More New Year’s Flashbacks to 1999

8/6/99: President Clinton vowed again today to veto the House and Senate’s proposed 792 billion dollar tax cut, claiming that: “We need to invest the surplus revenue (The USA actually had a budget surplus back then) in America's children's future.” The magic word is “children.” So employers will continue withholding large percentages from every workers paycheck and turning over the loot to the Authority!, along with every scrap of private information about them.

If you don't want to pay, then you can't work anywhere, and if you try to hide your income, they'll find it, find you, take it, and put you in jail. They seem to know everything you’re doing, every dime you're making, every penny you're spending, and on what. They even know what you eat, what you read, and what kind of toilet paper you wipe your butt with. They know everything about you they want to know, and they'll continue to squeeze you like a lemon for the last drop of juice.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential contender, George W. Bush, is still deflecting questions about whether he might have tried cocaine during his youth, "a serious felony," croak the tube puppets.  Maybe we should make him pee in the jar too, or at least send a SWAT team to bust down his front door, cuff him, and search his home. If he did use it, and he's elected president, how can we ever justify our zero tolerance for drugs? What can we tell our kids? What message will we be sending? "We'll find a way," chime the hypocrites. 

The rev. Jerry Falwell opined that if G. W. tried cocaine 20 years ago, that should not prevent him from being president. That’s nice. I agree with that. But would his opinion be the same if Georgie had robbed a liquor store at gunpoint 20 years ago? Both offenses carry the same penalty. They are equally “serious” crimes. But that makes no difference to a hypocrite.

There is a peculiar madness in the land concerning the recreational use of drugs.  If George’s dentist gave him some cocaine for a toothache that's fine, but if he took it on his own just to feel good he's a felon. Drug use is OK if prescribed -- never if imbibed.  A prescribed drug is often described as a miracle.  An imbibed drug is described as a demon. A prescriber is a hero. An imbiber is a criminal.  And cultural madness reigns.

The single most dangerous aspect of illegal drugs is that they are illegal. All the violence and damage associated with the distribution of illegal drugs is directly the result of illegality -- never the drug itself.  If GWB tried cocaine in his youth, what damage did it cause him aside from the threat to his presidential candidacy?

8/20/99: Mississippi school Authority! has ordered a Harrison County high school kid not to wear his grandmothers Star of David medallion at school because it might be mistaken for a gang symbol. Naturally, no one objects to kids wearing Christian crosses -- which might be mistaken for Ku Klux Klan symbols.

10/18/99: Congress is poised to double federal spending on programs that advocate sexual abstinence until marriage bringing the total funding for such programs to $68 million. A separate sexual abstinence program receives another $50 million per year in federal funds. Both programs require grant recipients to teach that sexual activity outside of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects, and abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and other associated health problems. Condoms and contraception are not supposed to be discussed except to stress failure rates.

 The Authority! is spending big money in the guise of "education" to indoctrinate youngsters on what to think instead of how to think about sex. Kids might not be able to read, write, or figure very well these days, but they’re force fed with your tax dollars to "know" that sex is bad outside of marriage and should therefore be sacrificed for the collective good. But, if teen sex is the business of government Authority! then what isn't? The “thing” wants to teach kids that critical individual thinking is bad for them. Government Authority! will never be satisfied until all the "correct values" are taught in the public schools.

10/25/99:  Famed professional golfer, Payne Stewart, was tragically killed today in a plane crash.  Immediately the media began to tout his very recent renewal of religious faith in Jesus Christ as part of why he was such a great guy. No one wondered about why this powerful renewed faith in the Lord didn't prevent his untimely death. No, God didn't get any of the blame for this unfortunate accident, but, of course, if Mr. Stewart had survived the crash, the media would have dubbed it 'God's miracle.' God would get the credit for his being saved by his faith. The faithful always have it both ways. If Stewart had been an atheist, the faithful would have given God credit for punishing the sinner with death.

10/28/99: A recent Newsweek poll revealed that almost 40% of Americans believe the world will end as the Bible predicts, in a battle at Armageddon between Jesus and the Antichrist. It is a miracle that human civilization has managed to survive as long as it has.

Nostalgic New Year Flashback: Summer, 1999

7/30/99: Mark O. Barton, the crazed crusader from Atlanta, who murdered 12 people and committed suicide, was a church going boy scout leader who hoped to meet his victims in heaven after the resurrection. Several TV pundits contended that this was just a symptom of a larger social problem in this country. They’re right, but not how they think they’re right. The madmen who do these kinds of things are all the deceived slaves of gods. Its gods, not guns, that’s the social problem.

