No sane person could disagree with your editorial (guess that leaves out congress critters and bureaucrats), but does anyone in their right mind believe Congress or anyone else in a “position of authority” would allow these problems to be mitigated or eliminated? One small example; a huge proportion of the country did not want a debt limit hike this last year. Poll after poll, etc. showed this. Guess what happened? And, if there was ever a more pathetic example of a leader than John Boehner, I’d be hard pressed to even imagine him. Our last, best hope was the Republican majority in the House of Representatives and they have completely and utterly failed us at every turn. Don’t even mention my home state senator, McCain, and his authorship of detention under NDAA.
Yes, the problems are easy to enumerate, but I don’t see them getting anything but worse. Anyone that thinks a “major event” will be anything but cause to bring out more force is strictly an overactive “rose colored glasses” optimist. Worst part is, I think most of our country could care less.
Enough ranting from an old guy. I remember, with sadness, the title of G. Gordon Liddy’s book, “When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country”.
I enjoy your articles and agreed with all your points regarding real problems we face. I would have been happier to see you mention the demographic time bomb America faces from massive and totally unnecessary immigration. The only people in favor of massive immigration, benefit from it and pass on all the economic,social and environmental costs to the communities.
I think we will soon become a divided ethnic and tribal nation, unable to govern or agree on anything and become a weak nation ripe for the picking. Diversity does not make a nation stronger, Unity does.
Thanks for your excellent article defending Ron Paul. Things don’t look good for Ron now, but November is a long way off. During the 1996 campaign, I “cursed” a friend of mine for voting for a third-party candidate instead of Bob Dole. I told him to vote for Bob Dole in order to keep Bill Clinton from a second term. Well, this year it is I who will be doing the protest vote. If Ron Paul wins the nomination, I will vote for him. If he runs as a third party candidate, I will vote for him. If he doesn’t even run the race, I will still vote for him. If he dies before November 4th, I will still vote for him.
The only thing that can save America is a return to the Constitution. Ron is serious about the Constitution. We moderns are great at technology, sports and conventional warfare. However, the people of the 1700s were superior to us in politics, education, marriage, family life, art and music. The Constitution can’t be beat. Only the Bible is superior, but most people won’t follow the Bible, and they fight about it.
Here’s an idea; have the people in the states decide controversial issues like abortion, gun control, drugs and other things. That way, conservatives can move to conservative states and live under laws they like. Liberals can move to liberal states and live under laws they like. Isn’t that the way the Founders wanted it to be anyway?
Dave Duffy’s article, “Ron Paul is a disaster for Republicans and Democrats, but not for America’s freedoms” is posted today, Thursday, January 5th, at whatreallyhappened.com (gee, I wonder who asked Mike Rivero to post this really good article….)
What Really Happened website has a vast readership (and listenership for his daily radio program on Rense radio) of people all around the globe. So hopefully this will expand exposure for your truly cool website.
Ron Paul 2012 !!!!
Thanks very much. This is the article I wrote in my blog Dec. 28.
Very good article, refreshing. I am often on Newsvine, and will put this up on there.
The sad truth of this nation seems to be that people have (also chosen) to have too little to do. I see thousands of people on Newsvine and other comment sections that believe they have nothing to do, yet every one could be contributing to food for this nation, freeing ourselves from this tyranny of which you speak, and taking care of not contributing to this social disease: government.
I am a long-time reader and have all of the anthologies.
Your magazine is the real deal in a market stuffed to the gills with glossy crap with more ads than content. Furthermore, you have played a part in moving my political beliefs more toward Libertarianism by laying out the concepts in a clear, consistent, non-hypocritical manner. I read your article, and the subsequent comments, about marijuana laws and recently published similar thoughts. The difference was I went even further to include gay civil unions. My point was that the more power we give government to take away someone else’s rights, the more power they have to take away ours. It’s as simple as that. Like it or not, it’s the truth. But my readers fail to get that logic. I don’t see how anyone could miss it. This fact just seems so clear to me. Could you help me understand how I can communicate to my readers without alienating them? How do you do it?
Your appreciative reader,
Everett
Everett:
Sorry it has taken me so long to respond.
My short answer is I agree with you. I think gays should be able to form civil unions with all the rights of anyone forming a union through marriage.
