Jon Voight: May God Give Us All Strength to Prevail

Two awesome videos taken at the Capitol Rally today in Washington, D.C. We will NOT BE SILENCED! CONGRESS: CAN YOU HEAR US NOW???

View Mark Levin video


View Jon Voight video

Conservatism is the Antidote to Tyranny [Update]

Found the following video today - quite by accident actually. It is absolutely riveting! In the beginning, it asks the question, "Humanity, what have you become? When animals become more human than us...there is a real problem. Near the end you will see the statement, "when animals become more compassionate than humans, it is a sign of the end times. Wake up people." [Note: Some of what is written on the screen of the video doesn't actually apply to this post.]

Loss of Humanity Video Link


As I watched this video, a thought jumped out at me. The parallels of the attacks we view in that video and what is happening in our nation today between the current soft tyranny of government which is incessantly attacking the patriots who believe in liberty, freedom, conservative values and ethics, free speech rights, low taxes etc. cannot be missed or denied. [Note: A few paragraphs down, you will see a second video that serves as a perfect example of the far-left liberal haters and their attacks against anyone who does not believe as they do.]

I started reading Mark Levin's book, "Liberty and Tyranny - A Conservative Manifesto" today. Get this book! It is excellent! I have only completed the first two chapters, but Mark has already brilliantly exposed the differences between the liberal leftist progressive "Statists" and their worldview for America, vs. the Conservative ideals that were the foundation of our nation. I have highlighted so many paragraphs that I would love to share.

Levin explains why he doesn't use the term "liberal," but rather the term "statist" to describe the Modern Liberal in the United States today.

The Modern Liberal believes in the supremacy of the state, thereby rejecting the principles of the Declaration and the order of the civil society, in whole or part. For the Modern Liberal, the individual's imperfection and personal pursuits impede the objective of a utopian state. In this, Modern Liberalism promotes what French historian Alexis de Tocqueville described as a soft tyranny, which becomes increasingly more oppressive, potentially leading to a hard tyranny (some form of totalitarianism). As the word "liberal" is, in its classical meaning, the opposite of authoritarian, it is more accurate, therefore, to characterize the Modern Liberal as Statist.

Oftentimes, a video is worth a thousand word essay. Please watch this exchange between radio talk show host, Laura Ingraham (who subbed for Bill on the O'Reilly Factor yesterday) and Gloria Feldt on the subject of the verbal bashing that Miss California has been receiving from the Lamestream Media and the SILENCE of "feminist" groups (that are supposed to come to the rescue of women being verbally attacked like that).

Hateful Leftist Gloria Feldt Slanders Laura Ingraham-- Attacks Miss California

Certainly doesn't remind us of how the herd of buffalo came back (with reinforcements) to rescue the young calf that was viciously being ganged up on by many tigers in the first video above...does it?

In the following paragraph quotes from Levin's book you will see exactly WHY Ms. Gloria Feldt could not bring herself to defend Miss California for her own personal beliefs (despite the fact that she does not agree with them) and actually jumped on the bandwagon to continue the attacks against this young woman.

Levin's book [with my comments added]:

The Statist [think Gloria Feldt in previous video as just one example] veils his pursuits in moral indignation, intoning in high dudgeon* [see update below]the injustices and inequities of liberty and life itself, for which only he can provide justice and bring a righteous resolution. And when the resolution proves elusive, as it undoubtedly does -- whether the Marxist promise of "the workers' paradise" or the Great Society's "War on poverty" -- the Statist [think Obama and many in Congress today] demands ever more authority to wring out the imperfections of mankind's existence. Unconstrained by constitutional prohibitions,[Obama] what is left to limit the Statist's [Obama and most in Congress] ambitions but his own moral compass, which has already led him astray? He is never circumspect about his own shortcomings. Failure is not the product of his beliefs but merely want of power and resources. Thus are born endless rationalizations for seizing ever more governmental authority. [Obama admin, Congress, courts]

In the midst stands the individual,[think Laura Ingraham defending the free speech rights of Miss California in that video] who was a predominate focus of the Founders. When living freely and pursuing his own legitimate interests, the individual displays qualities that are antithetical to the Statist's [Feldt] - [qualities like Laura's and Carrie Prejean's] initiative, self-reliance, and independence. As the Statist [Feldt, Obama, many in Congress] is building a culture of conformity and dependency, where the ideal citizen takes on dronelike qualities in service to the state, [think ObamaBorg Bots] the individual must be drained of uniqueness and self-worth, and deterred from independent thought or behavior. This is achieved through varying methods of economic punishment and political suppression. [the spending bills, promotion of abortion with tax-payer money, silencing conservatives etc.]

