A True Progressive

Christians and drug prohibition

2012-02-17T03:50:00.000-01:00

I grew up reflexively accepting the War on Drugs (one of many such open-ended crusades our ever-growing government is still engaged in). But in recent years I've been making up for that unquestioning consent.

Don't get me wrong: I have no desire to become a drug user. But I'm also tired of being used to support initiation of force against people who, in the vast majority of cases, have physically harmed nobody but themselves. Yes, there are social consequences associated with drug use -- devastation of families, for one. It is easy to fall into the mindset that "there ought to be a law..."

But there are also consequences for accepting a growing number of "no-knock" raids that seem increasingly to catch innocent bystanders in the crossfire, and which undermine the sanctity of one's private personal space with violent intrusion by the State.

This entry on the blog LibertarianChristians.com eloquently captures the evolution of my own thinking on the subject: (excerpt)

...it is not right for me (or others) to claim ownership over your body by making laws telling you what you can and cannot do with it. I cannot initiate force against you. I may, Lord willing, use my personal influence to urge you to behave differently, but I shall not lift a hand against you. The argument that these substances are illegal because they can do you personal harm is, quite frankly, completely ludicrous. People consensually agree to do dangerous things with physical substances all the time — such as football, boxing, or riding in cars. The argument that these substances might “influence” you to do harm to others is barely more sane. If you cause harm to someone else “under the influence” then you can be prosecuted as a criminal, but there is no legal principle under the sun that states you can be prosecuted before doing anything wrong.

Please note: this applies to government. There is no reason to think removing government sanction implies that employers could not continue to prohibit the use of certain substances by their employees. If those substances can reasonably be expected to impair employees' ability and/or safety, it is well within the prerogative of property rights to specify in the employment contract that foregoing said substances is a condition of employment. This is an issue addressed by the concept of freedom of association.

Freedom is maximized when the individual is permitted to choose the manner in which they spend the finite time we all have on this Earth -- the people with whom we spend it, and the activities we engage in with it. To the extent such choices do not cause harm to others, the government has no grounds for involvement.

Und now, ze cafeteria polizei

2012-02-16T00:14:00.003-01:00

Yet another reason to homeschool... we don't have to obtain State approval for the lunches we fix...

A mother in Hoke County complains her daughter was forced to eat a school lunch because a government inspector determined her home-made lunch did not meet nutrition requirements. In fact, all of the students in the NC Pre-K program classroom at West Hoke Elementary School in Raeford had to accept a school lunch in addition to their lunches brought from home...

While the four-year-old was still allowed to eat her home lunch, the girl was forced to take a helping of chicken nuggets, milk, a fruit and a vegetable to supplement her sack lunch.
The mother says the girl was so intimidated by the inspection process that she was too scared to eat all of her homemade lunch. The girl ate only the chicken nuggets provided to her by the school, so she still didn’t eat a vegetable...

The mother, who lives in Fayetteville, sent a statement to state Rep. G.L. Pridgen (R-Robeson) detailing her complaint. Pridgen says he was shocked to hear it. Pridgen has since learned this is a nationwide practice based on federal guidelines.

Because, you see, there's nothing more important for the Federal government to be doing than ~~inflating the numbers for subsidized lunches~~ policing what mothers choose to put in the brown bags they give their children. Heaven forbid these children grow up to think they or their parents might make good choices without bureaucratic intervention. They might get all... independent or something...

If any of you thought I was unfairly hyperbolic labeling a recent post "Public Schools: breeding grounds of totalitarianism," please realize that was a polite tone-down of what I really think of the institution as it now exists.

Quote of the day

2012-02-15T01:17:00.000-01:00

It has always amazed me that the people who want the government to do a few important things, and to do them well, are called "anti-government," while those who want the government to do many things, all of them badly, are not. -- Glenn Reynolds, "Instapundit"

Just another manic Monday...

2012-02-13T04:32:00.000-01:00

...In Athens, where denizens seem to have decided the best way of showing their displeasure at being told their subsidized lifestyles are being curtailed is to burn the ancient 'cradle of democracy.'

I suspect as more nations face the fiscal reality that 'entitlements' are out of control, that we'll see more such temper tantrums.

“Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either [aristocracy or monarchy]. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.” -- John Adams

Quote of the day

2012-02-10T19:17:00.000-01:00

From George Will (...a writer I used to more consistently find myself in harmony with, but whom nevertheless still gets 'em right now and then):

"GOP critics say that Obama’s proposed defense cuts will limit America’s ability to engage in troop-intensive nation-building. Most Americans probably say: Good"

Read the whole thing here. My only complaint is that in analyzing the "Republican position" on defense, Will fails to mention there is still a voice in the GOP wilderness, offering an alternative to the warfare-state-without-end.

Decisions, decisions

2012-02-09T02:38:00.000-01:00

So who do you think is next on the receiving end of Uncle Sam's technological prowess:

Iran,

Syria,

or maybe something a little closer to home?

So many possible wars, so little time... you'd think our leaders are trying to distract us from their failures or something.

Only a year to wait...

2012-02-08T01:21:00.000-01:00

Just heard that one of my all-time favorite sci-fi novels, Ender's Game, is being made into a movie. Now I have to wonder until March 2013 if those in the project can produce a worthy cinematic adaptation. Lord of the Rings managed it, under Peter Jackson's careful direction. The Hunt for Red October made the leap in good fashion as well. There are plenty of examples of eye-averting misfires, however.

Here's hoping that after 25 years of waiting, Ender gets his due.

Alas...

2012-02-06T00:01:00.005-01:00

'Once more unto the breach...'

What's the difference?

2012-02-05T20:29:00.000-01:00

In this morning's Bible Study group we examined God's expectation that His people be holy -- not in the sense of smug self-righteousness (as it's all too often misunderstood), but rather a sense of separateness. It stands to reason those who choose to walk with God should stand out in a world that roundly and loudly denies His authority...or even His existence:

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2

We are not called to be “different for different’s sake,” but to display a difference that affirms our basic beliefs—that of trusting and pleasing God because we are His children. A sincerely held belief that this world is under the dominion of evil and in ignorance of Truth, and that a means of escaping this bondage is available to any who will receive it, should have a clear effect on one's priorities and actions. Sadly, every Christian struggles with this -- hence the warning not to be conformed to the world around us. The Christian faith is not about comfort -- although it is comforting. It's not about convenience -- though God's grace is always available when sought. Most of all, it's not about self... which puts it squarely at odds with much of the modern American ethos.

I recently read an article entitled "An Evangelical Social Gospel?" I've not read the book it reviews, but still found the discussion of the material interesting. It seems part of our fallen nature is to elevate one trait of Truth over another, rather than seeing it whole. Such would seem to be the case with 'evangelism' versus 'social work.' If we're charged with loving our neighbor as ourself, that would include the entirety of their being -- mind, body and soul. It does little good to preach to them while they're hungry and cold. Conversely, how callous is it to feed and clothe a person, but dance around their need for Christ's atonement of their sin and separation from God? For whatever reason, it seems the modern church emphasizes one or the other, not realizing both are integral to God's commission.

And only by combining the two can the Christian avoid being categorized either as a religious huckster or a guilt-ridden do-gooder. Seeing through the eyes of the Lord results in a compassionate evangelism that should be unlike anything else a person may encounter.

Saturday Sounds

2012-02-04T13:29:00.000-01:00

After discovering this group, I asked for their debut CD for Christmas. It's been getting quite a bit of use...

Defense Industry speak with forked tongue

2012-02-03T14:35:00.000-01:00

India, like many nations, is busily upgrading its military. They've apparently decided to pass on purchasing U.S.-made F-16 and F-18 fighter aircraft in favor of a French design... much to American disappointment:

"We are extremely confident that the F/A-18IN and F-16IN would have provided the Indian Air Force unbeatable platforms with proven technologies at a competitive price," the Pentagon spokesman Cmdr Leslie Hull-Ryde said.

What's interesting is the use of the term "unbeatable." If the proposed updates of these already-in-service designs are so top-notch, why are we so hell-bent on pursuing the troubled F-35 program? It begs the question whether the need for upgraded aviation capability is worth the resources being expended to obtain it. Not to mention whether one of the largest defense programs in U.S. history may just be, in reality, one big sunk cost that's only growing by the day.

So which is it, military-industrial complex? Do current threats warrant the F-35, and we were just trying to convince India to buy a bunch of expensive second-string aircraft... or are you aiming higher and trying to sell America a gold-plated bill of goods? It's clearly one or the other...

All hail the hog!

2012-02-02T00:14:00.000-01:00

Be sure to help fight off winter by watching the Bill Murray classic today. For those who refuse to honor this hallowed tradition, may you wake up to the sounds of "I've got you, babe" on your clock/radio tomorrow...

...on second thought, this IS an election year. Nobody deserves to get stuck in an endless loop during one of those...

All-time greatest Presidential quote

2012-02-01T03:13:00.000-01:00

Calvin Coolidge is rarely mentioned in the presidential histories. He led during a time of relative peace and contentment, with little temptation to activism or seeking a name for himself. If only we were cursed with more such administrations as that of so-called "silent Cal."

In public, Coolidge was known for his reserve. His wife recounted a lady challenging him at a social event, saying she'd bet she could make him say more than two words to her. "You lose," the president is said to have replied.

And yet, the chief executive is known to have had long, private discussions with the press, even soliciting their suggestions on the issues of the day. The record shows that, when asked to sum up his presidency, he replied:

"Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business."

Silent Cal for '12!!

(HT: "The Greatest Presidential Stories Never Told")

A modest analogy...

2012-01-31T01:39:00.000-01:00

The short answer? YES.

2012-01-30T01:38:00.002-01:00

The question: "Shouldn't (the) President honor a subpoena?"

There has been considerable evidence in recent months that President Obama, like President Nixon before him, sees himself as above the law. Take a look, for instance, at the “recess appointments” he made while the Senate was NOT in recess. Of course, this follows the appointment of numerous “czars” to create policy for the administration...

But the president’s response Thursday to the hearings in an obscure Georgia court where his presidential eligibility was being challenged suggests that the imperial Russian title (a derivative of the Roman Caesar) ...should be reserved exclusively for Barack Obama — “the man who would be czar.”

In short, the president simply did not show up in response to a subpoena to answer questions about whether he is eligible to appear on the ballot in the state of Georgia for re-election to the office he currently holds.

Perhaps it's reasonable to suggest a President cannot be expected to be dragged personally into legal minutiae, lest this become a standard political tactic. But let's be clear, here: the President not only declined to answer in person a valid summons from a member of the judicial system, his legal team unilaterally deemed it unworthy and thus simply refused to cooperate:

The so-called “birthers” finally got their day in court, and the president decided he just couldn’t be bothered. Too busy being president, as his attorney argued. That attorney, Michael Jablonski, responded to the legal challenges of several Georgia voters by just plain refusing to participate in the court proceedings. He announced that he and his client, the president of the United States, would simply “suspend further participation” in the Georgia court case and that President Obama would ignore a subpoena to appear.
When President Nixon threatened to ignore court orders, he was threatened with impeachment. It doesn’t matter what the topic at hand is in the courtroom — when the court summons you, it behooves you to appear. This is not less true in the case of a president, the man who is responsible for enforcing the laws of the nation, but more so — for if the president thumbs his nose at lawful courts hearing lawful pleadings, then his legal authority is undermined and so is the rule of law.
Nor can the president rightfully decide to ignore this particular case because he and his attorneys think it has no merit. That is the judge’s decision, not theirs.

