Because it's always morning . . . somewhere . . .

And, once again, the definition of "blithering idiotry" for the purposes of the Whip:

1) believing you know better than someone else how they should run their lives, and
2) acting on that belief, almost always to the ultimate detriment of that other person, not to mention the corruption of your own soul in the process.

Now, in the This Is Not Anything Political, Thank God department:

Dog Sings Lullaby to Stop Baby From Crying

Good dog.

(I could have sworn I posted this fifteen minutes ago. Oh, well, if at first you don't succeed . . .)

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Once again, the definition of "blithering idiocy" for the purposes of the Whip:

1) believing you know better than someone else how they should run their lives, and
2) acting on that belief, almost always to the ultimate detriment of that other person, not to mention the corruption of your own soul in the process.

And, as you can tell, the definition of "morning" is pretty variable. But this is the Internet, it's worldwide, and it's always morning somewhere now isn't it?

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Well, I've had better Sundays.

The Jackrabbits lost.

The Democrats won (meaning that America lost even more of our freedom and liberty). They will not be forgiven.

At least Snookums came home from a trip to Arizona, taking her Dad to a reunion of his World War II Air Force unit. This is an awfully big house with only one person in it.

My regular checkup visit to my doctor tomorrow should be more interesting than usual . . . it's safe to say that my doctor is NOT a fan of Obamacare . . .

SECTION ONE: The Word: This Word is not about Deem-and-Pass (or Demon Pass), it is about the demons which reside in the soul of every human being.
Our President, ever fond of setting up straw men to knock over, says that the alternative to the government takeover of the health care industry which is now imminent is "the status quo."

Democrats are particularly fond of this particular straw man: that some particular issue is intolerable and unsustainable, and the only alternative is government action. This is where the lie occurs. There is a vast array of possible alternative actions that people--individually or as groups--can undertake to change any current situation. The health care issue is just another example of the Democrats trying to stampede the public into accepting a solution which, totally coincidentally, solidifies Democrats in a position of power and authority over their fellow citizens.

What, exactly, is the problem with health care in America today? Well, people think it's too expensive. People think that there are some people who don't have access to the health care system. Both of those are legitimate concerns. Neither problem is necessarily improved by increased government involvement. In fact, there is strong evidence that the existing government interventions into the health care system--the virtual mandating of employer-provided health insurance after World War II, the disastrously ill-conceived Medicare program, the ridiculous restriction on offering health insurance across state lines, and the general public policy decisions which divorce the consumer of health care from the producers--the doctors, nurses, clinics, and hospitals--those public policy decisions by government have distorted the health care industry into this mutant monstrosity which is in no way a "free market" system, but is already an over-regulated nightmare system. And yet, Democrats and their allies say that the solution to these problems is more of the hair of the dog which has bitten us--more government intervention.

There are also concerns which are utterly illegitimate. Primary among those is the common belief among the more economically- and philosophically-ignorant people that health care is a "right." These people are simply and tragically wrong. They have confused the word "want" with the word "right." There are no rights which depend on the action of another person to exercise. Your right to life does not depend on another person to "give" you life. Your life belongs to you, as an individual. Your right to liberty does not depend on another person to "give" you liberty. Your liberty is inherent in you as an individual. Your right to the pursuit of happiness does not depend on another person to "give" you happiness. Your right to pursue your dreams and aspirations is inherent in you as an individual.

It makes no logical sense to extend this thought to health care. "Your health care does not depend on another person to "give" you health care" is a nonsense sentence. "Your health care is inherent in you as an individual" is a nonsense sentence.

Health care is not a right. It is an economic good. It is like food. It is like clothing. It is like cable television. It is like a car. It is like a house. It is like coffee. It is like beer. It is like a haircut. It is like getting your lawn mowed on a regular basis. It is like having someone in to clean your house.

Rights are inherent to you as an individual. You don't have to pay someone for rights, you don't have to ask someone else to give them to you. You simply have them. They are a part of you. That is what the Founding Fathers meant when they said that people had "inalienable" rights. Inalienable means--exactly--that you can't separate them from the person that has them.

If you think it is your right to have your lawn mowed, to have your house cleaned, if you think you have a right to have someone care for your dislocated shoulder or that nasty cough--if you think that you have a right to someone else's labor, what does that say about you?

