Commentary: The Boredom Machine

Ruins of the Capitol
from the video game Fallout 3

It's been several hours since some semblance of a historical event transpired here in America: Kevin McCarthy was ousted from being Speaker of the House in the House of Representatives.  It's the first time that's ever happened.  McCarthy is now third place in being shortest term of office for a speaker.

I've taken a peak at some of the more prominent online news and politics forums.  And this has obviously been an event arousing considerable discussion, anger, and triumph.

But the best I've been able muster up is an indifferent shrug. 

Once upon a time, I would be following the ouster of Kevin McCarthy with intense interest.  It IS the very first time in American history that a House speaker has been tossed out of the position, after all.  In days past my eyes and ears would be absorbing every scrap of information about what is now happening, collating it all in my brain as fast as it could possibly be done.

But I'm older now.  Presumably wiser.  And definitely more world-weary than three decades ago.  I've seen "leaders" and their parties swept into and out of power for so long, with very little lasting good for the nation, that I'm just plain bored with it all.

Heh.  "I'm so bored with it all."  Those were the final words of Winston Churchill, you might be enlightened to know.

It's much worse now.  The utter mundanity of modern politics.  Especially modern American politics.

I think Donald Trump was the first really brilliant flash of invigoration since Ronald Reagan.  But Trump ultimately failed to counter and rein in the overly-burdensome entrenched institutionalized wickedness that our government has become.  He accomplished some good - the border wall is, or would be anyway, one example - but he surrounded himself with people whose allegiances were with "the machine".  They were not loyal to the American people and their republic.

And now we see "the machine" bearing down on Trump, doing its damndest to squash any possibility of his re-election and retribution.  Take heed, friends and neighbors!  This is what "the machine" can do and will do to any and all challengers to its power and influence.  It will quash its dissidents like vermin... because that's all that we are to them.  Trump?  He's just the biggest person to make an example of.  I can tick off many others who have been besieged and destroyed by the machine for their insolence.

Don't think I'm a Trump uberfan.  You'll never catch me dead in a "Make America Great Again" cap.  I don't have political idols to follow.  But I damn well know what an all-out war to destroy an individual in almost every conceivable way looks like.  If it can happen to one person, it can happen to anyone at all.

This is what modern American politics is not just becoming, it already is.  It has turned into the very thing that our fathers and grandfathers for over two hundred years have fought to keep our country from becoming.

We all know it, even if we refuse to admit it.

This country has wound up with a lifelong chronic liar and a political prostitute in its two highest offices.  And we are supposed to applaud that?

There is now much more spying on regular citizens than the Stasi ever were capable of.  The propaganda of "the machine" has powers that Goebbels never imagined.  Silencing dissent has become a science to the priests of power.

The Internet?  I would tell you to search Google for evidence that its algorithms are biased against all but leftist people and policies, but it's algorithms don't allow for that.  Only a token few results are let slip by.  The machine controls the search engines.  Right now only Twitter is an isle of freedom of ideas and information... but God only knows how long that will last.  Social media?  The day will soon come when I and multitudes of others won't be allowed to post these things.  We'll probably have our accounts deleted.  Made unpersons.  As if we never existed on the Internet at all.  I genuinely wonder if the blog I've maintained for almost twenty years will one day be deleted.  Just one reason why I keep regular backups of it.

Entertainment?  Let's just say I am not a Disney+ subscriber.  I doubt I ever will be.  And I genuinely hate to say that.

All of this and more... much, much more... have turned America into a dreary landscape of tedium and turmoil, populated with spineless thralls.  There is no more vigor on display in this land.  Only the machine and its attendants and the ashen waste they continue to make of our nation.

McCarthy?  His ouster is just one minor episode in the scheme of things.  Nothing substantial will change.  Nothing will be allowed to change.  Not with the machine in control of very nearly everything.

I'm bored with the machine and everything about it.

You want vigor again?  You want real excitement?  You want serious change?

Be of good cheer then.  It is coming, sooner or later.  It is inevitable.  The machine can not survive forever.  It will eventually run out of willing slaves.

And then the blood will flow.  As high as the horses' bridles.

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Look! Chris makes a political endorsement!

Here comes something that I haven't done in... what, at least six years?  To be honest I can't remember.  I think the total amount of times that I've endorsed a candidate has been less than three.

(Okay, I guess I kinda endorsed myself during that very wacky school board race in 2006, but that mostly came during the process of chronicling that process here on the blog.  I didn't actually come out and say "I endorse myself!" although that would be kinda funny...)

