A republic, if you can keep it

I found this article today.  I think we can call this one now.  Global warming, climate change, anthropogenic global warming.  Call it whatever you want, but make sure to call it what it is: a LIE.

Or a lie that has morphed into a kooky - albeit dangerous - religious cult.

Straight from Drudge:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?

PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children’s health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.

That’s right, by reducing the number of people who are born - and you have to assume that she means with both pre- & post-conception contraception (cough cough abortion) - there will be fewer resources consumed.  Fewer people is better for poor planet earth, which can barely support us anymore.

Call this not just a foot but an entire leg in the door for eugenics, sign of the times or whatever you will.  We have been warned of this type of evil, and it is here in plain sight because it feels it is strong enough that it no longer needs to hide in the shadows.  We need to wake up & put a stop to it now.

For those of you who want to gain a better understanding of the founding of this country, I would recommend that you listen to the Mike Church show on Sirius Satellite Radio in the morning (6-9AM PST).

This morning he recommended finding & reading the address given by then President Calvin Coolidge on July 5th, 1926. That would be the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It is amazing that in a mere 83 years, we could go from the ideals he promotes to what we have now. It takes a few minutes to read, and it also takes more attention span than most these days probably have. But you will be a better person for having read it, so click here.

There were several passages that really jumped out at me; really spoke to my soul, as it were.

It is little wonder that people at home and abroad consider Independence Hall as hallowed ground and revere the Liberty Bell as a sacred relic. That pile of bricks and mortar, that mass of metal, might appear to the uninstructed as only the outgrown meeting place and the shattered bell of a former time, useless now because of more modern conveniences, but to those who know they have become consecrated by the use which men have made of them. They have long been identified with a great cause. They are the framework of a spiritual event. The world looks upon them, because of their associations of one hundred and fifty years ago, as it looks upon the Holy Land because of what took place there nineteen hundred years ago. Through use for a righteous purpose they have become sanctified.

It is amazing to me that a politician could actually have such a deep understanding and respect for religion. My faith teaches that the Founding Fathers were truly inspired and directed by God to create this country. It is amazing to see a man - who so far as I know was never taught anything of my faith - acknowledge that God directed that work done by the American colonists.

Placing every man on a plane where he acknowledged no superiors, where no one possessed any right to rule over him, he must inevitably choose his own rulers through a system of self-government.

I’ve heard that stated another way: “I teach them correct principles and they govern themselves.”

This was their theory of democracy. In those days such doctrines would scarcely have been permitted to flourish and spread in any other country. This was the purpose which the fathers cherished. In order that they might have freedom to express these thoughts and opportunity to put them into action, whole congregations with their pastors had migrated to the colonies. These great truths were in the air that our people breathed. Whatever else we may say of it, the Declaration of Independence was profoundly American.

The Declaration was inspired of God. America, therefore as it was founded, and as the Fathers intended, was about as close as you could hope to get to God.

If this apprehension of the facts be correct, and the documentary evidence would appear to verify it, then certain conclusions are bound to follow. A spring will cease to flow if its source be dried up; a tree will wither if its roots be destroyed. In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.

Could it be any more clear? Yet today, our “leaders” have taught us that it is politically incorrect to ever mention God. They have basically removed God from everything, and put themselves in His place. It is no wonder that our country is ailing and headed down the path it is on.
Of course, the solution is clear. We as a nation need to return to God. We know that that is unlikely to happen, but those who remain righteous and true have the blessing of knowing that they will be watched out for.

We are too prone to overlook another conclusion. Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments. This is both historically and logically true. Of course the government can help to sustain ideals and can create institutions through which they can be the better observed, but their source by their very nature is in the people. The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation. About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful.

Self government works. Socialism does not. I love this next part, as it is 100% correct and completely destroys the arguments that we hear from Reid, Pelosi, Obama, and their ilk. There is nothing for anyone else to say, just read and enjoy.

It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

More talk of how the form of Government that the Founding Fathers established was God’s form of government:

The rights of the individual are held sacred and protected by constitutional guaranties, which even the Government itself is bound not to violate. If there is any one thing among us that is established beyond question, it is self-government–the right of the people to rule. If there is any failure in respect to any of these principles, it is because there is a failure on the part of individuals to observe them. We hold that the duly authorized expression of the will of the people has a divine sanction. But even in that we come back to the theory of John Wise that “Democracy is Christ’s government.” The ultimate sanction of law rests on the righteous authority of the Almighty.

