Rand Paul Civics Lesson

Rand Paul thanks for the leadership and proving that all the backbone in the Republican Party resides in the Freshman office holders. No further proof of term limits should be needed.

Maybe there is a Mr. Smith in Washington. This was a proud day in America.

Will this filibuster begin a turn in public policy or be a flash in the darkness the illuminates nothing?

Paul challenged the claim by the Attorney General that the President can play judge, jury, and executioner within our borders by using drones to kill our citizens as he sees fit. If this is allowed to happen then the Constitution is dead. Dictatorship—by whatever name—has replaced the old order and we are all slaves to the State.

California Government Threatens Public Safety

California is trying to confiscate virtually all firearms owned by law abiding folks in the State while simultaneously releasing more than 33,000 prisoners that have not served their sentences back into the world. In addition, at the same time the prisoners are being freed, there are massive layoffs of parole officers and closures of parole offices. Below is a partial list of the parole closures. This is done under the guise of consolidation.

Information Bulletin Numbers
13-01:  Announcing Activation of the Los Angeles Global Positioning System District & Consolidation of Parole Districts in Region III
13-02:  Announcing Relocation of Pasadena Parole Units 1 and 3 in Region III
13-03:  Announcing Relocation of Board of Parole Hearings, Sacramento Decentralized Revocation Unit
13-04:  Announcing Intent to Reorganize and Consolidate Parole Districts Within Region IV
13-05:  Announcing Closure of the Oroville Parole Unit in Region I
13-06:  Announcing Closure of the San Leandro Parole Unit in Region II
13-07:  Announcing Closure of the Modesto 1 Parole Unit in Region 1
13-08:  Announcing Closure of the Buena Park Parole Unit in Region IV
13-09:  Announcing Closure of the Orange 2 Parole Unit in Region IV
MISSING
13-11:  Announcing Closure of the Pasadena 3 Parole Unit in Region III
13-12:  Announcing Closure of the Fresno 3 Parole Unit in Region 1
13-13:  Announcing Closure of the Fresno 1 Parole Unit in Region 1
13-14:  Announcing Closure of the Fresno 4 Parole Unit in Region 1
13-15:  Announcing Closure of the Fresno 8 Parole Unit in Region 1
13-16:  Announcing Closure of the Pomona 2 Parole Unit in Region IV
13-17:  Announcing Relocation of the Fullerton Parole Unit in Region IV
13-18:  Announcing Relocation of the Long Beach 1 Parole Unit in Region IV

The parole and correctional officers are being eliminated in layoff “Waves”. Currently the Department of Corrections is wrapping up Wave 3. There are six scheduled waves of layoffs within the department. It is logical that more people on parole and less folks to keep tabs on them means more crimes committed. Also, many that violate parole are not being arrested because there is no place to keep them. With this crappy economy what are the employment prospects for folks with a criminal record?

Additionally, California has already gutted the juvenile system. Only two facilities are still running statewide all others have been closed. Instead, juvenile offenders are being placed in your community in group homes. There is no requirement to inform local law enforcement or neighborhoods when one of these homes in opened in your community.

Conclusion: you are less safe with Jerry Brown as governor because there are more criminals at large that are unsupervised and you don’t have the right to defend yourself or your family.

GOP Senators Surrender

Today I read on Politico the following headline: Senate GOP ponders ceding power to President Obama http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/senate-gop-ponders-shifting-power-to-obama-88149.html#ixzz2M7AMG1TP

OK so what is next? Let’s just disband the Senate—it hasn’t done its job for many years anyway—and just let the President decide what’s best for us? In the eyes of many, the Constitution is clearly an obstacle to good governance. Look at a few examples of where the Constitution is wrong and thus being ignored by the ruling class:

• The Senate hasn’t passed a budget in four years as they are required to do by the Constitution but nobody seems to have noticed.
• Gun ownership is clearly a threat to the peace and safety of the government and must be curtailed.
• The Supreme Court ruled that there are no limits to the taxing authority of the government. (See ObamaCare Ruling last year.)
• The needs of the government supersede religious liberty. You can believe anything you want as long as it stays out of the public square and doesn’t influence how you live your life—or conduct your business.
• Convicted prisoners must be released without serving their sentences because incarceration is cruel and unusual punishment.
• Yesterday Obama released thousands of illegal aliens—many arrested on criminal charges—because he wanted to save the taxpayers some money.

