911 and the Surveillance State

Posted on September 12, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, one of the results of the 911 attacks on the World Trade Center, is the surveillance state we now live under. The surveillance state has been a long time coming but the terrorist attacks of 12 years ago greatly accelerated the trend. The elite seized on the opportunity to move ahead with their plan to monitor every aspect of our lives, not to protect us from terrorists, but to protect their shredding the Constitution from our outrage. This is a continuation of the elite’s overall scheme to move the US from a Constitutional republic to a socialist democracy. Anyone who has their eyes open must be alarmed at the development.

 

The NSA scandal has it’s roots in the 911 attacks. When the Patriot act was implemented and became law under George Bush it was sold as a means to protect the homeland from future terrorist attacks. The reality it seems, is far more sinister. The sweeping surveillance of the American people by our own government is Orwellian in it’s scope and intrusiveness. The Snowden leak is only the tip of the iceberg I’m afraid.

 

There is not a single aspect of our lives that is not monitored by our government. They vacuum up information from our Twitter and Facebook posts, our phone records, our personal information and our financial information. If you or I were to get just the phone records the government claims are not personal or private, we would be charged with a CPNI, (Customer Personal Information) crime. We would be tried with the full weight of Federal law. The irony is delicious. If those records are truly impersonal and not private then why is it illegal for us to gather that information? Because they are personal and private.

 

Many police cars have license plate readers that operate all the time. The readers log the owner of every car they pass, where that car is, at what time… and store that information in a government database. The government could conceivably use this information to model every American’s comings and goings. Software could use this data to predict not only where we are at any given time it could be used to predict our actions. Most major cities have government cameras on street corners. If these cameras are coupled with face recognition software they could be used to reduce the granularity of the police license plate readers. It is impossible to argue this is not an intrusion on our privacy.

 

Off site backup is a great idea and a wonderful business model but leaves anyone who uses it open to further government intrusion. Every bit of your hard drive is backed up on the firm’s server farm. They can have the very vest encryption software and have the most stringent privacy policies, but all that information is only a subpoena away from the government tracking your web habits, writings, political leanings, financial information and who your friends are. All in real time without you even knowing they are doing it! The problem is only magnified by cloud computing.

 

As we know, the government, not just the American government but all governments seek to increase their power over the citizenry. This is not new nor is it startling. Governments have always been this way and the United States founding fathers understood all too well this pernicious nature of government. That is why they put such stringent restrictions on the US government in the Constitution. Those restrictions have been under direct assault for over a century now. The fear that 911 caused in the American psyche was exploited to speed the scheme up.

 

Today if you or I bring up the Constitution we are scoffed at. Nancy Pelosy laughed when she was asked if Obama Care was Constitutional. The unbiased media derisively call those of us who argue on Constitutional grounds, “conspiracy theorists” and our own government has issued directives that clearly state that Constitutionalists are potential terrorists! Imagine that! Patriots who consider the Constitution a limiting document are called terrorists, but those who openly call for the overthrow of the US government, are not! Our government refuses even to call Islamic terrorists, who openly avow terror as a means to conquer the World, terrorists! This shows conclusively, the surveillance state is not aimed at real terrorists, it is aimed at citizens who seek to limit government on Constitutional grounds.

 

The IRS scandal is proof positive that the US government is, or at least has, used the apparatus of government to promote a political ideology, and we can reasonably extrapolate that scandal to any other surveillance program. If someone misuses one tool without consequence why wouldn’t they misuse other tools? Now the IRS is the gatekeeper of our health care as well as who gets tax free status. The ability to deny medical coverage to someone, due to his or her political ideology, is a very powerful tool to dominate citizens, by the political party that wields power. Coupled with the ambitious program to monitor our every move gives government unprecedented power to control us. There is no hiding from Big Brother government, and I am afraid that is exactly where we are headed, an Orwellian state… if we are not already there.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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Al-Queda’s Newfound Chemical Weapons

