Anything you say can and will be used against you…

Doesn’t it just feel like we’re under arrest here in America sometimes?

That sense that whatever views we make are disregarded and derided by what is sadly becomming mainstream America.

A young lady in California can’t speak her mind without getting punished for it.  A straight, honest answer gets her booted.  I thought the pagents were about character as well as beauty.  I guess you just have to have the right character and simply agree with the judges… Regardless how flaming biased they are.

Conservatives are finding more, and more obstructionism in OUR right to express ourselves honestly.  Tea Party counter protests (Some I hear got a little out of hand), Fairness Doctrine, and the complete misinterpretation of the Mainstreet Media.

It really feels like we can’t speak out without getting the jackboots of Acorn around our neck, with the ACLU holding their jackets for them.  Then we get legislated by our elected officials if we try to defend ourselves.  What HAS this country come to?

I’m lucky to live in the South right now, Texas to be exact.  Here in the So Called “Texas Penetentary”, me and my fellow conservative inmates are still trying to fight it off.  But can you imagine what it’s like for a conservative in Boston?  LA? NYC?  Heck the entire state of Vermont?  It’s has to be like being a spy in a cold war country.

“Yer papers Pleezze.  Are you a STeeenking RWETCN?” The ACLU Troopers demand. 

(Right Wing Extremist Teabag Conservative Nutjob for those of you in Rio Linda)

I having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that my elected representatives are starting to really drift away from representing me.  This isn’t the country I grew up in.  The country my family has fought for.  This isn’t the country I want my children to grow up in.  I don’t want them to be penalized and exiled for their “Extremist Conservative Views”, when all they want is to keep others out of their business.

Each and every day shows more and more evidence that we, as conservatives, are being viewed by Our President, our congress and our fellow Americans as being treasonous for not falling into lockstep with everybody else.

It reminds me of a game.  Lemmings.  You know the one where the furry green animals follow right behind each other over the cliff to their deaths?

What’s wrong with not wanting to be a Lemming?

God Bless

Lochnivar

Another episode on logical fallacies.  Thanks for the recommends, they mean alot.

The next fallacy is “Waving the bloody flag”.

Waving the bloody flag is a term that has been traced back to the civil war when people would use bloody shirts of murdered slaves to incite the anger and wrath of the public.  Shakespeare writes Brutus waving the bloody toga of Ceaser.

Example : Gun control

The recent spate of horrific murders have the liberals decrying the evils of firearms.  A particularly insulting peice was Diane Sawyer’s “If I Only Had a Gun” that aired on ABC (http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7312540) in the 20/20 program.

The assertion is that the increase in firearm proliferation is directly responsible for the increase in violence and removing/banning firearms will reduce firearm based crimes.  The fact is no, it will not reduce crime.

Facts : http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp

* Washington D.C. enacted a virtual ban on handguns in 1976. Between 1976 and 1991, Washington D.C.’s homicide rate rose 200%, while the U.S. rate rose 12%. (1)

* In 1982, a survey of imprisoned criminals found that 34% of them had been “scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed victim.” (16c)

* As of 1998, no permit holder has ever shot a police officer. There have been several cases in which a permit holder has protected an officer’s life. (7)

* As of 1998, nationwide, there has been 1 recorded incident in which a permit holder shot someone following a traffic accident. The permit holder was not charged, as the grand jury ruled the shooting was in self defense. (7)

There are plenty of facts from that site, please take a look at the reference at the bottom of the page.  Yes the data is a tad bit dated, I admit that.  But they are facts and I believe they support themselves.

Waiving the Bloody Shirt has been used even when the incident is not even related to the issue at hand.

From the same site :

“I still think we ought to ban those bullets that are built only for one purpose, to pierce the bullet-proof vests that our police officers wear. I don’t see why we need those things out there. Let me tell you, we just started this program two years ago, as I said, when I signed the Crime Bill in 1994. Today, I met with the first — the family of the first one of the police officers hired under our Crime Bill, killed in the line of duty. I met here in Louisiana, in Lake Charles I met with that officer’s widow and two beautiful, beautiful young sons. And I thought to myself, you know, if people like these folks here are going to put their lives on the line for us, the least we can do is tell them if they put on a bullet-proof vest, it will protect them from being killed. That’s the least we can do for them.” (66) (67)

This was in reference to the death of Officer Jerome Harrison Seaberry.  Officer Seaberry was killed in a car crash. No guns or bullets were involved. (68) 

It’s not just this site, which, I admit, can be a little biased.

http://www.odmp.org/officer/926-police-officer-jerome-harrison-seaberry-sr.

Conclusion :

The internet HAS to be the bane of the Liberal.  They can’t avoid facts when we are willing to think for ourselves and really think for ourselves.  Gun control isn’t going to magically end gun violence.  When we have no oppurtunity to defend ourselves, we’re simply targets.

Criminals will get firearms.  They will find ways.  We see this already.  In the final analysis, our government is simply turning us into targets out of their foolish stupid utopia vision.

