May all of you have the best of Thanksgivings.
Crucis’ Court will return, Monday, December 2nd, 2013.
Monthly Archives: November 2013
The Day before Thanksgiving
I was looking for a more traditional Thanksgiving post, running through the archives from this time last year and the years before. I discovered that the issues I write about, Reid’s Nuclear Option, Obama’s failures and lies, democrat duplicity, were the same issues I wrote about last year, and the year before.
Year, after year, and no real progress has been made except is slow slide downward towards tyranny, loss of liberty and more deliberate failures of government.
It gets tiresome.
Therefore, for this Thanksgiving, I’ve decided to repost from the past, a lighter post that still seems appropriate for our current times. Below is a repost from prior years on a lighter meme…Fairy Tales. This will be the last scheduled post until December 2nd, 2013…unless war breaks out and then I may be too busy to write.
From time to time, it’s prudent to review writings from the past and of other bloggers of note. The one below is a repost but it is still great. Therefore, I give you:
The LawDog Files: Twisted .sig linesSome years back I got a little impish and wrote some brief passages to use as signature quotes on the forums I was frequenting. Since I am, well, me, they were a wee bit … warped.
I was leafing through some old notebooks, and found some of them.
~~~~~~~~~~
“This,” Thought the Big Bad Wolf as Little Red Riding Hood reloaded, “Is why I voted for the Democrats.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“We go in hard and fast. Watch your fire sectors and your threat ID.” Happy slammed a full mag into his MP5, “Nail anything taller than four feet except the Queen. Dead queens can’t give us antidotes.”Dopey looked up from his equipment check, chin quivering, “What if she won’t talk?”“She’ll talk,” said Doc, grimly, “They always talk. Eventually.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“FIRE!” bellowed the King, and the palace guard opened up on the Evil Fairy with full-auto AK-47s.
~~~~~~~~~~
“That sounded like the safety on a Browning Hi-Power,” murmured the Old Witch.“Uh-huh,” said Gretel.
There was a pause.
“I suppose the whole oven thing is out of the question, then?”
~~~~~~~~~~
“I’ll huff and I’ll puff …woah! Nice shotgun. Umm. Look at the time! Should have been home hours ago! Wife will be frantic. Nice meeting you. Bye, bye now!”
~~~~~~~~~~
“Plan ‘A’ is to ask the ogre to change into a mouse. I eat the evidence, no muss, no fuss, no body” said Puss-in-Boots as he screwed the silencer onto his HK Mk 23, “Plan ‘B’ gets messy.”
~~~~~~~~~~LawDog
Peace…for our time
In 1938, after Germany invaded and incorporated Czechoslovakia into the German Reich, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew to Germany to make an agreement with Adolf Hitler to end Germany’s expansion in Europe. On his return to London, Chamberlain gave his famous speech saying he had gained, “peace for a time.”
Over the weekend, Obama announced an agreement created by Sec’y of State John Kerry with Iran to “halt” their nuclear weapons program. Of course, the agreement has no teeth and leaves Israel swinging, alone, in the breeze. As a consequence, Saudia Arabia, fearing a nuclear Iran, is in the process of buying some nukes of their own from Pakistan. The Saudis have split with Washington over the justifiable fear that if attacked by Iran, the US would do nothing.
Yes, peace…for a time. A year after Neville Chamberlain made his famous speech, Britain was at war with Germany. The events of this last week leads me to wonder what the coming year will bring in the Middle East. Israel has never announced whether it has nuclear weapons, nor has Israel signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that would allow outside inspectors to see if Israel really had any. That aside, some sources estimate that Israel has approximately 90 nuclear weapons with enough material to manufacture 150-200 more on short notice.
***
Obamacare is heading back to SCOTUS again. This time for possible violations of the First Amendment. Obamacare requires individuals and corporations to buy and provide birth control for themselves and their employees regardless of religious opposition. Hobby Lobby has filed suit and that suit is going to the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court to decide whether to review ObamaCare contraception mandate
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s health care law is headed for a new Supreme Court showdown over companies’ religious objections to the law’s birth-control mandate.
Amid the troubled rollout of the health law, and 17 months after the justices upheld it, the Obama administration is defending a provision that requires most employers that offer health insurance to their workers to provide a range of preventive health benefits, including contraception.
Roughly 40 for-profit companies have sued, arguing they should not be forced to cover some or all forms of birth control because doing so would violate their religious beliefs.
Both sides want the justices to settle an issue that has divided lower courts. The high court could announce its decision whether to take up the topic as early as Tuesday, following its closed-door meeting.
Arguments probably would take place in late March with a decision expected in late June.
