All Terrain Thinking

A Compendium of things I think are Important

Consequences In Life, Often Unanticipated

 

27. CASUAL OBSERVATIONS

1. I am a fire buff. I love to watch the equipment work, and thrill when brave firemen risk their lives to rescue victims from burning buildings. They are some of America's greatest heroes. An average of 100 die and 50,000 are injured each year doing their jobs. The majority of these deaths and injuries occur in slum sections of major cities, the conflagrations often caused by trash people doing careless and stupid things. On December 7, 1999, 6 firemen died in a warehouse fire in Worcester, Mass. Two homeless scum had set that fire. How ironic it is, that these brave American heroes die saving people who might not deserve such risks being taken for them.

2. Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution was amended by the 20^th Amendment, Section 2, which says, "The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3^rd day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day." Notice it doesn't say they have to stay in session, and if they would act according to the Constitution, doing only the things therein authorized, they could go home a month later, we would all be better off, and D.C. could once again become a normal city.

3. Anyone born in America is a "Native American" by definition, and I am tired of Indians being called "Native Americans." My descendents came here in the mid 1600's! I also am weary of the eternal Indian privileges such as having their own "nations" within the United States, and being immune from our laws. They can do anything they damn well please, including milking us dry with welfare, having casinos, their own police, and legislature. Why shouldn't the reservations be abolished, and the American Indian blended into the rest of our society, having to pay taxes, work for a living, and obey our laws? There are no Negro reservations, Hispanic reservations, or Asian reservations, and they are certainly of a different skin color aren't they? The Indians killed as many of us as we did them, and I can see no reason for the continued existence of Indian reservations, "nations", and the BIA. The American Indian may not even be the first race on American soil. At least two archaeological excavations indicate the white man was here for thousands of years before the American Indian. The "Kennewick Man" was found near the Columbia River near Kennewick Washington in July 1996. He was undoubtedly a Caucasian, and has been reliably dated to be 8,000 years old. The "Spirit Caveman" was dug up in Western Nevada in 1940, was Caucasian, and has been reliably dated to be 9,500 years old. Maybe the Indians exterminated the original white man!

4. With the tobacco hoopla and smoking prohibitions continually being enacted, many wonder what those poor tobacco farmers could do for a living if this continues. How about letting them grow marijuana or hemp? How about letting them grow what they want? How about restoring freedom to the farmer?

5. We have a multitude of federal laws and federal courts. A quick look at the Constitution will indicate that there are only three authorized federal crimes. They are espionage, counterfeiting, and piracy. Let's eliminate all non-Constitutionally authorized federal laws and crimes. This would eliminate most federal courts, The savings would be appreciable, to put it mildly. Overlapping jurisdictions are silly.

6. I think a "suicide kit" should be placed in each and every jail cell in America. Think of the money, time, and court space it might save. "Suicide watches" for obviously guilty murderers and rapists, so they can live to stand trial, are absurd. They might want to die. The innocents would fight for their vindication, and a certain number of those who are guilty, know it, and are headed for life imprisonment or execution, might use the kits and save us all a lot of trouble!

7. While it sends shivers up and down my spine when I hear the National Anthem, called the "Star Spangled Banner." First of all, it isn't a "banner" and it isn't "spangled," which means "glittery, dazzled, or reflective." It's a FLAG with 50 stars at the top left corner. Secondly, it is virtually un-singable, with a range of 20 notes. Even if it were an easy sing, the words mean absolutely nothing to 99% of Americans. They refer to the War of 1812, not the Revolution, and in fact is Francis Scott Key's poem put to the music of an old British drinking song titled, "To Anachreon in Heaven." Consider the beauty of music and words to "America the Beautiful," with a range of but 15 notes, and ask yourself if it wouldn't make a superior National Anthem. "Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. For purple mountains’ majesty, above the fruited plains. America, America, God shed his grace on thee. And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea." Doesn’t that make far more sense than nonsensical words like, "O'er the ramparts we watched, where so valiantly streaming(?)...the bombs bursting in air...twilight's last gleaming...rocket's red glare, etc.?" Just what is all that supposed to mean to an American attempting to sing those words?

8. Why is it illegal for a private carrier to carry the mail and use your mailbox? You paid for it, erected it, and it is your property. But it is illegal for any but the postal service to use it. While the Constitution authorizes the establishment of "Post Offices and post Roads," no where does it give the post office department exclusivity. Competition from UPS, FEDEX, and others, leaves post office hauling a smaller percentage of parcels. With competition, the same might be true of the mails, and we would all save money and get better service.

9. Why did we actually pay the Panamanians to take our canal? It is one of the greatest engineering achievements of all time, and we actually paid them to take it, thanks to Jimmy Carter. They violated the treaty a thousand ways from Sunday, and even the signing was illegal. We should have voided the treaty and taken it back. It was ours to keep. Now, the Panamanians seem to want us back, since the Chinese are in. I'll bet the creeps in D.C. won't do it.

10. Did you ever stop to realize that trucks have lousy brakes? They are good for city driving, slow speeds, or level stopping, and that's about it. Autos and trains don’t have to "gear down" to go down hills, and there are no "runaway car or train ramps." The square inch of braking surface per hundred weight is correct on cars, but woefully deficient on large trucks. Why don't the states insist that trucks have adequate brakes?

11. Diesel fuel costs far less to refine than gasoline, and for each gallon of crude, there is more diesel than gasoline. 40 years ago, diesel cost a third less than gas, and rightfully so. What market-fixing scheme has made diesel cost the same, and often more than gasoline? Believe me, that "fix" has cost each and every one of us plenty when we shop, because diesel fuel delivers just about everything we use, eat, or wear. Why doesn’t some smart politico investigate?

12. The minimum wage is legislated unemployment. It all began with FDR, and has continued ever since. Are the stupid or untalented worth the minimum wage to do something like pump gas, sweep a floor, or wash dishes? So we now pump our own gas, sweep our own floors, and push buttons to run an elevator. If wages were paid on the basis of what the job or employee was worth, there could be no unemployment, other than voluntary. You simply wouldn't believe what automation costs. In elevators alone, the automation, computers, complicated technology and repairs to keep them running, make them cost many times what a manually operated one would cost, but at 9¢ per minute for the minimum wage, it is economically necessary to automate. The costs are double actually, because the unemployed go on the dole, further sucking the lifeblood out of us taxpayers.

13. "Wetland" is a fairly new term, and it basically means swamp. For hundreds of years, sensible people have filled in oozing, disgusting swamps, so as to minimize the mosquito populations, and use previously worthless land, making the areas less disease prone and more productive. Now, so called "wetlands" are sacrosanct, and supposedly hold all sorts of wonderful creepy, crawling, flying things that no one wants. A single shovel of dirt in a designated "wetland" can cost you a huge fine, even a puddle on your own property! The EPA is one of the most disgusting agencies ever formed, and should be abolished, along with most others begun since the mid 1960's.

14. Prejudice is not popular now, and anyone admitting to it can be quickly ostracized from a circle of friends or even a community. Prejudice is perfectly normal, and everyone has thousands of them as shown by our every action in life. Our act of choosing something, be it a neighborhood, food, car, mate, job, movie, or clothing, is prejudiced by our likes and dislikes, which are prejudices. Prejudice is merely pre-judging something, usually from past experience or personal taste. If one is afraid of walking through a bad neighborhood at night, it is because of pre-judging that it might be risky. The multitudes of retirement communities indicate a prejudice of their occupants. They would rather be close to their own age groups and income levels. Ethnic neighborhoods and foods are indicative of a prejudice towards a certain nationality. The myriads of Germantowns, Little Italys, Chinatowns, and Koreatowns are evidence of deep-seated prejudice. Don't fret; be as prejudiced as you wish, and have no guilt feelings about it.

