Fifty Years after the Declaration of Independence!

"May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them."

Letter from Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, June 24, 1826

The letter excerpted above is considered one of the most sublime exaltations of individual and national liberty ever written. Jefferson’s personal vision of the Declaration of Independence he helped to write, and his vision of the American nation are vivid examples to the world of the blessings of self-government.  Jefferson soon died on July 4, 1826!

I hope you will make a good use of it.

Founding Father, and second president of the United States, John Adams also gave us words to consider today: “You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.”

John Adams

Celebrate the True Fourth of July

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave."

Elmer Davis

Who Works for Whom?

The historic revolutionary change in America was that the government worked for the people, not the people for the government.  We have moved so far from this revolutionary change, and desperately need to get back, in order to save ourselves and to save this revolutionanry model for the future of humanity. 

Beality

When I Grow Up

Today, I will decide what I will be when I grow up, and tomorrow and each day thereafter, I will also decide what I will be when I grow up.  It's a process...

Beality

Stock Exchange for Governments? What an Idea!

"I propose the creation of a new stock market in the United States. It would include 50 individual securities, each representing one of the 50 states. People would be able to "bet" or "invest" in states on an exchange.

Such a visual, quantified representation would surely put some pressure on our elected officials to act more fiscally responsible.

If they didn't, they'd risk being ousted, just like a CEO of any major company. Or just like any one of the now "ex" European heads of state.

Doing so would allow us to invest in the performance of a state's internal and external representatives. These stocks would not represent the underlying value of a state, but rather, they would be "Sentiment Tracking Stocks," tied to the financial performance of each state."

Better Add An “F” to Europe’s Debt Contagion, published Tue, Nov 29th, 2011 by Karim Rahemtulla

What the Government Will Never Tell You About the Debt Crisis

"I have no illusions about the turmoil of a real government shut down. It's ugly. For some period of time, it would be hell for millions of people. I don't want that. I'm sure you don't, either. No one wants mass economic hardship. I'm fully aware we're talking about people's lives here…

But if the government shrinks 45% starting August 3 and remains permanently smaller, the hardship would be temporary. We'd come out the other side of it a better, stronger, wealthier, and maybe even less arrogant nation.

Simply reducing the deficit wouldn't mean you'd pay less in taxes – so it's not that we'd all have more money in our pockets starting August 3. It's that there'd be less government, which means less government meddling in the economy. There'd be fewer parasites and more potential producers. We'd be freer to create new wealth and grow new businesses. A little more freedom would go a long way.

It would be good to have more productive minds looking for ways to create new wealth with fewer government impediments to doing so. It's much better than having those same productive minds rotting behind government desks, meddling in other people's lives, and destroying wealth instead of creating it.

But I do think the debt ceiling will be raised by August 2. Among other reasons for this belief, there's something you'd learn in the ensuing crisis if the ceiling was not raised, something nobody wants you to learn…

You'd find out government is the problem not the solution, and that we'd all be better off with a lot less of it.

That's why Treasury Secretary Geithner says it would be a "catastrophe" not to raise the debt ceiling. It's why Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says it would be "calamitous." It's why Komrade Obama says it would be "financial Armageddon." They're all trying to scare you.

Everybody thinks people would starve without the big, strong government to feed them. It's not true. We'd be a more productive, dynamic, and wealthy society. You'd see this happen right before your eyes if a large portion of the government shut down permanently.

But nobody in government wants you to see that.

Our economy doesn't suffer from a lack of govern-
ment intervention. It suffers from too much government intervention. The solution to too
much government intervention in the economy isn't more government intervention. It's less government. That's what you'd get on August 3, without a higher debt ceiling.

Laying all my cards on the table, I freely admit that I relish the potential shutdown of huge swaths of our bloated, oppressive federal bureaucracy. And I relish the prospect of hundreds of thousands of government employees, people with perfectly productive minds, some of them quite brilliant, making the change from parasites to producers… though I realize it's unlikely to happen.

Imagine for a minute the unleashing of entrepreneurial energy in the wake of a shutdown of 45% of the federal government. The U.S. government is filled with intelligent, highly educated, highly trained people. Many are experienced leaders. Many are more than capable of positively heroic feats of entrepreneurship, feats we'll never witness if they don't leave their government jobs and get to work.

Frightened children like Obama, Bernanke, and Geithner see scary monsters everywhere. Adults with vision and experience see opportunities. I promise you those opportunities are real. They exist. If the government wakes up August 3 and can't pay 45% of its bills, it won't be long until many of those opportunities are seized and exploited, to the benefit of us all."

What the Government Will Never Tell You About the Debt Crisis, by Dan Ferris, editor, The 12% Letter,Saturday, July 23, 2011