8/11/99: Buford O. Furrow, the Christian white supremacist who shot up a Jewish preschool in Los Angeles, said his rampage was meant to be a wake up call for Americans to start killing Jews. Again, the usual tube puppets and talking heads complained that the social problem is guns, when it is only too obvious that the problem is religion. He belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Aryan Nation. Religion or some similar deception in consciousness is a common thread in all these shootings.

8/16/99: CNN devoted a large block of time to a "Take Back Our School" pep rally at Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado. It was the biggest 'news' event of the day. There was lots of cheering, singing, speeches, and praising the Lord. "We are Columbine" tee-shirts were handed out to the kids so they could all look alike. No one seemed to care that the school had never been taken from them in the first place, and there was no obstacle whatsoever to their coming back. But it made them feel good – sort of like they were "taking their school back" from the Devil. And now they can get back to the business of learning what to think instead of how to think.

8/16/99: The Kansas state board of education voted to delete any questions about evolution in future science evaluation tests. Why? -- Because the constitution prohibits the teaching of creationism in public schools. They believe in creationism, and if creationism can’t be taught, then evolution won’t be taught.  Creationists want their bible story taught in science classes’ right along with evolution. Most people, if given a vote, would have both, they reason.  Next they'll want to vote on whether the sun orbits the earth, as God says, or the earth orbits the sun as the scientists say.

8/26/99: George W. Bush and Al Gore each endorsed the idea of teaching creationism in the nation's public schools, proving that both politicians would eagerly sacrifice the truth for a few lousy votes.

8/19/99: The Oklahoma City Tecumseh School District Authority! has instituted a policy of mandatory drug testing for all students who wish to participate in any extracurricular activities, including the debate team, choir, and marching band. First they force the kids to go to school, and when they get there, force them to pee in a jar if they want to participate.  God bless America! Soon the government Authority! will be coming after the rest of us.

Show Me The Money

Congress passed a special Christmas time legislative measure in the lame duck session which will provide a total of $4.2 billion dollars to compensate police, firemen, and other so-called “first responders” to the 9/11 World Trade Center terror attack. That’s four thousand two hundred million federal taxpayer dollars; enough cold cash to reward 4,200 “responders” or their surviving families with $1,000,000 each.

I wonder if it cost that much money to build the twin towers in the first place. And I wonder if there really is that many or more worthy “first responder” recipients – at least 1,700 more than the 2,500 souls who perished in the immediate aftermath of the attack. The families of those victims received a total of $7 billion dollars (about $1.8 million per family) in an earlier congressional give-away scheme in exchange for their agreement not to sue the airlines involved.

According to our most noble senators and congressmen, i.e. the government Authority!, this newest gigantic give-away law resolves a “national moral issue.” We are all “morally obligated” as a nation to do this for our valiant “American hero’s” who responded so bravely to the disaster of 9/11, declared the Authority!

Well, of course, most reasonable people agree that police and firemen, (or any other workers for that matter), should be fairly compensated for doing what they do. If some of them got sick or died because of the conditions they were exposed to while doing their duty, they or their families surely deserve fair compensation. And they did get fair compensation here before this law.

Police and firemen in the city of New York have long been represented by powerful labor unions. They are well paid and enjoy generous life insurance, health insurance, workers compensation, and other valuable fringe benefits packages. Their union recently settled with the city of New York over sickness benefits totaling at least $625 million for claims arising out of the same incident. An additional $103 million will come from settlements with other parties.  

Police and firemen have always faced risky jobs involving exposure to all kinds of dangers and hazards. They are not infrequently killed, injured, or sickened in the line of duty, and, of course, are well aware of these risks when they sign up for the job. Compensation for legitimate claims is routinely provided by their public employers in the local jurisdictions where the incidents occur.

The federal government is not responsible, nor does it normally pass special give-away laws, to compensate local city employees in such instances. The family of a NYC fireman, for example, killed while responding to a routine house fire will not get special federal compensation legislation, though he is certainly just as brave and just as dead for his heroism as any 9/11 responder.

So, why do the 9/11 responders hit the federal money jackpot? Why is it a “national moral issue” for them in which we are all “morally obligated,” but not for John Q policeman from Heartland USA, shot to death by a bank robber while responding in the line of duty? Why doesn’t his family get a million dollar windfall from Uncle Sam?

