Syrian Bishop Calls for Christians to Defend Themselves

Hat tip to Gates of Vienna.

http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/12/a-call-for-christians-to-defend-themselves/


The Christians of Syria have played the role sheep among a pack of wolves for too long.

http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/politics/2013/12/10/Syria-Orthodox-bishop-press-Christians-take-up-arms-_9755998.html

"ANSAmed) - BEIRUT- A Greek Orthodox Syrian bishop invited young Christians to take up arms to defend "the homeland" and the Christian presence in Syria.

In an interview published on the website of Panarab-Iraqi newspaper Azzaman, and republished Tuesday morning in several Middle Eastern media outlets, Bishop Luqa al-Khoury said, "Every Christian youth capable of taking up arms, should do so and defend Syria [...] Christians are prayerful and peaceful, but it seems that today, faced with these people, prayer and peace aren't enough anymore." The Syrian bishop confirmed his stance on Libyan TV's LBC, saying that declarations attributed to him by Azzaman weren't correct, but that,"in this situation, all methods of self-defense are legitimate."  Al-Khoury added, "Syrian Christians won't leave Syria of their own will, because they are attached to their land.

Christians and Muslims have been living (in Syria) for over 1,600 years [...] Syrian Christians aren't afraid even though the main goal of those who target the churches is to attack Christians's historic identity." (ANSAmed)."

I am not sure if the good bishop was in fact misquoted or if he feared that his call to arms would bring retaliatory attacks by Obama's beloved Jihadists on his flock, but I was still quite impressed by his clarification that "in this situation, all methods of self-defense are legitimate.". 

I hope that Syrian Christians respond to this message in a favorable manner. I would love to see the news reports in the Western media if Western Christians left their homes to help their embattled coreligionists. While Muslims who travel to decapitate captured army personnel and  terrorize civilians  in other countries are euphemistically referred to as :"freedom fighters", Christians who may travel to protect a terribly oppressed people would no doubt be labeled as "foreign mercenaries" - even if they receive no monetary compensation whatsoever. 

I have no doubt that the Western media will take one of two options in regards to this report. The first and most likely choice will be to ignore it. The second will be to accuse the bishop of making things worse. 

Any attempt by non-Muslims to defend themselves against their oppressors is willfully misrepresented by the media as "sectarian violence" or "ethnic tensions"*.  As long as non-Muslims are being victimized, everything is OK. 

*http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2012/05/macedonian-muslims-death-to-christians.html

*http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2012/08/copts-attacked-burned-shirt-brings-mob.html

It is not only Christians who get the blame; Buddhists too are labeled as hate-mongers or "Nazis" for daring to protect their own against Islamic aggression.

*http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/04/buddhist-monk-called-neo-nazi-for.html

*http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/08/left-demonizing-buddhist-for-protecting.html

Report - Obama Lied About Syrian Sarin Attack

Hat tip to New Jersey Patriot.
http://newjerseypatriotblog.newjerseypatriot.us/?p=3133

During the mad weeks in August - September of this year, the Obama administration worked overtime to convince the world that the only possible suspects in the August nerve gas attack belonged to the Syrian government*. Ignoring the strong likelihood that it was actually the Syrian rebels who used Sarin in order to accuse the Syrian army and thus bring about an attack from Western nations, Obama and his stooges repeatedly claimed that they knew who committed the attack.

Well, it turns out that they may well have known who were the probable culprits, they just lied about who those culprits actually were. 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/dec/9/obama-lied-about-syrian-chemical-attack-cherry-pic/

"The Obama administration quashed intelligence reports that suggested an al Qaeda-linked group could have been responsible for the sarin gas attack carried out in Syria last August, according to a news report published in London on Sunday.
In threatening a U.S. military strike on Syria during the weeks that followed after the Aug. 21 chemical attack, President Obama and Secretary of State John F. Kerry cited “definitive” evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad had been responsible for the incident.

What they kept secret, according to an article by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, was the belief of U.S. spy agencies that military forces loyal to Mr. Assad were not ones in Syria’s civil war to have access to sarin.

“In the months before the attack, the American intelligence agencies produced a series of highly classified reports, culminating in a formal ‘Operations Order’ — a planning document that precedes a ground invasion — citing evidence that the al-Nusra Front, a jihadi group affiliated with al Qaeda, had master the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity,” Mr. Hersh wrote in the London Review of Books.

The al-Nusra Front was officially designated a “foreign terrorist organization by the Obama administration last year and should have been a suspect, according to the Hersh article.

Instead, in order to solidify a White House narrative that Mr. Assad had crossed Mr. Obama’s “red line” by using chemical weapons, the Obama administration “cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad,” the article claims.

While Mr. Hersh’s assessment could be read as providing backing for Russian claims that the Syrian rebels were behind the deadly August attack, the article has drawn a harsh dismisal from at least one key source in the U.S. intelligence community......"

Of course, the article also notes that a, intelligence official denies the entire claim and insists that all intelligence reports pointed to the Syrian government as the only body in that nation that possessed the ability to manufacture or deploy chemical weapons. 

-and we are supposed to believe that.

If we took all of the obvious lies, along with all suspected ones, of all the previous presidential administrations in the US prior to 2008, added them up, and compared that number to those of the last four-plus years, I would bet that the former number would be the equivalent of a drop in the bucket.

Never before in the history of the world has the media of a nation, with no threat of imprisonment, voluntarily and enthusiastically made itself an arm of the Chief Executive. They have done nothing to seriously investigate any of the lies and criminal acts of this administration.. The Leftist mentality holds that the desired end result is so worthwhile that no amount suffering or death is too much if these are means to that end. That's why they ignore the tens of millions who died under Marxist rule throughout the world, and this is why they ignore cancer patients who have lost their insurance polices under Obamacare. They ignore the lies that Obama and his henchmen told to bring us to war to establish an Islamist government for the same reason. We have more Enemies of  Humanity in our media and schools than we can count.


*http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/09/more-reports-of-obama-setup-of-syrian.html

*http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/08/syrian-rebels-used-sarin-gas-un.html

*http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/09/putins-open-letter-bruises-hearts-of.html



http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2012/03/syrian-alawite-women-and-children-now.html

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/07/syrian-christian-girl-gang-raped-for.html

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/08/syrian-church-destroyed-looted.html

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/09/obama-pressuring-congress-on-syria.html

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/09/sen-lindsey-graham-no-syria-strike.html

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/09/obama-will-aid-anti-us-terror-groups.html

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/09/syria-analystswindler-hired-by-mccain.html

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/09/syrian-town-cleansed-of-non-sunnis.html

NY Appellate Court Upholds Journalist's Right to Protect Source

- an increasingly rare instance of good news:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/10/new-york-top-court-rules-fox-reporter-cannot-be-forced-to-reveal-sources-in/?intcmp=trending

"New York's top court today spared FoxNews.com reporter Jana Winter from jail for refusing to reveal confidential sources for a bombshell story following the Aurora movie massacre.

