Why We Need a Third Party December 4, 2014
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.Tags: Dr. Robert Owens, National Debt, Obama agenda, Progressive agenda, Progressives, Third party
4 comments
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
Thoughts on the Coming Election October 30, 2014
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: 2014 elections, agenda 21, Cloward-Piven Strategy, Dr. Robert Owens, Living constitution, master plan, Obama agenda, Progressive agenda, sustainability
add a comment
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
September 13, 2014
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.Tags: amnesty, Bill Clinton, Cloward-Piven Strategy, Dr. Robert Owens, George Bush, NAFTA, Newt Gingrich, North American Union, Obama, Obama agenda, Progressive agenda, Ronald Reagan, Ross Perot
2 comments
Amnesty With Open Borders Equals National Suicide
Our President has made no secret of what his end game is. Remember him with Joe the plumber? He just wants to spread the wealth around. He is perhaps not an avowed socialist but he is certainly an announced one. Yet he has won two elections one way or another and he is coordinating the end game of the Cloward-Piven Strategy This is not a conspiracy…it’s a strategy….and it breaks my heart that as America dozed on the couch watching the game these Progressives have turned the American dream into a nightmare.
Now the Southern border has been all but erased by a pre-arranged catastrophe. What does America’s Community Organizer in Chief say in response to Republican reticence in voting millions to pay for lawyers to argue against our own laws? He tells us he is going to unilaterally grant amnesty through executive edict to millions if not tens of millions while holding the door open to millions more. Of course he will wait till after the2014 midterms are over so that his party can campaign against amnesty while planning to grant it afterwards.
Does the GOP move to block this unconstitutional act of national suicide? Do they mount a national campaign to harness the vast majority of citizens who want to save America for Americans? No, the congressional Republican leaders let everyone know they are for amnesty too.
How can they not know that amnesty for millions of undocumented democrats is suicide for the GOP? Call it executive action. Call it comprehensive immigration reform. Call it anything you want. Amnesty under any other name is amnesty and amnesty with open borders is a siren call to the tens of millions who haven’t already come to come now. Our leaders are actually working on a plan to merge the United States with Canada and Mexico into a new super state of North America. Our children and grandchildren will grow up in a third world hellhole that was once the land of the free and the home of the brave.
My question is….How can the GOP be so stupid….or…Why are Democrats smarter than Republicans?
I was a fourth generation Republican who cut my teeth in Nixon’s first presidential campaign, worked for Goldwater, Reagan, and all the following place holders until the impeachment debacle and the explosion of government growth and spending under Hastert, Lott, and Bush. When the Republican Senate refused to impeach President Clinton for crimes he later admitted and when they then became Democrat Lite as the party of power and profit, I mailed my membership card to the party that was no longer the Grand Old Party of my great grandfather and became an Independent.
For most of my life I was a party man: accepting some things I didn’t agree with for the greater good of electing a party with a platform I could agree with. However, once it became apparent that as far as the budget went we had elected the foxes to watch the hen house that the conservative social agenda received a tip-of-the-hat during elections followed by no action, and that the only victims of the impeachment were those who brought the charges the scales fell from my eyes. Once I saw that the Republicans had lost their moorings and were swilling at the public trough, I realized the platform we conservatives battle so hard for and hold so dear is merely a mirage held in front of social and fiscal conservatives to keep them loyal to a Party captured by the Progressives.
Back in the Dream Time, when my mind was still locked in the glow of Ronald Reagan and all his example and message meant to America even then I wondered, “What’s wrong with these leaders of ours? Why do the Democrats always seem to outsmart them at every turn?”
Even Reagan, the best of the best, was hoodwinked by Tip O’Neal in the amnesty bargain: we would grant amnesty and then seal the border. The problem is the illegal immigrants got the amnesty, however America’s border was never sealed. He also signed several tax deals with the Democratic majority. We the People lost many deductions in exchange for lower rates. The deductions never came back even though the rates started rising again as soon as the Gipper said good night and George the First forgot to read his own lips.
George Bush the Elder was out maneuvered by the Progressives so many times that 20% of his base ran to Perot opening the door for Clinton and the first attempt to ram national health care down America’s throat. That time they overplayed their hand and the last great strategist among the Republicans, Newt Gingrich, was able to sell a Contract with America and bring the first Republican majority in Congress in 40 years.
