Takeaways From Tonight's Convention Speeches...

1. Osama Bin Laden is the only one who is better off today than he was 4 years ago.  (J. Kerry)

2.  President Obama killed Muamar Khadaffi.  (J. Kerry)

3.  Mitt Romney is "extreme".  (J. Kerry)  Now, I always thought he was too moderate or even liberal for my taste.

5.  President Obama gives personally tools and training to our troops.  (J. Kerry)

6.  Not mentioning someone in a speech is the same as disrespecting them.  (J. Kerry)

7.  The president's single accomplishment has been saying "Go," to the teams that killed Bin Laden.  (Everyone, including the President Himself...)

8.  "Marine Corps" is spelled without the "s".  (DNC Propaganda Film)  I guess that is to remind President Obama not to say "Marine Corpse" again.

9.  No one welcomed Viet Nam veterans home before President Obama did. (DNC Propaganda Film)

10.  John Kerry, who served in Viet Nam, is also a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan (Standing on stage with a group of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans)

11.  Delegates are hesitant to applaud for military speakers.  They seem unable to relate or connect with them.

12.  It's okay to kill someone who has committed an unspeakable wrong.  (J. Biden)

Wrapping Up The Convention...

Here's what I liked.  I liked Joe Biden's speech.

He's easy to listen to, and it's easy to tell when he's lying.  I understand he has to toe the party line and tell people that Republicans want to starve old folks and let sick people die.  He might even believe some of that.  But watching him struggle to find one single solitary example of Barack Obama exercising courage in leadership made even me uncomfortable.  Imagine working so closely with someone for nearly 4 years and the only specific example of leadership and "courage" you can come up with is the night in 2011 when, from 10,000 miles away, the president said, "Go."

I think Joe Biden might just have the toughest job in the world, carrying water for B.O. and the Democrat Party.

President Obama's speech left me somewhere between flat and furious.  Here's the man who told us in his now-familiar arrogant manner that if he hadn't corrected the problems with the economy in 3 years, he should be a one-term president.  Now he's begging to have his contract renewed.

In 2008 the "3-year fix" to the economy was a pretty good bet.  Most recessions end themselves in much less time than that.  But what the omniscient B.O. did not count on was the effect his own fiddling with the laws of the land would have on the recovery.  The only thing markets and businesses alike really fear is uncertainty.  Normal business cycles don't really bother anyone, but when you have the most powerful country in the world changing its long-standing laws and policies with caprice and by fiat EVERYONE freaks out.

And when everyone freaks out nothing gets done to move toward growth again.

The crony capitalism of the Obama administration has pushed us even deeper into the disaster.  Hundreds of millions of dollars practically given to the president's friends and supporters in the guise of "investment" in "green technology" have increased the levels of uncertainty and further destabilized the economy.

If we give this man and his administration another four years, there's no doubt they'll fix America.  And they'll fix us good!  Just you wait...

Analysis of Two Classes of Leftist...

As I consider the appeal of Leftism, or as Mark Levin calls it "Statism", I am struck that there are two types of people who are drawn to the Ideal.

The first is the one who views himself as superior to others.  He sees himself as Naturally better than those who do not or cannot see things his Way.  You see it in his demeanor when he addresses Others.  You hear it in his voice when he explains the Ideal once again for Others who are just too simple-minded to grasp the elegance of the Concepts.  

The First is the one who feels he has an Obligation (it would be a moral obligation if there were morality) to lead Others.  And that Others have a Natural duty to follow Him.  Entitlement is good when the First feels the sense; it is bad if Others more successful than the First feel it - especially if those Others More Successful feel entitled to keep their own property.  

The second type of person who is drawn to the Ideal are those who view themselves as victims.  They believe that the game is rigged against them.  They believe that others get ahead because they get lucky or they get help.  The second type also feels a compelling sense of entitlement.  They don't feel entitled to lead others, though.  They believe they are incapable.  They are distracted by the "bread and circuses" of life.  Yet, the victims believe that their victimhood entitles them to the property of others.  "Fair" is their watchword and anyone who points out that taking might be unfair is demagogued as an insensitive, uncharitable person.

These two types of people live a symbiotic existence.  The First has the sycophantic bloc of supporters he needs to control the Others.  The First gets the ego boost he needs from slavering minions quietly jostling for his approbation.  The second gets taken care of.  The second willingly surrenders his personhood in exchange for the proverbial mess of pottage.  The First and the second fulfill each other's needs.