In a 4-3 ruling based on New York's shield law, the state Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's decision that could have resulted in Winter being forced to appear in the Colorado murder trial of James Holmes.

"... an order from a New York court directing a reporter to appear in another state where, as here, there is a substantial likelihood that she will be compelled to identify sources who have been promised confidentiality would offend our strong public policy," the decision, handed down Tuesday, read.

The ruling spares Winter from appearing before Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour Jr. on Jan. 3, where she would have been ordered to reveal who told her about a chilling notebook gunman James Holmes sent to his psychiatrist before the shooting in July 2012. Winter's exclusive story on July 25, 2012, was picked up by news outlets around the world. Winter had steadfastly vowed that she would go to jail rather than reveal her sources for the story.

"Today's ruling is a major win for all journalists," said Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes. "The protection of Jana Winter's confidential sources was necessary for the survival of journalism and democracy as a whole. We are very grateful that the highest court in New York State agreed with our position."

Winter's lead attorney, Dori Ann Hanswirth, said the veteran journalist was finally freed from the specter of jail, which had hung over her head for more than a year. She said journalists must be able to afford their sources protection if they are to serve the public interest......"

Even though I had read about the New York State "shield law" a few months ago, I still was concerned about the outcome of this case. Judges in our era are far-too-often willing to bend to political pressure. In this particular case, I sensed that a lot of powerful people wanted the source divulged. 

Slaughters committed by firearms, unlike other violent acts (and urban gun crime), are choice selections of the political establishment. I hold that the Arapahoe Country judge may well have been under pressure from many Colorado legislators and prosecutors/district attorneys to locate the source of the leak and make sure that no one else even considered doing the same in the future. 

Colorado, was the second state to enact severely. restrictive gun laws after the sandy Hook slaughter. The first weapons ban that followed, in New York State, was directed primarily towards the actual types of firearms and magazines, but Colorado legislators created a law that had far greater restrictions and implications. From what I understand of the new legislation, the act of handing a rifle to a friend who was visiting someone in order to hunt (or target shoot) on his private property became an illegal act.

  

The anti-gun lobby wants to have us believe that no one can ever tell when someone will pick up a weapon and ammunition and commence to murdering people - that position is one of their reasons that they cite to justify further restrictions. The existence of a news report that the Aurora slaughter, one of their flagship cases that they use to advance the cause to disarmament, is a serious blow to their agenda as we now know that this horrific indecent had a tangible chain of events leading up to it. They can no longer cite the Aurora case while feeling free that their "proofs" cannot be refuted. 

Reps from 32 States Discuss Article V Convention

This is a follow-up to earlier posts*. The very fact that the movement has progressed to this point in so short a time is very promising.

*http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/07/article-v-conventions-proposed-some.html

"......Mr. Levin [Who popularized this movement earlier in 2013] rightfully notes that, two-thirds of the states make this move, and the proposed amendment(s) are passed by three quarters of the states, then Congress, The Supreme Court, and and President would literally be powerless to prevent them from being added to our Constitution and by extension becoming the Law of of the land.

In the Western Free Press link [In the link at top of the post linked above] , Levin speaks in an embedded video. He stresses that George Mason, (Note that Mason was by no means a supporter of the Constitution when it was a new and unratified document as he feared its potential for abuse), was indeed a strong supporter of this alternative means by which the states could work together to restrain or correct a national government (Ours is only Federal in name - credit Tocqueville for that observation) and take steps to put the nation back on the right path."....."

*http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/11/article-v-conventions-get-some-serious.html

*http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/12/left-feels-some-heat-from-article-v.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main Post-

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/12/09/gaining-steam-nearly-100-lawmakers-descend-on-mount-vernon-to-talk-convention-of-states/

"Close to 100 legislators from 32 states met in Mount Vernon, Va., Saturday to discuss the possibility of adding amendments to the U.S. Constitution through a convention of the states.

Such a convention, as outlined in article five of the Constitution, would allow state legislatures to vote on amendments to add."

http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/constitution/article-v.html

"Article V

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate."

"No constitutional amendment has been added this way, but some say the Constitution specifically allows for states to use the convention as a means to push back against the federal government.

Two-thirds of the state legislatures, or 34, must approve an application for a convention to occur, according to the Constitution’s article five. State legislatures would then send delegates to the convention, each state getting one vote on proposed amendments. For an amendment to pass and become a part of the Constitution, it would have to be approved by three-fourths, or 38, of the state legislatures."

"Lawmakers on Saturday discussed term limits on U.S. lawmakers and certain limits on federal taxation and spending as possible amendments, Red Millennial noted.

State legislators stressed Saturday the bipartisan nature of support for the discussed amendments, citing a recent poll that shows 74 percent of Americans support a balanced budget amendment while another 75 percent support congressional term limits......"

- another quick excerpt from a post I did last week:

....I hold that the possible danger of a bad outcome of such a convention pales in comparison to what is actually occurring - and what we appear to be unable to stop, right now. In other words, this is a classic case of having nothing to lose. We either take steps that have a good chance of success, or face failure due to inaction. If the Article V conventions are held and they produce poor results, we will be no worse off than we are now - and will be if we do nothing......

For New Jersey readers,  you can email the host of the blog linked below and he will help you get the right contacts for that state. 

http://newjerseypatriotblog.newjerseypatriot.us/?p=3129

These links may be of help to others who are searching for contacts from their respective states:

http://www.articlevcaucus.com/about (You can sign up as a member on this site) 

http://foavc.org/file.php/1/Articles/Links.htm

http://conventionofstates.com/

Short Maccabees Post

The arrival of snow put a big dent in my plans today. I had to move quite a bit of split firewood into a pile in order to cover it. I also brought a substantial amount close to the house on a patio that has a roof.

I don't have time for a proper post on the Maccabees, so a re-post will have to suffice:

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/10/netanyahu-tells-un-family-story-un-to.html


At the end of the Babylonian exile (some time after the destruction of the Babylonian Empire) the Jews had been allowed to return to their homes under Persian rule. When Alexander the Great defeated Darius II, the Jews lived free of molestation under his rule and for the most part continued to do so under the Macedonian successor kingdom of the Seleucids.

As the power of the Seleucid state later waned, a king named Antiochus Epiphanes decided that, to solidify the power of the weakening kingdom, he needed to end the ethnic, religious, and cultural identities of hitherto somewhat autonomous peoples. The Jews, although they had absorbed a number of Hellenistic cultural practices but remained quite distinct with their ancient religion, were targeted for forced acceptance of all religious practices of the Macedonian rulers.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Maccabees.html

"A brief Jewish rebellion only hardened his views and led him to outlaw central tenets ofJudaism such as the Sabbath and circumcision, and defile the holy Temple by erecting an altar to the god Zeus, allowing the sacrifice of pigs, and opening the shrine to non-Jews."

