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Doug Smith: Remember the Law?

8 Jul

doug smith.jpg

 Doug Smith: Author, historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot

7.8.16

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Remember the law?

Our founders did. They saw protections of the law, and concomitant penalties of force as a means of protecting the infant United States from arbitrary use of power. Or, as Jefferson put it, Tyranny.

Make no mistake, we have experienced tyranny multiple times in recent years, though never quite as blatantly as when the Director of the FBI, days after the AG meets with the powerful husband of the target of a criminal probe, outlines a clear case for her criminal behavior, then declines to prosecute it.

Some folks like tyranny.   If the tyrant props up your business while attacking your competitor, what’s not to love? If the tyrant makes sure everyone buys your book, while banning your nearest competitor, what’s not to love?

When the Chief Justice of SCOTUS bends himself and the language into pretzels to find a way to say the President and Congress didn’t do what they did, which would be wrong, but did, what they didn’t do, which is ok, so we’ll call it what they didn’t do, and go right on doing what they did, people who love the act love the ruling. People who love the law shudder.

If the only impediment to government abuse of its subjects is the outrage of a handful of lifetime appointees, no one needs to know, or obey the law. Just find out what the judges like. When the law is no protection, we hope for a Knight, a Defender of the Weak. But that system was as flawed as the men who wore the shining, or rusty armor, and as safe as his whim while he held the only sword.

When all men agree to subject themselves, and their leaders, to a set of laws, they can live in the assurance of a mostly fair and equitable set of rules to play by. When those leaders toss out the rules, and the people permit it, citizens become subjects. Make no mistake. While tyranny may serve some for a time, it will ultimately serve only itself. Power serves power. Tyranny will consume the liberty of everyone, except those with power and money. Tyrants are not vegetarians. Their meat is the people. If not you today, then someday soon. Don’t cheer when the wolf eats your enemy. You are his prey too.

So when citizens of a free country hear see their chief law enforcement officer colluding, the head of a once respected law enforcement agency make an impassioned case for the crimes of an elected or appointed official, then shrug it off with no consequences, they are watching themselves become subjects.

There is the law for the peasantry, the varlet, the knave, then there is the law for the Lords and Ladies of the manor. Honor the King, pay your ducal tithe, (how much of the $ 200 million dollar Clinton fortune would that amount to, one wonders?), and come to do battle if your fellow Nobles are threatened. Do this, and the nobility will protect you as well.

And should one of your peons think to commit the same acts for which you are excused, why then bring back the dungeon! Drawing, quartering, the stocks, branding, none of it is too severe for an answer.

After all, who do these common folk think they are? The Queen is not subject to the same mores and strictures as the blacksmith. One would think they had held a revolution while one slept.

 

 

 

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Doug Smith: Letter to Senator Joe Manchin

17 Jun

doug smith

Doug Smith: Author, Historian, and lead contributor to Free State Patriot

6.17.16

joe

“The problem we have — and really, the firewall we have right now is due process. It’s all due process. But due process is what’s killing us right now.”

Senator Joe Manchin (D) WV 2016

“A principal source of errors and injustice are false ideas of utility. For example: that legislator has false ideas of utility who considers particular more than general conveniences,…. who would deprive men of the use of fire for fear of their being burnt, and of water for fear of their being drowned; and who knows of no means of preventing evil but by destroying it. The laws of this nature are those which forbid to wear arms, disarming those only who are not disposed to commit the crime which the laws mean to prevent. Can it be supposed, that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, and the most important of the code, will respect the less considerable and arbitrary injunctions, the violation of which is so easy, and of so little comparative importance? Does not the execution of this law deprive the subject of that personal liberty, so dear to mankind and to the wise legislator? and does it not subject the innocent to all the disagreeable circumstances that should only fall on the guilty? It certainly makes the situation of the assaulted worse, and of the assailants better, and rather encourages than prevents murder, as it requires less courage to attack unarmed than armed persons.”

Cesare Bonesana-Beccaria, Marquis of Gualdrasco, 1764

This 18th Century Italian jurist Beccaria had a good feel for wielding both law, and guns. His writings influenced our Founding Fathers, in particular Thomas Jefferson. We have, today, a President who finds the Constitution a bulky impediment to doing the things he wants to for “the People”, and a sitting US Senator who feels it is the Due Process clause of the 5th Amendment which is killing us.

We have had that pesky 5th Amendment since well before we had Joe Manchin and Barack Obama to look out for us. It has served us pretty well, and not killed us in all that time. The same cannot be said of Barack, Joe, and the Democrats. It is worth noting that the last time due process was suspended, another Liberal/Progressive Democrat, FDR, did so to illegally detain Japanese American citizens for the duration of WW2.

