History

00Publius Contributor - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Elections - History - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - The Law - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

The Genealogy of American Liberal-Progressive Gnosticism

March 16, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Whence came the deformed conceptions of anti-Constitutional, regulatory government and judicial activism?

American liberal-socialism is the gnostic descendant of the French Revolution and its Reign of Terror. The genealogical connection begins with Henri de Saint-Simon, the French intellectual who codified the doctrine of socialism in the first decades of the 1800s, shortly after the Revolution.

His colleagues and followers, including Auguste Comte, formed a body of disciples known as the Saint-Simonians. They spread the Gnostic gospel to German universities, where it became mixed with the philosophies of Fichte and Hegel.

During the ferment preceding the French Revolution, the same intellectual influences produced the English constitutional radicalism of Jeremy Bentham, the founder of Utilitarianism. In 1789, the year of the French Revolution, he published Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, which outlined the Utilitarian doctrine that all political action should be in the form of regulations scientifically calculated to produce the greatest good for the greatest number of people. In this, Americans will recognize the genesis of New Deal regulatory agencies and the liberal-Progressive obsession with controlling every aspect of our daily lives.

At first hearing, the Utilitarian principle of “the greatest good for the greatest number” sounds good. The rub is that implementing it necessitates overturning existing social traditions and constitutional principles, just as President Franklin Roosevelt did with his 1930s New Deal.
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00Publius Contributor - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Founders - Media Bias - Society/Culture - The Law - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Editor & Publisher to Journalists: Get over Your Big Egos

March 12, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As I have in the past, to be a fair and honest reporter, I’ll bring the good news about the MSM to the fore right along with the bad. Today I have some good in the form of a piece in Editor & Publisher’s Shop talk section titled Who’s a Journalist These Days? This is an interesting piece that takes journalists to task who share, as E&P puts it, the “big ego disease” that seems woefully prevalent throughout the MSM.

In fact, Mark A. Phillips doesn’t at all mince words when taking to task his fellow journalists, not sparing their feelings a bit. He even identifies by name one of the journalistic comrades of whom he is scolding. That being one Debra J. Saunders of the San Francisco Chronicle.

In a recent article on the Josh Wolf affair, Saunders raised the question of the legitimacy of Wolf’s claims of being a journalist. Wolf, is a blogger who has been jailed since last year for refusing to reveal to investigators a news source he used on his Blog.

Saunders described Wolf variously as “…a blogger with an agenda and a camera”, and a man who likes to “…put himself in the company of real journalists”. Saunders’ final analysis negates Wolf’s claims of being a journalist. “But a camera and a Web site do not a journalist make, any more than shooting a criminal makes a vigilante a cop”, she haughtily proclaimed.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - History - Media Bias - Patriotism - President - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. – New Deal Apologist

March 8, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

The recent death of Professor Schlesinger brings to mind his wonderfully well-written historical surveys. It also reminds us of the misguided liberalism he ardently espoused.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., was a history professor at Harvard and the City University of New York, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for works of history, and a member of President John F. Kennedy’s White House staff.

His life-long devotion to liberal-Progressivism came partly from his family background, and partly from his undergraduate education at Harvard. When he received his degree in 1938, Harvard was in the vanguard of the relatively small number of atheistic and secular universities that were educating the Eastern liberal establishment.

Among his many historical analyses, one of the best known is The Age of Roosevelt, a three-volume, worshipful panegyric to the vast liberal-socialistic changes wrought by President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - History - Media Bias - Patriotism - President - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

NYTimes Pleads For ‘Elevated Discourse’… But Same Old Talking Points

March 5, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

What is it about the New York Times where they can’t stay above their talking points even when trying to interest the people in a higher level of political discussion and debate?

The Times was bemoaning the current sad state of political discourse amongst political candidates today (and rightfully so, I might add) in a story reporting the interesting extended debate between Newt Gingrich and ex-Senator Mario Cuomo sponsored by New York’s Cooper Union Hall, the great room in which Abraham Lincoln first came to national prominence prior to his running for president of the United States.

The two “will appear together on the stage of Cooper Union’s Great Hall tonight for a discussion, to encourage today’s presidential candidates to spurn sound bites for serious discussion and debate” the paper informs us.

