Quote of the Day
Listen or thy tongue will keep thee deaf.American Indian Proverb
Pro-Liberty Thought of the Day
Image of the Day
 |
| Via Jeffrey Tucker |
 |
| Via Dollar Vigilante We should also have a legislative financial institution bailout chart with the decision path: is the entity "too big to fail"? |
 |
| Via Dollar Vigilante |
Unfettered nationalism is a sickness, a cultural religion of sorts. I do have a pride in my country and in its ideals; my heart still skips a beat when I see the occasional flag on display as I approach an overpass. But there's a part of me that wants expression to be spontaneous and freely given, not predictable and scheduled because, say, some Congress passed some self-congratulatory holiday. (Yes, I know--it's not Congress or Presidents' Day; but theoretically only Congress can declare war, and the President is the Commander-in-Chief. When you are celebrating the sacrifices of men whom have died in battle, you are tacitly honoring their missions. I've never been comfortable with our interventions, in particular, I'm thinking of things like Grenada and Panama and wondering why the hell is it any of our business?
During my salad days, I had been considering a vocation to the Roman Catholic priesthood, one of the reasons I had an undergraduate major in philosophy. I was basically pro-life, anti-capital punishment, and anti-war, positions I've held to the present day, although I was never politically active in these causes. By the time I was in college, American involvement in Vietnam was tapering off. But there are a couple of things that come to mind about that time.
First, my dorm RA was a Vietnam vet whom had lost one of his legs in the Hamburger Hill campaign. Tom would occasionally hop around without his prosthesis; I remember being embarrassed when my baby sister during a family visit pointed out Tom's missing leg. Tom wasn't particularly strident, vocal or bitter about his experience, but what I remember was his sense of frustration that this particular mission, to hold or reconquer a hill of dubious strategic merit, just chewed up casualties on both sides, as if they were pawns in some warroom at the Pentagon or Hanoi.
Second, there was a quiet conversation I had with my Dad one time. He never spoke that much about what he did in Southeast Asia. He didn't have a choice in the matter; my Mom had just given birth to her seventh child, and we were barely scraping by on his enlisted man's income (in the early years he used to moonlight a second income, e.g., at the NCO Club); how easy would it be to start off a second career with a family of nine depending on him? What he was doing didn't readily translate to civilian jobs. I seem to recall during his tour that he was generous, especially to kids near where he was stationed, and he had a local artist paint his and Mom's wedding picture; it's still unusual seeing the likeness of my parents painted with Asian features, e.g., their eyes. But one day when we were alone, years later, I bluntly asked him, "How do you feel knowing what you did over there may have contributed to the deaths of innocent women and children?" (He was not a direct combatant; he was in more of a support role.) He has never answered me, but I don't think there is a good answer to that question. I think there's a lot of crap that happens in a warzone nobody wants to talk about, even if they could. And that's in part why I take strong exception to the Presidents' drone policy, although my Dad retired long before drone technology was implemented. I'm sure that my Dad picked up that his first-born son did not approve of his mission over there,
Tom DiLorenzo has a wonderfully concise, powerful writing style, and let me give a couple of brief samples from his essay (my edits):
One of the tenets of militaristic fascism in America is the oft-repeated slogan that “you don’t have to agree with the wars to honor those who fight them for us.” “Honoring” paid killers for the state for participating in non-defensive, unjust wars only serves to make it more likely that there will be even more unjust wars in the future. And it rewards individuals for engaging in some of the most sinful and reprehensible behavior known to mankind. In general what Americans are “memorializing” on Memorial Day is wars of conquest, imperialism, mass murder of foreigners and the confiscation of their property, the abolition of civil liberties at home, the slavery of military conscription, and the debt, taxes, and inflation that are used to pay for it all. The state orchestrates never-ending memorials to itself and its wars because war is the health of the state (and in almost all cases, the deadly enemy of freedom and prosperity).DiLorenzo, a critical Lincoln scholar, gives a scathing, powerful, concise review of the Civil War, also the Indian Wars, the Spanish American War and the two World Wars. This is not the standard fare you'll read in conventional whitewashed classes; it is polemical, and DiLorenzo suffers no fools when it comes to politicians rationalizing interventions.
This is powerful praise coming from me: I wish I had written the essay. I've been a DiLorenzo fan for some time (his essays on Rockwell's website have been on my blogroll for some time). Unfortunately, we've had only one brief exchange. Rich Lowry of National Review had written a conventional Lincoln retrospective and in a related post had blasted DiLorenzo's work. I didn't like the fact Lowry was taking shots behind Tom's back and emailed him. DiLorenzo gave a typically pithy response of the type "I've heard it all before, although better stated by others. It's the same old same old I've refuted hundreds of times..."
Chart of the Day: The Blago-Quinn (Dem) Era in Illinois
 |
| Via IPI |
Even Dems Are Questioning The One's Competency...
Facebook Corner
 |
| Via Drudge Report |
(Reason). If we are serious about addressing economic inequality and restoring social justice, then a minimum wage increase should be just the start. We also need to outlaw volunteering.
Don't give the fascists any ideas... They'll probably sue for backpay, too...
(Drudge Report). Conservatives float alternative to Boehner... What do you think?
Justin Amash is my preference, but Hensarling would be a worthy Speaker.
 |
| Via Bastiat Institute |
Memorial Day should reflect all casualties of war. Killing innocent, unarmed civilians is without honor.
(Drudge Report). UPDATE: TOP CIA AGENT EXPOSED BY WHITE HOUSE
Just wait... They'll say "It was Scooter Libby's fault...."
(Bastiat Institute). PlaceAVote wants to replace politicians with internet polls http://ow.ly/xgulV
I don't want to give a majority the legal ability to plunder the minority, but there's a lot to be said for giving the people the constitutional right to repeal unpopular, corrupt laws like ObamaCare and to recall federal lawmakers, including Presidents
Proposals/Weddings
Political Cartoon
 |
| Courtesy of Lisa Benson via Townhall |
Queen/Bowie, "Under Pressure"
