-By David M. Huntwork
As the latest Wikileaks saga unfolded I couldn’t help but recall the scene in the film Sneakers where Martin “Marty” Bishop (Robert Redford) and Cosmo (Ben Kingsley) discuss the “code breaker.”
Cosmo: There’s a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it’s not about who’s got the most bullets. It’s about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think… it’s all about the information!
Continue reading “
Wikileaks War: No More Secrets”
-By David M. Huntwork
In less than a year well over a thousand independent groups have sprung up around the nation to organize and demonstrate against the attempted government takeover of entire industries, high taxes, crippling debt, and the agenda of President Barack Obama. While many have ridiculed and guffawed about the “teabaggers,” these motivated and angry voters have very quickly shown the ability to raise millions of dollars, target specific political races, grab headlines and media exposure, stage large rallies, and mobilize volunteers.
The Tea (Taxed Enough Already) movement has been defined as populist, conservative, and libertarian in tone. It is a movement diverse in leadership and organization but united in its defense of liberty and the constitution. Its members are technologically savvy and able to mobilize in a moments notice. It is anti-elitist, anti-big government, and anti-big business. It is a revulsion and revolt against perceived corruption and politics as usual. And it the most recent public face of the Liberty Movement that resides on the right side of the ideological spectrum.
Continue reading “
The Rise of the Tea Party”
-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:
Why I Signed The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience”
-By David M. Huntwork
As the entire civilized world now knows, President Barack Obama addressed the nation’s school children on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009. As soon as this was announced, and the accompanying Department of Education lesson plan released, a storm of controversy arose and suddenly schools were being besieged by angry parents. Bombarded principals, administrators and superintendents all across the country were almost overnight in a mad scramble for cover.
I received this e-mail before the speech from the superintendent of the private school that my children attend. It did save me from having to make the decision as to whether or not take the proactive step of pulling my children out of school that Tuesday. I’m not sure I would have because I trust the Christian educators to whom I have entrusted my children’s education not to be fawning, drooling idiots when discussing the mere mortal who is currently occupying the oval office.
Continue reading “
Boycotting The One”
-By David M. Huntwork
A rational person in a rational world should be able to say that the premise and storyline of the latest book by author Gary Wolf is silly, ridiculous, and prone to flights of fancy. Unfortunately, in the first decade of the 21st century the subject matter and conjecture found in the pages of The Kicker of St. John’s Wood is not so far-fetched and is indeed instead a remarkably accurate and reflective look at the forces, feelings and mindset of the modern-day Left.
It is a world in the not so distant future where the forces of the Left have saddled professional sports with quadriplegic referees, transgendered concessionaires and stuttering sportscasters. Now the festering forces of radical feminism have decided to launch a direct assault upon the blatantly oppressive, misogynist and patriarchal world of “maleness” that is professional football.
The Kicker of St. John’s Wood: A Book Review”
-By David Huntwork
After the shalacking of the Republican party by the Democrats on November 4th many people are asking themselves “what happened” and “what do we do next”. The “what happened” was eight years of a lackluster president who enacted the Surge about two and half years too late, surrendered on the public relations front, and abandoned the conservative principle of small government while joining the Republican controlled Congress in a frenzy of (then) unprecedented deficit spending.
In answer to the nest question, “what do we do next?,” I believe some are beginning to outline a strategy for the coming years. My friend and fellow blogger Dana at www.commonsensepoliticalthought.com had this to say:
Continue reading “
We Shall Not Go Quietly Into The Night”
-By David Huntwork
The modern political persuasion called Liberalism can be compared to a beautiful seductive temptress. Alluring and destined to feel good for a while, but after a fling with this wily ideology one is left realizing that the intoxicating goddess was more like a cheap prostitute. This seducer of the mind and soul leaves one intellectually and spiritually bankrupt, and infected with a life long hatred of tradition, morals and values. The Liberal or Progressive ideology is definitely a feel good political philosophy. As the Bible so wisely warns us to resist the temptations of the flesh so must we resist the emotional temptation and seduction of modern Liberalism.
Liberalism is full of great sounding ideas such as inclusion, acceptance, dignity, equality, social justice, human rights, and diversity. It seduces the naive and the idealist with its promise of compassion and tolerance. Who doesn’t want peace, harmony and justice? Who doesn’t want to feed the hungry and house the homeless? Such simple sentiments stir the hearts of the masses. It is a slippery slope philosophy that sucks one in with statements that are hard to disagree with but the Utopian dreams lead to social engineering, the nanny state and the abandonment of common sense.
Continue reading “Seductive ideology takes over Jan. 20”
-By David Huntwork
The year 2008 was politically the most exciting and unusual in a generation. It hosted a long, divisive and drama filled campaign season that featured the rapid rise and fall of Rudy Guiliani, Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee, the unlikely rise of John McCain and Barack Obama, and the eventual bitter defeat of Hillary Clinton. It brought us an unusually long and brutal primary with emotional charges of racism and sexism, the rise of the Superdelegate, and the explosion of Sarah Palin upon the national stage. All of this was followed by a rough and tumble presidential campaign whose outcome may have never been truly in doubt but was still a never ending soap opera of charges, counter charges, personal attacks, character assassinations, rumors, smears and the occasional, unexpected surprise.
2008 also also brought us a huge spike in gas prices, more political scandals, a mortgage and credit industry in a state of panic and a sitting president who was almost completely politically powerless in the face of such challenges. Rarely does such an alignment of events occur in a single year and the resulting deluge of memorable political quotes is a goldmine for the blogger, columnist, political junkie, and all those who follow current events. Without further ado I present to you my selection of the 99 most memorable, interesting, and outrageous political quotes of 2008.
Continue reading “The 99 Most Memorable, Interesting and Outrageous Political Quotes of 2008”
-By David Huntwork
By now you are probably aware that there have been a multitude of lawsuits filed in regards to the question of whether or not President-elect Barack Obama is in fact eligible under the “natural born” provision of the Constitution of the United States of America to be the President of the United States (POTUS).
The Constitutional provisions are very specific when it comes to the minimal qualifications for President. One is to be over thirty-five. He is. Two, is being in the country fourteen years. He has been. Three, is to be a natural-born citizen. The latter remains unproven, a matter of contention, and appears to be increasingly unlikely to be true.
Continue reading “Obama’s “Natural Born” Problem”
-By David Huntwork
From the moment a child is born there is probably no greater “universal truth” pounded into their head by society and culture than of the existence of a fat jolly man dressed in red who brings good little boys and girls presents each year with his eight tiny reindeer. It is the one great myth that is inescapable. Stores, malls, songs, programs, teachers, relatives, as well as friends and neighbors rigorously propagate and enforce this little piece of fiction. While mostly harmless and enjoyable, the story of Santa Claus is unknowingly used and abused by many well-intentioned parents who otherwise are upright and honest. They insist on lying to their children that Santa Claus is real.
My wife and I have three young daughters and from the very first we agreed that we would not lie to our children. It was our contention that to instill proper values and traits in our children would require us to be consistent and honest with them. What we would tell our children about Santa Claus was to be based upon the idea that we wanted them to always trust us and that their faith in us to lead them on the path of truth would not be compromised. Most parents would agree and do attempt to instill such basic principles into the hearts and minds of their offspring. Then why do they insist on perpetuating the lie, that Santa Claus complete with chimney tricks and bag of toys is real?
Continue reading “Don’t lie to your kids this Christmas”
-By David Huntwork
Have you ever wondered about “community organizing” and the swarming “get out the vote” goon squads that the Left increasingly mobilizes for presidential elections? ACORN is one of the largest of these entities and has an extensive and long history with Barack Obama. It is one of the central players in the massive Democratic voter registration drives you’ve been hearing about over the last few months. What we are beginning to learn is that it is little more than a massive exercise in voter fraud and mischief of all kinds. Dead Indians and illegal aliens have long been a significant Democratic voting base in certain parts of the country but now that concept of electoral fraud has spread throughout the nation.
ACORN has long suckled at the public teat. It has rewarded such trust and expenditures of the public treasury by managing to get itself placed under scrutiny or investigation in no less than eleven different states for submitting thousands of fraudulent new voter registrations. The usual dead suspects are now being supplemented by small children and even the names of sport celebrities. `
A good example from the New York Post.
Continue reading “Victory At Any Price”
-By David Huntwork
I watched a good portion the Saddleback Civil Forum on Saturday evening. It was a decent showing for both candidates but McCain probably did the best in what was viewed by many conservatives as a possible ambush by a pro-Obama evangelical pastor at a forum conceived by a variety of ideologically questionable characters. Instead, McCain really fumbled only once and came across as a decisive, determined, focused, relaxed, and informed man of integrity.
If you missed it here is a good recap.
McCain and Obama civil, not too revealing at church forum
“Rick did an amazing job of asking the questions most of us would ask the candidates if we could,” said Jill Frick, 47, of San Clemente. “I just really liked how John McCain gave well-stated answers. He didn’t even have to think. He takes a stand. Barack has a charming personality. He didn’t always give the direct answer.”
