DONT TREAD ON ME

I have found a new favorite web site - www.opencongress.org - which allows anyone to create a profile and set up legislators, pieces of legislation and issues to track.

Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution enumerates only 18 powers which Congress has. The good folks over at opencongress.org have sub-divided those into a mere 4,754 issue categories. I’m so glad congress holds to their oath to “protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic“.

Last year, I went to Alaska. As part of my preparation for the trip, I watched many of the Alaska themed television shows. The topic of one of these shows was the Iditarod.

This famous dog sled race is run each year in March - dozens of mushers and hundreds of dogs make the 1,000 mile + trey through the frozen Arctic landscape.

Last year’s shows made it sound as if the dogs were running along in the Mohave desert. What, with Global Warming and all, the snow was already beginning to melt in March!

Well, I too became inspired to enter the race. I have decided to enter the first all chihuahua team. Comprised of 61 Chihuahuas, my team should be able to outrun even the most experienced dog sled team. Training has already begun - for three hours each day, I turn the heater off in the office so that Gracie will get used to the cooler temperatures; the thermometer here in the office has been known to dip down to 74 degrees! Brrrrr….

That is only one part of the training; as for myself, I have been watching coverage of the 2009 Iditarod. Unlike last year, instead of warm temperatures and melting snow, they are reporting cold and icy conditions. What changed? Could it be that Global Warming has subsided? Is the planet getting cooler? Maybe!

On February 20, 2009, Bloomberg.com reported that the US National Snow and Ice Data Center had underestimated the Arctic ice sheet by 193,000 square miles (that is about the size of California!) due to a “glitch” in satellite sensors. According to a report in The (UK) Guardian, 2008 was the coolest year of the decade. There are many, many more reports like this; all you have to do is seek them out.

The “Gorey” myths about Global Warming may melt away under the heat of scientific scrutiny, but the Arctic Ice is here to stay. Don’t worry Gracie, there are plenty more years of Iditarod races ahead of us!

I just wanted to let you know that I am on record as predicting that the inflation rate for 2009 will be at least 8%.

Milton Friedman won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1976 for “for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy.”

He is probably my Number Two modern hero. He taught the world that “inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.” This means that whoever is in charge of the printing press that makes money, controls the inflation rate.

I have noted that M1 has increased drastically over the past 6 months. M1 is the total of “Currency, traveler’s checks, demand deposits and other checkable deposits” - in other words, the money supply.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h6/hist/h6hist1.txt

Note that from 2004 to 2007, January to December of each year say a change in M1 of less than 6%; sometimes, the change was even negative. Contract that with 2008. M1 jumped 16% from January to December!

Friedman also taught me that from the time the treasury starts to inflate the currency (ie. print more money) till an impact is noticed in the marketplace is about 6 months. That is exactly where we are now. Watch for prices generally to increase soon.

In 1961, President Eisenhower delivered a farewell address in which he referenced the “Military-Industrial Complex.” He was referring to a system whereby a relationship develops between business leaders (ever seeking the loot easily obtained from government contracts) and the military (ever seeking more expensive and sophisticated weapon systems under the mantle of National Defense).

This speech was delivered just before the Cuban Missile Crisis and at the height of the threat of The Red Menace. Sputnik had recently orbited the earth, children had been taught to “duck and cover” and Civil Defense signs marked the location of fallout shelters. During this era, the hysteria-mongers honed their craft.

Fast forward 28 years (1989) and we see the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Block. We were promised a “peace dividend” by President George HW Bush resulting from decrease in military spending. This turned out to be nothing more than a political slogan. While spending on defense did decrease, spending by the federal government did not. If properly framed, there is always another “war” to fight.

Just one summer earlier, James Hansen of NASA delivered his infamous Global Warming testimony before Congress. In collusion with Senator Timothy Wirth (D-CO), they conspired to hold the hearings on the hottest day of the year. Wirth said, “We called the weather bureau and found out what was historically the hottest day of the summer. Well it was June 6 or June 9th, whatever it was. So, we scheduled the hearing that day and bingo, it was the hottest day on record”. He further stated, “We went in the night before and opened all the windows, I will admit, so that the air conditioning wasn’t working inside the room”. Don’t take my word for it, view the video from PBS’s series Frontline, episode “Hot Politics” which aired April 24, 2007.

What was the motive of Wirth, et. al.?  The answer can be found in a quotation in Michael Crichton’s State of Fear:  “But the military-industrial complex is no longer the primary driver of society.  In reality, for the last 15 years we have been under the control of an entirely new complex, far more powerful and far more persuasive,  I call it the politico-legal-media complex.  The PLM.  And it is dedicated to promoting fear in the population - under the guise of promoting safety.”

Crichton’s theory, as expressed in a fictional work, is that various pressure groups use government coercion to promote their agenda.  This is particularly true for the Green movement; it is the central tenant of State of Fear.

