Alas, I still haven’t organized my thoughts sufficiently to produce a ‘diary’, in part because I’m a bit intimidated by the ease with which others seem to express their thoughts on this site… thoughts that for the most part express my views and do so in much better fashion than I seem capable.

But I’m a lucky guy… I do converse daily via email with several sons, located across the country and abroad, on a wide range of political and philosophical issues. Today, in the course of some back and forth on the hot potato ‘birther’ issue, my eldest son who lives, of all places, in the San Francisco Bay area, produced what I thought was a real gem. I thought this was poignant enough to share so with his permission here is “Gary’s Diary”:

All of this analysis reminds me of nothing more than the factions surrounding “Bonnie Prince Charlie” or “Pope and anti-Pope.”

People getting incredibly involved in the legalisms of who is the true heir to the throne.

They are all missing the point in their worship of the executive.  
They are not trying to get rid of the cult of the president.. they are trying to get rid of the cult of THIS president.

It all smacks of religion in my book.  He is not the true one god, he is an imposter!  Trying to dethrone “the usurper” simply adds power and legitimacy to his holy position.

The sad thing is that all of it buys into the system.. the worship of the executive, the monarch, the seat of power held by one man.. the slow erosion of a republic into a monarchy by 50 years of succesive power grabs by presidents of both parties.

If Obama has power, it is because we gave it to him, slowly, step by step over 50 years.

Dethroning King Obama and replacing him with King George the III will 
not solve our problems.   Radically scaling back the power of 
government, with specific attention to the power of the executive, 
will.   Getting ‘our guy’ into the seat of power is not the answer.  
Reducing the seat of power into the kiddie chair of power is the 
answer.   Returning the executive to its proper constitutional role is 
something neither party wants.. they just want IN.

“We don’t care who you vote for, just vote” “The King is dead, long live the King”

“This president is illegitimate, let’s get a LEGITIMATE one!”

Sorry,  this libertarian finds it all a bit distasteful and frankly, European.

Yes, yes, I know… in our two party system it’s not going to happen while we keep handing the reins to liberal activists, but we can certainly excercise care and discretion in our selection of candidates, both presidential and congressional, who share this goal.

“Nothing more simple,” returned the count. “I had known the famous Vampa for more than ten years. When he was quite a child, and only a shepherd, I gave him a few gold pieces for showing me my way, and he, in order to repay me, gave me a poniard, the hilt of which he had carved with his own hand, and which you may have seen in my collection of arms. In after years, whether he had forgotten this interchange of presents, which ought to have cemented our friendship, or whether he did not recollect me, he sought to take me, but, on the contrary, it was I who captured him and a dozen of his band. I might have handed him over to Roman justice, which is somewhat expeditious, and which would have been particularly so with him; but I did nothing of the sort – I suffered him and his band to depart.”

“With the condition that they should sin no more,” said Beauchamp, laughing. “I see they kept their promise.”

“No, monsieur,” returned Monte Cristo “upon the simple condition that they should respect myself and my friends. Perhaps what I am about to say may seem strange to you, who are socialists, and vaunt humanity and your duty to your neighbor, but I never seek to protect a society which does not protect me, and which I will even say, generally occupies itself about me only to injure me; and thus by giving them a low place in my esteem, and preserving a neutrality towards them, it is society and my neighbor who are indebted to me.”