A candidate that I can support

The Constitution Party has nominated a candidate that I can support at their convention this weekend in Kansas City. The party selected pastor, radio host and columnist Chuck Baldwin over party newcomer Alan Keyes. Baldwin ran on the party ticket in 2004 as Michael Peroutka's vice presidential candidate. Keyes, on the other hand, left the GOP and joined the Constitution Party 10 days prior to the convention. Judging from comments by Keyes' national political director, Keyes affiliation with the Constitution Party ended with his defeat.

I have become familiar with Baldwin through his columns on VDare.com. Chuck Baldwin embodies the 7 principals of the Constitution Party, which are:

1. Life: For all human beings, from conception to natural death;
2. Liberty: Freedom of conscience and actions for the self-governed individual;
3. Family: One husband and one wife with their children as divinely instituted;
4. Property: Each individual's right to own and steward personal property without government burden;
5. Constitution: and Bill of Rights interpreted according to the actual intent of the Founding Fathers;
6. States' Rights: Everything not specifically delegated by the Constitution to the federal government is reserved for the state and local jurisdictions;
7. American Sovereignty: American government committed to the protection of the borders, trade, and common defense of Americans, and not entangled in foreign alliances.

Here is an archive of Chuck Baldwin columns dating back to 2001.

Unfortunately for voters in Texas who would support Baldwin, ballot access for third parties in Texas is difficult (if not impossible) to obtain. Texas requires petition signatures numbering 1% of the votes cast in the 2004 presidential election submitted by May 12. That is 74,000 signatures of persons who did not vote in either the Democrat or Republican party primaries. I voted for Ron Paul in the Republican primary so I am not even eligible to sign a petition. I am sure that when the Republican party was established in 1856, they were held to equally rigorous standard to achieve ballot access (jn).

So although Chuck Baldwin is a candidate whose beliefs mirror my own, Texas ballot access law (written by Democrats and Republicans for the benefit of Democrats and Republicans) will likely not allow me to cast my vote for him come November.

Update: As I suspected, Alan Keyes brief flirtation with the Constitution Party was all about Alan Keyes' vanity. He announced that would not support party nominee Chuck Baldwin, saying, "His policies of appeasement and non-involvement (in foreign affairs) are irresponsible and unsustainable." Keyes apparently couldn't be bothered to even read the party platform before running for the party nomination. The party's stance on foreign policy is pretty clear.

Keyes' high opinion of himself was evident when he suggested that the party merely used him to attract new supporters. I personally don't see the appeal of a candidate that has run three failed senate campaigns and failed to register 1% support in any 2008 Republican state primary. I liked Alan Keyes when he was a fresh face in the conservative movement, but the perennial candidate shtick has become somewhat embarrassing.

15 years ago...

Tomorrow is the 15th anniversary of the government massacre of the Branch Davidians. The government gassed and burned to death 76 people, including 21 innocent children under the age of 16, at the Branch Davidian compound outside of Waco, TX.

A government investigation exonerated the government of any wrongdoing.

As Anthony Gregory wrote on LewRockwell.com, "Waco is still important, because it illustrates the violent nature of the state, the fact that political power flows from the barrel of a gun, and the scary truth that the U.S. government is ultimately no different from all others in this respect."

Out of the frying pan, into the fire

The 416 children taken from their parents at the polygamist cult compound will likely be placed into the Texas foster care system. Judging from a 2006 statement from former Texas Comptroller Strayhorn on the foster care system, these kids are out of the frying pan and into the fire. The following quotes are from Strayhorn's statement:

"I found, from information provided by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, in Fiscal 2003, 30 foster children died in our state's care; in Fiscal 2004, 38 foster children died; and in Fiscal 2005, 48 foster children died...If you compare the number of deaths of children in our state's population to the number of deaths in our state's foster care system, a child is four times more likely to die in our state's foster care system."

"Based on Fiscal 2004 data provided by the Health and Human Services Commission, about 100 children received treatment for poisoning from medications; 63 foster children received medical treatment for rape that occurred while in the foster care system; and 142 children gave birth while in the state foster care system."

Strayhorn's office produced a 2004 report titled, "Forgotten Children," that detailed the abysmal performance of the Texas foster care system. Apparently, child abduction and abuse is OK as long as it is state sanctioned.

"First they came..."

What stops the government from taking my kids away like they took away the kids at the polygamist cult compound? Nothing. The whole episode reminds me of the poem "First they came...", written about events in Nazi Germany and attributed to Pastor Martin Niemoller.

"First they came for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

There is no doubt that this polygamist cult is weird, but that is not a crime. If the government wants to prosecute these people for breaking polygamy laws, then so be it. But it seems downright un-American that the government can take 416 kids away from their families without any evidence of wrongdoing by the parents of those kids. There is alleged abuse in the case of one child. If the supposed 16 year old informant was abused, then arrest her "husband" or her parents. I say 'supposed' because I don't believe that there ever was any 16 year old caller; they can't find her because she does not exist.

Child Protective Services workers are judge and jury in this case. And CPS spokesman Darrell Azar's statement to the Houston Chronicle reveals that the parents have already been found guilty, ' "Every step taken by CPS in the court has been done with one goal in mind: what is best for the children, to get at the truth and stop the abuse," Azar said. "Every time we remove children from an abusive situation, people will become upset. Unfortunately, the women who have returned to the compound have been unwilling or unable to protect these children from a pattern of sexual abuse." ' Be assured that you or I would receive the same treatment if allegations were made against us; the truth be damned.