Precisely. This is why there is separation of powers between branches of the Federal Government, and between the Feds and the States. NO ONE should be able to individually decide the limits of their own accountability. Period.

I would love to see this nose-thumbing result in Obama's exclusion from the Georgia ballot (an outcome he's been cautioned is possible). The usual suspects will charge racism, political foul play, ad nauseum. But the reality is that, by showing contempt for the legal method of addressing grievances (and determining the truth of them), he has shown himself unfit for office, regardless of eligibility.

Let the games begin...

Faith-based 'science'

2012-01-29T18:21:00.000-01:00

Remember this the next time Global Warmists insist (use booming "Wizard of Oz" tone here) "the science is SETTLED."

The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years. The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.
Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.

Interesting the CRU chose to exhibit "little fanfare," since it's been the primary voice of the Chicken Little crowd anytime there was a data point they could latch onto to "prove" global warming was a fact, and all those detractors merely deluded, wrong-thinking idiots. Such a lack of even-handedness might lead one to conclude there's... an agenda... or something...

...it is becoming evident that factors other than CO2 play an important role in rising or falling warmth, such as the 60-year water temperature cycles in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
‘They have insufficiently been appreciated in terms of global climate,’ said Prof Curry. When both oceans were cold in the past, such as from 1940 to 1970, the climate cooled. The Pacific cycle ‘flipped’ back from warm to cold mode in 2008 and the Atlantic is also thought likely to flip in the next few years .
Pal Brekke, senior adviser at the Norwegian Space Centre, said some scientists found the importance of water cycles difficult to accept, because doing so means admitting that the oceans – not CO2 – caused much of the global warming between 1970 and 1997.
The same goes for the impact of the sun – which was highly active for much of the 20th Century.
‘Nature is about to carry out a very interesting experiment,’ he said. ‘Ten or 15 years from now, we will be able to determine much better whether the warming of the late 20th Century really was caused by man-made CO2, or by natural variability.’

Who knows? Maybe if Time Magazine is still around then, it can recycle some old covers... recycling being environmentally responsible and all...

Saturday Sounds

2012-01-28T00:07:00.000-01:00

This week's selection in honor of yesterday's anniversary...

As an aside, we recently watched the movie The Dish... interesting backstory to that famous footage of Neil Armstrong, used at the end of the video above. A bit of salty language, but otherwise a great film!

In Memoriam: Apollo 1

2012-01-27T00:03:00.037-01:00

Forty-five years ago today, America experienced its first loss of pioneers of the high frontier:

January 27, 1967: A launch pad fire during Apollo program tests at Cape Canaveral, Florida, kills astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chafee. An investigation indicated that a faulty electrical wire inside the Apollo 1 command module was the probable cause of the fire. The astronauts, the first Americans to die in a spacecraft, had been participating in a simulation of the Apollo 1 launch scheduled for the next month.

One scene from the movie Apollo 13 that sticks in my mind: early in the film, Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks) is explaining to his son what went wrong with Apollo 1. Among many issues, those on scene were unable to open the door in time to assist the ill-fated astronauts.

Later in the movie, when the family learns Lovell and crew have also experienced a malfunction en route to the moon, the son quietly asks: "was it the door?"

In a tragic irony, the next loss to the astronaut corps - the Challenger explosion - occurred almost exactly 19 years to the day later (January 28, 1986). Daring to do great things -- never easy for those who dare... or for those who love them.

Godspeed, Apollo 1, and the crews of Challenger and Columbia.

A solitary example

2012-01-26T03:05:00.000-01:00

Another nugget to make you feel all warm and fuzzy about crime and punishment in modern 'Merica:

A man who spent two years in solitary confinement after getting arrested for DWI was awarded $22 million for suffering inhumane treatment in New Mexico's Dona Ana County Jail.
Stephen Slevin was arrested in August of 2005 for driving while intoxicated, according to NBC station KOB.com. He said he never got a trial and spent the entire time languishing in solitary, even pulling his own tooth when he was denied dental care...
The $22 million settlement, awarded by a federal jury on Tuesday, is one of the largest prisoner civil rights settlements in U.S. history, according to KOB.com.

Like anyone who remembers pre-9/11 America, my first thought was "there has to be more to this story." But if there is, the long arm of the law doesn't seem particularly interested in telling it. According to the stories, the county didn't return calls for comment after the verdict. That, coupled with the whopping huge settlement, would tend to indicate this is a particularly egregious case of cops gone wild. And yet...

...not the smallest hint anyone has been disciplined for this, while taxpayers shell out mucho dinero for the folly of their own officials. As Yakov Smirnoff says, "what a country!"

Conditioning

2012-01-25T04:04:00.000-01:00

I remember when riots broke out in L.A. after the Rodney King verdict in 1992. One key aspect of that memory was seeing on TV Marines and National Guard, armed with M-16s, patrolling the streets. I realize I didn't live through the Watts riots of the 1960s or similar racial unrest, but... those images on TV in 1992 seemed disturbingly out of place.

As well they should have.

Since then, the military has become more and more involved in our cities. As other government agencies have become increasingly ineffective at what they do, the National Guard -- and more troubling, the active-duty force -- have taken greater roles in everything from training police to providing disaster relief. Combined with the militarization of police departments, the result is that utility combat uniforms no longer seem so out of place in urban America.

This just reinforces that trend:

Joint military training exercises will be held evenings in downtown Los Angeles through Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPD will be providing support for the exercises, which will also be held in other portions of the greater Los Angeles area, police said...

The exercises are designed to ensure the military's ability to operate in urban environments, prepare forces for upcoming overseas deployments, and meet mandatory training certification requirements, police said.

Oh... so I guess there are no facilities on any of our installations here and around the world where military units can certify their deployment readiness and urban operational capability? Really? Really?

Sorry... there has to be a better way to "train" and "certify" for legitimate military missions beside maneuvering around in America's second-largest city. Unless the real point is getting people used to having them there. The current "Occupy LA" movement doesn't need competition, thank you very much.

Public School: totalitarian breeding grounds

2012-01-24T00:52:00.004-01:00

Here's what the next generation is learning at school: conform or be penalized:

The Baltimore Ravens have a "Purple Fridays" caravan that motors around the city hosting pep rallies for their precious purple Ravens. They've done it all year and it continues into the playoffs.
One stop Friday was at Roland Park Elementary where the kids were happy to hang out with Poe and Rise & Conquer, partially because they love the Ravens and partially because they weren't locked in the library.

In advance of the pep rally, a teacher wrote an email to parents indicating that any kid who didn't wear Ravens gear wouldn't be allowed to attend the pep rally but would be stuck in the library instead. From the Baltimore Sun:
"Students must wear purple or Ravens attire to attend, as there will be many TV cameras there," one teacher wrote to parents in an email obtained by The Baltimore Sun. "Not wearing purple or Ravens attire means making a choice not to attend."
Another teacher emailed that "students must wear purple in order to attend. If your child does not wear purple or you do not wish them to attend, I believe staff will supervise the students in the library."

Next up: learning to grieve on command when the hometown team loses. With all this conditioning, it's a wonder schools have time for teaching such mundane things as math and English...

Blog quote of the day

2012-01-23T18:30:00.016-01:00

From LibertarianGirl:

Psychopaths are not just the serial killers we often hear about on television. Many members of our current and former government can be classified as psychopaths. America we need to take better care of who we elect and why they want to be in office. Their personal lives should scrutinized to a a certain degree. It is less important then their records but it does lend some insight to their character. Politicians are supposed to serve the people, we have to stop electing psychopaths who serve themselves!

It does amaze me how often the public elects "lovable rogues" who show no sense of marital loyalty or moral remorse, and then act shocked that the officials in question are more interested in personal aggrandizement than they are the common good.

Yet another deficit: leading by example

2012-01-23T00:38:00.026-01:00

For a government that claims to know what's best for you, from what you eat to how to spend your money for you, Uncle Sam talks a good game but sets a lousy example:

After saddling the country with as much new debt as the rest of the world combined in one year flat, one would think that Uncle Sam wouldn’t have the cojones to dish out debt advice to others. But one would be wrong. In an unwitting self-parody worthy of Froma Harrop on The Daily Show, the Federal Trade Commission has created a step-by-step web guide for Americans “Knee-Deep in Debt.”

The first step, says the agency, which represents a government that went over 800 days without passing a budget, is: create a budget! Get a “realistic assessment of how much money you take in and how much money you spend,” it lectures those in financial doo-doo, seemingly oblivious of the fact that its own bosses have promised $60 trillion to a $100 trillion more in entitlements than the country has money to pay for.

Politician, heal thyself. Then we'll talk.

Enjoying the privilege

2012-01-22T01:17:00.001-01:00

The older I get, the more I realize the wisdom of my parents' frequent quip that "growing old isn't for the faint of heart." Despite the deterioration and frustration that accompanies our journey through this corrupted creation, it's worth remembering that the journey itself is a privilege...

Saturday Sounds

2012-01-21T00:18:00.011-01:00

Off all the instruments we use to offer praise, the simple blend of human voices is often the most fascinating...

Socialism, illustrated

2012-01-19T00:01:00.000-01:00

I've never seen a more straightforward explanation of what's wrong with the basic premise:

Headed for national Chapter 11?

2012-01-18T00:52:00.025-01:00

Uncle Sam has already exhausted his latest line of credit, meaning he's asking for approval to borrow a trillion or so more dollars. His balance sheet continues to bleed out from millions of cuts, large and small.

One of those many wounds is subsidizing the Postal Service:

Just as Kodak's technology made older modes of photography obsolete more than a hundred years ago, so the new technology of the digital age has left Kodak behind.
Great names of companies in other fields have likewise vanished as new technology brought new rivals to the forefront, or else made the whole product obsolete, as happened with typewriters, slide rules and other products now remembered only by an older generation. That is what happens in a market economy and we all benefit from it as consumers.
Unfortunately, that is not what happens in government. The post office is a classic example. Post offices were once even more important than Eastman Kodak, and for a longer time, as the mail provided vital communications linking people and organizations across thousands of miles. But, today, technology has moved even further beyond the post office than it has beyond Eastman Kodak.
The difference is that, although the Postal Service is technically a private business, its income doesn't cover all its costs -- and taxpayers are on the hook for the difference.
Moreover, the government makes it illegal for anyone else to put anything into your mail box, even though you bought the mail box and it is your property. That means you don't have the option to have some other private company deliver your mail.
Junk mail, for example, does not have to cover all its costs. You might be happy to get less junk mail if it had to pay a postage rate that covered the full cost of delivering it. But people who send junk mail would lobby Congress to stay on the gravy train.

Government may not have Chapter 11 open to it the way Kodak did, but that just makes the fiscal train wreck that's coming all the more dangerous for having no orderly remedy.

I like Ike!

2012-01-17T00:17:00.001-01:00

Half a century ago he gave a warning that went unheeded as America grew accustomed to maintaining -- and using -- a large and increasingly powerful standing military:

January 17, 1961 -- In his farewell address to the nation, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns the American people to keep a careful eye on what he calls the "military-industrial complex" that has developed in the post-World War II years.

A fiscal conservative, Eisenhower had been concerned about the growing size and cost of the American defense establishment since he became president in 1953. In his last presidential address to the American people, he expressed those concerns in terms that frankly shocked some of his listeners...

He admitted that the Cold War made clear the "imperative need for this development," but he was gravely concerned about "the acquisition of unwarranted influence...by the military-industrial complex." In particular, he asked the American people to guard against the "danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."

Today, on the 50th anniversary of these remarks, it would seem his concerns have been well vindicated...

"Destructive of these ends..."

2012-01-16T00:57:00.061-01:00

According to our nation's founding document, government is instituted to secure Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- and when such government fails to do so, it is subject to alteration or abolishment.

Perhaps it's time folks in Massachusetts -- where the "shot heard 'round the world" was fired -- dust off that old document and remember their heritage...

Here’s the final outcome of the Anthony McKay case:
If you defend your family and property from a knife-wielding druggie in Massachusetts, you’d better be prepared to also defend yourself from the justice system, too.
McKay is the young father who, seeing a local druggie breaking into his truck and stealing the tools he uses to pay the bills, confronted him, subdued him and held him for the police. When the police arrived, they found the bad guy had a knife, a billy club and — thanks to the unarmed McKay — a broken jaw.
Instead of thanking McKay for helping get an armed criminal off the streets, Swampscott officials charged him with a felony. As a Swampscott police spokesman said at the time, “We don’t urge anybody to fight back. We want them to call us.”

Adding insult to injury, when Anthony's brother, Ken, requested a permit to protest outside the courthouse while prosecutors decided what to do with Anthony, he was told by police that was illegal and he'd be arrested. Are the First Amendment's provisions really beyond the reading comprehension of that State's officials?

So to sum up:
- A citizen is arrested for using force to defend his property (how dare he violate The State's monopoly!)
- His brother is informed he, too, will be arrested, if he leads a peaceful assembly to protest this nonsense.
- Prosecutors drop the charge, defend the statute... and assert their prerogative to selectively pursue such cases. (Hello? Equal justice under the law? Are we governed by laws or men?)

At what point will the tyrannies of all these petty bureaucracies add up to a realization that government here is now more an impediment than a guarantor of our Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness?

Can a Christian be a Libertarian?

2012-01-15T00:03:00.003-01:00

Increasingly, I'm persuaded that is the Biblical conclusion. Maximizing individual freedom accords the highest respect to the independent moral agency God placed within every imago dei. It also comports with the Scriptural warning that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Thus, increasing the power to compel individuals -- even with noble intentions -- is a dangerous course.

I recommend for your reading pleasure this link. It reviews the discussion ensuing from a recently published editorial in the Washington Post from whence this post draws its title.

Some additional thoughts can be found here.

Saturday Sounds

2012-01-14T02:48:00.000-01:00

I'll enjoy listening to old Nickel Creek tunes even more, after watching Chris Thile take time to encourage an 11-year old aspiring talent. THIS is what music -- and role modeling -- is about!

Let's hope for no repeat....

2012-01-13T00:14:00.000-01:00

One hundred seventy years ago today in Afghanistan:

On January 13, 1842, a British army doctor reaches the British sentry post at Jalalabad, Afghanistan, the lone survivor of a 16,000-strong Anglo-Indian expeditionary force that was massacred in its retreat from Kabul. He told of a terrible massacre in the Khyber Pass, in which the Afghans gave the defeated Anglo-Indian force and their camp followers no quarter.

In the 19th century, Britain, with a goal of protecting its Indian colonial holdings from Russia, tried to establish authority in neighboring Afghanistan by attempting to replace Emir Dost Mohammad with a former emir known to be sympathetic to the British. This blatant British interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs triggered the outbreak of the first Anglo-Afghan War in 1839...

Yup... those Himalayan hillbillies have been giving empires fits for a looooooong time now...

Breaking the diploma dictatorship

2012-01-10T00:27:00.013-01:00

I've been intrigued by developments such as the Khan Academy (which occasionally supplements the Musketeers' math instruction), and now the Code Academy (which I suspect may become the Oldest Musketeer's latest online time sink).

This development, however, may be the start of something truly great -- the widespread return of recognized, valued vocational credentials...

The spread of a seemingly playful alternative to traditional diplomas, inspired by Boy Scout achievement patches and video-game power-ups, suggests that the standard certification system no longer works in today's fast-changing job market.
Educational upstarts across the Web are adopting systems of "badges" to certify skills and abilities. If scouting focuses on outdoorsy skills like tying knots, these badges denote areas employers might look for, like mentorship or digital video editing. Many of the new digital badges are easy to attain—intentionally so—to keep students motivated, while others signal mastery of fine-grained skills that are not formally recognized in a traditional classroom. ...
But the biggest push for badges is coming from industry and education reformers, rather than from traditional educational institutions. Mozilla, the group that develops the popular Firefox Web browser, is designing a framework to let anyone with a Web page—colleges, companies, or even individuals—issue education badges designed to prevent forgeries and give potential employers details about the distinctions at the click of a mouse. ...
Employers might prefer a world of badges to the current system. After all, traditional college diplomas look elegant when hung on the wall, but they contain very little detail about what the recipient learned.

That last bit is the real rub. A college diploma used to be a reliable marker of a certain level of education, which is why they are often demanded merely to get an interview. This marker is no longer necessarily true. And considering how much of a college education today consists of various electives of dubious 'educational' value, a four-year degree equivalent is often more a marker of forced tenacity than it is of any particular acquired skills.

The linked article references the Microsoft certification program... something I've long thought is a viable alternative for specialized vocation. One does not need a four-year degree in mechanical engineering to be an auto mechanic. Both vocations are needed; the training is different, however. The application of the college degree approach to a wide range of hands-on, so-called "blue collar" specialties has been a disservice both to the public and to the educational process itself. Leave it to the last relatively unfettered market -- the Internet -- to lead the charge at reform.

Doing the work of the media

2012-01-09T02:32:00.000-01:00

With all the buzz about Santorum, you'd never guess who consistently polls second to Romney in New Hampshire. Just remember: your rulers have decreed that He Who Shall Not Be Named is unelectable... don't go getting radical and thinking for yourself or anything...

And God laughed...

2012-01-09T02:21:00.000-01:00

I don't believe God cares a whit about the outcome of sporting events. I do believe the Bible makes clear He honors those who honor Him. And since we're told humanity is made in His image, it's safe to say He has a sense of humor.

How else to explain a much maligned quarterback, accused of having no real passing skill, lighting up the Steelers in overtime with an 80-yard strike? To add to the mirth, Denver racked up the most passing yards of any team against Pittsburgh this season... a not-so-subtle 316 yards.

Tebow may never be considered an elite quarterback. But he has consistently demonstrated a humility and thankfulness to God for his gifts. It would seem God has returned the love, much to the chagrin of those who hate Tebow with an irrational passion comparable to those who hated his Lord.

Laughing along with you, God! I pray you continue to guard the heart of this servant; protect him from the temptations this world offers to those who taste "success." Don't let him stumble, so that Your name is mocked. Instead, continue to show Your strength in his weakness.

Saturday Sounds

2012-01-07T01:19:00.004-01:00

Apparently these guys have mastered the Jedi mind trick, because I saw this video on Facebook a few times, just as they instructed at the end...

Oh, wait: I'm sharing it too... d'oh!

Your papers, please

2012-01-06T01:45:00.021-01:00

First they got the public used to stripping down on command at the airports. Then they convinced everyone it was necessary to "say cheese" to being irradiated before getting onto planes.

Now comes the first step toward getting people used to presenting their credentials to paramilitary forces upon demand, probable cause or not. And yes, I realize this "exercise" was at a Federal office.

Mark my words: they won't always be.

It may have looked like they were ready for war or some deranged person looking for his late Social Security benefits.
But it was only Federal Protective Service officers with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security who were conducting a random training operation early Tuesday morning when they surprisingly showed up at the Social Security Administration office in downtown Leesburg.
With their blue and white SUVs circled around the Main Street office, at least one official was posted on the door with a semiautomatic rifle, randomly checking identifications.

I'm sure this unannounced show of force had the desired effect on those present...

Governments benefit enormously from searching their subjects — especially when those searches can ensnare anyone at any time in any place. Such random rubbings guarantee that almost everybody will obey his rulers’ decrees. What American pothead will stuff a baggie of weed in his pocket before leaving home if he knows cops will probably frisk him on the street? Likewise, what Chinese Christian totes a Bible with him? Will a Moslem in Saudi Arabia carry a bottle of wine to his friend’s home when invited to dinner?

But searches enhance government’s power far more enormously and insidiously through the humiliation they inflict. Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, subjects of even the most despotic regimes usually assume that whomever the authorities bully must have done something to deserve it. No one wants to be pulled aside for a search and implicitly branded a criminal; it’s human nature to feel deeply, excruciatingly shamed at such attention — let alone the potential for either physical or psychological harm and sexual abuse when a stranger manhandles your body.

Most people will do anything to avoid such embarrassment. They try not to stand out from the crowd, and they keep their head down lest they catch an official eye; they dare not protest their own or their neighbor’s abuse; they accept whatever other horrors government dishes out in silence, too.

Prove this by watching the line at the TSA’s checkpoint. No matter how offensively or senselessly the TSA molests nuns, arthritic great-grandfathers, little boys, buxom women, or expectant mothers, no one murmurs a word of outrage.

Gearing up, but for what?

2012-01-05T00:57:00.012-01:00

A few snippets for those who wonder why I'm increasingly concerned about the future:

According to the FBI, over 1.5 million background checks on customers were requested by gun dealers to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System in December. Nearly 500,000 of those were in the six days before Christmas. It was the highest number ever in a single month, surpassing the previous record set in November.

Meanwhile, other records are falling, too:

The Obama administration announced last week it had finalized a record $29.4 billion Boeing F-15 sale to Saudi Arabia, dwarfing previous individual U.S. arms deals and supporting jobs by increasing exports.

***

The United States has signed a $3.5 billion sale of an advanced antimissile interception system to the United Arab Emirates, part of an accelerating military buildup of its friends and allies near Iran.

I don't know what's more disheartening: that so many people are racing to arm up, or that the only functional exports the U.S. seems to have left are weaponry and inflation. Let's hope we all don't have to break out these new toys...

No shame, whatsoever

2012-01-04T00:17:00.007-01:00

One trend I've noticed over my lifetime: once, people used to endure public shame and keep a low profile after a particularly egregious error in judgment/character. Not anymore...

A Denver police officer fired for driving 88 mph above the speed limit while intoxicated has appealed his dismissal, arguing that the penalty is unfair and overly harsh. ...

The penalty is "disproportionate to the offenses alleged and/or is excessive so as to be punitive rather than corrective in nature," according to the appeal, filed by the Denver Police Protective Association's lawyers.

Um, yeah... it's meant to be punitive, knucklehead. Corrective, too, in that it removes someone from the force that does not qualify for the public trust that comes with a badge and gun. To whom much is given, much is expected. The least we can expect from those who uphold the law (I'm looking at you, too, Congress...) is that they don't flagrantly disregard it themselves. Why that has become so hard to understand today is beyond me...

Iowa

2012-01-03T11:57:00.000-01:00

This post by Vox is well worth reading today. I believe his first paragraph is exactly on the mark how the national press plans to play the results...

