P*rn Addiction at Crisis Level

Over 50% of American men are addicted to pornography. This is a crisis, since the effects of porn damage everyone around the addict, including the addict himself, who loses his memory and ability to concentrate. Women, if your man seems distant, it is probably not because he is "mysterious," but because he has a secret addiction to porn.

Read the abridged article at WND (formerly WorldNetDaily) 

The full, unedited version is below.

More than 50% of men now look at pornography regularly, thanks to easy access and constant bombardment of images on the internet. No one wants to talk about it. Society generally looks the other way at pornography, dismissing it as harmless “men's entertainment.” The reality is that it is extremely addictive, and along with the addiction comes life-destroying side effects. It puts the addict into a creepy bondage that affects the lives of those around him or her. It is not a victimless crime. It has become a chilling epidemic that is ruining the minds, families and jobs of possibly half the men in the country. Everyone has a family member, spouse or friend whose life is full of problems due to this addiction.

Viewing pornography overstimulates a neurochemical in the body called dopamime. In men, it mixes with testosterone and builds up an adrenaline rush. After repeatedly looking at porn, a tolerance is built up, and it becomes difficult for ordinary romantic experiences to provide pleasure. Men lose interest in real romance. Musician John Mayer has publicly admitted that his pornography habit is so strong he prefers to stay home with it instead of spending time with a real woman. Some men end up forcing the pornographic acts they watch on their unwilling wives in order to try and become interested in them again. The rise in men's erectile-dysfunction aids is no doubt due in part to the increase in pornographic addictions.

The kind of addiction created by porn is akin to drug users needing stronger and stronger drugs in order to achieve the same feeling. Addicts seek out increasingly hardcore porn to try and satisfy their addictions. Ironically, they don't seek out more hardcore porn in order to obtain more pleasure, but because they are obtaining less pleasure. Several studies have come out revealing that pornography addicts have the same brain changes as drug addicts. It radically alters the structure of the brain, as the pleasure parts of the brain become more dominant, literally turning into a “one-track mind.” The structural brain changes have been compared to brain damage. Addiction to pornography destroys intelligence, ruining the ability to concentrate and causing forgetfulness. It reduced one engineer's ability to hold down any job except at minimum wage level.

The American Society of Addiction modified its definition of addiction to include pornography last year, stating that it can be associated with the "pathological pursuit of rewards." Pornography is an extremely difficult addiction to cure, because recovery involves withdrawal symptoms like irritability, concentration problems, and even flu-like symptoms. It takes 6-12 weeks after stopping to be able to enjoy normal romance fully again.

The internet has allowed for the creation and sharing of an endless stream of pornography, making it easier to get trapped. Men cannot surf the web or log into their email accounts without seeing ads and emails with air-brushed provocative women inviting them to click. 25% of internet searches are related to pornography. They're not all men, either, one-third of all who look at porn on the internet are women. 20,000 pornographic videos are produced each year in the San Fernando Valley, 90% of all pornographic videos.

The most disturbing part about pornography addiction is that it can lead to child pornography. When an addict cannot get the same feeling any longer from regular pornography, the addict may turn to child pornography. Child pornography is increasing; between 2005 and 2009 there was a 432% increase in child pornography movies and images.

Another terrible consequence of porn is it can lead to rape. Clinical psychologist Dr. Victor Cline, author of Pornography's Effects on Adults & Children, found that almost half of the rapists he studied used pornography to arouse themselves before they sought out a victim to rape. Dr. M.J. Goldstein studied sex offenders and found that many of them acted out the sex acts they watched in pornography on their victims. Most admitted that watching pornography increased their desire for deviant activities. Serial rapist and killer Ted Bundy has said that his pornography addiction progressed through stages.

Porn creates images of women that are not based in reality. Most porn stars are deeply troubled, and a high proportion are sexual abuse survivors. Many ex-porn stars are now speaking out about how how terrible the industry really is. It is not glamorous, the average male porn star makes $40,000 annually. There are 15 new cases of STDs reported in the adult movie business every week. One porn star has said that 99.9% of the industry has herpes. Another porn star said the industry only tests for HIV, not other STDs. Another one said they are all on drugs, that is “an empty lifestyle trying to fill up a void.”

Shelley Luben, a former porn actress, now speaks out against porn. She exposes the truth the porn industry hides, “The porn industry wants YOU to think we porn actresses love sex. They want you to think we enjoy being degraded by all kinds of repulsive acts.” The pornography industry renamed itself to the “adult entertainment industry” in order to create the perception that it's just entertainment. It's not, it is extremely damaging to the wives and children of the man “being entertained.” Culture theorist and author Jackson Katz describes how porn hurts regular relationships, “It normalizes the men's pleasure-taking as it sexualizes the woman's degradation.”

The epidemic has seeped into the workplace, hurting workplace productivity. A Nielsen report found that 29% of working adults access adult websites form work computers. Considering that viewing porn is a fireable offense, this is evidence of how severely addictive porn is.

Men who are addicted to pornography frequently defend their addiction by claiming they have “needs.” However, pornography has not been around or easily accessible until recently. Cavemen got by just fine without it.

Communities used to be able to zone adult stores away from sight. With the advent of the internet, any attempt now to regulate pornography raises cries of censorship. Yet the Supreme Court's rulings over the past 60 years holding that pornography is protected free speech drew arbitrary lines: obscenity – which includes extremely hardcore pornography - can still be banned.

