Watching Them Watching Me

Copper chopper hovering rail, utilities photography...

No Loaded Guns

Crossroads of the West Gun Show...

Voting Rights Act of 1965

LBJ signing witnessed by MLK, Jacqueline Kennedy...

Your Privacy Is Long Gone

We can minimize our exposure but not prevent it...

When I was one of the first male Bell System switchboard operators in the early seventies I worked on a cordboard before Automatic Number Identification (ANI). This meant when we plugged into a circuit and answered "operator" and when someone asked for a long distance call, we filled out the information on IBM scan cards by filling in the bubbles. We only knew what Central Office they were calling from and not their individual number and had to ask "What is your number please?" Sometimes this was answered with "I have a nonpublished (unlisted) number" or "That's an invasion of my privacy" especially if it was a collect call or being billed to a credit card or another number. In classic Bell Operator fashion I would reply "Your privacy is long gone. What is the number your calling from in order for me to complete this call?" End of discussion, I had a job to do.

Although people were rightfully suspicious of AT&T since it was then the largest corporation in the world, they still had delusions about their privacy. The reality was the company had ways of tracking them and the number they were calling from if you gave an incorrect number to us. There was an entire Fraud division of the company that had a wide variety of ways to figure it out through both sleuthing and technological means that rivaled the FBI.

The difference between now and then is the mechanisms for tracking us have grown more sophisticated. In those days Direct Mail advertisers (junk mail) had more information on people than they realized. That was the analog world and all that has really happened is we have moved from the analog world to the digital world with much more sophisticated and invasive tools monitoring us. If you have ever filled out a credit card application, applied for an auto loan or mortgage, replaced your tires, used a grocery store discount card, joined a social website, googled the web, used a smartphone, the list goes on...you get the idea, you've been tracked as a consumer. On the government front if you have flown on a plane, gotten a driver's, marriage, business or professional license, attended a public school, checked out a book or used a computer at a public library, filled out a form to request information or get a permit from a government agency...you've been recorded somewhere down the line electronically. Multiply that a thousand fold if you've ever filed a tax return or applied for a passport, immigration status or citizenship.

My purpose is not to anger, frustrate or frighten the reader but to motivate them. It is to point out that in many ways that we don't even think about, our privacy is compromised more than the average person can fathom. There are methods to minimize it by choice while also recognizing how much we expose ourselves is limited and we cannot completely prevent it. My personal decision is to be on Google sites, Blogger, YouTube and Buzz and use their tools such as AdSense, Analytics as well as Search. I use Twitter minimally, mainly to tweet my blog posts, with full knowledge that using these sites will compromise my privacy. I completely deleted my Facebook account since I think they are probably the most invasive and are intent on intruding on our personal information as much as the Department of Homeland Security does. [See my blog post "HOW TO DELETE YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT, NOT JUST DEACTIVATE IT" for complete instructions.] I've deleted and closed all of my accounts on other sites knowing full well they still retain my information somewhere in the linings of their cloud. I'm beginning to think LinkedIn is heading in the same direction and I'm reconsidering my presence on that website.

My intent is to make people more aware of what they are doing when they sign up for multiple sites, post all kinds of information on them and know this information is being shared outside of these sites. Additionally hiding behind usernames may also help you feel more secure as far as public knowledge may go. Even so, these websites and companies know far more about you due to the email address, fake or otherwise, you used to create these accounts and your IP address is known every time you visit one. Also people with some internet research savvy can find out who is behind those usernames much more easily than people think.

This is a simple case of let the user beware and have full knowledge. My personal belief is that our privacy
is long gone but is mitigated by several factors. In the immediate there is so much voluminous information being stored I'm not sure companies, websites and the government even knows how to wade through it all. Still, if they are able to figure out how to filter through so much it is my belief is there will sooner or later be a data implosion from overload. With recent attempts, hackers may end up undermining the systems sooner rather than later, a disaster to some, a blessing to others. As far as the government and their data gathering, fingerprinting, biometric and other tracking methods is concerned, it is certainly a violation of our rights but since I believe there will be a total system collapse before Big Brother really gains a hold on us. We need to bear that in mind and actively engage in the fight against our liberties.

