All Terrain Thinking

A Compendium of things I think are Important

Consequences In Life, Often Unanticipated

 

4. GOVERNMENT

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence - it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master." - George Washington

"Corruptissima republicae, plurimas leges." - Tacitus (The worse the state, the more laws it has.)

Unconstitutional government does not work, and that is what 90% of the current federal government is: Unconstitutional. The federal government has unconstitutionally taken on powers of taxation, inflation, conscription, regulation, prohibition, and many others, with the aid and influence of the Congress and Supreme Court.

The politicians who have voted to make it unconstitutional over the last few decades, actually believe they are important in the work they do, rather than being ashamed at the ruination they have brought about with their handiwork. Will Rogers once said that the country is, "...never in as much danger as when Congress is in session."

Thomas Jefferson said, "Those are governed best who are governed least." That means we are governed about as poorly as is possible. The 75% in taxes we pay, buys us the most onerous federal government in our colorful history, and it actually is approaching (former) Soviet socialistic communism, which is all but gone, thanks to so much government that the whole shebang collapsed of its own weight and gross inefficiency. While North Korea hasn't totally collapsed yet, communism has taken them to the brink. That's why they seem to be making friendly overtures to the South, and of course American businessmen are flirting with them. China is still communist, steals our secrets and muddles along, thanks to Americans being their best customers. Soviet communism didn't fail because of the hundreds of billions America spent 'fighting it.' It failed because it was so inefficient and large, that it simply self destructed, due to actual bankruptcy. In any effort, the private sector's innovation and thought are the best solutions, and those are virtually unknown to a bureaucracy. Slavery never works for long, and this has to include the semi-slavery American citizens currently suffer under federal bureaucratic rule, while they insist we are free.

Most will heartily disagree with that statement, because they will say they are "happy" or "content." One can become used to any atrocity, as witness the poor, destitute, prisoners, or others who are suffering. One can become used to anything if it is tolerated long enough. One becomes so habituated to the pain, inconvenience or poverty, that eventually it isn't noticed, and even a slight improvement is a joy. If the reader could turn back the clock to when the federal government was not oppressive, controlling, and extremely expensive, the difference would be instantly noticed. If the reader could go from 75% taxation on everything, to a small fraction of that amount, the difference would be astounding.

In 1994, there were 69,000 pages of new regulations written, issued, published, and given the force of absolute law, at the federal level alone. Similar amounts are added each year. In 1936, the figure was 2,355 pages during the Roosevelt Administration, but even that was unconstitutional. At local, county, and state levels, those 69,000 pages were probably exceeded many times over. Washington's swampoodle aristocrats claim to have the best of intentions. They want to save a bird species, or clean the air perhaps. The consequences of allowing a D.C. drone to write a regulation...which illogically and unconstitutionally has the effect of a Congressionally passed and voted upon law, is easy to see. They get carried away, and take us with them; writing, enforcing, judging, and of course collecting fines, all without Constitutional authority, or being trained as a legislator, policeman, or judge. They are swept away in their own little world, harassing the rest of us, the consequence being that government grows ever more possessive, oppressive, and expensive. Bureaucrats are highly paid camp followers of the Alexander Hamilton - federalist - monarchist - all powerful central government concept; full of idealism about milk for the Hottentots, and usually a more practical vision of champagne for themselves.

When you awake in the morning, you turn on the radio or TV, licensed and regulated by government. The electricity is regulated, and prices established by government. Your car is licensed, registered, built to the specifications of, runs on roads owned by, and taxed by government. Your food, housing, clothing, education, medical care, and even your funeral, are controlled, regulated, licensed, and mostly have prices limited...by government.

A few items of bureaucratic nonsense, which cost us hundreds of billions follow, both for your amusement and horror. AP reports on March 16, 1995 that the Wyoming Toad Task Force needs an additional $41,000 to continue a search for missing toads which haven't been seen for many years. The Washington Post reported on May 14, 1995 that the Defense Department can’t account for over $15 billion, because it lacks basic accounting procedures, and it is impossible to determine how billions of dollars was spent by the various service branches. The AP (Associated Press) reports that federal forest managers have squandered millions of dollars of reforestation funds, using the money to buy furniture. At least $5.4 million targeted for Oregon never made it to the forest, but was used for non-forestry programs.

The Constitution does not authorize government to waste huge sums on research, but the following have actually been spent: $114,000 to discover that empty stomachs cause hunger in rats, $318,000 to study the sex lives of fat rats, $194,000 to find out how homing pigeons find their way home, $1 million studying the mating call of mosquitoes, $148,000 to find out why chickens grow feathers, $1 million to study the mother love of monkeys, $500,000 to find out why monkeys clench their jaws in anger, and it can go on and on...as everyone knows.

"ALBUQUERQUE - A federal program to protect wild horses has lost track of more than 32,000 animals." - Associated Press 1/29/97

The AP reports that the Bureau of Indian Affairs, (BIA) has listed items incorrectly on its inventory, and $24 million worth of items are missing. Among items listed incorrectly are a $4,318 computer disk drive listed for millions, a $280 vacuum as $635,283, a $1,000 computer at $2 million, and $37,129 worth of equipment was tagged as being worth $536 million. In June 1996, several Indian tribes filed suit against the federal government because the BIA has totally lost track of billions of dollars they owe the Indians for managing their lands. The Indians are considered to be so stupid that they aren't allowed to manage their own property. And speaking of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, that old joke needs to be repeated, because it might be close to true. It seems as though a BIA Ichabod was sitting at his desk with tears running down his face. A fellow employee asked him what the trouble was. He replies, "My Indian died." A once proud and independent people have been reduced to serfs, thanks to intractable government edicts and control.

And then there is the fictitious letter written to the Secretary of Agriculture, as follows: (abbreviated)

Dear Mr. Secretary,

A friend of mine just received a check for $1,000 from the government for not raising hogs. It looked so good to me I want to go into the "not raising hogs" business, and I need your advice.

What is the best type of farm not to raise hogs on, and what are the best kinds of hogs not to raise? How do I keep an inventory of how many hogs I do not raise? My friend got $1,000 for not raising 50 hogs, and I am going to not raise 100 hogs for $2,000, is that O.K.?

I know you government people want to encourage us to do things in a big way, so maybe I could not raise 4,000 hogs and you could give me $80,000 for the first year. I also understand that you pay for not doing other things such as raising corn. Maybe I could not raise corn to feed the hogs I do not raise, and make you even happier," etc., etc.

A joke? Of course, or is it? From the Denver Post of December 9, 1996 comes the story of farmers who lease government land to grow crops, and then place the leased land into the Federal Reserve Conservation Board bureaucracy, which pays farmers to plant grass and take land out of production. From the story..."For more than a century, the Colorado Land Board has leased state-owned acreage to farmers to grow crops and raise livestock. But in 1985, some tenants began enrolling their rented state acreage in a federal program that pays farmers to remove land from food production. The result: 53 Colorado farmers today have placed 113,800 acres of state land into the U.S. Department of Agriculture's no grow program, records show. It costs federal taxpayers at least $520,000 a year. About 36 million acres of American farmland—including 1.9 million acres in Colorado—are now idled as part of the Conservation Reserve Program. The cost to taxpayers is $1.8 billion. The board’s current policy is to require farmers to give the state 25% of their federal payments, although older contracts allow farmers to give their state landlords as little as 5% of their federal payments." Is it possible that the comical letter in the previous paragraph might be halfway true?

The above may be almost equaled by a Dallas Morning News story of March 13 1997, which announces the federal government is considering the demolition of four dams on the Snake River, which cost a billion dollars to build a long time ago. You see, the salmon cannot seem to get back to their original spawning ground, and their numbers are growing smaller each year. How they have managed to get back all these years so far is unexplained. The dams produce huge amounts of pollution free hydropower, allow ships entering from the Pacific to navigate up river as far as Lewiston Montana, and last year, more than 670,000 tons of wheat and barley floated out on barges from the port of Lewiston. The dams were built with navigational locks and "fish ladders," so ships and salmon can traverse, but those poor little itty bitty fishies have a hard time, so we’ll just scrap the whole thing...at a cost of more hundreds of millions. How have the salmon managed for the last 50 years that those dams and ladders have been in existence? There are trillions of salmon in other parts of America and the world. It's the fish vs. man, with the bureaucrats on the fishes' side. The latest proposal from the fuzz brained Sierra Club is to drain Lake Powell and demolish the Glen Canyon dam to 'restore' the canyon lost when this electricity producing dam and lake were built. Lake Powell entertains over 2 million campers, boaters, and fishermen each year, and its electricity feeds huge amounts of western America with its pollution free hydropower. Imagine how ugly it would be after being under water for many decades Sierra Clubbers!

