The Tea Party Movement is here to stay

I was standing, unbelieving, atop the Stoa when I read all the earmarks that had been tagged onto the budget extension legislation. Billions in earmarks from GOP.

You think they would have a clue. What did they think propelled the massive DNC losses on November 2? I hear a variety of items but they are just froth on the waves. The energy was that of the Tea Party and those Nimrods in the GOP had better figure that out very quick.

The GOP leadership in the Senate flipped their support of the bill when they got an earful from their constituents. This activity should not thought of as action by the Tea Party, but that of the American people. This is how it should work. They are elected by a majority of the population within their district, they should, on a majority of the issues, vote as the voice of their constituents.

Where is their free will? I'm sure there is room for them to vote their own conscience, but not on these culture-shaking bills. Not these 2,000 page bills. Heck, Snow and Brown understand this concept, even if only in a vague sense of self-preservation. They come from very blue districts and vote very erratically from a GOP platform perspective. They understand that if they vote with the majority will of the GOP then they will not last. They like the chair and the perks and wish to keep them.

The GOP that kept their seats, and the GOP that won their seats had better understand that the American people are awake and angry. They defy the conservative middle-American majority at their peril.

I am troubled that they so casually cast off the election and returned to business as usual. Things are not the same as last year, nor will they return to that state any time soon. We are sick of Statists, Socialists, and Progressives and will not permit this activity any longer. They do not have the right to destroy the futures of our children with irresponsible spending and social engineering. Plain and simple.

They had best remember that they serve the will of the American people and if they are incapable of doing the job then we, their employers, will find someone else who will.

Live well.

--Zavost

No where is safe

From the Stoa tonight I can see the ongoing collapse of the concept of multiculturalism. A sad shake of my head is all I can muster.

For years I have watched and read how entire cities have fallen to Sharia and Muslim control throughout Sweden. For years the Swedes thought things were great, even as their ambulances and police were chased from their own cities. Honor killings and madrases. New generations of Muslims who happened to live in Sweden; becoming elected within the legal government and mainstream, rotting and undermining the West from within. A disaffected and irritated Muslim is one that eyes monuments and crowds in a different way than the rest of us.

My point being is that there are no peaceful Muslims. Not if they are true to their religion. If you are not a true believer then you will submit to conversion, submit to taxation and slavery, or you will submit to death and destruction.

Try to tell me I'm wrong.

Germany, France, and the Netherlands have burned for years and folks still have not quite, just quite, figured it out yet.

Live well.

--Zavost

Arrow of Time vs. Wheel of Fate

From the Stoa this morning I would like to discuss Fate, Time, and the cultures that think about them.

I really enjoy watching movies and TV shows from other countries in their native languages; with the English translations in the subtitles coming from the creative studio itself from native English speakers who live immersed within the host country. It gives such a unique insight into how that culture reacts to certain stimulus in ways very different from us. No less valid, mind you, just different.

A program I just finished watching had the main character trying to decide if Fate, or Free Will ruled the universe. It must be remembered that Japan (where this show was from) does not share the same cultural root as the Western world. There was no great empire in their past in which they were living in the ruined shadows of. No historical legacy of greatness, decline, and greatness again. They had their share of ups and downs but they were internal in nature.

In their culture, obedience to their Emperor and his lords (Samurai), and to duty is what drove their mind-set. The absolute terms of Good and Evil were not as sharply defined as they were in Western philosophy. In their culture, good men can do very bad things out of duty to their superior. Likewise, very bad men will do good deeds out of obligation to a debt or their honor. Concepts that many Americans struggle with. This is why we can watch their movies, especially those from the 1960's, 70's and 80's and really have no clue as to what is motivating the main characters. We shrug and change the channels not understanding that we are the ones acting shallow by not trying to understand what drives their decision process.

The main character struggled with the last round of fighting, killing, and bloody destruction that he and his allies had just completed. It was not the first time, either, that their group had lost friends while taking down the enemy. This enemy did not care if they lived or died as they were immortal and simply tired of living. They had lost the love of life because they had seen the same things happen over and over again throughout their long lives. They only had each other since any other relationship they could form always turned to ash and dust in their hands. After the main bad guy is defeated, it dawns on the hero that the bad guy really did not care if his plans for revenge were successful as success still meant his death. This got him to thinking about his last few rounds of adventures. The names were different, the opponents different, but the process and the results were the same. He wondered if the gears of the universe propelled him along to his fate or if he was just a grain of sand being ground down by those gears.

In other words, does he really have a choice? Does honor, duty, and obligation bind him to his actions? That is pretty deep for a Westerner to really understand. We always feel that we have a choice, regardless of whether that choice is to sit on the floor and whine about the situation.

In many ways, this thinking is tied to the Transmigration of Souls concept that some cultures believe in. In the Catholic/Christian world, your soul is "created" in heaven and born into a body where it lives and dies, learning, growing, and serving their fellow human being. When their time is up, they are called home to heaven to be with their loved ones in a place of undying beauty, waiting for the day when God's Kingdom can come to the material plane of the Earth.

It is a lot more complicated once you start mixing in other belief systems. The modern spiritualists believe that souls routinely move from the "other side", or state of pure energy, into the material plane to be born again and again to learn and grow. Time has no meaning on the other side and that they can see history roll before them like the Norman Scrolls. They can choose the period they wish to live in and craft the adversities that they wish to endure. To me this flies in the face of physics, entropy and all that. Long story that I will not get into right now, but either way you look at it, you are going to be an actor on a stage, playing a part, hopefully correctly, that was laid out for you (by you and your friends) else-where and else-when. No room for much free will there. To them, time is a known, linear thing that can be entered and exited through birth and death.

The Hindu and others feel that time is infinite and only seems to repeat due to similar conditions rising over and over and that every life is unique and yours to live. Upon death it may take centuries (or just hours) to be reborn into someone (or something) else. Fate is not a wheel but an arrow, where you do have the ability and responsibility to improve yourself and the world around you.

I think the reality is different then we all believe. I do believe in choice, not predetermination. That is a good thing about Christianity that I like. We choose to serve, or we choose not to. We either follow the teachings of Jesus and do good by our fellow man; or we do not. Islam is a twisted parody of Christianity in that their afterlife is a place where you can be allowed to live out your most debauched fantasies. You'd think is was written by a bunch of macho men who wanted the right and obligation to mistreat women written into their religion.

Anyhow, the main character decided that he didn't need to ponder those higher order universal processes as long as he got to live out that process with his friends and allies. Come what may, he would face it with dignity and honor. That is a surprisingly Stoic way of looking at things.

Deep down, people are people regardless of where or when they were born. Culture is something we make up for ourselves and we should always seek to understand, and be understood, by those we are dealing with.

There, I am now feeling better upon the Stoa. I hope you were able to stay awake, though I truly hope that this has been the starting point for some deep thoughts of your own.

Live well.

--Zavost

"T" is for "Taxes", "D" is for "Debt"

It is dark upon the Stoa, cold and moonless. It is nights like this that thinking is done in its purest form. No distractions but those you bring with you. Honest dialog with yourself. Careful, though, we all lie to ourselves and it is sometimes difficult to know when you are really being honest with yourself.

