Tag: politics

I Was Wrong

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Actually, I’ve been wrong on a number of occasions about a variety of topics. You live and learn, or you don’t live long. But on this particular topic I have to admit I should have seen it coming long before now.

Back shortly after I started this blog, I wrote a series of posts on the Right to Arms (left sidebar there under “The Right to Arms Essays”). In the one entitled Those Without Swords Can Still Die Upon Them, I concluded with this:

Individual, private possession of firearms isn’t the only thing that permits individual liberty, but it is one of the essential components in a society that intends to stay free. An armed, informed, reasoning people cannot be subjugated.

So what do you do if you want to fetter a free people?

1) Remove their ability to reason.

2) Constrain their ability to access and exchange information.

3) Relieve them of the means with which to defend themselves and their property.

Which of these seems easiest, and how would it be best accomplished? And best resisted?

That was written in 2004 – almost twelve years ago. Obviously I thought at the time that the third option would be the one most vigorously attacked.

Boy, was I wrong, and I really should have seen it before now. After all, throughout the nearly thirteen-year life of this blog I have railed against the public education system and what has been done to higher education. (See the “Education” posts on the left sidebar, and all the other pieces throughout the blog tagged “Education.”)

I knew we were boned as a nation when a majority of voters picked Obama for a second term, but now? It’s looking more and more like our “choices” will be between Hillary and Trump with a possible third-party option of Bloomberg. It’s like the joke says, choosing between this lot is like picking which venereal disease is right for me.

Obviously #1 was the plan all along, and they’ve finally succeeded.

All Right, It’s Cruz

KevinLeave a comment

Thomas Sowell has endorsed Ted Cruz:

The vacancy created on the Supreme Court makes painfully clear the huge stakes involved when we choose a President of the United States, just one of whose many powers is the power to nominate justices of the Supreme Court.

Justice Scalia’s passing would be a great loss at any time. But at this crucial juncture in the history of the nation — with 5-to-4 Supreme Court decisions determining what kind of country America will be — Scalia’s death can be catastrophic in its consequences, depending on who is chosen to be his successor.

Given the advanced ages of other justices, the next president is likely to have enough vacancies to fill to be able to shape the future of the court that helps shape the future of America.

—

Senator Ted Cruz has been criticized in this column before, and will undoubtedly be criticized here again. But we can only make our choices among those actually available, and Senator Cruz is the one who comes to mind when depth and steadfastness come to mind.

As someone who once clerked for a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he will know how important choosing Justice Scalia’s replacement will be. And he has the intellect to understand much more.

Can’t argue with any of that. Cruz it is.

Let’s hope the Spineless Senate can hold out until after the election.