$300 Billion Mexican Drug Cartel v. An Unarmed Citizenry

1st Law needing restoration in Mexico is the people's Right to Bear Arms

While the Mexican Constitution gave citizens the right to bear arms in 1917, nevertheless since the mid 90's the government has made it impossible for a civilized citizen to arm themselves.  Result being no real opposition against the $300 billion illegal drug industry and the corrupt police they purchase.

Give the law abiding Mexican citizen a chance!  Restore their right to keep and bear arms!

Sincerely,
Lawrence Feriozzi

Book Review--Power and Constraint: The Accountable Presidency After 9/11

      This is an important, rare book of substance.  So if this book is correct, I have to change a lot of my cynical views about the presidency. 

     Basically the idea of this book is that the presidency itself is more constrained/balanced by a much more active opposition, in several areas. 

1. Congress farms out opposition through special prosecutors and human rights groups by default.  
2. The judiciary reviews the president's actions as never before and corrects what it sees as abuses, i.e. Guantanamo.  
3. Bloggers and the interconnected digital world are breaking critical abuses as the new muckrakers of the media, i.e. Abu Ghraib.  

     This is why little changes from president to president.  Essentially, Madison ideas about balance of power are still active through creating new powers to balance the growth of presidential powers.  Seems to good to be true.  Hmmm....

Establishment Jack Goldsmith, Harvard & the Powers that be

  Out of my own curiosity, I created this outline to contextualize the possibilities of this book being another brilliant paradigm of the status quo;

         “Harvard” in this outline represents mainly people from Harvard, and other leading disseminators of the most influential ideas in society.

1. Harvard presents arguments better reasoned and more articulate than other universities, groups or individuals.
1. They essentially have a monopoly of the best coherence, believability and concision
1. They typically support status quo views by advancing their discipline (They are the status quo which everyone else follows)
1. Supportive universities, groups and individuals
1. Follow unquestioned; always playing catch-up, (They never look to discover alternative explanations which may be very different)
2. Follow, but with a belief of Harvard’s benign dominance (Take seriously the most important duty, i.e. Will Durant,  passing on the heritage that makes us the advanced homo sapiens we are today: our education/culture 
1.  Unsupportive universities, groups and individuals
1. Oppose Harvard and their status quo view because of envy-“sour grapes”
1. Oppose because in good faith believe Harvard malignantly protects essentially their power over society—essentially their society
1. Thoughtful conspiracy theorist who are correct
2. Thoughtful conspiracy theorist who are incorrect 

I am mixed, 80% I follow Harvard's benign dominance theory, 20% conspiracy...but there is no way to tell if I am correct or incorrect?  I'm not smart enough.

Sincerely,
Lawrence Feriozzi

Ayn Rand, Chomsky & Everywhere In Between

So many of the best economic and political books today are either great articulations of a one-sided ideology or would make a nice magazine article.  In our political and economic life, anyone can say anything.  Words are cheap and often add to the confusion.  Honesty with ourselves reveals the truth is never the exclusive product or possession of any one person, group, or ideology.

However, there are some actions we could make our government take now, that perhaps most will agree with;

• Act on the will of individual citizens.
• More influence for actual people and less for entities which now disproportionately influence the system.
• Squarely correct your financial irresponsibilities.
• Provide cool-headed, civil arguments in the public arena where more than just the "two" establishment opinions are expressed.

Looking deeper into political and economic abyss has motivated removal of my long-standing American flag aside my desk.  I have always been proud to be a US citizen.  I have put the flag in my desk drawer.

Sincerely,
Lawrence Feriozzi

Occupy Wall Street, The Tea Party and regular people: UNITE!

I'm not mad anymore.  I have been in deep study and reassessment of the issues from many perspectives.  I concluded that I am one of the "Regular People" who don't seem to have a movement or a voice in today's world.  I am a practical and moderate Republican who believes in simple common sense.



Banks that are too big to fail, are too big to exist. Just think about it.  Capitalism is the best economic system there is.  But we have gone from "survival of the fittest to survival of the fattest."

I have come to cool-headed terms with this idea.  The only reason they still do exist is because of the inordinate power they wield in Washington.  So it's time for the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street and all the more moderate people like myself to unite around something that will make our abused and leveraged system a little more like the rest of us "Regular People."

In all sincerity,
Lawrence Feriozzi