For many years I have had a policy and I have kept strictly to it, without any exceptions.  It is this: I will not vote for any candidate whose campaign runs a single negative ad against an opponent.  If a candidate cannot win on her or her own merit, then that candidate doesn't deserve my vote.  All a negative ad demonstrates is that the candidate running it is more interested in power and prestige than in the people.

I'm telling y'all here and now, that my ballot wound up having a lot of blank spaces at the very start of this campaign season.  I've been watching every race like a hawk, showing partiality to none.  Longtime readers also know that I am not partisan.  I vote for the person, not the party.  Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, independents... each and more have been represented in the ballots I've cast.

Incidentally, one of the most absolutely worst things that a person can do is vote a straight-party ticket.  Too many people fought and died so that we might have the rights of citizenship.  Those rights do not include casting votes without thinking about who you're voting for.

Some of these notions won't find approval with more than a few.  But I don't care.  You shouldn't come to this blog or that of anyone else and expect commentary fitting the status quo.  Around here, we laugh at silly concepts like conventional wisdom.

But anyway...

Here, with less than a week left before the election, after observing this season very closely, I can confidently attest that there is at least one candidate who has passed my test.  The same cannot be said of his primary opponent in the media, and it certainly cannot be said of the two "front runners" in this state's U.S. Senate race.

If this candidate runs a negative ad in the eleventh hour, I'm going to withdraw my endorsement.  But this far along, seeing what I have, I don't think that it's going to happen.

Say no to the negative ads!
Vote Mark Walker for Congress!

So it is that The Knight Shift and its eclectic proprietor gladly announces that in North Carolina's 6th District race for United States House of Representatives, I am going to heartily endorse Mark Walker.  Not only because his values and beliefs as in such close alignment with my own, but because he has run the cleanest campaign that I have probably ever seen for office at the national level.  Not one commercial - be it television or radio - has come out of his campaign aimed at an opponent.  And I seriously believe that he is going to win election in very large part because of that.  People are fed-up and tired of negative campaigning.  People are hungering for real character and integrity.  I would never intimate that Mr. Walker is a perfect candidate, because there is no such of a thing.  If he does win election to Congress, there will be things that I will disagree with him about.  That's just the nature of this carnal world where we each strive to see through the glass darkly.  But I can very confidently affirm that voting for Mark Walker will be one that for the first time in a long time will not be a vote that I see myself regretting.

If anyone asks, I'm not affiliated with the Walker campaign.  I haven't volunteered for it, I haven't made any phone calls or passed out literature.  I've never met Mark Walker.  I do know many others who do know him personally, and not one of them has not attested that he is a man sincere in his beliefs and convictions.   These are people who I respect a tremendous deal and if they say that about Mr. Walker, I'm inclined to believe them.

So again, Mark Walker wins this blogger's enthusiastic endorsement.  And I will encourage this blog's readers who are also in the 6th District of North Carolina to do likewise.  And if you want to know more about Walker, his background and what he stands for, click on over to his campaign website.

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Internet sales taxes: Does the United States Senate NOT understand the Constitution?

A short while ago the members of the United States Senate voted 70 to 24 to pass the "Marketplace Fairness Act": AKA "Internet sales taxes".

The Senate has approved collecting taxes on goods sold on the Internet.  We'll examine that in just a sec.

("Marketplace Fairness Act"?  God, I hate how these people try to govern by emotion instead of intelligence...)

Anyone who voted for this bill should be removed from office at the earliest possible legal opportunity.  For one thing, it is insanity for government to be levying more taxes upon us at a time when you and I and most other Americans are being obligated to tighten our belts.  How much more do our supposed "representatives" believe we can take?

But what is most on my mind tonight is how this bill is a flagrant violation of the Constitution of the United States.

According to Article One, Section 7:

All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

 "All bills for raising Revenue shall originate n the House..."

Why then is a bill for raising revenue now originating in the Senate and not only that but has been approved??

I do not have time to watch C-SPAN but I wonder: were there any senators who brought up this fact during debate on the bill?

In a sane world, the House of Representatives would reject the bill from even being admitted into its presence, given how it's unconstitutional.  But I seriously doubt that will happen (though it should).  Barring that, the House should overwhelmingly defeat it.  If it does pass though and President Obama signs it, the obvious thing in this blogger's mind is that the Supreme Court should strike it down.

The Supreme Court shouldn't have to do that though, given that any fifth grader would tell you that the bill has been unconstitutional to begin with.

Y'know, there could be a lot of trouble saved if those in government just followed the directions instead of pulling stuff like this out of their collective ass...

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The one who voted against war with Japan

Yesterday was the seventieth anniversary of the Empire of Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor: the event that catapulted the United States into World War II. On the following day President Franklin Roosevelt delivered the famous "Infamy Speech" before a Joint Session of Congress. Less than an hour after Roosevelt's address, Congress passed an official declaration of war against Japan.

And it was almost unanimous. The final tally was 388 for war, and 1 against...

Jeannette Rankin, member of the House of Representatives from the state of Montana, was the sole vote against the declaration of war. Rankin was also the first woman elected to Congress. During her previous term in Congress she had also voted against the United States entering what became known as World War I. And in case you're wondering, she was a Republican.

As you can probably imagine, Rankin's stance was roundly unpopular: not just with her constituents back home but all across America. She didn't even bother to run for re-election. She passed away in 1973 at the age of 92.

But as for why Miss Rankin did not vote for the war declaration, I can't but find her rationale to be intriguing...

"As a woman, I can't go to war and I refuse to send anyone else."

I must admit: as much as a military response was mandated by the horrific nature of the Pearl Harbor attack, I have to appreciate Jeannette Rankin's rationale. Had women been allowed to serve on the front lines or more to the point, had Rankin been a male... I can't imagine that she would have cast a vote against war. But neither of those happened to have been the case.

I believe that Congress did the right thing by voting for the declaration of war. But I also have to believe that Miss Rankin was acting according to the best of her principles by not voting for that same declaration. That may have conflicted with the demands of those she was elected and sworn to represent... but there I am reminded that ours is a democratically-elected republic and not a pure democracy. It's not perfect, but it's the best that man in his limited wisdom has been able to come up with so far as governing himself goes.

Jeannette Rankin's vote against declaring war with Japan is a most curious example of that.

And all of this was seventy years ago today, December the 8th 1941.

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A "Super Congress"?! What the...?! Here come the Politburo, and Congress AIN'T suppose to establish a religion!

When the hell do the people of this country once again get representatives who know what "un-constitutional" means enough to not come up with bullsh-t like this?

The Huffington Post was the first place where I found the "Super Congress" referenced. So in case (like me until late last night) you didn't know what the politicians in Washington are now up to: there is a proposal to create a 12-member body comprised of six members from both the House and the Senate... and composed of six members from both major political parties. This "Super Congress" would be capable of over-riding the normal legislative process, all in the name of fixing the United States' monstrous debt problem.

Click here and here to read what others have been arguing about how anti-Constitution and insane this scheme is.

But here is what disturbs me most about this proposal...

THE "SUPER CONGRESS" WOULD OFFICIALLY ESTABLISH THAT TWO POLITICAL PARTIES AND ONLY TWO PARTIES ARE LEGITIMATE, TO THE DETRIMENT OF ALL OTHERS.

Think about it. The "Super Congress" plan gives seats to the Democrats, seats to the Republicans... and ummm... nothing to the unaffiliated or those who have chosen not to align themselves with either of the two major parties.

What is a political party, really? Is it any different from a body of religion? I mean, a political party and a religious denomination share many similarities. They each have their adherents. They each have their beliefs and ideas. But according to the Constitution, Congress cannot endorse any body of belief and faith.

And now there are some who are conspiring to make Congress controlled by a body of belief. Namely, a body of ideologies. Oh yeah, you get to, ahem, "choose" which one of the two that you wanna affiliate yourself with... but how the hell is that really a choice at all?

How the hell is it that the United States government - something which is supposed to derive from a mandate of the people, by the people and for the people - is now poised to be legally controlled NOT by the people, but by two political parties to the exclusion of ALL others?!?

This, is wrong.

And President Barack Obama and the "leaders" in Congress are taking us all on a road that is too damn much like what Russia found itself on about a hundred years ago.

I've said it before and I'll say it again now: the United States now owes the old Soviet Union an apology. At least the Soviets had one-party rule and were honest about it.

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"Gerrymandering is okay when WE do it!"

The Republicans in the North Carolina legislature should just say it and get it over with.

Matt Mittan was the first to bring my attention to the just-released maps for North Carolina's newly-redrawn congressional districts.

And how has the GOP now "controlling" (I have never liked how a party "controls" a legislature and I don't see how anyone else should like it either) Raleigh done, following decades of Democrat-led gerrymandering?

By doing their own gerrymandering!

From the original article at Carolina Journal...

