Freedom For You

Women Suffrage

2012-02-03T08:28:00.000-08:00

Most people believe women only received the right to vote because of the big god government's 19th Amendment. This is what most young people are taught in the government owned and operated school prisons.

What few people know is that Wyoming allowed women the right to vote in 1869, before the 19th Amendment. Before the 19th Amendment there were thirteen other states that allowed women full suffrage. Other states allowed partial suffrage, and only 9 states had no suffrage of any kind for women.

Try to imagine how the people lived in the past. The early founders were not even sure the republic would succeed. They also feared they would be hanged if they lost the revolution. They struggled with how to form the republic and how to administer it. Some advocated for a monarchy where the people could not vote.

After the republic became successful some women started to demand the right to vote. Polling places were in saloons, where ladies could not go.

Many women lived on farms, miles from the polling place. Most women had large families to care for. There were no fast food restaurants on the dirt roads to the polling places. Try to imagine a mother of small children and a baby getting up early in the morning, loading them into a wagon on a rainy cold day, to ride over bumpy roads to a polling place of drunken men, just to vote.

If women wanted the right to vote why did they not ask for the right 500 years earlier, before men asked for the right? If women could demand the right to vote then why did they wait so long? Did women take the right to vote or did men give them the right to vote? If they took the right to vote, then they could take the right to vote, so why did they wait so long to take the right to vote?

It is easy for us to judge people from the past. I wonder how future generations will judge us? Future generations will have artificial intelligence. They will live a life without fear and emotions. They will go to a zoo and look at some cloned humans of the 21st century and they will laugh at the irrationally of the 21st century humans, humans who enjoyed wars.

Charles Tolleson

Universal Lawn Care

2011-12-21T10:11:00.001-08:00

Now we have Universal Health Care, which is being challenged in the courts. I submit this will only increase the cost of health care because people will use the system more since many are not paying for the health care and others are forced to buy health insurance. If someone is paying for something I want then I will be glad to use that product or service.

Another reason health care costs will go up is because the supply of hospitals, doctors, and nurses will not keep up with the demand. That's because these organizations have licensing requirements that restricts competition.

Suppose the climate alarmists decided we needed more grassy and healthy lawns to save the planet from global warming. With this alarm the government would force everyone to pay a small amount for insurance for Universal Lawn Care. As a result each person with a lawn would call a lawn care provider and say I need lawn care. Why not? The insurance would pay the provider to care for the lawn. Since you are forced to buy the insurance then you might as well use it.

The demand for lawn care will increase and the large lawn care providers, like True Green, will lobby to make sure they are grandfathered in as they lobby for more rules and requirements that makes it harder to become a lawn care provider, thus restricting competition. And lawn care prices will increase dramatically as the propagandists continue to bloviate about how important the use of government force is in growing beautiful and healthy lawns.

Charles Tolleson

Why I Don't Travel

2011-11-23T07:03:00.000-08:00

It's Thanksgiving weekend and I have many things to be thankful for. Millions of Americans will be traveling to visit families on this holiday. They have to travel to be with family because we have become such a mobile, fragmented, and divorced society.

I don't travel anymore, especially on airlines. There are many reasons for this but the main reason is when I travel on an airline I feel like I have no rights. When I step on an airport I am stepping on government property and I seem to lose some of my rights guaranteed in the constitution specifically Amendments II and IV. The minute I step on the airport the cacophony of commands coming from the government public address systems never stop.

Later when I board the airline's airplane I feel like I am a prisoner of the airline employees, and the public address commands continue; turn that off, get that seat back upright, etc. If I refuse to follow orders from the in-flight prison guards I will be charged with violating a federal law, interfering with the duties of a crewmember, even though what the crewmember told me to do has nothing to do with crewmembers' duties.

Most people go along with the prison system because it makes them feel safe. Safety is the next strongest need of humans after food and other biological needs are met.

We live in an overregulated society. As late as 1950 in many parts of the country one could build a house without paying a commission and getting approval from the government mafia. Now, even putting in a handrail on your front steps requires approval of the government mob in most cities.

In 1948 I lived on a farm with an outhouse. There were no codes and no code enforcers around. As a 15 year old I carried a pocket knife to school. I drove around in my Dad's pickup with my shotgun beside me.

In 1950 there was no EPA. There was no Civil Rights Commission. There was no department of; Health and Human Services, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Veterans Affairs, and the most odious of all departments, Homeland Security.

We have become what all tribes become, centrally controlled by the tribal chiefs, priests, and warrior class. Some day a child will be born who will ask, Mom what was freedom in the United States like?

Charles Tolleson

Another Veterans Day

2011-11-12T15:40:00.000-08:00

Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarreled with him? Blaise Pascal

Another Veterans Day just passed, another day of genuflecting and paying homage to those who said they fought to protect me and America. They say they sacrificed and risked their lives for my freedom.

When someone tells you they did something for you, and not for themselves, then you can be certain they want something in return.

The Veterans Day celebration is all about saying thank you, thank you, thank you, to the veterans. They want their parades, monuments, emoluments, pensions, and free/reduced health care called Tri/Care. And now the government, the same government that the military bureaucracy enables, wants to reward them even more by giving companies incentives to hire veterans, FIRST, over someone who did the right thing and did not join the War Corps. That smacks of discrimination. They should give tax incentives to employers who hire members of the Peace Corp instead of members of the War Corps. How will the world ever live in peace if tribes keep rewarding men and women for killing strangers in another country.

At the bottom of a good deal of the bravery that appears in the world there lurks a miserable cowardice. Men will face powder and steel because they cannot face public opinion. -Edwin Hubbel Chapin, minister and orator (1814-1880)

They did not go into some small foreign country and kill another person, a complete stranger, who had done nothing to the veteran, nor to me, in order to protect me. They did it for their own self interest. They did it for the money and glory.

The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature. - Edward Gibbon

Why do these people who claim to be so virtuous and noble constantly need praise. If they did it for noble reasons they would just keep quiet and stop trying to put a guilt trip on the rest of America.

"All men are enamored of decorations...they positively hunger for them." Napoleon

The merchants can't help but exploit this tribal fever. The merchants offer discounts to the veterans. The merchants all see this as a market they want to capture.

And the politicians keep praising the veterans because they want their votes. The politicians also want the support of the military bureaucracy in case there is social unrest. The politicians and military bureaucracy claim they are fighting a war in Iraq and Afghanistan when in fact they are just occupying two other small countries to justify the huge funding for the military bureaucracy. Read this by another blogger about war.
http://blog.independent.org/2011/11/11/armistice-day/

"Army Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs has been sentenced to life in military prison with eligibility for parole in 10 years.

A military court-martial Thursday found Gibbs guilty of murdering three Afghan civilians, illegally cutting off pieces of their corpses to keep as "souvenirs" and planting weapons to make the men appear as if they were Taliban fighters killed in legitimate firefights."

Charles Tolleson

The Peace Corp and The War Corp

2011-11-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

The economic crisis in Greece, a country of only 10 million people, seems like a crisis that will affect a few lazy, acquired helpless syndrome, dependent Greeks, and a few greedy investors who thought governments would always be able to pay back the money they borrowed.

Why would people have such religious beliefs in the State. What is the State? Too many people believe the State is an omnipotent God, or, the Tooth Fairy.

These believers believe there is nothing the god State cannot do. For their own delusions they refuse to accept reality. They refuse to believe they have to be self reliant and produce something to live. They think their god State will provide for them.

They also believe they have a right to the production of others. It is in our genes to plunder. We have been doing it for thousands of years. This plunder is why packs formed, to protect what the pack grew or killed. When the pack was strong enough it plundered. We now use the ballot box to plunder.

The United States will go the way of Greek and other socialists/communal societies if it does not get its finances in order. It cannot continue to spend money on unnecessary wars to justify the military bureaucracy. The U.S. will have to get over it self infatuation believing everything the U.S. does is noble and virtuous.

The U.S. should stop being hypocritical by saying they are for a peaceful world filled with democracies. They should increase funding for the Peace Corp and reduce funding for the War Corp. Currently the funding for the War Corp is about 3000 times more than it is for the Peace Corp. American must prefer war over peace.

Charles Tolleson

Elizabeth Warren, Class Warfare

2011-09-30T16:58:00.000-07:00

"The believer is happy. The doubter is wise. Irish Proverb.

I would like to say, "The believer is violent, the doubter is peaceful." Believers; Christians, Muslims, Neo Cons, Humanitarians, and other zealots will resort to force and violence to see their beliefs fulfilled.

Elizabeth Warren, a senatorial candidate in MA,(and a believer) said that successful people owe to those who are not successful because the successful people used the community property for their success.

“You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did.

“Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

Warren is a believer and she would resort to violence if she had the power to enforce her beliefs. She "believes" it is morally acceptable to use force and violence to do what she "believes" is "fair". Warren and other humanitarians have a disarming smile on their faces as they promise you everything, except individual liberty and freedom to choose.

Suppose there was a city race track and a sponsor offered prize money for the top five percent of winners in a race. Many people would train and enter the race.

Now suppose the top five percent who win the race are told they will have to share some of their prize money with those who did not win. And suppose you told them they would also have to share some of their prize money with those who did not even enter the race. Do you think this is fair, Ms Warren? That is what you, and other social controllers believe.

If no government built the race track then a private entrepreneur would build the track. The same with roads. If a developer wanted to build houses and the government did not build roads to the houses the developer would. I live on a private street. It was not built by the government. It was built by the developer. The road is maintained by the homeowners association. All city streets could be owned by the city residents and maintained by private vendors. The same with county, state, and federal roads.

Ms Warren, many people had the opportunity to pursue success by building a factory and working 70 hours per week and following all the rules made by the government, but those people chose not to pursue success. Why? Because they know people like you will take from the producers and give to the non producers. This legal plunder and centralized planing by government bureaucrats has always hindered the progress of societies. Those societies that allow one to produce and keep what they produce have advanced more than the socialist/centrally planned societies you advocate for.

People who are successful pride themselves on taking risk and managing their own lives. It's immoral for someone who does not take risks, but sits back and watches, to reap the rewards of the risk takers.

The business owner who built a factory and used government roads did not have the opportunity to use private roads. He was forced to use the government roads.

When you punish the producers and reward the non producers, guess which one you will increase.

Charles Tolleson

Rules Force us to Submit

2011-07-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

"A crackdown on marijuana cultivation in Mendocino National Forest that began two weeks ago so far has resulted in 100 arrests and destruction of 468,960 pot plants, (Did they count that many plants? What a waste of taxpayer money.) federal officials said Friday in Ukiah."

The more rules we live under the more rule enforcers we must employ with excellent pay and benefits. The rule enforcers can retire at age 55, ten years of less work than the private sector. Plus, rule enforcers get more sick time and personal time from work than does a private sector employee. The government employees that work in my city parks work so slow they should be arrested for loitering.

The link above to a story about the government mob rule enforcers arresting people for growing plants will insure jobs for government; judges, bailiffs, police, prison guards, prosecuting attorneys, and even private attorneys as defense attorneys. I suspect the private attorneys all like having as many rules as possible because that insures they will have plenty of work in defending the rule breakers from the mob.

Do you own yourself or does the mob own you? Why have a rule that involves voluntary transactions, a buyer buys pot from a seller and smokes the pot? No harm has been done to another person so why is there a rule against growing pot and why is there a rule against smoking pot? Because the more rules that exist the more rule enforcers we have. The more rule enforcers that exist the more power they have in keeping the rules in place and seeing new rules enacted. New rules require more enforcers so the mob grows in power.

The best way to keep the sheep in submission is to make everything compulsory or prohibited. That way the mob can always use coercion or the threat of coercion to keep the subjects in line. There are so many federal laws that no one can name the exact amount. Then there are the state and local laws that we are subjected to. And we call this a free country!

It was not the North Korean Communists, nor the North Vietnamese, nor any of the other fictional enemies of the U.S. that took away our freedoms. It was Americans that took away our freedoms, one election at a time.

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Charles Tolleson

The Self Education of You

2011-05-06T11:37:00.000-07:00

By Charles Tolleson
May 6, 2011

This is a paragraph from Wikipedia about the book, “The Education of Henry Adams”. - “The Education is much more a record of Adams's introspection than of his deeds. It is an extended meditation on the social, technological, political, and intellectual changes that occurred over Adams's lifetime. Adams concluded that his traditional education failed to help him come to terms with these rapid changes; hence his need for self-education. The organizing thread of the book is how the "proper" schooling and other aspects of his youth, was time wasted; thus his search for self-education through experiences, friendships, and reading.”

We should wonder about the cost of a college education of the 21st century. One can spend 50 to 100 thousand dollars on a four year college degree, a degree that may or may not get you a job. A college degree just does not have the value it had in the past. College tuition costs have outpaced the inflation rate. The inflation rate from 1986 through 2009 was about 100%, a doubling of costs. During that time period college tuition increased a whopping 400%.
This inflation costs can be attributed to the education’s industry monopoly and lobbying power. During that time student loans have increased which creates more customers but fewer suppliers, thus the suppliers can raise their prices.

I suggest it is time for young people to boycott the education cartels and get an education on their own in real time. A young person should get a job and contribute money to their 401k or IRA instead of money that would have gone for college tuition.

There are many jobs that do not require a college degree. Airline pilot, air traffic controller, ship’s captain, restaurant manager, stock broker, realtor, property manager, plumber, barber, and sales are professions that do not require a college degree. Owning your own small business does not require a college degree but it does provide a good education.

Prison guards do not need any college. They can retire at age 55 with 85% of their final year’s salary and free medical insurance. As a California prison guard, you can make six figures in overtime and bonuses alone.

I know a man who dropped out of high school. He had aced an algebra test but got a failing grade because he had not turned in his homework. The government prison schools do not accept individualism. The man who dropped out of high school is now an airline pilot.

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” Albert Einstein

Teaching is one of the oldest professions on earth. From the time of Socrates and Confucius we have honored the pedagogues. Teaching will not go away, but the methods of teaching will change. People will always want to get into the minds of the young people to mold those minds into the ideologies of those who are convinced their lifestyles are the way all humans should live. Even Socrates was charged with polluting the minds of the youths of Athens. Some day all knowledge will be easily accessible from a chip implemented in the brain or from a mobile multi media device so teaching, like other professions, will change and become less of a profession than today. Even the medical profession will change with home diagnostic kits and robotic surgeries.

William Shakespeare left school when he was 14. Here is a list of great people who did not attend or finish college. The 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson, worked most of his childhood as a tailor and did not learn to read and write until as an adult, taught by his wife.

If a young person wants the same as a college education they can do it by reading and practicing from online sources. There are free algebra, history and other courses online. A young person should pursue an education on his or her own time. They should keep a log of the time and subjects they study. After a few years of learning they could write a book about their education, citing the logs and subjects they studied, all the time working full time and contributing to their own retirement. Then the young person should go into politics to promote themselves, their book, and to promote the opportunity to get a real education in the most cost effective way, thus diminishing the power of the education cartel and its ability to pick the ideologies to teach to the next generation of State worshipers.

“The institution of the democratic State is a remarkable example of modern idolatry. By ritually celebrating elections that are played out like a great social mass, the State allows us to participate in a religion that will influence the idol in our favour. If we make the idol an offering of the right ballot, it will bring us security, lifetime employment, a guaranteed pension, free medical care, environmental protection and a good school for our children. All these favours will rain down on us. We will not have to do anything to earn them. What could be more magical than that belief?” Christian Michel

The Execution of Osama Bin Laden

2011-05-02T12:30:00.000-07:00

By Charles Tolleson
May 2, 2011

President Obama took the stage, again, to announce the execution of Osama Bin Laden. President Obama said Al Qaeda, with Bin Laden as the leader, had declared war on the United States so the United States killed Bin Laden after searching for him for almost ten years at the expenditure of almost a trillion dollars and the loss of thousands of lives. Thanks to technology, The President and his staff watched the execution live. Humans love to watch violence.

No reason was given for Al Qaeda to declare war on the U.S. Could it be that we have supported tyrants in the Middle East and have supported Israel in her six decades long religious war that some in the Middle East would see us as a co conspirator to oppression?

Al Qaeda, a band of warriors that is no larger than a few hundred, and has no military air force, army or navy, has terrified the most powerful country in the world into giving up much of the citizens’ liberties for the sake of perceived safety from a threat that is minuscule.

Do you think Osama bin Laden would be found guilty of murder by a jury of "HIS" peers after hearing "ALL" the evidence presented by a good defense attorney in an unbiased court? What would a jury think after hearing all of the evidence against the U.S. murdering of innocent people and aiding tyrants. If after hearing the evidence he is found guilty, then, and only then, carry out the sentence. Instead, an unarmed Osama bin Laden was executed, in front of his 12 year old daughter, by a government employee of the United States.

Why do we think Americans,or people like us, are the only
people precious enough to deserve a fair trial? If the U.S. is so noble and virtuous, let it lead by example, not force.

Humans are the only animals, besides its cousin the chimpanzee, that enjoys torturing and killing its own kind. Humans are the only animal that has the characteristic that defines sadism.

"If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.” -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (1807-1882)

One of my favorite movies was "Twelve Angry Men". Eleven members of the jury were passionately convinced a young man accused of murder was guilty. The twelfth man, played by Henry Fonda,argued against a guilty verdict. After much debate the young man was found innocent.

Should not all people have a fair trial when accused of a crime?
How many innocent people have been murdered in wars the past
nine years by the government mob's hired mercenaries? What's to stop a President from ordering his hit men to murder me, or millions of others, without a trial? Congress certainly will not stop him.

Some are saying the death of Bin Laden will end the war in Afghanistan. The murder of Bin Laden will also make President Obama look good as a leader and increase his chance for re-election in 2012. That’s why he made the announcement instead of having his press secretary make the announcement.

The murder of Bin Laden by U.S. government employees caused a huge celebration by members of the American tribe. They are giddy with hubris and again saying the American Tribe is number one! This idolatry of the State and the use of force will insure there will be plenty of young men who want to join the government mercenaries and claim glory, nice pensions after 20 years, and the wonderful GI Bill that allows dependents to go college.

The murdering of Bin Laden will not change the war on terror. The State will grow more and more powerful with the excuse it is keeping us safe from Al Qaeda, who has emerged with a new and more powerful leader to carry on with the same mission.

I predict the war on terror will not change. I believe more people in the world hate us now than before 9/11. We have killed thousands of innocent people and freedom fighters in the wars of the past 9 years. Those who were killed have left families and friends who want revenge. Just imagine how the families and citizens of the U.S. wanted revenge after 9/11. Those thousands killed in the war on terror by the U.S. have tens of thousands of families and friends who want revenge on the U.S. bully, and they will not rest until they have been avenged. President Obama and the military nation leaders knew there would be aroused anger from the death of Bin Laden, which would lead to more attacks on the U.S. This will insure the sheep will be fearful and will continue to give away their power to the State employees.

"Patriotism is proud of a country's virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country's virtues and denies its deficiencies, while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, "the greatest", but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is." -Sydney J. Harris, journalist and author (1917-1986)

The Royal Wedding

2011-04-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

The Royal Wedding
By Charles Tolleson
April 30, 2011

The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton was a Cinderella story come true for a billion women. It is estimated that two billion people watched the wedding on television. My neighbor, a single woman in her 50s, was up at midnight to watch the wedding live. She had a printout of the schedule, minute by minute, anticipating the next move.

I watched some of the ceremony on television the next day. It was pageantry at its best. I wonder who the “Wedding Planner” was. The Brits have had plenty of practice at this so I suspect the wedding planner just pulled out the script from Prince Charles and Diana’s wedding.

Why are so many people fascinated by romance stories? Most of the movies have romantic plots to them. Operas are all about romance. Poetry and songs are about romance. One can watch a ballet and almost see it as a modern day sexual rite.

It seems like humans have developed the mating rituals to an art form during the past 10,000 years. Before that we were just like other animals in our mating. During the past few thousand years we have enhanced and honed these mating rites.

Humans have developed a talented ability to fantasize and expect. These illusions, filled with hope, are cheap forms of happiness. When a young woman reads a fairy tale about finding her prince she forms an illusion about her future. Women of today see their fantasy come to reality, with someone else, by watching the royal wedding. All of the viewers of the Royal Wedding have an illusion that the Prince and his Cinderella will live happily ever after.

In the past a woman always wanted to select a man that could provide her with healthy children, comfort, and safety. The females of other species always do the selecting in which male will get to fertilize her eggs. This is nature’s way of improving the species. Though technology and gender careers are changing female behavior, many young women of today still try to select a man that will improve her life. Her awareness that she might become pregnant is another concern in what kind of man she selects.

The birth control pill and other technologies will continue to cause a genetic evolution in females that will diminish their desire for a Prince Charming. Government programs that reduce a female’s dependence on a man are changing why many women are no longer interested in a man being a prince charming. The new Prince Charming for many women is the government, a government that provides for her and her children.

"Every age is fed on illusions, lest men should renounce life early and the human race come to an end." -Joseph Conrad, novelist (1857-1924)

2011-04-27T15:30:00.000-07:00

Government Planning for Climate Change
By Charles Tolleson
April 27, 2011

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/26/western-us-water-supplies-climate-change_n_853882.html

The above link is to a news story that writes- “WASHINGTON -- Climate change is likely to diminish already scarce water supplies in the Western United States, exacerbating problems for millions of water users in the West, according to a new government report.

A report released Monday by the Interior Department said annual flows in three prominent river basins – the Colorado, Rio Grande and San Joaquin – could decline by as much 8 percent to 14 percent over the next four decades. The three rivers provide water to eight states, from Wyoming to Texas and California, as well as to parts of Mexico.”

Four decades! 40 years! “Could decline”? The government can’t predict something accurately one or two years into the future? So how can they predict something 40 years into the future? The article uses a lot of suppositions such as, could and likely. Nothing definite, just possibilities.

The fear mongering is always a way to justify more bureaucracy, jobs, and power. “The report "affirms the urgency of the planning we are engaged in," Connor said at a news conference Monday. "We need to take actions now to plan" for changes that are likely to occur over the next several decades.”

The American people should read “The Science of Fear”, by Daniel Gardner, to realize how they are being manipulated into giving more and more power, slowly, to government employees. Central planning is a placebo for the masses and steroids for the planners.

“Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known.” Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)

There is no water shortage and there never will be. As water or other resources become scarce, women will have fewer babies. They already are, thanks to the birth control pill. Besides, humans can desalinate water. There is and will be a plentiful supply of the product, water, made simply of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. Stop worrying America! Believe in the "Ultimate Resource", human creativity.

2011-04-15T15:28:00.001-07:00

Liberal Economists
By Charles Tolleson
April 15, 2011

Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, a critic of free markets, is promoting a tax on the rich because he says the divide between rich and poor is increasing. He says the poor are struggling more.

Stiglitz should have been around in 1900 when there were only an estimated 4000 millionaires in the United States. A million dollars in 1900 would equal about 22 million dollars adjusted for inflation. This was just a fraction of 1% of the 76 million people in the U.S. at that time. There were 7 million millionaires in the United States in 2009 in a population of slightly over 300 million. This dramatic increase in millionaires is proof that capitalism creates wealth for more people. Countries that do not allow capitalism, free markets, and private property have fewer millionaires and more poor people who are poorer than the poor people of capitalist countries.

Today the United States has 412 BILLIONAIRS, 34% of the world’s total billionaires. The billionaires all have large staffs that are employed. They have corporate jet crews that are well paid. They have yacht crews that are well paid. They pay high property taxes on their houses, planes, and yachts. Take away their money, as Stilitiz and leftists propose, and give it to the government mob and what will they do with it? They will pay themselves a large commission and use the rest to buy votes and the poor will become poorer.

As for poor people struggling more than in the past, Stiglitz should have been around as a poor American in 1900 to see poor people really struggle. Those same poor classes now have free medical care, free housing, and free food. They also have TVs and cell phones. They have instant heat and running water. To know what a real struggle is Stiglitz should try drawing water from a well, building a fire in a wood burning stove for cooking, doing laundry in a tub, plowing behind two mules, and using an unheated outhouse on a cold winter night.

I have a picture of me with my brother and sister taken around 1940. My sister is wearing shoes. My brother and I are bare foot, as were most children of the time. Poor people of that time could not afford shoes for their children so the children only wore shoes when it was too cold to go barefoot. Today poor people wear stylish Nike shoes while humanitarians like Stiglitz say poor people are struggling. The following picture shows some barefoot boys doing factory work in 1912. They were struggling. Poor people today do not struggle like those poor people in 1912.

Poor people in 1900 made about $1.60 per day which would be about $35 today in inflation adjusted dollars. A poor person today makes a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, or about $58 dollars per day for a shorter day than a poor person worked in 1900 for about $35 per day.

“Internal Revenue Service data show that the income of people who were in the lowest income tax bracket in 1996 rose by 91 percent by 2005. But people in the "top one percent" had their incomes drop by 26 percent in those same years. There is nothing complicated about this. Most people simply start at the bottom when they are young and their pay rises as they get more experience. Most people in the top one percent are there for only a single year when they happen to have a spike in income. They too are not an enduring class.”- Thomas Sowell

People like Stiglitz will never be satisfied no matter how much is confiscated from the producers and given to the non producers.

“Leftists, in their heart of hearts, hate capitalism more than they fear the total state. They can put up with anything so long as people are not free to make as much money as they want in the service of others. The resulting inequality in wealth distribution in this system, and the manner in which the free society raises up a class of natural aristocrats, is morally intolerable to them. They prefer to risk the creation of the totalitarian society rather than put their core hatreds on the back burner.” Lew Rockwell

2011-04-13T07:27:00.000-07:00

Rules and Rule Enforcers
By Charles Tolleson
April 13, 2011

"There ought to be a law against that"! How many times have you heard someone say those words?

Many years ago when the country was sparsely populated there were fewer rules, and fewer rule enforcers. Many people relied on their gods to enforce the rules and dispense punishment. There were no rules against washing dirty laundry with lye soap in a public stream and no Environmental Protection Agency. There was no rule against an outhouse in your back yard. Still society had bad rules and bad enforcers. There were State rules that allowed slavery and prohibited interracial marriages. And there were Sunday Blue Laws, a rule that prohibited the sale of liquor on Sunday.

