Free Will

Posted on September 17, 2012 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, the gift of free will, is both a blessing and a curse for us. It is self evident… we are given free will, and that free will comes from God. Our free will is the font of our virtuous desire for liberty and our iniquitous wish to control others. It is through free will that we created the World we live in, and our free will is the source of all that is good and bad. This is an important concept to understand if we want to create a better World for our children to live in. If we get it wrong however, the World we create, will be devoid of free will and may take centuries or millenia to recapture.

Many argue that God should make everything good. That it is his duty to fix all the problems in the World, like poverty, disease, famine and tyranny. But they don’t go all the way with their logic. If God were to fix even one of these things it would make God a tyrant. Look at out original state. God made Mankind free of law, compulsion and ethos. We have imposed them on ourselves. As Carneades said, “mankind imposed a set of laws and moors on itself out of necessity. Because people, being like animals, each seeking his or her own good, make true justice impossible. For a man to be truly just he must do damage to his own self interest…”

God also gave us, avarice, jealousy and ego. These are what makes us so willing to impose our wants and desires on others. These are the reasons all evil is in the World. All sin comes from these emotions. Stealing from avarice, lying from jealousy and from ego comes cruelty. To counter these negative inclinations, God also gave us, compassion, a sense of justice and love. These emotions create all that is good in the World… but can be twisted to serve evil.

To remove poverty God would also have to remove free will. Free will is the source of poverty, in not only the modern World, but the ancient one as well. For God to remove disease, would also require the destruction of free will, since most all disease is due to our own actions. IE. uncleanliness, engaging in dangerous activities, thoughtless commingling and venturing out when we are sick. To remove tyranny from the planet, would certainly eliminate free will, for it is free will that brings a tyrant to power. We seek leisure, safety and control over others lives and property, it is these desires that are why tyranny exists in the World.

Yet God allows evil of our own making to exist in the World. Why? Because to eliminate them would eliminate free will. Therefore, it is clearly true that God considers free will, more important than out comfort and safety. God must hold free will, as one of the highest goods… if not the highest good. Since free will is a profound source of wickedness in the World and God allows it.

It is free will that provides the driving force in our lives… to live in liberty. We all, no matter our culture, ethos, race or upbringing, want to live in freedom. Our culture may impel us to disallow others to be free, but we all want freedom in our own lives… it is others we argue, that should be subjugated. This duality of concept, that creates a friction in our societies, renders no man truly free.

Any system of government, religion or ethos, that allows men and women free will, is human hearted and in line with God’s will. As I have shown, if God believes that free will is the highest good then any system that uses pain of death to compel people to do, believe or think in a certain way, is antithetical to God’s will. Such a system will not be blessed no matter how powerful or wealthy. Power and wealth being merely human metrics of good. They fall far short of the role God has for us and our individual salvation. However, even by these secular measures of good, a system that allows free will, is blessed.

If we look at the most prosperous society in the history on Mankind, we see that it is Western culture. Western culture, buttressed by the Christian doctrine, that has expressly given homage to free will. Slavery as a system, was condemned and finally outlawed in the West, due to our father’s and mother’s moral outrage, at the taking of another’s free will by force. No other society in the history of Mankind has done this. It was Western society that eliminated the dread diseases from our midst. Western love of free will that produced the concept of a constitution, as a contract between the rulers and the ruled, limiting the power of the Elite, for the first time ever. The Free market and competition, which are a reflection of free will, have created incredible wealth, a prosperity that is so pervasive, it was unimaginable only a few centuries ago. All the good that has flowed from this recognition, of the role of free will in the lives of people, are blessings from God on the World. Yet, even the Western civilizations have fallen short of our own ideals, due to our egos, avarice and jealousy. No one is immune to the congenital nature of Man.

Today, the paradigm of human hearted religion, that has served us so well for so long, is being overturned by people that despise God, and the free will of others. We are increasingly being subjected to ever more intrusive regulation imposed by unelected bureaucrats. The Constitution that protected our liberty, so well for so long, is being rewritten to control us, instead of the Elite, as it was intended. The Constitution is called a “Living Breathing Document” which really says the Constitution means whatever the hell the Elite claim it does. Moral equivalency is all the rage in our academic circles. We are told it is “compassionate” to render our fellow human beings dependent on the government for food, clothing and housing. We are becoming subjects of an all powerful State. In short, our gift from God… free will, is being exchanged for empty trinkets and glittering lies. This is a bargain with the devil… because, since God gave us free will, it is the role of Lucifer to take it away.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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911 Attacks on US Embassies

Posted on September 13, 2012 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me the attacks on the US embassies are the direct result of Obama’s policies. The Arab Spring was championed by Obama and his fawning press, despite the fact that history shows there would be a bad result, it would be a French revolution instead of an American one. In Egypt Obama forced Hosni Mubarak out of office. Obama sent bombers to decimate Qaddafi’s army during the Libyan rebellion. He has sent billions upon billions of dollars to Egypt and Libya to support their newly elected islamofascists regimes. Remember, Hitler came to power, in a free and fair election too. Obama lowered the status of America and all Westerners by bowing deeply to a Muslim king. The list is endless, how Obama and his supporters in the unbiased press, have diminished the American image and all the West, in the eyes of the Islamofascists. The attacks on the eleventh anniversary of 911, is of no surprise, nor the initial response of the Obama administration… apologizing to the Islamofascists, for having offended, the perpetually offended.

