When Liberalism Stood for Something

Billy Jack was a badass liberal, fighting for the poor and oppressed and administering spectacular martial arts beatdowns to their oppressors.  We didn't have a lot of blacks out west in the 60's and early 70's; Indians were the oppressed minority, and Billy Jack kicked big-time bigot ass in their defense.  I love his reverse crescents to the face and his leg sweeps were awesome.  As a youngster in the mid 70's I wore a black hat and a denim jacket because I wanted to be just like him...




Tom Laughlin, the actor, writer and independent producer who wrote and starred in the Billy Jack movies, is himself an impressive man; a Jungian who lives out his faith in God and who independently produced his movies. Before he became ill, he wrote extensively on some pretty deep stuff. He is also a liberal icon who has been a sincere champion of the people his entire adult life.

Like progressives before him, he fought the fights that needed to be fought. Today, the movement lacks big causes like civil rights or women's sufferage, but it keeps fighting anyway, not with fists and guns like Billy Jack, but with bullhorns and 1960's retro hippie agitprop and tired chants. And in a Marxian tragic farce twist, liberals now fight for the government establishment, not against it.

Liberalism writ large is Dead

The only big issue left is to pull the rug out from under the corporate welfare queens and the corrupt DC grandees who rail against them by day and then slip in through their back doors at night. 

Self-described liberals would do well to focus on the root of the word they stole: Liberty. Defend it in each person's life. Freedom for each of us to pursue our own happiness, to let our freak flags fly without 15 government permits.

If Americans cannot sell raw milk to willing buyers without risking a SWAT-team raid, then what area of life is left to individual choice? (Scrooge-Like Predictions)

Imagine an independent neighborhood economy based upon barter. Governments hate that, and pear-shaped regulators spill over with sadistic glee at punishing independent daycare providers, home-churchers and free-lance food vendors. Imagine abolishing imminent domain and creating a nation where corporations cannot bribe politicians to seize the property of free citizens.

Marry 15 gay lovers, smoke dope all day, own 100 guns. I don't care what you do with your life so long as it doesn't impinge on my liberties and the government doesn't confiscate my money to pay for your mistakes. Buy raw milk, sell raw milk. Start a business this afternoon based upon a brainstorm you got this morning. Do it without teams of lawyers, and hire people without the bureaucratic red tape.

Already, most Americans hand over about half their income to government. Just for fun, try to name a few areas of life that aren’t taxed or regulated by the government. The government can take away your children based merely on assertions of abuse, or take your property and give it to a developer. You cannot build anything or remodel anything in your home, start a business, hire someone, drive anywhere, buy a firearm, make a political donation or do much of anything without being subject to myriad rules, regulations, taxes, fees, inspections, permits.  (Scrooge-Like Predictions) 

So my liberal friends, if you want to attract people to your cause, drop the big government statism, stop begging for "free" crap, and start walking and talking like Billy Jack. Like those wild horses galloping across the western plains, people gotta be free. 

The NDAA and You

by Hugh Farnham

The National Defense Authorization Act. A seemingly innocent enough defense funding bill, until Obama and his henchmen had their way with it.

Buried deep within this bill is the authority for the military to declare anyone as a domestic enemy who engages in "hostilities" and can be arrested without trial, a lawyer, or the right of Habeas Corpus. The bill was passed 220 years to the day of the adoption of our Bill of Rights.

This language, found in Sections 1031 and 1032 of the bill, has a sordid and salty history worthy of an Ian Fleming novel.

While this bill was slithering through Congress the Obama Administration was distancing itself from the detention language - but as admitted by Senator Carl Levin it was Obama who demanded the detention wording be included in the bill - with no provision for exemption for citizens. That's you and me, folks. But don't worry, children, Obama has signed a signing statement he won't abuse his authority.

There was evidence of an Internet psychological operation regarding these sections. I recognized this as I am trained in similar arts in the military. When the issue was first brought to light, suddenly several different erroneous wordings of the bill were being posted - within minutes of the expose. Somebody was watching, ready with disinfo at hand. Even my own Senator was deceived about the language and what it meant when I contacted him about it. Now legal scholars are beginning to agree on the destructive nature of these sections on our liberty.

I wish to make it quite clear that as a member of the military, I will not obey any order that is unconsititutional. Indeed, I will work to actively subvert any such order and will encourage the junior officers and senior NCOs who report to me to do the same.

Odd that the bill was supported by a company that makes police night raid equipment...

It gets only better. Now a Congressman from Pennsylvania has introduced a bill to strip people of their citizenship for engaging in "hostilities". Please, define hostilities? Could it eventually be what I'm doing now, Charles Dent, you tyrant?

I encourage you to read Jonathan Turley's excellent expose of this. Meanwhile, be entertained with a cartoon about your (now) lack of human rights by Ruben Bolling (click to embiggen):

Liberscarianism

Why I Cannot Support Ron Paul

The old progressive model is creaky and on the verge of collapse. Even some liberals will admit it is financially untenable. The orthodox statists scream for more taxpayer money, but everybody else realizes we can’t tax our way out of this.

Libertarianism is gaining a hearing from a populace that had previously viewed it as the milieu of nudist dope smokers, anarchists, and bow tied theorists. People are looking for solutions, but raw libertarianism is still too scary even for many small government types. It will take time, and the right people, for libertarianism to gain mainstream currency. Paul Ryan is not a libertarian, but he’s the kind of guy that will be needed: Smart, articulate, and able to deliver it all with a smile.

What's Wrong with Gary Johnson?

Gary Johnson is an affable guy with a solid small-government record as governor of New Mexico, but his talk of legalizing heroin scares people. And libertarians shouldn’t accuse those folks of fearing liberty. Reasonable people are afraid that mainstreaming drug use will unleash deleterious effects, just like blasphemy, pornography and hundreds of other societal poisons did once we stopped combating them. So the fears, while debatable, are well founded.

