Do Good For the People

Share

Elana Kagan gave a speech years ago in which she basically drooled over how great Barack Obama was. Kagan says Obama left his teaching position at the University of Chicago so that he could do more for the people. Anyone who leaves an institution of higher learning to ‘do more for the people’ uses that as a ruse for their own aggrandizement. The most important work you can do for the people is to raise your children well. Next to that, it would be to help other people raise their children well. To that end, it would have been more fitting to become a Boy Scout Scoutmaster or to expand his teaching to more sections or more institutions or maybe a different institution where he could influence more people or people more efficiently. What Barack Obama wanted to really do was get more power over the people, under the auspices that it would help him serve them better.

Consider if you will a scene from the life of Sir Thomas More. In A Man for All Seasons, a young acquaintance of his, Richard Rich, comes to him in search of an appointment at court. More knows why Rich wants that and recommends that if he wants to make a difference, why not be a teacher. You know that Rich doesn’t really want to make a difference in a way that matters because his next move is to complain about who would know him if he did that. This is the hallmark of a narcissist- they do great service to be seen of men and not for the sake of the service itself. As answer to his selfishness, More replies with a brilliant comment about who would notice Rich’s service, “You; your pupils; your friends; God. Not a bad public, that.” Rich, like Obama, wanted to serve in such a way that he would be seen of men.

In the end of that story, Richard Rich ascends to a position of courtly authority over Wales, in exchange for his soul. His life, and his accusations against More testify to the fact that his aspirations were never so much about whom else he might serve but rather about how he might best serve himself. It is a common tendency of the left to claim they do what they do for the good of the people. They will lay hold on charity and adopt Christian virtues when it serves them. However, Christianity at its core says that great love and great service consists in sacrifice of self. Liberals never sacrifice of themselves. At the time of the 2008 election, Joe Biden had given in his entire lifetime to charity what I donate annually. Oh, they want you to sacrifice, but they selfishly horde what is theirs, and of course so that they can better serve.

Most people who are interested and invested in the public good work unseen and with people you may never meet. Very few politicians are interested in the public good. If you want to really do more for the people, do good works for people you can actually see. Then you will know that your efforts reached their intended targets, and you will be able to see the fruits of your labor blossom in the lives of people you actually know.

Court Appointments are No Joke

Share

Nominee Kagan cracked jokes in her hearings today. She and the media think it's a great sign and a great thing that she derailed the hearings. Kagan's flippancy shows a blatant disregard for the solemnity of the occasion of nomination to the Supreme Court. That which she obtains too easily she esteems very lightly.

This is a serious matter. Constitutional government is at stake, and when she gets on the court (as she probably will), it will mean Government Healthcare, Nationalization of Industry, Suspension of Gun Ownership, Higher Taxes, More Laws, More Welfare Programs, ad infinitum.

Some Republican Senators and other people will think that because she makes some blithe promises in a hearing that they can count on her when the preponderance of her actions tell the opposite. Elena Kagan is a close personal friend of Barack Obama. What do you think she will do? Kagan will vote lock step with Obama. She thinks that just because she is nominated that she deserves a seat on the Supreme Court. Nobody deserves a seat on a court. Those seats are YOUR seats. They belong to the people, and anyone who sits in one of those seats who votes against the Constitution is a traitor and knows it.

Unpretentious Unsung Heroes

Share

Today I watched this video about a D-Day survivor who finally received 13 medals for which he had been recommended during his service in World War II. Like the man I met who came ashore that fateful day when I worked the polls in 2008, this man exemplifies the sort of selfless service and sacrifice sadly absent from America apparently today. I for one am glad to see him rightly honored.

We miss a lot of heroes. Often, it's because nobody knows their stories, and many of those stories go untold because the men in them felt like they did nothing special. I gave a talk in church a few months ago. I am for some inexplicable reason held in high regard among members of my Faith in general, so I told them that I don't do anything special. I just do my duty. That's what these men did, and that's why we don't know their names.