As I pondered this strange relationship the words of the Depeche Mode song "Master and Servant" came to mind.  I think it says it all:

There's a new game
We like to play you see
A game with added reality
You treat me like a dog
Get me down on my knees

We call it master and servant
We call it master and servant

It's a lot like life
This [omitted so small kids won't get TMI]
With you on top and me underneath
Forget all about equality

Let's play master and servant
Let's play master and servant

It's a lot like life
And that's what's appealing
If you despise that throwaway feeling
From disposable fun 
Then this is the one

Domination's the name of the game
In bed or in life
They're both just the same
Except in one you're fulfilled
At the end of the day

Let's play master and servant
Let's play master and servant

Let's play master and servant
Come on, master and servant

Key Learnings From The Democrat Convention...

Thanks to the Democrats, now I know what goes on in the unfathomable depths of the female mind!

The internal dialogue evidently goes like this:  "I'm going to the store to pick up some produce and chicken for dinner.  I sure hope I don't get pregnant in the check out line.  Then I have to drop off the library books.  How am I going to not get pregnant in the parking lot?  I guess I can just use the book drop.  On my way home I have to fill up with gas.  If I get pregnant at the pump that will really be bad.  And I have to chaperone the 5th grade field trip tomorrow.  Getting pregnant on the bus would be awkward.  I lost my job today, but at least I didn't get pregnant at the same time!"

Thanks to the Democrats, now I know that the primary concern of all minorities, black, hispanic, asian or otherwise - including the LEGAL residents and CITIZENS of the United States - is how to get Hispanics into the country illegally.  And I also understand that if people favor only legal immigration they are haters.

Thanks to the Democrats, now I understand that to not be deviant is to be abnormal.

All in all, it's been a good convention so far!

Oh, yeah.  And the hoax of global warming is still the Doctrine of The State and environmentalism is still the State Religion.

Conflicts of Interest in Welfare...

In the world of "current events" it is sometimes interesting to note that relevancy varies by person and by circumstance.  In my case, today I am writing about something that is both out of time and very timely.

Between March, 2010 and August, 2012 I was unemployed.  Almost 2 1/2 years without a steady income.  By the grace of God - and I do mean that - I was able to work enough to continue to provide the things my family needed.  And when the gap was too great, my extended family stepped in to help.

In mid-2011 things got bad enough that I applied for unemployment compensation and, for 3 weeks, I was paid $240 for a total of $720.  Then again, in the summer of 2012 I was unable to find a gig for 2 months.  When I applied for unemployment compensation this time, things were different.

In my efforts to provide a long-term solution to my "employment stability issues" I started a company.  It was and is a great idea.  And when, seeking to comply with the laws of the land, I established an LLC and became an "officer" of the organization I unwittingly made myself ineligible for "benefits."

Never mind the fact that this company has never yet made a dime of revenue - let alone profit - and has only cost me and my partners money.  Because I am an "officer" of a "company" I am ineligible to receive unemployment compensation through the State of Arizona.

The lesson taught by the government in this instance?  It's better to do nothing than to try to do something. 

The lesson I learned in this instance?  If I need or want anything it is up to ME to go and get it - to "build that", in the immortal words of our Dear Leader. 

So, what to do as far as "welfare" reform goes?  I don't know.  The system seems explicitly structured to discourage initiative and to punish achievement.  But how do we change the algorithm of disbursement to accommodate efforts like mine?

Crazy, but maybe we abolish the system altogether.  Return the responsibility for charity to the only group that can be legitimately charitable - the People.  The individual, in the grand scheme of government, is supreme.  The individual is wiser than the collective.  The individual is more fit to decide than the legislature.  The individual is more authoritative in his governance than the executive.  The individual, self-interested and egoist, responsible only to his God, is alone able to legitimately govern his own affairs and to administer his own brand of charity. 

So why not try it out?  It worked for more than 150 years before Franklin Roosevelt and his cadre of intellectual social engineers began tinkering with the idea of the State as broker of goodness. 

And the delivery of welfare to those in need could not possibly be more capricious or less efficient than that executed by our governmental bureaucracy.

I Didn't Do My Fact Check, But...

