Changing the direction of this blog

This blog is going to become not-so-random.  I see and hear so many people who pine for the freedom and liberty we had just a couple of decades ago, and when the suggestion of Texas independence is raised, they respond with comments like "oh, it'll never happen", or "I'd love to see it, but we can't make it without Uncle Sam," or "We can't do that, it's illegal!"

First, go read Article I, Sections 1 and 2 of our Texas Constitution of 1874.  Flawed as that document is, it does contain those sections, and for that, I'll forgive it all its other shortcomings.  (Here, I'll help you.  This is from http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/text/IART01.html )

SECTION 1. Texas is a free and independent State, subject only to the Constitution of the United States; and the maintenance of our free institutions and the perpetuity of the Union depend upon the preservation of the right of local self-government unimpaired to all the States.

SEC. 2. All political power is inherent in the people and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their benefit. The faith of the people of Texas stands pledged to the preservation of a republican form of government, and, subject to this limitation only, they have at all times the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient.

Now, think about this:  The reconstructionist carpetbaggers had an 'advisory' role in Texas adopting a 'suitable' constitution before readmission as a state would be complete.  This means that the feds approved this wording.

The basic premise set forth in the US Declaration of Independence of 1776 is reiterated and validated by the feds when they signaled, by declaring Texas "reconstructed", that these two sections were valid and recognized by Washington:  That Texans have the innate right of self-determination.

Incidentally, this is a big part of why a Tenth Amendment resolution never gained traction in Texas.  Our ancestors were 130 years ahead of the other states, as our 10th Amendment resolution is the FIRST thing asserted in our state constitution!

More later.  Comments welcome.  Lively discussion in comment section eagerly solicited.  Moderation will be limited to ad-hominem attacks and gross stupidity.

Ship's gonna wreck... are you one of the survivors?

For every near-term security you get, you pay a price.  Let's start with an island, somewhere in the middle of the..... Atlantic Ocean.  Somewhere south enough, where weather won't be an issue to anyone, nothing will be a problem, except for other people. 

On this island, there is nothing but promise and possibility.  A ship wrecks there, a ship with some cargo, and a few (maybe couple dozen) passengers.  Far off the shipping lanes, for some reason.   From the beginning, they know without doubt that there will be no rescue, no resupply, no help from anywhere.

The only thing they have available to them is that the island has plenty of room for them to live cleanly, and that the island is of sufficient fertility to grow whatever they shall need to survive.  Now for the examination of the possible paths for their future.

The first thing in the script is to choose a leader.  This will cause speeches to be made, and campaigning for votes.  Promises will be made, and deep within, everyone knows that the promises, if they sound good, will be broken or ignored.  But they like how it sounds and, in an attempt to suspend reality, they wish hard enough that the promises were able to be kept, and elect the leader with the best-sounding proposals. 

Now it is time to implement the proposals, and this is when reality sets in.  King A (or President A, or Chief A, or Leader A, whatever you want to call him) has secretly dragged out of the ship and hidden a freezer full of ice cream.  Tons of it.  He passes this ice cream out and promises the same every day, if people will follow his plan.  This is what got him elected.  People wanted the ice cream so badly that they suspended the rational thought, and "forgot to think about" the fact that they are on a TROPICAL island with no electricity! 

Days go by, and the ice cream is getting softer, and people begin to whisper quietly that something is not right.  A few of the more bold begin to say things about King A and the fact that he must be keeping the best, hardest ice cream for himself, and passing out the less desirable to everyone else.  Others, who are still loyal and want their ice cream and are happy to have it even if it is a little soft, say that it is the work of the opposition who has sabotaged the supply of ice cream. 

Soon there is nothing but warm heavy cream that is spoiled.  Fighting breaks out, over what??? Over something that couldn't ever continue, the way it was being managed! 

MEANWHILE........

While the candidates were making grand public speeches to win the election (and grand private plots and calculations to steal same) and benefit from administering and supervising the consumption of what is on the ship, there is another small group, of maybe a half dozen, who are not interested in having a "leader" to pay homage to and to obey.

These few men and women were standing on the fringes of the crowd, when the speechifying started.... and listened to the blather of the candidates as they constructed ghosts of their own words, then used more words to slay those ghosts.

These few people looked around the crowd and saw nods, agreement, or frowns, and expressions of disapproval.  What they also saw were a very few other individuals, also looking around the crowd, with skeptical looks of bemused humor on their faces.  These few people who recognized that look for what it is, understood that these are not the fools, and that they should make contact with each other. 

No, these bewildered-appearing people shared the look they had on their own face.  These are the few who quietly made their way to a common point, and began the discussion of actually how to SURVIVE after the shipwreck.  These few people were thinking of ways to produce, unlike the majority of the stranded people, who were listening to others convince them of the most economical way to consume.  (The unspoken part of the convincing was, that in order to follow this plan, they would eventually run out of all goods.... but that was never mentioned.)

