Ryan Sheets

Posting this here because the site has already been taken offline and I feel this is very important information regarding today’s attack.  I am not able to verify that this was actually him, but this Internet Archive entry does seem to legititimize it.

If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?”  The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time.  The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken.  Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it.  I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head.  Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy.  Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all.  We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers.  Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”.  I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood.  These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.

While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind.  Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.

Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours?  Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies.  Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”.  It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.

And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!

How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system?  Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand.  Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand.  The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is.  If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.

How did I get here? 

My introduction to the real American nightmare starts back in the early ‘80s.  Unfortunately after more than 16 years of school, somewhere along the line I picked up the absurd, pompous notion that I could read and understand plain English.  Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions.  In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful “exemptions” that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy.  We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the “best”, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the “big boys” were doing (except that we weren’t steeling from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of God).  We took a great deal of care to make it all visible, following all of the rules, exactly the way the law said it was to be done.

The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living.  However, this is where I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us… Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country.

That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0.  It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie.  It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their “freedom”… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.

Before even having to make a shaky recovery from the sting of the first lesson on what justice really means in this country (around 1984 after making my way through engineering school and still another five years of “paying my dues”), I felt I finally had to take a chance of launching my dream of becoming an independent engineer.

On the subjects of engineers and dreams of independence, I should digress somewhat to say that I’m sure that I inherited the fascination for creative problem solving from my father.  I realized this at a very young age.

The significance of independence, however, came much later during my early years of college; at the age of 18 or 19 when I was living on my own as student in an apartment in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  My neighbor was an elderly retired woman (80+ seemed ancient to me at that age) who was the widowed wife of a retired steel worker.  Her husband had worked all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward to in his retirement.  Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement.  All she had was social security to live on.

In retrospect, the situation was laughable because here I was living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz crackers when I could afford to splurge) for months at a time.  When I got to know this poor figure and heard her story I felt worse for her plight than for my own (I, after all, I thought I had everything to in front of me).  I was genuinely appalled at one point, as we exchanged stories and commiserated with each other over our situations, when she in her grandmotherly fashion tried to convince me that I would be “healthier” eating cat food (like her) rather than trying to get all my substance from peanut butter and bread.  I couldn’t quite go there, but the impression was made.  I decided that I didn’t trust big business to take care of me, and that I would take responsibility for my own future and myself.

Return to the early ‘80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a ‘wet-behind-the-ears’ contract software engineer… and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706.

For you who are unfamiliar, here is the core text of the IRS Section 1706, defining the treatment of workers (such as contract engineers) for tax purposes. Visit this link for a conference committee report (http://www.synergistech.com/1706.shtml#ConferenceCommitteeReport) regarding the intended interpretation of Section 1706 and the relevant parts of Section 530, as amended. For information on how these laws affect technical services workers and their clients, read our discussion here (http://www.synergistech.com/ic-taxlaw.shtml).

SEC. 1706. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN TECHNICAL PERSONNEL.

(a) IN GENERAL – Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:

(d) EXCEPTION. – This section shall not apply in the case of an individual who pursuant to an arrangement between the taxpayer and another person, provides services for such other person as an engineer, designer, drafter, computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work.

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE. – The amendment made by this section shall apply to remuneration paid and services rendered after December 31, 1986.

Note:

• “another person” is the client in the traditional job-shop relationship.
• “taxpayer” is the recruiter, broker, agency, or job shop.
• “individual”, “employee”, or “worker” is you.

Admittedly, you need to read the treatment to understand what it is saying but it’s not very complicated.  The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d).  Moreover, they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave.  Twenty years later, I still can’t believe my eyes.

During 1987, I spent close to $5000 of my ‘pocket change’, and at least 1000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, or slug that might listen; none did, and they universally treated me as if I was wasting their time.  I spent countless hours on the L.A. freeways driving to meetings and any and all of the disorganized professional groups who were attempting to mount a campaign against this atrocity.  This, only to discover that our efforts were being easily derailed by a few moles from the brokers who were just beginning to enjoy the windfall from the new declaration of their “freedom”.  Oh, and don’t forget, for all of the time I was spending on this, I was loosing income that I couldn’t bill clients.

After months of struggling it had clearly gotten to be a futile exercise.  The best we could get for all of our trouble is a pronouncement from an IRS mouthpiece that they weren’t going to enforce that provision (read harass engineers and scientists).  This immediately proved to be a lie, and the mere existence of the regulation began to have its impact on my bottom line; this, of course, was the intended effect.

Again, rewind my retirement plans back to 0 and shift them into idle.  If I had any sense, I clearly should have left abandoned engineering and never looked back.

Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks.  Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s.  Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that.  The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco.  However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall.  Again, I lost my retirement.

Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed.  Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare.  Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity; and long after that, ‘special’ facilities like San Francisco were on security alert for months.  This made access to my customers prohibitively expensive.  Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY!  After these events, there went my business but not quite yet all of my retirement and savings.

By this time, I’m thinking that it might be good for a change.  Bye to California, I’ll try Austin for a while.  So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done.  I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work.  The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn’t give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies.

To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA.  This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income.  I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need.  The sleazy government decided that they disagreed.  But they didn’t notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out.  Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.

So now we come to the present.  After my experience with the CPA world, following the business crash I swore that I’d never enter another accountant’s office again.  But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle.  After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.

When we received the forms back I was very optimistic that they were in order.  I had taken all of the years information to Bill Ross, and he came back with results very similar to what I was expecting.  Except that he had neglected to include the contents of Sheryl’s unreported income; $12,700 worth of it. To make matters worse, Ross knew all along this was missing and I didn’t have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit.  By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.

This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented).  Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone.  The end result is… well, just look around.

I remember reading about the stock market crash before the “great” depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything.  Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s “business-as-usual”.  Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.

As government agencies go, the FAA is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone.  The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government.  Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough).  In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.

I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand.  It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants.  I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after.  But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change.  I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less.  I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are.  Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer.  The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different.  I am finally ready to stop this insanity.  Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Joe Stack (1956-2010)

02/18/2010

Two-hundred and thirty-three years ago, an idea was written down.  The idea was that common people were capable of living on their own.  The idea was something that hadn’t really been considered in a while, and it was seen as something that was pretty radical in those days.  The King wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about the idea as the people.

The idea did not come without consequence!  Many men and women lost their lives over it.  In fact, an entire war was fought over it.  Once the war was won, many other wars around the world were fought over the same idea!

In this short time, individualism has yielded the greatest era of advancement in the history of the world.  Take a look around you.  How many of the things you see have been invented in the last 2 centuries?  Is it mere coincidence that, after thousands of years of stagnant collectivism, technology took off?

How radical is it that we should be left to live our own lives?  How radical is it that we should be trusted with the one thing we have been given in this world?  How radical is it that our actions should come from personal preference, not the orders of men who know almost nothing about us?  How radical is it to believe that the common man is just as capable of living his life as a king?

The idea has been forgotten.  We are told– and we have come to believe– that without leadership, there would be utter dissonance.  If this is true, how do cars navigate city streets so successfully?  If stop signs serve as a reasonable proxy for kings, why do we need kings?  Are we to believe that an octagonal piece of red metal with a single word on it is responsible for such a miracle?

Here we are again, on the brink of tyranny, believing that the problems of the world can be solved by increased force.  Here we are again, believing that the ingredients of prosperity are incapable of providing for prosperity.  Here we are, ready to sacrifice the world for a false promise.  Here we are, chasing a dream of justice for all, ready to sacrifice the future to attain it.  Here we are again, joyfully perpetuating the operation of a machine that does nothing for us.

We have come to worship the Operator again.  He tells us to ignore the value of gears; they’re regularly replaced and they keep getting smaller.  As the load increases, the machine begins to strain.  The torque directed at the gears doesn’t seem to be sufficient to keep the machine going so fast, so the Operator asks for more power.  Fearing that the entire machine will be forced to slow down, we gladly oblige. Eventually, the pressure placed on the gears will cause them all to shatter, and the entire system will come to a screeching halt, but the gears wouldn’t know the difference.

