Archive for Random Thoughts

Review of “Freehold”

Posted in Random Thoughts by R Lee Wrights on May 10th, 2009

by Sean Gangol

I have just recently come across an intriguing novel called “Freehold” by Michael Z. Williamson. The novel is set in a future where the world and most of its colonies are ruled by the UN. The life of a citizen is overburdened by regulations, which causes everything to move slowly and inefficiently. Civil liberties are nonexistent and people find themselves implanted with computer chips that track their every movement. Despite the control that the world government has over citizens, crime is considered a part of everyday life, including rape.

The story begins when Kendra Paceilli, a noncommissioned officer in the UN Protection Force is accused of a crime she did not commit. Due to the brutal interrogation of prisoners and the slow pace of the justice system, Kendra takes it upon herself to escape to the outer colony known as the Freehold.

The Freehold is an independent colony that is outside the control of the UN. When she moves into the Freehold she meets Robert McKay, a veteran of the Freehold Military Services. Kendra also meets Marta Hernandez, who works as a high-priced escort. During the early part of her stay in the Freehold, Kendra has to adjust to the culture shock of individual freedom. In the Freehold society there are no restrictions on private ownership of firearms and even though crime still exists it is not the norm. Hallucinogen drugs are sold freely by drink vendors. Taxation is voluntary. Commerce is unregulated.

Read the rest of this entry »

| Comments

Why “God” is a useful concept

Posted in Random Thoughts by R Lee Wrights on April 29th, 2009

by Donna Mancini

The idea of God seems to be a way for human beings to deny the distasteful reality that hustlers and mobs, who are people just like themselves, are stealing their property and running their lives. And, they are not only getting away with it but they are getting the approval of the vast majority. They are receiving big time recognition and numerous rewards in cash and in kind for it!

Religious people say they only obey, respect and follow “God’s” laws and commandments, but how do they know what these particular rules are? They got the information from other human beings, who said they happened to get it from God? Why them and not you? Why thousands of years ago and not now? Why in secret with only a few witnesses?

There is no way for a so-called God to tell anyone what to do or enforce any rule with out using human beings as a “tool” in the process. Therefore, rule by God is impossible and rule by other human beings is a disaster, no matter who they are. An individual without choices and freedom to use ones own body or property at will is a mere slave.

Read the rest of this entry »

| Comments (1)

Politicians cannot “guarantee” health care

Posted in Random Thoughts by R Lee Wrights on April 14th, 2009

by Brian Schwartz

Politicians cannot guarantee health care, but by trying they can create an unaccountable and toxic insurance monopoly. So beware of Colorado House Bill 1273, which will be heard by the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee on March 18. The Rocky Mountain News described this so-called “Colorado Guaranteed Healthcare Act” as a “Canadian-style, single-payer” bill. A recent survey finds that nearly one in four state House members advocate single-payer health care. Their support of such politically-controlled medicine is appalling.

Consider Canadian medicine. The Canadian Medical Association reports that in one year, 71 patients died while awaiting heart surgery and over one hundred others became “medically unfit for surgery.” “Access to a waiting list is not access to health care,” wrote Canadian Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin in a decision that decriminalized non-government insurance.

Why expect single-payer to work? As a government insurance monopoly, it has little incentive to please captive customers. As Barack Obama has stated, “capitalism is great for consumers” when they have “many alternatives,” when customers, “not government bureaucrats … are the judges of what best serves their needs.” Single payer is the opposite of “many alternatives,” and it substitutes a bureaucrat’s judgment for your own.

Single-payer exacerbates problems with current insurance. Politicians coddle insurance companies by enforcing a tax code that favors employer-sponsored insurance. Insurers know that for you to buy a competitor’s product you must either change jobs or pay the full premium plus a tax penalty. Single-payer is worse. If you don’t like it, changing jobs won’t help. You must leave the state.

Read the rest of this entry »

| Comments

Should bailed-out homeowners be required to pay restitution?

Posted in Random Thoughts by R Lee Wrights on March 25th, 2009

by Stan J. Liebowitz

The U.S. public is outraged at the $165 million in bonuses paid to employees of insurance giant American International Group after AIG received billions in government bailout funds-and Washington is looking for ways to make bonus recipients pay back the money.

But what about bailed-out homeowners? Shouldn’t they also pay back money they receive from taxpayers?

The government can provide stressed homeowners the help they need-and recover much of the cost-simply by taxing most of the capital gains that bailout recipients realize on home sales until the value of the assistance is fully paid back to lenders and taxpayers.

Let’s be clear: The administration’s plan to help homeowners avoid foreclosure is a giveaway to those homeowners.

And a restitution policy would have many benefits besides reducing the burden on taxpayers and lenders and providing economic incentives for future homeowners to avoid similar mistakes.

Read the rest of this entry »

| Comments (2)

Obama’s policy on civil liberties: Bush lite?

Posted in Random Thoughts by R Lee Wrights on March 2nd, 2009

by Ivan Eland

Barack Obama entered the presidency as one of the most rhetorically pro-civil liberties politicians in recent memory. And shortly after taking office, he drew applause from friends of liberty for promulgating executive orders closing Guantanamo and CIA secret prisons, ending CIA torture, suspending kangaroo proceedings at military tribunals, and pledging more openness than the secretive Bush administration. Unfortunately, instead of prosecuting Bush administration officials, including George W. Bush, for violating criminal statutes against torture, illegal wiretapping of Americans, and other misdeeds-thus avoiding the bad precedent of giving a president a free pass on illegal acts-Obama appears ready to vindicate the prior administration’s anti-terrorism program by adopting Bush Lite.