Common Metrics of Prosperity January 2009 January 2011 % chg Source Avg. Retail price/gallon gas in U.S. $1.83 $3.95 115.8% 1 Crude oil, European Brent (bbl) $43.48 $99.02 127.7% 2 Crude oil, West TX Inter. (bbl) $38.74 $91.38 135.9% 2 Gold (oz. troy) $853.25 $1,504.50 90.5% 2 Corn $3.56 $6.33 78.1% 2 Soybeans $9.66 $13.75 42.3% 2 Sugar $13.37 $35.39 164.7% 2 Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall 7.6% 9.4% 23.7% 3 Unemployment rate, blacks 12.6% 15.8% 25.4% 3 Number of unemployed 11,616,000 14,485,000 24.7% 3 Number of federal Employees 2,779,000 2,840,000 2.2% 3 Real median household income $50,112 $49,777 -0.7% 4 Number of food stamp recipients 31,983,716 43,200,878 35.1% 5 Number of unemployment benefit recipients 7,526,598 9,193,838 22.2% 6 Number of long-term unemployed 2,600,000 6,400,000 146.2% 3 Poverty rate, individuals 13.2% 14.3% 8.3% 4 People in poverty in U.S. 39,800,000 43,600,000 9.5% 4 U.S. Rank v. World in Economic Freedom 5 9 -80% 10 Present Situation Index 29.9 23.5 -21.4% 11 Failed banks (in past 12 months) 140 164 17.1% 12 U.S.. Dollar v. Japanese yen exchange rate 89.76 82.03 -8.6% 2 U.S.. Money supply, M1, in billions 1,575.1 1,865.7 18.4% 13 U.S.. Money supply, M2, in billions 8,310.9 8,852.3 6.5% 13 National debt, in trillions $10.627 $14.052 32.2% 14 Just take this last item: In the last two years we have accumulated national debt more than 27 times faster than during the previous 233 years of our national history.

Metaphorically speaking, if you were driving in the right lane doing 65 mph and a car passed you going 27 times faster, it would be doing 1,755 mph!

Sources:
(1) U.S. Energy Information Administration; (2) Wall Street Journal; (3)Bureau of Labor Statistics; (4) Census Bureau; (5) USDA; (6) U.S. Dept. Of Labor; (7) FHFA; (8) Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller; (9) RealtyTrac; (10)Heritage Foundation and WSJ; (11) The Conference Board; (12) FDIC; (13)Federal Reserve; (14) U.S. Treasury

My Mother's Memories...

My mother is descending into that shadowy valley of Alzheimer's Dementia.  For the past 15 years she's had "trouble remembering" some things.  In the past 10 years it's become apparent that something is definitely wrong.  And in the past 2 years I've seen her "forget" who I am, where we are, and what we're doing.  And then, in an instant the confusion clears and she's overwhelmed with embarassment and shame.

When we talk on the phone she sometimes doesn't connect me with my family - my wife and children.  Her memories are highly emotional and often are complete fabrications of the mind.  Her illness at first made some of us angry.  We thought she was faking memory loss to avoid taking responsibility for things.  My brother, Paul, died believing that she was playing a game of "convenient amnesia." 

I wondered, but now I'm convinced he and I were mistaken.

One of the dearest women in the world has been a friend to my mom for 40 years.  Now she spends Fridays talking with my mom.  She asks her to tell stories, prods her with questions, records the interview and has transcribed some of them.

I'll put one of them here, with my input in (parenthesis).

"My father (Jack Frampton) grew up in Los Angeles, in the city of Los Angeles.   They were poor people and lived in a small house.  His dad left the family and so my grandmother is the one who brought the children up all by herself. 

(My grandfather used to meet his dad, Eugene Frampton, at the end of each work day.  Jack would run to the streetcar stop where his dad got off and they would walk home together.  One day when Jack was 10 years old he ran to meet his father, and his father never got off the streetcar.  He left no note, no reason and no support for his family.  Years later, Jack's children heard a rumor that they never verified - that Eugene had moved to San Francisco and started a new family there.) 

"She was a schoolteacher though, and she was very bright.  My dad had a younger brother who was killed in World War II – Douglas was his name, Douglas Frampton.  That hurt the family a lot but I guess they got over it.  I never heard the thing explained but I didn’t hear of them being sad about it.  

(Douglas Frampton was lost at sea while flying in a bomber over the South Pacific.  His body was never recovered.  Among his personal effects was a leather bomber jacket with his name inside that my grandfather kept.  His children loved to wear it.)  

"My dad’s sister was married to a really, really nice gentleman – a very intelligent man – and so my dad and Iris’ husband were good friends.  They talked a lot together, those two.  They were the around the same age.  So that was how my dad’s family grew up.  They were in Los Angeles.

"My father never even finished high school but he always could work and he liked his jobs.   When my dad got out of school he got a job to depend on, money wise.      He joined the military (United States Marine Corps) when he was about seventeen – I can’t remember what level he was at.  He probably stayed in for four years.

