Have we become what we once feared?????

There is nothing like time on your hands from retirement and a night spent in the ICU for a medical issue to cause one to reflect on life and the world in which one lives. The question that I find myself fixated upon is "Have we become the nation that we once opposed?"

George Washington warned us about foreign entanglements. No one listened, then or now. Quick, name an actual significant accomplishment of the United Nations. We don't even need to waste our time with that.

Let's start at home. Have you read the Declaration of Independence recently? I suggest that you do this. Pay particular attention to the list of grievances against the King. Have we not just replaced the king with a massive, "elected" government?

People tell me that the Civil War was fought to "set men free" and to end slavery. Today, the issue is called  "human trafficking". People are bringing illegal immigrants here so that they can work for less than our citizens. Is this not slavery in a 21st Century form??

Thanks to the poorly named "Patriot Act", we have secret courts in our country. Is this in keeping with the ideas of the Declaration of Independence or The Constitution? We used to attack the USSR and other Communist countries for having courts like these. Now we do it.

The United States Senate just passed a resolution condemning Saudi Arabia for killing a Saudi journalist. Please direct me to the Senate resolution about those Branch Davidians who died at Waco at the hands of the FBI and the ATF.

The government monitors communications of our citizens and of people around the world. We have a "black budget" in our federal government spending. We aren't told what they are spending it on or even how much it actually is. At the end of the day, we are sending our money to Washington so that they can spy on us. Is the FBI the old KGB?

We have a federal judiciary system that invents laws and rights. They cannot understand the Second Amendment, yet they found the right to abortions and gay marriage somewhere in the Constitution. What happened to the Bill of Rights?  People keep talking about term limits on elected officials, how about term limits on federal judges?

We brag about giving everyone the freedom of speech. That only works if you agree with the trending opinions. Try speaking out against the "cause du jour" and see what happens. If you oppose any of the liberal agenda, you will not be heard. Conservative speakers and programs are banned from many schools and events. I don't recall Hitler giving Jews and others equal time on the radio.

People have their property taken to build shopping malls, sports arenas, stadiums, and casinos. I don't believe that any of these promote the "general welfare". This is especially true when the government takes it to sell to a business for commercial use. This simply isn't the same as building a highway.

In the Roman Empire they used sporting events to keep the population entertained. Today we have the NFL, the NBA, college sports and other swill to keep the masses distracted from the real issues. People who don't know the name of the Vice-President of the United States can name every player on a basketball team.

Those who favor socialism like to quote numbers that give the huge difference in pay between corporate CEOs and their factory workers. Why don't they compare the salary of an athlete to the pay of the hot dog vendor working in the stands?

No politician has ever said that they are in government for the money. Why do so many of these same politicians leave Washington richer than we they arrived? How does this happen? Is this not the same as the ruling class in the old Soviet Union?

"Born Free, Taxed to death". Do we really even need to discuss this one? In the People's Republic of California, they want to impose a tax on text messages. They claim that this money will be used to enable poor people to text. If you believe this, Barnum was right.

Politicians take money from us in taxes to buy the votes of those who cannot or do not earn enough money to have the same things. This is how they stay in office. We have created a permanent underclass with government social programs.

I will wrap up this lengthy rant with this quote from the Declaration of Independence.

"He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance."