1861 IS KNOCKING AT OUR DOOR AS HISTORY GOES IN CIRCLES

"Virginia's Democratic-controlled state Senate passed measures Monday that would make it illegal to require individuals to purchase health insurance, a direct challenge to the party's efforts in Washington to reform health care."

Washington Post

I think that it's great that Virginia has decided to try to enforce the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution. But how far are they willing to go? Will they call out the State Guard to defend their citizens when the Feds send troops to enforce the law as they see fit? Or will the state just roll over and tell the Fed, "So sorry, we didn't really mean it."

Virginia and the other states including Missouri that are passing or attempting to pass legislation of this sort either need to prepare to take a stand or else stop going down this road. If the Fed succeeds in bullying the states into accepting healthcare against their will then the Feds will have succeeded in nullifying, once and for all, the Tenth Amendment.

However, if the states stand up, refusing Federal interference inside their borders, they will spark a Constitutional crisis. I say they need to stand up but they must realize what this means.

Looking back in history I can think of two very similar situations. One was the South Carolina Nullification Act of 1832. This centered around the issue of Federal tariffs and their enforcement inside the boundaries of a sovereign state. War between South Carolina and the Federal Government was narrowly avoided when the Fed backed down after the state called up troops and signaled its willingness to fight over the issue.

The second time was also in South Carolina. After it seceded from The US, again over the issue of tariffs, South Carolina entered into negotiations to remove Federal troops from Fort Sumter. Lincoln purposefully sent ships across South Carolinas border to resupply the fort in an attempt to spark conflict. He succeeded and we all know how that turned out.

I support the states and their efforts to return the Tenth Amendment to the prominence it was intended to have. However, I've talked to my local representative about this issue and I don't think he understands the stakes. He is a strong supporter of states rights and is sponsoring legislation similar to Virginia's. He also thinks that I exaggerate the risk. He is blind to history and the threat to Federal power that this sort of legislation represents. There is more money than I can imagine at stake in the battle over states rights. Power and money go hand in hand and neither are relinquished without a fight.

So, as the states move forward in their bid for sovereignty I hope they run up the Bonny Blue Flag and stock up the armories. If they don't they will be signalling a complete lack of serious intent and will be swallowed up once and for all by those that covet power and control.

The times that try mens souls are coming; prepare for the fight!

A BIT OF MUSIC FOR SHADOWLANDS

This short musical interlude is for Shadowlands. She seemed a bit down yesterday and I know how she loves that '80's music. Cheer up girl and I've got you in my prayers.

TOLLING THE BELLS OF CONFUSION

"Attorneys representing a Christian church leader convicted as a criminal for allowing his church bells to ring say they are hoping appellate decisions will overturn the conviction of Bishop Rick Painter and also strike down the Phoenix regulation under which he was convicted, and several other churches now are being threatened.

Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley of the Alliance Defense Fund today argued both cases and told WND the prosecution of Painter of Christ the King Liturgical Charismatic Church and the threats against other churches, including St. Mark Roman Catholic Parish and First Christian Church of Phoenix, are unprecedented...

...They were measured at 67 decibels while a normal conversation ranges about 60 to 70.

However, Painter was convicted under a Phoenix ordinance that restricts noise levels and includes an exemption for louder sounds from ice cream trucks but not for churches. He was given 10 days in jail, suspended, and three years of probation for his offense. He also was ordered to muffle the bells at his church to no more than 60 decibels for specific brief periods of time...

...Phoenix allows those commercial operations to emit sounds up to 70 decibels at a distance of 50 feet, although no allowances are applied to churches."

World Net Daily

So, is this religious persecution or just persecution of the kind experienced everyday when some local bureaucrat goes mad with power? Having worked for years as a contractor with small municipalities my guess would be the latter but we'll never know. Why? Because journalists don't seem capable of answering the five basic questions any longer; who, what, where, when and why.

This has become increasingly evident to me as I read my local papers. I'm generally left with questions that would have been answered if the writer would have just followed the rule of five.
Come on, we learned this in High School.

