Tribute to Glenn Beck

For those of you who didn’t know, today was the final episode of Glenn Beck on the Fox News Channel.  I wanted to take some time in using this blog to thank Glenn Beck for his tireless effort in pursuit of bringing a different perspective to politics.  I can’t imagine how many enemies he has made on both the right and left.  It really was a breath of fresh air to see someone stand up for what’s right regardless of the heat he has taken for it. 

He was (and still is) a polarizing figure.  He questions the motives on both sides of the aisle.  This is what makes him so dangerous and why he has come under such relentless attacks.  He has exposed how dirty of a game politics truly is, and yes, it is on both sides of the aisle.  We have allowed a President to take our freedom away as long as it was a Republican…or as long as it’s a Democrat.  Government ran by a republican or democrat is the enemy of freedom.  It is like fire, if kept small and controlled it is great, but left to grow out of control it will destroy everything in its path.  Glenn has helped to awaken us to this.  I believe more and more people on both sides of the aisle are starting to realize that it doesn’t matter who the President is, we end up with more debt, more wars, higher prices, and a bigger government.  There has been an awakening.

For the first time I don’t have much interest in the Presidential election coming up.  I guess after doing my own research and watching Glenn I have come to the conclusion that politicians will do anything to get elected.  That doesn’t mean I won’t vote.  I will vote for the person who wants to take power away from the government.  I refuse to vote for anyone who says government is the answer to our problems.  That has been the attitude that has brought us to the brink of collapse.  Putting our faith in politicians will ALWAYS lead to disappointment.  The answer does not lie with politicians, it lies with us…the people.  Before fixing our government we must fix ourselves.  We must become the people we were born to be, not the people we have allowed ourselves to become. 

At our core we are good and decent people.  But our pursuit for “stuff” has set us on a crash course.  We are told that without everyone spending recklessly our economy will collapse.   If this is the case, I say let it collapse.  A society built on buying things of no value is a society I don’t want to be a part of. 

We must become the type of people that can be depended on to help others in their time of need.  Next time you see a woman with a flat tire on the side of the road, pull over and help her.  If your neighbor needs help, lend a hand.  Instead of buying your son a video game he can indulge himself in, buy him a baseball glove and spend quality time playing catch.  God and the family has always been the foundation that builds strong communities; we must focus on that before we can change our country. 

Glenn Beck has started his own online T.V. broadcast.  He has NO investors and is relying solely on paid memberships in order to fund his new venture.  This way he has free reign to speak the truth, he does not have to worry about sponsors.  I admire Glenn for stepping away from a platform like Fox, where financially he was doing great.  He himself has said that his new venture could be bankrupt in a year if he doesn’t get tons of members.   I encourage anyone reading this to support him in his new venture.  You can get access to his T.V program for $4.95 per month.  Go to GlennBeck.com for details.  It’s very easy to hook up your laptop computer to your T.V, all you need is an S-Video cable and an audio cable.  You also need a T.V. new enough that has these connections.  

You can bet that if Glenn is successful with his new venture that the push to regulate the internet will increase dramatically.  At the moment there truly is freedom on the internet.  The government is salivating to get their hands on it.  We must not allow this.  They will clothe it under the disguise of protecting your children from pornography, or keeping your banking information secure.  We must not fall for this.  It is nothing more than another power grab.

I always thought it must be tough with a person of his character and beliefs to live in New York.  I recently moved to Texas because I just couldn’t live in a state like CA that is destroying itself from within.  I had to live out my principles.  Even as scary as it was for my wife and I to quit our well paying jobs and come here with no employment waiting for us.  Turns out the New York Daily News reported today that Glenn signed a lease in Dallas, TX.  He is finally making the move from New York to Texas.  Amen to that.  We could always use more jobs and freedom loving people here in Texas.  

Glenn's closure to his Fox T.V. show is not the end...with people like you supporting him, this is only the beginning.

