Savage Republican

I received an interesting email today that dovetails into post here regarding the ACLU’s perpetual lawsuits against the 10 Commandments. Did you know that each state constitution acknowledges God? That’s right….every single state constitution makes some reference to God, thanking God for His blessings and His grace and His mercy….Don’t believe me? Try this….

California 1879, Preamble. We, the People of the State of California, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom…

Connecticut 1818, Preamble. The People of Connecticut, acknowledging with gratitude the good Providence of God in permitting them to enjoy…

Illinois 1870, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Illinois, grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy and looking to Him for a blessing on our endeavors…

Maryland 1776, Preamble. We, the people of the state of Maryland, grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberty…

New York 1846, Preamble. We, the people of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom,in order to secure its blessings…

Pennsylvania 1776, Preamble. We, the people of Pennsylvania, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, and humbly invoking His guidance.

and finally our very own Minnesota, 1857, Preamble. We, the people of theState of Minnesota, grateful to God for our civil and religious liberty, and desiring to perpetuate its blessings…

Notice a pattern? All of the states I listed as examples are some of the BLUEST of the blue states and some have been around since the beginning of the country! This, along with the writings of our founding fathers tell us what the ACLU and their supporters choose to ignore…that this country was indeed founded on a Judeo/Christian faith. One thing is abundantly clear to me after reading this. We, the people, in order to maintain this perfect union, need to make sure that we do not allow the ACLU to write God out of our history!

Tip O’Neill (former Speaker of the House, now deceased) once said “All politics are local.” Oh, how true!
One of my friends is heavily involved in politics in Prior Lake. In the run-up to the last election he and others organized a citizens group that was deeply concerned that the local politicos seemed to have forgotten that they were elected to govern with and for the people, not rule over them. A city hall with a lunch room costing nearly $500,000- an edifice to the magnificance of the reigning elected was one item that stood out to me. The huge run-up in tax revenues (that the locals blame on anything, everyone else save them). It sounded SO much like what happens in St. Paul and Wash.D.C.
My friend told me that when property values exploded (as they are want to do in Scott County) the then city council and mayor just reduced the mil rate so that even with an increase in property values the tax payer didn’t pay any more in taxes as the tax rate was cut. Now, that’s MY idea of governing wisely. Does anyone remember the huge state surpluses (aka overtaxed) in the late 90’s? And Jason Lewis warned us that the state would create new programs to soak up all that extra money. And it was so.And the citizens would then be doubly taxed as they didn’t get their money back and would now have to pay to keep ALL those extra programs up and running as we know that programs are never cut nor ever eliminated. And we then had the recent deficits. We have never, ever had a tax problem locally, state-wide or nationally. We have always had a spending problem. We have never, ever, nor will we ever be undertaxed. Ever. Unless you’re a left wing weenie. And then everyone else, especially the “rich”, are all certainly undertaxed! And then all tax cuts are too large and never warranted and no tax is ever big enough.
And so it will be with all these increased revenues from higher property values. My Mom lives in Hennepin County. And I calculated that she will pay ANOTHER $1,000 in property taxes. She’s a widow, in her late 70’s. All of her children have been out of government schools for 35 years. And her city built a new city hall reffered to as “The Taj Mahal”.
Plus, her city council also passed a smoking ban…and restaurants have been laying off employess ever since. The local school district once had a parking place where I started to park, but it was reserved for the the “Diversity Coordinator”.
And do you think, for a moment, that my Mom’s city council, or any other city council, will not take the chance to grab more of their citizens’ money? Does Dracula ever pass up an exposed neck?
Large government, writ small.
Oh, and by the way, the Taj Mahal is NOT a palace or a residence. It’s a tomb. A mausoleum.
Rather fitting, I’d say.

I’m a huge Warner Bros. cartoon fan (1956 and earlier only).
So, when I got the following from the WSJ, I read it with great amusement:

Blogger John Hinderaker likened the Dems to Wile E. Coyote, the hapless vulpine Looney Tune whose elaborate schemes to catch the Road Runner always blow up in his face. As the Looney Tunes Web site notes, “Wile E.’s ineptitude, possibly a by-product of his distracted obsession with catching Road Runner, is compounded only by the Acme company’s products–which may work for other customers, but seem never to work for Wile E., who repeatedly risks life and limb counting on their effectiveness.”

Hinderaker’s observation brought a fascinating response from reader Stephen Fossati:

For the better part of ten years I had the privilege of working closely with Wile’s creator Chuck Jones and in fact produced and co-wrote Chuck’s final Roadrunner cartoon in 1994, so I would humbly offer that I am a fair authority on said erstwhile coyote.

