Recently, USA Today highlighted how the salaries of federal employees have skyrocketed in the past five years. According to the article (“More federal workers’ pay tops $150,000”), federal workers earning $150,000 or more in 2005 comprised only 0.4 percent of all federal employees. Today, that number has grown to 3.9 percent. In response to this, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) is calling for not only a pay freeze, but a ten percent pay cut for federal employees.
=========
Amen! I was one and Lord knows this can be done, even though I am speaking from many years ago, both in Vietnam and CONUS. It's kinda like fishing, but instead of 10% of the fishermen catching 90% of the fish, it's 10% of the employees do 90% of the work.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Liberty In The UK
"THE Daily Express today becomes the first national newspaper to call for Britain to leave the European Union. From this day forth our energies will be directed to furthering the cause of those who believe Britain is Better Off Out."
========
Well, that's a step, then onward to taking back their guns, getting rid of PC, Socialism, ad infinitum.
========
Well, that's a step, then onward to taking back their guns, getting rid of PC, Socialism, ad infinitum.
America Through British Eyes
British correspondent William H. Russell interviewed leaders both North and South in early 1861, and found the latter greatly stirred in defense of its liberties.
Bernhard Thuersam, Director
Cape Fear Historical Institute
Drive the Yankees Beyond the Susquehanna:
“I mentioned [to President Jefferson Davis on May 9th] that I had seen great military preparations through the South, and was astonished at the alacrity with which the people sprang to arms. “Yes, sir,” he remarked…We are not less military because we have had no standing armies. But perhaps we are the only people in the world where gentlemen go to a military academy who do not intend to follow the profession of arms.”
Mr. Davis made no allusion to the authorities in Washington, but he asked me if I thought it was supposed in England that there would be a war between the States? I answered that I was under the impression the public thought there would be no actual hostilities. “And yet you see we are driven to take up arms for the defense of our rights and liberties.”
As I saw an immense mass of papers on his table, I rose and made my bow, and Mr. Davis, seeing me to the door, gave me his hand and said, “As long as you may stay among us you shall receive every facility it is in our power to afford you, and I shall always be glad to see you”
The news that two more States had joined the Confederacy, making ten in all, was enough to put [Secretary of War Walker and General Beauregard] in good humor. “Is it not too bad these Yankees will not let us go our own way, and keep their cursed Union to themselves? If they force us into it, we may be obliged to drive them beyond the Susquehanna.”
Being invited to attend a levee or reception held by Mrs. Davis, the President’s wife, I returned to the hotel to prepare for the occasion. On my way I passed a company of volunteers, one hundred and twenty artillerymen, and three field pieces, on their way to the station for Virginia, followed by a crowd of “citizens” and Negroes of both sexes, cheering vociferously. The band was playing that excellent quick-step “Dixie.” The men were stout, fine fellows, dressed in coarse grey tunics with yellow facings and French caps. The Zouave mania is quite as rampant here as it is in New York, and the smallest children are thrust into baggy red breeches, which the learned Lipsius might had appreciated, and are sent out with flags and tin swords to impede the highways.”
(America Through British Eyes, Allan Nevins, Oxford University Press, 1948, pp. 272-273)
Why The Austrian Economists Won
"........ I’m optimistic that the Austrian influence has reached its peak within the party (Republican) —the Austrian school’s disdain for American foreign policy and willingness to call Lincoln a tyrant don’t sit well with the base. But Republicans want their leaders to articulately defend conservative principles. If the party’s public intellectuals don’t deliver, this marriage of convenience between conservative populism and Austrian economics may continue indefinitely."
Via The Bonnie Blue Blog
Via The Bonnie Blue Blog
A Government Against Its People
"The stage is now set and soon there will come a time when the police cannot be paid, when hospitals have not been reimbursed and have defaulted on their responsibilities. Doctors will go home. Nurses and others will drift away, unpaid. City workers won’t keep up utilities, or man water supplies. Garbage will pile up. The private sector, what is left of it, will slowly grind to a halt and enterprising people will develop a barter system."