Heroism goes beyond the battlefield. This particular type of hero is easier to identify. There are great neighbors, storekeepers, teachers, students, strangers, and friends who have been heroes to us in their own way. Most of them just do their duty. We are their opus, and what we do with our lives as a result is our tribute to their sacrifice.

What will we do with the freedom this Sergeant helped secure?

I Can Be Your Friend

Share

Today, I looked back at an article I wrote about what it means to me to be my friend. I begin to think about how Christ meant that word. Just now, Thom has said the greatest service he can give to his friends is to know them. Christ calls all men his friends, no matter what they do. How much then does Christ know us?

In the ancient pagan tradition, to be forgotten meant to cease to exist. One of the worst insults, up even into the 1700s was “Forget you”, which may have morphed into “Fuck you”. At funerals, we speak of how we remember the dead, who then pass from our memories by and large within a few years. Jesus, at his death, thought of his friends. He knew them. He knows us. He knows his friends, who they are, what they need, why they are the way they are, and that is why he can do for us what he does.

From an analysis of the language, we get some clues into what happens between people who do not take the time to get to know one another. One of the speakers in church yesterday made a joke that they dated for 11 months which means that unlike other couples in Provo, UT, they actually knew one another. From the German ‘vergessen’ we get the following origins: 'gietan' - Old Norse = beget, obtain. The opposite of that word would be "throw away" or similar and opposite of beget would be "disown" maybe or in the URL world "Unfriend"? I have only done that once.

To “Unfriend” someone, in the language of Facebook, then becomes one of the most offensive things a person can do. As we do that, we tell them we forget them, that we choose to treat them as the strangers they have earned the right to be. Sometimes we didn’t really know them anyway because they were UnReal Lives (URL), but if we learn that we don’t know them even if we met them In Real Life (IRL), and we reduce them to a virtual essence, they cease to exist for us. The worst thing good men can do to bad men is to ignore them completely. That is what Christ has promised to do to the sons of perdition, “and then will I profess to them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matt 7:23) ”

I am wary of URL relationships. It is hard enough to get to know someone IRL and realize if you know the real person. Part of the trouble is that we know them in a single context, which is only part of their true self. I believe that’s part of why people say “I don’t know you at all, man” or why couples break up. Until they get to know the whole person, do they really know you? Until they see you in enough situations, how good of a relationship can you really have?

I can be your friend. Let me get to know you. Ask me questions about me. When we know each other, we can really be friends, and when we are friends, perhaps we can be more.

Plan Your Priorities

Share

Last week I watched this ‘save the animals’ video that made me very sad. It also gave me a great deal of useful perspective that goes beyond animals. So, every night, I have given my beagle some special and personal attention to show him that I love him. He was there when I had nobody else.

Truth is, there are other things that I value that are there and that will remain even if a romantic relationship ends. Most people drop all the things they had before- jobs, friends, family activities, hobbies, normal appointments, when they get involved in a romantic relationship. My sister and I both get annoyed at that. Two female friends of mine barely talk to me now that they have guys in their lives about whom they are excited. They weren’t great friends per se, but I have been dropped completely as long as things work out.

Then there’s me. I love feeding the homeless Fridays. I enjoy the spirit in John Dalrymple’s class on Thursday nights. I love sacrament meeting. After I get a boy scout troop set up, that will be a priority for me. My dog has been there when nobody else was. He patiently listened to my frustrations in return for a scratch behind his ears and a treat. I look forward to our trip to WY this year in August. Those things will remain even if romance fades, and so it would be ill advised of me to supplant those regular commitments for something new and blooming. If you throw away your family, your friends, your faith and your fellowship, if the romance doesn’t work out, what do you have left? Yet, that’s exactly what we do all the time. Why?

I am not sure why people do this. Maybe it’s for the excitement. Perhaps it’s because it’s what we would rather do with our time. The fact of the matter is that it is an unknown putative eventuality into which we throw everything we take from things that were there before and which may remain afterwards. I love spending time with women toward whom I could feel love, but there are other things I love too. They are good things, they are right things, and they are things with which any woman who loves me should be comfortable if she really means it.

Like in the ad, I will do what I can to keep things priorities in my life that made me a priority in theirs. My dog was there before my date. My family was there before I even knew what a date was. My hobbies are things I would like to do with my date but which I will continue to do because I really enjoy them. I made commitments to these people and organizations, and if I keep my word to them, she can rest more surely that I will keep mine to her as well.

McChrystal Falls on His Sword

Share

In ancient times, when soldiers faced defeat, they would fall on their swords rather than lose their honor. Unfortunately today LtGEN McChrystal fell on his sword for "bad judgment" in allowing his aides to criticize the President. I had hopes that the general, whom I esteem greatly, would stand by his principles to the end. Under pressure from the President and for reasons at which I can only speculate, he took the fall. This is one reason I would have never excelled in the military.

General McChrystal is not the first person to turn on national leaders. History will determine whether he was right. For example, if the British had quashed Washington's army, Benedict Arnold would have been held up as a hero. Instead, George Washington, who essentially did the same thing to King George III that McChrystal did to Barack Obama, is esteemed as a great American hero.

Some of my friends are vociferously opposed to McChrystal's comments. They have obviously not actually read the transcript or the rational for his remarks. What infuriates me most is that some of these are military wives whose husbands are or recently were engaged in combat operations. Of course, many of these same wives have complained about their husbands' service (as if it's a surprise- we're at war people!), so I shouldn't be surprised that they are anti-McChrystal.

Moreover, these people were critical openly about President Bush, and they don't think there was anything wrong with that. Apparently, there exists a double standard for them. This kind of attitude betrays that they are convinced, and when you are sure, it is likely that you are wrong. Of course, it was ok for them to criticize Bush, but if anyone, including the man tasked with protecting the life of their husband, son, brother, father, etc., does so and that criticism is of their political hero, then shame on that person.
\
These people are the first to criticize others for not living up to their lofty morality. It's easy to adhere to your personal code if you don't have one at all. These people live with one of the worst double standards imaginable. Remember that it was perfectly ok for Berny Madoff to steal documents from the archives, for William Clinton to perform acts of lewdness with interns in the oval office, and for Timothy Geithner to cheat on his taxes, but heaven forbid you do anything wrong. So it's offensive to have a National ID Card or require Aliens to carry paperwork but it's acceptable for the Democrats to require us to carry a biometric card with our fingerprints on it for employment purposes? You oppress the legal citizen while you give the criminal resident a pass? Who in Falkirk do you think you are?

McChrystal and those who agree with him, and not Al Qaeda, are the enemy.

Be careful while you look for the mote in my eye not to gouge something out with the beam that is in your own.

Salute General McChrystal

Share

General McChrystal was summoned to the White House for the monthly meeting with the President after he spoke disprovingly of the President. I have some military friends who have confirmed that their official position is that they have no position on the President. This man is a man of principle, who put the men and women under his command first. This is also one reason why my father feared about my future in the military since I am prone to speak out when I see stupidity.

From the start, Obama has stonewalled McChrystal. When the general asked for troops, the president gave him the absolute minimum number with which he thought he could get away. Obviously, McChrystal is more concerned with the soldiers than with a fifth star, as evidenced by the fact that he allowed his aides to run roughshod over Obama in a Rolling Stone article. It is perfectly acceptable in my mind for a general to be disappointed with an administration. McChrystal has been ignored since he took over the visible position once held by Petraus. Grant, after all, knew how to fight a war, and despite Lincolns pleasure with his handling, the two butted heads a lot.

McChrystal has the right plan. He just didn't have the manpower. It recalls to mind what the French General in Algiers asked of politicians during their rebellion: Does France want to win? Then France must be willing to do what it takes. Obama is not. There is nothing in it for him that he wants.

McChrystal is not the man the president wants as commander of the military. The president seeks a yes man. As opposed to Obama, McChrystal sleeps only a few hours per night, exercises daily (not golf), and is on the ground with his men. He used to command the Delta Force. He is a man I salute.

