Where have I been?  Living.  I’ve been vacationing, helping my husband with repairs around the house, painting, visiting with friends, and of course, working.

However, I have to admit that I’ve been very pessimistic about the state of our country lately, so that’s the main reason I haven’t been blogging.  All of that time away from my blog made me come to a few conclusions:

1.  I will never, ever vote for John McCain or any other republican who supports global warming legislation or smoking bans.  Both issues are a litmus test for me.  Why, you ask? Because supporting either of these intrusive ideals show a politician’s true colors. 

Any politician who does not protect property rights, or believes that they know better how you and your family should live your life, and would force you–by the end of a gun–to live in a way that they approve of, is a tyrant.  Yes that’s right…a tyrant.  Any politician  who believes that the American people are too stupid to make decisions for themselves or their families, doesn’t deserve to be in office.  And any nitwit politician who believes that mere men can control the temperature and weather patterns of the earth isn’t qualified to lead a Girl Scout troop, let alone our country.

2.  I will not be joining a party any time in the near future.  Many people have asked me if I’m going to join the Libertarian Party.  Although I identify myself as libertarian, I’m a little jaded by the whole ‘party loyalty’ thing and have no intentions of throwing my support behind any political party.

3.  I hope that the democrats win the White House.  The Republican Party needs a good,  swift kick in the backside for selling out the American people to a bunch of Marxist thugs.  Continually voting for these creeps is like a battered wife who keeps going back to her abusive husband.  I’m not doing it anymore, and I’m not supporting the lesser of two evils.  I’d rather go through a bit of hell now so that the American people wake up.  If they’re slowly cooked to death like the proverbial frog in the pot of boiling water, there’s no chance of ever regaining the freedom that so many men and women have fought and died for. 

4.  I will continue to do my part fighting against smoking bans, as I believe they are the crack in the dam that will allow the floods of government oppression and tyranny to drown us all.  If we don’t have property rights, and if we have a government who believes that we are too stupid to make our own choices in life and should therefore have a gun pointed at our heads to make us comply with their wishes, we are sunk.

5.  I will continue to live my life in the best way that I can, understanding that the best thing that I can do for my country is to take care of myself and my family.

6.  I want to seek God’s will for my life, remembering that this involves balance and not getting politically overzealous.  I believe that He put this fire in me for a reason (the fire that makes me want to fight for my freedom), but it must be balanced.  Ultimately, I know that He is in control, so I have nothing to be afraid of.

So that’s my update.  I  have to be honest, I don’t know when I’ll be writing again.  It could be tomorrow, or it could be a month from now.  Who knows. 

I keep trying to think of a good way to end this, but I just can’t.   Instead, I’ll leave you with the slogan that Ryan and I have chosen for our Ban the Ban Wisconsin effort:

Choose to live free.

WASHINGTON — As the House prepared to take aggressive steps to stem the wave of home foreclosures, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Monday night endorsed the need for government intervention, saying that letting markets take their own course could "destabilize communities, reduce the property values of nearby homes and lower municipal tax revenues."

My gosh, you mean that the government–along with largely irresponsible homeowners–would have to live within their means? 

And just how is this a bad thing?

The way I see it is that yes, my property values may decrease because my neighbor thought it was a better idea to get a $700 tattoo than to actually pay his mortgage (thus losing his home) but I’d rather deal with the value of my home falling a bit by having an overgrown lot sitting next to me than having to pay for these people’s financial salvation through my tax dollars, all the while extending this insane inflation that needs to just die. 

The other issue here is that government may actually have to make cuts due to the lost property tax revenue (and we all know that government doesn’t make cuts, anymore).  Rather than making the cuts necessary, these political ass clowns would force those of us who’ve been responsible with our homes’ equity to pay astronomical property taxes to make up for the tax revenue lost through foreclosures, which they know would eventually cause the greatest tax revolt since the Boston Tea Party (not to mention another housing crisis of greater magnitude where owning a home becomes too much of a burden, tax-wise). 

Let’s call it as we see it, shall we?  The government could really care less about the economy at this point, because they’re behaving exactly like the homeowners who took out equity lines of credit on their over-inflated home values.  Those homeowners can’t possibly be expected to downgrade or–GASP!–rent, just as the government can’t possibly be expected to make cuts as necessary and allow this economic downturn run its course.

Any economist will tell you that economic downturns happen, and they always happen in an over-inflated market.  It didn’t take a genius to figure out that eventually the housing bubble would burst.  Home prices were soaring out-of-control in places like Las Vegas and Florida, and it was mainly due to people purchasing more home than they could afford by making rash and irresponsible decisions in a hot market.

I don’t plan on selling my home any time soon.  It’s not because I don’t want a nicer house on a nicer lot.  I think everyone wants that.  But I realize that if we stay in our modest home and continue paying down our mortgage, eventually we’ll come out ahead–even if the value of our home drops for a year or two.

