Happy Independence Day!

Today is Independence Day, a great holiday that celebrates the original thirteen colonies' independence from the oppressive regime of the British king that taxed the colonists unbearably, limited their religious freedom, and inhibited their ability to pursue economic stability and happiness in general.  Colonist leaders and patriots wrote the Declaration of Independence and thereafter worked to build the United States of America, a unique and blessed land where all, because of acknowledged equality and a government that was originally built to serve the people, are able to pursue opportunity, worship, and engage their fellowman as they see fit.

America, as mentioned above, is a unique and uniquely blessed nation.  I am forever grateful to be an American and to have had the opportunity to grow up and now raise a family in this great land.  There are some, those known as cultural relativists (they call themselves multiculturalists), who would argue that no one country can be better than another.  This is not really true for a number of reasons.

One reason is economic opportunity.  Mexicans and others from Central and South America do not flood across the border (legally and illegally) because the job prospects south of the border are so hot.  In this unique land, one can take an idea, run with it, and essentially control your own economic destiny if you're willing to put in the requisite time and effort.

A second reason America is so great is because here we can worship God (or not) the way we want.  I remember the hassle it was in Russia for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be allowed to meet, organize, and otherwise function.  I am grateful that in America, organized religion is not subject to the whims and fancies of a bureaucrat or an authoritarian regime (look at the Chinese government's meddling in religion for a great example of that).

A third reason America is so great is because of the relative peace we live in.  Wars simmer and rage all over the world, but although America has been involved in many conflicts, those wars have rarely reached her shores.  Even the domestic scene, which involves occasional riots or some gang violence, is calm compared to elsewhere.  The Mexico-U.S. border is so rife with violence that it is impossible for people to live there.  Honduras has exploded into violence following a coup.

I can think of so many other reasons, too.  The quality of life is just amazing here.  Whenever I hear of poor people in the news in America, I think back to my time in Russia or think of all those articles I've read in National Geographic.  I would argue that poor people in America aren't poor.  We should still help them, but our quality of life in America is so much better than most anywhere else that comparisons of rich and poor just don't make sense.  The choice that abounds because of liberty in America is astounding.  Whether it be a simple choice of where to live, what profession to pursue, or what doctor to go to, America again stands head and shoulders above the rest.  I've lived in the UK and know about not being able to choose what doctor to see.  We have opportunities and chances like no one else.

I hope and pray that America will remain the land of liberty and opportunity.  Things are changing right now, and we need to take time on a day like Independence Day to commit ourselves to action, just as those early colonists and patriots did.  We can only retain our blessings in America if we commit ourselves to following God's commands and remembering that we must work to preserve our liberty because freedom is not free.

God bless America!

Liberty and Tyranny

We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word
we do not all mean the same thing.
With some the word liberty may mean for each man
to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor;
while with others, the same word may mean for some men
to do as they please with other men, and the
product of other men's labor.
Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things,
called by the same name — liberty.
And it follows that each of the things is, by the
respective parties, called by two and incompatible names —
liberty and tyranny.
— President Abraham Lincoln
When one thinks of the great nation of the United States of America, one almost certainly thinks of liberty, among the other blessings that are attendant to a blessed land.  Liberty, though, is an abstract, almost philosophical concept, as are other words we use to describe our condition and who we are.  Just what are conservatives?  Just what is statism?  Even more importantly, what do these words and concepts, bandied about by talking heads, have to do with everyday people?

They have a lot to do with everyday people, and in his book, Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto, popular radio host Mark R. Levin explains just what those concepts are, how they apply to every American, and why a philosophy and course of action grounded in true conservative principles is the most effective approach to preserving liberty and avoiding tyranny.  Levin examines those topics that people associate with conservatism, the Constitution, federalism (states' rights), the free market, limited government, and national security, among others.  He ties it all back, though, to what conservatism is really all about — the ability to make choices for oneself, one's family, and one's property, or liberty.  He ends the book by explaining that conservatism has a chance to lead America if those who believe in its core principles are ready to put forth the required effort.  Armed with the proper understanding of the concepts and the long-term vision such understanding gives, the call is inspiring.