God Bless,

Lochnivar

The one thing that draws me most to conservative values is the solid base of it’s principles.  They are based in hard, proven philosophies that have served every emerging nation well that believed in them.  History is full of examples to a state that moves away from conservative values.

Conservative values stand up well to critical thinking.  From dictionary.com, let’s define critical thinking.

Basically we’re looking at a process that uses the capabilites of the mind that God gave us to calmly and cooly consider an idea before we go off half-cocked.  Liberal/Statist values simply don’t stand up to that kind of thought analysis. 

Critical thinking uses certain tools to identify fallacies in logic. 

Red Herring – something intended to divert attention from the real problem or matter at hand; a misleading clue.

Example : Bush financial policies are bad, Clinton’s were good.

Supporters of Liberal economic policy often point to the deficit spending of Bush vs the deficit spending of Clinton.  After looking at the data, there IS evidence that defict spending during the Clinton years took a dive and rose during the Bush years. http://zfacts.com/p/318.html

Fallacy : The fallacy here is that they are only using part of the data to distract from critically thinking about the whole picture.

Facts about government spending.

1. Congress has the “power of the purse”.  Congress creates the budget and allocates spending.  The President simply suggests/requests spending.  To be honest I’m not sure he has the chance to approve/veto the budget Congress creates.
2. Under the Clinton years, Republican’s owned Congress.  The 1996 election was a good year for Republicans.  Oddly enough, this coincides with Clinton’s reduction in deficit spending.
3. Under the Bush years,  we were hit with 9/11 and the war in Iraq.  Yes Deficit spending went up.  We were fighting a war.  By about late 2003 to early 2004, we began to get a handle on spending.  Under a Republican Congress, though a minor majority.
4. The 2006 election saw a change in ownership of Congress to the Democrats.  Deficit spending held steady, but the telling factor is this.  We were pulling down our troop levels in Iraq.  So if we stayed level, the money was going somewhere.

Now point 2 and point 3 are from my memory.  There’s election data, but I’m pretty sure they are accurate.

Conclusion : We’re being distracted by pleasant sounding blame, and not thinking for ourselves

Benjiment Franklin one said. “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. ”

Franklin was mostly right.  He missed one.

Death, Taxes and the absolute idiocy of our current president.  I spoke with my wife and I told her.  “Everytime I think Obama can’t get worse, he does something that surprises me.”

Driving home I was listening to talk radio, like I always do, and I heard something that absolutely set me off.  We are no longer at war with terrorists.  Nope, we’re not in Iraq and Afganistan to conduct a war against those that would hurt us.  We’re conduction “Overseas Contingency Operations”.  We don’t know who we’re fighting, I mean conduction OCO’s against.  We can’t use the word “Enemy Combatants” any more.  That’s too “Bush” for us.  We need something less controversial, never mind that these are the people who want to kill me, kill you and kill everybody you know. 

We’ll just rename them “Really Really Bad Men”.

Then we have our Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano nixing the use of “Terrorist Attacks”.  They are now “Man Created Disasters”.  This one boggles me completely.  I thought Katrina was a disaster.  I thought earthquakes, typhoons, and wildfires were disasters.  Disasters are those random things that we cannot predict happening.  Those that are mindless acts of destruction by nature.  Somebody who walks into a mob and detonates himself isn’t a disaster.  It’s an act of bigoted zealotry.  People who fly aircraft into buildings aren’t simply mindless, they are carrying hate in thier hearts for us and all we stand for and love.

If it quacks, call it a duck.  It’s a simple concept that accepts responsibility for our values.  To deny such a plain speaking definition, we begin to weaken ourselves so that we can keep from pissing off those who hate us.

God Bless You and God Bless America.  We may need it.

Lochnivar

The importance of history is that it teaches us about ourselves.  It teaches us the nature of the human mind and the consequence those actions.  We can always look back and examine, in detail, the causes, actions, and results of events that have occured.   The intent of studying history is so that we can learn from those mistakes and come out stronger.

For example, we can draw a reasonably accurate analogy between an advanced culture and that of the Romans.  We can see the apathy of the mob turn into the mindless bleat of the herd on the heels of a strong, charismatic leader.  The only thing they require to follow him is to continue the life of decadence that they are used to.

America is a strong nation.  It always has been.  Against external threats, nothing can break our will.  I offer the examples of World War I, World War II and 9/11.  In each and every instance of an external threat,  America has banded together as the true nation we SHOULD be and said “NO!  This will not be!”.  The Luisitania, Pearl Harbor and the World Trade Centers galvanized the American soul and harkened back to the days of the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington.  Iron souled men (and women) stood their ground and said “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further” (Job 38:11)

But, can America survive internal threats to our unity?

Again, we can look to history for the answers to that question.  The analogy that stands out in everyone’s mind is that of the succession of the southern states that led to the Civil War.  The succession was the result of the South feeling that the Union no longer represented it’s views.  Slavery was simply a means to an end, an excuse to sever themselves from the north.