Quietly, and without alerting the thugs who were, for an extra share of ice cream, exerting no small effort to move the freezer into hiding, the thinkers of the crowd began to inventory the ship's cargo hold, which was deserted, as the other people were interested only in those things which could be consumed with no effort.  Here,they found many tools and pieces of equipment bound for various places.  Boxes of nails, cases of string, twine, and rope... truly a Christmas of wonders appearing in their search.  Some things were immediately useful; other things were noted in an inventory and remembered.

(A MONTH PASSES)

Hungry and desperate, the last surviving few of the 'community', who had run out of ice cream many days, aye weeks, before, were on their last ray of hope.  Desperately hungry, they leave the only shelter they have, under a young palm tree, and return to the ship, to the storage area for the dining facility.  Bare.  Wall to wall bare.  One man, on a whim, opens a door that had not been tried before.  In disgust, he looks at the cargo hold and its tools which were destined for hardware stores and garden centers, and slams the door.  "Too bad we couldn't have been traveling on a ship that had something useful in the hold," he grumbled as he slipped from consciousness and breathed his last breath.  Never did he realize he was on something better than a grocery ship.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, there were six huts constructed of native materials, held together with string and rope, raintight and sunlight-resistant shelters with matching hammocks or cots made of driftwood and bound together by twine from the ship's hold.  Two plastic lounge chairs sat, unused, by the side of one hut, in front of which were obvious replicas made of small trees and again, bound together by the same twine and rope that is seen everywhere in this little settlement. 

From a large tree centered in the midst of the huts, nails are driven into the sides of the tree, nails from another keg that was found in the ship's cargo hold, driven by hammers from another box bound for a tool store.  From these nails, hung lanterns, oil lamps found in yet another container, destined for yet another chain of stores. 

Down at the shoreline are two men and two women, working together in water about waist-deep.  Big smiles on their faces, the four turn and begin to wade to shore.  As they near shore and the water becomes shallower, it is apparent that they have had another very good catch of sea fish, caught in soccer goal nets, again, (you guessed it) in a different crate on the ship. 

Also in this catch of fish are a few turtles, nice fat turtles which are then cooked in a kettle (salvaged from the galley, or kitchen, of the ship) and the fat is skimmed from the cooking turtles, and saved for the oil lamps, so that there might be light for these survivors.

As they worked on the excess fish, cleaning them and spreading them out near the fire, to smoke and preserve, as a hedge against a day when they might not be able to have such a bounty available to them, the other two arrive from the garden area, with fresh greens and other fast-growing vegetables which were planted almost immediately after they left the "civilized" group.  As these six people laugh and joke and prepare their dinner, one would think that they were just lucky.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Life has changed greatly for these few who survived, but life has been kind to them.  All are well-fed, and happy, and well adjusted.  Oh, and they never had an 'election' to choose a leader.

What made this "luck" for these people is freedom.  They did not submit to a leader, in exchange for some alms from the leader.  They were not bribed by ice cream, and did not suspend their logic and reason, they did not ignore the future in hopes of immediate satisfaction, or instant gratification. 

The upshot of this little story is, all the shipwrecked people had the same start, with the same advantages, same disadvantages, and exactly the same access to all the items.  The difference was attitude.  Some welcomed the freedom to survive, even though to fail would mean death.  The vast majority of those on the ship chose immediate comfort, with no thought to the future.  Those few, who thought to produce, instead of consume, are the ones who will continue, and ultimately be the ones who populate the island.

Think about it:  all were shipwrecked, but there were two groups:  Victims, and survivors.  Which are you?

What a bunch of morons we have to "lead" us....

Well, so they did it.  Your grandkids will thank the bastards in D.C., same way as we thank our ancestors for the 16th amendment, the other one changing selection of senators, you name it... a whole slew of shit that transformed us from a constitutional representative republic to a kleptocratic mobocracy.  Thanks, fools.

You do realize it won't get paid, don't you?  Never.  Not ever.  Not paid off, anyway.  We'll pay interest until the cows come home, and pray there's always a sucker to assume the principal.  What happens when we run out of suckers?  Yup, you got it.... boom!  And the boom is going to come in the form of the Chinks or someone else demanding their principal, or SOMETHING for the paper that they hold.  When that something is NOT exactly what the paper they're holding specifies, then this opens up the door to all sorts of negotiations, with the party holding the paper in the driver's seat.  This is not good.

Hmm, for a cool couple trillion, they might allow us to give them California.  Lock stock and barrel, send Pelosi back (double whammy there).  There's only one problem.... right now we owe a little over 14 TRILLION dollars.  We don't HAVE seven Californias to give them!  Oh, we could give 'em Illinois, but after the cleaning fees they'd run up, it wouldn't be much of a net value to them. 

Mark my words, the USA is in a heap of hurt.... the hangover is much, MUCH worse than the party.... signing the ticket to the room sounds good when you're drunk and happy, but the next morning, when Angelo and Luigi show up with the little geek carrying the bill, it's gonna get ugly as hell.

Oh, and that stupor senate?  The new, 12 member panel made up ONLY of those who voted for this abortion of a bill?  A new subject.... with a whole nuther set of expletives to start it off.... that's coming shortly.  What a nightmare...