Conservative Political Commentary

A new year

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 13:06:00 +0000

Happy New Year to anyone who happens to have survived the name change on this blog. Apologies for dumping you prematurely. The site is migrating to a stand-alone web address-- http://defenseoftherepublic.com.
You will find many old blogs from a previous site and the ones posted here also. This year should be challenging and my goal is to provide a different perspective. Hope you will move over as this site will become dormant.
Do not forget SA Andrews on http://shamanwind.blogspot.com for slice of life commentary, energy, and future living commentary.

Choose Sides

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:37:00 +0000

As predicted each side of the Auto Bail Out was putting out the same stuff. Republicans asking for reduction in UAW costs, democrats saying everything was good as is. Which side of the argument are you? You probably know where I stand.
If you want to sit on the fence, too bad. People we soon be coming to your door asking you to make a stand.
“Are you for us or them?”
What will you say? Will you try to waffle out and continue to dodge the issue?
Here is how I see it- - we return to a Republic or we can become socialist. Those are the options. The majority of people have been sitting on the fence for years. Yes, I too was guilty of non committal.
While I am no longer affiliated with the republican party, I found it refreshing there were a few willing to take a stand against labor. That may be the current spear point of the conflict, but the underlying issue is socialism versus democracy.
Before you have a coronary, labor unions are collective bargaining tools. Collectivism is a form of socialism where the greater good of the collective goes ahead of the well being of the individual. You may get a big fat check, as do Detroit autoworkers say $73 an hour, versus those redneck down south who only get $44 an hour, but there is a price for that. The cost is in competitive loss in a free market.
We are in danger of losing even the competitive market as the socialist in congress keep demanding less and less capitalism and more government control of every aspect of business including wages. That is a short ride on a long rope.
With the stroke of a pen, obama will put our sons and daughters into hock for trillions of dollars next month when he institutes obama-care. The spending and nationalization of GW will enslave our grandchildren. If you see hope in that, I pity you.
The obama socialism will spread like an octopus, it’s tentacles reaching into every area of our lives. Once the center for banking and finance, we have fallen into the “debtor nation” category. In a few years, our standard of living, especially health care will slide in line with the third world .
Are we doomed? Probably. But, there is hope. We can reclaim our liberty and our independence. God save us if it’s through violence, but before that, I hope Citizens wake up and move to take back local control at the polls.
Have an opinion? Let’s hear it.

Guilty? Not Guilty?

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:21:00 +0000

Have we as a nation been so heinous we deserve to be punished? Reading the material of those on the left, I get the opinion we should. Somewhere in the 60’s that started with the war protests. As I have said, I missed that era, for which I am thankful.

The same sentiment has returned to our universities, (if it ever left) ‘we are an evil empire, which must be toppled.’ Out here in the boonies I see no evidence of evil. Quite the opposite, I see people caring for and helping others. People who believe in family, hard work and the Christian motto of “do unto others.”

Where did this self hatred begin? Did we as a nation have a psychological break with reality and veer off course onto toward a diabolical reign of terror? If so, why are not my neighbors pillaging and looting? Why do they stop to help a neighbor by the roadside? Shouldn’t they be taking their possessions and leave them stranded?

Where did the feeling that we are inherently bad as a nation begin? Did it come from those who believe in a sound and just God? From the pulpits of mainstream U.S.A. did pastors start preaching retribution was coming for us all? (I do not consider Black Liberation Theology mainstream.)

It would be interesting to read the seed of self destruction’s origin. BUT, regardless from whence birthed, I believe before we can make progress to regain our sanity, we must get back to what makes us great as a nation. We were the land of unfettered opportunity, no quotas, no restrictions. No other nation offers a greater possibility of becoming successful regardless of how one defines the term.

On top of the potential we all have, much of this vast land is abundant. We can raise food and view nature all in the same spaces. Many other countries lack a real potential to be self supporting. We have enough natural resources to be self sufficient, if certain policies are revisited. Unchecked immigration and policies which reward people for having children are two which created an imbalance.