Back to the story. It says that other churches are being targeted. But, is anything else? If it's just churches well then we have our answer but if the city is going after other sources of noise then things are much less clear. And how did the complaint get started? Did a citizen call the city to complain or did an inspector start the ball rolling? If the noise level was within the allowable limits then why was the pastor convicted? Reading between the lines I get the feeling that attorneys pushed this case to use it to overturn "unconstitutionally vague noise ordinances". If that's the case, did the Pastor continue, on advice of these same attorneys, to violate the local ordinances in order to be arrested and have the case go to court? This story leaves me with a lot of questions and I get the feeling that this writer may be leaving something out to paint the picture he desires.

Don't get me wrong, I love the sound of church bells and I hate meddlesome bureaucrats. I also hate news stories that either fail to give all the pertinent information or intentionally omit information to spin a story.

So I say the the let the truth ring clearly! I'm tired of everything I read being cloaked in agendas.

FOLLOW UP ON USCCB TROUBLES

USCCB IN TROUBLE AGAIN

I get no joy from putting negative stories about the leadership of the Catholic Church on my blog. But Catholics need to be aware of the corruption that our Bishops seem to be allowing to continue. While the Deposit of Faith is protected from error by God the leadership is not.

We must pray for our Bishops and Priests to give them strength. We must always support them in what they do because they've given up a lot for us. That being said, we must also be vigilant in our duty as Catholics to protect ourselves and the faith from those that would do us harm, regardless of their vocation.

Follow this story on RealCatholicTV.com or on YouTube and see where it goes. These guys are good at getting to the truth. We need to hold the USCCB to the fire.

STICKING OUR HEADS IN THE SAND

"The U.S. government must spend its way out of the recession, the Democrats' third-ranking House leader stressed Monday.

Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the House majority whip, said that trying to find greater savings in the budget, which was released by President Barack Obama this morning, wouldn't help alleviate the recession.

"We've got to make some decisions here as to what's in the best interests of our country going forward," Clyburn said during an appearance on Fox News. "And I think the best interest is to invest in education, control these deficits, while at the same time trying to get people back to work."

"We're not going to save our way out of this recession," the majority whip added. "We've got to spend our way out of this recession, and I think most economists know that."

The Hill

Is it just me or does it seem like Clyburn is talking out of both sides of his mouth? We need to reduce the deficit by increasing spending? Of course, if he was a Republican he would say we need to reduce the deficit by cutting taxes. One looks to government while the other looks to business. Of course, neither look at the root of the problem; self control.

I don't care what the government does to manipulate the economy. We can never take in enough to pay the bills. We could take all of the money from everybody in the country and still not pay the bills. The country is bankrupt.

When a business or an individual goes bankrupt a third party steps in and determines who gets paid and how much. Assets are liquidated to the extent they can be to cover as much of the debt as possible. Some creditors get paid and some don't. When it's over, the person or business is returned back to a financial state that is far more realistic than where they were. And they will stay there for a good long while because hardly anyone will lend them money. They are forced to diminish in size and influence.

A country, because it is a sovereign entity can't go bankrupt in the same way as an individual or business. Bankrupt countries and their economies collapse. If a sovereign state were to accept third party control over its finances it would cease to be sovereign, thus it would cease to exist as an independent state. To retain its sovereignty, its national identity, a country must retain it independence.

An individual or business is considered bankrupt when it can no longer pay its bills, when the money coming in is insufficient to cover the cost of operation. However, it's possible, at least for awhile, to hide this through the use of credit. A bankrupt entity with access to credit can pay bills for a long time using that credit. Obviously this doesn't change the fact that they are bankrupt. It just makes the final collapse that much worse. Because, when the credit finally dries up the debt will be so large that it will be impossible to pay it back, even if all assets are liquidated.

This is the truth that for some reason the American people and our politicians seem to think doesn't apply to our country. But no matter how many times we click together the heels of our slippers and no matter how hard we wish it were different this time, it won't be. Our economy will collapse without MASSIVE cuts in spending. Across the board cuts; no sacred cows. Defense, welfare, healthcare, education, homeland security, FCC, FDA, FDIC, NTSA and everything else. Everything! Or they will be cut for us, through collapse. And if we refuse to make the hard choices right now the chances are that our government will go with them, because a collapse cannot be controlled. We won't have a third party making the choices for us. Because if we do, our country will have ceased to exist.