There is a sort of national knee–jerk emotionally charged jingoistic hysteria hyped atmosphere in this country associated with the 9/11 terror attack; a collectivist deception phenomenon which causes otherwise normal, reasonable, logical, intelligent individuals to lose all perspective, good judgment, and common sense. That’s why.

We see it in the endless government “War on Terror.” We see it in the many schemes of politicians who constantly invoke 9/11 terrorism to tap into a Pavlovian like response from their deceived constituents. We see it in the TSA’s invasive body searches of every passenger at airports, and in the acquiescence of the traveling American sheep. (See below)

We see it in unbelievably trivial matters such as the so-called “ground zero mosque controversy” in which many Americans are in an apoplectic uproar over an Islamic Community Outreach Center to be located fully two blocks away from the 9/11 terror attack site. The center was planned long before 9/11/2001. But Americans have been conditioned by the government Authority! to foam at the mouth over the mere mention of 9/11; to see terrorists hiding behind every tree, and imagine the entire Islamic population laughing at us inside their mosques.

Americans have become paranoid over the “War on Terror,” and the New York City police and firemen’s unions have plainly cashed in on that paranoia at the expense of all Americans.  As one of their union rep spokesmen candidly said after the announcement: “This will be the best Christmas of my life.”

Osama Bin Laden must be chuckling in his cave.

Business Makes; Authority! Takes

It is the nature of every living thing to want something for nothing. Lots of creatures make their entire living by just rooting or otherwise staying around all their lives in one place waiting for nature to bring them their sustenance. Trees and sea anemones come to mind. There is no incentive for them to exert them selves. Why should they? They get everything they want by just hanging around taking it all in.

Creatures that don’t root in the ground or hang around must work for their living. Lions, tigers and bears in the wild must work or go hungry. They much prefer their meals given to them than having to hunt them down though. It is easier to scavenge than to hunt. Hunting is work. Gathering is work. When a creature is hungry or wants something, it has a job. It has incentive to work to do its job. Incentive evaporates, and so does the job, when the creature is satisfied and content. That is the nature of the beast.

This applies equally well with human beings. It is our nature to want something for nothing. You know that unconsciously. There is nothing to be ashamed of. That’s just the nature of the beast. When we are satisfied and content there is little or no incentive to exert ourselves in activity we might otherwise not want to do. There is no incentive to look for a job. It is much easier to sit back and collect unemployment benefits than it is to work.

Congress recently extended two years of unemployment benefits another 13 months. Most of the lucky recipients will be satisfied to wait until their benefits run out before seeking employment. Perhaps by then, they reason, their Authority! will have created enough jobs for anyone who wants one.

Politicians are always talking about creating jobs as if a job is a real thing, something valuable, which is created like a painting or a sculpture; a building or a house. “Vote for me so I can go to Washington and create more jobs,” declares the Authority! You can almost see in your imagination all the thousands of shiny new jobs rolling off the congressional assembly line.

But we all know unconsciously that there is no such thing as a “job” in the contextual reality of existence. A “job” is not a real thing, but only a conceptual abstraction in consciousness. “Job” is really just another word for “work.” Work is something we’d rather not do if it can be conveniently avoided. So the actual work – the job -- is not normally considered valuable.

The fruits of our labor are real and valuable. The products of our work – not the jobs -- are real and valuable. The “job” is merely the necessary activity that must be done in order to realize the value. It’s easy to create jobs. Anyone can create jobs – lots of new jobs. My house needs painting. There – I’ve just created a job. My neighbor wants his lawn mowed –another job. If you can think of something, anything to do that you or other people want, you have created a new job.

Jobs are created by what we want – what people want -- not by government Authority! Government does not generally create values, it takes them. If you want something, it is your job to honestly do what is necessary to get what you want, and someone else’s job to make what you want available in trade for something you have to offer, because that is what they want.

Jobs are created by free interaction between human beings each supplying each other’s wants. The best word for this ongoing process is called “business.” As long as people have wants there will be business, and with business there will always be plenty of jobs. The problem for us humans is not any lack of jobs but the extent of all the values produced which are taken by the Authority!

Foul Manners

Dishonesty should be socially acceptable ... in the same manner farts in a crowded elevator.

