From
the United States of America...
WWW.PERPETUALCOMMOTION.COM
"Give with a
free hand, but give only your
own."
--
J.R.R. Tolkien The Children
of Hurin
- BLOG -
(Unbounded opinion from the Grand Exalted Ampersand of the Pan Galactic
Parenthetical Society)
I have
nothing to sell you but hope, and
that I give you for free.
March 16, 2011 "Great minds
discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds
discuss people." - Elenor Roosevelt(?)
Is political self-interest more trustworthy than economic self-interest?
"Mass transit" is just another wealth-transfer scheme politicians use
to buy votes. What mass transit system ever charged its riders what it
actually costs to run the darn thing?
January 9, 2011 Evolution can
not explain why, after over 100 years of the automobile, there hasn't
developed a race of super squirrels that have enough sense to get out
of the way!
November 19, 2010 Every time I
think I have a good bead on life, the world, the universe and how
everything works, something comes along to destroy my delusion.
For example, somewhere back in my distant, dusty history, some grade
school teacher or some book told me that ice skates slid on ice because
they concentrated the weight of the skater on the narrow blades, which
melted the water beneath them. Well, come to find out, it's not
that at all. What actually happens is that the blades glide on
the top surface layer of water molecules of the ice, which act like a
liquid. Hmmmph. What else did I get wrong? You know,
though, I really didn't get it wrong, I got faulty information from
authority figures of my youth, and I never questioned it. Like,
for years I tried to justify the actions of the U.S. government during
World War II when they incarcerated American of Japanese descent.
I knew it wasn't "racist" because they weren't incarcerating the
Chinese, and last I heard, both the Japanese and Chinese are the same
race. But I just couldn't figure out how they could do
this. Then, much later, and not too long ago, I learned about the
American Progressive movement, and that followers of this rather
anti-American philosophy had done this before, during World War
I. At that time, it was the German Americans on the receiving end
of the persecution.
*
All taxes should be "behavior neutral", that is, there should be only
one reason for a tax: to raise revenue to fund the legitimate
operations of government. Taxes should never be used to coerce
behavior. Ever. Just like law enforcement should never be a
tool to raise revenues (think, speed traps). Such practices
destroy the faith people have in the legitimacy of government:
they destroy public trust. The death penalty should be reserved
for all elected public officials, government employees, and judges who
take bribes or abuse their authority in a way that destroys the public
trust in government. When people are burdened, shackled even,
with so many laws that they can do nothing but work, drink, and
copulate; so many laws that just to survive they routinely have to
break some law or another, their consciences are seared to all laws, and all behavior becomes
acceptable if it can be gotten away with.
November 15, 2010 Proverbs
17:26 To impose a fine on a righteous man is not good; to flog noble
men is wrong.
October 5, 2010 Atheists
rail against Christianity... Islam, not so much. Hmmmm.
September 21, 2010 Why are
bedbug infestations such a problem now? What happened in the last
couple of years that could have made things worse? Well, how
about banning the use of certain pesticides like diazinon and
ddt? Banning these pesticides was supposed to be so good for us,
but now we're being overun by bugs!
How many people have died due to insect-borne disease since DDT was
banned? How many people would have gotten sick from DDT?
(Careful now, it's less that one in a million, if even that.)
July
26, 2010 The truth is, no matter what people think. And it
is fiercely independent of the will, wishes, desires, and needs of mere
mortal men.
Or, to put it another way... Facts are stubborn things. They pay
no attention to the wants, desires, needs or fantasies of mere mortal
men. (Women either.) Or, What is, is, and neither perception nor
opinion can change it.
July 21, 2010 The people who do the things they do to become
rich through high incomes will not do what they do without being
compensated at a rate higher than those that work for them. And
it should be evident to all that we need these people to do what they
do. Their labor is critical to the operation of our
economy. In other words, we can not do without the labor of these
rich people, and we must pay them at a rate that encourages them to
continue doing what they do.
