From Each According to His Ability

On the RUFF discussion group, Errol wrote,

"Come on folks, don't you believe that, as a society, we have a responsibility to take care of the children, the infirm, our old people and those that can't take care of themselves? If we can't do that directly, then it behooves us to put a government in place that will do it for us."


Errol,

We are doing just what you advocate. Twelve years of free schooling, free emergency room care, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, free parks, free transportation for the poor, senior lunches, public housing, etc. etc. Nobody starves in this country.

No. I don't believe I have a responsibility to take care of someone else. Should you have the power to define my responsibility to people I do not know? If you believe you have a responsibility to take care of someone you do not know, as millions like you believe, why do you have to be forced to do so? Can't all of you do it voluntarily?

I do agree that compassion and charity is an important component of the proper life of an individual, and a culture. We all interact with each other by; charity, trade, or force. If you are advocating force to make me take care of someone who may be a parasite on the common good, then I disagree. I prefer charity and trade.

If you divided up all the assets in the country equally, a few generations from now there would be "haves and have nots". Many of the have nots would have spent their share on vices, and the haves would have been the recipients of those pleasurable expenditures.

I know some old people who worried and saved, and some old people who partied like there is no tomorrow. Should the person who worried and saved be "responsible" for the ones who partied? Whether they should or not, the group, through forced confiscation of property, does just what you advocate. Still, this does not seem to be enough for many feel good humanitarians. They never stop feeling guilty. They always need to control the lives of others in order to feel good about themselves. When humanitarians want to control you for the "common good", hold on tightly to your wallet and liberty. The attempt to do good is a subtle attempt to rule.

Throughout history the communistic instinct has always been rampant in groups. From small communist tribes to verses in the Bible.
All that believed were together, and had all things in common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. (Acts 2:44-45)

For thousands of years groups have looked to some authority to take care of them. This authority has been in the form of some Pharaoh, God, or Despot, or collective farm. All of these cultures perished because they could not feed their people.

Our democracy that was created to provide individual rights and responsibility for individual choices is no different. Just listening to the exhortation for collectivism means the group mentality is strong in us. We all believe we will be safer in a group. Once in the group we all try to get more from the group than we put in. If the group has the power to provide for us, the group also has the power to make us miserable.

You and Gary will get your universal health coverage. The collective group wants it. That program, like ERISA and war, has unseen consequence. Be careful what you wish for. All cultures that have "group think", like Arab Islam and Russian Communism, all retard the progress of mankind.

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need", is a siren song that should be avoided. It turns people with ability, into people who are needy.

Bilbo Baggins

How to Fight Radical Islam

By Charles Tolleson

Where liberty is lost, life grows precarious, always miserable, often intolerable. John Trenchard & Thomas Gordon, Cato's Letters


There are three ways humans interact with each other. They are; love/charity, trade, or force. Which will be the best option for fighting the dogma of radical Islam, or any other dogma?

The Christian Bible has many verses that advocate violence. Why have these bible verses been debilitated more than the violence advocated in the Koran?

The Bible verses lost their strength when western philosophers started writing about individual rights, due process, habeas corpus, and liberty. These rights included property rights. These rights reduced the power of kings and tribal leaders. This evolution of thinking about individuals never appeared in the Muslim world. The Muslim world continued to think of the Group and how Allah made all decisions, and the individual had no free will.

These changes made the Arab Muslim world remain stagnant as the west grew and prospered. The young United States, a Christian country with trade and individual rights, surpassed the Arab world in just a few years and became the world's greatest superpower. This progress only created envy in the Arab world. The progress of the west has shown Islam to be a failure in advancing the quality of individual life. The only way to justify centuries of beliefs in Allah is to eliminate the competition, the successful western way of life. It is safe to say that each religion has a share of fanatics that want to eliminate any competition. Competition is a challenge to one's beliefs and these challenges can be embarrassing to false beliefs.

So how does the west fight those radicals in Islam would want to destroy the west?

Killing all Muslims is immoral and unacceptable.

Killing some Muslims will only create more hatred of the west by the new Muslims.

Prohibiting any new Muslim immigrants is a small step.

Expelling all non citizen Muslims is another small step.

Amending the U. S. Constitution to prohibit the teaching of any religion.

Over generations all cultures change. Islam will also change because of modern technology. The leaders of Islam are deeply concerned about this potential change, like Christian leaders have been concerned about technology changing the morals of the young people in the Christian world. Christian leaders passed blue laws that prevented work on Sunday. They wanted people to be free to attend church and give money to the church, and receive their weekly indoctrinations.

We should export ideas through the Internet and trade. Covert propaganda programs will have an impact on changing the minds of young people in the Muslim world.

Time and technology will fight radical Islam better than the U.S. Military will. The radicals of Islam are not afraid of our army. They are afraid of the words in our Declaration of Independence and our Bill of Rights.

Still, if the violence of some radical Islamists disappears, it will appear in some other excuse for violence and war. As Chris Hedges wrote, "war is a force that gives us meaning to life". War is exciting, and each generation falls to the lure of glory and a place in history.


JEDDAH, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah said on Sunday women in the conservative Islamic kingdom will have the right to join the advisory Shura Council as full members and participate in future municipal elections, meeting a key goal of liberal activists.

"Because we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior ulama (clerics) and others... to involve women in the Shura Council as members, starting from the next term," he said in a speech delivered to the Shura Council.

