Read "Crash Proof 2.0" by Schiff. If it doesn't open your eyes to what both parties are doing to us, nothing will.

There is much wisdom from the days of the Roman Empire. We forget that it was celebrating 4 or 5 hundred years when Christ was born. It built things like the Pantheon which are still standing a thousand years later even after a pope stole the lead roof covering for St. Peters. There are some actual interior shots in the Angels & Demons flick. It was the biggest dome ever built for centuries. Let's not be flip. The USA is 233 years of age and in danger of fading away due to being bankrupt. China alone holds $2.3 TRILLION of our "markers." Be afraid!

I am never comfortable making fun of the Lord's word. That being said, I recall one of our guru's of the 60's saying, "...and the truth shall make you as nutty putty." I like that better.

This trio continues the ongoing surge to sustain the right of the people to keep and bear arms. I agree with it. There is a rising fear that "they" are working to take that right away. Once it is gone we will no longer be a free people. We can be trampled at will. No one speaks to the lesson our soldiers and the Israelis are learning every day. People with weapons and the skill and willingness to use them will not be put down easily. When we are faced with a threat from abroad that seeks our destruction, why does any sane person want to take away our firearms? We should follow the Swiss example.

The biggest challenge for any formula is ever, who puts their gold on the line? Thoreau taught us about the mass of the people leading lives of quiet desperation.

Jefferson will remain a puzzle to me. He too quickly leaps to dissolution. He was much more cautious in the opening lines of the Declaration than he is here. He held slaves. His last years found him dependent on others as he was bankrupt. Proves he was a Democrat. He certainly had both a brilliant mind and an incredible ego. JFK made a comment at a White House Dinner for Nobel Prize winners to the effect that this was the gathering of great minds unmatched except perhaps when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

Once again, a trio of interesting quotes, but only Gompers gets a nod from me. He links right back to those "inalienable rights," our very foundation. As a Republican and a capitalist, I am amazed to find myself agreeing with him. I don't agree with much in the labor view of things. I do agree with this quote.

I suppose if one eats only processed food, this is inevitable.

Today's trio of quotes is really a downer. The light that shines forth, sadly, is the theory behind divine right monarchy. An elite, selected by God, will run things. Go to church, trust in God, pay your taxes, shut up. It had a lot going for it as long as things worked well enough. Just don't ask Louis XVI, Charles the first, fill in the blank.

It's an old quote. I'm too lazy to look up who said it and I will probably mangle it a bit, so here goes. Treason doth never prosper, what's the reason? If it prosper, none dare call it treason.

Funny how we refuse, in the name of political correctness, to update this to the threat from Radical Islamists. T. S. E. was right, it's going to be a wimper; a very long and painfull wimper.

There are so few clear thinkers in this world. We are seeing the complete opposite of sound policy with BHO and his crew. President Reagan, when asked for his strategy said, "We win. They lose." No bowing to anybody there. God , help us now!

He is right on! In some Utopia where all folks behave, respect each others' rights, property, etc., no rules are needed. The Ten Commandments stand as an early set of rules for life. The devil in man is the constant, nagging question, "OK, but what if?" Without cutting any slack to our law-makers at all levels, it is an impossible task. Only when one attempts to do it does he/she become aware of this. "Because I said so!" does take care of kids until they can knock you down or don't need your car, money, food, roof, etc. "Because God said so!" takes care of a whole bunch more. 2000 pages for a health care law. It is simply absurd. No one can possibly know what it says. Lawyers make most of their money on punctuation errors in laws. A wise and seasoned business friend counseled me to challenge any law as invalid that was causing any problem. There are enough errors made in the drafting of laws that a good lawyer can break any one of them in court. Even if he can't, the appeal process is endless let alone what the media will do to stay in business.

In many respects Sumner understood the things that motivated people to do well based on their ability, creativity, and willingness to work. Sadly, too much of America today is focused on the rights and entitlements that politicians use as bait to lure in the voters. I fear for the future of our great land. I may have to open a Kool-aid stand.

Perhaps it is inherent in the quote, but I believe there is a "subtle" third aim or motive. It is the aspiring leader who "has seen the light" and wishes to lead us all to the promised land. A recent Kool-aid incident demonstrates the idea gone bad.

