About (Cover, Title, Preface, Me)

One version

Cover

Inspired by the actions of the Lake County, Florida Democrat Party Headquarters in March 2012, as reported by FOXNews.Com American flag with President Obama's image sparks outrage at Florida Democrats and by ABCNews.Go.Com Florida Democratic Club Flying Obama American Flag Receives Death Threats. (Both accessed 24 AUG 2012)

In my version, I replaced the white stripes with yellow, for Yellow Socialism, and added a few more pictures to the blue field, representing key figures in the United States of America’s march toward Socialism.

Title

The working title, Would You Like Borders With That Socialism? seemed a wee bit clumsy and it quickly became the working title as I wrote and tried to come up with a new title.  Whilst researching President Theodore Roosevelt I came upon a 1913 New York Times article which titled The Rough Rider’s Progressive Party Platform: Super Socialism, which was quite fitting and, in a way, timeless, since it still applies to that root document of the Progressives and ‘Liberals’ that still echoes today.  Getting the Left to admit it is a little difficult, even if you quote it to them.

Another version of final cover

However, the title SuperSocialism did not capture where the Socialists of today have gone with their busybody, authoritarian vision of caring and sharing.  I recalled that one of my favorite sports announcers (and a fine game show host too) Joe Garagiola, during the 1984 World’s Series, announced NBC’s new slow motion camera as “Super Duper Slo Mo.”  Yes, I might not remember who was playing nor who won the game, but I do remember that line, which seems fitting.  In 1984, ABC had “Super Slo Mo” and NBC did them one better, adding some duper to the super. (SportsIllustrated.CNN.Com NBC Triumphs By Going By The Book: TheGospel According To Harry accessed 24 AUG 2012)

Essentially, Teddy Roosevelt’s Super Socialism, which had one foot in Lincoln’s first term as President and the other in Marx, has been brought up a notch or three by over one hundred years of American legislators, presidents, and courts, which all added their version of duper to the super that preceded them.  The subtitle is explained early in Section One.

My wife (The Empress) had a different idea for the title.

Preface

When my wife read an early draft of the introduction and first section of this book she said, “You should title your book Information for Argument’s Sake.”  In many ways, that title is more appropriate than many I considered.  Indeed, there is a lot of information here that one does not normally stumble across in a government approved textbook and if interjected whilst having a spirited discussion at the pub, in the teacher’s lounge, or in a classroom, there may result an exclusion from their reindeer games.  Said otherwise, there is a lot of information here that is very hard to find even in our brave new “information age” world and you may get challenged for repeating it.

Some of what follows can be heard on talk radio, National Public Radio, C-SPAN, and on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS, the largest television network in America) which brings me to part of the reason why I wrote this book: So many of the people who worship PBS do not seem to watch it.  They demand it be government funded, they might say that they donate, they might swear they watch, but when I bring up details from some of the greatest shows ever aired on PBS these Leftists swear that the quotes are mangled or fabricated by yours truly.

My accusation is not merely a mirror of the accusations that Ayn Rand haters throw at everybody who mention her either.  I get that one all of the time, even when I preface that I have never read her fiction.  No, this is an accusation toward exactly those I described above, the people who demand the employees of the largest television network in the USA be enriched by the poorest among us while the wealthy donors get tchotchkes, and tax deductions.

If there was any singular starting point for the inspiration for this book, at least the idea to write it all down, it came from discussions before and after seeing The Slave Kingdoms on PBS (http://www.pbs.org/wonders/fr_e3.htm accessed 15 JUN 2012).  I had long known that the notion of Europeans running about the coast of Western Africa, catching Black people in giant butterfly nets in quantities great enough to fill large ships bound for the Americas was preposterous.  One of the problems with that preposterous notion is that many bigots note the same notion, which is problematic when one is not a bigot.  We tend to toss out much of what the bigots say, even though a stopped watch is right twice per day and more often whilst traveling.

The Slave Kingdoms is a great source for the truth: Native Africans enslaved each other’s members and sold them for thousands of years before “Whitie” sailed down the African coast.  White people were nothing more than new customers for an existing market.

A recent Thomas Sowell column brings with it a detail that The Slave Kingdoms misses (if I recall correctly):

The era of the Atlantic slave trade and the era of European conquests across the continent of Africa were different eras. During the era of the Atlantic slave trade, most of Africa was ruled by Africans, who sold some of their slaves to white men.

European conquests in Africa had to wait until Europeans found some way to survive lethal African diseases, to which they lacked resistance. Only after medical science learned to deal with these diseases could the era of European conquests spread across sub-Saharan Africa. But the Atlantic slave trade was over by then.

The Confident Ignorance of Barack Obama - Thomas Sowell, 4 September 2012

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/315757/confident-ignorance-barack-obama-thomas-sowell

Like with many sets of facts, they can be used for good or for bad.  The bigots misuse the fact that captured Africans were sold into slavery as ‘evidence’ that they were intellectually inferior.  For some reason they ignore the fact that Africans were not the only slaves of the world and nobody can claim that they have no slavery in their lineage.  A slave history is no more an indicator of inferiority than breathing or eating.  In short, they lie to support their desire to be superior to others, no matter how inferior they are.

PBS was not my only source of inspiration.  After my decades-long journey from the American Left to the extreme Right (the one I define here, not the slight-of-hand version promoted by many) I learned many things that shattered my Leftist beliefs and brought me to the truth, especially the truth about what the Right really is.

Another source of inspiration, mostly for getting back to work on this project in the latter months of 2012, is Neal Boortz.  I began listening to his show in a daily basis after reading a mention of him in Brian Doherty's Radicals for Capitalism.

About Me

I was a US Army Soldier who enlisted as a Private and concluded my service as an Aviation Branch Major.  I was in the Reserve Components, other than brief stints in Active Duty schools and one mobilization.  My Enlisted time was in Armor specialties.

My civilian education, as of this writing, concluded with a Bachelors of Science, Business Administration.  Most of my civilian education was in government schools, save for some of my grade school years in a parochial school.

I am a libertarian, with some conservative leanings.  As a social liberal, I do not care what you do as long as you do not do it to others (without their consent), to include violating the sanctity of their property.

Beyond that, it is really none of your business who I am.