Someone I like and respect made the following comment on Facebook the other evening:
“I’m fairly silent about religion. Why? Because I’m not interested in taking the … liberties and lives, of drug dealers and pornographers. And, I’m not interested in making war on people who didn’t first make war on me. I’m not interested in religions that enlist me to start violent fights.”
It is very sad that the common perception of Christians and Christianity has come to this. Several years ago, I heard a preacher say that “you are the only sermon many people will ever hear.” He was talking about the examples Christians set with our daily lives.
Jesus is the Prince of Peace – Isaiah 9:6. He said “Blessed are the peacemakers” – Matthew 5:9. (No, He is not a pacifist as He preaches self-defense – Luke 11:21, 22 and 22:36.)
He is not a God of power, conquest, aggression and war. He only initiates force one time, when He kicks the moneychangers out of the Temple – Matthew 21:12, 13. Even then, this is not a show of worldly power over Rome, much less the rest of the world.
His “kingdom is not of this world” – John 18:36. Whereas the state exerts power from the top down and from the outside in, Jesus’ Power is exerted from the bottom up and from the inside out – Hebrews 4:12, 13. The King of the Universe came into the world as a helpless baby and washed the feet of the apostles – John 13:5. (I challenge you to contact your town councilperson and ask them to wash your feet.)
She was just re-elected with 72 percent of the vote. Tomorrow, after the gym, I will stop by her house and ask her to wash my feet.
Jesus will not force His way into anyone’s life. He enters by invitation only – Revelation 3:20. How, then, did so many people who profess to follow Jesus become such aggressive promoters of taking the liberties and lives of others, both at home and abroad? True followers of Christ do not do this.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” – Hosea 4:6
The answer is simple: they do not read the Bible like they used to. Hence, they are devoid of any biblical discernment or worldview – II Timothy 4:3-4. They become easy prey for the likes of James Dobson, John Hagee, Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum. So many churches have devolved into political tools for those who would have you think Christianity was a tool for social micromanagement at home and endless war abroad.
Note the cross on her wrist. Could anything be more grotesque and blasphemous?
But aren’t we fighting all these wars as a blessing to Israel? Would Jesus promote the killing of innocents in the name of a political state? Indeed, He gives us a timetable for when “his angels … shall gather together his elect from the four winds”. This comes after the Tribulation – Matthew 24:29-31. As I have devoted most of my intellectual energy this week to the scandals at Penn State, I confess I may have missed something. However, I don’t think the Tribulation has happened quite yet.
The world in Jesus time was probably much like ours: full of evil people, evil religions and evil rulers. However, He never initiates force in response to this. Nor does He ever instruct His followers to do so. Instead of being rulers, He would have us influence the world by being servants – Matthew 20:25-28 – and evangelists – Matthew 28:18-20.
So many who claim to follow Christ have drunk the Kool-Aid of force and violence. The tragic result is that so many secular people have a false view of Christianity as a religion of tyranny and war. This is why we must look to the Gospels for the words and deeds of Christ rather than to the example set by so many who claim to follow Him.
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The numbers are in. For the second and third quarters of 2011, Ron Paul. the only truly antiwar candidate in the race, has received more contributions from active duty military personnel than all other candidates combined.
There are those who sell us our wars. And there is another segment of society that actually spills its blood fighting them.
For the first group, war is a video game. For the second it is a bloody and gruesome reality.
The first group does everything it can to deny Ron Paul’s very existence. The second group gives far more money to Ron Paul than any other candidate.
The first group says it supports the troops, whatever that means. The second group supports Ron Paul!
As sports talk host Jim Rome might put it: SCOREBOARD!
Romney, Cain, Obama, Santorum and Gingrich combined have zero military experience. Perry was a C-130 pilot for a few years in the 1970s. However, to the best of anyone’s knowledge, he never saw combat. Most of the war pimps in the media and the pulpits have likewise never served a day in the military. Yet they are more than willing to scare us all to death and then send kids from places like Compton and Escanaba to fight and bleed and die all over the world.
Someone called war of 1861-1865 “a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” Indeed, the bloodiest riots in American history were the 1863 draft riots in New York. The rioters were mainly working class men who could not come up with the $300 required to buy their way out of the draft.
Little has changed in 148 years.
War is like any government program. Those who promote it feel oh so good doing so. They thunder like General Patton from Capitol Hill, from the studios and Fox News and their keyboards at the Weekly Standard. But heaven forbid they actually get any dirt under their pretty little fingernails doing the actual fighting.
Pat Tillman was a rarity in so many ways. Not the least of these is that he walked away from a multi-million dollar NFL career to go fight in Afghanistan. Somehow, I don't think his parents will be on the Hugh Hewitt Show any time soon.
The “liberal media”, who they say they diametrically oppose, is no better. They heap endless adulation on a president who kept all of Bush’s wars going and started three more – Libya, Somalia, Yemen – of his own.
(Moreover, he would have had to produce documentation of his birthplace to enlist as a buck private or a seaman recruit.)
In Patton’s timeless words, they “don’t know anything more about real battle than they do about fornicating.”
Actually, some do know about fornicating. Gingrich and Julie Annie come to mind. Both benefited from draft deferments.
Dick Cheney had five draft deferments. When asked about this, he said he "had other priorities." There are 58,000 names on this wall. My guess is that a lot of them also had other priorities.
Yes, Cain was once a mathematician for the Department of the Navy. However, sitting in a comfy office doing hypoellipitical iamboquadratic equations or whatever he did does not equate to having bullets whizzing by your head, bombs going off all around you, and people dying right before your eyes. It does not equate to, in Patton’s words, “(putting) your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend’s face.”
“To those who are engaged in war, the consequences can be nightmarish! Arms and legs cut off. Eyes put out. Flesh burned. Intestines ripped out. Backs broken. Skulls crushed. Lives lost. Families torn apart. Homes destroyed. Children left without parents. Parents never able to see their children again. Wives without husbands. Husbands without wives. Souls snuffed into eternity. Emotional scars that never heal. These are the realities of war. And this is what the neo-cons who profit from war never have to see up close and personal.”
I never tire of quoting Major General Smedley Butler, who served 33 years in the Marine Corps, won two Medals of Honor and, in the end, realized it was all a “racket.”
Butler wrote:
“How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?
“Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.”
“And what is this bill?
“This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.”
Fred Reed, a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam had this to say:
“In wars, there are many enlightening things to see. For example, the Marine with a third of his face and half a lung, going ku-kuk-kuk as red gunch rolls out of his mouth and he drowns in his blood. Ruined or dying teenagers whimpering the trinity of the badly wounded: Mother, wife, and water. The brain-shot guy jerking like an epileptic as he tries not to die. Ever see brain tissue from gunshot? I have. It makes a pink spew across the ground. Like strawberry chiffon.”
The first 15 minutes or so of Saving Private Ryan are not gratuitous.
No, not all veterans support Ron Paul. But they consistently donate more money to him than any other candidate. They – or people with whom they are close – have been to war. They have seen and experienced things that most of those who sent them to war can never possibly imagine. This isn’t about your right to an opinion. This is about how people arrive at their opinions.
This isn't about what you would do as the quarterback of your favorite team, or the manager of your favorite restaurant, or even as president of the United States. This is about what people do who have firsthand experience in REAL BATTLE!!!!!!
War is a horrible thing. And while it might be pornography for Sean Hannity and Rick Santorum, it is an entirely different thing for those who have lived through it. Such experiences no doubt cause people to ask a few – or a lot – of questions. John McCain no more speaks for all the troops than Barack Obama speaks for all black people.
Is there anything that the federal government can’t do?
It is not just that the president can now have U.S. citizens assassinated upon executive order. It is not just that there is now a secret panel within the National Security Council that can arbitrarily place American citizens on a “kill list.”
USA Today now reports that California 16 marijuana dispensary or their landlords “received letters this week warning face they would face criminal charges and confiscation of their property if the dispensaries do not shut down in 45 days.”
Never mind that the majority of Californians have voted for at least some legalization of marijuana. Never mind that the Tenth Amendment expressly forbids Uncle Sam from doing this. Never mind that the medicinal benefits of marijuana have been voluminously well-documented. Never mind that God gave us the hemp plant in the eleventh verse of the Bible.
(One of the targeted dispensaries is supposedly “within a prohibited distance of a park.” Gee, I wonder if marijuana grows wild in that park, planted by God Himself.)
How much of this wanton tyranny will be a subject in the upcoming elections? None, I would guess.
Just like every other election in recent memory, it will be portrayed as a battle royale between the purportedly opposites of right and left.
The left is at least somewhat honest about their support for four-dimensionally obese government. They say they support high taxes, welfare, government schools, gun control, etc., and their actions back it up.
