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Challenge To Christian Leaders

Thieves, Robbers, Murderers…Not pirates – Obamabebeballs.

It’s far to glamorous to call these scumbags, who prey on innocent travelers, pirates.

This is not the 16^th or 17^th century, these Somalians are not Captain Kidd, and we have the facilities and technology to know where they are and who they are and to destroy them.  It’s not as if the ka ka hole that is Somalia has any claim to sovereignty, they don’t have any effective government, so why isn’t the U.S. taking action?  What would Teddy Roosevelt do?  And short of us putting a few missiles up their backsides, why hasn’t the U.N. taken action?  After all, these murderers are preying on boats and ships from many nations.  Why, exactly, for the 10,000^th time, I ask, are we spending billions of dollars supporting a group, the U.N., who does nothing but steal 95% of our money destined for their Swiss bank accounts before giving 5% of it to starving children.  Haiti should have given us a clue.  There, the pirates, as usual, are in the government.

And why did we capture seventeen and kill two, when we could have killed seventeen and captured two…or maybe just killed nineteen.  Have you seen the video rampant on the web of the Russian action taken against the so-called pirates?  No trial necessary.  Maybe we should hire a Russian expeditionary force, as they wouldn’t take orders from a bunch of wimp American politicians who continue to stick their noses into American military action.  After all, law school trains you well for military action: no Annapolis or West Point or Air Force Academy needed.

600 hostages and 34 ships are now held by these scumbag lice who call themselves pirates.  When is enough enough?  When is the U.S. going to get an ounce of chicken guts and take action…of course we would have to have a leader who’s concerned about something besides his buddies at Acorn to make something constructive happen.  Trust me, our American fighting men and women are itching to wipe out this cancer calling itself pirate.

Where is Ambassador Rice, our supposed representative to the U.N., appointed by Obama?  She’s in South Africa enjoying the summer sun, while North Africa burns and 4 innocent bible distributing American tourists are murdered.  How about a U.N. force made up of Africans, after all it’s an African problem.  How about some other countries picking up the gauntlet for a change?

Yes, it was probably foolish for these folks to cruise in waters known to be crawling with murderers and thieves, and yes, it’s almost impossible for a force to move on a boat carrying hostages before those hostages can be murdered…so preemptive action should be taken.  Cut the head off the snake, where he lives.  An invasion of Somalia would cost a lot of Somalian lives, some of them innocent…but the fact is, when you allow your country to be run by scumbags you’re taking a risk on being caught in a crossfire.  And, sorry, but a few Somalian lives lost are better than one innocent American one…and it’s time or government started thinking that way, time they looked back at true American patriots like Teddy and took a page out of their book.  Time America stands up for Americans.  How can we expect the world to respect us when we have no self-respect, no gonads, no action when action is called for?  Where has the $680 billion we spent on defense gone?  Why do we pay that amount out if we can’t protect 4 innocent Americans, or at least revenge them?  Don’t tell me we can’t wipe out a rag tag bunch of s0-called pirates?

And that invasion should be conducted by the U.N., or why are we paying the majority of the cost of this so called International Organization, international force.  It’s a joke, but I, for one, am not laughing.  Not when four innocent Americans are killed, when their leader says, “Our colleagues called us this morning, that they were being attacked by a US warship,” Mohamud, a Somali pirate, told Reuters. “We ordered our comrades to kill the four Americans before they got killed.”

Well, folks, as an American, I’m saying kill that son-of-a-bitch and all his fellow fleas and lice before another innocent American, or innocent from any other country, gets killed.  It’s time to act.  We used to hang pirates, but lets hope this bunch never gets to trial.

See the quote below.

Here’s a report (partially quoted) from an African news agency.  I’m surprised, truthfully, that they didn’t condemn the U.S. and the United Nations for not stopping these atrocities.

Somali pirates kill four US hostages

By Katrina Manson in Nairobi and agencies

Published: February 23 2011 02:36 | Last updated: February 23 2011 02:36

Pirates have shot and killed four US hostages off Somalia in the midst of negotiations for their release from their hijacked yacht, the US military said.

The attack marks the deadliest by pirates against US hostages, as insecurity and ransoms rise and piracy takes hold of an ever greater expanse of water off Somalia, from Oman in the north towards India in the east and to Madagascar to the south.

