The Death of Truth

The backbone of American morality has disappeared and truth is dead in this country.  It has been a slow and painful death but most of the death throws occur out of the public sight, occasionally bursting into the headlines and causing people to notice.   It has been a slow poisoning that began in courtrooms and spread to the halls of Congress.  From there it took hold in state government and then the poison leaked into the schools and the minds of those that will succeed us in this country.

Why do I say this?  I'll tell you why.  I hear it every day, I see it and I feel it.  There have been studies done lately that demonstrate that people, in a normal conversation of a few minutes, will lie or distort repeatedly.  Why is this important, why don't you just let people sort it out and find out what's true and what isn't?  Because they cannot.  Where would they turn to find the truth, the media?  The poisoning has occurred there too and it has caused major damage and polarization in this country.  The average Joe can no longer trust what the see or hear on NBC, NPR or Fox News because of something called "spin".  The word spin has taken on a new meaning.  You can define it as the process of justifying a position from information you know to be distorted, incomplete or patently false.  But "spin" is a way of sugar coating a lie.  Spin makes a position seem reasonable and therefore can be the basis for more lies, heaped upon lies, that may eventually become a "truth".  We've all heard the axiom about how if you say something enough, even if it is a lie, people will eventually take it to be true.  That is what is happening in this country every day in politics and the courtroom.

What constantly focuses me on this issue is watching the behavior of the far Left.  If you put a liberal in a closed room with Sean Hannity for a year, then let them out, there will still be a conservative and a liberal leave the room.  The hard core Lefties and Righties have their own versions of "truth" that are really irreconcilable.  But how does one find truth then?  Hey Bock, it's OK for you to put this stuff up on the blog, but carry it through won't you?  I'll try by saying that it requires energy and and a classical scientific approach.  Finding facts, analyzing data and watching trends.  Most important, one must try to figure out if non factual elements drive your opinion of what is true.  That is, do emotions make things "true" for you?  For instance, is universal health care a god given right?  A liberal would say yes, and a conservative would say no.  Unabashedly I would say there is far more factual information to prove the conservative right, but that will never satisfy the liberal who "feels" healthcare is an individual right.

I think we as a society are in real trouble when we begin to accept things we "feel" as truths.  It is living in a virtual world.  Barack Obama has been accused of this and you can see it in his infantile foreign policy.  What really gauls me is that a large portion of American society accepts people like Obama and even elevate them to the status of popular heroes.  Take John Edwards, who came ever so close to the White House.  He has lied through his teeth about his infidelities for ages, only to admit them in public when forced by the truth.  Then there is the Grand Master, Bill Clinton, who introduced us to "what is, is" and caused us to look a little differently at cigars than we did before.  With moral rules like Clinton's anyone can sleep well at night.  The fact that these two schmoes can become leaders to a large part of society is atrocious.  It demonstrates quite clearly how Americans have lost their moral compass and a respect for the truth.  Truth has become a relative thing and is no longer an absolute.  Without the backbone of truth, we are greatly diminished society.

In the end, I think I will just take the advice of Grace Slick and the Jefferson Airplane in their song. Somebody to Love:

When the truth is found
To be lies
And all joy within you dies
Don't you want somebody to love
Don't you need somebody to love
Wouldn't you love somebody to love
You better find somebody to love

Love a conservative who gets things Right.

Conservative Revolution Wanted Here

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world.
You tell me that it’s evolution,
Well, you know
We all want to change the world.
But when you talk about destruction,
Don’t you know that you can count me out.
Don’t you know it’s going to be alright,
Alright, alright.
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We’d all love to see the plan.
You ask me for a contribution,
Well, you know
We’re doing what we can.
But if you want money for people with minds that hate,
All I can tell you is brother you have to wait.
Don’t you know it’s going to be alright,
Alright, alright.
You say you’ll change a constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head.
You tell me it’s the institution,
Well, you know
You better free your mind instead.
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao,
You ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow.
Don’t you know it’s going to be alright,
Alright, alright

Who would think that the Beatles would come up with this mantra; a metaphor for Obama's administration spiraling out of control.  A testimonial to the 2008 lemming like voting of people willing to have "Change" without first defining it.  BARF.  I think the GOP should use this as its 2010 fight song while dancing over the grave of a failed Health Care Bill.

