Live Free in an Unfree World

from You Belong to Us by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. ~

“The issue has become especially important because Democratic nominee Barack Obama has embraced national service as a priority of his presidency should he win. Obama would not directly impose forced labor on young people, but would instead withhold educational funds from them and their institutions if they fail to comply. (Yes, they shouldn’t be taking these funds in the first place, but there is something sinister in Obama’s program all the same.) We should, he says, “set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year.”

I expect more from Barack Obama. For John McCain, I’m not surprised at any freedom ending idea that comes out of his mouth. National service? John F. Kennedy called for Peace Corps Volunteers and Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA).

Woods makes these points:

1. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution states: “Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
2. The Thirteenth Amendment is clear and unambiguous.
3. A draft or forced national service is involuntary servitude.
4. In the Draft Law Cases of 1917, Chief Justice Edward White concluded that since the Congress has the power to raise armies, it could use any means possible to raise those armies, including force.
5. Daniel Webster argued the unconstitutionality of the draft over 50 years before the Thirteenth Amendment was passed:
   

   “Where is it written in the Constitution, in what article or section is it contained, that you may take children from their parents, and parents from their children, and compel them to fight the battles of any war in which the folly or the wickedness of government may engage it?”

6. Conscription, no matter how pure the motives, cannot be reconciled with freedom.

Commentary:

1. Calling on high school students to “volunteer” so many hours or they cannot graduate from high school. They call it “Community Service”, just like someone might be sentenced to by the court. I guess it goes well with the other language used in our schools that sounds like prison - security, metal detectors, lockdowns, and release time.
2. My belief has always been that if the U.S. were ever invaded, you could not keep every able bodies man or woman from joining the defense of our country.
3. People who accept the notion that it is our duty to be drafted into the Army and give up our lives for someone’s political agenda do not know the difference between being a citizen and being a subject.
4. The possibility of drafting men and women when you do not have enough military recruits encourages politicians to rattle sabers and threaten violence in places around the world where our young men and women do not need to die or to kill others.
5. Politicians and the Supreme Court have shredded the Constitution so thoroughly no one remembers what it is like to have limited government.

Ron Paul stated the issue clearly: “Young people are not raw material to be employed by the political class on behalf of whatever fashionable political, military, or social cause catches its fancy. In a free society, their lives are not the playthings of government.”

Charles Lamm is a citizen and not a subject of the United States of America. To protect your property as well as your person, visit his Asset Protection Iron Triangle blog and learn how to use corporations, LLCs, and beneficiary controlled trusts to protect yourself from lawsuits, creditors, and even the IRS.

Today begins a new schedule at work - 12:00 noon to 9:00 pm - and a new surge to embed critical activities into my life.

I have no choice. The job is tough and beating me up, but diabetes is kicking my ass.

Actions I have to take at my age (54) include:

• testing my blood sugar levels daily
• absolute control over my food intake
• not giving in to food temptations
• walking twice a day (for diabetes and the dog’s sake)
• having sunshine hit my skin everyday(it’s South Florida - it’s always available)
• using dumbbells during breaks every hour from the computer
• getting serious about taking care of my teeth and oral hygiene in general
• write and post - daily - to my self-hosted blogs
• write like a scanner about what you like then find the products to monetize it
• work affiliate programs like a borrowed mule
• be collateral damage in a dangerous world
• be in a position to quit my job in 33 days - whether or not I decide to stay
• revive dating blogs where income was coming in
• keep my personal notes online in this blog so I can access them whenever I need to
• scratch and claw and be the online marketer and blogmeister I need to be
• master Twitter, Hubpages, Squidoo, and Facebook

Failure is not an option.

Charles Lamm

Here are just a few things the Federal Reserve, Congress, and the Bush (or next) administration could do to help this nation recover from the current recession - or prevent a larger depression - but are nearly 100% not likely to do:

1. require that each Member of Congress, under Penalty of Perjury, certify that he or she has read every word in every bill before voting on that piece of legislation
2. remove U.S. troops from every foreign country - we are a republic, not an empire
3. all future laws passed by Congress must have a sunset provision and be voted on again every 4 years
4. stop rescuing financial institutions that are about to fail just because they are large
5. stop the presses - the dollar has lost 96% of it’s value since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913
6. no deficit financing of government expenditures
7. have a group of researchers whose job is to ferret out unnecessary regulations and to recommend them for quick decertification and repeal of the underlying statutes
8. every government job (non-appointee) that becomes vacant due to retirement or resignation must be kept vacant for 6 months to see if the position can just be eliminated

This is just a start. More tomorrow.

