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Going Left to Get Right Doesn’t Work in Politics November 16, 2015

Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.
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I have long said that no one gets to live in the world they grew up in, change moves too fast to allow for that. However our governing elite and their indoctrinated followers seem dedicated to the proposition that we shouldn’t even get to live under the same rules or in the same culture.

Taking a look at a few things and how they have been upended and are now used to facilitate the transformation of America.

The Court and Congress:

The Supreme Court can reverse itself at any time. Today it can deliberate and decide the Constitution says green is green and tomorrow they can deliberate and say green is yellow. It gives our Constitution a fluid quality that matches perfectly with the Progressive advocates of a living document. In other words in our system as it has evolved (or progressed) the Constitution isn’t written in stone it is written in sand.

Or without re-interpreting themselves they can re-interpret Congress to declare constitutional what is clearly unconstitutional. The penalties in Obamacare were said by Congress not to be taxes so that it could pass the law, since the Senate cannot originate tax laws.   Then the Supreme Court declared the penalties to be taxes to declare the law constitutional. Which should make the law unconstitutional on its face since all tax laws must begin in the House and this law was written in the Senate using slight-of-hand to pretend it started in the house.

Currently a case is making its way to the Supreme Court saying that Obamacare is unconstitutional on the origination of tax clause. Let’s see how the Justices contort themselves to find the law constitutional this time.

Academia:

We have reached a point where our best and brightest at colleges across the country are actually demonstrating to limit free speech as they express their aggressively progressive ideals by demanding protection from microaggressions such someone expressing ideas that conflict with their indoctrination. College used to be a place where conflicting ideas came to compete in the marketplace of thought. Now it is a place where a rigid conformity to the party-line is choking out everything that does not salute the upside down flag of Transformed America.

How did we get here? So many I talk to disagree with what the government party is doing to transform America yet they continue to vote for those who are leading the charge. They fail to see how the very problems they complain about have been caused by the programs of the people they vote for. It always amazes me how many people think right, talk right, live right and vote left. In other words as opposed to what is sometimes necessary when driving on congested streets going left to get right doesn’t work in politics.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2015 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens

How Many Nails Does it Take to Seal a Coffin November 11, 2015

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How many lopsided trade deals does it take to teach a nation they are being sold down the river? Apparently it takes one more than we have.

After months of secrecy President Obama has the chutzpa to throw the thing online and challenge people to read it. Saying “Along with the text of the agreement, we’ve posted detailed materials to help explain it. It’s an unprecedented degree of transparency — and it’s the right thing to do.”

Sounds great doesn’t it? How open. How accessible. Give it a quick read and let’s get on with the job of selling out our heritage for a bowl for oatmeal.

The next time you have a few moments free between jobs why not give it a go. It is only 5,544 pages containing 2,056,560 words which is according to the Daily Caller:

  • 18x longer than the King James Bible
  • 77x longer than the Affordable Care Act
  • 63x longer than the entire Harry Potter series
  • 73x longer than the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy
  • 06x longer than the entire Game of Thrones series
  • 33x longer than the entire works of Shakespeare
  • 65x longer than the New Oxford American Dictionary 3rd Edition

Just take a little break from trying to make ends meet while you compete with workers around the world making ten dollars a day and make a decision about whether we should take another bite of the free trade apple. Of course no matter what you decide the twin headed party of power in Chicago on the Potomac is going to shove this give away of American jobs and prosperity down your throat.

TPP is an agreement between the United States and 11 other countries – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. China is not a party to this treaty.

According to Public Citizen:

The TPP would expand the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) “trade” pact model that has spurred massive U.S. trade deficits and job loss, downward pressure on wages, unprecedented levels of inequality and new floods of agricultural imports. The TPP not only replicates, but expands NAFTA’s special protections for firms that offshore U.S. jobs. And U.S. TPP negotiators literally used the 2011 Korea FTA – under which exports have fallen and trade deficits have surged – as the template for the TPP.

In one fell swoop, this secretive deal could:

Although it is called a “free trade” agreement, the TPP is not mainly about trade. Of TPP’s 29 draft chapters, only five deal with traditional trade issues. One chapter would provide incentives to offshore jobs to low-wage countries. Many would impose limits on government policies that we rely on in our daily lives for safe food, a clean environment, and more. Our domestic federal, state and local policies would be required to comply with TPP rules.

So if the stagnant or falling wages of the last few decades have left you feeling as if you haven’t given enough hold on because the DC Leviathan is about to ask for more.

I would now make a plea for everyone to call their senators and congressman but does anyone believe that would make a difference. This is just another milestone on the road to the 3rd world by those who seek to fundamentally transform America. Then along comes Hillary, the nail in our coffin.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2015 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens

The Best Advice for Success in Modern America November 10, 2015

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Europe is in the midst of an existential crisis. The EU has built a cradle to grave welfare state partly funded by the U.S. picking up the tab for their defense. They have erased the borders between their states and given Brussels the power to control their immigration policies. Their left-of-center social policies have opened the door to uncontrolled mass migration. If this is left unchecked it will swamp them in 3rd world invaders. Within a few generations the traditional citizens of these once great nations will be replaced as the dominant people in their own homelands. France, Germany, and Italy may all be Arab and Muslim and Europe as we have always known it will be no more.

Will the socialists of Europe have enough loyalty to their own culture to do what must be done to save it? Or will they allow political correctness and their daydream of multiculturalism complete the suicide they began in WWI and continued in WWII?