I read your online post, and I’d like to respond to one paragraph in particular that reads:
“What bothers me is that the groups fighting for our personal liberty seem concerned with everything BUT our personal liberties. They focus on money issues. They focus on taxation, bailouts, being required to purchase healthcare, and laws affecting business. Meanwhile, they ignore any law that forbids someone to do what they wish with their own body, in their own time, in their own home, without harming or affecting a single other person. They are OUTRAGED at any regulation affecting commerce or freedom OF religion (nevermind freedom FROM it; that’s another topic), but don’t blink an eye when the federal or state government legislates morality.”
You are incorrect in this regard, at least as it applies to Libertarians like me and to most tea partiers that I know. This group includes TV personalities such as Judge Napolitano and John Stossel, both Libertarians who have large TV audiences. We are as concerned with government legislating morality as we are with economic issues, but in these times of severe economic recession with the American economy about to go over a cliff due to its unsustainable debt, we tend to focus more on economic issues.
Some of us may not be for gay “marriage” due to religious or traditional concerns, but we certainly have no opposition to gay rights. However, we don’t want any sort of special rights for any group, whether they are gays, ethnic groups, religions, or groups of any sort. The reason is primarily economic, in that we don’t want to have to pay for special rights with our taxes, but we also don’t want our own rights infringed by having to abide by special laws that protect special rights for special groups.
Let me respond to another paragraph in your post:
“I know what the bible says about homosexuality. I grew up in a Pentecostal church so you don’t have to tell me about the bible. But I also know that most of the stuff the Old Testimate says we should do or forbid is just downright sadistic in today’s world. “
This is where you are probably having trouble “communicating with your readers without alienating them.” You go on to site examples of Old Testament sadistic advice, of which most people would agree. The problem is you are “in their face” and denouncing a book that is sacred to many. What you say is valid, but few people respond well to “in your face” arguments. They want respect for what things they view as sacred or traditional or otherwise important to them for any number of reasons. If you give them that respect by not trying to rub their noses into some obviously bad advice in the bible, they will likely be more open to your opinion. That’s how I do it anyway.
Take care. You’ve got a good blog with good, coherent writing. That’s rare in blogs.
Here in the Arizona Outback, my county is broke, too. Only problem, with 1 out of 10 voters now a trough feeder in one form or another, there’s no one left to do anything about it. It’s just a sickening mess, government employees doing little more than time for pensions.
I will start with the statement that I have read your magazine since its inception many years ago. Our lives have been tested in similar manners, divorce, child rearing, attempting to start over again ect. This is why I find it shocking that you advocate the throw the baby out with the bathwater solution so many have… I expected better..or at least a fair chance, you see Dave, I AM ONE OF THEM a good for nothing fat cat rich public employee.
I would love to make 30+ dollars an hour and all those FREE MONEY BENEFITS I would sure like some body to show them to me.
I did get a raise this year Dave, a whole .25 cents an hour didn’t get a raise the last 3 years though.
My” golden parachute “retirement from the state I work for after 30 years of loyal service will be about 785 a month.And that is it, if our Governor doesn’t decide to give it to the teachers union, which means you guessed it… screwed again.
Yes… the joys of working for “the people”. I guess I could be bitter about it, but hey with all the millions in free benefits who could complain?
What do I do you ask? I am a nurses aide on a Maximum Security Ward of a Mental Institution. And we all know how well DEFUNDING mental health has been working on that problem don’t we Dave?
My whole point is there are services that are necessary if not popular and the people who step up to do these jobs don’t really need to be demonized by an editorial that may be true in Oregon is not necessarily true every where else.
A one size fits all approach is one that rarely fits any. And while I have enjoyed your publication for many years and do agree with you on most things I have to draw a line Dave….. Sorry you have been defunded.
I agree with this article whole-heartily. Boohoo that they have to return to a sheriff, judge, etc. Lets force them to return to the government established by our Constitution. The majority of the County was not run by paid officials, but volunteers, right down to the Grand Juries where you were truly tried by a jury of your peers. Not people randomly selected, but your local townspeople, the people that knew you, knew your circumstances and basic character. When true justice prevailed. If the local citizens thought a law imposed by the City/County government was unjust, the defendant walked. That is how we kept Government at bay. Not many people are aware that Grand Juries is the 4th branch of government. Our fearless leaders have kept that from public education. They even went as far as to impose State Constitutions that state only a Superior Judge can order a Grand Jury. This disgusts me because our founding fathers gave us this branch of government to avoid corruption.
