Once Upon a Time in America
Our freedom and liberty is precious — let's not throw it away.
When the s*** hits the fan, for more than two centuries the best people in the world have been able to count on one thing: escaping to America.
Even before there was a United States, the land we call America was a different place. In America, a peasant could own land. A slave could fight — literally — for his freedom. An Irish cop could arrest an English criminal.
In America, a Russian could speak his mind, an Italian could renounce the Pope, a Serbian could marry a Turk, an Asian or an Indian could find space to move, a Catholic could get divorced, a Jew could eat bacon, and a housewife could get a job. A … well, pretty much anyone could do most anything. Maybe not at first, and certainly not without ridicule if you chose do something really silly — but the choice was yours.
In America, you were free.
Here was a New World. No kings, no knights, no dukes, no earls. No titles, no shackles, no pales of settlement. Some of us, shamefully, owned slaves. But when push came to shove, Americans were willing to kill and die to make other men free. It was true in the Civil War. It was true in World War Two. It remains true today in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We were never perfect, but we were always working on it — at least when we weren’t trying to make a buck, or maybe just trying to avoid attention. America was the land of promise, and the land that delivered on that promise.
American freedom was a huge, sprawling, messy, brawling thing. It consumed everything and anything, and spewed out an unimaginable bounty. For some, the freedom was about growing their business and making money. For others, it was about growing their hair and making love. But it was always here, for anyone willing to risk the journey and leave behind the Old World and its old ways.
But now that we have this wonderful place, this precious idea — what are we doing with it?
Already, the government runs our children’s education and our parents’ retirement. Now we’re allowing it to usurp our banks and nationalize what remains of our auto industries. Within weeks, Washington promises a plan to dictate our health care. To do all this, we’ve let Washington run up enough red ink to impoverish our grandchildren. As if all that weren’t enough, the president still found the time to kick our friends in London and Tel Aviv while courting a genocidal, election-stealing maniac in Tehran. He even gave a speech in Cairo — that oppressed, impoverished Old World megalopolis — in which he assured the world that America really is no better than anywhere else.
Well, once upon a time, we were.
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Stephen Green writes, broadcasts, and enjoys the occasional lovely adult beverage at the home he shares with his wife and son in Monument, Colorado.
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86 Comments
1. Cindy Sue Causey:Each day seems there is just that much more of an absurd affront on all that America once was.. The latest I read in my inbox shows just how far beyond obsessed some people have become in putting the Lives of others under their thumbnails:
CNSNews :: Democrats’ $1-Trillion Health Care Plan to Cost 23 Million Americans Their Private Insurance, CBO Says
In particular, it was “[Leading Democrats] say some of the costs [of a government overhaul of America’s health care system] could be covered by taxing certain ‘unhealthy’ foods, such as sugar” that put it over the top for these Fingertips..
Can’t help but a-sume that, some day soon into the Future, protest by consumption of said (bootleg) sugar would immediately mean one’s addition to “that” list whereupon you will not never no-how be welcome to receive treatment of any kind via “their” health care system..
Welcome to America, v.2009.
Warmest from Talking Rock..
Jun 18, 2009 - 3:39 am 2. rickb308:There are 4 boxes at our disposal:
The soapbox.
The ballot box.
The jury box.
The cartridge box.
We are not at box #4. Yet.
From my cold dead hands. I will not go
Jun 18, 2009 - 3:56 am 3. Old Soldier:quietly into the night. I will not surrender my
birthright for a few slices of bread.
I’ve noticed that nobody uses the phrase “it’s a free country” anymore. We had a good run and it’s over now.
Restoring the Constitution and our liberties would require a revolution.
Jun 18, 2009 - 4:24 am 4. John:It all depends on what the definition of freedom is now, doesn’t it?
To the Left, freedom seems to mean two different things depending upon the “class” of the individual. To the Hoi Polloi, freedom means perpetual adolescence… They are free to loaf, play games, fornicate without responsibility and get stoned out of their minds on various chemicals. They are free from the responsibility of actually attaining an education, caring for themselves or their progeny. They are free from difficult and burdensome work. They are liberated from providing for their own and others’ security. They are free from the “worries” of everyday life. Nothing is asked of them, nothing is given in return, but they absolutely DEMAND their “freedom”.
To those who control the reins of power, the mollification of the hoi polloi provides their freedom to meddle, to feel empowered, to wield the power of the state, and provide shiny things for their trophy walls. They salve their guilt with other people’s money. They find their freedom in pleasuring themselves (whatever that pleasure might be defined as.). Above all, they seek to ablate any responsibility, much like their mollified minions, by finding random strawmen, fictitious or exaggerated villians, and specious social pathologies to blame for their failures.
This is not all of the remainder of us, but it is enough to bleed white the producing, hard working “Citizens at Liberty”. We are a dwindling breed. We are being consumed by the herd and have no where else to go.
:-/
r/John – TMF
Jun 18, 2009 - 5:34 am 5. Sam:I agree with Old Soldier. There isn’t anything special about the US at this point compared to other corrupt kleptocracies. Will some governor or other leader step up and defy the tide? I think Americans would flock to a state or set of states that refused to go along with the Obamanation.
Jun 18, 2009 - 5:36 am 6. COL. SEBASTIAN MORAN:Truly an excellent, thought-provoking essay, Steve. I’ve truly begun to wonder in what America my kids will be living 25 or 30 years hence. I cry for the nation I fought and bled for ! God bless and protect my beloved country – my America !
Jun 18, 2009 - 5:50 am 7. Parabellum:77/88
S.M.
I’m glad I don’t have any kids. That’s about the only thing I’m glad about these days.
Jun 18, 2009 - 5:52 am 8. jimpres:rick 308 and old soldier right on. I never expected to fight our own government for our rights. Little by little they are being taken away. And not with lighting speed the new admin is stripping us of more or our rights.