As I get older I become ever more cynical and this one captures my mood perfectly. We have this constant circus put on by the Democrats and the Republicans to amuse and involve the voters. Vast amounts of money are donated to campaigns, suits and dresses get elected and proceed to spend away with wild abandon and we all remain angry with our government because it doesn't listen to us. Louis XIV wasn't much different and he put on a much better show.

This is part of a huge shift of a revolutionary nature that is going on even as I key this in and/or you read it. It is the bleeding edge of planet consciousness for and of the masses. Their will be multiple conspiracies out there at all times as you are talking about billions of egos. What will emerge will surprise, constantly. The Bible tells the story of the Tower of Babel. We are at it again. It is fine to be an ivory tower thinker on this shift, but you do that at your own peril. As you plot, some ego is in the street rallying the mob. They may well burn your ivory tower with you in it sipping lattes. Be afraid!

Conspiracy theory, the establishment, etc. will always be with us mostly because there is a small element of truth to the story. The other theme that gets less investigation is the ego driven, adulation starved people who migrate to government "service" employed, appointed, and elected. I've been there, done that, and it is practical and workable at the city level, because the whole thing is local. When you move to the state and national level, everything changes and not for the better. Rather than repeat all the rants on Congress, let me suggest Edmund S. Morgan's "Inventing the People." The book lays out this process better than anything else I have encountered on the subject.

Russia was known for persecution of the Jews, so why is it surprising to find the Jews financing a revolution? It's two birds with one stone. Get rid of those who persecute you even as you count your profits on the loans; all in the comfort of you vast estates in Great Britain and France. Who was it who preached about the miracle of compound interest?

John C Calhoun in "The Concurrent Majority" addresses the question of protection from the 51% majority. That a solution to the question has not yet been found leaves us in the same peril as it did in his time. The Civil War was the direct result of a failure to solve this issue. That we face it again now is not encouraging. We have, or are close to having, more than 50% of the population depending on the government for income and not paying taxes directly. Making business and the wealthy "pay their fair share" is the hoax that goes along with that. Over a million people were in DC protesting our slide to socialism a week or so ago. The issue is real and the experiment continues.

I'm loving the dialogue! We forget that the USA is an experiment in progress, and ruling systems represent an evolutionary trail through the wilderness. The feudal system was a real-time working system for a good period of time. The nature of things gives an existing entity certain quasi-rights to perpetuate itself. Our July 4th document begins with oft forgotten words including "...a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation." This is the humble and possibly unique appeal to the ages past, present, and future for understanding of the step being taken. In the declining years of divine right monarchy our founding fathers claimed this same divine right to their own interpretation of how it should be structured. The pope along with the monarchs were put on notice that a new divine wind was billowing the flags of the peoples' states. The shot heard round the world!

I never cease to be amazed at the wisdom that is available to us if we somehow know of it. The eternal mystery is our ongoing attempts to achieve perfection even as we are ignorant of all the information that thinkers in the past have sent along. The Internet is perhaps the greatest inovation since moveable type. Suddenly, we can speak to the world and listen to it. This man was ready for that over 800 years ago.

Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are Gods! There is a certain clarity to the stated admonition from Christ to all His day. My God has given given me free will. Our American heritage has given us "Roe vs Wade" and a host of others. Not being a Roman Catholic believer, I cannot look into one's

There is great irony here and I love it. I will never forget "nattering nabobs!" Jack of Ohio nails one half of the irony at the very least. The other half is the explosion of talking heads spouting opinion and the near impossibility of finding the truth. The newspapers are in their death throes. Not since Guttenburg's time have we faced this as a "new" issue. The power of the press, i.e. the mechanical device, passed knowledge to the masses. Now we face, for want of a universal term, the power of the cursor! Who will bring truth to the table? Snope's is only part of the answer.

As ever, Will Rogers has it right even after all these years. As I age I find that ambivalence is more and more my state. Congress is deplorable, never changes, just the faces, and even they blur. Ignore and go on with your life still seems a cop-out. History tells us that no government is forever, but some "countries" have lasted much longer than others. Egypt, China, and India come to mind. They count thousands of years to our hundreds, yet we don't really study them in toto. We marvel at the pyramids, great wall, Taj Mahal yet know nothing of the ethos. That must tell us something.