Why Wage War On A Way Of Life...?

Plentiful and inexpensive food and energy are two of the factors that separate our country from Europe and the rest of the world.  Alexis de Toqueville marveled at the bounty enjoyed by even the poorest in America when compared with the starving huddled masses of Europe in the 1800s who slaved for monarchs and aristocrats.  The same is true today.  A "poor" American is far better off than so many living in other parts of the world.

So,  the Bureau of Land Management is working - and ready to kill human beings - in order to move cows that have grazed for 100 or more years off of 600,000 acres of range land in Nevada. 

More than 200 law enforcement officers, armed with handguns, shotguns, assault rifles and sniper rifles have established a perimeter and are keeping a Nevada rancher and his family from entering their land.  Meanwhile they are rounding up his cattle and moving them.

Why?

To make way for a desert tortoise.  That has coexisted with these cows.  For more than 100 years. 

In the meantime, the price of beef in the US has gone up 19% this past year.

Combine that with ever-increasing EPA, USDA, FDA and DOE regulations and it is easy to understand why government inflation figures omit the cost increases in fuel and food.

The Left must STOP WAGING WAR ON THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE!

Thug-ocracy...

Yesterday, US Attorney General Eric Holder was being questioned by Representative Louie Gohmert in a House hearing about the DOJ's lack of response to requests by Congress to provide documents related to terrorism funding.

Mr. Gohmert suggests that Mr. Holder's lack of response shows his contempt for Congress' oversight authority.  To which, Mr. Holder replies in a threatening tone, "Oh, you don't want to go there, Buddy.  You don't want to go there."

That's a schoolyard bully's threat.  That's a street thug's threat. 

That's a very real threat, too, given the amount of data that has been collected by the executive branch of this government in the past 13 years, given the existence of secret courts, given the practice of indefinite detention.  This administration could put together a story just plausible enough for the MSNBC crowd to swallow and destroy virtually any person they wanted to. 

I don't recognize my country...

30 years ago - hell, 5 years ago - any political appointee like the attorney general who pulled a stunt like that would have been forced to resign.  The media would be playing that sound bite over and over; parsing it; analyzing it; reading meaning into it that may or may not have been there.  Americans would have been whipped into a frenzy over the threat of thuggery made by the most powerful law enforcement agent in the country.

Today?  A collective yawn...



 

Terrorism: It's Not Always A Bomb...

"The Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a disturbing history of political imprisonment in the Soviet Union from the October Revolution to the 1970s.  Solzhenitsyn was himself a prisoner of the system for many years and his account of the deprivations, depravations, and despotism political dissidents suffered in prison under the Stalin and later regimes is sickening.

As disturbing is the willingness of the Soviet people to simultaneously accept and deny the existence of the agencies, courts and prisons that tortured and killed tens of millions of Soviet citizens in the name of the Revolution.  In the name of national security.

I'm not saying here that FEMA is building concentration camps, etc.  I'll leave that to the Alex Jones types.

What I want to discuss is the idea of terrorism and torture.  Some have called the Obama Administration, the Holder Department of Justice and the Lerner Internal Revenue Service "terrorist" organizations.  The statists, the progressives and much of the left and right in the country have scoffed at that.  I'm not convinced that the description is entirely without merit.

In the Gulag, prisoners were frequently left alone all night long.  No glaring lights, no jailor's key in the lock, no interrogation, no torture.  But from down the prison hall the screams of other prisoners being tortured and interrogated could be heard incessantly.  The prisoner knew all the while that the next time someone came for him, it could mean torture and pain; and when all that came was a bowl of thin soup instead, the psychological effect was profound.  But inevitably the interrogators did come for him; and the pain was just as severe as it had been for that unknown individual nights before.  And because of the psychological preparation he'd received the effects of the torture were even more severe.

Prisoners sentenced to death were treated similarly.  Sometimes they were held in cells so long, and treated with such friendliness that they began to believe that their day of execution would never come.  Sometimes they were kept in a constant state of terror by being dragged out of their cell - sometimes several times a night - bound, gagged, made to face a firing squad with rifles raised, only at the last minute to be snatched up and thrown back into their cell.  A momentary reprieve that was in truth no reprieve at all.  Just think of the frustration and pain you've felt sitting on the tarmac waiting for your plane to take off, and then pulling back into the gate for some maintenance item...

When government applies or enforces laws inconsistently and inequitably, this is what they are doing to the entire population. And yet there are so many of us who say, "Oh, yes, but it is for the greater good."  "Oh, yes, but we all must sacrifice."  "Oh, yes, but they know better than we."  "Oh, yes, but it is a complicated issue."  "Oh, yes, but I haven't been hurt."  "Oh, yes, but it has been good for me."

Anxiety.  Uncertainty.  Frustration.  Terror.

How many immigrants - legal or otherwise - live in constant uncertainty of their future?  They came here under one set of laws that were predictable in their unenforced state.  Now there is constant commotion and perpetual change.  Comprehensive immigration reform?  They are anxious and uncertain.

How many people accepted employment with one of the considerations being the healthcare benefits their employer offered?  Now, with the on-again, off-again implementation of the Affordable Care Act they cannot know what to expect.  Patient protection?  They are frustrated and anxious.

How many entrepreneurs put all of their human and financial capital into their dreams?  Now they don't know what will be required of them by the State and if they will be able to meet those requirements or be required to close up shop.  The land of opportunity?  They are uncertain and frustrated.

