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| Twin Towers by LuFrank |
Ten years ago today brave people performed heroic acts. May God grant them peace in this life and the next.
We need Barbs on our Berries
Michael Savage delivered a lesson from nature, and I recount it from memory: If you look closely, strawberries and other succulent fruits have barbs on their skin, and they are there for a reason: To protect the soft, juicy insides from predatory insects.
We need to learn that lesson. We are exposed to outside predators, but our barbs are turned inward. We are lacerating ourselves. Ten years later and no successful attacks, but we are prisoners in our own country.
We need to bring the GWOT home to North America. We have a conveyor belt of criminal gangs running from Central America northwards and back south again. It's past time to go GWOT on that, a direct threat to our national security and to our southern neighbors as well. Bring it home and aim it outwards, while simultaneously doing away with the state-sponsored civil liberty abuses, airport groping, and police state tactics.
Immigration Discrimination
We could start by blocking suspicious people from entering the US and restricting immigration from groups of people known to blow things up, kill others and breed virulent America-haters. Yes, I’m talking about discrimination.
Our government is inept at sorting out the good ones from the bad ones, so better to restrict immigration to groups with a proven track record of assimilation. Because we refuse to discriminate about who comes in, we all get treated like criminals, and America-haters who make it in hide behind the constitution. Meanwhile, we all suffer under a presumption of guilt.
Trust, but E-Verify
Enforce E-Verify hiring and go after the dirty businesses who hire illegals. It can all be done through audits, avoiding the propaganda pictures of poor immigrants being rounded up at meat packing plants. Hit the employers with $50,000 fines for each illegal hired, and businesses will start hiring American workers again and many illegal immigrants will self-deport.
Put our Military on the Borders
If that’s not a national defense function I don’t know what is. As a side note, I would also like to see the TSA functions privatized so we can collapse the ill-conceived and horribly-named Homeland Security Agency and return the other functions back to where they came from or eliminate them altogether.
I also think the US Army’s experience in tracking down bad guys, discovering and following rat trails, and generally sorting out the good from the bad by mapping out criminal and terrorist networks would be highly valuable to law enforcement in tracking down arms smugglers, drug traffickers and criminal gang activity.
We should figure out how to leverage that without violating Posse Comitatus. Chopping soldiers over to civilian agencies for a non-shooter consultant tour of duty would benefit our hardest hit areas.
We The People established the federal government to defend our united states and guard our liberties. Instead, it now violates them in the name of national defense. We need to demand our nation point its police powers and instruments of defense at the criminals and leave the rest of us the hell alone.
Terrorist may be able to inflict harm on America from time to time but terrorist will never defeat America. The real danger to America comes from within. People who call themselves Americans but want to transform America into something completely foreign to what our Founders intended. People like Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Waters, Frank, Trumka, Hofffa, Soros, Kaiser, Immelt and, the MSM they are the real threat to America. People, when they go to vote in Nov. 2012, need to understand that they are not voting for a Republican or a Democrat; they are not voting for candidate X or candidate Y. Whether they are voting for the office of the President or for their local city councilman, the truth that we need to understand is that we are making a choice between more government and less freedom or less government and more freedom.
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas, Silverfiddle. Linked at my place.
ReplyDeleteAbout time that a line is drawn in the sand. Either we are for our country or we are against it.
ReplyDeleteNever has, nor can be, a middle ground.
Only A Decade Ago
ReplyDeleteOne bright morning, now ten years ago,
No one dreamt, while going off to work,
Lunatics had planned to go berserk
Yielding fury like a lava flow.
A scant ten years –– an amplitude of woe ––
Denial since that demons near us lurk
Enraptured by sheer rage –– sharp like a dirk ––
Craftily whetted in hellfire’s glow.
A grim corrosion followed the attack.
Demented perverts scheme to have us think
Euro-centric values are at fault ––
American prosperity is black ––
Greed and gall have brought us to the brink
Of seeing all we have come to a halt.
~ FreeThinke - 9/11/11
We are moving into a new form of terrorism I fear. It is not the so called Lone Wolf, but rather the Marxists who are gaining a foothold within our Government. The threat is moving into a silent world of unnamed appointments to people in high places who do not wish us well.