The concept that we have a billion people living in the U.S., in my opinion, is suicidal. At some point we must realize the lack of resources to support the needs have been created by irrational thinking. To rethink policy we must first establish a direction in concert with survival.

To believe that as a nation we are corrupt allows states such as Illinois to exist. Guilt has driven the nation to accept policy which goes against our well being. Guilt and tolerance have not served us well. Time to get over the “guilty-passive” complex and get back to being what most of us believe-- we are “Americans” and proud of it.

Page Problems

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:23:00 +0000

The last few days I have encountered problems with this site. First, my "continue reading" stopped working. When I try to reload the template, it will not let me says the code is invalid. Which is bizarre because it's the same code which worked last week.
Yesterday I had a comment on the post "Cannot Believe it" and I cannot read it. Cannot get into comments. Not sure what is going on, but soon it won't matter.
I am migrating to my own addy, so this blog will be off blogger. I like blogger, it's good system, until a few days ago that is. Once the site is functioning properly I will let you know the address and I will close this one down.

Congressional Sponsorship

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:10:00 +0000

Congressional Sponsorship--

Members of Congress should wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers, so we could identify their corporate sponsors.

Taken from a post by Bunny<>Sam Sewell

My apologies to Jamie McMurray, from all I gather in interviews is a nice guy and he is from Joplin, MO. That can’t be all bad in an era where Nascar is trying to turn the series into a multicultural event. Sound familiar?

Cannot Believe it!

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:31:00 +0000

Someone sent an email which claims Madame Pelosi’s jet cost the taxpayers $60,000 each way on her trips to California on week ends. That according to the email is $5,760,000. Didn’t do the math, so not sure, but that’s a lot of tomatoes, or pickles, or turnips or something to eat. Is there a financial crisis in this country or not? We cannot be sure if our representatives spend like that and then want to fire people who actually contribute the economy.

To Auto or Not to Auto

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:02:00 +0000

It seems almost certain the Automakers will get relief today. While the “Dog and Pony Show” will continue, the money will be going to Detroit. How do you feel about that?

I am not happy about bailing out any failing company. If a company is valid, there should be private money willing to become involved. For example, Warren Buffett jumped in to help Goldman Sachs. Obviously he saw some long term benefit to getting involved.
No one seems to see long term benefits to the Detroit automakers. One could buy a significant piece of the company now for pennies on the dollar, yet no one, not even Carl Icahn has stepped forward. Maybe Icahn is afraid he will be a recipient of a pair of Hoffa cement shoes. He did it to TWA. Bought the company and broke it up and sold it off for a big profit. Why not GM or Ford?
For my money’s worth, it’s the union and their strong ties to ah, ah, well, ah, those guys who don’t play nice, how is that for dancing around the issue of crime families? Where would Detroit be without the unions? Would people in Detroit still be working for $1.00 and hour in terrible conditions or would GM and the others have been forced to pay more and provide better conditions to keep workers. After all a good worker is a valuable asset.
Are we missing something here? Are the workers valuable assets or outdated? Do we need someone to put 5 bolts in a hole or can a robot do it? Henry Ford killed custom automakers. Maybe it’s time for someone to kill off human assembly line cars. Give me one good reason we need people doing something a robot can do. Would you feel different if the robot cleaned your house or shop?
Are we really killing an industry or is it dead? That is the issue. Will the long term practice in manufacturing be robots? Makes sense in a global economy. No children would be sewing together your Nikes for you, so you could wear your $10 cost shoes without guilt. And it will be at least another 50 years before robots revolt and over throw us.
What is the issue here? Is it cars or people? Can we bail out a person whose job is superfluous on the long term continuum? Whose job is it to provide for the individual, isn’t that the real question? Government or individual, who carries the burden for existence? We will see this played out over and over again if things get worse.
You and I get a vote on the issue. We make our desire known through letters, phone calls, emails, blogs and at the polls. Congress gets the message when the switchboard jams up and the emails pour in by the thousands. Can they go against the majority? Yes, but not for long. Half of the elected positions come up every two years and another one third of the rest are on the on the line every two years.
We can change the face of government, but it takes effort at the local level. Challenge the parties to find viable candidates. Do not fall in to the trap of letting the media or pundits choose your candidates. If we do, we are going down a pitiful road.