… “Our colleagues called us this morning, that they were being attacked by a US warship,” Mohamud, a Somali pirate, told Reuters. “We ordered our comrades to kill the four Americans before they got killed.”

US forces previously killed three Somali pirates in an April 2009 release of a captured US captain. Pirate leader Farah, speaking from Bayla, a pirate haven in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northern Somalia, vowed to Reuters to avenge the deaths and capture of his comrades. “I lost the money I invested and my comrades. No forgiveness for the Americans. Revenge. Our business will go on,” he said, adding he had spent $110,000 so far on the hijacking, including costs for weapons, food and salaries.

Pirates currently hold about 30 boats captured off the coast of Somalia, with a total of more than 600 hostages, according to the US Navy, which along with the EU, Nato and other nations, patrols the region with only 34 warships.

“We’ve got to have a more effective approach to maintaining security on the seas, in the ocean lanes, that are so essential to commerce and travel,” Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, told reporters.

President Barack Obama, who was notified of the deaths, had authorised the use of force in the case of an imminent threat to the hostages, a White House press secretary told reporters.

Reuters reported this week that Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabaab will receive a 20 per cent cut of all ransoms in future, hiking the threat of instability and the difficulty of putting a stop to pirates who make their base in the failed state, whose UN-backed government controls only a few sections in the capital, Mogadishu.

Admiral Fox said he would not go into “ongoing efforts” to pursue a suspected mother ship that had haboured the 19 pirates before the attack southeast of the Oman coast.

End of partial quote.

Mr. Obama bebe balls, it’s time to get up on your hind legs and do something about these so-called pirates.

Okay, it’s the Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, the House and Senate Finance Committees, the Mint, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation…and on and on and on.  So, you think our economic system is a little complicated?  It’s only because we’ve allowed it to become so…the fact is, it’s very basic, and if we understand those basics, maybe we can straighten out the mess we’ve allowed it to become.

It’s time we went back to basics.

I’m not an economist, or a mathematician, or a statistician or actuary; I’m just an ol’ country boy who, I hope, knows right from wrong and tries to do the right thing.  And it seems to me there are some basic laws of the universe that we must respect, like it or not.  Like gravity, and knowing that water will seek it’s own level, and such as that….   Like economics,…and the basics of that so-called science are not so complicated as you might think.

There are some basic laws of economics that have seemed to drive mankind since he discovered that if he worked hard and grew more squash than he could eat, he could trade some for Igor’s fish…as Igor caught more fish than he could eat, even if he dried some for the winter.

So, trade, supply, demand, price, utility, emotion, money, interest, debt, are all part and parcel of what developed from that first trade of squash for fish.

Trade started it all.  And how many fish you could get for your squash depended upon how many fish Igor had, how fast he had to get rid of them before he added value by drying them, and how many cousins Igor had who also wanted squash for their fish, so supply and demand became a factor of trade.  And that factor was price, and price was simply how many squash you had to give up to get as many fish as you wanted.

Utility was also a factor.  What could you do with what you got.  Of course you could eat fish with your squash and satisfy that basic need.  Could you trade fish for grain?  You bet, and you could make bread, and maybe more bread than you could eat, and you could trade it, and on and on.

But utility was not the only basic factor of trade.  Emotion has long been a factor of economics.  If your woman wanted a necklace of beads, you could trade squash for fish and fish for beads, and that fulfilled her emotional need, and consequently some of yours.

Of course utility was always more basic than emotion.  Best illustrated by the man dying of thirst on a desert island.  Offer him the Hope diamond or a gallon of fresh water and see which he takes.  Utility is more important, more basic, than emotion.

So where does money fit into the equation?  Well, squash and fish both spoil, so there needs to be an element of trade that doesn’t spoil, and more so, can be traded for fish and traded again across the lake.  All money is…is a medium, to fit in between trades.  It’s the vehicle that spans time and distance.

And money, too, is subject to supply and demand.  If there’s too much money out there, money is not as valuable as if there’s only a small amount.  And that’s why those who govern trade, which we’ve allowed, probably mistakenly, our federal government to do, can’t merely print money drunkenly.  The more dollars that are merely printed, the less valuable they’ll be…and that’s inflation.

Who cares how many dollars there are out there and how much they’re worth?  Those on a fixed income of dollars care, for those dollars they receive will buy less and less as the supply of dollars increase.  And those who have saved their dollars will find they are worth less and less, particularly if interest rates are artificially held low so money is worth very little.

