Illegal Immigration is not the problem.

Illegal Immigration Is Not The Problem

Our Government Programs Are the Problem.

“Calling an illegal alien an ‘undocumented immigrant’ is like calling a drug dealer an ‘unlicensed pharmacist’” — anonymous email

The rhetoric is crazy.  The kind of emotion generated with the immigration debate is very strong and passionate.  There seems to be very little sense of balance or recognition of the severity of the “crime”.  Some people talk about illegal immigration as if it is the coming of the Anti-Christ and the very face of Satan himself.  Hogwash.  Illegal immigration is simply a failure to follow the rules and is by and large a victimless crime.  No one is hurt, robbed, maimed, raped, defrauded, or otherwise harmed by the flow of illegal immigrants in and of themselves.  The problem is not with the immigrants it is government regulations and welfare policy that is the problem.

The statutory “crime” committed by many of the illegal aliens in the United States is found under 8 USC 1325, “Improper Entry by an Alien”.  It carries criminal and civil penalties.  The first offense carries a penalty of fines and up to six months in jail.  Civil penalties are between $50 and $250 for each offense.  If this were a state crime, it would land squarely within the range of misdemeanor crimes.  Something that is more than a little sad is that the Great State of Utah cares more about enforcing immigration law than the United States of America does.

How does Utah law and penalties line up with the civil penalties for illegal immigration?  In Utah, you can be fined $50 or more for: driving ONE mile per hour over the speed limit, littering, imroper passing, tinted windows (too dark), allowing an unlicensed person to drive, defacing a driver’s license, HOV lane violations, improper turns, driving too slow, handicapped parking violations, people under 17 driving past curfew, no proof of insurance, underage tobacco possession, fishing without a license, catching fish over the limit, unlawful possession of toxic shot (shotguns), no evidence of sex/species attached to carcass, camping more than 14 days in a restricted area, tresspass on Division of Wildlife Resource lands, failure to wear enough hunter orange, hauling an OHV without registration, no registration card on an OHV, failure to display registration on an OHV, and many other things.  These are all fairly minor infractions that do not carry a significant social stigma with them and certainly would not typically result in time behind bars.

When we talk about crime there are two basic categories of crime, mala in se and mala prohibitum.  Mala in se crimes are morally and ethically wrong like murder, theft, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, manslaughter, fraud, embezzlement, etc….  Mala Prohibitum crimes are wrong because society regulates the behavior.  Things like parking tickets, speeding, not having a business license, not filing your taxes on time, driving without a license, weight regulations for over the road trucks, and . . . improper entry by an alien.  The illegal aliens in the country violated a regulatory statute and committed an offence against regulations.  The crime is not that they came here, it is that they crossed the border improperly.

Some people think that the solution should be to send them all back and then to come back in the way they are supposed to.  Go and apply for a work visa, a green card, or other authorization to come here.  That sounds good in the absract, but what other misdemeanor crime do we have in the United States where you force a person who is entrenched with their family, is gainfully employed, has no other criminal history, and then force them to move away for an undetermined amout of time?  Mass deportation is both inhumane and makes no sense.  It would be like every time you were caught in a traffic moving violation you were forced to return to wherever you started your trip, wait several hours, and try again but this time follow the rules.

The immigration system is broken.  According to the State Department’s own monthly visa reports, immigrants from Mexico sponsored by their own families have between a 10 and 15 year wait in line already because of statutory limitations on the number of immigrants that can come in to the country each year.  Mexico has the longest waiting times followed by the Phillippines, India, and China.  There is simply no feasible way for people to comply with the laws to enter the country properly in a timely manner.  When the system is broken the people rise up to form a new system that meets their needs, rightly or wrongly.

A similar thing happens with markets for any good or service.  When the regular markets stop working or are over regulated, black markets rise up so that the people can still get what they want whatever the cost.  Because the market of legal immigration is so broken and completely failing to meet the needs of the people who so desperatly want to come to the United States for a better life a black market of illegal immigration has formed and is doing quite well.  We need to improve the market for legal immigration if we want to have any hope of solving the illegal immigration problem.  So how do we fix it?

Letting the people already here gain some kind of legal status without deportation is one idea.  The idea is often sharply criticized as  ”amnesty”, “rewarding criminal behavior”, or even “coddling criminals”.  The vast majority of these people are decent, family oriented people who really are just looking for a better way of life for their families.  They come here to work and be productive members of society.  They have not actually harmed any person at all, there is no victim of their crime.  What is the problem?

