History

Alexander Hamilton - Ben Franklin - Budget - Capitalism - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Federalism - Founders - Free Trade - George Washington - GOP - Government - History - House of Representatives - James Madison - John Adams - Liberals - Patriotism - Republicans - Rights - Senate - Taxes - Tea Party - Thomas Jefferson - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

The Mount Vernon Statement, A Poor Man’s Manifesto… VERY Poor

February 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A group made up of some of the biggest names in contemporary conservatism got together a few days ago and crafted what they are calling the “Mount Vernon Statement,” a manifesto of sorts meant to give direction to today’s conservative movement. Put succinctly, it fails to fill the bill.

Taken as a whole this statement is fine as a short history lesson. It explains pretty clearly what the founders had wrought when their basic work was done with the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. But as a statement of principles that might guide today’s discussion I do not think the letter works.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that this effort is harmful. In fact, I think every young person should read it for its explication of our historically conservative American principles. The problem is that this thing doesn’t seem to speak directly to what we are facing today like a statement that perhaps aims to become boilerplate should.
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The Mount Vernon Statement, A Poor Man’s Manifesto… VERY Poor”

Anti-Americanism - Congress - Constitution - Education - Federalism - Founders - Frank Salvato - Government - History

Our Federal Government’s Basic Purpose

February 22, 2010 by

-By Frank Salvato

In February of 2009, legislation was introduced in the 111th Congress that would protect the First Amendment rights of United States citizens when faced with malicious lawsuits, brought against them in foreign courts, claiming defamation. The Free Speech Protection Act of 2009 is meant not only to secure and assure a US citizen’s First Amendment right to free speech in the aforementioned circumstance, but to serve as a tool in guaranteeing our nation’s sovereignty under constitutional law. As of this writing, Senate Bill 449, officially titled as introduced as “A Bill to Protect Free Speech,” languishes in the Senate Judiciary Committee. We all must ask why.

The Free Speech Protection Act of 2009 (the short title for S449) is meant to protect writers, authors, lecturers and any other US citizen against “libel tourism,” a phrase emanating from a lawsuit over the book Funding Evil, by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, explained in a short film titled The Libel Tourist and in an article titled, A Federal Law is Needed to Deter Libel Tourism, by Daniel J. Kornstein. Mr. Kornstein refers to libel tourism as:
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Our Federal Government’s Basic Purpose”

History - Warner Todd Huston

Alexander Haig, RIP

February 20, 2010 by

Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig has passed away. Haig was a four-star general and served as a top advisor to three presidents. He was Sec. of State under Reagan and served as Nixon’s White House Chief of Staff.

Haig died at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Patricia, and his children Alexander, Brian, and Barbara.

Colorado - Communism - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - House of Representatives - Jimmy Carter - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Senate - Socialism - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Longtime Dem Consultant Torpedoed by Union Thugs

February 19, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In Democrat political consulting circles Pat Caddell is a big name. One-time adviser to President Jimmy Carter and longtime political strategist for the left, Caddell isn’t someone you throw off a campaign easily. But the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) doesn’t care about past success. It only cares about its power.

After being thrown off the campaign of Colorado Democrat Andrew Romanoff’s campaign for Senate, Caddell spoke to the folks at The Daily Caller and said he’d been axed by the “thugs” at the SEIU.

“What I said about Andy Stern and the SEIU? Sure, they’re thugs,” said Caddell, a former adviser to President Jimmy Carter, who until Monday* had an informal advising role with the primary challenger to incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.

“The unions have been considering endorsing Romanoff, and basically they told him that if I was involved with the campaign, ‘sayonara,’ which I think is the definition of thuggery isn’t it?” said Caddell, who has worked for a who’s who of Democratic politicians over the last few decades, including Ted Kennedy, George McGovern, Mario Cuomo and Gary Hart.

I couldn’t agree more. Unions will brook no opposition and even the smallest disagreement marks you for destruction with a union… even if you are on the same political side as they!