Most expensive theater in the world

2012-01-03T00:26:00.000-01:00

Saw this over the holidays, but saved it since discussing TSA during the season of Christ's birth just didn't seem appropriate...

Just in time for the holiday travel season,Vanity Fair’s Charles C. Mann took a trip through airport security with security expert Bruce Schneier. Mann used a fake boarding pass that he printed at home with a little bit of Photoshopping and some coaching from Schneier; it worked.
In fact, there are only three security measures that are effective, and they’re all already in place. They are “locking and reinforcing the cockpit doors, so terrorists can’t break in, positive baggage matching” — ensuring that people can’t put luggage on planes, and then not board them — “and teaching the passengers to fight back. The rest is security theater.”

...and man, are those theater tickets pricey!

Ouch!

2012-01-02T00:07:00.001-01:00

(click to enlarge)

A prayer for the new year

2012-01-01T00:05:00.134-01:00

Abba -- Another year has passed. Like generations of Your people before us, we walk in this dark world by the light of your Word. We long for Your return, when all things will be made new and we will be freed from these bodies of death that betray the life your Son purchased for us.

As You said they would, the centuries since your Incarnation have been filled with wars, rumors of wars, disasters, diseases, famine and evil. Mankind continues to build on sand, believing we can solve our own problems--yet we only make them worse. Forgive us our arrogance. Comfort those afflicted not only by evil design, but also those who suffer under the tyranny of good intentions.

Protect and guide Your people, Lord, in this time when it seems Your Spirit is no longer welcome even in places where it has long dwelt. Give us good shepherds who hear Your voice and proclaim your Word faithfully. Provide us leaders who govern wisely and well. Pour out your Grace that enables us to live peacefully with one another and with You, rather than seeking only to do what is right in our own eyes.

Help us to raise our children to love and serve You, despite the many snares this world sets for the youngest of Your people. Protect them from the Evil One, who wants nothing so much as their destruction.

Heal our land, Father. In this election year, remind us not to follow men instead of You. Help us to discern those who will govern rather than try to rule. Remove the idols we have raised above You. As our nation reaps what we have long sown, show Your people how to provide light in the growing darkness. Give us strength to stand firm in the face of increasing hostility. Speak to the hearts of our friends and neighbors, and open their eyes to the truth of Your Word. Give us all the humility to turn from the evils we have too long accepted in our midst.

Remind us to pray continually for our brothers and sisters in lands where taking Your Name often leads to suffering and death. Shine Your light into these dark strongholds, that Your Kingdom may grow there. Help us to appreciate the greater freedom of action we have, and not to be complacent about our opportunities to serve.

Most of all, renew our faith each day. Help us when we are tempted to unbelief. Remind us that you are not slow in keeping your promises, and that each day until Your return exists because You are not willing that any should perish. As you provide each day for repentance, give us our daily sustenance to be part of Your work.

May we walk closer with You in 2012 than ever before. Amen.

Saturday Sounds

2011-12-31T01:23:00.000-01:00

May God bless you in the year to come!

Does anyone really know what time it is?

2011-12-30T20:38:00.001-01:00

Just in time for New Years, here's an interesting little piece about efforts to reform the calendar... yet again...

Time is eternal, but methods of tracking it are not — and so a Johns Hopkins University astronomer wants to replace the Gregorian calendar, with its leap years and floating dates and 15th-century effluvia, with a sleek and standardized system for the world.

According to Richard Conn Henry’s calendar, eight months would each have 30 days. Every third month would have 31 days. Every so often, to account for the leftover time, a whole extra week would be added.
The upshot: Years would proceed with clockwork regularity, with no annual re-jiggering of schedules required. Each day would occupy the same position as it had the previous year and would in the next. Were this 364-day calendar, known officially as the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar, adopted on the first day of 2012, both Christmas and New Year’s Day would forever fall on Sunday...

Personally, I think God gave us a 365.24-day year and a 28-day lunar cycle just to ensure we'd eventually have to grapple with math...

Wow

2011-12-29T18:35:00.000-01:00

If Ron Paul were not running for President, not only would I have no candidate I could vote for in good conscience, I wouldn't have the fun of watching stuff like this:

The Iowa chairman for Michele Bachmann's campaign, Iowa State Senator Kent Sorenson (R-Indianola), leaves her campaign in order to endorse Ron Paul.

"The decision I am making today is one of the most difficult I have made in my life. But given what's at stake for our country, I have decided I must take this action.

Today, I am switching my support from Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul for the 2012 Iowa Caucuses and the presidency of the United States....

*****

It turns out that Michele Bachman is a liar, as her own political director has come out and stated that Iowa campaign manager did not quit due to financial incentives: “I won’t say much about the situation or the conflicting statements beyond this; I can say unequivocally that Kent Sorenson’s decision was, in no way financially motivated.

My support for Paul is based on his character and his philosophy of governance... but it's a nice bonus to see how much he discombobulates the business-as-usual crowd.

A reasonable response

2011-12-28T02:18:00.000-01:00

This is an effort that needs to catch fire quickly...

This is from a statement from Stewart Rhodes of Oathkeepers regarding Republican (Congressman) Denny Rehberg as a target of recall, who also voted for NDAA.
Here in Montana, while we will go after all three violators of the Bill of Rights, I will place special emphasis and "focus of effort" on Denny Rehberg, since he is so fond of wrapping himself in the flag and claiming to be defending the Constitution while his votes do the exact opposite. In that sense, Rehberg is much like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, two Republicans who, right along with Carl Levin and Joseph Lieberman, are leading a sustained and relentless assault on our Bill of Rights.

It's about time we started making that oath to "support and defend the Constitution" more than a formality...

Revealing reality behind utopian aspirations

2011-12-28T00:15:00.018-01:00

One wonders if by the 40th anniversary of the publication of this work (2013) there might be enough material for an American volume...

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "literary investigation" of the police-state system in the Soviet Union, The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956, is published in the original Russian in Paris. The book was the first of the three-volume work. The brutal and uncompromising description of political repression and terror was quickly translated into many languages and was published in the United States just a few months later.

Solzhenitsyn's massive work detailed the machinations of the Soviet police state from the time of the Bolshevik Revolution to 1956. In the preface to the book, however, he warned that reading the work would be "very dangerous" for Russians in 1973. The book was important in that it maintained that police terror had always been essential to the existence of the Soviet state. This deviated from the standard Soviet line that such terror had only come about during the time of Stalin and evaporated upon his death in 1956.

Those who will not learn from history...

Not prepared for freedom

2011-12-27T14:46:00.000-01:00

We've lived a certain way in America for so long that we forget our liberties are not a natural condition; that specific ingredients were required for Western Civilization to develop as it did. Chief among these is self-control. As one observer put it:

“It may be that the human race is not ready for freedom. The air of liberty may be too rarified for us to breathe…The paradox seems to be, as Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.”

Socrates' 'paradox' is more fully explained through the Biblical worldview that the human race is born corrupted, self-centered and lawless. There is no more selfish creature on the planet than a baby, who cares not one whit that a 2 a.m. feeding or diaper change inconveniences the adults around them, or that an object catching their eye belongs to someone else. The adults understand the baby's dependence, and so out of love accomodate them. What is often overlooked, though, is that unless the adults around him teach him to consider others, that default self-centeredness will deepen in adulthood into utter disregard for anyone but himself.

Parents who took seriously this responsibility used to have significant support from a society that reinforced the basic value of self-restraint. Not anymore. Today, advertisers promote a culture of "get it at all costs," while entertainment in all forms compete to advance the most unrestrained hedonistic lifestyles possible. Voices raised against such vapidness are shouted down as prudes, or worse. Yet nobody bothers to project the logical results of such a social posture.

The result of this cultural shift shouldn't be surprising. As the quip says, "in a society where anything goes, eventually, everything will."

By removing the constraints of social pressure that once kept our natural tendencies at bay, we've created a dangerous situation... one where those who still respect civility and lawfulness will have to use increasing force against those who do not. Force, whether in the form of war or policing, is the health of the State. The State, however, is itself the natural foe of liberty. Having failed to rule ourselves, we are increasingly ruled by others.

And thus does the society we think we live in hang by a thread, as we exit 2011...

Link leftovers...

2011-12-26T00:58:00.002-01:00

...odds and ends read over Christmas (which I hope everyone enjoyed as much as our family did):

* If you can't organize getting on a State ballot, you probably aren't the best Presidential material...

* If your business is internet access, supporting government restrictions isn't a good business model...

* The Feds assert that requiring a photo ID at the polls is discriminatory and asking too much of would-be voters. No word whether it's equally 'racist' to require such ID at airports, traffic stops, when cashing checks or purchasing alcohol, collecting lottery proceeds...

* How the 'religion of peace' sends Christmas greetings to those celebrating Christ's birth in Nigeria

* How the 'religion of peace' is living with its Christian neighbors elsewhere...

* A newspaper posts an online story about a 'rare NASA photo' about a "wreath nebula" ... but doesn't include or link to the photo. (As the Musketeers would say: "fail!")

* The Iraqi government seems to think the best way to celebrate the departure of the U.S. is to put out an arrest warrant for the Vice President. Others disagree... they figure a return to synchronized car bombings is in order. Tell me again why we stayed an additional five years?

The Christ of Christmas

2011-12-25T00:29:00.003-01:00

From the Gospel of John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ( John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'") And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

One of my favorite "out of the mouths of babes" tales says that when a small girl was asked what John meant by calling Jesus "The Word," she thought hard and replied "because Jesus is everything God wanted to say to us!"

Amen. Joy to the world, the Lord has come!

Saturday Sounds

2011-12-24T00:01:00.018-01:00

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen." - Revelation 7: 9-12

Joy to the world -- the Lord is come!

Quotes of the election year

2011-12-23T02:17:00.001-01:00

A must-read thought from half a century ago, by the father of the man now known as the Oracle of Omaha:

"Even if it were desirable, America is not strong enough to police the world by military force. If that attempt is made, the blessings of liberty will be replaced by coercion and tyranny at home. Our Christian ideals cannot be exported to other lands by dollars and guns. Persuasion and example are the methods taught by the Carpenter of Nazareth, and if we believe in Christianity we should try to advance our ideals by his methods. We cannot practice might and force abroad and retain freedom at home. We cannot talk world cooperation and practice power politics."
- Nebraska Congressman Howard Buffett

Even better, this quote was just highlighted in an NPR piece that does a good job answering its own headline question: "Why do GOP bosses fear Ron Paul?" The opening of the piece says it all:

Ron Paul represents the ideology that Republican insiders most fear: conservatism.
Not the corrupt, inside-the-beltway construct that goes by that name, but actual conservatism.
And if he wins the Iowa Republican Caucus vote on January 3—a real, though far from certain, prospect—the party bosses will have to do everything in their power to prevent Paul from reasserting the values of the "old-right" Republicans who once stood, steadily and without apology, in opposition to wars of whim and assaults on individual liberty.

Consider the entire piece recommended reading...

The warning of history

2011-12-20T00:54:00.000-01:00

I'm not a fan of MTV. The channel's never been about the music so much as it has been about cultural indoctrination. (Who gave them the authority to label what the 'real world' is, anyway?)

Nevertheless, even a broken clock is right occasionally, and the channel nailed a very important message with these two spots. It. Can. Happen. Here.

