Of Independence Days Past

Today I reminded myself of a particular July 4th, 1951 I think it was, in which I really enjoyed the holiday for the first time--even though I had no idea of the political or historical issues implied by the day.

We had a picnic at the park in Larimore, where we lived at the time, after which we all went home to wait for dark, and fireworks. Uncle Jim brought a long trough, made of two 1x4 boards nailed together in a 10-ft long V. He leaned it against his truck, at a steep angle and tied it off to part of the bed.

He brought out the rocket. It was a foot or so long with a two-ft stick trailing behind. "This better work" he said. I could only afford one," he said as he lay it into the trough.

Some of the neighbors came over and brought their fireworks with them. Then, we fired bottle rockets, burned sparklers, fired off firecrackers and Roman Candles. We had a few fountains and some of those little helicopter fliers. Being not quite seven at the time, I had to content myself running around with sparklers--kind of a thrill at the time--and watching the other stuff.

Finally, we started seeing the high-flying rockets going up all around town. Uncle Jim shouted, "Ok! Here we go!" As we all gathered around, "not too close," as my Dad and other parents kept saying, Uncle Jim lit the fuse of the big rocket. The fuse burned for what seemed like minutes, but was really just a few seconds. Suddenly, there was a whoosh of sparks blowing out the bottom of the rocket, which quickly turned into a roar as the rocket flashed up the trough and into the sky. We followed the lengthening trail of burning powder until it looked like it was higher than the moon. Then the rocket exploded with a slightly delayed boom into a vast, multicolored umbrella of fire. Oohs and aahs escaped the lips of everyone there.

Well, it only lasted a few seconds--well under a minute. I watched the trail of smoke, in the light of the moon, until it drifted away and dissipated.

We stayed outside for a while longer, watching fireworks of neighbors, and other high-flying ones still going off around town.

That particular Independence Day sticks with me to this day, I guess because it was the first, very exciting fireworks of my young life. I feel for the kids born in other places, and more recent times, who miss the joy of the family/neighborhood Independence Day celebration with the picnics, softball games, followed by a fireworks show of which the kids are really a part.

How many of today's kids get to use ordinary firecrackers to "shoot the anvil," the anvil in this case being just a plain inverted empty tin can?

Those times are gone in this part of the country, for a number of reasons: Perversely over-protective parents. A government that wants us to forget our heritage. Lazy and authoritarian police and fire departments (they could teach kids how to use fireworks safely, not just ban them). Those times are forgotten by many, and never known by the young.

As adults work ever more toward the attempted creation of a nerf-world to keep the kids safe until they (the adults) die, many of the kids will grow up utterly unable to face the dangers--great and small--of value-seeking. The attainment of anything of value requires risk, and kids are learning to avoid risk at all costs, of they are simply not learning to deal.

The adventure of risk taking to attain goals is what built America, and it will slip away--it is slipping away--as America's parents produce more geldings in lieu of stallions.

Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Arizona

I've been thinking about Arizona's new law regarding illegal aliens for several days--since it was passed. At first, it seemed like competing principles--in order to uphold one, I'd have to betray the other.

Normally, I'd have no qualms about inviting any Mexican, Canadian, Englishman, Asian, African or South American to come to any one of the United States to work. In the capitalist society we once were, there was always too much work to do and too few minds and hands to do it. Despite the excesses of some few government subsidized industries and the excesses that attend them, there was plenty of work for immigrants from all parts of the world, and room for them to advance their lives by the use of their own minds and skills.

Today, the once great States have been cruelly smeared into a slimy mess that is becoming more and more like an European fascist dictatorship. Skilled technicians, professionals and scientists are finding it ever harder to enter the country to seek to better their lives, while unskilled laborers are allowed to sneak in, and once here are never to be questioned or challenged.

Many find work, and that's fine. They also are invited to avail themselves of all the largess of a bloated government without having to pay the dues. Free medical care (which most citizens don't get), free government schools (such as they are) many of which offer classes in the student's first language (eliminating the need to learn ours), and the ability to drive the public streets unlicensed and uninsured with impunity (which citizens cannot), to name three.

Many have called for the closing of the borders, to stem the flow of illegal aliens, though I have not. A far better solution would be to disassemble the welfare state, to detax and deregulate business and return to the capitalist origins that made the States great. The services that the illegal aliens get gratis and that the rest of us pay confiscatory taxes for could be provided for far lower cost, far more efficiently and with no strings attached by the free market--in which everyone buys and pays for what he desires--and gets it!

