Happy Birthday, Declaration of Independence! May Americans achieve independence from their own oppressive government!

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

It's fun to watch fireworks on Independence Day, but we have to remember that the fireworks commemorate the colonies' fight for freedom.

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

Souter's lame old hovel--or this? 

Welcome to the Hotel Lost Liberty

Might I urge all of you, in the light of last weeks utterly socialistic and anti-American decision by the evil Supreme Court of the United States--you know, the one that puts an end to private property rights in what was formerly the Land of the Free--to read the linked Press Release?

http://freestarmedia.com/hotellostliberty2.html

Wish I'd thought of it.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Nobody did it better. 

Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette

There was no one on earth who, back in the '40's and '50's, looked cooler smoking a cigarette than Humphrey Bogart. No one. If we were to ask every American who started smoking during that twenty-year period, to list three or four of the influences that made tham start, Humphrey Bogart would be on most of the lists--even though it was probably smoking that killed him.

I started smoking in 1959. I knew then that smoking was an unhealthy habit. So did everyone else. I quit in 1969. I started again in 1971. I quit again in 1980. I started for the last time in 1987, and quit again in 1991. Occasionally, I think about starting again, but I won't. I'm getting too old to abuse the body like I used to.

I liked smoking. I still like watching someone enjoying a cigarette. When I was in the Navy, aboard an aircraft carrier, some of my most enjoyable moments were a few minutes out on the gun deck, breathing the salt air, smoking a cigarette and watching the ship cut through the water. If it was dark, I'd go out on the fantail and watch the moon reflect off the waves or the phosphorescent glow in the screw wash.

I've always loved to drive. Between motorcycles and cars, I always manage to find a high degree of satisfaction cruising along a desert highway, alone at night. Smoking was part of it. I even installed a can holder on my bike to have a place to put the butts.

So. Here I am, possibly the only man in America who doesn't smoke, who doesn't mind if others do. Oh, I might get annoyed if there's poor ventilation and there's too much cigarette smoke, and pipe and cigar smoke can get really heavy, but I figure that's my problem (unless it's my property).

I opposed the laws against smoking in restaurants and pubs from the start. If the proprietor wants to let his patrons smoke, that's his business. If he can't ventilate the place well enough to suit me, I'll find another establishment.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

A few years ago, well after I quit for the final time, I was sent by my employer to Fort Worth for a training session. It was in the winter and, though there was no snow, but it was cold! A few of us were headed for a downtown restaurant for lunch when I noted the little group of really cold-looking people huddled in front of an office building. They were smoking.

The anti-smoking nazis are really out to punish those who still smoke.

What really gets me is those anti-smoking radio and TV spots. Now, it's commendable that those who'd like to see youngsters not get into the cigarette habit employ persuasion--telling them the reasons why smoking isn't good for you. I'm all for that.

What I don't like, is when they lie. Like when they say that second-hand smoke is even more dangerous than actually smoking. A lie. Maybe if you're in a closed room with a bunch of smokers, but no, they'd still be smoking and inhaling the second hand smoke. It's just a lie to make non-smokers hate smokers.

What's just as annoying, are those TV grossout spots showing the nastiest aspects of smoking. Hey, you don't have to tell me, I've already quit. A long time ago. I don't need to have my viewing of an LA Kings game interupted by images of filled ashtrays and people with various gross-looking illnesses that may or may not have been caused by cigarettes (remember, they lie).

My solution is thus: If the money spent on antismoking propaganda were spent on research to cure the cancers related to smoking, then we could all smoke and be happy about it. Or not.

Your choice.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

So....you think this is your property? 

The End of Property

Since I've been old enough to use and control my rational faculty, I've never been under any illusions about property rights in America. Govenment at all levels has been unConstitutionally confiscating private money and property with a host of lame excuses for many decades. The main reason for real property confiscation is failure to pay taxes. A secondary reason is that government wants to build something.

Government owns hundreds of thousands of square miles of land, in all parts of the country already. but whenever they want to build something, they ignore that and take land from some poor, unsuspecting American who actually thought there is a right to ownership of private property in the United States.

Well, as the legal system of the United States was originally written, there is.

If you read the Founding Documents--the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights, if you read the Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist Papers and other letters and declarations of those who signed the above documents--you'll have to come to the conclusion that the Founders and supporters of the early United States considered it beyond question that property rights were absolute.

The Eminent Domain law was put into place to allow government to build roads, government buildings, etc for "public need" without having to pay exhorbitent amounts to get land. I don't agree with eminent domain law, because property rights are absolute and if someone wants an exhorbitent price for his land, he should get it, or prospective buyer should look elswhere.

Wednesday's Supreme Court ruling killed whatever was left of property rights. The grossly flawed decision gives any government agence at any level the "right" to steal any bit of property for any reason. The government agency merely has to claim that the taking is for the public good. To my knowledge, there is no requirement to justify the claim. The law, and the Fifth Amendment calls for just compensation according to fair market value, but who decides what's fair? The government agency that's stealing the property, that's who. It doesn't take a marketing genius to figure out which way that's gonna go. This ruling goes against every principle of property rights that most people thought existed.

This court action should incite violent rebellion. It might still, when government attempts to steal the wrong parcel of land. Those folks in Connecticut probably won't do anything. They're Easterners, used to peace and love and corrupt local government. When they try it on the wrong group of mossy-horned old cowpokes in the West, though, it might turn ugly.

This single Supreme Court ruling could just be the beginning of the end of Law....

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

How rationally crippled will this youngster be by the time he spends fourteen years in this robot mill? 

Walking to School

Yesterday: Each morning, during the eight o'clock hour, there are dozens of youngsters walking along the sidewalks, in groups of two to maybe seven or eight, sometimes singly, and sometimes on bicycles. They're laughing and talking, goofing around, but generally moving along in the same direction. As they pass an intersection, more kids come running up to join the parade.

