Chuck Slay

My Brother-in-law Chuck Slay has died. I'll update this post with a eulogy. Please pray for my sister Amy.

Robert W. Welch, Jr. (1899-1985)

Robert Henry Winborne Welch Jr. was born on this day, December 1, 1899.

He was home-schooled until he enrolled in high school at the age of ten and was admitted to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at the age of twelve.

Welch made a fortune in the candy business, making caramel lollipops, renamed Sugar Daddies, and he developed other well-known candies such as Sugar Babies, Junior Mints, and Pom Poms. Welch retired a wealthy man in 1956.

Welch's credo was, "Less government, more responsibility, and --with God's help -- a better world." Will Grigg has said this about Welch [my hyperlinks]:

Unlike the reflexively bellicose people who call themselves Conservatives today, Mr. Welch was never a militarist; in one commencement address he gave in the mid-1950s he pointed out that there was no reason why the American people and the people of the USSR would consider themselves enemies if it weren't for the behavior of the governments presuming to rule them. In matters of social policy, Welch opposed abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide, like most conservatives, but also opposed the death penalty (as do I) and condemned torture. He was not preoccupied by the supposed threat of immigration, and didn't believe in enlisting the government in crusades to purify people's moral behavior through the righteous application of coercion. In a remarkable speech he gave in 1979 -- when most conservatives were worried about the Soviets -- Welch predicted that the U.S. would become universally hated for the government's practice of "imperialism by the dollar, as a substitute for the sword."

If Robert Welch were around today, the Fox-aligned Right would consider him a liberal.

Welch founded the John Birch Society in 1958. In a speech he gave at the founding of the JBS, Grigg says "Welch described pious Muslims as allies in the struggle against the lawless state."

Death Panel Results

My mother's "Death Panel" met recently, and I received the results this morning.

Medicare will no longer be paying for her feeding tube pump, the daily disposable feeding tube bags, and the space-age formula that's been keeping my mom alive since her home was destroyed by a tornado.

No, I don't know why Medicare has been paying for this for all these months, and why they've decided in their infinite wisdom and compassion to now terminate their coverage. Trying to make rational sense of government decrees is often futile. It would be too easy for me to make all kinds of conspiratorial speculations. My sister is going to drive up to the Big City on Monday and see what's up.

The cost of the little plastic bags that hold the formula is something like $500 a month. The liquid food is also a bit more expensive than a Happy Meal at McD's, though I can't say for sure, as it's been a long time since I've eaten out. I'm grateful that you've been paying for all this through your taxes. Caring for her is my 24/7 job, and I'm working in my spare time to create an income-generating enterprise that will pay the bills by working at home.

If you would like to make a generous, year-end, tax-deductible donation to the non-profit, tax-exempt educational organization that might pay me enough to cover these costs, it would be most appreciated. Currently, generous donations to Vine & Fig Tree are paying the rent for storage of Vine & Fig Tree's library and office equipment, and my mother lives in a spare room. Yesterday was only the most recent of a long series of days of thanksgiving for the generosity of many.

If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below. I'll update this post when I learn something new.

Thank you very much.

Vine & Fig Tree Home Page

George Washington and Theocracy in 1789

On this day in 1789, President George Washington violated the yet-undreamed of "separation of church and state" by leading the nation in a day of national prayer and thanksgiving for the new Constitution.

The modern myth of "separation of church and state" really means a separation of God and government. Not a single person alive in 1789 imagined that the new federal Constitution created a "secular" government, that is, a government that believed it could ignore God with impunity, rather than a government "Under God."

Read about George Washington's promotion of the True Religion here:

Government-Sponsored Prayer and Thanksgiving to the True God

Tell Elaine Huguenin that Leni Riefenstahl Has a Cold.

You are a Jewish cinematographer.

You hear a knock at the door.

Don't worry. It's not the Gestapo. It's the Justices of the New Mexico Supreme Court.

They report that Leni Riefenstahl has a cold, and has called in sick.

Since you're a gifted filmmaker, Our Dear Leader has requested that you complete the film project that Ms. Riefenstahl began, a documentary called Triumph of the Will.

You will be praised for your work. The film will be recognized around the world as one of the greatest documentaries ever made.

In case you're not up on historic films, Triumph of the Will  is a 1935 film made by Leni Riefenstahl. It chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, which was attended by more than 700,000 Nazi supporters. The primary purpose of the film is to make Hitler and Nazism look good. No, great.

The Independent wrote in 2003: "Triumph of the Will seduced many wise men and women, persuaded them to admire rather than to despise, and undoubtedly won the Nazis friends and allies all over the world."

As an observant Jew, you respectfully and courteously decline to work on the film.

I'm sorry, but that just won't do.

That kind of selfishness violates New Mexico's "anti-discrimination" law.

You remind the New Mexico Supremes of the "freedom of religion" in our increasingly-irrelevant Constitution, and how that cannot be consistent with forcing a Jew to work on a Nazi propaganda film.

But the New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously disagrees. John Stonestreet comments:

       And still even more troubling was the concurring opinion of justice Richard Bosson. He acknowledged that, under New Mexico law, [believers] are “compelled . . . to compromise the very religious beliefs that inspire their lives.” He admitted that this compulsion will “leave a tangible mark on  [believers] and others of similar views.”
       Nevertheless, this compromise is, according to Bosson, “the price of citizenship.” While  [believers] are free to believe whatever they want, outside of their home they “have to channel their conduct, not their beliefs, so as to leave space for other Americans who believe something different.”
       Bosson called this compromise “part of the glue that holds us together as a nation, the tolerance that lubricates the varied moving parts of us as a people.”

