My Enemy's Enemy

. . . Can still be my enemy.  The left has set out to stifle my free speech on social issues.  I am compelled to recognize homosexual unions as marriages.  I am compelled to subsidize insurance plans that cover abortion. If I am a Catholic organization, I am compelled to pay for insurance for contraception.  All of these are attacks intended to delegitimize my social beliefs through government coercion.  So shouldn't I be thankful that there is a world leader ready to fight for the value of social conservatives?  Owen Matthews reports:

In his annual state of the nation speech to Russia’s parliament in December, Vladimir Putin assured conservatives around the world that Russia was ready and willing to stand up for ‘family values’ against a tide of liberal, western, pro-gay propaganda ‘that asks us to accept without question the equality of good and evil’. Russia, he promised, will ‘defend traditional values that have made up the spiritual and moral foundation of civilisation in every nation for thousands of years’. Crucially, Putin made it clear that his message was directed not only at Russians — who have already been protected from ‘promotion of non-traditional relationships’ by recent legislation — but for ‘more and more people across the world who support our position’.

Well, maybe not so much.  Here's the problem; Putin is a corrupt tyrant who has blood on his hands.  Other than that, he makes a great champion of family values.  Holman Jenkins recounts the tale of Alexander Litvinenko, who had evidence that Putin benefited from a series of bombings that the Russian state security apparatus manufactured themselves but blamed on the Chechens.  We see Putin's heavy hand in the Ukraine, where he has used bribery and economic pressure to undermine the desires of the Ukrainians for greater prosperity through economic ties to Europe.  (Whether that will lead to prosperity is anyone's guess, but it is their right to make the choice.)  Putin's machinations are well chronicled.

Taking up with the likes of Putin is never morally acceptable, nor it will it prove to be a winning strategy.  As much as I see the leftist tile of this administration as tyrannical (who else would be unashamedly suing the Little Sisters of the Poor?), throwing in with tyrants only weakens our cause.  The Russian Orthodox church has seen fit to again make an alliance with a tyrannical Russian government.  Historically in Europe, the alliance between church and state ultimately weakened the church, as it lost focus on its founder and became enmeshed in politics.  Some on the Christian Right, such as the World Congress of Families and Bryan Fischer are praising Putin.  I can not let this pass.  Our point of view will prevail, because it is grounded in fundamental and eternal truths, not because we find tyrants to help enforce our ideas.  We don't need to make a deal with the devil.

What You Should Be Reading

• The nomination of Vice Admiral Mike Rodgers to head both the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command has opened the door to more revelations about the extent of Iranian penetration of U.S. Navy networks.  I warned that our tacit admission regarding Stuxnet would have consequences. 
• Dean adds more to the leftism = fascism meme that started this post.  The problem with your California high-speed choo-choo? Apparently, not enough Mussolini. 
• The most under-reported story in America? The tragedies that the divorce industry wreaks on the American family. H/T Temple of Mut.

New Year's Revolutions

I like the AT&T commercials with the little kids being questioned by the moderator.  One of the more recent offerings involves the concept of a New Year's Revolution:



That kid to the left looks like he might want to pick a different revolution, but it got me thinking that sometimes the accumulation of small change is sufficient to defeat the forces of tyranny.  Just like eating too many jelly beans over time will pack on the pounds.

The purpose of this blog is to educate and advocate for freedom.  The forces of tyranny have been very busy during the Obama administration, so I am convinced of the need to make the case for freedom.  Many of my friends and fellow SLOBs paint a grim picture of lawless tyranny out of control, with .  While I don't deny the myriad and putrid ways in which this administration and the previous one have undermined the rule of law in this country, the march of technology and the impulse to freedom keep eroding the seeming victories of would-be oppressors.  Some examples:

