Let me say up front that I have ancestors who fought for the Confederacy. They also died fighting for the Confederacy. One of them, Pvt. Joseph Hughlett of the 40th Virginia Infantry, survived what we sometimes call "Pickett's Charge" at Gettysburg and was captured shortly after that battle. He died in a Yankee prison camp. I became a Confederate Civil War reenactor to honor them. When I got too old for the rigors of that hobby I joined the Sons of Confederate Veterans to insure that the heroism and truth of the Confederate soldier who be remembered. I was the charter commander of the charter camp in Wisconsin and the first commander of the Wisconsin Division of the SCV.
When someone broaches the word "secession" my ears perk up. Texas Governor Rick Perry hinted at that topic and I listened. It's not that I'm a die-hard for secession. While I do believe that it is the right of every state to voluntarily join and voluntarily leave the Union, I question the practicality of such a move. We've had over 130 years for the states to become almost slavishly interdependent in ways that our ante-bellum ancestors could never have dreamed of. Drive along I-94 between Milwaukee and Chicago and you'll see trucks galore hauling who knows what between the states. Mitchell Field handles the overflow from O'Hare. Business travelers use Crites Field in increasing numbers every year.
But there is something about secession. The War Between the States cost the lives of well over 600,000 young Americans both North and South. While the South lost, the question of secession was never settled. The only thing that was settled was that that attempt had failed. But let me put that to you in a different way. I first heard this at an SCV meeting and it took me a long time to come to the realization that it is true:
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland are not now part of the United States of their own free will. They had legally seceded, were invaded, conquered, subjugated, and made to do penance for over 20 years. But they never voluntarily rejoined the USA.
That is a truly scary thought. But it is an undeniable truth. True, the legislatures of some of those states DID vote to be readmitted. But those legislatures were sitting in session while still under the occupation by Northern troops. Sorta hard to vote against what the military authorities want you to vote.
It's a hard concept to accept, this idea that we forced our southern brothers and sisters to voluntarily join the United States. But that is exactly what we did. And we never did decide whether any state could do it again.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
The Cruelest Thing You Can Do To A Congressman...
...is to trust him. I heard that line a long time ago in a speech by Dr. Mathew Sandel given to a Sons of Confederate Veterans meeting. Dr. Sandel was talking about how after we elect a Congressman he then goes off to Washington and forgets who is was that got him there. Dr. Sandel says that it's because we let him forget who elected him and what we expect him to do. I wish that I could remember the speech exactly. I'm afraid that I can only paraphrase that wonderful part where he says that the cruelest thing that we can do to a congressman is to trust him. Here is how I remember that portion of the speech.
We have to remember that a congressman is just another of God's fallen creatures. Many of them would like to do the right thing, but we don't tell them how. We need to be on them constantly and threatening them with political annihilation every moment of their lives. In the short story "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" by noted Southern author Flannery O'Conner, a mean, spiteful treats two robbers kindly in hopes that they will spare her life. After one of them shoots her, the other remarks "She was a good woman." "She'd-a been a good woman," says the other, "if there hadda been someone there to shoot her every minute of her life." THAT is how we should treat our congressmen. No one ever tells them what to do so they run off looking for the first person who will tell them. Then we complain that they would rather represent the folks in New York City and Washington DC than the folks that sent them.
I wish that I could remember the whole thing in all of its glory. It is a deeply inspiring speech, and quite funny at times. But overall it is like an arrow short right into the heart. It convicts us of the sin or trusting our representatives.
We have to remember that a congressman is just another of God's fallen creatures. Many of them would like to do the right thing, but we don't tell them how. We need to be on them constantly and threatening them with political annihilation every moment of their lives. In the short story "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" by noted Southern author Flannery O'Conner, a mean, spiteful treats two robbers kindly in hopes that they will spare her life. After one of them shoots her, the other remarks "She was a good woman." "She'd-a been a good woman," says the other, "if there hadda been someone there to shoot her every minute of her life." THAT is how we should treat our congressmen. No one ever tells them what to do so they run off looking for the first person who will tell them. Then we complain that they would rather represent the folks in New York City and Washington DC than the folks that sent them.
I wish that I could remember the whole thing in all of its glory. It is a deeply inspiring speech, and quite funny at times. But overall it is like an arrow short right into the heart. It convicts us of the sin or trusting our representatives.