Having spoken with Chuck about Wile more times than I can count, I can say with great conviction that your suggestion that the Murtha, Dean, Kerry, Boxer et al, position with regards to the GWOT and the war in Iraq, is appropriately analogous to Wile and to his inumerable [sic], ill-considered and near fatally-flawed plans to catch the Roadrunner–a good many of which resulted in him falling off of a cliff.

Chuck defined Wile in the words of George Santayana who said: “A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim.” Assuming that the Dems’ aims are to regain control of the House, the Senate and the White House and based upon their seemingly fevered attempts to discredit President Bush by mis-representing the success of the war, advocating for our withdrawal/surrender, and purposefully undermining our efforts/abilities to wage war on an enemy unlike any we have faced before, I think it’s fair to say that the Democrats clearly meet Santayana’s definition of a fanatic. And since it is Santayana’s definition of a fanatic with which Wile’s own creator described him, I would conclude that your comparison of our luckless, over-zealous and too-clever-by-half coyote to the leaders of the Democratic party, is not only correct but painfully (for the Dems), astute.

Hinderaker adds: “Remember how Wile viewed even his misadventures as evidence of his superior intellect?” He reproduces a picture of the not-so-wily Wile E. holding a sign identifying himself as a GENIUS. It reminds us of a DemocraticUnderground post we quoted in 2003:

I would dare to assume that most of us here are in the upper 1%-20% of the population intelligence-wise. We must come to the realization that the majority of the population is in the lower 80% to 99% percent of the bell-curve. WE are not the norm. The Republicans understand that the average American is not very bright. They cater and pander to the masses. The Democratic Party tries to appeal to the population about “issues” that these people just don’t understand.

As we noted then, these guys think it an impressive act of cognition to “come to the realization” that the majority of Americans are below the 80th percentile. We like the way that rolls out: Wile (D.) Coyote, Super Genius!

Well Scrooge visited the ACLU today, in the form of a ruling from the 6th US Court of Appeals. The court was ruling on a case that the ACLU had brought against Mercer County KY. The ruling (reported here) was a complete repudiation of the ACLU and the supposed “separation of church and state”. In writing for the 3-0 majority, Judge Richard Suhrheinrich said the ACLU’s “repeated reference ‘to the separation of church and state’ … has grown tiresome. The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state.” Judge Suhrheinrich also wrote that a reasonable person would appreciate the role that religion played as appropriate and that “The ACLU, an organization whose mission is ‘to ensure that … the government [is kept] out of the religion business,’ does not embody the reasonable person.”

The display in question, featured a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights and other historical documents, along with the 10 Commandments. Displays such as this have long been considered “acceptable” displays in a government setting.

Kudos to American Center for Law and Justice and their attorneys for fighting for the civil rights of a group of Americans that the ACLU would just as soon strip of their rights. While I have no doubt that this will go before the Supreme Court (2 Appeals Courts have now ruled in favor of this kind of display while one has ruled against it), it is nice to see someone fighting the good fight!

Most blogs seem to cover national and maybe state wide politics, but the insanity that pervades national politics can be found even down to the city level. Case in point….

The City Council of Prior Lake Minnesota has been, for the last year or so, embroiled in controversy after controversy. It was so bad, that in the last city wide election, all incumbants running for re-election were defeated at the polls. The newest controversy centers around a decision to back the local indian tribe putting several hundred acres of land into “trust” meaning the land is taken off of the public tax rolls. This led to some rather heated discussions in the letters to the editor section of the local paper (which is where yours truly heard about the brouhaha). The letters lead one city council member to write in to try to defend their vote. Now the letter was your standard “we felt our actions were in the best interests of the city”, but what struck me as out of line was when the council member said that the disagreement was serving as a “thin veil of the real underlying problem of racism and socio-economic bias”! WHOA!!!! Well, that has set the local population abuzz anew and I have to agree. Since when does a disagreement over property taxes become a “racial” issue?

This is still playing out and probably will continue to do so until the new city council is seated next month. Meanwhile, you have to ask yourself, how are we ever going to become a “colorblind” society if politicians on all levels continue to play the “race card”every time there is a policy disagreement!

Though I don’t always agree with Pat Buchanan, he wrote a well thought out book “The Death of the West” where he shows that what is happening in Europe is now on our shores.
For a population to maintain itself at stasis it must have a birthrate of 2.1 children. Europe is far below that which means the population is shrinking. And therefore, to maintain all the government entitlement programs Europe has allowed immigrant workers from Muslim countries. These immigrants have not been assimilated, they have kept their own culture, language,identity. And as such you have riots in Paris. This is the end result of multi-culturalism. Human Events has a short but on point article on European multiculturalist tendencies. And the last two paragraphs point out that we are Europe in 40 years.
Victor Davis Hanson is one of my favorite columnists, authors. He is an expert on warfare. He had a three hour interview with Hugh Hewitt on the history of warfare starting with the ancients. He emphasized that the death of the Roman Republic started from within. That the Republic endured because there was common thought,beliefs, culture, language and willingness throughout the Republic. That the common thought,beliefs and culture also was willing to shed blood for the Republic, to fight the enemies of the Republic “over there”.That the Republic started to die when the Republic started to allow multiculturalism and the fracturing of commonly held beliefs within and about the Republic.
And I see the same here in America. A soccer game at the Los Angeles Colesium has Mexican flags throughout and the Mexican national anthem is sung. The Star Bangled Banner is booed. When I’m an election judge I see voting signs in at least five different languages.
And the American birth rate in 2003, for the first time in 30 years, was finally at the breakeven level.
And all this is fruit from the left wing tree.