Dr. Patrick Carnes, who researches sexual addictions, has found that most sexual addicts come from dysfunctional families, with the root of their addictions based in childhood. Instead of dismissing this unhealthy addiction as “free speech,” society should help pornography addicts understand that their behavior is not normal, and they need to take steps to correct it, such as joining a 12-step support group or using self-help at websites like yourbrainonporn.com. Addicts are not using pornography for “entertainment,” but to mask their emotional problems. Porn does not liberate men, but puts them in virtual bondage. Their unhappiness is still there, their relationship problems are still there, and they risk damaging their lives further as the addiction increases. Sadly, most pornography addicts are probably unaware they have an addiction, thanks to society telling them that it is just “men's entertainment.”

There needs to be a shift in cultural attitudes regarding pornography. Ironically, it is women who are responsible for instituting this laissez-faire attitude towards porn. Feminists in the 1960's ushered in a sexual revolution, which said that anything goes, free love, free sex. This was self-defeating to feminists, since porn eroticizes male supremacy. Sexologist Alfred Kinsey also contributed to society normalizing porn. He performed research on subjects that included a high percentage of pedophiles, inmates, sex offenders, pimps and prostitutes, but told everyone his subjects were “average” Americans. He claimed his results proved that men need deviant sexual behavior and that it is normal. His findings were widely adopted in schools and universities and by psychologists, even though it became well-known later that he was a deviant himself who welcomed the sexualization of children.

Former porn actress Luben tells men they must stop, “The truth is there IS NO fantasy in porn. It’s all a lie.” She asks men, “We want you to throw out our movies and help piece together the shattered fragments of our lives.”

Christians can speak up against pornography from a moral basis. The Bible calls it a sin. In Matthew 5:28, Jesus said that looking at a woman lustfully is the same as the sin of adultery. 2^nd Peter 2:14 speaks to the addiction aspect, “They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied.” Christian leader James Dobson produced a report for the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography under President Reagan, where he explained how pornography has gone from airbrushed naked models to serious perversion, due to addicts needing more stimulation. “This is the world of pornography today, and I believe the public would rise up in wrath to condemn it if they knew of its prominence.” It is over 25 years later and pornography is more prevalent and disgusting than ever. Why hasn't the public risen up against it? Because half of the men in our society are addicted themselves.

Car Free Day Foreshadows Vehicular Tyranny

Often in their attempt to engineer our lives whether we want them to or not, contemporary liberals have a tendency to hand down any number of psychosocial laws or principles since most of them view us as little more than animals to herd into a corral. It seems that their behavior is often just as predictable.

For example, one of the cardinal principles to understanding contemporary liberalism is that the policies that they initially enact as voluntary will ultimately be enforced as mandatory..

Gaining in popularity in large cities and metropolitan areas across the United States is an occasion called “Car-Free Day.” It is pretty much as it sounds. For no other reason than that they have duped most into believing that they are better than everybody else, social planners have told us that we are suppose to voluntarily forego the use of our personal automobiles for a day in favor of public transportation and bio-locomotion (forms of transit such as walking where we want to go or riding a bike).

Eventually, this will go from occasional and voluntary to mandatory and permanent. Some will denounce such a conjecture as typical conservative and conspiracy fearmongering.

But is it? It seems more like rational analysis of the mass media.

In a Washington Examiner column titled "Car-Free In DC In Your Future", Harry Jaffe makes this very proposal. Specifically he contends, "Why not make Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to the foot of the U.S. Capitol car-free on Sundays? Imagine the inaugural route, America’s Main Street, a peaceful parade of strollers, bikers, and walkers.”

Another law of human nature is that what is called for (especially when the demand involves extending control over the lives of other human beings) is never enough.

Those opposed to the automobile won’t be satisfied with Pennsylvania avenue closed on Sundays. Eventually the call for it to be closed everyday will go out and ultimately this policy will engulf larger and larger portions of the city.

Such a policy could very well come to engulf much of the population of the United States. Impossible, the skeptical scoff. But once again, is it?

Already in the most blighted portions of Detroit and in Katrina-devastated New Orleans, a protracted campaign of systematic low grade depopulation has been underway for sometime. For instead of sending in SWAT teams to interdict and remove criminally recalcitrant segments of the population, municipal authorities need only deny those utilities necessary to enjoy a technologically advanced standard of existence.

The argument is made that too many resources would be expended to maintain or repair such infrastructure. Residents would be relocated to areas of higher population density where police and bureaucratic operatives do not have to exert themselves to as a great of an extent (we wouldn’t want to interrupt those coffee breaks and doughnut runs). The abandoned properties would be reforested or whatever the lovely sounding word of the month happens to be for infringement of property rights in the name of the environment.

Yet another law regarding how liberals tend to behave manifests itself in regards to the car free issue. That is none other than that liberals tend not to abide by the rules imposed upon and the deprivations expected of the rest of us.

For example, one enthusiastic supporter of Car Free Day so much so that he extended the festivity to an entire week is Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. In 2011 on the very first day of the commemoration, however, he was caught riding in an automobile wherever it was he needed to go.

Those that have surrendered their free thought in return for what Mark Levin refers to as the proverbial government cheese will respond, “But a governor is so much more important and must get wherever it is that he needs to go in a safe and timely manner.”

But in terms of your own life and in the lives of your family members, aren’t you just as important and in many ways even more so than the assorted governmental figureheads and functionaries?

