Among these are Life...

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "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."

All rights enumerated in the Constitution are predicated by the assumption that those who would enjoy their God-given rights are alive. Dead people don't have rights.

Terry Schiavo's most basic civil right has been violated. Convicted felons sentenced to death receive more consideration in the appeals process than is available to Ms. Schiavo, who has been denied recourse to the Federal courts.

Believe what you want, but beginning with Roe v. Wade in 1973, the Baby Doe incident in the 80's, assisted suicide laws, etc., the U.S.A. has been sliding down the slippery slope of devaluation of human life to the point where you should fear being incapacitated in an accident or medical situation. In Europe, euthanasia is common practice in delivery rooms and, if stories I have heard from some Europeans are true, hospitals and nursing homes.

Terry Schiavo should receive judicial relief on the principles of basic civil rights. To do otherwise is to declare her a de facto non-person as the Florida courts have done. Hmmm. Non-person. Where have we heard that kind of terminology before?

It doesn't matter what her husband or parents think. There is a higher moral issue here that transcends the emotion we see on both sides. Terry Schiavo deserves to live, no matter the quality of that life, because she has a right to live that should not be abrogated, even with the cooperation of the courts. Expediency and emotion have no place in this decision.

Let us hope that those who hold Terry Schiavo's life in their hands will choose life.
GBW

Atlanta and Wisconson Shootings

I wonder how long it will take for someone to start talking about more restrictions on firearms because of the prisoner who took a deputy's gun and shot several people or the man that opened fire during a church service.

If you think more laws restricting firearms would have averted this tragedy, tell me how that would work. Then explain how this infringement on the civil rights of law-abiding citizens would be justifiable if applied to freedom of speech and religion.

Restrictions of the freedoms of all because of the actions of criminals and madmen demonstrates an egregious misunderstanding of freedom and the responsibilities of a law-abiding citizen.
GBW

Relapse

Sorry to be so delinquent, but I didn't have my facts straight before. Instead of getting better, which lasted less than one day, I found out I still had pneumonia. Apparently my bugs didn't pay any attention to the Z-Pack.

So, having had pneumonia for the better part of the last month (or the worst part, depending on how you look at it), I have benignly neglected my blog. I hope to do much better in the coming days as it seems the new antibiotic is doing what it is supposed to.
GBW

Something else to worry about

Imagine the economic devastation if almost all the electronics on which we depend (phones, computers, cell phones, basic electric service, electronic instruments, automobiles, lights, etc.) were all disabled in a few milliseconds. A single medium yield nuclear device airburst about 300 miles over the center of the U.S. (a ship-borne SCUD ballistic missle from North Korea or other rogue state), or several smaller devices detonated at lower altitudes (by terrorists) would shut us down in much less than the proverbial New York minute.

The president of The Claremont Institute was interveiwed by Bill Bennet this morning on Morning in America. He mentioned the danger of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) to national security. Do you know what EMP is? Take a look at this link for an interesting page with basic explanations.

Those of us who live around busy airports commented on the quietness after 9/11. Try to imagine what it would be like if you didn't hear any cars or trucks, any airplanes, any refrigerator motors or furnace fans, no television or radio, no air-conditioner hum, no motorcyles, well, you get the idea. Few electronic devices or devices which depend on electronics would be of much use. .

Try to imagine the loss of life if we had an EMP event in a cold winter. No heat, no transportation, and little, if any, chance of restoring either for a long time. Not to mention that every traffic light would fail, every plane in the air would crash, and every patient whose life depended on electricity would die.

I don't know about you, but I don't have a source of water that isn't dependent on electricy and six months of food. Expect millions to die of thirst, exposure and starvation. In fact, if you aren't in a position to survive with the technology of rural late 19th-early 20th Century America, you'd be in a world of hurt.