The consequence of allowing unelected D.C. carpetbaggers to actually have the power of law in their word processors, brief cases, and taxpayer funded checkbooks, is government becoming an albatross around America's collective necks; a Babylon-on-the-make. A bureaucrat's first two jobs are to enlarge his base by hiring more underlings, and make himself seem important and indispensable by creating more things to regulate or control. The D.C. area is a 2,500 square mile nest of cockroach like, paper shuffling, pencil pushing moles and lobbyists, going in and out of buildings, making phone calls, sending faxes, generating thousands of tons of useless paper, being the center of media activity, and getting in the hair of the rest of us citizens. (Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution says D.C. is to be a hundred square miles.) In Washington D.C. there are almost 80,000 lobbyists. The power, glory, and titillation coming from governmental influence is extremely intoxicating. Among the close to 80,000 lobbyists, are hundreds of lawyers, plus thousands of U.S. and foreign government and corporate enablers, whose job is to seek out favors and preferred treatment for their clients from the 90% unconstitutional government. If government did not have favors to give, (was Constitutional) these vultures would have to get a proper job. A major consequence of unconstitutional government is the handing out of largess and privilege to foreign nations and business interests from every spot on the globe.

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." - H.L. Mencken

On February 21, 1996, a few days after a tragic railroad accident occurred between Kensington and Silver Spring Maryland, ex-Secretary of Transportation Federico Peña issued a statement on C-Span, explaining his most recent ruling, which would cripple every single railroad schedule in America, solve no problems, and clearly illustrated Peña's total lack of understanding of the railroad system, of which I happen to be an expert, having written many articles on the subject, and being a student of the industry for over four decades. Peña said he was employing, "the constructive use of our regulatory powers." Who gave him any power? Not the Constitution. Peña's experience in transportation is that he is largely responsible for the Denver International Airport, (DIA) which has become a $5 billion dollar debacle, 45 minutes out of town, with insufficient parking, poorly designed roads, expensive fees to airlines, a $293 million automated baggage system that doesn't, and never will work, automated trains running between the terminal and planes which break down regularly, and which, in 1996 resulted in a 100,000 per year increase in passengers at Colorado Springs Airport, 75 miles to the south of Denver. United Airlines spends half of its total airport fees at DIA alone. The lower cost of flying out of, and into Colorado Springs is reflected in ticket prices. Peña was Mayor of Denver when he conceived of the DIA plan, aided, it is rumored, by hefty payoffs. Skilled publicists expedited it with a barrage of hotsy totsy propaganda, the likes of which hadn’t been seen since Barry Goldwater was trying to become President, and about as truthful. Several heroic Denver columnists protested endlessly, but DIA was built, and traffic instantly declined 15% from the adequate, convenient, close in to Denver, Stapleton Airport, which has now been partially demolished. Federico Peña, appointed to his office by Bill Clinton, because he is a Democrat, had as much experience and knowledge about transportation as a squirrel. He presided over an absurdity that will cost Denver taxpayers billions, and then with the stroke of a pen and calling a press conference, threw America's railroads into turmoil. Upon leaving the Department of Transportation, (DOT) he went on to head the Department of Energy, (DOE) about which I am certain he also knew nothing. After a brief stint at Energy, he quit. Recently, he was back in Denver, his old stomping grounds.

Here is the unconstitutional Department of Transportation investigating an unfortunate accident on a railroad, which investigation could have been done quicker, more thoroughly, and at a fraction of the cost, by the railroad itself. The railroad knows its systems and operations far better than a D.C. dreg, who had never even been on the property. The railroad didn't want that accident, could certainly discover the trouble, and make its own corrective changes to prevent further tragedies of that type. Peña made a rule for all railroads, based on one accident, and of course every railroad is different, has different grades, train lengths, amounts of trackage, plus different signaling and communications systems. Logically, the proclaimed "rule" should not apply to all railroads...and yet the DOT says it must. How absurd.

The same DOT has forced American auto manufacturers to install air bags at a huge cost to car buyers. So far, the cost per life supposedly saved is $400,000. At least 108 people have been killed by the bags inflating without reason, 68 of them children. There is no documented case of a child's life being saved by an air bag. Two thirds of adults experience an exploding air bag from a small bump that would not have injured anyone. Almost all suffer injury to their ears from the loud noise. Is this force-feeding of air bags by the DOT Constitutional? Was it voted upon by Congress? The DOT now wants to make it illegal for any child under 13 to ride in the front seat, a case of federal government at its dumbest.

And speaking of Peña, who can forget the "Valu-Jet" flight 592 crash that sent 110 innocents to their deaths in a Florida Everglades swamp? Peña mounted a press conference, and stated unequivocally that Valu-Jet was safe, had no maintenance problems, and the accident was a fluke. As days passed, it was seen that Peña was totally ignorant of the facts. Valu-Jet had been written up over and over again for faulty maintenance. Its engines were rebuilt in Turkey, and one plane had no radar for months, its pilots writing it up 31 times. Valu-Jet's planes were flying with windshields about to fall out, rivets and screws missing, and in general, a nightmare. Two weeks before the crash, a disgruntled federal inspector was quoted as saying, "The next crash will be Valu-Jet!" It turns out the Valu-Jet crash was not because of any of the previously mentioned maintenance flaws, but supposedly the loading of uncapped, loaded, oxygen canisters in the cargo hold. Had the crash not been from the canisters, one would have surely occurred in due time, but Peña said all was hunky dory.

The FAA is the world's largest purchaser and user of vacuum tubes for use in its outmoded, antiquated air traffic control system. The FAA's controls over the skies are primitive, while the planes it controls are literally "jet age." The vacuum tube was last used in domestic electronics equipment such as TV's and radios no later than the late 50's. Most people have never seen one, unless they are antique collectors, yet thousands of them are responsible for your safety in an airplane...today.

Is Peña an evil man? No, but his edicts and pronouncements, given with little or no knowledge, had the consequence of giving the public 100% wrong information on Valu-Jet, and as far as the railroads are concerned, his rules would ruin schedules, inconvenience passengers and employees, cost the industry millions, and have no effect on safety. How many DOT employees have railroad or airline experience of any kind? Probably, most are career bureaucrats who have groveled their way up the D.C. ladder of success, and generally have little knowledge of the world outside of the beltway.

On NBC's "Nightline" program of August 6, 1996, a reporter interviewed the manager of a major Swiss airport, and discussed their protections against bombs and explosives planted by terrorists. The Swiss use wonderful state of the art detection devices that detect plastique explosives and all manner of bombs automatically. They have a device that actually smells explosives after the x-rays are finished, making Swiss air travel virtually 100% safe from terrorism. The NBC interviewer was amazed, and queried the official as to where they had obtained such extraordinary devices. "America," was the reply to an incredulous reporter. They had looked everywhere, and found exactly what they wanted from an American manufacturer. Secretary Peña was asked why American airports didn't have these American made detection devices that the Swiss had been using for 5 years. He mumbled something, and refused an answer...on camera.

Do we have fewer railroad, airline, or highway accidents now that we are blessed with the DOT, and its investigative and rule making bureaucrats? Hardly.

"The mandate to steal everything in sight has always been implicit in the election of a Democratic Administration." - Lucius Bebee

Today, we have a Department of Education educating no one, and sent 99% of its employees home, deemed to be "unnecessary," during the November 1995 budget standoff between the Republicans and President Clinton. They were also unable to find out where $775 million went in 1999. There is a Department of Transportation transporting nothing, a Department of Energy producing no energy, a Department of Agriculture growing nothing, a Department of Labor doing no labor, a Department of Commerce, that sent 89% of its workers home during the same November 1995 budget standoff, because they were deemed "unnecessary." Then we have a Department of Defense, which in reality seems to be a department of offense, poking its nose and American troops into everyone's business but our own, at an enormous cost, a Department of Housing and Urban Development which creates urban slums, a "Surgeon General" for heaven only knows why, and the list goes on and on. Under Thomas Jefferson, the State Dept. had but seven employees, and the world has not grown any larger. Before F.D.R., the federal bureaucracy was so diminutive, that Washington D.C. was not considered a government town. I know, being born, raised, and educated there, my family having been there since 1791.

As a simple example of the consequences of government intrusion, take the above mentioned Department of Agriculture, which was formed by Abraham Lincoln during the War Between The States. Almost immediately, the department began sending out seed packets to all who asked for them...free of course. So many seed packets were sent out, and so many Americans began to farm as a result of this largess and encouragement, that between 1865 and 1900 farmers produced so much food, and such large crops, that prices plummeted to below the cost of production, and farmers couldn't even break even. So much food was produced, that farmers by the thousands went bankrupt, losing their entire life's savings, and possibly was one of the causes of the disastrous "dust bowl." If the market had been allowed to operate, free from government, this wouldn’t have happened. Farmers would have bought land and seeds if they chose to do so, raised crops if they wanted to, but free seeds wouldn’t have upset the entire balance of agriculture. In 1999, the same problem of too many farms still existed, and it began with the Department of Agriculture over a hundred years ago.