The current bickering over the tax rates, yes, I said "rates", is rather moot at this point. Whether the government loses this "revenue" (see my earlier posts for my feelings on the use of that word) or is able raise this income on the backs of less than 2% of the American public does not change the fact that our current servicing of the debt is growing more and more unsustainable, tax rate change or not. The current MONTHLY cost to service the debt, this is INTEREST payments ONLY, costs as much as several departments of the Federal Government's combined ANNUAL budgets. I put some words in caps because I really wanted to make that point.

The American government is only paying on the interest of our debt, not reducing the principle at all, while continuing to deficit spend. Just in 2010 the cost of those interest payments in one month equals the combined budgets of several department's annual budgets. The point is so important to make I had to say it twice.

Extending unemployment benefits will add another half Trillion dollars to the deficit. Giving the 2001 and 2003 tax rate reductions another two years of life will reduce tax receipts (if you look at it like a Democrat) by more than a half Trillion dollars over that time (not factoring the economic growth that will result, as a Republican and Historian would look at it).

Tax rate reductions do not add to the deficit. I resisted using caps there. One word and one action alone increase the size of the deficit. That word is "Spending". If I spend x amount of money based on y budget in FY2010, but realize that the budget will now look like z in FY2011, then I must realign my spending priorities to look like b. Not hard to figure out is it? Kind of like grocery shopping with a pocket full of cash. If you hit the check out lane and the cashier rings up more cost then you have money for then something is going back on that shelf. Again, not very hard to figure out. Shame our congressmen can not figure that out.

Another point that has me more than a little concerned is how easily the politicians of today pull out the class envy card. Shamelessly proclaiming themselves to be the Socialists that they are. The main stream media was running the usual hit pieces on the Republicans while trying to sell the public on the Progressive angle and I saw the thread they were weaving quite clearly. Why are the rich going to pay less in taxes then any dozen families earn all year? Heck, ten years! They then cited a basketball player who will get to KEEP 310, 000 more this year then last. A baseball player will get to keep $600,000 more this year, while Joe Shmoe will see is tax bill drop by $1,500. Gee, that does not sound very fair at all, does it?

How about thinking like this about it: why should that basketball player or baseball player have to shell out a half million dollars in taxes anyhow? Not just a half million, but a half million MORE then they did in 2009? They were blessed with talent, genetics, and a free agent system that granted them the ability to earn that money. Kudos to them. Just because I'm not earning a half million dollars a year does not make me less of a father or husband. The best part about this is that someday, someone may want to pay me a lot of money for my hard work and I'll be damned if I'll give more than half of it to a faceless, cruelly inefficient Federal bureaucratic machine. Its my money to begin with, not the government's.

The Federal government was restricted in scope by our Founders for very good reasons. Governments grow, like black holes. The more money that swirls into the center, the greater the resulting influence of its pull becomes. The States have forgotten that they were as much a balance in our Federal Republic as the three branches of government. The Federal government needs to do only a few things to discharge its responsibilities under the US Constitution: 1. protect us from foreign invasion, 2. negotiate treaties with foreign entities in the name of the whole, 3. regulate trade disputes between States, 4. provide for a common currency, 5. and maintain the integrity of both the spirit and letter of the founding documents.

Humans are vane and lust for power and control, always. Whether it is a two year old in a sandbox eying the toy of the other two year old, all the way up to the 80+ year old Senator that thinks that running a campaign out of a rent controlled apartment while owning a beach hotel in another country (while paying no income tax) is all above the board. The Founders knew that we were an inherently flawed creature and worked very hard to create a document that gave us just enough structure to keep us from self-destruction, and enough space to grow and add to it and ourselves over time, just as long as we did not forget where the ultimate authority for the continued prosperity of our Republic comes from.

If you are scratching your head over the last few lines then all you need to do is read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the answer will be self evident.

Time for this Stoic to climb under a nice feather-down European blanket. The Stoa has frost on it and I can feel the cold through my sandals.

Live well.

--Zavost

Have they no shame?

From the ice-covered Stoa this morning I scratch my chin in amazement at the sheer gall displayed by the lame-duck Democrats. There are so many times I wish I could be wrong, but being correct most of the time will just have to be my cross to bear.

Obama is not coming to the center as conventional wisdom proclaimed. The seven year moratorium on oil drilling puts paid to that fantasy. Even if his moratorium is overturned by a Federal court or by Congress, overseas businesses that drill on those leases will not invest the money or resources for fear that another President won't come along in the years ahead and turn everything upside down again. Businesses need to plan ahead and you can not go changing the rules on them whenever you want. They will simply invest elsewhere.

The Congressional Democrats are not going quietly into that dark night, they are cramming Safe Food, DREAM Act legislation, stalling the tax-cuts and so much more. They cram it despite knowing that it was this arrogant, elitest behavior that got them sacked to begin with. They are posturing now for future political sound-bites, hoping that the Americans of 18 months from now will have forgotten what they do today. If the Tea Party has not had its First Amendment rights suspended by then we will not have forgotten anything. Mark it.

Safe Food is going to add billions to the cost of manufacturing our food. Small farms and businesses that are unable to afford the hit to their profit margins will go under. This favors "Big Agra" in the long-run. How much money did they spend on lobbyists for this vote? They are strangling their competition in the cradle and Congress is obliging. We, the consumers, will always pay for this in the end. More people will be hungry or on government assistance. Big Agra gets is revenue and the government gets it drones. Win-win for them, no?

The DREAM Act continues the Democrat efforts to create a beholden voting block to keep them perpetually in power. The political pyramid scheme that is the DNC. In the 1960's they yanked the Civil Rights mantel from the Republicans (who pushed for change but were blocked by the Democrats when Eisenhower tried to get the legislation passed) and claimed the black vote for all eternity. Now they turn their sights on the Hispanic vote. This has been their task since 1965 when Ted Kennedy got Immigration legislation passed that essentially limited the number of white Europeans from immigrating and opened up the flood gates on the Hispanics. By limiting the pre-educated and generally conservative European immigrants (who were really escaping from Liberalism/Progressivism in Europe to come here to live) they undercut their future opposition. By cranking the spigot open on the un-educated and generally liberal Hispanics (Catholics have always been suckers for unrequited charity) they propped up their future base for fears that as blacks entered the higher levels of society that they would realize that they had been played for fools and vote Conservative (which was the case until Obama appeared suddenly). This allows the Democrats to replace an eroding base while at the same time growing that base with a more vigorously vibrant and expanding demographic. The DNC may be diabolically malevolent but they are never stupid.

Stalling on the Tax cuts will be devastating to our economy. The Stock Market will take a gut hit as everyone runs to sell prior to the Capital Gains tax going up. This will drive the market way down, perhaps below 10,000 again, despite the Feds behind the scenes games to prop it up (that is a long story not for today). Businesses will continue to not add employees because they will cost more, especially with all the follow on legislation that will be taking effect (i.e. healthcare and easier unionization rules). We will be mired in a perpetual unemployment rate of around 10% for decades, much as Europe has been.

All tax legislation mus have renewal clauses to that they are NEVER permanent. A Congress must take responsibility for all taxes and spending. There can be no excuse by saying that this is a tax passed under another Congress. The Congress of TODAY always has responsibility for taxing and spending regardless of which Congress passed it. Figure it out, representatives. You are supposed to be intelligent people after all.

The Democrats in Congress today would make Stalin proud with the way they manipulate a willing media and take advantage of an American public that is either apathetic or just plain scared to get involved. The Republicans continue to disappoint with their timidity. They must work as hard to undo the madness unleashed upon us as those who unleashed this madness upon us. Harder still since they have now woven it into our legal codes and tax system.

Do not fear re-election. Do what you were elected to do! You will continue to be elected as long as you represent the will of the people. Once you cease doing this, then you will be replaced. It is too late for some places like San Francisco...hell, California. However, you must realize that they do indeed have the government that they elected, time and time again. Even a past governor that failed miserable once before. Don't weep for them. It is not too late for the rest of us, the Red States or those with the Tea Party mentality. Fight for what is left of our freedom, fight in the Arena of Ideas for the ideals of our Founders. They had it right all along. Don't let the experiment die.

Time to warm up and allow the Stoa its time to contemplate.

Live well.

--Zavost

Let Slip the Dogs of War

From the Stoa tonight I see the columns of smoke rising on the horizon from dozens of artillery shells that hammered South Korean soil. It is a concerning sight that I hope is not the first fires of the next World War. With Obama in office it seems as if history has primed the pan for the flash that will set things moving. They always seem to start under Democrat Presidents.

North Korea is a brutal, almost beyond measure, regime. Gun running, drugs, counterfeit currencies, smuggling of all types, you name it, this government not only advocates and assists, but creates budget line items for these activities. While millions suffer starvation and ill-health, they develop nuclear weapons and the corollary technologies needed to deliver them.

What has been the response from the world to their past activities? Food, medicine, and the items they need to keep a civilian population docile and non-revolutionary. In the name of humanity and charity the Transnational Progressives consign millions to a life of misery and hopelessness.

The world response to Iran's nuclear program are sanctions designed to make the civilian population unhappy and more likely to throw off their theocratic oligarchy while in North Korea we send in items to keep a captive civilian population alive. What does this say of our overall intentions? On a spectrum of activity where do we draw a line? One one side of it we undermine in the hopes of causing dissension and regime change (or at least a policy change) and on the other side we know we can not change the regime (inwardly they know this) so they attempt to feed the population while the dictatorship continues unmolested to do as it pleases without fear of a civilian uprising.

Napoleon stated that all you needed to keep the peace in a conquered land was to make sure that the people always had enough food to fill the belly and trinkets to spend their few coins on. For the most part this concept paid off for him. What are we doing here?

Evil must be confronted. Containing evil does nothing but amputate a portion of the human population. Containing evil consigns the innocent, both living and unborn into a life of servitude.

Every time the North Koreans wanted more aid they just rattled their sword and made threats. The world always obliged and upped the aid. If the world hesitated or scolded they would pull the sword out of the scabbard a little, by shooting at a South Korean navy vessel or shell an isolated military outpost. Now, with a power transition underway, along with all the internal power struggles getting ironed out, they are upping the attacks on South Korea as a way to unify their people, keep others busy both inside the Koreas and outside. I'm sure their intent is not to start an all out war, they feel that the US will keep a leash on the South Koreans, just as we do on the Israelis. It is a dangerous game they play because sooner or later the South Koreans will grow sick of the casualties piling up and decide to simply remove the dangerous threat to their North. Unification be damned, they just want the danger gone.

Looking at the larger picture concerns me. We have the North's leash-holders, China, unable, or unwilling, to keep their little yipping dog under control. We have our disagreements going on with China right now about currency and debt. China is flexing its muscle and making demands of Japan on territories that China has no traditional right for. Russia and China are dumping the dollar as the currency of trade. Russia is our only way to the Space Station once the Shuttles are retired (thank you Obama), China is buying our debt (thank you Obama), the EU is melting down economically, the US dollar is in free-fall as it is printed into oblivion (thank you Obama), and we have Britain and France combining military services to save money. I have not even mentioned the other problems such as immigration policy and domestic policies around the world. It is a lot to take in. Things are unstable and no one is taking real steps to stabilize anything.

What I'm starting to get afraid of that the reasons for waging war are beginning to emerge. We have a national debt that is unpayable. War industries put people to work and jump start lobotomized economies. Just ask FDR, Hitler, and Stalin. If we happen to be at war with China we can simply disavow the debt as a means of hurting their economy. Problem solved, right? We can pull India closer into our orbit as a balance to Pakistan and China. Their population is huge, right? We can sell to them. China has 95% of the rare earth elements that can be exported economically in the world. Perhaps we nuke the crap out of the areas around that and simply administer them in the interest of the greater global community? The world did this once to China, why not again?

People are angry and restless around the world. For 70 years the tinder and dead wood has been accumulating. Sparks are always flying but so far the results have been brush fires and not a conflagration. It almost feels like I can smell it in the air, here on the Stoa, just like you can smell the ozone of an approaching thunderstorm. The winds and the air feels right. It smells right. Sarajevo started WWI, Hitler and Japans expansion in Asia started WWII. Could the repeated provocations by North Korea start up the next? Could the dysfunctional "peace" process (FARCE) going on in the Middle East finally do it?

I don't have those answers, but I will fill some sandbags and place them around the Stoa for my students. I'll watch the weather in the hopes that the winds will change and bring more favorable conditions.

Live well.

--Zavost

The Stoa at 37,000 feet

This morning the Stoa is airborne, something my ancient peers had only dreamed about.

After having gone through the TSA screening I can now make a few observations:

1. No one tried to do a cavity search on me in the line.

2, I was not asked to climb into an x-ray unit (those really are very, very bad for you, but that is another entry).

3. I did see one woman in her 60's having a rather personal and public frisking by a female agent that lasted as long at it took me to put my shoes back on, my underwear right side forward again, and repack the debris that used to be my carry on.

4. The agents were going painfully out of their way to be polite and nice.

In the end, it was rather quick and not to degrading.

However, I know that the Israelis have a much, much more efficient method for vetting passengers. The paranoid side of me tells me that this is simply a way to numb the public and to make them more acceptable of this kind of behavior in the future. Forget that this could be a violation of my 4th Amendment rights and a host of common sense ones, but that can be another entry.

I do feel that this is meant to numb us and dumb us to later insults upon our persons, so keep an eye out, folks.

Deep thanks goes to my daughter, the Adeptus Stoicae Primarus the use of her Netbook. Perhaps more from the Stoa when I get to where I am going.

Live well.

--Zavost

And so the dominoes start to fall

I stand at the Stoa in all seriousness tonight. The insanity of our Federal Reserve, the contrary monetary policies of Europe (i.e. contrary to ours...which are really wrong), and the interlocked debt swapping around the world have finally reached "end game".

Some time ago, Glenn Beck was scratching around on his chalk board and he made a note that Europe owed each other gobs of money, spending borrowed money while owning each other even more money. Well, any reasonably intelligent person will note that if you and your friends just keep borrowing money from each other and spending that money irresponsibly, that sooner or later the system will begin to collapse.

