A Lesson to learn from a “liberal icon”, “Civil Disobedience” author

The title of this article gives one the impression that I am referencing one of the great liberal authors like “William Ayers” or “Wade Rathke” or even Barack Obama. The title of this much overlooked book “Civil Disobedience” came from the artistic icon Henry David Thoreau who penned such works that are widely known as “Walden and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849) and both were rooted in “nature”.


Thoreau did not start out a nature novelist as his first foray into writing was in the Transcendentalist paper “The Dial” with his poem “Sympathy”. In his day he was the equivalent of today’s “green-peace” though he did not educate the masses from a fast moving boat but that of his writing.

There was another side to this man of nature and harmony and it was this man that penned “Civil Disobedience”. In the tranquil surroundings of 19th Century New England, Thoreau received his inspiration to write the tome due to his personal experience and distaste to the threat to personal freedom when he was imprisoned in 1846 (for just one night) as a result of his refusal to pay taxes in protest.

He wrote in Civil Disobedience “Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.”

The adverse effect of the power the State had over him after they arrested him was of a profound nature, so much so that another passage in his book read “The State never intentionally confronts a man’s sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. “

Ironically, Thoreau would have stayed in jail forever if necessary to make his stand against the tyranny of the State if it had not been for his family members paying his fines on the same day as his imprisonment without his knowledge. Thus he spent on day in jail but it only took that day to shape his dissent and beliefs.

He also wrote, in Civil Disobedience” about his jailers “They plainly did not know how to treat me, but behaved like persons who are under-bred. In every threat and in every compliment there was a blunder; for they thought that my chief desire was to stand the other side of that stone wall.... I saw that the State was half-witted, that it was timid as a lone woman with her silver spoons, and that it did not know its friends from its foes, and I lost all my remaining respect for it, and pitied it.

Thoreau was an inspiration to a couple of other liberal icons, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. When Gandhi’s referred to his second imprisonment in India he stated “Placed in a similar position for refusing his poll tax, the American citizen Thoreau expressed similar thought in 1849. Seeing the wall of the cell in which he was confined, made of solid stone 2 or 3 feet thick, and the door of wood and iron a foot thick, he said to himself, “If there were a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was still a more difficult one to climb or break through before they could get to be as free as I was.”

There are a lot of similarities that we, as Americans share with Thoreau in today’s struggle against the State we call our Government. There many who never heard of Thoreau and quite a few more that have never read the two books he published about nature. There are many others that hold Thoreau up as a literary icon and do not know of his anti-tax “Civil Disobedience” book that cuts against liberal ideology today.

We are not as ignorant as our socialist American neighbors would have us believe. According to Wendy McElroy, author of The Reasonable Woman: A Guide to Intellectual Survival (Prometheus Books, 1998), Thoreau opening lines in “Civil Disobedience “sets the tone by endorsing Thomas Jefferson’s much quoted sentiment on government — “That government is best which governs least.”

Then Thoreau carries Jefferson’s logic one step further:

Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, — “That government is best which governs not at all;” and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient....

Whatever his position on government, one point is clear: Thoreau denies the right of any government to automatic and unthinking obedience. Obedience should be earned and it should be withheld from an unjust government. To drive this point home, “Civil Disobedience” dwells on how the Founding Fathers rebelled against an unjust government, which raises the question of when rebellion is justified.

To answer, Thoreau compares government to a machine and the problems of government to “friction.” Friction is normal to a machine so that its mere presence cannot justify revolution. But open rebellion does become justified in two cases: first, when the friction comes to have its own machine, that is, when the injustice is no longer occasional but a major characteristic; and, second, when the machine demands that people cooperate with injustice. Thoreau declared that, if the government “requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. “

So I end this “history” lesson to give thanks to all of those who stand in defiance to this tyrannical and oppressive regime of the Socialist in power today. We can all consider ourselves to be “civil disobedient” in the mold of Thoreau!

Henry David Thoreau - "Civil Disobedience" Essay
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

MSM didn’t cover another Obamacare rally?

This time it was one of their own!