The unbiased media are backpedaling and rewriting history to support Obama. The Obama administration initially apologized to the Islamofascists. The American people were deeply offended by this. As a result the unbiased media now claim it never happened. They are so in the tank for this guy, they will stoop to the lowest level, deny reality, cover for him, outright lying, and if that doesn’t work… point the finger at someone else, even to the ludicrously absurd point of blaming Romney! What absolute malfeasance from the unbiased media. But, we have become used to their malpractice, remember the letters CBS fabricated out of whole cloth, regarding Bush’s military records, and then reported as true, days before the election?

Now Obama is sending drones to fly around the Libyan desert to find someone to take vengeance on!? The drones are supposedly looking for terrorist training camps that the Obama administration claims to know are there. In what world does that make any sense? If there are terrorist training camps there… why didn’t Obama act sooner? Why doesn’t he attend his Intel briefings? Why is he so intent on diminishing us to dhimmi and elevating Islamofascists to the righteously offended?

The Islamofascists, the unbiased media and the Obama administration, are in lockstep once again. They are blaming some idiotic movie ridiculing mohamed. Really? How stupid do they think we are? Apparently, pretty stupid! There are hundreds of movies ridiculing mohamed. He is the easiest person in history to ridicule. He raped women, he made lying a religious duty, he was a pedophile and he slaughtered anyone who didn’t bow down to him. Such a man deserves no praise but the derision of all people the World over. To claim they were so offended, by one of the hundreds of movies that disrespect mohamed, they had a right to storm the American embassies, is sophistry of the highest order.

The really offensive thing about this whole affair is that it was perpetrated on the anniversary of 911. To claim it wasn’t intended to offend Americans, Christians, and all Westerners, is an insult to our intelligence. Dates are all important to the Islamofascists. They know that the Islamic invasion of Europe was stopped at the gates of Vienna on September 11, 1683 . Their “peaceful” advance into Europe, was marked by the “loving” enslaving of everyone they came across, “peaceable” raping of women, and the “caring” slaughter of Europeans. That is why September 11, 2001, was the Islamic return to the field of battle against the West… and continues in 2012.

It is childish to send drones into the desert, looking for some hapless Muslim sheep herder to kill in retribution, and then claim, “We showed them.” That is as barbaric as the storming of our embassies. The answer is, shut off all aid to Egypt and Libya. Cancel the join military exercise with the Egyptian military. The exercise where the American army was going to teach the Egyptian military how to conduct offensive operations. Who, I wonder, are the Egyptians planning on invading? Sudan, Libya, Chad… Or perhaps the nation they have invaded several times in the past… Israel? The only free capitalist nation in the Middle East. We must stop the flow of every penny in aid, military, economic and other. Moreover the Obama administration must cancel the plan to buy attack submarines for Egypt. They cannot even feed their own citizens! What does Egypt need with a powerful military? The economies of Egypt and Libya are in a shambles… Libya is now a failed State. Instead of preparing for war, if the Islamofascists that rule Egypt today seek prosperity for their people, perhaps they should,… oh, I don’t know, maybe, cut regulation, clean up their civil service, attend to the rampant corruption in their government and society, cut taxes, or maybe invest in infrastructure? If we see real advance on these issues then we can restart foreign aid…

We see the intentions of the Muslim Brotherhood in stark clarity. Obama has been appointing Muslim Brotherhood members into high offices in his administration. Putting the Muslim Brotherhood ‘s propaganda needs over the security of US citizens. Obama has changed FBI training manuals so they wouldn’t offend the Brotherhood. He has changed the goal of NASA, from going to the stars, to making Muslims feel better about their contribution to the Space Program. This makes Obama’s position clear as well, anything is superior to Western culture, religion and history… making Obama either stupid or evil. There is no other possibility.

We are in dire threat of being the generation that allowed liberty to slip from our hands. If that happens the human race will be plunged into another thousand years of dark ages. Maybe one our posterity will never emerge from. If that happens, we will have to stand before almighty God, and admit that our stupidity and arrogance, allowed Mankind to fall into darkness. Many actively seek it. Let us actively try to keep that from happening.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Our Culture’s Dehumanization, and Elevation to Godhood, of Mankind

Posted on September 9, 2012 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, our culture reduces us to less than human, while at the same time inflating us to the status of gods. The seemingly irreconcilable duality of this concept is actually quite intuitive if you think about it. Our scientists have, since the age of enlightenment, told us science can accomplish anything… even create life. Meanwhile academia redefines the human being into a mere automaton. Culture has taken these two concepts, of the nature and ability of Man, and amalgamated them into a pernicious whole. They lower Men and women to no better than a salamander, in fact the environmentalists claim the salamander is higher than Man, because it doesn’t pollute, while making Mankind out to be virtual gods, creates a people who are callus to the plight of our fellow man and inflates our egos. If an indifferent and egoistic people is the best ethos our modern society can come up with, we can reliably say that our culture, academia and science… do us great disservice.

The dehumanization of Man is rampant today. Our culture tells us, in many subtle and not so subtle ways, that Man is no better than an animal. Environmentalists, as I pointed out previously, claim that animals are more virtuous than Man. Whenever their regulations destroy jobs and economic growth, due to an owl that, as it turns out, is being pushed out by it’s own cousins, not logging, is more important than us feeding our families, they lower our worth to less than that of a wild animal.

The National Academy of Health has recently come out with a paper that explicitly claims that “after birth abortion” is a viable way to kill babies that don’t meet their standards or have parents that are unfit. They argue that babies who have not been born, and babies that are less than a year old, do not have the “moral” standing of an adult! How can someone, as evil as the person who wrote that, use the term moral!?!? I cannot think of anything else that lowers us to less than human… more than that. To say that some people should be murdered, in a humane way, is the least humane thing anyone can say or believe… especially a doctor!

Academia makes itself out to be the equivalent of god. They delve into the sciences with gusto and behold the workings of God. Then they have the ultimate hubris to think they are capable of godly acts. Nothing could be further from the truth. The eggheads in our institutions of higher learning almost universally have great disdain for God. They preach atheism from their highly paid “teaching” positions and aver that Man is unlimited in our ability. They laugh scornfully at the righteous man and speak derisively about the role of divinity in the lives of men. The same people who diminish us to mere automatons and animals, consider themselves, God’s equal.

Perhaps the best example of the dehumanization of Man, coupled with the notion we are the godhead, is abortion. Nothing lowers human beings more than the slaughter of babies. To change their status, simply by changing their title, is a sophist rhetorical tool. Mensheviks, Untermensch, and Jews were dehumanized this way, to allow for their massacre, by the Nazis and communists in ages past. As if a moniker justifies crimes against humanity. We know the results of those evil philosophies. The mass slaughter of swaths of humanity. But, at the same time, abortion elevates us to the role of God. Deciding, for whatever selfish reason that touches our fancy, who should live and who should die, puts us in the place of God. It is self evidently true, abortion is the epitome of this idea… that we are both subhuman, and gods.

But only a fool believes that the ability to kill bestows godhood. Since Cain killed his brother Abel, the ability to murder our fellow man in cold blood, has not raised us, it has lowered us… not to subhuman but to a fallen people. A bacterium has the ability to kill, but germs are not gods, and only a half-wit would argue they are. To deny our humanity is the argument of egoist. A person that believes in personal self interest above all. For, if he or she can lower us to mere animals, we can be yoked and herded, like oxen… and put to his bidding.

The thoughtlessness and hubris of the Elite, that promulgate such nonsense will lead, inevitably as it has in the past, to inhumanities visited on Mankind. This is as certain as fall comes after summer and winter after fall. The reality is, we are human beings and each of us has intrinsic worth… regardless of our age. We are not gods, and we should keep that in mind, lest we become evil in the most vile sense of the word. Loosing our souls and actually becoming animals, with delusions of godhood. It is prudence to keep this in mind as we engage in the affairs of Man.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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“Representative” Party?

Posted on September 6, 2012 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me… a political party should at least pretend to represent the people of the country they govern. In what universe does it make sense for a political party to insult the dominant religion of the people, in favor of one that is diametrically opposed to the values and Constitution, of their founders? Does it make sense for a political party to expect to be reelected, when their economic policies have done such great damage, to the interests of the vast majority of economic actors? What people would think that it is acceptable to clearly lie about their record, their results and their intentions? You would think that we would react unkindly to this level of affront to our sensibilities. To allow such actions to go unquestioned by the unbiased media puts our Republic and our welfare in dire jeopardy.

The Democratic convention started out with a Muslim Jumah prayer. The prayer was on Friday and was sanctioned by the party. The party that seeks to allow sharia law within our boarders! Lest anyone be ignorant of the tenets of Sharia… let’s remind you. Sharia allows polygamy, marriage to female children of 9 years old, stoning of women accused of adultery… rape included, execution of anyone who converts away from Islam, dhimmi status of all non Muslims and a host of other rules that are in direct opposition to our laws and the tenets of the Constitution of the United States. While Muslim prayers began the Democratic Convention references to God was removed from their platform.

The most ardent ally of the United States in the Middle East, perhaps the World, is Israel. The Democrats have removed the plank in their party calling for the sanctity of Jerusalem and US support for Israel. To throw our staunchest ally under the bus, would seem to be heartless, and shows other allies that their friendship is not guaranteed under a Democratic regime. If our closest ally can be callously tossed away how can any ally trust us?