Posted on September 9, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, the Iraq war was fought to keep chemical weapons out of the hands of Al-Queda, not to protect civilians from Saddam. The US government has shown conclusively, by past actions, that it doesn’t care a whit if people are slaughtered by their own government. Not once has the US gone to war in a country to save civilians that doesn’t pose a threat to US interests. The sophist arguments being made by Senators and political hacks belies that fact. The US under Clinton did nothing to stop the Rwandan genocide, Saddam Hussein’s chemical attack on civilians that killed over 10,000 people was ignored by the unbiased media as well as our government, the genocide of the Armenians by the Turks wasn’t even reported until years later and the extermination of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis, and Islamists in WWII, had nothing to do with America’s involvement in that war. As I recall, Obama was against the Iraq war, why has he pivoted 180 degrees? This latest atrocity is being promoted as a reason to send American boys and girls into the meat grinder of war, so that President Obama can save face and support his allies, the Muslim Brotherhood. That people have to die so that Obama can save face is criminal but that our government is allied with the Brotherhood and Al-Queda is truly alarming.

 

The most dangerous part of this whole theater, is that if you look at a map of Syrian chemical weapons stockpiles and overlay a map of rebel held areas, Al-Queda controlled areas, a large portion of the chemical weapons stockpiles are already in rebel hands. That the most effective troops among the rebels are Al-Queda, who have honed their fighting skills against the US army in Iraq and Afghanistan, gives us assurance that Al-Queda has weapons of mass destruction in their hands. As we know, the untermenschen of Al-Queda have no qualms about using any weapon against their enemies, this should give us pause. Now that it seems certain our mortal enemy has chemical weapons it is only a matter of time before they use them in Europe and/or America, in their war to impose sharia on the World.

 

This president never accepts responsibility for the outcome of his policies. His past actions prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt. The real reason Obama wants Congress to pass a resolution, or not, is so Obama can escape any blame. If they vote for military action, Obama will happily attack Syria, and if it goes wrong he will point the finger of blame at Congress for authorizing it. If Al-Queda uses chemical weapons against American civilians, Obama will blame Congress for their vote, no matter what it is. Regardless of what happens, Obama will have a scapegoat for his blundering… again.

 

What is also concerning about this civil war in Syria is that the Christian minority has been protected by Assad. He is not a good guy by any measure, but that the Christians are protected by him is widely known, but not reported by the unbiased press. The rebels have threatened the Christians with extermination once the rebellion is victorious. So it appears that the US President has no room in his heart for the Christians his allies are slaughtering in Syria and Egypt. The claim the US must go to war to stop this humanitarian disaster is spurious, because when Christian children are burned to death in churches in Nigeria, Obama is silent, when 50,000 Christian children are starved to death by Islamist rebels in Somalia, Obama cannot be disturbed and when Christian schools are firebombed while is session by military planes of the Sudanese air force, our government can’t be bothered even to mention it.

 

Egyptian newspapers have portrayed Obama as Satan because of his unquestioned backing of the Muslim Brotherhood. This US president has ignored his responsibility to defend our embassy in Benghazi, and has yet to do a thing about the terrorist attack a year ago. Even to the point of initially trying to divert blame from Islamist terrorists by blaming and imprisoning a filmmaker, who is still in jail for exorcising his Right to free speech, while the CIA and NSA knew very well that it was clearly a terrorist attack. I remind you that if you or I lie to the government it is a felony, but if the government lies to us, it is politics… no matter the damage to American interests or the deaths of American citizens. If you chisel on your taxes, no one dies, but you go to jail, when the government lies to us, people often die horribly. In the case of Syrian Chemical weapons that are now in the hands of Al-Queda, the next horrific news videos will be of American or European children spasming as they die from a Sarin gas attack… maybe yours.

 

The reason Obama wants to go to war in Syria cannot be for humanitarian reasons. History shows us that. It is not for the chemical attack, the government never cared before, and it is not to keep chemical weapons out of the hands of Islamic terrorists, since they now almost certainly have them. The US government has shown a total disregard for atrocities committed against Christians, and if the US comes in on the side of Al-Queda, the lot of the Christians there will be genocide and a humanitarian disaster. Therefore Obama’s beating the war drums must be for something else. Given the inflated ego of a man who has had the road paved for him his entire life, the reason is far more likely to be personal aggrandizement, than any human hearted effort to prevent future chemical attacks. The only reason to go to war is to protect the US and US interests. If a war is begun that will negatively effect US interests, encourage a chemical attack in America and must result in American deaths for dubious reasons, that war is unconscionable and must be stopped… before it has begun.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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The US and China’s Different Approaches to Africa

Posted on September 5, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, the United States takes a militaristic approach to Africa, while China takes the capitalist. In the short term, the militaristic gives the US the most impact on events but in the long term, the capitalist approach will yield the best results all around. Moreover, the military approach will inevitably cost much more in blood and in treasure, for dubious gains. The capitalist way will not cost blood or treasure but will yield dividends for years to come. Anyone who thinks about it, for even a moment, will understand this, but the leaders of the US seem to be unable to make this simple cost benefit calculation, to the World’s detriment.

