Thanks and a farewell to my friends at the Newport Rifle Club

July 15, 2016

Dear Friends and Fellow NRC Members,

Forgive me for being sentimental, after all we gun-owners are supposed to be “insensitive gun-totting rednecks” devoid of emotion, compassion and morality, right? But, today I wish to break rank and express my sincere thanks for the wonderful gift and the outpouring of good wishes that you had so graciously bestowed upon my family and I. It is truly humbling.

While I appreciate the complements for fighting attacks on our liberty, I was certainly not alone in this effort. In fact I remain grateful to so many who continue this important fight such as Bill Welsh, Tom Frank and many others.

The truth is, it is I who was the greatest beneficiary of my association with all of you because it’s been an honor and a privilege to have known some of the most wonderful people I’ve ever met during my time with the Newport Rifle Club.

After 30 years in Rhode Island, we will miss our friends at the NRC and our “home state,” but we leave with the greatest gift of all, the recognition of our piers and the knowledge that our time here mattered albeit modestly.

Sincerely,

Dexter Liu

Driven away by R.I. politics

Rhode Island has been home for 30 years. I’ve enjoyed working in Newport, raising a family in Portsmouth and being part of the Aquidneck Island community. Our roots run deep here, so the decision to move to North Carolina is terribly bittersweet. We’ll miss friends and favorite haunts, but alas, it’s farewell, Rhode Island.

I ran successful businesses for nearly two decades while my wife worked for Hasbro. We worked hard and played by the rules. Yet our return on a 30-year Rhode Island investment is higher taxes, crumbling roads, and free entitlements for illegal immigrants while fellow citizens struggle with an economy on life support.

The chronic indifference of politicians, despite our protests, is infuriating. Like many, I’m tired of supporting a system that doesn’t advance the interest of its citizens. With the adoption of RhodeMap RI and RhodeWorks, the message is clear — our rights and interests matter little to Smith Hill.

Too many graduate from college only to leave the state because of a lack of opportunity. Many who stay work in restaurants or grocery stores. My son graduates from high school this year; we refuse to let him face a similar fate. Rhode Island’s problems aren’t that insurmountable. What stands in our way is the absence of public leadership that genuinely has our interest at heart. Forgive the sarcasm, but if we put the “I know a guy” tradition on ice, Rhode Island would improve immeasurably!

The solutions are obvious. We know how to create jobs. Businesses and entrepreneurs are the engine of the economy, and its fuel is investment capital. Government’s role is to create a pro-business environment where the business powered by capital drives the economy. Businesses require human capital, and voila, that creates jobs!

So where’s the real job creation? RhodeMap RI is a sham. Does anyone believe the federal government that gave us a near $20 trillion debt is the answer? Is its policy “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” the panacea for our economy? Our leaders seem to think so. Now they’re borrowing more federal money for RhodeWorks, which they say will create jobs and fix the state. Really? What we’ll get is more enormous debt service!

Narragansett Bay is among the best seaports on the East Coast. We have highways, rail systems and airports ideally situated for domestic and international commerce. Flanked by major financial centers from Boston to Hartford and New York, we also have access to the best universities to build the most talented and educated workforce plus a highly skilled labor force. Rhode Island has industries and technology centers within an easy commute and offers some of the best quality of life of any coastal community on Earth. Given the state’s assets, have you ever wondered why corporations with deep pockets choose not to invest here?

Here’s one reason. No one appreciates being labeled “greedy profiteers,” least of all investors. Yet our politics perpetuate the narrative: corporations and business owners are charlatans whose profits are built on the backs of the working class. Thus we must extract a pound of flesh from them to spread the wealth around, and government is the fair arbiter of economic justice.

Sound familiar? The trouble is that this produces destructive policies that keep holding us back. This divisive political rhetoric isn’t only antithetical to American values, it also obliterates ambition and achievement — a curse on productivity. You’re rewarded with higher taxes and lower returns for hard work. So who are the real charlatans?

Sadly, the politics of envy and lack of competent leadership remain the bane of Rhode Island’s “economic recovery,” so generations continue to suffer. The blame, however, isn’t Smith Hill’s alone. After all, voters keep supporting the status quo.

For the sake of future generations, Rhode Islanders must reject cronyism and destructive big government progressive policies that repeatedly undermine the enormous potential of the Ocean State. This November, take your government back. It’s time to fire up the free-market engine again! It can be done!

Hope springs eternal, after all. And “Hope” is the state motto, is it not?

Providence Journal: Posted Mar. 12, 2016 at 2:01 AM
http://www.providencejournal.com/opinion/20160312/dexter-liu-driven-away-by-ri-politics#dexter-liu-driven-away-by-ri-politics/?Start=1&_suid=14580517346090584640050092551

The 2nd Amendment Debate

Firearms and the 2nd AmendmentLiberty Project Presentation(FINAL)

A. Guns Facts

100 million Americans legally own and use firearms responsibly. Estimates suggest more than 300 million firearms are privately owned in America today. Approximately 2.5 million cases on average are reported each year where lawfully armed citizens save lives and foil crimes(1). By contrast, 30 thousand firearms related deaths in America are reported each year, of which 11 thousand of these are homicides and the balance are suicides or accidental shootings(2). The Federal Government also reports that the vast majority of the firearm-homicides occur in inner-city urban America where the strictest gun-laws in the country exist. The government has identified the principle causes of firearm-homicides: high recidivism rate, drug trafficking, inner-city drug cartel infiltration and urban street gang-violence(2). From 1980 to 2012, the victims of mass murders in schools compiled over 32 years including Columbine, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook, total 297(3). “The Gun Free School Zone Act,” a Federal gun-ban was enacted in 1994. Sandy Hook was also under the 1993 Connecticut “Assault Weapons Ban.”