The Statist also knows that despite his successful usurpations, enough citizens are still skeptical and even distrustful of politicians and government that he cannot force his will all at once. [this is where Obama and the majority in Congress are making HUGE mistakes - because they are both forcing their will upon the people at a rate that makes the average patriot's head spin!] Thus he marches in incremental steps, [well - used to do it that way], adjusting his pace as circumstances dictate. [like using a financial crisis to get taxpayer money for 9,000 earmarks and porkulus spending]. Today his pace is more rapid, [yup!] for resistance has slowed. [NOT ANYMORE! TEA Party power!!] And at no time does the Statist do an about-face. But not so with some who claim the mantle of conservatism but are, in truth, neo-Statists, [like that traitor Arlen Spector, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins] who would have the Conservative abandon the high ground of the founding principles for the quicksand of a soft tyranny. [Obama & cohorts]

Mark goes on and describes the fact that "liberty's treasures defy cataloguing." The Statist's scorn for liberty is misplaced and highly corrosive. Levin observes:

Liberty's permeance in American society often makes its manifestations elusive or invisible to those born into it. Even if liberty is acknowledged, it is often taken for granted and its permanence assumed.

WOW! What a powerful point he makes! In fact, this is why I think that many college students were led astray into the Kool-Aid cult of Obamaland during the campaign. They don't study history and know not of the dangers of socialism. To them, it was something knew (that is...if they even knew what Obama meant by his brand of "hope" and "change.")

I have seen many bumper stickers that have the "COEXIST" word accompanied by different religious symbols on it. That's all well and good, one might say. The fact that we live in a primarily Christian nation allows such freedoms. But the trouble is, when it comes to governing, the Marxism/Socialism/Communism/Islamism agenda of the Obama Admin. doesn't so easily "coexist" with the liberty of our Constitutional Republic. All of those "isms" are, each and of themselves, an increasingly corrosive threat to liberty!! As Mark states in chapter 2 - "the Statist's Utopia can take many forms (see above) but they are all of the same species - tyranny." What's more, as we saw in the Laura Ingraham vs. Gloria Feldt conversation (more like argument!), "the primary principle around with the Statist organizes can be summed up in a single word -equality."

Now watch this. Mark Levin brilliantly lays out the differences between what the Founders meant by the term "equality" vs. how the Statists use (actually - misuse) the term.

Equality, as understood by the Founders, is the natural right of every individual to live freely under self-government, to acquire and retain property he creates through his own labor, and to be treated impartially before a just law. Moreover, equality should not be confused with perfection, for man is also imperfect, making his application of equalism, even in the most just society, imperfect. Otherwise, inequality is the natural state of man in the sense that each individual is born unique in all his human characteristics. Therefore, equality and inequality, properly comprehended, are both engines of liberty.

The Statist, however, misuses equality to pursue uniform economic and social outcomes. He must continuously enhance his power at the expense of self-government and violate the individual's property rights at the expense of individual liberty, for he believes that through persuasion, deception, and coercion he can tame man's natural state and man's perfection can, therefore, be achieved in Utopia. The Statist must claim the power to make that which is unequal equal and that which is imperfect perfect. This is the hope the Statist offers, if only the individual surrenders himself to the all-powerful state. Only then can the impossible be made possible.

During the campaign, Obama is quoted as saying, "[O]ur individual salvation depends on collective salvation." But Mark Levin points out that "salvation is not government's to give. Indeed, it is not a grant to mankind from mankind. Under the wrong conditions and in the wrong hands, this deviant view is a powerful tool against humanity."

This is what millions of Americans, including the TEA Party participants, are sensing from Obama. They are all seeing this soft tyranny creeping up and are highly concerned of what it will look like four years from now. One good thing to note is that our American history and traditions make it more difficult to transform our civil society towards tyranny. And Mark makes this excellent point:

[S]till, tyranny is a threat that looms over all societies, preventable only by the active vigilance of the people.

Levin concludes the first chapter:

The Conservative does not despise government. He despises tyranny. This is precisely why the Conservative reveres the Constitution and insists on adherence to it. An "effective" government that operates outside its constitutional limitations is a dangerous government. By abandoning principle for efficiency, the neo-Statist,[think RINOS] it seems, is no more bound to the Constitution than is the Statist.

[T]he Conservative is alarmed by the ascent of a soft tyranny and its cheery acceptance by the neo-Statist. He knows that liberty once lost is rarely recovered. He knows of the decline and eventual failure of past republics. And he knows that the best prescription for addressing society's real and perceived ailments if no to further empower an already enormous federal government beyond its constitutional limits, but to return to the founding principles. A free people living in a civil society, working in self-interested coorperation, and a government operating within the limits of its authority promote more prosperity, opportunity, and happiness for more people than any alternative. Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.

Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny for many reasons. But perhaps one of the most important reasons of all is because we believe, as the Founding Fathers did that prudence must be exercised in assessing change.

Levin:

Prudence is the highest virtue for it is judgment drawn on wisdom. The proposed change should be informed by the experience, knowledge, and traditions of society, tailored for a specific purpose, and accomplished through a constitutional construct that ensures thoughtful deliberation by the community. Change unconstrained by prudence produces unpredictable consequences, threatening ordered liberty with chaos and ultimately despotism, and placing at risk the very principles the Conservative holds dear.

Sounds EXACTLY like what we are going through right now...doesn't it?

Source:
Liberty and Tyranny - A Conservative Manifesto by Mark Levin; Threshold Editions of Simon and Schuster, Inc. 2009 pp. 4, 8-11, 14, 18-19.

*******
* Update:

I have to confess, I really didn't know the complete meaning of the term "dudgeon" when I first quoted it from Mark Levin's book. I figured that it meant something like "anger" and "hatred." This morning, I decided to look up the word in the dictionary. It is a highly descriptive word and fits EXACTLY to the situation that readers have witnessed in the exchange between Laura Ingraham and Gloria Feldt regarding Miss California.

dudg⋅eon1   /ˈdʌdʒən/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [duhj-uhn] Show IPA
–noun a feeling of offense or resentment; anger: We left in high dudgeon.

Origin:
1565–75; orig. uncert.


Synonyms:
indignation, pique.

Notice that the first definition claims that the origin was "uncertain."

Now, look at this "obsolete" entry at dictionary.com:

dudg⋅eon2   /ˈdʌdʒən/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [duhj-uhn] Show IPA
–noun Obsolete. 1. a kind of wood used esp. for the handles of knives, daggers, etc.
2. a handle or hilt made of this wood.
3. a dagger having such a hilt.

Origin:
1400–50; late ME; cf. AF digeon

There is more! The following entry describes the "smiling Ms. Feldt" quite well as she systematically shoots daggers of hatred against Miss California!

dudg·eon 1 (dŭj'ən)
n. A sullen, angry, or indignant humor: "Slamming the door in Meg's face, Aunt March drove off in high dudgeon" (Louisa May Alcott).

[Origin unknown.]

dudg·eon 2 (dŭj'ən)
n.
Obsolete A kind of wood used in making knife handles.
Archaic
A dagger with a hilt made of this wood.
The hilt of a dagger.

[Middle English dogeon, possibly from Anglo-Norman.]

The following describes how the term "dudgeon" relates to our current use of the term "daggers" when we use it metaphorically to describe "throwing daggers" in verbal spewings of hate:

Dudgeon

Dudg"eon\, n. 1. The root of the box tree, of which hafts for daggers were made. --Gerarde (1597).

2. The haft of a dagger. --Shak.

3. A dudgeon-hafted dagger; a dagger. --Hudibras.
Dudgeon

Dudg"eon\, n. [W. dygen anger, grudge.] Resentment; ill will; anger; displeasure.

I drink it to thee in dudgeon and hostility.

Sir T. Scott.
Dudgeon

Dudg"eon\, a. Homely; rude; coarse. [Obs.]

By my troth, though I am plain and dudgeon, I would not be an ass. --Beau. & Fl.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Cite This Source

Notice the synonyms:

Synonyms

huff
miff
pique
resentment
ruffled feathers
umbrage
bitterness
anger
displeasure
fury

Did you see that first one - "huff"?? Reminds me of Ariana Huffington! Sometimes people DO live up to the meaning of their name!!! LOL!!!

P.S. Wayne of Jeremiah Films has placed this post (via my Protect Biblical Marriage blog) in his headline list today.

Thanks Wayne! LOTS of good information to read over there!!

The Soft Tyranny of the NOBama Regime

There are so many great blog posts out there today that it is hard for me to choose a headliner. However, the irony of seeing the blog Stop The ACLU cover a topic that claims "Even the ACLU is opposing this Gestapo-like effort" show how utterly over the top the stupid totalitarian Obama Regime has become!

I first heard about the "The Modern Militia Movement" questionnaire on Glen Beck's radio show.