 

Today, the United States has troops in many countries in Africa. Small units are hunting down the Lord’s Resistance Army in the Republic of the Congo and in the Central African Republic, the US has stationed the Coast Guard in Cape Verde, in fact, there are around 19 US military actions going on. They range from actively engaged to mere drone bases. The US has a large military footprint in Africa. In Iraq, the US has spent billions of dollars and thousands of lives, but the oil revenue is going to the Chinese, and peace is nowhere to be found.

 

Military interventions are very expensive. Not only in the blood of our children but in our nation’s treasure. People and money that would be better invested in entrepreneurial activities. But the US government sees fit to drain off those resources for overseas adventures. Adventures that will never show a profit for anyone in the US or even US interests. Most of the time military intervention results in hatred for the US and it’s people, diminished economic returns for the US and the countries it tries to help, and usually ends up putting a dictator in office, propped up at US taxpayer expense.

 

The Chinese capitalist footprint is even larger than America’s militarist. The Chinese approach is to invest in businesses and infrastructure throughout the continent. The Chinese don’t put their own money up for infrastructure improvements though, they rely on the International Development fund, to pay for their projects, with China only putting up a token amount. The cost to China is insignificant, and certainly will not result in the loss of Chinese military personnel.

 

The profit to the Chinese will far exceed the US return on investment. For almost no investment the Chinese model will yield many favorable results. Not the least of which is the long lasting favor of the people of Africa. While the US is paying handsomely for hatred China is gaining good public relations almost for free. Another dividend for China is access to African markets. The benefit of this cannot be overstated. China is opening up rapidly growing markets for it’s goods and services, while the US militaristic approach closes the African markets to US goods and services, (like in Iraq) largely due to the animosity that military intercession builds up.

 

In the end it is the introduction of Capitalism that will settle the wars and insurgencies across Africa. The stated goal of the US is to export democracy around the World. But even a cursory look at history and the present shows, nowhere in the World has democracy flourished, unless and until the economy of a State is capitalist. Where democracy has been imposed from the outside, it has resulted in war and revolution, as soon as the money and troops stop flowing. In no case in history or in the present has democracy caught on without a functional market system, and nowhere has there been a functional market system, and despotism. The two are incompatible.

 

So it appears that while the US wastes money, and lives, generating hate and distrust, China is doing the right thing in Africa. The Chinese approach will yield democracy faster and with more durability then any amount of military intervention ever could. Exporting capitalism will make China rich and the nations that receive it will become free and prosperous. That is the way it is. If we truly want peace and prosperity in the World, then exporting capitalism is the way, if we want more war, revolution and poverty, the militaristic approach is best. I guess it depends on what you want for the World and your people.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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Syrian Chemical Weapons

Posted on September 2, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, the Syrian use of chemical weapons while Obama vacillates issue, highlights a few major underlying problems here in America. Some of those troubles are, our military is gutted under Obama, our economy is still on FED life support four years into the recovery, the deplorable state of the media and the ineptitude of the US government among others. We shouldn’t look at these as reasons to fret however we must look at them as opportunities for positive change. That they are more obvious to the non engaged or party stalwart, brings in the possibility they will see the light, allowing us all to band together, rectifying these problems for good. To go back to sleep would be the surest path to a collapse of our civilization.

 

The unbiased media have bungled their jobs so bad the American people have to go to foreign sources for any real information. The pernicious group think of the unbiased press is malpractice of the highest order. The unbiased media have ignored the question if it really was Bashar or the rebels, who had more to gain from an American intervention, and the destruction of eighty Coptic Churches in the last few weeks in Egypt alone, the death threats and murders of Copts in Egypt and in Syria (by our allies), and Nigeria where burning Christian places of worship, full of worshipers, is common. Our media and government are complicit in genocide by their silence.