The right portrays itself as the polar opposite, yet in fact loves four-dimensionally obese government. Oh sure, they may give us some nominal tax cuts, but these are only temporary. Our last “conservative” president outspent Bill Klinton – aka Kim Jong-Bill – by $1 trillion per year.
If Bush was “conservative” then Obama really did deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.
When was the last time the right ever eliminated a program? The right now applauds Herman Cain for his “999 plan”. Guess who would feel the brunt of his 9 percent national sales tax proposal. As much as I hate to play the class warfare game, it will be the hoi polloi, who spend a much higher percentage of their income on retail purchases than “the 1 percent.” So go ahead and support Herman Cain and feel oh so good that you are “doing something” to counteract the anti-Christ Obama … until Cain slams you with a massive tax increase.
As Lew Rockwell once put it, the right hates the left more than it hates the state. As much as they hate to admit it, the right loves big government. Really, they do. They can’t get enough of war, which, in the words of the late, great Joseph Sobran, is a big government program.
Sobran also once wrote that, “War has all the characteristics of socialism most conservatives hate: Centralized power, state planning, false rationalism, restricted liberties, foolish optimism about intended results, and blindness to unintended secondary results.”
War always brings with it increases in domestic state power: increased taxes, debt, inflation, spying, censorship, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, drafts, internment camps, sexual assault as a condition of travel, etc. Take some time and watch this presentation by Judge Andrew Napolitano.
And you can’t “bring freedom” to other countries when you have no respect for the lives over their inhabitants and insist on killing large numbers of them. Just like any other federal program, war is filled with doublespeak.
(It was reported this week that there are no more Christian churches in Afghanistan. This is after almost a decade of American military presence.)
The right loves war at home also in the form of the War on Drugs. Most on the right don’t really seem to care that their second favorite government program has turned “the land of the free” into the nation with the world’s highest incarceration rate. Their support for “free enterprise” does not extend to a plant that grows wild in every county. They say they unequivocally oppose federal involvement in health care, but they likewise unequivocally oppose allowing doctors to prescribe the Devil’s Lettuce.
The right has looked the other way for years when its people have expanded federal power. To paraphrase the old Toyota jingle: You asked for it, you got it: Obamacare.
As long as people insist on living in the left-right plantation, there is no hope for individual liberty in this country. There is one liberty candidate running for president this year: Ron Paul. And he is not merely talking about liberty. He has voted for it extremely consistently throughout his 12 terms in Congress. Oftentimes, Congress has voted 434-1 for some unconstitutional expansion of federal power and Ron Paul has been the lone dissenter. He relentlessly votes against intrusions on liberty no matter which direction they come from. He realizes that both the left and the right are – I wish I knew who said this first – two wings on the same bird of prey.
Ron Paul - the only true antiwar candidate for 2012 - gets more money from active duty troops than any other presidential candidate. For the troops, war is a bloody and gruesome reality. For war pansies like Cain, Romney, Obama, Santorum and Gingrich, war is a video game.
Locally, there are also many very solid liberty candidates in the Libertarian and Constitution parties. And if you will not support them because “they don’t have a chance of winning”, don’t complain to me about lost liberty. You knew you had a chance to do something, but you caved into peer pressure as if you were still in high school.
When will enough people realize this? I realized it in 1991.
If you think that getting rid of Obama is the answer, you don’t get it. Yes, he is a bad guy and a horrible president. And while he is a problem, he is not the problem. An infinitely bigger problem is that so many people buy into the left-right paradigm. Physical slavery was abolished in America in 1865. Mental slavery is alive and well. And unless and until enough people liberate themselves mentally, America will continue on a bobsled ride into slavery for all of us.
Please give to the BLACK THIS OUT MONEY BOMB this Wednesday, October 19. Every last dollar helps. http://www.blackthisout.com
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I have been a huge supporter of yours since the early 1990s, long before most people even knew who you were. I worked on your 2008 campaign in Colorado and I am honored to do so again in 2012. Not only have you been a relentless champion of the Constitution and the strict limits it sets on federal power domestically and internationally, you have comported yourself with remarkable humility, dignity and self-restraint.
I am writing in reference to your recent remarks at the University of New Hampshire where you said that the recent killing of a natural-born American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, by a predator drone strike could be an impeachable offense for President Obama.
I believe it is.
The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution states that “No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law …” Ordering the killing of an American citizen clearly violates this requirement.
And if this president can order the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, what will he do next if he is not punished for his actions? And how will future presidents view this abuse of power?
Moreover, ordering the killing of an American citizen without due process is undeniably a “high Crime”, which is an enumerated condition for removal from office in Article 2, Section 4 of the Constitution.
Not only is it a moral imperative to impeach the president, but it would also be a huge political blow to the other Republican presidential candidates. You now have a golden opportunity to position yourself undeniably as the REAL anti-Obama.
Although it is not your nature to talk this way, introducing articles of impeachment would say to the following to the mainstream media that has worked so hard to deny your very existence: “Ignore me now.”
Please begin impeachment proceedings against the president.
To Support and Defend,
Douglas F. Newman
Aurora, CO
Storekeeper First Class
US Naval Reserve, Retired
________________________________________________________________ Should Congress Impeach the President? from DownsizeDC.org.
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I am going to assume, for the sake of this article, that 9/11 happened exactly according to the official story. Even if this story is entirely true, the official response has still been totally wrong, as have been the oft-repeated clichés of those who believe the official story.
Some examples:
1. The terrorists hate us for our freedom. Even in 2001, America had the world’s highest incarceration rate. Were we that free? They far more likely hate us for our invasions, occupations, coups, bombings, sanctions and the resulting deaths. You reap what you sow. And when you throw your weight around militarily the way America does, it is inevitable that a goodly number of people will hate you.
2. 9/11 was an act of war. There was no invading army, no naval armada in New York Harbor, no aerial bombing raids by a terrorist Luftwaffe and no jihad jarheads staging amphibious assaults on Battery Park. It was a private sector crime.
3. 9/11 was grounds for war. If 19 Americans went overseas and committed some horrific crime, would that justify war on America, as well as Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and everyone else “who looks like us”? The proper, moral, constitutional response was a Letter of Marque and Reprisal, i.e. a warrant to pursue the specific perpetrators. Since it is wrong for foreigners to kill innocent Americans, how can it be “right” for Americans to kill innocent foreigners?
4. Radical Islam is at war with us. Islam is a decentralized religion with no pope or Vatican. It has numerous sects. Militarily and politically, it has no Berlin, Tokyo or Moscow. A football team with six quarterbacks on the field wouldn’t score very often.
5. 9/11 was an attack on our freedom. The 19 hijackers are dead. You cannot take over a country, impose Shari’a law, convert everyone to Islam, make everyone speak Arabic and force Sports Illustrated to do a burqa issue when you are … I am going to say this one more time for those of you in Rio Linda … DEAD!!!!!!
6. Islam’s stated goal is world conquest. I, Douglas Frazier Newman, hereby state that my goal is to be the winning pitcher in Game 7 of this fall’s World Series. So much for stated goals. It has been several centuries since a Muslim country conquered a non-Muslim country. Yes, the Caliphate had military triumphs centuries ago. Lots of countries that you have never heard of have been world powers. Mongolia was once the mightiest empire on earth. Empires always collapse. The Muslim world lost its imperial mojo a long time ago.
7. If we don’t fight the terrorists over there, we will fight them over here. After the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, Ronald Reagan brought the surviving marines home. Was he a “cut-and-run liberal?” Did the terrorists “follow us here?” Have terrorists ever followed imperialists home?
8. If we oust the current rulers of these countries and install new ones, we will spread freedom and they won’t hate us anymore. We ousted Saddam and oversaw the implementation of a new constitution which states in Article 2: “Islam is the official religion of the State and it is a fundamental source of legislation.” And they are still shooting and killing American troops.
And why have we not invaded the most Islamofascist state of all: Saudi Arabia? It was home to 15 of the 19 hijackers. There are no elections, opposition press or rights for women. Christians are ruthlessly persecuted. Beheading and amputation are accepted forms of punishment.
9. If Al-Qaeda wins, it is lights out for western civilization. Let me get this straight: a few thousand gangbangers who have no ships, planes, tanks or even uniforms are going to defeat a nation with an $800 billion military budget, 300 ships, thousands of planes, tanks and nuclear warheads as well as 300 million firearms in private hands.
10. We need a Department of Homeland Security to keep us safe. Weren’t the world’s largest military and intelligence establishments enough to stop 19 guys with box cutters? Can’t 300 million firearms in private hands protect us from a few thousand gangbangers?
12. We need to profile Arabs as potential terrorists. While we are at it, let’s profile unmarried men as potential violent criminals. After all, they have a greater history of violence than any other demographic in America. On second thought, let’s not. I am an unmarried man. It is always easy to say that your government should “do something” … to someone else.
13. We need to torture terrorists to get them to talk. Jesse Ventura once said that if you give him Dick Cheney and a water board, it would be just minutes before Cheney would confess to murdering Sharon Tate.
14. Terror suspects should not have the rights of other suspects. I hereby accuse you, reader, of being a terrorist. Your rights to defend yourself will be subject to the whims of prosecutors and media pimps. What goes around comes around.
15. We have to give up some freedoms in the interest of security.Why not give up all freedom and have total security? North Korea and Cuba don’t have a terrorism problem. (They don’t have immigration problems either.)
16. We need to have ourselves – and our children – photographed naked and sexually assaulted to stop terrorism. If terrorists really wanted to kill a lot of people and disrupt aviation, they wouldn’t go to the trouble of smuggling bombs onto planes. They would set off bombs in terminals. Where? In those serpentine lines entering the little North Koreas we have established at airports to keep us safe and free. When? In a coordinated series of attacks on the day before Thanksgiving.
Why go to all the trouble of smuggling a bomb onto a plane when you can kill far more people right here before you enter “security”?
And why stop with airports? Why not also do this at train stations, bus stations, stadiums, shopping malls, grocery stores and schools? I mean, like, you never know where they will strike next.
17. We can’t let Muslims build a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero. No, but the Masjid Manhattan is six blocks from Ground Zero and has been open since 1971.
18. If you are doing nothing wrong you have nothing to fear. In a nation with 2 million laws on the books, how do you know you are not breaking some law somewhere?
Do you know with absolute certitude that you are in total compliance with every jot and tittle contained within these tomes?
19. 9/11 changed everything. We need the Constitution and Bill of Rights more than ever in times of crisis. In these times, governments are most likely to tighten the screws on liberty and people are most likely to panic and surrender this liberty.
20. America is an exceptional nation. Says who? There is a God and He is not going to extend any blessing or protection to a nation that aborts a million babies each year. And if you are a Christian, have a look at Isaiah 40:15-17.
21. We are giving up some freedom now, but we will get it back later. The German people gave up their freedom in 1933. They got it back in 1945.
22. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. Didn’t they sing this song in Germany in 1933?
And my favorite:
23. In order to preserve freedom, we have to give up some freedoms. Let us now fornicate in the name of virginity.
I am writing to notify you that I am going to boycott the NFL this year and encourage others to do likewise. I will neither attend any games nor watch them on television. I have been a big fan – go Steelers! – since the early 1970s and I do not enjoy doing this.
However, I cannot in any way condone your new practice of doing enhanced pat-down searches before every game at every stadium. Here’s why:
1. I wouldn’t patronize any business that treats its customers in such a degrading fashion. What self-respecting person would?
2. Under other circumstances, such pat-downs would constitute sexual assault and the assailant would run the risk of jail time.
3. They don’t protect anyone against terrorism or any other form of crime. Who said a crime or a terror attack had to happen inside a stadium? What would prevent a terrorist from setting off a bomb in a parking lot before or after a game and killing hundreds or even thousands of people? The shootings after the Raiders-49ers exhibition game happened in the parking lot and not in the stadium.
4. If you say “then just don’t watch the NFL” then you don’t get it. It is bad enough that air travelers are subject to such demeaning searches before boarding planes. Now, you say you are going to do almost as much at every NFL game. And if people stand still for that, what is next? Will they be felt up before they can ride trains or buses? How about before they enter shopping malls or grocery stores? Will children be felt up before they enter school? Where does it end?
5. On a related topic, you say you support and honor our military personnel who risk their lives for our liberties, yet you form a partnership with the Department of Homeland Security, which is dedicated to turning this country into a full-blown police state.
Again, I do not enjoy doing this. However, there comes a time when I have to draw a line. Reverse your pat-down policy, treat your fans with the dignity they deserve – after all, they make it all possible – and I will end my boycott. Deal?
Even if you are not into sports, this still pertains to you.
It is about what you value. What are your priorities? Will you trade your birthright as an American for a few hours of entertainment pottage?
Will you draw the line now and speak up when the cost of doing so is relatively minor? Or will you wait until dissent equals treason and is punished by death? Tyranny is like cancer in that early detection is of monumental importance.
For the last few years, I have blogged rather extensively on the danger posed by enhanced security procedures at America’s airports. This danger is far greater than any posed by Islamojihadipsychopaths. TSA does not protect you at all. And if it is not stopped it will metastasize throughout society.
The NFL has been doing pat-down searches of fans since 2007. This week they announced they will be implementing enhanced pat-downs at all 32 stadiums. This will include frisking from the ankles to the knees and then from the waist up.
(Oh well, I guess the terrorists will just have to set off their bombs in stadium parking lots, five feet from the groping stations, in those massive crowds.)
This new policy was rumored to be in response to the incident at the Jets-Cowboys game last Sunday where a fan allegedly used a stun gun during a scuffle in the stands. However, the NFL now denies this. More likely, the new “best practice” of stadium gate rape is a result of the partnership between the NFL and the DHS that was announced before the most recent Super Bowl.
Watching my Steelers come up just a bit short in the Super Bowl.
Now it is going to be a condition of attending professional football games. How long until Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NHL and the NCAA adopt this vile practice?
If you are going to tolerate this at airports and sporting events, how long will it be until TSA starts stationing its flunkies at shopping malls and grocery stores? What about concerts, trade shows or other large gatherings? Are you willing to have your children molested at the schoolhouse door?
Are you willing to submit to random police stops and warrantless searches of your vehicle in the name of “safety and security?” How about cavity searches of yourself and your children?
And with the increasing federalization and militarization of local police agencies, don’t expect this to be purely federal. Don’t be surprised to find Officer Freundlich, who frequents your neighborhood Dunkin’ Donuts, to be in on the action.
And if you resist or question any of this, will you automatically be deemed a terrorist? Will you be presumed guilty until proven innocent?
This last question addresses the most ominous aspect of post-9/11 America. It has been said that on 9/11 a horrible crime was committed and on 9/12 the American people became suspects. And this new breed of suspect does not enjoy the presumption of innocence that had been the cornerstone of American law since 1776.
What kind of country do you want to live in? North Korea is often portrayed as a left-wing utopia with no market activity, “free” single-payer health care, etc. It is also a right-wing utopia with the world’s most aggressive national security apparatus. The left and the right may talk differently and appeal to different fan bases, but they are taking us down the same hellish road.
Be careful what you ask for.
The most well-known feature of life under a government that makes unlimited promises is the inability of its subjects to travel freely. A government that will give you every bit of security you want will take away every bit of liberty you have.
This wall was built because the government on one side of it – you guess which – forbade its subjects to leave. Even THIS government did not claim the authority to feel up its subjects.
Alex Jones is right: boycott the NFL! And don’t just stay home from the games. Don’t even watch them on television! This will be tough for a lot of folks, including me. I ask again: what do you value? Will you give up some entertainment pottage in order to start the return to a free society? Or is your mind so numbed by “bread and circuses” that you just don’t see what is happening here?
And when people want to talk to you about the Broncos, my beloved Steelers, da Bears, or about Brady, Vick, Polamalu or Tebow, talk to them – politely, now – about the totalitarian evil in which the NFL is complicit.
On November 18, 1968 the New York Jets played the Oakland Raiders in what will be known forever as “the Heidi game.” With two minutes to go, the Jets led the Oakland Raiders 32-29. Abruptly, the telecast of the game ended and the movie Heidi – about a 7-year-old girl in Switzerland – began as scheduled by NBC. No one saw it on TV, but the Raiders scored two touchdowns in the last two minutes to win 43-32.
Football fans went crazy, flooding the switchboards at NBC headquarters with irate calls.
I close with an action item. This Monday, let us flood the switchboards at NFL headquarters in New York and voice our displeasure with the NFL’s unholy alliance with Homeland Security and their vile practice of feeling up their customers. Their number is 212-450-2000. You can also email them here. Please be civil.
This needs to be bigger than the phone blitz NBC received after the Heidi game, because this is an immeasurably bigger deal than the Heidi game. Let’s go crazy.
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“In war, the first casualty is the truth.”
— Aeschylus, Greek dramatist, 525-456 B.C.
Where were you on the morning of September 11, 2001 when you heard The News?
I was finishing breakfast and listening to Peter Boyles on KHOW 630 in Denver. I vividly remember him interrupting the conversation and saying something like “We have just received word that an airplane has crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers in New York.”
I turned on the TV set and saw a massive cloud of black smoke emanating from near the top of the first tower. And then – WHAM! – the second tower was hit. I couldn’t pull myself away. I called my boss and told him I was just going to be a few minutes late getting to work.
“This is not a normal morning,” I said. He understood.
From that evening onward, I started asking questions.
When I heard that Tower 7 had collapsed, I asked how. No airplane hit it and there were only a few small fires.
A few days later, it was revealed that a totally abnormal number of put options – i.e. bets that the price would drop – had been placed on United and American Airlines stock in the first few days of September.
A few weeks later, it was reported that one of the hijackers’ passports was found in the rubble at Ground Zero. Yeah, right: a paper document survived a massive fireball.
It also made no sense that a bunch of dorks who could barely fly Cessnas simply read the flight manuals for 737s and 757s, jumped into the cockpits, mastered the instrument panels in 30 seconds and flew like Blue Angels. How did they learn to fly passenger jets so adroitly when commercial pilots have to go through thousands of hours of rigorous training in order to earn their wings?
Why did no one on the planes that hit the WTC and the Pentagon resist the hijackers? And why did no one resist on Flight 93 until after it had been commandeered?
Why did the WTC towers collapse on their own footprints at free fall speed? Never in history, before or since 9/11, has a steel-framed structure collapsed due to fire. Yes, fires have done horrendous damage to such structures. However, the frames themselves stood strong.
However, I persisted in wanting to believe that it was an external terrorist attack until the early part of 2006, when the following video of the attack on the Pentagon was released. And then it all came tumbling down, if you will.
I then asked:
What hit the Pentagon at the 0:25 mark? Was it a missile? Was it a plane? Was it Superman? It is not at all clear from these few frames of video.
And was there just one security camera on the nerve center of the world’s mightiest military establishment? There are at least four in most convenience stores; there are nine at a nearby IHOP; there are 16 at the gym where I work out. And you want me to believe there was just one video camera on the Pentagon? I don’t want your oceanfront property in Nebraska either.
Moreover:
Why was Osama Bin Laden never charged in connection with 9/11?
And why did his “Most Wanted” poster not even mention 9/11? Calling 9/11 “(an)other terrorist attack” is like calling the Grand Canyon another hole in the ground.
What about 9/11?
How come no other terrorist attack anywhere in the world since has involved even one percent of the sophistication of 9/11? Most terror attacks look a lot more like this.
No this wasn’t a terror attack. Some bimbo wasn’t paying attention and drove right into a local burger joint. (Yes, it is called Smashburger.) If the terror threat were truly as grave as it is made out to be, there would have been hundreds similar attacks this all over America in the last decade.
So, you ask, if the official story is a hoax, what do I think happened on 9/11? The short answer is: I don’t know. However, this does not prove the official story. There are simply way too many holes in it.
You need to question absolutely everything your government tells you! This includes departments and presidents that you like.
Speaking of holes: they want us to believe that a plane with a 122-foot wing span flown by a raw amateur made a whole only 40 feet wide in the Pentagon wall.
“It’s everything I wish I didn’t know.”
— U2, Vertigo
Assuming the worst – inside job! – why would the feds commit such a hideous crime against their own people? I have long believed that there are two governments in this country: the one you see and the one you don’t see. And it is the latter that really runs things. You can read this book online in a few hours. It is a great little primer on the subject.
“I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.” — Bob Seger, Against the Wind
This shadow government has been plotting for over a century now to bring down America by undermining its political, economic, social and religious institutions. They wanted three things: a police state domestically, war abroad and the death of the dollar. They have gotten the first two and will probably get the third in the next few years.
I believe the assault on the Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas, in 1993 was a trial balloon to test just how much they could get away with. Since they could get away with killing 80, why wouldn’t they kill 3000?
Both Herman Goering and James Madison knew that if you just drum up enough fear about a foreign enemy, you can convince people to relinquish their liberty. Since 9/11, the American people have accepted unthinkable intrusionson their liberty in the name of security. There has been only minor public resistance to the sexual assault and pedophilia that are now conditions of travel in the United States. Lew Rockwell has pointed out that neither the Nazis nor any communist regime ever claimed the power to feel up their subjects.
If you are so devoid of self-respect that you welcome having yourself and your children sexually violated as a condition of movement, you will allow your government to do absolutely anything!
They hate our freedoms.
And, no, TSA does not protect anyone. You don’t need to smuggle a bomb onto a plane in order to kill a lot of people. You could do this far more easily by detonating a bomb in an airport terminal, stadium parking lot, etc.
Even if the official 9/11 story is true, it was not grounds for war. It was an attack, not a military invasion. The proper, moral, constitutional response to terrorism is a letter of marque and reprisal, which is a warrant to go after the specific perpetrators. Identify the perps, track them down, apprehend them and try them subject to the protections of the Bill of Rights. Since it is wrong for foreigners to kill innocent Americans, it is just as wrong for Americans to kill innocent foreigners.
Since 9/11, America has started wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and – let’s be honest – Pakistan. We are attacking Yemen and Somalia with predator drones, and we are threatening war with Syria and Iran. The price tag for this is several trillion dollars. We cannot afford it. This, along with absolutely heedless spending on social programs, makes up what I call The Big Bleed on the American economy.
Major General Smedley Butler served in the United States Marine Corps for 33 years. Twice, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest decoration an American serviceman can earn. When it was all said and done he wrote a profound essay entitled “War is a Racket.”
He wrote: “A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people.” The War on Terror is just this.
The two most expensive things a government can engage in are welfare and warfare. The left loves welfare and the right loves warfare. And while they talk differently and appeal to different fan bases, neither knows any restraint on in its spending in either area. Is there a Zimbabwe in our future?
Outside a public toilet in Zimbabwe. Their money is that worthless. Could such a scenario be in store here?
Whoever wins the election of 2012 will very probably preside over the demise of the dollar. Moreover, they will know this before they assume office.
Does daring to question the official story on 9/11 make me a blithering nut job a la Rosie O’Donnell? If you think it does, what is your point? The Klintons and Obomber believe the official story, just like The Decider and Deferment Dick Cheney.
I would invite you to visit www.patriotsquestion911.com. It features interviews with well over 3000 pilots, military veterans, intelligence officers, policemen, firemen, first responders, medical professionals, architects, engineers, survivors and family members of those who perished on that horrible morning – i.e. people with skin in the game – who don’t buy the official story. Also go to www.rememberbuilding7.org.
Malcolm Muggeridge, the late great British journalist, one remarked that people believe lies not because they have to, but because they want to. We seek security in all the wrong places. Too many Americans just cannot believe that their government – or at least their party – would lie to them.
On a sunny day, Hurricane Irene impends. Does this photo also symbolize contemporary America?
“… ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?”
Matthew 16:3
We believe oh so arrogantly that ours is an “exceptional nation” and thus exempt from the laws of history and from God’s Judgment. Hitler did not come to power in some Third World stink hole, but rather in a nation so sophisticated in so many ways. And he did so because the German people were absolutely desperate for a political savior that they allowed him to do whatever sounded good.
The Bible prophesies – Revelation 18 – of an absolute economic colossus that was rendered worthless in a matter of an hour. Is God talking about America here? I think so.
This September 11, by all means mourn the tragic loss of life that happened on 9/11/01. However, don’t buy into endless deluge of lies put out by the government and its sock puppets in the press and – tragically – the pulpits.
What truly ails this country will not be fixed by a new president, congress and courts. Nor will it be fixed by bombing the crap out of countries all over the world. True national healing will only come about if enough of us humble ourselves before our Maker, repent of our multitudinous sins, and turn from our wicked ways.
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” – II Chronicles 7:14
Dear Lord, let this humbling and repentance begin with me.
From my hometown in New Jersey. Credit: Rumson-Fair Haven Patch
There are already a plethora of reasons to elect Ron Paul as POTUS in 2012.
Let me add one more: it would hasten the return of the NFL to Los Angeles.
How so?
Ron Paul’s presidency would turn Washington DC into a veritable ghost town. With the Fed and the IRS gone, there would be nothing to sustain most of what happens in the District of Criminals.
Its population would quickly drop from 600,000 to something like 7855. This is the population of Montpelier, Vermont, the smallest state capital in the country. Could it even support a McDonald’s?
Downtown Montpelier, VT
And if it could not support a Mickey Dee, it certainly could not support four major league sports franchises. So what would they do?
The NBA Wizards could move 40 miles up the road to Baltimore, which was their home before moving to DC back in 1974. The NHL Capitals could either follow the Wizards to Baltimore or they could move to, say, Hamilton, Ontario. Major League Baseball’s Nationals could depart for any of several places, such as Portland, Charlotte or Nashville.
And the Redskins could head to the second largest metropolitan area in America, one that has been without an NFL team since 1994: LOS ANGELES!
Get it ready for the Redskins!
Ahhhhhh, the serendipities of a Ron Paul presidency.
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Food for the Thinkers
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