Now we have- “There are rules on how to keep water clean and how much water should be used to flush a toilet; for how much gas cars can guzzle, and — under one now in the works — for rear-view cameras or sensors to keep drivers from backing over toddlers; for how to build commercial airplanes — right down to their nuts and bolts — and for how to launch amateur model rockets.” – Nancy Benac, AP

Other rules about manners in the workplace seem so unnecessary. It’s as if there were no manners before the rule enforcers had so much power.

“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.” ~Napoleon Bonaparte

In 1939 there were 550 pages covering the U.S, Tax laws. Today those pages are a staggering 72,000!

As the population became more crowded, people demanded more rules. There soon were so many people with their idea of how other people should behave, according to their beliefs, that more rules were created. Our desire for safety makes us call for more and more rules. These same people who wanted more rules also decided the rules needed enforcers, so, more enforcers were created. Today there are over 17 million federal, state, and local full time government employees.

The rule enforcers are happy to create fear because the masses overact to the risks of danger and want to be safe. The rule enforcers are happy to promise safety in exchange for power and perks. Mass fear among the public drives people to demand rules that will protect them and the rule enforcers are happy to comply. “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” H.L. Mencken

It has become obvious that government rule enforcers benefit by having more rules. More rules means more jobs available to the government rule enforcers. The government rule enforcers have their unions and department representatives testifying before legislative bodies asking for more rules. More rules means more enforcers and more lobbying power, which means more generous pay and benefits.

There was a recent ballot initiative in California to legalize marijuana. It was favored to win until the enforcers of the rule against using marijuana; the District Attorneys and the police, came out against the initiative. The initiative lost and the police and district attorneys will get to keep their enforcers’ jobs.

The American Bar Association likes having many rules because it creates much work for them in defending clients who break the rules. There are so many rules it is common for us to unknowingly break a rule, thus creating work for the enforcers; judges, police, DAs, court reporters, bailiffs, prison guards, parole officers, etc, etc.

Three Felonies a Day, by Harvey Silverglate, has many examples of the federal rules we may inadvertently break, thus creating work for the enforcers and for our defense attorneys.

The rule enforcers have a conflict of interest with liberty and their jobs. No rule enforcer is going to say a rule is unnecessary and unconstitutional and needs to be repealed for the sake of liberty. Eliminating these rules would eliminate jobs of the rule enforcers.

"Men fight for freedom, then they begin to accumulate laws to take it away from themselves." ~Author Unknown

Try to imagine how many great inventions were invented before there were so many rules and bureaucratic rule enforcers. As great as our progress is, without the past and current rule makers we could be on our way to distant stars. “Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.”- Thomas A. Edison

I suppose there are some people who are born with resentment to being ruled. When I was a small child around age six I asked my father if I could walk around town alone. I ran away from home three times as a teen. As a teen I fantasized about living in the nearby river swamp alone, without rules, like the Tarzan I saw in the movies. I was a crop duster in 1958, with few rules, and no business permits, before there was an Environmental Protection Agency.

I don’t think I resent rules as much as I resent the enforcers. Rules are fine and most people will cooperate to get along in society. This spontaneous cooperation is shown by a jogging path in a nearby park. The city planners forced the taxpayers to pay to build a synthetic soccer field with an artificial jogging/walking path around the soccer field. There is no starting place or directions on which way to go on the jogging path. Somehow all the joggers and walkers go counter clockwise, WITHOUT a rule to tell them which way to go. This happens even when only one person is using the path. This is called spontaneous order.

Today I live alone in my condo. Here I have sanctuary from the rule makers and rule enforcers. As soon as I leave my condo I am ensnared and hampered by thousands of rules. I think I would have been happier living 30,000 years ago as a Cro-Magnon where I made up the rules as I went along.

2011-04-10T12:15:00.001-07:00

Anti War Books
By Charles Tolleson
April 10, 2011

Three books about war and its causes have been discussed recently. “The Most Dangerous Animal”, by David Livingston Smith, “War is a Lie”, by David Swanson, and “The Demonic Male”, by Dale Peterson and Richard Wrangham. One reviewer said The Demonic Male was a political correct sexist book, saying the authors imply males are bad and females are good.

I think males would be more peaceful if there were ten females to each male. There would be enough sex to satisfy men’s natural curse to reproduce their genes. This would reduce their desire to kill off the competition.

As more women choose a military career over motherhood I don’t know if wars will decrease or remain the same. Surgical killings by a little woman flying a drone aircraft 10,000 miles from the attack may increase the little woman’s desire for glory and purpose since they will not have purpose as a traditional mother.

On one discussion blog one of the authors, David Swanson, said that humans did not make war before 12,500 years ago. I believe he was arguing that war is not as genetically programmed as he and others advocate. The simply reason there were no wars before 12,500 B.C. is humans were not mobile enough and densely populated enough to need war. The wheel and bronze metals had not been invented. The horse had not been domesticated. The population of the earth in 10,500 B.C. is estimated to have been only one to ten million. People were so sparsely populated and so far apart there was simply no opportunity for war. Humans had not settled down in one place to practice agriculture. Humans however did go to war with other animal predators and prey. Humans had to eat or be eaten. This could be the origin of the aggressive human gene.

Swanson also argued that war is NOT inevitable. I am starting to agree with this premise because more people are beginning to discuss the causes and the unnecessary wars. Just these three books indicate an argument about our behaviors that first have to be identified before they can be changed.

Another argument one of the authors makes for the positive side of humans is their ability to form social groups and not kill each other in the group. This is behavior based simply on survival and self interest. People form groups and set rules that say we will not kill each other or steal from each other, but, by being in a larger group we will be able to still carry out our genetic disposition to kill by killing others outside the group. By being in a social group there are greater chances to pass on one’s genes. By having a large group to raid another smaller group there is a greater chance to gain resources, and again, pass on the male genes through capturing the females, a resource.

The military nation in the U.S. has broad support. Too many people are related to someone in the military or someone making military products. 57% of the people in a recent poll did not want any reduction in the military budget, despite the enormous government debt. The military nation has become a big government bureaucratic program that has little to do with defending the United States. I believe under certain conditions the people of the United States would support a military coup.

There are 1.4 million active duty military personnel and 1.4 million military reserve personnel. Half are over the age of 25. About 60% are married. About 43% have children. As long as the mercenary military pay and benefits are good there will be plenty of people willing to join the military. Retire with 20 years service and collect a pension for 40 years!

During 2010 the total military fatalities killed in Iraq and Afghanistan were 559, less than ½ of 1% of active military personnel. Over 99% of the military personnel on active duty in 2010 survived. During World War Two there were over 16 million people on military active duty. 293,000 died in combat, less than a fraction of 1 percent. Compare that to the Soviet Union that lost 25% of its military personnel during WW II. People who join the U.S.military see the odds of surviving and reaping the glory and the opportunity to wear a few ribbons and march in parades. "All men are enamored of decorations...they positively hunger for them." Napoleon

People will cheer the U.S.S. Enterprise, a floating nuclear power plant anchored in a harbor of a densely populated city, but will scorn a privately owned nuclear power plant in an isolated rural area.

The U.S. Navy is going to allow males and females to serve together on U.S. Navy submarines. The first females will receive a lot of attention. This will garner support for the military funding as there are powerful female members in congress and the male members dare not critique females in the service or the male members of congress will not be reelected. The U.S. Navy has 53,000 females on activity duty. One would think the U.S. Navy could find an all female crew for a submarine among 53,000 women.

“The pioneers of a warless world are the [youth] who refuse military service.” ~Albert Einstein

Rep Paul Ryan and the U.S. Budget

2011-04-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

By Charles Tolleson
April 5, 2011

Republican Congressman, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, wants to change the U.S. government’s role in Medicare and Medicaid, two unconstitutional programs. I agree that something has to be done and this is a good start. Vouchers will go a long way towards making the program more competitive and reducing fraud and corruption. The Medicare Agency simply cannot manage one billion claims per year efficiently. There is no way the Medicare program can sustain an additional 70 million new retires in the next 25 years as baby boomers reach age 65. Even with deaths the system will be overburdened because of new expensive medical procedures and the increase in longevity.

Paul Ryan proposes giving future seniors vouchers to buy health insurance. This is not a function allowed under the U.S. Constitution for the Federal Government. It is something the states are allowed to do. Still, it is better than the current program.

By giving vouchers to potential customers of insurance companies the federal government remains a third party payer. The means the insurance will cost more than in a free market. The insurance lobby will always be lobbying congress to increase the amount of the vouchers.

Paul Ryan, the war lover, leaves out one government agency, the Defense (Offense) Department, which spends 25% of the U.S. government’s money. It costs more fuel to fly a military F-15 fighter for one hour than it costs for the average American to fuel their car for more than a year.

To reduce the budget and the power of the Federal Government we should end the wars in foreign countries. If not, then we should have an assessment on each citizen to pay for the wars instead of borrowing money that future generations will have to pay back to sustain the Military Industrial Nation. An assessment on each citizen would make them realize the wars are not worth paying for.

The Department of Education should be eliminated. There is no reason for the federal government to be involved in teaching your children how to read and write.

To reduce the U.S. government debt, all other federal departments should be required to reduce their budgets by 5% per year until the budget is balanced.

War With Little Libya

2011-03-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

By Charles Tolleson
March 26, 2011

In the 225 year history of the United States, only three countries have attacked the United States. Great Britain invaded the United States in 1812. The Germans attacked U.S. merchant vessels with submarines just prior to World War Two. The Japanese attacked the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor hoping the U.S. would negotiate and stop the embargo of the Japanese. Neither Japan nor Germany had the ability to invade the United States. During the 225 year history of the United States, the U.S. military has been used more than 100 times against other countries. This does not count 25 times the U.S. military engaged in wars against Native Americans.

The United States has another un-declared war, again, against a smaller country, again. This time the bully, the United States, has attacked another small country, Libya, that has a population of less than 7 million people! The United States has over 300 million people and the world’s most devastating military.

Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) said “War is a continuation of politics.” The U.S is simply using its mighty military to force foreign people, and soon domestic people, to do as the U.S. oligarchy says. Russian Vladimir Putin said the recent U.S. action against little Libya is a Medieval Crusade. Will this U.S. Crusade last 200 years like the Medieval Crusades? People do not change. They just find different gods to worship using different technology.

Despite the overwhelming force and power of the U.S. Military over little Libya, the warriors and the priests will be bloviating in a puerile manner about how brave our military people are for risking their lives to “protect our freedoms”. What risk? It’s not much more than a combat training exercise using live ammunition. They will wear their ribbons on their out thrusting chests with pride, a deadly sin, and the indoctrinated sheep will bleep, “We’re number one” and the killing goes on, and on, and on. Then there will be another peace treaty, and another, and another. The Treaty of Versailles happened after 10 million died, over nothing. Why did they have to kill 10 million before declaring a truce? Could they not have declared a truce after killing 5 million? Or could rational non violent people declare a truce without killing anyone. Individuals can, but governments cannot.

"It is forbidden to kill; there fore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” Voltaire

President Obama started a war with Libya WITHOUT congressional approval. Will he be compelled to give back his Nobel Peace Prize? Power corrupts. Senator Boxer and Representative Pelosi said President Obama did the “right thing” in attacking little Libya to help the rebels. Doing the right thing is just another excuse to kill another human being, something the human animal does with pleasure.

Pelosi and Boxer’s followers do not know how the followers know. Most of what the followers know comes from the mouths of politicians like Pelosi and Boxer who say words with astonishing verisimilitude. I doubt if Boxer or Pelosi know any of the rebels or their intentions if they seize power.

Boxer and Pelosi have advocated “empowering” women. How much more power do they need? Three other women; Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and Samantha Power, all women who advocate for more power for women, talked President Obama into bombing little Libya. These women go to war for human rights; empowering women. The right wing advocates for war just for the glory of war. With a mercenary army, the humanitarians, the glory seekers, and the military industrial complex, look for wars to be the lead story for the future.

“Doing the right thing” does not make it legal by the U.S. Constitution, which says only Congress can declare war. Millions have been killed by governments who said they were doing the “right thing”.

Being President of the United States is an aphrodisiac to power that no mortal can resist. Power corrupts so it should be defused, not centralized. The President, the Supreme Court, and the Congress consist of 545 people who are supposed to divide power. They do that somewhat, but the larger the pie of power is the more there is to divide among the 545 people who rule over 300 million Americans, and much of the world.

The U.S. wars in the Middle East are not about oil. If the U.S. had all the oil reserves in the world they would find another excuse to kill and dominate others. Wars have always been about excuses, the latest is human rights, while the real reason men kill other men is because it is in their genes. Men enjoy killing.

Favorite War Quotes

2011-03-16T09:03:00.000-07:00

By Charles Tolleson

“To die for a mystique is the wrong policy.” Andrew J. Bacevich

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” Voltaire

“In democratic armies the desire of advancement is almost universal: it is ardent, tenacious, perpetual; it is strengthened by all other desires and extinguished only with life itself. But it is easy to see that, of all armies in the world, those in which advancement must be slowest in time of peace are the armies of democratic countries. As the number of commissions is naturally limited while the number of competitors is almost unlimited, and as the strict law of equality is over all alike, none can make rapid progress; many can make no progress at all. Thus the desire of advancement is greater and the opportunities of advancement fewer there than elsewhere. All the ambitious spirits of a democratic army are consequently ardently desirous of war, because war makes vacancies and warrants the violation of that law of seniority which is the sole privilege natural to democracy.” –Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Book II, Chapter XXII

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman. George Santayana

“Man can be the most affectionate and altruistic of creatures, yet he's potentially more vicious than any other. He is the only one who can be persuaded to hate millions of his own kind whom he has never seen and to kill as many as he can lay his hands on in the name of his tribe or his God.” -Benjamin Spock, pediatrician and author (1903-1998)

"All men are enamored of decorations...they positively hunger for them." Napoleon

The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature. - Edward Gibbon

At the bottom of a good deal of the bravery that appears in the world there lurks a miserable cowardice. Men will face powder and steel because they cannot face public opinion. -Edwin Hubbel Chapin, minister and orator (1814-1880)

“Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.” Bertrand Russell

“Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one.” Bertrand Russell

"Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarreled with him?" Blaise Pascal

"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." -George Orwell, writer (1903-1950)

Patriotism is proud of a country's virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country's virtues and denies its deficiencies, while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, "the greatest", but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is. -Sydney J. Harris, journalist and author (1917-1986)

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it. -George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950)

More war quotes here- http://www.quotegarden.com/war.html

Should Government Employees be Unionized

2011-02-22T11:56:00.000-08:00

By Charles Tolleson

Wisconsin republicans are trying to pass a bill that would prohibit state government employees, except police and fire people, from forming unions. The democrats and their union worker base are saying government employees should have collective bargaining rights.

Everyone seems to link government employees with private sector employees when it comes to collective bargaining. Some people thing both government and private sector employees should have the right to belong to a union. The two groups however are not equal in providing products and services to the consumers.

Government employees operate by force and under a monopoly. Their customers do not have the choice to go to another provider of services if the cost from the government employees for that service is too high and the service is poor. If private sector employees of a company gain above market pay, by unions or otherwise, then the consumers can go to another company that provides those private sector products at a cheaper cost and with better service.

Government organized workers become lobbyists to create jobs, jobs that produce nothing, for the government employees.

Government unionized workers pay union dues, which come from the taxpayer. These union dues in turn are used to elect other government employees, politicians, who will give the government employees what they want. The government employees, politicians, get what they want in return, elected. Most of the government mob’s union dues go to the democrat party candidates. No wonder a republican governor in Wisconsin is trying to prohibit government employee unions, unions that support his opponents.

Yesterday was a rainy and cold day in my condo neighborhood. The private landscapers hired by my homeowners association were at their regular scheduled work. I went to five city parks and saw no government employees, anywhere. On clear days when I do see the city park employees in their work environment, I see them moving around so slowly I think they should be arrested for loitering. The doddling done by a crew of two government park employees could be done by one private sector employee. Government employees have better pay, vacation, and more personal days off than private sector employees. Private sector employees have to work ten years more, 55 for government employees and 65 for private employees, to get full retirements.

Many government retirees get cost of living raises in the pensions. Government employees think their pensions are sacrosanct, untouchable, no matter how dire their pensions’ fiscal situation. When Colorado passed a law reducing the COLAs of 3.5% for retirees, the Public Employees Retirement Association filed a lawsuit to block the legislation on the grounds they have a valid contract with the State. My private sector pension has no COLA and it was reduced by 18% due to the company I worked for going bankrupt. Despite my pension reduction, I still have to pay taxes for those retired government employees to live as elites, elites who retired younger than I retired.

The government union employees represents that democracy is one group plundering another group. The government employees have become the new aristocrats and their servants are the private sector producing taxpayers. Some government employees who retired due to disability, (sore back, stress, etc), do not even have to pay income taxes on their pensions.

“Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work.” Albert Einstein

Charles Tolleson

Another Protest Against U.S. Ally

2011-02-18T15:11:00.000-08:00

By Charles Tolleson, February 18, 2011

Protesters in Bahrain were killed for protesting against another tyrannical government that is an ally to the United States. The protesters lay dying as the tanks rolled by. The last words they saw before they died- “Made in the USA.”

If a person in the United States aids and abets or in anyway contributes to a crime committed by another person, that abettor is charged as a conspirator to the crime and if convicted will serve jail time.

The U.S. officials that aid and abet the foreign tyrannies should be tried as conspirators to crimes that violate human rights. Of course there is no court powerful enough to arrest the conspirators so the conspirators continue to enable these foreign tyrants.

You say it is in America’s best interest to deal with foreign tyrants. The people who conspire with criminals do so because it is also in their best interest, not the best interest of society.

Since the U.S. is the most powerful nation on earth its leaders never have to worry about going on trial for crimes against humanity, especially crimes committed against people in other countries. The U.S. hoi polloi will condone the crimes committed by their leaders the same way tribal members always tolerate crimes against other tribes. Lt. William Calley was convicted of war crimes in Vietnam. After serving time the local citizens shopped at a jewelry store Calley managed. If the Japanese had miraculously won the war after the atomic bomb was dropped the Japanese would have tried President Harry Truman, General Curtis Lemay and Colonel Paul Tibbets as war criminals.

The per capita income of Bahrain’s population is $29,000 per year. Most of that income, derived from oil, goes to the Al Khalifa royal family who rules Bahrain. It is quiet impressive that the family can fly in their own private Boeing 747 jet when the country has slightly more than 1.2 million people in population. The Al Khalifa family has ruled Bahrain since 1820.

Tyranny is where one person tries to tell everyone else what to do. Democracy is where everyone tries to tell everyone else what to do. Freedom is where no one tells anyone what to do.

Just because tyrants are replaced with other forms of central control does not mean individuals will have freedom. The Internet and information sharing will lead to more individual freedoms, not to more centralized bureaucracies that operate by force.

To show how far flung the U.S. Military Nation is, the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet has its headquarters in Bahrain. I wonder how much we pay the Al Khalifa “Royal” family of mobsters to headquarter the 5th fleet in Bahrain. I also wonder how many young sailors in the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet know they are enablers to tyrants like the Al Khalifa family that deprives people of their natural rights and individual freedoms. Do these young sailors realize they are conspirators to human rights crimes by conspiring with the U.S. officials that are conspirators to the tyrants of the Middle East that commit crimes against humanity? The U.S. Military Complex will tell you their presences in the Middle East insures the flow of oil. And a rooster believes he can make the sun rise by crowing!

The reason people in the rest of the world hate us is not because of our freedoms, but because of our support for tyrants who do hate freedoms.

"What a thing it is to have a country that can't be wrong, but if it is, is right, anyway!" William Dean Howells

Charles Tolleson

Military Promotions, Up or Out

2011-02-13T09:31:00.000-08:00

By Charles Tolleson, February 13, 2011

F.A. Hayek wrote a book, “The Road to Serfdom”. Chapter ten of Hayek’s book is titled, “Why the Worst Get on Top”. I believe the military’s policy of “up or out”, get promoted or resign, is an example of Hayek’s theory of why the worst get on top. One must go along to get along.

I worked many years with former military officers. They had short and medium careers; 5 to 10 years. Others had 20 years and were retired. I saw no difference in the performance of those who had short careers and those who had careers long enough to collect a retirement check.

I wondered why some of the men had spent only 5 years in the military as an officer when these men were such outstanding men in quality of skills and character. As I inquired I found out that many of these men simply were not the “go along” type. They did not believe in spending hours at the Officers Club drowning in booze. They advocated for efficiency instead of bureaucracy. They spoke out against unnecessary wars. They spoke out against a foolish attack on an enemy’s fortified position without first bombarding it with air strikes or heavy artillery.

These men were not likely to get promoted, thus, they were asked to resign. Those who remained never critiqued ineptness of the military nation and the unnecessary wars created by those who simply wanted to grow the military nation for promotions and other perks. Of those who got promoted to seniors ranks you will never hear them advocating to end the unnecessary wars in Afghanistan or Iraq or to close some of the hundreds of unnecessary military installations in foreign countries. You will hear them talking about how “stressed” the military is, meaning the generals need more, more, and more, even though the current U.S. Military has enough TNT equivalent power to kill each person in the world 6 times!

General Eric Ken Shinseki was fired for advocating more troops would be needed in the Iraq War. The U.S. instead hired thousands of private mercenaries. Maybe it’s time for some military officers to have tenure and cannot be fired. They could advocate their positions in private and before closed sessions of congress.

It has been a long time since I first heard about the military's "up or out" procedure. I hope it has changed to a procedure that allows junior officers to inquire, advocate, and critique missions and proposals.

Charles Tolleson, Veteran

Environmentalists Want Fewer Humans

2011-02-10T10:58:00.000-08:00

I did a search of, “Environmentalists want fewer humans” and got over four hundred thousand hits. The environmentalists think too many humans are ruining Mother Gaia.

Environmentalists think there should be fewer humans so the other animals will have more food. They don’t mention how much food an elephant consumes. Do they want fewer elephants? What would they say if the Buffaloes return to cover the plains like they did in 1800 and consume all the crops?

The late Julian Simon debunked most of the myths about over population. Wired com had a good review of Simon’s work here. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.02/ffsimon_pr.html

The environmentalists might have more success if they advocated breeding miniature people like breeding miniature dogs and miniature horses. A Boeing 747 could carry twice the number of miniature people than normal people using the same amount of fuel. With miniature people cars could be smaller and highway lanes would double in quantity making traffic less congested. The Willis Tower in Chicago could have 220 floors instead of 110. Currently you can put 6 billion people in the state of Texas and each person would have 1100 square feet of land. If you have miniature people that means you could put 12 billion people in Texas and each would still have 550 square feet of land. If buildings were smaller to accommodate miniature people the cost of heating would be less. Miniature people would consume less food and other resources.

Miniature people would have more relative office space. “According to the International Facility Management Association, the average American office worker had 90 square feet of work space in 1994, but by 2010, that same worker was down to just 75 square feet of personal space in which to stretch out on the job.”

Miniature people will be able to lift more than their body weight using Iron Man Eco Skeletons.

I think the environmentalists should stop worrying about population increases and worry more about waistline increases. A welfare world is becoming obese.

The population will start to shrink as more women start using the birth control pill. Giving the choice of an independent career or tied down to commitments to others; a husband or children, women all over the world will choose to have only one child, or two children, or none at all. How many they choose will not be enough to replace the population.

Whether miniature or normal, the human body is a blob of atoms that are driven by desires and fears. After death the atoms slowly escape the blob and form other matter, even other blobs, and the cycle continues.

Charles Tolleson, Tall Blob

Protests in The Middle East

2011-01-30T07:01:00.000-08:00

"[The average man] is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty — and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies." ~ H.L. Mencken

A few weeks ago Tunisia erupted in protest. The people finally got fed up with their dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and he had to resign. Now the Egyptian people are fed up with their dictator Hosni Mubarak's 29 year rule.

These protests in Muslim countries are not about religion. They are about freedom and economics. The protesters are protesting against the tyrants that the U.S. has aided and abetted for decades. Will other tyrants, friends of the U.S., like the Saud family that has ruled and plundered Saudi Arabia for decades, be next to abdicate? Will the The House of Al Sabah in Kuwait no longer be able to collect billions in oil revenue that belong to the people?

I wrote this on October 23, 2006. “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.”

The Internet and cell phones are making the flow of information easier in the Middle East and this technology is making it easier for Arabs all over the world to rebel against tyrannical rule, including rule by Caliphs and Imams.

Of course there have been revolutions in the past when the current technology was unavailable. Many of those revolutions were coup d’etats, one autocracy trying to overthrow another. It was not about a revolution of ideas on how government should operate, as was the American revolution of 1776. The current technology however has leaders around the world feeling very out of control because millions of people are exchanging ideas through the Internet. With the Internet the leaders no longer control the flow of information and therefore cannot control the ideas of the people. Egypt has shut down the Internet in Egypt, but how long can a country survive in the modern era without the Internet?

President Obama said with a straight face, "All governments must maintain power through consent, not coercion." I wonder if President Obama realizes how much coercion the U.S. government uses on its citizens. The U.S. government uses coercion on its citizens to collect taxes, some of which has been used to prop up despots in the Middle East. At least Obama said what all governments are about, which is POWER.

President Obama is/was reluctant to criticize one of his allies, even if the ally is a despot. It seems the U.S. foreign policy is hypocritical. It says it wants to democratize the Middle East, yet it supports dictators. I think the U.S. officials are hypocritical in words only. In their hearts the U.S. officials yearn, with envy, for the power dictators have.

I believe the people who are revolting against tyranny in the Middle East have withdrawn their consent. It was Etienne de la Boetie in his “The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude” in 1549 who said that people cannot be ruled by tyrants unless the people volunteer to be ruled. The people in the Middle East are no longer volunteering to be ruled by tyrants. What has happened in Tunisia and Egypt shows that there was no need for the invasion of Iraq and the use of force by the United States to overthrow a tyrant.

The Arabs serving under tyrants should take the advice of Etienne de la Boetie and carry out a passive resistance to their autocratic governments. The people should go on a passive withdrawal of enthusiasm, a WOE program. Without the people’s work and cooperation the autocrats will have to move aside, peacefully.

The people in the west who feared an Islamic takeover of the world were hysterical over nothing. Each younger generation of Muslims will want more freedom from the Imams as the younger generations exchange ideas over the Internet. These modern ideas are not just exchanged locally, they are ideas that cross geographical borders in seconds.

