A very liberal acquaintance of mine remarked recently that Wal-Mart is the most “destructive” entity in the world because its business plan focuses heavily on reducing costs! This is only slightly less shocking than progressive New York Daily News columnist Neil Steinberg’s description of the company as “an enormous fascist beast”. Wal-Mart’s emphasis on cost control and low prices runs afoul of a number of liberal shibboleths such as buying manufactured items from nations having wage scales below some arbitrarily derived minimum, selling “too cheap” and operating in sprawling “big boxes” that crowd out local mom and pop stores. That Wal-mart furnishes its customers serviceable to excellent products at deep discounts and that items it obtains from third world regions provide otherwise non-existent jobs is willfully ignored.
One trip to a Wal-mart in say Hattiesburg, Mississippi quickly reveals that it is the least economically endowed who shop there. The cars of the working poor and the elderly fill the Wal-mart parking lot. With many prescription drugs at $4 for a month’s supply and cut-rate groceries, clothes and other necessities of life, the company brings American prosperity to the least of us. It is no stretch to assert that Wal-mart does more for poor people in this country than all the liberal welfare programs adopted since the New Deal - and without damning consequences. Overseas Wal-mart suppliers provide countless men and women with jobs at a wage they stand on line to accept.
In public education, progressive teachers unions foster a culture of inferiority where excellence is suspect and mediocrity rewarded. These same unions promote bloated, out of touch school administrations that siphon off much needed funds from the classroom. Deweyite educators push multicultural and new age curriculums in place of basic and foundational studies. Our schools no longer teach grammar, civics, a truthful history of our nation and other subjects necessary in preparation for life in a 21st Century world. It is the children of the impoverished of course who are condemned to these factories of failure.
Free exchange of goods and services is among the most dignified and moral acts in creation. Dignified because each man gets what he wants from the bargain and moral for the transaction is totally without compulsion. Free enterprise with its handmaiden, privately owned property is the ultimate wealth and prosperity engine yet created by the society of men. The excess profit of trade has furnished every improvement in man’s environment and life since the dawn of time. Liberals despise private property, trade and profit.
Unfettered, free enterprise will ever produce more and better goods and services at lower prices. The production of this merchandise and benefits create the jobs by which the meanest among us may improve their lot. The lower prices guaranteed by competition put more and more quality products in their homes. Social reformers seek heavily sanctioned state control of both trade and production with favored products and services subsidized and others regulated away. Each time the heavy thumb of government falls on the scales of the marketplace, more poor people are put of work and denied the advantages they need and desire. Progressives seem to abhor general prosperity.
Extreme environmentalism harms struggling people by artificially raising gasoline and other energy prices. Excessive regulation and taxation restrict profits thus impairing job creation, again disproportionately affecting families at the bottom of the ladder. Farm subsidies push up food prices making it more difficult for the humble to eat properly.
From demonization of large discount stores to ineffective state schools. From family devastating welfare programs to excessive regulation and taxation I can think of no progressive policy that has produced anything but a negative impact on the less well off. The left claims a deep affection and compassion for poor people. Measured by the effect of its actions, liberals hate poor people.
The Little Moron Blunders Again
For those of who continue to mistake George W. Bush for a conservative, please consider his response to the Big Three Bailout. Ignoring his own party’s principled opposition to requiring autoworkers in Kentucky making $49/hr to share their checks with union cousins in Detroit making $79/hr. The Little Moron of Pennsylvania Avenue has elected once again to add another liberal merit badge to his Weasel Scout sash. He has instructed Uncle Hank to dip into to his rapidly diminishing slush fund for a few billion for Detroit. In doing so he continues in Poppy’s tradition of state sponsored corporatism.
Having given banks billions not to loan, credit card companies billions to cover losses on cards mailed out like spam and giant insurance companies billions to cover bad bets, it is now the UAW that gets Uncle’s largesse. I have heretofore considered those calling to impeach Bush to be cranks. That notwithstanding by continuing to steal from the average and give to the rich he is getting in my opinion, perilously close to “high crimes and misdemeanors”. The President’s action, which is opposed by more than 60% of U.S. citizens is if not unconstitutional certainly repugnant. He is to be reviled. It is hoped someone will go into the federal courts seeking to stop this knavery.
Having given banks billions not to loan, credit card companies billions to cover losses on cards mailed out like spam and giant insurance companies billions to cover bad bets, it is now the UAW that gets Uncle’s largesse. I have heretofore considered those calling to impeach Bush to be cranks. That notwithstanding by continuing to steal from the average and give to the rich he is getting in my opinion, perilously close to “high crimes and misdemeanors”. The President’s action, which is opposed by more than 60% of U.S. citizens is if not unconstitutional certainly repugnant. He is to be reviled. It is hoped someone will go into the federal courts seeking to stop this knavery.
Tyranny Rant
The Federal government and the big banks have generated an economic collapse such that 10% of all American homeowners are at least 30 days delinquent on their mortgages. The same tribe of Wall Street vipers and bureaucrats who created the debacle have been given over a trillion dollars of public money to fix it. $350billion has been used to cover the large banks speculative losses and restore liquidity in the marketplace. Credit windows are nailed down and covered by plywood. 530,000 people lost their jobs last month as a recession hidden by the government for nearly a year threatens to become a depression. Your national government has bailed out credit card companies that mass mailed cards like sale flyers. Now cometh the carmakers and the UAW demanding the USA force autoworkers in Kentucky making $70,000 a year share their pay with their unionized cousins in Detroit who make twice that. Congress will after a pro-forma posturing cave in.
America has enough coal to heat and power our country for 200 years. Burning it produces carbon dioxide, which makes the trees green. In homage to a known fallacy and enviro-nazis, our leaders intend to as the new Vice President put it, “bankrupt the coal companies”. While gasoline was $4 Congress wouldn’t permit drilling off our shores and in frozen wastelands. God only knows what they have planned now that gas is below $2. Our same keepers began paying people to turn corn into a fuel that produces more carbon than coal and caused a shortage of corn for food. Democrats who now run the federal circus want to let the UN tell us how warm we can keep our houses. The new President and Congress want to take over our health care and turn it into the type that drives Canadians across the border to use our current system. If you earn more than $50,000 a year Washington grabs half of it. For 6 months a year each working man is a slave. Federal bureaucrats mandate toilets that won’t flush and light bulbs that poison you if you break them. The President elect can't find his birth certificate. By order of Uncle Sam doctors go to jail for alleviating pain and fathers for spanking their sons.
The government makes murdering terrorists’ distinguished professors and distinguished teachers unemployed. Grandmothers are rudely searched while young Arab men walk right on to airliners. Shutting down talk radio is constitutional but listening in on terrorist phone calls is not. You may murder an unborn baby without fear but be prosecuted for cutting a tree that might be occupied by a rat. I could go on but I am just too tired.
Thomas Jefferson allowed, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”. The tyrants are plentiful, where are the patriots. I am 58 years old and have the better part of life behind me. If things continue to run as they are now I may soon declare myself with Jefferson’s fellow Virginian Patrick Henry.
America has enough coal to heat and power our country for 200 years. Burning it produces carbon dioxide, which makes the trees green. In homage to a known fallacy and enviro-nazis, our leaders intend to as the new Vice President put it, “bankrupt the coal companies”. While gasoline was $4 Congress wouldn’t permit drilling off our shores and in frozen wastelands. God only knows what they have planned now that gas is below $2. Our same keepers began paying people to turn corn into a fuel that produces more carbon than coal and caused a shortage of corn for food. Democrats who now run the federal circus want to let the UN tell us how warm we can keep our houses. The new President and Congress want to take over our health care and turn it into the type that drives Canadians across the border to use our current system. If you earn more than $50,000 a year Washington grabs half of it. For 6 months a year each working man is a slave. Federal bureaucrats mandate toilets that won’t flush and light bulbs that poison you if you break them. The President elect can't find his birth certificate. By order of Uncle Sam doctors go to jail for alleviating pain and fathers for spanking their sons.
The government makes murdering terrorists’ distinguished professors and distinguished teachers unemployed. Grandmothers are rudely searched while young Arab men walk right on to airliners. Shutting down talk radio is constitutional but listening in on terrorist phone calls is not. You may murder an unborn baby without fear but be prosecuted for cutting a tree that might be occupied by a rat. I could go on but I am just too tired.
Thomas Jefferson allowed, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”. The tyrants are plentiful, where are the patriots. I am 58 years old and have the better part of life behind me. If things continue to run as they are now I may soon declare myself with Jefferson’s fellow Virginian Patrick Henry.
Republicans Beware
CONSERVATIVE - one who favors building on learned experience rather than untried innovation; in a political context- favoring free enterprise, individual and private property rights and traditional mores.
Lately some traditionally conservative journals such as National Review have become less conservative and more Republican. This bodes ill for both constituencies. Kathleen Parker writes recently that social conservatives, particularly Christians are “what ails” the GOP. Others suggest that the party must be more open to pro-abortion candidates and soften its stance on social issues like gay marriage and the 2nd Amendment. They cite statistics that gun owners and white married couples are shrinking as a demographic and Republicans must court the moderates and independents that are put off by the overtly religious.
I have included the definition above to remind the reader that “Republican” is not part of the definition of conservative. “One who favors…traditional” mores however is. The GOP would be well advised to remember this distinction. In 1966 when Ronald Reagan was elected Governor of California, the Republican Party was calcified and dying. It stood for nothing and virtually no one stood for it. Reagan like NR founder William F. Buckley was a movement conservative more concerned with first principles than pragmatic attempts at power. Republicans occupied the White House all but four years from 1968 to 1992. By 1988 to be Republican was to be conservative. George Bush [The Elder] however abandoned Reagan’s legacy for the moderate center over the next four years and facilitated the election of Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992. Returning to principles in1994 Newt Gingrich and his Contract With America led a GOP sweep of both houses of Congress. Sending Sen. Robert Dole, another Republican moderate to the post in 1996 assured Clinton’s re-election.
By 2000, Republicans had repented and nominated the proven conservative Governor of Texas, George W. Bush and won a hard fought campaign to retake the oval office. Solid Republican majorities were maintained as well in Congress through 2006. Bush 43 held on in 2004 defeating Sen. John Kerry. By then however GWB had become compassionate. GOP members of Congress who had been reading the Washington Post for nearly ten years, opened wide the tent and became Democrat Lite. In 2006, they were rightfully swept out. In November last the most liberal member of the U.S. Congress, Barack Hussein Obama was elected President along with 58 Democratic Senators leaving Ronaldus Magnus’ glorious revolution little more than a memory.
The Reagan Coalition that dominated American politics for over 20 years included all those persons described in the definition above, many were Democrats, all full conservatives. A plain reading of this shorthand political history reveals clearly that the Republican Party came to power on the broad shoulders of conservatives and kept that power as long as it remained true to conservatism. Each time Beltway pundits chattered the party leftward [see Rope-A-Dope On the Left; Contra Mundum 5.21.08] electoral losses followed.
In 1992 and 1996 the Republican nominee for President ran as a moderate. Being neither hot nor cold; fish nor fowl, the electorate gagged on Bush 41 and Bob Dole respectfully. Social – conservatives remained loyal. By 2006 it was obvious Republicans for the most part had abandoned conservative axioms and they were turned out. John McCain, ‘The Maverick” that would save the day by attracting independents found his margin of defeat last month equal to the number of independents Bush The Younger got in 2004 that he didn’t.
Republican leaders need understand that many conservatives in the aftermath of the November slaughter are beginning to believe that the party no longer serves our interests. A few party leaders must be getting the message; radio hosts that have gone fool for the party are busy lately reminding conservative listeners they have no place else to call home. Of course, third parties are very problematic. Political organizations though do outlive their usefulness. Whigs are conspicuously absent from ballots recently. Without gun owners, evangelicals and other religious stalwarts more Republican defeats will certainly come followed inevitably by defects of fiscal and national security conservatives. Overtime The Reagan Coalition will reorganize under another banner and the GOP will pass from the scene forever. Let those Republican leaders with eyes to see, see and ears to hear, hear. Drive Christians and other So-Cons out at your own peril.
Lately some traditionally conservative journals such as National Review have become less conservative and more Republican. This bodes ill for both constituencies. Kathleen Parker writes recently that social conservatives, particularly Christians are “what ails” the GOP. Others suggest that the party must be more open to pro-abortion candidates and soften its stance on social issues like gay marriage and the 2nd Amendment. They cite statistics that gun owners and white married couples are shrinking as a demographic and Republicans must court the moderates and independents that are put off by the overtly religious.
I have included the definition above to remind the reader that “Republican” is not part of the definition of conservative. “One who favors…traditional” mores however is. The GOP would be well advised to remember this distinction. In 1966 when Ronald Reagan was elected Governor of California, the Republican Party was calcified and dying. It stood for nothing and virtually no one stood for it. Reagan like NR founder William F. Buckley was a movement conservative more concerned with first principles than pragmatic attempts at power. Republicans occupied the White House all but four years from 1968 to 1992. By 1988 to be Republican was to be conservative. George Bush [The Elder] however abandoned Reagan’s legacy for the moderate center over the next four years and facilitated the election of Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992. Returning to principles in1994 Newt Gingrich and his Contract With America led a GOP sweep of both houses of Congress. Sending Sen. Robert Dole, another Republican moderate to the post in 1996 assured Clinton’s re-election.
By 2000, Republicans had repented and nominated the proven conservative Governor of Texas, George W. Bush and won a hard fought campaign to retake the oval office. Solid Republican majorities were maintained as well in Congress through 2006. Bush 43 held on in 2004 defeating Sen. John Kerry. By then however GWB had become compassionate. GOP members of Congress who had been reading the Washington Post for nearly ten years, opened wide the tent and became Democrat Lite. In 2006, they were rightfully swept out. In November last the most liberal member of the U.S. Congress, Barack Hussein Obama was elected President along with 58 Democratic Senators leaving Ronaldus Magnus’ glorious revolution little more than a memory.
The Reagan Coalition that dominated American politics for over 20 years included all those persons described in the definition above, many were Democrats, all full conservatives. A plain reading of this shorthand political history reveals clearly that the Republican Party came to power on the broad shoulders of conservatives and kept that power as long as it remained true to conservatism. Each time Beltway pundits chattered the party leftward [see Rope-A-Dope On the Left; Contra Mundum 5.21.08] electoral losses followed.
In 1992 and 1996 the Republican nominee for President ran as a moderate. Being neither hot nor cold; fish nor fowl, the electorate gagged on Bush 41 and Bob Dole respectfully. Social – conservatives remained loyal. By 2006 it was obvious Republicans for the most part had abandoned conservative axioms and they were turned out. John McCain, ‘The Maverick” that would save the day by attracting independents found his margin of defeat last month equal to the number of independents Bush The Younger got in 2004 that he didn’t.
Republican leaders need understand that many conservatives in the aftermath of the November slaughter are beginning to believe that the party no longer serves our interests. A few party leaders must be getting the message; radio hosts that have gone fool for the party are busy lately reminding conservative listeners they have no place else to call home. Of course, third parties are very problematic. Political organizations though do outlive their usefulness. Whigs are conspicuously absent from ballots recently. Without gun owners, evangelicals and other religious stalwarts more Republican defeats will certainly come followed inevitably by defects of fiscal and national security conservatives. Overtime The Reagan Coalition will reorganize under another banner and the GOP will pass from the scene forever. Let those Republican leaders with eyes to see, see and ears to hear, hear. Drive Christians and other So-Cons out at your own peril.
Lincoln's War
He suspended the civil rights of his own country, took over 13,000 political prisoners, including mayors, legislators, ministers and newspapermen. He invaded his neighbor lay waste to her lands, killed over 250,000 of her people and caused the remainder to be subjugated to his own political will. Who was this man?
