Government Agencies and Commissions, Federal Only

Nations grown corrupt Love bondage more than liberty; Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty. John Milton

Check out this list of government agencies and commissions, federal only, that are running your life. http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/independent-agencies.html All of these agencies and commissions were created by U. S. citizens who were sworn to uphold the U. S. Constitution. They were not created by a foreign enemy.


One of those agencies is the Tennessee Valley Authority, created in 1933 to provide electricity to the rural south, with taxpayer money, and after confiscating millions of acres of private property caused by dams. Seventy four years later it is still a government owned electric utility, unable to be replaced by private industry.

I also like the last one, Women's History Commission, established by former President Bill Clinton. I could not find a link to the commission, so it may have been disbanded for lack of interest.


You rely on the government, through one of these agencies or commissions, to protect you, but as this story reports, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/health/policy/28fda.html?hp only 1% of the drug testing sites are monitored by the Food and Drug Administration.


"In a report due to be released Friday, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, Daniel R. Levinson, said federal health officials did not know how many clinical trials were being conducted, audited fewer than 1 percent of the testing sites and, on the rare occasions when inspectors did appear, generally showed up long after the tests had been completed."


You become addicted to government protection. You become so dependent on the government you are not independent. You do not learn how to be independent and free. You never can pass on to your children and the next generation how to be independent and free. The learning continuum ceases when you rely on the "State".


The State will say they are going to "improve" the FDA. The candidates for office will say they are for "change" and "better" government. Listening to these repeated cliches by addicts of big government is like listening to the preachers who for 2000 years have said that Jesus Christ will return!

It is time for you to break the shackles of dependence and find a purposeful and proper life. Stop being duped by the beguilers.

Like priests of religion, purveyors of government will promise to save you from toil and pain. They promise you anything, a utopia, if only you will give them your money and your soul.

Bilbo Baggins.

Marines Probed in Alleged Captive Deaths, Fallujah

Below are excerpts from an AP story about Marines in Iraq describing the cost of glory. It is DDD; Death, Debt, and Destruction.

Bilbo Baggins.

By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer Sat Sep 29

Nearly three years after the battle of Fallujah earned Marines more Navy Cross medals for heroism than any other action in Iraq, prosecutors are investigating whether members of one squad killed a group of captured insurgents there.

If Jose Nazario's case goes to trial, defense attorney Doug Applegate said he would educate a civilian jury about the realities of combat.

"How do you convey to a jury confusion in the fog of war?" Applegate said. "We are going to have to convey that a guy who might cross the street under a white flag on your block might shoot your best friend on the next block."

Weemer's attorney, Hackett, a Marine reserve major, says it is unlikely that anyone who has never seen combat could grasp what Marines experienced in Fallujah.

"I remember the first day seeing a dog run down the street with an arm in its mouth. Dogs, cats eating bodies. Those are the kinds of scenes that a Marine is experiencing," Hackett said.

"You take a 22-year-old American, you shoot at him all day long, you deprive him of sleep, you make him see his buddies being killed, he has their blood on his boots and blouse, and when you don't see perfection in his decisions you court-martial him? It's absurd."

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press

Free markets among groups

I have been the moderator or more than one Yahoo discussion group. When a member would complain about how I was running the group I would offer to help them start a group and offered to join their group. I think discussion groups are representative of the free market. I want to join the most interesting group. If someone can provide a better group, then let the free market reign.

I wish the same principal applied to leaving, joining or starting your own government. Imagine how a government would try to compete and offer us the best services if we could voluntarily leave one government, without selling our property and moving, and join another, or simply have some private business (Blackwater:-)), provide our government services. Should the Amish be allowed to leave our group and start their own, without moving out of the U.S.? I believe they should. How would members of a discussion group feel if in order to leave the group they had to; quit their job, sell their property, leave their family and friends, and move to another country?

Should Martin Luther have been allowed to split from the Catholic Church and form a new religion? Of course. The Catholic Church had no right to use force on someone else who wanted to form their own group. Why does the State have the right to prevent one group from leaving a State and forming another State? The State does not have that right. The State does have force, which it uses to keep one group from leaving, which would diminish the power of the previous State.

