Thursday, February 26, 2009

Is your Senator forsworn?

According to The Hill… “The Senate voted to pass the DC Voting Rights Act on Thursday which would add a voting member of the House of Representatives to the District and Utah.” I remarked earlier this week on why this bill is unconstitutional. Now every Senator that has voted for this bill is forsworn. Remember, they are required by the Constitution to take an oath to support the Constitution. By voting for a bill that, should it become law, is in direct violation of the Constitution they have broken their oath.

It's an outrage and should not be tolerated. There is no honor among politicians anymore. But then, that's a corollary of the old adage that “there is no honor among thieves.”


http://perrinelson.com/2009/2/26/1320.aspx

Monday, February 23, 2009

Isn't that card getting a little dog-eared?

Do you remember this?

A 71-year-old former Illinois attorney general, Burris was greeted at the Senate doors by Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) as well as the Illinois House delegation, including Democratic Reps. Bobby Rush and Jesse Jackson Jr.

Jackson had publicly expressed interest in the seat, while Rush had infuriated Senate Democratic leaders by charging their initial resistance to Burris was grounded in racism.

Durbin said he told Burris on the Senate floor, “It’s been a long, rocky road but you’re here and you’re going to be a great senator.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) welcomed Burris “as a colleague and a friend.”

“There are many paths to the United States Senate. It is fair to say that the path that brought our new colleague from Illinois to us was unique,” Reid said. “Whatever complications surrounded his appointment, we made it clear from the beginning — both publicly and privately — that our concern was never with him.”

That's right, “resistance to Burris was grounded in racism.”

So, what does this say about our White House?

WASHINGTON--White House Secretary Robert Gibbs said Friday President Obama is supportive of an investigation of embattled Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) and signaled that Burris only has a small time left to save his seat.

I'm just asking. You see, I'm really getting a bit tired of watching people play the race card every time a black person is involved in politics. You know what I mean. Regardless of your real reasons, such as Obama's Marxism or the possibility of corruption with Roland Burris, “If you oppose him, you're racist!”

Isn't that card getting a little dog-eared by now?


http://perrinelson.com/2009/2/23/1316.aspx

Monday, February 9, 2009

The echo chamber

How many ways can there be to say that something's either good for us or bad for us? I know that some issues arouse a lot of passion, but eventually reading dozens of rants about the same subject gets dull and passion wanes. This isn't necessarily a good thing. Some topics need to be kept hot, simply to keep pressure on the opposition.

But if the only people who are reading your rants are of a like mind, what good are they? Perhaps they serve as moral support, but somehow I think that sort of ranting might be more of a way to feel as though you're contributing something of meaning to the dialog, despite the fact that everyone you vent to already knows the things that you have to say. Or maybe it's a way to get validation for your ideas from the like minded.

Maybe, that's why some of us have the perception that the political dialog in our country is becoming more and more polarized over time. The left has its echo chamber with its strident voices, and the right does too. If you only pay attention to the voices from one side or the other, your views can become more extreme over time. Sure, this might arouse your passions for a while, but if all you hear is your own voice repeated over and over you aren't learning anything.

I wasn't always a conservative. I started life with a fairly conservative upbringing. My dad's pretty conservative. My mom on the other hand is more of a moderate with liberal leanings, but compared to today's liberals she was a staunch right winger when I was growing up. In spite of all of this, or perhaps because of it and my own cantankerous nature I was an anarchist at thirteen.

I was in full rebellion against the principles I was raised with. Not long after that, largely due to the influence of my “friends” in my own little teen-age “underground” which was mild compared to the attitudes I see in some of today's youth. In college I was attracted to the “romanticism” of the counter-culture — wishing for a protest akin to the foolishness of the sixties. I even ended up supporting (with my time and money) some rather dubious causes, like the “student” effort to depose the Shah of Iran.

As I got older, and after I moved out to the Seattle area I became a fairly committed liberal. This probably had more to do with the people I was exposed to and the release of restraints upon my behavior than anything else. Even through this though, I remembered a few basic things that I believed in. But, I wasn't really able to resist a good argument, and people like Dave Ross spreading his “drive-by wisdom to the masses, one listener at a time” kept me snowed and thinking like a liberal.

And then, one day I started listening to “the other side.” I caught the Rush Limbaugh show one morning on my drive to work. After a few minutes I started yelling at the radio and turned it off in disgust. For some reason I tuned my radio in to Rush again a couple of days later, with the same result. Rush seemed to me to be an arrogant, self-centered, self-aggrandizing moron. Still, I couldn't stop listening, and listening made me think about his arguments.

I'd like to say that I did my own research and changed my mind about liberalism, but that's not what happened. Gradually, listening to Rush I was swayed by his common sense about conservatism, and his criticism of not just Democrats but of liberal Republicans as well. It wasn't until some time later that I really started analyzing what it was I believed in and why. Believe it or not, it was a liberal that convinced me to start doing detailed research. Karl (by no means a liberal) over at Leaning Straight Up and NW Bloggers is right. “Iron sharpens iron.” For some time on NW Bloggers there was a regular blogger that went by the moniker “Playin' Possum” who offered a couple of challenges to the other bloggers there. Taking him up on those challenges required the extra research, and it was worth it. It changed the basic nature of my blogging.