A Tale Of Two Colonies
"At Thanksgiving, Americans recall their blessings around bountiful meals, with imagery going back to the Pilgrims, especially Plymouth Colony's 1623 Thanksgiving. But little attention is paid to what allows that bounty to be created — capitalism — though Jamestown and Plymouth both illustrate that lesson."
Treason?
The Confederate Battle Flag
From: vaproto@optonline.net
To: ralphlesliesmith@gmail.com
Dear Sir:
You are incorrect if you believe that the Confederate States of America
and/or any of her symbols is/was treasonous. Secession was permitted
under the Constitution. Indeed, during the War of 1812 (political
uprisings during wars tend to be viewed much more harshly than during
times of peace), the New England states met in convention to declare
their succession from the Union; this was known as the Hartford
Convention. In the end, they failed to secede for the most part owing to
the end of the war which was interrupting their trade. However, though
the states involved voted against secession, the fact is they voted and
they did so without armed federal troops making their appearance to stop
the “treason” involved. Why? Because there was no treason involved; it’s
as simple as that. Years after the War of Secession (it wasn’t a “civil
war”) Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, nephew of Gen. Robert E. Lee asked why the
Constitution did not make secession openly unlawful if, as the Union
maintained, it was in fact unlawful under that document. The answer that
he received from those familiar with the history of the time was this:
had the Founding Fathers made secession unlawful in the Constitution,
the Constitution never would have been ratified! So your point that
secession was treason is refuted by history and therefore nonsense.
Furthermore, if secession actually was treason, two questions then
arise: first, why was it necessary for Congress to act after the War to
make secession unlawful? If it was already illegal, why the need to make
further legislation on the matter? And secondly, where were the treason
trials? One can claim that the terms granted by Grant and Sherman to the
Confederate military required that Southern soldiers – even at the
highest levels - be spared prosecution for this crime, but no such
excuse can be made for the Confederacy’s civilian government. Indeed,
Jefferson Davis was kept in close confinement under horrible
circumstances for two years while several groups of federal attorneys
attempted to devise a treason trial only to discover that to proceed
with same would lose the war in court that had been won on the
battlefield; Davis was released and no charge of treason was ever
brought against him or any other Southerner. Secession was not
unconstitutional or treasonous.
You may not agree with the actions taken by South Carolina and those
Southern states that followed her out of the Union (however, that is
probably because you are ignorant of the situation extant), but those
states had every right to make that choice, a choice denied them by
unconstitutional, illegal, immoral and wicked war waged against them not
by “the Union”, but by the federal government. Now that was “treasonous”
and we have been paying the price of that treason ever since. According
to Maine Professor Jay Hoar, “The worst fears of those Boys in Gray are
now a fact of American life – a Federal government completely out of
control.”
I really would suggest, sir, that you foreswear the “history” being
bruited about today. It is totally Marxist-revisionist and has no more
to do with American history than Burton’s “Tales of the Arabian Nights”
has to do with the history of the Middle East. The facts are available
to you should you care to abandon the ignorant regurgitation of
mendacity and discover why the States of the South determined that their
only hope of freedom from tyranny lay in abandoning the old Union.
Interestingly enough, you will find that not every state seceded for the
same reason. Indeed, Virginia and North Carolina only seceded after
Lincoln demanded that they furnish troops to make unlawful war on their
Southern brethren. It was then and only then that these two “founding
states” determined that they could no longer remain in what had become a
criminal and tyrannous nation.
Valerie Protopapas
Long Island, New York
From: vaproto@optonline.net
To: ralphlesliesmith@gmail.com
Dear Sir:
You are incorrect if you believe that the Confederate States of America
and/or any of her symbols is/was treasonous. Secession was permitted
under the Constitution. Indeed, during the War of 1812 (political
uprisings during wars tend to be viewed much more harshly than during
times of peace), the New England states met in convention to declare
their succession from the Union; this was known as the Hartford
Convention. In the end, they failed to secede for the most part owing to
the end of the war which was interrupting their trade. However, though
the states involved voted against secession, the fact is they voted and
they did so without armed federal troops making their appearance to stop
the “treason” involved. Why? Because there was no treason involved; it’s
as simple as that. Years after the War of Secession (it wasn’t a “civil
war”) Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, nephew of Gen. Robert E. Lee asked why the
Constitution did not make secession openly unlawful if, as the Union
maintained, it was in fact unlawful under that document. The answer that
he received from those familiar with the history of the time was this:
had the Founding Fathers made secession unlawful in the Constitution,
the Constitution never would have been ratified! So your point that
secession was treason is refuted by history and therefore nonsense.