In other words, the Nazis are not required to compromise their desires to show tolerance for the Jews, it is believers who must compromise.

And "religious freedom" in the United States means as much as it does in North Korea, Saudi Arabia, or the "former" Soviet Union: you can believe anything you want, as long it stays in the space between your ears, and Big Brother doesn't know about it.

The U.S. is becoming a joke. Christians must never trade their heavenly citizenship for U.S. citizenship.

"Our citizenship is in heaven" (Philippians 3:20)

Missouri vs. A Free Market Internet

Update, 8/20/2013
Campaign for Liberty opposes the bill favored by Amazon.com
The bill is supported by big businesses and pro-tax forces.
Maybe Amazon is exploiting Associates like me to lobby for a bill that will help Amazon crush competition.

I need to do more research on this issue.
I wonder if Governor Nixon's office will educate me.

---

 Dear Governor Nixon,

My home was destroyed by the Branson tornado last year. I was taking care of my mother at the time, and she was airlifted to a Springfield hospital and returned to me on a feeding tube. I am now her full-time caregiver.

I can't get a job outside the home, so I depend on the internet to bring in money.

I just received a letter from one of my internet income sources that they have terminated my income due to the unconstitutional Missouri state tax collection legislation passed by the state legislature and signed by you on July 5, 2013, with an effective date of August 28, 2013.

I wish Missouri politicians would recognize that any legitimate social goal that needs to be achieved will be achieved more efficiently and more personally by Missouri businesses, churches, and voluntary associations operating in a Free Market than by any socialist program coming out of Jefferson City. You should be cutting government spending instead of taking more money from people who are already struggling to make ends meet. And you shouldn't use government coercion to protect your special interests from competition.

----------------------------------------------------

From: "Amazon.com Associates Program"
Date: August 14, 2013, 7:18:05 PM CDT
Subject: Amazon Associates: Important Account Notification

Greetings from the Amazon Associates Program.

We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to notify you that your Associates account will be closed and your Amazon Services LLC Associates Program Operating Agreement will be terminated effective August 27, 2013. This is a direct result of the unconstitutional Missouri state tax collection legislation passed by the state legislature and signed by Governor Nixon on July 5, 2013, with an effective date of August 28, 2013. As a result, we will no longer pay any advertising fees for customers referred to an Amazon Site after August 27 nor will we accept new applications for the Associates Program from Missouri residents.

Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned prior to August 28, 2013 will be processed and paid in full in accordance with your regular advertising fee schedule. Based on your account closure date of August 27, 2013, any final payments will be paid by October 31, 2013.

While we oppose this unconstitutional state legislation, we strongly support the federal Marketplace Fairness Act now pending before Congress. Congressional legislation is the only way to create a simplified, constitutional framework to resolve interstate sales tax issues and it would allow us to re-open our Associates program to Missouri residents.

We thank you for being part of the Amazon Associates Program, and look forward to re-opening our program when Congress passes the Marketplace Fairness Act.


Sincerely,

The Amazon Associates Team

The U.S. is Bankrupt

Detroit has acknowledged its bankruptcy.

Washington D.C. has not.

"Official" acknowledgement does not change reality.

Detroit Today, Washington Tomorrow - Prof. Laurence Kotlikoff @ PBS NewsHour

The United States is Bankrupt because Americans believe they are "entitled" to other people's wealth.

h/t Gary North

The 2nd Amendment vs. Family Values

I'm surprised (not really) that many who espouse "family values" also champion the Second Amendment.

I'm already on record repudiating the Second Amendment.

I Repudiate the Second Amendment.

But consider this real-world scenario.

Given Obama's record of job destruction (over 90% of jobs created in his administration are part-time; unemployment statistics are vastly understated), imagine your neighbor -- desperate for a job to feed his family -- answers a public announcement in the classifieds of government jobs opening up. He applies and gets a job going door-to-door confiscating guns.

Charlton Heston famously quipped that if they came for his gun, they'd have to pry it from his cold dead fingers.

Of course, no defender of the Second Amendment expects to have cold dead fingers. He intends to make sure the jackbooted government thug coming for guns is the one who has the cold dead fingers.

That sounds macho enough, but the "jackbooted government thug" is your next-door neighbor.

And your claim boils down to this:

"It is more important that I retain possession of a firearm than it is for the kid next door to have a father."

Obviously, once the kid next door loses his father, you will have your gun pried from your cold dead fingers by a vastly superior armed federalized SWAT team that was backing up your next door neighbor.

The time for armed revolution against the tyranny in Washington D.C. has long passed. It's too late for that now.

---

Little Libertarians on the Prairie, part 4 or 5

Previously:

Little Libertarian House on the Prairie, Nov 28, 2009

More on "Little Libertarian House on the Prairie", Feb 4, 2010

Rose Wilder Lane: From Communist to Libertarian, April 15, 2010

Some additional sources in the comments.

Now this:

Little Libertarians on the Prairie - Boston.com

---

Carl Menger, Postmillennialism, and Judgment

At the opening of the Mises University, Tom Woods mentioned [video - audio] the description by Mises of Carl Menger's sadness over the decline of liberalism and the rise of statism in Europe. Here's what Mises said:

---

Around Christmas, 1903, I read Menger's Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre (Principles of Economics) for the first time. It was the reading of this book that made an "economist" of me.

Personally I met Carl Menger only many years later, He was then already more than seventy years old, hard of hearing, and plagued by an eye disorder. But his mind was young and vigorous. Again and again I have myself why this man did not make better use of the last decades of his life. The fact that he still could do brilliant work if he wanted to do so was shown by his essay, "Geld" ("Money"), which he contributed to the Handwõrterbuch der Staatswissenschaften (Encyclopedia of State Sciences).