And money has value, and interest is the value of money.  What will you pay in order to use someone else’s money to buy squash to trade for fish to sell to make more money than you borrowed so you can pay back the loan and the interest charged thereon and have some left over as profit.  When there’s too much money out there, it’s worth less and will earn less in the way of interest, so those who’ve saved their money will receive less for it, and that will discourage the saving of money and that will mean there is less money to borrow to buy squash to trade for fish…or basically less business.   Another reason not to merely print money.  In fact, it will mean that profit is less valuable, and that’s a catastrophic thing to happen to a free enterprise economy such as the United States of America.

All this is leading in a big circle from the time that first harvest of more squash than the grower could eat to now, when we have a government who’s paying no attention to the basic laws of economics, to free enterprise, to self-reliance and freedom.  To your savings and mine, and to the fixed income of retirees.

The first failure of government came when they allowed themselves to incur debt.  When the first federal agency thought they could operate merely on the good faith and credit of the United States of America, and not on sound economic principals.  That means “business like.”  Borrow money, okay, but pay it back.  Operate within your means.  Budget, a unique concept wherein you pay your costs out of income and even if you have nothing left, i.e. profit, you’ve broken even so you don’t end up in debt.  Actually, those aren’t unique concepts, but were born from the first time Igor didn’t receive the squash he was promised and beat the bejesus out of the debtor with his fishing pole—we should have learned from that lesson.  That’s basic economics.  And to be truthful, I’d like to beat the bejesus out of most those in Congress, past and present, who’ve incurred $10,000 in debt this year for every man, woman, and child in the United States of America.  Who now have a national debt of $40,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States of America, presuming there are 350,000,000 of us and $14,000,000,000,000.00 in national debt…that’s fourteen trillion, in case you get lost in the unfathomable numbers of zeros as do I.

When Social Security was established, money was taken from workers for their retirement.  Had that money been invested with sound economic principles, then income in the way of interest would have been received and those accounts would have built up until, when retired, Social Security recipients could receive a monthly stipend as they were no longer working, but a stipend earned by the money they’d deposited, entrusted, to the government.  How much could they receive?  It depends, or should have continued to depend, upon how much was paid in by that prospective recipient.  A hard concept?  Not hardly.  But a sound economic one.  Except when you consider that Congress does not operate on sound economic principles.  They pilfered it, stole it, bought votes with it…that’s your Congress, ladies and gentlemen past and present.

And we allowed an “entitlement” mentality to invade our sound economic principles, and to overrule them and common sense.  When did it become mandatory to pay someone retirement or any benefit that wasn’t economically viable, that didn’t comply with the laws of economics.  Now, public employees, receive a retirement that equates to more than the value of all the pay they received during their so-called service.  Let’s say, for instance, that a man worked twenty years as a police or fire chief, and retires (as one I am familiar with recently did), for an annual sum of $160,00 a year.  The current value of money, i.e. bank savings rate, is ¾ of a percent.  That’s what you receive on your savings.  That police chief would have to have deposited $21,333,333.00 in the bank in order to receive that amount annually.  That’s $1,066,666.66 a year for every year he served.  That’s most likely ten times what he earned, gross, during that period.  Ludicrous, you bet it is, and that’s what’s breaking most of the states in the union.  That’s what we get for trusting our elected and appointed officials, and we should take a club to them all.

This ol’ country boy is no mathematician, but he can add and divide and multiply, even though he doesn’t have enough fingers and toes to keep up with current numbers.

Had Social Security, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and all the rest of the federal agencies been operated on the sound economic principles under which they were founded, there would be no economic problem in the United States, no fourteen trillion dollar deficit, no spending of more money in the last congressional session than in all the prior congressional sessions combined.

It’s time to get back to basics.

Whose fault is it?  Well, who held the purse strings?  Congress, that’s who.  Congress, who obviously can’t read the clear language of the Constitution, the ultimate law of the land…or is supposed to be.  And the Supreme Court, who’s mission was, and should be, to make sure Congress and the Administration operate in strict compliance to that document which is the law of the land, which is the guiding light that allowed this country to become the go-to country in the world, the most economically successful, the most giving, the most sought haven in the history of mankind.

And it’s the fault of every other elected and appointed government official in the land, state, county, city, who didn’t and doesn’t operate their trust under sound economic principles…i.e. pay as you go.

