Last week I decided to get away from the dire news by pulling weeds in the garden. We live in a fairly remote corner of north Idaho, and we have a large garden. Weeding relaxes me.

But it was not to be. Half an hour into my task, I heard the sound of an engine overhead. Looking up, I saw … a drone.

Flying due south-to-north, it passed low and directly over my head. It was one of the few times I didn’t have my pocket camera on me or I would have taken pictures.

I won’t be so paranoid as to suggest the drone was spying on ME personally … but I can assure you the feeling of unease, of KGB-style government surveillance, increased exponentially since that day. I can’t even weed my garden in privacy any more.

Now I’m being more careful in what I email, what I say on the phone and what I type on my computer. After all, everything is being recorded.

Back in the 1970s, when I was in high school, I remember seeing a television commercial for Coca-Cola. The ad depicted a houseful of rural Russian peasants celebrating some sort of event – laughing, joking, talking freely, drinking Coke – until suddenly the door slammed open and some armed KGB officers stood there menacingly. The gist of the commercial is how the communist Russian government didn’t want any of its subjects to wring the least bit of enjoyment out of life, especially by drinking Coca-Cola.

Back then my thoughts about the ad were pity for the poor peasants who couldn’t be joyful without governmental permission. Now, 40 years later, those feelings have come home.

Supposedly all this unconstitutional domestic surveillance is to catch terrorists, but I can assure you the whispered opinion here in Real America is that we’re entering a dark and desperate age, one that – if historical precedence is noted – precedes shocking acts of despotism, tyranny and butchery.

Sorry if all this sounds paranoid, but after learning my phone lines are tapped, my emails are collected and my weeding activities are monitored by overhead drones – what else am I to conclude? That this is all done for my safety?

“Safety” is a highly overrated quality. In the name of “safety” we’re willing to forfeit an astonishing number of constitutional rights. Need I remind you of the famous quote (attributed to Benjamin Franklin), “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

“The program was sold to Americans with the goal of safety and security from terror,” noted Joseph Farah. “But it has evolved into a terror of its own – a ‘cure’ perhaps worse than the disease.”

Critics point out that the precedent for domestic spying came in with the Patriot Act during the Bush administration, as if that somehow excuses the explosive expansion of citizen surveillance under Obama. But domestic surveillance has existed at least since the 1970s, when it became technologically possible to do it.

I’m fully convinced that my reaction to this surveillance – paranoia and careful watching of what I say, write, or do – is precisely what the government wants. We are being conditioned to accept governmental intimidation, whether it’s a school board forbidding mention of the Deity at a graduation ceremony, or by someone refraining from replying to an email that might be deliberately “misinterpreted” by government goons. People in power always believe that the end justifies the means; and if the “end” is the reduction of criticism for destroying our constitutional republic, then they’ll use whatever means are necessary to achieve it.

As was so succinctly illustrated in Atlas Shrugged, we are experiencing tyranny by regulation. “There’s no way to rule innocent men,” observed Floyd Ferris, a character in the book. “The only power any government has is to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kinds of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of lawbreakers – and then you cash in on guilt.”

The government has been known to create “crises” as necessary to further their objectives, whether it’s gun control or clamping down on freedom of speech. Surveillance, as the IRS so blatantly demonstrated, often descends into rewarding friends and punishing enemies. “[I]f everyone’s every action were being monitored, and everyone technically violates some obscure law at some time, then punishment becomes purely selective,” notes Moxie Marlinspike in Wired. “Those in power will essentially have what they need to punish anyone they’d like, whenever they choose, as if there were no rules at all.”

The drone that flew over my head caught me in the highly subversive act of weeding the strawberries. How is this subversive, you ask? Well, the strawberry bed is just part of a much larger garden. The garden exists because we are endeavoring to become more self-sufficient. We are endeavoring to be self-sufficient because we believe this nation’s political path will lead to an economic collapse. If we believe this, it must mean we don’t trust our government. Therefore we must be watched or we just might plant bombs or blow up airplanes. Hence the act of weeding strawberries makes us subversive. See the logic? Anything can be twisted and made seditious.

Never forget one thing: The number of people killed by terrorism pales in comparison with the hundreds of millions of people killed by their own governments in the last century.

I’m going to be weeding the peas today, if anyone is interested in watching.

Over the years this quote has been distilled into “Taxes are for little people.” Well, as the scandals of the past few months illustrate, we may as well admit that laws, too, are only for the little people. Namely, us.

There are so many laws, rules, regulations, ordinances, edicts and directions currently in force in America that, quite literally, we have no choice but to break one or two every time we draw a breath. How many laws exist in America? Nobody knows. Some estimates run as high as a million. In 2010 alone, there were 40,627 new laws implemented. Part of the problem is the government keeps inventing new crimes, at least 452 since 2000. Things that were perfectly fine yesterday become, at the stroke of a pen, a criminal offense today.

Tell me, who can keep track of these things? It is impossible for us to comply with everything. And that’s what the government banks on – that we’re all criminals to one degree or another. Since we are ALL lawbreakers simply by our very existence, this comes in handy when the federal government wants to “nail” someone.

But while the people in the highest echelons of government – and to some extent, business – are in theory subject to the exact same laws under which the rest of us must suffer, somehow these people magically become immune to prosecution or conviction no matter how blatantly they break these laws. Even Leona Helmsley served only 19 months out of her 16-year sentence.

Talk about a privileged class.

Did you know that the word “privilege” comes from “private law”? “Etymologically a privilege (privilegium) means a ‘private law,’ or rule relating to a specific individual or institution,” notes this source.

In other words, private law means the privileged elite are a law unto themselves. Our standards (frequently the standards THEY set for US) are not their standards. The privileged are exempt from the laws the lower classes must follow. They can get away with stuff for which you or I would be crucified.

Does anyone truly believe that people in the top echelons of government will really go to jail for their felonious behavior? The worst thing that may happen is they’ll “resign” or will be “reassigned” to another powerful position. That’s privilege.

While the “little people” recognize how eagerly the government hopes we’ll break a law so our freedoms can be taken away, those in this nation’s upper echelons can commit the most foul and blatant violations of laws and, not only stay immune from prosecution, but are sometimes actually promoted. After all, laws are for little people.

