Tag: liberty

July 4, 2013: Through the Night With a Light From Above.

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

WashingtonPrayingMy country tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died!

Land of the Pilgrim’s pride!

From every mountain side,

Let freedom ring!

Like many of you, I have been watching events unfold halfway across the globe in the streets of Egypt.  Egypt’s President Morsi, and his fellow travelers in the Muslim Brotherhood, have been tossed out on their ears by their opposition in the last election, aided by the Egyptian Military. The world witnessed a remarkable scene the other day, as one third of that ancient nation took to the streets to march for their freedom from oppression, in a scene reminiscent of Moses leading the Jewish people out of bondage, all those centuries ago.

237 years ago today, our forefathers declared their freedom from oppression, too.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Freedom. What a unique, yet, misunderstood word. What is Freedom? It is the ability to do whatever one wishes, regardless of the consequences to those around us, including family and friends?

NO. That would be licentiousness, debauchery, or simply being a libertine.

So, how do we define our American Freedom?

I believe our American Freedom is a unique gift from God.

Our forefathers braved harsh ocean voyages, only to then have to endure miserable living conditions, including savage Indians, exposure to the elements, and disease, in order to secure Freedom to worship God as they wished.

Our Freedom, or Liberty, if you will, springs not from self-centered lustful desires, but a desire to make a better life for ourselves, our family, and those who follow behind us. Our Liberty is an expression of our human hearts which springs from a Divine Origin.

Our Founders understood the dangers they faced when the set out to this sacred land. Their’s was a voyage of faith, a journey of hope, full of joyous anticipation at what their new home would be like and what their new life would be like.

When they got here and began to forge their new lives, they soon found themselves to still be under the oppressive rule of King George III.

They choice they made to declare their independence was not an easy one, and the war to achieve their freedom cost many lives and much sacrifice.

Personal Sacrifice was accepted by these Freedom Fighters with no questions asked.  Sacrifices were made to secure their freedom…and ours.

Those citizen soldiers understood that with Freedom comes Responsibility…a responsibility to the idea of Freedom, to their fellow “Americans”, and to prosperity. They knew this was a serious decision. They also knew by Whom’s Grace they would gain their freedom…

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Present-day America is in the middle of our own struggle for freedom. Our present Administration has been attacking the freedoms which our forefathers promised us in our nation’s Constitution, precious freedoms which our nations Best and Brightest have fought and died to protect.

Licentiousness and self-centerness revolving around relative morality and situational ethics are our nation’s cultural norms. Or, at least that is what our Administration and their sycophants in the Main Stream Media try to sell us every day.

Some of our citizens will tell you that as long as your behavior “doesn’t hurt anybody”, you can do whatever you want, in the name of Liberty, redefining the meaning of a word which our Founders pledged their sacred honor to defend to the death.

America’s populace is still struggling through the worst economic situation our country has seen since the Great Depression.  Approximately 20% of our countrymen are unemployed, underemployed, or have just plain given up.  One-sixth of our nation has to rely on assistance from our government just to have food on the table, while remaining under the governance of a president who worships a Far Left political ideology steeped in the redistribution of wealth teachings of Karl Marx and Saul Alinsky.

Americans have watched, feeling helpless, as he and his self-centered minions in Congress took our tax dollars and spent all of it and then some, as if there was no tomorrow, leaving our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren with a debt that this shining city on a hill may never recover from.

Meanwhile, those whom we have elected to serve us, are serving themselves, by trying to create new voters from those who have entered our country illegally.

While, at the same time, Americans are protesting to keep their perceived “right” to murder the unborn, denying them the chance to vote…and to live, while shouting “Hail Satan!” and “Jesus should have been aborted”.

We have watched, with our mouths hanging wide open, as the President of the United States and his State Department, have reached out to embrace and fund the very barbarians that want to murder each and every one of us, while at the same time, criticizing and alienating our closest allies.

For example, yesterday, the “Leader of the Free World” pledged his continued support for the ousted Egyptian President and the Grandfather of Islamic Terrorist Organizations, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Now, I’m just spitballin’ here…but, shouldn’t the President of the United States of America be standing for Freedom, not for Oppression?

Shouldn’t he be protecting us from our sworn enemies, not inviting them to OUR White House and hugging their necks?

Shouldn’t we be allowed in OUR OWN HOUSE?

Our nation is experiencing a very dark time.