And under the Constitution.  It’s the basic law of the land, the only original law of the land, and we must get back to basics.

It’s time we rebel if Congress does not operate on sound economic principles.  It’s time we fire any administrator in government who doesn’t operate on sound economic principles…in case you’ve forgotten, that means within budget, and budget comes from income, not some mythical number selected by Congress or state, county and city officials who we already know can’t count, and can’t read, or they’d follow the basic law of the land, the Constitution, and the basic laws of economics.

It’s time we made damn sure we get fish for our squash, not empty promises.

It’s your fault and mine,…we’ve been imbeciles as well.

Echoing from the heavens I continue to hear:

“I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people (our 10th Amendment). To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible to any definition.” –Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Madison, and the rest, are not resting easy these days. In fact almost daily I can picture them ranting and raving over the way their sacrifice, their brilliance, their legacy is being trampled upon and ignored.

To say that the judicial, the legislative, and the executive branch of our government has taken liberties with the Constitution is a little like saying sugar is sweet, lemons are sour, and politicians rapidly become full of themselves…it all goes without saying.

Two hundred and twenty-three years ago the Constitution was submitted for ratification. I believe if there was ever a more perfect document in regards to the affairs of man, it’s buried in the sands of time. And my limited study of history has never revealed it. The proof of the pudding, as is so often said, is in the eating, and the proof of the Constitution is in the fact the United States of America, which so long conducted it’s affairs under fairly strict adherence to the document, became the most powerful, most prosperous, most generous, most sought country the world had ever known.

And I worry about my use of “became,” rather than “has become.” Are we still what we became? Will we remain even remotely powerful? Or are we already falling to the wayside because all three branches of our government seem to care little about a strict interpretation of the Constitution, rather declare it, for their own purposes, to be a “living” document. A “living” document is a euphemism for flexible, changeable,…written on jello; rather than a document cast in concrete from those with an infinite knowledge of history, and sealed with the sweat, tears, and blood of our forefathers. Dried blood, never meant to be erased.

Do you actually think the brilliance of those who constructed the Constitution can be ignored as it is by those currently in power? That brilliance is no better illustrated than the gentleman quoted above who wrote not only the greatest statement of man’s basic nature and will, the Declaration of Independence, but contributed such profound notions to the founding of the country as the statement above.

James Madison, another brilliant mind and thought to be the father of the Constitution, said in the Federalist papers:

…because men are not angels, they need government, but government must be contained and controlled for the same reason.

We see far too often that those we send to congress are not angels, in fact many wouldn’t aspire to be as they don’t believe in the concept of a heavenly host. And one adage, one bit of historical wisdom is as sure as the moon pulling the tides: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Even the most elementary student of history will see that proven time and time again. Even the most elementary student of contemporary politics will see that proven time and time again.

One of the basic precepts of the Declaration of Independence is that we may only be governed with our consent. Somehow I don’t remember being asked much by my congressmen and senators, even though I offer much advice, I wonder, I worry, that they’re paying way too much attention to the power they’ve obtained and not enough attention to those of us out here in the pea patch. I think they’ve mostly forgotten it was power granted…by the people. Maybe the corruption of power makes one hard of hearing? Maybe it makes one not want to hear? The good news is we still have the vote, and even if they become hard of hearing while in office, or their ears become filled with the platitudes of those wanting to buy their votes, we can elect another to take their place, maybe sending someone with a better hearing aid, or a less greedy nature.

Now comes before congress another 1,924 page bill, reminiscent of a recent health bill over 2,000 pages.

Again I’ll look back into our history for some guidance, and to James Madison, who said:

It will be little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow. Law is defined by a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known and less fixed?

I wonder if Madison would think a 2,000 page bill followed closely by a 1,924 page bill “voluminous?” Can it be read…or understood? Particularly when the speaker of the house says “let’s pass it now and we’ll read it later.” Or something equally ignorant and inane.

Jefferson and Madison and the rest of our brilliant forefathers went to war over much less.

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San Buenaventura and the Haunts of Perry Mason

One might wonder what Erle Stanley Gardner, destined to become the world’s best-selling mystery writer, saw in the place in 1921-a burgeoning village struggling to take advantage of an oil boom that marked and marred and desecrated much of Central and Southern California. What Gardner saw was the remnants of a village that, pre-oil-boom, had been gracefully growing to a small town: but suddenly, due to gooey hydrocarbons, became an excellent blossoming economy in which to establish a law practice.

