Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility 

Let the games begin…

The clan representatives carried their unlit torches out onto the field. The chieftain lit his torch from the fire that was lit upon the hilltop to call the clans together. He then lit the central torch. From this the flame was transferred to each of the clans. Then amidst the flaming saltire we heard these words…

“Let the games begin…”

The 63rd Annual Pacific Northwest Scottish Highland Games and Clan Gathering has begun. This is going to be fun.

Maybe this is the plan…

Who says that the people on the opposite side of the aisle don’t read the founding fathers for inspiration? As I was reading the Friday Digest from The Patriot Post this morning, I realized that it’s almost a certainty that a few of them at least have read Thomas Jefferson…

“Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread.”
– Thomas Jefferson

Think about it for a minute or two and I'm sure that you can convince yourself that this is the case (that they’ve read Jefferson). It’s just that they take a different interpretation than you and I might. Where you and I might see Mr. Jefferson’s statement as an argument against big government, surely the left sees it as an argument for big government.

Are too many cars polluting our air and wasting the world’s valuable resources (What is it that makes them valuable anyway, other than how they are used?) – then we need to ensure that there are fewer cars. So regulating the auto industry to death with ever more difficult to achieve standards and red tape can be seen as a good thing. It means fewer cars and trucks on the roads polluting the air we breath and consuming all of that steel and gasoline. Looked at in this way, the government takeover of General Motors must be a good thing.

Is our population growing to unsustainable levels? Are old people a drain on the system? Do we have too many retirees for the government’s Social Security programs to sustain themselves? Well then, let’s make energy prohibitively expensive by regulating away it’s sources. After all, if people have to choose between heating their homes and eating, which will they choose? If it costs too much to air condition their homes in the summer, the heat will help to reduce the surplus population. And of course, if we regulate away the domestic production of gasoline and petroleum, there will be less of them available for driving our economy. Food will become more expensive, which will mean fewer people eating it. It’s a win-win for Social Security.

If we make coal fired electrical plants prohibitively expensive to build or upgrade by requiring them not to produce carbon dioxide then there will be fewer of them. New ones won’t be built and old ones will be decommissioned. We need to make sure though that alternative energy sources don’t get built either. So let’s be sure to exaggerate the problems associated with nuclear power. Let’s tear down the dams in the name of salmon too so there’s less hydroelectric power. A side benefit of that one is reduced water supplies, so government agencies can charge more for clean water. And of course less clean water means less people too right?

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently noted that eugenics was one of the arguments in favor of abortion at the time Roe v. Wade was being argued…

Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.

Now isn’t that an interesting statement? At a time when we were struggling to end racism the very people championing so-called reproductive freedom were really supporting a racist policy of eugenics? Let’s keep the surplus population down folks, through government regulation. Why, abortion is such a necessary component of the war on humanity that we can’t even allow doctors and pharmacists the freedom of conscience. We require them to violate the Hippocratic oath and perform them…

I swear by Apollo, the healer, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following Oath and agreement:

To consider dear to me, as my parents, him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and, if necessary, to share my goods with him; To look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art.

I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.

I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.

But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts.

I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art.

In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.

All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal.

If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot.

I’ve highlighted a couple of lines there, particularly the one about abortion. The other line is also notable in light of the war on humanity today. In some states, including Oregon and Washington the law now allows the euphemistically named physician assisted suicide. Hippocrates, the father of western medicine would be appalled.

Yes, it seems to me that the left has indeed read the founders. It seems to me that so many environmentalists think that mankind is a stain on the planet (this is hardly a new observation, others have noted it as well), that perhaps they look to government regulation as a way to reduce the surplus population, taking their inspiration from Mr. Jefferson. I’m sure Thomas Jefferson, who fought for limited government, would be appalled.