Get Well Mr. Mayor

It is with some dismay that I learned former NYC mayor Ed Koch is in the hospital, awaiting major heart surgery. Mr. Koch is one of those outsized personalities that make New York City the place that it is. He is a unique character in the pantheon of famous politicians. I remember my earliest days living in the City when Koch was mayor. He did a difficult job with panache, never shied from issuing his opinion, and stood up for a city that many others were all to happy to bemoan. He also has a good sense of the man in the street, the average person who lives a regular life, which is a sensibility that is claimed by rarely present in modern leaders.

So, get well, Mr. Mayor! (And since I won’t be around this December let me say happy birthday number 85 now.)

Published in: on June 18, 2009 at 10:57 pm  Leave a Comment  
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A Tale of Two Cities

Let’s take a look at two cities: Tehran, Iran, and Los Angeles, California, USA. In Tehran, the people are in the streets, protesting and risking their lives, after an election of the most dubious outcome. In Los Angeles, people are in the streets, burning cars, looting stores, and brawling, over the victory of their local basketball team. Wow, talk about a contrast!

Imagine that on their quest against tyranny, the Iranian people happen to catch the news from LA. They see thugs in the street destroying property and defying the police over the outcome of a game played with a ball. Incredible, isn’t it? the Iranians would be asking themselves. Of course, people in LA and the United States in general, take elections for granted. In Iran, this has proven not to be the case. In fact, in America you have the right to destroy public and private property without fear of having the responsibility to compensate for it because you were having a good time after your team won some make-believe title. Wonderful country, eh? Probably not a good idea to try this in Iran, especially where the Mullahs dwell.

In my perusal of some media outlets here in the United States, I have not found the above mentioned comparison. I have found a good amount of slobbering on the part of a media devoted to the current US administration and congress. Mostly they have embraced the slow by slow approach of a presidency which is gradually showing its lack of clarity and adaptability. In the mean time, people die in Tehran while the editors yawn and frown for fear of a bolder approach which might be to expose the silliness of LA compared to the gravitas of Tehran. However, to do this might pluck another thread from the seam that binds them to their king and his court, that is the newly installed US administration, which has made clear it will deal with tyrants, nuclear provocateurs, and fascist re-treads, all in the name of, “Can’t we all just get along.” Funny, I think that phrase came from LA, too.

So it goes in the world today, which can be fun if you’re in LA and help yourself to smashing a coffee shop window, setting fire to a police car, or destroying a city bus, and the authorities will kind of sit on the sidelines until you get tired and go home. But if you’re in Tehran and the bullets are flying at you because you want the right to choose your leaders, well, that’s something different now, isn’t it? And if the former beacon of freedom, that shining city on a hill, has dimmed its lights because ideologically it is more in step with your oppressors than with your desire for liberty, well, then you can’t be blamed for thinking that a darker age may be upon you.

Nonetheless, for those of you in Iran willing to gamble with your lives, consider that your effort is not in vain. Freedom is yours for the taking and can be achieved without help from the past reliable allies.

As for the editors of the media here in the United States, too many of you are cowardly and ignorant souls bent on the destruction of the very system that provides you with the protection to practice your trade. Thus, you’re incapable of reporting how and why this truly is the best and worst of times. Talk about dim bulbs.

Published in: on June 17, 2009 at 12:08 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Another Step…

The United States Government controls several of the largest banks in the country, two automotive companies, and will soon initiate a coordinated seizure of the medical establishment. By the end of 2009, an estimated 40% of the American economy will be under the aegis of the Federal Government. Each of these steps is on a path that F. A. Hayek termed “The Road To Serfdom.” I recommend the interested person read the book by the same title. It is astonishing how accurate Hayek’s analysis was and equally disturbing it remains as a predictor of the results of today’s actions by Congress and the President.

The average reader of this blog may not care, or the same reader may think that central planning of automotive production, banking, and healthcare are an improvement over the current system. History teaches otherwise. And as for the people who deem themselves brilliant enough to exercise such control over individuals, I quote Adam Smith,

“The Statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted to no council and senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.”

