The Moral Case for Less Gun Control

The idea of America is just as much a moral premise as a governmental structure. To fully understand that moral premise, we have to look to the Constitution’s rule of law. But we can’t stop there.

We must go back 13 years, to the Declaration of Independence. Much of it detailed the “long train of abuses” by King George III. But not all of it.

In Jefferson’s explanation of why such a declaration was necessary, he eloquently laid out a moral case for rights. These rights (among them, life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness) were not capricious or based on personal whim, but “Nature’s Laws”. Why did Jefferson, a very precise penman, emphasize Nature’s Laws so strenuously? And what do all of these unalienable rights entail?

“Unalienable” means they are as necessary to sustaining your life as oxygen. The only way to remove these rights is to cease living. So, how does the pursuit of happiness fit that definition?

Well, Natural Law recognizes the fact that your time and effort are both finite. It is further understood that effort is not just physical, but intellectual. Applying time, talents, and physical and/or mental labor to existing matter is generally done to improve it.

That improvement adds value that you can exchange for items (or money with which to purchase them). Perhaps an illustration, then.

I exchange my time and effort for money. With that money, I buy the latest TV. Watching various programs on this TV makes my family happy. Thus, I have pursued (and acquired) a modicum of happiness. The time and effort has already been spent. But it was worth the trade-off.

Then, the unthinkable happens: one night, two men break into my house. They want my TV, but are unwilling to trade their own efforts for it. On top of that, my state has strict gun laws, in knee-jerk response to heinous acts that were already illegal.

So I stay in bed and the men take my TV.

But it’s not just a TV, is it? They also took the happiness my family derived from watching it, and the hours of work I traded for it.

The pursuit of happiness, embodied in that TV, has been stolen from an entire family. Now, more hours of work are needed to replace it. And, on top of redundant pursuit, for items already acquired, I have to also pursue legal action against the thieves.

But I haven’t even seen their faces, because of the fear that they may be armed, while I was not. So the TV’s serial number is all I have to go on, and I give it to the authorities. Of course, it never pops up again.

If I’d had a gun, in our hypothetical scenario, might the outcome have been different? It depends, for the most part, on how badly the men wanted the TV.

You may say, “But, Bradley, that’s absurd! You wouldn’t shoot a person over a trivial item like a TV, would you?!”

But, is it trivial? How important is a workweek of your time, not a second of which you can ever replace? That is, in fact, a portion of your very life.

And if the whole of your life is an unalienable right, according to Natural Law, how can a certain portion not be? You would also do well to remember that force was initiated by the burglars, not me.

Further, why would you take the utilitarian “production for use” approach and presume that simply having a gun, in that scenario, entails using it? Perhaps I would simply hold the robbers at gunpoint, so they didn’t run off before the police arrived? Would you be OK with that?

You say, “Fine. But it’s still not worth a life. Scare ’em off and go back to bed.” Inaccurate, given what the TV represents. But, let’s go with it.

Maybe I live just across the border from a state where politicians have respect for unalienable rights, thus access to guns is easier.

Suppose I have no gun, stay in bed, and let the burglars take my TV. They then break into a house in the next town, just across the state line from me, and steal some guns.

The next morning, they use those stolen guns to murder 43 people in a shopping mall. Would it have been better if I’d had a gun to stop them at TVs?

Are you beginning to question the wisdom of my state’s hypothetical gun laws? Perhaps another scenario will cement the premise?

What if intruders came to steal a TV, and a child walked in on them? What if they were armed, but the homeowner couldn’t own a gun? What if the intruders were so startled they fired their weapons, killing the child?

Did the state’s prohibitive gun laws prevent it?

Would another knee-jerk law, piled atop the others, stop it from happening again? Or bring the child back? Or ease the parents’ grief?

Of course not. But a simple preventative measure, such as the homeowner holding the intruders at gunpoint till police arrive, would do all of the above. And, with the robbers in jail, any further criminal acts they may have planned are thwarted.

Does that not make infinitely more sense?

The villains are no longer free to take a life at the next house (or any portion of a life).

But, rather than a sensible solution, the Progs want even more gun restrictions. Why?

Control.

And it’s hypocritical. A microscopic fraction of high-capacity weapons are used in crimes. So high-cap mags must be banned? But, I thought they loved democracy? Wouldn’t that be “majority rule”, rather than tyranny of the minority?

But, I digress. Prog hypocrisy is documented to the point of tedium. A handful of mass murders justifies gun bans. A handful of gays necessitates universal marriage “rights”. Et cetera.

The point is this: top down policies never solve highly individualized problems. This is why I advocate federalism. Localized rule.

