Hillary really stepped in it this time. The United States has managed to walk a fine line for decades on the issue of the Falkland Islands and Mrs. Clinton managed to mess it up in less than 2 hours. Repairing her mistake may prove more than she can handle.
The last year of this first decade of the 21st century will bring us many challenges and, D.v., many blessings as well. Speaking for my part, I resolve to strive for constructive policy recommendations along with my typical criticisms. Conservatives face a tremendous opportunity to once again, as Buckley once said, stand athwart history yelling “Stop!” And it is clear that they must be stopped: those forces of destruction, confiscation, redistribution, secular salvation, usurpation, and tyranny. The question before us, as has been handily demonstrated in the recent past here at CD is, “what is conservatism?” How shall we then live? What methodologies will we need to adapt and resurrect to counteract these agents of “change”? Whom shall we trust to carry our standard? What, in short, is a credo by which we can measure all our rhetoric and action?
Peril abounds, as it always has. Folk wisdom tells us not to bash a bee hive with a creek rock. Doubtless, the occasional sting will occur, even with due caution in the apiary. Such stings do not imply that the caution we were exercising was inappropriate or should be jettisoned in a fury of pain and trauma. Especially when an epinephrine pen won’t work to prevent the anaphylaxis anymore.
Debt looms insanely large, and yet more and more clamoring is heard from old and new quarters. A serious audit of the books is due, and serious cutbacks are not only necessary but inevitable, regardless of how they come. Borrowing billions to send $50 billion annually in foreign “aid” is no longer feasible. We have long since shifted from a manufacturing and production economy, and thus the idea that we as a country can or should take on the burdens of other countries is as ridiculous as taking out a third mortgage on my house to pay my neighbors’ cable and electric bills. That’s one slice of a tragically large pie that has to be — finally — served.
Lastly, liberty should not be spoken of apart from attendant responsibilities, because it is derived therefrom. We are created beings, social beings, and the most basic duties we have are to the One Who created us and to those whom we are familially and then societally related. It is inside those boundaries that we are truly free from fear, from want, and from oppression.
We have our work cut out for us, friends and readers. Let us get to splitting the wood.
William Jefferson (Convict, LA) was sentenced to 13 years in prison for bribery and money laundering (which may be the first time in history someone demonstrated such utter incompetence by utilizing a freezer instead of a washing machine).
There is now, officially, no more reason to ever tune to CNN.
Lydia McGrew has a salient word on the “command” structure of “today’s military” that allowed, even enabled, Hasan the terrorist. The President empowers them.
Speaking of the President and his Marxist/Maoist advisory staff, he was forced to throw another one under the bus. Make that two.
This should (but won’t) assuage any lingering doubt that “free trade” is globalist socialism.
Speaking of which, we have a newly-coined self-descriptive for President Obama: “Pacific” American. (That he may be all in all.) This comes in the President’s groveling admission that we are, in fact, no longer the world’s superpower nor anything like a creditor nation. In point of fact, we do “not seek to contain” China, a “strong, prosperous China can be a source of strength for the community of nations,” and we will continue pretending to insist on reciprocity in trade. (Be sure to watch the brief video excerpt of the President’s remarks embedded in the BBC article.)
Here’s to another exciting week! Some of us here at the Conservative Donnybrook will be meeting with our attorney this week to finalize some details and continue making tentative plans for the inevitable funeral for the constitutional republic. Thanks to all who have expressed their thoughts and prayers for Uncle Sam. If he were capable, I’m sure he would thank you himself.
UPDATE: Uncle Sam has taken a sudden downturn. It doesn’t look good, friends.
Brian Reese, the scumbag wanted for beating an old man to death (think about how hard that is to do for a minute, how up-close, personally violating, how grossly violent) who then led police here in Indianapolis on a chase (first in a van with his mother who lied for him and concealed his whereabouts) and then lay in wait after continuing to flee on foot by hiding between houses, whereupon he shot Officer Jason Fishburn in the head and chest in a cowardly ambush, has been convicted of all three counts in the matter concerning the attempted murder of Officer Fishburn. It is a miracle that Fishburn survived his traumatic injuries, and he continues to struggle to rehabilitate himself (although even he knows his life will never be the same, as does his wife and the rest of his family, friends, and compatriots on the force). Justice still largely prevails here in the Midwest, and as we approach Veterans’ Day, I wish to salute my fellow veterans of military service, my fellow veterans of foreign wars, and my fellow police officers who bravely dedicate themselves – many as Oath Keepers – to protecting our way of life. Godspeed.