(Carolina Journal) Three Democratic incumbents will face a tough re-election fights next year under new congressional maps released today by the Republican-controlled state legislature.

The redrawn maps significantly weaken U.S. Reps. Brad Miller, D-13th; Heath Shuler, D-11th; and Larry Kissell, D-8th. Republicans currently have six of 13 congressional seats. If previous voting patterns hold, the GOP could gain a 9-4 or even 10-3 advantage in 2013.

For Shuler’s diminished chances, Reps. Patrick McHenry, R-10th, and Virginia Foxx, R-5th, are the culprits. McHenry’s new district would cut into Buncombe County, a hotbed of Democratic votes, diluting Shuler’s base of support. In addition, Shuler picks up some conservative regions of Foxx’s district.

“The anchor for Democrats in this district has always been Buncombe County,” Davis said. “Not only has half of Buncombe County been put into Congressman McHenry’s safe Republican district, but several of the most Republican counties in the state have been moved from districts held by Congresswoman Foxx and Congressman McHenry to Heath Shuler’s district.”

I almost used the word "chutzpah" to describe what the Republicans in the legislature are doing. But let's call this for what it really is, folks: hypocrisy!

This country is facing trial and tribulation as it has never known in any recent memory. Perhaps any living memory. And the elected politicians continue to play their stupid little games of power: never mind that it was such shenanigans that in large part brought us to this place to begin with!

(Funny thing: I seem to remember many if not most Republican officials in this state complaining about gerrymandering and how they were against it. So what happened? Huh? Hello? Hello? Bueller?)

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The ______Act of___ passed by U.S. Senate

That's it. I've had it. Throw the whole sorry lot of 'em out. ALL of them. Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war. Show them no quarter.

And whoever among our legislators were so irresponsible in voting for this, should have the word "STOOPID" branded into their foreheads so that the rest of humanity will know to steer clear of them forevermore amen.

Call it "The Law With No Name" (sounds like Mr. Smith Goes To Washington directed by Sergio Leone). Nancy Pelosi has brought the House of Representatives back into session for an emergency vote on a bill that, well nobody has any idea what the hell is in this thing. And the Senators who approved it didn't even bother to give it a proper name. It's officially listed as "The ______Act of___".

And if you ask me, this bill is a ________ pile of bull____.

Click on over to Slashdot to read more about this... thing.

(Obviously, the question arises as to whether this bill was read aloud in the Senate... or if it was even read at all.)

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Once more with feeling? House to vote AGAIN on healthcare bill tonight

Because of two items in the reconciliation bill - one of which having to do with Pell grants, which alone made people scratch their heads in wonder about why it was in the legislation to begin with - the House of Representatives will be voting once more on Barack Obama's socialized medicine in order to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions.

Considering how in the past few days a number of representatives who voted "aye" for this monstrosity have had bricks thrown through the windows of their offices and one such congressman had a coffin dumped on the lawn of his house, I have to ponder aloud if such "knock-knock, zoom-zoom affirmation" might result in more than a few of them finally "getting the message" that the American people DO NOT WANT this crap!

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What is "Chutzpah"?

Because I'm feeling extra cranky tonight (and have for the past 24 hours or so)...

"Chutzpah" is a Yiddish word meaning "shameless audacity". It's an olden Hebrew term that in his book The Joys of Yiddish author Leo Rosten describes as "gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible 'guts,' presumption plus arrogance such as no other word and no other language can do justice to."

So what fits in the category of "chutzpah"?

One example of chutzpah is the child who kills both of his parents, and then throws himself down on the mercy of the court on the grounds that he is an orphan.

Another example of chutzpah is the "evangelist" who routinely rails against a television station for "promoting dancing, R-rated movies" as being somehow sinful behavior, yet is apparently not bothered by the fact that he gives more than a million dollars of his congregation's money to buy airtime at another television station whose general manager not only promotes the same stuff and worse... but is also a bisexual who regularly gets his jollies by enticing viewers to call in and talk about their sex lives (while never mentioning his own). That would be plenty of chutzpah too.

But right now at this moment, what comes most to mind when I think of chutzpah is the revelation that Congress has voted to impose Obamacare on everyone but NOT those who wrote the #@$%-ing law!

From the article at The New Ledger...

For as long as the political fight took over the past year, the abbreviated review process on the health care legislation currently pending on President Obama’s desk is unquestionably going to result in some surprises — as happens with any piece of mashed-up legislation — both for the congressmen who voted for it and for the American people.

