J.D. Vance is right: Europe is becoming totalitarian

Okay, I watched Vice-President J.D. Vance's speech at the Munich conference.  And he was absolutely spot-on.  

The same European countries we fought for and lost lives for are now becoming as oppressive as the Soviet Union was.  There is for all intents and purposes no more freedom of speech in places like England and Germany.  Dare to speak against the government and you're declared "far right" and subject to arrest and imprisonment.  Even posting a meme on X/Twitter is grounds for prosecution.  Say something about the massive problem with criminal migrants coming into the countries and that's also considered "hate speech".

And then there are the people who have been arrested for the "crime" of praying in public near abortion providers.

Europe has taken a terrible, terrible turn for the worse and is becoming the very nightmare that George Orwell warned about.  Why should the United States tolerate this kind of behavior from its supposed greatest allies?

This seems to be something that's got a lot of people hot and bothered (I can't believe the CBS reporter who suggested that the Nazis weaponized freedom of speech... what the hell planet did she drop in off of?).  The German leadership is especially honked-off that a hillbilly boy from Ohio just told them to their faces that they have apparently learned nothing from their own history.

(Vance is fast becoming the most proactive and vigorous vice-president that I have seen in my lifetime.  Maybe even the lifetime of any living American citizen.)

I'm working on an op-ed piece about this, suggesting that the United States turn off its support of countries that don't really give a damn about democracy and basic human rights.  It's time to use that "big stick" that Theodore Roosevelt spoke of.

If the countries of Europe want to be totalitarian regimes, they can do it without our help.

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Canadian convoy: history in the making

It is now day #16 of the Freedom Convoy's presence in the Canadian capital of Ottawa.  What began as a group of truckers all the way west in Vancouver has become a movement inspiring many, MANY more around the world.  The truckers and their supporters want little: just the lifting of mandatory vaccinations.  But Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau - who has called the truckers "fringe extremists" - refuses to budge.  This despite his falling hard in the polls.  If this were England there would be calls already for his resignation.

Needless to say, this is extremely FASCINATING to me and I've been watching the Freedom Convoy's story unfold and evolve since it began.  The truckers and their supporters aren't going anywhere in Ottawa, and more are still coming.  Trudeau is in a tight spot: he either gives up and ends the mandate, or he chooses to end the occupation by any means necessary.

Personally, I think the man is in much the same position that Nicolae Ceaucescu was in during December of 1989.  That didn't end well for Nicolae and his wife: thrown up against the wall and shot as enemies of the people.  Averse to violence that I am, I hope that won't be Trudeau.  No matter how sleazy and out of touch with the common Canadian that he is.

Well like I said, I've been following this with extreme interest.  And if you want to also watch as history unfolds with our friends in the Great White North (and soon to be coming to Washington D.C. and no doubt state capitals across the fruited plain) there are several online live streams coming in from Ottawa, Windsor, Coutts and wherever else the convoy is making waves.  One of my favorites is Ottawalks: they've been doing hours-long live feeds from throughout the streets of Ottawa all the way to Parliament Hill.  Here's their most recent stream, and does it seem like a party has broken out or what?  Definitely NOT a gathering of "extremists" who have "unacceptable" beliefs as Trudeau charged.

I really hope this same momentum will be moving our own truckers and their backers when the American convoy kicks into high gear.

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The Berlin Wall fell 30 years ago today

Here's my piece of it:

The slab of it at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum (photo taken December 21, 2016):

Oppression never lasts forever.

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Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act: An affirmation of liberty, and other thoughts

Some musings on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act now on the books in Indiana and that so many are in a tizzy about...

The act does not discriminate.

The act is not "anti-gay, anti-lesbian, anti-bisexual, anti-transexual" or anti-anything at all. Nowhere in the text of the legislation is there found a clause stipulating that any one or any group in particular is to be given any less protection under the law.

The act simply reasserts something that Amendment One of the Bill of Rights has codified for well over two hundred years: that there is a right to assembly and association. This also means that there is just as much a right to NON-association.