The Democrats party while the economy burns. News story after news story inform us that the United States has slipped in competitiveness, is facing runaway inflation, has now hit 100% plus debt to GDP, faces more high unemployment for years to come… and economic woes are the new normal. How is it, anyone can read this economic news, and not be moved at the disconnection between what the Democrats say about their efforts. and the results of those efforts? Moreover, isn’t it a slap in our collective faces, that the Democrats claim the private sector is doing fine… it is government that needs more money?

Just a casual look at the economic numbers is sobering. According to the Fed’s own fact sheet, the amount of M1 and M2 money in circulation, has grown at 17.8% in the last three months! Yet the Fed is actually talking about printing more money in their newest incarnation of Quantitative Easing! Apparently these people don’t think the laws of economics apply to them. But then again… why should they, no other laws seem to.

What becomes of a political party when they stop representing the people and resent them instead? The slaps in the face to the American people are coming faster and they are hitting us harder with every whack. I wonder, if we have become like a battered woman, too used to the humiliation and assaults to walk out and try something different. The batterer wants us to think the World outside is dangerous but we know the world inside is. At what point does the abuse of our religion, economy, blatant lies and dignity become so much that we turn from them?

The trouble is… are the Republicans that much better? Well at least some of them agree with the American people. Not the ones in charge now, but more and more, as the Elite Republicans like McCain are replaced by Tea Party types. You can reliably tell who is against us and the Republic, when they attack people who are for us, like Michele Bachmann, when they insult our intelligence with blatant lies, as they call the majority opinion extreme… and work to undermine our Constitution. The answer will be determined in November. Lets hope we choose wisely, else our Republic is in danger, as are our allies around the World. Or are we already too used to the insults to do anything about it?

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Should We Spread Democracy or Capitalism Around the World?

Posted on September 2, 2012 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, that the sophist call for the US to spread “democracy” around the World, shows how foolish and stupefied we have all become. Democracy is no more synonymous with freedom and prosperity than aristocracy, monarchy or even republicanism. They are forms of government, that usually, have a lack of freedom for the individual as their chief attribute. Democracy has an equally horrible track record in this regard as any dictator or oligarch. Aristotle said, “democracy is the tyranny of the majority over the minority” and his sentiments were echoed by the US founding fathers. That is why Ben Franklin, when asked what kind of government the founders had given us, replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” A more correct thing, for America and other freedom loving people around the World to spread, would be capitalism.

Democracy was one of Aristotle’s wrong forms of government. He listed the correct forms of government as, polity, aristocracy and monarchy… and the wrong forms as, democracy, oligarchy and tyranny. The thing the right forms have in common is that they rule for the betterment of all. The wrong forms in that they rule for the benefit of the rulers. Democracy is no different. The size of the oppressor group is superfluous.

If we seek a more peaceful and prosperous World, what we should be spreading, is free market capitalism! It is free market capitalism that has led to the fastest and most widespread prosperity the World has ever seen. The history of Man is one of poverty for the masses and prosperity for the few. Capitalism turns that on it’s head and distributes prosperity, and freedom, to everyone.

Free markets and capitalism requires, as a prerequisite, freedom of the individual. To attempt to have free markets without freedom for the individual is like trying to breathe water. It cannot be done. This is because, for a free market to work, we must be free to live our lives and engage in business. We must be free to win and free to fail. Often it is in failure that we learn to succeed. We must be allowed to take risks and to make our own decisions about our lives, habits and time. We must have room from regulation, to create new paradigms of business, meet new and expanding human needs and wants…and our lives must be our own. Else the free market simply collapses and becomes distributive justice by political favor, the historical norm.

Capitalist systems, and all other economic systems, are by their nature complex systems. Complex systems are systems of individual actors who are independent, diverse, interconnected, able to adapt, interdependent and respond to their local environments. Democracy, being the tyranny of the majority over the minority, undermines some of the basic attributes of a complex system. Tyranny, in all it’s forms, limits the ability of actors to, adapt, eliminates diversity and independence, while increasing interdependency to ridiculous heights. If the complex system of economics is allowed to function, with all it’s warts as well as it’s halos, the lot of Man is improved. If it is undermined, by a man or group seeking it’s own good, above the good of all, the lot of Mankind is lowered.

No system is perfect, but the horrors visited on Mankind, by economic and political systems, that use distributive justice by political favor as their model, have been universally evil. History is littered with the detritus of failed States, mutilated bodies and destroyed families, that used this model. Many had democracy as their cornerstone. But, they sought to distribute the goods of society by political favor, from those with no political power to those with political power… believing it to be more fair. The killing fields of Cambodia, Stalin’s purges, Mao’s famines, mass slaughter of dissidents in communist countries, mass graves, Nazism and other ideologies systematic extermination of people, like Jews, Gypsies, Armenians and others, are outcomes of this pernicious notion, that majority rule is the be all and end all of human existence.

