Sunday, November 30, 2008

Interpreting The US Constitution ... By J. D. Longstreet


(September 2007)
The Constitution. How Hard Can It Be???
By J. D. Longstreet
**********************

You know, every now and then, every American ought to read the US Constitution from beginning to end. I’d wager that if we did, we would not be living in such a screwed-up country as we have today.

One of the things I have learned, over my better than 6 and a half decades on this earth, is that the fellows who wrote the Constitution were quite likely the smartest, most intelligent, men on the entire planet at that time… and… without a doubt… would rank at the top of the intelligentsia today!

Funny thing is that back in the 18th century, folks had a tendency to say what they meant and mean what they say. They had never heard of political correctness, so… they called “a spade a spade”. When they applied pen to paper, to write their thoughts, they didn’t hem and haw about… they wrote down those words, which illustrated, exactly, their thoughts and their intentions.

Now, here’s the thing: When a person, of even average intelligence today, takes it upon himself, or herself, to read the US Constitution… as those Founding Fathers wrote it… they understand it! It’s as clear as a bell.

Now the question: Why, then, do we find it so inconvenient today? Yes, the US Constitution is inconvenient. To the power brokers in the US, the Constitution is a roadblock. It is continually getting in the way. And that is where the US Supreme Court comes in.

When an American turns to the Constitution, to learn the duties of the Supreme Court, often he, or she, is surprised at the limits on the Court. More surprising, still, is the mantel of powers the Court has assumed which the Constitution does not grant the Court!

The national powerbrokers learned, long ago that a Supreme Court molded in their likeness, could extend THEIR powers simply by INTERPRETING the Constitution in a manner which would benefit them. To arrive at that beneficial arrangement, the powerbrokers had to see that they determined the make-up of the court… that only those nominees to the Court who favored their biases could be allowed on the court. That set off a continuing battle between the two sides of the American Political Spectrum, which is near a fever pitch today.

A fairly intelligent high school student can interpret the Constitution. It is that clearly written. Yet, today we require a court of nine persons made up of scholars of the law… even though the Constitution does not require one to be a lawyer to serve on the Supreme Court! Did you know that?

Let me give you an example of how simple the Constitution is to interpret: Article One, section 8 of the Constitution declares that the District of Columbia shall be no larger than ten square miles. Got that? Ok, then why, today, is the District of Columbia 98.25 square miles? Huh? Oh, you see the constitution was inconvenient when it came to that ten square mile law.

The point in all this rambling is… you really ought to acquaint yourself with the US Constitution. When you do, you are going to marvel at how far from the Constitution the US has strayed.

May we suggest that you set out to familiarize yourself with the Constitution while you can? Already, our government is in talks with Mexico and Canada to merge the three countries into a single entity patterned after the European Union. Once that happens, there is a better than even chance the US Constitution will become subject to whatever passes as a constitution for the North American Union.


J. D. Longstreet

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Saturday, November 29, 2008

Darwin Got it Wrong and It’s Not What You’re Thinking... by Alan Caruba

Darwin Got it Wrong and It’s Not What You’re Thinking
By Alan Caruba

*******************

Charles Darwin got it wrong. This is not to disparage the man. Science is an ever evolving process and scientific theories are subject to being replaced by newer knowledge. Most certainly, Darwin (1809-1882) got everyone thinking about evolution, but the problem is that evolution is not a slow process. It happens very fast.

Indeed, Darwin’s friend, the famed biologist, Thomas Huxley, supported aspects of Darwin’s theory, but didn’t believe that evolution was gradual. Then, too, Darwin had to contend with those who believe that Noah built an ark and put two of all the creatures of the Earth on it. Religion is a great comfort, but it is no substitute for science.

I first became acquainted with Robert W. Felix through his book, Not by Fire, but by Ice, that pointed out that the Earth is on the cusp of a new ice age. Insofar as the Earth is now fully a decade into a new cycle of cooling, one that could last several decades or evolve into a new, full blown ice age, Felix not only got it right, but, in the course of writing his book, discovered an even more frightening scenario.

Magnetic Reversals and Evolutionary Leaps: The True Origin of the Species is Felix’s new book (available from
www.iceagenow.com) and, were it not for fans like myself and others, it is not likely to make it to the cover of leading news magazines or become a segment on “Sixty Minutes.” It will be largely ignored by the mainstream news media for the same reason they ignored his first book. Enthralled by the bogus “global warming” hoax, the mainstream media will find his new book equally appalling for its presentation of facts that run contrary to their ignorance.

Felix is far from alone in this view that new species are not the result of a long accretion of changes. The late paleontologist, Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) popularized that field of science with articles and books. Gould noted, “Gradualism is not a fact of nature. Most new species appear with a bang, not a protracted crescendo.” Fossil records demonstrate that a species remains unchanged for millions of years before abruptly disappearing, “only to be replaced just as rapidly with a species that is, though clearly related, substantially different. Nature does take leaps.”

Felix’s great talent comes both in his ability to read and absorb the writings of scientists from different fields of study, and in his ability to explain complex issues to people like myself. I always remind readers that, while I am a science writer, I am not a scientist. Felix is a science writer and one who brings a great deal of passion to his quest to understand the history of the Earth and the life that appears to distinguish it from others in our galaxy.

While researching ice ages for his previous book, he became intrigued by a phenomenon that always coincides with them, magnetic reversals. In addition to mass extinctions of species that always accompanied magnetic reversals, Felix and others noticed that new species replaced them. For example, human beings are, in the long history of the Earth, 4.5 billion years, are “blindingly new”, having existed a mere 200,000 years.

“Mass extinctions,” writes Felix, “have been the rule, rather than the exception, for the 3.5 billion years that life has existed on this planet. Almost identical, each extinction was abrupt, each was extensive, and each was caused by some temporary, unexplainable event.”

Permit me to pause at this point and note the vanity and idiocy of those who demand that humans must conserve every species on Earth, no matter the cost involved. This nation has spent billions via the Endangered Species Act. In a similar fashion, the notion that humans are responsible for a non-existent “global warming” is the justification for measures that will wreck the economies of nations and cause untold losses of human life thanks to famines that should be avoided.

The next time you hear or read the word “environmentalist”, you should also hear and read “fascist” for the core of the environmental movement is the belief that human beings are “a cancer” on the Earth and should be reduced to a minimum.

The real threat to life on Earth are magnetic reversals, as revealed by magnetostratigraphy, the study of the magnetic properties of ancient layers of sediment (strata) now hardened into rock. Major reversals “appear to occur in sync with ice ages” and other measurements of time. “And it happens fast!” says Felix.

The Earth is at the end of a cyclical interglacial period. Such periods are about 11,500 years in length and it has been 11,500 years since the last ice age. That portends that another magnetic reversal is due as well.

Though decried as “deniers”, those of us who have been skeptical of the claims of Al Gore and the legion of global warming charlatans, the real deniers are those who refuse to acknowledge the facts put forth and explained in Felix’s new book.