The key issue is whether profit-making corporations can assert religious beliefs under the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Nearly four years ago, the justices expanded the concept of corporate “personhood,” saying in the Citizens United case that corporations have the right to participate in the political process the same way that individuals do.
The administration wants the court to hear its appeal of the Denver-based federal appeals court ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby, an Oklahoma City-based arts and crafts chain that calls itself a “biblically founded business” and is closed on Sundays. Founded in 1972, the company now operates more than 500 stores in 41 states and employs more than 13,000 full-time employees who are eligible for health insurance. The Green family, Hobby Lobby’s owners, also owns the Mardel Christian bookstore chain.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said corporations can be protected by the 1993 law in the same manner as individuals, and “that the contraceptive-coverage requirement substantially burdens Hobby Lobby and Mardel’s rights under” the law.
In its Supreme Court brief, the administration said the appeals court ruling was wrong and, if allowed to stand would make the law “a sword used to deny employees of for-profit commercial enterprises the benefits and protections of generally applicable laws.”
In two other cases, courts ruled for the administration. Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp., a Pennsylvania company that employs 950 people in making wood cabinets, is owned by a Mennonite family. Autocam Corp. is a Michigan-based maker of auto parts and medical devices that employs more than 650 people in the U.S.
The companies that have sued over the mandate have objections to different forms of birth control. Conestoga Wood objects to the coverage of Plan B and Ella, two emergency contraceptives that work mostly by preventing ovulation. The FDA says on its website that Plan B “may also work by preventing fertilization of an egg … or by preventing attachment (implantation) to the womb (uterus),” while Ella also may work by changing of the lining of the uterus so as to prevent implantation.
Hobby Lobby objects to those two forms of contraception as well as two types of intrauterine devices (IUDs). Its owners say they believe life begins at conception, and they oppose only birth control methods that can prevent implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus, but not other forms of contraception.
Autocam doesn’t want to pay for any contraception for its employees because of its owners’ Roman Catholic beliefs.
The article continues at the website. You can read it here.
***
Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I wish you all have a great Holiday.
The Third Day before Thanksgiving
Now for news from the war front: Al Franken, Socialist Party Senator from Minnesota, breaks with Obama: calls for delay of implementation of Obamacare until after the 2014 elections!
Yes, there’s a bit of hyperbole in that opening headline…but not all that much; I believe the name of the democrat party in Minnesota is, Social Democrats. Al Franken did break with Obama, as did 40 congressional democrats in an attempt to save their political futures.
Amid all the hoopla and hyperbole coming out of Washington saying the ‘Pubs are disintegrating, Joseph Curl, writing in the Washington Times, has a contrary opinion.
CURL: Democrats at war — bailing on Obama
By Joseph Curl, Updated: 10:51 a.m. on Monday, November 25, 2013
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
One story the mainstream media just loves: Republicans at war. The party’s splintered to shreds, torn beyond repair, cut in two, broken asunder.
They write it week after week. The House speaker loses a vote, boom, the Republican Party is ruptured. But guess what story they never write?
This one.
The Democratic Party is ripped to tatters. The fake lovefest that broke out after Hillary Rodham Clinton wandered off into the wilderness in June 2008 is over. She’s back, and so is her troublemaking husband (who last week advised President Obama to “honor” his commitment on keeping your health insurance — and he knows about honor).
More, no one is afraid of the party’s top cop. Nearly 40 Dems bailed on him to support the “Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013” just a day after Bubba made his pronouncement. They weren’t worried in the least about fallout or retribution. They were busy saving their own skins — which meant breaking hard from the president.
Now, here’s the thing: Republicans, contrary to media reports, were never confused about Obamacare. Not one voted for the bill Mr. Obama signed into law in 2010. That means RINOs, lefty-middle righties, conservatives, tea partyers, moderates, even mavericks — the whole big tent — stood as one in opposition to a law they knew was insanity. No dissension there.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Blue Dog Democrats, moderate lefties, Reagan D’s — the middle left — had Obamacare shoved down their throats. They ate Obamacare because they had to: The party as a whole was moving left, hard, and they had one choice — go with them, or be left behind. So, they voted en masse for Obamacare.
But everything’s changing now, fast. At stake: In the short term, the makeup of the Senate. In the long term, much more: The future of liberalism.
The second half of the article continues at the website.
On the other hand, stories are emerging that hint about the breakup of Mitch McConnell and his supporters in the GOP. In a straw poll of the GOP on one country in Kentucky, McConnell lost the poll with Matt Bevin, his Tea Party opponent, 80% to 20%.
