Freedom

I am having a very difficult time understanding many of my “fellow Americans”.

I look around me and see the “American Way” quickly becoming something I am less than proud of.   I see that corruption in our federal government has risen to extreme levels that I never thought possible.

Radicals, socialists, communists, crooks, thugs and automatons pervade the highest levels of our government.

I see a huge power shift from the people to our corrupt government.

I see Black Panther bullies given a pass for outlandish intimidation of voters at a polling place.  By the way, my concern has NOTHING to do with race, it has only to do with America and our law.  I wonder how Mr. Holder would have handled guys in white sheets intimidating black voters in Mississippi?  (I would hope he would stow them under the jail as he should have done with the Panthers. Now I have insulted both the panthers and the clan.)

I see a health care law enacted that creates many more problems than it solves and a US Army unit training in Georgia to handle “domestic unrest” with in our own borders.

I see terrorists being called ill instead of hateful and Americans who cherish traditional American values being ridiculed and mocked.

I see presidential promises broken with a wink instead of an apology (and America winks back).

Speaking of apologies, I see POTUS apologizing to the world for everything that is good in America.

I see our government trashing our relationships with our closest allies and sucking up to those who hate us.

I see our economy being trashed and our children’s future being squandered.

I see what has been a worthless media, rising up and becoming a malignant force that seems to be bent on our destruction.

And our congress! when did it become the enemy of America?

I feel like Rip Van Winkle!

It seems that bad has become the new good and good has become outdated, uncool, and stupid. (Props to Isaiah the Hebrew prophet for warning us this would happen)

The point is, I see these things and think: Germany, circa 1936, Argentina, circa 1955 (or North Korea, circa today).  Whereas, millions of my fellow citizens, see a great new hero who is leading America to its glorious destiny.

And, when I try to talk to one of these citizens who refer to themselves by the euphemism “progressives”,  I begin to see how much trouble we are really in.  Trying to talk to these “progressives” about our founders and the constitution or freedom and its price, is worse than trying to talk to a fence post.  At least the fence post can generally be counted upon to be free from body odor and refrain from spitting on you or clubbing you to death with nonsensical sound bites and mantras.

It is more like trying to teach a pig to fly.  It is a complete waste of time and it annoys the pig.

In reading this, you may conclude that I hate Mr. Obama, but that is not the case.  I hate what he is doing to the America i grew up in.  The one that was created and preserved by the blood and sacrifice of my ancestors.  The one that I have served and struggled to pass on to my posterity.

But I do not hate Barack Obama.

I believe he is simply being himself and doing what he sincerely thinks is best for himself and those he cares about.  There are no surprises with Mr. Obama.  He is exactly what he seemed to be before he was elected and he is behaving exactly as he told us he would (for example: why should he prove he is ineligible for this great job when he can get a pass and keep feeding at the trough?).

When he reminded Republican law-makers that “Elections have consequences” shortly after his inauguration, he was simply setting the tone for his presidency.  He brought his friends and associates with him to Washington just as Jimmy Carter (the last president whose stupidity we almost didn’t survive) did.  It just so happens that rather than being a bunch of “crackers” (and I mean that in the kindest possible way.  Some of my best friends are from Georgia) Obama’s cronies are a bunch of thugs, crooks and radicals (ooops, now I have insulted Chicago).

I don’t hate Barak, I just want the USA to survive him and get back on track.

And I should say this:

Our country has been off track since long before Mr. Obama bounded onto our stage.  In fact, we have been the proverbial “frogs in a pot” for decades.

We have been steadily pursuing a slide down the slippery slope we started in 1962 when prayer was first banned in schools.  This slide was certainly accelerated in the decade beginning in 1965 during which we sacrificed 50,000 American lives in a futile war in Vietnam for which we had no clearly defined objective and no commitment to “win” (whatever that meant to the politicians), then again in 1973 when Roe v. Wade paved the way for the legal slaughter of over 40,000,000 unborn babies so far.

I thought the slide was over when Ronald Reagan was Elected in 1980.  Unfortunately, that merely just a pleasant delay, but it made me feel optimistic about our country again after the Carter fiasco…er… administration.

When you think about it, If the Obama regime serves as a wake up call to a sleeping American populace (who have been enjoying the warming water in the pot for at least five decades) before we actually boil to death, Mr. Obama could be the best thing that has happened to America in fifty years!

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Thomas Sowell, as usual, cuts through the political demagoguery and CYA positioning surrounding the Gulf oil spill. In a pair of articles published at http://www.JewishWorldReview.com entitled “Oil and Snake Oil” and “Degeneration of Democracy” he calls us back to reason and establishes the central issues for our consideration.

I, personally, find it interesting that through all the rhetoric and finger pointing (which reminds me of my second grade class when our very stern looking teacher steps back into the room after a brief absence and stands glaring with her arms crossed) no one has presented one iota of evidence that BP has done anything illegal. Until that happens, BP must be considered the unfortunate victim of a terrible accident.  (What a concept: innocent until proven guilty!) In which case they are being crucified to help compound their misfortune and provide political currency.

