What the Mayans Really Predicted

Within the so called Great Society of the United States, there appears to be an overwhelming ignorance of the tough grid lock plaguing the solutions to what is being called the "fiscal cliff".  Perhaps most Americans want to ignore the inevitable fact that every great empire seems to collapse, contributing to the static history of the world.  Or maybe the Young Hegelians of our day see this as the synthesis of greater things to come.  But who is to say really?

Let's focus on what a fiscal cliff actually means.  The U.S. government spends more then they are taking in.  To ease some of the burdens on the middle class, President Bush instituted tax breaks that would ensure a strong middle class.  However, as most Americans are probably experiencing, these tax breaks did little to no help in the long term crippling effects of a powerful, centralized government that does more harm than good.  The tax breaks are set to expire at the beginning of the year.  The House, Senate, and Executive offices are working together to form solutions.  But, as should be apparent by now, their solutions never solve any real problems.  Instead, plan on seeing the exacerbating effects in the coming years.

By no way do I assume that perfection is possible, but by no way do I believe that government alleviates most of these imperfections.  In fact, as the growing central government as proven, more government equals more problems.  Today's world is infested with intricacies, tangling control, and the occasional loophole that is surpassed to exploit the riches of others.  If there was ever a more greedy nation, it is not the industrialized era that gave rise to many great technologies.  Instead, today's world, filled with politicians who know how to live your life better than you do.

What makes the matter even more worse is that citizens are either neglecting the issue or concerning themselves with new ways of legalizing marijuana.  Not that legalized illicit substances is a bad thing, in regards to political theory, but now is not the time to worry about social issues that are finite and overtly irritating to the public (leading to constant divisions).  There is only one issue worth discussing, that is the economy.  If the economy cripples and this country collapses internally, then there will be no more social issues to discuss.  So the pragmatic view seems to be absolutely applicable to the situation.

Furthermore, what should be said of the current rage for social issues?  Plan and simple, these clearly are means of distractions.  The United States government can do a lot more good (well, in their eyes they are doing good, or maybe they are evil at heart) if the American public is preoccupied by nonsense.  At this point I should put my tin foil hat on and start speaking of the conspiracies.  More than likely though, whether they are pushed through public messages or emails, government officials savor the moment when the constituents do not pay attention nor hold them accountable.  Yes, politicians love when they can just "work" without someone peering over their shoulder.  I mean don't we all love such a work environment?  I know there is nothing more stressful then when your boss looks over your shoulder constantly.  Politicians, however, are to be ones that accept that responsibility and stress.

The point of the matter is this: constituents, you know the burden of government...now is the time to stop their madness by your willingness to hold them accountable.  If there has ever been a time in history where commutative justice has been abused, that time is now.  To fix the fiscal cliff, remove the gridlock between the two parties, and seek a proper solution, citizens need to consider a non-empirical solution.  Sorry my friends, but the stats are controlled by the government, they're easily manipulated.  Therefore, hold them accountable.

Get rid of the distractions, its time for people to make a change and move forward, not some politician.

The Next Bubble to Burst

I suppose its hard to avoid these peculiar facts.  http://www.ijreview.com/2012/06/7856-8-numbers-obamas-administration-doesnt-want-you-to-see/

It appears there are some regressive tendencies in the Obama economy.  First of which, and it should be on every politicians agenda, the student loan debt.  There is no doubt that federal student loan debt has gone up under Obama.  The underlying fact then remains, either school tuition is going up under this economy or family income is decreasing.  For some its both!

Let's face it though, Romney's "business side of things" is exactly what the Obama administration is hammering out in its attack ads.  He drove the state of Massachusetts in debt and implemented a failure of a socialized medicine system  Looks like our situation is not gonna find an inoculating cure.

Momentarily, on student loans.  This is the next bubble to burst.  If the amount of student loan debt keeps going up while employment is impossible for these students, the debt is going to lay on the tax payers which will dig a recession of sorts.  Yes, another recession.  Who will pay back the debt!  Well the cronies in Washington will just keep printing paper to ensure that they can pay it, "Loan Forgiveness".  Let's be honest, a Loan has an objective moral value buried in it.  A loan you can pay back.  Its a duty of a person to pay back a loan.  Loan Forgiveness is just a political tool, an oxymoron for the students, to gain power.

So, since its becoming impossible for many to pay back their loans, let's just wait for the bubble to burst.