I believe that I know what discouraged Menger and what silenced him so early. His sharp mind had recognized the destiny of Austria, of Europe, and of the world. He saw the greatest and most advanced of all civilizations [nineteenth and twentieth century Western Europe] rushing to the abyss of destruction. He foresaw all the horrors which we are experiencing today [1940, World War II]. He knew the consequences of the world's turning away from true Liberalism [not the contrary Leftist so-called liberalism in the United States] and Capitalism. Nonetheless, he did what he could to stem the tide. His book, Untersuchungen über die Methode der Socialwissenschaften und der Politischen Economie insbesondere (Problems of Economics and Sociology, translated by Francis J. Nock and edited by Louis Schneider) was meant as a polemic essay against all those pernicious intellectual currents that were poisoning the world from the universities of Great Prussia. The knowledge that his fight was without expectation of success, however, sapped his strength. He had transmitted this pessimism to his young student and friend, Archduke Rudolf, successor to the Austro-Hungarian throne. The Archduke committed suicide because he despaired about the future of his empire and the fate of European civilization, not because of a woman. He took a young girl along in death who, too, wished to die; but he did not commit suicide on her account.

My grandfather [on my mother's side] had a brother who died several years before I was born. The brother, Dr. Joachim Landau had been a liberal deputy in the Austrian Parliament and a close friend of his party colleague, deputy Dr. Max Menger, a brother of Carl Menger. One day Joachim Landau told my grandfather about a conversation he had had with Carl Menger.

According to my grandfather, as told to me around 1910, Carl Menger had made the following remarks: "The policies as conducted by the European powers will lead to a horrible war that will end with gruesome revolutions, with the destruction of European culture and the destruction of the prosperity of all nations. In preparation for these inevitable events investments only in gold hoards, and perhaps obligations of the two Scandinavian countries can be recommended." In fact, Menger had his savings invested in Swedish obligations. Whoever foresees so clearly before the age of forty the disaster and the destruction of everything he deems of value, cannot escape pessimism and psychic depression. What kind of a life would King Priam have had, the old rhetors were accustomed to ask, if at the age of twenty he already would have foreseen the fall of ancient Troy! Carl Menger had barely half of his life behind him when he foresaw the inevitability of the fall of his Troy.

The same pessimism overshadowed other sharp-sighted Austrians. Being Austrian afforded the sad privilege of having a better opportunity to recognize fate and destiny. Grillparzer's melancholy and peevishness arose from this source. The feeling of facing powerlessly the coming evil drove the most able and noble of all Austrian patriots, Adolf Fischhof, into loneliness.

For obvious reasons I frequently discussed Knapp's Statliche Theorie des Geldes (State Theory of Money) with Menger. His answer was, "It is the logical development of Prussian police science. What are we to think of a nation whose elite, after two hundred years of economics, admire such nonsense, which is not even new, as highest revelation? What can we still expect of such a nation?"

---

Of course, one can have hope in the long-term Christian Reconstruction of the world and still have reason to believe in the short-term judgment of statism in a particular nation or culture. Mises seems to have avoided Menger's "psychic depression," sustained perhaps by a sense of duty, an obligation to share knowledge and provide answers, even if the answers are rejected by a majority (1 Peter 3:15). Theonomy trumps eschatology.

In fact, the judgment of statism in history, while tragic in a human sense, is a vindication of God's Word, and thus a cause of hope and rejoicing. The Theocratically-meek shall inherit the earth, often after the fall of pride-blinded Troy.

Menger was a humanist.

A Man Worth Knowing

I enjoyed re-reading an article by John Adams' biographer David McCullough entitled "A Man Worth Knowing." Good 4th of July reading.

McCullough also covers the life of Adams' wife, Abigail. He notes,

Something I always like to emphasize is that there never was a simpler past. We hear often, "Oh, that was a simpler time," but it's always wrong. In one plaintive letter, [Abigail] writes: "Posterity who are to reap the blessings will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors." And we don't. We don't know what they went through—epidemics of smallpox or dysentery, which could take the lives of hundreds of people just in the little town of Quincy, Massachusetts. It was by no means a simpler time. They had to worry about things that we don't even think about any more, and suffer discomforts and inconveniences of a kind that we never even imagine. We have little idea of how tough they were. 

After recounting a day in the life of Abigail Adams, McCullough concludes:

Her day didn't end until 9 or 10 at night when the children would go upstairs to their bedrooms, where it could be so cold that the water in the bowls that they used to wash their faces was iced over. And then she would sit down at the kitchen table with a single candle and write some of the greatest letters ever written by any American.

Abigail's letters put the majority of American bloggers to shame.

---

A couple of clarifications:

Without taking anything away from McCullough's definition of "happiness," one should add the connection with "blessedness."

Second, McCullough buys into the "myth of the revolutionary minority" -- the idea that only a minority of Americans supported the Revolution against Britain. Not true. As John Adams recalled,

“The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people and in the union of the colonies, both of which were accomplished before hostilities began.” 

Today a majority of Americans do in fact repudiate the ideals of the American Founding. A majority believe that the government is God, because the government brings us salvation. Adams would see this new American Civil Religion as the central danger we face today. Not taxes. Not representation -- Congress represents all too well the entitlement mentality of a majority of Americans. The central issue is religion. Or as Adams would call it, "idolatry."

And Adams is partly to blame. The Supreme Court of the United States declared decades ago that it is "unconstitutional" for your local public school teachers to teach students that the Declaration of Independence is really true. It can be taught as historical myth or irrelevant artifact, but not as Truth.