Now look at America. Our borders are porous at best. We can’t even call illegal immigrants illegal immigrants anymore. Our versions of 3rd world invaders qualify for welfare, food stamps and motor-voter driver’s licenses. Newspapers and other media outlets regularly fail to report on the immigration status of criminals. Though the government routinely speaks of the invaders as people living in the shadows these shadow people now come into the light and hold mass demonstrations demanding even more rights yet they are never identified or apprehended.

Not since the Visigoths and Vandals decided the Roman Empire looked like a pleasant place to live as long as they could loot, burn and rape has a civilization so serenely welcomed its destroyers in with open arms. What we are witnessing in Europe today is happening right here. Everyone knows it. Our leaders and the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media are complicit in the assault.

If we don’t stop this it will stop us.

Best advice for success in Modern America down the path our leaders are following: Learn Spanish and get a government job.

Best advice if we want to save our nation from sinking into the one-world cesspool: Close the borders, cut off the welfare which acts as a magnet, cut off the jobs and watch our uninvited guests go home. No one rounded them up to bring them here and if we quit paying them to stay no one will have to round them up to drive them home.

For all the evidence you will ever need to prove America is sinking beneath the waves of an alien invasion see Anne Coulter’s latest book Adios, America and don’t expect to see any of this in the state-controlled media.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2015 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens

What is Christmas? December 22, 2014

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Yoko Ono and John Lennon, a Buddhist and a who-knows-what Maharishi chasing pop singer who said the “Beatles are bigger than Jesus,” wrote a Christmas song.  It’s a classic.  We hear it every year.  If you really listen to the lyrics it is about a world where everyone gets along, there is no fear, and “war is over, if you want it, war is over now.”  Everyone thinks the title to this much beloved and much played song is “So This Is Christmas.”  Those are really just the first words and part of the refrain.   The title is actually “Happy Christmas (war Is Over),” so it should surprise no one that it wasn’t written as a Christmas song. Instead it was written as an anti-Vietnam War song disguised as a Christmas song. Yet, it’s a classic.  We hear it every year.

This brings me to the question, “What is Christmas”?  I believe it is such a personal thing it can truly only be answered as “What is Christmas to me”?

Is it an arbitrary date instituted by the Roman Emperor Constantine (he was the first Christian Roman Emperor).  The first recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th was in 336AD during the reign of Constantine.  In 350 AD Pope Julius I declared December 25 the official date and in 529 AD Emperor Justinian declared Christmas a civic holiday.

There is no Biblical evidence to support the date.  Bible History tells us, “Celebrations of Jesus’ Nativity are not mentioned in the Gospels or Acts; the date is not given, not even the time of year. The biblical reference to shepherds tending their flocks at night when they hear the news of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:8) might suggest the spring lambing season; in the cold month of December, on the other hand, sheep might well have been corralled.”

We know it isn’t just a date.  So what is Christmas?

Is it a baptized celebration of the winter solstice? Is it a cultural holiday to celebrate love and family?  Is it all about Frosty and Rudolph and George Bailey?  No, I don’t believe that this is the answer to the question “What is Christmas?” and I know it isn’t the answer to the question, “What is Christmas to me”?

What is Christmas?

Culturally Christmas is more than the sum of all its parts.  It is the public declaration that we are a Christian culture founded upon faith in His declaration, “I am” when he was asked “Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”  It is a public declaration that we as a people dedicate ourselves to living as Christ taught us we should no matter how imperfectly we do so.

What is Christmas to me?

It is a time to celebrate the love that Christ has birthed in my heart for friends and family.  It is a time to cherish the traditions which have become Holy through usage and dear through memory.  Above all it is a time to affirm in my heart that Jesus is the only name under heaven by which men must be saved and that Jesus is my personal Lord and Savior.

Christmas is a time to give gifts in memory of the greatest gift of all: Christ the friend of sinners given to a world that did not know Him when He arrived, does not honor Him now, and will not be prepared when He comes again.

The greatest gift I could ever give I give to you. The Bible is the unadulterated Word of God and it does not leave us any doubt about how to be saved.  In the Bible is something called by many the Romans Road.  I followed it years ago, and it changed me forever and gave me a new life.  I pray that it will do the same thing for you.

The Romans Road lays out the plan of salvation through a series of Bible verses from the book of Romans . When arranged in order, these verses form an easy, systematic way of explaining the message of salvation. There are many different versions of Romans Road with slight variations in Scriptures, but the basic message and method is the same. Many evangelical missionaries, evangelists, and lay people memorize and use Romans Road when sharing the good news.

Romans Road Clearly Defines:

  1. Who needs
  2. Why we need salvation.
  3. How God provides salvation.
  4. How we receive salvation.
  5. The results of salvation.

Romans Road to Salvation

Everyone needs salvation because we have all sinned.
Romans 3:10-12, and 23
As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” … For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (NLT)

The price (or consequence) of sin is death.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (NLT)

Jesus Christ died for our sins. He paid the price for our death.
Romans 5:8
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (NLT)

We receive salvation and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.
Romans 10:9-10, and 13
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved … For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (NLT)

Salvation through Jesus Christ brings us into a relationship of peace with God.
Romans 5:1
Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. (NLT)

Romans 8:1
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. (NLT)

Romans 8:38-39
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NLT)

Responding to Romans Road

If you believe Romans Road leads to the path of truth, you can respond by receiving God’s free gift of salvation today. Here’s how to take a personal journey down Romans Road:

  • Admit you are a sinner.
  • Understand, that as a sinner, you deserve death.
  • Believe Jesus Christ died on the cross to save you from sin and death.
  • Repent by turning from your old life of sin to a new life in Christ.
  • Receive, through faith in Jesus Christ, his free gift of salvation.