Once the Arabs in the Middle East develop a form of representative government will they be free? People will always vote to try and live at the expense of others. People will always vote to live with the most pleasure and the least pain. They prefer a life of excitement and violence over a life of peace and serenity. In a representative government there are powerful lobbies, as in the U.S., which looks out for their interest at the expense of others. Life is about power. So is government, whether it is a democratic republic or an autocratic government. Will the Internet be able to expose all of these restrictions to real and complete liberty? I believe it will be an important part, but human nature will never accept complete liberty because it requires too much individual responsibility. Maybe someday, when we are bio engineered to live without fear and desire, to live like a vegetable that does not want to kill its own kind instead of like the human animal that does, then, and only then will we know complete liberty.

“Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.” -Thomas Szasz, author, professor of psychiatry (b. 1920)

Charles Tolleson, Mr. Passive

Government Regulation, or Not

2011-01-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

I wrote on April 12, 2010 about safety in the airline industry since deregulation. This article is about the economics of a regulated and deregulated industry.

Justice Stephen Breyer wrote an article in Business Week on Jan 20, 2011, Airline Deregulation, Revisited.” Justice Breyer was an aide to Senator Ted Kennedy and helped pass the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. Breyer wrote about the increase in passenger traffic since deregulation because of competition, more airlines, and how fares have come down, adjusted for inflation. “No one foresaw the industry's spectacular growth, with the number of air passengers increasing from 207.5 million in 1974 to 721.1 million last year.”

“In 1974 the cheapest round-trip New York-Los Angeles flight (in inflation-adjusted dollars) that regulators would allow: $1,442. Today one can fly that same route for $268. That is why the number of travelers has gone way up.”

Before deregulation the airline cartel was made up of a few airlines that were regulated by the Civil Aeronautics Board, (CAB). If an airline wanted to start service on a new route it had to get permission from the CAB. If airlines wanted to change fares they had to get permission from the CAB. No new airline could just start new competitive service without the permission from the CAB.

If an airline was shut down by a labor strike, the airline’s competitors who flew on the routes of the struck airline had to share some of their revenue with the airline on strike. This was called the Mutual Aid Pact of airlines. During the 30 years before (1947-1977) the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 there were 117 labor strikes against U.S. airlines. During the 30 years after (1979-2009) airline deregulation there have been less than a third of the prior 30 years, about 35 labor strikes against U.S. airlines. This data shows that government regulating a market causes disruption and above market costs to the investors, employers, and most of all, the consumers.

The medical industry is heavily regulated. Though hospitals and staff are private, you would hardly know it because there are so many government rules and regulations the hospitals and staffs might as well be owned by the government. As soon as the airline industry was deregulated the industry saw spectacular growth. Can you imagine the growth in the health industry if it was deregulated; if Medicare and Medicaid were eliminated, and if the requirement that hospital emergency rooms treat all who enter, and if nurses and doctors did not have to be licensed. You would see prices for health care plummet and the number of persons employed in the health care industry triple. Unemployment would drop to five percent in the country. The advocates for licensing medial personnel would be surprised to know that almost one million people die each year from problems in the regulated medical industry. People tolerate these deaths in a regulated health industry but would become incensed and intolerant if the same deaths happened in an unregulated health industry.

A doctor will spend many years in non productive learning instead of practicing productive medicine that would lower the costs of health care. I read a story about a doctor in India who got in trouble for teaching and allowing his teen age son to perform surgery. As a teen my surgeon also watched his dad perform surgery. My surgeon knew how to perform an appendectomy before he graduated from high school. Yet he had to spend the next eight to ten years learning medicine before he could become productive. Ten years of lost productivity. If the doctor cartel was eliminated and anyone could practice health care there would be inexpensive clinics buying cadavers and training potential surgeons.

The education industry is not only regulated by the government, it is run and owned by the government, except a few private institutions. The government confiscates, by force, funds for its education operation. No wonder it is inefficient. The users have become attached to their community government owned schools, as ‘Our” team won their last game, and other tribalistic feelings. Mothers genuflect before the government priests as the mothers hope, a cheap form of happiness, the government priests will make their children socially acceptable and wise.

The barber schools have lobbied to pass regulations that require all future barbers to attend the barber schools. Without this regulation individual barbers would be training new barbers cheaper and more efficient. The barber schools would go out of business if individual barbers could teach how to cut hair. The increased supply of barbers would lower the cost of hair cuts and provide employment for many unsophisticated citizens.

This is the story of regulations. The regulators and those advocating for regulations always say the regulations are to protect the consumers. The sheep believe these lies. The regulations are actually used to protect the vendors from competition. The doctors’ cartel reduces the number of doctors so their fees go up. The barbers’ cartel reduces the number of barbers so their fees go up. The architects lobby to require you use them for an approved design before the city will approve your building permit, thus creating work for the architects and causing the cost of housing to increase more than in an unregulated free market.

How many people would have died if Edward Jenner and Louis Pasteur had been working under the regulations in place in the United States of today? Clarence Darrow, the noted attorney in the famous Scopes Trial, never finished college. Henry Ford, a farmer and machinist, developed the Ford tractor for farming. This tractor, with insecticides from the early chemistry industry, provided enormous increases in food production that prevented millions from starving. These increases in food production were done before the monstrous bureaucratic U.S. Department of Agriculture reached its zenith in power.

In a NY Times article of January 23, 2011, the government plans to do drug research because the pharmaceutical industry has not brought enough new drugs to market. Regulators at the Food and Drug Administration have issued so many regulations for the pharmaceutical industry it now costs over a billion dollars and years of research before the FDA will approve a drug. Another department, the National Institute of Health, thinks they can do better than the pharmaceutical industry in finding new drugs. The NIH has started a Federal Research Center to compete with private industry in discovering new drugs. The government regulators create a problem, and another branch of the government mob tries to find the solution to the problem by increasing their budget and bureaucracy. “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake.” George Orwell

If deregulation is so beneficial to consumers and the economy, why is everything from garbage collection to hair cuts regulated? The sheep like these regulations because they believe regulation is in their best interest. They trust in the benevolence of mankind. They actually think the government employees are honest and will provide and protect the citizens. The sheep have the community belief, that they are safer in a community, even if the community is holding back the community by its inefficiency. The sheep believe government power can only be used for good and private power can only be used for evil. Cartels and the government gang exploit this sheep behavior.

Here is a good article by Aaron Everitt about how we are exposed daily to government regulations. http://mises.org/daily/4991

Regulations, whether they be for business and guilds to avoid competition, or just to empower the bureaucrats, or to alleviate the fears of the fearful, regulations have always been a part of social cultures. People have always been afraid of the prostitutes, discontents, and degenerates who want to live life unregulated. Government regulations are presented as rules to protect the proletariat and bourgeois when in fact government regulations are just a disguise for central planning. Government regulations lead the citizens into a false sense of security. The citizens become listless and enervated while the regulators become neurotically energized with their new powers.

Charles Tolleson, Regulated Degenerate

More Challenges for the Government Gang

2011-01-19T12:43:00.000-08:00

“True, it is evil that a single man should crush the herd, but see not there the worse form of slavery, which is when the herd crushes out the man.” Antoine De Saint-Exupery

In President Obama’s weekly radio address on January 15, 2010, he said, “After all, this is still a time of great challenges for us to solve. We've got to grow jobs faster, and forge a stronger, more competitive economy. We've got to shore up our budget, and bring down our deficits. We've got to keep our people safe, and see to it that the American Dream remains vibrant and alive for our children and grandchildren.

These are challenges I believe we can meet. And I believe we can do it in a way worthy of those who sent us here to serve.”

If you go back in history you cannot find a president who said differently. No president has ever said, “We have no challenges to solve”. All politicians and hucksters want you to believe they are the ones, and the only ones, not you, who can solve these challenges.

Mr. President, it is not for the government to solve people's problems. Yet many people believe it IS the job of the government to solve their problems. You, Mr. President, are not the President of a company that can create jobs by producing products and services that people voluntarily purchase. You, Mr. President, are the president of a gang that operates on force and aggression. You extract by force a portion of the producer's output. It is not a voluntary transaction between two individuals. It is a forced transaction between the government mob and one individual.

You do have the challenge of solving the problems, self induced problems, of the government gang. The gang simply spends too much and is infatuated with power. The gang gets well paid to carry on unnecessary wars. The gang gets well paid to create and enforce thousands and thousands of pages of rules and regulations designed to fool the people into a delusional state that they are safe, and free, in your hands.

So, why can your gang not reduce their extravagant spending? Could it be because you took it by force instead of earning it? Could it be because the money you spend is not your money, but the money of the hard working producers? You should be ashamed of yourself for pretending to be someone who cares about the American worker when what you care most about is power, and your legacy.

You and your gang risk nothing in trying to solve my challenges. I on the other hand do take risks in attempting to better myself. If I am successful at improving my lot then you and your gang will confiscate a portion of my success and, with a straight face, you quickly claim credit for my success.

I must complement President Obama for his opinion column in the Wall Street Journal of January 18, 2011 where President Obama said he has ordered a review of government regulations that stifle innovation and job creation. Obama is simply doing a Bill Clinton and moving to the center in preparation for his 2012 election.

To facilitate this reduction in bureaucracy the president should decertify the federal employees union. No need to review the regulations of many agencies and departments. Just eliminate them. There is no reason to have a federal Department of Education. We should repeal the UNaffordable“Affordable Health Care for America Act”, which barely passed the House of Representatives, passing by only 50.57%!

But, good luck with the federal bureaucracy. It will not yield control easily. The President's action is propaganda deflection. Two steps forward and one step back, and the government will grow, and grow, until it collapses. It created 80,000 pages of rules and regulations in 2010, in just one year. For citizens to deal with these regulations is a real CHALLENGE!

Rose Wilder Lane said it well in her book, “The Discovery of Freedom, Man's Struggle Against Authority” when Lane talked about the human energy of each individual trying and trying to improve their existences.

“This is the human dilemma. Each individual is the source and control of human energy, but one individual can not generate enough energy. To live at all, and then to get the values that he wants in living, he must combine his energy with the energies of others. But in doing this, he always encounters an obstacle to the direct use of his energy to achieve his own desires. This obstacle is the problem of controlling the combined energies.”

So many, many people want to control others. They fear if they do not control others, those others will leave them behind. This is true, but, even if they are left behind, the output and energy of millions of humans will improve the lot of those left behind.

Mr. President, if you and your gang will get out of the way and stop trying to control the energies of millions of working people, and stop trying to build both a domestic and foreign empire, and just see to it that we have our natural rights protected, we will solve our own challenges. That is part of being human.

Charles Tolleson

Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior

2011-01-13T12:39:00.000-08:00

The Wall Street Journal had a column on Jan 13, 2011 by Amy Chua on why Chinese mothers are superior to western mothers.

A better title to the column by Chua would have been "How Chinese Mothers Are Superior", not "Why". Amy Chua made some good points on "how" Chinese mothers raise their children but she failed to answer the question of "why".

I think the why is interesting. I believe Chinese mothers have a tradition in their culture of raising children to be productive instead of non productive. This is to provide for the elderly in their old age. This used to be how western mothers raised their children, to be productive, before Social Security and Medicare were created.

Another reason why Chinese mothers are superior is Chinese mothers have a lower divorce rate and single parenting than western mothers.

But make no mistake about the future of the current children of Chinese mothers. When they grow up and become producers they will become alarmed that the governments will take up to 50% of their production, by force! The producers will see the non producers getting a share of the production and will not raise their children that way the current generation of Chinese children are raised.

There are two ways to get something. You can produce it or take it from someone else. Humans try to get through life with more pleasure than pain. This is the basic cause of societies collapsing or remaining stagnant.

Charles Tolleson, The Happy Misanthrope

TSA Employ’s 67,000!

2010-11-29T13:13:00.000-08:00

By Charles Tolleson
Nov 29 2010

The airlines used to do the security screening with minimum wage employees and high turnover, according to this 2000 report by the GAO.

After 9/11 there was a demand for the government to do the screening, which the airlines were glad to turn over to the government. The airlines had been following government requirements for screening. The airlines did not want the responsibility and liability. Liability insurance premiums would have been expensive. It's much easier to sue an airline than the federal government. Instead the airlines turned the expense, liability, and responsibility over to the government, where the passengers pay a ‘minimum’ of $2.50 and a maximum of $5.00 per boarding, up to $10 round trip, for security expenses.

"Did you know that the nation's airports are not required to have Transportation Security Administration screeners checking passengers at security checkpoints? The 2001 law creating the TSA gave airports the right to opt out of the TSA program in favor of private screeners after a two-year period."

The airlines should be responsible for screening passengers. The airlines can search you in order for you to use their property. The government should not search you in order for you to use someone’s property. Should the government be allowed to search potential customers of a shopping mall? No, but the mall owners have a right to search you before you go on their property. The airlines would have to become efficient at security to satisfy their customers or go out of business. Different security procedures would be used by different airlines if the government would get out of the way. As it stands now the government prohibits profiling. Without this government prohibition some airlines might be very safe and profitable by profiling, and paying a hefty insurance premium in case a terrorist sets off a bomb on board an aircraft. Here is a good article about Privatizing Air Security, by Robert Murphy.

Prior to 9/11 the government policy was for passengers to submit and cooperate with any highjacker. This contributed to the destruction of the World Trade Center and the loss of lives on 9/11. Now the passengers are not submitting to a highjacker, or any strange behavior of another passenger on an airliner. The passengers are acting as local security, something centralized planners are incapable of.

In 1999 there were about 8,000 private airport screeners. Today the TSA employees over eight times that many, 67,000! From 1999 through 2009 there was about a 19% increase in domestic enplanements. The TSA employees are thinking of forming a union. Once that happens the number of TSA government employees will increase dramatically.

"Pre-board screeners earn an average of $6 an hour nationally, often less than the starting wage in airport fast food restaurants. In 1999, according to the General Accounting Office, annual turnover among the nation’s 8,000 airport screeners exceeded 125 percent. At this rate, the average screener has been on the job for four and one-half months. At Boston’s Logan Airport, where two of the hijacked planes departed, the turnover rate was 200 percent; at Atlanta’s Hartsfield, it exceeded 400 percent."

One would think the low pay and private screeners caused 9/11. But, after the government took over security screening fake test bombs still got through. On October 22, 2007, Thomas Frank's USA Today article headlined, "Most fake bombs missed by screeners," saying: "Security screeners at two of the nation's busiest airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by USA TODAY."

The Airline Pilots Security Alliance had this to say in a report, The Truth about Airline Security, "two recent classified TSA reports leaked to the public, confirm TSA screeners at multiple airports, failed to detect more than 90 percent of hidden weapons concealed by testers."

North and South Korea and War Lies

2010-11-23T13:19:00.000-08:00

By Charles Tolleson
November 23 2010

Two recent books, “War is a Lie” and “The Culture of War”- http://www.nysun.com/arts/why-we-fight-martin-van-crevelds-the-culture/86443/ -came to mind when I saw the news about an exchange of artillery fire between North Korea and South Korea over some disputed maritime borders off the West Coast of Korea. Why was South Korea firing artillery rounds during a military exercise on a small island 80 miles from South Korea and so close to North Korea that North Korea could return artillery fire and hit the South Korean military? Could South Korea have been trying to provoke North Korea? “War is a racket.” General Smedley Butler

After the skirmish the U.S. dispatched a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington, which carries 75 warplanes, to join exercises with South Korea from Sunday to the following Wednesday, U.S. officials in Seoul said. "This exercise is defensive in nature," U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement. "While planned well before yesterday's unprovoked artillery attack, it demonstrates the strength of the ROK (South Korea)-U.S. alliance and our commitment to regional stability through deterrence." Now why would the U.S. plan a military exercise five miles from the North Korean coast? This is more propaganda to stir the passions of the tribe and promote the war lovers’ sport, war. The war lovers always say their wars are defensive in nature, or for humanitarian reasons. Instead, the war lovers simply get pleasure from war.

Stock markets declined as a result of the skirmish and the death of two South Korean Marines. I wonder how many politicians and generals who knew of the pending attacks and shorted the markets?

It is as if both countries are saying they own the waters around Yeonpyeong Island and the people in those islands are our resources which we derive our living from. Has anyone thought to ask those people living on the islands which country they want to belong to? Maybe they don’t want to belong to either owner. Maybe they want to belong to themselves. Maybe they want to trade and travel with both North and South Korea.

Those people living in the disputed territory should just declare their independence from both North and South Korea and call themselves just plain, Korea.

Of course the bully, the United States, said they would defend South Korea. The chest thumpers never miss and opportunity to build up and try to justify the trillions spent on war that gives them power, prestige, and nice retirements. “I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.” John Adams

The U.S. has a treaty with South Korea to come to their defense. What a deal for a little country like South Korea! Why does the U.S. make these one sided treaties with these small countries that cannot help the U.S. equally in defense? The U.S. makes a treaty with a small country like Israel that cannot provide anywhere near the defense to the U.S. that the U.S. can provide for Israel. So Israel can become a bully in the Middle East knowing the U.S. is their big bodyguard. South Korea can provoke North Korea by carrying out military exercises in disputed territory knowing their big bodyguard, the U.S., will be happy to have a reason to justify their huge military expenditures.

I suspect somewhere in the treaty with these small countries is the stipulation that they must buy their war toys from the U.S. The U.S. is one of the world’s largest international arms dealers which recently extradited, from Thailand, Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for selling arms. The U.S. just cannot stand competition in the arms trafficking industry!

The U.S. is all concerned about North Korea, Iran, and other small countries developing a nuclear bomb. Their concern is based on the realization that if these small countries have nuclear weapons then the U.S. cannot invade and occupy them without the consequences being too great. This is called mutual deterrence. It is what kept the former Soviet Union and the United States from creating World War III. The War Nation and their parasites love small wars as a way to create the most exciting sport in the world. After the sport is over there are parades, medals, monuments, and annual gatherings to drink and regale in past glories. “A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.” Napoleon Bonaparte

War Propaganda

2010-11-21T14:10:00.000-08:00

By Charles Tolleson
November 21, 2010

This is from an Associated Press news story of November 21, 2010. “Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is promising more small-scale attacks like its attempts to bomb two U.S.-bound cargo planes, which it likens to bleeding its enemy to death by a thousand cuts, in a special edition of the Yemeni-based group's English on-line magazine, Inspire.”

I searched for the online magazine Inspire and could not find it. The information fed to the AP was from Ben Venzke's IntelCenter, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/5/4336/97041 and the Site Intelligence Group. Both sites are run by Jews who advise the U.S. government. What these two sites sell to the government, the mainstream media sells to the public.

Why cannot we see the Yemeni based group’s English online magazine, Inspire, the same way Site Intelligence Group sees the site? I suspect it is blocked from the American public. The best way to get the public’s support for an unnecessary war is to prevent anti war information being available. Max Fisher, a writer for The Atlantic, even said Inspire Magazine was a hoax, yet the government and media are deeply concerned.

May be the online magazine, Inspire, is a phony magazine set up by the CIA to keep the American public alarmed. A fearful public will insure the government mob maintains its monopoly on the security industry.

Throughout history warriors and chiefs have made war. Then they always had to justify war to the populace. The best way to get the populace’s support is to keep them fearful. Many people in the war industry get rich and powerful. The troops are “loved and supported.” Would you lie in order to be loved and supported?

But, as Randolph Bourne said, “War is the health of the State”. With war the State gains power and prestige. This power and the sense of privilege the government mob feels leads to lies and corruption. It leads to more propaganda to keep the populace sending in their taxes to support the government mob and its parasites in making war. The book, “Cultures of War”, by John Dower, shows that all wars are the same. They have nothing to do with duty and honor. They have more to do with irrational group behavior instead of logic. If one dissents from the group’s desire for war that dissenter is often labeled a traitor. This punishment of dissenters is why the worst rise to the top, as expressed by F.A. Hayek in his book, “The Road to Serfdom.”

An Irish proverb says, “The believer is happy, the doubter is wise”. People are happy when they believe their war is necessary and it is for their God or other humanitarian reasons. They would be miserable if they found out all the death, debt, and destruction was completely unnecessary, like the unnecessary Vietnam War that killed millions. As the Vietnam War continued many people did not believe the Vietnam War was necessary. Because of the draft and television coverage the war supporters declined. But the big reason support for the war declined was the Viet Cong never attacked the United States. Had the terrorists never carried out 9/11 or other attacks on U.S. targets there would be less support for the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The United States leaders are good at using their massive power to provoke an attack by a small country like Vietnam, North Korea, Panama, Grenada, The Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Once a small country strikes back then the U.S. leaders have their best raison d’être, WAR! The mighty United States leaders know the small country will not win a victory and put the U.S. leaders on trial for war crimes. The U.S. leaders do know their tribal members will need the leaders in a time of war, even if the war is unnecessary and there is no real threat of invasion by the small country the bully U.S. is at war with.

The best way to end war is to allow all countries to become members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Any country attacked would be defended by all the other countries.

Another way to end all wars is to have the United Nations declare all weapons, except the stone axe, as illegal in war. The only people who can be used to invade or attack another country will be females, using stone axes. Males and females can defend their country, using only stone axes, against any invaders or attackers. This rule would end the insanity that causes unnecessary wars because no leader would send a country’s females into such a war.

I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, Mother, what was war? Eve Merriam

Airport Security

2010-11-17T14:52:00.000-08:00

By Charles Tolleson
November 17, 2010

Recent stories about the airport scanners said there are complaints from the traveling public. Some tribal members are appalled at the scanners and the pat downs as an intrusion of privacy. Others in the tribe think giving up privacy for an “expectation” of safety is fine. One woman said she would get naked for an “expectation” of safety because it was necessary as there was nothing else to do to fight the terrorists. Lady, if you are willing to go that far to fight the terrorists then the terrorists have won! They are laughing at us and they never have to have another successful attack on the U.S. to keep us trembling.

Lady, there is something else we can do. We can bring all of our troops home. As long as The American Foreign Legion is invading, occupying and killing innocent people in other countries just to support Israel's decades long religious war the terrorists will fight back. One will notice the terrorists do not threaten Costa Rica or Brazil, both Christian countries. The reason they threaten the U.S. is because the U.S. threatens them. If you are willing to give up your privacy to fight terrorism, an idea, what would you do if their Islamic army was occupying your country? Would you become a terrorist and fight the invaders?

The woman who is willing to undress in front of government strangers for a promise of safety reminds me of the 1950s when school children were practicing hiding under their desks in case of a nuclear attack. A neighbor of mine had a cement bomb shelter built and stocked with supplies. It was a great placebo. I suppose it is still there, waiting to be used.

The lady who is willing to undress in front of government employees for the “expectation” of safety has a greater chance of being killed by her spouse than by a terrorist. About 500 people in the U.S. are killed each year by their spouses and partners. Since 9/11 there have been no citizens killed in the U.S. by terrorists.

In 2009, before the government mob started scanning us and putting their hands on our private parts, there were over 700 MILLION passengers that boarded airplanes to, and inside the United States. Not one passenger lost their life to a terrorist carrying a bomb on board. Yet, the meek and the fearful think these astronomical odds against a terrorist carrying a successful bomb on board justify giving up their freedoms.

Though there has not been a death in the U.S. by a foreign terrorist since 9/11, it is only a matter of time until another successful major terrorist attack on the U.S. due simply to the United States’ arrogant policy of trying to tell other people in other countries how to live. If the United States grounded all airplanes the terrorist would find other targets in the U.S. as long as the U.S. invades and kills people in other countries.

If the world was all one race, religion, and one government, there would still be young men who would want to make a big “explosion” to win glory and martyrdom. Timothy McVeigh went happily to his death knowing he was a martyr, loved and respected by others like him who hated big government.

If you give up your rights and air travel becomes perfectly safe from terrorists attacks the terrorists will just try softer targets, like the failed attempt at Times Square to set off a car bomb. After car bombs go off in crowded places the meek will then scream for all cars to be searched. When that fails to provide safety the meek will then demand for homes to be searched. They will give more of their power and freedom to the government mob for an "expectation" of safety. When their expectations are not met they will give yet more power and freedoms to the government mob and continue to wave the American flag and say America is the home of the free and land of the brave. Free people are not absolutely safe. Absolutely safe people are not free.

Since 9/11 there has been over 5 BILLION passenger enplanments to and within the U.S. Yet, not one passenger has lost their life to a terrorist carrying a bomb on board an airliner. Despite these odds passengers still are willing to give up their privacy for an illusion of safety.

In 1943 Abraham Maslow created his hierarchy of human needs pyramid. No where in the pyramid was the need for liberty and freedom. However, second in importance on his pyramid was safety. Our behavior and demands for safety prove Maslow was right.

Many people will pontificate about how our soldiers sacrifice to protect our freedoms. These same pontificators then meekly give those same freedoms away to the government mob.

The terrorists never threatened the U.S. until after 1948 when President Harry “Nuclear” Truman said Israel could take some Arab lands and form a Jewish state. This was in response to America’s guilt of not letting Jews immigrate to the U.S. from the Nazi persecutions in the 1930s.

“We kill because we are afraid of our own shadow, afraid that if we used a little common sense we'd have to admit that our glorious principles were wrong.” ~Henry Miller, The Wisdom of the Heart, 1941

Dining Out

2010-11-15T07:05:00.000-08:00

By Charles Tolleson
November 15, 2010

I have had many wonderful dining out experiences. Some of the best have been in small elegant restaurants that were quiet.

In the past few years I have avoided dining out, unless social duties require so, because I no longer have a lady to frequent those quiet romantic restaurants with.

Last night social duties required I dine out with some friends. As I expected the food was good but the restaurant patrons were loud. Americans just seem to think loud boisterous behavior symbolizes happiness. I could barely hear my friends across the table talking because of the noise. There was a group close by of 14 people, half of them children, dressed as if they just came from lounging on their sofa or playing in their back yard.

The noise was so irritating that I wanted to stand up and say, “Attention please. We will now have five minutes of silence. Patrons will not be allowed to speak to each other, only to their servers.”

I also wanted to ask anyone who was dressed inappropriately to leave. Americans seem to think their sloven attire and boisterous behavior is something the public needs. I doubt if a restaurant with a dress code could stay in business today. Does anyone remember going to a restaurant that required a man to wear a tie? I do.

Can Troops Get Too Much Love

2010-11-13T08:24:00.000-08:00

By Charles Tolleson
November 13, 2010

I have written before about the excessive and unnecessary praise given to our military and police.

There was a Christian Science Monitor news story on November 10, 2010 by By Anna Mulrine titled “Can troops get too much love?”