Jun 18, 2009 - 6:05 am 9. Chuck Pelto:TO: Stephen Green
RE: Heh
Do you think it helps when you kick people who disagree with you from your blog? When all they are doing is standing on their point and making it ’stick’? No foul or abusive language….
Maybe you should practice what you preach, Stephen. It’ll improve your position by firming up the ground it is based on. Don’t you think…..
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Jun 18, 2009 - 6:22 am 10. sheesh:[The Truth will out.....]
2. rickb308: . . . “There are 4 boxes at our disposal: The soapbox. The ballot box. The jury box. The cartridge box. We are not at box #4. Yet.”
Case in point. The cowardly and veiled threats of the right wing . . . . “We’re gonna start shooting people if we don’t get our way.” And then when one of you idiots actually does it, all the rest of you idiots say, “What? Who” Us? No way. He’s not one of us.”
You see, your problem is you just can’t help yourself. It’s the same as your relentless references to turds . . . it’s a pathology with the right. You’d be a lot better off if you just admitted who you are. Come on, be strong. I know you have it in you, way down there, deep deep deep down inside where the truth gnaws at your innards. You’re pathological gun-toting scat mongers. It’s OK. We know.
Jun 18, 2009 - 6:47 am 11. Meryl:Ye. America was always the place the oppressed and fearful could escape to.
It occurs to me that the left is solving our illegal immigrant problem. Keep destroying our country and they’ll stop coming.
I always thought it would have made more sense to protect our borders as part of protecting our sovereignty, but what do I know.
10) sheesh: if your oncologist says to you, Wwe have four steps we can take as necessary, in order of seriousness, which are
1. skin biopsy,
2. radiation,
3. chemo,
4. minor surgery, or
5. radical surgery”
do you immediately start screaming, “Oh, you just can’t WAIT to start cutting, can you?”
Based on your demonstrably impaired reasoning abilities, I can only assume you do.
It’s not easy being you, is it?
Jun 18, 2009 - 7:47 am 12. Mongoose:Sheesh: It is you that are cowardly and venal, and should it come to civil war you will be looking for a skirt to hide behind. You cannot even manage to identify what is worth fighting for let alone fight for it. You are along for the ride.
It is you that cannot help yourself. You narcissism is terminal. It is up to the rest of us to make sure that you and those like you do not take the rest of us down with you.
“We know”? You are kidding yourself. There is no “we” backing you up. When you have served your purpose, your socialist masters will serve you and those like you up to the fires of their lusts and then toss your ashes in a ditch. “We know”? You stand against centuries of noble and daunting struggle. You forebears would be ashamed of you. “We know” indeed. You are alone.
But the most absurd thing is that you sit there and pretend that you stand in the mainstream of the great traditions of America. You do not. You stand squarely against all that is good and noble in us. It is one thing to proclaim yourself a “revolutionary”, no matter how foolish and immature that mey be. It is quite another thing to claim that you stand for the abiding truthsm traditions and founding principles of the nation and then slander those who actually do understand them, stand for them and would fight for them. This is pure immorality and indecency. Few acts could be more vile.
The Democrats are socialists, communists, traitors, opportunists and crooks, and they do wish to destroy us and our great nation. What they will bring to replace the Republic will be a deadly nightmare toxic to all notions of liberty, justice, truth, decency and prosperity.
They hate the very notion of the human. We are but machine to be manipulated towards the goals of their hatred, narcissism and nihilism. It will be a sad day for mankind should they have their way with the USA.
How rueful will be your thoughts on the day that you realize that. What contempt you will have for yourself when your realize your role in it all. You already hate yourself–you just do not realize it. Some day you will see.
Remember then that people tried to warn you, but you were too full of yourself to listen.
You are an arrogant, narcissitic and brain-washed little fool. It will not go well for you.
Jun 18, 2009 - 7:49 am 13. Meryl:…of course, that would be “We have five steps we can take….”
Sure wish PJM had an editing function prior to submission. We might not catch them all, but most of them….
Jun 18, 2009 - 7:49 am 14. Merry:Sheesh and Chuck(le) – it is obvious that you do not understand the points Stephen was making about FREEDOM and the fact that AMERICA is an extraordinary place and that many of us fear we are loosing this place to people who do not understand the concepts of responsibility, duty, honor, country and FREEDOM. You boys should go play as usual and let the grown ups go about their business.
Stephen – as always, beautifully written. Thank you.
Jun 18, 2009 - 7:52 am 15. Bilwick1:So sheesh, are you saying that–and admittedly this is is a far-out scenario, because even tho’ I regularly refer to people of your philsophical ilk as “State-f*ckers,” of course I’m just kidding; no one could be more opposed to tyranny than you guys–but just suppose, tyranny does come to America. Let’s say economic fascism or socialism (the State outright owns some industries, doesn’t technically own but conrols the others), along with confiscatory taxation, and a repression of dissent (i.e., “hate speech”). As I say, a far-out scenario because we all know The Left or our beloved leader “Il Dufe” would never for a moment contemplate such an America. But for the sake of argument, let’s say (paraphrasing Sinclair Lewis) it happened here. Would you say armed revolt would absolutely NEVER, under any circimstances be warranted? If so . . . could you tell me what exactly you’ll be celebrating this July Fourth?
Jun 18, 2009 - 7:57 am 16. Ric Locke:“…pathological gun-toting scat mongers…”
Unh hunh. Of course, you’re not just happy but purely delighted when your gun-toting goons clamp down on the dissidents. You get the best of both worlds — all the broken heads and tax collections you can possibly desire (which is a Hell of a lot) and your squeaky-clean fingers never have to touch the blood! Not only that, you’re free to denounce the goons who do your dirty work as “low-class”, just like the people they beat up and steal from.