These amnesty programs and ideas are fair and equitable because of the way the United States has treated illegal immigration for about the last 100 years.  It has been treated as seriously as jaywalking or moderate speeding where the main rule is — just don’t get caught.  For decades illegal immigration has gone on and it has been no big deal.  What makes sense about suddenly deciding it is a big deal so now all of you people who moved here and thought it was not such a big deal have to leave your homes and families to try and come back again in another 10 to 20 years?  Where is the common sense or fairness in such an approach?  There is no sense to it other than some kind of revenge motive.  It does not make anyone whole or better off to forcibly move millions of people back south of the border just becuase we woke up one day and decided now is the time to get serious.

The real problem of illegal immigration (and there is one) has to do with over regulation of the market, tax policy, and social services.  By law if a state offers welfare, public schooling, or other public services to citizens it must also offer the same services to illegal aliens.  Combining this problem with the tax benefits to employers who hire illegal immigrants and then do not pay payroll taxes, social security, or medicare taxes, we have a group that is considered to be double dipping — they do not pay taxes but collect all of the benefits of our tax dollars.  Aside from the dollars and cents of the matter, each and every employee is supposed to have a tax ID number of some sort which then leads to problems of identity theft, at least of social security numbers.  Pretty much all of these problems would go away if the regulatory and welfare state also went away.

Focusing on illegal immigrants as the problem misses the mark.  The governmental and regulatory framework we live under right now makes the illegal immigrant issue an odious problem we need to solve.  The solution is to change the framework we have, not to move millions of people out of the country.

Honduras Got It Right

Honduras Got it Right

The “military coup” in Honduras is an example of constitutional law working to remove an out of control executive.  The government of Honduras used legal means to make the change.  The people of the United States should take notes and act on them.  We have regular elections here too.

There has been a lot of news recently about international doings.  Iran had an election that is hotly disputed to the point of people demonstrating in the streets and videos showing the deaths of innocent passers by.  North Korea is launching missiles again.  Honduras had a “military coup”.  President Obama was strangely late to comment on the doings of Iran and North Korea and very quick to criticize the goings on in Honduras.  Why?

Unless President Obama tells us we cannot be sure.  Perhaps it is because the current president is following in the footsteps of the last several presidents and is clearly in favor of a more powerful executive.  One explanation is that President Obama is really speaking in favor of powerful executives instead of the rule of law.  A powerful executive in Iran is maintaining power in the face of a questionable election.  A powerful executive in North Korea is launching missiles and acting aggressively.  A powerful executive in Honduras is thrown out of office via legal and constitutional means.  That’s terrible!

Some background is in order.  President Manuel Zelaya was escorted from his home at the end of June by the military of Honduras.  Zelaya was in the process of seeking an extra-legal referendum to change the constitution to remove or extend Presidential term limits.  A referendum of this type would need the support of congress and there was no congressional support for this referendum.  Zelaya went so far as to secure ballots from Hugo Chavez for the election which ballots were then seized by the military of Honduras.  Zelaya would not stand for that and used an armed mob of people to take the ballots back.

The Supreme Court of Honduras previously ruled on the proposed referendum and the actions of Zelaya in continuing to force the election without the support of congress.  These actions were in violation of the Constitution of Honduras.  When the top General of the Honduran military refused to aid Zelaya in carrying out the referendum he was fired.  Zelaya was clearly seeking power using any means necessary.

Faced with an executive who refused to follow the law, the Supreme Court of Honduras issued an order to detain Zelaya which order was carried out by the military.  This military act was to preserve the integrity of the constitution and rule of law in Honduras.  Once Zelaya was removed from the country, a replacement was named by the congress from the same political party as Zelaya.  It was an orderly and minimally violent change of power in Honduras and the forms of government remained intact.  The regular November elections are scheduled to go forward as usual.

In spite of this turn of events and the orderly transfer of power from an out of control executive, Honduras is facing voluminous international criticism for these actions.  The real focus of criticism should be on Zelaya and his total disdain for the rule of law in his own country.

What about here in the United States?  We have an executive that is clearly pursuing actions in violation of the constitution and established law.  For example, the bankruptcy of Chrysler agreement violated more than 150 years of bankruptcy law by giving preferential treatment to other creditors before bond holders.  This was a violation of bankruptcy law, a possible “taking” under the Fifth Amendment, and a possible violation of other portions of the Constitution.  Why is congress sitting idly by?

Congress is enjoying the growth of governmental power too.  Each and every new regulation, area of regulation, and tax assessed against the people of the United States brings more power to the government.  The new laws and programs instituted by the President bring more power and money to the government of the United States.  Spending Billions and Trillions of dollars brings great power and influence.

When the people of Honduras were faced with an out of control President who had no regard for the laws of the land, the legal means to handle the situation were employed and the President was removed.  The people of the United States need to use the legal means at our disposal to remove out of control politicians and stand up for the rule of law instead of the rule of man.

Honduras did it right and we should follow their example.

Honduras Got it Right

The “military coup” in Honduras is an example of constitutional law working to remove an out of control executive.  The government of Honduras used legal means to make the change.  The people of the United States should take notes and act on them.  We have regular elections here too.

There has been a lot of news recently about international doings.  Iran had an election that is hotly disputed to the point of people demonstrating in the streets and videos showing the deaths of innocent passers by.  North Korea is launching missiles again.  Honduras had a “military coup”.  President Obama was strangely late to comment on the doings of Iran and North Korea and very quick to criticize the goings on in Honduras.  Why?

Unless President Obama tells us we cannot be sure.  Perhaps it is because the current president is following in the footsteps of the last several presidents and is clearly in favor of a more powerful executive.  One explanation is that President Obama is really speaking in favor of powerful executives instead of the rule of law.  A powerful executive in Iran is maintaining power in the face of a questionable election.  A powerful executive in North Korea is launching missiles and acting aggressively.  A powerful executive in Honduras is thrown out of office via legal and constitutional means.  That’s terrible!

Some background is in order.  President Manuel Zelaya was escorted from his home at the end of June by the military of Honduras.  Zelaya was in the process of seeking an extra-legal referendum to change the constitution to remove or extend Presidential term limits.  A referendum of this type would need the support of congress and there was no congressional support for this referendum.  Zelaya went so far as to secure ballots from Hugo Chavez for the election which ballots were then seized by the military of Honduras.  Zelaya would not stand for that and used an armed mob of people to take the ballots back.

The Supreme Court of Honduras previously ruled on the proposed referendum and the actions of Zelaya in continuing to force the election without the support of congress.  These actions were in violation of the Constitution of Honduras.  When the top General of the Honduran military refused to aid Zelaya in carrying out the referendum he was fired.  Zelaya was clearly seeking power using any means necessary.

Faced with an executive who refused to follow the law, the Supreme Court of Honduras issued an order to detain Zelaya which order was carried out by the military.  This military act was to preserve the integrity of the constitution and rule of law in Honduras.  Once Zelaya was removed from the country, a replacement was named by the congress from the same political party as Zelaya.  It was an orderly and minimally violent change of power in Honduras and the forms of government remained intact.  The regular November elections are scheduled to go forward as usual.

In spite of this turn of events and the orderly transfer of power from an out of control executive, Honduras is facing voluminous international criticism for these actions.  The real focus of criticism should be on Zelaya and his total disdain for the rule of law in his own country.

What about here in the United States?  We have an executive that is clearly pursuing actions in violation of the constitution and established law.  For example, the bankruptcy of Chrysler agreement violated more than 150 years of bankruptcy law by giving preferential treatment to other creditors before bond holders.  This was a violation of bankruptcy law, a possible “taking” under the Fifth Amendment, and a possible violation of other portions of the Constitution.  Why is congress sitting idly by?

Congress is enjoying the growth of governmental power too.  Each and every new regulation, area of regulation, and tax assessed against the people of the United States brings more power to the government.  The new laws and programs instituted by the President bring more power and money to the government of the United States.  Spending Billions and Trillions of dollars brings great power and influence.

When the people of Honduras were faced with an out of control President who had no regard for the laws of the land, the legal means to handle the situation were employed and the President was removed.  The people of the United States need to use the legal means at our disposal to remove out of control politicians and stand up for the rule of law instead of the rule of man.

Honduras did it right and we should follow their example.

Comments Welcome

Cap and Trade Hurts

CAP AND TRADE HURTS

Cap and Trade. Sounds simple enough and earth friendly, right? We just limit our emissions of greenhouse gasses for a better future. Not this time. It will be a barrier to new business pursuits and cause increases in our basic cost of living.

Congress has just passed a bill that will empower the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) to implement new regulations on the emission of carbon dioxide (CO₂). This is a major problem for every hard working Utahan.

We all want to take care of the planet, we all want a cleaner environment and a better place for our children to live. We just need to do it in a way that is fair, makes sense and is scientifically sound.