"Women will be able to run as candidates in the municipal election and will even have a right to vote," he added.>

Privatizing U.S. Assets

"The person who has ideas and carries out reforms will find himself embattled by those whose profits and privileges will be threatened by those reforms. But those who will stand to gain (most) from those reforms quite often do nothing ... and this is the greatest impediment to change." Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince (paraphrased, published 1515)

There are billions of dollars in wealth owned by the United States government. This includes the mineral rights to billions of dollars of oil and gas that is located within a 12 mile limit off the United States coasts, or to a depth of 650 feet, whichever is the farthest offshore. The States own the rights extending to 3 miles offshore. The federal government also owns the fishing rights for 200 miles from shore. These assets should be owned by the citizens, not the government.

Other valuable assets include the national parks and the millions of acres of National Forest. There are millions of acres of federal land that has coal, gas, oil shale, and grazing land. All of these assets are managed by government employees of the Minerals Management Service, a branch of the Department of Interior. This allows opportunity for the people of this agency to be bribed because there is no profit incentive for them.

(Here’s a better idea: The BLM manages nearly 260 million acres of land, largely concentrated in a dozen Western states. But the Constitution says that (leaving aside the District of Columbia) within the several states, the federal government shall have plenary authority over only such lands as shall be needed to construct “Forts, Magazines, dock-Yards and other needful Buildings,” and which shall have been “purchased by the consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be.”

The BLM can show no bills of sale for the vast majority of these lands. They have never purchased these lands, nor even sought state legislative approval to do so. They do not own them. Let them turn over those 260 million acres – a whopping 85 percent of the state, in Nevada’s case – to the governments of the respective states in which they lie, and go home to Washington City. Vin Suprynowicz, assistant editorial page editor of the daily Las Vegas Review-Journal and author of The Black Arrow. Visit his blog.)


There are thousands of miles of interstate highways that could be privatized into a corporation collecting tolls, owned by the American citizens. All of these assets can produce a profit if privately managed.

Each of these asset classes should be turned into a private corporation. The corporation would issue an equal amount of shares to each citizen of the United States. Half the shares issued would be available for public trading, which will show the free market efficiency of the managers. The non trading shares would be in a private retirement account for each holder. The holder cannot sell or transfer the shares, nor can they be inherited. The executives and employees should be paid from a percentage of the profits only.

The dividends earned from the different corporations will go to fund a person's retirement. When a new citizen is born, that citizen will own shares in the National Parks Corporation, The U.S. Oil, Coal, and Gas Corporation, The Salt Fish Corporation, The National Forest Corporation, and The National Highway Corporation, and any other profit producing asset owned by the U.S. Government.

Privatizing all these assets would increase their profit, which would go to each citizen's retirement. This would eliminate the need for Social Security.

Bilbo Baggins
Update, September 11, 2008

Reuters
11 Sep 2008 05:08 AM ET
U.S. Interior Department employees who oversaw oil drilling on federal lands had sex and used illegal drugs with workers at energy companies where they were conducting official business, an internal government report said Wednesday.
Employees at the department's Minerals Management Service "socialized with, and received a wide array of gifts and gratuities from, oil and gas companies," according to the department's inspector general, Earl Devaney.

"When confronted by our investigators, none of the employees involved displayed remorse," Devaney said.

The alleged activities occurred between 2002 and 2006 and involved 19 former and current workers at the Minerals Management Service's offices in Denver and Washington.
Devaney recommended that those still on the job be fired.
The workers were involved in the "royalty-in-kind" program that collects and sells oil and gas turned over by energy companies as royalties for drilling on federal lands.
About $4 billion a year in royalty-in-kind oil and gas is collected and sold by the department.

The oil companies named in the report were Chevron , Shell Oil, Hess and Gary Williams Energy.

The findings came as Congress considers legislation to expand offshore oil drilling, a priority of the Bush administration, which has been criticized for having close ties to the oil industry.

Drilling opponents are likely to use the report as fodder to try to stop such legislation.

"It just underlies the fact that we shouldn't be putting the future of our coasts and beaches in the hands of people who obviously care nothing about the public," said Anna Aurilio, Washington office director for Environment America.
"American taxpayers deserve to have confidence that their interests are being protected when it comes to collecting royalties from the production of public oil and gas resources, especially given the potential for expanded domestic drilling," Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, said of the inspector general's report.
'Culture of Promiscuity'

Devaney said he discovered "a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity" among workers in the royalty-in-kind program.

He said one supervisor engaged in illegal drug use and had sex with subordinates.

Several staff admitted to illegal drug use and "illicit sexual encounters," he added.

There was also alcohol abuse among government workers when they socialized with employees at regulated oil companies, he said.

For example, Minerals Management Service staff accepted lodging from energy companies "after industry events because they were too intoxicated to drive home or to their hotel."

Devaney said the same government workers "engaged in brief sexual relationships with industry contacts."

He said many of the employees did not believe federal government ethics standards and department policies applied to them because of their "unique" role.

"Employees said they felt that in order to effectively perform their official duties, they needed to interact in social settings with industry representatives to obtain 'market intelligence'," he said.

One agency worker went so far as to say that a goal of the royalty-in-kind program was to be "part of the industry," Devaney said.

Rep. Nick Rahall, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said the activities of the Minerals Management Service staff "are so outlandish that this whole IG report reads like a script from a television miniseries -- and one that cannot air during family viewing time."

Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat, said it was no wonder the Minerals Management Service was doing a poor job of overseeing the government's oil royalty program.
"Clearly the employees had 'other' priorities in that office," he said.
URL: http://www.cnbc.com/id/26654653/

Oil Imports

Many people have a vested interest in the Iraq outcome. Religion, oil, Israel, and geo politics all play a part. I'm writing about oil as a reason to go to Iraq.

How important is it that we control the oil in Iraq? I think it would help our economy in the future if the outcome is a positive one. I don't believe Iraqi oil is necessary for our economy. Of course, the American economy is so regulated it is difficult to call it free enterprise. Still the economy would adjust without Iraqi oil. I calculate about 3% of U. S. oil consumption comes from Iraq. The people in Malibu and Santa Barbara would rather buy oil from the radical Muslims than see an oil rig on the horizon.

Still we go to war and kill thousands so we can drive our cars and kill 43,000 Americans here in traffic accidents. We want energy so we can have an oak desk shipped 3,000 miles across country by truck! Yes, we need energy, but do we need Iraq's oil that badly? If someone else buys their oil that will mean other suppliers will have more to sell to us. We import twice as much oil from Venezuela, another U. S. enemy, than Iraq. They want our money as much as we want their oil.

The one thing we don't hear much about is trading oil in dollars. Saddam was threatening to sell oil in Euros. According to this article Saddam started selling oil in Euros in November 2000, the same month George Bush was elected President. Could it be Saddam was after revenge for the past 7 years of sanctions and being driven out of Kuwait? http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Iraq/Iraq_dollar_vs_euro.html
OPEC was/is required to sell oil in dollars. If OPEC or Venezuela decides to sell oil in another currency that will weaken the dollar drastically.

The United States economic policies, since President Nixon took us off the gold standard, has weakened the dollar. The $500 billion debt for the Vietnam war and other binge borrowing and spending has contributed to the weakened dollar. If OPEC decided to sell oil in another currency you would likely see the U. S. economy go into a severe recession.

However, if you have the largest military the world has ever seen, there is no reason to have a sound economic policy that creates a favorable balance of trade and a strong dollar to buy oil. You can just use force and take the oil.

Bilbo Baggins


http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html

August 2006 Import Highlights: Released on October 17, 2006
Preliminary monthly data on the origins of crude oil imports in August 2006 has been released and it shows that two countries have each exported more than 1.65 million barrels per day to the United States. Including those countries, a total of four countries exported over 1.00 million barrels per day of crude oil to the United States (see table below). The top five exporting countries accounted for 67 percent of United States crude oil imports in August while the top ten sources accounted for approximately 87 percent of all U.S. crude oil imports. The top sources of US crude oil imports for August were Canada (1.850 million barrels per day), Mexico (1.652 million barrels per day), Saudi Arabia (1.477 million barrels per day), Venezuela (1.151 million barrels per day), and Nigeria (0.898 million barrels per day). The rest of the top ten sources, in order, were Iraq (0.620 million barrels per day), Angola (0.525 million barrels per day), Algeria (0.506 million barrels per day), Ecuador (0.285 million barrels per day), and Brazil (0.196 million barrels per day). Total crude oil imports averaged 10.537 million barrels per day in August, which is an increase of 0.384 million barrels per day from July 2006.

Canada remained the largest exporter of total petroleum products in July, exporting 2.464 million barrels per day to the United States. The second largest exporter of total petroleum products was Mexico once again (1.757 million barrels per day) which was a slight increase from last month of 0.048 million barrels per day.

Crude Oil Imports (Top 15 Countries)
(Thousand Barrels per Day)
Country Aug-06 Jul-06 YTD 2006 Aug-05 Jan - Aug 2005


CANADA 1,850 1,624 1,756 1,596 1,595
MEXICO 1,652 1,561 1,661 1,630 1,574
SAUDI ARABIA 1,477 1,264 1,409 1,444 1,518
VENEZUELA 1,151 1,191 1,160 1,332 1,340
NIGERIA 898 1,014 1,071 1,053 1,065
IRAQ 620 592 5 62 369 545
ANGOLA 525 666 485 585 429
ALGERIA 506 413 339 330 229
ECUADOR 285 170 267 292 280
BRAZIL 196 187 130 127 93
RUSSIA 167 134 107 72 246
KUWAIT 136 155 159 208 209
COLOMBIA 125 144 160 208 155
CHAD 122 73 84 91 82
NORWAY 108 160 99 59 124

Total Imports of Petroleum (Top 15 Countries)
(Thousand Barrels per Day)
Country Aug-06 Jul-06 YTD 2006 Aug-05 Jan - Aug 2005

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

CANADA 2,464 2,114 2,277 2,085 2,127
MEXICO 1,757 1,709 1,780 1,745 1,682
SAUDI ARABIA 1,514 1,313 1,451 1,589 1,607
VENEZUELA 1,438 1,467 1,453 1,601 1,617
NIGERIA 1,026 1,073 1,152 1,112 1,153
ALGERIA 803 743 631 610 487
IRAQ 620 592 562 369 548
ANGOLA 544 695 506 609 440
RUSSIA 484 425 366 237 441
VIRGIN ISLANDS 377 353 314 299 323
BRAZIL 311 279 194 226 140
ECUADOR 292 181 274 297 289
UNITED KINGDOM 262 340 290 442 392
NETHERLANDS 259 196 195 108 126
NORWAY 255 236 207 131 231

Gluttony

Wed Oct 18, 2:28 AM ET
SYDNEY (AFP) - An obesity epidemic affecting almost 16 percent of Australians cost the country a staggering 21 billion dollars (15.8 billion US dollars) last year, double what it spends on health, new figures show.

