Category Archives: Natural Law

UPDATE II: War Games: Smash ‘Em & Put Them Together Again

Criminal Injustice, Ethics, Middle East, Military, Morality, Natural Law, Terrorism, The State, War

Look; isn’t Uncle Sam wonderful? This little Pakistani girl below “was burned beyond recognition by a U.S. drone and left for dead in a trashcan. … She was found by a medical mission team two years ago and was described as ‘lucky’ by staff as two other children found with her were killed by the military attack.”

The child was “brought to the U.S. from her home in Pakistan,” where American surgeons patched her up, sort of. That’s the least we Americans can do. One of her new caregivers named the child Shakira, which means thankful. Evidently some dolt thinks little Shakira should be grateful that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men COULD put little Shakira together again.

UPDATE I (Dec. 23): FROM “JUST WAR FOR DUMMIES” (March 12, 2003):

I’m no pacifist. While I don’t condone the lingering American presence in Afghanistan, and while I doubt the abilities of the U.S. military to contain al-Qaida there, I supported going after bin Laden’s group in that country. That was a legitimate act of retaliation and defense, accommodated within St. Augustine’s teachings, whereby a just war is one “that avenges wrongs, when a nation or state has to be punished, for refusing to make amends for the wrongs inflicted by its subjects.”
Al-Qaida was responsible for the murder of 3,000 Americans. The Taliban openly succored the organization and its masterminding leadership. Mr. Bush had asked the hosting Taliban to surrender bin Laden and his gang. The Taliban refused, insisting on defending their murderous guests.

UPDATE II (Dec. 24): In reply to Theodor Lauppert below: And this writer “isn’t generally considered a source for” the strengthening of the positive law, international or other.

Not a System; But Life Itself

Free Markets, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Liberty, Natural Law

I missed the Republican debate last night. The weekly, WND column was to be devoted to that bit of sparring. But lo, 8:00 PM EST rolled round, and there was no debate on CNN, FoxNews and Business, MSNBC, etc. There were references to The Debate, but the newsmen who’re supposed to say, Where, What, When, Why, Who—they refuse to give it up when the ratings don’t accrue to their network.

Here is the “Complete Transcript of the Hanover Economic Debate.”

Hermann Cain promised to “re-establish confidence in our system.” “Our system.” How I hate that phrase. Everyone uses it with reference to the voluntary free market.

Such crude utilitarianism.

“The free market—it has not been unfettered for a very long time—is really is a spontaneously synchronized order comprising trillions upon trillions of voluntary acts that individuals perform in order to make a living. Introduce government force and coercion into this rhythm, and you get life-threatening arrhythmia. Under increasing state control, this marketplace—this magic, organic agora—starts to splutter and people suffer.” [By The Free Woman]

They all call it The System. It is not. The free market is a sacred extension of life itself.

Remember the cult, 1967 British television series, “The Prisoner”? Google “I am not a number—I am a free man!”. (Whenever “Number 6” (the individual) attempted to escape from “The Village” (the collective), a giant balloon called “Rover” gave chase and subdued him.)

The free market is us; at least everyone of us who is not a moocher or a looter. If this “collective” had a voice it would scream, “I am not a system I am life itself.”

UPDATE II: The Perils of a Killer President (Parlaying Vice into Votes)

Barack Obama, Constitution, Ethics, Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, Individual Rights, Iran, Islam, Justice, Law, Middle East, Natural Law, Ron Paul, Terrorism

He oversees nothing but destruction. But practically everyone except Rep. Ron Paul (and most assuredly Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio) is praising the exercise of an extrajudicial, unconstitutional execution by President Barack Obama.

Anwar al-Awlaki was terminated today in Yemen (in violation of that country’s sovereignty). According to the say-so of U.S. officials, this American-born cleric is said to have “played a ‘significant operational role’ in plotting and inspiring attacks on the United States.”

Good enough evidence in the court of the imperial presidency and his adherents and architects (like Dick Cheney).

Outside of a war zone, as Awlaki was, lethal force can only be employed in the narrowest and most extraordinary circumstances: when there is a concrete, specific and imminent threat of an attack; and even then, deadly force must be a last resort

(The Guardian)

“The targeted assassination program that started under President Bush and expanded under the Obama Administration essentially grants the executive the power to kill any U.S. citizen deemed a threat, without any judicial oversight, or any of the rights afforded by our Constitution. If we allow such gross overreaches of power to continue, we are setting the stage for increasing erosion of civil liberties and the rule of law.” (The Center for Constitutional Rights)

WARNING: Thanks to the wastrel ways of the killer-in-chief and his predecessor (Genghis Bush), America is getting weaker, not stronger. A weakened bully is extra vulnerable.

Note to all Americans who want to go out into the world and soak up the sensation of spring in Arabia, Asia and elsewhere: As hard as it is to grasp, the world is not your friend. Remember what befell a couple of American hikers who wondered into … Iran, after backpacking across … Iraq. You heard right. Their touchy-feely friends stateside vouched for their amaaazingness and thirst to embrace the world. Apparently, the feeling in Iran was not mutual. (By the way, who paid the million-dollar ransom for those bozos? Did taxpayers subsidize that stupidity?)

UPDATE I: A chilling thread on my Facebook Page. Having skimmed the general thrust of the comments, here is my response:

“What are you freedom fighters so afraid of? The rule of law? Due process? A court of law? Twelve jurors? A Judge? You can’t just assert a man’s guilt; you must prove it with credible evidence. You can’t accept the say-so of the state. What is most chilling in a thread I’ve only skimmed is that, if I were to be arrested tomorrow by the Obama-Bush bot apparatus, and you were all told I as was a militia member (read “Missouri Police State: Beware Of People Like … Mercer”; I qualify)—you’d all be, ‘Yeah, yeah , that makes sense. We could see it coming. Go get Ilana.’ All of you except for Bill Meyer and a few others.”

UPDATE II (Oct. 1): As I put it in my latest column, politicians parlay human vice into votes. The Obama fairy dust is dissipating. The president is good at coordinating terrorism-related killings. (Or perhaps he is simply lucky on this front.) Perhaps this most cynical and wily of politicians is simply playing to the crowd. Murder is one way to unite the bifurcated American voter.

Myron: Your analogy about attacker vs. attacked extinguishing borders doesn’t work in this instance. For one thing, Israel is attacked from Gaza and the West Bank with more than words. When last did Yemen attack the US? That “country” harbors a couple of clerics who write fiery tracts on the Internet. For another, I am unable to tell how bad al-Awlaki’s authentic words were because, er, I can’t access them in the original. I have to contend with US government filtered hearsay. Besides, US law gives wide latitude to speech. We’d have to show that this man was an organizer, a direct funder of terrorism and terrorists. Due process takes care of all that—you know, the pesky need to shore-up your case with evidence.

The BHO strategy works: “According to an Associated Press-GfK poll conducted in late August, … 60 percent of those surveyed approved of his handling of terrorism. Just 36 percent approved of his handling of the economy, an all-time low for Obama.”

UPDATED: The Quicksand of “Stand-Your-Ground” Laws

Crime, Criminal Injustice, GUNS, Individual Rights, Law, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Natural Law, Private Property

When discussing “All Burglars are Home Invaders,” readers in the sensible parts of the country were convinced that their state’s “stand-your-ground” laws would shield them in the event that they were forced to use deadly force to fend off an attack on person, property or both.

These laws removed the requirement whereby “people who think they are in immediate peril must first try to retreat from the confrontation before using deadly force. Prior to passage of the law, only people defending themselves in their own homes, for the most part, could use deadly force without first trying to flee.” (MSNBC)

That some of my readers had faith in the law surprised me somewhat. As recently as the 7/15/2011, I wrote about an “American veteran-hero jailed” for standing his ground, so to speak. Dr. Jerome Ersland was recently condemned to life in prison for defending his property and his employees from a gang of armed robbers. A pistol pointed at his head was not enough to save this hero from imprisonment, pursuant to defending his own life and the lives of his co-workers.

Ersland is from Oklahoma, which is in one of “14 states [that] have revised their laws to ensure that people don’t have to retreat from an attacker. Those states are: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas, according to the NRA.” (MSNBC)

UPDATE: At bottom, every employee, wife, pal wants a man like Ersland around when the stuff hits the fan. In “Sacrificing Kids To PC Pietism,” I describe the kind of left-liberal perverseness that permeates the letter below. Ersland is a hero; his is an adaptive, manly, normal version of the fight-or-flight response.