I’ve been reading Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged over the last few days and it’s been hard to put down. I don’t know why, but it seems like I often read the right books at the right time. Rand is almost prophetic in some of the things that she says. Right now, her book seems to fit in nicely with the whole Occupy Wall Street crowd.

In Atlas Shrugged, there are two kinds of people: the looters and the producers. I’d have to guess that most of the people occupying Wall Street, Los Angeles, Seattle, and wherever they’re occupying, are looters. They think that they have the right to other people’s work. They’re unhappy not because the government is taking too much from them, but because they aren’t receiving enough from the government.

There are some services that it makes sense that the government provides. Roads. Courts. The military. We all benefit from them; we all need them. Should the government provide schools? I know that they started out with good intentions in mind, and perhaps it makes sense that local communities get together and provide local schools (or at least provide financial assistance for those families that can’t afford private schools), but this doesn’t have to be done on a national scale. Do we really need the FDA telling us that aspartame and vaccines are good but raw milk is going to make us sick? Couldn’t we create a private organization, like Consumer Reports, to do that sort of work?

I was struck by one chapter in the book where one of the main producers, Dagny Taggart, quits her job and goes to live in a cabin in the country. She quit because the government passed a set of laws that basically took away all of her freedom of choice about whether to work or not (just wait, I can see situations where that could be coming to the United States).

In isolation, her character remained the same. She saw problems at her little house and decided to fix them, repairing shingles, creating a walkway, and planting flowers. The nearby town didn’t receive a grocery store shipment because it had rained, and every time it rains the road becomes impassable. She asked, if the road always washed out when it rained, why didn’t they just fix it? Not being one to just sit and complain, she started thinking about fixing the road herself, after she fixed up her little cabin a bit.

While Dagny might have been a railroad heiress, her success didn’t come because her family was rich. Even without all of her monetary possessions around her, she was still getting things done and making improvements to her surroundings.

So what are you? Are you a looter or a producer at heart? You can’t tell by how much money you have now. When you face a problem, do you whine because it’s hopeless, or do you do your best to fix it? Do you want to rely on yourself for the things you need, trading your hard work with others fairly, or do you want others to provide things for you? I realize that sometimes people need a little help, especially in this economy, but when you receive help, is it your goal to get to the point where you can make it on your own and perhaps pay it forward, or are you happy right where you are at?

After I left the military several years ago and time had passed for a few years, things were looking pretty dim for me, in my eyes. My husband’s job wasn’t paying that much, and it didn’t look like there was ever hope to get paid anything above mediocrity. We were having trouble paying bills. We had a string of job losses and our house caught on fire. It was a very difficult time in my life.

Things started to look up. Dh started going to college (he’s now in law school). I started my own business. Dh helped start a business. Good things have started happening to us. Dh was accepted into the Alliance Defense Fund’s Blackstone Fellowship, and today he received an email from somebody asking if he would like to apply for a student assistant position at a law office. I don’t know if he will get the job or not, but the fact that someone is seeking him out asking if he wants to apply for a job is pretty good.

In the past few years, I’ve seen so many ways where people can create incomes, even if they can’t find a job. Maybe they’re not high paying, but they help out, and you can put them on your resume if you still want to work for someone else (I put my Epinions experience on my resume when looking for a writing job; I did get the job). Often, you don’t even need money to start out. Perhaps, if you’re crying for someone else to come save you financially, you might want to think and try to figure out ways that you can start producing.

Ever since I became interested in real-food nutrition about a year ago, I’ve noticed that a lot of people that are interested in health often seem to be supporters of the Democratic party. Not all, of course. Some would like the government to pass laws to tell the unhealthy masses what they can and cannot eat.

I do not support that, of course. If you have read much of what I write, then you would probably guess that I’m conservative. I’m not a Republican; I consider myself a Constitution Party member (I voted for the Constitution party Candidate in 2004, in fact). I do support much of what the Tea Party supports (although it’s not a real party). While I don’t support passing laws telling us what we can and cannot eat (I prefer education), I do think that there’s something that both real-food advocates and conservatives can agree on: farm freedom.

While large-scale agriculture doesn’t seem to have a problem with governmental regulations (many of these companies help influence the regulations), small farms are increasingly the target of governmental raids. Amish farms have been raided for selling raw milk. One person was fined over $90,000 for selling rabbits (making about a $200 profit before the fine). Another person was fined thousands of dollars for giving food away. In some ways, we’re not much different from the Tunisian fruit vendor that set himself on fire because he was tired of the government interfering in his life and making it difficult for him to earn a living.

I don’t care if you like to eat healthy, clean foods, or love to eat Ho-Hos and Coke every day at lunchtime. If you’re an American, I hope that you can at least agree that small farmers should be free from excessive governmental interference. If there’s a true health hazard, then perhaps the government might want to warn us; however, in many cases, there is no reason to take away a farmer’s livelihood. I’d prefer freedom, even if it means there is a little risk involved.

The other day I started re-reading History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I read the abridged version last year, but this is a very difficult book, and I probably missed some information. Besides, there are many chapters that were cut out of the abridged version; I wonder why they chose to cut out some of the chapters, like the sack of Rome. Wouldn’t that be an important chapter?

I learned how to highlight in my Kindle for iPad (yay!) and I ran into a paragraph that was worth thinking about:

The native Caledonians preserved, in the northern extremity of the island, their wild independence, for which they were not less indebted to their poverty than to their valor.

Right before Rome started to decline, they had enlarged their territory about as far as they were going to go, with the exception of Britain. This area of the world was full of tribes that loved freedom. Gibbon said that they had “the love of freedom without the spirit of union.” Rome eventually overtook most of these tribes, with the exception of Caledonia. These people preserved their freedom.

We face dark days in America today. Many of us love freedom; but how much do we love freedom? Do we love freedom so much that we are willing to suffer the consequences of our own actions? Do we expect someone else to come to the rescue when our exercise of freedom doesn’t work out as we expect? If we truly want to keep our freedom, we need to be in the position to be free. Over the next few years, when the government will inevitably make spending cuts, we need to take this time to exert our freedom. We need to have an attitude of “okay, I see that you can’t afford to give unemployment benefits for more than a month; but I’m going to do my part to save so that I don’t get caught in too much of a jam.” “I know that the government has to cut back on food stamps for the poor, but I’m going to help out and give to my local food pantry so that these people don’t go hungry.” “I realize that the government can’t afford to send rescue helicopters out to the mountains to find me if I get lost while hiking in the mountains, but I either bought some insurance or I’m willing to take the risk.”

The Caledonians were not wealthy, but they were brave. They were willing to fight for their freedom. They weren’t willing to roll over and make compromises. When the enemy arrived, they fought back.

Whenever Americans say things like “oh, I know that on average, more people drown in bathtubs than die from terrorist attacks (a fact), but I still think that it’s okay to be photographed naked or have someone feel me up; it’s for safety” or “I have to fly and do what they tell me to; it’s for my job” then we lose freedoms. When people sue a company because they were too stupid to watch their step and slip on the floor, they’re helping us lose our freedoms. When people put their financial interests ahead of the interests of freedom, we’re forging our own chains. It’s time to start standing up for our freedoms like the Caledonians.

Herman Cain: I LOVE Herman Cain. Okay, I’m not going to leave my husband for him or anything, but it would be a dream come true for me to see this guy win. I have never been a registered Republican, but I might just consider changing my party alignment from Constitution Party to Republican just so I can vote for this guy in the Presidential Preference Election. The only thing that I didn’t like about his answers was that he was in favor of Mitt Romney in the last presidential election. The choices last election season pretty much stunk though, so I can’t hold it against him too much.

Gary Johnson: I don’t like this guy at all. He has some pretty good business sense, but he is in favor of abortions being legal until the fetus is viable. He’s in favor of legalizing drugs as well. If he said that was a matter that should be left to the states, like Ron Paul, then that probably would be an okay answer. He’s a little too liberal on social issues for me.

Ron Paul: He’s Ron Paul. You pretty much know what to expect from him. He said that he would have been able to capture bin Laden with his policies though — I don’t think so. Some of the information that we received was from Iraq (which he was against) using waterboarding (which he is also against). Like Glenn Beck, I think he’d be great as Secretary of the Treasury, but I don’t really want to see him in charge of foreign policy… although with the exception of bin Laden, I think he’d still do a better job than Obama.

Pawlenty/Santorum: I could hardly tell these guys apart. They seem like your typical politicians. Pawlenty is a little more liberal socially, and Santorum is more conservative socially. They’re both for states rights. Maybe they’d be able to solve this mess that our country is in, but they seem as boring as snot. I’m sure that I’d vote for them if they were up against Obama in the 2012 election, but I can’t get excited about either of them.