He pointed out, as have we — repeatedly — that public employees unions are destroying the country:
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Longtime Dem Consultant Torpedoed by Union Thugs”

Anti-Americanism - Conservatives - Federalism - Freedom - George Washington - Government - Patriotism - Society/Culture - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Where Have you Gone George Washington?

February 15, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I don’t celebrate “President’s Day.” I celebrate the presidents individually, not the whole gaggle of them at once. But I most certainly don’t celebrate George Washington, the father of our country, as just another president. These days, George Washington has been relegated to that “truth telling guy” to be seen on the one dollar bill and on TV commercials at the end of February or that guy lumped in with Lincoln on “President’s Day.” And that is a shame, indeed, for, without George Washington, our presidency and nation might have had a far different attitude.

But, what made Washington such a giant for our times as well as his? For one thing, he knew how to act in public.

Back in the 1700’s

In the year 1759 a man named William Robertson wrote a book called The History of Emperor Charles V, a book some claim was the standard after which modern historical study and writing has come to be patterned. Mr. Robertson, who became Principle of the University of Edinburgh in later years, introduced a salient point into the era of the Scottish Enlightenment. That idea was that “Politeness” in society would result in becoming a civilized nation. And it was a politeness perpetuated and spread through capitalism that was the best avenue to achieving that civilized level.

He wrote “In proportion as commerce made its way into the different countries of Europe they successively … adopted those manners, which occupy and distinguish polished nations.” So, as the theory goes, man by his very nature craves material possession and property. To get that property he must work for it with his best skills. To make use of these skills he must rely on neighbors to get supplies to employ such skills as well as to become customers for his skills. This leads man to act in a solicitous manner of his neighbors so that they will be disposed to employ him and his abilities. This “politeness” employed by the individual inculcates the action in society at large which, in turn, enlarges that field of involved persons to counties and then the country in general, neighboring countries and, ultimately, the world and the governments they create.
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Where Have you Gone George Washington?”

Chicago - Constitution - Education - Elections - Founders - GOP - History - Illinois - Media - Media Bias - Newspapers - Republicans - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Oh Lord, Bill Brady Goofs American History

February 15, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Greg Hinz, the lefty columnist from Crain’s Chicago Business, has a quick post on our presumptive GOP nominee for Governor that doesn’t put him in the best light. It seems that Mr. Brady is a tad sketchy on American history, sadly.

After being asked by the media if his running mate, the 27-year-old Jason Plummer, was too young to be a proper Lt. Governor candidate, Brady said this:

“How old was Thomas Jefferson when he wrote the Constitution?” Mr. Brady asked. “Age isn’t the only barometer of qualification.”

Ugh. Brady needs to read a few history books as there are several things wrong with this statement.

First of all Jefferson was 33 when he penned the first few drafts of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Secondly, the Constitution was written in 1787, just over ten years later and by then Jefferson was in his 40s.

Thirdly, Thomas Jefferson had precisely zip to do with the Constitution. It was written while he was an Ambassador to France. Jefferson wasn’t even in the country at the time!

Columnist Hinz missed that third fact, as well.

Sigh. It’s such a shame that so many Americans just plain have no clue about American history. In this case a man who would be Governor and another in the media that thinks he’s in a position to critique him.

Maddening. Simply maddening.
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Oh Lord, Bill Brady Goofs American History”

Abraham Lincoln - Anti-Americanism - Constitution - Education - Government - History - Military - Patriotism - Warner Todd Huston

The Lincoln We Need

February 12, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For Lincoln’s birthday, I repost this from a year ago…

These last 20 or so years has seen a bifurcated treatment of Abraham Lincoln. There are the enthusiasts and hagiographers that still revere him as the best that America has to offer — the proverbial great emancipator, Father Abraham. Then there is a second stream, enthusiasts of another sort, viewing the Civil War president in the opposite manner. That second group are the Lincoln haters. Those such as Thomas DiLorenzo, the sort that calls Lincoln a criminal and despot, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., the sort that castigates Honest Abe as an unremitting racist, have been joined by a small group of Lincoln detractors trying to convince America that Lincoln is to be discounted, even hated by history.

So, which Lincoln is the Lincoln? Is he the Lincoln of “the great emancipator” or the Lincoln of the “great despot” and which Lincoln is the one we as Americans should know?

In truth he is all and neither of the two views in current, popular memory. He is neither the vision of the Constitution destroying, negro hating man the detractors wish to foster, nor the spotless demi-god that the hagiographers want to claim as theirs. Yes he did single things that pulled out of context to the whole of the man are both racist and despotic. He was a man, flawed and imperfect to be sure, but he was also one so singularly radical and ahead of his time that I believe we should lean towards reverence as opposed to despising the 16th president.

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The Lincoln We Need”

Britain - Europe - France - Government - History - Warner Todd Huston

French to Buy the White Cliffs of Dover from UK Labour Government

February 11, 2010 by

-By Ann “Babe” Huggett

Staggering under a national debt of £830billion ($1.245 trillion) for a nation only about the size of California with a population about twice that state’s, the UK’s Labour Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, is selling off its hard asset Dover Port to its historical arch-enemy, France, in a benighted attempt at debt reduction through privatization.

Although the UK already has sold off its other major ports to private hands through the 1991 Ports Act, the sale of Dover Port and the White Cliffs to France has generated anger and outrage among the general British population, a large percentage of whom have living memories of WWII.

Confronted by the historically inverted, proposed sale to the regional council of Nord-pas-de-Calais, Tory candidate for MP, Charles Elphicke had this to say of Calais owning Dover, “In trying to sell off our port and the White Cliffs, it’s clear Gordon Brown has no sense of the history of our nation or the pride of our town.

‘How dare he consider selling it all off to the French? Dover is the English border. We stood proud in defending our nation in times past.
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French to Buy the White Cliffs of Dover from UK Labour Government”

Book Reviews - Books - Education - France - History - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

The Intellectuals What Ain’t

February 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is no better example of how low intellectuals have fallen than the case of Bernard-Henri Lévy, intellectual, provocateur, member of the well-regarded French nouveaux philosophes and, it seems, all around gullible fool.

Bernard-Henri Lévy, better known to those in the know as BHL, has become a laughing stock of modern inteleckshoouls everywhere with the publication of his much anticipated book on philosopher Immanuel Kant.

Oh, there’s sharp criticism in Lévy’s new Kantallope, there’s bomb thrown name calling, and nose-up-turning galore. Kant, according to Lévy, is a “raving lunatic” and a “fake.” And to prove his case Lévy uses the anti-Kanti words of the famous 20th-century philosopher Jean-Baptiste Botul — known as the father of the philosophical school of Botulism.

Yeah. Big problem for BHL, though. Jean-Baptiste Botul is a fictional character made up as a joke in 1999 by a journalist. I mean, come on, if you didn’t see the joke in “the school of Botulism” what sort of bat do you need upside your head to see the truth?
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The Intellectuals What Ain’t”

Afghanistan - Children - Family - Gays - History - Islam - Morals/Sex - Religion - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Another Example of Backwards Islamic ‘Culture’

January 29, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

U.S. troops in Afghanistan are having a hard time understanding what is a strange Afghan cultural practice to them. The practice can be summed up in the ages old Afghan phrase, “women are for children, boys are for pleasure.”

Yes, that phrase means what you think it means. It has been well known for a long time that some parts of Afghanistan have an odd sexual practice ensconced in its culture. Men have sex for pleasure with boys often eschewing women. Sometimes these men even claim to be disgusted by the idea of sex for pleasure with a woman. Yet none of these Afghani men think of themselves as homosexual because they don’t “love” their male sex partners. They just love the sex.
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Another Example of Backwards Islamic ‘Culture’”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - History - Liberals - Nancy Pelosi - Taxes - Thomas Brewton

The Obama Road to Serfdom

January 28, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Thomas E. Brewton

During 2009 we travelled far along the downward economic spiral that Friederich von Hayek in 1944 accurately foresaw for Great Britain under the post-War socialist Labour Party government.

