List of New Bureaucracies Created by ‘Health Care’ Bill

The following list was originally published by the GOP on November 2^nd, 2009, after reading through the roughly 2,000 pages of the Social Democrat ‘health care’ bill.  Looking through the list, one might be forgiven for mistaking the Social Democrat’s ‘health care’ bill for a government jobs bill.  In reality, however, this bill has nothing to do with health care and everything to do with control.  Readers are encouraged to peruse the list when they have time to fully appreciate the statist madness of this bill.

My personal favorite is #18: Demonstration program providing reimbursement for “culturally and linguistically appropriate services” (Section 1222, p. 617).

You may as well have fun reading through the list.  After all, you’ll be paying for it:

1. Retiree Reserve Trust Fund (Section 111(d), p. 61)

2. Grant program for wellness programs to small employers (Section 112, p. 62)

3. Grant program for State health access programs (Section 114, p. 72)

4. Program of administrative simplification (Section 115, p. 76)

5. Health Benefits Advisory Committee (Section 223, p. 111)

6. Health Choices Administration (Section 241, p. 131)

7. Qualified Health Benefits Plan Ombudsman (Section 244, p. 138)

8. Health Insurance Exchange (Section 201, p. 155)

9. Program for technical assistance to employees of small businesses buying Exchange coverage (Section 305(h), p. 191)

10. Mechanism for insurance risk pooling to be established by Health Choices Commissioner (Section 306(b), p. 194)

11. Health Insurance Exchange Trust Fund (Section 307, p. 195)

12. State-based Health Insurance Exchanges (Section 308, p. 197)

13. Grant program for health insurance cooperatives (Section 310, p. 206)

14. “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 321, p. 211)

15. Ombudsman for “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 321(d), p. 213)

16. Account for receipts and disbursements for “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 322(b), p. 215)

17. Telehealth Advisory Committee (Section 1191 (b), p. 589)

18. Demonstration program providing reimbursement for “culturally and linguistically appropriate services” (Section 1222, p. 617)

19. Demonstration program for shared decision making using patient decision aids (Section 1236, p. 648)

20. Accountable Care Organization pilot program under Medicare (Section 1301, p. 653)

21. Independent patient-centered medical home pilot program under Medicare (Section 1302, p. 672)

22. Community-based medical home pilot program under Medicare (Section 1302(d), p. 681)

23. Independence at home demonstration program (Section 1312, p. 718)

24. Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research (Section 1401(a), p. 734)

25. Comparative Effectiveness Research Commission (Section 1401(a), p. 738)

26. Patient ombudsman for comparative effectiveness research (Section 1401(a), p. 753)

27. Quality assurance and performance improvement program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 1412(b)(1), p. 784)

28. Quality assurance and performance improvement program for nursing facilities (Section 1412 (b)(2), p. 786)

29. Special focus facility program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 1413(a)(3), p. 796)

30. Special focus facility program for nursing facilities (Section 1413(b)(3), p. 804)

31. National independent monitor pilot program for skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities (Section 1422, p. 859)

32. Demonstration program for approved teaching health centers with respect to Medicare GME (Section 1502(d), p. 933)

33. Pilot program to develop anti-fraud compliance systems for Medicare providers (Section 1635, p. 978)

34. Special Inspector General for the Health Insurance Exchange (Section 1647, p. 1000)

35. Medical home pilot program under Medicaid (Section 1722, p. 1058)

36. Accountable Care Organization pilot program under Medicaid (Section 1730A, p. 1073)

37. Nursing facility supplemental payment program (Section 1745, p. 1106)

38. Demonstration program for Medicaid coverage to stabilize emergency medical conditions in institutions for mental diseases (Section 1787, p. 1149)

39. Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund (Section 1802, p. 1162)

40. “Identifiable office or program” within CMS to “provide for improved coordination between Medicare and Medicaid in the case of dual eligibles” (Section 1905, p. 1191)

41. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Section 1907, p. 1198)