This boy is showing his friend his new jacknife. That girl is with three friends, giggling and pointing at a small group of boys clowning around up ahead.

They're carrying books; they're on their way to school.

Today: Stylish sedans and suv's line up along the street for blocks, clogging the street and moving forward, feet at a time. Late-sleeping neighbors suffer angry horn honking and dozens of idling engines as they do the stop-and-go crawl. The sidewalks are empty.

Amid exhaust fumes and the heat of engines, the kids are disgorged in the school parking lot, one or two at a time, barely able to greet their friends as they rush to their classrooms, arriving late. Parents, afraid to upset those in the long line of cars behind them, say hasty goodbyes.

Everyone who's read these pages for any time at all knows what I think about government schools. In a short phrase: Government schools are child abuse. In a longer sentence: If government school teachers spent half as much time teaching students acedemic subjects as they do spreading propaganda, we'd have very intelligent graduates, indeed.

This entry isn't about schools, however. It's about what teachers call "socialization." Not teaching kids to be good little fascists (which they will), but rather making friends and doing fun stuff.

Government school teachers complain that kids who don't go to "public" schools don't socialize well.

Years ago, we "socialized" on the way to school in the morning, then goofed around more on the way home in the afternoon. We got to know the kids in the neighborhood that way, and parents got to know each other as they told each other what "those darned kids" have been doing in the back yard.

Now, it's out of the car, into the classroom and out of the classroom into the car. I suppose they get a little time during lunch or during whatever passes for recess these days. But don't dare show your friend your new jacknife. Don't even bring it. Not only will you be carried of in irons by the police, but the record of it'll follow you through your entire academic career, and perhaps beyond.

Let's look at the school in which your youngsters spend almost a third of their young lives. Crackerbox buildings, often without heating and air conditioning. Sometimes they're literally trailers, set in rows. All this, for over $8k per child per year. The grounds are surrounded with tall chain link, to condition the kids to know their choices are limited and that they can't escape. They'd be better referred to as Children's Prisons.

The most intelligent kids are kept down to the progress level of the slowest kids in the class. When they get bored and start entertaining themselves, they're required to take tranquilizers to dope them down. On the other hand, if one of them smokes a joint, it's virtual death. If they smoke a cigarette on school property, it's even worse!

Don't give an asperin to your classmate who has a headache. That makes you a drug pusher and you're scarred for life. And never, ever point your finger at a pal and go "Bang!" They'll hang you by the thumbs from the chain link fence, for that.

Well, I said this wasn't about schools, and it is, sort of.

While the government teaching establishment talks about socializing, and spends millions on programs to teach kids to be good neighbors (money that could go into academics) if allowed to walk to school and play in the afternoons between school and dinner, and if parents arranged outings for groups of friends, etc. kids would "socialize" quite nicely without the schools' help, thank you very much.

"But," the government school advocate asserts. "There are child molesters and drug pushers who'll victimize our children."

My Answer: If parents teach their kids how to defend themselves against criminals, they won't be victims. The key is that parents have to do their jobs as parents. It's not a school problem. Or is it?

In government schools, the teachers are often the drug pushers--requiring that kids use various psychoactive drugs to make the kids more compliant. Occasionally, we hear about a teacher sexually victimizing a student. How can they escape, when they're surrounded by chain link?

Like a prison.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

This fellow, Connor the Condor, was one of the leaders of the exodus. 

Leaving a Sinking Ship

My son works for U-Haul. He tells me that many, many people are renting trucks and trailers to move out of California to Nevada, Arizona and points east.

One of my brothers just bought a house and plans to move to Arizona this summer. My other brother moved to Texas many years ago.

California, like New York, Taxachusetts and a number of other states, seems to be attempting to tax and regulate Productivity to death. Every now and then, we hear of one of America's medium-sized-to-larger corporations moving its home offices out of California.

Governor Arnold claims to be attempting to reverse the trend, but he has to work through the state legislature--a mangier pack of thieves and would-be slavemasters you'll not find in any single city this side of Pyongyang. My money's on California bankruptcy in my lifetime.

They're giving away the state to the non-Productive for votes, and financing it by ripping off the Productive--any of us that actually dares to aspire to reach middle class. If you happen to make six-figures, there's a bull's eye painted on your back.

Just about everyone I know who makes pretty good money--and works his butt off for it--is at least thinking about bailing. We're checking out which states have the lowest taxes and the smallest state governments. We're wondering if we can find a job in our career areas there, that'll pay enough to let us maintain *or even improve* our lifestyle.

Well, I just read the ultimate story in yesterday's OC Register. The ultimate refugee.

The headline: California Condors Soar Through Arizona Skies.

And we thought they were dying off! Barbara Streisand! They all went to Arizona, where taxes are lower, fewer regulations, and better pickin's. My parrot tells me that the seagulls are planning a move, as well. I'm hoping they opt for Oregon.

They've killed Freedom! Those Bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The San Diego, Arizona & Eastern railway--the railroad Dad was working for when he retired in the mid '80's.They'd actually progressed to diesels by then. 

Been Workin' on the Railroad......

My dad was born during World War One. He grew up in the little farm town of Emerado, North Dakota, one of ten children of Sylvester and Grace Grantham. Sylvester owned the only grocery and general merchandise store in town--although Grand Forks, a much bigger town where the locals went to do their serious shopping, was only fifteen miles away. In the late '30's, he bought a fleet of grain trucks to carry the nearby farmers' wheat to the grain elevator in Emerado. Dad and his brothers drove some of the trucks during the harvest.

Grandpa died when I was two, so I don't remember him. Dad spent a couple of year being a hobo, riding the rails and seeing the country. I wish he'd told me more about those adventures. He came back, got a job on the Great Northern Railroad, which had him working as a telegraph operator at small town train depots in the surrounding area. His job included receiving train orders by telegraph, typing them out and handing them off to trainmen on passing trains.