The best solution for now is to minimize our exposure by limiting our interaction both offline and online as far as the information we do give out, while being fully aware we cannot avoid it. It also behooves us to have as minimal involvement with the government as we possibly can to avoid the Big Brother of them all (run by Big Sister, former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, one of the most dangerous women in the US), the Department of Homeland Security. We can maintain some modicum of privacy but realistically unless we bug out and disappear completely, an option I think is nearly impossible and extremely unlikely to be successful in contemporary America, the best we can do is be cautious and recognize our privacy is long gone. That is until there is technological implosion and/or the system as we know it completely collapses and our country begins anew, as it was meant to be as envisioned by the Founding Fathers, with the true intent of the US Constitution.
 

Government Intervention

Saved the banks and big business from Depression...

Causing a Depression among the average person.

We are now into the fourth year since the real estate bubble crashed in 2007 causing the Federal government to intervene and "save" the financial institutions that were "too big to fail." The result has been that the major banks and financial institutions and Wall Street are not feeling the effects of the damage they originally caused but the average person is. Unemployment is still too high, the inflation caused by the printing of money and government debt are causing hardship in the general population but not among those in the financial world. The end result is not that the taxpayer is going to be overly burdened but that our government is technically insolvent and could quite possibly go bankrupt.

The scandal of this is that so far they have gotten away with it. It is my belief that the bad news is this will lead to the decline of our currency and an inevitable market crash. The good news is it will cause us as a people to do something to rid ourselves of the political and business class that colluded to put us in this position. We have been hijacked by the very people we entrusted with our government by electing people not acting in our best interests. This specifically applies to the Federal government, meaning the Congress and the President of the United States. It is useless to argue whether it "was Bush's fault" or "Obama is killing our country." The fact is that this started decades ago, exacerbated by the second Clinton term, during both of Bush's terms and continued by Obama. One could argue to go back further but our current condition is the result of efforts since the '92-'93 recession in Clinton's term.

We are here now and we must restore ourselves.

Regardless of how we got here, we are here now and it is up to us, the American people as engaged citizens and voters, to resolve the situation. This will not be easy as people entrenched in power neither give up easily and have the resources to fight back in ways too evil to consider in this discussion. The real truth is we are more likely to suffer an economic collapse before we can reasonably and responsibly resolve the situation by political means. How this will play out cannot be said for certain but the people responsible for getting us here are not going to stop until there is economic fallout of epic proportions that will end in the repudiation of debt.

The bottom line is that most Americans are in stressful economic conditions while the perpetrators are not feeling the effects of what they've done since they solved their immediate problem by colluding to keep printing money until it is worthless. It will take one economic domino for the rest of it to fall and when it does they will feel the effects. That is when we need to be concerned with their reaction and intentions.

We still have a chance to restore our country to "we the people."

In the mean time the best that the average forgotten man can do is maintain the best they can and remain as optimistic as possible and above all be prepared to fight back. What fighting back means is an open question but I do not believe with our history, form of government and the US Constitution, that means the government will be allowed or even be able to turn on it's own people. What it does mean is that, "we the people," must take back our government and control over our elected officials. That may sound implausible, corny or absurd to some people but to many of us it does not. One thing Americans have inherent in their character is once a movement starts going in a direction it cannot be stopped.

I still believe that it is not beyond the abilities of the citizenry to restore our country to reasonable values and the core beliefs of what America is about and return to what was intended by the Founding Fathers in the US Constitution. One thing is certain, divisiveness among the people will grow before resolution, but at a certain point the reasonable natural American character will rise above and return our country back to its core values. I don't believe this is false assumption, just as the country was in turmoil after the Civil War and during the turbulence of the nineteen-sixties, in the long term decent American people prevail and the challenge of differences and come together to overcome indecent leadership that has failed us.

Anything Can Happen

And always does when you least expect it...

Osam bin Laden is dead.

Just as many Americans were pausing to wonder what has been going on in our country and how we were going to dig ourselves out of the economic hole we've created, something happens that changes the course of history. Ten long years after the events of September 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden is dead, killed by us and we are certain since we have his body. It is the symbolic end of an era when the American psyche, consciously or otherwise, doubted itself and ability to capture a criminal who was the mastermind of a tragic event. His death cannot be underestimated. Carried along with our doubt was a lot of other baggage about the American Spirit and ability to rise above and be...well, American. The impact of this event should cause us to reassure ourselves that we are capable of anything we set our minds to.