Arizona is a sovereign State. Under the Tenth Amendment, an admonition which the rogue federal government chooses to ignore almost completely, Arizona can control its own affairs independently of the federal government. True, the Constitution reserves to the feds the task of controlling the borders, but the federal government is criminally derelict in this duty.

Further, the federal government unConstitutionally forbids Arizona to withhold welfare state services from illegal foreigners. Arizona is challenging the federal government to "do you job, or we'll do it."

I can't blame them, and I think it'd be good if other States follow Arizona's example.

Or, better still, do away with the welfare state, embrace laissez faire capitalism, and let us pursue our careers in freedom.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Time to Break Out the Tar & Feathers

Right wing pundits are fond of saying that B Hussein means no harm, but is simply mistaken in his economics and his ability to govern.

They're wrong.

Obama has no moral compass--or at least his moral compass' magnetism has gone away by means of his having mentors who have no regard for individual rights and property. He has assumed the posture of a sort of demigod-king who believes that the Constitution is a pain in the ass he has to sidestep, Congress is his tool, and the people of the united States and the world are serfs who must be controlled and protected. Mostly controlled.

The conservatives, having very shaky moral compasses themselves, are wrong. Most of them don't want to be too severe in their criticism because any one of them might find himself in the driver's seat himself, one day. Also, conservatives in office are mostly spineless oafs being led by the rings in their noses by the leftists.

B Hussein Obama is systematically and deliberately trying to destroy America.

B Hussein Obama is taking the (admittedly very flawed) American capitalist system apart. He's destroying individuals' ability to be productive with ever higher taxes, ever increasing regulation and by placing industry deeply in debt to government in order to be able to exert even more control over it. When it happened in Germany, we called it Nazism. We can't call it that though, because Obama isn't killing people. Yet.

He is, though, beginning to scapegoat. Scapegoating is the act of demonizing a segment of society by way of blaming that group for the nation's ills. By referring to the Tea Party demonstrators as racists and potential terrorists, he's beginning to set up the machinery. By sending up trial balloons, using university stooges to abridge free speech, he's undermining the 1st Amendment. By borrowing and spending (wasting) trillions of dollars he's deliberately placing the country in the position of being in a financial hole from which it can never escape. These are steps toward a goal that bodes nothing but ill for us all.

Obama's policies will reduce the united States to the level of a second-rate or a third-rate country, financially, and they will reduce Americans to the level of wards of the state.

Advocates of freedom vary as to what might stop this treason. Some would like their own state to secede and return to being an independent State. This would be wonderful if the new State doesn't become a little dictatorship of its own. The citizens of this state will need to guard against making the same mistakes made by the US federal government. They'll have to commit themselves to laissez-faire capitalism and an absolute right to life, liberty and property, and strict adherence to the Non Aggression Principle by government as well as by each individual.

Meanwhile, many individuals are retiring early or just quitting (shrugging) to avoid feeding the monster in Mordor DC. I find this appealing, and happen to be setting myself up for retirement very soon--this in spite of the fact that I love productive work. It's hard to quit, but perhaps a small sandwich shop in Carson City isn't the worst way to retire.

While we all can agree that paying taxes is just an enabling mechanism, and should be avoided, no one wants to spend their valuable time in government shackles.

Whatever is to your taste, and whatever your genius can devise, find a way to stop feeding the monster, and simultaneously stay out of the line of fire. Best of luck!

Remember: VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Fight For What You Want

For many years, extended out of WWII, through Korea and VietNam, flying in the face of the Thirteenth Amendment, the United States forced Americans into involuntary servitude by requiring them to enter military service. For several years, particularly during the VietNam war (the very definition of a war of choice; a war that had nothing to do with the security of the United States), young people protested, not only the war itself, but the conscription the war required.

The majority of the protesters were non- and anti-intellectuals who had an agenda other than the simple end of conscription or even the end of politicians' military adventures. There were, however, a number of smaller groups of more rational, better spoken and better focused individuals were able to frame the argument and place it in the laps of legislators.

Between the voices of these individuals and the thundrous noise of the other protestors--as well as the slothful desire of the politicians to make it all go away before the next election, the protesters were successful. Conscription was ended. The pro-slavery types of politicians have since reinstated registration for the as-yet nonexistent draft, showing that we have to be far more careful whom we entrust with the care and feeding of our way of life.

There's a lesson here.

This lesson should be entitled, "Fight For What You Want."

I know and know of many individuals who recognize the failures of the government children's prison system. Actually, I suspect that just about everyone, including the people involved in the system, are aware of these failures.

