The Bear Is Tromping The Woods Again! ... J. D. Longstreet

The Bear Is Tromping The Woods Again!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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The Russian  bear is raging around the globe again.  The "Russkies" are up to their old tricks once more.  Probing, tweaking, testing, aggravating, and in general -- making a complete nuisance of themselves as they strut across the world stage in what they hope is an intimidating posture to strike fear in the hearts of well, EVERYBODY. 

Russia is STILL so far behind the remainder of the world that they are pitiable.

However, if the Russians ever decide to climb out of the Vodka bottle and sober up, they could actually become the great country they SAY they want to be. 

They are a strange people.  Fearful of everything and everybody out side the borders of Russia.  As a country, they are convinced that someone is going to attack them and take their treasures. 

The United States has been the preferred target of their ire since, well, since we bade them leave the North American continent in 1867 with the purchase of Alaska from Russia's Emperor Alexander II.  They've seemed sour toward the US ever since.

OK. OK. So we DID invade Russia -- ONCE -- back during the First World War.   Oh, yes.  We did.

"Although few people know it, in 1918 President Woodrow Wilson sent 5,500 American soldiers — including some from Missouri and Kansas — to northern Russia in the last days of World War I. Thanks to harsh conditions that cut off communications, the troops were left there for eight months after the war ended."
SOURCE:  http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/11/27/104384/think-us-troops-never-invaded.html#storylink=cpy

"President Woodrow Wilson was pressured by the British to send American soldiers to Russia to fight a new force called the Bolsheviks, an early name for Communists . Winston Churchill (then Britain's secretary of war) saw that the Bolsheviks were pulling the czar's forces — our allies — out of the war as they were taking over Russia. So Churchill thought that if we could amass forces in northern Russia, we could stop communism at its birth."  Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/11/27/104384/think-us-troops-never-invaded.html#storylink=cpy

The war ended about two months after the Americans got there -- but THEY DIDN'T KNOW IT!  They were left for eight months in sometimes waist deep snow.  Many died of exposure. So, believe me when I tell you --we REALLY don't want to invade Russia -- AGAIN!  Now, if we could only convince the Russians of that!

Lately, though, the Russian military has been probing US defenses around the world -mostly in the Pacific region and down the west coast of the US.

From the Free Beacon we learn:  "A Russian bomber recently carried out simulated cruise missile attacks on U.S. missile defenses in Asia, raising new questions about Moscow’s goal in future U.S.-Russian defense talks.

According to U.S. officials, a Russian Tu-22M Backfire bomber on Feb. 26 simulated firing air-launched cruise missiles at an Aegis ship deployed near Japan as part of U.S. missile defenses.

A second mock attack was conducted Feb. 27 against a ground-based missile defense site in Japan that officials did not identify further."  SOURCE:  http://freebeacon.com/russian-bomber-roulette/ 

From the same article in the Free Beacon we also learn: "The bomber targeting of U.S. missile defenses also followed stepped up Russian bomber activities targeting other U.S. missile defense sites, including ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California. A large-scale Russian military exercise in the Arctic in June included flights by two Tu-95 Bear bombers that Russian military officials said had simulated attacks on U.S. missile defenses in Alaska.

Another pair of Tu-95s flew on July 4 the closest to the California coast that a Russian bomber had flown since the days of the Soviet Union, when strategic bomber flights near U.S. coasts were a routine feature of the Cold War." 

This is important.  While the US is cutting back it's military and nuclear arsenal, the Russians are building up their military preparing especially for war with the US. (So is China, but that is for another day, another column.)

Winston Churchill once said that "appeasement is nothing more than feeding the alligator in hopes that he will eat you last."

While the Obama Administration is busy feeding the Russian alligator the gator is growing bigger and meaner with every passing day.

Appeasement does not work with the Russians. They will bleed you dry then eat your bones.

It seems strange that the only US President able to handle the Russians would not appease them and he brought on the collapse of the old Soviet Union.  His name was Ronald Reagan. 

There is no Reagan to deal with the Russians today.  And THEY KNOW IT!  The Russians see Obama as a joke. They are happily running circles around Obama's diplomatic team and going hell bent for leather to build up their military while the US has such a weak administration in power.

Yes, the "Russian Bear" is back prowling and growling in the woods.  This time the US is too weak to contain the bear.  It will be decades until the US has another conservative president to order a huge build-up in America's military force.  Until then, the world cannot count on the US to counter the Russians as it did for the forty-year Cold War.   Besides, the US today more closely resembles the old Soviet Union -- with our current socialist President and government -- than we do the old America. Heck, we might even be invited to join the Russian Federation. 

