Glimfeather http://glimfeather.com Tu-whoo, tu-whoo! Wake up, Puddleglum. Wake up. It is on the Lion's business. posterous.com Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:27:00 -0700 Hudson's Tax Plan: 5-10-20 http://glimfeather.com/hudsons-tax-plan-5-10-20 http://glimfeather.com/hudsons-tax-plan-5-10-20

Sales Tax:

  • 5% rate
  • Not taxed:
    • State and Local Taxes
    • Exports
    • Interest payments of all kinds  
      • mortgage
      • consumer
      • investment
    • Investments of all kinds
      • Real Estate purchases
      • Equity purchases
  • Notable INCLUSIONS:  
    • education
    • services
    • wholesale products and services
    • purchases by non-profits

Corporate Income Tax:

  • 10% rate
  • Not taxed
    • capital gains and losses
  • Deductible:
    • domestic purchases and expenses
    • domestic payroll
    • dividends paid
    • depreciation (life of asset)
    • depletion
    • sales tax (see above)
  • Not deductible:
    • foreign payroll
    • foreign purchases and expenses
    • gifts and contributions

Personal Income Tax:

  • 20% rate
  • Personal exemption:  $12,500.
  • Not taxed:
    • nothing
  • Deductible
    • charity
  • Not deductible
    • mortgage interest
    • medical expenses
    • retirement "investments"
    • capital losses
  • Notable inclusions
    • capital gains

Not Taxed:

  • Estates
  • Gifts
  • Payroll
  • Excise
  • Import and export tariffs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1311893/owl3.jpg http://posterous.com/users/KCj2JZKizf Hudson Barton Aaytch Hudson Barton
Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:19:10 -0700 THE CANONS OF THE COUNCIL OF ORANGE (529 AD) http://glimfeather.com/the-canons-of-the-council-of-orange-529-ad http://glimfeather.com/the-canons-of-the-council-of-orange-529-ad
THE COUNCIL OF ORANGE

The Council of Orange was an outgrowth of the controversy between Augustine and Pelagius. This controversy had to do with degree to which a human being is responsible for his or her own salvation, and the role of the grace of God in bringing about salvation. The Pelagians held that human beings are born in a state of innocence, i.e., that there is no such thing as a sinful nature or original sin.

As a result of this view, they held that a state of sinless perfection was achievable in this life. The Council of Orange dealt with the Semi-Pelagian doctrine that the human race, though fallen and possessed of a sinful nature, is still "good" enough to able to lay hold of the grace of God through an act of unredeemed human will. As you read the Canons of the Council of Orange, you will be able to see where John Calvin derived his views of the total depravity of the human race.

THE CANONS OF THE COUNCIL OF ORANGE (529 AD)

CANON 1. If anyone denies that it is the whole man, that is, both body and soul, that was "changed for the worse" through the offense of Adam's sin, but believes that the freedom of the soul remains unimpaired and that only the body is subject to corruption, he is deceived by the error of Pelagius and contradicts the scripture which says, "The soul that sins shall die" (Ezek. 18:20); and, "Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey?" (Rom. 6:126); and, "For whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved" (2 Pet. 2:19).

CANON 2. If anyone asserts that Adam's sin affected him alone and not his descendants also, or at least if he declares that it is only the death of the body which is the punishment for sin, and not also that sin, which is the death of the soul, passed through one man to the whole human race, he does injustice to God and contradicts the Apostle, who says, "Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned" (Rom. 5:12).

CANON 3. If anyone says that the grace of God can be conferred as a result of human prayer, but that it is not grace itself which makes us pray to God, he contradicts the prophet Isaiah, or the Apostle who says the same thing, "I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me" (Rom 10:20, quoting Isa. 65:1).

CANON 4. If anyone maintains that God awaits our will to be cleansed from sin, but does not confess that even our will to be cleansed comes to us through the infusion and working of the Holy Spirit, he resists the Holy Spirit himself who says through Solomon, "The will is prepared by the Lord" (Prov. 8:35, LXX), and the salutary word of the Apostle, "For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13).

CANON 5. If anyone says that not only the increase of faith but also its beginning and the very desire for faith, by which we believe in Him who justifies the ungodly and comes to the regeneration of holy baptism -- if anyone says that this belongs to us by nature and not by a gift of grace, that is, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit amending our will and turning it from unbelief to faith and from godlessness to godliness, it is proof that he is opposed to the teaching of the Apostles, for blessed Paul says, "And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). And again, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8). For those who state that the faith by which we believe in God is natural make all who are separated from the Church of Christ by definition in some measure believers.

CANON 6. If anyone says that God has mercy upon us when, apart from his grace, we believe, will, desire, strive, labor, pray, watch, study, seek, ask, or knock, but does not confess that it is by the infusion and inspiration of the Holy Spirit within us that we have the faith, the will, or the strength to do all these things as we ought; or if anyone makes the assistance of grace depend on the humility or obedience of man and does not agree that it is a gift of grace itself that we are obedient and humble, he contradicts the Apostle who says, "What have you that you did not receive?" (1 Cor. 4:7), and, "But by the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10).

CANON 7. If anyone affirms that we can form any right opinion or make any right choice which relates to the salvation of eternal life, as is expedient for us, or that we can be saved, that is, assent to the preaching of the gospel through our natural powers without the illumination and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who makes all men gladly assent to and believe in the truth, he is led astray by a heretical spirit, and does not understand the voice of God who says in the Gospel, "For apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5), and the word of the Apostle, "Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God" (2 Cor. 3:5).

CANON 8. If anyone maintains that some are able to come to the grace of baptism by mercy but others through free will, which has manifestly been corrupted in all those who have been born after the transgression of the first man, it is proof that he has no place in the true faith. For he denies that the free will of all men has been weakened through the sin of the first man, or at least holds that it has been affected in such a way that they have still the ability to seek the mystery of eternal salvation by themselves without the revelation of God. The Lord himself shows how contradictory this is by declaring that no one is able to come to him "unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44), as he also says to Peter, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 16:17), and as the Apostle says, "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:3).

CANON 9. Concerning the succor of God. It is a mark of divine favor when we are of a right purpose and keep our feet from hypocrisy and unrighteousness; for as often as we do good, God is at work in us and with us, in order that we may do so.

CANON 10. Concerning the succor of God. The succor of God is to be ever sought by the regenerate and converted also, so that they may be able to come to a successful end or persevere in good works.

CANON 11. Concerning the duty to pray. None would make any true prayer to the Lord had he not received from him the object of his prayer, as it is written, "Of thy own have we given thee" (1 Chron. 29:14).

CANON 12. Of what sort we are whom God loves. God loves us for what we shall be by his gift, and not by our own deserving.

CANON 13. Concerning the restoration of free will. The freedom of will that was destroyed in the first man can be restored only by the grace of baptism, for what is lost can be returned only by the one who was able to give it. Hence the Truth itself declares: "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36).

CANON 14. No mean wretch is freed from his sorrowful state, however great it may be, save the one who is anticipated by the mercy of God, as the Psalmist says, "Let thy compassion come speedily to meet us" (Ps. 79:8), and again, "My God in his steadfast love will meet me" (Ps. 59:10).

CANON 15. Adam was changed, but for the worse, through his own iniquity from what God made him. Through the grace of God the believer is changed, but for the better, from what his iniquity has done for him. The one, therefore, was the change brought about by the first sinner; the other, according to the Psalmist, is the change of the right hand of the Most High (Ps. 77:10).

CANON 16. No man shall be honored by his seeming attainment, as though it were not a gift, or suppose that he has received it because a missive from without stated it in writing or in speech. For the Apostle speaks thus, "For if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose" (Gal. 2:21); and "When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men" (Eph. 4:8, quoting Ps. 68:18). It is from this source that any man has what he does; but whoever denies that he has it from this source either does not truly have it, or else "even what he has will be taken away" (Matt. 25:29).

CANON 17. Concerning Christian courage. The courage of the Gentiles is produced by simple greed, but the courage of Christians by the love of God which "has been poured into our hearts" not by freedom of will from our own side but "through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Rom. 5:5).

CANON 18. That grace is not preceded by merit. Recompense is due to good works if they are performed; but grace, to which we have no claim, precedes them, to enable them to be done.

CANON 19. That a man can be saved only when God shows mercy. Human nature, even though it remained in that sound state in which it was created, could be no means save itself, without the assistance of the Creator; hence since man cannot safe- guard his salvation without the grace of God, which is a gift, how will he be able to restore what he has lost without the grace of God?

CANON 20. That a man can do no good without God. God does much that is good in a man that the man does not do; but a man does nothing good for which God is not responsible, so as to let him do it.

CANON 21. Concerning nature and grace. As the Apostle most truly says to those who would be justified by the law and have fallen from grace, "If justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose" (Gal. 2:21), so it is most truly declared to those who imagine that grace, which faith in Christ advocates and lays hold of, is nature: "If justification were through nature, then Christ died to no purpose." Now there was indeed the law, but it did not justify, and there was indeed nature, but it did not justify. Not in vain did Christ therefore die, so that the law might be fulfilled by him who said, "I have come not to abolish them <the law and prophets> but to fulfil them" (Matt. 5:17), and that the nature which had been destroyed by Adam might be restored by him who said that he had come "to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10).

CANON 22. Concerning those things that belong to man. No man has anything of his own but untruth and sin. But if a man has any truth or righteousness, it from that fountain for which we must thirst in this desert, so that we may be refreshed from it as by drops of water and not faint on the way.

CANON 23. Concerning the will of God and of man. Men do their own will and not the will of God when they do what displeases him; but when they follow their own will and comply with the will of God, however willingly they do so, yet it is his will by which what they will is both prepared and instructed.

CANON 24. Concerning the branches of the vine. The branches on the vine do not give life to the vine, but receive life from it; thus the vine is related to its branches in such a way that it supplies them with what they need to live, and does not take this from them. Thus it is to the advantage of the disciples, not Christ, both to have Christ abiding in them and to abide in Christ. For if the vine is cut down another can shoot up from the live root; but one who is cut off from the vine cannot live without the root (John 15:5ff).

CANON 25. Concerning the love with which we love God. It is wholly a gift of God to love God. He who loves, even though he is not loved, allowed himself to be loved. We are loved, even when we displease him, so that we might have means to please him. For the Spirit, whom we love with the Father and the Son, has poured into our hearts the love of the Father and the Son (Rom. 5:5).

CONCLUSION. And thus according to the passages of holy scripture quoted above or the interpretations of the ancient Fathers we must, under the blessing of God, preach and believe as follows. The sin of the first man has so impaired and weakened free will that no one thereafter can either love God as he ought or believe in God or do good for God's sake, unless the grace of divine mercy has preceded him. We therefore believe that the glorious faith which was given to Abel the righteous, and Noah, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and to all the saints of old, and which the Apostle Paul <sic> commends in extolling them (Heb. 11), was not given through natural goodness as it was before to Adam, but was bestowed by the grace of God. And we know and also believe that even after the coming of our Lord this grace is not to be found in the free will of all who desire to be baptized, but is bestowed by the kindness of Christ, as has already been frequently stated and as the Apostle Paul declares, "For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake" (Phil. 1:29). And again, "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). And again, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and it is not your own doing, it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8). And as the Apostle says of himself, "I have obtained mercy to be faithful" (1 Cor. 7:25, cf. 1 Tim. 1:13). He did not say, "because I was faithful," but "to be faithful." And again, "What have you that you did not receive?" (1 Cor. 4:7). And again, "Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights" (Jas. 1:17). And again, "No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven" (John 3:27). There are innumerable passages of holy scripture which can be quoted to prove the case for grace, but they have been omitted for the sake of brevity, because further examples will not really be of use where few are deemed sufficient.