For example, if you are fired for getting to work late or too far geographically from the places of gainful employment, is this governor going to put food on your table? If you are unable to get to your progeny quickly after school, will the youngsters be given a police escort home to ensure they are not victimized by child predators?

Celebrations are about much more than having a good time. Such commemorations also convey the values those holding them want to build civilization and morality around.

For example, Mother’s and Father’s Day uplift the importance of children honoring their parents as well as parents providing the kind of nurturing care deserving of such respect. Christmas and Easter remind that there is a God who so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son. And in its own dark way, Halloween reminds that we only get to enjoy the life in this world for a brief while so we had better get thinking about what lies beyond.

Throughout much of the modern and now into the postmodern era, the value of the individual has been increasingly downplayed. It is only to be expected that the celebrations commemorating what these epochs herald as the ideal would reflect as such.

By discerning this, the astute patriot is better able to comprehend and counter these exact threats to our liberty.

by Frederick Meekins

Students Punished For Knowing More Than Teachers

A number of high school students were suspended for ingesting energy mints on the grounds of their Perkin, Illinois high school.

The thing of it is, the confection is perfectly legal as it consists primarily of caffeine.

Thus, they are technically no worse than popular energy drinks. But despite learning this, school administrators intend to let the suspensions stand.

The Superintendent insists the suspensions are justified because the students "displayed gross misconduct for taking an unknown product."

The students could have full well know what they were taking.

This is all bureaucratic smokescreen and euphemism that the students are being punished for knowing more than the teachers and for exercising their own judgment apart from certified state authority.

Eventually, this kind of reasoning will be applied to anyone that ingests anything other than the school-provided lunches.

After all, how can teachers be absolutely certain those brownies brought from home don't contain a little flavor enhancing "greenery"?

by Frederick Meekins

Random Observations As We Race to the End of the Mayan Calendar

by John Harris

“You Didn’t Write That”

A few weeks ago, President Obama committed the infamous gaffe (allowed to leak through the media because The Fourth Estate could not itself discern any problem with his sentiments) of announcing that none of us has ever accomplished anything on his own. I noted at the time in my weekly ramble that Mr. Obama had neither written his own speech nor “evolved” his own ideas on the subject, because I had heard the same spiel four decades ago as an undergraduate. In my Economics class, however, the lines of dependency clearly led to other workers, not to a huge state bureaucracy; and while the work force is indeed public-sector in a socialist republic, Obama’s engineers had originally intended the facilitators in the allusion to be guys with wrenches and shovels, not desk jockeys.

I serendipitously ran across the following passage this week in a short story, “El Hijo del Camino”, composed by Jacinto Octavio Picón for his collection, Cuentos de mi Tiempo. The central character has labored at dozens of blue-collar jobs for years when, in the course of doing some drudgery or other, he blunders into a lavishly decorated room. He grows yet more dazzled when the most beautiful woman he has ever seen parades through the glittering space on her way to a regal entertainment, dressed to the hilt. These are his thoughts (in my translation):

The young man, ignorant and uneducated, incapable of analyzing what he was experiencing—yet a man, when all was said and done—felt the temptation and the anxiety that a ripe fruit produces when placed before a child’s mouth.

At first he remained suspended in a spasm of surprise, then he murmured to himself with the speed of thought that everything contained in this wondrous precinct and everything embodied in the beauty of this extraordinary woman had been passed during its birth, in one way or another, through his own hands. Coal wrenched from the bowels of the earth and converted into torrents of light… crystal molded in the furnaces that had seared his throat… iron forged in the fires where he had scorched his fingers… silks synthesized from substances that had poisoned his lungs… everything—he had contributed to all of it! And none of it—nothing—was for him!

It was then that Lucy appeared to his desire as a marvelous creation in which he had put the bone of his bone and blood of his blood until he had produced a fusion of all human riches. Why did she not belong to him by right? Were they bound to live eternally close together and separated at the same time, like a courtesan and her slave? What cruel law was handling him thus? Who was its author?

Of course, the encounter doesn’t turn out well for our protagonist. Chased out of the mansion for pawing over this child of privilege, he returns with a bomb, is caught, and ends up on the scaffold. And by proxy, he could be said to have built the scaffold, too! All the work and none of the reward… do you get it now?

Cuentos was published in 1895. That’s EIGHTEEN-ninety five. Progressivism, as we readily see in studying its life cycle, progresses at the speed of a molasses glacier.

Thirty Percent or Forty-Seven?

In a piece that I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I speculated that probably one American in three is an immovable Obama supporter. I had no hard stats upon which to base my claim—only personal experience. Two members of my immediate family will vote for an extended Obama reign, beyond the shadow of a doubt; or the second will, at any rate, if he can only bring himself to get out of bed and venture into the land of live people for a few minutes. The first, whose support is granite-hard, is actually voting for a self-serving construct in which Obama’s silhouette occupies a keystone position. If he did not exist, she would have to create him—and he indeed does not exist as she imagines him, and so she has indeed created his legend, his eidon: the Platonic idea of The Enlightened One. That the egotistical pustule which encases her civic-consciousness is eminently vulnerable to the lancet of clear thinking explains why no one can engage her in a political conversation (no one, that is, except other emotional cripples in her tiny pool of public service employees, among whom she is certain to find only confirmation). A sudden access of sane understanding would force her to overhaul her entire existence.

