Saturday, April 28, 2007
National Debt Chart
The chart below shows the United Stated national debt (per Microsoft’s Encarta Encyclopedia and US Government data with the various Presidents’ terms marked by vertical lines.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
The Sanctity of Iraqi Life, by Jacob Hornberger
Friday, April 20, 2007
The Sanctity of Iraqi Life
President Bush recently delivered two interesting speeches. According to the New York Times, in a talk at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, “Bush invoked the powerful imagery of the Holocaust on Wednesday to intensify pressure on Sudan, warning that the United States would impose stiff economic sanctions and seek others from the United Nations if President Omar Hassan al-Bashir does not bring a quick end to the brutal violence in Darfur.”
Bush’s other talk was to the fourth annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Addressing a crowd that included Catholic priests and the bishop of the Arlington, Virginia, Diocese, Bush said, “We must continue to work for a culture of life — where the strong protect the weak, and where we recognize in every human life the image of our Creator.”
Unfortunately, it seems that none of the people in either audience asked Bush to reconcile his remarks with what the U.S. government has done to the people of Iraq. Consider the number of Iraqi people killed by the U.S. government since the U.S. broke off its partnership with Saddam Hussein in 1990: an estimated 600,000 in Bush’s war and invasion, an estimated 300,000 Iraqi children during the sanctions period (although U.S. Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright didn’t dispute the estimate of half-a-million when she stated that the deaths of the Iraqi children were “worth it”), and an estimated 100,000 deaths in the Persian Gulf War, for a total of some 900,000 Iraqi dead.
That’s almost 1/6 the number of people killed in the Holocaust! That is not a small number of dead Iraqi people. And on top of that are the hundreds of thousands of injured and maimed Iraqis.
Wouldn’t you think that people who are strongly committed to the sanctity of human life would have as much commitment to Iraqi life as to American life? Aren’t Iraqi people created in the image of God as much as Americans are? Why didn’t those hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi people have the same right to live their lives out naturally as Americans do? Under what moral authority did the U.S. government engage in an operation that ended up snuffing out the lives of so many Iraqi people?
Apparently none of the Catholic priests at the breakfast chose to ask Bush those questions. Perhaps it’s because many of them have “patriotically” supported the Iraq War and subsequent occupation, regardless of how many Iraqis have been killed.
For example, consider the pro-war stance of Catholic theologian George Wiegel, whose pro-war articles have been printed in the Arlington Catholic Herald, the official newspaper of the Arlington diocese. Weigel steadfastly maintains that Bush’s war and occupation are justified under Catholic just-war theory. But if Weigel is right (and there are many Catholic theologians who say he’s not), then I say that the Catholic just-war theory is in desperate need of being abandoned by Catholics as a guide to war, given that it would be difficult to find a better example of a war of aggression, a type of war crime punished at Nuremberg, than Bush’s war on Iraq.
The Catholic priests had an excellent opportunity to confront Bush directly with his wrongdoing in Iraq, ask him to confess his sin and to repent the wrongful killing and maiming of so many Iraqi people. Unfortunately, unable to muster the courage and moral fortitude that the late Pope John Paul II reflected in opposing Bush’s invasion of Iraq prior to the invasion, the Catholic priests, while reaffirming their commitment to the sanctity of human life, decided to remain mute on the deaths of almost a million Iraqis.
Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.
The Sanctity of Iraqi Life
President Bush recently delivered two interesting speeches. According to the New York Times, in a talk at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, “Bush invoked the powerful imagery of the Holocaust on Wednesday to intensify pressure on Sudan, warning that the United States would impose stiff economic sanctions and seek others from the United Nations if President Omar Hassan al-Bashir does not bring a quick end to the brutal violence in Darfur.”
Bush’s other talk was to the fourth annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Addressing a crowd that included Catholic priests and the bishop of the Arlington, Virginia, Diocese, Bush said, “We must continue to work for a culture of life — where the strong protect the weak, and where we recognize in every human life the image of our Creator.”