According to the catholic faith we also believe that after grace has been received through baptism, all baptized persons have the ability and responsibility, if they desire to labor faithfully, to perform with the aid and cooperation of Christ what is of essential importance in regard to the salvation of their soul. We not only do not believe that any are foreordained to evil by the power of God, but even state with utter abhorrence that if there are those who want to believe so evil a thing, they are anathema. We also believe and confess to our benefit that in every good work it is not we who take the initiative and are then assisted through the mercy of God, but God himself first inspires in us both faith in him and love for him without any previous good works of our own that deserve reward, so that we may both faithfully seek the sacrament of baptism, and after baptism be able by his help to do what is pleasing to him. We must therefore most evidently believe that the praiseworthy faith of the thief whom the Lord called to his home in paradise, and of Cornelius the centurion, to whom the angel of the Lord was sent, and of Zacchaeus, who was worthy to receive the Lord himself, was not a natural endowment but a gift of God's kindness.

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Wed, 19 Oct 2011 08:48:45 -0700 Theme Song - Hadley School for the Blind http://glimfeather.com/theme-song-hadley-school-for-the-blind http://glimfeather.com/theme-song-hadley-school-for-the-blind

Brailling Signs Is Cool To Do 9 - 23 - 11 Listen on Posterous

The Hadley School for the Blind
700 Elm Street
Winnetka, IL 60093
phone: (800) 323-4238, extension 6100
Enjoy checking us out online:

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Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:50:29 -0700 Thank You America! http://glimfeather.com/thank-you-america http://glimfeather.com/thank-you-america
THANK YOU 
AMERICA !
Mail_attachment

Dear American Taxpayer,

For only the second time in my adult life, I am not ashamed of my country. 

I want to thank the hard working American people for paying $242 thousand dollars for my vacation in Spain .  My daughter Sasha, several long-time family friends, my personal staff and various guests had a wonderful time. Honestly, you just haven't lived until you have stayed in a $2,500.00 per night private 3-story villa at a 5-Star luxury hotel.

Thank you also for the use of Air Force Two and the 70 Secret Service personnel who tagged along to be sure we were safe and cared for at all times. By the way, if you happen to be visiting the Costa del Sol, I highly recommend the Buenaventura Plaza restaurant in Marbella; great lobster with rice and oysters! I'm ashamed to admit the lobsters we ate in Martha's Vineyard were not quite as tasty, but what can you do if you're not in Europe , you have to just grin and bear it?Air Force Two (which costs $11,351 per hour to operate according to Government Accounting Office reports) only used 47,500 gallons of jet fuel for this trip and carbon emissions were a mere 1,031 tons of CO2. These are only rough estimates, but they are close. That's quite a carbon footprint as my good friend Al Gore would say, so we must ask the American citizens to drive smaller, more fuel efficient cars and drive less too, so we can lessen our combined carbon footprint.

I know times are hard and millions of you are struggling to put food on the table and trying to make ends meet. So I do appreciate your sacrifices and do hope you find work soon.I was really exhausted after Barack took our family on a luxury vacation in Maine a few weeks ago. I just had to get away for a few days. 

Cordially, 
Michelle (Moochelle) Obama

P.S. Thank you as well for the $2 BILLION dollar trip to India from which we just returned! 

P.S. Thank you, too, for that vacation trip to Martha's Vineyard ; it was fabulous. And thanks for that second smaller jet that took our dog Bo to Martha's Vineyard so we and the children could have him with us while we were away from the White House for eleven days. After all, we couldn't take him on Air Force One because he might pee on some wires or something.

P.SSS. Oh, I almost forgot to say thanks also for our two-week trip to Hawaii at Christmas. That 7,000 square foot house was great!

P.SSSs don't forget my ski trip to Vail this winter and now the girls and I are in Africa with my mom. All this while Barack golfs and campaigns to keep my trips coming for the next 4 years !

Love you! Remember, we all have to share the pain of these economic times equally! Love to -redistribute- share- the wealth.

 

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Sat, 03 Sep 2011 03:54:21 -0700 Political Science for Dummies http://glimfeather.com/political-science-for-dummies http://glimfeather.com/political-science-for-dummies

Political Science for Dummies
DEMOCRAT

You have two cows.

Your neighbour has none. 
You feel guilty for being successful. 
You push for higher taxes so the government can provide cows for everyone.  

 

REPUBLICAN 
 

You have two cows. 

Your neighbour has none.
So? 
 
 
SOCIALIST 
 

You have two cows.

The government takes one and gives it to your neighbour. 
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow. 
 
 
COMMUNIST 
 

You have two cows.

The government seizes both and provides you with milk. 
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour. 
 
 
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE 
 

You have two cows.

You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows. 
 
 
BUREAUCRACY, CANADIAN STYLE 
 

You have two cows.

Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pour the milk down the drain. 
 
 
AMERICAN CORPORATION 
 

You have two cows.

You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one. 
You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. 
You are surprised when one cow drops dead. 
You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses. 
Your stock goes up. 
 
 
FRENCH CORPORATION 
 

You have two cows.

You go on strike because you want three cows. 
You go to lunch and drink wine.
Life is good. 
 
 
JAPANESE CORPORATION 
 

You have two cows.

You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. 
They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains.
Most are at the top of their class at cow school. 
 
 
GERMAN CORPORATION 
 

You have two cows. 

You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour. 
Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year. 
 
 
ITALIAN CORPORATION 
 

You have two cows but you don't know where they are. 

You break for lunch.
Life is good. 

 

RUSSIAN CORPORATION 
 

You have two cows.

You drink some vodka.
You count them and learn you have five cows. 
You drink some more vodka.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. 
The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have. 

 

TALIBAN CORPORATION 
 

You have all the cows in  Afghanistan , which are two. 

You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature'private parts.
You get a $40 million grant from the US government to find alternatives to milk production but use the money to buy weapons. 
 
 
IRAQI CORPORATION 
 

You have two cows.

They go into hiding. 
They send radio tapes of their mooing. 

 


POLISH CORPORATION
 
 

You have two bulls.

Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them. 

 

BELGIAN CORPORATION 
 

You have one cow.

The cow is schizophrenic.
Sometimes the cow thinks he's French, other times he's Flemish. 
The Flemish cow won't share with the French cow.
The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow's milk. 
The cow asks permission to be cut in half.
The cow dies happy. 

 

FLORIDA CORPORATION 
 

You have a black cow and a brown cow. 

Everyone votes for the best looking one. 
Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally vote for the
 black one.
Some people vote for both.
Some people vote for neither.
Some people can't figure out how to vote at all.
Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think is the best
 looking cow. 

 

CALIFORNIA CORPORATION 
 

You have millions of cows. 

They make real
  California cheese. 
Only five speak English.
Most are illegal.
Arnold likes the ones with the big udders.
 

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Fri, 02 Sep 2011 05:28:00 -0700 Why should we celebrate Labor Day? http://glimfeather.com/why-should-we-celebrate-labor-day http://glimfeather.com/why-should-we-celebrate-labor-day

Why indeed!   It seems appropriate to recall its circumstances.  


Background

The occasion for the inauguration of Labor Day was the Pullman Strike of 1894.  Democrat Grover Cleveland was in the White House.  His intervention in the Pullman Strike of 1894 to keep the railroads moving angered labor unions nationwide. During the economic panic of 1893, the Pullman Palace Car Company cut wages as demands for their train cars plummeted and the company's revenue dropped. A delegation of workers complained of the low wages and sixteen hour workdays and the company's failure to decrease rents or the price of goods (in the company owned town). Paternalistic company owner George Pullman "loftily declined to talk with them. 

Strike

Many of the workers were already members of the American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene V. Debs, which supported their strike by launching a boycott in which union members refused to run trains containing Pullman cars. The strike effectively shut down production in the Pullman factories and led to a lockout. Railroad workers across the nation refused to switch Pullman cars. The ARU declared that if switchmen were disciplined for the boycott, the entire ARU would strike in sympathy.  Adding fuel to the fire the railroad companies began hiring replacement workers (that is, strikebreakers), which only increased hostilities. Many African-Americans, fearful that the racism expressed by the American Railway Union would lock them out of another labor market, crossed the picket line, which added a racial division to the union's predicament. Elsewhere in the United States, sympathy strikers prevented transportation of goods by walking off the job, obstructing railroad tracks or threatening and attacking strikebreakers. 

Settlement

The strike eventually was broken up by United States Marshals and some 12,000 United States Army troops sent in by President Grover Cleveland on the premise that the strike interfered with the delivery of U.S. Mail, violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and represented a threat to public safety. The arrival of the military and subsequent deaths of workers led to further outbreaks of violence. During the course of the strike, 13 strikers were killed and 57 were wounded. Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld was incensed at Cleveland for putting the federal government at the service of the employers, and for rejecting Altgeld's plan to use his state militia to keep order, instead of federal troops.

Consequences

  1. Concurrent with the settlement, Debs was arrested, tried and sentenced to serve time of 6 months.  He was not then a socialist. However, during his time in prison, he read the works of Karl Marx, and after his release in 1895, he became the leading socialist figure in America, marking in fact the birth of socialism and the Socialist Party in the United States.
  2. Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894 after the strike when President Grover Cleveland and Congress made appeasement of organized labor a top priority. Legislation for the holiday was pushed through Congress six days after the strike ended.
  3. Two years later, in 1896, there was an overwhelming Republican victory over William Jennings Bryan and his Democratic Party, then repeated in 1900.  It restored business confidence and inaugurated a long epoch of prosperity.

 

So what exactly does Labor Day celebrate? 

  1. The birth of socialism. 
  2. The usurpation of a state militia by Federal government. 
  3. The murder of a mob by Federal troops. 
  4. The appeasement of that mob
  5. The racism of the US labor movement
  6. The end of capitalism

It's hard to figure anything else that this day might signify.

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Sun, 21 Aug 2011 12:00:00 -0700 Priest or Minister; my Anglo-Reformed perspective. http://glimfeather.com/priest-or-minister-my-anglo-reformed-perspect http://glimfeather.com/priest-or-minister-my-anglo-reformed-perspect
It is often heard that Anglicans, who use both terms "priest" and "minister" (presbyter) are confused about how to use them, and indeed they are.  One finds in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer that both terms are used with no immediately or apparent distinction.  Partly because of this lack of clarity, two factions grew up along side each other, one "high church" and one "low church", and for hundreds of years they have not been reconciled.  This essay is a personal view of the problem, and how a right thinking Anglican should resolve it in his mind.

1 Peter 2:4-10


As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,  you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:

"Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."
So the honor is for you whobelieve, but for those who do not believe,
"The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,"and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense."  

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race,a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Verses 5 and 9 each contain the word "priesthood", which is the 'sacerdotium' in Latin or 'hieros' in Greek.  The Roman church took this to refer to the order of sacrificing Christian priests.  The Protestant Reformation sprang up in large measure to refute the notion, to proclaim the priesthood of every Christian.  In so doing, a confusion arose among some English speakers as to the meaning of the above text, that perhaps the meaning was "minister" or "presbyter" rather than "priest", a reference to the Old Testament temple worship.

I have reviewed both Calvin's and Matthew Henry's commentaries on this passage, both having some authority among Protestants.  Calvin of course wrote in French, so he would have no cause to make a mistake pertaining to English (the French word is 'sacerdoce').  However, both commentaries understand that 'priest' in this context refers to the temple priesthood, then relates it to the new Covenant wherein all Christians are set aside for holy service and worship, to offer spiritual sacrifices first of ourselves and then of prayers, thanksgiving, alms, deeds, and all the duties of religion.  These Protestants emphasize that we are in fact associates in one royal priesthood, consecrated by Christ himself, far excelling the former priesthood because the partition has been pulled down by Christ; we are gathered from every nation and bestowed, everyone so consecrated, with the title 'priest'.  The honor of our priesthood is even higher because we by our nature were formerly "vassals of sin and death", suited to no such purpose. Therefore, the most spiritual sacrifices of the best men are not acceptable to God, but rather only through Him, the great high priest, and we are commended to bring our oblations, to present them to God.  

