American Constitution vs. American Government

Many Americans believe that the Constitution is outdated. That somehow, the values and principles it espouses don't really apply to today's world.

To those who feel that the Constitution needs to be "updated", I ask: If freedom, liberty and rights are outdated, then what do you have left ? A 60 inch flat screen ? A 2010 F150 ?

As Franklin has been recorded to have said:

"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety." ~Benjamin Franklin

How fickle minded have we become ? Have we drowned ourselves in consumerism and media entertainment to the point were the average citizen doesn't even know the founding principles of this country ? Are you so obsessed about Paris Hilton & American Idol that you do not care about the fact that you need permission to do anything and everything from getting a dog to carrying a gun ?

The percentage of American's today who believe that their nation is a "Democracy" is appalling. We are not to be ruled by a democracy, rather we are to live in a constitutional republic.

It is this indifference to the Constitution, that has allowed the government to convince us that the only way to take the guns of the streets is by making it hard for everyone, including law-abiding citizens, to get guns. Depending on your state, you have to jump through anywhere from 1 to 20 rings of fire before you can get a gun. 200 years ago, this was not so.

Consider this from Jefferson's Legal Commonplace Book where he quotes Cesare Beccaria :

" Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. "

During the cold war, America's millitary might skyrocketed. Billions were poured into defence contractor's coffers, to invent and produce the a bigger gun/plane/tank than the Soviets. Congress stated that it would never use these weapons, they would just be used as a "deterrent force". Basically, Soviet Russia would be forced to recognize that the consequence of trigger a war with the USA would be so dire, they would not dare trigger a war.

So while the government weaponized to deter other countries from going to war on one side, they were also trying to convince it's own citizens that it did not need to bear arms. They (the government) were there to protect us from all things evil.

We all said, hoorah.....I don't like guns anyway, what if my children find it when I'm not home. We never stopped to think, what if we needed saving from the government itself. Back in the day, it was unconcienableto think that the government would ever be the "evil" one.

And here we are today, with every one in ten american's talking about a coming revolution, people all over the USA starting to get restless, dissatisfied with their government, unhappy with their jobs, and seriously underwater financially.

It has been said that people get the government they deserve. The American people have been running on the hamster wheel of consumerism and entertainment for so long, they no longer cared about the direction their country was taking......until......now...........

Not since the begging of time has a country been founded upon such moral, crucial and blessed principles as the Union. American's are starting to hunger for the days of old.........they are starting to unite, and express their dissatisfaction with the government. Some are even armed to the teeth, ready for first shot to be fired. But.........its too late..........you have allowed the government to become too strong and yoursleves too weak.

Sure, I'd like to belive we have the power in numbers to stage a revolution, after all it was done less than 300 years ago by a bunch of lawyers and tradespeople. Why can't we do it again ? Why? Because the landscape has changed considerably since then.

Today, the government has weaponized with such large force multipliers, our semi-automatics and armor piercing rounds won't stand a change. How do milia's defend against APC's ? How do you cut off supply lanes? How do you operate with stealth and effectiveness when your every move is being watched, and you can be tracked no matter where you are on the continent?

I'm with the next guy, I'd like to see a successful revolution, if a band of a few men could takedown the most powerful military in their day, why can't we do the same today? The realist within me says "Because today, technology has completely changed the way war and conflict are handled."

No, unfortunately the 21st century revolution will have to be a political one; we have to put and keep the pressure on DC, and stand firmly rooted in our demands. Our demands to return to the principles of the Constitution that build this nation.

America has lost its way, and has found herself in the proverbial dragon's den. There is only one way to escape from could become the inevitable......

Remember......Freedom isn't free.......like all things........we must work to obtain and preserve it......


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Bailout of AIG

Recent news running endlessly on the wire announces the latest bailout of AIG.

Just to be clear, taking a look at the shareholder equity, it becomes blatantly obvious that this is more of a bailout of AIG's counterparties than AIG itself, or its shareholders. The government obviously feels they need to do this because of what happened when they allowed Lehman to go down. The government would have us believe that not injecting this capital into AIG's counterparties would indeed mean the demise of the American economy!

This begs the question of the whole "systemic risk" bandwagon that everyone in Washington & the Fed has jumped on. Keep in mind with Timmy boy now moving to the Treasury, there is hardly any difference between the Fed and the Treasury (regarding economic policy), Bernanke ofcourse having been Timmy's superior at the Fed.

Free market capitalism, the very thing that made America great in its early years, has to be allowed to clean up this mess. If capitalism has created this mess, then capitalism can also clean up what it created. Yes it would be painful. Yes the S&P would probably be below the 575 support level, but the recovery would be a lot faster - perhaps a V or a slanted V shaped recession/depression. The governments action is going to make this an L-shaped downturn, heading towards stagnation which will almost certainly morph into stagflation over the long term.

The whole point of capitalism is that NO-ONE is too big to fail. If you take risks and they pay off, great, here is your market share. If they don't pay off, too bad, here is your Chapter 11 application. I'll tell you what, I'll call your $700/hour lawyers myself and tell them you cannot afford them anymore.

The day the S&P broke 700

Earlier today, the S&P broke the 700 support level briefly, but eventually closed a little below 701. What a day it was indeed. AIG a few days ago announced a $61.7 billion loss due to this financial debacle, and is asking for $30 billion more.

What a mess, what an absolute mess.

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