It is with a heavy heart that today I officially admit to myself that a great hope has vanished from the face of this earth. Along with its demise go the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans and others around the world. Many recognized months ago that their dreams would end without fulfillment. For others, like me, we clung to our dreams in the faith that they could still be fulfilled. Of course, I am talking about the dream, shared by untold millions of people, that the Chicago Cubs would finally win a World Series.
Wrigley Field, to many of us, has always been hallowed ground – a place of tradition, inspiration and beer-soaked, sun-drenched joy. Today it stands as a crypt where our crushed hopes and dreams are interred beneath its cold soil. As in past seasons, the outfield ivy will turn red and nobody will be there to see it. Today Wrigley Field stands only to remind us of what has not been for more than a century, what will not be this year, and what will likely continue to be withheld from its hope-filled visitors. Wrigley Field, it seems, is infertile ground whose grounds are incapable of bearing championship fruits.
Year after year, the faithful turn out to fill the stands in the hope that, finally, this is THE YEAR. Each year, however, there comes a point where each fan realizes that THE YEAR belongs to the future. Each year bitterness, disappointment and heartbreak descends one-by-one into the hearts and minds of those faithful dupes who never seem to learn. For some the moment comes in May or June. For the more masochistic among us, we hold on until August or even September where we calculate and recalculate Magic Numbers and watch the Wild Card chase. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, we continue to repose our hope in a team that consistently disappoints us. In psychology they call it codependence.
I sat at a minor league stadium on Tuesday as the Cubs prepared to begin a home series against the worst team in baseball, the Washington Nationals. I remarked to my friend, who had been asking me for weeks if I had given up on the Cubs yet, that they really needed to sweep the Nationals. Throughout the course of the game, I watched the out-of-town scoreboard with growing dismay as the Nationals mounted a huge lead. I began to think, “Well, maybe if they take two out of three…” realizing even then that I was in denial. Wednesday came and the Cubs roundly defeated the Nats. I thought maybe they had turned a corner; maybe the lightbulb had gone on. And then yesterday’s game. Yesterday the Cubs showed the world that they lack the heart of contenders – that they are content with the “Lovable Losers” moniker. They showed the world that this was certainly not THE YEAR.
And so we look forward to football season, putting another baseball season behind us, our dreams unfulfilled. But, this year we would do well to consider whether it is healthy year after year to set ourselves up for yet another disappointment. When April rolls around and we look out at another baseball season, will we be telling one another, “This is THE YEAR?” I hope not. And yet, I know that I will likely be lured into the recurring dream. And all of us know how that dream ends – with bitterness, disappointment and heartbreak. Maybe next year.
2009 CUBS, R.I.P.
In 1776, a group of brave patriots penned their names to a document declaring that men should be left to pursue their happiness without undue interference from government. That document began:
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
On this Independence Day, it is instructive to take a moment and revisit those causes and reflect on the state of freedom today:
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We owe these men a debt of gratitude for their bravery and passion for freedom. A summary of their complaint could be that the King of England, from whom the States derived their charters had, over time, reneged on his obligations under the charters to allow the colonies to govern themselves in accordance with the Charters. He abdicated his role over the colonies to the Parliament wherein the colonists were unrepresented, save by the King himself. In short, the colonists found themselves to be continually more bound by a distant government in which their voices fell on deaf ears. The role of the State increased and, as a result, the ability to govern one’s own affairs waned.