The Health Care Bill must die.  What has been on display during the fabrication of this legislation is the clear danger of single party government.  The American voters failed to recognize the peril to this country posed by a Democratic majority unchecked by opposing thought.  Our saving grace has been the fact that some Democrats still have a conscience and still know who they work for.  Otherwise we would be rushing pell mell off the Socialist cliff.

It has been ugly, the infighting, the backroom deals and the lack of transparencey that was promised by His Majesty.  But Americans have gotten glimpses of the supposed Utopia promised by Obama and his minions.  You have Senators falling on their swords to produce Health Care legislation that only 35% really want, and no one would want if they read the bill.  You have bribes being made with huge amounts of taxpayer money to get corrupt Senators to sell out their constituents.  You have the Constitution being used as toilet paper while legislation is created that forces people to buy something they don't want, lest they be fined or imprisoned.  You have Union influence peddling that has created a new class of elite citizenry leveraged off their unholy alliance with the Obama cadre.

Have you had enough yet, you dreamers without wits?  Can you see a glimpse into the world invsioned by the liberal madmen, where mediocrity reigns and less is more?   Where freedoms become merely a fond memory for those fortunate enough to have experienced them before the dawn of the New Dark Ages under Obama?  I desperately want the volume turned up here so the newly awakened can come out of their trance and vote to rebalance our political system.  The sign in my window; "Conservative Revolution Wanted Here".

The Ugly Truth About Haiti

OK, we all know that Haiti was hit by a massive earthquake.  We humanly express sorrow and compassion for those that have suffered the loss of family and property.  The devastation is immense and countries (mostly the U.S.) are scrambling to provide assistance.  A lot of that is due to honest charity and the remainder has to do with looking good on the world stage.  You might be thinking that that is a tough statement, but read on.

In Biology 101 you learn that living systems of organisms will grow until they outlast their ability to draw resources from the environnment.  At that point there is usually a "die off" and the population contracts until it reaches a level where the resources can sustain it.  The problem with Haiti is that the population long outgrew the capacity of the nation to support it.

Since 1993 or even earlier, Haiti has been dependent upon the rest of the world to sustain itself.  It has depleted all of its resources and the case can be made that the country exists only because of the generosity or guilt of richer nations' largesse.  Make no mistake,  Haiti is not the only dysfunctional state on the face of this planet, there are scores more.  The problem is; when you infuse artificial "means" (in today's world this is billions of dollars annually) into a nation/state like Haiti, you create a sense in the population that the country is self sustaining.  What follows from that complacency is birthrate.  An impoverished nation should not grow in population, but they do, because of the misguided charity of countries and world bodies like the United Nations.  Fifty percent of the displaced persons in the capital of Port Au Prince due to the earthquake  are children; ninety percent of the land area is completely deforested.  People have no business being there, the country is destitute and without any viable industry, but the population grows.

This has a profound correlation to what is being preached to us by the liberals today.  There is a public relations campaign going on to convince us in the U.S. that we should be guilty for our consumption.   Listen to the next Allstate commercial.   They make me gag, when they preach less is more.  Harry Reid must have slipped them a few hundred million of our money, but I digress.Although we in the U.S. can sustain ourselves and our population, somehow we are using the resources of the world that rightfully belong to other peoples and countries.  Haiti is a prime example of why such "wisdom" is nonsense.  Nature tells us that populations should decline when when resources are depleted in an area, but man has short-circuited that self control mechanism.

If we are to come to the conclusion that we MUST give to dysfunctional states like Haiti, we better darn well link our charity to population controls in the beneficiary country.  If the U.N. is to fulfill any kind of benevolent function on this planet, they better focus on population.  The Global Warming scare is just another chapter in the "one world together" push.  We would be much better served if people would just come out and say it, there are too many people, and too few governments with the strength to admit it, or the will to do anything about it.  Sadly, I have to single out China for its wisdom in connecting surplus population with poor standard of living.  China was only able to adopt a strict birth control regimen because it is a totalitarian state.  There is no way that mandatory birth control would fly in a democratic country, yet that is only dodging the realities and it WILL catch up to us.

Governments should strive to produce abundance for all of its citizens to the extent it has the capacity to do so.  Unfortunately many countries that gain independence for political reasons have no hope of being self-sustaining.  Haiti is a prime example.  They simply do not have the resources or political infrastructure keep themselves afloat economically and they become beggar nations.   At some point, like it or not, the real focus of producing nations will have to shift to controlling population.  Not just of their own countries, but those that benefit from foreign aid or disaster relief.  Limitless charity for failed nations will only hasten the depletion of all this planet has to offer.  Hard talk, but sometimes Truth is a bitch.