The campaign arm (Organizing for America) that is run out of the Democrat National Committee for Obama and their main ally in the push for Obama-care (Healthcare for America Now or HCAN) joined forces to counter the grassroots opposition in St. Louis by starting their own grassroots drive and opened multiple offices in the city to coordinate the effort.

Once they did so they advertised that they had arrived and were going to hold their first rally. This “national effort” of combined forces of resources, energy and personnel was a well coordinated event that also had the backing of Moveon.org.

St. Louis was the site of the town-hall protest that gave witness to the SEIU thugs that savagely beat the unarmed and peaceful African American handing out Gadsden flags. This assault by union thugs caught on video and witness testimony has yet to see any prosecutions of the offenders.

For all of financial, logistical and physical forces that the Obamacare proponents bring to bear in the city of St. Louis for the birth of their own counter-grassroots movement, a big whopping 30 people show up in support. It was such a pathetic crowd that a single, lone, counter protester was able to disrupt their planned event.

What HAS Obama accomplished?, The Left wants us to give him time!

There are a couple of quotes I have seen on blog sites that stand out. The First is:


Martin Luther King, Jr. – “I have a dream”
Barack Hussein Obama – “I have a scheme”

And

“For the first time in my adult life, I am NOT proud of my country!” – a different take on the quote by Michelle Obama.

So, the libs are screaming for us to stop attacking their President and give him time because after all he has only been in office less than 1 year. Those on the right side of life are critical of his handling the war, the economy, foreign policy, war on terror and just about everything he has done and is intending to do.

I am one of those critics! In order to be fair, I have searched my soul in an attempt to find anything, just one thing that Obama has done successfully. In this search I could not find a single thing has accomplished or made better in the things I mentioned above but admit that I am also one of those who want him to fail.

I am not talking about advocating America failing as a result or take this stance because of racial hatred but for the reason that his vision for America is not MINE.

It is my understanding that Obama wants to “defang American military might” and assimilate this country into an anonymous word order where not single country is better or mightier than any other. It is also my understanding that he wants to redistribute wealth and take from those who are productive and individually competitive and give it to those who are not productive and certainly non-competitive.

I say this because it is true! I saw Obama exchange words with Joe the Plumber and did not take that exchange “out of context”. I took Obama at his word.

I also say this because in Obama’s past (the past that he has graciously allowed us to see or those who have dug deep enough to find on their own) his actions speak the loudest of all.

It is in these actions that I have found and have come to understand that he has not really worked for what he was given. The same goes for Michelle Obama. They complain about those downtrodden ones who want the same playing field as the rich but only find that when they achieve some lofty personal goal, their bar is raised even higher.

When you hear the Obama’s talk about “class warfare” and “race relations” it is in the prism of the 1960’s (an era that they did not even live in). Both Barack and his Wife Michelle had achieved a “first class” education at America’s elite academic institutions (Ivy League) not based on their test scores, but because of affirmative action. Their own personal “bars” were lowered for them because of it. They had their educations “handed” to them and they took it like they want to hand out hard working tax payer funds to those who want their own hand-outs.

How can anyone who has had everything handed to them begin to understand what it means to work and achieve something on their own? They can’t, which is why they are Maxists.

After this soul searching I did find something that Barack Obama has accomplished and it was not something he set out to do. That something is awaken Americans to what America was founded on. You see there are millions of Americans just like me that have taken an interest in Obama and what he is trying to do because it seems wrong and destructive to what my life experience as an American meant.

I am talking about the trend that capitalism has realized for many generations in America and that trend is that your children will be better off than the generation that preceded them. For the first time, in my lifetime, I see America failing. The trillions of dollars that are owed will ensure that not only our very children have a huge burden, but their children as well as a result.

The other thing that I found astonishing was that those people, like me, who are personally looking inward to understand what made this country great. Its roots, its history, its trials and its tribulations! They, like me want to know what we are losing as a result of this man in the White House and those who do his bidding in the Senate and Congress on BOTH sides of the isle.

In my personal quest I have read and re-read the “Bill of Rights”, “The US Constitution and all of the Amendments”, “The debates of the Continental Congress” and multiple Presidential biographies (Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, Adams and Reagan).

