Iraq: A Chinese View

Some historians imagine that at the end of the Upper Paleolithic Period (around 12,000 BC), Asiatic groups crossed the Bering Land Bridge into what is now western Alaska. So "Native Americans" are really Chinese (a great over-simplification), and Europeans took over America from these Chinese people (ditto).

Now imagine more contemporaneously that the Communist Party of China wants to "take America back," and invades the U.S., setting up military bases throughout the land, and organizing a "Coalition Government" with communist sympathizers and Communist front organizations.

I assume you would join me in saying that the Chinese Communist Party has no legitimate right to be here and is not our legitimate government. If we did that, the Chinese Communists would immediately declare us to be "insurgents," and if we picked up our muskets like Patrick Henry did, to fight against the Chinese Communist Redcoats, we would be called "terrorists."

The United States federal government has invaded Iraq with no more legitimacy than a Chinese invasion of the U.S., and no more legitimacy than the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan.

Further, the U.S. federal government might well be described by the phrase "atheistic communism." Like these communist nations, the United States federal government is now officially atheistic, and makes it illegal for teachers in our local schools to teach schoolchildren that the Declaration of Independence (1776) is true, that there is a God, our rights come from Him, and our nation will be blessed by the Providence of God if we observe "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." This is all illegal in this now-atheistic America. A teacher who believes that the Declaration of Independence is true cannot endorse and promote those ideas in a public school classroom. Ironically, this atheistic government did not overthrow a Christian government in Iraq, but a secular one, and replaced it with an Islamic Theocracy.

Truth is surely stranger than fiction.

A government report published during the Reagan Administration concluded, "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."

The federal government has invaded Iraq, and the federal government has declared war on America.

True Americans will not support these wars.

Ron Paul Book Bomb

Ron Paul has a book coming out: The Revolution: A Manifesto. (Order from that link and support my favorite charity.)

A fundraising website for the book is here: http://www.RonPaulBookBomb.com

Here is the preface:

Every election cycle we are treated to candidates who promise us "change," and 2008 has been no different. But in the American political lexicon "change" always means more of the same: more government, more looting of Americans, more inflation, more police-state measures, more unnecessary war and more centralization of power.

Real change would mean something like the opposite of those things. It might even involve following our Constitution. And that's the one option Americans are never permitted to hear.

Today we are living in a fantasy world. Our entitlement programs are insolvent: in a couple of decades they will face a shortfall amounting to tens of trillions of dollars. Meanwhile, the housing bubble is bursting and our dollar is collapsing. We are borrowing billions from China every day in order to prop up a bloated overseas presence that weakens our national defense and stirs up hostility against us. And all our political class can come up with is more of the same.

One columnist puts it like this: we are borrowing from Europe in order to defend Europe, we are borrowing from Japan in order to keep cheap oil flowing to Japan, and we are borrowing from Arab regimes in order to install democracy in Iraq. Is it really “isolationism” to find something wrong with this picture?

With national bankruptcy looming, politicians from both parties continue to make multi-trillion dollar promises of “free" goods from the government, and hardly a soul wonders if we can still afford to have troops in -- this is not a misprint -- 130 countries around the world. All of this is going to come to an end sooner or later, because financial reality a going to make itself felt in very uncomfortable ways. But instead of thinking about what this means for how we conduct our foreign and domestic affairs, our chattering classes seem incapable of speaking in anything but the emptiest platitudes, when they can be bothered to address serious issues at all. Fundamental questions like this, and countless others besides, are off the table in our mainstream media, which focuses our attention on trivialities and phony debates as we march toward oblivion

This is the deadening consensus that crosses party lines, that dominates our major media, and that is strangling the liberty and prosperity that were once the birthright of Americans. Dissenters who tell their fellow citizens what is really going on are subject to smear campaigns that, like clockwork, are aimed at the political heretic. Truth is treason in the empire of lies.

There is an alternative to national bankruptcy, a bigger police state, trillion-dollar wars, and a government that draws ever more parasitically on the productive energies of the American people. It’s called freedom. But as we’ve learned through hard experience, we are not going to hear a word in its favor if our political and media establishments have anything to say about it.

If we want to live in a free society, we need to break free from these artificial limitations on free debate and start asking serious questions once again. I am happy that my campaign for the Presidency has finally raised some of them. But this is a long-term project that will persist far into the future. These ideas cannot be allowed to die, buried beneath the mind-numbing chorus of empty slogans and inanities that constitute official political discourse in America.

That is why I wrote this book.


Order the book now.

The Beheading of Obama

January 30 is the anniversary of a significant event in American History. Actually, it's a significant event in English history, with a tremendous influence on the American Revolution. It is the anniversary of the beheading of King Charles Stuart, or Charles I of England.

An excellent analysis of the event is an essay entitled, "When a King Is Not a King," by Scott T. Whiteman at the TheAmericanView.com. The ACLU would consider this an extreme right-wing organization.

But then, the ACLU would probably consider America's Founding Fathers to be right-wing extremists. The Founders' reaction to the beheading of Charles I was largely sympathetic. One very influential pastor (and the ACLU has no conception of how influential pastors were in the American Revolution -- see here and here), Jonathan Mayhew, discussed resistance to tyrants like Charles I in a widely-published sermon, “A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers.” I have analyzed that sermon here.

The beheading of Charles I was a mortal blow to the idea of "the Divine Right of Kings." That idea was eventually replaced in America by the idea of "the Consent of the Governed."

As a radical libertarian, I do not accept the legitimacy (to say nothing of the "divine right") of kings. I do not even accept the legitimacy of those who in our day rule over a majority with the "consent" of a minority. So I can agree with the criticisms leveled against tyrants like Charles I.

As a radical libertarian, "I do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a means of achieving political or social goals." I also do not believe in vengeance, or reciprocal force. The beheading of Charles I and the American Revolution against George III were unChristian and unBiblical. I have explained this here:

www.July4th1776.org

The Bible says to pay your taxes and pray for the king, not to kill him or his "redcoats." Beheading tyrants sows and waters the seeds of tyranny.

America's violent past may resurface again, as the political forces behind the assassination of JFK and RFK may set their sights on Obama.

Monica Guzman notes that the phrase "assassinate Obama" has appeared on a list of the top 100 Google search terms. When I saw Ted Kennedy endorse Obama, my first thought was that the Kennedy-haters would soon be springing into action. Whoever they are. The aftermath of such an event would make the Rodney King riots look like a picnic. (I was born in L.A. and was in L.A. when the verdict was handed down. The next day I drove down a nearly vacant Harbor Fwy to San Pedro to pick up a van load of surplus food, passing smoking cars and buildings on the way. A truly eerie experience.)

I've never been a fanatic student of the JFK assassination. If you disagree with my theories, I welcome your informative corrections. I've heard a few reports that make JFK sound like Ron Paul, with opposition to the Vietnam "police action" and the federal reserve making him a likely target. RFK strikes me as more Obama-like, or vice versa. 1968-2008. Hmm.

But as I noted yesterday, Obama is an establishment-approved Clinton clone, and not really a threat to those who thought the two Kennedys were a threat.

I hope.

Obama's Big Changes

Jimmy Carter was supposed to be the ultimate "outsider." The man popularly credited with devising the strategy that landed Jimmy Carter in the White House is Hamilton Jordan. A few weeks prior to the November 1976 election, he stated:

If, after the inauguration, you find a Cy Vance as Secretary of State and Zbigniew Brzezinski as head of National Security, then I would say we failed. And I would quit. You're going to see new faces and new ideas.

After the election, Mr. Carter promptly named Cyrus Vance to be his Secretary of State and Zbigniew Brzezinski to be the head of National Security, exactly what Mr. Jordan had said would never happen. But the real question is: What is it about Mr. Vance and Mr. Brzezinski that prompted Jordan to make such a statement? And the answer is that these two men are pillars of the very Establishment that candidate Carter so often attacked.

Barack Obama's campaign slogan is "CHANGE."

Nothing will change.

The Washington Post published "A list of the national security and foreign policy advisers to the leading presidential candidates from both parties."

Here are Obama's "new faces," according to the Post:

Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s national security adviser and now a Center for Strategic and International Studies counselor and trustee and frequent guest on PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, foreign policy adviser

Richard A. Clarke, President Clinton and President George W. Bush’s counterterrorism czar and now head of Good Harbor Consulting and an ABC News contributor, sometimes Obama adviser

Former Amb. Jeffrey Bader, President Clinton’s National Security Council Asia specialist and now head of Brookings’s China center, national security adviser

Mark Brzezinski, President Clinton’s National Security Council Southeast Europe specialist and now a partner at law firm McGuireWoods, national security adviser

Gregory B. Craig, State Department director of policy planning under President Clinton and now a partner at law firm Williams & Connolly, foreign policy adviser

Roger W. Cressey, former National Security Council counterterrorism staffer and now Good Harbor Consulting president and NBC News consultant, has advised Obama but says not exclusive

Ivo H. Daalder, National Security Council director for European affairs during President Clinton’s administration and now a Brookings senior fellow, foreign policy adviser

Richard Danzig, President Clinton’s Navy secretary and now a Center for Strategic and International Analysis fellow, national security adviser

Philip H. Gordon, President Clinton’s National Security Council staffer for Europe and now a Brookings senior fellow, national security adviser

Maj. Gen. J. (Jonathan) Scott Gration, a 32-year Air Force veteran and now CEO of Africa anti-poverty effort Millennium Villages, national security adviser and surrogate

Lawrence J. Korb, assistant secretary of defense from 1981-1985 and now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, informal foreign policy adviser

W. Anthony Lake, President Clinton’s national security adviser and now a professor at Georgetown’s school of foreign service, foreign policy adviser

James M. Ludes, former defense and foreign policy adviser to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and now executive director of the American Security Project, national security adviser

Robert Malley, President Clinton’s Middle East envoy and now International Crisis Group’s Middle East and North Africa program director, national security adviser

Gen. Merrill A. ("Tony") McPeak, former Air Force chief of staff and now a business consultant, national security adviser

Denis McDonough, Center for American Progress senior fellow and former policy adviser to then-Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, foreign policy coordinator

Samantha Power, Harvard-based human rights scholar and Pulitzer Prize winning writer, foreign policy adviser

Susan E. Rice, President Clinton’s Africa specialist at the State Department and National Security Council and now a Brookings senior fellow, foreign policy adviser

Bruce O. Riedel, former CIA officer and National Security Council staffer for Near East and Asian affairs and now a Brookings senior fellow, national security adviser

Dennis B. Ross, President Clinton’s Middle East negotiator and now a Washington Institute for Near East Policy fellow, Middle East adviser

Sarah Sewall, deputy assistant secretary of defense for peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance during President Clinton’s administration and now director of Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, national security adviser

Daniel B. Shapiro, National Security Council director for legislative affairs during President Clinton’s administration and now a lobbyist with Timmons & Company, Middle East adviser

Mona Sutphen, former aide to President Clinton’s National Security adviser Samuel R. Berger and to United Nations ambassador Bill Richardson and now managing director of business consultancy Stonebridge, national security adviser

Any Democrat who feels that there is a big difference between Obama and Hillary is deceived. Obama is Clinton II.

Is there a big difference between the Democrats and the Republicans, when measured by the advisors of the Republican candidates? Not at all. The list of candidate wonks for both parties is a veritable "Who's Who" of "the Eastern Liberal Establishment." Notice that many are advisors to Presidents of both parties.

Consider one well-known advisor. I'll not reveal which one just yet, or which party.

This advisor was asked about the fact that Osama bin Laden was our construct, a genuine US baby. He got his training under our CIA when they were conducting covert operations against the USSR via the Mujahadeen of Afghanistan. This advisor, who advocated the arming of Osama, was asked if he did not now regret having supported Islamic fundamentalism and given arms and advice to future terrorists. (Keep in mind that this interview was more than two years before the Sept. 11 attacks).

The interviewee answered, "Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap, and you want me to regret it? The day the Soviets crossed the border [into Afghanistan] I wrote to [the] President...: ‘We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War.’ Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire."

The interviewer responded: "And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

Interviewee : "What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet Empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?"

So who is this obvious right-wing fanatic anti-communist cold-warrior, blinded to long-term consequences by short-sighted conservative ideology?

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter's and now Obama's national security advisor.

When they are out of power, these "establishment" advisors criticize the policies of those in power, even though the policies are identical to those advocated and implemented when the critics were in power. Then the parties change, those out of power once again assume the reigns of power, and those who were in power now criticize those in office for policies identical to the ones implemented while in power. The public criticisms are all for the benefit of gullible voters. The press loves it.

Carroll Quigley, Georgetown Professor and mentor of Bill Clinton, described political reality in these words:

The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can "throw the rascals out" at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.... But either party in office becomes in time corrupt, tired, unenterprising, and vigorless. Then it should be possible to replace it, every four years if necessary, by the other party, which will be none of these things but will still pursue, with new vigor, approximately the same basic policies.

God and Huckabee, part 2

I have updated this post here. Stand to Reason is supposed to be a Christian organization, but sometimes they sound like the ACLU.

1.Hillary; 5.Giuliani; 6.Huckabee; 8.Obama

Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2007

This is actually old news, but I just now learned of it. Four of the “Ten Most Wanted” are current Presidential candidates:

1. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY): In addition to her long and sordid ethics record, Senator Hillary Clinton took a lot of heat in 2007 – and rightly so – for blocking the release her official White House records. Many suspect these records contain a treasure trove of information related to her role in a number of serious Clinton-era scandals. Moreover, in March 2007, Judicial Watch filed an ethics complaint against Senator Clinton for filing false financial disclosure forms with the U.S. Senate (again). And Hillary’s top campaign contributor, Norman Hsu, was exposed as a felon and a fugitive from justice in 2007. Hsu pleaded guilt to one count of grand theft for defrauding investors as part of a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.

5. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY): Giuliani came under fire in late 2007 after it was discovered the former New York mayor’s office “billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons…” ABC News also reported that Giuliani provided Nathan with a police vehicle and a city driver at taxpayer expense. All of this news came on the heels of the federal indictment on corruption charges of Giuliani’s former Police Chief and business partner Bernard Kerik, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to accepting a $165,000 bribe in the form of renovations to his Bronx apartment from a construction company attempting to land city contracts.

6. Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR): Governor Huckabee enjoyed a meteoric rise in the polls in December 2007, which prompted a more thorough review of his ethics record. According to The Associated Press: “[Huckabee’s] career has also been colored by 14 ethics complaints and a volley of questions about his integrity, ranging from his management of campaign cash to his use of a nonprofit organization to subsidize his income to his destruction of state computer files on his way out of the governor’s office.” And what was Governor Huckabee’s response to these ethics allegations? Rather than cooperating with investigators, Huckabee sued the state ethics commission twice and attempted to shut the ethics process down.

8. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL): A “Dishonorable Mention” last year, Senator Obama moves onto the “ten most wanted” list in 2007. In 2006, it was discovered that Obama was involved in a suspicious real estate deal with an indicted political fundraiser, Antoin “Tony” Rezko. In 2007, more reports surfaced of deeper and suspicious business and political connections It was reported that just two months after he joined the Senate, Obama purchased $50,000 worth of stock in speculative companies whose major investors were his biggest campaign contributors. One of the companies was a biotech concern that benefited from legislation Obama pushed just two weeks after the senator purchased $5,000 of the company’s shares. Obama was also nabbed conducting campaign business in his Senate office, a violation of federal law.

McCain was not mentioned, although elsewhere he is described as one of the candidates "with ethical issues" being monitored by Judicial Watch. But Bill Clinton recently mentioned McCain:

CNN Political Ticker: Bill Clinton: John McCain and Hillary are ‘very close’ « - Blogs from CNN.com

If there's one thing these ethically-challenged candidates agree they will bring to Washington D.C., it's “change.” But it's hard to see what's going to change.