ReplyDelete"Now we have inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It's a memory of tragedy and shock, of loss and mourning. But not only of loss and mourning. It's also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice, and the love that lays down its life for a friend - even a friend whose name it never knew."
ReplyDelete~ President George W. Bush
Submitted by FreeThinke
We shall be victorious in our retaliation to destroy the evil who rained hell upon America.
ReplyDeleteMay justice be swift upon Bin Laden successors and followers.
Could not agree more! Why are we so impassioned about fighting terrorists in every other country but our own? Gangs, murderers, rapists - those are a more clear and present danger than any foreign terrorist.
ReplyDeleteIllegal immigration is only a problem because our leaders are too damned spineless to bring to bear the considerable and formidable resources that we have available on the situation. So, sure, pull our troops out of the Mideast... then redeploy them to the Southwest!
"Enforce E-Verify hiring and go after the dirty businesses who hire illegals. It can all be done through audits, avoiding the propaganda pictures of poor immigrants being rounded up at meat packing plants. Hit the employers with $50,000 fines for each illegal hired, and businesses will start hiring American workers again and many illegal immigrants will self-deport.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but that is an avowedly statist position absolutely inconsistent with the ideals of libertarianism and free market Capitalism -- another ceding of powers of self-determination to Central Command. I'm astonished that you, apparently, do not realize that.
Illegal workers, who actually do the job willingly and unstintingly, have in truth restored a proper degree of honesty, competitiveness and economic viability to a jobs market maimed-and-all-but-destroyed by unionism and the crippling government regulations pressures from unionists and their fellow-travelers have visited on the Entrepreneur-Owner-Executive-Investor class, which conceived, created, built and developed the United States of America and made her the great world power she once was.
The illegal workers in truth are doing exactly what our own ancestors did when they flocked to these shores to avail themselves of the opportunity to support themselves by dint of their own efforts with hope of building a better future for themselves and their children.
The Illegal Workers embody the American Ideal -- as it was before the tenets of Marxian Progressivism insinuated themselves into the fabric of this nation, gradually became normalized and destroyed the underpinnings of The American Dream and the American Way of Life.
Radical? You bet. It's radical in exactly the way our Founders were radical.
Many like to refer to The Rule of Law, as though that were some wonderful, sacred thing to be upheld and defended at all costs.
HELL NO! The Law has been subverted and perverted to serve the interests of those who've been busily transforming America in a hugely successful effort to destroy America from within without resorting to violence.
If salvation is possible at all, which I have come to doubt given the problems inherent in human nature, it surely must come from thinking deep below the surface, and never allowing oneself to rely on formulas.
The Law in most instances, sir, is an ass, because it is manufactured by asses ridden and beaten into submission by wicked, ruthlessly selfish, would-be oligarchs.
May God Bless America -- but only as long as she remains a bulwark in defense of Liberty. There can be no hope for Justice without putting Liberty ahead of all other considerations.
~ FreeThinke
SOUND ADVICE from GOD, HIMSELF in 17 different versions of Holy Writ:
ReplyDeleteRomans 12:19
New International Version (©1984)
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.
New Living Translation (©2007)
Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, "I will take revenge; I will pay them back," says the LORD.
English Standard Version (©2001)
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
New American Standard Bible (©1995)
Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord.
International Standard Version (©2008)
Do not take revenge, dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath. For it is written, "Vengeance belongs to me. I will pay them back, declares the Lord."
GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Don't take revenge, dear friends. Instead, let God's anger take care of it. After all, Scripture says, "I alone have the right to take revenge. I will pay back, says the Lord."
King James Bible
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
American King James Version
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, said the Lord.
American Standard Version
Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath of God : for it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord.
Bible in Basic English
Do not give punishment for wrongs done to you, dear brothers, but give way to the wrath of God; for it is said in the holy Writings, Punishment is mine, I will give reward, says the Lord.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but give place unto wrath, for it is written: Revenge is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.
Darby Bible Translation
not avenging yourselves, beloved, but give place to wrath; for it is written, Vengeance belongs to me, I will recompense, saith the Lord.
English Revised Version
Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord.
Webster's Bible Translation
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Weymouth New Testament
Do not be revengeful, my dear friends, but give way before anger; for it is written, "'Revenge belongs to Me: I will pay back,' says the Lord."