Retreat will not bring Safety

Ron Paul's foreign policy is naive and dangerous. His rEVOLution rhetoric warmly unites liberty loving libertarians, leftwing Kucinichites, Neo-nazis, 9-11 Troofers, Isolationists, and sensible small government conservatives, but it is folly to believe that "If we leave them alone, they'll leave us alone."

Just because the gunslinger hangs up his spurs and spends evenings by the fireside doesn't mean old rivals won't still be gunning for him. And "them" is generally understood to refer to practitioners of a religion that split into two rival teams after the founder died and then set themselves to the grim task of slaughtering one another. 1500 years later they are still at it. Is Ron Paul really so naive as to believe that people who nurse thousand-year-old grudges will let The Great Satan go gently into that good isolationist night with fresh sins yet staining his unrepentant soul?

Sunni terrorists are not fighting for deposed Iranian secularists

Then there is the ridiculous contention that our meddling in Iran in the 50’s has spawned Sunni Islamists.

Our CIA deposing secular Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh has been proffered by hoarse-throated lefties as the reason "they hate us." I am dismayed to see many of my fellow conservatives hoist this Noam Chomsky banner, because there are several problems with such simple-minded thinking. First, “they” are Islamists, and they have always been set in opposition to the leftwing intellectual professoriate class that Mossadegh represented. Had we not removed him, his fate would have been that of the secular intelligentsia who teamed with the Mullahs to topple the Shah in 1979: The Islamists slit the throats of their revolutionary partners of convenience, and the rest is history.

Blowback!

I am also dismayed to see some of my fellow conservatives pick up the blowback banner. Iranians didn't carry out the string of terrorist attacks bookended by the WTC bombings. The people we defended from Saddam Hussein carried out those attacks; and they are Sunni extremists who hate the Shia Persians!

We stopped aggression when we chased Saddam out of Kuwait, as we did when we went into The Balkans. Was the Kosovar Muslim who murdered US Air Force personnel at Frankfurt Airport blowback for our defense of his kith and kin against the bloody predations of Orthodox Christians?

The problem with the blowback argument is that world history is full of chain reactions. Blowback is nothing but the physics of human and societal interaction: humanity's equal and opposite reaction. We’d be wise to remember that good men doing nothing will also cause the dreaded blowback.

A Tower of Babble: False Dilemmas upon Logical Fallacies

In addition to Paul’s historical mis-readings and the logical fallacies they have spawned, we also must suffer breathless false dilemmas from his hard-core followers (thankfully, I don't hear these memes from my fellow Right Blogistanis who Support Dr. Paul) :

* Ron Paul is a constitutionalist -- If you don't vote for him you hate the constitution.

* If you aren't with Ron Paul on Israel you are a neocon.

* If you disagree with his foreign policy you are in favor of endless wars.

* If you agree that the CIA has done bad things then you must support dismantling it.

I don’t believe we should intervene everywhere; but we should never tie our hands and forswear intervening anywhere. I can concede that yes, the CIA has done some bad things, but it does not follow that the entire intelligence apparatus must be dismantled. Do Paulistas really want to gouge out America’s eyes and plug our ears? I don’t want us pulling dirty tricks on countries that do us no harm, but I do want us spying on enemies.

More "Constitutional" than the Founders?

Ron Paul supporters call him a constitutionalist, but nothing in our constitution prevents us from forming alliances with likeminded people around the world or taking action when authorized by congress.

George Washington invaded Canada, and as president he donned his military uniform to lead a militia army in putting down the Whiskey Rebellion. His protégé, Alexander Hamilton (one of the Federalist Papers authors) set up our nation's first central bank, and when a later congress voted against renewing it's charter, President Madison (another Federalist Papers author, and Father of the Constitution) established the Second Bank of America, another central bank. President Thomas Jefferson sent US Marines to the shores of Tripoli, and "The Last Founding Father" James Monroe's famous doctrine declared that any act by any European power to colonize any part of North or South America would be considered by the US government as an act of aggression to be met with military force. Would Ron Paul call these actions by our founders wrong?

Ron Paul rejects the isolationist tag while throwing up smoke screens about no more endless wars (a lefty trope), but he also thought we should have stayed out of WW II and his stated philosophies would have prevented us from winning the cold war. Western Civilization would look much different today if Dr. Paul's views had held sway. Forming military alliances, providing military assistance, and securing landing rights in other countries is a far cry from war-mongering. On the contrary, those actions, carried out prudently, save lives and money by deterring war.

The world is a messy place, with unprincipled actors brandishing horrible weapons capable of murder on a mass scale. Those who stubbornly stand upon principle will end up standing upon rubble. Between Ron Paul and the trigger-happy statists, there exists a sensible middle, and it is on firm constitutional footing.

I understand the Paulist urge of impatient libertarians and those disgusted with our statist federal monster, but Ron Paul ain’t the guy and America ain't ready for the libertarian full monty just yet.

Nick Gillespie - Ron Paul (a defense)
Yes Virginia, Ron Paul is a 9/11 Truther
Statement from former Paul aid Eric Dondero
Tim Daniel – Ron Paul
Proof Positive - Ron Paul's Foreign Policy
Jeffrey Kuhner - Ron Paul's Moment
Dorothy Rabinowitz - What Ron Paul Thinks of America
Ron Paul’s Mischief Voters
PJ Media - Ron Paul, Troofer

Freedom!

"Truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred." -- Vaclav Havel

Matt Welch's piece in Reason Magazine on his visit to the Czech Republic to celebrate the life of Vaclav Havel is a beautiful tribute the man, and also provides a caution against believing that electing a philosopher king will solve everything.  There is no salvation in politics, even when a beloved hero of the people takes the reins.

Havel spent 5 years in jail as a dissident against the state dictatorship and led his country through the Velvet Revolution, a playwright turned president breaking down tyranny's barricades and wedding his nation to Western Europe. As president, he remained a champion of freedom and moral clarity, but could never gain the whip hand over the new republic's rumbustious politicians.