B. Gun Politics

The politics surrounding firearms in America is divisive and dishonest. The debate is nearly always about the “gun,” with far less attention paid to how best to stop criminal-violence or even the failures in mental health care. This debate has been driven by a political agenda that advocates for more restrictions of guns and gun ownership in America but is not dedicated to eradicating criminal behavior. Sadly the rhetorical attacks on lawful gun owners seem to intentionally blur the distinction between criminals and law-abiding citizens despite the fact one third of the citizens of the United States own firearms legally and use them responsibly. When evaluating the statistics surrounding firearms use compared to deaths due to firearms, you quickly see the enormous disparity between the safety records of the overwhelming number of lawful gun owners and lives saved verses the much fewer gun deaths due to criminal or irresponsible behavior. In the contentious gun control debate, we are always forced to accept more restrictive gun laws as an “obligation of society” due to the heinous acts of the very few even though these would infringe on the liberties of the overwhelming majority of responsible Americans. Over the decades the cry for gun control has spawned what is now an anti-gun activist industry. It is made up of numerous well organized and well funded political organizations like the Brady Campaign, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (now re-invented as Every Town for Gun Safety), Violence Policy Center, The Joyce Foundation, Freedom State Alliance, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Moms Demanding Action, Media Matters, Moveon.org, to name but a few. Locally in Rhode Island, there is the RI Coalition Against Gun Violence, the Institute For the Practice of Non violence and various chapters of national anti-gun groups. Although the National Rifle Association (NRA), the arch nemesis of the anti-gun coalition, has become the principle villain of the anti-gun industry, the organization is the oldest American institution dedicated to defending gun-rights and liberty. It was established following the Civil War in part to arm and train freed slaves to defend their lives and liberty against lingering pro-slavery factions. Today, with the exception of NRA-ILA which is the lobbying arm, the bulk of the NRA organization, is dedicated to education, promoting the shooting sports and teaching firearms safety. Other pro-gun groups such as the Gun Owners of America and the National Association for Gun Rights are organized as well and unlike their anti-gun opponents, direct their lobbying efforts primarily at the legislatures. There is a media bias against guns. It is rampant and dramatically one sided favoring gun control. The media doesn’t necessarily mislead intentionally, although there has been those cases, it is the deception by omission that much of the media is guilty of. Those in the media who hold an anti-gun bias down play or omit positive stories of lives saved by armed citizens but devote a grossly disproportionate amount of air time to stories like Sandy Hook or sensational and racially charged cases like Zimmerman vs. Martin (local media does a better job of reporting stories where armed citizens prevail). The practice of selective reporting is nothing new. A recent example is in the gross underreporting of the crimes of the knockout games and of black on white violence. Another tactic typical of the anti-gun industry is to present data out of context for dramatic effect. For example, they would proclaim: “more children have been murdered by guns in America than US soldiers killed in the Viet-Nam War” (80 thousand children vs. 50 thousand soldiers). What they don’t tell us is that this number was compiled over 35 years and the fact that, overwhelmingly, these children died in inner-city criminal-violence. The anti-gun coalition routinely exploits the deaths of children from what they call “gun-violence,” a term they created to implicitly suggest, “guns-equal-violence.” When you put actual data into context, however, the true picture emerges. For example, anti-gun activists would say, “guns in homes cause an unacceptably high rate of accidental deaths among children” but they provide no context or comparison to other much greater risks. In 2010, the CDC reported the annual number of deaths with children under the age of ten, 602 died of accidental drowning; 262 died by accidental home fires and 36 from accidental shootings. They would also say, “firearms deaths among children are higher than the rate of cancer deaths.” First of all, children have the least mortality rate due to cancer, so that statement is intended to mislead. Secondly, they ignore the deaths among children resulting from sports injuries which overwhelmingly overshadow those by firearms. For example, twice as many children die from football injuries alone than from firearms(8). The routine hyperbolic rhetoric intended to instill fear, coupled with half-truths and manipulation appears to be the anti-gun coalitions’ playbook of choice. In fact anti-gun groups employ professional marketing and public relations firms to create campaigns that implicitly shape public opinion by selling the notion that “guns are evil” (regardless of the user) and that they are deadly instruments to be feared, reviled and thus they must be targeted for restriction or be banned. It has been exposed that the anti-gun coalition has created just such a handbook, “Preventing Gun Violence Through Effective Messaging”(5) (produced by Bloomberg et al). It has been widely distributed nationally as a standard for the anti-gun industry to deliver a uniform and highly scripted message across America. This handbook stresses, among its many techniques and talking points, the need to never talk about the facts and the law, “Always focus on emotional and value-driven arguments about gun violence, not the political food fight in Washington or wonky statistics.”(4) You are to focus instead on the emotional message about the carnage that guns cause. The effects of years of anti-gun campaigns, has put “guns” on trial in the court of public opinion. This has resulted in America’s culture being transformed from a “John Wayne’s America” which believes in self-reliance and individual responsibility to a “Sean Penn’s America” which does not accept personal responsibility and one with contempt for the Constitutional freedoms of their fellow citizens. The cultural biases and dishonest discourse has manifested for example in the absurd and hyperbolic reactions of school officials when our children bite a Pop Tart into the shape of a pistol.