World English Bible
Don't seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God's wrath. For it is written, "Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord."
Young's Literal Translation
not avenging yourselves, beloved, but give place to the wrath, for it hath been written, 'Vengeance is Mine, said the Lord"
~ Submitted by FreeThinke
Sorry, Libs, you aleady got your "day of service." It's called MLK Day
ReplyDeleteObama'a DAY OF SERVICE all but erases 9/11 ...what's that got to do with anything?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you; boots on OUR GROUND for a change....BOOTS ON OUR GROUND. THE GROUND hasn't done so well for us. Heck, I think the military could do more for L.A. Mexican drug/gun gangs in an hour than our cops have done in a year.
And revival.
@FreeThinke: I'm sorry, but that is an avowedly statist position absolutely inconsistent with the ideals of libertarianism and free market Capitalism -- another ceding of powers of self-determination to Central Command. I'm astonished that you, apparently, do not realize that.
ReplyDeleteI disagree. In a perfect theoretical Anarcho-capitalist world, you would be right. But we live in the real world, with borders and laws and states.
I do agree with you that immigration revitalizes a people and serves to light a match under the slothful who now rest upon their birthright, but it's got to be done according to our laws.
Also, the economic imbalance it too great to just open up the borders and come what may.
If Mexico and the other Latin American countries agreed to complete reciprocity in regards to movement of people, creation of businesses and work and jobs, then we'd have a starting point for discussion.
But it's not the answer to simply allow people to show up here illegally and live 17 to an apartment in squalor so that businesses can undercut the American worker.
DId SilverFiddle's post or any previous comment mention MLK Day or any of Obama's cockamamie notions?
ReplyDeleteIf not, why discuss it here and now -- especially on this solemn 10th Anniversary of 911?
~ FreeThinke
Hello, SilverFiddle.
ReplyDeleteI respectfully disagree. I'll stand by my words, which I believe to be more in the spirit of our Founding Principles than the legalistic hash we've made of our heritage that rules us today.
The Law has been subverted and perverted to serve the interests of those who've been busily transforming America in a hugely successful effort to destroy America from within without resorting to violence. ...
The Law in most instances, sir, is an ass, because it is manufactured by asses ridden and beaten into submission by wicked, ruthlessly selfish, would-be oligarchs. ...
There can be no hope for Justice without putting Liberty ahead of all other considerations.
"The Rights of the American Worker" put into place by union thuggery aided and abetted by Marxian attorneys and judges jockeyed into positions of power and influence by pseudo-high-minded Progressives are BOGUS.
The only true rights we have under our Constitution, which ought to have remained sacred, are the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Social engineering was not envisioned by the Founders, and I'm very sure they would not embrace it, if they were with us today.
A great deal of the "progress" we made in the last century was in fact a series of steps backward towards domination, subjugation, and abuse by overlords.
The Supreme Court was never intended to make legally binding policies from the bench and thus dictate to the masses. It was supposed only to interpret existing law as formulated by our duly elected representatives.
And if you believe in pragmatism, you must realize that the illegals, most of whom do not live in the way you describe, have established themselves without meaningful interference from Authority for so long now, that surely they have earned Squatter's Rights."
The fault is not in the illegals, but in the rotten, corrupt, inadequate system we've evolved that has all but destroyed our former way of life.
~ FreeThinke
Boots on the Ground was not here.
ReplyDeleteI guess Z was responding to another post on another blog and momentarily forgot where she was?
Could there be another explanation?
I love mystery stories, but not when they're acted out on blogs.
~ FT
A Wry Memorial
ReplyDeleteThe Swarthy Ones took over;
And made weapons of four planes.
The riders had no cover;
They suffered dreadful pains
That ended once their deathtraps
Burst into roaring fires
Turning instantly to mere scraps––
Cinders––made of former flyers.
The burning towers crumpled,
And fell into the street.
New York was more than rumpled;
Briefly, it knew defeat.
The nation drew together;
We felt collective grief.
Anger broke its tether;
To express it gave relief.
But only ten years hence
We're at each other's throats;
We've built ourselves a fence
Over which the Devil gloats.