His death will do little for the economic predicament we find ourselves in but should reinforce our sense of being able to resolve it. The real estate/mortgage problem, currency crisis, unemployment and low GDP and productivity among other issues aren't going away. What this should do is restore Americans faith in themselves to rise above and in the long term eventually overcome any obstacle. Over the next few days and weeks much discussion will go on and it is certain the political class will have a field day regarding Bush and Obama and who was able to capture and kill Osama bin Laden. The people who thrive on the fear of terrorism for a living will continue to hyper warn us, in a sense they're reminiscent of anti-communists when the Cold War was over. Terrorism is still a threat and we need to remain vigilant, but what we need to learn from this is that fear mongering is not the best weapon, that believing in our own power to defeat evil is. When all the noise dies down is when the truth will come out and the result will be that everyday Americans will have renewed faith in our ability to restore ourselves to the country we should be.

The oddity of the situation is that the attacks of 9-11 were intended to destroy the financial capital of the world and America's preeminence in the global economy. In some measure it did so indirectly, although it didn't collapse our markets immediately, in the long view in many ways it did. We should have taken more notice at the time of the message that was being sent, a message not necessarily from Islamic terrorists but a note to ourselves. We ignored it after the sentimental pop and country songs and tributes ran their course and we went headlong into consuming everything in sight. We pumped up our economy to feel good and did very little reflection on what had happened and how it could. The time for blame and recriminations about who did and who didn't do what is over, now is the time to revive the American Spirit and undertake the long hard road back to economic health.

If You're Looking for a Road Map

In the New Economy you won't find one...

Use your inner compass; be your cartographer.

There has never been a better period in my lifetime for an individual to be able to have a chance to cut a swath for their own path. There was a moment in time in my young life, the late sixties and early seventies, when opportunity to become my own person, create my own road, direct my life in any direction any way I wanted to. Most of that had to do with my youth and part of it was the times. Fortunately I was free to make decisions that were appropriate for me but some previous options available to me vaporized a decade later due to the juncture of history we were in. The eighties were a period that recalled an earlier era, since the turbulence of the two previous decades had unsettled so much without satisfactory resolution, that most people wanted a return to "stability." Stability meant going back to values that were not bad and were likely necessary at that interval. Technology had not reached a point where it could change or improve our lives or the world.

The nineties became a transitional era when technology, especially communications, the internet, medical and other sciences became highly developed and rapidly advanced as well as methods of doing business began to change. It was a time of duality of good and bad to be followed by a decade when much of what had occurred was assimilated, digested and culminated in an economic disruption that was inevitable. We were moving unaware from the Old Economy to a New Economy which inescapably impacted the social and geopolitical elements of daily living. Consumerism and the accompanying debt load that came with it, the old conservative structure cracked and the hankering for a new form of politics that we have discovered does not lie in the opposing progressive liberalism. In the US we voted for a President who had the image of change but not the substance of it. Far from it, what looked like what we were hoping for did not actually hold the values we desired. It was a valuable lesson for not only the United States but for the world.

For those of us forced out of our former careers and way of life, we need to go beyond what we used to be and get on with what we are becoming and going to be.

Now, more than ever is the time to have that second chance, another shot at a "do over" at life. Where there is adversity, difficult times and a seeming downfall from former success there is opportunity. We are never likely to see such a significant change in the economy, political world and society as there is now as long as we are not blind to it. Especially for those of us in our mid-forties and fifties, we are old enough to know a lot more than we did and not too old to recover and recoup what we may have lost. More importantly we have the chance to recreate our lives more like the image we envisioned when we were younger, before life took us in directions that we didn't think about and opportunities we didn't have. The former trails are still there, well worn and found just as easily as a long driven US Highway long ago replaced by an Interstate, themselves showing the wear and tear of age and also not travelling at the high speed of broadband internet. The time is now for us to rethink what we want to be for the remainder of our lives, choosing wisely and creatively the New Economy road we want to build to reinvent ourselves and lead us in new and more satisfying directions, since the existing highways and byways belong to Old Economy of yesteryear.

Ron Paul on "The View"

Liberty Defined...

Whoppi Goldberg and Joy Behar couldn't get him to bite their bait.

http://youtu.be/z3MiKO6K1Zw

Living In America

Toxic People, Toxic Situations...

Avoid them.