The only good thing about this whole situation is that at least the government didn't go in and kill everyone like they did in Waco.

McCain finally speaks out on faith

Does anyone else find it pathetic that John McCain walks around with a pocket full of good luck charms? He carries a lucky feather, a lucky compass, a lucky penny, a lucky nickel and a lucky quarter. He found a dime, but it was heads down - no luck there - so he did not add it to his collection. And he observes other superstitions, like throwing spilled salt over one's shoulder, that went out of vogue with witch burnings. This story reads like something out the Onion.

I find it troublesome that the potential President of the United States, the most powerful man in the world, could hold sincere beliefs in something with no basis of reason or truth. I would discourage belief in such stuff by my 5 year old son, of course he is not foolish enough to believe such hokum.

Support the Troops, Vote Republican

I saw a 'Support the Troops, Vote Republican' bumper sticker today and thought it somewhat ironic.

The Bush administration deceived the American public (or if you give Bush/Cheney the benefit of the doubt; they are not liars, merely incompetent) and waged a pre-emptive war against a country that posed no threat to our security. The war has done nothing to increase our future security. If anything, our occupation of Iraq has inflamed anti-US sentiment in the Muslim world and created more potential jihadists.

This needless war has cost the lives of 4,032 soldiers and marines to date. At least 30,000 more servicemen have been wounded; many returning home without limbs lost in IED attacks. Tours of duty have been extended from 12 to 15 months. According to statistics provided by the Army in this New York Times article, "Among the 513,000 active-duty soldiers who have served in Iraq since the invasion of 2003, more than 197,000 have deployed more than once, and more than 53,000 have deployed three or more times." Multiple deployments, with only 12 months between deployments, are causing growing mental health problems (see here and here). That is an odd concept of supporting the troops.

In Bush's warped sense of reality he probably thinks that he is doing the troops a favor, sending them off on some grand adventure. As he recently related to military personnel in Afghanistan, " 'I must say, I'm a little envious,' Bush said. 'If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.' 'It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks.' "

If you really want to support the troops, then bring them home.

Is McCain a warmonger?

The Obama camp apologized last week when radio host Ed Shultz called John McCain a warmonger at an Obama fundraising event. My copy of Webster's dictionary defines warmonger as, "One who stirs up or advocates war."

I wrote here about McCain's apparent confusion regarding Sunni versus Shiite Muslims. He has repeated the "gaffe" at least twice more in the following days; once in a written statement on his own website and again yesterday while questioning Gen. Petraeus in the senate hearing. I now believe that he is deliberately trying to confuse the issue and link Al Qaeda and Iran. Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels said, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." This is right out of the Bush-Cheney playbook. After all, over 30% of Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein was involved with the 9/11 attacks.

And here is McCain jokingly singing 'Bomb Iran' to the tune of the Beach Boys song 'Barbara Ann' at a town hall meeting. (Full disclosure: I sang the same song during the Iran hostage crisis; of course I was in the sixth grade and was not running for president of the U.S.)

Is McCain a warmonger? Yep, I have to agree with Ed Shultz.

Update: Foreign policy advisers include neocons Max Boot, Randy Scheunemann and Robert Kagan. All of them support the use of the American military to spread American democratic ideals around the world. It calls McCain's judgment into question when he surrounds himself with advisers who were all exceedingly wrong on the biggest foreign policy issue of the age, the war in Iraq.

The socialization myth

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, especially when the picture is a clever cartoon from Inflatable Studios. When educrats talk about socialization, what they mean is conforming to the system. The recent California court opinion that could effectively outlaw homeschooling in CA stated, "A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare." The system is about raising good sheep and my wife and I have decided not to turn our kids over to the custody of the government shepherd.

C.S. Lewis Quote of the Day

"You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising non-sense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Charlton Heston, RIP

Although his role as Moses in 'The Ten Commandments' is probably his most famous, this is how I prefer to remember Heston:

As Taylor from "Planet of the Apes",


Or as president of the NRA and spokesman for the right to bear arms.

Know your Muslims - Sunni or Shiite

I don't really care about the differences among the divisions of Islam, but I do believe that it is important to know who is who. Twenty percent of the world population is Muslim and there are now more Muslims than Catholics. So here is a scorecard.

Approximately 80-85% of Muslims are Sunni. Nations that are majority Sunni include Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and the other N. African states, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Bangladesh, Syria, Kuwait and Turkey. Kurds and most Palestinian Muslims are Sunni. Russia and India are both over 10% Muslim and Nigeria (the most populated country in Africa) is 50% Muslim - all predominately Sunni. Although not typically thought of for its Muslim population, India has the third largest population of Muslims after Indonesia and Pakistan.

The balance of the world's Muslims are mostly Shiite (or Shi'a). Nations that are predominately Shiite include Iran, Bahrain, Azerbaijan and Iraq (65%). Lebanon's Muslims are nearly split 50-50, but the terrorist group Hizbollah is Shiite. Turkey, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and India all have substantial minority Shiite populations.

Sources: CIA World Factbook and Wikipedia