I love this quote:

In the development of its institutions America can fairly claim that it has remained true to the principles which were declared 150 years ago. In all the essentials we have achieved an equality which was never possessed by any other people. Even in the less important matter of material possessions we have secured a wider and wider distribution of wealth.

We are told today that in order to achieve equality, those with many material possessions - including money - must be forced to forfeit them so they can be re-distributed to those who don’t have so much. For this to happen, all of us must relinquish some of our liberties. The reasoning is that then everyone will have the same amount of possessions - everyone will be equal. But President Coolidge correctly states that because individuals maintain all of their liberties, and because individuals have the freedom to work as much or as little as they want, we - all Americans - have, as he so eloquently stated, “have secured a wider and wider distribution of wealth.” So, would you rather follow the current course, where possessions are taken away to make everyone “equal”, as in equally miserable? Or would you prefer to return to the original intent of this country, where everyone is free to choose how hard they will work, and be rewarded for it?

Under a system of popular government there will always be those who will seek for political preferment by clamoring for reform. While there is very little of this which is not sincere, there is a large portion that is not well informed. In my opinion very little of just criticism can attach to the theories and principles of our institutions. There is far more danger of harm than there is hope of good in any radical changes. We do need a better understanding and comprehension of them and a better knowledge of the foundations of government in general. Our forefathers came to certain conclusions and decided upon certain courses of action which have been a great blessing to the world. Before we can understand their conclusions we must go back and review the course which they followed. We must think the thoughts which they thought. Their intellectual life centered around the meeting-house. They were intent upon religious worship. While there were always among them men of deep learning, and later those who had comparatively large possessions, the mind of the people was not so much engrossed in how much they knew, or how much they had, as in how they were going to live. While scantily provided with other literature, there was a wide acquaintance with the Scriptures.

For as learned as they were, they were founded in the gospel of Jesus Christ, at least what they had of it. Coolidge didn’t just make this statement, he came to understand that by studying their lives.

Over a period as great as that which measures the existence of our independence they were subject to this discipline not only in their religious life and educational training, but also in their political thought. They were a people who came under the influence of a great spiritual development and acquired a great moral power. No other theory is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people.

We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshiped.

Well said, President Coolidge. Thank you.

For those of you who don’t know, I live in the small unincorporated township of Logandale. Since it is unincorporated, there is no mayor or city council, instead there is a 5 member Town Advisory Board (TAB) that hears things that would go before a city council. They vote on these items, and then those items go before the Clark County Board of County Commissioners (BCC), which takes the TAB’s vote into consideration and then makes a final decision. For many years (actually a couple of decades), there has been a straw poll taken at every election, and the 5 highest vote-getters have been appointed to the TAB. This seems to make sense, as it allows the voice of the people to choose their representatives, and history suggests that it has worked well.

But the times they are a-changin’. When the new BCC was sworn in recently, one of the first things they had to do was finalize all of the TAB’s in Clark County. Instead of listening to the voice of the people and appointing the 5 people with the most votes, they only selected 3. The other 2 positions went to people who, at least based on the number of votes they received, wouldn’t do a good job of representing the town of Logandale. The local paper, the Moapa Valley Progress has an article in this week’s paper that ought to throw up a HUGE red flag for all of us. I think it gives us a very clear idea of what sort of change might be on the horizon - specifically for residents in Logandale, but also for Clark County & even for all Americans. You see, the Clark County BCC is now 100% Democrat. They are further bolstered by a Democratic controlled Nevada legislature that has a veto proof majority, both Congressional representatives who represent Clark County are Democrats, and they have the ear of Senator Harry Reid as well as President-elect Obama. So they are no doubt feeling pretty good about themselves. This is evidenced by some of the statements and actions reported in the Progress article. Commissioner Tom Collins had the following to say when the Progress called him for a comment on this new break from democratic procedure and the new appointments:

“I have no comments for you on your paper. You know what I think of you. Have a nice day.” Then he abruptly hung up the line.

Collins knows that the Progress is the only paper in Logandale. If he wants to get a message out quickly to his constituents there, it is the fastest way to do so. Well, the message was received loud and clear. The residents of Logandale can pretty easily figure out just what Collins thinks of them, both by the way he listened to their voice on election day & in his comment to the paper.

