How Obama is Turning Liberalism Into an Instrument of Coercion

Liberals just aren't very liberal these days. The word "liberal" comes from the Latin word meaning freedom, and in the 19th century, liberals in this country and abroad stood for free speech, free exercise of religion, free markets, free trade -- for minimal state interference in people's lives.  In the 20th-century, New Dealers revised this definition by arguing that people had a right not only to free speech and freedom of religion but also, as Franklin Roosevelt said in his 1941 Four Freedoms speech, freedom from fear and from want.

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Charles Koch: I'm Fighting to Restore a Free Society

Op-Ed by Charles G. Koch - Instead of welcoming free debate, collectivists engage in character assassination.
I have devoted most of my life to understanding the principles that enable people to improve their lives. It is those principles—the principles of a free society—that have shaped my life, my family, our company and America itself. Unfortunately, the fundamental concepts of dignity, respect, equality before the law and personal freedom are under attack by the nation's own government. That's why, if we want to restore a free society and create greater well-being and opportunity for all Americans, we have no choice but to fight for those principles. I have been doing so for more than 50 years, primarily through educational efforts. It was only in the past decade that I realized the need to also engage in the political process.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal Read More......

For Earth. For Humanity. For Freedom.

For decades the Green Movement has claimed that Earth is threatened by the activity and even the existence of mankind. Green policies dictate that the noble response is relinquishing our liberties to "save" the planet from peril. Award-winning filmmaker JD King sets off on a cinematic journey to challenge these Green philosophies, and overturn the tables on issues like carbon emissions, climate change, over-population, natural resources, and unmasks the UN's Agenda 21 plan. BLUE casts a bold new vision: that through greater freedom we can realize a fuller potential for our fellow man and this beautiful blue planet we call home. BLUE BEATS GREEN.

Watch the official BLUE trailer at BlueBeatsGreen.com.

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We are only as free as the government says we are

Would the US government let Jesus cure cancer? (Hat tip: Kristie H.)
In the 1990s, I watched a federal trial in a Los Angeles courtroom. The defendant was charged with selling medical drugs without a license to practice medicine. The defendant was prepared to argue that a) the substance he was selling was naturally produced in the body and b) it was effective. The prosecution moved to exclude such testimony, on the grounds that it was irrelevant. The judge agreed. Therefore, the trial was nasty, brutish, and short. The defendant was found guilty and sentenced to prison for several years. This is how the federal bureaucracy operates. “Do you have a government-issued license to heal? No? You’re a criminal.” ✧ I believe that if Jesus of Nazareth were walking the Earth today, in the United States, he would be arrested on the same grounds. This would be particularly so if he were curing cancer. Jesus wouldn’t be granted a license. No license? Guilty. More importantly, the trillion-dollar cancer industry survives and makes its money by treating cancer, so curing it would be a major threat.

Imagine this extreme case: in a stadium packed with 50,000 people who have been diagnosed with cancer, Jesus of Nazareth waves his hand and cures all of them in a few seconds. Read more at Activist Post...

Feds forced churches to get baptism permits
For as far back as anyone can remember, Missouri Baptists have gathered on river banks for Sunday afternoon baptisms. ✧ The preacher leads the new believers into the water, draped in white robes as a choir sings, “Shall We Gather at the River.” ✧ It’s the way it’s been done for generations – baptizing in creeks, lakes, and rivers “in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” ✧ But now the long-cherished tradition of “taking the plunge” has been drawn into a controversy with the federal government. Read more at Todd's American Dispatch...

Really? --bc Read More......

What We Lose if We Give Up Privacy

Peggy Noonan - What is privacy? Why should we want to hold onto it? Why is it important, necessary, precious? ✧ Is it just some prissy relic of the pretechnological past? ✧ We talk about this now because of Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency revelations, and new fears that we are operating, all of us, within what has become or is becoming a massive surveillance state. They log your calls here, they can listen in, they can read your emails. They keep the data in mammoth machines that contain a huge collection of information about you and yours. This of course is in pursuit of a laudable goal, security in the age of terror. ✧ Is it excessive? It certainly appears to be. Does that matter? Yes. Among other reasons: The end of the expectation that citizens' communications are and will remain private will probably change us as a people, and a country.

Read more at Wall Street Journal... Read More......

A Powerful Message to Share

President Ronald Reagan had such a wonderful way with words in praising our country and expressing his appreciation and love for its people and the amazing things they have accomplished as free men and women. They have more than carried their weight to spread the freedom they've enjoyed to others throughout the world. In the following video sent by BCRW President Carolyn Webb, Reagan gives us a powerful message that really must be heard and passed on...