So that’s the hour and a half debate in a nutshell, from my perspective.

When I saw the pictures of the people celebrating in Times Square and in Washington DC, I was immediately reminded of something that I read about in the past week. I’ve been reading The Century, which I read when it came out more than 10 years ago, but wanted to read again, now that I’m a little more knowledgeable (and not in an aspartame-induced brain fog either). The book has some great photos and first-hand accounts. Anyway, seeing those people celebrating in Times Square reminded me of the pictures of people celebrating in Times Square after another American victory: the end of World War II.

I realized that people who are teenagers today have never really lived through a time when America was great. We have not had anything to celebrate in a long time. The last person to walk on the moon left before I was born. Our influence in tearing down the Berlin Wall happened more than 20 years ago. My daughter (who is 8 ) wouldn’t know what the Berlin Wall was. We haven’t gone over that in history class.

For the last 10 years, our nation has been through trying times. There was the September 11th attack. The economy suffered. We rebounded for a while, and then the economy went into its biggest tailspin since the Great Depression. No wonder teenagers don’t think that America is great! If you were eight when the September 11th attacks occurred, you’d be 18 now. Most kids aren’t really that politically aware before age 8; from their perspective, the United States may have once been good, but now we’re a nation who have given up our freedom to the Islamists, fight in wars that we don’t seem to be winning, doesn’t have enough jobs for the people that live in it, and may be on the verge of financial disaster.

America has been through tough times before. We practically lost the American Revolution, until we finally had a victory at Saratoga. When our Constitution was being created, we almost couldn’t get that together, until everyone decided to step back and pray for a few days. The Civil War and reconstruction was a difficult time as well.

The period from 1929 to 1948 was an intense time of trial for our country. First, we go from a decade of prosperity to a time when people can’t find jobs, and some are even starving. Then, tyrants start acting up in Europe, and although we stay out of the war for a while, we are drug into it when Japan attacked us. Many young men die defending freedom, while at home, mothers make due with ration cards and plant victory gardens, while leaving their children during the day to go to the factories to produce bombs and other war materiel. This was two decades of intense hardship. I read today that the birth rate between 1948 and 1953 (a five year period) was more than the past 30 years put together. People don’t want to bring children into the world when everyone is starving all around them. They want them to live a good life.

It almost seems as if we’re in a war. We had been losing. While the war to save our country is far from over, Osama bin Laden’s death was one victory. It was the first that we’ve seen in a long time. Maybe there’s more difficulty ahead of us. We’re going to have to introduce austerity measures in the government. We’re going to have to step up our charity towards others to fill in the gap. If we can do that, maybe we’ll win in the end, and push back the advances of the progressives and those that hate our country. After the Depression, after World War II, came the 50s, which were prosperous years for many. Maybe we’ll see our own prosperity once again, some day.

I miss being able to fly. Sure, I know that technically, flying is legal, but how much of a hassle is that? I refuse to be molested, and I also refuse to have naked pictures taken of me. It’s not a comfort thing with me, it’s against my religious beliefs. I suppose I can still take a private jet… I never have, but if I had to go somewhere quickly, I suppose I could save up for a few years to go (it is a couple thousand to fly a jet to my parent’s house). I wish that I could fly, but I can’t violate my beliefs.

I miss being able to choose whether or not to ride in a car without a seat belt. I think that seat belts are great, but what about freedom of choice? I remember as a kid riding next to a cliff, thinking that if the car flew off the cliff, I wouldn’t want to have that seat belt on when the car was sinking. Shouldn’t I be able to choose?

I’m not a kid, but it would be nice if my kids could set up a lemonade stand if they’d like without buying a business license. The government has already been on the backs of some child entrepreneurs. I certainly can’t afford to pay my child much for chores. My daughter has started a t-shirt designing business under my supervision, but there are some jobs that are just closed to her now.

I miss being able to eat the food I’d like. If I want to drink raw milk, why can’t I? Some kids can’t even bring their own food from home if they go to public school. Get out of my business and let me eat what I like! The government certainly isn’t protecting us from poisons like aspartame and GMO foods that produce their own pesticides.

I miss being able to say what I like without being worried that it could get me into jail. While most people are able to say what we like, we all know that big brother is watching, and that people like Cassette Sunstein are standing by waiting to tax us if we say conspiracy theories. Also, it seems like the definition of terrorism has been expanded to include even Christians armed with nothing more than the Sword of the Lord (the Bible).