When WWII broke out, Dad went down to enlist, but was told that railroad men were needed on the railroad. He stayed on the job. It was during this time he met, wooed and married my mom.

I was born during World War Two, in another small town, Langdon, North Dakota. Langdon is a stone's throw from the Canada border, also in farming country. It was one of a number of small towns in which Dad worked early in his career. He also worked in his home town (Emerado) where I attended first and second grades, then Larimore, another nearby town where I went to third and fourth.

Seemingly, my "real life" actually started when Dad got a job at the Grand Forks rail yard, and managed to stay there for several years--through the school years of all four of his kids. Grand Forks was (and is) a really good town to grow up in.

One of the worst things about Dad was his (very) occasional bouts with Demon Rum. It didn't happen often, as I recall, but it was very uncomfortable for all of us--especially Mom--when it did.

The best thing, from my POV, was that he and Mom pretty much left us alone to grow up without "too much" interference. I made my own mistakes and learned from them. I had some rather amazing adventures, some of which could've been my end. As my muse takes me, I'll probably tell the odd tale on these pages.

Unfortunately, Dad passed away a couple of years ago and, though he led a very interesting life in his own right, I owe him a debt of gratitude for allowing me to become the man I've turned into.

Thanks, Dad.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Surf's up, Dude! 

Smart Tsunami

Anyone who's heard the Southern California Emergency Alert System knows what I'm talking about: the never-ending, several-times-a-day on every radio station announcements that're like sandpaper on the eardrums.

They seem to be designed to make you change the radio station before your ears start bleeding, and they're always drills. A General Quarters call at three AM would be sweet music compared to these hideous blasts. Did I mention that they're always drills? "If this were an actual emergency we'd play it even louder!"

Well, yesterday at about 8:10 PM they played it on TV. And again at 8:20. And yet again at about 8:30. It was interrupting my intense viewing of a rerun of The Gilmore Girls. It came out with those same awful buzzes that they use on radio, then a message flashed onscreen that you should tune to Channel 6 for details on the emergency. Since my neighborhood seemed not to be either burning, flooded, tilting or shaking, I paid it little attention, except the anger of having The Gilmore Girls interrupted.

Finally, my curiosity got the best of me, and I tuned in Channel 6.

It was a tsunami warning. I suppose, since *The Big One* in the south Pacific, we're all supposed to panic and get in our cars and high-tail it to Big Bear. But since I live five miles from the beach ( as the seagull flies), I didn't really think I had much to worry about.

I went to Drudge after turning back to The Gilmore Girls.

Drudge had a link to Earthquake Central, who was showing a 7.0, in the Pacific 80 miles southwest of Crescent City. While hoping that othing serious was happening to the good folks in Crescent City, I also noted that Crescent City is a good deal north of lovely Santa Ana.

Ladies and gentlemen, attend: the tsunami, had there been one, would have had to whoosh over 600 miles, curving around Cape Mendocino and Point Conception, then make a hard left (over 90 degrees) in order to slam into the Los Angeles and Orange County beaches. That, my friends, would require both intelligence and purpose--that is, a smart tsunami.

Aside: does anyone know what the word tsunami means in English?

Well, we had no tsunami, and apparently no one else did, either. Knock me over with a feather.

Which brings me back to The Gilmore Girls. Why did the brainiacs at the plush penthouse offices of SoCal Emergency Alert Center decide they had to interrupt my TV viewing with a bogus emergency that any moron could tell was a non-starter? Why does the Emergency Alert buzzer sound so hideously annoying that one's first and second impulse is to change the station or hit the mute button? Why couldn't they give the emergency message during the abundant commercial periods rather than during programming?

I think there are grounds for the establishment of a Blue Ribbon Panel to investigate these shortcomings and answer these and other questions, and they should do so before the next emergency.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

This is a fish plaque. I feel fortunate that none of these seem to be on LA area freeway walls. 

The Importance of Art

A few years ago, Caltrans began a program of attaching cast concrete objects d'art on the sound walls alongside the freeway shoulders in urban areas. These squares were often colored depictions of flowers or sea life. At the time, a relatively small number of spending watchdogs questioned the expenditure in letters to editors, but Caltrans whipped out excuses 1 though 23 why the art was relatively inexpensive and aesthetically pleasing. There was further blather about stress reduction for commuters, and even a redution of accidents caused by boredom.

Fact is, while dodging cell phone addicts and high speed map readers, not to mention newspaper readers, one hardly has time to notice the art plaques on the sound walls. I haven't cared enough to research what Caltrans pays for these useless subsidies for hack artists, but knowing the state of Califorina, they didn't get them from the WalMart sale bins.

Sunday past, Debbie and I were motoring up to "The Belly of the Beast," aka Los Angeles, in the Great White Whale and what did we see on the sound walls alongside the northbound San Gabriel Freeway but a long series of these relatively tasteless rectangles of deliberately generic-looking flowers. The continuing interest in the positive aesthetic effects of these representations of no kind of flowers on this earth or any other, is to be noted in the fact that they'd also planted very thick and clingy vines below these walls. The vines were well on the way to fully covering the concrete flowers.

O! Woe!

I'm gonna miss those flower plaques, and all the money deducted from my paycheck represented thereby.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

It starts with our first days in school

Long May It Wave

Of course I love America, the land, the people, the capitalist system (distorted as it is), and the opportunities still afforded those who intelligently seek them. What I don't like about America is the government. Everything the government does makes things a little worse; makes living a little harder. Government, and those who are employed therein, have forgotten that they are working for Americans, and they are a tool to do the things Americans want them to do, under the limits of the terms of our Contract--the Constitution of the United States and its Amendments.

In Great Britain, and many other countries, the king/queen/chief/emir/fuhrer/tsar.....and even president, is the supreme entity and the people work for his benefit. The United States was founded to put an end to this obvious tripe, but little by little, we've forgotten.