Cudos to HyperPixels.com for this video. See rough transcript:

Freedom is not free | A Soldier's Pledge

If we looked for the answer why, that for so many years we achieved so much; prospered like no other people on earth, it was because, here in this land, we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on earth. The price for this freedom at times has been hight but we have never been unwilling to pay that price.

Those who say we're in a time when there are no heroes... they just don't know where to look. The sloping hills of Arlington National Cemetery with its row after row of simple white markers bearing crosses or stars of David, they add up to only a fraction of the price that has been paid for our freedom. Each one of those markers is a monument to the kind of hero I spoke of earlier. Their lives ended in places like Belleau Wood, the Argon, Omaha Beach, Salearno, and half way around the world on Guadalcanal, Terawa, Pork Chop Hill, the Chosin Reservoir, and in a hundred rice paddies and the jungles of a place called Vietnam.

Under one such marker lies a young man, Martin Treptow, who left his job in a small town barber shop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division. There on the western front he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy enemy fire. We're told, that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading "My Pledge" he had written these words: "America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice. I will endure. I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost as if the whole issue of the struggle depended on me alone."

We must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. It is a weapon that we, as Americans, do have. Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbors. As for the enemies of freedom, those who are potential adversaries, they will be reminded that peace is the highest aspiration of the American people. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it, we will not surrender for it, now or ever.

We are Americans.

--Ronald Reagan

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Louisiana State Senator's "Why I Am a Republican" video generating buzz

KSLA TV, June 18, 2013 - Opelousas Senator Elbert Guillory made headlines when he switched from the Democratic Party to Republican in late May as he accepted the "Frederick Douglass" award from the @Large Conference, a group dedicated to recruiting black conservatives. Douglass was a 19th-century abolitionist and a hero to black Americans. ✧ On Sunday, he released a video explaining the move and urging others to join him in "abandoning the government plantation and the party of disappointment."

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Why We Should Care About America's Fading Economic Freedom

The Economic Freedom Team at Economic Freedom.org writes, "The word at the water cooler is that the U.S. has fallen to 18th in economic freedom. So what’s the big deal? Professor Antony Davies of Duquesne University explains in U.S. News & World Report that economic freedom benefits just about everyone. ✧ The conclusion is simple: Economic freedom yields beneficial results. ... data bears out what Americans know intuitively: The United States is less free than it once was, and our lives are the worse for it. The way to improve our lives as citizens is to return to our birthright as citizens: liberty." Read the full article at U.S. News & World Report... Read More......

F.A. Hayek On "The Great Utopia"

Hayek: There can be no doubt that most of those in the democracies who demand a central direction of all economic activity still believe that socialism and individual freedom can be combined. Yet socialism was early recognized by many thinkers as the gravest threat to freedom.

ZERO HEDGE, 1/28/2012 by Tyler Durden (Germany) - Durden offers the text of F. A. Hayek's chapter, "The Great Utopia," from Hayek's renowned book, The Road to Surfdom. This chapter is definitely worth reading, or rereading, as the case may be. Read More......

Free or Equal - A personal view by Johan Norberg

Program Summary: "In 1980 economist and Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman inspired market reform in the West and revolutions in the East with his celebrated television series “Free To Choose.” ✧ Thirty years later, in this one-hour documentary, the young Swedish writer, analyst and Cato Foundation Fellow Johan Norberg travels in Friedman’s footsteps to see what has actually happened in the places Friedman’s ideas helped transform. In location after location Norberg examines the contemporary relevance or Friedman’s ideas in the 2011 world of globalization and financial crisis. Central to his examination are the perennial questions concerning power and prosperity, and the trade-offs between individual liberty and income equality." ✧ Watch the 17-minute video preview at Free to Choose Media. Read More......

Glenn takes movement of human responsibility global

Glenn Beck, 8/24/2011 - On August 24th, 2011 Glenn welcomed a sold out crowd to the Old City of Jerusalem for the finale of the Restoring Courage event and made a major announcement regarding his future and a plan to take his message of love, faith, and personal responsibility to the world. Read more at GlennBeck.com... Read More......

Freedom Advocates: Assessing Monetary Collapse

FREEDOM ADVOCATES, 6/9/2011 by Michael Shaw - Assessing Monetary Collapse: Exposing Agenda 21 and Understanding Freedom

What if the Federal Reserve dollar falls – hard? How is the globalist blueprint, known as Sustainable Development Agenda 21, designed to make humans into livestock? Why liberty must be understood by this generation of Americans lest it be lost for a very long time. Read more at Freedom Advocates...

