Thursday, November 19, 2009

Educating Gabby

"The Democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are
willing to work and give to those who would not." Thomas Jefferson

Another quote from Thomas Jefferson to help understand why I am so insensed that Gabrielle Giffords used his words to help justify her support for the giant health care bill that passed the House with the help of her vote.

Should we go further? How about John Locke, Thomas Jefferson's intellectual father in many ways.

"Though the earth and all inferior creatures be common (as the gift
from God) to all men, yet every man has a "property" in his own "person".
This, nobody has any right to but himself. The "labour" of his body and
the "work" of his hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever, then,
he removes out of the state that Nature hath provided and left it in, he hath
mixed his labour with it, and joined to it something that is his own, and
thereby makes it his property...
He that is nourished by the acorns he picked up under an
oak, or the apples he gathered from the trees in the wood, has certainly
appropriated them to himself. Nobody can deny but the nourishment is
his. I ask, then, when did they begin to be his? When he
digested? or when he ate? or when he boiled? or when he
brought them home? or when he picked them up? And it is plain, if
the first gathering made them not his, nothing else could"
John Locke,
The Second Essay Concerning Civil Government

If this is true, then at what point is a physician's labor his own? At what point does a physician get to determine when and where he spends his time and labors? How can one possibly argue that a government, an insurance company, or anyone else has a right to tell a physician how and when and for what compensation to practice his art, for the furtherance of his own sustenance and profit?

We hear of people talking about the notion that our citizens have a "right" to health care. This is impossible. Because in order to have that right, you also must have the right to tell another person what their wages are, what their hours are, who they can and must do business with, and who they can hire.

Physicians become the slaves of those who have a "right" to their labor.

But it gets worse. You see, I cannot possibly come up with a scheme for all of this, so it falls on the clumsy, brutal, and destructive hands of some sort of government to administer all of this. Physicians now become wards and servants the "the people". Except "the people", to the socialist is really the large and tyrannical centralized government.

Let's move on to Adam Smith, of whom Thomas Jefferson wrote, "In political economy, I think Smith's Wealth of Nations is the best book extant." Just in case Ms. Giffords is confused about where Thomas Jefferson stood on Free Market economics.

Adam Smith broke things down to four laws of economic freedom:

1. Freedom to try.
2. Freedom to buy.
3. Freedom to sell.
4. Freedom to fail.

This health care bill disrupts every one of these laws. Even now, doctors and others are not free to start their own clinics in any way they see fit to provide a competitive product in health care that people may or may not want.

Consumers of health care services (that's you and me), are not free to purchase the services we want at the prices we feel are fair. We cannot use our freedom to make the cost to benefit decisions regarding our very own lives. Our very personal and private health. We are not free to make those decisions even today. This bill makes this situation worse.

Health care providers are not free to sell their wares at prices that enable them to make the kind of living they desire and serve the people they wish.

No one is free to have their ideas fail so that the entire marketplace can learn from their failures.

The free market is the way to solve our problems, not more government.

In Cleon Skousen's "The 5000 Year Leap", he writes;

"The Founding Fathers agreed with Adam Smith that the greatest threat to
economic prosperity is the arbitrary intervention of the government into the
economic affairs of private business and the buying public. Historically,
this has usually involved fixing prices, fixing wages, controlling production,
controlling distribution, granting monopolies, or subsidizing certain
products."


This new health care proposal does all of these things.

In case you don't think that health care should be an "economic prosperity" question, let me readjust your attitude. Everything is economic, because the very act of a single person performing work on what God's Nature has left before us creates an economic event. By applying one's labor to anything, one has created value and has a right to be fairly compensated for that value if one wishes to part with it. A doctor has the most personal and direct economic interest in health care. It very simply is the means by which he feeds his family. He has a right and an obligation to charge as much as he is able to provide for his family. Neither you, nor the Federal Government has any right to dictate his labor or private business in our Constitution, nor by the natural rights of mankind. Only in a socialist state is this right manufactured and forced, unnaturally upon us. And only by destroying the liberties set forth in our Constitution can this bill succeed and survive.

