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What Makes Frary Run?

LOTS and LOTS of people have asked me “Why on Earth are you running for Congress”?

I hear a lot of folks saying that you can’t get elected to Congress by telling the Truth and treating voters like adults, but I haven’t noticed anyone with the brass to actually TRY it. Maybe its time someone DID. We have a Congress whose approval ratings have sunk to historic lows. This month a Washington Post poll showed 32% approval, 60% disapproval. The public believes it has accomplished little or nothing of value.

Speaker Pelosi is reduced to counting among its “key accomplishments” bills to regulate cribs and high chairs and place drain covers on pools.

Mike Michaud is an interchangeable part of this noisy circus, voting with his party 96.3% of the time. Nothing distinguishes him from the rest of the mob. His major accomplishment? A job for Mike Michaud paying $165,000 a year with perks.

Putting it simply, someone has to run a “disincumbency” campaign against this ignorant hack and no one else came forward. Statistically, incumbents enjoy a virtual free ride back into office. Few of them deserve it.

But the REAL REASON IS... I’ve been worrying since the eighth grade about this quote about the future of the United States from the famous French historian ALEXIS De TOCQUEVILLE, and I haven’t seen any reason to stop worrying lately:

ON THE LIBERAL WELFARE STATE, should one arise in America: “It would resemble the power of a benevolent father if, like him, it had for its object to prepare men for manhood, but on the contrary, it seeks only to keep them fixed irrevocably in childhood. It likes citizens to enjoy themselves provided that they think only of enjoying themselves... it willingly works for their happiness, but it wants to be the unique agent and sole arbiter of that happiness. It provides for their security, foresees and secures their needs, facilitates their pleasures, conducts their principal affairs, directs their industry, regulates their estates, divides their inheritances. Can it not take away from them entirely the trouble of thinking and the pain of living. [This state] extend sits arms over society as a whole. It covers its surface with a network of small, complicated, painstaking, uniform rules through which the most original minds and the most vigorous souls cannot clear a way to surpass the crowds... it does not tyrannize; it hinders, compromises, enervates, extinguishes, dazes and finally reduces each nation to being nothing more that a herd of timid and industrious animals of whom the government is the shepherd.”

Any of this sound familiar?

Dr. Wm. Reid Named Chairman of Frary Campaign
FraryforCongress.com
Press Release - 9/16/08

Dr William L Reid III Named Chairman of Frary Campaign,Will Appear in Mechanic Falls & Greenwood Saturday

Frary and Reid Strum up Campaign Strategy

Professor John Frary, Farmington selectman, a retired history professor, and an associate editor of the International Military Encyclopedia and the Republican candidate for US Congress in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District today named his longtime friend and fellow professor Bill Reid as his Campaign Chairman.

'Bill has ugly dogs, a fertile mind,fascinating hobbies and an eccentric outlook on life. He will be a fine fit for Maine - and my campaign, and I'm very glad he has accepted this arduous honor' said Professor Frary.

Bill will be attending two events on Saturday September 20th as the Professor's stand in. 'The 2nd District in Maine is the largest district east of the Mississippi, and Professor Frary doesn't have a jet at this disposal, or anywhere to land it if he did' explained Dr.Reid. 'I'll be representing him the Meet the Candidates night at the Legion Hall in Greenwood at 5:15 Saturday, and the same evening I will appear in Mechanic Falls at a barbecue Jim Hamper at 28 Atlantis Drive.Maybe I'll see you there.'

Bill described his life as follows: “I have lived in New Sharon since 1970 with my wife Ilene. My daughter, Rachel, a graduate of Mount Blue High School, is an emergency room veterinarian in Manhattan. I served 3 years in the US Army (military police). I taught Philosophy at UM, Syracuse, and UMF for 15 years. I recently did a bit of adjunct teaching at Thomas College in Waterville. I like teaching and talking. My philosophical interest are the works of Pyrrhonic Skeptics, informal logic, and the early modern philosophers with special emphasis on Cartesianism.

“My interests outside of reading classic works, are pocket knife making, leather work, gardening, blacksmithing, entomology, dogs, politics, archery, government, and banjo playing

“I have owned a banjo since I was 10. I played it off and on but never spent enough time to get good with it. Ten years ago I decided to make a banjo, which I did. I then decided to get some real instruction rather than trying to get good by myself. That worked. I have been collecting banjos for 10 years. All my banjos have been bought in Maine. I particularly like early banjos, 19th Century ones, and I appreciate the 19TH Century music played on them

“Well, let's see, I ran three times for the Maine House of Representatives, 2000, 2002, 2006 - the first two times as a Libertarian, the last as a Republican. My showings as a Libertarian candidate were among the strongest in Maine history. Each time I won the rural towns and lost Jay, which swept the election for my opponent. I have always had a strong mistrust of the efficacy of all governments, which mean I hold that we should not entrust government with many duties. A sum of all the mess ups and foul ups will convince any rational person of the inefficiency of governments, but memories are short. The Jeffersonian dictum 'The best government is the one that governs least' is a fine motto for any politician to live by. Taxation does not take away freedom, but rather it limits the means by which we exercise our liberties. Compliance with the laws is inversely proportional to the number of laws and rules with the force of law. These and a few others maxims are handy to keep in mind.”

Bill will be a surrogate for John when there are multiple events in the closing weeks of the campaign. He performs original songs to the accompaniment of his banjo about Frary in his trademark Snuffy Smith hat. He is well worth listening to, whether singing or talking.

A Saturday Surprise For The GOP

Farmington, Maine — On Saturday, Nov. 17 Paul Davis, Piscataquis COP Committee Chairman and Senate Minority Leader, 2002-2006, introduced Farmington Selectman, John Frary, to the Republican State Committee as a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2nd District.

John Frary, retired history professor and an editor of the International Military Encyclopedia, was born in Farmington, graduated from Farmington High School and attended the University of Maine in Orono. In 1965 he went to Rutgers University to study Byzantine history, receiving a masters degree and completing the course and examination requirements for his PhD in 1970. During a sabbatical in 1983 he took graduate courses at Princeton University. He worked in administration and later taught history and political science at Middlesex County College from 1972 until his retirement in 2004. He returned to Maine, where he has always had a home, two weeks later.

Frary was the conservative columnist for the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel from March 2005 until December of that year, when he was dismissed for excessively persistent criticism of Governor Baldacci's Dirigo Health Plan. He has since written columns for the Franklin Journal, Daily Bulldog and Downeast Coastal Press. He has also published guest columns in the Bangor Daily News, Portland Press Herald and Brunswick Times Record.

SMILING pdf content HERE (PDF, 241KB)

Does this sound familiar?

"Duties on every article which enters the mouth, or covers the back or is placed under the foot---taxes on everything which is pleasant to see, hear, smell or taste---taxes upon warmth, light and locomotion---taxes on everything on earth, and the waters under the earth---taxes on everything that comes from abroad or is made at home---taxes on the raw material---taxes on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man---taxes on the sauce which pampers man's appetite, and the drug that restores him to health---on the ermine that decorates the judge and the rope that hangs the criminal---on the poor man's salt and the rich man's spice---on the brass nails of the coffin and the ribands of the bride---at bed or board, couchant or levant, we must pay---the schoolboy whips his taxed top---the beardless youth manages his taxes horse, with a taxed bridle, on a taxed road---and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine which has paid 7 percent, into a spoon that has paid 15 per cent, flings himself back on his chintz bed, which has paid 22 percent---and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of 100 pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then taxed from 2 to 10 percent---besides the probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel---his virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble---and he is then gathered to his fathers, to be taxed no more."

Sydney Smith, Edinburgh Review, 1838