The short resume above belongs to President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln is given almost godlike reverence on two counts, resulting from the northern victory in The War Between The States; emancipating the slaves and preserving the Union of 34 states. That he accomplished these with no authority save more and bigger cannon has been ignored if not denied by ancient and modern historians alike. In the brief essay that follows, I hope to gauge Lincoln and the conflict against the philosophical underpinnings of the Union he strove to save not merely the immediate results of the conflict of 1861-1865.
The casus belli of The War Between the States remain as debatable today as they were in 1861. The writer is inadequate to the task of unraveling that Gordian knot. The actions of the 16th President of The United States on the other hand are visible to anyone with eyes to see. President Lincoln unleashed horrible destruction and loss on the southern people not to mention the 300,000 Union soldiers who lost their lives. More Americans died in Lincoln’s War than in all other U.S. conflicts combined. The above notwithstanding, I do not suggest that Lincoln was motivated by anything other than what he thought to be right under the circumstances. I believe Lincoln was met with such intractable problems and powerful external forces that he wearied under the pressure and chose to try to accomplish quickly by force of arms what might have been achieved only through years of painstaking diplomacy.
The America of the 1860’s was very unlike our nation today. Neither the interstate highway system nor the automobiles to travel it existed to tie us together. People and commerce travelled by horseback, steamship and loosely connected railroads. The Republic was divided north and south, geographically, industrially, monetarily and spiritually. The northern states were fast becoming an industrial giant. In just more than a half century it would become manufacturer to the world. The wealth of the nation passed through the banks, trading houses and ports of New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Much of the population north of the Mason-Dixon was urban. On the other hand the American south in the middle of the 19th century, was overwhelmingly rural and dependent on growing and selling tobacco and cotton. More than 90% of the world’s cotton came from the states of the Confederacy. Southern cotton was shipped on northern ships, sold through northern commercial houses and the profit deposited in northern banks. Virtually all southern manufactured goods from farm equipment to weapons to clothing were imported either from abroad or from the north. Industrial tariffs on these importations produced 70% of federal tax receipts in 1860. The high exactions drastically reduced the value of southern crops. Lest we ignore the obvious, the far greater part of plantation labor was performed by black African slaves while radical abolitionists dominated the newly minted and powerful Republican party. In the south, paranoia began to run deep.
When South Carolina and then the other slave states seceded and formed The Confederate States of America a whole host of problems arose for the northern states and the federal government. Without southern tariff receipts federal coffers would soon run empty requiring increased taxes on northern merchants and manufacturers. Additionally, the Confederacy offered foreign nations tax free ports at Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans presenting a mortal threat to the protectionist northern sea trade. In fact, an independent southern nation had the potential to bankrupt the north. These conditions met the 16th President at his inauguration.
It is clear that in defense of the wealth, property and well-being of the northern states and their people, Lincoln could not permit the Confederacy [without mutual agreements on trade etc] to remain as an independent country. Yet the President had the same obligation to protect the people and property of the south, at least as long as they were states. Truly no President before or since has faced such an imponderable dilemma. Half of the nation that elected him President no longer believed it bound to the Union and had set up a nation that threatened the well being of the other half. Lincoln was left hanging between heaven and hell. He had really only three options; accept the Confederacy as a legitimate, sovereign nation and begin the long and arduous task of negotiating the salient issues toward a peaceful resolution and perhaps reunification, declare war on the C.S.A. or claim the southern states in “revolt” and use the United States Army to subdue the “rebellion”. Under severe pressure for a quick solution from northern commerce and with abolitionists railing at him to take the opportunity to free the slaves, Lincoln seemed never to have considered diplomacy. In his first inaugural he put his marker down asserting: “ in your hands my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen and not mine is the momentous issue of civil war…You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it." In a brilliant piece of political legerdemain, Lincoln established a self-serving and false rhetorical basis for the conflict that obtains even today.
No threat was uttered nor intent given by the seceding states toward an overthrow of the government of the United States. Civil war [a legal term] by necessity of definition requires such a struggle thus no civil war was imminent and in fact, none occurred. Further Lincoln’s oath was to “preserve, protect and defend “, not the sitting government but the Constitution. Nothing in The Constitution compelled any state to remain a part of the U.S. We shall see further on what oath the south staked its claim. On April 13, 1861 goaded by Lincoln's ordering gunboats toward Charleston, intemperate South Carolinians fired on Ft. Sumter. In late July 1861, Lincoln invaded Virginia.
The ethical and moral foundations of the United States are expressed in the Declaration of Independence of 1776. In that year, the 13 American colonies of King George III of England declared:
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
If these truths are not eternal and invioable the United States is and forever will be a rogue nation founded by brigands and traitors with no moral or ethical grounds for its being and no basis for its laws and customs save force. Below is an excerpt from The Declaration of Independence of the Confederate States of America.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all human beings are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Lincoln’s arguments, to the contrary the Confederacy held exactly the same writ asserted by the colonies against Britain some four-score years past. In ignoring the legitimacy of the Confederate States and using armed force to keep them under United States rule, Lincoln denied the foundational principles of his own country. Like George III before him, Lincoln became a tyrant.
In judging Abraham Lincoln, one may not retreat behind events occurring after the War Between the States. It also cannot be assumed the he was prescient in knowing a re-united America would become a great power and force for good in the world just as we cannot assume that had he let the Confederacy go reconciliation would not have taken place peaceably or that both nations may not have been great. Neither can we contend that the slaves would not in time, have been emancipated. President Lincoln, like all men must be judged according to his times, by the knowledge and wisdom available to him. Lincoln was dealt a terrible hand. He felt an immense pragmatic and mystical burden to maintain the union – whatever the cost. Lincoln’s policies in response to that burden were by the immutable axioms of our own beginning, illegal, immoral and unethical. His actions were those of a despot and resulted in a spiritual, physical, societal and cultural devastation of the nation that is not healed 140 years hence. That the Union Abraham Lincoln salvaged became the American Colossus may be accounted to his favor. That slavery was abolished at that precise time and in the manner it was, is more problematic. I hope to address that issue as well as other significant historical consequences of The War Between The States in future posts.
The short resume above belongs to President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln is given almost godlike reverence on two counts, resulting from the northern victory in The War Between The States; emancipating the slaves and preserving the Union of 34 states. That he accomplished these with no authority save more and bigger cannon has been ignored if not denied by ancient and modern historians alike. In the brief essay that follows, I hope to gauge Lincoln and the conflict against the philosophical underpinnings of the Union he strove to save not merely the immediate results of the conflict of 1861-1865.
The casus belli of The War Between the States remain as debatable today as they were in 1861. The writer is inadequate to the task of unraveling that Gordian knot. The actions of the 16th President of The United States on the other hand are visible to anyone with eyes to see. President Lincoln unleashed horrible destruction and loss on the southern people not to mention the 300,000 Union soldiers who lost their lives. More Americans died in Lincoln’s War than in all other U.S. conflicts combined. The above notwithstanding, I do not suggest that Lincoln was motivated by anything other than what he thought to be right under the circumstances. I believe Lincoln was met with such intractable problems and powerful external forces that he wearied under the pressure and chose to try to accomplish quickly by force of arms what might have been achieved only through years of painstaking diplomacy.
The America of the 1860’s was very unlike our nation today. Neither the interstate highway system nor the automobiles to travel it existed to tie us together. People and commerce travelled by horseback, steamship and loosely connected railroads. The Republic was divided north and south, geographically, industrially, monetarily and spiritually. The northern states were fast becoming an industrial giant. In just more than a half century it would become manufacturer to the world. The wealth of the nation passed through the banks, trading houses and ports of New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Much of the population north of the Mason-Dixon was urban. On the other hand the American south in the middle of the 19th century, was overwhelmingly rural and dependent on growing and selling tobacco and cotton. More than 90% of the world’s cotton came from the states of the Confederacy. Southern cotton was shipped on northern ships, sold through northern commercial houses and the profit deposited in northern banks. Virtually all southern manufactured goods from farm equipment to weapons to clothing were imported either from abroad or from the north. Industrial tariffs on these importations produced 70% of federal tax receipts in 1860. The high exactions drastically reduced the value of southern crops. Lest we ignore the obvious, the far greater part of plantation labor was performed by black African slaves while radical abolitionists dominated the newly minted and powerful Republican party. In the south, paranoia began to run deep.
When South Carolina and then the other slave states seceded and formed The Confederate States of America a whole host of problems arose for the northern states and the federal government. Without southern tariff receipts federal coffers would soon run empty requiring increased taxes on northern merchants and manufacturers. Additionally, the Confederacy offered foreign nations tax free ports at Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans presenting a mortal threat to the protectionist northern sea trade. In fact, an independent southern nation had the potential to bankrupt the north. These conditions met the 16th President at his inauguration.
It is clear that in defense of the wealth, property and well-being of the northern states and their people, Lincoln could not permit the Confederacy [without mutual agreements on trade etc] to remain as an independent country. Yet the President had the same obligation to protect the people and property of the south, at least as long as they were states. Truly no President before or since has faced such an imponderable dilemma. Half of the nation that elected him President no longer believed it bound to the Union and had set up a nation that threatened the well being of the other half. Lincoln was left hanging between heaven and hell. He had really only three options; accept the Confederacy as a legitimate, sovereign nation and begin the long and arduous task of negotiating the salient issues toward a peaceful resolution and perhaps reunification, declare war on the C.S.A. or claim the southern states in “revolt” and use the United States Army to subdue the “rebellion”. Under severe pressure for a quick solution from northern commerce and with abolitionists railing at him to take the opportunity to free the slaves, Lincoln seemed never to have considered diplomacy. In his first inaugural he put his marker down asserting: “ in your hands my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen and not mine is the momentous issue of civil war…You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it." In a brilliant piece of political legerdemain, Lincoln established a self-serving and false rhetorical basis for the conflict that obtains even today.
No threat was uttered nor intent given by the seceding states toward an overthrow of the government of the United States. Civil war [a legal term] by necessity of definition requires such a struggle thus no civil war was imminent and in fact, none occurred. Further Lincoln’s oath was to “preserve, protect and defend “, not the sitting government but the Constitution. Nothing in The Constitution compelled any state to remain a part of the U.S. We shall see further on what oath the south staked its claim. On April 13, 1861 goaded by Lincoln's ordering gunboats toward Charleston, intemperate South Carolinians fired on Ft. Sumter. In late July 1861, Lincoln invaded Virginia.
The ethical and moral foundations of the United States are expressed in the Declaration of Independence of 1776. In that year, the 13 American colonies of King George III of England declared:
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
If these truths are not eternal and invioable the United States is and forever will be a rogue nation founded by brigands and traitors with no moral or ethical grounds for its being and no basis for its laws and customs save force. Below is an excerpt from The Declaration of Independence of the Confederate States of America.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all human beings are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Lincoln’s arguments, to the contrary the Confederacy held exactly the same writ asserted by the colonies against Britain some four-score years past. In ignoring the legitimacy of the Confederate States and using armed force to keep them under United States rule, Lincoln denied the foundational principles of his own country. Like George III before him, Lincoln became a tyrant.
In judging Abraham Lincoln, one may not retreat behind events occurring after the War Between the States. It also cannot be assumed the he was prescient in knowing a re-united America would become a great power and force for good in the world just as we cannot assume that had he let the Confederacy go reconciliation would not have taken place peaceably or that both nations may not have been great. Neither can we contend that the slaves would not in time, have been emancipated. President Lincoln, like all men must be judged according to his times, by the knowledge and wisdom available to him. Lincoln was dealt a terrible hand. He felt an immense pragmatic and mystical burden to maintain the union – whatever the cost. Lincoln’s policies in response to that burden were by the immutable axioms of our own beginning, illegal, immoral and unethical. His actions were those of a despot and resulted in a spiritual, physical, societal and cultural devastation of the nation that is not healed 140 years hence. That the Union Abraham Lincoln salvaged became the American Colossus may be accounted to his favor. That slavery was abolished at that precise time and in the manner it was, is more problematic. I hope to address that issue as well as other significant historical consequences of The War Between The States in future posts.
Out of the Asylum
Legislator n - A person who goes to the capital of his country to increase his own
Ambrose Bierce
"The Devils Dictionary"
Does anyone remember a time when the Commonwealth of Kentucky was not crying for more funds? Good times and bad, state government offers the tin cup to its citizens. Always the threat is that education, roads, police and parks will have to do without. Always the same solution is asserted, higher taxes. The more things change the more they stay the same.
Enter Governor Steve Beshear, calling for an emergency session of the legislature to deal with a $450-million budgeted shortfall. Beshear declares taxes must increase or schools, roads and public safety will vanish. Rubbish! Budgets can be reduced. The nation is in deep recession, perhaps heading for depression. The states are only the nation in miniature. Each has its own economy determined at least partially by actions they may control. For instance, Michigan, a high tax, heavily regulated, closed shop is in actual depression now while low tax, right-to-work states like Tennessee and South Carolina are performing well, even in these troublesome times.
Raising taxes into a depressed economy is the equivalent in golf of hitting your first shot into the lake with a 7-iron, using the same club for your third and fifth shot and then selecting it for your seventh. Experience has proven a 7-iron is not the right choice and will result only in further penalty. Likewise, history plainly shows that raising tax rates decreases rather than increases receipts and produces an additional penalty in statewide job and income loss. That being the technical reason for not pushing exactions higher, the moral one is of even greater clarity. For a bloated bureaucracy to impose additional financial burden on its populous when the latter is already in financial extremis is the utmost in public knavery. A government must exist for its people, not the other way around.
Clearly, the Commonwealth must adjust its budget downward cutting those services less important to its populace rather than those most dear. If Beshear really seeks to promote growth in public receipts as well as improving the lot of his constituents, he will propose eliminating the state income tax and intangible property tax along with opening the shop floor. Investment and jobs will then flow into Kentucky and as surely as night follows day, those projects lost to tightening today will be redeemed tomorrow, with more besides. If not, Senate President David Williams must steadfastly stand in the gap against even higher taxes. It is said that doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results is the practice of the insane. It is time Kentucky government stood up and walked out of the asylum.
From The Pen of Abaddon
“I have never seen a Kentuckian without a gun, a pack of cards and a bottle of whiskey”
General Andrew Jackson
The Reaper comes quickly
Anon.
“The politician is the lowest form of life on earth. The Democrat is the lowest politician”
General George S. Patton
General Andrew Jackson
The Reaper comes quickly
Anon.
“The politician is the lowest form of life on earth. The Democrat is the lowest politician”
General George S. Patton
From The Pen of Abaddon
Accuse - to affirm another's guilt or unworth; most often as a justification of ourselves for having wronged him.
Ambrose Bierce
THE DEVILS DICTIONARY
Back Up and Look Around vol 1
It is very awkward to decry giving tax money to those making so little they pay no tax while at the same time feverishly doling it out to those so rich they can avoid paying any at all.
Were George W. Bush not leaving office in less than 90 days the disgracefully dishonest bill of goods he and Uncle Hank sold the nation would warrant sure impeachment.
An officer at a large regional bank granted over $3billion from TARP laughed derisivly when it was suggested the bank would now be opening the credit windows. "That money wasn't given to loan - it was given so we could buy other banks"
The stock market is off nearly 1500 points since The Messiah's election. All you "middle class" geniuses who voted for change have so far had your 401k's changed by a negative 16%. You earned it.
Were George W. Bush not leaving office in less than 90 days the disgracefully dishonest bill of goods he and Uncle Hank sold the nation would warrant sure impeachment.
An officer at a large regional bank granted over $3billion from TARP laughed derisivly when it was suggested the bank would now be opening the credit windows. "That money wasn't given to loan - it was given so we could buy other banks"
The stock market is off nearly 1500 points since The Messiah's election. All you "middle class" geniuses who voted for change have so far had your 401k's changed by a negative 16%. You earned it.
Doctrines of Fairness and Freedom
Our Founders constructed a number of strong redoubts against the onslaught of tyranny. Strictly limiting and delineating the powers of the federal government, separation of powers among the three branches, the right of the citizenry to keep and bear arms, habeus corpus, the sanctity of private property and perhaps the strongest of all bulwarks, unfettered political speech.