John Mark Reynolds vs. Huckabee

Stand to Reason recently mentioned John Mark Reynolds' criticism of Mike Huckabee's alleged claim that the U.S. Constitution should conform to Biblical Law.

Here's my criticism of Reynolds. And Huckabee. And just about everyone else.

Reasons to be "Pro-Choice"

In my previous post (on the anniversary of Roe. v. Wade), I expressed my belief that abortion is government-legalized murder. But that's not good enough for a number of Christians, who demand that a woman who murders her unborn child be punished; some demand the death penalty.

I have expressed my opposition to capital punishment here (an argument which should be understood before reading on). The fact that the liturgical shedding of blood which characterized the Old Covenant era is no longer required under the New Covenant, does not mean that those crimes are not in some important sense "worthy of death." At the very least, school children should be taught that these things are contrary to "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." Society needs to make some kind of statement against these crimes.

But because I don't believe women who kill their children should themselves be killed, some pro-lifers say I'm not pro-life. Fine. Call me pro-choice.

I don't believe any woman should ever, for any reason, make the choice to kill her child, depriving that child of 80 or so years of God-given life, allegedly outweighed by a few months of the mother's inconvenience. But once the murder has been committed, I believe the shedding of Christ's blood spares us from the necessity of shedding the mother's blood (or the doctor's), as I explained in the link above. This allows us to deal with spiritual problems that led to the abortion, as well as problems caused by the abortion.

Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship has published an interesting example of the healing that can take place in the life of a mother who has murdered her children, now that we're not required to shed her blood in capital punishment. The correlation is especially interesting in light of abortion advocates who are also advocates of "death with dignity."

Caroline and Lydia are but two examples of what the Institute [for Bioethics and Social Research] calls an “unexpected correlation” between abortion and pain-relief care. Dying women experience unresolved guilt and psychological pain related to their abortion—guilt and pain that stand in the way of a peaceful death. Their guilt is so great, Echlin says, that it impedes the effectiveness of their pain medication. Only when the abortion issue is resolved—when someone listens to them and assures them of God’s forgiveness—is the pain medication made effective, and the women able to die peacefully.

Denying the value of the unborn makes death with dignity impossible. The death of Christ makes healing and restoration possible, and government vengeance unnecessary.

http://www.breakpoint.org/media/dkContent/7457/012208_BP.mp3

Update: More discussion here:

Murder-By-Abortion Advocates Raise Important Issue: Should Women Who Have Abortions Be Punished?

Pro-life hard-liners who demand capital punishment for abortionists, and who also demand that other pro-lifers demand capital punishment, miss the importance of self-deception on a cultural scale. We now have millions of people -- three generations now -- who are victims of educational malpractice at the hands of government's compulsory atheistic education. Even though they know God's Law in their conscience, they've been trained to believe that the unborn child is a worthless blob of tissue. Before a jury will sentence someone to death, they must be convinced that a crime has been committed. Refusing to vote for a candidate who will not advocate capital punishment for abortionists is putting the cart before the horse. Legal reform will not see a punishment inflicted before the voters are convinced that abortion itself is a crime.

One way to make this argument is to show God's judgment: the inability of pain medication to work, is an example of Providence in action. Increased occurrence of breast cancer in mothers who abort is another.

Killing one's children is indeed "worthy of death," but we must leave vengeance "to the Supreme Judge of the world."

Roe v. Wade 35 Years Later

An American born today can expect to live another 80 years. On this day, around four thousand Americans will be denied their opportunity to live to see the year 2088. Since 1973 about 50,000,000 Americans have been denied the full life that God gave them. They were murdered with government approval.

Abortion is government-legalized murder.

On this day in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that if another human being will inconvenience you for a few months, you can deprive that human being of 80 years of his or her life.

Since that decision was handed down, an average of 4,000 mothers each and every single day have taken advantage of this "final solution" to a few months of inconvenience.

Many justifications are offered for this "right to choose" to kill another human being. These justifications are obviously invalid when applied to a mother who seeks to kill her 18-month old child on the grounds that the child cries too much or otherwise inconveniences the mother, even though these justifications are just as "true" as in the case of a pre-born child: the 18-month old child is an "unconsented tresspasser"; the 18-month old child is not a "viable" human being, since it cannot survive on its own outside the womb; etc. (Dump an 18-month old child in the middle of a national park and see how "viable" he or she is.)

Justifications for abortion are justifications for any murder.

The myth of government is that it exists to protect "life, liberty and property." The reality is that government exists to give a select group of voters, lobbyists, or special interests the right to destroy or confiscate the life liberty and property of those who inconvenience or get in the way of members of the special interest group.

Martin Luther King

Today is a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.

Racism is unChristian. A white man who invokes a government law to force a black woman to surrender her seat to him and move to the back of the bus is not following Christ, but is a wretched deformation of humanity.

Racism is also irrational. To suggest that John Maynard Keynes or Karl Marx were better economists than Thomas Sowell or Walter Williams -- based solely on the melanin content in their skin or the ethnic heritage of their ancestors -- is lunacy.

To say that Martin Luther King, Jr., does not deserve to have a federal holiday is not inherently "racist." To question the long-term value of the "Civil Rights Movement" is not inherently "racist." Some racists may ask these questions. So may some who strongly oppose racism.

I have suggested Booker T. Washington as a better example than King.

Look at films of blacks and whites using "separate but equal" drinking fountains in southern cities in the 1950's. Are the blacks of New Orleans better off today? Is America better off after the expansion of federal power under Brown vs. Board of Education and the Civil Rights movement?

Would slavery have been eliminated without mass murder and federal intervention in the "Civil War?" Would segregation have been eliminated by a Free Market?

These are legitimate questions.

Today's Resources:

Kevin Craig's Platform: Racial Discrimination

Jackie Robinson and Capitalism

Capitalism: Discrimination's Implacable Enemy

Planned Parenthood - The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

The Myths of Martin Luther King - The American View

Martin Luther King’s Adultery

Martin Luther King’s Plagiarism

Socialist "Saint" - The New American

Dyson on King

MLK on Sanger - Planned Parenthood - Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood Founder

The Trouble With Forced Integration by Rep. Ron Paul

Myths of Martin Luther King by Marcus Epstein

MLK as Twentieth-Century Jesus by Paul Gottfried

Martin Luther King Day by Paul Craig Roberts

For a Constitutional Conservatism: An Open Letter to Roger Clegg

Enough Holidays by Gail Jarvis

Character Counts - The New American

VDARE.com: MLK Day: The Martin Luther King Cult

King's Communist Connections

Ron Paul, 1924

Who is this dynamic orator? Who is it that is powerfully pointing out that taxes come out of the pocket of the laborer? Is it Ron Paul?
No, it's "Silent" Cal Coolidge.

Government has always known that government spending to "stimulate" the economy always means stimulating special interests at the expense of the politically powerless, out of whose paychecks the "stimulus" must come.

HT: Club for Growth

Today's "Ozarks Virtual Town Hall" discussed President Bush's "Economic Growth Package."

Secularist Questions

A secularist organization called "First Freedom First" has suggested some "Questions to Ask Candidates. The questions are designed to push the atheistic agenda behind the myth of "the separation of church and state." Here are their questions with my answers.

1. Leaders on the religious right often say that America is a “Christian Nation.” Do you agree with this statement?

America was unquestionably a Christian nation -- the U.S. Supreme Court has said so many times, notably in a lengthy opinion in an 1892 case, Holy Trinity Church vs. United States. Not a single person who signed the Constitution would disagree with those declarations, nor agree with efforts in the 20th century to transform America from a Christian nation to a secular nation.

2. Do you think Houses of Worship should be allowed to endorse political candidates and retain their tax exempt status?

Yes, and the provision of the IRS code that warns against this should be repealed. It was added by Lyndon Johnson in 1954 to undercut opposition to his campaign by certain conservative non-profits. The amount of "political" activity which a church can engage in is fairly broad, limited only with respect to endorsing or opposing particular candidates or legislation. In an attempt to stifle free speech, the forces of secularism (like the ACLU and Americans United) often threaten to sic the IRS on churches who speak out on conservative or religious issues as they apply concretely to political issues. What politicians and candidates need is more free (and critical) speech and more investigative journalism, not less. Churches should not be put in a position of having to choose between speaking the truth and suffering government sanctions.