More and more, as each generation graduates from the government schools, it's deeper ingrained that the federal government is the ruler and the people must obey its edicts. The Constitution is largely ignored and the meaning of the Bill of Rights is diminished.

Part of the propaganda that prepares youngsters to accept the supreme power of the federal government is The Pledge of Allegiance.

The Pledge of Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy, a socialist baptist minister in 1892. It was first published in The Youth's Companion magazine later that year, in a shorter form that that to which we've become accustomed. It's been altered slightly a few times since, the most recent change made by Dwight Eisenhower in 1954, in which he added the words, "under god." He didn't specify which god, but I assume he meant Thor, the Norse god of war, who seems to be today's most closely followed god by Washington DC.

The Pledge was clearly devised, by Mr Bellamy, to be a propaganda tool to indoctrinate our youth in the government's schools to accept the (alleged) superiority of government over the masses.

When I was in school, we recited the Pledge each and every morning at the beginning of the school day. We placed our hands over our hearts and recited the words aloud, having memorized them in first grade. I recall when they told us the pledge had been changed, that we had to add the words "under god" after "one nation." In what may have been my first act of political rebellion, I never accepted those two added words. I didn't think they belonged.

Years later, I realized that a pledge to the ever-growing federal government, the entity represented by the flag in this context, doesn't belong. It was adopted as a declaration of subservience of the people to the state.

Mr Bellamy knew what he was doing, and it seems to be working. Increasingly, over the decades, most Americans have become used to their accepted subservience.

Sad.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

What Washington DC knows about marijuana 

The Persecution of Mary Jane

Actually, 'twas during the tenure of the evil Franklin Delano Roosevelt that the decision was made. The decision was to have the Supreme Court that FDR kept in his hip pocket to declare any transaction, whether in any way interstate or not--even the sale of milk, for example, from a Norco dairy farm to a Santa Ana grocery store--subject to Interstate Commerce regulations.

This was all reaffirmed Friday by the Supreme Court that GWB keeps in his hip pocket as they decided that the possession of marijuana for medical purposes, legalized by referenda in California and several other states shall be declared illegal under Interstate Commerce rules.

I don't like the fact that the Supremes, not to mention all the other state and federal appeals courts, can look at questionable decisions made by questionable judges over the over two centuries of the existence of the Republic, and use them as precedents to make all manner of unConstitutional decisions that mainly benefit the government and the politicians. It's pretty clear to me that we'd all be better off if these rattlebrained judges were constrained to simply and only consult the Constitution and its Amendments for guidance in deciding Constitutional questions. If any of you legal eagle knows exactly why judges were ever allowed to make decisions based on the mistakes of other judges, I'd appreciate enlightenment.

Meanwhile, thousands are going to suffer and, perhaps, die because of one erroneous decision of six of nine self-important idiots in black dresses.

Having made an exhaustive search of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, I find no language that allows our Representatives to in any way limit that which we voluntarily ingest. I'm sorry. It just ain't in there. No amount of study will bring such a moronic notion into view.

Even if it did, well, everyone who's paying attention knows that man's rights don't come from the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the courts, the President, our Representatives on any level, nor even from a majority vote. Man's rights exist in his nature as a rational being and cannot be taken away except by means of an initiation of force by another.

Really, it's no more complicated than that.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Here's looking at you, Kid! 

Click it or Ripoff

Sheriff Lou Baca, alleged sheriff of Los Angeles County, is once again having his annual whine-in at the Supervisors' offices for more money to run his already bloated agency. He wants yet another county referendum to increase the sales tax to buy more politically correct, but largely ineffectual officers to cruise the ever shrinking county (as the cities annex more land) looking for schlubs who aren't wearing seat belts in their cars.

I guess all those intersection red-light enforcement cameras aren't paying off as well as he thought, eh? Fade in to the Sheriff's fancy hardwood-panelled conference room with the seven-figure teak conference table (seating for thirty).

Sheriff: "Dammit, those assholes are actually stopping for the red lights!

Ass't Sheriff: Yes, but there's a marked increase in rear-end collisions at thos intersections.

Sheriff: Who cares? We can't fine anyone for a rear-ender. Let's increase the fine for not wearing a seat belt.

Coincidentally, the state, in order not to lose federal highway funds that they'll use to fund the recent state senate and assembly salary hikes, has ordered a statewide program to increase seat belt compliance.

Folks, I'm not used to this. I don't usually let stuff get to me, but here we are in the midst of a war against a bunch of savages that couldn't even manufacture the turbans on their heads without Western help, battling against a government that's spending more money messing with its own citizens than effectively fighting the evil "terrorists" who are battling us with weapons we politely gave 'em, and I gotta remember to buckle my seat belt?

O! The pressure!

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

"This is how freedom dies. To thundrous applause." --George Lucas 

HR 1528

Called "Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005," Rep James Sensenbrenner's new bill promises to convert once-free Americans into stoolies, spying on their neighbors and reporting any "illicit acts" observed, like Soviets used to be encouraged to do during the life of the USSR.

Children have already been admonished to report any adult drug activity to their government school teachers. One might wonder how many parents have been rousted and perhaps arrested during a child's anger tantrum.

Since it'd be impossible for George Bush's police state to watch everyone, all the time, what could be better than to get everyone to watch everyone else, and report in whenever they see someone breaking the law. Since, at any given moment, under the American legal system as it's evolved under the Patriot Act, everyone is breaking some law or another at any given time; it's all covered!

Therefore, if this stunningly unConstitutional bill becomes law, it'll be illegal not to turn someone in if you see him engaged in any (real or imagined) drug activity under pain of at least two years in prison, if I see anyone committing these dastardly acts, I just plan to turn in someone I don't like. So, be nice!

Rumor has it that the feds are going to put all law-abiding Americans in Kansas, and the rest of the United States will be the George W Bush Memorial Federal Prison. Logical analysis requires me to conclude that Kansas will remain a desolate, empty wasteland.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

This is what my 1937 Oldsmobile looked like just before I sold it. 