In my view, the Anglican tradition is no different from the above.  It wants us to understand that in the whole of our Christian lives, and especially our coming to the Lord's Supper (administered by presbyters), is modeled by the routine of priests in the Temple, where all must be washed through repentance and absolution.  Christians are not just partakers in the life of the Church. We are also its priesthood by association with Christ, each of us members of one mystical body, each of us comprehending the whole Gospel and the elements thereof, each of us breaking one bread, each of us forgiving sins, each of us as celebrants, each of us looking up with faith upon the holy body and blood, and not just once per week but unceasingly. 

Neither Protestant commentary reads the word 'presbyteros' (presbyter) into the passage.  To the extent that Anglicans are confused, it came from using the English word 'priest' in other parts of Scripture, where it refers to presbyters.  Because the Roman church had tried to assert a separate class of 'priests', "low church" Anglican reformers of the 16th century attacked the word 'priest' in Holy Communion rubrics.  "High church" Laudians and Anglo-Catholics fought back, rightly, but for the wrong reason (that they wanted to reassert Roman dogma). 

English politics and imprecise language is the source of an Anglican confusion and a sad history of conflict that Homilies and diplomacy failed to ever resolve.  The 1662 Book of Common Prayer uses both "priest" and "minister" as referring to ordained presbyters; neither referring to the people.  By contrast, the Articles of Religion and the Homilies are clear, reflecting Protestant doctrine; the order of "priest" belongs to every elect Christian and the office of "minister" belongs to those consecrated to the task of shepherding the Church.  

They convey the sense of 1 Peter 2, that we are all not mere partakers of his body and blood, but also associates in his royal priesthood, following the homily that commends a Christian to assume the role of priest (sacerdote): 

XV. Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament.
"Let a man prooue himselfe, and so eate of that bread, and drinke of that cuppe: (1 Corinthians 11.28)" We must certainely know, that three things bee requisite in him which would seemely, as becommeth such high mysteries, resort to the Lordes table. That is: First, a right and worthy estimation and vnderstanding of this mysterie. Secondly, to come in a sure faith. And thirdly, to haue newnesse or purenesse of life to succeede the receiuing of the same."
 

Similarly, the Homiles describe the role of a minister (or chief minister), whose office it is to lead and exhort but not to intermediate; and he is not a Christian with superior metaphysical nature, or with a superior position in worship:

IX. Of Common Prayer and Sacraments.
"For wee are not strangers one to another, but wee are the citizens of the Saints, and of the houshold of GOD (Ephesians 2.19), yea, and members of one body (1 Corinthians 10.17, 12.12). And therefore whiles our minister is in rehearsing the prayer that is made in the name of vs all, wee must giue diligent eares to the words spoken by him, and in heart begge at GODS hand those things that hee beggeth in wordes. And to signifie that wee doe so, wee say Amen, at the end of the prayer that hee maketh in the name of vs all...

"Iustinus Martyr, who liued about 160 yeeres after Christ, sayth thus of the administration of the Lords Supper in his time (Justinus, `Apol.,' 2): Upon the Sunday assemblies are made both of them that dwell in Cities, and of them that dwell in the Countrey also. Amongst whom, as much as may bee, the writings of the Apostles & Prophets are read. Afterwards when the Reader doth cease, the chiefe Minister maketh an exhortation, exhorting them to follow honest things. After this, wee rise altogether and offer prayers, which being ended (as wee haue sayd) bread and wine and water are brought foorth: Then the head Minister offereth prayers and thankesgiuing with all his power, and the people answer, Amen."
 

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Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:13:10 -0700 The Left loses it over Cain http://glimfeather.com/the-left-loses-it-over-cain http://glimfeather.com/the-left-loses-it-over-cain
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Former-comedian-turned-political-rabble-rouser Janeane Garofalo has unleashed her vitriolic verbal assault on Herman Cain this week, telling disgraced talk show host Keith Olbermann that the Republican presidential candidate either suffered from Stockholm Syndrome or was paid by Republican interests to run for president. 

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 Janeane Garofalo
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The full transcripts of her remarks on Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

GAROFALO: In this presidential race, because he deflects the racism that is inherent in the Republican Party, the conservative movement, the Tea Party, certainly, over the last 30 years the Republican Party has moved more and more to the right, but also race-baiting more, gay-baiting more and religion-baiting more; but Herman Cain, I feel like, is being paid by somebody to be involved and to run for president, so that you can go, 'Oh, yeah. They can't be racist! It's a black guy, it's a black guy who is asking for Obama to be impeached.' Or, 'It's a black guy who's anti-Muslim.' Or, 'It's a black guy who is a Tea Party guy.' And I feel like, well, wouldn't that suit the purposes of whomever astroturfs these things-- whether it be the Koch brothers, or ALEC, or Grover Norquist or any anything. Or it could even be Karl Rove. Let's get Herman Cain involved so it deflects the obvious racism of our Republican Party.

OLBERMANN: Well I mean, would that be separate of his delusions of grandeur, or were they just taking advantage of it...?

GAROFALO: He's a business man! 

OLBERMANN: He's a business man, ultimately!

GAROFALO: Whoever pays him and he may have a touch of Stockholm Syndrome. There may be a touch of Stockholm Syndrome in there, because any time I see a person of color or a female in the Republican Party or the conservative movement or the Tea Party, I wonder how they could be trying to curry favor with the oppressors. Is it Stockholm Syndrome or does somebody pay them? 

Read the full story and see the video (if you can stomach it) at Human Events.

Sadly, this is not the first time Ms. Garofalo has spewed such hatred about conservatives and the concerned patriots of the Tea Party movement. In 2009, she called members of the citizens' movement, "a bunch of teabagging rednecks" and said our opposition to President Obama is "about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up."

Help send a clear message to Janeane Garofalo that you are supporting Herman Cain because you believe in the content of his ideas and his character. Email Keith Olbermann's network, CurrentTV, and let them know how you feel: feedback@current.com.

Tell her you want Herman Cain in the White House because you're ready for mature leadership rooted in common sense solutions and proven results. Forward this email to 10 fellow patriots and let them know that liberty-loving conservatives everywhere are under attack from the far Left in America!

And let her know that conservatives everywhere will replace President Obama with someone whose values and vision can help return this country to the glory of the American Dream. Help us in our fight. Donate whatever you're able today. Tell Ms. Garafalo that you put your faith and confidence in Herman Cain for President. 


Thank you,

Friends of Herman Cain Staff

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Tue, 16 Aug 2011 06:42:00 -0700 Silence of the Shepherds http://glimfeather.com/silence-of-the-shepherds http://glimfeather.com/silence-of-the-shepherds

As early as 1867, Matthew Arnold warned that the ebbing of Christianity in England would disturb the societal order and usher in waves of violence.  His famous poem, "Dover Beach," noted the result of the weakening of Christianity would mean "we are here as on a darkling plain, Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night."

Years later, in 1919, surveying the aftermath of World War I, William Butler Yeats would write his equally famous poem "The Second Coming."  Like Arnold, the poet saw that the dissolution of the ideals foundational to Great Britain's moral order, plus the dissolution of the global societal order imposed by the British Empire, would result in "anarchy loosed upon the world."  

Certainly the paroxysms of the twentieth century have in large part been due to the fading of the British Empire and the retreat of Great Britain's influence, but probably neither Arnold nor Yeats envisioned the ravages of the "rough beast" now on the loose in Great Britain.

The "rough beasts" rioting throughout England are certainly full of "passionate intensity," particularly against the "rich," whom they see as depriving them of their just dues.  These beasts reappeared in England over the last days, indiscriminately and pitilessly devouring whatever they wished -- just because.  Like rabid chimeras, their consciences stultified and withered, their brains reduced to near-reptilian functioning, thousands of young people rioted, pillaged, and plundered.  

Matthew Arnold, along with many others, saw where the precepts of Darwinism as concerns the status of humans would lead.  Man was reduced to the status of an upright primate and the Judeo/Christian view of the human as imago dei was abandoned.  Should we be surprised that young people act like beasts when they have been taught from childhood that's what they are?  If humans are no longer taught they are "a little lower than the angels," should we be astonished when they act like animals?

When an earthquake shatters the foundations undergirding the sea of faith, a tsunami of ignorance and violence sweeps all away before it.

Yeats made yet another point in his poem, writing that while the worst are full of "passionate intensity," the best "lack all conviction."

Certainly the lack of conviction is apparent when one contemplates the deafening silence or near-silence from leaders of the Christian and Muslim communities.  While it is heartening to see Sikhs and Muslims joining together for the purpose of protecting their places of worship, businesses, and homes while praying for peace, it is rather disheartening to suspect that much of the foxhole unity may be motivated by a mere survival instinct.  Self-preservation is also one of the lower, more animalistic instincts, scarcely above the moral level of those perpetrating the violence. 

Where have the Sikhs and Muslims been when fire-breathing imams advocating extremism in the name of Allah ensconced themselves in Tottenham and other London burroughs?  For instance, where was the much-needed repudiation of the violence espoused by the vicious Tottenham Ayatollah and his rabid followers?  Where were the denunciations by moderate Muslims, long accused with some justification of having rather tepid responses toward their more violent brethren?  Even now, though there are 354 mosques in London, moderate Muslim voices appear to be almost completely muted.

The lamentable non-performance of the Archbishop of Canterbury, shepherd of the Christian lambs of England, is equally distressing.  So far we have heard nothing but pap from him.  His statement to the press is a precise summation of what is amiss not only in Great Britain itself, but within the Anglican church, which is so riddled with politically correct thinking and reliance on government initiative that the good Archbishop seems unable to get beyond banalities.  He writes:

[W]e now have a major question to address, which is how to combat the deep alienation we have seen, the alienation and cynicism that leads to reckless destruction. The Government has insisted on the priority of creating stronger, better‑resourced local communities. This priority is now a matter of extreme urgency. We need to see initiatives that will address anxieties and provide some hope of long‑term stability in community services, especially for the young. Meanwhile the Church will maintain its commitment to all communities at risk, and is ready to offer its help and solidarity in every possible way.

Having punted the church's responsibility to the government, one has to ask, where are the archbishop's ringing denunciations of the violence?  Where the exhortation to the flock to resist the rioters and to defend the defenseless?  Where are the calls to respect the order of the state, the clarion message to repent, the calls for self-examination, the urging of a return to the commands of the scriptures and to the traditions of the universal Holy Catholic Church?

The archbishop's statement reminds me of the platitudinous trope I recently saw posted on a United Methodist church's outside bulletin board: "Revenge gets you even.  Forgiving makes you one up on the enemy."

Right. 

And putting flowers in gun barrels stops war, while calls to end the cycle creating a "disadvantaged underclass" will solve the pesky problems of violence against all authority and the pillaging of the "rich."

Doubtless we'll hear a lot more from Archbishop Williams about forgiveness and love, love, love.  Such messages may all be well and good, but when that is all that is heard from the pulpits of the land, we should not be surprised at the moral somnolence afflicting the country.

Somewhere between vengeance and forgiveness lies the virtue of justice.  Right now, what needs to be heard is not just the love and forgiveness part of the Christian tradition, but also a call to militant and muscular resistance against the great evil sweeping the land.  

Preachers and imams, do your jobs.  Shepherds, break your craven silences.  Put an end to the caviling and whining.  Stop punting to the government.  Speak the truth and rebuild the foundations of spiritual rigor lest your sheep perish and you with them.

