Gilbert Keith Chesterton is Pure Dead Brilliant

I really, really love Mr. Gilbert Keith Chesterton, who is unfortunately deceased, having died in 1936, which I consider to be the biggest crime he ever committed. What business had he to die? Bah. He should have lived at least another hundred years to keep on writing.

At any rate, I've been reading Man Alive and came across these particular gems which beamed brightly from the pages and so delighted me that I not only had to read them several times, but also had to (willingly) maim my book with a pencil to make them stand out all the more. But I'll shut up and let my dear friend speak.

It is the fashion to talk of institutions as cold and cramping things. The truth is that when people are in exceptionally high spirits, really wild with freedom and invention, they always must, and they always do, create institutions. When men are weary they fall into anarchy; but while they are gay and vigorous they invariably make rules. This, which is true of all the churches and republics of history, is also true of the most trivial parlour game or the most unsophisticated meadow romp. We are never free until some institution frees us; and liberty cannot exist till it is declared by authority.

Ah, what beauty! What brilliance! What poetry! What insight!

Why isn't Chesterton taught in my English classes? Eh?

I suspect it's because he's TOO great. They wouldn't do him justice, that's what.

But I'm probably biased *grin*.

About a bomb and After a Prayer

Really quickly--it has come to my attention that the homeschooler arrested under the patriot act was not as innocent as originally thought (see previous post). I wish I could produce an article for you, but I don't have time to find one. Apparently kids were paying him to make crank calls and bomb threats to their schools. And apparently his mom knew about it. So, I'm outraged that he would do something like that and I'm also relieved that the government hasn't arrested a purely innocent person. HOWEVER, my opinions on the Patriot Act have not changed. That kid was an idiot and deserves to be punished, but I think that the Patriot Act is still an abuse.

And of course, I'm furious because he was 'homeschooled.' He should have known better. My guess is that they were the 'new homeschoolers' (as opposed people who homeschool for Religious conviction and moral concerns -- as did those who started the homeschool movement. My family is an 'old' homeschool family. If homeschooling was aristocracy, we'd be one of the old noble families--families with pride, heritage, history, and values, not one of these nouveau riche families. You homeschoolers know what I'm talking about. But I digress...)

But enough of the news. I spent all day yesterday being depressed over National and World affairs.

I wrote this prayer last night when I should have been working on something else, and it's not a particularly 'good' prayer, but I thought I'd share it with you anyway.

It's easier to Die than it is to Live.
It's harder to Exhale than it is to Inhale.
It's so easy to be Wrong and so difficult to be Right.
It isn't convenient to be good, and it isn't pleasant to suffer.

O Father in heaven, give me a will to Live--
A will to fight for the lives of others,
Even if it should cost my own.
You know it's much simpler
To die for something than it is to truly live for something.
Help me Live for You.

O Father, help me to give and give of myself
And not to expect anything for myself--
And when I do recieve, let me be truly grateful
And recieve with the innocent pleasure of a child--
Taking delight in the love of the giver.

O Father, teach me Truth--You being the Father of truth.
Teach me how and what to learn.
It's so hard to stand up under all the attacks.
I want to keep from being an embarrassment to Your name.
Help me to demolish strongholds in love and humility
And never in anger,
So that those who have declared themselves your enemies
Might be won over.

But Father, it's so hard.
Living is so hard.
Being vigilant is exhausting.
And suffering burns like acid.
It's far more than I can bear.

They say that Religion is a crutch for the weak.
Yes, I am weak, but so are they who think themselves strong.
We are all dead or dying.

Save us, dear Father.
Save us from Your wrath
And save us from our own folly.

I'm not asking for it to be easier--
I'm just asking that You would hold my hand--
That you would help me Live.

Inexcusable abuses of Government

These abuses far exceed the abuses that drove our Founding Fathers to note that there come times "in the course of human Events" in which "it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another" in order to provide for the safety and rights of the people. Listed below are Acts which are 1) Unconstitutional and 2) Immoral. Those of us that believe in man's inalienable rights have, not the right but the duty to oppose injustice, be it legal or illegal. Law cannot create rights, Government cannot create rights, it can only protect rights or encroach upon them. Please take note of these abuses and contact your representatives in congress accordingly.
If we do not fight for Freedom, we cannot call ourselves Americans.

ABUSE 1.
The Patriot Act - providing the Federal government with the legal authority to encroach upon the privacy of citizens and imprison them without due process of law.
-Overview
-Text of the Patriot Act
-Recent case: Teen Homeschooler Arrested Under Patriot Act

FUTURE ABUSES:

ABUSE 2.
Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 - Mandating the federal licensing of gun owners and the keeping of federal sales and ownership records.
This is a bill that has not passed the House yet. Your action is needed to keep it from going through.
-Overview
-Text of the Bill in its current form.
-Synopsis copied from a petition to stop the bill:
This is a synopsis:

• You will have to carry a photo ID firearms license.
• A training class is required to be licensed.
• Disclosure of your storage method is required for license.
• A thumb print is required for license.
• Every sale recorded by the federal government.
• If you move, and don't tell the Attorney General within 60 days, you are a criminal.
• If a firearm is stolen and you don't report it, you are a criminal.
• There will be no grandfathered firearms.
• If you do not obtain a license and report every firearm you currently own, you are a criminal.
• There will be a license fee and a fee for the "services" provided at purchase time.
• Licenses must be renewed every 5 years.

Also see this letter, which was written in opposition to the bill.

ABUSE 3.
H. R. 1913 Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009
-Gives special privileges to minority groups
-Threatens our right to free speech
-Overview, full text
-Letter in opposition

www.congress.org to contact your reps.

And this just one current abuse and two potential abuses (which will be actual as soon as they are passed into law). I could go all day with further abuses, but I haven't got the time.

I really, really, really wish I could just stop talking about politics. I wish I could just blog about something else for a change. But I can't do that (I haven't got the energy) when I see my freedom and my future leaping farther our of reach every single day.

Call me a pessimist, tell me I'm over-reacting if you like, but unless we truly keep our government in check, we must live with the reality that we (or our children) may be the victims of an American holocaust in the future. If you think that's a foolish statement, you haven't studied history. And you know what they say...those that don't know history are doomed. To repeat it.

I wish I could blog about something happy every once in a while...but Congress doesn't let me.

EDIT: This article was just brought to my attention. Headline: Country Trying to Stop Home Bible Studies.

Reason #87 to learn Latin

Pecunias Caesari Obamae, Imperatori Americarum, dedimus. Item servi eius summus. Itaque, miser sum.


(Special thanks to my friend Ellison for helping me write this. I've only been studying Latin for two weeks, so I needed a bit of help.)

Is the Media 'Manufacturing' (Gay) Consent?

Mmm, probably.

Cheers.

Obama says WE GOT NO MONEY!

Well...Duh, Mr. Barack 'Spend-like-there's-no-tomorrow' Obama.

Sometimes our leaders make me very sad.

This year has been one of those times.

Credit cards and...guns?

Hahahaha. Ooooh man. This is funny. Legislators attached a gun rights bill to a bill dealing with credit card charges. I find it funny because they've managed (democrats, at that!) to turn an economically retarded bill into a bill expanding gun rights. Doesn't help the economy any, but if it passes, at least you'll be able to keep your (empty) wallet safe in national parks...

Freedom of Education Threatened

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Education is crucial. Whoever controls education controls the future and the future of our freedom.

On April 29, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Education and Labor Committee heard witnesses concerning the potential reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (Elementary and Secondary Education Act). Instead of allowing local governments to run education, the witnesses of the hearing proposed to centralize education in Washington D. C.--as far removed from the children as possible.

The alleged goals of centralization would be accountability and national standards. There are major problems with this. ‘National standards’ could open the doors for standardized curriculum tests and textbooks. Nationalized textbooks and curriculums are fertile soil for implanting political propaganda. This technique was used by Hitler and Mao Zedong and is alluded to by Marx in The Communist Manifesto.

Nationalized education is a serious threat to liberty because it removes the separation of Education and State. The State will always educate toward its own benefit, not the benefit of the people. History has shown that when the State controls education, politics will eventually take priority and Truth will be relegated to a secondary position (sometimes disregarded altogether).

Furthermore, the government cannot hold itself accountable. Government as a whole is supposed to be accountable to the people. It seems to me that by making schools accountable to the government that we have things backwards.

Much of my concern lies in how nationalizing education would affect private schooling, home schooling, and parents’ rights to choose an education for their children. There is still a great deal of unclarity as to how (and if) this would alter our freedom to choose private schools or to home educate. If national standards are created, will private schools and home schools be subject to these standards? Will educators be able to choose their own curriculums? Or will all of us be forced to accept an inferior (and potentially politically charged) ‘standard’? Will schools be forced to teach certain things and be banned from teaching other things?

The government cannot grant rights; it can only recognize them. Governments that refuse to recognize rights are tyrannical and a move to nationalize education might just open a Pandora's box of such abuses. Furthermore, Government always expands at the expense of freedom and these freedoms, once lost, are extremely difficult to recover. As President Reagan once said, “No government voluntarily reduces itself in size. So government programs once launched never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.”

Having been homeschooled until college myself, I know what a blessing it is to have the freedom to choose my schooling. I don’t want my future children and grandchildren to grow up in a country where ideas are regulated in the name of learning. Freedom of speech cannot survive where there is no freedom of education. Let us ensure that the day never comes when Washington thinks it has the right to replace parents.

Please contact your congressmen and express your concern.

Visit www.congress.org for information on how to best contact your representatives.

(See also my earlier post on this issue.)

Midnight Thought: Perfect Love

Midnight Thought # 2


Love is Rising.

Perfect human love is triangular and rising.

You and I are each at an end. Love is the tension in the span between us.

We must rise to Heaven, you and I. And we must do the same, you and I, with all the other 'I's and 'you's we encounter.

If you choose to sink, to withdraw from light back into your shell of barbarism, I still must rise.

I must rise even if you retrogress into your cave, if you hide, if you fall, if you hate, if your soul is burned by the light.

I must rise and I must try to pull you up with me.

That tension of awareness between us is love. Actually, that is not entirely true: it is the occasion for love.

I know not how you may fare, but I know that I find flight impossible. The best I can do is jump and hope not to fall.

I have never had a perfect love.

Love is rising and I can only fall.

But there is One who can lift me.

Is it Still a Hate Crime if You're Gay?

Here's a little article you should read. I suggest you read all of it. It's not very long.

There's also an embedded video in the article which you should watch. I found it pretty disturbing.

Peace.

Heading toward nationalized education?

Freedom of education is essential.

When you lose the ability to educate according to conscience, you've lost everything.

Freedom of speech cannot survive where educational freedom has fallen.

Contact your reps. Tell 'em they'd better make sure the feds keep their grimy hands out of our kids' heads. They've already got our pockets.

Peace.

Business, Books, and Back from Britain

Aye, you heard right. I'm back from Britain. I no longer reside in Oxford. I'm definitely going to miss it, but it's great to be home.

Been super busy the past few weeks. I spent the past few weeks traveling with my brother Ben who came to visit me before I came home (got back on Tuesday night). And since I've been back, I've been trying to see people and get adjusted to life in America again.

At any rate, all that is boring. Here's something more interesting. It's a list of books that I'm currently reading.

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

The Historical Reliability of the Gospels - Craig L. Blomberg

The Gift of Fire - Richard Mitchell

God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? - John C. Lennox (Finished this one today, actually)

The Roar on the Other Side: A Guide for Student Poets - Sunne U. Clark (This book is written for an audience a little younger than myself, but I figure it'll be an easy book to skim through in an attempt to further educate myself in regards to poetry. I'm embarrassingly ignorant about poetry, I'm afraid--a consequence of having written poetry for years without having actually read any. Terrible situation to be in. I woke up one day--several years ago--and realized that all the 'poetry' I'd ever written was beyond pathetic.)

But anyway, that's just a brief update on what I'm doing. More substantial posts to come as I get myself settled back in to American life.

Cheers.