Stop the ACLU blog goes into much more detail, sharing the fact that a Secret document leaked: The Obama administration is branding libertarians and abortion opponents as hidden terrorists.

Excerpt:

“Militia members most commonly associate with 3rd party political groups,” the report reads. “It is not uncommon for militia members to display Constitutional Party, Campaign for Liberty or Libertarian material.” Other potential signals of militia involvement, according to the report, are possession of the Gagsden “Don’t Tread on Me” flag or the widely available anti-income tax film “America: Freedom to Fascism.”

I wonder whether or not they will eventually include Mark Levin's new book, Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto on their list?

Isn't it awful to see this terribly inept Resident in the White House and his neo-Marxist buddies continue to destroy not only the financial sector of our nation; but in addition to that, the liberty, freedoms, and pursuit of happiness that is guaranteed in our Constitution and other Charters of Freedom?

Excerpt from American Thinker article:

The overall plan of the book is simple and logical. Chapter One, "On Liberty and Tyranny," lays out the basic conceptual scheme. Levin contrasts two opposing political philosophies currently in contention: The Conservative versus the Statist. He grounds the Conservative in the values and insights on human nature of the American Founders, and does so economically and convincingly. For the other side of the debate, he quite correctly rejects the label "liberal", because in current usage the term has become entirely divorced from its literal meaning. He writes:

The Modern Liberal believes in the supremacy of the state.... For the Modern Liberal, the individual's imperfection and personal pursuits impede the objectives of a utopian state. In this, Modern Liberalism promotes what French Historian Alexis de Tocqueville called soft tyranny, which becomes increasingly more oppressive, partially leading to hard tyranny.... As the word "liberal" is, in its classical meaning, the opposite of authoritarian, it is more accurate, therefore, to characterize the Modern Liberal as a Statist. (p.4)

The following nine chapters, plus an epilogue containing Levin's own manifesto -- the political changes he posits as desirable (and with which I agree) -- are organized thematically, with titles such as On Prudence and Progress, On Faith and the Founding, On the Welfare State, and On Self Preservation (i.e., national security), wherein he encapsulates nearly all the major political issues of our day, providing essential up-to-date information, while also weaving in the wisdom a timeless thinkers ranging from Alexander Hamilton to St Augustine. As the book progresses, the chapters become more and more focused on current political disputes. But the beauty of the structure is that the principles discussed in the earlier chapters are brought to bear on the subsequent topics.

[Update: Nice Deb reports that the book has been out for one day and is already #1 at Amazon! More links to article about the book there, too.]

I wanted to see what Mr. Levin meant by "statist."

I think that the following definition fits.

stat·ism (stā'tĭz'əm) Pronunciation Key
n. The practice or doctrine of giving a centralized government control over economic planning and policy.
stat'ist adj. & n.


The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

We can already see the development of "soft tyranny" in the NOBama administration. Mark hits it exactly right when he writes, "which becomes increasingly more oppressive, partially leading to hard tyranny."

That is what all of the TEA parties going on across America are all protesting about! And, what is interesting is the fact that it is not only conservatives who are concerned about our current "soft tyrannical government," there are independents, libertarians, and even some liberals who are concerned about the neo-Marxist hard turn to the left that NOBama is taking this nation.

We are certainly

Taxed
Enough
Already

here in America. Leading us towards trillion dollar deficits is NOT THE ANSWER!

During the 60 Minutes interview, Mr. Kroft reveals that in a typical survey, only 18% of people agree with NOBama's economic policies! That means that a whopping 72% of the public THINKS NOBAMA'S ECONOMIC PLANS STINK AND WE ARE HEADING IN A DREADFULLY WRONG DIRECTION!

What is it going to take to reach this man? He's not a king. He's not a dictator (at least he's NOT SUPPOSED TO BE!).

Fellow Americans - we MUST rise up and get our voices heard and the message out that WE DON'T WANT THIS FORMER KENYAN VILLAGE IDIOT AND CLUELESS, RECKLESS CONGRESS TO COMMIT GENERATIONAL THEFT AND CREATE TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF DEFICITS!!

If only common sense ruled the day Washington D.C. I guess that is too much to ask with the many morons occupying seats in the Senate and the House.

Thankfully, there are still some SANE PEOPLE in Congress. Rep. Gohmert had a great idea that, unfortunately, never saw the light of day. Why? Because PeLIARsi and ReiDUNCE dismissed all of the Republicans (and their ideas) and were shut out of the financial problem debates.

