Get out your Bicycles

President Obama's energy policy sounds very similar to his economic policy: "We should be asking ourselves what mix of policies will lead to a dynamic free market and widespread economic security ... we should be guided by what works."(Obama 2006)
The false premise of both is that government regulations, interventions and subsidies will create a solution thru a "dynamic free market" - Whatever that means. 

As part of the Recovery Act, $80 billion was spent on energy fixes. Government solutions have jumped from ethanol to solar and wind power to electric vehicles to now natural gas vehicles.  Any real free-market solutions have been stifled by EPA's abuse of the clean air act in declaring that the carbon dioxide that we exhale is a dangerous gas that must be regulated.

If the government would get out of the way with regulations and excessive tax structures the free market will find all the energy solutions we need.

If we keep going the way we are, get out your bicycles. That may be the transportation solution of choice. If only the EPA allows all the dangerous exhaling. 
  

The purpose of our founding fathers was not to "Put country before self" as the writer claims but exactly the opposite.
Our founding fathers put in place a Constitutional Republic for the purpose of defending individual rights. ( Not a Democracy of majority rule)
 
The writer's argument is that our success depends not on hard work and/or ability but on "luck". This dangerous theory more fully developed by John Rawls in "A Theory of Justice" is this:
 We are born in the USA to parents of means based only on luck, therefore: 
1) Apologize for your individual success, 2) Re-distribute wealth and 3) Apologize to the world for the success of the USA
Sound familiar? It is the position of our current Government.

I feel the same anxiety and fears as (writer) in his letter "What is there to be afraid of? Well...."
I also agree that if you can correctly identify the cause you can fight it. 
 
This is not about a fight for who is going to be the next president but it is a fight for the survival of western civilization. The direction of our decline is to some sort of a totalitarian state or to another dark age.
What is being assaulted are our individual rights which depend on our political freedom which depend on our economic freedom.
The assault began about 200 years ago with the philosopher Immanuel Kant. His subjectivist philosophy and his assault on reason has permeated our total culture to the point that the moral standard is now "whim" and the argument is no longer about right or wrong but how to get away with it.
 
The letter's subtitle of " The country is in peril, and there's not much that one person can do about it. But surely someone, somewhere, can help" sounds like it came right out of Atlas Shrugged. Ayn Rand's answer to that was "This is John Galt speaking" and a 50 page speech of the moral crisis of our time. This book has been rated as the second most influential book on people's lives for a reason. It was written in 1957. Just change the character's names and it could of been written in 2011.  

Dollars and Sense

I think we are becoming desensitized to numbers being thrown around about the Government. During the budget debate it struck me as odd how $39 billion in tax cuts was trivialized as not being significant.

Letter written by Syvia Bokor to her congressman. She has given us permisson to share it here.

Dear Senator Udall

Thank you for contacting me.  I am very concerned about the Administration's health care bill and strongly urge you to vote against it.

I understand that like the "stimulus package," Congressmen have not read the bill but are expected to vote for it. You might want to read some of it before you decide on it.  In effect, it transforms this country into a socialist state.  I am not exaggerating.  I am appalled that the United States Congress will even momentarily consider this bill. 

I will certainly NOT vote for any Congressman who sides with Obama on this egregious "health care" bill.  And I will encourage everyone to do the same.

It has become a truism that government health care is hazardous to one's health.  This being the case, it is no wonder that Mr. Obama exempts every congressman and his staff from his "health care" bill.

Sincerely,

Sylvia Bokor

cc: to about 450 individual citizens

“I have often wondered at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind -- yet what is it that they expect to depend on, when they lie on an operating table under my hands? … Let them discover the kind of doctors that their system will now produce. Let them discover, in their operating rooms and hospital wards that it is not safe to place their lives in the hands of a man whose life they have throttled. It is not safe, if he is the sort of man who resents it -- and still less safe, if he is the sort who doesn't." -- Dr. Hendricks in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

Dear Doctor

My name is________. I have been a patient of yours in the past. I am a private citizen who regularly purchases health care services. I do not represent any political group.

I am writing to you because I am deeply concerned that a socialized medical plan will be imposed on the American citizens in the near future. I am morally opposed to this because socialized medicine will be destructive to doctors’ medical practices and harmful to patients. It is not the role of government to guarantee health care for citizens anymore than it is to guarantee a house or a car or a job.

Doctors and patients should be free to enter into a contract for medical services that mutually benefits both parties without interference form government bureaucrats. Attempts by Canada and Great Britain, in trying to provide “cradle-to-grave” universal coverage, have resulted in out-of–control costs and reduced quality of health care. This is not what I want for our country.

I have had numerous conditions treated by very good doctors. I know the importance of being able to choose a doctor I trust and who I think is well-qualified to help me and to be free to see a doctor when I think it necessary. I do not ever want a bureaucrat making those decisions for me.

I have enclosed two items. The first is a copy of “Health Care is Not a Right”, a powerful statement on the immorality of socialized medicine by Leonard Peikoff, Ph. D. The other is by Richard Ralston, “Take a Stand for the Rights of Physicians”. They are important statements that will aid in the fight against socialized medicine.

I urge you to join me in this fight against socialized medicine. I am committed to preventing the passage of any government health care plan and will work my hardest to succeed. But it is doctors and other health care professionals whose voices need to be heard. Your freedom is as much at stake as the patients. 

To fight this it must be fought the right way or the battle will be lost. It must be fought on a matter of principle, that socialized medicine is immoral, that slavery is immoral. It must be fought on the principle of individual rights. Doctors must stand up and say that they have a right to their own life, their own liberty, and their pursuit of their own happiness. Nothing could be more important for the future of the United States of America. This is a life and death issue—literally!

Sincerely,

For more information, please see these web sites:
Americans for Free Choice in Medicine:

http://www.afcm.org/
Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine: http://www.westandfirm.org/ 
Citizens Council on Health Care (St. Paul, MN): http://www.cchconline.org/aboutus.php3
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc.: http://www.aapsonline.org/