Not only do I believe churches should be tax-exempt, I believe General Motors should be tax-exempt.

3. Do you think public schools should sponsor school prayer or, as a parent, should this choice be left to me?

I'm against government-operated schools, just like I'm against government-operated grocery stores. Parents should be able to choose from a wide variety of food and education for their children, a variety which only the Free Market can provide.

Every single person who signed the Constitution believed that the primary function of government-operated schools was to teach religion and morality. The main purpose of learning how to read was to read the Bible. Knowledge of math and science was valuable to "exercise dominion over the earth" under God.

The first thing America's Founders did after creating the Constitution was call for prayer. Both houses of Congress and nearly every state legislature "sponsor prayer." If politicians are allowed to pray, why not students?

4. Would you support a law that mandates teaching creationism in my child’s public school science classes?

I'm against public school science classes, for reasons explained above in question 3. Most problems in this area are caused by the fact that the government has an unconstitutional monopoly over education, denying parental choice in the education of their children.

I would support a law that permits teaching creationism, and permits analyzing Darwinism and encouraging students to question all theories, subject all theories to scrutiny, and not to accept a theory on blind faith -- something secularists cannot tolerate.

Most creationists want their children to know about the theory of evolution -- and be able to refute it. Most Darwinists feel threatened if scientific evidence against the Darwinist faith is presented.

5. Do you think my pharmacist should be allowed to deny me doctor-prescribed medications based on his or her religious beliefs?

This is a truly ridiculous question. Should the government force Jewish pharmacists to sell Zyklon-B to Nazis?

Every worker in every field should be able to do as she pleases based on her religious beliefs (unless her religion requires the initiation of force). The government should not force a pharmacist to sell anything other than what the pharmacist wants to sell. If a pharmacist wants to sell snake oil exclusively, she should be free to do so, and consumers should be free from government subsidies for "America's snake-oil industry," laws "protecting" consumers from foreign snake oil "dumping," and tariffs on snake oil imports designed to create a "level playing field."

6. Will you respect the rights of those in our diverse communities of faith who deem same-gender marriage to be consistent with their religious creed?

What are those "rights?" Two people of the same gender have always had the "right" to call themselves "married." Nobody else has a legal obligation to accept their definition of "marriage." If a couple are committing acts which I consider to be an "abomination," I have the right to "discriminate" against them, by evicting them from my property, for example.

Since its inception, the United States of America has acknowledged a "law above the law," or a "higher law," called "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." Every single person who signed the Constitution believed that homosexuality was contrary to "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." This means that if Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones want to call themselves "married," they are free to do so, but Mrs. Wilson is also free to reject their claim. The federal government is obligated to reject that claim, as well as every state in the union. This is because the U.S. Supreme Court has correctly declared that every government official who takes an oath to "support the Constitution" is pledging support for "the organic laws" of the nation, which includes the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution does not require the government to acknowledge that same-gender relationships are morally legitimate.

7. Should “faith-based” charities that receive public funds be allowed to discriminate against employees or applicants based on religious beliefs?

"Public" (i.e., taxpayer) funds should not be confiscated or given to charities. Such funds do not belong to politicians to give to charities. If the government is going to confiscate money from taxpayers and give this money to charities, the government should appropriate revenue only to charities that uphold "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." If a charity wants to withhold food from someone who refuses to work, that charity should not be discriminated against by the government. If a charity refuses to hire a member of the church of Satan as a counselor, the government should not discriminate against that charity.

8. Do you think one's right to disbelieve in God is protected by the same laws that protect someone else's right to believe?

A person is free to believe anything, but that person may not act in a way consistent with the belief that there is no God and no obligation to obey "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." The government has consistently ruled against the First Amendment claims of those who wish to violate Christian laws which run contrary to their own false religion. If God is dead, "all things are permitted" -- but not in a Christian nation.

9. Do you think everyone’s religious freedom needs to be protected by what Thomas Jefferson called “a wall of separation” between church and state?

The Supreme Court (see question 8 above) has ruled that the "wall of separation" does not protect the Aztec worshiper in his desire to sacrifice virgins to the sun, because this is a Christian nation (see question 1 above). Modern deviations from this Constitutional understanding and the creation of a "wall of separation" are dangerous and unconstitutional.

10. What should guide our policies on public health and medical research: science or religion?

This is a false dilemma. Should religion guide our policies on human experimentation? Of course, otherwise we become Nazis. The Christian religion, with its belief in a rational God and a knowable, orderly universe, is the foundation of modern science, health and medical research.

Allegiance: Obama's Hand and Heart

Chris Ortiz at Chalcedon wonders about Barak Obama's (occasional) failure to put his hand over his heart when the National Anthem is played or the Pledge of Allegiance is recited.

I'm very sensitive to this issue of "allegiance." Years before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that schoolchildren should not be permitted to say the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, that court ruled that I could not have a license to practice law in California, even though I had passed the California Bar Exam and was otherwise completely qualified. I've provided details here:

http://i.am/not-a-lawyer
(Ad-free version)

In a nutshell, my allegiance to God is greater than my allegiance to the government. If the government commands me to do something that God forbids me to do, or if the government forbids me to do something that God says I must do, I have decided in advance that I "ought to obey God rather than man." A federal court in Los Angeles said the U.S. Supreme Court says such defective allegiance renders a man unfit to be an attorney. My final brief on appeal before the Ninth Circuit was written pro bono by three well-known Professors of Constitutional Law and a former California State Supreme Court Justice. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear my appeal.

For this reason I no longer recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Not that I'm not permitted to do so, but that I do not wish to. After all, if the government says I don't have enough patriotism to become a lawyer, I surely don't have enough allegiance to say the Pledge.

My feelings were further confirmed when I saw video of tanks crushing children's toys at Waco, before incinerating 80+ Americans, all the while waving an American flag on their whip antenna. The flag has become for me a symbol of tyranny.

It used to be the case, when America was a Christian nation, that only Christians were allowed to become attorneys or hold public office. Atheists were excluded. This has been reversed. The U.S. Supreme Court has declared we are now an atheistic nation, and Christians -- who reserve their ultimate loyalty to God -- are now persona non grata. They do not have requisite allegiance to the Messianic State. I discovered dozens of reported court cases (I'm sure there are many more unreported cases) in which Christians lost their jobs or were denied American citizenship because their allegiance to God was greater than their allegiance to the government. I cannot pledge my allegiance to such a government.

The Pledge is actually "to the Republic" for which the flag stands. But we are no longer a republic.

When I first saw the video of Obama defying the Flag Code (TITLE 36, Subtitle I, Part A, CHAPTER 3, § 301), I had a great deal of respect for the man, regardless of his reasons, for standing alone in public. But it appears that no principle is involved, as he sometimes does, and sometimes does not, recite the Pledge or place his hand over his heart for the National Anthem.

I guess that irritates me. I don't understand why Obama does not feel obligated by law, custom, tradition, or public norms to do what all other ordinary Americans do. He strikes me now as an egotist. (You may say I'm the egotist, since I don't ever say the Pledge. But the reason I initially admired Obama was because it is very difficult for me to buck the crowd. I don't like to stand out or call attention to myself, and I usually try to arrive late to meetings where the Pledge is recited, just to avoid a confrontation. I went through years of litigation, probably reading more than a thousand court opinions and law review articles on the issue of allegiance and "the separation of church and state" in order to convice the government that I have sufficient allegiance to be given a Bar card. I take this issue seriously. It goes to the core of our national identity. The issue is not just flag ceremony. It is whether we are a nation "under God." The government says we are not. And when the government is not "under God," the government is god.

In fact, when the Pledge is recited, I defy the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals by saying only two words of the Pledge: "under God.")