"Many ridiculed Havel for his words about truth and love," Schwarzenberg said. "Yet it is the essence of the human struggle. And we must never give up that struggle....Only love makes us listen to the truth of others."

The Bureaucratic-Industrial Complex is Crushing Us

There's some wisdom there.  Even the OWS crowd is onto something, if in a one-eyed, twisted way.  As they scream for the death of bankers and corporations and demand free college and a minimum wage for doing nothing, they fail to realize that it is government that has enfeebled and impoverished us.  

Government told us to stop working so hard, don't worry, it's not your fault...  It's a nice sentiment, to remove a burden from the downtrodden (albeit with other people's money), but government also ended up snuffing self-sufficiency and rewarding failure and ignorance as it shouldered its way in to every last corner of our lives.  

Meanwhile the Government-Corporate Complex continued building great bureaucratic bulwarks against competition, protected by concertina wire tangles of laws and regulations preventing the little guy or gal from challenging Walmart and Microsoft, or from even selling food on a street corner.  And forget about manufacturing; too fraught with legal liability.  Better to take your investment cash to China, or Vegas.

Our politicians are not listening to us, and the bureaucratic class is out of control.  We want our lives back.

Truth without Love...

Truth without love is like facts without context, like music without passion, like a sermon without faith. That is to say, it is finally not truth at all. Parsing words to gain momentary self-advantage at the expense of deeper understanding spreads a kind of moral rot, one that inhibits development and blunts joy.

Havel found kinship with and inspiration from crazed rockers who insisted on living according to their own code despite an all-smothering state, which is how Magor probably intended the phrase that Havel would take and run with. Here, ultimately, is where truth fuses with love–love for music, for life, for Prague, for getting your drink on, and for taking advantage of every cracked-open door to bloody well do something with your life.

Can we all resolve, in this upcoming year, to evaluate the sausage coming out of Washington, DC not by our partisan lights, but based upon whether it advances or destroys personal liberty?  Don't try looking for love there.  You will not find it.

Instead, look for politicians like this...

Vaclav Havel’s Funeral: Why Truth Needs Love
The Welfare State’s War on Religious Liberty
Scrooge-Like Predictions for the New Year

Soft Secession

by Hugh Farnham

"...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."

Our relationship with the States' created agent, the Federal Government, is much like a marriage gone sour as Walter E. Williams points out. What was once a beneficial relationship has turned to one of spousal abuse, a nightly beat-down by the one in a wife-beater. As domestic victims, we have a choice: quietly leave, endure, or take drastic and violent measures.

President Lincoln tyrannically shut down the option of States outright divorcing the Federal Government. So what about a peaceful separation? If a spouse can't live in the same house without receiving abuse and scars, why not live apart? Separate beds, separate houses, but the same last name. Not a double espresso of Neo-Federalism, but a cup of Federal decaf, thanks.

Recently, Congress suspended Habeas Corpus and undermined the entire Bill of Rights - on the exact 220th anniversary of the adoption of the same Rights! Time would fail me to describe the myriad ways the Federal Government has overstepped its bounds and violated the 9th and 10th Amendments. Because of this train of abuses, America at this point is being described as "pre-revolutionary".

The idea of a Soft Secession has been building for some time. No wonder, the very foundation of this movement is enshrined in the Constitution itself. The idea of checks and balances, State's Rights, and limits to authority are all described in the Constitution.

Over 40 states have either passed or are in the process of passing state sovereignty resolutions and legislation.

So how could a State keep the Federales at arm's length? Vast swaths of the Federal Code unenforceable within freedom-loving States?

Isolate the Feds:

- Constitutional Sheriffs: Sheriff Mack has done great work in this area with his Constitutional Sheriff initiative. Is your Sheriff a Constitutional Sheriff?
- Fully Informed Juries: What if the jury members refused to convict because federal law is unjust and unconstitutional?
- States need to pass 10th Amendment Resolutions - with bite: Violations of State's Rights need to have mandatory jail time. Wyoming has this.
- Concealed Carry Rights: No permit needed concealed carry.
- States Rights Model Legislation: A poor man's Amendment process. If a plurality of states pass counter-federal legislation it is practically an amendment to the Constitution.

Cut Off The Coercive Financial Arm:

- State Banks: similar to North Dakota's State Bank
- Gold and Silver currency laws: Utah has just passed one
- A return of the concept of Allodial Property
- Federal taxes collected by, and potentially withheld by, the States themselves

Organization:

- Broadcast a common vision of what a Soft Secession would look like, and the benefits thereof to the citizens of that State
- An independent press that are not apologists for the police state
- County by county activists who would share this vision and stir up the people to make this a reality

I would encourage you to read two pieces by Walter E. Williams on this: Time for an Amicable Separation and Parting Company. If we don't act our future will closely resemble the fall of Rome - Martin Armstrong provides an excellent financial / historical analysis of this. They say history doesn't really repeat, but it does rhyme.

"All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force." -- George Orwell.

We are entering into a new phase with our abusive Federal spouse. The lies that once held us together are being exposed; all that is left now is naked force.

Crappy New Year!

... The old order is rapidly fadin'... *


This New Year will bring us another BS-filled presidential campaign, expected to be the dirtiest and most expensive on record as we are napalmed with lies, damned lies and poisonous partisan rhetoric.  We'll all be wanting to pull an Elvis on our TVs before it's all over...

The Euro will most likely collapse; Iraq will descend into a barely-controlled chaos; Afghanistan will remain unchanged, as it has since the dawn of time; the denouement of China’s Potemkin economy will be the centerpiece of a new global recession; and our politicians will continue to promise us lollipops and rainbows, unicorns and free money forever…

A Reasoned Look Back

Ducky has wondered aloud at the rightwing Christian fascination with Christopher Hitchens. And rightly so. My short answer is that Hitchens did not wear ideological or partisan blinders. He was a lover of truth and liberty and those were his guiding lights. We relished it when he took a rhetorical flamethrower to our enemies, but oh how it stung when he turned his rapier intellect on us! But even then, he was just so damned witty and well-reasoned! He made me change my mind on a few things, and caused me to view other things in a whole new light or with a more jaundiced eye.