Newt kept the promises and brought some fiscal sanity back to Washington. Within a few short years the Republican led Congress ended welfare as we had known it for generations and balanced the budget. Unfortunately the Party of Lincoln then nominated someone who campaigned as if he had voted for Lincoln. The 1996 Republican campaign would have had to improve several thousand percent to make it to dull. Suddenly, with an assist from the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media, it was Clinton who had been dragged kicking and screaming to the benefit and spending cutting table who was the author of everything positive Congress had accomplished. The Republicans had been outmaneuvered and outsmarted again.
According to every one of the serial re-counts Bush the younger won Florida and legitimately the presidential race of 2000. Yet, to this day people talk of him being selected not elected. After the dastardly deeds of 9-11 the rhetorically-challenged George captured the hearts of America and the admiration of the Western world by taking a bullhorn and talking to a crowd at ground zero. Yet by fighting and winning America’s first preemptive war and then losing the peace through the lack of planning he soon lost the PR campaign which led to the Pelosi-Reid Congress and eventually absolute triumph of Progressivism in 2008.
The Progressives immediately took the reins of single-party rule and imposed their radical agenda to transform America into a Nanny-state based upon the re-distribution of wealth. This wanton destruction of the traditional American society based on limited government and free enterprise sparked a vast rebellion in the silent majority and the resulting teanami of 2010 brought a Republican majority back to the People’s House and an expanded minority to the Senate.
And what was the first thing these political savants did? They struck a deal that anyone who was paying attention could see was tailor made to save the discredited Obama presidency and set the stage for him to follow in Mr. Clinton’s footsteps taking credit for anything good the recent election might have made possible. What were these so-called leaders thinking? They turned the victory of the grassroots into capitulation by the elites to the elites. Not did they sign a deal that extended uncertainty and raised estate taxes, they gave the Administration cover for a stealth stimulus filled with pork designed to help re-elect the President.
So, “Why are Democrats smarter than Republicans?” The answer is they aren’t. It isn’t a matter of intelligence it’s a matter of people with dedication to something larger than themselves as opposed to people with dedication to seeing themselves as something larger than they are.
The leadership of the Democrats are committed radical Progressives. They have a long term agenda to transform America into a socialist welfare state with an unlimited government, and they never lose sight of that goal. They’re willing to commit political suicide, or more accurately they’re willing to encourage their followers who do not inhabit safe seats to commit political suicide. They never take their eyes off the ball. They’re constantly pushing to move closer to the goal line even if it’s one inch at a time.
By comparison the leadership of the Republicans is composed of professional politicians. They’re pragmatists who do whatever they have to do and say whatever they have to say to retain their seats, their power, and their perks. They believe the inside the beltway press who tell them how visionary they are to compromise, losing sight of those back home in fly-over country who instead believed the campaign promises and expect their representatives to stand up for principles.
The outraged public may rise up and throw out the democratic majority of Harry Reid. They may increase the majority for John Boehner. What will be the result? Will America reject the creeping socialism that is sapping our energy and subjecting us to the rule of bureaucrats and their regulations? Will America get back on track?
No, in the unfolding amnesty debacle the Party of Lincoln once will once again choose to be on the receiving end of Pickett’s Charge instead of behind the spit-rail fence chanting “Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!” as their enemy wastes itself in a senseless charge against an immovable barrier. Once again the leadership of the right will embrace the left, reaching across the aisle in a bi-partisan enactment of America’s Día de Muertos to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
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 Worry When You Can Pray August 28, 2014
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.Tags: Atheism, Dr. Robert Owens, dystopia, Faith in Jesus, Nihilism, Obama agenda, obamanation, Progressive agenda, Utopia, utopianism
4 comments
I am often asked, “How can you stay focused so intently upon the situations and circumstances surrounding America’s current condition of managed decline without succumbing to the mind-chilling depression it warrants?”
How can I watch with the contextual awareness of an Historian the seemingly unstoppable advance of the progressives in their quest to re-build America in their own image without falling victim to the lure of apathy and the thrill of the games?
What is it that allows me to gaze daily at the man-caused disasters which befall us as we morph from our nation to the Obamanation without embracing the nihilism so common to the citizens of falling empires?
There is one common solution to these apparent paradoxes. There is one answer to these discomforting questions. Because there is one name that stands above all nations, all circumstances, and all names and that name is Jesus.
If it wasn’t for my rock solid faith in Jesus I would despair. If it wasn’t for my faith in Jesus I would turn away from the shame of our surrender, the enormity of our decline and the potential of our looming defeat. As a believer in limited government, personal liberty and economic freedom without Jesus I would give-up. I would look at the reality of our situation and admit the subjugation of my nation to this band of looting utopians who have gathered the reins of power and are leading us like sheep to the slaughter into a dystopian future of unlimited government, personal servitude, and a centrally-planned economy.