One such surprise is found on page 158 of the legislation, which appears to create a carveout for senior staff members in the leadership offices and on congressional committees, essentially exempting those senior Democrat staffers who wrote the bill from being forced to purchase health care plans in the same way as other Americans.

There is much, much more in Ben Domenech's eyeball-popping writeup at the above link, dear readers.

I guess Orwell had it right: some people are more equal than others.

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Why Republicans WON'T try to repeal health care overhaul

Michael D. Tanner of the Cato Institute has written an essay about the costs of Obamacare, which passed the House last night (and which I nearly reacted to on this blog with a blunt "We are sooo f-cked", before better angels of my nature prevailed).

In his article Tanner makes the following prediction, and I thought it was well worth making note of...

Republicans won't really try to repeal it. Republicans will run this fall on a promise to repeal this deeply unpopular bill, and will likely reap the political advantages of that promise. But in reality there is little chance of their following through. Even if Republicans were to take both houses of Congress, they would still face a presidential veto and a Democratic filibuster.

But more important, once an entitlement is in place, it becomes virtually impossible to take away. The fact that Republicans have been criticizing Obamacare for cutting Medicare shows that they are not really willing to take the heat for cutting people's benefits once they have them — no matter how unaffordable those benefits are. Paul Ryan put forth a serious plan for entitlement reform — and attracted just six co-sponsors at last count. Enough said.

Sadly, I suspect that Tanner will be proven correct about this. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if many Republicans are secretly happy that last night's health care "reform" passed and will soon be signed into law by President Obama.

Because the very massive public outcry against this legislation is a huge carrot that a lot - if not most - of the Republicans in or running for high office will be using to lure Americans into "vote for us!" Oh, I'm fairly sure (not positive, but have a gut feeling) that the Republicans will take control of the House and Senate come November. But if there is any effort to repeal Obamacare it will only be a token gesture. There will be some bills passed in Congress, and Obama will veto them all (I doubt there'll be a supermajority in Congress to override that). And then we won't hear anything about it again because the Republicans in general will boo-hoo about "it's too hard for us to fight the veto". And of course they will use that to justify that we the people merely need to elect more Republicans.

And nothing will change.

Fercryingoutloud, the GOP had the White House and both houses of Congress for six years. Did government decrease in size at all during that period?! Hell no it didn't! On the Republicans' watch it increased more than any other time in living memory, until last night. If anyone seriously believes that things will be any different the next time the Republicans "have the power", I've some oceanfront property in Nebraska to sell.

The Republicans have been promising to revoke the "right" to abortion for three and a half decades. They haven't done it yet. I'm not entertaining any optimism that they will be more rigorous in ridding us of this latest embiggening of big government.

So let me wrap this up by writing what I perhaps should have said last night, because there are times when a writer has done his absolute best to articulate his sentiments to the fullest but can sincerely go no further without violating the mores of polite society...

We are sooooo fucked.

God help us.

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"So this is how liberty dies..."

"With thunderous applause."

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Obamacare "health care reform" may be voted on today in the House

Obamacare should be sufficient proof that our federal government is "deem 'n pass"-essed.

I demand that Nancy Pelosi give me a lifetime supply of short-sleeve shirts. After all, the Constitution guarantees a "right to bare arms".

Obamacare is going to be a violation of the separation of church and state, because it violates my religious freedom on grounds that I believe that having insurance is a form of gambling.

Okay, seriously...

This will be the absolutely worst legislation passed in Congress in American history, if President Obama gets to sign it.

And incidentally, there is enormously strong historical evidence that socialized medicine would not be the first time that the politicians in Washington have screwed us over with "deem and pass".

(Hint: Google about "Philander Knox").

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Pelosi sez: Pass healthcare bill "so that you can find out what is in it"

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made the following startling comment yesterday morning during her address at the 2010 Legislative Conference for National Association of Counties...

"You've heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don't know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future, not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket. Prevention, prevention, prevention—it's about diet, not diabetes. It's going to be very, very exciting.

"But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy. Furthermore, we believe that health care reform, again I said at the beginning of my remarks, that we sent the three pillars that the President's economic stabilization and job creation initiatives were education and innovation—innovation begins in the classroom—clean energy and climate, addressing the climate issues in an innovative way to keep us number one and competitive in the world with the new technology, and the third, first among equals I may say, is health care, health insurance reform. Health insurance reform is about jobs. This legislation alone will create 4 million jobs, about 400,000 jobs very soon."

I chose to quote a good portion of Pelosi's remarks, lest anyone accuse me of taking her out of context. You can read the full text of her speech here.

