The Classical Liberal and I read the same tea leaves on the effort to push the U.S. toward an international directorate. Who is Maurice Strong? Not a patriot's friend, that's who.
Permit me, Sir, to add another circumstance in our Colonies which contributes no mean part towards the growth and effect of this untractable spirit. I mean their education. In no country perhaps in the world is the law so general a study. The profession itself is numerous and powerful; and in most provinces it takes the lead. The greater number of the deputies sent to the Congress were lawyers. But all who read, and most do read, endeavor to obtain some smattering in that science. I have been told by an eminent bookseller, that in no branch of his business, after tracts of popular devotion, were so many books as those on the law exported to the Plantations. The Colonists have now fallen into the way of printing them for their own use. I hear that they have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's Commentaries in America as in England. General Gage marks out this disposition very particularly in a letter on your table. He states that all the people in his government are lawyers, or smatterers in law; and that in Boston they have been enabled, by successful chicane, wholly to evade many parts of one of your capital penal constitution . . . . . If the spirit be not tamed and broken by these happy methods, it is stubborn and litigious. Abeunt studia in mores. This study readers men acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defence, full of resources . . . . .They augur misgovernment at a distance, and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze. Edmund Burke's Speech of Reconciliation.
Among the numerous problems our country faces, the primary spiritual or moral conundrums might be summarized as follows:
1) The growth of the Leviathan national state, commandeered by ideologues. In other words, the debate between Republican and Democrat isn't really a debate. The debate is whether our citizens choose slavery over self-rule. That is the debate.
Even the idealized "communism" of Native Americans is an illusion fostered by the Warm Fuzzy Liberal. First, the Indians' technology didn't go very far. You can't survive winters very well when you're living in a Neanderthal economy. Second, Indian societies had their wealthy, their privileged. It's built into human DNA. Trying to legislate it away does just the opposite: you create a de jure ruling class that can't be removed.
Probably the best solution to our problems would be 1) a consensus to restore the vitality of the Tenth Amendment (and also repeal the Seventeenth Amendment). This would limit the corruption ideology of by restoring authority to states, where politial extremes are easier to contain; and 2) our politicians instituting the same sorts of financial reforms we have been imposing on debtor nations for decades, to wit . . . .
We'd have to dismantle the entitlement structures!
You couldn't do it all at once, of course. It would have to be done strategically.
Our entitlement state is our slavery of Lincoln's time. Those of us with guts know it can't be sustained. The poofters among us can't think past the next bumper sticker. And they vote Democrat.
Of course, we aren't going to institute those reforms, which means a social and legal breakdown is on the way.
Right?
Meanwhile, our Warm Fuzzies believe that man can have NO FUTURE!! unless people like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi regulate the markets.
If you believe that sort of drivel, you are truly pathetic, weak, and dangerous.
Call us what you will, but Cicero and I wrote-off America 30 years ago. We could see what was coming, i.e., the people we saw from urban areas exemplified what we discussed in From Citizens to 'Stakeholders'. Is there room for optimism? More on that in a moment
The fact is, our country is under a Leftist seige. This is a huge powerplay. A Revolution. That's just how it is. You're living through history. In both the Soviet and the Nazi revolutions, there were opening years where things seemed normal, natural. You know, those guys can't do that! We'll change things!
But then Change took root, and people started going to prison.
Cicero and I take the position that to preserve a republic you nee a Republican Citizenry, i.e, one that puts individual and civic virtue before personal appetites. We don't have that. Haven't had that in 30 years. 30 years ago, the men and women who ran the shops in downtown Port Angeles had style. Class. They understood that private morality and public virtue determined the fate of this nation, America. That's a big deal, you know: when you take pride in public virtue by nursing character, you're creating a safe environment for children, prosperity, and happiness.
How many of your children could understand the two sentences I just wrote?
That's your country, friends.
Newsflash for you "liberals": If virtue comes from the State, you may as well cut your throat now. You're useless as a human being.
1) The dollar will collapse; 2) America will either be brought under an international order or, more likely, a world war will break out over resources in the next 10-20 years; and 3) America will suffer a civil breakdown, in which the country breaks up into regional states. America the superpower will be no more.
At some point in your children's, or grandchildren's, future, our spiritual heirs, American patriots, will establish a new republic.
This one ended 30 years ago. You're just hearing Taps now.
Make sure and visit our friend Liberalguy for news updates. He's no Instapundit. He's more succinct.