The Times has a solid point on the downward spiral of the discourse and oratory from today’s pols, but politicians are hardly alone to blame.Even in a story that is supposed to be urging us all to gain an interest in a higher level of debate, the Times cannot resist injecting at least one of their boogymen items, campaign cash.
Continue reading “NYTimes Pleads For ‘Elevated Discourse’… But Same Old Talking Points”

00Publius Contributor - Economy/Finances - Family - History - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - The Law - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

How FDR Destroyed the Dollar

February 24, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Until 1933, the U. S. dollar was the among the strongest and most stable currencies in the world. With the stroke of a pen, President Franklin Roosevelt torpedoed it. We are still plagued with the resulting inflation.

All governments lust for taxpayers’ money. The ability to direct the expenditure of large sums of money confers great power upon political leaders. But the spending requirements that President Franklin Roosevelt had in mind upon taking office in 1933 were of extraordinary dimensions. Inflating the currency, in socialist theory, was a way to create more money for that end.

In the 1920s, after the disillusionment of World War I, socialism enjoyed great vogue in the United States. Social Gospel ministers extolled it, intellectuals lauded it, and popular magazines ran many favorable articles about it. In that period, the general public had no awareness of the horrors then being effected in the name of socialism in the USSR, and Hitler’s National Socialism was still in the future.

It was against that background that Franklin Roosevelt campaigned for the presidency in 1932 with the promise to give state-planning a try. Described in that way, it seemed to be no more than a proposal to coordinate government spending more effectively.
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00Publius Contributor - Family - Founders - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

Britney versus Jefferson: No contest

February 24, 2007 by

-By Michael M. Bates

We’ll start out with a pop quiz. Don’t fret. The results won’t go on your permanent record. Probably.

Here goes. Last Monday the United States celebrated:

  • The biggest white sale of the year.
  • Paris Hilton’s most recent engagement.
  • Presidents Day.
  • Washington’s Birthday.

The correct answer, as aficionados of Section 6103(a) of Title 5 of the U.S. Code know, is Washington’s Birthday. By the way, that’s Washington as in George. Isaiah Washington most likely won’t get his national holiday until he successfully completes his homophobia rehab.
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00Publius Contributor - Constitution - Economy/Finances - History - President - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Storm Ahead?

February 24, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

The economic barometer has been falling for many months. Analysts have, with greater frequency of late, expressed fears of a major dollar devaluation.

This is not a prediction of specific events or the timing thereof. But you should become aware of the many economic warning signs that have become increasingly evident in recent years.

Typical is the following quotation from the Wall Street Journal’s February 17, 2007, editorial How Expansions Die:

Thus does a virtuous circle caused by easy money turn vicious, and interest rates aren’t even all that high — at least not yet. The Fed’s concern over housing’s potential effect on the broader economy is no doubt one reason it has kept short-term rates at 5.25% for several months, despite signs that inflation risks remain. Notwithstanding yesterday’s monthly inflation statistics (a function mainly of energy prices), gold has climbed back up to $665 an ounce, the dollar is weak, and “core” inflation remains above the Fed’s 2% upper limit.

The underlying problem is too many dollars sloshing around the world, the result of the Federal government’s unsatisfiable desire for more spending, along with consumers’ imprudent willingness to go into debt, spending more than they make. These two economic drivers are facilitated by the Federal Reserve’s role as creator of fiat money in limitless quantities. The inevitable result is inflation, which by definition is devaluation of the currency.
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00Publius Contributor - Economy/Finances - Education - Entertainment - Family - History - Science - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Vince Johnson

New World Realities!

February 19, 2007 by

-By Vince Johnson

I’m currently in the process of moving from the Coast to Aumsville, Oregon and short on time for writing a REALITY FACTOR. Therefore, this issue is an opportunity to relay some startling information prepared by an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota. He is Director of the UCEA Center for Advanced Study Technological Leadership in Education. The following information was obtained from his web page:

  • If you are 1 in a million in China, there are 1,300 people just like you!
  • The 25% of the Chinese Population with the highest IQ’s is greater than the total population of North America. Translation for teachers: They have more honors kids than we have kids!
  • Did you know that China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the world?
  • If you took every single job in America and shipped it to China, it would still have a labor surplus!
  • During the time it takes you to read this column, 60 babies will be born in the USA, 244 babies will be born in China, and 351 babies will be born in India.
  • The top ten jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn’t even exist in 2004!
    Continue reading “New World Realities!”
00Publius Contributor - Education - History - The Law - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Society as Clay in Liberals’ Hands

February 18, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

An enduring society is not a random assemblage of people drawn together, like pigs around the feed trough, waiting for welfare-state handouts.

The liberal paradigm recognizes no spiritual dimension to human nature or to human society. In the liberals’ atheistic and materialistic world, humans are merely animals a notch along the evolutionary scale from the apes and, like them, motivated only by material factors: water, food, sex, and shelter.

Societies, in that paradigm, are held together by whatever may be the currently reigning regulations governing those material wants. A political society theoretically is a lump of clay that intellectuals are capable of shaping anyway they wish.

In contrast, Cicero, the great Roman orator and admirer of Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoic philosophers, observed in the Republic:
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00Publius Contributor - Congress - Constitution - Crime - Elections - History - Patriotism - President - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

One reason so many senators crave the presidency

February 17, 2007 by

-By Michael M. Bates

Serving as a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan may not strike you as a good career move. Yet it worked out fine for Senator Robert Byrd.

In the early 1940s, the West Virginia Democrat did so well bringing in KKK members at $10 each ($3 extra for the robe and hood) that he quickly moved into management of the virulently anti-black, anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish organization. He was chosen to be the Exalted Cyclops, the chapter leader. A Grand Dragon suggested Byrd try politics. He did, and served for years in the state legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 1958, he was elected to the Senate and has been there ever since. Fellow Democrats revere him. So popular is he that in 1971 he defeated the sainted Teddy Kennedy for a Democratic leadership post.

Not bad for a former Kleagle who after World War II voiced his disgust with military racial integration. Rather than fighting with blacks, he’d prefer to “die a thousand times, and see old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels.”
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00Publius Contributor - History - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - Military - Religion - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Unrest in Middle East is all USA’s Fault… or it isn’t

February 14, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In keeping with their constant quest to saddle the USA with the fault for the growing unrest in he Middle East, the Washington Post has unleashed another article, replete with some efforts to blame-the-USA-first, titled “Across Arab World, a Widening Rift”.

In the first paragraph, writer Anthony Shadid illustrates the traditionally intertwined nature of Egypt’s Sunni and Shiite communities showing us how they have so easily coexisted in the recent past but quickly gets to the warnings of the danger of the Shiites “rising”.

Naturally, this is the fault of the USA who has left Arabs with a sense of “powerlessness and a persistent suspicion of American intentions.” The rise of unrest is also blamed on the “United States and others for inflaming it”.

Later in the piece, Shadid takes further aim at the USA in particular and the West in general.

“There’s a proverb that says, ‘Divide and conquer,’ ” Mohammed said. “Sunnis and Shiites — they’re not both Muslims? What divides them? Who wants to divide them? In whose interest is it to divide them?” he asked.

“It’s in the West’s interest,” he answered. “And at the head of it is America and Israel.” He paused. “And Britain.”

That sense of Western manipulation is often voiced by Shiite clerics and activists, who say the United States incites sectarianism as a way of blunting Iran’s influence. In recent years, some of the most provocative comments have come from America’s allies in the region: Egypt’s president questioned Shiites’ loyalty to their countries, Jordan’s king warned of a coming Shiite crescent from Iran to Lebanon, and last month King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia denounced what he called Shiite proselytizing

This illustrates the prosaic penchant for Muslims to resort to overarching and mostly absurd conspiracy theorizing. Blaming everyone but themselves is epidemic in Islam. After all, they are “God’s people” so they couldn’t be wrong, it is presumed.
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00Publius Contributor - Congress - Constitution - Elections - GOP - History - Islam - Islamofascism - President - R. A. Hawkins - Religion - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - The Law - Uncategorized

Kicking The Habit (Oil Isn’t As Slick As Bureaucrats)

February 14, 2007 by

By R. A. Hawkins

Of late all we seem to hear about is the need to kick the oil habit. Before I address this I want to comment to those who seem to say this so often. Do you really think that the radical Muslims will stay away from you just because we leave their benighted land? Get a grip. All cowardice ever receives as payment is more hostility by an emboldened attacker. If I injured the sensibilities of any of the liberals out there I would like to say I’m sorry. But I won’t.

What is needed now is another Republican Revolution. I mean the kind that we almost had when Gingrich and company took Congress back in the very first election held after Bill and his significant other were in office. Here are a few things that did get done. For the first time in years private business owners were actually able to write off their own medical insurance costs. Didn’t hear much about that did you?! All of those really neat herbs and supplements you can now get in the store — they weren’t available until the Republicans took Congress back from Moscow West. And eventually the Republicans also let the stupid assault weapons ban die a quiet death. They never did get to do all of the things they wanted to do. In spite of what the media said, little has changed as far as taxes except for Bush’s tax cut. The flat tax went the way of the pterodactyl but it is about to return as the Democrat albatross. I will enjoy watching them pitch their totally original and awesome idea of tax increases for everyone. Some people just don’t learn.
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00Publius Contributor - Education - Entertainment - History - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - Military - Patriotism - Religion - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

TV Turns Soldiers Into Torturers

February 13, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston


The AP has found a new way to attack TV’s 24. They say that because of the depiction of character Jack Bauer’s, shall we say, short-cuts in interrogating prisoners his ways have now infected the US Military. Absurdly, the AP is advancing the case, in “Does Jack Bauer Influence Interrogators?”, that “there are indications that real-life American interrogators in Iraq are taking cues from what they see on television.”

Are they indeed? Says who?

Predictably the AP reports these claims are from the “advocacy group Human Rights First”.

No surprise there, eh?
Continue reading “TV Turns Soldiers Into Torturers”

00Publius Contributor - Economy/Finances - History - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

The Indians Against ‘The Land’

February 12, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is an amusing game to play when watching Tom Cruise’s period piece movie flop, “Far and Away”. Every time you hear anyone one say the word “land” you take a shot of Jack Daniel’s. Few get too far into the movie before they are passed out cold the word is said so often.

But, it does make a point about how important owning property is in the scheme of things. A man who owns his land is a king, as they say. But, it is generally considered a white man’s quest to own that land and the white man’s desire to dig it up, build upon it, and otherwise “rape” it.

American Indians, on the other hand, are stereotyped as those who care about the natural land. It is said they hold that no man can own it, that it is there for all.

Of course, this is mostly a ridiculous myth, because American Indians had been killing each other over territory for hundreds of years before white men came ashore to set up the first real estate office. Some tribes made it a habit to use up and despoil the environment until life became so inhospitable they had to move to a new site to start it all over again.
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00Publius Contributor - Education - Family - Founders - History - President - Religion - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Martin Luther King, Jr., On Trial for Being a Communist

February 10, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

What was the first thing that ran through your head when you read that headline?

Did it confuse you? Maybe you were shocked? Perhaps you were even angered? I am sure a few even said something like “At last” or “about time”?

It is well known that MLK hung around Communists, even “card carrying” ones. It is also well known that he had some as his close advisors. It is not completely ascertainable if he, himself, was a believer in Communism.

But, in reality, it doesn’t matter a whit if he did because he did not openly speak out for Communism and did not base his position on the ideology of Communism.
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00Publius Contributor - Family - Founders - Frederick Meekins - History - Patriotism - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - The Law - Uncategorized

Statue Of Liberty Should Be A Liberated Woman

February 10, 2007 by

-By Frederick Meekins

One of the most comic irrationalities to come out of the Vietnam War that a village had to be destroyed in order to save it. Half a world away, the comment has become something of a joke ever since epitomizing government stupidity; however, as similar logic begins to be used here all in the name of national security, such an observation won’t seem as amusing anymore.

Most responding to my column about efforts to permanently bar the American people from the upper reaches of the Statue of Liberty agreed with my position. However, one response reflected the kind of thinking that will not only end up getting the remainder of our freedoms taken away from us but also lecture us why it is our civic duty to have a smile across our face while it is happening.

In the response, the government toady writes that, since the Statue of Liberty is a target because of its symbolic value as an artistic representation of America’s values, any and all measures should be taken to protect the landmark.

However, since Lady Liberty’s function is primarily symbolic, by closing her off aren’t we sending the message to the world that liberty is not an inalienable and immutable but rather contingent upon circumstances and the malleable whims of those holding power.
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00Publius Contributor - Book Reviews - Constitution - Family - Founders - GOP - History - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - Patriotism - Religion - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Chicago Sun-Times: Warning About Christian Fascists

February 9, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last weekend, the Chicago Sun-Times gave nearly an entire page in their “Controversy” Section to a man who feels America is under attack by a radical, religion that is inseparable from Nazi Fascism. He feels it is a hateful religion that is out to destroy America and everything it stands for and it must be stopped at all costs.

No he did not mean Islamism, amazingly enough, but Christianity.
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00Publius Contributor - Constitution - Family - History - Selwyn Duke - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

The Offensiveness of Taking Offense

February 8, 2007 by

By Selwyn Duke

The voicing of the unpopular, being the very soul of free speech, the right to give and take offense shall not be infringed.