Consider CPS workers in California: “It has become clear that CPS answers to no one, but this abuse of power cannot be tolerated.”

The WND story reports: “Orange County has never admitted to any wrongdoing although the court found the social worker involved had filed false reports and suppressed evidence that would have cleared [mother Deanna] Fogarty. That same employee was later promoted to supervisor in charge of training other social workers.” [Emphasis added.]

Consider how the IRS (still fresh from the scandal that it targeted conservative groups) put on lavish conferences but was unable to find the receipts to prove they were business expenses. “In his opening statement [of an internal audit] … [Inspector General] George acknowledged that the IRS could not account for all of the conference costs. The agency, therefore, was in violation of tax accounting rules that it enforces on citizens.”

Consider how the federal government is forcing everyone to swallow Obamacare, while making themselves exempt and providing waivers to privileged friends. Of course, this begs the question, if Obamacare is so great, why aren’t our leaders eager to embrace it for themselves?

Consider how the Obama administration is secretly carrying out warrantless domestic surveillance programs under which it is collecting records involving Americans who are under no suspicion, in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment.

These privileged abuses of power come from both sides of the political aisle, for the simple reason that there are essentially no constitutionalists in our government. The rare constitutional politician is overwhelmed and marginalized by the powerful and privileged “laws unto themselves” that saturate our corrupt government. Rather than obey the law, the government is effectively saying, as Rush Limbaugh so memorably put it, “Bleep you.”

“We have two men, Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, who have demonstrated absolutely no regard for the law nor the Constitution that enshrines that law,” noted Erik Rush. “The irony of the fact that they both allegedly hold law degrees is only significant in this having provided them with the ability to more adroitly circumvent the law. … As always, in such systems as the emerging paradigm – whether monarchy, oligarchy, or a communist state – the elite ruling class is always above the law. … Hence, Justice’s blindfold, because no one is above the law.” [Emphasis added.]

Yet no matter now much scandal erupts at the highest levels of government, no one is ever punished. After all, as Hillary noted, “what difference does it make” if our elected officials break every rule in the book? Laws are for little people.

What demonstrates that America is in decline is not the recent scandals. There have always been scandals. The true proof of our rapid descent is what is done about the scandals. When privileged people operating with criminal disregard for the laws of our land are merely asked to retire from office, that’s not punishment. Stepping down and then going into academia, lobbying, or some other position is NOT punishment. It means they’re privileged and immune from our laws. When a nation’s rulers are above the law, despotism always follows.

This isn’t how America is supposed to work. Our battle is not with individuals; it is with principles. Citizens aren’t supposed to be cowed and terrified of their own government, afraid to speak or write or post or email or say things lest the KGB or Gestapo swoop down on them. THAT’S NOT AMERICA.

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. …”

Just sayin’.

Why? Because she had concerns that she, along with everyone else in America, was being tracked … and she didn’t like it. Her response to these concerns was to withdraw as much as possible from modern life.

I confess I thought this was a bit extreme, but I wished her well and said goodbye. I question how much anyone (without reverting to a primitive lifestyle) could withdraw sufficiently from the modern world to avoid being tracked in some manner.

Nonetheless I’m beginning to think she had a point.

I was reminded of this reader’s actions a few days when I saw a story about how Tesco supermarkets in the U.K. are keeping track of what customers are buying in order to urge them to choose more healthy foods.

Now before you start to sputter in anger about how it’s none of the store’s business what groceries (healthy or otherwise) someone buys, consider this: In a society where the government pays for health care (as in the U.K.), it is entirely the government’s business to monitor what its citizens eat and urge (force?) them to live a healthier lifestyle. If others are paying for your health care, they have every right to police every morsel that passes through your lips. They have every right to regulate and control your recreational activities. They have every right to clamp down on whatever the heck they please, if it affects your health.

So before you get scolded by your local government health-care provider for buying that bag of Doritos and the six-pack last Saturday night, you’d better think long and hard about just how much you want the government involved in your health care … or anything else.

Health care is just the tip of the iceberg. The government is no stranger to scandal when it comes to dismantling the constitutional restrictions placed upon it. The government steals profit from producers and redistributes it toward the non-producers. It herds children into indoctrination centers for 13 (or more) years and punishes parents who refuse to relinquish their offspring. It audits us for punitive reasons, incrementally dismantles our Second Amendment, steals our medical information, taps our phone lines and reads our emails.

Does this sound paranoid? Maybe. But remember the old adage: Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean you’re wrong.

Now here’s the thing to remember: Paranoia can run on both sides. Sure, we’re being tracked. But WHY is the government tracking us? That’s right: it’s paranoid. It’s scared that the American people will one day remember their roots and rise up in revolt. It’s nervous that, despite years of dumbing us down, we’re still clinging bitterly to our guns and Bibles and resisting interference in our businesses, churches and personal lives. It’s frightened that, despite laws and shortages and generational indoctrination, there are more firearms and more ammunition in the hands of private citizens than at any other time in history.

No other nation in the world was conceived with the inbuilt freedoms of America. The concept was revolutionary: Allow maximum freedom to citizens while curtailing government power through constitutional limitations and strict adherence to the Bill of Rights. It was a unique experiment and one that proved roaringly successful … so long as the people demanded those limitations be observed.

But little by little those restrictions have been ignored, belittled and forgotten. The government introduced mandatory indoctrination for children and then deliberately chose not to teach them our nation’s inheritance. This went a long way toward permitting the government to overstep its bounds and begin the path to tyranny. In this they have been aided and abetted by the mainstream media’s incestuous protection, thus ensuring a smooth transition from liberty to enslavement.

America is engaged in a constant tug-of-war. Progressives want more government control, patriots want less control, and the result is conflict. It’s no accident that so many writings of the Founding Fathers focused on limiting how much power the government was permitted to have. These prescient men must be turning in their graves to know how far we’ve departed from the ideals they set forth. As Thomas Jefferson noted, “An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.”