In a world ruled by injustice, the only place for a just man is in prison. -Thoreau

Same Demonization of Oil as Always

Share

This morning before I left for work, I caught a glimpse of an episode of "Saved by the Bell" that my sister was watching before she got ready for the day. I remember seeing it years ago when it was new, and it struck me how similar the propaganda was for both sides twenty one years ago.

The episode "Pipe Dreams" first aired in October 1989. They dream of how the oil proceeds can help their school. Then, because some animals get killed, they petition the principle to stop the drilling, and I presume that Jessie, the prototype envirostatist character, prevails for the future.

They still make the same case.

Get Behind Angle

Share

I know some people aren't very happy about the Nevada Republican Primary results. As I feared, there will be some members of the various factions who refuse to get behind the nominee. In the end, they hurt everyone with this attitude.

Much of what Harry Reid has said about Angle is untrue. As I mention in a previous article, even before the election Angle's opponents ran the SAME ADVERTISMENTS as Harry Reid that criticize her for Scientology, her voting record, and her prison plan. Even the Review Journal admitted that these were half truths and whole lies. Plus, Harry Reid's ads during the campaign were almost all untrue. He touts the jobs created but ignores the jobs lost. He says he's done great things for us, while Nevada runs dead last in everything good and first in everything bad. Nicely done Harry.

You may not like the Republican nominee, but she is the only way to beat Harry. I don't like that she hides from the media or has an inactive website, at least last time I checked. I have some advice to impart to her when I can finally reach her. However, if you do not get behind Angle, Harry Reid will win. That would be a crime. Harry Reid could give a flying flapjack what you think. Angle might not be much better, but she's better than he is.

Furthermore, she is the candidate against whom he wanted to run. It would be a gross error in actual strategy to have announced that unless it were a lie. He has already descended to personal attacks and speaks very little of her actual policy and voting record. Angle isn't perfect, but she's the best chance we have. Lowden acted like I expected a beauty pageant winner to act, Tarkanian spoke in diplomatic terms- appropriately polite yet vague, and only Angle talks in concert with the Constitution. Now her challenge is to convince the people that to follow the Constitution is in their best interests.

I know you want the government to do things for you. Until and unless it's expressly written into the Constitution, the government has neither power nor authority to act in those capacities, no matter for what the people may clamor. If you want it to change, change the Constitution. In this, Angle does right. She just sells it horribly wrong.

Sharon is the Right Angle. She squares well with the Constitution.

No amount of money or advertisement will change the fact that Harry Reid carries primary responsibility for the malaise in which America finds herself. Angle had nothing to do with that. Judge people by their actions. That speaks louder than words, we always say. Prove it with your votes.

Acceptable Pollution Limits

Share

Yesterday, I spent about an hour reading a committee report to Senator Inhofe (R-OK) from March 2006 on the Yucca Mountain Nuclear repository. Among other things, as I listen to people complain about the oil 'gushing' into the ocean, I find some of the comments from this report interesting and illustrative.

The report establishes 'acceptable' exposure levels to radiation at 15 mREM/year. They have had to go to a great degree of effort to show that their preparations mitigate any damage to the people, yet the report shows that the EPA gerrymandered the boundaries (see figure on page 6 of the report) so that the aquifer would dilute the flow of radionucleotides into the population.

Now, as we consider that, the present administration refuses to consider the dilution of oil particles in the gulf of mexico. I heard yesterday that if you dilute the oil into the Gulf waters alone, it would mean something like 1/1 millionth of an ounce of oil in a bathtub full of water. Yet, despite that scale, the administration conflagrates the problem and makes it sound like a big deal.

The danger comes in the form of delivery. Oil is a big deal on land, and nuclear waste is a big deal in water.

I love how there is a double standard applied by this administration to dilution when they held the previous administration to such stringent restrictions.

Not that I want nuclear waste in Nevada, but this report makes it sound like it's coming ashore, whether we want it or not.