Regards,
Jun 18, 2009 - 8:00 am 17. physics geek:Ric
I see that the morons are out in force. Don’t worry, though: I’m sure that Stephen can rewrite this more slowly and use smaller words so that you’ll be able to understand.
Jun 18, 2009 - 8:00 am 18. krusher:Hey Sheesh,
Shooting and blowing up people by Islamic terrorists gets your ever loving respect. So maybe, if the right wing began doing the same, you’d act as scared of us as you obviously are of Islam and at least clean up your language.
Jun 18, 2009 - 8:02 am 19. Paul of Alexandria:One of my great-great grandfathers did just this – and then promptly signed up for the Union Army. “Here, I have a choice!”
Jun 18, 2009 - 8:08 am 20. Paul of Alexandria:sheesh(10):
Sheesh – you might find this article on The American Thinker and the associated commentary interesting. Question: what would you prefer to do if a robber entered your house and was about to kill you and your family in order to make his job easier? This happens hundreds of times a year; some people defend themselves and live, some fail to defend themselves and die.
So: I – like most conservatives – claim the right of self defense, even against the federal government. I hope to be able to settle the situation verbally or via the ballot box, but that may not be possible. What other options do you offer to sove the problem of a dictatorial government which takes control to the point where rickb308’s first three options aren’t possible? Please note that he – as would most conservatives – put the bullet last on the list.
I find it highly objectionable when people like you, “sheesh”, make the ad-homimum attack that all gun-carrying citizens are potential psychopaths who would rather shoot first and talk later. This isn’t true, and you know it. We only insist that our own death or submission not be the final option.
Jun 18, 2009 - 8:19 am 21. Andrew X:A man born in Russia wrote, “I ran from Russia to France to escape the communists. I ran from France to Cuba to escape the Nazis. I ran from Cuba to America to escape the communists again. And now that I am in America, I know that I will never run again”.
It was his final statement that sticks with me. He did NOT say, “I know that I will never run again because America is free and the land of milk and honey…”, etc.
What he said was, “Now that I am in America, I know that I will never run again… because if America falls, there will be nowhere left on earth to run to”.
Jun 18, 2009 - 8:21 am 22. Rick:10: You meddle. You inject yourself into others’ lives and you wonder when they set a boundary and declare “this far and no further.” Simply put – We only want to be left alone! This talk of armed resistance and the like is admittedly wankerage at this point – but it is also warning. Personally, I don’t think we’re anywhere near “Box #4″ – we’re maybe somewhere between Boxes 1 and 2 – but know this: Lawfare is always followed by warfare as surely as night follows day.
3, 5: I’ve noted the passing of that phrase too. Use it, and use it often. Don’t look to “some governor or other leader” to protect your liberty. If you don’t like what’s going down in the State House (or even closer to home) there’s nothing that says you can’t run for office yourself. Doing so without a gigantic war-chest like the incumbents all have is a long, difficult task – so what? Talk to your neighbors, go door-to-door, organize rallies and the like. You’d be surprised how many people just want to be left alone, and have long since realized that we’re not getting the limited governance we want. Both major parties have lost my consent; it’s write-ins until they come back to sanity.
Jun 18, 2009 - 8:28 am 23. Peter the Bubblehead:It was just last evening during a conversation that I said to my 16 year old daughter that, if things continue along the same line they are now, the United States will no longer exist in 50 years. The comment upset her.
Jun 18, 2009 - 8:33 am 24. Peter the Bubblehead:14. Merry wrote:
Sheesh and Chuck(le)
Peter writes: Sheesh fully deserves the scorn of your post, but I fear you mis-interpreted Chuck. Having followed many of his previous posts on threads all over this website, I know he, like myself, has fought and sacrificed for this nation and is proud of the service he performed and continues to perform. Chuck would be the first to stand beside you to defend this nation again, and I would stand beside him.
Jun 18, 2009 - 8:38 am 25. Lily:If the world was full of people like Sheesh, there would not have been an America. Lucky for us this world also includes brave, visionary people. Sheesh and his ilk has always benefited from this, but just don’t have the intelligence to see it. They seem to think that the natural state of the world is freedom just because that is how they grew up. We created it and are in danger of loosing it.
What amazes me is our founding fathers. Their vision was for us – the people – to have the power and to have freedom. They did not try to hoard power for themselves to lord over us and control us. What an amazing thing that was (and apparently rare). Our current leaders are just garden variety petty tyrants thinking that we need them to control every aspect of our lives.
Jun 18, 2009 - 8:39 am 26. Peter the Bubblehead:20. Paul of Alexandria wrote:
So: I – like most conservatives – claim the right of self defense, even against the federal government.
Peter writes: I can’t speak specifically for Paul, but I took an oath when I enlisted in the Navy to “..Protect and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Why do you suppose the oath includes those words, “…and domestic”? Is it because our founding fathers, in their wisdom, knew there was the possibility that people with insidious motives might be able to claw their way to power and the founders wanted to have a back door, a way for the American people to legally, morally be able to fight back and restore the freedoms this country, until recently, enjoyed?
As has been stated on this thread previously, while the ammunition box must come last on the list, it must STILL be on the list. All options must remain valid, or all hope is lost.
Jun 18, 2009 - 8:44 am 27. Brian G.:In law school, people would act like I was wearing a sheet and hood when I would say that there is no one dying to get out of American but many are dying trying to get here from, for example, Cuba and Mexico.
Jun 18, 2009 - 9:15 am 28. C Moss:“once upon a time we were.”
We still are. The current President and legislature is not.
Jun 18, 2009 - 9:24 am 29. SigChick:Folks, with regard to folk like “Sheesh”, it’s best not to feed the trolls. Without an audience, they go away.
Jun 18, 2009 - 9:44 am 30. Brutus:Mr. Green, well said, sir.
