Don't Envy the Rich

Remember when, in 1991, there was a 10% luxury tax on yachts costing more than $100,000. The yachting industry 'sank', and thousands of boating industry workers lost their jobs.

I only saw a few minutes of the Democratic convention. It reminded me of an 'Old time', Southern Baptist, week long tent revival meeting. The shouting and clapping their hands is something to behold. They think the louder they yell the better their chances of their dreams of a socialist republic will come true.

They are selling envy, and making promises to take from those rich people who get up at 0400 to go to work, and give it to those who are sleeping in. The Democrat's speeches will have no new substances. They will have the same promises in clever phrases, but the substance will be the same bromides that tribal leaders have preached since Plato wrote his communistic "Republic".

The humanitarian socialist like to reference President Kennedy's inaugural speech as something new when he said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." This is the question and challenge tribal leaders have always demanded of their sheep; cooperation and submission to the State.

President Kennedy should have asked, "What SHOULD your country do for you? Instead he was asking the people to produce for the guardian class, and warrior class, mostly all of who were government employees. They are the mob enforcers, using guns and force to collect from the producers, and keeping a portion of the collection for themselves.

The central planners and controllers do not want to ask the question, "What SHOULD your country do for you." They believe there is nothing the "State" cannot do, and the State should do everything. Despite 10,000 years of one example after another of failed societies that practice central planning, each new human born has the genes that have desires and fears. They fear for their safety and comfort if someone has more. It indicates the one with the most is superior.

Yves Guyot wrote, Socialistic Fallacies (London: Cope and Fenwick, 1910) and gave several examples of failed central planned societies. http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1166 Despite this record of failures, each new human wants what central planners promise, equality. Actually we all want to be superior, but since we cannot all be superior, since we all cannot win a Nobel Prize, we want what is the next safest thing, equality.

It seems like some people want to treat individual production as if it is community property, like the common grounds in my condo complex. All condo owners have a right to walk around our common lawns. Some people want to apply this to the production of others. Some people feel entitled to the production of others.

Envy is a deadly sin. It makes you want what others have. If you can't have it, you want to destroy it. You fear being less than others.

Charles Tolleson

Neither Obama nor McCain

"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders." ~ Hermann Goering, President of the Reichstag, Nazi Party, and Luftwaffe Commander in Chief

Under Barack Obama, how much more taxes will an individual pay who makes more than $150,000? I don't know, but you will pay more.

Your Medicare "premiums" have increased 140% in the past five years if your AGI was high. Why do the press reports say Medicare premiums are only $96 per month? If it's a "Premium", why do some pay more than others based on income only? That means it is a tax! If you earn more than 200k in 2009 your monthly Medicare "TAX" will be $394! Want to opt out, you have to give up all of your Social Security.

I expect Obama will raise the "premium" you pay for Medicare even more. http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Medicare/6-09-11-MedicarePremiumsExpected.htm

It does not matter if Obama wins, or if McCain wins. Big business will try to protect their positions by restricting competition. Big business will promote covert Fascism. They talk about the advantages of competition, but they want to reduce it to protect themselves.

Labor will do as business and try to protect their positions by restricting competition. To do this, labor will promote covert communism. They will salute the flag and sing God bless America, while trying to reduce competition.

Neither side will promote competition, nor will either side reward production. The country will continue on the path to a lower standard of living with a currency that declines in value.

Yves Guyot wrote in Socialistic Fallacies, 1910, of numerous failures of socialism.http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1166&layout=html

Despite the history of failures of central planners, and no matter how much we read the history of these failures, each new human is born with the genes of his ancestors, the genes that make them slaves to their emotions. It is rare for a new human to grow up and become a slave to reason.

Neither Obama nor McCain is a Messiah. That does not stop the adulation and ranting. It seems the congregation thinks the louder they cheer the greater the chances their dreams will come true.

Charles Tolleson

Bail me out!

A Reuters report that US Automakers are seeking $25 billion in federal loans shows that plunder, or the attempt to plunder, is functioning quite well in the so called free market economy of the United States.

Why is General Motors still paying one dollar per share in dividends when it owes 40 billion dollars and has only 20 billion dollars in cash?

The yield on a General Motors Corp bond maturing in 2011 is 30% in the open market! Why should the taxpayer be required to bail out such bad debt. They shouldn't, but the holders of these bonds have political clout.

If there are so many caring humanitarians who support bailing out General Motors, there is nothing stopping them from buying a General Motors product, or simply making a donation to the big three automakers.

The three American automakers are asking for below market rate loans, according to the news story. The automakers want to borrow money from the American taxpayer and pay interest of only 4.5%.

Why should the taxpayer support bad business. These businesses have been managed poorly and the labor unions have extracted money from the corporation that was not available.

The automakers, unions, shareholders, and creditors will probably get their loans. All of the big three auto dealerships and their employees throughout the US will be lobbying their congressional representative for the loans. Vendors who are subcontractors to the auto industry will be lobbying for the plunder. Local governments who want to keep their dealerships in business will lobby.