The Authority! is Offended

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Newly released U.S. diplomatic cables indicate that the Vatican felt "offended" that Ireland failed to respect Holy See "sovereignty" by asking high-ranking churchmen to answer questions from an Irish government commission probing decades of sex abuse of minors by clergy… The Vatican press office declined to comment on the content of the cables Saturday, but decried the leaks as a matter of "extreme gravity." The U.S. ambassador to the Holy See also condemned the leaks and said in a statement that the Vatican and America cooperate in promoting universal values. (12/11/10)

The Catholic Church is “offended” because the Irish government wanted to ask church officials a few questions about decades of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The church regards the leaking of this fact to the public as a matter of “extreme gravity.” The Vatican wants to cooperate by promoting “universal values” with America.

I wonder – does that mean universal values like honesty, integrity and accountability? Or does it just mean more of the hypocrisy as usual of Authority!?

Bend Over and Spread Your Cheeks, Madam

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is now treating every airline passenger as a potential criminal terrorist suspect. All travelers must line up like prison inmates and submit to humiliating full body searches or be denied access to their flight. Huge x-ray scanner machines allow the government agents to see through clothing and view the naked bodies, genitalia and all, of each suspect in a virtual digital strip search.

Suspects may opt out of these body scans only if they agree to suffer the indignity of a far more comprehensive and intrusive full body prison style frisking during which buttocks, breasts, and private parts are patted down, squeezed and groped by government agents. Any complaints or even mild displays of annoyance on the part of a suspect will result not only in exclusion from a flight but potential criminal prosecution as well.

The agents wear rubber gloves while groping the suspects because they want to protect themselves from germs, however, they won’t change their gloves between suspects, so each suspect is exposed to the germs from the bodies of all the other suspects.

If all this is constitutional under the 4^th Amendment then the 4^th Amendment has been completely gutted by the government. If this is constitutional then there is nothing in the way of actual strip and full body cavity searches of all passengers by government agents at airports regardless of whether there is any probable cause based upon a reasonable suspicion that a passenger has or is about to commit a crime.

“Bend over and spread your cheeks, madam,” could be the next official TSA protocol.

President Obama admits that all this is “a huge inconvenience for all of us but necessary to keep us safe from terrorists.” But surely the chances of you or me or president Obama trying to smuggle a plastic bomb on an airplane in his ass crack are equally remote. So why must you and I suffer the indignity and abuse while Obama and his family escape?

I wonder how the president would like to be either strip searched or aggressively frisked every time he tried to board Air Force One. After all, he might be trying to smuggle on a bomb. It’s remotely possible, you know – at least as possible as with any other criminal suspect at the airport, including three year old toddlers and their grandma’s. How would the president like having his own little kids strip searched or groped by government thugs looking for contraband? Surely the first lady’s ass cheeks cavity is more than ample enough to conceal a bomb. Why then isn’t she run through the necessary security gauntlet like the rest of us potential criminals? Why they are not considered suspects but you and I and everyone else is? I have no criminal record, nor do president Obama and his family. Shouldn’t that count for something? I’m not a terrorist and neither are the Obama’s.

Should we all be searched in like manner at office buildings, court houses, and the post office? Anyone anywhere could be trying to conceal a bomb. One of the usual talking head TV pundits – a lawyer of all things – attempted to justify the searches, saying: “we all have a constitutional right to privacy but no one has a constitutional right to fly.” Nonsense! By this reasoning, no one has a constitutional right to ride the bus either, or the subway, unless they sacrifice their privacy like a convict. Can you imagine mandatory strip searches at the Greyhound bus station? At the grocery store?

The fact is, people have a far better chance dying from a slip and fall in their own bath tubs at home than they do at the hands of a terrorist in an airplane. We are at greater risk of death while driving our cars to the airport than we are while flying inside the airplane. So the risk simply does not justify the abusive scrutiny we must endure today at the hands of the police state Authority!

The fact is, a real terrorist could load up the trunk of his car with high explosives; drive it through the Lincoln Tunnel toward Manhattan; blow it up; and cause catastrophic damage to people and property in the same manner as the terrorists of 9/11/01. So, should we stop every vehicle in the queue; strip search each driver and passenger; and inspect the trunk of every car?

The authorities should stop looking for dangerous implements on every passenger, and start searching instead for potentially dangerous criminals among the passengers. They should know who each passenger is before they ever arrive at the airport.