Do I think we're headed for an anti-Semitic putsch? No. But the dreadful power of unchecked Statism is not limited in its scope to just one specific ethnicity. As Judge Napolitano puts it, "it's dangerous to be right, when the government is wrong." And our government just gets more wrong by the month...

Note to readers: I'm on the road today, so bear with me if I'm delayed in responding to any comments. I hope your holiday plans are panning out as well. Back soon...

The anti-Lincoln

2011-12-18T22:31:00.002-01:00

This short post from the Rebellion blog is worth quoting in its entirety:

Former Czech president Havel died "peacefully in his sleep" at the age of 75. He will long be remembered for his role in overthrowing the communist regime in his native country, and for continuing his anti-communist activism all over the world until the very end.

But there's a special place in the hearts of self-determination activists for Vaclav Havel. Faced with a secessionist movement by the eastern half of Czechoslovakia, he was the anti-Lincoln, and respected the Slovaks' right to govern themselves. The two nations continue to live in peace.

Now that's a legacy to be proud of.

Saturday Sounds

2011-12-17T00:39:00.001-01:00

This year, let's be thankful that thousands more service members will be home for Christmas, thanks to (finally) wrapping up in Iraq. May our nation find a way to further extricate ourselves from overseas, so there are even fewer who are only "home for Christmas in their dreams" next year...

And now for something completely different...

2011-12-16T00:16:00.004-01:00

The well-worn documents

2011-12-15T03:28:00.000-01:00

Today is the 220th anniversary of the adoption of the Bill of Rights. Given the circumstances of the past decade, it would be a good use of the occasion to reflect on their purpose:

By advancing the myth that the “Bill of Rights” grants the American people individual rights, the federal government has been able to assume the role of “protector” of those rights. This has allowed it to transform restraints on power into grants of power. The federal government now claims it has the power to impose “reasonable restraints” on any right enumerated in the “Bill of Rights.” This is an absurdity because the Amendments were specifically written and adopted to restrain the powers of the federal government. If the federal government is allowed to assume this power, then the Constitution is meaningless as a written document because government can simply modify or remove every restraint on its power.

The Bill of Rights grants nothing... what it does is codify recognition of pre-existing 'inalienable rights' (as the Founders put it). It compels the government to respect those limits on its power -- but only if the citizens are vigilant in demanding that respect. Several States refused to ratify the proposed Constitution without the Bill of Rights because they believed the document did not adequately restrain the new Federal Government. This in itself should be telling -- the BoR does not bestow power; it denies it. It says to Uncle Sam, "this far, and no further."

If, as it seems today, the majority become convinced that it is government that grants them power, rather than the other way around, it logically follows the government, by default, can do whatever it pleases. I seriously doubt that is the structure for which the Founding generation suffered and fought.

(HT: Bonnie Blue Blog)

I am the eye in the sky...

2011-12-14T01:55:00.000-01:00

... looking at you...

“Eventually, we’ll have to put an end to this, one way or another.”

Sheriff Kelly Janke of North Dakota’s Nelson County uttered that ominous sentence in mid-September, during what the local media giddily described as a stand-off with local farmer Rodney Brossart and his family. By that time, Sheriff Janke, with the help of the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Air Force, had already run the table where o “non-lethal” means of compelling the family to surrender were concerned. This included everything from the Taser used during Brossart’s June 23 arrest to the precedent-setting use of a Predator-B drone to conduct surveillance of the home several days later to facilitate the arrest of the farmer’s three sons...

“As the unmanned aircraft circled 2 miles overhead the next morning, sophisticated sensors under the nose helped pinpoint the three suspects and showed they were unarmed,” continued the Times. “Police rushed in and made the first known arrests of U.S. citizens with help from a Predator, the spy drone that has helped revolutionize modern warfare.

That was the “one way” Janke had already tried. What, pray tell, would have been the “other” – short of equipping the drone with Hellfire missiles and using it to annihilate the Brossart family as suspected terrorists?

If this had happened, the Brossarts would not be the first Americans to be killed by way of a drone-fired missile...

As the War Without End drags on, it seems the sophistication of the toys at the State's disposal, and the tolerance of the public for said toys to be employed both at home and abroad, steadily increases. Thus does war continue to be the health of the State... and very likely the ailment of the public.

The nadir of the cycle?

2011-12-13T03:51:00.000-01:00

Over at The Last Ditch, a British 'cousin' ponders things that have been on my mind as well:

It has been said that:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing.
Could a reform of our democracy prevent that collapse? My own preference would be rather to scale down the state and prevent its re-expansion by an entrenched constitution permanently limiting its scope. We could then safely continue with 'one man, one vote' as, while it's a terrible way to choose a master, it's a perfectly adequate way to choose a servant. But whether you favour my approach, Moggsy's suggested electoral handicapping or some pipe dream of your own, how can any reform ever be achieved when the state payroll vote is now decisive?

Unless a truly charismatic leader emerges to explain patiently, relentlessly and - most of all - convincingly that we can't keep spending more than we earn, our model seems doomed to collapse. Every state's credit has a limit and its cheques will eventually bounce so that its dependents starve. Yes, a small state might then be built on the impoverished ruins of the old, but at what terrible human cost?

Indeed. I'll say it again: one critical reform is to provide the franchise only to those who: a) pass a basic civics exam, demonstrating understanding of the fundamentals of responsible governance, and b) who are not on public assistance. Any recreation "on the impoverished ruins of the old" that fails to incorporate such, will only guarantee a repeat of the cycle noted at the beginning...

un-Warranted behavior

2011-12-12T02:43:00.035-01:00

The city of Minneapolis (meaning the taxpayers thereof) just paid $1 million dollars to a woman burned by a 'flash-bang' grenade during a (you guessed it) 'no-knock raid.' Interestingly enough, authorities had been denied a 'no-knock' warrant... read on...

The payout to Rickia Russell, who suffered permanent injuries, was the third largest payout for alleged Minneapolis police misconduct on record.
Flash grenades are intended to distract and intimidate, not to injure people, but during the raid the device rolled under the legs of Russell, who was seated on a sofa, and exploded. The police were looking that day for a drug dealer, narcotics and a firearm, but found nothing.
"What happened in this case was an accident," Minneapolis city attorney Susan Segal said in a statement. "It's very unfortunate that Ms. Russell suffered serious injuries, however, accidents like this are rare."
Yet incidents of fires, injuries and even deaths caused by the devices have led to costly settlements and policy changes in cities nationwide, including Minneapolis, where a 1989 fire started by a police grenade killed two people....
On the night of Feb. 16, 2010, 18 officers were executing a search warrant ... based on a tip that narcotics were being sold at the address by someone named David Conley.
In what Bennett called "a cascading series of errors," a Minneapolis police SWAT team smashed down the door with a battering ram without warning, when the search warrant police had obtained required officers to announce themselves before entering. Police had applied for a "no-knock" warrant but did not get it, Bennett said.

Then there's this part:

Russell was arrested on a misdemeanor for having a "disorderly house" but never charged. She sued the city in federal court last year.
No discipline was imposed on the officers, Minneapolis spokesman Matt Laible said.

Russel was a VISITOR in SOMEBODY ELSE's house, according to the article. So how could she have been arrested for "a disorderly house???" Meanwhile, no discipline was imposed on the police officers who -- based solely on a "tip" -- went through with a form of search they'd been denied authorization to conduct, in the process permanently injuring a citizen and costing the entire city a million dollars (plus legal fees, etc).

Will somebody please tell me where my country went, so I can get back to it?

Striking a difficult balance

2011-12-11T04:04:00.000-01:00

A friend recently shared this article with me:

A recent study showed that the top three perceptions of Christians in the U. S. among young non-Christians are that Christians are 1) antigay, 2) judgmental, and 3) hypocritical. So what we have here is a bit of an image crisis, and much of that reputation is well deserved. That’s the ugly stuff. And that’s why I begin by saying that I’m sorry....

I agree with the author that 'much of that reputation is well deserved.' The public face of the Church is often focused on what we oppose, rather than what we believe in and struggle to uphold. And while we should not shirk from calling things what they are, we are called to "give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect." (1 Pet 3:15) In other words, the Fred Phelps approach is anything BUT Biblical. Our responsibility is to make sure it is God's message people choose to find offensive, and not our manner of presenting it.

Despite this common ground with the author, however, I have to disagree with some of his other conclusions:

The Bible that I read says that God did not send Jesus to condemn the world but to save it… it was because 'God so loved the world.' That is the God I know, and I long for others to know. ...if you choose Jesus, may it not be simply because of a fear of hell or hope for mansions in heaven.

The author's correct that John's gospel says Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save it. The same passage, however, points out the world is condemned ALREADY... hence, the need for a savior. God is indeed worth choosing "because He is good," as the author says, but this is an incomplete understanding of the relationship. The Bible also points out that Man is corrupted by sin and thus offensive to God's righteousness. A full realization of that standing before a holy creator God should bring a sense of fear and awe to us -- this is what makes the "Good News" good -- that God took the initiative to fix the problem we could not.

I was recently asked by a non-Christian friend if I thought he was going to hell. I said, “I hope not. It will be hard to enjoy heaven without you.” If those of us who believe in God do not believe God’s grace is big enough to save the whole world… well, we should at least pray that it is.

A better response would have been to ask the friend "what do you believe about Jesus?" This would provide an opportunity for discussion of what the Bible (not Man) says - that Jesus is "the way, the truth, the life," and that "no one comes to the Father except through" Him. (John 14:6)

Some Christians are accused of "being so heavenly minded they're no earthly good." That's a fair charge when believers are content merely to wait for the world to come, rather than addressing the needs of those who are perishing around us. I suspect, however, the writer I've been quoting falls in the opposite camp: those who perform good works in this world in the name of Christ, but don't really know Him or point others to Him. This is tragic, in that their well-intentioned efforts may relieve some of the suffering of this mortal life, but omits the thing people need most: God Himself, and the gift of eternal salvation He has offered.

Saturday Sounds

2011-12-10T00:01:00.004-01:00

Most people wouldn't think of this as a Christmas song, and yet it reflects the continued Advent cry of all those who belong to Christ...

Quote of the day

2011-12-09T00:41:00.016-01:00

Since the last couple of posts have been about foreign misadventures and fiscal manipulation, this seems an appropriate summation:

“Every government is a scoundrel. In its relations with other governments it resorts to frauds and barbarities that were prohibited to private men by the Common Law of civilization so long ago as the reign of Hammurabi, and in its dealings with its own people it not only steals and wastes their property and plays a brutal and witless game with their natural rights, but regularly gambles with their very lives. Wars are seldom caused by spontaneous hatreds between people, for peoples in general are too ignorant of one another to have grievances and too indifferent to what goes on beyond their borders to plan conquests. They must be urged to the slaughter by politicians who know how to alarm them.”

-- H.L. Mencken

Where'd all the money go?

2011-12-08T00:06:00.006-01:00

Since the U.S. went off the gold standard, it's been fashionable to blame inflation on different villains -- OPEC and various retail corporations being among the favorite targets. While the latter may bear some culpability, due to their facilitation of the Wall Street-Washington axis, in reality the damage is done via official policy... through the auspices of the Federal Reserve. Nominally charged with keeping the economy in tune, supposedly balancing inflation versus unemployment, in reality its existence completely skews the market. Want to know why the politically connected rich keep getting richer relative to everyone else? It's because they have first access to all the 'money' the Fed creates... that only 'trickles down' to the rest of us after it's lost some (or in recent cases, a lot) of its value.