Rome had Caesar and a Senate; a dictator and puppet legislature. It seems that we are close to adopting this model as our government as well. Obama ignores the Legislative branch and rules via Executive Orders. Is it really that different? If challenged he can always hide behind the Supreme Court.

My conclusion is that divine judgment is upon us and our people prefer tyranny and evil to freedom when given a choice.

Religious Liberty Versus Religious Toleration

The next essay in North’s book is Religious Liberty Versus Religious Toleration by Rousas John Rushdoony. The opening paragraphs frame the issue of tolerance versus liberty like something written today even thought it was written over 30 years ago during Ronald Reagan’s first administration.

ONE of the areas of profound ignorance today is religious liberty and the meaning thereof. The common pattern throughout history, including in the Roman Empire, has been religious toleration, a very different thing.

In religious toleration, the state is paramount, and, in every sphere, its powers are totalitarian. The state is the sovereign or lord, the supreme religious entity and power. The state decrees what and who can exist, and it establishes the terms of existence. The state reserves the power to license and tolerate one or more religions upon its own conditions and subject to state controls, regulation, and supervision.

The Roman Empire believed in religious toleration. It regarded religion as good for public morale and morals, and it therefore had a system of licensure and regulation. New religions were ordered to appear before a magistrate, affirm the lordship or sovereignty of Caesar, and walk away with a license to post in their meeting-place.

The early church refused licensure, because it meant the lordship of Caesar over Christ and His church. The early church refused toleration, because it denied the right of the state to say whether or not Christ’s church could exist, or to set the conditions of its existence. The early church rejected religious toleration for religious liberty.

American Conservatives-The Stupid Party since before 1897

This paragraph is one of many gems that I have found reading a collection of essays on Tactics of Christian Resistance assembled by Gary North in 1983. The paradigm of the evil party and the stupid party has been at work long before William F Buckley Jr. was born.

In 1897, Robert L. Dabney described Yankee Conservatism thusly:

This is a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is to-day one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will to-morrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution, to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. This pretended salt hath utterly lost its savor: wherewith shall it be salted? Its impotency is not hard, indeed, to explain. It is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle. It intends to risk nothing serious for the sake of the truth, and has no idea of being guilty of the folly of martyrdom. It always-when about to enter a protest-very blandly informs the wild beast whose path it essays to stop, that its “bark is worse than its bite,” and that it only means to save its manners by enacting its decent role of resistance. The only practical purpose which it now subserves in American politics is to give enough exercise to Radicalism to keep it “in wind,” and to prevent its becoming pursy and lazy from having nothing to whip. No doubt, after a few years, when women’s suffrage shall have become an accomplished fact, conservatism will tacitly admit it into its creed, and thenceforward plume itself upon its wise firmness in opposing with similar weapons the extreme of baby suffrage; and when that too shall have been won, it will be heard declaring that the integrity of the American Constitution requires at least the refusal of suffrage to asses. There it will assume, with great dignity, its final position.
1. Robert L. Dabney, Discussions, Vol. 4 (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Publishers, [1897] 1979), p. 496.

As quoted in essay The Fundamental Biblical Tactic For Resisting Tyranny by Louis DeBoer, p 16.

BSA Punts to May Meeting

The Boy Scouts of America have felt the heat (not much hope they will see the light) and decided not to decide. The Board reluctantly realized that maybe exposing every individual in the organization to litigation is not in the best interest of their organization’s survival. And your first clue was what?

The value of being morally straight has survived another assault by the enemies of virtue.

BSA Going Gay

We will know sometime this week if the Boy Scouts of America will be the latest institution to abandon traditional values and embrace the lies of multicultural and politically correct Liberalism. Interest groups and conservative pundits that should be opposed to this assault on another fine American Institution have been strangely silent.