Hentoff took to heart the words from his mentor, I. F. "Izzy" Stone, the renowned investigative journalist who died in 1989: "If you're in this business because you want to change the world, get another day job. If you are able to make a difference, it will come incrementally, and you might not even know about it. You have to get the story and keep on it because it has to be told." America Under Barack Obama -- an Interview with Nat Hentoff
This is a Rebel Blog. Some of the folks who read here -- or post here -- are more traditional in their Christianity than I am. My "religion", if you would call it that, would come under the specific heading, Celtic-Dreamer-Jewish-Hindu-Egyptian. Take your pick.
(On the subject of Christianity, I try to avoid disputes. Suffice it to say I believe the literalists commandeered that historic moment called Jesus Christ and turned it into a Wal-Mart display. That's all I have to say on the matter.)
As a Rebel, I take the position that America is a Roscicrucian nation. (Some would say Masonic.) What do I mean by that? There was a critical period in European History (not taught much in the schools, I'm afraid) called the Rosicrucian Enlightenment. It boils down to this: the very educated and rebellious European elite of the 17th Century saw formal religion as a detriment to science, and saw science as a method of proving and confirming religion. It was the early Rosicrucians that gave us Deism (an outgrowth of utilizing Science to study the "Mind of the Maker"); who insisted that no civilization worthy of the name civilized proscribed or prescribed religion (by their standards, truly, Islam is, and remains, heathen); it was them who championed the idea, via secret societies, that liberty was the natural destiny of man and his sole key to happiness and should not be impeded by the State. This alone is the single Key to understanding the precipice we're perched on. You can read about that aspect in The Discovery of Freedom.
The Enlightenment, as we understand it, and, therefore, the United States, began in an intellectual rebellion with the publications of two controversial "manifestoes", the Fama Fraternitatis and the Confessio. Didn't know that, did you? Think ol' Cicero's pulling your leg, don't you? Aren't Rosicrucians those dumb asses with the stupid ads in stupid magazines?
The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross is what people like Dan Brown are sensationalizing with his books (the People Magazine version of history). Think of it this way: the rose super-imposed on a cross is symbol of the spiritual flowering of a human individual. One bar of the cross is scientific inquiry (horizontal), the other bar revelation (vertical). Think about that for a bit and ask yourself, Does this not describe the direction taken by the West? Did you not know you were given a key to your freedom by these courageous geniuses, your spiritual forbears?
Whether you acknowledge it or not, that is what has shaped your destiny as a Westerner. Think about what I just told you in light of this observation:
Now you got a big yen to do some killin'. Okay, we'll do some killin' for you. But don't expect us to stand up and cheer.
The one thing you can really appreciate about Rod Serling is that he was a combat vet. Like all our fathers from that era, his whole psychic constitution was shaped by 10 years of Depression and 5+ years of a shitty war. It took a lot of Hollywood money to glorify insanity. Guys like my Old Dad didn't look at war as a fine sport. We couldn't watch war movies with either of my folks around, as my mother's first husband was killed at Normandy, and my Dad went from Normandy to the Bulge to VE Day. War was not a dinner topic. It was spoken of, if at all, in somber tones. Our folks were trying to forget, not remember. We lived in a house where the specters of the dead didn't allow us to forget.
Rod Serling was born into a Reform Jewish family, he later became a Unitarian upon his marriage in 1948.
Suffered from combat-related flashbacks and insomnia.
Outspoken supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Military decorations from the Second World War include: World War II Victory Medal, American Campaign Service Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (with Arrowhead Device), Good Conduct Medal, Phillippine Liberation Medal (with 1 bronze service star), Purple Heart, Combat Infantryman Badge, Parachutist Badge, and Honorable Service Lapel Pin. Also retroactively authorized the Bronze Star Medal, based on receipt of the Combat Infantryman Badge during the Second World War.
Served in the Army of the United States, under the service number 32 738 306, from January 1943 to January 1946. Discharged in the rank of Technician 5th Grade (the equivalent of a Corporal) having served as an Infantry Combat Demolition Specialist and a Paratrooper.
Host of the syndicated radio show "The Zero Hour" (1973-1974).
Many was the time I've thought of that particular Serling tale, Quality of Mercy. I purchased the entire Twilight Zone series on video and watched 'em when I prosecuted. Now that I defend, Quality of Mercy is more poignant than ever. How can you defend the guilty, they ask?
It's easier than you imagine. Rod Serling shows you how in that episode of Twilight Zone!