© J. D. Longstreet 

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Whatever Happened To Faith? ... J. D. Longstreet

Whatever Happened To Faith?
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

If I may be allowed, I'd like to paraphrase Saint Paul (I believe it was) who said:  "Faith is the belief in things not seen."  What Paul actually said is this:  "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Therein, I think, is the problem for the Christian religion today.  Even the evangelicals are beginning to lose their way. 

We live in a time dominated by science, which has made huge advancements in practically every field of science man can think of -- or devise.  One could argue , I think, that modern man has shifted his reliance off God and onto science.  This is a scenario not unlike those I used to read in science fiction books as a lad. 

Man (the human species) rebelled against his creator from the beginning choosing the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil over the protection and guidance of his Maker.  It was man's downfall then and it continues to be our downfall today -- driving us farther and farther away from our true salvation and into the arms of a counterfeit god -- science.

This presents a near insurmountable problem for the human animal -- how to sustain faith in things not seen and yet rely on science to provide the proof of those very same things. 

It is an impossible dream.  And it is a dream that has been a nightmare for man, a nightmare which he refuses to recognize and from which he refuses to awaken. 

There has been a theory for centuries now that like matter and anti-matter science and faith are explosive when in the same environment.  There is  no room in science for faith.  He who chooses science forsakes faith.  He must, for they cannot coexist in the context of religion.  I think that theory is flat-out wrong!

As a young man, I had the great experience of helping found two churches.  The first from the ground up -- literally.  We few who began the church met on Sunday mornings in a wooded lot on the outskirts of town.  We had worship services out in the open -- the greatest of all cathedrals. 

Then the membership built a small wooden building which served as the sanctuary.  Even the pews were made from unpainted pine two by fours.  They were uncomfortable, but serviceable.  It took years of hard work and dedication but now that church is one of the largest congregations in town with a beautiful brick and mortar building to rival any in the city.   But I doubt many of its members today have any inkling of its humble beginnings.

The second was a Lutheran church that was begun in the living room of my home.   This time we had loans and grants to get us off the ground and chartered.  One of the proudest moments of my life was the Sunday morning my wife and I signed the church charter and became "charter members."

Both these churches were possible because men and women of faith saw a need and sought to fill that need with faith in the evidence of those unseen things Saint Paul spoke of thousands of years ago.

Today, I no longer attend church -- at all.  Frankly, I became disgusted with the leftist agenda introduced by the hierarchy of the church into what had been a community of faith whose belief were summed up by the  Great Commission of Christ and the Apostle's Creed.  

Soon, however, the Marxist doctrine of social justice was pushing out the worship of God and replacing it with the worship of the political leftist agenda,  including the pagan worship of the earth and nature rather than the earth's creator and nature's God.  It became, in my opinion, apostate, and I had no choice but to follow St. Paul's advice to Timothy to "come out from among them."  And I did.

Understand.  I did not leave The Church.  I am right where I have always been in my relationship with God.  The church left me -- because I refused to compromise my religious belief, my religious faith, and accept the counterfeit belief that rendering unto Caesar and rendering unto God are one and the same thing.  

The mainline denominations, especially, forsook the faith in exchange for politics and science. 

I was not, and am not, alone.  Thousands left, as well, from many denominations when they realized that the emptiness they felt at the close of the worship services was a hunger for the things of God that were no longer provided in those houses formerly erected for specifically that purpose.

The Christian faith has been under attack since Jesus Christ delivered His very first sermon. Today, however, the attack is far more subtle than just feeding the lions.  In many ways, it is far more sinister and, indeed, vastly more effective.

The various "liberation theologies," the scientific approach to the scriptures, the insistence that the Christian faith embrace "social justice" as the work of the church,  are seductive -- and like a black hole they suck into them those floundering around desperately seeking something to believe in.

I submit that if the modern Christian churches were fulfilling their mission,  this would not be happening -- at least to the degree it is today.

While I'm at it, lets get something clear.  Jesus was not a Communist nor a Marxist.  And He certainly was not black.  He was a Jew -- a practicing Jew. 

Have you ever wondered --  if Jesus visited your town this weekend, which church he would attend?  He wouldn't.  He'd go to the local synagogue. 

We have distanced ourselves so far from the specificity of the scriptures and the reality of the world as it was over two thousand years ago that we have lost sight of what was/is real.

Man comes into this world hard-wired with a yearning for God.  And when he cannot find Him, he creates a god.  Unfortunately, he creates a god in his own image ... the image of man.  And that god fails -- every time -- to fill the void in the yearning soul.

So we create religions and cults that are based on the likes and desires of mankind and not on the infallible truths of the one and only Creator of mankind.  It's as if rather than going to the one lit candle in a darkened room we fight for our little piece of the darkness.  It is madness.  And madness begets madness.

