The Commissars of the Federal Government are not serious about providing healthcare. They are on the other hand, serious about controlling the health insurance industry. The difference is important and should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention.
Government is about control. Healthcare, accounting for 1/7th of the United State’s economy represents a lot of control. If anyone is helped along the way, it’s usually an accident.
Voluntarily giving up power is such a rarity, we name cities after those who do. Such men make independence and liberty possible.
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (519 – 43o BC) was a Roman Senator who wanted to retire from public life. But the Roman people wouldn’t let him. So he came up with a plan. He ran for Consul, the highest office in the Roman Republic. This was a one-year, term-limited position. Cincinnatus was elected easily, and served out his year. At the end of his term, he retires to his estate, and manages his farm in the Patrician tradition.
Cincinnatus would have otherwise been a mere footnote in history. However, the Aequians, a tribe to the northwest of Rome, declared war on the Republic in 457 BC.
I enjoy car trips with my wife. To be candid, she’s good company. Now, do I wish she would take the wheel once in a while? Of course, I do. But for the last 30 years, the pay-off has been huge.
We get to the hotel. I unload the car, piling the contents onto the luggage cart. The family helps as much as they can but mostly get in the way. I push the cart into the lobby. One of the kids, usually the boy, wants to come with me to park the car. The wife steps forward to restrain him. I raise my hand, palm out. Let him come with me.
The Christensen Men. Why must they grow up?
We exit the hotel, leaving the girls to check in. When we come back to the lobby, usually she has the key-cards in hand. I take them both, look at the room number and hand her back one of the cards. Let’s go.
I’m slightly irritated. It’s been a long drive. The kids behave pretty well through the hallways and in the lobby. The boy does have a rambunctious second or two. She catches the eye of the offending party, ‘not now.’ Continue reading
Cadet Summer Training, the annual capstone event for the Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (ROTC) is the largest training event on the U.S. Army’s calendar. This year, over 5,000 Millennials will descend on Fort Knox, straining the logistical limits of the U.S. Army Cadet Command, an organization who’s complexity rivals that of a Fortune 100 company.
The ROTC officially began with the National Defense Act of 1916. Civilian universities featured military education programs since the early 19th century. The National Defense standardized the various programs. Continue reading
For the past few weeks, I’ve been knee-deep doing my part as a very-functional cog in the machinery of what is billed as the “largest annual training event in the U.S. Army.” To no one’s surprise, Fort Knox is right where I left it last year. ROTC Cadet Summer Training doesn’t leave much time to come up for air, but you make time for one’s priorities.
No, my twitter account has not been hacked, but some “Nigerian prince” has been using my profile photo. My thanks to those who alerted me. I in turn have alerted Twitter, and hopefully that will be enough. Continue reading
The Zombie Apocalypse – during my 2nd Afghanistan tour, my son introduced his mother to AMC’s The Walking Dead. Upon my return, I too received an introduction to the program.
Nothing is so fractious as the right side of the political spectrum in victory. So, what do you think? Is Jeanine Pirro right? Does Paul Ryan have to go and step down as Speaker of the House? Continue reading
What is Equilibrium? It’s more than balance, though balance plays it’s part. Equilibrium is the law. It’s the universal distribution of Matter and Energy, bound by the fact that neither can be destroyed, only changed in form.
Meet Auggie. 
Auggie just got here, and you’ve probably already guessed that he made points just for showing up. Auggie will exhale about 686,200,000 times over 80 the next years. That’s a lot of nitrogen and oxygen converted to carbon dioxide.
Alex: Because it’s small enough not to impact one’s life style, yet just big enough for one to miss it. Contestant: Why did God pick 10%? Alex: Correct!
The metric of 10% – the tithe – has been around for a while. Intuitively, we all know it’s the way to go. It’s time to apply this standard to our secular governments. And for good reason. When the leviathan assumes an endless pool of resources from which it can draw, then, it has no incentive to prioritize. Continue reading
Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis, known to history has Cato The Younger, lay awake in the pre-dawn hours. The legions of Julius Caesar, flushed with victories over the armies of Pompey, Ptolemy XIII, and Metellus Scipi bore down on the African provincial city of Utica. The civil war which had torn the Roman Republic apart was rapidly drawing to a close.
The contrast could not be more stark.
The trail behind me is littered with failure. We’ll see about the trail before me.
