Free In Idaho!

Whoa, who’d have thought of this?  From Britain, the distressing news

A report by the Ministry of Justice shows that 87,200 women and girls were arrested for violence last year, compared with 42,200 in 2003. This is equivalent to 240 violent attacks by women every day. It comes amid concerns that binge-drinking is fuelling a rise in assaults by women.

240 violent attacks by women!  Every day!  Wow.  That sounds serious.  I’ve read that the epidemic of knife crimes is sometimes estimated at 60,000 per year.  Clearly, drunken women are more dangerous than knives.

Now, with a serious problem like this, the first thing that comes to mind is “Thank God they don’t have GUNS!”

The second thing that comes to mind is, this being Britain and all, what are they going to do about it?  They’ve gotta ban something.  It won’t be the booze.  Goodness knows, that might just be enough to wake the Englishmen up and start another revolution, on their own soil this time.  No.  The way I see it, there aren’t enough real men left over there to ban booze… they’ll ban women.  Oh yeah, they’ll do the little dance of “controlling” them, but that never works.

Expect them to start with registration first. First the really big ones.  And the really loud ones too.  And gents, don’t try to sneak her out of the house under your coat, unless you want her taken away.  The rest of them, well, make sure they’re locked up where they can’t hurt anyone, alright?

Do yourself a favor.  Get the little woman down to the Home Office and sign her up now.  Avoid the rush.

Under the headline “President Obama Continues Hectic Victory Tour”, the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank reports that at a campaign stop in Washington yesterday, Barack Citizen of the World Obama said this

Inside, according to a witness, he told the House members, “This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for,” adding: “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”

Pompous turd. Since when has socialism and statism been America’s best tradition? Oh, right, FDR. Well then, when was being an arrogant BS’er part of America’s finest traditions? BJ Clinton? Oh yeah, right. What about clueless nanny state obstructionists? Pelosi and Reid… uh, ok.  Maybe he’s got a point after all. He is a fine symbol.

But those aren’t America’s best traditions.

I see a couple of candidates who in other times wouldn’t have made it to Washington, much less to the podiums of their party’s conventions; one of those candidates has such a thin resume and so many dubious (at best) past connections he wouldn’t be eligible to run a small business, much less the greatest country on earth. I see politicians like Clinton, Pelosi, Reid, Craig, Jefferson, Stevens, and a host of others who are so ethically challenged, yet able to carry on in power with nary a blush, and the ones who complain about it are laughed at and out voted. I see a Congress so hellbent on bringing home not just a little bacon but the whole damn hogfarm,  that it can no longer pass a clean bill that doesn’t threaten to bankrupt our future.  I see politicians promising to expand government to the point of taking over energy, banking, healthcare, housing, transportation, and education.  That’s frightening!  I see a Supreme Court splitting 5-4 on issues that seem obvious to everyday English speaking people, making law and delivering opinions based on political ideology and the chess game that our legal system has become, rather than the clear meaning of words in the Constitution.  I see a press no longer attempting to hide the thrill up their leg, or the personal agendas they promote. And I see an American electorate, half of which is so polarized they cannot even discuss issues with each other without anger and vitriol, and the other half so disenfranchised they don’t participate anymore.  That’s sad.

You know, perhaps Barack Hussein Obama is right. He just might BE a symbol. Certainly he is an empty suit, and in my opinion a very dangerous person to trust with the power of the White House. But as a ’symbol of the possibility’ he is fitting, for the place that America is today. Maybe he really IS who we need to be President? In a “be careful what you wish for” kind of way.

One fine American tradition is the habit we as a people have of getting knocked down hard, shaking it off, then getting up and fighting back. An Obama presidency might be the catalyst for just such a moment in American history. Painful as they are to go through, terms such as Carter’s (and I suspect, Obama’s) eventually lead to stronger futures. America is not strengthened by higher taxes, increased government control, and wishy-washy Presidents with a program for everyone and everything. The American people are not made stronger by giving them everything they think they need, whether that be free jobs, free retirements, free healthcare, free mortgages, or free television converter boxes. There is no such thing as “free”.   Which is why Barack Empty Hype Obama might be just the man to bring that lesson home to the American people.

The American people were never made stronger or better by government, or by programs, or by political parties or political promises.  No, the American people are made stronger and more productive when government gets its hand out of the pockets of the citizens, gets out of the way, and lets we the people do it for themselves.  That is one of those finest American traditions that goes all the way back to the Founding of the country.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Simple, elegant. No free stuff.  No phoney Robin Hood “tax the rich, give to the poor” government programs. And a conscious rememberance that we are going to be passing it along to those who come after us, our children. Not a massive debt and the biggest bureaucracy the world has ever seen. No silly promises of happily ever after courtesy of a gigantic government run by people who know it all and better.  The Founders didn’t design a government to replace the King, nor to become as God.   Simply a framework to “secure the blessings of liberty” for all, not just some.

Gratitude, not greed.  Hard work, not laziness.  Caring for others, not simply one’s self.  Security and self-sufficiency, not fear and dependency.  And trust in God as the basis for hope for the future, not in the government, or in human politicians. 

THOSE are the finest of American traditions.  Too bad the Obamamessiah doesn’t mean any of that.