Those of you comfortably with the hands-on details of animal husbandry will wonder at the delay. Those raised in the city with everything the purvey of experts and specialists will understand.

So my major preparation today may seem that I bought betadine, water soluable antibiotics, extra-strength Orajel (for potential future use as a topical anesthetic on dogs and people), clippers and GOOD tweezers. But the real big deal is I got off my “can’t do that” squeamishness and made myself go out to the chicken coop after dark when I could actually capture an extremely quick, skittish leghorn and put her under the knife in my hands.

Then I find that nature took care of it late today. The toe with the tourniquet on it fell off before I could fix it or amputate. Cool beans. Win win. Or did I really get over any hump at all?

Regardless, a nice side-effect is that we have more good, perhaps crucial stuff in our first-aid supply kit.

The planned $650,000,000 private/taxpayer investment has fallen short of the goal, but only by $530,000,000. The planned 5,000 new jobs has fallen short by 3,194 jobs. But the Boise area did get 1,806 new jobs (… while losing 10,000 – oops). Those new jobs only cost $66,445 each!

With official unemployment reported to be 10% and actual unemployment at 22% (see shadowstats.com) – and rising, it sure looks like a real good time for the Idaho state government to deliberately, with great fanfare, publicity and ribbon-cutting ceremonies, attempt to create poverty and joblessness.

Meanwhile, 17 million small businesses in the USA constitute 99.7% of employers, employ 52% of the private workforce and account for 40% of the GDP. In ’94-’98, small business-dominated industries provided 11.1 million new jobs; virtually ALL of the new jobs created during that time period. Small businesses are most likely to generate jobs for youth, older workers and women, provide 67% of first jobs and produce 55% of the US innovations.

Instead of helping and encouraging small businesses, however, government assaults them, restricts them, competes with them and prevents them. Bureaus, boards and officials appointed or elected require licensing, paperwork, compliance, audit, testing and dictate many practices that stifle innovation and often prevent success. While jumping through government hoops is a small part of a big business, it is a big part of small business.

Programs that demonstrably do create jobs are private micro loans. Though distinctly un-splashy, these are proving to be the best way to lift economies out of poverty and unemployment.

A micro-loan is as little as a few hundred dollars invested into a one-person business with minimal qualifications. That tiny borrowed amount can launch a vegetable stand, repair shop, or bicycle taxi — a living in other words. As each micro-loan is repaid (and most are), the effects of that small goodness are amplified and leveraged by being loaned out and invested again and again.

For more on micro-loans, see micro-loans online, Wikipedia, Micro-enterprise comes to America, accion.org or search the Internet for more – there’s a lot of success out there for not much money… and NO taxpayer dollars at all.

What can/should government and the governor do? Reduce taxes, reduce barriers, eliminate restrictions to entry, eliminate paper-pushers who demand to be fed papers that someone has to create rather than tending to their business.

The best and consistently most successful thing government can do to create jobs and wealth is to get out of the way. Too bad nobody is likely to get a picture of me cutting a ceremonial ribbon to introduce that program.

Those with much to win can spend lavishly entertaining, electing or even being politicians. Those whose interaction to that specialty is limited cannot even justify a letter or phone call to beg the legislators to not restrict their liberties or increase their cost of living.

The first century of this country was guided by a very limited government. Liberty was great in all areas. The unfettered marketplace fostered innovation and competition the likes of which the world had never seen. The next century saw a steady increase in mercantilism. In the last 50 years, the parasites have become so numerous and successful that the great engine of liberty and prosperity is being brought to its knees.

That few can go through a normal day without breaking some laws is commonly understood. It is sad we accept this, but overwhelming to fight it. Throughout every day we bear the costs of specialized protection for selected groups. It would be frustrating to think about it all, and futile to fight it, so we accept and move on.

It is fortunately unusual that we have to deal with the details of funeral arrangements. Emotions are high and experience is low. But ask yourself now how it came to pass that returning the mortal flesh of the deceased to the earth costs $5,000 and there are no legal alternatives?

Try, as I recently did, to get a scratched, but otherwise perfectly good pair of glasses replaced using a perfectly good four year old prescription. That’s against the law. “You must get a complete eye exam and new prescription every two years”. This somehow helps us???

Many of us give good haircuts, styling, braids and hair coloring to friends and family. Just don’t you dare advertise or charge for it without your official permission slip and graduation from the school the merchants of haircuts have designed.

Idaho has 66 organized groups who use state money and state policing to protect their interests from competition. We, the taxpayers, are quite literally paying their little groups to restrict our access to their specialties and increase our cost of doing business with them.