It is also interesting to note that the Senator does Not propose altering due process to let the FBI investigate potential terrorists, just keeping people from buying guns. Maybe, he notes, just for 5 years. The Left, like Joe, and Hillary, has fired at the 2nd Amendment for years. His fellow Democrat Senator Harry Reid tried to dismantle the 1st Amendment to limit a citizen’s right to criticize government. Now, Joe wants to go after the 5th.

We could repeal the 17th, Joe, which changed from State Legislatures appointing Senators to direct election. If we did, do you suppose the GOP led WV Legislature would re appoint you to the Senate?

The Bill of Rights is to protect citizens from what government can do To us, not to ensure what it must do for us. POTUS, and you, Senator, are sworn to protect it from all enemies, foreign and domestic, not attack it because it is “killing you.”

You are ready to attack the right to own guns, but you are not ready to admit that is Muslim terrorists who are killing us. With guns, with knives, with pressure cookers, with box cutters, with shoes and underwear stuffed with explosives. The common theme is not guns: it is terrorists.

You ought to respect the Constitution you swore to uphold, or resign your office if you can’t.  And recognize that Americans have been armed, heavily, for over 200 years. Taking away guns, or box cutters, does not make us safe. Recognizing who our enemy is, and going after them, does.

 

 

 

 

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Doug Smith: Anatomy of a bully

17 Apr

DOUG SMITH

Doug Smith: Author, historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot

4.17.16

I know The Donald well. Not personally, but he is easy to identify. You see, I was always the outsider. The kid from somewhere else. We moved around a lot. Perhaps you have a memory of kids who were in school with you for 12 years. I do not. A year or 2, then on to another adventure. Why another story, but the part of my story that resonates is like the inscription on the edge of old world maps:

“Heere there be Dragons”.

Yes, beyond the familiar, if you sail your ship there, there Be Dragons. Take care. And for the kid who was forever the new kid, there Be Bullies. They would always seek out that new kid. They liked to bluster, and punch, and insult, and steal, and fight. I was never sure what pleasure they took in hurting and humiliating a shy new kid, but they surely did.

So, I know The Donald well. He was in every school I ever attended. And he sought me out. He might want to shake me down for lunch money. He might want to beat me up. He might want to sick his buddies on me while he watched and egged it on. If things did not go his way, he would be the first to cry about it and shout over the unfairness. Just like Donald. But as long as you seemed weak and a likely victim, he would take your milk money, knock your books out of your hand, knock you down, and swagger away, feeling smug and satisfied.

There were 4 ways of dealing with the “Donalds” in a new school.

  1. Avoid him.
  2. Give him what he wants.
  3. Become a toady. Praise him lavishly. Help him beat up someone even weaker. His ego is enormous and fragile, so if you learn to stroke it, he will mostly laugh at you and leave you alone. Although, if you don’t please him, he will still beat you up now and then. Because he can. For example, watch The Apprentice, or Chris Christie doing his “ Donald’s Stray Dog” act. This is the least risky course of action, although it takes a strong stomach.
  4. Having determined that you are going to get beat up regardless, and that you do not have the stomach to crawl to your own personal Donald any more, grit your teeth and say no. Then follow up with a haymaker right to the nose. And jump on him and do your dead level best to just beat the living crap out of him. If he should fight anyway, don’t stop hitting him. He may win, and he may beat you up again, but be a madman. In your mind determine that one of you is going to die, and you want it to be him. Fight till you cannot rise, or until someone pulls you off.

And an amazing thing happens. You may, indeed, get beat up. But when it actually costs him pain and blood, he loses his enthusiasm for you as a target. You figure out that for all the Donalds, at all the schools you will attend, the sooner you identify the Donald, and fight him tooth and nail ( that is not metaphorical) , and hurt him as badly as you possible can, regardless of the cost, the sooner the Donalds will leave you alone.

You don’t have to win, but you do have to fight. Because the Donalds don’t want to fight, (or debate, for that matter,) they just want to bully and beat down someone weak. When their victim chooses not to be a possum, or an old kicked dog, but turns into a tiny, snarling wolverine, the Donalds don’t know how to handle it. They move on.

A hard lesson. But a survival skill. You surely do not want your Donald to become class President, or Mayor, or heavens, President!

So well done, Colorado. Maybe there is something to that medical marijuana, after all. But the Donald did not get one Colorado delegate. He didn’t do his homework, and now he wants to copy yours. And he is whining that you won’t let him.

Colorado, you learned how to deal with the Donalds in your school. Now everyone else, you can ignore the toadies, the Christies, and the Trumpkins taking smack about riots. We do not do politics based on the bullies and the mob in this country. We are not Venezuela.

