I am going to shock many of my Christian friends today because I am doing something we are all taught not to do. I am celebrating a death. More monster than man, he was, but we are always taught to think of what it would be like to be in that person’s shoes and say “There but by the grace of God, go I.” If there ever were an exception, perhaps it is found in Kim Jong Il, the petty potentate of North Korea.

Kim, the successor and son of North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung, recently died at the age of 69. Upon his father’s death he took the reins in that isolated country and was responsible for policies that led to mass starvation and cannibalism, while continuing his father’s policies of purging political enemies in concentration camps. The elder Kim (the father), whose mother was reputedly a Christian deaconess, instituted the Juche heresy in which the Father (Kim Il Sung), the son (Kim Jong Il) and Juche (National self-reliance) ideology are literally worshipped as a state trinity. Kim Jong Il expanded this into a full-blown cult while threatening to destroy “the Land of Morning Calm” (traditional name of Korea) and enslave of his southern neighbor, while shaking his nuclear fist at the world.

As a Christian, I would hope and pray Kim Jong Il confessed the name of Christ prior to death—the same prayer I said for his father. This, however, does not keep me from celebrating. Few men have caused more suffering and death through their personal actions. If he confessed Christ, then I will celebrate the mercy of God. If he didn’t, the lover of liberty within me feels there has to be a special place in hell for men like him and his father. They are a perfect example of Lord Acton’s adage, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Anyone wanting to understand life under the Kim regime should read Eyes of the Tailless Animals, by Yi Sun Ok.

I am sick of hearing about the evils of gridlock and the virtues of compromise. I understand compromise is an essential part of our government, and to accomplish anything each side must surrender some of their pet ideology and seek common ground. However, the founders never imagined over 500 full time people whose only purpose to exist is the creation of law—easily defined as new limits to our freedoms. It is easy to see that our nation is never as free as when Washington is in full-fledged gridlock.

In the vitriol against gridlock, one target is the Republican controlled House of Representatives. Those of us who worked so hard to take the House last election have to understand that since we only control the House we are limited in our ability to influence law and policy. Only bills attractive to the Democrat controlled Senate will pass; so blocking the agenda of the Left is our most powerful tool. When you hear it reported that Congress refuses to get along and pass some bit of legislation, see such reports as banners pronouncing “Freedom Survives Another Day.”

I know many will complain that if Congress and the President don’t work together the economy will not be fixed. Actually it is government tweaking and interference that keeps the economy on the rocks. The best thing to happen to the economy would be a removal of that interference. If Congress won’t actively remove the onerous regulations that have strangled our economy, the next best is a gridlocked Congress that can implement no new ones.

The NTSB is recommending every state to ban use of any device while driving. Their recommendation includes use of hands-free devices. While sounding like good law there are some things I would like to point out. One is the unintended consequences of such a law. In our city of San Antonio a ban on texting while driving was passed. I have noticed that drivers, instead of holding their phones up at windshield level to text, now continue to text but hide them in their laps and look down to text—a dangerous situation made more dangerous.

I would also point out that the accident they are basing this current emotional call on happened in a state that already had such a law for those under 21 (http://www.iihs.org/laws/cellphonelaws.aspx) and the law did not prevent the accident. If the existence of the law did not prevent the accident, why would anyone imagine the expansion of the law to work any better?

One final point to make is about the other vehicles in the accident. The pickup driven by the texting teen struck the rear of a semi when it slowed for a construction zone. That accident was probably survivable. The problem was the two buses that struck the rear of the pickup. The first one struck with enough force to push it over the pickup, rolling it up like a jelly roll. The second bus struck the first bus. Why has no one pointed out that the buses were following too close? I used to drive a school bus and company policy was that any accident in which you hit something with the front of your bus resulted in automatic termination because such an accident is always preventable with the proper following distance. Had these drivers been at a proper distance there would have been no fatalities.

The initiating incident was the texting teen, but the killing blows were delivered by two bus drivers overlooking their safety training and driving too close to safely stop. This matters little though, because it plays into the hands of some who would use emotion to make laws. The actual cause of the deaths will not be addressed, but will be swept aside in an emotional assault on cell usage. Yes, it is stupid to text while driving. Yes, something should be done. However, until you convince the drivers, efforts to force them will be ineffective.