Most of human history involved man living in small groups. Leaving a group voluntarily or being expelled has happened since man started living in small groups. In these small groups, thinking towards a common goal was the key for the strength and survival of the group. Let's all pull in the same direction. If you dissented you were expelled or ostracized. Soon you started or joined another group that you had more commonality with. Groups that could not stand dissent languished. It was open groups with dissent that advanced.

Now we have large and diverse groups. We are a large group of strangers. We look for the State to give us common goals; defense, social security, Medicare, etc. Dissent is just a recent development in mankind's progress. There are many among us who still feel threatened by dissent. We think it will weaken the resolve of the group and make us vulnerable. Some primitive instincts never go away.

Dissent also makes us doubt our own views. Like the captain of an airliner under Crew Resource Management should listen to other crew members if he is on a dangerous path, I want to listen to dissent about my opinions.

Charles Tolleson
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Totalitarians Among Us by Thomas DiLorenzo

In his famous 1944 book, The Road to Serfdom, Nobel laureate economist Friedrich Hayek warned of how creeping totalitarianism could find its way into democratic societies. First, there must be the wish on the part of political "leaders" to "unite" the entire country behind some plan for "national greatness" or "national glory," such as the one the "National Greatness Conservatives" (a phrase coined by Bill Kristol) have in mind for us. As the great 19th century economist Frédéric Bastiat wrote in his masterpiece, The Law, democracy can be just as dictatorial as genuine dictatorship if it enforces laws that compel national uniformity to a sufficient degree.

Since there is never anything like unanimity of agreement over one plan for the entire society, the "leaders" must gather around them as large a group as possible that would have a uniformity of opinion and the political clout to impose that opinion on the rest of society by force. There are several necessary characteristics of such a group, Hayek wrote in his chapter entitled "Why the Worst Get on Top." First, "if we wish to find a high degree of uniformity and similarity of outlook, we have to descend to the regions of lower moral and intellectual standards where the more primitive and 'common' instincts and tastes prevail." The largest group of people whose values are similar "are the people with low standards," the "lowest common denominator," wrote Hayek.
Moreover, if a "numerous group" in a democracy is strong enough politically "to impose their views on the values of life on the rest, it will never be those with highly differentiated tastes - it will be those [who are] the least independent, who will be able to put the weight of their numbers behind their particular ideals."

The political leader will also have to recruit many others to "the same simple creed," whatever it is. He will succeed by being able "to obtain the support of all the docile and gullible, who have no strong convictions of their own but are prepared to accept a ready-made system of values if it is only drummed into their ears sufficiently loudly and frequently. It will be those whose vague and imperfectly formed ideas are easily swayed and whose passions and emotions are readily aroused who will thus sell the ranks of the totalitarian party."
Finally, the "skillful demagogue" will be able to "get people to agree on a negative program - on the hatred of an enemy . . . the common fight against those outside the group, seems to be an essential ingredient" in "the armory of a totalitarian leader." In Nazi Germany, for instance, the "enemy," wrote Hayek, was "the Jew" who "had come to be regarded as the representative of capitalism . . . German anti-Semitism and anti-capitalism sprang from the same root . . ."

It is not surprising that the self-described "godfather" of neoconservatism," Irving Kristol, has mocked and ridiculed what he called "the Hayekian notion that we are on the road to serfdom . . . . Neoconservatives do not feel that kind of alarm of anxiety about the growth of the state." (The Weekly Standard, August 25, 2005). As long as the neocons are in charge, and kept in power by the masses of Fredheads, Freepers, bloodthirsty "evangelicals" and other primitive and easily-swayed followers, they will continue to destroy what is left of America's constitutional republic.

September 22, 2007
Thomas J. DiLorenzo [send him mail] professor of economics at Loyola College in Maryland and the author of The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War, (Three Rivers Press/Random House). His latest book is Lincoln Unmasked: What You're Not Supposed To Know about Dishonest Abe (Crown Forum/Random House).