The act simply does as its title indicates: it allows for individuals and businesses to not provide a service if doing so violates the religious beliefs of that individual or business.

There are many people who do not believe that such a valid concept exists as "gay marriage" or any other kind of marital relationship apart from one man and one woman. These people have a right to those beliefs even if they are not agreed to.

The act asserts the rights of such people to act in accordance to their religious beliefs.

The act applies across the board to every citizen of the state of Indiana. Thus, a Moslem photographer cannot be compelled to be hired for a Jewish bar mitzvah. A Jewish carpenter cannot be forced under penalty to build a creche for a church’s Nativity scene. A Christian-owned bakery will not be obligated to bake a cake meant for a homosexual marriage celebration. And a homosexual-owned catering service cannot be made against their will to provide food for the "God Hates Fags" nuts at Westboro Baptist Church.

Those who are against the act have every right in the world to look for another business with which to solicit service as a customer.

Why are two homosexuals who want a wedding cake going to a bakery that they know is against homosexual marriage, anyway? Are there no more bakeries around, or could it be that they desire to forcefully compel that bakery to provide against its owners beliefs?

If the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is going to legalize discrimination and if those against the act are concerned about it on such a vast scale, then logically they have accused most of the people of the state of Indiana of being pro-discrimination and that said discrimination is deeply entrenched in that state's society. I have to wonder what most citizens of Indiana would think of that.

Those who are in favor of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act are not consumed by hate toward anyone.
And if they were, I would not want to associate with those people. Christians are not to hate anyone. But that does not mean that Christians must give approval of behavior that according to their convictions is sinful.

The ones who are most preaching "tolerance" seem to be rabidly intolerant of those who hold to the beliefs of marriage being solely between man and woman.

The ones who are most preaching "tolerance" seem to be rabidly intolerant of, for the most part, Christians.

Businesses have the right to serve or turn away who they wish. If a business does not want me as a customer, it can do so. Just as I can choose not to solicit service from that business or any other. If a business so chooses to discriminate, I have the right to go to or not go to that business. If a business decides it will no longer serve celibate white males with bipolar disorder, then I will not try to force the issue and neither would I want to. Neither would I try to be a customer of a business that discriminates against women or other ethnic groups. I will gladly take my money elsewhere.

Those against the act are naturally welcome to boycott Indiana. However such boycotts in general are counter-productive.

I would even dare say that boycotting the entire state of Indiana is akin to cutting off one’s face in spite of his or her nose.

The people who disagree with those against the Religious Freedom Restoration Act are not "bigots". They do not hate anyone. They are not followers of an outdated religion. They are not pro-discrimination. I have been called all of these things and more in the past few days, by people who do not know what they are talking about.

If a church is truly discriminating against homosexuals, I would not want to be a part of that church. Jesus loved the prostitutes, the tax collectors, and every other sinner as much as He loved His disciples. So must I. But neither did Jesus affirm or approve of their sins. Neither can I. He told them to "go and sin no more." So they must. So must I, for that matter. No church should turn away any sinner. But no church must be compelled to give approval to any sin, either.

There are already laws such as Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act in place in 19 other states. That is almost 40 percent of the country. These states seem strangely bereft of any boycotting on the part of those who are anti-Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

It has been a very long time since I have seen any alleged discussion as has been about Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act with so much incivility and raw hatred. And the vast majority of it seems to be coming from those against the act.

I like to think that we can be better than that.

You are free to agree or disagree with me as you wish. Regardless, Jesus loves you and so do I.

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Who is Joseph Kony... and why should I care?

It shouldn't have to be said, but it looks like it needs to be...

Viral videos do not bring down bad guys.

Charities do not bring down bad guys.

Silly little bracelets do not bring down bad guys.

Celebrities sure as hell do not bring down bad guys.

When push comes to shove, YOU having the will to say "no" brings down bad guys.

YOU defending yourself and your loved ones brings down bad guys.

YOU being vigilant brings down bad guys.

If all else fails, YOU being the one who aims the gun and pulls the trigger, brings down bad guys.

Americans seem too unwilling to care about their own children here when they are being controlled. Why should they care then about children being controlled by someone they've never heard of before, in a country that many if not most Americans probably couldn't find on a map?

I'm not saying that what Kony has done isn't evil. But there's only so much that any of us can do... and God has given us plenty of responsibility already. Responsibility that for the most part, we have shirked horribly. Perhaps even unforgivably.

Could it be that the greatest part of the "Get Kony" movement is because we have been made to feel helpless to do anything about our own situation, and are desperate to latch onto whatever it is that can make us "feel good" and empowered?

People, we've been empowered all along. We aren't free by the whims of man, but by the grace of God.

Now, when the hell are we going to finally realize that there's no shame in admitting that?

And what are we going to do about it?

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Trying to articulate something...

...and my anger and disbelief at what I am watching right now in this country, just won't let me be as mercurial a wordsmith as some have alleged me to be.

So I'm going to relent to brute-force attack.

Regarding how President Obama is trying to force Catholic hospitals and other institutions to fund birth control, against that faith's beliefs and teachings:

If this isn't a situation that demands civil disobedience and even flagrant lawbreaking against the government, then I don't know what possibly WOULD be!

I try my best not to judge the spiritual state of another. For the first time, I am inclined to be compelled to wonder about that of Barack Obama. How can anyone of conscience even conceive of mandating such a thing?

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Gary Ceres: Tellin' it like it is about thinking for ourselves!

Gary Ceres is one of the coolest most awesomest cats that I've ever known. He and I met during our very first week at Elon (when it was still Elon College) and... well I can put it no plainer than this: I've learned lots of good stuff from him about making mischief for the publick good! Like that poster of Hillary Clinton that we put up all over campus on the night before the 1996 election, but I digress...

Anyhoo, Gary has written an excellent op-ed piece that has been published in the Washington Times News (out of Washington, North Carolina). In it he takes an incident that happened while he was recently traveling across the state, and develops it into an essay about how it is that we no longer think for ourselves... but rather let politicians and dumb machines do the "thinking" for us. Here's an excerpt:

t’s not just the annoying shift of a light from a flashing red hand to a white pedestrian walking that we have willingly chosen to surrender our common sense to, but also the bureaucracy, particularly city-wide, that seeks not to govern us but to dictate to us on a daily basis the most inane decisions of everyday life. Why make such a statement? Well, firstly, of course, because it’s true. Secondly, maybe because we actually shouldn’t.

Now I am not advocating any type of civil disobedience or anarchy or any thing of the sort. As John Locke wrote of in his “Second Treatise on Government,” the social contract is necessary to preserve individual liberties. But when we allow ourselves to be ruled by the absurdity governing how many feet from a curb we have to place a sign, or whether we need someone’s permission to replace a door knob, or whether we have to beg for an extension on an absurdly high utility bill before a government worker, well, something is rotten in Denmark.

Click here for the rest of Gary's article.

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Osama Bin Laden is DEAD!

I guess that means we can finally get rid of the Department of Homeland Security and that unforgivable abomination of bureaucracy called the Transportation Security Administration. Right?

Right???

EDIT 11:52 p.m. EST: I will make note of my thankfulness that Bin Laden has finally come to his just desserts, by humbly suggesting that his corpse be given the "Mussolini treatment", culminating in his remains being eternally desecrated by wrapping them in pig skins.

But still: tonight, the United States has won as decisive a victory as could possibly be had against the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

Some will say that this presents an opportunity to bring our armed forces home.

I disagree.

Tonight, there is an obligation to bring them home.

A few months shy of the tenth anniversary of the attacks, and we can finally say in all truthfulness, "Mission Accomplished".

If Americans want to feel earnest victory tonight, then we should begin to take a good hard look at what we have lost since 9/11... and resolve to take it back.

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Thought on a Thursday morning

It is better to be a liberator than it is to be a conqueror.

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A libertarian thought for a Tuesday morning

To live for the satisfaction of a government of men is the most seductive and evil slavery of all.

