Odessa

It finally arrived! Now what do you say to that beauty? It fits easily on my kitchen countertop. Disk brakes, front and back; 47cc Mitsubishi air-cooled, 2-stroke engine; tubeless tires, front 90/65-6.5, rear 110/50-6.5; max speed 70km/h. Want to race? 

In my Challenge for America speech I quoted Thomas Jefferson, "Material abundance without character is the path to destruction." Today we have the material abundance, and we lack character.
I think the population in the country lack character out of ignorance. They don’t know anything differently. They think what is, is what was supposed to happen. They think the government is supposed to take care of them. Give me a house if I need it. Give me food stamps if I need them. Give me medical care if I need it. They are not deliberately evil. They have lost their way, lost their concern and lost their character.

From a column by Lew Rockwell:
"Many horrible things have happened under the Bush presidency. This is a regime that has exploded government power at a pace I hoped we would never see again. Just once I would like to see one of the Bush supporters write something like:
It is true that he has expanded the budget at twice the rate of Clinton, that he has created the largest and most powerful new federal bureaucracy since the WW2, that he has imposed costly protectionist legislation, that he keeps prisoners of war in violation of international law, that he lied about Iraq, that he is personally responsible for the deaths of 1,100 US soldiers, and 15,000+ Iraqi civilians, that his war has inspired terrorism around the world, and that another four years of this can only mean more loss of liberty and more bloodshed. And yet, I support his reelection for fear of Kerry.
But the Bush supporters don't say that. Instead they liken him to God. They consider him savior. They trust him with leadership. They really credit him with securing the country. They say that he is ruling in the name of liberty. It is remarkable, even demonic."

Mark Twain had a great idea. He wrote it down sometime in 1870 in a little sketch he titled The Curious Republic Of Gondour. Here are excerpts:
[The people of Gondour] had at first tried universal suffrage pure and simple, but had thrown that form aside because the result was not satisfactory. It had seemed to deliver all power into the hands of the ignorant and non-tax-paying classes; and of a necessity the responsible offices were filled from these classes also.
A remedy was sought. The people believed they had found it; not in the destruction of universal suffrage, but in the enlargement of it. It was an odd idea, and ingenious. You must understand, the constitution gave every man a vote; therefore that vote was a vested right, and could not be taken away. But the constitution did not say that certain individuals might not be given two votes, or ten! So an amendatory clause was inserted in a quiet way; a clause which authorised the enlargement of the suffrage in certain cases to be specified by statute. To offer to "limit" the suffrage might have made instant trouble; the offer to "enlarge" it had a pleasant aspect. It was found that for once--and for the first time in the history of the republic-- property, character, and intellect were able to wield a political influence; for once, money, virtue, and intelligence took a vital and a united interest in a political question; for once the best men in the nation were put forward as candidates . . . The weightiest half of the press quickly joined forces with the new movement, and left the other half to rail about the proposed "destruction of the liberties" of the bottom layer of society, the hitherto governing class of the community.
The victory was complete. The new law was framed and passed. Under it every citizen, howsoever poor or ignorant, possessed one vote, so universal suffrage still reigned; but if a man possessed a good common-school education and no money, he had two votes; a high-school education gave him four; if he had property likewise, to the value of three thousand 'sacos,' he wielded one more vote; for every fifty thousand 'sacos' a man added to his property, he was entitled to another vote; a university education entitled a man to nine votes, even though he owned no property. Therefore, learning being more prevalent and more easily acquired than riches, educated men became a wholesome check upon wealthy men, since they could outvote them. Learning goes usually with uprightness, broad views, and humanity; so the learned voters, possessing the balance of power, became the vigilant and efficient protectors of the great lower rank of society.
[Soon] there were some things in Gondour which one could not shut his eyes to. One was, that ignorance and incompetence had no place in the government. Brains and property managed the state. A candidate for office must have marked ability, education, and high character, or he stood no sort of chance of election. If a hod-carrier possessed these, he could succeed; but the mere fact that he was a hod-carrier could not elect him, as in previous times.
There was a loving pride of country about . . . which annoyed me. I had long been unused to the sound of it in my own. The Gondour national airs were forever dinning in my ears; therefore I was glad to leave that country and come back to my dear native land, where one never hears that sort of music.
Perhaps we should try in MarkTwain's 'dear native land', our country, what he suggested over a century ago. But - I'm afraid it's too far gone . . .

