I Column As I Sees ‘Umn

Posted by Frankly Francis on June 20, 2010 under In The News, Social Issues/Politics | 3 Comments to Read

Some musings, some random thoughts to be further explored, and probably some rambling too:

BP & The Feds

Watching BP dance like a puppet on a string makes me more concerned about the relationship of government and big business.  It’s all a little too choreographed…

Judge Andrew Napolitano reported on Fox News (FYI, I’m no fan of Fox or any other blatantly biased news agency) that Louisiana approved BP to drill at a depth of 500 feet, but the federal government insisted that drilling be done at 5,000 feet.  Oh yeah, that and the deal the feds made (after the Exxon Valdez spill) limiting future legal liability to $75 million for environmental accidents.

If true, that’s a bit of an oil slick for all concerned.  Of course, we, the people, are screwed either way.

Libertarianism Going Mainstream?

Fox (did I mention that I’m no fan of Fox News?) is now airing a libertarian based show hosted by the aforementioned Napolitano.  I never, ever thought I would live to see this day.

Back in the early 80’s when I would mention that I felt an affinity for libertarian philosophy, those that knew what I was talking about would pretty much just laugh at me.  When I gave the explanation of libertarian philosophy to those who didn’t know about it, they would pretty much laugh at me too.

Thus, I have been a big maker of mirth during the last three decades.

Pro Politicians & Political Parties

I am so done with professional politicians and the political parties that they associate with.  Same Old, Same Old, ad nauseum.  Government of the politicians, for the politicians, and by the politicians.

I’d like to vote for the politician who refused to take corporate/special interest (better phrased selfish interest) money, a politician that had no interest in a career in politics, a politician not for sale.

Why do I feel like Diogenes with his lamp looking for an honest man?

Can We Talk?

And furthermore, while Americans have always been a rather contentious and cantankerous lot, I believe that we are in a time when unity may be more important than ever.

We sure could use some open dialogue in this country.

The Economy

I think that there is a very strong possibility that the economy is in a lot worse shape than we are being led to believe.  I’ve been looking at the numbers a little more closely and I don’t like what I see.  I do hope I am wrong.

Additionally, the stock market, as a whole, still seems pricy to me.  I am not comfortable with the typical price-earnings (PE) ratio these days.  This is business risk, not mortgage holding.

Can We Be Done With The Bailout?

I guess I haven’t gotten over the Bailout…seems to me that the systemic risk was a manufactured hysteria (not dissimilar from the terrorist threat routine) to cover government’s basic failure to properly regulate and enforce its own rules.

The idea of giving money to loser parasites so that they can keep their cushy jobs, and do this to us all over again in the future is repugnant to me.

And they did this in plain sight.  Right in front of us.  I have to admit that they are pretty, pretty slick.

War, What Is It Good For?

Were we not in Afghanistan to hunt down Bin Laden and serve him up some American justice?  I believe that our presence there is the longest military engagement in our history.  Yikes!  Seriously, Yikes!

I lived through, opposed and protested against the Vietnam War.  In a relatively meaningless gesture, I even burned my draft card.  I reckon I’m going to have to find my peace signs, beads, incense, and bell-bottom jeans to get out on the front lines once again…if I could only remember where I hid the hookah.

Don’t even get me started on Iraq.

Imperialism

Why do we devote so much of our resources to imperialism when we have more serious human need problems here at home?  If we know so much that we are compelled to police and rule the world, why are we not doing a better job within our own country?  Sentient non- Americans must wonder at our hypocrisy, unless it serves them as well.

Terrorism

Just as the “War on Drugs” fuels the very problem it fights against, the “War on Terrorism” actually produces terrorism.  As in my thoughts above, by removing our overwhelming presence from foreign lands, we will also reduce the threat of terrorism.  That’d be some good blowback for a change.

Give Me That Old Time Religion

My biggest fear for our longevity on this planet is the combination of government & organized religion.  That’s some toxic stew.