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"Too Late to Apologize: A Declaration"

An outfit called Soomo Publishing out of Asheville, North Carolina has cooked up this astounding music video that should be used in high school and college history classes across America.

Here is "Too Late to Apologize: A Declaration"...

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Food Nazis strike again! Movie theater popcorn = 3 hamburgers?!?

The first time I heard about Center for Science in the Public Interest it was 1994. That was also the first time these ninnies went after movie theater popcorn. They declared it wasn't safe because of the coconut oil that most cinemas pop their corn in. The very next day EVERY movie theater listing in the News & Record posted declarations that their popcorn was free of coconut oil.

Those bastitches at Center for Science in the Public Interest made it damned near impossible to get a decent bag of popcorn at the movies for many years after that. Thankfully (well in my book anyway) most chains went back to using coconut oil.

But I learned something from that incident: that it's ridiculously easy in this modern world for someone or a small group of people to hide behind some fancy-pants official-sounding name that cons the media into thinking they're "legitimate". And from there they can claim anything and get away with it, no matter how outlandish. Who ARE the people at Center for Science in the Public Interest? Did anyone in the press do any hard questioning or fact-checking about their accusations at the time?

And that's why Center for Science in the Public Interest has borne a whole 'nother title in the vocabulary of Chris Knight these past fifteen years: the Food Nazis.

And now they're at it again! Once again the target is movie theater popcorn, which the Food Nazis at the Center for Science in the Public Interest insist is the equivalent of three hamburgers.

What the...?!?

Center for Science in the Public Interest claims that the findings were arrived at by "an independent lab". But when you look at CSPI's official release about movie theater popcorn you can't find any solid reference to this "laboratory". We have to take Center for Science in the Public Interest's word that the analysis was conducted and that these were the results being reported.

I don't mind saying this: that's piss-poor scholarship. It wouldn't merit a passing grade on a college paper and it wouldn't hold up under scrutiny in a court of law.

For all we know, CSPI pulled these "findings" out of their collective ass and thinks we'll be none the wiser. Jayne Hurley and Bonnie Liebman, the two "scientists" who published this alleged "study", are each longtime activists with CSPI, and the organization itself has quite a history of unfounded "attack dog" tactics.

These are jerks with nothing else to do but try to ruin a good time for everyone else so that they look superior and un-reproachable.

Just trickery trickery trickery, friends and neighbors. Don't fall for it.

(And when I go to see The Road next week, I'm buying an extra-large tub of popcorn with plenty of butter in honor of Center for Science in the Public Interest!)

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A thought from the weekend's contemplation

They who sacrifice enlightenment for power are never free.

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San Diego demands permit for house Bible study

I wonder how much of an issue this could become over the next few years. From the Fox News website...

Couple Ordered to Stop Holding Bible Study at Home Without Permit

Pastor David Jones and his wife Mary have been told that they cannot invite friends to their San Diego, Calif. home for a Bible study — unless they are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to San Diego County.

"On Good Friday we had an employee from San Diego County come to our house, and inform us that the Bible study that we were having was a religious assembly, and in violation of the code in the county." David Jones told FOX News.

"We told them this is not really a religious assembly — this is just a Bible study with friends. We have a meal, we pray, that was all," Jones said.

A few days later, the couple received a written warning that cited "unlawful use of land," ordering them to either "stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit," the couple's attorney Dean Broyles told San Diego news station 10News.

But the major use permit could cost the Jones' thousands of dollars just to have a few friends over.

For David and Mary Jones, it's about more than a question of money.

"The government may not prohibit the free exercise of religion," Broyles told FOX News. "I believe that our Founding Fathers would roll over in their grave if they saw that here in the year 2009, a pastor and his wife are being told that they cannot hold a simple Bible study in their own home."

"The implications are great because it’s not only us that’s involved," Mary Jones said. "There are thousands and thousands of Bible studies that are held all across the country. What we’re interested in is setting a precedent here — before it goes any further — and that we have it settled for the future."

