Milton Friedman: Capitalism and Greed

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Brian Gallimore

A 2-1/2 minute excerpt from an interview with Phil Donahue in 1979 where Milton Friedman explains that capitalism and free markets are the only systems in recorded human history that can bring people out of grinding poverty.

Milton Friedman – Greed

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Broken Promises of Social Security

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Brian Gallimore

If you knowingly participate in a scam, you shouldn’t feel entitled to the spoils of the scam after it gets busted up! Any nitwit with a few brain cells knows that social security is a scam and a ponzi scheme.  Like the evils of socialism and direct democracy, the participants think that as long as they gain more than they pay, then so long morals, give me the payola!  Here is the problem:  I refuse to pay for debts that I did not agree to, and I absolutely will not burden my children with debts they did not agree to.  Here is a little history of how this evil evolved over time:

Social Security Cards, issued in 1934, and up until the 1980s expressly stated the number and that card were not to be used for identification purposes. Since nearly everyone in the United States now has a number, it became convenient to use it anyway and the message, NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION, was removed.

When Franklin Roosevelt introduced the Social Security (FICA) Program. He promised:

  1. That participation in the Program would be completely voluntary [No longer Voluntary]
  2. That the participants would only have to pay 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual Incomes into the Program [Now 7.65% on the first $90,000]
  3. That the money the participants elected to put into the Program would be deductible from their income for tax purposes each year [No longer tax deductible]
  4. That the money the participants put into the independent ‘Trust Fund’ rather than into the general operating fund, and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other Government program. [Under Johnson, another Democrat, the money was moved to The General Fund and Spent]
  5. That the annuity payments to the retirees would never be taxed as income. [Under Clinton & Gore, Democrats, Up to 85% of your Social Security can be Taxed]
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Bryson Day 1 of Bicycle Riding

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Brian Gallimore

It turns out training wheels are yet another bad idea passed down from my elders! The modern theory says never use them, instead let the child learn to balance the two-wheeler first without worrying about working the pedals, then upgrade to the balance/pedal combo after they figure out how to balance. So I did a little surgery on Shaun’s old bicycle and we were off to the races!

Bryson Rides a Bike for the First Time

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Federal Reserve in 60 Seconds

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Brian Gallimore

Here are the top 3 things that are wrong with the Federal Reserve, answered in one minute:

John Jay Myers demolishes The Federal Reserve in 60 seconds

  1. Fractional Reserve Banking
  2. Open Market Operations
  3. Artificially Control Interest Rates
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Big Sugary Drinks & Raw Milk

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Brian Gallimore

“In a free society, you will always be able to buy a big drink with a lot of sugar in it.”

Those of us who attended the 1st breakout session at the Texas Republican Party Convention will never forget the sustained applause that greeted this innocuous statement by Dr. Ron Paul.

This was the first time I had listened to Ron Paul speak in person and it was very exciting, just like everyone said it would be.

But then, Ron Paul made a statement that aroused even more applause.   “You might even be able to drink raw milk.” 

It was deafening in that arena.  For a moment I thought the roof might collapse as the people screamed themselves hoarse.

Is the issue of raw milk this big of a deal?  No, but the message of liberty is!

Do I idolize Ron Paul?  The truth is that I didn’t support him at first.  He is not a very good speaker, he is really old, and he is not very cool.  But his message is consistent, and it defines a philosophy that I believe is the answer for how humans should treat each other.  That message is generally the opposite of what the mainstream Republicans and Democrats practice.  It is also the principle that started the United States of America and is embodied in the Declaration of the US and the US Constitution.  Ron Paul has been at this for 40 years now.  He doesn’t waver from his principle, he doesn’t give in to corruption or peer pressure.  He is a hero and a true leader.

