Author: Mark Noonan

A Terrible, Horrible Anti-Choice Abortion Law

Mark Noonan35 Comments

Read it and weep, liberals:

Conditions: Between 12 and 18 weeks of gestation, the women must discuss the procedure with a social worker. After 18 weeks, permission must be obtained from the Board of Health and Welfare.

Abortions must be performed by a licensed medical practitioner and, except in cases of emergency, in a general hospital or other approved healthcare establishment…

Can you believe those knuckle-dragging, bitter-clingers of Texas trying to impose that kind of burden on a woman’s choice?  The nerve of those Christo-fascists!  Leave a woman’s vagina alone!  Keep your Rosaries off their ovaries!

Oh, wait…that is Sweden’s abortion law….

When our liberals claim that we’re engaging in a “war on women” because we want reasonable restrictions and regulations on abortion, all we’re doing is bringing American law in line with the rest of the civilized world.  Only a few Western nations ban abortion outright – Chile and Ireland being notable exceptions to the general run which allows abortion…but in almost all Western nations, only unrestricted in the first trimester.   In a very real sense, only in America can a child a day or two away from birth be murdered at the sole discretion of the mother – and that is the situation our liberals wish not only keep, but to make government-subsidized and available to minors without parental knowledge or consent.

As you all know, I’m pro-life – I’d like us to mirror Chile and just ban abortions outright.  We’re not, however, likely to get that any time soon – but we should at least be as cautious about abortion as the ultra-liberals of Europe, shouldn’t we?  Isn’t human life worth at least something?

Bottom line, anyone who does not get on board with laws like that proposed in Texas – which really does no more than put a few restrictions on late-term abortions and require abortuaries to maintain minimum health standards – is essentially coming down on the side of infanticide.

In Congress, July 4th, 1776

Mark Noonan10 Comments

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness…

…We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

America: Land of the Unfree…Are We Still the Home of the Brave?

Mark Noonan50 Comments

Reading that headline, you might think that what I’m on about is the NSA and IRS scandals – and that does play a role, here, but the fact of the matter is that I’ve been worried about the erosion of our liberties for quite some time.  I just happen to have concluded, as of today, that we are simply an unfree people.

Scanning our emails, etc is just a symptom of a larger problem.  If we were a free people it wouldn’t be that our emails weren’t scanned but that no one in government would dare to even suggest it, let alone carry it out.  Free people keep the government on its toes – these days, fellow Americans, it is government which keeps us on our toes.  We can’t even turn around without first obtaining a “by your leave” from the government.

Do you think you own property?  Paid the mortgage and the title deed is in your hand?  Ha!  You don’t own it.  You’re just renting it from the government – they call it “property taxes”, but rent it is…and if you don’t pay the rent, you’re off the property.  And, worse than that, if the government figures that someone else can pay more rent than you, then they’ll take “your” property from you and hand it over to the other guy.

Do you think you’ve got freedom of speech?  Go to a college campus or corporate break room and merely state the Catholic position on homosexuality.  You’ll be lucky if you’re only fired from your job or escorted off campus by the police.

Do you think you’ve got freedom of assembly?  Tell that to all the groups with “patriot” in their name back in 2012 – the IRS deliberately oppressed them for the simple fact that patriots wanted to gather together and petition their government.

Do you think you’ve got free exercise of religion?  Oh, for crying out loud – try to maintain a cross in honor of fallen soldiers of even mention God at an official function at school.  You’ve got the ability to go to Church – but if you take what the pastor preached and try to apply it in the public square, you’ll swiftly learn just how free you are to exercise your religion:  hardly at all.

To be sure, there is a vestige of freedom left – more from a force of habit than anything else.  Because until rather recently we were free it hasn’t become entirely ingrained in us to knuckle under, nor ingrained in government to immediately wipe out all dissent.  The tattered remnants of liberty are still left to us – and therein lies the question: are we brave enough to seize our freedom back from those who have usurped it?

That, quite honestly, I don’t know.  But we do have the capability – while government is still yet weak enough that it can be forced back in to its proper role.  We can, if we are brave enough to face the hatred and spite of our rulers and their misguided followers, simply vote out the oppressors and pass the necessary laws to restore freedom and restrict government.  If we are brave, then we will do it – and we will be, once again, the land of the free as well as home of the brave.  Time will tell what path we choose – the brave path to freedom, or the cowardly path to slavery.

Edward Snowden, NSA Leaker: Hero or Fool?

Mark Noonan32 Comments

Well, he outed himself – a former CIA and NSA employee until just recently working as a contractor for the NSA is the man who leaked the spying plan.  Now, what to make of it?