In 1968, the Democrats, ( including Barack Obama s buddy Bill Ayers) tried to use the rule of the mob and riots in the streets ( of Barack Obama ‘s Chicago) at the Democratic convention. It was ugly. The police had to deal with it and it was in all the papers. I remember reading about it and seeing the riots on live TV. Democrat National Convention Riots.

I also remember that in 1968, we elected Richard Nixon, a Republican.

Americans, for the most part, do not like a bully. Now, The Donald has his toadies, but he cannot command a majority of even the party for which he is running, in even one state. More people dislike than like him.

I stand by the article I wrote about Trump back in September of 2015. He is an ass. And a Bully. And beating up people, or insulting everyone who disagrees with him, or just being mad at the same time that I am mad, does not make him a good leader.

He sort of reminds me of Walter Matthau and Jack Lemon in Grumpy Old Men. Their characters and just what the title implies, with plenty of PUTZ! And yelling and dirty tricks on each other. They took a perverse delight in growling and knocking each other around.

But the quiet, competent son of one of the GOM was the mayor.

Perhaps Life will Imitate Art?

 

 

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Truth and Consequences

16 Apr

DOUG SMITH

Doug Smith: Author, historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot

4.16.16

There used to be a TV game show called Truth “or” Consequences. It was around when I was a kid, and fans of Bob Barker will remember him as the long time host and face of the show.  The premise was to ask a trivial or nonsense question, which of course could not be answered, then have a “consequence of some fun or silly activity. It was fun.

bob

Today, we are engaged in a global game of truth or consequences, but the questions, and the consequences, are far from trivial. Now, I worry all the time about being politically incorrect, and the truth is rarely “correct” but just for fun, I’m going to try a little foray into truth.

Truth.

There is no magic. Merlin was not a court magician to Arthur Pendragon, Once and Future King. Yea, I’m disappointed too, because I loved the stories of Gawain and Lancelot and Merlin and Wart and the Lady of Shallot. But sadly, Merlin, such as he was, was a bright charlatan who used some knowledge to paint a magical picture of himself and con people, and was puffed into a lot more than he was by writers trying to sell a manuscript and earn a buck. Arthur was not turned into a bird, did not have a magic sword, and is not holding it in suspended animation till the day of England’s greatest need, when he will return to lead them once more. He is dust. Dead. Gone.

Darn.

But on the subject of magic, it is also not possible to pass a law to make water run uphill, or make wealth magically appear by ordering it to be given to a certain group of people. You cannot make a poor man rich by taking wealth from a rich man and giving it to him. History has shown that is a path to misery as the mob strips the producers of their wealth, and their ability, and motivation, to produce more, and, having eaten the seed corn, becomes an equal distribution of misery.

Truth.

Islamic people, mostly men, commit acts of terror, murder, bombings, shootings, beheadings, stabbings, at an appalling rate. I m a little tired of having to say, no it’s not all of them. But it is enough of them that reasonable people worry about Muslim enclaves in Brussels, Paris, and Dearborn.  Stop lecturing me about Islamophobia and backlash against Muslims. There has not been a backlash. If the worldwide rash of murders and atrocities continues, it is likely there will be.  And, by the way, Islamophobia: Fear of Islamists? That is not a mental condition. It is a reasonable reaction to the actions of Islamic people around the world.

 The Leftist apologists, the gutless cowards on the Right, and the endless stream of Muslim talking heads notwithstanding, you cannot, in truth, get away with saying a Muslim who hears Death to America shouted over and over, it is the West’s fault that your country is a poverty stricken sewer, and it is your duty to go kill them so you can get out of it and go to paradise, is suddenly NOT a Muslim as he shouts an Islamic call to war and opens fire on innocents.

Yes, he is. And you all know it. And you are all liars. That is truth.

And the Consequences?

147 individual acts, not counting the daily atrocities in the cesspool of the Middle East war zone, in the past 30 days. They netted over 1000 deaths and over 3000 injuries in 25 different countries. 27,000 acts of terror and murder around the world since Barack Obama stepped onto the world stage, countless, mostly ignored acts of barbarism, genocide, and atrocity in the Middle Eastern lands controlled by Muslims.

Truth

More people from more nations and more cultures have come to, or tried to come to the United States than any other country or empire in history, now or since the dawn of civilization.  Self-loathing Lefties can’t figure it out. People who escaped Vietnam in 1975 can. People who escaped the Castros can. People who made it out of East Berlin can. Millions around the world don’t risk life and limb, and run away with nothing but their lives to come to the horrible, repressive, racist, world the Left thinks we have. The do run from the Socialist paradise the think is Cuba or the Soviet Union. We have never had a problem of limiting migration into the Middle East because of people yearning to live under Sharia law and work on the oil rigs. We never will.