Political/Moral Argument for God's Existence

A huge amount of my contemplation, research, and analysis of current events is being devoted to what I call the Political Argument for God's Existence.  This, of course, sounds a bit obscure or perhaps silly.  Rest assure, I believe there is a quite a MORAL argument to be made for God's existence through the eyes of a political thinker.  Let me try to illustrate briefly the tenants of this argument, as it I believe it supports or supplements all current moral arguments for God's existence.

Premise (1): Political Philosophy is and has been synonymous with Moral Philosophy
Premise (2): All people understand totalitarian regimes to be an immoral form of government
Premise (3): Totalitarianism being seen as immoral is an objective ethical claim
Conclusion: Therefore, a higher being or government of sorts exists to create this ethical claim and to observe above all human institutions.

So far this is what I am developing.  Some of this may dive into Montesquieu's balance of power theory (as also developed by St. Thomas Aquinas).  What else could balance the forces?  How can we observe a non-corrupt form of government if one does not objectively exist within the mind of an intelligent being.  If there were no intelligent being to prescribe moral actions as moral, then any form of government is permissible.

I know first off that naturalists will attempt to illustrate how a free, democratic-republican government allows for the prolong existence of our species; or in other words, a specific form of government helps the human species to better itself.

Yet, this does not appear to be a satisfying answer.  An objective value still exists.  As Dr. David Bagget of Liberty University describes in his book Good God, evolutionary biologists and other atheists still have to acknowledge a sort of imbedded moral prescription that does not come from nature itself.  If the principle itself did arise from nature, or from human beings coming to know through nature, it is still not a duty placed on human beings.  But wait a second, these are duties the all accept.  And that is also an enormous attribute of my argument.  Governments constructing themselves to establish a sustaining society MUST not do so in a totalitarian way.  For totalitarian governments are not GOOD for people.  These are moral claims that people cling to and purport in their political philosophies. If they were not of an objective orientation then they would not be duties at all, but rather forms of government we choose to accept or don't.  However, this is not the case, which leaves me asking where did this proper form of government come from.  More on this matter in the coming months.

G8 Summit: They Solve Problems

You want growth and stability; then stop pretending like you can solve the world's problems.  The number one reason why the euro is failing immensely is because of the lack of true leadership.  By true leadership I mean those who understand the quality of leading from the front but also from behind.  Now is the time for Governments to acknowledge that they are not the sovereign power of this world, or at least observe that they are not sovereign completely over the citizens of the Earth.  These renegade politicians will stop at nothing to secure power.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18128995

Decide for yourself whether some group of politicians can solve this crisis.  My prediction is that the whole monetary system of the European nations, as well as, the U.S. will collapse in an opportune time.  Will we let the leaders of this world assume they can fix it, or will the people take matters into their own hands and fight to protect our liberties and the fundamental tenets of a written constitution.

Fabian Society

I know its been awhile since I have said anything over the interwebz.  However, I find that every student of history who is not familiar with the Fabian Society's socialist movement in Europe should perhaps educate themselves to this destructive group of thinkers.  These socialist thinkers represent the spark of socialist Europe from the lat 19th century and on.  The best known source, straight from one of the founders, is Edward Pease's biography on his active presence in the Fabian Society.  Though founded in 1884, the Fabian Society would come to dominate Western thinking.  By 1932 it is well established that the Fabians took over the Democrat Party with its puppet seated at the top of the mountain of power, Franklin D. Roosevelt.  But what gives essence to this European political reformist group?  Read Edward Pease's work The History of Fabian Society here http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13715/13715-h/13715-h.htm

Prepare For The True Solution (This Is Our Last Chance)

Some may say this is crazy, but I will proceed with the necessary conclusion that can overturn the problem known as the U.S. government.  But to begin I must outline what exactly the problem is.  Is it big government?  Or is it more than just big government?  This is such an elaborate question that definitely needs a lot of attention.  One of the biggest reasons why we are in this mess is big government.  But, another big issue deals with some of the perhaps third party effects that occur from the fiscal and monetary policies of the U.S. government.  So let me try and point out some of these third party effects that do our market no good and our everyday, normal lives.

I.                   The U.S. dollar

Why is the dollar failing?  Why is China surpassing us?  Why this and Why that?  Well there is a simple answer for this.  Let us look at some major historical facts that need to be remembered.  First, the silver dollar use to be the main coinage of this culture.  Second, our dollar was backed by an asset that never loses value, Gold.  Third, somewhere in the latter 20^th century, debt became our currency.