15. Article 1, Section 9, Paragraph 7 of the Constitution says, "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time." In other words, the President has no Constitutional authority to send dollars anywhere! It is unconstitutional for him to send a billion here or there, unless a bill is passed by the Congress after being instituted by the House of Representatives.

16. So-called "hate crimes," and the punishment of them, are an absurdity. In early 2,000, two 17-year-old cousins killed and ran over a 26-year-old homosexual black man in a tiny northeastern West Virginia town. The problem was whether to charge the boys with not only murder, but with a "hate crime." Murder should be punished by prompt execution, regardless of "hate." I hate a lot of things. I hate squash, communism, socialism, Bill and Hillary Clinton, huge government, war, ugly buildings, and about a thousand other things. I actually HATE them! Is this a hate crime? Acting out hatred by doing harm to another is a crime, not thinking about it!

17. At age 38, Florence Griffith Joyner ("Flo-Jo") died of massive heart failure. Jim Fixx, the so-called "King of Joggers" was found dead at age 52 of the same thing on a lonely New England road. He was supposedly in absolutely perfect health. Hundreds of runners have dropped dead of heart failure. I lived in Scottsdale and Phoenix Arizona for five years, and used to cringe at seeing joggers "running for their lives" at 115 degrees, in the blistering hot sun. Running ruins knees, ankles, and I believe the heart. Running, "for your life," is like running a piece of machinery at top speed, and believing it is "good for it." Runners brag that their heartbeat is far slower than that of the rest of us, but medical science has not yet ruled that this is indicative of a healthy rather than overworked heart. Few football players at any level, escape without permanent, nagging injuries and pain from playing that sport. It is the American favorite, but it is brutal and physically debilitating. Baseball, on the other hand, requires incredible skill, as opposed to huge football hunks trying to destroy their opponents in any way humanly possible. It’s only my opinion!

18. There seems to be a basic human dislike or mistrust of skin of a different color. People with different colored skins seem to have a natural antipathy towards each other, spoken or unspoken. You can draw any conclusion you wish from that, but it seems to be an immutable natural law that different colored complexions don’t mix too well, and legislation has as much chance of changing that, as overruling the law of gravity. In colleges, and every single integrated environment, people invariably segregate themselves according to color and race. The Orientals, Negroes, Hispanics, Whites, and every other hue will always find associating with their own more comfortable. Animals, birds, and fish associate with their own kind and prefer their own. In black society today, the lighter skinned Negroes are looked on with more favor than dark ones. In any society, those with certain likes, dislikes, aims, goals, or even habits are drawn to each other. Antique auto lovers naturally associate with other antique auto lovers. Baseball fans, beer drinkers, computer nerds, or any possible group will naturally tend to associate with each other. (The word "fan" is derived from "fanatic") No law, regardless of how well intentioned will ever stop that natural habit.

19. The machinery, architecture, and artifacts of bygone days have been preserved for posterity in America, as in no other land in the world. In no other nation have automobiles, rail transport, architecture, clothing, historic documents, and even stamps, been so lovingly preserved as in America. I consider this to be a mark of intelligence and civilization...inventing the new and preserving the old. Other than shifting gears, most Americans have never performed such formerly common tasks as operating an elevator with a manual control, pulling the throttle of a steam locomotive, opening the controller of an old trolley car, striking the arc of a 60 year old searchlight, operating a 50 year old projection booth in a theatre, restoring a building or antique item, or even plowing a field with a two cylinder John Deere tractor. I am a damned lucky man who has done all of the above and a lot more, and I encourage every one of you to get involved in preservation of any kind, as suits your tastes. Historical societies and preservation entities are most rewarding!

20. The conflict between the Jews and Palestinians continues, as do the difficulties around the world between races of people who should have never been placed together. These are races imported to do cheap labor. The Mexicans were brought in to do hard work in America, and the Jews hire Palestinians to do hard work they don’t choose to do. The British, Germans, and French brought in cheap labor from other lands, and are now stuck with them, hate them, and wish they had never done it. America willingly bought slaves to do the hard work 300 years ago, and it has torn us apart, just like the same practice is doing to other nations today. Won’t anyone learn? If the Jews want to stop the trouble, stop hiring the Palestinians for cheap labor, do it yourself, give them their land free and clear, and have border guards. If you can't get the job done with your own people, it is a tragic mistake to bring in foreign workers to do the work cheaply.