Unthinkable you say? Unrealistically alarmist you think? See this link for a Heritage Foundation paper that references testimony to Congress by The Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack. Not a question of if, but when. If someone had told you on 9/10/2001 about the events of the next day, you would have laughed at them. Until the first plane flew into the World Trade Center the next morning.

Just something else to worry about.
GBW

Out of the fog.

I have to admit to having almost no serious thoughts about anything for almost two weeks. A very nasty flu turned into bronchitis turned into pneumonia and the concurrent fevers pretty much shut down the old gray matter. Of course, I'm told by some that a brain scan would be necessary to tell the difference from when I'm well.

Isn't it amazing how small the issues that usually occupy our minds seem when we are ill? Suddenly, budgets, political races, court cases, outrageous comments that would generate immediate praise or condemnation are not even placed on the back burner, but thrown out in the back yard for the duration, if, indeed, we even really hear them. I barely had the gumption (that's a good country word) to check my email every couple of days.

But, like my slowly returning appetite for food, so returns my appetite for news. And with that, a slowly returning desire to say something about whatever piques my interest. I wonder what will be next?
GBW

Pneumonia

Bad to worse. I am ready to be well. My Wonderful Wife, who had pneumonia at Christmas, now has the flu, too.
Well, we have pestilence. Can famine be far behind?
GBW

The Flu, or How to be truly miserable without even trying.

Been down with the Flu.
Will be back when I can hold my head up and type more that two words without being interrupted by coughing spasms.
GBW

Blaster Worm nets inventor 18 months in prison.

And now for a bit of news that's near and dear to me.

The young man responsible for the initial Blaster worm has been sentenced to prison.

The ComputerWorld article says the judge didn't set the maximum sentence of 37 months "partly because of neglectful upbringing and supervision."

Give me a break. He entered a guilty plea. He knew it was wrong. He's going to a country club Federal pen, not out to break big rocks into little rocks.

Oh well. I'm glad she didn't give him a hug and send him home..
GBW

The American Holocaust

Nearly 40,000,000 deaths bloody the hands of abortionists in the United States.

FBI statistics say the violent crime rate is dropping, but I don't understand how that can be when one in ten Americans have been murdered in the last thirty years. Oh, wait. It's legal murder.

Future generations will judge us more guilty than Hitler for the atrocity we have allowed to happen to these unborn children.

Please click on the link below for Dr. Mohler's post, The Cause of Life--Where We Now Stand.
Crosswalk.com - Albert Mohler's Weblog

What have you done today to help stop this madness? Have you prayed? Have you written a letter to a newspaper? Have you made a donation to or volunteered to help at a Pro-Life clinic? Have you participated in a public protest? Do you communicate your concern with your elected officials?

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
(British Philosopher Edmund Burke)
So, Do Something.

GBW

Mr. Rauch's Miracle Brush - Tars with one hand, whitewashes with the other.

"On balance it is probably healthier if religious conservatives are inside the
political system than if they operate as insurgents and provocateurs on the
outside. Better they should write anti-abortion planks into the Republican
platform than bomb abortion clinics. The same is true of the left. The clashes
over civil rights and Vietnam turned into street warfare partly because
activists were locked out of their own party establishments and had to fight,
literally, to be heard. When Michael Moore receives a hero's welcome at the
Democratic National Convention, we moderates grumble; but if the parties engage
fierce activists while marginalizing tame centrists, that is probably better for
the social peace than the other way around." Jonathan Rauch in The Atlantic
Monthly

When you cut to the chase, it seems Mr. Rauch thinks that religious conservatives bomb abortion clinics and Leftist radicals turned to violence in the Sixties and early Seventies because it was the only way they could be heard. Consequently, the only way to keep social peace is to embrace the madness on both sides of the cultural spectrum.

