Ignorance is an Amazing Thing

The following is from my recent article on Liberatchik:

...The shirt reads: Freedom is great. While, on the surface, that seems innocuous and easily defensible, let me address the reason it irks me. This woman, having voted for Obama, has no true concept of freedom. Putting the shirt on a child who will bear the burden of paying the bill and suffering the consequences of his mother's vote is the irony. I hesitate to call it cruel, because I don't believe she is knowingly selling her child into serfdom, but it is certainly ignorant. Further, Obama and the current Congress have no interest in Americans being free.
In closing, I will leave you with an excerpt and a link. The fact that this is coming out of Russia should scare the pants off of you.

..."The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record-setting, not just in America's short history, but in the world. If this keeps up for more than a year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe. ...The proud American will go down into his slavery without a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker."

This quote is an excerpt from an article by Stanislav Mishin @ Pravda.RU

The Making of an Art Movement.

Now that the Decarationist Movement and Liberatchik have launched, I thought people might like to know how we got started. Christopher of Modern Conservative contacted me via email late last year, and together, we have combined our creative talents and our passion for freedom to build this site. As we add new members, the face of the project may change, but the underlying philosophy and goals will remain constant - Liberty is superior to tyranny; the State is our enemy; Freedom of Speech includes all points of view; individuals, not government, are the creators of wealth and freedom...

To read more, visit Liberatchik.

Why do we honor our soldiers?

The answer is simple. We honor them because they keep us free. Regardless of how you perceive the government, the brave people who defend our freedoms deserve our thanks. On Memorial Day, I would like to leave you with some quotes from the Declaration of Independence to remind you why they fight, and why America is great.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. - That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. ...

I'm going to start passing on some quotes

I'm not sure how this will go, but the goal is to put something up every day. When I have time, I will also post a comment or information on the historic significance of the quote in question. Since this is the first installment, I will provide two related quotes. Both were sent to me in emails from Downsizer DC.

"A socialist is somebody who doesn't have anything, and is ready to divide it up equally among everybody." George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish comic dramatist
"Being the state means never having to say you're sorry." -- D.A. Ridgely (Source: Positive Liberty blog, March 23, 2009)

Both of these quotes are exceedingly relevant to the current situation in America. The general populace has been convinced that the government is the source and creator of all wealth and security. When something goes wrong, ironically, it is blamed on the evil rich. The government is expected to step in again, and do something to correct problems that were created by the government and blamed on the private sector. It sounds so absurd, I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it happening every day. I'm beginning to be afraid to listen to the news any more.
The quote by Shaw is particularly interesting in the fact that I see it's application everywhere. Our President talks of wealth redistribution knowing that the only outcome will be to bring the people with money down to the level of those with none. That may sound good on the surface, but in reality it is evil and detrimental to all involved.
First, the majority of rich people got that way through hard work. If they inherited the money, it was because someone who cared about them worked hard. With the rare exception, rich people don't get that way by taking advantage of the rest of us. Someone told me recently that ,"You don't dictate policy on extreme cases". Too bad our government hasn't heard that one.
Second, where do you think your job came from? Did it magically appear by the grace of government, or did someone create it for you through their own hard work? If you take everything they have and divide it up in the name of fairness, will you have a job left to go to? If you work for yourself, do you think you owe a job to someone who is unemployeed because they 'need' it?
Third, most poor people remain poor through bad decisions and lack of initiative. If you can't make it in America, you're doing something wrong.
Forth, as the quote implies, socialists are typically looking out for themselves. If they want wealth redistribution, it is to get more money without earning it. If they already have money, they are looking for power. If Obama and Congress were really concerned about helping the 'poor', they would redistribute some of their own wealth. I'd like to see the hypocrites lead by example for once. As with everything else a politician promises, 'charity' comes out of our pockets, not their own.
As for charity, it can't come from government. The government has no source of income other than taxes. Confiscatory redistribution is not charity. You have to own the money and give it willingly to call it charity. I also think the person receiving help should look their benefactor in the eye and be grateful for their charity. The anonymity of government handouts leads to people thinking someone owes them something.
The Ridgely quote is a good summary of my argument. If you don't have to apologize for your actions or take responsibility, you are free to do as you please. Ironically, Liberals bemoan the dispassion and cruelty of Capitalism. However, the real cruelty is in punishing success, then blaming the successful for your own inadequacies.
I'll take freedom over comfort and security any day. Nothing is free. The government, like the mob and the unions, expect something in return for 'helping' you. Are you willing to hack off your pound of flesh when the time comes? Should you have to?

Playing Catch Up

Hello everyone. I've been incredibly busy, but the dust is starting to settle and my focus is sharpening. Thank you all for being patient with my frequent absences from machinepolitick and lack of comments on your own sites. I am preparing to move forward at full steam and hope you like what I have in store for this blog. There are a couple of projects that I am working on and I will let you know when they are launched. For now, I will leave you with a tardy posting of my pictures from the Tax Day Tea Party in Atlanta on April 15th. I hope you were able to attend tea parties in your cities if you were so inclined.
To those of you who are new followers, thank you for your support. I am glad to see so many freedom-minded people coming out in support of Liberty.