The story describes the adulation troops receive as causing troops to feel haughty enough to disobey orders from civilian leaders, like President Obama and Defense Secretary Gates. Troops who are in charge in an Afghanistan village feel like they are the law. They think and act like they are “Warrior Kings”, said a retired major general.

When you tell someone you love them you give them your power, unless you give them tough love. You should not give your power to people who have bigger guns than you have. Even if you tell the Sheepdogs you love them, the Sheepdogs should always know their master is the electorate. Former President Harry Truman did the right thing when he fired General Douglas MacArthur for disobeying an order from the President.

It is certainly true that politicians start wars for unjust reasons and the military can always argue the policies of the civilians in Washington D.C. are policies of folly. That does not mean the policies would be more reasonable and intelligent if they were made by military personnel. Nor would we have fewer wars if the military personnel were in charge. It could be said that some experienced ex military people like former President Eisenhower would end wars; he ended the Korean War, and avoided other wars. President Eisenhower stayed out of Vietnam when the French asked for America’s help at Dien Bien Phu. But, one must remember, President Eisenhower was a civilian at the time he made the decisions to avoid war. His actions were based on campaign promises and the need to get votes for his re-election in 1956.

James Madison- “As the greatest danger to liberty is from large standing armies, it is best to prevent them by an effectual provision for a good militia.” (Notes of debates in the 1787 Federal Convention)

I think Madison’s concern was correct. Power also corrupts. The current U.S. Military Nation has too much power. It’s time to bring all U.S. troops home and downsize the military empire.

The danger of a military coup in the U.S. has been of no concern to the citizenry because the military has always reported to civilians who were up for re-election on a regular basis. But terror, the fear of terrorists, and the fear that Islam will take over the Christian world will create an opportunity for all kinds of evil.

If there is an attempted military coup in the U.S. there are millions of people who would support such a coup. All of those who hate President Obama would think having a “Warrior King” in charge would be a great thing. Those who would give up their liberty for a promise of order and protection should read, “The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude”, by Etienne De La Boetie, written in 1548.

Military Funerals

2010-11-11T06:25:00.000-08:00

By Charles Tolleson
November 11, 2010

There was a funeral in an Illinois town for a soldier killed in Afghanistan. The local high school students lined the streets as the funeral procession, led by police cars, passed by.

Throughout history tribes have always honored those lost in battle, even if the battle is ten thousand miles from home while carrying out an unnecessary war.

The tribe does this to make sure there are always new warriors willing to sign up. The tribe is always fearful, a basic instinct, and they always want to make sure there are enough warriors to allay the fears of the tribe. They praise, encourage, and indoctrinate the young men to take on the task of protecting the tribe. However, the young men get used by old men in wars that have nothing to do with tribal protection.

When I joined the army as a young lad I had no idea where Korea was or why we were fighting there. I was just naïve enough to follow the orders of old demonic men. Now that I am older and wiser, and a veteran, I realize I was just a war enabler, enabling old men to send young men into foreign countries to kill strangers they had no arguments with.

Last night, on the eve of Veterans Day, my ten year old grandson called and asked what years I served in the military. I told him and asked why he wanted to know. He, only ten years old, was assigned by a government school to write the names of family members who were veterans. Each name will be a brick paper on a wall in the classroom to honor veterans. He is getting his indoctrination early. I would like to talk to his teacher. The children who do not have any family members who are veterans probably feel shame.

Providing respect with a parade, a police escort, and customers let out from the government schools to line the streets to show more respect as the fallen soldier passes by, is a great way to get future enlistments. Each young man has illusions of glory and fame, even if it requires risking his life. He is more afraid of shame than of bullets. If he shows his courage, a common quality in men, (men show courage in many ways as civilians) by putting on a uniform he will be rewarded with respect, medals, a pension, and a mate, all basic needs of a man.

I can imagine the thoughts going through the minds of those young high school males as they see all of the respect shown to a dead soldier. They know the odds of them finding this kind of respect in a normal civilian job are extremely low. Their minds start thinking of the risk/rewards. A small percentage of the young men are prime candidates to fulfill the State’s most basic function, to make war. Without them the State would have to compromise and negotiate with other states, just like individuals do.

My son said there should be an anti Vietnam War rally to remind the young people how easy it is for the government warmongers to dupe the young into dying in unnecessary wars.

"Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud. I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace". ~Charles Sumner

College Tuition Costs Increase, Again

2010-11-10T12:23:00.000-08:00

By Charles Tolleson

(In 2008, there were gasps as Cal State fees were raised to $3,048 a year. Now the $4,200 yearly tuition is expected to rise by 5% next semester and an additional 10% the following academic year, climbing close to $5,000 — more than three times what it was a decade ago.)

Why is college tuition increasing faster than inflation? It’s because demand has outpaced supply. Why has supply not kept up with demand? Because the State college system is a quasi monopoly like many other cartels, such as the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association.

The demand for college degrees has been fueled by student loans and free tuition for poor students. The cost increases are to the middle class parents who have to pay the tuition for the poor students. The loans allow students to spend years paying back the loan. Many students do not think they will have any problem finding a job and paying back the loan. The student loan program is creating a bubble in education much like the housing bubble of 2008.

Even middle class parents can take out low interest student loans for their children to attend college.

The best way to lower college costs is for the American Chamber of Commerce to announce they will no longer require a college degree for employment. Instead of a college degree American businesses will now require an education. This education may be obtained by online courses, on the job experiences, reading Wikipedia, or reading articles found by searching the Internet. An interview for a job at an American business may require a test to prove an applicant’s education. By this action the Chamber of Commerce will have more applicants to choose from which should lower the cost of labor.

Education used to be done at home or by tutors. Then it became a government monopoly. Sesame Street on TV showed how mass education can be more efficient. There are all kinds of free education courses online today. YouTube has YouTube-Education. It’s time the government stopped running education and allows education to be run by consumer choices in the free market.

San Francisco Restaurant Health Inspectors

2010-11-08T11:47:00.000-08:00

By Charles Tolleson

According to the San Francisco Visitors Bureau there were about 3500 restaurants in San Francisco in July of 2009. The number changes daily. http://www.sfcvb.org/media/downloads/travel_media/sf_facts.pdf
On November 8, 2010 there was a news story that said, “San Francisco health officials say restaurant inspections are lagging because of a lack of staff. The San Francisco Health Department has 19 food inspectors instead of the 23 it is supposed to. Health officials tell the San Francisco Examiner that retirements and disciplinary problems have whittled down the staff. The shortage means thousands of restaurants may only be getting one inspection a year, and eateries with problems may not be receiving follow-up visits. All restaurants and food preparation facilities are supposed to be inspected twice a year, with those where significant problems have been identified getting a third visit.”

With 19 inspectors to inspect 3500 restaurants twice each year means each inspector will have to make 368 inspections per year, or 31 per month, or 8 per week, or 1.53 per day.

It seems like the health department has too many inspectors and should reduce their staff further! How difficult is it for one person to inspect less than two restaurants per day? If this was a private run service you can bet each employee would be more efficient, especially for the amount of money and perks the government employees are currently receiving. No wonder local, State, and Federal governments are running deficits.

"What is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

Police Funerals

2010-11-06T07:15:00.000-07:00

A San Diego policeman was killed on duty. His funeral on Nov 4, 2010 was attended by 3400 police people. Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger was one of the speakers at the services. Governor-Elect Jerry Brown was expected to attend, along with the city council, county board of supervisors and other dignitaries as well as law enforcement officers from as far away as Chicago, Texas and Florida. Police people from nearby cites patrolled San Diego so the San Diego police people could attend the funeral. There were over 800 police vehicles in the funeral procession.

Solid waste haulers rank third on the list of the riskiest jobs in the United States, according to a study by the Florida Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management, Miami, and the University of Miami. Averaging 90 deaths annually per 100,000 workers, collection falls behind fishing, with 178 deaths, and timber cutting, with 156. Many trash haulers work for local governments and many trash haulers work for private companies like Waste Management. Aircraft pilots had death rates in 2004 of 92 per 100,000 workers.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reported 2009 statistics. The fund, a non-profit group, reported that 125 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in 2009. 56 of those deaths were from traffic accidents. There are about 800,000 law enforcement people in the U.S. This would equal a death rate of about 16 per hundred thousand, far below other occupations. Where are the public dignitaries and the media to cover the deaths and funerals of those people killed in the line of duty with higher fatality rates than law enforcement?

Why does a government employee killed on the job get such a big government paid ceremonial funeral and a private employee killed on the job is ignored? Commercial fishermen who provide us food and construction workers who build our homes and transportation workers who provide our fuel have higher occupational fatality rates than police people. So why does a funeral of a commercial fisherman not get the same attention as a police person’s funeral? Why do police persons’ heirs receive more and better benefits than the heirs of a commercial fisherman or a trash hauler?

The reasons are the powers of the government employee unions. They lobby for these State paid funerals and time off to attend the funeral of another government employee.

These government employees do what is in their best interest. They try to promote their value so others will invest in them. All humans try this tactic. The government unions have the power to pull it off and the private construction worker does not. The State always tries to glorify itself and its functions. It tries to lower the value of the individual private citizen and raise the value of the “guardians”. The State employees always have a marketing campaign that tries to sell their value so the private citizens will be glad to buy from the monopolistic State at higher prices than provided by a free market.

Charles Tolleson

Afghan War

2010-10-20T16:15:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON – Progress in the Afghanistan war is occurring gradually, despite rising U.S. casualties, Army Gen. David Petraeus says in comments aimed at shoring up support among an increasingly skeptical American public. Associate Press

After nine years of the war racket that helps promote careers of the military nation's members, the promoters of war are saying we must have Patience! Patience? Patience after nine years of unnecessary war. These are the same words the war lovers used a few months after the U.S. invasion and martial law of another small country occurred. These are the same words the war lovers will use in another nine years, or a hundred years. They will still preach fear, saying there are terrorists, (people who hate us for killing their families) that must be dealt with to keep America free. Keep America free? They say this as they pass thousands and thousands of pages of rules and laws that make you less free.

Arguing for patience, Petraeus said that it was only in the last few weeks that the war plan had been fine-tuned and given the resources that it required. "For the first time," he said, "we will have what we have been working to put in place for the last year and a half." AP

After nine years of fighting General Petraeus said the war plan has been fine-tuned. The next general in charge will say something similar, and the general after him will say the same encouraging words, like con men, to keep the suckers back home funding the most socialist of government programs, the military. If the military did its primary function of defending the country most of the military personnel and military industrial civilians would not be needed. The military personnel would have to get a job that produces something, instead of killing people. Many of these military personnel would be on welfare or unemployment in the economy of 2010.

Charles Tolleson

The Military Pilot and the Civilian Pilot

2010-10-20T16:13:00.000-07:00

Military pilots have to meet strict physical and mental requirements to qualify for and complete military flight training.

The government pays for this intense and excellent training. More than a million dollars are spent on training a military pilot. The government has a ceremony to praise the pilots when they complete their training. The pilot graduate is given a set of wings with his peers, loved ones, and families looking on. He is given a rank of an officer and is immediately treated with a salute an respect from all the enlisted personnel, even those who have been in the service for many years and who may have been in combat. Still the military pilot is elevated to an anointed status.

With this new status the new pilots gather in the Officer's Club and drink to their elevated status. They pat each other on the back to re enforce their self appreciation. The government is constantly reminding them of how important they are as "Defenders of Democracy". The civilian populace approves of their deeds and the warrior culture. Their government uniforms are designed to awe the taxpayer. The military is one of the most socialistic of government programs.

The civilian pilot has no such kind of life. The civilian pilot works a job and takes flying lessons on his time off, alone. He has to work and pay for his training. No government socialism for the civilian pilot. When the civilian pilot graduates he is handed a temporary certificate. His permanent certificate arrives in the mail. There are no graduation ceremonies. There are no peers to hang out with in the Officer's Club to remind him how great and important he is. There is no uniform. No civilian adulation.

In 2008 civilian pilots had the fourth highest occupation fatality rate. There is no government memorial for their loss.

Timon The Greek

Sheepdogs, Sheep and Wolves

2010-10-18T15:55:00.000-07:00

On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs(From the book, On Combat, by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman)

By Charles Tolleson, October 18, 2010

Ret Lt. Col. Dave Grossman wrote a book, “On Combat”. I have not read the book. In the book he describes sheep, wolves and sheepdog behaviors.

Col Grossman has glorified the role he played for 23 years as a “sheepdog”. He retired after only 23 years on the job with a lucrative full pension.

As usual the sheepdogs cry for recognition and perks, at the same time they say they are the ones who are willing to sacrifice. When one makes a sacrifice they should keep quiet and stop begging and haranguing for emoluments and praise.

The metaphor of humans acting like sheep, wolves, and dogs is like comparing apples to oranges. Sheep are herbivores and dogs and wolves are carnivores.

Domestic sheep and the sheep dogs are owned by a master. The master fleeces the sheep and makes a living from the production of the sheep. From the profit of the fleece he buys dog food for the sheep dog.

Animals have always flocked together for protection. Fish swim in schools. This makes them more visible to predators but each individual in the group thinks the odds are that some one else in the group will be eaten.

Domesticated sheep cannot defend themselves from predators so the sheepdogs love domesticated sheep. It keeps the Sheepdogs employed and well fed. But wild sheep have survived and prospered, without paying sheepdogs. Wildebeest have also survived and prospered without paying for sheepdogs to protect them from lions. One big, tough animal that did not survive by being in herds was the buffalo. The buffalo herds were killed off by sheepdogs, or was that human wolves. Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference between a human sheepdog and a human wolf.

I don’t think people become sheepdogs because they love their fellow man. There is no such thing as altruism. I think they become sheepdogs because they are sociopaths who love violence. There are many people who have violent genes. Some just put on a uniform and get paid to be violent. Others think they can get ahead by being violent out of uniform. But either way, both function and get high on force and aggression.

The evolution of animals requires that some be guardians while others are preoccupied with production. It has always been difficult for pregnant females or small children to protect themselves from predators. There was nothing else for the sheepdogs to do so the job of protection fell on them. Now they keep asking us to praise and genuflect before them. These sheepdogs also turn themselves into wolves.

At the end of a work day for a real sheep dog the master gives him some food and water, gives him a pat on the head, and says a few kind words and the real sheepdog is happy. A human sheep dog is never content. It requires parades, monuments, pay, and constant praise.

The human animal and its cousin the chimpanzee are the only animals that kill its own kind for pleasure.

Each culture has its rulers. They are the Chiefs, Priests, and Sheepdogs. These rulers have been successful by scaring the populace. There tactic has always been to say the sheepdogs of other cultures are wolves and need to be attacked.

The police will convince you that someone smoking a joint is a wolf and you need to pay the police enormous salaries and pensions to protect you from the person smoking a joint. It’s a nice piece of propaganda done by the police to make people believe the police actually protect people. With less than 3 police persons per thousand people it is difficult to see how anyone can believe three police persons can follow around 1000 people 24 hours per day and protect all thousand of them. The police show up after you have been assaulted! Yet they have the arrogance to tell you they are protecting you.

The human sheepdogs want the rest of society to behave like sheep. That gives the human sheepdogs the marketing material that sheepdog bravery is rare, when the opposite is true. Courage is a most common commodity in men. It is shown by many people who do not wear a uniform. It is shown a million times each night in bars across the country.

Edward Gibbon in The History and Decline of the Roman Empire said the Praetorian Guards, Sheepdogs, whose licentious fury was the first symptom and cause of the decline of the Roman Empire.

Yes, there are many humans with sheep like behavior. You can see these in the church congregations. Congregate, from Middle English meaning to flock together. They listen to their pastor. Pastor is from Latin. It means shepherd. Many people do need and want a shepherd, and a sheepdog.

Bible, Numbers, Chapter 31- Moses says to his Sheepdogs after defeating the Midianites,
17: Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
18: But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

President Obama: End Tax Breaks for Overseas Hiring

2010-10-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

"There is no reason why our tax code should actively reward them for creating jobs overseas," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday. "Instead, we should be using our tax dollars to reward companies that create jobs and businesses within our borders."

If the president is successful in bring the jobs back to America and collecting more taxes he will then cry about the poor unemployed people in the other countries and will make a speech about how kind the U.S. is and he will give billions of our earnings to others countries and call if foreign aid.

Mr. President, if you want to bring manufacturing jobs back to America then give some tax breaks for creating jobs in America.

Better yet, why don't you do away with all the impediments to job creation in the U.S.? Why don't you eliminate the minimum wage? Why don't you do away with the Equal Employment Commission that makes it risky to hire a white male in the U.S.? Why don't you repeal the sexual harassment laws that creates an aristocratic group that can sue American businesses? And lastly, you should withdraw your support for the Paycheck Fairness Act that will increase the cost of doing business in the U.S.

Charles Tolleson

Deregulate the Garbage Industry

2010-10-09T12:43:00.000-07:00

By Charles Tolleson

During the 30 years before (1947-1977) the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 there were 117 labor strikes against U.S. airlines. During the 30 years after (1979-2009) airline deregulation there have been less than a third of the prior 30 years, about 35 labor strikes against U.S. airlines. This data shows that government regulating a market causes disruption and above market costs to the investors, employees, and most of all, the consumers.

When the government creates a contract with city employees to pick up garbage there is no competition to improve efficiency because the city will just pass along the cost to the consumer.

Nor does it matter if Foster City, CA acts as a negotiator for the consumers and gives an exclusive right to a private company, like employee owned Recology, to pick up all the garbage in Foster City. Foster City receives a 5% finder’s fee and fees for street sweeping. Recology gets a 10% profit over costs during the ten year contract. If the owner employees of Recology want a good salary they do not have to strike nor do they have to compete and find more productive ways to improve their profit. They can just pay themselves a good salary, vacations, and pensions and just charge it to costs, like the fees to the city, all of which the consumer will be forced to pay. The absence of competition creates inefficiency.

Recology used to be Norcal Waste. They changed their name recently to Recology, (recycle and ecology). It was a brilliant marketing move. Everyone wants to use Recology just for their name.

I'm glad the city does not negotiate for my other vendors like; Internet service, telephone, clothing, and groceries, or package delivery. What if the government said I could only use FedEx for package delivery in Foster City and that I had to pay Foster City a fee for selecting FedEx to be my vendor?

Speaking of telephone service, the government used to negotiate for our telephone service when AT&T, affectionately known as Ma Bell, was the only telephone company. The government set the rates and the consumer paid for the staid monopoly service. The Communications Workers of America could get higher wages than the market would offer and then the consumer had no choice but to pay the wages. When Ma Bell was broken up in 1984 phone calls became cheaper, much cheaper.

I heard a retired nuclear engineer say he liked it better under Ma Bell because there was only one company to deal with. He said the choices today for telephone service are so numerous it is confusing and stressful. That is the opinion of many consumers. Choices become stressful so they are willing to let the government negotiate and pick a vendor for the consumer.

(No rate hike from trash strike
September 25, 2010, By Michelle Durand, Daily Journal Staff

A two-day strike by Peninsula garbage workers in solidarity with landfill and clerical employees will not cause customers' rates to jump because the company will absorb the $200,000 spent on overtime.

However, contracts negotiated with maintenance and clerical workers were higher than previously assumed and could impact the solid waste rates of agencies belonging to the South Bayside Waste Management Authority, Executive Director Kevin McCarthy told board members on Thursday.)

“Intellectual discourse is the new coliseum.” Chuck Tolleson, Jr.

Government Employees Against Legalizing Marijuana

2010-10-07T14:56:00.000-07:00

The largest contributors against California Proposition 19, the legalization of marijuana, is the California Police Chiefs Association. They have contributed $30,000.

The California Narcotics Association has contributed $20,000 dollars.

The Calif. Correctional Supervisors Organization, Inc. has contributed $7500.

The California Peace Officers Association has given $5000.

The California District Attorney Investigators' Association gave $1000.

Why are these government employee associations giving money to prevent the legalization of marijuana? Because if marijuana is legalized there will be less laws for the government mob to enforce.

If marijuana is legalized it will be more difficult for the government to force a plea bargain agreement for a petty possession of an ounce of marijuana.

If more laws were repealed we would need less government mobsters who make our lives miserable by enforcing laws against non violent acts while forcing us to pay them above market wages and benefits.

"I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?" Willie Nelson

Charles Tolleson

Why There are no Female Mozarts

2010-10-02T12:24:00.000-07:00

October 2, 2010

I wondered, briefly, why of the past top 100 scientists there are only three females; Marie Curie, Lynn Margulis, and Gertrude Belle Elion.

Then I wondered, briefly, why there are no females in the past top 100 classical music composers. Where are the female Mozarts?

Why the absence of females in past arts and science may indicate the envy females have for males today. I believe women are very envious of the past accomplishments of men.

Envy is a deadly sin. If you cannot have what someone has then you are willing to destroy what that person has. The constant harangue today of how bad men are and how virtuous women are, and the constant harangue of how women were oppressed in the past, as if men in the past were free, is a symptom of this envy women have.

I believe the simply explanation for great scientists and artists of the past being males lies in the bell curve of intelligence. The male intelligence curve has geniuses on one end and morons on the opposite end. Female intelligence curve in not as flat as the male. Female intelligences is bunched together in the normal steep middle. Females have very few high intelligence but they also have very few low intelligence.

I think this can be explained by primitive evolution. If a female was of low intelligence her offspring would not have survived, nor would her genes.

If a normal female had a baby boy of low intelligence the mother would have practiced infanticide, as in most societies, but some mothers would have seen to the survival of a boy or girl with low intelligence. If the girl of low intelligence did produce children they would likely not have survived for long.

If a female in primitive times had a high intelligence it might have helped, or hindered her chance to find a mate and produce children. I suspect any high IQ female in primitive times would have often been pregnant and too busy with child rearing to create music and study science.

Another reason most women did not have careers in the past was she was pregnant most of her adult life. She did not have time nor the desire to compose music or study the sciences. There were no careers in the past. There was only farming and war. A few skills could be traded at the local market, but there were no careers.

Compare that to the career choices women have today. She has the birth control pill, created by a male, that allows her freedom to choose a thousand bureaucratic and talking careers; public relations, communications, etc, that all allow the female to excel.

Technology, not laws, freed women. A small woman today can fly a jumbo jet because of the technology. A small woman today can plow a field with an 8 row air conditioned tractor. A few decades ago plowing was done with mules and horses plowing only one row.

Vladimir Horowitz, the late great classical pianist once was told by an admirer, "I would give my life to play like you." Horowitz replied, "I did"! The point is a man has to make something of himself through business, war, or other talents in order to find a mate. A woman does not have to spend her life learning a talent to attract a mate. All she has to do is smile demurely at a man and she is taken care of.

Women claim to have been oppressed in the past. They became liberated in the twentieth century.

Why did they wait so long? Did men free them? Why now and not 5,000 years ago? Why did women wait so long to ask for freedom? If they could demand it now why not demand it in the ancient past? Would it have mattered to women if the Civil Rights Act had been passed in 1865 instead of 1965? Would she have ridden for hours in a wagon with her children in all kinds of weather over dirt roads to vote?

Women had the evolutionary genes to produce and care for children. Without their maternal drives and contributions the human race would likely be extinct. They should be proud of their contributions. They should not listen or cooperate with the misandric man hating institutions that exist today.

In the future women will live more like men. There will be many females Mozarts in the future.

Charles Tolleson
October 2, 2010

Lost Freedoms

2010-09-28T11:59:00.000-07:00

It is often recited with religious fervor that America is "The land of the free and the home of the brave".

We constantly hear the military nation tell us how much they sacrificed to protect our freedoms.

Looking at this image of our local law enforcement dressed in military gear, even wearing 'combat' boots, (are they going hiking?) and an armored car for their use, makes one wonder where our freedoms went. These civilian government employees have become military like in their behavior. They can walk onto your private driveway and attach a GPS to your car, without a warrant, to track your travels.

The President of the United States can order the assassination of an American citizen! No evidence. No trial. Just execute. Where are the freedoms our military say they protected for us?

The FBI investigates anti war groups. They want the government to be free to commit war because war gives the government power. The FBI thinks the anti war groups may be violent or will interfere with the government policies of invading and occupying other smaller countries by the U.S. bully. The FBI thinks it is fine for the government to be violent.

Individual freedoms restricts the the government mob from gaining power and perks.

Who will bring back our freedoms? Don't expect those democrat or republican candidates running for office to reduce the size of government that infringes on ever aspect of your life.

Sometimes when I hear my friends advocate support for these government mobsters I think I would be better off if I chose the trees in my neighborhood as my friends.

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." ~James Madison, speech, Virginia Convention, 1788

Charles Tolleson

President Obama on Education

2010-09-27T15:30:00.000-07:00

On Monday, September 27, 2010, President Obama said in an interview on the Today Show that money alone cannot fix the problem in government schools. The President called for poor teachers to be fired and more days per year in school. The President sends his two daughters to a private school.

The President did not say “less” money is needed in the government schools because the government always wants more money for the government employees’ salaries and benefits.

The President said more days in school are needed. The more days in school will appeal to parents who think the government should baby sit their children. More days in school will allow the government more opportunity to indoctrinate the young minds on how important and benevolent the government is. It sounds like President Obama is offering the voters something for the November election.

Government schools replace the family. The family is a strong bulwark against a nanny government, as Marx so noted.

The federal government should get out of the education business. Article I, Section 8 of the constitution does not give the federal government any right to be involved in education. The states may confiscate money for education but should not. Governments love to promote their part in education because it appeals to parents who want someone else to share in the cost of educating their children.

Any individual should be allowed to sell their skills as a teacher, without a license from the state. Parents, the consumer, will find the best teachers. There will be plenty of charitable organizations who will teach poor children who cannot afford a private teacher. Television programs and free online sites will teach children.

Businesses are big promoters of government schools. If the government did not teach children to read, businesses think no one would know how to read. Business fear they would have to teach their employees how to read. Nothing could be further from the truth. The market would determine the value of an education and people would get an education by the most efficient means possible. Online education will replace the government schools if the government employees will get out of the way.

"By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled." John Taylor Gatto

Charles Tolleson

The Traditional IRA Trap

2010-09-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

The first Individual Retirement Act was passed in 1974. This is a link to the history of the IRA.

The traditional IRA was designed to encourage savings. This was unnecessary. All the government mob had to do was not tax interest on savings and people would have saved.