Such people are the truly invincible foe, from Mr. Romney’s perspective. He misidentified them in drawing his calculations from “objective statistics” that reflect the number of Americans on the dole. His faux pas, to the extent that he made one, was therefore to assume that a single mother of three who depends upon taxpayer handouts for survival is fully comfortable with that arrangement. I and many others believe that he was mistaken in this assumption. Again, I just have a hunch: but I strongly suspect that a black unwed mother with no high school diploma is far more likely to leap at the chance of altering her situation than a white college-educated spinster professional who simply cannot survive psychically if she doesn’t believe herself smarter and better than everyone else on the block.

Sometimes Romney is too much of a businessman. He needs to pull his head out of his figures occasionally and ponder the dark mysteries of human nature. It really isn’t the economy, Mitt—not at rock-bottom. It’s the values.

Collateral Damage in Operation “Nuke First Amendment”

What do slain border agent Brian Terry and slain ambassador Christopher Stevens have in common, besides being dedicated and courageous public servants? Little to nothing, let us hope.

But the question is increasingly being asked, by Sean Hannity and others, “Why was Ambassador Stevens unguarded on the eve of his death? Why is it that even the Navy Seals murdered at his side had not actually been designated to protect him?” At best, we may assume that calculations liberally seasoned with criminal naiveté and incompetent stupidity were at fault—something about as well proportioned to reality as Gabby Giffords’ open-air event without security in one of the nation’s most dangerous cities: some lunacy in that proportion, but raised by the power of ten or twelve.

Agent Terry himself could be said to have fallen victim to the same gross incompetence. There was certainly nothing personal in his being “set up to die” by the minions of Attorney General Holder. Yet someone was indeed supposed to die. Several someones, or several hundred nobodies—ordinary Mexican and U.S. citizens who would become nameless statistics, and whose sheer number would cause a public outcry against the easy availability of legal firearms. The result was to be an abrogation of the Second Amendment. Those of us who no longer believe in the Easter Bunny and Obama’s Stash know that perfectly well. Holder needed bodies, and Terry was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So what about Stevens? Things haven’t been going particularly well for Campaign Obama, whatever you hear from Scott Pelley and Wolf Blitzer. Currently, the uproar from the few credible journalists that remain in our crumbling culture concerns why the Administration failed to respond to numerous warnings about imminent trouble on the 9/11 anniversary. But what if the trouble had been fully, accurately anticipated and the response planned long in advance? What if the response we saw was the one planned?

Administration spokes-zombies have certainly been reiterating the “Islamaphobe Christian fundamentalist hate-speech video” as the culprit just as if they were repeating the rehearsed line of a play in which a fellow actor had forgotten his part. Maybe he would remember his words if they kept mouthing theirs. What if the forgotten line was supposed to run something like, “Romney… Romney did it. Romney’s people… they do things like this, all the time!”

What if American embassies in Arab countries had to go up in smoke so that American voters could see how dangerous the First Amendment is with so many crazed, venom-spitting Christians on the loose? What if the embassies and their personnel had to be left unguarded so as to create the maximum detonation to draw the maximum of attention from the American electorate?

In that case, Christopher Stevens was collateral damage, just like Brian Terry. The engineers of occasions like these, recall, are ideological descendents of that luminary who famously informed posterity that you need to break some eggs to make an omelet.

May both of these young men find eternal peace in the embrace of a loving God.

Can We Please Stop Paying Them to Kill Us?

While I’m on the subject of the Middle East… Rand Paul has desperately been trying to terminate our billion-and-a-half bucks of aid to Egypt, opposed first by senate Democrats but lately, and more stubbornly, by his own party. Why should we pay them to kill us? Why should we pay any of them? Why are we giving guns, instruction, and money to people in Iraq, Pakistan, and now Egypt and Libya who will end up using our munificence to murder our sons and daughters? We romped through this suicidal dance with the Zetas in Mexico, assuming that they were an elite force loyal to their government rather than a bunch of unmoored young men with no conscience and empty pockets. For that matter, we did the same thing with Mao’s Communist rebels throughout World War Two—arming them to the teeth, that is (and pouring goods and money into Stalin’s lap), over Chiang Kai-shek’s frail cries for prudence and restraint. How many Americans did we lose in Korea and Vietnam? How many tens of millions of innocent bystanders were destroyed as they tried to till their native soil?

Two counter-arguments always float to the surface like the wormy debris of a sunken ship. One is that our enemies will descend into whatever vacuum of influence is left by our withdrawal. Bob Beckel always invokes the Chinese for this villainous role (in patent contradiction of his side’s railing against xenophobia and in support, apparently, of colonialism). Would the Chinese really like to have Central Asia and North Africa? I say we put a shiny red bow on both of them. These “nations” need to hammer out their own millennial problems until they tire of braining each other and of inviting foreign adventurism through their gross ineptitude. I feel for their women and children… but you don’t make an abused wife’s life easier by smacking her husband for beating her. You’ll probably get her killed. As for the oil that, I presume, represents the football not to be fumbled to China under any circumstances… maybe we should just concentrate on keeping China out of oil fields in the Western Hemisphere, and go full-speed-ahead with fracking.