"When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing---when you see money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors---when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you---when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice---you may know your society is doomed." - from the novel "Atlas Shrugged," by Ayn Rand. A MUST read!

To illustrate the untrammeled growth of government, let me describe one of my most prized books, the "Barnes Federal Code," published by Bobbs-Merrill Company in 1919. I found it in an antique store in Phoenix. The sub-title is, "Containing All Federal Statutes of General and Public Nature Now In Force." In other words, all the federal laws in existence in 1919 are contained in this book. It has 2831 pages, but only 2512 of them are actual text, the rest being an index. The first few pages are devoted to the Constitution. The book begins with statute #1 and ends with statute # 10,374. That's it! The statutes cover every single thing the federal government did in 1919, including internal revenue, Indian reservations, government pay, departments, tariffs, shipping rules, naturalization and immigration, national parks, agriculture, money, and you name it. In 1919, there were exactly 10,374 federal laws. Today, there are tens of millions. See what has happened? In 1919, all federal laws could be encapsulated in a 5" X 9" book, which is 3" thick. Today, they couldn't be contained in a freight car, or perhaps many freight cars.

The very word "government" should be self-descriptive. To govern, according to the dictionary, is to "exercise authority over, rule, control, etc." In our case, American Government was to protect us from our enemies, both foreign and domestic, administer justice, punish criminal activity, and few other things as outlined in our Constitution. The Founders intended that government was to be our servant, not the citizenry being servants of government. Is there anyone in America who doesn't comprehend that the tables have been turned? Is there really anyone who doesn’t grasp that we are now the servants of government, rather than the Constitution's original intent? No place in our sacred Constitution is there any mention of transferring wealth, allowing a bureaucracy to legislate, stealing from the "haves" to give to the "have nots," or doing at least 90% of what the federal government has taken upon itself, at our expense, supposedly with the best of unconstitutional intentions. The consequences of possible good intentions and absolute power to implement, gives us 75% taxation, and an out of control federal government, administered by erroneous prophets and beltway potentates, who think cost or absurdity is something too frivolous to even consider.

During the 1996 Presidential election campaign, Bill Clinton held forth at the Grand Canyon, and by "executive order," seized 1.7 million acres of extremely valuable Utah land, turning it into the "Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument." Clinton took Utah land while in Arizona, probably because if he had done it in Utah, he might have been lynched. No one, not even Utah Congressmen noticed that "executive orders" are not found in the Constitution. Federally seized land is supposedly taken under the 1906 Antiquities Act, but that is an unconstitutional law, even if "executive orders" were Constitutional. That seized Utah land is estimated to have more than a trillion dollars worth of super low sulfur coal under it, which will probably never be mined, and which is found no where else on earth...except Indonesia. Strangely, Indonesia is that far-off land across the Pacific whose banks and industry contributed extremely heavily towards the Clinton re-election. Sarah Foster, a syndicated columnist succinctly wrote, "With a stroke of his pen he wiped out the only significant competition to Indonesian coal interests."

Politicians now allow citizenship tests to be taken in a foreign language. The desire to usher in new citizens and make them feel welcome is fine, but the consequence is that entire sections of America contain citizens who do not speak the English language, making communication difficult or impossible, and creating an impenetrable division in our land. The TV show "20-20," for Friday July 12, 1996 reported that the government now farms out the taking of tests for, and granting of citizenship. The piece shockingly proved that the sub-contracting of a Constitutionally authorized governmental duty has resulted in uncounted numbers of people being granted citizenship who cannot read, write, or understand the English language, and know nothing whatsoever about America, present or past. A month after that, NBC and other networks found that thousands of immigrant criminals with long police blotters had been made citizens. A story in the Washington Times of March 9, 1997 states that in 1996, "Nearly 72,000 became citizens last year despite having criminal records—some for crimes as serious as rape, murder, child molestation, assault or drug trafficking—a Justice Department review of immigration records has found." The story goes on for hundreds of words detailing outrageous, illegal, and absurd conduct by the INS, (Immigration and Naturalization Service), all totally unconstitutional and senseless.

The Federal Government's division of Fish and Wildlife has a separate division that deals solely with eagle feathers. This will illustrate how outrageous D.C. has become. The privileged pickpockets of this division pick feathers from dead eagles, not just American Bald Eagles, but all eagles, and file them away, taking "applications" from various people such as Indians, who want them. This absurdity costs taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. It is a felony to own an eagle feather. No eagle is an endangered species. They are plentiful, but the government even has a grasp on eagle feathers.

A child born in 1995 would have to pay $187,000 over its lifetime to service and pay the national debt, and it was getting higher by a million dollars an hour. The interest on the national debt in 1992, was higher than the entire budget of 1974. Borrowing money from anyone who will loan it, has been the habit of government for far too long. Rather than only spending what is collected in taxes, new "benefits" are discovered daily for government to give to its citizens, supposedly to uplift them, make them warm, well clothed, housed, and educated. Over $5.4 trillion has been spent since 1965 towards these efforts. The consequences are that it hasn't worked. It hasn’t worked, because no government can control human actions other than by threat of force or punishment. No government has ever been able to force human energy and desire to conform to its wishes, no matter how noble. There is no less poverty now then there was then, and as a matter of fact, there is more. There is poorer education, filthier air, more crime, more illegitimacy, destroyed cities, millions of divorces, murders, abuses of all kinds, and more and more prisons are needed. The consequences of this reckless spending are that we are hopelessly in debt, and watching our land overflow with crime, single parent families, filth, addictions, and worthless, hopeless, futureless, people. "SFN," (something for nothing, remember?) and unconstitutional government has done it all.

I sat in my chair a short time ago, and looked about me. I observed the furniture, windows, TV, VCR, carpet, walls, ceiling, lights, mantle, fireplace, books, records, CD's, wall hangings, doors, and even the coffee cup I was drinking from; and could find nothing that government was responsible for either inventing, manufacturing, or supplying. Then I went to the garage and looked at my power and hand tools, antique truck and modern car, plus the paints, caulking guns, sandpaper, air compressor, welder, heater, lumber, nails, screws, shelves, garage door opener, walls, ceiling, and doors; and not a single item came from, was made by, or supplied by government. I roamed the house, looking from attic to basement, and found hundreds of items ranging from Christmas decorations and toys, to the furnace, kitchen and appliances, china, silver, pots and pans, washer, dryer, food, and detergents of several types; and could find nothing that government supplied, manufactured, invented, or was in any way responsible for. Looking out the windows, I saw grass, a sprinkler system, trees, birds fluttering around, a couple of pet ducks in the yard, an iron fence, gates, sidewalks, garden hose, lawn mower, snow shovel, garden tools, bird bath, porches, benches, and even weeds, but could find none that came from government, was invented or received from government, or any of thousands of items around my home or anyone’s home that government was responsible for; and yet we pay perhaps 75% of our income to governments at various levels. Think about it! We live our lives using clothes, food, tools, cars, furniture and appliances, just to name a few, and all were invented, manufactured, and purchased without government.

Government can force; but it cannot control, invent, love, design, or create. Government force can collect your money; but government can never do anything creative, which is reserved for the mind of man. Government cannot control a mind, human energy, or force someone to invent, wash, eat, or love. Government can prohibit the use of human energy and creativeness, but none of the pharaohs, kings, emperors, potentates, presidents or legislative bodies in history have ever succeeded in the impossible task of controlling the human mind. No law, edict, or force could ever control human energy. "Control" and "force" are totally different. American governmental force is supposed to be, "with the consent of the governed," but that seems to have become an invalid rule. Government spending, "aid" and "programs" have failed, because nothing but man himself can control and direct himself.

"As for government, does not its art lie in taking as much money as possible from one group of citizens to give it to another?" - Voltaire

We pay almost as much in taxes as do the socialist states, and for what? Government expensively and inefficiently doing things not authorized in the Constitution, coupled with the ability to tax us to do these things, makes us no longer free. In theory we are free, but once again, look about you and realize how intrusive government really is. If you own a home, business, farm, have a job, drive a car, go to the grocery, make a phone call, watch TV, or do any of life's hundreds of daily tasks and pleasures; government is never far from you with its regulations, force, rules, taxes, and specifications. Everything we use or buy is regulated by government at some level, and the regulations very rarely having been voted upon by elected representatives at any level. The consequences of government seizing power gradually, unconstitutionally, over the decades, and slowly enough that the citizenry didn’t notice or protest, are similar to old Gulliver, who would never have been harnessed by one Lilliputian. When hundreds and thousands of government Lilliputians, over the years, have thrown their threads around us, we are completely harnessed. Governmental Lilliputians invariably thought they were doing it for our own good, protecting us from our own mistakes or folly. Weakness and mistakes are impossible to control by government. The consequences are that our society has been weakened...as was Gulliver. If Americans were suddenly relieved of all these Liliputian threads, would we be strong enough to be independent, think for ourselves, make decisions for ourselves, and exist in a prosperous state? I must confess I am not sure. When a robber steals from you he leaves. When government steals, rather than leaving, it stands back and tells you how wonderful it is.