42. Public Health Investment Fund (Section 2002, p. 1214)

43. Scholarships for service in health professional needs areas (Section 2211, p. 1224)

44. Program for training medical residents in community-based settings (Section 2214, p. 1236)

45. Grant program for training in dentistry programs (Section 2215, p. 1240)

46. Public Health Workforce Corps (Section 2231, p. 1253)

47. Public health workforce scholarship program (Section 2231, p. 1254)

48. Public health workforce loan forgiveness program (Section 2231, p. 1258)

49. Grant program for innovations in interdisciplinary care (Section 2252, p. 1272)

50. Advisory Committee on Health Workforce Evaluation and Assessment (Section 2261, p. 1275)

51. Prevention and Wellness Trust (Section 2301, p. 1286)

52. Clinical Prevention Stakeholders Board (Section 2301, p. 1295)

53. Community Prevention Stakeholders Board (Section 2301, p. 1301)

54. Grant program for community prevention and wellness research (Section 2301, p. 1305)

55. Grant program for research and demonstration projects related to wellness incentives (Section 2301, p. 1305)

56. Grant program for community prevention and wellness services (Section 2301, p. 1308)

57. Grant program for public health infrastructure (Section 2301, p. 1313)

58. Center for Quality Improvement (Section 2401, p. 1322)

59. Assistant Secretary for Health Information (Section 2402, p. 1330)

60. Grant program to support the operation of school-based health clinics (Section 2511, p. 1352)

61. Grant program for nurse-managed health centers (Section 2512, p. 1361)

62. Grants for labor-management programs for nursing training (Section 2521, p. 1372)

63. Grant program for interdisciplinary mental and behavioral health training (Section 2522, p. 1382)

64. “No Child Left Unimmunized Against Influenza” demonstration grant program (Section 2524, p. 1391)

65. Healthy Teen Initiative grant program regarding teen pregnancy (Section 2526, p. 1398)

66. Grant program for interdisciplinary training, education, and services for individuals with autism (Section 2527(a), p. 1402)

67. University centers for excellence in developmental disabilities education (Section 2527(b), p. 1410)

68. Grant program to implement medication therapy management services (Section 2528, p. 1412)

69. Grant program to promote positive health behaviors in underserved communities (Section 2530, p. 1422)

70. Grant program for State alternative medical liability laws (Section 2531, p. 1431)

71. Grant program to develop infant mortality programs (Section 2532, p. 1433)

72. Grant program to prepare secondary school students for careers in health professions (Section 2533, p. 1437)

73. Grant program for community-based collaborative care (Section 2534, p. 1440)

74. Grant program for community-based overweight and obesity prevention (Section 2535, p. 1457)

75. Grant program for reducing the student-to-school nurse ratio in primary and secondary schools (Section 2536, p. 1462)

76. Demonstration project of grants to medical-legal partnerships (Section 2537, p. 1464)

77. Center for Emergency Care under the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (Section 2552, p. 1478)

78. Council for Emergency Care (Section 2552, p 1479)

79. Grant program to support demonstration programs that design and implement regionalized emergency care systems (Section 2553, p. 1480)

80. Grant program to assist veterans who wish to become emergency medical technicians upon discharge (Section 2554, p. 1487)

81. Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (Section 2562, p. 1494)

82. National Medical Device Registry (Section 2571, p. 1501)

83. CLASS Independence Fund (Section 2581, p. 1597)

84. CLASS Independence Fund Board of Trustees (Section 2581, p. 1598)

85. CLASS Independence Advisory Council (Section 2581, p. 1602)

86. Health and Human Services Coordinating Committee on Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1610)

87. National Women’s Health Information Center (Section 2588, p. 1611)

88. Centers for Disease Control Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1614)

89. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Office of Women’s Health and Gender-Based Research (Section 2588, p. 1617)

90. Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1618)

91. Food and Drug Administration Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1621)

92. Personal Care Attendant Workforce Advisory Panel (Section 2589(a)(2), p. 1624)

93. Grant program for national health workforce online training (Section 2591, p. 1629)

94. Grant program to disseminate best practices on implementing health workforce investment programs (Section 2591, p. 1632)

95. Demonstration program for chronic shortages of health professionals (Section 3101, p. 1717)

96. Demonstration program for substance abuse counselor educational curricula (Section 3101, p. 1719)

97. Program of Indian community education on mental illness (Section 3101, p. 1722)

98. Intergovernmental Task Force on Indian environmental and nuclear hazards (Section 3101, p. 1754)

99. Office of Indian Men’s Health (Section 3101, p. 1765)

100. Indian Health facilities appropriation advisory board (Section 3101, p. 1774)

101. Indian Health facilities needs assessment workgroup (Section 3101, p. 1775)

102. Indian Health Service tribal facilities joint venture demonstration projects (Section 3101, p. 1809)

103. Urban youth treatment center demonstration project (Section 3101, p. 1873)

104. Grants to Urban Indian Organizations for diabetes prevention (Section 3101, p. 1874)

105. Grants to Urban Indian Organizations for health IT adoption (Section 3101, p. 1877)

106. Mental health technician training program (Section 3101, p. 1898)

107. Indian youth telemental health demonstration project (Section 3101, p. 1909)

108. Program for treatment of child sexual abuse victims and perpetrators (Section 3101, p. 1925)

109. Program for treatment of domestic violence and sexual abuse (Section 3101, p. 1927)

110. Native American Health and Wellness Foundation (Section 3103, p. 1966)

111. Committee for the Establishment of the Native American Health and Wellness Foundation (Section 3103, p. 1968)

‘Cap and Trade’

Cap and Trade is nothing more than the injection of artificial scarcity into a market by the central state. It is an act of economic central planning with no basis other than the whim of the state.