More gruesome details are included in the First and Second Books of Maccabees. One example follows. Note how the brothers and their anguish-ridden mother refuse even to speak Greek when addressing their tormentor. 

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/r/rsv/rsv-idx?type=DIV1&byte=4353562

" 2 Mac.7[1]

It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine's flesh.
[2] One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, "What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers."
[3]

The king fell into a rage, and gave orders that pans and caldrons be heated.
[4] These were heated immediately, and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesman be cut out and that they scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on.
[5] When he was utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The smoke from the pan spread widely, but the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying,
[6] "The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his song which bore witness against the people to their faces, when he said, `And he will have compassion on his servants.'"
[7]

After the first brother had died in this way, they brought forward the second for their sport. They tore off the skin of his head with the hair, and asked him, "Will you eat rather than have your body punished limb by limb?"
[8] He replied in the language of his fathers, and said to them, "No." Therefore he in turn underwent tortures as the first brother had done.
[9] And when he was at his last breath, he said, "You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws." 
[10]

After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue and courageously stretched forth his hands,
[11] and said nobly, "I got these from Heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again." 
[12] As a result the king himself and those with him were astonished at the young man's spirit, for he regarded his sufferings as nothing.
[13]

When he too had died, they maltreated and tortured the fourth in the same way.
[14] And when he was near death, he said, "One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life!" 
[15]

Next they brought forward the fifth and maltreated him.
[16] But he looked at the king, and said, "Because you have authority among men, mortal though you are, you do what you please. But do not think that God has forsaken our people.
[17] Keep on, and see how his mighty power will torture you and your descendants!" 
[18]

After him they brought forward the sixth. And when he was about to die, he said, "Do not deceive yourself in vain. For we are suffering these things on our own account, because of our sins against our own God. Therefore astounding things have happened.
[19] But do not think that you will go unpunished for having tried to fight against God!"
[20]

The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honorable memory. Though she saw her seven sons perish within a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord.
[21] She encouraged each of them in the language of their fathers. Filled with a noble spirit, she fired her woman's reasoning with a man's courage, and said to them,
[22] "I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you.
[23] Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws." 
[24]

Antiochus felt that he was being treated with contempt, and he was suspicious of her reproachful tone. The youngest brother being still alive, Antiochus not only appealed to him in words, but promised with oaths that he would make him rich and enviable if he would turn from the ways of his fathers, and that he would take him for his friend and entrust him with public affairs.
[25] Since the young man would not listen to him at all, the king called the mother to him and urged her to advise the youth to save himself. 
[26] After much urging on his part, she undertook to persuade her son.
[27] But, leaning close to him, she spoke in their native tongue as follows, deriding the cruel tyrant: "My son, have pity on me. I carried you nine months in my womb, and nursed you for three years, and have reared you and brought you up to this point in your life, and have taken care of you. 
[28] I beseech you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed. Thus also mankind comes into being.
[29] Do not fear this butcher, but prove worthy of your brothers. Accept death, so that in God's mercy I may get you back again with your brothers." 
[30]

While she was still speaking, the young man said, "What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king's command, but I obey the command of the law that was given to our fathers through Moses.............

The king fell into a rage, and handled him worse than the others, being exasperated at his scorn.
[40] So he died in his integrity, putting his whole trust in the Lord.
[41]

Last of all, the mother died, after her sons."

The revolt led by Judas Maccabeus (The Hammer) was shockingly successful given the power of Macedonian/Hellenistic armies of that time. Their guerrilla tactics were so successful that the king sent ever larger forces against the Jews. These were dealt crippling defeats.

The war lasted around ten years, culminating with Jewish independence.

With that in mind, please watch Netanyahu's speech [In the link at top] he described the state of mind of his grandfather as he collected his thoughts after being beaten.

Baker Ordered by Judge to Serve Gay Weddings

The following are links to previous posts on the increasing lawlessness of our society regarding the exercising of one's conscience.

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/02/baker-refuses-cake-for-fake-wedding.html

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/04/washington-state-sues-florist-for-gay.html

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/05/submit-to-gay-weddings-or-lose-your.html

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/08/photographer-found-to-violate-human.html

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/08/gay-marriage-supporters-launch-hate.html

The lawlessness is not only the product of the mob, but has also has come to be a work of our courts and legislators. Mob violence and despotic laws may be bad enough, but when the courts uphold the end of the Rule of Law itself, the People are left with no other option than to effect a political break with the hostile elements of our society and forge a new republic.

One of the vendors that faced charges for reusing to make a cake for a "wedding" - the very nature of which runs contrary to her beliefs, has lost in court in Colorado. When the courts uphold despotic laws, or the despotic interpretation of existing discrimination laws, we become a lawless society - one in which the Rule of Law has no meaning whatsoever*.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/06/judge-orders-baker-to-serve-gay-couples-despite-his-religious-beliefs/

"A Colorado judge says a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex ceremony must serve gay couples despite his religious beliefs, a ruling that a civil rights group hailed as a victory for gay rights.

Administrative Law Judge Robert N. Spencer ruled Friday that Jack Phillips, the owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop in suburban Denver, will face fines if he continues to turn away gay couples who want to buy wedding cakes.

“The undisputed facts show that Respondents (Phillips) discriminated against Complainants because of their sexual orientation by refusing to sell them a wedding cake for their same-sex marriage,” Spencer wrote.

Last year, David Mullins and Charlie Craig visited the Masterpiece Cakeshop to order a cake for their upcoming wedding reception. The couple had planned to marry in Massachusetts and hold a reception in Colorado.

Phillips told the men that he could not bake their cake because of his religious beliefs opposing same-sex marriage. He offered to make them any other baked item, but not a wedding cake. The couple immediately left the shop and later filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Division......"

[The ACLU has sided with the despots and against freedom of conscience]

"The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado hailed the ruling and said it serves as a warning.
“While we all agree that religious freedom is important, no one’s religious beliefs make it acceptable to break the law by discriminating against prospective customers,” ACLU staff attorney Amanda Goad said in a statement. “No one is asking Masterpiece’s owners to change his beliefs, but treating gay people differently because of who they are is discrimination plain and simple.”

Phillips was represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal firm specializing in religious liberty cases. Attorney Nicolle Martin condemned the judge’s ruling.

“America was founded on the fundamental freedom of every citizen to live and work according to their beliefs,” Martin said in a prepared statement. “Forcing Americans to promote ideas against their will undermines our constitutionally protected freedom of expression and our right to live free.”