Back in the early 1990’s, the EPA implemented a cap and trade policy on power plants and factories to clean up air pollution. One of the main targets of this regulation was sulfur dioxide gas(SO₂). These SO₂ emissions caused acid rain which was a legitimate threat to many ecosystems. The rules limited SO₂ emissions at a set level for each business and if any one business wanted to emit excess pollutants they would have to buy additional pollution allowances on the market. These regulations on emissions created an artificial market for pollution credits for SO₂. It has worked out fairly well with SO₂ emissions down in many areas and sales of low sulfur coal increasing as one inexpensive way to cut down on SO₂ emissions. New businesses found ways to clean up their emissions to reduce their SO₂ output and not have to buy pollution credits. This regulatory scheme worked to clean up the air. The new regulations passed by Congress will not clean up the air and will hurt business development while raising our cost of living.

The new regulation targets CO₂ as a green house gas contributing to global warming and seeks to reduce CO₂emissions. This is problematic on many levels.

First, regardless of what you may have heard or read there is no monolithic consensus in the scientific community about global warming. There is warming and cooling and the most recent iteration of this danger to the planet is called global climate change. We actually appear to be entering cooling cycle now.

Second, even if global warming is happening, the human based impact on greenhouse gasses is not significant. There are many natural sources of methane gas from swamp lands and tropical climates. Forest fires produce large amounts of CO₂. The global warming gasses from human sources versus natural sources are very minor in comparison.

Third, clean CO₂ emissions were the goal of many EPA regulations from the 1990’s. When something is burned and CO₂ is the only emission it means that a complete burning of the source fuel was accomplished and the other pollutants were cleaned from the emissions and the environment is better off for it. After so many years of seeking to clean up emissions so that only clean, pure, environmentally friendly CO₂ was emitted from so many sources, the EPA is going to regulate that too? It boggles the mind.

Fourth, CO₂ is one of the most natural and beneficial ambient gasses in the world. It is produced by breathing air and is recycled back into oxygen by plant life. It is basic biology and science. CO₂ makes up less than one half of one percent of the earth’s atmosphere and some scientists believe that a greater amount of CO₂ will promote additional growth of plant life.

By putting a “cap and trade” regulation for CO₂, there will be penalties and problems for all EPA regulated industries that emit it. Coal fired power plants will have to pay more no matter how clean they are. Any EPA regulated industry that relies on heat produced by coal or natural gas will be forced to operate under the cap and trade allowances for CO₂.

There were unintended consequences from prior cap and trade regulatory schemes. In the 1990’s companies were limited by mandate on SO₂ emissions. If they kept under their limits they were allowed to bank and then sell these pollution credits to other companies. In some cases, companies that went bankrupt still had the pollution credits they could sell to other companies making it profitable for the company owner to remain closed instead of reopening and creating new jobs.

There were rumors a few years ago about Kennecott Copper moving their smelting operations overseas and shipping the ore there instead of smelting here. Under these new regulations that could make the option even more likely.  If Kennecott found they would make more money selling their CO₂ credits instead of using them here it would make better business sense to move smelting operations overseas. Whether the smelting operations are moved or not the caps on CO₂emissions will make smelting operations more expensive and will prohibit increased production from the mine due to increased costs.

Electrical Power in Utah primarily comes from coal fired power plants. The power plants cleaned up their emissions quite nicely to be emitting CO₂ without the more odious gasses. Under the new cap and trade rules, the electricity produced will cost more for everyone and these increased operating costs will be passed down to the average consumer as a hidden tax, or inflation, or whatever you call increased costs from overt government regulation.

Any new manufacturing businesses would still be at a disadvantage with these cap and trade policies. No matter how clean burning the equipment, the mere fact that CO₂ is emitted would cause problems for them and they would have to pay more to open here than in another country. Existing businesses will have an incentive to quit growing. Energy costs will go up and the cost of everything will increase under this regulatory framework.

The Cap and Trade bill will not do anything to save the environment, improve our lifestyle, or encourage business in an already difficult economy. It is merely imposing regulation for the benefit of government by creating a new income stream via the auction of pollution credits and passing the cost onto the hard working people that get things done.

Shame on Congress for passing it.

Comments Welcome

Believing is Seeing

We are told to be faithful, that if we believe we will be delivered.

This brings to mind the following questions.  How strong is my belief?  Does proclaiming my belief but feeling fearful negate my belief?  Is my life really a mirror of my beliefs?

Let’s look at this a little closer.

Prayer

One of my strongly held beliefs it that I express my belief through prayer.