The awakening that Obama has accomplished has manifested in the grass root efforts (not astro turf) of the “Tea Parties”, Townhalls and the peaceful opposition to his policies. These “people” that have awakened are Moms, Dads, Grandmothers, Democrats, Republican, Independents, Gay, Straight, Jewish, Christian and of every color by the millions. These people, like me have also looked backwards in our history to help guide their current actions to shape the future.

I did a Yahoo search on the “US Constitution” and found that there are “217,000,000” hits. When you consider that there are 300 million Americans that our Census admits to that leaves 13 million shy (just about the amount of illegal aliens in the US at the present time).

I did a Yahoo search on the “US Bill of Rights” and found that there are “692,000,000 hits.

I did a Yahoo search on the “Declaration of Independence” 29,400,000 hits.

It is apparent that people are looking back to see what it is we are at risk of losing with Obama. This is what he has accomplished!

The “Muslim Backlash” -- in reverse

The MSM, White House and members of the Muslim Community have all chimed in after the Ft. Hood incident on their fears of the impending “backlash” against Muslims.


In an effort to outdo each other in their PCism the left have gone to extreme lengths to downplay the “Muslim Terror” angle of the travesty. The MSM have been repeatedly running appeasement pieces that portrait the perpetrator (Hassan) as suffering from stress related mental conditions as a result of constant teasing and racial attacks against him personally leading up to his melt-down.

The MSM have thrown in a couple of human interest stories on the execution of another terrorist (DC Sniper) that he died peacefully and that his son, on the day of his execution laughed and joked with his father prior to being put to sleep.

I keep waiting for an overblown story to pop up like the “flying Imams” to push their appeasing “guilt ridden” fluff pieces on the public to justify their fears. So far “alls quiet on the Western front”. No mosque burnings, torch carrying mobs or anything of the sort. Nada, Zip, Nothing!

Oh wait, there was a story yesterday about a Muslim.

“Police arrested 22-year-old Abdul Walid Hamid of Hayward on the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 4, after he reportedly tore a crucifix from a person's neck and scared others at Stoneridge Shopping Center.

Hamid, an employee at a mall kiosk near Starbucks, has been charged with battery, terrorist threats and grand theft.

According to reports, Hamid was yelling "Allah is power" and "Islam is great" while holding a pen in a fist over his head. Witnesses said he shouted anti-Christian comments, said police.


Lt. Mike Elerick of the Pleasanton Police Department said the man was not provoked and didn't threaten violence, but he committed robbery when he grabbed and broke a crucifix off someone's neck."

I guess the never ending Muslim backlash provoked this man to the point of a stress related breakdown. I guess we should be grateful that he was only armed with a pen. Then again, the pen is mightier than the sword.

Democrats buzzword phrase "Public Option"

For all of the discussions/debates that are consuming the airwaves and the dinner tables across america regarding Pelosi-care; Reid-Care or Obama-care and the overwhelming opposition to the power grabbing bill for many different reasons (death panels; cost; abortion; jailtime for non-compliance; taxes; rationing of care; long lines and just about everything in the bill) the 800 pound gorilla is Government failure.


Those in opposition point to things like Medicare and Social Security being bankrupt and nowhere near the original cost estimates put forward before they were enacted. The other is the post office which has run in the red for quite some time.

All of these historical points are valid and true regardless of the "snake oil" being presented for sale by our elected socialists. I would like to add another two to the mix of the already strong proof that when the government says a program is only going to cost X it is actually 7X's greater.

I want everyone to invoke their thoughts on a single word "Public" (as in "Public" Option) and then apply your memory of two other "Public" named governmental institutions:

Public Schools

Public Housing

I know that I do not have to remind everyone the similarities of how much money spent on "Public" schools per year, per child that gets diverted immediately to the administrative level vs. the actual students or classrooms. The Beauracratic positions that are to be created from the funding of these bills will not be so disimilar in the effects of service to administrative job ratios.

I also know that I do not have to remind anyone the similarities of how much money spent on "Public" housing per year that never goes to tenant improvement projects to limit the squalor or drug infestation as well as rodents, pests and crumbling safety violations like Obama's White House Valerie Jarrett provides her tenants.

Just a thought.

The hypocrisy of the RNC

Since 1991, the RNC’s healthcare insurance has elective abortion coverage


We have long suspected that the RNC’s RINO factory has not been what it should be (a conservative organization in the model of its founding). For a long time now we have seen Republicans the like of Arlen Specter (who acts more like Phil Specter than a Republican), Olympia Snow and, yes, John McCain.


The lurch to the left for the RNC/GOP has proven to most conservatives since the mid-term of Bush’s second term that our party is not our party anymore. The MSM and Socialist Democrats have been telling us since 2006 that the Republican Party is dead and they are absolutely correct. The final shift away from the weakness and hypocrisy gained momentum when the GOP/RNC endorsed John McCain as the party representative for the Presidency.

We now learn that the RNC was exposed to even more damaging information that their insurance policy allows and covers elective abortions while they give lip service in Congress to the adversarial stance of allowing it in the Pelosi Healthcare bill.

Only when the jig was up and soon to be disclosed bit of embarrassing information was about to be exposed by the media did Michael Steele (the affirmative action leader of the RNC) say he was ending the coverage. Well Michael – too little too late. They are a dinosaur and just don’t see it yet. The RNC is the GOP’s Jurassic park.

The plot thickens

And the chickens are coming home to roost


I wrote an article awhile ago about Obama and how many different criminal investigations that he is tied to by name. From Blagojevich to Rezko and of course the possibility that he is not a natural born citizen.


In addition, I wrote of the connection of the murder of the government informant/witness that was cooperating in the investigation of the breach of the passport files at the State Department of Obama, Clinton and McCain.

When I wrote this article it wasn’t directly accusing him of being guilty, just the fact that his name keeps appearing in these investigations. It, to me, was disconcerting that the President of the United States seemed to be “in the mix” in numerous crimes either by name or proxy. How many people do you know that are named in a single federal indictment let alone multiple ones that involve them either directly or indirectly? I cannot name anyone, how about you? So, what are the odds that Obama’s name keeps appearing on multiple fronts?

The one crime that disturbs me the most was the Federal witness in the Passport tampering case. To me, it was suspicious enough because it was the one area that is and was sought in many of the “natural born” cases winding their way through the system and how convenient it was to Obama to have the witness end up dead.

Now, today, I came across the Headline at Breitbart:

Obama orders intel review on Fort Hood shooting

The article begins with this:

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama has ordered a review of all intelligence related to Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and whether the information was properly shared and acted upon within government agencies.

The review will be overseen by John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. The first results are due to the White House by Nov. 30.

As soon as I saw the name “John Brennan” I remembered the “Obama Passport Witness Murder” story.

Why, you ask?

John Brennan is the CEO of Analysis Corporation and was the employer of the “contract employee” that was found to have breeched the State Department Records”.

The original “Washington Times” article about the witness murder has been removed from their website?

This is what the Washington Times article said 04/19/08:

“A key witness in a federal probe into passport information stolen from the State Department was fatally shot in front of a District church, the Metropolitan Police Department said yesterday.

Lt. Quarles Harris Jr., 24, who had been cooperating with a federal investigators, was found late Thursday night slumped dead inside a car, in front of the Judah House Praise Baptist Church in Northeast, said Cmdr. Michael Anzallo, head of the department's Criminal Investigations Division.

Cmdr. Anzallo said a police officer was patrolling the neighborhood when gunshots were heard, then Lt. Harris was found dead inside the vehicle, which investigators would describe only as a blue car.

Emergency medics pronounced him dead at the scene.

City police said they do not know whether his death was a direct result of his cooperation with federal investigators.

"We don't have any information right now that connects his murder to that case," Cmdr. Anzallo said.

Police say a "shot spotter" device helped an officer locate Lt. Harris.”

I find it suspicious that the three individuals that breached the State Department Passport files have never been named. We know that at least one worked for John Brennan and was “disciplined” (what ever that means?) and the other two worked for another company altogether and were fired before investigators could talk to them. We have never known their names.

The other thing I find suspicious is how do you go from being the CEO of a company that had one of its employees breach “State Department Passport Files” and then end up as the Obama’s “Homeland Security Advisor” (less than a year later and one witness murdered) in the White House?