AZ immigration law

Copyright © 2010 C. R. Edmunds
www.onestillfree.com


AZ signs the toughest immigration law ever and people – not from AZ mostly – protest. This is so typical of the way things work in the US these days. People think “democracy” means we all have to be the same and that The Many have the right to determine how an individual lives (nods to Mr. Spock).

Democracy just ain’t so. We have a constitution that sets rules that are just as much about protecting individuals from government (that means The Many) as anything. Not that anyone in government pays attention to the Constitution any more.

Anyway, this AZ immigration thing is a good example of how democracy has gone sour. The people who protest strong state laws for immigration or other issues (Mexican wolf, anyone?) generally have no idea of what the local conditions are that prompt local laws.

We may all be equal under the law, but life doesn’t work that way. In AZ the problems that legal citizens experience because of illegals are monumental and little like what any of those who protest can imagine.

Here’s a description from a friend of mine who lives in what has become the middle of an invasion zone:

“We are about 40 minutes away from the Kranz family [Kranz and his dog were murdered by illegals] as the crow flies but longer to drive. I know the family through horse deals. We have been hearing lately about how all the unattended vacation and local homes are being broken into, how the locals are putting bars on all the windows and doors and they have been telling us that the illegal problems have escalated hugely in just the last year. People beaten and tied up and robbed, etc...Folks are moving out if they can afford to. What used to be remote and beautiful and quiet is not so tranquil now. People are afraid to leave, and afraid to stay! We are looking to move, too, and we’re looking far away from here.

“Sure Kranz murder is in the news now, but no one really cares. We have had this type of activity here for years, and more you do not know about, and no one north seems to give a shit. The Minute Men were fantastic, but like other good things citizen-organized they were vilified and put down by the press. We had two years of feeling like someone cared and was out there to help us, and they did. Their leader was a good friend of mine from Tombstone and he caught hundreds of illegals just on my roads alone.

“Housewives and mothers are beaten and robbed at bus stops for their cars, kids are in great danger, we have lost half a dozen women and children to the drug trade out of Tombstone (meth) and I mean these people just disappear, period, never seen again. But because they are poor or disadvantaged they are forgotten. A good friend of mine who is a business owner in Sierra Vista had a daughter my age that was living in Sunsites, she was seen buying dog food at the feed store and completely disappeared right afterwards, never made it home, her car was found in Klondyke of all places, with her purse and money in it and no clue as to where she went. Heartbreaking.”

“A Marine taught me that we do not get to choose when and where we are attacked, but to survive we must be ready. I am always, ALWAYS armed with a .45. I live with my guns. I never go out to the shop the barn the greenhouse the garden, out to the fence line, to check my gates without my guns and a cell phone. There is no relaxing.

“Last year I was driving home from Bisbee at 12:00 noon towards the San Pedro and slowed down for a 90 degree curve and three guys dressed in solid black jumped out of the bushes and tried to stop me by standing in the road. They had black hair and very coppery colored skin. I just gunned it and aimed for the closest one and they jumped out of the way. I was told by a rancher friend that they were FEDERALES from Mexico. This was five miles from the border line. Was I mad, hell yes! This is NOT AMERICA, it is MEXICO now. Safety is an illusion perpetuated by the government. These criminals are running amok doing what they please.

“I am definitely moving as soon as we can. But many cannot. Like us they have spent years paying off their ranches and now they are stuck here. Illegals leave mountains of trash, burn our forests, scare people out of the woods all the time here, have caused horrible traffic accidents killing innocent people every year speeding north, and it still goes on. Yet the current president kissed Mexico's ass last time they met. It's ridiculous!”

So what I want to know is, those folks who protest AZ’s stronger immigration laws: Why is it more important to protect an illegal than a citizen? And also – can you really sleep peacefully at night?

