Beagle Scout

From The Man without a Country, by Edward Everett Hale.

As we lay back in the stern-sheets and the men gave way, he said to me: “Youngster, let that show you what it is to be without a family, without a home, and without a country. And if you are ever tempted to say a word or to do a thing that shall put a bar between you and your family, your home, and your country, pray God in his mercy to take you that instant home to his own heaven. Stick by your family, boy; forget you have a self, while you do everything for them. Think of your home, boy; write and send, and talk about it. Let it be nearer and nearer to your thought, the farther you have to travel from it; and rush back to it when you are free, as that poor black slave is doing now. And for your country, boy,” and the words rattled in his throat, “and for that flag,” and he pointed to the ship, “never dream a dream but of serving her as she bids you, though the service carry you through a thousand hells. No matter what happens to you, no more matter who flatters you or who abuses you, never look at another flag, never let a night pass but you pray God to bless that flag. Remember, boy, that behind all these men you have to do with, behind officers, and government, and people even, there is the Country Herself, your Country, and that you belong to Her as you belong to your own mother. Stand by Her, boy, as you would stand by your mother

Read the entire thing. It isn’t all that long.

Technorati Tags: Patriotism

According to long established tradition in the English common law, and as explained by the eminent Blackstone, the three rights in the Declaration of Independence are as follows.

Life is the right to live, intact with one’s limbs, eyes, and organs. Any physical damage that cripples or removes a limb, or eyes, or kills one violates this right. This definition was important because according to the common law people had the right to defend themselves with lethal force if they were under threat of losing life or limb.

Liberty is the right to move about freely. Any false imprisonment, clapping into slavery, or kidnapping violates this right. Once again, under the common law people had the right to defend themselves with lethal force if they are under threat of losing their liberty.

Property is the right to keep the fruits of one’s own labor, including items that are improved from their natural state, and to transfer the rights to this property to others as one wishes. If people become wealthy through their hard work, they can trade for the things they like, buy and sell items, and pass property on to charities or family as they wish. This is also known as the Right to the Pursuit of Happiness, because if happiness is brought nearer by a life without hardships, and hard work and the accumulation of property leads to a life without undue hardships, then they are one and the same. Certainly people cannot be happy if they are forced to constantly struggle in abject poverty for food, a bed, and a roof over their head. (more…)

Canadians are so polite it’s just amazing. For example, the other day Ann Coulter received a letter from a provost at the University of Ottawa warning her to watch her mouth or she might be arrested and thrown in the hoosegow. The interesting part went like this.

Canadian law puts reasonable limits on the freedom of expression. For example, promoting hatred against any identifiable group would not only be considered inappropriate, but could in fact lead to criminal charges. Outside of the criminal realm, Canadian defamation laws also limit freedom of expression and may differ somewhat from those to which you are accustomed. I therefore ask you, while you are a guest on our campus, to weigh your words with respect and civility in mind.

There is a strong tradition in Canada, including at this university, of restraint, respect and consideration in expressing even provocative and controversial opinions and urge you to respect that Canadian tradition while on our campus. Hopefully, you will understand and agree that what may, at first glance, seem like unnecessary restrictions to freedom of expression do, in fact, lead not only to a more civilized discussion, but to a more meaningful, reasoned and intelligent one as well.

Ann Coulter responded with musings about how she would file a Hate Speech complaint, including in a letter to the Ottawa Citizen:

The provost simply believes and is publicizing his belief that conservatives are more likely to commit hate crimes in their speeches. Not only does this promote hatred against conservatives, but it promotes violence against conservatives. [link]

Whose speech stirred up violence and hatred again? Was it Coulter’s or the provost’s?

Technorati Tags: Senate, Government, Deeming, Amendment, Healthcare Highjack

Pelosi’s gang have the greatest claims for this bill. They can promise the world, since nobody has yet seen the bill. It might as well be the chupacabra, because it’s just as easy to see. I also suspect the bill’s a killer, just like the NHS and the X-Files version of the chupacabra.

