Political Lobbying

I would like to see the Tea Party take over the Republican Party and reach out to all Americans to bring us along to a conservative, capitalist, liberty-loving nation--most fruitful for the rise of an anarchist-individuator republic. Protecting gun rights is a solid way to defend liberty, and begin to get our people thinking about smaller, less intrusive government. I have been lobbying the state legislators to try and defend our gun rights. Much of the language in the below-presented email is adapted from NRA alerts sent to other members and myself: Dear Legislator: Now that the Senate Judiciary Committee has concluded its review of various dangerous, anti-gun bills, it is time for Democrats and Republicans in the Minnesota House and Senate to stand tall and squash in Committee any outrageous bills to tax, restrict and register legally owned firearms. These bills must not be folded in a slippery way into one large omnibus bill to be quickly voted on without careful review and rejection, before public opposition is allowed to surface to protect the rights of our great citizens and patriots. You are being graded on how you suppress, encourage, vote for or vote against these terrible, liberty-depriving anti-Second Amendment bills. Depriving Minnesotan freedom lovers of their God-given and constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms by means of enacting incremental, so called-reasonable, so-called sensible, anti-gun laws is a classical falsehood perpetrated on the American people by the Left and the Democrats. They claims to restrict liberty and constitutional guarantees in the name of public safety and for the common good. Let Democrats and liberal Republicans in our Legislature buck the national trend. If you work to pass this destructive omnibus bill, please be aware that we Tea Party conservatives will strive to elect anti-tyrannical legislators and reverse this horrible attempt to restrict our right to keep and bear arms. This plot is incremental deprivation of liberty and it must not happen here. Thank you, Ed Ramsey #612-360-5320

President Destruction

By design and by accident, he has pledged to bring America to its knees, and, by golly, Obama's plan in working.

The Fight For Liberty

Here is an email that I am sending to representatives and senators in the Minnesota legislature seeking to restrict our Second Amendment Gun Liberties: Dear Legislator: The Minnesota House in the Public Safety, Finance and Policy Committee is considering a bunch of dangerous, anti-gun bills: HF: 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242 & 298. I vigorously and firmly oppose paasing any of these anti-gun and anti-liberty bills. Do not pass them individually or in one omnibus bill. Please oppose all gun control legislation this session, especially the mentioned bills above. We will not tolerate or reward any legislator that votes for these un-American, liberty-crushing, incremental efforts to rob us of our Second Amendment liberties. All these bills are DFL-generated. Minnesota has long had strong gun culture, and who are the liberty-haters and liberty-deprivers that now seek to take away constitutional rights from law-abiding citizens? Can you not love liberty, and say no to President Obama and the East Coast gun-haters? Fund mental health if you want to but do not in the name of reasonable, balanced, common sense gun control, start to incrementally rob us of our freedom here. Liberty is the common good; restricting liberty in the name of the common good is setting up nanny-state authoritarianism. Is that the legislative legacy that Minnesota represents? I think not and hope not. Please squelch and vote against any anti-gun legislation that bubbles up in the Legislature this year. I am a long-term and proud NRA member, and we will not endure restrictions to our Second Amendment Rights. Thanks, Ed Ramsey #612-360-5320 edramsey33@comcast.net

Time For Boomers To Stand Tall

The editors at the Star Tribune never let a little problem like inconsistency stand in their way. In their Sunday edition (Travel Section, 2/3/2013) they marvel that baby boomers still set the trends for leisure travel, as befits their status as America's wealthiest generation. Then in the same edition they lament that at least some of the baby boomers are the most squeezed generation suffering from the current recession. Their earning power is down. Their savings and investments have deteriorated. They are approaching retirement with aging parents to support and adult children that have moved back home. So which is it? Are the boomers wealthy or impoverished on the cusp of retirement? Maybe it is a little of both, respective to each family, to each individual. The Star Tribune article goes on to list ways that the boomers have suffered, and it seems credible. What is my response? As one of them, approaching retirement age, and being a person of modest income, I believe that I have skin in this game. What is my response? My answer is so what? We are older, face age discrimination, are the first fired and the last hired, and face issues of health and disability. So what. We must not go to the federal Behemoth and demand more Social Security, Medicaire and Medicaid to alleviate our suffering. We must cowboy up and be willing to live on less, and get smaller checks and fewer government services. We must be willing to work until we are 72or 75 years old at whatever low-paying job we can glom onto. We will demand that the government balance its books next year. We want non-discretionary spending balanced too. It will hurt like hell. But we are heroes, the children and grandchildren of those heroic members of the great generation that lived through the 1930s and world War II. We will live within our means and quit demanding federal handouts. If that means grandma living up the block alone can no longer afford to live in her home, then we neighbors on the block decide who will give her a room int he basement of our homes to provide for the needy. Our kids, grandkids and great-grandkids need a goverment without debt now. Today let AARP go pound sand, as we heroice boomer men and women stand tall and sacrifice now to give the next generations a fighting chance.