Martin said this was simply a case of a baker who declined to use his personal creative abilities to promote and endorse a same-sex ceremony.

“If the government can take aware our First Amendment freedoms, there is nothing it can’t take away,” she said.
Martin added that Phillips is a devoted Christian who has an unwavering faith. She said he is a person of such deep faith that he won’t even bake Halloween-themed treats – at all.

“He’s just trying to live within a certain set of biblical principals because he believes that he answers to God for everything that he does,” Martin told Fox News.

She said this case is an example of gay rights trumping religious rights.

“It sends a message not just to other business owners, it sends a message to Americans – that if the government can take away our First amendment freedoms and tell you what to say and when to say it, there’s nothing they can’t take away,” Martin told Fox News......"

Excerpts from previous posts on the same subject:

In the United States, the velvet-covered glove on the totalitarian fist will not send one to the gulags or consign the accused to a bullet in the head by one of Beria's henchmen, but you will be ruined financially. Today, if you have any desire to avoid comprising your beliefs or your integrity, you are left with no option but to shut yourself up inside your own home - one that you will not be likely to afford since you will have very few employment options.

Unlike the other cases noted above, which are linked below, this New Mexico case should make one realize how dreadful the situation has become. In the others, the cases are in their early stages. This case, though has gone as far as it can within the State of New Mexico. The Supreme Court of that state has declared that a citizen has no right of discretion whatsoever. With this precedent, I find it hard to argue that anyone has the right to refuse to participate in anything that runs contrary to his beliefs. A baker will now likely be prohibited from refusing to make a cake with writing stating that God does not exist. The radical gay agenda appears to be the most vindictive and intolerant movement that this nation has seen in a very long time...........

........if vendors refuse to sell to gays simply due to the customer's sexual practices, then they clearly would be in violation of the law. What Washington State wants is to expand the scope of laws protecting people from discrimination to force anyone who operates a business to engage in actions that may be completely contrary to one's principles.

Nazism is not illegal in the US. If a member of a neo-Nazi Party walks into a store owned by a Jewish person, or anyone else for that matter, and orders a product or service custom-made for Hitler's birthday, then the vendor should certainly be within his rights to refuse to fill that order. A vendor cannot refuse service simply because of someone's affiliations, but the law cannot rightly be held to force a vendor to participate in an event for that organization.

Want something less severe? OK, how about a vendor that refuses to make t-shirts sponsoring a Harbor Seal hunt? The vendor would not be able to refuse to make t-shirts with other messages/logos for a customer solely due to his grisly occupation, but the law again cannot be used to force someone to take actions that would effectively make one complicit in the smashing of little seal heads.

This is how the State crushes the liberties of the people- making you powerless to stand up in any way for your principles. Tying this method of control to one's occupation is the most oppressive means of doing so.
The Left needs to turn the people into slaves who have no say whatsoever in what they say, learn, or produce. As I noted in previous posts, measures such as this one are only the beginning. Soon, speaking publicly against fake marriages will be illegal. Next, Churches will be penalized for refusing to perform fake weddings. They will either lose their tax-exempt status or their authority to officiate recognized weddings altogether. If this happens, a married couple will, after a church wedding, have to schlep down to town hall to have a civil ceremony if they want their marriage recognized by the state.

One must keep in mind that governments do not have creative powers. They cannot bring rights into existence. The State is given the power to regulate and protect institutions such as marriage to prevent abuses. These would include underage brides, one spouse who is still legally married to another, etc.

Marriage existed long before any government; therefore a government cannot,despite any legislative hoop-jumping, create the legality of a marriage that, by its very nature, cannot exist. Any law that presents itself as such is nothing more than play-acting by the State.

I once believed that the primary reason for using statutory powers to pretend that same-sex marriages exist was to destroy the family While I still believe that this is the primary purpose for some, I have come to think that others have a more insidious purpose for this.

-The purpose is to establish full governmental control of society and all of its people.

Think about it. If the State can force people to act as if a government can bring the impossible into existence, and force everyone to go along with it, then what is it incapable of doing or forcing? If a society accepts that the State can conjure up institutions by going through the motions of making laws, what can stop them from removing rights or creating others that infringe on the Liberties of the rest of the people?
*Friedrich A. Hayek, the author of The Road to Serfdom was able to - during WWII, successfully predicted much of what would happen in the Western Democracies as types of central planning, restrictions of Liberty, and the end of the Rule and Law and the increase in coercion. had already begun but had not reached near the level that we see today. I find that his foresight was every bit as harp as that of Edmund Burke in his Reflections on the Revolution in France. 

Hayek was mostly concerned with economic freedom, but what he notes also rings true when applied to our situation today. These are excerpts from paper that gives a very good introduction:

http://mercatus.org/sites/default/files/publication/WP1038_Evolution%20and%20Triumph%20of%20the%20Rule%20of%20Law.pdf

"―Where the precise effects of government
policy on particular people are known, where the government aims directly at such
particular effects, it cannot help knowing these effects, and therefore it cannot be
impartial..........

. In such a situation, Hayek argued, government ―must, of
necessity, take sides, impose its valuations upon people and, instead of assisting them in
the advancement of their own ends, chose the ends for them‖ (RS, p. 115).
Knowledge of specific effects of law at the time the law is being made has an
impact both on the law and on the government. When law is made with these particular
effects in mind ―it ceases to be a mere instrument to be used by the people and becomes
instead an instrument used by the lawgiver upon the people and for his ends‖ rather than
for the various ends chosen by various individuals (RS, p. 115). Likewise, the nature of
government changes when specific effects rather than a general framework of laws are
sought. ―The state ceases to be a piece of utilitarian machinery intended to help
individuals in the fullest development of their individual personality and becomes a
‗moral‘ institution—where ‗moral‘ is not used in contrast to immoral but describes an Ealy, Hayek on the Rule of Law, p. 13
institution which imposes on its members its views on all moral questions...........


Pursuit of substantive equality in effect destroys the Rule of Law because to achieve substantive equality the government must abandon its position of impartiality—―To produce the same result for different people, it is necessary to treat them differently‖ (RS, p. 117). At a minimum, such differential action on the part of government destroys the legal framework of general laws which allow individuals to predict government action and
shape their choices with that knowledge in mind......."

Tomorrow, I hope to do a post on the Maccabean revolt of the Jews against their Macedonian oppressors who sought to bury their religion, culture and sense of identity as a People.

Legacy of Nelson Mandela Not All Roses

The next week or so will likely produce the same results as have the last twenty four hours.

Iconic photos of Mandela, along with cherry-picked statements that paint a picture of a man who eschewed bad feelings and revenge will for the most part be all that we see and hear.

The truth is far darker, and the true legacy of Mandela's vision is still yet to be seen.

