Creating a Passive America: “Dog Days”

I’m beginning to feel like my neighbor’s dog.

Two different headlines this week are the reason: one about a murderous shooting spree and the other detailing a high school classroom scuffle. And if you’ll grant me just a minute or three of your time, I promise I’ll explain.

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The shooting spree to which I’m referring is the recent one at Fort Hood. Tragically, the number of folks killed and/or wounded was unquestionably higher than it needed to be due to no personal firearms being allowed on base, a factor obviously known by the shooter. The same can be said about last year’s shooting at the Navy Yard, as well as the first shooting at Fort Hood back in 2009.

A lifting of this rule would have two fairly obvious effects:

#NAACP: we support everyone’s right to their own opinion, …as long as it agrees with ours

I wrote the following almost a year ago:

“…The party of inclusion, of diversity, of recognizing and respecting differences…  consistently holds up as holy writ that if you do not accept your ‘appropriate’, preassigned belief of the liberal Democrat hive-mind, then you are no longer deserving to be recognized or respected for your differences.

By Refusing to be the Same, you are no longer considered Diverse…” 

And God Bless ’em if they don’t keep on proving me right.

Taking Responsibility for Change, One Step at a Time: an update on ATTWN

My brother JTR made a strong case for personal responsibility yesterday, urging each of us to shake off apathy or that helpless “What can I do?” attitude.

If you need inspiration, here’s an update on how one woman is having an impact on the entire abortion industry.

Her goal:  shut it down.

Her strategy:  one worker at a time.

Unfinished Masterpieces–a hopeful thought for today

Having tried a couple of times to write a post for this morning, and having gotten hopelessly mired in my own rhetoric…I was reminded of a sonnet I wrote a few years ago about the prerogative of the artist to abandon his work if it’s not up to his own standards.

Sometimes we get so focused on everything that’s wrong with our world, that we forget the Master Artist isn’t finished yet. Against all odds, He hasn’t thrown in the towel on His creation.

Take a moment to be encouraged by that today:

Killing Heroism: student gets suspended AFTER preventing school bus shooting

Last year, we covered several stories of heroism (“Land of the Fearful; Home of the Meek“). In each case, normal, everyday folks took extraordinary action while at work which, in a saner time in our history, would have garnered them nationwide recognition. In these cases, however, their bravery and willingness to act resulted in their being fired.

Yes, fired.

I said at the time why I felt this was the case:

“All three of these incidents have people acting in a heroic manner, either out of bravery, concern for others or just self-preservation. When did this become objectionable?

The answer, of course, is that now we are supposed to be timid, mild-mannered sheep, who turn a blind eye to people in need or even to our own safety. We aren’t supposed to question authority, even when that authority is nowhere to be found.”

So when I read the news report below, I was horrified that I may have been even more correct at the time than I thought. From the New York Daily News:

The Rule of Law vs. “Calvinball”

I’ve been swamped all week, so I’m re-posting an item from last summer, back before our readership really started to climb. And given much of the news we’ve been seeing lately, this post is even more applicable now than it was then. 

Please note its author is Dapper Dan, a buddy of ours who blogs over at Principles, Not Men. Any and all kudos should be directed to him. 

I’ll simply mention what I said six months ago: anytime you can combine Hayek, the Federalist Papers AND ‘Calvin & Hobbes‘ into a single, highly cogent post, you’re doing somethin’ right.

Happy Friday, gang.

—JTR

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Rule of Law

The term “Rule of Law” is an important term in political dialogue.  Accepting this belief or not will determine where you stand on many, if not most, of the issues.

In The Road to Serfdom, F.A. Hayek describes it thus:

Best Super Bowl ad…?

Every once in awhile, the ad guys get it right. So why can’t they do this more often?

For What It's Worth

Glenn Reynolds reports that it was well received. I missed it when it aired last night and in case you did too, here it is. The fact that 95% of us live off the farm and wouldn’t know a horse if it bit us doesn’t, for me, take away the appreciation for a well crafted production.

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(video) – The “Life of Julia” may be our Present, but it needn’t be our Future

I never would have guessed that something so pathetic, so puerile, would end up actually defining and predicting so much of the last few months.

Let me back up a bit, and explain what I mean.

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This past spring, the Obama campaign came out with “The Life of Julia“, a cartoon showing the glorious cradle-to-grave benefits of being cared for by Big Daddy Government. Beyond being just plain creepy, it presented a life that was as two-dimensional as its animation: you were born, lived and died under the umbrella of the State.

Such a soulless existence received plenty of ridicule, which it richly deserved: