I am often told that I must be crazy to believe all these conspiracy theories that I discuss with people. I don’t know about crazy, but I do believe that I suffer from some sort of genetic flaw. For some reason I have the innate ability to think.

Everyone has thoughts, so don’t start thinking that I am saying everyone is a mindless zombie. However one of the definitions for the word think is to use the mind to consider ideas and make judgments.

Oscar Wilde once said “A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” When it comes to politics, that quote seems to fit a good majority of the people in this country.

I have been writing long enough now to have noticed something. When I write an article that is critical of the Democrats, and their policies, certain people can’t seem to give me enough credit for doing an outstanding job. The same goes for when I write an article critical of the Republicans, certain people are full of praise for me.

I have also noticed that the opposite is just as true. There are those who call me too liberal when I criticize the Republicans, and too conservative when I criticize the Democrats.

That only shows me that people are reading my articles and judging what I say through their own personal prejudices. Instead of looking at the facts on their own merit, they are judging me according to who I am writing about.

Maybe I am able to step outside the box and look at the big picture because I have always been somewhat of a rebel. Ever since I was growing up I have had a bit of a problem doing things just because someone in a position of authority told me to do them.

I remember one time when I was assigned to a power plant in Spain. My NCOIC, (supervisor for you non-vets) told me to remove the head covers on a generator and pour a five gallon bucket of diesel fuel down into each head assembly, then run the generator for a few minutes to clean out any sludge that had accumulated.

I told him no, I wouldn’t do it. I told him that the diesel would drain into the crankcase and possibly cause a crankcase explosion. He said to do it anyway. I again told him no.

I opened up Air Force Regulation 85-19 and found the section dealing with how to remove sludge in engines. It stated something along the lines of draining the old oil and replacing it with a lower viscosity oil, then running it. Then you drained to oil and sludge and refilled it with the proper grade of oil.

He still told me to do it. I refused. Instead I got in a truck and drove the five miles down the mountain to go eat lunch. When I got to the bottom my commander was waiting for me. He called me into his office and asked me just what the hell was going on, why was I refusing to follow orders?

I explained to him what had happened and showed him the regulation. He got on the phone and called my NCOIC and basically told him to back off, that I was right and he was wrong.

It certainly put me on my NCOIC’s shit list, but I didn’t care. I was right and he was wrong. I feel the same when it comes to my government. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are the guidelines, similar to military regulations, that dictate what our government can, and cannot do. So when they violate that document, I get mighty upset.

What makes me even madder is when people argue with me about my political views when they themselves have no idea what the Constitution says. People choose to stand behind their candidate, and their political party because their party claims to support things that they, as individuals, consider important.

Our elected representatives are fully aware of this. They know that certain issues are of great importance to certain people. Immigration reform, gay rights, abortion, decriminalization of marijuana, lower taxes, and a host of other issues are used to keep us at odds as citizens, the whole time both parties work to strip us of the very thing for which our government was created to protect…our rights.

George S. Patton once said “If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” Could the same apply to those who blindly follow their political party, and who feel such animosity towards anyone who criticizes them.

These people think that they are thinking, that they are making informed decisions, but they aren’t. Thomas Sowell explains exactly what is happening in this country, “The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.”

People are basing voting for candidates because the candidate of their choice makes them feel good. Anyone who has seen the images of the crowds who flocked to see Barack Obama while he was running for president would understand what I am saying.

The people who flocked to see Obama looked rapturous. Rapture is defined as a euphoric transcendent state in which somebody is overwhelmed by happiness or delight and unaware of anything else.

That is exactly how the crowds at an Obama campaign rally looked. People stood their with tears running down their faces, with these glazed over eyes, chanting ‘Yes We Can‘. It was truly a frightening thing to watch. I say that because it was eerily similar to the expression of the crowds who flocked to hear Adolf Hitler speak.

The whole time people were sitting there mesmerized by Obama, they were not thinking about what he was saying. And since they were not thinking about what he was saying, they cannot compare what he said, to what he has done since being in office.

Obama is quoted as saying, “It’s time to fundamentally change the way that we do business in Washington. To help build a new foundation for the 21st century, we need to reform our government so that it is more efficient, more transparent, and more creative. That will demand new thinking and a new sense of responsibility for every dollar that is spent.”

Obama was fond of that word change. After 8 years of George W. Bush, change was what this country needed. Unfortunately the change we got was not the change we needed.

Obama said he wanted to make our government more efficient. Since when has any government bureaucracy been considered efficient? Yet Obama has assumed control over banks, a good portion of the automotive industry, and now wants to assume control of the health care industry.

He has nearly 3 dozen Czars who manage everything from closing Guantanamo Bay to ending the genocide in Darfur. I don’t know about you, but that certainly doesn’t sound more efficient. And what business does the United States have in Darfur anyway?

The problem is that our government continues to grow, and as it does it injects itself into more and more aspects of our lives. As our government grows, so does the amount of money it spends.

In the year 1900 total government expenditures equaled 5.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. By 1992 that number had risen to 33.1 percent, and it continues to rise with each succeeding administration.

Our government has spent so much, for so long, that they have put us in debt to the tune of $11 trillion. Yet Obama claims he is going to bring about change, and a “new sense of responsibility for every dollar that is spent.”

Albert Einstein once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Amen! Yet far too few people have the ability to think that the answer to our problems lie not with more government programs, but with less.

George W. Bush spent us into a hole with his twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now Obama is planning on spending more with his visions of socialism in the United States.

Obama was not alone when it comes to bringing about socialism, and the associated erosion of our rights that come with it. The Clintons were/are just as guilty in that respect.

Former President Clinton once said, “If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government’s ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees.”

President Clinton’s wife is just as bad, as she is quoted as saying, “We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society.”

People probably never heard those quotes, and if they did they don’t remember them. The attention span of most Americans lasts about just as long as a sixty minute reality television show.

People often ask me how can I remember all these things, how can I write these articles day after day. H. L. Mencken gave us the answer, but not many are going to like it. He said, “Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are unable to think because the congenitally lack the equipment to do so, just as they congenitally lack the equipment to fly over the moon.”

So maybe I am a bit deranged. Maybe I do suffer from some sort of mental disorder since I do think about these things…all the time. But there is something that Thomas Paine once said that people really ought to think about, “When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.”

Think about that for me, if you can.

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?“

~ The Author ~
Neal Ross can be reached for comments at bonsai@syix.com. Visit Neal’s Blog at http://www.zombie-slayer.com/neal