When it comes down to it, the underlying principles of conservatism are pretty simple. Limited government intrudes upon individual lives less than a massive government run by central planners. Morality matters. People work for a reason, and it's not just so they can have weekends. Personal responsibility is a way to attain peace and harmony both within oneself and at home. Rewarding success and punishing failure is nature's own way of selecting for behaviors that work. Rewarding failure and punishing success leads to weakness and decay. Helping others when they are in need by offering a hand up helps us all, but a hand out ends up being wasted (or getting the beggar wasted on more booze). Recreational pharmaceuticals may seem like fun, but they impair your ability to compete or to enjoy anything else when you get hooked.

Liberalism on the other hand seems to me to be all about feeling good. Helping others by giving them a hand-out, looking down on them all the while. Feeling guilty about what you've earned and so needing to displace that guilt onto people who've earned more. Preaching tolerance while quashing dissent and having no tolerance for those that believe in and support your own culture.

Thinking on these things, I believe that I'm a conservative and will always (from this point onward) be one. I like talking to conservatives. I like reading the things that conservatives have to say. I like listening to them on the radio. At the same time, I have come full circle and pretty much loath much of the drivel that I hear coming out of the mouths and the keyboards of liberals. To some extent, I've exchanged the liberal echo chamber for the conservative echo chamber.

That's not quite what I want. I'm not looking to convince other conservatives to be even more conservative. I'm not really looking to get personal affirmation by having people praise me for holding the same ideas that they do (although I do enjoy personal affirmation). The pithy “me too” isn't dialog, it's just another echo.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about conservatism. I've spent a lot of time reading and re-reading our founding documents. I've written a lot about my own understanding of what's in them. I've gotten a lot of echoes as well as some very insightful commentary from people on this side of the aisle.

I think it's time to start taking the message across the aisle. I've got accounts on some left wing sites. Perhaps its time to start posting some of this there. I doubt that I'll get very many echoes there. Now where did I put that fire retardant suit? I'm not really looking for a flame war after all, just a dialog.

If we want to convert other people to our viewpoint we can't just stay in the echo chamber. We've got to talk to the people that we disagree with. Of course, doing so will take a lot of time and effort. I think I know myself. I wonder if I'm up to it.


http://perrinelson.com/2009/2/9/1313.aspx

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Obama on the wrong side of history

In his inaugural address, President Obama had this to say…

“To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history;”

I have to wonder… was he listening to himself? Or was it “Just words. Just speeches.”? How about this statement, from the New York Post (emphasis added).

President Obama warned Republicans on Capitol Hill today that they need to quit listening to radio king Rush Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats and the new administration.

"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package.

Of course, not everything that President Obama wants to get done is worth doing. But I guess if you say that, President Obama will try to silence your dissent.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Stimulating hypocrisy

Does everyone remember the outrage over the $1.2 million that Merrill Lynch spent to upgrade its executive offices? How about the outrage over that $50 million corporate jet for CITI? You know, the one — the one that CITI had ordered quite some time back, and ended up canceling the order because they got money from T.A.R.P.

While spending “public” funds for that sort of thing on “private” enterprise might seem outrageous, just remember the size of the “stimulus” spending our government engaged in last year. Merrill Lynch's “outrageous” spending on decor rather than loans amounted to less than a millionth of the money our Congress and President extorted from the taxpayer. And, of course, since government is involved in this, there's no limit to the hypocrisy involved either.

Here's another lu-lu: Congress wants to spend $600 million more for the federal government to buy new cars. Uncle Sam already spends $3 billion a year on its fleet of 600,000 vehicles. Congress also wants to spend $7 billion for modernizing federal buildings and facilities. The Smithsonian is targeted to receive $150 million; we love the Smithsonian, too, but this is a job creator?

So, the very same government that is outraged over T.A.R.P. recipients spending money on refurbished office spaces and transport is going to spend huge amounts of money on refurbished office spaces and transport.

The hypocrisy is just stimulating.


http://perrinelson.com/2009/1/28/1305.aspx

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Questions for #44

Which of these things demonstrates love? The giving of charity or the redistribution of tax revenues? Which of them works good upon the soul? Is the command to “Render therefore unto Caesar” greater than the command to “Go, and do thou likewise?”

If, as you said in your inaugural speech today the free market is the greatest force for producing wealth, why then do you and other politicians abandon free market principles to “redistribute” that wealth? Whatever happened to “if any would not work, neither should he eat?”

You said once that your own personal salvation couldn't be realized without a collective salvation. What is the basis for that belief? Is it no longer true that “every man shall bear his own burden?” Are our relationships with others personal or collective? If they are personal, how then are they different from our relationship with God?

