Signs of the Times

  • posted by Elmo on 2001-05-18 00:00:00

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to finally put out a mail bag tonight, since I did get a couple of responses from my McVeigh exposé last time, but there has so much bad stuff happening this week that I felt compelled instead to put out another rant.

It amazes me how many naive people thought that the Bush administration would somehow ride in on a white stallion and rescue us from all the evil anti-freedom policies implemented during the last 8 years of the Clinton Administration. Of course, as predicted, G.W. Bush is cut from the same cloth, and the reality is that things haven't changed much, if at all.

Signs of the Times


Last week, a group of high school students who were the winners of a nationwide patriotic essay contest were rewarded with a tour of the Jefferson Memorial. These students were so taken with awe and became so filled with patriotic pride, they spontaneously burst into singing the National Anthem. However, that feeling did not last long, because they were cut off in the middle of the last stanza by an arrogant Park Ranger who told them their actions constituted a "demonstration", which according to federal law requires a permit. Those students were the winners of the VFW sponsored essay contest, ironically entitled: What Price Freedom? Even more ironic is the location for this outrage: Thomas Jefferson was perhaps the greatest champion of individual liberty in our nation's history, who not only authored of our Declaration of Independence but was also one of the chief driving forces behind our cherished Bill of Rights. I don't know about you guys, but I don't recall ever reading anything about permits in the First Amendment.

A similar thing happened about a year ago to a student choir at the Statue of Liberty. This country has shifted so far away from it's founding principles that liberty is no longer even respected at the very place that is supposed to be it's greatest visible symbol.

But perhaps most outrageous of all, and certainly the most telling, was the violation of the First Amendment that occurred today at the White House. Eleven high-school students from Merrimon Christian School in Asheville, N.C, two parent escorts and a teacher were abruptly escorted out of the White House this week after daring to stop during a tour of "the people's house" to pray for its chief resident, President George W. Bush. Being booted from the White House and having one of their chaperons "pounded" and yelled at by security agents was the furthest thing from their minds. The Secret Service claimed it was to "keep the line moving", but they claim that the group before them had been there for over 10 minutes without being asked to move.

I would have expected this type of thing from the Clinton White House, but I thought "W" was supposed to be Mr. "Faith-based"? What is going on here? I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt--I want to believe that this isn't some kind of new discriminatory White House policy aimed at religious people. I'm hoping that this was just one more case of a hot-dog agent who compensates for his feelings of inadequate manhood by bullying people around because his government badge makes him feel big and bad. But I haven't yet heard President Bush come forward and apologize for this outrage. After he nearly bent over backwards saying he was sorry to the Chinese because they knocked our plane out of the sky, I would at least expect a personal apology from him for something of this magnitude. I think it would be pretty hypocritical to call for all those faith-based initiatives, and even call for a national day of prayer, and then let something like this happen under your own roof. But then what do I know?

Anyhow, once is outrageous. Two is epidemic. But three times in a row means it's time for heads to start rolling. Something is severely wrong when you can't even sing the national anthem at the sites most symbolic of American liberty without a permit, or say a prayer for the President (a self-described deeply religious man) inside the White House. But really it shouldn't matter where they were--there is a greater issue at stake. It doesn't matter whether we are talking about the right to free speech, the right to free expression of religion, or the right to bear arms in self defense--FREE people DO NOT have to ask their government for permission to exercise their Constitutional Rights. Period. If we do have to ask them for permission for these things, then we are not free. And it only gets worse.

Contempt of Court


I have NOTHING BUT contempt for the Supreme Court after the idiotic ruling they handed down this week on Medical Marijuana. Even though over two-thirds of California voters (along with voters from several other states and even the Hawaii State Legislature) felt that patients suffering from serious illnesses should have access to whatever medicine their doctors deem appropriate, the Supreme Court felt that the US Congress knew more than all those voters AND THEIR DOCTORS when they classified Marijuana as a schedule 1 Narcotic with "no medical uses". And therefore, clinics shouldn't be allowed to distribute clean marijuana to patients with doctors' prescriptions, leaving them forced to buy it on the black market, taking the dangerous risk that it could be "laced" with other drugs. After all, legal marijuana clinics might violate the feds' sacred "War On Drugs", which has wasted hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, often compromise the privacy, property, and sometimes the very lives of innocent bystanders (such as missionaries on a plane over Peru), and is so ineffective that they can't even keep drugs out of PRISONS!

My response to this lunacy is three fold:

First of all, how many members of Congress have PhD's? I only know of one, right off hand, and that would be Dr. Ron Paul from Texas. Seeing how he was the Libertarian candidate for President in 1988, and one of the few members of Congress that I actually respect and admire, I'm pretty sure I know where HE stands on the issue. But as for the rest of Congress, it is arrogant to extreme to think they know more about medicine than doctors. But then again, they think they know more about agriculture than farmers, more about education than teachers, and more about crime prevention than the police officers who do it for a living--so why should I be surprised that they think they know more about medicine than the professionals who practice it?

Second of all, Marijuana was originally misclassified as schedule 1 back in the 70's, when there weren't a lot of known medical uses for cannabis. Since then it has been discovered to be highly effective for glaucoma, easing the pain of cancer patients, Multiple Sclerosis, and numerous other afflictions. Most members of the American Medical Association recognize its benefit and are also outraged by this ruling.