Freedom of speech was first abridged in 1798 when a federalist congress under President John Adams sought to criminalize political dissent in the Aliens and Sedition Acts. Quickly Kentucky and Virginia announced their intention and asserted their right to nullify these acts within their bounds and a smattering of secessionist rumblings were heard throughout New England A chastened congress soon repealed the nefarious enactions and the nascent union was saved. Lincoln in the 1860's aside from revoking habeus corpus, imprisoned opposition journalists and closed newspapers critical of his continuing prosecution of the War Between The States. Woodrow Wilson the first categorically fascist western leader imposed strict and abusive restrictions on speech during WWI and Sen. Joseph McCarthy is infamous for demanding censorship of ideas in the 1950's. So repudiated and reviled was McCarthy [particularly from the left] that one might have thought free speech safely established till the end of time.
Time, it seems, has come today. Holding a virtual monopoly on the post-Watergate print media and seeing the mainstream television networks become little more than Democrat house organs, the left [ironically] began in the 1990's to try and fetter the expression of opposition opinion. After several abortive tries and with the help of putative Republican John McCain the effort bore fruit as The McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act. Claiming to reduce the corrosive effect of money on the electoral process the act restricts the amount of cash a candidate may receive from a lone donor thus constraining the degree to which individuals rich or poor, might express political ideas and opinions. The self-serving act also limits criticism of incumbent candidates 60 days before an election and by force of operation dramatically increases the power of the friendly press. In a decision that will puzzle legal scholars for as long as the republic exists, the Supreme Court found this bluntly oppressive act constitutional. One locus of free speech so far remains unencumbered, talk radio.
Rising on the broad back of Rush Limbaugh in the 1980's and resurrecting AM radio frequencies and stations, talk radio overwhelmingly conservative in opinion, became outrageously popular. It seemed to have addressed a glaring need in the body politic - an outlet for political expression by Mr. and Mrs. Everyman. The success of talk radio represents a magnificent achievement of three of America's signature attributes, grass roots democracy, free markets and the free dissemination of ideas. The phenomenon however poses a problem to the progressives in our midst. Liberal thought, not only under represented on the air suffers constant and cogent attack from conservative hosts like Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin. The distribution of ideas having atomized among millions of everyday people is now being harnessed by well prepared and popular hosts. This outcome seems a certain disaster to many on the left.
The talk radio revolution was made possible when the Federal Communications Commission responding to its own finding that its order "had the net effect of reducing rather than enhancing the discussion of controversial issues of public importance" [emphasis mine] repealed the 1949 Fairness Doctrine that required over air media outlets to offer equal time for all viewpoints. Progressives made the proper response in 2004 launching the Air America Radio Network featuring liberal talk, phone calls and opinion. By the end of 2006 Air America was in bankruptcy. It remains on the air today though having only 66 affiliates as compared to the nearly 1000 of Limbaugh's EIB Network. Two factors are responsible for the failure of Air America. In the first instance the mainstream print and TV media more than adequately distribute liberal ideas which tends to reduce the felt need for an additional outlet in AM radio. Secondly and more importantly, it seems as if the appetite for progressive talk among the general population is nearly non-existent. To the liberal mind the market forces that have suffocated Air America have made a demonstrable minority of those persons who enjoy left leaning chatter. They have been locked out by corporate greed and power. The progressive movement is at its heart opposed to the winner-loser results of free enterprise. It is not difficult at all to see that it views this situation as unfair.
Recognizing conservative talk radio as not only unfair but a clear and present danger to recently established political hegemony the freshly minted Democrat regime is wasting little time in executing a plan to eliminate the threat, perhaps forever. The brand new Office of The President Elect announced yesterday that former FCC commissioner and Fairness Doctrine devotee Henry Rivera will head up a committee to select the new FCC Chairman who will, in his turn likely support reinstating the doctrine. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who only days ago referred to conservative talk shows as "pornography" and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will head up what must become a particularly autocratic congressional campaign that will attempt to memorialize the FCC regulation in permanent federal law.
The silencing of opposition speech whether from the right, left or center is for a democracy, nothing less than a death wish. From the very beginning of our nation such actions have been opposed by patriots of all stripes and at one time or another by all political factions. It matters not in this controversy, whose ox is getting gored. Liberty itself is in the dock. Now is the time for all good men from every walk of life and the four corners of the political compass to unite behind the banner of freedom, rise up as one and slay this awful dragon that seeks, in the interest of the most base partisanship, to destroy the foundations of our very existence as a free and self-determining people.
Freedom of speech was first abridged in 1798 when a federalist congress under President John Adams sought to criminalize political dissent in the Aliens and Sedition Acts. Quickly Kentucky and Virginia announced their intention and asserted their right to nullify these acts within their bounds and a smattering of secessionist rumblings were heard throughout New England A chastened congress soon repealed the nefarious enactions and the nascent union was saved. Lincoln in the 1860's aside from revoking habeus corpus, imprisoned opposition journalists and closed newspapers critical of his continuing prosecution of the War Between The States. Woodrow Wilson the first categorically fascist western leader imposed strict and abusive restrictions on speech during WWI and Sen. Joseph McCarthy is infamous for demanding censorship of ideas in the 1950's. So repudiated and reviled was McCarthy [particularly from the left] that one might have thought free speech safely established till the end of time.
Time, it seems, has come today. Holding a virtual monopoly on the post-Watergate print media and seeing the mainstream television networks become little more than Democrat house organs, the left [ironically] began in the 1990's to try and fetter the expression of opposition opinion. After several abortive tries and with the help of putative Republican John McCain the effort bore fruit as The McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act. Claiming to reduce the corrosive effect of money on the electoral process the act restricts the amount of cash a candidate may receive from a lone donor thus constraining the degree to which individuals rich or poor, might express political ideas and opinions. The self-serving act also limits criticism of incumbent candidates 60 days before an election and by force of operation dramatically increases the power of the friendly press. In a decision that will puzzle legal scholars for as long as the republic exists, the Supreme Court found this bluntly oppressive act constitutional. One locus of free speech so far remains unencumbered, talk radio.
Rising on the broad back of Rush Limbaugh in the 1980's and resurrecting AM radio frequencies and stations, talk radio overwhelmingly conservative in opinion, became outrageously popular. It seemed to have addressed a glaring need in the body politic - an outlet for political expression by Mr. and Mrs. Everyman. The success of talk radio represents a magnificent achievement of three of America's signature attributes, grass roots democracy, free markets and the free dissemination of ideas. The phenomenon however poses a problem to the progressives in our midst. Liberal thought, not only under represented on the air suffers constant and cogent attack from conservative hosts like Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin. The distribution of ideas having atomized among millions of everyday people is now being harnessed by well prepared and popular hosts. This outcome seems a certain disaster to many on the left.
The talk radio revolution was made possible when the Federal Communications Commission responding to its own finding that its order "had the net effect of reducing rather than enhancing the discussion of controversial issues of public importance" [emphasis mine] repealed the 1949 Fairness Doctrine that required over air media outlets to offer equal time for all viewpoints. Progressives made the proper response in 2004 launching the Air America Radio Network featuring liberal talk, phone calls and opinion. By the end of 2006 Air America was in bankruptcy. It remains on the air today though having only 66 affiliates as compared to the nearly 1000 of Limbaugh's EIB Network. Two factors are responsible for the failure of Air America. In the first instance the mainstream print and TV media more than adequately distribute liberal ideas which tends to reduce the felt need for an additional outlet in AM radio. Secondly and more importantly, it seems as if the appetite for progressive talk among the general population is nearly non-existent. To the liberal mind the market forces that have suffocated Air America have made a demonstrable minority of those persons who enjoy left leaning chatter. They have been locked out by corporate greed and power. The progressive movement is at its heart opposed to the winner-loser results of free enterprise. It is not difficult at all to see that it views this situation as unfair.
Recognizing conservative talk radio as not only unfair but a clear and present danger to recently established political hegemony the freshly minted Democrat regime is wasting little time in executing a plan to eliminate the threat, perhaps forever. The brand new Office of The President Elect announced yesterday that former FCC commissioner and Fairness Doctrine devotee Henry Rivera will head up a committee to select the new FCC Chairman who will, in his turn likely support reinstating the doctrine. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who only days ago referred to conservative talk shows as "pornography" and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will head up what must become a particularly autocratic congressional campaign that will attempt to memorialize the FCC regulation in permanent federal law.
The silencing of opposition speech whether from the right, left or center is for a democracy, nothing less than a death wish. From the very beginning of our nation such actions have been opposed by patriots of all stripes and at one time or another by all political factions. It matters not in this controversy, whose ox is getting gored. Liberty itself is in the dock. Now is the time for all good men from every walk of life and the four corners of the political compass to unite behind the banner of freedom, rise up as one and slay this awful dragon that seeks, in the interest of the most base partisanship, to destroy the foundations of our very existence as a free and self-determining people.
God Bless The Commonwealth
"The sun shines bright in my old Kentucky home" never sounded so good as it did yesterday. As the nation marched hands-over-eyes into the darkness of marxism Kentucky became a shining beacon of hope. A true land of the free and brave. My Kentucky brothers and sisters not only returned stalwart Senator Mitch McConnell to Washington to bear the torch of freedom and stand against repression but also rejected overwhelmingly the The Prairie Socialist and his call to serfdom.
The nation is lost. With every catastrophe though comes an opportunity. This election proves a great majority of Kentuckians still cherish independence, the rights of property and individual responsibility. Let this great majority unite now behind a new banner, a banner of growth and abundance. Let this great majority demand of our legislature the repeal of the state tax on incomes, on Kentucky businesses, and the union shop. Let us announce to the world that as those who embrace socialism stagnate and decline we in Kentucky will create a rennaissance of prosperity. Put the call out to industry that King Coal furnishes Kentucky the lowest electricity costs in America and that inside our borders we will tolerate no caps, trades or carbon taxes that reduce this advantage or oppress our citizens. We have shown that we will not follow like lemmings over the cliff of collectivism. Let us now invite all those in North America who long to be free to come and join us as we reclaim the Spirit of 1776.
The nation is lost. With every catastrophe though comes an opportunity. This election proves a great majority of Kentuckians still cherish independence, the rights of property and individual responsibility. Let this great majority unite now behind a new banner, a banner of growth and abundance. Let this great majority demand of our legislature the repeal of the state tax on incomes, on Kentucky businesses, and the union shop. Let us announce to the world that as those who embrace socialism stagnate and decline we in Kentucky will create a rennaissance of prosperity. Put the call out to industry that King Coal furnishes Kentucky the lowest electricity costs in America and that inside our borders we will tolerate no caps, trades or carbon taxes that reduce this advantage or oppress our citizens. We have shown that we will not follow like lemmings over the cliff of collectivism. Let us now invite all those in North America who long to be free to come and join us as we reclaim the Spirit of 1776.
The Republic Is Lost
As the landslide begins to take shape, one thing is painfully clear. America is no longer America. What has happened tonight is not something that has happened. It is a choice made, the willful act of the American people. Let us not be terrified at an Obama presidency. Let us be terrified at what we have become. I can no longer look at my countrymen in the same light knowing that over half of them have chosen serfdom. America has abandoned principle for pottage and taken a flight from reason unimaginable only a few years ago. I am embarrassed to be numbered among them and fearful of other travesties to which they might subscribe. It was once said a divine Providence watched benevolently over drunkards, fools and the United States. Tonight Providence turns away. The Republic is lost.
Time of the Season Final: My Vote
I often answer: “Why bother” when asked for whom I plan to vote. When George W. Bush and the Republican Congress failed to honor the trust they were given I renounced the pathetic poseurs and vowed to support them no more. With Republicans holding both houses of Congress and the Presidency, those of us who participated in the Reagan Revolution watched helplessly as our hopes for fair tax, a roster of strong new judges and a muscular foreign policy morphed into pork barrels, gangs of 14 and nation building. Why waste time and effort voting electing GOP candidates who upon taking office become republocrats. Voting Democrat of course is expressing a death wish.
By the response of my interlocutor, you might have thought I had just announced my intent to fly the Second Flag of The Confederacy! “Why, you mustn’t give up your right to vote!” they wail, “It’s your duty to vote.” “Thousands of good Americans have given their lives so you can vote” “You can’t dishonor their sacrifice.” And of course: “Well if you don’t vote, don’t complain about what happens.”
By definition my right to vote is exclusively mine and confers an equal right not to vote. Thus in not voting I am exercising my voting right. Further, a right as any literate citizen understands is never a duty. The watchful hens of The League of Women Voters, I offer dreamed up voting as duty believing that more voters begets better government. Anyone vaguely familiar with the quality of the American electorate knows what a misguided notion that is. I shudder at every third person I encounter wearing one of those I Voted stickers!
Not thousands, no not even one person died for my right to vote for John McCain, Barack Obama, Bob Barr or Ralph Nader. If asked to do so I suspect one would punch you in the nose. For every courageous American soldier, seaman or marine who died to protect his voting right, ten-thousand or more did so for their buddies, families, girlfriends or just for pride of duty. A great majority I imagine, if told they were enduring the filth, privation and danger of war in faraway places for my right to choose between Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee, would have dropped their rifles and walked on in.
Sometime in the last century, American civics teachers began mistakenly to equate democracy with freedom. Politicians of all stripes quickly took up the call as a way of convincing people they are free even while enslaving them. The Bill of Rights was a response to the fears of our Founders that the majority of self-serving dolts would impose its oppressive will on the poor lot in the minority. I do not trust the mob. Give me a monarch and nobles who leave managing my life and property to me over an elected congregation of knaves and blackguards intent on taking my property and becoming my keeper.
The prospect of President Barack Obama leading a leftist, Democrat congress though is just too frightening to ignore. I will thus please the hooray for democracy crowd tomorrow by going to the polls and voting - not for John McCain but against Obama and the Democrats.
By the response of my interlocutor, you might have thought I had just announced my intent to fly the Second Flag of The Confederacy! “Why, you mustn’t give up your right to vote!” they wail, “It’s your duty to vote.” “Thousands of good Americans have given their lives so you can vote” “You can’t dishonor their sacrifice.” And of course: “Well if you don’t vote, don’t complain about what happens.”
By definition my right to vote is exclusively mine and confers an equal right not to vote. Thus in not voting I am exercising my voting right. Further, a right as any literate citizen understands is never a duty. The watchful hens of The League of Women Voters, I offer dreamed up voting as duty believing that more voters begets better government. Anyone vaguely familiar with the quality of the American electorate knows what a misguided notion that is. I shudder at every third person I encounter wearing one of those I Voted stickers!
Not thousands, no not even one person died for my right to vote for John McCain, Barack Obama, Bob Barr or Ralph Nader. If asked to do so I suspect one would punch you in the nose. For every courageous American soldier, seaman or marine who died to protect his voting right, ten-thousand or more did so for their buddies, families, girlfriends or just for pride of duty. A great majority I imagine, if told they were enduring the filth, privation and danger of war in faraway places for my right to choose between Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee, would have dropped their rifles and walked on in.
Sometime in the last century, American civics teachers began mistakenly to equate democracy with freedom. Politicians of all stripes quickly took up the call as a way of convincing people they are free even while enslaving them. The Bill of Rights was a response to the fears of our Founders that the majority of self-serving dolts would impose its oppressive will on the poor lot in the minority. I do not trust the mob. Give me a monarch and nobles who leave managing my life and property to me over an elected congregation of knaves and blackguards intent on taking my property and becoming my keeper.
The prospect of President Barack Obama leading a leftist, Democrat congress though is just too frightening to ignore. I will thus please the hooray for democracy crowd tomorrow by going to the polls and voting - not for John McCain but against Obama and the Democrats.
Why Not?
Uncle Henry Paulson sold Congress a bill of goods that he must have $700 billion to buy troubled mortgages. He trotted out The Little Moron of Pennsylvania Avenue [LMPA] to tell the country if Uncle Henry didn't get the dough our world would come to and end in less than a week. Congress ponied up. After LMPA dutifully signed the bill Uncle Henry changed his mind and decided instead to buy stock in banks. This accomplished nothing at all for anyone except the shareholders of these failing institutions many of whom are likely on a first name basis with Uncle Hank.Then along came the big insurance companies with hands upturned. Having given busted and fraud-filled AIG more than $100 billion Paulson felt obliged to help these Westchesterites as well.
Meanwhile the banks still won't make loans, thousands of families are foreclosed on, and countless small businesses from home builders to small manufacturers go under. Now come GM and Chrysler asking dear Uncle for $10 billion so they can continue to operate in the red. Ford can't be far behind. To add insult to our injury, Ole Uncle Henry gives his insolvent, mismanaged banks the OK to use your money and mine to make dividend payments to well-off shareholders.
Barack Obama is a Marxist. He intends to take money from hardworking middle Americans and redistribute it to those who, for whatever reason, have less. I am not sure I can argue this is more troubling than than taking money from hardworking middle Americans and redistributing it to the friends of Uncle Henry.
Meanwhile the banks still won't make loans, thousands of families are foreclosed on, and countless small businesses from home builders to small manufacturers go under. Now come GM and Chrysler asking dear Uncle for $10 billion so they can continue to operate in the red. Ford can't be far behind. To add insult to our injury, Ole Uncle Henry gives his insolvent, mismanaged banks the OK to use your money and mine to make dividend payments to well-off shareholders.
Barack Obama is a Marxist. He intends to take money from hardworking middle Americans and redistribute it to those who, for whatever reason, have less. I am not sure I can argue this is more troubling than than taking money from hardworking middle Americans and redistributing it to the friends of Uncle Henry.
To Live Contra Mundum
I have learned that to live contra mundum is hard. In fact, it is no way to live at all.
The Founders of our nation lived contra mundum. They believed the comparatively gentle tyranny of George III so egregious they preferred the possibility of dying. I am glad they did. Nevertheless, I wonder how many Revolutionary widows and orphans found the liberty won worth the cost. There are costs and losses more hateful than one's death. In the middle of the 19th century, my ancestors held their right to political autonomy so dear they seceded from the United States. Living contra mundum in this way cost the states of The Confederacy a quarter million dead and the utter devastation of their country.
In my formative years, I lived contra mundum for the thrill and convenience of it. It was fun and required little effort. It came as naturally to me as breathing. My lifestyle likely stole years from my parents and if not it condemned them to months and months of late nights spent in fear and heartache. It crippled my left leg and left me an emotional adolescent even unto this day. I squandered a bright mind on easy course work, doing it my way, thus preempting my future wife and children the secure and stable life they so rightly and richly deserved.
Soon after entering the business world, I developed a reputation for fearlessness. My penchant for ignoring conventional wisdom was proving beneficial. Attacking projects others thought impossibly difficult returned me several fortunes that I wasted with bravado. I began to fancy myself a paladin of lost or difficult causes, invincible. Success redoubled this hubris and I got more daring still, virtually demanding the world mount a charge and take me down. It didn't have to. It just stood still and fired while I, like Picketts Brigade threw myself against it.
When a young bounty hunter drew down on The Outlaw Josey Wales in the film of the same name, Wales replied, "Dyin’s a hard way to make a livin boy". The boy died. To live contra mundum is to court a similar fate. Bounty hunters and outlaws lead solitary lives. Solitary men may live contra mundum with a certain nobility. Not so normal men for when the carnage of recklessness is shed on innocent wives, children, parents and friends there is no honor only the shameful indulgence of lazy and rebellious character.
To live contra mundum is hard. To live in the wake of one living contra mundum is piteously hard. In fact, it is no way to live at all.
The Founders of our nation lived contra mundum. They believed the comparatively gentle tyranny of George III so egregious they preferred the possibility of dying. I am glad they did. Nevertheless, I wonder how many Revolutionary widows and orphans found the liberty won worth the cost. There are costs and losses more hateful than one's death. In the middle of the 19th century, my ancestors held their right to political autonomy so dear they seceded from the United States. Living contra mundum in this way cost the states of The Confederacy a quarter million dead and the utter devastation of their country.
In my formative years, I lived contra mundum for the thrill and convenience of it. It was fun and required little effort. It came as naturally to me as breathing. My lifestyle likely stole years from my parents and if not it condemned them to months and months of late nights spent in fear and heartache. It crippled my left leg and left me an emotional adolescent even unto this day. I squandered a bright mind on easy course work, doing it my way, thus preempting my future wife and children the secure and stable life they so rightly and richly deserved.
Soon after entering the business world, I developed a reputation for fearlessness. My penchant for ignoring conventional wisdom was proving beneficial. Attacking projects others thought impossibly difficult returned me several fortunes that I wasted with bravado. I began to fancy myself a paladin of lost or difficult causes, invincible. Success redoubled this hubris and I got more daring still, virtually demanding the world mount a charge and take me down. It didn't have to. It just stood still and fired while I, like Picketts Brigade threw myself against it.
When a young bounty hunter drew down on The Outlaw Josey Wales in the film of the same name, Wales replied, "Dyin’s a hard way to make a livin boy". The boy died. To live contra mundum is to court a similar fate. Bounty hunters and outlaws lead solitary lives. Solitary men may live contra mundum with a certain nobility. Not so normal men for when the carnage of recklessness is shed on innocent wives, children, parents and friends there is no honor only the shameful indulgence of lazy and rebellious character.
To live contra mundum is hard. To live in the wake of one living contra mundum is piteously hard. In fact, it is no way to live at all.
America The Dim
Barack Obama is on the cusp of being elected the first black President of the United States. If he does ride to victory on November 4 it will be on the backs of the willfully ignorant, the biologically silly and the poor. According to Zogby International the post-racial candidate is capturing 70% of voters earning less than $35,000 and has a 14 point lead among independents and women.
Independents, those flinty individualists who vote the “man” rather than the party are the most puzzling of this triumvirate. Disadvantaged neither by nature or man these fiercely stupid voters believe there to be a difference between their man and his party. Since John McCain is the very embodiment of the maverick and Barack the ultimate “party man”, it stretches credulity that a majority of these dopes could support the Prairie Marxist. But such is the nature of the Independent who is too timid to choose sides and too proud to admit it.
At this point I need apologize to the very real set of reasonable women in America which includes both my two daughters and my bride. That said the silliness of the distaff franchise is well evidenced in the last four presidential elections. In 1992 and 1996 women voted overwhelmingly for the misogynist, Bill Clinton, in 2000 for Al Gore, in 2004 for John Kerry and presently for Barack Obama. There is not even one thread of reason connecting this crowd of whore-mongers, cretins and dissemblers which might explain why a group of reasonable people [save the poor] would choose one of them much less each of them. Thus it must be that female American voters as a group are not reasonable people. This however is not of them-selves but by a cruel trick of nature. They are to be excused.
Though as a rule uneducated and dense the poor are here the most rational of voters. They have a real, genuinely American reason to elect Obama. He promises to give them money. Not credits, debits, deductions, offsets or swaps but real money, checks drawn on the Treasury of The United States. These yeomen have retained that spark of American greatness which will permit at least some small hope in the long dark night to come. The lunch-bucketeers understand clearly it is better that Uncle Sam take from others and give to them than vice-versa.
There is a truth here, not a great truth, but a truth nonetheless. By hook or by crook, one may still obtain the American dream, provided one is neither “tetched” by nature nor educated beyond intelligence. If college tuitions can be kept sufficiently high, the nation may yet have a chance.
Independents, those flinty individualists who vote the “man” rather than the party are the most puzzling of this triumvirate. Disadvantaged neither by nature or man these fiercely stupid voters believe there to be a difference between their man and his party. Since John McCain is the very embodiment of the maverick and Barack the ultimate “party man”, it stretches credulity that a majority of these dopes could support the Prairie Marxist. But such is the nature of the Independent who is too timid to choose sides and too proud to admit it.
At this point I need apologize to the very real set of reasonable women in America which includes both my two daughters and my bride. That said the silliness of the distaff franchise is well evidenced in the last four presidential elections. In 1992 and 1996 women voted overwhelmingly for the misogynist, Bill Clinton, in 2000 for Al Gore, in 2004 for John Kerry and presently for Barack Obama. There is not even one thread of reason connecting this crowd of whore-mongers, cretins and dissemblers which might explain why a group of reasonable people [save the poor] would choose one of them much less each of them. Thus it must be that female American voters as a group are not reasonable people. This however is not of them-selves but by a cruel trick of nature. They are to be excused.
Though as a rule uneducated and dense the poor are here the most rational of voters. They have a real, genuinely American reason to elect Obama. He promises to give them money. Not credits, debits, deductions, offsets or swaps but real money, checks drawn on the Treasury of The United States. These yeomen have retained that spark of American greatness which will permit at least some small hope in the long dark night to come. The lunch-bucketeers understand clearly it is better that Uncle Sam take from others and give to them than vice-versa.
There is a truth here, not a great truth, but a truth nonetheless. By hook or by crook, one may still obtain the American dream, provided one is neither “tetched” by nature nor educated beyond intelligence. If college tuitions can be kept sufficiently high, the nation may yet have a chance.
Don't Blame McCain
I have been following presidential election campaigns for nearly 50 years and have seen some bad candidates. Michael Dukakis was a doofus, McGovern hopeless and Bob Dole bumbling. But none at anytime approach the ineptitude of the stumble-bum John McCain.
McCain is about to lose to a fuzzy-faced, neophyte with an Islamic name, who lacks only the card being a card carrying communist. McCain is losing to a man whose political career began in the living room of a murderous ‘60’s terrorist and who as a member of Trinity Christian Church sat through 20 years of the rantings of a Marxist, racist, anti-Semitic, hate filled and hateful preacher. Have I mentioned he’s black? My dog could beat Barack Obama and she has only 3 feet and is dead!!
The first ham-fisted move McCain made was to anger his base in the Republican Party by announcing he would sign the Kyoto agreements on global climate change. Then he abandoned his very nature to fight a gentler, kinder campaign against one who learned the trade in Chicago’s Democratic machine. Fearing being labeled a racist, McCain refuses to even mention Rev. Jeremiah Wright much less make him a ubiquitous figure in prime time. He has only just now begun to attack Obama as a proto socialist. And while on the economic front only Borat could have bungled the Great Big Bank Bailout worse than the GOP standard bearer. Having seized the high ground by suspending his campaign “until a bill is passed” McCain instead weasel walked right out of Washington job unfinished to participate in the most mundane debate in history. While McCain was in Washington on the on The GBBB, Obama was in Hawaii being filmed body surfing. The Nero fiddled while Rome burned analogy is criminally obvious – but have you seen the Black Kahuna in a McCain attack ad? Not a chance.
I could go on forever but space and time prohibit. Suffice it to say that if America is to avoid a powder less Marxist revolution it won’t be John McCain’s fault.
McCain is about to lose to a fuzzy-faced, neophyte with an Islamic name, who lacks only the card being a card carrying communist. McCain is losing to a man whose political career began in the living room of a murderous ‘60’s terrorist and who as a member of Trinity Christian Church sat through 20 years of the rantings of a Marxist, racist, anti-Semitic, hate filled and hateful preacher. Have I mentioned he’s black? My dog could beat Barack Obama and she has only 3 feet and is dead!!
The first ham-fisted move McCain made was to anger his base in the Republican Party by announcing he would sign the Kyoto agreements on global climate change. Then he abandoned his very nature to fight a gentler, kinder campaign against one who learned the trade in Chicago’s Democratic machine. Fearing being labeled a racist, McCain refuses to even mention Rev. Jeremiah Wright much less make him a ubiquitous figure in prime time. He has only just now begun to attack Obama as a proto socialist. And while on the economic front only Borat could have bungled the Great Big Bank Bailout worse than the GOP standard bearer. Having seized the high ground by suspending his campaign “until a bill is passed” McCain instead weasel walked right out of Washington job unfinished to participate in the most mundane debate in history. While McCain was in Washington on the on The GBBB, Obama was in Hawaii being filmed body surfing. The Nero fiddled while Rome burned analogy is criminally obvious – but have you seen the Black Kahuna in a McCain attack ad? Not a chance.
I could go on forever but space and time prohibit. Suffice it to say that if America is to avoid a powder less Marxist revolution it won’t be John McCain’s fault.
Time of The Season 16
Not to be out done by The Little Moron of Pennsylvania Avenue in distributing taxpayer dough, John Mcain proposes the government buy - at face value - all delinquent mortgages and reduce the balances and interest rates for the homeowners. By bailing out both banks and home owners The Little Corporal has double trumped both Congress and the President.
Attention Homeowners: Immediately suspend your mortgage payments. Not paying may earn you big bucks!
Damn the speculators. According to Barack Obama it's greedy speculators who have screwed up the housing industry. First oil now housing, I hope they stay away from rhubarb futures.
Obama will eliminate income taxes for millions and cut them for millions more. He will also fix Social Security, pay every American's doctor and drugstore bills and give poor people the world over a living stipend. Now I know why made that trip to Europe last spring. He needs the tax base.
Attention Homeowners: Immediately suspend your mortgage payments. Not paying may earn you big bucks!
Damn the speculators. According to Barack Obama it's greedy speculators who have screwed up the housing industry. First oil now housing, I hope they stay away from rhubarb futures.
Obama will eliminate income taxes for millions and cut them for millions more. He will also fix Social Security, pay every American's doctor and drugstore bills and give poor people the world over a living stipend. Now I know why made that trip to Europe last spring. He needs the tax base.
A Very Sad Story
When I sat down to compose this article I was angry. Having heard David Gergen declare incipient racism the only possible thing that could elect John McCain and then James Carville all but threaten widespread race riots should Barack Obama lose, I wanted to call on white voters to behave exactly as expected by these cynics and vote en block against Obama. Not because Obama is black but in answer to this sort of extortion and intimidation by the left. But as I began to write, a different story emerged, a very sad story.
Americans are a generous loving people willing to go to great lengths to live in harmony with one another. We despise lies and injustice. We extol fair play. Our ancient Christian heritage, notwithstanding the blubbering of the neo-atheist, has led us for the most part to love our neighbors and to seek his well being. It is also the foundation of white guilt. Americans are ashamed of racism and we hate it. Real racism, the mean spirited kind that seeks to hurt and the cynical, self serving kind that seeks to use race as a means to quite different ends. This is the kind of racism that is becoming an important part of this election campaign.
Because Americans hate racism and want an end to identity politics, we are anxious to elect a black president. We want to take this ultimate step in proving ourselves to be the greatest people the earth has ever known. We are tired of the constant sound of discontent running in the background of virtually every issue. We are tired of being barred from honestly discussing our feelings and attitudes - a condition perfecting race as the impossible problem. We want this to go away so bad we are willing to suspend intelligence and risk catastrophe to make it so. Enter Barack Obama.
The more I see of him the more I like Barack Obama. I despise everything he stands for politically but I like him. I am convinced that he is a gentle and sincere family man and that he actually believes the policies of Marx and Lenin will – despite 100 years of proof to the contrary – create a better society. I believe he wants badly to be the first President of The United States of African descent. And why shouldn't he? I also feel very sad for him.
Barack Obama has never lived outside the shadow of Marxist teachers, mentors and handlers. Hard left Democrats having lost the last two elections to a lightweight son of privilege have seen in Obama a way to tap the longing within white America for a St. George to slay the dragon of racial politics. Presented as such Obama it is believed, can lead Democrats not just into The Oval Office but to unassailable majorities in Congress. Past associations having gainsaid his being “post-racial” the success of this plan hinges now on portraying the candidate as black but not very black; authentic but not threatening.
Obama is not in any way racially threatening. Articulate, handsome, likable and cool under fire he might be called the Jackie Robinson of presidential politics. If that were the end of the story, Obama breaking the presidential color barrier just for the rightness of the cause there should be no sadness, for his foes, win or lose. But that is not the case. The Maoist left, dominated by white elites seeks to use Obama not to advance the cause of race relations or even of African Americans but to achieve its own ends in power. In this purpose the left makes of Barack Hussein Obama, not a Jackie Robinson but its own Uncle Tom and that is very, very sad.
Americans are a generous loving people willing to go to great lengths to live in harmony with one another. We despise lies and injustice. We extol fair play. Our ancient Christian heritage, notwithstanding the blubbering of the neo-atheist, has led us for the most part to love our neighbors and to seek his well being. It is also the foundation of white guilt. Americans are ashamed of racism and we hate it. Real racism, the mean spirited kind that seeks to hurt and the cynical, self serving kind that seeks to use race as a means to quite different ends. This is the kind of racism that is becoming an important part of this election campaign.
Because Americans hate racism and want an end to identity politics, we are anxious to elect a black president. We want to take this ultimate step in proving ourselves to be the greatest people the earth has ever known. We are tired of the constant sound of discontent running in the background of virtually every issue. We are tired of being barred from honestly discussing our feelings and attitudes - a condition perfecting race as the impossible problem. We want this to go away so bad we are willing to suspend intelligence and risk catastrophe to make it so. Enter Barack Obama.
The more I see of him the more I like Barack Obama. I despise everything he stands for politically but I like him. I am convinced that he is a gentle and sincere family man and that he actually believes the policies of Marx and Lenin will – despite 100 years of proof to the contrary – create a better society. I believe he wants badly to be the first President of The United States of African descent. And why shouldn't he? I also feel very sad for him.
Barack Obama has never lived outside the shadow of Marxist teachers, mentors and handlers. Hard left Democrats having lost the last two elections to a lightweight son of privilege have seen in Obama a way to tap the longing within white America for a St. George to slay the dragon of racial politics. Presented as such Obama it is believed, can lead Democrats not just into The Oval Office but to unassailable majorities in Congress. Past associations having gainsaid his being “post-racial” the success of this plan hinges now on portraying the candidate as black but not very black; authentic but not threatening.
Obama is not in any way racially threatening. Articulate, handsome, likable and cool under fire he might be called the Jackie Robinson of presidential politics. If that were the end of the story, Obama breaking the presidential color barrier just for the rightness of the cause there should be no sadness, for his foes, win or lose. But that is not the case. The Maoist left, dominated by white elites seeks to use Obama not to advance the cause of race relations or even of African Americans but to achieve its own ends in power. In this purpose the left makes of Barack Hussein Obama, not a Jackie Robinson but its own Uncle Tom and that is very, very sad.
In The Long Run IV [Don't Try This at Home]
"In the long run I believe this economy will be all right"
--President George W. Bush, October 6, 2008
Taxpayers to IRS, April 15, 2009
"In the long run I believe the economy will be all right and I will be able to pay. Call me then"
BG, Texas
"My entire compensation package this past year has gone to make the mortgage payments on my home. I am terribly sorry and I take full responsibility."
JM, Ohio
"Go ahead and have Hank Paulson sign over my bailout check to you guys. Save the postage"
GFF, California
"I am too big to fail. Please send me $700 billion"
BI, Kentucky
"The money is gone. I don't believe assigning blame will solve anything"
JR, NC
"I had laid aside the entire amount of my 2009 tax bill plus a $100,000 patriotic bump in a lock box at The Left Bank of The Mississippi. Unfortunately late last night a Mr. Kashkari transferred all of it to some guy named Paulson in Washington"
BDB, TN
"Barney Frank called me just today and advised that since I made my annual contribution to the Barney Frank Re-Election Fund I would be exempt this year."
CB, Boston
IRS to Taxpayers: April 16, 2009
Dear Deadbeats,
How on earth do you expect us to keep our big financial institutions afloat, pay everyones doctor bills and furnish your neighbors a $500,000 home for monthly payments of $99.99 unless you live up to your patriotic duty and pay these taxes? Unfortunately for you we have neither the time nor inclination to wait on you nor are we interested in your excuses, whining and simpering. There is no long run for you. Unless you cough up the cheese inside of the next 30 minutes the entire enterprise will implode leaving us no choice but to foreclose on all your assets not currently held by our house banks and suck the money from your 401's and IRA accounts that we aquired along with our new insurance subsidiaries. I urge you with all the gravity I can manage to call immediately and make arrangements to pay up. We will accept virtually any valuable article in lieu of cash although we are currently somewhat overstocked in size 38 shorts. Jack-booted agents are standing by.
Sincerely,
Neel Kashkari
Senior Accounts VP
Goldmann-Sachs-JP Morgan-United States of America and Company. INC
New York and Washington
PS: Dear CB,
Please accept our sincerest apologies. Your account is paid in full.
JK
--President George W. Bush, October 6, 2008
Taxpayers to IRS, April 15, 2009
"In the long run I believe the economy will be all right and I will be able to pay. Call me then"
BG, Texas
"My entire compensation package this past year has gone to make the mortgage payments on my home. I am terribly sorry and I take full responsibility."
JM, Ohio
"Go ahead and have Hank Paulson sign over my bailout check to you guys. Save the postage"
GFF, California
"I am too big to fail. Please send me $700 billion"
BI, Kentucky
"The money is gone. I don't believe assigning blame will solve anything"
JR, NC
"I had laid aside the entire amount of my 2009 tax bill plus a $100,000 patriotic bump in a lock box at The Left Bank of The Mississippi. Unfortunately late last night a Mr. Kashkari transferred all of it to some guy named Paulson in Washington"
BDB, TN
"Barney Frank called me just today and advised that since I made my annual contribution to the Barney Frank Re-Election Fund I would be exempt this year."
CB, Boston
IRS to Taxpayers: April 16, 2009
Dear Deadbeats,
How on earth do you expect us to keep our big financial institutions afloat, pay everyones doctor bills and furnish your neighbors a $500,000 home for monthly payments of $99.99 unless you live up to your patriotic duty and pay these taxes? Unfortunately for you we have neither the time nor inclination to wait on you nor are we interested in your excuses, whining and simpering. There is no long run for you. Unless you cough up the cheese inside of the next 30 minutes the entire enterprise will implode leaving us no choice but to foreclose on all your assets not currently held by our house banks and suck the money from your 401's and IRA accounts that we aquired along with our new insurance subsidiaries. I urge you with all the gravity I can manage to call immediately and make arrangements to pay up. We will accept virtually any valuable article in lieu of cash although we are currently somewhat overstocked in size 38 shorts. Jack-booted agents are standing by.
Sincerely,
Neel Kashkari
Senior Accounts VP
Goldmann-Sachs-JP Morgan-United States of America and Company. INC
New York and Washington
PS: Dear CB,
Please accept our sincerest apologies. Your account is paid in full.
JK
In The Long Run III
Wall Street Santa Hank Paulson's new elf is named Kashkari. I swear you can't make this stuff up!
In the seven years it took Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld to run the venerable investment house aground he was paid $350 million. Does Dick think perhaps he was overpaid? Nah, Lehman's compensation committee, according to Fuld, spent " a tremendous amount of time" insuring his pay rate struck a fine balance between his needs and those of the shareholders. Let's see Dick $350m; shareholders and creditors $0. Yeah that's about right. Before a house sub-committee Fuld was remorseful accepting full responsibility for the firm's failure. He didn't offer to return the money. I guess being sorry is enough responsibility for any CEO to bear. I'm sure in the long run Dick will be all right.
In the seven years it took Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld to run the venerable investment house aground he was paid $350 million. Does Dick think perhaps he was overpaid? Nah, Lehman's compensation committee, according to Fuld, spent " a tremendous amount of time" insuring his pay rate struck a fine balance between his needs and those of the shareholders. Let's see Dick $350m; shareholders and creditors $0. Yeah that's about right. Before a house sub-committee Fuld was remorseful accepting full responsibility for the firm's failure. He didn't offer to return the money. I guess being sorry is enough responsibility for any CEO to bear. I'm sure in the long run Dick will be all right.
The Long Run II
"In the long run this economy will be all right" - GWB.
In the long run the cows will come home, the crocuses will bloom, the swelling will go down and you'll forget the one that broke your heart. In the long run maybe we'll even forget that The Little Moron made Barack Hussein Obama President but I hope not.
In the long run the cows will come home, the crocuses will bloom, the swelling will go down and you'll forget the one that broke your heart. In the long run maybe we'll even forget that The Little Moron made Barack Hussein Obama President but I hope not.
The Long Run I
"In the long run I believe this economy will be all right" - George W. Bush, Oct 6, 2008.
In the mean time Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson has put one of his pals from Goldmann-Sachs to work helping hand out the government cheese on Wall Street. I suspect "the long run" will be be over alot sooner for these malignant creeps than the rest of us. Call me a cynic. Call us all screwed.
In the mean time Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson has put one of his pals from Goldmann-Sachs to work helping hand out the government cheese on Wall Street. I suspect "the long run" will be be over alot sooner for these malignant creeps than the rest of us. Call me a cynic. Call us all screwed.
Render unto Caesar
Christian churches should consider very carefully any challenge to IRS rules prohibiting a political pulpit. The law clearly states that congregations that actively and openly promote particular candidates or parties are subject to forfeit tax exempt status. Each election cycle a few more raise objections to these rules citing infringement on free speech and expression of religion. They are tragically wrong.
For a handful of silver The Church has permitted The City of Man to proscribe speech inside the City of God.
Time of The Season no. 16
Within five years someone will write a bestselling book entitled: How The Bush Family Destroyed The Republican Party.
Time of The Season no. 15
"The nation is in a terrible mess and it's your fault" "The nation is not in a terrible mess and it's your fault"
If I were the debate moderator. "Governor Palin you have asserted that Senator Biden voted yes. Senator Biden you have asserted you did not vote yes. One of you is a liar and we are not going forward until we determine which of you it is"
The "greatest financial crisis " in American history has required $700 billion to cover the losses of the big banks and stock crooks and another $150 billion to bribe enough congressional crooks to save the nation.
Is it just me or is Barack Obama's baby choir very very spooky?
At about this time each four years it becomes painfully obvious that Republicans are too stupid to govern properly and Democrats to dishonest.
If I were the debate moderator. "Governor Palin you have asserted that Senator Biden voted yes. Senator Biden you have asserted you did not vote yes. One of you is a liar and we are not going forward until we determine which of you it is"
The "greatest financial crisis " in American history has required $700 billion to cover the losses of the big banks and stock crooks and another $150 billion to bribe enough congressional crooks to save the nation.
Is it just me or is Barack Obama's baby choir very very spooky?
At about this time each four years it becomes painfully obvious that Republicans are too stupid to govern properly and Democrats to dishonest.
2008 Ryder Cup: Abominable
Golf has always been a gentleman’s game, embodying the best in manners and fair play. Not so anymore. The 2008 Ryder Cup, the 37th renewal of what began as a friendly sporting competition among professional golfers from Great Britain and America, seems now less golf than field hockey.
On a golf course set up more for amateurs than the world’s best players [the better to begat crowd pleasing birdies] with flag waving, face painted crowds and fist pumping, caterwauling players, this year’s event has surrendered all pretense to sportsmanship. It's one thing to pull for your team and teammates, quite another to incite the home crowd while your opponent has golf yet to play. American captain Paul Azinger established a Ryder Cup bottom when he urged the partisan, Kentucky, crowd to cheer when the Euros miss a shot or putt. Citing such behavior by European fans he recommends boorishness as the answer to boorishness 'Zinger’s attitude is more appropriate in the poolroom or bowling alley than on the golf course.
There has been a huge push in America to democratize golf. This has manifested itself in media glorification of public courses, drunken, rowdy fans and poorly behaved players. Unfortunately the effort to bring golf to the common man has brought instead the common man to golf. Can "full contact" golf be far behind? Stay tuned.
On a golf course set up more for amateurs than the world’s best players [the better to begat crowd pleasing birdies] with flag waving, face painted crowds and fist pumping, caterwauling players, this year’s event has surrendered all pretense to sportsmanship. It's one thing to pull for your team and teammates, quite another to incite the home crowd while your opponent has golf yet to play. American captain Paul Azinger established a Ryder Cup bottom when he urged the partisan, Kentucky, crowd to cheer when the Euros miss a shot or putt. Citing such behavior by European fans he recommends boorishness as the answer to boorishness 'Zinger’s attitude is more appropriate in the poolroom or bowling alley than on the golf course.
There has been a huge push in America to democratize golf. This has manifested itself in media glorification of public courses, drunken, rowdy fans and poorly behaved players. Unfortunately the effort to bring golf to the common man has brought instead the common man to golf. Can "full contact" golf be far behind? Stay tuned.
History Making?
Pundits of both right and left characterize the presidential election of 2008 as history making. Only if Barack Obama wins the presidency and carries with him a filibuster proof majority in the Senate will Obama v McCain be truly historic - and then only that it will speed up political processes already underway.
America began a descent into socialism in 1912 when Teddy Roosevelt rent the GOP by forming the Bull Moose Party which permitted the election of progressive Woodrow Wilson. The 16th Amendment a soak-the-rich measure adopted in 1913 allowing a tax on incomes, released a constantly increasing source of funds for an ever-expanding federal government. The Great Depression and WWII accelerated this trend, Franklin Roosevelt and The New Deal ushering in the modern welfare state. The post war period saw a rapid increase in federal subsidies to diverse recipients. Washington's growth continued to spiral through the 1970's as more and more free citizens became wards of the state. The Reagan Revolution offered hope that this inexorable drift into semi-marxism might be reversed. However the Bushes, Elder and Younger, betrayed their legacy, squandering every gain made under Ronaldus Magnus leaving us in the current miasma.
The optimism of talk radio and those who confess a confidence in the American people to reject statism is unfortunately misplaced. The average American is ill educated, totally lacking in understanding of complex political ideas, self-seeking and interested more in barring another's success than in achieving his own. This condition is getting worse rather than better. This sort of electorate is the natural constituency of the socialist. Fed by a leftist popular media willing to openly promote fear and class warfare this storm surge of collectivism is unlikely to be checked absent a taxpayer revolt. Conservatives, here as always and everywhere, are fighting a rear guard action. Our children and grandchildren will likely have to be more aggressive if they are to maintain any freedoms at all.
America began a descent into socialism in 1912 when Teddy Roosevelt rent the GOP by forming the Bull Moose Party which permitted the election of progressive Woodrow Wilson. The 16th Amendment a soak-the-rich measure adopted in 1913 allowing a tax on incomes, released a constantly increasing source of funds for an ever-expanding federal government. The Great Depression and WWII accelerated this trend, Franklin Roosevelt and The New Deal ushering in the modern welfare state. The post war period saw a rapid increase in federal subsidies to diverse recipients. Washington's growth continued to spiral through the 1970's as more and more free citizens became wards of the state. The Reagan Revolution offered hope that this inexorable drift into semi-marxism might be reversed. However the Bushes, Elder and Younger, betrayed their legacy, squandering every gain made under Ronaldus Magnus leaving us in the current miasma.
The optimism of talk radio and those who confess a confidence in the American people to reject statism is unfortunately misplaced. The average American is ill educated, totally lacking in understanding of complex political ideas, self-seeking and interested more in barring another's success than in achieving his own. This condition is getting worse rather than better. This sort of electorate is the natural constituency of the socialist. Fed by a leftist popular media willing to openly promote fear and class warfare this storm surge of collectivism is unlikely to be checked absent a taxpayer revolt. Conservatives, here as always and everywhere, are fighting a rear guard action. Our children and grandchildren will likely have to be more aggressive if they are to maintain any freedoms at all.
Financial Crisis
Only one thing can happen when you give armies of Ivy League MBA's lighntning fast computers and access to other peoples money - a financial crisis. As Lehman Brothers follows Bear Stearns, Freddie and Fannie Mae into the tank it is frightening to know the same crooks and knaves that created the meltdown are charged with undoing it.
Of Liars, Obamadens and Poltroons
A woman successfully keeps a household of 4 or 5 children while advancing from small town mayor to governor. A triumph for women every where! Not among the rats and slithering things that make up the left leaning media and the Democrat Party.
Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska and GOP Vice President nominee is being scurrilously vilified by The New York Times, NBC, MSNBC and other supposedly legitimate news organization, not to mention the sewer slime of moveon.org and The Daily Kos. "Can she handle the job and her new downs-syndrome baby"? "What kind of mother is she"? "what about that DUI her husband got"? [22 years ago]. "Her 17 year old daughter is pregnant out of wedlock" they sneer [although she is engaged to the father]. "Too inexperienced" they snicker on and on and on. There must be something wrong with this woman the rest of us are not privy to.
There is something wrong with her, something awful. She is not a Democrat or member of the abortion caucus. Remember Clarence Thomas? One would have thought his heroic rise from abject nothingness to Supreme Court Justice would have been universally celebrated - especially in the black community. Thomas, however was "lynched" by the Negro-Liberal Combine. Of course Justice Thomas is a Republican. You see the racialists, hacks "journalists"and other cretins of the left cannot bear a successful woman or black or any other member of a "victim class" whom it does not own. To do so would be to admit that one can succeed without mother government's help. Such an outcome of course would diminish the endless whine that life in America is too mean and hard unless the state gives you some advantage it has taken from some other hapless schmoo.
These Marxist poltroons want your car, your home, your money and your life. Oblivious of the historical fact that collectivism's only products are corruption, poverty, fear and torture, they will stop at nothing to make us all comrades. Real people are appalled by the egregious abuse heaped on Justice Thomas and Governor Palin. They question how decent people could behave in this manner. Everyday people just can't grasp that the Andrea Mitchells and Keith Olbermans of this world are not decent people. They are true believers in socialism who think their intentions are morally pure and thus they are exempt from behaving morally. They will spare no principle in the effort to convince a majority of the collective knaves, fools and aforementioned schmoos of this country that the Obamadens alone can and will service each and every want they can imagine, and that the dastardly "rich" will pay for it.
We can expect only more of the same from these malefactors. Look for them to trot out an endless number of women to tell other women that this Palin woman is not really a woman. One can only hope that Gov. Palin is as tough as she is described and that she counter attacks without mercy or compromise. If she does she will like Clarence Thomas, achieve the position for which she is nominated.
Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska and GOP Vice President nominee is being scurrilously vilified by The New York Times, NBC, MSNBC and other supposedly legitimate news organization, not to mention the sewer slime of moveon.org and The Daily Kos. "Can she handle the job and her new downs-syndrome baby"? "What kind of mother is she"? "what about that DUI her husband got"? [22 years ago]. "Her 17 year old daughter is pregnant out of wedlock" they sneer [although she is engaged to the father]. "Too inexperienced" they snicker on and on and on. There must be something wrong with this woman the rest of us are not privy to.
There is something wrong with her, something awful. She is not a Democrat or member of the abortion caucus. Remember Clarence Thomas? One would have thought his heroic rise from abject nothingness to Supreme Court Justice would have been universally celebrated - especially in the black community. Thomas, however was "lynched" by the Negro-Liberal Combine. Of course Justice Thomas is a Republican. You see the racialists, hacks "journalists"and other cretins of the left cannot bear a successful woman or black or any other member of a "victim class" whom it does not own. To do so would be to admit that one can succeed without mother government's help. Such an outcome of course would diminish the endless whine that life in America is too mean and hard unless the state gives you some advantage it has taken from some other hapless schmoo.
These Marxist poltroons want your car, your home, your money and your life. Oblivious of the historical fact that collectivism's only products are corruption, poverty, fear and torture, they will stop at nothing to make us all comrades. Real people are appalled by the egregious abuse heaped on Justice Thomas and Governor Palin. They question how decent people could behave in this manner. Everyday people just can't grasp that the Andrea Mitchells and Keith Olbermans of this world are not decent people. They are true believers in socialism who think their intentions are morally pure and thus they are exempt from behaving morally. They will spare no principle in the effort to convince a majority of the collective knaves, fools and aforementioned schmoos of this country that the Obamadens alone can and will service each and every want they can imagine, and that the dastardly "rich" will pay for it.
We can expect only more of the same from these malefactors. Look for them to trot out an endless number of women to tell other women that this Palin woman is not really a woman. One can only hope that Gov. Palin is as tough as she is described and that she counter attacks without mercy or compromise. If she does she will like Clarence Thomas, achieve the position for which she is nominated.
Does What I Wear To Church Matter to God
Jesus called his disciples to come as they were. He dined with crooks, thugs and prostitutes. An itinerate rabbi who gave most of his homilies outdoors and off the cuff, I doubt seriously He cared what one wore while listening to The Sermon on The Mount. On this basis most 21st Century, evangelical, Christians take the position that what one wears to Sunday Worship is unimportant. Formality is in the norm, considered elitist, old fashioned or silly at best.
A deeper look might prove this majority opinion to be in error. In the book of Exodus, after God gives Moses the Law, He sets forth in elaborate and minute detail, the specifications for The Ark in which the tablets were to be carried and the Tabernacle which was to house The Ark. In Chapter 38-40, The Almighty describes down to width and color, the thread to be used in the priest's garments [only the High Priest was permitted to come into the presence of The Most High]. Clearly, God here cares deeply about the way in which He is worshiped and the manner of clothing worn. When Jesus entered Jerusalem and began to teach in the Temple it would be foolish to think He did not present Himself in his finest robes. To do otherwise would have been an affront to the dignity of the Temple and His Father in Heaven.
America has become a laid-back nation. Casual Friday has become dress-down Tuesday, sloppy Thursday and slovenly Saturday. In our youth conscious, antinomian culture, attention to form and detail in dress is seen as snobbish or eccentric. School teachers resemble their students and druggists and doctors have abandoned the white lab coat. Tradesmen and artisans who once dressed in starched blue or khaki uniforms now come to your home in wife beater tee shirts and cut off jeans. It seems as if only bankers, lawyers and high government officials - and a few Ministers of The Gospel - can be regularly found in tailored clothing. Nowadays we are all one in unpretentious, familiarity.
Again sadly, The Church has let itself be defined by the world. Finding slapdash dress acceptable in the schoolhouse and the workplace, The Church has surrendered its own sanctity by embracing the relaxed style of dressing for worship attendance. “After all”, we say “God doesn’t care what one wears when he comes, only that he come”. Further we don’t want to put off unbelievers or appear “better than”. The reality is we find it easier to throw on a golf shirt and khakis and slap shorts and flip-flops on the kids than bother with neckties, dress socks, shoes, trousers and jackets.
Unfortunately there is an inconvenient truth for our nonchalant worshipers. It does matter what you wear to Sunday services. It matters to the world of unbelievers and most of all it matters to God. Those in the First Century who came to hear Jesus were did not understand they were in the presence of The Son of God. He kept His Deity a carefully guarded secret until late in his ministry. Even The 12 were not advised of His true identity until very near the end. In the world of Second Temple Judaism, this Jesus was the son of man.
Not so today. Christians go to The Lord’s House on The Lord’s Day. These titles are not merely pious sounding names. They are the titles of God, of our Savior. When we enter the church building we step inside the earthly house of The Great I AM. Sunday is not just the day of Jesus the dusty rabbi but of Christ, The King of Kings, The Lamb worthy to receive glory and honor. Casual dress is explicitly familiar. Familiarity does not beget reverence. In what way does coming into His presence dressed as if for a cookout bring honor and glory to The Risen Christ? Is it in the coming alone? If believers don’t respect their Savior and Sovereign enough to enter His courts in dignified apparel why should we expect unbelievers to hold Him other than in contempt? Why should our children accept the authority of a God not worthy of dressing up for?
I am not suggesting that one needs to wear expensive or sophisticated clothing to church in order to properly honor God – only that it be serious and dignified. For those who don’t know what serious and dignified attire is, I offer this question as an example. If your family [including your children] were invited to dine at The White House with The President and First Lady, what would you wear? How would you clothe the children? Is communing with God Almighty, in His House less important?
A deeper look might prove this majority opinion to be in error. In the book of Exodus, after God gives Moses the Law, He sets forth in elaborate and minute detail, the specifications for The Ark in which the tablets were to be carried and the Tabernacle which was to house The Ark. In Chapter 38-40, The Almighty describes down to width and color, the thread to be used in the priest's garments [only the High Priest was permitted to come into the presence of The Most High]. Clearly, God here cares deeply about the way in which He is worshiped and the manner of clothing worn. When Jesus entered Jerusalem and began to teach in the Temple it would be foolish to think He did not present Himself in his finest robes. To do otherwise would have been an affront to the dignity of the Temple and His Father in Heaven.
America has become a laid-back nation. Casual Friday has become dress-down Tuesday, sloppy Thursday and slovenly Saturday. In our youth conscious, antinomian culture, attention to form and detail in dress is seen as snobbish or eccentric. School teachers resemble their students and druggists and doctors have abandoned the white lab coat. Tradesmen and artisans who once dressed in starched blue or khaki uniforms now come to your home in wife beater tee shirts and cut off jeans. It seems as if only bankers, lawyers and high government officials - and a few Ministers of The Gospel - can be regularly found in tailored clothing. Nowadays we are all one in unpretentious, familiarity.
Again sadly, The Church has let itself be defined by the world. Finding slapdash dress acceptable in the schoolhouse and the workplace, The Church has surrendered its own sanctity by embracing the relaxed style of dressing for worship attendance. “After all”, we say “God doesn’t care what one wears when he comes, only that he come”. Further we don’t want to put off unbelievers or appear “better than”. The reality is we find it easier to throw on a golf shirt and khakis and slap shorts and flip-flops on the kids than bother with neckties, dress socks, shoes, trousers and jackets.
Unfortunately there is an inconvenient truth for our nonchalant worshipers. It does matter what you wear to Sunday services. It matters to the world of unbelievers and most of all it matters to God. Those in the First Century who came to hear Jesus were did not understand they were in the presence of The Son of God. He kept His Deity a carefully guarded secret until late in his ministry. Even The 12 were not advised of His true identity until very near the end. In the world of Second Temple Judaism, this Jesus was the son of man.
Not so today. Christians go to The Lord’s House on The Lord’s Day. These titles are not merely pious sounding names. They are the titles of God, of our Savior. When we enter the church building we step inside the earthly house of The Great I AM. Sunday is not just the day of Jesus the dusty rabbi but of Christ, The King of Kings, The Lamb worthy to receive glory and honor. Casual dress is explicitly familiar. Familiarity does not beget reverence. In what way does coming into His presence dressed as if for a cookout bring honor and glory to The Risen Christ? Is it in the coming alone? If believers don’t respect their Savior and Sovereign enough to enter His courts in dignified apparel why should we expect unbelievers to hold Him other than in contempt? Why should our children accept the authority of a God not worthy of dressing up for?
I am not suggesting that one needs to wear expensive or sophisticated clothing to church in order to properly honor God – only that it be serious and dignified. For those who don’t know what serious and dignified attire is, I offer this question as an example. If your family [including your children] were invited to dine at The White House with The President and First Lady, what would you wear? How would you clothe the children? Is communing with God Almighty, in His House less important?
Time of The Season no. 14
The selection of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate is a brilliant political stroke. Palin's nomination completely washed out Obama! Live at The Apollo and reduced the Democratic Convention "bump" to near zero. More on Palin later.
Think About it.
Among men, everywhere and always, right and wrong is determined by who has the biggest gun [or club]. Democracy is merely a bloodless way to establish who gets to hold the heater.
Among Democrats the greatest woman is she who can manage career, children and home. Sarah Palin, however, the Republican VP candidate is being criticized by the Obamadens for dividing her time between campaigning and caring for her recently born child.
Leftist filmaker Michael Moore thought it a good thing that New Orleans might be once more inundated [by Hurricane Gustav] so that the GOP Convention is disrupted.
Among Democrats the greatest woman is she who can manage career, children and home. Sarah Palin, however, the Republican VP candidate is being criticized by the Obamadens for dividing her time between campaigning and caring for her recently born child.
Leftist filmaker Michael Moore thought it a good thing that New Orleans might be once more inundated [by Hurricane Gustav] so that the GOP Convention is disrupted.
Time of The Season no.13
Lest the nation think them fiddling while New Orleans floods [again]. The GOP ponders what to do until Gustav strikes land. A bigger issue may be: Can we afford to spend $200 billion every three years rebuilding a $100 million dollar town.
Time of The Season no. 12
At Denver's Obamaden Temple on Thursday, Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama gave a rousing speech before 80,000 mesmerised sycophants. But was it really Barack or was it MEMOREX?
Just an Observation
NBC has turned its news department over to a sophomoric, jumped up sportscaster with a high opinion of himself and a low opinion of the truth. As a result the venerable network has surrendered virtually all the journalistic respect earned in the days of Huntley, Brinkley and Brokaw. If the suicide attempt that’s Katie Couric doesn’t prove entirely successful at CBS, perhaps they can move Gary [Banned in Augusta] McCord over from golf.
Time of The Season no. 11
Nuanced [traditional] - a statement having subtle shades of meaning, feeling, tone or color.
Nuanced [political] – a statement by a candidate equivocal and ambiguous. Perhaps the result of ignorance by the speaker or an attempt to deceive or obfuscate.
Nuanced [political] – a statement by a candidate equivocal and ambiguous. Perhaps the result of ignorance by the speaker or an attempt to deceive or obfuscate.
Weekly Update August 18, 2008
The sun still shines bright, Generalissimmo Francisco Franco is still dead and Barack Obama is still black.
The Eagle Has Left The Building
Do you often wonder why the United States is openly despised around the world? Why we have so few allies willing to step up when the moment demands? Look no further than Syria, Iran and The Republic of Georgia.
Syria is an admitted and confirmed sponsor of terrorism. It is a hereditary dictatorship that threatens our allies and uses its proxies to actively attack them. It fearlessly furnishes arms to al- Quaeda in Iraq, resulting in the death of American troops. Iran furnishes weapons with which to kill our soldiers and marines and sanctuary to those who use them. The Mullahs openly promises to wipe Israel, our only true friend in the Middle East, off the face of the earth. When confronted with our solemn ultimatum to cease the pursuit of nuclear weapons, they publicly scoff. Ahmadinejad reads the newspapers, he knows who we are and what we are. So does everyone else. What have we done or are we doing in response to these viscous outlaws that adhere neither to international law nor basic human rights. How do we respond to these miscreants when they spit in our face and threaten our friends?
Our government wags its finger and makes hollow threats. We whine about Europe not standing up for us and seek meaningless resolutions from the UN. We impose economic sanctions that even our own companies disregard and seek diplomatic answers to questions that require – or will require – force.
Last weekend Russia invaded the tiny Democratic Republic of Georgia in an act of bald and illegal aggression. The Russians are thugs and their government is composed of gangsters. Georgia is a nation wholly committed to representative government and is a stalwart friend of America. They have kept 2,000 of their 37,000 man army fighting beside us in Iraq from the time that war began. The Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvilli, has been educated in America and he and the courageous Georgian people cherish freedom on pain of blood and treasure. They are heroes of liberty, the very model of what President George W. Bush calls for and promotes throughout the world. They are our friends.
What reward do the Georgian’s get for this steadfast and loyal friendship? How does America support a friend and ally in existential peril? The most potent US response has been sending Secretary of State Condleeza Rice to make a speech and stand beside President Saakashvilli, demanding the Russians go home. Of course that is not the only measure we have taken. We suggested Georgian troops leave Iraq and defend their homeland and sent some of our troops along to deliver cheese and freeze dried potatoes to a people under siege. Leaving no diplomatic stone unturned we again went to the UN for a toothless resolution the Russians would surely veto in the unlikely event it was adopted. Further,of course we issued the obligatory whine that Europe stand up and be counted. Just in case none of these powerful deterrents to Cossack atrocity proved effective we have threatened to kick Putin and pals out of the G8 economic community and the World Trade Organization. Russia contains the third greatest reserves of oil and gas on earth. The world economy needs Russian trade far more than Russia needs world trade. Furthermore gangsters have no need for polite civic clubs.
We are despised and disrespected in Europe and the world because we are put up cheap! We don’t honor our commitments, don’t back up our threats and most disgracefully of all, do not rescue our friends when they are being plundered. We hide under the skirts of the UN and kow-tow to Europeans who haven’t the snickers to protect their own culture from the Habibs and Yassars who overrun their borders. We will be respected and feared, which is all a sovereign nation should expect or seek from other nations, when and only when we stand up on our hind legs and make the motto “Don’t tread on me” a warning received with grave solemnity. Until then we are worthy of nothing more than the scorn and loathing we currently endure.
Syria is an admitted and confirmed sponsor of terrorism. It is a hereditary dictatorship that threatens our allies and uses its proxies to actively attack them. It fearlessly furnishes arms to al- Quaeda in Iraq, resulting in the death of American troops. Iran furnishes weapons with which to kill our soldiers and marines and sanctuary to those who use them. The Mullahs openly promises to wipe Israel, our only true friend in the Middle East, off the face of the earth. When confronted with our solemn ultimatum to cease the pursuit of nuclear weapons, they publicly scoff. Ahmadinejad reads the newspapers, he knows who we are and what we are. So does everyone else. What have we done or are we doing in response to these viscous outlaws that adhere neither to international law nor basic human rights. How do we respond to these miscreants when they spit in our face and threaten our friends?
Our government wags its finger and makes hollow threats. We whine about Europe not standing up for us and seek meaningless resolutions from the UN. We impose economic sanctions that even our own companies disregard and seek diplomatic answers to questions that require – or will require – force.
Last weekend Russia invaded the tiny Democratic Republic of Georgia in an act of bald and illegal aggression. The Russians are thugs and their government is composed of gangsters. Georgia is a nation wholly committed to representative government and is a stalwart friend of America. They have kept 2,000 of their 37,000 man army fighting beside us in Iraq from the time that war began. The Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvilli, has been educated in America and he and the courageous Georgian people cherish freedom on pain of blood and treasure. They are heroes of liberty, the very model of what President George W. Bush calls for and promotes throughout the world. They are our friends.
What reward do the Georgian’s get for this steadfast and loyal friendship? How does America support a friend and ally in existential peril? The most potent US response has been sending Secretary of State Condleeza Rice to make a speech and stand beside President Saakashvilli, demanding the Russians go home. Of course that is not the only measure we have taken. We suggested Georgian troops leave Iraq and defend their homeland and sent some of our troops along to deliver cheese and freeze dried potatoes to a people under siege. Leaving no diplomatic stone unturned we again went to the UN for a toothless resolution the Russians would surely veto in the unlikely event it was adopted. Further,of course we issued the obligatory whine that Europe stand up and be counted. Just in case none of these powerful deterrents to Cossack atrocity proved effective we have threatened to kick Putin and pals out of the G8 economic community and the World Trade Organization. Russia contains the third greatest reserves of oil and gas on earth. The world economy needs Russian trade far more than Russia needs world trade. Furthermore gangsters have no need for polite civic clubs.
We are despised and disrespected in Europe and the world because we are put up cheap! We don’t honor our commitments, don’t back up our threats and most disgracefully of all, do not rescue our friends when they are being plundered. We hide under the skirts of the UN and kow-tow to Europeans who haven’t the snickers to protect their own culture from the Habibs and Yassars who overrun their borders. We will be respected and feared, which is all a sovereign nation should expect or seek from other nations, when and only when we stand up on our hind legs and make the motto “Don’t tread on me” a warning received with grave solemnity. Until then we are worthy of nothing more than the scorn and loathing we currently endure.
John Edward's "Mistake"
Putting one's trousers on backward is a mistake. Cheating on one's wife is not. The craven dissembling of politicians who betray their spouses, families, friends and constituents and they way it is accepted by the media is reprehensible. A mistake is merely a thing incorrect like a mispronunciation or the wrong phone number. One needs no absolution for wearing one brown and one black shoe. A mistake has no moral dimension for it informs no purpose or motive. A mistake can be corrected. Adultery on the other hand is a moral offense, a pre-meditated, hidden and improper sexual dalliance having self indulgence and self gratification as its end. It is base, deceitful and without concern for anyone but the adulterer. It cannot be undone.
John Edwards is only the latest phony creep to take the “mistake” plea. Jim Bakker, Bill Clinton and Elliot Spitzer, among others, preceded him. “I made a terrible mistake” offered the disgraceful ex-senator in an interview with CBS News. “I confessed the mistake to my wife and sought her forgiveness, and to God and asked His forgiveness”. “I used very poor judgment”. Philandering is not an act of poor judgment nor is it a poor choice. Whoring is an act of audaciously poor character committed by someone void of integrity. To claim it a mistake displays no sorrow for committing the affront only the pain and humiliation of getting caught.
One whom is shown grace and forgiveness is bound to offer grace and forgiveness. Forgiveness however requires honest contrition and repentance. Until John Edwards admits to the reality and depth of his willful delinquency, he has no claim on anyone’s indulgence. After all, a mistake requires no pardon only a correction.
John Edwards is only the latest phony creep to take the “mistake” plea. Jim Bakker, Bill Clinton and Elliot Spitzer, among others, preceded him. “I made a terrible mistake” offered the disgraceful ex-senator in an interview with CBS News. “I confessed the mistake to my wife and sought her forgiveness, and to God and asked His forgiveness”. “I used very poor judgment”. Philandering is not an act of poor judgment nor is it a poor choice. Whoring is an act of audaciously poor character committed by someone void of integrity. To claim it a mistake displays no sorrow for committing the affront only the pain and humiliation of getting caught.
One whom is shown grace and forgiveness is bound to offer grace and forgiveness. Forgiveness however requires honest contrition and repentance. Until John Edwards admits to the reality and depth of his willful delinquency, he has no claim on anyone’s indulgence. After all, a mistake requires no pardon only a correction.
Weekly Update August 11, 2008
Bob Wills is still the King, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead and Barack Obama is still black.
Visibly and Intellectually Different
Barack Obama is determined to have us understand that he doesn't look like the ex presidents who appear on our currency. Well, this is true but not nearly the extent of the difference. Take Washington and Jefferson for instance. Both these great Founders of our nation placed high value on individual freedom and unfettered commerce. Obama considers the individual no more than a member of a larger community and commerce to be the means by which the few subjugate the many. Washington and Jefferson considered the United States a compact of individual sovereign states. Not only does this republican ideal find no place in his philosophy, Obama would have us surrender our national sovereignty to international councils and orders.
Washington and Jefferson believed each man to be responsible for himself and despised personal taxation. Obama demands that each of us be responsible for all of us and sees taxing as a means of levelling society. The final and most striking difference between Obama and Jefferson and Washington is the latter believed government to be at its best a necessary evil to be feared, restricted and restrained lest it oppress free citizens Obama on the other hand sees government as the greatest good, able to solve all problems and eliminate all inequities. Let's hope Barack never has his image on US currency or coinage, he's just too different.
Washington and Jefferson believed each man to be responsible for himself and despised personal taxation. Obama demands that each of us be responsible for all of us and sees taxing as a means of levelling society. The final and most striking difference between Obama and Jefferson and Washington is the latter believed government to be at its best a necessary evil to be feared, restricted and restrained lest it oppress free citizens Obama on the other hand sees government as the greatest good, able to solve all problems and eliminate all inequities. Let's hope Barack never has his image on US currency or coinage, he's just too different.
Rating the Cities
Car for car, signal for signal, Lexington Kentucky is the ten most irritating American cities in which to drive.
Time of The Season no.10
Barack Obama is the perfect standard bearer for the Democratic Party. He knows so little about so much and speaks volumes saying nothing at all.
Time of The Season no. 9
If you believe the mainstream news outlets chose red as the color for conservative leaning states think again. Red has been for the last ninety years the recognized symbol of communism and Marxism [Soviet Red Flag, Red China, Mao's Little Red Book]. The subliminal message of red added to the Democrats lurch leftward must have been seen as threatening to the Jackass Party's electoral chances going forward from 2004. Thus the captive whores at ABC, CBS, NBC CNN and MSNBC rolled over and tagged the Republicans as red.
Brilliant!
Emergency officials in Texas have issued a "preemptive" disaster declaration for 17 Gulf coast counties in anticipation of a tropical storm coming ashore. I am sure the annoucement impressed the storm.
This past winter, the US Weather Service in Louisville KY issued a "non precipitation advisory". What safety procedures are required to protect ones self from winter "non precipitation?
This past winter, the US Weather Service in Louisville KY issued a "non precipitation advisory". What safety procedures are required to protect ones self from winter "non precipitation?
Weekly Update August 4 2008
A kiss is still just a kiss.,Generalissimmo Francisco Franco is still dead and Barack Obama is still black.
W's Opportunity
President George W. Bush faces an historic opportunity in the next few weeks. By exercising prerogatives granted the chief magistrate by our Constitution, Bush may be able to force Congress to repeal moratoriums on off-shore drilling, provide John McCain and Republican House and Senate candidates a stick with which to bludgeon Democrats - and - strike a blow against the overweening Judiciary.
The Democrat Congress has adjourned for the summer without addressing the people’s most pressing problem – catastrophically high gasoline prices. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid refuse to permit a vote considering removal of restrictions on off-shore drilling. Why? The Democrat caucus, many of whom are up for re-election, face a Hobson’s choice, either betray their radical environmentalist patrons or patently refuse to relieve constituents of burdensome energy costs. The President has authority to call Congress into special session and force it to address this emergency. Were Bush to act thusly the potentialities are of great benefit to the average American. Either the onerous drilling restrictions will be lifted, resulting in an immediate and significant drop in the price of oil and gasoline or the Democrats will be exposed as having a complete disregard for the well being of the American people. The benefit of the former needs no explanation and the latter presents McCain and Republicans with an atomic powered issue by which to retain the presidency and perhaps recapture the majority in Congress.
The second opportunity for President Bush arises out of a ruling by a DC federal judge ordering White House aides to answer Congressional subpoenas. Such a ruling if accepted, effectively eviscerates free and candid discussion between the President and his staff opening to the public the necessarily private counsel of presidential advisers. The US Constitution established three co-equal branches of government. In Marbury v Madison [1803] the Judiciary in a bald power grab declared itself to be first among equals and sole arbiter of the Constitution. Since then the judges have been remaking America in their image. The Founders did not foresee this turn of events for they knew the lions of the court had no teeth. The Constitution grants the Executive branch exclusive authority to administer and enforce the laws of the nation. The Judiciary has no army or police force. In 1832, President Andrew Jackson made use of this actuality. When issued a Supreme Court edict he deemed unconstitutional “Old Hickory” replied to an aide: “Judge Marshall issued the order, let him enforce it!” President Bush should echo this sentiment and ignore the current ruling.
George W. Bush has been a terrific disappointment to conservatives and has helped wreck The Republican Party. With only a few months left in office, decisive action on these fronts will go a long way toward his reconciliation with the right and in reestablishing the GOP. We hope against hope he will strike while the iron is hot.
The Democrat Congress has adjourned for the summer without addressing the people’s most pressing problem – catastrophically high gasoline prices. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid refuse to permit a vote considering removal of restrictions on off-shore drilling. Why? The Democrat caucus, many of whom are up for re-election, face a Hobson’s choice, either betray their radical environmentalist patrons or patently refuse to relieve constituents of burdensome energy costs. The President has authority to call Congress into special session and force it to address this emergency. Were Bush to act thusly the potentialities are of great benefit to the average American. Either the onerous drilling restrictions will be lifted, resulting in an immediate and significant drop in the price of oil and gasoline or the Democrats will be exposed as having a complete disregard for the well being of the American people. The benefit of the former needs no explanation and the latter presents McCain and Republicans with an atomic powered issue by which to retain the presidency and perhaps recapture the majority in Congress.
The second opportunity for President Bush arises out of a ruling by a DC federal judge ordering White House aides to answer Congressional subpoenas. Such a ruling if accepted, effectively eviscerates free and candid discussion between the President and his staff opening to the public the necessarily private counsel of presidential advisers. The US Constitution established three co-equal branches of government. In Marbury v Madison [1803] the Judiciary in a bald power grab declared itself to be first among equals and sole arbiter of the Constitution. Since then the judges have been remaking America in their image. The Founders did not foresee this turn of events for they knew the lions of the court had no teeth. The Constitution grants the Executive branch exclusive authority to administer and enforce the laws of the nation. The Judiciary has no army or police force. In 1832, President Andrew Jackson made use of this actuality. When issued a Supreme Court edict he deemed unconstitutional “Old Hickory” replied to an aide: “Judge Marshall issued the order, let him enforce it!” President Bush should echo this sentiment and ignore the current ruling.
George W. Bush has been a terrific disappointment to conservatives and has helped wreck The Republican Party. With only a few months left in office, decisive action on these fronts will go a long way toward his reconciliation with the right and in reestablishing the GOP. We hope against hope he will strike while the iron is hot.
Of Apolgies, Reparations and Black People in America
The United States House of Representatives just recently issued an official apology to African-Americans for the harm done them and their ancestors by slavery, segregation and discrimination. Barack Obama declares that words are not enough he wants to see “deeds”. As co- sponsor of a bill establishing a commission to consider cash reparations to all black people in America, it’s not much of a leap to anticipate what is to come if he is elected. Enough is enough! With all due respect I reject the entire notion of apologies and reparations.
Who would deny that slaves suffered inhumanely, yet from Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation forward, the slave’s ignominy has been a singular blessing for his progeny. Yes a blessing, for as a result of the “peculiar institution” the descendant of slavery is a citizen of The United States of America. Regardless of race or creed or heritage, to be born a United States citizen is an act of penultimate grace envied the world over.
Every African-American having slave blood coursing his veins, were it not for slavery, would likely be an African. To be born black in Africa is to be virtually condemned to a life “nasty, brutish and short”. In Rwanda and Uganda warring tribesmen have butchered more than a million souls. In Darfur, the Arab Muslims systematically attempt to eradicate the black population. Throughout black Africa, violence, corruption, starvation and sickness are the rule rather than the exception. Offer anyone $100,000 and a one way ticket to any African nation in return for his US passport and you will get few takers.
African-Americans are a remarkable blessing to America. What are we without the influence of black culture? African American artisans and craftsmen labored to build this nation. The blood of black men is shed for America in every corner of the world. Today’s African-American has striven mightily and suffered abominable indignities to achieve what he has. Should Barack Obama be elected in November it will represent the culmination of that struggle.
I would be a repugnant fool to imply the climb has not been difficult, unjust and sorrowful, yet we mustn’t forget that this struggle is of a piece with America itself from the original settlers of Jamestown Island to the Irish to the new Vietnamese immigrant.
This nation and its people owe nothing at all to African-Americans save the rights and liberties guaranteed all Americans. The misery or infamy endured by the black community at the hands of American society has been more than offset by the blessings and opportunity of being a part of that society
Who would deny that slaves suffered inhumanely, yet from Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation forward, the slave’s ignominy has been a singular blessing for his progeny. Yes a blessing, for as a result of the “peculiar institution” the descendant of slavery is a citizen of The United States of America. Regardless of race or creed or heritage, to be born a United States citizen is an act of penultimate grace envied the world over.