The big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is bad enough in itself. But politics can make anything worse.
Let’s stop and think. Either the government knows how to stop the oil spill or they don’t. If they know how to stop it, then why have they let thousands of barrels of oil per day keep gushing out, for weeks on end? All they have to do is tell BP to step aside, while the government comes in to do it right.
If they don’t know, then what is all this political grandstanding about keeping their boot on the neck of BP, the Attorney General of the United States going down to the Gulf to threaten lawsuits— on what charges was unspecified— and President Obama showing up in his shirt sleeves?
Just what is Obama going to do in his shirt sleeves, except impress the gullible? He might as well have shown up in a tuxedo with white tie, for all the difference it makes.
This government is not about governing. It is about creating an impression. That worked on the campaign trail in 2008, but it is a disaster in the White House, where rhetoric is no substitute for reality.
If the Obama administration was for real, and trying to help get the oil spill contained as soon as possible, the last thing its Attorney General would be doing is threatening a lawsuit. A lawsuit is not going to stop the oil, and creating a distraction can only make people at BP start directing their attention toward covering themselves, instead of covering the oil well.
If and when the Attorney General finds that BP did something illegal, that will be time enough to start a lawsuit. But making a public announcement at this time accomplishes absolutely nothing substantive. It is just more political grandstanding.
This is not about oil. This is about snake oil.

~~~~~AND~~~~~

Just where in the Constitution of the United States does it say that a president has the authority to extract vast sums of money from a private enterprise and distribute it as he sees fit to whomever he deems worthy of compensation? Nowhere.
And yet that is precisely what is happening with a $20 billion fund to be provided by BP to compensate people harmed by their oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Many among the public and in the media may think that the issue is simply whether BP’s oil spill has damaged many people, who ought to be compensated. But our government is supposed to be “a government of laws and not of men.” If our laws and our institutions determine that BP ought to pay $20 billion– or $50 billion or $100 billion– then so be it.
But the Constitution says that private property is not to be confiscated by the government without “due process of law.” Technically, it has not been confiscated by Barack Obama, but that is a distinction without a difference.
With vastly expanded powers of government available at the discretion of politicians and bureaucrats, private individuals and organizations can be forced into accepting the imposition of powers that were never granted to the government by the Constitution.

If you believe that the end justifies the means, then you don’t believe in Constitutional government. And, without Constitutional government, freedom cannot endure. There will always be a “crisis”– which, as the president’s chief of staff has said, cannot be allowed to “go to waste” as an opportunity to expand the government’s power.
That power will of course not be confined to BP or to the particular period of crisis that gave rise to the use of that power, much less to the particular issues.

Please enjoy both commentaries in their entirety at:

Oil and Snake Oil

and:

Degeneration of Democracy

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Ronald Reagan reminded us,

“We didn’t pass (freedom) to our children in the bloodstream~It must be fought for, protected & handed on for them to do the same”

Liberty is a stewardship, a sacred birthright from our ancestors. We are obliged to nurture and; protect it and; pass it intact to our posterity.  Should this generation of Americans allow ease, ignorance, fear or ANYTHING to rob our posterity of the freedoms our ancestors sacrificed so much to pass on to us, we will deserve the scorn of the ages we will receive.

Memorial Day is a time to pause and reflect on the liberty that gives us life.  A time to give thanks for our liberty and express our gratitude to those who have personally sacrificed so much to win it and protect and preserve it for us.

Mohandas Gandhi Observed:

“Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?”

How does one place a value on liberty?  I suppose one way that would win the approval of those who determine Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) would be to total up the cost.  What has been been spent to acquire and maintain our freedoms to date?

As I contemplate this, my mind rebels at the concept.  The value of the blood that has been spilled in the wars and conflicts since colonial times alone is beyond all comprehension. Add to that the lives that have been muted by grievous physical and mental injuries, the lifetimes of opportunities and happiness that were laid upon the altar of our freedoms.  Think of the mothers and wives that sent their sons and husbands off to war and the overwhelming hardships they must have faced as they struggled to keep the home fires burning, the children fed,clothed and educated and the wartime economy going without the help and support of their partner.  What about the lonely, tear filled nights and barren, exhausting, fright filled days?  Imagine the children who spent fearful months, even years praying for daddy to return, and those who never saw their father again.

Think of the “wretched refuse” of foreign shores, the human beings in whom the hunger for freedom became so fierce that they were willing to leave all that was familiar, all those that they loved, and trade it for the great unknown as they crossed rivers and oceans and risked their very lives to reach this land of hope and freedom.  If you live here, in the USA, you or someone somewhere in your ancestral past summoned the courage to sacrifice the known and take up the hardships and risks of the journey into the unknown for the hope of freedom for themselves and their posterity (that would be you).

Our country’s greatest danger is the complacency of us, its citizens.  We are lost when we begin to take our freedoms for granted.  This:

  • Allows us to believe lying politicians even after they have proven over and over that they cannot be trusted
  • Causes us to vote based on sound bytes and empty promises that confirm what what we wish to be true
  • Anesthetizes our sense of danger so that we fail to recognize erosion of our liberties
  • Prevents our recognition of seemingly justified growth in government power as preparation and positioning by scheming, power drunk politicians to ultimately relieve us of our freedoms
  • instills us with a false sense of security and well being.   Like the proverbial frog-in-a-pot we enjoy the pleasant water until it is too late and we are frog soup

It is our prayer this Memorial Day, that every American will contemplate our priceless freedom and the unfathomable sacrifices of our fore bearers that make it possible.  That we will treasure our liberties and refuse to take them for granted.  That we will employ a healthy skepticism of all who would lead us and show zero tolerance for government increasing its power over our lives.

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S.1317: Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2009

S.2820: PROTECT Act of 2009

Contact Your U.S. Representative

Contact Your U.S. Senators

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Lou Dobbs explains why he left CNN and what’s next for him.

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This video was taken as the body of fallen Marine – LCpl Brandon Lara made its way past hundreds of supporters that came out to pay their respects. Lance Corporal Brandon Lara lost his life in the line of duty while serving his country in Iraq. Lara was flown to Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX where he was escorted off base, through Universal City and Schertz to New Braunfels. This is only seven minutes of a one hour video.

Thank you LCpl Brandon Lara for your service to our country.

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Congressman Mike Pence gave the following speech from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, defending conservative media outlets.

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