We're in poisonous times right now as we head into almost four years of when the world became aware in the summer of 2007 of the great economic disruption. It is a toxic time for many people who aren't prepared to guard themselves from noxious fumes. As someone who is interested in the social sciences I've had to be careful at times of absorbing and emitting too much toxicity. An ironic situation itself, since in 2007 when I was personally struck by this global financial fiasco, I was determined to remain positive and above it all. Generally I have been upbeat and made the most of the situation but at times have paid too much attention to the economic, political and social events of our time. That is not to say that I think anyone should remain uninvolved and obliviously unaware, only cautious about how to absorb it and manage personal thought toward current events.

It was a conscious decision on my part to not participate in the psychological downside of this recession, that seems to have developed into a depression. One thing I have learned, through periods of unemployment, temporary and underemployment, involuntary and voluntary, is being "laid off" from a "real job" in 2007 was the best thing that could have happened to me. Since I was 16 years old I've worked long periods for a major corporation, a huge bank and state government. According to the standards of the Old Economy, these were "real jobs" that were considered "careers." I struggled with identity when I was booted out of the first one, an epically long 30 plus years off and on journey. I also felt I had to replace that so-called career with another one, which I managed to do not once but twice.

The New Economy has been liberating for me. In many ways I was fortunate since I had several small sources of income and a support system that allowed me to get by financially. Not always having funds to do everything I wanted to do when I wanted to do it wasn't as bad as I would have once thought. It is through a process of time I began to realize I had been relieved of the toxic situation of trying to fit the proverbial square peg in a round hole. I was never cut out for a career in the world of major corporations and banks and I managed to survive among toxic people but it was at a cost to me. It was too draining. That was when the economy was supposedly good, although on reflection most of us know it was a consumer economy based on a false happiness I couldn't buy into. That kind of life was a more poisonous time for me than the one we live in now.

What I have learned about this entire situation is to avoid toxic people and toxic situations. For me that means not being employed in a job that is poisonous to me due to negative people and oppressing organizations. It has now become irrelevant to me that the part-time job I have, that I generally enjoy, is considered by many as my being underemployed. What those people don't realize is that part-time underemployment provides me with medical benefits, some additional income and most importantly, free no-stress time. During that time I am able to be creative and supplement my income from freelance work that is creative and enjoyable to me. Most importantly I don't feel I have to fit into a work situation I don't feel comfortable in, a toxic situation for me and for the most part allows me to avoid toxic people. That is as valuable to me as the skyrocketing price of gold.

Economic, Social and Geopolitical

Ayn Rand on neoconservatives...

"Conservative Sellout of Capitalism"

Ayn Rand's reasoning on Religious Conservatives (Social Conservatives), Liberals and Statism in this video from the 1950s is as current now as it was then. It explains why her philosophy is popular again today. Those calling themselves conservatives in favor of free markets and capitalism use three interrelated arguments based from faith, tradition and depravity. These are fallacies that contradict the fundamental principles of the United States.

http://youtu.be/vpp5EXZZrgA

http://www.youtube.com/user/LibertyPen

Only In America

I still believe...

In America

...the ideal, not the United States of Statism that I railed about almost a year ago on 04/21/10 in my blog post This Is Not America: It is now merely the United States. I was angrier then about how the American Dream had been derailed by Social Democrats and the lack of any real opposition party. I wasn't much younger then, but I am older than that now (apologies to Dylan), although I'm still not beyond discussing the issues.

Sometimes I think immigrants understand what "America" means much more than many natural born Americans do. Although I emigrated from a former British colonial island 700 miles off the coast of North Carolina, a short distance for a seagull, this country might have been half a world away. It was a different culture, although my father was an American, I lived in a British culture with some American influences and spoke British English (American English is my second language). In that society one was always reminded of "their place" and mobility was limited by a variety of factors. My very British mother was raised in that system in her native England and escaped it after the Second World War. I was surrounded by members of both her and my fathers family and grew up biculturally speaking one language. I learned early on that although the language seemed the same, it was different, as the cultures also were.

It would be fair to say that growing up running barefoot on a rather idyllic beach island was a wonderful childhood. As I approached the age when I started thinking about high school and college I began to recognize my (and my cousins of the same age) opportunities were limited there. We all wanted the chance to go to better schools and universities than we could where we were. I didn't want to go to the UK or Canada, two of my three options, I always wanted to go to the United States of America. I explain this to make clear I was not an immigrant escaping from some poor, third world, strife ridden nation.

The dream was still the same regardless and it hasn't changed.