I'd be very interested to know how many religious conservatives Mr. Rauch has in his circle of friends. Few, I would wager, for if religious conservatives are as he states here, I'm sure he runs screaming whenever he thinks he sees one. (Come to think of it, so would I.) I wish I could persuade him to sit in with my Sunday School class for a couple of Sundays, maybe attend one of our class socials. A member for some years, I have yet to hear any instruction on manufacturing explosive devices or the effective placement of the same. There have been no trips to the range to hone sniper skills. Instead, we talk about ourselves, our families, our jobs, our co-workers, and study how the Bible is relevant in our lives every day. We ask each other to pray for those about whom we are concerned. Mr. Rauch might hear about class plans to donate money to purchase gifts for an Indianapolis pastor's family with six children our class has taken under our wing. Perhaps he'd hear about opportunities to sing in the choir, work in childcare, assist in the media ministry, or attend Bible studies. Oh well, maybe my church is a rare exception. No, wait, the last four churches I attended were the same way. Hmmm. Maybe it isnt an exception after all.

Mr. Rauch's comments show either the egregious willful ignorance of religious conservatism usually exhibited by the Left, or a carelessness of expression of which a writer with his credentials should not be guilty. If religious conservatives were prone to bomb abortion clinics because they were marginalized in the political process, the Clinton years would have been a veritable firestorm. Why is Mr. Rauch so wrong? He is wrong simply because he wants to be. Either he has not taken the time to get to know any religious conservatives, and/or he accepts the distorted caricature of conservative persons of faith as truth without corroboration, and/or he has been careless.

Mr. Rauch has also seems to have accepted the Left's justifying interpretation of the "glorious struggle" of the Sixties and early Seventies. Objective observation reveals most radicals of the era were one of two things, communist/socialists masquerading as "progressives", or immature children, regardless of their age, throwing tantrums because they couldn't have their way and have it now, and they wanted to stick it to their parents. It wasn't because they were marginalized. It was because they were impatient.

I bought the relevant issue of the Atlantic Monthly last evening, and in context with the rest of the article. I think Mr. Rauch was careless. I hope we see some sense of accountability from him which has been so lacking in recent instances of media malfeasance.
GBW

UPDATE:
Hugh Hewitt had Mr. Rauch on his show last evening, and guess what? Mr. Rauch was responsive to the point of allowing his entire article to be included on Hugh's blog and penning a response.
Integrity in media. What a concept!!

Kudos to Jonathan Rauch for being a responsible journalist. At least in hindsight.
GBW

The Counter-Counter Inaugural

The Central Kentucky Chapter of Protest Warrior staged a Counter-Counter Inaugural Thursday in response to the Louisville Peace Action Community's Counter-Inaugural (That means "WehateBushwewishhewasdeadhe'snotourPresident.) at the Courthouse in downtown Louisville.
See Paul's post here, Brent's post here, and Dawn's post here and a couple of comments from me here. (Note: There is some strong language in some of these posts.) Paul and Brent serve up some great pictures. I wish there was video of the LPAC'ers that were not all that peaceful.

Most people on the right have no idea how many on the left exhibit what seems to be lunatic behavior and reasoning. These posts will give you a glimpse. I heartily recommend you attend one of their rallies for a real eye opener.

Then join Protest Warrior.
GBW

Idealism untempered with pragmatism

(For some reason, this didn't post up Thursday. So, here it is)
Driving to work this morning, I passed the preparations for Greater Louisville Peace and Justice Communities' "All Day Counter-Inaugural" rally in front of the courthouse in downtown Louisville. I immediately recalled the words of noted British evolutionist, Sir Arthur Keith*, who said, "Evolution is unproved and unprovable; we believe it only because the alternative is the belief in God and creation, and that is unthinkable!"

In case you haven't noticed, we do not live in a perfect world. Though peace is always an admirable goal, all parties involved in a dispute must sign on, or it is not peace, but oppression. Sadly, sometimes force must be met with force. It is at this point we see Sir Arthur's mindset manifest itself in the peace movement. Peace is the only answer for them because their minds are closed to reality and the necessities of it.

