In one of the stories he tells, he had to borrow $3000 from his father in law to pay a drug dealer. This is enough money to buy at least 20 grams of crack. Simple possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine carries a mandatory FEDERAL sentence of 5 years. So Josh Hamilton should be serving a 20 year prison sentence now instead of telling his victory story of overcoming addiction, finding Christ, and pummeling baseballs.

I’m thinking the $3000 was not for 20 grams of crack. Drug dealers aren’t known for keeping firm prices. They are more likely to charge the highest price the user is able to pay (kinda like credit card companies). Besides, the initial amount very well could have been rather small but interest racked up quickly (again, kinda like a credit card company).

I love Josh Hamilton. I’m flying to Dallas next week to watch the Phillies series. I own two of his Jerseys. He was in high school in Raleigh when I was in college at Chapel Hill.

I hate paying taxes (both real and in terms of lost dollar value) to support programs designed to address issues rather than deal with problems.

I love freedom. The Constitution was put in place to limit the federal government’s power and protect that freedom. When they ignore it, they put the very thing that makes America great-not our “moral foundation”-our Freedom at risk.

I am an American. And while the only Americans seemingly affected by nonsensical policies like the war on drugs are “bad people” now, we will soon be paying the toll for all of these idiotic government decisions that have been made without the consent of the governed unless people start saying something about it. I have gone from a family who earns $30,000 to someone who pays more than that in taxes by using my freedom fully. I’m not okay with having that freedom taken from me or you, and if you won’t say something about it for you, then I will.

Josh Hamilton definitely shouldn’t be in prison. If he hadn’t used drugs, he’d probably be on his way to Cooperstown. But he did use drugs that shouldn’t even be available if the war on drugs actually worked. But it doesn’t. And neither do 99% of the policies that Washington comes up with to save us from the evil of the day.

However, Hambone took responsibility for his decisions and turned his life around-had he been caught with all of that crack and put in jail because he was such a “danger to society”-he wouldn’t have had that option.

It wasn’t the most eloquent article I’ve written, but you need to read the whole thing and some more of the stuff I’ve written to really get it.

Are you really okay with your government using your money to go after Roger Clemens because he refused to incriminate himself (a 5th Amendment right) in front of Congress when he was testifying to your employees (your government reps are YOUR employees-you pay their salaries) about something the Constitution in no way authorizes them to get involved with to begin with?

By the way, if you missed it in the article, steroids became illegal in 1990 as a reaction to Ben Johnson winning the gold medal at the Olympics. It seemed like a good idea at the time to “protect the integrity of the games and the health of the athletes” but now those same laws are being used to justify spending millions of taxpayer dollars to deliberately go after otherwise very productive American Citizens and rob them of their freedom. The lesson isn’t “If you do steroids, you ruin your life.” The lesson is, “No matter how much money you have, don’t mess with the federal government or you are screwed.”

This has just gone too far. I’m not okay with it. I was overly dramatic for effect. I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear enough in my writing, after watching Josh Hamilton videos all night, I just felt like writing.

Let me explain the Obama/McCain thing. I used those references for a couple of reasons. First, the race thing carried on the theme from the very beginning of the article about Obama’s preacher. The point I was making, and it was a subtle point couched in strong language to create a reaction (unfortunately, it may have clouded the point), is that Americans are more concerned about what Barack Obama’s pastor said than they are about the only thing they should be concerned about-how well will the President do his job? What’s the job he swears in to do on inauguration day? “I swear (or affirm) that I will execute the office of President of the United States, and to the best of my ability Preserve, Protect, and Defend the Constitution of the United States of America.” Because we’re so caught up in being on the “winning team” we discuss soap opera stories (like race) to give us an inclination about who’s going to win that we don’t discuss things that really matter-like how our freedom is slowly being eroded us make us (the sheeple I should say) safe (from ppl like Josh Hamilton-you know, evil drug dealers and users or terrorists.) When people like Obama talk about healthcare or grand plans, very few people ever ask, “What in the Constitution that he swears to defend would actually allow him to follow through on this plan?” Article 1 Section 8 is very clear on what the government can do. The 10th Amendment makes it even more clear that not only can they do certain things the people have empowered them to do-they Can’t do anything that is specifically stated. I’ve written several articles on this that are worth reading.