 Consequence

Everybody wants to come here. But not everyone can.

Truth

If we permit “Multi Culturalism” nonsense dilute or destroy who we are, and transform the US into a mix of the horrible places from which so many want to escape, there will be no escape, anywhere. There will be no shining city on a hill. There will be misery, and tyranny, or despair, and there is in so much of the world, and as has been the norm in so much of human history.

 Technology is not the key to advancing liberty.  Ask a slave who died in the arenas how much he appreciated the fine 1000 year Roman roads which brought him to his death. Rome had a towering civilization, with ruins still extant today, 1600 years after it fell. Yet they did not spread freedom, and the Republic died quickly and gave way to the Empire. It died rather more slowly.

America is a unique nation, a new concept within history. If that history is forgotten, and that light extinguished, the lives of many around the world may well become what Hobbes feared: “No arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death: and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

 Look around. How many people do you see now living precisely that life?

Are we going to be a bulwark against such a world?  Or surrender to the mob and centuries of darkness?

Wait! Don’t answer. Think about it before you do. Think carefully. Because truth, and choices, do have consequences.

 

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The 3% Lamborghini

15 Apr

DOUG SMITH

Doug Smith: Author, historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot

 

“Tell a lie big enough, and long enough, and people will start to believe it. “ Joseph Goebbels is credited with “The Big Lie” approach to propaganda, but I doubt he invented it

Still, the Big Lie technique is around, alive, and well. And just occasionally, inadvertently, one of the Big Liars lets a big of light shine through.

In Missouri, State Legislators have subpoenaed documents relating to the Abortionists (well, Doctors, in total fairness, but abortion is their trade) who were caught on tape merrily discussing the price of a liver from a baby, cut carefully from inside his mother, so as to maximize the viable organs available for sale, in order to facilitate her purchase of a Lamborghini.

(For us folks who work for a living, and have never cut up an 8 month fetus as a down payment, and drive a Mini Van, that would be a 200,000 to 500,000 dollar Italian sports car).

Now the big Lefty propaganda machine is working desperately to get us back on the Big Lie track by calling the tapes “debunked”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjCs_gvImyw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyhz8Zjm1i0

Still, they are out there for anyone to see, and very clearly these “Doctors” are haggling over the price of livers and limbs of aborted babies. Which is a violation of federal law. (How fortunate for them, as for Hillary, that they are Democrats.

But as for debunking the evidence of the crime, well, we can all see what it is they are getting away with.

So where does the Big Lie come into this? Well, in Mo, Lefties protesting State legal actions against Planned Parenthood (how do they come up with that name? Nobody who uses their services is becoming a parent. ) noted that actions which may shut down PP of Mo would be bad, because (pay attention 🙂 Planned Parenthood of Columbia is the ONLY abortion provider in Missouri. The Big Lie? Listen to any Pro Abortion advocate, or read on PP s website, or listen to MSNBC, ( no really, Don’t listen to MSNBC, I don’t want to be responsible for you tossing your cookies, that was a figure of speech,) and they will all say , Oh NOOOOO, Planned Parenthood is about Women’s Health, not Abortion. Abortion is ONLY 3% of what we do.

But the Lefties shriek (as Lefties always do when challenged) loudest in what they do NOT say.

They do NOT say, if PP of Columbia is closed, women won’t get Mammograms. (Since, of course, no Planned Parenthood facility anywhere has ever provided or facilitated a Mammo for a woman.)

They do NOT say, close down PP Columbia, and no women can get birth control.

They do NOT say, the day you close PP of Columbia, STD s will run rampant because no woman can get tested, ever again.

What they shriek from the rooftops, (using, no doubt, only 3 % of their voices) is that shutting down PP of Columbia would mean no Abortion providers remained in the State of Missouri.

So, in deference to Joe Goebbels and Margaret Sanger, they continue to tell the 3% lie, 100% of the time. Now Sherlock Holmes indulged in the 7% solution (of cocaine) to numb his active mind. The Abortion Industry, and the Lefties, hope that the 3% solution will numb the brains of the folks to reality.

That logic breaks down, however. If Abortion is a question of right and wrong for its opponents, and a question of convenience for its supporters, then whether its price tag is 3% or 97% hardly matters.

I wonder if we would accept from Dr Goebbels the argument that the Final Solution was ok because after all, it is only 3% of the German budget, was only going to kill 1% of the population, and besides, we can recoup enough to buy everyone a Porsche by selling the Art and Jewelry of dead Jews. I hope not, but of course, I’m not a Lefty, and it is hard to tell just what they might buy.

