By passing a majority opinion that married same-sex couples are entitled to federal benefits, the Supreme Court has once again stepped outside the realm of original intent in interpreting the Constitution. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community have always possessed the same rights as every citizen in the United States, hence there is no such thing as “gay rights”.
Freedom in America: The Unifying Idea
The four cultural migrations out of England that established America and left their indelible cultural stamp upon it were as diverse in their ideas about freedom, liberty and social governance as any four groups of Christians could be.[1] In spite of these differences, the descendants or the actual immigrants of the four migrations unified behind Reformed theological ideas to win independence and establish a workable national government that allowed them to preserve their individual ideas about liberty.
Memorial Day Speech 2012 Westminster, MD
Good morning. I am honored and humbled to be in the presence of everyone here today and thank you for coming out to pay tribute to the sacrifices of those who have come before us. Before I get started I want to recognize American Legion Post 31 for organizing Westminster’s Memorial Day observance for over 80 years, and especially Skip Amass who has put so much effort into planning this year’s event, my brother, Michael, who, last year, asked me if I would participate in this year’s observance, canvassed for me to do it and whose daughters, Kayla and Mary Katherine, I borrowed for the parade this morning, my parents, Michael and Barbara, who are here this morning, and my wife, Christine, who out of 18 years of marriage has faithfully endured more than 9 of them without me. Although, sometimes I think she actually endured the times when I was home, not the other way around. Continue reading “Memorial Day Speech 2012 Westminster, MD”
Freedom in America: Our Cultural Heritage
From its earliest history, the United States has been identified as the land of freedom. In 1814, Francis Scott Key touted America as the land of the free and the home of the brave in his poem that later became America’s national anthem, but explaining American freedom has been problematic throughout our nation’s history. Freedom and liberty, although not synonymous, are very closely linked and many Americans differ in defining these terms as they apply to America’s brand of freedom and the liberties they think its citizens should possess. Oddly, this battle has been waged long before America obtained its independence.
Continue reading “Freedom in America: Our Cultural Heritage”
Rotten to the Common Core
Common Core, an education program developed with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to improve academic standards in public schools, will fall far short of its stated objective, but not very far from the tree upon which it grew.
Its promoters tout it to be a “state-led effort to establish a single set of clear educational standards for English-language arts and mathematics…” to provide teachers, parents and students with a set of well defined expectations and “[h]igh standards that are consistent across states…”
Underlying these statements is the proposition public schools are not performing very well or completely failing to educate students to a necessary standard. Based on the fact SAT scores, since 1962, have twice been adjusted downward to artificially depict higher scores among students taking the exam but have continued to decline and national literacy scores continue to decline as a percentage of the United States population it is difficult to refute the dysfunctional public school proposition. Their solution to this very real problem, however, is like putting a gangrene infected band aid on a gangrenous open wound.
America’s Cyprus
While people around the world may be appalled at the actions of the Cyprus government to close their banks and confiscate a portion of certain accounts, many in America claim it “will not happen here.” Perhaps they are correct for at least the immediate future, but far worse was done to Americans in 1933 and it could happen again.
On April 5, 1933, approximately one month after first taking office, Franklin D. Roosevelt commanded, via Executive Order No. 6102, “All persons are hereby required to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, to a Federal reserve bank … all gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates now owned by them or coming into their ownership on or before April 28, 1933[.]”
By his executive order Roosevelt deprived Americans of their property “without due process of law” under the Fifth Amendment. To add injury to insult, he also ordered up to a $10,000 fine or ten years in prison or both for anyone who willfully violated any provision of his executive order.
US Senate’s Brain Hemorrhaging Clout
Adam Liptak, in his March 11, 2013 New York Times article, Smaller States Find Outsize Clout Growing in Senate, makes a logical argument, about smaller State’s having disproportionate electoral power in the Senate, based on false premises.
Constitutional Currency
Very few Americans understand how the Constitution defines “dollars” or the constitutionally delegated monetary powers and prohibitions to Congress and the States. As a result, Americans take many unlawful monetary policies for granted, because they have known nothing different and have not questioned the national government’s authority to do the things it has done.
Every American should question if the government has the authority to emit a legal-tender paper currency irredeemable in silver or gold coin. If they have the authority to seize the people’s gold like the FDR administration did in 1933. If they are authorized to make the notes of private banks obligations of the United States and legal tender or allow private banks, through an administrative agency exercising unlimited discretion, to draw money from the Treasury without specific appropriations made by law.[1]
Women in Combat
Former Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta and the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey have attempted to erase one of the last distinctions between men and women by “allowing” women to serve in combat units. Panetta stated, “Allowing women to serve in combat roles will strengthen the U.S. military’s ability to win wars.”[1]
In spite of Panetta’s attempt to fabricate the truth, women in combat roles do not add anything to a nation’s defense in terms of combat effectiveness. As a rule, women have not played a major part in combat throughout human history for the same reason they do not play professional football; they do not perform as well as men in these roles. Sadly, one need only look at domestic abuse cases to see that in general, women are physically weaker than men.
Gun Control
Every time a mass shooting happens in America, and before research or analysis for the actual cause can begin, many people and news outlets instantaneously clamor for national gun control as if they are following Rahm Emanuel’s dictum to “never let a serious crisis go to waste.” Such an approach speaks loudly that the issue is more about control than it is about guns.
As part of gun control advocates’ mantra and a cornerstone of their argument, they claim citizens don’t need “assault weapons” to hunt or to defend themselves in their homes. Although, it is true citizens can do both of these things without military style firearms, their claim misinterprets the intent of the Second Amendment and the right it was written to protect.