Freedom

Among other things, I recently read an article over at ModCon, that set me thinking about the subject of Liberty. The article was about picking your battle and the vantage point from which to fight for your ideology. It got me thinking about Liberty in a personal sense, such as my own ideology, as well as the broader ramifications that affect society at large. It is a subject we would all do well to address before it is too late. If this sounds like another conspiracy theory to you, I advise you to stop reading now. For the rest of you, please bear with me, as I may ramble on. I've been feeling a little testy of late. Given the current state of our government, I hope you will not blame me for my, let's be honest, fit of rage, in recent months. Though to be fair, this has been building for years. I did register as an Independent out of high school because I recognized that the problems in our government stem from all branches and both of the major parties. However, I digress.

The following are excerpts from Miriam Webster and Wikipedia. Please feel free to read the entire text on their respective sites.

Freedom: 1. The quality or state of being free as a: the absence of necessity, or coercion, or constraint in choice or action b: liberation from a slavery or restraint or from the power of another: Independence c: the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous... 2. A political right

Political Freedom: absence of interference with the sovereignty of an individual by the use of coercion or aggression. The members of a free society would have full dominion over their public and private lives. ...refers solely to the relation of humans to other humans...

As an individual, I feel that Liberty is both a blessing and a right. It is not a burden as the Left would have us believe, although it does require a great deal of personal responsibility. In the event that people have a lapse in their judgment and acceptance of personal responsibility, it is the government's job to step in and prosecute justice upon the aggressor as defined by the law. It is not, however, the job of the government to be our nanny or our conscience in matters that affect no one but ourselves. Even the slightest infringement upon Liberty opens the door to abuse of power and suppression of individual rights. Governments tend to work in matters of degrees. If the populace is not attentive and diligent, the little things begin to add up into larger issues, or the multitude of trivialities obscure the larger infringements on personal freedom.

I will go into depth in future articles on the subjects of fighting back and making the concepts of freedom and individuality more mainstream. To close out this article, I will leave you with some links to recent events and articles that have inspired me to pick this hill to stand on, rather than to succumb to the oppression of my government.

Compulsory Volunteerism, The evil of Democracy, The Fed, The Left

This article is cross-posted at ModernConservative.com

Thank You for Your Service

I just read a very moving article at American Thinker. It's sad that people have to go to Europe to get perspective on the sacrifice of our soldiers. It's worse to think we have a President and First Lady who only see our servicemen as political pawns.
I think the author's tradition of honoring a fallen soldier every year is a very touching and fitting tribute to the huge sacrifice they made in the name of freedom.
My disdain for Michelle Obama is only surpassed by my feelings toward her husband.

The Ayn Rand quotes, continued...

...very little has been said about actual life under communism, about living beings, not slogans and theories. Theories against practice...I don't give a damn about theories. I do give a good deal about human beings...
...the individual against the collective. That problem interests me above all others in my writing...The plot of my novel is entirely fictitious. The background and circumstances which make the plot possible are entirely true.

The apparent enthusiasm for the manual worker, for the afflicted and for social justice; serves as a mask to facilitate the refusal of all obligations, such as courtesy, truthfulness, and above all, respect or esteem for superior individuals...[In regard to] Dictatorship, we have seen only too well how they flatter the mass-man, by trampling on everything that appeared to be above the common level.

Everything accepted on faith or someone else's authority is only a warmed over spiritual hash.

...the means have become the end...

If all of life has been brought down to flattering the mob, if those who can please the mob are the only ones to succeed - why should anyone feel any high aspirations and cherish any ideals?...

Instead of preaching more collectivism, men must realize that it is precisely collectivism, in its logical consequences - a subtle, unnamed, unofficial, but still all-powerful collectivism - that is the cause of mankind's tragedy...since collective ethics are claimed to be necessary for collective economics - take a look, gentlemen, we have those ethics already. We have them and we don't like them; it is not a pretty picture.

The first cornerstone of his convictions is equality... all possess intrinsic value by the mere fact of having been born in the shape of men...
this talk is on a grand scale, staggering, magnificent, its bromides well hidden under the latest scientific terms, the whole worked out on a formula of saying things that sound profound until one stops to think of what exactly they mean and finds they mean nothing... beliefs are important to them only as a means to an end... he is not bothered by his inconsistencies, by the vagueness and illogic of his convictions. They are efficient and effective to assure the ends he is seeking...

Once the equality of men is established, the advantages to his type are obvious... assure him of superiority...
The liberals and humanitarians are now faced with a choice: either admit that their are differences among men more profound and irrefutable than those of money or aristocratic birth, and therefore fight for the rights and freedom of the best among men, rights and freedom which the average men do not want, do not understand and cannot use or protect, and stop the damnable preoccupation with the "poor" as such, the poor who have no distinction beyond their poverty; or - deny these ideals... bring mankind down to the level of the masses...

It's the aggressive, imperious expressions that are awful - on these people who are supposed to stand for equality, freedom, kindness, justice, etc...

All artistic creation has a philosophy. The first condition of creation.

The Sun is Setting on Liberty

This is just a reminder that inaction of the populace is the biggest encouragement for a corrupt government. http://www.modernconservative.com/metablog_single.php?p=2925