I wish you blessings on this Memorial Day.
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Rights
I’d like to encourage everyone to think carefully about the way we in America approach discussions about our rights as citizens. I’ll use the inherent right of defense as an example, but the principle applies to the inalienable rights to speak, to assemble, to peacefully petition for the redress of grievances, and to be secure in your person and just possessions.
Your right and your duty is to defend your life, the life of your family, and the just means you require to secure your right to life, liberty, and property along with your other inalienable rights.
You also have a right and an obligation to provide for the common defense; the just defense of your community, your state, and your nation.
This right and this obligation is given to you by the Almighty. It exists independently of government or of other humans.
Government exists solely for the purpose of securing inalienable rights; especially your right to defend your life, liberty, and property; also to enable you to fulfil your obligation to the common defense.
Freedom- and liberty-loving people must refer primarily to this concept of God-given sacrosanct rights.
The Second Amendment is necessary, well, and good (as are all of the Bill of Rights). However, it has become my opinion that too many people invoke the Second Amendment first, and in a way that makes it appear that the Second Amendment itself is what grants citizens the right to self-defense or to bear arms. That is not the case. The Second Amendment is a fundamental constraint requiring the federal and state governments to act in a positive way to ensure that citizens are able to exercise their inherent right to self-defense.
It’s time to place the Second Amendment into the context necessary for citizens to properly frame the discussion regarding defense.
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Saved by the South
Who would have thought it possible?
If the American republic is to be saved in these latter days, history may eventually note that a lot of the saving was accomplished by two Americans from South Africa.
Here’s to you, Elon Musk and Lara Logan! Keep fighting the good fight.
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Join the VIPeeps
My friends over at PJMedia have a VIP program. A group of us have been getting together virtually for the past couple years. It’s fun! If you join, stop by and say “Hello!”
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New Old Words
I’m in the middle of a study of leadership, and I noticed that I had to constantly refer to the study
of leadership as “The study of leadership.” To make matters worse, some of the material could be referred to as a study of various theories of leadership, or “The study of the study of leadership,” if you will.
I thought to myself “There must be a simpler word for this. I recalled once upon a time as an undergraduate majoring in history, I had to take a class called “Historiography,” or a study of how to write history. I struggled to find something similar regarding leadership, but could not.
Next, I did what anyone with my talent for laziness would do. I looked up the etymology of the word “Leader.” It has roots in Old English and traces backward to the German Leiter and into Gothic. The Germans make clever compound words. Should I check?
Nah.
Then it occurred to me that most modern sciences or branches of knowledge use Greek names to describe them, so I looked up an ancient Greek word for “Leader.” Aha! Hegemon. Or hégemón. Or hēgemōn. Perfect!
The next issue to determine was whether this was a branch of knowledge or just writing
about an issue? In some senses, it’s both.
Therefore, I introduce to the world the following definitions using a style modified from a popular dictionary:
Hegemonology
(noun). heg·e·mon·ol·o·gy | \he-jə-,män-ä-lə-jē. Definition: A branch of
knowledge that deals with leadership. //A study of hegemonology. Words from hegemonology:
Hegemonological, hegemonologist
Hegemonography (noun). heg·e·mon·og·ra·phy | \he-jə-,män-ä-grə-fē.
Definition: 1.a. Writings about leadership. 1.b. The principles, theory, and
history of leadership writings. 2. The product of leadership writings or a body
of leadership literature. //The latest peer-reviewed hegemonography article.
Words from hegemonography: Hegemonographical, hegemonographic,
hegemonographically
The first known use of these words will be in the next few hours. I therefore do not yet have example sentences.
You saw it here first.
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Losing the Muse
Requiescat in pace, Oregon Muse. The Horde just isn’t going to be the same without you.
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Why I Avoid Bitcoin
Cryptocurrency is all the rage these days.
For the most part, count me out.
It’s not that I like fiat currency. Far from it!
Bitcoin in particular has a looming problem.
There are a lot of computing assets deployed these days solving mathematical problems in order to add blocks to blockchains. Those machines solving problems for the Bitcoin blockchain are occasionally and somewhat randomly rewarded with a Bitcoin. But the total supply of Bitcoin will be 21.0 million bitcoins. There are currently 18.7 million already “Mined.”
What happens when the final 2.3 million Bitcoins are issued? I’m given to understand machines worldwide dedicated to these blockchain-solving tasks draw a rather phenomenal amount of power. Who is going to leave their machines running to keep Bitcoin’s blockchain going, and continue paying the electric bill for them while certain they will be receiving no reward for doing so?