...a small investor who earns a nominal yield of 1% and pays a 20% marginal tax rate, while the rate of inflation is 3.5 %, actually ends up paying a real tax rate of 370%. For example, an investor buys a $100,000 CD, earns $1,000 in annual interest, pays a tax of $200, and incurs a loss of $3,500 in purchasing power on the invested principal. Total (nominal) income is $1,000; total real tax (nominal tax plus inflation tax) is $3,700.

This expropriation of private wealth is not accidental. (emphasis added)

Inflation is merely an orchestrated stealth tax, one that would be grossly impeded by a sound monetary policy (such as a gold standard). And now we've reached the end game, where even this manipulation and debasement can't supply the ravenous appetite of government, while at least appearing to preserve the 'American Dream.'

The more things change...

2011-12-07T03:08:00.001-01:00

...the more they stay the same:

“You and I know that this continuous putting pins in rattlesnakes finally got this country bit.”
-- Former President Herbert Hoover
to friends after the attack on Pearl Harbor

Meanwhile, 70 years later...

Two incidents that occurred on Sunday--Iran's claim of a shoot-down of a U.S. drone, and an explosion outside the British embassy in Bahrain--may have been unrelated. But they appear to add to growing evidence that an escalating covert war by the West is under way against Iran, and that Tehran is retaliating with greater intensity than ever. (rest of the article)

***
From proxy wars in Iraq and Syria to computer worm attacks and unexplained explosions in Iran - to allegations of an assassination plot in Washington - a confrontation once kept behind the scenes is breaking into increasingly open view. The storming of Britain's Tehran embassy last week - and the tit-for-tat shutdown of Iran's embassy in London - were just the latest signs that already limited dialogue is beginning to break down. That, analysts say, is inherently dangerous. (rest of the article)

Our nation has been on an increasingly bellicose course for many years. Along the way, we've administered quite a few more pins to quite a few more rattlesnakes. One has to wonder when it will get us bitten again. We can indulge righteous indignation all we want, but there are plenty of people around the world who take a less idealistic view of our actions abroad.

The way we learn history seems to emphasize wartime leadership as a mark of 'great' presidents, leaving unstudied those who successfully led the nation in quieter, more introspective times. As one writer put it about FDR:

"I have noticed, however, that in polls of historians or lay persons to determine which presidents were “great,” the dead never have a vote. Lucky for Roosevelt."

Or, for that matter, Lincoln and Wilson.

Who can it be, knocking at my door?

2011-12-06T11:27:00.000-01:00

When even the Consumer Products 'Safety' Commission can dispatch armed agents on a no-knock raid, you have to wonder what's happened to America. As a nation, we've tended to downplay the 'collateral damage' of our actions abroad, cloaking ourselves in the perceived righteousness of our cause.

But more Americans are waking up to the fact we have just an aggressive force at home -- an 'occupying army,' if you will, of militarized police forces that have long since moved past the days of being 'peace officers.' Radley Balko traces the history of how we got to the point where even innocent 88-year olds have reason to wonder if armed intruders might burst through the doors of their home... all with government sanction:

America's police departments have been moving toward more aggressive, force-first, militaristic tactics and their accompanying mindset for 30 years. It's just that, with the exception of protests at the occasional free trade or World Bank summit, the tactics haven't generally been used on mostly white, mostly college-educated kids armed with cellphone cameras and a media platform.

Police militarization is now an ingrained part of American culture. SWAT teams are featured in countless cop reality shows, and wrong-door raids are the subject of "The Simpsons" bits and search engine commercials.

Tough-on-crime sheriffs now sport tanks and hardware more equipped for battle in a war zone than policing city streets. Seemingly benign agencies such as state alcohol control boards and the federal Department of Education can now enforce laws and regulations not with fines and clipboards, but with volatile raids by paramilitary police teams.

Outraged by the Occupy crackdowns, some pundits and political commentators who paid little heed to these issues in the past are now calling for a national discussion on the use of force. That's a welcome development, but it's helpful to review how we got here in order to have an honest discussion.

Part of the trend can be attributed to the broader tough-on-crime and drug war policies pushed by politicians of both parties since at least the early 1980s, but part of the problem also lies with America's political culture.

Public officials' decisions today to use force and the amount of force are as governed by political factors as by an honest assessment of the threat a suspect or group may pose. Over the years, both liberals and conservatives have periodically raised alarms over the government's increasing willingness to use disproportionately aggressive force. And over the years, both sides have tended to hush up when the force is applied by political allies, directed at political opponents, or is used to enforce the sorts of laws they favor.

Read the whole thing...

Quote of the day

2011-12-05T00:59:00.007-01:00

"Economic unions do not succeed by lowering all members to the standards of the economically less successful and less responsible members."

That's true for any society, not just a construct like the European Union...

Or, as the Instapundit puts it in "Reynolds' Law:" (emphasis added)

"The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them."

Grandma got run over by the screeners...

2011-12-04T01:14:00.001-01:00

Further proof this country has lost its mind:

An 85-year-old Long Island grandmother says she plans to sue the TSA after a humiliating strip search on Tuesday by agents at JFK Airport...

When Zimmerman reached a security checkpoint, she asked if she could forgo the advanced image technology screening equipment, fearing it might interfere with her defibrillator.
She said she normally gets patted down. But this time, she says that two female agents escorted her to a private room and began to remove her clothes.
“I was outraged,” said Zimmerman, a retired receptionist.

I hate to say it, but in the most important respect the 9/11 attacks did destroy this country. I can't imagine, as late as 2000, the public putting up with a situation where an elderly woman was disrobed by government agents simply for the 'privilege' of traveling. Unfortunately, as the events of 2001 recede in time, a generation is coming of age that can't remember it being any other way.

Between continuing incidents like this one, and the financial squeeze faced by many Americans, I wonder when/if we'll reach the tipping point where people say "I refuse to pay to be humiliated like this." It better be soon, or the status quo will become so hard-wired into our national fabric it'll never be dislodged.

...And speaking of a nation gone crazy, have you heard the one about the seven-year old who was being choked by a bully, kicked his attacker in the groin, and is now being investigated for sexual harassment?

Stop the world, I want to get off... this is too weird for me...

Saturday Sounds

2011-12-03T01:19:00.005-01:00

A nasty prognosis...

2011-12-02T02:13:00.002-01:00

...but one that seems strongly supported by the patient's charts...

The United States is quickly becoming a post industrial neo-3rd-world country. Partly as a consequence of worsening unemployment and lack of economic opportunity, falling real wages and household incomes, growing poverty and increasing concentration of wealth, the U.S. government faces a historic fiscal crisis. Dominant corporate influence over the U.S. government, particularly by large banks, weakening rule of law at the federal level and destructive tax policies are compounding the economic problems facing the United States. Barring fundamental reforms or a hyperinflationary collapse of the U.S. dollar (due to the fiscal problems of the U.S. government), the deterioration of the U.S. economy will continue and accelerate. As the U.S. economy continues its decline, public health, nutrition and education, as well as the country’s infrastructure, will visibly deteriorate and the 3rd world status of the United States will become apparent.

Isn't that convenient?

2011-12-01T01:58:00.001-01:00

Latest news from the mortgage shenanigans front:

The notary who signed tens of thousands of false documents in a massive robo-signing scandal case was found dead in her home on Monday. The notary, 43-year-old Tracy Lawrence, was supposed to be in court at 8:30 Monday morning for her sentencing hearing.

Lawrence came forward earlier this month and admitted that she had notarized around 25,000 fraudulent documents as part of a foreclosure fraud scheme.

It's sad how life in these United States increasingly resembles the plot of some organized-crime reality show.

(HT: Vox)

Getting the last laugh?

2011-11-30T02:47:00.000-01:00

Lincoln fought for four years against the right of secession.

So it pegs the irony meter that a Republican representative in Illinois, fed up with "Crook County" (Chicago), is calling for a statewide vote whether to split the county off into its own new State. Guess folks in the hinterland of the Land of Lincoln are getting fed up with all the elected officials supported by zombie voters in the Windy City.

Love. It.

“The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form.” ― Jefferson Davis

(HT: Rebellion blog)

THAT'S the correct verb...

2011-11-29T13:29:00.001-01:00

While the current crop of presidential hopefuls (Ron Paul excluded) spout the usual talk about "cutting" government, Doug Bandow points out that's not the right level of action. The Feds need a gutting, not a cutting (emphasis below added):

The basic purpose of the national government today is to allow everyone to live off of everyone else. The intent is to give away trillions of dollars. What matters most is giving it away, not giving it away efficiently.
Every week or so a new report is issued detailing how taxpayer money was spent with no effect, misspent to great loss, or can't be accounted for. Legislators express shock, shock, that such outrages could happen, before voting to spend more money on more programs which will generate similar reports in the months and years ahead. The one step which no one imagines taking is spending less money. After all, the usual interest groups were enriched, as intended by Congress. "Waste," however defined, is merely a cost of doing business in Washington.

The only way to get the federal budget under control is for the federal government to do less. A lot less...

The big spending boulders are Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Pentagon, and interest. Cuts here would cause much political pain, which is why politicians prefer not to talk about such possibilities. The people must decide not to have the government do certain things.

As he points out in the rest of the essay, it's easy to identify the "big rocks." The problem is that each has an entrenched constituency. So long as Americans demand government provide healthcare and retirement checks for everyone, while at the same time policing the world, subsidizing the defense of wealthy allies and throwing bales of money into various ratholes in failed states, nothing will change. So long as we keep telling ourselves "we're America, dangit; we can do anything," nothing will change.

Breaking addictions is never easy, but it's essential to restore health. Eating humble pie isn't easy, either, but it's just what the doctor ordered.

The 'conservative' contradiction

2011-11-28T03:33:00.000-01:00

This article captures one of many examples of why I no longer answer to the label 'conservative' -- at least, in its modern usage:

Mr. Paul has appeared to gain traction in Iowa, drawing 19% support in a poll last week of likely attendees at the state's Jan. 3 caucuses—about double his backing in earlier surveys. That essentially tied him for the lead with Mitt Romney, Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich.

The outreach, combined with a substantial TV advertising campaign, has given Mr. Paul a strong presence in the state. In addition, his longtime call for a smaller federal government resonates with many voters.
But some political leaders and activists see Mr. Paul's devotion to his foreign-policy views limiting his potential support....

Mr. Paul illustrated the possibilities and limits of his campaign during a visit to a Warren County Republican breakfast here recently. He sent the room into broad applause when he reminded the audience that he has long called for closing the U.S. Department of Education—a pet cause of politically active home-schoolers. But the reaction was more muted when Mr. Paul switched to troop deployments.
"We spend way too much money overseas, so I'd start by bringing the troops home from around the world," Mr. Paul said. About half the audience clapped. The other showed no visible reaction.

If he achieves nothing more, Paul will have earned a place in American political history for having pointed out the cognitive dissonance at the heart of the supposedly 'conservative' electorate. Trying to reconcile the principles of limited government at home with an activist foreign policy abroad is akin to the notion of squaring a circle. War, after all, is indeed the health of the state. Given this, nominal conservatives should be loathe to resort to war except under the most strenuous of circumstances, and then only with specified objectives that meet the criteria of Just War. Anything else hands a blank check to those who would be our masters.

