Thanks for trying to chip away at the system from the inside. You’ve had to spend the majority of the last 30 years cooped up with the scum of the scum. Thankfully, rubbing elbows with disease riddled vermin has left you unplagued by their illness for more power, more money, more control, more, more, more.

Yet you’ve remained steadfast and vigilant. Widespread freedom has trumped concentrated power, at least in your mind. You’ve been the bullhorn of liberty, even when the screams of oppression drowned out your song, you remained hopeful, cheerful and, most importantly, confident.

If there’s one thing we can all learn from your example, it’s principles. Many times over you’ve had the chance to bend, to twist your own rules under the guise of “playing the game of politics”, yet you remained strong, dug down and braced yourself for the darkside of politics. Even when the darkness became so over bearing that it dwindled the light of liberty down to a single lit wick, you remained the guardian of that flame, knowing that more believers would eventually return. If it wasn’t for your unwavering character, the liberty movement might have died a 1,000 deaths in my lifetime alone. 

Liberty exists outside of your existence or mine. As you’ve said many times, you’re just the torch bearer. If you disappeared tomorrow, liberty would still exist. You didn’t introduce me to liberty or freedom or even to the principles of being a libertarian, but you showed me it’s potential. You’ve walked the path that’s worth praise, something I rarely dole to any individual. I don’t believe in idols but I do believe in the ideal, and you sir fulfilled that role better than most. 

I can’t personally thank you, but I can continue in your footsteps, not afraid to speak up, not embarrassed to do the right thing, not to proud to admit when I am wrong and never to shy to promote liberty and freedom for all, regardless of race, age, color, physical or mental stature. We shall all do our best to spread the message of liberty and to help fan the flames of liberty, even if only within ourselves, which you re-sparked. 

“I have no idols. I admire work, dedication and competence.” - Ayrton Senna

Thank you, 

Humanity. 

shortformblog:

• 1995-1996 Is currently the least productive two-year Congressional session on record, dating back to 1947 when the U.S. House Clerk’s Office first began keeping such records. The 104th Congress passed 333 bills in total.
• 2011-2012 Will become the new least productive two-year Congressional session on record, barring a number of miracles during the final days of the 112th Congress. Our sitting senators and representatives would need to send at least 115 more bills to the desk of President Obama to avoid becoming the least productive Congress in decades. Currently, they’re at 219 for the year. source

Define “productive”. 

If Congress spends an entire year and doesn’t pass a single law, I find that to be productive. And if they spend that entire year not passing a single piece of legislation and they manage to somehow repeal even a single existing law? I call that the most successful Congress in the history of man. 

There are two ways to define “productive” when it comes to politics: Internally and Externally. To me a successful government is not one that is productive internally (for Congress or government) but productive for people and the private sector. 

If we define success of Congress by how busy they keep themselves, we’re only encouraging them to create more and more laws which we don’t need nor that we don’t ask for.

This line of thinking promotes quantity over quality. 

We don’t need a high quantity of laws for a high quality of life. In fact, much of history has proven that the opposite is usually true and that the more laws a society has, the more corruption is also present. Now one can argue whether the corruption births the laws or if the laws facilitate the corruption, but they go hand in hand, that much is clear. 

So when you say a static Congress is not a “productive” Congress, I can only agree with you if you qualify that statement with the notion that a successful Congress eliminates laws, not increases their numbers. 

- Sha