Heritage Quote

"A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader."

-- Samuel Adams (letter to James Warren, 12 February 1779)

Heritage Quote

"What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to William Stephens Smith, 1787)

Heritage Quote

"[E]very Man who comes among us, and takes up a piece of Land, becomes a Citizen, and by our Constitution has a Voice in Elections, and a share in the Government of the Country."

-- Benjamin Franklin (letter to William Straham, 19 August 1784)

Heritage Quote

"Harmony, liberal intercourse with all Nations, are recommended by policy, humanity and interest. But even our Commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand: neither seeking nor granting exclusive favours or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of Commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing with Powers so disposed; in order to give trade a stable course."

-- George Washington (Farewell Address, 19 September 1796)

Heritage Quote

"In such a performance you may lay the foundation of national happiness only in religion, not by leaving it doubtful "whether morals can exist without it," but by asserting that without religion morals are the effects of causes as purely physical as pleasant breezes and fruitful seasons."

-- Benjamin Rush, 1811 - letter to John Adams

Dichotomy in the West

Dennis Prager, over at Real Clear Politics, makes some sterling points about why the world seems obsessed with Palestine while ignoring the much greater travesty in Tibet.

The long-suffering Tibetans have been in the news. This happens perhaps once or twice a decade. In a more moral world, however, public opinion would be far more preoccupied with Tibetans than with Palestinians, would be as harsh on China as it is on Israel, and would be as fawning on Israel as it now is on China.

But, alas, the world is, as it has always been, a largely mean-spirited and morally insensitive place, where might is far more highly regarded than right.

Consider the facts: Tibet, at least 1,400 years old, is one of the world's oldest nations, has its own language, its own religion and even its own ethnicity. Over 1 million of its people have been killed by the Chinese, its culture has been systematically obliterated, 6,000 of its 6,200 monasteries have been looted and destroyed, and most of its monks have been tortured, murdered or exiled.

Palestinians have none of these characteristics. There has never been a Palestinian country, never been a Palestinian language, never been a Palestinian ethnicity, never been a Palestinian religion in any way distinct from Islam elsewhere. Indeed, "Palestinian" had always meant any individual living in the geographic area called Palestine. For most of the first half of the 20th century, "Palestinian" and "Palestine" almost always referred to the Jews of Palestine. The United Jewish Appeal, the worldwide Jewish charity that provided the nascent Jewish state with much of its money, was actually known as the United Palestine Appeal. Compared to Tibetans, few Palestinians have been killed, its culture has not been destroyed nor its mosques looted or plundered, and Palestinians have received billions of dollars from the international community. Unlike the dying Tibetan nation, there are far more Palestinians today than when Israel was created.

Why have we virtually ignored the viciousness being visited on Tibet by China, and yet we become slavering fools whenever Israel takes defensive measures against terrorists?

Mr. Prager makes some penetrating observations on that question, as well. Here are the first three:

The first reason is terror. Some time ago, the Palestinian leadership decided, with the overwhelming support of the Palestinian people, that murdering as many innocent people -- first Jews, and then anyone else -- was the fastest way to garner world attention. They were right. On the other hand, as The Economist notes in its March 28, 2008 issue, "Tibetan nationalists have hardly ever resorted to terrorist tactics..." It is interesting to speculate how the world would have reacted had Tibetans hijacked international flights, slaughtered Chinese citizens in Chinese restaurants and temples, on Chinese buses and trains, and massacred Chinese schoolchildren.

The second reason is oil and support from powerful fellow Arabs. The Palestinians have rich friends who control the world's most needed commodity, oil. The Palestinians have the unqualified support of all Middle Eastern oil-producing nations and the support of the Muslim world beyond the Middle East. The Tibetans are poor and have the support of no nations, let alone oil-producing ones.

The third reason is Israel. To deny that pro-Palestinian activism in the world is sometimes related to hostility toward Jews is to deny the obvious. It is not possible that the unearned preoccupation with the Palestinians is unrelated to the fact that their enemy is the one Jewish state in the world. Israel's Jewishness is a major part of the Muslim world's hatred of Israel. It is also part of Europe's hostility toward Israel: Portraying Israel as oppressors assuages some of Europe's guilt about the Holocaust -- "see, the Jews act no better than we did." Hence the ubiquitous comparisons of Israel to Nazis.

He provides four more compelling reasons in his article, and concludes with:

The world is unfair, unjust and morally twisted. And rarely more so than in its support for the Palestinians -- no matter how many innocents they target for murder and no matter how much Nazi-like anti-Semitism permeates their media -- and its neglect of the cruelly treated, humane Tibetans.

He's got me thinking. How about you?

[Via Betsy Newmark]

Heritage Quote

"Whilst the last members were signing it Doctr. Franklin looking towards the Presidents chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that Painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun. "

-- James Madison (Farrand's Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, 17 September 1787)

This is the kind of . . .

. . . Government and Politics class that every single high-school student in this country should take.

My AP Government and Politics students are studying economic and social policy this week and so we've been looking at the federal budget. First, I gave them a list of the major items that are part of the federal budget and had them guess what percent of the budget was spent on each category. Almost uniformly the students were way off guessing that the biggest percent of the budget went for defense and guessing from 30 to 50% went to defense instead of about 20% which is the actual percent. Then they spent today's class playing this budget simulation game which readers might enjoy trying out. You get to play around with the increasing or decreasing items in the budget as well as taxes and then find out the effect your new numbers have on the federal deficit. First I told the kids to just take a bit of time and pretend they had complete control of the budget and see what they could do with the deficit. The kids cheerfully cut Social Security and Medicare. Many cut defense spending sharply and raised taxes. Even so, few were able to balance their budgets.

Then I told them to work in groups and pretend they were congressmen who wanted to get reelected so that they could only make cuts or raise taxes that they could sell to their constituents. They soon realized that it would be impossible to make any dent in the deficit. Then I asked them what they could accomplish if they had to hold all the mandatory spending on entitlements and interest on the debt. They immediately realized how hopeless any budget balancing would be at that point.

We've also been talking about the looming problems with Social Security, facts that the newest report on shortfalls on entitlements makes even clearer. My hope is that my students at least will listen more skeptically when they hear candidates making promises about new spending programs while swearing fiscal sanity. They are aware what an impossibility it has become for any reform of Social Security and why they should be demanding that politicians address their concerns that they're going to spend their peak earning years paying for my generation's retirement while they will have no guarantee that those same benefits will be there for them when they are ready to retire.

It's not the most entertaining unit that we cover all year, but I believe that it's one of the most important that we cover all year in preparing them to be intelligent voters.

Bless you, Betsy.

Heritage Quote

"Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind."

-- Benjamin Rush, 1783 - letter to John Armstrong

Heritage Quote

"Without justice being freely, fully, and impartially administered, neither our persons, nor our rights, nor our property, can be protected. And if these, or either of them, are regulated by no certain laws, and are subject to no certain principles, and are held by no certain tenure, and are redressed, when violated, by no certain remedies, society fails of all its value; and men may as well return to a state of savage and barbarous independence."

-- Joseph Story (Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833)

Heritage Quote

"The Hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations."

-- George Washington, 1778 - letter to Thomas Nelson

Easter

He is risen!

The first Holy Day celebrated by the Christian church was Easter. Easter commemorates the Resurrection of Christ. The word comes from the Old English "easter" or "eastre", a festival of spring. Jesus had been crucified, then buried. But he was gone -- he had arisen from the tomb and death. He was resurrected. He was alive!

Like the two on the road to Emmaus, my hope is that our eyes are opened this day.

On the Road to Emmaus

13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.

17 He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?"

They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?"

19 "What things?" he asked.

"About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see."

25 He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them.

30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"

33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

-- Luke 24:13-35 (NIV)

He is risen, indeed!

Heritage Quote

"The true test is, whether the object be of a local character, and local use; or, whether it be of general benefit to the states. If it be purely local, congress cannot constitutionally appropriate money for the object. But, if the benefit be general, it matters not, whether in point of locality it be in one state, or several; whether it be of large, or of small extent."

-- Joseph Story (Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833)

Earmarks, anyone?

Holy Saturday

Can you imagine what Jesus' disciples must have been thinking, feeling, experiencing the day after their Lord and Master was crucified?

Holy Saturday is the day the body of Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, rested in the tomb. Some Christians fast both Friday and Saturday of Holy Week.

Joseph of Arimathea, a Sanhedrin member who had not agreed to Jesus' execution, got permission from Pontius Pilate to remove Jesus on Friday (before the Sabbath). Jewish law required burial within 24 hours of death.

Nicodemus, another Sanhedrin member who was against Jesus' crucifixion, brought seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes -- the amount used for royal burials. After these had been applied to Jesus' body and it had been wrapped in strips of linen, it was placed in the tomb and a heavy stone rolled in front of the entrance.

The burial place was a private garden, probably Joseph's own tomb carved out of the rock. A private garden let the women visit the tomb without worrying about public exposure, especially during the day.

The Sanhedrin, still concerned about the impact of Jesus, requested that Pilate place a guard at the tomb.

Heritage Quote

"In a general sense, all contributions imposed by the government upon individuals for the service of the state, are called taxes, by whatever name they may be known, whether by the name of tribute, tythe, tallage, impost, duty, gabel, custom, subsidy, aid, supply, excise, or other name."

-- Joseph Story (Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833)

Good Friday

Tonight at church, we have a Tenebrae service in observance of Jesus Christ's sacrifice.

After being brought before Pilate and Herod, Jesus was beaten, scourged, mocked, then finally crucified at the hill called Calvary on Friday, outside the gates of Jerusalem. The current term, Good Friday, is believed to be a linguistic corruption of "God's Friday". Since the time of the early church, Good Friday has been dedicated to penance, fasting, and prayer.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only son..."
-- John 3:16

The Crucifixion process

According to Roman custom, scourging always came before crucifixion. Scourging was done with a multi-stranded whip with metal at the tips of each strand of leather. It caused extensive cuts and bleeding. After the preliminary punishment of scourging, the condemned person had to carry the cross, or at least the transverse beam of it, to the place of execution. The criminal would be exposed to the insults of people along the route.

On arrival at the place of execution the cross was raised up. Soon the sufferer, entirely naked, was bound to it with cords. He was then fastened with four nails to the wood of the cross. Roman executioners drove their spikes through the wrist, right through the carpal tunnel that houses finger-controlling tendons and the median nerve. It is impossible to force a spike there without maiming the hand into a claw shape.

Finally, a placard called the titulus, bearing the name of the condemned man and his sentence, was nailed at the top of the cross.

His sacrifice, our salvation.

Heritage Quote

"His person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly what one would wish, his deportment easy, erect and noble."

-- Thomas Jefferson (on George Washington in a letter to Dr. Walter Jones, 2 January 1814)

Maundy Thursday

The Maundy Thursday service at our church includes a re-enactment of the Last Supper.

Maundy (pronounced MAWN-dee) Thursday is the English name given to the Thursday during Holy Week (also called Passion Week). Christians observe Maundy Thursday in commemoration of Christ's Last Supper. "Maundy" comes from the Latin word "mandatum", which means "commandment". This day commemorates the anniversary of the institution of Holy Communion, also called The Eucharist, by Jesus at the Last Supper. (Mandatum novum is Latin for "new commandment").

"Do this in remembrance of me." -- Luke 22:19

The service is quite moving to me, because I am wondering about Jesus' thoughts during that meal. What was he thinking? He knew his time of suffering was about to begin, and who his betrayer was. Did he know how he was to be mocked, humiliated, torturered, and then murdered? And at the hands of the very people who he was committed to saving.

From themselves.

From ourselves . . .

Heritage Quote

"Statesmen by dear Sir, may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand....The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now, They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty."

-- John Adams, 1776 - letter to Zabdiel Adams

Heritage Quote

"I am not a Virginian, but an American."

-- Patrick Henry (speech in the First Continental Congress, 6 September 1774)

Blinders firmly in place

Heritage Quote

"Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer."

-- Thomas Paine (Common Sense, 1776)

Economic woes - explained

Heritage Quote

"It is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse a knowledge of the sciences but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and of liberty and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country."

-- Noah Webster (On Education of Youth in America, 1790)

Heritage Quote

"His Example is now complete, and it will teach wisdom and virtue to magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in the present age, but in future generations, as long as our history shall be read."

-- John Adams (message to the U.S. Senate, 19 December 1799)

Heritage Quote

"They are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase not as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please...Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. It was intended to lace them up straightly within the enumerated powers and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1791 - Opinion on National Bank

Heritage Quote

"His Example is now complete, and it will teach wisdom and virtue to magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in the present age, but in future generations, as long as our history shall be read."

-- John Adams (message to the U.S. Senate, 19 December 1799)

Heritage Quote

"Here sir, the people govern."

-- Alexander Hamilton (speech in the New York ratifying convention, 17 June 1788)

Heritage Quote

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

-- Thomas Jefferson (Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 17, 1782)

Heritage Quote

"Born in other countries, yet believing you could be happy in this, our laws acknowledge, as they should do, your right to join us in society, conforming, as I doubt not you will do, to our established rules. That these rules shall be as equal as prudential considerations will admit, will certainly be the aim of our legislatures, general and particular."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1801 - letter to Hugh White

Heritage Quote

"[A] wise and frugal government...shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1801 - First Inaugural Address

Heritage Quote

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1788 - letter to E. Carrington

Heritage Quote

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1787 - letter to Abigail Adams

Heritage Quote

"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1781 - Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 18

Heritage Quote

"[T]he President, who errs as other men do, but errs with integrity."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1795 - on George Washington in a letter to William Branch Giles

National Obamacide

TCS Daily points out the holes in Obama's "new" ideas.

In the 60 pages of words, there's hardly a major new idea or an idea that departs significantly from the Democratic Party's agenda since the New Deal. It's all here: the activist government, the ambitious programs without reference to costs, the appeal to some people's sense of victimization. There is also one striking omission—a list of anything that Senator Obama has actually done in the course of his brief career to advance any of these goals.

The point is that there is nothing here to back up a candidacy that is based on bringing the nation together to effect change. It's a rehash of the same policies and programs that the Democratic Left has been pushing--largely without success--for the last 40 years. For some people, as least, the era of big government is not over.

What appears to qualify this candidacy as a candidacy of change is not the policies or programs it relies on but the fact that the same old ideas are coming from a new and telegenic messenger.

Read the whole thing.

Heritage Quote

"[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore...never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold at market."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1823 - letter to Judge William Johnson

Heritage Quote

"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1791 - Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank

Heritage Quote

"[W]hen all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1821 - letter to Charles Hammond

Heritage Quote

"Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1821 - Autobiography

MAD Che

Wherein MAD Magazine accurately characterizes the Che fashion/political craze.