Organizing Your Money for Your Safety and Freedom!

Somehow I was fortunate enough to get on the "Organizing for Action" mailing list.  Boy are they barking up the wrong tree!  I say "fortunate" not because they will benefit in any way from sending me the emails, but because I get a fair amount of entertainment out of them.  I didn't watch any of the Great Leader's speech last night, nor have I yet read any news reports on it.  But, I can guess from this email what he's planning on doing - higher minimum wage, higher deficits, more spending on everything, especially education and other feel-good programs, rinse and repeat.  After about a term and a half in office, I get the sense that the brilliant tactician has finally come up with a plan to save us all from ruin!  Unfortunately, and I'm still guessing here, it's the same shit he's been doing all along.

For your entertainment, I have included the text of the email below:

Daniel --

Tonight, President Obama made sure everyone knows:

He's not waiting for Congress. He's taking action now, and he's going to explore every method in his power to restore real opportunity for all Americans.

Let's follow the President's lead. We can win big fights this year, but with all the forces standing in our way, let's not kid ourselves into thinking that will happen without real commitment at the grassroots level -- from all of us.

Daniel, can you do your part? Chip in $5 or more and let's get to work:

https://donate.barackobama.com/Make-2014-a-Year-of-Action

Thanks -- more soon,

Jon

Jon Carson
Executive Director
Organizing for Action

How Should We Defend Capitalism?

There are those who spend their lives defending Capitalism on the grounds that it provides the greatest good for the greatest number.  They contend that Capitalism has paved the way for human achievement and that only through Capitalism will human beings continue to progress.  I agree with them and don't blame them; in fact, I commend them for their efforts.  However, I do not believe they have chosen the best course of action, because when it comes to the every day interactions among human beings, Peace needs no further justification! 

Watermelons, Wingnuts and Rational Demagogues

I was reminded today of a funny name for environmental zealots.  They are called Watermelons, green on the outside and red on the inside.  Pretty funny, right?  I thought so.

I Googled the term just to have a source to link to when I stumbled upon The Rational Wiki.  Ironically enough, as far as I can tell, The Rational Wiki is nothing more than a convenient location for examples of Ad Hominem attacks employed by folks with no sense of humor.  For example:

Watermelon is a snarl word used by wingnuts to refer to environmentalists.

I was worried that "wingnuts" would only appear once on the page.  Fortunately I was wrong:

The mistake the wingnuts make is conflating all environmentalism with socialism. Eco-socialists are libertarian socialists who tend to be critical of mainstream environmentalists and even many hard green philosophies, as well as non-anarchist forms of socialism, for not advocating for radical social change and the creation of a "free association of producers" (rather than simply allowing workers to control the means of production). Many environmentalists are critical of eco-socialists, claiming that they are more interested in promoting their ideology than addressing environmental issues.

If you can make that paragraph make sense, you're doing better than I am.

My Least Favorite Presidents - Part 1

Theodore Roosevelt

I'm tired of hearing how great Theodore Roosevelt was.  All though history class in school, and from
every adult progressive at a cocktail party since, I have had to suffer the sycophants, "Oh don't you just love Theodore Roosevelt?  He was just so full of energy and gumption.  He got soooo much done!"

"I would have preferred he got much less done.  The world would be a better place."  is my standard reply.

To which I commonly hear, "Oh but he greatly expanded the power of the executive.  He took power and authority whether his opponents thought he had the authority or not.  He created the modern office of The President."

Inquisitively, I wonder, "And this distinguishes him from Hitler, Napoleon and Chairman Mao because he was less ambitious or just less successful?"

Incandescent Bulbs

During cold weather like most of the country is experiencing, I think it is a good time to pause and remember that my super-affordable, incandescent light bulbs are currently running at the same efficiency as the much more expensive compact fluorescent ones... 100%!  As my furnace struggles to keep up, I am thankful for every Watt of "waste" heat.

Saturday Morning Spooner - Part 5

“No Treason — No. VI. The Constitution of no Authority.”

But these men who claim and exercise this absolute and irresponsible dominion over us, dare not be consistent, and claim either to be our masters, or to own us as property. They say they are only our servants, agents, attorneys, and representatives. But this declaration involves an absurdity, a contradiction. No man can be my servant, agent, attorney, or representative, and be, at the same time, uncontrollable by me, and irresponsible to me for his acts. It is of no importance that I appointed him, and put all power in his hands. If I made him uncontrollable by me, and irresponsible to me, he is no longer my servant, agent, attorney, or representative. If I gave him absolute, irresponsible power over my property, I gave him the property. If I gave him absolute, irresponsible power over myself, I made him my master, and gave myself to him as a slave. And it is of no importance whether I called him master or servant, agent or owner. The only question is, what power did I put into his hands? Was it an absolute and irresponsible one? or a limited and responsible one?