A wise man, seeing the imminent collapse of the entire system, suggests that we should increase the gear ratios or allow the system to slow down rather than throwing more power at the machine.  He is largely rejected, but a strange thing, an impossible thing, happens.  A few of the gears hear what the man said, and they realize the death sentence they have placed on their successors.  The gears we logically assumed to be inanimate begin to resist!  Unfortunately these gears shatter under the pressure of the very complacent machine, but the idea spreads to remaining gears!  The Operator demands more and more power, and his wish is repeatedly granted, but the increased torque is met with more and more resistance.  Eventually, the resisting gears force the system to shut down.  Ironically, this would be called a revolution.

Maybe this world will never be perfect.  Maybe friction is a law and our approach should take this into account.  Maybe we should embrace this and try to increase efficiency.  Maybe we should do the logical thing!

Life today might be acceptable, but what about all of the the lives that have not even begun?  Can we justify the enslavement of our grandchildren?  Can we live with ourselves, knowing that the debts we have racked up may come due during the lives of those we will bring into this world?  We are trying to purchase heaven for the present at the cost of hell to the future.

We forfeit all of this money so someone we’ve never met can take action, yet the real killer, the definition of population control, is the apathy that has brought us to the reclining position as our neighbor is thrown out on the street.  The idea that we could open up a spare room until our neighbor is able to get back on their feet isn’t even considered; the government needs to fix this one!  It seems natural that, as we increase the size and scope of our government, which exists only because we cede responsibility to it, apathy will go on another killing spree.  This is the historical way of things.

People ask me why I fight.  People ask me why I stand up when everyone is sitting down.  People seem to agree with what I’m saying, yet they dare not repeat it. People vote once every 4 years, and that ought to be good enough, right?  I’m just a disobedient gear, but I have an idea, and my idea is immune to torque.

There’s people out there fighting, and there’s people out there complaining.  Almost everyone’s complaining, few are fighting.  Complaints aren’t the same across the board, but everyone has a couch.  Most of those complaining have functioning legs and voices.  Imagine if everyone with a complaint got off of their couch and called their representatives!

If we are to believe that war is ever the right choice, what the hell are couches for at a time like this?  How can we trumpet the virtues of interventionism abroad while we watch our nation crumble on the news?  How can we advocate the use of deadly force to spread Democracy when we are unwilling to lift a finger of our own?  What is happening to this country is greatly unjust and if you don’t get up and do something after reading this, you deserve your fate.

The tyrants tell us our lives in danger. If we don’t act swiftly, thousands, even millions, will die, they say.  We must fight them there so that they do not come here!  Never mind that they do not even have an air force, man the fighter jets!

As I have said before in a previous post, United States code title 18, section 2331 defines “domestic terrorism” as follows:

If they’re a terrorist, no trial is necessary! Habeas corpus is for potential criminals, not potential terrorists!

If dissent is not intimidating to the government, is it effective, or in any way remarkable?  The definition of terrorism now includes, albeit implicitly, essentially any action found in the first or second amendment so long as the government can find a criminal violation dangerous to human life.  The wording is so loose that a man could be defined as a terrorist if he was caught speeding with a dissenting bumper sticker on his car.  Clearly, speeding patriots are a threat to national security, and that’s why we passed the Patriot Act!

So you say that I worry too much, and that the government will only use this definition for the good of the people.  What happens if I’m wrong?  Nothing.  What happens if you’re wrong?  What if they lock me up without a trial and threaten to imprison you for 5 years if you speak of it?  Under the Patriot Act they can do that, you know?

Furthermore, United States code title 18, section 2385 makes it a Federal crime punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment to acknowledge the duty of a people to overthrow a tyrannical government:

A warning to all the teachers out there: it is illegal to teach the Declaration of Independence, and you can be sent to jail for 20 years for doing so.  Apparently, Jefferson was wrong!  It is not our duty to overthrow tyrannical government, it is our duty to rat out anyone who dissents.  Please forward information about any terrorist teachers caught teaching their students about the Declaration of Independence to flag@whitehouse.gov.

How many billions were spent bailing out banks, who pretended that every dollar they had was worth $35?  How many billions were spent bailing out Chevy and Chrysler, who pay their employees more than 4 times the average American wage?  How many billions were spent bailing out AIG, who made guarantees they simply could not back?  We are replacing gears that wouldn’t have shattered in the first place had the Operator not been given so much power!