C. Gun Debate vs. Public Safety

The fact that the gun debate is disingenuous can be surmised by examining the numbers and the facts in their proper context comparing all issues relating to public safety. What the debate really ought to be about is saving lives. Perhaps the biggest victim in the entire gun debate is public safety. What we should be having is an honest and productive dialog about how we may optimize public safety and address the litany of issues that contribute to undermining the safety, peace and prosperity of our communities. Sadly the valuable “oxygen” continues to be consumed by the debate that targets only the gun. The government knows where the violence occurs overwhelmingly, and who’s doing the killing yet we are distracted from addressing the out of control recidivism rate (85% in Rhode Island(5)); reforming our criminal justice system; targeting the criminal drug trafficking and gang violence that hold our urban communities hostage; eradicating the desperate poverty that fuels criminal-violence; bringing hope and opportunity to families in those neighborhoods; enacting educational reform particularly for children in these communities; unshackling the healthcare professionals to address mental health concerns; and enforcing current laws already on the books. Unless we address all of those issues, debating gun control wastes valuable time, squanders our resources and continues to be a deadly distraction.

D. The Philosophical Divide

The anti-gun advocates want a utopian “violence-free” society and to them it must be “gun-free.” They view the lawful gun owners, sportsmen and women as being the obstacle to that utopia because of the American “gun culture” which must be dismantled. This is insulting because clearly all law-abiding citizens want safe communities. The trouble is the anti-gun coalition has hijacked the narrative and made the issue of violence in our society all about “guns.” Most Americans, however, do not share that point of view because they believe that in order to have a society where its citizens are free and our civil liberties preserved under the Constitution, the “violence-free society” is a fantasy and is utterly unattainable. The proof is in the failures of nations that have imposed all out gun bans like Great Britain and Australia(7). Their respective crime rates and violence with guns have soared instead. Conversely, in Switzerland, all citizens are mandated by law to possess firearms both for crime deterrence and for their national security. Not surprisingly, Switzerland has the lowest crime and murder rate in the world. Another point in the gun debate that is rarely discussed is the overt discrimination against lawful firearms owner and the willingness to infringe on their civil liberties. Let’s use for example the recent cases involving the random crimes of the knockout games where innocent victims have been killed from these vicious assaults. Of the cases reported, in most if not all of them, the attackers were young blacks ages 14 to 24. So, imagine calling for the passage of legislation that would restrict the civil-liberties of all black youths ages 14 to 24 based on the reprehensible acts of the very few. Of course that would be completely outrageous, but that is exactly what anti-gun proponents are pushing for when they target firearms and lawful gun owners. Despite the fact that overwhelmingly the majority of firearm owners are law-abiding, they overtly and openly call for the discriminatory and the unconstitutional restrictions of the rights of lawful citizens because of the criminal acts of the very few. Because the anti-gun establishment targets guns, they will never be satisfied until they ban all guns and that is why the war of words is so divisive and dishonest because they always hide their true intent. Responsible gun owners believe in personal responsibility (that goes beyond guns); they know firearms safety better than anyone because they live by the “safety is number one” golden rule. Their opponents do not believe lawfully armed citizens can be trusted and there in lies the rub! Anti-gun advocates believe we must “collectively” sacrifice our civil liberties to ensure a “violence-free society.” The truth is, they want lawful gun-owners to give up guns and civil-liberties so they could “feel” safer and be able to say they’re doing something about it. But that’s only an illusion because every time more gun laws pass they only burden law-abiding citizens and not the criminals. What’s worse than criminals not obeying laws, is the fact restrictions that burden law-abiding citizens actually has the opposite effect. Instead of protecting innocent people, gun-control empower the criminal. In fact, more gun-laws actually result in more deaths(6).The question that needs to be asked is: “Would you cut the antlers off a deer to protect him from a pack of attacking wolves?” Of course not! “Then what makes you think by disarming innocent citizens you could protect them from predatory violent criminals?” Why anti-gun proponents do not get the fact that criminals fear an armed citizen is absurd and utterly baffling unless there is a nefarious motive behind the agenda. The anti-gun establishment operates on the premise of a “collectivist” ideal where the “collective-welfare” supersedes the rights of the individual. The proof of that assertion is the Supreme Court ruling in the 2008 case: “District of Columbia v. Heller.” The court ruled against the plaintiff’s assertion that Heller’s right under the 2nd Amendment may be restricted because the government may effectively render the 2nd Amendment extinct. The plaintiff’s position suggests that the collective-welfare of the city superseded Heller’s individual right to keep and bear arms. The ruling reaffirmed a basic principles upon which the United States was founded, which is the rights of the individual must be protected against the will of the majority and that 2nd Amendment can not be rendered extinct based on policy or government edict because it is not a right “granted” by government. The Heller ruling exposed a philosophical divide between the belief that the US Constitution was intended to defend and preserve individual liberty verses those who aim to undermine those rights and reinterpret our founding document to permit the tyranny of the “collective.”

E. The Bill of Rights and RI Gun Laws

Unfortunately for the anti-gun industry there is a pesky document called the United State Constitution. The Bill of Rights has ten Amendments which were “codified” into and not “granted” by the US Constitution. That distinction is critically important to American liberty, because the Founders noted that the rights described in the Bill of Rights do not come from government but rather are granted by God. The Founders believed these are natural-rights every human being possess that pre-date America’s founding. That’s why these rights were “codified” into the Constitution and are not negotiable. Fast forward to the anti-gun debate today that suggest “restrictions of firearms are necessary adjustments because we live in a very different modern day America than when she was founded.” This argument is a ruse and a deliberate tactic to undermine the original intent of America’s founding document. Rhode Island’s own constitution is even more explicitly unequivocal about the rights of its citizens to keep and bear arms. Article I, Section 22 states: “Right to bear arms.~ The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” RI General Law 11-47-11 obligates the issuing authorities in each town and municipality to “shall” issue conceal and carry permits to citizens who apply for permits provided they are not felons or a threat to society. Sadly, this law is openly violated by the various towns and municipalities (notably the Exeter controversy) entirely due to a political bias against lawful carry of firearms for personal protection.