And I’m supposed to be surprised to read this?
I’m reminded of the quote from a Washington D.C. reporter” How did Reagan win? I don’t know anyone who voted for him!”

One of my discussion groups was having a conversation on the false diversity of the progressive movement. That lead one of the members of the group to post this original piece. The piece deserves (in my very humble opinion) wider discourse because of the many good points it brings up.

When Diversity Breeds Depravity

And the next time you meet someone who assumes moral authority about the virtues of diversity — and tries to intimidate you with the usual charges — just ask them to explain why such diversity hasn’t worked in other cultures … and why we should subject our own sons and daughters to that same fate.

I agree with the majority of what the author says here. However, there is one point in particular that I do disagree with. I think that the statement “A diversity of ethnicities and/or color can make for intriguing chit chat, but ultimately it serves no useful purpose.” should be restated. For I think that a diversity of ethnicities is ultimately usefull as long as one ethnicity does not try to claim superiority to any and all others! There is much that my Latino culture can learn from a European culture and vice versa. We can trade ideas on food and celebrations and even governance. However when I try to force my Latino culture on someone from France (for example) THAT I believe is what serves no useful purpose, other than maybe irreparably dividing us.

We must, for the sake of future generations of Americans, go back to the “melting pot” theory of America. Yes I am Latina, but I am American first and foremost. My “heritage” is the past that I teach my children about, but their future is America and American culture. We must never subjugate America and American culture to any other culture. If you want a Latino culture, move to Latin America, if you want a French culture, move to France and if you want an Islamic culture, move back to an Islamic Country.

When I lived in Germany (back in the mid 1980’s), I spoke the German language, I shopped in German stores and I lived as a German citizen would. This is America. We love people from other cultures coming to our shores. We love to hear about your country and your culture, but please don’t try to change ours. You are welcome to stay if you can abide by our culture. If you want your home country, then please move back to your home country. Do not try to remake America in your home country’s image!

I am an election judge here in Scott County. I watch the process. As I think about it, I’m an integral part of the process. I’ve been put in charge of new voter confirmation and registration in the precincts where I’ve judged. And I’ve had people whine that I could not accept their last minute registration (7:55 p.m.) because they didn’t bring acceptable identification.
I am not and will not be in favor of the “easy” registration, same day registration, etc. It is terribly fraught with opportunity for fraud ( www.hillsdale.edu/imprimis/2005/July/ ). I want the American voter to honor and so revere the vote that so many have bled and died for that they would drag themselves a mile over hot broken glass to register.
Now, to contrast what happened in Iraq yesterday: the percentages keep coming in between 60-70% of ELIGIBLE voters (whereas in America we have under 50% of REGISTERED voters. If we went with % of eligible voters in America we’d be under 30%). Plus, in America I don’t ever remember being afraid of IED’s, RPG’s, AK-47’s, mortars or snipers on my way to the polls.
And BTW, all these people in Iraq WALKED to the polls as no private vehicles were allowed to move.
And what do you think the voter turnout would be if Americans had to expend even a millimeter of shoe leather to vote?

I was reading and listening to the excuses,rantings, ravings etc from the usual gang of suspects pleading for clemency for Stanley “Tookie” Williams. I wondered how many of those doing the pleading could name even one of the people Tookie was convicted of killing? Hugh Hewitt had on a L.A. prosecutor who went through just some of the evidence in Tookie’s case. There is no doubt that he killed at least those four innocent people. And there is evidence that he killed many more. Plus, he was absolutely unrepentant. He never,ever helped the police or the L.A. Gang Task Force in any way to defang the Crips street gang that he co-founded.And as such,he is guilty of what is called felony murder of hundreds if not thousands of people.
Now, all that being said, up until Tuesday afternoon I was against the death penalty. Then I read a very interesting article on Ed Morrisey’s column from a prosecutor who weighed in on the death penalty. Now, Captain Ed stated that he is against the death penalty, but printed the prosecutors email anyway. And as I read it, it occurred to me that perhaps I needed to adjust my belief on the death penalty. Read it and see if you might not agree. Also, be sure to click on the links about the studies done on the death penalty: A Prosecutors Rebuttal www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/005937.php