The vote will be held in secret sometime this week. No scouts or parents of scouts will be allowed to watch the proceedings. No scouts or leaders of scouting were consulted, polled, surveyed or given any input. The corporate board of BSA is going to sell-out millions of parents and children for a few corporate dollars.

If this policy change is approved then my son will be forced out of scouting because Scouting will have rejected the values of its Christian founders and will not be a safe environment for activities. I have kept my son out of the public school system because of all the pro-homosexual mandates placed in the education code of California. Mark Leno’s values may be from the pit of hell but that doesn’t mean I will voluntarily turn my children over to these pedophiles and perverts.

This is yet another proof that divine judgment continues to ratchet-up as the United States persists in its decline.

For a summary of this under reported issue see http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/look-which-companies-dumping-boy-scouts/

David Chilton on Our Political Failure

I have been reading through David Chilton’s commentary on the book of Revelations, Days of Vengeance. (It is available for download at this address http://www.garynorth.com/freebooks/sidefrm2.htm ) This book was written during Reagan’s second term after the collapse of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority and the backtracking of C. Everet Koop.

In light of the current state of the Republican Party and continuing decay of social issues in our country, the following really caught my eye. It is from pages 511-512.

It must be stressed, however, that the road to Christian dominion does not lie primarily through political action. While the political sphere, like every other aspect of life, is a valid and necessary area for Christian activity and eventual dominance, we must shun the perennial temptation to grasp for political power. Dominion in civil government cannot be obtained before we have attained maturity in wisdom-the result of generations of Christian self-government. As we learn to apply God’s Word to practical situations in our personal lives, our homes, our schools, and our businesses; as Christian churches exercise Biblical judgment over their own officers and members, respecting and enforcing the discipline of other churches; then Christians will be able to be trusted with greater responsibilities. Those who are faithful in a few things will be put in charge of many things (Matt. 25:21, 23), but “from everyone who has been given much shall much be required” (Luke 12:48; cf. Luke 16:10-12; 19:17). One of the distinguishing marks of heretical movements throughout Church history has been the attempt to grab the robe of political power before it has been bestowed.

This whole issue has been thoughtfully explored in an excellent essay by James Jordan, and the best service I can provide the interested reader at this point is simply to refer him to it. 25 Jordan concludes his study with these words: “When we are ready, God will give the robe to us. That He has not done so proves that we are not ready. Asserting our readiness will not fool Him. Let us pray that He does not crush us by giving us such authority before we are ready for it. Let us plan for our great-grandchildren to be ready for it. Let us go about our business, acquiring wisdom in family, church, state, and business, and avoiding confrontations with the powers that be…. For as sure as Christ is risen from the grave and is ascended to regal glory on high, so sure it is that His saints will inherit the kingdom and rule in His name, when the time is right.”26

Footnote 25:

25. James B. Jordan, “Rebellion, Tyranny, and Dominion in the Book of Genesis,” in Gary North, ed., Tactics of Christian Resistance, Christianity and Civilization No.3 (Tyler, TX: Geneva Ministries, 1983), pp. 38-80.

Footnote 26:

26. Ibid., p. 74. In this connection, Jordan’s remarks on the so-called “patriotic” tax-resistance movement are also worth repeating: “We must keep in mind that the pagan is primarily interested in power. This means that the maintenance of force (the draft) and the seizure of money (excessive taxation) are of absolute primary interest to him. If we think these are the most important things, then we will make them the point of resistance (becoming ‘tax patriots’ or some such thing). To think this way is to think like pagans. For the Christian, the primary things are righteousness (priestly guarding) and diligent work (kingly dominion). Generally speaking, the pagans don’t care how righteous we are, or how hard we work, so long as they get their tax money. This is why the Bible everywhere teaches to go along with oppressive taxation, and nowhere hints at the propriety of tax resistance” (p. 79).

Jordan’s essay is also available at the URL above. Look for Tactics of Christian Resistance by Gary North.

Off the Rails at the CRA Board Meeting

Yesterday I attended a Board meeting of the California Republican Assembly. I’ve attended a lot of meeting for various organizations and this one was noteworthy for what was done incorrectly.

The highlights or takeaways or whatever metaphor fits the best were related to endorsements for candidates running for positions on the Board of the California Republican Party—the election for these positions will be during their spring convention.

I walked in the door just as Jim Brulte was being introduced. Brulte is the only announced candidate that has stepped forward to run for chairman of the California GOP. Brulte spoke for about five minutes and then fielded a few questions. Brulte did take two questions from me.

My first question was an attempt to get Brulte to promise that in the future, the CRP should not expend their limited funds in general election races where both candidates were Republicans. Please spend money fighting against Democrats. He did seems to agree that would be a better use of our resources.

My second question was concerning CRP candidate endorsements. I was trying to get Brulte to have the CRP adopt a primary system that did not vest all power in Central Committees and the State Board but allowed input from rank and file Republicans. Brulte had no interest in dealing with this issue. The current system was supposed to be only for the 2012 election cycle but no permanent solution has been proposed yet. I think it likely that the current system is here to stay. It is a top down model and works well in an authoritarian/elitist system. As long as this system is in place then the Republicans have no claim to being a “grassroots” Party.

Immediately following his remarks, the chair entertained a motion to endorse Brulte. She called for yea votes, then said “all opposed step outside” and the asked for any abstentions. I wanted to vote “no” based on the brush-off to my second question but I was not allowed to do so. Shortly after this vote, the Secretary called the role for purposes or establishing a quorum.

When a Chairman cannot follow Robert’s Rules of Order I loose respect for them. The rest of the body didn’t want the Chair to look dumber by pointing out that their endorsement vote was illegal and therefore void under both CRA’s Bylaws and Robert’s Rules.
• Quorum was not established prior to conducting business
• No one was allowed to speak in opposition to the nomination which was the case in all other endorsement votes held yesterday

As is often the practice of the Parliamentarian, he was silent on this snafu.

The Agenda for the meeting was poorly done. The main purpose of the Board Meeting was supposed to be to discuss endorsing candidates for the CRP Board and this was not even on the Agenda! The layout was not done as multi-level outline but resembled a grocery list.

My other gripe is much more delicate to discuss. A candidate for another office appeared at the Board Meeting seeking endorsement for his run for a CRP office. Except for Brulte, all other candidates were asked to leave the room. Once this other candidate left the room, the meeting took a trip into the Twilight Zone or some other infrequently charted waters.

An individual got up in front of the group and then stated that he had been sober for ten years and had not been arrested in 17 years but he said that the candidate that we had just heard could make no such claim. Wow!

Then a second person got up and began to talk about the candidate. His attempt to speak was curtailed by the chair. He was frustrated that he was unable to unload on the character of this individual and his conduct during the most recent election cycle. The person complaining was promised that he would be able to bring this up under new business. When he again tried under new business he was shut down by the chair. Clearly this candidate has hit a raw nerve in the minds of several that claimed to know him.

The endorsement was tabled in the remote hope that someone more palatable would be found at a future date.

This incident was one of those where the political response diverged from the biblical one.

The character assassination card was played against this person. He had no opportunity to respond to the accusations since he was not allowed in the room. No evidence was presented that the accusations were true and his reputation was hurt. Lastly the person could have been blocked from getting the endorsement without the tactics that were utilized.

I sensed that there was likely a basis in fact for the accusations but it was equally clear that the endorsement could be blocked without resorting to their use. Disclosure in this way was a punitive act.

The Christian response would be to pray for the person and if he claimed to be a believer then go to him in order that he might repent. Putting someone out of the church is a different issue from blocking a political endorsement. I think some well-meaning folks went too far.

I think my conclusion that we are not yet ready to lead is still true. We need a new paradigm before those in the church are ready to lead in the political world. We need to have a political worldview that is an extension of our faith not a contradiction of it.