WHEN PENGUINS FLEW AND WATER BURNED This is the true memoir of one US Air Force navigator’s journey from the schoolhouses of Air Training Command to the nuclear alerts of the Cold War to combat in a 35-year-old anachronism called the B-52. It is a first-hand account of life during the last days of Strategic Air Command, the early days of Air Combat Command and the ensuing military drawdown of the 1990s. From peacetime training exercises across the globe to combat operations in Desert Storm, Jim Clonts takes the reader inside the cockpit where life and death are seconds apart. Often comical, sometimes heart-pounding, other times tragic, WHEN PENGUINS FLEW AND WATER BURNED takes you into the world of military aviation, a crucible where warriors learn the true nature of character, conscience and mortality.

Friends of Liberty VOL 31
by Jim Clonts, 2009

11/05/2009

When Government Pays

When President Obama's Pay Czar recently announced mandated cuts in salaries and bonuses of employees of companies who took bailout money, I heard the media and many Americans stand up and cheer. Many Americans seem to take an unhealthy satisfaction in seeing those with big salaries get cut down to size. I guess the masses feel these people don't deserve their salaries and in some cases that may be right. Personally, I'd leave that decision up to the Board of Directors of each company, the people actually charged with ensuring they have the best leadership in place for success.

When asked if it's right for the Government to tell a private sector company how to run their business, many people I've heard say, "Hey, if they took Government money, then the Government should be able to say how they do business."

Okay, fair enough. When the Government pays, they deserve control, right?

How about National Healthcare? Do you really believe when the Government pays your medical bills they won't have a say in how you live? In what you eat? Whether you smoke? The volume of the music you listen to? Whether or not you exercise? You think they won't have a say in your body-mass index? You think they'll care if you have any injury-prone hobbies? If you think certain foods won't be taxed into non-existence, think again. If you think you won't be evaluated for "improvement" or "unacceptable risks", guess again. When it's their dollars, they're entitled to tell you how to do business, right?

The irony here is that it is your dollars paying for this. And in the name of "protecting the taxpayer" they will do their best to ensure you live a "Government-Approved" life.

The European Union recently passed a law that restricts the volume control of all MP3 players sold in Europe. This is to protect the citizen from listening to music at levels which could damage their hearing. Public concerts will be next. Can you imagine Aerosmith at an OSHA-approved 85 decimals? Dream On.

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