Greece was a wake up for everyone earlier this year. The PIIGS was in full play and only a massive bailout (i.e. even more money being spread around) kept the dominoes from beginning to fall. The problem is, the first bailout really was the the energy needed to start the dominoes going. Just has high pressure must flow to low pressure, in a bail out, a country with a huge pile of money is left with a smaller pile of money and the bailed out country may or may not clean up their books. If the behavior continues, or is covered up, as in Greece and Ireland, then the country will truly default on their obligations. That means that those countries that loaned the money are out that money and will take a shock to their economies. A second country will fall off the cliff, in this case, Ireland (Iceland actually fell off first, but no one really noticed it). That country will need a bailout (just as in the news today) and will likely also fail. Then Portugal falls of, followed by Spain. Italy will not be far behind and then we get to France, Britain, and Germany. Germany is the strongest of the European nations and when they fall off the cliff, the United States (which has a large exposure here as well) and China will be staring out over the ruins of the global economic system.

The United States is an economic basket case as well. We are in a pre-hyperinflationary phase and the Fed brains are doing their best to ensure a complete meltdown. Why, I have no idea. China holds, and is still buying (!) tons of our debt. Debt that will only be exchangeable in real estate, real resources, or in favors.

The dominoes have started. Watch Europe. Watch the nations fail one at a time. The US can not stop the collapse like we did just after WWII and France in the 1950's. We can not help, anymore.

Get your debts settled or cleared, get your money out of the market and other non-tangible funds. Get your family together and work out plans on who will or can move in with whom. Things are already bad, but we have not even seen the worst of the beginning yet. It is going to get much, much worse, students.

Now, try to sleep this night after what I've said. Enjoy your chocolate milk, your book, and your TV program. Life will go on and you will need to find comfort and happiness wherever and whenever you can.

Live well.

--Zavost

Evil will always triumph because good is dumb

I always chuckle when I watch the movie, "Spaceballs". A Mel Brooks spoof on Star Wars. This is where this line comes from and it is amazing how much truth can slip by you if you are not listening.

From the Stoa today, I will show how even I am conflicted time to time in my moral and philosophical stance, demonstrating that I, too, am human and subject to error. In my heart I like to think of myself as a modern Stoic, but one that wears the cloak of Immanuel Kant and pulls crib notes from his pocket from time to time.

When I was younger I liked to think of my country as having the moral high ground in most situations around the world. We do not conquer, we liberate. We do not kill prisoners on the battlefield, we don't bully other nations around...to give some examples. I've grown up over the years and I realize that there comes a time where absolute morality can become a suicide wish. We do not conquer and we do liberate. That truth has not changed in my life (sorry, Native Americans, I'm talking 20th and 21st centuries). Did we kill prisoners on the battlefield? Yep. Sometimes the GIs were worked up, had a grudge, or were simply advancing too quickly to lose manpower taking prisoners to the rear. War sucks, that is why intelligent folk try to avoid it. Do we push other countries around? Depends on who is in office at the time.

Watching the news lately and seeing the farce that is called justice being handed down to terrorists that we've been holding for ten years or more has me grinding my teeth. Muslims around the world are laughing at us, and rightly so. In Japanese culture, the likely winner of a fight is not the one who is the best with a sword, but one who has the highest level of resolve. Muslims listen only to power, who has it and who has to abide by it. They respect those who know how to possess it and wield it. They are not confounded by our Western sense of morality. People forget that they never experienced the Age of Enlightenment. They never experienced the Renaissance like western culture did. They had a type of Renaissance when they shed their nomadic ways and settled in the civilized rump of the dead and dying classical world but that mostly came from their translating documents from Latin and Greek and exclaiming, "How about that". They have never had the foundation for women's suffrage, made possible in the West by our underpinnings that stretch all the way back to the freedom that Spartan and Athenian women possessed.

Not only does the entire world not believe in the same things as the West, but America differs radically from Europe in where we have taken those concepts and evolved them. Progressivism in Europe had its roots from the French Revolution. In America, we believed in WE the people, meaning the emphasis is on the individual forming a government BY and FOR us. While the French put the emphasis elsewhere. They said, "we the PEOPLE" and eventually put together governments that were OF and OVER the people.

No, I'm not digressing, I'm simply piling up the bricks that I will use to assemble my completed ideas, so please bear with me.

In Christianity, and especially Catholicism, all are god's children be them beggars or kings. Jesus even had a female apostle who was once a prostitute (oh, be quiet out there and keep the yelling down). He turned no one away for any reason. It was always the individual that turned from Him. Those Romans and notables (as written in their own hand and first person accounts) of the day who met him were never the same person again. He had a way of stripping away the falsehoods that we build around ourselves and seeing the light within that was us.

Christianity underwent a painful evolution of decay and rebirth. The Church, though it kept the flame of learning alive through the Dark Ages also repressed original thought, murdered those who disagreed with it, killed Jews and massacred Muslims in Jesus' name. It grew up, though. It reformed itself and found its way once more after the Reformation and religious wars of the 15th and 16th centuries. Huge amounts of blood was shed growing up.

Islam tolerates nothing but its own, and often times, only its own flavor. The differing shoots and twigs of Islam are as likely to kill themselves off as they are a Jew. The only peace to be found in Islam is through submission to those that have more power than you...thus the translation of Islam = to submit.

We have a separation of church and State, needed because the State always wants to corrupt the church (NOT the other way around of which so many Liberals are ignorant). In Islam the State IS the religion. Islam is their Law, their Religion, their Culture, and their Government. We celebrate life (except for pro-abortion folks) and reluctantly let our loved ones cross over to death while Islam celebrates death and the after-life where all of their wishes and desires (no matter how crass and degenerate) will be sated. When their day to day life is so bad, as brought about by their own government, death is a sweet release.

During the Middle Ages and the Wars of Reformation, Western culture developed something that is thought of as "the rules of war". They developed slowly and were not consistently applied, but they did work, and do work, after a fashion today. There were times during the Wars of Reformation that entire cities were obliterated and vast tracts of land were empty and unproductive. Eventually, everyone came to realize that if they continued to fight like this that there would be nothing left and so informal rules came up over the treatment of prisoners and how a city can be stormed, sacked, or otherwise wrested from another. Rules of Parlay and the "white flag" allowed rules and terms to be discussed for everything from the treatment of religious artifacts to personal combat. The only Muslim that had anything like this was Saladin (he was no savage, you know).

After the American Civil War and WWI, international rules were developed and a sort of standardization came about in Geneva. This is where I start to get to my point, which I could have made sooner, though it would not have had the same impact.

Though non-Western entities signed these conventions and use them politically, they have never really used them as they were intended. When we want to send a message to a Muslim nation, we send a diplomat, or cut off aid, or restrict their access to technology to get our point across. When they want to send a message, they saw a man's head off, record the act, and then put it out on the Internet. Yep, that is civilized.

They understand that what we have done is to tie our hands and not to fight with our full resolve and power. This is weakness to them. We give them gaps to exploit, we have a media that lovingly details our battle plans, both politically and militarily to the entire world on an instants basis. We have soldiers who are given medals for showing restraint on the battlefield while they will set up in a school house full of children and wait for a bomb to give them a great PR point on the nightly news about the evil West. I never accused Muslims of being dumb, I wish they were, but they are not. They recognize the war we are in even if we do not. We will continue to fight our non-war our way and they will continue to fight their Total War their way. In the end, even if we do not lose militarily, they will permeate our culture from within, exploiting our tolerance and liberalism for their own ends. It will all end the same if we don't begin being realistic about things.