Firstly, let's look at some of Mandela's less-than-nice activities that occurred prior to his 27 years in prison:

http://www.infowars.com/nelson-mandela-dies-at-age-95/

"...Prior to his presidency, Mandela was incarcerated for 27 years at three different prisons after pleading guilty to 156 acts of public violence, including the Johannesburg railway station bombing.

He was also a member of the South African Communist Party and a co-founder of Umkhonto we Sizwe, a guerrilla warfare group declared a terrorist organization by the United States in the 1960s"

http://thebackbencher.co.uk/3-things-you-didnt-want-to-know-about-nelson-mandela/

"....Nelson Mandela was the head of UmKhonto we Sizwe, (MK), the terrorist wing of the ANC and South African Communist Party. At his trial, he had pleaded guilty to 156 acts of public violence including mobilising terrorist bombing campaigns, which planted bombs in public places, including the Johannesburg railway station. Many innocent people, including women and children, were killed by Nelson Mandela’s MK terrorists. Here are some highlights:

-Church Street West, Pretoria, on the 20 May 1983

-Amanzimtoti Shopping complex KZN, 23 December 1985

-Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court, 17 March 1988

-Durban Pick ‘n Pay shopping complex, 1 September 1986

-Pretoria Sterland movie complex 16 April 1988 – limpet mine killed ANC terrorist M O Maponya instead

-Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court, 20 May 1987

-Roodepoort Standard Bank 3 June, 1988

Tellingly, not only did Mandela refuse to renounce violence [in 1985 as a condition of release from prison], Amnesty refused to take his case stating “[the] movement recorded that it could not give the name of ‘Prisoner of Conscience’ to anyone associated with violence, even though as in ‘conventional warfare’ a degree of restraint may be exercised.”

What is even more frightening are the results of  the backroom negotiations that went on between South African business leaders and politicians with Mandela's ANC while he was still in prison. In a move that echoes the dire predictions of Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America *(at bottom),  the uber-rich and politically connected would get to maintain their positions in the new post-Apartheid order while the rank-and-file South African whites would be squeezed out of the job market by quotas and other restrictions. Many of them now live in squatter camps. Will the Netherlands and Germany offer them citizenship? Probably not - they are too busy admitting hordes of Muslims. 

http://www.amren.com/features/2013/12/mandela-white-genocide-with-a-whimper/

".....However, as tempting as it is to simply point out Mandela’s past as a Communist terrorist, in some ways his reinvention as a “reconciliator” is worse. It is true that as President of South Africa, Mandela did not unleash a campaign of state directed violence against whites. Instead, he largely maintained the economic system for the benefit of those already in power, while systematically dispossessing middle class and working class whites, especially Afrikaners. Nor was this particularity surprising, considering Mandela and the ANC’s history.

Though the African National Congress was aligned with the Communists, they received far friendlier treatment from big business than did their nationalist Boer rivals. Secret meetings were held between the African National Congress and South African business leaders even as the guerrilla war continued, and British business interests were instrumental in setting up talks between Afrikaner elites and the ANC. No such efforts ever took place between the captains of industry and the would-be leaders of an independent Boer Republic, suggesting that business leaders feared Eugene Terre’Blanche’s concept of an economy run for the “folk” more than they feared black rule.

President Mandela and his new regime concentrated on reconciling whites to the new government by means of widely publicized symbolic efforts while stripping them of any collective economic, social, or political identity. Mandela won praise for letting “Afrikaner leaders” such as F.W. De Klerk serve in his government, but this was nothing more than continuing his working relationship with collaborators.

Poverty among Afrikaners has soared in the years since the end of apartheid, with thousands reduced to living in squatter camps. South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world and is famous for its gated communities and private security companies. The nation also has a high rate of HIV/AIDS infection, which isn’t helped by black government officials who think the cure is a diet heavy in garlic. Mandela’s response has been to criticize the media for focusing too much on crime. He did nothing to stop what is now widely accepted as the opening stages of genocide against Boer farmers, and implemented anti-white racial preferences even as whites became an all but powerless minority......"

Corruption was endemic in South Africa even early in his Presidency:

http://www.therightperspective.org/2010/04/28/new-mandela-letters-show-waste-corruption/#sth

Violence against South African whites only increased after the rule of the ANC. Mandela was seemingly silent about this horrific pattern. Living largely in rural areas, Dutch (and some German)-descended South Africans ("Boer", which means farmer and,"Afrikaner" both describe those of Dutch descent), live their lives in fear:

http://afrikaner-genocide-achives.blogspot.com/ 

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2012/02/genocide-of-afrikaners-in-south-africa.html

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2012/06/south-african-farmers-still-being.html

South African President Jacob Zuma also rejoiced at these goings-on by singing apartheid-era songs that glorified killing whites (video):

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2012/03/south-african-president-sings-about.html

Fearing that what little restrictions on anti-white violence will evaporate in the wake of Mandela's (as he at least preached reconciliation, so he was a sort of safety-valve) death, Some South Africans have been preparing for evacuations in the event that the mob is unleashed on them:

http://rt.com/news/south-africa-genocide-evacuation-702/

*In Democracy in America, Tocqueville notes both that the very rich often know that they will be able to secure their place in a New order that follows a revolution and that the poor have nothing to lose. He then notes that it is those in the middle who have the most to fear from upheaval. They have less than the rich, but they have labored and saved to have what they posses. He then summarizes:

"Hence, in democratic communities, the majority of the people do not clearly see what they have to gain by a revolution but they continually and in a thousand ways feel that they might lose by one...."

Left Feels Some Heat from Article V Convention Talk

This is a follow-up to earlier posts on proposed Article V Conventions. The concept behind the utilization of the clause that allows state governments to call for and hold their own Constitutional conventions was recently publicized by Mark Levin in an effort to protect our republic from its current state of rapid decline:

I hold that the possible danger of a bad outcome of such a convention pales in comparison to what is actually occurring - and what we appear to be unable to stop, right now. In other words, this is a classic case of having nothing to lose. We either take steps that have a good chance of success, or face failure due to inaction. If the Article V conventions are held and they produce poor results, we will be no worse off than we are now - and will be if we do nothing.

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/11/article-v-conventions-get-some-serious.html

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/07/article-v-conventions-proposed-some.html

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Left-wing rag Slate featured a piece that suggests that the Left is concerned enough that support for Article V conventions may increase to come out and denigrate the idea rather than just ignore it:

The reader should note the current manner of describing what Conservatives are doing. Supporters of Article V conventions, like Ted Cruz and other good guys, are being charged with trying to destroy our tear down the nation. Yes, the Left always projects their faults onto others, but the use of the same accusations that are consistently being made on cue is something of particular note.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/12/04/alec_ron_johnson_support_convention_of_states.html?wpisrc=burger_bar

"The Grand Hyatt in downtown D.C. is like any other hotel designed to host conventions—huge and as inoffensive as possible. In its basement, advocacy groups like the Family Research Council and Americans United for Life set up booths, giving away run-of-the-mill swag like branded frisbees, beer koozies, pens, and sunglasses. They and a host of other conservative groups, along with state lawmakers and corportate interests, are gathered at the Hyatt this week for a conference hosted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.