Even when the ferocity of hurricane winds sweep through our darkness that candle continues to burn brightly, not threatened by the darkness, not threatened by the winds, and not threatened by us.   It is steady, bright, warm, and ever present.

Because we do not know what unseen hand placed that candle in the blackness of our lives we dare not approach.  We fight the urge to gravitate to its warmth.

To accept the brightness, the warmth, the welcome of that candle, we have to accept that someone, unseen, placed it there to provide comfort for us in our darkened peril.  That acceptance is our salvation.  The belief in things unseen.  That candle is the evidence of things unseen.  A power greater than ourselves. 

We call that "faith" and there is precious little left in mankind any more.

Everything we have, everything we are, everything we may become, can all be swept away in an instant into the black nothingness -- save for those who have faith in the unseen hand that placed that light in their darkness.

I have often thought that man's salvation would have been easier to accept had there been a price tag attached.  But then I remember -- there was a price.  It was a price so great no mere mortal could ever pay. 

It is offered to man pre-paid -- because Christ picked up the tab some two thousand years ago on a desolate, wind swept, knoll just outside the walls of a city named Jerusalem in a place we call Israel today.  He died there from torture.  Seventy-two hours later, Christians believe, he walked out of his formerly sealed tomb and sealed the deal between man and their God.  From that day forward nothing would come between man and his God, not even death --  except, of course, things that man, himself, placed there.

We've been building obstructions ever since.  All, too often, I believe, we use science as a major obstruction. 

Look.  I believe God created the heavens and the earth.  I simply don't care if it was six 24-hour days or six thousands-of-years-long days.  It doesn't matter.

There really are questions for which man has no answer and will NEVER have an answer. 

But we have faith.  

Whatever happened to faith?  It's still here, though fewer and fewer lay claim to it today.  We are told in the biblical account of the "end-time" that the faithful will have been whittled down to only a remnant -- just a few remaining.  With the rapidity with which the faithful are diminishing today one must wonder if the true end-time has accelerated its approach.

I have learned that with advancing years it is not necessarily true that men grow wiser.  Turns out -- it's optional.   There is a direct correlation between wisdom and faith, I think.  The wise man should never abandon his faith and the man of faith should never refuse an increase in wisdom. 

Science should never be an impediment to faith.  Science, in its purest form, is merely a search for wisdom.   Faith is the acceptance that there exists a wisdom far superior to ours, which is responsible for that seed of yearning for knowledge of the unknown, the unseen,  and ultimately -- for our very existence.

I have no problem with that.  You see, I have faith.

J. D. Longstreet

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How To To Rain Down Destruction On Your Country ... J. D. Longstreet

How To To Rain Down Destruction On Your Country
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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Twenty-eight(?) year old Kim Jong Un, North Korea's "leader" has very nearly talked himself into a corner.  A corner that may well destroy what is left of North Korea, or as they refer to their country:  The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea ... The DPRK.

Kim has blustered and played the role of a spoiled brat in the grip of a monumental tantrum on the world's stage for months now.  He has baited South Korea and the US and managed to "PO" China, his only real ally in the region.  China has recently moved troops up to the border of North Korea, ostensibly to stop an expected flood of North Korean refugees from fleeing into China seeking refuge from American and South Korea bombs and missiles.

The latest threats out of the "Hermit Kingdom," as of the morning of April 4th, 2012, is to strike the US mainland with nuclear missiles, which North Korean troops moved to North Korea's Eastern Border in a show of preparation.

I have been analyzing, as best I can, US troops, ships, aircraft, and sundry war fighting materiel movements, and I see a plan of action developing.  At least I THINK I do.  

It seems to me the US and South Korea ARE planning to strike North Korea at the first North Koran slip-up.  Something as small as, oh, say -- a border skirmish, a firefight between troops of the Koreas.  Whatever it is, whenever it occurs, the dogs of war will be unleashed and all hell will break loose for North Korea.
I expect the US/South Korean forces to take out North Koreas command and control enters instantly, in the twinkling of an eye. North Koreas nuclear plants and all nuclear facilities north of the 38th parallel, will be destroyed completely.  Military -- high command -- headquarters will be flattened. Bunkers will be destroyed by those US bunker buster bombs,  Every missile emplacement in North Korea will be sought out and destroyed. Those mobile missiles mounted on trucks will be hunted down by drones firing hellfire missiles and they, too, will be destroyed.  

There is a better than even chance that the cream of North Korea's military leadership will be killed in the first few minutes of the attack.

Those are just a few of the things one can expect in the first few minutes of the first wave of attacks.

Oh, just so our friend in the Middle East doesn't feel left out, our forces surrounding Iran will be on high alert ready to take care of business should Iran see this as an opportune moment to "kick outside the traces" and stir up trouble to "divide" America's attention.

North Korea will be no pushover, but it will be crushed.  With the world's fourth largest military, including  the world's largest special operations force, North Korea has a substantial military with 1,700 planes, 800 ships, and 4,000 tanks.  It also has one of the largest stockpiles of chemical weapons in the world -- and -- it has nuclear weapons.

Not much is reported on the South Korean military.  But, I must tell you, I have great respect for the ROK military -- Army, Navy, and Air Force. (ROK = Republic of Korea) 

Little known is the fact that the Republic of Korea Army is one of the largest standing armies in the world and one of the best trained and equipped -- and experienced with a reported personnel strength of 3,539,000 in 2012 (639,000 active force and 2,900,000 regular reserve), and additional 300,000 paramilitary. They can -- and they WILL --  stand and fight!

ROK forces have fought in the Korean War (1950-1953), the Vietnam War (1964-1973), the Persian Gulf War (1991), the War in Afghanistan (2001-present), and the Iraq War (2003-2008). 

They don't brag and they don't bluster -- they FIGHT.  Even without US backing, North Korea would have a hell of a time handling their cousins to the south in an all out war. 

South Korea's cities have been planning since the 1950's to create havoc for an invading army from the north.  For instance all bridges and traffic viaducts are mined and will be blown up and dropped to ground level immediately to stop or, at least, delay North Korean armor such as tanks, APC's, towed artillery,  etc., from advancing southward.  And that is just one of the preparations the South Koreans have made.  There is more -- much more.

God help "Little Kim" if Japan is dragged into his fray. The Japanese Self Defense Forces  numbered 239,430 in 2005 with 147,737 in the Ground Self-Defense Force, 44,327 in the Maritime Self-Defense Force, 45,517 in the Air Self-Defense Force, and 1,849 in the Joint Staff Office. Reserves numbered 57,899.

Japanese law states that ground, maritime, and air forces are to preserve the peace and independence of the nation and to maintain national security by conducting operations on land, at sea, and in the air to defend the nation against direct and indirect aggression.  In cases of limited and small-scale attack, Japanese forces will respond promptly to control the situation. If enemy forces attacked in greater strength than Japan can  counter alone, the JSDF (Japanese Self Defense Forces) will engage the attacker until the United States can come to its aid. Against nuclear threat, Japan would rely on the nuclear deterrence of the United States. To accomplish its missions, the SDF would maintain surveillance, be prepared to respond to direct and indirect attacks, be capable of providing command, communication, logistics, and training support, and be available to aid in disaster relief.

If the modern Japanese warrior has even a small percentage of the warrior spirit of his grandfather and great grandfather, he is one hell of a soldier. Frankly, I suspect that he does.

 Kim should understand that US plans for the total destruction of his country were laid out many decades ago and updated as necessary since.  If he is foolish enough to attack, there will be no delay in a counter attack by US and South Korean forces.  It will be immediate and awesome.

If North Korea is stupid enough to launch a nuclear attack on America. American territories, or any of America bases around the world, it would be suicide for his country.

Given that North Korea has been such a thorn in the flesh to the US, South Korea, Japan, and indeed, the world for so long now, I would not be surprised if a war with North Korea would be fought until North Korea sues for peace and offers an unconditional surrender.

The time, and the opportunity, may have come to rid the world of the malignancy of the DPRK.

© J. D. Longstreet

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Pure Emotion ... FEAR Of Reality! ... J. D. Longstreet

Pure Emotion ... FEAR Of Reality!
America's Wuzzification
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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I am embarrassed -- ashamed, ashamed, I tell you!

What ever happened to real men in America?  Where'd they go, huh?  Whatever happened to real women in America?  Where'd they go?   I ask because neither are readily identifiable in America any more.

The Americans that are most easily seen today are the pale, limp-wristed, weak-spined, pitiable, pliant, malleable, tractile, fall-to-the-floor-and-assume-the-fetal-position men and women who quake in their boots at the mere utterance of the word "GUN."  

Egads, people!  What has happened to you?  What has happened to America, the champion of freedom around the globe?  
In two generations we have become a nation of wusses!  (A wuss is a person who is physically weak and ineffectual.)  The individual American -- and the nation -- have become wusses!  ARRRG!

Look.  Americans no longer know who they are.  The history of western civilization and the history of America have been so "revised" and "sterilized" that the products of our public education system in America have lost all connection to their roots.

An excellent example of the revision and sterilization of history played out recently here in my state of North Carolina when the Confederate Battle Flag was removed from the N. C. House of Representatives chamber in the old State Capitol Building in Raleigh. 