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Mon, 01 Aug 2011 08:36:29 -0700 Herman Cain's Weekly Commentary http://glimfeather.com/herman-cains-weekly-commentary http://glimfeather.com/herman-cains-weekly-commentary
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Herman's Weekly Commentary: "Obama's Weak Leadership and Wrong Direction"
Published: Sunday, July 31, 2011

Forget President Obama‚s 40 percent (and still falling) approval rating. That just means that less than 45 percent of those surveyed have no clue about the direction of the country. Or, those same people support the president‚s weakening of America. And please spare me the worn-out excuses that it was Bush‚s fault, or things are bad because it was worse than he thought.

Consider the facts:

President Obama ended the Space Shuttle program as of two weeks ago when the last shuttle returned safely from its mission. We will now have to thumb a ride from the Russians if we want to get to the Space Station, and it will cost us dearly. John F. Kennedy‚s vision of our leadership in space technology and exploration will soon be a national nightmare. We will now be a follower instead of a leader.

When President Obama made the decision to terminate the missile defense system being built in Turkey, he made it easier for nations like Iran to attack our friends like Israel with nuclear weapons. In talking with a ballistic missile defense system expert recently, I was told that we could have enhanced our overall missile defense systems capability by upgrading our sea-based defense systems technology for a relatively small investment. The Obama Administration said no to the expenditure even though, as a result, the world is not safer.

And now that the „surge‰ in Afghanistan is working according to General David Petraeus and others, the president chose to withdraw about one-third of the troops over the next year. That means the remaining two-thirds will be at a disadvantage in fighting the remaining enemy. The enemy did not announce that they will reduce their efforts to try to kill our soldiers by one-third.

The U.S. involvement in Libya has deteriorated into a debacle. The objective was not clear. The exit strategy is not clear. But the fact that we are shouldering the biggest share of the costs in this war is real clear. That‚s not leadership.

Instead of moving toward energy independence, the president has made decisions that would make us more energy-dependent. An extended unnecessary moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the oil-spill crisis, and telling Brazil we will be their best customers for their oil with our money, does not convey strength.

America should and can be its own best customer for energy because we have the natural resources to do so. We just lack the will and leadership to do so.

We should not be surprised that this same weak leadership has allowed the debt ceiling situation to become a crisis. It could have been avoided, as I discussed last week. But as Speaker John Boehner put it, the president‚s solution to the debt crisis is to give him a blank check.

Once again, in my grandfather‚s vernacular, „We ain‚t stupid!‰

Our sluggish economy is our biggest crisis after national security. The business sector is the engine of economic growth. But the Obama Administration has done nothing to fuel the engine. It has only loaded costly legislation and programs in the caboose of our economy. Just look at the most recently announced GDP growth rate of 1.3 percent for the 2nd quarter of this year, following a revised 1st quarter growth rate of 0.4 percent. This is simply pathetic ˆ but predictable.

Because if there‚s no fuel in the engine then there is no economic growth.

It‚s not rocket science. It‚s common sense.

The president and his liberal allies continue to play the class warfare card by saying the rich should pay more in taxes, and that big corporations should give up some tax incentives to solve our economic and debt crisis. That‚s just hogwash!

Taxing the rich and big corporations more will not solve the problem. A president who can lead and understands business and the economy would solve the problem.

Every time I hear about the latest unemployment statistics, it breaks my heart for those who want to work and can‚t find work. And as I told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday recently, I couldn‚t care less about how much people like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates pay in taxes. I care more about the nearly 15 million people who can‚t find a job that they are capable of doing because this economy is stalled, while this president just gives another speech.

Ending the shuttle program, weakening our ballistic missile defense systems, the retreat in Afghanistan, the debacle in Libya, the energy crisis, the spending and debt crisis, our anemic economic growth, and the painful unemployment rate are the results of weak leadership and failed policies.

America! We have a problem and it‚s getting worse.

The facts are clear. We‚re on the wrong track.

###

Had enough weak leadership? Ready for mature leadership backed by years of problem solving experience? Herman needs your help. Consider giving your most generous contribution today to help us spread our message of common sense solutions across the country.

As always, we thank you for your prayers, support and generosity.


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Sun, 26 Jun 2011 03:53:22 -0700 Us Supreme Court Precedent States That Obama Is Not Eligible To Be President http://glimfeather.com/us-supreme-court-precedent-states-that-obama http://glimfeather.com/us-supreme-court-precedent-states-that-obama

By 

Leo C. Donofrio, Esq.

The title of this article is correct. After having completed a more thorough review of the relevant US Supreme Court cases discussing the Constitution’s natural-born citizen clause, I have discovered precedent which states that a natural-born citizen is a person born in the jurisdiction of the US to parents who are citizens. Read that again. I said precedent, not dicta. The precedent holds that Obama is not eligible to be President of the United States.
Up until the publication of this report today, all discussion of the natural-born citizen issue (from both sides of the argument) agreed there had never been a precedent established by the US Supreme Court, and that the various cases which mentioned the clause did so in “dicta”.
Dicta are authoritative statements made by a court which are not binding legal precedent.
Black’s Law Dictionary defines “precedent” as a “rule of law established for the first time by a court for a particular type of case and thereafter referred to in deciding similar cases“.
Precedent that must be followed is known as binding precedent. Under the doctrine of stare decisis, a lower court must honor findings of law made by a higher court. On questions as to the meaning of federal law including the U.S. Constitution, statutes, and regulations, the U.S. Supreme Court’s precedents must be followed.
It can no longer be denied that there is controlling US Supreme Court precedent concerning the definition of a natural-born citizen according to Article 2 Section 1 of the US Constitution. I predict satori will overcome those of you who have labored over this issue. This is not a remote obscure reading. It is, when revealed, a clear undeniable holding and binding precedent established by the highest Court of our nation which specifically defines an Article 2 Section 1 natural-born citizen as a person born in the US to parents who are citizens.
Therefore, Obama – according to US Supreme Court precedent – is not eligible to be President.
PRECEDENT ESTABLISHED BY MINOR V. HAPPERSETT
The direct US Supreme Court precedent is stated in Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162 (1875). Furthermore, the precedent stated in Minor is consistent with other US Supreme Court cases – both before and after Minor – which discuss the natural born citizen issue. While that part of the holding in Minor regarding woman’s suffrage was superseded by the 19th Amendment – which Constitutionally established a woman’s right to vote – the rest of the case is good law. And the remaining precedent stated regarding the definition of “natural-born citizen” – with regard to Article 2 Section 1 of the US Constitution – is still binding upon all lower courts.
Therefore, lower court decisions – such as the holding in Arkeny v. Governor of the State of Indiana – which have misconstrued the US Supreme Court’s holding inMinor v. Happersett are wrong. Below, we will review what the Indiana Court of Appeals had to say and explain why they got it wrong. But first we must revisit Minor v. Happersett.
THE SUPREME COURT IN MINOR V. HAPPERSETT DIRECTLY CONSTRUED THE US CONSTITUTION’S ARTICLE 2 SECTION 1 NATURAL BORN CITIZEN CLAUSE
Before revisiting Minor, we must revisit Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898) to review a clearly erroneous statement made by Justice Gray concerning the prior holding in the Minor case:
“In Minor v. Happersett, Chief Justice Waite, when construing, in behalf of the court, the very provision of the Fourteenth Amendment now in question, said: ‘The Constitution does not, in words, say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that.’ “ (Wong Kim Ark at 655.)
This unfortunate remark by Justice Gray contains a clearly erroneous statement. The Supreme Court in Minor did not construe the 14th Amendment as to the issue of citizenship. Gray is absolutely wrong. The Court in Minor construed Article 2 Section 1, not the 14th Amendment. For over a century, it has been wrongly assumed that the Court in Minor did construe the 14th Amendment, and that the holding of Minor was later superseded by Wong Kim Ark. This is not correct.
A more careful reading of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Minor makes it clear that it did not construe the 14th Amendment with regard to the citizenship of the woman who wished to vote. The question presented was whether, since the adoption of the 14th Amendment, women had gained the right to vote. The Supreme Court in Minor held that nowhere in the Constitution, including the 14th Amendment, was anyone, man or woman, granted a right to vote. And it was only this part of the Minor case which was superseded by the 19th Amendment.
The other issue decided by the Court in Minor required the Supreme Court to determine if the woman was, in fact, a US citizen. As to this determination, the Court did not construe the 14th Amendment. In fact, the Court specifically avoidedconstruing the 14th Amendment with regard to her citizenship. Instead, the Supreme Court in Minor chose to construe Article 2 Section 1:
“There is no doubt that women may be citizens. They are persons, and by the fourteenth amendment ‘all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof ‘ are expressly declared to be ‘citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.’ But, in our opinion, it did not need this amendment to give them that position …
“The fourteenth amendment did not affect the citizenship of women any more than it did of men. In this particular, therefore, the rights of Mrs. Minor do not depend upon the amendment. She has always been a citizen from her birth, and entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizenship. The amendment prohibited the State, of which she is a citizen, from abridging any of her privileges and immunities as a citizen of the United States; but it did not confer citizenship on her. That she had before its adoption. If the right of suffrage is one of the necessary privileges of a citizen of the United States, then the constitution and laws of Missouri confining it to men are in violation of the Constitution of the United States, as amended, and consequently void. The direct question is, therefore, presented whether all citizens are necessarily voters.(Emphasis added.)
There you have it. The Court stops short of construing the 14th Amendment as to whether the woman in question was a US citizen. The Court made a certain, direct determination that Mrs. Minor was a US citizen before the adoption of the 14th Amendment and that she did not need the 14th Amendment to be a US citizen.
The Court then, having determined that she was a US citizen, avoided any construction of the 14th Amendment as to her citizenship status. Therefore, the holding in Minor is in no way superseded by Wong Kim Ark.
The Court in Minor went on to decide the issue of whether citizens are granted a right to vote by the Constitution, holding that it did not. Again, this part of the holding was superseded by the 19th Amendment, but the determination that Mrs. Minor was a “natural-born citizen” is still controlling precedent.
Since the Court in Minor specifically avoided construing the 14th Amendment as to citizenship, it is clear that Justice Gray’s statement – concerning the citizenship passage by Justice Waite in Minor – was clearly erroneous. The Supreme Court in Minor chose to construe Article 2 Section 1 instead of the 14th Amendment. As such, Minor is the only US Supreme Court case which has directly construed the Article 2 Section 1 natural-born citizen clause. Therefore, Minor’s construction below creates binding legal precedent:
“Additions might always be made to the citizenship of the United States in two ways: first, by birth, and second, by naturalization. This is apparent from the Constitution itself, for it provides that ‘no person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President, and that Congress shall have power ‘to establish a uniform rule of naturalization.’ Thus new citizens may be born or they may be created by naturalization.
“The Constitution does not, in words, say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that. At common-law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners. Some authorities go further and include as citizens children born within the jurisdiction without reference to the citizenship of their parents. As to this class there have been doubts, but never as to the first. For the purposes of this case it is not necessary to solve these doubts. It is sufficient for everything we have now to consider that all children born of citizen parents within the jurisdiction are themselves citizens.“ (Emphasis added.)
Whether the holding here was influenced by Vattel is not truly important. Sure, it looks just like Vattel’s definition, but Vattel does not make legal precedent – the US Supreme Court does. All that matters here is what the Supreme court held. So we must carefully examine the actual words stated by the Supreme Court. We must not allow ourselves to be guided by what the Supreme Court did not say. What the Court actually said is what makes law.
In the above passage, the Court noted that Mrs. Minor was born in the US to parents who were citizens. The Court stated that such persons were “natural-born citizens”. The Court also stated – as to such persons – that their “citizenship” was never in doubt.
By recognizing Mrs. Minor as a member of the class of persons who were natural-born citizens, they established her citizenship. Establishing her citizenship was required before they could get to the issue of whether she had the right to vote. In doing so, the Court in Minor directly construed Article 2 Section 1 of the US Constitution.
The Court also noted that some authorities include as “citizens” those born in the jurisdiction without reference to the citizenship of the parents. The Court refers to these people as a different “class”. The Court in Minor refused to comment on the “citizenship” of such persons since Mrs. Minor was not in that class. They didn’t need to reach the 14th Amendment to determine if Mrs. Minor was a US citizen since the Court previously established that she was a “natural-born citizen”. Read the following again:
“It is sufficient for everything we have now to consider that all children born of citizen parents within the jurisdiction are themselves citizens.
This class is specifically defined as “natural-born citizens” by the Court. The other class – those born in the US without citizen “parents” – may or may not be “citizens”. But the Minor Court never suggested that this other class might also be natural-born citizens.
It’s quite the opposite. The Minor Court makes clear that this class are not Article 2 Section 1 natural-born citizens. If this other class were natural-born there would be no doubt as to their citizenship.
The Minor Court refrained from making a “citizenship” determination as to that class, but the Court did note that they were a different class. Later, in 1898, the Court in Wong Kim Ark took the question on directly as to who is a citizen under the 14th Amendment, but that case did not directly construe Article 2 Section 1, whereas Minor did.
In order to avoid construing the 14th Amendment, the Court in Minor had to define those who fit into the class of “natural-born citizens”. Mrs. Minor fit into that class. Mr. Obama does not.