We do not have to be sadistic monsters to fight Islam, we simply need to be firmly rooted in who we are and what our laws are. You want Sharia law in Oklahoma? NO. Why? Because this is not Syria, that is why. You can practice your Religion in so far as it does not conflict with the Laws of the Land. Just as a Jehovah's Witness about blood transfusions and "wards of the state" as it relates to children. You want to build a mosque, sure, but you can not blast your calls five times a day because that interferes with my right to peace and quiet. You want to build a mosque at Ground Zero? You better have to jump through the same hoops as someone else trying to rebuild...

I said it at the beginning and I'll say it again, "Evil will always triumph because good is dumb". Don't be stuck on stupid, but dumb back in closet and get your head out of your rear. We are in a war, even if we don't want to believe it.

There is much here for you to think about. Many questions and answers that you will likely come up with all on your own. If you wish to bring them to the Stoa, you are free to do so.

Now, I must be off to be a responsible citizen of the United States.

Live well.

--Zavost

'Ware GOP

This morning from the Stoa I shake my head and hope that the trends I'm seeing are in error. That history repeats itself to those who are foolish enough not to learn from it is a well established fact. That I can see it happen over and over again in a single generation proves how powerful that axiom really is.

I'm talking about the GOP, the DNC, and the Tea Party (remember, it is not really a party, it describes an event in 1773).

It has been several weeks since the midterm elections and I have yet to hear any group of Republicans get together and outline their plans for restoring our nation, rolling back intrusive government, and reminding the world that we are not sorry for who we are and what we have done over the last 230+ years. There is the *new* Contract with America, but it is really the barest of beginnings and not really an outline for the overhaul that needs to take place.

I understand that it took the better part of a century to get where we are today in terms of Progressive BS, but even the messiest room gets cleaner when you pick up a pair of socks from the floor (or scraped from the wall in some cases). The contract is that pair of socks, but you mustn't ignore the century of debris choking the rest of the house.

I see too much "establishment" politics going on. That the Speaker-To-Be can even talk compromise was like a bucket of cold water down the back. How do you compromise your principles? Me thinks he dost not understand what the midterms were about.

I think this political cartoon explains the mood of the country right about now. The GOP is not in office because of anything they have done, or even really promised. As a nation we have been lied to so often by now that we just don't believe anyone in politics any longer. They were elected because there is still hope in that party. It was the party that did away with slavery, but to do so it had to destroy the Whig Party (and took a chunk of the Democrat Party as well). The Republicans risk a Tea Party revolt that will rival that of the GOP defection from the Whigs. Beware, GOP. This is your only chance at redemption.

Laying next to the GOP in the hospital is the Democrat Party. It has been around since the early 1800's and flipped periodically with the notion of Conservatism and Liberalism. Actually in those earlier days, Conservatism really was not a word yet. The poles were Tyranny and Liberalism. To show how much has changed, Liberalism was not a bad word. It stood for something that the modern Liberals can not understand any longer. It was rooted in the word Liberty. Certainly not close to what you can see in the modern Democrat Party. No, the Democrat patient's Liberal heart flat lined a long time ago, at least as far back as the hippy 60's. It has been so riddled and infected with Socialism, Marxism, Progressivism, and populism that it simply can not function like it once did. Pelosi seeks to retain her position as the party's leader and likely will. How messed up is that? No, the American people, the responsible ones and the ones that actually educate themselves on policy, have noted that the Democrats are beyond redemption.

The Republicans, however, do have a faint pulse. Many remember Reagan and what he stood for. He was an unabashed Conservative first, a Republican second. That he was there and did what he did tells us that it is not too late to turn around. We don't have to go down the same road as Europe and live the Nanny-State nightmare.

The Tea Party is that voice, speaking firmly into the ear of the Republican Party to come back from the edge. No more big spending, no more pork, no more market interference. No more...a lot of things. A lot, a lot. Really a lot of things. Politicians are always reluctant to do unpopular things (well, except for a certain current president) for fear of not getting re-elected. The Tea Party is the voice of the Silent Majority in the country. Traditional Americans of Traditional values are sick of coastal politics, union thuggery, and big corporate sleep-overs. If you get the government out of our way, we will restore the country. It is that simple.

You will not fear re-election as long as you get out of our lives. Enforce current immigration law. The current legal aliens in this country will applaud you. Every illegal immigrant hangs shame on the necks of those who came here legally. Get the heck out of the Free Market. You have no business being there. Regulation is a four-letter word to me. Yes, yes, keep the "but grandma will be taken advantage of by eeevil big business or she will eat razor blades in her cereal" stuff to yourself. In an ideal market, grandma may get a beetle in her bran muffin, but that muffin company will go out of business. That is another post, if need be...I digress.

You will not fear re-election. Remember that. So my community will not get a Federally funded bridge. Perhaps local community leaders and businesses that are paying lower taxes will actually be able to raise enough money on their own to have the bridge built. How about that? Community outreach programs for the poor? You know, in the old days, really rich people trying to feel less guilty donated huge sums of money to charity so that the poor could be taken care of. They even funded and endowed hospitals to that end (a big one in Baltimore comes to mind).

Real Americans take care of themselves and the less fortunate. Why do you think we are the number one donor every time an international disaster happens? We are a giving people, even when we don't have much to give (thanks again, Mr. President). If the Federal Government is not taking our money from us in ever increasing amounts, we will donate and "spread the wealth" around on the local level...where it does the most good!

No, GOP, you will not fear re-election because the silent majority is just that; the MAJORITY. Frothing liberals, though loud and frequently obnoxious, are a small minority. Even liberal sympathizers make up no more than 1/5th of the electorate. The pocket media gives them out-sized microphones and artificial importance.

Listen to us. Listen carefully. Really, really carefully. You risk the fracturing of the Party if you ignore us. Do not compromise. There is no compromise to find. The current DNC is the antithesis of everything this nation has ever stood for. There is no reasoning with it. It must be defeated in its totality. If you think you can get along with them then you will be falling for the same trap that every Republican has fallen into for a hundred years.

You have been given an opportunity to make a real difference. Don't squander it. You will not get another chance. The 2012 elections will see more RINOs removed. Mark it. It will happen. If the RNC still does not seem to understand, then I predict that there will be a REAL "Tea Party" Party, and it will destroy the RNC and the DNC. The Tea Party will take on the Conservative mantle of the nation and the RNC will find itself somewhere in the middle of the road. Remember what I've said before, only Roadkill exists for long in the middle of the road. The DNC will rename itself the Progressive Party as many of the independents, who are really only independent because they are intellectually lazy, will realize what has happened (not all of course, put a good number will) and will actually pick sides. The Tea Party will be generally reflective of the 70% Conservative leaning of America while the rumps of the RNC and DNC will exist somewhere in the middle. The 10-15% Social Progressives will have the other pole and will serve as a reminder of why we are conservative.

As Rush has said before, Liberals should never be exterminated, we have to keep some of them around. They must remain free to spout their Moon-Bat theories around so that we never forget why they had to be defeated in the first place.

I don't post many cartoons on my blog, but this one sums up the mid-terms better than any 20 page article I have read on the topic.

I guess it is time to go and be a productive member of society.

Live well.

--Zavost

Tempering

Insomnia can be good for the contemplative soul. Tonight from the Stoa, if anyone is listening out there in the dark of the Arena of Ideas, I would like to contemplate the idea of personal tempering.