However, I do have Jesus as my personal Savior. I confess Him as my Lord and Savior. I believe that God has raised Him from the dead, and that He will come again.
Yes, I follow current events, the History of the Future, like a housewife follows her people on any other soap opera. I tune in every day to see what new perils Lady Liberty faces, and what dastardly deeds Simon Lagree Obama will perpetrate upon the chained and restrained citizens who watch helplessly as their nation floats on an ice flow of freedom constantly melting beneath them. Yet just like those readers of Uncle Tom’s cabin so long ago I have my Tom. I have my joy and the lifter of my head. I have Jesus. So I know that no matter what happens here and no matter what may happen to me or mine He will be my reward.
The followers of some other religion who say they are a religion of peace may have declared war upon us. They have adopted a policy of convert or die. However I know that Jesus has already won the war. I know that He has already died for me and though this body may perish He has already done all the dying I will ever have to do.
It was not always this way. Yes, I have always been obsessed with current events. Yes, I have always studied History, economics, and political science. Yes, I have always been aware of the context and the goal of the Progressive horde. However there was a time when I didn’t have this hope that lives inside of me. There was a time when the thought of being a pawn in a rigged game, being the citizen of an occupied nation sold by uninformed voters to demagogues intent upon the subversion of the Constitution drove me to despair. Watching the incremental surrender caused me to embrace a philosophy of militant apathy. I didn’t care and I couldn’t stand anyone who did.
This led to a hollowness that made any success or pleasure I experienced seem futile and merely a diversion. I was an atheist. I didn’t believe in God. I didn’t believe in spirits. All I believed in was what I could see, and all I could see was the decay of something once promising: the selling of the land of the free and the home of the brave for a bowl of pottage called entitlement. At the age of thirty I had reached my limit. I was convinced nothing meant anything. I was sure that my nation on its way to freedom had turned around and looked longingly at the chains of tyranny they had broken and was turning before my eyes into a pillar of salt. It seemed no one could read the handwriting on the wall, and I was playing the fiddle while Rome burned.
There came a time when I was saying to myself over and over, “I’ve got to try something, I’ve got to try something.” I was a drug addict, an alcoholic, and I thought if I could just find a better high or a smoother whiskey all my anxieties would disappear. No matter what I tried it didn’t work. The rotting stench of decay still filled my mind. I couldn’t take my eyes off the slow motion train wreck that has been America’s path. I was thinking the unthinkable and wondering if there was any reason to go on? I didn’t believe in an afterlife. I believed that here was all there was. So I thought if I wasn’t here the sorrow would stop. Yet something within me still clutched at straws and kept saying, “I’ve got to try something, I’ve got to try something.”
Then one day as I went about my work saying this to myself over and over, I heard someone say, “Why don’t you try Jesus.” As a devout believer in Militant Apathy and a devout non-believer in everything else I turned to follow my regular pattern of smashing in the face of anyone foolish enough to mention Jesus to me, and no one was there. I was in a church for a secular reason at the time and there was no one else in the entire building. I know because I looked. I had distinctly heard an answer to my perennial question, “Why don’t you try Jesus” yet I knew no one else was there.
As an atheist who didn’t believe in anything except the visible, that was, to say the least, disconcerting. I started attending that church the next week. It was Christian church. I knew from my youth the Christianity, which I had rejected in that same youth, was built upon the Bible so I started reading.
I read Mathew, Mark, Luke, and john. By the time I finished John I knew I had to make a decision. All of this was either true or it was false. If it was false it was just another lie in a world filled with lies. But if it was true it was the most important truth in the world. I knew from my study of History that many of the early followers of Jesus including Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were killed because of their faith. I also knew that each of them had been given the opportunity to reject Jesus, admit what they had written and what they preached was lies and live, or they could affirm the truth of what they said and die. I knew they had all chosen death rather than say it was a lie.
Then I reasoned, if this story, this good news about a God who became flesh, paid the price of all sin by dying a sinless death upon a cross, and who purchased our everlasting life by defeating death rising from the grave was a lie they would have known it since they wrote it. They would have known there was no Savior, no salvation, and that their death would have been final. They would have known all this, and they would have chosen life over death. They didn’t. They chose death in this life, because they believed in a life after this life: the life their writing told us about.
