Welcome to Dave's Notepad!

After thinking about it for the last eight years or so, and some encouragement from a few friends, I have finally decided to start my very own blog. The odd thing is that I have waited until I am in the midst of an all-consuming career change to do it. Well, timing has not exactly been my strong suit over the years, as the demands on my time are probably greater now that at any time in my life, with the exception of a period when I was working full-time and simultaneously attending college. I survived this rather difficult period mainly due to my ability to read, and that rather briskly.

I became an avid reader at a very young age. Unlike most of my peers, I loved spending time in the school library pouring over everything I could get my hands on. I was particularly fascinated with books that dealt with automobiles and airplanes, spaceflight (which was in its infancy at the time) and science fiction. While many of my friends whiled away their afternoons riding their bikes and playing in the mud, I busied myself reading. This is not to say I never got out, but rainy days never really disappointed me, as I had much reading material to lose myself in.

As I matured further, I developed an interest in history, particularly American History. The more I read about the world, the more I wanted to know why this country was so different from the others I read about. This, of course, eventually led to an interest in the military history of this nation.

Some of my earliest childhood memories were of the Vietnam War, and remember that I had to sneak off to watch the news reports of it, as my mother did not much care for me watching it. It was not until some years later that I found out that she had lost two of her childhood friends in that war.

It was about the time the war ended that I remember experiencing the sensation of fear for my country for the very first time, as just about everyone I saw on TV, as well as many people in my family, were telling me that we had lost the war in Vietnam. I was a mere child of nine years old when the US pulled out of there, yet I vividly remember sitting in front of the TV watching the last helicopters taking off from the American Embassy roof in Saigon as if it were only yesterday. Some years later, I was able to noodle out that we, in fact, had not really lost so much as we had up and quit.

As a child, I knew almost nothing about socialism other than it was bad. I remember watching the news on TV and seeing stories about people who were shot for attempting to escape their homeland. It took a few years more of study before I discovered what had made those who were forced to live under that most hideous form of government be willing to risk their lives to escape it:

Socialism is the most murderous, oppressive and cruel form of government the world has yet seen.

Those people who were shot were attempting to escape tyranny to find freedom, freedom they were denied in the country they were born in. This had a profound affect on me. The more I learned, the more I came to hate socialism, in whatever form it existed be it communism, fascism, or modern (as opposed to classical) liberalism. In all of those forms of tyranny, the rights of the individual are subordinate to the whims of the state. To me, this is 180 degrees opposite of the way things should be.

As I noted in my profile I was once a Democrat. Even though I wasn't old enough to vote, I supported Jimmy Carter in 1976. After all, he had been the governor of my home state. Jimmy was the coolest! My flirtation with disaster lasted right up until I received my very first paycheck as a sixteen year old, toiling away busing tables, and later cooking in, a large seafood restaurant. I didn't know who FICA was at the time, but I knew I did not want him taking anymore of my money. I cast my first vote ever in a national election for Ronald Reagan in 1984.

I supported the Republican Party until 1996, when I noted a shift away from their support of lower taxes and smaller government. By that time, my appreciation for individual freedom had matured to the point that the only place left for me was the Libertarian Party. I joined that party in late '96 and haven't looked back since.

I have a deep love and appreciation for this country, as imperfect as it might be. Though I have no children of my own, I do have three wonderful nieces and a terrific nephew. My fondest wish for them has always been that they have the opportunity to grow up in the same country that I did. Sadly, it appears that is not to be.

Having watched the results of the last two presidential elections, it appears that around half the people in this country have quite literally lost their love of freedom. If something does not soon change to reverse this trend, I fear it will become irreversible. Some people I know feel it is already too late. I would like to believe otherwise.

No matter where one looks today, our freedoms are slowly but surely being taken from us. Most often by government, but sometimes by people who have no role in government whatsoever.

Whether it is being told how you may or may not use your property, what you can and cannot watch on TV, how many rounds your firearm is allowed to store, what ingredients must be included or left out of your food, where you can and cannot smoke, how much money you may or may not earn, where you can and cannot send your children to school, what type of vehicle you can or cannot drive, what color you can or cannot paint your own home, what you may or may not post on your own website, what words can and cannot be uttered in public, or whatever, many of the freedoms and liberties our predecessors enjoyed are no-longer part of the societal fabric of this nation.

I consider our deteriorating situation to be unacceptable. I have always believed in the primacy of the individual over that of any government.

The bulk of my posts here will be centered around what I perceive to be a ever more rapid dwindling of the freedoms that helped make this country what it is today. Some will be deadly serious, others will have you laughing until your sides ache. Most will be somewhere in between. I think you will notice early on that I have a somewhat different world-view than most.

Believe me, I will be giving neither of the major political parties a pass here, as they both bear responsibility for working to curb our freedoms as Americans.

This site is a work in progress, and probably will remain so for the duration. I will be adding much more to it as time goes on.

It should be a very interesting ride.