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1311893/owl3.jpg http://posterous.com/users/KCj2JZKizf Hudson Barton Aaytch Hudson Barton
Tue, 24 May 2011 11:54:17 -0700 Libertarians, Objectivists, and Birchers at the Republican Gates http://glimfeather.com/libertarians-objectivists-and-birchers-at-the http://glimfeather.com/libertarians-objectivists-and-birchers-at-the

When Ron Paul addressed the John Birch Society in 2008 http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/constitution/409, it was to raise funds for his presidential run. IMHO, his association with JBS was politically unwise because of its associations with unsavory elements of conservatism.

As for the present-day political posture of these groups, they have made commendable efforts to distance themselves from conspiracy mongering and racial/religious baiting, but I don't think you'll find in their ranks conservatives who recognize the need for opposing drugs, Islam, pornography, or the enemies of our allies, nor the need for supporting equality, just measures, the Natural Right of the unborn, and the Natural Law that distinguishes the sexes.

Libertarians and Birchers see the role of government as ONLY getting out the way. You won't find among them much emphasis on the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence as the presupposition for everything that defines America, and over which we fought a Civil War. "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."  Nor will you find much enthusiasm for Reagan's "Time to Choose" speech which eloquently outlines the philosophy of the Republican party from the time of Lincoln to the present day.


I am critical of libertarianism and objectivism as extremist views of both American and Christian liberty. Moreover, I am disturbed by the continued efforts of these groups to hijack the Republican Party platform.  They falsely claim to be the source of today's GOP energy, the Tea Party Movement.  In fact, the "Tea Party" is the descendant of Republican reforms that began in the Goldwater campaign of 1964.  It comprises not only fiscal responsibility and self-reliance but also moral responsibility and attention to both national sovereignty and international alliances against the forces of external enemies. 

Libertarians, Objectivists and Birchers of course criticize us for being "neo-conservative." http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1075556/neoconservatism  It's a cheap shot.  The un-modified "conservative" is a term that the Republican Party is entitled to.  The same goes for "constitutionalist".   We shouldn't have to share these terms with other groups, but they (especially libertarians) force it upon us.  We can still be confident that we alone possess the heritage of our nation's founders, that the foundation of our Constitution is the self-evident Truth that God created the essential Rights of man and the Law by which he should live, that a rational and successful society demands more than the pursuit of self-interest under laws established by mens' mutual consent.  The foundation of the Republican party is something that libertarians will never understand, that we are "one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1311893/owl3.jpg http://posterous.com/users/KCj2JZKizf Hudson Barton Aaytch Hudson Barton
Mon, 23 May 2011 06:24:20 -0700 "A Time For Choosing", Ronald Reagan 1964 http://glimfeather.com/a-time-for-choosing-ronald-reagan-1964 http://glimfeather.com/a-time-for-choosing-ronald-reagan-1964 Thank you and good evening. The sponsor has been identified, but unlike most television programs, the performer hasn't been provided with a script. As a matter of fact, I have been permitted to choose my own words and discuss my own ideas regarding the choice that we face in the next few weeks.
I have spent most of my life as a Democrat. I recently have seen fit to follow another course. I believe that the issues confronting us cross party lines. Now, one side in this campaign has been telling us that the issues of this election are the maintenance of peace and prosperity. The line has been used, "We've never had it so good."
But I have an uncomfortable feeling that this prosperity isn't something on which we can base our hopes for the future. No nation in history has ever survived a tax burden that reached a third of its national income. Today, 37 cents out of every dollar earned in this country is the tax collectors share, and yet our government continues to spend 17 million dollars a day more than the government takes in. We haven't balanced our budget 28 out of the last 34 years. We've raised our debt limit three times in the last twelve months, and now our national debt is one and a half times bigger than all the combined debts of all the nations of the world. We have 15 billion dollars in gold in our treasury; we don't own an ounce. Foreign dollar claims are 27.3 billion dollars. And we've just had announced that the dollar of 1939 will now purchase 45 cents in its total value.

As for the peace that we would preserve, I wonder who among us would like to approach the wife or mother whose husband or son has died in South Vietnam and ask them if they think this is a peace that should be maintained indefinitely. Do they mean peace, or do they mean we just want to be left in peace? There can be no real peace while one American is dying some place in the world for the rest of us.

We're at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it's been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening. Well I think it's time we ask ourselves if we still know the freedoms that were intended for us by the Founding Fathers.
Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, "We don't know how lucky we are." And the Cuban stopped and said, "How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to." And in that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there's no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest and the most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man.
This is the issue of this election: whether we believe in our capacity for self?government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far? distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.
You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I'd like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There's only an up or down: [up] man's old? aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course. In this vote?harvesting time, they use terms like the "Great Society," or as we were told a few days ago by the President, we must accept a greater government activity in the affairs of the people. But they've been a little more explicit in the past and among themselves; and all of the things I now will quote have appeared in print. These are not Republican accusations. For example, they have voices that say, "The cold war will end through our acceptance of a not undemocratic socialism." Another voice says, "The profit motive has become outmoded. It must be replaced by the incentives of the welfare state." Or, "Our traditional system of individual freedom is incapable of solving the complex problems of the 20th century." Senator Fulbright has said at Stanford University that the Constitution is outmoded. He referred to the President as "our moral teacher and our leader," and he says he is "hobbled in his task by the restrictions of power imposed on him by this antiquated document." He must "be freed," so that he "can do for us" what he knows "is best." And Senator Clark of Pennsylvania, another articulate spokesman, defines liberalism as "meeting the material needs of the masses through the full power of centralized government."

Well, I, for one, resent it when a representative of the people refers to you and me, the free men and women of this country, as "the masses." This is a term we haven't applied to ourselves in America. But beyond that, "the full power of centralized government" ?? this was the very thing the Founding Fathers sought to minimize.

They knew that governments don't control things. A government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they know when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. They also knew, those Founding Fathers, that outside of its legitimate functions, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector of the economy.
Now, we have no better example of this than government's involvement in the farm economy over the last 30 years. Since 1955, the cost of this program has nearly doubled. One?fourth of farming in America is responsible for 85% of the farm surplus. Three?fourths of farming is out on the free market and has known a 21% increase in the per capita consumption of all its produce. You see, that one?fourth of farming ?? that's regulated and controlled by the federal government. In the last three years we've spent 43 dollars in the feed grain program for every dollar bushel of corn we don't grow.
Senator Humphrey last week charged that Barry Goldwater, as President, would seek to eliminate farmers. He should do his homework a little better, because he'll find out that we've had a decline of 5 million in the farm population under these government programs. He'll also find that the Democratic administration has sought to get from Congress [an] extension of the farm program to include that three?fourths that is now free. He'll find that they've also asked for the right to imprison farmers who wouldn't keep books as prescribed by the federal government. The Secretary of Agriculture asked for the right to seize farms through condemnation and resell them to other individuals. And contained in that same program was a provision that would have allowed the federal government to remove 2 million farmers from the soil.
At the same time, there's been an increase in the Department of Agriculture employees. There's now one for every 30 farms in the United States, and still they can't tell us how 66 shiploads of grain headed for Austria disappeared without a trace and Billie Sol Estes never left shore.
Every responsible farmer and farm organization has repeatedly asked the government to free the farm economy, but how are farmers to know what's best for them? The wheat farmers voted against a wheat program. The government passed it anyway. Now the price of bread goes up; the price of wheat to the farmer goes down.
Meanwhile, back in the city, under urban renewal the assault on freedom carries on. Private property rights [are] so diluted that public interest is almost anything a few government planners decide it should be. In a program that takes from the needy and gives to the greedy, we see such spectacles as in Cleveland, Ohio, a million?and?a?half?dollar building completed only three years ago must be destroyed to make way for what government officials call a "more compatible use of the land."
The President tells us he's now going to start building public housing units in the thousands, where heretofore we've only built them in the hundreds. But FHA [Federal Housing Authority] and the Veterans Administration tell us they have 120,000 housing units they've taken back through mortgage foreclosure.

For three decades, we've sought to solve the problems of unemployment through government planning, and the more the plans fail, the more the planners plan. The latest is the Area Redevelopment Agency.
They've just declared Rice County, Kansas, a depressed area. Rice County, Kansas, has two hundred oil wells, and the 14,000 people there have over 30 million dollars on deposit in personal savings in their banks. And when the government tells you you're depressed, lie down and be depressed.

We have so many people who can't see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one. So they're going to solve all the problems of human misery through government and government planning. Well, now, if government planning and welfare had the answer ?? and they've had almost 30 years of it ?? shouldn't we expect government to read the score to us once in a while? Shouldn't they be telling us about the decline each year in the number of people needing help? The reduction in the need for public housing?
But the reverse is true. Each year the need grows greater; the program grows greater. We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry each night. Well that was probably true. They were all on a diet. But now we're told that 9.3 million families in this country are poverty?stricken on the basis of earning less than 3,000 dollars a year. Welfare spending [is] 10 times greater than in the dark depths of the Depression. We're spending 45 billion dollars on welfare. Now do a little arithmetic, and you'll find that if we divided the 45 billion dollars up equally among those 9 million poor families, we'd be able to give each family 4,600 dollars a year. And this added to their present income should eliminate poverty. Direct aid to the poor, however, is only running only about 600 dollars per family. It would seem that someplace there must be some overhead.

So now we declare "war on poverty," or "You, too, can be a Bobby Baker." Now do they honestly expect us to believe that if we add 1 billion dollars to the 45 billion we're spending, one more program to the 30?odd we have ?? and remember, this new program doesn't replace any, it just duplicates existing programs ?? do they believe that poverty is suddenly going to disappear by magic? Well, in all fairness I should explain there is one part of the new program that isn't duplicated. This is the youth feature. We're now going to solve the dropout problem, juvenile delinquency, by reinstituting something like the old CCC camps [Civilian Conservation Corps], and we're going to put our young people in these camps. But again we do some arithmetic, and we find that we're going to spend each year just on room and board for each young person we help 4,700 dollars a year. We can send them to Harvard for 2,700! Course, don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting Harvard is the answer to juvenile delinquency. But seriously, what are we doing to those we seek to help? Not too long ago, a judge called me here in Los Angeles. He told me of a young woman who'd come before him for a divorce. She had six children, was pregnant with her seventh. Under his questioning, she revealed her husband was a laborer earning 250 dollars a month. She wanted a divorce to get an 80 dollar raise. She's eligible for 330 dollars a month in the Aid to Dependent Children Program. She got the idea from two women in her neighborhood who'd already done that very thing.