How does the state determine the appropriate level at which to “cap” carbon emissions? Or anything else for that matter? The very short answer is that they cannot know. They cannot know any more than they can know the appropriate level at which to price milk.

Fundamentally, Cap and Trade is a consumption tax. However, it is a consumption tax that is virtually unavoidable by the consumer. It does not change behavior. It merely injects artificial scarcity into the market, thereby creating a host of perverse and unpredictable consequences.

Some consequences, however, are easy to predict:

Since this consumption tax is aimed directly at businesses, which do not pay tax directly, we can safely know that the overall increase in prices of goods and services that utilize carbon-based energy as a raw material will be passed on to the end consumer of said goods and services.

Since the state, and it’s professional politician ruling class, cannot possibly know the correct amount of artifical scarcity in which to inject, we can safely know that the arbitrary amount chosen will be the wrong amount.

Since the state is a proven mis-allocator of resources, we can safely know that the “revenue raised” (ie- the private capital confiscated) through this tax will be wasted.

Since the state grows in scope and power perpetually due to its very nature, we can safely say that the “revenue raised” through this tax will be used to expand the state apparatus and its associated bureaucracies.

Finally, since we know that freedom is a zero-sum game, we can understand the further enabling, financing and resulting growth the of the state to come at the expense of individual liberties.

In observing only the predictable consequences of this measure and ignoring, for the sake of argument, the universe of unforeseeable consequences, we may then understand Cap and Trade and the issue of “climate change”, regardless of its truth or merits, to be nothing more than a Trojan horse for increasing economic central planning, redistribution of privately created capital and the further empowerment of the state.

 

And this I must fight against

 The following was written by John Steinbeck and published in 1952.  I share this with the hope that you will enjoy and reflect upon these beautiful words.  Steinbeck saw a storm brewing, a clash of the individual against modern society, and he was horrified.  In retrospect, we may observe that Steinbeck was prescient in both his observations and in his concerns.  Let us only hope that the light and glory of the individual, against all odds, still shines within the confines of the increasingly collective society.

 

I don’t know how it will be in years to come.  There are monstrous changes taking place in the world, forces shaping a future whose face we do not know.  Some of these forces seem evil to us, perhaps not in themselves but because their tendency is to eliminate other things we hold good.  It is true that two men can lift a bigger stone than one man.  A group can build automobiles quicker and better than one man, and bread from a huge factory is cheaper and more uniform.  When our food and clothing and housing all are born in the complication of mass-production, mass method is bound to get into our thinking and to eliminate all other thinking.  In our time mass or collective production has entered our economics, our politics, and even our religion, so that some nations have substituted the idea collective for the idea God.  This in my time is the danger.  There is great tension in the world, tension toward a breaking point, and men are unhappy and confused.

 

At such a time it seems natural and good to me to ask myself these questions.  What do I believe in?  What must I fight for and what must I fight against?

 

Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of man.  Nothing was ever created by two men.  There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy.  Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything.  The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.

 

And now the forces marshaled around the concept of the group have declared a war of extermination on that preciousness, the mind of man.  By disparagement, by starvation, by repressions, forced direction, and the stunning hammerblows of conditioning, the free, roving mind is being pursued, roped, blunted, drugged.  It is a sad suicidal course our species seems to have taken.

 

And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.  And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected.  And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.  This is what I am and what I am about.  I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for that is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system.  Surely I can understand this, and I hate it and I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts.  If the glory can be killed, we are lost.

More Civil Unrest Training?

Alert reader ‘Michigan Patriot’ posted the following comment on my previous article National Guard Trains for Gun Confiscation :

 

Starting July 7th at Camp Grayling in Michigan, The Michigan National Guard will be conducting this civil unrest training for 6-7 weeks.  Something is brewing…

 

The previous drill I wrote on was in Iowa, and involved house-to-house searches of privately owned homes, the owners of which presumably volunteered to be extras in this security theater.