 

The US and the World’s economies are barely limping along. Despite magnificent amounts of money printing, via Quantitative Easing, TARP, the European Union violating their charter and offering to ease the money supply, Japanese record amount of money printing, etc… the World’s economy sits in Intensive care, with little hope of a full recovery. The media try to minimize the dramatic decline of the economy by calling it the “New normal.” As if this would ever be accepted as normal under any other administration. The profound degeneration of the US economy directly effects the US’ ability to field an army and support that army.

 

The US military has seen drastic budget cuts. Not just in growth but in actual inflation adjusted numbers. This, along with our commitment to dozens of small gorilla actions around the World, has stretched the US fighting forces very thin. This belies the fact, the US military has a very high ratio of battle hardened non commissioned officers to enlisted men, which is a traditional means of measuring an army’s combat effectiveness. Along with the deep pool of combat trained reservists, the US could be untouchable, it is just weak now. As the old saying goes, “If you want peace, prepare for war.” The US government, in hollowing out the US’ military, has invited war.

 

The US government under the Obama administration is either incompetent or traitors. This Syrian issue points strongly to incompetence. Remember that the Middle East and North Africa, while never a hotbed for serenity, was largely at peace. The US had won the war in Iraq and Muammar was quiet. The standard of living in Egypt, while not in the top ten percent of the World, was rising in relation to the World. But, when Obama called the fellow who set himself on fire in Tunisia, “Rosa Parks.” He signaled to the World, that the US would not only avoid stopping revolutions, but would actively encourage them, the race was off and the Middle East and North Africa was set on fire.

 

Several years later, the Coptic Christians in North Africa and the Middle East are being slaughtered, (by our allies}, Iran is getting ever closer to a deliverable nuclear EMP warhead, hundreds of thousands of people are dead, the standard of living in the Middle East and North Africa has plummeted, the fire of war is threatening our allies, Turkey, while Israel sits placidly in the middle of it all. That this President is supporting those who are committing genocide is appalling, but when viewed from higher up, it seems quite in line with this President’s actions. Start a fire, then back away and let someone else deal with it, as Obama adds fuel.

 

If the US is to be disengage then disengage. This half in half out simply encourages our would be enemies. Our economy cannot really recover until the misty darkness of Obama care is fully revealed, so the damage to the economy can be seen, and entrepreneurs can fully assess the law so they can work within it. We must use the flawed primary process to get smart, patriotic, entrepreneurs to run for president, not the old boy network’s pick this time too. We can let each other know when we come across a good news outlet so the good ones can prosper. We need to write our news people and ask them, in a unified voice, to open up the information spigot and shower us with the truth. We are adult enough to see the plight of the Coptic Christians, we are mature enough to debate the damage a deliverable Iranian EMP would present, and we have the wherewithal to stand the decisions, were they made. But this President is not willing to make them. He seeks to avoid any blame for anything, while using his bull in a china shop policies, to clumsily grab credit for something… anything.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

 

 

 

 

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Opinion, Violence and Civilization

Posted on August 29, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, the moment opinion is met with death threats, there is no longer civilization in the land. What had been civilization has now become anarchy, and until the threat of death for opinion is removed, there will be no civilization… with all that portends. It should be clear to everyone, it is not the right role of government to empower those that meet opinion with death threats, because government’s role is to foster peaceful civilization, so the people can go about their days without being molested or having their property stolen. Those that meet opinion with violence are to be vilified, and if possible, incarcerated. They are the very real manifestation of a mortal threat to civilization and should be treated as such.

 

The role of right government is to create a framework so that commerce and social living can go on with minimal impediment. This is one of the reasons Machiavelli said that a stable tyranny is preferable, to the people, than an unstable democracy. A stable tyranny is just that… stable, while an unstable democracy is, well… unstable. People cannot walk down the street alone in an unstable society, women and children are always in danger from the criminal element, and property is up for grabs where instability reigns. While on the other hand, people prosper in a stable society, a woman can walk down the street or ride a bus alone in safety, and children can play without fear of predators. Clearly, from this we can see, the right role of government is to foster a stable society and shun that which makes it unstable.

