Memorial Day

Of my three score and ten I have seen many Memorial Day celebrations to honor the brave, and, to honor even those who were not so brave, but who made the ultimate sacrifice. Actually, most of them did not sacrifice their lives. It was taken from them violently. They may have volunteered to fight, but they assessed the risk, and hoped they would return safely. They hoped to receive honors, emoluments and women.

Since 1971 Memorial Day has been on the last Monday of May to create a three day weekend for the travel industry. http://www.usmemorialday.org/ This has led to many barbecues, parties, and promotional events that have little to do with honoring the military people who fought in wars. This has not detracted from the need for the cable companies and the other media to fill time in a 24 hour media day.

Memorial Day used to be celebrated locally. Now it is celebrated nationally with the hours of videos of war and the hours of interviews with veterans. No matter how many I watch I see the glorification and promotion of war in almost all of these. One must listen carefully to see any discussion of the causes of war. The promoters of war say Memorial Day is a time to honor the dead, not a time for a political discussion on the causes of war. These war lovers never want to discuss the causes of war. They just love war. They do not need a reason for war, they just need an excuse.

Every country has their day to remember those who "sacrificed" for the homeland, the king, god, etc. Throughout history every tribal chief and witch doctor has told their tribe that an aggressive tribe over the hill in the next valley is planning on a raid and will capture our women and children so---we must strike first, in the name of freedom!

People said they fought for freedom in Korea, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Grenada, Bosnia, and Iraq. The North Koreans had no ability to invade the United States and take away our freedoms. Neither did the North Vietnamese or Saddam Hussein. No Tyrant will invade the United States and take away our freedoms. We will give them away, meekly and slowly, one election at a time.

Thirty eight thousand U. S. service men were killed in Korea to preserve our freedom. Despite a draw, in the fifty years since, no North Koreans have come to the U. S. and been elected to any political position to take away our freedoms.

Fifty eight thousand men lost their lives in Vietnam fighting to preserve our freedoms. A Million Vietnamese were killed. The North Vietnamese won the war but they did not invade the United States and take away our freedoms. So what was all the suffering for? Nothing.

When the southern states seceded from the union, the northern states used force and aggression to unite the states. After World War Two the United States used force and aggression to divide Korea and Vietnam. When those two countries wanted to be united again, the United States used force and aggression to keep them divided! Untold horrors happened in these wars because men's egos got in the way of their reasoning power. Lydia Sicher once said: "Wars are inevitable... as long as we believe that wars are inevitable. The moment we don’t believe it anymore it is not inevitable."

Throughout human history males have fought for the right to breed. This basic animal behavior can still be seen in a troop of Baboons. Modern 'civilized' humans mask this natural trait with words such as; valor, bravery, sacrifice, duty, honor, etc, but, the basic cause for war, not the excuses, is the male's desire to mate. This desire to mate exacerbates the need for war in countries that practice polygamy and in countries who abort female fetuses. The disproportionate number or males to females is a time bomb for war. If there were four females for each male there would be fewer wars. This natural trait of the young males is exploited by the war industry, the defense industry labor unions, and the religious missionaries. No matter how often philosophers remind the young males of the horrors of war, the young males cannot help themselves. They drape themselves in a flag, any flag of any nation, play the bugle, and charge.

Here is a salute to those young men who tried to do the right thing. To those young men who trusted older men, please forgive us.

Bilbo Baggins, a veteran

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it." ~ Oscar Wilde

2.2 Million U.S. Prisoners

The headlines on May 22, 2006 shows there are 2.2 million people in jail in the United States. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12901873/

American men constitute one third of the men in the world who are behind bars. http://christianparty.net/incarceration.htm

There has been an increase in the number of women in prison due to drug law violations.

There simple are too many laws in the United States. It is too easy for a citizen of the U.S. to violate some law. There are drug laws, environmental laws, child abuse, domestic violence, voter fraud, tax laws, etc, etc.

The way to reduce the prison population and the huge unnecessary cost to society is to repeal some of the laws that punish someone when there has been no victim. Such laws are possession of an ounce of marijuana, or prostitution.

The reason these laws will not be repealed is because the law industry benefits from having so many customers. The judges, lawyers, DAs, court clerks, prison guards, cops, lab technicians, psychologists, DEA, FBI, ATF, etc. etc. All of these groups have their union organizations and association, like the American Bar Association, lobbying each state's judicial committee for more work. The district attorneys and judges are members of the bar associations.