Unfortunately, it seems that none of the people in either audience asked Bush to reconcile his remarks with what the U.S. government has done to the people of Iraq. Consider the number of Iraqi people killed by the U.S. government since the U.S. broke off its partnership with Saddam Hussein in 1990: an estimated 600,000 in Bush’s war and invasion, an estimated 300,000 Iraqi children during the sanctions period (although U.S. Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright didn’t dispute the estimate of half-a-million when she stated that the deaths of the Iraqi children were “worth it”), and an estimated 100,000 deaths in the Persian Gulf War, for a total of some 900,000 Iraqi dead.
That’s almost 1/6 the number of people killed in the Holocaust! That is not a small number of dead Iraqi people. And on top of that are the hundreds of thousands of injured and maimed Iraqis.
Wouldn’t you think that people who are strongly committed to the sanctity of human life would have as much commitment to Iraqi life as to American life? Aren’t Iraqi people created in the image of God as much as Americans are? Why didn’t those hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi people have the same right to live their lives out naturally as Americans do? Under what moral authority did the U.S. government engage in an operation that ended up snuffing out the lives of so many Iraqi people?
Apparently none of the Catholic priests at the breakfast chose to ask Bush those questions. Perhaps it’s because many of them have “patriotically” supported the Iraq War and subsequent occupation, regardless of how many Iraqis have been killed.
For example, consider the pro-war stance of Catholic theologian George Wiegel, whose pro-war articles have been printed in the Arlington Catholic Herald, the official newspaper of the Arlington diocese. Weigel steadfastly maintains that Bush’s war and occupation are justified under Catholic just-war theory. But if Weigel is right (and there are many Catholic theologians who say he’s not), then I say that the Catholic just-war theory is in desperate need of being abandoned by Catholics as a guide to war, given that it would be difficult to find a better example of a war of aggression, a type of war crime punished at Nuremberg, than Bush’s war on Iraq.
The Catholic priests had an excellent opportunity to confront Bush directly with his wrongdoing in Iraq, ask him to confess his sin and to repent the wrongful killing and maiming of so many Iraqi people. Unfortunately, unable to muster the courage and moral fortitude that the late Pope John Paul II reflected in opposing Bush’s invasion of Iraq prior to the invasion, the Catholic priests, while reaffirming their commitment to the sanctity of human life, decided to remain mute on the deaths of almost a million Iraqis.
Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Rockwell on Libertarianism
Government is always and everywhere a rich man's business. The poor have never played a role in the administration of the State, except insofar as they are used by elites as a cover. In fact, the emergence of the State itself grows out of the successful cartelization of one sector of elites against all its competitors. So of course these same elites rule on behalf of themselves. In the whole history of humanity, there is only one means by which the class of the poor have successfully converted their lot into something higher, and that is capitalism.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
LTE on Art Farnsworth from Ken Krawchuk
Folks:
The following letter to the editor was printed today in the MontCo/Bucks
Co. Intelligencer (and I assume in the sister papers as well).
I note with some annoyance that they deleted the sentence with the URL
and the paragraph about the kangaroo. Otherwise it made it out intact.
Happy April Fool's Day everyone!
- Ken
=====================
To the Editor:
Imagine that you're driving your car and come to a green light.
Inexplicably, other cars are stopped for it. You safely proceed through
the intersection but are immediately pulled over by the police and given a
ticket for running the green light. When you look at the ticket, it
doesn't say what law you broke or what the fine is, and when you appear in
court to ask what's up, you receive no answers and are thrown in jail.
An outlandish scenario? Absolutely! But it describes what happened to
tax honesty advocate Art Farnsworth.
From his research, Art concluded that there is no law requiring the
average American to pay the federal income tax. When he asked the IRS to
show him the law requiring it, they wouldn't comply (i.e., couldn't
comply), so Art stopped filing. The IRS then brought charges against him,
but they never identified which law Art broke by not filing, which tax he
owed, nor how much. Despite the lack of any assessment, they convicted
Art anyway for not paying a tax he didn't owe.
Where is the outrage, the outcry? Have we become so numb to the chronic
erosion of our rights that we just knuckle under when faced with the
kangaroo court of IRS trials?
