When nightmares become reality

Those few who read this tacky little blog have probably felt certain that I'm just a few bricks short of a full load. Sorry to have to tell you, but at some point, you really have to open your eyes and your mind, and look at the the evidence.

It is time for America to have a serious discussion: At what point do citizens of a supposedly free nation have a duty to exercise the right of resistance to tyranny?What line must be crossed? And if they do so, how? After all, unlike radical Leftists or Muslims, for example, resistance is difficult for a morally-based people. People like myself who do not want to violate our conscience, surrender our humanity, morality, or what little sanity we may have left, nor want to alienate ourselves from our God have a much harder time resisting institutional evil than do our enemies, the destroyers of liberty. Unlike them, we don't want to attack the innocent, oppress the decent and hardworking people, or become terrorists. So what do we do when the world is turned inside-out? When tyranical regimes reach a particular level of entrenchment and their willing accomplices and supporters attain a certain critical mass, all the accustomed legal recourses become not only ineffective but become countereffective, because the legal mechanisms that citizens use to complain are used by the government to invade the privacy of the individual, and may become weapons to use against the complainers.

Last Thursday in a 3-2 decision, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that citizens have no right to resist if cops illegally enter their home.  Such a ruling would ostensibly give any rogue or socialist-leaning cop protection against a home invasion. If such a ruling is allowed to stand, other states - or the POTUS  - will inevitably pick up on it because government that is not constrained by morality or the people will always seek greater power, autonomy, and immunity from its actions.

Just so you don't get the idea context doesn't matter; two days earlier, the Indiana justices ruled that police were justified in entering without knocking if the circumstances justify it, such as a domestic disturbance with an implicit or explicit threat of violence. I don't have a problem with that. What I have a problem with is the lack of penalty if the cops are wrong, or especially if they do it for illegal purposes - or, say it is a cop busting into his ex-girlfirend's home.

But just so you don't think this is an isolated case (hey; it's just one little state...) The Supreme Court of the United States, in an 8-1 decision, decided that it's legal for cops to break down doors and search a home if they suspect evidence might be destroyed while waiting for one of those silly little warrant thingies. If it were a case of personal jeopardy I'd have no problem with busting the door; but in this instance it was because the cops were on a drug stakeout and smelled pot smoke (as in they were smoking it). What makes this even worse, is that Ifind myself agreeing with the only dissenting Justice; Ginsburg!

Chasing trouble.  A month ago, Glenn Beck warned (and I posted) that socialist SEIU exec Steven Lerner was plotting to attack JP Morgan Chase by planning mass demonstrations against the banking giant, and by encouraging tens of thousands of mortgage holders to default on their loans.  According to Lerner's own words, the operation was planned "sometime in early May."  Apparently, "Operation Chase" has begun.  Four hundred protesters recently disrupted Chase's stockholder's meeting in Ohio. The chants were all about the bank's foreclosure policy.

Again, I find myself in uncomfortable territory. I don't have any love for banks, and I don't want to see people put out of their homes. However, every so often reason gets a grip on my brain, and damn the torpedoes. Banks do provide, for a price, the opportunity for people to pursue their dreams. However, those dreams must be realistic, and within their ability to repay - at least under what we used to know as 'normal' conditions. That means when you take out a loan, you need to be reasonably certain you can repay the bank loan. I'm not the sharpest tack on the bulletin board, but anyone who believes banks aren't in it for the money is even dumber than I am.  They expect, and are owed, the amount the borrower promised to repay. If the rate is too much, don't take out the loan.

I suppose it's pointless to think that most of the crowd of outraged mortgage protesters are probably either renters or welfare recipients, or (in keeping with common practice among the Left's "spontaneous" protests) street people paid to be there, holding signs they probably don't understand and yelling slogans they have rehearsed.

Elswhere on the organized labor front (and it is a front, for a sophisticated political crime machine), the head of the AFL-CIO recently admittedto a live audience they were "somehow" stealing their opponents' emails and going through their trash for information to use against them.  So far, no law-enforcement agencies have come forward to prosecute, or even investigate, these egregious actions (although the Left was very loud in their accusations against Republicans for the very same things).