 

Civilization itself is dependent on the free exchange of information. Much of that information is in the form of opinion. If certain opinions are met with threats of death, especially if they are carried out, they shut down the free flow of information. By definition and by design. Civilizations that have no debate quickly stagnate and die unless there is a source of outside income. Stopping the flow of information necessarily staunches debate. The reason staunching of debate is so bad for a society, is because various societies are intermingled, and in competition. They are usually designated by national boundaries, but sometimes cross those boundaries, the Kurds for example. Those countries that stifle debate, fall behind those that do not, in every metric of good. For example, poor performing economies, they quickly become tyrannies, and their state of general education declines, among many other negatives.

 

Those who are insecure in their beliefs are always those who seek to shut down the opinions of others. They unconsciously know the weakness of their arguments and instead of backing them up with logic, which is their opinion’s weakness, they back it up with violence. This means that no one in the debate, believes that the position who threatens violence is correct… even those that argue for it! If they themselves know there is no argument that can be made for their position, but have too much hubris to cede it, violence is their only resort. By doing this they discredit not only themselves but their very movement! That is not to say, once violence is started one shouldn’t protect themselves, it is natural rights, to meet violence with violence, but is far different from threatening death for opinion, that is meeting words with violent action. Words can be ignored but violent action cannot be.

 

Where civilization is in decline and instability rears it’s head… poverty and want can never be far behind. Those that threaten the stability of society and undermine it’s growth, are in fact leading directly to our civilization’s destruction, and therefore are a direct threat to us, our legacy and our children. The best thing to do, is to immediately point at the offender, whenever violence is offered for opinion. Let’s face it, offering violence for opinion, is evil, and if we all point at evil, evil cannot hide behind platitudes and spurious ad homonym attacks. The cumulative light of all of us, shining our own little beam on evil, must wither and dessicate it. Like a vampire in the old movies… evil can only live in darkness.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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Empiricism, and the Existence of God

Posted on August 26, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, Hume’s argument against the existence of God is weak, in that if a single miracle can be proved to have happened, by his argument’s parameters, God must exist. Now, it is possible that God wants us to be able to prove his existence logically and empirically, but I think not. Despite our hubris, we are profoundly ignorant, and believe ourselves enlightened, patting our own backs in egotistic self deceit. Pride and conceit are the attributes of spoiled children. Once our civilization reaches it’s initial maturity, our self importance will max out, (as it does in a teenager)… further maturity will result in less conceit and pride with true awe and deep humility. Eventually, once humanity has actually become enlightened in the deepest sense, will we understand the role of God… or the myth of God, if such exists. That is both the way people mature and the way civilizations mature. That our civilization is so egotistic it believes it can empirically disprove God, or Prove him, is sure confirmation that we are moving into early adolescence.

 

Hume claimed if there were free will then it would be folly to punish a criminal. Because under free will he would be untrainable, due to his free will, ie. No external control of his actions. Thus, we must not have free will. It is our ability to control ourselves that proves there is no free will. Therefore, punishing criminals proves there is no free will… But, to my way of thinking, if we are but machines, subject to programming and outside control, then why, even in ancient Athens under the laws of Draco… have there always been criminals?

 

His epistemology was based on the insight that logic does not necessarily comport with reality. This was truly an insight. He made the point that just because he let go of a pencil, that pencil could logically go up, instead of down. It is our experience, or custom, that makes us believe it will fall. This was an important discovery in the evolution of philosophy, because it showed that metaphysical logic can go very wide of the mark, unless it is based on empirical proof… in other words, the weakness of logic disconnected from observation. But, just as he claimed that logic allows for a pencil to fly, instead of fall…

 

He also claimed, by their very definition, miracles are things that are not custom. We never see those actions in our daily lives. In fact, he argued, in the more civilized places we never see miracles at all. Since miracles have only been seen in barbarian places, then they are most probably figments of imagination, superstitions and the like. Since the existence of God is based on miracles, like creation, Jesus’ resurrection, turning water into wine and so forth, and they are mere superstition… there is no God. This is simply arguing that observed reality should be discarded for theory.