Yet anytime you and I question the schemes of the do?gooders, we're denounced as being against their humanitarian goals. They say we're always "against" things ?? we're never "for" anything. Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.
Now we're for a provision that destitution should not follow unemployment by reason of old age, and to that end we've accepted Social Security as a step toward meeting the problem. But we're against those entrusted with this program when they practice deception regarding its fiscal shortcomings, when they charge that any criticism of the program means that we want to end payments to those people who depend on them for a livelihood. They've called it "insurance" to us in a hundred million pieces of literature. But then they appeared before the Supreme Court and they testified it was a welfare program. They only use the term "insurance" to sell it to the people. And they said Social Security dues are a tax for the general use of the government, and the government has used that tax. There is no fund, because Robert Byers, the actuarial head, appeared before a congressional committee and admitted that Social Security as of this moment is 298 billion dollars in the hole. But he said there should be no cause for worry because as long as they have the power to tax, they could always take away from the people whatever they needed to bail them out of trouble. And they're doing just that.
A young man, 21 years of age, working at an average salary ?? his Social Security contribution would, in the open market, buy him an insurance policy that would guarantee 220 dollars a month at age 65. The government promises 127. He could live it up until he's 31 and then take out a policy that would pay more than Social Security. Now are we so lacking in business sense that we can't put this program on a sound basis, so that people who do require those payments will find they can get them when they're due ?? that the cupboard isn't bare? Barry Goldwater thinks we can.
At the same time, can't we introduce voluntary features that would permit a citizen who can do better on his own to be excused upon presentation of evidence that he had made provision for the non?earning years? Should we not allow a widow with children to work, and not lose the benefits supposedly paid for by her deceased husband? Shouldn't you and I be allowed to declare who our beneficiaries will be under this program, which we cannot do? I think we're for telling our senior citizens that no one in this country should be denied medical care because of a lack of funds.
But I think we're against forcing all citizens, regardless of need, into a compulsory government program, especially when we have such examples, as was announced last week, when France admitted that their Medicare program is now bankrupt. They've come to the end of the road.

In addition, was Barry Goldwater so irresponsible when he suggested that our government give up its program of deliberate, planned inflation, so that when you do get your Social Security pension, a dollar will buy a dollar's worth, and not 45 cents worth?

I think we're for an international organization, where the nations of the world can seek peace. But I think we're against subordinating American interests to an organization that has become so structurally unsound that today you can muster a two?thirds vote on the floor of the General Assembly among nations that represent less than 10 percent of the world's population. I think we're against the hypocrisy of assailing our allies because here and there they cling to a colony, while we engage in a conspiracy of silence and never open our mouths about the millions of people enslaved in the Soviet colonies in the satellite nations.
I think we're for aiding our allies by sharing of our material blessings with those nations which share in our fundamental beliefs, but we're against doling out money government to government, creating bureaucracy, if not socialism, all over the world. We set out to help 19 countries. We're helping 107. We've spent 146 billion dollars. With that money, we bought a 2 million dollar yacht for Haile Selassie. We bought dress suits for Greek undertakers, extra wives for Kenya[n] government officials. We bought a thousand TV sets for a place where they have no electricity. In the last six years, 52 nations have bought 7 billion dollars worth of our gold, and all 52 are receiving foreign aid from this country.
No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. So, governments' programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth.
Federal employees number two and a half million; and federal, state, and local, one out of six of the nation's work force employed by government. These proliferating bureaus with their thousands of regulations have cost us many of our constitutional safeguards. How many of us realize that today federal agents can invade a man's property without a warrant? They can impose a fine without a formal hearing, let alone a trial by jury? And they can seize and sell his property at auction to enforce the payment of that fine. In Chico County, Arkansas, James Wier over?planted his rice allotment. The government obtained a 17,000 dollar judgment. And a U.S. marshal sold his 960?acre farm at auction. The government said it was necessary as a warning to others to make the system work.
Last February 19th at the University of Minnesota, Norman Thomas, six?times candidate for President on the Socialist Party ticket, said, "If Barry Goldwater became President, he would stop the advance of socialism in the United States." I think that's exactly what he will do. But as a former Democrat, I can tell you Norman Thomas isn't the only man who has drawn this parallel to socialism with the present administration, because back in 1936, Mr. Democrat himself, Al Smith, the great American, came before the American people and charged that the leadership of his Party was taking the Party of Jefferson, Jackson, and Cleveland down the road under the banners of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin.
And he walked away from his Party, and he never returned til the day he died ?? because to this day, the leadership of that Party has been taking that Party, that honorable Party, down the road in the image of the labor Socialist Party of England.

Now it doesn't require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property? And such machinery already exists. The government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. Somewhere a perversion has taken place. Our natural, unalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.
Our Democratic opponents seem unwilling to debate these issues. They want to make you and I believe that this is a contest between two men ?? that we're to choose just between two personalities.
Well what of this man that they would destroy ?? and in destroying, they would destroy that which he represents, the ideas that you and I hold dear? Is he the brash and shallow and trigger?happy man they say he is? Well I've been privileged to know him "when." I knew him long before he ever dreamed of trying for high office, and I can tell you personally I've never known a man in my life I believed so incapable of doing a dishonest or dishonorable thing. This is a man who, in his own business before he entered politics, instituted a profit?sharing plan before unions had ever thought of it. He put in health and medical insurance for all his employees. He took 50 percent of the profits before taxes and set up a retirement program, a pension plan for all his employees. He sent monthly checks for life to an employee who was ill and couldn't work. He provides nursing care for the children of mothers who work in the stores. When Mexico was ravaged by the floods in the Rio Grande, he climbed in his airplane and flew medicine and supplies down there.
An ex?GI told me how he met him. It was the week before Christmas during the Korean War, and he was at the Los Angeles airport trying to get a ride home to Arizona for Christmas. And he said that [there were] a lot of servicemen there and no seats available on the planes. And then a voice came over the loudspeaker and said, "Any men in uniform wanting a ride to Arizona, go to runway such?and?such," and they went down there, and there was a fellow named Barry Goldwater sitting in his plane. Every day in those weeks before Christmas, all day long, he'd load up the plane, fly it to Arizona, fly them to their homes, fly back over to get another load.
During the hectic split?second timing of a campaign, this is a man who took time out to sit beside an old friend who was dying of cancer. His campaign managers were understandably impatient, but he said, "There aren't many left who care what happens to her. I'd like her to know I care."
This is a man who said to his 19?year?old son, "There is no foundation like the rock of honesty and fairness, and when you begin to build your life on that rock, with the cement of the faith in God that you have, then you have a real start." This is not a man who could carelessly send other people's sons to war. And that is the issue of this campaign that makes all the other problems I've discussed academic, unless we realize we're in a war that must be won.

Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy "accommodation." And they say if we'll only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he'll forget his evil ways and learn to love us. All who oppose them are indicted as warmongers. They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer ?? not an easy answer ?? but simple: If you and I have the courage to tell our elected officials that we want our national policy based on what we know in our hearts is morally right.
We cannot buy our security, our freedom from the threat of the bomb by committing an immorality so great as saying to a billion human beings now enslaved behind the Iron Curtain, "Give up your dreams of freedom because to save our own skins, we're willing to make a deal with your slave masters." Alexander Hamilton said, "A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one." Now let's set the record straight. There's no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there's only one guaranteed way you can have peace ?? and you can have it in the next second ?? surrender.

Admittedly, there's a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well?meaning liberal friends refuse to face ?? that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand ?? the ultimatum. And what then? When Nikita Khrushchev has told his people he knows what our answer will be? He has told them that we're retreating under the pressure of the Cold War, and someday when the time comes to deliver the final ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary, because by that time we will have been weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically. He believes this because from our side he's heard voices pleading for "peace at any price" or "better Red than dead," or as one commentator put it, he'd rather "live on his knees than die on his feet." And therein lies the road to war, because those voices don't speak for the rest of us.
You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin ?? just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs?
Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well it's a simple answer after all.
You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." "There is a point beyond which they must not advance." And this is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said, "The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we're spirits ?? not animals." And he said, "There's something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.
We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.
We will keep in mind and remember that Barry Goldwater has faith in us. He has faith that you and I have the ability and the dignity and the right to make our own decisions and determine our own destiny.
Thank you very much.

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1311893/owl3.jpg http://posterous.com/users/KCj2JZKizf Hudson Barton Aaytch Hudson Barton
Sun, 08 May 2011 10:20:00 -0700 Once To Every Man And Nation http://glimfeather.com/once-to-every-man-and-nation http://glimfeather.com/once-to-every-man-and-nation

Last night I got a phone call from my daughter announcing her engagement to a man whom I approve wholeheartedly, notwithstanding the fact that it took him (them?) more than a little while to arrive at this point. I told Mombart (her grandmother) the good news this morning. Her reaction was to recite the words of an old patriotic hymn, the tune of which, coincidentally, we also sang in church today (with a different lyric). If you are creative, you might imagine this hymn is about my daughter's future husband. So Livia and Chris, this is for you with all good wishes and humor:


Once to every man and nation,
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with false-hood,
For the good or evil side;

Some great cause, some great decision,
Offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever,
'Twixt that darkness and that light.

Then to side with truth is noble,
When we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit,
And 'tis prosperous to be just;

Then it is the brave man chooses,
While the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude make virtue,
Of the faith they had denied.

Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet the truth alone is strong:
Though her portion be the scaffold,
And upon the throne be wrong,

Yet that scaffold sways the future,
AND, BEHIND THE DIM UNKNOWN,
STANDETH GOD WITHIN THE SHADOW,
KEEPING WATCH ABOVE HIS OWN.

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1311893/owl3.jpg http://posterous.com/users/KCj2JZKizf Hudson Barton Aaytch Hudson Barton
Wed, 04 May 2011 10:23:21 -0700 Senator Jesse Helms rebukes the United Nations http://glimfeather.com/senator-jesse-helms-rebukes-the-united-nation http://glimfeather.com/senator-jesse-helms-rebukes-the-united-nation The Text of Senator Helms Speech  [Emphasis is the Editor's]:

June 1, 2000

Mr. President, Distinguished Ambassadors, Ladies and Gentlemen:
"I genuinely appreciate your welcoming me here this morning. You are distinguished world leaders, and it is my hope that there can begin, this day, a pattern of understanding and friendship between you who serve your respective countries in the United Nations, and those of us who serve not only in the United States Government but also the millions of Americans whom we REPRESENT and serve.

"Our Ambassador Holbrooke is an earnest gentleman whom I respect, and I hope you will enjoy his friendship as I do. He has an enourmous amount of foreign service in his background. He is an able diplomat and a genuine friend to whom I am most grateful for his role and that of the Honorale Irwin Belk, my longtime friend, in arranging my visit with you today.

"All that said, it may very well be that some of the things I feel obliged to say will NOT MEET WITH YOUR IMMEDIATE APPROVAL, if at all. It is NOT my intent to offend you, and I hope I will not.

"It is my intent to extend to you my hand of friendship and convey the hope that in the days to come, and in retrospect, we can join in a mutual respect that will enable all of us to work together in an atmosphere of friendship and hope - the hope to do everything we can to achieve peace in the world.

"Having said all that, I am aware that you have interpreters who translate the proceedings of this body into a half dozen different languages. They have an interesting challenge today. As some of you may have detected, I don't have a Yankee accent. (Hope you have a translator here who can speak Southern - someone who can translate words like "y'll" and "I do declare.")

