Freedom Is Not Free

Freedom Is Not Free

Freedom is not free. It never has been and it never will be. That old saying isn’t just some overused cliché, worn out patriotic banter, or the unsettling mantra of unstable nut jobs. It is the truth. We may be born free and endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, but to keep that freedom, at some point someone must make the conscious choice to deny challenges and attacks on our reasonable, well defined, and traditionally accepted God-given liberties. A partial list of these essential and protected freedoms can be found in the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, The Bill of Rights.

The cost of freedom can range from a proudly paid minor inconvenience to life itself. It can be paid by a soldier, a farmer, a politician, or even a child who instinctively rejects the notion that someone can just come and take what they have.

In our country’s brief 234 years, the United States of America has become world renowned for our unwavering determination to remain free. Our own Declaration of Independence is so revered that it is enshrined right along side our founding Constitution in the Rotunda in Washington DC and memorized by school kids from sea to shining sea. We believe in freedom so staunchly that we have gone to war in other countries on multiple occasions to secure it for others who would have surely died without our help. For all their bravado, dictators and rouge nations the world over know that just one Nimitz class air craft carrier anchored off their shores is an unmistakable reminder of how serious we are about freedom… and we have 11 of them.

Here at home we have worked so hard to secure our own freedoms that if a criminal caught red handed isn’t read his Miranda rights, a simple recitation of words; that they can and do win their court cases and get off Scot free. Criminals routinely win court cases when the details of how police discovered incriminating evidence reveal that there was no warrant issued or probable cause for the search that discovered their crimes. It can get frustrating and ridiculous at times, but we love our freedoms so much that our whole legal system is set up to err on the side of freedom and innocents even if it means that some criminals may go free.

Enter the Transportation Security Administration. In the name of simple public safety, the TSA has defied the 4th amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure without probable cause. They are now conducting electronic virtual strip searches on any and all would be passengers. Those who refuse this violation of personal security are required without option or consent to submit to invasive, morally disturbing, hands-on contact with areas of our bodies so sensitive that most people avoid even talking about them.

Not even small children are immune. People with highly personal prosthesis have been ordered to remove them for inspection. Would you allow a total stranger to put their hands on your 4 year old daughter’s private parts? Would you allow a total stranger to demand that your cancer surviving wife remove her artificial breast? This is what is happening right now in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The TSA is not elected by the people and their policies are not approved by the congress of our representative republic. They are completely unaccountable and answer to no one. We use to call what they are doing now tyranny. We use to call unelected tyrants who abuse their power and show utter disregard for civil liberties dictators. We use to ridicule the Nazi Gestapo officers of WWII for stopping innocent people at check points to demand their papers. Now, here in America, the TSA has one-upped them. After showing official and duly authorized papers, Americans are virtually strip searched and publically inspected like cattle. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

God help us. History has proven over and over that if the barbarians get inside the gates, even the bravest warriors are in grave danger. Once a great society abandons its core principles and beliefs, it’s over. America, we have allowed tyrants and dictators to assume control within the gates. This time, they have done so in the name of security. They even have the word security in their name. Well, Benjamin Franklin had something to say to those without the stomach or spine to secure their own safety and defend their own freedoms. – “Those who would give up a little freedom for a little safety deserve neither freedom nor safety.”

America, the fight is at hand and it does not go well. Freedom is not free. It must be defended. It must be fought for. The longer the price goes unpaid, they higher the cost of redemption. Please pay now. You may not be able to afford it later.

Sheople, Parrots, Lemmings, and Other Political Animals

     
Sheople

Sheople are persons who act more like sheep than self aware, independently minded, thinking people. Sheople believe and follow whatever popular fashion tells them. They do not think for themselves and left alone, Sheople will haplessly wander into danger for which they are completely unprepared and unable to defend themselves. The nightly news is their guide. Self proclaimed “experts” are unquestioned sages and politicians lead them around by the nose while shaving taxes and freedoms right off their clueless backs. Sheople will happily trot right back out to pasture to graze on propaganda and blissful ignorance until the next election cycles comes and it’s time to be fleeced again.


Parrots

The political parrot repeats whatever sounds good to them without even thinking long enough to use their own words. Often bereft of actual facts or even the basics elements of an issue, parrots are easily tripped up at the first question for which they have not heard an echoing retort. When confronted with undeniable truth, political parrots resort to repeating their mantra no matter what the question is because it is all they know to do. Flip through the alphabet news channels on TV some time for a laugh. They often repeat exactly the same thing, on every channel like they are all literally reading the same memo. Political parrots are sheople who errantly believe they have found their voice. Trouble is, the only voice they use is someone else’s.


