Notes From Up-North

The Lions of Pine County, like Lions all over the world are dedicated to community service. Membership is made up of men and women committed to service and interested in making a difference in their local community. There are eight Lions Clubs in Pine County; Pine Area, Pine City, Rock Creek, Hinckley, Sandstone, Sandstone Quarry, Finlayson and Sturgeon Lake. All of these clubs do exemplary work for their surrounding communities. The Pine Area and Sandstone Quarry Lions are all women. Rock Creek and Sandstone have all male memberships and the remaining clubs are co-ed so there are opportunities to associate with a membership structure that fits your personal needs. These clubs have a significant impact on county residents. Over the years they have built and managed community facilities and purchased public safety equipment. The clubs all support area civic projects and sponsor scholarships for graduating high school seniors. Together they sponsor health screenings for county resi

A lieutenant, knowing a little about a lot, is charged with supervising those who, knowing some about a little, tend to offer excuses and shirk responsibility. A lieutenant communicates the mission through NCO’s to the squads and supervises readiness and progress issuing orders to react to immediate circumstances. Mission; an entrusted task which must be accomplished by those who know some about a little without excuse. Mission Success depends on fidelity and trust up and down the chain of command. Supervision; tireless observation to assure resources and manpower are efficiently allocated to accomplish the mission. As rank increases the mission broadens.

 Strange as it may seem to most Americans; viewed on the progressive world stage, the United States is a juggernaut that must be stopped! Those familiar with Swift’s tale of Lemuel Gulliver will recognize the similarity to our current condition as a nation. The dawdling doctor miscalculated and lost his way ending in Lilliput and circumstances he could not comprehend or control.  To attribute our national condition to dawdling foolishness is folly that will accelerate National decline.   Listing the failures of the past twenty-six months will not forestall those that are forecast to unfold in the next twenty-two.  We should, however, ask ourselves why our government is pursuing such policies? Are we about to be tied down and rendered defenseless?  Why would our own governors concede the field to our enemies? Why would our own governors threaten us with the law?   Are these the actions of governors sworn to protect the people and defend the constitution or has allegiance been directed e

  What makes me a conservative ? I believe in the inalienable right of men to be free to pursue happiness.  This is the classic liberal idea, part of man’s unalterable natural state. Civilized society restricts man's animal instincts for self preservation by organizing to cooperate in pursuit of the fundamental necessities to survive.  We call these restrictions government. The most common forms are top-down and authoritarian in nature. Government of people by people was recently introduced to the world.   Viewed historically, it is an idea that must be considered experimental and, as such, subject to failure. Two competing ideologies vie for supremacy in pursuit of government by the people; Capitalism enshrined in the US Constitution in 1788 and Communism introduced by the Russian Revolution 1917. Capitalism is a   laissez-faire philosophy; unrestricted it will crush the weakest. Communism demands central control of all aspects of society; eliminating any aspect of pe

  Jan 6, 2021; a grievance was laid on the table of public opinion. There is no excuse for violence at the Capital and those involved should and will be punished.  There is also no excuse for depicting peaceful demonstrators as riots.  I am personally opposed to large public demonstrations since they are subject to being usurped by anarchists leading to unforeseen consequences.  That said, peaceful demonstrations have been normalized political speech for many decades. The question is where to go from here? A long view The Republic can only survive with free and fair elections. A very large portion of the U.S. voting population is highly suspicious based on sworn eye witness testimony.  Our long view needs to focus on correcting that problem.  The aggrieved population numbers approximately 80 million.  That’s a lot of political power currently available to organize and pressure federal and state governments to clean up  elections.   A short view The aggrieved are being suppres

  Since the demise of the Wig Party Americans have generally aligned themselves with the Democrat and Republican parties. During the industrial rebirth of America following the Civil War the Democrat party emerged as advocates for the “little people” while the Republican party generally supported   laissez-faire capitalism until Theodore Roosevelt’s moved to breakup the big monopolies.  That gradually changed after WWII. FDR’s efforts to bring the U.S. economy back from the great depression of the 30’s created voting habits that persisted until 2016.  In the interregnum President Eisenhower warned of the power possessed by the Military Industrial Complex (Big Money). Big Tech emerged and connected the world via the internet and handheld communication devices. Big Media aligned with big Tech and  Big money. Shadowy big money is corrosive in politics.  For six decades following WWII the people continued to identify personal self interest with one of two political parties in the