Another, more recent, though less extreme, issue was that of Race and the Civil Rights Movement.  Though the Union was secure, it exposed the naughty little chasm of race in America.  Sadly it’s a gulf that still exsist, though blessedly shrinking.

We can stretch the analogy to the War of Independence.  Taxation without Representation.

History is replete with the destruction of nations alongside idealogical lines.  Korea, Vietnam, The Frech Revolution, The Texas War of Independence and The indian uprising against the British are simply a few examples.

I’m not condoning succession and I will kick the living hell out of anybody that does.  I love this country and I refuse to see it destroyed by this rip I’m seeing developing.  My grandfather suffered mental, physical and emotional trauma to make sure that we still had a nation to call home.  But just because I want it doesn’t mean I can’t see what looms over the Horizon.

Call me paranoid, or call me a nut, but I say to the people of American, especially the left, don’t let this happen to our great nation.

God Bless America and God Bless you all.

Lochnivar

In one hand, I can’t believe that Obama would start dictating to our businesses.  But on the other hand, I’m really not surprised. 

The shear scope of this is mind boggling.  I think we all know what’s comming next.  AIG is going to be dictated to reduce our benefits to reduce costs.  Yes, that’s hyperbole, but sadly within the realm of possibility.

So, it boils down to this.  Not only is Obama and Geitner content with taking the money and “Distributing the Wealth”, but now we’re one step closer to them telling which car we can buy.

The next question is.  Why is this a bad thing?  The answer should be self evident, but let’s run through it real quick.  Government has NO idea how to run a company, any company.  The car companies aren’t inept or incompetent (They wouldn’t have gotten as far as they have if that were the case)  They are simply greedy and that greed got ahold of them.

We NEED people to wake up and begin taking control of their own nation.  Let us determine who rises and who falls with our checkbooks.

God Bless and recall Obama

Lochnivar

.. begins with a single step. — Confucious

A rather appropriate title for a new blogger, in my opinion.  I intend this to be my opening post.  My beginning step in a journey of a thousand miles.  I don’t plan on hitting one topic hard.  I’d like to take this entry to simply introduce myself and tell all of you what I think and stand for.

I guess you can call me the proverbial “Back Row Baptist” when it come to politics.  The irony of that statement is that I AM a Baptist.  I’ve tried my best to remain neutral, to keep out of the light and just float with the breeze of hot air.

I don’t feel I can now.

Too many things are going on in our country, our way of life for me to simply sit back and watch the tides of political power ebb and flow, rise and fall, between two stagnant parties that have both lost their way.  I can’t sit back and watch as my country is taken over.  While my life is becomming more and more regimented, and my dreams begin to fall by the wayside of somebody else’s reality.  I need to either pee or get off the toilet.  And I love complaining to much to stop because I haven’t done anything to change it.

I’m a 30 year old male.  I live in Texas, just outside Dallas, and I have a wonderful wife who means more to me than any words can say.  Cliche’ yes, but all the more true.  I don’t associate myself with any party.  In fact, I’m a registered independant.  Views are much to diverse to lock yourself into one group’s standpoint, don’t you think?

I’m a solid conservative.  While I’m not a Libertarian Conservative (Read : ArchConservative), I agree with thier stance on very very little government.  I guess the point I disagree with is this.  Those that I’ve known (Probably not true of the whole, I hope) are just one step this side of anarchists.  While I want small government, I strongly believe that it has an important place in our society.

So, the question is… What’s my ideal Government system?  I know everybody has an Idyllic Xanadu of what the three branches should be, and I’m not any different.  My dream is a federal system that stays out of my way, until my rights and actions begin to interfere with yours.

It really is that simple.  Make sure you don’t mess with me and mine in a negative fashion and we’re good.  Next question.  I can handle that myself.  No, that becomes vigilantism, not rule of law.  The difference, it’s a significant one.

The key here is objectivity.  A human being can’t make an informed judgement on any matter if he or she doesn’t step away from themselves and look at issue from all points of view.  Yes there is always going to be some bias, we’re all human after all and fallible.  But we can try, and, for me, that effort is worth everything to my integrity.

Now does that lead to some separation between my views and those generally held by other conservatives.  At times, yes.  But let me pose this question to you.  What is the foundation of conservatism?  To me, that answer is self-determination.  Freedom of thought and action.  Isn’t that the point of all of this?  Isn’t that the context of the words “Life”, “Liberty”,and the pursuit of “Happiness”?

So, I ask one thing, and one thing only.  If you are reading this, or any other piece that I may write.  Please keep the mind open and the soul willing.  A knee jerk reaction to anything that smacks of “liberalism” is simply close-minded bigotry.  We react the same way that we accuse them of being.  Let’s not add Hypocrisy to our collective resumes.

I’ve rambled and meandered enough, I think.  Any more and I’ll just be patting my own self on the back.  Besides where’s the fun if I tell you all my little goodies up front.

God Bless You All, Lochnivar