The link is here.
OS hopes you take a moment to read it again.
Notice the clear use of language, and contrast it with our current culture's love of spin, of nuance, of deniability. Jefferson wrote eloquently, with the intent of conveying ideas with power and clarity. No spin here, friends and neighbors.
Also, observe the dual appeal to both Providence and Reason. Not either/or, but both. The French Revolution spurned Providence, and soon lost any sense of Reason. It disintegrated into a bloodbath, and ushered in Bonaparte, who bathed the world in suffering. Sans both Providence and Reason, any enterprise is doomed from the beginning.
Finally, these men had skin in the game. They knew signing that document was an act of treason against the Crown, and they knew that potentially meant the loss of all things--wealth, freedom, family, life itself. They signed anyway, big, clear signatures, to let the world clearly know who they were and what they were about.
OS's prayer on this July 4 is that we reclaim that clarity, that faith in both Providence and Reason, and the courage to live our lives with that sort of skin in the game.
July 4 is an anniversary of sorts for OS. The entire tale cannot be told, but on July 4, 1988, OS heard those words recited at a neighborhood celebration, and summoned the courage to make some large decisions about life. Sitting here now, surveying the scene, he could not possibly have imagined what awaited him. It was a long war to get here, and OS is pretty scarred-up from some of the battles he had to fight.
But he wouldn't trade it for the world.
Thanks, Mr. Jefferson. God bless the United States of America.
Monday, July 4, 2011
In Celebration Of July 4: Reagan's Inaugural Address 1981
No comment needed.
May God bless the United States of America.
May God bless the United States of America.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Freedom: Granted By The Almighty, Preserved By Adherence To The Constitution, Maintained By Integrity
Once again, the story of a life nearly ended by judicial murder, an innocent man framed by law enforcement, a corrupt medical examiner, and a court system that has become agnostic about the idea of Truth.
It is a relief to see Cory Maye freed from death row in Mississippi. It is distressing to see that those who colluded to put him there will never see a day inside a prison for their attempts to murder him.
Sans a bedrock stance that freedom and dignity are Divine birthrights, that the Constitution is our safeguard against tyranny, and the insistence that integrity is the only option, these frightening cases will continue to occur.
Until we level the playing field between the agents of the State and the private citizen, i.e., placing each badge, law license, and the freedom of those agents at risk when they prosecute felonies, the glue that holds us together will continue to melt.
There is a place for the death penalty--justice sometimes demands it. However, since the system has become so corrupted, administration of the death penalty becomes a lethal game of roulette. We must know with certainty that the convicted are truly guilty before they are dispatched violently. And, in the end, every execution is an act of violence against the condemned.
Sans that certainty, we must not carry that sentence out.
It is a relief to see Cory Maye freed from death row in Mississippi. It is distressing to see that those who colluded to put him there will never see a day inside a prison for their attempts to murder him.
Sans a bedrock stance that freedom and dignity are Divine birthrights, that the Constitution is our safeguard against tyranny, and the insistence that integrity is the only option, these frightening cases will continue to occur.
Until we level the playing field between the agents of the State and the private citizen, i.e., placing each badge, law license, and the freedom of those agents at risk when they prosecute felonies, the glue that holds us together will continue to melt.
There is a place for the death penalty--justice sometimes demands it. However, since the system has become so corrupted, administration of the death penalty becomes a lethal game of roulette. We must know with certainty that the convicted are truly guilty before they are dispatched violently. And, in the end, every execution is an act of violence against the condemned.
Sans that certainty, we must not carry that sentence out.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Hugo Chavez Admits He Has Cancer, And Life Is About To Get Interesting In Venezuela
The Devil's Excrement carries the story in English.
Here's the video of Chavez's announcement. He seems, well, rather less ebullient than in times past.
Of course, the obvious problem with someone who sets himself up as 'President for Life' is the inevitability of death, often with a decline preceding the departure.
People possessed of the kind of arrogance that creates a Chavez tend to never think of this detail, or other details, like just what the hell happens to TheGloriousRevolution the day after TheGloriousLeader's funeral.
In the meantime, Hugo's gots-lots-of-'splainin'-to-do-Lucy. And a lot of power-hungry people circling his rowboat.
Wanna bet he ends up in Miami, getting the latest-and-greatest cancer treatments the evil capitalist system of the United States can provide? What if he dies on our soil?
Do we get to toss him back like the opposing team's home-run ball at Wrigley Field?
Here's the video of Chavez's announcement. He seems, well, rather less ebullient than in times past.
Of course, the obvious problem with someone who sets himself up as 'President for Life' is the inevitability of death, often with a decline preceding the departure.
People possessed of the kind of arrogance that creates a Chavez tend to never think of this detail, or other details, like just what the hell happens to TheGloriousRevolution the day after TheGloriousLeader's funeral.