If all the people in the world were of one race and religion and one government, there probably would still be wars, or individual and gang conflicts between young men. Young men are always competing for a mate, like Baboons.

If there was peace throughout the world and people could live in harmony, the above story about obesity indicates the human condition wants pleasure.

According to the World Health Organization, "In general, obesity rates start to climb towards epidemic levels in developing nations as the sedentary lifestyles and rich diets -- laden with sugar, fats and salt -- common in many Western countries take hold, noted experts and the 10th International Congress on Obesity, held in Sydney in September. The exploding rates of obesity contribute heavily to increased rates of many chronic diseases such as type-2 diabetes, hyper-tension, arteriosclerosis, cerebral hemorrhaging, and certain kinds of cancer.
Type-2 diabetes was once a disease that only affected adults, most often advanced in age, but today it has become common even among obese pre-adolescent children. Ninety percent of those afflicted with type-2 diabetes are either overweight or obese."

Pleasure comes in many forms but the act of over eating is one of the most hedonistic and destructive forms of pleasure. If there was peace and prosperity on earth, humans would simply kill themselves by gluttony.
Gluttony, excess in eating or drinking, is one of the seven deadly sins.

Obesity is caused by pleasure seeking choices. The result is diabetes, heart problems, and other diseases. People who are obese and a burden on society still demand a "right" to health care. They want their pleasure of gluttonous eating. They know the risk, but they are willing to take the risk. When they lose the bet and become ill, they expect someone else to pay for their health care.

Bilbo Baggins

Social Security Problem, Solution

AP, Oct 18, 2006, Washington.

Social Security checks for nearly 49 million retirees are going up by 3.3 percent next year — an average increase of $33 per month, though rising health care costs will take a bite out of the gain. The monthly benefit for the typical retiree will rise to $1,044 from an average of $1,011 this year. The cost of living adjustment announced Wednesday by the Social Security Administration will go to more than 53 million people. Nearly 49 million receive Social Security benefits and the rest Supplemental Security Income payments aimed at the poor. The 3.3 percent increase compares with a 4.1 percent benefit rise in for 2006, which had been the biggest increase in 15 years.


The Social Security program began in 1935 when most people did not live past age 65, so, in the design, people only saw what they wanted to see. People always fail to see the unseen consequences in a government program. It takes years before the people want the problem "reformed". The free market discovers problems quicker and corrects the problems. Like any government program, they all eventually show their design defects.

One way to solve the social security problem of the future is to prohibit cost of living raises to the youngest age group, each year. For 2007 there should be no COLA, ever, for those who are 62. In 2008 there should be no COLA, ever, for those who are 63, in 2009, for those age 64, etc. If this policy is followed each year for the next age group, 65, 66, 67, etc., after 20 years there will be a stair step benefit raise for each recipient as they get older and unable to work. Inflation will reduce the value of the amounts younger recipients get. People born after 1950 are not able to collect full benefits until age 67. The COLA freezes will, with inflation, reduce the overall expenses of the Social Security program.

Bilbo Baggins

The Plight of the Uninsured

Man tends always to satisfy his needs and desires with the least possible exertion. Albert J Nock

CNN did a segment on The Plight of the Uninsured on October 16, 2006. The middle class couple, Lyla Barr and Emmet Barr were both chefs. They had canceled their insurance years earlier and when Lyla gave birth to a baby, they had no insurance.

The Barrs lived well but they made a choice to not buy health insurance. When Lyla became pregnant they even applied for public assistance, expecting someone else to pay for their medical procedures, but they were too wealthy for assistance. Wealthy enough to pay for their own medical care, they tried to get others to pay.

Mr. Barr said it is a shame a nation this wealthy does not provide insurance for all. Who does he think should pay for his insurance? His neighbors? His clients? His siblings? Does Mr. Barr want the State to force him to buy insurance? Mr. Barr is like millions in the group who hope to get more from the group than his is putting in. This group behavior is what Alex de Toqueville referred to as "soft despotism".

Why did the Barrs not decide to have their baby at home, like humans have done for thousands of years? They could have a midwife come in and assist for a few hundred dollars. This would lower the cost of health care. But, the State prevents this kind of medicine. It is because of the State that health care cost go up. The State, with the lobbying efforts of the hospitals, insurance companies, and doctors, prevent competition, which would lower the cost of any service. Besides, the Barrs, like most people, wanted the best medical care money can buy, even if they had to take out a second mortgage on their home. The Barrs were young and decided the risk reward ratio did not justify the expense of health insurance. The lost their bet, presently, but if they do not buy any insurance for the rest of their lives they may come out ahead.

I can imagine the Barrs giving up many discretionary items; wine, travel, and ornaments, in order to buy health insurance. Many Americans will choose to buy beer, cigarettes, lotto tickets, amusement park tickets, etc., instead of buying health insurance. It is a matter of choice. People are being trained that they are not responsible for their choices. This training will destroy a society. The Barrs, white, middle class, yuppies, are playing the victim card. It is the current policy, playing the victim, for not taking responsibility for your choices.

