I love Jan Brewer

Courtesey of Phoenix new times

As promised in a previous entry, I have continued to research the Lawsuit filed by (most) of the states and am now prepared to begin a several part review of the suit's merits. The suit is a short and simple 23 pages of litigation, which compared to the massive 2400+ page Health care monstrosity we have all been striving to grasp is a breeze. there are a lot of complicated legal questions being addressed, however, and it may take a while to work out all of the questions and standings. But it is coming, I promise. (hopefully before I leave at the end of June, though.)
BUT FIRST
Granted, this is old news, but it is so good it has to be said. 

I have to give a shout out to my governor. Jan Brewer has been dealing with a democratic attorney general who, apparently is not too fond of coming out against the party establishment in a lot of things, and Jan has done a terrific job at holding his feet to the fire in AZ.
Jan came out this week, having already taken control of the lawsuit the federal government raised against the state's immigration bill (summary here), Jan Took the time to launch a petition, which I signed on June 22, and personally join in the denunciation of this health care bill. Now THAT is going to the mattresses. I think my governor deserves a round of applause. She has certainly earned my vote.

 Tough cookie image from www.sixthman.net
horses from the BBC

 

Our History--And it's Changes

 History is such an easy thing to shred, change, or disfigure.
In Animal Farm--an Orwellian fantasy of disturbing predictive accuracy, a farm "rebellion" leaves a group of pigs in charge of an animal led government. The pig's power is to be guarded by a set of  rules, written on the barn. Because the animals are ignorant, and because they do not remember the past, the pigs are able to slowly alter the rules to take more and more power, eventually placing themselves as the ultimate dictators of the farm animals, and removing the freedom of other animals. It it interesting to note Oswell's argument--that freedoms are lost not in one brutal blow to mankind, but in a slow poisoning of our values and history.
I follow with some interest the caretaking of our national memorials and historical sites for a similar reason. It seems to me that those who would destroy freedom would be hard pressed to do so if all around us are the reminders of the prices we have paid to stay free. That is why I was surprised to find read this article in the Wall Street Journal.
It seems that our history is being changed.
(A note here. The memorial is run by private donors, as was pointed out by Riley.The president is not directly responsible for it, and it is not, thankfully, administered by the government.As such, I have removed wording that would have directly blamed the current Administration for the incident.)
Now, I am not entirely convinced that our world is  bent on the destruction of the American system, but it does make me wonder what exactly he is up to when Stalin makes it onto the D-Day memorial. A few reasons that this never should have happened:
1) Stalin atrociously killed millions more than Hitler in a brutal campaign to bring communism, which is dynamically opposed to democracy, to Russia  
2) The Russians had nothing to do with D-Day. In fact, Russian troops never even touched the beaches of  Normandy--ever--much less in 1944.                                    

3) This is a monument to Honor the people who fought and died to protect the freedom of America. Stalin spent the years of his life following WWII trying to destroy that freedom here and abroad.
4) He's not American, and he was only an Ally because of convenience.
Yet despite this and other glaring reasons this should not have even been considered, there it is, a statue of Stalin, standing in the middle of the D-Day memorial next to some of the greatest and most heroic leaders of that era. To me, this is a warning sign.
Liberals, including the Obama Administration has always shown an odd contempt for the great leaders of that war. not long after Obama's entrance into the White House, Winston Churchill quietly slid from his place of honor there and into a storage compartment on Dover Street, but the addition of Stalin to the D-Day memorial is a tacit rewriting of the History of D-Day. It worries me that we could loose our history so subtly. It worries me more that the man we have elected to the greatest seat of power in the free world is erecting tributes to one of the greatest oppressors of that same world. My only hope is that there is still some of old Benjamin and Clover among us, and that they will speak up in time to protect this land I love so deeply.
P.S. I've found that this blog is is also a great post on this idea. 
Stalin bust Photo Courtesy of Jill Nance/the News Advance
All Animal Farm Photos Courtesy of http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca

On Liberty

Image courtesy of "Friends of the American Revolution"

I am reading John Stewart Mill this week, It's an interesting read to be sure. Mill has several beliefs that I have a hard time reconciling (like the idea that only "elite" nations can provide the necessary credentials for a non-despotic government) but there are definitely things that I like in his writings as well. LIke, for example, his perfect construction of a libertarian Government. Says Mill:
"the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number is self-protection"
 to make that a little more approachable; John says, "if it's not going to hurt you, or the country, let people do what they please--it is none of the government's concern." Wow, suddenly I love mr. Mill's perception of the world. I think that we all to often loose our way in trying to legislate our morality upon other people. We forget that the foundation of this country is to let all me do as they please--I espouse this in my religion, which teaches us to  "let [others] worship how, who or what they may"(number 11) and in my daily life, by working as a conservative to decrease the size of government, yet sometimes my habits are outside of the beliefs that I profess when I call for government intervention in the public sector for things that harm no one but the people who made bad choices.
Whatever the case, I think it is important to remember that government is a necessary evil. we choose to live under governments because of the protections they offer, but their power must be carefully limited. We would do well to carefully consider the effects of all legislation we support, remembering that when we give government power to assert our will over a minority, when our day as a minority comes, we will be unable to defend ourselves from the powers a new majority chooses to assert over us through those governmental powers.
This is a lesson that Conservatives are facing in all it's splendor, let's hope we have the good sense to fix our mistakes and return to a limited governance when, or if, we are able to return to governing.
Image courtesy of wimpactlab.com