$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

Lies for Mass Consumption #1: "I vote for the candidate, not the party."

"Swing Voters" swing toward
Special Interest Money

Special Interest Money + Independent Voter = No Candidate Accountability

     Previous to the now overwhelming influence of corrupting special-interest campaign contributions, the strongest accountability available to political office holders was that of their party: Democrat or Republican.  Candidate's needed to get their party's endorsement to receive needed funds to successfully run for office.  This endorsement was only given if the candidate held to his party's basic platform while in office.

        It is no longer necessary for candidates to secure the trust of their party to get the massive amounts of money necessary to successfully run for office.  In fact it is now necessary for candidates to secure this special interest money because their opposition will.  Special interest have up'ed the financial ante in political campaigns and run quite a show indeed.

Special Interest Money: Death by A Thousand Small Cuts

          Special interest money is concerned with getting favorable treatment from their candidate on narrow issues important to them, i.e. their organization's tax breaks, government contracts, regulatory influence, etc. ...  They could not care less about smaller government, less taxes or any issue typically motivating voters.  They can, however, finance the sophisticated sophistry now necessary to make voters think they do.

Special Interest Growth Corresponds
to Growth of the Independent Voter

          A necessary, but insufficient, condition of restoring accountability to politicians is for voters to wake up and realize strict party affiliation for themselves and their choice of candidates needs restoration!  Because today's politician is free from his party's requirement to "tow the party line," government is now the unaccountable, ambiguous, free-for-all it is today.  All this is not possible without the help of well-intentioned yet misinformed "independently-minded" voters.

Independent Voters, Wake Up!

         Do you or someone you know claim to "vote for the candidate, not the party"?  Are you, or they, registered Independent?  I understand your naive sense of disfranchisement and frustration with our current political situation.  Indeed this naivete is evidence of your superiority over the mass of US "citizens" that punch their vote in like the Pavlov's dogs salivate for treats, or for government handouts.   Nevertheless, you are a major reason for our government's "inability" to effect the change you seek.  The idea of voting for the individual candidate instead of for strong party affiliation is a chimera of the special interests.  It is a monster made from the eclectic, and most hideous parts of the people really running this pathetic show we call government: The Special Interest Group.

CALL TO ARMS

            For this reason, and many others, I will continue calling for the establishment of a neo-traditional (non-racist) conservatism to restore the respect, intellectual integrity and decency of the now broken and humiliated Republican Party.

Neotraditional conservatives will have to be sure of their historical foundations, courageously endure flak from "both" sides, and be versed in the true origins of conservatism, not this Mickey Mouse version they've been handed.  Are you up to the challenge?  It’s only our entire country at stake.

Sincerely,

Lawrence A. Feriozzi

Good Friday, Sackcloth & Ashes, & An Open Apology

Repentance is good for the soul, just don't take it too far,

 you might kill yourself.

I think I need to publicly repent.  The tone of previous posts are sanctimonious and condescending, I urge you to read them and judge for yourself.  I was wrong for this, I apologize.  Oh well, I'm human, enough said.

It is difficult to contain myself on these issues I have been so well-acquainted with for so long.  From my earliest memories of Reagan beating Carter in 1980.  What a grander, simpler time.  I loved that Styrofoam red, white, and blue hat my older brother stole and broke in two.  I miss my simple days of proud Republican affiliation without conditions.  Oh well, neoconservatives are humans too, I forgive you.  I just don't think you should have power anymore.

Today is much more important than politics, even since politics became necessary during the start of human beings first use of agriculture, trade, and wealth began 6,000-9,000 years ago.  Politics, as dirty, corrupt, and unjust as it has always been, was much better than the alternative form of settling who's in charge; killing opponents and full-scale war.

Today is about the human race having the option to be spiritual instead of just an animal.  The greatest among this planet have been misunderstood as the evil in their time, but did what is right anyway.  This shuts my mouth.  Do I have the internal strength of character to do what's right in the face of being misunderstood as the problem by those I most care about saving?

Humbly,
Lawrence A. Feriozzi

The Coming Inflationary Crisis: Republican Neoconservatives Responsible!

                Oh, yeah, I've heard “smaller government” sentiments continuously from establishment Republicans for years, so why the crippling debt?  Why the growth in government during your watch?

                I can already hear your response my misguided neoconservative friend who thinks he has not been brainwashed by the last 17 years: "It’s the Democrats’ fault!"  Really?  Which of the two parties should be expected to fight for smaller government and fiscal responsibility?   The Democrats are the historical spendthrifts, of course they will try to spend more and make government bigger.  It falls exclusively to the Republicans to keep them in line.  So either the ruling neoconservatives Republicans have provided a completely incompetent and ineffective opposition, or they have more in common with Lenin than with Burke.  Former neoconservative intellectual Francis Fukuyama recently wrote that neoconservatives,

“…believed that history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will. Leninism was a tragedy in its Bolshevik version, and it has returned as farce when practiced by the United States. Neoconservatism, as both a political symbol and a body of thought, has evolved into something I can no longer support."

                Facts are, while their main agenda is the promotion of their ideals worldwide, preemptively if possible, on the domestic side neoconservative are (a) more comfortable with efficient government then with less government, and (b) more relaxed about deficit spending than being fiscally responsible. 

                Such is the reason I am set at odds with the majority of "conservatives" misguided by the now neoconservative establishment.  The prepackaged absolutist sophistry from their sacrosanct, sanctimonious, self-appointed, simpleton leaders like Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and Rush make me want to gag and puke.   

              Worse is the Media's association of neoconservatives' utter failure with real conservative's practical time-tested ideas.  They have allowed the media to once again say, with such honest socialistic concern,  “Is capitalism outdated?  Blah, blah, blah.  Watch the CNN special tonight. Blah, blah.”  I don’t like to gag or puke so I’ve stopped watching or listening to both the absolutist and the socialist.

                Before our country gets any better politically, there must be a practical alternative to the bankrupt neoconservative agenda.  I am calling for the establishment of the best viable political values the world has to offer; that of a neo-traditional (non-racist) conservatism to restore the respect, intellectual integrity and decency of the now broken and humiliated Republican Party.

Neotraditional conservatives will have to be sure of their historical foundations, courageously endure flak from "both" sides, and be versed in the true origins of conservatism, not this Mickey Mouse version they've been handed.  Are you up to the challenge?  It’s only our entire country at stake.

Sincerely,

Lawrence A. Feriozzi