Each generation of a collective is blindly taught that the best way to go through life is to take from others.

Bilbo Baggins

A Letter to a Young Man

Be like the bird, who halting in his flight , On limb too slight, Feels it give way beneath him, yet sings, Knowing he has wings. -Victor Hugo, writer (1802-1885)


Dear Chase,

As your fifteenth birthday approaches, I realize how much of your life I have missed. I know your parents have given you advice on how to live. You can choose to ignore these gnomic words if you like. Part of being free is making choices and accepting responsibility for our choices. That freedom to choose and be responsible for the risk involved is what makes us human. Some people want to take away this risk though laws and regulations. Make choices you think you will never have to apologize for.

You should try to separate good advice from propaganda and clichés. As you develop knowledge about life, you can transform this knowledge into wisdom, if you learn how to think. Having wisdom may not make you happy. Knowledge will help you understand how things happen. Wisdom will help explain why.

Pursuing wisdom will help you find the proper life. You should always aspire to live the best life possible. You should tell others to live the best life they can. That is better than trying to manage their lives, as often happens in a democratic society. You cannot control someone else, so try to control yourself and live the best life you can. How you live your life will likely have an impact on those around you and future generations, even until eternity.

Study the seven deadly sins. They are; Pride (more vanity than the pride that makes us proud), Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, and Sloth. After you study the sins then you can study the seven virtues. They are: Faith, Hope, Charity, Fortitude, Justice, Temperance, and Prudence.

Most people spend a lot of time trying to look beautiful. They worry about how other people will judge their appearance. As a result we do not spend enough time studying our own conscience and character.

Conscience comes from Latin and Old French and means to know the self. It takes many years to know yourself. You never know how you will act in a situation until that time appears. Your conscience will be formed and influence your decisions. If you have a good conscience you will not be able to be a bad person because each day after a bad act your conscience will punish you. Bad people are not bothered by their conscience. If you do not know your own conscience, how can you know the conscience of others, your friends, and strangers? You rarely can. A conscience is something that may show up in a public display of good or bad. If it is a public display of good, you will not know if it is a true conscience or if the person is merely trying to enhance their reputation.

Like conscience, character is something that is private. It may appear in public but you will never know if someone is of strong character or simply trying to build a positive reputation.

How do you find friends of good character and good conscience? You must develop insight and be careful. Trust is one of the virtues, but trust is something you should not give away freely unless someone has earned your trust. After many years of knowing someone you still may not know if they can be trusted because they have never been tested. Get your dad to explain about a person’s primary and backup personality. If someone says, “What is the matter, don’t you trust me?” Never be afraid to answer with a simply, “No”.

C S Lewis wrote a book, “The Four Loves”. He said they are; affection, friendship, Eros, and charity. Eros comes from the Greek God of Passion. I like to refer to Eros as the Greek Devil of Passion. There are other degrees of love. Infatuation, lust (Eros), and attachment. Love is a flattering master. If you fall in love, you always think Eros will last forever, but it will not. You should hope to get to the attachment level. If you fall in love and get beyond attachment to a spiritual level then you have experienced pure love.

If you fall in love, you will experience joy and pain. No one has been in love and avoided pain. Falling in love may take only an hour or a day, but it takes a lifetime to forget.

Humans will participate in all forms of evil and cunning to have their desires and pleasures satiated. This satiation can often bring more pain than pleasure. Humans will always do what is in their best interest. Be aware of this in all your relationships with others.

When you are in a place with a beautiful woman do not look at her. I know it is unlikely you can follow this advice but you should be aware her beauty has more power than a hundred elephants. This power will take your money, pride, and dignity. Most men willingly submit to this in order to have their desires satisfied. This is looking out for their self interest, what is most important to the self. When their desires have cooled they will be disappointed and angry unless they have reached the attachment level of love.

Your respect, like your trust, is yours. You are more likely to be betrayed by someone you trust than someone you distrust. Do not give your trust and respect away easily. Government officials say everyone deserves respect. This is incorrect. Respect and trust are to be earned. Does someone who practices one or all of the seven deadly sins “deserve” respect? If you make everyone earn your respect and trust then you will make them a better person and therefore build a better society.

People in positions of authority will demand respect. What they get instead is fear and or obedience. Even people in positions of authority must earn respect, like your parents, who I believe have done what parents should do; therefore, they have earned the right to be respected by you. You have been fortunate in having a stay at home mom who has always been there when you went to school and has always been there when you came home.

Buying and owning material items is a desperate attempt to be happy. Buying things only brings ephemeral happiness. If it brought permanent happiness you would be content with what your have and want nothing else. Socrates said, “To want nothing is divine”. It is impossible to want nothing in our society but you should be aware that what you want, once obtained, will be replaced with another want.

Do not run too fast in your pursuit of happiness, slow down and happiness will pursue you.

Try to develop all social graces and manners. This is a good way to show consideration for others. Common courtesies help different people live in harmony with each other.

Try to read books that have been around for a long time. Time helps validate their quality. Millions of contemporary books are feel good, self help or politically correct vacuous prose.

While engaged in civil discourse, always use the first person pronoun sparingly. Use the second and third person often. Praise others in public but criticize them in private, and only if they ask for a critique, or if it is your responsibility. Ask others whose opinions you value to critique you.

Never forget what is important in life. Food, Health and comfort from the cold are the most important. A reliable family, and reliable friends are next. Never place money, pleasure, and items at the top of the list.