In a democracy millions of people who have opinions wish for those opinions to become law. Many states prohibit convicted felons from voting. Many of these felons would vote to eliminate some of these laws. These same felons might vote to defeat a judge or district attorney who is corrupt and intoxicated with power.

People who have opinions want it to be illegal to cut down a tree, ride a bike without a helmet, and other absurd laws. These opinions are formed for them, not by them. Most people ignore logic and stick to what they have been taught in forming their opinions. A Muslim and a Jew both have their opinions formed for them by others. These opinions lead to each trying to legislate their opinions into written law. Before writing, most laws of opinions were unwritten and enforced by community pressure. As the community and tribe grew and writing became common, more opinions became written law.

The law has become perverted. It is now legal for one group to force their opinions on another group. It is also now legal for one group to plunder another group.

Bilbo Baggins

Cost of "Presumed" Safety

Retired General Tommy Franks said in a speech before the National Rifle Association in May 2006 that the cost of the dead and wounded soldiers was worth our safety, even if the dead was 240,000 instead of 2,400. I wonder if he has any thought about all the innocent women and children in Iraq that have been killed and wounded?

I think the general is making a false assumption. I do not believe we are safer than before America invaded Iraq. I believe we are less safe. With all the new government laws since 9/11, we certainly are less free. How is it, the more people are killed for freedom, the less freedom we have? I believe we have made more enemies than before our invasion of other countries. We have become the arrogant bully of the world. People fear a bully, but they do not respect him. Everyone hates a bully and wants to see the bully destroyed.

If I invade my neighbor's house with force and aggression then I have made an enemy. I could much easier protect myself from my neighbor with a good fence, a gun, door locks and alarms. General Franks and other war lovers will say I would be justified invading my neighbor if my neighbor was trying to kill me. General Franks, with his warrior mentality, would never ask why my neighbor was trying to kill me. My neighbor would be trying to kill me because I was supporting his enemy. The United States has supported the enemies of Islam and the United States has meddled too much into the affairs of our middle eastern neighbors.

The United States should make sure it has good locks and good alarms to protect the citizens and leave the rest of the world to their own religious, political, and economic affairs.

Bilbo Baggins

Minimum Wages

California Governor Schwarzenegger is trying again to get a $1.00 per hour boost to California's minimum wage of $6.75 an hour. http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=4923590&nav=9qrx
Who will benefit from the increased wages? Not the consumers! The 'State' will benefit through higher taxes. Minimum wage earners would see 14.8% increase in pay. Some of this would go to income taxes which would help the California budget. Some low wage earners would have more money to buy cigarettes, which have over $3.00 per pack in sales taxes. There would be more money for low wage earners to buy lottery tickets which half of prize money goes to taxes.

I think more good will could be done by setting a "maximum" wage. Just think of the number of people a business could afford to hire if the maximum wage they could pay was $3 per hour! Think how that would increase employment and lower the cost of products and services to the consumers. Why not? If the government employees have the power to set a minimum wage they have the power to set a maximum wage.

Chicago wants to force big box retailers to pay a minimum wage of $10 per hour plus $3.00 per hour in benefits. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14027483/ The community leaders were at a press conference backing the proposal. Some of the community leaders were church leaders who saw church contributions increasing, if only their members were paid more.

One of the good Samaritans who advocates for higher wages said, "I see nothing wrong with 'asking' WalMart to pay a living wage". The lie in this statement is 'asking'. The good Samaritan will not ask WalMart and other retailers to pay higher wages, the good Samaritan will use force and aggression to compel retailers to pay higher wages. When someone tells you they want to make the world a better place, hold on to your freedoms and wallet because they will use force on you to make the world a better place. Very few people who want to make the world a better place will do so by using the techniques of Edward Jenner (vaccination) or Mahatma Ghandi.

Most people think it is only fair to use force and aggression, which is immoral, to make the "big, greedy" companies pay a "decent' wage. Those big greedy companies like Wal-Mart have small profit margins. They will not be paying the increased wages. The consumers will be paying the increased wages. From the cradle to the grave we are all consumers. Who is advocating for us? Who is thanking Wal-Mart for providing us with goods that are inexpensive?

