Americans make a big hubbub over the Fourth of July.
True, the victory of 1781 was an amazing triumph, and the vision of those gathered in Philadelphia five years before — that men may rightfully form or disband governments at will, for the higher purpose of protecting our God-given individual rights — is still worth celebrating.
America’s great national holiday is July 4 — celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
But how long did that confederation of sovereign states formed in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall to fight the Revolution really last?
Published 12/10/08 in Shotgun News:
Nevada Democrats spent the autumn waging an unsavory “hit piece” campaign against two of my local state senators, Joe Heck and Bob Beers.
In this holiday season, it’s hard to be hard-hearted. So you’ll pardon me if this week I refrain from writing one of my usual missives condemning the waste, fraud, arrogance and generally thuggish behavior of our government masters, claiming they need more of your paycheck because their budgets have been “cut to the bone” when in fact they’re still bigger than last year’s.
Instead, I’d like to take this opportunity, as the Christmas carols waft from the little radio over in the corner that cartoonist Jim Day locked into the “on” position sometime before 1990, till we’ve all wondered more than once whether it would be possible to short the thing out before it finishes “My Little Tin Drum” (pa rum pum pum pum) one more time by drowning it in lukewarm Coca-Cola, to ask us all to take a moment to think about the less fortunate.
Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt — the latter continued and amplified the former’s policies in a kind of one-two punch, as revealed in Murray Rothbard’s “The Great Depression” — did all the wrong things from 1930 to 1938.
In an environment of surplus labor but collapsing capital and credit, free-market entrepreneurs put people back to work by hiring men at low wages (giving them the pride of honest work, and the chance to make more as their skills improve) to make things consumers will buy at new, lower prices — can-openers, washing machines, chicken wire, whatever.
As our modern gladiators chase a pigskin down the field in Dallas or Detroit, we settle into our living rooms, loosen our belts and remind the little ones this is the day we echo the thanks of the Pilgrims, who gathered in the autumn of 1621 to celebrate the first bountiful harvest in a new land.
The Pilgrims’ first winter in the New World had been a harsh one. The wheat the Pilgrims had brought with them to plant would not grow in the rocky New England soil. Nearly half the colonists died.
Indications multiply that those who hoped Barack Obama and the resurgent Democratic Party tidal wave would calm down and “govern to the center” are about to face a rude awakening.
On the campaign trail, candidate Obama — whose legislative record showed him to be a gun-grabber of radical degree — toned down his hoplophobia, vowing in soothing tones that he would “not take away” Americans’ firearms. Yet his just-announced choice for attorney general, Eric Holder, earlier this year signed an amicus brief in the court case District of Columbia vs. Heller, supporting the District’s ban on the use of any firearm for self-defense in the home — as Barack Obama himself supported that patently unconstitutional measure.
Once you’ve passed through the entrance gate to one of America’s magnificent national parks or monuments, what do you see?
Nothin’.
Medical doctor Tim Ryan responds to my recent column on medical costs:
“I have just such a medical practice in Cartersville, GA. I have the nicest office, most up-to-date EMR, digital EKG, next-day turnaround for any lab known to man and my prices are the lowest around. Office visit: $50. EKG, Labs, Injections, are all a small fraction of what you would pay anywhere. I make house calls. Check us out at thephysicianspractice.com.
Even as Detroit’s Big Three automakers teeter on the brink of on collapse — General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC are seeking $25 billion from the government to get them through the worst sales slump in 25 years, with GM particularly short on cash and reporting an inability to borrow more — United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger announced on Nov. 15 his workers will not make any more concessions.
“The focus has to be on the economy as a whole as opposed to a UAW contract,” Gettelfinger told reporters on a conference call, noting the labor costs now make up 8 percent to 10 percent of the cost of a vehicle.
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