Third of all, heroine is infinitely more ddictive and more dangerous than marijuana has ever been--yet there is a synthetic version of it called methadone that is prescribed routinely to people who suffer from extreme pain from spinal injuries. That's right, HEROINE is recognized as having medical use! The ONLY reason Marijuana is still misclassified in Schedule 1 is because politics are involved. That is exactly where the deep pocket pharmaceutical companies want it to stay, since it is a naturally occurring herb which they can't patent or control any other way. They keep legitimate alternative medicines from competing with them the same way that the oil companies keep viable alternative energies from the marketplace.


The Energy Debacle


Looks like the President has finally revealed his energy plan. We've been twenty years without one, so it better be good. I haven't read it, but based on what I've heard it's the same cliché B.S. I've come to expect from government over the years.

The problem with the Bush energy plan is that their idea of alternative energy is wind and solar--the only type of clean energy promoted by the powers that be because it is "safe". It will never be capable of producing the volume of power needed for today's society. Also, it puts way too much emphasis on conservation. Next thing you know, they'll want to start RATIONING energy. First of all, as dependent as we have become on computers and the internet, a great deal of electricity simply can't be spared. Second of all, why should WE have to sacrifice our way of life because of a bunch of greedy Arabs, and poorly thought out environmental policies in California?

I am fiscally conservative by nature. Gas prices have gotten so ridiculous I don't drive anywhere I don't have to. Still, my occupation has been putting about 60 miles a day on my car. And if I want to go see my girlfriend again any time soon--that's over 1000 miles round trip! My car I used to fill up for $10 now eats up most of a $20 bill. As for electricity, my dad has always been the electricity police around here. Whatever you do, at my house, don't even think about leaving the room for a minute without turning out the light first, or you'll never hear the end of it. While I'm used to it, that is a pretty ridiculous way for most people to live. I think it is supremely arrogant to make the people of America suffer because of poor policy and greed. And it all completely ducks the real issue.

Once again, for those who have been skimming my rants, there IS NO ENERGY CRISIS! The only reason we are dependent on foreign oil is because the deep pocket oil companies are suppressing alternative technologies that could not only produce all the energy we will ever need, but do it WITHOUT any pollution. Some of these technologies have been around for quite some time now. But there is just one problem with most of them, that the powers that be consider too much of a drawback... they are difficult to control, much the same way that Cannabis is unpatentable for the pharmaceutical companies. The only thing worse than arrogant government trying to run my life is arrogant CEO's trying to run my life. As my previous employer found out, I DO NOT take very well to control freaks.

There have been way so many developments in the field of alternative energy, that I'm not sure where to begin. There is an old proverb that goes "build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." Unfortunately, if that "better mousetrap" jeopardizes the control of the powers that be, you just might find jack-booted thugs beating down your door instead.

I guess I should start with Nikola Tesla... unfortunately, most people are more familiar with the 80's hair-metal band named after him than the man himself. But Tesla pretty much invented alternating current, and if not for his contributions in that field, it is very likely we wouldn't have commercial electricity at all today. Unfortunately, when he began discovering ways to produce it and deliver it free of charge, his financial backers cut him off. And isn't it interesting that right after his death, INS raided his home and confiscated all of his notes (most of which are still classified to this day), even though he had been a legal US citizen for over a decade?

Then there is the widespread urban legend about the guy who invented a carburetor back in the 1930's that could get over 200 miles to a gallon, but the auto companies bought the patent and have been sitting on it all this time. Well, it is more than a legend--the man's name was Charles Pogue, and 200 was admittedly ideal circumstances--under real world conditions it was closer to 75 miles per gallon, but he did sell the patent to General Motors, but the oil companies thought it was too fuel efficient and they would lose too much money, so they persuaded GM to sit on it. At least Pogue got more money out of them, because he later invented an improved model and they persuaded him to sell them that one also. The patents are in the public domain now, but are sadly (or perhaps deliberately) incompatible with today's fuel injected engines.

Sure there are a few questionable characters out there, like Dennis Lee who promises truly amazing technology that will "someday soon" provide everyone with electricity for free--sounds great, the only problem is that he's been saying "someday soon" now since 1985. Maybe he will, but I wouldn't hold my breath. And don't forget Joseph Newman, who's been promoting his Energy Machine for decades. At least he has some science to back up his claims. I don't know if he's correct, but Newman has the only theory I've ever seen that provides an intuitive explanation for the mechanism by which gravity and magnetism work, and the relation between them and electrical current. If it works, we will certainly never have to worry about burning oil again. At least he already has one product on the market--if you use plastic weights when you work out, chances are you're using his invention.

Well, I could go on and on, but it is getting late. For a comprehensive look at the history of alternative energy, as well as some cutting edge technologies under development that have the potential to end our dependence on fossil fuel and the fossil technology that requires it, go to http://www.altenergy.org.

The silver lining to this so-called energy crisis is that people ARE getting FED UP, and they ARE demanding that some genuine changes be made, so alternative technologies have a better shot at making it to the market right now than ever before.

Vive Le Revolution,
Elmo

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