As a good orator and a person with definite charisma, Obama almost always does well no matter what the venue though he is less sure of himself without a TelePrompter in front of him. That said, he did flub the ’evil’ and ‘abortion’ questions.
Continue reading “Civility at Saddleback”
-By David Huntwork
If the government gets into the business of regulating and controlling carbon emissions it will be an unparalleled concentration of power far exceeding the New Deal under Roosevelt. The government will be in complete control over what businesses and average citizens consume and produce. It is the gateway excuse to rule, regulate and control your daily life in a fashion that we have never tolerated before but are now expected to meekly accept as we attempt to bailout the bathtub with a teaspoon. Never have Americans been so willing to hand over the most fundamental financial, transportation and quality of life decisions to a central authority on such questionable grounds.
We have been brainwashed that climate change is mainly caused by human activity and that somehow carbon taxes, economic socialism, monitoring lawn mower emissions, criticizing cow flatulence and flailing away at the faceless evil that is “oil” will somehow make a difference on climate changes we are only barely beginning to understand, let alone significantly influence one way or another.
Rather disturbingly, presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama made the following statement while campaigning in Oregon.
Continue reading “The Coming Fascist State”
-By David Huntwork
The mere mention of private military companies is enough to panic the OH MY GOD squad of American society and leaves them loudly shrieking fascism and totalitarianism, murder and thuggery.
There have been scores of private military companies and security firms employed by the Department of Defense and the State Department in Iraq since the war began. The most famous of all the “professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations firms” is the North Carolina based Blackwater USA.
In addition to Blackwater, other significant private security/military companies include DynCorp, Erinys, Aegis Defense Services, Kroll Inc., ArmorGroup, Hart, Steele Foundation, Global Risk Strategies, and CACI. According to the Pentagon, private military companies are subject to both U.S. military law and to more recent statutes governing the conduct of contractors who deploy with U.S. troops.
So far this year Blackwater has guarded 1,873 convoys, out of which there were 56 shootings, or less than 3% of all assignments. Last year, the company had 6,254 missions and 38 incidents. Since the beginning of the Iraq war 27 Blackwater contractors have been killed while guarding U.S. officials and no U.S. diplomat had lost their life on missions protected by Blackwater. Overall, some 428 security contractors have been killed in Iraq and an unknown number wounded. There are no definitive public figures for the amount of mission’s that have been completed by armed private contractors in Iraq or how many shooting ‘incidents’ they may have been engaged in.
Continue reading “In Defense of Blackwater and the Modern Day ‘Merc’”
By David M. Huntwork
Kai Chang from the blog Zuky wrote a piece titled The Greatest Cliché: The Unexamined Propaganda of “Political Correctness” (http://www.kaichang.net/2006/11/the_sloppy_prop.html) which sought to ‘reclaim’ the phrase Political Correctness and to wave a finger at all those who have dared to strike back at the PC advocates. It has been hailed as the “definitive analysis of Political Correctness” by a variety of Left wing bloggers while at the same time completely sidestepping its true nature. The author manages to both deny and misguide when it comes to this issue. His obvious hesitancy in dealing with the PC movement is both striking and revealing.
The phrase “politically correct” can be used in two distinct ways: either with its original literal meaning, or with the mocking sarcasm that’s common these days. I’ll get to the former in a moment, but I’ll begin with the latter. As it’s commonly used, “PC” is a deliberately imprecise expression (just try finding or writing a terse, precise definition) because its objective isn’t to communicate a substantive idea, but simply to sneer and snivel about the linguistic and cultural burdens of treating all people with the respect and sensitivity with which they wish to be treated. Thus, the Herculean effort required to call me “Asian American” rather than “chink” is seen as a concession to “the PC police”, an unsettling infringement on the free-wheeling conversation of, I suppose, “non-chinks”. Having to refer to black folks as “African Americans” rather than various historically-prevalent epithets surely strikes some red-blooded blue-balled white-men as a form of cultural oppression. Having to refer to “women” rather than “bitches” lays a violent buzzkill on the bar-room banter of men preoccupied with beating on their chests and off other body parts.
Ah, yes, the Left waxes indignant about being painted with the Politically Correct brush.
There is, of course, no mention of the thousands of examples of official persecution carried out due to Political Correctness. No listing of the campus speech codes, the corporate hypersensitivity, the frightened political figures and the cowed populace at large that cannot be denied. Yet hardly a day goes by where the news does not report yet another poor individual who has run afoul of the PC crowd.
Continue reading “The Left attempts to define Political Correctness”
-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:
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.
Continue reading “Successes and Setbacks in the “Long War””
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