If Angle Wants to Beat Reid

Share

I wrote a letter to Sharron Angle, the Republican nominee to run against Harry Reid in November for the US Senate, but her website is not functional. Since I figure I run about the same chance that she will see what I have to say here as she will if I mail it if it can run the gamut of her advisors and interns, I decided just to post the meat of it here.

Mrs. Angle, Harry Reid has done you a favor. He runs the same attack advertisements run by Danny Tarkanian during the primary, except that he made a mistake. He quoted you in context. It is well known that you oppose social security. Tell us why.

Do continue to stand up for the Constitution and rule of law.
Do represent the wishes of your constituents.
Do sell us on why you believe what you believe.
Do articulate that the right way to have our wishes done is to grant the government that power.

You run a great risk of alienating the people you want to represent. Everyone knows that Harry Reid could give a flying flapjack what we think. If you win the election, it does NOT mean that a majority agrees with EVERYTHING you say. Be different. Act like a Republican and represent the will of the people. Now, they may want something to which you have neither power nor authority. Explain how that works and then if they want it, work to amend the Constitution. It has been done before- with Prohibition. If, however, the people after your best effort to sell them what you think is best want to ensconce Social welfare programs in perpetuity, then YOU ARE OBLIGATED TO DO IT. If that's too hard for you, then you do not belong in Congress.

If you want to beat Reid, you have to be different from him. Do your business by the voice of the people, or they will replace you too.

Unless you do these things, I predict Reid will win reelection, which would be a real shame.

Israel- Buffer for the World

Share

The President made a grave mistake in his choice of allies. Instead of backing Israel, he condemned them for their attack on the Turkish ship. He stands by and does nothing about threats from Arab nations and attacks Israel. All the while he talks about being a global citizen, befriends our enemies and alienates our allies. Apparently, he's a global citizen, unless you're an Israeli.

Israel is an ally. Israel is a Democracy. Israel has a right to defend its sovereign borders. The ships that were boarded carried something other than peace-loving beatniks with medical supplies. If that were all they had aboard, then they would have accepted the offer of either Egypt (which is participating in the blockade with Israel) or Israel to put to put outside Gaza and have the Red Cross transport the supplies in.

Gaza is a terrorist enclave and the people on those boats knew that. When the IDF boarded, they were attacked and asked for clearance to use deadly force. It is easy to be back seat drivers and talk about what they could do, but they were attacked with brutal force. People say we should take them prisoner, but just today there's a story about the problem with the pirates they have captured.

Today Mark Belling asked on the radio "Why must Israel be saintly in a world of sinners?" When israel does anything even remotely bad, it's treated as the greatest crime of all time; when people victimize Israel, which is almost daily, it is allowed to pass without honorable mention. Let us also remember that Israel was the TARGET of some of the greatest crimes of all time. Ever since they left Egypt, the descendents of Israel have been targeted by empires for the fertile land and strategic crossroads. Bablyon, Assyria, and Persia in turn conquered them. The Greeks and the Romans took their turn. Christian Crusades were launched in part to punish the Jews for their murder of Christ. In our era, the Holocaust was launched as part of a continuing world-wide effort to villainize the Jews for everything that is wrong in this world.

Any concession is not enough. Give Hamas two blocks, and they'll want four more.
What do they want Israel to do? To die. Any criticism of Obama is viewed as racist. I daresay almost all of the criticism of Israel comes from anti-semitism.

Meanwhile, Israel draws the fire and the vehement anger of the radical terrorist muslim movement. Israelis live with terror acts as a commonplace occurance.

I empathize with Israel because like them, I am also held to an almost impossible standard. I can think of no other reason for it other than antagonism against their religion and my own. Like Israel, my Faith is relatively small and is the major population in only one state in the US. Argue whatever you like, but it comes down to our religious beliefs. They do not apply those standards to anyone else because nobody else would even be capable of meeting those standards.

Dear members of the IDF. Thank you for keeping us safe. If you were gone, the things that happen on your streets would happen on ours. It would not be enough if they had Israel. They want to destroy all of the infidels, which includes us. I love buffers. They keep things in check.