A DANGEROUS GAMBLE

by Jerry Ahern on February 2, 2010

By
JERRY AHERN
     The guy who was stupidly sent off to live in the White House may be taking the biggest gamble not only in our nation’s history, but the history of the world. Sharon and I were married in 1968 and bought a television set – a little black and white portable that was a floor model – in time to see man’s first steps on the moon in 1969. And, yes, I really believe we did put a man on the moon. I had hoped that we would again. Now, however, fearless leader and his team of leftist social planners are chopping replacements for the obsolescent Shuttle fleet out of the budget. Just to get astronauts up to the space station, we’ll have to hitch rides with the Russians, for which they are charging us up the ying-yang, as they have a right to do, of course. The Russians continuing their endeavors in manned space flight is the problem.
If you recall, the reason John F. Kennedy pushed for racing to the moon was to beat the Russians to it. In those days, when the kindly Russians were the nasty Soviets, we and other western nations were worried that, if the Russians got to the moon first and built a base there, missiles could be installed and a veritable “sword of Damocles” would hang over our heads and the Russians could have their way with the world.
     Well, guess what, leftists! Unless the Russians have changed their mind, it is their express intent to return to the moon and establish a permanent presence there. Both the European Space Agency and the Japanese have plans for manned lunar bases. I’m sure the Chinese have similar interests. What happens when not only countries that like us, but countries that don’t, have lunar facilities and The United States does not?
     And, lest we forget, our planet is in what is often called a cosmic shooting gallery, Near Earth Objects (NEOs) of wide ranging size – maybe twenty-five percent of the bigger one’s catalogued – zipping around us all the time. It is commonly believed that the Gulf of Mexico was formed when one of these larger NEOs struck Earth and wiped out the majority of species on the planet. Eventually, what is called a “Planet Killer” will come again. Hey, maybe we’ll be able to divert or destroy it. But, what if we can’t? Mankind’s destiny is among the stars, lest some NEO, some terrible pandemic or some other cataclysm obliterate the species on this planet. It would be nice to think, if that should someday happen, that survivors of the human race might carry with them the principles of freedom and justice which have been the hallmark of The United States. Thanks to the short-sightedness of leftist social planners, America may one day be only a vague memory lost in the corridors of time. Administration plans cancelling development of manned space flight vehicles and a return to the moon are egregiously stupid.

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WHY DON’T WE REALLY TRY CAPITALISM?

by Jerry Ahern on January 12, 2010

     At lunch today, Sharon and I were discussing our usual mixture of personal, business and political “stuff.” Ever since the disastrous 2008 Presidential Election, we’ve been talking politics more and more. This morning, when I fired up the computers, FOX News and AP were both proclaiming that the guy living in The White House and his minions were planning to levy some additional taxes on the institutions which received an infusion of bailout funds. It seems like the current administration and its Congressional cronies can’t do anything without including a new tax or tax hike. And, we were talking about a friend who’s not very well off and had just undergone major surgery, in its aftermath experiencing some startling revelations about the extent to which his caregivers would be compensated — not very well, considering the heroic measures undertaken to save our friend’s life. He and I got in to discussing – and not resolving, by any means – what moral obligation there might or might not be for a governmental entity to pay for someone’s health care – sort of a microcosm of the macrocosm, as it were, with the Leftists in Washington trying to kidnap the nation’s health care industry.
     To help people who cannot afford health care and the extent to which this is done is a complex moral question, to be sure. But, neither Sharon nor I see any moral or philosophical questions relevant to the proposed health care bills in Congress. What is proposed is theft, pure and simple. Stealing businesses, money and choice from the American people is not one of the powers granted to Congress in The United States Constitution. A lot of folks in both Houses of Congress seem to have missed that concept.
     But, yet, certain things have to be paid for by governments. Not all the silly crap and pork barrel spending, but worthwhile expenditures such as national defense, the interstate highway system, the space program, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Weather Service and its related organizations, etc.
     How do you do this without stealing greater and greater sums of money from businesses and individuals? Margaret Thatcher once said, “The trouble with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples’ money.” What if you took other peoples’ money out of the equation? Gradually, of course. The United States Government tossed fortunes into a number of companies lately, most notably, perhaps, General Motors and Chrysler Corporation. Why not use this as the basis for a new start?
     The problem in The United States as relates to government spending is we – individuals, small businesses, large corporations, banks, etc. – all function as Capitalists and that’s the way it should be, because Capitalism is the finest economic system ever created. The “rub,” however, is that the government runs not like anything having to do with Capitalism, but Socialism, instead.
     During the American Civil War, an income tax was imposed in the North for a brief period. This was in 1862 and ended in 1872. In the 1890s, there was another experiment in income tax. In 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment was passed, saying, “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.” By fiscal year 1918, the government had scored its first cool billion in income tax revenues. Who’d give up on swag like that? Withholding taxes were first begun in 1943, thus cutting out the middle man — you.
     Why not gradually use the government’s investments of our money in private businesses as the start of various government owned – meaning, citizen owned – businesses. Let’s say the government has a mighty share in GM and Chrysler. As those companies hopefully become profitable again, just like any shareholders, the American citizenry gets dividends and those dividends get put into the Federal Budget. We get our people in Congress – and, if they won’t co-operate, we use recalls and regular elections to dump them and get trustworthy replacements – to mandate through legislation that citizen oversight boards make certain that partially government owned GM and Chrysler aren’t competing unfairly with non-government owned Ford and the import based brands. Free market economy!
     Take this idea many steps further. You can choose to shop at Kroger or Jewel Tea or wherever else or at “U.S. Government Grocers,” and the government has to actually compete for your business and pay profits into the general revenue fund. Want to buy a new handgun? Maybe you’d pick up on a Glock or SIG or Smith & Wesson. Or, maybe, you check out the models available from “U.S. Government Firearms Manufacturing.” All the profits made, after expenses, go toward meeting the nation’s expenses, then eradicating the huge debt we owe to China and others, while parts of the profits from “U.S. Government Dairies” and “U.S. Government Airways” and “Uncle Sam’s U.S. Government Hamburgers, Under The Golden Sign Of The Dollar,” go into replacing the almost countless self-destructing bridges and roads that are part of our nation’s gradually crumbling infrastructure.
     In the far distant future, when all government debt is paid and more money is coming in through these investments made on behalf of American citizens, the government can do like the state government of Alaska has done with oil revenue profits – send every citizen a check each year.
     Let’s try Capitalism, because it’s a cinch that what the government is doing now certainly isn’t working! Let me know what you think, if you care to.