Every work day I come across immigrants who are taking one of the steps they need to be gain access to permanent residency or a long term visa into this country. Some are like I was, from English speaking nations, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and many former British colonies, with an American parent or spouse or are unconnected in any way except they want to come to America. There are also those that are ambitious, achievement oriented people who want to get out of, for any number of good reasons, from the nation they are from. The other day I was struck by the earnestness of an Egyptian who was extremely grateful for the help I gave him. After he discovered I once was a new immigrant, when thanking me, said a heartfelt "I know you truly understand." I do. Hours later I was overwhelmed by sentiment and recognition of how lucky I really am to be here. I know he'll make it, I'm sure he did well on his professional board certifications and all his other papers were in order, but most importantly he had the right attitude.

Even in an economic crisis, the rest of the world sees what some natural born Americans do not, there is still opportunity here. It is what you make of it, even if it isn't a mansion on the hill, it is still far better than a large part of the rest of the globe.

Lately I've been coming to see a sea change that a lot more natural born Americans are now re-acquainting themselves with and appreciating the achievement oriented, dream as big as you want to, entrepreneurial, "can do" spirit that this country represents to the rest of the world. The Land of Opportunity. I recognize many things have gone awry and we have a long road ahead of us to get back to where we were before we derailed ourselves. There are many people who are trapped and have obstacles that will be exceptionally difficult to overcome. Self-reliance and mutual help are not opposing American values. I still believe that for the vast majority of people in this country, the chance of rising above is still here.

It isn't always fair and somehow we lost our way several decades ago trying to make opportunity for people who had traditionally been discriminated against. With the best of intentions we created unintended consequences. As I wrote almost a year ago: "It also morphed into equal rights for everyone [that] has come to mean that everyone is equal in everything." What I am observing now is that the move away from that concept has become more than continental drift, but a tectonic plate shift with the potential for a good shaker to come along to wake everyone up to what we don't want to lose.

At stake is what our forefathers intended in rebelling against a regimented social structure divided by wealth, poverty, class, with rights that allow us to be free to become what we want to be, if we have the will and ability.


Being Bicultural: One Language
One of my first YouTube video blogs from the vault, done almost four years ago before I learned to edit. It is about my experience growing up in a bicultural environment learning British and American English.

http://www.youtube.com/user/jrsnyderjr#p/u/38/sHjUyRLEQxs

http://www.youtube.com/user/jrsnyderjr

American Points of View

Across the cultural opinion spectrum...


What We Saw at the Glenn Beck Rally in DC
reason.tv 08/28/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CY5aFvRe2E


What We Saw at the "One Nation Working Together Rally"
reason.tv 10/02/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEy2jKvUZ_U

American Visionary Art Museum

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness...


Art is a powerful tool for those trying to express "the need for liberty."

The word liberty is used a lot but it's not often that individuals think deeply about what the word means, says Rebecca Hoffberger, the founder of Baltimore's American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM).

Hoffberger's goal with AVAM was to create a "grassroots salon that would tackle all the great themes that have ever bedieviled and inspired humankind." The most recent exhibition, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness featured a wide range of self-taught artists including Saddam Hussein's personal doctor, Ala Bashir, and a schizophrenic hoarder named Dick Lubinsky. The exhibition provides an unforgettable commentary on an American truism. Hoffberger explains that art is strongest when it portray's life's experiences that are "too big for words" and that art is a powerful tool for those trying to express "the need for liberty."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4to1SMLyA8o


Produced and edited by Dan Hayes. Camera by Jim Epstein and Joshua Swain. Music by Dan Thieman. Go to www.reason.tv for downloadable versions of the video and subscribe to ReasonTV on YouTube

Congressman Paul Ryan advances "A Roadmap For America's Future"

A time for choosing...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G6yITxq4as

http://www.youtube.com/AmericanRoadmap

http://www.americanroadmap.org

Text of video:

"Are we going to reclaim the American idea - an entrepreneurial economy where you make the most of your life, you can maximize your potential; reinvigorate the principles of liberty, freedom, free enterprise - and defend its morality - or - are we going to abandon the American idea, and become a stagnant European-style cradle-to-grave welfare state, where we drain people of their incentive and will to make the most of their lives, and become more dependent on the government? The President and the people that run Congress are dedicated progressives. They believe that we ought to have the government so much more involved in our lives, with the government - not ourselves - as the determining factor of our destiny. The country must answer the question: do we want an entrepreneurial society that gets the prosperity turned back on in the 21st century, where individual merit and entrepreneurial activity defines the American economy - or - are we going to have more and more people dependent on the government for their livelihoods? That is the fork in the road - and the urgency of the time for choosing is being precipitated by the current direction of our government and the looming debt crisis, driven by the explosion in entitlement spending. We must decide what kind of a country we are going to be in the 21st century." 