In such a dark time as this, the words of the great, classic Patriot Anthem, written by the legendary Irving Berlin, which made the late, great songstress, Kate Smith famous, shine through as a beacon of hope…and a fervent prayer to Our Creator…

While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,

Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free.

Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,

As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer:

God bless america, land that I love,

Stand beside her and guide her

Through the night with a light from above.

From the mountains, to the prairies,

To the oceans white with foam,

God bless america,

My home sweet home.

Happy 4th of July, Americans!

God bless us…everyone!

Until He Comes,

KJ

The Brandenburg Gate: A Tale of Two Speeches

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

reaganThe following remarks are an excerpt from the “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” speech given at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Germany on June 12, 1987 by President Ronald Wilson Reagan…

In these four decades, as I have said, you Berliners have built a great city. You’ve done so in spite of threats–the Soviet attempts to impose the East-mark, the blockade. Today the city thrives in spite of the challenges implicit in the very presence of this wall. What keeps you here?

Certainly there’s a great deal to be said for your fortitude, for your defiant courage. But I believe there’s something deeper, something that involves Berlin’s whole look and feel and way of life– not mere sentiment. No one could live long in Berlin without being completely disabused of illusions. Something instead, that has seen the difficulties of life in Berlin but chose to accept them, that continues to build this good and proud city in contrast to a surrounding totalitarian presence that refuses to release human energies or aspirations. Something that speaks with a powerful voice of affirmation, that says yes to this city, yes to the future, yes to freedom. In a word, I would submit that what keeps you in Berlin is love–love both profound and abiding.

Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between East and West. The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront. Years ago, before the East Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure: the television tower at Alexander Platz. Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the tower’s one major flaw, treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind. Yet even today when the Sun strikes that sphere–that sphere that towers over all Berlin– the light makes the sign of the cross. There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed. As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner, “This wall will fall.

Beliefs become reality.” Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.

And I would like, before I close, to say one word. I have read, and I have been questioned since I’ve been here about certain demonstrations against my coming. And I would like to say just one thing, and to those who demonstrate so. I wonder if they have ever asked themselves that if they should have the kind of government they apparently seek, no one would ever be able to do what they’re doing again.

Thank you and God bless you all.

Yesterday, our current president spoke at the same location, before a sparse crowd of 4,500. During his world-wide campaign to become United States President in 2008, he spoke before an adoring throng of 200,000.

I do believe that, like the majority of Americans, Europeans have caught on to our Prevaricator-in Chief.

Compare the following excerpt of Obama’s speech, to President Reagan’s.

Peace with justice means pursuing the security of a world without nuclear weapons, no matter how distant that dream may be. And so as president, I’ve strengthened our efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and reduce the number and role of America’s nuclear weapons. Because of the New START Treaty, we’re on track to cut American and Russian deployed nuclear warheads to their lowest levels since the 1950s.

But we have more work to do. So today, I’m announcing additional steps forward. After a comprehensive review, I’ve determined that we can ensure the security of America and our allies-and maintain a strong and credible strategic deterrent-while reducing our deployed strategic nuclear weapons by up to one-third. And I intend to seek negotiated cuts with Russia to move beyond Cold War nuclear postures.

At the same time, we’ll work with our NATO allies to seek bold reductions in U.S. and Russian tactical weapons in Europe. And we can forge a new international framework for peaceful nuclear power, reject the nuclear weaponization that North Korea and Iran may be seeking.

America will host a summit in 2016 to continue our efforts to secure nuclear materials around the world, and we will work to build support in the United States to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and call on all nations to begin negotiations on a treaty that ends the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons.

These are steps we can take to create a world of peace with justice.

Peace with justice means refusing to condemn our children to a harsher, less hospitable planet. The efforts to slow climate change requires bold action, and on this, Germany and Europe have led. In the United States, we have recently doubled our renewable energy from clean sources, like wind and solar power. We’re doubling fuel efficiency on our cars. Our dangerous carbon emissions have come down, but we know we have to do more. And we will do more.

With a global middle class consuming more energy every day, this must now be an effort of all nations, not just some, for the grim alternative affects all nations: more severe storms, more famine and floods, new waves of refugees, coast lines that vanish, oceans that rise.

This is the future we must avert. This is the global threat of our time. And for the sake of future generations, our generation must move toward a global compact to confront a changing climate before it is too late. That is our job. That is our task.

We have to get to work.