My Boreem 47 cc, but in red. Can't wait. Will come from
California - of course.

Many Americans who can read and who have bothered to read the Constitution (never mind the illiterates), believe that the Constitution gives them rights. They believe, for instance, that the First Amendment gives people the right of freedom of speech. That's wrong, of course. The First Amendment does not grant people freedom of speech . . . it prohibits Government from abridging freedom of speech. That distinction is like the difference between night and day. Unfortunately it is one that too many fail to appreciate. Fact is, people’s rights are fundamental and inherent, and they preexist any government. Thus, the Framers didn’t give people rights in the Constitution but rather prohibited the government from taking such innate rights away. That’s why the founding document uses the words “no” or “not” some 46 times.

. . . a nice little car 

H.L. Mencken:
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

Read this and look at the Great Seal of the United States and tell me if this is a Christian country - was established by Christian founders - when the most important imagery is covered with writings by Virgil, the Roman poet who lived in the first century B.C. The name of God is never mentioned - much less a Christian God. Looks to me more like some symbolism cooked up by a bunch of Freemasons.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Great Seal of the United States is based on a written description that precisely defines the design.
Obverse: On the breast of the American bald eagle is a shield with thirteen vertical white and red stripes beneath a blue chief. In the eagle's right talon is an olive branch, and in his left a bundle of thirteen arrows. In his beak is a scroll inscribed with the motto E Pluribus Unum.
Over the head of the eagle, a golden glory is breaking through a cloud, and surrounds a constellation of thirteen stars on an azure field.
Reverse: In the zenith of an unfinished pyramid is an eye in a triangle surrounded with a golden glory. Over the eye are the words Annuit Coeptis. On the base of the pyramid the numerical letters MDCCLXXVI, and underneath, the motto Novus Ordo Seclorum.(George H.W. Bush's "New World Order"!!)

The Great Seal of the United States 

‘THROWING AWAY YOUR VOTE’

People keep telling me that unless they vote for Bush or Kerry - for one of two interchangeable Skull & Bonesmen – their "vote won’t count".
Pretend with me that you’re an old German on your deathbed today. Would you rather tell your grandchildren, "I voted for the Nazis because they seemed better than the Communists and no other party could win"? Wouldn’t you rather be able to rise up and say, "I publicly denounced the Nazis and the Communists. We were a minority – 1 or 2 percent – but we stood up for the truth and we were right! We proved not all Germans were mindless torchbearers for tyranny! We were ridiculed, we were beaten and jailed, but we saved this nation’s soul. Now children, go and live your lives in a way to make me proud"?
Wouldn’t you?
I don’t get it: Let’s say you flip a coin and manage to vote for "the winner," on Nov. 2.
What do you win?

Oliver Cromwell address to Joint Session of the 108th Congress
" It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place which you have dishonoured by your contempt of all virtue and defiled by your every vice. Ye are a pack of mercenary wretches and like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money. Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God. Which of you has not battered your conscience with bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the commonwealth? Ye furdid prostitutes have you not defiled this sacred place and turned the Lord's temple into a den of thieves by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here to get grievances redressed; are not yourselves become the greatest the grievance? Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse the Augean stable by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this house and which by God's help and the strength he has given me I am now come to do I command ye therefore upon the peril of your lives to depart immediately out of this place... Go and get out, make haste ye venal slaves be gone - so take away that shining bauble there and lock up the doors."

Dear God - save us from the people who believe in you!

. . . like the DUMBTALKER George W. Bush

Directed by John Woo 

I think that the free-enterprise system is absolutely too important to be left to the voluntary action of the marketplace.
-- Congressman Richard Kelly (R-Fla.)

