Let’s Do Tea!

It doesn’t matter if you are red or blue, right or left, white or black. Tea Parties taking place all across the nation are all about taking a stance on a subject that one believes in. There is no more amazing phenomena than to see these people coming together to be heard.

Several of our staff members have parents that are in the “Baby-Boomer” generation. These folks care about their kids’ and grand-kids’ future. This is all about sustainability as communities – what is best for us? What is best for our communities? For our environments? How can we be profitable?

We will continue to feature tea parties from around the nation, and would love to hear about what you are doing in your community, which we will be happy to post online, as well as in our print-publications.

goodamericanpost@gmail.com

Time for NEW MEDIA

With the sudden and somewhat unexpected news of the retirement of Helen Thomas, considered the “dean of the White House press corps”(2010), we can reflect on the concept that journalism as we know it is changing.  Not to say that this particular event is good or bad, but to remember that an era and a country are changing, and that the media, the press, and the journalists are at the forefront of how our country will continue to be shaped.

This brings our attention to another issue – the FTC working paper on the “Reinvention of American Journalism”.  We here at The Good American Post advocate for journalism that is embraced and enhanced by the free market – not by government grants, subsidies, and taxes (which can artificially create incentives or behaviors).  READ THE FTC DISCUSSION DRAFT and oppose any action on behalf of the FTC that may impede free speech as we know it.

It is time for new media – it is time for our country to stand up and stand tall for journalism that is based on the free market by people who are advocates of the truth, presenting all sides, and being caring Americans.

Reference:
CNN Wire Staff. (2010).  Retrieved on June 7, 2010 from http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/06/07/pol.helen.thomas/index.html?hpt=P1&iref=NS1

Food Rules by Michael Pollan: Rule #31 – Eat Wild Foods When You Can

This is interesting – wild foods often have a greater amount of phytochemicals (super-good nutrients for your body and immune system) than “domestic” foods lack.  This is because theose wild plants have to defend themselves in their environment (against pests, weather, etc.).

So when foods grow in the wild, you are getting the heartiest of the heartiest.  Modern agriculture (often using inputs like chemical fertilizers and pesticides) cannot compete with nature.

In addition to this, domestic and modern breeds of plants have been bred for greater shelf-life, meaning that the plants that keep the longest also have the lowest levels of omega-3 fatty acids (the super-good fats for your brain and skin).  Wild game is good for you too, and again has healthier fats versus conventionally-raised meat.

So, when given the opportunity – go wild!

The Navy (and all Military) “Going Green”

I have had the opportunity to see some of this first-hand at one of the military bases here in Colorado.  What you may not know is that the military is probably the one of the most sustainable organizations in the United States.

There is an example of this today, coming from the Naval Air Station at Patuxent River, Maryland.  We are hearing about an F-16 using a 50/50 mix of aviation fuel and camelina, or wild flax(a bio-fuel made from a “hardy” plan that is able to grow in poor soil).

Of course there is a lot of work to be done still – companies involved in the project that are mentioned in the article include: General Electric, Honeywell, and Sustainable Oils.

The potential economic growth from free-market activities embracing renewable resources?  Wonderful.

Supersonic fighters using renewable energy?  Priceless.

Read the whole story here.

-Tisha Casida

I, Pencil: My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read

WE MUST BELIEVE IN FREE MEN.

We must believe that we are completely capable of solving our problems, being innovative, and putting controls and restraints on systems.  We The People – we are capable and we are exemplary and WE ARE FREE.  We must protect our freedoms and the free market in which we operate, for we are our only true hope.

We encourage you to read this iconic essay by Leonard E. Read, entitled “I, Pencil”

Please find the complete essay here: http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html

Liberty VS. Equality

In a lively debate and discussion about the state of this great nation, I blurted out a simple conclusion that I (and likely thousands of others) came to, specifically after reading Atlas Shrugged.

That conclusion is that you cannot have BOTH liberty AND equality.  Why?  If you are free, and have liberty, then those who make various choices will end up on different paths with different outcomes.  If you are equal, then everyone has the same choices, the same paths, and the same outcomes.

It impossible to be both FREE and EQUAL.