Tragically, much of this can be laid at the feet of Adams, insofar as he appointed John Marshall to the Supreme Court. McCullough naively recounts this appointment as one of Adams' "accomplishments."

1773 Boston Tea Party = Vandalism

The original "Boston Tea Party" was an unChristian act of vandalism. No true Christian should participate in such acts of violence. I'm willing to believe that Sam Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere, and others who were involved in this ignoble act repented of their deeds.

Ann Coulter, in contrasting the "Tea Party Movement" and the "Occupy Wall Street" protests of October 2011 writes:

     First of all, the Boston Tea Party was nothing like tattooed, body–pierced, sunken-chested 19-year-olds getting in fights with the police for fun. Paul Revere's nighttime raid was intended exclusively to protest a new British tea tax. (The Wall Street protesters would be more likely to fight for a new tax than against one.)
     Revere made sure to replace a broken lock on one of the ships and severely punished a participant who stole some of the tea for his private use. Samuel Adams defended the raid by saying that all other methods of recourse -- say, voting -- were unavailable.
    Our revolution -- the only revolution that led to greater freedom since at least 1688 -- was not the act of a mob.
     As specific and limited as it was, however, even the Boston Tea Party was too mob-like to spark anything other than retaliatory British measures. Indeed, it set back the cause of American independence by dispiriting both American and British supporters, such as Edmund Burke.     George Washington disapproved of the destruction of the tea.
     Benjamin Franklin demanded that the India Tea Co. be reimbursed for it.
     Considered an embarrassment by many of our founding fathers, the Boston Tea Party was not celebrated for another 50 years.
     It would be three long years after the Boston Tea Party when our founding fathers engaged in their truly revolutionary act: The signing of the Declaration of Independence.
     In that document, our Christian forebears set forth in blindingly clear terms their complaints with British rule, their earlier attempts at resolution, and an appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world for independence from the crown.
     The rebel armies defending that declaration were not a disorganized mob, chanting slogans for the press and defacing public property.
     Even the Minutemen, whose first scuffle with the British began the war, were a real army with ranks, subordination, coordination, drills and supplies. There is not a single mention in the historical record of Minutemen playing hacky-sack, burning candles assembled in "peace and love," or sitting in drum circles.
     A British lieutenant-general who fought the Minutemen observed, "Whoever looks upon them as an irregular mob will find himself very much mistaken."
     By contrast, the directionless losers protesting "Wall Street" -- Obama's largest donor group -- pose for the cameras while uttering random liberal clichés lacking any reason or coherence.

Neo-conservatives like Ann Coulter disapprove of the violence of "irregular mobs," but not the systematic, institutionalized violence of empires like the U.S. "No" to the "Tea Party," but "YES" to the nation-wide American Revolution.

Kreitzer on Government Force

Mark R. Kreitzer writes:

> Sad . . . you seem to make a fundamental philosophical error at
> the beginning in the major premise: All force is evil.

I think the "non-aggression" axiom is a start, but pacifism is a prima facie reading of Christ's ethical teachings.

> This cannot be justified by Scripture else Joshua,

"Holy War" against the inhabitants of the Promised Land cannot override the pacifist teachings of Christ and justify any government force today.

> David,

David was a "man of blood," hence disqualified from building the temple.

> Abraham rescuing Lot,

Admittedly a problematic instance. Abraham was not sinless. Kidnapping was a "capital crime" under the Old Covenant, but I don't think "capital punishment" is warranted in the New. Nevertheless, rescuing someone is certainly valid, though wanton killing of the captors is unjustified.

> Jesus sending armies against Jerusalem,

Jesus was God. He commands us to leave vengeance to God. He commanded His disciples not to defend Him or take vengeance against the Jews (Matthew 26:52; John 18:35)

> etc would be evil.

Yes, they would be. And they are. At least they are after the work of Christ on the cross.

> ONLY unjustified aggressive force is evil. (Non-aggression principle
> not equal to Non-violence principle).

We don't have to argue over definitions of words. No aggressive force is justified.

If I snatch a wallet out of Smith's hand, that might appear to be violence, but if I just witnessed Smith stealing your wallet, and I am retrieving it for you, it's not violence. If it were Smith's wallet, it would in fact be unjustified violence or aggression.

In our day, justified violence is extraordinary. Unjustified violence is ubiquitous. Governments murdered half a billion people in the 20th century. I'm always curious what motivates someone to rise to defend violence and attack pacifism.

> Second, you make an unwarranted false premise is stating that
> all taxation is the moral equivalent to theft. Then the tenth tax to
> God's Palace and his palace servants with which to help the poor
> and the needy as well is evil.

Yes, any attempt to extort money from someone on that basis is (present tense) evil. God had every right under the Old Covenant to require a tithe, but I don't see the practical mechanics for such a demand in our day. There is no more "God's Palace" after AD 70, and no more "palace servants." There are, arguably, no poor, at least in the U.S. The "church" collected the tithe in the OT; why the State today?

> No, taxation is to support what God
> defines as the ONE necessary function of civil government --
> exercise of completely impartial biblical justice.

The word "ONE" is emphasized, yet there are obviously other purposes, such as "palace servants" and "the poor." No conservative supports a welfare state. Where are the specific Biblical texts which say "no more taxation for the poor" and yet also mandate tax-supported arbitration of disputes (which the Free Market is better qualified to undertake)?

> Who, however, defines impartial justice? Who defines the four
> governments? Who defines justified force? Who defines government
> spheres? Who defines functions and boundaries of each? The God
> of Scripture. Seen in this light and combining Rom 12 and 13
> as this site does, Christian minarchy (i.e., a strictly limited Christian
> Constitutional Republic) is the answer not non-Christian anarchy.

