Only One Land Owner in the United States

Becoming a landowner is one of the primary American dreams. It is a status symbol. Being a landowner is one of the ways to show that you can make it on your own. It is also a sanctuary and a castle. Your house and land is supposed to be sacred unto you. But did you realize that you don’t actually own it?

When you purchase or inherit a piece of property you receive a deed to that property. Only that deed is not actually a title to your land. All you are really purchasing is the right to lease the land and make some improvements on it. If you don’t believe me, just try telling the states that you aren’t going to pay your property taxes. The state will swoop in, take your property and then auction it off to the highest bidder. Poof! You are now homeless.

Is that not enough to convince you that you don’t own your land? How about eminent domain? The government can decide they want your property for the “good of the people” and you are once again homeless. Maybe they want a road to go through your property, or how about a new park. Maybe it is a developer that wants to put in high rises. Whatever the reason, the government will take that property from you whenever it decides to. Pray you don’t get in their crosshairs!

The only landowner is the government. Slaves are not allowed to own property, and here we find ourselves not able to own property. We may not be slaves completely yet, but this certainly pushes us closer.

Our founding fathers are rolling over in their graves so fast you might think it is a new amusement park ride. How are you doing? Had enough yet? Is this the straw that breaks the camels back? If not, how much more will it take?

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS, AND LIBERTARIANS

Having been raised by southern democrats and educated by the 60’s hippies turned teachers, I have a lot to be thankful for. The liberals taught me two main lessons that will be with me forever, and effect how I think.

First, they taught me empathy. They taught me how to feel bad for the homeless, feel pain for the hungry, and feel the unfairness of any given situation. They taught me how to get in touch with my heart. But more importantly, they taught me to question.

You still see the bumper stickers around that read “question authority”. The democrats taught me to question anything, with any kind of authority. I was supposed to question creationism, history, religion, those in power (the republicans), and on and on. This was a lesson I learned very well. Questions can be fun! Dig in and question everything. Oops. Maybe I took their lesson a little to far, because my questions led me to the republicans.

Growing up, I always thought those republicans were the scary, and unfair people. But in the quest for answers I had to question them as well. The republicans taught me to take those feelings and questions to the next step and apply human nature to them. Feeding the poor only helps them momentarily. What do you do next?

The republicans also taught me to be even more empathetic than the democrats. Teach the poor how to feed themselves. Isn’t abortion just the murder of a sweet innocent baby? Why should we help those who refuse to help themselves?

Unfortunately, I kept finding that those feelings were getting in the way of my questions. If you let those feelings control you, you quit feeling the need to question. You stop, and pursue the solution to that last feeling. Feed the homeless. Stop abortion. What was that last feeling? Go with it.

I didn’t like being just a creature of feelings. That will just wear a person out! In came the libertarians. They taught me the most important lesson of all. They taught me that it is all right to have all those feelings, but the most important feeling you should have is the feeling of freedom and liberty!

At first, I thought that was easy. Feel free! The democrats and the republicans taught me lots about freedom. Or had they? Democrats seem to want to control me with anything to do with money. Ah yes, they had taught me that money was evil. If you have to much the democrats should have the right to come and take it away, to help those who don’t have so much. Wow, is that freedom? That seems to smack of socialism, and seems to be telling me that I don’t have the freedom to earn as much as I want.

Ah, but the republicans don’t believe that money is evil. Maybe they taught me how to be free. Oh no! They seem to want to control what I do socially. They are trying to control how I am allowed to die, whether or not I should wear a seat belt. When I am allowed to drink alcohol. Once again I must ask, is that freedom? Not so much. Seems to smack like socialism again.

Seems as though the libertarians have the toughest lesson to learn. You would think the feelings of freedom would be instinctual, but when you have lived life not free, those feelings are squashed.

I am still learning the liberty lesson. I think this is a lesson that I may have to work on for the rest of my life. The biggest thing that seems to help me find those freedom lessons is remembering that the government is not my parent and should not act like it!

The Government or the Mafia?

I recently read a statement by Lysander Spooner detailing how the government was less respectable than a common highwayman. Spooner wrote about that in the 1800s, but I think the more apt comparison for this day and age would be the mafia.

