Political World

Is it time to end the Cuba embargo?

2009-12-25T19:52:00.000-08:00

History has shown over and over that free enterprise is capable of usurping a country dominated by a restrictive regime. My recent trip to China is a case in point. The streets were jammed by Mercedes and construction was rampant. Everyone was busy and prosperity was available to those clever enough or willing to work hard. It is way past time for us to re-evaluate our position with Cuba and open the door of opportunity because so many would benefit. I can see so many business opportunities for American firms to rebuild Cuba’s deteriorating infrastructure. And the cruelty of keeping families apart must end. Our distorted foreign policy of trying to democratize everyone we have contact with must also come to an end. People will find their own way without our intrusive bullying.

Has inflation been brought to a halt?

2009-12-25T09:34:00.000-08:00

Has inflation been brought to a halt as claimed by the media and the government, wanting us to believe that prices for basic necessities are staying the same? If you are like me, and save bottles and jars for alternate uses, then you know that the price of grape jelly has not gone down, the jars have become smaller while the price has remained the same. And that favorite juice has not retreated in cost. Everyone knows that there are huge indentations in the sides and bottom of the containers so that they seem to be the same size, all the while costing more but containing less. And things like bacon; no longer can you buy a pound of bacon, it only comes in 12 ounce size which is 3/4 of a pound, but the deception is in the viewing. Even butter is being sold in half pound packages for the first time in history. Astonishingly, the folks who set the COLA rate (the basis for Social Security yearly increases) do so in complete secrecy hoping no one will be the wiser. Abe Lincoln said it so aptly; You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. Is our apathy leading us down a path to fools paradise?

The weakness of the capitalist system

2009-12-24T10:32:00.000-08:00

This post points up the weakness of the capitalist system. Under the free enterprise system, prices are supposed to be controlled by supply and demand but this is no longer the case. Today, prices are controlled by speculators who buy commodity futures as a gamble that the price of the commodity will increase, benefiting the speculator with a sizable profit sometime in the future. The other aspect that controls prices are monopolies. As businesses buy up their competition, they assume free reign for establishing the price of the goods they control. In some industries, new innovative businesses are often squashed by the established leaders by subjecting these small but growing enterprises with frivolous lawsuits which exhausts their financial resources. So the deep pocket boys are able to kill off competition by using litigation. The big question is why does the price of gas respond so quickly when there is activity among the speculators, particularly when their bids for the oil futures will not pay out till some time in the future? Why should the prevailing price of oil affect the current price of gasoline at the pump?

Trying to change our form of government?

2009-12-24T08:18:00.000-08:00

I have been having serious thoughts particularly about the health insurance thing. We know that the stuff is written by staffers rather than by people we elected to office which means in essence, that we are not a democracy since the representatives themselves have admitted to having little knowledge of the bill's content. Is this the way our freedom and liberty is to be taken away from us? Are people with an obvious agenda, who have over the years infiltrated the staffs of our congressional representatives, moving us toward a autocracy or yet some other form of government?

The United States is truly fortunate that our founding fathers could see that this kind of thing could develop although the Federalists did all they could to weaken states rights. But with each state having a chief executive and a standing army and in some cases an air force (even though Kennedy tried to nationalize the National Guard) we have some protection against the federal government.

Sooner or later this is all going to come to a head. Come to think of it, the Civil War was a result of the exact same thing, where the federal government was dictating to the states rather than the other way around. That of course resulted in rebellion. There are some states who are positioned to precipitate such a scenario again should it become necessary.

Just as those who are bent on changing our form of government are surreptitiously working to achieve their sinister outcome, there are others who are similarly dedicated to assure that the radicalization of the United States never takes place (see our Second Amendment).

'People' have the right to bear arms.

2009-12-24T07:56:00.000-08:00

The Second Amendment clearly asserts that each state is "free" and able to maintain a militia to remain free. This is unlike many other countries, where local militias are nonexistent. This is one of the unique qualities of the United States. If a foreign power were to invade America, they would have to overrun the militia of each state and each state would in turn have to surrender before the central government is forced to capitulate to such an invading power. The American Civil War is a clear example of how this works as each state of the former Confederacy was required to pledge allegiance to the federal government prior to being readmitted to the Union. It goes without saying that for a militia to be effective, it would necessarily need to possess arms. So why would the amendment go on to say that the people have the right to bear arms? That would be merely stating an obvious redundancy, since a militia is in the business of carrying out military functions, which includes the use of arms. The key to the second part of the amendment is that the "people" have the right to bear arms. By using the word "people," the amendment is stating that it is a right to be enjoyed by all Americans in an inclusive sense.