We've failed to give the orders
To build a proper wall
Sealing off our borders
To the fiends who’d have us fall.
Instead, we've made division––
Went to war against ourselves––
And are mired in derision
Sparked by partisan elves,
Who forget this blessed land
In pursuit of powers lost
In close elections manned
By fraud. So, tempest-tossed
The country is in turmoil.
The enemy's our own.
He says it's all for Big Oil,
And he'll soon usurp the Throne.
The heap of twisted rubble
Raising toxic fumes for weeks
No longer gives us trouble
Because of media leaks
Designed to throw us off the scent
Of whom we need to blame
And encourage ruinous dissent
That hopes to break the frame
That holds us all together
And preserves our liberty,
So many now doubt whether
We really should be free.
And each rabble rousing louse
Should 'neath these words be pinned:
"He who troubleth his own house
Shall inherit–––the wind"
~ FreeThinke - 9/11/07
If we enforced our employment laws, there would be no need for troops on the border. Law enforcement would handle it just fine. But our unrealistic immigration system combined with our insatiable demand for drugs, make it impossible to secure the border from the real dangers.
ReplyDeleteJMJ
>If we enforced our employment laws, there would be no need for troops on the border.
ReplyDeleteYeah, since those thousands of heavily armed illegal aliens from Mexico we've got selling drugs and killing people here in Arizona would be so scared of enforcement of employment laws...
Great points Silverfiddle. If we only enforced our laws then maybe at least half of the battle with the GWOT would be taken care of.
ReplyDeleteWe stand with you, we won't forget those who died and those who did it and inspired them. We stand with you and we will not submit.
ReplyDeleteI find the emphasis on the criminal element among illegal immigrants -- as though that was all there was to these people -- disheartening. The vast majority of these people only came here to find work, in hopes of living a better life than the one available to them in their native lands.
ReplyDeleteNo one knows how many are here. Estimates run from 11 to 17 million. I can see, however, from my own experience that only a relatively small percentage of the illegals are involved in the drug trade or in other forms of violent crime.
I think that may not be so true in California, however, because The Golden State is one of the most liberal in the nation and, therefore, does everything possible to encourage, applaud and reward despicable behavior -- at taxpayer's expense.
Does anyone seriously believe that pregnant women would be risking life and limb to get here, if the now-popular misreading of the 14th amendment hadn't guaranteed their infants instant American citizenship, and if imbecilic liberals hadn't guaranteed them instant access to welfare payments, free medical care, free education and probably access to public housing at American taxpayer's expense?
Don't be silly, Willy.
For one-hundred years Liberals have made it their business to do everything possible to kill any advantages there may once have been to being a member of the Entrepreneur-Investor-Executive class. There would be no market for illegal immigrants were this not the case. After all, why would anyone work -- especially at necessary-but-unpleasant menial tasks -- if they can get paid for doing nothing and get free housing and free medical care in the bargain?
Liberals couldn't wait to extend this dubious privilege to illegals, and that is why we now have a BIG problem.
Liberals would like to extend these invented rights and privileges to EVERYONE all over the WORLD so NO ONE will ever be "exploited" again.
Once that happens, you won't BELIEVE how rapidly the standard of living will decline to mud hut status.
Universal pandering to the lowest common denominator will guarantee that everybody sinks to that abysmal level within one generation.
With any luck the competition illegal immigrants, who want to work, have brought back to the jobs market could prove to be our salvation -- provided we don't let the liberals fuck it up.
Our problem is NOT illegal immigration; it's LIBERALISM.
~ FreeThinke
"Our government is inept at sorting out the good ones from the bad ones"
ReplyDeleteDrug addicts will take money (or votes) for anyone. Nor do they care about the citizens. Only to the extent that the engine keeps running so they can launder money into their pockets.
I agree with Most Rev. Gregori. I'll add to that no Wahabi funds coming in to the U.S. for Muslim schools.
ReplyDeleteMany great points Silver. I don't know about the Military. To get around Posse Comitatus - maybe we could in a good way, but I would not want it with this President, and I don't know comes after, and then after that, and then after that.
What though the radiance which was once so bright
ReplyDeleteBe now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower,
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.