Well, perhaps that is not precisely true. We do know they want to buy abortions. And Lamborghinis.

 

 

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Doug Smith: Thieves, Robbers and politics

12 Feb
DOUG SMITH
Doug Smith: Author, historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot
2.12.16
I was a sailor. One thing any sailor will tell you is that we do not tolerate thieves.  A thief on a ship is dealt with quickly by his superiors, lest an accident befall him.
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Life falling overboard holding an anchor.
There is good reason for this attitude.  Ships are notoriously crowed. There is little personal space and almost no privacy. The few personal items we carried; books, letter writing material, candy, coffee cups were cherished and very precious to us. Steal from one shipmate and incur the wrath of all.  If you don’t respect his stuff, you won’t respect mine.
Throughout history, people have cherished their “stuff”.  Handmade knife, corn worked for and tended with sweat and labor throughout the growing season, a pot, a bowl, a pig fattened all year to feed the family for the winter. And just as surely, there have always been thieves and robbers.
(Disclaimer: I have heard it said “There is nothing in my house worth taking a life over.  If a thief wants what I’ve got, it’s better to let him have it. “I disagree. Come to my house to take what I’ve got, what I’ve worked and sweated and sacrificed for, and Ill “let you have it, alright.” Center mass. Two shots.)
And that is, after all, the point. My stuff is not “just stuff.” It is the result, for good or ill, of my hard work, my choices, my investments of the limited number of hours and days of my life. If you steal from me that which took me a week’s work to earn, you are stealing a week of my life. And I will defend it.
Thus it has been with thieves from early times.  A thief makes the judgement that the easiest “work” is to let you sweat and save and sacrifice and struggle for that which he wants. Then, while you rest from your labors, to come and take it, and sneak away. That the result of a week, or a month, of your labor goes with him, and hence a week of your life, concerns him not at all. You have it. He wants it. That is his entire reasoning and morality. Why he wants it does not matter, his desire outweighs your rights.
The robber is a bit more industrious, but no more moral. The robber will not sneak, but will take your stuff, and by the same extension, pieces of your life, by force with weapons or threats. He will not sneak to steal it, he will demand that you surrender it to his desires. Again, his desire outweighs your rights.
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The most energetic robbers in history, and the best, manage to wrap themselves in a mantle of respectability. Pharaoh of all Egypt (give me your corn and work on my projects, or I will send my soldiers to kill you.) King of Kings, Agamemnon.  First Ill beat Athens, then I force Athens to help me beat Sparta, then force them both to help me beat Troy. Henry Fitz-Empress, 2nd of that name, First Plantagenet, most able soldier of an able time, a King at 21, and ruled in his time an Empire greater than Charlemagne.
These energetic robber kings use a tried and tested formula. Be good at fighting. Beat someone up, but promise to let them live if they help you. Then the 2 of you can beat up on more, and rob them of gold, food, animals, labor, and daughters, whatever you wish. Eventually, you have enough powerful, but less powerful than you, robbers, who will join with you in robbing the labors of thousands, or millions, in return for a share of the booty, and support for your ambitions.
Henry II, Plantagenet King of England, was a prime example of this principle. He lived in a fine castle, but he was not a builder: he was a soldier. He ate the finest foods, which he neither grew nor killed: he was, again, a soldier. And he spawned the bloodiest royal House in British history, with countless commoners, and not a few “royals” slaughtered in the name of their ambitions. (See the Hundred Years War)
But it all came down to robbery.  What Henry and his heirs wanted, someone would provide, because his Sheriffs would collect his taxes at the point of a sword.  It was their disregard for the possessions of others that led to one major step forward in people asserting and demanding their property rights from Henry’s son, John, the Magna Carta. (See Ivanhoe, and Runnymede)
But it is all about our “stuff”. If I am free, but must give you all I earn or produce, my freedom is meaningless and my incentive to produce what I can is only as much as you can force me to do for you. Conversely, the more I am free to keep what I produce, the more I will strive to do so, for my own benefit. Free societies, thus, are always more productive and wealthy than slave societies.
So, (apologies to those who are not lovers of history, like me) what does this little history lesson on thievery do for us today?
Well, let’s see if we can find the thieves and robbers today.  If Bill Gates decides to spend a billion dollars to fight diseases among poor countries, he has the money to spend, and has a generous impulse, and does it. Bill is a philanthropist.
If Congressman Leghorn Foghorn decides to give a billion dollars to his district to build the Foghorn Leghorn Bridge, when he makes $ 150,000 a year, where, we must ask, will he get that money?  If Foggie gets $ 2,500,000 in speaking fees to talk for half an hour to the Bridge Builders Association, and the Department of Architecture housed in Leghorn Hall at Podunk State, what could make his words that valuable? If 1000 people in his district get 10,000 bucks a piece for building his bridge, (that would be $ 10,000,000)
But Foggie is sure of a few thousand votes in November because of all the palms he has greased. Palms belonging to people who said in their hearts, we need this. Somebody has to pay us.
Foggie doesn’t have to come up with the Billion.   The IRS and Sherriff will do that for him, from people who live a long way from his district, and have no interest in Foggie, or his bridge, or Local 864U of the Bridge builders, but have to pay up or the Sherriff will take their homes for which they have worked.
thieves 3
So, in this little morality tale, we can find the robbers, and the thieves, and the serfs, robbed again.
Robin Hood, after all, took from the Sheriffs and John’s nobles to give back to those who had it taken from them. The Magna Carta was forced out of John to respect the rights of his Barons, because he was squeezing too much from them.
No one likes a thief. Some will not tolerate a thief. And eventually, the thieves and robbers are cornered at Runnymede and told “Enough.”
With April 15 coming, and Primaries just beyond that, and a General Election in November, perhaps it is time we all read about John at Runnymede, play a little game of “Who’s the Thief?”, and ask ourselves, “Enough?”

