Dear Barry,
Tomorrow you will take your place as America's next tyrant-in-chief. Heretofore you have made it very clear that the lives of ordinary Americans should revolve around the state. Like the vast majority of your predecessors, your vision of the federal government comprises the severely misguided notion that coercion and violence can be used as forces for good.
Your mantra of "change" is tiresome at best, mostly because I haven't heard you mention any federal agencies or programs you would eliminate upon taking office. Indeed, you will simultaneously be the most popular thief and thug in the United States, as were the men you will follow.
George Orwell wrote his legendary novel 1984 just after World War II. It is renowned for its portrayal of government's encroachment on the rights of the individual. It was Orwell's warning against totalitarianism, specifically Stalin's Soviet Union. Pervasive thought control and surveillance of citizens is prominent throughout the novel. After living through the last eight years under the Bush administration and observing the marketing effort of the coming stimulus plan by the Obama team, the U.S. has moved closer than ever to Orwell's nightmare world. In the novel, The Party maintained control of Oceania by manipulating facts, history, and citizens to retain power and dominate the masses. In the United States of today we theoretically have two major parties, Democrats and Republicans. In reality, we have one Party made up of the wealthy elite ruling class backed by enormous corporate interests and protected by the military industrial complex. There are no major differences between Republicans and Democrats, just minor meaningless variations. They are both under the control of the fascist corporate oligopoly that runs this country. Representative Ron Paul explains how The Party is able to maintain control in today's world:
“Pretending that a true difference exists between the two major candidates is a charade of great proportion. Many who help to perpetuate this myth are frequently unaware of what they are doing and believe that significant differences actually do exist. Indeed, on small points there is the appearance of a difference. The real issues, however, are buried in a barrage of miscellaneous nonsense and endless pontifications by robotic pundits hired to perpetuate the myth of a campaign of substance. Influential forces, the media, the government, the privileged corporations and moneyed interests see to it that both party's candidates are acceptable, regardless of the outcome, since they will still be in charge. It's been that way for a long time.
The two parties and their candidates have no real disagreements on foreign policy, monetary policy, privacy issues, or the welfare state. They both are willing to abuse the Rule of Law and ignore constitutional restraint on Executive Powers. Neither major party champions free markets and private-property ownership. Those candidates who represent actual change or disagreement with the status quo are held in check by the two major parties in power, making it very difficult to compete in the pretend democratic process. This is done by making it difficult for third-party candidates to get on the ballots, enter into the debates, raise money, avoid being marginalized, or get fair or actual coverage.”
Government has progressively acquired more power over the lives of Americans. They have done it subtly for decades but it has accelerated at warp speed in the last eight years. Since 9/11, Americans have seen their liberties taken away on a scale reminiscent of the McCarthy years during the 1950s. In the last year, government has taken advantage of this financial crisis to step into the breach and gained complete control over our banking system and auto industry. They are choosing the winners and losers in our society. They have chosen to save their rich ruling elite brethren who made billions by taking excessive criminal risk, and throw the middle class under the bus. The average American does not see the insidious method that The Party has used to gain overwhelming power over their lives. The U.S. government has used chaos, fear, and exaggeration to expand their control. The method used to gain control is simple. Government creates a problem, fans the flames to make the problem appear to be extremely dangerous, and then provide a solution that only government can implement.
Alright, as anyone with more than 3 functioning brain cells already knows, the fuckwittery of the Bush Administration has encouraged the dumbest 20% of Americans* to saddle the remaining 80% of the population with a Democratic Socialist** majority in both the House and the Senate- that- combined with an incoming president who seems to have a raging woody for the failed policies of FDR- virtually guarantees that stupidity and ignorance will reign supreme on Capitol Hill for at least the next 4 years.
Predictably enough, that means that one of the major items on the agenda (second only to thoroughly fucking up what's left of a once-vibrant economy) is the attempted nullification of the rights that were supposed to be unconditionally protected under the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
With that in mind, I bring you a brief roundup of the firearms legislation that has been thus far introduced in the current session of the House & Senate:
First, the good:
HR 17 "Citizens' Self-Defense Act of 2009"
Sponsor: Roscoe G. Bartlett
To protect the right to obtain firearms for security, and to use firearms in defense of self, family, or home, and to provide for the enforcement of such right.
The bad:
S 205: A bill to authorize additional resources to identify and eliminate illicit sources of firearms smuggled into Mexico for use by violent drug trafficking organizations, and for other purposes.Then the fuckin' butt-ugly:
HR 45 Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009To provide for the implementation of a system of licensing for purchasers of certain firearms and for a record of sale system for those firearms, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Bobby L. Rush
Interesting times, indeed.
*300 million Americans.....60 million votes for Obama. You do the math.
**I refuse to use the word "progressive"- that would be the hypocritical equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig.
The approach does not work too well.
A new study of a federal survey taken in the 1990s finds that teens who took virginity pledges are just as likely as other teens to have sex before marriage. Importantly, when the pledgers broke their vows they were less likely to use birth control, including condoms.