Accountants, Acupuncturists, Architectural Examiners, Asbestos, Athlete Agents, Athletic Trainers, Attorneys, Barbers, Boiler Inspectors, Building Safety, Child Care, Chiropractic Physicians, Contractors …

I once watched an innovator of a natural, herbal remedy plead with, and lick the boots of the state pharmacy board that they might allow him to share his product with customers wanting it. What! an alternative to the chemicals we dispense? Permission denied! I am to this day suspicious that it was not us that was protected thereby.

With tightening budgets becoming the norm, it is an excellent time to SELL these boards and their assets to the highest bidder. Let the geologists, guides, hearing aid fitters, HVAC installers and all the rest finance their own unions, their own lobbying organization and their own certifying agency. Let the customers decide if their certificates are worth looking for or if uncertified help or those certified by a competing organization offer better value.

The practitioners of those arts can buy the assets from The State of Idaho. They “win” their independence while the state not only gains the proceeds of the sale, but saves on expenses of support. We all win as competition increases quality and decreases costs. Certifying agencies like Underwriter Labs, Consumer Reports and Good Housekeeping will be joined by numerous others competing to win our trust while serving their industries.

It is not hard to find the losers in this transaction. Though it may seem it is all of the protected mercantilists, in reality it is only those who cannot win their market share in open competition – and they really should move on to something they can do well.

After discussing this idea with two local eyeglass sellers, both told me it is against the law to do that … without first hiring them to re-examine my eyes and write a fresh prescription.

I have perfectly good glasses that give me a clear picture of a 600-yard target. My unaided eyes give me a perfectly clear picture of the front sight. I have a document that lays out the specifics of the distance prescription. They can easily and inexpensively build glasses that do exactly what I want. But they won’t.

It turns out that The State is protecting me from the horrors of wearing glasses based on a highly modified version of a prescription that was written four long years ago. These glasses that I would wear a few hours a month could, in the enlightened opinion of the state legislators and governor, cause irreparable damage to my eyes. If we modified a prescription that was only two years old, my health and well-being would be assured.

Gosh, what a comfort.

Only the most jaded cynic would theorize that this law was written to protect the optometry industry rather than me.

Hmmm. Perhaps I’ll adopt jade as my birthstone.

Meanwhile, the Internet is my friend. I have decided I won’t spend my shooting glasses money locally after all.

Mercantilist laws always seem so clever when the merchants dream them up, but they stifle markets and, in the end, destroy them.

545 PEOPLE–By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them..

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don’t set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don’t control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don’t care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits….. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted — by present facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it’s because they want it in the red ..

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it’s because they want them in IRAQ

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it’s because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like “the economy,” “inflation,” or “politics” that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power..

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees…

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

The bad news is that those with even the most crude understanding of accounting have discovered this insurance company is bankrupt. Yep, their liabilities far exceed their income. They spent my money instead of investing it safely to insure repayment as contracted.

The obvious answer is to cash in my account while there is still some value. I would be happy to take pennies on the dollar right now. I could easily find places to put it that would prevent every last drop from evaporating into nothing. Food in the pantry, silver in the bank, tools, hardware or almost anything I could do would be more secure than the ashes they hold in my name.

Even more obvious is that I should stop sending them money every payday. Of course I should also have my employer discontinue their payments in my name, sending them to a more reliable insurance company or directly to me. Unfortunately, those choices are not available from this particular provider.

The heading on this statement is, “What Social Security Means To You”. All of the wonderful obfuscation that follows can be summarized in one word: THEFT.

Some of that money went into political campaigns to insure “the right attitudes” would populate the legislatures and executive offices. Some of that money bought newspapers, radio and TV stations to insure “the right attitudes” were broadcast to the people. Some of that money went to endowments, grants, scholarships and subsidies to insure “the right attitudes” were taught in the schools and universities.

When you can create out of thin air 19 of 20 dollars in the system, you can accomplish most amazing things … for good or for evil.

Among their more clever accomplishments was making Keynesian economics dominate academia and government. This popular theory holds that governments can spend twice what they take in for as long as they want without cost. It obfuscates Federal Reserve destruction of dollar value. While flying in the face of logic, Keynesian’s ever-changing models create wonderful rainbows with a mist of gobbely-gook that refracts the light of economic reality.

The financial analyst studies at the university, learns the language of approved economics, earns certified entry to white collar work. He learns to trust experts to run the world altruistically, setting aside human greed for power and money that would cheat his family out of their earnings and security.

The farmer sees history littered with collapsed fiat currencies that shocked and destroyed the unprepared who depended on stability in their country’s predominate medium of exchange.

The financial analyst sees a dollar with a history of stability far in excess of his lifetime – If you can ignore the depreciation of its value, which is reasonably easy to do with Keynesian wizards cooking the books.