 

This time it’s Michigan, and at the largest military training facility East of the Mississippi.  The question remains, “What, specifically, are they training for?”  Further, why would such training involve door-to-door searches?

 

As a reminder to our readers, some previous links to such stories:

 

http://www.carrollspaper.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=7451&SectionID=1&SubSectionID=&S=1

 

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/

 

When some think of soldiers training for civil unrest, they assume a benevolent government response to riots and rowdy crowds of protesters.  However, given the recent Department of Homeland Security report on ‘Right Wing Extremists’ and the mainstream media’s antagonistic response to the recent Tea Party protests, one could be forgiven for having some skepticism as to our government’s ‘good intentions’.

 

I have attempted to find more information on the Camp Grayling training, but to no avail.  If any other readers have information, please comment in the section below. 

 

-BWS

Exposing the “Born Again American” movement, again.

 

 In response to my recent post regarding the disingenuous “Born Again American” movement , I received this response from “Erika”, who I presume is Erika Johansson, program coordinator and Producer, Remix America.

 

Born Again American is a new initiative put forth by Declare Yourself.

 

Declare Yourself is national, nonpartisan, nonprofit youth voter registration organization dedicated to making sure every American is registered to vote.

 

Change.org is not an umbrella organization for Declare Yourself – in fact, it is a completely different organization. Change.org is an advocacy website that encourages people to organize around issues that matter to them.

 

Declare Yourself does not advocate any politician or policy stance. They have traveled across the nation to register voters and believe that every American should be registered and eligible to vote regardless of political party or beliefs!

 

Let’s take a few moments to dissect the response:

 

Born Again American is a new initiative put forth by Declare Yourself.

 

Declare Yourself is national, nonpartisan, nonprofit youth voter registration organization dedicated to making sure every American is registered to vote.

 

“Voter registration organization” is left-wing code for socialist activism.  It is code for getting as many uninformed, lazy, unregistered citizens as you can to register and then vote for left-wing candidates.  It has always been thus.  Please do not insult my readers’ intelligence.

 

Change.org is not an umbrella organization for Declare Yourself – in fact, it is a completely different organization. Change.org is an advocacy website that encourages people to organize around issues that matter to them.

 

I provided the link from the Declare Yourself website in my previous post.  Apparently the verbiage in the “about us” section has been changed to remove reference to change.org.  Regardless, it is very clear that all three organizations (Declare Yourself, Born Again American and Change.org) stand for.  Under the disguise of our Founding Documents, your organizations represent positions that are counter to the intent of our Founding Fathers as referenced in their own words.  Here’s an example:

 

“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself! They are the American people’s Liberty Teeth and keystone under Independence. From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to insure peace, security, and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable. The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere, restrains evil interference ‑‑ they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good!”

 

‑‑President George Washington, in a speech to Congress. 7 January, 1790 

 

If I am wrong, and your organization is really what it claims to be, prove it.  Here is my challenge:

 

I challenge the Born Again American movement, and “Declare Yourself” to take a direct position on their websites in support of the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.  Both websites are draped with references to our Founding Documents.  I mean, this is what an organization dedicated to our Founding Documents and our heritage of freedom would do, right?  Well, here’s your chance to demonstrate that you are in fact who you claim to be. 

 

Somehow I doubt you’ll accept…  Anyway, I return to your response:

 

Declare Yourself does not advocate any politician or policy stance. They have traveled across the nation to register voters and believe that every American should be registered and eligible to vote regardless of political party or beliefs!

 

Again, this is absolutely false.  Your affiliated and parent organizations are clearly left-wing front groups that take positions against the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.  Further, the “voter registration” code is lost on no intelligent reader.  “Voter registration” organizations exist for one purpose only: to register the uninformed and lazy in order to direct them to left-wing candidates during close elections. 

 

But again, please prove me wrong.  Take my challenge above and I will post a long retraction of my critique.

 

Erika – you work for Remix America, another site that references our Founding Documents.  This is from your ‘about us’ page http://www.remixamerica.org/about

 

This country is a remix, it’s what we do. What did Jefferson and Paine and Adams do but mashup history, take a little from the Magna Carta, a little from John Locke, and a whole lot of rebellion. Now, thanks to the web and digital technology, everyone can join in.

 

This is a unique moment in our history — We can rediscover the promise of the Declaration of Independence next to the music of Louis Armstrong next to the beats of the Beastie Boys and clips of our candidates talking about “Changes.” Every one of us can own our best expressions of liberty, democracy and freedom, remix them as they see fit, and share them with the world.