So what do I think will happen? I think that we will continue to try and spend our way out of the mess we're in. We are using credit cards to live on in the vain hope that things will improve. The truth is that even if things do improve it won't last long because we CANNOT pay our bills. There isn't enough money in the world. America will collapse, probably in the not too distant future.

We don't have to collapse. We can shrink in an orderly and controlled fashion. We can put ourselves through a self imposed bankruptcy court. This would allow us to determine who gets paid and how much. We could determine which assets to liquidate to help retire our debt. And, we could figure out who is just out of luck, the poor guy that thought he made a good loan that won't get paid. Some relationships are more important than others.

We won't be able to influence the world or project power to the four corners of the globe, but we can survive. And most importantly, we could retain our sovereignty, our Constitution and our freedom. We would be forced to return to something much closer to what the Founders designed us to be. We could disentangle ourselves from all of the foreign powers we've cozied up to through the years. We could become truly independent.

We won't shrink because no politician, besides maybe Ron Paul, will speak the truth much less act on it. They'll hide under the covers hoping the problem goes away, emerging only long enough to line their pockets with whatever little bit of wealth they can still find to tax away from us. They are cowards because we are cowards.

So America will collapse.

Pray and prepare because this is all we have left. I don't know when this country will come apart and I don't know exactly how. I just know it's coming because math generally works and the math I'm doing adds up to collapse. We can't afford to live like we do and we will maintain the illusion through the use of credit. The credit is starting to dry up. China is refusing to extend it and the Fed is monetizing our debt. It's just a matter of time.

And Rep. Clyburn will continue to say we can spend our way out.

COMMENTARIUS DE PROGNOSTICIS

I'm recommending that you read Commentarius de Prognosticis today. Really, you should read it everyday. Ioannes writes clearly about issues that pertain to our lives from a Catholic perspective. His article today about our responsibility to carry on the good fight regardless of how hopeless it may seem is right on the money. We aren't put here to win the fight, we are here just to carry it on. Victory belongs to God. We're just the soldiers.

I find that sometimes, because of my disordered human nature, I forget this simple fact. Humility will go a lot further than the desire to win when we are talking about matters of the faith with those that don't agree. I've had to learn to stop caring and just go with. I ask God for help and just hope that I'm saying the right thing.

So give Commentarius de Prognosticis a try. It has become a must read for me. Hope you enjoy it.

POPE URGES JOBS BE SAVED

"The economic crisis is causing the loss of many jobs and this calls for a huge sense of responsibility by everyone: entrepreneurs, workers, governing officials," the pope said after his weekly Angelus blessing.

"I think of some difficult situations in Italy, like, for example, Termini Imerese and Portovesme ... Do everything possible to protect and spur job growth, assuring dignified and adequate work to sustain families."

Reuters

I wish that I could find some other reporting on this comment besides that supplied by Reuters. Professional journalists are no better than us bloggers in this respect. They take a news feed and run with it seemingly without checking it for accuracy or trying to add any clarification. Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.

What I would like to know is exactly what the Pope expects? Does he believe that someone, whether it is business or the public sector, should create and fund work that is meaningless? Because if someone is paying somebody else to produce a product for which there is no market then someone is promoting pointless depletion of capital. And, since most governments are, for all intents and purposes, living on credit cards, this action would promote debt slavery for future generations. And if corporations are being asked to do this isn't the Pope essentially calling for a transfer of wealth from owners and investors to workers? For no profitable reason? Why should the workers reap the benefits of this largess at the expense of the owners and investors? Don't the owners and investors have needs and rights, too?

So I would like to know if the Pope has something specific in mind that I don't understand or if this comment was a knee jerk reaction of a European Socialist just looking to the government for the solution. I would like some follow up to this story instead of being left to hang.

But, I'm not going to hold my breath. This sort of reporting lends itself to the interest of those on the left that would love to see the Church side with the socialists. And, since the Church won't do that, leaving the impression that it has will have to suffice.