Their blind devotion to utopianism (or their blind hatred of George W. Bush, you decide) flies in the face of the way things are. Reality. The terrorist insurgents in Iraq are responsible for most of the civilian deaths since the United States liberated Iraq. "Oh, but if the U.S. hadn't invaded Iraq, the insurgents wouldn't be killing civilians." No, but if we hadn't invaded, the former regime would have continued to kill by the tens of thousands and continued to support Islamic terrorists by paying bounties to families of suicide bombers. Palestinian terrorism continues in Israel, even as the Israeli government meets more of the (corrupt) Palestinian Authority's demands. Radical Islamic terrorists continue to strike civilian targets around the world. I don't even know how to begin to describe what is going on in Africa.

Many in the "Peace and Justice" community put the cart before the horse. They insist on peace at any cost, all the time, every time, even when the other side refuses to participate. In a utopia, this is not a problem, but in our world it is appeasement, not peace. The peace movement's idealism untempered with pragmatism is not only foolish, but, in this instance, dangerous.

I wonder if the "peace" demonstrators see the irony of their situation today. Demonstrating in public, covering a public building with their propaganda, publicly dissenting against their country that came into being through war and preserved thru the centuries by war, while Americans serve around the world, striving to allow others to exercise those same God-given rights in their own countries.

The United States is working for peace in Iraq. Working for it, not just hoping.
GBW

p.s.
I thought it interesting that the flag displayed on the LouisvillePeace.org website ("Join or Die") is a battleflag from the American Revolution.

*Sir Arthur Keith wrote the preface to the 100th Anniversary Edition of Darwin's Origen of the Species.

A brief History of the Conservative Movement

I received this brief history lesson in an email from my cousin, a Master Sergeant in the Army. I thank him for his consideration.

A Brief History of the Conservative Movement

Division of the human family into two distinct groups began some 12,000 years ago. Humans existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunter/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains in the summer and would go to the beach and live on fish in winter.

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented by Man to get to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups: Liberals and Conservatives. Once beer was discovered, it required grain, and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor the aluminum can was invented yet, so while our early human ancestors were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to BBQ at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what became known as the "Conservative Movement".

Other men, who were weaker and less skilled at hunting, learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing, fetching and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the "Liberal Movement". Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as "girlie men".

Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the trade union, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide up the meat and the beer that the conservatives were providing. Over the years, conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.

Modern liberals like imported beer, ( with lime added ), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish, but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare. Another interesting, revolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than liberal men. Most social workers, personal injury lawyers, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood, and group therapists are liberals. Liberals also invented the Designated Hitter Rule because it wasn't "fair" to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer, and eat red meat and potatoes. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, soldiers, athletes, and generally anyone who works productively outside of government. Conservatives who own companies employ other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little, or nothing. They like to "govern" the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America. They crept in after the Wild West was tamed, and created a business of trying to get MORE for nothing.

This ends today's history lesson.

Thanks again, cuz.
GBW

Another Dunce Cap for Brady Campaign

(Source: NRA/ILA, January 15, 2005)

You know the anti-gunners are desperate when they have to resort to nonsense like this. Even though violent crime has declined 12 straight years and is at a 27-year low, the Brady Campaign says that 31 states deserve a "D" or "F" grade for their gun laws. This, according to their eighth annual "report card."

If that isn`t silly enough, on the January 12 episode of NRA`s live talk-radio show, NRANEWS.com, Brady spokesman Peter Hamm claimed Brady`s grades are determined by a "secret" formula. There`s no secret, though. Plain and simple, Brady gives the highest grades to the states that have the most "gun control." So, for example, the state of Maryland gets the highest grade (A-), even though it has the nation`s second highest murder rate and highest robbery rate. But low-crime states with fewer restrictions on the rights of lawful gun owners, like Idaho, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Vermont get a "D" or "F."