False choice. What about Christian anarchy?

> A strictly limited civil government is only one of four governments
> (ecclessial--rule by elders under Christ), familial (rule by father and
> mother under God-in-Christ), civil (a Christic Republic with the
> framework of the Decalogue under God in Christ), and the
> FOUNDATIONAL self-government by the Holy Spirit in Christ.

I agree about "self-government."
I agree with "familial" government.
I think "ecclesial rule" expired with the priesthood and the temple in AD 70.
I think "civil" functions can be discharged by a Free Market -- capitalism, not socialism.

> Keep thinking! (Read Chuck Baldwin on Rom 13 to see why Ron Paul
> says that he is a minarchist. Then read and refute Gary DeMar
> God and Government. Then re-read Rushdoony. He is not an anarchist
> but a minarchist).

I don't need to re-read Rushdoony to figure out that he is not an anarchist.
I think I've refuted Gary DeMar's position, though I haven't interacted specifically with God and Government. See my response to John M. Frame.
I haven't read Baldwin's book, but I'll bet he hasn't read my site either.

Homosexuality and Fractional Reserve Banking

I am a Calvinist Theocrat. I believe in many ways America's first two hundred years -- beginning in the early 1600's and centered in Puritan New England -- were more virtuous than America's last two hundred years.

But my brand of Theocracy is Anarcho-Theocracy, and there were archists in Puritan New England.

I believe that if there were a Free Market in education, the vast majority of parents would send their children to Christian schools, or home school them following a Christian curriculum. Maybe that's just wishful thinking, but a market freed from government compulsion is certainly better than what we have today.

Would a Free Market in education have been better than what we had in Puritan New England? While today's education is atheistic and compulsory, New England's education was Christian and compulsory. Christianity was in many ways imposed by the Puritan State. Piety and virtue seemed to triumph.

But it seems to have been a failure in the long run. New England is now a bastion of Homosexuality and Fractional Reserve Banking.

Listen to Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler on the geographical distribution of homosexual activism in America.

Then consider Justin Raimondo's "Afterward" to a 1984 essay by Murray N. Rothbard:

Long before the founding of the CFR or the Trilateral Commission, there was a power elite in this country; that elite will likely endure long after those organizations are gone or transmuted into something else. Rothbard's unmasking of the historical and economic roots of this trend is vital in understanding that this is not a "conspiracy" centered in the CFR and the Trilateralist groups, as such, but an ideological trend traditionally centered in the Northeast, among the upper classes, and deeply rooted in American history.

Christianity was imposed on Puritan New England by a power elite, but it was the power elite, not Christianity, that survived in the long run.

Being a part of the power elite is contrary to Christ's teachings, so the power inevitably becomes "epistemologically self-conscious," that is, anti-Christian. The more conservative, Jeffersonian states give more to the poor than the more "liberal" New England states, whose churlish banks (Isaiah 32) crush the poor with fractional reserve banking, and who approve homosexuality.

Christianity does not need "the State" for successful propagation of the Gospel.

Chickens Roosting in Boston

Listen to whistle-blower Sibel Edmunds on the Lew Rockwell Show discussing the family tree of the Boston Marathon terrorists.

Three years ago I posted links to information on "Gladio," the British-American terrorist ring mentioned by Sibel.

Americans have been brainwashed to believe that the dedicated purpose of the federal government is to protect the American people from terrorism. An argument can be made that the billions of dollars spent on TSA's airport "security" are really a form of psychological warfare against Americans themselves, rather than any serious threat to multi-millionaire Saudi terrorists like Osama bin Ladin, who can easily bribe their way past greedy civil servants to their target. Given that, a further argument can be made that the federal government spends more money and man-hours plotting and engaging in global terrorism than protecting us from it. As Sibel explains, Chinese capitalists are justified in viewing NATO as a terrorist organization, and an arm of the U.S. federal government.

Christians with a vision of Christianizing the globe need to recognize that the U.S. federal government is their greatest obstacle and enemy. It is the greatest source of evil on the planet.

The Crime of Conspiracy

The atheist H.L. Mencken was wrong.

An organized crime syndicate -- like "the Mafia" -- is evil. Its core purposes are evil, it is dedicated to evil, and dedicated to increasing the dedication of its members and their willingness to keep the criminal enterprise secret. Simply being a member of the Mafia is usually a crime, as society recognizes that the mere conspiracy to do evil is itself evil.

"Conspiracy"
West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. "Conspiracy is a crime separate from the criminal act for which it is developed. For example, one who conspires with another to commit Burglary and in fact commits the burglary can be charged with both conspiracy to commit burglary and burglary."
"The law seeks to punish conspiracy as a substantive crime separate from the intended crime because when two or more persons agree to commit a crime, the potential for criminal activity increases, and as a result, the danger to the public increases. Therefore, the very act of an agreement with criminal intent (along with an overt act, where required) is considered sufficiently dangerous to warrant charging conspiracy as an offense separate from the intended crime."
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Conspiracy

Wanting to "improve" the Mafia or make it more "efficient" is not just "a waste of time," it is also evil. If you witness Mafia acts of conspiracy or other crimes, you are either going to

• oppose them
• do nothing (and become a "guilty bystander")
• or join their evil conspiracy.

Evil-doers tread lightly for fear of the good, but the evil are inspired when the good do nothing.

"The Government" is evil. Its core purposes are to do things which everyone agrees are evil when done by people who have no plausible claim of being "the Government." "The Government" seeks to increase the loyalty and dedication of its members to carrying out its evil purposes, cloaked in secrecy or propelled by outright deception. Every humane society is endangered by the mere existence of a conspiracy to "govern" others.