In other words, the current occupier of  the White House and too many members of the Legislative Branch, not to mention the Judiciary, seem to believe they can not only organize, but dictate, the manner in which an entire nation is to function down to the smallest detail. Folly and presumption are archaic terms in today’s vernacular, so allow me to be more bold. Anyone who thinks he can better administrate the activities across the spectrum of economics and social development of more than 300 million souls is a damn fool. Fools don’t bother me much as I avoid them as is practical. However, when they have the ability to tap my wallet at will, put me in jail, and force me to labor on another’s behalf, well, then I become more animated.

So to the damn fools who may read this blog (as opposed to those decent, honest, and hearty souls), let me remind you of events that took place some 235 0dd years ago. Our dear Mr. Franklin stood before the King’s Privy Council and received a dressing down like none before. You see, like the King and his Council, today’s authoritarians (that is you damn fools) in the White House and Congress feel that their unfettered power will rule for eternity. And again, remember that Mr. Franklin departed England for America where freedom as was never known before was born. Now, freedom must be born again, and there are those agitated individuals who are willing to deliver it. Those willing to rely on themselves rather than place their burdens upon another are beginning to do more than complain.

While you damn fools take another step toward tyranny and cultural suicide, there are those who will not hold hands with you on the road to ruin. They will pave their own way. After all, they don’t need you to show them how to do it. But you need them to finance yours. And in the end, the tyrant, the damn fool, doesn’t know there’s a light to turn on let alone where to find the switch. So let the last damn fool turn the lights out on this folly before it becomes the death of a nation.

Published in: on June 16, 2009 at 9:11 pm  Comments (2)  
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Shredded!

In light of recent actions taken by the United States Government and words spoken by too many pundits, journalists, and outright fools, may I suggest a reading of the following document, Page 1 shown here the other three available upon request.

constitution_1_of_4_630In particular, I heard only moments ago, a person speaking with the host of a popular financial show say that people involved with the recent Tea Party protests were akin to her complaining about Nieman Marcus raising the price of her lipstick. You know, some people simply don’t get it and this lady is one of them. She thinks that your money isn’t your money. She thinks that your money should go into a common pot so that it can be spread around according to the whims of a bunch of tyrants not much better than the tin pot dictators of yore or the pseudo-marxist red shirts of today. People of this woman’s ilk hold the rest of us in complete contempt. They like to refer to us a “complainers” unwilling to “do our part.” Well, the last time I checked, millions of people in this country are doing their part, paying taxes, providing goods and services to their fellow Americans, and raising their children appropriately. However, there is a growing class of people who refuse to do this. They’re the sorry complainers of this nation, the ones who think that nothing is fair, that they shouldn’t be held responsible for any of their bad decisions, and that they should be given whatever happens to be the handout du jour. They rely on political largesse and lap it up to the tune of billions if not trillions of dollars.

The last time I read the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence for that matter, I saw nothing about empowering the government to spread the wealth around. Thus, to the good lady mentioned above, let me respectfully ask her to keep her sticky fingers out of my wallet. An American keeps his money by right, not by privilege. Furthermore, the right to redress the government is one of the things mentioned in the Constitution and I happened to visit a few of those Tea Party rallies yesterday. Those people were universally doing just that: letting their government know they are not pleased with the direction they are taking. So if the good lady wants to mock them, go right ahead. Keep it up. Keep denying the reality that the forty percent of the people who still pay taxes in this nation are tired of giving it away to the other sixty percent. This is her idea of democracy: six men and four women are in a room, a vote is held and the resolution passes by six to four that the men can rape the women.

Just remember one thing ma’am. You don’t know how to get the job done, whatever it may be. You don’t know how to create wealth, only how to destroy it. You couldn’t run a lemonade stand on a hot July afternoon on a busy street. Before you hold the earners in contempt, I recommend you get out of that Nieman Marcus store, roll up your sleeves, and do something productive for a change. You’d be surprised the level of anger you feel after working hard, earning a few dollars, and then watching it drain away according to the edicts sent from on high in Washington.

Finally, if the good lady is offended by the previous paragraphs then it only uncovers her internal denial of her own philosophy. After all, it is she who wants to roast the golden goose to have a fine dinner tonight at the loss of all those golden eggs in the future. But boy oh boy, doesn’t that goose taste good? Too bad hers is the one being cooked.

Viva la revolution!

Published in: on April 16, 2009 at 8:45 pm  Leave a Comment  
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