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

The Read the Bills Act

As you can see from my sidebar, I support the Read the Bills Act sponsored by DownsizeDC.org. The basic idea behind the proposal is that Congress should read a bill before they sign it. What a novel idea. This would have the benefit of making sure each Representative is aware of what they are voting for, as well as making them fully responsible for that vote.I find it highly unacceptable that bills are passing and Congressmen are claiming to be unaware of their contents. If they don't have time to read the bill, it's either too big or they aren't qualified for their job.
The RTBA would also eliminate 'log-rolling', which is the popular practice of lumping a bunch of bills together for expediency. This way, Congressmen feel the need to vote for a package containing pork or bad legislation because they don't want to kill the provisions of which they approve.
In the interest of brevity and accuracy, I will direct you to the following link: DownsizeDC's Read the Bills Act

Artist Statement

My work is about a variety of people and subjects that affect our lives. It is meant to engage the viewer and make them think about the world in which we live. These paintings are not being completed in an order that is relative to one another. Sometimes I just get really angry about some thing or a person or event becomes a big news story and I get inspired to work on that subject. My work is mostly meant to point out the role we allow others to play in our lives. I am most interested in the role lobbyists, unions, activists, media and celebrities play in controlling or influencing our lives through our government and their views. And, of course, there are the politicians and judges who have the most direct control over our lives.
My work is also a response to the overwhelming tendency of the art community to be a bunch of raging Liberals. There seems to be very little political art dedicated to any other point of view. I hope that one day there will be a greater variety of opinion in the art community. I would also like to see our government break out of the nearly rigid two-party system we currently have. Our government has begun to stagnate, and the politicians, regardless of party, are predominantly concerned with pandering to their constituents and making a buck, rather than doing the job they are elected to do. In the future, I have plans to do some work highlighting people I think have had a positive impact on history as well as people I admire or consider to be heroes.
My work is my personal outlet for my political opinions. I have found that it is not a constructive use of my time to discuss politics with most people and only causes stress to those involved. I am not out to change anyone else's point of view. I believe in the strength and beauty of the human spirit and in an individual's ability to govern their own life. Life and freedom are not given to us by our government. We are born with them and are responsible for maintaining them. We are responsible for our own health, morality and support. We need to realize that the decisions we make affect our lives and are our own responsibility. It is not the government's place to care for us or help us when we make the wrong decisions and harm ourselves. Nor does the government have the right to punish us for doing better than those around us and redistribute our wealth or property for the "public good".
It is the government's job to perform the duties outlined in the Constitution: provide for the national defense, maintain the courts defend the rule of law, and coin money. Everything else should be left up to private enterprise. The government should not be our nanny, or allow special interests to influence the actions of our Representatives. And, God forbid, world opinion should ever be taken into consideration. There are too many people who consider themselves to be morally or intellectually superior to the "masses". Whether or not that is reality is debatable, but they don't have the right to interfere with anyone's life but their own. I hope my work will make you more aware of these issues and influence you to do what you can to change the system.
E-Mail: frances@machinepolitick.com WEB SITE: www.machinepolitick.com

How big government takes, rather than gives

I recently signed up as an online activist for the Bobb Barr campaign and came across the following question on his Facebook page. What will this country become if we continue to be led by big government politicians? Now that I have had time to think on it and do a little research, I have come to a more informed conclusion in much the same vein as the reply I posted there. The following is my response:
I am voting for Bobb Barr in this election because I think he will do more to make our country and each individual within it more free than it is now. He is running on a platform of smaller government and lower taxes, the two most important issues directly affecting our lives in this country. I believe that if we continue on the path of big government handouts and regulation that we are paving for ourselves, this country will become less free and more like the countries that envy us so much for our success.
We have politicians in this country fighting to make us more like our Canadian and European counterparts, where people can't get healthcare or languish on waiting lists because of the inefficeincies of government. We have people running for office on a campaign platform that promises change with no real definition, because the change being promised always leads to the problems our friends in the third world struggle to overcome. High unemployment, food shortages, and a lower standard of living for all is the historic result of policies meant to redistribute wealth and micromanage people's actions in the name of fairness. We have people who call themselves Conservatives talking about obscene profit, refusing to address our dependence on foreign oil, and buying into global warming hysteria. Big government has the same results regardless of the point of view, or execution of ideals.
These politicians talk about fairness and equality, but their true goal is power. Even if they genuinely care about the people, they are more concerned with enacting their ideals, at any cost, than they are with truly helping the people. The result is never to bring the poor up, but to bring the rich down. The result is that we all loose something.
The best thing the government can do for the people is to do the job it was set up to do and leave the rest to the people, for better or worse. Personal freedom and free markets allow people who work hard to achieve anything. It may be callous, but people who don't care to help themselves, don't have any right to the profits of someone else's hard work. Personal freedom will allow people to achieve what no government can give them. If you think we have problems with healthcare and the economy now, wait until we start to see the results of change for its own sake.They say there's no such thing as a free lunch. If you wait around for the government to feed you on someone else's dime, you deserve the slop you will get.