Very simply, as someone remarked on a WND comment, “This country was formed for the purpose of providing individuals with the freedom to choose for themselves, to succeed or fail by their own terms, without fear of an intrusive, oppressive government. We need to return to original intent. Over regulations and over taxation and an overbearing, bloated government is destroying this nation.”

This person is correct. America was NOT founded in order to have every minutia of our lives dictated by the government. It was founded as an experiment in liberty.

Yet it is the nature of government to grow, and in this respect the American government is no different than any other totalitarian regime. This is why it is so hostile toward homeschoolers (can’t have children free from government indoctrination centers!) patriots (can’t have people reading the Constitution or Bill of Rights!) and even churches (can’t have people acknowledging that God, not politicians, is king!).

Remember, politicians deny that our rights are derived from the Creator. Instead they want to convince us that rights are privileges granted by the state. And of course what the government gives, it can take away.

This is why my blog reader decided to try her own unique experiment: to withdraw, as much as possible, from modern society in order to be left alone. I have no idea how her experiment is going since, obviously, we no longer communicate.

I must admit, the idea of total withdrawal has a certain appeal. However, I’ll also admit that if we all passively withdrew from modern society, the result would be an instant growth of unchecked tyranny, not the reverse. As George Washington said, “Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

Our job it to KEEP the “dangerous servant” afraid of us. As long as the government is fearful, we still have liberty.

For the 23 years of our marriage, my husband, Don, and I have been blessed with good health. Oh sure, we’ve had the occasional issue, but on the whole we’ve been lucky.

All that changed in early April when my husband got a simple urinary tract infection, which led to more and more serious problems. Organs began shutting down or malfunctioning – intestines, bladder, prostate – until it culminated in late April with hospitalization due to acute kidney failure. The culprit, it turns out, was a massively enlarged prostate which required an immediate catheter to drain his bladder. Thankfully he received superb care in the hospital and has no permanent kidney damage, though he must still catheter for a few more weeks.

Now let me go back in time about two years. Because we’re self-employed and fairly low-income, we struggled for many years to pay for high-deductible catastrophic health insurance. Because the deduction was so high, we literally never used it – all doctor visits were paid out of pocket. After 10 years of this nonsense – essentially pouring nearly a hundred thousand dollars down the drain – we were notified that our premiums were going to increase by 40 percent. We couldn’t afford it anymore.

So we dropped it. It was scary, launching into the world of the uninsured, but we had no choice. In this, we joined hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of other Americans who have been priced out of health insurance. We got Aflac coverage for cancer and accidents, but for everything else – nothing.

Therefore, when my husband was hospitalized, we girded our loins for a massive series of financial setbacks. So far we’ve paid every bill we’ve received, even if it meant putting some of the larger amounts on the credit card. I can’t even begin to describe how thrilled the hospital and other practitioners were to actually get PAID from an uninsured patient, or how eager they are to work with us to make sure future payment schedules are possible within our income.

We thank God there is no cancer; but because my husband is not responding to medication to shrink the prostate, he is scheduled for laser surgery in mid-June. We’re gearing up for the cost of this surgery and hope to have it paid off within a year.

Modern medicine is one of our present-day miracles, and I’m acutely aware that my husband would have died had he not received the prompt care he did. This is just a taste of what endless other people experience as they battle the frailties of the human body.

Now how will this all change in the next few years as Obamacare comes into effect?

In many respects we had it easy. My husband’s hospitalization and subsequent care was costly; but it was simple. He was sick, he was taken care of, we paid for it. But once the government gets involved, it’s anyone’s guess how much of a nightmare health care will become, or how much more scarce doctors and hospital beds will be.

How will the implementation of Obamacare affect self-employed people like ourselves, folks who can no longer afford regular health insurance? Technically we’re the type of people Obamacare is supposed to “help” – hardworking but not wealthy – yet I know from experience that government “help” almost always becomes bureaucratic, inefficient and even punitive.

Obamacare frightens me. It frightens me that health care could be used as a sledgehammer against people who disagree with the government. It frightens me that faceless bureaucrats thousands of miles away will determine what, if any, treatments someone is permitted.

Above all, it frightens me how many doctors hate Obamacare. On the ground level, I have not found a single physician or administrator who approves of this program. Many doctors talk about leaving the field or retiring. Others become almost incoherent with rage when the subject is brought up.

Yet it’s being crammed down ALL our throats, patients and providers alike, whether we like it or not. And now we’re looking at thousands of new IRS agents (IRS!!) to help administer this program. These are the people who will be collecting your medical data and fining you if you don’t understand the 70,000 pages of rules and regulations (which no one understands). Yet people think Obamacare is fair, equitable and civilized.

In light of the IRS scandal in which conservative organizations were targeted and harassed, the potential for punitive behavior on the part of the IRS with regards to health care is high. After all, the IRS official in charge of tax-exempt organizations at the time conservative groups were being targeted now runs the IRS office responsible for health-care legislation. And the IRS already considers itself above the law when it comes to stealing health-care records. Doesn’t that give you a nice warm fuzzy feeling?

How many Americans will suddenly be deemed “unfit” to own firearms based on their medical history? How many will be denied health care because of their political affiliation? How many of our elderly will be left out in the cold because their “usefulness” is over? How many more American jobs will be shipped overseas by employers who can’t afford to pay Obamacare penalties? These are all legitimate concerns.

But beyond all these ethical issues is the simple question of finances. We, like so many other Americans in these harsh economic times, were priced out of the health insurance market, but at least we had the option to work privately with providers to pay our bills. What happens when the government eliminates private insurance companies and forces us to pay for something we can’t afford? Already employers are (understandably) reducing employee work hours below the threshold to avoid the massive costs associated with providing Obamacare to their employees. I can’t blame businesses, since the cost of Obamacare would likely bankrupt them if they were forced to offer this overpriced nonsense to their employees rather than the more sensibly priced insurance they formerly provided. But how many people are having to work multiple jobs just to get in 40 hours a week, and still won’t have health coverage?