Of course, Objection Two is Israel. If we pull out of the Arab world and leave it to grow up or self-destruct, what will become of our Israeli allies? This is a very strange protest to be hearing in 2012, when the winner of a recent Nobel Peace Prize is smoking Muslim bad guys from the stratosphere like Bill Cody picking off buffalo. Why do we need boots on the ground when we have drones in the air? The one piece of real estate that truly needs pedestrian patrolling for our national security is our southern border. Israel has enough nukes to stare down all of her rude neighbors at once, Arab Muslims have never been so united against Jews that they can long abstain from killing each other, and our own high-tech defense systems can be operated from a concrete bunker in Kentucky as long as we don’t sell all of our secrets to the Chinese and defund all of our programs to buy El Supremo a life-membership in the Oval Office.

We need to bring our troops and citizens home, withdraw from the U.N., form a new series of alliances based on our interests and our values, and then invite other nations into the game when and if they decide to behave like adults. We need to stop paying dysfunctional societies to kill our children.

Bring on the Polls—Make My Day

If I could ask Santa for one early Christmas present, it would be the continuation of these ridiculous polls that show Barack Obama enjoying an insuperable lead. The designers of these Willie Wonka phone-a-thons think that conservatives will grow demoralized and stay home on Election Day… but the result stands in polar opposition to the intent. Conservatives, instead, are pouring their hard-earned money into closely contested races, including Romney’s (which would otherwise be a very tough sell to them). They will also crawl to their polling places in November even if Black Panthers break both their legs. The other side, meanwhile, is already temperamentally disinclined to alight from its collective gluteus maximus for any sort of public commitment. They belong to the 47%, remember, who have grown accustomed to having life delivered to their doorstep. (I said “belong to”—I didn’t say that the 47% consists solely of their ilk.) The polls are giving them a comfortable, rational excuse just to stay home and play on Facebook.

PLEASE continue this, ladies and gentlemen of the Fourth Estate (and you, too, NBC employees). You’re making my day, and maybe saving our century.

Will Security Goons Now Harass As You Disembark?

It sounds like a ludicrous claim. But the 80’s cartoon G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero might just be the Rosetta Stone to understanding early 21st century culture and politics.

In the series, the troops of the terrorist organization determined to take over the world are referred to as “vipers”.

It seems those using that same name are on the verge of threatening human freedom here in the real world. However, now it seems it might not be so easy to tell the difference between those claiming to be good guys and the bad guys.

Americans have begrudgingly grown accustomed to TSA operatives in the name of airline safety inflicting an assorted array of abuses upon travelers ranging from having to remove shoes, to being forced to drink the breastmilk intended for their infants, the public spilling of colostomy bags, and to hearing their toddlers scream at the top of their lungs as the tots are molested by security apparatchiks placing their hands where anyone else would be placed on an offender registry and forced to live their remaining days under a bridge.

Those endorsing such violations against personhood callously remind that those not wanting to endure such indignities for the sake of the COMMUNITY are perfectly free to avoid and forego air travel. However, if a pilot program underway in Houston conducted by so-called “Viper Teams” gets off the ground and goes nationwide, thosbe justified in authenticating the validity of one being in the country), Americans have pretty much been conditioned into handing over any bit of information requested by someone flashing a badge or reciting a litany of letters as to what agency they happen to be with.

In this particular incident, the law enforcement shakedown didn't prevent a single act of terrorism as passengers were accosted after getting off the bus. Had their intentions been mayhem and destruction, the act would have been perpetrated long before that point.

Since these interventions were conducted at the end of their respective journeys, another serious question must be raised. What if after passing through some kind of mechanical surveillance system to get on board the bus, one is still not granted clearance to actually enter the vehicle until police or what ever other government official might be running things at some undetermined point down the timeline have determined one's grounds for seeking the use of public transportation is justified?

For example, want to go see the newest Hunger Games movie? Sorry, your clearance only authorizes you to use public transportation for occupational related purposes. You have not been categorized as sufficiently valuable to the COMMUNITY to enjoy recreational privileges.

Those conditioned into embracing everything they have been told will respond that, if one does not want to "freely" give an accounting to those administering the public transportation system, then simply don't use public transportation. However, such advice is not as simple to adhere to as it sounds.

Under the banner of any number of lofting sounding initiatives such as Agenda 21, Sustainability, Live Where You Work, and Duel Use Zoning that make you want to hurl chunks upon merely hearing them, the areas into which the remaining human beings granted continued existence are to be herded will be redesigned in such a way as to at first inconvenience those relying on private transportation but eventually outright forbidding access to individual civilian vehicles whatsoever. This can be seen even today on college campuses that force motorists to park in lots on the distance outskirts, to the banishment of traffic from Times Square in New York, to police checkpoints in the Big Apple that forbid entrance to automobiles carrying single passengers.

Some might think “fine.” If it takes cordoning oneself off as much as possible to avoid harassment by security operatives and seldom leaving one’s property or wherever it is one will be permitted to reside as bureaucratic regulations grow increasingly obtuse and the dictatorial impulse more pervasive, that is what stalwart patriots would set their minds on the attempt at doing. However, though logic would dictate that those conscientiously avoiding public forms of conveyance and interaction should be left unaccosted by those insisting it is their obligation to determine the legitimacy of the motives of those locomoting across communal causeways, social engineers have often expressed an even greater desire to interfere in the lives of those that quietly disentangle themselves from the tentacles of Leviathan.

For example, in the case of Wikard vs. Filburn, the Supreme Court ruled that a farmer that grew his own crop for private consumption not directly participating in interstate commerce was still subject to administrative oversight under that much abused clause of the Constitution because whatever he produced for his own consumption would adversely impact the interstate market. Thus, judges and bureaucrats with no scruples about restricting the expansion of government power could apply this already warped precedent to argue that those going out of their way to avoid not only public transportation but the public altogether are not only undermining national security but rather social cohesion as well.

