RANT: Camile Paglia “government should get out of the marriage business”

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2008/12/10/hillary_mumbai/index.html

What do the Clintons have on Obama?
What experience does Hillary have to run State? Plus: Avoiding the Muslim issue on Mumbai, and anti-Proposition 8 activists threaten to set back gay rights.
By Camille Paglia

*** begin quote ***

I may be an atheist, but I respect religion and certainly find it far more philosophically expansive and culturally sustaining than the me-me-me sense of foot-stamping entitlement projected by too many gay activists in the unlamented past. My position has always been (as in “No Law in the Arena” in my 1994 book, “Vamps & Tramps”) that government should get out of the marriage business. Marriage is a religious concept that should be defined and administered only by churches. The government, a secular entity, must institute and guarantee civil unions, open to both straight and gay couples and conferring full legal rights and benefits. Liberal heterosexuals who profess support for gay rights should be urged to publicly shun marriage and join gays in the civil union movement.

*** end quote ***

The gooferment has NO business at all in the marriage or civil unions business.

Prevent invasions, preserve the peace, ensure rights!

Period!

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QUOTE: Gooferment always gets bigger! “the ratchet effect”

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Underappreciated aspects of the ratchet effect
Liberty & Power
by Robert Higgs

“I have always insisted that modern government has many facets and that, at minimum, a study of its growth must consider not only government spending (or taxing or employing), but also the government’s scope and power. Changes in these latter aspects of government do not leave the same kind of easily retrieved record, or numerical data set, that economists typically work with — and without which they are more or less at sea, or in denial. Over the many years that I have pursued my research into the growth of government, I have repeatedly met with evidence of essential elements of the ratchet effect that lie completely beyond the purview of conventional economic research on this subject.” (12/16/08)

http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/58352.html

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[JR: Every gooferment actions, law, or program needs a SUNSET date!]

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LIBERTY: Fix it before it kills us!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Monday, December 8, 2008
The End of the World…Maybe

*** begin quote ***

“Commandments” is an incorrect translation; “Utterances” or “Words” is much more accurate. I prefer “Laws,” as in “Natural Laws.” If you break them, bad things automatically happen. No cops are needed. The 20th century was a time of worshipping the false idols of Man and State, in violation of the First Law (“have no other gods but the one true God”). It doesn’t matter to me if people believe in any sort of God or not; these Ten Laws still exist, and violation of their practical wisdom brings unhappiness, destruction and death. You can say, “As you sow, you reap,” or “What goes around, comes around,” or karma (“the moral law of cause and effect”) or kismet, or the Tao, or whatever name you want to give it. Those laws are part of human nature.

*** and ***

And if people can’t do it, it’s doubly forbidden for governments (which in a sense don’t really exist, since they are composed of people). The big difference is that governments try to claim a monopoly on force, which makes them unimaginably destructive. I’ve read estimates that up to 200 million people died in the 20th century at the hands of various governments. And all because of the violation of “You shall not murder.”

*** and ***

If I was King, I would take all the Christians and Jews who support Israel (and send money there) and deport them all over there. I would do the same with Muslims here who support the Islamic countries. As it stands right now, the US government is involved in 4,000-year-old tribal warfare, and is in fact supporting both sides in the conflict.

*** end quote ***

Interesting.

First, the author points out timeless principles. Then, he proceeds to break them by using force on people.

I think one of those timeless principles is the “Zero Aggression Principle”. In my mind, I am moral, as admonished by most major religions or philosophies, to not initiate force on others. ZAP as the Libertarians call it.

Government — be it Kings, Presidents, or Tyrants all the same — seeks to force youto conform to its wishes. It robs Peter to enrich Paul while deducting a huge chuck for its “services”.

Sorry, sovereign individuals need no tyrants to tell them what to do. Government’s only legitimate role is to preserve the peace and ensure rights. The jury is still out if it can do that. Not very successful so far.

Maybe it’s time for a new meme to replace “government”. Examine your paradigms and memes for a replacement? I don’t have one but I’m looking.

Fix it before it kills us!

