Welcome to the August Tech issue of NorthBay biz, which also includes a Special Report on the Food and Dining industries. In addition to all the stories, you’ll find more than a dozen local columns and special features—original, quality information about local business that’s unavailable anywhere else. As the region’s only locally owned glossy business publication, we always welcome your input on how NorthBay biz can continue to serve the best interests of the local North Bay business community.
“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety.” — Benjamin Franklin
Sometimes the swirl of events seems to be overwhelming. For me, this is one of those times. Typically, writing this column is driven by a burst of inspiration on a particular topic that attracts/inflames my attention. When my senses are bombarded with multiple topics, it’s difficult to focus on one. With recent major events—scandals/revelations, usurpations, denials, threats and policies in direct violation of the constitution tumbling forward, seemingly every day—that time is now.
So here goes my attempt to comment on all that makes my brain hurt (in the space available). I think it’s called a “stream of consciousness” ramble.
If I have this right, guided by his own personal whim, the President just announced he’d ignore the Constitution and rewrite the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare to you and me) on the fly. Driven by his own deadline, it seems ObamaCare is incompatible with the rule of law, so America has to change to accommodate ObamaCare. That means the “employer mandate” must be pushed back a year until after the mid-term elections.
As the pace of America’s descent increases, it shouldn’t be too surprising that there are more people receiving food aid than are working in the private sector.
Gallup conducted an interesting survey over the Fourth of July, and 85 percent of respondents said they were “very” proud to be American. However, 71 percent said the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be “very” disappointed in how the country has turned out. There’s an obvious disconnect here. “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” have come to mean different things to varying sectors of the population and account for the growing schism in our country. If you believe in freedom, how do you reconcile the contradiction of half the country receiving some sort of government benefits?
How have we come to the point where it’s unacceptable to pass any sort of judgment about anything? If you’re not 100 percent politically correct at all times, your opinion is deemed worthless. You’re a Neanderthal clinging to your bible and guns. Moral relativity has let “crap” be passed into the mainstream of our culture, resulting in the diminution of our societal values. Passing judgment on “acceptable” and “unacceptable” behavior produced positive results for centuries—and resulted in a far superior culture. Now you’re excoriated for expressing even the slightest regret that a child was fathered out of wedlock.
Much is being made lately of the “low information voter.” I’d suggest that the glorification of the “thug” mindset that’s so popular with today’s youth does more to contribute to the growing, “low character” of the nation than does the former and bodes more ill for the future.
Equal outcomes can’t be legislated or adjudicated. Pursuing this path is the road to perdition, as I’ve said many times before in this column. Equal rights should be pursued relentlessly, while government mandating equal outcomes never should. But that’s what’s being done right now, as the government confiscates sometimes more than 50 percent of the earnings of the most successful Americans to redistribute it to half the nation that pays no income tax.
Equal opportunity doesn’t mean equal results. As equality becomes a forced outcome, individual liberty and freedom are greatly diminished.
Government has a vested interest in keeping a permanent underclass. Every ethnic minority is pandered to and promised free stuff in exchange for their vote. They’re told they’re oppressed and are victimized by the rich. In fact, they are victims. Victims of a self-serving government that smothers their initiative with centrally planned handouts that are just enough to keep them from climbing out of the lower class.
The government’s definition of poverty these days means you can live a relatively comfortable life, with plenty of food, clothing, a car, TVs, electronic gadgets and a home. In fact, the system is such that, in many cases, a person on welfare who has a chance to move from a part-time to full-time job and earn an additional $10,000 annually has a tough choice to make. If he or she takes the job, they’re faced with losing $15,000 worth of government benefits. What would you do? Now tell me that the government doesn’t want a permanent underclass.
Well, almost out of space. As I started writing this, I was sure I was going to mention: the IRS targeting conservative groups, the NSA domestic spying fiasco, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, $100 million tours of Africa, $17 trillion deficit, unemployment, State Department investigation cover-ups (six of them). Never got there. Instead, I’ll leave you with this quote.
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” — Ronald Reagan
That’s it for now. Enjoy this month’s magazine.