• Freedom of speech continues to come under assault, especially on college campuses, as our good friends at Legal Insurrection keep pointing out.  But we have never had such a great opportunity to actually make the voices of ordinary citizens and students heard as in this era.  Blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other social media allow the citizenry to curb the impulse to suppress speech that is in the hearts of the leftists.  Yes, attempts at suppressing speech continue unabated, see Handle's Haus for an impressive compendium of recent efforts. However, the very fact that he can publish the list and link to so many rebuttals is proof that technology is keeping freedom of speech alive.
• While Bernanke and now Yellen have debased the currency and taken money out of your pockets and into the hands of bankers, alternatives to protect your hard earned cash exist.  Bitcoin is an example of smart people realizing that the stated inflationary policy of all government issued currency czars erodes the value of your wealth.  For a useful explanation of Bitcoin and some of its limitations, see The Economist. While Bitcoin may have fatal flaws, eventually some cryptographic based currency will give fiat a "run for its money."  In the meantime, gold has held its value like it has for millennia, see Matthew 2:1-9.  A free market in reputable gold coins exists to offset the dangers of paper money.
• The more the oppressors succeed, the more they fail.  The ACA is a prime example of course.  I have read of doctors who don't take insurance any more and wondered if this is a trend?  By accident, I met a pediatrician on a bus trip who doesn't take insurance and said that her practice isn't suffering one bit, as she has lower overhead.  As the ACA destroys health insurance, the number of doctors who opt out of the system will cause it to collapse.  We have to be ready with our free market alternatives when that happens.

Be of good cheer, the forces of tyranny are being outwitted world-wide and will not prevail.  Sometimes the revolution comes in the form of small jelly beans that have the accumulated affect of weighing down the system.

What You Should Be Reading

• KT continues to show the myriad ways that the culture contributes to poverty, through single mommy families, in yesterday's post.
• Dean gives out the Walter Duranty Putridity in Journalism Award. Cato agrees with him on the winner, who is?  Read the link to find out.  Hint: He claims to be "conservative." 

Gibson Guitars and Out of Control Government

This story is a little old, but deserves to be kept alive because it is so illustrative of the sweeping overreach and potential for tyranny as we allow the federal government to become involved in every aspect of our lives.

On August 24th, Federal SWAT teams working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service raided Gibson guitar plants, looking for illegally imported wood from India. Supposedly, Gibson was damaging the environment by importing wood that is environmentally protected. But is that really the case? The federal government has yet to return an indictment, so here is what Henry Juszkiewicz, CEO of Gibson, said about the behavior of the federal government.

The recent raid of Gibson, however, did not come about because the wood was illegally harvested. Rather, the U.S. government alleges that the wood was imported in violation of an Indian export restriction designed to keep wood finishing work in India. To make matters worse, although the Indian government certified that the wood was properly and legally exported under this law, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service substituted its own opinion and reinterpreted Indian law. Its analysis suggested that if Gibson would just finish its fingerboards using Indian labor rather than Tennessee craftsman, there would be no issue.

Let me get this straight, this wood would have been harvested no matter what; the Indian government certified it for export and the only beef is that Obama and Holder want Indian workers to finish the wood, not Americans? Well, Obama sure is consistent on his desire to destroy American jobs. I'm thinking about Keystone XL pipeline and Boeing plant.

Think that this is just a problem for a big manufacturer? Thinking about traveling with a musical instrument? This could happen to you.

Recent revisions to 1900's Lacey Act require that anyone crossing the U.S. border declare every bit of flora or fauna being brought into the country. One is under "strict liability" to fill out the paperwork—and without any mistakes.

It's not enough to know that the body of your old guitar is made of spruce and maple: What's the bridge made of? If it's ebony, do you have the paperwork to show when and where that wood was harvested and when and where it was made into a bridge? Is the nut holding the strings at the guitar's headstock bone, or could it be ivory? "Even if you have no knowledge—despite Herculean efforts to obtain it—that some piece of your guitar, no matter how small, was obtained illegally, you lose your guitar forever," Prof. Thomas has written. "Oh, and you'll be fined $250 for that false (or missing) information in your Lacey Act Import Declaration.

This is the result of an out of control government that seeks to criminalize everything under the sun. For example, a father and son who were arrested and threatened with felony charges because they dug up Indian arrowheads. The Right Thinking blog has a more full exposition.

A nice side benefit of cutting the size of government will be to reduce tyranny such as this.