Those who would have you dramatically alter your lifestyle, by ending the use of oil, natural gas, and coal for energy, by installing thousands of wind turbines and miles of solar panels, are willfully ignoring the signs that the Earth is poised to enter a new age in which life as we know it—including our own—will be dramatically changed and to a large extent even exterminated.

There is nothing humans can do about this.


Alan Caruba writes a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/. Every week, he posts a column on the website of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/.

© Alan Caruba, November 2008

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Friday, November 28, 2008

Rid The Sea Lanes of Piracy

Rid The Sea Lanes Of Piracy.

By J. D. Longstreet

************************

I reside just minutes from the Atlantic Ocean and the coast of North Carolina and those barrier Islands along our coast which made for wonderful hiding places for the pirates of yesteryear. The Coast of North Carolina is drenched in folklore about pirates. The infamous Blackbeard was captured here and decapitated. The sports teams of at least one noted university here are named “The Pirates.” So, we Tar Heels have a colorful history of interaction with pirates as does our sister state to the south. .
That was then. This is now.

Again the high seas are infested with pirates. Their aim is the same… to rob and steal. But now, they have added ransom.

Recently we heard of an Ocean Liner being attacked, but managing to speed away. A few days later, in the same waters, a freighter was attacked. It, too, managed to get away. As I write, at least one of the largest vessels afloat, an oil tanker, is being held for ransom by a handful of modern day blackhearts in full view of the world, and the world’s navies, including warships of the US Navy.

Our own Caribbean is littered with modern day pirates. Yachts disappear to show up at some other location, with a different registration, and different name. Sometimes passengers disappear, too.

On at least two different occasions in our history, under two Presidents, Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt, the US Navy, and Marines, had to rid the coast of Africa of pirates. The Barbary Coast Pirates.

I bring up these particular pirates because they were based along the African coast, mainly the North African coast. The pirates we seem to be having the most trouble with today are also on the African coast, but the east African coast…the coast of Somalia to be more exact. So far this year, alone, those pirates have attacked over 90 ships. They have managed to hijack 39 freighters, tankers, and fishing vessels. At least 14 of them are currently anchored, under heavy guard, off pirate villages along the coast of Somalia. Estimates run as high as 30 million dollars paid in ransom money.

Turns out it is not as easy today as it used to be to take on the pirates. All sorts of national and international laws tie the hands of governments and makes them less than eager to take on a couple of dozen men with small arms and two or three rubber boats. But there is an outfit, based here in North Carolina, eager to do what the governments of the world sea powers are reluctant to do. I speak, of course, of Blackwater Worldwide.

Equipped with their own warship, the McArthur, Blackwater is looking to provide a new service to the merchant navies of the world. Blackwater offers to escort paying customer’s ships through the pirate infested waters, safely. Their plan is simple: Issue verbal warnings to approaching vessels which appear to have piracy in mind, followed by a few shots in the air, and if that fails… then the sharpshooters aboard a couple of helicopters, flown from the deck of the McArthur, will do their job by taking out as many barefooted pirates as it takes to discourage the attack.

Already Blackwater is receiving inquiries from dozens of shipping companies and shipping insurance companies concerning Backwater’s services in escorting their ships through the world’s most dangerous waters.

There is an excellent article on all of this at:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,592433,00.html

The country of Somalia still has no functioning government and it is a breeding ground for this type of activity.

Teddy Roosevelt, the last President of the United States to deal with Barbary Pirates, had the opportunity to use the big stick he carried and, he did just that. He sent seven battleships from the Atlantic Fleet to the North African Coast. It worked and the pirates backed down.

This blight on the oceans will not go away if we turn a blind eye. It will get worse. Eventually they will manage to stop and board a passenger liner and death and destruction will be the result. Or, terrorists will seize an oil tanker, sail her into the harbor of one of the world’s great cities, and blow it up with unbelievable death and devastation as the result.

Now is the time to hunt them down and destroy them… even if that means following them to their center of operations in the seacoast villages of the country, or countries, providing them safe haven.

J. D. Longstreet


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Petition To Prove Obama’s Eligibility To Serve As President Of The US

Petition To Prove Obama’s Eligibility To Serve As President Of The US
By J. D. Longstreet
************************

There is a petition circulating right now, which calls for the public release of Obama’s real birth certificate in order to prove that he is, indeed, a natural born US citizen and eligible to serve as this country’s President. .

I know, I know. There shouldn’t have to be such a thing. You’d think that a person fully qualified to be President of the US, under the terms set forth in the Constitution, and other US laws, would be more than happy to lay it all out and squash these rather harsh accusations that claim he is not qualified. Well, wouldn’t you?

But, for whatever reason, the Obama camp is doing everything in their power to stop the lawsuits, which number in the teens now, from making their way through the courts and eventually forcing him to hand over those documents and prove his eligibility to serve as POTUS.

There is a petition “demanding that the constitutional eligibility requirement of Obama be taken seriously and that any and all controlling legal authorities in this matter examine the complete birth certificate of Barack Obama, including the actual city and hospital of birth, and make that document available to the American people for inspection.”

You’ll find the petition at:

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=81550

We urge you to go over to this site and at least inspect the very simple and easy to understand petition… and… if you feel it is important that only Americans serve as President of the country, then sign the petition. This needs to be done as quickly as possible.

It’s our country, as Americans, and we still have a few rights left… at least temporarily. Let’s use them… before we lose them.

J. D. Longstreet

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Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving, All!


Happy Thanksgiving all!
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Longstreet, and the lovely and gracious Mrs. Longstreet, are off to be with family today and enjoy the annual Thanksgiving Feast with the Grands!

Please remember your blessings today and take the time to offer thanks to God, the source of all those blessings.
***************************************
We Gather Together (HYMN)

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;


He chastens and hastens his will to make known;


The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing,


Sing praises to his name: He forgets not his own.




Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,


Ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine;


So from the beginning the fight we were winning;


Thou, Lord, wast at our side, All glory be thine!




We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant,


And pray that thou still our defender wilt be.


Let thy congregation escape tribulation;


Thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!


Amen
--Traditional Thanksgiving Hymn (A translation by Theodore Baker: 1851-1934)
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We leave you with this note from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

For each new morning with its light,


For rest and shelter of the night,


For health and food, For love and friends,


For everything Thy goodness sends.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)


****************************************
We’ll be back in the trenches tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

J. D. Longstreet
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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Obama And The American Socialized Healthcare System.

Obama And The American Socialized Healthcare System.
By J. D. Longstreet


********************

The MsM is telling us that Obama fully intends to push for socialized medicine early in his first year as President. Why not? Our financial institutions have already been socialized (nationalized, whichever you prefer). Our auto Industry looks, for all the world, as if they are ready to become nationalized, as well. Now healthcare, which accounts for one-seventh of the US economy, is about to be the next huge segment of the American economy to be taken over by the government. How can anyone, observing the American slide into socialism, not be concerned and even outraged at what our government is doing to the democratic representative republic given us by our Founding Fathers?