How many of us, depending on the guarantee of freedom of conscience, speech and privacy have spoken our minds?  Now, with the IRS free to audit and harass on the basis of politics, the DOJ free to hunt and entrap dissidents as extremist elements, and the NSA recording every bit of data for use in some future trial we can know exactly what to expect unless we can reduce the power and reach of government to some reasonable level.  The land of the free?

We are terrorized.

Hugging The 3rd Rail...

I know by writing this that I am touching the proverbial "third rail," and I still feel the need to bring clarity to the issue.  I would begin with the assertion that one person's personal beliefs and values are as valid as another's.  I would also ask you to embrace the notion that if you have a right to express your views, I do as well.  Let me list my assumptions:  1) There is a God who loves us; 2) there are absolutes - absolute right and absolute wrong; and, 3) the words "sin" and "sinner" are not aspersions, but simply describe all of us in our fallen state.

I do not pretend to know the mind of God.  I cannot answer "why" for Him.  I am confident, however, that at the end of this life He will be more than willing to sit with each of us for a LONG time and answer any questions we have for Him.  And I know that He will answer many of our questions before we die if we will ask Him sincerely and with a real will to know, understand and do.  Nothing I write here is done in a spirit of hate or fear or condemnation.  I hope that you will feel my love, my sincerity, and my concern in what I say.

For years I have struggled to pinpoint the reason I feel so strongly in defense of what we have come to call "traditional marriage."  A recent conversation in which I was unable to express my thoughts adequately prompted me to ponder deeply and to seek my "why."  I know and love and enjoy the company of many homosexual people - out and closeted, practicing and celibate, decided and confused.  And it troubles me that they find themselves in an awkward (to say the least) place in society.    So...

Here goes.

I have found by personal experience that when I do what I know is wrong - when I sin - I find myself separated from God and the influence of His Spirit.  I find myself alone, without His guidance and without His blessing.

If I should refuse to repent - change, come back - and instead to embrace sin and make it a part of the fabric of who I am, then I would so alienate myself from God's Goodness that I would be vulnerable to a very real physical and spiritual destruction.

Let's look at gluttony.  Overeating once can make me feel sick.  A lifestyle of gluttonous living will lead me to obesity, chronic illness, pain and an early death.

Now let's look at "gay marriage." 

While I am aware of and have listened to the ideas of sophists and apologists, still I am not convinced that the act of gay sex does not go against God's will for our behavior.  (If and when God were to tell me differently, then I would be willing to change my views.)

I do not believe that it's a sin to "be gay."  I believe it is a cross to be borne much like any other that is common to mortality.  I do believe that homosexual acts are sinful and that they hurt the sinner.  Why does God allow each of His children to go through this world with crosses on us?  I don't know for sure.  I do believe that He loves each one of us, though.  And when we humble ourselves in His sight enough to understand our own state of weakness and vulnerability, then lay that burden at the feet of Jesus, God gives us strength in Him.

Similarly, as a society, we will sometimes make mistakes that hurt people and that result in a need for societal repentance.  Slavery is one glaring example that comes to mind. As a result, we collectively disqualify ourselves for the blessings of God until society repents and applies the gift and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And, as a society, when we embrace "sin" in the form of gambling, prostitution, infidelity and homosexual behavior, then we weave it into the fabric of who we are as a people.  And we collectively turn our backs on God and willfully disqualify ourselves from His blessings.

While gay people should be allowed to love whom they will, at the same time, we should not make homosexual behavior part of our national fabric.  The United States of America needs God's blessings, guidance and protection now, perhaps more than she ever has. 

Killed For Her Cross...

Please follow the link below to an article about a horrific crime.

I want to emphasize that this is not a purely religious thing, either.  Any ideology from Islamism to Environmentalism can be used in the extreme to justify mob violence or terrorism like this.  But when a society or government turns a "blind eye" to it, or by its silence tacitly endorses the behavior, things get out of control quickly.

This kind of thing can happen when extreme ideologies control governments or society.  It's not just Muslims.  Communists did it during the Cultural Revolution in China.  White supremacists did it during "Jim Crow" in the US.  The difference I see is that, in the US, the people decided that this was unacceptable and changed the law.  In China and in many Islamic countries public dissent is against the law.

Really?  I think this is what we will get if we keep talking in slogans instead of ideas.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/egyptian-islamists-murder-young-christian-after-dragging-her-car

MH370 - An Example Of What Not To Do...

I copied this from NBCNews.com on 31 March 2014.  Sorry I couldn't find a clean link.  Read the last 2 sentences and ask yourself why the multiple stories coming from the Benghazi investigation, the IRS investigation, and the BATFE/DOJ Fast and Furious investigations haven't made this much news...

Officials Release New Last Words for Missing Malaysia Flight

   

Officials have revised the account of the last words that came from the cockpit of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 — the latest about-face in the ever-shifting investigation into the jet's disappearance.

The Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation said Monday that the last communication with the air traffic controller was "Good night, Malaysian three seven zero."     

Weeks earlier, officials reported the last words were: "Alright, good night."

The cause of the discrepancy was unclear.

Authorities also said they are still conducting a forensic investigation to determine who was talking — even though the airline's chief executive said two weeks ago that it appeared the co-pilot was the speaker.

Since the flight vanished March 8 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpu with 239 people on board, the investigation into what happened has been beset by false leads and conflicting information.

“This investigation is an example of what not to do,” James Hall, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board told NBC News last week. “Everything they do, they change.”