Liberty Over Slavery

"Today's Quote" in my local newspaper: "I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery" (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss-born French philosopher, 1712-1778)

I consider this a timely reminder for our day. Too many Americans are being seduced by the power-brokers who invite us to sacrifice a little liberty - and then just a little more - in order to attain security and peace. A glaring sample of this is the health care legislation that has been sold as America's "solution" for universal access to health care. In addition to mounting financial costs, there are also mounting costs to liberty as government herds us into their prescribed forms of health care choices.

I have written before that lasting liberty demands that we bear the consequences for our behavior. Those who are able to shift the consequences for personal behavior onto other individuals and groups have low, or no, motivation to change and improve. Consequently, liberty is eroded for everyone.

Everyone I know likes peace and security. I like peace and security. But peace and security without the truthful recognition of the high price of vigilance leads to enslavement. Those who have gone before us - those to whom we owe a debt we cannot pay - knew this full well:

The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them.


The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore to resolve to conquer or die. - General George Washington, order issued July 2, 1776

As 21st century Americans, we are blessed to have elections through which we can choose liberty or slavery. As with any tool, it is useful only to the extent that we actually use it. So use it.

Choose liberty over slavery.

Legislating Death

Remember when Sarah Palin’s remarks about Obamacare death panels spurred the left on to an overtime apoplectic fit? Her studied remarks were labeled “disgusting” and “outrageous.”

Leave it to a liberal, though, to actually confirm the accuracy of conservatives’ analysis of social issues. In one recent editorial, “veteran Canadian journailst” Bogdan Kipling writes,

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Had the Democrats merely listened to the wise counsel of such progressives as Reps. Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Texas maverick Jim Hightower and pressed for single-payer while they had a staggering majority they likely could have avoided all of this.

From a Canadian perspective, they might be far happier if they had. Yes, the Canadian system has some major flaws, but most of the country's 34-million inhabitants seem relatively happy with it. It provides all the necessities, but few of the expensive frills of the American system.

Then again most Canadians are hardy enough souls that they have no desire to cling to a life that is not really living. What could be more horrendous than to be kept alive for a few more months by excruciatingly painful operations that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars? What could be more undignified at the end of the life than to have a nursing-care attendant wake you up to wipe dribble from your chin? And what could be more heartrending than have your family and loved ones see you in such a pathetic condition?

When it comes to prolonging life beyond its normal range, Americans might do well to remember Shakespeare's immortal lines in Julius Caesar: "Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once."

Suck it up America! By the time the ObamaCare disaster craps out; you're going to have to.
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Yes, leave it to the left to determine that they are the best arbiters of what the “normal range” of life is. Being the elitist liberal that he is, of course Kipling perceives that Canadian citizens are “relatively happy” with their national rationed health care. That is the system that has been foisted onto them – for their own good, of course. With no choice, what else are they going to do but to “seem relatively happy” with it and “suck it up?”

But then, some Canadians take advantage of the ability to supplement their rationed “no frills” health care with American treatment by making the trip across the border to receive services in a more timely manner. Perhaps those who the Canadian system has determined are exceeding the “normal range” of life seek a second opinion.

Sure, at some point a person or family might have to decide when further care and treatment is fruitless. The dangerous arrogance lodged in Obamacare and all the other socialist style, government-run health care systems is that a government has the capability and the imperative to make that life-and-death decision in place of the patient and family.

Even though the left continually want to make Palin and other conservatives out to be backwater know-nothings, whose analysis of today’s issues always ultimately ring true?

The Party of Fat-Cats

It has been announced that the new National Security Adviser appointed by President Barack H. Obama is Tom Donilon. It comes as no surprise to me that a president would appoint his cronies to administration positions, and Mr. Donilon does have national security experience in multiple administrations. So an appointment like this comes as no surprise to me. In all honesty, I have no personal objection to it; as I indicated, Washington politics are all about favoritism.


But let’s clear up one BIG MYTH, shall we? The myth is that the Democrat party rejects the influence of Big Business – the party that stands for and with the “regular American.” As a Senator and presidential candidate, Mr. Obama railed against the lobbyist culture that controlled politics and promised to end “business as usual” in Washington politics. With this in mind, let’s take a quick look at Mr. Donilon’s involvement in the Democrat’s new Washington.

In 2006, Mr. Donilon oversaw the office from which Fannie Mae lobbyists used their ties to politicians in an effort to prevent increased federal oversight of the mortgage giant. In 2009, it was reported that Mr. Donilon “earned $3.9 million [in 2008] as a partner at the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers LLP, where his clients include Citigroup, Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co., and Obama fundraiser and heiress Penny Pritzker.”

The Democrat party, with its ties to Big Business, Big Media, and Big Entertainment, bears very little resemblance to the mainstream Americans it claims to protect.

Let’s bust the myth that the Democrat party has no ties with Wall Street. The Democrat party includes plenty of Fat-Cats.

New Venture Addendum

I forgot to add that my posts on the Liberty Tree are under the name TheOldSalt.