Prayer is talking with God.  You may have heard, if you want to talk to God, Pray.  If you want God to talk to you, read your scriptures.  Hopefully the prayers are not just words but an extension of your heart and soul.  When we enlist to serve the Master, we are asked to serve Him with all of our might, mind, and strengh with our body, mind, and soul.  When our prayers are just words, we are not really communicating in the way we ought to.  We are told to pray always, to always keep a prayer in our hearts.  How do we do this?

We are always pouring out our hearts and minds to the ether.  We are broadcasting our beliefs through our feelings and actions.  We can act with faith or act without faith.  Our feelings, what we are always thinking about, how we feel about something will always change the way a certain event is experienced and even how we experience life.

One person I know told me about looking for his keys, certain that his wife had put them some place where they didn’t belong.  He looked for about twenty minutes before finding them IN HIS LEFT HAND.  He was absolutely CONVINCED that the keys were in a place they didn’t belong and kept looking and looking.  He is certain that he must have actually seen the keys in his hand or felt them at some point but because of his strong belief that he had to find them and they were some place they didn’t belong, his mind was interpreting, twisting, and deleting data that conflicted with his belief that the keys were some place they didn’t belong.  This is just one example of how it works.  If he simply chose to believe that he already had his keys (even if he didn’t know exactly where they were at that exact moment) he probably would have found them in his own hand a lot faster.

It colors how we view our human interaction.  If someone is rude to me on the street, I can view that person as a jerk.  Or I could view them as a person with a lot on their mind and probably just trying to make it through the day.  Sometimes I tend to assume the best of people I know and think the worst of people I don’t know.  I am choosing to start believing the best of others.

How does this affect prayer?  If I believe that if I am fearful of prayers not being answered or that I need to pray to avoid the worst from happening, then it really is a faithless prayer.  God is good and wants to bless us and by believing that God is good and wants to bless us I open the way for these blessings to come forward in my life.  By changing my belief patterns, it expresses more faith in God.

If I pray, but keep envisioning tragedy, loss, heartache, and sadness, it negates the Faith necessary to receive the blessings.  It is another form of the description “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”.  Our hearts determine the blessings we receive far more than the words we say when we pray.  We need to be faithful.

Is Life a Mirror?

The short answer is yes.  Think about it.  We have all sorts of desires that we focus on but do not pray about.  We are still going to receive things consistent with our beliefs and desires.  One of the purposes of Prayer is to acknowledge God as the giver of all things.  It is also an opportunity for us to obey the commandment to be thankful in all things.

If you believe that God is not real, then your perspective will color events and you will see things in your life to bolster that belief.  If you believe God is real, you will begin to see His hand in many things and your belief will be strengthened.

We are told “ask and ye SHALL receive, knock and it SHALL be openen unto you”.  These are unequivocal statements.  If you are asking in your heart for things that are bad for you, you will get them.  If you are asking in your heart for good things, you will get them.  It really is that simple.  This verse in Jacob 4:14 is one example of how it works:

But behold, the Jews were a stiffnecked people; and theydespised the words of plainness, and killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble.

Part of what makes this verse interesting is what is not said.  It does not say they prayed for it, but that they “sought” and “desired” it.

Another very interesting verse has to do with our ability to understand things based on our belief from Mosiah 26:3.

“And now because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God; and their hearts were hardened”.

There was a causal link between their unbelief and their inability to understand.

If we want to see the Hand of God in our lives, we need to believe that God has a hand in our lives.

Comments Welcome

Two Articles from Pravda

The first one is about the collapse of the capitalist system.  The second one is a more strongly worded article about conspiracy theories and what is really going on in the United States.

Yes, Pravda was the official government news organ in the Soviet Union.  Now it is not.  They even print editorials that they don’t agree with but want to share more points of view.

I doubt either of these articles would make it into a newspaper in the United States.

Who has a greater freedom of the press?

 http://english.pravda.ru/print/opinion/columnists/107459-american_capitalism-0

http://english.pravda.ru/print/opinion/columnists/107654-change-0

Happy Reading, Comments Welcome

Controlling Masses of People Part 2

This is another post dealing with the philosophies espoused by Willie Lynch, a man known for his ideas on controlling slaves and the origin of the word “lynching”.  There is a page with much of his material here.

The last post dealt with the problem of division and diversity.  By focusing on the differences between people (and 300 years ago, slaves) you can keep them distrustful of each other and that much easier to control and handle.