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JASPER SCHURINGA — HERO

December 26, 2009

If everything is as it appears on Saturday, December 26, 2009, according to Fox News, we have a true Hero to thank for keeping Christmas 2009 from becoming “12-25-09″ in our memories. A cowardly crackpot religious zealot terrorist homicidal maniac cretan apparently tried killing around 300 people on a Delta/Northwest flight about to land in [...]

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I SPILLED CATSUP ON MY HOMEWORK!

December 12, 2009

I SPILLED CATSUP ON MY HOMEWORK – HONEST!!!
                Well, that’s not really true.  I apologize for being away from the website for so long, but Sharon and I were up against the wall with two large projects that had serious deadlines and a number of installments of our monthly columns in DILLON BLUE PRESS and [...]

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McGOOHAN’S NUMBER SIX IS STILL NUMBER ONE

November 18, 2009

     Sharon and I warily but eagerly watched AMC’s re-working of the landmark mid-1960s television series entitled, “THE PRISONER.” We should have been more wary. Jim Caviezel, Ian McKellen and the rest of the cast – especially actor Lennie James, who did a marvelously affecting performance as “147,” the cab driver — deserve credit for [...]

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TIME TO STAND UP FOR INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY?

October 4, 2009

WILL WE “BE SEEING YOU?”
By
JERRY AHERN
            Two weeks ago, Sharon was browsing through TV Guide and noticed that the Independent Film Channel (IFC) was running the original 1967 series “The Prisoner,” the brainchild of the seriously brilliant Patrick McGoohan – actor, director, producer, writer, two-time Emmy winner and thinker.  Sharon and I first watched the [...]

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MORE NEAT STUFF – MY SEECAMP .32

August 30, 2009

For I truly don’t remember how many years, I’ve been carrying a Seecamp .32. When we had the holster business, the first Pocket Natural front pocket holster we made was for a Seecamp .32 and I still use a holster that was handmade for me by two guys who worked for us. Now, I have [...]

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MY DETONICS COMBATMASTER .45

August 7, 2009

A weapon of which I am extremely fond is my Detonics Black CombatMaster .45.  In the mid-1970s, a rep who worked predominantly for Safariland was pushing the original Detonics CombatMaster .45 at a police shotgun shooting demo and I got my first chance to try one.  I’d fired lots of handguns, but never worked much [...]

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JERRY’S MUSINGS

July 29, 2009

“Reclaiming The Blade” Is A Terrific Film, If You Have An Interest In Swords And Swordsmanship – And, If You Don’t, You Should!
As a lot of you may know, when Sharon and I aren’t writing novels or working on firearms related articles and columns – I write them and Sharon does the photography – I [...]

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JERRY’S MUSINGS

July 17, 2009

THE LAST HAMMOND HAS ROLLED OFF THE LINE AND CLEAR THE TRACKS FOR TINKY’S GRAPEFRUIT!
                The late Ayn Rand’s magnificent novel and philosophical treatise, Atlas Shrugged, is also turning out to be prophecy, rather than speculation.  Move over Nostradamus!  If you’ve not read Atlas, you can get the main ideas by watching, listening to and [...]

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