Interesting post over on the Libertarian site mises.org on Occupy Wall Street.  The author asked OWS what their main goals are. The three main points were:

1. Get money out of politics

2. Reform the banking system by restoring the Depression era Glass-Steagall Act (ended by Pres Clinton), which separated investment banking from commercial banking (one of the key reasons for the housing and money crashes).

3. Draft laws preventing Congress from investing in companies via insider trading.

Instead of listening to them, we have the Dept of Homeland Security teaching mayors how to disperse the crowds, cops pepper spraying peaceful demonstrators, etc.  As with the Tea Party, perhaps it is time for government to listen more to the people, rather than look upon them with disdain?

Since 2008, we’ve seen Congress and pretty much everyone else fail at fixing the economy.  Much of this is directly due to gridlock in Congress and a president who is either unable or unwilling to direct anything.

Are we approaching the time when we need a two state solution?  Do we willingly divide the nation into two chunks, one liberal and the other conservative, allow people to move to which ever side they want to live in, divide the deficit in half, and then gradually over a few years make the physical separation?

Then, over a period of several years, we could see which side manages better. Would a European-like socialism be able to pay off its deficit and provide a decent lifestyle over a small government program that encourages more economic freedom?

I ask this due to historical precedent. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, we saw the once great empire break up into many little pieces. Some have excelled economically, while others still barely limp along.  It was the solution for the economic and moral collapse of the USSR’s empire.  Do we plan a division, or risk having it happen precipitously on its own, here in the United States.  And yes, we are an Empire, we are economically slowly collapsing, and we have divisions that do not seem surmountable.

Your thoughts on a planned division?  Your thoughts on whether can we remain one nation with the radical divisions we now have?

Another reason why small federal government is such a good idea. We don’t give so much power to such knuckle heads as were placed on the “super” committee.

Can we just all agree on a few things to fix the problem?

1. Fire all twelve members of the super committee for not even having a meeting since November 1? Clearly they wanted this to fail.

2. Fire the 4 Congressional leaders who appointed the 12 super committee members? Obviously they did not seek out the best problem solvers, just the best cronies they could find.

3. Just return spending to 2006 budget levels? That in itself would come close to balancing today’s budget in just a few years.

Who wants to bet that Congress will pass another law reneging on the automatic cuts?  Can we get some real leadership in Washington DC? Please?

Here’s more possible government over-reach.  Lobbyists for the Hollywood industry have pushed for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which would allow them to get ISPs to shut down any and all suspected sites that support piracy.

The way it is worded, if a person on a share site tried to illegally distribute or sell intellectual property, the whole site could be shut down. It doesn’t matter if thousands of others on the site were just sharing baby pictures, all would lose access.  There are no ‘due process’ nor ‘freedom of speech’ exceptions, etc.

Here’s an article on it today

Keep an eye on SOPA. If it starts to get legs in Congress, we’ll all need to call our elected officials and hope they still represent us and not Hollywood.

And this is another reason why federal government should only be there to protect our basic freedoms, and not the desires of lobbyists and big corporations.

As it is, there already are protections for the industries.  They should take the individuals to court, and have the courts order the shut down of only the law breaker, not everyone.

Lesson 45 now online. I discuss how Revelation is a temple endowment. Don’t worry, I walk carefully through it all, and had to omit many things in the public realm that would have been too sensitive on the temple. But I hope you’ll like it.

http://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-testament-gospel-doctrine-lesson-45.html

Read there, comment here!