“A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.” – Thomas Jefferson
Poor Tom. If he were alive today to see what he had helped create was about to become would he pick up an AK-47 and march on Washington himself? In my universe he would. Alas, Tom isn’t here and so we sit on the precipice of our plunge into the depths of socialism, and well, nobody seems to care.
Our fearless leader, basking in the glow of his glorious win is walking around the country doing nothing but talking like a bloated wind bag expounding on “his victory.” He’s talking to 9/11 victims. He’s negotiating with terrorists. He’s basically just a face on the news. Meanwhile our “leaders” in Washington work on how to best put the steak into the heart of democracy. We keep hearing how capitalism has failed us. We keep hearing how the evil corporations are tearing out the heart of our country and are stealing money from the working man. We keep hearing about how “Obama won.” Hey, President Obama, I’d like to point out EVERYONE IN OFFICE WON. And just when our president starts to get my blood pressure rising to the point of a stroke, I take a slow look around me. You know what, A bloated, talking head, greedy windbag really is an accurate representative of what our country has become. The people get what they deserve.
Which leads me back to all this talk about how capitalism and the market have “failed’ us. So I was inspired to come up with a list of some of the failures of our system. I mean we keep hearing about it on the news, so it must be true right? So let’s take a look. Lets see just how our system has failed us. Well, it gave us airplanes. Huge failure. Cars, yeah, also a huge failure. Telephones, records, tapes, dvds, VCRs, radios, news papers, and movies… also huge failures. Media not your bag? How about some high tech failures for you. What about PC’s, cell phones, laptops, the internet, HD televisions, home theaters, and the sham wow. Well, we can’t really take credit for the sham wow, that was invented in Germany. Hmm.. too high tech for some, let’s go a little low tech, the steel industry low tech enough for you? Recreation your bag? How about carbon-fiber golf clubs and hockey sticks. Hmm.. how about services.. you know, simple things like electricity, running water, city sewage, cable tv, and natural gas? Yeah.. the system really has failed us in a big way.
I won’t deny being annoyed at corporate America at times. There is no mercy for me with my retarded high interest credit cards. I get no respite in watching my butt from banks trying to take my $32 when I overdraft or my $2 from the ATM. Yes, it gets annoying having to watch out for myself sometimes. However, I’m willing to put in the time because it is my money. It’s my butt and in the end, it’s my responsibility to take care of myself and read the fine print. For some reason that idea is totally foreign to a lot of people. They expect to be taken care of and watched out for. Guess what people, when someone is out there watching you, they are taking away your freedom.
Could anyone reading this imagine actually getting into a gunfight over their job? I know I couldn’t. However it happened in the past of this country. It happened in the late 1800’s at a steel plant in Pittsburgh. Now, those were some hard core workers! They wanted their jobs so bad they were willing to die for them. Now, most people feel that they deserve a job. They are entitled to make eighty grand a year to start doing nothing but jockeying a computer sitting in a cubical. Anyone out there willing to die for an Office Space job? Didn’t think so. Yet people expect that they be granted this job and this salary. They don’t feel they should have to fight for it.
With that in mind, it is no surprise to me that in the face of adversity, the collective of American sheep are running to the big daddy US government to “come save us.” Make the hurting stop Uncle Sam! I don’t’ want to have to fight through this myself. I might have to drive a Honda instead of a Lexus. I might have to go on a camping trip instead of to the outer banks. I might have to have a 3 bedroom house instead of a 6 bedroom one. Oh.. the horror! Remember all those things that Corporate America gave us to make our lives easier? Perhaps they’ve also made us soft.
The problem is, when the dust settles and the crisis is past, we’ll have given away yet another of our freedoms. The US government now owns stock in private companies. I want everyone to read that and let the gravity of that statement settle in, so I’m going to write it again. The US government now owns stock in private companies. It’s a horrifying prospect. One that would have the likes of Mr. Jefferson suggesting that all of us should be heading to the local gun shop to gather arms. Because once the government get’s it’s claws into private industry, claws into the people are only a short step away.
I’m going to end this by putting two quotes up for you to read. The first is the 10th amendment.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
The Second is a quote from Wikipedia
“Interpretations of the amendment can be divided into two camps. The first interpretation, as held by the Tenth Amendment Center, most of the Founding Fathers, the Libertarian and Constitution Parties, and a few Republicans including Ron Paul and Jeff Flake, is that the Constitution does not grant the United States any power that it does not expressly mention. This has been used as the basis for such court cases as Gonzales v. Raich, and for arguments in favor of repealing a large number of Federal laws, abolishing the Federal Reserve, and drastically slashing the Federal budget by 50% or more. It is also why amendments were necessary for the abolition of slavery and the prohibition of alcohol – without said amendments, Congress did not have the authority to do those things.
The contrary opinion, as held by most of the current U.S. Government, is that the Constitution grants Congress the authority to do more or less anything that is not explicitly prohibited by the first eight amendments.”
Here is your food for thought. If the founding fathers though that the first interpretation was the correct one… why the HELL are we even considering the contrary opinion as valid?
Last 5 posts by Jeff Hopkins
- The Yeti Rants: The Change has Come to Town! - November 26th, 2008
- The Yeti Rants: Wall Street, Congress and Bailouts.. OH MY - October 8th, 2008
- The Yeti Rants: Obama vs. McCain... what's the difference? - June 23rd, 2008
- The Yeti Rants: A Democrat form of Government... - February 29th, 2008
- The Yeti Rants: It's Good to be Back! - January 30th, 2008