In Conclusion

This is how I see things:  We live in a wonderful time and I am blessed to have the life I do.  I must confess that the foregoing is completely rooted in my idealistic hopes for things to be.  Because as good as it is, it really could and should be better.

As I age, I am more cognizant of what I don’t know.  I am more aware that there is no utopian solution to anything.  And I would very much like to think that I am more open to understanding differing points of view.  I welcome all discussion.

Frankly,

Francis

Dream On

Posted by Frankly Francis on June 8, 2010 under Social Issues/Politics | 2 Comments to Read

“There are those who would say that the liberation of humanity,

the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream.

They are right. It is the American dream”

– Archibald McLeish

I whole heartedly buy into that, but this is not a political dialogue.  I am so weary of the professional politicians and their political parties.  Weary to the bone.

This is me, as an individual talking to you, as an individual, about the direction that our lives could and should take as we revolve around the sun together.

Our Founding Fathers were not just revolutionaries in their fight for independence from England – they were more revolutionary in their view of people and the possibilities of what human life could be under the inalienable natural laws of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

They thought that we could personally and socially become something better through individual freedom, coupled with personal responsibility.  The Declaration of Independence is a remarkable document in this regard.  And the philosophy extolled to maximize society by maximizing the individual is truly radical in its historical context.

The world watched (with motives on both sides of the coin) as “The Noble Experiment” of the American Republic unfolded.

As America prospered, history is replete with the failures of governments built around the collective good.  Fascism, communism, totalitarianism, and socialism have all either outright failed or have not been able to match what we have done in the good old US of A.  Centralized governments have not made an impressive case for themselves in terms of results.

That is because we are not an ant colony.  We are humans.  Pardon the Star Trek reference, but we are not yet Borg.  And resistance is not necessarily futile.  Frankly Francis says, “Fight the Power!”

We are each endowed with our own unique character and abilities.  I celebrate that.

I believe that society should be based around individual freedom.  In fact, I would go so far as to assert that the primary purpose of society is to ensure the rights and liberty of the individual.

From my point of view, we have gone astray in two different ways:

The first is that we, the people, have allowed government to exceed its authority.  Enough said on that.

The second is that we continue to make efforts to legislate morality, or at the very least, attempt to impose our own personal beliefs on the life style choices that others live by.

Tyranny of the Majority oppresses people.  Oppression always produces less, never more.

This results in some pretty serious blowback, as in how alcohol prohibition gave us the lasting gift of major organized crime or how the manipulated fear of Commies in our midst, placed upon us through McCarthyism, resulted in untold loss of art, creativity and productivity.

And if we go further back, do you remember the murders perpetrated by the good citizens of Salem?

H.L. Mencken said that Puritanism is “The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”

Amen, Brother Mencken.

Health Nazis continue in their vigilant quest to eliminate cigarettes, while they work on weight standards, which will soon be followed by their fitness standards, because they somehow know better than the rest of us how we should each live our lives.

Of course, this could inevitably lead to the right amount of time spent watching TV or on the Internet…all to be appropriately taxed, of course.  And never mind that those taxes will never be used to help curb the supposed infraction of proper living – those taxes paid for by the sinners actually reduce the taxes that the moral busybodies would otherwise pay.

If we can’t legislate morality in others, we try to do it through taxation, through so called “Sin Taxes.”  We should immediately stop trying to socially manipulate others through taxation.  That is tyranny in its worst form.

And here, I would remind you of the words of C.S. Lewis, “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.”

For myself, I believe that humankind will socially evolve (if we don’t kill each other first) along the ideas that this nation was founded upon…eventually.  America is on the opposite course right now and it may well be too late to do anything about it.

But if not our America, it will be another culture in the future, this I know in my heart.

In closing, the words of John Lennon, “You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.  I hope some day you’ll join me, and the world will live as one.”

And what a world that will be.

Frankly,

Francis