(He served abord a Navy ship in the Pacific before the Second World War.  He got hookworm walking barefoot on the beach in Guam.  While on board ship, Jack attended Protestant worship services and learned the hymn "Let The Lower Lights Be Burning," which became his favorite song.) 

"Before the children came along I’m not sure where he worked.  He was a carpenter and in the military he built things.  That was right in Long Beach.

"When he was older, he came home from work and he just sat in the kitchen in a chair and had us kids running around.  It was wonderful, just wonderful.  There were six of us kids, very close in age.  We just loved being near him.  I never really asked him about what things were like though he liked to tell us stories about what he had done.

"He was twenty-four years old when he married.  I’m not sure where he lived when he met my mother.   They met one evening in a – I would call it a saloon now – but it was where they came and had a drink and talked.  Wow – they both liked each other, so that was the beginning of their life together and about six or seven weeks later they married.

"My mother was twenty–six.  She was two years older than my father and he thought she was beautiful and I think my mother felt the same way about my dad.  She thought he was very handsome.  I have the pictures of their wedding – nothing very fancy.  My dad wore a tie and a coat.  They were very, very happy all those years. 

"My mother came from (Remsen,) Iowa – that’s where her roots are. She was maybe twenty or twenty-one and she needed to get some money. She also had asthma. Asthma bothered her chest all the time and so her folks, who were on the farm in Iowa, they said, “Marion, you’d better go out to California where the air is better for what you have.”  So that’s what she did. She went into these homes and they brought her in, gave her a room and board and she was the one who cooked all the food to eat.  She was not the maid.  The families were very pleased with my mother’s food.  They thought she was a very, very good cook.  So she did that all those years.

"When my mom and dad went out on a trip in the car that was their opportunity to go out by themselves.  Then they finally got married and then started their family.  It was bing, bing, bing – six kids after about eight years.  (John, Mary, Anne, Douglas, Peter, and Donald)  It was good.  My mother worked after she was married but not after the babies came.  I never asked her, but she was a teacher too and maybe she quit when the children came.  I never paid much attention to that.

"My dad had work down on the ocean and so they moved to Long Beach into a one- bedroom house.  They had four babies in that small home until they got a new house.  They saved up enough money to get a house with three bedrooms about three miles north of the water in Long Beach.  So they got that larger house and I was in a good school district and we all went to a Catholic school that my mother wanted us to be in.  My mother was Catholic – very much so.  My dad – he was a very good man – just had no faith.  But we all went to a Catholic school about a block from our own house.  All of us kids went to that school all those years.  We were there for eight years."

Machiavelli and The Welfare State...

In the early 1500s, Niccolo Machiavelli lived and wrote in Italy. One of his best-known works is "The Prince" in which he undertakes to advise the "Magnificent Lorenzo Di Piero De Medici" on how to govern his newly found principalities.

Reading this has enlightened me to the reasons for the behaviors of some of the people for whom I have worked, and with whom I have associated in the past.

Today, though, I would like to draw your attention to a sentence that struck me as I read.

I have long said that the reason liberals or statists have such an infatuation with creating and maintaining a dependent class of citizens via welfare programs and expansion of the government payroll is to solidify and secure a bloc of votes.

Compassion, the greater good, and general welfare are the declared reasons for the statist's generosity with other people's money.

Here we see the lie in that assertion. Since at least the 16th century, tyrants and would-be dictators have heeded the axiom outlined by Machiavelli. I quote it below.

"Therefore a wise prince ought to adopt such a course that his citizens will always in every sort and kind of circumstance have need of the state and of him, and then he will always find them faithful."

We must, as Americans, refuse two things. We must refuse to cede any of our individual liberties to the State. And we must refuse to allow the State to take or accept any more personal responsibility from us or our fellow citizens. Programs that are designed or that can be used to perpetuate the personal abdication of our responsibilities must be abolished or reformed.

Much like narcotics used as pain medication, welfare programs are excellent means to get individuals through a low spot in life. However, they are addictive and can become the master and make the addict a slave. Even worse, once addicted to the drug, one is liable to give any or all of his liberties to the drug dealer.

In today's America, we have statist law makers - most of them affiliate themselves with the Democrat party, but many are Republicans - who play the part of the dealer and make entire groups of people their junkies. And when one attempts, as Newt Gingrich did, to point out the supreme offensiveness of a system that encourages and rewards indolence to the point that a portion of our population is NOT AWARE that an alternative called "honest work" exists, the cries of "racist" and "bigot" are deafening.

We will not, today, shout down the statist media. But in our private conversations, in our replies to questions, in our own outlets, let us quietly, confidently and relentlessly speak the reasoned and plain truth. We are creatures designed by a God and given by our very natures the means and the faculties to experience happiness in life and realize joy in filling the purposes of our creation. As such, the proper role of government is to protect God-given liberties and prevent injustice. Any action by government that infringes on liberties or imposes injustice on one - even in the interest of helping another - or seeks to remove personal responsibility from its citizens is patently offensive to Nature and Nature's God.

And it ought to be offensive to every person - and especially every American.

What I Wish They Were Saying...

Here's what I wish I were hearing candidates running for president saying this year:

"My approach to leading this nation from our current crises and into sustainable prosperity is three-fold.  First, I will focus on foreign policy and freeing us from dangerous entanglements around the globe.  Second, I will focus on an energy policy that will both promote American energy independence and prepare the nation to use fewer non-renewable resources.  And third, I will focus on the specific areas of bureaucracy, policy and regulation that inhibit growth of jobs in the private sector and will encourage Congress to review and revise legislation that does the same.

"Our foreign policy will be made with only these purposes in view:  To promote the sovereignty and security of the United States of America.  I will not entertain treaties or organizations whose objectives or views are contrary to those two principles.  Arms reduction treaties which give advantage to another nation or which may embolden an enemy will not be considered.  Participation in conclaves or summits which have as a purpose to debase one nation in order to yield a perceived benefit to another is out of the question.  The sovereign debt of the United States of America must not be sold to our enemies.  We must not put ourselves in a subordinate or indentured position relative to those nations whose ideals are antithetical to the American Ideal.  Our relationships with other nations will be conducted with the express goal of defending the Constitution and the Nation from all destructive forces.

"Our energy policy is closely related to our foreign policy.  In order to be free to be an actor, and not simply a reactor, on the international stage, we must be free from dependence on others.  We must be free from financial dependence, and we must be free from energy dependence.  The United States of America has tremendous natural advantages, including access to unimaginable reserves of natural resources such as oil, coal, water, sun, wind and timber.  The mineral deposits found on our soil are among the richest and most diverse of any nation in the world.  We will exploit the oil and natural gas reserves we have by using extraction techniques which minimize both the surface footprint of the operations and the impact to water, air and wildlife.  While doing this, we will develop the technologies required to efficiently and effectively capture wind and solar energy, as well as develop the next generation of safer, cleaner, scaleable nuclear energy.  We will pursue this with the same intensity and zeal that those before us enjoyed while racing to the moon.  Energy research will be based on science, and not be driven by environmental, political or other agendas.  Funding for this research will be modest, but adequate.  Private companies will not have access to research money, but will have access to technology developed in government labs.  We will, by 2025, be a country that imports less than 2% of the energy it consumes. 

"Since 1787 the size and scope of federal government has steadily outgrown the constraints placed on it by the Constitution.  In many cases federal agencies and departments have no foundation in anthing remotely resembling the Constitution.  During my administration the Department of Justice, assisted by the Supreme Court, will review each federal agency and assess the Constitutional mandate for its existence.  Agencies and organizations found to have no Constitutional basis will be dissolved at the end of the fiscal year in which their baselessness was discovered.  At the same time, the Department of Treasury will be assisted by the Government Accountability Office in evaluating the programs and budgets of those agencies clearly authorized by the Constitution.  They will identify expenditures that are misaligned with either the mission of the agency or the mandate of the Constitution and will recommend both structural and financial adjustments.  Where multiple agencies perform similar or identical duties, redundancies will be eliminated.  In four years I will have reduced the budget of the executive branch of the United States government 50%.  The United States of America will no longer borrow its 'operating capital.'  Where federal agencies have imposed regulations on business and industry, the Department of Treasury will assess the adverse impact of those regulations, as well as weigh the real benefit to society of each.  Those regulations found to be unreasonable, unconscionable or unfounded in the Constitution will be removed.  Where regulations, though burdensome, exist but are beneficial to society or national security, the reason for not removing them will be clearly and plainly articulated by the heads of those agencies.  By the end of my first term, American business will be unshackled and America will indeed be 'open for business.'

"This is my plan and my platform.  I thank you for your support in 2012."

There Is A Lie...

There is a lie that is told and believed by many who simply don't understand.

One of its most common forms is in the platitude meant to give that uniquely bitter comfort to the disappointed.  A worker who, in his own estimation, has done an outstanding job for years now finds himself on the outs with his employer.  As he leaves the office for the last time he thinks, "They'll be sorry when I'm gone." 

That night at the bar, an older, more experienced friend hears the phrase repeated, "They'll be sorry when I'm gone."  And in a perverse attempt to wake the young man from his fantasy of the company's implosion upon realizing that their star performer has left the building, he says, "You want to know how much you'll be missed?  Fill a bucket with water, then stick your fist in.  When you pull it out, measure the hole it leaves.  That's how much you'll be missed."

The idea is that no one is missed.  Because no one is important.  And nothing they do is meaningful.

While it is true that all of us can be replaced functionally, it is equally true that all of us leave indellible marks in the lives and hearts of those we meet, work with and live with. 

Surely our employers can find other accountants, agents, managers.  Our spouses can even find new husbands or wives; our children can be adopted by other parents.  Functionally we are interchangeable with many others.

What we do, how we treat people, and the marks we leave on the souls of those around us cannot be duplicated.  Kindness to a child or an old person.  Generosity to a stranger.  Forgiveness to a spouse.  Thoughtfulness to a friend.  A listening ear.  A gentle smile.  A cheerful greeting.  A warm embrace.  A soft kiss.  A soothing touch.  A word of honest encouragement.  These are the things that leave a mark on the soul of another.  And on our soul we receive a reciprocal mark.  A wear mark, to be certain; but a wear mark that upon contemplation evokes the deepest sensation of warmest joy. 

So when we are tempted to believe that we don't matter, or that what we do is not important, let us drive that deceitful thought out of our minds.  We do matter.  What we do is important.  The ripple of our presence expands eternally and if we are deliberate it can expand for eternal good.

Thoughts on South Africa, Liberalism, and Hand Outs...

We have a monthly book club in our home. Our group is fairly diverse, and we try to read significant literature (ergo, we avoid the Oprah Winfrey Book List!). We recently read and discussed John Carlin's book, "Playing the Enemy", which describes the 10 years between Nelson Mandela's release from prison and his retirement from the Presidency of South Africa.

The world was so caught up in the end of a wrong - but effective - system of government called 'apartheid' that they completely ignored what any student of post-colonial Africa saw coming as soon as the world gave credence to the ANC. I remember even as a young man, I feared for the white Africans, the boer or Afrikaner, because of the retribution that I knew would come when the African socialists came to power.

Did Nelson Mandela play a key part in ending apartheid? Certainly. Was he also a socialist terrorist responsible for thousands on thousands of black and white African deaths? Absolutely.

Support for the ANC and Mandela then and now comes down to the old addage, "If the ends justify the means, then the means must be just." This is simply not so. Ends cannot and will never justify means of any type. Means must be just in themselves.

The outcome of the South African Socialist experience remains to be seen, but to date the fruit of the ANC is bitter indeed. It cannot be argued by any reasonable person that South Africa is, as a nation or as a people, better off today than they were in 1986. Their economy is in shambles. Their society has disintegrated. The crime rate - especially the violent crime rate - has soared. And the immense volume of scenes of cruelty and wholesale barbarism make any snapshot from the apartheid era look tame.

I don't support apartheid in any way, but I believe that revolution without a well-considered direction and outcome will always lead to tyranny more brutal than the one it replaces.

This book was a reminder that we have friends in Zimbabwe from whom we have not heard in years. They are - or were - white farmers. When they were first married we got photos of their idyllic citrus groves and cropland. As time went on, pictures were fewer and signs of stress showed in their messages. Now, I believe they are dead.

I guess that reading put me to thinking about Kipling's oft-maligned poem, "The White Man's Burden". It's a sad reflection on the price a colonial power pays in blood and treasure in trying to better the world, and the thanks it receives in the end.

The White Man’s Burden
by Rudyard Kipling

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

Take up the White Man's burden--
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper--
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.

Take up the White Man's burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up the White Man's burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.

Take up the White Man's burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!

For those interested in the state of South Africa today, I invite you not to miss this website in your research. It - like South Africa - is disturbing.

www.genocidewatch.org/southafrica.html

Now for some thoughts on this poem.

Many – especially liberals – find this poem jarring in its patriarchal approach to indigenous peoples living in lands colonized by European powers.

It certainly reads like an ode to soft tyranny. Or to benevolent dictatorship.

But how does it read when we say, “Take up the Socialist’s burden--”?

Or, “Take up the Progressive’s burden--”?

Or, “Take up the Enlightened and Understanding Person’s burden—“?

Now we are not talking of saving people of a different skin color. We are talking of “saving” people of a different ideology – people whose ideas of individualism or personal liberty are remnants of a dark and distant time from which, although he does not now know it, the Conservative longs to be liberated.