Consider this the more level-headed, policy-oriented brother of a Tea Party rally. ALEC, for those unfamiliar, is a conglomeration of corporate interests and conservative state lawmakers that works to influence which laws get passed at the state level. The group, which supports state "stand your ground" laws, has lost a host of powerful corporate members since the death of Trayvon Martin............................

At this year's conference, ALEC isn't just working to promote conservative state laws, but to dismantle the federal government's control over the states. Mark Meckler, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, spoke at an afternoon workshop to sell his and ALEC's latest project: calling for a "convention of states." The way it would work, state lawmakers would use Article V of the Constitution to introduce a suite of constitutional amendments with the goal of severely restricting federal power.

Citizens for Self-Governance, Meckler's group heading up the Convention of States Project, described the endeavor thusly:

'By calling a convention of states, we can stop the federal spending and debt spree, the power grabs of the federal courts, and other misuses of federal power. The current situation is precisely what the Founders feared, and they gave us a solution we have a duty to use.'

In his new book The Liberty Amendments, conservative talk show host Mark Levin argues that Article V is an "emergency cord" of sorts to restore jurisdiction to the states. To pull that cord, two-thirds of state legislatures—34 of them—would have to meet and propose amendments on the same subject. Each amendment would then have to be approved by three-quarters of the states to be ratified. And therein lies one of the big problems with the project, aside from the small issue of constitutional interpretation—only 27 state legislatures are Republican-controlled.

............. To rebuild the federal government in its image, ALEC must first destroy it."

We have them feelings nervous at the moment. That is a good sign. Remember, they are not as stupid as they look. They know far more about what a free and prosperous nation needs than do many Americans, and that is why they labor so mightily to prevent these from happening. Did you ever wonder why the Left ensures that primary school students grow up learning to detest the history of their nation? I will bet my house that high-ranking Leftists have read Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws. Among other things in that great work, the author notes that citizens of a republic must be imbued with a strong love of their country. Without that, the People grow selfish, think only of themselves, and the idea of patriotism becomes utters foreign to them. A republic cannot survive under these circumstances.  

NORAD Santa Fighter Escort Derided

Although we did without a computer until the late 90's, my oldest was fortunate to have gotten least two good years worth of opportunities to view the Santa Tracker on the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) website. It was nice that she was young enough to experience the excitement of watching the flight path of Santa Claus he makes his trip around the world. As we in the US are on the far end of the day, one of the traditions for Christmas Eve was to watch Santa and his team of reindeer fly over the Great Wall, Sydney, Moscow, Rome, Paris, London, and other faraway places, Our youngest grew up with this from the time he was three.

Here is the link for the Santa Tracker - enjoy and Merry Christmas.
http://www.noradsanta.org/

When NORAD picks up Santa entering US airspace, things get even better. Fighter jets are dispatched to provide Old Saint Nick with a escort. Words can't describe the excitement displayed in the faces of the children upon the realization that our military so respects our annual gift-bearing visitor that a deployment of our air assets is not only appropriate, but obligatory as well. Well, for a job that recalls the gifts brought to the Christ-child, why shouldn't it be so?. 

Being that at that time I was on the Bomb Squad and K9 units and thus often on call, my kids could appreciate that the pilots and ground crews also were on call until they were instructed that it was time to get their jets in the air for Santa.

Among other questions, they would ask if the pilots were able to wave to Santa from their cockpits. I would assure them that the pilots, to avoid getting too close to the reindeer, would keep a little further back and use the "wing-dipping" technique to bid welcome. "Jet engines are very loud, you know".

The innocence of our youth has long been assailed from all  corners. Angry, radical atheists and Fundamentalist Christians, in a bizarre instance of cooperation, have gone on a vicious spree of denying the existence of Saint Nicholas. This has occurred numerous occasions in the last few years, even in our schools. One of these depraved acts was committed by unbelieving substitute teacher on a Kindergarten class. The substitute brought up the subject on her own volition just to have the opportunity to harm the minds of children and take away much of their enjoyment of Christmas. Aside from the angry parents who had to correctly note to their kids that the substitute was wrong, I can only imagine the anguish of the regular teacher who had to regret being unable to teach class that day.

Now, we have another example of the attacks on the time-honored tradition of escorting Santa. This time, it comes from a different yet almost as insidious angle. Leftists have long advocated and engaged in the positively inhuman practice of hiding from children anything that looks like a weapon, and act of fighting, or war. Girls brought up in such an environment are at risk of becoming adults who will recoil in horror and the thought of a firearm being the same building as they are or the prospect of one of their children joining the military or becoming a cop. For boys in particular, this can be terribly damaging to their psyche. The male brain, having been bathed in testosterone even in utero, is geared towards fighting and is naturally drawn to finding examples of good guys to emulate. My kids grew up watching the Power Rangers, and I can assert with supreme confidence that they were far better off having watched depictions of good guys risking themselves to save others from the bad guys than they would have been if they had been denied such opportunities.

I can also assert with the same confidence that children who are shielded from anything related to fighting tend to grow up anxiety-ridden and desirous of being protected by others. My youngest had a high school history teacher last year who, recounting the first time that he held a gun in his hands, stated ".. I.felt nothing but fear".

He was a nice person and all, but as a man he was worthless.

The advantages of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, and design by our Creator, are negated by self-righteous parents in a sick game of mind control began even before the child is even capable of understanding what Mom and Dad are doing to him.

Here is the next attack on Santa and on our culture by a self-righteous type who wants kids to think of our military as some type of inherently foreign entity.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/04/norad-santa-tracking-draws-criticism-with-fighter-jet-escort/?intcmp=trending

"A North American Aerospace Defense Command website showing Santa Claus delivering presents while flanked by fighter jets has some child advocates raising concerns about Saint Nick's new travel companions.

NORAD Tracks Santa, operated by the joint U.S.-Canada command, has provided children with information about Santa's whereabouts since 1955. In recent years, Santa updates have included animated videos showing Santa on his flight path.

In addition to Santa's traditional sleigh and reindeer, NORAD has added an animated fighter plane escort to give a realistic feel to the popular program, a command spokesman told Reuters.

"We wanted to let folks know that, hey, this is a NORAD video, and we're the military and this is our mission," Navy Captain Jeff Davis said.

