McHenry County Board...hint..vote for us

The timing is very interesting. In today's Northwest Herald we are being told about how the County Board is maybe going to consider reducing or holding the real estate taxes at the current level for the 2012 tax year. Well that is a year late a couple of thousand dollars too late. Remember that at election time and vote them all out...bye-bye.

Memorial Day...2012

I was born in September 1943; the war in Europe and the Pacific was still going on and as a newborn I was sparred the horror of the carnage and death that war brings. My father, Ted and my uncle John both served in the south pacific. My father in the Navy on a LST (landing ship transport) and my uncle with the Marines. Thank God both returned home after the war ended without any physical injuries. Neither of them talked much about the war but carried their experiences within them. Both, now, have passed away but are not forgotten. My wife, a year younger than I, lost an uncle who was in the Army fighting in the south pacific...where his final resting place is no one knows...his name was Lawrence (Larry) Spillan, a young man just starting his life. Where his life may have taken him, if he had survived, no one knows.

Many years latter I served in the Navy as a physician and orthopedic surgeon; this was for several years during the Viet Nam War. During this period I was married to Kristina (Tina) and we had four children. I never was sent in "harms way' but I did see the carnage and at times the death that war brings. I cared for the wounded young marines and navy personnel who were returned to the States via Medivac flights. I don't remember names but remember the many devastated bodies and lives that would be forever changed. These are some of the memories that I carry today.

Thank you to all who served our country, in the past, and to all currently serving in any capacity today. God bless the United States of American and all the individuals who have protected her over the decades.

Has Congress Failed Us

Has the Congress and the Obama Administration failed us and brought us to a scenario described by F. A. Hayek in Chapter 5, page 107, paragraph 2 of The Road to Serfdom.

The delegation of particular technical tasks to separate bodies, while a regular feature, is yet only the first step in the process whereby a democracy which embarks on planning progressively relinquishes its powers. The expedient of delegation cannot really remove the causes which make all the advocates of comprehensive planning so impatient with the impotence of democracy. The delegation of particular powers to separate agencies creates a new obstacle to the achievement of a single coordinated plan. Even if, by this expedient, a democracy should succeed in planning every sector of economic activity, it would still have to face the problem of integrating these separate plans into a unitary whole. Many separate plans do not make a planned whole - in fact, as the planners ought to be first to admit, they may be worse than no plan."

Advice to Pres. Obama...from the past

"The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted to no council and senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it." - Adam Smith

From (Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, ed R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner, vol. 1 of The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, op. cit., book 4, chapter 2, p. 456. - Ed.)

Pres. Obama read F.A. Hayek

President Obama read F. A. Hayek's The Road To Serfdom and you will understand why the European Union and now we, the United States, are going down the failed road of centralized planning. No country that has ever embarked on a complete centralized planning process has ever sustained itself in the long run. The problem is in our society, which is now becoming even more complex and large (global in nature), that it cannot master the various complexities and constantly changing local, national and global nuances. According to Hayek, a centralized government that tries control all the aspects of that society cannot do so efficiently and eventually grinds itself into the ground as a failed state.

F. A. Hayek, a Nobel laureate in economics is still a strong and reasoned voice to listen too...now 20 years after his death.

A Major Win for Religious Freedom

On January 11, 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision that affirmed a religious group to choose their own ministers. This decision followed a lawsuit, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC which was brought by an employee against a church-operated school.

The underlying question in this case was "whether the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment bar such an action when the employer is a religious group and the employee is one of the group's ministers."

It is my understanding that ministers of a particular religion are hired to teach the accepted dogmas of that particular religion...that should stand by itself. Now the primary job of a minister of a particular religion is to teach the dogmas of that particular religion for which that minister was hired. The opinion authored by Chief Justice Roberts for the Court was "that both  Religion Clauses bar the government  from interfering with the decision of a religious group to fire one of its ministers."