For those who may not know, tempering is a process where materials, mostly iron alloys, can be hardened by adding carbon to the metallurgical process. The carbon atoms slip into the iron molecules (which are quite large) and then the metal is quickly quenched in cold water. Boiling water and steam hisses out of the tank while flakes of impurities crust and fall from the metal being worked. The iron atom shrinks with the loss of heat energy and the carbon atom is trapped in the iron cage. The molecule is now much stronger. You have now made steel, upon which much of our modern society is built. You can not get there without that rather violent heating and cooling process.

When bad things happen to people, they always focus on what they are losing or what they will no longer be able to have, be it a larger house or a nicer car. Life has a way of tempering everyone in one way or another. The school child that is being sat on by their parents to get their homework done; the fast food burger flipper that is aspiring to be an accountant even though they are being yelled at by their 19 year old supervisor; the teenage girl that sees the boy she likes flirting with someone else; the pink slip from a company downsizing; the angry wife yelling at her husband for not taking out the trash; the death of a loved one... These are all tempering moments in our lives. It is up to us to recognize those misfortunes as opportunities for personal growth and maturity.

There are old wives sayings that cover this to some extent, but they have become so commonplace as to become trite. The old saying, "That which does not kill me only makes me stronger," and all that. Simply surviving the buffeting of life's storms is not growth. A callus is a growth caused by hard work and is only useful for repetitive traumas. I would like to think that one would learn from life's traumas both big and small and seek to avoid the pain that comes from this type of learning. Pain is, after all, your body's way of avoiding dangerous or unpleasant physical stimulation. Stress, depression, and the like is your body's way of warning you of dangerous emotional situations. Heed them, they can be useful indicators for self-contemplation and action.

My time in the military planted a lot of seeds of maturity that did not fully germinate until years after I left the service. Many of the sayings that were beat into us only gained meaning after finding myself on life's proverbial floor after a good thrashing (Adapt, Innovate, Overcome; comes to mind). You may remember earlier posts where I say that we have been endowed with the most precious gift from our creator (that can be another post as well): choice. Free will, call it what you will. Many of life's choices are black and white. Binary decisions if you really get down to it. You choose everything, no matter what advice you may ask for or heed. You chose most everything in your life, sometimes your accidents are indirectly chosen by you as well. Examples of that are car crashes (driving unsafe), falling down the stairs (you just had to grab one extra grocery bag from the car), or leaving the window unlocked for fresh air that admitted the thief that decided to take more than just your TV...

When you find yourself in one of these learning situations you can either decide to lay there until someone picks you up, or you can pick yourself up. Some will play the victim and do their best to remain on the floor. Leave them, they have no wish to learn yet, though it could be argued that by laying down they are indeed in the learning curve...you just have to give them time to realize it. If you lose your job, find another. If it does not pay what you want, then keep looking for better work while you are working. If you can not get paid more because you do not have a college degree, go back to school while you work. That is what the night time is for; it is not always for drinking with your friends in the local bar. You want the bigger house and car, do something about it (legal people, always legal). If you are in a bad way, like losing your home and everything you've worked for, then lean your shoulder into the storm and clean up afterwards. Find a place to live, rent a home when you are working again, move your family, do what you have to do. Endure, learn, and grow.

Another saying, "At least you have your health" is one heard growing up with my GI generation grandparents. I used to think that this was the dumbest thing to say to someone. Now, I see it as the wisest thing you can say to another person. As long as you are alive and healthy (heck, not even healthy), there is still opportunity. The chance to improve your life and care for those that depend on you. You can either lay on the ground, or you can get up and keep going. Simple choices really. The details come fast at you when you decide to do more than just stand up...but that is what life is all about is it not?

Hit the ground running since life runs by you pretty fast. Be bold and daring. Brush the dirt and dust off when you find yourself "face planted" by life. It happens. Get up and keep going. When it is your time to rest for good you will be told and not moment sooner than that. Life is not always easy, but that is how it is when you are playing without a safety net. God set it up that way for us. It is the price we pay for free will.

I believe that I have spoken enough for tonight. Tomorrow is another day full of opportunities and I don't wish to sleep through them, though it would be my choice to do so.

Live well.

--Zavost

The Fallacy of Infallibility

From the Stoa this frosty morning I would like to think about the illusion of infallibility. My point will work its way around to Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve, and the Founder's thoughts on central banks. For now, though, lets get back to the idea of infallibility.

When you are younger you look to your parents or older siblings to have the answers to your questions, whether they be about the color of the sky or why bad things happen to good people (that is another entry). Then as you grow older you realize that your sibling does not know and was likely messing around with you on several topics. You realize your parents don't have all the answers either as you see things go wrong for them, either through a divorce, arguments, or even a speeding ticket. Then you enter school, college, and the universities. You think to yourself that these people must have the answers. It does not take long for you to figure out that what they know, they know because they have repeated the same course material for the last five years and that few of them really have a passion for their subject matter any longer. Then you enter the workplace and you think your boss or the suits in the administrative office have the answers. Before long they are slashing budgets because they estimated revenue and expenses incorrectly. Then they are releasing staff because they estimated the amount of work coming in wrong. You find out that they company has lost more money in the stock market in one week than it lost on operations in the last five years, yet the belt tightening continues. Obviously, mistakes were made and the people most responsible are not always held accountable or feel the pain that their mistakes cause others.

Politicians and those associated with them are, I feel, most prone to mistakes of judgement. This is because they are not always, "their own man". Some are beholden to special interests that donated piles of money to their (re)election campaigns. Other are beholden to power blocs within their own parties (read: Machine). Yet others are, gasp, beholden to their constituents and their conscience. In the end, they make mistakes because they are thinking, always, about how people will react to their actions rather then acting in accordance to the issue in front of them. Instead of "getting it right", they try to make people happy. The Republicans will come face first into this reality when they start looking into cutting entitlement programs. Many Americans do not realize or understand just how much activity in this country is underwritten or supported by Federal largess, but I digress.

Movies like to portray the government (the Feds) as an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-reaching entity that is always just around the corner (sometimes, they are...); but the reality is that they are admin heavy, and talent-lite. If corporations were run like the government they would never get a product to market, and if they did it would never sell. The idea of an American National Bank, or central bank, was discussed, cussed, and fought over by our Founders. Most did not want one as they felt that it would give the government too much power in the economy. They felt that the central government should not be able to print money at will, in fact they wanted our currency to be based on Silver (not gold). The arguments between Hamilton and Jefferson were legendary. Eventually, a central bank did get created in the early 19th century, only to be abolished again by a later president. Andrew Jackson brought it back, but for very different reasons. He did want to use its power to affect States and companies and his opponents. His banking system was quickly abolished again as the people woke up to the dangers that a central bank presented. Then, the rather evil (in my opinion) Woodrow Wilson resurrected the concept, but compartmentalized it from the government's control (in theory). This made the concept more palatable to the public and the politicians of the day. Of course, the Federal Reserve system was founded around the great bankers, banking family, and banking concerns of the day. Today, much of the Federal Reserve is actually owned by people who are not even American citizens, but that is, again, another blog entry.

So anyhow, the issuing of money, evaluating the amount of currency in circulation, a variety of economic indicators, tools, levers, and tricks needed to "control" an economy have been in place since the second decade of the 20th century and under the control of "The Federal Reserve System". Who works in places like these? Harvard educated economists, Yale, London, Berlin, you name it. Most have advanced degrees in Banking and Finance along with decades of experience in the field. You would think that these people would have the answers to what is troubling the world today? Heck, the Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke wrote a thesis on the causes of the Great Depression.