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Doug Smith: Age and Experience

6 Feb

DOUG SMITH

Doug Smith: Author, Historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot

 

One of the (many, and legitimate) criticisms of Obama is his lack of experience before taking the Presidency. Many are leveling the same criticism at the top 4 GOP candidates for the replacement. It is worth noting that despite many with a great deal of experience, the folks are choosing people they think would do a better job without the experience of say, a Chris Christie or a Jeb Bush.  The founders did not include a requirement of political experience for the Presidency. Only age (which ostensibly equates to experience and wisdom, but then, they never met Donald Trump) and citizenship (which ostensibly equates to interest and loyalty to the nation, but again, they never met Barack Obama).

superhero-businessman-revealing-american-flag-classic-superman-pose-tearing-his-shirt-open-to-reveal-t-shirt-concept-59485146

Ought we to add to the requirements a demonstrated time of successful public service? Then a back bencher, who had the Gallipoli disaster on his resume, could never have become the Churchill who saved England. Perhaps it is more the nature of one’s experience that matters. Demonstrably, community organizing, encouraging riots and civil disobedience, orchestrating shakedowns of successful businesses, do not equate to preparation to lead a nation. While a failed shopkeeper may learn from his mistakes enough to lead an Army to victory and a nation to begin rebuilding.
Ought we to raise the minimum age, noting that 35 was well into the last quarter of life in the 1780s? Well, perhaps, but age, as we can well note, does not always denote wisdom or ability. Certain it is that not all our elders are men of vision or wisdom. How do we choose leaders that will make us better off than we were, who will keep us safe, who will increase our freedoms and not become tyrants?
Chances are, we will do none of these things. For we are of an era who chooses our leaders by the mob, as led by the most successful demagogues. And who has the courage to oppose the mob?
Mr. Churchill did, and the mob threw him under the double decker bus as soon as their need for a war time leader was past.

245px-Sir_Winston_S_Churchill
Do we have leaders of such vision, who, knowing the will lead the people through a crisis, and then be left behind, will lead anyway? How do we as a people choose to delegate our personal power into political power to leaders of wisdom and prudence?  How do we function as a free people, and not as a mob?
Free people stood toe to toe with the British Army and forged a nation. Free people carved out a government that set the stage for the most successful nation in history. The mob?
The mob is Robespierre, the French Terror, and the Guillotine.  The mob is Ferguson. The mob is Baltimore. The mob is Melissa Glick, the Mizzou prof who assaulted a student reporter and called, like some drug addled Marc Antony for the mob to come and complete her work.   The mob is senseless violence, soiling one’s own nest, turning on one’s own, for imagined slights and a sense of entitlement. Barack Obama depends on the mob for his leadership.

bald-eagle-american-flag-front-32160142
The survivors of Lexington and Concord did not expect anyone to give them anything. They did demand to be left alone to pursue their business and make their lives. They formed a government for mutual defense and common cause, to have life, liberty, and to pursue, each in his own way, and with his own effort, happiness.
If we are to be a free people, we must choose leaders who are committed to leading a free people. If we choose the loudest voice in the mob, we will become the mob. Or its victims.

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Doug Smith: Here’s to flawed candidates

1 Feb

DOUG SMITH

Doug Smith: Author, Historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot

 

Donald Trump is a flawed candidate. Ted Cruz is a flawed candidate. But I’m not waiting for a perfect candidate. I’m ok with flawed. I am flawed. (Don’t let my wife read this!) I just want him to do a better job than the current POTUS. That is not a very high bar.

Trump and Cruz both bring a lot to the discussion, and address anger of the electorate and the fight against the decline of the country.

So I am not happy at NRO and the GOP throwing darts at Trump, and, to a lesser extent, Cruz, the number 1 and 2 candidates for our party; one in the name of Ideological purity and the other in the interest of status quo. Come on! No Republican candidate should have to run against both the Democrats and the GOP.

FLAWED

So how about we stop shooting at our wounded and think of reasons to vote for the next flawed POTUS.

Let’s throw the darts at Liberal Democrat policies. Let’s blast radicals and criminals who want to rule over us. (Not govern, Rule!)

NRO and the GOP leadership maintain it risky to believe what Trump says. Yet is it less risky to believe Mitch McConnell? John Boehner? Paul Ryan? Bush 41? Bush 43?

Has Mitch “repealed Obamacare, root and branch “, as he promised, or raced with Boehner to surrender to Obama’s every whim?

George HW Bush said, ” Read my Lips: No new taxes. “ Followed by, I’m in, I can deal with Ted Kennedy, thanks for the votes, but you’re screwed.”

Dubya said “I am a compassionate Conservative.” That translated to only 12 vetoes in 8 years, and huge increases in entitlement spending.

McConnell, Boehner, Bush 41, Bush 43 were all flawed Republicans.

FLAWED 2

donald

I first pulled the lever for Republican Ronald Reagan over Jimmy Carter. Reagan was a great, though flawed, President. I have consistently voted since then, for flawed GOP candidates. Sometimes I had to hold my nose, as when voting for John McCain, then wolfing down the Alka-Seltzers.

I have been pretty consistently lied to and betrayed by the GOP who ostensibly shares and will fight for my values for a long time. We had a brief shining moment with the Gingrich insurgency’s Contract with America, followed by increasingly blatant lies from my own party. That’s right, it was mine. I voted, I sent money, I worked to see Republicans elected. I saw a GOP takeover of my home state, WV’s legislature, for the 1st time in 80 years.

And for what? Could Obama have done any better with Democrats in control? The fact that a lifelong Republican can ponder that question speaks volumes to the flaws in the GOP.

Perhaps it is a bit Nihilistic to support Trump, a flawed candidate, hoping that his words will be more true than the GOP has been, that he will act on the ” Plague on both your houses” feeling, and, emulating Jesus with the money changers, tear down some comfortable crooks in the most second most corrupt crime family in history, The US Congress. (The Clinton Foundation, of course, is number one, with the Gambinos just behind.)

I recall William F Buckley’s Dictum to support the most conservative candidate who can viably hope to be elected.

We did not do that with Bob Dole. Or John McCain. Or Mitt Romney. Or even George W Bush. That gave us several losses and liberal Presidents. And one big government Progressive Republican. (That is what compassionate conservative apparently means.)

So, what does that leave us? We have a number of flawed people running for President. One of these flawed candidates is going to be the next POTUS.

We can easily look around and know we don’t need 4 more years of Liberalism.

Here’s to our flawed candidates.

 

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Doug Smith: A Way to end the “Cornfusion” in Iowa

30 Jan

 

 DOUG SMITH

Doug Smith:  Author, Historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot

It is time to clear up the Cornfusion in Iowa.

 Ethanol from Corn has NOT worked out as a fuel source. Neither has Cold Fusion. (See what I did there?)   After all, what has Iowa given us? The Music Man, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama, and ethanol.

ETHANOL

 We don’t need ethanol in our cars. We certainly don’t need another Jimmy Obama. We do need that clarity.  So, here are my thoughts: 

 My neighboring state of Kentucky has a successful industry converting corn into ethanol. The Kentucky form of ethanol does not pollute or hurt car engines. It does not required taxpayer subsidies to survive: it sells very well, without coercion, and produces a tidy tax base.

 Whiskey has a long tradition in America. It was once practically currency. (See the Whiskey Rebellion)

 The 2 big centers for American Whiskey are Kentucky and Tennessee. Once, the technology centers were Boston and Silicon Valley. Then Raleigh, NC came up with Research Triangle and the 3rd great center was born.  

rye

  The time has come for Iowa whiskey. The corn is already there. Distilleries are already there. Add some oak barrels, some transplanted Scots, or Irishmen, or Kentuckians, and we have a whole new industry, ready to explode on the scene.  

 Or…NASCAR.  I can see it now: The Ethanol 500. We’ll promote it at the Newton Motor Speedway in Iowa. All cars for the race will be modified to run on pure Iowa Whiskey. It doesn’t need to be aged in Oak barrels for this. West Virginians will be glad to supply them with Mason Jars.  