Now common sense should tell us that if a religious group can fire one of it's ministers for not teaching it's dogmas it should also be protected under the Religion Clauses from HHS (the federal government) telling them which dogmas they must abide by or they will incur a monetary penalty; the federal government fully understanding that this dogma has been promulgated for almost two thousand years. The sanctity of life must be protected from conception until natural death.

Reminder to the U.S. Supreme Court

The Federalist No. 78

"The courts must declare the sense of the law; and if they should be disposed to exercise WILL instead of JUDGMENT, the consequence would equally be the substitution of their pleasure to that of the legislative body."

STAND UP for FREEDOM

The Obama administration through Health and Human Services on Jan. 20 mandated employers to provide free abortifacients, sterilizations and contraceptives through their insurance plans to their employees. This caused many religious and faith based employers to provide a service or product that was totally contrary to their religious and moral convictions.

This, I believe, is only the first in probably many steps that the Obama administration will continue to promulgate in removing from the U.S. Constitution and it's Bill of Rights most if not all the rights we have currently. If President Obama and his administration has another four years to act in this manner we will not recognize this country and I will not be able to write a blog such as this one. Beware!

America's Greatest Danger

America's greatest danger is not a country but the advancement of an evil principle by certain members of our citizenry. It has become obvious over the last few years that certain factions in this country want to do away with the principles which are inculcated in the founding documents of our country. They want to erase the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution with the "new state religion of secular humanism". They want us to take up and incorporate this "new state religion" into the inner recesses of our souls. By doing this they will be able to abolish even the memories of the fact that this country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles which are unchanging moral truths which are inculcated in the very fabric of our being by nature and nature's Creator. Beware any individual or group who proposes this new modern progressive way of thinking about this "new progressive state religion" because in accepting it's so called modern dogmas you will loose your soul and eventually your country...beware of those who offer you that which they know they cannot deliver...they are deceivers.

Why now President Obama?

The force and coercion of Pres. Obama through his use of the HHS mandate to religious organizations to violate their religious principles by providing sterilizations, contraceptives and abortifacients is a very strange battle for the Obama administration to want to tackle at this time.

In the first place it violates our First Amendment Rights and secondly it is placing another debt on future generations that they may not be able to pay. The magic number known as the "replacement level" is 2.1 children for every couple. The only thing that is keeping this number from dipping below this level is illegal immigration. I suspect that to keep the U.S. at the needed "replacement level" that this will be used to justify softer immigration policies in regards to "illegal immigration". By somehow, socially engineering this segment of our society they may be able to control the future economy, deficits, taxes and various social segments of our nation.

This type of "central control" will only lead to a totalitarian state with bigger government and more control via coercive forces of this centralized big government. We all know what has happened in countries that have sought to use central planning to "control" all aspects of society....it resulted in slavery, gulags and the death of millions.

Hillsdale College - Imprimis

Hillsdale College - Imprimis

BLASPHEMMY AND FREE SPEECH
"Reprinted by permission from Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College."

Peace and Quiet

Middle East Chaos...Ottoman Empire...Turkey...The Caliphate

The Islamic Empire once stretched from Morocco in northeastern Africa to the Caspian Sea near the mouth of the Volga river. It not only controlled a vast land mass but also a period of time from about 1280 AD to the end of World War I. During these centuries the boundaries changed, the leaders changed and many battles took place. The history and events are very complicated and some not fully understood. Different ethnicities, religions and regions were affected in very ways. I believe that still after all the centuries that have passed the militant islamists dream and plan to return to the control and power that they once had under the Caliphate. From watching and observing Turkey, supposedly pro-west, secular, and a member of NATO I suspect that the major initiative to fulfill this will take place with the full cooperation and aid from Turkey. Watch and wait...I think I will be "right on" this prediction.

Loss of Constitutional Rights for More Security

Woodstock - According to the Northwest Herald, February 15, 2012, "The McHenry County State's Attorney's Office has filed a civil lawsuit against the Latin Kings in an effort to target the gang's presence in Harvard."

"The suit falls under the Illinois Street Gang Terrorism Omnibus Prevention Act and aims at the infrastructure of the gang rather than just individual members."