I can say the same of libertarian magazine, Reason. They will skewer or defend people, politicians and movements based not upon partisanship or ideology, but on liberty and truth. No intellectual exercises to try to rescue a political hero or a cherished program, just cold-hard analysis that is also hip and funny. As they say, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll burn with rage, but you’ll never be bored with the content at Reason.

I tire of all the year end “best of” and “worst of” lists, but Reason's The Five Worst Op-Eds of 2011 is worth reading.  It starts off with a delicious lambasting of full-of-himself progressive pontificator Thomas Friedman, lampooning his famous and fulsome false-mixed-metaphor-dilemmas.  Gene Healy riffs on the headline to one of Friedman's billowy intellectual fluff pieces, "Are We Going to Roll Up Our Sleeves or Limp On?"

If you think about it, we can do both.

You know, Friedman's standard fee is $75,000 a speech. It almost makes you want to go join a drum circle in McPherson Square.

He uses Peter Beinhart’s defense of Anthony Wiener to remind us why we should eschew any sympathy and instead rejoice when a rat fink politician is caught …

Bah, humbug. Political sex scandals are entertaining and edifying—they remind us not to cede power to the political class, whose members are often less responsible and more corrupt than those they seek to rule. Why not kick them when they're down? They kick us when they're up.

I love this anti-establishmentarian slam to the New York Times (moderate) House Conservative, David Brooks’ call for “Service to our Nation.”

This piece from the Times's resident "National Greatness Conservative," won largely on the strength of one line: "Our lives are given meaning by the service we supply to the nation." What can you say? Sounds better in the original German?

Strap it on; it's going to be a challenging year...

* - Bob Dylan, The Times the are a changin'

Flamethrowers, Street Skiing and Tree Fishing

Colorado is one of the healthiest states in the nation.  We love the outdoors.

Sanders, my long-haired former-hippie neighbor turned libertarian, is one of those people who could look 50, or 25, depending on how you turned your head and what frame of mind you were in when you were looking at him. He acts like he’s 15 and sometimes wears funny hats or severe-looking heavy framed tortoise shell eyeglasses, which produces in me an odd combination of fear and amusement.

“Dude, you gotta get one of these!” he shouted as he cranked up the flamethrower he was wielding.

We were standing on his deck imbibing 471 Small Batch Double IPA's from Breckenridge Brewery, and when the blast hit his Weber kettle grill, I had to admit it did an admirable job catching the coals on fire. I also noted the singed branches overhanging the deck, and I made a mental note of the blackened portion of his guttering and soffits. He caught my casting glances and chuckled in spite of himself.

Of course I ignored his advice. I’ve got a gas grill anyway. The guy just ain’t all there. He’s got a medical marijuana prescription due to an injury he sustained when he hit a parked car while skiing. How did that happen? It wasn’t up at Monarch, where if you got really, really wild coming down Gunbarrel it could be technically feasible; it happened (appropriately) on Race Street here in town. His girlfriend (or ‘old lady’ as he refers to her), got him a nice pair or Rossignols for Christmas and he just couldn’t wait to try them out so he strapped on and headed down the street, in boxers, a ski jacket and WW II pilot aviators goggles an uncle had given him.  

I can’t really knock him for it. I’ve done some dumb stuff myself. Every spring I test out my fishing rods by casting down the street with a one ounce weight attached. Almost put out a mail truck’s windshield once, and I accidentally tore a birdhouse out of a neighbor’s tree with my Eagle Claw open-face. I use the extra heavies to get the bale to completely unwind, but it can have negative and far reaching consequences.

My friends and I did some street skiing back when I lived in Denver. We were supposed to take a day trip up to Keystone, but ironically, a blizzard hit and all the snow closed I-70. I don’t remember anyone wracking themselves up like Sanders did, but I do remember us falling down laughing when Dave did a nice kick turn off of Jamaica Street onto Colfax and passed a snow plow that was diligently chugging along. Jim from next door came out with one of those huge bottles of Jack Daniels. After some generous chugging, one of us, can’t remember who, slid into a neighbor’s house, causing her to poke her head out the front door and threaten to call the police. That’s when we decided to go back inside.

If we weren't suppose to eat animals, how come they're made of meat?

Anyway, I started out wanting to post on grilling, and I guess I got sidetracked. If you enjoy grilling, smoking or BBQing, The Ugly Brothers have some pretty good tips on their web site. Their Grillosophy Page is a treasure trove of outdoor cooking wisdom. Whether you’re new to the grill or an old hand, you’ll find some worthwhile stuff there.

I’m grilling beer butt chicken and smoking ribs for New Years, how about you?

A Gentle Answer Turneth Away Wrath

The most interesting and intelligent thread of the Year

I have read threads that are more interesting, usually in a weird or twisted way; and there are threads that contain conversation more intelligent than this one. But this thread over at Z's excellent blog, GeeeeeZ!, is an effective combination of the two, and it is a testament to Z’s always excellent topic selection and commentary as well as her patience.

What is it about Ron Paul that makes the crazy train go off the rails?

It started out on the subject of Ron Paul, and slowly degenerated into an angry, snarky shouting match, with Z having to step in to bank the fiery passions. She’s quite a moderator as well as a gracious host, proving true the passage from Proverbs about a gentle answer turning away wrath.

I could see that the thread was causing our beloved Z much anguish, but I’ve got to congratulate her for stimulating such a conversation. Beamish can be insulting, but he’s also very logical and he brings the supporting info for his arguments (which I suspect is what steams his rivals more than the insults.) I tangled with him once, but I’ve got to give the man credit. He knows how to argue his point, and other than the barbed ad-hominem, I was with him all the way on his anti-Ron Paul comments. 

Anyway, Beamish ended up insulting everyone, to the point of driving some commenters away. After some behind the scenes e-mailing between Z and some commenters, Z elicited an apology from him for turning the thread into a barroom brawl, which is no small feat. He sincerely apologized to Z without conceding the point of his argument.