TSA and the 4th Amendment

This Saturday I will be attending a rally on the steps of the Texas Capitol in Austin supporting Texas’ bill HB-1937.  The Texas House recently passed this bill unanimously.  It now needs to be passed by the Texas Senate, it then heads to Governor Perry for signing into law.  This legislation is designed to protect the freedom and dignity of people by stopping the treatment of travelers as criminal suspects and the forcing of innocent citizens to submit to unreasonable and humiliating searches without probable cause as a condition of travel.  Basically it just reaffirms what the 4^th amendment to the constitution guarantees.  The Federal Government has already threatened that if this bill passes they will shut down all air travel in Texas.

I understand this is a very emotional issue.  All of us want our families to be safe when traveling on airlines.  Just a few years ago I was a huge supporter of government intervention in regards to keeping us safe.  Since becoming an avid studier of history and the U.S. Constitution I have changed my stance dramatically.  It’s no surprise that most of us believe government can’t do anything better than the private sector.  Look at the U.S. postal service, DMV, Department of Education, Department of Energy, ect.  Yet for some reason many Americans think government can adequately protect us when it comes to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).  I don’t blame people for having this stance.  We are practically taught from pre-school that the government is there to protect us.  Unfortunately people don’t realize that our founding fathers did not intend for the Federal Government to take on this role.  The Federal Government’s intended role was to protect our rights guaranteed under the Constitution, basically their only goal is to make sure we have Freedom…period. 

Two weeks ago I traveled to CA on an airline.  After returning from CA I noticed there was a “Notice of Baggage Inspection” inside my checked bag.  It stated my bag was chosen to be opened and searched.  It also said, “If the TSA security officer was unable to open your bag for inspection because it was locked, the officer may have been forced to break the locks on your bag.  TSA sincerely regrets having to do this, however TSA is not liable for damage to your locks resulting from this necessary security precaution.”  What on Earth is this Nation coming to when we allow federal agents to open our bags without our permission, break our locks, and then say they don’t have to replace the locks they break?  No private company could ever get away with this without being sued.  Yet, most silently sit by while the Federal Government grows bigger and bigger, becoming more intrusive, treating us all like terrorists, and spends us into bankruptcy.

So if we kick the TSA out of Airports, does this mean none of us will be safe on airlines?  No.  American’s are conditioned to believe that government is the only entity that can keep us safe.  But this just isn’t the case.  The free market is what made America great, keeping us safe on airlines would be no exception. 

In my opinion, each airline will have its own security screening.  For instance, if an airline named Freedom Airlines felt the public did not want intrusive searches then they would allow passengers to board without being searched.  Instead Freedom Airlines would save money on not having security equipment that cost them hundreds of thousands per year and instead have armed guards on their flights.  If the public truly wanted intimate searches of every person and bag then Freedom Airlines would quickly go out of business.  Of course this airline would get all of my business.

Now let’s say for instance another airline named No-Privacy Airlines took the opposite approach.  They either take ex-rays or hand search everyone who boards, and also open up all checked bags.  If America truly did want this type of “safety” then No-Privacy Airlines will thrive.  Now it is true that these flights might be more expensive due to the increasing costs of equipment and enough staff to handle the searches.  But the price of additional safety on a flight must cost the traveler more money (that’s his choice), but it should not cost their Freedom as it does currently.

Is it possible some lives might be sacrificed in the rare circumstance that a passenger that was not searched was able to bring a bomb on board?  Yes.  But Freedom isn’t free.  Sacrificing freedom to be safe leads to exactly the type of government we have today.

If the public truly does want these intrusive searches, then we need to do it the right way.  We need to have the Constitution amended in order to make this legal.  The 4^th amendment currently protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures.  If we allow the Federal Government to violate the very document that they swore to uphold, what is to stop them from violating other areas of the Constitution?   It’s no coincidence that our children aren’t being taught thoroughly about the Constitution in school, I know I didn’t learn about it in the CA public school system.  How can we know our rights are being violated if we have no idea what they are?  If there is no change from the current course the United States is on, we will become a nation completely dominated by the political elite.  We are at a tipping point.  Will you choose to remain complacent, or will you become informed and choose to spread the message of Freedom?