Given that I am not a fan of Levin's show and that I have been disappointed by radio hosts' (Hannity's, to drop names) books before, I was skeptical of this book.  I wasn't more than ten pages into the book before that skepticism had worn off.  The book is surprisingly well written, well sourced, and explains in a profound clarity just what it is that conservatism represents.  Time after time after time Levin blows the leftists and statists out of the water, exposing them for the power-hungry and hypocritical jackals that they are.  It's all done almost void of the over-hyped emotion his listeners have come to expect, too.  The reader sees solid analysis and an accurate examination of the Founders, current politics, and other relevant history.  There is a reason this book was a New York Times bestseller for so long and still trades hotly on resale sites like Half.com and DealOz.  The book will open your mind and solidify the truths that readers already know.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream.
It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same,
or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children
and our children's children what it was once like in the United States
where men were free.
— President Ronald Reagan

The Lies of the Left

Recently, a late night talk show host made a disgusting joke about the daughter of Alaska's popular governor, Sarah Palin.  Other than media dominated by conservative voices, such as talk radio and new media such as blogs, there was little outcry about this.  Considering what happened to Don Imus when he made a stupid comment about a women's basketball team comprised largely of black women, the hypocrisy of the situation is nothing short of astounding.  Had the joke been about a prominent liberal or had the joke been made by a known conservative, the comedian would have been fired, like Imus, almost immediately.

The Left, though, is well known for these attempts to pass themselves off as something they are not.  In a recent column, columnist John Hawkins discusses what he perceives to be the five biggest falsehoods the Left has built up around itself.  He is right on and provides rock-solid examples.  As if they were collaborating as they wrote their weekly pieces, columnist Phyllis Schlafly wrote in her column about the lies of feminism.  Some University of Pennsylvania professors recently published an article in the American Economic Journal, a respected scholarly journal, that discusses how the relative happiness levels of women have gone down since the 1970s, which is when the feminist movement really took off in the U.S.  Schlafly does a brilliant job of explaining why that is not surprising to anyone who understands that men and women are different, have different roles, and are fulfilled helping each other reach their full potential.

The Left claims to champion women, but it seems that is the case only if the woman in question is a liberal, because conservative women are nothing more than "slutty flight attendant[s]."  Unlike that raunchy low, it's the very potential that we all inherently have because we are children of God that makes the so-called joke Letterman told even more disgusting and even more hypocritical and even more exposing to the lies of the Left.

Medicinal Maggots

In a cool article published by National Geographic, doctors talk about bandages and gels that include juices secreted by maggots since the fluids are what makes maggot-treated wounds heal quickly.  Even odder, some hospitals breed sterile flies so doctors can apply maggots directly to patients' wounds.

Sotomayor — A Step Back for the Supreme Court

Women struggle to hear the voice of righteous truth
amid a confusing cacophony of voices persuasively urging them
toward expediency and political correctness.
— Virginia U. Jensen
B.O.'s pick for the Supreme Court has only been out for a few days, but enough red flags have come up so far, that I know where I stand.  I'm against her being confirmed to the Supreme Court.  Among the reasons for my opposition are racism, her anti-Second Amendment rights positions, and the idea that somehow her so-called story qualifies her.

In a story in the San Fransisco Chronicle, which starts out by laying down its obvious bias in Sotomayor's favor by stating that her views are nothing controversial at U.C. Berkeley, as if that's some kind of measuring stick normal people would even want to use, Sotomayor is quoted as saying, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”  Now, the Left say conservatives have taken that comment out of context by calling it evidence of racism.  They say the speech the line was lifted from was about how important it is to realize that every individual brings something unique and something special to the table.  I say there is no context missing by calling it racism.  If we're all important and all our views are equally important, a Latina woman will not come to a better conclusion than a white man.  See, if she was really trying to say everybody's viewpoint is important to consider, she would've said that — using those words — not the words she chose to use.

Sotomayor, like many liberals, has yet to realize that Martin Luther King spoke of a world in which race didn't matter.  Dr. King would've hoped the woman and the man could have a civil conversation, noting the positive traits in each other irrespective of race.  Dr. King would've hoped the man didn't notice and didn't care his interlocutor was Latina; he would've hoped the woman didn't notice and didn't care the person she was talking to was male or white.  People should be judged based on their actions, not on what color their skin is.  It is not acceptable to have someone deciding whether or not laws or court decisions conform to the Constitution if they don't even understand that the Constitution is colorblind.