This is what my old '37 Oldsmobile looks like now. 

My first Hot Rod

I was blown away, this afternoon. I was browsing in eBay looking at old cars and checking their prices. I looked at several Chevrolets from the '40's and '50's, then at some old Pontiacs. Finally, I checked Oldsmobiles, for old times' sake.

The first, and so far, only hotrod I've built was a 1937 Oldsmobile sedan. The car was stone stock, running and driveable when I bought it in San Diego in 1986. I drove it that way for a while, but eventually I realized that I needed to start my plan to rebuild the car with an updated drive train so that it could be driven daily.

With the help and experience of my old friend, Ken Gunzelman, I put a mid-1970's GM drive train on the car, then did a little work on the body.

It ran great! I drove it all around San Diego for a couple of years, and to Lake Havasu once. 'Twas a joy to drive.

When we moved from San Diego to Los Angeles, I sold it. I didn't want to, but money was a needed commodity at the time.

Well, back to eBay. There, in the Oldsmobile listings, was my car. Rebuilt to look somewhat different than when I had it, I wouldn't have recognized it, except for one thing: It still has the same license plate.

I'd never have done many of the things the current owner did to the car, but it still looks good....kinda.

Chokes me up a mite.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

This is too dangerous for Subjects of Great Britain. Their schools have completed the dumbing down process. 

Cuts like a......er......

British government-employed medical doctors, reacting to a report that crime is on the increase (in the wake of the confiscation of firearms in Great Britain), and that much of the crime involves the use of knives, including long, pointed kitchen knives, suggest that, according to restauranteurs, long, pointed knives aren't needed to prepare food. Thus, the doctors suggest doing away with them throughout Great Britain.

I have a modest proposal which should more than satisfy British government-employed doctors. This, of course, follows guidelines cobbled into place by the U.S. federal government's Home Security Administration to effect safety in airports and on airliners throughout the United States.

First, all food processors, restaurant chefs and their staffs, butchers and others whose employment requires the use of edged instruments have to be placed under the employ of the Crown. Next, all sharp, pointed and edged objects must be confiscated from throughout Great Britain and placed in the care of the Crown, or destroyed.

Food offered to the public for sale must be prepared in bite-sized bits, so that knives aren't needed in the home. The Queen's scribes shall develop cookbooks to teach the public how to cook wonderful stews and casseroles according to safer, injury-free cooking methods. No cutting, slicing, dicing or peeling need be done, except by qualified, trained technicians in the Queen's food industry.

This, in order to keep the Queen's subjects safe from an implement that had been plaguing Britain since the Dark Days of our Celtic, Roman and Germanic ancestors. Knives. We now have it within our means to put an end to this scourge once and for all.

We hereby announce a merger between the Wilkinson Steel Company and the Dunlop Rubber Company to produce semi-flexible table paddles for the home for use spreading marmalades, butter and other foods. These paddles will not be brittle or breakable, like plastics, nor dangerous, like knives.

The crown intends to eradicate violent injury and death by means of unnecessary and dangerous implements post haste, and if the elimination of both guns and knives will not do it, there is till one more step to be taken.

Unfortunately, David Carr of Samizdata has made it public, and now both British doctors and the Crown know what they must do: the next step is to do away with opposable thumbs.

They've killed Freedom! Those Bastards!

Warm Regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

A glimpse into my crystal puck. 

It's a gas, gas, gas!

We've been hearing/reading about how the price of gas is going down (though it's still high) for the past couple of weeks or so. Here in the Stalag, it was running in the neighborhood of $2.60 a gallon and has fallen to around $2.35 in recent days. Rejoice!

A couple of things worth noting: Adjusted for inflation, gas still costs less than it did in the "gas shortage" days of the Carter Presidency--the mid-late 1970's. Even though Reagan brought Carter's inflation more-or-less under control, we still get around 3% or so annual decrease in the value of the dollar. Far less than Carter's and Nixon's inflation, but it still adds up over the years. The other thing? Every time the price of gas goes up, it reaches a new (short term) high. Every time it backs off, it doesn't decline quite as far as it had been. Unless there's a very unusual change in the supply/demand situation, we won't be seeing gas retailing at less than $2.00 ever again.

President Bush has made some noises like maybe we'll do some more domestic drilling in Alaska and other places, but it's just rhetoric. George Bush has been saying many things, but little gets done. I could dredge up and remind all of you of the fact that Republicans are craven cowards who are well-trained by their Masters (the Democrats) to hang their spines in a special spine-check room in the foyer of the Capitol Building. In fact, I think I will.

What everyone's forgetting, and what was talked about quite a bit back in the periodic gas spikes in the 1980's, is the gas tax. During the Reagan Presidency, when many of us were talking about doing away with the gas tax a a part of the rhetoric directed toward shrinking the size of government. In spite of mixed messages from Washington, some of us actually thought that might happen. Hah!

It was during this time that there was one of these gas price spikes. I think the price went all the way up to about $1.25! The working poor were lamenting how they'd ever be able to afford gas to get to work.

Meanwhile, the fedral gas tax is 18.4 cents a gallon and the California state gas tax is about 37 cents a gallon. That's 55 cents a gallon folks.

Both libertarians and most conservatives began talking about reducing or eliminating the gas tax. It actually was talked about on the floor of the House and on the national news. Had Congress actually brought a bill to the floor, it might've been voted on. But, alas, the House was under the control of the Democrats, and they were all talking about increasing the gas tax to fund additional mass transit

Fast forward to 2005. Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House. Again, we've had a sudden increase in the price of gas.

Nobody's even mentioned the gas tax. Nobody!

They've killed Fredom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Giving up the dream........ 

"Public" Schools and the Bill of Rights

A recent column from Chuck Muth refers to the fact that people in the middle- and upper-class 'burbs realize that the inner city kids aren't getting much in the way of a usable education, but their government schools are just fine, thank you very much. Hence the resistance to the idea of school choice in the comfy classes.