Bottom line, we are heading into an Obamacare nightmare of unknown proportions. No longer will we be able to go to the hospital, receive superb care, and pay our medical bills from our own pocket. Soon every aspect of health care will be dictated by faceless punitive overbloated bureaucrats who loathe half the citizens of this country and would just as soon see them all dead.

How’s that hope and change working for you?

The article linked to an InfoWars headline entitled “Homeland Security Funded Exercise Portrayed Homeschoolers as Terrorists.” Normally I don’t read InfoWars because it’s a bit too conspiracy-laden for my taste, but once in a while they break amazing stories. As a homeschooling mom, this one made my jaw drop.

“In 2004,” notes the article, “cops in Muskegon, Mich., conducted a ‘mock attack’ on a school bus as part of a terrorism response exercise. The terrorists portrayed in the exercise were not fanatical Muslims or even phantom right-wing extremists – they were said to be fanatical homeschoolers. … According to the Muskegon Chronicle, the exercise was a simulated ‘attack by a fictitious radical group called Wackos Against Schools and Education who believe everyone should be homeschooled,’ Homeschool World reported in September 2004. The simulated attack was funded by the Department of Homeland Security.”

Um, what? Fanatical homeschoolers? What next, drills against radical Chess Club members? Extremist patrons of the New York Philharmonic?

Look, I’m the first one to admit that I’m rather zealous about the subject of homeschooling. I firmly believe it’s the best educational option available today, followed closely by private schools. I genuinely wish everyone could homeschool or privately school, and thus shut down the unconstitutional Department of Education whose refusal to allow educational competition is one of the biggest reasons for America’s academic decline.

But homeschoolers attacking a school bus? C’mon. That’s about as believable as zealous Chess Club members kidnapping cheerleaders off the football field in order to force them to master the Ruy Lopez Steinitz Defense. Or as believable as obsessive patrons of the New York Philharmonic kidnapping some Garth Brooks fans and forcing them to attend a performance of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony.

In other words, what a STUPID drill. Pointless. Absurd. Unrealistic. Above all, frightening.

This exercise was conducted in 2004; I don’t know why it was mentioned again this week, except to illustrate a growing trend to conduct many DHS terrorist drills and exercises to acclimate Americans to martial law. (Boston home invasions, anyone? Pregnant women gun silhouettes?)

I have no problem with running drills for terrorism. It is, indeed, quite conceivable that a school bus could be attacked, hence the need for emergency personnel to understand logistics and techniques. As the Sandy Hook shootings tragically demonstrated, soft unarmed targets such as schools and school buses are at risk from deranged groups or individuals. And I clearly remember the Chowchilla kidnappings from 1976, so I understand the necessity of training for such a scenario.

But as hundreds of offended parents protested in the aftermath of this drill, it was the choice of mock terrorists that was insulting. How many homeschooling parents have knocked over school buses and shot children? Zero. “It has not been homeschooled children who have walked in public schools shooting everyone and anyone,” noted Homeschool World Magazine, “but rather public school children.”

It’s no secret that most (not all, but most) homeschoolers are conservative. Homeschooling parents have values we want to pass on to our children, values we don’t want watered down with revisionist history or moral relativism. We homeschoolers love our children so much that we’re willing to sacrifice our time, our resources and often a second income to keep them from being indoctrinated with the progressive propaganda rampant in government schools. And for that, we’re ridiculed, mocked and called everything from child abusers to (apparently) potential terrorists.

Gee, who else should we classify as terrorists? Wheelchair-bound grannies in airports? Kindergartners who nibble their Pop-Tarts into guns? Injured vets with colostomy bags?

Homeschooling has been steadily increasing over the last two decades (we only have to look at the quality of public education to understand why), and I acknowledge that the government reaction to this trend has ranged from barely tolerant to outright hostility; but the very notion that “fanatical” homeschoolers would murder children on a school bus is vile to the point of evil.

The significance of this drill isn’t lost on many people. You see, it’s part of a larger DHS plan to treat anyone and everyone on the right as a potential terrorist.

Let’s face it, it’s getting to the point where government officials are attempting to classify anyone who disagrees with them, no matter how law-abiding and innocent, as potential terrorists. Worse, they’re preparing to fight that enemy, even when the “enemy” has done nothing wrong. It is frighteningly reminiscent of the USSR’s psychological warfare tactics in which anyone who disagreed with the Communist government was, by definition, insane and could be locked up in a psych ward. Can no one see these parallels?

The attitude toward conservatives, libertarians and constitutionalists has turned vicious in the last few years. I don’t see Homeland Security proposing drills with militant vegans attacking a McDonald’s to force everyone to eat tofu, yet DHS is consistently profiling anyone who hails from the right as an unparalleled threat. As one commenter noted, “Those homeschoolers are dangerous people. They are forcing their children to learn to read, do simple math, and think for themselves. All of that makes their children potential terrorists.”

I suppose I must accept the fact that the America of today is no longer the America that exemplified the concept of liberty. In this new Amerika, the non-brainwashed are a threat to the socialist paradigm. The elites need subjects who will not question either their motives or their morality. The Patricians want drones who will acquiesce to IRS profiling, Obamacare and government stockpiling of ammo. They want Stepford citizens who shrug their shoulders and ask “what difference does it make?” with regards to Benghazi, Fast and Furious and wholesale tapped phone lines.

No wonder homeschoolers are a threat.

So as a homeschooling mom and a constitutional conservative, I offer greetings from your friendly neighborhood terrorist. We homeschoolers are all over the place, frightening our politicians by winning spelling bees and whupping test scores. My rebel kids are doing things like putting on writer’s workshops and music recitals, writing 90,000 word novels in a month and watching calves being born.

Care to join us? Or are you too busy watching your children learn to put condoms on bananas?

Viva la revolution.

On May 5, President Obama gave the commencement speech at Ohio State University and actually said the following (emphasis added):

“Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, and creative, and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.

“We have never been a people who place all our faith in government to solve our problems. We shouldn’t want to. But we don’t think the government is the source of all our problems, either. Because we understand that this democracy is ours. And as citizens, we understand that it’s not about what America can do for us, it’s about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but absolutely necessary work of self-government. And class of 2013, you have to be involved in that process.”