My uncertainty about our ability to be once again strong, if government shackles were thrown off, is a really enormous problem. The strong and average could make it easily, with a bit of readjustment. The weak may not make it without the immeasurable subsidies, welfare, housing, care, transport, "programs," (I hate that word!) and feeding government provides them, because they have been brainwashed by "SFN." That is the crux of America today.

A quick look at the animal kingdom will illustrate the point. The beetles, fish, birds, and wild animals have no subsidies. Neither do weeds, viruses, and rust have subsidies. On the other hand, they are not taxed or governed either. The animal kingdom cannot think, speak, invent, or do anything much more than growl, grunt, hunt for food, mate, and reproduce; all by sheer instinct, and eventually die. I wouldn't trade places, but we can always learn from things we observe and know to be true. It is a basic, inborn, survival instinct, which keeps the animal species alive and healthy. Instinct says to all animals, insects, fish, and birds, several things that are immutable. First and foremost is, protect yourself and your family, provide for them, care for them, discipline the young, forage for food, and build a nest. This has variations of course, depending on the species, but the rule applies basically to all, especially those that mate for life. The second inborn rule all living creatures abide by, is to be strong, independent, and fare for yourself, because if you don’t do it for yourself, no one else is going to do it for you. There are other habits, tenets, instincts, and inbred practices, but the main ones are to care for yourself and yours, plus be as strong as you possibly can. Those that do not learn these rules, or are born without nature’s rules built in to their tiny brains, are doomed to fail, die, or be eaten.

We all lived extremely well using nature's rules of survival, self help, and strength, until about the mid 1960's. Think about that time period. It is possible to go back an additional 30 years to the time FDR took office, when he began the welfare state. That was the beginning of the end. Today, welfare recipients usually have to do nothing, and in actuality do negative things to live quite well. Negative things such as have babies out of wedlock to get more welfare, as just one example of many. Today, a person has only to be poor, diseased, crazy, old, young, fat, or lazy, and a whole menu of wonderful things are provided by government, ranging from a home, to the best of medical care, and food to eat. Has nature been successfully defeated? What has happened as a result of this attempted defeat of the natural laws of nature, is that we have an entire group of weaklings, criminals, drug dealers, unwed mothers, and a plethora of what ails us, reproducing incessantly, and flooding the entire earth with useless, worthless creatures. This came about as the consequence of government forcibly taking from the producers and giving it to the non-producers; as LBJ said, "...who need it so much."

The animal kingdom would quickly cease to exist if it practiced what our supposedly enlightened humanitarians have thrust upon us over the last 35 years; namely rewards for non achievement, and punishment for achievement, all done through regulations, taxation, and oppressive government. This has resulted in a gradual weakening of our society, a decline in our moral fabric, and an entire generation of people who haven't the slightest idea of how to work, shoulder responsibility, or care for themselves. The America envisioned by our forefathers in the Constitution, worked well for over 150 years. It is now crumbling because of the systematic weakening of it by all encompassing government, which provides for those who should not be provided for, feeds those who should feed themselves, and houses those who should provide their own nest.

"If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat." - II Thessalonians 3:10

A look of absolute horror envelops the faces of the media and political elite, if one dares to suggest that government should not look out or care for the poor, sick, or others who benefit from handouts. "Government looking out and caring for," is the most destructive action on which a civilized society could possibly embark. "Looking out and caring for," is the job of relatives, parents, charities, and churches…all voluntary…not compulsory government, which seizes its citizens' assets for that purpose. Under a voluntary system, a person may decide whether they like a project to help the needy or not. Under government, everyone has their assets seized, whether they agree or not, a common practice of communists. Handouts only weaken, whereas self-sufficiency strengthens.

The federal government has become so onerous and costly, that there are secession movements going on in America today. Texas has a strong movement for independence from Washington D.C., as does Alaska and the three northwest states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. NBC News, on March 12, 1997 reported that there is a large movement in the American South to actually restore the Confederacy. The Southerners, and thousands of sympathizers across America, are sick and tired of being dictated to by Washington, and want to restore the Confederacy as it used to be before the War Between the States, without slaves of course, but also without federal income taxes, mandates, and gobbledygook. There are others, but consider just these four, and ponder whether another War Between the States might occur eventually. Washington, Oregon, and Idaho have everything they could possibly need, with plenty of rain, seacoast, timber, gold and silver, coal, iron, copper, transportation, and all it would take to be self sufficient. Texas could easily make it alone, as could Alaska and the South. There have been movements to divide the U.S. down the Mississippi, the West being one country, and the East another. Generally, the American West has a far different philosophical outlook than does the East. The East has the large cities, Washington D.C., bureaucracy by the ton, and generally a far more amenable attitude towards large government, and the curses it begets. The West can generally be described as independent, self sufficient, out-spoken, and fed up with being ruled, taxed, and regulated to death. I am proud to say that even though I was born and raised in Washington D.C., I am a westerner at heart, an attitude not difficult to latch on to, even if one is just a tourist, visiting and meeting us for the first time. A much better division might be all land west of the Mississippi, and south of the Mason-Dixon Line for a "New America." The New England states tried repeatedly to secede from the Union, long before the South did, and failed in their effort. Maybe they should be encouraged again.

The reason there are secession movements and books such as this being written, is that Americans are afraid. Afraid of government and its employees, who have the power of life and death over us...literally. As proof of that seemingly exaggerated statement, please consult the United States Code, Title 50, (War and Defense) Chapter 32, (Chemical and Biological Warfare program) Paragraph 1520, (Use of human subjects for testing of chemical or biological agents by Department of Defense; accounting to Congressional committees with respect to experiments and studies; notification of local civilian officials) and you will see for yourself that government can indeed conduct its experiments on "civilian populations," as long as they receive permission from undesignated "local civilian officials!" Could the experimenters ask the local dogcatcher for permission to expose us to plutonium? It seems to me the Japs and Nazis in WW II did such things, didn’t they? Similar heinous things have been done over and over again to Americans, as has been reported by the media. Currently there have been hundreds of contrail like vapors hanging over American cities and towns, released by strange, unmarked planes. Can anyone deny that it is government experimenting on us?

Americans fear an IRS agent will knock on their door and conduct an exhaustive audit, in which they are guilty, until they can prove themselves innocent. They fear an EPA bureaucrat will declare their land to be a "wetland," (swamp) and prohibit them from using it. Americans fear some microscopic mouse or bug will be found on their farm, and their land will be declared unusable...to protect that vermin. A typical case happened near Pasadena California in October of 1991, when raging fires were edging towards beautiful homes. A tiny mouse, the "Stephen’s Kangaroo Rat," was found living there. It was listed on the Endangered Species Act of 1988. Homeowners were prohibited from clearing away brush in the path of the fire, which would save their homes. The stupid mouse might be nesting there, and we should know that senseless mice are far more important than homes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, containing their owner's lifetime collections of antiques, memorabilia, photos, furniture, silverware, china, and books! Dozens of splendid homes burned in that disastrous fire. The federal government prohibited their owners from clearing away the undergrowth around the back of their homes, on their own property, to save them. Michael Rowe defied the bureaucrats, plowed under the brush at the rear of his land, and saved his home...which is now surrounded by burned ruins. Speaking of mice, from a Denver Post story of June 4, 1997 we find that work has stopped on a $35 million pipeline, because there is "suspicion" that the Preble's Jumping Mouse might "possibly" inhabit the area where the pipeline is to be built. No one has seen it, but there is a "possibility" the mouse "might" live in the pipeline's path. Ugh!

What would happen if an endangered species was caught eating an endangered plant? (Just a bit of humor)

In Colton California, eight flies on the Endangered Species List were discovered at the construction site of a new hospital. It cost $3 million to move the site 300 feet away, and to set aside two acres for the flies. Up the coast and inward a bit, San Bernardino has to cough up $100 million to protect silly flies. If one came into your house you would undoubtedly swat it, as their appearance is like any other fly to an "untrained" eye. Doing so could cost you a $75,000 fine if the snoopy bureaucratic ayatollahs and fly preservationist jugheads found out about it.

The "Endangered Species Act" (ESA) actually causes endangered species to be placed in extreme danger, although this might not be obvious at first consideration. The act is supposed to protect species from extermination, in spite of the fact that 97% of all species that have ever existed are already extinct, according to my high school science teacher. Suppose you discovered some rodent, bug or insect on your land that was on the "Endangered Species List." What’s the first thing you would do? Obviously kill all the bugs or mice, because if they were "officially" discovered, your land would be useless. Bureaucrats would swarm over it, cataloging the cockroaches, ants, or whatever they considered "endangered." You would be prohibited from ever using that land again, and not be paid for its seizure. The ESA pits man against animals, and rather than protecting bugs and insects, for all practical purposes, it places them at risk. No one in their right mind wants to have an "endangered species" on their property. Since the ESA was made law in 1973, over 1,000 species have been labeled as "Endangered." None have been saved! 27 have become extinct. The falcon, American eagle, and nine others have helped themselves and once again become plentiful, but not through the efforts of the ESA. After 25 years, the ESA has saved nothing...only harassed us citizens.