            The first two historical facts represent how our currency was once backed by assets that rarely lose their value.  Gold and silver are always great assets to invest in.  However, some found it an inconvenience to carry around gold and silver coin.  Thus, the dollar was printed on paper; this was a more convenient method of transaction.
            So far so good right?  Well no, it gets worse from here.  Government, under the FDR, removed the domestic use of the gold standard on the dollar but leaving in place the use of that asset in foreign economic practices.  Richard Nixon will go on to completely alleviate the use of the gold standard.  So what exactly is our dollar backed by?  Well from my best guess it would be the full faith of credit of the U.S. government.  Now we got to discuss what this means.  Does this mean the property the U.S. government has?  Does this include its subjects?  This is scary stuff to think about.
            Perhaps this is simple discussion, but through the use of reason we can completely dismantle the monetary policy of this government.  The main reason I say this, and this is almost an undisputable fact, is because our currency is debt.  We pay for things with debt.  Now what value does debt have?  The value is not a good one.  Debt assumes two things.  First, you don’t have the money need it and second, you have to pay it back.  Those are negative implications to value making debt having only one valuable notion to its name, being able to use the money to create things that were not there before.  So, Keynesian economics, as it is referred to, was born.  However, as Milton Friedman notes, Keynes would have never expected to see it to such a level as it has been taken today.  Because debt is now our currency, the value of what we actually have has the reciprocal effect on the value of the dollar.  Inflation is argued as the cure, but never actually cures anything.

II.                Presidential Power

I feel as if this is the most overlooked problem, especially in the current presidential race that is about to finish in Iowa.  The main expansion took place during FDR, as we all know.  My main argument is that the role of the president has become so big that democratic tyranny now makes sense for our nation.  Mark Levin once labeled it as soft tyranny.  I’ll stick with democratic tyranny, because we pick our tyrants, whether soft or hard.

The carnival show of the presidency has persuaded people in the U.S. to be utterly dependent on the president.  “As president, I will” is a commonly used term.  Constitutionally speaking, the following words should say “be commander in chief and head our military in war and sign bills into power or veto them.”  Last time I checked, practicing in the legislative process was not part of the President’s duties.  The only time the president can interfere with the legislative side of the federal government is when he receives the bill on his desk.  In today’s reality, the president is pushing his legislative agenda through.  This ameliorates freedom.  Now we our presidents as angels and saints like a third world country that is brainwashed by their dictator would.

III.             The solution

The only solution, now that we have dug ourselves in so much debt is both terrifying and tough.  Thomas Jefferson once declared:

“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

This notion is more true today than it was in 1776.  The U.S. government is destructive of those ends, “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
            Thomas Jefferson warns us that we must destroy this government.  As citizens, we are the ones that government must get consent on.  We are the ones that must remove a government that dismantles our rights and eliminates happiness from our society.  Walking around, do you think people are happy?
            I know that the Department of Homeland Security will mark me as a terrorist, but the truth is they will use that power against the citizens because they know we can rise up and remove them from their positions of power.  In political sense, we should be able to shift the ideology into a more correct one.  However, the elitist of this country have finally succumbed a good majority of the minds out there.  Perhaps Mark Steyn got it right when he said there will not be an America here soon; sooner than expected. 
            Honestly, I think this is the last election we got before it is too late for us.

Cutting Payroll taxes won't solve anything

Recently, both parties in congress have been in heated arguments over the newly formed government solution to all of our problems.  The solution....cut payroll taxes.

The question I have is this.  How in the world will this work?  If the government spending outweighs the amount of revenue they will bring in with these tax cuts, how can they cover the bill they are racking up?  Government has half the equation needed for a healthy economy to start rebuilding itself.  Cutting taxes is the first step.  The second step is simply to cut spending.  Only one Republican presidential candidate has called for this drastic change to government, Ron Paul.  He would call on government to remove itself from the equation and allow competition between businesses to create more jobs, better wages, cheaper goods, etc.

Government cannot solve this problem.  When will we wake up and see the light.

The Doctor of Ages does Politics

Some of you may only recognize Thomas Aquinas as a great theologian of the high medieval period.  The truth is his political treatise offers a compelling form of government that is highly similar to the one that our founding fathers had in mind.  Although most just toss Aquinas' politics to the curve, I offer a complete outline of his political, legal, and economic thoughts in my most recent work.  If you are having troubles explaining to your liberal friends why a government that governs least is best, then download this.  Share it.  Love it.  


Download here:  http://www.mediafire.com/?pt0k9h1kskybygt

Barney Frank Steps Down

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/28/politics/barney-frank/index.html

Finally, after 32 years of service (if that's what we want to call it) Barney Frank is not seeking reelection in 2012

The Possible reasons are this:
1.) He realizes that he will not win reelection this time around.
2.) His policies have failed us and wants to abandon congress so he doesn't receive all the blame.
3.) Constantly lying to people has gotten stressful
4.) He wants to retire and live off of the tax payers tip.
5.) All of the above.