Obama Progress Administration

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 13:59:00 +0000

While I wasn’t alive during the last WPA, I heard stories of people working for the WPA. They were not happy stories. Nothing about the Great Depression was happy.

My relatives did not work for the WPA. From the stories, I have the impression, WPA was not looked on favorably. Seems the attitude of my family was to make it own their own.
There is no doubt obama missed that lesson living in Honolulu, and Indonesia. There may have been hard times in Kenya and he learned from his family, but can one translate “hard times” in Kenya to that of the Great Depression? Living on food stamps while difficult is nothing like the early 1930s.
Being a student of history one should learn that some things work and others do not. The WPA put people to work. But then in the 1930s people worked. If one did not work, they were homeless. Those men were called “bums.” I heard stories of “bums” in the depression who were homeless, but that’s not the same as someone who just doesn’t work.
The hoboes or bums would live in camps, look for hand outs and work. Some would steal food out of houses. I remember the story of a bum who stole a pie off the windowsill of my Grandmother’s kitchen. She came back into the room as he was walking across the yard, pie in hand. My Grandfather was gone, or there might have been some gun fire-- a little buckshot in the backside of the departing bum.
While some were homeless the majority of people out in the country worked. If nothing else they raised their own food and scraped by. The WPA hired people to work for a few dollars a day. People during that era worked for a living. They had a history of working hard. Life before that was not easy out in the country, so they knew how to work.
Today we have a large population of people who have never worked, whose fathers and grandfathers have never worked. They do not have a work history in their families. They do not know the meaning of hard work. Many will not work when offered jobs. From this pool obama expects to get his huge labor force to build roads and bridges?
At the age of 12, I rode a tractor all day, by myself. At 15 I hired out as a hay hand, working from morning until evening handling hay bales weighing as much as 100 pounds. I know what blisters are. Working in a hay field in the dead of summer, with no breeze, dust off the bailer filling your lungs, bees, snakes, little rest is not for the soft.
Granted the labor unions would not allow someone to work in those conditions today. Since the OPA (obama progess administration) will be government, I am sure no one will be required to work out in the sun unprotected in temperatures over 90. Seems only humane to me. LOL. Nor will they be required to work in temperatures under freezing. No reason to temp frostbite while sitting on a rock somewhere trying to be invisible.
While I rant often about the unemployables, I wonder how many of today’s office workers could spend a day in the cloudless West Texas sun? Macho being a dirty word, how many men know what it means to work through discomfort and pain? And why should they, we are the post industrial future of the world. We are a service economy, only stupid people get sweaty for a living.
While some may buy into the concept of people going out to areas of the U.S. were life is difficult and putting in 8-10 hours of grueling work, I do not. We have become a nation of softies. At my point in life, I enjoy not having to work that hard. This is not a put-down of those who work in offices, merely an observation of the nature of our country.
The massive infrastructure plan is a Fool’s Folly and you can quote me on that. The only thing that will get fixed-- the certainty we will be bankrupt sooner as a nation. Name one project the federal government has undertaken which turned out well, on time, under budget in the last 25 years? Then tell who other than the people who already work hard for a living on high paying construction jobs will line up to get work?

International Medical Records

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 21:06:00 +0000

“Well, Mister Quakenmire, we would love to hire you but we found that you had a wart removed from your,” she pauses, the stumbles over, “ your, you know” at the age of 10.”

The woman behind the desk fidgets with the papers in front of her.
“And how does that disqualify me from being a stock clerk?” I ask.
“A company must think to the future. What if that wart returns as a cancer? No, Mister Quakenmire, we cannot offer employment.” She says, closing the folder. With the same hand she motions to the door.

And so goes my search for a job, turned down for a minor operation when I was 10. “They couldn’t refuse me if I was HIV positive, but blackballed for a wart. What a world.”