If anyone deserves a bad grade, the Brady Campaign does for failing "Civics 101." It reduced Ohio`s grade from a "D+" to a "D-" because the state`s Right-to-Carry law "forced police to issue CCW" permits! Well of course they did; that`s called "democracy." Legislatures, representing the people, pass laws. That`s what they do!

The Brady Campaign also gets an "F" for failing math, claiming that "gun control" reduces crime. As noted in numerous studies, including recent ones from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and National Research Council, there is no evidence to support that claim.

Basically, the Brady Campaign`s "report card" is a superficial publicity stunt, perpetrated by an extremist anti-gun organization trying to attract attention to itself because it is fast on its way to becoming irrelevant. Name the issue, and the Brady Campaign is either losing the battle, or has lost the war. To wit: the right to arms is now widely recognized as an individual right. The federal "assault weapons" ban expired. The federal waiting period expired in favor of Instant Check. And NRA-PVF-supported candidates were even more successful than usual in the recent elections, while virtually all Brady-supported candidates for national office were defeated.

While sitting in the corner, the folks at the Brady Campaign would do well to read the writing on the wall.

Cosby addresses universal problem.

Bill Cosby has been excoriated by many for his criticism of certain aspects of African-American culture he believes have been shown to be destructive. He doesn't back off with this op-ed piece he wrote for The Detroit Free Press.

After you've read his piece and my comments, ask yourself a question. Ignoring the Civil Rights angle, aren't Mr. Cosby's questions ones all parents should be asking? My parents certainly did.

My Mom and Dad knew where I was 99% of the time. Not much room for meaness in that 1% left over. And they checked up on me. I wasn't a bad kid, they just took parenting seriously. Most of the time I was at home doing chores. There was very little running around the neighborhood and no ranging further afield.

My parents knew what was going on at school because they took the time to find out. Sometimes they found out things before I got home. They met with or called teachers. They checked my homework. They looked at my report cards and held me accountable for the grades.

Mom and Dad knew my friends and their families. We couldn't afford expensive sneakers, but they wouldn't have bought them if we could. My mom bought all my clothes until I was well into High School. They were never "cool", but they were always decent and tasteful. My folks taught and insisted on manners, respect for morals and property, both ours and others, respect for law-enforcement personnel, teachers, members of the armed forces, veterans, my elders, and much more.

I was always amazed when I saw what many of my friends and acquaintances got away with. Mom and Dad would (and did!) stop "that nonsense" in a New York Minute. We always knew the exact location of the boundaries and exactly what would happen when we crossed them. My grandparents, aunts and uncles were in on it, too.

My Wonderful Wife and I are not blessed with children of our own. We have tried to do our small part to support the parents of our nieces, nephews, younger cousins, and the children we were privileged to teach in a Christian School, Sunday school, and youth group. But we have also had the experience of sitting across the desk from parents saying, "I can't do nothin' with him." Their son was seven years old.

I have seen the same problems Mr. Cosby describes in the small mountain communities of my childhood, but the population most affected there is white. A boom-and-bust economic cycle based on coal mining and generations of handouts from the failed experiments of the War on Poverty and The Great Society have created a culture of dependency and victimism (is that a word?), that is startlingly like that which he decries in the inner cities and Louisville's own West End.

I find I must agree with Mr. Cosby because the things he recommends are how I was reared. I think it worked out well.
GBW

Boycott CBS

Why is no one crying from the roofs, "Boycott CBS News sponsors!!!"

Headlines should be saying, "CBS News Sponsor Boycott Enters Third Month"

If Rather and Heyward are to go, one must get the attention of the important people they answer to, Finance and the stockholders.

I will watch CBS news this evening for the first time in a very, very long time for the sole purpose of getting a list of sponsors. Tomorrow I will be writing letters to those sponsors.

It's amazing how few letters it takes to get under a sponsor's skin and get them to take action.

I wonder what several truckloads a day would do.