The mafia started up by taking money for protection. Of course they never completely explained what that protection was from. Though we can guess. Some of that protection was from the mafia itself, just ask the shopkeepers who thought they didn’t have to pay.

If you were very good to the mafia, and a problem arose, there was a good chance the mafia boss might take care of the problem for you. Don’t ask how, you May not want to know. (Makes me wonder what the statistics would say about how many child molesters resided in mafia territory. I bet not many unless they were extremely good at hiding.)

Our government takes money for protection as well. Of course they term protection money as taxes and fees. Just like the mafia, our government continually raises those taxes though. You can only count on the tax rate for one year at a time. Never know just what congress might want this time.

Don’t forget to make your tax contributions! You don’t even want to know what the IRS might do to you and your family if you don’t!

What is the government protecting us from? That is a subject of much debate. They seem only to truly want to protect us from ourselves. Wear your seat-belt. Wear your motorcycle helmet. No drinking until you are 21. Can’t get antibiotics unless you pay a licensed practitioner to write you a prescription. Last I checked the government wasn’t supposed to be my mother!

Is the government protecting us from that which is actually endangering us? How about the plethora of sexual predators that roam the streets, and live in our neighborhoods? How about from all those gang bangers that I hear about on the news every day, making me scared to go into certain neighborhoods? How about from terrorists? They say they are, but isn’t it just luck that we haven’t been hit again. Just look how many people freely cross our borders with nothing stopping them.

As a nation, we have romanticized the horrible. Look how loved pirates, serial murders and the mafia is. Is it any wonder that this happens when our government seems no better?

The Other Politician

We can all remember our mom’s making statements like “If all the other kids jumped off the empire state building, would you too?” Oh, how I remember cringing when hearing my mother say that. It meant that I had once again showed how I could fall into the sheep frame of mind. That was one of my father’s favorite sayings, “don’t follow the sheep.”

All my life I have fought that sheep frame of mind. It’s so easy to just follow along with everyone else. Just accept, and don’t think. I just start doing that and my mother and father pop up in my head scolding me again. So, in my life I have spent a lot of time researching anything and everything. You have to do this to be able to have an informed opinion.

Now I find myself horrified by what is coming out of the politicians’ mouths. I hear things like, “what I did is acceptable because the other politician did it.” What! How stupid do these folks think I am? Wrong is wrong! I don’t care if you can trace this wrongness to the beginning of time, it is still wrong.

Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina recently got caught cheating on his wife, and misusing taxpayers’ money in the process. He did come forward and give what seemed to be a heart felt apology, but then he diminished it by stating how these past politicians had done even worse. If these past law-breakers are still alive then go after them and accept your consequences!

Governor Sanford has recently been trying to tell the voters that he has saved the South Carolinians more money than he misused. Once again he seems to be missing the point. He screwed up! He misused money! Face the music Sanford!

Then I look at the national politicians and feel no better. It is amazing how many sheep we have in D.C. that are supposed to be leaders. Let’s take Representative John Conyers from Michigan as an example.

“I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill. What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?”[i] said Rep. John Conyers.

Sheep Alert! He just told all of us that he wants to take the easy way out. You know, just accept and don’t think! How in the heck did he get into congress?

Then I look at the highest office in the land and find myself disgusted. This is what I would call a Scary Sheep Alert! I will just take a look at one issue here for an example. Recently the media and some politicians are all upset about the number of czars Obama appears to have. There appears to be questions about the constitutionality of these czars having to be vetted by congress. One of the biggest defense tactics made by liberals for Obama’s czars is the fact that you can trace the use of czars all the way back to Franklin Roosevelt and both parties have had them over the years. SO WHAT! I don’t care who has had them in the past the question is…are they constitutional? If they are not constitutional, then all the past presidents screwed up as well. Can’t fix the past on that one, but we can fix it from this day forward.