Not all men have faith in God. Not all men are charitable. I recognize and understand that. There is a need to take care of the poor and the destitute, but is a man truly poor and destitute when he owns a car, several televisions, and other such conveniences? Is a man truly poor and destitute when he earns literally thousands of times as much income as your own brother?

Oh, perhaps the Telegraph misquoted George, but I seriously doubt that living in a hut compares to the homes of many of our “poor.” I'm not entirely certain that your brother didn't change his tune out of partisanship either. He either said “live here on less than a dollar a month” when talking to the Telegraph or he didn't. He either lives in a rough neighborhood as he allegedly said to the Telegraph…

“Huruma is a tough place, last January during the elections there was rioting and six people were hacked to death. The police don't even arrest you they just shoot you.

“I have seen two of my friends killed. I have scars from defending myself with my fists. I am good with my fists.”

or he doesn't, as he allegedly said to the Times…

“Life in Huruma is good. In other places you must lock yourself in to keep yourself safe,” he told The Times. “Here I am surrounded by friends and family and feel safe and secure.”

That though (whether your brother is lying about his circumstances or not) isn't the issue really, just an interesting side note. I still have to ask you though, which gives you the bigger bang for your buck? Giving charity directly? or giving charity redistributing tax revenues through a government bureaucracy? If I give $100.00 to a local charity that feeds the poor, and if you take $100.00 out of my taxes to feed the poor, which of us will end up providing more actual food to the poor?

More importantly to me, if I give $100.00 to a local charity that feeds the poor, am I not showing my compassion for my fellow man? On the other hand, if you take $100.00 out of my taxes, how does that show compassion on my part? How does it show compassion on your part? For that matter, where do you find justification in our founding documents for taking money from me using the hand of government to give it to someone else?

I suppose you might think that it's in the Preamble to the Constitution, where it says “We the people in order to… promote the general Welfare,” but I don't think that's right. Perhaps you find it in Article 1, section 8 of the Constitution where Congress' powers are enumerated, in this bit “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to … provide for the … general Welfare of the United States,” but I think even there you would be mistaken. After all, the authors of the Constitution didn't think that way.

“[T]he government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”
— James Madison (speech in the House of Representatives, 10 January 1794)

Arguably, one of the founders of your own party, Thomas Jefferson didn't think that it was the duty of government to interpret the general welfare clause in the constitution in that way either.

“They are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose.  To consider the latter phrase not as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless.

“It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please...Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them.  It was intended to lace them up straightly within the enumerated powers and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect.”
— Thomas Jefferson (Opinion on National Bank, 1791)

Please stick to the objects that our government is confined to by the constitution. Let the people find their own salvation. Government and bureaucracy just can't do it for us. Just because you believe that our Constitution is a charter of negative liberties putting undue restrictions on government's ability to redistribute wealth in a socialist manner doesn't make it so. Thomas Jefferson  saw the Constitution as a way to defend our individual rights, without which our freedom means nothing.

Perhaps one of our greatest statesmen looked upon government welfare programs in a most realistic way. I ask you Mr. President to consider the words of Benjamin Franklin.

“Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. St. Monday and St. Tuesday, will soon cease to be holidays. Six days shalt thou labor, though one of the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them.”
— Benjamin Franklin (letter to Collinson, 9 May 1753)

Our salvation, and our charity, are our individual responsibility. Our government was founded in order to protect our individual liberties so that we could see to them. Don't you think it's time you, who speak of a time of responsibility and accountability in government led us truly, by making government step out of our way? Abandon this foolish, Marxist notion of dividing the estates of those of us that pay taxes among those that don't.

Redistribution of wealth leads to sloth, anarchy, and the ultimate destruction of an economy and a people. Don't you think that the “change we need” might well be the abandonment of redistributionist policies?


http://perrinelson.com/2009/1/20/1299.aspx

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

More social engineering in Washington

Washington State that is. Paula over at It's Only Words has got two new posts up with a bit of information about Washington's SB6900.

It seems that our beloved State Senators want to tack on some truly onerous fees to our car tabs, despite being told time and again by the electorate that we want them to be affordable. If you've got a 350 cubic inch V8 under your hood, you'll end up paying $325.00 extra in fees just for the engine displacement. So, if you own a classic car, it's going to really cost you. If it's got a big block you're going to pay through the nose to the tune of $400.00 or more.

Lord help you if you drive a truck for a living. Or if you want to take the sports car out for the spin a few times a year. Oh, wait... in that case there's still “trip permits.” I suppose with $30.00 car tabs (when did we ever actually only pay $30.00?) trip permits are a bit expensive, but with $355.00 car tabs, a $25.00 trip permit a couple of times a year is saving money.

But it's not just engine displacement that's going to hurt. They're also tacking on a carbon tax. Gotta help accelerate global cooling after all.

Does this make my wallet look thin?


http://perrinelson.com/2009/1/13/1295.aspx