The government closest to individual citizens can best respond to individual issues. And they usually have more reverence for Natural Law.

By way of conclusion, let’s take a look at collectivist regimes:
Tell the people in 1970’s Cambodia that guns, let alone high-capacity magazines, would serve no useful purpose. Wait. You can’t. Because they’re dead. And they couldn’t legally own guns. Maybe high-capacity mags could’ve helped them out when Saloth Sar’s mobs came to round them up?

Tell the people of 1950’s China the fairy tale you insist on pushing, that gun control saves lives. As it turns out, only criminals had guns, and those criminals ran the government. When mobs of soldiers came to murder these innocent rice farmers, could high-capacity mags have saved a few lives? Even if only one life, would you say it was worth it? For the children?

Maybe the Jews in 1940’s Germany could have stood a chance, if they were armed? But Jewish gun ownership had been outlawed long before the first boxcar was loaded with its human freight. Might Anne Frank have lived to have children of her own, if her parents had access to MG34s?

Could the Bolshevik purges have been prevented?

Or perhaps your Leftist sensibilities are unmoved by any of this history? After all, those are foreign countries. And it’s hyperbole, anyway. All you’re calling for is “common sense gun control measures”, right? That kind of thing could never happen here, right?

Perhaps we should look to the Reconstruction South, then? Yes, in America. Progressives and Democrats instituted what they saw as “common sense gun control.” After all, what could be more common sense than keeping guns out of the hands of people you’d very recently held as slaves, amiright!?

Didn’t work out so well for the people in the pictures collected here, did it?

Here’s an idea, Mr. President, and the rest of you gun-grabbing, rights-hating Progs out there: tell the descendants of all these people that the society they lived in would’ve been worse for them, and much more dangerous, if they’d been allowed to have guns (or high-capacity magazines, with which they might have fended off collectivist/racist mobs).

No? Yeah. We didn’t think so.

Newtown

Evil fell upon Newtown, Connecticut this morning. No term other than evil will fit. Over two dozen were murdered, most of them mere babies, between the ages of 5 and 10. In light of this abomination, I was reminded of these lines I wrote just a few short months ago.

The uncomfortable fact is that this twisting of the language is not coincidental, nor is it merely academic. It circumscribes our very culture, altering the relationship between the individual and their governmental bodies, on various levels.

Worse still, and by design, it places an artificial and profane barrier between citizen and citizen, forever distorting their view of each other, the economy, and society at large.

This method is at the very core of an ideological
movement which wraps itself in the language of
“progress,” while fanning out the smokescreen in an ever-widening arc, all in a vain attempt to mask the stench and stigma of its true garment: a shroud.

Yes. I said “shroud.”

Make no mistake, the language of the “Progressive” movement is the language of death, decay, and degeneracy. It worships at their altar.

Why else would we hear uttered, incessantly, phrases such as “food deserts” or “environmental justice” or “social justice” or “living wage” or “less fortunate” or “middle class”? All of these concepts place an emphasis on the struggle to achieve, as a society, what?

The almost.

Mediocrity. Egalitarianism. Equality for its own sake, at whatever expense necessary, the costs of which are to be paid by a select set of individuals.

All of this is antithetical to liberty. And, by extension, antithetical to life itself.

This latter should not be a controversial statement, but an accepted, logical, objective fact. Yet, it’s not.

In our modern society, such a declaration is scoffed at, mocked, derided, and deemed pessimistic or even conspiratorial.

I pray to God it were. Any of the above.

But it is, indeed, objective fact. The core of “progressive” ideology is anti-life. The long, dark
corridor that is the history of humanity bears this
out. Today’s culture, likewise, throws this fact into
stark relief, for those bold enough to dare look.

Mass shootings, on school and university
campuses, in theaters, and in the streets of our
major cities, carried out by individuals steeped in
the pervasive secular humanist dogma taught in
those schools, viewed in those theaters, and carried forward into reality on those city streets, in the ultimate display of disregard for human life.

Cultural rot. The legacy of Progressivism. The underlying culprit behind unconscionable acts like those carried out in Newtown, Connecticut today.

When a society’s moral compass is set askew, what else can we expect?

God help us.

Reflection, Remembrance, and Renewed Resolve

As I write this, it is 11 years, to the minute, since hijacked United Airlines flight 175 slammed into the World Trade Center’s South Tower.

I watched it happen, live on ABC, eyes still blurred from sleep, half-thinking it was some bizarre  nightmare still playing out in the last few minutes of my slumber.

But knowing, from the swelling lump in my throat and the first churnings of nausea in my gut, that it was all too real.