Therefore, if you tax the income of the rich disproportionately to fund
the operations of the government, they will in turn demand more from
their customers in order to compensate for the tax burden. This
tax burden is then indirectly distributed to those who work for the
rich, or those who buy products and services from them. This
makes sense since the government really doesn't need money. They
print the darn stuff after all! What the government needs is
labor, and lots of it. If the government could produce anything,
there would be no need for taxes. So, the burden of the
government will always be on the backs of the people who do productive
things, be they "rich" business owners or the lowest paid
laborer. The ultimate burden will always be distributed the same
by indirect price adjustments in the markets for products, services and
labor no matter how the government decides to spread out the direct
taxation.
The only relief is to reduce the total burden of the government.
But this will never happen while the largest block of voters think they
are getting something for free from the government. They don't
understand that they are bearing the burden of the government through
higher prices and lower wages. Perhaps if people understood this,
if the conservative voices would pound into the heads of people, "Tax
the rich and they will raise prices and lower wages to make up for
it. It has always been this way, it will always be this
way. Any politician who tells you differently is lying to you,
taking advantage of you, and raping your labor."
The most fair tax would be a per-person tax where everyone pays the
same, just like the admission price to a movie.
June
16,
2010 "Robbing selected
Peter to pay for collective Paul"
I read a poem by Rudyard Kipling
titled "Gods of the
Copybook Headings".
I'm
still trying to figure out exactly what the meaning of this poem
is, but this line really resonated:
In
the
Carboniferous
Epoch
we
were
promised
abundance
for
all,
By robbing selected Peter to
pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of
money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook
Headings said: "If you don't work you die."
"Copybook Headings" were
sayings printed at the top of the page of notebooks English
schoolchildren used to have.
Currently, I am reading Edward Mandel House's "Philip Dru, Administrator".
Some
say
that
this
book
has
influenced
Progressivism
and
Liberalism
(really,
the
same
thing)
for the past century. I'm working on an analysis of this work.
Margaret Thatcher: "The problem with socialism is that sooner or
later, you run out of other people's money to spend."
June
8,
2010
"Happiness"
I've always wondered why the authors of the U.S. Declaration of
Independence changed the line "Life, liberty, and property" to "Life,
liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness". But I guess it all depends on what the word
"happiness" means, or more importantly, what it meant in 1776.
According to the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, one meaning of
the word "happiness" is "prosperity"
Happiness:
2.
Good
luck;
good
fortune;
prosperity.
All
happiness
bechance
to
thee in Milan! — William Shakespeare,
Wikisource:The Two Gentlemen of
Verona
Another of Shakespear's famous
lines: "O happy dagger! This is thy sheath. There rust, and let
me die." Certainly Juliet did not mean that the dagger was a state of
good cheer. Rather, that fortune was favorable to her in that she had
at hand the means to dispatch herself.
It seems that the meaning of the word has changed through the
years. This is not at all surprising as even today words have a
different meaning than they did even 100 years ago. Consider the
meaning of the the words "gay and "cool". The line from a popular
Christmas song "don we now our gay apparel" takes on a totally comical
meaning if today's meaning of the word "gay" is inferred.
So, what does the sentance mean?
"We
hold
these
Truths
to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
It means that people have the
unalienable right to pursue prosperity, which of course also includes
"property".
What is the meaning of "property"? That's another good question
since no doubt, the meaning of the word today is not likely to be
exactly the same as it was in 1776. One thing it definitely does
imply is the complete control of something by the owner. And if
the owner of the thing does not have
complete
control
to
do
with
the
the
thing
as
he
wishes,
it
is
not
his property. Whoever
does have the ability to exercise this control is the true owner.
April 19, 2010 "Half a thought..."
Half a thought sounds like foolishness. Please, hear me out.
The providers of help rarely seem to need it. Those always
needing help never seem to get enough.
January 12, 2010 "The 'rich' must always be rich"
Great idea: Tax the rich so the government can pass out the
goodies.