Complacency was the order of the day when they were in school, and as long as their kids can succeed in college and join the jacket-and-necktie set, well, they prefer no change even to change for the better. The wealthier of them (those who aren't working sixty or more hours a week to keep the Mercedes and the $700k+ home) will attend cocktail parties where they'll discuss what's to be done about those unfortunates in the city.

But, school choice? Never!

I'm a reluctant member of the middle class. No, I don't wear a necktie, but I could if I could figure out how to tie one. I flunked knots in Cub Scouts.

I went to a government school that was then and still is considered one of the best. When I was in attending, we were exposed to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and were given a teacher-biased view on what they meant. Years later, as I became interested, I studied the Revolutionary period and the history of the early years of the Republic. I've reread the documents more than once and have read the analyses of several individuals far more learned on the subject than I.

My high school teachers, my history, civics and American government class teachers didn't really get it either. When they spoke of the First, what was emphasized was that you can't yell "Fire" in a crowded theater. The Second? You have the right to get a license and go hunting, in accordance with state and federal law. I could go on, but you get the picture.

Today, it's different. It may vary from state to state, but here in the Stalag, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are spoken of by teachers and government as a template for government to follow, as it's deemed convenient. They light-heartedly speak of the Constitution as a changing, flexible document, the original language of which is hardly suitable to our modern era.

The Bill of Rights, except for the First and probably the Fifth Amendments, are approached with a degree of chortling dirision to outright hostility.

Hence, we come to the post 9/11 era, in which virtually any atrocity by government is tolerated (if not joyfully accepted) if it promises security. Be clear: it doesn't have to achieve security, it only has to promise security.

Perhaps the young don't remember when you could hand the attendant your airline ticket, then walk across the tarmac to the steps, climb them and board the plane with nothing more than a smiling greeting from the stewardess (that's what we used to call flight attendants). You could have your Lone Ranger four-blade-with-a-bottle-opener jackknife in your pocket and no one thought twice about it, even if you used it, while sitting in your seat, (shudder) to trim the fuzzy ends off your shoe laces.

You could walk to the edge of town, carrying your .22 over your shoulder like a soldier, to the slough where you could kill a few tin cans (please don't shoot any birds, children!).

You could (in my state) buy a car at the age of twelve without your parents' knowledge and wrench on it until you were old enough to get a driving permit (fourteen at the time). Of course, Dad had to register and insure the car. If anyone says they saw me driving the car before I got my permit, it was actually a guy that looked a lot like me, in a car very similar to mine.

Each year, at the end of the school session, the plan was to take my paper route money and buy as many firecrackers, Roman candles, bottle rockets and spinners for the 4th of July. Of course, most of the firecrackers didn't make it to the holiday, but enough of them did.Point is, it was legal. We all did it.

I could continue this list, 'cause we've lost a lot of freedom, even in my lifetime.

But why do you imagine we've allowed those monsters in Washington, Sacramento and Albany to do this to us?

Government schools, as noted above, have been preparing us to unquestioningly accept government authority for generations. Parents have accepted the mistaken notion that the promise (but never the guarantee) of security has to be bought with a surrender of freedom.

What they haven't thought through is the nature of the kind of society they're handing off to their kids.

They've killed Freedom! Those Bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Getting up early to beat the rush. 

Mechanix Illustrated, Popular Science, et al

We didn't really have Playboy magazine in my town. There was one Novelty Store down by the railroad station that carried it, but if the clerk even saw one of my tender age moving toward that end of the magazine rack, it was "You 21? Lemme see your driver's license." For a long time, I didn't even know what I wasn't allowed to see.

Well, I might have been trying to sidle over to the adult rack from time to time, and I might've even succeeded a time or two, truth be told, but that wasn't why I hung out there. I couldn't afford to buy all the magazines I wanted, but if I bought one occasionally, he let me do some extended browsing.

There was Rod & Custom, Hot Rod, Car Craft and a few other custom car mags, most of which no longer exist. As a fledgeling car nut, these magazines were what life is for. I also looked over the SciFi pulps, as an avid Robert Heinlein reader.

Which finally leads me to the subject at hand. To see the products graphically that were described by the '50's SciFi writers in print, one read the science magazines.

Having read Heinlein's short story, "The Roads Must Roll," it was wonderful to see a fully illustrated Popular Science article on moving sidewalks. Those magazines employed some wonderful artists with terrific imaginations to come up with believable pictures of yet-to-be realized technolgy. Some time after I read his "Red Planet," one of these magazines had a fully illustrated article on what a base on Mars might look like.

One article from those years that really interested me followed a SciFi story I read in which included a verbal description of traffic problems in a city of the future in which people commuted in flying cars. Coincidentally, while this story was fresh in my mind, Mechanix Illustrated and Popular Mechanics had articles on car-plane convertibles--that is, cars onto which flight surfaces could be attached for flying, or removed for driving on the streets. This was in the mid-fifties!

To be sure, these were primitive attempts whose practicality was highly suspect, and which never did make it into the market, but it was a start. I was stoked!

Now, the bad news. The feds had a Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) and a Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). Stories came out on (black and white) TV news and in newspapers about how it'd be impossible to allow the public at large to fly. It'd be a daily massacre, as these flying cars came crashing down on homes and commercial buildings.

Thus endeth the whole idea of aerocommuting. It just hasn't come up again. We're too stupid.

Today's computer technology can be directed toward automated air traffic control in urban situations, and aeronautic technology could have developed aircars that could fly in corridors over the cities if those early inventors had been able to improve their aircars and refine them over a period of these past few decades, but a declaration by short-sighted bureaucrats squelched the industry before it was even born.