The long run offers an even darker prospect. Within a few years, with advances in stem-cell treatments and synthetic biology, the wealthy may well be able to purchase extended lifespans. This is one of the greatest privileges imaginable, and one that may be gained by some of society's most unworthy individuals. Imagine an unaging Corzine or Soros, then picture a society run by such types: a political-financial aristocracy consisting of people well into their second centuries, capable of rewarding loyal followers with more years of life, who own the government, run their cities and regions as personal fiefdoms, and protect themselves with private armies of "bodyguards"...in sum, a Philip K. Dick version of 18th-century Britain. J.R. Dunn, The New Ruling Class
Today . . . . trillions of dollars of government programs, bailouts, and regulations covering every area of social life, and new Democratic proposals to extend ever further into health care, education, and welfare -- to the very air we breathe, to how we may speak correctly, and to how many calories we may consume. Recession, bloated entitlements, and loose money literally threaten America's survival. And most of this started its upward trajectory under Republican presidents and congresses. Donald Devine, Fragile Freedom
"[T]here is an array of taxes on the horizon -- increased federal income tax rates; promised hikes in health-care surcharge taxes; and even rumors of value-added federal sales taxes. These increases are said to be aimed at the proverbial wealthy. But that could change -- given that the top 5 percent of households already provide 60 percent of the nation's income-tax revenue. And many are already paying 50 percent to 60 percent of their incomes in combined local, state, federal and payroll taxes. Just consider. The price of gas will soon likely increase. The cost of servicing our profligate borrowing will, too. One more terrorist attack like at Fort Hood, or nightly sermons from a grandstanding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, or a new Taliban offensive, and the momentum could shift to radical Islam in their decades-long war against the United States. Next year's tax hikes will be real and large -- and no longer just this year's idle talk. As these storm clouds gather, Congress bickers on Saturday nights about borrowing even more money for health-care reform, yet another federal entitlement. If you thought things have been rough so far, hang on, 'cause you ain't seen nothing yet." -- Victor Davis Hanson
Love her or hate her or, as we do here, watch and wait,Sarah Palin produces interesting psychiatric responses among our nuanced "liberal" superiors. Take fellow "conservative", Andrew 'What, Me Paranoid?' Sullivan:
The widely read blogger and purveyor of all truth, Andrew Sullivan, was impelled to blog 17 times on the subject of Palin on the same day Americans learned that the Obama administration had awarded $6.7 billion in stimulus money to nonexistent congressional districts -- which did not merit a single mention. To see what is in front of one's nose demands a constant struggle, I guess. David Harsanyi, The Palin Experience
Bob Weir takes a whack at the Mole in Why the Left Fears Sarah. It's the reverse of "the soft bigotry of low expectations."
Speaking of Nuanced Ninnies, is Obama an American Buffoon? Andrew Cline, iconoclast:
Russia Today wrote that week, "Despite Barack Obama's eloquent elocution, ivy school credentials and electric charisma, there is talk that he lacks the most crucial element of any great leader: judgment."
If it wasn't obvious before, it's clear now: Washington Rebel has readers in Russia!
Dems Alarmed as Independents Bolt Party! I believe there will be more alarm in their future. Polls prompt "a debate among party officials about what rhetorical and substantive changes are needed to halt the damage." I don't know. Maybe a bow and a sack of DVDs to some head of state will assuage those voters.
Scott was among officials subpoenaed this summer in a federal investigation of
admissions practices at Chicago's
selective enrollment high schools. He also was the subject of a Tribune
investigation into a land deal and his key role on Chicago's
Olympics committee.
Do I like the goals you offered? Michael, socialism is a fairy tale (yours included). Do we like the happy ending put together by the fairy godmother? Of course we do. Should we act in our lives as though the fairy godmother is really out there? I don’t think so.David Horowitz
My earliest experiences with the Left date back to the Seventies. Vietnam was still in motion -- Nixon and Kissinger were driving the North Vietnamese back to the table via 500-pounders. The thing that's always struck me about the Left is that you can't deal with reality. If you try to remember the murdered victims of communism, they almost invariably say, 'Well, communism (or socialism) is an idea that hasn't really been tried', or some variation thereof. If you praise capitalism, they say, 'Look how many people capitalism has killed', without considering a) whether their argument is factual or b) whether the "solution" of state owned business corporations is really an answer. Would you really want to live under a Red Chinese regime. Really? The end result: you keep having "conversations" about nothing. You're looking at a bug-eyed dodo who has no more idea of how this world turns than a cow knows she's being fattened for a wedding.