All this reminds me of a very important fact of life: Legal doesn't necessarily equate to Justice. Every tyrant has used the cover of law to exercise raw power over their people. Not only has President Obama  alienated us from our closest allies, he has been systematically undermining our legal and legislative systems. He has installed "czars" ("commissars") to oversee gargantuan bureaucracies that continually intrude deeper into our private lives, and he is working to make the role of Congress irrelevent.

Law that does not treat everyone equally is the tyranny of social class. Law that is used to undermine our national security is treason. Our world is becoming unrecognizeable from what it was only a few short years ago. Time to repair the damage is quickly running out, and there will be no "cavalry" riding over the hill, as the United States has done for other nations in the past. If Americans don't get our act together with a cohesive strategy and courageous action, and if God doesn't ignore all our pitiful attempts to shut Him out of our lives, the future will be dark, indeed.

Disunion

Carpe diem! This is their moment. That is the perception as the wave of discontent is spreading  being sown around the world by a shallow and temporary coalition of convenience between marxist/progressives and Islamic radicals. The crest of this tsunami has occured in Europe and across North Africa, where labor unions have pushed nations to the brink of bankruptcy and into social and economic chaos. This is part of the legacy the radical Left has caused by having gradually produced a psychological and economic dependency on 'entitlements' for more than a generation.

Across North Africa and Southwest Asia Muslims are demonstrating and rioting; a "spontaneous" uprising that has been several years in planning.  In Egypt, this was largely due to the efforts of Google's head of Middle East marketing, Wael Ghonim, who exploited social media to produce the world's largest "flash mob" thus far.  In Egypt, Algiers, Libya, and Iran the people were provoked into rising up, ostensibly for 'freedom', although freedom is the farthest thing from the ultimate goal of the Caliphate the Islamists are pushing to create, at least for women and anyone considered less than radical enough.

Incidentally, upon his arrival in Cairo, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, high mucky-muck of the Muslim Brotherhood, was graciously escorted to a stage to address the adoring and jubilant crowd. Google's Ghonim, who helped orchestrate the revolt and had claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood would "not be allowed" to co-opt the revolution, and who had been set to speak, was briskly offstage with nary a word, other than a veiled warning that he was lucky to still be alive. So much for the coalition of Islam and the Left. The classic line from the fantasy movie "Highlander" comes to mind: "There can be only one."

Back home in what is rapidly being turned into the disUnited States of Amerika, those oh-so-clever Leftist radicals are trying to cash in on the global angst by applying their own particular brand of chaos-creation. 

Modern American Progressivism can trace its roots to Madison, Wisconsin; and a thuggish portion of their ilk is still apparently well-represented there. Almost too amazingly, within a week of their initial demonstration the radicals had produced a coordinated plan to hold more demonstrations in every state capital on Saturday. The plan seems to be to capitalize on the emotional fervor and momentum of the North African riots, and the perceived success (since the results are yet to be determined) in Egypt. This time it is the juvenile antics of the teachers' union (the same union that has succeeded in lowering Wisconsin's literacy rate by 2/3 despite spending more tax dollars on education than any other Midwest state) that is producing the chaos, with a blatant and calculated mischaracterization of Gov. Walker's attempt to rein in public spending (through the collective bargaining process) in part by attempting to have teachers pay at least some of their gold-plated healthplan costs.


Meanwhile, the state Senate continues not legislating because all the Demoncrats fled the state rather than actually doing their job; which actually puts them in the same position as the teachers who stood in the cold (before occupying the Capitol itself) blaring their tired old hippiesque-commie chants, who are getting paid for playing hookey and lying (as though they were fooling anyone) to their administrators. Then there are the doctors, diligently plying their trade on the teachers' union picket line, conducting fraudulent "examinations" of "patients" and writing false excuses just waiting to be entered into evidence, on the chance that any actual justice might be entertained in this sick national joke.

And now, the "joke" is making the rounds as other Demoncrats adopt evasion of their duties as a tactic to replace actual debate and legislation. Demoncrats from Indiana's House also skipped town to avoid a vote on a similar proposition to save their state from bankruptcy by reining in their obviouslyout of control nions.

Just out of curiosity, how do you think it would have turned out if Republicans had been the ones to pull off this juvenile stunt? Yeah, I thought as much.