High gas prices will cause some interesting results:

• more people will shop for bargains online, rather than traveling from store to store
• delivery charges will be reasonable compared to picking it up yourself
• home gardening and locally grown food will enjoy a resurgence
• people will think twice about drives to the beach or to the lake
• going for a Sunday drive is a sign of wealth
• if your neighbor fills up his SUV at one visit to the pump, he is probably doing better than you are
• you may see some unlikely people - bankers, lawyers, doctors - use the gas crunch to justify commuting by motorcycle
• some smart commuters will get their exercise by commuting by bicycle
• people will need second jobs to stay afloat - most will create new businesses online to earn extra income
• small restaurants will suffer first as more workers shift lunch money to gas tanks
• fast food places will suffer next as prices of oil run up food prices
• over the next few years, temporary dips in oil prices will not be long-lived enough to let Americans drive huge cars and trucks again - SUVs will be like Cadillacs with fins
• supply increases will be sopped up by China and India
• alternative sources of energy will be great businesses but will not dethrone big oil
• Florida will be unhappy when offshore oil wells appear near their coastline in the Gulf of Mexico
• placement of refineries will be hot political topics and push abortion and gay marriage off the table
• politicians, as usual, will screw things up then demand more tax revenue to fix the problems they created in the first place

Just a few of the issues I believe will dominate the economic and political landscape over the next 10 years. With any luck, it will bring back some of the lean, mean, fighting spirit of the American people - but only if the politicians are pushed out of the way.

—

Charles Lamm is a junkyard philosopher whose blogs include Live Free in an Unfree World, the Asset Protection Iron Triangle, and Virtual Joe Friday.

Back in 2003, 100 people died in a nightclub fire when the band’s pyrotechnics got out of control. Families of victims sued. So far, so good.

Here’s the crazy part. Anheuser-Busch and their local distributor just settled for $21 million. Total settlement so far - $122 million. Others who have paid up include Home Depot and Clear Channel Broadcasting.

Home Depot was sued over insulation. The alleged liability of the others: promoting the concert.

Am I the only one here who doesn’t understand this. No media advertising can exist if the publisher of the advertising, or the sponsor, is responsible for the acts of the companies and individuals who actually caused the harm and death of the concert attendees.

A-B claims the cost of the litigation is running too high, but I can’t imagine a Board of Directors signing off on a $21 million settlement if they did not believe a jury was about to stick them with a larger bill.

One possibility - their insurance company decided to settle, and they have no choice. If they fought on, A-B would take on the additional expense and be liable for any jury award above the settlement amount.

Whoever decided to settle - you are the reason why our legal system is such a mess. If you are not liable - and unless you can explain otherwise, I don’t see how beer or promoting an event contributed to this tragedy - why not take it to the limit? You were being sued in Rhode Island, not Mississippi.

How do your actions compare to a man who spent 27 years in jail for a rape he did not commit? He could have been out of prison a dozen years ago if he had admitted the crime. He chose to man-up and not take the blame for something he did not do. The State of Texas may give him some monetary compensation in the future, but he can never get those years of freedom back.

Sometimes, you have to pay the price for what’s right.

~ Charles Lamm

“How can the government possibly preserve freedom by taking it away?”

~ Napolitano in a Nation of Sheep

I came across an article about shoplifting in independent bookstores.

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=520472

“To work in an independent bookstore is to always be aware of shoplifters. It can devour you; you can spend all your time watching people, wondering if they’re watching you. Every shoplifter caught is a major victory against the forces of darkness; every one who escapes is another 10 minutes kept awake at night with gnashing teeth.”

Of all the things to steal, books seem unlikely. You can sit in most bookstore coffee shops and read to your heart’s content. The bookstores let you steal from the author, they just don’t want you to steal from them. Technically, the bookstore has paid for the book, so maybe buying a cup of coffee is just rent on the books.

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Charles Lamm is a retired attorney and owner of Trustee and RA Services Inc. in Coral Springs, Florida. For more information on beneficiary controlled trusts and the Asset Protection Iron Triangle, visit his blog at: www.corp-llc-bct.com.

“The restaurant industry has fallen, and it can’t get up. To add insult: The worst may be yet to come.