And look! Video!

What the #@$& is Pelosi saying?! Good Lord, is this woman thinking at all?! What the #@$& kind of "transparency" is that supposed to be?! "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it"?!

Hell, there could be anything in that monstrosity.

And brazenly adding that this is to avoid "the fog of the controversy"?! Mrs. Pelosi, if it weren't for that "controversy" then people like you would be able to get away with damned near whatever you wanted to do. What you call "controversy" is all too often the final tenuous precaution against a nation sliding full-bore into tyranny.

This woman has no business being anywhere in the government of a democratically-elected constitutional republic... let alone as the head speaker of its primary representative legislative body.

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Federal health care will violate First Amendment on religious grounds

Old Order Mennonites - more popularly known as the Amish - will be exempted from being required to have health insurance if the so-called "health care reform" going through the House and Senate passes. According to the above-linked story in the Watertown Daily Times out of New York state, there's a "religious conscience" clause that allows Amish and other religious groups to opt-out of the mandated insurance.

How does this not run afoul of the First Amendment, which clearly dictates that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"?!?

If one group of people is allowed to get out of federal health care because of sincere convictions against such a thing, then all people who object to federalized health care have the moral right to reject it.

I am a follower of Christ who belongs to no particular denomination. And I say from the bottom of my heart that federal government-run health care sucks donkeys balls to no end.

I'm gonna be exempt too. And if Obama and Hillary want to fine me for not playing with them, then I'll kindly tell them that they can go to hell.

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Something about "health care reform" that isn't asked enough...

Why should we believe that the representatives and senators who are most pushing "health care reform" are going to want to have the same government health care that the rest of us are going to be forced to endure?

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"Health care reform" bill passes in House, BUT...

...it MIGHT not have enough votes to pass in the Senate.

All the same, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if it wound up clearing through there as well. And I have never been more supremely disappointed in the House of Representatives than this past weekend for passing this.

These are supposed to be men and women of sound mind, great wisdom and far-reaching vision. With very little exception, they are short-sighted and sold out on principle utterly.

Leadership entails having the resolve to say "no" to your own goals and appetites when the world tempts you to say "yes". As it is, there is damned little leadership in American government... and it's an open question as to whether we have any leadership at all, or have in quite a long time.

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About the "climate" bill that just passed the U.S. House...

I don't mind saying this aloud at all:

Any so-called "legislator" who votes on a bill WITHOUT READING THE FRICKIN' THING needs to be dragged out into the street and shot.

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An update ... a major one ... about running for Congress

I'm still going to run for United States House of Representatives.

But not right now.

No, I'm not "dropping out". I'm still wanting to see if a regular American citizen can do this. But for the time being, the experiment is delayed.

Please understand something: I've been dead-serious about this all along. I filed to create the exploratory committee. The website was almost finished. Some other stuff was taking place behind the scenes too, that I've been busy with the past few days.

Looking back over the past week, it's pretty darned amazing at what came together, so fast on this.

But there've been a few other developments too. Enough to make me realize that yes, the time is soon for this... but the time is not now. Not yet. And before people start sending in real money, this needs addressing.

A lot of people have wanted me to do this. Plenty of them have said that I probably could have won this thing, even though how I was going to run this campaign was going to be wildly different than anything you've probably ever seen before.

I would love to take a shot at it. Would like nothing more than to try this, so far as that "arena of ideas" thing that I've been fighting in for most of my life goes.

But if I were to go to Congress now, I wouldn't be as strong and capable a servant as I could be if I waited a few more years.

If you want the real reason why I've chosen not to do this at the present time, here it is: the past few days (no I don't want to say what exactly caused me to arrive at this) made me realize that I'm not as wise as I would like to be. That I still have some growing-up to do. That doesn't mean that I'm "immature" in the least bit... but I would be doing a terrible thing if I didn't give myself some time to grow into that more, into whatever it is that God is wanting me to become.

I've said on here before that between being in Congress and being able to live my life to the fullest according to what God would have for me, there's no contest as to which I would pick. My life has to be defined by something other than whether or not I win an election. That's not the basis of my happiness. And in many ways I'm still looking for that basis. But it's not in politics as most people understand it. But whatever it is, it's out there. And I'm just going to trust in the Lord to bring me to it.

There are a few other reasons why I'm choosing against doing this at this point in time. Some personal and some that would take a very long time to discuss here, so I'm not going to try.

Let's see how things are around 2009. That's not far away at all anyway...