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GUNS: Remember Tony Martin!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

http://transsylvaniaphoenix.blogspot.com/2008/05/british-called-they-want-their-guns.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGVAQOUi6ec&eurl=http://transsylvaniaphoenix.blogspot.com/2008/05/british-called-they-want-their-guns.html&feature=player_embedded

*** begin quote ***

This should serve as a warning to all freedom loving Americans. Before pulling the lever this coming November, remember: both Hillary and Obama support draconian gun laws aimed not at criminals (because criminals don’t obey the laws anyway), but at law abiding citizens.

*** end quote ***

Luddite sent me the link.

Could it be that I am finally turning him to the side of liberty?

England is a precursor of the USA.

Our politicians are charging down the same path.

“Judged by 12 rather than carried by 6” obviously failed in this case! The English have chosen “victim disarmament”!

Argh.

“From my cold dead hands …”

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POLITICAL: Is this the end of “public financing”?

Friday, December 12, 2008

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=abPrh.QKY5Tk

Obama Spent Four Times as Much as McCain at Race End
By Jonathan D. Salant and Kristin Jensen

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Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) — Barack Obama’s record-breaking fundraising gave him four times as much cash to spend as rival John McCain in the final months of the presidential campaign.

*** end quote ***

So much for his “public financing” pledge. Now can we finally bury the McCain – Feingold Unconstitutional attack on Free Speech?

Funny that McCain was knifed by his own law.

And, maybe he would not have made a good President since he was deceived by Obama’s renege.

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RANT: OJ was punished for the last crime

Thursday, December 11, 2008

http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/story.asp?s=9461992

O.J. Simpson and C.J. Stewart Sentenced
Updated: Dec 5, 2008 06:59 PM

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Former football great O.J. Simpson will spend anywhere from nine to 33 years in prison and his co-defendant, Clarence C.J. Stewart will spend 7.5 to 27 years for their roles in a Las Vegas armed robbery case.

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Sorry! This is a terrible result.

I’m no OJ fan.

I believe that the LA keystone kops muddied the DNA evidence and the jury righty said so.

In this case, I’m of the opinion that he didn’t get a fair trial. The Goldman’s in the court room “invited” the jury to punish him for what he “got away with”.

Sorry! I think he was railroaded.

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INTERESTING: We cause out own problems

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/20692

Miss Cellania
Messing with Mother Nature: 5 Cautionary Tales
by Miss Cellania – December 4, 2008 – 10:09 AM

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A case in Borneo illustrates the delicate balance of nature and the unintended consequences of human intervention. An early 50s outbreak of malaria led the World Health Organization (WHO) to bring in massive amounts of DDT to kill mosquitoes. They killed the mosquitoes, but also virtually wiped out a particular species of parasitic wasp. The wasp fed on thatch-eating caterpillars. With the wasps gone, the caterpillars ate the villager’s roofs! An even worse consequence was that geckos ate the poisoned insects and were in turn eaten by native cats. The native cats died from DDT poisoning, and therefore the rat population flourished. This lead to an outbreak of typhus and plague among humans. To assuage the damage, WHO arranged for a supply drop that included a couple dozen healthy cats! This supply drop (which included other supplies) was dubbed Operation Cat Drop. The cats were able to reduce the rodent population to controllable levels, and DDT was eventually outlawed.

As we continue to “improve” the environment and serve a growing human population, there will be more such stories to come.

*** end quote ***

Humans really can screw stuff up!

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POLITICAL: Policies need to make sense. Common sense.

Monday, December 8, 2008

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/130326.html

New at Reason: Steve Chapman on the Case for Gay Adoption
December 1, 2008, 7:00am

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Laws against gay adoption say, in effect, that a child may not be adopted by gays even when the adoption is in the best interest of the child. But as Steve Chapman writes, the real meaning of family values is that the best interest of the child always comes first.

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Regardless of how you feel about “gays”, I personally PREFER “gay adoption” to “gooferment foster care”. Many of the horror stories come from the gooferment trying to insert itself into every facet of our lives.

First priority, should be two parent heterosexual parents. But clearly, we don’t have enough of those to go around.

“Best interest of the child” would get them permanently placed ASAP!

Once that’s done, we can tackle the other thorny issues. Like abortion, marriage, infidelity, teen sex, and all the other “moral issues”.

BUT first things first.