Matt Bevin Takes over 80% of Vote in Kentucky Straw Poll
by Breitbart News 25 Nov 2013, 8:24 AM PDT
On Sunday, Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon interviewed aspiring Kentucky Republican senatorial candidate Matt Bevin on Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot channel.
Bevin, endorsed by the Tea Party, said that his upcoming primary battle with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is “not only a microcosm for the battle of the Republican party, but the entire political process.” The battle for limited government, the belief that government has a spending problem, distaste for crony capitalism, and a strong opposition to tax increases animates his campaign to be Senator.
Bevin served four years as an officer in the U.S. Army and rose to Captain of the 5th Mechanized Infantry Division Artillery’s counterfire office. Although he hails from humble beginnings, growing up in a small town in New Hampshire living in a small farmhouse house with a big family, Bevin proved to be a savvy business man and, according to Bannon, accumulated as much as $25 million.
Bannon thinks that the Kentucky senate race is one that will draw the attention of the entire nation for several reasons. One crucial reason is that McConnell has made a number of accusations that Bevin had committed improprieties while running a family manufacturing company which Bevin categorically denies. Also, McConnell has stirred the ire of the conservative grassroots by calling them “nothing but a bunch of bullies.” Moreover, Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks, has dumped several million in to Democrat challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes’ campaign, who as a result will be an immediate threat to whoever wins the republican primary.
Bevin and Bannon talked about the results of a recent straw poll that took place recently in Boone County Kentucky. Last Thursday, Bevin won a resounding victory over Mitch McConnell at a Boone County GOP straw poll of 700 Republicans garnering 80% of the votes.
Clearly, Matt Bevin may be able to pull off a victory come next November and unseat McConnell but he has a long way to go. McConnell raised over $9 million while Bevin has so far accumulated only $160,000. Bannon did point out though Bevin has a huge personal fortune to draw from if he wants to.
Add another story to this about McConnell’s attack on rank and file GOPers in Washington. The latest news is McConnell allies forced a book-keeper, SCF’s bookkeeper, Lisa Lisker, out of her job. The SCF is the Senate Conservative Fund who is supporting Matt Bevin, McConnell’s opponent in the upcoming Kentucky primary.
Mitch ‘Mr. Majestic’ McConnell is Melting, Pressures Bookkeeper in Tea Party Fight
By Dan, November 25, 2013
From promising young candidates to bookkeepers … that’s right, bookkeepers, Mitch McConnell appears to want to punch everyone in the nose, along with believing they work for him and no one else – let alone the people who elect them.
Here’s the latest via Collateral Damage in a GOP Civil War | National Review Online. McConnell is effectively out of touch with the GOP base and now routinely being owned by Harry Reid and the Democrats. Worse, all he seems capable of now is lashing out at his own side. These are only the latest in a growing series of events calling McConnell’s judgment into serious question. I do honestly think it’s time for this guy to go. We need new blood, not old bad blood born of an outdated view of the Senate.
The nation’s youngest university president Nebraska’s Midland University, Sasse has become the latest collateral damage in a GOP civil war between McConnell and Holmes, on the one side, and Matt Hoskins and Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint, Hoskins’s political godfather.
By all accounts, Sasse — whom The Weekly Standard recently heralded as being able to bridge the divide between the GOP establishment and the Tea Party — never wanted a fight with McConnell. In 2013, however, it’s becoming clear that being Switzerland isn’t really an option.
Last week, for example, pressure from McConnell allies convinced SCF’s bookkeeper, Lisa Lisker, to part ways with the group. Lisker has previously worked for Republican candidates locked in tense primary elections without incident, sources say.
Yes, McConnell must go, the sooner, the better.
***
With Thanksgiving just three days away, here is today’s parting topic.
Is nothing sacred? Stand up for real meaning of Thanksgiving, skip the shopping on Turkey Day
By T. J. McCormack. FoxNews.com
I was almost expecting it when the KMarts and Walmarts of the world announced their stores would be open this year on Thanksgiving night. Sigh. It seemed to reflect that good ol’ American over-the-top holiday consumerism which seems to creep up on us closer and closer to Labor Day every year.
But again, that’s the big boxes, the new stores on the block; the ones who HAVE to pull a stunt.
Now comes word that the department store synonymous with Thanksgiving and Christmas, indeed the legendary setting of the classic movie, “Miracle On 34th Street” is stepping into the fray…Macy’s is opening on Thanksgiving. Macy’s? Seriously? Is NOTHING sacred? Apologies for the cliché question, but I have an answer: No.
In America, nothing is sacred anymore.