My guess is that a lot of the computer hardware currently purposed for mining Bitcoin will be re-purposed for mining other cryptocurrencies. Fewer assets adding to Bitcoin’s blockchain will result in lengthy transaction times, which will push the utility of Bitcoin down.
I do not see how Bitcoin will maintain its current price.
I suspect within a few years humanity will have adopted the good aspects of blockchain and will have moved on to proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies or beyond.
Bitcoin will always be around, I don’t doubt. It will end up being regarded as a sort of nostalgic quasi-non-fungible-token (quasi-NFT) or proto-NFT.
Prepare accordingly. That way we as a society won’t feel like we have to bail out yet another group who was left holding the proverbial bag when the market fell out from underneath it.
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Tagged Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Hedera Hashgraph, Market Crash
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Student Status
I’m not exactly certain what made me think doctoral-level classes would be a breeze. That first class was more than a bit humbling!
Did I mention I signed up for a doctoral level class?
Being uncertain my writing was going to gain traction, I thought perhaps I ought to pay someone so that they’d have to read what I was writing.
I found a public administration program online and promptly signed up for it. This fed both my mild addiction to “Signing up for degree or certification programs,” and also my desire to widen my audience.
Let me just say to my current audience: You all are the best! And because you’re the best, I think you deserve for me to be a better writer. Therefore, back to school I go!
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Conventionally Speaking
Politics are never easy. Somebody’s livelihood is always affected as a result of political change. Americans do not like leaving people out in the cold, letting them go hungry, or letting them go with untreated medical conditions. This attitude is one of our greatest blessings. However, we need to begin enacting necessary structural fixes to our republic before we find we’ve moved beyond simple fixes. Tough love is still love; and while the majority of us generally treat politicians with due respect, we’ve allowed many of them to abuse the trust we’ve placed in them; therefore it’s time to discipline them.
Prepare to put these and other ideas forward to your state legislatures. Our representatives will be required to do our bidding.
We the People are going to have to start reminding the politicians that we are sovereign, and that they work for us.
Don’t simply “Take action.” Take specific actions.
Below is a quick sketch of an action plan to restore the republic. We need to do these things, even if it means the republic will look different afterward.
Be prepared to call a constitutional convention.
We will need to modify many parts of the constitution.
- We will need to be more specific in the preamble about why we have this social compact than “In order to secure the blessings of liberty.” We will also have to bring over some of the language from the Declaration of Independence specifying what we’re allowing the government to do, and to not do.
- We will need to specify that not only “Congress shall make no law” but also that “the Executive shall not enforce any regulation,” and “the Courts shall decide no case” that will abridge natural rights.
- We will need to insist on reasonable and just means of voter authentication, and that States adhere to the minimum standards. We won’t have a legitimate republic without a fair and just process for electing our representatives. We may have to specify that interfering with balloting falls under the High Crimes and Misdemeanors category of criminality, and we may further have to specify the remedy.
- We will have to restructure Congress.
- The basic structure and division of power between them is fine.
- We will have to do away with the Permanent Apportionment Act and allow one representative per 100,000-200,000 people.
- After allowing for more representatives, there will need to be five senators per state. Three of these will be elected by their states’ legislatures from citizens who meet eligibility requirements and will be term-limited to two terms. The other two will be elected by popular vote in their state. The only people eligible to run for those seats will be people who served at least one full term as one of the senators elected by their state’s legislature.
- We will have to restrict the number of people each Congressman may have on staff to two or three.
- We will have to limit who in Congress may author legislation.
- We will specify what must happen for a bill to be approved for a vote in a committee or in a chamber.
- The government’s fiscal year is from January 1st through December 31st.
- The default tax rate per year in all categories of taxation is zero percent. Resolutions continuing the prior year’s budget shall not be valid. If a tax rate is to be set at greater than zero percent it must be done in the annual budget, which shall be signed into law not earlier than October 15th each year and not later than October 31st each year. The sole exception to this is that the tax rate during the year of a presidential election shall be the highest tax rate of the previous three budget years presented as prescribed.
- Election day shall [still] be the first Tuesday in November, right after the budget is approved and the tax rate is set.
- Incumbents will have limits placed on them; not through strict term limits, but rather by placing gates on the ballot counts.
- Nearly all laws will be subject to a sundown provision. After thirty years, regardless of the number or type of amendments to laws, they expire at the end of the month thirty years after it passed.
There will be many more structural changes that will need to be made. I will continue explaining them in the days to come.
Be prepared to help with the push to secure the blessings of liberty in a more tangible way.
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Tagged Constitutional Convention, Freedom, Justice, Lead, Liberty, Republic, Take Action, We the People
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