jims musings

I’ve been watch­ing, with some inter­est, the progress of the var­i­ous ‘Tea Par­ties’ and the treat­ment of same by news orga­ni­za­tions and politi­cians.
Fas­ci­nat­ing.
The addi­tional buzz from Texas this last week­end, regard­ing seces­sion, added spice to the show.


I think a review of his­tor­i­cal prece­dent will illu­mi­nate our cur­rent sit­u­a­tion. Between 1750 and 1776, a num­ber of events occurred which led the var­i­ous Amer­i­can colonies to congeal:

• A series of imposed taxes from Par­lia­ment which frus­trated colonials
• An increas­ing non-British colo­nial population
• An decreas­ing depen­dence on Europe and Great Britain for goods and services
• An increas­ing sense or feel­ing of an Amer­i­can identity

We see a sim­i­lar state of affairs now. To many, the Fed­eral Gov­ern­ment is an increas­ing nui­sance. A grow­ing num­ber of peo­ple within the coun­try have no alle­giance to the coun­try or to unity of same. Cit­i­zens feel their gov­ern­ment is increas­ingly ‘out of touch’- which is a euphemism for ‘out of con­trol’ or even, ‘not mine’.
This last feel­ing is the most dan­ger­ous. What hap­pens when enough peo­ple are dis­sat­is­fied in a way that panem et circenses can­not relieve?
In the 1930’s, Ger­mans were rather unhappy with their state of affairs. So were the Ital­ians. Then a cer­tain type of man with cer­tain promises came along.…
What hap­pens here, when a Garibaldi or a Cae­sar comes along? How many is enough? The rev­o­lu­tion in 1776 prob­a­bly had 45%. Thus far, all that has gone before are fun par­ties… but there is def­i­nitely a wor­ri­some under­cur­rent.
Be care­ful what you wish for.

Its time to get out. Out of the United Nations and NATO. These ven­er­a­ble orga­ni­za­tions, founded a half-century ago by the United States, no longer serve the inter­ests of our coun­try and in some ways are work­ing against the United States.
In the case of NATO, we cre­ated a mil­i­tary alliance to dis­suade the Soviet Union from invad­ing Europe. That alliance was suc­cess­ful; no inva­sion occurred, World War III stayed cold for 40 years, and now the enemy we feared no longer exists. Now NATO serves no pur­pose but to allow the United States to sub­si­dize Euro­pean mil­i­tary power– and by exten­sion, Euro­pean social­ism. We can­not pay for our mil­i­tary and their mil­i­tary. It’s time for Europe to stand by them­selves, and for the U.S. to extract itself from an entan­gle­ment in Europe. Bot­tom line: we have no inter­est any longer in the ter­ri­to­r­ial affairs of the Old World.
The UN. In some ways great, but bureau­cra­cies always grow and this one has become a behe­moth. Orig­i­nally cre­ated to pro­vide a diplo­matic venue for all nations to avert war, it has sur­passed its char­ter and now seeks to be a world gov­ern­ment. It is very unseemly that we con­tinue as the largest con­trib­u­tor to its funds, and yet extract so lit­tle gain from it. Time to get out.