The Rusted Musket

Well it looks like Washington DC has slightly better gun laws now, meaning you can acually legally own one now. But it is a difficult and restrictive process. I really feel that the people’s right to defend themselves is infringed upon all in the name of “public safety.” Ironic since criminals don’t care if its legal for them to own guns or not as they will still use them on helpless residents.

In order for a law abiding citizen to get a gun they have to be fingerprinted, photographed, job history is checked out, there is a test, a five hour class including one hour on a gun range (there isn’t any in the city). The class has to be taught by a police certified instructor (which there probably isn’t many) and then after the citizen is approved and they actually get the gun, they then have to go in to the police station and get the gun’s ballistics registered (which by the way doesn’t work, matching a bullet and a gun is nearly impossible). The registration expires after 3 years and must be renewed or the owner faces fines and confiscation of the gun.

Talk about restrictive bull! The law abiding residents, who just want to protect themselves, are treated like common criminals! I really hope these laws get loosened because they are rather unconstitutional. I doubt that the founding fathers meant for people to have to jump through all these hoops and treated like a criminal simply to own a firearm.

I highly recommend this article by The Onion. Normally I don’t take what they say too seriously, but this article has a lot of satirical truth in it. Basically it is talking about how the governmental official don’t trust the citizens that elected them, which is a spin on citizens not trusting the politicians in office.

Its so interesting because its so true. Congress is at a rock bottom approval rate and has been for years, they don’t get a whole lot done and what they do get done is not what people want. They don’t listen to the citizens and just work their own agenda. I rarely hear of someone who likes a politician that is in office, they may agree on some points and disagree on others, but there is rarely that connection, or trust of the official. But maybe the flip is also true, citizens of this nation are a very fickle bunch who want handouts but aren’t willing to pay for them. They want the government to fix all their problems and they want to blame someone when something goes wrong. Its the blame game, I’m sure you played it as a kid. You never say its your fault, you always blame someone else. The sad truth is that most problems our country is facing is the result of collective consent.

For instance, kids doing badly in school is generally two fold. Our school system is broke because it never should have been in the government’s hands in the first place and the government poisons everything it touches, but the other big problem is that parents aren’t involved anymore. People who really shouldn’t have had kids did and they don’t give them the proper attention and care. Who’s fault is it then? The government and their screwed up system, or the parents of their lack of attention? Both I’m sure.

Or how about health care. Why is it so expensive? Well surely some of it has to do with doctors needing very expensive malpractice insurance because people are suing and getting crazy amounts of money way over what they should. Yes the doctor screwed up, yes they should pay for it, but to the tune of millions? I don’t think so. There are many other instances, like people not taking their antibiotics properly causing it to be less effective and requiring more, or different meds. People going in and tying up doctors time for stupid things.

Anyway, the article is very interesting and true in a kind of backwards, kind of way…

Image from The Onion

The following video is very disturbing. It depicts two men being brutally beaten by some juvenile delinquents. Its very sad that this kind of thing goes on. The strange thing is that they appears to be no reason for this. The young men just beat the two guys just because.

Its videos like this and other such incidents that happen that really make me want to fight for our rights to defend ourselves, i.e. conceal carry.
The two men in this video had to be admitted to the hospital, but it looks like they will recover.

Just last week I was at home, on the computer. It was a little late, something like midnight on a Saturday night, when I heard a lady screaming. Normally this isn’t a big deal as I live in a larger city and drunk people are commonly screaming, or some lady starts yelling at her boyfriend or husband. But this lady didn’t stop so I went to the window to see what was going on. I couldn’t tell right away and was about to go down and investigate. But several other people from the surrounding apartments had already gone down there to help out so I just listened in on what happened. Apparently this lady and her boyfriend were walking along the sidewalk when someone came up behind them and whacked her guy on the back of the head. She started screaming and the person ran off. Thankfully no one was hurt too badly, but it could have been a lot worse. This whole incident was a little disconcerting since it was just outside our apartment. I guess the lesson here is I need to act a little faster and that you can be assaulted anywhere.

Things like this are happening all too often and part of it surely has to do with the lack of consequence or danger for these criminals. Most people can’t properly defend themselves against someone stronger than they are and most don’t make a habit of conceal carrying for defense. So the first line of defense for someone isn’t there. Assuming they survive the encounter then the attacker has to be caught and they may even walk away from it or just get a little time in jail. Seems a sad state we are in, but you have the right, and the duty, to defend yourself and your family/friends. Get trained and apply for a conceal carry permit!

What shows did you watch as a kid? Captain America? Transformers? Sesame Street? Bugs Bunny? Sponge Bob? Or maybe you didn’t watch TV all that much? These days, for better or for worse, kids generally watch a lot of television. Partly because they like to and partly because a lot of parents find that its a easy way to keep their kids entertained. To an extent TV is fine, and in some cases might actually be good if the shows have good themes behind them. Other times they are nothing more than senseless entertainment, or maybe politically charged drivel.