Those with limited imagination might find the above scenario too abstract or farfetched . Fine.

One doesn't have to project that far along possible timelines to make the point. Already, steps are being taken to set the foundations for a milieu where those trapped within won’t be punished for actual crimes but rather for simply staying to themselves or forced to interact with others against their will.

For example, to many suburbanites, the epitome of domestic tranquility is a sizeable backyard surrounded by a privacy fence into which one can retreat with one's family following a lengthy and grueling workday. However, under the rubric of a movement some refer to as "New Urbanism", COMMUNTIY planners and sympathetic architects would deny the homeowner this sliver of elusive seclusion.

Instead, each homeowner is to have thrust upon them a front porch. It is insisted that this feature prompts interaction among residents not for the purposes of fostering friendship but rather COMMUNITY.

Even a number of perspectives within Christianity have gotten onboard. Some still believing in Heaven as the blissful destination in the Afterlife insist that, if you don't want the neighbors up in your business now, you likely won't be one of those joining the Saints in glory. Among the Emergent Church types downplaying the existence of Heaven, your unwillingness to fanatically embrace the herd consensus likely means you have no place in the this worldly "Kingdom of God", which sounds disturbingly like a form of religious socialism.

Proponents insist that such environmental tinkering will supposedly bring out the best in human nature, resulting in a new golden age. However, without regeneration in Christ and even with that the individual is left with too much residue of the sin nature, it is advisable to retain a respectable degree of distance apart from those outside the immediate nuclear family and a few select friends. All such social manipulation will accomplish will be to fester a variety of behavioral pathologies to the surface.

For example, one particular acquaintance resides in an area where most of the dimwits have been duped into embracing the blather about the joys of gathering on front porches for endless hours of self-denunciation and reeducation. Some years back, as my acquaintance was restoring a classic automobile, the tranquility of the summer's evening was shattered with, "WHAT THE F--K IS HE DOING WITH THAT CAR?"

You will note that the offense against the COMMUNITY was not that such language would be utilized to inquire as to what a member of the collective was doing. Rather, the deed to denigrate was that of an individual pursuing his own interests rather than subordinating himself to the preferred activities of the group.

This would not be the last incident where the protections of communal support would be denied to those not so much out to destroy the COMMUNITY but who would rather retain most of their identity distinct and apart from that unit of social organization. Because a relation of this particular person had expressed on a public forum a sentiment countervailing the prevailing leftwing consensus within the disputed municipality, my associate and his family had a car window smashed on more than one occasion.

When the neighbors assembled to gleefully gawk at the misfortune, my associate was informed that people did not like his family anyway. At the heart of conservatism and libertarianism, adherents of these related perspectives do not require that those residing in close proximity to them respond with tidings of affection and camaraderie. However, what is required is that they respect your property and possessions whether they like you or not.

The vitality of liberty is a precarious thing. It is seldom lost overnight. Rather, it slowly slips from our grasp as we often compromise with those assuring that what they are snatching from us is really for our own welfare and protection.

by Frederick Meekins

Nominate a political activist who has not received recognition for this $25,000 award

Many patriots work behind the scenes, and often without the incentive of a paycheck, to change policy and ideas for freedom. You can honor an individual whose work defines entrepreneurial public policy and makes a difference for freedom by nominating him or her for the Krieble Foundation’s Unsung Hero Award.
The winner of the Unsung Hero Award will receive a cash prize of $25,000 and recognition at State Policy Network’s Annual Meeting in Amelia Island, Florida.
Criteria for nomination:

• Nominee is a policy entrepreneur who has not received many accolades for his or her accomplishments
• Leadership resulted in a victory that reduced the size or scope of government and made a difference for freedom
• The outcomes recognized are transformative and truly innovative
• Story can serve as an example of success and inspiration to other activist groups
• Reduction in size and scope of government can be replicated in other parts of the country

To nominate an Unsung Hero you know, please fill out this form.
The deadline to nominate a hero is October 10, 2012.

from http://spnam2012.org/unsung-hero/

Howard Stern exposes Obama supporters 2012

I don't even like Howard Stern but this had me choking up laughing. He asks these uninformed Democrats questions that are completely set up with false premises; the opposite of the truth, but these people are so set in their opinions they would rather spout off on how much they like Obama even though they do not know much about him or Romney. None of the people he interviews know that Osama bin Laden is dead. He asks them if they like Obama because he is pro-life (yes). He asks them if they like Obama's vice-presidential pick Paul Ryan (yes). He asks them if they don't like Romney because he's a Muslim, or if it bothers them that Obama is a Mormon (no). He asks them about McCain and Palin running again this time and they all have opinions about that.

Popologetics: Popular Culture in Christian Perspective

Source: amazon.com via Frederick on Pinterest

What Else Would Drudge Like Done The Red Chinese Way?

On his website, Drudge had a picture of a Chinese athlete holding her gold medal.  Beneath it, the headline simply read "Domination."

However, at that point in the games, did a few more gold medals with other medal counts being near equal with the United States constitute "Domination"?

Perhaps Drudge ought to emphasize the price in terms of human dignity and liberty expended to achieve that slight advantage.

As someone that depends on the free flow of ideas and unhindered access to the Internet, one would think Mr. Drudge would be a little more guarded in his enthusiasm for the Red Chinese way of doing things. 