American National Anthem: Memorial Day 2010

The Star Spangled Banner...

Vietnam footage with music by Jimi Hendrix [National Anthem and Purple Haze] 

http://www.vimeo.com/174932

The Star Spangled Banner / Vietnam footage / Music Jimmy Hendrix from jimmyh on Vimeo.

Let's Be Done With This One. Next!

What Rand Paul said in full context...

One thing is clear, Rand Paul is able to stir up lively debate on topics that have been "off-limits" in public forums for years. Up next...his views on abortion which differ from his father regarding government intervention of the medical procedure. He is astute enough to know that he is in Kentucky, he has to build his own reputation and distinguish himself as his own person.

Yesterday he did shake-up his campaign and maybe not exactly the way the nervous Corporate Republicans would have him. He moved his campaign manager up to campaign chairman and replaced him with Jesse Benton, a campaign aid to his father known for his courteous and mannerly demeanor. It's a good move. He does need the experience from his father's staff, to avoid the fracas caused when he walked into the gotcha journalism of MSNBC and celebrity TV hostess Rachel Maddow.

Rand Paul and other candidates shaking up the Republican establishment should reopen these debates and speak their mind but they must also be mindful of the media sharks whose real goal is ratings. The only people who are really freaked out over his ideas are liberals. Moderates are wishy-washy and don't have a stand and until they do take a position, they're irrelevant. Republicans, if not openly, are secretly pleased that these folks are bringing new life and a revival to what had become a tired old agenda.

Naked open truth and realness are what is needed in political campaigns now and Rand Paul, among others, should continue to do that but without giving seminars on their views but rather honest summaries.

What happened with Maddow was an ambush in the phony way liberals feign to be fair and unbiased.

These two videos are the full context of what Rand Paul said on the Rachel Maddow show about his views on civil rights, the 1964 Civil Rights act and private business. His only error was to fully discuss a philosophy with a celebrity tv show host who only deals in snippets. My suggestion to Rand Paul is to avoid all liberal mainstream media because their goal is to discredit him, no matter how graciously they gratuitously act towards him.

Chimes of Freedom

LIVE: Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Youssou N'Dour...




Chimes of Freedom
Bob Dylan

Well far between sundown's finish and midnight's broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashin'
As majestic bells of boats struck shadows in the sun;
Sayin', it might be the chimes of freedom flashin'

Flashin' for the warriors who strength is not to fight
Flashin' for the refugees on their unarmed road of flight.
And for each and every underdog soldier in the night
We gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin'

Well, in the city's melted furnace unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden here while the walls where tightenin'
As the echo of wedding bells before the blowing rain;
Dissolved into the white bales of lightnin'

Yeah, tollin' for the rebel, yeah, tollin for the raked
Tollin' for the luckless, the abandoned and the forsaked.
Yeah, tollin' for the outcasts burnin' constantly at
stakes
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin'

And then through a cloud-like curtain in a far off corner flashed
There's a hypnotic, splattered mist was slowly liftin'
Well, electric light still struck like arrows
Fired but for the ones condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting'

Paul Ewing

Well, tollin' for the searchin' ones on this speechless, secret trail
For the lonesome hearted lovers with too personal a tale.
And for each young heart for each channeled soul misplaced inside a jail
Yeah, we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin'

Well,, starry eyed and laughin' I recall when we were caught,
Trapped by an old track of vows for the hands suspended
And we listened one last time, and we watched with one last look
Spellbound and swallowed "Has the tollin' ended?"

Yeah, tollin' for the achin' ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless, confused, accused, misused, strung out ones at worst.
And for every hung up person in the whole wide universe
We gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin'

 All Photographs (unless noted otherwise) JR Snyder Jr 2010

Where Have You Gone Arizona?

A nation turns it's lonely eyes on you...

I am an Arizonan. 