A Very Dangerous Comment
Friday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports President Obama as saying in regards to entrepreneurship: "Show us that your idea or your company is best suited to meet America's challenges, and we will give you the chance to prove it(...)"
Sorry, Mr. President, but that is not how it works. Entrepreneurs DON'T NEED the approval of government. They certainly DON'T NEED to show "...that your idea or company is best suited to meet America's challenges...". And above all, the government is not the one that is the gateway to deciding who will have a "...chance to prove it...". You see Mr. President, in this country we all have what is sadly becoming an antiquated concept: Freedom. We can go out and start a hundred companies with incredibly stupid ideas and fail at each one of them and no government agency can say yes or no to that. Entrepreneurs don't have to go hat-in-hand to some bureaucrat to convince that bureaucrat that the idea is "...best suited to meet America's challenges...". If said entrepreneur thinks that it is, he/she can go balls to the wall to make a stab at success. That is the American way. We don't have the freedom to be successful. We have the freedom of opportunity.
Sadly, it seems that the current administration is trying to change the traditional concept of freedom of opportunity where by one is free to take his/her idea to the marketplace to be judged by the customer, to a more restrictive freedom of petitioning a bureaucrat for approval of your idea and then government sponsors it in the marketplace. The latter concept is very, very dangerous. It is a flame capable of starting a conflagration of all of our liberties.
And it is becoming more obvious each day that this administration wants exactly that.
Sorry, Mr. President, but that is not how it works. Entrepreneurs DON'T NEED the approval of government. They certainly DON'T NEED to show "...that your idea or company is best suited to meet America's challenges...". And above all, the government is not the one that is the gateway to deciding who will have a "...chance to prove it...". You see Mr. President, in this country we all have what is sadly becoming an antiquated concept: Freedom. We can go out and start a hundred companies with incredibly stupid ideas and fail at each one of them and no government agency can say yes or no to that. Entrepreneurs don't have to go hat-in-hand to some bureaucrat to convince that bureaucrat that the idea is "...best suited to meet America's challenges...". If said entrepreneur thinks that it is, he/she can go balls to the wall to make a stab at success. That is the American way. We don't have the freedom to be successful. We have the freedom of opportunity.
Sadly, it seems that the current administration is trying to change the traditional concept of freedom of opportunity where by one is free to take his/her idea to the marketplace to be judged by the customer, to a more restrictive freedom of petitioning a bureaucrat for approval of your idea and then government sponsors it in the marketplace. The latter concept is very, very dangerous. It is a flame capable of starting a conflagration of all of our liberties.
And it is becoming more obvious each day that this administration wants exactly that.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Watch Out For Those Exploding Cameras
Yesterday I was watching the local news on WTMJ-TV, channel 4. They promo'd a story about using a hidden camera to investigate car washes that might be swiping your change. Here you can read the promo for yourself. Well, the question that comes to my mind is: Why do they need an "explosive hidden camera"? Isn't that kind of dangerous. What if the thing explodes when they are mounting it? And aren't they afraid that the car wash guys might get hurt when it explodes? Why, if we need gun control in this country, what about exploding cameras???
;)
;)
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Paul Harvey...Good Day!
I'm going to miss him even though has hasn't been heard in the Milwaukee area for the last several years. Before WISN-AM dropped him, followed by WTMJ-AM dropping him, I almost never missed his "News and Comment". Back when I worked in real estate appraisal in the mid-1970's, the entire office stopped at 3 PM while we listened to "The Rest of the Story". Paul Harvey was quite a guy. Another distinctive voice has been silenced.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
The Rich Just Won't Pay
President Obama has said that he is going to make up for the massive budget deficits by raising the taxes on the folks making over $250,000 per year. Tonight I heard the White House budget director staunchly stick up for the plan and aver that it will bring down the budget shortfalls.
No it won't.