It wasn’t until he was well established in that field that he turned his typewriter from briefs, contracts and agreements to novels.

At that time, prior to his birth as a novelist, if typical of other oil boom towns, the place smelled of hydrocarbons, of sweaty men in coveralls, of smoke billowing from diesel engines driving pumping units and trucks hauling the foulest kind of liquid gold, and of money. Not an altogether offensive smell to many, but as one ages and reflects on what makes a place truly desirable, what makes a place attractive to establish a real home, to raise a family, or merely to visit and enjoy, one looks for something more.

Have you never noticed how much smell affects your opinion of a person or place? There’s just something about a pleasant aroma than makes one both happy and comfortable. Let’s not consider the contrary.

Like a beautifully prepared meal, a place should gratify all the senses. What meal isn’t better if it’s a delight for the eye and olfactory even before becoming gratification for touch and finally, taste?

A place is much the same.

Standing at the east end of California Street, just below the historic City Hall, next to a large bronze of Father Junipero Serra, while inhaling a fresh ocean breeze that’s teased across a field of strawberries is the litmus test of the theory. And the theory holds true. Fresh scented air is the finest of perfumes.

Joining the good padre and gazing out across the tops of hundred foot tall palm trees, equally majestic eucalyptus; distant windward fields of berries, vegetables, citrus, and flowers; and across the red tile roofs of miraculously preserved, and oft times refurbished, homes, bungalows, and commercial structures gives one hope that all of what was one of the world’s most affable cultures was not allowed to totally wane. Not totally replaced by mans’ restless, inevitably destructive, need to move forward; what he at the time conceived as progress. And which more often than not proves the opposite, as is not often considered: what price is progress? Is growth, for growth’s sake, productive? Quality of life is often the first to fall to unconsidered progress, so odds are progress itself is often an oxymoron.

The bronze Father Serra’s view is across those trees and structures and encompasses what was there long before either-the largest ocean in the world, the Pacific. And across a small sliver of it, the Santa Barbara Channel, to what has been described as the Galapagos of the Northern Hemisphere: the Channel Islands, only twenty-some miles off the Central California coastline. Now, thanks to excellent, if hard fought, planning and preservation, the five islands-San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, and Santa Barbara-are known Channel Island’s National Park, and like other parks, welcomes visitors.

Wandering down California Street to main, and up and down this boulevard of shops, restaurants, bookstores, and boutiques, is a pleasure to the eye, ear, nose, and if one stops in Darden’s for an Irish Guinness, the throat. The choice of bars, wine bars, and pubs is wide ranging-bring a pool cue or just deep pockets, the choice is yours.

A few meandering steps more toward the ocean and spacious white sand beaches, and you pass the historic Erle Stanley Gardner Building, where Gardner maintained an office and began a stellar writing career, becoming the world’s best-selling mystery writer under his name and several pseudonyms. Gardner wrote for the pulps: westerns, history, travel, and mysteries inventing a rogue’s gallery of characters, notably Lester Leith, the gentleman thief. In 1933 Gardner made his transition to full time writer and novelist when The Case of the Velvet Claws was published.

To Gardner’s credit he devoted thousands of hours to a project he called “the court of last resort.” The project reviewed, and in many instances sought to reverse, the convictions of convicts incarcerated due to poor legal representation or careless or illegal actions on the part of police and prosecutors, and often due to misinterpretation of medical or other forensic science evidence.

The character Perry Mason was portrayed in various Hollywood films and became a hit TV series starring Raymond Burr.

Gardner died in Temecula, California in 1970, wedded to his long time secretary Agnes Jean Bethell, the “real Della Street.”

Both Ventura and its neighboring canyon and mountain community of Ojai are current home to a bevy of writers of all types, particularly Hollywood writers, plying their trade to satisfy every genre of film.

A few steps more down California Street takes you to The Sportsman, an eatery seemingly stuck in the past, where one expects to see Gardner, or maybe his most famous character, Perry Mason, leaning on the bar. The food here, like Gardner’s novels, is consistently good, if out of the 40′s and 50′s, the film noir era.