Yes, I know it’s silly, but then almost everything I read these day is just as out of whack. Now we learn that the next president, wants to put our entire medical life on his computer. In case you forgot, someone mislaid tens of thousands of V.A. records. Lucky me, mine were not on that computer or I might be fighting identity theft.
Just ask “joe the plumber” about the sanctity of government privacy. And have we forgotten the phrase, “information is power?” Futurist Alvin Toffler addresses the Industrial Revolution as the centralization of power. Mr. Toffler sees decentralization as the future of the world.
The concept of centralized big government has outlived its usefulness. As we have seen in retrospect large organizations can no longer be trusted to do the right thing. One should ask themselves,
“do I really trust the government or any other organization to protect my interest?”

Berlin Airlift Tomorrow?

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 22:16:00 +0000

Having lived and worked at Tempelhof, this video has more significance for me.

While viewing this, one has to ask-- will our government have the resolve to face a crisis such as this in the future? Do the Citizens of the U.S. have it in them to stand up for Freedom? Hopefully, we are not all cowards.

Nyet, Comrade, Barry!

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:39:00 +0000

"Nyet, Comrade, Barry."

Or so says Pravda, one of the official Russian newspapers.

While the Russians are jumping on the muckraker bandwagon, obama has retained three legal firms to deal with the pending citizenship query. My question is why so many? I can only assume with billions maybe even trillions on the line, a few million to guarantee his installation is mere pence.
From an article on the Steady Drip blog—
”Pravda explains that Obama's "certificate of birth" is not a birth certificate, but a certification of live birth that any foreigner can acquire by applying for one in the state's vital records department, regardless of where the baby was born.”

You can check the article at - - http://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com

Implied Powers

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:31:00 +0000

Federal Government, Est. 1789

In 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville gave the following description of the Supreme Court of the United States and its role in American society: "The peace, the prosperity, and the very existence of the Union are vested in the hands of the justices of the Supreme Court. Without them, the Constitution would be a dead letter: the executive appeals to them for assistance against the encroachments of the legislative power; the legislature demands their protection against the assaults of the executive; they defend the Union from the disobedience of the states, the states from the exaggerated claims of the Union; the public interest against private interests, and the conservative spirit of stability against the fickleness of the democracy."

The Link

Whispers are real

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:43:00 +0000

A link arrived in my email today. Not what I expect but the content was not a surprise. Do you believe you are the only one with that knot in your gut?

http://www.earthfrisk.com/blog//?p=118

Hitler Youth

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:44:00 +0000

I have posted Blogs previously that touched on socialism as a threat to Democracy in the U.S. Also, the topic of Fascism as a joke in regards to the GW administration. While the left wing whackos would have us believe our liberties have all been sacrificed and we are just a phone call away from the gates of the stalag. While GW may be many things, he is not a fascist.

From the announcement floating around today one must wonder what the future holds for our youth and our country. When I was 18, I registered for the draft, at 20 I entered the Air Force, at 24 I returned to college. My time in the military was enlightening and educational.
If one must serve in the obama civil army, I wonder if there will be indoctrination? Based on our current education system, can it be more toxic? I suggest so. The concept of Hitler Youth style training seems perilous to me.
Civil Security obama Style http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt2yGzHfy7s
When one takes the responsibility of domestic security out of the hands of the FBI, there are questions. Tasking young people to become part of a civilian security force raises man other issues. One is forced service, another is actual need. Do we need a domestic youth security service? What crime will they be tasked with addressing? Who will direct them? Will they be paid? Benefits?

My daughter is 19. She does not strike me as the aggressive type, willing to go hand to hand with a terrorist as a job. My sons are above the age of the “youth corps” suggested. If it were mandatory, I could see them both heading for Europe. Canada would probably be a safe haven as most of the residents to our north are conservative. Just another reason to put some snowshoes in the garage and make one pair youth sized.

Rahm Emanuel, obama’s chief of staff, also commented on the plan.

Rahm Emanuel on Civil Security

Titled Hitler Jungen the organization had various braches recruiting both boys and girls as young as 10. Some sources claim it was Hitler’s effort to breed a super race. While not blonde and of Jewish decent, Hitler felt the Ayran race could rule the world. This is not the time to debate the origins of the Aryan myth.

The burning issue remains why? Why do we need a youth civil security force?