This post deals with the reversal of male and female roles.  Willie Lynch taught that to control the slave population for generations, you have to take a slave woman with a child and then terrorize the men in front of them to teach the woman that there is no effective male influence in her life and the child that if you are rebellious you will be brutalized mercilessly.

The example Willie Lynch suggests is to punish the most rebellious male slave in front of the women, children, and other male slaves.  Take the most rebellious one, tar & feather him before setting him on fire and pulling him apart with horses tied to his legs.  Then take a bull whip and beat the rest of the adult males just short of death.  The point of this gruesome showing of force is to destroy the male image in front of the women and children so as to put the woman into a shocked stupor where she will become independent of the protective males in her life and raise her sons to be subservient and her girls to be more independent.  By doing this, the men will hide behind the women and the women will never rise up in violent rebellion.

How does this compare to today’s society?  It is happening in a much softer and subtle fashion.  Three times in the last hundred years thousands of men were sent off to war and women had to take complete charge of the home front in the absense of their men.  The women’s movement in the 1960’s has made women more independent and more necessary in the work force.  With this massive influx of labor and disposable income, inflation has taken control to the point that making it in today’s world on one income can be a very difficult thing to do.  

With the most recent economic downturn in the United States, most of the jobs lost have been manufacturing jobs held by men, and in other industries dominated by men putting in place for the first time in modern history a situation where more women are workign outside of the home than men.  This is a role reversal for sure.

As this continues, there will be less of a love of liberty and a softening of the masses of men allowing the existing order to continue unabated and the loss of our freedoms unmourned.  

Comments Welcome

Controlling Masses of People

There is a hidden group of people continually seeking to keep the masses of population in servitude.  Really, there is.  It seems that the only time the Republicans and Democrats agree on anything is how to take more power from the people and to control us.  The easiest and best way for them to control us is if we control ourselves first.  It is by making us distrustful of each other.  

There is an interesting dynamic in the United States and similar “modern” cultures today.  One major group is preaching and teaching Unity while many of the other voices in government, media, and the public at large are preaching and teaching diversity and focusing on what makes us different.  What is lost in the shuffle is how much freedom we are losing year after year.

The Government of the United States ownes about 60 percent of all mortgages in the United States and is rapidly becoming a major shareholder in Chrysler, General Motors and several banking and financial institutions.  With ownership comes control.  The congress seems mostly compliant with the unreasonable demands of a very vigorous President who is bent on taking more and more control of every aspect of our lives.  

To borrow a phrase from Neal Boortz, the “Imperial Federal Government” keeps growing and taking more and more of our freedoms.

I was thinking of a speech given by Willie Lynch in 1712 about how to control slaves.   The speech itself is reproduced here in its entirety from this site:

Greetings,

Gentlemen. I greet you here on the bank of the James River in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twelve. First, I shall thank you, the gentlemen of the Colony of Virginia, for bringing me here. I am here to help you solve some of your problems with slaves. Your invitation reached me on my modest plantation in the West Indies, where I have experimented with some of the newest, and still the oldest, methods for control of slaves. Ancient Rome would envy us if my program is implemented. As our boat sailed south on the James River, named for our illustrious King, whose version of the Bible we cherish, I saw enough to know that your problem is not unique. While Rome used cords of wood as crosses for standing human bodies along its highways in great numbers, you are here using the tree and the rope on occasions. I caught the whiff of a dead slave hanging from a tree, a couple miles back. You are not only losing valuable stock by hangings, you are having uprisings, slaves are running away, your crops are sometimes left in the fields too long for maximum profit, you suffer occasional fires, your animals are killed. Gentlemen, you know what your problems are; I do not need to elaborate. I am not here to enumerate your problems, I am here to introduce you to a method of solving them. In my bag here, I HAVE A FOOL PROOF METHOD FOR CONTROLLING YOUR BLACK SLAVES. I guarantee every one of you that, if installed correctly,IT WILL CONTROL THE SLAVES FOR AT LEAST 300 HUNDREDS YEARS. My method is simple. Any member of your family or your overseer can use it. I HAVE OUTLINED A NUMBER OF DIFFERENCES AMONG THE SLAVES; AND I TAKE THESE DIFFERENCES AND MAKE THEM BIGGER. I USE FEAR, DISTRUST AND ENVY FOR CONTROL PURPOSES. These methods have worked on my modest plantation in the West Indies and it will work throughout the South. Take this simple little list of differences and think about them. On top of my list is “AGE,” but it’s there only because it starts with an “a.” The second is “COLOR” or shade. There is INTELLIGENCE, SIZE, SEX, SIZES OF PLANTATIONS, STATUS on plantations, ATTITUDE of owners, whether the slaves live in the valley, on a hill, East, West, North, South, have fine hair, course hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give you an outline of action, but before that, I shall assure you that DISTRUST IS STRONGER THAN TRUST AND ENVY STRONGER THAN ADULATION, RESPECT OR ADMIRATION. The Black slaves after receiving this indoctrination shall carry on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for HUNDREDS of years, maybe THOUSANDS. Don’t forget, you must pitch the OLD black male vs. the YOUNG black male, and the YOUNG black male against the OLD black male. You must use the DARK skin slaves vs. the LIGHT skin slaves, and the LIGHT skin slaves vs. the DARK skin slaves. You must use the FEMALE vs. the MALE, and the MALE vs. the FEMALE. You must also have white servants and overseers [who] distrust all Blacks. But it is NECESSARY THAT YOUR SLAVES TRUST AND DEPEND ON US. THEY MUST LOVE, RESPECT AND TRUST ONLY US. Gentlemen, these kits are your keys to control. Use them. Have your wives and children use them, never miss an opportunity. IF USED INTENSELY FOR ONE YEAR, THE SLAVES THEMSELVES WILL REMAIN PERPETUALLY DISTRUSTFUL. Thank you gentlemen.