Lemmings

The political lemming follows their friends and family, political candidate, and party blindly no matter where the journey takes them. They never stop to look at where they are going or look back on where they have come from. Political lemmings will follow the next one in line right over a cliff without ever noticing their rapid change in altitude or the sudden stop. Devoid of any concept of direction they insist that everything their party does is in the name of “progress” no matter whether they are going forward towards what the want or racing away from it to their destruction. All the political lemming can see is the back side of the next one in line.


Useful Idiots

Whether the term “useful idiot” was first coined by Lenin, Stalin, or is a product of cold war propaganda, the meaning is still the same. The useful idiot is a progressive socialist sympathizer who thinks they are liked and accepted by the Marxist leaders they look up to, when in reality they are held in contempt and would be among the first people shot in the firing line of a totalitarian dictatorship. Useful idiots are unwitting Trojan horses who are easily manipulated into bringing down their homeland from within and are themselves then tossed aside for the traitors they are. Useful idiots think they are working for the “greater good” when in fact they are only helping give more power to the people using them and are providing an avenue for the enemy to enter and destroy.


Use Your Brain

Use the brain God gave you and don’t be a pawn for power hungry deceitful people. Think for yourself. Question the claims of those who make blanket statements without any examples of history or data. Insist on proof from those who throw out baseless accusations. Re-examine even that which makes sense to you from time to time if nothing more than to remind yourself of history and the sold facts on which you stand. Know what you believe and why or you will be lead astray by the first lying politician that tells you they can improve your life.

I Don't Want to Talk About It

   
Few subjects illicit more defensive denials, offensive accusations, and hard-headed animosity than politics and religion. Why is it that the very people who need to learn about politics and religion the most refuse to hear a word about it? The hands fly up in the primal body language of defense, the head turns away in refusal, and your polite conversation has suddenly turned to confrontation. “I don’t want to talk about it” is the opening response from so many people. Even when someone honestly seeks an answer to learn and openly asks, “Why is this?” many people will only listen up to the point that politics or religion is involved; then the wall goes up. Learning time is over.

To be ignorant of relevant facts is one thing, but to reject them out of hand because you are unwilling to even listen; that is either prideful rebellion or arrogance. It is often both. We don’t want to be wrong. We want to be right. It is the insistence of this ignorant defiance that keeps so many from learning.

I don’t wan to talk about it.
I don’t want to hear.
None of the facts you have for me
Will make it through my ear.

I don’t want to talk about it.
So, just be one your way.
Right or wrong it matters not
You may not have your say.

I was ignorant when we met
And that I’ll always be
I will not listen to your words
Even if I might agree

Yes my eyes are blind
And that is how they stay.
I can not see the mess I’m in
And I’m happy that way.

Good will can not convince me
Disposition matters not
I will not let you help me
Denial is my lot.

So if I ever ask you how we lost
Our freedom and our wealth
Just shake your head in wonder
At my lack of mental health.

Consent of the Governed

The Federal government is no longer a lawful one. Yes, you read that right. Having abandoned the limits of the Constitution and overruled the will of the people and the States, we now live not in a Representative Republic but under a tyrannical Oligarchy. The Federal Government has grossly defied the limits of the United States Constitution and assumed an authority it does not have. With the passing of the unconstitutional mandate that individual citizens purchase (under penalty of IRS tax evasion laws) goods and services (that is what health care is) the House of Representatives and the Senate have abandoned the Constitutional law on which they are based. The President of the United States, likewise, is no longer the executive of a Representative Republic, but a dictator pure and simple. Over the expressed and overwhelming opposition of the people and the States, he has successfully dictated a policy that is foreign to our laws and customs. President Obama is a Dictator and Congress is his politburo.

It is time we remembered and revived the principles on which our country was founded.

From the opening of the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

As I write this, 12 states (with 26 more preparing to join) have already filed suite against the Federal government over Obama, Pelosi, and Reid's new health care law on the solid ground that it's unconstitutional mandate that all citizens purchase the goods and services of heath insurance exceeds their authority to do so. Furthermore, the new health care law also mandates that the States themselves pay for this exorbitant new entitlement that frankly none can afford at this time.

In defiant insistence on his Health Care legislation, President Obama recently said, "elections have consequences". At least on that matter, he is absolutely right. November of this year, the next round of elections will bring the consequences of dictatorship reigning down on Congress and any plans he has for future dominance. Yes, elections do have consequences. Those who voted for this unconstitutional mandate and reckless expense are about to find out that the same works in reverse.

Bart Gordon - Socialist Non-Representative

Bart Gordon is allegedly a U.S. House Representative for Middle Tennessee. He changed his vote from no to yes today on the current health care legislation. Here is the letter I hand delivered to his local office today.