The president advises that we “should reject these voices” that suggest tyranny is always lurking around the corner. Right. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain – he’s only there to help you, not terrorize you into undertaking pointless and dangerous quests like Oz did to Dorothy. And above all, whatever you do, don’t listen to those silly tinfoil hat wearers who accuse the government of tyranny.

What is wrong with people that they can’t recognize tyranny even when it bites them in the butt? Stalin had nothing but contempt for the “useful idiots” who supported him. These pawns promoted his goals but did not perceive the bigger picture, and Stalin murdered them once their usefulness ended. Similarly, our politicians court the votes of the useful idiots on the left who are unable to grasp the finer points of what an economic collapse will be like and the horror of the Stalinesque government that will rise from the ashes. Instead, they cheer it on and call it “progress.”

I have no doubt that Stalin told his people, with a straight face, that they should reject the voices that warned of tyranny lurking around the corner. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Obama’s remarks underscore the disconnect between the type of government outlined in the Constitution and the type of government we have today. The “self-rule” Obama mentions does not mean government rule. It means the power is in the people, not the government. Duh!!

Self-rule means the government’s sole and exclusive purpose is to safeguard our God-given rights, and that’s all. When it expands beyond that, then it does indeed become a “separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems.”

So what are some problems, both here and in Europe, that are rooted in government? Obviously the list is huge, but here’s a start:

Despite its massive unpopularity, Obamacare is being forced down our throats. Not only does this program jeopardize doctors and patients, but it will vastly reduce medical research and innovation. When asked to describe the current medical system in America, a physician friend said, “Costly and imperfect, but dynamic and innovative. In surrendering individual responsibility (to the government), you also surrender individual autonomy. Ask the government to assume responsibility for your life and it will do exactly that. You will belong to it.”

This doctor has worked in other countries where socialized medicine is the norm. What’s it like to practice under national health care? “I was prohibited (prohibited!) from performing caesarian sections, from ordering CT scans or echocardiograms. … I had to work from a ridiculously limited prescription formulary. The hoops that had to be jumped through to get anything done were time consuming and demeaning. The system infuriated patients and providers alike.”

In England they’re killing off the elderly and infirm in droves to save money and free up hospital beds, while endless others are dying of neglect. This is what happens under socialized medicine.

“But we don’t think the government is the source of all our problems,” said Obama in his commencement speech. Death panels are fake, and anyone who disagrees is wearing a tinfoil hat.

In fact, we can look to socialist Europe as an excellent precedent for the type of government we can expect if the progressives have their way. Sweden and Germany are unspeakably brutal to homeschooling families – people who love their children so much they want to teach them themselves. For this crime, socialist governments cruelly rip families apart, impose fines and jail time and claim it’s for the good of society.

Meanwhile, in the insane push to remove guns from the hands of American citizens, the government is ignoring the truth: Areas with the highest gun violence are areas with the strictest gun laws. This is because criminals (I know this will shock you) don’t pay attention to gun laws. “The gun ban had an unintended effect,” wrote journalist and attorney Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, speaking about gun control in Washington, D.C. “It emboldened criminals because they knew that law-abiding District residents were unarmed and powerless to defend themselves.” Duh!

Now we learn the Europe Commission is proposing legislation that would make it illegal “to grow, reproduce or trade” any vegetable seeds that have not been “tested, approved and accepted” by a new EU bureaucracy named the “EU Plant Variety Agency.”

Illegal?! I’m sorry, do backyard vegetable gardens pose a continental threat that needs to be addressed by the European Commission? Are “unapproved” plants a big problem in Europe? How can anyone claim this legislation is even remotely necessary? While it remains to be seen whether this legislation has a snowball’s chance in hell of passing, I must seriously question the sanity of whoever proposed it. But meanwhile, can’t you can see Monsanto salivating at the thought of bringing this kind of legislation to the U.S.?

See? As Europe has learned, and we’re finding out, government tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. Europe is ahead of us, but the pace is increasing here. And anyone who claims otherwise, like Obama, is no more believable than the Wizard of Oz instructing Dorothy to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

So when Obama says we should “reject these voices” that “warn that tyranny always lurking just around the corner,” what he’s really saying is, “Pay no attention to us as we systematically dismantle the Constitution and Bill of Rights and turn America into Europe. And if you do look behind the curtain and see us pulling the levers, we’ll accuse you of being tinfoil-hat-wearing racists.”

I have a feeling the solution is a little deeper than clicking our ruby slippers and saying, “There’s no place like home.”

Embarrassed that we hadn’t thought to wrap our pipes (we were naïve young newlyweds), we called a neighbor who was a plumber. Despite the fact that it was Christmas Day, he left his family celebration and came to our aid.

That was the start of my admiration for blue-collar America.

If ever there was a group of unsung heroes on all fronts, it’s the blue collars of this nation. Without complaint and often while enduring the derision of the “better educated,” they form our country’s bedrock. They’re the ones that keep us moving smoothly and (mostly) without interruption.

This past week on our farm, we had two steers butchered. A family-run mobile butchering service did the job (you can see the butchering process here – WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTOS). These men take a dirty job and do it quickly, humanely, and cheerfully. While they worked, our conversation touched on politics. Their insight on the difficulties America faces was spot-on and very accurate. And when they drove off to service their next customer, I was once again reminded why blue-collar workers make this nation great.

There are many people in America who – instead of holding out their hands for a government check – dive in and get those hands dirty. They clean toilets, repair engines, mow lawns, pull weeds, butcher livestock, run electrical wires, plow fields, drive trucks, build furniture, weld metal and sew upholstery. Despite the baffling propensity of highly educated white-collar workers to look down at these occupations, blue-collar workers are proud of what they do. They know how important their work is.

And have you noticed that most of the blue-collar workers in this nation are overwhelmingly conservative? Why do you suppose that is? It’s because they’re the ones getting their hard-working hands dirty providing the goods and services that keep this country running.

These are the people on the ground floor of America. Whatever administrative policies our government enacts, they’re the ones who ultimately have to live with it. Poorly represented and often voiceless, they are buffeted by the ill-winds of “hope and change,” enduring taxes and governmental restrictions their fathers never had to face.