I think that the guilty white liberals who hate this poem are simply not reading it in the proper light. Indeed, this poem should be the anthem to all those would-be masterminds who are so much smarter than the average person.

And to the Conservative it should be a sobering warning that those not willing to invest in their own liberty and well being will never appreciate something handed to them on a plate. They will take it from you.

And they will hate you for it.

They may not understand why they hate you, but they hate you for taking away their humanity; for taking away their dignity; for making them dependent; for your condescending benevolence; for your plunder of others in their behalf.

An Appeal To The State of Arizona...

To State Officials in Arizona:

I implore you to immediately cease the racist practices and policies that infringe disproportionately upon the basic rights of Americans of historical minority heritage who live within the borders of the State of Arizona. Reverse this racist and inflammatory legislation immediately.

By your racist and xenophobic laws you deprive minorities of all backgrounds - and indeed of all ages - of the Right to the Pursuit of Happiness. You seek to marginalize and stigmatize the underprivileged while, at the same time, ensuring that white people are free to enjoy the Pursuit by virtue of their privileged status.

Your bigoted law disenfranchises MILLIONS of your citizens and especially has a negative impact on immigrants, women and children. It is a well-established FACT that these most valuable contributors to our society CANNOT, due to expense, travel restrictions, or onerous documentation requirements, obtain valid state issued identification. Further, it is well-established that white people receive discounted rates, travel benefits and assistance, reduced waiting times, and are not required to show the same set of identifying documents as minorities when they visit the Motor Vehicle Department or the Social Security office.

I issue a call most serious and solemn to repeal the state law requiring state issued identification in order to purchase alcoholic beverages. This law prevents thousands upon thousands of minorities in Arizona from purchasing these products, and thus enjoying the recreational opportunities so freely available to whites in their communities.

Among our founding documents, the Right to the Pursuit of Happiness is mentioned BEFORE the right to bear arms, the right of privacy, and even the right to VOTE! If, as so many reasonable voices in politics today point out, requiring positive, state issued identification at polling places is a violation of our country's constitution, then Arizona's alcohol ID laws must necessarily be the same.

Strike them down! Repent of your persecution of the immigrant! Cease to repress children in their formative years! At last, free the slave! ALL must be equal in their opportunity to pursue the happiness envisioned by our founding fathers - the happiness unique to America.

A Russian Wink and a Nod...

This is a conversation that REALLY took place between President Obama and President Medvedev, of Russia recently.

Obama: "On all of these issues, but particularly on missile defense, this, this can be solved, but it's important for him [referring to Vladimir Putin] to give me space."

Medvedev: "Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you."

Obama: "This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility."

Medvedev: "I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir. I support you."

Why do you suppose that President Obama, leader of the free world, is begging the prime minister of Russia, a second-rate post-communist wasteland, for "space" on the issue of missile defense - and "all these issues", too?

Is President Obama really planning to cede so much of our national security and sovereignty to the former Soviet Union that even his loyal base would revolt?

His cavalier response to questions about his statements has included his assertion that he's not "hiding the ball". And he's right. Mr. Obama has been very transparent about the types of "change" he wants to bring to America. His lap dogs in the media have simply chosen to mislead the voting public by failing to inform them of Mr. Obama's prior statements.

Single-payer national healthcare, back-breaking energy prices, a diminished role on the world stage, withdrawal from Middle Eastern conflicts regardless of the outcome, allowing the terrorist state of Iran access to atomic materials, weakening the US military, and abandoning allies are all things the President wanted to achieve before his election. They are things he has spoken freely of and things he continues to pursue by fiat and by legislation.

If this is "progress" then we must fight against progressivism in every aspect and every political party of our national, state and local government. We must find candidates for every office who will push back the tide of government solutions and liberate citizens everywhere to make for themselves what they would enjoy in this life.

President Obama Stunned At North Korean Conditions...

President Obama has recently demonstrated both his naivete and his inability to recognize his own kind and the fruits of their common labors.

During a recent tour of South Korea, the president got a firsthand look into North Korea, ruled by Communists since the early 1950s. He was visibly shaken by what he saw. Even hours after the event, he continued musing.

"It's like you are looking across 50 years into a country that has missed 40 or 50 years of progress."

And, "If a country can't feed its people effectively, if it can't make anything of use to anybody, if it has no exports other than weapons, and even those aren't ones that in any way would be considered state-of-the-art; if it can't deliver on any indicators of well-being for its people, then you think you'd want to try something different. There are certain things that just don't work; and what they are doing doesn't work."