Ron Paul: Racist?

The New Republic has written an article critical of Ron Paul, citing excerpts from a series of newsletters (mostly in the 1990's) bearing his name: Ron Paul's Freedom Report, Ron Paul Political Report, The Ron Paul Survival Report, and The Ron Paul Investment Letter. TNR has concerns about Ron Paul's position on these subjects: "Race," "Gays," "Survivalism and Militias," "Conspiracies," and "Middle East" (by which they really mean, "Is Ron Paul a 'Holocaust-denier?'").

Although as a voter I'll probably vote for Ron Paul if I have a chance, as a candidate I don't have any desire to be seen as a Ron Paul wanna-be. So I'd like to take a few posts to respond to the allegations in The New Republic. Not to defend Ron Paul, but myself, in case anybody associates my campaign with Dr. Paul's newsletters.

There seems to be a consensus that Ron Paul himself probably did not write those articles. The ghostwriter has not yet been identified. Thomas L. Knapp has speculated that Christian Reconstructionist Gary North was the author. I've known Gary North for about 30 years. Not closely, but he has published a couple dozen of my articles. I was a "Chalcedon Scholar" at the think-tank formed by his father-in-law. I asked him for the "scoop" on his involvement with Ron Paul's newsletters. He told me this morning,

I worked for Ron Paul from June, 1976 to January 2, 1977, when his term expired. My salary was paid by the U. S. Congress. That was my last connection to him financially.

Gary North is a hard-core Christian Theocrat, and is busy churning out the blueprints for America (and the world) as a Christian Theocracy. You can see his output for the 1990's on this page at his freebooks.com website. In addition, he was spending way too much time in the 1990's listening to the "experts" on the y2k problem. And he spends a great deal of time formulating investment advice and Specific Answers to current economic issues in his $95/yr investment newsletter, Gary North's Remnant Review.

So why would anyone suspect that Gary North was also doing pro bono work for Ron Paul's investment newsletter?

Perhaps the fact that his father-in-law, R.J. Rushdoony has (and other "Christian Reconstructionists" have) written some racist-sounding lines, and has been accused of being a "holocaust denier" and a "racist." More. The "hard right" or Theocratic right is often accused of racism, and the hard right often responds in ways that seem to confirm the accusation.

Let's face it: blacks are in bad shape. They are disproportionately in jail or on probation, on drugs, illiterate, and diseased. I thought about linking each of those words to nifty webpages documenting the accusation, but we all know these demograhpics are true.

And when someone (usually a "conservative") points these sad facts out, and is then accused (usually by a "liberal") of being a "racist," the conservative often digs in his heels, solidifies his position, and comes out looking even more like a racist. I've seen people who are really not racist at heart sound like racists when arguing with Democrats, when what they're really arguing against is Democratic social policies. There can be no doubt that the New Republic and similar articles are dodging the social policy debate by slinging "racist!" and other scare words.

My definition of "racism" is the belief that sad demographic realities are inherent in all members of the race. A connection, perhaps, with the quantity of melanin in their skin. Who knows what genuine racists believe causes these things; I don't. I really doubt that Ron Paul or Rushdoony believe that blacks -- because of something inherent in their genetic make up -- will always be criminals or government welfare dependants rather than economists or guest-hosts for Rush Limbaugh.

Gary North has taken Rushdoony to task for some of the awkward things he has said about race: Rushdoony on "Hybridization." He has also confronted the belief often stated at LewRockwell.com that slavery was not the central issue in the Civil War (Appendix D in his commentary on First Timothy).

As I read the excerpts from Ron Paul's newsletters, I don't see much of anything that is not factually or demographically accurate. I can't vouch for the inner motivations of the ghostwriter, but "statistics don't lie."

In line with my basic campaign strategy, "Bad Publicity is Better than No Publicity At All," I'll go on record saying that blacks were better off on plantations than they are now. I like to look at it this way: when blacks were slaves to Christian slavemasters, they wrote music we now call "Negro Spirituals." Now that blacks are enslaved by the secular federal government instead of people like Philemon , and have been relocated from Southern plantations to Northern "projects," they write music called "gangsta rap." Are blacks better off now that they've been "freed?" Listen to the music.

I don't say this because I support slavery (I don't, and Gary North has also explained why from a Christian Reconstructionist perspective) or because I think any race is genetically inferior to any other. I say this because some political theories are genetically inferior. The political strategy of Democrats condemns blacks to perpetual slavery; slavery to sin and slavery to the feds. The "Saints" of the Democrat pantheon have not led blacks to the promised land.

My heartfelt desire would be for blacks to be free: free from federal education, free from the initiation of force, and free from myths that legitimize their own initiation of force or the initiation of force "on their behalf" by Democrats and other socialists. In short, I want to see all blacks become "classical liberals" and Christocrats.

Next: Ron Paul and "Gays"

Choosing Slavemasters

As an opponent of the "War on Terror," I'm often asked if I prefer to become a Muslim. Or I'm asked if I'm learning to speak Arabic. (And I'm reminded of the line from the Nixon Administration, that if America had lost World War II, our Secretary of State would speak with a German accent and we would all be driving Japanese cars.)

I've said before, "Bad publicity is better than no publicity at all." So it's time for me to announce that if I have to choose, I hope the Muslims enslave America.

Benjamin Rush once wrote in defense of teaching Christianity in public schools,
Such is my veneration for every religion that reveals the attributes of the Deity, or a future state of rewards and punishments, that I had rather see the opinions of Confucius or Mohammed inculcated upon our youth than see them grow up wholly devoid of a system of religious principles. But the religion I mean to recommend in this place, is that of the New Testament.
Benjamin Rush, Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical (Philadelphia: Thomas and William Bradford, 1806), p. 8.

If I have to choose between atheistic materialism and Islam, I guess I'd go with Islam. William Norman Grigg explains why "Dhimma" ("a kind of social contract between victorious Muslims and their conquered subjects") may be preferable to "Homeland Security" under the religion of Secular Humanism:

The "social contract" (no, not the Constitution of 1787 -- the Sixteenth Amendment and Federal Reserve Act) defining our current system permits far greater impositions on the governed than the poll and land taxes extracted from dhimmis, and confiscation of personal property on the whim of our rulers is standard federal practice today. In similar fashion, those who enforce the will of our ruling class enjoy broad discretion in the use of lethal force against civilians, who can't so much as touch or even speak brusquely to an enforcer without facing the prospect of immediate torture and summary imprisonment.

In his must-reading blog, Grigg goes on to point out the even greater irony: that we may already be under "dhimmitude." The Bible says, "The borrower is the slave of the lender." (Proverbs 22:7). Proverbs 12:24 warns, "The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute." Secular American materialists are facing tribute and servitude, as Grigg writes:

On November 27, an SWF controlled by the government of Abu Dhabi, an oil-rich member of the United Arab Emirates, spent $7.5 billion to buy a roughly five percent share in Citigroup, America's largest and most prestigious bank. Like most of the banking system, Citigroup is in potentially mortal peril from the collapse of the Federal Reserve's housing/mortgage/debt bubble. The willingness of Abu Dhabi to pump billions – the legal limit – into Citicorp prompted a brief but significant market rally, as the investor class prostrated itself with gratitude before its Arab benefactors.

Compare Psalm 72:9.

Gary North says “The great fire sale has begun.”

Liberal Fascism

Jonah Goldberg supports the Iraq war too much, but his recent book Liberal Fascism has some helpful contributions. From the Amazon.com description:

“Fascists,” “Brownshirts,” “jackbooted stormtroopers”—such are the insults typically hurled at conservatives by their liberal opponents. Calling someone a fascist is the fastest way to shut them up, defining their views as beyond the political pale. But who are the real fascists in our midst?

Liberal Fascism offers a startling new perspective on the theories and practices that define fascist politics. Replacing conveniently manufactured myths with surprising and enlightening research, Jonah Goldberg reminds us that the original fascists were really on the left, and that liberals from Woodrow Wilson to FDR to Hillary Clinton have advocated policies and principles remarkably similar to those of Hitler's National Socialism and Mussolini's Fascism.