This Wall Street Journal editorial lays out the nauseating hypocrisy of Obama’s phony PR gesture in the direction of fiscal probity.

Only blind faith in the secular religion of socialism can explain Obama’s rush to subordinate every aspect of our lives to the control of socialistic ideologues like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, David Axelrod, Bill Ayers, and Bernadine Dohrn. Obama and his people presume to omniscience, because they have been “educated” by elite socialistic universities. They assume arrogantly that the American people are dunces who can’t find their way to the bathroom without guidance from the intellectuals. In their ideology the only just and desirable society is based upon what Franklin Roosevelt termed security, what in earlier periods of history was called serfdom.
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The Obama Road to Serfdom”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Founders - Frank Salvato - Freedom - Government - Liberals - President - Republicans - Rights - Society/Culture - Taxes - The Law - Western Civilization

The Time Is Ripe for Divide & Conquer

January 25, 2010 by

-By Frank Salvato

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the Obama Administration is doing everything they can to place the blame for Republican Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts Senatorial Special Election on Martha Coakley. It is their modus operandi. When someone or some organization becomes a political liability, the Obama team throws it under the bus. They did it to Rev. Jeremiah Wright. They did it to Bill Ayers. They did it to ACORN. And now they are doing it to Martha Coakley. No, we shouldn’t be surprised. In Chicago Democrat politics, political liabilities are “dealt with,” and Barack Obama is a Chicago Machine Progressive-Democrat.

Martha Coakley wasn’t always a “liability,” though. In her defense it should be pointed out that as recently as 2006, Coakley won election as the Massachusetts Attorney’s General by a decisive margin, garnering 73% of the vote. By any standard, a statewide election victory tallying 73% of the vote is impressive. Coming off that kind of power victory, we can discern that Coakley knows how to execute a political campaign. Further, with such a lopsided victory achieved, it would have been logical that she would have been a strong candidate, against all comers, to safely retain the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat…if left to her own devices.
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The Time Is Ripe for Divide & Conquer”

Constitution - Education - Founders - History - Patriotism - Society/Culture - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Be Part of This Online ‘Reviving the Constitution’ Event

January 19, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is an interesting event being put on by that famous bastion of conservative thought Hillsdale College that you might find interesting to become a part of…

An Online Town Hall
January 30, 2010
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM – (online or in person)

The Kirby Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship of Hillsdale College cordially invites you to participate in an online town hall on Saturday, January 30, 2010.

There are two ways to participate in this event–in person or by viewing a live video stream (“webcast”). Advance registration is required for both forms of participation.

Please spread the word to friends and family about this day-long town hall, which will feature presentations and interactive Q&A sessions led by Kirby Center faculty and Hillsdale College President Dr. Larry P. Arnn. The event will run from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and will be broadcast from the offices of TVWorldwide.com in Chantilly , VA.

More info – http://www.hillsdale.edu/KirbyCenter/programs/townhall/default.asp
Registration – http://www.tvworldwide.com/events/hillsdale/100130/
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Be Part of This Online ‘Reviving the Constitution’ Event”

History - John Armor - Security/Safety - Society/Culture

Earthquakes and other Human Disasters

January 19, 2010 by

-By John Armor

I have been to Haiti, once. It was in 1972. I remember it vividly. The sad thing is that Haiti has not changed materially since then. As a result of that continuing history of human failure, people are dying in the tens of thousands from easily avoidable consequences of the earthquake that centered on Port au Prince last week.

Haiti’s successful revolution to gain its freedom from being a colony of France, was only a few years after our own Revolution against England. But since then, Haiti has had a constant series of governments composed of thieves, torturers, murderers.

When I was in Port au Prince in 1972, I took a taxi to go to the Iron Market in the center of that city. As we drove into the market, I noticed that there was one, new brick building on the outskirts of the Market. In my college French, I asked the driver what that building was. He replied that it was “an agricultural warehouse.” But as we passed the building, the door opened and a man came out. On the wall behind him I saw a long rack filled with dozens of machine guns.