1 NW University Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Gary Kleck & Marc Gertz
2 CDC, FBI, USDOJ, NIJ
3 State.com (interactive chart of every school shooting)
4 Preventing Gun Violence Through Effective Messaging, O’Brien, OMP; Neffinger & Kohut, KNP; Quinlan, GQRR
5 Rhode Island Alliance for Safe Communities
6 Harvard study, “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?” Kates & Mauser
7 http://www.military.com/video/guns/small-arms/australias-gun-ban-not-working-so-well/1775480805001/
8 Frederick O. Mueller, Annual Survey of Football Injury Research: 1931-2001, Nat. Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research

Citizens are concerned about RhodeMap RI

Fellow Rhode Islanders: If you haven’t heard of RhodeMap RI, the so-called economic development plan, you’re in good company. Most elected officials are in the dark, as well!

Under the cover of election-year politics, the Rhode Island Division of Planning held two hearings, with virtually no public awareness, to adopt this massively transformative plan. If adopted tomorrow at a 9 a.m. meeting (at One Capitol Hill, the William E. Powers Building), RhodeMap RI could profoundly change life in Rhode Island — and not necessarily for the better.

In 2013, the General Assembly passed legislation for the Division of Planning to develop an economic plan to tackle our economic morass. The legislation was open-ended — that is, we had to begin the planning process so we could find out what’s in it.

The Division of Planning appointed a committee, assembled a “consortium,” and RhodeMap RI is the product. It was originally scheduled for a Nov. 20 adoption, but fortunately, some people who have been paying attention spoke up in loud protest. House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello stepped in to request a postponement so lawmakers could examine the plan in greater detail.

This, however, does not provide nearly enough time for a proper public vetting, especially because of the breadth and far-reaching impact of RhodeMap RI.

In a nutshell, RhodeMap RI is a Trojan horse, courtesy of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Transportation. If adopted, it would profoundly transform Rhode Island. The plan would advocate that towns and municipalities effectively abdicate their constitutional authority for self-determination, and be instead governed by federal bureaucratic fiat.

RhodeMap RI is not at all an economic development plan. It has no economic growth metrics or even a cost-benefit analysis. What we have is a “social-equity” scheme that seeks to control and redistribute wealth and all of the state’s resources by following HUD-EPA-DOT policies and guidelines. If the plan is followed, your duly elected local governments would lose their ability to act in your interest or that of your town.

Here’s an example of the consequence of a HUD mandate, a large component of RhodeMap RI. Current HUD policies are derived from the agency’s interpretation of an old federal law, the Fair Housing Act. It has evolved to the point that HUD has begun working to dismantle the single-family zoning model because, according to some advocates, most American suburban single-family homes are unsustainable and unaffordable to those with low incomes, so they are deemed to be unfair and even racist.

Therefore, past encouragement of single-family dwellings must make way for encouraging urban-style multi-family low-income housing or Section 8 government housing. HUD has thus been actively incentivizing developers to build affordable housing and has a mandate to do so across the United States.

RhodeMap RI will be a milestone to accelerate the expansive development of multi-family low-income housing, beginning with what it designates as “opportunity zones,” or wealthy suburbs. The plan calls for strict adherence to HUD guidelines and for building affordable housing within the regions as statistically determined by “census blocks” and not by local zoning or town planning.

If towns do not adhere to HUD guidelines, they will be sued by the federal government, as has happened across America. A prominent recent case involved Westchester, N.Y.

Why is this important to you as a citizen? If you like centralized, top-down control by the federal government along the lines of the old Soviet Union, then this should not trouble you. But if, like most Americans, you take issue with that, then you must speak up and help defeat this power grab by those with an extreme agenda to deny all of us basic liberties through the planning process.

I urge my fellow Rhode Islanders to urgently engage their representatives and senators. Call your local authorities to stop this attempt to destroy the American dream in Rhode Island.

Dexter Liu, of Portsmouth, is a retired entrepreneur and business consultant. He worked for 35 years in the design, manufacturing and sales of consumer products in children’s entertainment.

Unshackle Humanity from Oppressive Control

If you get your news from the mainstream media, read publications like Rolling Stone, US, People, the New Yorker, Time or Newsweek, and if you believe the “Progressive” dominated educational system in America is beyond reproach, then you will likely believe the propaganda of the United Nations that controlling human population growth is one of the true global challenges of our time.

“Progressives,” many of whom subscribe to eugenics, chief among them the founder of Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger, believe human occupation of the planet is the problem and thus humanity must be controlled. We are told that our behavior and our breeding habits must be managed lest we exhaust all of the planet’s resources to our own detriment. It’s not a conspiracy to say, many if not all “Progressives” believe in population control. In fact they tacitly condone the one-child per family policy in Communist China as a legitimate solution for managing the most populous nation on the planet.

Let’s imagine giving each of the 6.6 billion human beings on the planet 1,000 square feet of space. Did you know that we can fit every man woman and child into the state of Texas? Texas has 267,339 square miles or 7,452,983,577,600 square feet. Each man woman and child may occupy 1,000 square feet of the Lone Star state with plenty of land left over. So is humanity and its behavior really the blight of our planet as all the “Progressive” prognosticators of global gloom and doom profess? Ask yourselves, do those champions of population control really have the best interest of their fellow human beings at heart? Or do they perhaps have an ulterior motive?

Is humanity really destroying the planet, so we must control its expansion and behavior to role back its ill effects? Put another way, “they” want to control the population because the planet’s precious resources are scant and there is not enough to go around.

I submit if we have honest brokers creating the right policies to manage resources responsibly there would not be population control nor the need to curtail and penalize the advancement of the human species. Instead we have power brokers and dishonest politicians who perpetuate the fear of an impending crisis such as Global Warming now renamed due to the embarrassing decade long cooling trend to “Climate Change.”