It’s the “Broken Windows” theory of crime in the context of our culture, our values: if petty vandalism goes unchecked, not only does more vandalism occur, but an environment is created leading to more violent crimes which occur more frequently. Eventually society ends up an epidemic of crime and the commensurate breakdown in the quality of life.
In the case of stores opening on Thanksgiving, remember when there was ONE place in town open for a few hours on Thanksgiving morning where you could grab an emergency carton of milk?
Remember, how even that little store would be closed by 11am?
Remember how the ride to grandma’s felt like a post-apocalyptic journey through a ghost town?
Remember when someone told you that the big drugstore chain down the road was open til 3 on Thanksgiving?
Remember when the supermarket stuck with its normal hours?
Broken windows.
Now we’re supposed to cheer when Macy’s opens on our formally sacred day of gratitude?
And what of the EMPLOYEES? What of our dear fellow Americans who are being plucked from the cozy confines of their homes on a holiday? The concept of working on Thanksgiving used to be nonsensical. EVERYBODY is supposed to be off on Thanksgiving!
Mr. Macy meet Mr. Scrooge (different holiday same story).
This very well could be the beginning of the end of a beautiful day of reflection; a gathering of loved ones in a common moment of gratitude.
If we are not vigilant, the gathering, the meal, the fellowship could very well give way to a quick toast around the table and turkey sandwiches.
Now, here’s what I want you to do. Take a stand for tradition this Thanksgiving.
Don’t go shopping. Stay where you are when the meal is over and do what you’re SUPPOSED to do: Linger in the kitchen, pick at the pies, do the dishes, listen to the older ladies complain about their husbands, settle in front of the television with your cousins and reflect about holidays gone by.
Perhaps you’ll be blessed to enjoy the greatest Thanksgiving tradition of all…falling asleep on the couch to the dulcet sound of family and friends laughing in the background.
I know that sounds cheesey, but it’s not nearly as cheesey as the notion of leaving your family to go shopping on Thanksgiving.
So it begins…
Yesterday, Harry Reid detonated the nuclear option in the Senate by arbitrarily changing the Senate rules concerning federal appointments, including the Judiciary. Before Reid’s act, appointments required a 60 vote super-majority. Reid changed that to a simple majority.
Immediately after the vote, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) called for more reforms—eliminating the filibuster for legislation. Harkin’s call for eliminating the filibuster was retaliation against Senator Ted Cruz’s and Rand Paul’s filibusters this year.
Reid’s act and Harkin’s call to eliminate all filibusters is a blatant power grab effectively making the Senate a democrat rubber stamp. The days of polite discussion, of gentlemanly discord are gone. The democrats have known this for decades. The ‘Pubs, hopefully, have finally realized the same. Politics has turned bloody. When will the ‘Pubs realize you don’t show up unarmed to a gun-fight?
I’ve said before, our current history appears to be a repeat of those days before the start of the Civil War in 1860. The issue then was not solely about slavery, although that was a very significant issue. A major issue at that time was the loss of political power by the Southern States to the more populous and economically powerful North. Tariffs and trade issues were passed that favored the North to the detriment of the South, issues that reduced the South’s trade with Europe. The result, when the South saw no other recourse, was Secession.
Reid’s act yesterday followed immediately by Harkin’s call to eliminate all filibusters is another step that mirrors the conditions immediately before December, 1860. South Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860. Is it coincidence that Reid’s elimination of 225 of Senate tradition, of a history of a balance of power, happened in November? Are we approaching a day like that of 153 years ago?
***
Positive Discrimination. What is that? It’s better known by its other name, Affirmative Action. Erick Erickson was invited to a debate on the issue at Oxford in the UK. The debate subject was “that positive discrimination is a necessary evil.”
Oxford Union Results: Winner
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | November 21st, 2013 at 08:03 PM
It is after midnight here in Oxford, UK as I write this.
Tonight, I debated in the Oxford Union — a society that has gathered each Thursday night for a black tie debate since 1823.
The proposition debated tonight was “that positive discrimination is a necessary evil.”
The side favorable to the proposition went first and vice versa to the end with me as the final speaker of the night. Each side had four participants — one student and three guests. The proponents included both Martin Castro and Ada Meloy, along with Carla Buzasi and Oxford student Toby Fuller. My side included Richard Kahlenberg, Heather McGregor, and Oxford student Martine Wauben.
I must thank Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity for encouraging me toward talk radio. I spoke for 8 minutes unaided by notes, which would have been impossible, but for two years of doing a talk radio show consisting of just me talking with no script. If you’ve ever seen the British House of Commons, you know how it went. We all stood beside dispatch boxes given by Winston Churchill. We all were interrupted by points of information by opponents.