I now return to Thomas Jefferson again, just in case Ms. Giffords is still confused about what he might think about her vote on our current health care proposals in Congress;

"The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to
divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is
competant to (perform best). Let the national government be entrusted with
the defense of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations; the State
governments with the civil rights, laws, police, and administration of what
concerns the State generally; the counties with the local concerns of the
counties, and each ward direct the interests within itself. It is by
dividing and subdividing these republics, from the great nation on down through
all its subordinations, until it ends in the administration of every man's farm
by himself; by placing under every one what his own eye may superintend, that
all will be done for the best. What has destroyed liberty and the rights
of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun?
The
generalizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one body, no matter
whether of the autocrats of Russia or France, or the aristocrats of a Venetian
senate."
Bergh, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:421

Do you hear that Gabrielle? Do you hear that Congress? Mr. President? Probably not.

One has to be ignorant of our Founding Fathers, and the reasons why we have a country at all, or must be a rather cynical and perhaps sinister practitioner of the misdirection and propaganda used by the likes of Mao, Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini, to quote Thomas Jefferson for the purposes of justifying a vote for a centralized control and intervention into 1/6th of our nation's economy and to intervene in the most sacred and private business of all things; the relationship between a doctor and his/her patient.

And our people are sitting here, ignorant of our own heritage, letting it happen.

As a nation, we are replacing our faith in the sovereignty of God for a faith in the power of the State, a man-made creation, an idol.

"Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory
of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of
birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave
them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be
dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a
lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator
,
who is blessed forever. Amen" Romans 1:22-25


Gabby, you may believe that you are doing the right thing. And I would like to believe that you believe that. But you are dreadfully wrong about economics and you are a socialist. And the natural conclusions of your belief system is a lie and is against God's nature and will destroy my country. I bid you confusion, disarray and failure in your political life and career, and wish you to be sent back home, to the private sector....preferably tomorrow.

My Congresswoman and the health care debate

From Gabrielle Giffords webpage:

“I am fully aware that the vote I cast for the Affordable Health Care for America Act will be one of the most important votes of my tenure in the House of Representatives,” Giffords said. “I am confident it is the right thing to do. I also am confident that by confronting the health insurance crisis facing our country, we are honoring the ideals that have been the foundation of our country for more than two centuries. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, ‘Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society.’”


Let me say that I agree with Ms. Giffords assessment of the importance of this legislation, but for the opposite reason that she cites. I think it will be her undoing.

I am also completely appalled that she quoted Thomas Jefferson, as if he would approve of this legislation. Let us not forget that Thomas Jefferson also wrote that "When a people fear its government, it is tyranny. When a government fears its people, liberty".

It takes a willful act of supreme ignorance to selectively quote TJ in support of a Federal Government run portion of our national economy. I think that Thomas Jefferson would have rather been shot, than to have been quoted for such a purpose. This is the "water the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants" guy. What tyranny was he talking about? The tyranny of not having good health insurance? My goodness woman! He was talking about YOU! He was talking about a centralized government from across the sea making daily life decisions for the people of this country. That is why we started this country! To get away from centralized government!

While it is true that no happiness can be enjoyed without health, it is equally true that no liberty can be enjoyed when the government makes decisions for you and runs your life. Her use of the quote also misses the mark in that, to Jefferson, liberty IS health to a free society. There will be no happiness without liberty. None.

She completely misconstrued his statement. I know what she was doing. She was trying to quote one of our founding fathers to appear patriotic and pro-American. It is what Marxists, Alinsky-ites do. They take the words and deeds of people that have a positive image and they twist it to mean something completely different to suit their purposes of socialism.

This is another case where, the Democratic Party doesn't just get it 10% wrong, or 20% or even 90%. Their position is EXACTLY the OPPOSITE of true. It is 100% wrong, 180 degrees out of phase with the truth.