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Friedman vs. Piven

"In this clip from the 1980 Free To Choose, socialist Frances Fox Piven tangles with Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell. We thought this would be interesting in light of the recent dustup between The New York Times and Fox News (Glenn Beck) on the subject of Piven." --FreeToChooseNetwork Read More......

Reagan's 1981 Christmas Address

President Ronald Reagan, Christmas Address, 12/23/1981

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Morning Bell: Remembering the Providential Gift of America

From THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION/FOUNDRY/Morning Bell, 12/24/2010

Christmas, 1776.

Summer had begun with strong declarations of noble ideals, but by winter the cause of liberty seemed to be at low ebb. Having suffered defeat after defeat, many had all but given up hope. It looked like freedom would succumb yet again, as it had throughout history, to the forces of authoritarianism and tyranny.

Then, on Christmas Day, 1776, a small band of colonial forces under the command of Gen. George Washington, having retreated all the way from New York, again crossed the Delaware River and brought battle at Trenton, New Jersey. Washington not only won the battle but regained the initiative and turned the war in the patriots’ favor. One week later, Washington defeated the British at Princeton and forced the enemy to withdraw, preventing its advance on Philadelphia, seat of the Continental Congress.

When it announced itself to the world in 1776, the United States of America was little more than an alliance of 13 small colonies on a barren continent, thousands of miles from their ancestral homeland, surrounded by hostile powers.

Now, well over two centuries after winning independence from the British Empire, America is the freest, wealthiest, most powerful nation on Earth. Along the way it established sovereign nationhood, settled a continent and more and brought unprecedented prosperity to its citizens. It survived a devastating Civil War that threatened its very life, abolished slavery and raised up the emancipated to be citizens equal to their one-time masters. It triumphed in two world wars fought on foreign soil and a decades-long struggle against worldwide communism that, 20 years ago, led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the Soviet Union.

What accounts for this monumental success? The founding of the United States was indeed revolutionary. But not in the sense of replacing one set of rulers with another, or overthrowing the institutions of society. John Adams queried:

What do we mean by the American Revolution? The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people. . . . This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.

Our revolution was about the ideas upon which a new nation was to be established. Permanent truths “applicable to all men and all times,” as Abraham Lincoln later said, proclaimed that principle rather than will would be the ultimate ground of government.

What is truly revolutionary about America is that, for the first time in history, these universal ideas became the foundation of a system of government and its political culture. Because of these principles, rather than despite them, the American Revolution culminated not in tyranny but a constitutional government that has long endured.

To this day, 233 years after Washington and his men crossed the Delaware, these principles–proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence and promulgated by the Constitution–still define us as a nation and inspire us as a people. These principles are responsible for a prosperous, just nation unlike any other. They are the highest achievements of our tradition, a beacon to those who strive for freedom but also a warning to tyrants and despots everywhere. Because of these principles, not despite them, America achieved greatness.

The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson later recorded, was “neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, [but] was intended to be an expression of the American mind.”

As Americans, our aim must be a clear expression and forthright defense of the nation’s principles in the public square so that they become, once again, an expression of the American mind. Despite constant scorn by academic elites, political leaders and the popular media, most Americans still believe in the uniqueness of this country and respect the Founders’ noble ideas. They may fail a test of particulars – quick: when did Washington cross the Delaware? – but they overwhelmingly want to know about this nation and its meaning.

We must give voice to all those who have not given up on their country’s experiment in self-government, have not concluded the cause of liberty and limited constitutional government is lost and have not accepted America’s decline as inevitable.

The goal must be to restore the liberating principles of the American Founding as the defining public philosophy of our nation. As it was for most of American history, so it can be again.

The joy of this wonderful season is about new beginnings and the eternal promise of redemption. We Americans have the immeasurable benefit, the providential gift, of having inherited a great country.

We must never forget its confidence, optimism and promise, its endless capacity for renewal, are contained in our dedication to the enduring principles of liberty with which all men are endowed by their Creator.

May you and yours have a merry and blessed Christmas. Read More......

Hard America/Soft America

Via email, INSPIRE AND IGNITE (Hat tip: Linda Weimer) - Earlier this decade, Michael Barone wrote a book entitled “Hard America, Soft America: Competition vs. Coddling and the Battle for America’s Future”. His premise was that we are becoming an America of soft people demanding entitlements at other people’s expense, unwilling or unable to stand on our own and looking to the government instead of ourselves to provide our every need.