1. Reduces the deficit;
   It nearly breaks even by paying for 6 years of benefits with 10 years of increased taxes. And it only ends up 800 billion in the red after ten years. In the second ten years that means it will be 40% over budget. How exactly is that reducing the deficit? By the way, I plan to pay my full year’s taxes next year on only 6 months of my income. The IRS understands and agrees with Congress’s math, right?
2. Cracks down on Medicare waste, fraud, and abuse;
   Does this require a new law? Why in the world hasn’t the super genius Democrat Party-controlled congress already done this? Or was it because they like Medicare fraud?
3. Provides historic tax credit for small businesses and individuals to purchase health insurance;
   Small business already has a tax benefit for supplying healthcare. It might not be a temporary, targeted tax credit that doesn’t do a darn bit of good, but it is better because it is continuing rather than one-time-only.
4. Allows consumers to shop for health insurance across state lines via multi-state compacts;
   What else is involved in a compact? Why not just repeal the states’ exemption from the interstate commerce clause when it comes to insurance? Force them to allow insurance to be sold in their markets without imposing requirements. Let the consumer decide the coverage they want instead of some busybody insurance commissioner and the lobbyists who took the busybody insurance commissioner to lunch.
5. Inaugurates medical malpractice reforms, (an area where the GOP failed to take any action when in charge of Congress for 12 years).
   It imposes mediation. That is not malpractice reform. That just raises costs even faster than the ambulance chaser lawsuit lottery.

   Also they claim it will do these things immediately…

6. Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;
   Temporary, targeted, based on the assumption that a one-time $3000 tax credit will convince companies to hire permanent $50K per year (unionized) employees. In other words, this is a fairy tale.
7. Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;
   So if my kid breaks his leg I can buy insurance ten minutes later and the hospital will fix him up and charge it to my brand spanking new policy? What could go wrong with that?!
8. Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool;
   This requires a 2700 page law plus a 2300 page reconciliation package? Are you insane?
9. Prohibit dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;
   Sounds like it will raise insurance rates a LOT.
10. Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;
    Sounds like it will raise insurance rates a LOT.
11. Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs;
    More regulation of insurance companies… Don’t added regulations just increase costs? Utility rate boards have done such a great job of keeping utility rates low… That was sarcasm in case you couldn’t tell.
12. Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;
    How do we appeal insurance plan decisions made by the government single-payer plans we will all get thrown into because of the fine and tax structure in the bill? By the way, the worst health insurance for denying claims is MEDICARE! What’s it going to be like after Obamacare forces everyone in the whole country onto Medicare and Medicaid?
13. Require plans to cover an enrollee’s dependent children until age 26;
    Let’s increase their parents’ costs some more. It’s not like we ever want kids to grow up and move the hell out, is it?
14. Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;
    Great. More stuff for free, encouraging people to use medical services wastefully. I plan to be tested for pregnancy at the Doc’s office monthly. I recommend all men do the same.
15. Relief on the Donut Hole.
    What in the world is a Donut Hole?

Anybody with better answers?

Bueller?

Technorati Tags: Obamacare, Common Sense, Healthcare Highjack

The Captain’s Journal, The Media, the New Media, and U. S. Intelligence

• Takeaway: DoD Intelligence is finally recognizing the usefulness of open source intelligence and accurate history as practiced by bloggers sitting in basements, and as compared with the relative uselessness of politicized intelligence coming from the official US intelligence community.

Shannon Love at Chicago Boyz, Why Alternative Power is and will Remain Useless

• Quote: There exists no alternative energy source, no combination of alternative energy sources, and no system of combinations of alternative energy sources that can fully replace a single, coal fired electric plant built with 1930s era technology.

Shannon Love at Chicago Boyz, Does the President actually understand the Concept of Insurance?

• Quote: Liability insurance pays for the damage that you might do to the property and lives of others. Comprehensive pays to repair the damage to your own car. The law requires that you protect the rights of others, it doesn’t require that pay for your own car in any particular way. Everybody knows this.
• Takeaway: Everybody except Obama.

Gateway Pundit, Upward Bound is Down… Radical Sexual Indoctrination of Kids is In

• Upward Bound, which has a 95% rate of rehabilitating at-risk youth and getting them to graduate from four-year colleges, is being cut. Funding to teach fisting in schools is being increased.
• Takeaway: Jennings and GLSEN want homosexual, bisexual and transgender themes taught in every subject at every grade, all the way down to the kindergarten level, maybe even preschool.

Gateway Pundit, 12th Imam Appears, gets arrested by Iranian Regime

• On Friday during the local Friday sermon, in the southern Iranian city of Bandar Abbass, a young man presented himself as the Mahdi and claimed to have been sent by God to bring enlightenment and blessings to people. Soon after this however he was arrested by agents of the revolutionary guards.

Belmont Club, Masters of the Unvierse

• Are interstellar aliens likely to be peacemongering progressives, or somewhat more ruthless?

Robert LeFevre at Mises.org, The Birth of a Man

• Takeaway: What is needed is a Declaration of Individual Independence

Liz Blaine at Newsreal, How to Beat Leftists and Astroturfers

• While lurking the web I ran across a set of videos that fall into the “must view” category for conservatives this year. Recorded during Conservative New Media’s workshop the videos focus on tactics used by leftists and astroturfers during the 2008 primaries and election, and methods to defeat them.

Technorati Tags: Roundup, Interesting Articles