1.10.2009

Local Control Includes Self Defense.




On Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 11:22 AM, Doug Trott wrote:

> Umm, Lee, this is the federal >government we're talking about, >right? The fat is spread throughout. >As a former recipient of some of the >51%, I can report that I saw little >waste, and a lot of "making do."

Doug, First I am not a liberal. Liberal and conservative labels
have been made useless by Reagan and his followers. A better
comparison is liberty and authoritarian. The pro-corporate folks who have taken control of the country have recruited people against their own best interests appealing to their authoritarian weaknesses. They simply lie about being against bigger government. The government has only grown since Reagan. Also, much of the waste happens before it gets to the folks in the field. For example, many of the purchases have not been requested by the Pentagon, but insisted upon by Senators where the projects are manufactured.

Also, if you were in the military, then you observe big government at work in the purest form of socialism in our society. The authoritarian mindset overlooks this fact.

They have taken our country in the same direction Hoover did. The problems they have left us with will require large government answers because of the nature of international trade, international security mess they have caused, global envirionmental issue and the security problems created by our dependence on petrochemicals.. If the country is repaired, we reduce military spending, and wrestled control of government away from the transnational corporations, then we can start thinking about moving to State and local control.

Unnecessary war is waste. Going back to the first Bush, where our ambassador told Saddam it was okay to invade Iraq, we have been wasting a lot of our national resources.

And, of course, the debt that started with Ronald Ray-gun that was primarily for mililtary spending. A big waste. Who are we making the 4.8 billion F-22 Raptor program to fight against? How about the new aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush at 6.2 billion? There is a lot we can cut in that 51%

>
> We'd do better in most cases to push the spending authority to state or
> local government.

Authoritarians never include their pet spending in pushing things to the local
local. I want to put defense in the hands of the State and local government. It is intellectual dishonesty to promote local spending and then conveniently forget about the primary federal expenditure.

> But that's just me, the Wendell Berry fan ;-) I think he
> observed that conservatives believe in big business and small government,
> and liberals believe in small business and big government. He takes the
> position that small is better in both cases...and as close to communities as
> possible.

You need to read more Berry. He is as against the industrial
military complex as I am. He also believes that corporations are
not people and the only way we can protect ourselves from global corporations is to cooperate. A local community cannot do this in isolation.

Doug, please read what Berry says about war in his response to 9/11: "Thoughts in the Presence of Fear"

A quote: "The first thing we must begin to teach our children (and learn ourselves) is that we cannot spend and consume endlessly. We have got to learn to save and conserve. We do need a 'new economy', but one that is founded on thrift and care, on saving and conserving, not on excess and waste. An economy based on waste is inherently and hopelessly violent, and war is its inevitable by-product. We need a peaceable economy.

--
Lee Love in Minneapolis
http://mingeisota.blogspot.com/

"I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with
forethought of grief... For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am
free." ~ Wendell Berry

2 comments:

  1. From: D Kat
    Date: Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 4:25 PM
    Subject: Re: New Years gratitudes

    ////////////////////////////

    Nicely said.

    I (a leftwing libertarian if we are doing labels), am not a 'believer' but I do think it obvious that an advanced and civilized country which wishes to remain so must care for and educate all of its children. Science, math, the ability to read and think must be taught to all children and it borders on insanity - no I correct myself, it is insanity to think religion can be taught as a science. This cannot be done with local property tax. A country that means to survive must care for its Environment. Nothing can be more simple or basic than that. A civilized country takes care of the health of all its people. It is beyond stupid and shortsighted to treat this as a business and to allow the 'business' of insuring for health care. Basic health care is something all people have a right to. The 'Welfare' of a country depends on educating its people, protecting the health of its people and its land. This must take far greater standing than the misconceived notion that it is a giant military that protects a country.

    DK

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  2. DKat,

    What gets me about authoritarians, is that while they think something like universal health care is okay for the military, they don't want to allow it for children. Knuckle draggers they are.

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