It is terrible when you have over seven hundred channels on cable and you get hooked into a panel discussion. State politicians going on about hospital care. The one politician stood up to declare that “the costs are outrageous and this is where government has to step in and help those in need.” On face value it sounded right and moral, until I thought long and hard about the words,” government must step in.” Aren’t we the government? Did anyone ask me, when I had to have the bone shards in my elbow removed from an armed mugging that shattered it, if I wanted to have my insurance company pay the surcharge for someone else who does not have insurance? It would seem to me that between the surcharge and state grants for hospitals we have created a state that Nikita Krushev would be proud to call his own. He did not need to bury us we dug our own hole. We lost the revolution our founding fathers fought and died for. We no longer have the the kings but we have our own dynasties of Rockefellers, Kennedy’s, Bush’s and now the Clinton’s. We have gained one thing at least. We now have taxation with representation. The cheap politician of the Tammany Hall days, with their nickel cigars and a drink to get a vote has been replaced by cheap politicians that use our money to get reelected repeatedly while they drink single malt scotch and smoke Cuban Cohibas. I did not get a shot of whisky or a puff on a cheap cigar. I just got the bill.

I reviewed the New Jersey state constitution. No where in there talks about the ludicrous amount of property taxes we pay to educate the children. We have educators without certification making over $80,000 a year. No where in the constitution states that my insurance premium is there for someone that is not a relative to tap into and I cannot even claim a deduction. There is not a mention that someone that does not save a nickel is given a house without a downpayment because housing is too costly in this state. The governor must get a lot of laughs in his million dollar condo overlooking the Hudson river while having happy hour for the residents. The constitution clearly states the role of government. Our state laws do not resemble the original intent of the constitution. Volumes of laws have been tacked on as responses instead of well considered judgements. No wonder the politicians got rid of Judge Bork whose only sin was to state that he believed in the literal words of the constitution not the reinterpreted words that gave us the mess we have today. Imagine allowing the rabble to vote on constitutional amendments to define our country instead of back room meetings and long lunches of our elected officials. I think the Ten Commandments are the real inconvenient truth and need total reinterpretation to fit our lifestyles today. We can probably get rid of nine of them, maybe just keep thou shall not kill unless it is a war.

People what are we doing to ourselves? Is our collective guilt destroying our country? In a country that supposedly accomplishes its agenda on the basis that majority rules we certainly twisted that up to suit some politicians election ambitions. When does the majority become the minority? What happens when the majority decides to join the minority? Do we get Canada to pay for everything?

This so reminds me when I took a tour of Admiral Nelson’s flag ship, the winner of the battle between England and the Spanish armada. On the tour below decks our tour guide pointed out the punishment area. Someone that had broken a rule would be have his legs strapped between two cannons. It was there that the prisoner would be forced to weave his own cat o’ nine tails and present it to the bosun’s mate. If the bosun accepted the whip then the prisoner would be beat with it, if not he had to go and reweave it again. Somehow I am beginning to feel like that prisoner with the bosun refusing my efforts. “Give us more, mate.”  How did we become trapped in a country that is partially communist and partially capitalist with the politicians as the biased referees? Too many questions and not enough answers, but here is a thought. Everyone should have the necessary amount of shelter, clothing, education, medical treatment but if you would like more go to school for your education, get a skill or a trade, work and pay for the extras yourself. One day they will unshackle my legs and I’ll take the whip and flog the bosun.