Contrary to what most people think, the Nazis were ardent socialists (hence the term “National socialism”). They believed in free health care and guaranteed jobs. They confiscated inherited wealth and spent vast sums on public education. They purged the church from public policy, promoted a new form of pagan spirituality, and inserted the authority of the state into every nook and cranny of daily life. The Nazis declared war on smoking, supported abortion, euthanasia, and gun control. They loathed the free market, provided generous pensions for the elderly, and maintained a strict racial quota system in their universities—where campus speech codes were all the rage. The Nazis led the world in organic farming and alternative medicine. Hitler was a strict vegetarian, and Himmler was an animal rights activist.

Do these striking parallels mean that today’s liberals are genocidal maniacs, intent on conquering the world and imposing a new racial order? Not at all. Yet it is hard to deny that modern progressivism and classical fascism shared the same intellectual roots. We often forget, for example, that Mussolini and Hitler had many admirers in the United States. W.E.B. Du Bois was inspired by Hitler's Germany, and Irving Berlin praised Mussolini in song. Many fascist tenets were espoused by American progressives like John Dewey and Woodrow Wilson, and FDR incorporated fascist policies in the New Deal.

Fascism was an international movement that appeared in different forms in different countries, depending on the vagaries of national culture and temperament. In Germany, fascism appeared as genocidal racist nationalism. In America, it took a “friendlier,” more liberal form. The modern heirs of this “friendly fascist” tradition include the New York Times, the Democratic Party, the Ivy League professoriate, and the liberals of Hollywood. The quintessential Liberal Fascist isn't an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore.

These assertions may sound strange to modern ears, but that is because we have forgotten what fascism is. In this angry, funny, smart, contentious book, Jonah Goldberg turns our preconceptions inside out and shows us the true meaning of Liberal Fascism.

"Not at all" Goldberg (or his publicist) responds to the question, "Do these striking parallels mean that today’s liberals are genocidal maniacs, intent on conquering the world and imposing a new racial order?

Did anyone in 1938 think of Hitler as a "genocidal maniac, intent on conquering the world and imposing a new racial order?" If the Bush-Cheney establishment is not intent on "conquering the world" and creating a "New American Century" around the world, who is? Maybe not a "new racial order," but certainly a New World Order, probably dominated by one race, but maybe only accidentally. "Genocidal?" The Bush-Clinton regime has killed over a million Iraqis since 1990, and displaced millions more.

"But wait . . . Goldberg is talking about liberal fascism; you've been talking about arch-conservatives George Bush and Dick Cheney." If the only thing we change about Bush's 8-year administration is his party label, his policies would mark him as one of the most "liberal" Presidents in American history. See:

The Myth of "Left" and "Right"

CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS for HILLARY

Torture: Stereotyping vs. Analyzing

If you're a liberal, what do you guess would be the position of the John Birch Society on waterboarding as a tool to win the War on Terror? Or the position of Joseph Farah, editor of WorldNetDaily.com, described by Wikipedia as a "conservative online news site," by Future of Freedom Foundation as "a conservative website," by Media Matters as a "right-wing website," and as "only slighty below NewsMax on the 'ultra-conservative mouthpieces posing as independent news sites' scale" by someone at njdevs.com, a forum for fans of the New Jersey Devils hockey team.

Stereotyping is dangerous. "All right-wingers support Bush and his use of torture," the left-wing anti-war type stereotypically says.

The answer to the question:

WorldNetDaily: Waterboarding is not torture

The New American: Mukasey a Bad Omen for Liberty and the Rule of Law

Now let's analyze the two sides. Gary Benoit, writing for the John Birch Society, makes an irrefutable case that waterboarding is torture:

Former U.S. Navy instructor Malcolm Nance, who trained U.S. forces to resist harsh interrogation techniques including waterboarding, wrote on the Small Wars Journal blog that waterboarding is torture "without doubt." Though waterboarding is often described by the media as simulated drowning, Nance points out that it is "not a simulation" at all but a "controlled drowning." In waterboarding, Nance explains,

the lungs are actually filling with water. There is no way to simulate that. How much the victim is to drown depends on the desired result (in the form of answers to questions shouted into the victim’s face) and the obstinacy of the subject. A team doctor watches the quantity of water that is ingested and for the physiological signs which show when the drowning effect goes from painful psychological experience, to horrific suffocating punishment to the final death spiral.

Nance continues: "Waterboarding is slow motion suffocation with enough time to contemplate the inevitability of black out and expiration — usually the person goes into hysterics on the board. For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch and if it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right it is controlled death."
. Syndicated columnist Joseph Galloway, coauthor of We Were Soldiers Once … and Young, recently described a waterboarding he had witnessed as a young reporter covering the Vietnam War. (His character is depicted in the movie We Were Soldiers.) According to Galloway: "When you hog-tie a human being, tilt him head down, stuff a rag in his mouth and over his nostrils and pour water onto the rag slowly and steadily to the point where his lungs start to fill with water and he's suffocating and drowning, that is torture."
. The waterboarding witnessed by Galloway was performed by South Vietnamese Army troops against a Viet Cong suspect. "The victim was taken to the edge of death," Galloway recalled. "His body was wracked with spasms as he fought for air. The soldier holding the five-gallon kerosene tin filled with muddy water from a nearby stream kept pouring it slowly onto the rag, and the victim desperately sucking for even a little air kept inhaling that water instead."
. "Did the suspect talk?" Galloway rhetorically asked. "I’m sure he did. I'm sure he told his torturers whatever he thought they wanted to hear, whether it was true or not." Galloway, however, was not present to witness that since one of the American Army advisers attached to that South Vietnamese unit, who had walked away before the waterboarding began, came back to tell Galloway he had to leave.
. Why did he have to leave? Why did the American advisers walk away? "That adviser knew that water torture was torture; he knew that it was outlawed by the Geneva Convention; he knew that he couldn’t be a party to it; and he knew that he didn't want me to witness such brutality," Galloway wrote in his column.
. Evan Wallach, who teaches the law of war at Brooklyn Law School and New York Law School, also knows that waterboarding is torture. In a recent op-ed in the Washington Post entitled "Waterboarding Used to be a Crime," he noted that the U.S. government has in the past "severely punished" those who applied waterboarding, citing as one example the convictions of “several Japanese soldiers for waterboarding American and Allied prisoners of war” during World War II.

How does WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah respond to this revealing analysis?

He doesn't.

"Let's use our heads for a minute," he says, often a cue to avoid the intellectually sound arguments of the opposition.

. Imagine American law enforcement or military authorities have captured a terrorist mastermind who has knowledge about an imminent nuclear detonation in an unknown American city. He knows the time, the location and the details about the warhead.
. The bomb could be going off at any minute. It could kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people.
. Would you really want waterboarding to be banned under all circumstances? What alternatives would you suggest for quick results? Should we call in top negotiators from the State Department? Should we play loud rap music? Should we force the prisoner to listen to Hillary Rodham Clinton speeches?
. While I also find those experiences unpleasant, I don't think they would produce the needed results in time to defuse the bomb.

His article does not in any way prove that waterboarding is not torture, only that we should use it anyway because the end justifies the means.

This is not analysis, it's fascist propaganda. Here's Farah's pitch:

Let's not tie the hands of future Jack Bauers who will need to do what they have to do to save lives.

Will Grigg analyzes Farah's propaganda here:

Pro Libertate: "Turbo"-Charged Idiocy About Torture

But some people still might hesitate to rule out torture. "We have to be realistic," they say. "You're just too idealistic." (It's always "too idealistic" to apply things like morality to "real-world" things like politics and foreign policy.) "Sure, torture is normally wrong. It's certainly wrong when they do it to us. But isn't it better to torture one terrorist than allow thousands of innocent people to die?"