Everyone told me I should expect to lose. Just last week the Oxford Union voted against patriotism. I simply made the point that positive discrimination, or affirmative action, is still discrimination and evil is still evil. Likewise, I pointed out that the United States is 150 years removed from the Gettysburg Address, we have our first black President, and we still have people clamoring for positive discrimination. We cannot trust that those who benefit from it will ever say we need no longer have it.
Likewise, I pointed out that we have had and will always have racism. A government that claims we are equal under the law, but still sees racism is not a government we can expect to write a law to dramatically get rid of racism.
But we do know that those negatively affected by positive discrimination will be bitter and those who benefit from it will always be under a lingering doubt that they were chosen as tokens, not on merit.
I had a wonderful time, topped off by a pint of Guinness with my wife and friends. Thanks for the prayers along the way. A guy who sounds like me somehow convinced a group of Brits that affirmative action is wrong.
My side won by 9 votes.
I agree with Erick Erickson. Discrimination, positive and negative, is evil and must be abolished. I prefer a meritocracy, myself.
mer·i·toc·ra·cy (m
r
-t
k
r
-s
)n.pl.mer·i·toc·ra·cies
1. A system in which advancement is based on individual ability or achievement.
***
An act of tyranny. The FEC by a 3-2 vote, refused to grant an exemption to the Tea Party Leadership Fund allowing them to keep their donar list private. The FEC has granted exemptions to the NAACP and the Socialists Worker’s Party but not the Tea Party.
Divided FEC rejects tea party group’s bid to conceal donors
Groups said disclosure opened door to harassment
By Kellan Howell – The Washington Times, Thursday, November 21, 2013
A sharply divided Federal Election Commission on Thursday denied a request from a leading tea party group for an exemption from disclosing its financial backers to protect them from harassment.
The FEC board voted 3-2 against a motion to exempt the Tea Party Leadership Fund. The fund will have to continue to disclose donors who contribute more than $200, despite its contention that its donors should be given an exemption given to special persecuted groups such as the Socialist Workers Party and the NAACP during the civil rights era.
FEC Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub, quoting Supreme CourtJustice Antonin Scalia, said “requiring people to stand up in public for their political acts fosters civic courage, without which democracy is doomed.”
Commissioner Steven Walther, who also voted against the fund’s motion, said the group was “not a minor organization” requiring special protection from the normal rules of disclosure.
The TPLF “has a lot more muscle and a lot more money,” Mr. Walther said. “I don’t think the donors are really worried about threats to themselves and safety issues that plagued the Socialist Workers Party.”
But Commissioner Matthew Petersen, one of the two Republican members of the panel who supported the exemption request, said the TPLF’s petition documenting past harassment justified the group’s request. The fund submitted more than 1,400 pages containing examples of harassment, ridicule and threats against tea party members from the media and the general public. The submission also noted the still-simmering scandal over whether the Internal Revenue Service deliberately targeted some conservative groups applying for federal tax-exempt status for special scrutiny and regulatory delays.
The case of the TPLF, Mr. Petersen said “is just as strong as, if not stronger than that of the Socialist Workers Party. I think [TPLF] is entitled to exemption.”
The FEC will grant exemptions to leftist, socialist organizations but not to conservative ones. This is what we get when Obama and the dems have unlimited power to appoint heads of federal agencies.
Tick…tick…tick…
Scooped’em!
OK, OK, I’m gloating a bit. I scooped the big boys with my post yesterday. I received notices my post yesterday was retweeted and has been shared, linked and reprinted by a number of conservative websites.
***
The dems, in particular Harry Reid, see their power waning in Washington. They’ve looked into their crystal balls and foresee a drubbing next year in the mid-term elections. The failure of Obamacare, not just the rollout, but the massive loss of insurance coverage by millions of working Americans will have an impact in the elections next year.
That means it is possible for the dems to lose the Senate. The ‘Pubs can’t pickup enough seat of have a veto-proof majority, there aren’t that many senate seats up for re-election, but Reid may not be Majority Leader much longer. That possibility has created in Reid a sense of desperation, leading him to threaten to invoke the ‘nuclear’ option to block ‘Pub filibusters and pack the federal court bench with liberal sycophants.
Why the threats at is time? Perhaps it is to distract the public’s—and the media’s, attention from the disaster of Obamacare to them and their party. That seems, to me, to be a more likely motive than the dems continuing attempt to pack the federal courts.
***
Who is the greatest lawbreaker in the country today? On this question, nearly everyone has an opinion. A growing number of those opinions say: Barack Obama.
Reining in America’s Greatest Lawbreaker, President Obama
By Mark J. Fitzgibbons, November 21, 2013
The Hill reports that Republican members of Congress are contemplating actions to combat President Obama’s lawbreaking methods of ruling from the Oval Office.
“GOP officials have long claimed that the president has violated the law and the Constitution through administrative actions on issues ranging from immigration to nominations to the U.S. military involvement in Libya,” writes The Hill. Conservative Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah is quoted, “There are a lot of examples of this.”
A lot, indeed, and not just recently. As reported at American Thinker last year in March, nine GOP state attorneys general issued a report on Obama’s unprecedented officious lawbreaking.
Obama has now reached the tipping point, however, with his illegal “fix” of Obamacare designed to overcome his lie that Americans can keep their health insurance. The president’s open lawbreaking following his notorious lying puts Democrats’ electoral prospects at risk. It frustrates the unquestioning goodwill and endless love of some members of the political establishment.
Obama has lied to the American people many times, which is unbecoming of his office. But his unilateral actions in violation of the Constitution and even statutory law are so brazen that they seem calculated to undermine our very system of government, even to the point that they can be called “un-American” from the perspective of our heritage.
British Member of Parliament Daniel Hannan has a marvelous essay at The Wall Street Journal adapted from his new book, “Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World.” The topic of his essay helps us understand why Barack Obama is actually the greatest lawbreaker in American history.
If you consider that claim hyperbole, factor this: No person, corporation, union boss or corporate CEO — no criminal — who has violated the law could count every American as their victims. President Obama can.
Hannan’s essay describes how Americans and the British share an exceptionalism that has its origins in the law — the common law, to be precise.
We share a view of law that protects individual liberty and property rights through ideals and notions guaranteeing due process of law, jury trials, freedoms of speech and of publication, and so on. The law punishes and remedies the wrong, of course, but this view of the law is that its purpose is also to protect our liberty and property rights.
That view of the law is contrary to the one held by progressives, which is that the law is to be used to coerce behavior of the people even at the expense of individual liberty and property rights.
As Hannan writes:
Above all, liberty was tied up with something that foreign observers could only marvel at: the miracle of the common law. Laws weren’t written down in the abstract and then applied to particular disputes; they built up, like a coral reef, case by case. They came not from the state but from the people. The common law wasn’t a tool of government but an ally of liberty: It placed itself across the path of the Stuarts and George III; it ruled that the bonds of slavery disappeared the moment a man set foot on English soil.
There was a fashion for florid prose in the 18th century, but the second American president, John Adams, wasn’t exaggerating when he identified the Anglosphere’s beautiful, anomalous legal system . . . as the ultimate guarantor of freedom: “The liberty, the unalienable, indefeasible rights of men, the honor and dignity of human nature . . . and the universal happiness of individuals, were never so skillfully and successfully consulted as in that most excellent monument of human art, the common law of England.”
These ideals are of law emanating from the people to govern government itself — a republican form of government with controls on those who govern. When the law governs government — when our government is bound down by the law — our liberty is best protected.
No list of the greatest documents of liberty is complete without the Magna Carta, wherein the King was told by the people that he would be ruled by law while he simultaneously ruled his people. The Magna Carta established these principles, and the common law further evolved.
The United States Constitution incorporates these common law principles and ideals, and affirms and institutionalizes even more such as checks and balances, and the separation of powers. It is through these structures, institutions and ideals of law governing government that liberty is best protected.
And that is the purpose of the Constitution. It is a law that doesn’t merely constitute or form our government; it governs government. Violators of the Constitution are violators of law.
It is by the law that governs and controls government that we have the greatest liberty and equality under the law. That is why America is exceptional. Freedom breeds the most opportunity for the most people. Opportunity allows for the greatest level of achievement.
We are exceptional not by national origin, but because our national origin guarantees that we have law that rules the government that rules us.
That is our English heritage. President Obama is hostile to this view of the law, believing he can fundamentally transform America by undermining this law.
Under Obama, we have ‘trickle-down lawbreaking,’ as with former IRS official Lois Lerner who read signals from the White House to violate the very laws she was supposed to enforce. The signals for government bureaucrats to violate the law are everywhere in the Obama administration.
How, then, will congressional Republicans rein in Obama’s lawbreaking?
For all the criticisms directed at Senator Ted Cruz and other constitutional conservatives purportedly over tactics, establishment GOP leaders have demonstrated that they are not up to the mission. Real leaders will stand up and call out President Obama as America’s greatest lawbreaker.