It is a shame.  Olympic officials and enthusiasts fly into an outrage over a number of athletes realizing that the way to get ahead might not be by really putting their best foot forward; yet very little is done to condemn a system that produces athletes in facilities barely better than high tech slave labor camps where the parents of the inmates are so afraid of diminishing the glory of the state that they conceal the hardships and tragedies befalling family members.

by Frederick Meekins

Return to Prosperity

<div style='padding-bottom: 2px; line-height: 0px'><a href='http://pinterest.com/pin/148689225168305723/' target='_blank'><img src='http://media-cache-ec6.pinterest.com/upload/148689225168305723_qXmpIkDk_c.jpg' border='0' width='328' height ='500'/></a></div><div style='float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px;'><p style='font-size: 10px; color: #76838b;'>Source: <a style='text-decoration: underline; font-size: 10px; color: #76838b;' href='http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0034DGPH2/?ref=cm_sw_r_pi_dp_cOriqb1V9EJMR'>amazon.com</a> via <a style='text-decoration: underline; font-size: 10px; color: #76838b;' href='http://pinterest.com/fmeekins/' target='_blank'>Frederick</a> on <a style='text-decoration: underline; color: #76838b;' href='http://pinterest.com' target='_blank'>Pinterest</a></p></div>

William F. Buckley Jr.: The Maker of a Movement by Lee Edwards

Source: amazon.com via Frederick on Pinterest

The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas

Source: amazon.com via Frederick on Pinterest

Batman Shooter A Neuroscientist That Went Haywire

It seems that the Batman Shooter may be a neuroscientist that went haywire.

So will the media issue numerous exposes and reports how this individual had likely been subjected for years to evolutionary dogma how human beings are nothing more than an accidental conglomeration of chemicals and electricity?

Leftists will remark that such insinuations are offensive and irresponsible.

But are such claims any more so than those of ABC news correspondents hoping that the act of terror was Tea Party related?

Such an insinuation was bandied back and forth between Brian Ross and George Stephanopolous.

If the gunman had been named Abdul Hassan, would this journalistic outlet had latched onto the first one they could find especially if an activist with the local chapter of CAIR?

Thinking from more conservative voices was no less muddled.

Responding as additional information was made available to the general public, Brain Wilson of WMAL radio remarked it was good news that it seemed likely that the shooter was a “lone wolf” not connected to international terrorism.

But how is a victim any less mangled or dead if shot by a loner or by someone more inherently group oriented such as a member of a gang or terrorist organization?

Sophisticates will opine that this deed does not rise to the level of terrorism.

But why not?

When I first took an interest in this subject over twenty years ago, terrorism was defined as an act of violence committed for the purposes of garnering attention to get people to alter their behavior or shift their perceptions.

If not terrorism, what else do you call an attack with the purposes of attaching forever in a sick and twisted way one’s name to one of America’s most beloved cultural icons and literary characters?

by Frederick Meekins

Southern Baptists Contract A Derivative Of Obamamania

It has been said that Evangelicals are five to ten years behind the rest of the culture in terms of embracing fads and trends.

That seems about right.

Last election cycle, a plurality made a considerable fuss over and selected a candidate for the Presidency of the United States primarily because the individual claimed to be Black.

Now it seems movers and shakers within the Southern Baptist Convention have been whipped up into a similar frenzy.

Of the election of Fred Luter to the highest office in that particular ecclesiastical association, the Dean of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Russell Moore gushed, "To have the son of slaves now leading this denomination as it reaches the world with gospel is a sign of God's mercy."

So as a man well over 100 years of age, Rev. Luter is looking remarkable fit and vital.

Moore continued on in a vein of self-deprecation that would make most Jews blush, “This denomination was once described...as ‘white as a tractor pull’.  It that’s the case, the denomination will not, and should not, survive.”

Over the centuries, most to hold the Papacy have hailed from the Caucasian end of the racial spectrum.  So should critics call for the end of that institution because it has not lived up to some arbitrary notion of racial diversity?

More importantly, the formulation of Moore’s response to this question put to him is quite revealing and exposes a number of assumptions.

What exactly does “white as a tractor pull” mean anyway?

Are not Whites allowed to have a form of entertainment inherent to their particular culture?  Does Moore intend to criticize forms of recreation that tend to appeal to Black folks but not Whites?

Likewise, will this same spirit of condemnation be brought to bear against Black Baptist bodies that do not enact outreach and set aside opportunities particularly aimed towards White people?

For overall, one will find it is probably more likely that a Black person will advance within the ranks of the Southern Baptist Convention than for a White person to advance very far within predominately Black ecclesiastical administrative organizations and associations.

If the Rev. Fred Luter was elected from a truly Biblical perspective, not a single word would be mentioned about his color.  Instead, all that would be said is that he is the most qualified man for the position from the standpoint of his Christian character and his aptitude to apply sound theology to the challenges facing American culture today.

by Frederick Meekins

I Will Be Speaking at a Repeal Obamacare Rally in Boston Tomorrow

The Greater Boston Tea Party has organized a Repeal Obamacare rally tomorrow afternoon and I have been invited to speak. Details here.

Obama Administration Apologizes to Pakistan

The day before the Fourth of July, the Obama Administration saw fit to apologize to Pakistan. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton apologized for the November 2011 NATO airstrike which resulted in the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers. In return, Pakistan agreed to reopen NATO supply lines to Afghanistan that had been closed following the incident.