I’m not sure if he’s a hero or a fool – but he does have some guts because at the very least, Uncle Sam is going to want to drop on him like a ton of bricks.  Whether or not that happens remains to be seen – now that he’s self-outed and not easily detainable by the government, things might not go so bad for him.  What he’s done, in strictly legal terms, probably carries a lot of “20 to life” terms.  We’ll have to see how this plays out.

I’ve been pondering this whole mess and I’ve come to the conclusion that the ultimate problem we have is a misunderstanding of just what the threat is.  The government – especially under Obama, who is desperate to propagate the myth that Islamist extremism poses no great threat to the United States – is engaging in massive intelligence gathering in a desperate effort to stave off terrorist attacks before they happen.  Of course, we have seen how well this works in Boston.  Now, of course the government probably has thwarted a large number of attempted attacks – but can’t tell us about them because to do so would reveal sources and thus jeopardize ongoing efforts to keep after the terrorists.  But, also, Boston does show that even the most massive intelligence gathering leaves gaps.  In other words, no matter how much data they mine on us and everyone else in the world, they will never catch all the terrorists – and the terrorists will keep after us, forever, unless we stop them, permanently.

Permanently stopping them means going to war with them and chasing them to the ends of the earth and killing or taking all of them.  Now, will we do that?  Not now.  Not just because Obama is unable to see the threat, but because America is tired of fighting the Islamists.  American wars can go upwards of 5 years, but no longer – we just don’t have the patience beyond that.  Especially if there’s no clear-cut goal in sight.  We’ll have to wait until the Islamists hit us again, very hard, and then hope we have leadership which sees the path to true strategic thinking.

Meanwhile, I think I’ve had enough of this intelligence gathering.  We need laws specifically prohibiting any government employee, at any level, from obtaining or retaining data on any American without a warrant – and the warrants must have an expiration date, upon which the target of the warrant is informed of its existence and 100% of the data collected in connection with it – seriously; all the original documents mailed to the target so he can see what was found (I’d like it to be no more than 90 days, but others I’ve discussed it with say it has to go longer – but it must have a drop dead date).  Intelligence gathering overseas and among foreigners I don’t give a darn about – knock yourself out, NSA.  But on Americans?  No.  Dad fought on Saipan and Grandpa in the Argonne to stop this very sort of nonsense from happening.  Enough is enough.

 

A False Recovery, Part II

Mark Noonan109 Comments

From Mish’s:

Inquiring minds are digging into the stunningly bad Quarter-Over-Quarter decline in wages and real wages across all sectors…

…The BLS notes “Unit labor costs in nonfarm businesses fell 4.3 percent in the first quarter of 2013, the combined effect of a 3.8 percent decrease in hourly compensation and the 0.5 percent increase in productivity. The decline in hourly compensation is the largest in the series, which begins in 1947.”…

This is just lousy.  Now, before any of you out there get all “that’s just GOPer doom and gloom”, Mike Shedlock (Mish) was firmly anti-Bush 2001-09 and stands entirely outside the GOP.  He’s not in any way, shape or form one of us.  He’s just a genuinely independent observer and economic analyst.  And his conclusion?

The Fed and Obama are both engaging in counterproductive policies that discourage hiring, especially hiring of full-time employees.

Of course Obama will respond by asking for a raise in minimum wage (giving further incentives to businesses to seek ways to get rid of employees), and the Fed will vow to keep interest rates low (enabling companies to borrow money for next to nothing to do just that).

Between the Federal Reserve (entirely committed to Keynesian idiocy) and Obama (also entirely committed to Keynesian idiocy), the ability of the United States to recover from the 2008 crash has been crushed.  And to make it all worse, the twin policies of Bernanke and Obama are setting us strait on the path to renewed, and much worse, crash.  The only way we can get out of this mess is to produce our way out of it – by creating wealth.  That takes making, mining and growing things in a free market…not subsidizing green energy scams or dinosaur auto makers; not printing more fake money and piling up more debt; not by re-paving an already paved road and hiring more diversity coordinators for the Department of Departmental Affairs.

 

 

A False Recovery

Mark Noonan62 Comments

Lately, our liberals have been pumped over the stock market rising to record highs – to them (you know, the people who were occupying Wall Street in 2012), this is proof positive that Obama’s economic policies have worked.  I’ve been pointing out since 2009 that pumping fake money in to the economy merely allows everyone to hide the true economic facts and that eventually there will be a renewed collapse.  This inevitable collapse will be worse than the original crash as there is more debt and fake money infecting the economy.  I quite honestly didn’t expect that Bernanke and Obama could keep the ball in the air this long – I also didn’t think that anyone, not even a Ruling Class bankster like Bernanke, would be stupid enough (apparently) to think that he can print money forever.  These days, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dow hits 20,000 – after all, when the latest ISM – Manufacturing report came out today showing economic contraction, the stock markets initially surged…likely because people believe that bad news means Bernanke will print even more, thus shoving stock prices higher.  But, still, reality is out there.