"Jack Bauer" analysis will never be overcome by "Jesus Christ" analysis in the minds of those who vote for Huckabee because Chuck Norris says so. The Prince of Peace, who said "Love your enemy," is against violence. "But if we use violence against the terrorist, we will save lives." Jesus says, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword" (Matthew 26:52).

Here's why Jesus is correct.

Before we get to the point where Jack Bauer is about to find out where the bomb is by using violence, we have to enact a policy allowing violence. That policy will declare that when we set out to prosecute a "war on terror," torture will be allowed. It is this policy, which reflects a violent mindset, and results in wars costing thousands if not millions of innocent non-combatant policies, which gives terrorst recruiters something to harp on, and an excuse to bomb us.

Suppose instead of spending a trillion dollars bombing Iraq and killing over a million innocent non-combatant children since 1990, we had simply decided to donate a trillion dollars to Iraq, a little at a time, everytime they attend a class on the Constitution and Christianity. Of course, the federal government has for decades held that welfare benefits cannot be conditioned on sitting and listening to a sermon, but let's say we finally admitted with William Rehnquist that "The 'wall of separation between church and State' is a metaphor based on bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned." Let's suppose also that we re-adopted the foreign policy of America's Founding Fathers: "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none," and no U.S. military bases in over 100 countries.

Would this affect the ability of terrorists to recruit new bombers? Of course it would.

When a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. (Proverbs 16:7)

Our national motto is "In God We Trust," but in practice we trust Jack Bauer more than God when it comes to "national security." And God says we will not have security as long as we think and act this way. If we adopt a policy of military occupation to secure our oil, and a policy of torture against those who don't like our smart-bombs, we will never be safe from our enemies, ever-increasing in number.

Day 12: The Christmas Millennium

Tonight is the "Twelfth Night" (as I understand it -- as I admitted on the first day of this series, my family has never observed "The 12 Days of Christmas" or paid much attention to "Epiphany," which is observed by some Christians on January 6). In this final post in a series called "The 12 Days of Liberty," we're going to see the contrast between a world of liberty -- the world inaugurated by Christ the King at the first Christmas -- and the world far too many Christians believe in, a world of nuclear annihilation and a thousand-year Christian Reich.

These Christians believe that the fulfillment of Micah's "Vine & Fig Tree" prophecy -- a prophecy which inspired America's Founding Fathers and "the American Dream" -- is impossible until Christ's Second Coming in the future.

The age when Micah's prophecy (along with others like it) comes to fruition is wrongly called "the millennium" -- in reference to a period in the Book of Revelation lasting "a thousand years." Christ is said to return before this millennium begins, hence the theory is called "pre-millennialism."

But even when Christ returns, the "millennium" of modern fundamentalists is nothing like Micah's libertarian "Vine & Fig Tree" prophecy. The televangelists' millennium is a heavy-handed top-down police state administered by Jesus on a throne in Jerusalem, with his bureaucrat-minions around the world imposing law and order on the unbelieving with a "rod of iron."

Gary North has written about Premillennialism's Faith in A Police State. That link is critical reading here. Micah's vision of the future and John Hagee's vision are very different, even though they might use the same Bible verses, such as

Revelation 1:6
and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Revelation 5:10
And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”

The question to ask on this 12th Day of Christmas is, how are Christians supposed to "reign on the earth?" How are "millennial" conditions brought about and sustained? Our answer, as you should handily guess if you've read the last 11 Days' worth of posts on this blog, is "libertarianism," "the Free Market," or "capitalism." Christians are not literally supposed to wield a "rod of iron" and impose physical punishments on the unbelievers. Our "millennium" is a non-aggressive decentralized "NAGocracy."

Most premillennial Christians have never heard of the idea I'm about to advance, so I can't fault them for not believing it. There are lots of inconsistencies and un-thought-through ideas floating around in evangelical circles today. Let's take about 5 minutes to look at a couple.

True or False: In order for Christ's millennial “thousand-year” reign of the saints as priests and kings to begin, Satan must first be cast into the Lake of Fire.

Revelation 20:6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

False: Satan is cast into the Lake of Fire after the “thousand years.” During the “millennium” Satan’s power is arguably unrestricted except for the one thing that is actually mentioned in the text:

that he should deceive the Gentiles no more till the thousand years were finished (Rev. 20:3)

During this period, Satan is still alive and well, because believers reigning with Christ need their rods of iron to physically undo Satan's spiritual deceptions.

After the “millennium” (in which the Gentiles were no longer deceived), Satan is released from his “prison” for the purpose of raising up an army:

Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, (v. 7)

This is a "little season" of total chaos, rebellion, conflict, and global war between the forces of Christ and the forces of Satan. If we're to believe the best-selling fiction on the matter, it's a mess. So great is Satan's warfare, that Christ is unable to prevail, and He takes His cosmic football and goes home. Popular dispensational writer Dave Hunt says,

In fact, dominion – taking dominion and setting up the kingdom of Christ – is an impossibility, even for God. The millennial reign of Christ, far from being the kingdom, is actually the final proof of the incorrigible nature of the human heart, because Christ Himself can’t do it.

Here’s what Revelation says about the “thousand years.”

Revelation 20 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished.

We have seen that Satan was bound by Jesus Christ at His First Coming, by His powerful ministry on earth, by His Death, Resurrection and Ascension. During the time Satan was “bound” (figuratively; not in literal chains, with a literal "seal") the gospel went out to every nation under heaven. Despite intense persecution and tribulation inflicted on Christian evangelists by the religious establishment of the day, every nation under heaven heard the Gospel. The seeds of the Empire's destruction were planted. Then Satan was “released” to organize the Gentiles (the Roman army) to battle, and to destroy Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

Satan was Bound in the 1^st Century

The New Testament gives powerful evidence that Satan was judged and bound by Christ during the first century. That is, his attempts to "deceive the natoins" failed, and the Gentiles were incorporated into the "household of faith," and made sons of Abraham. The New Testament, taken as a whole, was not written to foretell of a binding of Satan thousands of years after the Scriptures were written, but the Scriptures tell of events that were taking place during that generation, the generation to whom the words were written. It was something that applied to the events they were facing in the first century, something they needed to know to help them persevere through their tribulations. The authors of the words you are about to read were not writing them to imperiled Christian communities to tell them about events several thousand years in the future.

By His Power over Satan, Jesus demonstrated that the Kingdom was not “postponed” but rather “at hand.”

Matthew 12:28 But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

By His Power over demons, Jesus indicated that Satan was being bound.

Matthew 12:29 Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.

Luke 10:18 And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Luke 11:20-22 But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.

Mark 1:24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”

Revelation 12:10-12 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

Through the death (execution) and resurrection of Christ, Satan was judged.

John 12:31-33 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” [cf. Micah 4:1-2] This He said, signifying by what death He would die.

John 14:30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.

John 16:11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

In His Resurrection and Ascension, Christ was enthroned, and the power which Satan and his host formerly held over the nations was transferred to Christ.

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Luke 10:18 And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Luke 11:17-22 But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say I cast out demons by Beelzebub. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.

Colossians 2:15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

Psalm 68:18
You have ascended on high,
You have led captivity captive;
You have received gifts among men,
Even from the rebellious,
That the Lord God might dwell there.

Ephesians 4:8 Therefore He says:
“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts to men.”

Hebrews 2:14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,

1 John 3:8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

1 John 4:4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”

Romans 16:20 And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

What was the message the Scriptures brought to those to whom it was written (in the 1st century)? The message was one of hope, to continue faithfully to preach the gospel, and to be assured of victory even amidst persecution, establishing the reign of Christ and the dethronement of Emperor worship in the midst of persecution and tribulation.

Revelation 1:9 I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Premillennialists believe the "tribulation" comes before "the Kingdom." John said they were happening back then, at the same time.

The Gospel was preached to every nation under heaven:

Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all the nations throughout the Empire unto martyrdom, and then the end will come.

Acts 2:5 And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.

Colossians 1:23 the gospel which you heard, was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Colossians 1:5-6 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, and growing as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;

Romans 16:26 but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith—

Romans 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

This proves that Satan was bound and unable to deceive the nations. The power to make all nations disciples of Christ was exercised and Satan was overcome (Matthew 28:19-20).