So this is Christmas: The birth of Jesus Christ the Son of God, God Himself clothed in flesh, the incarnate creator of the universe here to open the way for his creation to be reunited with Him. This makes possible our new birth as a child of God.  It’s open to all.  It’s free.  It is yours for the taking, and you can unwrap this present any day of any year.

Merry Christmas.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2014 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens

Why We Need a Third Party December 4, 2014

Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.
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It has happened just as foretold. The Progressive Republicans joined with their Democrat fellow-travelers and once again sold our inheritance for a bowl of promises. In 2010 we voted for an end to the out of control spending and what did we get? 3.5 trillion steps closer to the abyss.

Fast forward to 2014 and we did it again. We sent Washington a loud wake-up call that out here in fly-over country we are tired of this slow motion slide into collectivism. And what is the first thing our shiny new majorities do? Re-elect the same tired old progressive leadership that has compromised its way from debt to debt and legislation to regulation. Does anyone think for a moment this crowd of Democrat lite that call themselves Republicans are going to do anything to stop the emperor who has no clothes?

Does anyone think they will use their power of the purse to reign in the President Obama from doing things he himself said he couldn’t do because he wasn’t an emperor? Does anyone think they will do anything to bring out the truth about the IRS or Benghazi? They may play politics with investigations and hearings but at the end of the day the administration will not be called to account for turning the light out on America’s time in the sun.

It’s time to admit that when you fall off a cliff it doesn’t matter much if you were pushed or if you walked. The fall might not be so bad but that sudden stop at the end isn’t so good.

Maybe it’s just me but I’m tired of the same old same old in our politics.  The big-box monopoly parties have morphed into two sides of the same coin.  Today we choose between the Conservative Progressives’ policies of tax and spend, infringe personal liberty, and outsource our sovereignty or the Liberal Progressives’ policies of tax and spend, infringe personal liberty, and outsource our sovereignty.  We’ve been caught on the horns of a dilemma trying to choose between Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and since we don’t want to throw our vote away we must vote for one of the big boys after which the campaign promises dissolve and we’re hung out to dry.

As a voter I’ve had my Damascus Road Experience. The scales have fallen from my eyes. I’ve reached the point where I would rather vote for someone who might actually try finding another way to operate our government besides taxing like the Sun King and spending like a drunken sailor whose credit card limit is constantly raised and who can print his own money.

It’s time to stop talking. It’s time to take action. The Founders of our nation dedicated their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to birth our state and this noble experiment. It’s time for us to do the same. This nation was conceived as a representative republic designed to operate on democratic principles. For over 100 years the Progressives have worked to transform the land of the free and the home of the brave into a People’s Democratic Republic. What’s the difference? The difference between a Democracy and a People’s Democracy is “the difference between a jacket and a straight jacket.”

How did we arrive at the current situation?

James Madison our fourth president and the chief architect of the U.S. Constitution said, “There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation.”  We didn’t get here all in one jump.  First the camel said, “Can I just stick my nose in your tent to stay warm?” and finally the generous man found himself out in the cold as the camel settled down for a nice warm nap, one inch at a time.

The compassion of our people built a safety net for those who needed help and the greed of the lazy turned it into a hammock.  America, the Land of the Free is being transformed into an America that is dedicated to the unsustainable achievement of, from each according to their abilities to each according to their need. When you rob Peter to pay Paul eventually Peter changes his name to Paul and the house of cards tumbles down.

The willingness to share our heritage led America to welcome more immigrants each year than the rest of the world combined, and the abuse of our generosity turned into a migration invasion that threatens to overwhelm us and destroy the future of our children.  Taxes imposed to meet the ever-swelling demands of government have turned into a blatant, wealth re-distribution program that makes most pyramid schemes look fair. It’s as if our predatory government looks at a productive citizen as merely a source of residual income.  Or as the ads promise, our Progressive leaders lay on the beach of self-importance and our checks just keep pouring in.  We’re no longer respected as Citizens.  Instead, we’re coveted as consumers or human capital.

It’s time for action.

We as citizens who love our country must to break the logjam caused by an imperial presidency, an abdicating legislature, an activist court, a suffocating bureaucracy, and the strangulation of regulation. The constant growth of government destroys freedom for “as government expands liberty contracts.”

It’s time to actively work for America’s acceptance of a different way.

And what might this Different way be?

Something radical, something that almost strains the bounds of the imagination, something that would immediately unleash the bent-up energy of a free people: a return to constitutionally limited government!

But how do we get there from here? We need to build a new party to win the reins of government from the two-headed bird of prey which has assumed perpetual power through perpetual re-election. What we need now are citizens willing to sacrifice their repose and enter the arena. We need non-professionals to clean up the mess and right the ship of state.

What we don’t need is one more election where the Conservative Progressives replace the Liberal Conservatives because as Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

We need a new party. We must work to unite the Tea Party Movement with the many splinter parties which hold the same basic values. We must reclaim our liberty from the professional politicians and professional radicals who have manipulated the system to achieve unlimited power which they use to spend us into insolvency, tax us into poverty, and regulate us into serfdom.

This new party must siphon off all the conservatives who are members of the twin party out of habit or family tradition. This new party must rise fast and work hard. It must capture the center and the right declaring boldly that it will defend what America stands for but not necessarily all that stands for America. The time has come to fight for the right before we are swallowed by the wrong.

Winston Churchill said, “If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival.  There may be a worse case.  You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

We can’t let divisions divide us or they will bury us. United we stand, divided we fall. None of us can do this alone but together we can. Keep the faith. Keep the peace. We shall overcome.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2014 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens

 

What‘s Next? November 26, 2014

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Now that BHO has decreed that deportations will cease and work permits and other privileges of legal immigration will be granted to those who chose to enter our country illegally what’s next?