The truth is there isn’t a shortage of resources to sustain the Earth’s population. What we have is a shortage of honesty, integrity and a deficit of real leadership which works on behalf of humanity’s best interest. Those who propagandize to instill fear that humans are destroying the planet do have an ulterior motive. Their aim is the re-distribution of wealth from the rich to the poor, and to strategically position themselves to be the authority in charge. Their tactic to force the rich to relinquish assets is with “guilt & shame” while they indoctrinate the poor with the idea of “victimhood & entitlement.” The result is the divisive and hate filled discourse that has set the world on fire. It’s all about power and not about improving the human condition or even protecting the planet.

Imagine instead, if we could enable humanity to live in liberty where all individuals are able to pursue their own happiness. Imagine all leaders working to establish government of the people, for the people and by the people, as our Founders intended for America. The American “miracle” profoundly uplifted humanity in a mere two centuries when for 5,000 years people lived under elite monarchies and oppressive tyranny.

Humanity subsisted in abject poverty for over fifty centuries, yet within a scant 200 years of America’s Founding deadly diseases were eradicated, basic necessities of life became abundant, technological advancement profoundly improved the quality of life for ordinary people, and we put men on the moon. This was no accident because America liberated the human spirit in ways never before in human history ~ Freedom delivered miracles! Now, imagine if that is the pervasive message for humanity today instead of Climate Change and one of blaming our natural inclination for the advancement of the human condition, think of what we can accomplish in the next 200 years.

5th Rhode Island Tax Day Tea Party

I will deliver this speech tomorrow during the 5th Rhode Island Tax Day Tea Party Rally at the State House.

Tax Day Tea Party Rally 2014

“If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your plan… If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor… period!” These words will go down in history among the greatest lies ever told.

These words didn’t come from just anybody, however, they came from the President of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief. Yet these lies didn’t target our enemies, they were directed at us ~ the American people.

Like so many lies from this Administration, these targeted us for the purpose of advancing a political agenda that is antithetical to the founding of the United States.

This agenda contradicts our constitutional principles of liberty and justice for all Americans. Yes, Obamacare like so many policies from this White House attacks our unalienable right to pursue happiness ~ on our terms.

Today, we’re constantly told to be socially responsible. We are forced to surrender an ever increasing share of our income to government to redistribute to all those important social causes we all must care about, lest we be called greedy, racist, bigots and other hateful names.

But that is not enough, for we need to believe that we must collectively solve the World’s social ills because, according to them, we created these problems in the first place due to America’s successful way of life.

But even that is not enough, because although we don’t have enough money to pay for it all, we must indebt future generations of Americans to pay for ‘social-justice,’ ‘economic-justice,’ ‘environmental-justice,’ ‘income-inequality’ and all of the injustices because of American imperialism, our arrogance, our Capitalism ~ so we are told.

You see, we avoid confronting the lies and the consequences of not holding them to account has given us $18 Trillion Dollars in debt and an unfunded liability that rival the value of the entire Stock Market.

The deception of the corrupt politicians and their anti-freedom agendas have given the United States of America the single largest debt in human history.

Yet, they keep piling on the National Credit Card a debt that will take generations of Americans, your children and their children’s children to pay off, if ever they could.

But it’s not just about our gargantuan national debt. It’s also the government’s corrupt agenda that endangers the safety of our nation, our very well being and threatens the freedom and prosperity for all of mankind.

America’s debt has profound global implications that go far beyond our pocketbooks. Our debt makes us subservient to China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and people who do not necessarily like us very much.

It’s the out of control spending by Washington bureaucrats and their anti-freedom policies that are weakening America and diminishing our international stature.

An America that suffers from a lack of domestic tranquility and incapable of a coherent foreign policy projects weakness. This emboldens the villains around the world to have their way with peaceful neighbors as well as oppressing their own people… the evidence is overwhelming.

Just look at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Iran’s defiance in pursuing nuclear-power causing instability in the Middle East and around the world. Syria in chaos, unrest in Egypt, al-Qaida in Libya, Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, all are existential threats to our friends in Israel.

Then there’s the global persecution of Christians, riots in Venezuela, Russian war ships in Cuba 90 miles from Key West. China’s modernizing military, their growing global influence, the resurgence of Marxist dictators in Africa, South America, and increasing tensions in South East Asia as well as the Korea peninsula.

All of this making the world a far more dangerous place because the current occupant of the White House is like the Emperor with no cloths!

This Administration has worked hard to diminish our influence all over the world. They call this “leading from behind.” But when you’re staring at the behinds of others, that’s not leading, that’s following. And we don’t follow Marxist dictators or any tyrants who have contempt for human liberty!

America doesn’t have a foreign policy today. What we have is an abdication and a surrender by cowards!

The United States of America does not lead from behind ~ We – lead – by – example!

But our broken government has weakened us economically, politically and militarily. Yet if you only get the news from NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN or the NYT, you might think all is well with the World and the Obama gang is doing a fine job.

Nothing can be further from the truth:

• Just ask Nevada Rancher Cliven Bundy, if the BLM is doing a fine job.
• Ask the family of Brian Terry who was killed in Fast & Furious about the DOJ.
• Ask the families of our Benghazi heroes about defending Americans abroad..
• Ask Catherine Engelbrecht of True the Vote about the IRS, ATF and OSHA.
• Ask all those who lost their healthcare insurance about Obamacare.
• Ask those who have given up looking for work about how they’re doing.

Why do we put up with these deceptions? Why do we accept these lies? Why do we permit the destruction of the United States by corrupt politicians who clearly do not have America’s best interest at heart?