The New Testament also says that believers were anointed as priests and kings. Back then -- not "someday," thousands of years in the future.

Christmas means the coming of the Messiah, and when the Old Testament prophets looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, they also looked forward to a day when believers would be anointed to reign with the Messiah in His Kingdom. That messianic age began on the first Christmas.

That the saints are anointed for the task of reigning is of special significance. Anointing was the way the prophet (Isaiah 61:1), the priest (Numbers 3:3), and the king were consecrated.

Anointing was particularly the marking-out of the king. A quick glance at the occurrences of the word “anointed” in the books of Samuel makes this abundantly clear: over and over the king is called “the Lord’s anointed.”

The New Testament makes abundantly clear the fact that Christmas means the coming of the anointed Prophet (Luke 4:18), anointed Priest (Hebrews 10:21) and Christ (that is, Anointed King; Hebrews 1:8-9; Acts 4:25-27, quoting Psalm 2:2).

The anointing of the prophet, priest, and king with oil was symbolic of the bestowal of the Holy Spirit, and it was with the Spirit that Christ was anointed (Acts 10:38). If there is one verb the Scriptures associate with the Holy Spirit is it the word “pour” or “sprinkle.” When God pours out the Spirit, He pours it upon His saints, anointing them priests and kings under Christ. We have been anointed, and we are now priests and kings:

But ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things. But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.
1 John 2:20,27

Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God.
2 Corinthians 1:21

And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father.
Revelation 1:6

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9

The amazing thing about the Old Testament prophecies of the coming reign of Christ’s and His royal priests is not just that His people would be put into a position of true authority in Christ, but that they would be seen carrying out His will. The new commonwealth in Christ (Ephesians 2:12-19; 1 Peter 2:9) is quite unlike the old nation of Israel, who continually rebelled and forsook the LORD. And it is the anointing of the Spirit which we have that enables us to keep His Law and to “walk in His paths” (Micah 4:2; Romans 8:1-4). That was the message that first Christmas: that the Babe would

give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Luke 1:79

"The Last Days"
Micah’s prophecy begins with the words, “And it will come about in the last days. . . .” The prophet Joel began one of his prophecies in the same way, and the Apostle Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, declared that Joel’s prophecy was seeing its fulfillment on that great Day of Pentecost (literally "fiftieth," the Jewish harvest festival of Shavuot, the 50th day after passover, when the Lamb of God was sacrificed) . What did Joel predict, and what was then happening? It was the first stage of the anointing of believers as priests and kings to reign in obedience to Christ. Acts 2 describes the day when believers

. . . were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. And they were all amazed and marvelled saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Others mocked, saying, these men are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my word: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose. . . . But this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel:

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy . . . .”
Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:1-21

When Joel looked into the future and saw this great outpouring of the Spirit of God upon all peoples, he saw the miraculous anointing that inaugurated that glorious age of human history foretold by the prophets.

The prophet Ezekiel had also spoken of the triumph of The Christmas Messiah:

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them.
Ezekiel 36:25-32

It would indeed be a miraculous day when God’s people would reign with Him, rather than against Him, obeying Him from the heart, rather than rebelling, departing to the left and to the right, as Israel did so consistently. (Some have suggested that the Old Testament is one of the most "anti-semitic" books in history, because it paints such an unflattering picture of "the chosen people" as being egregiously faithless and idolatrous.)

The description given by the prophet Jeremiah began the same way, and was also fulfilled by Christ according to the writer to the Hebrews:

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the LORD; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
Jeremiah 31:31-34, in Hebrews 8:8-12

In the Old Testament it was difficult to imagine God getting anything accomplished through His people; with this remarkable change in the hearts of the saints, it is easier to understand how the Messiah would exercise His Kingship through the people of God and carry out all that the prophets foretold. Now the people of God can be entrusted with the Kingly rule of Christ, as spoken of by the Prophets:

He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.
Psalm 47:3; cf. Psalm 118:10, Isaiah 14:2

For the LORD taketh pleasure in His people: He will beautify the meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute this judgment written; this honor have all His saints. Praise ye the LORD!
Psalm 149:4-9; cf. Isaiah. 11:1-5

Armed with the two-edged sword of the LORD, which is the Scriptures (Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12 -- not a literal sword), we who are saints are called to administer the Kingly reign of Christ, calling all people and all nations to repentance from socialist violence, even as King Jesus executes His judgments through us, by His powerful Word (Isaiah 11:4; Isaiah 49:2; Hosea 6:5; 2 Thessalonians 2:8; Revelation 19:15).

Armed with the Scriptures and the Spirit, we exercise the prophetic role of Christ, in denouncing the institutionalized selfishness which characterizes the empires -- the outposts -- of the old world order. We must help its victims overcome their oppression, just as Christ was sent to do:

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me; because the LORD hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, To give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified.
Isaiah 61:1-3; cf. Luke 4:18-22

The dominion of sin and death has been put to an end. Living in fear of Satan’s minions and being in bondage to their televised lies and half-truths, waiting mournfully for the death of the cosmic Saddam, living in a spiritual and cultural underground, waiting for a rapturous rescue from the terminated reign of a now-disarmed dictator, can finally come to an end. Christ is King, and as His ambassadors we spread this Good News to those who are crippled by disinformation from the Old World Order. Armed with the two-edged sword of the LORD, we extend Christ’s reign by preaching the good news of reconciliation to God, until all His enemies have become His friends (1 Corinthians 15:25; 2 Corinthians 5:18-20; John 15:14) even as Christ put down all those enemies of His who opposed His work that first Christmas.

The Word of God is clear: “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.” In fact, violence is repudiated by the saints, employed against them by the pagans, and backfires to destroy Christ’s enemies.

Our fight against islamic extremism and jihadism is the same fight the Apostles fought, and they fought without military bases in Iraq and 130 other nations. False religions are a spiritual problem, not a military problem

Our fight against drugs does not require the DEA, the BATF, the FBI, or SWAT teams. Drug addiction is a spiritual problem, not a military problem.

The State's "war on poverty" is being fought with the wrong weapons. The poverty of the ancient world was caused by their kings and empires. It was caused by spiritual darkness. Poverty has been all but eliminated in America thanks to the idea of "liberty under God," not thanks to compulsory taxation and fraudulent "social security" ponzi schemes. Charity and welfare are concerns of the "church," not the "state."

In one area of human action and social order after another, violence and the initiation of force have been proven to be inadequate (at best) and counter-productive ways to deal with social and personal problems. The Prince of Peace has shown us that the "way of peace" works. If libertarianism isn't true, then Christmas isn't true.

I hope in these "12 Days of Liberty" you've come to see the Bible in an entirely different way, different from the way you hear about it in best-selling prophecy fiction and quite unlike what you hear from the televangelists. In the 2,008 years since that first Christmas, we have never been lacking in kooky cults and weird ideas about the Bible. True enough, the Bible was not written by dull, secular bureaucrats, but by farmers, tax collectors, doctors, kings, and converted Jews who saw the answer to oppressive empires that had dominated human history to that point, and erupted in enthusiasm and passionate literary expressions. If those authors and the people they wrote about in their day could travel through time and visit us today, and see the wealth and peace that hundreds of millions of human beings enjoy today, they would drop to their knees in utter astonishment and gratitude to God for what the Christmas King has done in history. We are not very grateful for the truly remarkable changes that have taken place as "liberty under God" has replaced tyranny under man.

That was the promise of the prophets, and the message of Christmas. It has been remarkably fulfilled, and yet the work of dominion still remains to be done. Life would be boring without a challenge.

Each generation is tempted to detour off Christ's "way of peace" and return to ancient Rome, where an elite few ruled over the enslaved masses. This desire for control over others has to be put to death.

Thanks for joining me in this unique observance of "the 12 Days of Christmas." I hope you won't forget about Christmas during the coming year. Don't reduce its public promises to a sentimental or commercial season at the end of the year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!