As I have shown, to say that democracy is the highest good, is sophistry. This is self evident once a person takes a long hard look at the underlying logic. It is not to say that every form of government should not have a democratic component, because for a government to be legitimate, it must have the consent of the governed. But it is to say, that democracy in and of itself, is not the final answer, it is more often than not, a means to trick people into empowering an oppressor group, the size of that group being irrelevant to the fact they are despots. If we truly want to improve the lot of Man, and put an end to the inhumanities that have plagued mankind throughout the ages, we must seek to spread capitalism around the World. Capitalism, a system that has led to the unheard of standard of living we enjoy today. A lifestyle that is put at risk, when we fall prey to foolish and sophistic claims, that democracy is the font of all that is good. That is why I say, “We must spread free markets and freedom around the World… if we want peace and prosperity.” If you want poverty and atrocity, however, then democracy is as good a way to go as any.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Monetary Policy and Economic Growth

Posted on August 30, 2012 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that the US FED and the ECB, are not as much sowing the seeds of the next financial catastrophe, as they are planting, watering, and fertilizing them. Economists today have far too much confidence in the ability of monetary policy to save a faltering economy. We see this in the way the equities markets eschew real economic data, for perceived changes, or “easing,” of monetary policy. The market rises on hopes the US FED will print money and falls on a rumor the FED will stop printing money. This state of affairs not only endangers our economy in the US, but threatens economies around the world, with becoming addicted to smoke and mirrors and ignoring economic realities.

There is an economic theory that is relevant to this discussion… it is called the neutrality of money. I believe it was Milton Friedman who coined the term. This theory states that money is neutral to an economy, in that if the amount is increased, prices will rise in accordance to the increase, and long term economic output will remain unchanged. For example, if an economy is at full utilization of it’s resources, a state called equilibrium, and more money is added to the economy, after the initial economic disruption caused by the “helicopter drop of money,” the economy will return to equilibrium, and the only change will be inflation.

In the short term, the printed currency might cause people to spend the additional money, thus driving up demand and economic output. This “stimulus” if you will, is a short term phenomenon however. The short term “stimulus” of added money, is undermined if people expect higher inflation, or put another way, they anticipate what the FED is doing. People aren’t stupid, they will horde the extra money, in “anticipation” of the higher inflation that will inevitably result.

We see inflationary pressure in QE1 and QE2, in the dramatic rise in commodity prices, that resulted from these FED actions. Operation TWIST, the FED buying long term assets to drive down long term interest rates, didn’t have nearly the same asset price inflation as Quantitative easing did, (printing money). This may be because the rate of anticipation was higher, the global economy had dropped so low it was irrelevant and the risk aversion of people, (in this case small businesses), had dropped so low, the cheap money wasn’t taken advantage of, or perhaps due to people’s assumption of a negative economic future.

People in government, the media and economics, are reluctant to blame Obama, or the democrat’s policies, for the anemic economic recovery, even though the FED has done more to “stimulate” the economy in this recession than at any other time in history. Interest rates are at historic lows and the US Dollar has lost 40% of it’s value in the last decade. According to the Keynesian… this should result in an extremely fast economic rebound. That this hasn’t happened is, at least anecdotal evidence, that monetary policy has minimum ability to raise economic outcomes.

In fact, in 1920 the US economy was in a deep recession, perhaps even deeper than the “Great recession.” At that time Warren Harding committed the greatest of economic sins, he cut spending, cut regulation and cut taxes! While at the same time, the FED raised interest rates, (destroyed money), possibly to undermine Harding’s reforms. The result was staggering, the Roaring Twenties happened. Possibly the fastest rate of economic expansion the US has ever experienced. If we examine this period in US economic history, as well as the Reagan years of fast economic expansion, the effect of the FED to use contractionary monetary policy, to effect growth in the economy, pales in comparison to the ability of the executive to expand it.

The firestorm that Nial Ferguson has come under, for even hinting that Obama’s economic policies have anything to do with our miserable economic rebound, is clear evidence there is a price to pay for telling the truth. There are some people calling for the tenured professor to loose his tenure and his job. The reaction from the eggheads in academia, is more telling of their political position on the matter, than any real statement on economics. This might explain why so few economists are willing to point out that it may very well be, Obama’s vilifying of businessmen, his draconian regulation, his constant push to increase taxes, blatant partisanship, his out of control spending, his gutting of Medicare to fund Obama care or his overreaching Constitutional bounds, that has been such a drag on our recovery. The economic malaise we are experiencing, despite the historic exertions of the FED, are entirely due to factors outside the control of the FED.