NO ONE in their right mind, who has EVER read anything written by Thomas Jefferson, could have quoted him in support or somehow justifying a centralized government approach to ANYTHING. By today's standards, TJ would be a radical, gun-toting, religious zealot, and followed by the FBI and DHS. And TJ wasn't even a good Christian. He was a deist. But even a Deist recognized the Creator and His providential hand on human affairs, and would be considered a dangerous zealot by our current government's standards.

I encourage anyone to read some of TJ's letters. Read a biography about him...one that isn't completely absorbed by the Sally Hemmings controversy. Discover who and what this great American was. You too, will be disgusted when socialists claim some sort of common ground with this man. Nothing further could be the truth. TJ would see them as an enemy, not a friend. TJ believed in a "meritocracy". In fact, he coined the term. He would be appalled by our country today and deeply saddened by where we are right now. I can only imagine him getting one of his famous migraine headaches when he discovered that his words were being used as a justification for a tyrannical takeover of doctors, dentists, and nurses and all that goes with them.

In the spirit of TJ, we need to send this woman back to private life and out of the halls of power. We need another revolution, fought with a pen, and a keyboard. Read what your representative writes. Listen to what they say. Send them letters, emails. Join a political party and get these people out of Washington, before it becomes Rome.

UPDATE: For a pretty good idea, just read the list of grievances against King George written into the Declaration of Independence, by Thomas Jefferson. Get past the Preamble that everyone reads, and look at the remainder of the document. Tell me where there was a desire for the centralized and distant power of the King to address health care issues or any possible analogous equivalent for that society at that time that you care to come up with.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Stricken

This is the second Sunday in a row where I have been deeply moved by the service at my church. Last week, I was stricken with a brief glimpse of sin that took my breath away. It was almost as if God revealed for a microsecond what He sees as He looks down upon us, His precious children.

It was during Communion and I was one of those people that looks up while everyone has their heads down in deep thought and prayer. I thought back to St. Augustine's Confessions and confrontation with my own sin for that brief moment brought tears to my eyes. I glanced around and knew that everyone in that room was in that same state of sin. I can't articulate it properly, but i could almost 'see' the sin in the air and feel God's Grace, solemnly, and lovingly, wiping it away.

I know. Weird. Crazy even. To think of myself writing this kind of creeps me out. I grew up pretty much an agnostic/atheist, fully immersed in the popular culture. When I first started going to my church, I felt like I had stepped onto the moon...or mars, or even bizzaro world.

If I could have seen into the future 20 years ago, where I would be today, I think I would have had a heart attack, or run screaming, or had a heart attack while i was running away and screaming. I actually listen to country music now. I was a metal freak back then. I have become Ned Flanders. Wow.

Well, this Sunday, was Reformation Sunday, where churches of the Reform Theology bent, celebrate Martin Luther's act of nailing the 95 theses upon that fated Wittenberg church door. The music was divine. I don't even know what it was, but it mixed latin chant type stuff with english and we had the translations and words up on the screen. Our choir is amazing, and I actually wept at the beauty of the sound.

Then our pastor went into the impact to modern culture of the Reformation and the doctrines of Justification by Faith. Jesus has offered you a free gift. All you have to do is reach out and accept His invitation.

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you
rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble
in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and
my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30


Isn't that what we all want and need? Good night and I pray that God Bless you and yours. Truly.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Thou Shalt Not Covet

"You shall not covet your neighbhor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor" - Exodus 20:17


How is socialism any different than an institutionalized disobedience of the Tenth Commandment?

Socialists believe that if only people had enough material wealth, they wouldn't disobey the other commandments. They would be good people. This is the essence of the Communist Manifesto, and secular humanism; the idea that Man is essentially good and the domineering, corrupted culture and population density make them bad.

Christianity says the opposite. Mankind has fallen from Grace by disobedience to God. God laid out the criteria on which Mankind would be judged and how they could maintain holiness and proved repeatedly throughout history than no one can comply with it. Only the salvific blood of Jesus Christ can wash away your sins and make you Holy in the sight of God. No one is without sin. No, not one.