I knew right away that the brick building was the headquarters of the Ton-Ton Macoute. They were the murderous thugs who kept “Papa Doc” Duvalier in power, and later his son, “Baby Doc.” Whether the current thugs are as well organized, or bear the same name, I do not know. I do know that Haiti still does not have a competent government, and thugs are still loose in the streets.
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Earthquakes and other Human Disasters”

Anti-Americanism - Blogging - Book Reviews - Budget - Chicago - Communism - Congress - Constitution - Cook County - Crime - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Elections - Federalism - Free Speech - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - History - Inernet - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Republicans - Security/Safety - Senate - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - States Rights - Taxes - Tea Party - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Book Review: What Are These Tea Parties About, Anyway?

January 13, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new book about the Tea Party movement — and a movement it really is — will soon be hitting the shelves. “A New American Tea Party” penned by John M. O’Hara, one of the many folks that helped bring us some of those protests in early 2009, is a book that hopes that the reader will come away understanding and appreciating the Tea Party movement as a truly grassroots happening, a spontaneous outpouring of interest backed by true red, white and blue American ideals.

Author O’Hara, himself an early Tea Party organizer in Washington D.C. and the Chicago area, answers several questions with the book: what sparked the Tea Parties; is the name “Tea Party” itself a proper sobriquet; what do they mean; what does the future hold; and how do you make more?

The first thing one might notice is that O’Hara writes in a crisp, conversational style with short subchapters. This makes it ideal for reading bits at a time. This is not a dense treatment and I think his style makes the book very accessible to people of all ages — without talking down to the young or dumbing it down for the more advanced reader.
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Book Review: What Are These Tea Parties About, Anyway?”

Barack Obama - Christianity - Christmas - Family - Frederick Meekins - History - Liberals - Religion - Society/Culture - Western Civilization

Obama Nazifies Christmas

January 9, 2010 by

-By Frederick Meekins

Some may claim that this headline is a little strong. But if one goes back and studies history, one finds that Hitler also deemphasized the religious aspects of Christmas in deference to a generalized “winter holiday”.

This was only Obama’s first Christmas in the Oval Office. Yet the President has already tried to de-Christ Christmas in at least two instances.

It has come to public’s attention that the White House considered not putting up its Nativity display. Instead, plans were considered for a “more inclusive” Christmas.

G.K. Chesterton said “Religious liberty might suppose to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it.” So in the vain attempt to feign a posture of expansive sensitivity, the Obama administration was on the verge of excluding those who had someone sitting on the throne of their hearts other than Barack Obama.
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Obama Nazifies Christmas”

2nd Amendment - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Crime - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Federalism - Founders - Guns - Liberals - New Hampshire - Patriotism - Republicans - Society/Culture - State Government - States Rights - Supreme Court - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

New Hampshire Makes to Outlaw Federal Agents?

January 8, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Imagine a state law that says that any federal agent that comes into said state and runs afoul of a new state law should be considered a felon! Well, that is what New Hampshire is about to do if HB1285 passes during the coming 2010 legislative session.

HB1285 is another one of those laws that exempts all firearms and firearms accessories that are made in a state from certain federal restrictions if they remain in that state. Several states have made attempts to implement these 10th Amendment laws and New Hampshire intends to be one of the next to do so.

Thus far Montana and Tennessee have passed their own firearms freedom acts and thirteen or so other states have introduced or are introducing laws that exempts local firearms industries and accessories as well as in-state firearms owners from overweening federal gun banning laws.
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New Hampshire Makes to Outlaw Federal Agents?”

Africa - Anti-Americanism - Britain - Capitalism - Christianity - Education - Family - Freedom - History - Islam - Islamofascism - Liberals - Religion - Rights - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Some Cultures Aren’t ‘Just as Good as Ours’

January 8, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Multiculturalism is the dream state of the extreme left, not just in the U.S.A. but worldwide. From the pointy-heads at university, to the self-congratulatory oafs in Brussels and Washington D.C., these leftists sternly warn us all that any assumption that one culture is somehow better than another is “racist,” or at the least gauche. Everyone is the same, they say and you are a creep to think otherwise.