Well, these are of course rhetorical questions, because in fact we have been doing something about it… It’s called the Tea Party and for the past 5 years,

• We’ve been calling out dishonest politicians!
• We’ve pushed back against corrupt media!
• We’ve rallied fellow Americans who have not been paying attention till now!
• We’ve run Tea Party candidates for office successfully!
• We’ve organized grassroots initiatives to hold elected officials to account!

And for our troubles, we’ve been reviled, smeared, maligned, vilified, ostracized, criminalized and even targeted by the IRS. That’s because they’re desperately trying to protect the corrupt status quo!

But ladies and gentlemen, America is worth the fight for! There is no doubt, the United States of America is still the greatest nation of earth. Take it from one whose family suffered unspeakable savagery under a brutal Chinese Communist dictatorship.

Having also lived in West Africa as a child, I’ve seen first hand the oppression of a corrupt 3rd world government and know friends who grew up without the freedoms and blessings we take for granted in the United States.

America’s Founding was a profound event in human history. Mankind lived under the indignity of tyrants for centuries with entire populations serving their elite masters for countless generations until the Founding of the United States.

Our Constitution and Bill of Rights restored human dignity and liberated ordinary people to live free as never before!

Our system of governance “of the people, by the people and for the people” not only defended liberty, it unleashed the power of the human spirit to create, prosper and reach for the stars!

In a free America the sky had truly become the limit and that is why America has been the beacon of hope for humanity for over 200 years!

And that is why I am a naturalized American citizen by choice!

You bet our Constitution, American Liberty & Justice is worth fighting for!

2014 is a critical election year. let’s make this the year of America’s restoration!

Ladies and gentlemen we have much to do before November ~ let’s roll !

An Open Letter to Candidates for Political Office

Dear Candidate:

Defend the 2nd Amendment and the Constitution and we will have your back!

As with all citizens, we the firearms owners want safe communities. Many of us have become cynical, however, seeing our rights relentlessly attacked while criminals get a pass. We know the responsible and lawful use of firearms better than anyone. Besides our constitutional rights being undermined, we view the obsessive attacks on our legal gun ownership as political, dishonest and a deadly distraction. What we need is to address the litany of real issues that undermine our public safety while preserving the civil-liberties of lawful citizens.

Our rights as law-abiding Americans under our Constitution and the Bill of Rights are non-negotiable. You need to know all the facts surrounding criminal-violence with firearms. They simply do not support the assertions of the gun-control industry that push the narrative, “more armed citizens equal more deaths.”

There are numerous credible research studies that prove unequivocally that pervasive firearms ownership is not the problem. To the contrary, we the lawfully armed citizens are the solution. In fact, it has been shown more gun-control laws that burden us actually put society at greater risk while more legal gun ownership have been shown to reduce deaths.*

Despite empirical evidence including the government’s own data (CDC, FBI, DEA and the USDOJ), the burden continues to be unjustly placed upon us, the lawful citizens, while real solutions that target criminal behavior are routinely ignored.

The attacks on lawful gun owners like us take many forms that go beyond the legislature, this includes the intentional blurring of the truth by propagandists who implicitly equate criminal behavior with legal gun ownership. These are a result of well funded campaigns orchestrated by the powerful gun-control lobby** in partnership with anti-gun politicians and many in the mainstream media.

Further more, anti-gun regulations deliberately force firearms manufactures out of large markets reducing their production amortization capabilities. There is also the political arm-twisting of banks to deny banking services to those in the firearms business. In addition, there are the unrelenting attacks on ammunition production and availability from the Obama EPA.

While the optics of political campaigns may be often challenging, to cede even a rhetorical defense of the 2nd Amendment and lawful use of firearms will utter frustrate those of us in the firearms community. We will believe that the candidate or public official does not have our backs. This is rooted in the fact our rights have been unfairly and routinely attacked by those who are either ill informed or have an anti-gun and anti-freedom agenda.

What we want are champions of liberty and courageous leadership that will not fold under corrupt and dishonest political attacks. We will in turn passionately support those who are truthful, have a sincere interest in real public safety solutions and who will stand firm with us to defend the Constitutional rights of all Americans.

Sincerely yours,

The American Sportsman
The American Patriot
Law-abiding Firearms Owners of America
Americans for the Defense and Preservation of our Constitution
The American Tax Payer

* 1) Harvard Study titled, “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?” Kates & Mauser; 2) Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, NW University, “Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalence and Nature of Self-Defense with a Gun,” Gary Kleck & Marc Gertz; 3) “More Guns Less Crime”, Dr. John R. Lotts, Jr., PhD.

** 1) “Preventing Gun Violence Through Effective Messaging,” Frank O’Brien, OMP: John Neffinger and Matthew Kohut, KNP Communication; Al Quinlan, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research; 2) Members of the anti-gun industry: Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Bloomberg et al; The Brady Campaign, Sarah Bady; Moms Demanding Action (formerly Million Moms Against Gun Violence); The Joyce Foundation; Moveon.org; Violence Policy Center; Freedom State Alliance; Media Matter; American Academy of Pediatrics; Americans for Gun Safety; Coalition for Peace Action; Gun Free Kids; National Gun Victims Action Council; Protest Easy Guns; Real Hunter Real Conservation; Students for Gun Free Schools; Tides Center Foundation; DCS Congressional; David Bohnett Foundation; Crime Gun Solution; Wounded in America; Third Way; Coalition to Stop Gun Violence; RI Coalition Against Gun Violence; Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence (RI).

Can we afford to keep raising the cost of doing business?

Those who don’t understand the free-market model or even care to because they hold a redistributive world view, will not care why businesses require profits. The divisive “evil-rich” or “greedy-profiteer” smears are lies told to the gullible masses who do not know what businesses require to keep going or even more importantly, how it must grow to be viable. So it’s easy to fall for the class-envy rhetoric which is sadly destroying the American Dream.