Observations in the New Month 12-08

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:26:00 +0000

Truth and obama
Yesterday morning on a financial network someone said they felt the world was waiting for obama to lead them in a new direction and bring the world together.

. I would have laughed except the statement is actually tragic. Why have so many labeled him the messiah? I find nothing in his background to indicate he is anything more than snake oil salesman.
If you hold exception to that statement, I ask you to evaluate his primary campaign positions, his general election campaign positions and now the people he has appointed. That should show you the true person. If you give me the “everybody does it,” excuse expect to get punched in the mouth for your ignorance. He is being proclaimed not as “everyman” but the messiah.
To lead one must use either truth or a stick. Truth and obama rarely come in contact with each other, which leaves the latter method. For those of us, who have not lined up at the kool-aid dispenser life could get rough.

Islamic Violence
Were you sitting there watching the tragedy unfold during the holiday? We were. My eldest son and his wife are planning a belated honeymoon to Thailand over Christmas. The scenes in Mumbai caused me a lot of anxiety when thinking about their travels.
The lack of any clear understanding of this event disturbs me. While the experts were positing on who and why, I kept wondering what’s the real truth? To date they seem to be withholding actual information.
The lone assassin has confessed to being a Pakistani. Doubt he would not have confessed to anything they asked, as India does not have a torture restriction. From that information do they believe they have the truth about anything? The confession serves them well politically.
There seems to be a lack of focus on the facts. The group consisted of Islamic Jihadists, not tourists who just happened to come unhinged. The effort was well planned and executed. The purpose was to kill and terrorize U.S. and U.K. citizens while causing financial disruption to India.
If the reason for soft peddling the Islamic Terrorist aspect is political correctness, I suggest we all be prepared for more of that here. Appeasement never works.

Condi and Hill --Women in the middle East
In case you missed the in-depth reporting, women are not highly regarded in the Middle East. Reading a headline, Cond’s going to chastise Pakistan, made me laugh. Do they care? Will they care when Hillary tells them to shape up?
Dealing with bullies, one must send a bully to negotiate. Hillary may be many things, but her image as a bully in the Middle East brings more laughter. Saddam Hussein ruled not by flowers and candy but through brutality. Pervez Musharraf held power in Pakistan as a dictator, not a duly elected official. Benazir Bhutto ruled the same country as a dictator. Did you know that during her reign Pakistan killed 350,000 in a Kashmir ethnic cleansing of Hindus.
Looking for an effective role model for Middle East negotiations, use Bhutto as a role model when choosing or why not just send a military man? Does every position in our government need to be filled by something other than a white man? Just a question?

Islamists Win-Win
The Mumbai tragedy has accelerated an already difficult situation to the forefront of U.S. policy next year. The raid forces India to react aggressively toward Pakistan. Pakistan in anticipation of India’s aggression announced a move of troops from the border with Afghanistan to the Indian Frontier.
Why did this happen? Only someone inside the group which planned this knows. One thing we know obama did not help. His posturing during campaigns against Pakistan signaled the cozy relationship the U.S. and Pakistan enjoyed was over. While Musharraf was a dictator, he did slow down the Jihadists.
By pretending to understand foreign policy, obama has set in motion a Lose-Lose for the U.S. Not only will the U.S. be drawn into a Pakistan-India conflict, Afghanistan will be more vulnerable to Al Queda and the Talaban.
You may wonder why I continue to marvel at media reports of obama being label as the messiah of world healing. Hopefully, now you will begin to understand. Someone so naïve and so egotistical can only bring disaster upon us.