 

It is like the Cartesian arguing against Newton’s Laws of Motion, because his laws required action at a distance, and thus were absurd. To the Cartesian, skepticist theory trumped observable reality, as it is for those who seek to make the purely mechanistic argument for the existence of the universe. They must discount evidence that disproves their theory, as superstition or imagination, by dwelling on the non repeatable part of the miraculous instead of the empirically proven examples. Isn’t that the true nature of a miracle though? Something that is not custom, did happen and is not repeatable? In discrediting miracles as superstition, they seize the empirical high ground, with spurious logic. In the end they could be right, but as history shows us, the theories of today are always supplanted by the theories of tomorrow. With a commensurate advancement of our understanding of our Universe and our role in it.

 

We, as humanity, have a long way to go before we can begin to understand such subtle questions, as the existence and nature of God, or even if there is one. It is the hight of presumption to argue there is no God, because, since we have miracles testified to and in some cases, as in miraculous cancer remission, empirically proven yet not repeatable, there is at least the strong implication of God… and that there exists far more to reality than we, in our profound ignorance, can possibly understand, let alone quantify. As our understanding grows, so do our questions, therefore we can know only this… that we know little. It is conceited and prideful of us to believe otherwise.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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Socialist’s Hypocrisy

Posted on August 22, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, socialists never seek to live under socialism, they want the rest of us to. To a man, or woman, socialists always want others to live in their social laboratories, like lab rats, in their notions of the perfect society. From Rousseau’s social contract [of indenture], to Joseph Schumpeter with his authoritarian socialism, none of them ever wanted to live under a socialist regime themselves, but explained in treatise after tome that we should live under socialism. Knowing the old adage, one should never eat food the cook himself won’t eat, this certain knowledge about socialists is more damming than any economic theory trouncing ever could.

 

Marx went on and on about the Bourgeois mode of production and the tyranny of the workers, but in his personal letters, what he himself really wanted, was to live as the elite did in his day. His wife complained about having to nurse her own child, since they could not afford a wet nurse, and how unfair that was. I maintain that Karl Marx was too lazy to work for a living and sought the patronage of Engels so he wouldn’t have to. Clearly, Marx would have recoiled at living in a society where he had to work every day in a mindless job, else face certain punishment by the authoritarian state. Not unless Marx was the authoritarian.

 

That, my friends is the rub, all socialists want to have a socialist state, but they all want to be the authoritarian… not the plebeian. Take Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. They planted bombs that maimed people in the 1960’s in the US. (Now they are college professors teaching your children). When asked by an undercover FBI informant, “What will we do when we take over?” Bill Ayers replied, they would install a communist state of course. When prodded that many wouldn’t just go along, Bill Ayers responded, he would have to kill about 25,000,000 Americans. This was said in a cold blooded matter of fact tone! Imagine his indignation, at having to submit to execution by someone else, for his political beliefs! What epic hypocrisy!

 

Joseph Schumpeter, who famously said, “Can capitalism survive? I think not…” devoted most of his book, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, to advancing the notion that socialism is not only possible, it would be quite easy to implement, and would achieve at least the level of production of a similar capitalist nation. The USSR was active then, and never stopped immigration, only emigration, and so… Schumpeter was able to move to his socialist paradise any time he wanted. Moreover, as a noted economist, Schumpeter would have been awarded a hansom professorship in a prestigious Russian university in Moscow… But he didn’t.

 

I could go on all day with examples of the blatant hypocrisy of socialists but no use belaboring the point. This latest crop of socialists we have in government, are righteously outraged even to pay lip service to Our Constitution, let alone knuckle under to their own laws… that is for us to do. They poison the economy with crony capitalism and strangle it with bureaucratic regulation, then spuriously claim, capitalism has never worked! They expect the rest of us to forget the last 500 years of human history in general and the last 100 in particular. Socialists in the US government show, by their actions (and rhetoric when in certain circles)… they seek a socialist society, but I ask you, if they truly believe in it, or are just as egoistically self serving Machiavellians, as the examples I have mentioned… why did they all write themselves a loophole to get out of Obama care?

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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Efficient Means and Direct Means

Posted on August 19, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, from the biggest egoist to the most selfless of us, we all use a process I call, Efficient Means, to get our needs and wants met. Simply put, efficient means is the idea that we all take the most efficient path possible, to get our wants and needs met. Like water finds the easiest path downhill, or electricity flows through the path of least resistance, human behavior follows the same paradigm. The opposite of efficient means is direct means. The difference between direct means and efficient means is, to follow the law, mores and ethics of society is efficient means, and to violate the laws, mores and ethics is direct means. Most people understand this logic intrinsically but not overtly. It is important to understand this basic precept of human nature overtly so that we understand what makes our fellow men and women, as well as ourselves… do what we do.