~ William Wordsworth from Intimations of Immortality
~ Submitted by FreeThinke
Bastiat, you missed the point.
ReplyDeleteIf we had a realistic and functional immigration system - and yes, that means importing a lot of poor brown people, and yes, that mean's growing government - then the only people crossing the borders would be the bad guys.
It would be a lot easier to secure the borders from real dangers if we could just focus on the real dangers.
The same could be said for the wwar on drugs...
If we had a realistic and functional drug policy - and yes, that means a lot of poor brown people not being in jail, and yes, that mean's growing government - then the only drugs we'd have to worry about are the dangerous ones.
JMJ
To be alive is power,
ReplyDeleteExisting in itself,
Without a further function,
Omnipotence enough.
~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
To remain alive at the expense of losing one's integrity, however, is to have lived in vain. It is from unswerving devotion to Truth -- and the consistent exercise of sound judgment -- that we derive our power.
~ FreeThinke
Jersey,
ReplyDeleteDo you honestly believe that punishing employers by flushing the illegal aliens out of the work would improve our economy?
Do you honestly believe those jobs would be immediately filled by natural-born American hungry and eager for employment?
Do you actually believe that if employers were forced to pay grossly inflated union wages and provide costly benefits to American union employees that A) the quality of products made would improve, B) the cost to the consumer could be kept sufficiently within bounds so the product would remain viable, C) the business involved could still make enough profit to remain solvent and productive enough to continue to pay dividends to shareholders?
If you do believe all that, then please tell us how it could be done. I'm all ears.
~ FreeThinke
Jersey,
ReplyDeleteCould you please explain what you meant by this statement:
If we had a realistic and functional drug policy - and yes, that means a lot of poor brown people not being in jail, and yes, that mean's growing government - then the only drugs we'd have to worry about are the dangerous ones.
It sounds as though you believe that "poor brown people" should be given special treatment when they commit crimes, and not be expected to be held accountable and have to pay for their misdeeds.
Is that what you think?
How would "growing government" help the problem of drug abuse and illegal drug trafficking?
Since the government is virtually bankrupt already, how could it possible "grow" any larger, unless you're suggesting it be staffed by volunteers.
Your statement seems incoherent to me, but I believe you are good hearted and mean well, so I'm hoping you can clarify your position little. Who knows? I might wind up agreeing with you, once I understand what you're driving at, though I rather doubt it.
~ FreeThinke
FT... interesting "Estimates run from 11 to 17 million":
ReplyDeleteApproximately 14 Million ILLEGAL Aliens
and...
"The number of unemployed persons, at 14.0 million, was essentially unchanged in August, and the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent."
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
Sorry, open borders is one aspect of libertarianism I can't accept.
Jersey: "and yes, that means importing a lot of poor brown people, and yes, that mean's growing government"
Don't we already have enough of our own "poor brown people"? And I might add white, yellow, red, and black...
funny how to the side that accuses us of racism they can't leave it at just "poor people".
and "and yes, that mean's growing government"
Why? Can't have too much of a good thing eh?
Enforce E-Verify hiring and go after the dirty businesses who hire illegals.
ReplyDeleteI've advocated that for years!
Mr. AOW lost his primary job because plenty of illegals lined up at the warehouse, and none of the opted for health-insurance coverage. So, out the door went Mr. AOW -- after 12 years with the company.
Poetic justice, though: Less than three later, the business at the warehouse went bust. Lots of reasons, one being the theft rate. Certainly, not all illegals are thieves; however, that warehouse seemed to have a way of drawing drug-using illegals as employees.
In a way, Osama did win, you know. He bragged about how 9/11 would break us financially. And certainly all the security measures taken after 9/11 have cost us a fortune.
ReplyDelete>It would be a lot easier to secure the borders from real dangers if we could just focus on the real dangers.
ReplyDeleteIf we used the U.S. military to shoot on sight anybody that tried to invade, the problem would be eliminated completely and permanently, without growing government. In fact, we would be able to eliminate a lot of government that deals with the plague of illegal aliens infesting the U.S.
Don't invade and you won't get shot in the face. Now, that's a realistic and functional policy.
We must secure our borders and I absolutely agree with Abouna, 100%. It's time to clean up the USA.
ReplyDelete