardest to control as well as to settle disputes.  That layer is the Federal Government.  As an American citizen how will you settle a dispute with the Federal Government for any healthcare grievance?  Again, instituting government run healthcare does not solve or address the problem, it merely complicates it.

One can clearly see that it's not access, it's not affordability, and it's not even to address the rising costs.  This may still seem to simplistic so let's dig a little deeper and look into who supports government run healthcare.  We know that the American Medical Association (AMA) supports the program.  We further know that most of the big health insurance providers and pharmaceuticals also support this.  Lastly, we know that nearly all left leaning political groups and unions also support government run healthcare.  The prudent thing to do now is to ask why?

• The AMA presents itself (as does the media) as if it represents all doctors.  The truth of the matter is that only 29% of all doctors in the U.S. are members of the AMA.  That might lead to you to ask what their stake in the matter is?  A little known fact outside of the medical community is that the AMA owns the system used by the medical industry to code medical procedures.  This system is called CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) and is copyrighted by the AMA.  To quote the AMA's web site, "...the most widely accepted medical nomenclature used to report medical procedures and services under public and private health insurance programs."  The AMA has a vested financial interest in the game because they don't make money off of membership dues.  They make their money off of every single insurance provider who is public or private.  If the Federal Government created a single payer plan or created "competition" that put the private insurance providers out of business, they need to ensure that their system remains in place.  The AMA's motivations are, as usual, based upon money rather than the good care of people.

• Insurance providers and big pharmaceuticals have an obvious stake in this game.  They either need to stop Government Health Care or become the provider.  Although we have heard President Obama, Senator Reid, and Congressman Pelosi all bashing the evil insurance providers; what the press hasn't shown us is that the representatives (salesmen) of the big insurance providers have been present at all of the behind closed doors meetings.  This has been nothing more than the biggest sales opportunity of all time.  The insurance providers are actually seeing increases in revenues as the government will now mandate that every American purchase some form of approved Health Care.  The insurance companies just signed up to the biggest monopoly of all time.  Once again, we see the age old "greed" motivator rear its ugly head.  Take notice of the massive jump in stock value for insurance companies the day after the Senate voted for cloture on the their Health Care Bill.
• Believe it or not I actually give most of the major liberal groups a pass on this one.  I do honestly believe that many of the folks in these groups are completely unaware of the back-door motivations and do simply want what they believe to be good.  That being said, the more marxist of the groups are motivated to see more redistribution of wealth and government control.  Narcissism is key to the thoughts and ideas within these groups and our very own President is one of them.  These people actually believe that you and I are too stupid understand what we must do to care for ourselves.  Our stupidity only reinforces their ideological drive to force our well being upon us.
• The very idea of the union is socialist in nature.  A bunch of people band together to force an entity to pay them "equally" rather than based upon what the free market will bear.  Some fifty years ago, there was a sound argument for unions however that time has passed and unions now serve only to better the union leadership and drive toward a total marxist style government system. The union is one of the single biggest causes for the auto industry's failure as well as reason for the federal government to continue to bail out the auto industry.  The auto industry isn't too big to fail but they do have one of the largest unions in the country and in the world.  There are no two ways about it, the union inhibits a companies ability to be profitable.  The union reduces the companies ability to hire more employees thereby increasing unemployment, driving up consumer costs, and ultimately slowing growth of the entire economy.  The current employment laws at the federal, state, and local level negate any need for unions.  The unions have successfully negotiated their members out of work and now need a larger government with more government programs to survive.  It is also interesting to note that the President of the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) has been to the White House more than any other single visitor since President Obama took office.

Socialism/Marxism....  No matter the flavor, this is the clear motivation for moving forward with a Government Health Care program that Americans have clearly articulated that they do not want.  This is not to provide health care.  Health care is already there and accessible to all persons in the United States, legal or otherwise.  This is only about the money to be made in a few instances.  The real motivation here is more government control.  As stated above, you pick your flavor... Marxism or Socialism.
Please remember one thing, Socialism will not happen by revolution.  There will be no war, no government will topple.  You will simply wake up one day and realize that you must go to the Federal Government for all of your needs.  Take one minute after reading this and ask yourself what freedom you actually do have now?  They are there... you just have to look hard.