There are interesting revelations in both articles. Good reading!
World of Market Authoritarianism. My friend das and I are always marveling, and lamenting, at how we're having to live through a Seventies-esque fantasy under Obama. I'm a little more apocalyptic than he. I say the U.S. is being driven to the cliff, where it will be forced to sign off on international protocols. We're headed toward a world run by fascistic sorts of corporations, with no clear cut American leader for liberty.
The V 2009 TV series carries a lot of expectations, and not just because the V TV series 2009 is a remake of a sci-fi classic. V is the last fall 2009 TV series, and one of ABC's hopes for a post-Lost sci-fi franchise. However, it will take the V TV series 2009 version some time to break V TV Series 2009 Brings Visitors Back to TV out, since it will only run for several weeks before going on break, and is already changing management. Therefore, the V 2009 TV series version has to get off to a blazing start tonight, and make as much of a first impression as the evil Visitors. V TV Series 2009 Brings Visitors Back to TV
We already have local police forces all across the country and military forces for national defense, as well as the FBI for federal crimes and the National Guard for local emergencies. What would be the role of a national police force created by Barack Obama, with all its leaders appointed by him? It would seem more like the brown shirts of dictators than like anything American.
How far the President will go depends of course on how much resistance he meets. But the direction in which he is trying to go tells us more than all his rhetoric or media spin. Dismantling America
American Lion Thomas Sowell says he receives "pathetic letters and e-mails . . . . from people who ask why I don't write more 'positively' about Obama or 'give him the benefit of the doubt.'" His answer? The world is too dangerous -- and our president too naive -- for any more pretending.
As for the benefit of the doubt, no one — especially not the President of the United States — is entitled to that, when his actions can jeopardize the rights of 300 million Americans domestically and the security of the nation in an international jungle, where nuclear weapons may soon be in the hands of people with suicidal fanaticism. Will it take a mushroom cloud over an American city to make that clear? Was 9/11 not enough?
When a President of the United States has begun the process of dismantling America from within, and exposing us to dangerous enemies outside, the time is long past for being concerned about his public image. He has his own press agents for that. Dismantling America II
The ideal . . . . is that all citizens shall be equal and shall be good, so that they shall all rule in turn, and all have an equal share of power; and therefore the friendship between them is also one of equality. A Theory of Republican Character
That line from Gimli in Lord of the Rings, "Certainty of death. Small chance of success. What are we waiting for?", came to me after I scanned John Jay's most recent effort(s), the title of which I have appropriately shortened to The Death of the Western World. There may have been a time when John and I disagreed about this. I have long predicted the self-destruction of the United States, even though I want to be contradicted. Apparently John now shares my pessimism.
Here is a true tale of what happens when your leaders become like our contemporary Democrats:
From the first hour of the memorable twenty-ninth of May, disorder and rapine prevailed in Constantinople till the eighth hour of the same day, when the sultan himself passed in triumph through the gate of St. Romanus. …At the principal door of St. Sophia he alighted from his horse and entered the dome… By his command the metropolis of the Eastern church was transformed into a mosque…on the ensuing Friday, the muezzin, or crier, ascended the most lofty turret, and proclaimed the ezan, or public invitation, in the name of God and his prophet; the imam preached; and Mohammed the Second performed the namaz of prayer and thanksgiving on the great altar, where the Christian mysteries had so lately been celebrated before the last of the Caesars. A Day That Will Live in Infamy
President Obama promised to usher in a New Era, but can he deliver? Robert Heiler thinks Obama's ego won't be enough to smooth out facts. President Obama and American Exceptionalism
Some conservatives were irritated that Obama introduced himself at the Tiergarten as "a fellow citizen of the world." But before that, he declared himself "a proud citizen of the United States," and of his 46 paragraphs only one was devoted to an apology for America's misdeeds ("our share of mistakes," "times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions"). Quite a contrast here with the more profuse apologies he has made abroad this year.
That American Thing: Walter Williams wonders if we're giving up the One Thing that made us unique: "At the heart of the American idea is the deep distrust and suspicion the founders of our nation had for government, distrust and suspicion not shared as much by today’s Americans."
"The Reconstruction of American Journalism" by Leonard Downie, Jr. Vice President of the Washington Post, and Michael Schudson, a professor at the Columbia School of Journalism.