To: Peter the BH
Re: (Up)Chuckle
Yeah, well, so did John Kerry. In spite of what Tolkien wrote, not all those who reach their dotage are dead…
Jun 18, 2009 - 9:51 am 31. Veeshir:Eh, at least this end of civilization is funny.
That’s a first.
Jun 18, 2009 - 9:54 am 32. Chaz:2. rickb308:
There are 4 boxes at our disposal:
The soapbox.
The ballot box.
The jury box.
The cartridge box.
We are not at box #4. Yet.
But we’re getting there right quick.
At some point, it’ll sound like this.
We would go to the soapbox, but you kept ignoring us.
We would go to the ballot box, but ACORN keeps mucking things up.
We would go to the Jury box, but no judge will agree to hear the case.
So we started shooting…
Jun 18, 2009 - 10:00 am 33. Ginny:Thanks. I enjoyed this. And I long for speeches that assume rights are God-given, intrinsic to our selves as human beings. These are not the rights to material goods but to freedom and liberty.
We heard those speeches not too long ago, but they have not, apparently, become an integral part of the way that many who represent us now think. They do seem to think that it is not their responsibility to offer protection for those rights but rather to give our money to us.
Obama’s gay marriage tactic is pure socialist bull – we don’t recognize gay marriage but we buy people off. Actually, I think civil partnerships are a better idea than gay marriage – but I recognize his tactic for what it is: bribes with other people’s money to gain votes to increase the in-group’s political power. And it derives from the belief that rights are gifts of the government, not intrinsic in the individual.
Jun 18, 2009 - 10:02 am 34. LBC:Never would I have dreamed that I would be reading an article such as this. It choked me up. But, then again I never thought we would get someone as evil as BHO in our WH. And also, never thought there are sooo many ignorant people who voted him in and sit idly by and watch what destruction their ignorant vote has brought to this country.
Jun 18, 2009 - 10:07 am 35. comatus:I want to know all background information on BHO! College, all papers written by him. Who paid for his education? Which I might add, didn’t seem to make him intelligent whatsoever. Why he can’t even talk without a Teleprompter.
WAKE UP
GOD BLESS AMERICA..
DTOM (Don’t tread on me or us?)
TEA PARTY 7/4/09
Mr. Green, was Preston M. Green a close relative of yours, by any chance?
I don’t think I’m being premature in wishing [both of] you a happy Fathers’ Day.
Jun 18, 2009 - 10:13 am 36. Juvenal:#29 Sigchick wrote:
“Folks, with regard to folk like “Sheesh”, it’s best not to feed the trolls. Without an audience, they go away.”
If only. ACORN pays people like Sheesh these days to do what they would be doing anyway.
Jun 18, 2009 - 10:32 am 37. wildman:The one thing the founding fathers feared was an all powerfull, all knowing and tyrannical federal government. That was the reason the second amendment was put into the constitution. If it comes to that, it is our responsibility to take back our rights and freedom by any means neccesary. If folks want to live in an environment where everything is controlled and managed by the goverment, there are many fine countries to move to.
Jun 18, 2009 - 10:40 am 38. Marc Malone:sheesh – You are conflating some lunatic killing an abortion doctor with us warning that we might start shooting at our usurping government. Revolt is the proper Citizen’s right and responsibility. Government will always try to take over completely, if we don’t slap them back over the line time-to-time.
To my mind, they have already crossed that line. My hope is tied to the 2010 elections. I’ll know then if there is yet any further hope.
Jun 18, 2009 - 10:44 am 39. Dotar Sojat:When asked what kind of govermnment the new nation had been given, Benjamin Franklin answered “a republic, if you can keep it.” Apprently, we ccouldn’t.
Jun 18, 2009 - 10:50 am 40. JED:Let us compare two groups of people: The Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans 3rd generation welfare set who were warned for 5 days to evacuate, and the more independent folks of Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Red River, North Dakota when their floods hit.
Jun 18, 2009 - 11:04 am 41. Barak Obama:The first group whined that the fed did not do enough soon enough for them while they were busy drinking and looting. For many months they kept up their cry of anguish and kept sucking in the support.
The other group went on their own initiative and hauled millions of sand bags and mostly took care of their own until help arrived.
We might well use this example as the response of a free and self determined people against the complaints of a co-dependent people. Another example of this character is the 300 Spartans against the slave armies of the Persians.
Freedom is not free of costs and is more perpetual payment on perpetual loan. Conversely, selling out one’s freedom can be projected as having unlimited expense.
Nota Bene: Neither a slave or slave holder be!
Let me be clear. You people still have freedom. The freedom to resign or to be fired.
Jun 18, 2009 - 11:06 am 42. karlstro1:I have not given up on America. But I do look to a true leader who belives that the core valves at the beginning of our birth must be gained back. To have elected officials slowly chip away at our Constitution and cave in to special interest groups fore the sake of staying in office is a travesty. God Bless America.
Jun 18, 2009 - 11:35 am 43. Bart:Just remember, we have been here before. If we can survive Roosevelt, we can survive Obama. In time, there will be a reaction.
It’s a generational thing. Either Balzac or La Rochefoucauld, I can’t remember which, said “Every generation rebels against its parents, and makes peace with its grandparents.” Right now, we are in a time in which the 60’s generation and their grandchildren hold sway. In time, the 80’s generation and its grandchildren will dominate.
This is not to say you should be sanguine and retreat from the battle, because that is what makes the reaction take place. I’m just saying, enjoy your life while you are living, and don’t get too wigged out by the turmoil, or worse, succumb to battle fatigue.
Jun 18, 2009 - 11:42 am 44. Rashputin:Peter the Bubblehead (23)
Try explaining to your kids or grandkids what this country was like just 25 years ago. If you sit and ponder it a bit, this really was a free country once.