My personal beliefs lean towards civil liberty, personal freedom and libertarian ideals with a tilt of objectivism and conservatism, along with a belief in the rule of law. I tend to listen to different sides of an issue and form my own independent opinion. Sometimes that's contrarian.

Arizona State Senate Bill 1070 the "Arizona Immigration Enforcement Law" has stirred national interest from support to outrage. Calls for boycotting Arizona are growing and conventions and meetings already cancelled. Media coverage is wide and international, from print to radio to televison to social media. One thing I think a lot of the media, political class and out-of-state tsk tsk tskers don't like to admit is that Arizona actually is representative of the vast majority of America. We're the 48th state and just a little more raw and have enough of open range left in us, that we haven't refined ourselves to the false pleasantries like so much of the rest of the country.

My opinions on topics are generally not limited to bullet points, I look at the whole target. I'm a broad thinker and view issues with the wide scope of the social, economic, political, legal and historical aspects around a topic and different elements that have an impact on the subject. That is true with this legislation.

Essentially I believe that the people and State of Arizona have the right to make decisions based on problems presented to it and that illegal immigration and border crossings have been a long standing unresolved problem. The Federal government has been more a part of the problem than the solution and we don't need more of that. We clearly need some type of plan for the illegal immigration and border problem in our state.

This particular Legislature is most likely one of the worst we have ever had and this piece of legislation is actually not the worst thing they've produced and are likely to produce. Our Governor inherited the job and was not fully prepared for it. They all could have done a much better job on major issues presented to them and are still working on.

To find out what I think about SB1070 in the larger context of the State of Arizona, watch this video blog.


Where Have You Gone Arizona? from JR Snyder Jr on Vimeo.
A nation turns it's lonely eyes on you...

A video blog on Arizona's SB1070 Immigration Enforcement Law

Who Is John Galt?

Liberty vs Socialism...

Mike Wallace interview of Ayn Rand: 1959


"I am opposed to all forms of control...I am for the separation of state and economics."

In this segment of the interview a finger pointing Mike Wallace strikes an attitude common to most Liberals, that people who are achievers will by nature act in evil ways towards others taking a "devil take the hindmost, dog eat dog society and one of the main reasons for the growth of government controls is to fight robber barons...who perverted their use of power." Therefore it is up to good (liberal) people to lead in protecting people by government intervention and legislation. He speaks as if it is common sense and it never occurs to this mindset, that abuses of power inevitably fail when left to their own devices, since they are inherently evil. Achievement oriented people are smart enough to figure out ways to get people to follow (work) for them without force. Human nature will prevail and people won't work for "robber barons" if they are being abused and are not as weak willed and in need of the protection of government as people such as Wallace suggest. Liberals perpetuate the stereotype of weakness through fear in order to secure their own moral power. Ayn Rand deconstructs this notion in a firm logical, step by step, rational manner.

On labor and social welfare legislation: "It actually sprang out from the same source as the abuses, if by abuses you mean the legislation which originally had been established to help industrialists, which was already a breach of complete free enterprise...if then in reaction labor leaders get together to initiate legislation to help labor, that is only acting on the same principle, namely all parties agree that it is proper for the state to legislate in favor of one economic group over another. What I am saying is nobody should have the right to use, neither employers or employees, to use state compulsion and force." 

In other words, the Political Class acquiesces to the will of Industrialists, in total disregard of the principles they were elected under the US Constitution, to protect the interests of the people who elected them and instead protect the industrialists. This creates a conspiratorial system where the Industrialists were the originators of collectivism and socialism by making a social contract through legislation. In turn the pattern is repeated by other members of the Political Class to protect Labor, reinforcing the disregard of the reason they were elected. This pattern is clearly evident today and largely the reason for the current social, economic and political disruption we are currently undergoing.

"This country was made not by robber barons but by independent men, by industrialists who succeeded on sheer ability. I mean without political force, help or compulsion but...at the same time there were men, industrialists, who did use government power as a club to help them against competitors. THEY WERE THE ORIGINAL COLLECTIVISTS. Today the Liberals believe that the same compulsion should be used against the industrialists for the sake of workers, but the basic principle there is...SHOULD there be any compulsion, and the regulations are creating Robber Barons, THEY (government intervention) ARE CREATING CAPITALISTS WITH GOVERNMENT HELP, which is the WORST OF ALL ECONOMIC PHENOMENON."


The result is we do not have true capitalism today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1RxKW-P5V8&feature=channel_video_title

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