Outfoxing Obama: The White House War Against America is Backfiring
It is simply unbelievable--and rather frightening-- that this sort of thing could be happening in America. I wonder if the people of this country are beginning to understand the repulsive totalitarian character of the person they have elected President? Dr. Sanity, Conned
Sen. Barbara Boxer’s climate bill set to be released today contains a provision that will compensate General Electric quite nicely for its lobbying and media efforts promoting climate legislation.
His three regimes are the deferential-republican, from the colonial period to the 1820s; the party-democratic, from the 1830s to the 1930s, punctuated vigorously by the Civil War; and the populist-bureaucratic, from the 1930s to the present. All of which makes a certain sense and will be reasonably familiar to those knowledgeable about American political history. What makes this book a gem is some of the observations that lie out of the mainstream of political history. For example, Keller notes that in the years after the Civil War, "Pressure grew as well on legislatures and the courts to intercede in the previously sacrosanct realms of private life: relations between parents and children and between husbands and wives. This was not easy work for a polity disinclined to involve itself in personal relationships. But the police power of the states provided legal cover. And the way was smoothed by the fact that much of the intercession consisted of the familiar government task of allocating property rights." As a result:
I started reading the news in 1967, when I was 10, and my beloved America has not felt this way at any time in the past as it does right now. Something is awakening across the land. Something that will prove sinister to the Left. Something beautiful. It's sharper than mere skepticism. It's an outright Rebellion. You can feel it!
Many of our fellow citizens have written us conservatives off over the years at cranks, but really, what is collectivism? It's not as abstract as it sounds in the college classroom; and it's far more easy to achieve than you might otherwise think (and far more likely to be the result of environmental fanaticism than faith based initiatives!). Collectivism is very, very sinister. Evil in fact.
What's life like in a Totalitarian society? Oh, pleasant. Lots of singing!
In kindergarten we sang songs about Lenin, the leader of the Socialist Revolution. In school we learned about the beautiful socialist system, where everybody is equal and everything is fair; about ugly capitalism, where people are exploited and treat each other like wolves in the wilderness. Svetlana Kunin
The problem America has at the moment is a natural hysteria generated in the "Everything I Ever Needed to Learn I've Not Learned Since Kindergarten" era of enforced equality. We are like sots getting kicked to the street by a Russian landlord. Some of you are waking up.
The rest of you are beggars at the table of Liberty.
Civilization is the progress towards a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. Ayn Rand
Daniel Hannan Speaks at The Army and Navy Club, August 2009 Part 1
Daniel Hannan Speaks at The Army and Navy Club, August 2009 Part 2
Daniel Hannan Speaks at The Army and Navy Club, August 2009 Part 3
What the Socialists don't want you to think about is that the upper classes are exempt from Plebian healthcare. I suppose they believe they'll get the better care.
What can the state provide that the human heart cannot?
The sickness of our time takes two forms: (1) the externalization of happiness onto an outer condition, such as wealth and poverty, measured by the possession of things or, just as prevalently, an addiction to outer stimulation designed to prevent introspection; and (2) a yearning for someone else, or something outside us, to deliver the goods. Hence, President Obama. He, better than anyone else I know, represents the current psychic condition of Americans: a dried, feeble relation to life seeking to explain itself by such pseudo-intellectual contrivances as convince readers of the New Yorker of their uniqueness.
It is a curious phenomena we're watching among Americans who have worked for nothing, bled for nothing, and whose "problems" are so pressing that they habitually hoist upon the state some duty -- artificially cultured -- to solve problems as perennial as racism and poverty when the solution for any and all problems lies in their hands and hearts, in front of them, inside them. Why do you believe the state must do that for you? And why should you make excuses for the role coercion plays when the state's power is invoked? Have you no mercy? No courage?
Who can solve these problems best? Some ignorant, judgemental, intellectually deficient government hack?
Or self-directing American citizens of good heart and soul.
All right, boys. I'm banking 24 years experience, including 15 as a prosecutor, on this: the cops were probably being assholes on Gates' arrest. Nobody arrests a sober person in a nice neighborhood during daylight hours on a disorderly charge unless the objective is to be an asshole, okay? I'll guarantee these cops knew what they had before 30 seconds was up, so they get no sympathy from me for 'dangerous work', et cetera. Now that that's out of the way, let's get to the real story:
1) The Race Hustler folks played the "profile" card. That's stoo ped. This was a legit "disturbance call", as they're called in the industry.
2) This wasn't a racial situation, it was a stoo ped situation.
