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" The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence. "
H. L. Mencken

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…that measures its sanity by the percentage of its people who know they are free. People with unshakeable clarity that their most fundamental rights — to think for themselves and speak their minds without fear of jail, to form voluntary associations of their choosing, to enjoy the fruits of their labor, to acquire private property and protect it at gunpoint if necessary — are not given by government, or society, or any person.

A nation whose vitality and resilience depend on individuals who consider those rights intrinsic to their very being: the spiritual equivalent of DNA. Such that when any aspect of the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness is assaulted — they feel it like a punch in the gut. Patriotism gets personal. Conversations begin around the office water cooler, over back yard fences, at diners, gas stations and softball fields. In this way diverse people find out they’ve got something crucial in common. Born free and mean to stay that way.

America’s Founders were that kind of people. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison risked the gallows when they declared government has no power except those voluntarily granted it by the people. When they insisted that the fundamental duty of government is to secure (read: safeguard) our inherent and “unalienable” natural rights. They brought forth a republic with the Constitution of the United States as supreme law of the land. No better instrument has been devised for protecting personal liberty by establishing a limited and defined role for government.

Now this great achievement is threatened by a worldview that contradicts the principles of America’s Founding at every turn. By an ideology that promotes the psychology of victimization and rage against imaginary villains, infantile claims to entitlement and compensation, primitive feelings of envy and inferiority. Marxist in fact though seldom in name, this movement demands guaranteed rewards regardless of talent, skill, motivation or effort. This militant crusade vows to meet the needs of “The People” from cradle to grave, betting that a majority can be seduced to support candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury.

Fortunately the politics of perennial preschool is free — or seems so — only at first. Tuition day eventually comes. The same government that offers to absolve us from responsibility for our lives gets to determine what we can own, eat and drive; how we manage our businesses; how much of our money we can keep; the number of guns — if any — they will let us own; what we are allowed to say.  Even what we are permitted to think (thanks to the advent of “hate crimes”).

Good news: more and more Americans are figuring out that annexing the core functions of adulthood to the state involves unacceptable trade-offs. A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey found that 56 percent of Americans believe that the government has become so powerful it constitutes an immediate threat to the freedom and rights of citizens. When only 21 percent of Americans say that Washington operates with the consent of the governed, we face an alarming crisis.

And a remarkable opportunity.

The Founders knew it was up to each successive generation to keep the Spirit of 1776 alive. “Don’t blow it.” That’s what I imagine the 56 signers of the Declaration Of Independence telling us. Their mission was to create a government where the primacy of constitutional authority is basic to liberty, opportunity, prosperity and the social contract. Where personal responsibility, voluntary cooperation, fiscal integrity and abiding respect for life all are crucial to the foundation of culture.

A society where the first requisite of a good citizen, in Theodore Roosevelt’s words, “is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight.” A country that supports America’s national interest in advancing freedom and opposing tyranny in the world, and prudently considers what we can and should do to that end.

That’s also the mission of Sane Nation. Welcome.

Tuesday, 17 August 2010 12:09

Mosque At Ground Zero?


By all means, build the mosque.

And while we're in such a tolerant, accepting, and forgiving mood, let's also:

Open up a Nazi storefront across the street from the Holocaust Museum.

Build a KKK headquarters next to the NAACP.

Create a shrine to Imperial Japan adjoining the Pearl Harbor Memorial.

Invite Rev. Fred Phelps to open a branch of his "God Hates Fags" church in the gay Castro District of San Francisco.

Obama and his fellow proponents of the Ground Zero mosque would welcome those pro-diversity developments, right?

Published in Mosque
Tuesday, 10 August 2010 14:44

The Strange Learning Curve of Mr. Gibbs


White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says Obama's critics on the left are "crazy" and should be "drug tested."

The press secretary dismissed the "professional left" in terms very similar to those used by their opponents on the ideological right, saying, "They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we've eliminated the Pentagon. That's not reality."

What's funny is the way he identifies those two policy stances as if it's inconceivable that any serious thinker could advocate such things. Fact: dozens of congressional Democrats are on record as celebrating Canada's healthcare plan. (It's called "single-payer," the approach endorsed by Barack Obama before he got serious about running for president as a pretend centrist.) As for "eliminating" the Pentagon, let's just say Congress is filled with Democrats who want to slash the defense budget beyond recognition. As for the "professional left," it's where Barack Obama called home for most of his adult life, as a "community organizer."

Dear Mr. Gibbs: These people whose sanity you suddenly find suspect happen to be your boss's political base. It's always risky to make fun of your core voters 90 days before you need them to show up at the polls to try to keep the president's party from being demolished.

Keep up the good work, bubba.

Published in Obama White House
Monday, 09 August 2010 11:57

Dear Democratic Left: Please Keep Aiming for the Cliff


The White House and Congress spent massive political capital to pass signature health care legislation opposed by most Americans when it was signed it law, legislation opposed by even more Americans now. Not surprisingly, the Democrats have decided not to focus their campaigns this fall on having provided health care "reform" that most voters did not and do not want.

Instead, Obama-Reid-Pelosi seem to have decided voters will be way more interested in hearing about the impact of massive stimulus spending in the creation of jobs! (Full disclosure: I added the exclamation point for irony. But only because these straight-faced clowns are so darned much fun to mock.)

Seriously: Democrats' Bragging rights begin here: Employers shed 131,000 jobs during the month of July, while the number of jobs created during the month of June was revised downward.  More July figures:

Unemployment rate remained at 9.5%
14.6 million members of the workforce remain unemployed
Long-term unemployed (27+ weeks) remained basically unchanged at 6.6 million

As usual, Obama wraps this "success" in a metaphors he apparently finds clever:

"When you get in your car, when you go forward, what do you do? You put it in 'D,' " Obama said last week at a Democratic National Committee event in Atlanta. "When you want to go back, what do you? You put it in 'R.' "

Get it? The way to keep moving forward toward continuing economic success is to vote for the candidate of the political party marked "D." Forget about the fact that the tax cuts authored by President George W. Bush for every federal income taxpayer helped set off an unprecedented 52 straight months of job creation. Source for that fact? The Obama White House.

I'm prepared to give Obama and allies their due, to this extent. They appear determined to keep their foot on the accelerator of government spending, regardless of the groundswell of popular opposition. (Republicans currently hold a 7-point lead over Democrats in the Generic Congressional Ballot.) Democrats seem intent on driving fast toward an abyss of Grand Canyon proportions. I hope they continue, because if the November elections result in Democrat losses sufficient to stop the rapid, cancerous expansion of government — losses sufficient, that is, to stop stop the Obama agenda in its devastating tracks — the crash will be America's recovery.

"Hey Barack, Harry, Nancy: See that cliff up ahead? Pedal to the metal, all out; grateful Americans are waiting there to thank you. For everything."

Here's hoping they're narcissistic enough to believe that — all the way to election day. Not because I'm a fan of the Republicans; rather, I'm a fan of the Founders. They were smart enough to design a government with inherent checks and balances, because they knew from experience (King George and all) that less government is better government (freedom being preferable to tyranny, except in the opinion of tyrants).

So here's to the return of gridlock, that wondrous absence of government "progress" that Madison took pains to design as a central feature of American governance.

Published in Employment