Here’s another “faith promoting email” I received. Although I have to admit that I didn’t check absolutely every fact for complete accuracy, it is at least broadly correct. This is the kind of struggle that I go through every day when I watch the news, listen to the radio or read about the nasty world of politics. Sometimes I just think that everyone is going through life with their eyes closed, not paying any attention, in the ultimate state of denial. And this is without even attempting to be partisan or not.

At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in the year 1787, Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh) had this to say about “The Fall of The Athenian Republic” some 2,000 years prior.

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.

From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.”

“The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From Bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”

Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the most recent Presidential election.

Population of counties won by:
Gore: 127 million
Bush: 143 million

Square miles of land won by:
Gore: 580,000
Bush: 22,427,000

States won by:
Gore: 19
Bush: 29

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore: 13.2
Bush: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: “In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the tax-paying citizens of this great country. Gore’s territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off government welfare…”

Olson believes the U.S. is now somewhere between the “complacency and apathy” phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy; with some 40 percent of the nation’s population already having reached the “governmental dependency” phase.

Pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake in this Election Year and that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

I really liked this story I got in an email today. It sort of sums up my general philosophical beliefs about how society is running (or should I say RUINING) itself these days…

Original Version:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

Moral of the story: Be responsible for yourself!

Modern Version:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, “It’s Not Easy Being Green”

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake.

Tom Daschle & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Peter Jennings that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his “fair share.”

Finally, the EEOC drafts the “Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act,” retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients. The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn’t maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

Moral of the story: Vote

Much to my relief (and, in a way, amazement), the California Supreme Court made a correct decision yesterday in ruling the “Gavin Newsom Self-serving Wedding Orgy” illegal and nullified all the so-called marriages. The rule of law is maintained in California, at least for the moment.

I’ve been too silent on my blog for this topic for too long. It’s probably because just reading about what’s going on on a daily basis has caused a perpetual churning in my gut. I really should have been venting my feelings, stating my opinions and observations all along, but oh well.

In this case, though, this is finally some good news worth commenting on. I never thought I’d be so delighted with our state Supreme Court, but I’m practically giddy. They pulled the rug out from under his megalomaniacal majesty’s ludicrous reasoning and dismissed as chaff to the wind all the 4,037 worthless pieces of paper issued from SFO City Hall this spring. The tiniest bit of my faith has been restored in the judicial system of a country that believes in the “Rule of Law”. The only thing that would have been better is a removal of King Newsom to new digs at San Quentin for his effort.

While the left-leaning media boohoos about the poor “bride-bride, groom-groom” combos that are feeling sad and depressed about the outcome, I merely intone “I hate to say it, but I told you so”. I can’t believe that any of them seriously thought that such a blatant display of anarchical lawbreaking would result in them being able to file joint tax returns. What a crock. If you stick your head in the fire, you will certainly get burned; it’s only a matter of time.

My biggest overall objection to same-sex marriage and the way it’s being touted at the moment is the complete and blatant disregard for law and democracy demonstrated by its proponents. Why should a fraction of the 2% who would actually get married feel that they are entitled to a non-existent “civil right” just because they say so? How come anywhere from 60-80% of the population of this allegedly democratic nation is against this, but it’s perfectly OK for four nameless, faceless justices in Massachusetts to force this legal anarchy on our society and not even allow the people to have their say? Missouri has weighed in, and the result is telling.

Enough for now. I’m pleased with this news and intend on articulating myself more often.

Today, the Massachusetts Supreme Court upheld its November ruling that barring gay couples from civil marriage was unconstitutional. Unlike most of the gay community, I’m truly sick at heart over the power that four judges have to rewrite 3,000 years of precedence and take upon themselves the right to redefine society as it has existed throughout the world since the beginning of time.

I’ll probably come back and write more after I formulate my thoughts a bit more. Right now, I couldn’t feel more anger, disgust, sadness and fear over this ruling and what it means. What it REALLY means.

While anyone who knows me would be first to admit that I would be the perfect candidate for marriage, I don’t know if I could ever bring myself to do it.

You see it’s WRONG. That’s W-R-O-N-G, wrong. I fear for the country and the world we live in. I’m appalled that the community is hell-bent on redefining society just to get some tax breaks. I’m equally appalled that the rest of society seems to be going along with it—why have laws or concepts or truths at all if we’re just going to allow them to be redefined out of existence so that nothing matters anymore.

I’m rambling—I really do have coherent reasoning behind my beliefs, but I’m too upset to articulate them right now.

I should have been chronicling the downward slide of Howard Dean—gloating all the while. Dean as the front runner? Oh please—somebody forgot to tell him that just because he gets a bunch of mushy-headed, twenty-something, guilt-ridden liberal urbanites to donate money on the web doesn’t mean he can get elected.

I don’t know if I have much more to say than the abstract. Howard Dean is melting down. He had his legs cut out from under him first in Iowa then in New Hampshire and took a pummeling last night in the first 7 state primaries—he hasn’t won a single state yet. I’m pleased as punch that the American electorate is handing him his hat. How can he seriously expect to be president with such a dismal showing, not to mention his childish Iowa fist-waving, screeching and much-lampooned concession speech?

Yes, the voters FINALLY showed Mr. Dean that his fancy suit of front-runner clothes was made from invisible cloth. Hopefully even more dems are running for the hills, afraid to admit that they were ever enthused about his candidacy.