Americans are afraid of what cloud-cuckoo-land-on-the-Potomac may come up with next, under the most specious of reasons, depriving them of property, health, and wealth. Currently, no neighborhood is safe from plundering by government under "Section 8" vouchers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, (HUD) one of the most corrupt, wasteful agencies of the D.C. gang. Tens of billions are being spent, moving trash people into wonderful, expensive neighborhoods, all expenses paid. In January 1994, St. Louis Alderman Paul Beckerie protested that neighborhoods throughout his ward were being dragged down by a crime wave generated by "Section 8 clients," who recently moved into the area. St. Louis Police Lt. Joseph Richardson said of Section 8 vultures, "There is evidence of drugs being sold there, and ample evidence of gang activity responsible for drug activity. These are terrible neighbors. No one would want to live next door to them." There also is the case of some California citizens who protested such activities, and were arrested. This is absolute fact. Fear of government abounds.

On Monday, February 12, 1996 federal marshals invaded two K-Mart stores in the Ft. Lauderdale Florida area, seizing all the cash in the stores…$52,000…making clerks unable to even make change for their customers. The reason? Absurd at best, the raid being called a "Keystone Cops" type of affair by local police, who were powerless to stop the Federal Gestapo. K-Mart had done nothing wrong, as was proven instantly, but the money was to be "kept in trust," for an undetermined time period, if not forever. On July 8, 1996, liar Bill Clinton was marching in a parade in New York, when a non-admirer shouted an expletive at him. She was immediately arrested by the Secret Service, questioned non-stop for 12 hours, and kept in jail overnight. The Secret Service has evidently not heard of the First Amendment. Allow me to test the Secret Service by saying that I consider that the Clinton Administration was the most corrupt and disgusting in American history. Federal government power is a dark cloud over America.

The so called "forfeiture laws" are a disgrace, breeding fear and loathing of the government. In late 1991, Andrew Schneider and Mary Pat Flaherty of the Pittsburgh Press did an outstanding six part feature on these laws, giving examples and even photos of innocents who have had their property, businesses, and even personal possessions stolen from them by the federal government. In the series, innocents had their property seized by police and federal marshals; whose conduct would make the Soviet's KGB or the Nazi Gestapo blush. From part 5: "In Washington State, where the maximum criminal penalty could have been a $10,000 fine, an elderly couple served 60 days for growing 35 marijuana plants, and lost their $100,000 house. On March 6, 1990, the state of Washington seized the couple's three-bedroom home and the 5 acres it sits on. The man was 69, and his wife 61. Neither had ever had a single brush with the police. The man admitted to the police he was growing the stuff for his own use and even took them to the shed and showed it to them. He was attempting to control pain from severe cluster headaches. The $100,000 property, 130 miles south of Seattle, was their entire life savings." Cluster headaches are among the most severe forms of human pain, being likened to childbirth, massive burns, or an operation without anesthesia, so please do not minimize an effort to minimize the excruciating pain of a "cluster headache."

Another case has been reported on the CBS show, "60 Minutes." The story is about a couple who started an air charter business out of Las Vegas. One day, a 74-year-old man with 4 locked boxes chartered their plane, which took him to a small airport outside of Los Angeles. Unknown to the pilot, the boxes contained over $2 million in cash. The pilot was held on drug trafficking charges, even though there were no drugs. His plane was seized by the government, and at last report he had filed for bankruptcy, and was driving a truck for 22 cents a mile. How the pilot was supposed to know what was in locked boxes is unknown, and even if he did, what connection could that have had to drugs? Why was his plane confiscated? Is it any wonder that Americans fear their government? If you sell your home or business, carry back a mortgage, and something "illegal" is done on that property, government can seize it, sell it at auction, and you are ruined. I love my country; it's the federal government I worry about.

Want more? From the Feb. 22, 1993 New Yorker Magazine comes this little tidbit. "An American woman vacationing in Paris found the piano that Franz Liszt once owned and played. She wanted it, bought it, and had it shipped back to the U.S. The "African Elephant Conservation Act of 1988," allowed fines of up to $25,000 and jail sentences of up to one year for the importation of elephant ivory. Naturally, that 73-year-old piano had ivory keys. The piano was stopped at customs by the Fish and Wildlife Service, which cited the Elephant act, plus the "Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species," which put the African elephant on its endangered list in 1989. The piano had its keys steamed off, totally ruining a priceless antique once owned by a world famous composer." Fear of government? You bet! Were those customs agents evil, or just "following orders" like the Nazis? The consequence of "following orders," was the destruction of a priceless antique, and the loss of tens of thousands of dollars, which had been honestly invested.

The federal government has gotten so big, in total violation of our Constitution, that it is grossly inefficient, besides striking abject horror into its subjects. An August 9, 1994 Associated Press story details how the CIA built a million square foot building, costing $310 million, without its existence even being known to Congress. An April 30, 1994 AP story informs us that the National Park Service has lost track of property worth more than $27 million. On the Park Service books, a $133,000 fire engine is listed as having a value of one cent, a $150 vacuum was listed at $800,015, and a $350 dishwasher at $700,035. Again, on May 14, 1995, the Washington Post reported that the Defense Department regularly pays contractors hundreds of millions of dollars it doesn't owe them; much of it never returned. Pentagon purchasing agents overdrew their checking accounts by $7 billion, and at a minimum, $15 billion was unaccounted for in the year 1994. Completed in 1997, at the corner of 12^th and Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington D.C., is the world's largest government building, containing 3.1 million square feet, 85 elevators, underground parking for 2,000 cars, and costing almost a billion dollars. It is a third larger than the Empire State Building, and was begun with no tenants, or use for it. Undoubtedly against his wishes, it was named the "Ronald Reagan Building." The exterior contains 42,000 limestone slabs, and 250,000 cubic yards of concrete were poured for it. The interior contains a 125-foot high atrium, with an entire acre of glass. Failing to find a use for it, or tenants to rent it, as a "last resort," the fed moved 7,000 bureaucrats into it.

According to Cox News Service, "Congressional accountants uncovered tens of billions of dollars in bookkeeping mistakes in a second unsuccessful attempt to audit Air Force financial records, according to a report presented to Congress. Air Force record-keeping remains so bad that the books cannot be audited and taxpayers' money is wasted, the General Accounting Office said." The National Forest Service reported expenses of $12.1 million and revenues of $5.1 million...in Colorado alone.

The federal government claims to own, but has no deeds for, half of the 760 million acres in the 11 western states, not counting Alaska. That is more land than is contained in the combined areas of France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Denmark, Hungary, and Albania. It is poorly managed, costly, and a disgrace to those who understand correct land and forest management. In the county in which I live in Colorado, the federal government claims ownership of thousands of acres of our land, and pays the grand total of 75¢ per acre for what is called "PILT" or, "Payment In Lieu Of Taxes." In my county, normal taxation of this raw acreage would be $2.12 per acre. Several states are now challenging the federal government to prove its ownership of these lands, which they claim as their own.

The Constitution, Article 1, section 8, clause 17 says, regarding government ownership of land that they may own or, "Exercise authority over all places purchased by the consent of the Legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, stock-yards, and other needful buildings." Get the point? In other words, the federal government may own only the lands they have purchased from the states, and with the consent of the individual state legislatures. The hundreds of millions of acres the federal government claims to own, were never purchased, no deeds ever issued for them, nor permission to own ever received from the states. California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and parts of Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming were formed as a result of a treaty with Mexico, signed in 1848, and commonly known as the "Treaty of Guadeloupe-Hidalgo." In this treaty, speaking of the transferred lands, it says they... "Shall be formed into free, sovereign, and independent states and incorporated into the Union of the United States as soon as possible, and the citizens thereof shall be accorded the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities as citizens of the original states." This was the treaty that ended the Mexican War, and was ratified on March 10^th, 1848.

The federal government claims to own, but has no title, permission, or deed to, pays tiny "PILT" fees on, and manages poorly, 82.9% of Nevada, 67.9% of Alaska, 63.9% of Utah, 61.6% of Idaho, 52.4% of Oregon, 48.9% of Wyoming, 47.2% of Arizona, 44.6% of California, 36.3% of Colorado, 32.4% of New Mexico, 28.3% of Washington, and 28% of Montana, in violation of the Constitution and Treaty of Guadeloupe-Hidalgo. The above are U.S. Department of Commerce figures.