I pride myself on my ability to use reason and logic to come up with good solutions.  This also means that emotion needs to be carefully dealt with to make sure it doesn’t bias the solutions, so I’ve become pretty good at recognizing emotion.  For me, hearing Ron Paul speak on the topic of liberty was an emotional experience.  Maybe this means I can’t possibly be thinking clearly about this subject.  Or maybe it means I have thought about all the reason and logic up front, and to see one person lighting the fires of liberty inside so many peoples hearts really moves me!  The grassroots liberty movement made huge advances this year.  I’ve watched it happen right before my eyes.  It is emotional, but I have to ask the questions, will it be enough, and is it too late?

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Uniting the Republican Party

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Brian Gallimore

So I got a little taste of some of the internal conflict within the Texas Republican party this past week while I participated in the Texas GOP Convention, which was the largest political convention in the world to date.  It is a pretty clear trend: the energy and young people are solidly behind the message of liberty and adherence to the US Constitution as defined by Ron Paul.  There are a few main groups where opposition to the message of liberty seems to come from:  1) The so called social conservatives, who advocate deviating from the conservative philosophy in areas where using the force of government supports the specifics of their value system.  2) The entrenched establishment who wish to remain in power at all costs.  3) Those convinced that support of the outrageous interventionist military practices are a good idea or are necessary for our safety.

While I do understand that many mainstream Republicans are turned off by the Ron Paul supporters who are rude, outspoken, aggressive, hard to deal with, or otherwise just look like they don’t fit in, the message that Ron Paul delivers is what I want to talk about.  His message on Thursday covered the topic of how to unite the Republican party.  Here is what he said:

Uniting the party is important, but you have to ask the question, what are you going to unite around?  If you unite around no child left behind… if you unite around expanding the department of education and expanding medicare benefits… if you unite behind the things that cost money…. what good is it?  Sure we want to be united, but we have to unite on the right principal.  And if you get confused on what the right principal is and what the position should be, why shouldn’t we all just unite behind the Constitution?

Original audio here, around the 8:40 mark.

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All My Peaches are Gone

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Brian Gallimore

Something (birds suspected) ate every bit of every peach that was on my tree.  All they left was the pits, hanging there as if my tree only grows peach pits.  Dang birds.

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We’re all packin’

Posted on June 9, 2012 by Brian Gallimore

One of the best speeches from today at the Texas GOP convention was from Jerry Patterson, land commissioner and 2014 lieutenant governor hopeful.  Here was one of his jokes:

Patterson, the author 17 years ago of the state’s concealed weapon law, said he noticed how courteous everyone was at the convention hall. If someone accidentally bumped someone else, it’s been, “Excuse me,” with the other fellow responding, “no, excuse me.” He said the politeness was overwhelming until he figured it out: “We’re all packin’,” he said.

He went on to explain that 17 years ago, all the papers and liberty-haters were exclaiming how there would be blood running down the streets from all the violence caused by citizens legally carrying guns.  This is a pretty typical liberal reaction, but the truth is that violent crime has gone WAY down in the past 17 years.

Now, I said all that so I could say this:

On the way out of the arena this afternoon, I bumped into another man.  I said ‘excuse me’, then jokingly repeated the ‘no, excuse me’ part of Patterson’s joke a few times.  The guy smiled at me and said, “hey, don’t mess with me, I’m packin’ “.  I responded with “well, so am I”.  He gave me another smile and said, “no, I’m serious”, and so I said, “so am I!”

True Story!  It made me wonder just how many of the 11,000 or whatever it was people there were taking the responsibility of self protection as serious as the two of us did.

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Can Police “Terminate” Your First Amendment Rights?

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Brian Gallimore

“What should be concerning to many Americans is that while police and government officials are taking unprecedented steps in surveillance and monitoring of Americans’s activities, which may not be constitutional, they are at the same time cracking down on the media and the public’s right to record and report on what is happening right in the open.” -Ben Swann

Watch the full story and see the ignorant and abusive Chicago police in the news clip here:

Reality Check: Can Police “Terminate” Your First Amendment Rights?

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Brian Gallimore

When it seems like everything around me is SNAFU, it helps to remember where we are in the pyramid of needs.  I can’t remember a time in my life when I woke up and questioned if I would have food, shelter, or water that day.  This is why I can think and worry about how screwed up our system is and how evil / misguided statists are.

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