State Secession: Trying To Beat the World’s Worst Record

If you can’t think of reasons that state secession is a better solution for liberty than working within “the system,” consider the record of the Federal Government of the United States.

Sure, you can ultimately lay the blame on all of us, since we are the ones who allow the atrocities of Washington to continue. But for now, let’s look at Washington’s record of achievement over the last 150 years.

War of Northern Aggression – 1860s. The North wages war on a confederation of seceding states who left lawfully. Over 600,000 men died on both sides.

Reconstruction: 1860s-1870s. The North plunders the South.

Fractional reserve banking: counterfeiting by another name. Born in the 1800s, perfected by the Federal Reserve and central banking system of the USA.

Spanish-American War – 1898. “Remember the Maine?” A complete lie told by newspaperman WR Hearst, bought by the public and Washington to go to war.

Federal Reserve: established in 1913. For 96 years, it has mismanaged the economy and counterfeited currency.

IRS and the Income Tax (16th Amendment): 1913. What starts out as a small tax becomes a leviathan. What starts out as a small division of the Treasury becomes the most feared weapon of Washington.

World War 1: 1914 -1918. 117,000 dead Americans, 205,000 wounded. The US had no business in a European family war but President Wilson had other ideas.

Depression I: 1929 – 1940s. The Federal Reserve caused it.

New Deal: 1933-1936 FDR’s massive government jobs program, plundering the wealth of the USA. Fascism by another name.

World War II: 1941-1945. Another European war, we had no dog in this fight. FDR baited the Japs into attacking Pearl Harbor, giving him political cover.

Cold War: The US and the USSR escalate preparations for war to new heights, spending hundreds of billions of dollars on weapons.

Korean War: 1950 -1953. 36,000 Americans dead, 96,000 wounded.

Viet Nam: 1950-1975. 58,000 dead Americans, 303,000 wounded.

Creation of three letter agencies: HEW, HHS, CIA, FDA, FCC, DOA, DOD, EPA, and the list goes on…

New Cabinet bureaucracies: Energy, Education, Homeland Security, etc.

Grenada invasion, 1983. 19 Americans dead, 116 wounded.

Panamanian invasion 1989: 23 Americans dead, maybe 3,000 civilians killed.

Bosnian War: 1992-1995. US sends troops under UN flag, millions of civilians made refugees.

Gulf War 1999: President George HW Bush commits a massive force to Kuwait. 379 Americans die, 776 wounded in a 100-hour war.

Iraq: 2003-present. About 5,000 Americans dead, over 35,000 wounded (that they’ll admit to). That doesn’t count casualties of our mercenaries…I mean contractors.

Afhganistan/Pakistan: 2001-present. About 1,000 Americans dead, over 4,500 wounded. That doesn’t count casualties of our mercenaries…I mean contractors.

TSA: 2001-present: Domestic airline travel done “the government way.”

Let’s not forget…

• Counterfeiting, bailouts, nationalization and massive inflation: Just another way that Washington says “you belong to me.”

• Regulation of every facet of human life: Try to think of a second of your life that is not regulated in some way by Washington. Quick answer: that second does not exist.

• Two party political system: two sides of the same coin, both Washington cheerleaders and sycophants. Both want to spend unconstitutional money.

• Out of control military, bases in 130 nations.

Here is the point to this litany of tyranny. The government of the United States of America has screwed up the entire planet through their actions over the last 150 years. The events of currency collapse and inflation in our not-too-distant future will reverberate throughout every nation on earth.

States of the United States that choose to secede will certainly be affected by the implosion of the Washington government. But, could any new nation ever match the “Hall of Shame” listed above?

New American nations, formed from the seceding United States, would be little pinpoints of light and liberty. If their only guiding principle was to not make the same mistakes that the US government made over the last 150 years, they would be destined for success.

How could they fail?

Copyright © 2009, Russell D. Longcore. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

Do you have a fantastic veggie recipe? I need it right away!!!

Send me your recipes, and I’ll send you a FREE copy of the cookbook that I’m writing this week!