 

The path we take from a desire to it’s being met is never a straight line. We place impediments in our own paths, as does society, culture, government and religion. That we allow for these impediments, is a sign that we are not simply egoists and criminals, it shows we are civilized human beings. The person who follows the rat maze of impediments we are faced with, can be said to be a rational maximizer, while the person who jumps the fence can be called an egoist. Some impediments are good, in that they standardize society and provide a framework in which to get our wants and needs met, while others are actually ways for the elite to get their needs met more directly… and in doing so, preventing us from meeting ours.

 

Governmental impediments, law and regulation, can be good or profoundly pernicious. They are good when they accomplish those positive outcomes outlined below, but when government regulation is used as a means to dole out distributive justice by political favor, they are harmful. This type of crony capitalism allows some to jump the fence, getting their wants met by the most direct means possible, regardless of the negative effects on society, the economy and good government. Unfortunately, almost all of us would use direct means, if we knew with certainty we would never get caught, and therefore, never be punished. This is reason enough for providing a framework, as does culture, society, government and religion. Moreover, that these institutional impediments to efficient means be protected, else no one’s needs, including our own… may be met in the future.

 

Religion places many impediments to meeting our wants and needs. Upon close examination however, those impediments are not intended to stop us, but to enhance our realization of those goals. Were those impediments not in place society would quickly breakdown. Right religion teaches us to be honest with people, regardless of their affiliation, to hold ourselves to a higher standard than we do others, it teaches us to practice fidelity to our spouses and it instills in us the concept, this may not be the ultimate expression of our existence, in fact, this existence may be merely a precursor for a much higher state of being. Giving Pascal’s wager gravitas.

 

Cultural mores are another source of positive impediments to efficient means. They also provide a framework for getting our needs met, similar to a ladder that helps us reach places we couldn’t otherwise, cultural mores help us meet our needs efficiently and in ways that allow others to meet theirs as well. This greases the mechanism of human interactions, protecting us and our families from the violence of revolution and societal strife, that a large portion of society not getting it’s needs met would certainly produce. Societal impediments amount to the same thing, they standardize our means of reaching our wants and needs, so that we all can efficiently meet them.

 

In the end we are civilized animals that live best when we self regulate. The society who’s people self regulate, for whatever reason, be it religious ethics, societal mores or cultural norms, that society will enjoy wealth, peace and political equanimity. As children grow they are matured, as were we. This maturity is getting slower and slower while those restrictions like religious, cultural and societal mores are stripped away, by an elite drunk on the notion of materialism and mechanism. Given our natural proclivity for direct means, when these impediments are taken away, coupled with the slower maturation rate of our children, the result must be… no one’s needs will be met, and our society will suffer, poverty, war and political upheaval.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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Moderate Extremists

Posted on August 15, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, what is called moderate today is actually extreme, and what is called extreme is actually moderate, that most people don’t intrinsically understand this is cause for concern. That progressives claim their stances on every issue no matter how out of the mainstream, moderate and the libertarian argument as extreme, is their modus operandi and has been since their inception. It is the monopoly on the flow of information that progressives have that makes their perversion of the terms moderate and extreme so dangerous, especially since so few in our society recognize it. The results for our republic is that it will inevitably rot into a despotism. To be sure, it is our duty and responsibility, to protect the republic and point our united fingers at threats to it’s very existence, in this case overt, to enlighten our fellow citizens to the threat.

 

Language is the transmitter of information. Language has it’s flaws however. Kung Sung Lung wrote his famous treatise on, a white horse is not really a horse, to prove the weakness of language as a transmitter of truth. This has been known for millennia among the learned of society but the people have remained ignorant of it. We rely on language every day and in every possible way. Therefore the truth that language has fundamental flaws is lost on most of us. This ignorance is used against us by the elite.

 

Those who control the language therefore control the transmission of all information. Since language has inherent flaws it can be manipulated to change meanings, and the main reason for transmitting information is to convey meaning, this power can be exploited to control everything. The elite don’t have to change the wording of our Constitution, they simply change the meaning of the words. In the case of moderate verses extreme, the elite don’t change the meaning of the words, but the context of them.