And they are simply wrong. Some cultures are better than others. A recent BBC report proves my nay saying of multiculturalism is right, too.

On Jan 7 the BBC posted a report on the increase in child sacrifice in Uganda where so-called witch-doctors are increasingly killing children in faux religious practices in order to bestow good luck on adults.
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Some Cultures Aren’t ‘Just as Good as Ours’”

Ann "Babe" Huggett - Entertainment - History - Hollywood - Movies

This Chick Does Flicks: Sherlock Holmes

January 7, 2010 by

-By Ann “Babe” Huggett

Blame it on my British husband for turning me into a fan of Guy Ritchie as a director but I just love his movies! Sure, they’re violent but so is the news and if what is being done to the US Constitution by our ruling elites doesn’t qualify as excessively brutal, I don’t know what is. So, what can a maturing director, whose movies have convoluted plots and Dickensian characters, do but combine 1892 Victorian London and the greatest fictional detective of all, Sherlock Holmes? The mix works and it is magic. Sherlock Holmes is director Guy Ritchie’s masterpiece of grit, grime and gigantic characters all grinding together in an exciting mystery adventure film complete with ersatz occult magic hinting at New World Order trickery.

Sherlock Holmes is a feast for the eyes and a real workout for the educated. You’ve got clues galore, fantastic urban archeology, great costuming, your usual satanic cult, your “dead” rising from the grave, your decadent aristocrats, your gruesome deaths, bare knuckle fighting, scenes in slaughterhouses, crazy contraptions ala Jules Verne, allusions to Cecil Rhodes’ desire to reunite America to Great Britain, the disastrous and premature launching of a sailing vessel, the construction detailing of London’s Tower Bridge being turned into a rough justice gibbet and Escher moments on stairwells.
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This Chick Does Flicks: Sherlock Holmes”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Elections - Founders - Freedom - GOP - House of Representatives - Jeff Lukens - Liberals - Republicans - Rights - Senate - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - The Law - Western Civilization

The Choice Between Prosperity and Decline

December 29, 2009 by

– By Jeff Lukens

This land of a free people and a free-market economy has generated a great wave of innovation that has benefited all of humanity. The essence of freedom and prosperity that moved around the world in past 200 and some years has been driven primarily by the United States. With our economy now stagnating, it has become more important than ever to return to the basic Constitutional freedoms that have made prosperity possible.

My son came home from college to visit recently. After some time of catching up on things, the conversation turned to topics that interest him — and that means all things electronic. He explained to me why I needed the latest operating system update for the computer and how properly to configure the surround sound system for the HDTV. I could barely keep up with it. Somewhere in the conversation, it occurred to me that in the long view of human history, we have come a long way in a very short time.

Think about it. In the 1600s, the ships that brought the first settlers to our shores, and tools for tilling the soil they brought with them, were not much more advanced than those used by people thousands of years before. In the relatively short time since their arrival in the New World, there has been an explosion in technology and the standard of living for ordinary people.

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The Choice Between Prosperity and Decline”

Anti-Americanism - Chicago - Conservatives - Constitution - David Huntwork - Democrats/Leftists - Founders - History - Liberals - Religion - Society/Culture

Why I Signed The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience

December 28, 2009 by

-By David M. Huntwork

It is one thing to judge, and another to excuse. The Manhattan Declaration does neither. I found this to be a rather profound statement by a large number of Christian leaders taking a stand for the foundations of civilization, the family, and the sanctity of human life. People of faith have to work together to preserve and protect the fundamental principles of morality from those who seek to destroy them. This declaration brings together numerous Catholic bishops, Orthodox clergy, and Evangelical leaders and as an evangelical Christian I will gladly partner with other types of Christians on the common concepts that form the backbone of Christianity.

From ManhattanDeclaration.org:

Christians, when they have lived up to the highest ideals of their faith, have defended the weak and vulnerable and worked tirelessly to protect and strengthen vital institutions of civil society, beginning with the family.