But within three blocks of The Sportsman are a plethora of conventional and ethnic restaurants to satisfy the most discriminating palate. From some of the best burgers in the region. If open air is your ambience, the Top Hat is the place. It’s an eight foot by twenty foot eatery, all kitchen and service area. From it, a couple of blocks, to a totally refurbished and restored 1928 building housing a upscale restaurant and lounge, the W20, or Watermark On Main where a diner can enjoy both a view and a set of historic murals reflecting the best of early California impressionist art, in a room to equal any historic restoration of the era.

On Main Street a diner can fulfill his most disparate culinary craving.

If it’s recreation you’re after, try hiring kayaks at the harbor and paddling or sailing the keys, or catching a ride on Island Packers to either whale watch or explore Channel Islands National Park. Ventura backs up to the hard-sandstone-shouldered, oak and pine covered Santa Ynez Mountains, and the Los Padres National Forest, for some real rough country exploring and hiking-who knows, you may stumble on Olivas’ gold, said hidden there by bandits before they met their fate at the end of a Los Angeles hemp-line and its thirteen turns.

Beach front trails lead one from the Ventura River to the harbor for walkers, joggers, or bicyclers.

If it’s more sedate pastimes you seek, old town Ventura offers antique store after antique store, and thrift stores for those who’d rather dig into their musty mounds, or merely take a seat on an ocean front bench and enjoy unparalleled sunsets.

Speaking of the harbor, it, too, has its culinary delights. Of course seafood restaurants like Andria’s and Brophy Brothers offer mounds of fish or shrimp and chips, but both of those take it a step farther. Brophy’s with a full bar and elevated view of pleasure and commercial craft, and both it and Andrea’s with chowder and lobster which never disappoints. And Andria’s offers a fine fresh fish counter for those with cooking facilities; and I mean fresh as a fishing trawler is offloading steps away.

Mexican, French, and a renowned Greek restaurant where a belly dancer will distract you from your loukaniko, Greek sausage stuffed with peppers-and a pleasant, if possibly unsettling, distraction it is.

While at the harbor, don’t miss the Channel Island National Park visitor center, with its flora and fauna displays.

Having often sought refuge, solace, and moderate temperatures, Ventura was an annual pilgrimage. Knowing it had clawed its way from a pastoral Spanish and Mexican Californio agrarian mission village providing a voracious east coast on the verge of industrial revolution with hides, horns, and tallow, was a pleasant recollection of history studied; watching with furrowed brow as it transformed into a booming off and onshore oil town of pipe yards and machine shops was historical transformation gone wrong, if beauty and graciousness is right; but then watching it slowly, like a katydid whose development is restricted by hydrocarbons, metamorphose into an art and cultural center satisfied an inner need that only a place of respite and renewed and reinvigorated beauty can provide. San Buenaventura, its historic name, born again.

And what a gracious time Old California was; one that can be relived by visits to the mission and its manicured grounds, to the Ortega Adobe beautifully preserved and restored with period furnishings, to the Ortega Adobe near the mission, or to a dozen art galleries and museums.

Old California, a time when it was said, “It’s better to be on time than invited.” When you were never late for a meal, for one magically appeared on the table when you arrived. A time when a haciendado, a ranchero, would leave a bowl of coins near the front door so a traveler would never be short.

A different time indeed.

With every passing year it seems Ventura, San Buenaventura, is reclaiming her past while establishing herself as a destination resort town with unsurpassed restaurants, recreation, and climate.

Don’t wait. Better on time than invited.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=L._J._Martin

There is no question in my mind that the founding fathers were brilliant. How else could they have foreseen the balance of power to bestow on a newly formed government; a government which respected both the individual vote, the democratic aspect, and the difference between urban and rural visions of what a country should be, the republic. For all its flaws, and there are many, our Congress reflects the opinions and attitudes and prejudices of both the most wealthy landed gentry and the poorest common laborer in a more equitable manner than any system there-to-fore. A democracy, where in one man, one vote, rules the day; a republic, where in each state elects only two senators, no matter its population, and one congressman for a given population. Two houses; one who enjoys two senators from a state as small, in population, as Wyoming (just over a half million people) and two senators from a state as large as California, with over 70 times the population. There is the power of a republic.

Jefferson, in particular, wrote with a pen so broad in many aspects, and yet so pointed and narrow in many, that his foresight cut a path through a forest of former governmental failures and near successes, to create one that has lasted and prospered for two hundred years…yet due to one possibly fatal flaw, may now teeter on a precipice created by its own respect for the right of every man represented, and that’s his right to vote his preference. And the preference of far too many has become vote yourself not an opportunity but an advantage over your fellows; vote yourself an unearned and unsustainable piece of the pie-unsustainable because inequities should come from ability and aspiration, not from the mere ability to pull the lever on a voting machine. All men, as is said so eloquently in the Bill of Rights, are created equal; but all men do not aspire to equal productivity, an equal amount of enterprise, or even an equal investment in time and effort. All men do not want to rise above their fellows in wealth or economic power, which is fine in the eyes of that same bill of rights, but all men should be content to take what they earn, and not to vote themselves a position unequal to a return on the investment of their time and effort. For the first time in the history of this republic there are more voters who pay no tax than voters who do, and that may be the final failure of the system.

Large communal organizations, including the Federal government, have voted, and negotiated, and purloined, an inequitable share of the pie. Government is by its very nature, unproductive in a free society, and its only function should be to perform those tasks beyond the scope of the individual, the city, the county, and the state. Those functions should be the common defense, the protection of the border, and commonality of banking and commerce, and other interstate endeavors beyond the scope of the states, such as interstate highways, railroads, and airlines.

Yes, there are functions only a Federal government can perform, but its size, and the size of local governments, must be limited, for only so much weight can be carried on the shoulders of those actually producing the wealth that drives any economy-goods and services.

It’s obvious, or should be, that government can’t give to one man without taking from another; and how much can those in a productive free-enterprise society be expected to produce, how much can be taken from them before they lost incentive to produce. I fear we’re reaching a tipping point where free-enterprise, productivity, production, is at an apex, and attitudes are beginning to shift. Not only attitudes, but basic morals. When you find segments of society that have retired, with full disability because the retirement is 20 per cent greater than those who’ve retired “without” full disability, and are on the golf course driving the ball 300 yards now that their negotiation for “full disability” is behind them, then there’s a basic failure in the moral fabric of our country and no reason to believe that the fabric is not beginning to unravel. What they are is liars and cheats, and maybe that’s one condition the framers and writers of the Constitution could not foresee…when a very large percentage of their countrymen would lie, cheat, and vote themselves into an unfair share.

Its time for every citizen to look into every crack and cranny, and dark hole, of this country and weed out the cheats, the thieves, those who’ve taken more than their share even if only by a small lie, for it’s truly breaking the back of the rest of us-and that true disability might be permanent.

L. J. Martin has written 20 novels, 2 non-fiction works, and is published in a number of periodicals. Prior to becoming a writer he was a real estate broker, specializing in farms, ranches, and development properties and selling internationally. He was also a licensed appraiser and contractor. Born and raised in the oil and ag town of Bakersfield, CA, and hailing from a long line of Okies, Missourians, and Texans, he’s traveled extensively for both work and pleasure. He’s married to an internationally published romantic suspense and historical romance author, and lives in Montana.

For more visit: http://fromthepeapatch.com

Echoing from the heavens I continue to hear:

“I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: 
That all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the 
people (our 10th Amendment). To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take 
possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible to any definition.”                                              –Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Madison, and the rest, are not resting easy these days.  In fact almost daily I can picture them ranting and raving over the way their sacrifice, their brilliance, their legacy is being trampled upon and ignored.

To say that the judicial, the legislative, and the executive branch of our government has taken liberties with the Constitution is a little like saying sugar is sweet, lemons are sour, and politicians rapidly become full of themselves…it all goes without saying.

Two hundred and twenty three years ago the Constitution was submitted for ratification.  I believe if there was ever a more perfect document in regards to the affairs of man, it’s buried in the sands of time. And my limited study of history has never revealed it.  The proof of the pudding, as is so often said, is in the eating, and the proof of the Constitution is in the fact the United States of America, which so long conducted it’s affairs under fairly strict adherence to the document, became the most powerful, most prosperous, most generous, most sought country the world had ever known.

And I worry about my use of “became,” rather than “has become.”  Are we still what we became?  Will we remain even remotely powerful?  Or are we already falling to the wayside because all three branches of our government seem to care little about a strict interpretation of the Constitution, rather declare it, for their own purposes, to be a “living” document.  A “living” document is a euphemism for flexible, changeable,…written on jello; rather than a document cast in concrete from those with an infinite knowledge of history, and sealed with the sweat, tears, and blood of our forefathers. Dried blood, never meant to be erased.

Do you actually think the brilliance of those who constructed the Constitution can be ignored as it is by those currently in power?  That brilliance is no better illustrated than the gentleman quoted above who wrote not only the greatest statement of man’s basic nature and will, the Declaration of Independence, but contributed such profound notions to the founding of the country as the statement above.

James Madison, another brilliant mind and thought to be the father of the Constitution, said in the Federalist papers:

…because men are not angels, they need government, but government must be contained and controlled for the same reason.

We see far to often that those we send to congress are not angels, in fact many wouldn’t aspire to be as they don’t believe in the concept of a heavenly host.  And one adage, one bit of historical wisdom is as sure as the moon pulling the tides: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Even the most elementary student of history will see that proven time and time again.  Even the most elementary student of contemporary politics will see that proven time and time again.

One of the basic precepts of the Declaration of Independence is that we may only be governed with our consent.  Somehow I don’t remember being asked much by my congressmen and senators, even though I offer much advice, I wonder, I worry, that they’re paying way too much attention to the power they’ve obtained and not enough attention to those of us out here in the pea patch.  I think they’ve mostly forgotten it was power granted…by the people.  Maybe the corruption of power makes one hard of hearing?  Maybe it makes one not want to hear?  The good news is we still have the vote, and even if they become hard of hearing while in office, or their ears become filled with the platitudes of those wanting to buy their votes, we can elect another to take their place, maybe sending someone with a better hearing aid, or a less greedy nature.

Now comes before congress another 1,924 page bill, reminiscent of a recent health bill over 2,000 pages.

Again I’ll look back into our history for some guidance, and to James Madison, who said:

It will be little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow.  Law is defined by a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known and less fixed?

I wonder if Madison would think a 2,000 page bill followed closely by a 1,924 page bill “voluminous?”  Can it be read…or understood?  Particularly when the speaker of the house says “let’s pass it now and we’ll read it later.”  Or something equally ignorant and inane.

Jefferson and Madison and the rest of our brilliant forefathers went to war over much less.

A rose is a rose, by any other name….

And the Tea Party would be hundreds of thousands (most likely millions and millions) of disgruntled, disgusted, and disenchanted Americans, by any other name.

Disgruntled?  You bet, anyone in their right mind would be disgruntled with a congress who led them into a major economic downturn, unfettered unemployment, and coming run-away inflation, all so they could “buy” votes from those (willing to lie about their qualifications) who felt entitled to three bedrooms and two baths, afford them or not, and “buy” votes from those benefiting from such lackadaisical border enforcement that they can come and go as they please…and vote, and get welfare, and get medical care, all paid for by those dumb Tea Party folks who’ve been busy working and paying their taxes and paying little attention to what goes on in Dirty D.C.

Disgusted?  You bet, anyone in almost any state of mind would be disgusted with a congress who continues to vote themselves pay raises and perks as if they were the royalty of this republic, while all those who actually produce something, or have produced something until their jobs went to India, stand in unemployment lines, waiting to be insulted by the “public sector” whose wages increased 38% in the last 10 years, while private sector job income increased only 10%.  Not to speak of their ridiculous retirement and health benefits which we poor unwashed are un-entitled.  It’s hard for the private sector to elbow them out of the trough and get even a peon’s share.  The only common language in Congress is “Oink.”

Disenchanted?  You bet, anyone who has an iota of sense can see through the words of a man who talks beautifully, so long as he has a teleprompter, but thinks the electorate is so stupid they can’t see that he does none of what he promises.  You and I are too ignorant to see that he makes us feel warm and fuzzy, even though he governs with the secrecy of the Kremlin, knowing that we’re happy with what he says, and care little about what he does…so long as he wows us with words.  And why would we care?  We didn’t care that he had no birth certificate to prove he was legally qualified to run for the office.  We didn’t care that he had the justice department spend millions to keep us from seeing his college applications and how he financed his very, very expensive education, or any of those personal items that any candidate should be willing to allow access to…as his administration is so very, very transparent.

So call them the Main Street Hoards or the Coffee Clutch Camaraderie, or the Dirty Dozens and Dozens and Millions, or by any other name, and they’ll still be the disgruntled, disgusted, and disenchanted…until there’s real CHANGE.

I, for one, am tired of being presumed ignorant, or worse, stupid.  I will no longer follow the pied piper into socialism, so Tea Party folks, if that’s your name, lead the way.