Meanwhile, JFK's space program is stalled--I'll state that it's for two reasons: First, the federal government has spread itself into a host of areas for which there is no Constitutional mandate. Spreading itself too thin, they do nothing very well, not even those things that are within their Constitutional prerogatives. And second, space should've been handed over to the private sector immediately. By keeping NASA in charge, and simultaneously under the thumb of the military, the private sector was frozen out completely (except to manufacture components to the order of NASA and the Air Force). Private firms might not have acted as quickly, until they could see the possibility of profit, but once started, they'd act more quickly and cost-effectively than NASA by orders of magnitude.

I'm angry.

When I was twelve, I assumed that in my lifetime, I'd be flying to work daily and to the Grand Canyon for a vacation. I assumed that I'd have been to the moon a time or two and maybe even to Mars. I assumed that shaving would be a thing of the past and that clothing would be worn once and thrown away. I assumed that videophones would be the norm and that television would be truly three-dimensional. I could go on and on.

In the period between about 1880 and 1929, all manner of men and women were inventing things in their spare bedrooms and carriage houses. Inventions were hitting the market almost hourly. Some were wonderful, many were no good. The market made the decision--not the government.

We still have improving technology today, but it drags in many areas of endeavor. In others (electronics), improvements still come along at a pretty good pace. But relatively few individuals are coming up with new things in their garages any more. With the tax and regulation restrictions we have to suffer, it's a wonder anything gets done.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Had the French sent us the Statue of Self-Flagellation instead. 

Moslems, Muslims, Mooslims*

I was thinking about writing a big rant about those idiots at Newsweek, having irresponsibly published the (presumably erroneous, but who knows?) story about the American interrogators having desecrated the koran, qoran, goran at the Gitmo concentration camp, but it led me to a more important angle.

If I said I'm not particularly religious, I'd be soft-peddling. I was brought up episcopalian which as George Carlin once said, is catholic lite. That said, I can't remember ever actually believing in the existence of any sort of god. Ok, maybe Thor. This to let you know that, though I probably retain a little residual christian psychology, I have no particular religious bias.

I dislike them all.

That said, my topic du jour has to do with the way a couple of the world's major religions deal with life in the modern world.

Five centuries or so in the past, christians killed each other in the most hideous ways imaginable, and on the least pretext--usually based on the victim's presumed pietal challenges. Priests oversaw mass-murder factories in the dungeons below their own cathedrals. The local monarch helped out by conducting mass public executions of any of those who survived the torture chambers (usually by confessing to a capital crime).

Well, in today's world, christianity has mellowed. The main battle these days is whether or not there can be a nativity scene in the public square, or the ten commandments in the courthouse, or a christmas play at a government school. People are rarely killed, except for the occasional gynecologist.

On the other hand, if even a rumor of an act of sacrilege reaches the ears of any islamic witch doctor, all (islamic version of) hell breaks loose. Gee bloody had! People die. If they can't find any infidels to kill, they'll kill each other. These people (seemingly) are psychotic. American muslims seem a mite closer to sanity, but those wack-jobs in the Middle East seem to enjoy strapping dynamite to their own kids and sending them off to crowded places.

Salman Rushdie, to this day, probably doesn't take many long walks alone at night.

In a sane world, these psychos would suicide bomb themselves into early extinction. Unfortunately, American and European leftists seem to idolize these (I'm not sure if I should call them) people.

As little as four or five years ago American leftists roundly opined that Israel could do virtually no worng. How times change.

I'm rambling a mite, but I find it apalling that European and American leftists can forgive any arab atrocity, yet if a few perverts embarass some arab prisoners, and it trumps Treblinka.

*Ken, your quarter is in the mail.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

She was on the phone. He was checking his map. 

Riding Around in Cars

I always feel very sorry for young parents these days, strapping their little tykes into those ungainly contraptions they call "child safety seats." Every trip to the nearby market must begin with a two-minute strap-in session--if the youngster is in a cooperative mood--per child! Then, after you drive a quarter of a mile to the market, Mother must go through another two-minutes per child getting them out of the seats and out of the car.

I feel even more sorry for the poor little kids.

The "authorities" claim that the children will fare better in a collision in these seats. Undoubtedly, they will as long as the car doesn't either burn or become submerged. See, the "safety seats" can't be undone by the kids themselves. By law. Parents can't opt to eschew these seats because they're the law.

I've read the US Constitution, but I can't find where the feds are charged with making decisions on our safety or overruling those we make for ourselves.

Arrogance.

In many cases, and for many parents, these safety seats might make good sense--especially for babies and toddlers.

Now, if you're a nazi sympethizer, cover your eyes: I'm going to write something outrageous.
Let each parent make up his or her own mind. There. I said it, and I'm glad.

The problems with "child safety seats" make a long list, starting here:

They separate the kids from their parents, isolating the kids in the back seat.

They confine the kids to a small space, limiting their mobility.

As mentioned above, they render the kids helpless in the event of a fire or a submersion.

The difficulty of getting the kids out of the car and putting them back leads to temptation to just leave the kids in the car "for a couple of minutes," while car thieves can take the kids along with the car, or heat inside the car can kill. That stuff pops up in the news all the time.

Kids can conspire to murder their parents when they're older, for revenge because of endless hours of boredom in the back seat.

You wouldn't think this would be true, but I've observed many, many parents--both moms and dads, driving recklessly with kids in the back seat. Way more recklessly than I've ever dared to do with passengers in the car. Running red lights, really fast driving (80 mph, 90 mph and more). Unsafe, sudden lane changes. Talking on cell phones. Eating, drinking, reading maps!

Reeking confidence in their Navigators and Suburbans, with air bags in front and safety seats in back, these invincible beings snap their kids little heads back and forth in high-speed maneuvers, secure that nothing can go wrong.

Far better, each of us should drive carefully and safely--that is, keeping his full focus on the task at hand (driving), remembering that he has precious cargo and devoting 100% of his mind to his car, his surroundings and his car. He can think about his money troubles after the car is parked and the kids are safely in the house.