Original Sin

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:30:00 +0000

The United States of America seems to be suffering from a psychosis. Irrepressible guilt seems to have gotten to us. Why? The United States of America seems to be suffering from a psychosis. Irrepressible guilt seems to have gotten to us. Why? Are we victims of the contract of Original Sin in the protestant religion?
How many of us are actually religious these days? My guess -- the majority who profess protestant faith are token protestants.
Guilt is a terrible thing. Guilt causes waste and drains energy. Guilt causes a person to act in ways they would not normally. Are you getting a hint yet? Maybe, just maybe a percentage of voters feel guilty and acted accordingly.
Why has psychiatry become a very profitable business? How many times have you been to a shrink or shrink lite? I must confess, I have been more than was needed. In the end, as in the beginning, it seemed to me I did not need help. The pressure from others drove me to “get help.”
What did I need help for? If there a way to sum it up, “overly patriarchal” in my view of the world. How is that for sugar coating? Yes, my view of the world seems to be out of step with the time. Many thought by my visiting with someone who understand the “new view” I would be cured.
For me it was too late to adapt the “touchy feely” kinder, gentler way of life. Actually, that view doesn’t function well out in the wilderness. Life seems a bit harsher. Survival of the fittest plays out day after day in the wild life about us.
After the off and on visits to the “helpers”, I decided to forgive myself for whatever it was I did wrong, and for future sins against humanity. I can say, I feel much better having done it. Life does not look any different except I don’t make excuses for being who I am. Nor do I have to pretend to like people I don’t.
Would I suggest it for you? Probably not, it’s too dangerous for those living in the real world. Out here, my neighbors think I’m normal. Back there, I am an outcast and you would be also. Not feeling obliged to hug everyone you meet, nor even smiling at them would seem odd to you and those around you.
If by chance, there was an election of a leader who understood the guilty ridden psyche of the United States, the rest of you might have a chance to recover. That day seems far away if not impossible. After all it’s much easier to manipulate you through guilt than truth. Fact is one cannot be manipulated by truth. Either they accept and embrace truth or they do not.
A strange principle-- being elected on the truth. Nice thing about truth, it’s fat free, no cholesterol, and guilt free too. What a bargain. For now I suggest, “give up the guilt.”

Bottom Up Works

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:10:00 +0000

News Flash - -
Bottom up Politics works!
What the Founding Fathers knew some are rediscovering. California has voted to ban gay marriage. Now if we could just get the word “gay” banned we’d be on track to recovering our sanity.
Small government at the local level gets things done with very little cost. When the Republic was formed only thirteen states, all of which were small by today’s standards, struggled to come to terms with a union. The architects knew that for the coalition to survive control must remain at the lowest common denominator. In that case, it was the States which could best administer.
As I have preached for some time, “Stop thinking top down government.”
If you notice the top down model is broken. When the majority votes itself freebies, the concept of Republic has ended. To retain any similarity to freedom, we must move toward local control.
The Constitution Party failed miserably this week by national standards. But in reality they made it on the Missouri ballot with more than just a presidential candidate. Now if they will focus on local and state elections in areas such as Missouri they can build a national party. And the state passed an English Only Constitutional Amendment.
While recruiting someone such as Mitt Romney to build the organization would be ideal, I cannot count on that. I, as an individual, will start my campaign to get the party moving at the state and local level. To gain traction the party must find good candidates who view serving government as a necessary evil and have no plans to stick around.
A valuable tool would also be term limits at the national level.
We can make a difference. The BailOut was vetoed once by voters. We stopped immigration bills dead in their tracks. The effort to put in a Cap and Trade bill to increase energy costs was shut down. There is hope.
Hope must be transferred to the local level, which means the youngest of you will have to carry the ball to the finish line. Nothing won easily is worthwhile. A hard fought goal brings the greatest joy. And while I will probably not be around to see the culmination of 30 or 40 years of struggle to regain the status of Republic, it will be worth the fight.

Leadership Series Pt. 1

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:20:00 +0000

Great leaders are born not made!