Treason

Treason is a word that often, and appropriately, I think, evokes strong emotions in many people.  Many people are loyal to their country and find it offensive that a fellow countryman would want to harm their homeland.  Leading up to the time of the Revolutionary War, treason was punishable by death in most places.  The crime was taken seriously and applied broadly.  It is now often bandied about as a political epithet, but I wish it carried the weight it once did, at least as far as the United States is concerned.  People should understand the responsibility they have to a nation that provides the freedoms and opportunities America does.

It was those very freedoms and opportunities that prompted the hero of Bill Powell's Treason: How a Russian Spy Led an American Journalist to a U.S. Double Agent (ISBN: 0-7432-2915-0) to betray his native Soviet Union.  This true story chronicles how a journalist (the author) became entangled in a U.S. mole hunt (the mole hunt resulted in the arrest of the traitor Robert Hansson) because of his contact with a former Soviet GRU agent named Vyacheslav Baranov.  Baranov had decided the Soviet life wasn't for him while serving in Bangladesh and made contact with the CIA, giving them a few bits of information.  The CIA hired him, but once he was stationed back in Moscow, his contact with the CIA stopped, although he didn't know why.  He kept trying to make contact, but was eventually arrested.  After spending time in a Russian prison (by the time he was arrested, the Soviet Union had fallen), he wanted to know what had happened and enlisted the author's help by basically recruiting him as a spy would.  They weren't able to figure out for sure who ratted on Baranov, but as he tried to solve the mystery, Hansson was arrested and Baranov learned that the troubles with Ames and Hansson is what made his contact with the CIA so short lived.  The reason for Baranov's original treason, a better life in America, is finally realized at the end of the book, a couple generations later, when he, his wife, their children, and his one grandchild move to America.

The book was really a pretty light read, but it was very interesting even though the story, which was really about Baranov trying to figure out who told on him, wasn't resolved as well as some might like.  I was also intrigued by the story because it tells about how things go when they don't go right, unlike many of the other intelligence-related books out there.  CIA and KGB shortcomings are a major part of the book, although the CIA aspects are ironed out in the end when Baranov and his family move to America.  That part is what really makes the book, though.  Baranov understood early on in his career that socialism and communism just really didn't cut it for people who really wanted to experience opportunity.  Although he hit some major bumps in the road and had reasons to swear off America, he didn't, always remembering the possibilities it held for all.

Mind-stimulating Stuff on the Web

There's a chance I'm frying my brain reading through all this stuff, but if I didn't, I'd think the entire U.S. thought abortion, homosexuals wanting to be married, and communist healthcare were good ideas.  They're not, and I think I'm safe in saying most people think that way, but one has to dig to get to these types of conservative opinions.

To alleviate the digging, here's a list:

• Ken Blackwell discusses torture, the Geneva Convention and its lack of applicability to terrorists, and abortion in his column.
• My cousin, employed in the healthcare insurance industry, explains why socialized (socialized in the same sense of the word as the Soviet Union was a socialist country) healthcare is a guaranteed recipe for absolute failure.
• NTU is asking everyone to write their elected representatives and remind them that the masses (we the people) are not interested in cap-and-trade programs because they result in higher taxes.  It's always worth remembering something simple about taxes that is especially relevant when discussing things like cap-and-trade, which will supposedly only affect those evil businesses out there (so the liberals say).  If your local store sells widgets for $1.00, and they make a 25¢ profit off each such sale, which is optimum for them, that optimum profit level isn't going to change when the government enacts a 10% tax on business earnings.  The store will not continue selling widgets for $1.00.  They'll raise the price such that they still get 25¢ after the tax is collected.  What that means is that you, the consumer, will be paying $1.10 for your widget, but your salary won't have gone up.  Essentially, you are paying the tax.
• In a Fox News column, it is explained that colleges don't invite conservatives to speak at convocations and similar events.  Hardly a surprise, but the column makes some very interesting points about why that's important and why the treatment conservatives that do receive invitations are dealt is so indicative of people who haven't the slightest bit of civility or open-mindedness about them.