In less time than it takes to say “Fundamentally transform America” the chorus of usual suspects, Charles Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and their fellow travelers will start saying “It isn’t fair for all these people to pay taxes and not receive the full benefits of Obamacare, and the rest of the social hammock. Then along comes voting. Of course thanks to President Clinton and his motor voter law if our newly legalized guests can drive they can vote already.

Here’s the plan: inundate Texas and Florida with imported voters and turn the electoral map blue for at least a generation. By then we will have a nanny-state bureaucratic yoke firmly in place on the neck of anyone crazy enough to continue producing anything that can be expropriated. Tax and spend will be refined into TAX and SPEND on steroids as what was once the land of the free and the home of the brave careens into the third world.

This reminds me of the people who will flee red tape strangulation and try to blend into their new found haven by demanding all the government services that were the catalyst of their previous State’s meltdown. As we discard our freedom for the shabby paternalistic embrace of a fuzzy warm Progressive dystopia our newly legalized guests will feel right at home. Our once super-successful nation will be that many steps closer to the failed states they have left.

For a long time the best practical advice I could give anyone asking how to succeed in America has been learn Spanish and get a government job. That may soon be progressed to change your name to Juan del Pueblo and get in line. Uncle Sugar is about to raise your standard of living for free while he charges John Doe to lower his.

Now don’t get me wrong I am in no way saying that the vast majority of Hispanic people are not hard working family people who want to better their lives. I love Hispanic culture and find español para ser un lenguaje muy hermoso, or Spanish is a beautiful language. However, there right ways to do things and wrong ways to do things. For those who have come here legally, welcome. For those who chose to come here anyway, not so much. It is the difference between inviting someone to dinner and how you feel about meeting their needs and making sure they are comfortable and how you would feel about someone who broke into your house sit themselves down at your dinner table and demanded to be served. As a matter of fact they want you to take the food off your own children’s plates and give it to them. That’s a big difference.

Just look at the imperial decree. It lists strictures on who this applies to and who it doesn’t apply to. If the Emperor has decreed that you must have been here for X number of years to qualify how many years do you think everyone will say they have been here? Since they were in the shadows, who knows, obviously we don’t.

Here’s a question that always bothers me, “If in order to gain citizenship you have to pass a written test on American History in English, why does anyone need a Spanish ballot?” Yet Spanish ballots are issued in all 50 states. Of course this is just like asking, “If you need a phot ID to get into the Democratic National Convention what is wrong with asking for a photo ID to vote?” If you ask either of these questions the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media brand you as a racist and marginalize you as a denizen of the radical right-wing fringe.

Was BHO’s imperial decree unconstitutional? Everyone knows it is. Are his examples of other President’s executive orders relating to immigration fait comparisons? Everyone knows they aren’t. Will anything meaningful be done by the loyal opposition? No. They are too loyal to the Progressive big-government tax and spend agenda of the twin-headed bird of prey which is our degraded two-party system.

So what happens next? Anything BHO wants. Our system of constitutionally limited government has run aground on the rock of a bureaucratically dominated collectivist self-aggrandizing central government supported by an oligarchy of perpetually re-elected hacks and their crony capitalist friends. The descendants of the colonists the great grandchildren of the Founders and Framers have become the vassals of an egomaniacal narcissist and a gang of two-bit jesters riding on donkeys and elephants in a parade to the ash heap of History.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2014 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens

 

Impeach President Obama Why When Where and How November 20, 2014

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In America today just like in Lake Woebegone every child is above average and every child gets a trophy.  We may score low in international grade comparisons but we rank number one in self-esteem.  In other words American students may not be doing well but they think they are.  Those of us old enough to remember how Dad could control the situation with a look and when you got in trouble in school your parents didn’t sue or contact the School Board you got in trouble at home too are also old enough to remember Watergate.

This scandal that the general public still does not understand brought down a president and led to the Watergate Congress which threw away the victory in Vietnam and solidified the Progressive control of Congress until 1994.  Today we are confronted with contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law that makes the Watergate Scandal look like the tempest in a teapot that it actually was.  How many people died as a result of the Watergate Scandal = 0.  How many have died as a result of the Fast and Furious debacle = at least 200 and still counting including an American law enforcement officer.  How did Richard Nixon disrespect, disregard or violate the Constitution in the Watergate Scandal = 0 (although his use of Executive privilege did spark a constitutional crisis).  How many times has Barack Obama disrespected, disregarded or violated the Constitution during his time in office = at least twice as documented below by making recess appointments while Congress was still in session and refusing to enforce laws.

There is an old saying, “That’s good enough for government work.”  This saying comes out of the big government make-work programs of the 1930s and has been used ever since as short hand for “Approximate is close enough,” which might as well be the new national motto.  In societies that rob Peter to pay Paul the stage before all the Peters change their names to Paul is typified by government bean counters picking winners and losers.  This process discourages producers and encourages non-producers assuring you get less of the former and more of the latter.  As an educator I have a belief that if you don’t teach someone to do something right you are teaching them that doing it wrong is acceptable.

In the past seven years President Obama has said repeatedly that he does not have the power to act unilaterally through executive orders to re-write the nation’s immigration laws.

In October of 2010 President Obama told the Washington Press Corps that he was not a dictator and thus could not impose immigration reform on his own without Congress.

In 2013 in interviews with Spanish language media he said, “I am not a king” and that he could not impose immigration reform on his own without Congress.

In all he has said things similar to this 22 times since becoming president. In 2008 when then Senator Obama was running for president he attacked President Bush for using executive orders in a bold over-reach to illegally extend presidential power. In 2008 he tried to back up his critique of Bush’s use of executive orders by claiming to have been a constitutional law professor. A claim not supported by investigation.

If President Obama is now doing what he has consistently proclaimed he didn’t have either the power or the authority to do and no one at least tries to stop him. What is there that he can’t do?

If Congress does not assert its place as a co-equal branch of government, the Imperial Presidency of Barack Obama will continue to usurp power.  From recess appointments while Congress is in session to refusing to enforce the laws of the land to unilaterally remaking immigration law this President is fundamentally transforming our system of government.  Not through the amendment process, but through a campaign of unconstitutional and therefore illegal actions designed to buy him enough votes for a second term.  Whether it is through the money laundering schemes that are government negotiations with public service unions, pork barrel payoffs to political donors, or back-door amnesty this is nothing more than buying votes: a time-honored Chicago tradition.  Combine this with a campaign to resist any attempt to verify who is voting and the stage is set for an election that would make any managed society proud.

His supporters may call it the Audacity of Hope Campaign, but if it is successful it will be the audacity which crushes any hope of limited government, personal liberty, and economic freedom.  The dreams from his father will become the nightmares of our children and grandchildren.  With no authority Mr. Obama is attempting to rule by decree.  Executive orders have previously been used to direct the Executive Departments how to implement laws.  Mr. Obama is using them to legislate, and that is in direct contravention to the separation of powers clearly outlined in the Constitution.

President Obama has built a shadow government that parallels and is standing ready to supplant our constitutional government.  He has appointed more Czars than most of his predecessors and these Czars are not just advisers they are actually tasked with duties that under our traditional American governmental structure have been the responsibility of Cabinet Secretaries.  These Czars are not confirmed; they are anointed, and none of them are accountable to anyone but the President.  Even though Congress voted to defund his Czars, President Obama has said he will ignore that part of the Budget and keep them anyway.  A cult of personality surrounds him typified by a compliant media which fawns over his every action and defends his every transgression.

As if to add icing to the cake the Obama Administration has invoked Executive Privilege to support Attorney General Holder in his refusal to surrender all requested documents in the Fast and Furious Scandal. What national security issues could there be in this matter? If the documents proved that the operation really did start under the Bush administration as Mr. Holder contends does anyone doubt they would have been on the table yesterday?   Either the President is attempting to protect his Attorney General, some member of the White House staff or himself. Either way this may eventually provide a real similarity to the Watergate Scandal. Though in this case the cover-up could not be worse than the crime it could lead to enough fallout to make his own supporters leave a sinking ship to avoid the stigma of a failed presidency and a looming constitutional crisis.

Now think of the IRS scandal and Benghazi and it is obvious we have a rogue president who is becoming exactly the threat to liberty the Constitution was written to prevent.

If this slide into tyranny is not stopped it will continue. If it is not protested it will be accepted.  I know that just as with Clinton in the 90s there are not enough Senators to convict but if these blatant attacks upon the checks and balances are not punished, at least by the shame and reproach of an Impeachment Resolution, they are being silently condoned.

Speaker Boehner stand up and lead the House!  Don’t just make a speech; present a case.  Don’t just give us a photo op; give us a fighting chance to save this great experiment in human freedom.

If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.  America it is time to stand up to this Southside Chicago bully, and let him know he can’t have our lunch money anymore, and he can’t subvert our Republic either at least not without us protesting and using every legal means available to stop him and preserve limited government.

We, the lovers of freedom and the supporters of limited government cannot merely wait the clock out on the Obama presidency.  Because with all these affronts to constitutional government unchallenged combined with his presidential campaign in 2012 based upon class warfare and the redistribution of wealth he and his statist backers will declare it a mandate for more of the same, on steroids.  An oligarchy of the perpetually re-elected veneered over a permanent nomenclature of federal bureaucrats will easily fall in line behind a complacent and complicit media to cheer the new order as the soft tyranny of the central planners tell us what is best for us and then forces us to say thank you.  As Hilary or someone like her along with their tens of millions of imported voters wait in the wings to be the nail in our coffin.

Protest the lawless Progressive counter-revolution!  Contact your Representative and demand an impeachment hearing to investigate President Obama for the High Crimes of subverting the Constitution. He should be investigated for:

  • For making recess appointments while Congress was still in session
  • For ignoring his obligation to enforce the laws of the land in the areas of Immigration and the Defense of Marriage Act
  • For incorrectly using a claim of Executive Privilege to cover up reckless and possibly criminal activity in the Fast and Furious scandal.
  • For stonewalling the congressional investigations into the IRS and Benghazi
  • For unilaterally doing what he himself has said he doesn’t have the constitutional authority to do, legalize those who have broken into our land

Act today! Contact your Representative and let them know patriotic Americans want this tyranny ended and limited government restored. Keep the faith. Keep the peace. We shall overcome.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2014 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens

 

 

 

Enough is Too Much Already! November 13, 2014

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The recent elections delivered the most crushing defeat a political Party has suffered since Ronald Reagan’s 1984 Forty-nine state landslide.  Democrats were rejected by every voting block demographic: young, old, men, women, rich, poor.  Everyone said, “Enough is too much already!” Exit polls everywhere say their handling of the economy and the general direction of the country were the major reasons.  BHO tried to make the election about him as he tries to make everything about him.  His party spent millions trying to run away from him, his record, and his agenda.  However in the end the President’s repeated statements that his policies were on the ballot and that all these Democrats had supported him and his agenda outweighed his friends protests that they hardly knew him.

After the 1994 Contract With America Congress came to town in a similar wave of rejection for the Progressives and their agenda, President Clinton was eventually dragged by his advisor Dick Morris to the signing table and he eventually signed on to the Contract’s legislation.  This brought about everything he is credited with today: a balanced budget and reforming welfare.  After his comeuppance he took the microphone to remind us he was still relevant.

After his recent shellacking BHO came to the world’s stage to tell us he hadn’t lost because the two thirds of the electorate who didn’t vote support him.  He has declared himself to be the voice of those not interested enough to pry themselves off the couch long enough to vote and the advocate of those who care enough to show up.  This is a bold attempt to organize the anarchy of the militantly apathetic.

Since his meteoric messianic rise from the South Side of Chicago to the Oval Office BHO has governed against the will of the American people.  When he, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid used parliamentary sleight-of-hand to shove Obamacare down our throat they knew the majority of the public opposed it.  When the President used executive orders to implement the Dream Act he knew the representatives of the people had rejected it.  When he announced the surge in Afghanistan and at the same time announced the coming evacuation, when he cut and ran from Iraq setting the stage for ISIS to rise, when he encouraged the Arab Spring to overthrow our allies and empower our enemies leading to the wholesale slaughter and dispossession of the Christians of the Middle East, he knew all of these acts were contrary to the will of the people.

So it should be no surprise that after the largest shout by the voters since the 1940s that they want him to stop his fundamental transformation of America he plans to move ahead with his import-a-voter campaign.  Any moment now he will announce another decree from the imperial presidency.  In the wave of his hand that disregards the wave of the people he will legalize millions of illegal immigrants.  These are people who have broken our laws.  These are people whose goal is to take jobs from Americans.

I know that we are told constantly by the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media that these people are doing the jobs Americans refuse to do.  If this is so then why are the majority of people in the very sectors that employ the majority of illegals: farming, construction, lawn care, manufacturing, restaurants, and service still legal American workers?  Why when the INS staged a raid on chicken processing plants and rounded up the illegal immigrants who had these difficult and unpleasant jobs were there legal workers lined up to replace them?  Americans are hurting for jobs.  The unemployment figures are smoke and mirrors.  They do not reflect all the millions who have quit looking, those who are working part-time who want full time, or those whose benefits have run out.  The central government in a transparent attempt to put a good spin on a massive problem only counts those who are receiving unemployment benefits.  Then again the official inflation report leaves out food and energy for an unreal twist to a real problem.

BHO knows the Congress will do nothing to stop him.  Boehner has already taken impeachment off the table and if the Clinton interlewd taught us anything, even when a president is obviously guilty a Republican senate will not convict.

It almost seems as if BHO is intent on igniting a violent reaction from those who believe in limited government.  This would give him an excuse for an even more autocratic response.  He told us before he was elected that what we needed was a civilian defense force as well armed as the armed services.  Today he is hurriedly militarizing the police as he pink slips the army

We must avoid this trap.  We need to urge our elected representatives to do all they can to stop any and all unconstitutional actions on the part of the executive.  They need to reassert the power and authority of the legislature to reasserting the system of checks and balances that is at the heart of the American system of government.  If need be the legislature should use its power to curb the federal courts.  They have the power to make place any issue beyond the scope of judicial review.  They even have the power to abolish all federal courts below the Supreme Court.

The authority is there in the Constitution if our elected representatives will use it.  They can right the ship of State before it capsizes into the shabby swamp of socialist collectivism.  However I am sorry to say these bold new fresh faces we have just sent to Chicago on the Potomac will learn how to play the game before they get there.  They will reaffirm John Boehner and Mitch McConnell as the same old same old and before we can say wave the wave will have broken against the cliff of status quo that is the Washington establishment.  Our new heroes will bend over backwards to reach across the aisle, and they will do nothing to stop our rule-by-decree executive who allows his dedication to anti-colonialism color every decision.

We may have been a colonial power.  We may have been aggressive at times in our past.  However, America is the greatest force for good that this world has ever known.  We have provided the model for individual liberty, personal freedom, and economic opportunity for the world.  American exceptionalism is a reality even if the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue doesn’t understand it.

Without enough votes to override a veto there is little chance of rolling back the transformation. Just remember gridlock is out friend.

Keep the faith. Keep the peace.  We shall overcome.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion.  He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2014 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com  Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens

 

Thoughts on the Coming Election October 30, 2014

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The Progressives in both parties may be the establishment now but they have always been and continue to be revolutionaries seeking to turn the American dream into a socialist nightmare.

Since the 1890s the Progressives have worked to change our American Experiment from a federal republic operating on democratic principles that recognized our God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness into a democracy where the government grants rights and pursues its own happiness.

Inch by inch, step by step they have worked to change one aspect and then another until today the cacophony of minute changes has become a centrally-planned federally orchestrated symphony playing Hail to the Chief.

We have transitioned from federal republic into an imperial bureaucracy controlled by a Chicago-raised Alinsky-style outfit determined to reduce us to abject obedience. This is the direct result of an education system captured by the Progressives delivering generations of uninformed voters and of the entitlement society delivering a near majority of citizens who get more than they give from the federal trough.

This should be no surprise to anyone. A country once famous for the political engagement of its citizens has raised generations on the dictum that neither religion nor politics were the subject of polite debate. The culture of media-hyped sports addiction and hedonistic indulgence has produced millions who know more about their favorite team or about the latest fashion than about their own government.

I don’t know about you but I’m so tired of being lectured by people who get their news from Fallon, Letterman, Colbert, or the Daily Show that I have all but stopped speaking of anything of substance with most people. We have all developed ways to identify fellow patriots. We listen for anyone to say anything that will give us an indication that here is another American who realizes where we are and from where we have fallen. Then we have great conversations, comparing observations and trying to encourage each other that the United States as we have known it will survive four more years of America’s Chavez.