Forget 50 years, America is no longer what it was back when the people now anxious to destroy it were protesting for free speech instead of trying to take away everyone else’s free speech. Not in his wildest dreams did their favorite whipping boy McCarthy ever imagine he could regulate whole categories of speech out of the public discourse or make it literally illegal to say something the establishment considered “hateful”. Just like demanding that their drinking age be lowered to 18 back then and raising it back to 21 when their kids came along, double standards are a way of life for the current crop of elitists. Given that fact, it’ll take something awful to get them to see the light and if 9/11 didn’t do it, I shudder to think what it’ll be.
Regards
Jun 18, 2009 - 11:50 am 45. Trainwreck:America is the end of the road. There is no where to run after this country falls.
The ballot box is proving to be less of an option these days. It seems the same corrupt clueless morons get re-elected year after year. In addition, our politicians prefer to pander to the loudest special interest groups with preferential treatment going to the ethnic rights lobby that claims to be the most victimized/oppressed. It does not matter that 48% voted against Obama; he has a mandate to steer this country so far to the left that Marx and Lenin might as well be the new founding fathers.
Watch as your votes get cancelled out by illegal aliens, dead people and voter fraud by the likes of ACORN, while black panther and gang members stand watch at the polls to scare away certain voters, then weep as you see ACORN get billions in stimulus money and investigations against them dropped, while for those black panther thugs in Philly, the charges get dropped, and they will be allowed to be poll watchers again, as long as they don’t bring a weapon next time.
I have seen the future, and this juggernaut of PC multiculturalism and nanny state Marxism is unstoppable. Who will stop it? Will it be this moronic American populace dumbed down by pop culture and indoctrinated in schools by left-wing instructors? Will it be the American sheeple with their outstretched palms looking for the latest government handout? Will it be our new generation of oh-so-politically correct youths who know little but whose self-esteem knows no limit? I don’t think so.
Jun 18, 2009 - 11:55 am 46. monkeyfan:“If we can survive Roosevelt, we can survive Obama. In time, there will be a reaction.”
Yes we survived FDR (by the skin of a skinny skin Supreme court decision) but look at the baggage from him and Johnson we still have to carry.
The incremental chipping away at the foundation of our Republic by the socialists is proceeding apace. We may be lucky enough to eject the current generation of statists in the next election cycle but their rot has already been injected into the body politic. There are too many people and institutions that are squarely in the “progressive” fascists’ camp. Miracles happen though…
Jun 18, 2009 - 12:01 pm 47. Christopher:I think it is high time to start discussing what are the future options. What if the tide does not reverse? The soap box has been curtailed already, through decades of political correctness and media tilt. The ballot box is corrupt – each election the left is more emboldened, winning elections (like WA governor) with amazing finds of additional ballots until the numbers worked for them. The oversight system fails, and corruption undermines the ballot box. The jury box? See the OJ Simpson case or read the writings of nominee Sotomayor. Losing faith there too, folks.
So what do we do if this slide away from personal responsibility and freedom and towards nanny-government statism continues? Do we stand up and fight if the majority of our fellow citizens don’t care? Where do we go if we don’t fight? Will the people support another federal civil war to force the union to remain together? Would the federal government pursue such a war without the consent of the people?
At the rate things are changing, we should have these dicussions about the future before it becomes illegal to do so. And I keep getting stuck on the question of what do we do if the majority agrees with statism and reduced rights, as you cannot force people to maintain their freedoms. Convince them it’s a good idea to be dependent and subservant, and they will be. Where do the rest of us go who refuse to live that way?
Jun 18, 2009 - 12:34 pm 48. rickb308:41. Barak Obama:
Let me be clear. You people still have freedom. The freedom to resign or to be fired.
We have just a little more than that. Anyone care to guess who said this & where it comes from?
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember, or overthrow it.
Jun 18, 2009 - 12:50 pm 49. mph:On top of it all, our immigration laws are absurd. Simply absurd.
Jun 18, 2009 - 12:53 pm 50. monkeyfan:Christopher.
Do whatever is within our legal means to deny money to statists. Resist the tide wherever we are for as long as we can.
When/if things get untenable: Move to a State that manages to still maintain a culture that stands in defense of the liberty of its citizens.
Become a rifleman.
Jun 18, 2009 - 12:55 pm 51. Snorri Godhi:With all due respect to American and British soldiers, in my lifetime I have seen nobody more brave in the defense of freedom than the Chinese in Tiananmen Square, the Russians in Moscow 1991, and the Iranians right now. Some East Europeans also come to mind.
What I mean is, I am optimistic about the survival of freedom, and the survival of the love of freedom, in the USA. However, if worse comes to worse, we in the rest of the World are not going to give up the good fight.
Jun 18, 2009 - 12:57 pm 52. buddy larsen:Christopher/47; Where do the rest of us go who refuse to live that way?
well, for several years now, a thousand a day have gone to Texas, where last year three-quarters of all the new jobs in America sprang up, where there’s no state income tax, where the tort lawyers don’t easily chase jackpot juries, where the races combine and cooperate consciously proud of their comity, where unions face a strong frontier open shop tradition, where wages and income and productivity and asset values are light upward and sticky downward, where there’s physical and psychological room to take root, grow up, and spread out, where fair-priced real estate is everywhere, where hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of new Texans happen to be educated and productive refugees from enlightened liberal states which no longer seemed to them to offer a future worth the enduring of it.
That’s where.
Jun 18, 2009 - 1:12 pm 53. Rashputin:Snorri Godhi (51)
“What I mean is, I am optimistic about the survival of freedom, and the survival of the love of freedom, in the USA.”
I don’t want to sentence my children and grandchildren to decades of totalitarian slavery so that my great grandchildren can overthrow a dictator. I’d rather not have one in the first place by going through the trauma of ridding ourselves of someone on the way to becoming one. The examples you use to illustrate are interesting in that you can pick from, tens of millions of dead, millions of dead, or merely hundreds of thousands of dead, as the price of attempting to regain freedom. Even after all that blood China is far from free and the durability of freedom in Russia remains to be seen.