Sometimes I think it is time to insert the above into our First Amendment. Whether it’s an off-color joke or colorful commentary, it’s now hard to make anything but the most plain vanilla statements without offending somebody. In fact, so ingrained is the notion of being offended that it has become a topic of satire. Just think about Geico’s famous commercials, wherein stone-age characters take umbrage at the slogan, “So easy a caveman can do it.”

Ironically, associating cavemen with being thin-skinned is quite apropos, since it is a frailty born of the more ignoble aspects of man’s nature. As to this, I think about documentarian Alby Mangels who, while visiting primitives in Papua New Guinea, warned against “knocking back their hospitality.” Prudence dictated he be wary, as those less spiritually and morally evolved are ruled by pride, the worst of the Seven Deadly Sins. And, lest we entertain the fancy that it is the superior person who doesn’t give offense, know that it is actually the superior one who doesn’t take it. It’s hard to offend the humble.

In truth, though, our civilization is not as overcome by pride as by duplicity. And this is what is truly offensive (in the way an odor is so) about this offensiveness business: Screaming “That’s offensive!” is nothing but a ploy. Yes, you heard it here first, few who emit that utterance are actually offended.

They just don’t happen to like what you’re saying.
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00Publius Contributor - Congress - Constitution - Elections - Founders - Islam - Islamofascism - Military - R. A. Hawkins - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - The Law - Uncategorized

We’ve Been Here Before (Grow Up Or Get Out of the Way)

February 7, 2007 by

By R. A. Hawkins

In the early part of this nations history we can find the first echoes of what we are currently attempting to grasp and deal with. There we can also find the answers to our current problems. There has been a lot of cheering about inclusiveness from the left lately. It has to do with the swearing in of a certain Islamic Congressman who is unsurprisingly from Minnesota, a state that is not only on the outskirts of the nation but also on the outskirts of reality.

The swearing in of this particular congressman was performed on the copy of the Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson. Many have questioned why Jefferson would have owned a copy of that book. Well, if the truth be told, he had copies of just about any book on any religion. This was one of the few books that survived the burning of his library. I for one am quite pleased that it did. I’m also quite pleased that someone who is ignorant of history, I assume, suggested that Ellison use that book.

At the very start of this nation we were dealing with the Pirates of Barbary. They were capturing our ships and impeding commerce with other nations. Once the United States was free of Britain we were also free of her protection. The British had been paying the demanded tributes. Tripoli had demanded $225,000 in cash and annual payments of $25,000. Adams was inclined to follow the model of the British but Jefferson wasn’t. Jefferson tried to form an international coalition to fight them but that failed because then, like now, everyone decided it was easier to give the bully their lunch money.
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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Family - Founders - History - Media Bias - Patriotism - Religion - Society/Culture - The Law - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Internet Tattletales — Is it Right to ‘Spy’ on a Neighbor?

February 7, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A recent Wallstreet Journal editorial by Jennifer Saranow entitled The Snoop Next Door, highlighted some interesting websites that have been taking their slot on the World Wide Web of late… and, no, it isn’t porn.

Apparently these sites are being used to tattle on other people. One site claims to be ready to reveal bad drivers and people who don’t know how to park well, one to uncover the identity of the person who is stealing newspapers in the wee hours of the morning before the neighborhood is awake to get their morning editions, and one to highlight litterbugs. All supposedly feature video or clear photos of the perpetrators of the ill the website’s creators wish to right.

How should we, as freedom loving Americans, react to websites where people are tattled on, spied upon, or “outed” as the bad guy? The libertarian reaction might be to confront the website’s creator and ask them who the heck they think they are by publicly airing other’s dirty laundry? Still others would applaud the website because they get to jeer the “jerks” of society who cannot seem to abide by the rules.

Which is right? Which is the more “American” reaction to these snoop’s websites? Curiously enough, both are.
Continue reading “Internet Tattletales — Is it Right to ‘Spy’ on a Neighbor?”

00Publius Contributor - Constitution - Elections - Founders - Media Bias - Patriotism - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Highlighting Leftist Activism on Web… no Mention of Conservatives

February 5, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ain’t technology wunnerful? I mean, it saves all that wear and tear on the VW Mini-Bus, saves the trees that would otherwise be cut down for anti-war signs, the paint, the tye-dying of shirts, the buying of sandals… heck all sorts of things and time can be saved because the World Wide Web has brought technology to leftist activism!

I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

It’s also a great thing that those evil, rotten, Nazi, CONSERVATIVES have not discovered the WWW as a place to gather their forces. It’s so heart warming that the left can, at long last, use technology for good instead of evil.

Or so it seems the Washington Post imagines the world has been set to rights because today a charming article has appeared in their paper letting us know that hey have found the “perfect example of how antiwar is waged in the Internet age.” Or at least so says Jennifer Earl in “Where Have All the Protests Gone? Online”.
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00Publius Contributor - Congress - Constitution - Economy/Finances - Elections - History - President - Society/Culture - The Law - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Labor Controls the Liberals

February 5, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

American labor unions are pushing candidates for the Democratic Party’s 2008 presidential nomination toward expansion of the welfare-state and massive inflation of the sort that the Great Society spawned.

After both World War I and World War II, the British Labour Party led England into its destructive liaison with socialism that destroyed British industry and reduced England to the “sick man of Europe.”

Harold Meyerson’s January 31, 2007, column in the Washington Post describes the behind-the-scenes power exerted by labor unions, especially the government employees unions. Their immediate goal is imposition of universal, socialized medicine, of the sort championed in 1993 by Hillary Clinton.

If labor unions succeed, two results are inevitable.
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00Publius Contributor - Congress - David Huntwork - History - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - Military - Patriotism - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - The Law - Uncategorized

Successes and Setbacks in the “Long War”

February 4, 2007 by

-By David Huntwork

A year ago the Pentagon released its Quadrennial Defense Review. It was essentially a strategy for a 20-year “long war” and a generational battle plan designed to prepare the military for a Cold War type struggle against the forces of militant Islam. According to the official unveiling:
“Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, our nation has fought a global war against violent extremists who use terrorism as their weapon of choice, and who seek to destroy our free way of life. Our enemies seek weapons of mass destruction and, if they are successful, will likely attempt to use them in their conflict with free people everywhere. Currently, the struggle is centered in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we will need to be prepared and arranged to successfully defend our nation and its interests around the globe for years to come.”
It is apparent that the United States and its assorted allies are still seeking to adequately define its enemy, reach a consensus on tactics, and achieve some sort of victory in (or graceful exit from) Iraq. In this age of round the clock news and information it is easy to get caught up in the crisis of the moment. But it is also important that we examine the big picture in the War on Terror and take the time to look back at some of the successes and setbacks experienced since 9-11.
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00Publius Contributor - Family - Health - History - Religion - Society/Culture - The Law - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

The Importance of Families

February 2, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Why is preservation of traditional marriage, between a man and a woman, vital to preservation of a good political society?

Malachi, a prophet who probably ministered in the 60 years after the first groups of Israelites returned to Jerusalem from Babylon, gives us God’s Word on the subject.

Having endured the Babylonian captivity for 70 sears, few of the returning Israelites had ever experienced the proper religious life of the pre-captivity period. Moreover, the Jerusalem to which they returned was a desolate ruin that had been destroyed and plundered by Judah’s enemies.
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00Publius Contributor - History - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - Military - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

US Reaction to 9/11 Just a ‘Massive Overreaction’?

January 31, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Nearly 3,000 Americans killed in a series of attacks on one single day — the most American civilians ever killed in a single day with coordinated attacks — was no big deal as far as David Bell writing for the L.A. Times is concerned.

The attacks were a horrible act of mass murder, but history says we’re overreacting.

See, they know this because Russia had a bad time of it during WWII.

…imagine that the attacks had continued, every six hours, for another four years, until nearly 20 million Americans were dead. This is roughly what the Soviet Union suffered during World War II, and contemplating these numbers may help put in perspective what the United States has so far experienced during the war against terrorism.

Such a ridiculous comparison. WWII, a standard, symmetrical war, bears little resemblance to this threat we face today. The Russians were under arms facing Hitler. It wasn’t a “nice” war, surely, but it was a standard war none-the-less. Hitler invaded and the Russians resisted.

Standard war stuff, really.
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00Publius Contributor - Family - History - Religion - Science - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Boson Bozos

January 31, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Scientists seeking ultimate answers to the origin, nature, and future of the cosmos have pursued a long series of mutually exclusive, speculative theories. Liberals embrace these speculations as scientific truth, even though they have less basis in verifiable fact than 5,000 years of faith in God recorded in the Bible.