When I read that the Federal Reserve is going to continue buying the nations' debt, my heart sank. This is no different than borrowing money from your wife to pay the bills. Money that your wife just happened to print off the computer down in the basement. If you do this in your family, you will go to jail. If you do this as a country you wreak havoc across the world.

The United States does not exist in isolation. The economies of the world, since WWII have become increasingly linked and interdependent. When the United States prints 2 trillion dollars, like it did from 2008-2009, you are going to have issues. The total amount of cash in the world at the time was something like $875 Billion. Big difference in those numbers. Lucky for us, most of that cash has not hit the public. It has stayed locked in the banking system as banks simply bought other banks and refinanced their operations (read: Re-capitalized). Inflation did jump, don't believe what you are hearing from the government. Just compare what you were paying for groceries and energy just last year and you will see it. This latest cash-dump by the Feds is a disaster in the making. This money will not stay contained within our banking system. The banks are loaded with cash (they just are not lending), and companies have easy access to credit if they need it. There simply is little to no expansion going on because of the uncertainty this President has injected into everything. No, this money is going to spill out into the public sector and go around the world. The numbers in the paper are saying that the Feds will "monetize", meaning "print" the debt for the next year or so. The figure they gave was like $600 billion. The real amount will be in the area of $2 trillion or more.

The United States is the largest economy in the world. When we start hosing around trillions of unsecured dollars (that is dollars with no value), we destabilize the world. The $600 billion dollar figure itself is larger than the economies of large blocs of nation-states. American dollars are going to slosh around the financial systems of the world and countries that are fighting inflation will suddenly lose the war. Other countries that are fighting over-development will be over-run with housing and building complexes that will never be used. Just look at what easy credit did to Spain and Greece and you will see my point (some study on your part will be required). Borrowers from around the world will have relatively strong currencies to borrow US dollars at rock bottom interest rates. This will drive building, spending, and consumption around the world, but will have little effect here.

The intent is to drive interest rates down so that people will start borrowing and spending again. Prime the pump so to say. The pump is full of money but now one wants the risk of higher taxes, higher regulatory expenses, and more Federal involvement in their lives. Plain and simple. It is not a credit problem, it is a reliability problem. All those people who cashed out of equities, bonds, stocks, and commodities have just had the value of their cash cut by 20% over the next 18 months because of this monetizing of our debt. China will go ape over this since they hold trillions of dollars of our debt in dollar denominations. This means that they just lost not only any interest payments due to them, but massive amounts of the original dollars they lent. Veeerrrrry bad investment.

This also means that no one will trust us any longer. The fact that we have to monetize our debt could mean one of two things (or both). One, there is no more money around the world to lend to someone that has not already been lent several times over (think about it), and two, no one is willing to risk investing in America because America changes the rules all the time to benefit itself at the expense of its investors (just as GM investors for their thoughts). We will no longer be a "safe place" to park their money.

So you would think that the suits in the various Federal Reserve Bank branches would know the basics of finance and banking. I mean I would think so. So why do something that the world is screaming at us to stop? What do they know that the huge brains at the Fed are overlooking?

I think they are desperate and grabbing at the last plant roots on the cliff before going over. The Federal Reserve system is a failure and always has been. The depression of 1920 was solved without the Fed and it was solved in less than 18 months. Ever heard of the "Roaring 20's".

No, the Feds and Mr. Bernanke are not infallible.

So wake up at the base of the Stoa, the lesson for now is complete. Perhaps I will discuss something less boring next time. Head home and be productive...your government demands it.

Live well.

--Zavost

Common Ground?

I stand at the Stoa tonight scratching my chin at what I'm hearing from the Democrats today. I hear the phrases, "common ground", "bi-partisan", and "civility". With the Democrat defeat they now arrogantly remind the Republicans that in order to continue the Obama agenda they are going to have to work with them in the spirit of bi-partisanship.

In order for the Republicans to work with the Democrats they are going to have to find common ground. Now, let's see, the new Republicans, recently reminded of their reason for existing, are for limited government and individual rights. The Democrats (aka Socialists), believe in total government control and individual rights that can only be granted by the government. Someone will need to draw a diagram for me and show me where the "common ground" resides.

On Cap and Trade the Democrats want throttle the power industry and create value from a value-less gas (carbon dioxide). The Republicans realize that a coal industry that employs workers pays taxes and generates a living for many, many families.

The Democrats want to nationalize 1/6th of the national economy and destroy the best health care system in the world. The Republicans want to leave it be and let it continue to evolve to meet the needs of the market.

The Democrats want to centralize our nation and erase the power of the States' right to self-governance. The Republicans have read the Bill of Rights and understand that this is not permitted.

The Democrats, when given the opportunity, carved out all Republican participation from policy development, bill writing, and debate. The titanic battles fought over the last two years have been between moderate Democrats and Social Democrats. The Republicans could not change the lunch menu, even if they had tried, that is how irrelevant they were. Now the Social Democrats are the dominant survivors within the Democrat party and there will be fireworks in the next two years.

The Democrats believe that it is fine to own banks, car companies, insurance companies, and reorganize the media into a branch of the government. A true conservative Republican would stand there, mouth agape at the mere suggestion.

So where exactly is this common ground? I could continue to cite examples but I think you understand.

Now, to act juvenile. In my mind, the Democrats are no better than a playground bully that has been knocked on their butts. Now they are asking for inclusion and civility. Riiiiight. In 2006, President Bush, like a new born babe in the woods and the surviving Republicans on the Hill did not want to resemble the image being painted of them in the media and worked with them on everything. Even before that, President Bush had a hard time saying no to spending bills and pork. When the Republicans developed "common ground", they got pummeled by the Republican base in 2008. Fools.

Elections have consequences. Obama once told a room of Republicans that they are now irrelevant and will just have to sit in the back of the bus. At least he told is as it was and did not sugar coat it. Now that the whip has been knocked out of his hand, he is begging for civility. President Obama and crew need to be reminded that elections have consequences. The Republican party has been reminded of who and what it is and if any of them think that they can find common purpose with the Democrats then they will go down in the dust right after the Democrats did last night. I hope that they remember this.

Things are not going to get done in Washington over the next two years. There is important work to be done that will not get done, but at least the spending will get cut off, unless there is some "common ground" between a Tea Party Republican and a Socialist Democrat.

The Republican party must come up with legislation that fulfills its mandate, win or lose. If they get the bills passed, then we are better off. If the bills go down to defeat, then those bills can be hung around the necks of the Democrats. This will keep the Tea Party base happy and further highlight the differences between the two parties. Clear choices.

Chin scratching completed, I will now shuffle back off to my domicile and prepare for the coming possibilities granted me in a new day.

Live well.

--Zavost

The Moment

Scattered about the Stoa this morning are the detritus of victory, the shame of defeat (in bucket-fulls), and political corpses piled up shoulder high. From where I stand this morning, awaiting my pupils, I do not see joy or pain or loss. I see Wile E. Coyote with an umbrella held hopefully over his head.