Some say that the system needs more money to be improved, though the system gets more and more money with every election, and improvement never comes. The children's prison system currently spends, depending on the particular district, two to five times more than the requirements of various parochial schools and private schools. These latter generally offer a much better education than do the children's prisons.

Almost all schools spend far too much time on propagandizing--whether pro-government indoctrination, religious indoctrination, agenda promotion or a combination thereof--than they should. Schools are to teach academic subjects and to prepare the student for higher education, and life. Not for pushing political or philosophical agendas.

I could say more, but you get the point.

Many people I know want to be responsible for the direction of their children's education. You see protests against many of the instances of incompetence of school administrations, from the kinds of non-academic indoctrination to the actual ability of teachers to teach.

Since parents have to pay for the children's prisons anyway, through taxation, many are trapped. They can't afford two tuitions for one child. They send their kids to the children's prisons, then protest the many failures therein. They shouldn't have to do that--they should simply be able to remove their kids from the failing children's prison or private school and enroll them in a better one.

You have to fight for what you want.

Rather than attending parent-teacher meetings, which are never fruitful for the student, parents should say," I want my money back so I can use it to see to my children's education."

Nothing less.

Government should not be allowed to collect tuition and other costs from parents of children who do not attend government children's prisons. Nor should they be allowed to collect tuition from individuals who have no children.

This is where the fight is: whether government has the right to force the individual to pay for substandard services he neither desires nor needs. Take it a step farther: government shouldn't be allowed to involve itself in areas not mandated by its charter.

There's no point in arguing over whether your child should be required to suffer through sessions of sex education presented by often-troubled adults they don't know. There's no point in arguing over whether he should be required to suffer through sessions of indoctrination toward such nonsense as recycling, global warming, the evils of smoking, the wonders of government action, the need to subject oneself to government whim, etc.

Teach him logic and critical evaluation and he'll be able to make those choices for himself. Parents should teach interpersonal relations themselves, both by instruction and by example. The same goes for philosophy and ethics.

Who worse to teach philosophy than a neurotic union schlub whose very existence depends 'pon the whims of government, and whose only ambition is to retire as soon as possible.

Fight for what you want.

• Fight to control the education of your children.
• Fight to control your life and the products thereof.
• Fight to control the pastimes you prefer to pursue.
• Fight to control your freedom of association and dissociation.
• Fight against having to get permission.

Government has progressively asserted authority over many aspects of our lives. To reassert our rights, we can't ask for bits and pieces. We have to fight for the full freedom with which we were born, and which our lives require.

People shouldn't be afraid of their governments; governments should be afraid of their people.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Nation of the Flies

I often wonder what the world will be like a century from now, or even twenty years along. I'm observing that the government children's prison system and the media are seem to be doing everything they can imagine to keep children from full adulthood--by de-emphasizing the need for personal responsibility and critical thinking, and many other activities to which man (in Dirty Lab lingo, man is an abbreviation of human, which is a species of critter that has a female sex--woman--and a male sex--man--and is inclusive) must attend if he's to even begin to fulfill his potential. One can only conclude that the individuals who operate these institutions want to see mankind stunted and mentally/psychologically crippled to remain a sort of world of children throughout their lives.

Another trait these elitists are trying to destroy is that of defiance. As I've mentioned in the past, the only reason for this is that the elitists want a subdued, compliant populace to follow quietly along the elitists' path toward a new feudalism. Most of us are already in the mindset of serfdom already, after decades of conditioning and propagandizing. We can see it wherever we go.

Since the children's prisons seem to be teaching mainly compliance and subservience. Any teaching of that which is necessary for children to become adults must come from the parents. In addition, it has to be hoped that there's some spark of individualism left with the parents, they already having been bathed in humanity-robbing propaganda during their own school years. One bit of evidence that young people are failing to reach adulthood is the relatively common phenomenon of adult children living in their parents' homes well into legal adulthood--presumably with their teddy bears.

The failings of many of today's parents include the inability or lack of desire to:

• Teach their children the work ethic.
• Teach critical thinking.
• Teach time management.
• Be parents.
• Teach children to dress properly.
• Teach children common courtesy.
• Teach them to defend themselves.
  

Many parents fail to allow their children to learn for themselves by:

• Never allowing them to be alone.
• Never letting them set their own goals.
• Never letting them achieve their goals on their own.
• Never letting them achieve self reliance.
• Never letting them have adventures.

Or even:

• Letting them walk to the places they go.
• Letting them go to a public rest room by themselves.
  
• Letting them go to summer camp without their cell phones.
• Letting them find work, earn money and spend it as they will, on their own.