It IS however possible, to have EQUAL OPPORTUNITY.  There is a big difference between being given a HAND-UP versus a HAND-OUT (as my best friend would say).  The United States of America is a place of EQUAL OPPORTUNITY, where anyone can have the opportunity to do anything they desire.  This doesn’t mean that everyone is mandated to be equal and have equalities, it simply means that there is the OPPORTUNITY to grow and thrive (that also means that there is the opportunity to fail).

Unfortunately, many of the debates and social issues we have now revolve around this dichotomy.  However, if we protect our Constitution and our relatively free-market, it is my hope that liberty can win this debate and provide for a more productive, prosperous, and positive future for our citizens.
By Tisha Casida

When Green Works

By Tisha Casida

As being a relatively Independent and Conservative thinker, I sometimes get backlash for liking “green” things.

The reason that I do cherish my environment is because I am a product of being exposed to dangerous chemicals that are a standard part of conventional agricultural practices – and in my darkest hour set out to educate people that there are “better” ways to grow food without so many toxins that hurt others.

With that, I believe that the free-market must decide what does or does not happen with the environment, agriculture, recycling, and all things green.  When the market decides that is what they want, then a natural flow of money goes towards such eco-investments.  IT IS NOT MANDATED OR SUBSIDIZED BY GOVERNMENT.  That is the key – let people decide.

At this year’s “Toy Fair” in New York, there are several toys to debut that are eco-friendly (and generally safer for kids).  That works.  Let those consumers decide.  That is the free-market at work, and that is when GREEN WORKS.

The First Amendment

The First Amendment is really the call to arms for The Good American Post and our effort as the press/media to keep those, in positions of power, honest.  Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to exercise religion, and the ability to assemble and petition the government are indeed what makes the United States of America the greatest country in all of the world.

Atlas Shrugged & Culture of Corruption, Part 1

Could a small business owner find solace in prophecy and watch-dog journalism?

Originally I went to Barnes & Noble to pick up the book Democracy, The God That Failed by Hans-Hermann Hoppe.  I just happen to see Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, and picked it up.  Since they were out of my original choice, the latter was my purchase, and I was off to start the thickest book that I have read in, I think, all my life.

This isn’t a book review in the “normal” modus operandi of book reviews.  Instead, this is a column dedicated to looking at books, passages, research, and journalism, to put together some pieces of what I see as the falling and/or rising of systems in place.  Economic systems, political systems, social systems, justice systems, etc.

If we can take the massive amounts of information available to us, look at it with un-biased understanding of how it affects us, and then decide upon the actions that need to take place and do something, then we have succeeded as members of this system that we call a society.  And although that is a complex process that has gone on for hundred, thousands, or maybe millions of years, it is something that we consistently revisit as human beings.

Praise the 2nd Amendment & the Right to Carry

By Tisha Casida

I was not aware that there were such things as “gun-free” zones on military bases.  I guess I should have known, but I didn’t.

The tragedy at Fort Hood is testament that such a policy does not protect anyone except for the senseless murderers who don’t follow laws in the first place.

In a commentary by Jacob G. Hornberger, the excellent point is raised,

“As libertarians have pointed out, time and time again, would-be murderers don’t give a hoot for gun-control laws. At the risk of belaboring the obvious, if would-be murderers are willing to violate laws against murder, it is certain that they will have no reservations about violating gun-control laws.

Therefore, what gun control accomplishes is a disarming of people who would otherwise have the ability to defend themselves from would-be murderers. The peaceful, law-abiding citizenry is forced into simply dodging bullets from the murderer’s illegally possessed guns until the cops arrive”

The fact that many of our servicemen and women cannot carry arms on a military base is appalling and stupid, in my opinion.  Everyone has a right to protect themselves, as states in the Constitution of the United States of America.

The right to carry arms is important to our liberty, it is actually essential to our liberty.  God Bless the NRA, The Oathkeepers, the Second Amendment Foundation, and every other group that is working hard to protect our Constitution and the Second Amendment.

References:

Hornberger, J. (2009, November 6) Re: A Gun-Free Zone at Ft. Hood [Blog Post] Retrieved from http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2009-11-06.asp