They tell us the economic meltdown is so complex we would never understand.  What is so complex about a bunch of banks loaning out way more money than they had to people who couldn’t afford to pay back the nonexistent loans?  They tell us nobody could have seen it coming, but a quick YouTube search for “Peter Schiff was right” demonstrates otherwise.  They tell us that inaction is not an option, but it seemed to work fine in 1921.  Roosevelt’s depression lasted about 10 times longer, and people still believe that he helped things!  Ignoring logic, we allow the same people who caused this entire problem to try and help us out of it!

We the People are growing more and more disillusioned with the nanny state which has taken, and frivolously spent away, our future prosperity and Liberty.  Even as we are burdened with single-year Federal deficits nearing 2 trillion dollars, we are told that Medicare and Social Security– supposed guarantees– are on the verge of bankruptcy. Taxes levied on the pretense of providing for the People in hardship and retirement have been spent elsewhere. Promises, made and broken, are now being used as a supplement to the argument for socialized health care and more government. Our children are being born into slavery, our seniors are at the risk of being cut off.

At this moment, a baby is entering this world with more than $180,000 dollars of debt on their tiny shoulders.  At this moment, a soldier is risking his life to fight a war that was waged on lies and funded with that same debt.  At this moment, citizens are being detained without trial or contact with the outside world on the supposed threat they pose to Liberty and the American way of life.  At this moment our president, who notoriously spoke of transparency, is pushing thousands of pages of law that has will only be read after they are passed.  Indeed, as people are finding, it is tyranny.  Like always, it has been sold to us on the false promise of spreading justice and freedom.

If the estimated 2 million people who showed up in D.C. today are any indication, I think this thing is about to take off big time.  With Cap and Trade and Health Care Reform coming back up for a vote soon, voter outrage will only grow.  While some, like 14 year old girls obsessed with an unattainable love that thoroughly abuses them, still believe this tragic love affair with the state can end in happiness, most now realize that something is wrong.  If they don’t take a stand now, they will surely take a stand when their couch is stolen from beneath them.  A revolution is coming, one way or another, and I pray it will be of ballots, not bloodshed.

Dear Barry,

Below is a passage I found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/ about health insurance that I find quite fishy:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care.  These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

It seems to me that you are in fact attempting to tap civilians to work around the Fourth Amendment.  That’s very fishy.  Don’t you know that the previous administration overrode the Fourth Amendment with the USA PATRIOT Act?  All you have to do, buddy, is call these people terrorists, and you can do whatever you please.  Now I know your friends have faced some pretty fierce opposition in the past for calling Conservatives, people who have jobs, Libertarians, soldiers, people who can read, and so on “right wing extremists” and “terrorists”, but that was only because they got caught.

Do you have to be so high profile about this?  I know you’re just trying to be honest with us, but we really don’t want honesty, and that is why we elected you to office.  If you want to spy on us, just use the PATRIOT Act and try to keep us from finding out.  You know the best part about the PATRIOT Act?  If you feel like spying on someone and someone else finds out, you can threaten them with 5 years in jail if they mention it to anyone else!  How cool is that?!  It’s fine that you voiced your opposition to the PATRIOT Act before you became President; we all make mistakes.

You probably wouldn’t even be lying if you called these people terrorists!  United States code title 18, section 2331 defines “domestic terrorism” as follows:

All you need is a criminal law and you are set, my friend.  Did they speed on the way to work?  Did they jaywalk?  Speeding and jaywalking endanger human lives, and it can be assumed that they did so to keep their job.  Since they use the money from their job to pay for a car, phone or internet connection that allows them to contact their Senator or Representative attempt to influence their decision, these people are legally terrorists!  Cuff ‘em!

Yes sir, it will be as easy as 1, 2, 3!

Now, all spying aside, here’s something else I found on the internet that was pretty fishy: the enumerated powers of Congress.  I’ve been staring at this list for a while now, and for the life of me I cannot find where Congress has the power to pass laws concerning the health of the People.  This is a problem!  We need to work on a new Constitution or something, because this one is bunk!  I mean, seriously, why are you guys spending all this time trying to take care of us, when the real problem with this country, the reason we can’t all have everything for free, is this foul document to which you are all bound by oath?