Government is a consumer of tax revenue paid by big and small private sector businesses and individuals who work for a living. In fact government produces nothing. It spends our money ostensibly to provide us services. Which in today’s bloated Monster Government, we’re actually working for our “slave-master,” because much of our working life is devoted to paying taxes. When the White House and those in Congress engage in class-warfare, and use government to pit Americans against Americans in order to extract more taxes. We as tax payers, are quite literally funding the assault on our own liberties.

When government mandates businesses to pay more in wages regardless of the actual fair-market values of “minimum-wage” labor, it artificially forces businesses to increase operating overhead. Anyone who’s ever run an enterprise knows increasing overhead costs adversely effects products and services they provide their customers. When costs go up, one of four things must happen: 1) cost of your goods or services to your customer goes up; or 2) the quality of your goods or services goes down; or 3) cut workers’ hours or impose a hiring freeze; or 4) cut profits or operate at a loss.

The big government pushers believe businesses are greedy and can always afford wage increases. ‘Look at the rich owner’s Mercedes; he needs to spread the wealth around.’ They would say. The reality is when you increase the wages of minimum-wage workers (or entry-level jobs that should be determined by the free-market) that means, for example, the low cost food services, who’s customers are those who can’t afford fancy restaurants, will have to buy food at higher prices or lower quality. So those who can’t afford caviar will now be penalized by the government mandate.

If the owner keeps the price the same and lowers quality to try and survive, they’ll lose customers because of bad burgers. Eventually they will lose their business anyway from a lack of patronage. Alternatively, he can freeze hiring or cut workers’ hours, but that of course hurts his employees. Then there’s the option of operating at zero profit or at a loss. Now, try to keep up with inflation – another government caused disaster. The landlord certainly won’t stop raising the rent and eat his tax hike and his suppliers are also subject to inflation as well.

By imposing more mandates like raising the minimum wage, the government makes burgers unaffordable, and puts shops out of business. But wait, aren’t the people who want to raise the minimum wage the same ones who blame businesses for sending jobs overseas? So, you’re not allowed to make a profit, that’s greedy, but you’re supposed to sustain your business because you must have some hidden profits you’re not telling the government. So government forces you to operate at a loss so entry-level workers gets a higher wage because that’s what’s “fair?” And we haven’t even touched on the deleterious effects on business of the unaffordable Affordable Care Act best known as Obamacare.

Why does the “gun-debate” miss the target?

The term “gun-violence” should be retired from our lexicon for public policy debates. By focusing on the gun we’re already being driven by a narrative that is biased. That’s because at the mere mention of guns, much of the public has already been conditioned to believe guns equal violence. This is a direct consequence of a decades long rhetorical campaign by the anti-gun movement to vilify the gun culturally.

The anti-gun establishment funded an eighty page activist’s manual, Preventing Gun Violence Through Effective Messaging (authors:Frank O’Brien, Al Quinlan, John Neffinger and Matthew Kohut), produced by three powerful Washington D.C. communications firms. It’s no coincidence that most anti-gun activists appear to use this playbook, because the rhetoric we hear constantly in the media and from anti-gun groups mirror its contents. But why is it not Criminal Violence they wish to prevent? Is that not what we all want? Why obsess over “guns” and not criminal behavior?

By packaging the words gun with violence into a term, the dialog is already tainted. This term suggests gun equals violence, or that they are the same thing. They are not. Quite the trick because a gun by itself cannot be non-violent any more than it can be violent without an operator. It’s merely a machine, and depending on the operator one can achieve good results or create very bad ones.

Take the car, for example, another machine. We all drive one and are well served by it provided, however, it’s not misused. If you drink and drive, you put others at risk. If we text and drive we endanger ourselves and fellow travelers. Yet when vehicular homicides happen, we don’t blame the car. But substitute the car with guns, suddenly, the perception is entirely different. Why is that?

When sportsmen use firearms, their rights are attacked although they’re clearly not the problem. They’re equally responsible operating their firearms as good drivers would be with their cars. Whenever a crisis involving firearms occurs, however, the knee-jerk reaction is always to target guns giving criminal behavior a pass. Why not ban cars due to vehicular homicides?

It is utterly disingenuous when Bloomberg compares fatalities between traffic and shootings, yet operates under a double standard when comparing cars to guns. They do not push for a ban on cars. On Bloomberg.com, an article by Chris Christoff and Ilan Kolet compares death statistics between traffic and firearms predicting the latter will surpass the former by 2015. Not surprisingly, they ignore the lives saved by lawfully armed citizens.

It is of course ridiculous to ban cars because of a small minority of bad drivers or drunks. Yet the anti-gun establishment targets the gun as though regardless of a small minority of cases the gun is somehow more responsible for the deaths than a car is of traffic fatalities. For the debate to ignore the behavior of the operators and not clarify the vast disparity between those responsible verses those who are abusers, is grotesquely dishonest and manipulative. In fact, the gun-debate deliberately hides the truth and has at its core a nefarious motif.

Here are facts about firearms in America most do not know because of a relentlessly one sided narrative dominated by the anti-gun establishment. One hundred million Americans own firearms and use them responsibly for a variety of purposes. They are hunters, collectors, sportsmen and women as well as citizens who use them for personal protection. There exist a great deal of objective scientific research on firearms ownership in America from universities of criminology (NW Univ., Kleck & Gertz; Harvard, Kates & Mauser) and statistical analysis by government agencies such as the CDC, FBI, USDOJ, etc.

Empirical research confirms an unmistakable truth that overwhelmingly firearms save more lives than they take every year in America. On average the annual disparity is greater than eighty times more lives are saved by guns compared to those lost (NW Univ., Kleck & Gertz; National Safety Council, Itasca, Il.), but that includes suicides and accidental deaths. The actual firearm-homicides rate average eleven thousand annually (CDC.gov). When we make a clear distinction between criminals and good citizens, the lawfully armed save lives by more than two hundred times the rate at which criminals kill.