The McCain “white flag of surrender” comment was about all of the primary debates I’m sure few people watched (but since the site where I write is more politically leaning, most regular readers would have gotten the reference). McCain constantly used this line when discussing why we would stay in Iraq for 100 years if we had to be there in order to “Win the War on Terror” and thus ties in to the idea of fighting another unwinnable war to keep us safe from an ideology, even if it means destroying America in the Process. The war on drugs sounds good, but how do you fight a war on a chemical substance? It’s a war on people and civil liberties. The war on terror is the same thing. You can’t kill “terror.” You can kill a lot of terrorists, but just like drug dealers, more pop up. Mainly because we are over there killing people in Islamic countries. If you are thinking, “You are such an unpatriotic bastard—blaming America for 9/11” you couldn’t be further from the truth and may want to consider why it is that’s the thought that automatically pops into your head. Just for the record I voted for Bush twice. It wasn’t until last October I woke up from the political game and started educating myself. The internet is the last great unregulated bastion of information, but you can be sure that by writing stuff like I do there is a tag on my ip address at Homeland Security and your site is being monitored as I write. If I’m declared an “enemy combatant” for using my 1st Amendment right to address grievances with my government, I could be stuck in Gitmo without charges and with no hope of being released. How is this possible? Because we are at war with “Terror” and my God-given, Constitutionally protected 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendment rights have to be “balanced” with giving the government the power it needs to hunt down these “evildoers” and keep me safe (i.e. make me pay to stand in long lines, confiscate my water and toothpaste, and miss my flights).

I’m blaming the government, not America. I love America. And I can’t sit idly by and watch America (and our God given, Constitutionally protected freedom) be destroyed in the name of fighting an ideal that is only strengthened by our actions which are financed with the people’s income and in our name but without our consent (it’s not a coincidence that we have neither formally declared nor won a war since WWII—if you want to see what a real war declaration looks like, google WWII war declaration vs Germany, Italy, or Japan).

You nor I (unless you’re a cabinet official or something) have never once made a decision to place bases in Saudi Arabia (one of the biggest things Bin Laden was pissed about—you can find this on the White House website). We’ve never decided to round up American Citizens and place them in Prisons without the right of Habeus Corpus without warrants simply because the Executive Branch deemed them “enemy combatants.”

We are playing right into the hands of our enemies, and Americans sit idly by and accept what the government controlled media tells them about the war and why we’re there like puppets instead of performing their 1st Amendment job of being a government watchdog. In the meantime, we’ve spent about $30,000 (and counting) per every man, woman, and child in America invading a country that had no ties to terrorists, posed no imminent threat to America (even if they had WMD’s, they had no way to get them here) and no hijackers from there on 9/11. Calling reexamining our foreign policy “waving the white flag of surrender” is akin to calling Josh Hamilton a “quitter” because he no longer uses drugs.

For brevity’s sake, the reason I bash Obama and McCain equally is that they are both involved with politics. The jabs at these guys was really a jab at the low-brow, infotainment based discussions U.S. Citizens have when discussing politics-and this is totally by design. Politics is about winning elections-which is obviously a very profitable business judging from the fact that people spend obscene amounts of money in order to be elected and the fact that the three wealthiest counties in the U.S. are the ones bordering D.C.

Politics is complicated. Government is Simple. Both are by design. Politics bore the hell out of me, it’s like watching a movie whose hook is a surprise ending for the 20th time. It was interesting the first time you saw it, but once you already know what’s going to happen, all entertainment value is lost and you realize that you’re just wasting a lot of time that you could be spending doing something more productive. I won’t get into it here, but if you actually care to learn more about how politics are destroying our country and why, go to nolanchart and read an article I wrote on the subject. It is titled something along the lines of “Voting Based on your Beliefs: the Worst Super Tuesday Mistake.” Then go read George Washington’s Farewell address (I’m in the process of rewriting it in modern, colloquial English). You seem smart, so if you can make it through it you’ll see that he warned about the rise of political parties coinciding with the destruction of freedom.