The government does something for the sometimes obvious reasons. The unseen consequences of government actions are seldom considered. When people first heard of the IRA they thought the government was kind and magnanimous. The government was just responding to the request of Wall Street brokerage houses that were looking for a way to generate customers. The Wall Street crowd knew the IRA holders would need “custodians” for which the Wall Street crowd would receive a fee. That is why the IRA was created.

Interest, capital gains and other income in an IRA is not taxed. This is good for low income earners who withdraw the funds after retirement. However with high income and net worth, an IRA may not be so good. For a high wage earner the trap is that interest income and capital gains in a regular account may be taxed at a low rate of 20% while interest income and capital gains in an IRA is tax deferred. Tax deferred does not mean you will pay 20% tax on the income when you withdraw the funds. When you withdraw the interest that was earned you will now have to pay a higher tax rate on the withdrawn funds because the government mob has set a trap for you. When withdrawn the interest and capital gains income are treated by the government mob as if they are ordinary income, taxed at a higher rate than interest, dividends, and capital gains.

For the high income person with a large IRA balance he may be looking for high interest investments because the interest in his IRA is not taxed. However, when he withdraws these earnings they are taxed, at the higher rate of ordinary income. What the government giveth the government taketh away.

One of the unseen benefits to the government of creating IRAs was the estate tax, at the time higher than ordinary income. People who built up and estate through IRAs, remember you cannot take money out without a penalty before age 60, would have to pay an estate tax rate higher than ordinary income, and much higher than interest or capital gains.

The government mob also taxes the traditional IRA twice. First the heirs must pay estate taxes on the value of the IRA at the time of death. Then when they withdraw the remaining funds it is taxed as ordinary income.

The latest attempt to get business for Wall Street is the Roth IRA. I suspect that legislation was also written by the lobbyists of the financial industry.

“Morality is the custom of one's country and the current feeling of one's peers. Cannibalism is moral in a cannibal country”. -Samuel Butler, writer (1835-1902)

Charles Tolleson
September 23, 2010

The Federal Consumer Financial Protection Agency

2010-09-17T12:37:00.000-07:00

September 17, 2010

Politician just cannot help meddling in private contracts between buyers and sellers. The Washington, D.C. liberal democrat politicians created The Federal Consumer Financial Protection Agency to protect consumers from themselves because the consumers cannot understand their credit card contracts. Consumers now have more debt than past generations of consumers. This debt carries high interest rates to justify the cost to the lenders. The consumer has the option to say no to use of a credit card. They just prefer to have their desires satisfied today instead of waiting. Somehow the liberal democrats think these voluntary transactions are something the federal government should be involved in.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is liberal Elizabeth Warren's brainchild, will have broad powers to write and enforce regulations covering mortgages, credit cards and other financial products. She is a “humanitarian with a guillotine”. (Isabel Paterson) A humanitarian is someone who can never sleep and leave you alone to live your own life. They always have a need to meddle in and control your life.

Elizabeth Warren is popular with many people because she is upset about the Wall Street bailout that saved many rich people who had failed. My response is there should never have been a government bailout.

If the government wants to get the people to go along with another power grab all they have to do is call it a “protection” agency and the people will willingly submit to being “protected.

If consumers want to remain free they should assume the responsibility for their actions. If they want to be treated like children, sheltered and protected, then they have to submit and give up their freedom to make individual contracts. Must people will take protection over freedom. The consumers think they are getting the best side of the deal, the deal to give more power to the government mob. The consumer thinks by giving up more power and freedom to the government mob the consumer will come out ahead. The consumer fails to realize that power given to the government is never given back. The government never abdicates. Power is corrosive and addictive. It will eventually corrode the consumers.

Elizabeth Warren vows to end the financial “tricks and traps” (fees) played on consumers by bankers. This will only dumb down the consumers. Consumers will never learn how to protect themselves and pass on this learning to their children. Many consumers cannot figure simple interest rates after 12 years of government schools! No wonder they need protection from what Warren calls “tricks and traps”. The consumers will become docile tamed house pets, depending on their keeper for protection.

The people do not want freedom as much as they want other things. Milton Friedman’s classic interview with Phil Donohue about capitalism and freedom to choose has less than a million hits at youtube.com. What people want is to improve their sex lives as shown by over 89 MILLION HITS for this mundane site at youtube.com.

I have one credit card. I've never read the contract with my credit card provider. If I don't like the charges and fees I will cancel it. I usually pay cash for my purchases. So do many other people. Maybe that's what concerns the government mob, that the government mob cannot keep track of what people buy when they use cash.

"Freedom aggravates as much as it alleviates frustration. Freedom of choice places the whole blame of failure on the shoulders of the individual. And as freedom encourages a multiplicity of attempts, it unavoidably muliplies failure and frustration...Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden...We join mass movements to escape individual responsibility...." Eric Hoffer, The True Believer

Charles Tolleson

1 in 4 College Women will be raped

2010-09-12T07:40:00.000-07:00

September 12, 2010

CNN had a news story that one in four college women will be raped. They said a whopping 95% of the rapes go unreported! The assumption that 25% of college women will be raped during four years of college comes from a study by the Department of Justice that ESTIMATED this data.

If so many women do not report the rape and there is no criminal prosecution or conviction, how can one say it is rape? Just because a woman says she was raped does not mean she was.

If rape is such a horrible crime, as the feminists want it to be, then certainly there would be more than 5% of the victims who would report being raped. It must not be that horrible of a crime. Many women have sex during a night of binge drinking. Their conscience is clear. They can say they were raped, but still get to participate in the pursuit of pleasure. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reported in 2009 that alcohol is a contributing factor in 97,000 cases of sexual assault or date rape each year. I believe there is plenty of sex that happens when one is drunk, but if this many cases of sexual assault actually happened each year then our jails and justice system would be overwhelmed.

The message is a constant harangue of how innocent and virtuous females are and how evil males are. The message is clear, women deserve more and men deserve less. The message is we need more laws to protect women. Soon it will be illegal for a man to have sex with an intoxicated woman, even if the man is also intoxicated. Women can always use the excuse of being intoxicated for her behavior. A man cannot use intoxication as an excuse for his behavior or anything else as an excuse for his behavior. Men have responsibility, women have authority and choices. Men think they are powerful and in charge. The opposite is true. “A woman’s weakness is her strength. A man’s strength is his weakness.”

“A woman's strength is the irresistible might of weakness.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Women are never stronger than when they arm themselves with their weaknesses.” Madam Marie Anne du Deffand

“We justly consider women to be weaker than ourselves, and yet we are governed by them.” Sebastien Roch Nicolas de Chamfort

Why is there never any media attention about the rape of males, an unnatural act? When male victims of rape in prisons are mentioned it is mentioned with laughter. Women have no sympathy for male victims of rape. Women want and have an exclusive use of victim status. Being a member of a victim class is power, and power corrupts.

This blog has a list of the top 10 feminists’ lies about men.
http://byrdeye.blogspot.com/2007/01/top-10-feminist-lies.html

1) 1/4 of college women have been raped (or rape attempted). WRONG!

2) Only 2% (or 8%) of rape charges are false. WRONG!

3) Women only make 77 cents per each dollar a Man makes for the same work. WRONG!

4) Men cannot be forced to pay child support for children that are not biologically theirs. WRONG!

5) Women have been oppressed by "Men" and the "patriarchy" for ~5000 years. WRONG!

6) Gender differences are all socialized (by the "patriarchy"), not biological. WRONG!

7) Women can happily & safely enjoy casual sex just "like Men." WRONG!, WRONG! and WRONG!

8) Men inflict more domestic violence than women. WRONG!

9) Single mothers have no problem raising healthy, functional, well-adjusted kids without fathers. WRONG!

10) Patriarchy is bad. WRONG!

Charles Tolleson
September 12, 2010

President Obama, Sept 11, 2010

2010-09-11T07:22:00.000-07:00

In President Obama’s address on September 11, 2010, President Obama said in reference to the September 11, 2001 attack, “And on this day, we recall that at our darkest moment, we summoned a sense of unity and common purpose. We responded to the worst kind of depravity with the best of our humanity.”

“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.” -Bertrand Russell

After 9/11 the U.S. Tribe was in frenzy for blood. They were waving the flag and standing at public events and singing the National Anthem with idolatry. They cheered when the mightiest military the world has ever known invaded a small country less than one tenth the size in population as the U.S.

Does the president really think by using the largest military in the world to invade, occupy, bomb, and kill thousands of Iraqi and Afghans that had nothing to do with 9/11 was responding with the “best of our humanity?” Does he think the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo was the best of our humanity? Does he think establishing the Department of Homeland Security and depriving us of our individual privacy and rights that “We” responded with the best of our humanity? Does he think his having assumed the power of a tyrant by claiming the right to assassinate U.S. citizens that he is using the best of “our” humanity?

I’m sure the president would answer these questions in the affirmative. That’s how narcissist demagogues always act. They never assume nor admit they are wrong.

The president said, “For if there is a lesson to be drawn on this anniversary, it is this: we are one nation – one people – bound not only by grief, but by a set of common ideals.”

I disagree Mr. President. Your ideals and mine do not bind us. My ideals and your ideals are common, but they are different. My ideals are common with Locke, Jefferson, Bastiat and Ayn Rand. Your ideals are common with Marx and Lenin and other collectivist who think they know how to run my life.

President Obama also said, “And that by giving back to our communities, by serving people in need, we reaffirm our ideals.” This is the usual exhortation to get the sheep to go along with the central planners by being meek and cooperative. The central planner’s message is do not resist, just submit and we will all be better off. These words are designed to get you to submit to taxation, rules, and regulations that implies your taxes and production confiscated by the government employees will then be returned to “our” communities and serving people in need. This gives us a comfortable feeling that the tribe will always take care of us in our time of need. It plays to our genetically wired fears that we need others to survive and we are willing for our tribal leaders to make sure others cooperate.

Charles Tolleson, September 11, 2010

American Hit Men in Afghanistan

2010-09-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

American hit men are at work in Afghanistan, according to the commander there. KABUL, Afghanistan -- The new top commander in Afghanistan is talking up a weapon that has been kept in the shadows for years -- special operations missions to kill or capture key insurgents -- to try to convince skeptics the war can be won.

More than previous commanders, Gen. David Petraeus has released the results of special operations missions -- 235 militant leaders were killed or captured in the past 90 days, another 1,066 rank-and-file insurgents killed and 1,673 detained -- to demonstrate the Taliban and their allies are also suffering losses as NATO casualties rise.

It is amazing that the U.S. will admit to such killings of foreigners who have not attacked the U.S. Nor has the U.S. Congress declared war on Afghanistan as required by the U.S. Constitution.

We glorify this primitive behavior, humans killing other humans. We call this murder, "Special Ops". It is a brilliant public relations plan. The majority of Americans approve. We think it is honorable for the largest military in the world to kill a few natives who do not want foreign invaders in their country. We praise the men who, like automatons, murder strangers when told to. Their excuse, I was just following orders.

Killing the Taliban is the same as if the Taliban came to America and tried to implement their form of government, but one party, the Tea Party, would resist. The Taliban would then send out their hit men to kill or capture the insurgents from the Tea Party. If you are one of your family were a member of the Tea Party who wanted the foreigners out of your country I suspect the Special Ops of the Taliban would fuel hatred for generations to come.

If we look closely at the war against terrorism I think we could say the American people have realized you cannot win a war against an idea. Now the war has morphed into a war against Islam. People are controlled by fear. American Christians now fear Islam more than they feared the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The fear will make them condone murdering innocent Muslims.

“Man can be the most affectionate and altruistic of creatures, yet he's potentially more vicious than any other. He is the only one who can be persuaded to hate millions of his own kind whom he has never seen and to kill as many as he can lay his hands on in the name of his tribe or his God.” -Benjamin Spock, pediatrician and author (1903-1998)

Charles Tolleson

By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer September 2010-SEATTLE – The father of a U.S. soldier serving in Afghanistan says he tried nearly a half dozen times to pass an urgent message from his son to the Army: Troops in his unit had murdered an Afghan civilian, planned more killings and threatened him to keep quiet about it. By the time officials arrested suspects months later, two more Afghans were dead. And much to Christopher Winfield's horror, his son Adam was among the five Fort Lewis-based soldiers charged in the killings.

"Don't Tread on Me", flag

2010-09-02T06:52:00.000-07:00

The news of September 1, 2010 has a story about some people displaying the "Don't Tread on Me" flag instead of the United States Flag. Some members of society want no other flags shown except the State and Federal flags.

A homeowners association has a ban against displaying the DTOM flag, citing an Arizona law- that allows Arizonans to fly "the Stars and Stripes, the state flag, flags representing Indian nations as well as the official flags of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard," the New York Times reports.

Most flag worship is about unity of the tribe. Each member has a primitive fear of other tribes so they try to unite their own tribe for self preservation. Even Benjamin Franklin, who first designed the flag as a snake cut into 8 pieces, (Image above) representing the 8 colonies, said, "Join or die". Those are pretty bold words, but those words echo the sentiments of tribes all over the world who want unity for self preservation. When they become successful as a larger tribe, like the United States, then they can invade and conquer other tribes.

No one had to die Mr. Franklin. If King George had a Federal Reserve Bank that could print money so he could provide the colonists with Medicare, Social Security, Pubic Housing, and Medicaid, there would have been no revolution. Instead the colonists would have acted like docile sheep, willing to be sheared.

Why are people afraid of competition to their flags, beliefs, and gods. It shows a lack of faith in the merits of their idols if they cannot stand the competition. It could mean that someone who has worshipped the Stars and Strips all their lives has worshipped a symbol of empirical tyranny. Destroy our illusions of what we believe in and you destroy our happiness.

I prefer a flag that displays individual freedom instead of group behaviour with centralized power, which is why my personal flag is the Jolly Roger.

"A very popular error: having the courage of one's convictions; instead, it is a matter of having the courage for an attack on one's convictions!" -- Friederich Nietzsche

Charles Tolleson

Free Speech, Snyder vs Phelps

2010-08-31T11:24:00.000-07:00

Snyder vs. Phelps is a case where the Westboro Baptist Church protested during and near the funeral of Matthew Snyder, who was killed while on military duty in Iraq. The case involved the freedom of speech issue.

Albert Snyder sued the Westboro Baptist Church. Snyder won and then the verdict was later vacated by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

I think the WBC and anyone else has a right to protest at a military funeral. They are protesting a government policy of war, a policy of invading, occupying, and declaring martial law on other countries, countries that have not, nor have any capacity of attacking and invading the United States.

If we had more protests at military funerals it would go a long way towards diminishing the glory of war and the martyrdom that so many young men yearn for.

The State and the Military Nation love to honor those who died in unnecessary and unjust wars by playing Taps at the deceased soldier’s funeral. Then the precise procedure of folding the flag and giving it to a family member is emotional. It helps the State in its recruitment of young men who want to do the right thing. Protests at these funerals will make young men, and their families, families who are also war enablers, think about war.

Families of young men who are willing to become warriors show much pride and approval when their sons join the military and are willing to go into another country and kill innocent people their sons do not even know. These families are war enablers as much as their sons who are willing to give up their own constitutional rights to submit to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

In the last week of August 2010 there were another 19 United States soldiers killed in Afghanistan. How many more will die in an unjust war?

“Every man is a creature of the age in which he lives, and few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time.” -Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778)

Charles Tolleson

Navy Captain Quimette Urged

2010-08-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

On a discussion group was posted an old speech by Navy Captain Dan Quimette.

Navy Captain Dan Ouimette gave a speech to the Pensacola Civitan club in February 2003. In his speech Quimette said the war against terrorism started in 1979 when Iranian students attacked and seized the American Embassy in Tehran, where no Americans were killed. Quimette goes on to list a series of terrorists attacks on America over the following years and encourages the wrath of the United States on the Muslim world.

Captain Quimette, like all war lovers fail, fails to address the reasons for the attacks, starting with the U.S. support of the unpopular Iranian leader Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and asylum for him after the Iranian revolution which led to the seizure of the American Embassy. After the Shah died the hostages were released.

I wish Captain Quimette and others who want to kill, kill, kill, would tell me why the terrorists do not attack Mexico, or Costa Rica, or Brazil, all Christian countries. The reason is that these countries have not aided and abetted Israel in her 70 year religious war of oppressing Palestinians and seizing their lands. Nor do these and other countries have Christian military personnel stationed in Muslim countries and supporting the rich monarchs and corrupt officials.

Currently the doomsayers think there is a "Clash of Civilizations" and the Muslims want to impose Shira Law and Islam on the rest of the world. (Have you studied Shira law as compared to the thousands of U.S. laws that make us all criminals, each day?) Well, some Muslims do wish that, but not all Muslims do. Some Christians wish to change the Muslims to Christianity, but not all Christians do. Some Christians have always wanted to convert the world to Christianity, but there are fewer now who wish that, and there are fewer Christians and more non believers. The same is happening in the Muslim world. Islam is waning, just like Christianity is waning. Politics is the passion of the Muslim world. Politics caused by American invasions of Muslim countries. Christians seem to think the politics in the Muslim world that wants the U.S. to get out of the Middle East is only radical Islam. It is politics.

By Margaret Talev, McClatchy Newspapers Aug 19, 2010,
WASHINGTON — Pastors who've prayed with President Barack Obama defended his Christian faith Thursday as the White House downplayed new polling that showed a steep climb since he took office in the percentage of Americans who think he's Muslim or at least don't believe that he's Christian.

"He is a Christian by choice, a devout Christian," said Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston .

Let us hope President Obama is not a "devout" Christian. If he is, the war against Islam will be a long and bloody war.

Though I have been trained as a soldier, and participated in many battles, there never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword. I look forward to an epoch when a court, recognized by all nations, will settle international differences. -Ulysses S. Grant, military commander, 18th US President (1822-1885)

Charles Tolleson

Airline Passengers Are Prisoners

2010-08-12T06:23:00.000-07:00

In August 2010 a flight attendant for JetBlue, Steven Slater had a "meltdown" as his flight arrived at the gate. A passenger started to retrieve her bag from the overhead bin and Slater said to sit down. The passenger yelled at Slater. Slater yelled at her over the PA, then grabbed a beer, activated the emergency escape slide, slid down the slide and ran to his car and drove away. He was later arrested and charged with a felony.

Other passengers said Slater was acting strange during the whole flight from Pittsburgh to New York.

Slater is now being hailed as a hero for his meltdown and crazy actions. His fellow union members are actually defending his bizarre behavior. The passengers do not have a union to defend them against the prison guards.

My hero is the passenger who told Slater to ***k off!

The passenger is my hero because airline passengers are treated like prisoners. This is one reason I don't fly on airlines anymore. From the time passengers arrive at the airport until they leave they are under the rules and regulations of the government airport, the Transportation Security Administration, a government agency. The passengers are under the big umbrella government agency, The Department of Homeland Security. Nice name, "Homeland". The name homeland was likely designed to get submission from the serfs.

And when the passengers are on the plane they are always reminded that they must comply with all of the rules imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration on the airline and the passengers.

The FAA has more rules than I suspect a prison has. The FAA requires that all passenger "must" be seated before takeoff and that "all" luggage "must" be stowed. Electronic devices "must" be off. Seat backs "must" be in the upright position. Why this rule I don't know. Has there ever been an injury because someone had their seat back reclined two inches during the millions of takeoffs and landings. No! Yet the flight attendant prison guards will walk through the cabin and if your seat back is one inch from the full upright position the FA will say, "Get your seat back up".

All of these rules and regulations we sheep are told is for our own safety. Most people feel good knowing the Shepherd is watching out for the safety of the flock.

In the early days of Southwest Airlines they would make takeoffs before passengers were seated and carry on baggage was stored. Southwest did this because they would turn an aircraft around in 10 minutes because they had to sell one of their four airplanes and fly the same schedule with three. The FAA decided to make a rule that all passengers had to be seated and luggage stored, though Southwest had no injuries from this procedure. If they did have an injury it should have been settled in a civil court, not by the government nannies. Of course, so many Americans act like children who want only freedom and no responsibility it is no wonder the government employees will act like nannies, for a large fee.

All of the government rules and regulations led to the success of 9/11 because the government prevented passengers from carrying guns. The government also encouraged compliance from the passengers and crew during a high jacking.

“The American people, taken one with another, constitute the most timorous, sniveling, poltroonish, ignominious mob of serfs and goose-steppers ever gathered under one flag in Christendom since the end of the middle ages.” H.L. Mencken

Charles Tolleson, August 12, 2010

Letter to Congresswoman Speier

2010-08-11T07:56:00.000-07:00

August 11, 2010

Dear Congresswoman Speier,

Please stop giving pay raises to the military and civilian government employees while the private sector employees’wages are declining. The military is a well paid mercenary army. If the wars were necessary, most wars are not, you would have plenty of volunteers that would fight for free.

The government employees are the new aristocracy. Your recent 26 billion dollar funding for 300,000 state government employees equals to $86,000 per employee! I’m tired of being your servant.

Since a government employee will read this, if anyone does, I doubt you will read it because the government employee wants the pay raises to continue. And, since you “represent” over 700 thousand people, I doubt if my writing is anything more than a placebo for me.

I also notice on your website that you have an issue list. One of the issues is “Women". Why do you not have an issue for Men"? Is this what happens when I have 3 female democrats; you, Senators Feinstein and Boxer, "representing" me, an old white male?

Charles Tolleson

Tax Increase for the Rich

2010-08-03T15:28:00.000-07:00

Former Budget Director David Stockman is calling for eliminating the current tax cuts imposed under the Bush Administration.

Mr. Stockman said by keeping the tax cuts for the top 2% who earn more than $250,000 will save the rich 100 billion dollars in taxes.

According to the Tax Policy Center joint returns with more than $250,000 adjusted gross income and single returns with more than $125,000 adjusted gross income together are estimated to make up 3.1 percent of households next year. That group is projected to earn 27 percent of all personal income and pay 47.9 percent of all personal federal income taxes in 2009.

Mr. Stockman thinks the government needs this money in this fiscal crisis.
Mr. Stockman is correct. The government does need this money, and a whole lot more! If the government taxed us all at 100% the government would still have a fiscal crisis because the government always spends more than it takes in.

When the government mob started income taxes it was supposed to tax only the rich. Now it has trickled down to tax the ordinary worker. The same thing will happen if Mr. Stockman gets to increase the taxes on the rich. Soon it will trickle down to the not so rich.

If the government mob takes in 100 billion dollars from the rich people the government mob will keep some for their own pockets and dole out the rest to buy votes. It is better to let the rich keep their money and spend it on their staffs and purchases. This will increase sales taxes and employment. This will also increase the velocity of money better than if the government mob confiscates the money and spends it on wars and other non productive enterprises. Spending private money on competitive products will increase the living standard of society, as it always has.

However, we have created a nation of dependents that are willing for congress to “tax the rich”. This act of one group, the non producers, plundering another group, the producers, is how Frederic Bastiat described democracy.

“The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to get the most feathers with the least hissing.” ~Jean Baptist Colbert

Charles Tolleson

Central Asia Institute

2010-07-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

I wrote this in August 2006- "Young Iranian women should have powerful and independent females as role models such as; PepsiCo's CEO Indra K. Nooyi, Avon Products' CEO Andrea Jung, and Archer Daniels Midland's CEO Patricia Woertz. Muslim women would prefer to have fewer children if their culture permitted such practice. Show Muslim women how liberated they can be if they have the birth control pill. This change in a generation of Muslim women will began to shatter the support for Islam."

I wrote this in July 19, 2008. "The Internet, cell phones, and feminism will change Islam".

This organization, Central Asia Institute, is a non profit organization that builds schools in Afghanistan. The schools are mostly for girls. Of the current student population of 58,000, girls account for 40,000 of the students.

This process of educating girls will be the downfall of tribal Islam, and polygamy. Muslim women will no longer want to share a man. They will want, like western women, one man to be their own servant.

These young girls will be told that they can be all they want to be, without the men and families. They will be told there is nothing they cannot achieve, even alone. They will be told that all they need is a benevolent government to look after them and make men support women and children. That will be the downfall of Islam and its tribalism.

This process of changing Islam will take a generation. It can be done without billions spent on the violent USA Military Nation. It can be done with voluntary organizations like the Central Asia Institute, cell phones, and the Internet.

I would suggest that the Central Asia Institute send young Jewish, Buddhists, and Christian girls to the schools with the young Muslim girls. The curriculum should not promote any religion, but just teach some history of religions. These girls would then bond and when they become adults they could be used as mediators in international disputes.

"The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom". Ralph Waldo Emerson

Charles Tolleson

Changing Strategy in War, Again

2010-07-18T08:17:00.000-07:00

(By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer – Sun Jul 18, 2010
ISLAMABAD – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton started a South Asia tour on Sunday aimed at refining the goals of the nearly 9-year-old war in Afghanistan and pushing neighboring nations to work together in the fight against al-Qaida and Taliban extremists.)

After 9 years of fighting a losing war in Afghanistan the U.S. is changing strategy, again. Billions continue to be spent. Billions of borrowed dollars are spent that will diminish the power of the empire the same way past empires have lost their power.

The goal in Afghanistan is so illusive the government will never win. A couple of years from now the government will have another PLAN, and another goal that is obfuscated by flowering oratory.

Vali Nasr, a State Department official said, "We're beginning to see movement, but this is not going to happen overnight," he said. "We're not going to be able to get them aligned over a one-year time period on every single issue and change 30 years of foreign policy of Pakistan on a dime."

On every single issue! Notice the psychological preparation of the American minds that this project will take a long, long time! As long as there are ISSUES that are "unresolved" there will be an excuse for the Military Nation to exist and to continue their plunder of the American taxpayer.

The goals are always the same because of the innate behavior of humans. The goal is to dominate. Humans have a desire to dominate. It's in our genes. We believe that to dominate others we have a better chance of surviving and sowing our seeds. We even want to dominate in individual relationships. Most people think they have to control others in order to control themselves. They know others think the same way, and the Merry Go Round continues.

To think we are going to dominate a part of the world that is thousands of years older than the USA is ludicrous. Those people have a history they are proud of and for us to go there and say we are going to dominate them and change their culture to be like ours is pure fantasy. They will resist for a thousand years, just as you would resist if they invaded your country, kicked down your doors, and killed your women and children in order to transform your culture to be like theirs.

From the beginning I have been against both the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War. Bring our troops home, all of them, from Germany, Okinawa, South Korea, and other places. Stop spending on the Military Nation. Use our military for defensive purposes only, not for nation building in other countries.