In Nye County Nevada, commissioner Dick Carver decided he had enough, used a bulldozer to close a National Forest road, and defied the federal government to prove its right to, and ownership of, so called "federal lands." It went to a federal court, where a federal judge, ruled that Nye County didn't own the land, but rather the federal government did. Did we expect any other verdict from a federal judge on the federal payroll, when a favorable decision would have begun the taking of hundreds of millions of acres from his boss, turning them over to their rightful owners? Currently, a nationally organized group calling themselves the "Shovel Brigade" travel to various "public lands," and forcefully re-open closed roads…to the loud hurrahs of the witnessing public.

Government claims it can manage the so called "public lands" efficiently, and that it keeps them for the public to use, both of which are totally false. Ever try to use a "public land" without paying? Ever try to use a "wilderness" area? In my State of Colorado alone, 5 million acres have been declared "wilderness," meaning that virtually no one can use them. As far as taking care of lands, there is no greater disgrace than the yearly out of control forest fires that consume "public lands" by the millions of acres each summer. In May 2000, 48,000 acres of "public lands" were burned and over 200 homes destroyed in New Mexico by a wildfire intentionally started by the superintendent of a National Park, against strong advice from the weatherman and others with knowledge. He later said he, "would do it again." Strange, but these fires never seem to burn the private forests, owned and tended by the large timber companies, who regularly clear out brush, replant, fertilize, pay taxes on, and in general take care of their property. There are hundreds of millions of land owners that tend their land lovingly, including you and I, who regularly farm our acreage, and at home cut our lawns, plant flowers, fertilize, water, and weed. "Public lands" are a disgrace, as is just about anything "public." Do you like "public" rest rooms? "Public" generally means anything run by government...such as housing. The words "public" and "private" certainly do command totally different visions, don’t they?

It makes sense to work for the government. The Washington D.C. area, and surrounding suburbs of Maryland and Virginia, have five of the nation's ten wealthiest communities, according to an Associated Press (AP) story on March 1, 1990. Actually, Washington D.C. and environs is so far and away isolated in thought from the rest of America, it is almost a separate country. Newspaper columnists and broadcasters commonly speak of "outside the beltway," "inside the beltway," and "beltway mentality," which clearly illustrates the situation. These "inside the beltway" bozos are fed by the rest of America with taxes and depreciating dollars. Those rich D.C. area communities derive their incomes by working for, lobbying, operating, publicizing, broadcasting, and servicing the federal government, which has unconstitutionally grown out of control for decades, no politician having stopped its growth yet, and probably not even wanting to do so. The fear, outrageous waste, and profligacy spawned by the almighty federal government, is unmatched in human history, and paid for with worthless printing press money.

In 1815, the federal government had but 515 employees.

This brings us to another Thomas Jefferson quote, which about sums up the current situation: "When government fears the people we have liberty. When people fear the government we have tyranny." I'll guarantee you the government doesn’t fear the citizenry.

We must examine what government has done "for us," to make its huge cost worth while for America. Then consider what it has done "to us" with its huge cost. Government takes most of our money, so surely it does wonderful things...correct? Examine all the inventions in history. Look at all the patents, successful businesses, airlines, railroads, automobiles, computers, agriculture, chemicals, materials of all types, tools, buildings, architecture, books, the media, scholarship, and the list can go on and on. What has government done to make any of these possible, not only in American history, but the world? It has done nothing, other than taxed, regulated, and harassed the inventors, developers, financiers, and entrepreneurs, almost to death, by standing in their way.

Almost 150 years ago, the forerunner of the railroad that came to be known as, "The Standard Railroad of The World," the Pennsylvania Railroad, almost didn’t get built. From a history of the railroad by Edwin Alexander, written in 1947, it is seen that the State of Pennsylvania had wasted close to $60 million, the 2000 equivalent of $60 billion, attempting to build a railroad from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. It had accomplished virtually nothing, other than building a few non-connected lines, outraging the citizenry, and making politicians rich. From page 14 of Alexander’s book: "Gross mismanagement and political interference contributed to the inadequacy of the system. Nearly $18,000,000 had been expended in original construction, and never had its operation come even near a self-sustaining basis. In fact, a debt of $40,000,000 had been accumulated by the time the system was sold. By 1838, it was becoming very evident that a privately owned all rail route was the only means of preserving Philadelphia’s western trade...so it was only natural that, in order to dispose of this unprofitable burden, the people of the state started a movement to sell the entire system. On April 24, 1854, the state offered it for sale at $20,000,000, but no one could be interested in the proposition, nor were there any bids a year later, when the figure had been officially reduced to half that amount. Finally, a third act was passed on May 16, 1857, offering the system for $7,500,000." A huge state governmental enterprise that had cost the taxpayers close to $60,000,000 (in 1850 dollars, $60 billion today) was finally sold for $7,500,000. It took close to twenty years for the state to realize it had wasted huge sums of money, accomplished nothing, and finally decide to sell the albatross, which was picked up by private enterprise and developed into a wonderful railroad. By taking so long, the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) railroad had long before reached Pittsburgh and taken a huge chunk of the Pennsy’s business. The State of Pennsylvania, fooling around for so long and being so inept, cost Philadelphia its business future. The Erie Canal was opened in 1825, transferring most of Philadelphia's business to New York. The Erie Canal connects Albany with Buffalo, (New York) extending the navigable Hudson River to Lake Erie…connecting New York City with the Great Lakes. Philadelphia never recovered. The first railroad charters were issued in 1815, a full ten years before the Erie Canal opened. The B&O was privately capitalized and built, but had to wrangle endlessly with state gobbledygook over franchises and rights to build a private business over private land. Government standing in the way is at least two hundred years old in America.

In Railroad history, the Pennsylvania wasn’t alone. When a railroad was proposed, to unify all the states, the Central Pacific started in Sacramento California, and the Union Pacific started at the Mississippi, subsidized with government funding and free land. After three years, scandal and outright theft were common, and the Union Pacific had built only 40 miles of track. If you ever look at the famous photo taken at the meeting of the two lines, look closely, and you will realize it was a drunken debauch. Not only were the gold and silver spikes stolen, but the drunken characters on the locomotives were holding out whiskey bottles for the photographer to see. Since the whole thing was subsidized, the graders from the east and west passed each other, and continued grading 250 miles past the scheduled Promontory meeting point, grading adjacent rights of way in opposite directions. Why not? Government was paying.

In California today, to start a business, one must wade through at least 28 separate permitting procedures, tolerate bureaucratic nonsense and paperwork costing a fortune, all to be able to spend your money, to try to make a living on a business you own. Government does not invest in your business in California, nor does it hire your employees, conceive of your idea, buy your merchandise, pay for it, advertise your business, or take a risk in operating and developing your business. It merely gets in the way, costs big money, takes time, frustrates, and is a first rate pain. The governments that make it so difficult for a business to operate anywhere in America have risked nothing, contributed nothing towards the entrepreneurial efforts, and in general make the odds against success far greater.

It’s the "in" thing to write, pass, and implement endless legislation. Why is it there never seem to be enough laws? There are literally millions of laws on the books. The Congress and lesser legislative bodies continually pass more and more laws, making everyone's life more complicated and unendurable. The pols in D.C., like Don Quixote, have delusions of grandeur, thinking themselves to be royal and omniscient, but are totally unable to solve anything. Quixote hurt himself, not his country, so the comparison might not be valid. The windmills the D.C. luminaries so foolishly tilt at, are problems unsolvable by bureaucracy, rules and regulations.

A century ago in India, the Thugs waylaid travelers with impunity, killing thousands of India's teachers, businessmen, intellectuals and intelligentsia. Government didn’t stop them, even though protecting the citizenry is something all governments ought to do. This went on for so long and was so thorough, that India actually lost most of its class of people who were capable of governing, operating a business, teaching, or leading, and passing on their genes. The hereditary chain had been broken, and today India is practically bereft of a class of people who could lead it out of the morass in which it lies, even after billions of dollars in aid, dividing the nation, and every conceivable help that America and other civilized nations posses have been pumped into it. The utter ignorance and helplessness of India defies description, as witnessed by countless shows on PBS. Of course there are brilliant Indians, but not nearly enough for its salvation. The former superb infrastructure built by Britain is rotting away since India decided to become independent over 50 years ago.