. . . we debunk the lies, expose the frauds, and take a magnifying lens to the elaborate deceptions that rationalize America’s policy of perpetual war. And we do it because this is the central issue of our times. If we take the road to Empire, then the idea of limited government is doomed: the crushing weight of confiscatory taxation will smother our old republic, and stamp out the last vestiges of America’s libertarian legacy.
Every war is a test, and, with this war we face our greatest test. Most libertarians, I am glad to say, are rising to the occasion: others – swept along by the rising tide of militarism and statism, enthralled by the rhetoric of warmongering demagogues, blinded by narcissism and hubris – are falling by the wayside. The American libertarian movement has gone full circle: we have come, in the end, to a replication of our beginnings.

"The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist." -- President John Adams (1797-1801)

"Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you." -- Benjamin Franklin

When the chips are down, the buffalo is empty.

WAS - HIS 

"John Kerry fell off of his bicycle over the weekend. He went for a Sunday afternoon ride, fell off in front of the news media. Luckily, his hair broke the fall..... In fact, when the police arrived, Kerry was well enough to give conflicting reports to the officers about what happened." -Jay Leno

I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.
-- James Madison [1794](Pertaining to Congress' appropriation $15,000 for relief of French refugees)

Just a reminder that any federal tax money (FEMA) to help with the rebuilding of parts of devastated Florida after Ivan and Jeanne is unconstitutional.

the Founders abhorred standing armies!
Consider the words of Virginian James Madison:
A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence agst. foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.
Sam Adams put it this way:
And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress ... to raise standing armies, unless necessary for the defense of the United States.
Henry St. George Tucker, in Blackstone’s 1768 Commentaries on the Laws of England, stated:
Wherever standing armies are kept up, and when the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.
Virginian Patrick Henry pointed out:
A standing army we shall have, also, to execute the execrable commands of tyranny; and how are you to punish them? Will you order them to be punished? Who shall obey these orders? Will your mace-bearer be a match for a disciplined regiment?
The Declaration of Rights of the State of North Carolina made this point:
That the people have a Right to bear Arms for the Defence of the State, and as Standing Armies in Time of Peace are dangerous to Liberty, they ought not to be kept up, and that the military should be kept under strict Subordination to, and governed by the Civil Power.
The Pennsylvania Convention put it this way:
As standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military shall be kept under strict subordination to and be governed by the civil power.
Eldridge Gerry saide in 1789:
What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty.

Today, the US Empire maintains troops in 150 foreign countries. Modern-day Americans do not comprehend the costs - in money, good will, safty at home and abroad - associated with this monstrosity.

Nota bene: there is only one libertarianism . . . all other tonguewag to the contrary. And even then it is only a milestone toward 'spontaneous order'. "The radical libertarian vision starts with an abstract ideal: a polity in which government’s sole function is to protect individual rights to life, liberty, and property. A “true” libertarian, in this view, is someone who upholds this ideal as the summum bonum. True libertarians may get their hands dirty in the real world and advocate incremental reforms, and they may even be coy about their long-term hopes, but when pressed they must declare their allegiance to the ideal. Any deviation from the ideal, any support for any extension of government’s proper role beyond rights protection, is seen as impure and compromised. Such deviations represent 'concessions' to statism; they 'open the door' to relentless and limitless expansion of Leviathan." (-- from Brink Lindsey).
Fie on the pragmatic, government libertarian who supports US troops in 150 countries and war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

