One must pose the question, “Is terrorism the biggest threat to America, or is it the silent communistic acts of those in powerful positions that post the larger threat to our nation?”

A.W.R. Hawkins sums up the answer to this question in the article below. At least acts of terrorism can be detected and held at bay by our military.

The Tools of Free Men
by A.W.R. Hawkins

Oil is the fuel of free nations, guns and speech the tools of free men. Thus the three have freedom in common. Ironically, oil, guns, and free speech have something else in common as well: all three are scorned by the Left. Democrats are opposed to further oil exploration, individual gun rights, and speech that is free from the constraints of political correctness.

We need oil now, and there is no doubt about the amounts of untapped oil off the shores of California, under the surface of the earth in Wyoming and Colorado, and up in that pristine rock quarry called ANWR. But the Democrats are so opposed to further oil exploration that they will not even hear of drilling for these deposits or exploring oil shale extraction with new technologies. As a result Democrats, who claim to represent the “common man,” are pushing the price of a gallon of gas above that of what many a common man can afford.

The Democrats use ecological concerns as a cover for their inflexibility on this issue, yet their refusal to drill is actually contributing to ecological problems. Off many of our coasts, the amount of untapped oil is so great that the deposits themselves create a pressure that forces oil to seep through the ocean floor and into the ocean. As a matter of fact, on the beaches of Santa Barbara, it is not uncommon for beachcombers to step into a “glob of tar” while walking the beach. The only way to decrease both the occurrence and size of the globs of tar is to increase oil production, according to a 1999 press release by the University of California, Santa Barbara.

In truth, however, neither the common man nor the environment matter to the Democrats. Rather, they are driven by what they fear, and what they fear is a people free enough to live independently of a paternal government.

When hunting pheasants out here in West Texas, I have often commented that my gun is an extension of me. And so it is. Whether the gun under discussion is a shotgun, a rifle, or a handgun, it is a tool that provides me certain advantages men without such a tool will never know. Just as a hammer provides a builder with the advantage of being able to drive nails or a wrench provides a mechanic with the advantage of being able to bolt together an engine, so too my gun provides me with the advantage of being able to shoot an animal, kill an intruder in defense of myself or my family, and if need be, to stand and deliver on every citizen’s inherent, God-given duty to defend his nation. What could the Democrats have against these things? You’d be surprised.

The gun is antithetical to the Left’s agenda for the simple reason that the possession of one affords men the ability to defend their freedom. It was this ability to defend freedom that caused the author of the U.S. Constitution, James Madison, to exult that “Americans have the right and advantage of being armed — unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”

But the Democrats do not have the mentality of our Founders. They do not view an armed citizenry as an “advantage” but as a threat to their agenda. They want to be able to encroach upon the people’s freedom a little at a time or even all at once if they think they can get away with it. This is why the Democrat City Council in Washington D.C. is still refusing to remove their citywide gun ban even though the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in the Heller case. They don’t want to let go of the control they’ve leveraged over the people in that city since the ban was implemented in 1976.

Speech is another tool the free man uses to defend his freedom. Through speech he explains the origins of freedom, the price of freedom, and the limitations that should be imposed on government rather than men. Not surprisingly, the Democrats are opponents rather than proponents of such language; tyrants of every stripe always are.

Every politically correct policy that limits speech is a direct assault on the ability of men to use language on behalf of freedom. And each such policy is but the latest in what has been a long chain of usurpations of free speech in our nation’s history.

In 1765 King George III encroached upon the speech of our Founding Fathers with the Stamp Act. This act was issued to limit access to affordable paper in the colonies and thereby decrease the colonist’s ability to spread the idea that liberty was intrinsic to life itself. The king wanted to ensure that pamphlets such as Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” could not be printed and distributed among the populace. But the pamphlet was printed in 1776, and through it Paine lit a fire in the hearts of the colonists. He urged them to give themselves wholly to the American Revolution by assuring them that “common sense” dictated they should throw off the yoke of so great a tyrant as King George.

Today, the Democrat Party is full of a myriad of King Georges who seek the passage of their own stamp acts through legislation such as the Fairness Doctrine, academic “speech codes,” and various internet taxes and regulations. Notice — they don’t deny the truth of their own tyranny as much as they seek to suppress its disclosure. Democrat goals and policies are antithetical to freedom.

We must get more oil. We must keep our guns. And we must tell our children, our students, and those among whom we live and work that freedom comes from God, not government. As such, it s not the gift of Senators Barrack Obama, Charles Schumer, or Harry Reid, nor is it ours because of the benevolence of Representative Pelosi. Once we get our children, our students, and those among whom we live and work to understand this, we can rest assured in the shared knowledge that freedoms which government cannot give are also freedoms which government cannot take away.

Doing this may not be easy, but “those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it.” (Thomas Paine)

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Obama: the wolf in sheep’s clothing has been sheared down to reveal the impostor beneath the image. I wanted to share this with readers. It’s a column written by Bay Buchanan, and it sums up perfectly the qualifications that are absolutely imperative to the one Americans elect as their new Commander in Chief.

