A Little Break

So... I'll be taking a break for the rest of the week.  Reading through those documents, plus the other information that has come out about the Benghazi attack (including Mrs. Clinton's most recent idiotic statements, and knowledge that she and the SCOAMT watched the attack unfold and never dispatched help) has left me mentally and emotionally out of whack.

That's not a good place to be, so I'm taking a couple of days off from blogging (I'll probably be lurking at the Ace of Spades HQ and on Twitter, though).  Look for new posts here starting Monday.  Until then, see my sidebar for some good links.

Why Do We Do This?

Over at the HQ this morning, commenter Truman North asked this: "What makes us do this? What makes us follow this stuff so compelling, when it makes us so mad?"

And I responded:

Actually, I've thought about this, and I can't answer for you, but I'll answer for me.

Really, there are 3 things.

1- An obsessive personality (really). I'm going to be fixated on or addicted to something, so it might as well be something significant.

2- An understanding of what is really at stake. I never remember going through the Liberal phase most kids go through. I never recall ever thinking, "Well, if we just did this the world would be better and everyone would love everyone else, and it would be perfect!" Maybe that's because, reared as a member of the Church of Christ, I always understood the fallen state of man and that human perfectibility is impossible.

So, when I look at what people like Mike Bloomberg or TFG, the SCOAMT, are doing, I understand that they're demanding a price (my Liberty) for which I will get no benefit in return- the benefit they're promising is impossible. I don't particularly like getting bilked out of things, especially my Liberty, so I watch it like a hawk.

3- Empowerment. With the rise of the Blogosphere, my voice can finally be heard. Between comments here (which generate results on Google and Bing), and my own Blog (yes, I have one), people are finally hearing what I have to say. They're finally hearing my viewpoint.

Because of Twitter, Facebook (no, I don't have an account, but it's still out there), and Blogs, we finally have weapons that normal people can use that give us a chance in the Media/Culture war.

And I wanted to expand on that.  Well, on numbers 2 and 3.

I think a lot of people don't really understand what's at stake.  That's what's behind my posts like "Hey, This Matters" over at the Axiom Report, and "Don't Tread On Me" here.  It's easy to think of tyranny as this big machine marching inexorably down the street.  It's easy to imagine it as something big, that everyone would notice.  Usually it isn't.  Usually tyranny is little.  Usually tyranny is subtle.

That's why things like New York City's ban on sugary drinks over 16oz is important.  That's why ObamaCare is so important.  That's why it's important to realize that the current problems in the Middle East were not caused by a movie. 

The Political Left hates Liberty.  Liberty is messy.  Liberty means that sometimes people hurt each other.  Sometimes its even completely innocent.  No matter the cause, however, the Left hates it when people exercise Liberty, because that takes them further from their goal of complete control "for the greater good."

The empowerment piece, however, is probably what puts it over the top.  I've known that Liberals wanted to control, rather than to govern, for a long time.  It wasn't until recently, however, that I had anything I could do about it.  Letters to my Representatives were met with no response, or form letters.  People with money "on my side" tended to stay silent, partially out of fear, and partially because Conservatives tend to keep our opinions to ourselves.  People "on their side" with money (like Convicted Felon and Nazi Collaborator George Soros) went to a great deal of trouble to push their agenda.

Now, much of that has changed.  I get responses from my Representatives which indicate they actually read my correspondence.  The "Army of Davids" is making it so that my position is being heard, despite the best efforts of the Media to drown it out.  People with money "on my side" have started spending money to defend themselves and, as a side effect, me.  People "on their side" with money have had to become more circumspect in how they spend it.

I, alone, don't make much difference.  I, in combination with you, and everyone else who refuses to remain silent, are beginning to make a huge difference.

From the Minds of Liberals

Yesterday, I got my first cogent responses from a liberal (I presume they were all the same person; it's hard for me to tell via the Blogger interface).  Go back and read the comments (yes, I actually typed that) for the display, but this one, in particular, caught my attention.  I responded to it in the thread, but I thought it deserved a more fulsome response.

Here's the part of the comment I'm addressing (the rest of the comment was addressed to another comment):

"Your business idea was your own, the majority of the hard work and possibly the capital to start it was your own(but I doubt the capital really was) and certainly the risk of failure was all your own, but ....your success was not all yours alone..I am sorry to bust your bubble buddy. Without existing infrastructure, built from taxpayers money for decades previous to your success, without supply and transportation pipelines to ship and deliver the necessary components of your business's product, without customers and, most importantly, without competent and dedicated, hard-working employees...your success would never have happened at all. Sure, the President said something supremely stupid here but for all of you clowns who think that one person is responsible for an entire company's success? Time to wake up. Unless that business is a single owner/operator that deals in purely intellectual or informational products(and even then they use the discoveries and inventions of thousands before them) then your argument is as useless as your cries of tyranny and socialism."

This is, as you can see, pretty standard Marxist rhetoric, but let's break it down.

"Your business idea was your own, the majority of the hard work and possibly the capital to start it was your own(but I doubt the capital really was) and certainly the risk of failure was all your own, but ....your success was not all yours alone"

So, you had the vision.  You took the risk.  You found the capital (and, yes, buddy, it was "their own" in the vast majority of cases, or did you think loans were just free money?)  But, despite these things, "your success was not all yours alone."  Oh really?  Why?

"Without existing infrastructure, built from taxpayers money for decades previous to your success, without supply and transportation pipelines to ship and deliver the necessary components of your business's product, without customers and, most importantly, without competent and dedicated, hard-working employees...your success would never have happened at all."

Oh.  Right.  The People made it happen.  You don't actually get credit for your business because you're using "infrastructure," and you have vendors, and you have customers.  So, to liberals, unless you mined the ore used in the steel girders of your building yourself, unless you invented metallurgy to turn that iron into steel, unless you forged the girders yourself, unless you laid the roads, unless you wired the building, unless you bought your own product yourself like some perpetual motion machine- then you "owe" your success to others.

Sorry, Charlie, it doesn't work that way.  See, I'm a tax payer.  People who own small businesses pay a very large percentage of the taxes in this country, which means they've already paid "their fair share," and more, for that "infrastructure."  Yes it was the "taxpayers" money, but who are the taxpayers?  By and large, it's those small business owners.

As for needing "supply and transporation pipelines," well, yes.  And a business owner could invest in doing that himself, but other people already do it more cheaply and efficiently.  A business owner no more "owes" his success to his vendors than he does "the taxpayer."  He selected which vendors he's using; he pays them (or they don't continue to supply their goods or services). 

Employees?  I owe them nothing either.  I selected the right group of employees (and if I didn't I wouldn't be successful).  As their boss, I'm responsible for their conduct while acting as my employees.  I pay them their wages.  I don't "owe" them anything.  Surely them being good employees contributed to my success, but they weren't working for me out of the goodness of their hearts, they were working for a regular paycheck.

And Customers.  You're absolutely right that, without customers, my business would fail.  However, as a business owner, I can't simply sit and wait for customers to come to me.  I have to cultivate a customer base.  I have to provide a good or service for which they are willing to pay.  I have to make sure they know I provide said good or service.  I have to treat them right and have competative prices.  All of that falls on me.

My success is mine, and mine alone.  If I succeed, it is because I had the vision, gumption, smarts, and work ethic to make my enterprise work.  In most cases, that means I'm smart enough to use things already existing to help me.  I owe "the taxpayer," that abstract concept, no more of my success than I owe the cash register I use, or desk at which I sit.

The attempt to make business people feel that they "owe" others for their success is nothing more than class warfare, Marxist rhetoric.  The target isn't even the business owners, but everyone else.  You see, if that business owner wasn't "successful" on his own, then he does, indeed, owe "more" than others.  Why, he's built his success on the backs of others, how dare he!?  But it doesn't work that way.  That business owner has paid his dues, he built the business, he overcame the obstacles (and there are always obstacles), and he is the primary reason for the success of his company.

If you want to get into "owes," it's the working class who "owe" the visionaries who open and run businesses, who take all that risk, for providing them a place to work and a way to feed their families.  It's the customers who "owe" the businesses for providing them things they couldn't provide themselves.  It's government who owes those business owners for being the primary tax payers.  But even that is class warfare rhetoric.  In truth, no one "owes" anyone anything here.  My success is mine, and if I fail, that's mine, too.  I didn't succeed or fail because of "infrastructure" or "supply and transport pipelines," or "employees," or even "customers."  I succeeded or failed because of a vision, the courage to implement it, the smarts to plan properly, and the hard work necessary to bring it to fruition.

Now Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Blogging.

For a day or two.

I hope everyone had a great Independence Day Holiday, however Orwellian that term is, now.  I got to spend the day with my kids and doing some (non-political) writing, so y'all were out of luck.

I'll be back at it today and tomorrow, then off on vacation for a week to the relatively cool mountain air of New Mexico.  We'll be back to regular blogging on the 16th.

Support Your Local Blogger

First off: This is officially not a "Bleg."  Yes, I would like more donations, yes, I'd like more income from this blog.  However, this is strictly "secondary" for me, and any money donated would be "extra" to me.  So, keep that in mind: I'm not talking about me.

If you're reading this, you probably read blogs fairly often.  You probably read things like this second-rate blog on a free host as well as actual professional bloggers like Ace of Spades, or RS McCain.  Again, people like me do this because we have something to say, but we do it purely additionally.  We're not counting on a single penny from you.  People like Ace and Stacey, though, need your support.

"How," I can hear you asking, "can I support these illustrious individuals?"

And I answer:

There are three major things you can do to support your local blogger.

Most obviously, of course, you can throw them some spare change.  You can hit their tip jars, or click through their adds, or purchase stuff through their sites (many have links to Amazon where they get a kick-back if you buy through that link, others have their own "stores" that sell blog related swag).  This is the most tangible form of support.  This is how people like Ace and Stacey pay their bills and buy milk and eggs.

Second, you can comment in their comment sections.  Everyone likes to see "good job!" in their comments.  More than that, though, we like knowing that people are actually reading, and that what we're writing about is making you think.

Finally, you can show them some link love.  This comes in two flavors.  If you have your own blog, add them to your blog roll, and link them in posts occassionally.  Even if you don't, if you saw something at one of those sites that you thought was interesting, link to it in the comments of some other site where you comment.  That gets more eyeballs on the site, which leads back to the first two forms of support.

The other way to show link love is to pass on tips.  We can't read everything, we can't think every thought, and often we'll miss things that are important to you.  If you see something and think, "Gee, this would make a good post for Blogger X," send it over to Blogger X along with a quick synopsis or your own first thoughts about it.  No, they won't read them all.  No, they won't use them all, even of the ones they read.  But they'll know you're reading and that you're supporting them.

This is especially important now.  It seems, to many of us, like the Light is dimming.  The Supreme Court upheld Obamacare.  Fast and Furious, despite finally making the news, is still being reported as though the President and his top advisers were not embroiled in the biggest scandal in American history (Watergate did not have a body count).  Everywhere it seems the days are getting darker.

We, your local bloggers, are trying to shed light in the darkness.  We are trying to shine disinfecting sunlight on things like Fast and Furious and on Brett Kimberlin and his associates.  We are trying to shine the light of hope on things like Obamacare and the Presidential election.  And we are trying to shine the light of knowledge so that others can see the truth.

Most of us won't even ask for support.  But we need it anyway.