Mexican wolf lawsuit notice

AMERICANS FOR PRESERVATION OF WESTERN ENVIRONMENT
PO BOX 566
RESERVE NM 87830
Ed Wehrheim, Chairman

Contact: Ed Wehrheim, Chairman FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Phone 575.533.6687
Email: apwe01@gmail.com

ALLIANCE THREATENS TO SUE US FWS AND OTHERS OVER MEXICAN WOLF
Claims violation of NEPA provisions for Endangered Species Act

RESERVE, N.M. Americans for Preservation of the Western Environment, the Gila Livestock Growers Association, the Board of County Commissioners of Catron County, New Mexico and other plaintiffs have jointly sent notification of an intent to file suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of the Interior, and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, for management actions and policies that violate the provisions of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Mexican Wolf Reintroduction Plan and the Final Rule issued under Section 10(j) of the Endangered Species.

The letter states that instead of following the procedures and process set forth in the Final Rule issued under Section 10(j), the Fish & Wildlife Service, the Department of Interior and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish have embarked on a procedure of developing ad hoc management practices and procedures for dealing with depredations and removals, all of which have been put in place without following appropriate procedures under the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Additionally, the letter states that the agencies’ demonstrate intent to continue to violate the express findings in the FEIS and Final Rule.

“The point of this letter is to give the agencies the opportunity to come into compliance,” said Ed Wehrheim, Chairman of Americans for Preservation of Western Environment, a citizen-based group claiming overwhelming support throughout New Mexico.

“In a time when we’re cutting back on teachers, health care and other vital programs, the Mexican wolf program, which is now costing over $400,000 per wolf, is insane.”



# # #

Rocky Mtn Elk Foundation Turns Up Heat on Pro-Wolf Groups

Pro-wolf groups were admittedly “surprised and disappointed” when the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation publicly challenged their mischaracterizations of the real impacts of wolves in the northern Rockies and are feeling even more heat today. Their recent call for a truce has been met with a scathing letter from RMEF President and CEO David Allen, who says Defenders of Wildlife, Western Wildlife Conservancy and others are party to what may become “one of the worst wildlife management disasters since the destruction of bison herds in the 19th Century.”

Allen said, “These animal rights groups seem to think that every individual wolf is worth filing another lawsuit to protect, but the decimation of local elk herds is unimportant. What is truly ironic is these folks claim protection of the Canadian gray wolf under the Endangered Species Act. However these wolves are not endangered. There are thousands of them throughout North America. The ESA is being manipulated far beyond its intended purpose.” One can find the text of both letters here:

Letter from Defenders of Wildlife to RMEF

Letter from RMEF to Defenders of Wildlife

Factual examples cited in Allen’s recent letter:

• The Northern Yellowstone elk herd trend count has dropped from some 19,000 elk in 1995 before the introduction of the Canadian Gray wolf to just over 6,000 elk in 2008. At the same time the wolf numbers in this same area are on a steady increase.


• Yellowstone’s Madison Firehole elk herd trend count has fallen from 700 to 108.


• The Gallatin Canyon elk herd trend count between Bozeman and Big Sky, Mont., has declined from 1,048 to 338.


• Wolf numbers in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have far exceeded the original goals of 30 breeding pairs and 300 total wolves. Population estimates now exceed 1,700 wolves. And yet and others want to push the total up to 2,000 to 5,000 wolves.
  
• Studies show that wolves kill up to 23 elk per wolf from November through April alone or up to 40,000 elk in just six months. A smaller but still significant number are killed from May through October; with total annual elk kills by wolves just for food potentially greater than 50,000 at the present level of wolf population. This accounts for only the elk needed for food, not surplus killing, which are elk killed by wolves and not eaten, which also occurs. The majority of all these kills are not elk that are sick or old.


• Elk calf survival rates where wolves (and bears) are present are extremely low in specific herds, resulting in a survival rate of 10 percent or less—too low to sustain the herd over the long-term. RMEF points out this is a major issue as elk numbers going into the future, where wolves are concentrated, will suffer even greater losses and replacement becomes out of balance.

“Pro-wolf groups like to cite statewide elk numbers because it glosses over the ongoing annihilation of local elk herds,” said Allen. “They like to say that elk and wolves evolved together and would coexist now if man would just leave them alone, which completely ignores the fact that this is no longer the Old West and millions of us live here now. Habitat is shrinking at a rapid pace and the wildlife that lives here must be carefully managed. Man must manage wildlife and we have done so very successfully for over a century. We’re long past the day when wolf populations can be left unchecked. Right now this is simply a wolf amnesty program and the results are becoming alarming.”