While reading an email yesterday the concept of leadership began percolating.
What is a leader? Who is a leader? How does a leader, lead? While we are in the query mode—how much wood can a woodchuck, chuck . . . ? You know the answer to that one, but you have an understanding of leadership?
My assumption is most do not. In my opinion, leaders are born not made. Whoa, hold on, let me explain. I believe the qualities of leadership are innate. Some grow to be leaders other fritter away their talents.
What kind of world would it be if everyone was capable of good leadership? Would we not all be vying for the same positions? It seems to be it was created this way—a few lead, the rest follow. The real test lies in the quality.
My leadership began in grade school as captain of sports teams. Through my time in the military I was elevated to leadership, even sent to NCO school. For those not familiar, that’s Non Commissioned Officer. Not the full blown training, but enough to get me started on the military path. At my four years I opted out of the military.
Once in the real world, I advanced into management roles very quickly. Not once did I aspire to leadership during that period, I was promoted by the management. One thing seemed obvious to me, many aspired to lead, but few understand the role. I bounced willy nilly through my first career being elevated to even more important management roles along the way.
During the first round of real world management, I spent little time learning, and even less time thinking about leadership. One might have said, I was not that good and probably been spot on. My focus was not on leading, more on the concept of being in management. That I believe is a flaw.
It wasn’t until I entered the profession of selling that I started to learn about leadership. Leadership requires one to sell their ideas and themselves. Napoleon was a master at selling his goals to his men. Many fought tirelessly and died at his request. Being a great leader requires sacrifice and Napoleon knew how to accept the responsibility of sending men into battle.
For today I leave it here for you to contemplate the concept of a leader sending men to their deaths—a gruesome responsibility with no rewards on heaven nor earth. Hopefully, few of us will in these times be asked to participate in either end of the equation.
With the new management team coming to power, I question how many will line up and charged the firing line? By the number of dazed and confused it appears many. I, for one, will not find soaring rhetoric a catalyst to do so.

Jefferson on Debt

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:54:00 +0000

Can “We the People” exercise our power to change our Constitution and regain control of our country?

“I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution taking from the federal government their power of borrowing.” Thomas Jefferson

Andrew Jackson in a message to the Senate with his Veto of the 2^nd Bank of the United States.

“Is there no danger to our liberty and independence in a bank that in its nature has so little to bind it to our country? The president of the bank has told us that most of the State banks exist by its forbearance. Should its influence become concentered, as it may under the operation of such an act as this, in the hands of a self-elected directory whose interests are identified with those of the foreign stockholders, will there not be cause to tremble for the purity of our elections in peace and for the independence of our country in war? Their power would be great whenever they might choose to exert it; but if this monopoly were regularly renewed every fifteen or twenty years on terms proposed by themselves, they might seldom in peace put forth their strength to influence elections or control the affairs of the nation. But if any private citizen or public functionary should interpose to curtail its powers or prevent a renewal of its privileges, it can not be doubted that he would be made to feel its influence.

Should the stock of the bank principally pass into the hands of the subjects of a foreign country, and we should unfortunately become involved in a war with that country, what would be our condition? Of the course which would be pursued by a bank almost wholly owned by the subjects of a foreign power, and managed by those whose interests, if not affections, would run in the same direction there can be no doubt. All its operations within would be in aid of the hostile fleets and armies without. Controlling our currency, receiving our public moneys, and holding thousands of our citizens in dependence, it would be more formidable and dangerous than the naval and military power of the enemy.”

If you are interested in past liquidity problems, Google Nicholas Biddle.

William Jennings Bryan—Crown of Thorns – Cross of Gold Speech

None Dare Call it a Conspiracy

Author Gary Allen- -

“If one understands that socialism is not a share-the-wealth program, but is in reality a method to consolidate and control the wealth, then the seeming paradox of superrich men promoting socialism becomes no paradox at all. Instead it becomes the logical, even the perfect tool of power-seeking megalomaniacs. Communism, or more accurately, socialism, is not a movement of the downtrodden masses, but of the economic elite. “

Much of the content came from The Money Masters video. It’s long, so make sure you have time when you start.

That should give you enough to think about for a few days.

Heroe's Poem

noreply@blogger.com (Defense of the Republic) — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:50:00 +0000

I am the fruit of a million years,

The son of ten thousand sires.

There is blood in me that has felt the flames

Of a caveman's altar fires.

I rode with Attila the Hun

Who reddened the Gallic loam.

I climbed the Alps with Hannibal's men

And fought at the rape of Rome.

They stoned me once to a martyr's death

On a Babylonian plain.

I was once crowned king of Britain's Isle

And hung as a thief in Spain.

Poet and beggar, priest and king,

Warrior and craven's kin

Born of their sorrow and hope and fear,

Folly and faith and sin.