The soon to be proposed national healthcare program will most likely be patterned after the Canadian nationalized healthcare system. So how does the Canadian healthcare system stack up against US healthcare these days, anyway? Where better to get a comparison than from a declared liberal site. So we dropped by the site “Classically Liberal” at:

http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2007/09/does-canadian-health-care-really-stack.html

We found some interesting stuff. We recommend you visit the site and read it in its entirety.

Socialized medicine is not about our healthcare as Americans. It’s about power over the American citizen and control over every facet of our life by the government of the US.

Our every move will be monitored, and we will be directed, by the government, in every facet of our lives.

Weigh too much? Lose weight… or the government won’t pay for your medical bills.

Drive too fast? Slow down or the government won’t pay for your medical bills if you’re in an accident.

Smoke? The government won’t pay for your medical bills, period.

Have more than (two) kids? Your medical bills will not be paid if you exceed the allowable limit on babies.

Pregnant with a third child and the government insists that you have an abortion, but you really want this third child? Well, either have an abortion, or that third child will have no medical coverage and the cost of the pregnancy, and delivery, will not be covered, either.

Didn’t finish High School? Your medical bills will not be covered if you do not get a High School Diploma.

Take the wrong courses in college? Well, if you didn’t check before you signed up for a course, and you signed-up for a course the government thinks is uncalled for, or that you do not need for your chosen occupation… then your medical bills will not be picked up by the National Healthcare.

Choose the wrong career, and you are on your own! No medical help from the government.

Get the picture? Almost total control. And you, and I, will have given that power to the government.

What about the cost? You sure you want to know? Well let me establish first… there is no such thing as free healthcare. Somebody is going to pay. Who pays? You and I will pay… in taxes. There is no free lunch! There never has been! If you want it… you must be prepared to pay for it… and if you think healthcare is expensive now… just wait ‘til it’s free!

So, next time you hear someone calling for National Healthcare, remind them of all the freedom they will give up for that cradle to the grave care.

The founders of this country wanted us to live free… healthy, if we can manage it, but free, in any event. Today, it seems we are prepared to give our freedom up for a form of modern day Marxism. Socialized Medicine.

J. D. Longstreet

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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The End Of The World, Or Not?

The End Of The World, Or Not?
By J. D. Longstreet
*****************************
Some predictions:



1. Obama's "hold out your hand to everyone" foreign policy is going to be a catastrophe. They'll love it in Europe. They're probably laughing their heads off about it in the Middle East already.


2. The US hasn't suffered a terrorist attack by al Qaeda since 9/11, but we'll get at least one during Obama's term.


3. We're going to lose in Afghanistan.


4. Iran will get nuclear weapons. There will be nuclear war between Iran and Israel. (This is the only irreversibly terrible thing I see upcoming, and it's very bad indeed.)


These are not my predictions. They are from an article by Steven Den Beste titled: “Not the End of the World.” You’ll find the full article at:


http://chizumatic.mee.nu/not_the_end_of_the_world

A friend emailed Mr. Beste’s article to me and, after reading it, I thought I would pass it on to my readers.

There are, indeed, some critical times ahead for the US. There is no doubt about it. Mr. Beste has given us things to ponder over the next few months as we wait out the end of Mr. Obama’s term in office.

During that time, however, conservatives are going to have to decide the route they intend to take to remain a force in American politics. It is more than a little obvious that remaining in the GOP and expecting to be a movement to “be reckoned with” is now out of the question. We have, for all intents and purposes, been told to “sit down and shut up,” or, get out. Many of us have chosen to become Independent Conservatives until such time as a viable Conservative Party can be organized to promote our ideology. That may be a long time coming. I am not detecting movement in that direction and the lack of motivation toward that end troubles me greatly.

There comes a time in any effort when you reach the point of diminishing returns. It appears, at least to me, that conservative efforts within the GOP have reached that point. For evidence one only has to consider the manner in which the GOP campaigned during both the election cycles of 2006 and 2008. Both those campaigns underscored the GOP’s snubbing of the conservative wing of the party.

It is time to stop crying in our beer and get off our collective behinds and get to work building a conservative party. The sooner… the better.


J. D. Longstreet
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Monday, November 24, 2008

The UN Celebrates “Palestinians”, Hates Jews ... By Alan Caruba



The UN Celebrates “Palestinians”, Hates Jews
By Alan Caruba

*******************

On Monday, November 24, the United Nations will commemorate its annual “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People”, a hate-filled day that ignores its own role in the establishment of Israel.

An international institution that trumpets its Universal Declaration of Human Rights while openly seeking the destruction of the population of one of its member nations is so inherently debased that it should cease to exist.

The notion that the United States of America should continue to participate in the UN on the grounds that it is the only forum or means to resolve conflicts is absurd.

Monday’s observance marks November 29, 1947, the day that the United Nations voted to establish a Jewish and an Arab state in what was formerly the Palestinian Mandate whose administration had been ceded to Great Britain following the end of World War One.

The State of Israel was not created out of “Palestinian” lands. It was part of the Ottoman Empire that had ruled much of the Middle East for four hundred years and which, at the Versailles conference following the end of WWI, was divided into nations conjured up by England and France. Among the newly designated nations were Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.

There were no “Palestinian” people claiming a land called Palestine. Most of the Arabs regarded themselves as living in the southern portion of Syria.

The 1947 UN partition plan mandated the creation of two states on the remaining twenty percent of the Palestine Mandate. There was to be the State of Israel for the Jews and a new state for the Arabs.

What happened, however, was that the Arabs rejected a state of their own and launched a genocidal war against Israel. The war was the primary cause of the Arab refugee problem that exists today because none of the Arab nations in the region would accept the refugees and the UN facilitated their permanent status and continues to do so today.

There were, however, Jewish refugees. Between 1949 and 1954, an estimated 800,000 Jews were forced to flee the Arab and Muslims lands where they had lived for hundreds of years. In addition, many European Jews who had survived the Nazi Holocaust migrated to Israel. Later they would be followed by the persecuted Jews of Russia and other lands.

On Monday afternoon, the UN General Assembly will convene to discuss the “Question of Palestine” and if this is redolent of the Nazi “Final Solution” the comparison is accurate. The General Assembly is scheduled to adopt six resolutions condemning only Israel for violations of human rights. This will bring the total thus far this year to twenty such resolutions as opposed to four resolutions critical of any of the remaining 191 UN member nations.

Israel is not “occupying” land that belongs to a Palestinian state because no such state exists. It has occupied land won repeatedly in combat for its very existence. In recent years it ceded the Gaza strip to the Palestinian Liberation Authority, Fatah, but the result has been that Hamas drove Fatah from Gaza at gunpoint and now uses it to launch rockets against Israel on a daily basis. The West Bank, by any international standard, is a legitimate part of Israel.

The Arabs who did not flee Israel in 1947 were the lucky ones. They were able to remain in the only functioning, true democracy in the Middle East and today their children and grandchildren number more than a million Israel citizens, some of whom serve in the Israeli Knesset or parliament, on the Israeli Supreme Court benches, and as tenured professors in Israeli colleges and universities.