21. And speaking of Israel, there is perhaps no finer example of a desert being transformed into a cultured, cultivated land, and as Isaiah said, made to "Blossom like a rose." The UN seized the current nation of Israel from the Palestinians over 50 years ago, and they didn’t happen to want to sell. The Jews have done miraculous things. The Palestinians were, and continue to be, slobs by comparison. That is not the point. The point is that its former owners had occupied the land given Israel for hundreds of years, and they won't forget or forgive. It was grossly unfair to the Palestinians, and I can not see how it could ever end peacefully, especially when the suicide bombers are promised 70 virgins in heaven, after they self immolate themselves, carrying a few dozen Jews with them.

22. The United Nations has been in existence for over 50 years, and other than bringing spies, cannibals, and communists into New York, and disobeying every traffic law on the Big Apple's books, it has accomplished nothing useful, other than suck up large amounts of money to feed its supremely wasteful bureaucracy. They claim the U.S. owes a billion dollars in back dues, but in fact they owe us $5 billion for our un-reimbursed peace keeping efforts. In the year 1999, America spent $10,179,000,000 on UN "peacekeeping operations" and resolutions! During the UN's tenure, we have had Korea, Viet Nam, hundreds of other skirmishes, Bosnia, Kosovo, and of course the continual Israel-Palestinian conflict, which was caused by the UN's giving away land that didn’t belong to it. I make a motion that we tell the U.N. to take their scofflaw diplomats, bureaucrats, and interpreters, move them all to some other land, and that we bow out. There was far more peace in the world when the United States refused to join the League of Nations after WW I, than there has been since WW II, when we did join its successor, and throw good money after bad.

23. The CIA recently celebrated its 50^th anniversary also. Of all the screwed up bureaucracies, the CIA has to be the worst. It has never been the "Central Intelligence Agency," but rather the "Central Unintelligence Agency." It has turned its agents over to the enemy, probably had a hand in the JFK murder when he threatened to get rid of it, reportedly always has been in cahoots with the KGB, and has been responsible for countless tragedies. It is accountable to no one, and has hidden its flaws and waste by hunkering down under the cloak of "secrecy," for far too long. How about getting rid of it?

24. There are many silly phrases bandied about by the press and bureaucrats, but among the most absurd, is the habit of calling every dictatorship ruled, poverty soaked, hopeless, ludicrous patch of dirt or sand around the world, a "developing nation," with an "emerging economy." These absurdities and concentrated courtyards of murder, ruthless power and oppression are no more "developing," or "emerging" than is a circus midget growing. These "nations" are mired in absolutism and indigence, thanks to their tyrannical rulers, who permit no freedom. Why anyone would call these conflagrations of coercion, "developing," or their economies "emerging," is more than any logical person can fathom. The Islamic nations are classic examples of this.

The drug war cannot be won for the same reason that prohibition didn't work, and that is it places government against entrepreneurs. No government or law can possibly beat the mind of a free and innovative people. This is why there will always be prostitutes, and anything else man wants to do that may be legislated against by politicians. Pitting the mind of a free man against a government is a hopeless cause. A free man will always win!