EDIT 11:00 a.m. EST: One other reason why I'm not doing this now: I sincerely believe that we are coming upon a time when those outside of government, will be able to do much more good than those inside of government can possibly achieve.

I'd rather be one of those who is capable of doing something meaningful, with whatever passion and talent that I possess. As I've said before, you don't have to be elected to make the world a better place :-)

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My decision on running for U.S. House

I'll do it.

Meaning: I am going to run for the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina's 13th District. As a lot of people have been suggesting over the past year. And it will be as a Republican.

I am absolutely serious about this.

But I'm not entirely happy with what I'm going to have to do in order for this to be a legitimate thing. You see, per the twisted myriad of Catch-22s that is federal election law, it's not feasible to have that amount of signatures on a petition just to see if you "should" run. Because in order to seriously consider running at all, you have to say that you are running... even though you don't count as a real candidate until you've raised enough money.

I need to make that clear: I'm going to run but at the present time I am not a candidate. I only become a candidate if my exploratory committee raises $5000. Then I become a candidate. In the meantime I'm "just running". Even though in my mind I'm still just "exploring" the possibility of running. But according to the rules I have to say that I am running, so I am running. And the only way to really gauge whether or not there is the support for this is to start raising money. And I don't know for sure if there really is enough support of that kind out there for this.

So basically we have a guy who's ran for school board, and didn't win that, and has since had a lot of people telling him that he should "set your sights higher", is already having to capitulate on an earlier statement, and is now declaring that he will run for United States Congress. My assets include 1 blog, 2 computers, 2 video cameras, a YouTube account, a few friends and family members (including 1 wife who is shaking her head in disbelief but has told me that if there is enough support that I should go for it), and not much else. And with this I am soon going to be asking people to contribute money - and hopefully lots of it - to my campaign.

Oh yeah and I will be running as a Republican who is against the Iraq war, does not believe that America should become an empire, has long thought that too many "Christian leaders" care more about having political power than earnestly seeking Christ and so I won't be seeking their endorsement, believes that the current presidential administration is the worst in American history because of things like the PATRIOT Act and No Child Left Behind and its refusal to do anything serious about illegal immigration, and will be running my own campaign without any "handlers" or "image consultants".

Are there any details that we are missing here?

So why am I doing this? Well, there are two reasons that have occupied my mind, for motivating me to take a shot at this...

First, I want to write. I want to make my movies. I want to get my masters degree. I want to be creative and productive. I want to have a full life of growing into whatever person it is that God wants me to grow into.

Most of all I want to be a father.

And it scares me, to think of what this country is becoming. What it has become already in a very short period of time. It scares me to think about what my children will be growing up in and what they will eventually inherit.

In the Boy Scouts we learned to always leave a campsite better than how it is that you found it. I've always thought that's a great philosophy for living your life. And as much as I want to do some things for myself personally right now, I would also like to know someday that I had done my best to leave this world not just a little better for my own children, but for everyone else.

So that's why, if people will have me, I'll sacrifice a few years of my time and do my best to serve others toward that end.

And the second reason why I've decided to run (and be a real candidate if the support is there): I'm just an ordinary citizen. But you know: why shouldn't regular Americans run for high office?

The beautiful thing about the Constitution is that the Founders wrote it so that anyone could understand it and the government it establishes. They never intended for it to be the sole province of a group of "professionals" or "elites". Quite frankly, I think Washington, Jefferson and Franklin would have been horrified to see what modern American government has turned into: politicians picked by party bosses, young men and women wasting the best years of their lives being little more than cogs in a merciless machine obsessed with power. And these so-called "experts", who have conned us into believing that they are somehow our "betters", have done nothing but waste our freedoms, our money, and even innocent lives while they continue to play their games.

People like that don't really see how the rest of us have to live with their mistakes. They don't know what it's like to make ends meet out here in the real world. It's cost them understanding, it's costing us our liberty and livelihood, and it's costing America whatever vitality she has left to her.

It's time for the "professional politicians" to go. And it's time for regular Americans to take hold of the destiny that the Founders intended for them to have for themselves.

That's the other reason why I'm going to run for United States House of Representatives: because I want a lot more people to see this guy running, against all odds, and think "hey, I could do that. I can do that. Maybe I will do that!" If I don't get in this time, then next time maybe there will be dozens more people out there who will try this too. I'll do my darndest to help them along the way. And I've no doubt that some of them will go all the way to the House, wherever they live.