I am trying to teach my children to not be sheep. These politicians are making it hard when my children notice what is going on. It is hard to explain to the boys that while these politicians are doing wrong, we no longer seem to have the tools to rectify the situation. We can’t vote them out if we don’t live in the right district. Even if we do live in the right district, how do we wake up the sheep? They seem happily asleep.

This makes me think about our countries history. How many slave owners explained away their actions because so and so has slaves? Perhaps they stated that they treat their slaves better than that other guy, so they should not be held up to blame.

And how about our founding fathers? What would they be say if they could see what has happened to this country? Would they be involved with the tea parties? Or would our founding fathers be screaming for revolution? Would they be able to wake the sheep?

---

[i] Find this and other comments from John Conyers on youtube.com.

Can Conservatives Learn a New Trick?

I was watching the news the other day, when a story comes on about 2 mothers going on hunger strike for school dollars.  You have got to be kidding me!  Going on hunger strike because your kid’s school isn’t getting enough money!  Where are their priorities?  Does that really rate a hunger strike?

 

I know little to nothing about protesting, but shouldn’t hunger strikes be saved for things more dire?  How about protesting against those terrorists who want to blow up that same school you are trying to get more money for?  Maybe they should be protesting against all those laws that hamstring our military and intelligence agencies from protecting against an attack on that school?  Oh, and then there is this bailout of the banks, and car companies that are causing our government to look at taxing the heck out of those kids that attend that same school.   How about all those gangs, drug dealers and sex offenders that threaten that school, should they be protested against?  Or maybe the mothers should be protesting those laws and the lack of money that keep our police and justice system from catching and prosecuting those bad guys?  Or how about the fact that the convicts view most of the jails as a club med, therefore there is no longer any true deterrent from doing wrong against your kids?

 

These women have gotten our attention though, and maybe that is the key that conservatives have yet to truly find.  Yes, we do have the talk radio shows, blogs and even fox news now, but we are the silent ones.  Occasionally, we do see some conservatives out protesting, but nowhere near the amount of liberals that we see.  Try and find one day last year where there was no liberal protesting, somewhere in America.  You won’t find one.  Now look how often conservatives protested last year.  Not even close to the same number.

 

Conservatives tend to keep to themselves, which is part of what makes them conservative, but they just might learn something if they study the enemies playbook.  Liberals have made protesting an art form.  They do it so often that sometimes I think they actually have professional protesters. Every time they protest, they get peoples attention. They have found that by protesting often enough, about the same things, they can slowly change the publics mind.  They also grasp the attention, of the powers that be, with every protest.  Policy makers seem to get squeamish when the protestors are right outside their door.

 

Can we conservatives learn how to do the same thing?  It goes against our very natures, but the pro-lifers seemed to figure this out.  Maybe they should share their strategies with the rest of us.  Teach us and rally us.  Not just on pro-life questions but also on everything the conservatives stand for!

Are conservatives the new victims?

One of the main attributes of a victim is the desire to have others feel bad for them.  This is also one of the backbones of the liberal ideal.  They feel, instead of think.  They don’t want to feel bad, for themselves or anyone else and seem to think that if they throw enough victims at us we will feel the same.  Has the conservatives of this nation taken on this status?

 

Listening to talk radio, watching the news and researching the Internet you see and hear plenty of conservatives complaining.  The textbooks are to biased, too many liberals in the schools teaching/brainwashing our children, the media is too liberal, too many liberals in positions of power within local governments, too many liberals in polling places, too many liberal judges, etc. The complaining and even whining are getting out of control.  It is even to the point where it seems like they want to be viewed as the victim.  “Oh, poor us, they are out to get us!”  Maybe they are, so what are you going to do about it?

 

When are the conservatives going to stop complaining and start offering tangible solutions?  The common mantra seems to be “vote.”  Vote for what or who?  That is not working.  We need a better solution. 

 

It is ok to list the problems. The problems do have to be identified before they can be corrected, but at some point, someone has to point out what can be done.  There has to be something that we everyday people can do. 

 

Do we join militias and try to retake the country?  Do we take a different page from the liberal playbook and encourage our children to become the teachers of the next generation?  Or do we whine our life away? 

 

I don’t have the answers.  I wish I did.  I would love to hear your answers.