Mr. Bart Gordon,

With your announcement today that you intend to ignore the overwhelming majority of your constituents, the people of Tennessee, and the nation to vote in favor of the unconstitutional health care legislation, you have ceased to be a representative of the people of Middle Tennessee. You are no longer a representative. You are a Washington DC Socialist. Your career will be remembered here as one of complicity in the shredding of the Constitution of the United States of America to which you swore an oath to uphold and defend. You are a traitor to this Republic and to the people of Tennessee.

Currently there are 37 states introducing and or having already passed legislation to protect their citizens from your abuse of power in Washington DC with this abomination of unconstitutional federal tyranny. Tennessee, your previous home state, already has three separate bills before the state legislature to combat your willful act of sedition. From Tennessee’s General Assembly website http://www.capitol.tn.gov/ these bills are:

Rep Lynn HJR 0745 : Constitutional Amendments - Prohibits laws or rules that would compel any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in any health care system. - This one is aimed at providing a stronger legal route for the state to sue the federal government.

Rep Maggart HB 2654 / Sen Black 2490 : Health Care - As introduced, prohibits any provision of law from compelling any person, health care provider, or employer from participating in any health care system. - Amends TCA Title 56; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71. - This one would stop your mandatory socialist agenda at the state line.

Rep Hill HB 2680 : Health Care - As introduced, prohibits coverage for abortion services under any health care plan required to be established in this state pursuant to federal health care reform legislation. - Amends TCA Title 9, Chapter 4; Title 37, Chapter 10, Part 3; Title 39, Chapter 15, Part 2; Title 56; Title 68 and Title 71. - This would stop you from using our tax dollars to murder the unborn in TN.

You are a disgrace. You have no honor. Your name will forever be remembered here with disgust. Repent of your sins against the people of Tennessee and vote no on this madness and we will at least try to forget you ever held office here.

Rights

The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America says that God gave us the rights to life, to liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness. To protect those three fundamental rights the original group of states demanded that certain specific and vital rights be enumerated in the constitution out of an abundance of caution and distrust of centralized federal government. That list is called the “bill of rights” and it lists things like the freedoms of religion, speech, assembly, and to petition our government for a redress of grievances. We have the right to keep and bare arms to defend ourselves, the right to be secure in our persons against unlawful searches and seizures, and not to be forced to testify against ourselves. There are many more. There is even one that says that all powers not specifically granted to the federal government by the constitution are retained by the states and the people.

The word “retained” in the 10th amendment is vitally important. To retain something you must first posses it. The founders of this country laid claim to the divine providence of God given rights and by their individual authority constructed and allowed the federal government to have only so much power as absolutely necessary. The rest of that power they then and we now keep for our own. The U.S. Constitution is unique in the world. It is a bull work of not only self governance, but self preservation. It is a guardian of the authority of the individual over that of the federal government.

The people who wrote the Constitution of the United States were fiercely independent and infused our founding documents with an insistence that the individual, not the state, was in control. They went to great lengths to define and protect the rights of the individual and to keep a centralized federal government from becoming a tyrannical monster powerful enough to strip away our God given freedoms.

Our focus on the rights of the individual, here in America, have lead many to contend that they have rights that are not specifically singled out in the constitution for protection. In as much as our ever increasingly litigious society is constantly requiring more and more specific and official laws to protect our freedoms; this may be true. The constitution has been amended to include several additional “rights” that were not originally enumerated. Good examples of additional rights would be the amendments to include all races and both sexes for voting rights and equal justice under the law. Sometimes, a little refinement or clarification is a good thing.

So, outside of the constitution, how do we determine a legitimate right from the whims and wants of self indulgence? Whatever future amendments may be offered, the original intent was that of the three God given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These three divine rights are not tangible things that can be provided by any man. They are not products or services. They are innate qualities of human life. It is against these three key God given rights that we must test any claims of a new “right”. Another unique thing about rights is that they do not interfere with those of others around us. Our life, our liberty, and our pursuit of happiness must not infringe on any other person's life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness. That is the test of what can be called a constitutional right.

Many people today are demanding that government actually provide tangible things, not for payment or as a privilege, but as absolute rights. Even the most necessary tangible things are not ours by right, but are paid for by trade or received in charity. For Example: Without water you will die in a matter of days, but it is not a right. Without food you will die in a week or two, but you can not sit down in a restaurant and demand to be fed for free because it is not a right. Shelter is vital, as prolonged exposure to harsh natural elements can kill you, but you can not walk into a realty company and demand a house. We must pay for all these things. They are not rights. Only our pursuit of and liberty to have them are rights.

Is Health Care a Right?