"It may be that one other language barrier will need to be overcome this morning. I am not a diplomat, and as such, I am not fully conversant with the elegant and rarefied language of the diplomatic trade. I am an elected official, with something of a reputation for saying what I mean and meaning what I say. So I trust you will forgive me if I come across as a bit more blunt than those you are accustomed to hearing in this chamber.

"I am told that this is the first time that a United States Senator has addressed the UN Security Council. I sincerely hope it will not be the last. It is important that this body have greater contact with the elected representatives of the American people, and that we have greater contact with you.

"In this spirit, tomorrow [January 21, 2000] I will be joined here at the UN by several other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Together, we will meet with UN officials and representatives of some of your governments, and will hold a Committee "Field Hearing" to discuss UN reform and the prospects for improved U.S.-UN relations.

"This will mark another first. Never before has the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ventured as a group from Washington to visit an international institution. I hope it will be an enlightening experience for all of us, and that you will accept this visit as a sign of our desire for a new beginning in the U.S.-UN relationship.

"I hope - I intend - that my presence here today will presage future annual visits by the Security Council, who will come to Washington as official guests of the United States Senate and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee which I chair.

"I trust that your representatives will feel free to be as candid in Washington as I will try to be here today, so that there will be hands of friendship extended in an atmosphere of understanding. If we are to have such a new beginning, we must endeavor to understand each other better. And that is why I will share with you some of what I am hearing from American people about the United Nations.

"Now I am confident you have seen the public opinion polls, commissioned by UN supporters, suggesting that the UN enjoys the support of the American public. I would caution that you NOT PUT TOO MUCH CONFIDENCE in those polls. Since I was elected to the Senate in 1972, I have run for re-election four times. Each time, the pollsters have confidently predicted my defeat. Each time, I am happy to confide, they have been wrong. I am pleased that, thus far, I have never won a poll or lost an election.

"So, as those of you who represent democratic nations well know, public opinion polls can be constructed to tell you anything the poll takers want you to hear.

"Let me share with you WHAT the American people tell me. Since I became chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, I have received literally thousands of letters from Americans all across the country expressing their DEEP FRUSTRATION with this institution. They know instinctively that the UN lives and breathes on the hard-earned money of the American taxpayers. And yet they have heard comments here in New York constantly calling the United States a "deadbeat."

"They have heard UN officials declaring absurdly that countries like Fiji and Bangladesh are carrying America's burden in peacekeeping. They see the majority of the UN members routinely VOTING AGAINST America in the General Assembly.

"They have read the reports of the raucous cheering of the UN delegates in Rome when U.S. efforts to amend the International Criminal Court treaty to protect American soldiers were defeated.

"They read in the newspapers, despite all the human rights abuses taking place in dictatorships across the globe, a UN `Special Rapporteur' decided his most pressing task was to investigate human rights violations in the U.S. - and found our human rights record wanting.

"The American people hear all this; they RESENT it, and they have grown increasingly frustrated with what they feel is a LACK of gratitude.

"Now I won't delve into every point of frustration, but let's touch for just a moment on one - the `deadbeat' charge. Before coming here, I asked the United States General Accounting Office to assess just how much the American taxpayers contributed to the United Nations in 1999. Here is what the GAO reported to me: Last year [1999], the American people contributed a total of more than $1.4 BILLION dollars to the UN system in assessments and voluntary contributions. That's pretty generous, but it's only the tip of the iceberg. The American taxpayers also spent an additional $8,779,000,000 from the United States' military budget to support various UN resolutions and peacekeeping operations around the world. Let me repeat that figure: $8,779,000,000 [billions].

"That means that last year [1999] alone, the American people have furnished precisely $10,179,000,000 to support the work of the United Nations. No other nation on earth comes even close to matching that singular investiment.

"So you can see why many Americans reject the suggestion that theirs is a `deadbeat' nation. Now, I grant you, the money we spend on the UN is not charity. To the contrary, it is an investment - an investment from which the American people rightly expect a return. They expect a reformed UN that works more efficiently, and which respects the SOVEREIGNTY of the United States.

"That is why in the 1980s, Congress began withholding a fraction of our arrears as pressure for reform. And Congressional pressure resulted in some worthwhile reforms, such as the creation of an independent UN Inspector General and the adoption of consensus budgeting practices. But still, the arrears accumulated as the UN resisted more comprehensive reforms.

"When the distinguished Secretary General, Kofi Annan, was elected, some of us in the Senate decided to try to establish a working relationship. The result is the Helms-Biden law, which President Clinton finally signed into law this past November [1999]. The product of three years of arduous negotiations and hard-fought compromises; it was approved by the U.S. Senate by an overwhelming 98-1 margin. You should read that vote as a virtually unanimous mandate for a NEW relationship with a reformed United Nations.

"Now, I am aware that this law does NOT sit well with some here at the UN. Some DO NOT LIKE to have reforms dictated by the U.S. Congress. Some have even suggested that the UN should reject these reforms.

"But let me suggest a few things to consider: First, as the figures I have cited clearly demonstrate, the United States is the single largest investor in the United Nations. Under the U.S. Constitution, we in Congress are the sole guardians of the American taxpayer's money. It is our solemn duty to see that it is wisely invested. So as the representatives of the UN's largest investors - the American people - we have not only the RIGHT, but a responsibility, to INSIST on specific reforms in exchange for their investment.

"Second, I ask you to consider the alternative. The alternative would have been to continue to let the U.S.-UN relationship spiral out of control. You would have taken retaliatory measures, such as revoking America's in the General Assembly. Congress would likely have responded with retaliatory measures against the UN. And the end result, I believe, would have been a breach in the U.S.-UN relations that would have served the interest of no one. Now some here may contend that the Clinton Administration should have fought to pay the arrears without conditions. I assure you, had they done so, they would have lost.

"Eighty years ago, Woodrow Wilson failed to secure Congressional support for U.S. entry into the League of Nations. This administration obviously learned from President Wilson's mistakes.

"Wilson probably could have achieved ratification of the League of Nations if he had worked with Congress. One of my predecessors as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Henry Cabot Lodge, asked for 14 conditions to the treaty establishing the League of Nations, few of which would have raised an eyebrow today. These included language to insure that the United States remain the sole judge of its own INTERNAL affairs; That the League NOT restrict any individual rights of U.S. citizens; that the Congress retain sole authority for the deployment of U.S. forces through the league, and so on.

"But President Wilson indignantly refused to compromise with Senator Lodge. He shouted, `Never, never!,' adding, `I'll never consent to adopting any policy with which that impossible man is so prominently identified!' What happened? President Wilson lost. The final vote in the Senate was 38 to 53, and the League of Nations withered on the vine.

"Ambassador Holbrooke and Secretary Albright understood from the beginning that the United Nations could not long survive without the support of the American people - and their elected representatives in Congress. Thanks to the efforts of leaders like Ambassador Holbrooke and Secretary Albright, the present Administration in Washington did not repeat President Wilson's fatal mistakes.

"In any event, Congress has written a check to the United Nations for $926 million, payable upon the implementation of previously agreed-upon common-sense reforms. Now the choice is up to the UN. I suggest that if the UN were to reject this compromise, it would mark the beginning of the end of U.S. support for the United Nations.

"I don't want that to happen. I want the American people to value a United Nations that recognizes and respects their interests, and for the United Nations to VALUE the significant contributions of the American people. Let's be crystal clear and totally honest with each other: all of us want a more effective United Nations. But if the United Nations is to be `effective,' it must be an institution that is NEEDED by the great democratic powers of the world.

"Most Americans do not regard the United Nations as an end in and of itself - they see it as just one part of America's diplomatic arsenal. To the extent that the UN is effective, the American people will support it. To the extent that it becomes ineffective - or even worse, a BURDEN - the American people will cast it aside.

"The American people want the UN to serve the purpose for which it was designed: they want it to help SOVEREIGN states coordinate collective action by `coalitions of the willing' (where the political will for such action exists); they want it to provide a forum where diplomats can meet and open channels of communication in times of crisis; they want it to provide to the peoples of the world important services, such as peacekeeping, weapons inspections and humanitarian relief.

"This is important work. It is the core of what the UN can offer to the United States and the world. If, in the coming century, the UN focuses on doing these core tasks well, it can thrive and will earn and deserve the support of the American people. But IF the UN seeks to move BEYOND these core tasks, IF it seeks to IMPOSE the UN's power and authority over nation-states, I GUARANTEE THAT THE UNITED NATIONS WILL MEET STIFF RESISTANCE FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

"As matters now stand, many Americans sense that the UN has greater ambitions than simply being an efficient deliverer of humanitarian aid, a more effective peacekeeper, a better weapons inspector, and a more effective tool of great power diplomacy. They see the UN aspiring to establish itself as the central authority of a NEW INTERNATIONAL ORDER of global laws and global governance. This is an international order the American people WILL NOT COUNTENANCE.

"The UN must respect national sovereignty. The UN serves nation-states, NOT the other way around. This principle is central to the legitimacy and ultimate survival of the United Nations, and it is a principle that MUST be protected.

"The Secretary General recently delivered an address on sovereignty to the General Assembly, in which he declared that `the last right of states cannot and must not be the right to enslave, persecute or torture their own citizens.' The peoples of the world, he said, have `rights beyond borders.' I wholeheartedly agree.

"What the Secretary General calls `rights beyond borders,' we in America call `inalienable rights.' We are endowed with those `inalienable rights' as Thomas Jefferson proclaimed in our Declaration of Independence, not by kings or despots, but by our Creator.

"The sovereignty of nations must be respected. But nations derive their sovereignty - their legitimacy - from the consent of the governed. Thus, it follows, that nations can lose their legitimacy when they rule WITHOUT the consent of the governed; they deservedly discard their sovereignty by brutally oppressing their people.

"Slobodan Milosevic cannot claim sovereignty over Kosovo when he has murdered Kosovars and piled their bodies into mass graves. Neither can Fidel Castro claim that it is his sovereign right to oppress his people. Nor can Saddam Hussein defend his oppression of the Iraqi people by hiding behind phony claims of sovereignty. And when the oppressed peoples of the world cry out for help, the free peoples of the world have a fundamental right to respond.

"As we watch the UN struggle with this question at the turn of the millennium, many Americans are left exceedingly puzzled. Intervening in cases of widespread oppression and massive human rights abuses is not a new concept for the United States. The American people have a long history of coming to the aid of those struggling for freedom. In the United States, during the 1980s, we called this policy the "Reagan Doctrine."

"In some cases, America has assisted freedom fighters around the world who were seeking to overthrow corrupt regimes. We have provided weaponry, training, and intelligence. In other cases, the United States has intervened directly. In still other cases, such as in Central and Eastern Europe, we supported peaceful opposition movements with moral, financial and covert forms of support. In each case, however, it was America's clear intention to help bring down Communist regimes that were oppressing their peoples, and thereby replace dictators with democratic governments. The dramatic expansion of freedom in the last decade of the 20th century is a direct result of these policies.

"In NONE of these cases, however, did the United States ask for, or receive, the approval of the United Nations to `legitimize' its actions. It is a fanciful notion that a free peoples need to seek approval of an international body - some of whose members are totalitarian dictatorships - to lend support to nations struggling to break the chains of tyranny and claim their inalienable, God-given rights. THE UNITED NATIONS HAS NO POWER TO GRANT OR DECLINE LEGITIMACY TO SUCH ACTIONS. THEY ARE INHERENTLY LEGITIMATE.

"What the United Nations can do is help. The Security Council can, where appropriate, be an instrument to facilitate action by `coalitions of the willing,' implement sanctions against regimes, and provide logistical support to states undertaking collective action.