The Confederate Battle Flag is an integral part of North Carolina history, of the story of the people of North Carolina.  The US flag remains on display in that chamber, however, even though it is the only flag, of the two, to fly over slavery in America, and to fly from the masts of slave ships.  The Confederate Battle Flag was NEVER a national flag of the Confederacy. It was a battle field emblem ONLY.  

How many Americans actually KNOW that today? 

See what I mean about losing touch with your history, about losing touch with your family, about losing touch with who you REALLY are?    

Anthropologists will tell you that when that happens, that person, that individual, that group/nation is, for all intents and purposes, LOST.  They have lost that vital connection to their origin and their social relationship with other citizens and/or other human beings. Basically -- they're just taking up space in a society.

THAT is where far too many Americans are today. Just taking up space. 

As a country, we have gone from being the policeman of the globe to being the victim of the globe.

American self-reliance used to be celebrated.  No longer.   Today, a self-reliant, individualist is looked upon as -- somehow -- crazy!

The dispute between gun fearing gun-grabbers and gun owners in America today is an excellent example of how dependence on a strong central government -- for everything -- can and will lead a strong, vibrant, country into ruin.

Consider this:  "U.S. sees highest poverty spike since the 1960s.  The number of Americans living in poverty has spiked to levels not seen since the mid 1960s, classing 20 per cent of the country’s children as poor.

It comes at a time when government spending cuts of $85 billion have kicked in after feuding Democrats and Republicans failed to agree on a better plan for addressing the national deficit.

The cuts will directly affect 50 million Americans living below the poverty income line and reduce their chances of finding work and a better life."  SOURCE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302997/U-S-sees-highest-poverty-spike-1960s-leaving-50-million-Americans-poor-government-cuts-billions-spending.html#ixzz2PPeTIjlw

We have made  ZERO  progress since LBJ's "War on Poverty" began in the 1960's! 

Is the picture becoming clearer?

Reason tells us that there is simply no way a government can protect an individual, either.  Americans have known this from day one.  That is why we laid claim to the divine right of self defense.  Understand: Self defense IS a "right" granted by God -- not a government.  Until roughly six decades ago, we understood that individuals had not only a right to self defense but a responsibility to provide same for his family and for himself -- and for his country.

When we lost the connection to our past, to our history, we lost our connection to the values of a people, distinct in all of history.

Consider this: "It is impossible to separate the two.  I mean, of course, guns and America.  Guns obtained and secured the country we now know as “America” for the people we now know as Americans.

As the settlers/pilgrims stepped ashore in the New World they carried their trusty weapons, guns. When the frontiersmen dipped their toes into the waters of the western sea, the Pacific, no doubt they clutched in their hands a later variant of the same weapon the Pilgrims had in their grips when their toes touched the sand of the Carolina, Virginia, and New England beaches.  It had been a long journey and guns had fed, clothed, and protected these new people, called Americans, as they laid claim to a new land destined to become the leader of the free world, if not the entire world.

When these restless people, the Americans, decided their “King” was demanding more from them than they were willing to give, the gun won them their Independence.

Some eighty years later, these same restless people decided to fight a war amongst themselves over, depending upon how you decipher (or revise) history, “States' Rights” or “Slavery”.  (In my case, I have done the research and know that States' Rights was the cause of the American Civil War simply because the facts, when laid bare, support that interpretation.)  In any event, the gun carried by both sides in the conflict devastated both countries -- and yet -- some say the war forged a single entity known as the UNITED States of America.   Only recently, frankly, have I begun to question that ... The "united" part, I mean. 

In all the wars since, the gun has taken the war to America’s enemies and protected the Americans wielding it and managed to secure the freedom and liberties our forefathers put their lives and their fortunes on the line for back in the 1700’s.  Together, we have come a very long way the gun and America."  SOURCE:  http://westernfrontamerica.com/2009/07/27/guns-america/

But we are a very different people, we MODERN Americans.  We are ruled by our emotions.  Why, even men are applauded for weeping in public!  THAT IS A MAN? 

Heck, we even have a Commander-in-Chief of the US military whose philosophy on leadership is:  "Lead from the rear!"   Is it any wonder why our military cannot win wars today? 

For instance:  We have two nations threatening to strike America with nuclear weapons even as I write these few words.  One question:  Why are those two nations not smoking piles of nuclear radiating rubble right now?  Answer: Because they do not fear America any longer.  See, they recognize the weakness of America.  They see it in our national leadership -- and -- in our common everyday citizens.

When our kids are forbidden to play "Tag" or "Dodge Ball" on the playground at school, when we no longer reward excellence but mediocrity by not publicly recognizing young scholars for all their work and determination to succeed in their studies because it might make those who failed, or had less satisfactory grades, feel bad,  then you KNOW the country is in serious trouble for the long run.

We no longer understand games such as Tag and Dodge Ball were devised to create winners and losers.  It was intentional.  The founding IDEA was to celebrate winning and to teach losers what it feels like to lose and in doing so -- inspire them to get off their duffs and apply themselves, and their talents, and WIN!  It's just more evidence of America having lost that connection to its roots. We don't even understand "American exceptionalism" anymore -- because we don't recognize exceptionalism!
We have become weak, slothful, mediocre, accepting of bigger and bigger, stronger and stronger, government populated by a self-proclaimed  American elite convinced THEY, somehow, have a right to deprive Americans of their liberty and freedom and force the country into a national "collective" in the form of national socialism, which is the introductory stage of full out communism.  (If you want to see where American socialism it is ultimately taking America -- read Glenn Beck's book "Agenda 21")
The "wuzzification"  of America is nearly complete.  If the government is allowed to confiscate our guns, or even register our weapons, or insist that we undergo background checks when selling or buying guns, or insist, by law, that we have a background check even to purchase ammunition, or purchase expensive insurance policies for each and every gun in our possession, the grand experiment known as "America" will be OVER.  It will have failed -- utterly. The last, best, hope of mankind, on earth, will be gone leaving only evil to reign on a planet at perpetual war with itself.

Frightening?  Absolutely!  We have one chance to reclaim our country in November of 2014. 

We were warned by one of America’s original Founding Fathers and our second President, John Adams. Freedom, once lost, can never be regained. Adams said: “A constitution of government, once changed from freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”

Isn't America worth saving and restoring -- or isn't it?

© J. D. Longstreet

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Senate Ratification Of The UN Small Arms Treaty ... J. D. Longstreet

Senate Ratification Of The UN Small Arms Treaty
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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I originally wrote about this threat in December of 2010. Now that the UN has, indeed, passed the treaty, Let's review, shall we?

With then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton having publicly stated that the Obama Administration would be working hand-in-glove with the UN to pass a new "Small Arms Treaty" American gun owners have been worried that with the constraints of another election no longer facing Obama, he can, and will, press ahead at -- flank speed -- to ram this treaty through the US Senate. 

If ratified by the US Senate it will, for all intents and purposes, disarm American citizens ... superseding the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution.  (Second Amendment override??  See:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/2/un-passes-international-arms-regulation-treaty/)

The fact of the matter is this: The UN Small Arms Treaty amounts to global gun control.

It may surprise Americans to learn that our government is filled with lawmakers who endorse a one world government with the UN as the single governing agency for the globe.  They will most certainly support the UN's Small Arms Treaty when it comes before the US Senate

As we noted above, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the Obama Administration would be working hand in glove with the U.N. to pass the “Small Arms Treaty." Well, it passed in the UN. 

It is expected that the Washington Gun-Grabbers will package the treaty as legislation to assist in the fight against “terrorism,” “insurgency,” and “international crime syndicates," and they will package it as "reasonable gun control" for America.” But the truth is this: The UN’s Small Arms Treaty Is Nothing More Than A Massive, GLOBAL Gun Control Scheme.

American organizations supporting the Second Amendment have warned that the U.N.’s Small Arms Treaty will almost certainly FORCE national governments to make gun licensing requirements far tougher than they are now, which will force law-abiding citizens to have to trudge through even more bureaucratic red tape just to legally own a gun;

It will also give the UN the power to CONFISCATE and DESTROY ALL “unauthorized” civilian firearms.  Of course, all firearms owned by the government will be excluded.

The treaty will BAN the trade, sale, and private ownership of ALL semi-automatic weapons.

There will be an INTERNATIONAL gun registry created.  Once they know who has the guns -- and where the guns are -- we can expect full-scale gun CONFISCATION.

The citizen “unrest” in America today over the teetering economy and the socialist agenda as well as the domestic effort to grab American's guns -- by those in power in Washington -- may make the ratification by the US Senate of this “treaty” seem far more palatable and even desirous by our current government.  And that is why we bring this warning to you. We MUST keep a wary eye on the goings-on in the US Senate

In 2009, we issued a warning concerning the unceasing work of “gun-grabbers” in America. In that article we said the following: So America edges ever closer to losing the citizen’s right to keep and bear arms, quite possibly even the right to carry a knife. There can be no doubt that a knife, in the time of our forefathers, was, indeed, a weapon. It would, no doubt, fall into the category of “arms.” There can also be no doubt as to why the forefathers felt it important to place this amendment (the second amendment) in the constitution as a part of the original 10 amendments that made up the Bill of Rights. They had just fought a war against a tyrant to gain their freedom - and they did it with a citizen’s army composed of men who owned their own weapons!

George Washington, the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army and the first President of the United States said the following: "A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."

Thomas Jefferson said the following: "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."

And finally, words from the most well known of the tyrants of the last century, Adolf Hitler: “The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed the subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty.”
It is good, I think, to note that The Forefathers felt so highly of the right to keep and bear arms that it is the SECOND Amendment. The first being, of course, freedom of speech, religion, etc.  Please note that without the Second Amendment the First Amendment would effectively be null and void.

We must tread softly, yet boldly, as we attempt to protect our rights these days. America has two generations of citizens trained in socialism as products of the Public (Government) School System. Like “Pavlov’s Dog” they await only the ringing of the bell to respond in defense of the “greater good.” But, like the other dog, chasing it’s tail, they haven’t the reasoning ability to ask of themselves what they intend to do with the tail if, and when, they DO catch it?”

“The price of freedom is, indeed, eternal vigilance.” The Democratic Party has demonstrated their utter contempt for the concerns and wishes of the American citizen. Currently they continue to hold the reins of power in the US Senate.  We cannot drop our guard, or divert our attention for one moment. If there is a way, anyway, (as we have learned the hard way) the democrats will try to sneak ratification of the UN Small Arms Treaty through the Senate with no regard for the opposition of American gun owners nor for those who insist the US Constitution still reigns supreme in America -- NOT THE UN."

Conservatives must work harder than ever as we continue our endeavor to rid our nation’s leadership of those who support the United Nations and their goal of establishing a one world government, or global governance, under THE UN's control.

We must not allow the UN Small Arms Treaty to be ratified by the US Senate… period!

© J. D. Longstreet

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Continuing our head-long slide down the slippery slope of abortion

When people challenge and attempt to liberalize valued traditions, there is usually great concern that doing so is the first step down the "slippery slope," which ultimately leads to bad results. The “slippery slope” is considered a logical fallacy, but in the case of abortion, evidence supports that it is an apt argument.  

We started down this slope when abortion was legalized 40 years ago. If it was not the original intention, abortion certainly has become a thinly disguised mechanism for after-the-fact birth control. Pregnancy is not a mystery; we know what causes it. There are numerous ways to prevent pregnancy whenever people decide to forego the one certain way to prevent pregnancy: abstinence.

Birth control devices, while not perfect, are very dependable when used properly. However, somewhere along the way it was recognized that there were a lot of people facing the eventual birth of an unwanted child, and some thought that society was obligated to find a way to relieve these folks of having to bear responsibility for their actions. Abortion became the solution for unwanted pregnancy, under the curious label, "a woman's right to choose."

Each now-pregnant woman and her male partner had the right to choose to abstain from sexual intercourse and chose not to. They had the right to choose to use birth control, and either chose not to, or chose not to use it consistently or correctly, or it just didn't work one time. In the great majority of cases, birth control measures do work when used properly, and that means that in the majority of cases the right to use birth control actually was not chosen.

The "right to choose" is little more than a mechanism for prospective parents to avoid creating a child at an inconvenient time: In 2004 fully 74 percent of women getting an abortion said a child would "dramatically change their life."

Since Roe v Wade imposed legalized abortion on the nation in 1973, 55 million abortions have been performed, and approximately 1.2 million future Americans were aborted in each of the last several years. Nearly half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended, and nearly half of those are aborted.

Planned Parenthood is the nation's most prolific provider of abortions, performing about 1-in-4 total U.S. abortions each year, chalking up 334,000 in 2011. It received $542 million from taxpayers that year, about 40 percent of its total revenues.

And since 1973 we have witnessed the slide down that slippery slope. It has been considered acceptable by a significant number of Americans to end a pregnancy anywhere from the morning after to the day when the baby should be born healthy and ready for life.

We have been treated to horrors such as partial birth abortion where the baby is allowed to be born, but not completely, with part of the child still in the birth canal so that a butcher with MD or DO after their name can kill the child before it is "born." This nefarious procedure takes hair-splitting to a new level.

A year ago a giant slide down the slippery slope occurred when two Australian ethicists – Alberto Giubilini with Monash University in Melbourne, and Francesca Minerva at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne – provided an answer to the question, "When does a fetus become a person?" Their answer: it doesn’t matter. They argued in the online edition of the Journal of Medical Ethics that if abortion of a fetus is allowable, so, too, should be the “termination” of a newborn.

This cold-blooded idea has now infected the United States. That same concept appeared in testimony at a Florida legislative committee that was considering a bill to require abortionists to provide medical care to an infant who survives an abortion and is moving on the table and struggling for life. A Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates lobbyist endorsed the right to "post-birth abortion." The lobbyist, Alisa LaPolt Snow, stunned legislators when she said that her organization believes the decision to kill an infant who survives a failed abortion "should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician."