One last thing on the topic of unions. What are we to think when the President of the United States has spent two years in the White House, and has never even called most of his own Cabinet advisors, but has top union officials visiting his office several times each week? No wonder Obama doesn't seem particularly interested in our disintegrating foreign affairs; he's too busy sucking up to the unions and "community organizations" that bought his way into the White House.

Uncivil discourse.  Even if you're one of those people who ignores the news altogether, or only catches snippets of your local goings-on, you may have noticed a rapidly increasing trend across the country. In times past, Americans were generally at least somewhat courteous to one another in ordinary circumstances. You were generally taught - and expected - to use basic manners. You would say "Please" and "Thank you," and others would generally reciprocate.  What used to be termed "civil discourse" was the norm; people who disagreed in interpersonal situations could argue, perhaps, but there was generally a measure of restraint.

But after decades of public schools' failure to teach ethics (which goes back to the teachers' unions and the teaching colleges, doesn't it?), the Church often being more interested in preaching politics or the finer points of perceived theology than reinforcing basic biblical concepts of morality, the breakup of families leaving no parents qualified to instruct children (never mind providing an actual example) in civility, good manners, common courtesy, personal modesty, self control and other virtues, civilization as we used to know it is becoming as rare as the vinyl record album. Besides the total selfishness of the various demonstrators I've been pointing out, the dissolution of civil discourse has popped up in such diverse places as a Denny's, and an unwarranted attack on a news crew trying to give mourners of a murder victim a chance to air their grief. We have gone downhill as a society; from civil discourse to merely coarse.

I've noted before how it stuck in my mind, that Ken Ham, evangelist and founder of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum, once told an audience that any civilization is always only one generation away from becoming once again a race of savages. His meaning is clear: when values, ethics and morality are no longer taught, raw, unrestrained selfishness will fill the void. A good, long look around will show how prophetic his statement was.

Computer sim of Earth's magnetic field;
blue lines inward, yellow outward.

Wacko theory of the week?  I found a new article on the Earth's fluctuating magnetic field fascinating. It has been known for some time that the Earth's magnetic poles are slowly moving. Essentially, the magnetic North (as opposed to true, or polar, North) is moving toward Siberia at a rate of up to approximately one degree of longitude per year, depending on your location. This situation seems to be gradually picking up speed, and it costs millions of dollars each year for airlines and other organizations that rely on charts, and can also affect hikers and others who still depend on magnetic compasses for navigation (after the GPS batteries die, or it gets dropped on the rocks).

After mulling that over, I recalled the theory about cell phones causing brain cancer, and thought I'd come up with a crazy theory of my own. So...there is iron in our blood (hence the term, hemoglobin).  It is also believed that birds take advantage of this to navigate while migrating. What if...the shifting magnetic field is affecting the blood chemistry in our brains, and is at least partly behind the vast numbers of humans who are going off the deep end, committing heinous crimes, suffering from insanity, or becoming socialists?

Too far-fetched? OK, then...what's your bright idea?  Besides; at least it gives the socialists an excuse. Just tryin' to help.

How much room is there under the bus?

There's an old expression that says, "May you live in interesting times."  It isn't meant as a compliment. We are undoubtedly living in interesting times, and it certainly isn't a compliment to us. To those who are paying attention, the confluence of all the bits of information indicate that we are now plunging headlong toward an America none of us (at least those over forty or so) will recognize.

America was founded upon Judeo-Christian principles to be a beacon of liberty to the world; and we have been that for well over two hundred years. Never perfect (but there has never been a perfect nation) and not without flaws, America was nevertheless the one place in the world that oppressed  and downtrodden people could look to.  Even if they couldn't get here themselves, this country inspired people the world over and gave them the dream and hope that there was someplace where people could live and breathe free, pursue their dreams, and have the law actually give them some protection against oppression or persecution, if they could just get here and dig their heels in and work to achieve their dreams. Millions in other countries took up that challenge, coming here themselves with virtually nothing but the shirts on their backs. Others sacrificed so their children might chase the dream instead.

