Penn Jillette writes:
It's amazing to me how many people think that voting to have the government give poor people money is compassion. Helping poor and suffering people is compassion. Voting for our government to use guns to give money to help poor and suffering people is immoral self-righteous bullying laziness.
People need to be fed, medicated, educated, clothed, and sheltered, and if we're compassionate we'll help them, but you get no moral credit for forcing other people to do what you think is right. There is great joy in helping people, but no joy in doing it at gunpoint.
My own take.
Fostering multi-generational dependence on government welfare programs is not compassion. It is slavery. It is evil.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
Peace One Day
Here is an energetic campaigner:
So why don't I share his optimism?
First, as long as human beings are at war with their Creator, they will be at war with every human being who is created in His image.
Second, those who want to “be as gods, knowing good and evil” -- and I'm speaking primarily about those who are part of "the State" -- will never give up war, because "war is the health of the State." To the extent that heads of state join in promoting this day of peace, it is only symbolism, as one of his critics said. I can agree with Bretigne Shaffer:
if we are even to imagine "... a bright, warless world," then it is not enough to build memorials, march for peace or repeat the mantra "never again!" It is not enough to appeal to those who start and live by wars to make them stop. We must identify the real source of all war: Not a particular nation or even a particular kind of weapon, but the institution of the state itself, with no real mechanism to hold it accountable, that enables some people to rain death and unimaginable misery upon others with impunity
Remembering Mr. Miyamoto
But this still begs the question. How to get those at the helm of the State to repudiate the vehicle through which they exercise their own deity. The fundamental issue is not military or political, it is religious.
I certainly support his idea for a day of peace, however. And I can only be impressed with the degree to which he has put his feet to the pavement in pursuit of his goal. I should be as dedicated in pursuit of my goal.
So why don't I share his optimism?
First, as long as human beings are at war with their Creator, they will be at war with every human being who is created in His image.
Second, those who want to “be as gods, knowing good and evil” -- and I'm speaking primarily about those who are part of "the State" -- will never give up war, because "war is the health of the State." To the extent that heads of state join in promoting this day of peace, it is only symbolism, as one of his critics said. I can agree with Bretigne Shaffer:
if we are even to imagine "... a bright, warless world," then it is not enough to build memorials, march for peace or repeat the mantra "never again!" It is not enough to appeal to those who start and live by wars to make them stop. We must identify the real source of all war: Not a particular nation or even a particular kind of weapon, but the institution of the state itself, with no real mechanism to hold it accountable, that enables some people to rain death and unimaginable misery upon others with impunity
Remembering Mr. Miyamoto
But this still begs the question. How to get those at the helm of the State to repudiate the vehicle through which they exercise their own deity. The fundamental issue is not military or political, it is religious.
I certainly support his idea for a day of peace, however. And I can only be impressed with the degree to which he has put his feet to the pavement in pursuit of his goal. I should be as dedicated in pursuit of my goal.
Friday, August 05, 2011
Hiroshima, August 6 / Nagasaki, August 9
Saturday is the anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. The U.S. Federal government is the only government on earth that has used nuclear weapons to annihilate thousands of innocent, non-combatant civilians.
While some have suggested that this saved thousands of U.S. soldiers from dying in a U.S. invasion of Japan, others of equal credibility and authority have rebutted that claim. Japan was ready to surrender before the Bombs were dropped, but wanted the Emperor to be allowed to save face. The U.S. Government demanded unconditional surrender, dropped the atomic bombs on innocent populations of people, then allowed Japan to keep the Emperor anyway.
Speculations about how many U.S. soldiers might have died if there had actually been an invasion of Japan should be weighed against speculations as to how many Chinese would have been murdered by Japan had Japan conquered mainland China, and these speculations need to be compared with the non-speculative actual results of history: over 60 million Chinese were actually murdered by the communists, who filled the void the U.S. left by disabling Japan.
All these speculations cannot justify nuclear annihilations of populations. They simply have no legitimate place, because the Bible says we should beat our swords into plowshares. The Bible also says we are not to resist "the powers that be":
Romans 13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
Is the United States now on the brink of receiving economic damnation 70 years later for resisting Powers-That-Be Group A (The Axis powers) and replacing them with Powers-That-Be Group B (the Communists), inflicting 72 million casualties world-wide as a direct effect of the resistance, and another 100 million deaths subsequently inflicted by U.S.-backed Communism?
Sentencing this many people to death -- sacrificing them to geo-political speculation -- is the mark of unbridled arrogance on the part of a government that thinks it is God. "The Powers that be" are not ordained by Washington D.C.
And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever: that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Kevin Craig on Hiroshima
While some have suggested that this saved thousands of U.S. soldiers from dying in a U.S. invasion of Japan, others of equal credibility and authority have rebutted that claim. Japan was ready to surrender before the Bombs were dropped, but wanted the Emperor to be allowed to save face. The U.S. Government demanded unconditional surrender, dropped the atomic bombs on innocent populations of people, then allowed Japan to keep the Emperor anyway.
Speculations about how many U.S. soldiers might have died if there had actually been an invasion of Japan should be weighed against speculations as to how many Chinese would have been murdered by Japan had Japan conquered mainland China, and these speculations need to be compared with the non-speculative actual results of history: over 60 million Chinese were actually murdered by the communists, who filled the void the U.S. left by disabling Japan.
All these speculations cannot justify nuclear annihilations of populations. They simply have no legitimate place, because the Bible says we should beat our swords into plowshares. The Bible also says we are not to resist "the powers that be":
Romans 13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
Is the United States now on the brink of receiving economic damnation 70 years later for resisting Powers-That-Be Group A (The Axis powers) and replacing them with Powers-That-Be Group B (the Communists), inflicting 72 million casualties world-wide as a direct effect of the resistance, and another 100 million deaths subsequently inflicted by U.S.-backed Communism?
Sentencing this many people to death -- sacrificing them to geo-political speculation -- is the mark of unbridled arrogance on the part of a government that thinks it is God. "The Powers that be" are not ordained by Washington D.C.
And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever: that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Kevin Craig on Hiroshima
Ozarks Virtual Town Hall, August 6th -- Pacifism
Looking back at the 20th century, the pacifists have been proven right. No war in the 20th century resulted in the net expansion of liberty or a higher standard of living for the planet's population.
Saturday's "Ozarks Virtual Town Hall" will begin with the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima with a nuclear bomb. The first use of an atomic bomb -- on a civilian population -- is one of the epic events in all of human history. Will either party mention it in their Saturday morning addresses to the nation? Will either party call for a return to the foreign policy of Jefferson and George Washington:
The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible."
— Washington, Farewell Address (1796) [Washington’s emphasis]
Listen on Saturday at 10:30 am and find out:
Phone number to call:
Webcast Player:
Question Submission:
Saturday's "Ozarks Virtual Town Hall" will begin with the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima with a nuclear bomb. The first use of an atomic bomb -- on a civilian population -- is one of the epic events in all of human history. Will either party mention it in their Saturday morning addresses to the nation? Will either party call for a return to the foreign policy of Jefferson and George Washington:
The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible."
— Washington, Farewell Address (1796) [Washington’s emphasis]
I deem [one of] the essential principles of our government, and consequently [one] which ought to shape its administration,…peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.
— Jefferson, First Inaugural Address (1801)
Listen on Saturday at 10:30 am and find out:
Phone number to call:
Webcast Player:
Question Submission:
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