This is nothing more than pre-meditated murder, and is not so different from first responders executing a seriously injured accident victim. And just how far does this "right" to post-birth abortion extend? The first birthday? The difficult years of adolescence? Or perhaps it will extend many years after the botched abortion when under as-yet-unknown elements of the Affordable Care Act bureaucrats may be in the position to determine that it will cost too much to keep an elderly patient alive.

Fortunately, the tide appears to be turning against the grizzly practice of abortion. Last June a Gallop poll showed that 50 percent identified themselves as "pro-life" compared to 41 percent who said they were "pro-choice." And, 51 percent said abortion is morally wrong, compared to 38 percent who said it is morally acceptable. And some state legislatures have passed tighter restrictions on the procedure.

This attitude favoring preserving life and restoring personal responsibility is one small ray of light in America's otherwise darkening culture.

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Rotting The Soul Of A Nation ... J. D. Longstreet

Rotting The Soul Of A Nation
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
**************

Nothing much REALLY changes.  Nearly a half century before the birth of Christ a wise man said:

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious, but it cannot survive treason from within.   An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly, but the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.  For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men.  He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.   A murderer is less to fear."   --- Marcus Tullius Cicero 42 BC.

I count myself fortunate, and even lucky, to have been born into the last generation of independent freedom-loving Americans.

That’s on the one hand. 

On the other, I feel depressed that my generation will be the first to see a free America voluntarily choose slavery as a way of life. 

As we look about us today, we can see the effects of socialism: A nation in decline, a nation financially broke, a nation of people depressed, hurting, and angry, a nation deeply divided by the race baiting and class warfare imposed on them by a major political party in its grab for the power to rule America as the “elite class” in a socialist America.  We refer, of course, to the Democratic Party.

Slavery?  Yes!  Socialism is slavery to the state (and to those elite socialist politicians who will run your life from the cradle to the grave).

Under the Obama Administration, it has already begun.  The evils of Pandora’s box can’t hold a candle to the evils of Obamacare.   

Socialism is the slavery of forced labor.  Americans will work for the government. I don’t mean the 48% of the American workforce already on the government’s payroll. I mean 100% of the American workforce, which will be receiving those wages the government decides you need to exist and continue working at your government assigned job.

So many Americans are nothing more than the “useful idiots” Vladimir Lenin used to mock.  He was referring to westerners, including Americans, Who publicly and privately sympathized with the socialist movement in what would become the Socialist Soviet Union. He was, of course, right about one thing:  They were, and are, idiots -- and they were, and are today, useful to the cause of socialism and communism. This time, however, the targeted country is the United States.

Today, those of us in America who see what is happening to our country, to our freedom, to our future as a free country, are derided as some sort of alarmists.  To that, allow me to say:  “You’re darned right, I’m ALARMED!”  It is as clear to me as sunrise this morning that a free America will only be a legend to my grandkids.

I expect that in the not too distant American future there will be a time when those of us who pen such comments as these will be arrested as enemies of the socialist state of America … if we live long enough. As I have been spouting these kinds of commentaries and public addresses since I was a sophomore in high school, I expect they will have a lot to work with!

Again, I remind readers of this column -- socialism is a killer of nations.  It is a terminal illness that rots a nation’s core until it is hollow and then it implodes in upon itself -- taking that nation’s society along with it.

Today in America we are awash in socialism.  There is Marxism, Leninism, Trotskyism, socialist feminism – and --  the Democratic Party.  The Republican Party is badly infected, as well.

I mentioned Obamacare above.  Obamacare is socialized medicine … socialism!  Americans have no idea how much freedom and liberty Obamacare will strip from the citizens of the USA.  But it’s coming -- and it will be startling! Already we are getting hints, just hints,  of that which is in store for America once Obamacare is fully in place. You are going to recognize the USA.  

Distressingly, I see no push-back against the steady encroachment of socialism in America. Make no mistake about it, socialism is on the march in the USA and we will awaken one morning to find that America is no longer a free country but a slave nation shackled to a socialist government… and even sadder, Americans will have no idea how America came to be socialist.

Even now the chains are being forged for America’s enslavement.  The foundry is working 24/7 turning out the bonds that will hold a nation of once proud, free, Americans. 

Well over one-third of our national government is already socialist … the executive branch.  One half of the Legislative branch, the Senate, is controlled by socialists, and the Judicial branch is very close to falling under the control of socialist sympathizing justices.  Within the next four years we likely see a socialist court in place.

Do you begin to understand the threat America is living under today?  I hope so, because the change from freedom to slavery is going to be rapid and startlingly complete.

©  J. D. Longstreet

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