Same-store sales are sliding. Commodity prices are climbing. Units are closing. Customers are dwindling. Some of the top names in all ends of dining are in pain, from Starbucks (SBUX) to Applebee’s to The Cheesecake Factory (CAKE).”

~http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2008-03-02-restaurants-economy_N.htm

Waitresses have been telling me this for 6 months. The easiest way to cut expenses is to eat what you cook at home.

I also believe this is why McDonalds has so many of those 2 for $2 breakfast specials. I often eat the specials because they are cheaper than eating at home. (the specials vary from region to region)

McDonalds is doing better than other restaurants, and I believe it is because of the coffee. I like McDonalds premium coffee better than Starbucks. It’s much like the fries. McDonalds needs ways to keep the adults eating with the kids.

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Charles Lamm is a retired attorney living in Coral Springs, Florida. His blogs include the Asset Protection Iron Triangle found at: http://www.corp-llc-bct.com.

This blog will be a notepad for my efforts to create a free life in 777 days. Can it be done? Of course it can. Will it be done? If I hone in on my why. And I really mean dig deep and honest.

Freedom means freedom from debt, jobs, bad relationships. I must have the money in place to take care of my daughter’s college tuition which will start right after the 777 days end. I must have money in place to travel at will.

Raw notes and ideas will be posted here. Nothing will be posted that can be used against me. Blogging is part of the discipline.

My plan - if successful - will lead to the life I want, and to a book. It incorporates 7 areas of improvement, and the critical activities in each area to make it happen.

1. mental
2. physical
3. emotional
4. spiritual
5. financial
6. vocational
7. social

Knowing what has to be done, and doing it, are 2 different things.

You don’t have to be gay to understand the frustration committed same-sex partners have with not being able to be recognized as a legal couple through marriage.

As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for. You might get it.

First, in legal terms, marriage is an unconscionable contract. Over 50% now end in divorce. The split up rate for gay and lesbian partners is even higher. If less than half work out, why do we need marriage at all?

The marriage contract is a three-party contract - husband, wife, and state. The state holds all the cards. The state determines who can and cannot marry, and decides if and under what terms the marriage can be dissolved.

What I suggest for couples or groups who cannot legally marry is to construct their own relationships using LLCs to define those relationships according to their own desires. An LLC cannot be set up to circumvent state laws or to legitimize an illegal sexual arrangement, but many other aspects of traditional marriage such as joint ownership of property and health insurance can be addressed quite nicely by the LLC.

For example, if the LLC provides health coverage for the members, and the relationship breaks up, the LLC will continue to insure the individual members. When a divorce takes place, if the insurance was in one spouse’s name at work, the ex-spouse will likely lose their insurance.

Joint property via an LLC is an even better proposition. Membership can be apportioned according to the contributions each made to the LLC. If the relationship dissolves, you still retain your ownership percentage through the LLC instead of having a family court judge divide the property according to how the court wants to apportion it.

An LLC lets you control the “divorce”, and works better than a prenuptial or post nuptial agreement, which can be modified or ignored by the court.

Prenuptial agreements are flawed in regard to children. For traditional couples, a prenuptial cannot contract away the rights of the unborn. The one thing all states will do is bend the divorce decree to favor the payment of child support, no matter what the financial situation of the parents. The state, quite simply, does not want to pick up the welfare tab for your failed marriage.

An LLC can include children as members. Children can have their own say in family/LLC affairs. Assets such as the family home can remain in the LLC and survive the breakup of the marriage.

And finally, husbands and wives destroy each other’s credit all the time. Members in an LLC are treated like partners for tax purposes, and their percentages of the profits pass through to their individual tax returns, while members retain the limited liability protection of a corporation.

Members of the LLC are not individually liable for the debts of the LLC, and they are not liable for the debts of other members. One LLC member cannot ruin the credit of another, as husband and wife can.

For gay and lesbian couples, plural “marriages”, and other unconventional relationships, keep the state out of your affairs with an LLC. Instead of tying the knot, use a slip knot to have the relationship you desire, plus the ability to change that relationship without the permission of the nanny state.

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Charles Lamm is a retired attorney who owns Trustee and RA Services Inc. in Coral Springs, Florida. He recommends asset protection for all using a no-asset corporation, LLC, and beneficiary controlled trust. Read more at: http://www.corp-llc-bct.com.