Al-Qaida is now in Somalia more than in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. keeps chasing a moving target when they chase al-Qaida. What will happen when a group in the USA says they are al-Qaida? You will see more power to the State as people wail for more safety and less liberty.

America should lead by example, not by blackmail, bribery, force, and intimidation. People used to want to immigrate to America because she was the land of liberty and opportunity, not a land of foreign interventions, welfare, and thousands of laws. Let's bring back America, the America that was a land of real liberty.

"Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud. I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace." ~Charles Sumner

Charles Tolleson

KAMPALA, Uganda, Terrorist Bombing

2010-07-12T15:48:00.000-07:00

Uganda, a Christian country, had a terrorist bombing in July 2010 that killed 74 people. The attack came from a nearby Muslim country, Somali. The Christian country had been killing Muslims in Somali. The Christian country had "peacekeepers" in the Muslim country. One of the victims in the bombing in Uganda was from a church group in Pennsylvania spreading the word of God. (At least three of the wounded were in a church group from Pennsylvania)

Another group was also spreading the word of God.

(Invisible Children, a San Diego, California-based aid group that helps child soldiers, identified the dead American as one of its workers, Nate Henn, who was killed on the rugby field. Henn, 25, was a native of Wilmington, Delaware.

"He sacrificed his comfort to live in the humble service of God and of a better world," the group said.)

"We warned Uganda not to deploy troops to Somalia; they ignored us," said Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, al-Shabab's spokesman. "We warned them to stop massacring our people, and they ignored that. The explosions in Kampala were only a minor message to them. ... We will target them everywhere if Uganda does not withdraw from our land."

The Christian country had received aid from the United States and carried out joint military exercises with the U.S. The Muslim country is bordered by Kenya and Ethiopia, two Christian countries.

Somehow war and violence is inevitable. We have a primitive genetic disposition to dominate others so we can survive and procreate. We have a primitive desire to protect our own family and tribe so we can again, survive and see our seeds sown. Mother Nature is a harsh mistress.

If we eliminate al-Qaida in one country they will just arise in another. A handful of al-Qaida can drive the U.S. crazy and cause Amercia to go bankrupt.

“Democracy don't rule the world, You'd better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that's better left unsaid.”
Bob Dylan

Charles Tolleson

Paul Krugman wants the government to spend more

2010-07-08T06:34:00.000-07:00

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman is a purebred Keynesian. He wants the government to "throw the kitchen sink" at the economy.

July 6, 2010 (Bloomberg) -- Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said the U.S. should have a “kitchen-sink strategy” that uses all fiscal and monetary policies possible to prevent the economy from sliding back into a recession.

“We are looking at what could be a very long siege here,” Krugman said in an interview today in Princeton, New Jersey, with Carol Massar of Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart.” “We really are at a stage where we should have a kitchen-sink strategy. We should be throwing everything we can get at this.”

What the advocates of Keynes' government spending policies fail to say is that Keynes thought government spending should be reduced in good times. As the chart at the top of this column shows this has not happened. Even in good times government bureaucrats and programs are so entrenched they cannot be reduced.

President Obama has created the National Export Initiative to create jobs that export goods and services. The President makes a good speech but as usual the government talks great but only delivers force, aggression, or intimidation. The government always has a PLAN to solve the economic problems, and social problems, and environment problems, and on and on the PLANS go.

If the central planners want to create jobs they should reduce the rules and regulations that impede investments. They should eliminate the minimum wage and the EEOC rules. They should eliminate the licensing requirements to become a barber, manicurist, and even a doctor. They should reduce the length of time unemployment benefits are paid. The central planners should stop taxing producers and star rewarding non producers.

"Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.” John Maynard Keynes

Charles Tolleson

Missed PTA Meetings of Parents

2010-07-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

An Associated Press story on July 6, 2010, "Missed meetings could mean jail time for parents" is about a Detroit area prosecutor Kym Worthy who wants to jail parents for 3 days if they continue to miss parent teacher conferences.

What is a parent teacher conference? It is a meeting between a government employee, many who do not have children, and parents. The meeting is an opportunity for the government employee to advise the parents of their responsibilities.

Prosecutor Worthy blames parents for the crimes of their children. Worthy thinks by making parents visit government employees, teachers, and listening to the teachers, will help prevent crimes committed by children.

The cause of teenage crime is the government policies that make it unnecessary for mothers to have a child's father in the house to help raise the child.

The more government screws up the more they look to blame others for the problems government policies create. With teenage crime on the rise the government wants to use force and aggression, that's all government is, on parents.

The government has the authority to make your children attend government schools. Now the government wants the authority to make parents attend to teachers' advice.

"Academies that are founded at public expense are instituted not so much to cultivate men's natural abilities as to restrain them." - Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)

Charles Tolleson

Iraqi Widows

2010-07-05T17:47:00.000-07:00

If the women of Iraq and, women of the world want to stop war, they should do as the Greek women did to stop the Peloponnesian War. Led by Lysistrata, the Greek women decided to withhold sex until Athens and Sparta men stopped war. The sex strike was successful.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysistrata#Influence_and_Legacy

But men who kill other men look at having all these women available as a good opportunity to sow their seeds. This is one reason men kill other men.

Charles Tolleson

BAGHDAD - Three decades of wars, massacres and sectarian killings have left Iraq with as many as a million widows, by Iraqi government count. Hameeda Ayed is one of them.

At 45, with three children, she is part of a vast sisterhood in a tortured land, and for the more than 100,000 who lost their husbands in the U.S.-led invasion and violent aftermath, the struggling postwar government is of little help.

Ayed is entitled to 150,000 dinars (about $130) a month from the government, plus 15,000 dinars (about $12) for each of her children. But after two years of chasing after official papers and signatures on her application, having no friends in high places to grease the wheels for her, she says she is giving up; the endless standing in line was making her neglect the children, aged 10, 12 and 15.

So she makes ends meet by selling snacks and sodas from her home in a Shiite enclave of southern Baghdad where she moved from a Sunni area after her husband died in the tit-for-tat killings of 2007.

"Our life has been turned into misery and desperation," she said. "This is what we got from occupation and the dreams of democracy: orphans, widows, homeless, displaced and fugitives."

In Afghanistan to 'Win"

2010-07-04T09:44:00.000-07:00

KABUL, Afghanistan – Gen. David Petraeus boldly declared "we are in this to win" Sunday as he took command of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan at a time of skepticism over a counterinsurgency strategy he himself pioneered and confusion over goals in an increasingly violent war.

Gen. Petraeus said it well. The war in Afghanistan is about nothing but victory. The war is a racket, to help careers and the military industrial nation, but it is not about defending the U.S.

The war in Afghanistan has become some overtime super bowl game that has only one goal, winning, whatever that means. I'm sure there is no coherent definition of what victory would mean.

Not to win would mean at least a draw, or another defeat, like in Vietnam. The tribe's ego would be shattered if the world's largest military cannot defeat a few radicals.

"After years of war, we have arrived at a critical moment," Petraeus said. "We must demonstrate to the Afghan people — and to the world — that al-Qaida and its network of extremist allies will not be allowed to once again establish sanctuaries in Afghanistan from which they can launch attacks on the Afghan people and on freedom-loving nations around the world."

Ha! The al-Qaida is a figment of Petraeus' imagination. There are a few dozen in Afghanistan. There are probably more al-Qaida in the U.S. than in Afghanistan. When you get rid of al-Qaida in Afghanistan they will sprout up in other countries. This will be other opportunities for the USA Foreign Legion to grow and prosper.

These words from the Declaration of Independence on this day, July 4, 2010, will inspire the revolutionaries of Afghanistan.- "He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns. . . . He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compete the work of death, desolation and tyranny . . ."

Do you feel independent on this Independence Day when you have over 400 federal departments and agencies, state, county and city laws telling you what you can, cannot, and must do?

The haughtiness of Americans celebrating Independence Day makes it look like the Americans actually believe they fought as insurgent militants for their independence against King George in 1776.

Happy Big Government Day, July 4, 2010

Charles Tolleson

U.S. is provoking Iran

2010-07-01T12:04:00.000-07:00

The U.S. is provoking Iran, again. The U.S. has provoked other countries in the past. It's what bullies do.

According to a report at DEBKAfile on June 28, 2010, the U.S. has 3 aircraft carriers and 10,000 marines off the coast of Iran in the Persian Gulf. A fourth aircraft carrier is further west in the Arabian Sea.

"debkafile's military sources report that Washington has posted a third carrier opposite Iran's shores. It is supported by amphibious assault ships and up to 4,000 Navy and Marine Corps personnel, bringing the total US strength in these waters to three carriers and 10,000 combat personnel."

I wonder how the U.S. would feel is some country that has ten times the military power of the U.S. had its navy and marines cruising of the coasts of the U.S.

The U.S. action is another act of provocation. The U.S. will lie about some incident in the waters near Iran, like the U.S. lied about the Gulf of Tonkin incident. This is a taunting, like using the RMS Lusitania, which led to her sinking by the Germans. The U.S. will lie about some fictitious incident which will give the U.S. the excuse to attack Iran.

General Smedley Butler wrote War is a Racket. General Butler proposed a constitutional amendment that would limit our navy to operate within 500 miles of our coasts, except for humanitarian aid. 2. The vessels of the United States Navy, or of the other branches of the armed service, are hereby prohibited from steaming, for any reason whatsoever except on an errand of mercy, more than five hundred miles from our coast.

Why does the U.S. insist on meddling in other people's countries? What will it take to get the war lovers to say, "O.K. The world is at peace so we can bring all of our troops home from; Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Okinawa, Guam, The Philippines, etc, etc. What conditions would satisfy the war lovers? If you asked them they would give some impossible condition. The ego of bullies and empire builders can never be satiated.

They cannot imagine a world were the war lovers are not needed. A world were international incidents are settled in a court of law, like individual incidents. The war lovers need the military nation so a colonel can retire with 30 years of service at age 53 and collect a pension close to $85,000 per year, with a cost of living raise, and excellent medical insurance.

The military nation meets some of Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, i.e. to feel needed and respected.

Have you seen any positive media images of Iran? If you see any Iranian images from the U.S. mainstream media they are of anti American crowds or negative images of Iran. I saw a Rick Steves travel program on PBS about Iran. The scenes and the interviews showed the Iranian people in a positive image.

"All men are enamoured of decorations...they positively hunger for them." Napoleon

Charles Tolleson

Childlessness at Record High in U.S.

2010-06-26T17:34:00.000-07:00

A June 2010 PEW report said that more women are remaining childless.

"A new study from the Pew Research Center shows that childlessness is at a record high in America. One in five women aged 40 to 44 reported that they've never had children. Meanwhile, just 41 percent of Americans say having children is necessary to a good marriage, compared to 65 percent in 1990."

"The likelihood that a woman without a high school diploma will be childless after 40 has increased 66 percent since 1994."

I just noticed an obituary of a 79 year old acquaintance that had three children. What is interesting is he only had one grandchild. In previous generations an old man would have had numerous grandchildren. I have 6 grandchildren. My father had 10. My grandfather had 20.

The world demographics are definitely changing, and so will the male female roles. Will the populations of the world shrink to a fraction of its current 6.5 billion people? I think it will.

The changing lifestyles of women means men will have more competition for value. As women gain political and economic power it does not bode well for men.

I'm not omniscient, but I predict women will become more aggressive as they enter the competitive work place and take on positions of power. Men have a challenge of living a life in the future that brings fulfillment and happiness.

On the other hand, men may adapt well to the changing female roles. Men may be happier as a domestic stay at home instead of the past duties of responsibility for being a provider and protector. Let the women deal with those roles while struggling in the competitive work place.

If men will not be valuable to women in the future as they have been in the past I think men will adapt to their changing roles. They will become more self centered and do things for themselves since they will not have to do things for women and children.

Men may become domesticated house pets for the aggressive women. She will come home from a stressful day at work and her house pet will wag his tail and make her happy, if she has a passive dog. If she has a Pit Bull, she will come home and take him to a fighting class.

Charles Tolleson

Gen. Stanley McChrystal Resigns

2010-06-24T07:25:00.000-07:00

Gen. Stanley McChrystal's interview in Rolling Stone Magazine in 2010 caused him to get fired. In the interview Gen. McChrystal criticized the President and his staff. This is and old act in an old play called Power. This play has been playing all over the world for thousands of years.

Gen McChrystal is a warrior who has probably killed or ordered people killed. He has sycophants at his feet each day as he is chauffeured in a private car and flown in his personal plane.

The perks of a general in no way compare to the perks of the President. However, I can imagine Gen McChrystal thinking of all he has achieved, while demeaning the President as one who has never done anything except be a community organizer.

I'm glad the U.S. military has to answer to civilians. If they did not we would have had a military coup a long time ago. The founders organized the government this way. They knew the lure of power could cause more revolutions.

The founders did not want a standing army that would create the possibility of a military coup. The founders just wanted a voluntary stay at home militia. Instead, we have a military nation within our republic. This military nation grows stronger each day.

When the economy goes in the tank and there are a series of successful terrorist attacks you will see fear in the people and they will yearn for a strong leader. That's how the age old play about Power plays over and over, again and again. When the people's fears grow rampant they will call for Gen McChrystal to restore order and provide them with safety so they can go back to living and practicing the seven deadly sins.

President Eisenhower said in his farewell address to beware of the Military Industrial Complex. The MIC is so powerful President Eisenhower could not say that in his inaugural address. Had he done so he would not have won a second term. Had he said so in his first campaign he would never have become the 34th President of the United States.

Cassius: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings" (the fault dear Brutus lies not in our stars or our fate or destiny but in ourselves that we have become underlings or subordinates to Caesar), (Line 139, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Act One).

Charles Tolleson

The bad economy gives the military recruitment a lift

2010-06-21T12:31:00.000-07:00

The bad economy gives a boost to the military recruitment. The military pay is more than twice the pay rates of 1960, adjusted for inflation. In 1960 there was a draft in place so the U.S. Foreign Legion did not have to pay as much to fight their foreign wars.

The recent downturn in the U.S. economy has made it difficult for some men to find good jobs. A man with a family will do desperate things to provide for his family.

I noticed this in a news story about a U.S. soldier that was killed in Afghanistan in June 2010. What caught my eye was the age and rank of the deceased soldier. He was 31 years old and only a Private. Either he just joined the army or he was recently demoted.

As it turns out he was the father of three and he had just joined the U.S. Foreign Legion. He joined for the pay and benefits. He said he wanted to provide for his family.

The G.I. Bill will provide education for his widow and or children.

The point is that soldiers become soldiers for reasons other than duty, honor and county.

Charles Tolleson

Sacramento County sheriff still tallying cost of 3-day standoff

2010-06-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

Sacramento County sheriff still tallying cost of 3-day standoff

By Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com

Published: Thursday, Jun. 17, 2010

The value of saving the life of a 16-month-old boy can't easily be quantified. The financial cost, though, is more concrete.
Sacramento County sheriff's officials estimate they spent more than $100,000 in overtime costs to handle last week's high-stress standoff in which an armed, mentally ill man held a toddler hostage inside an Arden Way apartment for 56 hours. http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/17/2828610/sacramento-county-sheriff-still.html#ixzz0rDxQoREl

The overtime cost for county deputies is $100,000. What was their regular pay at this time? For 56 hours of overtime pay that comes to around $1785 dollars per hour. If there were 3 deputies in front of the house and 3 behind that would be 6 deputies per 8 hour shift. At $1785 per hour that meant the 6 deputies were earning $14,280 total for their shift, or about $297 dollars per hour!

Not wonder we read reports of how much more money government employees make than the private sector employees. I’m sure there were those whose overtime pay goes a long way towards their retirement pay if they are in their last years.

Those brave men and women who say they are here to protect us had to take administrative leave because of the stress. "Since the dramatic conclusion, the 25 deputies stationed in the "hot zone" – inside the apartment complex – have been on paid administrative leave, officials said. Deputies backfilling their jobs are being paid overtime, contributing to the $100,000 price tag."

I suspect Dog the Bounty Hunter could have done the job for a lot less.

Charles Tolleson June 18, 2010

Are Women Superior to Men

2010-06-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

A June 8, 2010 online video of a national magazine asks, are girls superior to boys. I won't name the magazine. Media organizations do these ancient silly elementary school yard debates to increase viewership to sell ads.

It also asks is the new economy better managed by girls. Based on the choices and privileges females have in this society and economy I would say that girls are superior. Boys have built an economy, and government, that is better suited for girls than boys. The laws in divorce, child custody, domestic violence, all favor women. Women are benefiting more from this collective, not individual society, than men. Men are not treated equal to women in a court of law. A woman's weakness is her strength in a court of law. A man's strength is his weakness in a court of law.

If we went back to a society of 1800 that had no electricity,automobiles, hydraulics, birth control pill, running water, factory robots, etc., you would see men having more value than they do today. You would also see women having more value then, than now, to produce children to help on the farm and to care for the elderly.

I think the realization that men have developed a society filled with technology that may have made men unnecessary is somewhat liberating for men. Most men are taught that they have responsibility, as President Obama reminds us on Fathers Day.

But men are realizing they don't have the authority to go with the responsibility. Responsibility without authority makes men slaves.

Now that women are going to rule the world, responsibility will fall on their shoulders, along with the authority they already have, right? Don't count on women ever accepting responsibility when things go bad. Have you ever heard a woman accept responsibility for her own unhappiness? She will blame her unhappiness on a man, or men.

Before men built this society of technological wonders women who did not get married and have children were known as spinsters, or old maids, and ended up in dead end jobs. Now those women who choose to be spinsters are serving on the U.S. Supreme Court or other high positions in government,

When men start their WOE program, Withdrawal Of Enthusiasm, women will wail and moan even more about how difficult it is to find a good man, a euphemism for finding a good servant. Today there are more girls than boys graduating from college. Boys have learned it is a girl's country. Government rules favor girls in competition. Boys are starting their WOE program. Boys ask, why struggle and earn more when it will only be taken from him by the State and divorce courts? What girls want girls get. What girls don't want, boys get.

To determine which gender is more valuable you have to remove all government involvement in the relationships between men and women. If there were no civil rights act or marriage and divorce laws the free market would decide which gender has the strongest bargaining position. But, as long as we are deciding the value of a gender to society based on the ballot box, laws governing behavior and private contracts, then we will only know which gender has the most political power, not the most value.

One thing we forget is supply and demand. In an over populated society women are needed less to reproduce the population. In a dwindling society women may be needed more to produce more babies.

The same can be said about the supply of men in a time of war. If the world was all at peace then there would be less need for males.

Which gender is more valuable to you? Try to imagine you are alone on an island and can choose one person to share the island with. Would you pick someone of your own gender or someone of the opposite gender?

Even if you pick someone based on their value, value usually translates into power between individuals. All relationships are about power. The person who can live alone has more power over the person who cannot.

If women are superior to men why do they need so much help from the governments?

If women are superior to men why did they not write the Declaration of Independence?

If women are superior to men why aren't there more women in congress than men?

If women are superior to men why do female defendants in court often claim they were under the control of a man?

I believe the future gender wars will disappear as artificial intelligences and bio engineering change humans. With artificial intelligences and bio engineering changes in the future it will be necessary to go to a zoo or museum to see someone that looks like we look today. When we all become hermaphrodites the gender conflicts will be over. Until then, look for more feminizing of America.

"Let us be grateful to people who
make us happy, they are the charming
gardeners who make our souls blossom." ~Marcel Proust

No road is long with good company. ~Turkish Proverb

Charles Tolleson

Illinois Parenting Class for Divorce

2010-06-08T12:47:00.000-07:00

If you are parents of children under 18 and want to get a divorce in Illinois, the State has decided you need counseling and will require you to spend 4 hours being counseled. Costs to each of you will be $75 for the course. I'm sure the Illinois Psychological Association lobbied hard for these customers who are forced to buy the counseling service.

Why does the State have to be a party to your marriage? Marriage is a contract between two individuals. Why do people go to the State and ask permission by buying a marriage license? Maybe couples should just get married by "jumping over a broom."

The State welfare laws and child support laws have made marriage unnecessary for a woman to have a man help support her and her children. A woman can have children out of wedlock and still be taken care of by the State or the State will force the father to pay child support and become a visitor to his children. Now with parenting laws the State is interfering more and is simply trying to do all things for all people. When two people get married the State is a third member to the marriage. No wonder fewer people are getting married. "From 1970 through 2008, the US marriage rate has declined from 76.5 to 37.4 marriages per 1,000 unmarried women."

If the State is going to support single moms the State should require all of the single moms to attend parenting classes. As long as the State requires young people to attend the government schools the State should require all high school students to attend parenting classes.

Another reason for the decline in marriage is technology that has allowed more women to avoid pregnancy. The birth rate in the U.S. has declined by 50% during the past century. Since technology now allows women to avoid pregnancy, women have time to pursue careers. With many more careers than were available in years past, women do not need to be married for economic support.

Charles Tolleson, Married Once, Divorced Once

Drone Aircraft

2010-06-08T06:54:00.000-07:00

A retired U.S. Marine Colonel sent me an email that's been around since 2007. The email lists several U.S. Military drone aircraft. In the email the Colonel had some remarks attributed, without a source, to a Colonel Chris Chambliss, Commander of the 432nd (UAS)Wing at Creech AFB. "All of the Air Force's unmanned drones are now operated from Creech Air Force Base, 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas at Indian Springs. They used to run out of Nellis AFB and now have their own Wing at Creech AFB"
Some of his, Col Chambliss, comments: "It's the most deadly remote controlled plane in the world. Pilots fly it like a teenager playing a video game. Airmen at Creech AFB can control the Predator drone and the second generation Reaper anywhere in the world. "At least since 2001, Predator's have been airborne 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, primarily over Iraq and Afghanistan . There has never been a time when we haven't." The unmanned program is so successful it's now under the command of the Air Force. "We are going to increase the number of combat air patrols that we fly with it and the number of hours astronomically," Col. Chambliss said. This year the Predator drone will fly 75,000 hours -- up 20-percent from last year."

I did a search and found an article at Wired Magazine. The title is, "Flight of the Extreme UAVs, From Smallest to Deadliest" by David Hambling, October 10, 2007.

The adjectives given to name the drones were; Most Famous, Deadliest, Widest Range, Stealthiest, Most Welcome, Highest, Toughest, Most Modular, and Most Local. Those were the names given to our drones. The name given to the enemy drone, a single small suicide drone used by Hezbollah, is "Most Alarming." Most Alarming! It has not killed anyone. Notice the age old use of terms to describe our side as virtuous and the enemy as threatening and evil.

I wonder what terms the enemy uses to describe the U.S. drones that kill their innocent women and children?

“Why is propaganda so much more successful when it stirs up hatred than when it tries to stir up friendly feeling?” Bertrand Russell

Charles Tolleson

U.S. Navy's New F35C

2010-06-07T12:20:00.000-07:00

Lockheed Martin's U.S. Navy version of the F35C just made its first test flight. It is so advanced that no nation can compete with it.

Lockheed Martin's press release reads like a war lovers dream.

What I noticed in the press release was how many different congressional districts must have people from those districts working on the airplane.

"The F-35 program has about 900 suppliers in 43 states, and directly and indirectly employs more than 130,000 people."

900 suppliers in 43 states! Suppliers in 43 states mean 86 U.S. Senators will have constituents wanting the program to continue. Why so many and in 86% of the states? The defense industry has learned to spread out their suppliers into many different congressional districts for political power. These suppliers lobby their congressional people to make sure the funding keeps on coming, whether the products of war are needed or not. You can't go wrong with your investment portfolio if you own a diversified group of defense stocks. A nation gripped in fear will always want more "defensive" war materials. Imagine how many billions people are willing to spend on sophisticated systems to fight a rag tag group of people who hate our foreign policies.

We could prevent war by inviting all countries to be members of NATO, or by having disputes between countries settled in an international court of law. The desire for war is stronger than the desire to prohibit war. Think of all the jobs that would be lost in the military defense nation if there was no threat of war. Without war, how could humans satisfy their sadistic cravings?

"War is A Racket" Major General Smedley Butler, 1881-1940

Charles Tolleson

Black Women See Fewer Black Men

2010-06-06T07:11:00.000-07:00

The New York Times had an article on June 4, 2010 titled "Black Women See Fewer Black Men at the Altar"

The Pew Research Center disclosed the number of interracial marriages has increased enormously during the past few years. One can only marvel at this considering that State governments used to make interracial marriage illegal. Imagine the State preventing voluntary contracts between individuals!! All of those people who supported these laws believed in the power of the State.

There have been many discussions about the plight of black women unable to find a "good" black man. What does the definition of "good" mean? I suspect a woman who wants a "good" man wants a good servant.

The discussions and essays on the plight of black women left out one good reason so many black women are unmarried. Black women have the highest rate of obesity of any other demographic. Four out of five black women are overweight. If black women wanted to be married they would make themselves more appealing. Most men do not want to make love to an obese woman. If men preferred obese women then the sexy tabloids and pole dancers would be filled with obese women,

Black women, and other women, no longer need to be married. The State is their provider and protector. Since they do not need a man they can wait and wait for a "good" man.

For centuries under slavery black women were the head of the families. Black male slaves were used for breeding. Black male salves were sold as a single individual while black females were sold with their children. Black women did not need black men for care and support because the slave owner took care of them. After slavery the black women had to compromise with black men for their care and support and the cohesiveness of black families grew for the next 100 years until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which gave black women a position of aristocracy where they could sue others, and be cared for by the Federal Government, the same as the previous slave owners cared for the black women and her children. The only difference now is at the ballot box black woman can talk back to their master.

I'm sure somewhere there are humanitarians with a plan to correct the "unfairness" black women face. Their plan will likely have something like the Selective Service System that requires men to register for the draft. From this registry some men will be selected to marry a black woman for a term of two years.

If black women had been more desirable than white women, Europe and North America would be black instead of white.

The number of interracial marriages is a good thing. It will help mitigate our differences and bring some social peace.

It is difficult for a society of two religions to survive peacefully. With many religions a society will be more peaceful than with just two. The same for races in a society. If a society has only two races they will vie for power and blame. If there are many races it is difficult to blame one race against the other for one's unhappiness.

“A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity." Robert Frost

Charles Tolleson

North Korea Sinking of South Korea's Ship

2010-06-05T08:02:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Department of Defense has admitted that the U.S. Navy was in the area off North Korea when the North Koreans sank a South Korean ship.