The mid-term elections are over, minus the lawsuits that could be filed in Alaska and Nevada. There has been a shift in the House of Representatives of the like that has not been seen since the Hoover administration was ejected from Washington for their Progressive spending habits. The Senate is still barely in Democrat control, however, the Senate Democrats who were not up for re-election this year just witnessed their colleagues go down like a Mike Tyson challenger (prior to prison, that is). They are going to know that this could be them in 2012 and will be far less likely to step up to the noose when Obama comes to place it around their necks when he demands their support for his Marxist programs.

Yes, I do believe that Obama will not moderate and come to the middle like Clinton did. It is not in his nature. The racial divisions will grow wider, the calls of foul play and non-partisanship will grow shriller. The crisis is still maturing. We will all need to be strong in the coming years.

The problems that this country faces have been a long time coming and will not be fixed in two, four, or even ten years. As a people, we must commit to repairing our nation and keeping it foremost in our hearts and our minds. We are broken; as a nation we have no money, a dearth of morals, and an arrogant blindness to reality. Why so glum? I'm just sober, is all.

America owes a lot of money to a lot of people. Despite the obvious differences in monetary policy, nations can get into the same trouble as a spendthrift with a credit card(s). We owe a lot of money. That debt has interest that is accumulating. Already, the interest on the debt that Obama, Pelosi, and Reid have accumulated amounts to something like $300 Billion per fiscal budget. In 2012 that figure will be over $500 Billion. Remember, they are accumulating the debt monthly and the interest is cumulative to principal. That last figure is higher than any one deficit that George W. Bush signed off on. That figure is higher than some of the Federal budgets under President Nixon. The figure could reach $1 Trillion per fiscal budget by 2020. This is just the interest on the debt...we are not even talking about paying down the principal. Obama and team have been borrowing money to make the interest payments. Look at the bond market. We are auctioning debt every week to the amount of $30-50 Billion. How does this get paid back? I've discussed monetary policy in earlier entries, so I'll take another tack.

Under Reagan, our economy grew between 5-10% year over year (that is 5% plus 5% on top of that each year). It took over 7 years to pull back the money that the Federal Reserve pumped into the economy under President Carter. If I recall, they increased the monetary supply by 11%. Under Bush and Obama, the Reserve ran up the monetary supply by something like 120% Uh, oh, is right.

Unions were the biggest monetary contributers in this election cycle by far. Can we say, "buying an election" boys and girls. They lost all that money since most of their people went down to defeat last night. Way to blow money. The evil corporations donated much less to either party this cycle. Republicans will have to resist the temptation that their brethren gave into over the 1994-2006 run that they enjoyed. Spending money became easier and easier the more they did it. Just ask a dieter that says that they are only going to have one piece of candy on Halloween. Can the Republicans learn that lesson? Can they overcome human nature? Remember, virtue can be hard to maintain. We are only human in the end and prone to temptation.

Even if we run double digit economic growth for 20 years, year over year over year, we will not have enough to pay down the principal that has already been borrowed. Inflation or default looms in our future. What does this spell for our children and our retirement? This will happen regardless of which party is in power. It is simply too late already to keep this car from going over a cliff. The choice is what kind of crash landing will we have?

Simply handing the credit cards back to the recovering spend-a-holics is not enough. This is going to take fiscal austerity and discipline, the likes that causes rioting in the streets; and not that pansy stuff the French play at. Social Security is going to have to be abolished for those not yet 65 (or 67). Medicare and Medicaid are going to have to be privatized or dismantled. Laws against unfunded liabilities will have to be passed. Congress can not exempt themselves from laws (that is another entry). Budgets must be within 5% of "balanced" (countries really do work differently than people, but that is another entry). Do I have answers? I have ideas that can be worked out and improved upon, but no ready answers. There simply is no alternative. We must face this crisis soberly.

The Republicans stand to lose a lot by winning. They are seen by the Tea Party as the ones that can restore our faith in ourselves and our country. In 2012, mark my words, more RINOs will be purged. The Conservative wing of the Republican party will harden just as the Socialist wing has now hardened with this election. The Blue Dogs have nearly been exterminated this time around, along with a whole lot of long-serving incumbents. Pelosi may retire, but Reid, Boxer, Schumer, Frank and others remain.

This is not the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning, as Winston Churchill may have once said. This is a fragile hope that the ones we look to for a fix to this mess are the right ones. The coming crisis will either reaffirm our hopes these are the right stewards (Tea Party approved) or forever crush our faith in the current system. If we lose faith in our current system then there will be violent change and likely not for the better.

I say that last one because my generation does not put up with all the blah, blah, blah rhetoric that Boomer (and Silent) politicians spout. The X'ers will give this country change, alright, and we won't be talking about it either. We will simply take action and establish a stable system, politically and economically. I honestly can not say if it will be a restoration of the Republic or a founding of American Fascism. We will either restore or reboot, but we will not allow the situation to continue.

The sun creeps up on the horizon now, and the coyote is now noticing that there is something casting a shadow in the sky above. Let us see how he handles it.

Live well.

--Zavost

Free Market -- Default Mode

Instead of leaves being swept from the Stoa this afternoon, it is candy wrappers. Lots and lots of candy wrappers.

I have said it before and since this is a truth, it deserves to be repeated. Free markets and capitalistic methodologies are the human default mode. At the base of the Stoa last night and into this afternoon, there are neighbor children swapping, trading, and otherwise begging candy from one another. Even candy has a relative value and worth. I discovered that a York Peppermint Patty is worth two Milky Ways and one Three Musketeers is worth two packs of Skittles.

Children need to be taught to share. This is because we have an instinct to gather, hoard, and possess that must be overcome, to some degree, to function in large groups. Socialism must be forced upon a majority of the population. Just ask the Soviet Union and the Khmer of Cambodia. In many cases, those that don't want it must be eliminated lest they talk to those that are wavering in their acceptance.

Stoics have a belief that stress and conflict arise when one is doing something contrary to their nature. Being at peace is to recognize your behavior and attempt to live it. This does not mean pacifism; remember that Marcus Aurelius was a devout Stoic who also rode to war on a horse to conquer German territory and instill fear in those neighboring tribes. He acted according to his nature.

Children and their parents "want". It is that simple. We certainly have "needs", but wanting, needing, and possessing are the rub of the issue. If people are allowed to set the value of objects based on their worth to other individuals, then the maximum number of people will be happy and productive. Wealth will grow and appear from seeming nothingness, as those with lower value work harder to have enough currency to buy items of higher value. In Socialism, all you have to do is sit around and wait for your masters to strip the wealth from one person and give it to you. No work required, just "Hope".

If the Tea Party mystifies you, then just sit down your children after Halloween, grab the neighbor kids for good measure, and then sort out the candy and give everyone a share of all the types of candy, regardless of type or effort expended in its accumulation. If you survive the uprising, tears, and all around unhappiness, then you have successfully Socialized Halloween. At the same time, once you turn around and are not imposing your (government) will upon the group, the horse-trading will immediately start up and the kids will once again get what they want and trade what they do not want.

Now, just swap kids for the American populace and candy for our income and possessions. The Democrats are seeing us throw a fit because they are re-distributing our wealth, our hard work, and our earnings to those who have not worked as hard as us. It is no more difficult to understand then that, though I'm sure they understand just fine.

The Stoa is noisy this afternoon and I must go and begin sweeping up these wrappers lest they interfere with those wishing to sit around the base later in the day.

Live well.

--Zavost