Allen Kanner, a California child and family psychologist and co-founder of the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, told The Boston Globe the Pentagon is "completely out of line" for linking Christmas with the military.

“Children associate Santa with gifts and fun and everything else that is positive about Christmas,” Kanner told the newspaper. “They are associating this with the military in children’s minds."

Another video on the NORAD Tracks Santa website shows military personnel preparing for a test flight with an intelligence officer asserting that “intel can confirm that Jack Frost and the Abominable Snowman will not be a threat," The Globe reported.

“I think people are quite aware of the military’s true mission,” said Amy Hagopian, a professor of public health at the University of Washington, told the newspaper. “If the military wants to keep its ranks stocked, it needs to appeal to children. The military knows it can’t appeal to adults to volunteer. It is like the ad industry." ..........."

Where has the sense of shame gone?

School Admin Orders Christmas Cards Removed

I have been having trouble with the computer all evening, so this will be very brief.

Gates of Vienna is also experiencing problems, but the readership here is not remotely close to theirs. If they have been hacked, I have to assume that the problems here are only coincidental.

The children who currently attend public schools in the United States are - unless the People move for major changes, the last ones who will be able to have any celebration or marking of Christmas (or Thanksgiving, etc.) in school. One attack after another by sick-minded and depraved radical atheist (or atheist group) after another has found weak targets among school administrators.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/12/03/school-administrators-reportedly-instruct-teachers-to-remove-christmas-cards-from-hallways/

"A Georgia elementary school is at the center of controversy after administrators reportedly asked teachers to move a group of hallway Christmas cards out of the view of students.

According to Fox News, teachers at Brooklet Elementary School have displayed Christmas cards in the hallways outside their classrooms “for as long as anyone can remember.”

But, the cards reportedly disappeared after Thanksgiving break when administrators asked teachers to relocate them behind an office door so only employees can see them.

“They took down the cards so the kids can’t see them,” Robb Kicklighter, the husband of a teacher at the school, told Fox News. “Some of the cards had the word ‘Christmas’ and some had Nativity scenes.”

“It’s really sad because the students looked forward to seeing those homemade Christmas cards every year,” he continued. “It’s stirred a lot conversation. This has been a tradition and the kids are wondering what happened to the cards.”

“It’s really sad…students looked forward to seeing those homemade Christmas cards every year.”

The move comes after Americans United for Separation of Church and State reportedly filed a complaint with the district’s board of education asking teachers to curtail religious expression while teaching.

Teachers have now been reminded by the school district to refrain from using school resources to advance their personal faiths. For instance, teachers were reminded they are not permitted to include bible versus in their email signature lines........."

Until this point, we have done nothing but put out fires while the conflagration roars all around us. Concerned citizens have found ways around similar bans by using private funding for nativity displays and scheduling observances after business or school hours. 

These have been noble efforts, but they do not confront the real problem. Our culture is being gutted by Leftists and their radical atheist, radical gay, radical environmentalist, and other allies that have as their goals the utter transformation of the nation uniquely blessed by God into a barren wasteland of a culture-less public life.

I have stated on numerous occasions that we have already let this go too far. If we want our children and grandchildren to have any nice memories of growing up in America, let alone any appreciation of the significant cultural aspects of our faith, we need to begin the movement to effect a political break with the other side. It is the latter who is winning in the courts and with public officials who are too fearful to take a stand. 

If I see a region or state in which such a movement is occurring, I will sell my property for whatever price I can get on the current market and move there - I'll look for work once I get there. That is one key factor in the Western outlook; being willing to start over in another location with like-minded People despite the short-term prospects. The Westerner moves for his grandchildren and many  more generations down the line. That is how the Eastern seaboard, the regions West of Appalachia, Texas, and the rest of the nation were built - not by individuals who wanted the easy life for themselves, but  the satisfaction that they were creating something for the descendants. 

Common Core Has Gettysburg Address Taught Sans Historical Context

-Yet another example of how the creators of the Common Core have determined to permanently mire the minds of our youth in ignorance:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/30/does-common-core-suggest-instructors-teach-students-about-the-gettysburg-address-without-mentioning-the-civil-war/

"The Common Core State Standards reportedly may suggest high school instructors teach students about President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address without mentioning the Civil War.
According to a blog post published earlier this month in the Washington Post, three main architects of the controversial standards may think this is the best way for students to first learn of the famous 272-word text.

“Imagine learning about the Gettysburg Address without a mention of the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, or why President Abraham Lincoln had traveled to Pennsylvania to make the speech,” the post stated. “That’s the way a Common Core State Standards ‘exemplar for instruction’ — from a company founded by three main Core authors — says it should be taught to ninth and 10th graders.”

According to the Post, “A Close Reading of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address” explains in 29 pages how teachers can instruct students on Lincoln’s historic address without mentioning the context it was delivered in.

“The idea here is to plunge students into an independent encounter with this short text,” the instructional unit reportedly says. “Refrain from giving background context or substantial instructional guidance at the outset.”

“Refrain from giving background context or substantial instructional guidance at the outset.”

“This close reading approach forces students to rely exclusively on the text instead of privileging background knowledge, and levels the playing field for all students as they seek to comprehend Lincoln’s address,” it adds.

[The following remark from The Blaze should be noted but not accepted. Historians do not in any way advocate or practice studying texts without taking the respective context into account and they certainly do not recommend that students should be taught in this manner. Doing so is simply not a work of an historian, and the act of teaching without context - the mindsets people at the time, the events surrounding the event, and what preceded it, is not an act of teaching history. The writer may have unintentionally taken into account the work of modern Leftist academicians who do engage in such practices so that they can marginalize great events or label them as selfish acts of those solely desiring power for their own; the horrific modern-day treatment of the Magna Carta is just one example of this widespread abuse. The immense importance of Magna Carta, one of the greatest documents ever produced - that guaranteed the rights even of non-noble freemen, is today made out to be merely a power grab by the nobility.]

It should be noted, however, it is not uncommon for historians to examine famous texts in isolation from their historical context."

In order to create a society that will accept the Socialist agenda, the Left needs the People fully unaware of what made their nation what it is. The People cannot be allowed to be aware of the sacrifices made by so many. Even worse, they must be denied the ability to feel, to experience emotion, or to be uplifted by the act of any one individual or group. 

In Leftist thought [sic], history is nothing but a sequence of events leading up to the inevitable, which is Socialism. No person or group can change that, so no act or omission can be said to have altered the course of history. You read that correctly - you can try it on one of them yourself. A Leftist, or one taught well by the former, will assert that Charles Martel's victory at Poitiers/Tours did nothing to stop the Islamic onslaught into the rest of Western Europe. He will insist that the forces of  Islam were not able to make any further conquests by that point. He will also refuse to admit that the death of Genghis Khan had any effect on Europe, Again, he will tell you with a straight face that the Mongols did not have the ability to conquer or ravage any more of Eastern, let alone Western, Europe than they already had prior to the expiration of the Khan. Even more shameful are the claims that the against-all-odds victories of the Greek city-states against the Persians had no effect whatsoever in the later development of Greece, Rome, and the rest of Western Europe. The Leftists feels no shame in stating that the sacrifices at Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea were of no value nor any importance. Again, Magna Carta had no good purpose nor any long-term effect.