This ‘mortgage crisis’ is only a crisis because we don’t see the value in lessons that must be learned the hard way.  We all may go through a rough patch over the next year or so, but government bailouts are not the answer to this natural correction of poor decision-making and a government that just can’t seem to control its astronomical growth.  We have to be willing to take the hit so that we can recover naturally, rather than encouraging inflation and excessive government that will only end in complete economic disaster, the likes of which may be impossible to recover from.

I finished watching the final part of this series last night, and I have to say that it was one of the most interesting, educational, entertaining, and enlightening things I’ve ever watched.

The acting was superb, the casting was perfect, and it truly made me place myself into that time and place.  I loved the way that the story showed the unique relationship between Adams and his wife, Abigail, and how she was his most trusted advisor. 

The other thing I found to be interesting was the fact that these men–our Founding Fathers–have been romanticized to the hilt in history books.  This series (made from the book, John Adams) shows us that these men rarely agreed on anything…except freedom.

They weren’t super-humans, either.  They were fallible and had faults and quirks just lie the rest of us.  But their belief that all men are created equal, and that each has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, is what allowed them to create the greatest society and form of government that this world has ever known.

The only reason why our nation is so divided is because we have lost touch with our founding principles.  We have elevated mere mortals (politicians) to some sort of celebrity god-status, expecting them to solve all of our nations problems.  We’ve forgotten that our government was not designed to eliminate our misfortunes or the consequences of our poor judgment.  We’ve forgotten how to cherish our own and our fellow citizens’ freedom.

I would encourage every person reading this to take the time to watch John Adams.  It has inspired me beyond words.   And I’m not just saying that…I mean it.  I’ve been wanting to write about it for weeks, but there are so many things I’d like to say about how it has affected me that I’m afraid I’d have to write a book.

Please take the time to watch it.  You won’t be sorry.

My pal and fellow Ban the Ban-ner, Ryan Evans, had a great post on his blog today that I totally relate to.  The title is "Why it’s Hard", and I feel his pain.

It’s pretty easy to feel defeated once you’ve finally opened your eyes enough to see that no political party is going to save America (nor any politician, for that matter).   It’s easy to lose hope when it appears that everyone around you is throwing so much faith behind these fallible humans whose corruption grows deeper and deeper by the day. 

When I left the republican party months ago, I did it with much sadness.  It almost felt like a death.  I had been a republican my entire life (a neo-con is probably a better label), and it felt good to be a part of something bigger than myself. 

But as I’ve grown older–and hopefully, wiser–I’ve discovered that we can no longer put any faith or trust behind our political parties.  Don’t get me wrong, there are many people who firmly align themselves with political parties that mean well and have the best of intentions.  There’s no doubt about that.  But I’m starting to understand why so many of our Founding Fathers were afraid of the ‘power of the party’.

When free citizens living in a free society begin to elevate the importance of their party above the importance of their freedom and their country, and compromise their beliefs by supporting politicians who turn away from the core principles of the party, freedom will soon give way to government oppression.

When free citizens begin to rely on the elect in their respective parties to eliminate every perceived misfortune in America, they begin to expect godlike miracles from these mortal men and women.  They expect them to eradicate poverty, eliminate any sort of illness or disease, save people from their own poor life decisions, remove risk from financial investments, cure substance addiction, and change the earth’s climate.  Change the earth’s climate!

When we watch our parties attempt to outdo each other with their miraculous promises that they can never follow through on, and then actually believe that they are capable of performing these ‘miracles’, we are not only fooling ourselves, we are entrusting these corrupt illusionists with our freedom.  Like a traveling tent preacher who claims that he has the power to heal, these politicians are taking our money and individual rights in exchange for empty promises…and they know it.

Someday in the distant future, our great-great-great-great grandchildren will study about how the Americans worshipped political gods, and how we laid the fruits of our labor at the alter of government as a sacrifice for our societal ’sins’. 

So what do we do?  Well, what I’ve chosen to do is not vote for anyone who doesn’t respect freedom, and to not support anyone who insults my intelligence by attempting to convince me that my vote and tax dollars give them superhuman powers.  I’ve also decided that the most good that I can do for my country is to take care of my own affairs in a responsible manner, be respectful and kind to those around me, and attempt to spread the word of freedom in my own community, county, and state through non-partisan, grassroots activism.

I’m not attempting to convince people to leave their parties.  They’ll do that when they’re good and ready.  I just think that we all need to step back and look at this political circus objectively, and identify government and politicians as corruptible, fallible humans rather than divine beings.

As many of you know, I’m not a fan of house cats, but I do find them to be a good source of humor.

Case in point:

Okay, this is my first attempt at making a slide show with a movie making program.  I think it turned out pretty well, considering my lack of movie-making abilities.

Enjoy!

Click on the photo below to see the rest of my pictures of the Tax Cut Rally! 

My son and I traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota today to help our neighbors to the west fight against high taxes at Jason Lewis’ (KTLK 100.3) tax cut rally.  Even though it was cold, the turnout was great!

I’ll be posting more later on, complete with video and lots and lots of pictures.

Stay tuned!