Morals and laws are always changing. Never be afraid to question them. It used to be moral and legal to own slaves and offer human sacrifice.

Try to live in the present. You cannot live in the past or future so live today the best way you can. Learn from the past and prepare for the future. You do not own the past or the future, only the present, so said Marcus Aurelius in his “The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius”.

My cynicism should not turn you into a young misanthrope. You should remain optimistic while staying alert for evil. Look for goodness. Evil will look for you.

I am honored you have my name. You come from a long ancestral line on both sides of your parents who were hard working and independent. You must honor this ancestral line, but, most of all you must honor yourself and live the best life you can. This is how you pay respect for all of humanity’s suffering and creativity.

Grandpa Tolleson

Earthpark

"The mass-man does in fact believe that he is the State, and he will tend more and more to set its machinery working, on whatsoever pretext, to crush beneath it any creative minority which disturbs it - disturbs it in any order of things; in politics, in ideas, in industry." Ortega y Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses, ch. XIII, 1930

The socialist commissars are planning another project to make them our master controllers. Some people are closet tyrants and are obsessed with controlling actions of others.

When I hear the socialist controllers say they want to teach the children to be good "stewards" of the land, I know they are talking about controlling all land, even privately owned land, land the children do not own. The social controllers are planting the seeds in the minds of the children that they have an obligation to control the land other's own.

Most of the project below will be paid by taxpayers, to brainwash the children. It is fascinating to see the cattle in the feed yard chewing their cud, well fed, enjoying the safety of the feeder, before being led to slaughter.

Bilbo Baggins

GRINNELL, Iowa - Central Iowa has been chosen as the site for a massive indoor rain forest and environmental learning center that organizers hope will be as successful as its predecessor in the United Kingdom.
"This is going to be one of the world's greatest classrooms and through that classroom, our citizens and particularly our young people can learn stewardship," said David Roe, president of Central College in Pella. "It could very well be the salvation of this planet that we all call home."

In addition to Earthpark's local funding, which will come primarily from a hotel-motel tax in Marion County, the Department of Energy has promised a $50 million grant, and the state is expected to allocate $15 to $20 million.

The Farm Boys and the Flyboys

"Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others." Aristotle

Two farm boys lived in a small town north of Pensacola, Florida, home to the U.S. Navy pilot training. During the last years of World War II the boys, one 4 years older than the other, would stand in the hot farm fields and admire the Navy Cadets training in the SNJs, a two seater with a big Pratt and Whitney, 650 horsepower radial engine.

Occasionally one of the local girls would date a Cadet and bring him to attend church in the farm town. The Cadet, in his starched white uniform, would look like the best of America. He was the alpha male, and the girl lucky enough to date him was the alpha female. All eyes were glancing, with envy, at the two alphas. The image of the Cadets that formed in the minds of the two farm boys would stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Around 1949 the older brother joined the Air Force as an enlisted man and became a heavy equipment operator. He would sweep the runways at Andrews Air Force base near Washington, D. C. and have a first hand view of the Air Force pilots flying the latest jet fighter, the T-33, or F-80. When the older brother came home on leave, he would tell the younger brother about the officer corps and how the young Jet jockeys, with their helmets and oxygen masks, looked like men from Mars. The older brother went on to the same work in Korea during the Korean War.

Their farm had an 80 acre plot that was one half mile long with a fence on each end. During hot summer days working in the fields the boys could hear the navy SNJ flying overhead. Occasionally they would hear the sound of and engine go silent, and the engine would backfire, pop! pop! The boys were familiar with the sound as it meant the instructor had closed the throttle to the engine and told the student cadet that he was to execute an engine failure procedure and a simulated emergency landing.Many times the student would select the farm's 80 acre field for their simulated emergency landing. The boys would watch as the planes descended in a circle, gliding with the throttle closed. The boys could tell when the airplane was around 1000 feet which field the cadet had selected because at 1000 feet he was supposed to be over his landing target, then complete a 360 turn and land.

One day the younger brother was out in the field picking cotton when the familiar sound was heard. Pop! Pop! He watched as the plane spiraled down and approached the field the boy was standing in with wide eyes watching the whole episode. As the plane descended to about 50 feet it passed close to the boy as the throttle was increased for the go around procedure. As the plane increased power and started to climb the boy could see so clearly the instructor in the back seat of the airplane. The boy waved with enthusiasm and amazingly, the instructor waved back. The boy was so excited.

A few months later the younger brother returned home from school and to his amazement there was a navy SNJ trainer sitting in the field, right where the cadets had practiced so many times. The younger brother immediately went to the plane, which had just landed. The instructor and cadet, both soaking wet with sweat, were standing there beside the plane, which had landed wheels up, due to an engine failure, and only slid about 100 feet in a crop of peanuts. Soon a helicopter came to bring an accident team and pick of the crew. Before landing the helicopter crew stopped a few yards away and picked up a few watermelons the family was growing. It was an exciting day on the farm.

The younger brother did three years as an enlisted man in the army. After the army, he learned to fly and graduated from college. The younger brother became and airline pilot. The older brother was filled with pride for the accomplishment of his younger brother. The older brother never stopped bragging about his younger brother.

When the older brother was young he was one of the most robust men in the county. He could work any man into the ground. He attended 12 years of school without missing a day. He lived a hard life of partying. A hard and loyal worker, he never asked anything from another man, but was always willing to give. He said when he was on his death bed he hoped he would be wheeled into a topless bar and die watching the girls dance.