Peace with justice means meeting our moral obligations. And we have a moral obligation and a profound interest in helping lift the impoverished corners of the world by promoting growth so we spare a child born today a lifetime of extreme poverty; by investing in agriculture, so we aren’t just sending food, but also teaching farmers to grow food; by strengthening public health so we’re not just sending medicine, but training doctors and nurses who will help end the outrage of children dying from preventable diseases; making sure that we do everything we can to realize the promise, an achievable promise of the first AIDs-free generation. That is something that is possible if we feel a sufficient sense of urgency.

Our efforts have to be about more than just charity. They’re about new models of empowering people, to build institutions, to abandon the rot of corruption, to-create ties of trade, not just aid, both with the West and among the nations that are seeking to rise and increase their capacity. Because when they succeed, we will be more successful as well. Our fates are linked. We cannot ignore those who are yearning, not only for freedom, but also prosperity.

And, finally, let’s remember that peace with justice depends on our ability to sustain both the security of our societies and the openness that defines them. Now, threats to freedom don’t merely come from the outside. They can emerge from within, from our own fears, from the disengagement of our citizens. For over a decade, America’s been at war. Yet much has now changed over the five years since I last spoke here in Berlin. The Iraq war is now over. The Afghan war is coming to an end. Osama bin Laden is no more. Our efforts against Al Qaida…

… are evolving. And, given these changes, last month I spoke about America’s efforts against terrorism. And I drew inspiration from one of our founding fathers, James Madison, who wrote, “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” James Madison is right, which is why even as we remain vigilant about the threat of terrorism, we must move beyond the mind-set of perpetual war.

And in America, that means redoubling our efforts to close the prison at Guantanamo.

During that speech, Obama quoted President Kennedy, who said, during his  “Ich bin ein Berliner” Speech,

Let me ask you to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today and beyond the freedom of merely this city. Look to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind.

Translation:

Pay no attention to that Muslim with the bomb strapped around his waist. We’ll just talk nicely to him, and he’ll stop. Or, we’ll arrest him and give him a fair trial by a jury of his peers. We are the world. We are the people. It’s true we make a better place…just you and me.

Obama’s Pollyanna b.s. aside, why does this Kenyan Kaiser have to run down America, every place he speaks? Why does he have to insult us? Is he embarrassed by American Exceptionalism?

It is only through American Exceptionalism, (and his anonymous puppet masters) that his less-that-brilliant rear got to attend Harvard, where he became the only Editor of the Harvard Law Review never to publish a single paper.

Regarding his sketchy history and “record of achievement”…he didn’t build that.

Reagan spoke of America as “a Shining City on a Hill”. Obama speaks of us as “just another country”.

Reagan spoke of courage, freedom, the power of the individual, and liberty. Obama speaks about “shared sacrifice”.

Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” …and he did it. Obama said, “I’m going to close down Gitmo!” And, it remains open.

Reagan loved his country. Obama loves the rest of the world more.

And, that is why he is failing as the President of the greatest country on the face of God’s green Earth.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama’s Gun Control Announcement: “So, This is How Liberty Dies…”

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

guncontrolToday is the day that President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) is going to announce his plan to disarm law-abiding Americans. (If any of y’all think that anything he proposes today will keep guns out of the hand of criminals, I have two bridges over the Mississippi River at Memphis to sell you.)

The Washington Post has the story:

President Obama on Wednesday will formally announce the most aggressive and expansive national gun-control agenda in generations as he presses Congress to mandate background checks for all firearm buyers and prohibit assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips.

The announcement will set off a fierce confrontation with Congress over an issue that has riven American society for decades. Obama’s far-reaching firearms agenda has at best tepid support from his party leaders and puts him at loggerheads with Democratic centrists.

Days before his second inauguration, Obama is seeking to drive the guns debate in a way that contrasts with the accommodating approach he often took during his first term. In the weeks ahead, he will attempt to rally popular support to bend the will of lawmakers to vote for what he considers the ideal, not merely the possible.

“Yes, we can reduce gun violence, but it’s something we have to do together,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday. “It’s something that cannot be done by a president alone. It can’t be done by a single community alone or a mayor or a governor or by Congress alone. We all have to work together.”

Obama will begin this effort Wednesday in the presence of children who wrote him letters after last month’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., and who have been invited to Washington to attend the rollout.

When news leaked out that ol’ Scooter was going to use children for props for his gun grabfest tomorrow, Conservatives’ ire got raised.  I know that mine sure did.

Megyn Kelly tackled the subject of Obama using children as props on her Fox News Program.

After it was revealed that tomorrow’s announcement on gun control will feature children standing beside the president, Fox News’ America Live panel debated whether those kids are being used “as props” to help the White House advance its desired policies.

Conservative radio host Chris Plante kicked off the debate by lamenting that this sort of move “has become de rigueur in American politics, but it’s clinical, it is shameless, it is the use of children as props to advance an agenda that existed long before the Sandy Hook tragedy.”

He continued to tear into the idea: “[The children] will be stacked according to skin color and ethnicity to frame the president’s face because it’s essentially part of the propaganda package as they present their bill of goods that will not solve the problem that we’re attempting to solve,” he said.

Host Megyn Kelly then brought up the fact that the children wrote to the president and were given permission by their parents to appear at the event, but asked if Obama was trying to “guilt the opposition.”

Liberal contributor Leslie Marshall responded that “I don’t think he’s trying to guilt anybody,” and that having children stand with the president is unlikely to sway minds on an issue so divisive as gun control. However, she cited the fact that previous presidents, left and right, have used children for major bill signings, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and Megan’s Law.

Kelly then challenged Plante to consider whether he’d be as outraged “if a Republican president came out and pushed an anti-abortion bill and had a bunch of children standing behind him.”

“Yeah, surrounded by infants, by preemies, when speaking against abortion,” Plante snarked. This is just how cynical things have gotten in this town, quite honestly. It’s purely for the imagery, which they recognize is probably more important than what’s in the legislation.”

Kelly then asked Plante whether he’d be more open to the president’s announcement if it included, in addition to some gun control measures, planned steps for “looking at” how the mental health care system and violent video games have contributed to a violent culture.

“There are cultural factors that most of us would acknowledge and accept also contribute to the state of affairs in the United States when it comes to young people and their willingness to kill a whole bunch of people,” Plante replied, before pointing the finger at “Hollywood movies” which he believes contributes to our culture “treat[ing] human life in a trivial fashion in a panoply of ways.” However, he said, “I don’t see the president pushing back against Hollywood or video game makers.”

He then went after the “macro-cynicism” of the Obama camp for essentially proposing stricter gun control laws “they wanted to propose before Sandy Hook and getting it through, essentially, on the backs of the tragedy and then using children as props to back up their essentially phony arguments that this is going to reduce the likelihood that something like this is going to happen again in the future.”

While researching the use of children by politicians, I happened to come upon a pdf article titled “Children and Politics”. I have no idea as to whom the author is, but they definitely got it right:

The (mis)use of children for political and propaganda purposes is linked mainly to the 20th century and mass political parties and movements such as communism and fascism. Sports, culture and other organizations for children and young people became tools in the hands of national political and religious movements and leaders.

National propaganda, particularly prior to the Balkan wars, was also spread through schools, textbooks, pupils’ organizations, choral societies, etc. Schoolchildren’s compulsory attendance at public events of national and political character was also a form of the involvement of children and young people in politics and the diffusion of political propaganda. The dissemination of books on national history, patriotic poetry, maps showing the territorial pretensions of the individual nations, and popular pictures of national heroes were methods used to raise the ”national awareness“ of the younger part of the population both in those countries that had gained independence (Greece, Montenegro, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria) and in those countries within the borders of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire (Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Albania).

Nonetheless, the politization of children and young people and their (mis)use for political purposes assumed particular significance after the First World War under the influence of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes.

All evidence, as I  stated in yesterday’s Blog, points to the fact that Obama’s gun-grabbing announcement, being made today, has been years in the making, lying dormant, like an Alligator Snapping Turtle on the bottom of a lake, just waiting to grab a fish innocently swimming by.

Just as Obama and his minions are using the children standing up there on the podium today, they are also using the deaths of those sweet, innocent children, murdered by a madman in Newtown, Connecticut, as an opportunity to take away the guns of innocent, law-abiding Americans. Meanwhile, the MSM cheerleaders will spend the day trying to sell Americans on what a great speech their Dear Leader just gave.

I am sadly reminded of a classic line from a movie:

So this is how liberty dies…with thunderous applause.

– Padmé Amidala, Star Wars III, “The Revenge of the Sith”

Until He Comes,

KJ