In Russia, the hereditary chain was broken in 1917, when the communists took over, and killed anyone with a brain or ability. Today, Russia is sadly lacking in a class of people who are understanding of freedom, capitalism, limited government, entrepreneurship, and the most basic causes and rules of a prosperous capitalistic society. After the Berlin Wall went down in November 1989, the East Germans, whose brains had been scoured of intellect and drive for decades, by first the Nazis, and then the communists, were suddenly mixed with the relatively free West Germans. The comparison can easily be illustrated by the East German smoking, wheezing, little pieces of garbage cars called the "Trabant," verses the West German Mercedes Benz and BMW. In what again is called Russia, rather than the Soviet Union, communism has been replaced with the Russian Mafia, and virtually the same thing has occurred in every other former Soviet State. (Many of the Russian Mafia have illegally settled in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, and are terrorizing residents and bringing tuberculosis with them.) There are no remaining business, entrepreneurial, innovative classes in Russia, and no one can even remember what they were. Futile efforts to copy the so-called "free world," achieve poor results, and in September 1998, the entire economy collapsed. Entrepreneurial Americans go to Russia, establish businesses, and attempt to teach the Russians the most basic economic, merchandising, and sales precepts, and if successful, risk being shot dead by jealous outlaws. What India and former and current communist states have, are huge bureaucracies that give employment to the inept, stupid, lazy, and worthless. In India, a full time job for a man might be to hold a sign in front of a crossing when a train is coming. America invented automatic crossing gates a hundred ears ago. The many "cornfield meets" experienced by trains in India, causing hundreds of deaths, are the result of a work force that is not too gifted, thanks in all probability, to the Thugs of a hundred years ago.

ROBIN HOOD

For far too long in song, story, and film, Robin Hood has been portrayed as the poor man's hero. Actually, Robin Hood was one of the first characters to achieve fame by redistributing un-owned wealth, and "helping the poor." (SFN) Politicians have joyously latched on to this wonderful device for glomming votes. The bureaucracies, in turn, become junior Robin Hoods, taking from the rich and giving to the poor. Like Robin Hood, politicians and bureaucrats take what they don't own, have no right to, haven't worked for, and give it to the undeserving.

The humanitarians in government are "wishers." They "wish" to help. "wish" to provide, and "wish" to do wonderful things, and of course "wish" to keep those jobs. The problem is they have no money with which to do it. Rather than take their own money to help, they become Robin Hoods and give yours, or in actuality become bureaucratic terrorists with virtually unlimited powers. A dictionary definition of terrorism is, "Coercion by threat or violence." Doesn't that describe an all-powerful bureaucracy?

National Public Radio, (NPR) on December 2, 1996 during the program, "All Things Considered," ran a piece where a tape recorder was given to an 18 year old female welfare recipient, so she could record her day's activities and thoughts. The tape consisted of her being 9 months pregnant, quitting school, receiving healthy welfare checks, not working, not liking her mother, being illegitimate herself, living in her own apartment, stuffing herself with McDonald's food rather than what had been prescribed to her by her government paid doctor. All her friends had babies, and she loved to drive around in fast cars with her boyfriend, listening to her kind of music, some of which she played...the sound of which can be imagined. The tape was full of slum talk, laziness, slovenliness, gross overweight, and a total lack or interest in providing for herself, or even a knowledge of the principle. She is the "poor" that Robin Hood gave to, he being the "middle man" between theft from producers, and gifts to the lazy. Robin didn’t just steal from King John; he took from everyone that had what he considered "too much," and gave to those he considered having "too little."

Speaking of Robin Hood, the late Ayn Rand described him and his types in her novel Atlas Shrugged: "He became the justification for every mediocrity, who, unable to make his own living, has demanded the power to dispose of the property of his betters, by proclaiming his willingness to devote his life to his inferiors at the price of robbing his superiors."

THE NATIONAL RELIGION

While the Constitution forbids the establishment of a national religion in the very first part of the Bill of Rights, in reality we have one, and it is not concerned with the worship of a heavenly God. The 'national religion' we have is all encompassing in its scope, demands regular worship, has compulsory contributions, punishment if the religion's tenets are not obeyed, and an entire set of symbols commanding continuous attention. The religion has its own set of priests, bishops, holy writ, indulgences, confession, magnificent buildings, and is very wealthy. Unlike other religions, this one has 100% of Americans as members.

The 'national religion' is the compulsory religion of government and regulation. It is all powerful, expensive, and pervasive. Other organized religions preach and teach goodness, charity, forgiveness of sins, morality, and even after death rewards if its teachings are followed. The compulsory 'national religion' of government and regulation promises no rewards, but instant punishment for violations of its decrees. Rather than ancient holy writ that has remained unchanged, and in existence for thousands of years, the compulsory religion of government and regulation has millions of rules and laws that are changed and added to each year, all with the threat of fines and other punishments for violations. The 'national religion' claims the Constitution to be its holy writ, but the form of government decreed by the Constitution is not a religion, but a document of freedom from government, not the handbook of a 'national religion.'

Unlike other religions which influence human actions by counsel, example, love, and reward, the 'national religion' attempts to do so by sheer force and threats of punishment, imprisonment, and bankruptcy. Organized religions depend on voluntarism, and a member is free to leave it if they disagree, while the 'national religion' permits no deviations or escape. Organized religions depend upon voluntary contributions to support their programs, but the 'national religion' has a set of involuntary, automatically deducted dollars for its support. Have you filled in your 1040 "contribution" form yet?

An AP story on January 25, 1997 stated, "A new poll suggests that many Americans have little faith in the federal government. The Gallup survey conducted last year found just 32% expressed significant confidence in their government.".

THE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT

You remember them, don’t you? We all learned them in school. The three Constitutional branches are the (1) Legislative, (2) Judicial, and (3) Executive. The Legislative is the Congress, the Judicial is the courts and justice system, and the Executive is the Presidency…or that is the way it is supposed to be. The Congress passes idiotic laws which get in everyone's way, and the courts often give terrible decisions, but it is the Executive branch that is running out of control the most. The Constitution does not provide for a "Cabinet" division. It is the President's "Cabinet" that is a major source of unconstitutional, runaway government. It is the President's "Cabinet," and its various divisions and underlings, that have been writing the tens of thousands of regulations, and mandates, with the force and effect of law. It is the departments of everything that have whiz-bang bureaucrats by the tens of thousands, writing regulations, legislating, policing, fining, and even imprisoning at will. Every single oppressive bureaucracy is under a "Cabinet" position, a totally unconstitutional enlargement of the Executive branch of government. Some things, such as the presidential "Cabinet" have been around for so long, we assume they must be Constitutional...but they might not be!

The federal government collects well over a trillion and a half dollars in taxes each year. Complying with the IRS rules alone costs an estimated 7% of the GDP, (gross domestic product) and did you know that government spending is part of the GDP? The federal government is the largest purchaser of things in America...with your money. In other words, government is spending us into bankruptcy, but the GDP figure looks rosy. The federal government's operations constitute over 50% of the GDP, and have its tentacles into just about everything you eat, buy, sell, own, or operate. It's all part of the misleading GDP figure.

Government permits no competition, has to show no profit, and can take what it wants from the citizenry. Only government can make a war. Government, rather than creating wealth, divides it, squanders it, wastes it, seizes it from the innocent and unsuspecting, and gives it to the undeserving. Government is force, and force cannot invent, love, design, or conceive, but rather prohibits the natural use of the human mind and greatness.

There are a few bubbleheads who really believe the Constitution must be taken with the well known 'grain of salt,' and ignored when it may conflict with their grandiose plans for helping and equalizing everyone and everything, and a "New World Order" is the ideal for eternal happiness. Fiddlesticks! These liberal geniuses think national boundaries, races, genders, physical and mental limitations and abilities, are all fictions that can be erased by rules, regulations and legislation, and we can all be melded into one happy world populace. America and its Constitution, designed to protect us from government, is the best thing that has ever happened to this globe. It has been destroyed gradually, and to such a degree that it may not be salvageable.

Government does not produce wealth. When someone speaks of 'help from government,' they are in error. Government is incapable of helping anyone, without harming someone else. Government, by its very nature, is a consumer of wealth. It produces nothing except regulations, laws, and rules, most of which, especially at the federal level, are unnecessary, and hamper actual wealth creation. Wealth is created by manufacturing, inventing, building, producing, and selling things; customarily at a profit. When a man buys a farm and grows corn, selling it at a gain, he has created wealth. When an auto plant takes raw materials and transforms them into automobiles, it has created wealth. Those who work for wealth creating entities...are creating wealth. Those that work for wealth consuming entities; namely governments at all levels...are destroying wealth.

A certain amount of wealth must be used to keep us safe from criminals of all types, both foreign and domestic, to judge and punish them, and to administer justice. This necessary wealth consumption is for the police, army, coast guard, courts, and prison systems. The amount of wealth consumed for these purposes should be negligible, especially if America became officially neutral, as is discussed in chapter 21, all troops came home, foreign aid ceased, prisons became actual prisons, and silly laws were eliminated. Anything else is wealth destruction, without reason or logic, regardless of good intentions.

On May 28, 1992, C-Span televised a typical hearing, this time conducted by Rep. Tom Lantos, D. California. I watched for half an hour, and the following was part of the testimony concerning the public housing systems in Washington D.C. and Philadelphia:

An ex-employee was paid $1951 for an hour's worth of work each week, for a year, which amounted to $101,452.

Seemingly unlimited contracts for $9,999.99 were issued each year, avoiding the $10,000 point at which such contracts must be "examined."