Lots of the fine folks now supporting The One have frequently jeered at those of us who served, but somehow they don’t seem to think that we may one day jeer back and even take a stand against them. I think it’s about time that the statist and elitist find out what a lack of tolerance really means, and I’m afraid they’re going to. It won’t be from running afoul of their own hate speech crap, it’ll be from finally running afoul of the American public that generally ignores them and gets on with their lives. “We can no longer get on with our lives, so, we can no longer ignore them”, is the way a lot of people now see it.
Regards
Jun 18, 2009 - 2:02 pm 54. Sam:52, that’s the line of thinking I have been hovering around and what I meant by a governor or other leadership taking a stand. I think the problem for independent self-reliant people is that they are too spread out and overwhelmed by various demographics that cobbled together a thin total majority but a dominant electoral majority. They are dependent on the government, that will never change, only get worse. I imagine those who would conserve the traditional American values would do well to start seeking out states where they already have or have a chance to form a voting majority. Find and elect courageous leadership and resist the impositions of the federal government & blue state leadership. Ironically, San Francisco has shown that even a municipality can thumb its nose at the federal authorities with impunity by refusing to cooperate with immigration enforcement, openly flouting the laws and declaring the city a criminal refuge. Imagine some core of states getting together and doing the same only this time providing a refuge from federal income tax laws.
Jun 18, 2009 - 2:50 pm 55. John Schuh:The gun debate is not really about the violence caused by guns. but about the need of the elites to disarm the population.
Jun 18, 2009 - 2:56 pm 56. 2old:Rashputin: There are many of us willing, capable, and possessing the means of resisting the tyranny we expect to come. But we are not organized, we do not know each other, we have no plan. We are millions, but we are millions of scattered individuals. Unfortunately, we are so screwed.
Jun 18, 2009 - 3:00 pm 57. kathie:thank you, and well said. Boulder, Colorado
Jun 18, 2009 - 3:03 pm 58. onetailtest:U.S. federal criminal prosecution of John Stagliano, for sexual expression.
Wiretapping our phones, ten years after 9/11. Wasn’t this supposed to be an emergency exception?
Expansion of the Patriot Act.
Monitoring of your bank accounts for “excessive” cash withdrawals.
The above was given us by the Republicans.
Now the Democrats offer gun and knife restrictions, trade restrictions with other countries, “hate speech” restrictions, and control of my health care.
I don’t see either party trying to increase my freedom to plan and enjoy and express my life.
Jun 18, 2009 - 3:09 pm 59. Nahanni:The Corruptocrats, the 0bamamessiah, their MSM propaganda wing and the 0bamaworshiping Orcs and Trolls have come up with an epic failure. Their Titanic has hit the iceberg and like the first class passengers on the Titanic they are in denial that their ship is sinking. The problem with the Corruptocrat Titanic is that they will discover that there will be no lifeboats for any of them. Their actions, words and deeds have essentially burned them all.
The sleeping giant is awakening and it is pissed. The giant will swat the Corruptocrats, the 0bamamessiah, their MSM propaganda wing and the 0bamaworshiping Orcs and Trolls like the cockroaches they are and then dismantle their “revolution” and it’s associated “organizations” that they have so methodically put into place over the last 50 years. It will be the end of everything for them and there will be no going back to the way it was where they could pull their BS and we ignored them. No, they will go the way all totalitarians go.
Jun 18, 2009 - 3:50 pm 60. Chuck Pelto:TO: Merry
RE: Actually….
…after 27 years in the infantry and sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, against ALL enemies, foreign AND domestic….
….believe me when I say, I UNDERSTAND.
Rather, you’re projecting in that YOU don’t ‘understand’ the point I was reminding Stephen of from a year or two ago.
Hope that helps….
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Jun 18, 2009 - 4:02 pm 61. Chuck Pelto:[It's one thing to talk the talk. It's another thing....all too difficult for some....to actually walk it. -- CBPelto]
TO: Peter the ‘Bubblehead’
RE: Heh
Thanks….
Chuck(le)
Jun 18, 2009 - 4:07 pm 62. Chuck Pelto:[Guns don’t kill people...I kill people. -- US Army Airborne-Ranger-Infantry]
TO: Peter the Bubblehead
RE: Indeed
And, based on what I’ve been observing, it may come to Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!.
Each week brings another turn of the proverbial screw.
If you’ve studied history, you’ll see the parallels between what Obama is doing now and what Lenin and Stalin did in Russia after their victory in the Russian Civil War in the 1920s and 1930s.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[We're all 'kulaks' now.]
P.S. For those of you who are ignorant about ‘kulaks’….
….I recommend…..
[1] This!
….and….
[2] This!
Then begin to pay closer attention to what is happening here and now…..
[Good hunting and good luck. -- Combat Commander's last words to his troops before sending them into the 'fray'.]
Jun 18, 2009 - 4:17 pm 63. Will:What all this amounts to is we’re commiting suicide, pure and simple !!
Jun 18, 2009 - 5:21 pm 64. Chuck Pelto:TO: Will, et al.
RE: Well….
….I seem to recall some wittisism that goes….
There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide. — John Adams
Isn’t it ‘interesting’ that we decided to start turning this representative-republic into a ‘pure democracy’ with the popular election of Senators and followed up with the conversion of the state senates into nothing more than over-paid state houses of representatives, vis-a-vis Reynolds v. Simms SCOTUS (1964).
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Jun 18, 2009 - 6:10 pm 65. Chuck Pelto:[History doesn't repeat itself. It has a speech impediment. It stutters.]
P.S. Hey! Didn’t both of those event occur under ‘Democrat’ administrations?