In six years, the democrats have changed this country from one of laws, to a country of lawlessness. The White House itself—Obama, his staff and all the agencies that report directly to the White House, engage daily in lawlessness. That was advantageous for them as long as they maintained power. Now, with the Obamacare fiasco affecting nearly everyone in the country, they foresee the possibility of them to losing power, leaving reams of regulations and liberal court decisions that could be used against them if/when the ‘Pubs, or anyone not a liberal, gains the White House and controls Congress.
That is what the dems and liberals fear: What goes around, comes around.
Condition One, Condition Yellow
Today’s title will confuse some readers. Others will recognize it as we lead into today’s topic—the epidemic of random attacks by thugs on the unaware. For the last week, news items have appeared on the internet on the subject of ‘knock-out’, a game by thugs who attempt to knock out a random stranger with one blow and then steal whatever the victim has.
Drudge has a story today about such an attack in New York, where self-defense is not allowed. The fear is that this ‘game’ will spread.
Teen ‘knockout game’ continues to harm innocent people
The worrying ‘game’ is played by choosing victims at random and trying to knock them to the ground with one punch. More and more people report being victimized by its callous ‘players.’
This disturbing game is a hit with goons.
“Knockout” is an emerging trend among unhinged teens that consists of targeting a passerby at random and trying to lay them out with one punch.
That’s it.
Participants call this — the game’s singular move — the “one hitter quitter.”
Their victims can be anyone: elderly men or mothers with kids are not exempt. This poor attempt at manliness — i.e. thinly veiled cowardice — has even ended in death.
Most of the knockout incidents have taken place in the New York metro area.
New York-based CBS 2 shed light on the fisticuff fad earlier this month with a report on the twisted game in Jersey City.
“You just knock them out. You hit them with a blow and you take their belongings,” one teen told the station.
Another youngster said that people participate simply “for the fun of it.” But another said wannabe tough guys are interested in whether their friends actually have the strength to strike somebody down.
Phoebe Connolly, of Vermont, told ABC affiliate WJLA that she was targeted while riding her bike in the Columbia Heights section of Washington, D.C.
“My whole head went flying to the side… it was a hard punch,” Connolly said. “One kid came from the side and pretty much cut me off. He threw a hook with his left hand and got me right in the face and he said, ‘Wapow!'”
The column continues with reports of fatalities, one in St. Louis, MO. The next question is why were these people so unaware of their surroundings and how could these thugs get so close and surprise their victims? I would guess it is due to the mindset, “It can’t happen to me!”
That brings us to the two conditions in today’s title. One condition is applicable to everyone. You needn’t be armed, just aware of your surroundings, being aware who is near you and to be prepared to take action, run, if you have no other options, if necessary.
Jeff Cooper was a prolific writer on gun and self-defense issues. He, along with others at the time, created principles of defense, of being prepared. His conditions were color codes, from White, being completely unaware, to red, fight!
The most important means of surviving a lethal confrontation, according to Cooper, is neither the weapon nor the martial skills. The primary tool is the combat mindset, set forth in his book, Principles of Personal Defense.[5]
The color code, as originally introduced by Jeff Cooper, had nothing to do with tactical situations or alertness levels, but rather with one’s state of mind. As taught by Cooper, it relates to the degree of peril you are willing to do something about and which allows you to move from one level of mindset to another to enable you to properly handle a given situation. Cooper did not claim to have invented anything in particular with the color code, but he was apparently the first to use it as an indication of mental state.[6]
- White: Unaware and unprepared. If attacked in Condition White, the only thing that may save you is the inadequacy or ineptitude of your attacker. When confronted by something nasty, your reaction will probably be “Oh my God! This can’t be happening to me.”
- Yellow: Relaxed alert. No specific threat situation. Your mindset is that “today could be the day I may have to defend myself”. You are simply aware that the world is a potentially unfriendly place and that you are prepared to defend yourself, if necessary. You use your eyes and ears, and realize that “I may have to shoot today”. You don’t have to be armed in this state, but if you are armed you should be in Condition Yellow. You should always be in Yellow whenever you are in unfamiliar surroundings or among people you don’t know. You can remain in Yellow for long periods, as long as you are able to “Watch your six.” (In aviation 12 o’clock refers to the direction in front of the aircraft’s nose. Six o’clock is the blind spot behind the pilot.) In Yellow, you are “taking in” surrounding information in a relaxed but alert manner, like a continuous 360 degree radar sweep. As Cooper put it, “I might have to shoot.”
