Good observations, Robert.
I just finished David Weber's Rising Thunder, sci-fi fiction novel. Its one in his Honor series, and its not exemplary sci-fi, but Weber does do a good job of exposing the fraud of a "democratic" empire whose unelected bureaucrats have taken control away from the people. Lots of parallels to the current federal government and how government power becomes an end in itself and loots everyone to retain power.

Well, that's an interesting analogy.
Thanks Robert.

Well said. My feelings are that the US is no longer the land of the free. I mean, if you look closely, the IRS can remove your passport, the State Department can not issue you a passport to travel, the TSA can make your life a living hell with their rules and regulations, the BLM and Forest Service can regulate where you travel on "public" lands. There are many more circumstances where the Federal government intrudes upon out lives. I used to be in the military, stupidly was there for 22 years or so, waving the US Flag all over the globe in the name of goodness and democracy. Democracy is a joke that is not real. We are seeing it in the current election cycle, if Trump wins, they will change the rules to get in who the Establishment wants, not who the people voted for. The elites run the country on how they see fit, people be damned. Hey, I am from New mexico and I saw a news article the other day that said Bill Richardson, the former Governor who went out chastised and indicted in a play for pay scandal, is now a board member at the Import/Export Bank, the failed, corrupt government lender for foreign nations to allow them to but US goods. Seems as if they keep recycling failed former leaders (look at Hilliary) unless they are foreign despots, then they kill them.

This article deserves a wide audience.

So, if America chooses to turn away from where it is going, what are the twelve steps necessary for America to get on to an Objectivist path?

http://www.objectivistliving.com/foru...

Hello straightlinelogic,
Great article. It really gave me a visceral reaction. It was as if I woke up next to a stranger and it was my country, but it's visage was so grotesque that I would rather chew off my own arm than pull it from beneath and risk waking the beast... I think your picture at he beginning of the article, apt as it is, will haunt me. %*@:-(
Always entertaining and thought provoking.
Regards,
O.A.

Atlas Puked?

"You stumble into the bathroom, drink copious amounts of water, take multiple Advils, and stare at yourself in the mirror."
In his book Greenspan says the Fed's job is to shut off the drinks just as the party's getting started.

Otherwise it's the monetary/fiscal policy described with your metaphor: You want a hair of the dog that bit you, but it's nauseating, so you turn to Xanax and Pedialyte to chase the shakes away, and maybe an opiate like hydrocodone too if it's a real bad case. One hour after each hangover remedy, you tell your body how much you took of each drug and which remedies your inclined to try in the next hour. Your body eagerly awaits this important news. By the time the other drugs start wears off, your stomach is settled and you start itching for a drink. The cycle repeats.

I think that the political parties are an anachronism in todays interconnected internet world. Everyone can think for themselves , and in a situation where a popular vote is required, let us just electronically (hopefully) just cast our votes, and thats that. REgister with the government if you want to run for a particular office, and then voters can pick. No parties, no labels, no marketing organizations trying to manipulate us into voting for their candidate.

If the constitution included an amendment forbidding the government taking from one and giving to another, the office of president would lose a lot of its power and influence- and it would be the end of lobbyists and big campaign contributions.

Hildebeast is the poster child for the crony establishment, with the contributions from parties who expect government favors funding the campaigns. People dont trust her for a reason- she is bought and paid for by special interests to the tune of more than $200 million for this election.

It would seem that we are at that point but many in the establishment are still in denial. This is a great line:
"a long line of politicians assuring us that the protection of privacy and freedom requires the destruction of privacy and freedom."

A government that has the power to control and loot everyone does exactly that and once it has this ability it will not willingly give it up. Any who challenge it will die by the millions if necessary to maintain the status quo. Once elected and in power there is no difference between who gets elected and what is done to the populace. Obama did not end the war in the Middle East anymore than Nixon who promised to end the war in Viet Nam followed through with his promise. Elections merely keep the populace busy believing they actually have a determining influence in the outcome.

Geez, Robert you did it again. This time you almost made me throw-up. Not quite, the picture almost did. You're correct in the out-come of the morass we call the Federal Gov't. I'm looking down at the bottom there is one horseman clothed in dollar bills called Financial Collapse; the Second Horseman is looks like emaciated Corpse called Starvation; the third horseman is in tattered clothes called Unemployed and the last Horseman with a bullet holed helmet, blood streaming from it's eyes with strips of flesh hanging from it frame and an AK in one hand and an AR in it's other, that one is called Civil War.
So, the bottm of the the barrel is not a pretty site if the citizens of this country don't take their blinders off; the cotton out of their ears, and the gags out of their mouths they will be confronting the Horseman.

the civil war is on in the republican party...it is a purge that can result in the cleansing of conservative fascist/socialists and a renewed party of pro-freedom/liberty capitalists...otherwise we slide into the fascist state...

Thanks...I've been trying NOT TO VOMIT!...I use a cleansing technique instead.

The problem is there is so very little understanding of freedom or what America is that is important and largely lost that the no one being spared will mean the sacking of our best and brightest and most astute.

We either need a full on revolution or for all of us relatively sane ones to get the hell out of Dodge and establish a new nation.

"Establishment"
What is the most over used word of the 2016 campaign for President?

The analogy is on the money. Right out of Jekyll and Hyde. That novel remains popular because it reflects what you have updated, and brought into the current understanding of a once noble endeavor. The big difference is that fewer and fewer of us are recognizing how even upchucking isn't enough to cure the problem, as the trips to the sleazy bar continue, blind to even the demonstrable consequences. In the days of yore, when I was a 'teen, the girls being too refined to say "vomit" when hearing something disgusting would giggle and say, "Hasten, Jason, fetch the basin."

For Pete's sake, America's 'throw-up' time
has come and gone.