At that moment I asked Jesus to be my Savior. Suddenly a light burst forth in my being that has never gone out. A joy replaced the sadness. Hope replaced depression as I chose life over death, and I have spent every day since then trying to live for Him because He chose to live for me. Since that day it has never been about who I am but about what He’ done, and not about what I’ve done but about who He is.
Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior.
If you are overwhelmed by the calamity which is looming in our future, by the soul crushing sadness of living as citizens of a city on the hill that is committing suicide before our eyes……….
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
So why worry when you can pray….;–)
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
Happy Days Are Here Again July 17, 2014
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.Tags: balance of trade, Benghazi, Chinese aircraft carrier, common core, Crimea, Dr. Robert Owens, Immigration, IRS, Obama agenda, Progressive agenda, quantitative easing, the Great Recession
add a comment
So long sad times
Go long bad times
We are rid of you at last
Howdy gay times
Cloudy gray times
You are now a thing of the past
Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So let’s sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again
Can you believe it the Bush recession has been over for five years, unemployment is down, the stock market is up, and everything is coming up roses. There is a flat screen on every wall, a smart phone in every hand, and flying cars just can’t be that far away. The Bush wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have either been won or soon will be or as the winning slogan said, “GM is alive and Osama is dead.” The Arab Spring has toppled tyrants and the glory of the administration’s foreign policy savants have ricocheted from the faculty lounge to the UN. Doesn’t it just feel like another American Century?
The Fed keeps pumping and the Big Board keeps jumping. The NSA watches us all without a warrant, and the man who tells us about it is a traitor.Congress has to sue the President in an attempt to get him to enforce laws unless of course he wants to change a law unilaterally. The Court strikes down unconstitutional move after unconstitutional move by the adjunct instructor in the Oval Office. The IRS is used to suppress the votes of Conservatives, its leaders either lying to Congress or pleading the Fifth while the Attorney General refuses to appoint a special prosecutor just as he refused in Fast and Furious and Benghazi. Of course if you want to require a photo id to vote you’re a racist attempting to suppress the vote while you need a photo ID to get into the DNC. There’s nothing to see here move so along.
Common Core is poised to take our educational system to higher heights. After more than 100 years of Progressive Education and generations of Federal intrusions into local school boards America now successfully spends more per capita on education than any other country. The self-esteem of our students ranks as the highest in the world even as our grades slide. In other words our students are doing poorly, but they think they are doing well. It reminds me of a foreman in a factory who was in one of my management classes. He shared an incident in his shop. A young man was hired as a material handler who wore his pants down around his knees. He constantly had to use one hand to hold up his pants while using the free hand to handle material. When the foreman asked him, “Don’t you think you could get more done if you used both hands?” The young man answered, “No I’m doing all right.” The job may not get done but at least he feels good about what he’s doing. Is this is the American Way in the New Normal?
Russia swallows Crimea, China launches its first aircraft carrier, the Islamic State declares itself to be the Caliphate some were crazy to predict. Oh Happy Day! Once again America is respected in the world after that cowboy Bush brought us so low. Reagan said it was once again Morning in America and now we have Mourning in America as the fruit of Progressive policies, and cum bi ya diplomacy leads us from crisis to crisis. Then again we should never let a good crisis go to waste said President Obama’s first Chief of Staff before heading to Chicago to strengthen the gun laws.
Looking forward there is good news and bad news. The good news is that thanks to that paragon of progressivism FDR there are term limits on the presidency. The bad news is our southern sieve and the import a voter program brings in thousands of undocumented democrats everyday as Flat Broke Hillary and the transition team waits in the wings with self-proclaimed Native American Elizabeth Warren as an understudy.
I used to say, “We made it through the Second World War and we can make it through Bill Clinton.” Then I said, “We made it through the Cold War we can make it through Bush the Younger.” Now I wonder, “If we threw away Iraq and we’re about to throw away Afghanistan, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona how will we survive two more years?”
We may not be in Kansas anymore and we may have followed the white rabbit through the looking glass but at least illegal immigrants can now get drivers licenses in Arizona. Can anyone say “Motor Voter” orcoming to a neighborhood near you soon.
Altogether shout it now
There’s no one
Who can doubt it now
So let’s tell the world about it now
Happy days are here again
Your cares and troubles are gone
There’ll be no more from now on
Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So, Let’s sing a song of cheer again
Happy times
Happy nights
Happy days
Are here again!
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 Liberty Dies May 15, 2014
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.Tags: Dr. Robert Owens, EPA, federal bureaucracy, IRS, liberty, Obama agenda, Progressive agenda
2 comments
To understand why liberty is imperiled in our country today we must first state clearly and unequivocally what is liberty. Then and only then can we understand what is necessary for its preservation as well as see what is undermining it today. Liberty is the absence of coercion and the freedom to act upon your own will within the perimeters of not infringing the freedom of action of others. The only way that has been found among the societies of man to ensure, promote and protect liberty is through the rule of law.
The rule of law means that government is not allowed to coerce an individual except through the enforcement of a previously known and explicitly stated principle of limited government. This principle places a limit upon the power of government to legislate by calling into question what sorts of laws are legitimate and which is not. This looks beyond individual statutes to the very nature of legislation itself. This differs markedly with the modern notion of the rule of law that holds as long as all the actions of a government comply with the law it is meeting the standard. It is well to remember that under this definition both the Nazis and the Soviets operated under the rule of law.
This modern definition is actually an oxymoron. If a government passes a law which says that it can do whatever it wants than everything it does is legal. Hitler passed the Enabling Act and accomplished this in one fell swoop.
Because the rule of law is an absolute limitation on all legislation it cannot be a law of the same order as that passed by a legislature. No Legislator can effectively limit himself through legislation since he can always amend that legislation at a later date. Constitutions can make the infringement of pre-decided basic principles more difficult; however, as we have seen in our own Progressive land of the Living Document limitations can be re-defined away through courts and tradition.
The rule of law can only prevail where its basic principles are an organic part of the culture of the people. They must be part of the commonly held beliefs and standards of a majority of the people or they will be jettisoned as soon as they restrain that majority from following the path of least resistance and living as they believe they should. For if the rule of law is the common belief it will be followed closely and guarded jealously. If it is seen as impractical or as an impediment to life as the majority wish to live it, it will be soon rejected and replaced. Such a society will gladly embrace tyranny and arbitrary rule as long as they are convinced that they can now live as they want to live.
In our nation we have built a rather impressive framework to restrain the government: our Constitution. Though it has been interpreted into meaninglessness in many ways it is still given lip service and is still the penultimate law of the land. However there is one glaring hole that is currently being exploited to make an end-run around its remaining provisions: the rise of the Federal Bureaucracy.
We have gone to great lengths to limit what powers the elected officials of our government possess and left open the door for appointed officials to run rough shod over our lives. The legislature passes vague thousand page laws and then the bureaucrats interpret them any way they desire with little or no oversight. Elected officials, even the perpetually re-elected gerrymandered creatures of today come and go. The bureaucracy lives forever. When the elected officials cannot find the power to impose the Progressive agenda they do it through the bureaucrats they have appointed.
When they couldn’t pass Cap-N-Trade, they imposed it through the EPA. When they can’t pass gun restrictions they have their bureaucrats buy up all the ammunition and make it almost impossible for the people to obtain any. When they can’t pass amnesty they impose it through regulations and edicts. The control of private land is taken through wet lands regulations. Between the out of control legislators-for-life and their appointed regulators we are told to do everything from what kind of light bulbs to buy to how many gallons we can use to flush a toilet.
Liberty is being eaten away inch by inch and day by day, legislated, and regulated into oblivion. When our government can’t pass laws or impose regulations they will utilize the IRS, the NSA or anyone of a hundred of their alphabet agencies to spy on us or intimidate us into silence. Common Core is coming for the kids. Amnesty is coming for the jobs. Political Correctness is coming for free speech.
Unless patriots stand-up the country will fall. It will still be called the United States of America. People will still say the pledge of Allegiance. They will still sing the national anthem and salute the flag but will it be the same country that our forefathers fought and died for? Will it still be the land of the free and the home of the brave? Or will it be something else: a place where the rule of law once protected its citizens from the rule of men until the laws of men overwhelmed the laws of nature and of nature’s God?
Jean-Jacques Rousseau one those who inspired the Framers of the Constitution reminded us, “Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.”
Barry Goldwater said, “Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.”
The enemies of freedom also speak of liberty. Vladimir Lenin said, “It is true that liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully rationed.”
Benito Mussolini said, “The truth is that men are tired of liberty.
The controllers of men may try to use the language of liberty to subvert liberty however, the God given spirit of man shall always strive to become what God meant for us to be, free people in a free world.”
Norman Vincent Peale said, “Once we roared like lions for liberty; now we bleat like sheep for security! The solution for America’s problem is not in terms of big government, but it is in big men over whom nobody stands in control but God.”
Winston Churchill told us, “If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even 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.”
And every school child should know that Patrick Henry famously said, “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”
Why does liberty die? Because the people allow it.
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 Did We Write it in the First Place ? April 25, 2014
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.Tags: Constitutionalism, Dr. Robert Owens, FDR fourth inaugural speech, higher law, law of God, law of nature, Negative Liberties, Obama agenda, Progressive agenda, Second Bill of Rights
add a comment
Besides regulating the division of authority, constitutions written to limit government must contain substantive rules. They need to establish general principles which will govern the specific acts of the legislature. Therefore the essence of a constitution involves not only a hierarchy of power and authority it also establishes a hierarchy of laws. The founding principles built into the structure of the document itself are of a general nature. They proceed from a higher authority designed to control the content of the later specific laws which are enacted by the representative and delegated legislature elected subsequent to the establishment of the constitutionally limited government.
The idea of a higher law which governs legislation is an old one. In the 1700s, at the time of the writing of our Constitution, it was known as the Law of Nature, the Law of God, or the Law of Reason. It was the idea of enshrining this higher law into a written constitution which would be the foundation for a real world government that was the genius of the Framers.
The difference between the Constitution and any subsequent law enacted by the government it founded is like the difference between laws in general and their specific application by the courts in a particular case. Just as a judicial ruling is considered sound, only if it is based upon the law and not on the mere opinion of the jurist, so too laws themselves are considered legitimate only if they conform to the higher law. In the same way that we want to prevent a judge from breaking from the law for some consideration of a specific person or idea so too we do not want the legislature to break the general rules to fulfill any immediate or temporary goals.
In the personal lives we all lead we know that often we are tempted to sacrifice long standing principles for immediate gain. This is a human trait that all share and only the highly disciplined avoid. So too legislatures, made up of fallible men, are therefore in desperate need of unbreakable higher laws which will constrain them from doing collectively what we all do individually.
Just as an individual will hesitate or at least contemplate the implications of violating a long held principle for an immediate gain so too a legitimate and responsible legislature will be reluctant to break established general laws for new specific aims. To violate a particular principle at a particular time for a specific purpose is different than saying that principle is null and void. Passing laws that either benefit or penalize specific people or making legislation retroactive is different than saying that to do so is correct. If a legislature passes laws which infringe upon the personal liberty or the property rights of individuals during a war or to achieve some monumental national goal is far different than stating that such rights can be infringed with impunity. It is to mark these differences that every piece of legislation is supposed to have a clause which identifies where the authority for it is found in the Constitution.
It is also for this purpose that general principles should not be promulgated by the legislature but instead by another body. It is appropriate that this other body should have a suitable time to deliberate so that any establishment or change in the general principles can be fully debated, considered, and amended if necessary.
It is not that a constitution provides an absolute limit on the will of the people. Looking to our Constitution, which is the model for all such documents which are truly meant to limit the power of government, there is the amendment process which has been used twenty seven times to change the higher laws of our general principles. Constitutions are meant to act as a check on the ability of a temporary majority from imposing its will in any manner it chooses. In other words, the social contract agreed to by the people who allow the governance of temporary and shifting majorities in particular situations is based upon the belief that every majority implicitly agrees to abide by the general principles which embody the higher law.
Consequently no one and no group has complete freedom to impose upon the rest of society any laws or any regulations that it wants. The very essence of constitutionalism rests upon the foundational belief that all power and authority will be exercised within the framework of the general principles and higher law that the constitution creates. People are chosen to assume power to legislate, govern, or adjudicate because it is believed they will do what is right. Not because it is believed that whatever they do is right. Legitimate authority in a constitutional system rests on the belief that power is not a physical fact but a decision on the part of the people to willingly obey.
Looking at the current situation in America today we have a president who in a 2001 interview expressed his inner most thoughts about the Constitution. He stated:
If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court. I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed people, so that now I would have the right to vote. I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order as long as I could pay for it I’d be o.k. But, the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society. To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as its been interpreted and Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can’t do to you. Says what the Federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the Federal government or State government must do on your behalf, and that hasn’t shifted and one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was, um, because the civil rights movement became so court focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that.
That is as clear a statement of the way our Progressive leaders view America’s founding document, a charter of negative liberties.
As F. A Hayek told us in The Constitution of Liberty, “Only a demagogue can represent as ‘antidemocratic’ the limitations which long-term decisions and the general principles held by the people impose upon the power of temporary majorities.”
Think of what we had. Look at what we’ve got. Imagine where we’re going.
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
Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future 