The average citizen traveler should not have to put up with this unconstitutional degradation of their rights in a free society. When an ordinary crime is committed, the authorities investigate and employ criminal profiling to zero in on an identification of the perpetrator. They certainly don’t conduct random searches of the entire populace in order to find leads. That would be unconstitutional, not to mention a waste of time and resources.

Terrorists can and should be identified and dealt with in the same fashion as ordinary criminals without violating the rights of innocent citizens.

Deceived by Authority!

John Stossel – 12/15/10 – “Why Do People Believe in Fantasies? We human beings sure are gullible. Polls report that 27 percent of Americans believe in ghosts, and 25 percent in astrology. Others believe mediums, fortunetellers, faith healers and assorted magical phenomena…”

He forgot to mention gods, which brings the total of people who believe in fantasies all the way up to about 90%. Why? … because they are deceived in their own consciousness by Authority!

Educational Authority!

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- 12/13/10 -- School districts in western Alaska have found a new way to crack down on truancy -- or rather, an old way: They're getting police to enforce a years-old state law that lets them fine parents whose children skip school.

Court records show some parents are being fined hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars, if their children miss too many school days.

State law says children between the ages of 7 and 16 have to be in school or their parents can be fined up to $500 for every five unexcused absences. But not all school districts are making sure the law is enforced…

The Authority! wants your kids to go to school to be “educated” by the Authority! so that they will all learn to be compliant little subjects of the Authority!

As with many other dictates by the collectivist Authority!, mandatory compliance is backed up by force. So much for the original American dream: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The Law is a Crapshoot

Boston Globe – 12/15/10 – “In a groundbreaking decision, a Suffolk Superior Court jury yesterday found a tobacco company liable for the death of a Roxbury woman who said that, at age 9, she received free samples of Newport cigarettes in a targeted marketing campaign. The jury awarded a judgment of $50 million to the estate of Marie Evans, who, before she died of lung cancer in 2002, testified that she first received free Newports as a child, while living in the Orchard Park housing development in Boston. She smoked until her death at age 54. Her only son was awarded $21 million.”

“…The verdict sets up a second phase of deliberations in which the jury could also award Evans’s estate and family punitive damages, which often are a multiple of the amounts awarded in the compensatory phase…”

Here is another example of how the American system of jurisprudence is seriously flawed rendering the law a crapshoot and the family of this nice deceased lady with the proverbial jackpot.

Granted, the tobacco company should pay some damages because its reprehensible conduct was partially responsible for the smoking habit which eventually led to her death. But $50 million and the prospect of many millions more in so-called “punitive” damages is not consistent with reasonable justice, nor could we expect another jury in this or a different but similar case to arrive at the same verdict.

Ironically, had this lady been murdered in cold blood by her next-door neighbor, that same jury would have probably compensated the family far less than $50 million from the defendant for her wrongful death.

The point is that there is no reasonable degree of consistency in American justice. Juries just do whatever they want to do and the law specifies no effective limits. One jury might do this while another jury would do that under the exact same factual situation. In criminal cases, the wrongdoer might get probation from one judge but hard time in prison from another for the same exact crime.

The law Authority! is a crapshoot – the luck of the draw.

Putin’s epiphany

12/11/10: MOSCOW (AFP) – “Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Thursday led growing support from some world leaders for the beleaguered WikiLeaks founder, describing his detention in Britain as "undemocratic…Putin railed against the detention of the 39-year-old Assange, the Australian founder of the website which has been releasing thousands of secret US diplomatic cables as well as Pentagon communiqués...” “Why was Mr. Assange hidden in jail? Is that democracy? As we say in the village: the pot is calling the kettle black," Putin said.”

Well how about that? The former Soviet KGB collectivist goon Authority! has found democracy, and there is even more democracy and freedom in Russia today then there is in the West according to comrade Putin. Does this mean that freedom is improving in the East, or declining in the West?

Hypocrisy & Law

A Really 'Big Deal'

Investors Business Daily Editorial -- Posted 12/13/2010 07:03 PM ET

Health Care: A federal judge ruled Monday that the mandate forcing Americans to buy health care insurance is unconstitutional. Is this the first step in the collapse of ObamaCare?

U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson, a 2002 George W. Bush appointee, said lawmakers went too far in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act when they included a requirement forcing those who are not otherwise covered to buy a health plan or pay a penalty.

He wrote that this individual mandate "exceeds the constitutional boundaries of congressional power."