Often I wonder, are we just singing to the choir, lighting a candle in the dark, or sticking our thumb in the dyke? Will our clandestine discussions on the fringes of a complacent society make any difference? Or are we merely whistling in the wind as our beloved country changes forever into the dead letters of a living constitution?

We have to admit that the Progressives have out maneuvered and out organized those dedicated to limited government. They have turned the world upside down. They captured the Corporations Once Known as the Main Stream Media turning them into a propaganda arm dedicated to suppressing the truth and giving the government party all the cover they need to do anything they want. They radically empowered the federal bureaucracy ceding it powers granted to Congress to set policy and make law. This red-tape machine has grown to become the largest organization in the world. It is ever-expanding and filled with career people dedicated to enlarging their private kingdoms and increasing the power of the nomenclature at the expense of the people.

The courts have been packed, the banks have been bought off, and the unions use legally mandated dues to support candidates and policies their unwilling members don’t want. Check and check-mate. The situation has become so dire and the hour so late that it appears the only line of defense we have left between the USA and the USSA is a House of Representatives controlled by Progressive Republicans and the hope of a Senate controlled by the same crowd.

These Progressive Republicans want the same things as their Democrat counterparts: bigger government and more power even if they may want to drive us to the poor house a little slower.

There are a few younger ones who have been elected by the Tea Party such as Rand, Lee, and Cruz who are trying to make a difference. At every step the Progressive establishment in their own party tries to ridicule them into toeing the party line of compromise and surrender. The old bulls talk conservative to get elected then join hands across the aisles in a marriage of despotism with deceit.

The further we get from the puzzle factory in Washington one would think the closer we would get to our American heritage of government of the people, by the people, and for the people. However, the same uninformed disengaged voters form the majority all the way down to the precinct level. The community organizers have done their jobs very well. Try to name a state that isn’t in debt. Try to name a county that isn’t working to install Agenda 21, promote sustainability or cram its Master Plan down the throat of an unsuspecting public. Try to name a city, town, or village that doesn’t have its good old boy network that manages to stay in power year after year.

Several years ago after an unsuccessful attempt to unseat an entrenched state senator from a gerrymandered district my wife and I decided to become involved on the local level to try and make a difference. We spent several years battling Agenda 21 while watching the good old boys win by hook or by crook either ignoring or fooling the voters. Maybe it’s because I grew up in Chicago and was raised on the milk of “You can’t fight City Hall?” Maybe it’s because I have seen bribes work and honest petitions fall on deaf ears? Maybe I’m just a cynic at heart? Maybe it’s true that a pessimist is what an optimist calls a realist? Or that there really are only two types of people optimists and pessimists and the pessimists are better informed.

Although we shall not go gently into that good night it appears we are in the twilight of our Republic and about to enter the sunset of liberty and the dawn of an America with a living constitution, a herd mentality, and a cradle-to-grave welfare state. If the bell has not tolled yet it is about to. Even if the Obama Zombies don’t flock to the polls as directed and return Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House or even keep Harry Reid in control of the Senate so that a one party state can drive the final nail in Columbia’s coffin, the swelling debt will eventually bring collapse. This is of course the end result of the Progressive’s long march towards the realization of the Cloward-Piven Strategy for forcing political change through orchestrated crisis. After the engineered collapse these social planners believe they can impose any type of system they want on a public clamoring for relief.

Ready or not here it comes………………………..

So what can we do now that it has been done?

First of all we have to educate ourselves about American History and the principles of limited government. Principles which formed the cornerstone for our two century experiment with personal liberty, individual freedom, and economic opportunity so that we can educate future generations about who we were and what we hope someday to be once again. We can’t teach what we don’t know.

Then we have to build a library of books and DVD’s that tell the story of America. For books look for reading lists at Tea Party sites, also check out conservative media people such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck for suggested readings. For DVD’s the History Channel has produced many great series on such things as the Revolution, the Constitution, the Founders, etc. Individually or in local groups create an asset that our people can use to immerse themselves in the heritage of freedom.

Finally we need to stay engaged in the political process. Become involved with likeminded people and figure out what, where, and when is the best place for you to spend our political capital. None of us is as smart as all of us so if we all look for the way back to limited government eventually a spark will be ignited that will burn with the intensity of a thousand suns and a new chapter in freedom will begin.

In the upcoming election vote for whoever will step on the brakes as we rush to oblivion. There may not be any candidates that are independent enough to stay independent for long however at least there are a few who will vote to take the Federal Government’s foot off the accelerator as we head for the fiscal cliff.

As patriots do what you can do. It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.

Keep the faith. Keep the peace. We shall overcome.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2014 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens

Why the Welfare State Isn’t Well and It Isn’t Fair October 24, 2014

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Why the Welfare State Isn’t Well and It Isn’t Fair

Throughout most of the 19th and 20th centuries Socialism had a fairly precise definition, a somewhat clear program, and a generally agreed upon goal. The definition of Socialism was some variant of Karl Marx’s well known statement, “From each according to the ability to each according to their need.” Socialism’s program was the nationalization of all means of production, exchange, and distribution. Socialism’s goal was the use of all three in a comprehensive plan to bring about some chimera of social justice.

There were two general schools or roads socialists followed to utopia, Marxism and Fabianism. Both were variants of Socialism. They differed mainly in their stated ultimate ideal of a Socialist State and how to get there.

The Marxists said they believed that in a fully Socialist State the State itself would wither away, and all that would be left was a classless society basking in the sunshine of social justice for all. The method advocated by the Communists to achieve this social nirvana was revolutionary change leading to a dictatorship of the working class (proletariat) which ruthlessly exterminated the old society and built the new.

The Fabians saw their road to social justice leading through a highly centralized government built up gradually by democratic means slowly gaining control of the levers of power and gradually implementing its program of bureaucratic control until complete social justice was achieved.

In Europe these schools of thought were explicit and open forming political parties and vying for power either through the ballot or from the barrel of a gun. In America the engrained belief in personal liberty, individual freedom, and economic opportunity were too strong to allow the open development of any party that openly claimed Socialism as their philosophy. Therefore the gradualist approach of the Fabians became the incremental approach of the Progressives.

Starting with Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, massively redirecting society under FDR, and moving ever forward under every president, except Ronald Reagan, the Progressives have slowly built the web upon which America now is bound.

With the fall of the Soviet Union and of its satellite empire communism finally lost its great patron. It had long since lost its allure in the reality of a brutal dictatorship that ground its people into the dirt in the race to social justice. So in the West Socialism has gone underground in the Green Movement, the vast network of community organizing groups, and in the Democrat Party. Many of the leaders of the Party now openly call themselves Progressives. All of them champion the idea of a Living Constitution that is evolving from the old American ideal of individualism toward a new collectivist ideal of social justice.

As long as the ideas and goals of Socialism were just that: ideas and goals, it all sounded good and many intellectuals as well as many members of the general public bought into the lofty sounding fairness of social justice. However once the Socialists gained actual power in the USSR and later in its satellite empire the crushing reality of its brutish methods and the soul killing dullness of its execution dimmed the glow. It changed its image from a rising sun of opportunity into the glare of an interrogation lamp.

This is where the insidious and dangerous character of the new underground Socialists in the plethora of underground manifestations reveals itself. Today we don’t have a socialist state in America; instead we have a welfare state. Unlike Socialism the welfare State has no precise definition. The attempt to understand all its implications is like trying to take a picture of fog: it obscures the picture however it cannot be seen as anything solid. The leaders of this homegrown style of Socialism: Progressivism, have learned that by incrementally increasing the level of governmental control over private industry and individuals they can still achieve the Socialist goal of income redistribution without the stigma of advocating an admittedly authoritarian dictatorship.

All they have to do is speak in vague terms of the general good and spreading the wealth around and the low information citizens nurtured in state schools will stand in line to proudly vote for hope and change. Never realizing that the prosperity Paul thinks he is voting out of Peter’s pocket will not reach him as it is syphoned off to feed an ever growing bureaucracy needed to transfer the wealth.

As long as the danger to liberty came from self-declared Socialists who were openly pursuing collectivist goals and as long as there was the glaring disconnect of a brutal dictatorship saying it was oppressing its own people in the quest for social justice it was easy to argue that the tenets of Socialism were false. There were examples to show that it would not achieve its goals, that its execution was brutish, and that it would inevitably produce results which most Socialists themselves would find abhorrent.

The situation is different when we face the Welfare State. It has no definite form and is instead a conglomeration of diverse and sometimes even contradictory elements. Some of these elements may seem to make a free society more attractive such as something for everyone while others such as the means to take from one to give to another are incompatible with freedom.

I am not in any way advocating for no government. I am advocating for limited government. There are many things which most will agree are beneficial to society and which are legitimate concerns for government such as defense, the mail system, taxes appropriate to a limited role, and the judiciary. Most people today would also agree that some form of a safety net is possible in a free society to protect against risks common to all.

However here it is important to differentiate between two views of this type of protection. There is limited protection which can be achieved for all and absolute security which can never be achieved.

The first of these types of protection is against severe poverty: the assurance of a minimum level of support for everyone. The second is the guarantee of a certain standard of life which is determined by comparing the standard enjoyed by one group against that enjoyed by another. In other words the difference is between the protection of an equal minimum income for all and the protection of a particular income for particular groups. This is the goal of the Welfare State that brings us back to “From each according to their ability to each according to their need” or as our current Progressive President puts it, “Spreading the Wealth Around.”

To accomplish this, the coercive power of the State is used to ensure that particular people get particular things which in turn require discrimination between people and unequal treatment. Some are forced to give while others receive. This is incompatible with a free society. Thus the welfare State which aims at social justice inevitably leads back to Socialism with its coercive power and arbitrary methods. In addition though some of the aims of the Welfare State such as income equality can only be achieved through the use of methods which are incompatible with freedom all of the aims may be pursued in that fashion.

The primary danger is that once the aims of the Welfare State have been accepted as legitimate it is then tacitly assumed that the use of means which are contrary to freedom are acceptable. The ends justify the means and the rule of law is sacrificed in the name of social justice.

Ultimately we arrive at a place where the criticism of the generally accepted goals of the Welfare State leads automatically to negative labels. If you point out that Obamacare is socialized medicine you are throwing grandma over the cliff. If you point out that common core is indoctrination you are against education. If you point out that progressive taxation is inherently discriminatory and unfair you are the friend of millionaires and billionaires and the enemy of the poor. If you point out that government regulations are strangling business you are against clean air and consumer safety.

Our Progressive leaders always point to the shining city on a hill where everyone has everything. Our low information fellow citizens never seem to realize that a government which ceases to administer limited resources put under its control for a specific purpose will instead use its coercive power to ensure that people are given what some bureaucrat decides they need. They never connect the dots. They do not understand that when larger and larger segments of the population come to depend on the government for everything eventually it will be the decision of those in authority what anyone receives. This isn’t freedom. This isn’t what America was or what it is supposed to be. And this is why the Welfare State isn’t well and it isn’t fair.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2014 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens