Perspective

I grew up in an era where we were still reasonably free.  I wasn’t as free as my father’s generation and my father didn’t grow up as free as his father who was born in 1895.  My grandfather grew up before the modern progressive movement started with Woodrow Wilson.  In that vein my Grandfather was probably every bit as free as my Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather who saw the true dawn of freedom after the ratification of the US Constitution.  It is sad to think now in relation to the entire history of man only five generations of my family lived in the “Freedom Era.”  The period from 1787 to 1900 in America was the freest period in the entire 10,000+ years of man’s existence.  The real tragedy is that my son is less free than I have been and on the current trajectory my grandchildren will be even less free.  The liberal (progressive, democrat, socialist, left, whatever) movement keeps chipping away at freedom with no signs of letting up.  

I have a pistol that my Great Grandfather purchased.  No State or Federal forms, background check, or waiting period required.  It has been in my family for more than a century.  I have another pistol that was the Sears & Roebuck special over a hundred years ago and was probably purchased through the mail by a different Great Grandfather.    Try that today. 

One of those pistols was part of a small lot of guns that I inherited from my Uncle when he passed away.  The guns were in the People’s Democratic Socialist Republic of Washington, but the problem would have been the same regardless of State.  To get the guns to my home in Virginia I had to locate a gun store in Manassas, VA and then engage the services of a gun store in Bremerton, WA to ship them to me via the Virginia gun store.  Not so long ago I would have been able to box them up and put them in the belly of the plane.  In my grandfather’s day I could have mailed them to myself.  But now you can imagine what this cost me to ship these guns through two third parties. 

When I arrived in Virginia the guns were there and I went to pick them up.  I had the receipt and there was never any dispute that the guns were my personal property.  However I had to fill out all the forms and wait to pass the background check just as if I was purchasing them new.  That hurdle overcome I ran afoul of the Virginia two pistol rule.  In addition to my Great Grandfather’s pistol there was a newer (by 40 years or so) .22 caliber pistol.  In Virginia you can only buy one pistol in any 30 day period.  Again, no one disputed that both pistols belonged to me but I either had to wait 30 days before picking up the second pistol or go to the State Police office and fill out another battery of forms.  I waited.  The funny thing was that the restriction didn’t apply to the long guns with which I can do much more damage.  So I walked out of the store with two rifles, a shotgun, and a .32 revolver.    

I suspect the one pistol rule prevented me from putting the reins in my mouth and riding down Main Street Manassas firing both pistols Roster Cogburn style.   Remember one of my ancestors filled out a form and mailed it with a check for $1.95 to Sears & Roebuck to buy one of my other pistols.   

One of the pistols is in pretty good shape and the other is well worn.  I’m sure that my Great Grandfathers might have tucked those guns in a coat pocket, under the buggy seat, or maybe in their waistband.  As intended by the Constitution there wasn’t any restriction against that activity.  In order for me to do that I have to take a class and then register with the State and then carry a State-provided license.  Even then some of the other States don’t recognize a Virginia conceal-carry permit (the People’s Democratic Socialist Republic of Maryland for example).       

How exactly does that reality compare to my rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution?

Amendment II:  A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.   

     

The Oscars

Dear Hollywood, 

I won’t be watching the wretched orgy of self congratulations that you call “The Oscars” tonight.  I haven’t watched any of it in years.  In the past I never watched because as a working man I’ve had to get up at the crack of dawn on Monday morning, something the pampered of Hollywood wouldn’t understand.  Now I don’t watch it because I am certain that it is nothing more than a plot to get us to give movies that none of us went to see a second look.  Besides, the only movie that I went to see this year was “True Grit” and it wasn’t as good as the original with John Wayne. 

Sincerely Yours,

Common Sense

From The Patriot Post

Hey Wisconsin, check this out from today's The Patriot Post: 


"It behooves you, therefore, to think and act for yourself and your people. The great principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader; to pursue them requires not the aid of many counselors. The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail." --Thomas Jefferson, A Summary View of the Rights of British America, 1775

Present

During the run-up to the 2008 Presidential election I remember all the tales about Illinois State Senator Barack H. Obama.  One of the things that got thrashed around the most was his repeated votes of “present” thus avoiding a “yes” or a “no” vote.  With all the other evidence of him being the worst candidate in our history for the highest office of the land – I didn’t give it much attention.  Until today. 

The President of the United States voted “Present” on the violence in Libya and the sanctity of marriage this week.  He has voted “Present” on the border violence and he has voted “Present” on the deficit with his pitiful attempt at a budget. 

While his long term associations with fanatics, revolutionaries, and socialists were serious – his record of voting “Present” is killing us now.  Come on 2012.  

     

The Proliferation of Rights

On 18 September 1787, the morning after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution Americans found themselves in possession of nearly limitless freedom and a substantial list of enumerated rights.  We have the right to worship as we please and to petition our government for example.  However we were also expected to live responsibly. 

 

While the people of Wisconsin have the right to peaceably assemble in Madison to petition their government they can’t claim a “right” to have union membership forced on government employees.  Likewise collective bargaining is not a “right” in any recognized legal or moral definition of the term. 

We live in an age where the term “right” doesn’t really mean anything anymore.  Liberals tout health care as a "right" or the decision by a mother-to-be to have an abortion doctor plunge a probe into the head of her child-to-be to suck the life out of it as a "right."  Homosexuals claim a “right” to marry or to force themselves on the Military Service.  Where will this end? 

I’m sick and tired of people conjuring rights out of the air.  

          

Back to Basics

On a Sunday drive my wife and I were listening to the news of the uproar in Wisconsin.  I was disgusted with the union demonstrations and the democrat Senator’s childish antics so I switched off the radio.  My wife said “They need to get back to basics.”  Brilliant. 

If you have ever been on a losing football team, one that really got the stuffing knocked out of them for an entire season – you know exactly what she meant.  When you returned to practice the following season the coach told you and your team mates that you were going “back to the basics.”  You can’t fix a debacle with some fancy new plays or some new offensive set or even by picking up some new impact player.  You sure as hell don’t fix it with business as usual.  No – you have to go back to basics.  You strip the game down to blocking and tackling and work your way up from scratch. 

That is exactly what Federal, State, and local governments have to do.  For the Federal government the “basics” are contained in the Constitution.  That brilliant document lays out the foundation for this great Nation.  The application is simple – you only fund those things that are contained in the Constitution.  If we hadn’t strayed from that elegant purpose in the first place we wouldn’t be where we are now. 

That’s the problem with the Republican method to deal with the budget.  Don’t start at the top and work down – start with zero and build a budget that conforms to the Constitution and to the revenue.  

         

Damn, I think we’re becoming Greece

Watching the teachers picketing makes me think of the leader of the modern teacher’s movement Albert Shanker.  

Shanker led both the United Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers.  He famously said that "When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children."  Of course that attitude won him the American Medal of Freedom posthumously from President Bill Clinton in 1998.  Go figure. 

Of course that’s why teachers are screaming outside the legislature in Madison, Wisconsin instead of teaching.  I think that the next time I hear some teacher say “We’re doing this for the children” I’ll puke. 

          

Stop Eating and Drive

It never fails to amaze me that people put such cult-like confidence in the ability of government until they actually see the results.  One only has to reflect on how happy you were the last time you encountered the IRS, DMV, or the US Postal Service.  How effectively did the government manage the housing crisis or the Katrina disaster?  People rail against the government yet put an almost religious faith in the ability of bureaucrats to make life altering decisions. 

Ethanol is just such a debacle.  It was predicted to be and has indeed resulted in a colossal failure. 

Wednesday The Washington Times reported in “Rising global food prices an ‘extreme poverty’ crisis” that “food prices are now 29 percent higher than they were a year ago” and pointed out that “Corn prices are about 73 percent higher than they were last year, and sugar has seen its price rise by about that much . . . "

Thursday Robert Bryce followed up with a superior OPED in The Washington Times titled: The Absolute Madness of Bio-Fuels

In it he points out that “the U.S. corn-ethanol sector . . . will consume 40 percent of all U.S. corn - that’s about 15 percent of global corn production or 5 percent of all global grain - in order to produce a volume of motor fuel with the energy equivalent of about 0.6 percent of global oil needs.”  And points out that “Congress lavishes about $7 billion in annual subsidies, mandates and tariff protections upon” the industry.  

If this isn’t the very definition of madness – I don’t know what is.  

Many quote Einstein who said that insanity was doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.  I would say that true insanity is doing something that had no chance of success and then subsidizing increases in the level of effort while ignoring the increasing severity of unintended consequences.

       

What Planet is this Guy On?

Today I got yet another in the never ending propaganda missives from the White House.  I’m guilty of signing up to get them – so I can’t blame anyone but myself.  However I can’t believe that anyone is buying this BS either.  Here is a quote from the closing of today’s e-mail:

“Here in Washington, we have to take a cue from millions of American families who have been tightening their belts while continuing to invest in their future.  And that's exactly what my budget proposal does – it puts us on a path to live within our means so we can invest in our future.”

The President’s budget is projecting (no doubt under the rosiest of circumstances) a $1.65 Trillion deficit next year.  Yet talking heads are saying that it will save $1 Trillion over the next ten years.  What?  In what alternate reality does any of this make sense? 

Who would have thought that we would have looked back at the days of $400 Billion annual deficits as the “good ole days?”  Before President Obama we didn’t even us the word “trillion” very often.  Now we live in a world where a rounding error might be $100 Billion – that used to be “real” money. 

At Least They Didn’t Kill Him . . . . . . . . Yet

When mass Buddhist demonstrations in Viet Nam threatened the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem President John F. Kennedy (D) signaled to the Vietnamese army that America was willing to live without Diem.  Abandoned by his former ally Diem and his brother fled the capital and they were both murdered.  Military men struggled for control and there never were fair elections, rather they had democracy Chicago style.  We all know how well that turned out. 

Today former ally President Hosni Mubarak knows exactly how Diem felt.  Mubarak isn’t dead yet but he knows how feckless an American member of the Democrat Party can be.  I hope for the best for the Egyptian people but they may find out that Democracy means much more than pushing dictators around and it means more than getting to vote every once-in-awhile. 

Hold onto your hat – I don’t think this ride is over by a long shot.  

 

The Face of “Choice”

Ever since Roe vs. Wade upended our society liberal women have wailed that were abortion on demand to be over turned American women would be driven to back alley abortions.  The truth is that abortions for women’s health reasons were being legally preformed before Roe vs. Wade.  However there were women who found themselves with unwanted pregnancies who sought underground or illegal abortions.  Abortions were a sad consequence of any number of activities legal or illegal; moral or immoral. 

Now we are faced with barbarism on a truly monumental scale with Philadelphia butcher Kermit Gosnell (See Judge orders trial for Pa, abortion doctor).  While sad lonely women were victimized in back-alley abortions in the past, such tragedy cannot be compared to Philadelphia’s abortion charnel house. 

One might say that Kermit Gosnell is the extreme, a monster in fact – and that would be correct.  However there is a fine line between Gosnell’s barbarity and the Kansas late-term abortion factory overseen by slain doctor George Tiller.  They essentially provided the exact same service, Gosnell was just a bit less sanitary and he didn’t cover his tracks as well.  Gosnell repeatedly faced the problem with late term abortions that put our President on the horns of a dilemma.  Sometimes the abortionist’s actions result in a live birth.  Gosnell apparently agreed with then State Senator Obama – the mother’s desire to abort overrules the reality of a live baby result.  Gosnell might be the one who wielded the scissors that severed the spinal cord of a living, breathing, human being – but people like Barack Obama gave them high cover. 

Is the intentional murder of human beings a more civilized result than a handful of back-alley abortions by desperate women?  Both are tragic but society can’t stand by and allow the murder of innocents to continue.  More than 40 million babies have died at the hands of Kermit Gosnells and George Tillers – it is time to rein in the horror.  

          

Senator Jim Webb Will Not Run in 2012

It was widely reported today that Senator Jim Webb will not run for reelection in 2012.  The people of Virginia rejoice.  Webb has been one of the most disappointing of all the “moderate” Democrats.  I personally don’t make any distinction between “good” Democrats and “bad” Democrats – they all screwed us - but I digress. 

Webb made a good Marine and novelist.  He made a piss-poor Senator.  Now he is leaving carnage, chaos, and crushing debt in his wake.  I hope he stays in private life this time.  Don't let the door hit you in the ass Jim.

 

Thank You Mother England

British Prime Minister David Cameron delivered a speech on Saturday February 5, 2011.  He may very well be the first Conservative to wake the hell up and start the long road back.  An excerpt from that speech:

"What I am about to say is drawn from the British experience, but I believe there are general lessons for us all.  In the UK, some young men find it hard to identify with the traditional Islam practiced at home by their parents, whose customs can seem staid when transplanted to modern Western countries.  But these young men also find it hard to identify with Britain too, because we have allowed the weakening of our collective identity.  Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and apart from the mainstream.  We’ve failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong.  We’ve even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run completely counter to our values."

England, Sweden, France, Denmark, and other countries are being inundated by people who do not share a common religion, language, identity, values, or culture with the original inhabitants.  If this dangerous trend isn’t reversed, these countries will be destroyed. 

This “weakening of our collective identity” is particularly important here in the United States where we have been indoctrinated to think of our Nation as a “melting pot.”  We have also been indoctrinated to think that diversity is good.  The United States was founded by English-speaking Christian people who shared a common identity.  While there were minor numbers of Germans, French, Spanish, and a large number of both Africans and Native Americans present at our founding, the dominant cultural influence came from the English.  Our laws are rooted in Christianity and English Common Law.  While our language is salted with borrowed words we speak English.  Our National identity is rooted in hard work, personal responsibility, and self reliance.  We are a Christian people. 

We need to return to our National roots.  We need to ensure that people who we allow to come here assimilate and become Americans.  We need to learn a lesson from the Conservative leader of our Mother Country and encourage people who live here to belong or go home.  

          

Ronald Reagan would not be pleased with you

The Honorable James Webb,

I was in a crowd of young students in 1984 at the Amphibious Warfare School in Quantico, VA.  You had just been appointed as the Deputy Secretary for Reserve Affairs.  Your talk that day put you right among the most prominent conservative leaders of that day.  There is at least one anecdote from that talk that I remember (and use) to this day about the reasons that journalists are so liberal.  I was still around in 1987 when you were the Secretary of the Navy.   I held you in high regard in those days. 

Now that you are one of my Senators I have an entirely different opinion of you.  I am particularly amazed to see you involved in the celebration of Ronald Reagan’s 100^th birthday.  I think that the entire Nation should celebrate the life and achievements of Ronald Reagan.  However you have been instrumental in tearing down the Nation that President Reagan worked so hard to restore. 

I can tell you that each and every time you voted in concert with either Senator Harry Reid or Bernie Sanders you repudiated any connection that you had with President Ronald Reagan.  Ronald Reagan would have opposed every major piece of legislation that you have voted for and he would have been absolutely against the travesty that was the treaty with Russia.  Ronald Reagan would have made the Russians sweat – he wouldn’t have bowed to them. 

I find it ironic that whenever you and Reagan are mentioned they trot out that you were his Secretary of the Navy yet now you play for the other team.  Very sad. 

Sincerely Yours, 

 

Too Late For A Good Option

Watching the unfolding disaster in Egypt there are no good options right now.  This is like the smoker who has developed cancer.  The cure is a round of chemo-therapy introducing deadly poisons into the body to kill the cancer.  It may work and it may not but you are going to get deathly ill in the process and your hair is going to fall out. 

President Obama by ignoring his primary responsibility (protecting the United States) while focusing on cramming health care down our throats missed the opportunity to step up to the plate and prevent a crisis.  Faced with an escalating disaster within one of our most important regional allies, there are no good solutions for America. 

This isn’t unique for this President.  With unemployment, the deficit, and rising foreclosures the top issues in the minds of Americans and the center of the candidate’s rhetoric, the new President romped around Washington focused on everything but those issues.  The “signature successes” of this President’s first two years did nothing to address them.  Meanwhile the Middle East simmered. 

Candidate Obama was critical of George Bush for “taking his eye off the ball.”  Yet President Obama never, ever got into the right game.  President Bush planted two democracies smack, dab in the middle of dictatorville to spark freedom and democracy in that region.  The Obama administration appears to have missed the warning signs.  In the cancer analogy this was ignoring the warnings plastered all over ads, cartons, and packs of cigarettes.  Oh wait – he is rumored to do that too. 

No doubt President Obama will blame this on George Bush as well.  Certainly Bush bares some responsibility for people seeking freedom, but Obama bares the responsibility for ignoring the smoldering flame.  If the people of Egypt find their own George Washington instead of their own Ayatollah Khomeini we might just weather this storm.  However President Obama squandered his opportunity to help that happen.  Now we sit idly by and hope for the best (perhaps the real meaning of “Hope and Change”) impotent as Egypt goes up in flames.