I have written a book about fat loss entitled “FatLoss4Winners.” This 65-page book is about the alkaline lifestyle, and how you can stop trying diet after diet, just relax and lose fat. When your body is alkaline, you lose fat effortlessly. In addition, the alkaline lifestyle will clear up many of the health symptoms you’re experiencing. Imagine hitting your dream weight and also being more healthy…simply though a lifestyle of eating delicious foods!

I’m launching a new website to sell the book on December 1, 2009. One of the extra items we’ll offer is a cookbook with at least 100 mouth-watering, healthful, easy-to-prepare recipes.

I worked for months trying to cut a deal with a very well-known cookbook author to sell her books on this new weight loss website, set for a massive launch December 1, 2009. Over the weekend she backed out of the deal. I can’t find another one like it and I’m up against a deadline.

So, screw them all. As of about 30 minutes ago, I’m writing a cookbook. This first edition (thinking big always) will have at least 100 recipes in it. It will be dairy-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, meat-free, wheat-free, egg-free, high fat (the right kind) and delicious.

I plan to have it done by Sunday, November 15th.

If you have recipes that you’d like to submit that meet the standards above, I’d love to add them and give you credit in the book. Plus, when the book is completed, I’ll send you a complimentary copy of the book, which will be a $24.95 value.

Send your recipes to me in a RUSH at: russlongcore@bellsouth.net. Make sure you spell your name correctly and give me the city in which you live. Don’t forget your email address and make sure it’s correctly typed.

Thanks so very much, my friends. For great eating and vibrant health, I remain

Very truly yours,
Russell D. Longcore

Secession and The Berlin Wall

I’m writing this article on November 9, 2009, which is the 20th anniversary of the “fall” of the Berlin Wall. What actually happened on this date twenty years ago was that the East German government announced that East Germans and West Germans would be allowed to visit each other freely. Throngs of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall. Over the next few weeks, people on both sides of the wall used sledge hammers to knock holes in the wall and topple large sections. Later, demolition crews removed most of the rest of the wall. German reunification was completed on October 2, 1990.

This event was a mind-blowing visual and emotional event worldwide, as we saw TV images of euphoric crowds celebrating, dancing and weeping at the Berlin Wall. Few really believed that the Soviet Union would collapse after only 69 years of existence. The Soviets rivaled the USA in military might, and they were as imperialistic as the Americans, exporting Communism around the globe.

But their Union unraveled, beginning in 1989 with the “glasnost” political reforms of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1990, newly-elected Russian President Boris Yeltsin led the Russian Congress to formally declare Russia’s sovereignty over its own territory, and began passing laws to supersede Soviet law. Russia was the largest republic in both territory and population in the Soviet Bloc.

A national referendum was held on March 17, 1991, with the majority of the USSR’s population voting for preservation of the Union in nine out of fifteen republics. But it didn’t matter. After the attempted coup d’etat against Gorbachev in 1991, Yeltsin emerged as the strongman, and Latvia and Estonia declared their independence.

By December of 1991, The Soviet Union had dissolved.

I was in Berlin in December 2003, performing with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus and the Berlin Philharmonic. The Hilton Hotel where we stayed was only a couple blocks away from Checkpoint Charlie, one of the most prominent and widely-known points of passage between East and West Berlin. We walked to Checkpoint Charlie and were surprised to find that, even fourteen years after the Fall, East German buildings still looked gaunt and forbidding.

This little bit of history should give secessionists all over America a boost in morale.

Consider these six points:

1. The largest of the republics regained its sanity and seceded. That should give the Texas Nationalist Movement additional hope and perspective in their quest for a New Texas nation.

2. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Prior to collapse, the USSR had the second largest economy in the world after the USA. The Soviet economy was a centrally-planned economy based on state ownership of industry and management of every facet of commerce. Washington is repeating the same central planning errors the Soviets could not make work. If the second largest world power in human history can dissolve, so can Number One.

3. Most of the people in the Soviet Union voted to maintain the Union, even though it had been the source of oppression and death for 69 years. That shows you how much suffering people will endure willingly like sheep. That also shows you that the suffering masses desperately need moral leadership.

4. Small republics like Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and the rest of the 15 republics eventually became sovereign nations once more. They have thrived since. Small American states will also thrive when they become nations once again.