One interesting aspect of kid’s show nowadays is the lack of a good “manly” figure. What is a manly figure you may ask? Its not the bumbling, burping, jerks that so often get displayed on TV. Its the responsible, providing, leader that young boys want to look up to. Kids, especially young boys, need role models and examples of what a boy should be or what a girl should be, but our society has really muddled those roles now. Young men are no longer stepping up to be the head of the family or to take responsibility, instead they hide behind drugs, sex, TV, video games etc… What takes their place then? Women do sometimes, but more often than not the position remains empty.

Why and how did this happen? Part of it surely has to do with the feminist agenda of past decades. Feminism is all fine and dandy but it can and does go to far. I think it has negatively affected the gender roles of our society. Some women have really started to act like men and to take over the role that men should be in. I’m not saying that women should always be stay at home moms or shouldn’t have careers. What I’m trying to get across is that a lot of men don’t know what it is to be a man. They are emasculated in a sense. Men need to step up and take responsibility for themselves. They need to have commitment and be encouraged to lead their families.

Post inspired by this WSJ article.

Check out this hilarious video. Google’s new ad options..

New Google Phone Service Whispers Targeted Ads Directly Into Users’ Ears

A fantastic and wholly TRM endorsed article, written by Dan Henninger of the Wall Street Journal; speaks of Debt, Greece, Europa, and Us. Short read, worth checking out…

Cinco de Mayo usually means I’ll go to lunch for taco’s, a burrito, maybe even an enchilada. But if you’re a kid attending a predominately Hispanic public school whilst donning your favorite American flag tshirt, hi-top shoes, or bandanna on Cinco de Mayo, you’ll be sent home. The message, it’s okay to wear patriotic gear, just not on Cinco de Mayo.

Ponder this with me.

By law, every public school must have an American flag flying outside the building. I wonder, did they also take down that flag as the flag wearing students walked to their parents cars?

Greece is just getting all the spotlight lately… Check out this article from the Wall Street Journal.

The Greece government has all but decided to take the EU offer of loan money, but it comes at a hefty price. They must cut spending and raise taxes. The Greek people aren’t too happy about this, since their precious handouts and crazy benefits will be cut. So what do they do? They take to the streets with mass rioting, breaking windows, firebombing and having a country wide union strike. Three innocent bank workers have died as a result. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time and from what I’ve read it sounds like they got trapped in a burning building.

I can understand the Greek people being upset about this legislation, but they’ve been milking the socialist agenda for too long and now it has caught up to them. They either take this offer, or default on their loans, which would cause a lot more problems. However, the way they are acting is beyond childish. They need to grow up and realize that they are just reaping what they sow, and they need to get off their butts and get back to work. Maybe try being entrepreneurial and actually help expand your economy… Instead of letting it stagnate like it is.

The Wall Street Journal has a article aptly named: “Hi. My Name Is America, and I’m a Deficit Addict.”

It is a very interesting article and well worth the read. The author starts off by saying that the deficit (and Federal debt in general) is something that everyone talks about but nobody does anything about. How true is that? Its like this story I heard about some fishermen.

There was a group of fishermen who bought all the latest gear, read all the articles and magazines about fishing, and talked endlessly about fishing. But they never actually went fishing. The government (meaning politicians that are running it), and maybe even American citizens, are like those fishermen. They are afraid of change and afraid of failure. Instead of being a hero and hated (yes both) for fixing the problem they leave everything at the status quo. What will it take to finally make them realize that they are killing this country? We simply can’t afford trillion dollar deficits or we are going to implode.

I got dreams about what would be the ideal solution; such as cutting social security, medicare, department of education and all the other unconstitutional, practically worthless departments that have sprung up. Having actual fiscal oversight and a government website that details every penny spent, who spent it and who approved it.
But I’m a realist, I know that those kinds of changes would to very difficult to make period let alone all at once so then what could be done?

First off do away with our current tax system and adopt the Fair Tax
I wrote a bit about this in my last post about the Greek deficit but the gist is that all federal taxes would be done away with and replaced by a national sales tax. Not a VAT tax (which is a politicians dream tax as they can raise taxes without the general public knowing).

A important thing to note is that businesses wouldn’t pay the usage tax for buying wholesale items from other businesses. So if I make hats the cotton I but from another company has absolutely no taxes added. Why is this good you might ask? Because that tax saving will be passed on to the consumer, just like tax increases are. If you tax a company 10% you can be sure that they will raise their prices by 10%, if you lower taxes by 10% then assuming there is healthy competition, prices will drop by 10%. This would be a enormous and positive change reducing the red tape and some of the frustrating aspects of owning your own business.