If I recall correctly, Rep. Gohmert proposed a "tax holiday" for all Americans for only three months. If such a tax holiday was given for up to six months, it STILL would have cost 1/2 (estimate) less than the Stimulus bill!!! It would have IMMEDIATELY placed more money into the pockets of EVERY WORKING TAXPAYER and BUSINESS OWNER. In turn, the business owners would have been able to hire more people. Each taxpayer would have more money to spend and that spending would have most likely helped every industry (including the failing car sales giants) in dire straits right now, by having more of OUR OWN MONEY (after all, it is EACH AND EVERY WORKER'S MONEY - NOT THE GOVERNMENT'S IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!) to spend and get the economy going again. This idea would have had IMMEDIATE RESULTS!

Economically speaking, nothing happens until someone sells something. In turn, that means that someone else is buying. IMO, government SHOULD NOT BE IN THE BUSINESS OF SELLING!!! Especially when they are using OPM - Other People's Money in the most wasteful ways imaginable! The Democratic majority's mindset is "tax and spend." They know NOTHING about the correct way to run a business!!!

But don't take my word for it. After all, I'm just a dumb blogger. I'm not an economist. However, I listen to those economists who have shared their views that NOBama's economic policies are quite the disaster.

Even other countries are worried about this new NOBama administration making disastrous economic moves.

China Calls For New World Currency to Replace Dollar

I suggest you read the entire blog post and subsequent links, but here is a brief excerpt:

In February communist China warned Democrats not to discard the stable state of bilateral relations by following a "whatever-not-Bush" economic policy. Russia's Putin warned Democrats about socialism.

But, Democrats went ahead with their historic spending bills anyway.
These moves by democrats now have China concerned that skyrocketing inflation is on the way.

In response, China called for a new reserve currency to replace the dollar.

The Financial Times reported:

[A]nalysts said the proposal was an indication of Beijing’s fears that actions being taken to save the domestic US economy would have a negative impact on China.

“This is a clear sign that China, as the largest holder of US dollar financial assets, is concerned about the potential inflationary risk of the US Federal Reserve printing money,” said Qu Hongbin, chief China economist for HSBC.

The Democrats are so dishonest.

First, they can't ever admit that the Bush tax cuts helped boost our economy for 7 of the 8 years he was in office.

Second, many bloggers have caught on to their schemes. The economic disaster was a manufactured crisis (count how many Dems caused it!!!) to get their "boy" into office. Recall how they blamed it on Bush? Perhaps they didn't think it through all the way and being the "economic geniuses" they are (NOT!!) are now stunned to see how hard it is to stop this out of control train wreck going down the track of disaster.

Back to Levin's book.

I plan to get a copy today. Can't wait to read it!

We can see - just by the piled on economic turmoil that the NOBama admin. is creating (on top of the manufactured crisis in the first place!) is an example of "statist" mentality. It is a kind of "soft tyranny" that Mr. Levin mentions in his book - which will one day lead to hard tyranny - neo-Marxist Obama's plan in the first place. That is probably why he can get stoned and appear on 60 Minutes - laughing his way through the interview while Mr. Kroft sits there in unbelief asking him, "are you punch-drunk?"

Yep...drunk with his own Kool-Aid mixture and ObamaBorg mind - trying to ruin our economy and nation even before the close of the Lamestream media's stupid "100 days" landmark. It's becoming more and more obvious to millions of people - especially those who regret voting for the phony - his inexperience, haplessness, and clueless mindset on good economic policy will make the legacy of his first days more like, "How to ruin a nation in 100 days."

Hat Tips:

American Thinker

Stop The ACLU

GateWay Pundit

Nice Deb

*******
Related Articles:

The Weimar Solution

American Thinker: Is Obama Creating a BC Bubble?

Excerpt:

Nowadays, the success of our Treasury bond sales depends on the good will of China's Gao Xiqing, who controls over $700,000,000,000 of outstanding US treasury notes and who reportedly is a hard core Chinese Communist who regards America as China's enemy.


Why, then, is Obama pursuing this risky maneuver? We can imagine at least four possibilities, in order of increasing infamy:


* He is too naïve or ignorant to understand what he is risking.
* He knows but doesn't care, being interested only in what looks good for the moment.
* He wants to cause inflation, because inflation favors debtors and the biggest debtor in the United States is the United States. Moreover, inflation leads to devaluation of the dollar, which, as James Lewis recently pointed out, is one of the key objectives of puppet master George Soros.
* He wants to provoke a crisis of capitalism, as James Simpson has already suggested.

Whatever the reason, the effects could be devastating.