We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are:

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Why I Signed The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience”

Anti-Americanism - Christmas - Crime - History - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Race - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Kwanzaa Created by a Rapist and Torturer?

December 22, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Every year I post a pre-Christmas piece on the farce that is Kwanzaa. This year will be no exception. Note, some of the newspaper articles I quote are several years old so some may no longer be online.

Each year, with the onset of Christmas, we are treated to another gauzy, fluff piece about how great Kwanzaa is by yet another PC spewing newspaper columnist. This year, among many others, we find aggrandizement such as the Progressive’s “Kwanzaa is more relevant than ever in recession,” the Chattanooga Times Free Press with theirs titled, “Common ground,” or the one from the Providence Journal headlined, “Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah brighten even the darkest season of the year.”

Several years ago, the Houston Chronicle got in the act with a piece by Leslie Casimir titled “Learning about Kwanzaa from the holiday’s creator.” This one, though, was a bit off the usual track of the how-great-is-Kwanzaa theme because this particular piece celebrated the inventor of the faux holiday, Maulana Karenga, himself. So, instead of merely celebrating this manufactured holiday Casimir amazingly made a hero of the rapist, race monger and violent thug who created it!

Casimir waxed a’glow about how wonderful Maulana Karenga is and her column found a gullible parent who, with kid in tow, went to see the man at a local community center.

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Kwanzaa Created by a Rapist and Torturer?”

Anti-Americanism - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Health - History - Liberals - Media Bias - Military - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Professor: Say, Let’s Pardon a Domestic Terrorist

December 21, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

CUNY Graduate Center professor David S. Reynolds has an idea. He wants to pardon an American criminal that is a known murderer and fanatic and who led a life that was steadily radicalized by an extreme religious ideology. This domestic terrorist even went so far as to attempt to start a war inside the USA and advocated for American citizens to be killed in their homes for not seeing things his way.

No, Reynolds is not hoping to pardon Islamic terrorist Nidal Hasan, though being a professor of one of our wonderful universities it would not be surprising if he should. No, the domestic terrorist that Reynolds wants pardoned is abolitionist hero John Brown, he of pre-Civil War history.

For those that may not remember their civil war era history, John Brown tried to incite a slave insurrection in Virginia but ended up corralled in a firehouse at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. At the time, Harper’s Ferry housed a federal weapons arsenal that Brown hoped to use to arm his insurrectionists. His plan failed and he was eventually captured, tried, and hanged for his crimes by Virginia’s authorities in 1859.
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Professor: Say, Let’s Pardon a Domestic Terrorist”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Founders - History - John Armor - Liberals - Science - Society/Culture - Taxes

Ben Franklin: On Science

December 17, 2009 by

-By John Armor

As most of you know, the international recognition of me as a scientist began with the day that I captured lightning with a kite. Had I done that experiment the way the popular myth says, I probably would have been electrocuted, an early end to an ordinary career.

You probably recall that my formal education ended when I was 14. After that, I bought and read every worthwhile book I could find. I died in 1790, but one aspect of the Other Side that I can share with you is that we get to read and see whatever interests us about the continuing fate of this nation we created, and started on its way.

You are in the middle of national consideration of laws that would involve more than a trillion dollars of public and private spending for purposes based, or claiming to be based, on scientific weather considerations. Now, I know the word trillion, but I never had occasion to use it. I recall the greatest warship Congress approved in my day, the USF Constitution and known as “Old Ironsides” now lies at harbor in Boston. She cost about $60,000 to build and equip. That gives you an idea of how far the value of the dollar has declined.
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Ben Franklin: On Science”

Christianity - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Founders - Liberals - Nancy Salvato - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes

For the General Welfare, or an Encroachment on Rights?