The United Nations continues to promulgate the most offensive anti-Semitism found anywhere in the world and Monday’s observance is just one aspect of it. Its “Durban II” conference on racism to be held in Geneva in April 2009 will be a repeat of the hateful first conference that was boycotted by several nations, including the United States. It should be condemned and avoided by all nations that take the professed UN Human Rights declaration at its word.

Those attending Monday’s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People should be hosed down and driven from the chambers where it is held. The General Assembly should be seen for what it is, a place of shame, duplicity, and genocidal hatred in which no civilized nation should take its seat.

November 24, 2008

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Sunday, November 23, 2008

We Need Heroes. ... by J. D. Longstreet


We Need Heroes!
By J. D. Longstreet
**********************


In my youth heroes did abound. There were, first and foremost, the military heroes, then the sports heroes, even the guy down the block who saved the neighbor’s cat by climbing the tree to retrieve the cat, he, too, was a hero. But it is not so, anymore.

Humans need heroes. Heroes remind us that there is a better side to us. Heroes remind us that we DO have it in us to be better than we are… to accomplish what was thought to be the impossible, and that we do have it in us to defend those things most precious to us, like our families and our homes and even our country. But today you would think there are no heroes.

There are the quiet heroes who live among us, even in our very homes, every day. The parents striving to make a living and see that their kids get what they need to create, for themselves, a better life than that of their parents. Rarely are they ever mentioned among the phalanx of everyday heroes.

Military heroes went out of style during the Vietnam War. Although many, many, Vietnam veterans came home as a heroes, they were not accorded that status by their fellow Americans. Many were reviled and even spat upon. Men who had answered their country’s call and gone to war, and had every right to be accorded the status of heroes were, instead, shunned by American society.

When I was a boy, there actually were sports heroes. Oh yes. Joe De Maggio, Ted Williams, and the list goes on and on. No any longer. Professional athletes tell us they have no desire to be a ROLE MODEL, A HERO, if you will. And they aren’t. Many we would silently think of as heroes turn out to be abusing drugs, which brings into questions their athletic triumphs. So, we no longer have sports heroes.

Well, you may ask, what about the neighborhood guy who climbs trees and rescues felines for the neighbors children? What about him, huh? Well, that cat is stranded now, for good and all, except in the rare case where the local fire department will agree to come rescue the critter. Why? Well the neighborhood guy is concerned that if he should climb that tree and break a limb, some enviro- nut group will sue him. If he should accidentally harm the kitty, while in the attempt to rescue her, then the animal welfare groups might sue him, and if the kitty scratches the kids he returns it to, he might well be sued for allowing those children to play with a dangerous animal.

See the direction America has taken… and why, there are no heroes today? It is, indeed, far too risky to be a hero today.

And then there is the “Moral Relativity” problem. Here in America, the Moral Relativity adherents rule the day. Now known as “political correctness”, we are indoctrinated, from day one, that all men are created equal. Well, one can easily put the lie to that… if one wanders into the shower room of any military barracks in the world, or walk down a crowded beach in July. All men are NOT created equal. All men are guaranteed an equal shot at life, and it’s abundance, here in America by the constitution, but that is as far as it goes… or at least, that is as far as it SHOULD go.

Now, if you believe that all men are equal then you cannot have heroes. Because the very nature of heroism means that one person has exceeded the level playing field of equality and has become better than his fellow man in some way.

We used to understand that, in this country, and we celebrated our heroes. Look back at Audey Murphy, the most decorated soldier of the Second World War. A tiny little fellow, unimposing, but the man had the heart of a lion. He was a true hero.

And there was The Duke. Yep, John Wayne. So far as I know Duke never served his country in uniform. Except that, actually, he did. He portrayed such heroes, so often, and so convincingly on the American movie screen, that he became one. He played role after role of a hero in different uniforms of our military service. Those western characters he portrayed paid homage to the early days of America on the frontier. He became a hero. The thing with Wayne was that “what you saw was what you got”. Off screen, he was the same man he played on screen. And that came through, clear as a bell, in the characters he portrayed.

Say what you will about the Duke, but he taught, at least one generation of American men, what it meant to be a man… and even more importantly what it meant to be an American man.

Heroes provide us with role models. “We don’t need role models”, you may argue. Oh, but we do, I would argue back. Role models teach our children important lessons about who they are and of what they are capable.

When I first reported for military training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, back on July 5th, 1959, I had no idea what I was capable of. None. I thought I did. But, boy, how wrong I was.

I weighed approximately 126 pounds. And that was soaking wet! And then they took us up to a place known then as “Tank Hill”. That’s where you went, in those days, when you reported to Ft. Jackson to be whipped into shape as an American soldier. Eight weeks later, having survived pure hell, I left that Army post a brand new American soldier, believing I could lick the world, if necessary, single handed.

How did it happen? One important factor of that training was that there were genuine heroes training us. The Instructor cadres were men who were veterans of the Second World War and the Korean War. Men who had seen the worst the enemy could throw at them and they rose above it… and won!

We had a First Sergeant, with an Irish name, and all the accoutrements, including the blue eyes and red hair. Never saw him that he didn’t have a bayonet scabbard hanging from his web belt. Never. He was a sergeant in the manner of old first sergeants. That guy was something to behold. When he walked into a room, or onto a training field, all the noise became muted and all eyes were on him. He commanded respect. For those of us un-initiated, at the time, there was one huge question we all wanted ask and that was… “Why”? After a few weeks, I screwed up enough courage to ask one of the lowly buck sergeants what it was about the Top Kick that brought all that respect.

The sergeant pointed to the Top Kick’s bayonet. “You see that”, he asked? I assured him I couldn’t miss it. The sergeant went on to say there was a story behind that bayonet. He told me that even though he didn’t know all the details he knew that the Top Kick had saved his squad, in Korea, by charging an enemy machine gun nest with nothing but that bayonet in his hand. He over ran that enemy gun emplacement and put the machine gun out of action and saved the lives of his men. For his actions the Army had award him a medal. His fellow soldiers had awarded him something far more precious… their respect.

As I listened in awe, I came to understand the awe, in which his men held him, that day. And… I had something of an epiphany, and that was… that… even heroes need heroes. The men training me were genuine war heroes, and yet… they looked up to the Top Kick as THEIR hero.

It is the nature of the human beast. We need “markers” to show us what we can achieve. Those who rise above the rest ARE those “markers” and we call them heroes.

America has become a nation in limbo. Having no markers, no heroes, to look to we are wandering about in a sea of disillusionment, not knowing who we are. Oft times we are discouraged from accomplishments, which exceed the norm. We are told it is better to remain a non-entity than to accomplish more than one’s neighbors, and rise above them, for in so doing we make those who seek to remain equal feel ashamed, or less important that we.

To that I say… “Tough!” It is that kind of thought that is killing the American spirit. It is that kind of thought that is killing America… period! It is that kind of thought that is ushering in socialism in America with Mr. Obama at the point of the socialist spear.

America used to be a “can do” nation. Now we are a “can you do it for me?” nation. We have not yet recognized that those who willingly “do it” for us will soon reign over us. Why, the naysayers have us believing we can actually lose the war in Iraq! They have us believing we can’t fight two wars, on two fronts, and win! We’ve already put the lie to that argument. We fought the Germans, the Italians, and the Japanese, all at the same time, and came away victorious over all of them. And we fought, not just in two relatively small countries in the same region, but all over the GLOBE!

Regardless of what you may think, or you may have been taught, there are persons among us who are heroes. These are persons who have risen above and simply not been recognized by a society that has chosen to hide itself in the mire of equal aspirations based upon our society’s lowest common denominator.

We desperately need a hero to lead this nation through the dark decades ahead. We are facing an enemy, which wants us dead and will stop at nothing to wipe us out. We need a leader who is not afraid of taking the tough stands, and making the hard decisions, which may lead to the deaths of countless numbers of our enemies, but, in the end, save the USA.

But can a man, such as that, be elected in America anymore? Probably not. Can a man, such as that, be found among us? Oh yes! But I must warn you… they are few and far between. You see… some say America stopped producing “real men” in the 1960’s. And those of the male persuasion, who survived the ‘60’s, are now teaching our male children what THEIR definition of a real man is and, dear reader, it is far from what nature created the human male to be.

So what are America’s options? Frankly, I don’t see any. We, as a nation, are destined to ride this train to the end of the line. You see, when a people, voluntarily, choose to emasculate themselves, they must pay the price. America has only begun to pay that price.

J. D. Longstreet

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Saturday, November 22, 2008

November 22nd, 1963 ... by Alan Caruba

November 22, 1963
By Alan Caruba


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I doubt that most Americans will recall that, forty-five years ago, on November 22, 1963, the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.



Clearly, part of the reason is that a lot of Americans have been born since then, but the other part of the reason is that, according to a newly released study, most Americans simply have not been successfully taught American history or civics since the 1960s. They have no real knowledge, facts, dates, events, to call upon.



That is no accident. There has been a deliberate effort to “dumb down” Americans to a point where they literally do not know how their government came to be and what its guiding principles, embodied in the U.S. Constitution, permits, proscribes, and limits.



Assassination is the ultimate act of treason. It renders the entire electoral process null and void despite the rule of succession that elevates the vice president to the position of chief executive.



Only once in our history, the accession of Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency, has an assassination produced a President of truly great stature.



I recall hearing the news of JFK’s assassination. I was working in Miami at the time, a callow youth of 26, well educated, but lacking any real insight to the event. Two other things happened that day. Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the new President and I quit my job and returned home. Shortly after, I became a journalist.



What would follow in fairly short order would be the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy while campaigning in Los Angeles against a first full term for Johnson and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. At that point, the nation was engulfed in the turmoil of the Civil Rights movement and, with the election of Johnson, would find itself mired in the Vietnam War. The streets of Washington, D.C. would fill, time and again, with Americans protesting that war.



Johnson would decide not to run for a second term. The nation would elect Richard M. Nixon twice, only to see him disgrace the office with the Watergate scandal and become the first President to resign.



In a very real way, all of these events began on November 22, 1963.



I was struck by the adulation, the exuberance of the huge crowds that turned out during President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign. It reminded me a great deal of the same response the then-youngest President, John F. Kennedy, engendered. Rumors would circulate after his election that the Chicago machine, led by then-Mayor Richard J. Daley, had stuffed the ballot boxes to ensure his victory.The reason it is essential to know something of the history of the nation is the ability to draw lessons from it. As popular as JFK was, he quickly blundered into the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, having won office in 1960. This was redeemed only by the standoff with the Soviets that forced them to withdraw their missiles from Cuba in 1962. A year later, JFK was dead; the victim of what some have said was an extraordinary feat of marksmanship attributed to Lee Harvey Oswald, a leftist malcontent.



The election of Barack Obama has been hailed as historic and, as the first Afro-American President, it surely qualifies, but history has a relentless repetition to it.



I am not suggesting the President Obama will fall to an assassin’s bullet, but I am suggesting that whoever holds the office of President will determine whether America continues to lead the world economically, militarily, culturally, and—yes—physically. If 9/11 was just a taste of what the Islamofascists have in mind for us, we are surely as threatened today as ever in history. Taking a longer view, we need to be mindful of the military buildup in China.



That is why it is essential to pay attention to Obama’s expressed views on homeland security and defense issues. President Ronald Reagan said that there was no evidence in all of human history that a nation was attacked because it was too strong. Even the ancient Romans knew that truth. “Si vis pacem, para bellum.” If you want peace, plan for war.



That’s why, as we commemorate the loss of John F. Kennedy to an assassin’s bullet, we need also to ask why an Arizona Governor, Janet Napolitano, is being considered for Director of Homeland Security. If she could not or would not defend the border of her State with Mexico against illegal aliens and drug smugglers, why should we expect her to do this and more for the entire nation?



President-elect Obama is already on record saying, “I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear systems.” It can be argued that nuclear weapons have deterred a fourth world war and conflicts between nations that possess them.



Leaving America defenseless or at least greatly weakened in a dangerous world is a suicidal policy.



It is said that Obama sees himself as some kind of national and international “transformative” figure. History will write the final chapter on that.

Alan Caruba writes a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/. Every week, he posts a column on the website of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/.
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Friday, November 21, 2008

Religious Conservatives Need To Leave The GOP!

Religious Conservatives Need To Find A New Home.
We are no longer wanted in the GOP!
By J. D. Longstreet
*************************

If I have said it once, I have said it a dozen times! The Republican Party no longer wants conservatives, especially RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVES! As if one needed proof, here comes an article by Kathleen Parker to end the discussion. The article is titled: “ Heresy and Other Truths.” In her article, Ms. Parker says:

“As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.

Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.

I'm bathing in holy water as I type.

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh. "


You can read the entire article at:

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_11024437

This underscores the on-going battle within the Republican Party these days. Religious conservatives are flat-out at odds with the moderates and liberals in the party and they (The moderates and liberals) want us (The conservatives, including the religious conservatives) gone. In fact, they seem to want GOD gone from the party.

I am indebted to Ms. Parker for "backing up" what I have been saying for many years now. Conservatives need to get out of the GOP and found their own political party and be done with it. When I refer to CONSERVATIVES, I, of course, mean the religious conservatives because there are very few, if any, non-religious conservatives. You must understand that, in my opinion, the term “religious conservatives” means ALL conservatives.

There has been worry in recent years that the union of social conservatives and religious conservatives and the Republican Party is beginning to fray. I beg to differ. As far as I am concerned, it isn’t fraying. It is threadbare! It’s OVER! It’s long since time for conservatives, social and religious, to move on.

Look, as a social, and religious, and fiscal, and political, and every other kind of conservative, I can tell you, with no hesitation, conservatives need their own party. We are not wanted any longer, if we ever were, in the GOP. It is getting embarrassing for me, as a staunch conservative, to maintain my allegiance to a party that so obviously wishes I would LEAVE!

Turning the tables on the GOP would taste very good at this point. They know they have a snowball’s chance of winning another election without conservative support. If we leave the party they will be forced to come to us and beg for our support in any future elections. That’s fine by me!

Yes, founding a third party is going to be tough. Yes, we may never have a Conservative Party candidate on a national ticket. But, conservatives would be able to swing elections and you had better believe our support would be sought. That alone would give us more input into future elections than we have now. Much more.

I am a conservative first and a republican second. I am a republican because there was no conservative party, as such, to turn to. Given a choice, I would have joined the Conservative Party and never been a Republican in the first place. There are hosts of southern voters who feel the same way. I suspect there is another host of voters across the other regions of the country that feel the same way.

In two years we have another extremely important election coming up. If conservatives want to see any gains for conservatism in the Congress we had better get ourselves organized and ready. We cannot do that by staying in the Republican Party.

J. D. Longstreet


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Thursday, November 20, 2008

America’s Group Hug About to End

America’s Group Hug About to End
BY J. D. Longstreet


****************************

As I watch, read, and listen to the MsM report the news of Obama’s selection of those people he wants to serve in his administration, it occurred to me that the change he had promised was simply a change… back to the Clinton Administration.

Remember how it is when you begin watching a TV show that is a rerun, but you are not aware of it in the opening moments? As the characters begin to flash onto the screen and the plot becomes more and more familiar it slowly dawns on you that you have seen this show before. As I watch Obama gather his merry band together, that is exactly the feeling I get. I have seen this show before. Eight years ago. So… it IS “Change BACK”!

Well, what about HOPE? Remember… Bill Clinton was “The Man From HOPE!”

Look, the dems are nothing if they are not persistent. They don’t seem to have had a NEW idea in decades. They are still running elections with the same promises and pledges and even the same phraseology in their speeches that FDR used in his. So it should not be surprising that the Obama Administration looks so very much like the Clinton Administration because, for all intents and purposes, it IS the same. All Democratic Party Presidential Administrations are the same.

As soon as Americans stop slapping themselves on the back and congratulating themselves for making history, and overcoming “White Guilt”, and ending racism, and all that baloney, it will dawn on them that they have been had… again.

Soon, it will become clear that Americans, well, SOME Americans, are expecting entirely too much of Obama. Too much was promised and too little will be delivered.

Lowering expectations is the order of the day on the democratic side of the aisle. Very serious democrats, in and out of the Mainstream Media, and in and out of the Democratic Party apparatus, are telling us to not expect so much from Obama. Of course, that is exactly the opposite of what they were telling us just a few weeks ago. Way back then they were promising miracles, hinting that Obama could heal the sick, make the lame to walk, the blind to see, the mute to speak, and there was a better than 50/50 chance that Obama could walk all the way across the Potomac… on his bare feet! And yet, today, we are told that we should lower our expectations. This is all a bit much. But this is what you get when the candidate is a blank slate upon which the voters can write their own expectations, their own desires, and, yes, their own fantasies.

That American group hug, we mentioned at the beginning of this article, is slowly breaking apart as Americans begin to look up and cast their eyes in the direction of Obama’s selectees for his cabinet. There’s some anxiety about its reflection of the Clinton Administration. Then, too, the confirmation that among Obama’s foreign policy plans is one to lean on Israel to retreat back to it’s borders as they were before they were attacked by their Arab neighbors in 1967 and had to fight for their very existence. In the war that ensued, Israel recaptured the old city of Jerusalem thereby reuniting it. Now, apparently, the US is going to insist Israel turn it back over to the people who call themselves Palestinians. This has caused a stir in Israel and there is now some strain between Jews in Israel and those Jews in America who supported the Obama campaign. They are NOT a happy bunch, at the moment. Neither are the Evangelical Christians in America and around the world. But, then, Evangelical Christians did not support Obama and won’t.

And there is more, much, more to come.

Too much is being expected of Obama by the Germans, the Iraqis, the Afghanis, the Georgians, most of eastern Europe, and all of Africa. Here at home, in America, too much is being expected of Obama by the African-Americans, the White Americans, the Spanish-Americans, the Gay Americans, the unborn Americans, the poor Americans, the sick Americans, the old Americans, the young Americans, even those busy breaking into America across our wide open southern border in hopes of change with Obama.

Disappointment comes first. Then comes dissatisfaction. Then comes disaster. After all, Obama is but a man. How he handles these three “D” words will define him for history.

Unlike George Bush, or any Republican President, Obama will have the added luxury of a Mainstream Media to justify his mistakes, his shortcomings, his disgraces, etc, to the nation and the world. After all, he is THEIR man and they will not allow him to fail.

Clear thinking Americans, both republican and democrats, know whom America elected and they are worried. They have reason to worry. America is as vulnerable as it was before World War Two… and every bit as naive. In a country like America, vulnerability and naiveté can bring on disaster. Anything can happen. Like a blind man negotiating a minefield, America must tread softly, and carefully, over the next few years. Inexperienced leadership was not what the country needed, but that is what we have. Americans are now trusting in blind luck to get us through.

Me? I pray a lot.

J. D. Longstreet


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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Turning Boom into Bust ... by Alan Caruba

Turning Boom into Bust
By Alan Caruba


*********************

Energy is called “the master resource” because every other aspect of life operates off of it. Nations that are rich in energy resources such as oil, natural gas, and coal, grow wealthy.

There is also something called “the curse of oil” because, if the price per barrel drops, the fate of some nations goes with it. This is the case, for example, of the former Soviet Russia whose government collapsed when it could no longer secure hard currency when oil and gas prices fell. Venezuela is an economic basket case these days, having nationalized oil and most of its financial and business sectors.

The history of nationalized oil and gas-rich nations is that they tend not to invest in their energy industries. They do not engage in sufficient exploration. They do not expand their capacity to extract their natural resources or to refine it. We have seen otherwise oil-rich nations like Mexico encounter financial tremors as in the 1990s when the Clinton administration had to loan Mexico billions to keep it functioning.

America has adopted anti-energy policies because of incessant environmental propaganda about “dirty” coal, out of the fear of nuclear power, and the refusal to permit exploration of 85% of the continental shelf and, of course, Alaska’s ANWR area, a tiny fraction of that State’s landmass.

If Congress imposes a windfall profits tax on the American oil industry, it will quite simply wreck the economy. As my friend, Seldon B. Graham, Jr., a longtime oil industry attorney as well as a petroleum engineer, points out, “”President Jimmy Carter started the ethanol subsidy on November 9, 1978 and signed the oil windfall profits tax on April 2, 1980.”

In effect, Carter put in motion an anti-oil policy that has existed for over three decades. Why is that a bad thing? The ethanol policy has severely disrupted the price of food worldwide as corn is diverted into fuel. The justification for this is “energy independence” from the purchase of foreign oil, but U.S.-produced oil has always been cheaper than imported oil.