“Managing wildlife in the courts, as opposed to science and the proven expertise of state conservation agencies, is a recipe for continued disaster,” stated Allen “These groups do not want states to manage the wolves as they manage other wildlife including predators. Why? It is curious that Defenders of Wildlife and others now boast about the statewide elk management numbers, which are managed by the states; but they do not trust those same states to manage wolves. Again, one should ask why?”

In late February, Allen sent letters to legislators and newspapers across the West calling out Defenders of Wildlife, Western Wildlife Conservancy and others for misleading the public through disingenuous use of current data on wolves and elk. In late March, group representatives accused RMEF of polarizing sportsmen on the wolf issue, and, ironically, to ask for collaboration rather than conflict.

In his letter Allen challenged Defenders of Wildlife and the others to meet face to face. “ I invite you to come to my office and let’s personally resolve this issue for the sake of those responsible hunters and those responsible non-hunters. Enough of the legal maneuvering and posturing, let’s resolve this now,” Allen said in his letter.

“We will collaborate with those who believe in sound wildlife management, not promoting one species over others for what we believe are hidden agendas. There is no one proposing annihilation of the wolves, yet Defenders and others like to act as if such a threat exists. It helps their fundraising efforts but does little to solve the issue. Constantly moving the goal line and ignoring the future consequences are just two reasons we do not collaborate with such groups,” Allen added.

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is located at 5705 Grant Creek Rd, Missoula, MT 59808.

NM HJM 48 progress

New Mexico House Joint Memorial 048 has passed out of the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee and goes to the House floor. Your continued support of this memorial for fair compensation for our ranchers is vital.

More at www.amprowest.org

Global Warming or Global Hoax?

Professor Phil Jones, whose raw data is crucial to the theory of climate change, has admitted that for the past 15 years there has been no "statistically significant" global warming.

Jones told the BBC that the recent warming trend that began in 1975 is not at all different than two other planetary warming phases since 1850, that there has been no statistically significant warming since 1995, and that it is possible the Medieval Warm Period was indeed a global phenomenon thereby making the temperatures seen in the latter part of the 20th century by no means unprecedented. He also said that the cooling trend since 2002 is also not statistically significant.

Given his core position in what global warming alarmists are now forced to refer to as "climage change" (it's hard to argue for global warming when everyone is freezing), you have to wonder when the whole scam will just fall apart. Maybe it's time for those environmental litigation groups to get sued themselves, for using false science to push their agendas. That would be after we all get done shoveling ourselves out of the snow.

Facts vs Advocacy

Check out the article at Western Institute for Study of the Environment for some facts on a recent editorial in an AZ newspaper on the Mexican wolf, as opposed to the rabid advocacy of the pro-wolf folks.

2nd Annual Cowboy Dinner and Dance

2nd annual Cowboy Dinner/Dance Feb 20, Cliff NM http://catroncounty.blogspot.com/

Climate Change - deja vu

Gee whiz - society has such short memory. You'd think that nothing happened in the world except what's in living memory. Check out this article for a reality check on "global warming". We've seen it before, gang - and not that long ago.

Global Warming Deja Vu

Happy Holidays

Copyright © CR Edmunds
www.onestillfree.com

This time of year is sacred to many cultures. It has to do with the short days and the long dark nights that bring out the darkness in our souls – the primitive fears and feelings of aloneness and powerlessness that make us huddle around the small light of our hearths, nervously jumping at every noise from the shadows. It seems that we are such little spots in the infinite universe, tiny points of brightness that burn so feebly against those dark nights.

Times are hard now for most of us, here on the bottom half of the economic pile. It’s so easy to feel cheated, to feel that everything we’ve worked for and striven for is being sold out from under us, impoverishing us and disenfranchising us. We fear that our rights and our livelihoods are being stripped from us while the few in power – the few we’ve put there to act in our best interests – profit from our losses and wallow in our suffering.

