Needs repeating

 1 Samuel 8


1 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. 3 But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

 4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

 6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”

 10 Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day.”

 19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

 21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD. 22 The LORD answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”

   Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Everyone go back to his town.”

AAAARRGH

It's like Carter times eleventy.

And this hostage crisis has gone on for 1335 days.

Hostage America, Day 1257

Independence Day comes early next week.  Many don't feel like celebrating this year, after the open tyranny this administration has displayed.

May I suggest that instead of getting drunk on a lake somewhere, you gather with your friends and family and declare your independence?

Read the Declaration.  Remember that the Founders were not freed from Britain's yoke by this document -- the DoI simply declared that we are free, and if a government shows, repeatedly, that it will not honor that, we have not only a right, but a DUTY to get rid of it.

Actually gaining a government that respected liberty required bloodshed.

Remember that tyranny itself is very bloody.  The last three and a half years have given us a body count already-- two border agents, murders and overdoses at Occupy encampments, and God alone knows how many foreigners dead by F&F guns and drone strikes.  That's not counting the rapes, assaults, vandalism, theft from Occupies, flash mobs, and union thuggery.

America has put the decision off too long for an easy way forward.  Every path we could take will be ugly, and painful, whether it be austerity, or collapse, or reform, or civil disobedience, or withdrawal.  All our options suck. 

Choose this day.  Draw a line in the sand, and mark it well.  What will you do when that line is crossed?  Has it been crossed already?

Stop wringing your hands.  Stop lying to yourself.

Flip a coin, if you must.

But make a stand.

Screw you, Roberts.

I am a free woman.

My body is not the property of the United States Government.

I will not comply.

And those of you who persist in chasing 'how this benefits my team' rather than facing the ramifications of this ruling,  then crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.

Doom has burst forth...

...the rod has budded, arrogance has blossomed!

Most people don't understand it yet. I swear, normalcy bias has been the death of us all.

I've tried talking to people about it; most of them are more worried about next year's election and how "we gotta get somebody in there who can save America."


Oh, honey. It's gone already.


It was killed October 3, 2008 when the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (TARP) was passed and signed into law over the objections of the American people. The election of Barack Hussein Obama merely cut off the life support.

They're still upset over Obamacare, but they're not even thinking about the stimulus, or the auto bailouts, or the proliferation of czars, or the vote fraud, or the cronyism... It was, as the media love to say, unprecedented.

But now there is precedent. History cannot be undone. We may take actions that reverse the results, but what is done is done. And once a thing has been done and accepted, it is far more likely to be accepted again.

"But we didn't accept it!"

Oh, really? What have you done about it?

"We're awake now! We have the Tea Party! We voted in a Republican House last year!"

Very nice. What has that done, exactly? There was the summer budget fight, when they told us they were going to slash spending. But it turned out they just slowed the increase, like they always do. And most of that was ten years out, when God alone knows who'll be in charge. Remember how the Tea Party was out in force, holding them accountable?

Oh, wait. That didn't happen.

"One-half of one-third of government! Wait til 2012 when we take it all back!"

Dude. Do you still not see how doomed we are?

Even if we put in zombie Coolidge, who goes on a rampage undoing all this crap, there's nothing to stop the next president from doing it all over again. The system has been damaged beyond what mere tinkering can overcome; it would take a total overhaul just to get us back to early 2008, never mind what the Founders intended.

And there is no political will to do so. Too many of the same people shrieking about big government are angry at the suggestion of doing something about Social Security and Medicare. Even when you're not talking about theirs, but their grandkids'. "I want mine, cut someone else's cheese!" Even if zombie Coolidge were running, he couldn't get elected.


And oh, hey, by the way, we'll be lucky to even make it to the election.


Europe is on the brink. Yes, they've been there since 2008. And they've come back every time.

But the down times keep getting shorter and shorter. They're safe for a year. Then a half year. A few months. Weeks. Days. Germany was going to ride to the rescue and help bail out Greece, but then no one wanted to buy their bonds. They will have to either go to a true United States of Europe or dissolve the union; it cannot continue in its present form. Nations are being downgraded left and right; bailouts will have to come from China and the IMF--which means us. (BTW, China's not the major buyer of our debt anymore--it's the Fed, which means they're already printing money. Notice prices going up?) Europe, as always during financial distress, is turning to nationalism--keep watching for ethnic skirmishes. There was an actual pitchfork mob against the gypsies in Bulgaria this summer.