But once in a while the blue collars gain a voice. A famous example of this is Joe Wurzelbacher, otherwise known as Joe the Plumber. In 2008, his life changed when Barack Obama walked into his front yard on a campaign stop. This “lowly” blue-collar worker had the audacity to ask Mr. Obama why he wanted to raise taxes. Obama said he wanted to “spread the wealth.”

The truth came blurting out. Busted.

Whether he wanted it or not, this short discussion changed the course of Joe the Plumber’s life. Desperate for damage control, the mainstream press descended like a pack of wolves and tore Joe to shreds. He was put under a microscope, and endless lies and insinuations about him were put in print. They hinted that his lowly occupation precluded intelligence, political acumen and, above all, a voice in our system. He found out firsthand just how vicious and unforgiving the elites can be when challenged with a simple question.

But it is, of course, the Joe Plumbers of the world who have to live with confiscatory taxes and punitive regulations. They’re the ones watching their wealth being snatched away from them. People in the lofty halls of Washington or in the ivy towers of academia rarely see life from the street level. Therefore they can afford to spout their progressive agenda in blissful ignorance of what it’s like to actually LIVE it.

But Joe the Plumber lives it. I live it. You live it. Endless millions of blue-collar workers in America, between washing dishes and fixing leaky pipes, must live with whatever unfair and unconstitutional legislation gets passed.

It’s no wonder Joe the Plumber became something of a folk hero. Here was an ordinary guy who was no longer voiceless. Joe realized that, unlike the politicians and elites trapped in their ivory towers, he had a real perspective of America: that of a plumber. An ordinary working man. A “nobody.”

I recently had the pleasure of talking with Joe the Plumber. Though we’ve never met, we had the instant affinity one blue-collar person has for another. We chatted like old buddies. So I asked him: Why does a blue collar guy see this government’s failings more realistically than a politician or an academic?

“They think too much,” he said. “They try to make things more difficult than they really are. Blue-collar workers get to see what’s actually broken, and that it can often be fixed with a $5 part. But the politicians NEED things to be difficult so they can justify their existence. That’s why they institute $100 million dollar programs to fix a $5 problem.”

“They’re so far removed from what you and I do every day,” he added. “You and I live modest lives, trying to pay the bills, buying food, working hard. These are the things everyday average people do. Whereas the people in Washington, D.C. – I swear they think it’s the United States of Washington D.C. They forget that states came together and created the federal government – not the other way around.”

Our conversation touched on the “Occupy Whatever” crowds who have actually flown communist flags. We both sputtered our disbelief that these poor ignorant fools could ever believe communism works. I have three foreign-born sisters-in-law who escaped communist regimes to find freedom in America. These women can plainly see where America is heading as our progressive brethren can’t.

“But people romanticize what they’ve never experienced,” said Joe.

And elites claim blue-collar people are dumb. Ha. They’ve never talked to someone like Joe the Plumber.

If I wanted to argue what dumbs down Americans, I would say it has a lot to do with the notion that government dependency is somehow lofty and good, and fierce independence and a don’t-tread-on-me attitude is suspicious and bad.

A funny thing happened after Joe the Plumber met Obama. He discovered that he had a voice, and he wasn’t afraid to use it. Now he is striving to give a voice to a voiceless America (see his website at JoeForAmerica.com).

Let’s hear it for all the plumbers, construction workers, butchers, farmers and garbage collectors who unite to make America great. And if you don’t agree, next time your car won’t start or your roof springs a leak or your pipes malfunction, try calling a bureaucrat.

Me, I’d rather call Joe the Plumber … because I know he’ll EARN my money, not confiscate it.

That was then. This is now.

Today we have two nations, peopled separately by what I’ll call the Patriots and the Patricians.

Patriots (We the People) work hard, raise our kids, build businesses, don’t take government handouts and otherwise engage in mature, responsible lives. Patriots don’t look to the government to bail us out of our mortgages, pay for our health care, or otherwise nanny us. Historically, we are the folks who made America thrive.

Then there are Patricians, leaders of a separate America, the core of which consists of less than 600 people in the three branches of government. Patricians now occupy the Patriots’ America, utilizing millions of useful idiots who support everything the Patricians do, no matter how intrusive and anti-constitutional it may be.

Patricians don’t allow their subjugated Patriots to do anything without begging permission. If someone wants to start a business, build a house, partake of a medical procedure, sell a food item, or purchase a rifle … he can only do so after wading through massive bureaucratic red tape designed to make people “safe.” Additionally, Patricians force Patriots to pay for the useful idiots’ illegitimate babies, college educations, mortgages, health care, food and anything else their greedy and fertile minds can imagine. They believe Patriot pockets are bottomless and abundant, and Patriots should empty those pockets without question or complaint.

The least infraction (such as a kid wearing an NRA T-shirt) will trigger a resounding punishment calculated to instill maximum fear. Patricians feel entitled to intrude into every facet of Patriots’ lives. And if Patriots object, Patrician stormtroopers kick in their doors. Where does safety end and tyranny begin?

Additionally, in a classic Cloward-Piven strategy, Patricians create chaos, incite restlessness, overwhelm the system and create so much pain that Patriots will accept anything to make it stop. H. L. Mencken said, “The aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed – and hence clamorous to be led to safety – menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

As the recent lock-down in Boston illustrated, martial law has become frighteningly easy to impose. Innocent people can be ripped out of their homes at gunpoint in the name of “safety.” There need be no warrants and no probable cause – only fear. Supported by the media, Patriots are being conditioned to accept governmental lawlessness. Boston was merely a beta-test.

Now we have Patrician Mayor Michael Bloomberg stating that the country’s interpretation of the Constitution (which Patricians loathe anyway) will “have to change” to allow for greater security in order to stave off future terrorist attacks. Who determines the “change”? And remember, “change” will only affect law-abiding citizens. For criminals and terrorists, it’s business as usual.

“Sometimes it seems the war on terrorism is really a war on the people of the United States,” noted Joseph Farah, “and, particularly, on their liberty, as DHS and other agencies target entire classifications of law-abiding Americans rather than those who pose the gravest threat.” [Emphasis added.]

