America's newest victim class, atheists.

Harry Reid: What we need is more Democratic Discipline like we had in the 1990s. You mean when Republicans controlled Congress?

Thoughts on Independence Day

The Fourth of July is not a celebration of our freedom. When we declared independence, we were not free, beyond whatever the King and Parliament of Britain allowed us. We held our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to be inalienable gifts from our creator, but we did not expect them to come from government.

Reread the Preamble:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Two things stand out: 1. It was done by the People of the United States of America, and 2. it was made "to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."

Liberty is secured by people who are independent, for otherwise they can be denied it by withholding the benefits on which they depend. Our founders believed that we were and are dependent on our Creator for our rights and the earth on which we live, and they understood that we must band together to enjoy the security and prosperity that come through living in society, and they prepared the Constitution and ratified it in order to set the ground rules of that society, but they had no illusions that this new government, this "more perfect union" was responsible for their liberties or welfare. It was, rather, to provide a setting in which we could secure those things through exercising our Independence, our efforts, our skills and our talents.

Somewhere along the way, we've been taught that our prosperity and freedoms come from this government we created at the end of the 18th Century, but it is not nor ever will be so. These things come from our own efforts, the exercise of our independence, maintained by our own responsible behavior: our thrift, husbandry, civic duty, efforts to learn, and especially our speaking and standing against efforts to reduce that independence. It is in the nature of things that we will vary in results, wealth, creations, wisdom and learning, and so forth. But the cornerstone is our cognizance that except for our reliance on God and his providence, we, as adult Americans, are dependent only on ourselves and our efforts and no one else. The government's job is to maintain an atmosphere and setting where we can act independently and apply ourselves for our own betterment and that of our society. Those who will not put forth effort to learn and earn have wasted their independence and do not deserve the fruits of it. That is a harsh, but inevitable truth derived from our national patrimony.

Today we are close to losing our independence to an oligarchy consisting of our politicians, bureaucrats, tax collectors and those who keep voting to keep them all in office. Let us think on these things on this an every July fourth and resolve again to "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity," through keeping our Independence. There are always those who conspire to take it from us, some by force and some by offering ease in its place. Our safety lies in vigilance and responsibility.

Mark Steyn makes similar point.

Important point.

"Too many of those 'Economic Reality Deniers' out there."

When the GOP isn't even serious about this, and the Democrats are worse, what's the point of having elections?

What was he commenting on? This

But the president's budget of February 2011 projects economic growth of 4% in 2012, 4.5% in 2013, and 4.2% in 2014. That budget also estimates that the 10-year budget cost of missing the growth estimate by just one point for one year is $750 billion. So, if we just grow at trend those three years, we will miss the president's forecast by a cumulative 5.2 percentage points and—using the numbers provided in his budget—incur additional debt of $4 trillion. That is the equivalent of all of the 10-year savings in Congressman Paul Ryan's budget, passed by the House in April, or in the Bowles-Simpson budget plan.

Those are hardly realistic projections. All we're getting is deadlock, because the Dems want tax increases at a time when the economy is already barely holding its own and that's a non-starter for the Republicans and most of the country. Standing in the way of spending cuts is the looming third rail of politics, entitlement reforms. In a time that calls for courage, we have cowards and madmen.

Can they GET any more demeaning?

The TSA demanded that an elderly woman remove her adult diaper to clear their check. I think that the Tea Parties need to add another plank to their platforms. This is NOT how Americans should be treated by their government. If I'd been on that flight and knew what was going on, I'd have tried to organize a strike. If she can't board, nobody boards.

Whiner in Chief:

At a series of recent fundraisers, the president lamented his loss of cool, his transformation from fresh to familiar, from edgy to establishment.

“I’m sort of old news,” he told supporters at a New York fundraiser last week.

“I know that it’s not going to be exactly the same as when I was young and vibrant and new,” he mused. “And there was — posters everywhere, hope. The logo was really fresh. And let’s face it, it was cool to support me back then. At cocktail parties, you could sort of say, ‘Yeah, this Obama guy, you haven’t heard of him? Let me tell you about him.’”

Get it? It's not my performance in office. It's the fact that I'm no longer fresh.

Right. It's the fault of us ADD-afflicted voters losing interest. Well, that certainly makes me want to chip in. (Via The Daily Caller)

The buzz in the blogs today is about Chris Wallace asking Michelle Bachmann "Are you a flake?" A lot of fulmination against Wallace is misdirected. He was giving her an opportunity to answer these dismissive claims from others. She reacted kind of irritably, which is understandable, but she should have seen the question for what it was and made it clear that she didn't take it as a personal gibe from Wallace. She called it an insult and went on to list the reasons why she's a serious candidate. Perfect answer.

She'll get another chance tonight on Sean Hannity's show where she's been a guest many times.

Why the "recovery" doesn't feel like one.

A Tale of Two Americas

Check out this map. The ten states with the highest proportion of federal land are:

Nevada 84.5%
Alaska 69.1%
Utah 57.4%
Oregon 53.1%
Idaho 50.2%
Arizona 48.1%
California 45.3%
Wyoming 42.3%
New Mexico 41.8%
Colorado 36.6%

Remember also that many of the blocks of BLM and USFS land surround many square miles, called school sections, of state owned land that were given to the states at statehood, but many are landlocked by federal land and produce very little revenue for the states. These maps also don't show Indian reservations.