A rare conversation on race that makes sense

The best part of the thread came at the end, when a liberal black man named Net Observer stepped in. I apologize for the labels. I use them only to provide a frame of reference. Mere shorthand tags do not do justice to this wise man, and although a Democrat, he says he is personally conservative, and I believe him. Go read his comments and it will all make sense. 

He said some pretty profound things about race in this country. I had heard the different pieces of his comments from various different people, but he synthesized them and stated them quite eloquently, readily offering that the thoughts were not wholly his own. He displayed a rare quality of being able to put oneself outside the debate, dispassionately analyze it, and then honestly put it back together. He is the rare person who can really see both sides, and articulate it. Go down towards the end of the thread and check out the dialog between him and Kid (a wise man himself). They are decidedly not the cowards that Eric Holder referred to.

Net Observer points out that it is not damning to incidentally share some non-racist views with people who are racist:

Whenever I talk about conservatives sharing common ground with white racialists on various race-based issues, you and other decent conservatives take strong offense. For the record, I don't blame you for taking offense. Frankly, I like the fact that you DO, because it so underlines your seriousness about the ugliness of racial prejudice.

To whites who ask why President Obama, or responsible black men like himself do not straighten out the gangbanger black youth, Net Observer says…

What if said to you, "Z, what are YOU and the other good conservatives doing about those white racialists you share common ground with? Why don't you guys speak out against it more?"

If I did that, ultimately, I think I would be placing an unfair burden on you. Because pragmatically, there's not a whole lot you can do about some independent white racialists having a few conservative opinions. Bottom line, despite the similarities, you have no real connection to those guys.

And like most blacks, I don't have any real connection to those lawless, prison-bound idiots whose skin looks like mine.

He nails the issue here, but does not damn white people with his comments; he is just describing what he sees and hears. It is an excellent explanation...

But the conflicts between blacks and conservatives are mostly based around not the basic facts, but a lack of trust. African-Americans are solid Democrats; which means they lean left. Conservatives don't trust the left.

Conversely, conservatives, unfortunately, share common ground with racialists and racists on issues like immigration, profiling, etc. So, from the point of view of a left-leaning black guy, conservatives look kinda racist.

There are some lessons in all of this... 

First, Z did not respond in kind, but kept her head and calmed things down without resorting to wielding a censorious meat ax. Beamish, although enjoying an extraordinary gift for debating and being in possession of the facts, turns people off with his pin-prickish manner. Finally, a black, liberal Obama voter shows up and displays a cultural insight, eloquence and understanding that are so rare nowadays, and conservatives warm to him.

It was an excellent dialog between Net Observer and Kid, full of Socratic intelligence, candor and goodwill, and Z is to be congratulated for hosting such a forum, even if it does at times cause her to become distraught.

Comment Thread – Geeeez: Uncle Onyango and Ron Paul

Is Christopher Hitchens Roasting in Hell?

A distasteful subject...

... especially during Christmastime, when we celebrate the birth of our savior.  It is made only slightly more palatable by the though of Hitch decking the Korean pot-bellied pig upon the face to face encounter, while Saint Peter busily checks the rolls in front of the pearly gates.

I do not enjoy such speculation.  I have my own salvation to work out "in fear and trembling," but Bill Bennett started it by going out of his way and off topic during a CBS interview, to say this...

"He was left and I was right.  We had great debates, great drinking bouts...  And I hope that, being the big atheist that he was, he's in for a big surprise."

Pretty ungracious for a man who extols the Socratic virtues of intelligence, candor and goodwill.

Granted, Christians have a duty to rage against the slouching, pablum-powered It's-all-good-universalism that completely ignores The Bible, but that statement was particularly harsh.

Bennett's apparently premeditated outburst sparked Allahpundit to explore three possible fates for our beloved writer:

1) He's damned.
2) He secretly converted, which he pegs as an insult to a man of strong and clear atheistic convictions who made his deathbed and unblinkingly laid down upon it.
3) “well, maybe God will cut him a break.”

Allahpundit marvels at how many Christians who loved Hitch's work fall into the third category.  He concludes...

"... he’ll go down in history as a blasphemer of world-beating vehemence — and yet there are still millions of believers who so love and admire him for his art that, in spite of it all, they’re straining to somehow get him off the hook with God anyway. Now that’s a legacy."  (Allahpundit)

Ross Douthat explores the third possibility in Hitchens and Hell, giving us a thumbnail sketch of theological thought that supports the salvation of Christopher Hitchens, concluding...

Rather, the point is that we just don’t know. As Henry James had it: “Never say you know the last word about any human heart.” Or in the words of Saint Paul: “For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face.” Both the goats and the sheep are surprised by God’s judgment. And even for the most confident believer, the plain words of the New Testament suggest that Christopher Hitchens’ ultimate fate will count among the least of the next life’s many surprises. (Douthat)

Doctoral candidate in theology Kevin Considine asks a provocative question about the eternal fate of Kim Jong Il, a rapist dictator responsible for the death of millions.  It could just as easily be asked about the fate of Christopher Hitchens, or any one of us...

So, we are forced to live in ambiguity. We have no way of knowing. So maybe the better question to ponder is this: should we want there to be salvation for such a brutal man, even if justice is somehow achieved as a prerequisite? And what does it say about me (and us) if I prefer a “pound of bloody flesh” to trump God’s ridiculous love for all human beings? I’m not sure I want to answer that question. (Considine)

If that statement intrigues you, follow the link and read the short article. Also, read the comment threat; it contains some thoughtful responses.

But more importantly, what do you think?

Link:  Considine - Is there salvation for Kim Jong Il?

Save Your Computer

Is it right to harbor hate-filled thoughts of people burning in hell?  

I know it's Christmastime, but I couldn't help it.  One of my computers caught a particularly nasty virus.  It was the one that looks like an antivirus program.  It ended up attaching itself to critical Windows 7 processes, so it could not be removed and it tore up the firewall in the process.