26. After re-reading this book over and over again, proofing it, adding to it, and editing it, I realize that there are solutions some might consider cruel and inhuman. Look at what 65 years of handouts, welfare, subsidies, and other "humanistic" approaches to crime, poverty, prison, and slovenliness has gotten us. We are swamped with filth, indolence, violence, murder, ignorance, rape, crime, graffiti, destruction, illegitimacy, obscenity, cheating, theft, infidelity, laziness, and an almost total loss of principle. The preceding surrounds us constantly, closes in gradually, and might possibly cause eventual immolation of our civilization. Only by stopping welfare and handouts of all types, including foreign aid, messing in everyone's business but our own, and watching the death or reformation of the worthless, can our civilization be secured for our descendants. Only by radically reducing the intrusive federal government by 90%, and forcing bureaucrats and self aggrandizing "officials" to stop transfusing our dollars into their bottomless pockets, can our American dream be salvaged. I can think of no other way to do it, other than by what some may call "inhumane" treatment of those deserving no more. A 'must read' are two novels. Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" has been quoted from, and mentioned many times in this book. Another is John Ross' novel "Unintended Consequences," which I also consider a 'must read.'

27. Look up the word "gay" in any dictionary more than 20 years old, and the definition is simply "happy," not "homosexual." Just another twisting of the English language to give a desired meaning. Homosexuals are not "gay," but probably just the opposite, regardless of their supposed lyrical joy and sublime contentment. For accuracy's sake however, stop calling them gay!

28. Public opinion polls mean nothing, because the results can be manipulated by selective choosing of areas to be polled, and wording of questions asked, both remarkably open to fraudulent twisting of results.

29. Our Constitution's First Amendment has been, and continues to be grossly misread and misunderstood by virtually everyone, who claim it says there is to be a 'separation of church and state.' It says nothing of the sort! It says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…" The Founders did not want an "official" religion like Mother England had legislated, but wanted religion to be unencumbered by any law, and allow all to have free choice as to religion. There is no word, sentence, or even thought of 'separation of church and state' in the Constitution, and certainly nothing in regards to prayer or decorations at holiday time!

30. Want to stop the hundreds of thousands of seemingly unstoppable Mexicans that illegally come across the border each month? I have a sure-fire solution that will cost virtually nothing. Erect hundreds of large signs in Spanish, and broadcast on all Mexican radio and TV stations, that "ALL PERSONS ILLEGALLY ENTERING THE UNITED STATES WILL BE SHOT BY BORDER GUARDS OR OWNERS OF THE LAND ON WHICH THEY TRESSPASS. THERE WILL BE NO EXCEPTIONS. DO NOT ENDANGER YOUR LIFE BY ILLEGALLY ENTERING THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!" That's it. Sensible persons don't jump off of buildings or run in front of a car, because they will die. The same would instantly be true of illegal border crossings, which would decrease by 99%. Only the fools would attempt it, and the problem is solved at virtually no cost. Cruel or inhumane? NO! Warnings are given about high-tension lines, going under a tree during a thunderstorm, and allowing babies to sleep on their stomach. Any dangerous situation, when warned about, makes the one doing the warning, blameless. "WARNING: ANYONE ILLEGALLY ENTERING MY HOME WILL BE SHOT." "WARNING: ANYONE ILLEGALLY ENTERING MY COUNTRY WILL BE SHOT." What's the difference?

31. Finally, one of the rewards of writing fiction, is being able to determine the outcome. This writer wishes he could, and that is the single reason this has been written. If there were only a set of magic words, phrases, or paragraphs that would literally grab America, and get us back on the path the brave Revolutionaries and Founders intended us to follow. That avenue directed America to be self supporting, independent, microscopically taxed, have valuable money, mind our own business, and to thrive with strength and initiative. The Founders never envisioned federal stomping of achievers, theft, and wealth transfers. Washington and Jefferson never intended for D.C. to become a warren of paper pushing incompetents, who rule their superiors with harsh, virtually unlimited power. Our inferiors are truly ruling us. What Abe Lincoln did in the War Between the States by violating the Constitution a hundred ways, was but a microcosm of today's outrages, originating from within the D.C. beltway.

If even one of the foregoing chapters' solutions could partially become reality, or if this effort could cause a massive change in the way America thinks, much as did Ayn Rand’s brilliant "Atlas Shrugged," I would be content. Would that I, like writers of fiction, could dictate the future and recovery of being the rapidly extinguished American dream.

“Liberave Animam Meam” (I have freed my mind)

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