One of my favorite writers, who has long passed, Charley Reese, wrote an editorial for the Orlando Sentinel 25 years ago. I believe it was his final effort for the O.S.
It is in no way dated. It could have been written yesterday, and it would fit perfectly with the current horrid simulation in Washington, D.C of the so-called government that is saturated with hucksters and flim-flam artists; those who counterfeit (printed paper is not money, it is multiple I.O.U.s) wealth after capturing real wealth via corrupt bureaus, and, let’s be honest–crooks. With this confiscated wealth they can (and do) do as they please.
Please, no comments such as “write to your congressman or Senator.” In the first place, I would be surprised if they read it, and more surprised if they did, that they would care, though I’m sure a lot of them can read.
Mr. Reese used the number “545” which was a summation of the House and Senate, the Supreme Court and the President. The column was titled: “545 vs. 300,000,000.” The larger number is (was) the rough population of the “nation.”
The 545 number is the number of the nation’s illustrious representatives of congress; 535 plus 9 “supreme” court justices and the president, though so-called (ill-called) “Commander in Chief” of the nation (he is only CIC of the military under certain qualified circumstances contrary to what the modern media geniuses seem to think—NOT the nation).
Speaking of geniuses, the geniuses who were no longer serving a union and were proudly serving a national (ixnay federalism) monster with its inbred bastardized bureaus set (through 1911 and 1929 Apportionment acts) as a permanent number of House seats, 435. Hence today we have so many people represented by a single representative that most everyone is now represented by some clumsy bureaucrat in some ill-administered bureau.
Of course, this is available, as being a nation disallows us from nullification or secession.
Nevertheless, the number could be expanded proportionately (if we insist on having a nation instead of a federal union) as they don’t all have to gather in Washington for their graft and corruption. Modern electronic and computer apps allow all to remain in their own state and “Zoom” or whatever. At least we could stop by and chat with them, occasionally, and maybe get a stock tip or two.
Meanwhile, printed paper is (has been) a means of tax and steal, usually in the name of some false humanity: food stamps, sex change nonsense, abortions for the needy, giveaways and throwaways ad infinitum and ad nauseam, and wars for Eisenhower’s favorite pirates, the Military Industrial Complex. So today we have a nifty little debt of around $40 trillion, give or take some loose change billions.
But fast-forwarding a bit:
By July (250 years) the bands will be playing, the Fox Newsmen and Fox News-etts will be cheering the 250th anniversary of out “nation” and the so-called “American Dream.” They, of course date this from the corrupt and monstrous killer and destroyer “Honest” Abe Lincoln and his magical flute tune: “The Gettysburg Address.” Yankees almost put it to music. H.L. Mencken put it in the garbage can. I know where they should put it, but I’ll self-edit here. So, I’ll just refer the readers to Mencken’s comments on the subject.
Lincoln opened with the high-sounding, though erroneous “Four Score and Seven…” blather like most politicians did (and do). They also will forego the idea behind the Union and remind us of our original sin which is, of course, slavery. Well, actually, Southern slavery. The North had kept only a few demos, from their New England slave ships, one assumes, in order to demonstrate how to free them. Yankees are good. Southerners are bad. Our “nation” must always, always, remember mendacity rather than Mencken.
Other “news” outlets, as we approach the magic “250”, will be ballyhooing about that nonsensical shining city on a hill (maybe if the light were red) and equality (something God apparently didn’t see fit to do) for all. Then when corrected they will say that what they meant was equality of opportunity –something else God didn’t do. But then it will go on and the same bunch, stumbling over their own big feet and tone-deaf fat tongues with the singing of God Bless America and something they call The National Anthem. Some will become apoplectic if you suggest merely The Star-Spangled Banner was in honor of independent states fighting in union and not as a national state. Such apoplexy will, assuredly explode into voices of the sick and bloody “Mine eyes have seen the glory ,,,”
However, It was Virginia that first sighed its own DOI and was followed by 3 others before all 13 signed something similar to Virginia’s to emphasize to the King and Parliament (especially) that in the current war they were temporarily of one mind, though not of one state.
And the truth, in nobility, was that Virginia was the first to land on these shores at Jamestown and not that puritanical lighted hill bunch that Virginia has become today with its contemporary taxers, spenders and war-mongers who wallow in bureaucracy and blood today.
It feeds on itself and of course and often by itself. A so-called “federal” government. I call it the Washington D.C. Kudzu growth. It is good for bugs and snakes.
And, speaking of bugs and snakes (and presidents and supreme court justices), as congress has not taken a raise (cowards) since 2009, they have found a better way to fatten their personal purses, at least it appears implied from rejected congressmen Dan Crenshaw (Texas) –Insider trading.
And most of those Yankees now running south say that secession and nullification were bad ideas. To this I say: that I am going to resist the temptation to join the modern public acceptance of profanity. There might still be some adults out there in “the nation.”
Anyhow, down south is that place where Kudzu grows wildly already.
JMO, and DEO VINDICE
The views expressed at AbbevilleInstitute.org are not necessarily those of the Abbeville Institute.
Well said, thank you. The problem with the epoch-making exemplar of hypocrisy (the Gettysburg Address) is that it is, in fact, quite poetical.
“Kudzu” an excellent description of the federal bureaucracy.