If there is one flaw common to Patriots – a flaw the Patricians exploit with enthusiasm – it’s a failure to understand how evil, calculating and far-seeing Patricians really are. Part of that failure happens when Patriots give over their children’s education to Patrician schools. As Thomas Jefferson said, “An enlightened people cannot be enslaved.” Patricians strive (successfully) to keep Patriot children unenlightened, the better to enslave them.

The Patricians delight in enacting tyrannical laws all Patriots must follow, while making themselves exempt (see examples here, here, here and here). Their oath to support and defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic mean NOTHING to them. Why should it? Patricians do not support individual liberty and freedom. They are the domestic enemies. They believe only in power. Their power.

Patriots, ever hopeful, believe they can persuade the Patricians to see the error of their ways through letters, emails, phone calls and votes. But Patricians don’t listen. During recent gun-control debates in Colorado, “… the vast majority of citizens testifying before the legislature were opposed to any new gun control laws. However, frequently their testimony was dismissed and treated with disdain by Democratic lawmakers who seemed to have already made up their minds about passing the laws.”

In short, the only voices the Patricians listen to are the voices of other Patricians. When occasionally their drive for power is thwarted legislatively (such as massive gun control), then the Patricians simply bypass the legislative roadblock with an Executive Order to force the legislation through against the will of the Patriots.

“The two enemies of the people are criminals and government,” said Thomas Jefferson, “so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.” No wonder Patricians loathe Thomas Jefferson. He and the other founders knew them for the criminals they are.

To see the Patrician future of America, we need look no further than California, a state that is bankrupt, tyrannical, restrictive and expensive; a place where people are defenseless by government edict and crime runs rampant; a place where the slightest desire to do something independent and self-sufficient (raise some chickens? start a small business? build a shed? plant a garden? homeschool your kids?) requires so much Patrician boot-licking that people often give up in despair. In a collectivist society (a Patrician utopia), there simply isn’t room for people who want liberty. Too many Patriots finally just surrender. It’s easier.

I fear we will soon become One Nation once again, a nation where Patriots are forcibly subdued and Patricians (and their useful idiots) will have dominion. But it sure as heck won’t be a nation under God.

The solution, of course, is revolution, just as it was in 1776. But need it be violent? Could it be a “Ghandi” revolution? What if 225 million Patriots simply said “NO”? NO to Patrician threats. NO to government usurpation of God-given Rights. NO to the chains of tyranny. No No NO!

If Patricians have one flaw, it is arrogance and overconfidence, and the resulting underestimation of the resolve of Patriots. For too long Patriots have been quiet. For too long we’ve been cowed. For too long we’ve been naïve. But that time is done. And Patriots everywhere, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, are once again pledging to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Thomas Jefferson said, “What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?”

Patricians, pay heed. Your time is nearly done.

In this, CNN is merely following the trend over the last five years or so in which the government tries to criminalize anyone who disagrees with it. Therefore it should come as no surprise that Americans who support the Constitution and Bill of Rights are now being reclassified as domestic terrorists, despite the fact that we haven’t done anything wrong.

In the 148-page straw-man document entitled “Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right” (published Jan. 15, 2013), author Arie Perliger identifies three groups who “self-identify with the far-right of American politics” who are responsible for “the dramatic rise in the number of attacks and violent plots.” These groups listed are 1) the racist/white supremacy movement; 2) the anti-federalist movement; and 3) the fundamentalist movement.

The first category, the racist/white supremacy movement, is fairly self-explanatory, though I question how many people actually belong to this group.

The third category, the fundamentalist movement, is defined as “mainly Christian Identity groups such as the Aryan Nations [which] fuse religious fundamentalism with traditional white supremacy and racial tendencies, thus promoting ideas of nativism, exclusionism, and racial superiority through a unique interpretation of religious texts that focuses on division of humanity according to primordial attributes.” Once again, I question how many people actually belong to this group.

However the second category, the “anti-federalist movement,” is the one I found most disturbing … because it could conceivably include literally half the population of America.

Perliger writes: “Violence derived from the modern anti-federalist movement appeared in full force only in the early to mid-1990s and is interested in undermining the influence, legitimacy and effective sovereignty of the federal government and its proxy organizations. The anti-federalist rationale is multifaceted, and includes the beliefs that the American political system and its proxies were hijacked by external forces interested in promoting a ‘New World Order’ (NWO) in which the United States will be absorbed into the United Nations or another version of global government. They also espouse strong convictions regarding the federal government, believing it to be corrupt and tyrannical, with a natural tendency to intrude on individuals’ civil and constitutional rights. Finally, they support civil activism, individual freedoms, and self government. Extremists in the anti-federalist movement direct most their violence against the federal government and its proxies in law enforcement.”

Similarly obsessive sentiments can be found in 2009 DHS document “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”

In short, anyone who disagrees with the government is now considered a potential domestic terrorist. But WHY do people believe the federal government is corrupt and tyrannical? Let’s examine some evidence.

• Vice President Joe Biden calls for the creation of a new world order. In a 1990 speech, so did George H.W. Bush.
• A training presentation in the U.S. military defines “evangelicals” as an extremist threat to America, ahead of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, KKK, Nation of Islam, al-Qaida, Hamas and others. (Training presentation can be seen here.)
• SWAT teams raid dairy farms for the horrible crime of selling fresh raw milk to willing customers.
• The IRS is bypassing warrants and sifting through the email and other electronic communications of American citizens.
• In early 2009, the Missouri Information Analysis Center called for careful observation of people sporting third-party candidate bumper stickers, since they could be identified as potential domestic terrorists.
• The federal government is sending drones into our skies to spy on American citizens.
• The government believes that confiscating our guns will make us safe against criminals who have guns.
• Our children are being brainwashed with a federally driven progressive public school agenda of revisionist history, socialist propaganda, gender neutrality, anti-religious views, anti-family literature, the evils of the Second Amendment and the convenience of abortion.
• The abortion industry (often government-funded) hides hundreds of thousand of cases a year of statutory rape against young girls.
• One of the premier magazines in the nation publishes an article indicating that deeply held religious beliefs are a sign of mental illness.
• Police are becoming increasingly militarized and performing unconstitutional raids on legitimate businesses and private individuals.
• MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry claims children do not belong to their parents, but to the “collective.” And the federal government acts under this premise while attempting to repeal the previously-granted asylum of a German homeschooling family.
• The government forcibly passes Obamacare, despite the fact that 67 percent of people oppose the program’s individual mandate.
• Executive Orders, which bypass Congress and circumvent the Constitution, are commonly used to implement unpopular or unconstitutional laws.
• Mental-health issues are being nationalized, setting the stage for Soviet-era-style psychological warfare on American citizens.
• The current administration is arming foreign terrorists.
• The current administration wants to invite millions of illegal aliens to settle permanently, most of them on welfare.
• Those who like being prepared for hard times or emergencies – in other words, those who prefer not to seek government help – are see as “extreme” and are painted as suspicious and potential terrorists.