The reason is that the very wealthy, the folks making over $250,000 a year, have an amazing degree of flexibility in their income. THE WEALTHIEST 5% OF AMERICANS ARE ALREADY RICH!! THEY DON'T HAVE TO GENERATE INCOME IN ORDER TO STAY RICH. You see, in the USA we tax income, we don't tax wealth. "Income" (what you earn) and "wealth" (what you already have) are two very different things. We don't tax Bill Gates on his multi-billion dollar fortune. We tax his income which is considerably less. Indeed, Bill Gates and many others have an amazing ability to reduce their annual income to zero via a lot of fancy legal shenanigans. If Obama's plan goes into effect, you'll see some of the wealthiest folks in the country suddenly making less than $250K per year. I can't believe that Obama's economics team seem to be blindly assuming that the very wealthy are going to sit on their hands and pay the tax increase. They won't. The majority of folks in that category will use every legal means available to reduce their annual income to a level that avoids a tax increase. As I said, those folks are already rich, they don't NEED to create additional income like you or I have to do. Yet, it appears that Obama believes that the very rich are going to just blindly pony up the additional percentages.
Remember when Bill Clinton put a big tax on luxury items such as furs and yachts? The yacht building business in the US, which is not a small industry, just tanked. Thousands were put out of work. The repercussions cut through the industrial panorama in this country as orders for engines, steel, electronics, etc. dried up. Foreign yacht builders saw a huge increase in their business and you also saw a lot of US yachts suddenly home-ported in places such as the Grand Caymans, Mexico, and the Canary Islands. Folks who made their living maintaining and repairing yachts suddenly were out of jobs. It didn't just affect the yacht building industry. We are already seeing the same thing happen to the private jet business. Those jets require a ton of maintenance. It isn't just the pilots. Their are mechanics, too. Lots of them. Suddenly there are a lot of those guys looking for work. The same goes for pilots and cabin attendants.
So, we could be seeing a pretty nasty convergence of forces in the coming days and months. By raising capital gains tax rates you will cut off a lot of home purchases and other investments as folks just hold onto investments rather than expose them to increased taxation. Add that to a financial slowdown among the wealthiest people as they cut back or simply don't create income because of the bigger hit, and suddenly you are going to see a lot of folks hurtin' for certain.
And it won't be the wealthy.
No it won't.
The reason is that the very wealthy, the folks making over $250,000 a year, have an amazing degree of flexibility in their income. THE WEALTHIEST 5% OF AMERICANS ARE ALREADY RICH!! THEY DON'T HAVE TO GENERATE INCOME IN ORDER TO STAY RICH. You see, in the USA we tax income, we don't tax wealth. "Income" (what you earn) and "wealth" (what you already have) are two very different things. We don't tax Bill Gates on his multi-billion dollar fortune. We tax his income which is considerably less. Indeed, Bill Gates and many others have an amazing ability to reduce their annual income to zero via a lot of fancy legal shenanigans. If Obama's plan goes into effect, you'll see some of the wealthiest folks in the country suddenly making less than $250K per year. I can't believe that Obama's economics team seem to be blindly assuming that the very wealthy are going to sit on their hands and pay the tax increase. They won't. The majority of folks in that category will use every legal means available to reduce their annual income to a level that avoids a tax increase. As I said, those folks are already rich, they don't NEED to create additional income like you or I have to do. Yet, it appears that Obama believes that the very rich are going to just blindly pony up the additional percentages.
Remember when Bill Clinton put a big tax on luxury items such as furs and yachts? The yacht building business in the US, which is not a small industry, just tanked. Thousands were put out of work. The repercussions cut through the industrial panorama in this country as orders for engines, steel, electronics, etc. dried up. Foreign yacht builders saw a huge increase in their business and you also saw a lot of US yachts suddenly home-ported in places such as the Grand Caymans, Mexico, and the Canary Islands. Folks who made their living maintaining and repairing yachts suddenly were out of jobs. It didn't just affect the yacht building industry. We are already seeing the same thing happen to the private jet business. Those jets require a ton of maintenance. It isn't just the pilots. Their are mechanics, too. Lots of them. Suddenly there are a lot of those guys looking for work. The same goes for pilots and cabin attendants.
So, we could be seeing a pretty nasty convergence of forces in the coming days and months. By raising capital gains tax rates you will cut off a lot of home purchases and other investments as folks just hold onto investments rather than expose them to increased taxation. Add that to a financial slowdown among the wealthiest people as they cut back or simply don't create income because of the bigger hit, and suddenly you are going to see a lot of folks hurtin' for certain.
And it won't be the wealthy.
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