 

Take the debate between conservatives/libertarians and progressives regarding “Death Panels.” Sara Palin was excoriated in the unbiased press for her characterization, of what are now widely recognized as… death panels. She was called extreme for her opinion. There was no corner of the unbiased media that didn’t pillory her for it. Yet today, only a few years later, everyone knows that those panels will decide who lives and who dies… and progressives even admit it. But Sara Palin was labeled an extremist for her stance, while those that disemboweled her for it, were, and still are, called moderate. History clearly shows that she was the moderate and her detractors were the extremists… and the theater goes on.

 

Now President Obama claims republicans are out of touch and extreme in their positions. His rhetoric is as vicious as it is prevarication. One example is that Obama maintains he has the power to arbitrarily enforce the laws as he sees fit. While some in the republican party, (the non progressives), disagree. They claim Obama must follow the Constitution, enforcing every law Congress passes, to the best of his ability. The position that the President has the arbitrary power to enforce law as he sees fit, is called, but more importantly considered, moderate, while the Constitutional argument is called extreme.

 

We are not quibbling about the meaning of a few words here, we are discussing the future of liberty in our country, and the World. If we allow the language to be controlled by a single faction in our society, we already have tyranny, in fact if not in name. Absurdity, like the switching of moderate and extreme, needs to be pointed out, else those who are lazy thinkers will accept the false label and act accordingly. Once that happens, we have no one to blame but ourselves, we are condemned by our silence.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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The Solution to Obama Care

Posted on August 12, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, the solution to our health care dilemma, within the framework we are given, is to create a new standard for providers and insurers while standardizing policy choices. This would be coupled with elimination of as much regulation of the industry as possible. The goal is to create system where the feedback of the market is restored, the granularity of information is smoothed out and most of all, the quality of health care will continue to make leaps and bounds. If the republicans were to offer such a system to replace the pending train wreck that is Obama care they would find the people behind them. Since we will all need health care at some time in our lives this is a critical question for all of us.

 

The feedback mechanism of the health care industry is broken. That is obvious. The cost of services is not a factor in a patient’s decision where to go for treatment, or what course of treatment to follow and as a result, the cost benefit of various plans. Couple this elimination of the normal cost benefit feedback of the market system and costs must rise at a rate that exceeds the rate of inflation. This is as evident as gravity when we drop a hammer on our toe.

 

The system where by people find a doctor, with very little knowledge of how good that doctor is compared to others he is competing against for patients, and what he charges compared to his competition. This information is important if a patient is to rationally decide on a doctor or other provider. Today we decide by anecdote not empirical information. Clearly anecdote is a far less reliable means for answering any question than cold hard facts.

 

To replace the feedback mechanism and asynchronous information a simple set of standards will do. Have each provider of health care services offere a cost performance sheet, of their charges for various treatments along with their results, charted against the industry average and the local average, against the results for that provider. There would be several standard health care options for every insurer but they could at their own discretion offer plans with greater or lesser levels of service. This cost performance sheet would be available in the offices and on their web page. Another measure would be, all insurance companies would have to agree on a standard form for treatment providers, that all insurers would use and accept. Lastly, the transmission of market feedback would be, insurers would give patients a small percentage of the savings, if patient’s choose a lower cost treatment and/or provider.

 

If patient’s were rewarded, in cash, say… 10% of the savings between options, we would choose the lower cost option more often, lowering the ultimate costs to insurers. The synchronous knowledge provided by the cost performance sheets, would allow patients to logically decide options such as treatment and provider, as well as to choose to get the bonus cash, if we choose a lower cost option. The feedback mechanism would be restored driving down costs and pushing up quality. Research and development would be channeled more efficiently and might yield results faster due to the efficiency market forces bring to an industry.

 

The giant catastrophe that is Obama care must be done away with, else we will kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Government interference has always yielded disaster. Never has any government brought rationality to anything it has ever taken over. Political favor becomes the top motivating factor in every decision, pushing logic and reason further and farther back in priority, until all decisions have no connection with reality at all, and are insane as a result. History is as adamant on this subject, as it is on the opposite being true, regarding the market system. Pragmatically, we have to take the logical path, especially when the consequences are so dire for us and our children if we choose poorly.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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