December 16, 2009 by

-By Nancy Salvato

Taking Metra usually affords me a solid 20 minutes to read on my Kindle during my commute home and I relish that pause from responsibility to research many of the topics on which I write. Tonight’s train ride, however, provided an unanticipated diversion during which I mused on a variety of scenarios that left me pondering. What percentage of the population would place such scenarios under the category of an encroachment on one’s individual rights in the guise of the public interest or visa-versa? The catalyst for the redirection of my concentration was correlated to one particular passenger who seriously compromised my efforts to focus on the inner workings of the Executive Branch of our government. Due to the exercise of her individual rights, and some really “gawd-awful” perfume, I determined to leave my seat -preferring to wait in an icy cold vestibule until the train reached my stop.

Though I felt frustrated and put out by someone whose liberal use of perfume almost immediately gave me a piercing headache, I recognize that it is well within her right to wear the stuff. What I would often prefer from my fellow passengers is very different from what I can reasonably expect from my fellow passengers. This is not the first time my olfactory organ has been overwhelmed by the odors I confront as I make my way home. Who can account for what one delights in eating? Though it is not permitted on the train, people consume anything from fried chicken to Asian Cuisine on the BNSF Line, with complete disregard for those around them. Some of the extremely inconsiderate sit down next to a complete stranger and proceed to gorge themselves. Others have no compunctions about what falls to the floor or is left behind on the seat. What bothers me most is the co-mingling of smells in a confined area. It is the opposite of appetizing, and usually has the effect of making me want to, in the words of Garth from SNL’s Wayne’s World, “hurl”.
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For the General Welfare, or an Encroachment on Rights?”

Anti-Americanism - Christianity - Christmas - Democrats/Leftists - Family - Frederick Meekins - History - Liberals - Religion - Rights - Society/Culture

Apostates Devise New Ways To Spoil Everyone’s Christmas

December 15, 2009 by

-By Frederick Meekins

One of the shortcomings I remember the most about the Christian elementary school I attended was how a number of the less-than dedicated educators would punish all of the students for the misbehavior of a single pupil. To this day, I remain convinced this had more to do with lazy teachers preferring not to mess around with recess than correcting actually delinquency.

As miniature societies, the dynamics of schools often reflect the processes that govern nations and countries. Unfortunately, the good students — or rather citizens in the macrocosmic case — are having something that is by every right their’s taken away just because those in charge don’t want to deal with those out to ruin things for everyone.

For nearly 15 years (or at least since I’ve been writing about the topic annually), Christians and allied conservatives have waged a noble effort against secularists claiming the First Amendment, through an expansionist interpretation of the Separation Clause, forbids the erection of Nativity scenes and even less conspicuously devout Christmas symbols on public property.
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Apostates Devise New Ways To Spoil Everyone’s Christmas”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - California - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Founders - Frank Salvato - Free Trade - Freedom - History - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Religion - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - The Law

American Liberty v. Obama’s Social Engineering

December 13, 2009 by

-By Frank Salvato

After the General Election of 2008 I made a conscious effort to give President Obama a chance. I wanted to give him an opportunity to be true to his word; to prove that he was committed to governing from the center. I also wanted to demonstrate that I was not of the same ilk as the Bush-hating, “he stole the election,” fact-ignoring Progressive malcontents that served to divide the country over the eight years of the Bush Administration. But now, a year after the election, and as we approach a full year of the Obama Administration, it has become abundantly clear that Mr. Obama has abandoned almost all of his campaign promises (but for his commitments to the SEIU) and is governing from the far Left. He has instituted a campaign of social engineering that can only be described as a direct threat to liberty.

Liberty
Liberty is defined as, “freedom from arbitrary or despotic government or control.” It was the single most motivating factor in the American Revolution and war for independence. Our Founders and Framers risked their lives to free the people of what would become our nation from the elitist tyranny of King George and his court, a tyranny that choked liberty – personal and societal – dead.

In addition to the limitations placed on religious freedom and freedom of speech, taxation was excessive and exploitative and it was imposed without representation. Many of the colonists believed the denial of direct representation in the British Parliament was an illegal denial of their rights, as colonists were considered Englishmen subject to the king’s rule. Thus the credo, “no taxation without representation,” served as the rallying cry for Patriots in each of the thirteen colonies as they coalesced into a movement toward American independence.

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American Liberty v. Obama’s Social Engineering”