In the meantime, Hugo's gots-lots-of-'splainin'-to-do-Lucy. And a lot of power-hungry people circling his rowboat.
Wanna bet he ends up in Miami, getting the latest-and-greatest cancer treatments the evil capitalist system of the United States can provide? What if he dies on our soil?
Do we get to toss him back like the opposing team's home-run ball at Wrigley Field?
Thursday, June 30, 2011
The Ontario 'Child Murder' Cases, And The Miscarriage Of Justice
NPR carries the story, which airs today.
It's literally horrifying, a tale of innocent lives turned upside-down and ruined, reputations destroyed, years lost to imprisonment on the most horrible of trumped-up charges--the crime of murdering one's own children. All on the false testimony of a pathologist determined to view every child's death as a criminal case to win, and a coroner who both encouraged and covered up the official malfeasance.
And yet, and yet...
Charles Smith (the pathologist) never faced charges. Earlier this year, a medical board stripped him of his license and ordered him to pay a $3,650 fine.
!!!***!!!@@@###!!!!! (absolutely unprintable language here)
Does it occur to the Great And Good that this utter miscarriage of justice destroys the fabric of a culture?
It is a blessing to see the exoneration of the wrongly convicted. There remains a foul stench in the air, knowing that the real criminals will never, ever, see a day of jail, much less the lifetime of imprisonment their crimes call for.
This sort of horror tears the civility of a civil society apart, and breeds the horrible violent practices of revenge, the malevolent alternative to justice.
As OS keeps repeating, We Don't Want To Go There. Ever.
Unless the police, prosecutors, judges, and 'experts' like coroners know they have 'skin in the game', that every prosecution requires they lay their badges, law licenses, medical degrees, etc., on the table, at risk, the moral hazard soars, and the persecution of the innocent becomes their stock in trade.
It's literally horrifying, a tale of innocent lives turned upside-down and ruined, reputations destroyed, years lost to imprisonment on the most horrible of trumped-up charges--the crime of murdering one's own children. All on the false testimony of a pathologist determined to view every child's death as a criminal case to win, and a coroner who both encouraged and covered up the official malfeasance.
And yet, and yet...
Charles Smith (the pathologist) never faced charges. Earlier this year, a medical board stripped him of his license and ordered him to pay a $3,650 fine.
!!!***!!!@@@###!!!!! (absolutely unprintable language here)
Does it occur to the Great And Good that this utter miscarriage of justice destroys the fabric of a culture?
It is a blessing to see the exoneration of the wrongly convicted. There remains a foul stench in the air, knowing that the real criminals will never, ever, see a day of jail, much less the lifetime of imprisonment their crimes call for.
This sort of horror tears the civility of a civil society apart, and breeds the horrible violent practices of revenge, the malevolent alternative to justice.
As OS keeps repeating, We Don't Want To Go There. Ever.
Unless the police, prosecutors, judges, and 'experts' like coroners know they have 'skin in the game', that every prosecution requires they lay their badges, law licenses, medical degrees, etc., on the table, at risk, the moral hazard soars, and the persecution of the innocent becomes their stock in trade.
Quote Of The Day, From Jesse: The Road To Hell
Jesse is a modern-day OT prophet.
When you socialize the losses and privatize the gains for a powerful few, when you reward the perpetrators and punish the innocent and unsophisticated victims of fraud, when you idolize greed, selfishness and deception and vilify simple hard work and honest decency, how can one really expect a healthy, vibrant economy? You are birthing a monster.
Austerity will not improve this picture, and will inflict intense misery on the growing number of unfortunates. They know this, but they don't care. When the oppressed react, there will be calls to put them down, to subdue them, savagely. Provoke and react. Never waste a crisis, and if you need it, create one.
This is the road to hell.
His entire post here.
When you socialize the losses and privatize the gains for a powerful few, when you reward the perpetrators and punish the innocent and unsophisticated victims of fraud, when you idolize greed, selfishness and deception and vilify simple hard work and honest decency, how can one really expect a healthy, vibrant economy? You are birthing a monster.
Austerity will not improve this picture, and will inflict intense misery on the growing number of unfortunates. They know this, but they don't care. When the oppressed react, there will be calls to put them down, to subdue them, savagely. Provoke and react. Never waste a crisis, and if you need it, create one.
This is the road to hell.
His entire post here.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
The Bank of America Settlement: Too Big To Fail, Too Stupid To Succeed, And Too Politically Connected To Ever Go To Jail
Denninger asks the correct questions again, as always, even if he is constantly abrasive in tone.
How does he do it and not suffer a blood pressure of infinity-over-275?