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

I heard most of the laws you have been signing lately are over a thousand pages long.  This is not surprising considering all the dancing around the Constitution you guys must have to do.  I certainly feel for you on that.  I also heard that you all don’t even have to read them, and that you all just know from a brief summary what is right or wrong; wow, that is a skill! If I can lighten your load a little, I don’t really expect you to read a thousand page bill, or even know what it’s really about.  I just expect you to be a rubber stamp.

Your steadfast committment to the complete modification of the greatest country in the history of the world is quite refreshing.  Things would have been awful right now had you not helped John McCain sell my future and the future of all other Americans to your campaign contributors.  I know you’d never work with Wall Street,  just like you’d never work with these terrorists who expect you to allow something as dangerous as Freedom.    For once we have a man in office who is not afraid to throw cold water on the American Dream.  That’s change I can believe in!

How do you and the Congress critters even get anything done with this few powers?  My hat goes off to you, sir, for you are truly doing the impossible.  Passing a helpful law must be something like winning the normal Olympics with no legs or arms, and that is a real shame.  I say we just ditch that nasty Constitution and replace it with something simple and straight to the point, like this:

If you need anything from me, anything at all, ask someone else.  I have nothing left.  I really wish I could help you take over America and destroy the evil Constitution, but, you see, those scumbags on Wall Street aren’t giving me anything for free, and they just raised my mortgage payments.  If you could spare some change, that would be great.  Thank you for your time, even though I know time is infinite for you.

Most Sincerely,

Ryan Sheets

A growing misconception is that America was founded on Democracy.  I challenge you to find the word Democracy in the United States Constitution or the Declaration of Independence.  Spoiler alert: the word appears zero times.  In fact, the Founding Fathers were very skeptical of Democracy and all of its potential evils; to them, it was “tyranny by the many”.

To call Democracy self-government is misleading; the very concept of majority is incompatible with individualism.  The United States was special because it was the first legitimate attempt at maximized Liberty.  Our Founding Fathers wanted the individual to hold the highest position of authority in their own life, hence the term self-government.  It was not Democracy that made America great, but unbridled individualism.

Regardless, the powers that be portray Democracy as something divine.  Why?  Perhaps they recognize that, historically, Democracy has always ended in serfdom.  Perhaps they realize that they only way they can take our Freedom is to make us believe it was our decision in the first place.  Perhaps it’s just an honest mistake.

Democracy is the cause of our problems, not the solution.  Because of Democracy, we believe that it is impossible to change an injustice without millions of people.  Because of Democracy, Washington has gotten away with murder.  Because of Democracy, we are all slaves. 

Earlier I was reading an article on Mises.org on voluntary taxation and a comment caught my interest.  The writer cited two “reasonable” roles of the government: law enforcement and roads.

Would the auto industry not build roads?  What is the point of a car if there are no roads?  Surely an industry would invest in something so critical to their product’s success.  In fact, roads would likely be built more efficiently and with more respect to convenience of location.  Why buy a car if there is not a sufficiently maintained road to your destination?

If roads were a product of the auto industry, perhaps the auto industry would be more willing and able to provide warranties on their vehicles.  With control over the primary place of use of their product they would be able to better determine and control costs of vehicle maintenance.

Similarly, would the oil industry turn a def ear to the needs of their consumers?  Oil’s use is not limited to vehicles driven on roads, but it is a large portion.  Whereas the auto industry may focus a little more on the first sale– their product will likely be used for many years– oil’s market is built on continued use.  Perhaps the auto industry would negotiate with the oil industry to provide and maintain roads.  We know that taxation on oil has provided most of the necessary costs for maintaining roads, so unless the private sector is incapable of providing construction and maintenance for a comparable cost this would not change anything.

Perhaps the government needs to be involved in cases of eminent domain.  There’s always that one pesky homeowner who refuses to give up their lawn so that a road can be expanded.  Someone has to evict them, right?  Is this a right our government should possess?  Not really, no.  Regardless, the private sector would be better suited to resolve these disputes than the government.

The argument that government should be held responsible for maintenance and provision of roads is very similar to the idea of government intervention in the broadband market.  Internet service providers have supplied sufficient cabling, routing and switching for much of the country with little government assistance.  Would they not have been able to do this without government intervention?  Thanks for giving us the internet, Al Gore; we truly could not have done it without you!