To read the rest of this post, please check out The Spectacle Blog.

Andy Griffith, R.I.P.

Actor and TV icon Andy Griffith passed away today. A cause of death has not been released. He was 86.

To read the rest of this obituary, please check out The Spectacle Blog.

D-Train Makes His Last Stop

Dontrelle Willis announced his retirement from baseball yesterday. The southpaw had been pitching with the Norfolk Tides, the Triple A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. He is only 30.

To read the rest of this post, please check out The Spectacle Blog.

Yitzhak Shamir, R.I.P.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir died yesterday after a long battle with Alzheimer's. He was 96.

To read the rest of this obituary, please check out The Spectacle Blog.

Thoughts on Morsi Demanding U.S. Release Blind Sheikh

As you may know, Egypt's new President Mohamed Morsi has called upon the United States to release Omar Abdel-Rahman (a.k.a. "The Blind Sheikh") during his inaugural speech. The Egyptian born cleric is currently serving a life sentence for his involvement in planning the first WTC bombing in 1993 and planning terrorist attacks against other landmarks mostly situated in New York City.


It doesn't scare me that Morsi would call for The Blind Sheikh's release. That should come as a surprise to no one. But what scares me is that it isn't inconceivable that U.S. officials could one day release him in some kind of misguided attempt to appease the Muslim Brotherhood. If the Brits were prepared to release the Lockerbie bomber then what is to prevent the U.S. government from releasing Abdel-Rahman?

Aaron Hill Hits 2nd Cycle of 2012

For the second time in eleven days, Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Aaron Hill has hit for the cycle.

To read the rest of this post, please check out http://spectator.org/blog/2012/06/29/aaron-hill-hits-2nd-cycle-of-2

Limited Government, R.I.P.

Limited government in the United States succumbed this morning. The cause of death was a blunt blow to the head by the Supreme Court in its ruling to uphold Obamacare in its entirety. Her age was not known. At least one account put her age at 223. Some estimate she was nearing her 236th birthday while some believe she was born on a bridge in Concord, Massachusetts in 1774. Others believe she was born in the United Kingdom but sailed to our shores soon after. For her part, especially in her later years, she was not inclined to discuss her age.

She managed to live a long and prosperous life despite the challenges of the War of 1812, The Civil War, The Great Depression especially where it concerned FDR's attempt to pack said Supreme Court as well as President Truman's attempt to nationalize the steel industry during the Korean War.

Limited government began her slow decline in earnest during the mid-1960s with LBJ's War on Poverty. Despite the trillion of dollars spent to eliminate poverty, these programs only served to entrench it. Other complications came along the way such as the creation of the Department of Education. President Reagan attempted to bring limited government back to its former health. Despite helping Russia and Eastern Europe out of communism, the best he could here do was to slow down the growth of government. His successor, George H.W. Bush would cancel out these modest gains by signing the Americans with Disabilities Act into law and through tax increases he vowed not to enact. Over the years, both Democrats and Republicans have seen fit to increase their authority over the populace at the expense of limited government in acts both big and small.

Her health would take a sharp turn for the worse in 2005 when the Supreme Court in the Kelo case expanded the definition of eminent domain rendering individual property rights nearly meaningless. The words on the deed weren't worth the paper on which they were written.

Then came the passage of Obamacare in 2009 requiring all citizens to purchase health insurance. There had been optimism that limited government would win the day when the Court appeared to be skeptical of the federal government's arguments. Its solicitor had argued it was a tax when the Obama Administration had argued it wasn't. But instead of seeing through the smoke and mirrors, the Supremes accepted Obamacare as a tax after all.

The only silver lining is that funeral services have not been scheduled. However, public rallies will be organized in its place in the hope that a new limited government will be born in early November.

Yankees Lose Sabathia & Pettitte

The New York Yankees have lost two of their top starting pitchers in less than 24 hours.

To read the rest of this post, please check out The Spectacle Blog.

Did Liz Warren Attend Tom Vu's Free Real Estate Seminar?

The Massachusetts GOP has put out an ad (H/T Michael Warren of The Weekly Standard) highlighting Elizabeth Warren's history of flipping properties on foreclosed homes. The ad is based on a Boston Herald story put out earlier this month documenting real estate transactions she entered into mostly during the 1990s while still living in Oklahoma. Warren, of course, has railed against banks which foreclose homes but apparently doesn't object to making money from them.

Which leads me to this question. Did Warren attend one of Tom Vu's free real estate seminars? If you watched late night TV in the 1990s chances are you came across one of Vu's infomercials in which would hail his rise from poverty as a Vietnamese refugee into a real estate mogul. Vu would often be surrounded by his mansions, fancy cars and bikini clad women on his yacht telling viewers if you didn't attend one of his free seminars that "you deserve to be broke" and "Don't listen to your friends, they're losers." I'm sure Tom Vu probably held a seminar or two in Oklahoma City. Liz Warren and Tom Vu make an odd pair but I cannot help but wonder if they crossed paths.

These days Vu is part of the World Series of Poker circuit and what appears to be a multi-level marketing scheme called Zenzuu which is ostensibly a social networking site.

In any case, it would be interesting to know who taught Liz Warren how to buy and sell, as Vu put it, "distressed properties"?

Nora Ephron, R.I.P.

Journalist, author, screenwriter and director Nora Ephron died today of acute myeloid leukemia. She was 71.

To read the rest of this obituary, please check out The Spectacle Blog.