If, however, the government creates conditions under which it is simply too risky, too expensive or prohibited to explore for more oil reserves, obviously oil production declines. There has been a 59% decline in U.S. oil production since 1980, the year the windfall profits tax was imposed. It was later repealed, but U.S. oil companies have a responsibility to their investors to act prudently and that has driven them to explore for oil outside of the U.S. or, to put it another way, to find foreign oil.

When you add in the idiotic ethanol mandates, you compound the problem. Graham points out that, “After thirty years, U.S. ethanol production was only able to produce less than 3% of our oil demand last year.” Moreover, “ethanol cost taxpayers $3.3 billion in subsidies in 2007.” Environmental claims that ethanol is cleaner than oil are false. Not only do you get less energy and poor mileage when ethanol is blended with gasoline, it actually emits more carbon dioxide per mile. “It is absolutely impossible for ethanol to replace foreign oil,” says Graham.

The justification for a windfall profits tax on oil companies ignores, for example, that ExxonMobil, just one of the few remaining oil companies operating in the U.S., pays more than $100 billion in taxes on the average.

Less than 11% of ExxonMobil’s profits come from marketing and refining in the United States and the company recently announced it was spinning off its retail outlets. Yes, it made great profits in recent years, but it also had enormous, risk-filled expenses.

Imposing a windfall profits tax on oil companies will give them cause to consider moving their corporate headquarters to other more congenial nations. The city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates has been engaged in a vast office building effort, perhaps anticipating the movement of corporate headquarters.

Americans greeted the expiration of the ban on offshore exploration and drilling with the expectation that American oil would begin to flow and thus lower their costs for this vital national asset. That will not happen if the President or a Democrat controlled Congress reinstates the ban and/or imposes a windfall profits tax.

The city of Houston has been enjoying a boom due to the increase in the cost of a barrel of oil. Even at $80 dollars a barrel, it is enough to have created “its strongest resurgence in more than 20 years” according to a 2007 New York Times article about Houston. “Some energy companies are expanding and putting up new buildings.” Others, like Schlumberger among the hundreds of service providers to the energy industry have established their headquarters in Houston.

Houston is home to the headquarters of ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and foreign owned companies like Citgo, BP and Royal Dutch Shell also maintain corporate offices there.
About half of Houston’s jobs, an estimated 1.1 million positions, are tied to the energy industry. The impact of a windfall profits tax would prove devastating to Houston.

Destroying the oil industry in America, a process that has been in place since the Carter administration, has left the nation vulnerable to foreign sources. The U.S. already imports some 70% of its oil. There has been a significant decline in the exploration and development of national reserves.

Unleashing the energy industries in America could dramatically improve our present financial troubles. Congress, having turned boom into bust, has a historical opportunity to reverse that trend.

Editor’s Note: “Why Your Gasoline Prices Are High” by Seldon B. Graham ($10.95) is available from Amazon.com.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/. He blogs daily at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/.

© Alan Caruba, November 2008

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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Planet Wide Anxiety Bubbling To The Surface

Planet Wide Anxiety Bubbling To The Surface.
By J. D. Longstreet
******************************


The human brain has this tiny little part called the amygdale. It’s in that tiny part of the brain where fear is generated and the fight or flee order is given to the rest of the human body. It is where fear is born. As silly as it may seem, it is the reason we humans have survived on this planet so far and, if we are to survive much longer, we are going to have to begin listening to it again.

If you are honest with yourself, you will have to admit that for sometime now that amygdale of yours has been elbowing you to get your attention. It is saying, “Hey, something is wrong! Something is about to happen, prepare, prepare.” OK, so it is a chemical thing and the amygdale doesn’t speak. Well, if it did, I’d bet it would say something like that, though.

If you have been paying close attention to the news lately, and I don’t mean election news, I mean the news that, for the most part never even made the “A” section of your newspaper, you have noticed that certain world leaders have been hinting strongly about a coming event, or events, that is/are imminent and will cause great distress on the people of the planet. Even the US VP-Elect has hinted at it when he mentioned something bad happening within six months of Obama’s inaugurating. Other world leaders have alluded to it as well.

Remember Biden’s cryptic warning a few weeks ago, at the Sheraton in Seattle, Washington: ““I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate, And he’s (Obama) gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you - not financially to help him - we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.”

Well, whether Obama’s reaction to WHATEVER IT IS is right, or not, remains to be seen. But that is not what is troubling me at the moment. No. I am more concerned with what the “THING”, the “event”, the “occurrence”, that is going to happen is!

Seems to me the first worry should be the chances of a terrorist nuclear attack on the continental United States. As a matter of fact, we don’t even know if one has already been attempted or not. Such is the power of the Homeland Security agency. A spokesman for Al Qaida has said their goal is: “to kill 4 million Americans—2 million of them children—and to exile twice as many and wound and cripple hundreds of thousands.” He went on to explain that this is what justice requires to balance the scales for casualties supposedly inflicted on Muslims by the United States and Israel.

It would take over thirtenn hundred terrorist attacks equal to the attack on 9-11 to reach that figure. Or, the terrorists could do it with just one nuclear attack. See?

There is an excellent article on this very thing titled: “How Likely is a Nuclear Terrorist Attack on the United States?” at:

www.cfr.org/publication/13097/
how_likely_is_a_nuclear_terrorist_attack_on_the_united_states.html
(If the line is broken you may have to copy and past the above link in your browser. Thank you. ED)

But, this concern would only affect the people of the United States. The anxiety we are speaking of is felt around the world. There must be something else.

May I tell you what I think it is? I think our friends in the Green Movement have succeeded in scaring the wits out of people with their ever-present chant that the world is ending… right now! It isn’t, of course. It isn’t even getting warmer. In fact, it is getting cooler. Yet, millions upon millions of people, the world over, have bought into the propaganda and as a result, they fear for their lives, and the lives of their children and grandchildren, from a threat of something that doesn’t even exist. Talk about a Bogy Man!

I think this explains how a man as inexperienced and as devoid of substance as Barack Obama won an election to be the next President of the United States. We have a populace so used to accepting the spin of the world’s Mainstream Media that they readily bought into the spin on Obama. They have been conditioned to do that, you see.

My generation is not as easily fooled. My mother used to say: “J.D., you won’t believe ox horns will hook until you’ve been gored!” She was right. I still don’t. So what is my generation afraid of? We’re afraid of what is going to happen if the younger generation continues blindly following the leadership of those nefarious characters who have molded them and conditioned them to accept the results of sloppy science as fact, and accepting that they must live out their days with the Damocles Sword of their self-imposed destruction of the world hanging over their heads. Remember the fairy tale of the King Who Had No Clothes? The Green Movement has no clothes, but as in the fairy tale, everyone is afraid to speak up and question where the facts are. I suspect you will find them in the closet alongside the King’s clothes.

If this were a movie this is the point in the story where the protagonist would grab his sidekick by the shoulders and shake him violently for a second or two and proclaim: “Get hold of yourself man! Start thinking!” But it is difficult to do the entire world that way.

Now, I have just scratched the surface of the underlying cause(s) of the thread of fear running through the psyche of the human race these days. There is more, much more.