How about the digital TV transition?  Is this a necessary role of our government?  Certainly the media and electronics industries would like us to think so.  They want to sell an improved product, and I’m sure we would all enjoy better reception, but would this not get done without the government?  Do we really need to paint a tax-funded stock car and crash it a couple times to get the word out?

Lastly, regarding law enforcement, even traffic cops could be funded by the private sector, and probably more efficiently to boot (though they could probably already be funded by speeding tickets alone).  Nobody would want to drive a car on an unregulated road and the industry would be forced to enforce safe travel rules.  Much like malls generally provide their own security, a road would provide law enforcement.

While the government probably needs to be involved in the road market at present, I do not subscribe to the idea that roads wouldn’t have been built or wouldn’t have been maintained properly without the government’s hand.  On the contrary, we’d probably see a fundamental improvement in the quality, location and efficiency of roads.  We’re all paying for roads regardless of whether or not it’s a private venture, so what reason do we have for pinning this on the government?  Corporate welfare.

Chances are you aren’t making much more than you were a few years ago and while you may have received a considerable raise the sad reality is that the government has given you a very sneaky pay-cut by way of unbacked increase in the supply of money.  We are not creating new jobs nor producing more.

The government’s claimed rate of inflation is around 5% right now.  What does the government include in its calculation of inflation?  Everything but food and energy.  That’s right, everything but the stuff that actually rises.  Their justification for this?  Food and energy are often volatile and are prone to sudden rises and as such distort the big picture.  Let’s take a look at the American monetary policy.

In order for us to fully understand inflation we must first recognize its origins. When you spend a dollar you, and the person you are dealing with, are trusting in the value of a piece of paper and the government that regulates it. The dollar is no longer commodity-backed and has not been for 37 years. If confidence in the dollar should fail it is entirely possible that your life savings would quite literally be wiped out. Consider that, against gold, the dollar bill has fallen to 1/20th of its value since 1971. While we can still compare gold to currency in other countries and see similar results the dollar is nothing more than a piece of paper based solely on confidence.  What happens when people lose confidence, then?

Inflation is generally defined as a decrease in the spending power of a unit of currency.  If inflation in a year is at 10% this means that what you can buy for a dollar at the beginning of the year should in theory cost you $1.10 at the beginning of the next year. Some prices may go well beyond this (see food, gold and gasoline) while others will hardly increase at all (technology which is prone to natural price degradation over time).  This also means that if you save your dollar bill you will have 90 cents of spending power next year.

So why does inflation occur in the first place?  There are several ways inflation can occur in an economy like ours. The Federal Reserve can print money thereby increasing the supply of money but decreasing the value of the dollar; this is actually done quite often, in fact the 85 billion given to AIG recently was newly created money. The $700 billion will likely come from new money as well.  The supply of a certain important good can decrease causing goods requiring it for production to increase in price. Productivity can fall decreasing the value of labor and increasing the value of goods due to decreased supply. Last but certainly not least, creditors and lenders can sometimes lend beyond their means and create money out of thin air similar to the Federal Reserve (often by the aid of the government).

All of these things decrease the value of the money you work hard to take home. It is unlikely that you will receive a raise to match the realistic level of inflation and with all the money the government has spent in recent weeks it is likely that inflation will only get worse. Those who support increasing the minimum wage believe and acknowledge that inflation has hurt those who work for minimum wage most, but their solution is a mere bandage to a deep wound in the American economic system. To solve the problem of poverty we must stop robbing people of their money.

It is completely true that inflation hurts the poor the most; I do not debate that.  A single mother struggling to make ends meet will really feel it if you take 10% of her money.  A wealthy business owner will undoubtedly notice if you take 10% of his money, but he will cut spending accordingly and likely continue to prosper. An employer is certainly not required to give their employees a raise to match inflation and most will not. Often I hear Democrats so thoughtfully observing that “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”.  Unfortunately this is completely realistic, but regulation and government intervention simply will not solve this issue. On the contrary, the government is the cause of this issue.

The Federal Reserve regularly prints money without regard to production of goods and services therefore when new money is printed in the United States what is really happening is every dollar is devalued to make room for the new money. The newly printed money can be spent almost as if it had existed all along because the market will not adjust to accommodate the new money right away. Sooner or later the market will adjust to the increased money supply and prices will rise across the board since the money is not realistically worth its claimed value.