Annie, Get Your Gun

There is something quintessentially American about our gun culture. An extension of feminist thinking must be to urge the majority of women to start packing heat. If they are good enough to serve in combat, women are good enough to pack heat at the civilian end of the spectrum.

Mavellonialism, A Short Definition

Mavellonialism is simply a value system promoting the liberation of every individual. They would have the social and legal authority to exercise this right, if they of their own free will elected to leave their groups and do their own thing. To be liberated, each individuator must pledge to subjugate none, and be subjugated by none.

Let Our Women Go

We can differ about values, but my main point is that if each person really believe that she or he can live as she wants to, and refuses to accept subjugation as an option, it becomes much more difficult to oppress anyone for very long, very effectively. That to me is hopeful, and a venue for human liberation, of which the improvement in status for all women (52% of our race) is a mechanism for uplifting all.

Baby Boomers

The Star Tribune (2-3-2013), Sunday edition, published a pair of articles that seem inconsistent in message delivered. The article in the travel section boasts that baby boomers set the trends for travel as the travel industry caters to the needs and wants of America's wealthiest generation. Then the paper laments on Page 1 that the current recession is a killer for at least some boomers. What is right? Probably a little of both. My concern today pertains to the boomers that have been hurt by the recession. Some are disabled. Some have not saved enough for retirement. Some have inadequate savings with low yields. Some are supporting elderly parents and middle aged children that have moved home, down on their luck. Incomes are not keeping pace with inflation. The values of real estate have truly declined. What should be done? Should boomers receive more and earlier benefits from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, where applicable? Absolutely not. We are the children and grandchildren of the great generation that went through the Great Depression and World War II. We can and will privately figure out a way to survive and perhaps thrive. We must be heroic men and women who demand that the buck stops here. We will do without, or with less. We will work until we are 70, 75 or later to help the coming generations. We demand that the government balance its books now (at the expense of entitlement and other programs) and pay off old debt so our grandchildren start with a clean financial slate. If grandma up the block is forced out of her home because she cannot pay the taxes, maybe we on the block take up a collection to pay her taxes, or offer her cheap rent, so she can rent a room in the basement with us so she has a place to go, and people to watch over her. America is the greatest country the world has ever seen, and financially struggling boomers will not and must not become wards of the sinking government ship as the only option out there.

Dollar Store

Last week I was shopping in a dollar store, which is known for its bargains. I selected some valentine cards and made my way to the checkout counter. A young white woman, about 35, moderately dressed and nice looking, was checking out. She informed the cashier that she just used the bathroom, and had to put her winter coat on the floor because there was no coat hook mounted on the door. She asked if one could be installed so in the future she did not have to place her coat on the floor. The cashier demurred, so the woman insisted on talking to the store manager. The cashier called out to the manager to come and respond, so she did, looking put out to be bothered. The customer repeated her request, and the manager said she did not know if anything could be done, because the landlord may disallow any change without prior approval--which may have been so. Her advice to the customer was, in the future, just to drape her coat over the garbage can in the bathroom. The customer was irritated, and told the manager that if they could not take better care of her in the future than this, she, the customer, would not shop there anymore. The manager just shrugged in silence and turned around and walked away. The customer left the store. I paid for my purchase. I approached the manager and told her that I worked as a maintenance technician. I said I had tools in my truck, and for $5 I would go to the hardware store a block away and purchase the hook and install it for another $5. The manager turned her back on me too and dismissed me. I left in silence. I realize that shopping at a discount store implies that the accommodations are not going to be the same as those at Nordstroms. I realize that the landlord may have written a very strict lease contract, but the customer should not have been brusquely pushed away like that. The manager should have said that she would confer with the landlord to see what could be done. I would have helped her out for very little compensation. I recorded this incidence because it is a classic example of what not to do, and how not to treat customers. Many business people still do not grasp the fundamentals of customer service. I am pro-capitalism, but that does not prevent me from recognizing rude entrepreneurs showing discourtesy, worst practices, under compensating workers, gouging, dishonesty etc. The store is close and some of there discount items there are worth buying, so I will continue to go there. I am just mildly disappointed to see a good customer mistreated for no reason; this was an opportunity to win customer loyalty, and the manager flubbed it about as badly as can be conceived.