Every attempt to date to unify cosmological and nuclear particle theories has foundered on newly observed, unreconcilable, opposing sets of facts. Seeking to bridge these gaps, cosmologists, nuclear particle physicists, and mathematicians have drifted far into the realm of abstract speculation.

Science at the outer limits of knowledge, both at the cosmological and sub-atomic levels, has come increasingly to resemble the speculations of medieval scholastic philosophers dealing in doctrinal abstractions.
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00Publius Contributor - 2nd Amendment - Constitution - Founders - History - Media Bias - Patriotism - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - The Law - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

NYTimes Reveals Distrust of ‘Law Abiding’ Citizens

January 31, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The New York Times thinks you are a criminal if you own a gun. The editorial writers at the Times simply don’t believe that you could possibly be a law abiding citizen if you are interested in self defense, their most recent anti-gun piece reveals.

Their January 30th piece, incongruously titled “A Day Without Guns …” — incongruous because the piece itself does not address any such subject as a day without guns — cannot be interpreted too many other ways than contempt for both the citizenry as well as the Constitution.

Twenty years ago, the Florida Legislature cravenly decided to allow “law abiding” citizens to carry concealed weapons merely by declaring their preference for self-defense. Then last July, at the prodding of the gun lobby, the current crop of state lawmakers proved they could be even more corrupt and cowardly than their predecessors by deciding to make the list of gun-toting Floridians a secret.

The quotes around “law abiding” says it all. In such a case, the usage of quotes marks obviously denotes sarcasm as opposed to a mere quote and their position that no gun owner could be a law abiding citizen rings through loud and clear.
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00Publius Contributor - Congress - Constitution - Elections - Founders - History - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - The Law - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Public Opinion: Experts vs Vox Populi

January 28, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Tension between government by experts (intellectuals, bureaucrats, and independent legislators) and the voice of the people (expressed in elections and opinion polls) complicates politics in our Federal republic.

Relying too heavily on opinion polls or elections is a short road to disaster when the government must determine critical policies that involve intricate financial knowledge, broad knowledge of history, economics, and foreign affairs. The general populace can be too easily misled by propaganda and ignorance of the subject.

But looking exclusively to an expert elite opens the path to tyranny, as the history of socialist collectivism demonstrates. Intellectual cadres, working through an impersonal bureaucracy, display, as a comedian once observed, all the sensitivity of the IRS and the efficiency of the Post Office.
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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Economy/Finances - History - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Jesse Jackson A Racial Profiler Extraordinaire

January 25, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For the purportedly quintessential civil rights activist, Jesse Jackson sure says an awful lot of racist comments. In a racist attack on Jews, he once called New York City “Hymie Town”, and now he is at it again in remarks made at Boise State University.

Long time activist Jesse Jackson was invited to speak about Martin Luther King, Jr. at the University on the 19th and during the address he claimed that black football players were not welcome on the University’s teams in the 1950s and 60s. He claimed that one of King’s legacies was such that black players were welcomed after King’s civil rights campaigns.

Referring to the two teams that played in the January 1st Fiesta Bowl — Boise State and the University of Oklahoma — Jackson claimed that past teams looked very “different” previous to King’s efforts.

Unfortunately for Jackson, his remarks were ill informed at least where it concerns Boise State. Alan Virta the university archivist, reports that Boise State has had black athletes since as far back as the 1940s. Further he says that the University had no policy that might prevent minority players.
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00Publius Contributor - Congress - Constitution - GOP - History - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - Military - Patriotism - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Media: Bush’s ‘Flawed’ Portrayal of ‘The Enemy’ in State of the Union Address

January 24, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

In response to president Bush’s State of the Union Address, the Washington Post’s main criticism seems to be that Bush doesn’t understand who “the enemy” is in the Global War on Terror. Yet as the Post proceeds to knock what they perceive as Bush’s simple minded rhetoric with today’s news article they only reveal it is they, rather, that has no idea who our enemies are.

In his State of the Union address last night, President Bush presented an arguably misleading and often flawed description of “the enemy” that the United States faces overseas, lumping together disparate groups with opposing ideologies to suggest that they have a single-minded focus in attacking the United States.

The Post’s conception of “flawed” is just as ill considered as they imagine the president’s to be and their analysis adds up merely to mirror the conception held by many Europeans.

Once again, a National U.S. paper “arguably” chooses sides with Europe’s interests over that of America.
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