The World According to Oulsham

TWIR will be postponed this week so we can do a general review on Conservative and Libertarian principles and beliefs. Caveat: This could also be called the World According to Oulsham.

We have two dogs here at the Oulsham Ranch. Because they are stupid, we built a fence to keep them from roaming around and getting hit by cars and rickshaws. They eat when we tell them to, unless they figure out the combination to the garbage pail. They relieve themselves at our convenience. Basically, they have given up their freedom for two squares, an official PetSmart dog bed, an acre of yard to run in and an occasional table scrap. I would never want to be a dog, even when they are laying around on rainy mornings all snuggled on the couch which they are not supposed to be on.

Not in order of importance, here's what separates human beings from canines:

1. God is too big for us to conceptualize or comprehend. I know eternity is a long ass time compared to the few short years I have here on Earth, so I have to figure God's got other things in mind for my energy when I die.

2. Trying to conceptualize and speak of God in human terms is folly.

3. Human beings are extraordinary works and I have to figure we were put here by God to live extraordinary lives. Extraordinary does not mean being a rock star or famous politician. It means rising above ordinary in how we live our daily lives.

4. Government should exist to facilitate extraordinariness. It should never exist to define it.

5. Laws are meant to confine humans. The more laws a society allows, the more confined its members. We have the right to choose our level of confinement in all cases.

6. Tradition teaches values and values entrench morals. It works no other way. Period. Once the first two parts of the equation are removed the result is altered.

7. Adversity begets change. Human beings need adversity to grow. Removing adversity from the growing experience eliminates the opportunity to be extraordinary.

8. You are born alone. You will die alone. Just as you fall asleep and wake up alone. You must therefore know deeply the only person you will ever be in full contact with. If you happen to be lucky enough to share your journey with someone else you are blessed, but confusing the two dilutes yourself.

9. All human beings are created as equals. Unfortunately, it stops at birth. How we handle those who are more or less equal than us is part of our own individual journey.

10. Nothing is free in this world. Everything costs somebody something. Every time you receive something for nothing you are blind to this reality.

11. Government is foolish, all of the time. Government needs to protect our safety, protect our welfare and protect our wealth. After that, government is a leech.

12. Power corrupts - all of the time. Human beings are unable to safely wield power for any extended period of time. Power over other people will eventually destroy every person who wields it.

13. Living in a black and white world is dangerous. Wise human beings see the gray and apply it to their own principles.

14. People who form their opinions of other people or situations based on the word of other people are fools. Once you deny the words in your heart, you deny your reason for being on this planet.

15. What is common among all people is the power of choice.

16. Government should be looked at suspiciously at all times and authority should be questioned at every opportunity.

17. Societies must have common language, common tradition, and common goals or they will cease to exist. Read your history.

18. Vanity among fools is a poor way to govern and all political rhetoric is simply the spewing of vanity by fools.

19. What's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. Leave my stuff alone unless I consent for you to bother with it. I will do the same.

20. Life is to be savored, enjoyed and seized and it is with great sorrow that I look at people who are not able to rise above circumstance to do this. Government is not able to help a single person live a better life beyond ensuring personal and societal safety and freedom.