"The contrast between government and business power is striking. The largest company cannot tax you; the smallest unit of government can. The most profitable corporation cannot throw you in jail; the smallest municipality can." Murray Weidenbaum

Bilbo Baggins

Hating Big Business

People love to hate big business. This envy is a natural feeling towards an object that has wealth. Someone who is wealthy is a threat to the well being and self interest of others. Envy can be harmful to a society.

People think big business has too much power. It is true. Big business has the financial clout to buy votes in congress. But big business has less power than the State, so why do people hate big business more than they hate big government? People want to punish big business and reward big government. Big government seems to be the new god to so many people.

Big business fails and is replaced without violence and horror. Try replacing a big government without violence and horror. It rarely happens. Of the original twelve companies that made up the Dow Jones Industrial average index, only one survives, General Electric. Capitalism has a way of controlling big business, even if one becomes a monopoly.

Think of how many big and small governments have been replaced since the founding of the Dow Jones Index in 1896, and think of how much blood was spilled to accomplish the overthrow of big government. It is rare to find a big government that was broken and replaced by peaceful means. Big governments only operate with force and aggression. There is nothing voluntary about big government. The free market is voluntary and does not operate with force and aggression. If it does it is not a free market.

"The contrast between government and business power is striking. The largest company cannot tax you; the smallest unit of government can. The most profitable corporation cannot throw you in jail; the smallest municipality can." Murray Weidenbaum

Bilbo Baggins
May 2006

Overthrow a Suspect Government. Any will do.

Of all the arguments for the war, the following is one of the simplest and oldest. Though Spengler may be correct in "a" reason for war, I think he overlooks the long range and unknown consequences of invading another country. Spengler, like millions of others, is willing to kill just because he 'believes', instead of waiting for forensic proof.

Spengler writes that there has not been a terrorist attack on the U. S. since 2001 which justifies our invasion of Iraq. He fails to mentions thousands of terrorists attacks in Iraq that have killed thousands of American citizens and innocent Iraqi women and children. Nor does he mention the terrorist attacks on our allies in the Great Britain, Spain and the Australian citizens in Bali. Nor does Spengler mention all the terrorist attacks on the oil infrastructure in Iraq which has affected our economy and lowered the value of the dollar.

We should ask the question, why does our government meddle so much in the affairs of other countries, which creates enemies for us? Try taking sides in your neighbor's family disputes and see how many enemies you create. Why does our government takes sides in foreign disputes between other countries? Instead of offering to be just a mediator we decide to be an enforcer. The answer to why our government is a meddler in other countries' affairs is because it cannot help meddling into the affairs of others. It cannot help meddling into the affairs of its own citizens! Millions of people are afflicted with this condition, the need to tell others how to live.

Is democracy the antidote to terrorism? I suspect it is. Not because it is a virtuous and principled system but because people in a democracy will vote their self interest over principal.

Bilbo Baggins

"Every state begins in compulsion; but the habits of obedience become the content of conscience, and soon every citizen thrills with loyalty to the flag." Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. 1, 1935

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GD27Aa01.html
Dear Spengler,

As the head of the world's only hyperpower, I am committed to democracy in the Muslim world. I have said many times that democracy is the antidote to terrorism. Yesterday the Islamist candidates swept the municipal elections in Saudi Arabia, and I am worried that Hamas will win the July 17 national elections in Palestine and that Hezbollah will dominate Lebanon. Should I forget about democracy?

Perplexed on the Potomac

Dear Perplexed,

Let them elect anyone they want, but make clear that you will deal harshly with hostile governments. Perhaps you worry too much about whether people like you. You should focus on your successes, for example, the fact that terrorists have not staged a major attack on your country since September 11, 2001. I am not privy to such matters, but I do not believe this is true because your country's intelligence services have successfully infiltrated the terrorist organizations. Thomas Friedman of the New York Times argued in dead seriousness that the terrorists did not attack your country because all of them went to fight in Iraq. That would be the silliest thing Friedman ever wrote, that is, if Friedman had not written so many other silly things. You forestalled further terrorist attacks on the US simply by invading Iraq and overthrowing its government. Terrorists cannot work effectively without supporters inside governments to provide them with weapons, passports, intelligence, safe haven, and so forth. Middle Eastern governments are not quite governments in the Western sense. They resemble hotels that rent rooms to paying customers of varying persuasions. One has to hold the hotel manager accountable for what goes in inside the rooms. An entire government might not support terrorism, but terrorist sympathizers are ensconced within the military and intelligence services of most Middle Eastern states. One never knows just who these sympathizers might be; your spies do not know and are not likely to find out. Whether Saddam Hussein personally supported al-Qaeda is irrelevant. He indulged enough nasty creatures in his intelligence menagerie such that al-Qaeda obtained resources from Iraq where necessary. The same is true of other governments.

