Monday Morning Rant 110

Just about the time we become convinced that all the problems of the world come from Washington, NATO, the barrio, Africa, or Detroit, we are painfully reminded that God always has the upper hand in all matters. It is my belief that yesterday, He played His hand to remind us that He is in charge and we continue to have to deal with natural occurrences. As I kissed my bride at the door as she left for work at 2 pm, we both noted the start of a rainfall which continued until midnight. Over four inches later it became evident we had an epic flood on our hands.

Repeated wee hour phone calls resulted in advice to her to find a spot, crawl in the back of the Explorer, and take advantage of the bed, luckily, lazily or providentially, still there after the D.C. trip. Our nearest neighbor is the Spring River and although only about a normal 20’-25’ in width as it flows near our house, it has a potential to expand to a half mile wide raging torrent. She parked at the church and came in about 6 am.

Meanwhile, the satellite internet and the TV and, intermittently, the electric service were down. It was almost like God said, “OK, I’ve given you all those toys so now let’s see how well you can play without them.” I shall defer to Him for any judgment on how that turned out. Life has now returned to its normal chaotic state and all is well.

(UPDATE: The rain resumed, it is now Tuesday am, and, we have an additional 2 inches and the incumbent problems remain. We shall do our best to get this posted.)

A Normal Interval

We have had, in the life of the republic, many noble presidents. We have also had bad ones, lazy ones, quiet ones, boisterous ones, smart ones, and unfortunately, more than a a few dumb ones. On rare occasions we have had few who have shown questionable understanding of actual intent which has been damaging to the union. In the last century, we can readily point to four individuals who can easily be categorized as such.

When men pursue a path of governance in direct contravention of the intent of those brave and noble men who hammered out our sacred documents of incorporation, I believe it is wise to point them out. I do not favor the myth that they were all great and selfless men at heart. That is elementary school pap distributed to engender respect for the office regardless who holds it. Those observations apply to those I have seen first hand with one exception—Woodrow Wilson.

In his 8 year term (1913-1921) amid ingenuous cries of “keeping us out of war,” engineering the Federal Reserve, and as an architect of the League of Nations, he did little for the concept of national sovereignty. Since the world of behind the scenes cabals had not gained currency, he masked his pacific attitudes with claims of a Quaker heritage. No doubt, had he not suffered a stroke in October 1919, we would have seen further efforts to emasculate our country. As it turned out, he collected his Nobel Prize and turned governance over to his wife and doctors.

Eight years later, our country was slowly emerging from the devastation of a depression and looking for a scapegoat. Franklin D. Roosevelt replaced Hoover as president and the country depressed even further. With the public mesmerized by his autocratic speaking style, he rammed proposal after proposal through congress which did little to alleviate the national malaise and cost a bundle to implement. In fact our conditions actually worsened. Finally, with inappropriate provocation, we entered WWII and its subsequent full employment and economic progress to trade the depression for the loss of millions of men crippled and killed in the effort. The formative stages of the United Nations occured in the later years of his term. He died of cerebral palsy before he could get his Nobel and it would be 32 years before we saw such a disaster again.

That disaster came in the person of Jimmy Carter. Like Wilson, Carter wrapped himself in his self-righteous religious associations and charged forth to forward his personal anti-Semitic views, social contructs, peanut farmer homilies and cowardly diplomacy to actively seek the destruction of the country of the framers. With crippling interest rates and economic crisis around every corner, he was the epitome of failure as a leader. He treated the UN as a benevolent older brother rather than the threat to our national sovereignty it has always been. He had to wait until 2002 to be recognized for the de riquere Nobel award.

Now, 28 years have passed and we have a new candidate for the Wall of Shame for US presidents. Our current executive has stepped up federalism and international aqiescence to a completely new level. Capriciously breaking international agreements, wasting the contents of the treasury like a drunken sailor, attempting to garner federal control over every aspect of the citizen’s lives and misunderstanding the military have become the hallmarks of his administration. In a scant eight months, his socialistic bent has been thoroughly exposed. His ability to read well from the printed and telepromptered page, plus being a laughing stock in any extemporaneous effort, has been well exposed but has served as the cover for his radical ideas. So far, we have heard of no effort to provide the mandatory Nobel but it is certain that it will eventually come up.

The isolation of these presidents serves us only as the confirmation that periodically, the country is in a condition that is susceptible to a radical change in our style of governance. Lyndon Johnson, the father of the “Great Society” would have been on the list except for his conscientious abhorrence of the responsibilities of waging the Viet Nam war and hating the inevitable outcome. I am convinced he genuinely felt the pain of that effort and the futility of an exercise directed by others. I think a he was disappointment to some one or some group by not being a ruthless manipulator.

If I could identify who or what directs these puppets, my life and those around me would not be worth a plug nickel—nor, would yours. I simply find it interesting that every decade or so we seem to elect someone who does the bidding of an unidentified international entity which they would otherwise not be prepared to do. Back in the fifties, the late, Sen. Joseph McCarthy discovered a cabal of socialists (Communists?) and managed to make a lot of people very angry. For all the criticism leveled by revisionist historians, we find that he was a drunk, an upstart, a vicious questioner, and most important, he was right. In subsequent years his investigations have been proven correct over and over again.

The only defense against an absolute takeover of this country lies not in the hallowed halls of Washington, D.C... It lies in the hearts and minds of its citizens if they are willing to become involved with their government. If they are able to stay informed, think, and understand what the founders had in their minds and hearts when they created the ingenious documents which have served us so well. We must all understand clearly the constitution states what the federal government may NOT do. They also need not fall for that which is offered when it is “too good to be true.” In other words, do not believe what I write or say: investigate for your self. Become convinced I am a fool because you have done the research, read the documents, and engaged in meaningful discussions. We need always remember that humans come and go; it’s those pesky ideas which remain for the future. Until then—beware.

And Finally

I think my birds have deserted me. Since I returned, my only visitor has been a lone cardinal at the feeder. When I returned, the dogs went nuts—for about 38 seconds—and then went back to sleep. My bride’s enthusiasm lasted slightly longer. The cats are still cats. It’s good to be the king.


In His abiding love,

Cecil Moon