The 10th Commandment is significant here, because, at its root, socialism is its precise and diabolical opposite. How can one even discuss socialism without discussing the property of other people in a covetous manner? You can't. The entire philosophy is founded upon the notion that some people have more stuff and are more fortunate than other people. How can we talk about the salaries of other people without committing this sin? How can we bemoan the fact that some class of people have more stuff than another, without committing the collective sin of coveting our neighbor's house? We can't.

You can dress it up as concern for the less fortunate, and charity all you like, but the entire conversation isn't valid. Charity is done, not to help the poor, but to humble the mighty. The poor have no biblical expectation that they will be taken care of, nor any right to another's time, labor, energy, or love. They can only hope for mercy and deliverance. The commandments and scriptural discussion of these things is for the benefit of the giver. You see Mankind is fallen and sinful and proud, and selfish. To cleanse the heart, one must be rid of one's attachments to material things and find a way to put others ahead of yourself. Without a clean heart, you cannot possibly be in a right relationship with God, and sanctification is impossible. Expecting someone else to give you happiness or money or car payments, is no less selfish and inconsiderate than someone that refuses to help those in need.

God gets in the way of Socialism if anyone actually understands the ends and means of it all. That is why socialism and atheism are so closely allied much of the time. Given its way with society, to run its course, socialism will start with the tenth commandment, but it won't take long to destroy the rest of them as well. In fact, they have made good progress on most of them already, don't you think?


Thursday, October 1, 2009

Walkin' the Tightrope

I wrote this back on 9/10/09, and didn't finish it and publish it until tonight.

Prevarication

I have stumbled upon the one word that sums up our current US foreign policy;

Prevarication.

This is especially true in regards to our policy (or lack thereof), towards, about, around and behind, Israel. What are we doing? If I were an Israeli, I would be VERY nervous right now.

I came across a nice speech made by Virginia Congressman, Eric Cantor to AIPAC.

Video is here.

He calls out evil as evil. His story about the Treblinka survivors trying to help the German Jewish workers escape and their response to those Poles, is astounding. It truly is the frog in the pot.

I have read enough history to know that when the proverbial fecal matter hits the centrifugal air-displacement device, the people that are denying this and covering up what is happening will go down in history as villains. And the masses that turned their collective eye away from evil, away from the enemy at the gates?

How would you feel if a very great evil happened, you could have stopped it, and you chose to do nothing? There is evil in this world and it must be confronted. This prevarication on the part of the President is...immoral.

Skin crawling explained...

Check out Alonzo Rachel's explanation as to why Christians and conservatives are so disturbed by what they see as worship of our President. If your skin didn't crawl from my last post, maybe Zo can tell you why it should.

A message to Obama supporters: if you don't want conservatives accusing you of not be respectful of Christians and people of faith, stop taking sacred texts, songs, hymns, and themes and inserting the name of Obama in place of God or Jesus.

To back up Zo's point, I will paste below the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, the tune of which those school kids were singing their Obama praise song to. Please note the opening line, "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord" and "He died to make men holy, so let's fight to make men free!"

This song is about Jesus, people. Not Obama. Stop taking songs about Jesus and replacing Jesus with Obama. At the lowest level, for those that don't believe in God, it is disrespectful. For others, it's creepy. Why would you want to worship ANY man? Why structure any support material for political persona's to mimic God, and Jesus? At worst, for those of us that do believe in the salvific grace of Jesus Christ, this is nothing other than a spectacularly audaciaous display of blasphemy, encountered in the Bible in only the darkest corners that allude to the devil himself. For observant Jews and Christians, this is serious and scary stuff. It is totally inappropriate and unsettling. Cut it out.

The Battle Hymn of the Republic
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His day is marching on.
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on."
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Since God is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Our God is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
While God is marching on.
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave,
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,
Our God is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Our God is marching on.


Now go back and listen to those school kids singing this song and listen to their words, and tell me that your skin isn't crawling...