It was under these burdens that these men made the wrenching decision to throw aside their King and their security as British subjects and to undertake the frightening prospect of creating a fledgling nation in a hostile world. Newly-minted “Americans” rose to the challenge and fought for themselves, their families, and their neighbors so that men could live lives free from the oppression of an overweening, distant government. From that day to today, we pause on July 4 to honor their courage and remember what they fought for and to pray that God continues to bless this nation, conceived in liberty, with His continued Providence. We so pray today.
I have been a subscriber to MLB.TV for five years now. As a Cubs fan, spending the money was not strictly necessary when I first signed up, because WGN was carrying almost all of their games and my cable provider includes WGN in its channel lineup. I could watch virtually every game at home. Nonetheless, I wanted to be able to watch games when I was not at home on my laptop. As soon as I signed up, I realized that half the games were blacked out. However, back then, the blackout only applied to home games, so I still received half the games. I was a little miffed, but I accepted that as part of the deal. The Cubs are not in business to give away their product. Fair enough. And, in any event, even though I am a Cubs fan, I am also a baseball fan and have been known to watch almost any team.
However, as time has gone by, the blackout restrictions have become worse. Now ALL televised games are blacked out – not just home games. Furthermore, WGN now has only about a third or less of the televised games. If I lived in Chicago or the surrounding area, I would not have much of a problem with this situation. However, I live in Indianapolis, 180 miles and three and one half hours’ drive away. I hardly live in the local area. Moreover, not only are the Cubs blacked out here, but the White Sox and Reds are as well. In other words, if you live in Indianapolis, you are credited with having THREE home teams, even though there are none in Indy. What’s more is that I cannot even tune in the WGN radio broadcasts and there does not appear to be an Indianapolis radio station that broadcasts Cubs games (Reds, yes; Cubs, no). Supposedly WNDE AM-1260 carries the games, but it seems every time I want to listen to one, they are either not broadcasting it or my reception is terrible (AM radio at night is an iffy proposition).
When I moved up to Ann Arbor, Michigan for law school, I signed up as I always do, but found myself blacked out up there even though the area in which I lived was not a blackout area. MLB explained to me that the applicable blackout area is based upon where the credit card securing the account is billed. In my case, my credit card bills were still being sent home to Indy. I suffered through my first year of law school getting only half the games. During my second year, I changed my billing address to Ann Arbor and enjoyed a summer full of Cubs baseball. However, when I graduated and moved back to Indy, I had to change my billing address and am now stuck with the blackouts. It looks as though this may have changed and is now based on the location of the server from which you are accessing the game. If so, it may be possible to access the game through a proxy. Unfortunately, this seems dishonest to me and it really should not be necessary for someone like me where MLB has denied us a local franchise.
Astoundingly, it is even worse at my father’s home in Spencer, Iowa. In Spencer, they are blacked out from the Twins (221 miles), White Sox (495 miles), Cardinals (534 miles), Royals (353 miles), Cubs (495 miles) and Brewers (453 miles)! How in the world does that make sense? If every one of those teams were broadcast on local television stations, I could understand that. But, in fact, the only “local” team (in that their games are regularly broadcast) is the Twins from what I can tell when I visit. It is as though MLB is intentionally going out of its way to make sure nobody ever purchases their product! Of course, I probably shouldn’t be surprised by the idiocy of an organization that would hire Keith Olbermann.
I am inclined to tell MLB to get bent altogether. In fact, if I could get English broadcasts of Japanese games, I’d probably just become a Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters fan and abandon MLB entirely. But, if MLB were involved in the enterprise, we would probably find that anyone who did not already have a Japanese franchise in their city would be blacked out of most of the broadcasts!
What I find completely ridiculous, as I mentioned, is that in no rational sense can I be said to be living in the local Cubs viewing area (or the Reds for that matter – it is no hardship to be blacked out of the White Sox games). Furthermore, the annual cost for MLB.TV is $109.95 so it is not exactly like I am trying to avoid paying for the product I wish to receive.
What I am saying is that I will not be signing up for another year of MLB.TV again unless they change the breadth of the areas caught up in the local blackout areas. I urge anyone considering spending money on MLB’s product to think carefully about it. If you are a Cubs fan that lives in Los Angeles and don’t care about watching Dodgers or Angels games, then you’ll be fine. But, if not, you may find yourself being screwed on the very games you most want to see.