Who, in history, took other people's labor, believing that they had a right to that labor? Well, two groups: First, totalitarian governments--the royalty and aristocracy of various kingdoms, totalitarian Communist, socialist, and religious dictatorships throughout history. The other group? Owners of slaves.

And this isn't a straw man. This isn't a "slippery slope" argument. This is just making clear to people what they are really saying when they say "health care is a right."

This is a point that needs to be hammered and hammered and hammered and hammered again. If you have a neighbor who says such things, call him or her out on it. People who say "health care is a right" are slave-owner wannabes. They think that their wants and their needs override anybody else's wants and needs. And if they cloak it in terms of generosity or compassion, then they are simply being doubly dishonest. Slavery is not generous. Slavery is not compassionate. Advocating slavery for the benefit of some other person rather than benefiting yourself is still advocating slavery.

Today, the Democratic Party, the party that supported slavery before the Civil War, the party that opposed the Reconstruction after the Civil War, the party that voted overwhelmingly against the Civil Rights Act in the 1960's (it required a majority of Republican votes to pass--did you know that?), has returned to its slaver roots, and is now is poised to re-impose--incrementally and oh so compassionately--slavery upon the United States. The greatest irony is that they are doing it with the full-throated support of the black community of this country.

The slaves become the slavers.

Sleep well tonight, you who have voted for Democrats. We know exactly who and what you are, now--and I'm not talking about the Congress and the President. I'm talking about you, my neighbors and friends, my relatives and acquaintances. This is your doing. You think you are being generous. You think you're being kind and compassionate. You think you're being fair. You think you're being just. You think you're being better than the rest of us, with your high-minded support of health care as a "right." You may think you're winning right now. But you're not. You may win this small political battle. But what you have lost is your soul. You have become the very thing you profess to oppose. You have become the oppressor. You have become the tyrant. You have become the enemy of human freedom and liberty. And no amount of straw men and emoting and blubbering and sob stories and righteous indignation and snotty, snarky poses and pretensions to intellectual superiority will change that.

You are either being blind and ignorant and naive and foolish, or you're being willfully evil. Which is it?

Either way, you will not be forgiven if you do not soon repent of this madness. There is still time to realize what you are doing to your fellow citizens. But that time is running out.

And when that time does run out, you Democrat voters had better pray--assuming you still believe in a God. Because you should consider the fate of slave owners when the slaves finally throw off their chains.

The battle for human freedom and liberty is never truly won, because it is in essence a battle against the evil which lies within all of us--the greed, the envy, the desire to control those around us. There are those who win that internal battle more often than they lose it. All of us lose the battle from time to time, which is why Christianity preaches forgiveness. But there are those who lose this eternal internal battle, while fervently convincing themselves that they have won. To gain forgiveness, first you must recognize that you have done something which requires that forgiveness. And there are many people living on your street, in your town, who don't even know that they have fallen into this mental trap. Pray for those people, that the scales fall from their eyes before it is truly too late.

Sic Semper Tyrannis.

Live Free or Die.

(This little essay went a completely different direction than I thought it was going to go when I started it.)

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For discussion and meditation: Is there any aspect of your life that the Democrats do not want to control? For your own good, of course.

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If you think health care is a "civil right" then you must believe in slavery for doctors and nurses. There's no other alternative. If you have a right to their work, then you should get it without paying for it, right? What do you call forcing somebody to work and not paying them? Hmm???

I call it slavery. But maybe you can come up with a nicer, kinder, gentler word for shackling another person and making them do your bidding.

"Well, no!" you say. "It's not slavery at all! It's just that I have a right to health care. You're so cruel and heartless if you don't think that people have a right to decent health care."

No. You're the one who is cruel and heartless. Why don't you have a right to demand that the farmer give you food? Why don't you have a right to demand that the carpenter build you a house? What makes clothing and shelter different from health care?

No. You're the one who wants to turn your neighbors into your slaves.

"Right" is not a synonym for "want."

Kids want candy instead of broccoli. That doesn't mean that a caring parent will give it to them.

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I'm sort of like a news feed, but slower, buggier, and much, much quirkier . . .