That dream is dying; or perhaps more accurately, it is being deliberately strangled. The principles that have shepherded us for centuries are being ignored, hampered, and impugned.  The next logical step in our transition from a free society to a cradle-to-grave authoritarian nanny state is probably a combination of contrived chaos (to produce a perceived threat) and judicial/executive fiat to modify, supplant, or repeal the laws that have traditionally protected us.

The US Constitution is neither taught, understood, obeyed or enforced by the current malAdministration, and this will only get worse. President Obama and his advisors and cohorts are gutting our constitutional safeguards and threatening the liberties that they are pledged to protect.

A short list of relevent examples would include:

• Obama's nominee for Supreme Court Justice, Elena Kagan, has argued that flag-burning should not be banned but certain speech should be "disappeared", and that free speech should be weighed against "societal costs," and that some restrictionson speech are preferable to none...for example, "by preventing a few voices from drowning out others."  Sounds suspiciously like she'd be in favor of silencing conservative talk radio because it might oppose government policy.
• Obama's Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is trying to give our Second Amendment rights away to the UN.
• During a joint press conference at the White House, President Obama  and Mexico's President Calderon took turns insulting Arizona for defending itself, while Progressive/Socialist/Democrats applauded. Perhaps Obama might at least consider parity rather than national submission, since Mexico's own immigration laws look like ours should. Perhaps el Presidente Calderon should take his own hypcrisy home with him. Incidentally, Obama only allowed one American reporter to ask a question at the press conference; a reporter from Spanish-language network Univision. What do you think their take on the immigration situation is?
• The Supreme Court is nudging us away from the US Constitution in favor of international (socialist) law interpretations. So they think the laws that aren't working elsewhere will somehow, magically work here.
• The EPA is now trying to merge with liberal churches in an attempt to harness them in that part of their agenda which promotes environmentalism and planet-worship (Gaiaism) as the new State psuedo-religion. By co-opting many people's spiritual longing and redirecting it from Christ to Gaia, the Statist big brains want to convince congregations to adopt "social justice" (redistribution of wealth, aka legalized theft) as their religious theme.
• Part of the "Mob-ization" of America is the use of SEIU union thugs to intimidate ordinary citizens. There is an ominous parallel between SEIU's tactics and the tactics of the Nazi Party's SA troopers - the notorious "brownshirts" that intimidated and assaulted Hitler's political opponents in the early days of his election campaign. Intimidation is in fact becoming a favorite technique of the Left in general. Consider the ginned-up blogs and threats of congressional investigation for perfectly legal activities and White House-orchestrated boycotts against Glenn Beck in an attempt to punish and discredit him for his major investigative work. Hasn't really worked though; his ratings have shot up 22% in the past week alone. If Beck is so wrong, why do they always attack him, but never present any serious challenge to his evidence?

Define 'sedition'.  Between watching our top government leaders and officials gut the Constitution, undermine our laws and betray our principles, and allowing taxpayer-paid teachers to poison young minds, the next generation of Americans will have no idea what it means to be in control of your own life. 

I've said it before: Everyone begins life with their personal 'meter' at 'zero'.  All your positive life experiences push that meter upward, while your negative experiences push it backwards.  Today's kids have the most potential ever; not because they are superior, but because they can reap the benefits of all those who have gone and done before them. But if they are never taught to recognize the positive influences they should pay attention to, they will get sucked in by the negative influences.  It has happened before -- the young, the bored, the hungry, the angry, the frustrated, the scared, and oh, yes, the illiterate; all good candidates for evil leaders to take advantage of for their own nefarious purposes.

Our young people have incredible, amazing potential; but they could also be turned into a new generation of "stormtroopers" by being convinced that they are superior, or that they are "destined" to assist the advancement of a "Brave New World".  Unfortunately, most of them have not been told to be careful what they wish for. It is our present task, our responsibility, our DUTY, to try and teach them the difference between good and evil in an age of relativism, to teach them responsibility instead of entitlement; to teach them that God is superior to man, and that one's disbelief is not proof of His non-existence. It is a task we cannot accomplish alone or with ease, because the brainwashing, conditioning and propaganda has been eating away at them their whole, short lives. But we must try, and we cannot afford to give up.  Millions of lives - present and future - depend on what we do with our time here, and we will be Judged on our efforts.