That’s where the “kook” thing regarding Ron Paul comes in. When someone actually comes along and discusses real issues, the major parties laugh him off the stage because if the people found out just how badly they’d been had, the parties would be in major trouble. It’s not the Republicans or the Democrats—it’s both and it’s easy to see if you can get past the propaganda you’ve heard for so long.

This Ron Paul “Revolution” thing isn’t about winning an election. It’s about taking America away from the 545 Federal Officials in Washington ( 536 elected, 9 appointed) who believe that simply winning a majority election or being appointed gives them the power to do whatever they want as long as its couched in terms of doing what’s “best for the country” and returning that power to the 300,000,000 individuals so they can decide for themselves what’s best for them. If they are wrong, it could mess up their lives. If the guys in DC are wrong, it could mess up millions (even if the mistake is well intentioned and based on the best information available at the time-which I personally believe to be the case with President Bush and the War on Terror since it’s based on the only ideology that was ready and waiting to explain the 9/11 attacks at a time the whole country was searching for answers-Neoconservativism. Most of what you believe about the War on Terror and its necessity are simply Neocon ideologies which have been repeated so often through the media they seem true: Our role as the sole superpower is to spread democracy because terrorists don’t grow in democracies; we have to fight them over there before they come over here; 9/11 was a result of our being too passive in the 90’s, the only language these people understand is force; etc.-it’s worth reading about Neocons if you get a chance-just wikipedia it.)

So basically, there are three options: 1. Socialism/Communism/Totalitarianism 2. A complete economic collapse (which actually precedes #1 as Marx predicted would be necessary before communism could actually work-it must be preceded by capitalism) or 3. The Revolution and Restoring the Republic. I choose #3, even if it means using the little time I have to write articles that seem like they’re bashing my favorite baseball player or the major party nominees for no good reason.

I hope you’ll join us. Feel free to email me if you’d like. strongarmedjohn@yahoo.com

I hope this answers your question.

I am well aware of the necessary and proper or “elastic clause” as it’s popularly known. I am also well aware of the bastardization of the commerce clause. All of these decisions expanded the power of the federal government to deal with some problem du jour without the consent of the governed (exactly as Washington warned might happen when he left office).

Do you really think it’s a coincidence the 10th Amendment is 10th? It’s the “we shouldn’t really even have to say this, but just to be absolutely perfectly clear about the role of the federal government we’re going to throw this in anyway” Amendment.

I’m not the most enlightened guy in the room. I’m an American. I can read. Why do you think the Constitution is such a simple document? It was created by the people for the people to protect us against exactly what is happening now—an overreaching federal government. Politicians have made it seem complicated so that people wouldn’t stand up for their rights.

I’m sorry you can’t see that and don’t seem to understand the purpose for which it was written. We can talk case law all day, but it’s counterproductive to the point. An undeclared war that’s costing us trillions, the upcoming boomer retirement, and the largest growth of the Fed Gov in history to keep me “safe” from a force that an unconstitutional foreign policy created is hardly a straw man.

Enjoy your day, I’ll leave you with a quote from Thomas Jefferson that perfectly explains our situation today and why people like you are content to do nothing about it because you think that a stare decisis argument is stronger than an original intent argument. Here’s your quote, I hope you understand it:

When all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all Power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated. If we run into such [government] debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow sufferers.—Thomas Jefferson

Brett,

I get how ridiculous this stuff sounds. I would have made fun of me too a year ago. A year ago I would have been caught up in issues and cheering for my team. I have built an incredibly successful sales organization using my freedom, and I am also very well educated. The difference between now and a year ago is the thousands of hours I’ve spent educating myself so that I could get past issues and actually see the root problems our country faces.

I’m sorry if my writing seemed like a personal attack towards you. It wasn’t intended that way, and I wrote it at the end of being up for nearly 40 hours.

If you feel like it, help me understand why the simplicity of the Constitution seems like such a quaint, childish notion to you.