 

Yet another reference to the Declaration of Independence.  References to Jefferson, Paine and Adams – all lovers of freedom and supporters of the absolute human right of free people to own the means of their self-defense and, thereby, to prevent government from obtaining a monopoly on the use of force.  Do you know what the Declaration means?  Clearly Change.org does not, based on the abundance of anti-Second Amendment articles.  And nowhere a mention on the websites of Declare Yourself, Born Again American or Remix America.  Why?

 

The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America is not a “political position” any more than the First Amendment is.  You support the First Amendment, right?  Why not the Second?

 

Why, Erika?

 

Why?

Why are we calling this a bankruptcy?!?

Why do we allow the media to use this term and then piggy-back upon it?

In a bankruptcy, companies are restructured and/or assets sold to satisfy creditors ACCORDING TO RULE OF LAW.

This is a government takeover/bailout that is being referred to as a bankruptcy.

The losers are both creditors and taxpayers. The winners are the UAW presumably counterparties to CDS.

And who is buying Hummer and why is it being kept a secret?  Whatever happened to “transparency”?

Our Overlords in Washington label this bailout/takeover a “bankruptcy” and the mainstream media (of “the economy will recover later this year” fame) mindlessly parrot this term over and over again until it is adopted even by those who would argue against this action.  In reality, this is not a bankruptcy at all.  Nor was Chrysler’s.

 

We are in very dangerous, Orwellian territory here.

 

And what is a “pre-packaged bankruptcy”?  Since when is our justice administered through the courts “pre-packaged”?  Where is the justice for American ‘taxpayers’? (‘Taxpayer’: a legal term – you ceased being sovereign Americans and became ‘tax-payers’, ‘citizens’ of the Federal Government, serfs really, with the 14^th amendment diktat.)

 

So now we are treated like the serfs we are by our Federal Overlords, with no say in what happens to the fruits of our labor, confiscated as they are by those with the monopoly on force.  Yesterday they were given to Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, as laundered through AIG.  Today they are given to auto works unions.  Where will your hard-earned dollars be sent tomorrow?

 

If there’s any Patriotic American out there who is not yet gravely concerned, this should be your wake-up call.

 

Exposing the “Born Again American” movement

I recently received an email asking me what I thought about something called the “Born Again American” movement.  This movement can be found at www.bornagainamerican.com and includes a very catchy song, the words of which can be found here.  Let’s take a moment to read them:

 

Just a workin’ man without a job
It got shipped off to China via Washington, D.C.
And I know I’m nothin’ special, there are plenty more like me

 

Just the same
I thought I knew the rules of the game

I stood up for this country that I love
I came back from the desert to a wife and kids to feed
I’m not sayin’ Uncle Sam should give me what I need

My offer stands
I’ll pull my weight you give me half a chance

 

I went up to a congressman and said to him “you know
Our government is letting people down”
He said he’d need a lot of help to buck the status-quo
I said there was a bunch of us around

 

I’m a Born Again American, conceived in Liberty
My Bible and the Bill of Rights, my creed’s equality
I’m a Born Again American, my country ‘tis of me
And everyone who shares the dream from sea to shining sea

 

My brother’s welding chassis at the plant
He’s earning what our granddad did in 1948
While CEOs count bonuses behind the castle gates
How can they see
When all they care about’s the do re mi

It’s getting where there’s nowhere left to turn

Not since the crash of twenty-nine have things been so unfair
So many of our citizens are living in despair
The time has come
To reaffirm that hope’s not just for some

 

The promise of America’s surrendering to greed

The rule is just look out for number one
But brace yourself ‘cause some of us have sown a different seed
A harvest of the spirit has begun

 

I’m a Born Again American conceived in liberty

My Bible and The Bill Of Rights
My creed’s equality
A Born Again American, my country ‘tis of me
And everyone who shares the dream from sea to shining sea

 

It’s clear my country’s soul is on the line
She’s hungering for something that she lost along the way
The principle the framers called upon us to obey

That in this land

The people’s will must have the upper hand

I felt the calling once before and took a sacred vow

And faithful to that vow I have remained
I hear the calling once again, my country needs me now
And to her cause I have been re-ordained

 

I’m a Born Again American conceived in liberty
My Bible and the Bill Of Rights, all people living free
A Born Again American, my country ‘tis of me
And everyone who shares the dream
From sea to shining sea
And everyone who shares the dream
From sea to shining sea
A M E R I C A

 

The website includes visual and written references to the Constitution and Bill of Rights and would appear to be intriguing to Patriots everywhere, right?

 

WRONG.