I may have picked it up investigating naked women riding scooters, or it could have been the kids downloading time-wasting games.  Regardless, I got it and couldn't get rid of it.

I went out to some on-line forums looking for a solution, and all I ended up doing was wallowing in the cries of the angry and frustrated.  Here's a few of my favorite comments...

"I'd like to get my hands on the son of a bitch that did this.  I've removed it three times and it keeps coming back."

"Murder is forefront in my mind."

And I agree with them.

Fortunately, I was prepared.  I recommend everyone own a 500 GB to 1 TB external USB drive (They go for around $100) to back up anything you care about.  I do.  That way, worst case scenario happens and you still have your family pictures and important documents.  I own four of them because I have a lot of music and video

A Cheap Insurance Policy

I could not clean my computer, but I did not despair.  Why?  Because I made a complete system image when I first got my computer.  Here is how I do it, and I recommend everyone do something similar.  A little advanced planning can get you back up and running when disaster strikes.

In addition to an external drive, you will also need another hard drive, and a blank DVD.  Here's what I do when I get a new computer:

1.  Decrapify the computer.  Remove all the trial versions, crapware and other useless stuff.
2.  Install good stuff.  Spybot, Windows Defender or AVG Free Edition, and all your other software
3.  Do a Spybot scan, virus scan Disk scan, Defrag
4.  Use Control Panel/Backup and Restore to Create a Rescue Disk
5.  Use Control Panel/Backup and Restore to Create a System Image and put it on your external USB Drive
6.  Take the hard drive out of your computer, label it, and set it aside.  Install the brand new hard drive
7.  Boot your computer using the rescue disk you made, and when prompted select 'restore system image'
8.  Point the restore process to the USB drive where your system image resides
9.  Windows will create a clone on the new hard drive and then boot up to Windows 7.

Once the process completes and Windows starts, you are done.  You now have the exact computer you had before, but on a new drive.  You also now have an emergency hard drive ready to go if disaster strikes.

If you don't want to spring for the second drive, you can still follow these steps to make a system image, and if heaven forbid something goes wrong with your computer, you can boot up using the the rescue disk and restore your system.  Be sure to save off any files and settings first!  This process completely wipes your disk, eradicating any spyware, viruses or other useless stuff junking up your computer.

Doing this faithfully for each of my computers has saved me more than once.

Happy computing!

My Favorite Santa

Ilya Repin: Saint Nicholas 
saves three innocents from 
death

A two-fisted Santa who was strong enough to take a beating for his faith, and could also dish one out, is my kind of Santa...

Depending on how you roll, theologically speaking, this is either the First Day or the Second Day of Christmas. While Christ is the reason for the season, Santa Claus, or St. Nicholas, has taken a prominent role.

We've all heard various legends surrounding St Nicholas, as well as the different traditions. Professor James Parker of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has written an interesting article that brings out some of the lesser-known information about the Proto-Santa, who most historians agree was a real bishop in what is now modern-day Turkey.

"He's making a list and checking it twice, he's going to find out who's naughty or nice."

We're familiar with the Nicholas who grew up rich and apparently enjoyed giving away his inherited wealth to help those less fortunate.  But as the late Paul Harvey would say:  Now, for the rrrrrest of the story...

He was jailed and beaten by the Romans for worshiping Jesus, emerging from prison bloody and scarred, but unbowed. Legend has it he administered a beatdown to Arius at the council of Nicea for the heresiarch's assertion that Christ was mere creature. Probably apocryphal, but it's entertaining to think about, and as legends do, it most likely reveals a "Santa" that is anything but happy and fluffy, but rather and strong man willing to fight for his faith. 

So let those who care not for Christianity continue with their secularized Santa. Join in on the fun next year without so much as a pang of guilt! We know the truth...

The Real Santa Claus is Worth Remembering

Merry Christmas!

* - Hector Garrido's "Jesus, Light of the World"

I wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year! 

Snoopy's Christmas

One for the children, big and small...



Now put away the computer and go celebrate Christmas!

Season's Greetings!

What do "The Holidays" Mean to You?

"Tenderness for the past, vapid generalities for the present, evasive abstractions for the future," (Mark Steyn - Merry Christmas from Satan Claus)

Zuzu's Story

I love the movie, It's a Wonderful Life. We watch it every year at Rancho Silverfiddle. Grandpappy Silverfiddle is sick of the movie, because once the copyright expired it looped endlessly on public TV because stations didn't have to pay for it

 The Washington Post published an article back in November entitled, For Zuzu of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ it wasn’t such a wonderful life afterward.

They tell the story of Karolyn Grimes, the child actress who played Zuzu. She had more than her share of tragedy in her life, and she never saw the famous movie she acted in until well into adulthood:

“I never saw movies I was in because my mom told me that would be prideful, being stuck on yourself,” said Grimes. [...]

Working full time and raising seven children, the 39-year-old Grimes had no time to spare, much less to sit around watching television. But something tugged at her as she saw snatches of snow-clogged streets of small-town America and people she thought she knew.

"Then it hit me,” said Grimes. “I was in that movie. I was Zuzu.” (WaPo)

George Bailey is a Capitalist

Liberals claim a monopoly on George Bailey, and cast all of the sins of capitalism upon Mr. Potter, but it's not quite so simple. George Bailey is a capitalist, bravely fighting the well-connected crony crapitalist who uses his DC connections in his campaign to shut down market competition and lock up the town as his own personal fiefdom.

Jon Corzine is a modern-day Mr. Potter

In the movie, George Bailey is driven to the brink of suicide by the prospect of his savings and load going bust because a few thousand dollars cannot be accounted for. Meanwhile, here in real life, we have actual Mr. Potters who are democrats. Uber lib democrat contribution bundler Jon Corzine lost billions, and you can bet he's never entertained the thought of jumping off a bridge into an icy river. And he shouldn't. It's all good! He's rich and well-connected, just the opposite of Jimmy Stewart's humble character.

Politics aside, it really is a wonderful movie. The courtship and honeymoon scenes are beautiful, and the underlying messages are timeless and non-political.  The actress who played Zuzu observed...

“Oh, it was fresh and dark, about as relevant today as it was when it was made,” said Grimes, quieting a moment. “Think of all the people out of work, losing their homes, hungry kids worried about their parents. What’s so different about today and 60 years ago?” (WaPo)

No Magic Bullets, Only Trade-offs

Recently, when conversation here turned to the bounty of fossil fuels North America enjoys, Ducky asked some excellent questions...

How much of these presumed reserves are tar sands and what are the costs of extraction?

Are we certain that fracking isn't going to have negative effects on the water supply?

Is there any reason we shouldn't hedge our bets and invest in renewable energy rather than assuming we can just go on burning coal?

Nothing in Life is Certain

Solar panel and battery manufacturing requires mining for rare earth and common minerals, damaging the environment. Also the manufacturing process for these products produces trace chemical runoff and other toxic byproducts. Nothing against them; nothing is perfect.

Even forsaking all modern technology and returning to the land like Grizzly Adams or the Engels family would end up destroying our environment. Burning wood and building log cabins would cause extreme deforestation, and 200 million outhouses could not be good for our groundwater. As we all returned to growing our own food, sewing our own clothes, with global transportation grinding to a crawl, we would lose the synergistic efficiencies brought to us by free market specialization.

"...the following logic does not work: something bad happens when frakking is done therefore we must halt frakking. The reason this logic does not work is that whenever anything is done something bad happens: and there’s not much point in our all being around if we’re therefore to ban absolutely everything." (Worstall)

Poisoned groundwater is not a cheery prospect. We need to ask more questions like Ducky. What are the chances of contamination? To what extent? Are some formations more vulnerable than others?  Can we use technology to mitigate the effects or decrease the chances of contamination?

Tim Worstall walks us through these complex issues in Fracking Contaminates Groundwater. He says drill anyway, but he gives a fair treatment to the argument. We pollute our air everyday using automobiles and generating electricity for our homes and workplaces, and we are living with it. Could a similar happy medium be found for fossil fuel extraction?

Merry Redneck Christmas

Redneck Santa and Mrs. Silverfiddle.  

Now that the North Korea Pot Bellied Pig has been banished to the land of wind and pointy-tailed demons, we can all relax and enjoy our Christmas.

I am a redneck.  I hunt and fish and drive a pickup.  I have guns and pocket knives passed down from grandpas through my dad to me.

More importantly, I love redneck jokes, greatly enjoyed Blue Collar TV, and I have the complete DVD collection of Blue Collar Comedy Tour.  

I got this in an e-mail from a fellow redneck named Redneck Ron...

We have enjoyed the redneck jokes for years. It's time to take a reflective look at the core beliefs of a culture that values home, family, country and God.

You might be a redneck if: It never occurred to you to be offended by the phrase, 'One nation, under God..' 

You might be a redneck if: You've never protested about seeing the 10 Commandments posted in public places.

You might be a redneck if: You still say ' Christmas' instead of 'Winter Festival.'

You might be a redneck if: You bow your head when someone prays.

You might be a redneck if: You stand and place your hand over your heart when they play the National Anthem

You might be a redneck if: You've never burned an American flag, nor intend to.

You might be a redneck if: You know what you believe and you aren't afraid to say so, no matter who is listening.

You might be a redneck if: You respect your elders and raised your kids to do the same.

You might be a redneck if: You'd give your last dollar to a friend.
 
You might be a redneck if: You believe in God & Jesus and believe that others have the right to believe in whatever God they want, or no God at all, so long as they don't make themselves a pain in the ass about it!

Be of Good Cheer!

Truth Never Dies...

We spend our time blogging about how horrible things are, and they are. We get all wound up and going on an anti-Obama thread, and then some realist goes and blows it by asking, "what can we do about it? How can we fix it?" And that's when the dark pessimism sets in. How do you get the powerful to relinquish their power and return it the people, the rightful owners?

Fausty, a UK libertarian blogger, wrote a nice blog post awhile back entitled simply, Truth. In it, he puts the impending great global collapse in an optimistic light, rejoicing that the rotten edifice of lies will groan under it's own weight and eventually come tumbling down.

"The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is."  -- Winston Churchill

Fausty celebrates truth, the increasing lack of which is discrediting the official commentariate and the lying liars in the political and business class that they report upon. We proles have educated ourselves, he notes, and we've learned much over these past few years, so much so that we smell their stinking lies as soon as they are unpacked, we no longer uncritically accept the propaganda.

Even as we get smarter, the mouthpieces have gotten more brazen with their tenuous twaddle, straining credulity to the point of breaking...

In 2008, for instance, the authors of most of the top-rated comments in national newspapers like the Telegraph would have been dismissed as "swivel-eyed loonies", had they expressed then what they express now, with such passion.

He's right.  We're caught in a slow-rolling avalanche of debt and despair, but they continue spinning fairy tales with a determined seriousness that sometimes has me thinking that maybe they really believe what they're saying.  Man's capacity for self-delusion is stunning.


Real Hope and Change:  Progressivism's End

The global progressive money-manipulating, freedom-stealing scheme is at its end, yet the practitioners continue spinning tarradiddle-stuffed fantasies to buy themselves more time. But like a losing gambler with a cocaine jones, they can only stave off the inevitable for so long. The jig will be up.

This is the part of Fausty's post that completely flipped my thinking around, wiped away my pessimism and gave me hope:

The funny thing about truth is that once it's out, there's no way of stuffing it back into its box. Once born, it lives and nourishes.

Lies and spin, on the other hand, must be constantly tended and patched up. To achieve that aim requires an enormous expenditure of effort and resources. The greater the lie, the greater the stakes and the harder the fall for its proponents. The web of lies eventually destroys itself via its own mass of contradictions; it ceases to make sense. Once born, the big lie ensures its own destruction.

