The Price of Liberty

"The conditions upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance, which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt"
John Philpot Curran, Irishman, 1789

I have realized in my six decades on this planet that the forces of evil and destruction never sleep. They may be stalled or thwarted, but they are absolutely relentless. While the rest of us are involved with our occupations, families and responsibilities, our enemies (and yes, I'll call them exactly what they are) are busy plotting and planning and implementing their designs. It's actually not far from an Oriental mindset, not that they're literate enough to appreciate it. The Chinese say that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and they know what their final destination is. Incrementalism is their tactic, and it has proven devastatingly effective. I'll give you one example from personal experience, if you'll forgive an excursion into religion.

I was raised in the Episcopal Church. In my youth, it was extremely conservative, orthodox and adherent to 500 years of Anglican tradition and Scriptural integrity. Slowly but surely, it has become by tiny steps something more like Unitarianism than the Anglican Catholic tradition I grew up in. Without making a judgement on whether those changes were good or bad, I will say that every single step along the way was made by people of no integrity, who lied about their ulitimate aims and intentions It went from “modernizing” the liturgy, to ordination of women, to ordination of women (now openly gay!) bishops, to censuring anyone who objected, though they had promised the opposite. Those who wished to “remake” the church were not content to just leave and establish a new work – no, they had to tear down the entire structure and remake it in their own image. This is, to my mind, exactly what has happened to our once proud Republic.

We cannot be content merely to beat back Cap and Tax, or Obamacare, and believe that we can then sit back and resume our productive lives. These bastards will not stop their assault on America until we stop them once and for all. Permanent eradication is probably not possible, but their entire structure and power base needs to be reduced to rubble. Therefore, this is an exhortation to not let up,and to
be “eternally vigilant”. I'll leave you with a snippet from a May 9 blog for a little encouragement, and a quote from the Father of our country, George Washington.

What I see happening is unbelievable organizing, networking and activism in opposition to any or all of the pathologies listed above. While it seems amorphous and disconnected from a distance, there is an incredible amount of crossover and communication among all freedom lovers regardless of their main issues. In the short term this will greatly pressure vulnerable Democrats and squishy Republicans in Congress to balk at further implementing disasters like cap and trade and nationalized health care. In a little over a year from now it will be a powerful grassroots lobby that will make it impossible for politicians to run away from their voting records just to get reelected, and will empower true limited government candidates to mount challenges by providing communications, manpower and money. Think of it in terms of a vast guerilla resistance movement – hundreds and thousands of small cells across the country all actively fighting the power structure, who can't possibly neutralize more than a few at a time. This makes the collectivists vulnerable because they can only think in terms of organizations, personalities and power, and can't really conceive of or counter a large underground bound together by principles rather than class or party. Make no mistake people, the enemy (and that's how we need to think of them) is ruthless and must be ultimately wiped out. This requires all of us to be determined, vocal and increasingly active, but we have the will to take the country back. As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “We must all hang together, or we shall surely hang separately”. I don't intend to be the one on the wrong end of the rope! Let's roll!

The time is near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.

George Washington, August 27, 1776

Crunch Time

Well folks, it has finally come down to crunch time. Given the atrocities this Congress and administration have already committed against this country, the latest two outrages are way too close to passage. Either of the Cap/Trade or Health Care Reform bills, if implemented, will push this country off the cliff. Both of them would spell the death of the wonderful experiment known as America.

The sheer arrogance and ignorance of those in Washington is truly beyond comprehension. No person with one ounce of fiscal sanity could possible believe that you can spend your way out of debt, triple the supply of money without inflation, tax productivity and expect to get more of it, and, most psychotic of all, expect government to manage anything more efficiently than the private sector. A person only a little more paranoid that JohnGaltLives might even think it was all part of a purposeful plan to cripple America so that the federal government can then control every facet of American life and commerce.

So here we are. TeaParty protests, September 12 marches on DC, more states (go Alaska!) claiming sovereignty will not be able to forestall the devastation that would result from a federal takeover of energy or health care. Both must be stopped, and put six feet under right now. It is absolutely imperative that all of us put as much pressure as possible on our “public servants” to derail this socialist power grab. Yes, nothing is forever, but any government program comes close, and undoing the incredible damage done will be a long a painful uphill battle.

It's time to rise up and make all the noise you can, patriots – it's crunch time.

Rage, Despair and Redemption

Oh yes, JohnGaltLives is mad – really really mad. It might be easier to list the things that don't set me off these days, Even a partial list of things that ought to upset anyone with an IQ above room temperature is seemingly endless- mindless self-indulgent politicians, corrupt administration bureacrats, financial manipulators who would sell out their country for profit, and let's not forget a media that has lost all interest in truth and objectivity. But I'm not angry all the time..

By nature, I've always been a pretty upbeat positive person, but I've experienced more periods of despair in the last 6 months than the rest of my life put together. No amount of activism, networking, or praying seems to stop the insanity for more than a moment. I grieve for 50 million dead babies, .I find little beauty or edification in 90 percent of what passes for “entertainment”. I'm appalled that supposed “news organizations” feel compelled to give Princess Diana style wall-to-wall coverage to Michael Jackson's death. Try to remember how much coverage Mother Teresa got, and how much of even that was devoted to her so-called crisis of faith. I'm astounded that my own Congressman Dennis Moore (D-KS), a self-described moderate and fiscal conservative in a red state could march in lockstep with Nancy Pelosi. His office was deluged with calls, letters and e-mails opposing cap/trade, yet his staff maintained he was still undecided less than 24 hours before the vote. He of course supported the bill, and it turns out he was actively trying to persuade other wavering Democrats the whole time. I see an economy in shambles and policies in response which can only guarantee unneeded suffering and misery for generations to come.

And yet, and yet.... that's still not the whole story. In the midst of all this outrage and hopelessness is the one, and the only one thing in the entire universe that really matters. You see, whether you acknowledge Him or not, there is a Creator God who endows us with our rights. He's bigger than any person or pathology, more intelligent than all Nobel prize winners combined, and most importantly, more loving and compassionate than a million Mother Teresas. He actually wants us to live in peace and comfort in relationship (not blind subservience) with Him He really is in the business of second chances- that's what redemption's all about. Ultimately, the root of our problem- political, financial, personal, whatever- comes from being out of that relationship. Until America regains her moral foundations, no amount of genius will ever fix what ails us. King Solomon heard this word:

“If my people,who are called by My name, will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Twenty-two centuries later, John Adams still knew this truth:

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

As we go about our daily battles, let's keep in mind what's most important. Only then will we be able to say with confidence, God Bless America!