Every commodity has a limited supply.  The free market is the most efficient, cost-effective and  productive means of distributing a commodity.  We have not enjoyed free-market access to healthcare in America.  Our current system is one of  business-government partnership.  Bureaucratized insurance companies monopolize the market.  We can’t shop for our treatment as we would for a car.  An MRI can cost between $400 and $4,000, but we’ll never know.

The new healthcare plan is not about helping us choose and purchase the healthcare we want.  It is not about allowing us to find and purchase the best healthcare available.  It is about government choosing and distributing as IT sees fit.  This is unconstitutional.  Unconstitutional means illegal.  It also means anti-freedom.  Dr. Ezekeil Emanuel, Obama’s advisor, envisions a “whole life system” where treatment decisions are made by mathematical calculations of an individual patient’s life expectancy and “social usefulness.”  This is not OK.  The Constitution PROHIBITS our government from evaluating the worth of an individual.  To favor one over another is not only unconstitutional, it is immoral.

60 % of American households receive more benefits and services from the government, than the money value they pay in taxes.  This figure will increase tremendously after the initiation of Obamacare.   Healthcare comprises about 17% of the US economy.  Dumping that amount into Federal hands puts a full  50% of US production under their control!  That is the point, entirely.  The healthcare discussion has never been about how to make more of us healthier; it is about the future of our country.  Proponents of Obamacare  believe in the Progressive philosophy of nanny-government with entitlements for everyone.

There are others who believe that each man knows best how to spend his own money and to make his own personal decisions, with healthcare near the top of any such list.  A person of this (sound) mindset might suggest the following improvements to our way of distributing medical care:

1.  Healthcare expenses should be tax deductible, across the board.

2.  High-risk insurance pools would ensure that coverage is available to those with pre-existing conditions…and that the cost of coverage for non-high risk individuals can be kept down.

3.  Unlock the insurance monopolies.  Let us buy insurance from out of state.

4.  Providers must be free to negotiate prices and coverages.  Consumers must be free to see all their options.

5.  Government must not mandate ANYTHING in such personal matters.  Mandates are not freedom.

One very popular song annoys me.  It’s the country song with the line, “I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free.”  How does that guy know he’s free?  Somebody told him, “Americans are free.”

I felt free when I was a little girl and my grandma would march us all around the piano in a two-room schoolhouse singing, “God bless America.”  That song would not be permitted in a contemporary curriculum.

My father once built a restaurant from the ground up without any plans.  He wanted to see if he could do it.  He knew the rules, and he had to jump through some atrocious hoops to get permits and approvals after-the-fact.  Aren’t Americans supposed to be innovators who push the envelope?  If we aren’t allowed to, we’re not free.

We’re not free when our money is involuntarily withdrawn to bail-out banks, and industries…and European interests.  We’re not free when our money buys lighted signs and radio ads reminding us to “stay alive” and “turn off the stereo”!

My dairy farmer friend is told where she must sell her milk, how much she’ll be paid, how to care for the cows and where their manure must fall.  She’s not free.

My husband is not free.  He is required to pay union dues to work his job.  Sherry Loar was forced into a union in her own home!  She has been a babysitter for 30 years, then she received notification that she was, as of that moment, a union.  She asked, “Am I management or labor”?  (See Mackinac Center website for information about her lawsuit.)

People up north aren’t free to ride their 4-wheelers.  My boys aren’t free to sell worms or minnows.  We’re not free to fish.  (Can you afford fish anymore?)

None of us is free when our financial transactions are monitored.  We’re not free when our doorways have GPS markers.  We’re not free when our voices are recorded as we cross the Mackinac Bridge.

References to American freedom are nostalgia, and I prefer to be a realist.  We’ll never recognize true freedom as long as we accept the current definition.  We are not free.

Patrick Henry:  “For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it.”

That brings me back to the song.  “I’m PROUD to be an American…”  One of my favorite books says, “Pride cometh before a fall.”  I’m GRATEFUL to be an American.  I’d be more grateful to be a truly free one.

Linda

Also upsetting the first district is the observation that the national press has attempted to choose our Republican candidate.  Again, this is not acceptable.

It has been suggested that a debate be held among Republican candidates for US Representative in Congress for Michigan’s first district.  This is as it should be.  I am eager to discuss issues with anyone.  However, it has also been suggested that the losers of this debate commit to drop out of the race!  I thought long and hard about this.

