How Statesmen Think

This is from Scott Ott’s post The Contradiction of Being Republican. Any candidate for office who would have my enthusiastic support must naturally think like this:

We’re working to elect politicians, but we believe the ultimate answers don’t lie in government, but rather in private-sector liberty, industry and the resulting dignity…and often prosperity. We need to elect people who are willing to diminish the power of their offices and thus to increase their positive impact on the general welfare.

The politician who does best is the one who directs attention away from himself to the real engines of happiness in our Constitutional Republic — individuals and their voluntary associations.

We don’t need more politicians who want to help people through government programs. We need folks who want to become guardians of freedom by reducing the oppressive, confiscatory power of government.

We need politicians who see a problem and think…

1. How can government diminish its role as the cause of that problem?
2. What will happen if government does nothing about it?
3. How can we remove impediments to private-sector solutions?
4. How can we enhance individual responsibility, and thus, human dignity?

Record gun ownership brings record low of murders in 2009

According to the NRA, the FBI is reporting that 2009 may turn out to be the greatest annual decrease in murders since 1960. Non-coincidentally, 2009 also saw an all-time high in privately-owned firearms. The firearms that were most commonly purchased in 2009 are those that gun control supporters most want to be banned—AR-15s, similar semi-automatic rifles, and handguns designed for defense.

I find this ironic and rather amusing. Apparently, Obama’s election has indirectly reduced murders in the US, because as the “bitter gun-clingers” prepare for whatever instability the uncertain future may hold, criminals are afraid to attack an armed populace.

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” (Amendment II to the U.S. Constitution)

The Ants and the Grasshopper, modernized

This take-off on Aesop’s fable The Ants and the Grasshopper was emailed to me by a friend, and appears to be adapted from Jim Quinn. Enjoy!

Old Version

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

Modern Version

The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.

CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

America is stunned by the sharp contrast…

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, “It’s Not Easy Being Green.”

ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake.

President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper’s plight.

Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn’t maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.

The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.

What’s the moral of the story? Be careful how you vote in 2010!

Different Mentalities

If a conservative doesn’t like guns, they don’t buy one.
If a liberal doesn’t like guns, then no one should have one.

If a conservative is a vegetarian, they don’t eat meat.
If a liberal is, they want to ban all meat products for everyone.

If a conservative sees a foreign threat, he thinks about how to defeat his enemy.
A liberal wonders how to surrender gracefully and still look good.

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A liberal wonders who is will take care of him.

If a conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Liberals demand that those they don’t like be shut down.

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church.
A liberal wants any mention of God or religion silenced.

If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
A liberal demands that his neighbors pay for his.

Video Footage from the 9/12 March on DC

This excellent HD video by an independent film producer from WI really captures the spirit of the event. Pass it on!

Local Perspective on the 9/12 March on DC

The air crackled with excitement as we marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in what may have been the biggest citizen protest Washington DC has ever seen. Nearly two million Americans from all fifty states converged upon the Capitol on September 12th, 2009, spilling out of the front lawn across the Mall and all the way to the Washington Monument.

As an eyewitness, I can testify to the fact that these were mainstream Americans, not some radical fringe group. I saw both young and old, black and white, most of whom traveled all night by car or bus to be there. The event was marked by politeness and cheerful enthusiasm—not what you would expect for a “mob.”

As a volunteer, I can also testify that the event was grassroots from top to bottom (I haven’t seen any “astroturf” checks in my mailbox!) Personally, I spent $1000 of my own money to be there along with several in my family.

In such economically difficult times, what would drive middle Americans, including many who had never protested before, to take this kind of action? Was it because Obama won the election, as some accuse us? No, we are acting from a sense of outrage, frustration, and fear. Outrage, because our views and values are being trampled by Congress. Frustration, because they are not listening to us. And fear, because we see our free Republic being transformed into a fascist form of government.

The focus of this rally, and all the “tea parties” across the US was not the President or any particular party. It was Congress. Democrats and Republicans alike no longer protect and defend the Constitution of the United States—the only thing their oath of office binds them to.

Rather than letting our economy heal itself, they are bleeding it. Rather than fixing the real causes of skyrocketing healthcare costs, they are taking actions that will eventually kill the quality of America’s world-class healthcare. They are leaving our borders open and endangering our security. While pretending to champion the cause of minorities, they encourage murdering the unborn, the coming generations that could keep America great.

As we marched down Pennsylvania Avenue chanting, “Yes we can—throw you out!”, I realized that Americans are tired of double-dealing and political games. Expect an overhaul of Congress in 2009, 2010, and 2012 (see goooh.com) and watch as this imperial ruling class joins the ranks of the unemployed, one person at a time.

Re-establishing State Sovereignty–while preserving the Union

What do you do when Congress continuously tramples our God-given, Constitutionally protected freedoms and refuses to listen to the voice of the people?

What do you do?

The 2010 elections are more than a year away. Will America as we know it still exist then? If Barack Obama in his first 6 months in office can spend more than every prior U.S. President combined, what might the next year hold? TARP, the “porkulus” bill, socialized medicine, Cash-for-clunkers, Cap-and-tax… all the while ignoring the real solutions to the problems we face. What will they do next?

Desperate times call for desperate measures. And Americans have had just about all they are willing to take–especially in Texas.

Continue reading…

The American Dream

An incredibly inspiring talk by Krish Dhanam last week at Patriot Academy.