3) What was most stoo ped of all is our childish boy-president who called the cops stoo ped. Man, that's really stupid!
But the absolute best part of the story?
Massachusetts cops are rebelling against the Hope and Change African American President! That's just got to be one of the most invigorating pieces of ironic humor I've had to suffer in the last 10 years.
A true tale: the winter of '68 was one of the snowiest in Western Washington. My mother pulled out onto the highway and was struck by a fellow coming down the road. It was snowy; low visibility; treacherous weather conditions. A state trooper showed up. He cited my mother and wrote in the report: "motorist B backed out onto the highway."
Aside from the obvious ludicrousness of that "fact" -- it was obviously impossible to back out onto the highway from the exit of our driveway -- it was untrue. My mother worked in the courthouse for 20 years. She was friends with the sheriff and his wife. She confronted the trooper on this apparent misstatement. In contemporary lingo, he dissed her. A young, arrogant little twit in a sharp uniform dissed my mama. (If you've been in the biz as long as I have, you know the type.)
That fall my mother was curious about why she hadn't been called by her lifelong friend for an annual part time gig at the courthouse, a paycheck she used every year to get our school clothes. "We heard you were sick!", the friend said. "I was told you couldn't work!"
"Who told you that?"
The trooper's wife.
That couple was my first official exposure to the power of the state, and I have met many more like them over the years: people who aren't accountable to a performance standard, yet they have power and the opportunity to misuse it. I thought of that today as I watched my idiot countrymen race toward putting government hacks in charge of healthcare.
Are you kidding me?
No. They're not. We live in a country where the politicians feel free to play because the people refuse to enforce the Constitution against them. Erich Fromm called it, Escape from Freedom.
One of the best-kept "secrets" of the Left is that they really don't like America. A leftist will rarely, if ever, admit that to you, but it's true. Here's an example: for a leftist, controlling economy means controlling the game. They reject the basic capitalist notion that no one group can maintain an absolute, universal control in a market setting, whereas once goverment de jures a system, it's there to say -- even, or especially, when the de juring process is what we've seen in America: a labrythine tax code coupled with a top-heavy regulatory system in which only the super rich can evade or control Leviathan. In the leftist's view, it's the "class" that controls. Hence, for the leftist, putting their class in control is the end game. This is how the Left views American history: a class of whites controlling everything and, since they were racist, you can see the obvious results! For a leftist, American capitalism is the ultimate monolith, to borrow Jimmy Carter's phrase! Their job, as they see it, is to "purchase" the monolith by whatever means necessary, including deception and fraud. The end justifies the means.
What has disturbed the likes of me for many years now is that America is in a condition, spritiually and culturally, where a moral cypher like Obama can win a national election with so many ordinary, well-meaning people saying things like, 'We need health care." I have educated, kind-hearted relatives and friends who simply identify themselves as "progressive" without ever questioning what that means. In the process, our constitution gets subjected to every manner of destructive force with no suspicion whatsoever that we may be going down a path that can't be reversed. Interesting, isn't it?
In his essay "The Principles of Newspeak," the appendix to his classic novel, 1984 (published 60 years ago this month), George Orwell describes how the leaders of his totalitarian future have contrived to assure their hold on power by replacing English with Newspeak, a language containing no vocabulary for concepts contrary to the platform of the state-run Party. By controlling language, the Party controls its people's very thoughts.
But linguistic confusion became institutionalized with the rise of political correctness. By dodging frantically out of the rain of potentially offensive terms, we soak ourselves in a torrent of euphemisms for simple words the thought-police deem pejorative. When illegal aliens become "undocumented workers," we lose all sense of the danger posed by the porous condition of our borders. When terrorists become "insurgents," we more readily accommodate the moral equivalence that blurs the line between aggressors and defenders. When abortion becomes "reproductive freedom," the horror over the indiscriminate murder of innocents vanishes altogether. Rabbi Yonason Goldson via This Man
I deal with the State for a paycheck. I have for almost 25 years, including 15 as a prosecutor, when I put "criminals" in jail. I was very good at that job but, unlike most conformists, I didn't therefore conclude that jail is necessarily the answer. In fact, what many of my conservative brethren call "law and order" only exacerbates the problem, as I'll explain below. And I'm sure as hell not a liberal who blames poverty on "the rich." No, I'm a old-fashioned republican in an oligarchic-democracy who looks around and says, 'America the Ideal was lost at least two generations ago.' I wish I could be more like Michael Medved, but I am not.
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