Similarly, the dollar can effectively increase in value if the production of goods increases or decrease if the production of goods decreases. If an item becomes highly available people won’t be willing to pay as much for the item thus the value of the item decreases and the value of the dollar effectively increases against the item. If the money supply is increased the production of goods must increase to match it. Productivity hasn’t increased to match inflation in recent years and as a result your dollar is worth less.

Let’s take a look at a couple of limited goods, gold and oil. You may have heard that gold is at a high and you’ve undoubtedly seen how high gas prices have risen but if these two universally valuable goods are progressing at such high rates why is our claimed inflation so low?  Since we have so much Gold and oil are both universally valuable goods. Gold is scarce, treasured by many and works great as a currency while oil is consumed somewhere along the line in the production of nearly all goods and services.

Many would believe that gas prices have risen so dramatically due to a decreased supply. While it is true that the supply is somewhat limited most of the increase in price is actually due to the decreased value of the American dollar. The oil companies are merely selling us their product at its value; since your dollar is worth less gas costs more. Oil is a scarce and nonrenewable resource in use by nearly everyone and as such it reflects changes in the value of the American dollar very quickly.  Sure some of it is supply but a lot of it is the value of your money.

At about this time in the year 2000 gasoline was priced on average about $1.59 USD per gallon.  On Monday this same figure was around $3.77 USD per gallon.  Assuming 13% inflation over the past 8 years the projected price of gasoline would be about $3.74 USD per gallon.

How about gold, another good that is valued everywhere?  Around this time in the year 2000 gold was valued at about $273.68 USD per troy ounce.  On Tuesday (September 23rd, 2008) gold closed at $885.50 USD per troy ounce.  Assuming 18% inflation over the past 8 years the projected price of gold would be about $871.80 USD per troy ounce.

These are both valuable, limited goods that all countries have an interest in and both are rising at rates well beyond the claimed rate of inflation.  Domestic oil demand is actually decreasing slowly with all of the recent moves to become environmentally friendly.  Logically we would see prices remaining about the same if inflation was not a concern, yet they continue to rise sharply not solely due a decreased supply but due to a decreased value of the American dollar.

To put things into perspective a bit, had you purchased $1000.00 USD of gold in 2000 (approximately 3.65 troy ounces) you could sell that same piece for $3235.53 USD this week.  If you saved your money you could now purchase about 1.13 troy ounces of gold.  This means that after just 8 years your piece of gold would grow in value by almost 12 times that of the American dollar.  Talk about return on investment, huh?

The United States GDP is estimated at around 14 trillion dollars. This year alone the Federal Reserve has printed at least 1.5 trillion new dollars and there are plans to print another 1.3 trillion for a stimulus package and more bailouts. If we are to believe that our GDP is equal to our money supply this is a very alarming amount of new money coming into circulation; this would mean that our money supply will increase by 20%.

Every time new money is printed without equal growth in production you are forced to climb a growing mountain of debt with an increasingly short rope.  As the United States central bank in charge of the creation of the dollar, the Federal Reserve effectively (or rather ineptly as we are seeing) controls the value of your money.  The value of paper money is just short of imaginary and is completely subject to the unchecked actions of the Federal Reserve.  If the fecal matter hits the rotary oscillator the Fed can and will abuse its power to print more money. The reality is that this money is created by subtracting a portion of the value of everyone else’s money and increasing the overall supply.

Assuming the GDP remains static increasing the supply of a currency can only result in two things: false confidence in the currency or inflation. False confidence could come as a result of secret injections of new currency into the market, unacknowledged injections of new currency or a misperceived increase in production. Inflation comes as a result of acknowledged increases in the money supply where there is not a perceived matching increase in production.

We are 10 trillion dollars in debt and the Fed continues to print money while congress continues to spend it lavishly. The debt is not going anywhere with things like universal health care, needless “wars” with no foreseeable end (i.e. the drug war), corporate bailouts and worthless money.

Maybe you think this isn’t serious. You think it’s all going to get sorted out soon or it is not going to really affect you.  The reality is that these next few years could very well be the end of America’s superpower status and likely at the very least will culminate in another era of great depression if things don’t change. This will affect you.