According to Willie Lynch, by focusing on the differences you can pit the groups against each other so that they will not trust each other and instead will strust the slave owner, or in our case the Imperial Federal Government.  There is much more to Willie Lynch’s perspective than this, but it was used en masse 300 years ago and the effects are still being felt today.  That is part of the problem that some minority populations are facing today because they were indoctrinated in general much more than other populations but through the media and political efforts we are being fed the same lines of garbage that will only serve to make us slaves.

We need to focus on unity instead of diversity.  If we are united, we can make the world a much better place.  Focus on what we have in common, not on what is different.

The institution of slavery was much more brutal and violent, from George Will’s article last week here is a description of how the government is working to enslave us by much more genteel means:

In “Democracy in America,” Alexis de Tocqueville anticipated people being governed by “an immense, tutelary power” determined to take “sole charge of assuring their enjoyment and of watching over their fate.” It would be a power “absolute, attentive to detail, regular, provident and gentle,” aiming for our happiness but wanting “to be the only agent and the sole arbiter of that happiness.” It would, Tocqueville said, provide people security, anticipate their needs, direct their industries and divide their inheritances. It would envelop society in “a network of petty regulations — complicated, minute and uniform.” But softly: “It does not break wills; it softens them, bends them, and directs them” until people resemble “a herd of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.”

This is wayyy too accurate for my tastes.  We need to stand up and be more independent of government.

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B. Hussein Obama Wants A Nation of (Weak) Men, Not Laws

President Obama wants social justice instead of equal protection of the laws.  Social Justice is what was implemented under Communist Soviet Rule in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917 and the ensuing civil war between the Red and White armies.  The Red army won and the traditional protection of the laws was thrown out in favor of social justice.

President Obama is seeking a similar situation in the Bankruptcy Courts on multiple fronts.  (Hat Tip to Neal Boortz.)

First there was the effort to change the powers/jurisdiction of the Bankruptcy courts to allow them to rewrite mortgages for better terms for debtors.  Frankly, I can see that this would be a good idea and that perhaps mortgages should not be any different than any other debts people are facing right now, but I don’t see the justice or fairness in allowing this to happen after all of the mortgages have been written.  The original debts were entered into based on one understanding of debtor/creditor law and to change the rules after the contracts were entered into is fundamentally unfair.  If you were to pass the law and then only apply it to the new mortgages, fine.

Now President Obama is seeking to cheat secured creditors in the Chrysler Bankruptcy.  The President has already changed the terms of ownership of Chrysler so that approximately 90% of the company will be owned by the Government of the United States and the Unions.  Now in bankruptcy, the secured creditors are supposed to take a backseat to unsecured creditors when the unsecured creditors are union employees depending on pension benefits that Chrysler is now unable to pay.  Under the recognized bankruptcy laws if you are a secured creditor, you are supposed to have preferential treatment by the Bankruptcy Courts because your debt is tied to a tangible item, much like a home mortgage or car loan.  

Presidnet Obama is now trying to demagogue the secured creditors as the evil rich who don’t care about the poor working man.  The problem with this is that the bond holding creditors are likely to be companies who invested other people’s money which was supposed to be “secure” in the “bond market”.  If you are an investor who put your money in bonds, and some of those bonds were purchased from Chrysler as an investment vehicle, President Obama expects you to simply give your money to the more favored union members who are not able to collect their pensions because Chrysler is going bankrupt.  Note to President Obama, not all people who invest in bond markets are rich and in fact may be depending on the security of these bonds for their own retirement as well.  President Obama has decided that the retirement of union members is more important than the retirement of non-union members who may be using a 401(k) instead.

The solution of course is to enforce the laws as written.  The security of laws governing finance, contracts, secured transactions and debts, and an orderly court system provide the stability required to allow a free market to grow and prosper the people willing to work and create value for others.

President Obama has decided that it is more important for him to favor his politically powerful allies instead of allowing people to have the benefit of the laws we have been operating under for decades. 

President Obama wants a nation of weak men dependant on government largesse, not laws and free men.

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Emergency!

With all of the bad news in the financial world lately, here is the latest:

I am truly sorry to bring this news to your attention.

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“This life is the time for Men to prepare to meet God”.

– Alma 34:32

With this last week being Easter I was thinking about The Atonement, the Resurrection, and the whole plan.  Here are a few of my thoughts.  

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints teaches that before we came here we lived with our Heavenly Father in a family situation.  It was not perfect although our parents were perfect.  

We know it was not perfect because there was a war in heaven.  There was our Heavenly Father’s plan presented to the entire family and Lucifer presented his plan which was rejected because it would destroy our agency.  We would be forced to behave which would then strip us of the benefit of doing the right thing.  We must have a choice in order for the good choices to be counted as riteousness and lead to blessings.  Preserving our moral agency to make the right choices was part of the point of the plan as I understand it.

All of this happened in our pre-earth life as spirit children of our Heavenly Parents.  We were created as spirits with the opportunity to take a body and learn in a probationary state where we are now.  We did not have to be perfect to come here, just obedient enough to accept the plan and come to earth.

The New Testament makes a sideways reference to sinning in the pre-Earth life in John 9:2, “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents that he was born blind?”  He had to be able to sin before his was born so that his blindness would be a result of sinning before his birth.  A more direct reference to this concept is in Doctrine and Covenants, 93:38 “Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God”.  The terms “was innocent” and “became again” innocent should put this to rest.  The power of the Atonement is what makes infants innocent before God.  That means that the Savior paid for the sins we don’t remember anymore.  Perhaps being born is similar to our baptism where we are “born again” and again made clean.  

The Savior will continue to work to make us all clean.  That is His job.  ”For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”  Moses 1:39.  This verse informs other verses discussing what the Savior is doing to bring to pass immortality and eternal life.  Eternal Life refers to lifing God’s Life of Eternal increase, not just living forever which is immortallity.  ”Eternal punishment is God’s punishment.”  D&C 19:11.  Eternal life is God’s life. 

OK, so we know what God’s work is, to bring God’s life to people ready to accept it and to resurrect every living thing that came into a mortal life on Earth.  

There is a section of the Doctrine and Covenants sometimes referred to as “The Vision”.  It is section 76.  It is full of details about the Three Degrees of Glory after the Final Judgment.  It enumerates who goes to the Celestial Kingdom, the Terrestrial Kingdom and the Telestial Kingdom.  It is an excellect Section to read.  Toward the end of the section it is describing who goes to the Telestial Kindom and who will remain in hell the longest time, but then it makes a very interesting statement about the Savior’s work: 

These are they who are cast down to hell and suffer the wrath of Almighty God, until the fulness of times, when Christ shall have subdued all enemies under his feet, and shall have perfected his work;

When he shall deliver up the kingdom, and present it unto the Father, spotless, saying: I have overcome and have trodden the wine-press alone, even the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.

D&C 76:106-107 (emphsis added).  The Savior is working to save each and every one of us.  We cannot do this work our selves and Jesus is still working to cleanse everyone who is willing to be healed.

In part of the grand scheme of things, we had to come to this Earth to gain a physical body and be able to repent and partake of the gift of the atonement.  We could not have received the blessings of the Atonement without coming into this world.

This is also part of why we should bless our enemies and do good to those that curse us.  How can we learn foregiveness, patience, kindness, and absolute charity without people who wrong us, try our patience, or are very hard to love?  We need these kinds of people in our life in order for us to be come more Christlike.  

This life is a gift, it is the time we have to partake of the benefits of the Atonement and to bless the lives of others.  

We have a lot of work to do.

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