 

This is what I found:

 

Bornagainamerican.org is part of the umbrella group DeclareYourself  . This was obtained from the “About Us” tab on Bornagainamerican’s website.

 

DeclareYourself is in turn part of the umbrella group change.org . This was obtained from the “About Us” tab on DeclareYourself’s website.

 

The main causes promoted by Change.org include universal healthcare, gay rights, ending homelessness, animal rights and global warming, among others.  However, they also have much to say on the 2nd Amendment: the fundamental human right as enshrined in the Bill of Rights (a document Declareyourself.com claims to stand for).

 

Here are a few items from change.org as it relates to 2A issues:

 

#1 Mandatory criminal background checks for all gun sales

 

#2 Require responsible and safe gun storage for all firearms unless they are in the owner’s direct control

 

#3 Allow Law Enforcement to maintain and share critical “crime-gun” trace data

 

#4 Restore and improve the Federal Ban on Assault Weapons

 

#5 Repeal the Federal law giving Immunity to the gun industry

 

#6 Enact National Consumer Product Safety Commission regulations for firearms

 

#7 Create incentives for the gun industry to make “personalized guns”

 

Source: http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/seven_ways_obama_can_reduce_gun_violence

 

Here’s another one:

 

We can impose strict restrictions on gun ownership and carrying without taking away a right. Background checks and safety classes aren’t too much to ask.  Source  

Another: I support strict gun control because our addiction to guns has had two centuries to work and it has not succeeded in making us safer. Each year, more than a half million legal guns are stolen. Putting more legal guns in circulation would only cause this number to rise. More guns means more gun suicides, more accidents. And the proposition that criminals will think twice before committing a crime because the victim might have a gun is preposterous. If that were the case, they would have already stopped committing crimes.

Source  

Another: For starters, we need to acknowledge the true cost of gun ownership in the country, and make sure gun owners foot their share of the bill. Car owners have to have insurance to pay for the dangers of driving. Why shouldn’t gun owners have to carry insurance in case their guns are used for violence?

Source  

Another: Say no to loaded guns in National Parks!

Source

Moral of this story?

 

Be very careful who you support among the tangled webs of those who would rob you of your humanity and hand it over to the state or collective, to do with as they wish.

 

There are many groups out there masquerading as Constitution-based, “take-back-your-rights” organizations.  Many of them are cover groups for leftist and/or statist activist groups.

 

Patriots beware.

 

“Right-Wing Extremist” instruction kit

Hi kids!  By now, most of you have already heard about the Department of Homeland Security’s recent memo regarding right-wing extremists and the danger they pose to our society.  You’ve probably heard that these individuals may in fact support such radical and dangerous concepts as:

 

-          limiting the power of the federal government to confiscate your earnings

-          private ownership of firearms

-          the Constitution of the United States

 

Now I know you’re probably wondering, “Gee! How can I become an extremist?”

 

Well, extremists and their sympathizers may include such dangerous groups as white males, war veterans and Ron Paul supporters.  So what’s a youngster to do in order to fit in?

 

Look no further, lads!  Barbedwiresmile is here to help with the new and improved “Right-Wing Extremist” Kit.  The following pictures have been sanctioned by the Department of Homeland Security (and the Missouri State Police) as “Right-Wing Extremist” paraphernalia!  Haven’t you always wanted to own actual “paraphernalia”?  Well here’s your chance.  Feel free to download the following pictures and share them with your friends!  Do so quickly, though.  This site could be shut down at any time as advocating “Right-Wing Extremism” which we all know leads to Domestic Terrorism.  So don’t miss out! 

 

 

 

 

Barbedwiresmile and the gang would like to thank Janet Napolitano for helping to make this possible.

 

 

[Note: Barbedwiresmile would like to remind our friends in the Department of Homeland Security that this is just a joke.  Barbedwiresmile in no way endorses right-wing extremism, domestic terrorism, Congressman Ron Paul, the Bill of Rights or the Constitution of the United States of America.  I’m hoping our friends in the Department of Homeland Security will take this all in good humor and in no way think I am criticizing their fine department.  The Missouri State Police I am less worried about.  Unless I am in the State of Missouri.  In which case I would like to ensure the State Police that I in no way support the Constitution of the United States and should not be treated as a radical extremist.]

A warning from the past

 

In his farewell address, Andrew Jackson gave a warning to the American people regarding central banking and fiat currency. 