Our local police and courts have become a revenue generating corporation. I would like to know why the police are stationed along the roadsides just waiting to pull someone over, yet when you call them, they take over an hour to show up to help you.
My old City pulled something similar a few years back. They did their “Wetlands study” in our neighborhood which resulted in a local farmer losing their land. Two years after forcing this family off their farm and land, they built an 8 bay Metro Bus Transit Station on the property.(What happened to the protected Wetlands?) On a humerous note, their plans were delayed for two years because city workers didn’t know what to do when they discovered an underground bomb shelter on the land while excavating. Not more than 3 months after this big grand bus terminal was built, the City put a gas tax hike before the voters. When the voters voted against it, the City punished us by stating, “Because we did not win the gas tax hike, we can no longer afford to run all of our buses” So to this day (6 years later), A family lost their homestead, but in it’s place is 4 acres of paved asphalt where only one bus runs two times a day.
Revulsed yet? I am…Government at it’s finest.
I am so happy to finally be in a small community where they watch over their officials. If they try to pull the wool over our eyes, you can rest assured, they will not survive the next vote. We have people sitting in on every County Commissioner meeting, every City Council meeting, and the like. Our only problem? The other side of our state is so citified, they pay no attention, and unfortunately, they have many more people who carelessly vote for the Legislators.
I only rarely have the opportunity to “Surf the web”, despite the fact that I’m employed in the computer industry. I happened upon Mr. Duffy’s article quite by accident.
I must say that even though I live across the country in New Hampshire, I find his sentiments, as well as his reasoning and experience, to be quite common. Things are handled here in New Hampshire much differently than they are in Wisconsin, but even their woes seem to be touching all.
I truly believe that Mr. Duffy has touched upon the fundamental issue; the “People” vs. “government”. There seems to be an attitude of superiority among “government employees”. This attitude permeates every area of public service, from the governors, to the cops, to the fire-fighters, to the administrators, to the clerks, to the folks that collect the garbage in town (in those towns where such collection is part of the tax-payer funded services). Thankfully, here in New Hampshire, things are not as outwardly contentious as in other parts of the Country, (at least not in my locale), but we have our issues.
The economy has cost the private citizens our jobs, our homes, our retirements (which for many of us means we no longer have _ANY_ retirement funds left), and in some cases, our very families. While the private sector has been burdened more and more to support the top-heavy structure of our government at all levels, the government employees have remained (until now) arrogantly secure in their futures. Well, the economy has finally reached them.
While certain emergency and safety employees are certainly worth more than they are paid, they can only be paid what we can afford. Even then, they must occasionally be reminded that “Public Servant” does _NOT_ mean that the “Public” is their “Servant”. Regardless of the particular position of any government employee, whether law-enforcement, fire-fighter, or clerk, it is the job of the government employee to preserve and protect _OUR_ way of life, not the other way around.
I know, this email is far longer than it should be… It’s far longer than I initially intended… Please accept my apologies for that. I just felt compelled to express my sentiments to Mr. Duffy and let him know that, while different parts of the country may outwardly express the sentiment differently, I believe he has rather eloquently expressed, and defined, the primary issue of this Nation’s discontent.
I am a police officer and used to work in a local jail. You made it sound like “cops” kick in doors and personally line their pockets.
First let me say that to have legalized alcoholic beverages and not marijuana is absolute hypocrisy. At least in my experience the negative impact of liquor on society is far more devastating than pot. Most of my calls for service involve booze.
Second, I do agree that constitutionally, a person has a right to put what every they want in their body. The problem comes when I start picking up the tab for their self destruction.
If we had a society that was pragmatic enough to leave OD victims to die, problem solved, but instead Medics are called to the same address, week after week, taking these self destructive folks to the hospital at a huge financial toll.
While you were in jail did you ask any of those innocent 19 and 20 year olds, that were there with you if they were on disability for their drug dependence. I have, when I worked in jail, more than could be numbered! 20 and disabled, drawing social security. Who is picking up the tab for that? Society is going to pay for it one way or another.
By the way, here in Ohio, possession of small amounts, and I mean an ounce (a lot) is a ticket, you can’t go to jail for that. No one is in jail for having a joint in their pocket. Since 1990,I have been involved in maybe 3 seizure cases! All were big time dealers. Meth and crack and heroin are all very destructive. If no one has to pick up the tab, let em have it, but we will end up with the tab, and raising their illegitimate kids too.