The old maxim applies, "Beat your children every day. If you do not know what they did wrong, they do." Your critics complain that you acted in the absence of precise intelligence. Just the opposite is true. In the absence of precise intelligence, the optimal course of action is to overthrow a suspect government. Any government will do. Syria or Iran might have done as well as Iraq. As long as the governments of the Muslim world believe that you will tear them limb from limb if they support terrorism, they will behave.

Spengler

Cancer Research

NASA is going to offer prize money for innovations. Now if we could get the National Institutes of Health to use some of their 27 billion dollar annual budget as a prize for a cure for cancer instead of spending it on research we might be better off. How about a cure for diabetes?

The war on cancer was declared by President Nixon. Still no cure after billions of confiscated tax dollars spent on research for the past 30 years. Add billions more in private charitable contributions for cancer "research" and still no cure. Instead of spending money on research, which simply leads to more research, offer a prize of a billion dollars for a cancer cure. You would see a stampede of nerds and geeks setting up laboratories throughout the world. Investment bankers would be backing the geeks and nerds. Major companies would invest millions looking for a cure to claim the prize. Instead, we spend billions on research and development in health care which has only bought more and more research, but no cures. Prize money would be capital that would incentivize creativity.

The research industry would be against a prize for a cure. Politicians and good Samaritans would be afraid people in foreign countries would be doing risky experiments on live humans, much like Edward Jenner's experiment with a farmer's son to find a cure for smallpox in 1796. Thank goodness Jenner did not need to get the approval of the United States Food and Drug Administration before conducting his experiment. Millions would have suffered waiting for the FDA approval.

People who love big government as the great problem solver would be aghast that private enterprise could find a cure for cancer, when billions of government grants could not.

Maybe a non aggression prize should be made available to a country that goes ten years without aggression toward another state. I would contribute to such a prize.

Bilbo Baggins

Envy and Oil Profits

The recent profits by the oil industry has created a hue and cry to tax "excess profits". This is and example of envy, one of the seven deadly sins. Envy interferes with the flow of justice and rational action. When someone is on trial for a crime the jury is influenced by their feelings of envy or sympathy for the defendant. These emotions are always affecting the jury in all of us as we go about our daily lives. We seldom make rational decisions because of emotions.

If one desires to be in a position of wealth and power that will make one envied, then that person should become unknown. If they must be known, they should be very humble.

I am retired and living on a fixed income. In January 2001 I bought shares of Chevron Oil because it had a history of raising dividends, which would help me fight inflation. Two years later I sold the stock at a loss. I now own Conoco Phillips for the same reason. I have made some money on Conoco because of the profits. Now you want to take some of my profits and pay for a war I was against. A war which has seen the price of oil go from $30 at the beginning of the war to the doubled prices of today. Iraq today produces less oil than at the start of the war.

High oil prices will cause less driving. Less driving means fewer highway injuries and fatalities (and better profits for auto insurance companies). It also means less pollution. Higher oil prices will mean alternate fuels can become competitive with oil. Higher oil prices means less driving for the poor, but they will choose to buy fuel instead of cigarettes, beer, and lottery tickets, or they will move to locations where they can take government transportation, or they will car pool. If oil prices stay high I suspect some of the hundred pound people will stop driving three thousand pound SUVs twenty miles to go shopping. High oil prices means millions of people who own shares in the oil industry companies will become better off. In a free market high oil prices means more people searching for more oil. I realize the oil industry is regulated so much and receives favorable tax treatments so it, and no other industry, operates in a pure free market in the United States.

Profits are a good thing for people like me who risk their capital for a better material life. To improve our lives is not just the pursuit of material things, it is a spiritual quest for a better life.



Bilbo Baggins