An elevator serviceman billed, and was paid over $200,000 for repairs that probably were never performed.

No one could find out how many contracts have been let and paid for, at any time, for any period.

Ed Morella, a high ranking 'inspector,' said that $110,000 was spent each year to heat a warehouse with all the windows broken or missing. A lot of security men were paid to sit in front of blank video screens for 8 hours each day, and public housing employees in D.C. alone stole $20,000 a week. Their inventory listed 12,000 bathroom lighting fixtures on hand for 9,000 public housing units, which already had such fixtures, and when queried if it is possible a payoff was given for a huge purchase, he acknowledged it was.

In April 1995, I went to the Grand Junction Colorado IRS office to get some forms and ask a couple of questions. While waiting, a poor sap standing next to me was pouring his heart out to an agent, who was about to seize his property for failure to pay child support, which he had paid, and for which he showed proof. The agent asked, "can you make a payment?" This is absolutely true, with no embellishment. When the agent went into another room, I truthfully told him that half of IRS levies are mistakes, and advised him not to give in, since he was right. He was obviously a man of lowly occupation and limited intelligence, but totally honest...the kind the IRS eats alive. I often wondered what happened to him. They call themselves "The Service."

SOLUTIONS

Not to be redundant, but the main premise of this book is that of all the wonderful inventions and developments in the fields of transportation, medicine, science, architecture, business, or most everything that is beneficial, none of them have been accomplished by government. Government has usually just stood in the way. Not only stood in the way, but of all the bad things that have happened to America, be it wars, harassment, seizures, poverty, the underclass, ruined cities, bad schools, crime, and an endless list; government actions, taxes, subsidies, rules, regulations, mandates, bureaucracy, laws, etc. have usually been the cause. This is not an exaggerated statement.

There is a need for government. The Constitution is the document, which licenses the federal government, but that license has been sorely abused. By at least 90%, the federal government has overstepped its constitutionally authorized bounds, and taken unauthorized power. Think of a federal government without its millions of employees, regulations, rules, mandates, bureaucracies, subsidies, and businesses. Picture a federal government not owning hundreds of millions of abused acres of land, thousands of bridges, canals, warehouses, dams, forests, and buildings.

How does the government do all these unconstitutional things? How does it pay for these activities? By borrowing, taxing, and literally printing money, of course. How else can anyone do something beyond their means? By borrowing, (selling bonds), increasing the currency supply, taxing us into insensibility, going into debt, and every devious means known to man to flim - flam the citizenry. Not only does government get in the way, make normal things and activities impossible to perform at times, but also the borrowing steadily decreases the value of the dollar. (See next chapter on "MONEY")

"I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution…taking from the federal government their power of borrowing," - Thomas Jefferson

A solution is that all federal lands should be turned over to their rightful owners, the states and counties, who can do with them as they see fit. The multitudinous federal highways, dams, businesses, canals, power plants, buildings, etc. should all be sold to the highest bidders, the money used to pay off the debt, and there must never again be a national debt, or over powering federal government. Washington D.C. should be made into a temporary "ghost town," until private industry can buy the empty government buildings and use them to produce wealth, rather than the former occupants, who currently use them to consume wealth.

Public housing units self-destruct quickly without the continual maintenance and repairs made necessary by their unruly occupants. As they become derelict and empty, they should not be re-rented, and their willful destruction not repaired. Eventually there would be none remaining, and their former occupants would have to provide for themselves.

From a story that appeared on radio, TV, and most newspapers on October 8, 1997 comes the revelation that the National Park Service (often called the National PORK Service for obvious reasons) had just completed the construction of a $333,000 "two hole" outhouse in the Delaware Water Gap Park. The building is constructed with the finest Vermont slate roof, stone, and construction appurtenances only the finest mansion would contain. Inside is one hole on the side for men, and one on the side for women. No water, no mirror, and when NBC News checked it out, there wasn't even any toilet paper. There is plenty of water available, but with a mere $333,000 to spend, the "Pork Service" only saw fit to have outhouse facilities, and only one hole for each gender. No, you cannot wash your hands or comb your hair after going to the $333,000 bathrooms. I visited Yellowstone Park a couple of years ago, and aside from the hideous waste that happened when raging fires almost completely destroyed the park in 1988, the roads were full of pot holes, and the place was in generally terrible shape. The same conditions exist in most National Parks. If the Parks were sold to responsible corporations, would they be in worse shape? Compare Disney's parks to the federal government owned and administrated parks, and the answer has to be that private ownership would be much better. There is no Constitutional permission for the government to own parks, and like national forests, they are an unmitigated disaster. I'd be delighted to see Disney take over Yellowstone. Perhaps a third of it wouldn't have been destroyed by fire if it had been privately owned! I’d love for Ford to run Yosemite, or General Mills to operate the Grand Canyon. As another solution, let the individual states take over ownership and operation, which would not violate the Constitution. That Constitution is a most wonderful handbook, which provides a true answer to who should do what, and especially what the federal government is not permitted to do.

I have just referred to my newest dictionary, a Webster's two volume set, dating back to 1970. (Sorry!) I looked up "entitlement(s)" and it isn't there. 30 years ago, the word didn't exist, and now it is bankrupting us. The word "entitle" means, "has a legal right to, or to give a name to." "Entitlements" then, means half of our federal budget goes to people who "have a legal right" to my money. The solution? Eliminate all of them, because like the IRS, they are weeds, and need to be pulled out by their roots.

If the federal government were reduced to Constitutional size, tariffs would pay the bills. Government doesn't need to do what private enterprise can and should do. For a century and a half, railroads have policed themselves, paid for and operated their own safety systems, and even paid taxes on their land and equipment. It has all worked out extremely well. Now the DOT and other alphabet soup agencies oversee railroads and every other form of transportation. The transportation industry carries insurance, as do all businesses. If an insurer wants to avoid losses, it will inspect every part of their insured's business and operation, forcing compliance with suggestions, or threaten cancellation of coverage. Airlines, railroads, taxicabs, truckers, and steamship companies all carry huge amounts of insurance. Those insurance companies would do a far better job of policing and enforcing safety than does government, which has virtually taken the job out of their hands with regulations, mandates, and bureaucrats. If an airline's insurance carrier could avoid paying out a hundred million dollars in claims, wouldn't they insist on the American manufactured systems the Swiss use? It doesn't happen, because government runs the safety systems, airports, and every facet of the industry, all controlled by the FAA; the largest consumer of vacuum tubes, remember? Other departments are equally ridiculous in their cost and inefficiency.

If government wants to protect us, as it should, it might be better off requiring all suppliers of merchandise or services to have adequate insurance. This simple act would transfer responsibilities to the seller and their insurer, rather than government, which cannot be held responsible anyway, because they claim to be immune. This would eliminate a great deal of government, and lower consumer prices.

Government's job is mistaken by most, who have come to the wrong conclusion that government should 'help' the weak or poor. Government's job is to protect the innocent, regardless of their race, religion, and social or financial status, as well as to punish the guilty. No where in the Constitution is there any permission given for government to help or subsidize the weak or poor. Cruel though it may sound, when such unconstitutional acts are performed, it merely weakens society, destroys freedom, and makes us all slaves...to the weak!

What Can They Do?

For 25 years, I owned and operated three hotels in a tiny town called Silverton, Colorado. The EPA ruled that Silverton could no longer burn its trash, but must construct an expensive compactor and haul it to a landfill close to a hundred miles distant. Silverton had been burning trash for a hundred years at its town dump. The prevailing wind is always away from town, and never in anyone's memory had smoke or odors from the dump been in town. (It was a wonderful place to search for valuable junk and scavenge.) I protested vigorously to the town's board of trustees, telling them they should advise the government to go straight to hell, 'do not pass go and do not collect $200.' What could the EPA do to tiny Silverton? Fine them? "We won’t pay," would be my answer. Would they seize this broke little town? Hardly! Deny them government handouts? They weren't getting any. What could they do? Actually, nothing. They gave in, at a huge continual cost to the residents. The dump is but a memory, and the town is no cleaner. Only the residents and businessmen pay and pay and pay.

Suppose an absurd, costly federal mandate comes down on larger towns or cities, and the municipal government doesn't want to obey it? Why can't Los Angeles say "NO," Altoona Pennsylvania say "NO," or any city, county, or even state say "NO"? The only recourse the federal bureaucrats have would be to deny them handouts from the federal treasury. Fine them? Just say, "we won’t pay." If an individual says "NO" to the goons, jail might be the result, but is the fed going to seize Los Angeles? Is the fed going to seize Arizona? Not likely. What would they do with them? Isn’t it time state, county, and city governmental entities stood up and said a hearty "NO" to snoopy hobgoblin federal bureaucrats?

"The Constitution and the Bill of Rights were designed to get Government off the backs of the people—all the people." - Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas

Governments have no competition, and will usually expand until they consume and destroy the society they were supposed to protect. This is all too true currently.

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