Liberty Reborn

You may have heard the commercials being run around the country sponsored by the AARP as part of their “Divided We Fail” campaign. If you have not had the nauseating displeasure of hearing these ads, here is the deal. The goal of these advertisements is to demand that questions be asked of the Presidential candidates as to exactly how much more government they will impose on us because there are people in America that are not, perish the thought, happy.

Recently here in Pennsylvania the anti-smokers have been on the march waging their usual campaign against private property rights. On radio they have been running ads featuring two fictitious anti-smokers sitting in a restaurant having a nice chat, ordering waffles and bemoaning how they like the food but hate the evil, vile, disgusting smokers that the owners have the gall to allow in the restaurant and breathe the same air as they are. They then revert to the typical canard of the government should “do something”.

If you are one of the millions of Americans who went to the bank one day, got a loan you could not afford, fell behind on your payments, eventually defaulted on your mortgage and either already have lost you home or on the verge of losing your home, would you understand the point of me handing you a mirror and telling you to look into the eyes of the person that was at fault? If you did, you’d be an American. Especially if you further accepted the responsibility for your actions and did not demand that someone else do something to correct your situation.

As groups get bigger I swear their collective intelligence decreases. Nothing could be a truer example of this than one of the largest groups in America, the American Association of Retired Persons. Often affectionately known as the AARP I prefer to call them the Anti-American Retired Persons because I believe in truth in advertising.

In the early 20th Century the temperance movement was in high gear. Slowly, county after county then state after state passed laws prohibiting the manufacture, distribution and consumption of alcohol within their borders. The excuse of the temperance movement was that alcohol was evil and a threat to the public health and those claims were eventually ramrodded down the throats of the whole of the American people in the form of the 18th Amendment. Even in those days, those that would become the modern liberals of today were trying to mold society to their whims.

New York State Senator Carl Kruger really feels with every fiber of his little bleeding heart that government is the solution to all the really pressing problems in society. In particular he thinks that government is the best way to stop stupid people from doing stupid things.

Today I want to share with you a story about how politicians and their bureaucrat buddies screw up that which they decide to meddle with. It’s a story about our local hockey team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now I know that many of you may not know the difference between a hip check and a bounced check or a blue line and a credit line but indulge me if you will. It’s an intriguing tale.

John McCain and his love for the government nanny state has struck once again. Now because Mr. McCain and many other politicians are not capable of exhibiting self control your bumper sticker might land you a letter of admonishment or worse from Big Daddy government. Why are you laughing? Oh ye of little faith in our power hungry bureaucrats! Do you not know the lengths to which our politicians will go to shred the Constitution and our basic rights as Americans?

Call me crazy, but I don’t worry that much about “global warming” and how us pitiful humans are supposedly making the Earth heat up. Maybe it’s just knowing that over the millennia since the Earth was born it has gone through massive warming and cooling cycles and a myriad of other devastating events. And all long before us evil capitalistic humans arrived on the scene.

We all know how great it feels to be offered something for nothing. Most of us have rushed to the store to cash a coupon for a “free” item happily. But while the price to us on the spot is nothing, the actual cost to produce that item still remains and must be recouped. The sad and ultimate truth is that nothing is “free”. I know, it sounds cliché, but it is true.