The couple is planning to dispute the county's order this week.

If San Diego County refuses to allow the pastor and his wife to continue gathering without acquiring a permit, they will consider a lawsuit in federal court.

This almost sounds like what many Christians face in China, or how it used to be in the old Soviet Union when a church wasn't permitted to have worship services unless it was first "registered" with the state.

The reason for my earlier statement about this becoming an issue again is that the "house church" movement is growing profoundly in the United States. We're not talking about an evening during the week where Christians meet for Bible study, but believers coming together on Sundays for times of praise and fellowship when many others are congregating in more "traditional" places of worship. I've taken part in a few of these services and other than the drastically smaller number in attendance, it's not really different from a "big" church. There is music and singing, there is praying, there is an edifying message from the Word (usually more than one even, 'cuz in house worship everyone is encouraged to share with others what God is showing them as an individual).

Does it rest within the jurisdiction of any organ of state to demand that such worship - or any worship for that matter - must only be conducted in places with the "proper zoning permits"?

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A thought for this Memorial Day

Freedom is only always purchased at the highest of cost...

...and it's left to each and every one of us to make sure that it's never lost.

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MAKE MINE FREEDOM: Amazing insight from a 1958 cartoon

Just over fifty years ago, Harding College produced a series of films "to create a deeper understanding" of American culture. This one, Make Mine Freedom, has been "re-discovered" in recent days and is making the rounds quite a bit across the Internet. Personally, I found it to be uncannily prophetic about the country we are living in today. Perhaps we should begin considering the wisdom of the past.

Here is Make Mine Freedom...

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Ramos and Compean finally free (they never should have been in prison to begin with!)

This morning, former Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos were freed from the federal prisons they had been in, and rejoined their families.

About time. But then, their imprisonment was a travesty of justice from the beginning. Regardless of their sentences being commuted, a whole lot of people in this country will never forgive George W. Bush and his lackey Johnny Sutton for taking sides with a known drug smuggler against two men who were trying to protect their country's safety and sovereignty.

No, I won't be one to forgive Bush for that, either.

That said: it's good that Ramos and Compean are back home.

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Best way I know of to celebrate this Independence Day

Go to Best Buy or FYE or wherever, and get the DVD box set of HBO's recent John Adams miniseries (came out last month, we got ours a couple of weeks ago). And watch the whole thing while waiting to go out and eat hot dogs and see fireworks this evening.

If you read this blog during the time HBO was running it, you know fully well that I thought this was one of the most masterful and poignant miniseries to have graced the medium in a very long time.

Watch John Adams, and then think about the America that Adams and Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin and George Washington and all those other guys worked and fought to give us... compared to the America that we have today.

"Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it."

And after the movie that I watched with a friend last night there's more that I probably could say about it... but I'd already seen Mongol (back in December at Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9 in Austin, Texas) and I promised Phillip that I wouldn't write anymore about it 'til he did. Suffice it to say, it's ironic that such a beautiful foreign-made film could evoke so much thought about our own state of affairs.

Let's put it this way: when you see Temudjin (better known as Genghis Khan) in this movie, you'll quietly wish that we had someone like him running for President!

For what it's worth, Happy Fourth of July, my fellow Americans.

And I hope we get to celebrate many more of them.

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Today is Memorial Day

Why should we be honoring the memory of those who died so that we might be free, when we don't seem to particularly care to be free to begin with?

I see what has become of our politics, particularly this election year, and I cannot but think that it is, literally, become a thing God-damned. This is not what countless men and women across two centuries and more have died to give us.

While they were "over there" fighting for us, those of us over here haven't done a damned thing to be a free people. I now fear a tyrant in Washington more than I could ever fear a criminal cowering in an overseas cave.

There is no more rule of law in America. The Constitution, for all intents and purposes, is defunct. Government "of the people, by the people and for the people" is now government for sake of government, power for sake of power. When we arrive at the point where we are compelled to do things at the point of a gun more than we are by virtue of conscience, then we have turned a dark corner indeed.