We do not have rule of law in this country anymore. Consider MF Global, Solyndra, Fast and Furious. You know as well as I do that if anyone goes to prison for any of these, it will likely be a fall guy for political expedience. I mean, my God, $1.2 billion dollars missing, Corzine? You just lost it somewhere? That's felony-grade stupid, under SOX, no? 300 dead Mexicans and a US federal agent, and Eric Holder is still walking around free. The worst anyone has even mentioned is impeachment, when he should be frogmarched away in a snazzy jumper.

This is not rule of law; it is rule of men. Rule of men erodes trust, and without trust, everything fall down go boom. You can't invest without trust that you will get what you paid for. You can't run a business without trust that your debtors will pay their bills.


People are angry. Disaffected, directionless, digusted. Lost. The Occupy movement has largely petered out, but the leftists who organized it want political violence, and they are likely to have it next summer. Remember the Discovery hostage taker last fall, and the Tuscon shooter this spring? Unbalanced people, influenced by lefty paranoia. Two murders at Occupy camps, aside from the rapes, assaults, and overdoses. How about the flash mobs this summer? Shut down the beach in Chicago, attacked Wisconsin State Fairgoers. You think the left won't use that? The London Riots in August, think that'll never happen here?


Terrorism. Not Al Qaida, I mean the really dangerous ones, like Tea Partiers and returning military. You know, the ones the DOJ has repeatedly warned us about. You're supposed to forget all that when the bill passed allowing the military to detain US citizens in this country as terrorism suspects without trial. Gulag? What gulag, comrade? Come with us, don't make any noise, it will all be over in a little while. Of course this bill was not aimed at you, now get on the train, comrade.

Also this friendly DOJ is giving weapons to the Mexican cartels. To what ends? There is no innocent explanantion. The guns were not microchipped, not followed--indeed, agents were told NOT to follow when they tried. The Mexican government was not involved. All at the time the state department was repeating the lie about 90% of guns coming from the US, and the Stuttering Charliefoxtrot of a Miserable Failure was working on gun control "under the radar", and we now have emails showing they tried to use the stats from F&F to push gun control.

Oh, sure, if it comes to it I'm sure they can drum up some actual muslim terrorism, too, if it's necessary. Because...

The Middle East is on fire. "Arab Spring", huh? Looks more like a long, islamic winter. A judge has just ruled that Iran had some involvement in 9/11, supporting the terrorists, so it's a safe bet we'll be going into Iran, now that we've left Iraq. (Out of the frying pan into the fire.) Rally the homefront, kick up the economy, distract from the mess at home. And Syria, don't forget Syria. We'd have the backing of the Arab League, there; they're already going to the UN. Damascus will fall sometime, perhaps soon.

In Israel the right-wing is fighting back with "price-tag" attacks--they've even gone after the military. Israelis turning on each other even as Jordan is offering Hamas a new home so the palestinian government can be unified. (They still want the UN seat, too.) And while Egypt is turning islamist and threatening the peace treaty. And Hizb'allah is attacking.


But please, let's just keep bickering over the latest poll and who's the most "electable." Because the world's gonna stay the same while we jabber.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.



¹⁸ Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage. ¹⁹ As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God. ²⁰ For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart. -Ecclesiastes 5

¹⁰ The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to
nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.
¹¹ The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans
of His heart to all generations. ¹² Blessed is the nation
whose God is the LORD, The people He has chosen as
His own inheritance. ¹³ The LORD looks from heaven;
He sees all the sons of men. ¹⁴ From the place of His
dwelling He looks On all the inhabitants of the earth;
¹⁵ He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all
their works. ¹⁶ No king is saved by the multitude of an
army; A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
¹⁷ A horse is a vain hope for safety; Neither shall it deliver
any by its great strength. --Psalm 33

Osama bin Laden is dead. Long live the United States of America.

All praise to the God of Israel, who avenges His enemies.