But wait a minute. What's to stop the rich people from demanding
a raise? The taxes they talk about are always on income, not on
the money a rich person already possess. So when the rich people
demand a raise to compensate for the tax increase, who's gonna say
"no"? All the rich people will be doing the same, so all the
prices people pay will go up (or their wages will go down) since the
people who control such things invariably are "rich". You will
never get a job from a poor person. So, who ends up paying for
all those goodies the politicians are so generously doling out?
All the non-rich people who move the boxes, drive the trucks, plant the
crops, cut the logs, build the houses, plumb the bathrooms, empty the
garbage... yeah, all those people... the same ones who think they are
getting something "for free".
It's a scam and the politicians know it. These things don't
really change the lifestyle of the "rich". They just buy votes
for the "generous" politicans, all the while destroying prosperity for
the rest of us.
January 6, 2010 "Protected Wages"
There are some people who enjoy what I call "protected wages".
These are wages that are protected from competitive forces:
minimum wage, union negotiated pay, and government mandated
compensation. Yet if you go to any Walmart and could find out
where the people shopping there worked, I'll bet you find a universal
rejection of protected wages. Those who enjoy protected wages
have no problem rejecting products and services of others who enjoy
protected wages. People want the benefit of protected wages, but
they don't want anyone else to. A union is beneficial to union
members only if there are a great number of people not in the union.
The problem with the U.S. economy is quite simple. Businesses
have been restricted by the government imposition of protected wages,
rules, regulations, and silly policies to avoid law suits to such an
extent that their costs can not adjust in the face of declining
demand. And since the American people soundly reject the
protected wages of all of their neighbors, American businesses are
screwed. And it dimishes us all.
The solution? Unburden American business of government imposed
costs. Then, if you as a politician and supposedly a leader, want
to persuade people to buy American, then go for it. But the cost
of doing business in the US has to be able to adjust to meet demand.
December 8, 2009 "If at first you don't succeed..."
If at first you don't succeed, curse louder.
December 4, 2009 "This game
doesn't end well"
Life, this game doesn't end well.
November 30, 2009 "Character, like momentum"
Character is like momentum: It carries you along, for good or for
bad, whether you want to go that way or
not.
Thomas Jefferson is attributed with the quote: "The selfish
spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or
principle but that of gain." This makes commerce a passionless,
egalitarian force like gravity. Gravity can be quite useful in
keeping your feet firmly planted on the ground, but rather inconvenient
if you have to jump off a building.
More quotes from Thomas Jefferson: "We may consider each
generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its
majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding
generation, more than the inhabitants of another country."
"My reading
of history convinces me that most bad government results
from too much government."
"I tremble
for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his
justice cannot sleep forever." [...like institutionalized theft from
the producers to the buy the votes of looters.]
"Great
innovations should not be forced on slender majorities."
[This is what the Democrats are trying to do with the overhaul of the
health care sector of our economy.]
"The natural progress
of things is for liberty to yield and government
to gain ground."
"To compel a
man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation
of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
[PBS comes to mind... and the NEA]
“The
democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who
are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
October 7, 2009 "If the government could produce anything"
If the government could produce anything, there would be no need for
taxes.
Socialism: Everyone gets an equal share of nothing.
November 9, 2008 "Charity is voluntary"
Charity is voluntary, personal, moral and effective.
Coerced redistribution is involuntary, impersonal, immoral, and
ineffective.
May 28, 2008 "Torturing small minds"
I don't know where I came up with this, probably read it in a blog or
someone's post to a news group..
"Hobbies: Torturing small minds" That's hillarious.
May 28, 2008 "Rewarding what people invent"
From an aborted post to a message board...
The two people I know that work at the US patent office as patent
examiners tell me it's a real sweat shop. They keep forcing them
to crank out more and more patents. I doubt they have time to
thoroughly research anything. In fact, one of the two patent
examiners I knew was found dead of some heart ailment at the age of
45. He often complained about how stressful the job was.
That is a good point about having to provide proof of the idea's
effectiveness. If I were to submit a patent for a "procedure"
involved with extracting so-called "zero point energy" from the fabric
of the universe, I'm sure the patent office would demand a bit of proof.
I wonder if baseball players can patent their procedure for swinging a
bat, and then make Little Leaguers all over the world pay a
royalty? It would be very difficult to enforce. Once the
secret is out, it can be copied and the patent holder must prove the
infringement. Since it is a "procedure", and the patent holder
does not suffer a material loss, how will anyone know?
Here's the other side of the patent issue. Say that congress
decides that they don't like what physician T is doing, that is,
depriving so many people of an effective Alzheimer's disease treatment,
that a law is
passed to abolish patents on procedures. Now, along comes one Dr.
Frankenstein, M.D. PhD. who accidentally stumbles upon a "procedure"
for re-animating those that have assumed room temperature. But
knowing that he can't patent the
procedure, he sets up shop where he can perform the "procedure" on the
rich, the famous, and the politically well-connected; behind closed
doors so that no one else will ever figure out what he does. His
position is, "It's my idea, in MY head, and I choose not to share it,
since by sharing it, I gain nothing."
So, millions of people who could have been "re-animated" by Dr.
Frankenstein's "procedure" miss out because congress decides that AD
sufferers needed physician T's procedure.
I'm not agreeing with physician T's tactic. But I do agree that
there must be some way of rewarding what people invent, even if they
are concepts that haven't been fully proven at the time of
disclosure. My reason for this position is purely selfish.
I want to benefit from the ideas that creative people have. I
don't want them to keep these ideas locked away in their heads. Short
of waterboarding, how else do you extract the ideas in another person's
head as effectively as waving wads of money under their nose?
February 4, 2008 "Compassion for
the few people pulling this wagon"
There must be compassion for the few people pulling this wagon that so
many are riding in for free.
Charity, benevolence, and generosity must result from a free will
action on the part of one person for the benefit of another.
Welfare (a term which is itself a corruption of "promote the general
welfare") is charity at the point of a gun. There is no free will
involved in this act. There is no compassion for the man at the
muzzle end of that gun. Some might even describe this act as
theft.
Say that there were a group of 10 people standing on a corner in New
York City, and they take a vote to help a homeless beggar. Their
plan was that the person with the most money in their wallet --the one
that had more money than 90% of rest of them-- had to give up their
money, and that a group of the biggest and strongest were voted to
enforce this "will of the people". Certainly this would be
consider stealing.
There is no generosity in stealing food from your neighbors cupboard to
feed the poor. In addition, think of this: If a farmer can
not reap the crops he has sown, he will stop sowing crops in short
order, and all will perish from hunger. You have to allow farmers
to profit from their labor, or they WILL stop laboring. It is
this way with all people.
There is NO compassion in theft.
January 29, 2008 "What dooms
communism"
I would say that what dooms communism is that people naturally act in
their
own self interest, whether out of greed or honest prioritization.
For example, I have relatives and friends that are always making
demands of my time and abilities. They have an never ending list
of things they would like me to do for them, like change light bulbs,
fix a leaking faucet, shovel their snow, yet they don't want to pay me
for doing it. I try to be generous and do things for them, but
sometimes, I would just rather sit around and read a book, or pursue a
hobby, or watch the squirrels in my yard attack the
bird feeder. Some might then say I'm being greedy with my time and
talents. No, it's just that sometimes I think I've given enough
and I would rather watch football than fix someone else's toilet.
And the, every so often, I have to make a choice between doing things
like chopping wood for my own fireplace, or mopping the floor in my
dad's kitchen.
So then, say I really like making stuff. Someone comes to me and
asks if I would make him a widget. Yeah, it sounds interesting,
but right now, I have squirrels to watch, and TV, and an entire
Internet to peruse. Even when I have a task that I enjoy doing,
there will always be other things competing for my limited time and
ambition.
Since I know that other people think and act this way, even when they
aren't being greedy, I know that they will only do things without being
compensated "when the spirit moves them". The "spirit" rarely ever
musters up that much ambition. Communism, socialism, and other
collectivist schemes depend on people doing things without reward,
without being compensated, without being paid. So, they do the
absolute minimum necessary to keep out of trouble with the police.
I believe that people should be generous, and that they should let
their own conscience, not some government bureaucracy, determine what
"generosity" means. Too often, people define "generosity" and
"sharing" as "generous with my neighbor's possessions" and "sharing the
other fellow's" time. And they use the heavy hand of government
to impose their concept of generosity and sharing.
I also believe in the existence of elitists: People who believe
in the core of their being that they superior by birth, by inheritance,
by intellect, by
achievement, by chance circumstance or any combination of these; that
they are entitled to
direct the affairs of the lesser peoples; and that they are therefore
rightfully entitled to
a greater share of all material wealth. I believe that it is
these people who
promote and support schemes like communism, socialism, fascism,
monopolies, cartels, crime syndicates,
kingdoms and dictators for their own personal gain.
January 10, 2008 "Copying
something is not 'stealing', in the moral sense"
Copying something is not "stealing", in the moral sense: After
copying something someone else has said, done, made, or written they
still have the original. They have not been deprived of the thing they
made. However, copying has been
made "illegal" in order to reward inventors and creators so that they
invent and create more. So, if we want to be able to copy, we
must pressure our governments to allow it. Plain and
simple. As I said, it is not immoral to copy something, it is not
stealing; it's just illegal.
However, I see this just like speed limits. Most people think
they are set too low (judging by how often people exceed them), yet no
one pressures the government to increase them. The 55mph highway
speed limit was extremely unpopular and routinely ignored by all except
police (for purposes of "raising revenue"), yet it took 20 years for
the government to get in line with the will of the people. How
long will it take the government to get in line with the will of the
people with respect to copying things.
July 26, 2007 "'Passion' is not enough"
"Passion" I don't think is quite enough. Nor is "dreaming",
no matter what the commercials may say. Dreaming is easy.
"Confidence" doesn't get you anywhere either. Competence is key.
Competence is hard to find. There is no stopping a competent man
who follows his dream with a passion, confident in his ability to
succeed.
October 1, 2007 "The government
doesn't need money"
The government doesn't need money: It needs labor. The only labor
that has any value is that which actually produces something
useful. It doesn't matter how the tax system slices and dices the
proportions initially levied on the sundry components of the
economy. A portion of the labor of those doing productive work
will be confiscated in order for the government to function. In
other words, the government enslaves the people. The full burden
of the cost of government is borne on the shoulders of those that
do productive work. The rich will still be rich.
Company owners will still make more than their managers. Managers
will still make more than the workers. This is the way it was,
the way it is, the way it always will be. Anyone who does
productive work but thinks "the other fellow" will bear the burden of
the government is fooling herself.
Taxation can change people's behavior and make businesses and
productive people flee the state, but it can't bring prosperity.
June 27, 2007 "Illegal aliens
taking our jobs, taking our country"
Please don't betray us. Stop these illegal aliens from taking our
jobs and taking our country.
The solution is simply to cut off the gravy train. Allow
employers to ask for proof of citizenship and then put employers who
hire illegals in jail for a year. Put illegal aliens in a
concentration camp until they, their home government, or someone pays
to have them shipped home.
April 5, 2007 "Reality
doesn't bend to the wishes and desires of men"
Reality doesn't bend to the wishes and desires of men.
March 19, 2007 "Let's try
'Thou shall not steal' for a change"
What we have been doing is no longer working
The way we have been used to doing things in this State are obviously
no longer working. Let's try a simple change. Let's start
following the simple rule of "Thou shall not steal". Or to put it
another way, "You will not take those things which do not belong to
you".
Many laws and policies--
widely supported by the people of
this country-- that are causing the problems the United States is now
facing violate this simple rule.
There is no compassion in theft.
There is no generosity in robbery.