Testosterone Under Attack

Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father! Lydia Maria Child

This story, Testosterone Under Attack- http://tinyurl.com/3d6fz7 - talks about the reduction in testosterone in young men as compared to previous generations. The causes suspected are obesity, medicines, and a chemical environment.

I think there is another reason that is not mentioned. I think men today are living in an anti male society. They are living in a feminized society that concentrates on the virtues of women and the evils of men. Men are ridiculed in TV ads. In movies and TV shows men are either bumblers or sadists. Women are prescient and calm under fire.

I am no bio chemists, but I suspect men who are prisoners of war produce less testosterone than men who spend time around beautiful, charming and provocative women.

If men today did not have to work in a hostile environment they might produce more testosterone. A man in today's workforce knows the sword of Damocles is hanging over his head. Testosterone is a liability in today's office.

Charles Tolleson

Is Religion a Grassroots Movement

I was having a debate about religion. One person said religion was a grassroots movement. I advocated religion is a top down organization, much like communism, controlled from the top.

I think of "grassroots" as something that is common and ordinary without a leader. Something that is spontaneous and voluntary.

No, I'm not advocating anarchy. I'm just advocating for freedom from big governments and big religions.

Remember the Air Force Academy scandal where non Christian cadets were pressured to see Passions of the Christ, resulting in the removal of the academy commandant. I would not call that grassroots.

Nor would I call it grassroots when your military superior expects you to show up for prayer breakfast.

The Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors conquered lands. They were followed by their priests, converting natives, or killing those who did not convert. That is not grassroots to me.

Mohammad started Islam. He promoted it with violence and war. Islam moved into the Iberian Peninsula by force. No grassroots effort there.

After the Christian armies invaded Afghanistan, the Christian missionaries followed. 23 of them were captured. Three Christian missionaries were captured in Iraq shortly after Saddam fell. The missionaries were financed by organized churches with a leader. Grassroots? I think not.

Keeping the communists atheists out of Korea and Vietnam was the good vs evil fight. Christians good, atheists bad. Using the largest army in the world to spread religion is not grassroots.

I just saw Senator John McCain's mother on TV. She said her son John did not have to make a second tour to Vietnam where he was shot down and captured. He went because, in her words, he had a duty to God and country. I never thought I would hear someone in the modern west speak of fighting for God. I guess Muslim mothers are telling their sons to fight for Allah and Islam. I will concede the effort of these mothers might be grassroots.

After the Christian armies stabilize Iraq and Iran, watch for the Christian missionaries to follow. "Spreading democracy" has long been a euphemism for "spreading Christianity". If you want to call that grassroots, that's fine with me.

I attended a Benny Hinn 'show' http://www.bennyhinn.org/default.cfm at the Oakland Arena. All 19,000 seats were filled. The Benny Hinn Ministries is not a grassroots movement. It is a top down, well oiled, money machine.

I believe the story below of a soldier trying to hold a meeting for atheists is a grassroots movement. Atheism has no church, no organization, and no leader.

Charles Tolleson

AP Sept 18, 2007 FORT RILEY, Kan. - A soldier whose superior prevented him from holding a meeting for atheists and other non-Christians is suing the Defense Department, claiming it violated his right to religious freedom. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., alleges a pattern of practices that discriminate against non-Christians in the military. It was filed Monday to coincide with the 220th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution.

Saudi women lobby king for driving rights

The desire for Saudi women to be allowed to drive automobiles is just one more chink in the armor of Islam. The Luddites of Islam cannot hold back the tide of change enveloping the Muslim world. The change is technology driven and cannot be stopped. Cell phones, the Internet, and personal contacts will allow Muslim women to gain access to the birth control pill. Families, the root of tribal culture and Islam, will become smaller and fractured, like western families. "Time makes more converts than reason". Thomas Paine

Charles Tolleson

By DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press Writer

For the first time ever, a group of women in the only country that bans female drivers have formed a committee to lobby for the right to get behind the wheel, and they plan to petition King Abdullah in the next few days for the privilege.
The government is unlikely to respond because the issue remains so highly sensitive and divisive. But committee members say their petition will at least highlight what many Saudis — both men and women — consider a "stolen" right.

"We would like to remind officials that this is, as many have said, a social and not a religious or political issue," said Fowziyyah al-Oyouni, a founding member of the Committee of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars. "And since it's a social issue, we have the right to lobby for it."

Committee members want to deliver their petition to the king by Sunday, Saudi Arabia's national day.

The driving ban applies to all women, Saudi and foreign, and forces families to hire live-in drivers. Women whose families cannot afford $300-$400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor's.

The last time the issue was raised was two years ago, when Mohammed al-Zulfa, a member of the unelected Consultative Council, asked his colleagues to think about studying the possibility of allowing women over age 35 or 40 to drive — unchaperoned on city streets but accompanied by a male guardian on highways.

The suggestion touched off a fierce controversy that included calls for al-Zulfa's removal from the council and stripping him of Saudi citizenship, as well as accusations he was encouraging women to commit the double sins of discarding their veils and mixing with men.

The uproar underscored the divisions in Saudi society between the guardians of its super-strict Islamic codes of behavior and those who want to usher in more liberal attitudes.

Conservatives, who believe women should be shielded from male strangers, say women in the driver's seat will be free to leave home alone and go when and where they please. They also will unduly expose their eyes while driving and interact with male strangers, such as traffic police and mechanics.
But supporters of female drivers say the prohibition exists neither in law nor Islam, but is based on fatwas, or edicts, by senior clerics who say women at the wheel create situations for sinful temptation.

Women tried to defy the ban once and paid heavily for it. In November 1990, when U.S. troops were in Saudi Arabia following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, some 50 women got behind the wheel and drove family cars. They were jailed for one day, their passports were confiscated and they lost their jobs.

The Collapse of Communism

Greenspan Book Criticizes Bush And Republicans
'They Deserved to Lose';
By GREG IP and EMILY STEEL September 15, 2007

Mr. Greenspan returns repeatedly to the far-reaching importance of communism's collapse. He says it discredited central planning throughout the world and inspired China and later India to throw off socialist policies. He recalls meeting a former manager of a produce distribution center in China who says he once had to labor to allocate produce according to government edict; now the allocations are made by auction. "Now I don't have to get up at four a.m.," he quotes the manager as saying. "I can sleep in and let the market do my job for me." Mr. Greenspan recalls his amazement when an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin asks him to discuss Ayn Rand, the libertarian philosopher with whom Mr. Greenspan had been friends.

Remember when we all thought the communist atheists were going to take over the world? We were paranoid and needed to stand up and fight for God and country. Then communism collapsed on its own incompetence.

The same will happen to our phobia for Islam. Islam will also collapse. It will not take over the world. It will not dominate a billion Chinese, a billion Hindus, millions of Christians, millions of moderate Muslims, and a few atheists.

The war lovers and those who want to "serve their country" need a bogeyman du jour. Islam happens to be the current item to create fear, therefore justifying all the control the State has over our actions. And as usual, the Christians are in fear their religion will be eliminated.

Islam has shown the horrors of radical beliefs. It is its own worst enemy.

Charles Tolleson

Google's $20 Million Space Prize

Google is offering a $20 million prize to anyone who can land a rover on the moon.
http://www.wired.com/science/space/magazine/15-10/ff_moon

I have suggested elsewhere that the United States should stop the billions of dollars it spends on cancer research and instead offer a billion dollars to anyone who can find a cure for cancer.

President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer. Since then billions have been spent on research. Billions more are spent each year. What you get is more research, but no cure is in sight.

Offer a billion dollars as a prize for curing colon cancer, or breast cancer, and you will see investment bankers loaning money to geeks with ideas about cancer cells. You will find smart guys looking for the prize. You will find smart guys who are looking for a challenge and a reward.

Maybe Google or a wealthy philanthropist will offer a prize for a cancer cure. I don't expect the government to do so.

Another option would be for someone to create a tax free foundation to accept donations toward a prize to cure different types of cancer. As the donations poured in the size of the prize would increase. Offering a prize to cure breast or ovarian cancer would garner much publicity because these are cancers that are specific to women.

Charles Tolleson