The biggest most expensive thing that is claimed as a right today is health care. The sticking point is that other people perform the services and create and manufacture the products of what we collectively call “health care”. Forced procurement of products and services (even vital ones) are not rights. Just because you have something I want or even need does not mean I can take it from you against your will and without just compensation. That is called stealing. If you provide a service that I want or need, I must pay you for the time you devoted willingly. Forcing someone to work against their will or without just payment is called slavery or, at the very least, indentured servitude. Those are things we did away with here in the U.S. a long time ago. However well intentioned they may be, those who claim that health care is a right are indirectly proposing to legalize theft and bring back indentured servants. That is exactly what you do when you demand a product or service be rendered as a right.

Life, Liberty, Pursuit of happiness; these are the founding rights on which all others are based. No one of these can violate another. Our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness must not infringe on any other person's life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness. Stealing and enslaving pretty much does that. Health care is a service and drugs, bandages and other physical items are products. They are not rights.

For a good study on the history of demanding rights to others products and services please see, Mussolini, Stalin, Marx, and Hitler. They promised people the rights to the products and services of others too.

Truth: actual facts relating to events past, present, or future regardless of opinion or interpretation.

Truth

… is unchanging.
… is not embellished.
… is the same no matter who speaks it.
… is the foundation of moral character.
… is the friend and defense of the innocent.
… is shunned only by those who would be judged.
… is the light that exposes the wicked.
… is the only way to combat a lie.

Few are they who speak the truth and low their voices sound;
Rarer still the ones who shout and brandish truth around.
When news is slick and vibrant bright, remind yourself of why;
Alluring presentation is the way the bold will lie.
Lean and strain and cup your ear and squint your eyes to see.
Pull away the tares of lies ensnarling truth to free.
Protect and nourish truth to grow and never let it die.
Defend the truth and live to tell or fall for every lie.

Can you discern truth from lie?

Learn facts.
Refute lies.
Defend truth.

Change, Hope, Progress

Today we have three shiny new words to ponder. To politicians, these are happy magical words that motivate mindless lemmings to the temporary action of support and the all important vote. For politicians the use of these words, bring the power of control and dominance. For the lemmings, they conjure up wistful thoughts of blissful utopia. Sound like a contrast to you? Read on.

Change (ooohh)
Hope (aaahh)
Progress (yippee, everybody likes progress)

Change is a verb that means to become or be made different from what was before.
Hope is also a verb. It is an anticipation or yearning for an outcome.
Progress is yet another word of action that describes movement towards an objective.

We hear these words a lot now-a-days. What do they mean? Who is using these wonderful words of encouragement and what do they want? Do we agree with them? Before you assume you know, let the thought sit on your brow for a moment. Wrinkle up the forehead a bit and put some brain behind it.

Now, let’s ask ourselves shall we.

What change are we being offered? Is it a change we want?
What outcome is hoped for? Is this a hope we share?
What objective is the progress towards? Is it a direction we want to go?

Think about it.

Change that you want can be very good. Change that you do not want can be very bad. The more important the change, the better or worse things can get. The same goes for someone else’s vision of hope and progress. Will the change you embrace today lead to the progress you hope for tomorrow?

Think about it…. your future depends on it.

Stay tuned next time when our not-so-super everyman-of-a guy addresses the more weighty subjects of wisdom and prominent social systems of government. (Whew. I typed that all by myself!)

History, Words, Character

Hello all and welcome to my very first blog on the world wide web. Wow, I sure hope spell check catches everything :)

Today almost everything we see and hear begins with "lights, camera, action!". Whether it is for simple fun or serious education, someone somewhere has set a stage for it and wants us captivated enough to soak it all up. The airbrushes of Hollywood and TV land are obvious. We know that stuff is fake, right? It doesn't stop there though; news casters, writers, politicians, and preachers alike go to great lengths to make sure you believe them. In the process, we are losing two things of extreme importance; truth and perspective.

Here in my little e-corner of the web I hope to intermittently blurt out a little truth in and amongst my ramblings and shift the camera lens a little for some important perspectives. History, words, and character matter far more than the sensationalism to which we have grown accustom. So lets start by defining some key words. Here goes.

Lie: a purposeful deception of others or self that results in the willful distortion of truth.

Lies
… are easier to accept when they are wrapped in pretty words.
… are most believable when they come from a trusted source.
… are hard to ignore when they are repeated often and loudly.
… are best served with a small twist of truth and a smile.
… are eagerly heard by ears that want to hear.
… are quickly adopted by those who do not question.
… are welcomed by those who will benefit.
… are impossible to disprove unless someone speaks the truth.

Those who lie can be very successful and very persuasive. We see them on TV, hear them on the radio, and read about them in books and on the internet. But no matter how sweet it sounds or how impressive the speaker; no matter how loudly or often you hear it; no matter whether you wish to believe it or question why; a lie is still a lie.

Have you been lied to today?
Would you even know it?

Ask questions.
Consider the facts.

Know the truth and you won’t be fooled by pretty lies.