Our school system typifies this softness. The system avoids competition and promotes instead a soft concept of self esteem that elevates how one feel’s above the reality of actual merit. Consequences are avoided at all costs...failure is so demeaning that we dare not even try. Passed along from grade to grade without the barest of essential skills, we are producing Soft Americans with no understanding of the real world.

Hard America, on the other hand, plays for keeps. People are not advanced because they “feel good” about themselves, but on the basis of solid performance. In Hard America there are real consequences to failure. But, Hard America is in danger of being overwhelmed by Soft America.

If you have any doubt about how soft we are becoming, consider the mantra, “Too big to fail”. The bailouts of the automotive industry, the banking and financial segments of our economy and the push for universal healthcare are all attempts to remove the consequences of poor choices and proof positive of the ascendancy of “Soft America” today.

But, the problem is, to quote Barone, “Soft America depends on the productivity, creativity and competence of Hard America, which protects the country and pays its bills”.

As we descend deeper and deeper into the “comfort” of a soft life of victim hood where no one is accountable for their choices and big brother will always ride to the rescue; we are destroying the essential American character. Our country was built upon character which is self reliant, courageous in the face of adversity and unwilling to trade away personal freedom for the government’s promise of security.

From the Pilgrims who faced long odds and hard times to pursue freedom regardless of the cost; to the signers of our declaration who pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to bring freedom to these shores...from the rugged pioneers who overcame significant hardship to expand our borders from coast to coast; to our astronauts risking their lives to expand our borders to the moon and beyond…from the Minutemen at Concord to our brave soldiers buried across Europe, the American character has resisted the easy way...has stood firmly for personal freedom and rejected the idea that someone else owed us an easy life.

Elections Have Consequences

Soft America won an overwhelming victory in 2008. Soft America has savagely
attacked the concept of merit and competency. Soft America has undermined the free enterprise system that built the greatest nation in history and has denigrated success in favor of handouts and protectionism. Soft America has consistently mocked and discouraged the small business entrepreneur; preferring instead to “Spread the wealth around”. Soft America is attempting to void the consequences of bad choices and that will ultimately destroys character and the work ethic so critical to achieving the American dream.

If Soft America prevails, the impact on the American spirit and America’s future will be grim…the drive to turn us all into beggars dependent on the federal government’s benevolence for our daily needs will gain great momentum.

To overcome the accelerating trend lines of the last few years, Hard America must be willing to once again find the inner strength to stand firm for the bedrock principles of limited government, personal accountability and free markets. The cost to right the ship of state, restore fiscal sanity and rebuild the American dream for our children will not be easy and will not be accomplished without personal sacrifice.

ARE WE READY TO PAY THE PRICE TO RESTORE AMERICAN?

If we truly want a smaller government, balanced budgets and a free market
economy, we must decide what federal programs we are willing to forgo.

This is not a rhetorical question. The answer is NOT what others must give up; the answer is not a litany of bloated federal bureaucracies that we must shut down. The question is much more personal... if we are to be successful in restoring the America our founders intended, we must decide what price we are personally willing to pay. For example:

As a retired military officer, am I willing to have my retired pay and benefits frozen for 5 years?

As a social security recipient, are you willing to have your benefits frozen for 5 years?

As a federal employee, are you willing to have your pay and benefits frozen for 5 years?

As a public employee, are you willing to renegotiate your retirement benefits in order to make the program sustainable?

Will you willing to abandon your unemployment check and diligently seek work... any work to meet your financial needs?

Are we willing to allow sound fiduciary principles to guide a restructuring of our social security benefits to ensure the long term viability of the program?

Are we willing to live within our means, rejecting federal attempts to buy us off with a new car or make our mortgage payment or pay off our personal credit cards?

The list is surely much longer as we consider the personal sacrifices we must be willing to make to restore America. The critical point is that without personal sacrifice, all our proclamations of concern for the debt...for the future of our country...our public outcry demanding smaller government are hollow and empty.

Without a commitment to personal sacrifice, all our protestations are simply selfishly motivated calls for others to sacrifice for our benefit. If smaller government is to become a reality; if we are truly to have a government living within its means, then the sacrifice must be shared by all.

The only path to a smaller government is to reduce spending, reduce or eliminate wasteful programs and provide an environment where the free market can function without artificial barriers.

Once we have committed to the personal sacrifice needed to restore sanity in the federal government, then we have the moral authority to suggest major cuts in other parts of the federal government. Just a few suggestions:

Eliminate the Energy Department and the Education Department

Reduce the Dept of Defense, State Dept and Justice Dept by 10%

Reduce the IRS by 80% and replace the income tax with a fair tax

Reduce Federal employees by a minimum of 33% (from 2.1 million to 1.4 million)

Make earmarks illegal.