I don’t know how to gain freedom back. I do have a story about courage to remain free… I suppose I will share it at a later date.

I’ve always been a fairly patriotic person. The only time I ever missed voting in an election is when I was out of state on election night and missed the absentee ballot deadline; I served in the military for several years and love the founding fathers. Lately, however, I have been quite unhappy with the way that our government has been acting. I can deal with stupidity, but what bothers me is that I *hate* the direction that the United States government is heading. I want nothing to do with certain actions that it is taking.

Most of the problems that I have with the government right now deal with what is going on in the Middle East. We need to stay out of it. Libya is not a threat to us; we have no business meddling in their business. The same goes for the Ivory Coast. Whatever happened to the days during World War I where we stayed neutral? That was about as pointless of a war as I’ve ever seen… I recently started reading my copy of The Century and found it hard to believe that countries would fight over something so stupid as one idiot assassinating someone. I realize that we are the strongest power on the planet, but that doesn’t mean that we need to involve ourselves in every conflict out there, especially when there is no side that has the obvious moral upper hand.

I especially can’t support the direction that our country is headed in in Israel. I recently started listening to a lecture series about the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and I realize that the situation has some complicated roots, but it looks like the US might turn its back upon Israel when others start accusing them of war crimes. I can’t support that.

I suppose that the ancient Jews couldn’t really support Rome either, especially when they were sacrificing a pig in their temple. Christians probably weren’t very fond of Rome when Nero was using them as candles to light up his garden. The world is full of examples like that, but I’ve just never seen it with my country.

The major problems that have been seen with the leaks have been problems with integrity. The government was lying about X, someone said something petty or unkind about someone else.

These aren’t nuclear codes that are being released. These are problems with integrity.

If we lived our lives with honesty… if the government was honest… we wouldn’t have to worry about the kinds of things that Wikileaks was releasing. If you have a business and you treat your customers and your shareholders fairly, you also don’t have to worry about this sort of document release.

I’m not saying that what they’re doing is right or wrong. What I am saying is, that in a world without secrets, if we live our lives the right way, the worst that could happen if someone revealed something about us would be a little embarrassment.

Esther was in a position to speak up when her people were threatened with genocide. Haman had chosen to do the right thing, no matter what (which I wrote about last night); he didn’t have a voice with the king, but he did have a voice with Esther.

It wasn’t easy for Esther to speak up. She faced death when she approached the king uninvited. When she accused Haman of trying to kill her people, she could have angered the king, and again faced danger. She did speak up, because it was the right thing to do.

We might not have the voice that Esther does. I don’t have a radio show; I don’t have influence. We might be more like Haman, who could convince Esther to talk to the king on their behalf. Whatever our role, we may face difficulties and danger. We need to do the right thing and speak up in whatever capacity we have been placed into. There are no coincidences. God has us here, for such a time as this, to face whatever difficulties that come our way, without compromising or wavering on God’s word.

Earlier this week, I decided to start watching the leftist sites to see what they’re up to. After all, if Obama’s friends at Netroots are going to be watching people like me, I might as well be watching them. I can probably find new insights about what’s going on by watching the other side as well.

One thing that I learned today is that nobody likes the new FBI law. If you haven’t heard about what’s going on lately, the FBI can now request your electronic records… or at least that is what is being proposed. I’m not sure if it has actually passed or not. They can examine your records, and you can’t legally tell anyone that they came to look at them. Now, Glenn Beck said last night that you couldn’t tell anybody that they took your records, but what is going to stop you? If the FBI shows up on my door and copies all of my electronic records, I will publish it far and wide (that is, of course, until they haul me off to prison for violating that law and telling people).

So in one of my first ventures into the world of the other side, I decided to visit The Daily Kos. I discovered that they do not like the new FBI law either. 8ackgr0und N015e pointed out that “I don’t trust the FBI”. Well, that makes two of us. I do realize that there’s a place for intelligence gathering and crime control, but I certainly don’t think that they should be able to act without judicial oversight.

It’s very tragic, because I think that there are many things that most Americans do agree on, but the powers that be are succeeding in keeping people divided on minutiae. For example, the other day I had a conversation with someone on the left who was against the crooks in big business. Well, what do you know, so am I! So are many people I know. If someone is a crook, they need to be prosecuted and go to jail.

It is too bad that we can’t unite on the things that many of us can agree upon, like allowing the FBI to seize our electronic records without a warrant, and without being able to legally tell others that they did come and take our records.