- Orange: Specific alert. Something is not quite right and has your attention. Your radar has picked up a specific alert. You shift your primary focus to determine if there is a threat (but you do not drop your six). Your mindset shifts to “I may have to shoot that person today”, focusing on the specific target which has caused the escalation in alert status. In Condition Orange, you set a mental trigger: “If that person does “X”, I will need to stop them”. Your pistol usually remains holstered in this state. Staying in Orange can be a bit of a mental strain, but you can stay in it for as long as you need to. If the threat proves to be nothing, you shift back to Condition Yellow.
- Red: Condition Red is fight. Your mental trigger (established back in Condition Orange) has been tripped. “If ‘X’ happens I will shoot that person” – ‘X’ has happened, the fight is on.
— Wikipedia.
Cooper’s Condition Red is the condition of last resort. Your life is in danger. You must do whatever is necessary to survive. If you are armed, that is one means of defending yourself. If you are unarmed, you must use whatever is available, whether it is a rock lying nearby on the ground, a discarded pipe or piece of wood, or, if nothing is available, yourself.
The other condition, Condition One, pertains to firearms and CCW carriers. It is useless to acquire a CCW permit, to carry a weapon, and be completely unaware of your surroundings. What use is a personal weapon if you are attacked while in Condition White?
Cooper developed codes for CCW carriers and others who carry weapons daily, law and security officers, for instance. The rules were developed with the 1911 .45acp single-action pistol in mind. The photo is of a 1911A1 .45acp pistol in Condition One, Cocked and Locked—hammer is cocked, safety is on—is locked.
Cooper favored the Colt M1911 and its variants. There are several conditions of readiness in which such a weapon can be carried. Cooper promulgated most of the following terms:
- Condition Four: Chamber empty, no magazine, hammer down.
- Condition Three: Chamber empty, full magazine in place, hammer down.
- Condition Two: A round chambered, full magazine in place, hammer down.
- Condition One: A round chambered, full magazine in place, hammer cocked, safety on.
- Condition Zero: A round chambered, full magazine in place, hammer cocked, safety off.
Some of these configurations are safer than others, while others are quicker to fire the gun (Condition 1). In the interest of consistent training, most agencies that issue the 1911 specify the condition in which it is to be carried as a matter of local doctrine.
This firearm condition system can also be used to refer to other firearm actions, particularly when illustrating the differences between carry modes considered to be safe for various actions. For example, DA/SA is designed to be carried in Condition 2, which is not safe for 1911s without firing pin safeties. — Wikipedia.
If you possess a CCW permit and you carry (I know many who have a CCW permit but don’t carry. They acquired the permit because they could, as a political statement,) be aware and be prepared.
Are you aware of your surroundings when parking and leaving your car? Do you make a 360° scan around you? I do. Do you examine everyone coming towards you? I do. Are you aware of people approaching from your rear? I do. Do you constantly look around you when walking outside, or in a mall? I do. When inside or at a restaurant, do you sit where you have a good view of the room, of the entrance, do you sit where it is unlikely you can be approached from behind? I do whenever possible.
My wife now knows, when we go out, to sit where I can watch my surroundings. Sometimes it is difficult, sometimes not. More than once, while being seated, I’ve asked for a different table or booth to allow me a better view of the room.
I’ve had a CCW permit since they first became legal in Missouri. I’ve drawn my pistol once, while walking in a park and was charged by a dog running loose. I didn’t have to aim, nor shoot. The dog stopped when I didn’t run. He moved off and I reholstered while catching my breath. I don’t think I breathed until the dog was thirty yards away.
One time, in an underground parking lot in Kansas City, I may have been targeted by a group of teenagers, a gang, really. I was walking to my car when a half-dozen teen boys approached, yelling, asking for some change. I didn’t have cover, nor an exit. I turned towards them, put my hand in my pocket and said, “No, fresh out.” When I didn’t run, but instead just stood there, watching them with my hand, unseen, on my pistol butt, they decided to go elsewhere. I’m not sure what they expected, but I didn’t fit their profile, apparently.
I was in Condition Yellow, but I was still caught in a position that limited my options, I had no place to run, couldn’t really with my arthritic knees and being overweight, no place to hide where they couldn’t get at me. Sometimes, in the best of situations, your options were limited.
With the spread of the ‘knock-out’ game, we all must be aware of our surroundings, who are near us. In the end, your self-defense is still yourself. No cop will be there, guarding you. They have no legal obligation to protect you as an individual—that has been decided several times by the US Supreme Court. No, all the cops can do is clean up the mess afterward and attempt to find and arrest the attackers…not that that will do you, the victim, much good.
The saying, “When seconds count, the cops are minutes away!” applies. You are your own self-defense. Be aware, be prepared. After all is over, be that one who returns alive and unharmed to your family.