Mr. President, with all respect, North Korea is in the mess it is in because it has a government and a leadership that is ideological in the extreme. They, like you, are a "one trick pony". They do not try another approach because their ideology will not allow for another approach. You are the same in that you know only one thing: government control via taxation, regulation and redistribution.

Mr. President, with all respect, what you and other statists have been doing to the American Experiment for the past 80 years is not working. Someone once said, "You think you'd want to try something different." But the answer is the same. You will not try freeing markets and liberating your citizens from onerous taxation because you know nothing different. In your ideology there is no place for different.

Until you open your mind to the possibilities and reeducate yourself on the facts of America's exceptional foundation, you will continue to lead us down a road of economic destruction and despair. Indeed, 50 years from now, Canadians and Mexicans may well peer across the border into our country and wonder how we could have stopped so suddenly in our progress and regressed toward the Stone Age, like North Korea.

The principles of the Founding are as valid today as they were 250 years ago. Nature has endowed man with unalienable rights and NO GOVERNMENT founded by man has the legitimate authority to restrict those rights. Further, man was created to improve on his surroundings. Free markets and representative government, imperfect as they may be, are still the BEST way to allow the greatest number of people to achieve the highest level of well-being.

A Thought From Patrick Henry...

On 23 March 1775, Patrick Henry stood before the Virginia Convention in Richmond and spoke.

Among the many things he said, he is most remembered for the profoundly thrilling line, "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

In that speech he also said the following.

"It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. ...

"We are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of Nature has placed in our power. ...The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. ...

"If we wish to be free; if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending; if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained - we must fight!"

The siren song of illusory "hope" is sung by weak-minded dreamers and would-be tyrants in our day. They speak of "social equality" and "economic justice". They tempt our ears with "peace" and "unity". The price they ask to lead us all to this Utopia is our own, God-given liberty. Listening too long to that siren song will, as Patrick Henry says, turn us into beasts. Mere animals not free to choose their actions, but who are fit only to be acted upon by "masterminds" and social architects.

If we are to maintain the liberty handed down to us through hundreds of years and thousands of lives, we must fight!

How do we fight today? We do not fight with swords and guns. We do not fight with ships and cannon.

We fight by educating ourselves about the foundation of this nation. We fight by making the values and virtues that animated our forefathers our own. We fight be teaching our children that THIS is the greatest nation on earth; and the greatest nation in the history of the WORLD.

We fight by taking a stand for liberty and against tyranny wherever we are and with whomever we find ourselves. We fight by letting go of petty fears and embracing the spirit of bravery that led 50 men to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause of LIBERTY.

American Media May Be Asleep, But...

American media may be asleep, and content to report the White House talking points without much thought; but in Denmark, at lease one reporter has been listening.

And what he hears makes him skeptical about the sincerity of President Obama.

Danish TV Host Mocks Obama for His Rhetoric

Freedom to Fail - Essential for Success...

I saw this at UnleashingFreedom.com.  I thought the author had a number of good points.

Freedom, so called, with no option is no freedom at all.  If we are allowed only to succeed - as long as we don't succeed too much - then where is our freedom?  The tyranny of forced success is as evil as scripted failure.

The liberty to inform oneself of the risks inherent in a venture, and then to choose to embark on it despite them, is a basic, foundational, Natural right.  It belongs to all mankind; it cannot be justly infringed upon by any power on earth or in Heaven.

By seeking to enforce equal results philosophers and states alike undertake an act that is expressly forbidden by the laws of Nature.  The violation of any of Nature's laws brings consequences as immutable, as sure and as final as those of Gravity.  Can one really wonder at the implosion of the European Socialist countries?  Soft though it was, the glove of the well-meaning tyrant's hand, in the end it will not - it cannot - support its unwitting victims.

A Valentine's "Tape" for Tina...

Tina,

Thank you for giving me our five little Valentines.  They're wonderful and I am so very grateful that you are their mother.  And my wife.  You make me complete.

These two years have been hard for me.  I can't even fathom how hard they've been for you, my love.  But my heart is full of gratitude and amazement at your love for me and for our children.  You've been patient, strong, and so steadfast.  I don't believe there are many women in the world who could come close to being your equal.

Your support and your faith in me has helped me through the deepest Hells of my life.  These last 2 years have been times that would surely have destroyed my faith in myself and in God if it weren't for you.  You're wonderful.

You're the "total package", Tina.  I got the best on earth when I got you.  I love you with all my heart and I'm so glad that "forever" really means forever with us.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Always,
John