The reality is that Europe is in a crushing recession – indeed, with youth unemployment in some countries in the 50% range, its in a crushing Great Depression.  China’s economy wobbles along mired in hidden debt and massive corruption (and very fake official government economic reports).  And, I believe, we are in recession – and a recession with a nasty stock market and real estate bubble (sound familiar?).  This article over at Zero Hedge is the best description of our circumstances – and just why a high Dow isn’t a sign of economic health.  I heartily recommend reading it.  It concludes thusly:

A good case can be made for the fact that there is no recovery and that we are just beginning our decline. The efforts of government merely served to drive us more deeply into debt and stave off normal economic healing. If this observation is correct, all that has been accomplished is a postponement and accentuation of the pain to come. My economic sense tells me that is the case.

Whether you accept this conclusion or not, don’t be fooled by the performance of the stock market. There is little other than inflationary Fed policy to justify financial asset prices. Furthermore, recent performance really isn’t special as those living through the 1930s learned. In fact, what has happened recently doesn’t even measure up to the initial rebound that occurred during the Great Depression.

Time will come when this cannot be sustained.  Today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year.  Pain cannot be avoided – a crash must and will come and it will hurt.  The only thing we can do is try to get some policies which will allow us to climb out of it swiftly.  Unfortunately, it is impossible for us to get such policies on a national scale until Obama leaves office.

How Liberals Treat Conservatives

Mark Noonan51 Comments

From Pajamas Media:

Government targeting of conservatives is not confined to a couple of federal departments, as demonstrated by the events in a small District of Columbia employee relations board. A letter obtained by PJ Media documents open racism and hostility toward pregnant and conservative employees in the D.C. Public Employee Relations Board (PERB). The letter also demonstrates that lawless hostility toward conservatives is a characteristic of all levels of government.

According to a resignation letter from its executive director, this District of Columbia government board responsible for resolving employee disputes with management has engaged in racist hiring practices, discrimination against pregnant women, and hostility toward conservatives…

Detailed in the articles are complaints from liberals at PERB that the African-American head of the PERB hired a white male, while another person proposed for hiring by the board should not be approved because her work record allegedly showed a “right of center” political ideology.  The resigning head of the PERB – Ondray Harris – seems to have merely been a fair-minded man who followed the law in his hiring decisions.  This, apparently, is an outrage to liberals who view government as their private preserve. 

How are we supposed to work with such people?  Where can there be bi-partisan activity with people who clearly hate us with a white hot passion?  As we on the right work for victory – and we will be victorious, in the by and by – we must remember these things and take the necessary steps to ensure that all those in government who have abused their authority are removed from office – and if this takes firing half the people working in government, then so be it.

Wars Don’t “End”: They are Won, or Lost

Mark Noonan35 Comments

In light of Obama’s recent statement that the war must end, I just wanted to point that out.  Wars don’t end, they are won, or lost.  And if you want to know the difference then think of it like this:  if you aren’t winning, then you are losing.  Anyone want to argue that we are winning the war against that ideology which launched an attack on us on 9/11?

Obama is abdicating his responsibility for the safety of the United States.  He wants to pretend the war is over so that he can move on to other things.  His bet is that nothing particularly nasty will happen between now and January 20th, 2017.  He may be right about that – the Islamists are likely to be busy in Libya, Egypt and Syria for the next few years and while they will seek to launch attacks on us, their primary goal will be to consolidate their control over those Muslim nations.  But the war goes on – we may want it to end, but they don’t want it to, and in war it only takes one to tango.

Unless we fight them they will not be stopped – and the longer we refuse to fight them, the stronger they will get and the more bloody and difficult the eventual war will be.  Like the leaders of Britain in 1938, Obama had a choice between war and shame – he choose shame.  He’ll get war, too.  Though the really terrible part of the war may not come as long as Obama is in office.  But come it will – the Islamists are certain they are on the wave of victory and that they will conquer the entirety of Western Civilization.  You might think it foolish.  It might well even be extremely foolish – but it is no more foolish than Hitler thinking he could conquer the world.  It doesn’t matter if its foolish – if the fools think it can be done, they will try it.  And, right now, the fools very much think it can be done…and we’re doing nothing to convince them otherwise.  Indeed, we’re encouraging them – by Obama’s actions – to think that they’ve got it made.

 

Fight or Die

Mark Noonan55 Comments

In light of the cowardly way we ran and hid in Boston when two terrorists were loose; given the reaction of the British crowd to a soldier being massacred by two Muslims in Britain; as we watch the Swedes endure day after day of Islamist youth on a rampage, I’ve come to a conclusion.  It was neatly solidified when Walter Russell Mead quoted In Flanders Fields in his Memorial Day column:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Mead correctly points out that the poem does not call for us to feel sorry for the dead, but to carry on their fight.  Mead was more of a mind to remind us not to just pity, but to remember and to honor what the dead fought for.  For me, its a slightly different take.  As a person who had read libraries of history with a definite concentration on military matters, I remember all of the men of our civilization who have fought.  To me, any man who took up arms in his nation’s cause and who did his duty honorably and nobly is worthy of my respect and remembrance – and my best efforts to see that what is right and good in our civilization is defended.  Of course those who died for my nation hold pride of place in my heart and mind, but I spare a thought, from time to time, for those British who died for King and Country; those Russian who bled for their Tsar; those Kaisertreu Hapsburg soldiers who faced hopeless odds at Sadowa.  All of them stood forth and did their duty as men, as Christians and as citizens of our common civilization.

Continue reading →

The Frightening Attacks on American Liberty

Mark Noonan74 Comments

I’ve been pondering all the scandals – adding to or expanding on those of which originated in Obama’s first term, as detailed in 150 Reasons (you really should pick it up, in light of the latest revelations) – and I have felt a deep chill come over my American heart.  There is a fundamental flaw here – a deep chasm has now opened between those like myself and those who, after these recent revelations, will continue to back President Obama.

The final straw has been the story of the Obama Administration’s pursuit of Fox News correspondent James Rosen – when coupled with the investigation of the Associated Press and the rampant abuse of power by the IRS, what we have here is an Administration which (a) does not care about the law, (b) is willing to act routinely in an un-American manner and (c) views its political opponents as worthy targets for criminal investigations.  Furthermore, even slavish devotion to Obama (as routinely carried out by the Associated Press) is no defense: as in tyrannies past, all you need do to destroy years of being a toady is just once step out of line.

Of course, to set the record entirely straight, this isn’t all just Obama.  For more than a century, now, we’ve had Presidents willing to cut constitutional corners.  Indeed, the first Chief Executive to introduce extra-constitutional acts in to the Administration was Republican Theodore Roosevelt, honored to this day both on the left and the right as a great and good President – but it was Roosevelt who first asserted that unless the Constitution specifically forbade a government act, it was legitimate.  This stands in stark contrast to, say, Grover Cleveland, Andrew Jackson and other, earlier Presidents who had, at times, vetoed legislation not because they thought the law wrong, but because they found no warrant for it in the Constitution.  From Teddy Roosevelt through Wilson to FDR to Nixon to Obama is a straight line – with plenty of others along the way since 1901 also playing fast and loose with the law (really, only Coolidge in the 20’s put a brake on such actions).  But there is a difference, now, in what Obama has done.

And once again setting the record entirely straight, there is a lot of similarity between Obama’s actions and Nixon’s in the early 70’s – especially in using the IRS as a bludgeon against opponents (there are also some strong indicators that Clinton used the IRS in a similar manner, though no where near the brazenness of Nixon and Obama).  But, still, even with the record of Nixon before us, Obama stands in a world apart – taking steps which are not just corrupt or illegal or corner-cutting, but in direct contravention of all that Americans have fought and bled for over more than two centuries.  The stories of IRS agents demanding what amounts of loyalty oaths from pro-lifers not to picket Planned Parenthood and demanding to know how conservatives pray are just disgusting – so horrific and un-American that I never imagined that someone sharing my citizenship could ever ask such things.  These attacks against freedom of speech and religion are joined with attacks on freedom of the press – with the Administration seeking to intimidate reporters in to silence (doubly strange given that 90% of reporters are devoted to Obama).  We have here an Administration which not only doesn’t like opposition (no Administration actually does, of course), but which is determined to stamp out dissent – determined, that is, that only Administration propaganda be allowed in America, all other voices silenced.

This is not – or, at least, should not be – a left/right issue.  This is about basic, American freedoms.  It is no business of government how I pray, whom I decide to picket or what news I choose to report or read.  There is no legitimate reason for government to even query me on such subjects as no such actions can in any way, shape or form risk the liberty and safety of the American people which our government was created to secure.  A thorough investigation needs to be conducted.  All those involved – whether as actual law-breakers or those who knew of it but didn’t report it – must be dismissed from further government employment.  Strict laws must be enacted prohibiting any such action in the future.  Permanent, non-partisan oversight must be established over all federal law enforcement agencies – over any agency which can take an American’s life, liberty or property, that is.

As a final thought – shame on us, fellow Americans.  We have sunk very low and our ancestors must be ashamed of us.  Those who died fighting for our liberty must be turning in their graves.  That it took such shocking actions to even partially wake us up is sad commentary on how used to government power we’ve become.  Our ancestors would have been outraged over all this a long time ago.  It is time to call a halt to this abuse of power – this tyrannical use of the federal government against dissenters.  It is time to restore the balance – with the scales massively weighted in favor of the liberty of the American people.