Warning signs that Obama was softer on civil liberties than advertised came even before he took office, when as a Senator, he voted for blatantly unconstitutional legislation that allowed federal snooping into some e-mail messages and phone calls without a warrant. The Constitution implies that all government searches and seizures of private property require a judicially-approved warrant based on probable cause that a crime has been committed-with no exceptions mentioned, including for national security.

Politicians love symbolic acts and Obama’s rapid pledge to shutter the high profile prison at Guantanamo and secret CIA prisons was widely praised. But if civil liberties continue to be violated elsewhere, have we made much progress?

Read the rest of this entry »

| Comments

Also known as

Posted in Random Thoughts by R Lee Wrights on January 29th, 2009

by Richard C. Evey

It has been written all over the World Wide Web, it has been talked about on non-MSM, it has been ignored by MSM but the true facts must be revealed. WE THE PEOPLE must be told the truth and shown the real evidence.

Is the messiah, aka Barack Hussein Obama, aka Berry Seotoro, aka Barry Dunham, aka Barry Obama, etc, etc, a natural born citizen, as required by the United States Constitution??

The US Constitution states in Article II, Section I (paragraph 6), “No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President;”

AKA official birth certificate will not be released by the state of Hawaii. AKA will not spend $12.50 for an official copy of his so-called birth certificate and have it made public but he will spend over $1,000,000.00 in legal fees keeping anyone from trying to obtain an official copy of his birth certificate.

Read the rest of this entry »

| Comments (5)

If Obama’s plan doesn’t seem to make sense, it’s because it doesn’t

Posted in Random Thoughts by R Lee Wrights on January 20th, 2009

by LP staff

Libertarian Party Says Obama Plan Based on Failed Economics

America’s largest third party says that President-elect Barack Obama’s spending plans are based on flawed economics. “If you think Obama’s economic plans don’t make sense, it’s because they don’t,” says Libertarian Party National Chairman William Redpath.

“Americans are taking a look at Obama’s economic plans and scratching their heads,” says Redpath. “And, there is good reason to do so.  The theory behind his plan, Keynesian economics, has been unsuccessfully tried by multiple presidential administrations in the past.  It didn’t work for President Hoover in the early 1930s.  It didn’t work for President Roosevelt in the Great Depression.  It didn’t work for President Ford in 1970s.  Why does Obama think it will work for him now?”

“Just look at the last eight years,” says Redpath. “President George Bush did more to increase government spending during his administration than any president in American history. Yet, this is the same period in which we entered into economic decline.  Is there any reason then to believe that more government spending will pull us out of this decline?”

Read the rest of this entry »

| Comments

A boss that tells it like it is

Posted in Random Thoughts by R Lee Wrights on January 11th, 2009

by author unknown

To All My Valued Employees,

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn’t pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country. However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interests.

First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a back story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You’ve seen my big home at last year’s Christmas party. I’m sure; all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life.

However, what you don’t see is the back story.

I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living apartment was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you.

Read the rest of this entry »

| Comments (4)

Shoehorning the Bush legacy

Posted in Random Thoughts by R Lee Wrights on January 1st, 2009

by Ivan Eland

Although we thought that the signature moment of George W. Bush’s presidency would have been his standing in a flight suit before the “Mission Accomplished” banner on an aircraft carrier after the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003, this episode may well have been booted to the side by the scene of the president being insultingly pelted with an Iraqi journalist’s footwear.

This embarrassing saga illustrates that the Bush presidency has trod from tragedy to farce. The president’s well-heeled upbringing has led to the “rich boy” syndrome, in which throughout Bush’s life his wealthy father bailed out this footloose and fancy-free loafer. Thus, Bush began to believe that his “bold” (read: reckless) actions would always turn out OK. Also, Bush can be labeled a “sneaker” for his post-9/11 fabrication of a link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda or 9/11, in order to invade a second, unrelated Muslim nation. Meanwhile, he merely temporarily shooed away Osama bin Laden-allowing a worldwide radical Islamist movement, strengthened by non-Muslim footsteps in Iraq, to possibly threaten the United States another day.

Of course, the invasion of Muslim lands by non-Muslim armies was far more insulting to the Islamic world than failing to remove your shoes when entering a mosque. Hence the ultimate symbolic rejoinder of wing tips flying through the air at the Baghdad news conference-a slight that has proved wildly popular throughout the Muslim world.

Read the rest of this entry »

| Comments

The Bill of Rights

Posted in Random Thoughts by R Lee Wrights on December 15th, 2008

by Richard C. Evey

“Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.”

- Lord Acton

Two hundred and seventeen years ago on December 15, 1791 the Bill of Rights was ratified by the states of a new country, the Unites States of America.

The United States of America might never have existed without the Bill of Rights.  It is so important that several states of the original 13 states would not ratify the Constitution without the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights limits the power of the government and protects the rights of the people.

Nearly everything that makes an American proud to be an American comes from the Bill of Rights. Freedom to speak, print, read, assemble, pray, petition the government, keep and bear arms. Protection from unreasonable arrests and searches, excessive bail, double jeopardy, coerced confessions, cruel and unusual punishment. Rights to due process, jury trials, counsel, and to present defense witnesses. These are the freedoms and rights that define America. The Bill of Rights is uniquely American. We the people have rights as individuals, it says, and government must respect these rights.

Read the rest of this entry »

| Comments

« Previous entries · Next entries »