Uncle Tom's Cabin? - Of course not, you silly naive American, the Civil War was bound to happen even if the abolition movement had not gained so much support after that great work.

Only by understanding how the sick mind of  Leftist works can one be able to appreciate is being done to our youth. The latter are being raped of their cultural identity and taught that nothing (unless it is the environment or one of their other pet issues)  is worth any effort or sacrifice.  

Chesterton's Logic Applied to Gay Marriage

I liked this article. Anyone who appreciates the mind of G.K. Chesterton has a sort of immunity against the reverse logic that permeates our society.  

In a culture in which Cher can, with a straight face, say that anyone who opposes gay marriage is "evil", the individual is faced with a Orwellian world in which the mind control is not only dispensed by the government, but also at a grass-roots level .

Valerie Jarret recently makes the sick, preposterous claim that employers such as Hobby Lobby, in opposing the employer mandate that requires that they pay for abortions and abortaifacients, is trying to "...seize a controlling interest over the health care choices of women". Now, it does not take any formal education to realize that what Hobby Lobby is attempting to do is exactly the opposite of gaining control of anyone; if the employer pays for something, then it has control. If it does not, then is has no control whatsoever. 

That, however, is the insidious work of government employees who ply (often willingly) weak minds in order to pit one part of society against another. When the same is done by private individuals, the threat is far graver. The individual becomes terrified if speaking the truth, and to avoid being assailed by the mob, may very well feel the need to become the new anti-hero by supporting the new sick cause.

Far too many of us have given in to the flood of falsehoods. We have created a new chivalry, one in which the hero is now the one who supports acts of individuals and government that are aimed at the foundations of our society. We have fallen for the claim that "love" - which for them means merely an aberrant type of romantic love, is the only measure of marriage. 

This leaves out all the other types of true love. There of course is romantic love, which incidentally only became the main reason for marriage (and almost only in the West), very recently (arranged or parental -approved marriages were the norm for millennia and still exist in much of the world today). There is love of one spouse for the other, which is a far deeper love than that which may have caused them to want to spend their lives with each other in the first place. There is Christian love, fatherly, motherly, fraternal love, and all other sorts of love.

The purposeful re-labeling of marriage to be purely an institution defined by (romantic) love is a major part of the attack on marriage itself. Get the People to believe that your marriage is fully dependent on Romantic love, and the system collapses.

The author of the  following article (excerpts below) brings out some very good points:

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/g-k-chesterton-its-not-gay-and-its-not-marriage

"One of the pressing issues of Chesterton’s time was “birth control.” He not only objected to the idea, he objected to the very term because it meant the opposite of what it said. It meant no birth and no control. I can only imagine he would have the same objections about “gay marriage.” The idea is wrong, but so is the name. It is not gay and it is not marriage.

Chesterton was so consistently right in his pronouncements and prophecies because he understood that anything that attacked the family was bad for society. That is why he spoke out against eugenics and contraception, against divorce and “free love” (another term he disliked because of its dishonesty), but also against wage slavery and compulsory state-sponsored education and mothers hiring other people to do what mothers were designed to do themselves. It is safe to say that Chesterton stood up against every trend and fad that plagues us today because every one of those trends and fads undermines the family. Big Government tries to replace the family’s authority, and Big Business tries to replace the family’s autonomy. There is a constant commercial and cultural pressure on father, mother, and child. They are minimized and marginalized and, yes, mocked. But as Chesterton says, “This triangle of truisms, of father, mother and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it.”

This latest attack on the family is neither the latest nor the worst. But it has a shock value to it, in spite of the process of de-sensitization that the information and entertainment industries have been putting us through the past several years. Those who have tried to speak out against the normalization of the abnormal have been met with “either slanging or silence,” as Chesterton was when he attempted to argue against the faddish philosophies that were promoted by the major newspapers in his day. In 1926, he warned, “The next great heresy will be an attack on morality, especially sexual morality.” His warning has gone unheeded, and sexual morality has decayed progressively. But let us remember that it began with birth control, which is an attempt to create sex for sex’s sake, changing the act of love into an act of selfishness. The promotion and acceptance of lifeless, barren, selfish sex has logically progressed to homosexuality.

Chesterton shows that the problem of homosexuality as an enemy of civilization is quite old. In The Everlasting Man, he describes the nature-worship and “mere mythology” that produced a perversion among the Greeks. “Just as they became unnatural by worshipping nature, so they actually became unmanly by worshipping man.” Any young man, he says, “who has the luck to grow up sane and simple” is naturally repulsed by homosexuality because “it is not true to human nature or to common sense.” He argues that if we attempt to act indifferent about it, we are fooling ourselves. It is “the illusion of familiarity,” when “a perversion become[s] a convention.”

 ..........“But the carpe diem religion is not the religion of happy people, but of very unhappy people.” There is a hopelessness as well as a haplessness to it. When sex is only a momentary pleasure, when it offers nothing beyond itself, it brings no fulfillment. It is literally lifeless. And as Chesterton writes in his book St. Francis of Assisi, the minute sex ceases to be a servant, it becomes a tyrant. This is perhaps the most profound analysis of the problem of homosexuals: they are slaves to sex. They are trying to “pervert the future and unmake the past.” They need to be set free.

....... Chesterton points out that balance that our truth must not be pitiless, but neither can our pity be untruthful. Homosexuality is a disorder.[And very often the result of sexual abuse suffered in childhood]  It is contrary to order. Homosexual acts are sinful, that is, they are contrary to God’s order. They can never be normal. And worse yet, they can never even be even. As Chesterton’s great detective Father Brown says: “Men may keep a sort of level of good, but no man has ever been able to keep on one level of evil. That road goes down and down.”

Marriage is between a man and a woman. That is the order. And the Catholic Church teaches that it is a sacramental order, with divine implications. The world has made a mockery of marriage that has now culminated with homosexual unions. But it was heterosexual men and women who paved the way to this decay. Divorce, which is an abnormal thing, is now treated as normal. Contraception, another abnormal thing, is now treated as normal. Abortion is still not normal, but it is legal. Making homosexual “marriage” legal will not make it normal, but it will add to the confusion of the times. And it will add to the downward spiral of our civilization. But Chesterton’s prophecy remains: We will not be able to destroy the family. We will merely destroy ourselves by disregarding the family."