The sales tax would be high, probably around 23%, but everything would be cheaper because the businesses that are paying 15% FICA taxes wouldn’t be paying that anymore, so there is a 15% decrease in price off the bat. But it gets better, the several hundred billion dollar tax industry would go away (including many IRS areas), yes lots of jobs would be lost, but doing away with our current form of taxes would be a economic stimulus that you could only dream of.

This tax is the most fair and transparent type of tax out there. It would also be hard to circumvent and easy to collect. Imagine not having to file tax returns every year and actually getting your full paycheck. Heck businesses could raise your salary by 10% just because of tax savings. It is a fair tax because the people that spend money are the ones that pay taxes. Think of all the people that live paycheck to paycheck because they spend all their money. Wouldn’t this type of system be a great incentive to start saving more money? Paying bills? Paying down credit card and student loan debt?

Next point would be to examine federal employee’s pay (and benefits) as compared to the private industry and get it inline. Federal employees are paid on average 20% more than private employees and that is not counting benefits which are generally 2-4 times better for federal employees.

Next all the social services that are offered need to be examined. Medicare is so expensive because it is corrupt and the medical industry wastes so much money. Obamacare didn’t do anything to address costs and so those are likely to just go up. We need to repeal that legislation and put in its place some guidelines to reduce medical costs such as tort reform for malpractice lawsuits, reducing the cases where money is spent on needless tests and examinations, etc… Social security needs to go away. The government can’t be trusted with our retirement money as they love to just squander it away. So anyone currently receiving benefits or close to receiving them gets them, but then no more. Put that money back into citizen’s pockets and trust that they can  take care of themselves.

Fiscal responsibility needs to be mandated somehow. I’ve heard people mentioning a constitutional amendment to limit government spending to a percentage of the GDP and although that sounds good on paper the problem is that I imagine the government would always be at that level, but still that would be better than adding debt every year.

There are many other things that can be done, such as figuring out a way to reduce military expenditure, paying down the debt to reduce interest etc… But what I’ve written is a good guideline. It won’t happen all at once, but if drastic reforms don’t take place then we are in a sorry state.

Times aren’t looking so good for Greece right now. Their debt is piling up and they don’t have the means to pay it off. As a result they have had their credit rating downgraded to junk status. With a deficit nearing 14% of their GDP it certainly doesn’t look good for their credit rating (by comparison the USA is hovering around 10.6%, but normally is 1-4%).

Greece’s GDP is currently $356 billion with debt of over $400 billion putting them at 112% of debt as percentage of GDP. By comparison the USA is sitting at 94%.

Now that the facts are laid out I must say that it is very interesting situation on many different levels.  First off USA is only 18% behind Greece right now and at our debt accumulation rate we’ll be surpassing them soon. Could the US Treasury’s credit be downgraded? Maybe but I’d have to wonder if the reigning democrats would put the people responsible for the credit ratings on “trial” if they did lower the rating.

A interesting thing about Greece’s situation is that they are desperately trying to reduce their deficit but are being met with strong resistance by the populace who are unwilling to give up or see cuts to their pork projects and socialist programs. Apparently they don’t understand how serious and bad their situation is. When a credit rating is downgraded to junk status the perceived and real risk for lenders/investors goes up and as such the demanded interest rate rises as well because the investment is now considered highly speculative. What that means is that there is a lot less people willing to loan them money and when they do get money they will be paying a lot higher interest rates. Given this many Greek people are bemoaning the fact that they might lose some of their precious programs? Their economy is at risk and instead of trying to fix the problem they are pretty much making it worse?

I can’t say I’m surprised though, as I imagine there would be plenty of protest here if say Social Security got large cuts (which will probably happen by the way).

Debt is serious business; often it is necessary but these governments (USA included) are being flippant and irresponsible and we (the tax payers) will pay for it. The US Government, instead of being responsible and reducing spending, wants to raise taxes to pay for the deficit, they are even thinking about adding a VAT tax (value added tax which is basically a invisible sales tax).

I say why not reduce spending and lower taxes? Or better yet implement the Fair Tax (and reduce spending). The Fair Tax will not penalize people for making money or being entrepreneurial, it’ll only tax people when they buy things. So in most situations we would control when we paid taxes and the highest consumers would pay the most in taxes. It doesn’t get any more fair then that. Plus a great part about it is there would be no income tax returns for consumers, only businesses would file, and businesses to business sales are exempt from the tax which will lower prices and encourage  more people to go into business. Plus think about it this way, people who have a lot of money spend a lot, yet that spending doesn’t add much to the coffers of the tax system. Yet middle to low income people who can barely afford to pay their rent or buy food or pay their bills are having 10-20% taken off before the money even gets to them. The fair tax, if implemented, would be the greatest stimulant that our economy could get and it wouldn’t cost the government a dime.