Well, anyway, this news brought my friend Billy The Banker to mind. He's now retired, happily, after working for the same county-seat bank for fifty years. High school diploma plus banking courses offered over the years. He advanced from junior teller to president. When all the chaos was going on in 2008, OS asked him what he thought, and he scratched his head and said, 'I don't know what to think, I've never seen anything like it. Our board of directors always wanted to make sure we had a strong equity base, and enough earnings to take care of the employees and pay a little dividend to the shareholders. That's what we did, concentrated on building the equity of the bank. It worked. I don't understand these other people at all.'
OS does know one thing: Had Billy behaved like the execs at BOA, his bank would have failed, and he'd be living out his retirement years in the state pen about thirty miles west of his present modest comfortable home.
Billy lived and worked in a context of reward for good behavior, and legal and moral culpability for bad behavior. His bank made money, his shareholders made money, the county is growing at a stable pace, and he's enjoying visiting his grandkids.
How does he do it and not suffer a blood pressure of infinity-over-275?
Well, anyway, this news brought my friend Billy The Banker to mind. He's now retired, happily, after working for the same county-seat bank for fifty years. High school diploma plus banking courses offered over the years. He advanced from junior teller to president. When all the chaos was going on in 2008, OS asked him what he thought, and he scratched his head and said, 'I don't know what to think, I've never seen anything like it. Our board of directors always wanted to make sure we had a strong equity base, and enough earnings to take care of the employees and pay a little dividend to the shareholders. That's what we did, concentrated on building the equity of the bank. It worked. I don't understand these other people at all.'
OS does know one thing: Had Billy behaved like the execs at BOA, his bank would have failed, and he'd be living out his retirement years in the state pen about thirty miles west of his present modest comfortable home.
Billy lived and worked in a context of reward for good behavior, and legal and moral culpability for bad behavior. His bank made money, his shareholders made money, the county is growing at a stable pace, and he's enjoying visiting his grandkids.
Black-Humor Headline Of The Month: Greece Votes To Delay Default Until 2012
Well, cut my legs off and call me shorty! A Czech physicist nails the entire ridiculous soap opera down in one sentence.
Luboz Motl is very bright, with a wonderful dry sense of humor, and a reasonable approach to life. His essay includes an account of events inside the Greek Parliament, and a video of the chaos on the streets. It's an impossible mathematical situation, as he points out, and everyone will have to muddle through.
His conclusion shows the wisdom of someone whose family has endured life in Eastern Europe for generations:
Luboz Motl is very bright, with a wonderful dry sense of humor, and a reasonable approach to life. His essay includes an account of events inside the Greek Parliament, and a video of the chaos on the streets. It's an impossible mathematical situation, as he points out, and everyone will have to muddle through.
His conclusion shows the wisdom of someone whose family has endured life in Eastern Europe for generations:
On the other hand, I am no Europe hater. I think that there are obviously many things that are meaningfully organized at the European level - such as the free-trade zone and others. It would be nice if the recent developments helped the people to rationally discuss what kind of activities the EU can and and what kind it cannot do and shouldn't do. However, it doesn't seem to me that this is happening. People either deny that anything is happening that shows lethal flaws in the European unification concepts; or they're already talk about a funeral and the end of time.
There won't be any end of time. There won't even be a Big Crunch because our Universe has a positive cosmological constant: it will approach de Sitter space event more closely. There will be some future and people should rationally evaluate the experience from the past and try to optimize the future. It's damn obvious that the idea that the desire to "unify" everything - while paying no attention to the evidence that it could be a very bad idea in many contexts - is something that we shouldn't repeat again.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Greek Parliament Votes Tomorrow...
Tomorrow could interesting in Athens...
All those kids, screaming, 'Bread/Education/Liberty', most of them still believing that government can provide all three, and stick the culture with the bill.
What happens when it dawns on them it can't be done?
All those kids, screaming, 'Bread/Education/Liberty', most of them still believing that government can provide all three, and stick the culture with the bill.
What happens when it dawns on them it can't be done?
Monday, June 27, 2011
Quote Of The Day: Cranmer-'God Cares For the Poor'
Perhaps the best essay His Grace has ever shared with us, well worth the time spent. Very few have his moral clarity and command of English.
His best paragraph:
His best paragraph:
God cares for the poor, the oppressed, and the underdogs in society. He pours his wrath upon those who corrupt justice or create economic machines designed to provide more wealth for the wealthy and deprive the poor. The story of Naboth’s vineyard in 1 Kings 21 establishes that authorities are not free to pursue any policy they please or to ride roughshod over the rights of the poor. These same concerns are vehemently expressed by the prophets Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah, writing in the 8th century BC. God demands conscience above political conviction, and a government which places narrow economic considerations above liberty and justice is guilty of worshipping Mammon above God.
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