The results of the FED’s actions will inevitably lead to runaway inflation… as economic theory says it will. The continuing printing of money by the FED, and now potentially the ECB, will end up damaging the ability of people, the world over to have real economic growth. Bernanke will go down in history as a villain, even though he was instrumental in saving the World from economic collapse, in 2008. The exchange rate of the World’s currencies will be forever reset, The World will go into a great recession and China’s economic miracle will be crushed by the resulting tsunami of worthless dollars… All so that Nobel laureate Obama can escape the blame for his actions. Pretty pathetic if you ask me.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Evil’s Intolerance of Good and Good’s Tolerance of Evil

Posted on August 26, 2012 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that evil is intolerant of good, and good tolerates evil, at it’s own peril. The intolerance of those that seek socialism is an example of evil’s intolerance, and the tolerance of good people to the lowering of the culture, is an example of tolerance that endangers good. Our culture is art war with itself in this regard. Forces vie to destroy the foundational attributes of our society and government while the good, who are constantly called intolerant by evil, keep quiet this in the name of diversity. Yet those that claim the mantle of diversity are the least tolerant of real diversity. Our society, culture and liberties are in peril due to this dichotomy in thinking.

The culture of the US and Europe is getting lowered daily. We are bombarded with negative messages. Some are obvious, like when television shows idolize indolence, promiscuity, drug use and criminal behavior, while others are less obvious, such as when movies make the villain the hero. These cultural messages all have the same thing in common… they lower the virtues of the people who consume them.

Abortion is a sacrament of evil. We are told that if we have a problem with the evil that is abortion we are intolerant. Spurious arguments are used constantly to shut us up. Some of the sophist arguments include, I would rather a baby be aborted than be abused. If this is true, then the person making this argument should commit suicide immediately, else they may someday be abused. In cases of rape and incest, as if these things are so rampant in our society, they justify millions of on demand abortions a year. It is the woman’s right to choose, yet these same people don’t believe we have the right to choose, how much soda we drink, what to do with our trash, how dirty out cars are allowed to be, how many windows should be in our homes, what kind of car we should drive, what we should eat or what we must and must not teach our children. The hypocrisy of this argument is blatant if you merely look for it. Abortion is really about the lowering of our consideration for human life.

Gay marriage has nothing to do with equal rights but has everything to do with further lowering the value people have for marriage. The ancient Greeks engaged in homosexual behavior as a matter of daily occurrence. Sparta encoded it in their very laws. Alcibiades met Socrates through homosexual intercourse… yet they didn’t have gay marriage. Are we to assume the ancient Greeks were homophobes? Marriage is, and has always been, about the procreation of children. Society has a vested interest in the continuation of the species. Marriage is the way society and government recognize this reality. Gay marriage is a way to convince us that marriage, and all that is good… come from government.

The work ethic has been so diminished, that many people especially younger people, are incapable of engaging in the market system. Rampant drug use and persistently high youth unemployment creates people who cannot hold a job. People who are addicted to opioid drugs cannot function without them, and when they are inebriated, they cannot operate anything safely. Those who go years and years without getting up in the morning and going to work, become unable to subjugate their emotions, they have no self control, to take orders from an employer. Our culture and regulation have created an entire generation that are increasingly unable to hold down a job. That is not to say that there are not youths who are hard workers and will do well, it is to say that the evil incentives in our society, are ruining the ability of more and more people to be productive and live successful lives.

As our culture is diminished the power of government must grow. Machiavelli said, a corrupt people cannot be free. He meant that in a corrupt society, business cannot go on. Your shop will be broken into constantly, your person is not safe, your children are not safe, your home is not safe and you cannot trust anyone you do business with. In such a society, tyranny is the order of the day, because everyone will turn to the oppressor who claims he will keep you safe. But, as Ben Franklin said, he who gives up liberty for safety will get neither.

We continue to tolerate evil in our midst at our and ours children’s peril. The negative consequences of our tolerance are there for anyone to see. We merely have to open our eyes to it. Evil finds good absolutely intolerable however. Look at the vitriolic ways they characterize good. Anyone who finds abortion objectionable is called a murderer of abortion doctors, those of us who are against gay marriage are called homophobes, those of us who seek a free market, are said to be uncaring for the plight of the poor, those of us who look to God for guidance, have the most vitriol heaped on us… and anyone who calls attention to this, is labeled a hatemonger. It is obvious, that evil is intolerant of good, but good tolerates evil not only at our own peril, but to continue to do so and not call evil what it is, threatens the very society we live in. Those that are the proponents of evil are fearless, we must be equally as fearless in our response, else we cede the World to malevolence, intolerance and poverty.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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The Road to Ruin

Posted on August 23, 2012 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, when anyone gets on US route 1 south, they will always eventually end up in Key West. No matter where you get on, headed south, the end of the road is always Key West. This is a fundamental fact. Unless a person traveling south on US Route 1, changes direction, they will always end up in the same place. This fact holds true no matter where a person gets on, who is driving, what car we take or how fast a person is going. The entire science of cartography is based on this simple to understand concept. There is not one among us who would argue differently, when it comes to a road… but many seem to be ignorant of this fact when it comes to politics and economics.