Every African-American having slave blood coursing his veins, were it not for slavery, would likely be an African. To be born black in Africa is to be virtually condemned to a life “nasty, brutish and short”. In Rwanda and Uganda warring tribesmen have butchered more than a million souls. In Darfur, the Arab Muslims systematically attempt to eradicate the black population. Throughout black Africa, violence, corruption, starvation and sickness are the rule rather than the exception. Offer anyone $100,000 and a one way ticket to any African nation in return for his US passport and you will get few takers.
African-Americans are a remarkable blessing to America. What are we without the influence of black culture? African American artisans and craftsmen labored to build this nation. The blood of black men is shed for America in every corner of the world. Today’s African-American has striven mightily and suffered abominable indignities to achieve what he has. Should Barack Obama be elected in November it will represent the culmination of that struggle.
I would be a repugnant fool to imply the climb has not been difficult, unjust and sorrowful, yet we mustn’t forget that this struggle is of a piece with America itself from the original settlers of Jamestown Island to the Irish to the new Vietnamese immigrant.
This nation and its people owe nothing at all to African-Americans save the rights and liberties guaranteed all Americans. The misery or infamy endured by the black community at the hands of American society has been more than offset by the blessings and opportunity of being a part of that society
The Time of The Season no. 8
As if anyone could forget, Barack Obama keeps reminding us of his blackness, most recently pointing out that he does not look like the presidents appearing on our currency. For his part John McCain has kept his head - buried securely in the sand.
Time of the Season no.7
Mousetapo
Hurricane Billy, my magnificent two year old grandson is visiting this week and we are having too much fun. This morning however, I was confronted by something very disturbing. While we were watching the Disney Channel waiting breakfast an animated segment called Safety Patrol came on. The Safety Patrol is comprised of two children wearing black uniforms and badges whose job is ostensibly keeping little ones safe. On this day the boy and girl were on day watch working Snack Patrol out of Playground Division. For the next eight or ten minutes the screen was filled with these two smarmy brats haranguing, harassing and busting other little dudes for eating chocolate, drinking pop and laying under shade trees playing video games. It seems as if there is nowhere a regular kid can hide from these carrot and celery pushing fascists.
Something must be done to stop this growing menace before every schoolyard in Amerika is overcome by little rats running round denouncing their chums for eating Ho Ho’s. Kids, if one day you are lying under a tree minding your own business playing MurderTon ,enjoying a double Reese Cup, with a 100 octane Dr.Pepper and one of these Jr. Jackboots hassles you. Tell him if he doesn’t get lost you’re your gonna shove the 16 ounce empty up his nose and kick his little Nazi butt right back to Uncle Adolph’s Happy House! We did it before, we can do it again.
Something must be done to stop this growing menace before every schoolyard in Amerika is overcome by little rats running round denouncing their chums for eating Ho Ho’s. Kids, if one day you are lying under a tree minding your own business playing MurderTon ,enjoying a double Reese Cup, with a 100 octane Dr.Pepper and one of these Jr. Jackboots hassles you. Tell him if he doesn’t get lost you’re your gonna shove the 16 ounce empty up his nose and kick his little Nazi butt right back to Uncle Adolph’s Happy House! We did it before, we can do it again.
What Happened to The United States?
On this day 232 years ago, thirteen British colonies asserted them each sovereign States and declared their independence from the English Crown. There was then no United States of America only thirteen distinct and independent nation-states. At the end of the bloody eight year war that perfected their declaration, these States sought to form a union that would offer each of them and all of them protection of the freedoms so preciously purchased. Finding the first attempt at a compact, The Articles of Confederation, insufficient the States sought “a more perfect union” and after much toil and strife brought forth in 1787 The Constitution of The United States of America.
The Constitution created a republic in which a limited common government would preside over a strictly enumerated set of powers leaving all other prerogatives to the sovereign States which had created it. Nothing in the document remotely suggested or anticipated the federal government should dominate as it does today. It was anathema to The Founders that the Union might one day become no longer a federation of sovereign States but rather a vast empire of quasi distinct provinces ruled by an all powerful central authority. As I write on this Independence Day, I am given to ponder; what happened to the United States?
Almost immediately upon its formation the national government began to claim powers it was not granted and that were prohibited to it. In 1798 the Federalist Party under President John Adams passed the Alien and Sedition Acts which permitted the central administration to arrest and imprison any alien [residing in any State] it deemed a threat to homeland security and made political speech in opposition to the sitting government a high federal crime. In response, Kentucky and Virginia passed resolutions [written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison respectfully] condemning the acts and asserting the States to be the court of last resort on questions of constitutionality. These resolutions further affirmed the right of any State to veto [or nullify] an act of Congress if it thought the act to be un-constitutional and to make it nugatory within its own country. The offending acts were soon repealed and liberty restored.
Ironically Jefferson participated in what has proven a mortal wound to popular government. In 1803 Marbury v Madison, a historically meaningless dispute over the appointment of federal magistrates, the Supreme Court claimed – under color of no constitutional authority at all - sole ownership of The Constitution and thus to be first among the three “equal” branches of government - and the States - when it ruled that Jefferson’s Secretary of State James Madison had unlawfully refused to deliver an appointment to Mr. Marbury. Chief Justice John Marshall had been Secretary of State under Jefferson’s fierce political foe John Adams.
Here is the first merging of politics and the judiciary. Marshall cleverly avoided a direct clash with the executive branch by not ordering Madison to deliver the judgeship [which would have certainly been refused] instead merely offering what seemed at the time to be an innocuous opinion of law. Meanwhile the power of the Capitol grew at the expense of both liberty and the States.
The next usurpation of State authority occurred in 1819 and gravely wounded republican ideals. With McCulloch v Maryland, The Supreme Court set itself above even the Constitution when acting as exclusive judge of the acts of its sister branches, declared the Constitution to have assigned the national government broad “implied powers.” Powers that were nowhere enumerated or contemplated in the founding document. In McCulloch, the federal government, through a concurrence among the President, Congress and The Supreme Court eviscerated the 9th Amendment and kicked down the door Marshall had eased open in Marbury, permitting to itself virtually un-circumscribed powers, limited only by one’s interpretation of “implied.”
In 1831, President Andrew Jackson took actions which somewhat restored the balance of power between the States, Congress, The Presidency and The Supreme Court. In that year The Supreme Court barred the government of Georgia from removing the Cherokee from their tribal lands. Georgia ignored the ruling and President Jackson who had pushed through Congress, The Indian Removal Act of 1830 refused to enforce the Court’s order with federal troops. Whether he acted immorally toward the Cherokee is not in view here. What Jackson did do was to re-assert the equality of the Presidency viz a viz The Supreme Court and show why Hamilton and Madison thought the Court the weakest of the three elements of the government. “Old Hickory” is famously to have said: “Judge Marshall made the ruling, let him carry it out” Abraham Lincoln would later apply this same axiom in a dispute with Chief Justice Roger Taney.
Jackson played a primary albeit opposite role in the next confrontation between the still sovereign States and Washington when in 1828 Congress voted entirely along sectional lines to institute “The Tariff of Abominations.” This act a protectionist rather than a revenue measure, laid a fifty per-cent tariff on virtually all imported manufactures. Such a high exaction was ruinous to the agricultural economy of the South. Seeking to advance his standing in the Middle Atlantic and Northeastern States for an upcoming run for President, Jackson had sold the South down the river, having his surrogates in Congress support the tariff bill.
In 1832 South Carolina reacted by claiming again the doctrines of “state interposition” or “nullification” that first were asserted by Kentucky and Virginia in 1799. John C. Calhoun, writing for South Carolina found no constitutional authority that permitted the levying of a protectionist tariff and further argued that any act of Congress that preferred one group of States to the detriment of others was unconstitutional on its face. South Carolina acting in Convention declared the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void within its boundaries and barred collection of the imposts by federal agents. President Jackson heretofore a staunch defender of the supremacy of the States, declared nullification treasonous and dispatched warships to Charleston. Calhoun who had resigned the Vice Presidency to return to the Senate and Henry Clay of Kentucky saved the republic - and the nation from war - by working out the compromise Tariff of 1833. This was the first time the Union had sent gunboats militantly into the harbors of a State. It would not be the last.
Between 1832 and 1860 the issue of slavery dominated political debate. It may well be said that slavery was the cancer that ultimately killed the American Republic. In the 1850’s Northern abolitionists in Congress rammed through hard anti-southern policies including rising tariffs and demands for the end of the “peculiar institution.” The 1860 election to President of Abraham Lincoln, head of the abolitionist Republican Party, was the last straw for South Carolina, always the most determined of the States in opposing federal authority. She resigned the Union on December 20, 1860.
The end of the republic might yet have been avoided had there been less duplicity on the part of President Lincoln and more wisdom and restraint on the part of the Carolinians. Rather than resolutely pursuing a diplomatic solution to the schism both sides rattled their sabres until they were covered in blood. When Lincoln goaded South Carolina into firing on Fort Sumter, a mortal blow was struck to the idea of a North American Republic and much that The Founders had strived for and dreamed of would soon be in ruins.
At the conclusion of The War Between The States there were no States, only provinces of the federal regime. By force of arms, at the cost of half a million American lives and the utter destruction of half the nation, Washington fully and forever established itself as the omnipotent North American power; from sea to shining sea. On that day April 9, 1865, The United States ceased to exist and The American Empire was born.
The Constitution created a republic in which a limited common government would preside over a strictly enumerated set of powers leaving all other prerogatives to the sovereign States which had created it. Nothing in the document remotely suggested or anticipated the federal government should dominate as it does today. It was anathema to The Founders that the Union might one day become no longer a federation of sovereign States but rather a vast empire of quasi distinct provinces ruled by an all powerful central authority. As I write on this Independence Day, I am given to ponder; what happened to the United States?
Almost immediately upon its formation the national government began to claim powers it was not granted and that were prohibited to it. In 1798 the Federalist Party under President John Adams passed the Alien and Sedition Acts which permitted the central administration to arrest and imprison any alien [residing in any State] it deemed a threat to homeland security and made political speech in opposition to the sitting government a high federal crime. In response, Kentucky and Virginia passed resolutions [written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison respectfully] condemning the acts and asserting the States to be the court of last resort on questions of constitutionality. These resolutions further affirmed the right of any State to veto [or nullify] an act of Congress if it thought the act to be un-constitutional and to make it nugatory within its own country. The offending acts were soon repealed and liberty restored.
Ironically Jefferson participated in what has proven a mortal wound to popular government. In 1803 Marbury v Madison, a historically meaningless dispute over the appointment of federal magistrates, the Supreme Court claimed – under color of no constitutional authority at all - sole ownership of The Constitution and thus to be first among the three “equal” branches of government - and the States - when it ruled that Jefferson’s Secretary of State James Madison had unlawfully refused to deliver an appointment to Mr. Marbury. Chief Justice John Marshall had been Secretary of State under Jefferson’s fierce political foe John Adams.
Here is the first merging of politics and the judiciary. Marshall cleverly avoided a direct clash with the executive branch by not ordering Madison to deliver the judgeship [which would have certainly been refused] instead merely offering what seemed at the time to be an innocuous opinion of law. Meanwhile the power of the Capitol grew at the expense of both liberty and the States.
The next usurpation of State authority occurred in 1819 and gravely wounded republican ideals. With McCulloch v Maryland, The Supreme Court set itself above even the Constitution when acting as exclusive judge of the acts of its sister branches, declared the Constitution to have assigned the national government broad “implied powers.” Powers that were nowhere enumerated or contemplated in the founding document. In McCulloch, the federal government, through a concurrence among the President, Congress and The Supreme Court eviscerated the 9th Amendment and kicked down the door Marshall had eased open in Marbury, permitting to itself virtually un-circumscribed powers, limited only by one’s interpretation of “implied.”
In 1831, President Andrew Jackson took actions which somewhat restored the balance of power between the States, Congress, The Presidency and The Supreme Court. In that year The Supreme Court barred the government of Georgia from removing the Cherokee from their tribal lands. Georgia ignored the ruling and President Jackson who had pushed through Congress, The Indian Removal Act of 1830 refused to enforce the Court’s order with federal troops. Whether he acted immorally toward the Cherokee is not in view here. What Jackson did do was to re-assert the equality of the Presidency viz a viz The Supreme Court and show why Hamilton and Madison thought the Court the weakest of the three elements of the government. “Old Hickory” is famously to have said: “Judge Marshall made the ruling, let him carry it out” Abraham Lincoln would later apply this same axiom in a dispute with Chief Justice Roger Taney.
Jackson played a primary albeit opposite role in the next confrontation between the still sovereign States and Washington when in 1828 Congress voted entirely along sectional lines to institute “The Tariff of Abominations.” This act a protectionist rather than a revenue measure, laid a fifty per-cent tariff on virtually all imported manufactures. Such a high exaction was ruinous to the agricultural economy of the South. Seeking to advance his standing in the Middle Atlantic and Northeastern States for an upcoming run for President, Jackson had sold the South down the river, having his surrogates in Congress support the tariff bill.
In 1832 South Carolina reacted by claiming again the doctrines of “state interposition” or “nullification” that first were asserted by Kentucky and Virginia in 1799. John C. Calhoun, writing for South Carolina found no constitutional authority that permitted the levying of a protectionist tariff and further argued that any act of Congress that preferred one group of States to the detriment of others was unconstitutional on its face. South Carolina acting in Convention declared the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void within its boundaries and barred collection of the imposts by federal agents. President Jackson heretofore a staunch defender of the supremacy of the States, declared nullification treasonous and dispatched warships to Charleston. Calhoun who had resigned the Vice Presidency to return to the Senate and Henry Clay of Kentucky saved the republic - and the nation from war - by working out the compromise Tariff of 1833. This was the first time the Union had sent gunboats militantly into the harbors of a State. It would not be the last.
Between 1832 and 1860 the issue of slavery dominated political debate. It may well be said that slavery was the cancer that ultimately killed the American Republic. In the 1850’s Northern abolitionists in Congress rammed through hard anti-southern policies including rising tariffs and demands for the end of the “peculiar institution.” The 1860 election to President of Abraham Lincoln, head of the abolitionist Republican Party, was the last straw for South Carolina, always the most determined of the States in opposing federal authority. She resigned the Union on December 20, 1860.
The end of the republic might yet have been avoided had there been less duplicity on the part of President Lincoln and more wisdom and restraint on the part of the Carolinians. Rather than resolutely pursuing a diplomatic solution to the schism both sides rattled their sabres until they were covered in blood. When Lincoln goaded South Carolina into firing on Fort Sumter, a mortal blow was struck to the idea of a North American Republic and much that The Founders had strived for and dreamed of would soon be in ruins.
At the conclusion of The War Between The States there were no States, only provinces of the federal regime. By force of arms, at the cost of half a million American lives and the utter destruction of half the nation, Washington fully and forever established itself as the omnipotent North American power; from sea to shining sea. On that day April 9, 1865, The United States ceased to exist and The American Empire was born.
Time of The Season no.6
Obama moves right. McCain moves left. By election day they will be distinguishable only by their hair color.
Time of The Season no. 5
The high road of politics travelled by Barack Obama has decscended into the great campaign swamp. By sending out sleazebags like Jay Rockefeller and Wesley Clark to mock and impune John McCain's military service and sacrifice, Obama has provided further evidence of his duplicity and cowardice.
Obama is opposed to same sex marriages yet felt compelled to congratulate a group of gays recently married in San Francisco. Gay union is not the point here, rather Barack's continued insistence on being for and against something at the same time.
John Mcain is in favor of aggravating the sunbathers in Florida and California, but not the odd caribou in ANWAR. Can caribou vote?
Obama is opposed to same sex marriages yet felt compelled to congratulate a group of gays recently married in San Francisco. Gay union is not the point here, rather Barack's continued insistence on being for and against something at the same time.
John Mcain is in favor of aggravating the sunbathers in Florida and California, but not the odd caribou in ANWAR. Can caribou vote?
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