It is not enough to replace Bart Stupak.  We must replace Bart Stupak with a person who is willing to take the heat and stand up for us.  Our new representative must recognize, that if the government is not held to the Constitution and the rule of law, all else is pointless.  I know that person to be me.  If I didn’t believe that, I’d have dropped out already.  I’m not looking for a career.

To the organizers of a would-be debate, to preempt our rights as citizens to vote in a primary:  I will not participate in any such event.  I will continue to speak the truth at every opportunity, and permit the voters to decide who they wish to represent them, at the appropriate time.

There’s a truth in our generation.  It’s staring us in the face.  It’s OUR truth.  It’s our very own, and we don’t see it.  What’s amazing about this is, everybody is looking for truth.  There are 9-11 Truthers.  Obama birth certificate Truthers.  Tax and Spend-is-stealing Truthers.    Washington is evil Truthers.  Killing people (even brown ones) is wrong Truthers.  I listen to them all the time.  They’re sincere.  Maybe they’re right?

That’s not the issue, though.  The issue is OUR truth.  The thing we all know, yet refuse to acknowledge is:  the world is broken.  We all know this and it is our truth.  Suicide attackers are nothing more than troubled people who know our truth.  They don’t know what else to do!  What can be done?  This is terrible!

Our generation has been given more truth than only that, though, and this part is even worse.  We all know something is going to happen.

What?  What’s going to happen?  We’ve broken our world.  We only got one!  We dump our refuse, physical and spiritual, all over each other!  We control other people, personally and politically, because of wounds we’ve suffered.  We use any means possible, even if it means we can’t look at ourselves in the mirror.  That’s not OK.

Something’s coming.  It’s going to be big.  Political?  Spiritual?  Inter-galactic?  Military?  What about Ebola?  Are we ready?  My husband and I have wondered that for many years.

How do we know if we’re ready?  The answer to that question requires more truth.  We all know we need more.  If we knew more stuff we’d be safer, right?  Physically safer, economically safer, politically safer.  But one concern is the most powerful.  We all MUST be safer socially.  Hell!  Don’t let them talk about me!..

Truth is elusive.  Truth is hidden in clouds and great darkness.  But, truth is our only hope.  We must have it, lest we perish.

“For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it.”  Patrick Henry

“People get ready, there’s a train a comin’.”  –(gotta love Bob Marley, “pleading with mankind”, Curtis Mayfield,  and the Chambers Brothers, but listen to Sonny Terry Brownie McGee.)

This is not OK.  This is not how our founding fathers intended things to be.  Presidents are not supposed to issue executive orders.  The IRS is not supposed to have a standing army.  We are supposed to be permitted to choose the water capacity of our own toilets.  We are not supposed to be FORCED to pay for fossil research in Argentina and radio advertisements telling teenagers to conserve (that’s cute, right?) energy by turning the stereo off!  Things are out of control.

We’re supposed to have a little government.  We’re supposed to be permitted to live our own lives without having to even think about the government.  That is not the case.

My favorite Jefferson quote sums up what little impact government should have on our lives:

“A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.  This is the sum of good government.”

I’ll not elaborate about the frugality component, because “I hold these truths to be self-evident”, however our government is not wise, either.  The United States has troops in 130 countries.  We regularly intervene in international affairs and the lives of our own citizens.  We discourage
thrift, industry, enterprise, production, and self-responsibility.  We meddle, meddle, meddle.

According to the supreme law of the land, our government is illegal.  The constitutional requirements for government are very few.  They should protect us, which they don’t when our borders are wide open. They should coin money, which they don’t since 1913 and theestablishment of the Federal Reserve.  They should run the post office, which they’ve donepoorly 6 days a week, and now wish to reduce to 5.  Basically, the only thing government is supposedto do is protect our liberty.

The one thing government does well is tell us how to live.  That is the one thing government was absolutely not intended to do.  It is unconstitutional.  It is immoral.  And it is intolerable.

Candidates are often asked why we decided to run. One candidate for the US House of Representatives said that he wants to “fix Michigan”. This is obviously an impossibility from an office in Washington while the state government is still home getting into trouble! But worse, this response fails to recognize that the US Constitution doesn’t permit the federal government to fix Michigan. (That means it’s illegal.) Federal government is constrained to a MUCH smaller role than that, as any Republican should know and insist.

But, the saddest thing about this candidate’s response, I recognized from making hiring decisions: he hasn’t even considered the job description for the seat he wants!

I’ve come up with my new answer for another common question, “what makes you different from your opposition”?

