A piece entitled "Charities are for suckers," penned by Ted Rall is running over at Yahoo. It's worth a read, because I think it accurately showcases the biggest problem with our government today - namely, the ignorant fools like Ted Rall that have a fundamental lack of knowledge about the founding and history of our nation.

Rall starts out:

Hurricane Katrina has prompted Americans to donate more than $700 million to charity, reports the Chronicle of Philanthropy. So many suckers, so little foresight.

Government has been shirking its basic responsibilities since the '80s, when Ronald Reagan sold us his belief that the sick, poor and unlucky should no longer count on "big government" to help them, but should rather live and die at the whim of contributors to private charities.

The man talks about "big government" as if it was something intended by the founders, happily flourishing for 200 years only to be destroyed just 30 years ago by Ronald Reagan. Give me a break. Anyone who's bothered to read a book about the history of our nation not assigned by their Civics teacher knows that "big government" was specifically not intended. Not to say that a government can't be designed with that aim in mind -many governments have been, just not ours. Perhaps Rall meant to cite to Cuba, China, to the now defunct U.S.S.R., or to one of the many, many, many other governments intended to operate as he describes. He has the power of sheer numbers on his side - Rall need look only to the ash heap of history for thousands of examples.

Why should New Orleans' dispossessed have to live in private shelters? We live in the United States, not Mali.

It's exactly because we live in the United States, Mr. Rall. I suppose one could make the same argument about anything, "Why should citizens have to buy their own cars? We live in the United States, not Mali."

It's ridiculous, but people evidently need to be reminded that the United States is not only the world's wealthiest nation but the wealthiest society that has existed anywhere, ever.

And others need to be reminded just how the United States attained that status.

The U.S. government can easily pick up the tab for people inconvenienced by bad weather--if helping them is a priority ... Cutting a check to the Red Cross isn't just a vote for irresponsible government. It's a drop in the bucket compared to what you'll end up paying for Katrina in increased taxes.

This aptly demonstrates the ignorance of so many like Rall - he doesn't want individuals to have to pay for the disaster recovery efforts - instead, he wants the government to pay for it. Where does Mr. Rall think that the government gets its money?

I'm reminded of Congressman Crockett's famous Not Yours To Give speech, delivered on the floor when the House was debating appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer.

"Mr. Speaker--I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the suffering of the living, ...

We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the deceased.

"Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week's pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks."

He took his seat. Nobody replied. The bill was put upon its passage, and, instead of passing unanimously, as was generally supposed, and as, no doubt, it would, but for that speech, it received but few votes, and, of course, was lost.

To hear Rall's version of history, you'd think that the above quoted speech was given by the evil Ronald Reagan in 1983, not by Representative Crockett over 150 years ago.

If you were to ask Ted Rall, he'd probably have no idea that the famed and storied, universally revered and widely heralded Davey Crocket was a Congressman.