Kia Ora, and Welcome - Our Manifesto

Kia Ora, and welcome to the new blog! For those who don't know me, as the title suggests, I am an American living in New Zealand with my fiance of several years and soon-to-be wife, Mae. For more of my details you can check-out my profile. Here's a little bit about what I stand for and what I believe:

• I am right of center but not an extremist - I believe that extremism on either the Right or the Left leads to fascist totalitarianism which I reject completely.
• I am an independent libertarian and belong to no political party. I look at the issues first, personalities second.
  
• I am vociferously anti-Left, anti-Communist/Marxist, anti-Socialist and reject all tenets of same. The money I make is mine, and I owe nothing to you or anybody else. I value individualism and reject collectivism of any sort.
  
• I do not demonize the rich nor glorify the poor. I am neither. If you are rich, congratulations - just don't be a dick about it. If you are poor, it is because you are lazy and/or stupid. How to solve lazy: Get a job! How to solve stupid: Live within your means! There. If you happen to fall into either of those categories, I just gave you some free therapy that could have easily cost hundreds or thousands of dollars for some shrink...who would have fed you with a lot of victimologist bullshit; given you some "positive thinking" and "self-image-" or "self esteeeeem-" building exercises, and never gotten right to it and told you exactly what you need to be told...which is...what I...just...told you...for free.... Now.......Back away from the TV, playstation, whatever. Put down the fried chicken, the McDonalds, the beer, the whiskey, the weed, coke, smack, P, X, glue, paint, whippets...whatever ails you...STOP IT!!! GET OFF YOUR LAZY ASS!!! GO GET A JOB!!! Spend LESS money than you make!!!...but I digress...the rest of you, please, continue reading...
  
• I believe in:

1.) small federal government whose primary job is to maintain a system of public policies that benefit ALL citizens, as individuals of freewill; not to divide people into groups and pander to those who see themselves as disenfranchised, in need of special rights and privileges.

2.) lower taxes;

3.) and a very limited social welfare program to mainly assist the severely mentally or physically handicapped - those who really need our help because they are not able to care for themselves solely of their own devices - not the lazy and shiftless.

• I am anti-illegal immigration. If you want to come to (your nation here), then go through the proper procedures, prove your loyalty, and assimilate into our culture - do NOT expect us to bend to your ways. If you don't like it in (your nation here), go back to where you came from. Michael Savage wrote, "Borders, Language, Culture are what defines a nation." They are the pillars on which nations are built. Those three pillars must be protected and preserved. If the people fail to maintain one of those pillars, the nation begins to fall. If they fail to maintain all three, the nation collapses.
  
• I am a former Marine who saw combat in Somalia, and I am VERY pro-military. Semper Fi!
  
• I am pro-private gun ownership. I believe that gun control is being able to hit your target - one shot, one kill.
• I believe in good stewardship of our environment ("conserve" is the operative word in "conservative"), but I reject Greenpeace and other eco-terrorist organizations who promote an alarmist eco-agenda to promote an otherwise quasi-Marxist political agenda. Anthropogenic climate change is a theory, not proven fact.
• I am an agnostic, but I believe that the basic teachings of the Bible are the best blueprint yet for civilized behavior, regardless of how people and institutions have abused and exploited those principles for their own personal gain.
  
• I am anti-Muslim and reject Islam as nothing more than a bastard religion borne of vengeance against Christendom and Judaeism that preceeded it. Islamic culture and its sharia laws are medieval and have no place in modern, Western society.
• I am a student of history and will reference it often. Those who do not know history or reject it as irrelevant are fools and are destined to repeat past mistakes unless they learn from them.
• I often see things as "black and white" but sometimes see the "grey in the middle." It has been often said by liberals that "black and white" is simplistic, but I argue the opposite. Seeing things as "grey" is a lazy way out, showing an inability or unwillingness to take a position or make a decision. That equates to weakness from a leadership standpoint, and weakness is not a recipe for effective decision making. I do not abide, indulge, or respect weakness. Life is often about having to make the hard choices, "this" or "that," one or the other. You very rarely get to have "it" both ways.
  
• I believe that everybody is entitled to their opinion, and the caveat to that is that I am also entitled to challenge those opinions. Challenging, rejecting, or disagreeing with those opinions does not constitute censorship; it's called debate. Opinions based on erroneous information, questionable sources, or feeeeelings are not valid and will be rejected as such. If your opinions cannot be supported by facts, they are invalid and count for nothing except the space they occupy in a vacuous mind. I seek clarity, not agreement. If you cannot articulate your opinions logically, I will dismiss you as a mental midget or a nutter.
These are the basic tenets - a manifesto, if you will - of my beliefs. If you don't agree, that's OK; stick around. This blog is not solely political. I'll write about New Zealand (and elsewhere "down-under"), U.S., and world news and culture from the perspective of "a Yank in Kiwi-land" as well as sports (I'm an avid motorsports, rugby, and combat sports fan), movies, books, TV, and music - and display lots of pictures. Mae will also write and provide her invaluable research and insight as a New Zealander of Maori descent. One of the things I would like to do is present my US readers with news and issues from and affecting New Zealand. While the US is, as a nation, involved in many places around the globe, individual citizens aren't very aware of what is happening in places other than what is shown to them by the MSM. Thanks to the internet, we now have more access than ever to news from all over the world.