The sacred holidays approach but many of us are not uplifted by them. We instead become withdrawn in stress and trepidation, resenting the symbols of celebrations around us, feeling left out. We worry that as bad as things are, worse is yet to come and nothing can be done about it. Is the end truly so near? Will we - can we - keep up the struggle? Should we bother?

But this is just the reaction to another long, dark night. We are, after all, humans – each of us more alike than not. We lash out at perceived dangers in our dark private terrors, when in truth safety is all around us. We forget that we are each the one who stands at our neighbor’s back. It has always been that way, from the days of saber-tooth tigers. It is no different today.

Truly, it is time for us to open our eyes and see that the shadows contain no danger, for they are cast by our family and friends – those who share the vigil of the long night with us. It is time for us to cease to cower in fear or lash out in anger. It is time for us to remember our faith in who we are, in what our place is in this life.

It is time to give thanks that we have come this far and to trust that we, together, can and will endure and prosper.

It is time to band together, to find cause to celebrate and to forget our fears for a few hours or days. To focus on hope and faith and a brighter future.

These are the facts: The solstice always passes, the days always start lengthening, and even though it is still cold and dark and hard for a long time afterwards, somehow we can push through it. Brighter days will come.

Like our ancestors before us, let us make merry and joyful noise and, in doing so, banish the darkness of the night.

Happy holidays.

Obama Lies About Pandemic?

Obama says 1000 have died from H1N1 flu but CDC data shows no such thing – the CDC hasn’t been testing for H1N1 deaths since last July, probably because the majority of specimens tested are not only not H1N1, but not even flu!

Massive PR campaign by Obama to what end? To justify the massive spending on vaccines (to support Big Pharma) or to set up one more control of the population through fear?

I’m betting both.

Evaluate for yourself: http://articles.mercola.com/swine-flu-article/20091027.htm If you've been told you have H1N1 after August 1, since there's been no actual testing for it, your doctor *cannot know* but is only assuming the diagnosis.

Listen to the audio at the Mercola website - they read actual quotes from CDC!

APWE CHALLENGES MEXICAN WOLF PETITION

AMERICANS FOR PRESERVATION OF WESTERN ENVIRONMENT, INC.
PO BOX 612
RESERVE NM 87830
Ed Wehrheim, Chair

Contact: Ed Wehrheim FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Phone 575.533.6687
Email: info@amprowest.org


APWE CHALLENGES MEXICAN WOLF PETITION
Group Asks Is Mexican Wolf Really Worth The Cost

RESERVE, N.M. On August 11, 2009, the Tucson-based environmental litigation group, Center For Biological Diversity (CBD), filed a petition with Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

“The petition calls for taking the Mexican wolf off of its current experimental, non-essential” status and putting it on fully endangered status,” said Ed Wehrheim, Chair of Americans for Preservation of Western Environment (APWE), a citizen-based New Mexico non-profit corporation. APWE was formed in 2008 in response to the outrage of New Mexico and Arizona residents and business owners over the callous disregard for the welfare and safety of human beings by the Mexican Wolf Program.

“CBD also wants a critical habitat designation for the wolves,” Wehrheim said. “This means expansion of the existing designated Mexican wolf area, closure of our trails and roads, denying human access, and hunting and grazing restrictions. In other words, our public lands will be closed to the public. ”

The 22 page petition (with additional 10 pages of citations) claims that the Mexican wolf’s historic range is not precisely known, and that wolves can live anywhere that hosts an adequate prey base of ungulates, yet also claims that these wolves occur in an unusual and unique ecological setting.

“The only unusual and unique setting for the Mexican wolves is that this is a low human population area, so CBD figures that the people don’t matter,” Wehrheim said. “Americans for Preservation of Western Environment intends to set CBD straight on that issue.”

APWE’s first annual meeting is being held in Reserve, NM on Saturday, October 10, 2009, at 10 a.m. at the Reserve Community Center. APWE’s board will present an accounting of its work on behalf of the people who live in the Mexican wolf recovery area over the past year, and talk about plans for future actions. Everyone is welcome to attend.

“It’s not as if humans weren’t here, as if humans don’t matter,” Wehrheim said. “We’re citizens, we have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, just like anyone else. We don’t intend to be run over by environmental litigation groups like CBD.”

"After ten years, more than $400,000 per wolf and untold damage to our communities, they’re trying to blame their own failure with the Mexican wolf program on us, the people who live here in the program area," Wehrheim said.


# # #

What's Truth Got To Do With It?

Defenders of Wildlife is using pity for three legged wolves to raise funds. They say in a "news" release: "Will you help us protect the Middle Fork wolves? Your tax-deductible donation today will help us."

Pay attention here folks! DoW is saying your deduction will help THEM, not the wolves. Those three legged wolves of the Middle Fork pack (that are not too lame to stop killing cattle)? One lost her leg because Fish & Wildlife Service amputated it after an elk kicked the wolf. The other probably was a FWS trapping, too. In fact, FWS has damaged a number of wolves in traps - and I bet you thought they used "have-a-hearts" when they trapped those wolves. Nope. Jaw traps. Your government in action.

Don't forget: The wolf program traps wolves routinely for all kinds of reasons - they just won't let the poor critters alone. They trap to vaccinate them, to change the batteries on their collars, and they trap them when they want to catch up the pups to raise them in captivity.

DoW would have you think that wolves need protecting from mean ranchers who hurt and trap them. But really, wolves need protection from the wolf program more than anything else.

And the public needs protecting from organizations like DoW, that take your money by appealing to your heartstrings. Not to be confused with presenting the facts.

Here's something to think about

"The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money."
-- Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 – 1859)

Gee - isn't this what we're seeing right now?

Who’s The Terrorist?

copyright (c) 2009 CR Edmunds
www.onestillfree.com
Also published in Glenwood Gazette Sept. 2009 (Gale Moore, pub., Silver City NM)

The other day I got thinking about terrorism. So much of our lives these days are dictated by the fight against terrorism. We’ve all come to accept the invasive tactics of the US Government everywhere around us in the name of security. We even have a branch of government, Homeland Security, that has in a short time secreted its tentacles into everything in order to keep us safe from terrorists. We have to accept wands and pat-downs and X-rays of our person and our belongings in airports and public buildings, we have travel restrictions and passports to visit neighboring friendly ally countries, phone taps, email taps, credit checks, security cameras on street corners, photo-traffic citations on and on, all in the name of public safety.

Of course, doesn’t this all assume terrorism is something external to the US, that it comes from bad guys from other countries who want to render the US helpless?

I got thinking about how a bunch of bad guys that were really organized and very well financed could most effectively pull the US or any country down. (I want to point out to Homeland Security that I read a lot of fiction and much of what I’m writing here is already in print don’t come busting my doors down while telling me free speech doesn’t count because of the Patriot Act). Anyway, it has become clear to me that, logically, terrorism really would be just a first step. A kind of softening up a country for the real blows that will bring it down. The KO, if you will.

What would weaken a country more than flying planes into landmark buildings? Homeland Security and/or the media would have us believe that it would be nuking a big city. But really, would that take down the US? Were a resilient bunch of citizens I think that wiping out LA (for instance) would just make us all really, really mad once we got over being really, really sad (think of how sad and mad - wed be at losing our Famous Faces in such an attack).

No, I think what would really work to weaken a country would be to literally weaken its people. And it seems to me that the traditional ways of weakening a people would be just as effective now as they have been throughout history: Starvation and disease and isolation.

Here’s the thing: People who eat well are healthy and they don’t get sick as easily. So, if you think about it, wouldn’t the smartest thing be, if you were terrorists and wanted to take down the US, to destroy the food supply, thereby make people dependent on bad food so they’ll get sick more easily?

My thinking goes like this: The US agricultural base is being destroyed by factory farming and by more and more restrictions on small farming (NAIS, anyone?). Our forests, the biomass from the thinning of which could probably replace the use of petroleum for transportation fuel in 10 years, are being burned up because of more and more restrictions on hazardous fuels reduction projects and a push to expand wilderness and create roadless areas on public lands.

Where are our environmental groups in this picture? Are they supporting local production of healthy foods, which is so much less destructive to Mother Earth than factory farming? No, they work hard to destroy small farmers and ranchers. Are they supporting forest restoration that would result in reduced carbon pollution of our atmosphere by reduction of forest fires? No, they work hard to suppress the cutting of any trees at all. Are they supporting use of biomass to create an alternative to petroleum based transportation fuels? No, they fight efforts to develop sustainable, renewable energy.