Obviously, this list can be expanded (I welcome you thoughts). But before we rise up and demand these kinds of changes, we must signal our willingness to bear our share of the sacrifice.

This email has not addressed increasing federal revenue... as President Reagan said, “Our government doesn’t tax too little, it spends too much.” If our goal is smaller government, then our attention must be on reducing spending and the overall size of the federal government.

That said, in principle, when the government is functioning properly, it creates an environment when business can prosper and grow. In so doing, the federal revenues will grow accordingly. We must resist the liberal’s first reflex to raise taxes to meet revenue needs. While it may seem counter intuitive, if you raise taxes, you ultimately lower revenue while if you lower taxes, you raise revenue (Google “Laffer Curve”).

With common sense and courage, and a renewed dependence on our Creator we can overcome the progressive’s agenda and restore America.

A young mother was being interviewed on a national network recently. She was expressing her concern that the government’s approach to the mortgage crisis was to bail out home owners unable to meet their financial obligations while she and her husband adjusted their life style, lived within their means and struggled from month to month to make their house payment. She asked where is the lobbyist standing up for my family and the millions like us. The interviewer asked her if she and her husband had ever considered missing a couple of payments so that they could qualify for the government assistance.

Her reply was striking, “NO, not ever...we weren’t raised that way.”

Thank God for Hard American willing to stand by their principles and make hard choices rather than being bought by a federal government bent on making us all beggars.

Hard America, we make a statement about what kind of nation we will leave future generation... one strong and free or one in debt and bondage? Make your voices heard!

Visit www.inspireandignite.com to contribute to the Second American Revolution.

For a strong reminder of who is really in charge visit: www.andiesisle.com/creation/magnificent.html

Jim Kinney Capt USN (ret) Read More......

Sowell: A crossroads election

ONENEWSNOW.com, 11/1/2010 by Thomas Sowell - "Most elections are about particular policies, particular scandals or particular personalities. But these issues don't mean as much this year-- not because they are not important, but because this election is a crossroads election, one that can decide what path this country will take for many years to come. ∴ Runaway "stimulus" spending, high unemployment and ObamaCare are all legitimate and important issues. It is just that freedom and survival are more important. ∴ For all its sweeping and scary provisions, ObamaCare is not nearly as important as the way it was passed. If legislation can become laws passed without either the public or the Congress knowing what is in those laws, then the fundamental principle of a free, self-governing people is completely undermined. Read more at One News Now... Read More......

Stossel: Attack on Freedom

TOWNHALL by John Stossel - Something's happened to America, and it isn't good. It's become easier to get into trouble. We've become a nation of a million rules. Not the kind of bottom-up rules that people generate through voluntary associations. Those are fine. I mean imposed, top-down rules formed in the brains of meddling bureaucrats who think they know better than we how to manage our lives. ∴ Cross them, and we are in trouble. Read more at Townhall... Read More......

Will you risk it all?

GLENN BECK (via email/hat tip: Carolyn Webb), 7/5/2010 - [...] Most of us think of the 4th of July as the day when we declared our independence from England and began building the greatest nation the world has ever known. And while it’s true, that notion feels very much like the end of something… British rule, oppression, being subjects to a king instead of to one another. But when you stop and think about it, the 4th of July wasn’t an ending at all—it was just the beginning.

While we declared our Independence on July 4th, 1776, we had to keep fighting to defend that declaration until 1783, over seven years of bloody struggle and ultimate sacrifice. And while those who fought in the Revolutionary War knew what they were dying to protect, “we the people” didn’t adopt our Constitution until 1787, more than 11 years after those 56 men gathered in a room and signed their name to a piece of parchment that said there’s a better way for men and women to live:

In freedom.

The second sentence of the Declaration of Independence reads:
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.
The fight to live up to those 36 words continues to this day, as an ever expanding government is threatening to suppress the very freedoms our founders fought for. And while July 4th, 1776 was a major victory, let the date serve not merely as a day to remember how it all started - but also that freedom is fragile and vigilance is needed to preserve and protect it. Each and every one of us is responsible to make sure that freedom doesn't vanish on our watch. This 4th of July, think about what the founders risked to make sure they and future generations lived free - their lives, the fortunes, and their sacred honor. And ask yourself, are you willing to do the same?

God bless you, your family, and the United States of America

Glenn Beck Read More......

Deja vous

"A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about." --Woodrow Wilson - 1911

(Hat tip: Stella Guenther via Restore America)
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