When state assemblyman Joe Hardy called Collins to ask about the change in appointments, Collins said:

“He (Collins) told me that it was now a new era,” Hardy said. “He said that he wanted to break the mold and do things differently. He felt that the change would be for the better.”

What new era is starting now? Politicians have been ignoring their constituents for some time now, so that’s not new. What is new however is that this ignoring is now out in the open, and is being openly admitted by politicians like Collins - and embraced by many voters. I guess when your party controls everything, you can do what you want, thus proving the old saying about power.
So we now stand on the precipice of a new era. Well, it’s at least new to us, but not to this land. I seem to remember that 230+ years ago, people here had very similar issues. This new (to us) era is one where elected officials do whatever they want without any regard for those whom they claim to represent. And when questioned about it, are belligerent and rude in their response. After all, how dare those of us in the underclass question them?

I fear that we are in for a lot of this at all levels. This is certainly a bad sign of things to come in Logandale and Clark County, but I think it is also an example of just what we can expect from most of our elected officials at most levels.

Rick Eide was one of the people who had served on the TAB & had received enough votes in the straw poll but was not reappointed. I know Rick (not well, but I know him). He is very opinionated and honest. If he doesn’t agree with you, he will tell you, and he will explain why. While he can become animated, he’s not rude. I also, unfortunately, know Tom Collins. He is also very opinionated. He’s very pro-big government and knows everything, including what’s best for you. He’s one of those guys who feels it is his right to protect you from yourself while increasing the girth of the government’s waistline. He’s one of those people that Ronald Reagan warned us about when he told us what the 9 scariest words in the English language are (I’m from the government and I’m here to help).

Another unfortunate part of this sad affair is who was appointed in place of those who were the winners in the democratic process. I also have had the unfortunate experience of dealing with Rick’s replacement, Billy Mildice. Some may call him a dimwitted hack and a tool. I would argue that doing so is a huge disservice to dimwits, hacks and tools the world over. But he is Tom Collins’ tool, and Collins knows how to use him, and no doubt will use him well. It will be very interesting - in a sad, pathetic way - reading about his antics on the TAB, and I feel for anyone who has to go before that board, as well as the other members of the board.

Eide’s comment really sums up what Logandale residents and indeed all Americans are going to experience for the foreseeable future.

“The new Commission has proven right off in their very first meeting that the will of this community will not be heard. My concern is that this community no longer has any representation at all at the County level.”

Indeed, looking at the federal level and the bailout-palooza, they have largely ignored American citizens. The Clark County BCC, in one of their first actions, set the tone for at least the next 2 years, and probably longer, showing that they don’t feel it important to listen to their constituents, nor do they feel a need to explain their actions.

We’ll have to wait just a little longer to see what happens in the Nevada legislature this year. Last November, Nevadans overwhelmingly rejected tax hikes. The Democrats who have control are typical tax and spend liberals, and all but a few of the Republicans appear ready to roll over in hopes of getting their belly rubbed.

Will they do their will or the will of the people? It’s really not too tough to guess.

Here is a report on a fascinating study conducted by two economists at UCLA. It shows that **GASP** government intrusion and regulation of the free market makes things - are you ready for this? - WORSE!!!

In case you don’t want to read the whole thing, at least read the last paragraph.

“The fact that the Depression dragged on for years convinced generations of economists and policy-makers that capitalism could not be trusted to recover from depressions and that significant government intervention was required to achieve good outcomes,” Cole said. “Ironically, our work shows that the recovery would have been very rapid had the government not intervened.”

But since the vast majority of Americans won’t read this, nor take the time to try and understand, we stand a good chance of repeating what they studied. How’s this for ominous (emphasis mine)?

“This is exciting and valuable research,” said Robert E. Lucas Jr., the 1995 Nobel Laureate in economics, and the John Dewey Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. “The prevention and cure of depressions is a central mission of macroeconomics, and if we can’t understand what happened in the 1930s, how can we be sure it won’t happen again?“

“In leaving Las Vegas and coming to Washington, [Harry] Reid has probably raised the average I.Q. of both locations, Nevada and the Senate Democratic Caucus.”

- GOP strategist Craig Shirley, Politico.com, 1/8/09