"But complete candor is imperative: The Security Council has an exceedingly MIXED RECORD in being such a facilitator. In the case of Iraq's aggression against Kuwait in the early 1990s, it performed admirably; in the more recent case of Kosovo, it was paralyzed. The UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia was a disaster, and its failure to protect the Bosnian people from Serb genocide is well documented in a recent UN report.

"And, despite its initial success in repelling Iraqi aggression, in the years since the Gulf War, the Security Council has utterly failed to stop Saddam Hussein's drive to build instruments of mass murder. It has allowed him to play a repeated game of expelling UNSCOM inspection teams which included Americans, and has left Saddam completely free for the past year to fashion nuclear and chemical weapons of mass destruction.

"I am here to plead that from now on we all must work together, to learn from past mistakes, and to make the Security Council a more efficient and effective tool for international peace and security. But candor compels that I reiterate this warning: THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WILL NEVER ACCEPT CLAIMS OF THE UNITED NATIONS TO BE THE `SOLE SOURCE OF LEGITIMACY ON THE USE OF FORCE' IN THE WORLD.

"But some may respond, the U.S. Senate ratified the UN Charter fifty years ago. Yes, but in doing so we did NOT cede one syllable of American sovereignty to the United Nation. "Under our system, when international treaties are ratified they simply become domestic U.S. law. As such, they carry no greater or lesser weight than any other domestic U.S. law. Treaty obligations can be superceded by a simple act of Congress. This was the intentional design of our founding fathers, who cautioned against entering into `entangling alliances.'

"Thus, when the United States joins a treaty organization, it holds NO AUTHORITY over us.We abide by our treaty obligations because they are the domestic law of our land, and because our elected leaders have judged that the agreement serves our national interest. But NO treaty or law can EVER supercede the one document that all Americans hold sacred: The U.S. Constitution.

"The American people DO NOT WANT the United Nations to become an `entangling alliance.' That is why Americans look with ALARM at UN claims to a monopoly on international moral legitimacy. They see this as a threat to the God-given freedoms of the American people, a CLAIM of political authority OVER America and its elected leaders without their consent.

"The effort to establish a United Nations International Court is a case-in-point. Consider: the Rome Treaty purports to hold American citizens under its jurisdiction - even when the United States has neither signed NOR ratified the treaty. In other words, IT CLAIMS SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY OVER aMERICAN CITIZENS WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT. How can the nations of the world imagine for one instant that Americans will stand by and allow such a power-grab to take place?

"The Court's supporters argue that Americans should be willing to sacrifice some of their sovereignty for the noble cause of international justice. International law did not defeat Hitler, nor did it win the Cold War. What stopped the Nazi march across Europe, and the Communist march across the world, was the principled projection of POWER by the world's great democracies. And that principled projection of FORCE is the only thing that will ensure the peace and security of the world in the future.

"More often than not, `international law' has been USED as a make-believe justification for hindering the march of freedom. When Ronald Reagan sent American servicemen into harm's way to liberate Grenada from the hands of a Communist dictatorship, the UN General Assembly responded by voting to condemn the action of the elected President of the United States as a violation of internatiaction o - and, I am obliged to add, they did so by a larger majority than when the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was condemned by the same General Assembly! Similarly, the U.S. effort to overthrow Nicaragua's Communist dictatorship - by supporting Nicaragua's freedom fighters and mining Nicaragua's harbors - was declared by the World Court as a violation of international law.

"Most recently, we learn that the chief prosecutor of the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal has compiled a report on possible NATO war crimes during the Kosovo campaign. At first, the prosecutor declared that it is fully within the scope of her authority to indict NATO pilots and commanders. When news of her report leaked, she back-pedaled. She realized, I am sure, that any attempt to indict NATO commanders would be the death knell for the International Criminal Court. But the very fact that she explored this possibility at all brings to light all that is wrong with this BRAVE NEW WORLD OF GLOBAL JUSTICE, which proposes a system in which independent prosecutors and judges, answerable to NO state or institution, have fettered power to sit in judgement of the foreign policy decisions of Western democracies.

"NO UN INSTITUTION - not the Security Council, not the Yugoslav tribunal, not a future ICC - is competent to judge the foreign policy and national security decisions of the United States. American courts routinely refuse cases where they are asked to sit in judgement of our government's national security decisions, stating that they are not competent to judge such decisions. If we do NOT submit our national security decisions to the judgement of a Court of the United States, WHY would Americans submit them to the judgement of an International Criminal Court, a continent away, comprised of mostly foreign judges elected by an international body made up of the membership of the UN General Assembly?

"Americans distrust concepts like the International Criminal Court, and claims by the UN to be the `sole source of legitimacy' for the use of force, because Americans have a profound DISTRUST of accumulated power. Our founding fathers created a government founded on a system of checks and balances, and dispersal of power.

"In his 1962 classic, Capitalism and Freedom, the Nobel-prize winning economist Milton Friedman rightly declared: `Government power MUST BE dispersed. If government is to exercise power, better in the county than in the state, better in the state than in Washington. [Because] if I do not like what my local community does, I can move to another local community...[and] if I do not like what my state does, I can move to another. [But] if I do not like what Washington imposes, I have few alternatives in this world of jealous nations.

"Forty years later, as the UN seeks to IMPOSE its utopian vision of `international law' on Americans, we can add this question: Where do we go when we don't like the `laws' OF THE WORLD? "Today, while our friends in Europe concede more and more power upwards to supranational institutions like the European Union, Americans are heading the opposite direction. America is in the process of reducing centralized power by taking more and more authority that had been amassed by the Federal Government in Washington and referring it to the individual states where it RIGHTLY belongs.

"This is WHY Americans reject the idea of a sovereign United Nations that presumes to be the source of legitimacy for the United States Government's policies, foreign or domestic. There is only ONE SOURCE of legitimacy of the American government's policies - and that is THE CONSENT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

"If the United Nations is to survive into the 21st Century, it must recognize its limitation. The demands of the United States have not changed much since Henry Cabot Lodge laid out his conditions for joining the League of Nations 80 years ago: Americans want to ensure that the United States REMAINS the sole judge of its own internal affairs, that the United Nations is not allowed to restrict the individual rights of U.S. citizens, and that the United States retains SOLE authority over the deployment of the United States force around the world.

"This is what Americans ask of the United Nations; it is what Americans expect of the United Nations. A United Nations that focuses on helping sovereign states work together is worth keeping; a United Nations that INSISTS on trying to IMPOSE a utopian vision on America and the world will collapse under its own weight.

"If the United Nations respects the sovereign rights of the American people and serves them as an effective tool of diplomacy, it will earn and deserve their respect and support. But a United Nations that seeks to IMPOSE its presumed authority on the American people without their consent begs for confrontation and, I want to be candid, EVENTUAL U.S. WITHDRAWAL.

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Fri, 29 Apr 2011 09:03:00 -0700 Natural Rights", "Natural Law", and "Natural Born Citizenship http://glimfeather.com/natural-rights-natural-law-and-natural-born-c http://glimfeather.com/natural-rights-natural-law-and-natural-born-c

In recent years, our analysis of the Constitution has failed to understand the importance of Natural Rights, Natural Law, and Natural Born Citizenship.

A heartbeat can be detected 18 days into a pregnancy. By what authority can one stop a beating heart? Surely not the constitution. A beating heart has Natural Rights that trump man's law. The State can neither grant them by means of a "Bill of Rights", nor take them away. Ironically, if we never had a "Bill of Rights", we might now not have the problem of abortion, for we would be looking at Rights that we inherit from our parents rather than rights that are recognized on account of birth location.


By the same token, the union of a man and a woman in marriage is derived from "Natural Law", not from a license granted by the State. Natural Law looks to Adam and Eve, and to the 10 Commandments for its authentication. Our Constitution does not define "marriage", because the definition in Natural Law (and in the Bible) is thought to be perfectly clear. In defending the Constitution, we must defend the "natural" definition of marriage. They are impossible to separate.

The Federalists fought tooth and nail against having a "Bill of Rights" because they knew that rights which could be granted by government could also be taken away. We Republicans are the natural descendants of these Federalists, not of their opposition "Democrats". We believe in human rights that are God-given, at conception, and cannot be taken away. We also believe in Natural Law that we have no right to change and that extends directly to the individual and to families composed of fathers and mothers, men and wives, children, their relationship to other men, and most importantly to their relationship with God the Creator.

Needless to say, if we understood the meaning of "Natural", we also wouldn't have a President playing games with the clear Constitutional mandate that he be a "Natural Born Citizen." The term "Natural Born Citizen" is in the unamended Constitution. It is not addressed in the Bill of Rights. Neither is it well defined in any part of the U.S. Code. The fight to rediscover the meaning of "Natural Born Citizen" is not merely about presidential politics. It is closely connected to our fight to maintain the Founders' insistence that government is the creature "of the people", and that every citizen possesses a personal sovereignty that supersedes all her claims and all the "rights" that she might grant.

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Sun, 17 Apr 2011 04:55:33 -0700 Political Traditions Compared http://glimfeather.com/political-traditions-compared http://glimfeather.com/political-traditions-compared
Politicaltraditions

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Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:24:20 -0700 The soil of Europe is purchased with American Arrogance http://glimfeather.com/the-soil-of-europe-is-purchased-with-american http://glimfeather.com/the-soil-of-europe-is-purchased-with-american

The soil of Europe is purchased with American Arrogance

1. The American Cemetery at Aisne-Marne, France... A total of 2289

2. The American Cemetery at Ardennes, Belgium... A total of 5329

1image

3. The American Cemetery at Brittany, France... A total of 4410 

4. Brookwood, England - American Cemetery... A total of 468

3image

5. Cambridge, England... A total of 3812 


 

6. Epinal, France - American Cemetery... A total of 5525 

7. Flanders Field, Belgium... A total of 368

8. Florence, Italy... A total of 4402 

9. Henri-Chapelle, Belgium... A total of 7992

10. Lorraine , France... A total of 10,489 

11. Luxembourg, Luxembourg... A total of 5076 

12. Meuse-Argonne... A total of 14246

13. Netherlands, Netherlands... A total of 8301

12image

 

14.  Normandy, France... A total of 9387


 

15. Oise-Aisne, France... A total of 6012 


 

16. Rhone, France... A total of 861


 

17. Sicily, Italy... A total of 7861


 

18. Somme, France... A total of 1844 


 

19. St. Mihiel, France... A total of 4153 


 

20.  Suresnes, France... A total of 1541 


Total count: 
 
104,366  dead Americans




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Thu, 24 Mar 2011 10:44:46 -0700 The significance of a man's desk http://glimfeather.com/the-significance-of-a-mans-desk http://glimfeather.com/the-significance-of-a-mans-desk
Att1

William F. Buckley

Att2

Nat Hentoff

Att3

Albert Einstein

Att4

Barack Obama

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Sun, 13 Mar 2011 09:11:32 -0700 Canons of Dort IV, Article 15 http://glimfeather.com/canons-of-dort-iv-article-15 http://glimfeather.com/canons-of-dort-iv-article-15 Responses to God's Grace

God does not owe this grace to anyone. For what could God owe to one who has nothing to give that can be paid back? Indeed, what could God owe to one who has nothing of his own to give but sin and falsehood? Therefore the person who receives this grace owes and gives eternal thanks to God alone; the person who does not receive it either does not care at all about these spiritual things and is satisfied with himself in his condition, or else in self-assurance foolishly boasts about having something which he lacks. Furthermore, following the example of the apostles, we are to think and to speak in the most favorable way about those who outwardly profess their faith and better their lives, for the inner chambers of the heart are unknown to us. But for others who have not yet been called, we are to pray to the God who calls things that do not exist as though they did. In no way, however, are we to pride ourselves as better than they, as though we had distinguished ourselves from them.

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