I was just beginning my first full week of unemployment, and had resolved the previous evening to begin my job search in earnest, first thing that Tuesday morning. My tv was set to turn itself on, at high volume, at 9am.

But, instead of looking for work, I never left the house that day. I sat on the couch, flipping between the 4 channels I had at the time, watching the day’s horror unfold, in living color, on the television before me.

The completed job applications sat on the glass coffee table, utterly forgotten, as a million questions, hundreds of fears, and a growing wave of confusion and uncertainty about all of them quickly replaced the now-trivial financial concerns that had been weighing me down for the four days prior.

I thought of my son, then six months old, and spent a good portion of the day attempting to get in touch with his mother. I would not succeed in that for two more days.

I had just learned, three weeks before, that he was my son, through a letter in the mailbox informing me of the paternity test results. I was not prepared to be a father (and who ever really is?), and had only seen him 4 times since his birth.

But that day, all I wanted to do was hold him, cradle him, and show him he had a dad, and not just a donor. I knew, even in those early hours of 9-11, that the world, which he was not even close to being fully aware of yet, would be forever changed, in ways both terrifying and uplifting. In either instance, life would never be the same.

When I couldn’t reach his mom, I did something I hadn’t done for a long time, at that point in my life. I did what I thought would be the next best thing: I prayed.

I prayed for him, and for his mother, and for their safety. I prayed for the families of those on the planes and in the buildings, and for those still struggling to make it outside.

And I prayed for those who cast aside their fears and self-concern, and rushed inside to help them get out.

I prayed for our nation, and its leaders, and not only for their safety, but that God would lend them wisdom to discern the threat, the culprits, and the response.

I knew, as most of us did at the time (though some have forgotten), that there must be a response. I watched the smoke from the fires mingle with the dust from crumbling concrete and drywall, and knew that both would soon be overshadowed by the fog of war.

Indeed, they already were. War was brought to us, just as surely as it had been on a December morning 60 years before.

But no liberty-loving individual ever seeks war. Liberty depends upon a vibrant civil society, wherein mutual respect for the rights of others is the cornerstone of all other interactions.

War and force are generally antithetical to that premise, except when force is necessary for the purpose of reasserting that premise. This is the reason for laws, and the enforcement mechanism they entail.

The terrorists who carried out those horrific attacks violated the laws of nature, by resorting to force and stripping 3,000 fellow human beings of their God-given rights to their lives, their liberties, and their pursuit of their own happiness.

And I can imagine that terrorists like those of 9-11, and influencial people in governments across the globe who fund their terrorist activities, were applauding and chuckling last week, when “God-given” was removed from the Democrat party platform.

I’m sure they saw, too, the irony of forcing those words back into the platform, the following day, in a decidedly undemocratic fashion.

But whether those terrorists or those delegates like it or not (for different reasons, I’m sure), this nation was founded on a covenant with God, first stated by George Washington on a lonely battlefield in Pennsylvania, and witnessed by Isaac Potts.

That is just as much a part of our nation’s history as 9-11, and just as transformational, regardless of the existence of television footage.

Is it any wonder that, as government grows and insinuates itself into man’s relationship with his maker (and, at certain points, even seeks to replace it), our society further erodes?

Our culture, our respect for our fellow men and their rights, and even our fiscal security: all of these have coursened, crumbled, and virtually collapsed, much like those towers, since the beginnings of the “Progressive Era.”

This is not coincidence. This is the inevitable result of the progressive ideology, and its tacit hostility to individual, and, yes, God-given, free will. The fact that we allowed this ideology to take root, in America, denotes our conscious betrayal of that covenant.

We came to terms, after 9-11, with the dire threat of terrorism, and the danger of not confronting and destroying it wherever it lurks. And we renewed our resolve to do just that, if for a short time.

So, too, must we now resolve to confront the evils of progressivism, and the cultural rot they foment, every single time they are allowed to take hold of a society. We must resolve to root out every last vestige of them. No quarter can be given.

This is the most lasting tribute we can give, to those who lost their lives on 9-11, and to those who pledged, before God, their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to defend and preserve those rights He bestowed.

In every civilization, in every age, and in every generation, there are pivotal moments. Triumphs and crises alike that bring a people together to work toward a goal.

And, in times of crisis, human nature compels us to look for leaders who will rise above the confusion and confidently point us in a direction, right or wrong.

We want to trust them, and believe that direction is the right one. But, when the leader we turn to is a flawed mortal, like ourselves, we are eventually, inevitably, let down.

Look, instead, not to government, but to a higher authority. One that ordered the footsteps of this nation from its humblest beginnings, and nurtured it into the greatest bastion of liberty and good will the world has ever known. But only as long as we honored the covenant.

Pray. Seek firm answers in times of crisis.

And steel your resolve to remember that covenant, to restore it and, moreover, to renew it.

The very future of your children, grandchildren, and, yes, my son who is now 11 1/2, depend on it.

Spotlight on Irrelevance – USAID

I’m thinking of making this a recurring feature here on SOL2k10: The Spotlight on Irrelevance. Focusing on Federal, State, and Local government spending programs that have outlived their usefulness (provided they ever had any, to begin with, which is a high bar lawmakers generally avoid living up to when their pet projects are running through the legislative paces).

Today’s culprit: USAID. Early last week, the National Journal (a leftist rag) reported, with typical effervescence, on a new program being funded through USAID. According to the article, Citi will be receiving somewhere in the neighborhood of $23 million from USAID to close the loop on “the last mile.” (Click the link above for what this phrase denotes. It would be priceless, if it weren’t so damned infuriating.)

The obvious question (to anyone not blindly enamored of government programs for their own sake, regardless of results, intended or otherwise) is this: what the hell business does the federal government of the United States of America have in funding infrastructure for banking transactions in “emerging” economies? Can we find this power in Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution? Nope. Not there.

But wait! The article doesn’t say a word about Congress authorizing this $23 million expenditure, does it? Hmm. So, perhaps this is merely a bureaucratic function of the federal government, through USAID? After all, the agency was instituted by the (unconstitutional) executive fiat of one John Fitzgerald Kennedy (I know it’s wikipedia, but it’s well-sourced), so perhaps we should be looking for the justification in Article 2? Well, I’ll be damned! It’s not there, either. Curious, that.

Well, let’s explore the stated objectives of USAID. Perhaps we can find some language there that vaguely echoes the US Constitution? Well, holy entangling alliances, Batman! Some familiar stuff there, huh? But not from the Constitution, it would seem.

Can you say “League of Nations”? I knew you could.

Despite the “good intentions” of USAID overall (and the fluffing from the National Journal, regarding this most recent $23 million project), it is simply impossible to find any justification for this organization in our Constitution, nor in the writings or practices of our founders. In fact, one need look no further than George Washington’s farewell address to find a stark rebuttal of a myriad of federal practices which are now viewed as commonplace.

And this latest announcement completely ignores that USAID was used to fund “fledgling political parties” in Egypt, following their “glorious peoples’ revolution” last year. Or that funds have been routinely tapped into for decades to pay for dubiously-beneficial projects throughout “emerging nations” around the globe.

In a nation facing a $16 trillion national debt, and unfunded liabilities topping $110 trillion, perhaps it’s time to realize that all manner of profligate federal spending must be curtailed. In the grand scheme, is it “radical” to suggest that USAID has run its course?

USAID was created by an executive order during the Kennedy administration. It can be abolished with a stroke of the pen, as well.

Romney? Romney? Romney?

Bueller?

KHAAAAAANNNN!!!

Dystopian? Or Destructive?

I’m going to rant a bit on the “Occupy” protests. So, brace yourselves! (Or, as our illustrious VP, Low Blow Joe, would say: “Gird your loins!” 😉

This week, rather than ranting about whether or not a major Presidential candidate may have called a woman “Sweetie” 15 years ago, or whether our current President DID call TWO women “Sweetie”, on camera, during his campaign for the job 3 years ago, or whether that same current President knew about a plan to arm dangerous Mexican drug cartels with American weapons; No, rather than turning this into a platform for speculation over minutia, I will instead stick to important issues: Kids misbehaving.

This week’s rant: Dystopian, or Destructive?

By now, most of you have heard that Occupy Oakland is conducting a “general strike” today (Wednesday, November 2nd). Never mind that an actual strike is a work stoppage to make a point about work conditions/wages to one’s employer. And people camping in parks for weeks on end can’t technically be considered “employment” (at least, not until O’s Jobs Bill passes).

Nonetheless, “strike” is their term, so let’s run with it. This is being presented as a courageous move, a show of solidarity. Some occupiers are even couching it in language reminiscent of Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel, “Atlas Shrugged.” (On DVD next Tuesday, by the way.)

True enough, Rand’s working title for the story was “The Strike,” but she scrapped it due to Teamster (at the time) connotations. The disconnect here is not subtle. Occupy organizers wish to cloak themselves in heroic archetypal imagery (“combatting the evil 1%,” etc.). Yet, through our abysmal indoctrin… er, education system, they have missed the actual, truly heroic aspects of John Galt, and, truth be told, Robin Hood, as well.

Galt was a producer, whose innovations by themselves would benefit all of humanity, without the government taking even a single penny of his wealth. Yet, because government insisted on restricting his efforts via punitive taxes & regulations (Directive 10-289, anyone?), he went on strike. His strike deprived government and society of his talent AND treasure. The country went to hell & they *begged* him to come back & LEAD them. He refused, because they would not agree to his one simple term. (Read the book for more on that.)

Likewise, the story of Robin Hood has been contorted. Occupiers (and, frankly, most others) would probably tell you he “stole from the rich & gave to the poor.” That is patently false. In the legend, acting King John imposed hefty taxes & duties upon all of society, to expand his wealth & fund the crusade his brother was leading. The poor were, of course, hit very hard. When their money ran out, their property & crops were seized. Robin saw people starving, at the hands of their government, and set out to restore their rightful property. Essentially, it’s a moral tale about private property and actual justice, NOT redistribution and “social” justice.

In America today, we are nowhere near the circumstances in which Robin Hood found himself. We are, rather, MUCH closer to the dystopian collectivist landscape Ayn Rand envisioned (and how could she have imagined such a place, having emigrated from the grand Communist Utopia of Russia? *sarcasm*)
No, here in America today, the bottom 47% of wage-earners either pay no taxes, or get refunds above and beyond what they pay in. And that’s not counting social subsidies (i.e.: SNAP, WIC, TANIF, Section 8, Medicaid, minimum wage, etc.).

This being the case, then, it is patently absurd for occupiers to assume the mantle of “heroic warriors for the downtrodden.” If they truly were, they’d be occupying regulatory bureaucracies and calling for “the 99%” (or at least 47%) to put “skin in the game.”

But the current course of the occupy movement (strike aside) suggests much more a desire for destruction than a dystopian “going Galt.” But, with “the 99%” calling for even more regulation and punitive taxation on the producers, they are more likely to end up with an Atlas Shrugged scenario, as those producers, those Galts, reach their last straws, “go Galt,” and leave #ows literally high and dry.

What the occupiers don’t understand, because they don’t follow through to their “demands’ ” logical conclusion, is this: The “top 1%,” (like Galt, Mulligan, Wyatt, Halley, et al) can outrun the collapse of this system, because they don’t *depend* on it. Question is: can YOU? Occupiers?

A Time For Choosing

“A political battle is merely a skirmish fought with muskets. A philosophical battle is a nuclear war.” These words were written by Ayn Rand way back in 1964. This sentiment was, at one time, shared by the Tea Party groups that inhabit central Virginia. They understood that the time for fixing those metaphorical rusty bayonets to unreliable antique muskets was past, and that a new war was raging.

This new struggle represents a fundamental disagreement over the very philosophical basis of our great Republic, and whether our future course will reflect or even remotely resemble it.

There are still a few who recognize this central fact upon which the national Tea Party movement was built, but there are many more who fall into the ranks of what the central Virginia Tea Party has now become: yet another partisan group, concerned merely with short-term political victory. Preferably Republican.

There are far too many examples of this paradigm shift to include in the limited space allotted here, so the most egregious will have to suffice. During the 5th District GOP primary, 6 truly conservative candidates garnered over fifty-two percent of the vote, giving a clear indication of their lack of enthusiasm for and/or trust of State Senator Robert Hurt.

Tea Party leaders throughout the Fighting Fifth also voiced their displeasure with his voting record, some even going so far as to formally endorse other candidates.

But all that changed rapidly, once the primary was over. The GOP, which already had their hooks deep into the local Tea Party groups, began flexing their muscles even more.

The whispers of “Come with us. We’ve been around longer and we understand how to get things done in politics” gained volume and force, and the Tea Party groups (and some former primary candidates) believed that they were becoming the bestest buddies of the GOP. They were convinced they would be granted a prime place at the GOP table, if only they would capitulate, grovel, and compromise “just this once.”

And the Tea Parties, throwing caution to the wind and consciously ignoring those old warnings from Mom and Dad, accepted the sucker and climbed into the panel van with the nice man who was surely sent by Mom to pick them up, just as he told them he was.

Some have said that the Tea Party movement has been hijacked. I disagree and submit that it is much more in keeping with the preceding scenario; a consensual kidnapping. What one friend of mine refers to as “the political equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome.”

The next indication that local Tea Party groups have confused this battle with a political one is their shameful treatment of Independent conservative Jeff Clark. The fear campaign from the right has convinced Tea Party “leaders” that the future of the entire Republic hinges on Virginia’s Fifth District.

In a classic case of missing the forest and running face-first into an individual tree, they have conflated Tom Perriello with Nancy Pelosi, his values and record be damned.

I am by no means a Perriello supporter, as evidenced by the fact that I launched a campaign to run against him, before the ’08 recount was even finalized. My concern here is that principles be paramount.

I know Tom’s principles, and I know Jeff’s. Because they both draw their principles from a deeply-held personal philosophy. Robert Hurt’s principles, according to me and every single candidate that challenged him in the primary, are skin deep and subject to change without a moment’s notice.

The local Tea Parties staunchly opposed Hurt in the primary. This race is being watched closely on a national (and even international) level. Adding those two factors together, a victory by Robert Hurt next Tuesday will be trumpeted by the vast majority of the national media as an embarrassing defeat for the Tea Party movement.

To return to the beginning: “A philosophical battle is a nuclear war.” And a vote for Robert Hurt is the equivalent of signing a unilateral disarmament treaty in 1977.

Guest Post: Does Robert Hurt Have A Cocaine Problem?

After reflection, soul searching, and prayer, I have decided to bring forward information on Senator Hurt’s past that, so far, the press has either been ignorant of or has decided to ignore. In either scenario, lackluster reporters like Catherine Amos and Janelle Rucker have let down the public by failing to reveal important facts about Senator Hurt, the man, and his character.

Hurtards like to think that Senator Hurt is just a local Southside boy. They ignore that he was born into wealth and spent most of his early childhood either in New York City or at one of the nation’s most elite and privileged boarding schools. After attending a series of safety private schools to satisfy the claim that he has a degree, he began to practice law in Pittsylvania County. But with his background of power and privilege, how much work does Senator Hurt actually do at his law firm? And who does he work for?

In at least two cases, Senator Hurt served as the attorney for criminals involved in crack cocaine dealing. This supposed man of character and integrity decided that defense of drug dealers in Southside Virginia was the best use of his talent and resources.

The first is related to a large drug bust of a crack cocaine ring in the New River Valley. Senator Hurt represented one of the men involved in this ring, Gregory Smith, who was eventually sentence to 13 years in prison for his role. And what was part of Smith’s role?

Ashley Nicole “Red” Franklin’s boyfriend, Gregory Douglas “Binky” Smith, introduced her to cocaine when she was 16. Franklin, 19, later became an addict and a distributor.

Interestingly, the original article from the Roanoke Times outlining Senator Hurt’s role in defending Smith is no longer available through their website, while the original outlining about the cocaine ring from an earlier date is still up. Here is the transcript of the article linking Senator Hurt to a drug dealer who addicted a young teenage girl to crack cocaine.

MAN GETS 13 YEARS FOR ROLE IN DRUG RING

A federal judge sentenced a Radford man to more than 13 years in prison in connection with his participation in a large crack cocaine ring in the New River Valley.

Judge Samuel Wilson said that he took Gregory Smith’s extensive criminal history into account as part of the sentence. Smith, 31, is the first of 11 defendants to be sentenced in connection with the ring. Federal authorities have argued that at its height, the ring trafficked 1 to 5 kilograms of crack and powder cocaine per month into the New River Valley.

All of the defendants in the case have pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy charges, except the alleged ringleader, Richard Lamont Lighty.

Wilson also said he took into consideration the argument by Smith’s attorney, Robert Hurt of Chatham, that Smith was a minor player in the drug conspiracy.

Smith, already in custody on state charges, will have to serve his federal sentence consecutively, Wilson said. He also fined Smith $1,000.

Does Senator Hurt still believe that addicting young girls to crack cocaine is a “minor” part of the drug trade? The only thing “minor” here was the age of the girl when her life was ruined by illegal drugs.

In a second case, decided earlier this year, Robert Hurt represented a convicted criminal, Alpheus Spencer Adams, involved in the cocaine trade. Here Senator Hurt was representing a criminal attempting to use the appeals system to get his conviction overturned on a technicality, and the courts rightly ruled against these shenanigans.

I am disgusting that the media in the 5th District has been unable to perform its minimal task of looking into the background of candidates for public office. Jeff Clark’s name has been dragged through the mud, but no one has even touched Robert Hurt’s record. This is just the first step in revealing the true Robert Hurt.

(h/t to NotAndySere)

An Open Letter to VA05 Tea Partiers

(This is a guest post from my friend, James Curtis. Please read carefully because, as little as we may like it, he’s right.)

An Open Letter to the “Tea Partiers” of Virginia’s Fifth District

Dear colleagues,

I have a piece of good news for you and some bits of bad news. The good news is that Tom Perriello’s days as our Congressman are numbered. The bad news is that Robert Hurt doesn’t need our votes to win in November.

Many of the various political and demographical factors that came together in 2008 to allow Perriello to oust longtime Congressman Virgil Goode will not be factors in 2010. Those factors included a suppression of Republican/ conservative voters who were unhappy with the nomination of John McCain and the realization that Obama was being projected to win the election, maybe even carrying Virginia in the process. The Obama nomination invigorated the District’s Democratic/ progressive voters, as well as independents attracted to the candidate’s promises for “change” and anxious to participate in the historical election of the republic’s first African-American president. There was also the speculation that some University of Virginia students fraudulently registered to vote in both their home districts and locally, or in whichever district their votes would be more “effective” in electing Obama.

Of course, the partisan Democrats and independent progressives of the 5th District will vote for Perriello in November. But, without the additional independent and transient voters, Perriello’s level of support should return to about 35-40%, as indicated by the vote totals of the 2002 – 2006 elections.

As demonstrated in the recent Republican primary, Robert Hurt does not need our votes to win. In fact, despite the efforts of so many within the Tea Party to nominate one of the other six candidates who in various ways were more in line with our principles of smaller government and fiscal responsibility (the candidates demonstrated varying levels of respect for individual rights), Hurt’s double digit margin of victory demonstrates that there are enough partisan Republicans in the district to easily secure the nomination for the party insider. The bad news for the Tea Party is that Hurt has confirmed that he does not need our votes. He simply needs to focus his message toward those partisan Republican and conservative independents to also win in November.

(Yes, despite the protests of many within the Tea Party, Hurt is a conservative, but that is a matter for a different discussion.) If this were a two way race, Hurt would win about 60% of the vote, again consistent with 2002 – 2006 results. To solidify victory, he will continue to pay lip service to the Tea Party principles, enough so to win a fair share of our votes, or to convince some of us that he has learned his lesson as far as voting for expansions in government.

Many of the Tea Party crowd are worried that the independent campaign of Jeff Clark will somehow split the small government (conservative, libertarian, independent) vote in a manner that Perriello’s 40% will be a large enough vote total to win. Historically, independent or third party can expect about 2 to 3 percent of the vote from independent voters of all political persuasions and protest votes from those who will vote for anyone who doesn’t have a “D” or an “R” next to his or her name. Extrapolating this data, Clark’s presence on the ballot would be expected to change a 60/40 race into a 58/39/3 race.

The impact that Tea Party voters will have in November will be in determining what Hurt’s, Clark’s and Perriello’s final percentages will be, because these are “extra” votes to be allocated among the candidates. Just like the district experienced a surge in Democrat-inclined voters in 2008, it will experience additional small government supporters this year. None of these additional supporters will improve Perriello’s position; they will simply add votes to either Hurt’s or Clark’s total. However, they will not create a defection of supporters from Hurt to Clark that would result in a Perriello victory.

So, the worst news for Tea Party supporters is that they have missed their chance to affect the 2010 5th District Congressional race. As unsavory as this will sound to Tea Partiers who wish to impact this year’s election, now that Hurt has secured the Republican nomination, this is his race to win or lose. If Tea Party supporters wish to have an impact in the 5th District, they will have to refocus their efforts on the next round of elections.

But keep in mind that the fight to restore the Republic will not be won or lost in November, and that many battles lay ahead for us who wish to return it to its Constitutional foundations. Whatever your assessment of Hurt’s impending election, do not lose sight of the larger objectives nor hope that we can be successful.

In Liberty,
James Curtis
Charlottesville, VA

(About the author:
James is a member of the Jefferson Area Tea Party, as well as the Treasurer of the Libertarian Party of Virginia and Jefferson Area Libertarians. He has spoken at Tea Party events hosted by the JATP and Lynchburg Tea Party. He is a two time graduate of the University of Virginia, with degrees in Government and Accounting, and owns a tax and consulting practice just outside of Charlottesville.)

Bradley here, with an additional note. First, I took the liberty of adding special emphasis to the last paragraph. Secondly, James’ assessment is largely correct, though I could see Jeff going as high as 10%, if enough people are willing to stand on principle.

I posted this here to allow a greater outlet for James’ words, and to help spread the knowledge that we can send a message to the GOP establishment without returning Perriello to DC. If nothing else, we have learned many valuable lessons from this primary process. This is information we should use wisely in the next go-round.

As for this election cycle, my path is set: in November, I will be voting for Jeff Clark, and I will move forward from there with a conscience that is absolutely clear.

What you choose to do is no one’s decision but your own. One bit of advice: use wisely your power of choice. And please, stay engaged in the battlefield of ideas. This process is long and tiring, I know, but the end goal of restoring our republic is well worth our continued sweat and exertion.

As always, thanks for reading.
For Liberty,
Bradley S. Rees

My Daughter’s Performance

Balance Beam/Cheer: (This is TOO cute) –

And… The Follow-Up

Here is my second post for the Virginia Tenth Amendment Center, which is basically a follow-up to the post below.

Also, visit the “Sons Of Liberty Radio” page for a link to archived podcasts of my BlogTalkRadio shows, which have featured Josh Eboch (from the VA Tenth Center) and Michael Boldin (founder of The Tenth Amendment Center, based in Los Angeles, California).

Unnecessary Swamp-Dwelling

In Virginia’s Fifth District (where I live), as well as across the nation, people are beginning to ask the fundamental questions. What remains to be seen is this: whether enough sets of lips will give voice to them before it becomes too late.

In my last post, I compared our political landscape to a forest. However, a more apt analogy may be a swamp (appropriately enough, considering the original terrain of our nation’s capital).

The reason I say this is simple: We seem to have gotten bogged down in partisanship and stuck waist-deep in certain issues that, ultimately, bear little consequence in our current economic climate.

“Social” conservatives and “social justice” liberals will both strap on the hip-waders of morality to justify their ends, yet both equally miss the mark when trying to square their respective positions with the Founders’ vision of liberty and, moreover, Federalism.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to open the door for a debate on whether the Founders envisioned a moral society. Their own writings leave no wiggle room between door and jamb, on that score.

But, in the far right’s refusal to acknowledge the significance of the 9th Amendment, and the far left’s misguided interpretation of the 10th (due mostly to a blatant misreading of Article 1, Section 8), both tend to forget other important elements of our Founding documents.

More importantly, they misinterpret (or simply disregard) the frame of mind of those who wrote them. We know the Founders were intensely aware of the severe danger posed by a monarchy or similarly dictatorial style of governance.

What some of us too often neglect is that they had just as much, if not more, fear of a theocratic State. But, in reality, are they that dissimilar?

Theocratic rule in England was made that much more powerful by the complementary system of hereditary Monarchy. But, in the absence of that particular style of government, would a theocracy be any less brutal? Would it be any less a danger to the rights and liberty of the under-class?

The Founders knew, from both experience and intellectual honesty, that the answer to both preceding questions is a resounding “No!”

Again, it is clearly understood that the Founders were moral men, and many of them were deeply religious, holding their God, and the principles He inspired, as their moral code for dealing with their fellow man.

Indeed, Jefferson wrote into the Declaration and the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions their commonly held belief that man’s natural rights are derived from God.

Yet, you will notice that the Bill of Rights is NOT a recitation of the Ten Commandments. In fact, many of the principal tenets of traditional Judeo-Christian faith are not even hinted at in any of our founding documents.

The Founders’ stipulation that we should strive to maintain a moral society can be summed up thusly:

That, as free men, we are endowed with certain rights which confer NO obligation on our fellow man, save one: that they refrain from violating them. And we likewise refrain from violating their rights, whether through force or fraud.

The former was the basis for Ayn Rand’s great anti-statist novel, Atlas Shrugged, and was the underpinning of her Objectivist philosophy.

Yet, it should be noted here, she was an avowed atheist. The concept of man’s rights being derived from our Creator did not hold any weight with her. She argued that, simply by virtue of being human, these rights belong to us.

The point is, we can find broad agreement on these simple points, across typical dividing lines of race, religion, and even political loyalty.

Why, then, must we sink into the swamp of arguing over moral issues which are typically the product of religious ideology?

The Founders would be ashamed and saddened to see their writings, and the system of governance they debated over, lost sleep to put into writing, and even bled for, being reduced to the heap of rubble it will surely become.

And all because we refused to rise from the mire of social issues and face our Republic’s true threat: the loss of liberty. This liberty is being taken away from all of us, from pro-life to pro-choice, from recreational drug user to ardent drug prohibitionist, from quiet heterosexual to flamboyant Gay Pride parade organizer.

And it is happening much more rapidly now than ever before.

It had been said, “It’s hard to remember you’re there to drain the swamp when you’re armpit deep in alligators.”

I would submit to you, dear reader, that the alligators are above the shoreline, gnawing away at this great Republic.

Can we commence with draining the Social Issues Swamp? I think you will find that, once we do, those who have been in the swamp with us, mud wrestling over these issues, will pick up shovels and join us in marching as one united force to beat back the alligators.

Once the Republic is secure, maybe we can get back to the Founders’ words, in the Federalist papers and Amendments 9 and 10, and find that we had no reason to be in that swamp in the first place.