The officer corp should be the best any country has to offer. The officers should put their principals ahead of their careers. They should be role models for the rest of the country, and live up to the image the farm boys had of the them.

Charles Tolleson

Why Governments Exist

"The mass-man does in fact believe that he is the State, and he will tend more and more to set its machinery working, on whatsoever pretext, to crush beneath it any creative minority which disturbs it - disturbs it in any order of things; in politics, in ideas, in industry." Ortega y Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses, ch. XIII, 1930

Bob Schieffer, CBS, Oct. 4, 2006, wrote, "There is only one reason for government: to improve the lives of its citizens".

Mr. Schieffer,

Your one and only reason for government sounds like sophistry Marx and Lenin would use. If the government has the power to improve my life it also has the power to make it miserable. I was taught that it was up to me to improve my life. I was never taught that it was someone else's responsibility. Unfortunately, your message is an excuse for many people to blame others for failures and bad choices.

How do you define "government" that will improve my life? Is it my neighbors, friends, or family members who are supposed to improve my life? Or do you define government as government employees and private contractors and lobbyist, such as former Congressman Randy Cunningham?

How much is government supposed to "improve" my life? Some or a little? Is it like we measure the GDP, 1% per year, or much more? Is improving my life defined by making me happier, or providing me with a bigger house? Or is a government committee going to decide whose life needs improving and by how much?

I think you meant governments exist so "we" can improve our lives. However, too many people literally believe what you said. It would be political suicide for a candidate to run on a platform of personal responsibility. One rarely hears a political leader say it is up to the individual to "improve" their lives by learning how to make good choices. No. What we hear from politicians is the same cliché you give for the purpose of government. The politicians always use words like, "more government investment" and other nebulous terms which we are led to believe will indeed, improve our lives. This belief keeps millions of government employees employed, and with better retirement benefits than of those who pay them. The non producers are telling the producers what to do.

The government you speak of has become too huge to manage, even if it could "improve" our lives. It has become a leviathan on the oceans, a leviathan that cannot be steered or stopped, and we all are like barnacles that ride along clinging to Leviathan.

Charles Tolleson

The Cost of War

At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone. -Jean de la Bruyere, essayist and moralist (1645-1696)

Robyn Blumner wrote in the Saint Petersburg Times on Oct 1, 2006 about the huge cost of the Iraq war. One of the cost was care for veterans. More veterans now survive battlefield wounds that leave them alive, but dependent of full time care. This cost is skyrocketing. Whenever a nation enters a war three things happen; death, debt, and destruction. One may be declared the winner but they both are economic losers. Even in a draw between two nations at war, both are losers.

Many people have written about how wars were financed before the United States Federal Reserve System was created in 1913, which allowed the Federal Reserve to print money. The fiat paper money system became a way for the country to pay for wars and other federal programs. If the fiat paper money system was eliminated and the government had to pay with real money there would be fewer wars and government programs.

The best was to help veterans is to not create veterans. Free trade with all and alliance with none will go a long way towards reducing the number of wounded veterans, not to mention reducing the three Ds of war; death, debt, and destruction.

Bilbo Baggins

School Shootings

"The mass-man does in fact believe that he is the State, and he will tend more and more to set its machinery working, on whatsoever pretext, to crush beneath it any creative minority which disturbs it - disturbs it in any order of things; in politics, in ideas, in industry." Ortega y Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses, ch. XIII, 1930

After a rash of school shootings across the U. S. there is a hue and cry for the "State" to do something. President Bush has called for a "summit" on school shootings, as if local crimes are the responsibility of the Federal Government! There is fear of rampant shootings in the government schools, the place where boys are demeaned daily by the teachers, who are 85% female, who have been themselves brainwashed by government institutions of Colleges of Education, with their government grants. With millions of young students stressed out from peer pressure, hormonal changes, divorced parents who should not be parents, it is a wonder there are not more school shootings. As individuals loose their morals, so does the collective society. The lose of individual morals is due to one thing, immoral leadership of the group. An example of immoral leadership is former Congressman Duke Cunningham.

Is school violent rampant? Bill Dedman, MSNBC, wrote; "It may seem so, with media attention focused on a spate of school shootings. In fact, school shootings are extremely rare. Even including the more common violence that is gang-related or dispute-related, only 12 to 20 homicides a year occur in the 100,000 schools in the U.S. In general, school assaults and other violence have dropped by nearly half in the past decade."

Instead of disarming everyone we should arm a few of the teachers and administrators who want to take firearms training, the same training law enforcement officers take. These teachers and administrators would not have to wait for a swat team to arrive to stop the shootings. The swat teams usually arrive after the shootings anyway.

Many psychopaths and deranged school shooters have plenty of grudges against the police. Why is it you never hear of someone who is determined to kill, go into a police station and start shooting the police?

Bilbo Baggins

Jefferson and the Danger of centralized Power

Gary is in favor of Universal Health Coverage in the U. S. If he gets it here, I suspect he would be in favor of it all over the world. Unlike the Mafia, Socialist never sleep. The Mafia will plunder you once a week and then leave you alone and go play. The socialist is always awake, traumatized about the injustices he sees, scheming of another way to control your life.

It would not matter if the government taxed us at a 100% rate and provided us the basic necessities; food, shelter, and health care. The costs would keep going up, and the quality down, because the third party payer system doesn't require accountability, in any industry. Even then the government would spend more than the 100% it would take in. Centralized power has never worked, and it won't work, no matter how much we want it to work. It just keeps taking away our freedoms, our social power, and creating more power for the State. If the States, counties, and cities want to provide health care, food, shelter, clothing, education, roads, dog parks, people parks, libraries, fire protection, police protection, and on and on, then let them compete and demonstrate what is the best form of government. Some states and cities are legislating a minimum wage and other compulsions that take away individual freedoms.

Jefferson was in favor of small government units deciding what to do about these social issues but he was against centralizing this power at the federal level. He wrote about this in a letter to Joseph Cabell in 1816. Part of the letter is pasted below. http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl241.htm

Bilbo Baggins
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No, my friend, the way to have good and safe government, is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent to. Let the national government be entrusted with the defence of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations; the State governments with the civil rights, laws, police, and administration of what concerns the State generally; the counties with the local concerns of the counties, and each ward direct the interests within itself. It is by dividing and subdividing these republics from the great national one down through all its subordinations, until it ends in the administration of every man's farm by himself; by placing under every one what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best. What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one body, no matter whether of the autocrats of Russia or France, or of the aristocrats of a Venetian senate. And I do believe that if the Almighty has not decreed that man shall never be free, (and it is a blasphemy to believe it,) that the secret will be found to be in the making himself the depository of the powers respecting himself, so far as he is competent to them, and delegating only what is beyond his competence by a synthetical process, to higher and higher orders of functionaries, so as to trust fewer and fewer powers in proportion as the trustees become more and more oligarchical. The elementary republics of the wards, the county republics, the States republics, and the republic of the Union, would form a gradation of authorities, standing each on the basis of law, holding every one its delegated share of powers, and constituting truly a system of fundamental balances and checks for the government. Where every man is a sharer in the direction of his ward-republic, or of some of the higher ones, and feels that he is a participator in the government of affairs, not merely at an election one day in the year, but every day; when there shall not be a man in the State who will not be a member of some one of its councils, great or small, he will let the heart be torn out of his body sooner than his power be wrested from him by a Caesar or a Bonaparte. How powerfully did we feel the energy of this organization in the case of embargo? I felt the foundations of the government shaken under my feet by the New England townships. There was not an individual in their States whose body was not thrown with all its momentum into action; and although the whole of the other States were known to be in favor of the measure, yet the organization of this little selfish minority enabled it to overrule the Union. What would the unwieldy counties of the middle, the south, and the west do? Call a county meeting, and the drunken loungers at and about the court houses would have collected, the distances being too great for the good people and the industrious generally to attend. The character of those who really met would have been the measure of the weight they would have had in the scale of public opinion. As Cato, then, concluded every speech with the words, "Carthago delenda est," so do I every opinion, with the injunction, "divide the counties into wards." Begin them only for a single purpose; they will soon show for what others they are the best instruments.

My Reticent Son

The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject. ~Marcus Aurelius

My son recently said someone told him he talked too much. This made me think about how reticent my son used to be.

When he was young he was very sociable, pleasant, and cooperative. Everyone like to be around him. He loved to play, play, play. He would not talk much, though he laughed and engaged in conversation, there were times when his silence made me wonder how he could be so quiet. He was passive, non aggressive, and curious. I was concerned he would be vulnerable to many fringe groups with cult like ideas.

When he was a teenager he would listen with intensity to my discussions about life, war, politics, money, love and other subjects. He seldom interrupted my lectures and did not ask too many questions. I could see him self absorbed with my words. I thought he might be bored, and being a good loyal son, he did not show any expression of his boredom.

When he graduated from high school he was fearful of the world ahead of him. He felt unprepared for the "jungle" he was about to enter. All his life he had been told what to do, when to get up, where to show up for class. His basic needs had been provided for him. Now he had to provide for himself and make his own decisions. He would have loved living in a commune.

From his reticent days as a teenager my son spent 4 years in the military, working in a sensitive department. He worked his way through college. He worked in the financial services industry. He was a licensed insurance and real estate broker. He learned to fly and sail. He started a small business and developed it successfully. He was a voracious reader. He was a student of life. Society, and his experiences and observations, were a laboratory for experimenting with his views. Over and over his views were reinforced by these experiences. He learned a lot, and the verification of his many views gave him confidence to express his views when he saw errors in others. When he visited me, he did more talking and I did more listening. The student had become the teacher.

During his adult life my son has developed self reliance. He has gained a lot of confidence through his independence. After he became an adult I told him he was free to pursue happiness, but he was responsible for any choice he made in his pursuit. The result of his choices were positive. These vindications of his choices gave him the confidence to speak out.

What caused a reticent child to grow into a mature, confident, renaissance man filled with robust certitude? I think it was a childhood that did not teach him to worship idols or myths. He never attended a church. He was never taught racism or bigotry. He was simply taught that it is wrong to harm others. He was taught that he is responsible for the outcomes of his choices.

Children raised from infancy to worship a god or emperor have little doubt about the world. Had my son been snatched from his crib as a baby and raised in a Muslim world, by the time he was 18 he would have been supremely confident. He would know that Allah was making all of his decisions for him. He would have memorized the Koran and bowed to Mecca 5 times each day. He would not have feared the world, and it is unlikely he would have transformed himself into the critical thinker he is now.

Bilbo Baggins