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NATIONAL: Pearl Harbor — A testiment to FDR’s duplicity

Sunday, December 7, 2008

http://go.footnote.com/arizona_memorial/?xid=376

Interactive USS Arizona Memorial

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Read “Day of Deceit” and then talk to me about FDR!

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Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor is a book written by Robert Stinnett. First released in December 1999, the book interprets Freedom of Information Act material as a refutation to the official story that the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise.

Richard Bernstein wrote in the New York Times in December 1999 that, “it is difficult, after reading this copiously documented book, not to wonder about previously unchallenged assumptions about Pearl Harbor” though concluded that one is led to read the book with a “strong dose of skepticism”. Tom Roeser, conservative broadcaster and former fellow of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times described the book as “perhaps the most revelatory document of our time”.

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We have a lot of dead young men on this man’s watch!

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GUNS: How did “victim disarmament” cause the Indian slaughter

Saturday, December 6, 2008

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/024230.html

November 30, 2008
How Gun Control Laws Contributed To the Mumbai Slaughter
Posted by Butler Shaffer at November 30, 2008 07:14 PM

*** begin quote ***

An interesting article, from October, 2005, provided by http://www.gunowners.org:

Gun Control And Self-defense Against Terrorism In India
by Abhijeet Singh
Colonial Roots of Gun-Control

I live in India and I am a proud firearm owner — but I am the exception not the norm, an odd situation in a country with a proud martial heritage and a long history of firearm innovation. This is not because the people of India are averse to gun ownership, but instead due to Draconian anti-gun legislation going back to colonial times.

*** end quote ***

I blogged about this when I first heard it.

It’s not “gun control”; it’s “victim disarmament”!

Interesting how Colonial Laws from one set of politicians are quickly “updated” by another set of politicians. They all fear an armed people.

Riots? The Korean grocers showed how to end mob rule very quickly.

Gun rights, aka the right to defend yourself, is actually also a “women’s rights” issue.

The Holocaust demonstrated what happens when scapegoats are unarmed.

British home invasions, when the homes are occupied, skyrocket with “victim disarmament”!

Apparently the Indian slaughter in Mumbai was pulled off by 10 criminals. Reports have armed police refusing to fire on them. And, the “crack commandos” were like the Keystone Kops. (Remember Columbine, where the “heroic” police encircled the school, until the criminals finished killing everyone and themselves?)

Remember how Israeli schools and daycare centers were targeted until armed grandparents started providing security. And, the last massacre was on a school trip where guns were not permitted.

Wake up folks! Criminals don’t obey laws. Kops are just gooferment bureaucrats who are there to clean up the bodies and fill out paperwork. Dial 911 and die.

Of interest was in the 2006 article, the Indian writer cited Gandhi, the Dali Lama, Lenin, and a slew of the DOWGs! Fascinating.

“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.” — Mahatma Gandhi (An Autobiography OR The story of my experiments with truth, by M.K. Gandhi, p.238)

“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.” — The Dalai Lama, (May 15, 2001, The Seattle Times) speaking at the “Educating Heart Summit” in Portland, Oregon, when asked by a girl how to react when a shooter takes aim at a classmate

“A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie.” — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

“I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”— George Mason

From my cold dead hands … …

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HERE’S ANOTHER STORY!

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/12/mumbais_harsh_lesson_on_gun_co.html

December 10, 2008
Mumbai’s Harsh Lesson on Gun Control
By Abhijeet Singh

*** begin quote ***

At the Jewish outreach centre, bystanders pelted the terrorists with stones in a vain attempt to ward off the attack, but had to retreat when the terrorists opened fire with automatic rifles. Our citizens were trying to ward off the terrorists with stones! I cannot think of a more extreme example of how helpless the government has rendered it’s own citizens. In the absence of guns, and thus incapable of offering any resistance, they were simply like lambs to the slaughter. On that fateful day, this was a story repeated again and again all over Mumbai: unarmed civilians, slow & inept emergency services, and mindless slaughter of innocents.

But we live in a democracy; hence at the end of the day it is each one of us who is to blame. It is we the people who must ask our representatives hard questions; it is we who must bring the right to bear arms to the forefront of the political agenda. We have the power to effect change through our votes and with elections just a few months away, let us not forget the lessons of Mumbai, let us not forget those that lost their lives there, many of who could have been saved if just a few of us were armed.

*** end quote ***