Some Thoughts On Liberty

Very interesting argument in support of Gay Marriage, in the context of liberty:

"...there are two fundamental schools of thought here. Some of us believe that to be conservative is to defend freedom, preserve individual liberty, and keep government small. Others believe that being conservative is about electing a government that will defend and enforce “traditional” values.

For our purposes here, a list of those values isn’t relevant. But if you place yourself in this camp, consider whether you truly want a government that will enforce your personal values at gunpoint (this is what all laws effectively do). And if you surrender such power to the government — power to defend not your life or your property, mind you, but your values — can you live with the consequences when your officials are no longer in power and you are staring down the business end of that barrel? Could you live with mandatory government schooling, for instance? (I could not). When you find yourself in a minority, as everyone does at some point, what protections do you imagine that you will have, other than our Constitution? One of the beauties of that document is that no citizen can undermine it without eventually putting his own interests in peril.

In the context of this debate, it is impossible to overemphasize that this is the same inspired, carefully considered document that protects the religious freedom we hold dear."

In other words, the government doesn't (or shouldn't) exist to enforce any one group's belief system. It exists to protect us -- our lives, liberty, property and rights. As conservatives, we must -- MUST -- center on these few unifying concepts as a foundation for recovery.

Let Us Never Forget

For those who gave that last full measure of devotion. For those who serve, or have served, or sit in worry for those in harm's way, thank you and bless you all.

And when the wind in the tree-tops roared,
The soldier asked from the deep dark grave:
"Did the banner flutter then?"
"Not so, my hero," the wind replied.
"The fight is done, but the banner won,
Thy comrades of old have borne it hence,
Have borne it in triumph hence."
Then the soldier spake from the deep dark grave:
"I am content."

Then he heareth the lovers laughing pass,
and the soldier asks once more:
"Are these not the voices of them that love,
That love--and remember me?"
"Not so, my hero," the lovers say,
"We are those that remember not;
For the spring has come and the earth has smiled,
And the dead must be forgot."
Then the soldier spake from the deep dark grave:
"I am content."

--Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1895

How About Standing For Liberty?

A wonderful article by Shikha Dalmia at Forbes online, discussing how the Republican party should rebuild (or at least refocus) on liberty as a unifying concept:

So what should the Grand Old Party do to resurrect itself enough to mount some semblance of resistance to the advancing Democratic juggernaut? The answer is that it needs intellectual coherence around a powerful idea, and that idea should be liberty. This is a principle that is both strong enough to intellectually moor the party in the way that those who want a "purer" GOP desire--and grand enough to appeal to a broad swath of the population, as those who advocate a more Big Tent approach recommend...

But to truly become the party of liberty, conservatives have to accept liberty not just in name but also in attitude. They can't be the party of liberty if they reject the consequences of liberty. This means they have to internalize the notion that leaving individuals free to incrementally revise existing institutions in response to shifting human needs adds to--not subtracts from--the overall social well-being. To put it in economics terms, liberty produces positive--not negative--externalities. It doesn't destroy existing culture, community and country, but rather produces what Hayek called "spontaneous order," which, without bloodshed, allows the old and decrepit ways to be replaced by new and better ones. In short, they have to unabashedly welcome progress and finally purge the ghost of William F. Buckley, who keeps telling them to "stand athwart history and cry stop."

What a concept! The party of Lincoln and Reagan once again standing for the single most powerful unifying idea in American history, LIBERTY, and throwing off some of the burdens associated with late 20th Century conservatism: religion, culture warfare, and exclusion.

I'm reminded of this quote from a conservative's Conservative, Barry Goldwater:

"I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is "needed" before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents "interests, " I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can."

What Are They Smoking At Maxim?

You know the cult of personality has gone completely overboard when Maxim magazine puts the FLOTUS in their list of the worlds 100 hottest women.

I mean, I guess she's OK looking for a women in her forties, but in the top 100? What really disturbs me is that she came in higher than: Deanna Russo, Marisa Tomei, Yvonne Strahovski, and Padma Lakshmi. PADMA LAKSHMI.

OK, lets have a side by side comparison:





<---- Obama/ Lakshmi ---->










One more, just so I boost my Google hit count:

<---- Obama/ Lakshmi ---->

Note to the editors of Maxim: You might want to review your rating process!

How Much Of This Is Real?

Check out the following video featuring the now C-list celebrity Janeane Garafalo:




Ms Garafalo apparently thinks everyone who went to a tea party is a racist. Or at least she'd like you to think so...

You hear her, and hear "celebrities" like Bill Maher, Perez Hilton and others with this constant left-wing hate speech, and you gotta wonder -- how much of this is what they actually BELIEVE, and how much of this is about getting their images on screen and their names mentioned on news programs? Let's face it--Ms Garafolo isn't as popular as she was 10 years ago. Is it possible that she's just trying to boost her own personal "Q" ratings?

Are we living in an era where politics is just part of the nexus of celebrity, reality TV and infotainment?

How To Blow It In Business Without Really Trying

Mr Obama shows why he needs to focus on his CONSTITUTIONAL responsibilities instead of trying to run banks and auto companies:

"Chrysler LLC will not repay U.S. taxpayers more than $7 billion in bailout money it received earlier this year and as part of its bankruptcy filing.

This revelation was buried within Chrysler's bankruptcy filings last week and confirmed by the Obama administration Tuesday. The filings included a list of business assumptions from one of the company's key financial advisors in the bankruptcy case.

Some of the main assumptions listed by Robert Manzo of Capstone Advisory Group were that the Treasury would forgive a $4 billion bridge loan given to Chrysler in the closing days of the Bush administration, a $300 million fee on that loan, and the $3.2 billion in financing approved last week by the Obama administration to fund Chrysler's operations during bankruptcy."

Not only do we get stiffed on the payback for the previous loans, we now get to "lend" them MORE. This does bring into question how reliable we think GM will be in paying back THEIR loans.

Of course, what else can we expect from a President who spends almost a $787 Billion on a "stimulus," promises budget deficits for the next 10 years, and tells us that a $17 Billion dollar reduction in spending is "significant."

We also found out this week that there is no real oversight over how the Stimulus money is being spent. Congressional members of the Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board aren't even showing up to the meetings--but they're gonna have a website!

Yep, change is in the air--and it smells like crap.

Yet Another Liberal Idiot

Rep Alcee Hastings (D-FL) proposing an amendment to the Hate Crimes bill to protect individuals who engage certain activities, many of which can be enjoyed on any Friday night at Barney Frank's house:



Here's the list again: "apotemnophilia, asphyxophilia, autogynephilia, coprophilia, exhibitionism, fetishism, frotteurism, gerontosexuality, incest, kleptophilia, klismaphilia, necrophilia, partialism, pedophilia, sexual masochism, sexual sadism, telephone scatalogia, toucherism, transgenderism, transsexual, transvestite, transvestic fetishism, urophilia, voyeurism, or zoophilia."

I'll leave the reader to google any of these that they wish. Many of these are relatively harmless (albeit icky), but I think we can all agree that the world would be better off if we didn't protect necrophilia and PEDOPHILIA under hate crimes legislation.

Also note Mr. Hastings wanted to protect "toucherism" under the hate crimes bill. This is defined as "a paraphilic condition in which sexuoerotic arousal and gratification are dependant on surreptitiously touching the erotic parts on the body of a stranger, particularly the breasts, buttocks, or genital area."

In other words, a woman who smacked someone who groped her on a train could be tried for a "hate crime."