What do environmental groups do to make our planet a healthier place, where humans and all species can thrive?

Well, actually, when you add up what they are doing, the answer to that question is: Nothing. In fact, when you look at the big picture of environmental efforts by the Big Name Environmental Groups (whose board members are mostly attorneys, not scientists), what that picture really looks like is a series of well-coordinated actions that are aimed to weaken the citizens of this country through starvation, disease and isolation.

Its so plausible: Destroy the family farms and ranches in the name of endangered species. Further destroy local production of healthy foods in the name of pure water. Destroy the possibility of alternative energy sources by attacking wind farms and use of biomass from forests. Destroy the forests themselves by not allowing restoration work, thereby encouraging massive wildfires only one of which can in a few days or weeks dump as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as one big city does in a year. (Ironically, the supposedly endangered species' habitats are destroyed as well by wildfire). And when things go down the tubes on our planet because of the success of the above actions, blame it on small farmers and ranchers and you and me, average Joe and Jane US citizen, and file even more lawsuits in the name of environmentalism, because, don’t you know, they’ve got to save the planet.

And then… TKO?

How stupid does Obama think we are?

U.S. Raises Estimate for 10-Year Deficit to $9 Trillion
NY Times 08/25/09

The Obama administration, citing an economic downturn that has been deeper than it had first thought, raised its estimate on Tuesday of the government's deficit over the next decade to $9 trillion from $7.1 trillion. More...

$7.1 trillion, $9 trillion - what difference does it make? We've been sold out, people. We're talking $9 with 12 zeros after it in debt! In just over half a year we've gone from "mere" billions to trillions in debt. Does Obama really expect us to think this is an economic improvement?

And, perhaps more worrisome - is it possible that the number is even worse than that?

The economic bailout issue in one sentence

"When you’ve got 27 percent unemployment, that is a full-fledged depression down in Perry County, and let’s just see if we can’t figure out how to do something that’s just much more on the ground and direct, that actually gets people jobs." GOV. PHIL BREDESEN, of Tennessee, on using stimulus money to ease joblessness.

Wolves vs. Humans: Which Do the Feds Value More?

Wolves vs. Humans: Which Do the Feds Value More?
For Immediate Release
Thursday, July 23, 2009
For further Information, contact:
Paul Gessing 505-264-6090 or Jim Scarantino 505-256-2523

(Albuquerque)— The federal government's wolf reintrodduction plan is the very definition of big government in some rural areas in New Mexico. While the Rio Grande Foundation has not taken a position one way or the other on whether wolves should be reintroduced, its Investigative Journalist Jim Scarantino, has uncovered what appears to be a rather shocking example of misplaced priorities.

In his new report, "Does the Federal Government Value Wolves More Than Humans? The Money Says It All" Scarantino takes a closer look at the wolf reintroduction program. Since the Mexican wolf reintroduction program was launched more than a decade ago, millions of dollars have been spent by the United States, Arizona and New Mexico governments. The goal was to reestablish a target population of 100 wolves in the mountainous areas of southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona

• According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the New Mexico and Arizona game departments, by the end of 2009, these agencies estimate that their total expenditures will be approximately $20.5 million;

• According to the USFWWS' 2008 year-end survey, only 52 wolves were roaming the Arizona-New Mexico reintroduction area. This means that each living wolf cost taxpayers nearly $400,000;

• In response to the terrorist attacks oon the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Congress passed the 9/11 Victim's Compensation Act. This law set the intrinsic value of a human life at $250,000. Higher sums were paid to compensate families for the lost incomes of a love one killed in the attacks. But the value of a human life itself, without regard to that person's ability to earn money, was set at $250,000.

"At $400,000 a wolf and rising," Scarantino asks, "government is valuing the intrinsic value of each wolf more than its values the intrinsic value of human life. Residents in the affected areas have frequently complained that the government seems to care more about "El Lobo" than the human residents who must live with these powerful predators. With these figures, they can now point to government's excessive and endless spending on wolves to prove their point."