I'm doing this because I want to see that entire House of Representatives filled with regular Americans, who are loyal to something other than political power or the fastest buck. And I'll do whatever it takes to see that happen.

I do not want to be a career politician. My earlier stipulation is still in effect: if in spite of everything set against me I were to wind up winning this seat, I would be there for no more than three terms. And I don't know if I would even want to be there that long. Lord only knows: I might get there and serve out one full term and then decide that I'm sick and tired of the corruption and that I want out. Besides, I don't believe that this is something that the Founders wanted to be a "lifetime career" anyway: I'd go and serve a few years and then get out and let the next guy start serving.

And by the way: there are a lot of things going against me, since I'm doing this.

I won't lie to anyone about my chances, because I understand them all too well.

I'm 33, plenty enough old to run but still very young compared to most people already there. Again, I have to emphasize that I am not "well off": I'm just now getting a business started - after trying to do that for a year - and although I'm very optimistic about it in light of how well some things are lining up for it, that's a far thing from saying that I'm "successful" with it yet.

I am not a perfect human being by any stretch. There are a lot of flaws that I've got to admit that I have. I like to think that I've overcome and grown past a lot of those. That's only come about because of the grace of God and a lot of patience. But all the same: there are lesser angels of my own nature that I still struggle with, and will continue to struggle with for the rest of my life. I won't shy away from admitting that.

Last week I changed my voter registration to Republican. That doesn't really mean anything to me though. I only did it because the way the election laws have been written over the years, you only stand a real chance at all of getting elected if you are a member of one of the two major parties.

Truth be known, I don't care much for political parties anymore. They are one of the bigger problems that are destroying this country.

So I'll be a Republican on the ballot, if it comes to that. But I'm not "running as a Republican". I'm running as Chris Knight. Stand or fall, I can't compromise on that. I do realize that because I've got "Republican" next to my name, that alone will disqualify me in many people's minds. And that I'm not a life-long, lock-step committed member of the GOP (and don't want to be either) will have some calling me a "Republican In Name Only".

Fine, I'm a RINO. As if "Republican" even means anything anymore. I believe in the values that the Republican party used to hold to: limited government, personal responsibility, individual freedom. I believe that abortion is wrong and that we have the right to self defense per the Second Amendment (and I don't believe elected officials should be playing games with things like that just to keep persuading the voters).

But I do not believe that the Republican party as a whole can claim to have the market cornered on those virtues any longer. If I run as a Republican and if anyone demands that I be labeled, I guess you could say that I'm going to be a "paleo-conservative"... and that is not a popular thing these days with the current Republican leadership. I'm not counting on any support from that quarter. But I wasn't hoping for it from them either.

I'll be listed on the ballot as a Republican, if things get that far. But I'll be running as I live my life: as an individual. Because that's how I see the world: as individual people, not groups of people to "trick" and manipulate and lie to.

That first commercial from my school board campaign? Better get ready for more like that, if TV commercials start getting made. Because if there's one thing that I will absolutely try not to do, it's insult your intelligence as a voter. Heck, you and I both know that you can think on your own. I'm not gonna be the candidate who tries to fool you. I may entertain you some but I'll also do my best to tell it like it is. Because I know that you can handle it.

My original declaration has not changed at all: there will be no negative advertising coming out of my campaign. If I run a single negative commercial, I won't run for office again, anywhere, for as long as I live.

I don't even want it to be said that I'm "running against" anyone. I'm simply running for a seat. That means I'll be presenting myself and my beliefs to the voters and will offer to serve them. If they don't want to take me up on that offer, there'll be no hard feelings and I go on and will still get to have that productive life (Lord willing with lots of kiddies) and I'll be happy.

I also want to reiterate something else that I said earlier: that I will not accept political action committee (PAC) money in my campaign. This has to be something that individuals must contribute to.

And I'm still not going to refer to anyone else running in this race as either a "liberal" or a "conservative". Other people need more respect than to have some silly label slapped on them for sake of our own convenience.

If you're thinking this is a joke, put that notion aside. Within the limits that I've set and have been established by circumstance, I am bound and determined to give this the best effort that I can. And if people really want me to do this, I'm going to serve them to the utmost of my ability.

This will be a very hard thing to attempt.

The odds are against me.

But it's worth taking a shot at.

And it has the added incentive of quite possibly being a lot of fun.

I'll say it again: if you thought my school board commercials were great, you ain't seen nuthin' yet!

Much more coming next week, including the launch of the exploratory committee website. And possibly a video or two as well.

Not much else to say right now except...

"Here we go, fast and furious!"

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