The Marxist and socialist cannot help themselves. They consistently reward bad behavior. It is a myth that the US defeated Marxism in the cold war. Marxism cannot be defeated. It is a disease that cannot be eradicated. It is caused by the human desire to live a life without pain and suffering. They want a Heaven here on earth. They do not want to wait for the Heaven that is promised after death. The Heaven they seek here on earth is just as mythical as the one they seek after death.

In a letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Michigan congressmen sought up to $25 billion in low-interest credit for U.S. automakers and parts suppliers from the federal government."This incentive program will make it more economically feasible for U.S. auto manufacturers and part suppliers to retool their facilities by providing low-interest credit," said the letter, dated Aug. 1."The federal government must be a strong partner in the investment in the advanced technologies," the letter said.

Notice the use of the usual word, "investment" as a soothing word. Nothing about the hidden taxes of printing money and inflation from this policy. And more soothing words, "advanced technologies". These Marxist con men and control freaks cannot imagine any technology since the stone axe having been invented without a government. They are too embarrassed to mention that the Wright Brothers invented the airplane with a few dollars of their own money, while the government's partner, Samuel Pierpont Langley, with a $50,000 federal grant, failed. http://lighterthanair.net/langley.htm

No! The federal government must not be a partner to business. That is fascism. That partnership is a scam to rip off the taxpayers and enhance the power of those at the top. It goes against the free market capitalism that the same leaders so proudly boast as they say the Pledge of Allegiance, and sing the National Anthem, and say God bless America!

These government control freaks have a need for more than fifteen minutes of fame. Their egos are like those of preachers and actors who need a lifetime of fame. The politicians have a constant harangue about how important THEY are, and that we should continue to pay them to do things that need not be done in the first place.

Part of the request is for the Federal Government to be allowed to NOT collect any payments during the first 5 years of the loan.

If the government can bail out big companies, why can't they bail out some small company guy who has a few employees? Well, they can, but they won't, and they shouldn't, bail out either the large or the small business. It has nothing to do with merit. It has to do with who has the votes. A small business owner has one vote. The big three auto companies have enough votes from those who stand to lose something that they can demand congress pass a law, and use force if necessary, to force the consumers into a business arrangement that is not good for the consumer. The mob is at work, right before our eyes.

America, the home of the free and the land brave will soon be known as the "Bail me Out" country.

Charles Tolleson

Entanglement with Poland

Our primitive behavior starts when we are one of millions of spermatozoa. As sperm we fight each other for the right to get to one egg. This is long before we know about duty, honor and country.

Poland and the United States struck a deal that will see a missile defense battery in the ex-communist state and deepen military ties, a plan that has infuriated Moscow and sparked fears in Europe of a new arms race.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk-He said the deal also includes a "mutual commitment" between the two nations to come to each other's assistance "in case of trouble."-

Another entanglement! The US just cannot help her/his self. He/She is like so many people who want to meddle in my life, telling me what to do and worrying about me as if they are my parents and I am their child.

These meddlers worried about me before I was conceived. They worried about me after my birth. The Jesus meddlers will worry about me after I am dead! Get your own life! Leave my life alone. If I was in trouble I would ask for your help. I have the right to ask, but I do not have the right to force you to help me. You may ask for my help. You may suggest how I should behave. You do not have the right to use force to run my life. You may like order in your life, but that does not mean you can force me to follow your rules of order. I love order as much as you. I just don't feel that I must control you in order to control myself.

Now the two bullies, Russia and the US, are going to put on a really big 'shew', as the late Ed Sullivan used to say. Bush and Putin thump their chests like two African gorillas, not civilized men. They cannot help using force on others. Russia and the US, and other governments, act like patronizing parents to grown children. They want to use force to run my life, and the lives of the Russians infected with tribal self adoration. They are arguing over who should control Georgia.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is another megalomaniac who loves the ultimate blood sport, war.

Why would the US risk so much to protect Poland, or Georgia? What does Poland have that is worth the lives of Americans? What does Poland have that is worth the risk premiums the US will pay? Why does the US risk so much to protect Israel? What is the benefit to the US for the risk premium the US must pay for protecting Israel?

I have advocated that anyone should be free to declare their independence. Georgia should be allowed to declare her independence from Russia. If Abkhazia and South Ossetia want to declare their independence from Georgia they should be allowed. If they want Wal-Mart to provide them government services that should be their choice. That does not give them free protection from the US, or anyone else. They must pay the insurance premium. The protector should not pay the premium.

Maybe all the provocative talk between Russia and the US is just another way to sell the Patriot Missile. Maybe it's not about testosterone. Thank goodness I own Stock in Raytheon, the producer of the Patriot Missiles.