Even though I trace the death of the Republic to the evisceration of the States at the end of the War for Federal Dominance, it took the debacle of World War I to truly bring the symptoms to the fore. Through a concerted effort, Britain convinced America that the titanic struggle between European empires was somehow an existential threat to representative government. President Wilson thus launched the "War to End All Wars," mobilizing a Committee on Public Information to drum into the citizenry America's newly acquired obligation to somehow mold a more just world -- by force, if necessary. (How did that turn out, Woodrow?)

A century later, the effects of that indoctrination are still with us, reinforced by the demonization of those in the 1930s who dared to question the value of entering the First World War, and resolved not to get drawn into a second.

The result today is a schizophrenic voting block that simultaneously clamors to reduce the role and power of government, while at the same time supporting the open-ended use of the most powerful manifestation of government: military force. So even as the hand-wringing continues about deficit spending, the domestic role of Uncle Sam and unease over loss of liberty and privacy at home, our nation continues to open up new overseas staging areas for future military confrontations.

...and they say Dr. Paul is the crazy old man...

The story behind the story

2011-11-27T00:19:00.001-01:00

Just finished reading Ted Dekker's "Circle" trilogy. (Yes, I know I'm late to the party... but wow, did the premise ever draw me in for a quick read that made up for lost time!) Frankly, the premise manages to out-do Frank Peretti, in terms of "wrestling not with flesh and blood..."

I was dismayed to come to the end; the trilogy was that good. Part of me is tempted to read other books he's written, but part of me is concerned this was his magnum opus, and anything else will suffer by comparison.

It's not every author who can pull off conscious allegory without being completely predictable or trite. The idea of the Great Romance was perfect. The Bible includes many things: history, wisdom, poetry. But above all, it's the greatest true love story ever told. And while Dekker's writing is a vivid insight into that story, it can't be forgotten that the Romance itself is real, and that it continues.

Saturday Sounds

2011-11-26T00:12:00.002-01:00

For this season of thankfulness:

Priorities...

2011-11-25T00:01:00.003-01:00

Somehow, I don't think this counts as "quality time..."

Giving thanks

2011-11-24T00:46:00.026-01:00

(click to enlarge)

This blog, focused as it is on current issues, tends to present only a partial window into my attitudes. Let there be no mistake: I am a thankful man. I'm blessed by God with a wife and three sons, and between us many years of treasured memories. I'm blessed with employment, through which God has provided abundance for our family and the opportunity to bless others in His name. We are blessed to live in a land that, while troubled and confused, is not in violent disorder or subject to the law of the gun.

Most of all, I'm thankful for the provision God made to reconcile me -- an undeserving sinner -- to Himself, and that all of my family have accepted and share in that provision (my youngest will be baptized this Sunday, praise God!).

Words alone cannot express the peace, joy and thankfulness of a soul in the presence of such grace...

Things that make you go hmmmm....

2011-11-23T03:02:00.000-01:00

I first heard this theory floated about the reason Saddam Hussein had to be ousted from power, after a decade of inconclusive aerial occupation. Then came Libya:

Gaddafi was planning to introduce a gold dinar... The idea, according to Gaddafi, was that African and Muslim nations would join together to create this new currency and would use it to purchase oil and other resources in exclusion of the dollar and other currencies. RT calls it "an idea that would shift the economic balance of the world."

Pricing oil in something other than the dollar would attack the basis of US power in the world. The dollar is the reserve currency based on a deal made with the Saudis back in 1971 in which the Saudis as the world's largest oil producer agreed to accept only dollars for oil.

Taken individually, these might just be coincidences. Now, though, we hear of the Pentagon accepting new 30,000 pound bombs, suitable for, oh, hunting Iranian 'nuke facilities.' At roughly the same time, the President announced in Australia that Uncle Sam will be opening yet another military franchise, this time in sunny Darwin. Most observers seem to agree this is a not-so-subtle hint to China that the U.S. doesn't see itself as a diminishing world player.

China. Iran. What could those dots possibly have to do with the first two?

This.

Our nation's great Achilles' heel is our economy--specifically, the way in which we've abused the hell out of the dollar. The only reason it's accepted as a worldwide reserve currency is the demand for it in the oil trade. It certainly doesn't merit such status on the strength of our (ahem) fiscal prudence. So it stands to reason any threat to the dollar's preeminence (aside from the damage we inflict ourselves) is likely to provoke a reaction.

No, I can't prove this issue is the link, the sole or even main animation behind the four sets of events listed here. That it's a plausible theory, though, shows the fragility of the economy undergirding the power of what we're still told (repeatedly, ad nauseum) is the "indispensable nation." Follow the money, as they say. As two-time Medal of Honor winner Smedley Butler famously noted, "war is a racket." And rackets require muscle.

"There's a shadow on the faces of the men who send the guns

to the wars that are fought in places, where their business interests run..."

From different angles

2011-11-22T03:36:00.000-01:00

I'm not what you'd call a fan of the Occupy Wall Street movement... but I'm not completely dismissive of it, either. Some of them occasionally make reasonable statements (in between beating drums and acting like kids left without adult supervision for the first time). And while I may not be enthralled with the group's general vibe, I have to take great exception to scenes like this one.

As one who self-identifies with the 'tea party,' I find this writing to be worth pondering:

In short, two hugely trumpeted “revolutions” in American politics – a leftwing one in 2008 and a right-wing one in 2010 – have failed to move the needle one degree in Washington, D.C. A lot of articles were written and a lot of television talk shows were provided with material about both, but absolutely nothing has changed. Sooner or later, one has to answer the question: Why not?

The answer is that even the genuine grassroots members from both the left and the right don’t understand what is ailing America. They know something is wrong, but decades of government propaganda bolstered by shoddy education have left most Americans unequipped to figureout what it is. In fact, both the Tea Party and OWS share the same fundamental misconceptions about The Problem...

Both movements misunderstand the relationship between our present corporate economy and government regulation. The Tea Party believes that getting rid of regulations as Reagan supposedly did would “get the government out of the way” of America’s corporations, resulting in huge gains in productivity and employment. OWS believes that more regulations will reign in “corporate greed” and protect the little guy from those same rapacious corporations. Again, both of them are wrong...

So, the next election will be influenced by two grassroots movements committed to solving America’s problems. One says that the problem is government. They are right. The other says it is corporations and the financial elite. They are also right.

I find much to agree with in that last paragraph. Read the whole thing here.

And now for something completely different...

2011-11-21T00:23:00.002-01:00

...because I found this pretty brilliant, and even I can't bemoan the state of the country EVERY day...

Declaring water not wet

2011-11-20T00:19:00.001-01:00

And here it was, given the Euro's current difficulties, that you might have been wondering what all those unelected bureaucrats in Brussels do with their time:

EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration
EU officials concluded that, following a three-year investigation, there was no evidence to prove the previously undisputed fact.
Producers of bottled water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they defy the edict, which comes into force in the UK next month...
A meeting of 21 scientists in Parma, Italy, concluded that reduced water content in the body was a symptom of dehydration and not something that drinking water could subsequently control.

One can only wonder what they'd do with THIS claim...

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Saturday Sounds

2011-11-19T02:08:00.001-01:00

Let's see... it's been THIRTY MONTHS since we actually had a Federal budget...

... Congress just rejected a Balanced Budget amendment...

... and we're being told that failure of the (extra-Constitutional) "Super Committee" to come up next week with over $1 trillion in budget cuts next decade (a measly $100 billion a year, or less than 8 percent of projected spending) will mean yet another reduction in the nation's previously perfect credit rating. Meaning we'll be spending even more on interest in our debt...

Yup, it's time to trot this one out again...

(I "think it's fittin' to get real ugly soon...")

Losing faith even in the pretense

2011-11-18T14:10:00.000-01:00

It's increasingly evident we have anything BUT the rule of law in this country. Celebrities routinely get privileged treatment for their indiscretions. Those who flaunt the system are often treated better than those who try to live honorably. Worse, we have people in both elected and unelected positions of authority who seem immune from the rules applied to the rest of us.

I'm not idealistic enough to believe we've ever had perfect governance. I do, however, believe this nation once had a public ethos and a vigilance that required crooks and shysters to be more discrete. In a fallen world, there are always parasites... but they don't have to result in the death of the host. We're at a point now, though, where I sense those with connections are doing all they can to pick clean the stumbling body of the nation before it finally collapses from years of systematic abuse.

And I'm not the only one...

The fattest cat of all...

2011-11-18T01:06:00.016-01:00

Frank Fleming points out a slight oversight on the part of all the class envy protestors:

While the “Occupy” people pick on a few small-fry millionaires and billionaires, they haven’t taken on the one who has far, far too much money, got his wealth through dubious means and doesn’t appreciate the cash he has.
I’m speaking, of course, of that fat-cat weasel Uncle Sam.
If you want a great example of income inequality, compare Sam to any minuscule billionaire. He spends the net worth of Bill Gates in a couple of weeks. In fact, this one guy takes in a staggering 28 percent of all the wealth earned in this nation.
If you’re wondering where all our money went, look to the country’s only trillionaire, who is stroking his weird goat beard and laughing at us.
It wouldn’t be so bad if Uncle Sam earned his money, but he doesn’t. He’s never produced anything — he gets all his money through deception.
For instance, he said he was going to provide retirement savings for everyone, but the whole thing is a Ponzi scheme in which Uncle Sam constantly raids the funds while giving people a horrible return on their investments. He’s bilked people out of trillions with that scam; Bernie Madoff is a shoplifter by comparison.

It's also worth noting who receives some of the largesse Sam doles out...

Read the whole thing. (HT: Instapundit)

First things first

2011-11-17T00:05:00.005-01:00

As I've noted before, the ever-accelerating rush to the "Christmas shopping season" each year has all but obliterated Thanksgiving, which is now merely a speed bump on the way to "Black Friday."

That's truly a shame. A heart of thanksgiving would reduce the agitation of those who "occupied" Wall Street. It would allow people a perspective of enjoying what they have, instead of pining for what they don't. Instead, we rush right past that season, straight into the one that expects us to pile up even more mountains of debt for things we won't remember in a year. But with the economic day of reckoning coming ever closer, this, too, is a trend that can't go on forever.

As another writer put it: "For two decades, America was flooded with prosperity and the optimism it brings. Now the Great Receding has begun, and I can’t help but wonder: Can so spoiled a people learn to live without the things they never needed in the first place?"

They can if they learn the secret of contentment. That's never been one of our strong suits, however.

There's a week left before Thanksgiving. What are you thankful for?

The Jesus jersey

2011-11-16T14:00:00.000-01:00

"...let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." - Matthew 15:16

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." - Matthew 7:21

I enjoy occasionally watching sports, particularly the NFL's Saints (when they bother to show up to play... this isn't always a given...). But I've long thought that professional sports--college, too--has become an alternate religion to many. So I'm not entirely surprised to read this:

...during the upcoming holiday shopping season, Tebow is going to get even more controversial -- once again without any action on his part.
A handful of Denver fans have decided a customized Tim Tebow jersey would make for the perfect Christmas gift. What could possibly be troubling about that? A whole lot, depending on who you ask. Rather than have the last name "Tebow" on the back of the Broncos jersey, these fans have placed "Jesus" above Tebow's No. 15.