Hmmmmmmmm...
GBW

Judge goes too far in 37th District Senate race.

Republican Dana Seum Stephenson won the 37th District Senate race, but a Franklin County Circuit Judge ordered the Kentucky Board of Elections to certify her opponent, Democrat Virginia Woodward, the winner. The judge went too far with his order.

Apparently there is nothing that forbids a person who may not serve in an office to run for it in either the Constitution or the Kentucky Revised Statutes . Nor is there any provision in either to allow the runner-up to take the office by default. Ms. Woodward did not win the election. She lost by about 1000 votes. The judge should have stayed out of it.

If Ms. Stephenson were otherwise eligible to serve in office, but died before being sworn in, Ms. Woodward would not normally be considered to take her place. In this instance, would it be reasonable for a Franklin Circuit Judge to order Ms. Woodward be sworn into office? No, it would not. The responsibility for that decision rests with the Senate.

The Constitutional authority of the Senate to choose who it will seat is clear. Subject only to the Constitution and itself, the Senate must be the ultimate arbiter in this race. Though many may say Ms. Stephenson is not eligible to serve, residency in Kentucky is a fluid concept, defined differently in several statutes. We shall see which definition the Senate prefers.

The Senate is unlikely to seat Ms. Woodward. To do so would ignore the expressed will of the voters of the 37th District. We shall see.
GBW

Oh my aching back!

My lower back has been a bit grumbly lately. No big deal, just letting me know it's there. So I go home last night, lay back on the bed to study a bit for my test (see below), put my legs up on the big wedge pillow to take some strain off my lower back. I was in tall cotton. And then I sneezed.

I'm not sure exactly what happened, all I know is my lower back exploded. I immediately supspected a terrorist bomb triggered by sound waves. When the initial shockwave subsided, I knew I was in trouble. I tried to get up and couldn't. Had to call my Wonderful Wife to assist me out of bed. It was not pleasant. I spent the rest of evening flat of my back by necessity rather than choice, and planned a trip to see my chiropractor first thing in the morning.

This morning, I thought I would be ok since I could get out of bed without help. I was wrong. By the time I finished my shower, I could barely walk. I had to get my WW out of bed (it was 7 a.m. and she was up until 2 a.m. wrapping Christmas presents) to help me. Did the trip to the chiropractor, shot the X-rays, L4 was definitely the problem, had my adjustments, did some interferential E-stim, got hooked up to a portable stim unit, and left to take my test. Did you notice all the review time I got in this morning? Neither did I.

I passed the test. However, the best news of the day is that I haven't sneezed again. And for that, I am very thankful.
GBW

The Great Society at work.

OK, SWFw/Attitude, here's one of mine. This story was told as true to a friend of mine in Southeastern Ky.

A woman went to the Health Department in a mountain county to talk with a social worker. She asked the social worker if he could help her get a bed. She had eight children and they couldn’t all fit in the beds she had on hand.

After determining she had enough room for another bed, the social worker agreed to help the woman out of her predicament, and told her to come back at the same time the next week.The social worker called around and found a headboard, footboard, side rails, slats, and full-size box springs and mattress. When the woman returned the next week with her dilapidated pickup truck, the social worker helped her load up the bed and tied it down.

The woman turned around and told the social worker, “I sure appreciate you helping me out. I didn’t know what I was going to do. Why, my two youngest have been sleeping in the box the color television came in!”
GBW

I know, I know, it's off to test I go...

If you are a praying person, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if you said one for me. Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. I will be taking a computer certification test called Server+. Fun, fun, fun.

The Bible mentions people who are "ever learning, but never coming to an understanding of the Truth." If you are considering a career in Information Technology, that is a pretty apt description of the certification tracks. It. Never. Ends.

I'm sure you can tell how excited I am about this. But, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, and then do it again at least twice next month for Network+ and a Microsoft course.

(sigh)
GBW

ps: Stop laughing, John!