The farmer divides his tiny reserve between his pantry, tools, investments in soil and hyper-inflation-proof silver hard currency.

The financial analyst is confident the world as he knows it will run as it has all his life with continued economic expansion in perpetuity. Sure a little reserve is a good idea: put it safely away in a stock market that always goes up, a housing market that always goes up, a job market that always expands or entrusted to clever, well-educated, honorable people who in turn put it in those places.

While the farmer wishes the financial analyst would put some of his generous income into real, hard money, he fervently prays that the financial collapse happens just before spring planting when the extra hands of the financial analyst’s family can help put enough food in the ground that they will all make it through the next winter.

“…back to the present global economy: do you think Greece will default?

I’ll go further and say that all of these struggling governments, including the U.S. government, should default on their debts and punish the people foolish enough to lend them money. The world would be a better place if governments around the globe were unable to borrow money.”

That tidbit, of course, is not a complete argument, nor is it done justice standing here alone. Please go read the whole interview on this page of LewRockwell.com

Unconstitutional usurpations of liberty and property are getting signed by the president of the USA so fast it is hard to keep track – and the mainstream media isn’t even trying (mostly because the legislative sponsors also own the media, but that’s another story altogether).

Just about the time I think I need to strap on my life jacket and swim away from impending doom, I find more people than I imagined launching lifeboats. This is wonderful news. I am thrilled to share bits of it with you.

The Tenth Amendment Center takes its name from that part of The Bill of Rights that says, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or the people.”

This is one exciting place that I cannot recommend highly enough. There IS a lot going on. People ARE using the law of the land to defend liberties whose protection was written into the Constitution 230 years ago.

From there you can find articles and links to other activities and actions that say there are a lot of us out there and there is hope that there just might be some free countries left when the dust settles on the nightmare from DC.

It will get a lot tougher if/when they take the uncontrolled Internet away from us, but for now you can see a lot of activity and more resistance to statism than you might have felt from your immediate surroundings and heard on your evening news.

Michael Boldin put it together in a great article at the Campaign for Liberty. I found most of the list below linked in that article. Here’s his list and more… a heartening bunch for sure.

12 states have passed 10th amendment resolutions.

25 states passed laws and resolutions nullifying the Real ID act.

7 states have passed firearms freedom acts.

14 states have legalized medical marijuana.

28 states are dabbling with health care freedom.

I could spend longer building this list, but suffice it to say, “The news is good”. Follow a few of the links I included. Read more about limiting the federal government to its charter. Get involved in protecting your liberty NOW while it can be done nonviolently.

Help launch the lifeboats. They are a dang sight more comfortable than bobbing in the frigid water all alone wearing a life jacket.

You just spent $179,000,000 in foreign aid to Haiti, but are the only country involved who is hiding their flag. This is a very important fact – and you probably know by now that I’m not your regular fan-in-the-stands flag waver.

Obama is a speaker, a tool, an actor and a puppet for the same people who installed and controlled Bush II, Clinton, Bush I, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, etc. And the way they installed Johnson has bothered me quite a bit too.

Don’t stop reading quite yet. I know we “got a choice”, but the way it works was never made more clear than in the last election.

Ron Paul had a lead; a strong showing and it was a grass-roots, across-the-spectrum, out-of-nowhere fright for the guys who normally are on the top. The media (now remember that 5 guys control the media) went to full-bore ignore and discredit on Ron Paul. Still he was beating Guiliani and Romney in spite of their efforts. We came THAT close to having a choice.

Never leaving anything to chance, they dropped their first two choices and out of nowhere came McCain and Palin. From no money in their campaign treasuries to more than anybody in a blink. Lovely media coverage. Just about everything you could want in a couple of losers. (Well they did, didn’t they?)

So no matter what, we get a choice between a handful of their people, their puppets, that they offer us.

So THEY offered us a choice between their woman Hillary, and their men Obama, Guiliani, Romney and McCain. We selected one of their offerings and felt somehow we were in charge. The Media and The Money. The same handful of people hold the strings. They don’t much care which face we install on the marionette.

I want you to read the following quotes.
One by one.
Think about who said them.
This New World Order thing explains a whole lot of inexplicable stuff – if you let it. By the way, the last one is perhaps the most important.

Oh yeah, before you go … Why do I like Obama? Because he pisses so many people off. I think Those Who Can’t Be Named overestimated the success of their indoctrination. I think, gosh I HOPE they are pulling the trigger on their master plan before the critical mass is ready to accept the chains of servitude.

—-

“The American people should be made aware of the trend toward monopolization of the great public information vehicles and the concentration of more and more power over public opinion in fewer and fewer hands.”
– Spiro Agnew – U. S. Vice-President 1969