 

You may note that the dangers of central banking are nothing new, nothing ‘modern’.  Despite those who wish to describe the Constitution as a ‘living document’, our Founding Fathers knew exactly what they were talking about.  And the issues they dealt with were the same we deal with today.  The Constitution means exactly what it says, as did our Founding Fathers when they discussed issues of government and economics.  For relevant quotes from our Founding Fathers, and others, click here

 

An exceprt from President Jackson’s address (emphasis mine):

 
…..we find nothing that has produced such deep seated evil as the course of legislation in relation to the currency. The Constitution of the United States unquestionably intended to secure to the people a circulating medium of gold and silver. But the establishment of a national bank by Congress… drove from general circulation the constitutional currency, and substituted one of paper in its place.  
 
The paper system being founded on public confidence, and having of itself no intrinsic value, it is liable to great and sudden fluctuation: thereby rendering property insecure, and the wages of labor unsteady and uncertain. The corporations which create the paper money cannot be relied upon to keep the circulating medium uniform in amount. In times of prosperity, when confidence is high, they are tempted, by the prospect of gain, or by the influence of those who hope to profit by it, to extend their issues of paper beyond the bounds of discretion and the reasonable demands of business. And when these issues have been pushed on, from day to day, until public confidence is at length shaken, then a reaction takes place, and they immediately withdraw the credits they have given; suddenly curtail their issues; and produce an unexpected and ruinous contraction of the circulating medium, which is felt by the whole community. The banks, by this means, save themselves, and the mischievious [sic] consequences of their imprudence or cupidity are visited upon the public.  

 

….if your currency continues as exclusively paper as it now is, it will foster this eager desire to amass wealth without labor; it will multiply the number of dependents on bank accommodations and bank favors; the temptation to obtain money at any sacrifice will become stronger and stronger, and inevitably lead to corruption, which will find its way into your public councils, and destroy at no distant day, the purity of your government. Some of the evils which arise from this system of paper, press with peculiar hardship upon the class of society least able to bear it. A portion of this currency frequently becomes depreciated or worthless… and the losses occasioned by them are commonly thrown upon the laboring classes of society, whose situation and pursuits put it out of their power to guard themselves from these impositions, and whose daily wages are necessary for their subsistence.  
 
But when the charter for the Bank of the United States was obtained from Congress, it perfected the schemes of the paper system…The immense capital, and peculiar privileges bestowed upon it, enable it to exercise despotic sway over the other banks in every part of the country.— From its superior strength, it could seriously injure, if not destroy, the business of any of them which might incur its resentment; and it openly claimed for itself the power of regulating the currency throughout the United States.

 

….If such was its power in a time of peace, what would it not have been in a season of war, with an enemy at your doors? No nation but the freemen of the United States could have come out victorious from such a contest; yet, if you had not conquered, the government would have passed from the hands of the many to the hands of the few; and this organized money power, from its secret conclave, would have dictated the choice of your highest officers, and compelled you to make peace or war, as best suited their own wishes. The forms of your government might, for a time, have remained; but its living spirit would have departed from it.  
 
….you must remember, my fellow citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty; and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. It behooves you, therefore, to be watchful in your States, as well as in the Federal Government. The power which the moneyed interest can exercise when concentrated under a single head, and with our present system of currency, was sufficiently demonstrated in the struggle made by the Bank of the United States.  
 
…men who love liberty and desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws, and who, moreover, hold the great mass of our national wealth, although it is distributed in moderate amounts among the millions of freemen who possess it. But, with overwhelming numbers and wealth on their side, they are in constant danger of losing their fair influence in the government, and with difficulty maintain their just rights against the incessant efforts daily made to encroach upon them. The mischief springs from the power which the moneyed interest derives from a paper currency, which they are able to control; from the multitude of corporations, with exclusive privileges…. and which are employed altogether for their benefit; and unless you become more watchful in your states and check this spirit of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges, you will in the end, find that the most important powers of government have been given or bartered away, and the control over your dearest interests has passed into the hands of these corporations.

 

In praise of the G-20 protestors

 

We should all say thank you to the G-20 protestors: the oxymoronically self-labeled ‘left anarchists’, the greens, the anti-‘capitalists’ (actually anti-corporatists – they fail to understand true capitalism, having never experienced it) and associated other demonstrators.  As banksters, having committed the greatest financial fraud in modern history (perhaps in all of human history) walk away with millions; as government conspires with the titans of corporatism to bilk taxpayers out of billions; and as central banks proceed with the printing of trillions, thereby damning future generations to further debasement of the currency and its resulting inflation and confiscatory taxation, only these brave souls risk their freedom to challenge the state.