I could bring up literally dozens – hundreds – more examples, but I’m limited to 1,000 words in this column, so I had to stop somewhere. (Feel free to add your own.)

So, based on the cases listed above, do you understand why “anti-federalists” believe the federal government is corrupt and tyrannical? Because let’s be honest: IT IS. As the saying goes, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean you’re wrong.

Demonstrating that these issues are age-old, consider the words of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman Citizen (106 B.C.–43 B.C.): “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.”

Now I ask you: who is working to bring down America, to rot the soul of our nation, to bring treason from within? Who is working to fracture our families, undermine our national security and crash our economy? Who is working to penalize small businesses, prosecute producers and reclassify innocent people as domestic terrorists at the stroke of a pen?

In short, who are the REAL domestic terrorists in America?

Mary leaned forward. “You know, you could get a government grant and use that money to send your daughter to school.”

I lifted my eyebrows. “But that’s government money. We don’t take government money.”

My friend was shocked at my lack of interest. “But it’s free money!” she protested.

“No it’s NOT free money,” I said. “It comes out of everyone’s taxes. Why should you or anyone else have to pay for my daughter’s education? At the very worst, we’d take out student loans, but we’ll try to avoid that, too.”

“But student loans have to be paid back.”

“Yes, I know.”

“But a grant doesn’t have to be paid back. It’s free.”

“It’s NOT free. It’s someone else’s taxpayer money. We won’t do it.”

“But you’re low-enough income that I’m sure you’d qualify.”

“I’m sure you’re right, but we won’t take any government money.”

“The amount of money it would cost to send your daughter to nanny school, spread out per person over the whole country, is just a drop in the bucket. No one will even notice.”

“Maybe THEY won’t, but WE will. That’s just the way we are. We won’t take government money.” Mentally I was shaking my head, thinking, You just don’t get it.

Unwilling to let the conversation delve into the unpleasant, we dropped the subject. But I know Mary was genuinely baffled at my hostility toward “free” government money.

And here’s the clincher: Mary is not progressive. She’s reasonably conservative – yet she saw nothing wrong with taking “free” government money.

Some people have a “stick it to ‘em” mentality when it comes to government goodies. Some “occupy” types are out to get the rich by forcing them to fund the poor. But Mary isn’t like that. She works hard and leads a responsible lifestyle. But she just wasn’t thinking through the broader implications of her suggestion.

And I believe this, more than anything else, is what I found most disturbing about my conversation with Mary. And it’s not just Mary – many people are the same way. They just don’t see the broader ramifications of taking “free” government money. To them, it’s free. It somehow materializes out of thin air or grows on trees. It doesn’t harm anyone to take it. Mary’s suggestion wasn’t born out of an “occupy” mentality – she just wasn’t thinking.

The problem with the thoughtless acceptance of government money is it can become a habit. If we take money for our daughter’s education, why shouldn’t we take money to buy a car? Or a house? Or how about “free” health care?

Where does the “free” end? As generations of welfare recipients can testify, it doesn’t.

Freebies destroy motivation. If we could fall back upon “free” government money to fund our daughter’s plans, we would not develop the discipline to save that money ourselves. Or our daughter would never learn to work and save for her education. Or we would miss out on the opportunity to budget and penny-pinch to save up the money.

In short, the exercise of funding our family’s plans and projects is beneficial to us. “Free” money would deprive us of the opportunity to creatively apply ourselves to a solution. Instead, it would force everyone else (via taxes) to be responsible for our decisions.

And worse, it would give our daughter the precedent that “free” government money is not only OK, it’s expected. Even – drum roll, please – a “right.”

I’m strongly of the opinion that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. So what’s the catch? What’s the drawback to this “free” money?

On the surface, perhaps, nothing. My daughter might indeed qualify for her “free” education. But what will that teach her? It will teach her to be a taker, not an earner. It would teach her that she’s “entitled” to something that other people (taxpayers) have no choice but to give her, simply because her parents aren’t rich. It would teach her that if she plays the victim card, she can get something for nothing.

No thanks. I like to think we raised her better than that.

Look, if it was a matter of life or death for our children, we would accept government money. We’d be ashamed to do so; but as my husband puts it, we can eat shame for our child’s life. But continuing education is not a life or death situation. And if my husband and I want to set the example for our girls that independence, resourcefulness and personal responsibility are the goals they should strive for as adults, we sure as heck aren’t going to achieve that by taking “free” this and “free” that.

Slavery in American history meant people were captured on foreign shores, transported like animals, and forced to work away their life for someone else’s gain. We had a very bloody war, in part, to end this abomination.

But there’s another way to become a slave. You can sell yourself. You can sell your soul to the government in exchange for freebies. You can sell your motivation, your work ethic, your personal responsibility, your dignity, even your patriotism. All in the name of free stuff.

You can bleed America dry one drop here and one drop there, and justify it by saying it’s just a drop in the bucket and no one will ever notice. Who cares if we apply for taxpayer money? After all … it’s FREE.

Generations of Americans have been poisoned with the notion that the government “owes” them – all because of freebies.

But just remember this: You get what you pay for. And if you’re not paying for it, you just don’t get it.