“Our difference is our goals. While others may be smarter, or have more experience, these attributes often  translate into a desire to make decisions for other people. My only goal is to clear the road for us to make our own decisions, ourselves. That’s liberty. And I’ve been fighting for it for 20 years”

I encourage you to investigate before you vote. The Bible tells us to “know those who labor among you”. Any businessman will tell you: You’ve got to REALLY know those who labor FOR you!

By Dr. Ron Paul
March 9, 2010

Last week Congress voted to encourage participation in the 2010 census. I voted “No” on this resolution for the simple, obvious reason that the census – like so many government programs – has grown far beyond what the framers of our Constitution intended. The invasive nature of the current census raises serious questions about how and why government will use the collected information. It also demonstrates how the federal bureaucracy consistently encourages citizens to think of themselves in terms of groups, rather than as individual Americans. The not so subtle implication is that each group, whether ethnic, religious, social, or geographic, should speak up and demand its “fair share” of federal largesse.

Article I, section 2 of the Constitution calls for an enumeration of citizens every ten years, for the purpose of apportioning congressional seats among the various states. In other words, the census should be nothing more than a headcount. It was never intended to serve as a vehicle for gathering personal information on citizens.

But our voracious federal government thrives on collecting information. In fact, to prepare for the 2010 census state employees recorded GPS coordinates for every front door in the United States so they could locate individuals with greater accuracy! Once duly located, individuals are asked detailed questions concerning their name, address, race, home ownership, and whether they periodically spend time in prison or a nursing home – just to name a few examples.

From a constitutional perspective, of course, the answer to each of these questions is: “None of your business.” But the bigger question is – why government is so intent on compiling this information in the first place?

The Census Bureau claims that collected information is not shared with any federal agency; but rather is kept under lock and key for 72 years. It also claims that no information provided to census takers can be used against you by the government.

However, these promises can and have been abused in the past. Census data has been used to locate men who had not registered for the draft. Census data also was used to find Japanese-Americans for internment camps during World War II. Furthermore, the IRS has applied census information to detect alleged tax evaders. Some local governments even have used census data to check for compliance with zoning regulations.

It is not hard to imagine that information compiled by the census could be used against people in the future, despite claims to the contrary and the best intentions of those currently in charge of the Census Bureau. The government can and does change its mind about these things, and people have a right to be skeptical about government promises.

Yet there are consequences for not submitting to the census and its intrusive questions. If the form is not mailed back in time, households will experience the “pleasure” of a visit by a government worker asking the questions in person. If the government still does not get the information it wants, it can issue a fine of up to $5000.

If the federal government really wants to increase compliance with the census, it should abide by the Constitution and limit its inquiry to one simple question: How many people live here?

I did a bad thing by not showing up for the meet and greet scheduled for last week.  It was imperative that I be home as soon as possible, and I went.   I’m sorry that some of you didn’t even hear that I’d called to cancel.

I can’t ask you to forgive me, and certainly not for your votes.   But, some things are more important than votes.

I’m very sorry.

Linda Goldthorpe

Thomas Jefferson came back from the grave to deliver us this important message.  Strangely enough his bizarre resurrection took place in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan on 9/12/2009.  Spread this video!

Clubs are formed by people with the same principles. But, these principles soon take a back-seat to the needs of the club. Be it a religious or political organization, contributions of time or property are soon used to promote the club. Before long, monetary donations are spent to print letters asking for more money! Things settle down, people settle in, and only one person remains unsettled: the true believer.

True believers are unwelcome in clubs. They mess with the system. They don’t obey. They question. They torment. They want truth!

Truth seekers are always climbing unexplored mountains and encountering dangerous beasts. Their lives are unusual and offensive to the clubs. A truth-seeker of even the most gentle temperament, is deemed dangerous and revolutionary. Nowadays, that may be true. Orwell said, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

I say, with Eric Cadeau of the Northern Michigan Liberty Alliance,  (you do know that we have modern-day Thomas Jeffersons and Patrick Henrys in our midst, don’t you?)  “It is my right to be uncommon.”  I embrace that right. And I demand it. Although there is strength in numbers, the current revolution is not about political parties, or about tea-party groups. It is about individuals. It is about individual liberty, and individual responsibility. Didn’t Christ and the Republican party endorse those things, long ago?

They say you can tell a pioneer by the arrows in his back. But, be of good cheer. I say with assurance to every truth-seeker, of any creed, God has your back.