Ever since the Islamist terrorist act that destroyed the twin towers and murdered over three thousand innocent individuals we have seen new laws passed that nibble away at our constitutional rights under the belief that if we do this we will be safer from terrorist strikes. When will this erosion of God given rights stop...if citizens are willing to give up their God given rights for the promise of more safety than they don't deserve either.

Today it is the Latin Kings in Harvard; tomorrow might it be the Catholic Church or the Mormons who are deemed "gangs" and a threat to the stability of the United States and the Obama Administration...I don't know...I just know this is a very slippery slope to eventual tyranny.

Peter van Uhm: Why I chose a gun

Corruption of traditional accounting principles

Over the last decade or two there has been a gradual corruption both on the American and European continents of the traditional principles of accounting as practiced for centuries. In many countries the (IAS), International Accounting Standards have abandoned the traditional principle of prudence and replaced it with the principle of fair value. This was a particularly positive principle, in good economic times, because it highly inflated the bottom line of the financial assets of brokerages, investment houses and in general in all that wanted to see "inflating" book values. Eventually the "bubble" that this practice created because of greed burst and we, economic sector and countries and individuals who bought into this artificial position found themselves holding worthless, non-liquid toxic investments. So instead of bitting the bullet and saying they made a greedy mistakes they, the central banks, the Fed, and semi-governmental institutions bought back this worthless "stuff" through various means including bailouts and creating more and more fiat money. The time now has come to stop the fiat money and create and monetary system not based on "wishing it so" but on one backed by hard assets worth something "in themselves". Will the governments of the world do this or will the "can" be kicked down the road to another generation which will only make the problem more difficult to solve because the hole we find ourselves in will only be much, much deeper?

Central Economic Planning...the end of the Soviet Union

Over the last half century honest rigorous economic analysis and a balanced approach too centralized financial planning has shown that the centralized approach cannot succeed in defining the most advantageous monetary policy for every moment. This policy of centralized monetary planning and policy is one of the primary reasons the Soviet Union is now extinct. If one views the theory of socialism and centralized economic planning and policy making through this lens, which the Austrian economist did, one must come to the conclusion that it is self terminating. Ludwig von Mises and Friedrick A. Hayek discovered this and it can be applied to central banks here and abroad and too the Federal Reserve and to Ben Bernanke in particular. It is impossible organize a complex society by central planning and coercive commands of government; there are too many variables that cannot be know or understood. The free market must be left alone since it alone is usually ahead of the curve of the knowledge that any government can trully understand and plan for in it's rules and regulations which it believes will "control" the economy. Europe will do what it will do but in this country we must END THE FED.

Concealed Carry...saves lives?

Those who say there's no way an armed citizen could stop a potential mass shooting - and may even exacerbate the carnage - should take the following tale to heart. Customers at a Houston, Texas, Denny's restaurant were eating breakfast one morning when two armed robbers brandishing guns burst into the store and demanded money. One of the diners stood up, drew a handgun and opened fire on the men. The robbers fled the scene. No one was injured. (Associated Press, 11/26/11)

Who do you trust?

Well who do you trust? As I get older I trust fewer and fewer people and entities. Call me jaded, call me paranoid or whatever you want....but I trully believe I may have attained the "wisdom" that comes with age and being lied to and screwed by individuals, businesses, politicians and govenments...local, state and national. Does anyone tell the truth or does everyone have their own agenda. So this coming election year I am going to judge a candidate by not only what they say they will try and do but by their past actions, promises and what they have accomplished. I suspect that I will be voting a majority of incombents out of office on local, state and national levels. Can new individuals with firm commitments do any worse that their forebearers...think not. So I think I am going to try and change the entire sltate and trust in providence and the zeal of neophytes to change the way government operates...hoping they will work for the people and not for themselves and their party. Wish me luck...I believe the future of our country depends on the results of this coming national election. Don't vote just for party but vote for the person who understands that they are there to serve you and the best interests of this country.

Video: The Government Can (Tim Hawkins)

Video: The Government Can (Tim Hawkins)