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Thursday, April 26, 2018

Recommended Reading

See 7 Forces Driving America Toward Civil War by John Hawkins of Townhall.

For your convenience, the full essay is below the fold.
I was interviewed by a mainstream media reporter yesterday [April 20]. I thought he wanted to talk tech issues, but we actually spent almost the entire conversation discussing the feeling that many conservatives have that America has gone off the tracks and is headed toward dissolution or alternately, a civil war one day. Obviously, this would be a terrible thing and ironically, twenty years ago, it would have been laughable. Today, the joke isn’t so funny because we are a deeply unhealthy society with a dysfunctional government and for all our money, success and storied history, we seem to be on an increasingly dangerous trajectory.

1) A Post-Constitutional Era: Liberals don’t believe in the Constitution. Typically they deny this, but that’s exactly what a “living” Constitution means. You make it up as you go along. The Founders foresaw the instability and danger that would be created by this approach, which is why they wanted us to be a constitutional republic, not a democracy. Unfortunately, America has in many ways already become a post-constitutional democracy and we’re one liberal judge away from abandoning the Constitution altogether. Once we get to that point, America just becomes the representation of that old saying, “Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner.” Of course people are not lambs and when large numbers of them believe they aren’t being treated fairly, they do have the option of getting away from the wolves.

2) Tribalism:
The “you only have to listen to people you already agree with” nature of social media has dramatically ramped up the level of tribalism in the United States. The Right has gotten much more tribal since Donald Trump rose to prominence and the Left has taken tribalism into hyper-drive. Increasingly, liberals treat a range of opinion between Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton as legitimate while everyone else is viewed as a white supremacist Nazi primitive that must be driven down into the gutter for society to move forward. This makes any sort of dialogue or cooperation nearly impossible. When every issue is a zero sum war where one tribe must win or lose, a lot of people quite understandably ask, “What do we gain by staying allied to this other tribe?”

3) Federal Government Too Powerful: Federalism is a safety valve on the American pressure cooker. As long as people in San Francisco can, for the most part, live the way they want to live while the people in rural North Carolina can, for the most part, live the way they want to live, it’s much easier for everyone to get along. When people are unnecessarily forced to live under rules they find abhorrent because the federal government has become an octopus that has inserted its tentacles into every minute crevice of American life, it creates discontent on a wide scale. If most Americans wanted to live like people in San Francisco, they’d live in San Francisco.

4) Moral Decline: As Samuel Adams once noted, “A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.”

A large number of Americans HAVE LOST their principles, manners and virtue and it shows through from the sort of politicians they elect, to their rudeness online, to the sort of shallow hedonism and fame whoring they find appealing. Americans are increasingly becoming a soft and decadent people which is problematic because the challenges may change, but we can be certain that Americans will face future challenges every bit as difficult as the ones past generations had to tackle. This is frightening because if you look at the “principles, manners and virtue” of Americans today, they don’t seem capable of dealing with monumental events like the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Depression or World War II. Most people in their twenties probably couldn’t tell you why all those events were such challenges in the first place. When America faces a challenge bigger than we can handle because of ineffective politicians and our “amusing ourselves to death” population, there are no guarantees our republic will survive.

5) The Debt: America is a freight train heading toward a cliff, but because we’re not moving toward the edge at lightning speed, no one seems all that concerned. However, the fact of the matter is that a reckoning is coming. At some point, probably within the next decade or two, we will face a debt-driven economic collapse; borrowed money will stop flowing into the United States and Medicare/Social Security as we know it will fall apart because we will not have the money to pay it. If and when we get to that point, all bets are off because if regions of the country see an advantage to splitting off from the United States at that point, they will do it.

6) Lack Of A Shared Culture: There has never been a time when American culture was more fragmented than it is today. By that, I mean that there are legions of people with millions of fans or followers on the Internet that the vast majority of Americans have never heard of in their lives. We don’t have that shared love of anybody or for that matter, anything. Conservatives and liberals disagree on economics (capitalist/socialist), religion (friendly to Christianity/hostile to Christianity), the Constitution (support/believe in a living Constitution i.e. no Constitution), etc., on and on. The average conservative and the average liberal disagree on 95% of the issues and in the few limited cases where they do look at things the same, they won’t support a proposal by the other out of sheer tribalism. Over the long haul, there has be something more to hold a country together than, “We wear Nikes, like pop music and play golf.”

7) Gun Grabbing: Liberals have fallen in love with the idea of ignoring the 2nd Amendment and confiscating all firearms. The logistics of doing this in a nation with hundreds of millions of guns (many of which are off the books) when many police departments and tens of millions of Americans would not cooperate is seldom discussed. Another thing that seldom seems brought up is that large numbers of conservatives would see this as a prelude to the government’s use of force against the citizenry. When it is discussed on the Left, there seems to be an assumption that lone resisters might get into firefights with dozens of police or soldiers, as opposed to ganging up with other formerly law-abiding Americans to waylay gun confiscators, politicians and anti-gun activists at THEIR HOMES in guerrilla actions that would be silently applauded and supported by hundreds of millions of Americans concerned about their freedom. Confiscating guns is a dangerous and stupid idea that could in and of itself end our republic if a serious attempt were ever made to implement it.
Your thoughts on the above essay? Do you see one particular point as the most significant tipping point?

67 comments:

  1. There's much truth in these tenets. The philosophical money shot that underpins all of them is: "Americans are increasingly becoming a soft and decadent people which is problematic because the challenges may change, but we can be certain that Americans will face future challenges every bit as difficult as the ones past generations had to tackle."

    NEVER truer words written. The perception of entitlement and invented "rights" has pervaded every corner of political theater, causing most of the schisms listed above.

    - CI

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    Replies
    1. No sensible person could possibly disagree.

      Unfortunately, leftists are not sensible people. Mr. Hawkins seems to think it would be better if we listened to them. I can't think why, when A) they have no intention of EVER listening to US, and B) we KNOW they are WRONG, can you?

      Delete
  2. Lack Of A Shared Culture looks to me to be the deal breaker. Taking a quick look a history, a society to thrive needs to have shared values. Those who join the society must be acculturated into that society. No longer is the native language a requirement which precludes any hope of integration into the whole.

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    1. The Multiculturalist Movement is a patently divisive, HATE-BASED INITIATIVE foisted on us by LEFTISTS whose primary purpose has been to upend, undo, and transform OUR blessed Representative Constitutional Republic into The Peoples Republik of the Western Hemisphere" soon to merge with NE WORLD GOVERNMENT administered by a DICTATORSHIP of the OLIGARCHS –– for the benefit OF the Oligarchs, BY the Oligarchs and FOR the Oligarchs.

      Anyone who can't see that by now is either Deaf, Dumb and Blind –– or more likely BRAINWASHED.

      Delete
  3. I agree with what Bunkerville wrote. Besides, we're already in a civil war ... I'm surprised Mr. Hawkins doesn't already know that.

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    Replies
    1. You are perfectly correct, Sam. I've said it ,myself, many times over the past several years: We ARE deeply involved in a CIVIL WAR between conflicting cultures, disparate, fndamentally incompatible ethnicities, and diametrically opposed political ideologies.

      Delete
  4. These seven make for an interesting Venn diagram.

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  5. SALIENT POINTS EXCERPTED from EACH of the SEVEN SECTIONS

    1) A POST-CONSTITUTIONAL ERA

    Liberals don’t believe in the Constitution. Typically they deny this, but that’s exactly what a “living” Constitution means. You make it up as you go along. … [W]e’re one liberal judge away from abandoning the Constitution altogether. Once we get to that point, America just becomes the representation of that old saying, “Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner.” …




    2) TRIBALISM:

    … [L]iberals treat a range of opinion between Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton as legitimate while everyone else is viewed as a white supremacist Nazi primitive that must be driven down into the gutter for society to move forward. This makes any sort of dialogue or cooperation nearly impossible. When every issue is a zero sum war where one tribe must win or lose, a lot of people quite understandably ask, “What do we gain by staying allied to this other tribe?”

    3) FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TOO POWERFUL:

    … When people are unnecessarily forced to live under rules they find abhorrent because the federal government has become an octopus that has inserted its tentacles into every minute crevice of American life, it creates discontent on a wide scale. …

    4) MORAL DECLINE:

    … if you look at the “principles, manners and virtue” of Americans today, they don’t seem capable of dealing with monumental events like the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Depression or World War II. Most people in their twenties probably couldn’t tell you why all those events were such challenges in the first place. …

    5) THE DEBT:

    … At some point, probably within the next decade or two, we will face a debt-driven economic collapse; borrowed money will stop flowing into the United States and Medicare/Social Security as we know it will fall apart …

    6) LACK of a SHARED CULTURE:

    ... Conservatives and liberals disagree on economics (capitalist/socialist), religion (friendly to Christianity/hostile to Christianity), the Constitution (support/believe in a living Constitution i.e. no Constitution), etc. … [I]n the few limited cases where [Liberals and Conservatives] do look at [a thing the same way], they won’t support a proposal [favoring it] by the other out of sheer tribalism. …

    7) GUN GRABBING:

    … The logistics of doing this in a nation with hundreds of millions of guns (many of which are off the books) when many police departments and tens of millions of Americans would not cooperate is seldom discussed. … When [the use of force against the citizenry by government] is discussed on the Left, there seems to be an assumption that lone resisters might get into firefights with dozens of police or soldiers, as opposed to ganging up with other formerly law-abiding Americans to waylay gun confiscators, politicians and anti-gun activists at THEIR HOMES –– actions that would be silently applauded … by hundreds of millions … concerned about [preserving] their freedom. …


    ReplyDelete
  6. Not familiar with Mr. Hawkins, but he offers objective insight here for example:
    "In a related matter, as the Left has gotten ever more easily offended, conservatives have become ever more anxious to offend. There’s a lot to be said for refusing to be hemmed in by political correctness, but we’ve gotten to the point where many conservatives have embraced the idea that if political correctness is bad, then anything that’s politically incorrect must be good. This has created an environment where saying foolish and inflammatory things can be a major career enhancer for conservatives. If you can say something that makes liberals talk about how much they hate you, but conservatives won’t walk away even if you make them cringe, that’s a recipe for selling books and getting on TV. This may be great for the careers of a few people, but it also gives the public at large a terrible impression of conservatives. Even if they say some things you agree with, the last thing that anyone who cares about the conservative movement should want is for the public to base its opinion of it on people who are trying to offend as many people as possible to get attention."
    --excerpted from this article

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    Replies
    1. No, sir. The LEFT'S main objective has always been to BE shockingly rude and offensive, and then to TAKE VIRULENT OFFENSE at virtually ANYTHING and EVERYTHING a Conservative-Libertarian says, does, or proposes to DEFEND himself –– no matter how decent, kind-hearted, well-reasoned and respectable it may be.

      After putting up with this self-righteous ESS-AITCH-EYE TEA for more than half a century it only stands to reason that those so ritually abused, ignored, vilified and mischaractezed –– for NO GOOD REASON –– have eventually started to fight back.

      Whenever you START something, you'd jolly well better be prepared to
      FINISH it.

      E INOUGH is ENOUGH!

      Like Peter Finch's character in. Network "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."

      And so is one helluvlotta other people.

      Delete
    2. Thanks for demonstrating Hawkins' observations.

      Delete
  7. The article is flush with useless generalities.

    1. Liberals don't believe in the Constitution.
    That is they don't always accept the right wing interpretation which right wingers present as "correct", by definition.

    2. I'm left to assume that the right wing tribes are ready to dialog.
    See above.

    6. I don't know how many times you can commit the excluded middle fallacy in a paragraph. Again, an example of the right's idea of dialog.

    7. What a pant load. Bring up the subject of sensible point of sale checks and you're suddenly a gun grabber. Cue the Don't Tread on Me theme.


    But he got the lack of a shared culture correct.
    Not that a dialog on the matter is possible in the current divide.

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    Replies
    1. 7. No, you're a gun grabber because you can't explain the enforcement mechanism for what you claim to support. We're told UBCs are a 'simple solution'.....so it should be simple to answer.

      The floor is yours......or should we now cue the Ducky exit stage left theme?

      Delete
    2. Only a fool would wish to attempt a dialogue [Please spell it properly in future as I just did] about politics with a person as consistently contentious, insulting, sneering, jeering, bilious, bigotted, contemptuous, dismissive, derisive, relentlessly antagonistic, closed-minded, and utterly negative as you, Canardo.

      It would be about as much fun, as stupid, –– and as profitable –– as deliberately diving into an activated chipper-shredder just to see what might happen.

      Notice please that I said talking about POLITICS. On rare occasions I've seen a more amiable side of you when the focus is on other subjects, though even there you too often affect an annoying air of having superior knowledge to all the rest of us, an advantage which you don't really possess.

      Delete
    3. @ Ducky:
      1. "They don't always accept the right wing interpretation which right wingers present as "correct", by definition."

      No, but by calling anyone a "right winger" you set up a strawman and proceed to set him on fire. If you by any chance you mean a Conservative or Conservative Libertarian; we believe in an originalist interpretation of the Constitution. If the Constitution means anything you declare it to mean just to further your ideological goals or if you ignore its plain meaning it means nothing.

      2. It seems to be very hard to "dialog" with anyone that declares your views to be racist, homophobic, sexist, Islamophobic or calls you a fascist and therefore beyond the pale and only worthy of hateful rhetoric or violence and subjects you to violations of your very clear Rights under the Constitution.

      6. Tis to laugh! You have never shown any desire for dialog. Sometimes you pretend to but you always revert to form and end up being your old snarky self.

      7. What you really want is registration and confiscation. Registration always proceeds confiscation. It makes it easier for jackbooted thugs to kick in the right doors. I'm licensed to carry a concealed weapon, I've held security clearances had FBI, State and local background checks including fingerprints and yet every time I buy a firearm I'm subject to NICS even though I carry that license with me at all times. At one point in time my NICS check would put my purchase on hold because the FBI has a file on me because I had a security clearance (nuclear and crypto stuff) and they had to manually go look and see what was in the file. As usual, you don't know what you're talking about, you're just rattling off talking points. What part of shall not be infringed do you not understand?

      Delete
    4. Decalogue
      Monologue
      Catalogue
      Dialogue

      Delete
    5. analogue

      LOGS are to be used fo rebuilding cabins or making fires; they ought not to be used as suffixes.

      Never MIND what post-modern lexicographers have to say. They're strictly for the birds.

      Delete
    6. FT,
      I suspect that the words were shortened to use less space per line. I might use a Google search to see if I can discover when the changes were made.

      Delete
    7. About dialog vs. dialogue:

      https://writingexplained.org/dialog-vs-dialogue-difference

      Delete
    8. Changes of that sort are a sign of cultural and intellectual DEGENERATION. PERIOD!

      Part of the reasin why Enflish Usage has gone to HELL in the past half century.

      I'm sure double negatives will soon be deemed ACCEPTABLE.

      Ye gpds! What next?

      ESPERANTO?

      Delete
    9. FT,
      I don't like the changes, either. Nevertheless, I have to be aware of them and mark papers accordingly because these changes in spellings have been declared acceptable for standard English. I suggest the older forms, but get called on the carpet if I mark them as spelling errors.

      Personal anecdote heard on this morning's local news: "The polices came." Sheesh. Even my ESL student in Beijing -- yes, I've branched out to international teaching -- knows better than to say "polices."

      Delete
    10. I understand the pressures you are under to conform to post-modern idiocy, AOW, and i empathize, but giving in to what-I-cannot-help-but-see-as COERCED DEGENERACY on the part of the Powers that Be IS a major factor in bringing about our ruination. YOU for instance shpuld NOT hve be sbjected to "criticism," or "discipline" for maintaining the standards YOU find acceptable.

      I still writhe in indgnation for having been forced to abandon Peiping, or Peking in fabor of Beijing and all the rest of the unnecessary, hidden, unwanted, rather silly superficial changes that have been forced on us in recent years.

      I will DIE calling Negroes NEGROES, Indians INDIANS, Peking PEKING, Burma BURMA, Ceylon CEYLON, and Great Britain GREAT BRITAIN, etc.

      Militantly panderng to the Lowest Common Denominator, –– as we have been doing since the SICK-sties ––, has done enormous harm to our CULTURE and or sense of IDENTITY.

      Delete
  8. We discussed this on air last Saturday. Link at my place.
    For a civil war to start. someone of stature has to declare it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For a civil war to start. someone of stature has to declare it.

      I think this was true in the past.....but I'm coming more and more to believe that any pending civl conflict will arise near-spontaneously, sans decisive leadership.

      This method is fraught with peril, but a decentralized insurgency is even harder to oppose.

      Delete
    2. I think we might be able to say that Donald Trump's unexpectedly successful bid for the presidency was "The First Shot" fired in a GENUINE Civil War –– I.e. The People versus The Elitists.

      Let's hope it remains "cold," Ed, but if enough people feel the ever-growing THREAT of the MASSIVE amount of CENTRALIZED POWER that makes no attempt to disguise it's full intention TO CHANGE AMERICA FUNDAMENTALLY from a democratic, representative, constitutional republic to a Soviet-style Socialist Dictatorshit, then all bets are off.

      Frankly I really would rather be DEAD than RED, and so should every American worth of the name.

      Wiser heads than mine tend to agree:

      "Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever afterward resumes its liberty."

      ~ Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

      "The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools."

      ~ John Tyndall (1820-1893)


      Delete
  9. Let me poke all seven.

    1. Post-constitutional era - True. Even the right has a growing Convention of States movement. Republicans are one state legislature away from turning a new Constitution into a PowerPoint lecture.

    2. Tribalism - people never bring bread to Toastmasters meetings. It's a running gag. Be a lot easier if people would mark their allegiances in the heads and hands. What have you done for the State lately?

    3. Federal Government too powerful - I live in a state that declared federal gun laws inapplicable, and can arrest federal agents trying to enforce them. Baby steps.

    4. Moral decline - show me the mass graves. Even if around half of America's incarcerated are behind bars for stupid reasons (non-violent drug offenses) the fact that we can't even compete in the genocide Olympics makes me doubt this one. American morality in decline? Compared to who? Saudi Arabia?

    5. The Debt - Here's our mass grave test. Keep old people alive or master Eve Online. We're fucked.

    6. Lack of a shared culture - make the GOP platform rhyme and rap it over a drumbeat and George Clinton samples. Money, guns, owning yourself, runnin' shit. Damn. That might attract young people.

    7. Gun grabbing- See 3.

    So, the tipping point? The debt. Unless the government starts selling that $600 Trillion worth of oil and natural gas it is squatting on instead of taxing us for going to work, this one is going to probably see LBJ exhumed for a cadaver trial.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TC,
      Try to make your points without using expletives. Thanks in advance.

      Interesting that you find the debt the tipping point. Most Americans haven't a clue as to the consequences of carrying such a debt load.

      Delete
    2. You might say I'm quite angry about the debt. When I was in high school, 30 plus uears ago, the alarm was we needed to get the national debt under control by 2012 or we would begin to collapse as a nation.

      We've more than doubled the debt since then.

      Delete
  10. I'm not reading books like these anymore..depressing and, by the way, is there really anything in those you don't already know, or sense? I'm not saying I know everything this man knows, that's for SURE!, but Coulter, Levin, Ingraham, etc...we know that stuff....they just make money writing it DOWN :-)

    There's a commenter here who thinks American morality is NOT in decline? Been to a public high school lately? Caught anything on TV? "Is that your WEENIE I see in your pants?" is the latest I heard flipping by a channel.

    I could go on for years.

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. And I believe there will be no civil war type of thing and I certainly don't believe that, if it happened, it wouldn't be spontaneous ..no leader necessary, just bloody ANGER. Yes, over guns, for example. OR if a nuke or biological hits an American city and Americans felt we weren't protected? YOU BET there'd be uprisings in the streets. Terrible prospect...one I hope we never see, personally. OR if our grid went down after our gov't's been warned numerous times of what to do 'in case' and how to do it... BIG trouble on the streets..HUGE. Freezers melting food? You bet there'd be war on the streets.

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  13. I don't think morality is decline in America. We've just delegated morality (over the last 75 to 100 years) to the government so much that nowadays moral dilemmas require more government action. I place blame for that on the Ingrate-est Generation, but the Baby Boomers had a hand in it as well. Not that finger pointing at this juncture is going to do anything but rally the troops to protect the compulsory welfare state from the ebul border jumpers.

    I don't think we're in moral decline when there was no default morality to begin with.

    "SCANDAL! US AMBASSADOR TO FRANCE BEN FRANKLIN CAUGHT IN LURID TRYST WITH PROSTITUTES" (click on the woodcut to subscribe)

    ReplyDelete
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    1. And it gets a bit scary when people don't know what morality is,...what makes someone moral or not. Then where do we go? No right, no wrong? No comment.

      Delete
    2. Obviously morality means voting for Trump. How could it not? ;)

      Seriously, someone should write a dystopian novel about thoughts being crimes someday. Something that would scare people away from the idea of surveillance states regulating morality for own own good.

      We've always been at war with moral relativism.

      Delete
    3. Something that would scare people away from the idea of surveillance states regulating morality for own own good.

      You raise a good point, mankind has always restricted Liberties in the name of regulating morality.....

      Delete
  14. Oh, really....why would we have to regulate morality? Wouldn't you think being moral, knowing right from wrong, doesn't need legislation? Liberty isn't "do anything you want to do"...Humans have ethics, morals, and we're forgotten them. That doesn't mean we dictate morality; God help us, we shouldn't need to

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    1. She's replying to me.

      Liberty is action not coerced by force or fraud, which by definition means it can't be provided by a government.

      But for at least 100 years, certainly longer than all of us have been alive, government has been looked to as a provider rather than a promoter.

      I guess "moral decline" strikes me as an odd charge to level at American society. Certainly not in the context of finding a tipping point for a civil war.

      Delete
    2. Thanks Thought Criminal....I was kind of responding to you and CI.....But I TOTALLY agree with you about moral decline not being a tipping point for civil war!~

      But, let's face it...when we can't even trust our FBI anymore, or we put checks in a USPS box and they're stolen and passed with larger numbers on them (bleached, etc.) and you know it was an inside job (who'd have thought we can't trust the post office!? that's pretty unsettling when you think of what we send in the mail), when you ask a kid in a convertible to please turn the radio down and they flip you off instead of saying "Oh, I'm sorry...ya, sure..." as they did in earlier days...Well, I could go on. Maybe you and I are using 'moral decline' in a different way? I see so many unwed mothers and police attacked and ...well, you see what's going on. I think shame is a bad thing, but sometimes I believe it's highly underrated, if you know what I mean!!

      Delete
    3. That reminds me of the time I pulled into a gas station, music blaring (if I remember correctly, it was Children of the Grave by Black Sabbath, which must rattle windows when played correctly) and this old man came charging at me waving frantically and shaking his cane at me so I turn down the music to see what the fuss was about, only to hear the man ranting some idle threat about "turn that @#$# off or I'll smash your..." I didn't hear the rest of his threat because Ozzy drowned him out. A neat aside to this story is when I put my pistol on the dashboard he didn't need his cane anymore. He was ready for a track meet.

      Had the man been respectful in his request, I might have complied.

      Anyway, I don't think we're too far apart on the issue of moral decline. We're all members of the Church of Perpetual Chances. That's why we instructed our government to build a huge safety net for moral failures. ;)

      Delete
    4. Oh, really....why would we have to regulate morality?

      That's the part that confused me, I can't think of an instance where I've supported legislating morality. I oppose it coming from both camps.....if only people did act towards others in the manner they'd want to be treated.

      But by and large, people are selfish a@@holes.

      Delete
    5. True, but the self-sufficient are the ones usually called selfish.

      I guess I'm riffing Ayn Rand.

      Delete
    6. Decades ago, our pastor preached an unforgettable sermon on the Golden Rule. He pointed out that the Golden Rule inherently assumes that a person "loves himself." Never before or since have I heard that interpretation. And, no, our pastor wasn't a tightwad, nor did he draw a big salary.

      Delete
    7. Not when a peson is genuinely hateful.

      Delete
  15. If find the "Tribalism" item interesting but incomplete. Historically, it has been a human norm. Sparta was a first notable state to break away from that, a state where loyalty to the city-state triumphed all others - kinship, class, party. This, I think, made bringing "democracy" to places like Iraq a non-starter, e.g.

    Federalism is dead (#3), and we are DEFINITELY in a post-constitutional era.

    Most significant point? #1. When you abandon the rule of law - particularly fair and equitable law - you open the door to the kind of intense corruption and economic stagnation we recognize most readily in tinpot dictator countries. The playing field is not known. It's bought.

    Put another way: what made England great? How did a tiny backward country on the backside of the world, populated by a not especially bright people, rise to dominate the world? They possessed an incredible sense of 'fairness' and a key factor was the reliable outcome people could expect under English law to honor their contracts. You may have been of a race or origin that the English people looked down on, but you could expect your just due in English court. Unlike the continent where the state was the king, English kings were more hamstrung by their common law. Generations of immigrants from France, Italy, Holland, Germany and elsewhere brought specialty skills that enriched the growth and wealth of the nation under the protection of the kind of legal system that was improved and codified in our constitution. To jettison this is to pull out the keystone that holds the arch up.

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    Replies
    1. What is now called "TRIBALISM" is as natural and normal as baseball, motherhood and apple pie USED to be.

      After all, isn't it right and good that we consider the needs and feelings of our FAMILY first, our personal FRIENDS second, and our individual COMMUNITY –– i.e. our HOME TOWN –– third?

      County and State come next, THEN the nation as a whole.

      I noticed as far back as sixty-five years ago, that COMMUNISM teaches the exact opposite. Loyalty to and reverence for the STATE must come first. If a child notices any form of dissension or disloyalty to the State on the part of parents, siblings or personal friends, that child has a DUTY to INFORM the authorities that his parents must be DISCIPLINED –– pssibly even JAILED or EXECUTED.

      Delete
    2. ___ STALIN by STARLIGHT ___
 


      The song a leftist sings

      Through years of endless springs ––
      The gurgling cesspools make at eventide ––
      The murmurs and the sighs 

      That true morons hide ––

      A great Collective Theme!

      That's Stalin by Starlight.
      
My heart and I agree

      The State is everything to me.



      ~ FreeThinke

      Delete
    3. Baysier also said:

      "When you abandon the rule of law –– particularly fair and equitable law –– you open the door to the kind of intense corruption and economic stagnation we recognize most readily in tinpot dictator ships."

      True enough, Bay, but what are we supposed to do when The Law, ITSELF, becomes so corrupted by rabid, unprincipled partisans that it's designed primarily to serve best the interests of insurgent REVOLUTIONARIES or entrenched OLIGARCHS while ignoring or discountng the deepest needs and true desires of the CITIZENRY?

      Delete
    4. FT,
      Excellent bit of verse in every way with "STALIN by STARLIGHT"!

      Delete
    5. FT,
      what are we supposed to do when The Law, ITSELF, becomes so corrupted by rabid, unprincipled partisans that it's designed primarily to serve best the interests of insurgent REVOLUTIONARIES or entrenched OLIGARCHS while ignoring or discountng the deepest needs and true desires of the CITIZENRY?

      For starters, the electorate should be more proactive with regarding to electing representative.

      Delete
    6. After calling the [ancient Britons] "backward and none too bright," Baysider said:

      "[The English] possessed an incredible sense of "fairness" and a key factor was the reliable outcome people could expect under English law to honor their contracts."

      Considering the English we know today –– and for the past four-hundred years at least –– are a curious amalgam of ancient Celtic tribes, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, ancient Romans, and Norman French one can't help but wonder exactly HOW the British we've known until the post-Churchillian Era anyway, came to be who and what they were?

      Precisely what MAKES a people develop salient characteristics, such as Bayasider describes that distinguish them from other identifiable gtoup entities?

      Delete
    7. Yes. Going back to Roman times - about which more is known about Britain - I've asked the same question: why did this group come to elevate 'fairness' more highly than many? I would love to know the lore before it was recorded.

      Delete
  16. PLUS: Liberty is never 'provided' by government. We only require governance to shelter and protect it. The government does not give us rights at all. They are there to protect the rights that we are endowed with by our Creator.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hear hear!

      But you speak of a time when Britain wasn't a third world socialist shithole. Is anyone really old enough anymore to remember when calling a Brit a socialist was giving permission to get your jaw broken?

      Delete
    2. Baysider,
      Outstanding comments! Thank you for weighing in.