I became a streetcorner newsie when I was ten. It was wonderful, having my own money.

Years ago, I had a job in which I hired kids. I'm not sure if that could still happen today. I tried to instill in them responsibility and pride in a job well done. I tried to teach them to make change properly--something the children's prison hadn't done. We didn't have cash registers with pictures on the keys in gas stations back then.

They'll have kids of their own by now. I hope a little of what I tried to teach stuck.

The road to serfdom is all downhill.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

What Once Was and What Might Be Redone, Better

Two hundred thirty-two years (and two days) ago today, arguably the greatest political document in history was ratified in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I was contemplating a well-crafted, scathing reminder of our lost freedom (anybody who still thinks America is a free country, I have a parcel of beach front property in Chad I'll sell you) when I stumbled across this article the freedom-oriented newspage, Freedom's Phoenix. Since L Neil Smith, freedom writer emeritus, says what I want to say far better than I can, here's the link.

Nonetheless, I celebrate Independence Day with more attention and reflection than any other of America's scheduled holidays. I miss fireworks. I don't attend those public fireworks shows--a poor substitute for neighbors touching off various types of rockets, fire showers and pinwheels in the street, together--although sometimes I see them from afar. As with most things, Disney does it better.

Each year, I reread the Declaration of Independence and marvel at the man, Thomas Jefferson and many of his contemporaries.

How great is this land, America, and how much greater it might have been!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Have a Happy and Reflective Independence Day

In spite of my negative assessment of the direction of the government toward a high-tech police state, I still love the country, both the land and the society. The government, well, I regard it as a peculiar sort of occupying force.

Yeah, these thieving bastards were elected (not sure by whom), but they've effectively insulated themselves from any meaningful challenge by anyone who could actually effect change toward liberty.

The schools are run by and for government.

The corporate structure is built to supply and bolster government.

The healthcare system is being increasingly designed to keep government informed, and is being run by government direction.

The social welfare system is being run by government to keep people in their place.

Tranportation systems are fully controlled by government to direct the movement of both goods and people.

And the electorial system is run by government.

In light of all this we should enjoy Independence Day (which sould really be July 2nd, not July 4th) both as a fun day of BBQ's and fireworks, but as a day of reflection. It's a day to read the Declaration of Independence and take note of the grievances addressed against the British Crown at that time. One might also observe that all of those grievances have been committed by the current federal and local governments against us.

And think about whether you like that.

Happy Independence Day!

They've killed Freedom! Those Bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Independence

July fourth is the day we traditionally celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the document that enumerated the grievances that precipitated Americans' decision to end the states' alliegance to Great Britain. As Americans, we ought to be keenly aware of those grievances, lest they again become a plague on our lives.

Alas! Most Americans haven't really read the Declaration, or if they have, 'twas long ago in school. I'm hearing that a lot of the more socialistic government (but, I repeat myself) school districts dismiss the Declaration of Independence as an obsolete document of questionable value. Socialists despise the very concept "independence," for obvious reasons.

In order for Americans to have realized that they were being politically abused by the British Crown, a transformation had to take place. That transformation happened partially because of the sort of individuals that had the degree of valor, adventurousness and even desperation to leave the relatively safe, if heavily controlled, life in Europe. There was very little chance of a better life there. Men and women came here because they wanted better lives than they could ever have in Europe.

And they were able to achieve a better life here. Many prospered.

The literacy rate in colonial America was very high--perhaps higher than it is today. There was communication akin to today's blogging in existence then: pamphleteering. Quicker than newspapers, pamphlets spread word of British oppression throughout the town and beyond.

The many printing presses in America were not only employed to print pamphlets. They printed books. Books by John Locke, Baruch Spinoza, Rene Descartes and others, which taught the rationalism that not only helped Great Britain become the home of the Industrial Revolution and the biggest market economy on earth, but allowed America to break free of the British Empire and surpass Great Britain by the time the United States had been existence for a mere century.

As King George III asserted his "divine right" to a bigger and bigger piece of the action, the colonists became more and more dissatisfied with their allegiance to King George.

Thes factors created the philosophical climate needed to create a revolution.

Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, the revolutionists made plans and recruited men, and the American Revolution was underway.

And won.

The world's first free country.

So, we'll pop off a few lame, politically correct fireworks in celebration of a free country that no longer exists. King Franklin, King Harry et all up to and especially including the current King George have gradually eased American Freedom into the history books.

Then, the government schools' teachers have gradually eased it right out.

So.....What're we gonna do about it?

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California