History is one means of determining where a road leads. We can look at the history of where a given economic or political road leads. If those who have traveled that road in the past, and present, end up at a certain destination, we can reliably say that we will end up in the same destination, if we travel that same road. Even if that road is taken a million times it will always lead to the same destination. A road always leads to the same place.

Road maps are another way to determine where a given road leads… without going to the end and finding what the destination actually is. Economists have regaled us with various road maps that show where various economic roads lead. Political scientists have written millions of pages mapping political paths and destinations. Some go to temperate locals where jobs are plentiful and freedom is rife. Other roads lead to the oppressive heat of famine and oppression. There are many maps available to consult as to what destination each path leads.

If we change the name of the road it will still lead to the same place. We could change the name of US Route 1 to Happiness Highway, but if we get on and travel south, we will still end up in Key West. Even if we changed the name of the island to Liberty Land, we will still land in the same place, only with a different name. The moniker we ascribe to a place does not change the nature of that place or even our perception of it… only what we call it.

If we seek to go to a destination it is counter productive to go in a direction that is opposite that place. If we want to go to Fort Kent Maine, no matter how many times we go south on route 1, we will not end up in Fort Kent. In the same manner, if we take the road to a command and control economy, we will end up with a command and control economy, with all the negative consequences of that choice. To believe that the road to Marxist economics will lead somehow to freedom and prosperity is delusion. Just as taking US Route 1 south will always lead away from Fort Kent and to Key West. If we seek a destination, that is the opposite of communism, then we must take that route. There is no other logical option.

The road to communism is the path of distributive justice by political favor. As we go further down that road, we inevitably get closer to a destination where all the goods of society, are distributed by the state, and therefore by political favor. Now, there are some people, who want to land in communist ville… but to say that taking the road to communism will lead to more freedom and a better economy, and not famine and tyranny, is sophistry at best. If we want to reach prosperity and liberty, we must take the road that history and maps say will lead there… The US Constitution for example.

The road to prosperity begins with less regulation, less taxation and most importantly less government spending. If someone claims that road will lead to poverty and want they are lying to you. Just as if they claimed that US Route 1 south leads to Fort Kent Maine. It is a preposterous statement that we will instantly recognize, if it were applied to US Route 1, but many people have no sense of direction in economics and politics, as well as geography. They can be convinced that the road to prosperity is more regulation, more government spending and less individual freedom. It is an unfortunate fact of life. Those people will get us lost every time they take the wheel. Too bad they seek, more often than not, to be our navigators. Perhaps we can get a competent driver before we get to a destination we fear most.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Faction in the Modern World

Posted on August 20, 2012 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that faction is a bigger threat to our Constitutional republic today than at any time in our history. That is a pretty big statement, considering that we have fought a Civil War, as atonement for the evil of slavery, and all the other times faction has threatened our liberties. The threat of faction has been known and understood since Madison wrote Federalist Paper #10. That faction is a bigger threat today, speaks more about the characteristic of faction in modern society, than the nature of faction as a whole. If I am correct, and faction poses a greater threat to our freedoms and the liberties of our children than at any other time in American history, we must all wake up and address this threat, else we will leave our children a far worse state of affairs, than our parents did us.

In Federalist paper #10 Madison wrote that faction is the biggest threat to a republic. Faction, being like fire and liberty being like oxygen, the way to control faction is not to starve it of oxygen, (liberty) but to pit faction against faction. I am of course paraphrasing his words but the meaning is correct. By pitting faction against faction his theory, and the theory of the US Constitution, is that if faction is always fighting turf wars, no one faction can grow sufficiently large to take over the apparatus of the State. Madison warned that if some faction gained total control of two of the branches of government then our liberty would be threatened. He was adamant about this.

One of the bulwarks against this happening is the free press enjoyed in the US. The free press being able to point out when any single faction in society is becoming too large. A free press was considered one of the controls on the predilection of the Elite to usurp power. This control has worked sometimes better, sometimes worse, but all in all it has been a moderately sufficient safeguard in the past. Today however, we have a media that calls itself unbiased, yet they have a demonstrable bias toward a single faction, showing absolute contempt for our intelligence. This faction was briefly in charge of all three branches of government and still has hegemony over two. The Executive and the Judicial. Control of the Legislative branch is tenuously limited, by the inclusion of a few that are not in that faction, but they are incessantly vilified by the unbiased press for it.

The two party system was another protection against the vicissitudes of faction. If there are only two parties, then all factions must squeeze into one or the other party, thus limiting their overall power. Various factions would have to commingle within each party in order to have some seat at the table. The two party system worked well throughout most of our history but recently has become an impediment due to the pernicious nature of the one faction. This faction has penetrated both parties. The democrat party is under total control of this faction and the Elite in the republican party are loyal to this faction as well. There is only a small minority, growing to be sure, but nevertheless a small faction within the republican party that resists the advance of these people.