Maybe now you understand why I am conflicted about Memorial Day. It isn't that some gave all so that we could have freedom that obligates terrible pause, but that most care to give nothing for their own freedom at all.

America will not be a truly free country again, I fear, until we have suffered a terrible fall. We may yet rise again. But the ground will first be caked with the blood of those who brought her to ruin before that bright and glorious day.

And as frustrated as I'm feeling right now, my mind is troubled with the notion that I might gladly throw some of them against the wall before offering to pull the trigger.

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North Carolina schools are starving students of basic American history

There's a very disturbing piece in the News & Observer by Holly Brewer, associate professor of early American history at North Carolina State University. I had no idea this was happening in North Carolina schools, until I read her article. According to Dr. Brewer, North Carolina public schools are no longer giving high school students even a basic education in American history prior to the Revolution...

RALEIGH - While few of us have noticed, the state Department of Public Instruction has gutted history education in North Carolina. As a result of a decision taken largely without public input or comment, high school students no longer learn about Colonial and Revolutionary American history unless they take Advanced Placement classes. Required U.S. history in high school now begins with George Washington's presidency and ends with that of George W. Bush. It is crammed into one semester (on block scheduling) instead of two.

At a moment when the nature of basic American rights has once again become a crucial issue in politics, our students -- our citizens and future voters -- now learn nearly nothing about the principles over which the Revolution was fought, except during one day in their 10th grade civics and economics class. The Constitution, inasmuch as students consult it in that class, becomes an empty document, a list to be memorized without context or meaning. It, too, is hurried over, in a course that focuses on other material.

Four years ago, I taught a refresher course for history teachers, who warned me that these curricular changes were about to happen. But I didn't believe them. In this state that was an original colony, I couldn't believe that our schools would virtually cease to teach the first half of American history.

I now learn from those teachers that these changes have in fact reduced instruction in early American history -- including the Revolution -- to virtually nothing.

LEAVING OUT NEARLY TWO CENTURIES OF AMERICAN HISTORY, and especially the Revolution and Constitution, is simply unconscionable. History provides a grounding in the basics of citizenship through the tangible experiences and decisions of historical actors, whether John Winthrop, Thomas Jefferson, Phyllis Wheatley or the ladies who participated in the Edenton tea party. Only by understanding that Jefferson was raised in a Church of England that put the king at its head, for example, can we understand why he so vigorously advocated the separation of church and state.

Our students need to learn where the principles of democracy come from and why they matter. They need to learn about the struggles of early settlement, about cultural conflict on the frontier, about the religious intolerance and conflicts over basic rights that motivated people to support the Bill of Rights in the Constitution.

America's colonial and revolutionary past explains why we have developed rules against torture and arbitrary imprisonment. That history explains how slavery was allowed to develop in the first place and why people began to believe that slavery was wrong. It explains how we came up with principles of religious toleration. It explains how to avoid unnecessary wars, and how difficult it is for empires to win military conflicts against anti-colonial insurgencies. It shows how we have changed as a people and a nation.

As the 1988 report of the Bradley Commission on History in the Schools stated: History "provides the only avenue we have to reach an understanding of ourselves and of our society."

The problem with history instruction, moreover, goes deeper than the recent change in high school standards. The focus on basic reading, writing and math skills in elementary school -- partly a product of No Child Left Behind -- has minimized history instruction in earlier grades as well. Yet history is at the core of what students should be learning because it provides them with so much useful advice and perspective on their own lives. ...

Hit the link for more from this extensive essay.

Color me paranoid, but for a very long time now - since even before I studied for awhile at Elon to be a teacher, even - I haven't been able to escape the sense that there's been a deliberate "dumbing-down" of the American people, beginning with their time in school. This essay by Dr. Brewer doesn't just reinforce that belief, it downright confirms it.

How can we be a free people if we have no understanding about the process that gave us that freedom... or if we have no concept of what constitutes actual freedom, at all?

Click on the links above for a sobering must-read for anyone interested in public education in North Carolina.

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