Dr. Robert R. Owens

Is the Inertia Greater Than the Momentum?

The causes of our problems are not hard to see. Americans aren't obese because evil restauranteers are forcing them to eat fried butter on a stick. We are bulging at the seams because we eat too much and exercise too little.Americans aren't trapped in upside down mortgages because evil bankers waylaid us and forced us to sign up for a house that was too big and cost too much.

No Joke

Fido, Casper the Ghost, and Juan Valdez walk into a polling place. No, this isn't the beginning of a joke it is a key part of the Chicago Plan to re-elect the worst President in American History.

What’s A Patriot to Do?

Mr. Obama may not be the only President we have ever elected who has little real world experience, but he may be the first who has none. And hopefully he will be our last.

A World Filled With Strangers Keeps Getting Stranger

Some people believe in the Six Degrees of Separation Theory: the idea that everyone in the world is separated from everyone else by six links. Some people believe all of us are in this thing together, and that diversity is our strength andI am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.

How Chicago Plays Ball

In Chicago they play "Chicago Ball." This is a form of soft ball that is as location specific to the Chicago area as Hoover Ball is to West Branch, Iowa. In this game a sixteen inch softball that is as hard as a baseball is used with no gloves.

Why the Congress Must Rein in the Supreme Court

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."Please notice that this, the foundational sentence of the American way of life does not say "endowed by the Supreme Court."

Why the House Must Impeach President Obama

In America today, just like in Lake Woebegone, every child is above average and every child gets a trophy. We may score low in international grade comparisons but we rank number one in self-esteem. In other words, American students may not be doing well but they think they are. Those of us old enough to remember how Dad could control the situation with a look and when you got in trouble in school your parents didn't sue or contact the School Board, you got in trouble at home, too, are also old enough to remember Watergate.

Not Worth a Continental

The Federal Reserve System (the Fed) was established in 1913 as one of the cornerstones of the Progressive agenda. They said it was a way to stop the boom and bust cycle which has always been a fixture of capitalist economies. The Fed is America's third Central Bank.

Hunker in the Bunker and Wait for the Rain

As those of you who follow these wandering pages know I have recently re-aligned my life to turn and face the strange changes that are overtaking Western Civilization with ever increasing speed. Like ripples whose shape and size shifts but never leave the stream, change is the only constant in a society careening towards a cliff.

The No Growth Zero Sum Pie

Has America reached the stage where we all stand in a circle and take turns holding a constantly shrinking dollar?

What’s Mine is Mine What’ s Yours is Negotiable

The economy is scheduled to plunge off a cliff in January. Back in the first two years after the Progressive's November Revolution of 2008, the big government party enacted tax increases not scheduled to take place until after the 2012 elections.

America Lost in a Bubble

All bubbles burst. This is a law of nature. No matter from what material the bubble arises. No matter what forces propel its expansion. All bubbles burst.

When Will Enough Be Enough

When taxes become destructive they've surpassed the consent of the governed bending to the will of tyranny. When regulations strangle competition instead of securing it from evil combinations they've become counterproductive and defeat the very purpose for which they were proposed. When foreign entanglements bleed the nation but do not secure the peace or defeat the enemy they've become interventionist vehicles for vested interests. When spending becomes a hemorrhaging of assists leading to national bankruptcy those who continue to pile debt upon debt seek not the good of the nation but instead its destruction. When leaders selected to unite instead do all they can to divide they no longer advance the interest of the whole and are instead partisan leaders in a factional fight.

If I Wanted to Make America Prosperous Again

First, I would ask myself how did our ancestors build America from an agricultural colony on the edge of civilization into the number one manufacturing and commercial nation the world had ever known.

Liberty is Null and Void

America was founded as a Federal Republic. This means our nation was designed to have two levels of sovereignty. The States which pre-date the central government and which created the central government is to be one level and the central government they created was to be the second. The separate States first combined to found a central government when they drafted and ratified the Articles of Confederation in 1781. This combination was strengthened and expanded in the writing and ratification of the Constitution in 1789. However, in both of these new beginnings it was always stated and assumed that the States were the building blocks out of which the whole was built.

The Heart of the Problem is in the Heart

Benjamin Franklin told us, "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."

Supreme Contempt

Recently President Obama made this remarkable statement, "Ultimately, I'm confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress." For someone reputed to be a former professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago this statement is hard to explain. Any high school student in a sophomore American History class knows there are many precedents for the Supreme Court making laws passed by Congress null and void. As a matter of fact, in the system of government tradition has delivered to us overturning laws as unconstitutional has been an important power of the Supreme Court for more than two hundred years.

Where Does the Supreme Court Get Its Power?

This week the eyes of everyone concerned with the continuance of limited government were riveted on the Supreme Court. For three days the nine Justices heard arguments by the Solicitor General in favor of ruling the individual mandate which is the keystone of Obamacare constitutional. They also heard the representatives of twenty-six States argue that it is unconstitutional. This is the first time that a majority of the States have combined to protest an act of Congress. Now We the People must wait while the fate of our Republic is decided in secret by our Black Robed rulers from whom there is no appeal.

We Know the Problem… What’s the Answer?

This weekly column, which I have been privileged to submit for your consideration for the past three years, elicits many comments and questions. The most common of which can be summed up as, "I agree with your analysis, appreciate the Historical context, but how about some practical suggestions."

Praetorian Progressives and Their Imperial Dreams

Under President Obama we doubled-down in Afghanistan? We sent more of our fellow citizens to a long hard slog in a country whose synonym is Quagmire while announcing the eventual date of their withdrawal at the same time. In an unprecedented action Mr. Obama announced our attack as he heralded our retreat in a calculated political decision that has cost lives, squandered treasure and told the Taliban to wait in the wings for the second act.