Gun-control only burdens the law-abiding citizen while protecting criminals. That’s not an opinion, it’s fact (Harvard, Kates & Mauser). Given the statistical proof of lives saved by armed citizens, imagine if the entire nation were a gun-free zone like the nation’s crime centers: Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York City, etc. These Hot Spots (FBI terminology) or killing zones have one thing in common. They share the strictest gun-control laws in America.

We wouldn’t cut the antlers off a deer to protect it from attacking coyotes anymore than we should disarm innocent would-be victims from marauding predators in our society. If the anti-gun established should achieve its objective of disarming the citizenry, I shudder to think how much unintended carnage we shall have in America as a consequence.

 

Obama’s “fundamental transformation” of America: This is what it looks like

A September 19, 2013 article in the Wall Street Journal titled: “Washington Sees Incomes Soar as Most of U.S. Declines,” turned my stomach. It reported that in this the worst recession in our lifetime, when people all over America are suffering from lost wages, devastated careers, jobs eliminated never to return and foreclosures on their American Dreams, Washington D.C. sees a near 25% hike in personal income. Clearly, the Washington ruling class have managed to redistribute America’s wealth to quite literally line their pockets and those of their friends and political supporters. We have now gone from a government by the people, of the people and for the people to a despotic tyranny where the people work to serve their masters in the ruling political establishment.

The history of humanity has been one where despotic leaders or the “enlightened” elites rule over the common people as subjects until America’s Founders created a system of government where the people were the boss. Those in elected office, as well as those in government, “served” the interests of the citizenry in accordance with the Constitution of the United States. In fact, they have a sworn duty to defend and preserve the Constitution. The “individual, the most vulnerable “minority,” was protected under the law to freely pursue their personal interests. This system profoundly unshackled the human spirit in ways that allowed ordinary people to do extraordinary things in a remarkably short period of time. A miraculous transformation of the world resulted, lifting much of humanity out of the dark ages of the past to profoundly better the lives of countless billions around the planet. Within 200 years since America’s founding, humanity went from a primitive existence where, for 5000 years, fields were plowed by beasts to global air travel and men landing on the moon. America was the miracle that transformed the world so ordinary people may live with dignity and prosperity such as never in human history.

The WSJ article told an alarming story. It showed me that Obama and his thugs are rapidly undoing the American miracle and have made stunning “progress.” In less than five years, they have managed to render our Constitution nearly irrelevant by turning a government by, for and of the people on its head. The system that was the miracle is in shambles with a malignant cancerous tumor of corruption and malfeasance. This administration has deliberately worked to widen the divisions in America as never before, driving a poisonous wedge between neighbors, families, races; pitting workers against employers, government against businesses, rich versus poor, non-Christians against Christians, Americans against Americans. Our moral compass has been shattered under this president and his administration as they wine and dine special interests in our White House to advance their “fundamental transformation of America” while presiding over the misery of this endless recession. The most prosperous economy on Earth is stricken with a malaise we’ve not seen in our lifetime. The U.S. Treasury has accumulated the largest debt in human history while default and bankruptcy looms in cities and towns across the nation. The best healthcare system on the planet is being systematically dismantled to make way for more governmental control over (quite literally) the life and death of every citizen. The most powerful military in the world is in disarray due to an utter lack of leadership. While destructive policies of political correctness by this administration serve only to confuse and weaken our nation’s defenses. Institutions that once had the trust of all Americans are being utilized to attack the administration’s political opponents and average law-abiding Americans just because they share a different view of the trajectory of our nation. Our educational institutions, once the envy of the world are now infested by corrupt ideologues who despise their own country. Their utter corruption and incompetence are now rendering our educational standards to lag far behind nations who used to sent their best and brightest to America. Our culture has lost its way and our people dispirited to a numb and tacit acceptance of a new normal that by any measure should be entirely unacceptable. Our youth now wallow in a suspended state of pessimism and a fundamental lack of hope for a brighter tomorrow.

What has happened to us? Why do we, as Americans, allow this to go on? As the nation of free individualists with what used to be an inexhaustible can-do spirit, we have always been the beacon of hope for the world. Others followed us because of our example. President Vladimir Putin of Russia, recently attacked the idea of “American-exceptionalism.” His scathing rebuke of Obama’s clumsy speech in which the President spoke of this concept demonstrated his ignorance as well as our own president’s utter misunderstanding of its true meaning. It’s not that we believe we are a better people or even an exceptional one. The “exception” refers to our nation’s legacy of freedom and its profound effects on humanity. Our Founders chose to create a nation that reveres the rights of the individual as God-given and a government with a Constitutional duty to defend that right. The “rule” has always been governments with power and authority over the people and never a people with the right for self-determination. Thus, the path our Founders chose for America was the “exception,” not the “rule.” No political power or nation in human history had ever imagined a government that is of, by and for the people except for the United States and this historical fact is called “American-exceptionalism.”

Undeniably, this “exception” profoundly transformed the world. Now more than ever, it is incumbent upon all Americans to understand just what this idea really means because so many take their liberty entirely for granted since they have never known tyranny. Tragically, many are quite content to trade away their liberty for a little security, or at least the promise thereof from power-hungry politicians.

This WSJ article is a smoking gun that Washington D.C. has gone horribly awry and wholesale reform is an existential requirement to sustain liberty. We must fight to return America to that exceptional path and eradicate the despotism that is infecting our political class. Like much of the troubled world today, despotism, which in Putin’s world and sadly Obama’s, appears to not be the exception but the rule.