I bought some defense stocks, Raytheon is one, in my old age, because I finally realized human nature is not going to change. "War is the health of the state." Bourne

It may be the simply truth that war is biologically inevitable between men. We have always plundered and killed each other to get the women. We disguise this primitive behavior by wrapping ourselves in a flag and uttering words humans invented to make us feel better about ourselves. Words like; duty, honor, and country. But, war is still primitive animal behavior.

Our primitive behavior starts when we are one of millions of spermatozoa. As sperm we fight each other for the right to get to one egg. This is long before we know about duty, honor and country.

An article by R. Baumeister, Eppes Eminent Professor of Psychology & Head of Social Psychology Area, Florida State University (My Alma Mater) is titled What's Good About Men?
http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~baumeistertice/goodaboutmen.htm Baumeister writes,
"using DNA analysis about two years ago. Today’s human population is descended from twice as many women as men. I think this difference is the single most under appreciated fact about gender. To get that kind of difference, you had to have something like, throughout the entire history of the human race, maybe 80% of women but only 40% of men reproduced."

Baumeister says the reason men do not reproduce as often as women is because they die younger in wars and because they take dangerous risks to get women.

After World War II the US conquerors pegged the Japanese Yen at a low rate, until 1971, when it was allowed to float. This allowed the American occupiers to buy the Japanese goods at bargain prices. The GIs stationed in the defeated countries; Japan and Germany, could buy the women with a strong dollar. This currency sophistication disguised the primitive way of plundering and capturing the women of various tribes. It made the conquers appear kind and sympathetic, to themselves.

Andrew Bacevich, author of "The Limits of Power", described another subtle way in which we plunder. - ("Our foreign policy is something that is concocted in Washington, DC, but it reflects the perceptions of our political elite about what we the people want. And what we want, by and large is ... this continuing flow of very cheap consumer goods. We want to be able to pump gas into our cars regardless of how big they may happen to be. And we want to be able to do these things without having to think about whether or not the books are balanced at the end of the month, or the end of the fiscal year."

"One of the ways we avoid confronting our refusal to balance the books is to rely increasingly on the projection of American military power around the world to try to maintain this dysfunctional system or set of arrangements that have evolved over the last 30 or 40 years.")

If the US and Russia wanted peace the US should sell the Patriot Missile System to Russia. After all, it is for defense only. With Russia and the US both protected from a sudden missile attack there would be no reason to spend billions annually on offensive weapons.

Another way to provide peace between the two countries, and others, is to have cross dual citizenship and allow Russians and Americans who have dual citizenship to vote in both countries' elections. Russia has about half the population of the US, so dual citizenship should be granted on a proportional basis, two Russians for one American.

Dual citizenship and dual voting rights would allow travel, commerce, and the exchange of mutual interests. Individuals would see that war is unnecessary. It would depower the state, who gets its power from war. Therefore, don't look to your chest thumpers for peace.

Charles Tolleson

Squirrels and Democracy

Squirrels live in a Darwinian world. The strong survive. They try to plunder each other's cache of nuts, or they try to gather their own nuts. Ether way, each squirrel is trying to survive, and trying to see that their genes are reproduced and survive. There are two ways to do this; plunder or gather your own nuts.

Squirrels are creative in gathering and protecting their nuts. They will pretend to bury a nut in order to throw off an onlooker who is waiting to plunder.

This is a harsh world squirrels live in. They are victims of each other's plunder and they are victims of predators. Some squirrels decided there was a better way. They decided to create a democracy for mutual protection, and they decided to prohibit plunder.

After the Squirrel Democratic Republic was created each squirrel could vote to elect a squirrel to represent them. The country was proud of the rights afforded to each squirrel. No longer would plunder be allowed.

The squirrel republic needed first to hire soldiers to protect the republic because they knew plunder was part of a squirrel's soul. The soldiers were the first to get a few nuts from those who gathered nuts.

A justice system was created to punish those who plundered. The judges also got a few nuts from those who gathered nuts.

Soon other squirrels formed their own republics, hired warrior squirrels, and the plunder began on a group basis.

Some squirrels decided it would be best if some of the nuts gathered would be shared with the less fortunate squirrels because some squirrels were not as swift and strong as other squirrels. The advocates for this system believed each squirrel would have a better chance of survival, thus strengthening the republic.

As winters passed it became apparent there were more squirrels in need of a share of the nuts gathered by the swift and strong. Each winter the supply of nuts gathered became less as the number of the swift and strong decreased. The weak seemed to thrive and reproduce. This meant the republic had to plunder other groups to get the required nuts for the republic.

The next winter was one of the worst in the republic's history. The supply of nuts was low because many squirrels had not gathered their usual large cache. The lack of nuts caused death and suffering among the squirrels.

The following spring, one squirrel candidate campaigned on a platform of taking a larger portion of nuts from the greedy squirrels and giving more nuts to those who did not have the ability to gather their own nuts.

The candidate also said he would provide more nuts for those capable of gathering nuts. He did not say how he would grow more nuts to gather.

He won the election, and continued the plunder.

Charles Tolleson, Squirrel Hunter