I'll go with answer 5.

I do not have too many words on this issue like most people do.  So for now I'll leave it with the list I left.

The Republican Problem

I feel it is immensely important to understand the fundamental issue that will plague the Republican party, as well as the Democrats.  Today, as I was listening to Laura Ingraham show, a light bulb illuminated my mind.  Ingraham was going on and on about how "America is looking for a leader, to fix things".

No personal offense to Laura Ingraham, but she keeps on purporting the same issue that is plaguing America.  A leader will never cure the evils of society.  The power the president has is borderline tyranny.  We practically live in a despotic regime as it is, why bring on someone of a different party to carry on the despotism?  The president is not suppose to be the fixer-upper guy.  Allowing citizens to be free to follow their own inclinations is the fundamental goal our society needs to reach; the Republican party is far from making that their objective.

Obama's policies have failed.  Just wake up and realize the inevitable truth.  Do you think the government will release the true unemployment percentage?  Most Americans understand this.  The solution, however, does not rest in some Republican party candidate.  Limited Government means limited government.  This means the president should not create the solution.  The only solution to the problem is if both parties argue for no solution.

What is overly apparent is that the Republican Party candidates for president have not advocated for this kind of solution.  President Obama does not advocate for this solution either so do not get the idea that I am anti-Republican party.  The point that is of utter importance is whether or not the Republican party will return to their original philosophy of a limited government and a free market.  What seems apparent is that they believe they can cure societies' evils just like President Obama believed that redistributing the wealth is the best economic system which will bring Utopia.

Let me make this clear in one sentence.  The Republican Party candidates have done nothing but construct solutions which makes room for some elitist to walk in and continue the despotic system we are current citizens of.

I think the bold makes the point quite clear.

The Disclaimer

As I sit in my Philosophy 497 (Seminar: Thomas Aquinas) I randomly, for some reason I will never make sense of, decide to start a blog.  Surely blogs are a great step forward in the development of our society.  A place where we can share thoughts, communicate feelings, learn lemonade recipes.  In the field of ideas and rational thought, a blog has no limits.  As a community of beings in a broken world this blogging idea seems fitting.

Now I use community in its proper sense.  This is not an area to be dependent on.  The internet is not a place to depend on proper truths and axioms that will mold your life and drive forward the ability of human beings to accomplish a great many things in the area of Philosophy, Science, Education, and the like.  However, the internet and its community based mode of abstracting knowledge is a great place to share.  Share is the key concept, not take.  Although we may agree or disagree at times, it is of utter importance that we use both disagreement and agreement to further our knowledge.

That is the real trick isn't it?  We live in a society of total dependence on the big idol known as Government.  Perhaps that should be the underlying presupposition everyone should understand before reading anything on this blog.  We depend, and never stop depending on the idol known as government.  And I wish I could say I did not, but the fact of the matter is that government subsidized student loans reach out and grab my arm with its disgusting hand.

Without further due I would like to extend the offer to partake in civil discussion.  Mostly, there is one rule I wish we all to pertain under:

Shaun's Rule: If the argument results in an individual calling someone an idiot without offering any more substantiate line of rational thought and/or empirical evidence, the argument is officially over and that individual must give up his beliefs and accept the winner's doctrine or construct new material.

Of course, this rule is not novel to any degree.  Its an axiom that remains objectively true throughout human history.

But for any reason, the topic of this blog is politics.  What is politics?  What's the best form of government?  How should government work?  How do politician's behave?

In the traditional sense, this deals mostly with ethics and epistemology.  However, I'm extending the study of political philosophy to the modern 21st century sense of the area of thought.  This means I must include not only Ethics and Epistemology, but also the study of Economics.  The apparent crossroad we have come to in history is how great of a role does politics and government play in the economy.  Of course in a more traditional sense, it shouldn't.  Whatever be the case, in light of today's discussion I am forced to take into account how the economy should work and how government functions within economy.

What is important to understand is that I do believe in God.  And I do believe that perhaps Adam Smith's concept of "an invisible hand" may be the result of God's grace and sovereignty.  Society must be free.  Only a free society is able to come to God at such a rapid pace.  This in turn allows free individuals to share the gospel freely to the world.  Liberation is never through government, a free market, a controlled market, or a government program.  Liberation, J. Budziszewski understood most properly, comes only through understanding that we are fallen and we need God's grace.  So let that be a note of importance as we dive deep into the study of political systems and economic institutions.