Whether a parent decides for or against "child safety seats" is up to each individual. Government should butt out--it's none of their business.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Which is the REAL Gomer Pyle, and which is the evil terrorist? 

Your Papers, Please! Addendum.....

Part of what the feds are saying to sell us this evil National ID (they call it "Real ID"--anything to avoid calling it a National ID), is that it'll be standardized nationally and that it can't be counterfeited. But, nobody's ever been able to make a document that can't be counterfieted. Probably never will.

It will be harder and more expensive, though. The bad news: they won't have to. All the desperado has to do is find a person whom he more-or-less resembles, kill that poor sap, steal his "Real ID," and step into the fellow's life--as much as is necessary to suit his evil purpose. After all, who's going to question a "Real ID?"

Scenarios might include: killing the family and living in their home for a little while, making a "big score" theft then disappearing; using the victim's credit cards, etc to fulfill some dastardly plan; and many other things you might or might not imagine.

Unintended consequences.

In a more rational world, ID wouldn't be necessary. We'd know who we deal with, or it's cash on the barrelhead. I don't need ID to know who my friends are. My friends don't ask me for ID.

That's the way it should be.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Big Brother is waiting in the wings..... 

Your Papers, Please?

Like the Third Reich before it, the current Reich in Washington DC is working feverishly, as fast as they think the semi-conscious citizenry will allow it, to create a new, high-tech uber state.

It started a long time ago, as any semi-serious reading of US History will show, but it really intensified with the "war on drugs," during the 1980's and '90's. The "war on drugs" was really a War on the Bill of Rights. A quick reading of the BOR will clearly bring out wholesale violations of the Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Amendments. A second look shows violations of the First (no positive epictions of drug use in the media), the Second (denying the right to weapons use on the least pretext) Third (creation of ultra-militarized police sub-agencies) and Fifth (plea bargaining to encourage self-incrimination). Every blood-sucking parasite above GS10 in the Reich should be fired and thrown into a prison cell (after receiving the the full due process they've been ignoring for the past thirty-plus years) for draconian violation of their oaths of office, as well as the thousands of counts of legal violations they've perpetrated against the poor folks that have been unfortunate enough to have blundered into the legal system of a government gone totalitarian.

Victims of the "war on drugs" routinely have their property confiscated, often without ever being charged with a crime.

If all this isn't enough, the destruction of the World Trade towers has ushered in an intensification of the destruction of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Now, along with the "war on drugs, we're also fighting a "war on terror."

Problem is, most of the weapons of the "wot," --"homeland security," the "patriot act" and a dozen or more other assaults on American freedom, are all aimed at US!

We're after bin Laden and the evil al queda bunch, and I have nothing against that--if we pursue them with diligence and intelligence--but why further restrict the liberty of Americans? The answer has to be to further advance the agenda of creating the perfect police state. Given the evidence, what other conclusion can be reached?

The current atrocity is the Congressional effort to create a National ID Card. They had a fairly god National ID in the Social Security card. You can't do many things in a bank without giving them your SS number, for example. This is utterly unConstitutional. Note that until a certain fairly recent date, SS cards carried the admonition, "Not to Be Used for Purposes of Identification." And of diminishing effectiveness as well, given that SS cards are very easy to counterfeit.

The federal nazis are now about to require that the states federalize their Driver's Licenses. From what I read, this means a national standardization with your "permanent record" on the data strip on the back.

Any cop, banker, employer, doctor or librarian will be able to know everything about you--more than you want them to know. Then, we can just wait patiently until the identity thieves weasel their way into your life.

Then, even worse, we'll see a new crime: someone who wants illegal ID can just find someone similar-looking, kill him, and take his ID.

There are many ways this could go which haven't yet occurred to me. None of them are good, short of a full voter rejection of these usurptions. With nearly everyone philosophically asleep after their bout with the government schools, that's not likely to happen.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

This stuff was fun! You can't even get real sparklers any more in SoCal. 

Independence Day

Well, maybe I'm a little less patriotic than I used to be--I still love the country and always will, but the country whose politics I love is gone. From historical readings, I'm guessing that the political United States I'd love is that which existed between about 1880 and 1910. That, my friends, was a FREE AMERICA. I'll probably write about it sometime. I liked growing up in the 1950's, in retrospect, but there's always the danger of selective memory. You remember the good stuff.

Not much of the liberty America's Founders set up for us is left, and more of it disappears with every election.

My enjoyment of Independence Day is an old habit I'm not sure I want to change. I enjoy the get-togethers with friends, the bbq's. I enjoy the Sousa marches and the fireworks.

I really used to like the fireworks--the skyrockets, the Roman candles and the firecrackers.

Used to?

Look, these sterile, polically correct, sit-on-your-ass-and-watch municipal light shows are about as far from the good ol' family 4th 0f July cul de sac celebration as a Yankees ballgame is from neighborhood softball at the park: The Yankees play a lot better baseball, but softball with friends is more fun.

They say it's because of fires. Throughout my first twenty years of life, I don't recall a serious fire caused by fireworks in my town. We could buy and use any fireworks until I was entering my teens, then some of the local money-sucking parasites decided that some firecrackers were too powerful for us poor dumb peons.

Yeah, I know there were a few kids who blew off a finger or two, but y'know, they have parents, and parents should teach 'em. Mine did. I even blew up my share of tin cans and ant hills.

It's a little different here in Southern California, with the dry brush in the hills. It means we have to be more careful how and where we light our fireworks off. It doesn't mean fireworks should be outlawed.

Property owners should pay attention. Brushy land and the houses and other buildings thereon should be insured against fire. Insurance companies should use tort law to exact reimbursement from careless fireworks users. That should force responsibility in fireworks use in the neighborhood and pretty much end the problem.

Empty-headed bureaucrats can't see that. Rather than think of a way in which Productive Americans can enjoy their holiday, they'd rather just stop the fun with the force of the police and establish fines, to help pay for their extravagant vacations.

They've killed freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California