Another thing comes to mind. The new President-Elect apparently is set to offer a divided city of Jerusalem on the alter of Middle East peace and, to sweeten the deal, we are hearing rumours that there is also a possibility that he will be willing to offer up Israel’s nuclear arsenal, as well. Our friends at The Liberty Sphere have an article you should read on this very thing at:

http://thelibertysphere.blogspot.com/2008/11/confirmed-obama-supports-dividing.html

And there’s another excellent piece by Caroline Glick at
www.CarolineGlick.com . The article is entitled: “The Perils Ahead.” You’ll find it at:

http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2008/11/the_perils_ahead.asp

Yes, these are perilous times. I have no solace to offer. It is well to note, I suppose, that Nature has a way of warning us, even when we are not listening, that trouble is brewing. These days, a little paranoia, I think, is a good thing!

J. D. Longstreet


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Monday, November 17, 2008

Controlling A Nation's Economy Means Controlling That Nation’s People

Controlling A Nation's Economy Means Controlling That Nation’s People.
J. D. Longstreet


******************

The title to this article was taken from one of Ronald Reagan’s speeches. It is as true as truth gets. Ronald Reagan, the icon of the conservative movement in America, understood the fundamental truth of the Founding Fathers of America.

The Founding Fathers of America understood that a strong central government would never work in a republican form of government, the form of government they gave the American people. They knew that. They had just declared the independence of Americans from the “strong central government” of King George of Great Britain. They understood that for Americans to thrive and become a great nation of great people the government should provide one thing… freedom. They knew the American government should provide security from any and all enemies that presented a threat to the freedom of the American people so the American people could make the seeds of liberty grow and flourish.

Meeting in Philadelphia in 1776 they labored to create a constitution, the bedrock foundation of this nation, dedicated to the idea that the people would control their own destiny, not the government, that the people would make or break this experiment in democracy, not the government, that the labors of the people, known as business, would be free to create and manufacture, to sell, and to create wealth and keep that wealth or distribute it as they chose, not the government.

The constitution is as simple a governing document as has ever been written. It was drawn up to protect the people of this country from its government. Our Founding Fathers had just turned their backs on government which had insinuated itself into the lives and businesses of its colonists to the point that those colonists rebelled and said: “No more!” With the constitution, the Founding Fathers put in writing the limits of the new American government.

For the past 232 years the constitution has been a fly in the ointment to the political left everywhere on earth. When a people yearning to breath free, anywhere on the globe, look for a way, for a pattern, for directions on how to set up a non-repressive government, they turn to the US Constitution. There must be a reason. There is. Because it works!

Today, however, Americans themselves are ready to toss the constitution overboard and cling to a government, drunk on power and ready to do exactly the same thing King George did , insinuate itself into every aspect of the American people’s life. So bent on desecration of the constitution are they, that 52 % of the American voters cast their ballots for a man who has declared his allegiance to creating a strong central government, which will take away the freedoms, the liberty, our forefathers fought, bled, and died to give us. They have declared their overwhelming willingness to toss the democratic form of government in favor of a socialist form of government, which will guarantee cradle to the grave security. They voted “yes” to exchanging liberty for security. They voted to turn their backs on all the heroes of American history to follow in the footsteps of the Pied Piper of Socialism the now President-Elect of the United States of America.

Again, let’s turn to Ronald Reagan for clarity. In 1964 Reagan said the following:

“It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, "We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self government.


This idea? That government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. "


Reagan went on to say: “The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.


…….. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits."


Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, "What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power." But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.”


On taxation, Reagan said this: “We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward restoring for our children the American Dream that wealth is denied to no one, that each individual has the right to fly as high as his strength and ability will take him.... But we cannot have such reform while our tax policy is engineered by people who view the tax as a means of achieving changes in our social structure...."


Reagan asked these essential questions: "Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realize that the doctor's fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can't socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last.”


About financial security, Reagan had this to say: “There can be no security anywhere in the free world if there is no fiscal and economic stability within the United States. Those who ask us to trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state are architects of a policy of accommodation."


Reagan wound up this jewel of a speech by saying the following: “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.”


As I view the America the voters of this nation created, on November fourth, I am inclined to say that, indeed, we have, just as Reagan warned, sentenced our children to a thousand years of darkness.

J. D. Longstreet
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Sunday, November 16, 2008

The American Covenant



October 2007

The American Covenant
By J. D. Longstreet
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It is said the USA has more of it’s citizens incarcerated, imprisoned, than any other nation on earth.

I heard this the other night on TV. I wondered what reaction the person making the statement hoped to elicit from me, and others, who heard it.

My own reaction was… so what?

I mean, only a person having no understanding of the foundation of this country could be surprised by such a fact.

Now… for those of you who still think that is an awful thing to say about a nation… hold on a minute!

Consider the US is a nation founded on laws, on a written constitution, and a code of laws founded on that constitution, Olde English Common Law, the laws of the Judeo-Christian religion, commonly known as the Ten Commandments, and a few other lesser known codes of laws. The US is a “nation of laws”.

Now, here is the “kicker”! Citizens of the US are free people… so long as they/we remain within the boundaries proscribed by the laws, which are made by their/our fellow citizens who have been vested with the power to create those laws.

America asks very little of her citizens. All she asks is that they/we obey the law(s) made by the citizens of the country.

If a US citizens, or anyone residing within the US decides, for whatever reason, to live outside those laws, or to ignore, or in any other way, break those laws, then the wrath of their fellow citizens, the people of the 50 states as a whole, will come down on them like a ton of bricks! And in a system such as ours… that is a good thing.

The fact that we have so many of our citizens in jail says nothing derogatory about our system of government. It DOES say a lot about how our family structure, our educational system, and our religious community, has failed and failed miserably.

The “American Family” is as close to non-existent as it has ever been. We can’t even decide what a family is, anymore! “The Church” has abrogated its position as the “setter of societal standards” and has, instead, adopted the aberrant behavior of many in our society as accepted… and even praiseworthy. No longer can a functioning American family point it’s young children to The Church for moral guidance. The Church has failed us miserably. As a result the American family has all but disappeared.

Our educational system has also failed… not only it’s students, but the parents of those students who entrusted their young into the hands of an educational system which no longer educates, but indoctrinates the innocent among us.

Those of you astonished when you hear statements about how many of our US citizens are in prison… remember this: Those imprisoned broke the covenant with their fellow Americans to live by the laws of our land. They knew, before hand, their fellow citizens would require their freedom as payment for their transgressions.

So, do not even try to use the number of imprisoned Americans as a maul to hammer shame onto American society. It won’t work. Each American lives within a self-imposed covenant of laws he has forged with his fellow Americans. This American Covenant has managed to hold off the blackness of chaos and anarchy since the country was founded and it has allowed the US to become the pre-eminent power on the planet.

To those who would run our system of law down, we say: Do not speak of that which you do not know… and do not understand. Look first to your own government’s failure! If you are an American citizen and do not already know this… then the shame is on YOU!


J. D. Longstreet
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