Of Bake Sales and Erosion

God help us.  Here it is, another New Year upon us and we are ringing it in with the "underwear bomber".  Sounds funny unless you like to fly from place to place.  But that is not what this post is about.  I am concerned about "erosion". No it's not related to Global Warming; that's for Lefties.  It is the conservative equivalent, and a metaphor for sure.  It is about our freedoms being brought down by the passage of time and the acts of government.

What prompted me to take this on was a recent revelation that the New York City School Board had decided, in its infinite wisdom, to ban school bake sales.  You know, the ones that band programs and intramural programs rely on to close the funding gap because the bureaucrats don't know the right things to spend money on.  Seems that the NYC school board has decided that bake sales undermine the sense that Americans should eat healthy and further that such sales promote or condone consumption that leads to obesity.  Hogwash!

What does this mean?  Who has the time to come up with this crap?   I actually watched someone defend it to a national television audience.  Then it occurred to me what was really at the bottom of this (again).  The revelation?  We U.S. citizens employ people full time to legislate at the federal, state and local level.  It is time for this practice to end.  When all legislators and governors and their ilk can come up with is a law to regulate bake sales and similar inane laws, then it is time to give them a very long holiday.  It is time for a moratorium on new laws and legislation.

Think about it.  Every year literally thousands of laws are enacted throughout the United States.  We have tax laws, securities laws, criminal laws, laws about how we drive, laws about our sex lives and laws about how to make laws.   Whew!  The vast majority of those laws passed have little significance to our daily lives, but with the passage of each one, the freedoms carved out for us by the Founding Fathers are diminished a little more and people are accepting it out of apathy and ignorance.  It is the "boiled frog" analogy that Glenn Beck used so well on his show.    I raise my hand as being guilty too, but enough is enough.  Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and George Washington delivered us a Mount Everest of freedoms and now we have only the worn humps of the Appalachians left.  This is the erosion that I fear.  It will continue unabated unless we stop or limit the legislation being done every year.

The benefits of curtailing new laws would be astounding.  Imagine a part time legislature whose only job was to pass a budget and maybe a handful of essential laws each year.  Americans would not have to foot the bill for Nancy Pelosi's jumbo jet and her "security", the junkets, the bloated congressional staffs and armies of attorneys that crowd the hallways of Congress.  The incentive for corruption would be nearly eliminated.  We could sell off all the fancy real estate used to house the fat cat politicos and do some real downsizing.  We would not miss it one whit.  There are enough laws out there now to handle most any matter that comes up.  If not let the courts handle the oddball issues.  Better yet, let us, the citizens of this country, handle the small stuff ourselves.  After all, that was how it was meant to be.  Thomas Jefferson never imagined a government who'd tell Little Suzy she can't sell Granny's cupcakes to make money for band camp.

But I can't be a hard ass.  It would be unfair to put all these well meaning politicians out of work wouldn't it?  NOT.   I'm a fair guy though.  So I propose a phase in period of five years before we go naked on lawmakers.  In the first five years all the Senators and Congresspeople would be busy REMOVING laws from the books.  They would be paid to root out redundant, superfluous and unnecessarily expensive laws.  Trim the fat so to speak.  With the departure of the unneeded laws we would get a departure of unneeded agencies, bureaus and advisory panels.  The possibilities are endless.  Once underway, I think the Average Joe would get really excited about having the 900 lb. gorilla leave the room.  Somewhere along the way, the US budget deficit would magically disappear, the US dollar would kick ass and America would be a world leader once again.  Somebody stop me!  I'm getting euphoric just thinking about it. 

Then there are the people, a lot of smart people and a lot of not so smart people, that would be out of work.  I have the answer; Green Jobs.  No seriously, that may be one outlet for their energies, but in large measure the newly departed from Washington would be forced into the private sector where their creativity and intelligence would be used to produce things that make life better for everyone.  I think it would help their self-esteem too, not having to be the hangman for the American public any more.  We compassionate conservatives have to take note of their feelings you know.

So let's hear it for the new anti-erosion movement, Tea Parties, conservative resurrection or whatever you want to call it.  Time to give our senators, congressmen, aldermen, mayors, governors and councilmen a long holiday before we are boxed in by laws at every turn with our only escape being drugs, alchohol and video games.