I do think it important to note this is the action of fans, rather than Tebow himself. I can't speak to whether he's the pro quarterback everyone expected, but I can say that from what I've seen of him, his faith is genuine. It took courage to give a personal testimony on a very controversial subject, particularly when he was just making the transition to his pro career. And as others have noted, he doesn't just pantomime prayer as a camera shot during games; his life speaks to his belief.

Because of this, I praise God. I praise Him for His work in Tebow's life, as I do for His work in anyone's life that shows the difference made by following Christ. And I'd venture to say Tebow would be the first to point out that's where the praise belongs -- to God.

Putting Jesus' name in lieu of Tebow's on a Denver Broncos jersey, though... that's not "glorifying God." It cheapens Him, every bit as much as the "Jesus bobblehead doll" or the "Jesus is my homeboy T-shirt."

I'd have but one question for the fans who think this is a good idea: if you're willing to wear Jesus' name on your jersey, are you willing to let Him quarterback your life--to call the plays and direct your actions, all for the advancement of His goals? If not, what's the point?

I've noted before our tendency to put form over substance. I'm less interested in whether the Ten Commandments are displayed on the courthouse than whether their wisdom resides in the hearts of those who work inside. I'm less interested in whether retail cashiers are allowed to say "Merry Christmas" than I am whether the Spirit of Christ is honored... to include not trampling your neighbor to get that 'good deal' on the aptly named Black Friday.

As another writer recently pointed out, regardless of heritage, it's a lie to call America a Christian nation today. Strong words, you say? The United States leads the world in the incarceration rate, the total prison population, the divorce rate, car thefts, rapes, total crimes, illegal drug use, legal drug use, and Internet pornography production.

All of us--myself included--need to spend less time writing Jesus' name on jerseys and other kitsch, and more time asking God to write His name on our hearts.

Media logic

2011-11-15T03:50:00.001-01:00

UPDATE: Yeah, Ron Paul sure is unelectable... (/sarcasm)

***
Talk about your self-fulfilling criteria... Ron Paul received 89 SECONDS of interaction during the latest 60-minute Republican ~~debate~~ propaganda platform. Allegedly, this is because he's so "fringe" and "unelectable" the press can justify marginalizing him.

So... how "unelectable" is Ron Paul? Let's look at how he's fared this year when the Corporate Media didn't control the forum:

2nd – New Hampshire GOP 2012 Straw Poll – (1/22/11)
1st – DC CPAC Straw Poll – (2/10-12/11)
1st – Online Phoenix Arizona Tea Party Straw Poll – (2/27/11)
1st – Combined Phoenix Arizona Tea Party Straw Poll – (2/27/11)
1st – Republican Liberty Caucus of California Presidential Straw Poll – (3/20/11)
1st – New Orleans Republican Leadership Conference Straw Poll – (6/16-18/11)
1st – Clay County Iowa Republican Party Straw Poll – (6/19/11)
2nd – Ames Iowa Straw Poll – (8/13/11)
1st – New Hampshire Young Republicans Straw Poll – (8/20/11)
2nd – Georgia State GOP Straw Poll – (8/27/11)
3rd – Maryland GOP Straw Poll – (9/9/11)
1st – Pre-Debate Cincinnati Tea Party Straw Poll – (9/12/11)
1st – Post-Debate Cincinnati Tea Party Straw Poll – (9/12/11)
1st – California GOP Straw Poll – (9/17/11)
1st – DC Values Voter Straw Poll – (10/7/11-10/9/11)
1st – LA County RPLAC Straw Poll – (10/13/11)
1st – Charleston County Republican Party – (10/18/11)
1st – Ohio GOP Swing State Straw Poll – (10/22/11)
1st – Des Moines Iowa Voters NFRA Presidential Straw Poll – (10/29/11)
1st -Des Moines Non-Iowa Voters NFRA Presidential Straw Poll – (10/29/11)
2nd – West Alabama Straw Poll – (10/29/11)
1st – Illinois GOP Straw Poll – (11/5/11)

The real problem is that Paul presents a starkly different view of government and its role... and that just isn't allowed much face time in the charade we call the electoral process. Only candidates within a carefully prescribed distance around a particular mean will be given access to the public.

I'd love to see Ron and his son, Senator Rand Paul, raise enough money to buy an hour of prime time so they could present their case directly to the American people.

Gambling with government

2011-11-14T00:18:00.001-01:00

Those who favor an increase in government's power to coerce rarely stop to consider how they'd like such power used against them. This is why we have a bi-factional ruling party that continues to grow government. They merely squabble about priorities, and cry foul when their successful tactics of yesteryear suddenly put the shoe on the other foot.

In essence, looking to government power to solve the world's ills is like shooting craps in a casino... only with worse odds:

All goods distributed by government must first be created or produced by somebody. Whatever is given must first be taken. This is true for corporate subsidies and bank bailouts, just as it is true for transfer payments made to the very poorest members of society. People by and large accept such a system because they believe they will be able to draw more in political advantage than they lose by way of political plunder. This mentality keeps the population playing the game, and like the casino, if enough people play the game, it is the political class and the politically connected that always win.

Read the whole thing. (HT: The Last Ditch)

Quote of the day

2011-11-12T13:52:00.000-01:00

From the Cato Institute:

Politicians who fixate on “government efficiency” probably aren’t truly interested in reducing the size and scope of government.

Saturday Sounds

2011-11-12T13:45:00.002-01:00

Support the troops

2011-11-11T03:56:00.000-01:00

...by bringing them home. Much will be said today about "supporting the troops," but little of it will involve the radical thought that maybe it's time to stop expecting less than 1 percent of the U.S. population to police the entire world.

Relieving them of Atlas' burden would certainly qualify as supportive. Just sayin'...

And no, I'm not holding my breath.

Echoes of the past

2011-11-10T01:42:00.000-01:00

On this day in 1798, the Kentucky legislature ratified a new piece of writing by Thomas Jefferson. It still amazes me how many Americans have no idea that the same man who authored the words of the Declaration of Independence found it necessary only two decades later to note the new U.S. Federal Government was already in danger of becoming "destructive of these ends," exceeding the scope of its mandate from the States...

Resolved, That the several States composing, the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes — delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force: that to this compact each State acceded as a State, and is an integral part, its co-States forming, as to itself, the other party: that the government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all other cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress.

As bleak as I perceive our nation's outlook to be, there are still warm embers of this burning for freedom still present:

On the eve of the 213^th anniversary of the passage of Thomas Jefferson’s Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, laying the intellectual groundwork of nullification, the people of Ohio exercised their power and nullified the insurance mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.Ohioans passed Issue Three, a constitutional amendment to preserve their right to choose their own health care and health care coverage. Preliminary returns indicated a wide margin of victory, with more than 60 percent approving the amendment. The amendment makes it illegal for any local, state or federal law to require Ohio residents to purchase health insurance, effectively nullifying a key component of the PPACA.

Uncle Sam first smashed the States in the 1860s, then began buying them off a century later. But as the negative impact of the cancer known as D.C. becomes more and more apparent, the States may finally reconsider their subservience... at which point it'll be 50 to 1. I'm reminded of a Pixar movie...

Two words...

2011-11-09T03:42:00.000-01:00

...for the Federal Government. And they aren't "Merry Christmas:"

President Obama’s Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees—the Christmas Tree Tax—to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.

Considering the fact our government can't seem to do much to improve its OWN image, here or abroad, I'm not sure I'd even want such marketing help. But the residents of the alternate reality known as D.C. just can't help involving themselves. It's like the kid who will do ANYTHING other than their assigned responsibilities.

Taxing Christmas trees to "promote them" isn't a function expressed or implied in the Constitution. Passing an annual budget, on the other hand... hey... just how long HAS it been since we had a no-kidding real budget in place?

Our government is missing the forest for the trees... maybe it's time a good portion of it got the axe.

Wish I'd written this...

2011-11-08T03:11:00.002-01:00

As I commented on this site, I've had similar themes running through my brain in recent days, but never strung them together this articulately. I can't speak for others, but I'm tired of people using Jesus for a political football when it's obvious they haven't spent any time at all looking at what He actually said and did in scripture... besides cherry-picking short passages that seem to support their positions. This is a problem for both right and left. But as I've heard said more than once, Jesus is neither Republican or Democrat. If He's anything, He's a monarchist...

The contention from some religious authorities and media outlets is that Jesus would be right there among the unwashed masses ((of Occupy Wall Street)) clamoring for free college tuition and a unicorn in every backyard.
That is simply not true.
Jesus cared not one whit about government except insofar as its officials abused their positions to assume positions of religious power. Even then, Jesus didn’t call out the Pharisees for their abuses of secular power but for how they used their power to mislead the people on spiritual matters. Jesus’ famous “Render unto Caesar…” comment was both an utter refusal to play the political game and a reminder to his followers of his true mission. Jesus did not come to Earth to bring political revolution, but spiritual.

Read the whole thing...

You must be joking...

2011-11-07T00:02:00.002-01:00

This is a rather insightful cartoon...

Scriptural ignorance

2011-11-06T00:09:00.020-01:00

It's mildly amusing to watch politicians spend one day talking about how religion shouldn't influence politics, then turn around another day and quote 'scripture' to support their own position. Even more amusing is when they do so... and get it wrong:

The White House proved itself Scripturally challenged Wednesday (Nov. 2) when Press Secretary Jay Carney said: “I believe the phrase from the Bible is, ‘The Lord helps those who help themselves.’”

The phrase that’s often attributed to the Good Book most likely comes from Benjamin Franklin and possibly the ancient Greeks, and the White House felt obligated to add a note to the transcript of Carney’s briefing: “This common phrase does not appear in the Bible.” Embarrassing perhaps, but not uncommon.

Christian pollster George Barna has asked Americans repeatedly about the saying, and consistently found that a majority attributes it to the Bible. In 2000, 75 percent of Americans surveyed by Barna attributed the phrase to the Bible.

As the article notes, it's hard to cast stones at such leadership faux pas when the majority of the country would fare no better. And that's a sad commentary on the state of Biblical literacy in America, 2011.

How would you do? Do you really know who you're quoting?

Saturday Sounds

2011-11-05T00:05:00.006-01:00

Something a little bright and peppy to start the weekend...

I concur...

2011-11-04T11:10:00.000-01:00

This post on United Liberty summarizes why I haven't been (and won't be) watching any Republican "debates" this year:

On saying “we have to remove Obama” out of fear and we can only support whoever the eventual GOP Nominee is: I have to challenge you to point out the differences between the last Republican President or the alternative of McCain, and this Democrat President. We have stayed in Iraq until they are kicking us out, we have escalated Afghanistan, Libya, kept Gitmo open. Leaving the main differences that the increase in spending has been larger than say a McCain might have done, and Obamacare has been pushed through. And frankly, Obamacare could very well be named McCain-Care given the same congressional make-up...

Look, we are broke. Our government is spending money so fast it has to print it out of thin air. You have to cut everything. Now. Not plan out an excel spreadsheet 20 years into the future when the GDP catches up to what we are spending now. Because frankly, the next 10 congresses will just keep voting for more increases and make that spreadsheet as valuable as an ice cream wrapper 25 minutes after the ice cream truck left the block. If you think simply having the GOP in power insures any sort of balancing or reduction in spending especially, you have a different version of recent history than I do.

Read the whole thing.