Wanting to "improve" the Government or make it more "efficient" is not just "a waste of time," it is also evil. It is a crime against humanity. It is the crime of conspiracy.

---

How To Become a Christian Anarchist

Ron Paul and Anarcho-Fundamentalism

Libertarian and Republican Party Presidential Candidate Ron Paul is coming out with a home school curriculum:

www.RonPaulCurriculum.com

I haven't studied the curriculum thoroughly, but it appears to be very light on the Bible. (That is, I searched the whole site for the word "Bible" and got zero hits.) This inspired me to think about how Ron Paul should integrate the Bible into his curriculum, or perhaps how an entirely new Bible-based home school curriculum should be created.

Without a doubt, the Ron Paul Curriculum is designed to promote Liberty.

But if there is no Bible Course in the Ron Paul Curriculum, it really cannot equip students to promote liberty.

Contrary to the shrill hysteria of some lesbians and secular progressives, Ron Paul is not a Christian Fundamentalist.

And contrary to some "Christian Fundamentalists," a fundamentalist approach to the Bible provides a more radical defense of liberty than Ron Paul's secular, Bible-free approach.

Ron Paul's curriculum is generally based on the "Austrian School of Economics." But Ron Paul's curriculum is not radically based on "Austrian Economics." It is "middle-of-the-road" Austrian Economics. Radical Austrian economists are anarchists, or "anarcho-capitalists." Ron Paul and his curriculum are not.

I'd like to introduce you to what might be called "Anarcho-Fundamentalism."

Click here: Ron Paul, The Bible, and Anarcho-Fundamentalism

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Easter and Crusades

Spent my Easter listening to podcasts, including one from The White Horse Inn. The WHI believes in the "Two Kingdom" theory. This theory begins with Augustine's City of God, which describes the conflict between the City of God and the City of Man (or the City of Satan). Then the theory seems to say that both Cities must always exist on earth until the Second Coming. The City of God is extended by preaching the gospel, while the City of Man is extended by military conquest ("the sword"). Citizens of the City of God must not use the sword, unless they wear the hat of the City of Man. Then they can.

So as I'm listening at about 7:17 into the recording, I hear the White Horse experts criticize the Crusades, which as I understand it were a series of attempts to do things like rescue Jews and Christians in Jerusalem from conquering Muslims, but I guess it also has the connotation of using military means to convert pagans to Christianity.

I'm opposed to either definition of "crusade," but I'm surprised to hear "two kingdoms" advocates criticizing "crusades" as defined as the armies of Christian nations banding together to rescue people being oppressed by armies of a pagan nation. I would be surprised if the White Horse Inn crowd were opposed to World War II. Yet this war was clearly a "Christian crusade." Even President Franklin D. Roosevelt acknowledged as much:

And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.
With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace -- a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
Thy will be done, Almighty God.
Amen.

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A New Civil War?

I saw this picto-graph on Facebook:

The casualties from the Civil War were recently upgraded. Total deaths were not 600,000 but 750,000.

U.S. population in 1865 was 35.5 million.

750,000 is roughly equivalent to 6,300,000 Americans killing themselves over nothing in 2013.
Think our "leaders" could get Americans fired up for another Civil War today?

I think they could. 

In a previous post I explained Why I Would Give Obama My Guns If He Asks. Many people say they wouldn't. They would kill any civil servant who tried to take their guns. Or so they say. Sounds like they're ready for a new civil war. I think most people who take the Second Amendment (and the rest of the Constitution) seriously are too moral to kill another human being on these grounds. But then, how to explain the 1860's, a far more Christian generation?

I think there's a more likely scenario for a civil war.

There has been concern over the fact that the Department of Homeland Security has purchased millions of rounds of hollow-point ammunition. Are they expecting a foreign invasion? Not likely. Some have suggested that "We the People" may be the intended victims in an all-out assault on our liberties by an out-of-control tyranny.

Could it be, however, that "the government" intends to GIVE the arms and ammo to the "wrong" people to create conditions for a declaration of martial law?

Remember the reports by Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News, that the CIA was dumping cocaine and arms in So.Central L.A.? 

• Memory-Refreshment from the Nation of Islam. 
• From some everyday conspiracy-theory site.
• Don't forget "Fast and Furious."
• And don't forget most wars in the 20th century. As Antony Sutton and others have shown, the U.S. Federal Government has a long history of arming one or both sides in many wars.

Abortion doesn't seem to have wiped out enough undesirable people. Weaponizing them might be just the excuse needed to drone them all out of existence.

BlackGenocide.org 

It's just a theory. Please leave a comment either way.

Day-Age If-Then

IF . . .

• people called "scientists" -- who work in socialist/atheist government-controlled universities that are enemies of Christianity

• and people called "scientists" --  who work in the neoconservative "military industrial complex" who design and manufacture weapons of mass destruction of infrastructure and innocent non-combatant civilians, and who overthrew a government that allowed freedom for Christians to worship and evangelize and replaced that Christian-friendly government with an Islamic Theocracy under Sharia law,

• and people called "scientists" --  who are propagandists for atheism and immorality in the government-dominated "mainstream media,"

• and people called "scientists" --  who work in the R&D Departments of government-subsidized crony-capitalist/fascist corporations that pollute the environment, crush workers, profit from disease, and manipulate the lives of billions of people into materialistic and consumerist life patterns,

If . . .all these secular "scientists" unanimously agreed that the entire universe -- from enzyme to homo sapiens -- randomly and naturally came into existence in the space of six literal sixty-minute hours,

THEN . . .

theologians in churches, seminaries, blogs, and publishing houses, would be falling all over themselves trying to prove that the word "day" in Genesis 1 actually means "hour."

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Creationism

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The Christian Case Against "National Defense"

Sequester the entire trillion-dollar defense budget.

The U.S. has no defense against incoming missiles.
"The Defense Dept." can't defend us against 20 hijackers.
So what exactly are we being "defended" against?

Are we really being defended against an "invasion?" I doubt it.
Instead of spending a trillion dollars on "defense," let's just buy the dog-tags (and the allegiance) of every soldier in China's 2.3 million-man army for a quarter of a million dollars each once the invaders get here. Cheaper than the entire defense budget, then they party to celebrate their freedom and invest the windfall back into our economy. My point: no foreign government wants to "invade" America because the lowly chattel-invaders will all defect once they reach our shores.

If they don't want to defect -- if there's no difference between our socialist tyranny and the tyranny of the invaders -- then this nation shouldn't be defended anyway.

If they are pathological and simply want to destroy us, that may be because our "Defense Dept." killed their cousins by dropping a "smart bomb" on their wedding.

For a trillion dollars, we could send a $1,000 check to every Muslim man, woman and child on the entire planet with a nice Hallmark Card that says "America is a great place. Has your government given you a thousand bucks recently?" For millions of Muslims, it's a year's wages. Imagine we had been doing this every year since 1953 when the CIA overthrew the democratically-elected government of Iran. It could be a completely Christianized world by now.

Bribery is better than "defense."
And far more Christian.

"Defense" is just a sham. It's a New Deal-style "public works project" for defense contractors.

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The Christian Case Against "National Defense" | Spontaneous audio rant

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Vine & Fig Tree Tornado Crisis Fund

Vine & Fig Tree Tornado Crisis Fund

Your donation is urgently needed! 

  On February 29, 2012, a tornado tore through Powersite, Missouri causing devastating damage.

The home of Kevin Craig was destroyed.  And as half of that house served as the offices of Vine & Fig Tree, Inc., the home of Vine & Fig Tree was lost, too.

Kevin’s mother, Marybeth, age 86, suffered a serious head injury when the ceiling collapsed on her. She has not recovered well.  The injury accelerated dementia and her frail body is now sustained by a feeding tube.  Kevin is her 24-hour a day caregiver, with scheduled (and unscheduled) duties every 2 hours, interrupting sleep and all charitable fundraising efforts to continue the Vine & Fig Tree ministry.

Now, nearly one year after the tornado, the reconstruction of the Powersite home and Vine & Fig Tree offices are nearing completion, but not yet finished.  Progress has been made as quickly as possible.  But, in a widespread disaster area, resources are limited and demand is high even for things like heavy equipment and dumpsters.  So, demolition and debris removal took three months before actual reconstruction could commence.

Insurance provided for temporary housing expenses for one year.  The year has elapsed.  The Craigs and Vine & Fig Tree, Inc. do not have the financial means to pay for everything.  Rent, the mortgage on the property under construction, the additional medical expenses for Marybeth's care . . . even with homeowner's and health insurance, the costs of tornado damages and injuries are very overwhelming.
The disaster may prove an opportunity:  The home is being rebuilt as a duplex which can be leased or sold as an income producing property for the benefit of the Craigs and V&FT, IF AND WHEN IT IS FINISHED.

This opportunity may yet turn into tragedy:  The Craigs must keep the mortgage paid or risk losing the newly rebuilt property to foreclosure.  Temporary housing rent and utilities must be paid for the Craigs to have a place to live until their home is ready for lease or sale.  Marybeth will continue to need medical care, skilled nursing, bathing assistance, medicines, diapers and many other costs that insurance does not cover. Insurance payments are delayed in the backlog of claims paperwork that the carrier is handling in the wake of Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast.  Dozens of telephone calls, emails and letters seem to fall on deaf ears.

Kevin was thinking he and his mother could live in the former home of Marybeth's parents, until we received an email from a cousin:

I do not think you have any idea that the ranch house is uninhabitable.  Two summers ago,  I took showers either in town or at the park. The shower flows at a trickle and drains even slower.  The toilet is suspect and to live there would mean a new septic system.  The pipes to the clothes washer will not work.  The roof leaks in many places.  The rats have many homes inside including the beds.  Finally, right now we are paying over $100  a month just to keep the temperature at 35 degrees.  You would be better to rent something than to try to pay a heating or cooling bill at that house.  Last summer I did not spend any nights at the ranch house, and of course we have not repaired anything in two summers.  To drag your mother and brother to that pit is a sin.

That's why were asking for your help during this time of urgent need.  Your generous and tax-deductible donations to Vine & Fig Tree, Inc. will be used to help real people in real distress in the wake of a real disaster.  And, Lord willing, the ministry of Vine & Fig Tree will live on -- when Kevin is no longer needed as 24-hour caregiver for his Mom and she has a new home in heaven.

Please mail your donation check to:

Vine & Fig Tree, Inc.
P.O. Box 179,
Powersite, MO 65731

Alternatively, you can use PayPal to safely transfer funds.

Thank you for your understanding and generosity. 

Your prayers will be enormously appreciated.

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Update: One of the staff at Future Men has expressed a willingness to build a library for Vine & Fig Tree, near the Future Men campus. This is awesome, but won't be finished until Fall. And the house should be re-built by then as well. But right now I have no income due to my health care responsibilities, and maxed-out credit cards, and I cannot fund the needs of Vine & Fig Tree during this gap. Your tax-deductible donation during this crisis period would be most appreciated. There is a great future for Vine & Fig Tree, I believe.

To explore the Vine & Fig Tree vision, click here.

What to do with murderers?