I found your site from a link from survivalblog.com and somehow ran across the article of the Animal Rights Activists ruining what must be a totally hysterical event at your local fair.
I do understand their point but I do realize there are limits on what an activist group can do. Caving into to them only gives them power, but since that has already happened…I have a better idea!
For a close knit town, you can starve them out. As a retailer, you can refuse to sell anything to anyone and not have to justify it. Gas stations can refuse to sell fuels, grocers refuse to sell them food. You get the picture.
As Jim Rawles says, if you don’t like what is going on around you, vote with your feet and move. When all the town gets behind this movement, the activist will get the idea that he or she is no longer welcomed and move on. It wouldn’t hurt for someone in a restaurant to take away their fried chicken special stating they are contibuting to animal cruelty. If they got half a brain….they will leave, probably just before the local police or sheriff decides to join the unwelcome wagon.
“We are especially interested in reading your non-political letters that talk about how you live your self-reliant life, including tips for other readers.”
Well, I am especially interested in reading a non-political magazine that talks about how I can live a self-reliant life, but that doesn’t appear possible with backwoodshome. Going from goat selection and wild edibles to the tea-party movement and supreme court ruling is jarring, at least to this reader who finds politics (of any ideology) extremely tedious. It’s annoying enough to turn on the television and be inundated with political talking heads, but to not be able to escape politics even in a magazine about self-sufficiency… I should hope that becoming self-reliant is a noble endeavor regardless of political affiliation. Everyone has strong political opinions, and you also happen to have a magazine capable of dissemination to a wide audience, but is it too much to ask that you save your political angst for letters to your own local editors, and focus on self-sufficiency?
I enjoy reading your magazine, but the political messages are souring the milk!
Sincerely,
Pete Weisdepp
Pete, you don’t even subscribe to the magazine and you’re complaining about its content? Should I change the content to suit someone who is reading it for free?
As an online reader that missed being a “Baby Boomer” by one year or so, and not quite young enough to be of this so called “younger generation” I was awestruck by one comment in Mr. Duffy’s article.
“One thing I feel pretty confident in predicting: America’s Second Revolution is coming, and the young will bring it.”
America has lost her way. One can only hope that these young people can right her course and guide her through the rocks and shoals of this treacherous bay. As someone that has sworn an oath “to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic” I can only hope and pray that it comes by the ballot box instead of the rifle barrel.
Time will tell. I will not say I look forward to the future, as that would be a lie. I will however say that these are indeed interesting times.
Mishin makes some excellent points. Far too many Americans remain blind or indifferent to the alarming erosion of freedoms taking place as well as the lurking threat posed by what has essentially become unlimited government.
The phenomenon may be due to public school indoctrination combined with the fact that half of all Americans now recieve a substantial portion of their income from government. The two are undoubtedly related. Twenty million Americans now receive Earned Income Tax Credit, a form of welfare. Ten percent of the population receives food stamps. Far more depend on Social Security. The list goes on and on.
Although not all people become fatally compromised when their subsidies start arriving, it would probably be safe to assume that most do.
Unfortunately, the only thing will put an end to it is an economic meltdown. With the official national debt shooting up the hockey stick handle like an Atlas rocket, such an event looks more and more likely with each passing day.
It is very sad to see our great country in the ruins that it is in now, and from what I have seen from other people; there is no way to fix it. People don’t care; they truly are sheeple.
Finding like-minded people to associate with is rare and you have to be careful that you are not being watched, although I know we all are. There will be a day when we will no longer be welcome to state our opinions and will be thrown into prison or exterminated because of what we think or believe. I do believe it is not far away. Especially under the ruling of the “czars!”
I’m 61 & have been watching this once great country begin to fall apart since …well probably since Eisenhower warned the country about the military/industrial complex 50 years ago. Seems like that was the beginning of the end…at least it seems that’s about when the destruction of the country began in earnest.
Guys our age have seen the best years of the U.S. I have a son & daughter ages 30 & 32 & a grandkid….am scared as hell for them & their generation. Son has some sense, girl is liberal as hell.
Wife & I can probably survive ok here in rural upper Midwest…gardens, firewood, water, meat. & spend little.
The U.S. Constitution? What did Dubya call it ? “nothing but a G– Damn piece of paper”. And today…in practice…that’s what it is. Can’t believe I just wrote that.
We do need to be strong & keep up the fight, Dave.