5. The USSR dissolved because the republics rejected national laws that conflicted with local laws. The republics also refused to pay tax revenue to the Moscow government. This caused havoc in Moscow. In the US, 39 American states have enacted sovereignty resolutions that assert their 10th Amendment rights. The American states are on the right path. Now will they do the right thing? (see Cowardice In State Government

6. The greatest complication for the American Federal Government, far greater than any complication that befell the Soviet Union, is that the US Dollar is the world’s reserve currency…the Ruble wasn’t. The nations of the world are forsaking the dollar because of Washington’s criminal counterfeiting ways over the years. Just as creditors can force a corporation into bankruptcy, the nations of the world will force Washington into bankruptcy and eventually the USA will dissolve.

So the fall of the Berlin Wall was much more significant to your future than you ever realized. Don’t miss the valuable lessons here. Just because America doesn’t have a big concrete wall doesn’t mean that we don’t have barriers to liberty. Oppressive government must be summarily rejected, and free people have a duty to either alter or abolish it.

DumpDC. Six Letters That Can Change History.

Copyright © 2009, Russell D. Longcore. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

Cowardice in State Government

The United States was organized with a Federal structure. Under that structure the national government was supposed to have two overriding dicta: to safeguard the States from foreign invasion and domestic violence, and provide a Republican form of government to the States. (Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution)

It should have been pretty easy to protect the States. A wide ocean on the east and west, and peaceable borders on the north and south do the government’s job for them without spending a penny. So, they should have been focusing all their attention on providing the states with a Republican form of government. Instead, what we have now is a fascist police state.

I don’t think that qualifies as a Republic.

A republic is a representative democracy, as opposed to a direct democracy. The key word is “representative.” The states were supposed to be the pre-eminent players. In the beginning, the Senate chose who would be President of the USA, and the Senators were there in Washington to represent the interests of their states.

Over the past 200 years, Washington has turned the government we were promised into the government we were trying to prevent. Could any absolute monarchy or dictatorship be any worse than what we have now? King George didn’t lay on a combined tax burden nearing 50% and trillions in debt.

The states of the Union have become little more than big counties, subservient geographic entities owned by Washington. For reasons too numerous to list here, the states allowed Washington to usurp nearly all of their power. The fecklessness of every state’s political leaders mocks this nation’s Federal system, and has destroyed the most important checks and balances against Federal tyranny.

Make no mistake. No one truly expects the Federal Government to check and balance itself…where would be its motivation to do that? No, the final arbiters were supposed to be the states.

The states had many arrows in their quivers to control the Federal Government. One of the most effective should have been nullification. Simply put, if Washington enacts laws that the states interpret as unlawful, the states could ignore the new laws like they never happened. Modern states are unwilling and afraid to use nullification against Washington.

Another strong arrow used to be withholding funds from Washington. But with the enactment of the income tax, that arrow was broken, and Washington takes the tax money directly from the people.

I say all of that about the states of the United States in general, but specifically as it relates to monetary policy in America. The US states have allowed…even empowered…Washington to destroy the monetary system of the USA through the Federal Reserve and fractional reserve banking.

The Federal Reserve, a consortium of PRIVATE banks, prints counterfeit currency for the Federal Government. Fractional reserve banking laws allow all the rest of the other banks to counterfeit by creating credit (money) out of thin air.

State political leaders are so clueless and visionless that they have laid down and allowed Washington to endanger the very economic security of each American state through the institutional counterfeiting of the Federal Reserve and all other American banks.

These are some of the reasons that I am not encouraged and excited to know that 39 states have passed some type of 10th Amendment resolution, thereby taking a position that they might just do something in the future, by God. The steely resolve is inspiring, isn’t it?

But where is the state legislature and Governor that will notify Washington that there is a new “nullification sheriff” in town? When will some state begin nullifying the laws coming out of Washington, and refusing to allow them to be obeyed in that state? When will a state refuse to enforce Federal legislation? When will a state slap the cuffs on a Federal law enforcement officer who is trying to enforce Federal law in a state that has nullified Federal law?

Where is that state that will be true to its origins, and allow nothing but gold and silver coin (specie) as tender in payment of debts (Article I, Section 10)?

As a beginning step, how about if a state stops tax withholding and makes the payment of state income and property taxes mandatory in gold or silver coin or electronic gold? That would begin inculcating the citizens in a small way to once again consider gold and silver coin as money. I realize this idea doesn’t work in Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming, since none of them have a state income tax. But it would work for their property taxes, and both will work everywhere else in America.

Any state could facilitate the exchange of Federal Reserve Notes for specie by making such transactions exempt from sales tax. The exchange of FRN currency for specie, which are both legal money, are in essence a “currency exchange,” no difference substantively from changing dollars to Euros, Yen or Pesos.

One of the reasons that a gold/silver monetary standard would work so well for Texas is its petroleum exports. A New Texas with a gold standard would demand gold or silver specie as the only settlement of petro and natural gas transactions from any other country.

But you see, taking a position like that would directly challenge the power of Washington and the Federal Reserve. The paper money they issue says “this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private.” If a state refused to accept Federal Reserve Notes for payment of state income or property taxes, they might have a fight on their hands.

A principled stand like this over money might also help repudiate the scurrulous IRS case of Robert Kahre in Nevada. Mr. Kahre is now beginning a Federal prison term for paying his employees’ wages by using legal tender gold coins. Kahre was acquitted on all 161 counts of tax law violations back in 2007. But the IRS tried him again (double jeopardy, anyone?) and a jury convicted him in 2009. Keep in mind that gold and silver coins are legal tender in the United States, just like Federal Reserve notes. But no one embarrasses the IRS, and Kahre has now paid the price. His life as a free man is over.

State political leaders have no stomach and no backbone for a fight with Washington. Those American citizens in favor of state secession might look to these issues as a barometer of how their state political leaders would react to a political or economic meltdown. If a state won’t protect itself now, why should anyone believe that it will take principled stands later?

There is craven cowardice in the halls of state government in every state in the United States of America. Legislators and state executives go along to get along. Many look at state office as a springboard to Federal office. Few serve their constituents…most serve Washington, the Federal Reserve and banking interests.

“So that’s how liberty dies…to thunderous applause.” Princess Padme, watching the Senate in Revenge of the Sith

Copyright © 2009, Russell D. Longcore. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

Bribery: Also Known As Lobbying

The health insurance companies of America are lining up at the doors of Congress to commit legalized bribery like never before. In this time in which Congress and the President are trying to craft some type of health care legislation, insurers want to make certain that their feet are firmly under the table.

America’s Health Insurance Plans, the national association representing nearly 1,300 member companies providing health insurance coverage, reports that it spent $2.4 million just from July through September.

The non-partisan group Center for Responsive Politics reports that some drug companies are also outdoing previous efforts at buying influence. Pfizer has spent $16.3 million lobbying so far in 2009, and Amgen spent $9.2 million so far this year. Those amounts far outpace their 2008 bribes.

So, let’s run a total:

$ 2,400,000
$16,300,000
$ 9,200,000
$27,900,000

That doesn’t count individual companies like US Healthcare, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Humana, United Healthcare or any others. That also doesn’t count October and November.

But remember…there are 435 members of Congress and 100 Senators, one president and one vice president who is also president of the Senate. That totals 537 people. Divide the bribery total above by 537 and you see that each elected official could potentially have received $51,955.00 in contributions just from these lobbyists.

Remember also that the bribery is not done. Remember also that the opponents to this health care bill are also lobbying and bribing.

Even the AARP has spent a mind-boggling $15.1 million in lobbying bribes this year, which is less than they spent in the first three quarters of 2008.

Don’t worry about the insurance companies, though. Their profits are secure, and Congress will NEVER leave them out.

Why?

The insurance companies have vast investment portfolios. A big part of their portfolios are government bonds and other government securities. If the insurance companies sold off even 1 or 2% of their holdings at once, they could cause the bond markets to collapse overnight. Washington knows this and won’t allow it to happen. So, insurers will get pretty much anything they desire.

As the old saying goes…“when money talks, all the bullshi* walks.” Don’t believe ANY headlines that tell you the insurance companies are dithering and worried. They have NO WORRIES.

Best P&C Insurance Companies: How Do You Find The Best?

In 2008, The Department of Insurance of the State of New York released a report showing the 40 P&C insurance companies that had the most complaints. We did an article about this previously. We showed the ten worst companies, the ones that got the most complaints. But we did not feature the ones that got the least number of complaints in New York, a tough insurance market.

Here is the list of New York’s best P&C insurance companies as determined by the least number of complaints, higher number of complaints as you go down the list:

1. Long Island Insurance
2. Infinity Property & Casualty
3. Interboro Mutual
4. Tri-State Consumer Ins. Group
5. American International Group (AIG)
6. Safeco Insurance Group
7. Countrywide Insurance
8. White Mountains Group, OneBeacon, Esurance, Auto One Ins.
9. State Wide Insurance
10. Hannover RE Group, Clarendon National (no longer writing business)

You may find that some of these companies are only local or regional and that you cannot do business with them where you live. But notice that AIG, Safeco, OneBeacon and Esurance are national companies that got fewer complaints.

It’s not as easy to list a Top Ten Best P&C Insurance companies for America. We would have to contact all 50 state Departments of Insurance and find out which insurers had the least complaints. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners presently does not have any such report. In addition, complaints are not the only criteria that should be used to evaluate an insurance company.

Think about this statement, my friends.

The only thing that truly matters about your insurance is what happens when you submit a claim. It doesn’t matter how good your agent is…or if the company sends you a calendar every year…or buys you dinner. It really doesn’t matter if you pay a low premium or a higher premium. Claims handling is EVERYTHING!!

Claims are about KEEPING PROMISES.

When the insurance companies don’t keep their promises, the complaints pile up!

Lowest premiums are not the only criterion you should use, either. Shopping for insurance is confusing and complicated. Determining if your quotes are “apples and apples” comparisons takes strict attention to detail.

You may need the help of a dedicated, experienced agent to determine your insurance needs and buy the right policy. Still, my recommendation is to shop widely for your insurance needs. Get quotes from captive agents (who only write for one company) and independent agents (who write for multiple companies).

Getting quotes on the internet makes shopping for insurance very easy these days. But look for an insurance quote service that can give you competitive quotes PLUS strategies on submitting insurance claims that will help you collect thousands of dollars more in your claim settlements.

So, which insurance company should you do business with?

1. Choose a company that has an A+ or A rating from the insurance rating services like A.M. Best.
2. Get multiple insurance quotes at least every two years, then choose the company whose policies give you the most coverage for the least money. Don’t worry about company loyalty. The companies don’t care and neither should you.

If you are one of the unfortunate people who experience a loss of any kind, you’ll need to know how to handle your insurance claim so that you maximize your recovery. You will need to know how to take control of your insurance claim, and add hundreds or even thousands more dollars to your claim settlement. For more information, check out:

www.ClaimSecrets.com

For the only online insurance quote service that provides you competitive quotes and claims strategies, check out:

www.InsuranceQuoteHQ.com

You can win the insurance game if you have the right information. So go and win!

Mississippi High Court Protects Homeowners

The Mississippi Supreme Court recently handed down a new opinion that rejected the Fifth Circuit decision concerning the Anti-Concurrent Clause (ACC). This new Supreme Court opinion has crucial importance to homeowners and business owners across America. Coastal areas are experiencing population growth, as well as other areas subject to catastrophes such as hurricanes, earthquakes and floods.

The High Court’s UNANIMOUS opinion in Corban v. USAA states that the “all-risk” policies mean exactly what policyholders and legal scholars have been saying that they mean:

1) That the word “Concurrent” means “at the same time.”

2) That in all-risk policies, the insurance company bears the burden of proving which part of any loss was caused by an excluded peril. The ACC clause does not vacate the insurance companies’ obligation to determine causation if it wants to exclude coverage for a part of a loss.

Although the Corban decision is welcome relief for policyholders, it does not help the many thousands of policyholders near the Gulf Coast who have been hammered by the insurance companies since 2004. Hundreds of thousands have either had their damages denied, or have accepted claim settlements that were only a fraction of what they should have been able to collect under the terms and conditions of their policies.

Future disaster victims nationwide should benefit from Corban. A unanimous Supreme Court opinion, viewed in light of traditional legal precedent procedures should result in significantly higher claims settlements in every state. Said another way, insurance companies will have a tougher time denying claims in the future, and that is a very good thing.

Barack Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize continues its tradition of being a completely meaningless award with no basis in reality.

Here are some of the more “interesting” past award winners:

2007 – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Al Gore: perpetuating a lie about climate change and human causation.

2001 – United Nations, Kofi Annan: A do-nothing caretaker of the most ineffective political body on the planet.

1994 – Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin: Three terrorists – two with state legitimacy in Israel, one a terrorist with the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

1990 – Mikhail Gorbachev – only USSR’s president for 21 months, he presided over the collapse of the Soviet Union.

1986 – Elie Wiesel – Jewish holocaust survivor and writer.

Mr. Obama has caused shock and awe for his peaceful ways throughout the world in less than 9 months in office by:

Prosecuting a war in Afghanistan in which thousands of innocent civilians have been murdered by American military personnel.

Prosecuting a war in Pakistan in which millions of persons in the Swat Valley were displaced and turned into war refugees. In addition, airstrikes with pilotless drones have killed and injured hundreds or thousands of civilians.

Prosecuting a war in Iraq that he inherited from former President George Bush. Now it’s his war. He has continued the staffing of the new embassy, and the completion of at least seven new military bases in Iraq. Military troops are still dying regularly in Iraq, and civilians are also still being killed by the hundreds. The death toll in Iraq from war is way north of 1 million people.

Maintaining the procedure of extraordinary rendition. Obama widely criticized rendition in his campaign, but has reversed himself and embraced it in his presidency. Rendition is the process whereby persons suspected of “terrorist activity” are captured and shipped to secret prisons in other countries where they are tortured and interrogated.

Promising to close the Guantanamo base, and then not doing it.

Threatening the nation of Iran with military air strikes if Iran does not capitulate to American and Israeli desires to end its legal uranium enrichment program.

Would someone somewhere please explain to me how this litany of torture and death can be considered for the highest honor for promoting peace on the planet?

Lastly, if this short list of infamy gets you the Nobel Prize for Peace and a cash award of over $1 million, Joe Stalin, Pol Pot and Adolph Hitler should get the awards posthumously.

Do Gun Shows Have Loopholes?

Today’s Nashville Tennessean newspaper’s lead story headline is “NY slams gun show ‘loophole’ in Tenn.” The story is about a purported undercover investigation of gun shows done by the City of New York. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has long been an anti-gun activist.

Apparently, Bloomberg sent investigators to gun shows in Tennessee and other states, using tiny hidden cameras to record what they considered illegal activity. They allege that guns from Southern states are regularly found to be used in felonies in New York, and that it is too easy for criminals to buy guns at gun shows.

The article spotlighted one gun show held in Nashville that attracts 250 gun dealers and up to 10,000 people every month. Gun dealers must be licensed by the Bureau or Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF). Background checks on buyers must be performed by dealers. Penalties for selling guns to felons can include fines and imprisonment for the dealer.

The New York report showed that most dealers were law-abiding and that most sales were legitimate. So, where is this alleged “loophole” in the law?

It’s found in individual liberty and property rights.

Any of the attendees at a gun show are free to offer their own guns for sale to any other attendee. They may not represent themselves as dealers under penalty of law. But nothing prevents them from striking up a conversation with another attendee and offering to sell a privately owned firearm. They also don’t have to be bothered with the firearms registration paperwork that a dealer must complete.

I’ve seen this every time I’ve attended a gun show. There are people walking around with guns on their shoulders with a “for sale” sign attached to the gun. And any time a sale is made by an individual, they simply take their transaction out to the parking lot where the money and firearm changes hands.

No background checks need be done when an individual sale is made. So there is the possibility that an individual could sell a firearm to a felon without the seller’s knowledge. There is also a chance that a buyer could make a firearm purchase on behalf of another person.

But it seems to me that the only “remedy” for this “loophole” is to pass a Federal law which only allows firearms to be bought and sold through licensed dealers. And a law like that would be no remedy at all. It would violate individual property rights in a chilling way. It would also be unconstitutional, but that has not even slowed Federal and state lawmakers from passing legislation that infringes on the right to keep and bear arms.

The solution for crime reduction is rescind all gun laws that prohibit or restrict the rights of any person to keep and bear arms. Armed populations are polite populations. Ask Switzerland. Criminals are far less likely to commit a crime when there is the likelihood that the victim (or someone nearby) will be armed.

So, three cheers for individual liberty and property rights! Hip, Hip, Hurrah!

Hospital Blindness: More Cognitive Dissonance On Display

Today I’m at the Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. I’m sitting in a gorgeous eight-story atrium, filled with light, palm trees, and other wonderful green plantings. It reminds me of the lushness of the Opryland Hotel’s atrium.

I’ll get to the cognitive dissonance in a moment…

My mother-in-law has a pacemaker implant, and the battery has gone dead. She has to have a surgical procedure to replace the battery. I had time in my schedule to transport her and my father-in-law from their home, about an hour’s drive away, to the hospital.

When I say “Cognitive Dissonance,” I mean the ability to hold two opposing ideas in one’s mind at the same time. Usually that causes some uneasiness. But at Centennial Medical Center, it just seems like medical blindness.

My life philosophy is “Actions speak louder than words.” If you want to truly understand what is important to another person or a business, don’t listen to what they way…only watch what they do. Their values are found in their actions.

Hospitals blab on all the time about healthy lifestyle choices, taking care of yourself and losing weight. And that very blathering is happening at Centennial Medical Center. Centennial’s actions are anything but promoting healthy lifestyles.

In the atrium, there is a coffee bar where I’m sitting right now. On display are sugar-laden juices, candy, cookies, chips, oversized muffins, sugar-laden sodas and all sorts of coffees, cappuccinos, espresso, etc. That’s bad enough, but how about the food court?

The food court on the second floor above the atrium is mind-boggling. When you walk through the doors you are met by TWO fast food franchises…Dairy Queen and Subway! Beyond that is a grille area, and beyond that is the steam table area.

The breakfast menu included:

Scrambled eggs
Bacon
Sausage
Hash browns
Grits
Biscuits and gravy
Assorted Danish
Cinnamon rolls
Caramelled apples

Beverages were every kind of sugary soft drink you could imagine, along with diet soft drinks, coffees, sugary “vitamin water,” sugary fruit drinks and bottled water.

Most of the patrons for breakfast were hospital staff, including doctors, nurses and other medical staff. And a cursory look at their choices proved that they ate the standard American menu of fats and sugars.

The lunch offerings were:

The entire DQ menu board
The entire Subway menu board
Pork Tenderloin in gravy
Salisbury steak in gravy
Baked chicken
Mashed Potatoes and beef gravy
Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, Brussels sprouts…all boiled into a nearly undistinguishable mush, thereby destroying most nutritional value.

After my mother-in-law emerged from surgery into recovery, they brought her a lunch box, which contained half a chicken salad sandwich, a bag of pretzels, a bag of cinnamon cookies, and a can of Coke. This is nutrition?

What can we learn from this? Is it reasonable to conclude that the hospital doesn’t really consider healthy eating to be important? There is no salad bar on the premises. No truly healthy food is offered for any person who frequents this food court. Most public school lunchrooms do a better job of nutrition.

The most cynical viewpoint is that the hospital is all about treating diseases. Most diseases that humans get are directly attributable to the stuff they eat and drink. So, feeding the patients, their family members and the medical staff the very stuff that keeps them overweight and sick assures a steady stream of customers for the hospital. If people ate right and got healthy, they wouldn’t need the hospital. It might have to downsize or close its doors altogether.

A hospital that was truly committed to healthy living would not serve or sell the traditional American diet. It would champion the cause of abundant vegetables, limited fruit and meat consumption, no sugar, wheat, caffeine or processed foods. That’s what is known as the “alkaline lifestyle,” and is the most healthy lifestyle to maintain.

I challenge you to find an American hospital that has championed the cause of healthy lifestyles by only serving healthy foods on its premises. Let me know if you find one.

But I don’t expect to hear from you any time soon.