I'm often asked what society should do with murderers if we abolish "the State."

There are two tasks for the Body of Christ, in order to be salt and light in our world:

Task #1: How should Christians guide the human race in preventing murders?
Task #2: How should Christians guide the human race in dealing with murderers if we fail Task #1?

"The State" is usually the answer to #2: Execute murderers.
But "The State" is also involved in Task #1: First, virtually every State today prohibits State-run school teachers from teaching students that God in the Bible prohibits murder. Murder is never said to offed the God of the Bible, but only the State.

Second, "the State" commits more murders than "private sector" murderers by orders of magnitude. R.J. Rummel has written about "democide," government murder of "its own people." His higher estimates of internal government murder is a quarter of a billion people in the 20th century. Then there is war, government murder of the people of some other government. Higher estimates for WWII are 90 million. Total estimates for murder by war in the 20th century are again about a quarter of a billion people. That's over 10,000 murders PER DAY by the State, as compared with a similar number of private-sector murders in the U.S. PER YEAR.

And yet when I propose that the human race should agree that "Thou shalt not kill" should apply to everyone, even to the State, I'm told that (1) I'm "some kind of anarchist" (a person of bad moral character), and (2) "murderers will take over the world" if my utopian views are adopted.

It seems to me that murderers have ALREADY taken over the world, and their Trojan Horse was this institution called "The State." 10,000 murders a day. How could it be worse under principled Theonomic Christian-directed anarchy?

"The State" also legalizes the murder of the unborn, to the tune of 130,000 PER DAY worldwide.

I think Christians in the U.S. have the financial and media power to abolish all governments in the world. But that's another subject.

OK then, what do we do with murderers after we abolish the State (because we will have them, even in my utopian "Vine & Fig Tree" world)? More specifically, "What does God want us to do with a murderer?"

Does God want us to shed the murderer's blood to make atonement (Numbers 35:33)?

I don't think so.

I reject secular vengeance as a Biblical response.

So I have to admit I don't see a clear Biblical mandate for dealing with a murderer if we fail to prevent a murder. I tend to favor a form of lifetime restitution to the estate of the victim. In other words, the murderer is required to work for the victim's heirs for the rest of his life. This can be required but not compelled, as I suggest here (audio).

Why I Would Give Obama My Guns If He Asks

As a pacifist, I take Jesus seriously:

Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.

Of course, I would never give guns to someone with violent tendencies, like Barack "Fast and Furious" "Predator Drone" Obama. I would melt them down first.

But since I also take Isaiah and the Prophets seriously, I've already melted my guns down. "Swords into Plowshares."

As a pacifist, I'm a bit distressed at all the pro-gun, pro-resistance talk in conservative "constitutionalist" circles. It's gone beyond "You can have my guns when you pry them from my cold dead fingers."



With talk from the White House about going after guns, the pro-gun crowd is talking about "resistance." They expect to keep their fingers warm. The new popular phrase is the childish dare,  "Molon Labe" -- "Come and get 'em."

That means using their guns against "government gun-grabbers."

Are you insane, Mr. Labe? If a billionaire like Saddam Hussein cannot protect himself against U.S. weapons-grabbers, what makes you think you can?

The economic policies of the Bush-Obama regime have destroyed millions of jobs. Maybe your next-door neighbor has lost his job. In response, the government offers to "solve" unemployment by hiring and deputizing people to enforce Obama's gun control laws.

"Molon Labe" means you're willing to kill your next-door neighbor.

He's already called in back-up, of course, so you will be surrounded soon.

If you continue to resist, you will be killed.

It's just a matter of time.

The government will win this conflict against you and your "Second Amendment" and your pathetic "weapons cache."

In the meantime, your last act on earth was killing your next-door neighbor and attempting to "save America" by "drawing a line" and "standing up for the Constitution."

This is not what civilization is made of.

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I Repudiate the Second Amendment

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Pacifists are always asked, "What would you do if a rapist broke into your home and was going to rape your wife or daughter? Would you just let him?"

While no pacifist would intentionally kill the rapist, no serious pacifist (from blogger to scholar) would "just let him" have his way. Pacifists are against violence, so they employ hundreds of alternatives to lethal force in order to prevent violence.

What Would You Do If . . . ?   -- Pacifist alternatives to lethal force

But here's the question too few pacifists turn back at their non-pacifist Inquisitor: 

"What would YOU do if a rapist broke in your home: create a military-industrial complex to slaughter a hundred thousand Christians in Iraq?"

The answer is, YES, that's what non-pacifists do. They create "police" and "military" -- institutions of systematic violence and murder, funded by theft from others. They prefer their own "personal peace and affluence" over "Liberty Under God." Their world is ego-centered rather than God-centered. In order to avoid pacifism, they make it illegal for public school  teachers to teach students that God says in the Bible "Thou shalt not kill." The way of Christ the "Prince of Peace" is derided as "impractical," "unrealistic," and "utopian."

In a Christian pacifist world, we all dwell safely -- more or less -- under our own Vine & Fig Tree. 

In a secular non-pacifist world, we annihilate each other. Tax-funded Democide.

Each one of us is going to die eventually. Hundreds of millions more human beings will live longer if each of us preaches peace and lives it out in our lives.

Social Apologetics

My article "Social Apologetics," published 30 years ago (gasp!) by Gary North, was referred to recently on a blog called "Talk to Action," an anti-Religious Right blog.

Theocratic Libertarianism: Quotes from Gary North, Ludwig von Mises Institute Scholar

I would like to correct that article to reflect my rejection of capital punishment,but also subject the article to wholesale re-writing under the title "Anarchist Apologietics."

Someday.