 

In the west, we have been taught that it is soldiers fighting foreign wars that protect our freedoms.  God bless these soldiers – they do not have the luxury of choosing their battles.  While they may protect American lives, they do not protect American freedoms in service to our modern state.  It is not Islamic terrorists that directly threaten your freedoms, it is the state.  A radical proposition?  Hardly.

 

Ask yourself this:

 

Who is a more direct threat to your 2^nd amendment rights, the Taliban or the United States Congress?

 

Who is more likely to increase your taxes, your statehouse or Osama bin Laden?

 

Who is more of a threat to your 4^th amendment rights, Al Queda or the DEA?

 

Like you, I oppose collectivist groups of any kind – be they Islamcists, communists or fascists – who would deny our rights and attack our way of life.  These threats must be addressed and forcibly opposed relative to the danger they present.  But, when it comes to rights, I am more concerned about the immediate threats right here at home than those abroad. 

 

While I and others like me have consistently been accused of being ‘right wing anarchists’, those who follow this site and others like it know that I am a minarchist, and understand the fundamental nuances involved.  Like Jefferson, I believe there must be some form of state.  To the extent that we live in a world full of states, some of these other states will be hostile – and there is nothing more horrific than the full power of a modern state.  In addition to defense, the state exists to protect contract rights and intervene when necessary through a judiciary, an arbitrator of contract disputes.  (Ironically, I am criticized by true anarchists for this position and labeled a statist or an Objectivist.  It is ironic first because I am labeled an anarchist by the statists.  It is ironic second because minarchists and anarchists have far more in common than either do with the true statists.)

 

But like Jefferson I am deeply suspicious of the state.  I distrust the state because of its nature – a nature that was understood by our Founding Fathers – and because I have seen first hand the mass horrors that only the modern state is capable of carrying out.  Therefore must the state be kept in perpetual check by a free and independent people.

 

In Jefferson’s time, the policeman and tax collector feared the free man.  Today, the free man fears the policeman and the tax collector.

 

And this is why we should admire the G-20 protestors.  While we may not agree with their political philosophies, we must respect their defiance of the state and their courage to resist.  Let us hope that events do not deteriorate to where we must all demonstrate such courage rather than comply with the demands of the state – American riot police and SWAT teams are unlikely to show the restraint of their British cousins in uniform.

 

American Protest Movements

 

Largely, American protest movements have been ineffective.  For all the hot air coming from the Lou Dobbs and Glenn Becks of the world, where is the action?  Where is the tax protest?  If your average anonymous citizen ceases to comply with the confiscatory tax regime set forth by the state, his assets are confiscated, his wages garnished and, ultimately, he is imprisoned.  If a major public figure takes such action and provokes the wrath of the state, everyone takes notice.  Others may join in.  A movement may be started.  Where are our elites today, other than blowing hot air on the nightly news?  I will take such men seriously when they put their own money –and their own freedom- where their mouth is.

 

What made our revolution singularly unique is that it was not the result of a riot of the masses, nor was it the well-planned and carefully managed act of some behind-the-scenes vanguard.  Our Founding Fathers were the elites of their time – educated, land-owning, productive – and they had everything to lose.  The Crown (behind which stood the Bank of England) would have gladly bought their silence and their compliance, and indeed did purchase such compliance from many others.  Yet our Founding Fathers pledged their “lives, fortunes and sacred honor” to a cause that was bigger than themselves and set forth a unique free state where men could govern themselves and own their destiny, where sacred rights were recognized rather than ‘granted’ by the state and where the state was forcibly limited in size and scope by an active, proud, free and well-armed populace.

 

Today we lack such leaders and, sadly, we lack such a populace.

 

Instead we have elites fearful of what they may lose and hanging on to what they have.  We have a populace that embraces the state rather than fearing it, a populace unable to live independently of the state and its apparatus and a populace unwilling to take the responsibility of true self-government where the individual human being is raised back to his rightful place above and beyond the reach of the state.  And finally we have a police that is highly militarized and grows further and further detached from the citizens they police.  We have a police force that is a Law Enforcement Agency first and a protector of the people second.  We have a police culture that fosters and insular, ‘us vs. them’ attitude and one that is trained to carry out orders as dictated by the state – not to question such orders and the effect they may have on the life, liberty or happiness of a free people.

 

And so I salute the protestors, though I may not agree with their political philosophy.  They are the true heroes in the slowly unfolding battle between state and man.  I can only hope the citizenry utilizes what little leverage it has left over the state to halt the morphing of our free society into a corporatist police state while those levers still exist.  As for our ‘elites’, well, I fear we are on our own this time.