The full report is available here: http://www.riograndefoundation.org/new/articles/?EC=ReadArticle&ArticleID=305

The economics of socialism

I just got this in an email - thought I'd forward it on. Food for thought.

Students in an economics class at a local college insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

Their professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade - no one would fail but no one would receive an A unless everyone got an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D. No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. Bickering, blame and name-calling had resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All the students failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.

Mongol Derby - why not just shoot the horses before the start?

Mongol horse race - guaranteed to kill horses

The largest non-sanctioned endurance race ever attempted is set to be run this summer in Mongolia. Nearly a thousand under-sized native horses have been drafted into an effort which deliberately flaunts international endurance racing rules. Worse, none of the 25 amateur riders have any previous endurance riding experience and all will be riding Mongolian ponies they have never met before. No safety arrangements are provided by the promoter, no water or food for the ponies, inadequate numbers or no veterinarians - how many of the 800 equines will be dead before they reach the 1000 km line, how many more will die afterwards as a result of the abuse they will receive?

More at http://lifstrand.blogspot.com/

Common Sense ­ Uncommonly Rare

For millennia human beings survived and thrived because they used common sense. Those who didn’t enabled their own removal from the gene pool (they died). Maybe its just me, but it sure seems that the gene pool is getting a wee bit murky these days as whatever has contributed since the dawn of history to common sense is somehow fading away.

The disappearance of common sense from everyday life is a scary thing, if you ask me, because common sense is really the basis for the success of democracy. The founders of the USA were a pretty brilliant bunch, but they didn’t expect that everyone who was going to have a vote was going to be brilliant. In fact, democracy doesn’t require brilliance to succeed; it just needs good old common sense to keep it going and healthy.

The point of voting is to let everyone who is ruled by our government have a say in how that ruling is going to happen. This was a very bold, exciting concept back in the day, and it still is. Our brilliant founders knew that extremists would be moderated by the overwhelming mass of people who didn’t need brilliance or higher education to see the right thing to do. That’s because people then, who had to rely on common sense applied in their daily lives to survive, would apply that same common sense to identifying what was the right thing to do.

Thing is, it doesn’t take common sense any more to make it in our daily lives. With the mass withdrawal from fundamental interaction with nature (growing our own food, building our own houses, being responsible for our own safety) that has resulted from mechanization, technological innovation and the internet, we have lost the need for exercising our common sense. Industrial farming and the importing of so much of our food and other commodities means that fewer and fewer people in this country are connected to the real world. Fed by the fantasy world of TV, movies and video games, spending all day long indoors, has created a gap between what is real and possible, and what is desired - and the gap is growing faster and faster.

Simply put, most people just aren’t practicing the use of common sense any more because they don’t have to. So, like any other faculty that doesn’t get used, common sense is just dying out. Unfortunately, what we’re losing is what is needed to vote in something approaching a rational manner in order to maintain a living, healthy democracy. Without common sense, it all falls apart.

Today, our health, our well being, our communities, our society and our country are all going away so rapidly that it’s hard to see how things can be brought back to equilibrium again. We’re all being fed information that has so little connection to reality that it’s stunning. There is so little common sense being used that sometimes I wonder if we’ve been taken over by alien beings from another dimension. Such irrational behavior isn’t all that surprising, since that’s pretty much what has happened - just substitute media, government and political correctness for alien beings.

Really, coming up with a solution is tough, but it seems to me that a first step would be to return power to the people via local governments, because it’s obvious that locals know best about local issues. This means that locals should be the ones who implement federal and state programs in the places that they’re meant to be implemented. It’s only common sense that locals would do a good job of it ­ as they have throughout history - because they’d be the ones who’d suffer if they screwed up.

You can’t force people to use their common sense, and you can’t expect people to suddenly begin using any faculty when it has become atrophied. Still, things have a way of balancing out over time. I’m hoping people wake up and shake themselves up on their own before too long, though, because as bad as it’s become, those who will be paying for the folly of this and past generations will be our children, their children and beyond. That’s not a legacy I’m happy about leaving for them.