  Never mind, we will work out the details.  I’ll get a jacket for the Landon Cassel (NASCAR driver from Iowa, for the uninitiated) team.  Kellogg’s can be a sponsor. 

 We can further start an Off Broadway venue and drum (see what I did there?) it up as the new face of Iowa. We can build the Professor Harold Hill Theater, on River City Drive. And the patrons, who will come from far and wide, can have a few shots of Paroo Whiskey along with their Corn Pudding for dinner before the show. 

 Baseball!  Kevin Costner showed us the way. Baseball diamonds in the midst of corn rows. Iowa needs the next MLB expansion team. Who doesn’t love baseball, and of course, Corn Dogs!

Ethanol_plant

 Politics is only every 4 years, but whiskey is all the time. Baseball has a nice long season. And they will all turn out for the games. Yes, the Sioux City Hawks will have a large and loyal following. Taking a note from Green Bay, they can wear a corn cob hat. 

 Those Hawkeyes are not very good at politics. The winners of the Hawkeye “Cauceye” are more often the loser than the winner of the big Enchilada. (That would be the Presidency, not the Mexican food made with, yep, you guessed it, corn). Yes, they will be making so much money, and having so much fun, that the next political train wreck “a La Carter” or Obama will have to come from somewhere else.

 Arkansas, perhaps.  

 This will work!

 

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It’s time for U.S. to deal with “Jihadist” abuse

26 Dec

DOUG SMITH

Doug Smith: Author, historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot

12.26.15

islam first

 

The Muslim world is rampant with cultural pathologies that keep it living largely in the mean and barbaric world of the 7th Century Arab peninsula. Common sense says that Western, civilized nations will look askance at that world, and view them with suspicion, and natural fear, and a sense of self preservation.  We do not fear the Muslim world because they look, speak, or believe differently. We do so because they demonstrably generate people who try, often successfully, to kill us because we look, speak, or believe differently. Fearing this is a sensible thing to do. Defending against it is a sensible thing to do.

Rational people begin to question why leaders continue to assure them of things they know to be wrong. They wonder why they tell them not to fear that which they know to be fearful, and trust that which they know to be undependable.

islam 1

I think one answer may be that Islamists are analogous to abusive men, and their apologists play the role of the battered woman. He didn’t really mean to hit me.

(They don’t really want to blow us up, they love peace.)

 

It was my fault. I started it. I told him that he needed to get a job and stop drinking.

(It was our fault. I started it. We locked up some of the murderers and noted the fact that such murderers seem, overwhelmingly to issue forth from one group of people. We said stuff they don’t like. Of Course they would want to murder us in return.)

islam 2

 

He’s really sorry.  He’s being so nice now. I have to forgive him or he’ll get mad again.

(CAIR regrets that people died. Muslims are really worried that we will get made and hurt their feelings.)

 

All I have to do is figure out how to change so that I never do anything to set him off. .  I know if I’m nicer to him, he won’t hit me again.

(All we have to do is do everything exactly like they do, and we won’t set them off.)

 

Reality check?

Abusive men will beat and assault the women in their lives many times before they report it. They will finally either kill her, unless she finally manages to escape.

islam 3

The cycle repeats over and over, building tension, violence, contrition and affection.  Finally the learned actions no longer work.  Avoiding the things that set him off don’t matter: he will still beat her. Giving him what he wants always, being properly submissive no longer works: He will still beat her.

And in dealing with Islamism, they attack and murder over and over. They plan, prepare, attack, then we hear how the big fear is not the attackers murdering us, but the victims over reacting. No matter what the West does, it is not enough, and leads to more attacks. Many try to deny it, or excuse it, but still they beat their victims.  (Is it totally coincidental that in Islamist countries women are beaten regularly, legally, and often fatally?)

The abusive man does not cease to abuse because of what his wife or girlfriend does to change him.  He stops because either he gets help for his issues, he kills her, she kills him, or he is shot by police.

Or:

She finally manages to overcome her learned helplessness and escapes to a shelter. She finds protection from someone stronger.

For the abusers of Islamism, their victims have limited escape: the West. Most notably, the US.

They can gain safety because the US military, like the police, will react with outrage to atrocious acts. The US, like right thinking people, will defend their victims, and kill murderers until they are unable or unwilling to murder any more.

Unless the US becomes the battered victim.

martial law

It is time to remember that we are strong. It is time to stop being the helpless victim, trying desperately to placate the one who beats us at a whim, and at will.

It is time to remember that we are still, for the moment, the biggest dog on the porch. And that biting our tail, or stealing our food, is a terrible mistake.

 

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