There is no kindness in extortion.
Violate God's law, and God will punish you.
God is punishing the people of the United States because they have
institutionalized the violation of His law forbidding theft.
March 12, 2007 "The Truth has a frustrating way of
ignoring concensus"
The Truth has a frustrating way of ignoring concensus.
People must be causing
global warming because only people can pay
taxes. If God was causing the Earth to warm it would be a
problem for Liberals: To send God a tax bill, Liberals wouldn't
know
where to find him.
Needy people never seem to find enough help. Self-sufficient
people never seem to need it.
February
18,
2007 "Liberal philosophy,
Liberal policy"
Liberal philosophy: Ruling power belongs solely in the hands of
the elite class.
Liberal policy: Confiscate labor from the productive to
distribute per the needs
and
desires of the elite ruling class, and preserve their their
status
of
power.
June
27, 2007 "Another reason
the rich
don't pay taxes"
Ever work for a poor man?
If you tax all of the "rich", won't
they, as a class, merely put upward pressure on their incomes until
their previous standard of living is recovered? So, where will
the "money" come from? That's the dirty little secret. The
government doesn't really need or want mere currency. It craves
LABOR. So, raising taxes will just allow the government to grow
and the burden of supporting this expanded government will fall
squarely on the backs of all those who have alway carried it, and
always will: The productive.
June
24, 2007 "How much of
your money can
I spend?"
How much of your money can I
spend? That's a good question.
I can spend every dime you have, and it would cost me nothing, since it
is, after all your
money. Matter of fact, I can spend so much of your money, that it
will take you years and years and years to earn it. And again,
there is no cost to me. It's easy for me to spend your
money. Of course, I get to keep the things it buys, not
you. Some would call that stealing. Most call it "taxes".
June
13, 2007 "The real reason Liberals hate
America..."
The antithesis of
Liberalism, "Thou shall NOT steal": The real reason Liberals hate
America
Liberalism can not exist without taking labor, life, or
possessions. That runs afoul of the 7th Commandment "Thou shall
not steal". Therefore, Liberals must tear down every remnant of
morality because lurking in there is the antithesis of Liberalism,
"Thou shall NOT steal".
June 13, 2007 "Mass imigration of
educated is a security threat"
The mass and excessive immigration policies of the US government brings
in so many people with "technical education", that wages for home-grown
technically educated people are about 50% less than what it should
be. This makes the effort require to follow a technical career
unattractive.
Don't be fooled: A "technical education" in India is NOT what it
is here. What the government is bringing in is merely bodies to
forcibly press down wages. This is creating a security
crisis. Smart Americans would rather do something else and make
more money. America is losing it's technical preeminence and this
will transfer to the defense industry.
June 13, 2007 "'Women with real
needs' need men with real wallets"
or "To 'Women with real needs'
men are just upright dogs with big wallets"
Liberalism is all about being generous and caring with the blood
sweat and tears of someone else.
"Women with real needs support Hillary Clinton", a recent magazine
headline exclaimed. See, the people that "need" support
Liberal Democrats. These people have no problem taking what does
not belong to them.
"Thou shall not steal" is anathema to all that is Liberal.
Self-sufficient people never seem to need any help. "Needy"
people never seem to get enough.
June 12, 2007 "It's not about
control, Liberalism is about labor"
Liberals can't do anything for themselves. They need the labor of
others to accomplish anything. They don't want to buy that labor,
they want to confiscate that labor, or steal it, or con it, or sneak it.
To be a Liberal means never having to use your own food to feed the
hungry.
June 11, 2007 "Liberal: A peron
who steals to be generous"
Liberals can't do anything for themselves, so they have to steal from
those who do. All liberal laws, policies, and ideas involve
TAKING something from someone else by force, stealth, or deceit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Main Page PC Home
Preface
Brain
Failure Notes References
pg. 1 References pg. 2
Nutritional
Alternatives Patricia's Protocol
Tauopathy
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Inception: February 18, 2007
Updated: January 9, 2011