President Obama’s administration has announced the end of a southern tradition: American automobile involvement in the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. That’s right, Obama has removed Chrysler and GM from the racing circuit effective as of the end of this season. His reasoning? Racing is expensive and both companies could stand to spend money on product development instead. And should Ford ask for cash, they too will have to stop racing. With the loss of both corporations, only Ford is left to represent North America against Toyota (and possibly Hyundai) in the once traditionally American racing series.
The news is sure to be a blow to Miller High Life drinking- stained white T-shirt wearing southerners everywhere. When asked for comment, one southern fried fan responded, “All I ever had was pork tenderloins, Miller and NASCAR. Now I am left with only pork and beer.” Well put Josh, well put.
The 2009 Geneva Motor Show is underway, and if the pictures are any indication, there was much to tantalize the eyes of car enthusiasts. Meanwhile, General Motors released a statement today that without further infusions of cash from the federal government, it is doubtful whether they will remain viable as a going concern.
I might suggest that they look at what some of their competitors are doing and ask themselves if they are anywhere close to providing the same sort of a product to their customers. Take for example this concept unveiled by Italian car designer Italdesign-Giugiaro who has teamed up with the venerable Frazer-Nash.
You probably wouldn’t guess it from looking at the photo, but the Namir (Arabic for Tiger) is a hybrid car. It gets 39km per liter of fuel or about 91.7 miles per gallon. It has a 50-liter tank (13.2 gallon) that gives the vehicle a range of 1950km on a tank of fuel or an astounding 1200 miles per fill up. You will have to stop to pee before you have to stop for gas. Along the way, you will enjoy the thrill that comes from commanding a 370hp powerplant with a top speed of around 187 mph while emitting less than 96.5 grams (0.213 pounds) of carbon dioxide per mile.
General Motors, on the other hand, offers this.
The Chevy Volt is a hybrid car designed to run up to 40 miles on a single charge of its batteries without using any gasoline or emitting any CO2. Once the batteries are exhausted, the Volt can be driven on E85 fuel from which it extracts 50 mpg for a combined maximum range of 640 miles. The Volt boasts a top speed of 120mph (for a limited time) and will arrive at 60mph from a standstill in an achingly slow 8.5 to 9 seconds. That, my friends, is not exactly sprightly. I’m not sure what that translates to in terms of horsepower, but I wager to say that it is significantly less than the Namir’s 370hp. Given the complete dearth of power, the most surprising thing about this vehicle is that it is not a Chrysler product.
When one sees what GM’s competitors are doing, it can hardly be described as mysterious why General Motors is struggling to maintain its hold on the automotive market and why it stands before the taxpayers with its hand outthrust asking “Brother, can you spare a dime?” Or $30 billion.
It’s been a long time, for George and me both. I’m of a sort of sunny disposition by nature, and, since even the devil deserves his due, I think that today, our President’s last full day in office, we should take a moment to accentuate the positive. Herewith are some (not too terribly critical) thoughts on the Bush era.
After eight years of Bill Clinton’s waffle factory, I’m glad we got eight years of Tenacious B.
Ahh the New Year! Here are some events from the past….
12/28
1832 John Calhoun became 1st VP to resign
1902 Trans-Pacific cable linked Hawaii to US
1945 Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance
12/29
1813 The British burned Buffalo, New York during War of 1812
1845 Texas was admitted as the 28th state
1862 Battle of Chichasaw Bayou: Confederate armies defeated Gen Sherman
1890 US 7th Cavalry killed 200+ captive Sioux at Wounded Knee, SD
12/30
1817 1st coffee planted in Hawaii (Kona)
1907 The Mills commission declared Abner Doubleday invented baseball
1940 California’s 1st freeway, (Arroyo Seco Parkway), opened
1963 “Let’s Make A Deal,” debuted on NBC-TV
1972 Nixon halted the bombing of North Vietnam and announced peace talks
2006 Saddam Hussein was hanged in Baghdad
12/31
1775 Americans lost the battle of Quebec
1776 Rhode Island established wage and price controls
1862 West Virginia admitted to the Union
1890 Ellis Island opened
1897 Brooklyn’s last day as a city, it was incorporated into New York City (1/1/1898)
1946 President Truman officially proclaimed the end of WW II
1995 The “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strip came to an end
Continue Reading »
After a busy week last week left me unable to sort through history, I give you Decemeber 21-27, enjoy.