Associated Press
June 05, 2010
WASHINGTON — The night a torpedo-armed North Korean submarine allegedly sank a South Korean patrol ship, the U.S. and South Korea were engaged in joint anti-submarine warfare exercises just 75 miles away, military officials told The Associated Press.

The blast that sank the Cheonan, the worst South Korean military disaster since the 1950-53 Korean War, showed how impoverished nations such as North Korea can still inflict heavy casualties on far better equipped and trained forces, even those backed by the might of the U.S. military.

This sounds like the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 where the U.S. was again involved in provoking another small country, North Vietnam, by going into her waters. As a result of that American action, millions died.

Why does the U.S. have to invade the disputed waters of these small countries thousands of miles from the U.S. coasts? What would Americans do if some enemy was carrying on navy military exercises off our coasts? Hysteria, fear, and anger come to mind. I suppose the only answer to why America goes into the waters and struts her military power off the coasts of small countries like Iran and North Korea is, a super bully needs someone to pick on.

Charles Tolleson

New Health Care Act Will Ration Treatments

2010-06-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

The Health Care Act signed into law in 2010 by President Obama will end up rationing treatments.

The respected Journal of American Medical Association, JAMA, has started programing the American public for future rationing of treatment by a series of articles about how "Less is More." JAMA's argument is that too much treatment is prescribed that is unnecessary. The reason of course is when a third party pays for a service that service will be used more. Imagine if a third party paid for a new car. Everyone would be driving a new car, and the cost of new cars would go much higher than the real market cost.

I agree that we have too much treatment when there are alternative treatments. Obesity causes diabetes and heart problems that require enormous expenses. Simply requiring patients to be less than 20% overweight before any insurance would pay for treatment for certain diseases would go a long way toward improving the health of Americans.

Update June 28, 2010. A yahoo news story today was about overtreatment when people are in their final days. The title, "American are treated, and overtreated, to death". This is the prepration stage to deny treatments that might prolong a life for a few months.

Charles Tolleson

In Defense of Rand Paul

2010-05-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

Republican Senate Candidate Rand Paul is being excoriated by the media for his comments that he thinks some parts of the 1964 Civil Rights Act were wrong.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was created to eliminate discrimination in the workplace, and places that provide a service to the public. Congress did this under the "Commerce Clause" of the U. S. Constitution, "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes."

Blacks were required to ride in the back of city owned buses. This proves governments are not kind and compassionate.

Congress overstepped its authority. The clause gives Congress the authority to regulate commerce among the States, not among individuals. The clause prevents one State from charging tariffs or restricting trade from another State. Congress could have asked the States for a constitutional amendment that would have allowed Congress, "To regulate Commerce among individuals". Why didn't they make this request? They knew their lust for power would be rejected.

Congress had the right to set hiring policies for the Federal Government and tell federal employees to boycott private businesses that discriminate.

Individuals who have a restaurant should not be regulated by Congress. If an owner of a restaurant wants to enter into a voluntary contract with her customers, Congress has no authority to interfere.

When minorities gained the right to force some private owner of a business to serve the minorities, millions of people lost the right of free association. The laws of unintended consequences.

It is immoral to deny a weary traveler food and lodging just because they are of a different race. But it is not up to congress to legislate morality. I always thought when I went on to the property of a business that I had to obey that property owner's rights and rules whether I liked them or not.

The government should protect the private property of business owners. The governments of different States failed to protect the private property rights of those minority business owners who would compete with the white owners of businesses.

If a white owner of a restaurant refused to serve blacks, it was up to the government to protect a black owner of a restaurant who was willing to compete next door and serve both blacks and whites.

The late Harry Browne explained in his book, "Why Government Doesn't Work", and in this article about the Civil Rights Act, that the Civil Rights Act made aristocrats out of some, minorities and women, who could sue over discrimination. But no white male could sue for discrimination.

With free enterprise and competition, protected by the State, it would not have been long before someone would have realized the blacks made up 13% of the market. Just as business began to grow into chains nationwide, like Holiday Inn and MacDonald's, it would have been only a matter of time before competition would have solved the segregation problem.

Technology, science, and free enterprise will liberate people. Can anyone believe the competitive markets of Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Starbucks and global competition would allow a business to succeed by ignoring 13% of the market? People continue to praise foolishness and irrationality.

Does anyone really believe that in 21st century that there would still be discrimination in businesses? Any business that practiced discrimination of the past would be ridiculed out of the market. Boycotts would serve as fodder for the 24 hour news media.

Minorities benefited from the Civil Rights Act because there were so few black owned businesses it was simply math that white business owners would have to hire black employees. Without the Civil Rights Act the number of small businesses owned by blacks would have been drastically more than they are now. Blacks would have found owning a business their best way out of poverty. The government's own licensing requirements and other regulations made it difficult for a minority to start a business.

Before the Railway Labor Act, blacks moved north to work in factories in the 1930s. They were hired first because they would work for lower wages. Capital flows to the most efficient means of production. After the railway labor act and minimum wage laws, blacks could not offer their services at lower wages.

One former politician, I can't provide a source, said the welfare and civil riots legislation were anti riot laws. I believe this is true. I'm amazed there were not more riots by blacks in the 1950s and 60s.

Despite the law requiring integration, which was supposed to eliminate ghettos and poverty, those same ghettos still exist and are more violent. Before the Civil Right laws the black families were cohesive. After the government interference the black families have been destroyed. As a teen around 1950, I went into black neighborhoods, at dark, and felt safe.

In 1969, before the Civil Rights Act started destroying families, the high school graduation rate was 77 percent. In 2007 the graduation rate was 68.8%. The continuing decline in high school graduation rates correlates with the increase in unmarried mothers, caused by the Civil Rights Act.

Time and technology is what changes a culture. Young people of today would be appalled at a "Whites Only" sign on a restaurant. Neither did anyone in 1960, before the birth control pill, think women would have enough leisure time and energy to jog and go to a gym to work out. Any time my mother had a leisurely moment from her long hours of work she would sit down and rest, not go jogging!

To say discrimination would still exist today without the Civil Rights Act is like saying women would still not be allowed to vote had the 19th amendment not been passed. Can you really imagine any State today that would not allow women to vote? That state would be boycotted so much their economy would shrink and women would move out of the state. No 19th amendment was necessary, yet, the humanitarians think only big centralized governments can do good. History shows just how evil big governments have been in the past.

Another under reported cause for the Civil Rights Act was the competition between capitalism of the west and the communism of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was using the discrimination of blacks in America to show their client States, most with minorities, what would happen under capitalism. American government leaders had to eliminate discrimination to show the world the benefits of capitalism and democracy over communism.

Blacks supported the Civil Rights Act because they were loyal Americans. Many had served in WW II and Korea. Most all blacks were Christians. Today many blacks are Muslim. Many immigrants are Muslim and loyal to their native country and culture. Will the Civil Rights Act survive another 56 years? Will Christians be allowed to refuse service to a Muslim? Must a small Muslim business owner be required to hire a Christian? Can a black business owner refuse to hire someone who is a member of the Klu Klux Klan?

Update 6/11/2010- Today's Associated Press story said the Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan advocated, when she worked in the Clinton administration, for the right of a religious person to deny rent to an unmarried couple. I agree with Kagan. The government should not interfere with private contracts between individuals.

Charles Tolleson

The Future of Medicine

2010-05-22T07:05:00.000-07:00

The future of medicine will involve more personal diagnosis of symptoms and diseases. Many home health diagnosis and drug tests kits have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the past few years. These include; Cholesterol Tests, Diabetes Tests, Glucose Tests, HIV Tests, Thyroid Tests, Colon Cancer Tests, PSA Tests, Male Fertility Tests, and Female Hormone Tests. The TSH home Thyroid test cost $25. A hospital lab will charge you much more for the same test!

In 1964 I had a test for diabetes. The doctor looked at the test results and told me I was a diabetic! He was wrong. The test results were complicated to interpret. I have never had diabetes. Now a simple home test can present results that an untrained person can read what a licensed doctor could not read 46 years ago.

In 2009 General Electric introduced the hand held ultrascanner. At a price of $250,000 the scanner is too expensive for the consumer market, at this time, but we know the price will eventually become affordable for the consumers just as the cost of computers and cell phones declined to accommodate the consumer market.

Someday the GE handheld ultrasound scanner will be used by consumers on a routine basis. The ordinary consumer may not know how to interpret the image but that can easily be solved by simply putting the image on Facebook and allowing others who have more knowledge of internal body parts to offer their free interpretations. There will also be images available online of what a normal internal body for a male or female looks like so one can compare their own image. Private individuals will be able to detect tumors and arterial blockages without going to a doctor, or they can email their images to their doctor for an opinion.

There are many online sites that already give symptoms of diseases. These online resources will continue to grow and benefit the consumer of health services. Because of these online resources, consumers are today better prepared when they visit their doctors than they were in the past.

These modern home tests show that a free market works. It shows the resources of human actions, when they are allowed to innovate and create. Thank goodness the people who invented these miracle kits were not killed in some unnecessary war.

“I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success... Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.” Nikola Tesla

Charles Tolleson

Workers Compensation and the Laws of Unintended Consequences

2010-05-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

There is a long article at Wikipedia about Workers Compensation, its history and causes, and pros and cons of Workers Compensation.

When laws were first passed to compensate workers for on the job injuries, it seemed like a good idea because the only recourse before was for the worker to sue the employer, which suit the worker usually lost. However, as the insurance industry grew there would have been plenty of opportunities for the workers to buy job injury insurance without forcing the employer to buy the insurance, which ultimately comes from the capital that could be used to retain good employees. "Responsibility: A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one's neighbor." -Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911

But, when the Workers Compensation laws were passed, The Laws of Unintended Consequences reared its ugly head, as it always does, especially when the government decides to use force for doing what appears to be, and is sold as a law "for the greater good."

From Wikipedia--"The idea of unintended consequences dates back at least to Adam Smith, the Scottish Enlightenment, and consequentialism (judging by results). However, it was the sociologist Robert K. Merton who popularized this concept in the twentieth century. In his 1936 paper, "The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action", Merton tried to apply a systematic analysis to the problem of "unanticipated consequences" of "purposive social action".

A small business owner wrote to me about the unintended consequences of workers comp. "D---- sprained his ankle at the end of March. Even on the day he sprained it, he had no limp. A week later he still had some swelling, so he wanted to go get it checked out. Ergo, my first workers comp claim. The xrays were negative and he had no work restrictions, but the doctor, of course, wanted to see him back a few weeks later for a follow up. Now they want him to go in once a week for four weeks to do physical therapy. He is working out in the field every day without pain and without a limp. Why in the world does he need physical therapy for an ankle sprain that happened almost two months ago? I can just see the doctor salivating when he notices it is a workers comp claim. Yippy! Easy money from the insurance company! Get him back in here!"

We can be sure the American Medical Association lobbied very hard for worker compensation laws, along with the American Psychological Association. Often times an employee can receive counseling because of mental problems related to a workplace accident.

One unintended consequence of worker compensation law is a health care system that is burdened with more patients. The same consequence will arise from the universal health care law that was just passed. As long as a third party is paying for your health care, and your employer is required to pay you while you are sitting in the doctor's office reading a magazine, you will use that service more.

These worker compensation laws reinforce Frederic Bastiat's theory that law is legal plunder.

When D---- is at his doctor appointment he is still on the payroll, receiving his hourly pay while sitting in the doctor's office. What a deal for most workers who hate their jobs.

"The Law of Unintended Consequences is an adage or idiom that warns that an intervention in a complex system invariably creates unanticipated and often undesirable outcomes. It is akin to Murphy's Law, and is commonly used as a wry or humorous warning against the hubristic belief that humans can fully control the world around them."-Wikipedia

Charles Tolleson

UN say oceans will run out of fish

2010-05-18T07:11:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (AFP) – The world faces the nightmare possibility of fishless oceans by 2050 unless fishing fleets are slashed and stocks allowed to recover, UN experts warned. Sebastian Smith, May 17, 2010

So, the fish in the oceans will disappear! I doubt it, but the theory reinforces the Tragedy of the Commons theory advocated by Garrett Hardin, 1968. From Wikipedia- "The tragedy of the commons refers to a dilemma described in an influential article written by Garrett Hardin and first published in the journal Science in 1968. The article describes a situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently, and solely and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this to happen."

What Hardin was saying is that private property will be better utilized because it is in the self interest of the private owner to maximize the value of the property.

On April 25, 2009 I wrote about privatizing the international waters. "Now I propose privatizing the international waters. This corporation would be owned by each citizen of the world. Each world citizen would own 100 shares of the International Waters Corp. The corporation would charge users for shipping, fishing and mining and any other use.

The dividends would be paid to any world citizen when they reach age 18. This is because much of the world is poor. Many countries have life spans of their citizens that would prevent them from living long enough to collect dividends in old age, as I proposed for privatizing U.S. government owned assets. A few dollars in dividends would mean a lot to a poor villager in an undeveloped country."

If a private corporation owned the fishing rights of the oceans they would manage the fish population just like a dairy or beef farmer manages their stock. The owners of the International Waters Corp would demand profits and dividends for their retirement. The corporation would stock the oceans and make sure there was a product to sell to the fishing industry, for a profit.

The likely solution will be the usual government control of the ocean fishing industry, with treaties that limit the harvesting of fish, but nothing to do with increasing production. Governments do not operate efficiently.

Rich people are greedy. So are poor people.

Charles Tolleson

Armed Forces Day

2010-05-16T07:47:00.000-07:00

Fear is in our genes. It was required for us to survive. Our fear led to tribes where chiefs and priests exploited our fears. Our priests kept our souls in fear and our chiefs kept our bodies in fear. Our priests told us we would burn in hell, forever, if we did not worship the church and give ten percent of our production to the church. Our chiefs told us to kill others before they killed us. This fear has led to tribal chiefs having much power, power we voluntarily gave away for the promise of safety. This fear has resulted in government holidays that pay homage and worship to the chiefs, priests and warriors.

Yesterday, May 15, was Armed Forces Day in the United States. Other countries have their Armed Forces Day. It is a day designed to give the next generation of young men who have meaningless lives a place to feel important. Feeling important is one of Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of human needs.

We have many holidays worshiping the State. How they came about and why is well written at this site.

Here is a list of U.S. holidays. The latest is Earth Day, another religious holiday worshiping the earth, and there are plenty of priests in the new religion called Environment.

Charles "Fearless" Tolleson

Women Will Change Islam

2010-05-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

I have written before about how technology and feminism will change the Islamic culture the same way it changed Christianity.

This news story is of another Muslim feminist that is trying to break down the tribal authority system. This is further proof that it is not necessary for Christian armies to invaded and occupy Muslim nations for change to happen in those Muslim countries.

“The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny; flattery to treachery; standing armies to arbitrary government; and the glory of God to the temporal interest of the clergy.” David Hume

Charles Tolleson

Excerpt; By John Hughes John Hughes – Thu May 13, 8:54 am ET
Provo, Utah – Indonesia’s Siti Musdah Mulia is a name to remember. That’s because she is showing Muslim women how to break out of bondage by using the words of the Koran.

Dr. Mulia was raised in a traditional Indonesian Muslim home and an Islamic boarding school. She was barred from contact with men. She was not allowed to laugh out loud. If she socialized with a non-Muslim, she was made to shower afterward.

Mulia is one of several courageous Muslim feminists who are challenging conservative male interpretations of Islam. As Isobel Coleman, a leading American authority on Islamic feminism and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told me: “Half of those men have never read the Koran in their own language.”

Mulia is one of several Muslim women in Arab and non-Arab Muslim countries profiled in a new book by Dr. Coleman, “Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East.”

Instead of blatantly waving the banner of democracy, certain to raise charges of being tools of Western cultural imperialism, these women are quietly working within the culture, rather than against it, citing progressive interpretations of Islam itself as justification for women’s empowerment, particularly in education and the workplace.

Update- August 13, 2010

By MICHAEL CASEY, AP Sports Writer Michael Casey, Ap Sports Writer – Fri Aug 13,
SINGAPORE – When Jihan El Midany leads the Egyptian delegation into Saturday's opening ceremony of the inaugural Youth Olympics, it will be a historic moment for her country."I'm hoping I can be a good role model," El Midany said Friday as she walked through the athletes' village. "I want to prove that the veil does not have to prevent girls from doing anything."

The Wonder of Blogs

2010-05-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

There are millions of blogs on the Internet. They are in many languages and from many countries.

No longer will information from the mainstream media be controlled by the advertisers. Big media outlets make their money from big businesses that pay for advertisement. That's why you never see any negative reporting about big advertisers.

If you want to be a member of the White House Press Corp and have access to the powerful rulers, you better not say anything negative about the rulers.

Women make up to two thirds of spending choices so advertisers sponsor programs that attract female viewers. That's why there are so many programs that allow the feminists spin sisters to profligate.

To compete with the biased news media, blogs have arisen. Millions of blogs, that cost nothing to write, have no advertisers to sway what is written. The bloggers write opinions and disclose information and links to data that the mainstream media often does not present because the MSM are after a mass audience of buyers of advertised products. The blogger is just writing his views.

As time passes the good bloggers will attract more readers. Good bloggers have created online websites with news and opinion columns. These websites have millions of viewers. These sites could not have started a major newspaper or television station and competed so quickly with the mainstream media.

Readers will no longer have to pay and subscribe for a newspaper that is expensive to print and deliver. Customers will no longer have to watch TV with the commercials to get their news. Readers can read faster than a speaker can speak. A reasonable reader can get in 20 minutes the same number of words they get listening to an hour of talk radio or TV, excluding the ads.

Kings, priests and the warriors have always tried to control the information the tribe receives. Information is power. Centralized power is dangerous. The corruptible are lured to power. Power corrupts the weak. With the diffusion of power by bloggers, maybe power by the rulers will be diffused. The current U.S. government puts out data monthly on the performance of the U.S. economy. Many people think this information is inaccurate. One website, http://www.shadowstats.com/ run by an economist and a webmaster, two people, is exposing the lies the rulers tell to the tribal members.

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power". Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld 1613-1680

Charles Tolleson

Fat Role Models for Young Females

2010-05-12T17:20:00.000-07:00

The latest appointment by President Obama to the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, is another fat person. With the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court and Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin, President Obama has said obesity is no obstacle to being appointed to high office. None of these obese people could win an election if they did not lose some weight.

Allowing these people to be role models for young females of the world is inappropriate and bad for the health of the world. At least President Obama and his family are positive role modles for good health.

Charles Tolleson

Airline Industry Then and Now

2010-05-12T07:11:00.000-07:00

On my discussion group of retired pilots the subjects of engine failures, pilot pay, safety, and advanced technology were discussed.

Dennis Rayfield wrote, "Personally, I think we may see one pilot in the cockpit within our life times."

I believe Dennis Rayfield is correct. Though maybe not in my lifetime:-) As the public becomes accustomed to military drone operations as being normal, newer generations will accept having only one pilot in the cockpit.

The first adjustments will likely be the relief pilots operating from the ground, monitoring the cockpit while one pilot sleeps and another flies the airplane. The relief pilot may even monitor two cockpits from the ground. The relief pilot will be working in his own domestic time zone. No need to pay a pilot while he is sleeping.

Technology improves productivity. I remember my first flight from O'Hara to Honolulu in a four engine DC-8-62. We had five crewmembers in the cockpit; Capt., First Officer, Second Officer, Navigator, and relief Capt., all to carry about 160 passengers. Now a crew of 2, with one relief pilot, in the cockpit can carry twice the number of passengers on a twin engine 777 from ORD to HNL with more fuel efficient engines. And of course, more people are flying, creating more pilot jobs than when I flew ORD/HNL.

This link shows some airline data from 1960 to 2006. My interpretation of the data may not be accurate.

The passenger enplanements went from 56 million in 1960 to 675 million in 2006. That was a 12 fold increase while the U.S. population only increased by 80%.

The number of airline aircraft in 1960 was 2100. In 2006 that number increased to 6700. Despite this improvement in technology and the cockpit crew reductions, the number of airline employees increased from 170,000 in 1960 to 539,000 in 2006.

Much of the reason for growth and improvement in the airline industry is due to technology, like other industries. The airline industry in the U.S. was deregulated in 1978. This made it easer for non union airlines to be created with non union pay scales. This has lowered labor costs, though fuel costs have increased, which is why, along with too much competition, has prevented airlines from being profitable. While flying became affordable to more people under deregulation, it also became safer.

Denis O'Malley is right when he says United Airlines could not get any new routes before airline deregulation in 1978. Promotions were slow at the major carriers and rapid at the smaller carriers because the Civil Aeronautics Board awarded new routes to smaller carriers. The fear about deregulation was the big carriers would dominate. What did United Airlines, a giant carrier at the time, decide to add as their first new route after deregulation? It was Buffalo to Orlando!

The airline industry is unlikely to be profitable for any length of time. As soon as an airline buys new aircraft they park good airplanes in the desert, which will soon be flown by a new startup airline with lower labor costs, and the cycle continues.

Here is a link to a good article about the past airline industry and some of the future challenges.

Despite the lower pay for airline pilots the accident rate has diminished since 1990 according to this NTSB page. There is no data that shows higher pilot pay determines safety. (Montreal - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced the aviation safety performance for 2009 showing that the year’s accident rate for Western-built jet aircraft as the second lowest in aviation history.)

If you increased pilot pay from $50,000 per year to $500,000 per year you would increase the number of pilot applicants. But how much safer would it make airline travel? If you increased teachers' pay ten fold would you get better teachers? How about truck drivers and police? As long as you have and adequate supply of applicants it does not matter about the pay. If the supply of applicants decreases, the pay will increase. If the supply of applicants increases, the pay will decrease.

The May 2010 Transport World Magazine article that said the pilot profession is starting to lose its luster is correct. It started when, as Dick Ferris is famous for saying, "It is now possible for a flight attendant to get a pilot pregnant." When an airplane can make auto landings the pilot has become a system manager and the pilot image has lost luster.

Most airline passengers never experience an engine failure. When a turbine engine is shutdown in flight there is no visible evidence to the passengers, like a feathered prop. I had one engine failure on a 727 around 1969 shortly after takeoff, I was the S/O, and a precautionary shutdown on a DC-10 with Dick O'Toole as captain and I as F/O. With such current safety the fear of flying is diminished, along with the pilot's luster.

There was a discussion about reciprocating engine failures and about a B-36 bomber with multiple engine failures. This reminded me of my tour on Okinawa as an infantryman stationed close to Kadena AFB in 1953-56. It was quiet common to see B-29s in the landing pattern with an engine shut down. Soon the new B-47s jet bomber with six jet engines started appearing in the pattern. What a beautiful sight they were! I suspect some of the B-47s had an engine shutdown but, who could tell from the ground?

When earlier piston engine powered airplanes had an engine failure on takeoff the rudder input necessary to correct the yaw required significant leg strength from the pilot. Today that input can be automatic, done by the aircraft systems, further tarnishing the image of the heroic pilot.

Steam engine technology diminished the image of the sailing captains. The railroad engineer's image was diminished by the airline pilot. Artificial intelligence and bio engineering will diminish the images we have painted of ourselves. And so it goes.

Charles Tolleson

Borrowing by Modern Governments

2010-05-06T12:47:00.000-07:00

Ancient governments, kings and tyrants, used gold and other commodities to finance their empires. Modern governments discovered the printed currency, backed by gold. Then the modern governments figured out they could borrow money and force the taxpayer to pay the principle and interest.

Now, western and modern governments, as demonstrated by Greece, are learning that there is no tooth fairy. Like an individual that borrows more than they can pay back, western governments will also have to default on their loans. This means no more borrowing for them. Eventually the U.S. will not be able to borrow money to finance their foreign occupations. There will be blood in the streets because the people's illusions will be destroyed. Their deadly sins will control their fall to reality.

Stocks Plunge, Then Recover As Debt Worries Slam Markets
CNBC | 06 May 2010 |
In one of the most dizzying half-hours in stock market history, the Dow plunged nearly 1,000 points on worries about the spreading European debt crisis before paring those losses in an equally rapid rebound.
The apparent trigger for the massive selloff, which began shortly after 2 pm ET, was the approval of austerity measures by the Greek Parliament, which sparked renewed rioting in Athens.
"There is simply a growing recognition that Greece has got to default," banking analyst Dick Bove told CNBC.com. "The riots in the streets showed the decision to repay the debt was not going to be made by the people in Germany, France and Switzerland—it's going to be made by people in Greece and they're not going to repay it."

What to do about the poor

2010-05-05T15:57:00.000-07:00

When I argue against welfare and government assistance for the poor I always get a response that says something like this. "Do you think we should let the poor starve?"

My answer is to the usual liberal who believes the government should force us to take care of the poor is, "There are millions of people who, like you, care about the poor. More than half of the voters vote for a candidate that will force them to take care of the poor. So why do you and those other millions have to be forced to take care of the poor? By admitting you care means there will always be charitable people available to help those who truly are in need. You will be hands on helping and you will know if you are creating someone who is dependent or if you really are helping someone who cannot help themselves".

Then I ask them if they know any poor people, and what have they done to help the poor. Most of the humanitarians know no poor people and are not be in the gutter helping the poor. They just want to pose as someone who is good so the rest of society will trust and invest in the humanitarians.

If the standard of living doubled for both the rich and the poor, the humanitarians would still be horrified with envy because there was still inequality. The humanitarians would be happier if the standard of living was halfed, as long as all were equal.

A frustrated producer told me he was thinking about going on welfare instead of working his ass off trying to comply with all the rules and regulations on his business, only to have his production taken by force and given to the non producers. This statement would have been unheard of in past generations. In fact it would have brought derision and scorn. But now, it is what we have become. It is normal animal behavior.

Sometimes I feel like giving them a different response and recommend Jonathan Swift's, "A Modest Proposal". I don't think a liberal appreciates the satire.

Charles Tolleson, from poverty to comfortable

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

2010-05-05T12:38:00.000-07:00

NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has 28 member countries that agree to come to each other's defense in case one is attacked. Disputes between countries are settled peacefully.

I think the way to end war, at least between countries, is to invite all countries of the world to join NATO. That way no country would attack another country. The U.S. could no longer attack small countries. The military industrial nation would no longer have a reason to spend trillions on weapons. Can you imagine how the verbal venom would die out if both Israel and Iran were members of NATO?