Joesph Schumpeter said that free markets and liberty cannot long last. His dire prediction was based on the fact that, once a person becomes wealthy their first order of business is to close the door behind them, so that no one else can pass through the portal to wealth, they did. This doesn’t make the rich bad… it makes them human. The means to this end being ever increasing regulation. As Milton Friedman said, when a business man is confronted with a superior competitor he has two options, the first is to ramp up his business to effectively compete and the other is to turn to government and regulate the competitor away. It is the responsibility of the electorate to control the avarice of the wealthy by the popular vote.

Now we have one faction that seeks to regulate the people while resisting the most basic controls on their actions. They use populist rhetoric to convince us that they work in our best interests, but even a cursory knowledge of human nature shows, this is mere folly. No one works against their own interests. Those very few that have, are given the attribution… Saints and the Christ. To believe that people who seek to control us with arbitrary power, only seek the interests of society, eschewing their own is blindness. The progressive faction is nearing their complete victory over our Constitutional republic, destroying their mortal enemy, the free market and imposing arbitrary rule on us and our children.

All is not lost however. We still have suffrage and the unconventional media. This blog being an example. We can use that power given to us by the Founding Fathers and turn the tide, for at best a few more years, or we can stand aside and allow the demise of our republic, and with it, our liberty, opportunity and safety. It is up to us to be rational maximizers, to stand in the way of the progressive agenda, for the sake of those we love most, or, we can accept the part of useful idiot. I for one, have no interest in being a useful idiot and ceding our republic to a single faction, no matter how flowery their rhetoric… Do you?

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Extreme and It’s Meaning

Posted on August 16, 2012 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that the term extreme is tossed around constantly in our political conversation today. Since it is impossible to communicate, unless those who are party to the conversation understand what each word that is used means, I thought I would make an attempt to explain the usage and definition of the word. Witness two people trying to understand each other when each speaks a different language. There is no mutual understanding possible. Since politics has become such an important factor in the lives of people today, with every aspect of our lives put to the test of political favor, it is imperative we understand each other, especially in the arena of politics, else we run the risk of making a drastic mistake in our vote, due to a failure to communicate.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines “extreme” as, 1. Outermost or farthest; most remote. 2. Final; last. 3. Very great; intense. 4. To the utmost degree; radical. 5. Drastic; severe… when used as an adjective. So apparently extreme, is not in the middle, not common, not regularly found, not ordinary and not standard. We will take this definition of what extreme is and what it is not.

Since we all see the World, to some extent, from Francis Bacon’s cave… When politicians define this or that as extreme, what they are really saying is that the position, actions or intention described, is uncommon, rare or strange… to them. This seems obvious given our working understanding of the term extreme. But what is most utile to our understanding, is that when a politician defines a thing as extreme, he or she is actually referring to his or her own positions, actions and intentions… as compared to the subject. In other words, if a person calls another person, place or thing, extreme, they are basically saying that it, is extreme compared to their perception of what is ordinary, regularly found in society and common standards.

What has been called extreme? The Obama administration has called people who hold the American Constitution in high regard… extreme. In fact, his administration is so concerned, they have warned that these people might engage in domestic terrorism. To him adhering to the US Constitution is extreme. Therefore he finds the US Constitution, anomalous, strange, and not generally respected.

His administration has also called any cutting of the US budget to balance it… extreme. So he believes that any real attempt to actually balance a government budget, strange, drastic, severe and not a common position to take. Obama’s supporters opine that the Family resource Center is an extreme organization. Therefore they find the nuclear family an anachronism, not common and rare. He has claimed the Israeli government is extreme. So apparently he is of the opinion that for Israel to protect it’s citizens, is a rare event, one that is uncommon and not standard practice.

What and who Obama doesn’t give the definition of extreme to, is telling of his real intentions, policies and actions. Obama doesn’t call Hugo Chavez extreme. As we know Hugo is an avowed communist and seeks to move Venezuela to a Marxist government. Therefore Obama believes that to move a country from a democratic republic to a communist tyranny is common, not rare, standard and middle of the road. Obama has not called the Muslim brotherhood extreme. So he must think that their positions and actions, like sharia law, denying Christians suffrage and the right to hold political office, stoning women to death, Dhimmi status of non Muslims, that Israel doesn’t have the right to exist and all the other positions the Muslim Brotherhood hold, are common, not out of the mainstream, and ordinary, to him.

What it all boils down to, is that when a politician or organization uses the term extreme, it is more about the positions, actions and intentions of the speaker… than the subject. If a politician, for example, calls something that is common, ordinary, standard and what is generally thought… extreme, he or she is actually saying, their own positions, actions and intentions… are extreme. Just as if they refuse to call something extreme, that is actually uncommon, rare, and out of the ordinary… shows that they consider that thing common, ordinary and standard. For us to communicate intelligently, we must understand the language and meanings of the words chosen and used, especially a descriptor like the term… extreme.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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