Jun 18, 2009 - 6:11 pm 66. monkeyfan:They are attempting to commit our suicide.
FTFY
Jun 18, 2009 - 6:21 pm 67. Jvan Mi:Google “judicial deference” and then start figuring ways to get back to the image of the founders. We got to this place one step at a time driven by people dedicated to socialism and facism for their own benefit. For our own benefit, we must turn it around one dedicated step at a time. Saul alinsky gave Obama the blueprint for the change he is implementing, we need to follow a similar process to counter it. Ask every candidate whether they actually support constitutional limits as their oath of office demands, or are they happy with the present situation. Don’t vote for an incumbent unless they agree with the intent of the founders. Pressure existing state and federal congressmen to follow their oath of office. They only react to pressure. If you don’t let them know you are watching, they effectively get away with whatever they want. Follow the lead of the states trying to reclaim the 9th and 10 ammendments. Contact your state people and force them to do the same. The only reason this is not our government is that we do nothing to change it.
Jun 18, 2009 - 8:20 pm 68. Berlet98:“Curiouser and curiouser,” said Alice concerning what she was witnessing in her Wonderland. Taking Alice’s linguistic lead, I would have to say I’m “confuseder and confuseder” over what’s going on in Obamaland, formerly America.
Perhaps it’s my naïveté or just my ignorance showing but I really can’t believe all that’s gone on in five short months.Granted, I didn’t vote for the guy and I dislike his demeanor, his personality, and his arrogant obamatude, even as he bows and scrapes and apologizes for America to foreigners. I’ve had to try to re-think my feelings about my ongoing impressions of President Obama and what he’s doing to make sure I’m not reacting personally and that I’m at least trying to be objective.
After all, I didn’t vote for Carter or Clinton, either, but I never felt this gut fury that I feel toward Obama. (For the edification of the FBI, I’m not the violent type so please don’t come knocking at my door with guns blazing. I’ll probably be sleeping.)
Clinton was just a disturbed, prevaricating overachiever and Carter was patently and dangerously inept so maybe I just cut them some slack. The current guy isn’t just a disturbed, lying overachiever nor merely dangerously inept. He’s all of the above. Combined, that makes him a singular instance in the history of the presidency, and downright frightening.
Obama was already on record as The Man Who Will Go Down as the Multi-Trillion Dollar Deficit President who spread his tentacles throughout the land to socialize American industries and nationalize the banking sector unto himself.
He is the president who announced his intent to dictate pay levels for employees of American corporations and render them supplicants of Barney Frank and the tender mercies of the federal bureaucracy.
He is the president who is crusading to deprive Americans of their right to keep and bear ammunition, thereby make their constitutional right to keep and bear arms farcical.
He is the president who is in process of anointing ACORN and its Obama-worshippers/vote-fixers as American equivalents of Oliver Cromwell who will repress White American dissidents as brutally as Cromwell destroyed the Irish.
Consider a few of his most recent statements and actions and those of his minions who are nothing more than his functionaries. All are engaged in unprecedented, national power-grabbing, transparent efforts to alter our system of government and our national defense. Some things have to be transparent with this increasingly-opaque regime.
As President Obama said to his Hollywood lackeys, “You ain’t seen nothin’, yet.” I fear we haven’t.
The IG Capers: All chief executives are entitled to appoint their own people for significant and insignificant positions in their administrations.
However, Obama has gone beyond simply appointing tax cheats and other disreputables. He tipped his repressive hand by removing all semblance of checks and balances on the executive branch by firing anyone who dares to show some courage by exposing corruption. You may stay on the payroll, was the intimation, as long as you don’t out me and my comrades.
First was Gerald Walpin, the highly regarded and eminently qualified Inspector General with purview over AmeriCorps, who was dismissed for what Obama called being “confused” and “disoriented.” Coincidentally, this followed Walpin’s investigation and allegations of improprieties against an Obama supporter, Kevin Johnson: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-tc-nw-inspectors-0617-0618jun18,0,5718990.story.
Not content with firing Walpin, Obama, acting in defiance of the law mandating 30 days notice of such firings, engaged in character assassination with his comments, which made no reference to Lady MacBeth’s Michelle’s interest and involvement with AmeriCorps: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/16/obama-accuses-fired-inspector-general-americorps-confused-disoriented/.
If nothing smelled rotten in the State of Obama at that point, subsequent developments did. The acting IG of the International Trade Commission, Judith Gwynne, was sent packing as was the vaunted watchdog of the trillion dollar bank bailout, Neil Barofsky, when he too got too nosey.
Curiouser and confuseder.
The ABC Caper: . . .
Jun 18, 2009 - 11:52 pm 69. UNRR:(Read the rest at http://genelalor.com)
This post has been linked for the HOT5 Daily 6/19/2009, at The Unreligious Right
Jun 19, 2009 - 3:49 am 70. Chuck Pelto:TO: All
RE: It Used to Be….
…that President Grant’s administration was looked upon as the most corrupt in national history.
In the last six months, I think Obama’s is surpassing Grant’s.
The chief difference was that Grant was a great combat general, but not a great politician. Obama is a great politician….if you’re into corruption. Which all too many politicians are.
RE: What’s the ‘Objective’
I was talking with my father-in-law yesterday. He was ‘confused’ as to how Obama could be so ’stupid’. I replied, he’s not stupid at all. He’s very clever.
This confused him even more….until I explained that you have to understand his ‘objective’. Once you understand that, everything he does make excellent sense.
If you think he’s working toward the benefit of America, you’re sadly deluded and/or mistaken, depending on your political bent.
If you think he’s working to destroy America, you’ll suddenly see the logic of all he has done. Including the lies here and there and everywhere along with the misdirections.
Maybe it’s just me. Then again, I’ve been trained to look at the obscure and how to make sense out of it, via the Army’s training in Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB).