by Dmitry Chernikov

The military, that greatest conservative institution in the U.S. and the embodiment of strength and honor, protects the American people from aggression. The foolish and cowardly naysayers do not comprehend how many foreign tyrants are looking to plunder our nation's silverware, force Microsoft to publish the Windows source code, and convert us to Islam at gunpoint. Our soldiers spread American virtues all over the globe, protecting the weak, establishing order, and securing important resources for the American consumer. God bless our guys, and may the sacrifices they make for all of us every single day be always remembered.
Such is our carefully cultivated myth about the military. This is why the citizen-subjects of this great country overlook the obvious fact that the modern military is a Communist establishment.
Make no mistake: when a person joins the army, he for all intents and purposes defects to the former Soviet Union and asserts a preference for life under total state. Consider:
His life will be strictly regimented by his superiors to the extent which would have horrified a Soviet miner.
During the time of his incarceration he will be completely useless to his fellow man. Instead of starting a business or learning a trade, he will be learning how to destroy in the blink of an eye what others have spent years and even centuries building.
As a result of the brainwashing he will receive in the army he will run a serious risk of losing his ability to think critically. In addition, I fail to see how a man who has killed in an unjust war and has not repented can be a moral man or a believer in God.
He will be turned into a weapon to be used according to the whims of the General Secretary of the Republican-Democrat party in Washington, D.C. He will be used to kill innocents, disrupt free trade, prop up tyrants at home and abroad, and foment hatred for private American citizens.
He will be used as a guinea pig in government experiments, and, if he goes to war, he will likely be exposed to chemicals, radiation, and suchlike without his knowledge or consent, all of which will cause him to die well before his time.
Now I do not want to be unfair and overlook the benefits of military service. In general, a young man should consider joining the army if
He likes to kill people and destroy private and public property.
He thinks that he will enjoy recreations such as driving a tank or shooting big guns.
He believes that the military will give him ample opportunity to rape local women and use the services of prostitutes, e.g. while on shore leave.
He wishes to acquire certain rare skills, e.g. the skill of demolition or piloting airplanes or even hostage negotiation.
He lives in a society where the dominant type of relationship is the hegemonic bond, for instance, a barbarian tribe or a military state geared for conquest, such that the most expeditious path to advancement is through a career in the military.
We have to admit that the historically greatest benefit of being a soldier – the ability to loot sacked cities – is offered less frequently these days. But for true professionals there are many opportunities to do well financially.
There was a reason why the Founders abhorred standing armies. It is very dangerous to have a well-armed, extremely expensive, mindlessly obedient, and uncivilized group of Communists among a free people.
Here then is a genuine pro-liberty reform. Let us root out Communism in our own midst. Let these poor government workers truly serve the people in the market, even as private security guards and consultants. Let international companies hire their own mercenaries so that everybody knows that the latter are not financed by our money. Let war contractors make the proverbial plowshares. Let the Joint Chiefs of Staff change their vocation to the Amazing Siamese Twins in a travelling circus. In short, abolish the standing army.

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.--Pericles (430 B.C.)

Makato Tamada 

May 23, 2005
WASHINGTON, DC (AP) - Congress approved sweeping legislation, which provides new benefits for many Americans. The Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA), signed into law by President John Kerry shortly after its passage, is being hailed as a major victory by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition. "Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society," said Kerry, a longtime AWNA supporter. "This is why many of them voted for me. We can no longer stand by and allow People of Inability to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers, simply because they do a better job, or have some idea of what they are doing", said Kerry. President Kerry pointed to the success of the US Postal Service, which has a long-standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance. Approximately 80 percent of postal employees lack job skills, making this agency the single largest US employer of Persons of Inability. Private sector industries with good records of non-discrimination against the Inept include retail sales (72%), the airline industry (68%), and home improvement "warehouse" stores (65%). President Kerry has also set an example, personally selecting hundreds of Nonabled people for top government positions, including many cabinet-level jobs. Under the Americans With No Abilities Act, more than 25 million "middleman" positions will be created, with important-sounding titles but little real responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance. Mandatory non-performance-based raises and promotions will be given to guarantee upward mobility for even the most unremarkable employees. The legislation provides substantial tax breaks to corporations which maintain a significant level of Persons of Inability in top positions, and gives a tax credit to small and medium businesses that agree to hire one clueless worker for every two talented hires. Finally, the AWNAA contains tough new measures to make it more difficult to discriminate against the Nonabled, banning discriminatory interview questions such as "Do you have any goals for the future?" or "Do you have any skills or experience which relate to this job?" and "Are you awake?" "As a Nonabled person, I can't be expected to keep up with people who have something going for them," said Mary Lou Gertz, who lost her position as a lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint, MI due to her lack of notable job skills. "This new law should really help people like me." With the passage of this bill, Gertz and millions of other untalented citizens can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. Said Kerry, "It is our duty as lawmakers to provide each and everyAmerican citizen, regardless of his or her adequacy, with some sort of space to take up in this great nation."