On December 21,
1784 John Jay become the 1st U.S. Secretary of State
1864 General Sherman conquered Savannah
1941 The last NFL drop kick for an extra point (Ray McLean, Chicago Bears) occurred
1988 A NY-bound Pan Am jet exploded over Scotland, all 258 aboard were killed
1989 Dan Quayle sent out 30,000 Christmas cards with word “beacon” spelled “beakon”
1991 The Soviet Union formally dissolved
On December 22,
1775 The Continental Navy organized with 7 ships
1882 The 1st string of Christmas tree lights was created by Thomas Edison
1964 The SR-71 “Blackbird” reached 2,715 mph
On December 23,
1779 Benedict Arnold was court-martialed
1913 President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law
1941 American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese
On December 24,
1814 The United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent ending the War of 1812
1851 US Library of Congress caught fire; 35,000 books burned
1865 Confederate veterans formed the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tn
1943 Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed General Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces
On December 25,
352 Was the first recorded date Christmas was celebrated on Dec 25th
1492 Columbus’ ship Santa Maria docked in the (now) Dominican Republic
1651 Massachusetts General Court ordered a fine (five shillings) for “observing any such day as Christmas”
1776 Washington crossed the Delaware and defeated 1,400 Hessians
1831 Louisiana and Arkansas became the first states to observe Christmas as holiday
1939 Montgomery Ward introduced Rudolph, the 9th reindeer
On December 26,
1773 The tea ships of Britain were expelled from Philadelphia
1825 The Erie Canal opened
1946 The Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas opened
On December 27,
1937 Mae West performed an Adam and Eve skit that got her banned from NBC radio
1983 A propane gas fire devastated 16 blocks of Buffalo, NY
I know I keep playing this tune but its only because I see the gravity of the situation.
After delivering humanitarian supplies to Nicaragua, the Russian navy continued its tour of the Americas and the Caribbean by setting sail for communist Cuba. The Russkies will put in for five days at the island nation a mere 90 miles for U.S. shores.
More distressing is the conference taking place in Brazil, the Latin American and Caribbean Summit on Integration and Development. “Why is a conference taking place in Brazil distressing,” you ask. Because the U.S. was not invited to attend. Joshua Goodman, writer for Bloomberg News, interviewed top U.S. diplomat, Thomas Shannon on the apparent snub. Goodman writes:
The U.S. ‘didn’t ask to be invited’ to the summit, he says, although it had discussed with Brazil and Mexico ways the meeting’s agenda could be used during the U.S.-backed Summit of the Americas, in April in Trinidad and Tobago.
‘We don’t subscribe to the hydraulic theory of diplomacy that when one country is up, the other is down — that if China and Russia are in the area our influence has somehow waned,’ Shannon said in a telephone interview.
So, like the bully on the block we weren’t invited to a birthday party but we had our friends do some reconn for us. Lovely policy, I am sure that will get us very far. Just look what Brazil’s ex-Foreign Minister had to say.
While the U.S. remains aloof from a region it no longer sees as relevant to its strategic interests, other countries are making unprecedented, serious moves to fill the void. Countries in the region are more aware than ever that they live in a globalized, post-American world.
This is the real point of leaving America out of the summit. Nations is the western hemisphere feel neglected and taken for granted by the United States. All the while the Chinese and Russians commit time and resources to the area. Our neighbors to the south snubbed us like a high school girl trying to get her beau’s attention: she went to the prom with someone else. It is not too late to save our hemisphere and ourselves. This doesn’t mean our neighbors are not interested in working with America to safely and securely develop the two continents, it simply means they are trying to get our attention.
Again, I call on the President to pay more attention to our own backyard, to make friends with our neighbors not to just treat them like younger step-children. Re-activating the fourth fleet is a fine start but the purpose to which it is put must be constructive. Sure, the Navy is a war fighting machine, but maybe it can also do some humanitarian work
Bettie Page passed away yesterday after suffering through pneumonia and then a heart attack, She was 85.
Best known for her pin-up modeling during the 1950’s, Page attracted a cult following with her jet black hair and short bangs. During the 1960’s Page converted to Christianity and served time as a missionary in Angola.
RIP Bettie Page.
I have, on two separate occasions now, advocated for the formation of a third party. Not surprisingly, my fellow blogger, Bill, has taken me to task for my previous comment that voting for a third party could imperil one’s soul. Therefore, it is properly incumbent upon me to detail why I think voting for a third party in the future is, in any way, different going forward than it was in the late election.
First, the late election was notable for the stark contrast between the candidates’ stances on abortion. On the Democratic side, there was a candidate who favored infanticide for alive-born aborted babies. On the other side was a candidate who professed to be against abortion (although I recognize that his voting record was ambiguous). In light of the differences, the outcome of the election made one’s vote particularly important, given the stakes.
I wrote a post wherein I supported the decision of a local priest to withhold the Eucharist from persons who had voted for Obama. My argument proceeded along the lines that because of the peculiar situation of the United States, where the people are their own rulers, our votes take on special meaning. The basis for this claim, as I alluded to, was St. Paul’s comments in Romans:
- 1 Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God.
- 2 Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves.
- 3 For rulers are not a cause of fear to good conduct, but to evil. Do you wish to have no fear of authority? Then do what is good and you will receive approval from it,
- 4 for it is a servant of God for your good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword without purpose; it is the servant of God to inflict wrath on the evildoer.
- 5 Therefore, it is necessary to be subject not only because of the wrath but also because of conscience.
- 6 This is why you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.
- 7 Pay to all their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, toll to whom toll is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.
On December 7:
1787 Delaware became the first state to ratify the Constitution
1917 The United States declared war on Austria-Hungary
1941 Pearl Harbor was “suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
On December 8:
1863 President Lincoln offered amnesty to all Confederates
1941 Congress declared war on the Empire of Japan
On December 9:
1793 Noah Webster established the first U.S. newspaper, the American Minerva
1967 Jim Morrison was arrested on stage for disturbing the peace
On December 10:
1817 Mississippi was admitted to the Union as the 20th state
1864 General Sherman laid siege to Savannah, GA
1869 Wyoming became the first state to allow women to vote
1898 America ended the Spanish-American war
1906 President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to win the Nobel Peace Prize
On December 11:
1816 Indiana was admitted to the Union as the 19th state
1946 Hank Williams began recording for Sterling Records
On December 12:
1791 The Bank of the United States opened
1800 Washington D.C. was established as the Capital
On December 13:
1903 The Wright brothers made the first flight at Kitty Hawk, NC
2003 U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein
On this day in 1492, Columbus landed at Hispaniola.
On this day in 1933, the 21st amendment was ratified, repealing the 18th amendment and rescuing America from the worst drought in history!
On this day in 1918, President Woodrow Wilson set sail for the treaty talks at Versailles making him the first United States president to visit foreign shores while in office.
On this day in 1980, Led Zeppelin officially broke up following the death of legendary drummer John Bonham.
On this date in 1868 the trial of the traitor Jefferson Davis began. This trial also marked the first time African Americans were permitted to serve on a jury. The charges of treason were dropped and the trial suspended just over two months later when then President Johnson issued an unqualified general war amnesty to all persons.
Davis escaped justice and went on to lead a fruitful life finally meeting his maker and answering for his egregious sins on December 6, 1889. His great accomplishments as a military man, senator and businessman will for ever be overshadowed by his truly disgusting act of treason, his responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans and his abhorrent support for the maltreatment of his fellow Man.
On this date in 1823, President James Monroe out lined his now famous doctrine on opposition to European expansion in the Western hemisphere. This doctrine came to be known as the Monroe Doctrine. A pity we have slid so far from his brilliant elucidation.
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