Yesterday a miracle happened. No, a lion did not lie down with a lamb, the lame did not walk and neither did the blind see. Instead, a miracle of an unprecedented magnitude happened in the state of Massachusetts. A Republican was elected to fill the seat of Teddy “One-for-the-Road” Kennedy. To say that the left is in shock is an understatement.

The question I ask coming out of this election is how will the GOP read it? The election was spun by the left as a referendum on healthcare and that is exactly what won it for Brown. The people of Massachusetts came out in droves to vote against Obama’s plans to extend control over 1/7th of the US economy in the guise of healthcare reform. GOP leadership is of course ecstatic over the victory and they should be (heaven knows it’s been a while since good news involved the GOP). The danger to those of us who value freedom is a misread of Brown’s victory by party elites.

If party leadership reads this victory to mean people are so fed up with the Democrats they will vote for anyone wearing the Republican moniker the potential for big wins in 2010 will be lost. The Republican Party lost big in the last round, not because the country had shifted left, but because the Republican Party had shifted left. Under Bush it was hard to tell a Republican voting record from a Democratic one. Keynesian deficit spending alongside rampant Congressional corruption and moral turpitude produced a perfect storm for the left. The left won because the right stayed home.

It may be possible for the GOP to go one cycle or perhaps two with the old practice of running RINOs and Rockefeller Republicans. It is possible the electorate, shocked by the abuses of a strong Democratic majority, will vote for any elephant walking down the street, but this will not last long. Unless the party of Reagan returns to its base it will find itself exiled from power again and again. If this happens it is not the Republican leaders who will suffer but the American people who are forced to watch more and more of their freedoms wheedled away by misguided apparatchiks.

For most people a few months is not very long. A child thinks of this period as an eternity, but an adult facing a wait of several months is a different story. By the time we reach adulthood we learned to wait. We have also had things we wanted put off for months and observed how quickly that time passes. Even with the relative shortness of a few months a lot can happen in that time period.

In nine short months a fertilized egg becomes a fully formed human being. The transformation from single cell to sentient intelligent being is an amazing miracle to consider. Compound that complexity with the quickness of the process and awe is only natural. The mother feels her bond grow daily as her child develops; a father’s first experience of the child is at birth. Just as the bewildered father finds himself bewildered by miracle that has changed him from man to father and feels mixed emotions as he realizes the weight of his new responsibilities, a society can find itself overcome by the changes wrought in a few months by a misguided agenda.

The last few months of US history are a perfect example. We have seen changes in the land unforeseeable only a few years ago. I still remember the days when the media was bemoaning the destruction of the Democratic Party and declaring that the whole country had taken a sharp turn to the right. With the leadership of the American Triumvirate (Obama, Reid and Pelosi) we face a brave new world—not so brave, and if you listen to Solomon, not so new.

Over the last few months the following has come to pass under the leadership of the most left leaning president and Congress in history:
• American’s largest auto manufacturer is majority owned by the federal government.
• The President of the United States has removed the CEO of a major corporation.
• The financial industry is under the heavy hand of the fed.
• Major segments of society are being managed by Czars, not one of them elected.
• Veterans who served their country have been labeled potential terrorists.
• A government website has been established for reporting opposition.
• The government is poised to expand its control of our healthcare.
• War has been declared on the entire health insurance industry.
• Members of previous administrations are being criminalized for policy differences.
• Business is being attacked with higher mandatory wages and proposed new requirements.
• Our children’s wealth has been spent before the children have earned it.
• Government debt has risen to unprecedented levels.
• Art and education are being suborned to speak in support of the president and his policies.
• Our economy is being sacrificed to the new religion of Global Warming.

As if this isn’t enough, imagine what a few more months will bring. Already, in 2010 taxes will increase without any action by the Congress or President. This automatic tax increase will kick in when the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire. It will be spun by Obama and the boys as not being a tax cut, but if your taxes are one amount this year and nearly double next year what do you call it? It is a tax increase and it will be Obama, Reid and Pelosi’s baby.