Obama: Embarrassed by America
by Bay Buchanan

First there was the flag pin.  Barack Obama refused to wear it.  Then he refused to put hand to heart during the national anthem.  He sat in a pew while his pastor trashed America.  He explained to his rich pals in San Francisco that the hard working folks in Middle America “cling to guns or religion” because they are “bitter” over the tough economic times. 

Now Obama tells us that we shouldn’t worry about immigrants learning English; our focus should be on getting our children to learn Spanish.  He added, “It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is merci beaucoup.”

American soldiers are fighting, and dying in battles thousands of miles from their homes, American medical personnel are caring for refugees and orphans throughout the world, and the American people are more generous than any on earth, ready to help the sick and needy wherever they live, and Barack Obama is embarrassed because his countrymen don’t speak French?  Who is this guy?  Born in the greatest nation on earth and too embarrassed to wear a flag pin or honor our anthem with a simple gesture.  Uncomfortable with gun loving, Bible thumping, hard working, English speaking people who are at the heart of what is good about his country, but entirely at ease — for years — in a church with a pastor who preached hatred of America.

With his latest commentary on America Obama has now given us five separate and distinct occasions that demonstrate his contempt for this nation.  When following a script, he says the right things but when speaking extemporaneously he proves himself to be an elitist who is above the patriotism thing.  He does not appreciate that our language tightly knits us as a people and our shared traditions, values, history and heroes is our common culture, our identity, the core of want it means to be an American.

I learned young from my uncle Regis, a Word War II veteran, an American hero we called Uncle Peachie.   

In the Second World War Uncle Peachie found himself in North Africa.  They would fight all day in the desert and push forward as far as they could.  At night they would sleep wherever they found themselves.  He spent months in the desert, at age 19, learning first hand the horrors of war. When word came that they had won this front the troops headed to town to participate in a victory parade.  Preferring to watch rather than be in the parade Uncle Peachie found a second floor balcony and waited.  As the procession of jeeps, tanks and soldiers turned the corner and came his way Uncle Peachie set his eyes on Old Glory for the first time in months and was overwhelmed with emotion. The American flag, he told me sent a tingling sensation through his body from toes to head and, he told me, he has never seen an American flag since that day without this sensation repeating itself all over again.

My uncle came back from the war and with his Silver Star in hand traveled to the home of the buddy he left behind in Africa.  There he told the parents about the final days of their son’s life and gave them his medal.  He knew what it meant to be an American.

“Patriotism,” my brother Pat writes, “is a passionate attachment to one’s own country, its land, its people, its past, its heroes, literature, language, traditions, culture, and customs.” 

Patriotism is what my uncle felt and what Americans everywhere feel when they see the flag, hear the anthem, or see an American soldier.  They so love America that when  reminded that they are among the privileged few who to call America home their eyes fill and their hearts swell.   

It is this deep love for country that makes Americans willing to sacrifice and die for it.  It is an appreciation of our greatness that places an obligation upon us to fight, protect, and preserve this nation, as those who went before us did.  Being an American is so much more than being born here — it is unique experience, an unparalleled privilege, a gift from God. 

Our President needs to know this, in his mind and in his heart.  He must be so proud to be an American that we will all know that he will be committed to keeping this country the greatest on earth.  But to do that you have to believe it.  This is where Barack Obama comes up short.

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The Democratic-controlled Congress, who by the way has an abysmal approval rating of 17.3%, passed legislation to bail out those folks who are facing foreclosure and to underpin Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Pelosi and Reid may need to have elbow splints after much mutual back patting.

We at Sensible Life believe in living, well, sensibly. That doesn’t me go out and get a mortgage way beyond your means of repayment. Yet, that’s what some have done and the banks have let them. One of the reason the banks got themselves into this bind is their practice of “No Doc” and/or “Low Doc” loans - so everyone can own a house. Why would they ever think of allowing loans to folks that can’t substantiate their income?

Back in 2001, the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates 11 times to ward off post a 9/11 recession (from 6.5% to 1.75%). Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, and Hawaii all posted record housing price increases.  As house values went up, so did mortgage equity lines of credit. Again, documentation requirements were rather shaky.

When the housing bubble burst in 2005-2006, interest rates were rising as were  costs of other goods. The sub-prime loans (mostly adjustable rates) were adjusted upward and people could no longer afford to make the payments on a house they couldn’t afford to begin with. Late summer 2007, the sub-prime lending market collapsed with 25 lenders declaring bankruptcy.

Fast forward to today where we, and our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, are going to bail out people who were living beyond their means. Don’t take this statement to mean that we aren’t supportive of those that may have been defrauded by the banking industry - the court system is the way to address that matter.

Once again, Government has decided that we’re not responsible to make our own decisions or address the realities of our own actions. No, we’re going to be bailing out all the mortgages that shouldn’t have been issued in the first place. Where’s the accountability for the bankers and brokers? What legacy are we leaving?

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