Never have the courts, Hudson's 42-page opinion said, "extended Commerce Clause powers to compel an individual to involuntarily enter the stream of commerce by purchasing a commodity in the private market."

Wonderful!

I like it, and I’m sure that the conservative Authority! loves it, because it follows their own interpretation of the constitution. Strict construction of the constitution is what they want to see in a judge. If a law violates the constitution it should be struck down, they like to say.

But do you think they would approve of a judge strictly constructing the constitution by striking down laws which ban gay marriage as unconstitutional violations of equal protection of the law?

Not in a million years.

The law is what a court says it is until a higher court says otherwise.

The law is a crap shoot.

Government Fat Police Authority!

12/3/10:  WASHINGTON— AP -- More children would eat lunches and dinners at school under legislation passed Thursday by the House and sent to the president, part of first lady Michelle Obama's campaign to end childhood hunger and fight childhood obesity. The $4.5 billion bill approved by the House 264-157 would also try to cut down on greasy foods and extra calories by giving the government power to decide what kinds of foods may be sold in vending machines and lunch lines. The bill could even limit frequent school bake sales and fundraisers that give kids extra chances to eat brownies and pizza. The first lady said in a statement after the vote that she was "thrilled" about House passage. She called the bill "a groundbreaking piece of bipartisan legislation that will significantly improve the quality of meals that children receive at school."

I’m sure that George Orwell would approve, however, it seems to me that Michelle Obama should first do something about reducing the size of her own fat ass before meddling with the food habits of school children.

Modern Day Slavery

Movie actor Wesley Snipes was convicted and recently sent to prison to serve time for failing to file his income tax returns. Here in the USA – the so-called land of the free and the home of the brave -- you can be imprisoned for not reporting your income and private business affairs to the government every year. There is no escape.

That sad story is just one example among many of how Americans are virtual slaves to the collective Authority! And the genius of it all is that we are not completely enslaved. The government doesn’t just demand all our loot, but instead has found the perfect balance between freedom and slavery for its hapless subjects as it sucks the juices from each golden goose just enough to obtain the most value possible without killing it or otherwise causing it to lose its incentive to produce more loot for the taking every year.

Pinheads & Patriots

Fox News talking puppet, Bill O’Reilly, was droning on and on lately about how the latest Wikileaks disclosure of 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables is an act of treason and that those revealing the information in them are traitors who should be punished severely. Minutes later, during another segment on the same show, he brought out the amusing tidbit that Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, won’t go anywhere these days without his voluptuous blonde Russian nurse. Where did Mr. Bill get that information? Why, from the Wikileaks disclosures, of course. He’s not a traitor though.

Speaking of Bill O’Reilly, his “pinheads and patriots” segment offers us a brand new definition of the word “patriot.” A patriot is someone who agrees with his opinions. The “folks,” as he affectionately calls them, (he’s looking out for the “folks”) are always deemed “patriots,” while those who may not agree are always dubbed “pinheads.” Bill, who is not a lawyer, and can boast of zero legal training, has often called United States Federal Appellate Court Judge, Andrew Napolitano “pinhead” on the show when the distinguished jurist politely disagrees with his half-baked legal opinions. Anyone who has the temerity to doubt Mr. Bill O’Reilly as to any matter is not a patriot but a pinhead.

The degree of arrogance with this man is staggering.

Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is not just an American dream, but the purpose of all individual human existence.

No "group thing" - which is merely an idea - is more important than an individual - which is a real thing.  Ideas are mental tools used to benefit individuals.  Individuals are not tools used for sacrifice to ideas – including, for example, your "country."   Thus, it is perfectly right and proper to ask what your country can do for you, and quite delusional to ask what you can do for your country. Jack Kennedy got it backwards, and, unfortunately, not by mistake.

Worshipers of god’s and government don’t believe in real freedom.  Their concept of ‘freedom’ is merely license, i.e., only that which the authorities permit.  This is the ‘freedom’ of slaves.

Freedom encompasses the right to chose one's own culture.  Culture is simply the aggregations of ideas individuals choose to adopt for themselves in their pursuit of happiness.  No idea, however worthy, should be forced upon a peaceful honest person by the taking of his property to promote that idea.  Yet political and religious zealots aren't content with controlling their own lives.  They what their own lives controlled and they demand control over yours.  Thus, the ever growing minions of Government and Clerical thugs, not content with their already vast powers over individuals, want to regulate your culture too.  These people are criminals just as much as rapists or murderers.