Originally, I intended to write a single post regarding this topic.  However, there are so many details and examples to express, that I must open an entire category of posts dedicated to The Eco-Industrial Complex.

I have just finished a vacation in Alaska and Canada that was part land adventure and part cruise.  It is amazing how a relaxing vacation can be screwed up by Federal bureaucrats even in a Foreign Land.

First, about Alaska - this state is beautiful.  However, it has one very major flaw: it is practically owned by the National Park Service.  Brown-Shirted eco-nazis paid a salary from your federal taxes are everywhere.  The time spent would have been all the more pleasant if I didn’t have to see them.  They were, for the most part, tolerable.  However, for an organization charged with the management of the National Forests in Alaska, they showed virtually no aptitude for science.

As an example, a Park Ranger boarded our ship to spend the day helping the Liberals on the cruise to assuage their guilt; if they were learning eco-crap from this official of the US Government it was easier for them to forget that their personal share of the carbon dioxide belched out of the ship for the duration of the cruise was about 6,000 pounds!  In any event, the Ranger showed a series of maps with the historic locations of glaciers.  We were supposed to be shocked at how far they had ALL receded.  That is, until one of the passengers pointed out a glacier that had grown considerably over the past 50 years.  The Ranger replied, “That’s just an anomoly” in the casual manner that all eco-whores dismiss FACTS that do not mesh with their Official Party Line.

The strangest part was the return home.  The cruise ended in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada.  We cleared US Customs while still in Canada!  An entire terminal of the Vancouver airport is dedicated to flights to the US and our friends from Homeland Security are there to dig through your luggage and examine your passport before you even get home to the US.  I wonder if there is a similar Canadian facility at the Seattle airport.  I think not - the US seems to be the most difficult western country to enter.  How happy was I to be harassed by the US Government before I even arrived on US soil.  They seem to be everywhere!

Who concocted this scam?  How much does the US pay Canada for all this space at the Vancouver airport.  Are the customs inspectors even US citizens and if so, do they live in Canada?

On the second day of our visit to Washington, DC, we were honored to visit the United States Archives.  To me, this is the second most holy site in the world (Independence Hall in Philadelphia being first).

I pointed out to my nephew Article 1, Section 8 of the original Constitution.  In its hand written format, it occupied 4 or 5 inches on the page.  I pointed out to him that this is all that our Federal government is authorized to do, yet, somehow, there are literally tens of thousands of pages of Federal laws, rules and regulations.  What profound sorrow Benjamin Franklin would feel knowing that his wise admonition “A Republic, if you can keep it” has been lost.

I took my brother and his son to Washington, DC - sort of the Belly of the Beast for those of us who look at our government as a bloated, tyrannical, festering pit of injustice.  In late 1983/early 1984, I lived relatively close to DC and visited often.  A lot has changed in 25 years.

One used to be able to tour The White House simply by lining up early enough in the morning.  A quick pass through a metal detector and in you went.  The Capitol was completely open - all you had to do was walk in.  Now, things have changed.  There were more police departments than one can count:

• The Park Service Police
• The US Capitol Police
• The Washington DC Metro Police Department
• The Bureau of Engraving & Printing Police
• The Secret Service
• The Metro Transit Police
• The Supreme Court Police
• The Treasure Police (one of these had a Coke truck pulled over)

And these are just the ones I saw.  Doesn’t this seem a bit excessive and redundant for a city that the US Constitution refers to as “not exceeding ten Miles square?”

I just opened another vaccination clinic.  This time in Meridian, Mississippi.  Unlike clinics in Tennessee, Mississippi does not have a license requirement for veterinary facilities.  This means we do not have to acquire unused equipment and letters from hospitals willing to take sick animal cases that we cannot treat.  You would think that with a lack of regulation to protect the public that there should be dead animals littering the streets in Mississippi.  However, other than the occasional unfortunate opossum, there is nothing of the sort.

While the rest of the US makes fun of Mississippi, they have gotten this much right.  Now if only their tax department could pull their collective heads out of their asses!

Today I received the most ironic of notices.  The IRS tells me we are filing too much paperwork!  That’s right, I have received notice that instead of a quarterly Form 941 (Federal Unemployment Tax Return), we should be filing only an annual Form 944.

In true IRS form, there was a cover sheet which had nothing more than our address on it, two copies of the letter and an envelope.  Why two copies of the letter?  Why an envelope - nothing had to be sent back.  I can only assume some Congressman’s nephew owns an envelope factory that has the contract to sell the IRS overpriced envelopes that will never be used.

Time wasted on this incident:  15 minutes (faxing copy of notice to our payroll service)

It is amazing just how many taxes, forms, reports and regulations there are for running such a small business.  Yet another notice has arrived from Nevada - an Annual State Business License Renewal.  We cannot have the "Privilege" of earning a living without having first sending a check to the State.

Time wasted on this incident: 5 minutes

Money wasted on this incident: $100.42 (tax and postage)