And if anyone out there can explain Obama’s actions better, I’d appreciate hearing from them. Otherwise, all I’m seeing points to the “Destroy America” course of action.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Jun 19, 2009 - 5:34 am 71. kywrite:[When you have eliminated the all the other possibilities, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? -- Sherlock Holmes]
Trainwreck said:
“I have seen the future, and this juggernaut of PC multiculturalism and nanny state Marxism is unstoppable. Who will stop it? Will it be this moronic American populace dumbed down by pop culture and indoctrinated in schools by left-wing instructors? Will it be the American sheeple with their outstretched palms looking for the latest government handout? Will it be our new generation of oh-so-politically correct youths who know little but whose self-esteem knows no limit? I don’t think so.”
No. You forget the quieter future, the one growing in kitchens and living rooms by parents like me, raising soon-to-be five children and teaching them, one by one, the things they don’t learn in school. Unteaching them the wrongheaded things they learn in school. Guiding them through their own thoughts, helping them see that their own instinctive understanding of right and wrong is RIGHT, and that the wrongheaded PC pap taught them by their teachers is WRONG.
My oldest is a Marine. My second (14) is already insightful and intelligent about the real world. My third (12) has a list of good questions for Obama if/when he meets him, and wants to be president. My baby girl — well, when she starts talking, her brothers will teach her.
Don’t give up hope. You don’t see the real revolution because the curtains are still drawn. The others are a dead end, brought to that through their own moral corruption and selfish life choices.
Jun 19, 2009 - 7:44 am 72. Cybergeezer:The education of the U.S. electorate is showing it’s socialistic indoctrination at the hands of radical teachers given freedom to teach what they espouse.
Jun 19, 2009 - 8:15 am 73. Chuck Pelto:And this electorate is illiterate enough to let the main stream/state run media guide their emotions and judgement.
This trend cannot continue without some drastic consequences. It’s going to take something of biblical proportion to bring about ideas and attitudes that are in line with the founding fathers.
TO: Cybergeezer
RE: Uuuuhhhhh…
….patience, compadre. Patience.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Jun 19, 2009 - 8:31 am 74. hangnail:[Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. -- Three Guesses.....first two don't count.....]
I fear for my country, sometimes I even weep for it. The America I grew up in is a thing of the past, never to return to its’ days of glory. We are ruled by a “traitor in chief.” who does nothing but stir the shit storm. He’s nothing but a crypo-communist, and one world order nut case. Those who had the ability to look behind the curtain, saw it all coming. If anyone wants to see what’s in store for the future of this country, they need to get copies of the trilogy of Matthew Bracken’s “Enemies Foreign and Domestic”,”Domestic Enemies” and “Foreign Enemies”. Bracken is a former US Navy Seal. He knows the trade and he knows what’s on the horizion. GET THEM! To be fore warned is to be fore armed!Your life and the lives of you loved ones hang in the balance. If you go on line, you can read 100 pages from each of his books. DO IT.DO IT NOW!
Jun 19, 2009 - 10:29 am 75. Cybergeezer:‘Twould be nice in my lifetime!
Jun 19, 2009 - 12:11 pm 76. Chuck Pelto:TO: Cybergeezer
RE: Heh
Only if you can stand up to the utter misery that would ensue as a result of such an action on His part.
I’ll point out His actions have been things like the Biblical Flood, which has been proven to be an actual event….based on THIS report.
And, as I quoted, He plans to do something equally ‘interesting’ sometime in the future. And I suspect it could well be in our lifetime…..
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Jun 19, 2009 - 12:33 pm 77. Cybergeezer:[May you live in interesting times. -- Ancient Chinese curse]
76. Chuck Pelto:
Jun 19, 2009 - 2:22 pm 78. Chuck Pelto:Your evangelizing is wasted on me; I’m a Catholic school survivor! Unless you mean His=Obamas! Then you’re starting to make sense.
TO: Cybergeezer
RE: Wasted Effort?
If you ’survived’, you should remember some of the stuff they pointed you towards.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
P.S. It’s NEVER ‘wasted’ effort…..
….and if not you, then someone else will notice…..
Jun 19, 2009 - 2:40 pm 79. Chuck Pelto:P.P.S. One other member of my Friday Morning Mens’ Bible Study Group is a Catholic school ’survivor’.
Jun 19, 2009 - 2:46 pm 80. Cybergeezer:Mea culpa, mea culpa; Next!
Jun 19, 2009 - 3:22 pm 81. Chuck Pelto:TO: Cybergeezer
RE: Next?
What can I get you?
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Jun 19, 2009 - 3:43 pm 82. Chuck Pelto:[To serve is the highest honor. -- Lieutenant Worf]
TO: All
RE: Seeking Upon….
….the Demise of America. And thinking upon the concept of ‘honor’, as cited by the honorable Lieutenant Worf….
….I happened upon this comment by an not-quite-ancient philosopher….
It is the dissimilarities and inequalities among men which give rise to the notion of honor; as such differences become less, it grows feeble; and when they disappear, it will vanish too. — Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, c. 1835
And I have to think that he has something there…..
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Jun 19, 2009 - 3:55 pm 83. PA:[The Truth will out....and the 'Democrats' will despise it.....]
I notice the makeshift rafts in the Florida strait and between here and Haiti head only in one direction.
Jun 19, 2009 - 7:26 pm 84. an unrepentant kulak:Timely and very aptly put! — Thank you! You’ve inspired me to blog on a similar topic.
Jun 19, 2009 - 9:36 pm 85. Cybergeezer:Any one with the desire can see that the United States is fertile ground for parasites; But do yourself a favor; Look up the definition of parasite first!
Jun 20, 2009 - 7:12 am 86. Cybergeezer:83. PA:
Jun 21, 2009 - 7:22 amOh! Si! The tunnels on the Texas and California border are one way also!