That's where we are now - truth gaining on the lie. People are waking up in ever greater numbers.

Yes. The truth will out. Humankind has survived for millennia, and Americans in particular have a gift for reinventing ourselves. To quote a song from the wonderful musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, "Up from the ashes grow the roses of success."

No One Gets Out Alive

Christopher Hitchens 1949-2011

Christopher Hitchens has died, and it saddens me.  I loved his work, with the exception of his atheistic screeds, but even those served a purpose in making us Christians reexamine the fundamentals of our faith.

The 21st century is sorely lacking bold thinkers, loud polemicists and skilled communicators like Mr. Hitchens.  His prose was beautiful artistry in written word.  I will miss his mordant wit and always interesting take on anything and everything.  He was an Orwell for our time, giving hell to "Bastards HQ" daily.  Liberty lovers everywhere should follow his example.  The bell has tolled, and his death indeed diminishes us all...

Suffering and Dying in Luxury

One of the many paradoxes of modern life: Medical care has advanced to the point where everyone, regardless of station, can now outlive their money.

In one of his last essays, Christopher Hitchens, himself enduring a long and very public death watch, reflected wryly upon the demise of atheist philosopher Sidney Hook:

Toward the end of his long life he became seriously ill and began to reflect on the paradox that—based as he was in the medical mecca of Stanford, California—he was able to avail himself of a historically unprecedented level of care, while at the same time being exposed to a degree of suffering that previous generations might not have been able to afford.

Hitchens concludes:

So we are left with something quite unusual in the annals of unsentimental approaches to extinction: not the wish to die with dignity but the desire to have died.

He describes not his fear of dying, but his fear of losing that which makes his life worthwhile:

I am typing this having just had an injection to try to reduce the pain in my arms, hands, and fingers. The chief side effect of this pain is numbness in the extremities, filling me with the not irrational fear that I shall lose the ability to write. Without that ability, I feel sure in advance, my “will to live” would be hugely attenuated. I often grandly say that writing is not just my living and my livelihood but my very life, and it’s true.

Tyranny Lives Forever

Today, we receive word that Eastern Europe's champion of freedom Vaclav Havel has died.  With each light of liberty snuffed, the world grows a little darker.

Young or old, we all must become dissidents and contrarians if we want to save our nation.  Final words from Christopher Hitchens...

Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the ‘transcendent’ and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don’t be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you.  (Christopher Hitchens -- Letters to a Young Contrarian, p. 140)

Further Reading:
Christopher Hitchens:  Most Memorable Bon Mots
Vanity Fair – Christopher Hitchens Tribute
Slate – Christopher Hitchens
Matt Labash – A Hitchless World
American Spectator – Hitch-62
Christopher Hitchens: A Thank-You, of Sorts
Johah Goldberg Remembers Christopher Hitchens

Dude, Where's My Drone?

Our babe in the woods president is really playing hardball with the Iranians, who managed to get their grimy mitts on one of our high tech drones.  His statement:

"Let me be clear.  Bla bla bla..."

The Iranian response demonstrates that The Wages of Appeasement is humiliation...

On Tuesday, with Putin-like contempt, Iran demanded that Obama apologize instead. “Obama begs Iran to give him back his toy plane,” reveled the semiofficial Fars News Agency.

How did Iran get our drone?

I don't believe an America-hating mole in the CIA did this, as some of the more conspiratorial-minded have suggested.  It is possible that Iran Hijacked Our Drone, as a chest-thumping Iranian is now claiming.  They are not backwards people and they have help from China and Russia.

Add in our complacency (remember learning that Al Qaeda in Iraq had tapped into our unencrypted Predator drone feeds?), and it is a real possibility.  We are just about stupid enough to fly such advanced technology naked, believing no one is smart enough to take our toys away from us.  I don't know anything about our drone programs, but what the Iranian in the CS Monitor said sounds feasible if the aircraft's networks were not encrypted or if we failed to equip it with safeguards against GPS meaconing.

When will we start punishing complacency and incompetence?

Will anyone in our government or congress investigate this?  Does anyone get fired anymore?  General McChrystal is the only person I can recall getting fired for anything, and that was because he was stupid enough to invite a Rolling Stone reporter in on his staff's bull sessions where they trash talked the president (who the general voted for).

Another Plausible Scenario...

There could be a simpler, low tech answer.  A perfidious Pastun in the Afghan Army or some other group who is ostensibly "on our side" more than likely recovered the craft inside Afghanistan and trucked it over to Iran.

The CIA’s RQ-170 “Sentinel” drone captured by the Iranians last week may have gone down in Afghanistan and then transported to Iran by friendly forces on the ground, a former officer in the elite Quds Force branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards told The Daily Caller. [...]

However, photographs and video footage released by the Iranians on Dec. 8, several days after they announced the drone’s capture, clearly show that both wings had been neatly severed and then reattached.

“This suggests that the drone landed safely and that its wings were cut off so it could be transported by truck,” the former Quds Force officer said. “I believe it was captured by the Taliban inside Afghanistan and transferred to the Iranians, who then reattached the wings,” he added. (Daily Caller)

I don't know what happened, but that seems the most likely scenario. We have no friends over there. The Afghan soldiers we train end up shooting at our soldiers, and the billions in cash we lavish on that hopeless land is split between Karzai's gang of bandits and the Taliban...

Truth be known, neither the Karzai regime, nor the Taliban warlords, want the Americans out of Afghanistan. The treasure we pour into that country sustains the ruling cabal and the Taliban alike. We are the straight man at the bazaar, the stranger fleeced by the locals. (Fouad Ajami)

We are suckers.  We're being played for fools.  We are throwing our technological pearls before swine, and we are shedding American blood for people who hate us. Obama needs to wrap up Afghanistan in the same manner he did Iraq.  We'll take our drones away and let them get back to shooting down kites.

 
What do you think?

UPDATE:  Here's a story from Aviation Week with lots of technical details:  Iran UAV Will Not Expose Latest Technology