      Yes, most species -- and especially human beings -- have an inherent wariness of "the other" and group with their own kind.

      Delete
  17. @ Baysider

    If we are in a post-Constitutional environment ... if federalism is dead, then the American people have no one to blame but themselves. If the citizens of states were paying attention, they would demand that their respective states insist on maintaining their sovereign and separate powers. But the fact is that this nation's education system has so thoroughly brainwashed students over the past seventy years to the point where most voters have no idea how important federalism is toward maintaining a free republic. It may not be too late to turn this around, but such a move will have to begin with a re-introduction in schools to American Civics. I'm not holding my breath, however.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sam said,"[T]his nation's educational system has so thoroughly brainwashed students over the past seventy years to the point where most voters have no idea how important federalism is toward maintaining a free republic."

      Agreed, but if we are to have any hope of reversing the destructive process and recovering sanity in publuc education, don't we have to learn HOW and WHY this perversion of our original core principles and the rapid slide into degeneracy we've seen in our lifetimes occurred?

      Delete
    2. FT,
      What has happened to education is due, in large part, to the FACT that few parents bother to attend school board meetings, PTA, and back-to-school nights. They have surrendered their children to the system and don't want to be bothered with spending time being involved in their children's education.

      Damn!

      Delete
    3. Yes, I agree, AOW but then don't we have to ask ourselves why THAT has occurred too?

      I be;ieve virtually every human action is the result of a RESPONSE to STIMULI.

      If the stimulus is born of an EVIL purpose, then the response is bound to reflect and magnify that evil, –– or don't you agree?

      LACK of CENSORSHIP may be a good thing, but NOT in a society that has been deliberately rendered VALUES-NEUTRAL.

      Delete
    4. I do not care about Obama; he is consigned to the dustbin of history. What I do care about is the thousands of others just like him who are right now angling toward the presidency so that they might finish his work of destroying the American Republic. You ask how and why, but I imagine you already know the answers to these questions. All one needs to do is examine the evolving progressive political philosophy and the hatred these people have for our American traditions. The answer to the question why therefore becomes self-evident. As to how, one need only to realize the number of children who have been subjected to public education brainwashing over the past 70 years, who then became parents and enrolled their children into public education programs—because it was the law—to see how it was carried out. The beat goes on ... and this is the game the leftists are playing. Yes, it will take time to achieve their goals, but as with all good communists, they are willing to wait it out. They realize that most of America is fast asleep.

      Delete
  18. It is easy to understand why the lefties elected Barack Obama's from listening to the like of an Idiot like Wanda Sykes's sick little diatribe, when one realizes just how deeply Obama's anger at America really ran. What I think is that his real anger is at his parents and family.

    Stop and think, Obama’s biological father was an alcoholic womanizer, and from all appearances, his mother was a 60's radical atheist bed hopper as well, who most likely filled his head with all kinds of hateful anti-American rhetoric. Lord only knows what kind of hate filled propaganda was drilled into his head when he was in the madras in Indonesia. Just look at the kinds of pukes he associated with in college and in Illinois. And even when he was in office. Just the way he treats folks, using them until he has bled them dry, then tossing them aside, shows that he has no deep emotional attachments to any one, and I highly doubt that he is even capable of forming any.

    Yes siree, the folks really out did themselves on this one when they elected that con artist.
    The question is, when, if ever will the sheeple wake up and see what an imposter they put the White House? And Thank God that he’s OUT and that we have a wonderful American there now to replace the filth that was occupying the White House for the previous 8 years.

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    Replies
    1. Laura said of Barack Obama:

      "Just the way he treats folks, using them until he has bled them dry, then tossing them aside, shows that he has no deep emotional attachments to anyone ..."

      I generally agree with most of you statement, Laura, but I question that one, because, as far as we know, Obama been loyal to Michelle and their two daughters. Anyway you slice it, he's certanly been a Good Provider.

      I have to rate Barack higher than William Jefferson Clinton no the morals and loyalty scale.

      Still, Obama's personality has always struck me as dry, cold, and eerily detached. He has always seemed haughty, and lacking in modesty as well.

      I've often wondered if ANYONE really knows him?

      Delete

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