Posted 7:11 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

One year of

Friday's article marked the end of one year. 234 articles and a total of 75,970 readers. is securely ensconced in 6th place among Babelogue sites, with the "home" Babelogue page being one of those 6. Producing an average of 4 1/2 articles each week, on a wide variety of subjects, even with the much-appreciated help of others, is a load that was further complicated by having two PC's go belly-up during that time. My current PC, a secondhand gift, is old, not very fast, and requires daily tinkering.

I hope that among all those readers, I have reached many NON-libertarians, and have explained libertarianism in a way that will get them to seriously question the enormous downside to trying to effect change through government... that every "good" thing government attempts causes more destruction than good, and that promoting ideas in that way simply causes government to balloon in size and become still more inefficient, and corrupt. Power DOES corrupt, inevitably.

Posted 7:57 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

Getting out of debt

Thanks to easy credit, most of us have worked out way into significant debt at some time, then had to find a way to remedy that problem. The solution is pretty simple... spend no more than you make. If you want to make financial progress - accumulating a little wealth - the solution is just as simple... spend less than you make. Both require just a little discipline and common sense.

The one reaction to being too far in debt that never works is spending more, yet that is, almost without exception, the reaction that politicians have, especially at the federal level. Do they do the same personally? I really doubt it. Why then, do they consistently want to legislate still more spending, while our nation is in financial trouble?

I'll give you one very uncomfortable answer: Politicians don't give a damn about the financial solvency of the nation... only about their own. As long as they can line their own pockets nicely, prepare for their own future and the future of their families, the problem is unreal and insignificant to them. The real rub? A lot of voters feel the same way.

Posted 7:08 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

Where is all this shit going to lead us?

By "shit", I mean all of the insanity created since 9/11... The War on Terror, with the loss of American civil liberties in the name of security... The Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with more downsides than you can shake a stick at... and in general, the view of the U.S. by the rest of the world as a brutal empire-builder.

I think some lessons have been learned by the rest of the world:

1. Don't side with the U.S.
2. Don't trust the U.S. government.
3. There are no more "rules of war"; brutality is the new norm.

Can the rest of the world believe that Americans are still moral, peace-loving people? Unless citizens around the globe are smarter than we are, I doubt it. As I've said before, Americans are supposed to be free and democratic... in control of and responsible for our government. We elect them, and we can recall them, at least on paper. That, like it or not, makes us responsible for the actions of our government.

To those who view Americans as having a government of, by, and for the people, how can they separate us from the actions of our government... especially when so many Americans ignore or even still blindly and stubbornly support those actions?

Our government has made us "fair game" for hatred, distrust, and retailiation. We have no reason to be surprised, or indignant, if some of those chickens come home to roost.