I said wars between countries would end if all countries were members of NATO. Governments would continue their wars against poverty, pollution, social injustice, drugs, salt, etc. "War is the health of the State". Randolph Bourne

Charles Tolleson

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

2010-05-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

Everyone is alarmed about the British Petroleum failed oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil spill has given the humanitarians another excuse to control our lives.

The alarmist media will tell you the oil spill covers 200 square miles. What they do not tell you is the size of the Gulf of Mexico is 600,000 square miles! The oil spill is .0003% of the size of the Gulf of Mexico.

I feel sorry for the 80,000 employees of British Petroleum. Their jobs and careers may be destroyed. Yet the environmentalists are ecstatic because their hatred of capitalism distorts their views of reality.

Update May 28 2010

People are alarmed at the disaster of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Where there is a disaster there are men who look for a solution. Men have always been problem solvers. The late Julian Simon in his book, The Ultimate Resource, writes about the resourcefulness of humans and their ability to solve problems and create a better life. As a result of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico there will be safer and more reliable ways of drilling. BP said they receive thousands of suggestions each day on how to solve the problem. The human resource is a valuable resource. If left alone to produce can, and has solved engineering miracles. One solution is simply drill a relief well for each active well.

President Obama and the media have been attacking British Petroleum. Everyone loves to attack big business. If it was a government oil well that went bad, like other government failures, there would be a cry for more money and power for the government to do the job better.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill will cost BP billions. This will increase the cost of deep water drilling all over the world until drilling companies develop a safer and more efficient way to produce. The free market will cause cheaper production and safer drilling to eventually happen. It always does.

Update 7 15 2010. NEW ORLEANS – BP says oil from its broken well has stopped gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since April. Human resources at work again to solve problems.

Charles Tolleson

Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren

2010-05-03T06:54:00.000-07:00

The odds are pretty high that Tiger Woods and his wife Elin Nordegren will divorce. Elin will likely get from 300 million to 500 million dollars in the divorce. Not bad for a former nanny/model.

Why does a vagina have so much value? This sends a message to all women that they are worth millions, if they can only find a guy who has millions. I suppose it is the free market at work. Men's stress levels go up around a beautiful woman. Men will work and risk their lives for these women. As men's work is more dangerous than women's work, men earn more, but they pay more in alimony and community property settlements and gifts. We also notice how the media always say the "Workers" were killed in the oil rig explosion. They never say eleven 'men' were killed in the oil rig explosion. If the eleven fatalities were women, do you think the press would have mentioned their gender. I do. It's quiet simple. Women are more valuable than men.

As long as men build Taj Mahals to women and invest so much time, money, energy and praise to women, women will always overvalue themselves.
"Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are". Malcolm S Forbes

It is rumored that Tiger Woods slept with 120 women during a five year period. That would be about two women per month. Not that amazing when you consider the opportunities rich and successful men have. What is amazing is why, if there were that many, that none of those 120 women accused him of sexual assault. Maybe they did, and collected the payoff money.

Tiger has been excoriated for his behavior, but none of the women he had affairs with have been excoriated for sleeping with a married man. All of those women had their self interest in mind. They thought with the proper investment in Tiger Woods they might replace Elin and become Tiger's next wife, and, have the opportunity to live a life of luxury and ease, and, get millions in a divorce.

Charles Tolleson, Divorced, and never remarried!

Government Graduation Ceremonies

2010-04-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed how many government institutions have graduation ceremonies? There are graduation ceremonies from 2 months of military basic training. Basic training is designed to turn one into good compliant members of the socialist state. The basic training graduates even gets a ribbon to wear on their chest. Ribbons used to be for bravery. Now they are for anything.

And the government police and fire employees have their ceremonies.

There are even graduation ceremonies for a child leaving day care to enter kindergarten.

Many years ago there were fewer government graduation ceremonies. Now the government has found ceremonies, where families are invited, validates the importance of the government mob. No matter that a child has just graduated from preschool, the government is praising themselves for doing what the private sector could do better and more efficiently. These ceremonies are designed to instill pride, a deadly sin, and respect for the government mob. The government leaders get to dress up at these ceremonies, and any other government ceremonies, and present themselves as someone who is important and should be respected.

When I graduated from basic training in 1953 there was no graduation ceremony. We received our next assignment; mine was for three months of radio school where I became a Morse code operator. After basic training they gave us a weekend pass. I went to town, rented a hotel room, and slept for 12 hours!

After graduation from radio school there was no graduation ceremony. They said, "Fall in! Here are your travel orders and a ten day leave. See ya!" That was in an era when all of my comrades were males, and most were drafted. There was no need to coddle them and give them false praise.

Today our society falsely praises every kid, even those below average. Our society tells them a lie by telling them they can be anything they want to be. Praise is a wonderful thing. False praise is a dangerous thing.

These government ceremonies inflate the value of the graduate. The graduate now thinks the ceremony entitles them to success. The ceremony creates an illusion and expectation of value. Destroy our illusions and you destroy our happiness. Still, the unhappy graduate will believe they are "entitled" to the same prizes as those who never attended the government schools and had no ceremony, but are successful through hard work, desire, and determination.

Here is an article about a young girl that never experienced a government graduation ceremony because she was home schooled. Yet, she was accepted to Harvard and other top colleges.

The private sector does not have these superfluous ceremonies. The free enterprise system will validate performance. A ceremony will not.

Charles Tolleson

Females to Serve on U.S. Navy Submarines

2010-04-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Navy has decided to allow females to serve on submarines with what have been all male crews in the past.

The egalitarians and the feminists simply cannot stand the thought of there being some all male bastion where women cannot go. Feminists cannot stand the thought that there is something men can do, serve on a submarine, but women cannot do. This means men and women are not equal!

Imagine a 90 day cruise with a coed crew and the curse of Mother Nature running through the young males each day, and the curse of Mother Nature running through the young females on the days they are ovulating. Animals have basic instincts, to mate and survive.

Out of the 52,000 females in the U.S. Navy you would think it a simply task to find two hundred females to fill a complete, all female submarine crew. So why not have a submarine with an all female crew?

Because it is not about having women serve on submarines. It is about politics. The Department of Defense must accede to the wishes of female members of congress for funding. It is about having women in control of men. The men will have to behave around the women. The men will risk disciplinary action unless they kow tow to the female crew members. The women will have the power to ruin a man's career. She will get to approve or disapprove of many male actions and speech.

Women also need to be around men to see men's desire for women. It gives women a sense of value. All her life she has been told that men desire her, and that is her power, so she needs that confirmation.

The navy is only assigning female officers, for now, to the submarines. These female officers will be giving orders to the enlisted male crew members, about 140 enlisted male crew members per submarine.

It's all about power, power for the ruling class in America, the females.

"A good part - and definitely the most fun part - of being a feminist is about frightening men." Julie Burchill

Charles Tolleson

Lord of War

2010-04-18T15:37:00.000-07:00

I don’t watch many movies. They are politically correct or romantic ‘chick flicks’. Some movies are about violence and sadistic torture. Some of the academy awards go to the violent movies. The producers produce what sells.

I did watch a movie on TV recently, Lord of War. I enjoyed the dialogue and the voice over by the main character about the good and evil of men.

Lord of War is a 2005 political crime thriller film written and directed by Andrew Niccol which stars Nicolas Cage. Cage plays an illegal arms dealer with similarities to post-Soviet arms dealers Viktor Bout and Leonid Minin. The film was officially endorsed by the human rights group Amnesty International for highlighting the trafficking of weapons by the international arms industry.

Yuri brings Vitaly, his brother, played by Jared Leto, along to Liberia, saying he can't trust anyone there. During the transaction, Vitaly sees a group of villagers kill a woman and her child with machetes and tries to convince Yuri to stop.

After the village scene of the people killing others with machetes I thought it would have been appropriate for Yuri to opine on the evils of humans. Yuri could have said something like, “I wonder who the arms dealer is that sells machetes? There probably is not much profit in machetes, but, if the world prohibits the production of guns then the demand for machetes will go up, and so will the profit.”

Lord of War reminds us of the evil of humans. At the end of the movie Yuri thinks about the quote from Edmund Burke, "All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." Then Yuri says-, evil WILL prevail. The movie failed to explain that evil has been happening between humans for thousands of years, long before gunpowder, and without gunpowder today, evil would still be happening.

You say people are basically good. I say they are basically evil and only act good for their self interest and to prevent punishment.

I challenge you to find one hundred of the best people you know. Fifty men and fifty women, half democrats and half republicans. Half black and half white, Half Christian and half Jews. All good people, the saints of the earth. Then put them on an island with no one else around or no way to contact outsiders. Now, how long do you think it will be before some of those "best" people start practicing evil against each other? How long before someone covets thou neighbor's wife, or husband? How long do you think these "good" people can exist in peace and harmony without laws to constrain their seven deadly sins? The results will likely be the same as happened to the Bounty mutineers who settled on Pitcairn Island in 1790 and what was displayed about human behavior in "Lord of the Flies".

If one of the "Best" people you know starts to produce vegetables on the island the other "Best" people will steal the vegetables. It is easier to steal than to produce vegetables. Then rules will be imposed to make the "Good" people act good. But they will be basically evil, only acting good because it is in their best interest.

This interesting passage was also from the Wikipedia article. “A brief postscript notes that while private arms dealers do a lot of business; the five largest arms exporters – the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, and China – are also the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council”. It seems these countries want to prohibit any competition in the arms trade. They want to remain a cartel in the arms trade, and they have the votes to prohibit competition, and evil prevails.

Charles Tolleson

The General Welfare Clause

2010-04-07T17:29:00.000-07:00

There has been much written about the general welfare clause in the U.S. Constitution. Two good articles are here and here.

I believe congress will use the "promote the general welfare" clause as an excuse for many laws and regulations that in fact harm the general welfare. Congress has created a nation of dependents. That is not promoting the general welfare of the union. These laws have demoted the general welfare of the United States. Congress should be promoting self reliance, confidence and independence in the citizens.

Tribes and groups have always advocated for the general welfare of the group. It is in the best interest of the individual to look after their own welfare, even if it means taking something from others. This was more efficient in small tribes where those who did not produce were shunned or even expelled. Men who did not produce something for the general welfare did not get to mate. But, in large tribes, non producers are mostly invisible to the producers, while producers are visible and vilified as greedy and evil people. Promoting the general welfare in large tribes rewards non production and punishes production.

It is estimated that when the latest government health care is implemented that 70% of the population will be receiving more from the government than they are paying in. This is not promoting the general welfare of the country.

It could be argued that the U.S. invasion of Mexico, though immoral, promoted the general welfare of the U.S. though it harmed the general welfare of Mexico.

The Lousiana Purchase promoted the general welfare of the United States, though the American Indians did not have a say in the purchase of their land.

It could be argued that the invasion of the Confederate States of America was promoting the general welfare of the United States, though it cost 600,000 lives! Legally, yes. But, morally, to prohibit people from declaring their independence, I believe harmed not only the general welfare of the United States but the general welfare of people all over the world who want the right to declare their independence.

Legally it would be a sound argument that the creation of the Federal Reserve, a private bank for bankers, was promoting the general welfare. Legally yes. But did its inflationary policies promote the general welfare? I say no.

Congress critters have taken an oath to uphold the constitution. So have many other government mobsters. They are required to obey the constitution. I am not. I did not sign the constitution. To me it is authority only over those who swear to uphold it. It has authority over all government employees. It has no authority over me.

"Anyone who can walk to the welfare office can walk to work". Al Capp

Bilbo Baggins

Census Harassment Jobs

2010-04-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises a formidable outcry in defence of custom." Thomas Paine ('Common Sense')

The Census Bureau estimates there are 115 million households in the U.S. In 2000 the bureau estimated 68% of households returned the 2000 census survey.

If that 68% holds true for the 2010 survey that means that about 78 million households will return the survey. About 37 million households will not return the survey.

The Census Bureau plans to hire over one million part time workers to help canvas neighborhoods. (Which gender will be assigned to the good neighborhoods and which gender will be assigned to the bad neighborhoods while both genders receive the same pay?)

One million workers to canvas thirty seven million households means each worker will only have about 37 households to canvas. Why so many workers? How long will it take one person to canvas 37 households?

The part time census workers are a way to reduce the unemployment, which is why the government is hiring so many workers. It is not just the act of the current administration trying to reduce unemployment for the 2010 election. Any administration would do the same.

The census survey is constitutional in it allows a population count to determine apportionment of the 435 members of the House. The states that increase populations during the ten years between surveys will get more representatives to congress and the states that lose populations will get fewer representatives. Liberal states like Michigan may see a decrease in population in the current survey while conservative state Texas will likely see and increase in population, thus giving a conservative state one more representative while a liberal state gets one less representative. Now, do you really think the government employees who count the survey returns are so pure and noble that they will not tamper with the survey results?

The census workers are enablers to the State. As they harass you they will justify their use of force as, "I need a job!"

It is a Bizzaro world when we are forced to pay government employees to harass us.

Bilbo Baggins, from his hobbit hole on Htrae.

My Heroes

2010-03-31T08:18:00.000-07:00

Where have all the positive male role models gone? When I was young my male role models were plentiful. My favorites were; Batman, Superman, and Captain Marvel. They are still my heroes, but for different reasons of those in my youth. Today they are my heroes because they are the only people, though fictional people, who do not become corrupted with their absolute power. These heroes of mine were not government employees.

Other heroes of my youth were cowboys Lash La Rue, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, The Lone Ranger, and Hopalong Cassidy.

Where are the male heroes today for young men? If you peruse the television programs you will find many manginas, (Men acting like they have vaginas), males sharing leading roles with females. If you watch most of the crime shows you will find women who are heroines for young women, but very few male heroes for young men. If Sherlock Holmes was written today and shown on TV the role would be, Shirley Holmes, played by a female, with the male, Dr. Watson as her assistant.

The few TV roles that show men with intelligence, such as Dr. House and Detective Monk, show House and Monk as misfits with some psychological problems.

The females in the coed TV roles are always prescient. The males are always last to get "it". Equal male and female roles have the females walking in front, leading. Males are following, walking behind.

In the early 20th century men worked in factories and farms. Women worked hard around the house and garden. Cooking three meals per day on a wood burning stove. Pumping water and washing clothes by hand. It was a hard life for both men and women. But, each had their space. Men could spend hours each day not seeing a female. Today men have no sanctuary from females. Women will soon be serving with men on U.S. Submarines.

Compare that to the 21st century where America has become feminized. Even ESPN sports has females talking about male sports. Business channels are filled with anchorettes who are great talkers. TV ads show females in positive roles because females are more believable than males. Males shown in TV ads are bumblers and incompetents.

For centuries people worshiped gods and kings. Now the new religion is government, and the latest goddess to worship is feminism. The White House announced in 2009 a Council on Women and Girls. The purpose of the council is to see that the needs of women and girls are met. No mention of the needs of men and boys.

There are no more heroes. The villains are now the white males.

Black men got the right to vote fifty years before white women. A black man became President of the U.S. before a woman. If Barrack Obama had been white, Hillary Clinton would have been the first female President of the U.S.

As young girls see women on TV in aggressive roles, future generations of females will become more confrontational. As young boys are brainwashed into being more sensitive and passive, future generations of males will become more passive. Look for the major differences of males and females to diminish in the future. The sperm count of males has been declining for the past few years.

Feminists, like unions, are never satisfied. More! More! More! They want to rule the world. What women want, women get. What women don't want, men get.

Bilbo Baggins, The Happy Masculist

A Nation That is Responsible?

2010-03-29T07:39:00.000-07:00

When President Obama signed into law his health care program, he said the following in a speech.

"But today, we are affirming that essential truth -– a truth every generation is called to rediscover for itself –- that we are not a nation that scales back its aspirations. (Applause.) We are not a nation that falls prey to doubt or mistrust. We don't fall prey to fear. We are not a nation that does what’s easy. That’s not who we are. That’s not how we got here.

We are a nation that faces its challenges and accepts its responsibilities. We are a nation that does what is hard. What is necessary. What is right. Here, in this country, we shape our own destiny. That is what we do. That is who we are. That is what makes us the United States of America."

It's difficult to describe such prevarication. I can only see this as more gospel from the pulpit of the priests of the new religion, Government, complementing and praising the congregation about how great they are.

People feel good when the tribal chief tells them a fairy tale about how "responsible" they are while the congregation is actually practicing irresponsibility.

The president said we are not a nation that falls prey to fear. Wrong Mister President. We are a nation of fearers. We succumbed to the fear that we might get sick and not have health insurance. We succumbed to the fear from the lies the government tells us about how others hate us for no reason. Fear is one of the greatest emotions humans have. It is bred in us from thousands of years of evolution that taught us to eat or be eaten.

Maybe you spoke the truth Mister President when you referred to us as a Nation. Maybe you meant the "Government" is responsible and willing to accept any challenge, and is filled with aspirations. I'm sure you have many aspirations on how to micromanage our lives even more.

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

Charles Tolleson

Afghan Women's Network

2010-03-27T15:36:00.000-07:00

I wrote this in August 2006- "Young Iranian women should have powerful and independent females as role models such as; PepsiCo's CEO Indra K. Nooyi, Avon Products' CEO Andrea Jung, and Archer Daniels Midland's CEO Patricia Woertz. Muslim women would prefer to have fewer children if their culture permitted such practice. Show Muslim women how liberated they can be if they have the birth control pill. This change in a generation of Muslim women will began to shatter the support for Islam."

I have written that technology, cell phones and the Internet, along with the birth control pill, would be the demise of radical Islam.

Shortly after that posting in my blog the Afghan Women's Network was started in 2007. What they advocate for is more power for women. Feminism is happening, and will continue to happen in Islam. Technology will demand Islam change the same way Christianity changed.

Radical Islam is changing, slowly, from technology, as I predicted. All of that killing of innocent people. 95,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the American invasion of Iraq. 4700 American military lives have been lost, and thousands more have been mutilated and wheel chair bound. All of that wasted money, and another historical example of America's bullying.

Like most wars, the Afghan and Iraq wars were so unnecessary. They created a blight on America's morality and made us generations of enemies. The Native Americans have not forgotten our immorality towards their ancestors. The world, with the Internet, will never forget.

Is Misanthropy a hate crime?

Charles Tolleson

2010 Census

2010-03-18T06:59:00.001-07:00

The U.S. Department of Commerce is conducting the 2010 census of the United States, as required by the constitution, a constitution none of the current residents of the U.S. signed.

The Federal Government tells us the census is to determine who gets part of the federal grants. It is not up to the federal government to confiscate our money and decide to whom it is disbursed. Especially based on race, gender and age; questions asked on the 2010 census survey. The federal government is supposed to prohibit discrimination based on race, gender and age. According to the questions on the census form, the federal government IS going to discriminate based on those criteria.

Why does the census survey ask if I own my home free and clear? Does the federal government plan on a federal property tax, of those who lived frugally and paid off their mortgage, to provide for those who lived like there is no tomorrow?

The American people are the most mobile in the world. They move an average of 14 times in their lives. Japanese move an average of 4 times in their lives. Almost 40 million Americans change their address each year. This means that the Federal Government will disburse funds in 2015 based on outdated data because more than half of the American people will move by 2015. Funds disbursed during the past ten years, according to the Census Bureau, were based on the 2000 census. How many people do you know that moved since the 2000 census?

And everyone in congress knows the funds disbursed are not based on census data. The funds are disbursed based on power of the congressional committees.

The most powerful committee in the House of Representatives is the Appropriations Committee. This committee decides where your money will be disbursed. It will go to the districts that are represented on the committee and it will go to the districts that do what the committee members want.

Another powerful committee is the House Ways and Means Committee. This committee controls Medicare, Social Security, Unemployment benefits, and other welfare programs.

If the census bureau employees can ask you for your race, gender, age, and if you have a mortgage on your property, what other questions can they ask? Can they ask if you are gay? Can they ask your religion? Who is to determine what can be asked? Other government employees, like congress or a judge, but, what can be asked will be determined by other government employees. Information is power. The government mob loves power. It exists on power.

Why does the government lie about why they ask so many personal questions on the census survey? Because power corrupts.

Charles Tolleson

PBS, Flying Cheap

2010-02-21T08:02:00.000-08:00

I watched PBS' "Frontline" video "Flying Cheap". The report was about the safety of the regional airlines.

The report showed some of the failings of a regulatory government body like the Federal Aviation Administration. Despite the failing of the FAA, the report showed a strong support from the tribe for the power the FAA has.

At the same time the report called for more regulation of the airline industry, it called for more responsibility of the individual airlines. This is the cry of the unions who do not want competition. Less competition means less consumer choices and higher ticket prices and higher union wages. People feel safe in a regulated environment. Freedom is frightening to many people. The old lady who is not capable of competing and dealing with the complexity of the modern world feels safer if someone else deals with the complex world for her.

As usual, the sheep want a protective Shepherd. None of the sheep want to take individual responsibility and refuse to fly on the regional airlines because they are dangerous.

But are they dangerous? The International Air Transport Association's, IATA, report for 2009 shows 2009 was the second safest year of flying on record.

The PBS program about flying cheap was produced by people who are just trying to survive. They produce a product to sell to the viewing public in hope of getting more funding. The report produced fear, when fear is not warranted. People buy into fear.

The report is also anti capitalism. It indicates low wages are dangerous. It produces the usual envy and hatred of corporations as evil and greedy. People fear and hate corporations more than they fear and hate governments, yet the largest corporation cannot compel you to do anything, while the smallest government can throw you in jail and seize your assets. It is as if people think when a person works for a corporation they retain only their deadly sins, and when a person works for the government they retain only their heavenly virtues. People who work in government and people who work in corporations both have virtues and sins. The government employees have the most power and they are the only ones who are allowed to use force, threats and coercion against you.

The Frontline report implies low wages were the cause of the Buffalo Colgan Airline crash. Low wages simply means there are more pilots available for the pilot openings. If the supply of pilots is greater than the demand their salaries will be lower.

Charles Tolleson, Retired Airline Pilot

Violent genes and philosophy

2010-02-12T04:39:00.000-08:00

"Democracy don't rule the world, You'd better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that's better left unsaid". -Bob Dylan

The human animal is a violent animal. It is a violent and aggressive animal because it has a million year history of struggling to survive. The meek did not survive. Those humans that were strong and aggressive survived, and today they have those genes that helped humans survive.

It is estimated that over 90% of all species that once existed have become extinct. The human animal probably came close to extinction many times. The early human animals were small and easy victims to predators who were looking for food. The human animal learned to survive through a million years of living in fear. This gene that expresses fear is very much a part of the modern human animal's existences. Eat or be eaten! Politicians are always exploiting this fear gene.

The human animal's desperate existence has only recently improved to the point it can grow more food than it needs. Humans are the only animals that can grow their own food. Insect plagues and droughts used to destroy crops. Insecticides, large tractors, fertilizers, and irrigation systems assure current humans of a plentiful food supply.

About three thousand years ago the human animal started to use alphabets in expressing philosophy about ethics and morality. "Do not steal" and "Do not covet thou neighbor's wife" were some of the first attempts to constrain the violent and aggressive gene. The Greek philosopher Aristotle, 2300 years ago, wrote about ethics.

Similar to the Golden Rule, ancient Hinduism, around 500 BCE, said this, "One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one’s own self. This, in brief, is the rule of dharma. Other behavior is due to selfish desires".

With an alphabet, language, and philosophy, humans wrote the Magna Carta. It was the foundation of many western written laws that attempted to adapt private property rights to the violent human animal. It was a precursor to what was later to be known as individual rights, as shown in the Declaration of Independence.

Today we have more laws and philosophers telling us how to live the proper life. The modern ethics and progressive political philosophy tries to go beyond the ancient ethical code of do no harm to another. The modern progressive philosophers attempt to build an ethical society but at the same time they are willing to rely on their violent and aggressive genes to carry out their plans. Some philosophers are willing to subtly use power over others. The guardians are always fed before the followers. The humanitarians, leaders, and guardians of the Chinese Communists Party did not starve in the 1949 Chinese famine.

The violent genes we have that have been passed down to us from the past million years are in conflict with the ethical philosophy of do no harm. Our ethical genes are too young and too few to combat the aggressive and violent genes. It will take many more generations before the good philosophical gene is a match for the violent and aggressive genes that human animals carry. Bio engineering will speed up this evolutionary process. The evolutionary outcome will depend on who does the bio engineering.

Charles Tolleson

Pilot Certification

2010-02-09T15:59:00.000-08:00

The Federal Aviation Administration is thinking about raising the requirements for pilot certification.

The current pilot certification requirements are slightly different than they were in 1950, yet the safety record of the airlines, even with the regional carriers multiple takeoffs and landings, is better than 1950 when most of the airline pilots were military veterans. The accident rate fell from 1997 to 2006.

This improved safety is due to technology. The voice and data recorders exposed what caused accidents and training has been adapted. New composits materials, better metals, hydraulic systems, backup systems, better avionics, better generators, better electrical, and better engines. Everything is better.

Many people think experience is the best training to make a good pilot. Experience flying in the tropics does not equal experience flying in extreme winter conditions. Training can be done more effectively to insure that pilots experience all and many irregular situations with very few hours of training compared to the vast number of hours of experiences required to experience the same situations. Past accidents are always good references for training.

But if the Air Line Pilots Association, ALPA, wanted to raise their salaries they should lobby for an ATP (Air Transport Pilot) requirement to be 10K hours instead of 1500! That would raise the cost of training to a prohibitive amount and time required that few pilots could afford to train and get certified. With fewer pilots the pay would go up. Supply and demand will decide pilot pay. This is what has happened in the medical field. It takes years and over a hundred thousand dollars to be certified to remove a gall bladder. Gads!

I paid $1400 dollars for my commercial pilot's course in 1956. That equals to $11,000 in 2009. It was with a CAA, Civil Aviation Administration, later FAA, approved school, Sowell Aviation, Panama City, FL, An approved school required only 160 hours for a commercial pilot license. I had 10 hours of instrument training during my commercial course. I got my instrument rating later.

If they had required more hours I might not have chosen aviation, something I was passionate about.

If they raise the requirements for pilots and the salaries go up, I suspect you will have pilots signing up for the money, not the passion. I suspect that is what is happening in the medical profession. People who would love to be a doctor cannot afford the time and expense. People who are smart and can afford the investment will become doctors for the money, not the passion. I believe in a free market, but the medical market, with all the government licensing requirements and regulations, is not a free market. If ALPA is smart they will learn from the American Medical Association.

Charles Tolleson, retired airline pilot. lucky, not good