Some used to be say, “One election doesn’t matter; how must damage could be done in four years?” If the last few months are an example every election counts because the damage done can be irrevocable. Mister Obama, “I’ll keep my current health coverage, my current income and my current freedoms; you can keep the change.”

In the debate on healthcare one of the chief arguments being given by the Obama administration is that the government option will be voluntary and those who currently have coverage will be able to keep it. It is also claimed that this is not an effort to do away with private coverage, but to care for those who cannot currently afford coverage. A few days ago I downloaded a copy of the bill (all 1000+ pages). I did this because whenever someone tells me that the bill says this or that, in this section or that, I like to go directly to the source and find out what it says or does not say.

In perusing the bill I found section 102: Protecting the Choice to Keep Current Coverage. This section must not be missed by anyone who considers this issue. In this bill those who have current coverage will be allowed to keep it. However, 102(a)(1)(A) forbids those offering coverage from enrolling any new clients on or after the first day the law goes into effect. This means that you can keep your coverage, but anyone who does not have coverage will be put into the government system with no option for private insurance.

When this happens the insurance companies will find that they have all the customers they will ever have. They cannot expand their businesses and according to 102(a)(3) they can never raise rates on those who are covered or according to 102(a)(2) can never change what they do or do not cover. This last one also prevents them from entering into any new cost-sharing arrangements to reduce costs. The companies can never expand, or raise rates to offset inflation or higher expenses. The only time a new policy could be written is when someone with private insurance, before hand, changes policies.

Understand what this means, if this bill passes those who are not covered by private insurance will have no choice but the government system—none other can be sold. Those who have coverage can keep it until the company goes out of business or they lose or drop the coverage another way—job change or economic downturn. Once this happens they too will be on the government system, for life, and the government that has proved its inefficiency and incompetence in so many areas will be able to let us down where it matters most. Higher prices, rationing, lower quality and early death for millions will be the legacy of this president. How’s that for Change!

In honor of Earth Day I made elaborate plans to celebrate with the proper behavior due such a solemn occasion. Since people were being asked to turn off their lights for a period of time to show their dedication to conserving energy and saving the planet from the evil of man’s devices, I intended to observe the day in a way that made much more sense.

I planned to spend the day with every light in the house turned on and extend my usual five minute shower until the hot water ran out. In the evening I was going to clean the dishes in the dishwasher rather than by hand and use the heat dry instead of air dry the dishes. Along with this, I would idle both cars in the driveway for a couple hours to consume what I felt was an appropriate amount of fossil fuels. In short, I planned to use the maximum resources, making my carbon footprint as big as possible.

In the end I did none of this. Not because of repentance or remorse, but because I forgot it was Earth Day. I went about my day normally, working to make a living for my family and to improve the world through meaningful employment. My original plan was to show the proper amount of respect for the Earth Day holiday. In the end I succeeded more than I could have imagined, because I ignored it and went on with my life. This is exactly what such a phony, hyped ‘holiday’ deserves.

That night my daughter reminded me that it was Earth Day and I had the opportunity to tell her the truth: “Eco-fascists are using alarmism to get people to give up their rights and freedoms. When the old Socialist revolution failed, authoritarian whack-jobs had to find another vehicle to remake the world in their image. This is not an effort to save the planet, but to make us submissive sheep.”

This is the perfect way to handle Earth Day, as an opportunity to share the truth with a young person about how fleeting are our freedoms, and how susceptible the masses are to propaganda.

There has been talk on some conservative blogs about people getting angry enough to riot in this country because of the actions of the Obama administration. I have a hard time imagining riots in the streets. This is because of who is upset now and who was upset in the 60s. The protest culture of the 60s was made up of the idle–college students, welfare recipients, societal drop-outs, etc. Hippies had time to riot and protest because they did nothing productive and had no responsibilities. College students had time to protest between classes and parties when daddy’s money or government aid paid their way. All that idle time could be turned to mischief. Everyone wants to feel they are doing something useful; you either get this sense through your job or another outlet. They did it through protest and misguided attempts to change the world. The protests had the added effect of making their laziness look like sacrifice: “Man, I can’t get a job; there is too much that needs changed.” (more…)