Furthermore, if secession actually was treason, two questions then
arise: first, why was it necessary for Congress to act after the War to
make secession unlawful? If it was already illegal, why the need to make
further legislation on the matter? And secondly, where were the treason
trials? One can claim that the terms granted by Grant and Sherman to the
Confederate military required that Southern soldiers – even at the
highest levels - be spared prosecution for this crime, but no such
excuse can be made for the Confederacy’s civilian government. Indeed,
Jefferson Davis was kept in close confinement under horrible
circumstances for two years while several groups of federal attorneys
attempted to devise a treason trial only to discover that to proceed
with same would lose the war in court that had been won on the
battlefield; Davis was released and no charge of treason was ever
brought against him or any other Southerner. Secession was not
unconstitutional or treasonous.
You may not agree with the actions taken by South Carolina and those
Southern states that followed her out of the Union (however, that is
probably because you are ignorant of the situation extant), but those
states had every right to make that choice, a choice denied them by
unconstitutional, illegal, immoral and wicked war waged against them not
by “the Union”, but by the federal government. Now that was “treasonous”
and we have been paying the price of that treason ever since. According
to Maine Professor Jay Hoar, “The worst fears of those Boys in Gray are
now a fact of American life – a Federal government completely out of
control.”
I really would suggest, sir, that you foreswear the “history” being
bruited about today. It is totally Marxist-revisionist and has no more
to do with American history than Burton’s “Tales of the Arabian Nights”
has to do with the history of the Middle East. The facts are available
to you should you care to abandon the ignorant regurgitation of
mendacity and discover why the States of the South determined that their
only hope of freedom from tyranny lay in abandoning the old Union.
Interestingly enough, you will find that not every state seceded for the
same reason. Indeed, Virginia and North Carolina only seceded after
Lincoln demanded that they furnish troops to make unlawful war on their
Southern brethren. It was then and only then that these two “founding
states” determined that they could no longer remain in what had become a
criminal and tyrannous nation.
Valerie Protopapas
Long Island, New York
I Was Wrong
"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" So said John Maynard Keynes when a dearly held belief of his was confronted by new facts. He changed his mind and was not ashamed. I am an extreme empiricist. Show me the facts, and I shall make up my mind. Show me the new facts, and I shall change my mind.
The Week From By Moneychanger
| Silver, cents/oz. | 2717.5 | 2752.8 | 35.30 | 1.3% |
| Gold, dollars/oz. | 1,352.20 | 1,376.00 | 23.80 | 1.8% |
| Gold/silver ratio | 49.76 | 49.99 | 0.23 | 0.5% |
| Silver/gold ratio | 0.02010 | 0.02001 | -0.00009 | -0.5% |
| Dow in Gold Dollars (DiG$) | $171.27 | $168.07 | $(3.21) | -1.9% |
| Dow in gold ounces | 8.285 | 8.130 | -0.16 | -1.9% |
| Dow in Silver Ounces | 412.27 | 406.40 | -5.88 | -1.4% |
| Dow Industrials | 11,203.55 | 11,187.28 | -16.27 | -0.1% |
| S&P500 | 1,199.73 | 1,198.36 | -1.37 | -0.1% |
| US dollar index | 78.480 | 79.790 | 1.31 | 1.7% |
| Platinum | 1,666.20 | 1,655.50 | -10.70 | -0.6% |
| Palladium | 703.50 | 693.30 | -10.20 | -1.4% |
States' Rights Battles Rage In Old Dominion
"From Virginia's lawsuit over health-care reforms to a bill that would create "Don't Tread on Me" license plates, a growing movement is percolating among the Old Dominion's top GOP officials and the conservative rank-and-file to push back against federal authority over an array of issues.