Stand by for Hoop-a-rama posts, where your humble blogger picks ALL of the Division I college basketball tournaments . . .

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The attempted murder of the Constitution at the hands of the Washington Democrats:
Pelosi Tells Caucus They'll Be Using Slaughter Strategy, and That Vote Could Happen Next Week
The Democrats’ Tangled Web
Mark Levin Calls For Slaughter's Removal
Mark Levin: The GOP should move to have Slaughter expelled from the House -- featuring audio . . .
The shape of things to come
Suicide Pact?
Constitution Butchers: Stop Pelosi’s Slaughter House

Here's the deal:

I think Caddell and Schoen actually understate the peril that the Democrats in Washington have manufactured for themselves and the oldest political party in the U.S., if not the world.

If the Democrat's health care reform passes, then the Democratic Party is history. The Democratic Party will be torn apart by an enraged American electorate this November, losing even seats that are now in the "safe" column, and the Democrats will continue to lose elections again and again in every local election, over and over again, repeatedly up to and including an epic landslide victory of--probably--Sarah Palin over Barack Obama in the 2012 Presidential Election.

The American public's patience with the Democratic Party will have run out.

A (D) behind your name will mean political Death. Anyone who professes support or sympathy for a Democratic candidate will be seen for what they are: an amoral looter, who spits on the Constitution and 230+ years of American classical-liberal political philosophy. It will become a hazardous thing to proclaim in public that you're a Democrat, because the people will at last see Democrats for what they have become: thuggish collectivists more akin to Mao than to Jefferson and Jackson, Truman and JFK. The Democratic Party will pass from American history, and it will have richly earned that fate.

If the Democrats don't pass health care this year, then they'll receive an historic rebuke of unprecedented proportions in the Congressional elections this November, but will survive as a political party to fight another day. I don't believe for one second that Barack Obama is capable of tacking hard to the center and governing as a moderate like Bill Clinton did, but if he manages to do that, he might--might survive to be re-elected in 2012. But I sincerely doubt it.

If there is a 2010 and 2012 election--and given the Democrats' plan now to utterly ignore the Constitution and pass a bill out of the House without actually voting for it--the ironically-aptly-namedd Slaughter Solution--it is not entirely obvious that the current Democratic political leadership will deign to allow an election to occur--but if those elections occur, get used to the idea of President Palin.

Obama and the Democrats have talked cavalierly about the Republicans and insurance companies needing to beware of torches and pitchforks. The Democrats need to take their own advice.

Democrats in Washington need to consider what happens after, by their own actions, the Constitution is no longer the law of the land. A vote for the Slaughter Strategy is a vote to become an Outlaw Congress, a vote with the practical effect of dissolving the Constitution. Perhaps the political process can absorb this blow and deal with it. Maybe the Supreme Court will step in and take the keys away from this now obviously power-drunk Congress. I don't know what happens next, but it's not going to be very much fun for pretty much anybody in this country. I do know that there is a political explosion building in this country, and the fuse is this health care nonsense. "Light fuse, get away" was the advice on the side of many of the fireworks I've set off in my days. The Democrats have lit the fuse, and are adamant about holding on tightly to the firework as the fuse burns down, thinking that the coming fountains and sparks and explosions will make them look even more beautiful and awesome than they think they do right now.

They think the hiss of the fuse is the approval of their audience.

It isn't.

There's still time to put out the fuse. There's still time to save the Democratic Party.

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Today, we come to the conclusion of our Thoughts for the Day from The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek. I was continually struck at how very timely Hayek's observations in 1944 were still today.

Ummm...regarding that "Consent Of The Governed" notion. -- "More people believe in freaking ALIEN ABDUCTIONS than believe in the representative legitimacy of current government." And this is an exceedingly dangerous state of affairs. It will become more dangerous if the elected politicians and the unelected bureaucrats persist in ignoring the will of the people. If you think that people are angry now, just wait until Pelosi tries to pass a bill out of the House without taking a vote--the Slaughter Option. If they do that it will trigger an instant Constitutional Crisis--not one between the branches of government, but between the Congress and the people themselves. We really, really, really, really don't want to go there--that's playing with an especially dangerous kind of fire.

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My race is “American”