Author Archives: OGHD

The New Romans

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NOTE: This entire post is distilled from an excellent article at the BBC.

Republic

At the end of the second century BC the Roman people was sovereign. True, rich aristocrats dominated politics.  Yet ultimate power lay with the Roman people.  Rome prided itself on being a ‘free republic’ and centuries later was the political model for the founding fathers of the United States.

Redistribution

[pullquote]”A Republic, if you can keep it”  –Benjamin Franklin[/pullquote]Many Romans themselves put the key turning point in 133 BC. A young magistrate, Gracchus proposed to distribute to poor citizens stretches of state-owned land in Italy which had been illegally occupied by the rich.

Empire

Augustus was both canny and lucky. When he died in 14 AD, aged well over 70, he was succeeded by his stepson, … Continue reading →

The Big Newt Link List

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Newt References

By Bill Quick and Laura Hult

About Newt:

Newt’s first Tea Party (with photo)
Here

Partial Transcript:  Newt Gingrich Campaign Rally in Jackson, Mississippi – March 8 2012
Here

Newt Gingrich: Autism Advocate
Here

RNC’s delegate count shows Gingrich ahead of Santorum
Here

Newt and Alvin Toffler
Here

 

Newt on the Issues:

Setting the Record Straight: Newt’s Positions on the Issues and His Record
Here

Gingrich Now Says He Was ‘Wrong’ to Support Individual Mandate
Here

Newt Gingrich: Growth and Prosperity Rather Than Austerity
Here

Newt: Fix Social Security So Obama Can’t Keep Scaring the American People
Here

No, Newt did not endorse the Obamacare mandate
Here

Where … Continue reading →

The Inevitable yet Breathtaking Decline of Ann Coulter

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Ann Coulter, high-speed wail, has reached a new low in her column of April 11, 2012, and I suspect she is nowhere near quitting.  Her unsupportable position regarding Romney demands support, and now she must lie and distort in order to make the words come out.

This column is not composed of actual shrieking, which she seems to have gotten out of her system in this Ricochet podcast, but it’s breathtaking nonetheless in its dishonesty and flat-out malice for the Tea Party, which she calls “conservative primary voters”.   I’m not going to fisk the whole thing.  Let me just outline it and poke a limited number of holes in this seamlessly rotten garment.

Checks and Balances

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[pullquote]the three branches are still one government[/pullquote]We are familiar with our tripartite form of government, wherein each of three branches acts to check the impulses and balance the actions of the other two.  There is another level at work here, and I find it clarifying to recall that the three branches are all still subdivisions of one entity, the government.  The other trinity here is a set of relationships between God, Man, and government, and this is made explicit in the Declaration of Independence.

As a rule of thumb, I find that where Constitutionality comes into play, I prefer whichever course brings the status of things in closer accord with the Declaration.  This sort of action is typically undertaken by the Supreme Court, but is not limited to … Continue reading →

God of the Left

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The left see judges as Solomon-like in their wisdom and more importantly, their rightful scope. Obama is a disease, but he is also a symptom. He is a willing, malicious part of the problem BECAUSE he has been educated in the halls of the left.
Of course he knows about Marbury v Madison, and he agrees that a key role of the court is judicial review of laws for Constitutionality. The problem is that he and his fellow-travellers actually see the courts as a source for progressive remedies of conservative intransigence. They believe that the courts have a duty to act as the wise king, settling the disputes of Congress the shepherd and a President the farmer.

The left has assembled a God whose existence needs neither … Continue reading →

Chump

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NBC, ABC, and CNN are now walking back their made-up claims of racism when pressed on their shoddy “evidence”.  NBC doctored audio–no clue how that happened.  ABC doctored video–no clue how that happened.  CNN reported their own assumptions as facts–no clue how that happened.  No clue how all of these false items pointed in the same direction.

Nobody disputes that Zimmerman shot Martin.  Yet, facts stubbornly refuse to fit the narrative of the professional race-hustlers.  Now elderly white men are being beaten by mobs who scream “This is for Trayvon”!  Too bad then that the President couldn’t keep his filthy waffle hatch shut.

Gender war, check.  Race war, check.  Class war, check.  Stay classy, Obama.

… Continue reading →

On Refusing Orders, On Contemptuous Words

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The short answer is: Don’t do it.

The medium answer is: You better have your ducks in a row.

There is a whole curriculum of ethics for how to resolve discrepancies between directions when you should feel that they (discrepancies) exist. It has been many years since ROTC sessions on military ethics, but allow me to share with you my resultant set of guideposts.

[pullquote]You are expected to hold a bias that an order is lawful[/pullquote]We have a duty to not carry out, and in some cases, to resist the implementation of unlawful orders. But in assessing an order as unlawful, you take on yourself the responsibility to defend your actions before the law. That is, if you feel strongly enough that an order is unlawful, then it … Continue reading →