Alarmingly, these sorts of unbelievable horrors are not only happening to
poor Art Farnsworth. First they came for the tax honesty advocates, and
now America routinely throws people in prison, tortures them, and
confiscates all their assets without a trial, again to no outcry. Even in
those rare cases where the citizenry does awaken, such as when America
invaded another country on trumped-up charges, the outcry falls on deaf
ears. Clearly, America is in a dangerous downward spiral and heading for
a nasty crash landing with all of us aboard.
Fortunately, Aaron Russo (producer of the Eddie Murphy movie Trading
Places) has released a new documentary, "America: Freedom to Fascism",
detailing the truth behind the income tax fraud and many other ills of our
nation. It can be viewed free on Google video at www.TinyURL.com/YBDB9J.
You owe it to yourself and to America to become educated about the fraud
the IRS is foisting upon us -- and soon too, before America's Darth Vader
chooses to target you as well.
Ken V. Krawchuk
Abington
The following letter to the editor was printed today in the MontCo/Bucks
Co. Intelligencer (and I assume in the sister papers as well).
I note with some annoyance that they deleted the sentence with the URL
and the paragraph about the kangaroo. Otherwise it made it out intact.
Happy April Fool's Day everyone!
- Ken
=====================
To the Editor:
Imagine that you're driving your car and come to a green light.
Inexplicably, other cars are stopped for it. You safely proceed through
the intersection but are immediately pulled over by the police and given a
ticket for running the green light. When you look at the ticket, it
doesn't say what law you broke or what the fine is, and when you appear in
court to ask what's up, you receive no answers and are thrown in jail.
An outlandish scenario? Absolutely! But it describes what happened to
tax honesty advocate Art Farnsworth.
From his research, Art concluded that there is no law requiring the
average American to pay the federal income tax. When he asked the IRS to
show him the law requiring it, they wouldn't comply (i.e., couldn't
comply), so Art stopped filing. The IRS then brought charges against him,
but they never identified which law Art broke by not filing, which tax he
owed, nor how much. Despite the lack of any assessment, they convicted
Art anyway for not paying a tax he didn't owe.
Where is the outrage, the outcry? Have we become so numb to the chronic
erosion of our rights that we just knuckle under when faced with the
kangaroo court of IRS trials?
Alarmingly, these sorts of unbelievable horrors are not only happening to
poor Art Farnsworth. First they came for the tax honesty advocates, and
now America routinely throws people in prison, tortures them, and
confiscates all their assets without a trial, again to no outcry. Even in
those rare cases where the citizenry does awaken, such as when America
invaded another country on trumped-up charges, the outcry falls on deaf
ears. Clearly, America is in a dangerous downward spiral and heading for
a nasty crash landing with all of us aboard.
Fortunately, Aaron Russo (producer of the Eddie Murphy movie Trading
Places) has released a new documentary, "America: Freedom to Fascism",
detailing the truth behind the income tax fraud and many other ills of our
nation. It can be viewed free on Google video at www.TinyURL.com/YBDB9J.
You owe it to yourself and to America to become educated about the fraud
the IRS is foisting upon us -- and soon too, before America's Darth Vader
chooses to target you as well.
Ken V. Krawchuk
Abington
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Presidential Candidate: U.S. In Danger of Dictatorship
Congressman Ron Paul warns elite believe they own us and are “always prepared” to take our liberties. The US is now at a crisis point because the people have been so neglectful of protecting their liberties and big government has been so effective in eroding them.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Ron Paul returns with a bang to pajamasmedia poll
Pajamas media had removed Ron Paul from their presidential poll. Now he's back in, at least until they find some new arbitrary reason to remove him again. I was hesitant to promote such a lame website, but I decided to install their voting booth widget just for kicks. You can vote for Dr. P in about one second using the red, white and blue box on the right.
I'm not sure exactly what they are measuring with this totally unscientific "poll", but whatever it is, Dr. Paul has it.
I'm not sure exactly what they are measuring with this totally unscientific "poll", but whatever it is, Dr. Paul has it.
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