Few Christians Have a Biblical Worldview

Chuck Baldwin comments on the latest George Barna survey.

Advice on Getting Through Tough Economic Times, Courtesy of the Ones Who Caused Them

It's no joke. The feds -- yes, the very culprits who caused the financial crisis -- have set up an online resource entitled Getting Through Tough Economic Times. It offers "practical advice on how to deal with the effects financial difficulties can have on your physical and mental health." There you will find all sorts of government-approved information on:

• Possible health risks
  
• Warning signs
  
• Managing stress
  
• Getting help
  
• Suicide warning signs
  
• Other steps you can take

Isn't it nice to know the Nanny State's got your back?

Burt Blumert Passes Away

Burton S. Blumert, author and publisher of LewRockwell.com, has passed away. He is remembered by Lew Rockwell and Antiwar.com's Eric Garris. He will be missed.

Obama's Version of Transparency

Barack Obama said he wanted his presidency to be more transparent, and now we know that means we only get to know what he wants us to know. No surprise there.

Consider this story from PC World:

The Office of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), part of President Barack Obama's office, has denied a company's request for information about a secretive anticounterfeiting trade agreement being negotiated, citing national security concerns.

The USTR this week denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from Knowledge Ecology International, an intellectual-property research and advocacy group, even though Obama, in one of his first presidential memos, directed that agencies be more forthcoming with information requested by the public.

The USTR under Obama seems to be taking the same position about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) as it did under former President George Bush, that the treaty documents are not open to the public. One of Obama's campaign promises was to make government more open and responsive to the public.

The USTR, in a letter to Knowledge Ecology International's director James Love, said information in ACTA, an anticounterfeiting and antipiracy pact being negotiated among the U.S. and several other nations, is "properly classified in the interest of national security."

Just another example of the sweeping "change" Obama has brought to Washington.

We're Number 36!

That's right. The nation that prides itself on the First Amendment has been ranked 36th by Reporters Without Borders in their 2008 Press Freedom Index. Of course, that's only domestically. Outside U.S. territory we're ranked 119th.

The Next Step in Camera Surveillance

From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

Meet the Hollywood Police Department's new license plate scanner. It already may have met you.

The multi-camera and scanner system, mounted on the trunk, hood, or roof of a cruiser, takes pictures as the officer drives through the city looking for stolen vehicles and criminals. The camera is capable of snooping through as many as 10,000 license plates a shift, leaving officials a bit giddy about its effectiveness.

"These things are awesome," said Hollywood Police Lt. Scott Pardon, whose traffic unit, in just a few weeks, recovered one stolen car, one stolen tag and made two arrests. Hollywood is not the only place where police cars have eyes.

Similar systems have been tested or used by at least a half-dozen law enforcement agencies in South Florida, including the sheriff's departments in Broward and Palm Beach counties. ...

... Police everywhere say it's an effective crime-fighting tool while allowing officers to multi-task.

But privacy-rights groups take issue with authorities taking and storing information on noncriminals, something they say is too Big Brother-like.

"If I have never gotten a ticket or have never done anything wrong, I should have the right to know if the picture of my car is in the database, and what are they doing with it," said Lillie Coney, with the Washington, D.C.-based Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Organizations like Coney's and the American Civil Liberties Union worry that many law enforcement agencies are failing to establish policies governing how police can use the information that's collected.

"It's not that they are looking at license plates and taking pictures of cars belonging to innocent people," said Barry Butin, co-counsel of the ACLU's Broward chapter. "We are more concerned with what they do with the information later."

Posse Comiwhatus?

About those U.S. troops in Alabama being deployed in response to a domestic crime...

The Army is investigating.

Feds Try to Crack Down on Small Farms

From WorldNetDaily:

House Resolution 875, or the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, was introduced by Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in February. DeLauro's husband, Stanley Greenburg, works for Monsanto -- the world's leading producer of herbicides and genetically engineered seed.

DeLauro's act has 39 co-sponsors and was referred to the House Agriculture Committee on Feb. 4. It calls for the creation of a Food Safety Administration to allow the government to regulate food production at all levels -- and even mandates property seizure, fines of up to $1 million per offense and criminal prosecution for producers, manufacturers and distributors who fail to comply with regulations. ...

... Another "food safety" bill that has organic and small farmers worried is Senate Bill 425, or the Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act, sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

Brown's bill is backed by lobbyists for Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland and Tyson. It was introduced in September and has been referred to the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. Some say the legislation could also put small farmers out of business.

Like HR 875, the measure establishes a nationwide "traceability system" monitored by the Food and Drug Administration for all stages of manufacturing, processing, packaging and distribution of food. It would cost $40 million over three years.

In a country that treats raw milk (you know, that stuff humans have been consuming for thousands of years) like crack cocaine, this doesn't come as a surprise.

U.S. Troops Deployed in Alabama

The soldiers pictured here are not in Iraq, Afghanistan, or some other war-torn third world country. They were dispatched from the Army base at Ft. Rucker to patrol the streets of Samson, Alabama, following Michael McLendon's murderous shooting spree on March 10.

If the military insists on ignoring the Posse Comitatus Act, we can expect scenes like this to be much more common.

Ron Paul Supporters Potential Terrorists?

The Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) thinks so. It produced a report last month for Missouri law enforcement officers entitled "The Modern Militia Movement." InfoWars.com has the full story.

Under the heading of "Political and Anti-Government Rhetoric" you will read the following:

Militia members most commonly associate with 3rd part political groups. It is not uncommon for militia members to display Constitutional Party, Campaign for Liberty, or Libertarian material. These members are usually supporters of former Presidential Candidate: Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr.

These dangerous militia types shouldn't be confused with "normal" citizens who believe that subversive behavior against the Constitution should only occur at the ballot box, as indicated by their display of Obama or McCain material.

So, I suppose if you want to avoid needless hassle on the highway at the hands of a patriotic Missouri trooper, you might want to peel off that Ron Paul bumper sticker before driving through the Show-Me State.

Opening Relations with Cuba?

The Obama administration may move to ease trade and travel restrictions with Cuba. But don't be looking for any big changes yet. As one diplomat put it, "It just takes us back to the 1990s."

What a Monopoly Looks Like

A monopoly typically cannot occur simply because free market forces enable a particular company to flourish, as the FTC has implied in the Whole Foods case. A true monopoly involves a company that requires government interference on its behalf -- like Monsanto.

FTC Bullies Whole Foods into Submission

Here in America, you'd think that we would value free market capitalism, especially when it comes to something as fundamental as feeding our own families. Not so. The market doesn't determine where you shop for food; the federal government does.

After being harassed and threatened with lawsuits for violating (unconstitutional) anti-trust laws, Whole Foods Market Inc., the nation's largest organic foods chain, has caved to pressure from the Federal Trade Commission rather than risk bankruptcy by being dragged into a kangaroo court battle. The company has agreed to sell 13 stores after the FTC challenged its $565 million purchase of Wild Oats Markets, its largest competitor. Whole Foods will also sell leases and assets of 19 Wild Oats stores that have already closed.

Why the bullying? Federal regulators were worried that the buyout would create a natural-food monopoly. A "monopoly"? The federal government is the very definition of a monopoly. But they know what's best, right? If the feds were so concerned about the effect this transaction would have on the economy, one wonders why they didn't just offer to bail out Wild Oats Markets in the first place.

Whole Foods did try to fight back by filing a lawsuit against the FTC in December, claiming that its due process rights had been violated (which they were). The company refiled the case in January with the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington in hopes of getting an expedited decision, but that motion was denied.

The settlement currently is awaiting approval from the thugs at the FTC. The stores now up for sale had recorded sales of $31 million in the fiscal first quarter of 2009, but Whole Foods will end up with no more than about $19 million once they are sold.

This is American "free enterprise" in action.

Just Say "No" to Universal Health Care

Last year, Sven R. Larson, PhD., wrote an article for the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons entitled "Lessons from Sweden's Universal Health System: Tales from the Health-Care Crypt." Scary stuff.

Read it here (PDF).

Montana Supports the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Chuck Baldwin writes:

The Montana resolution recalls, "When Montana entered into statehood and adopted the Compact as a part of the Montana Constitution in 1889, included was a provision guaranteeing the right to bear arms to 'any person.'"

The resolution continues, "To be clear, the wording of the right to bear arms reservation in the Montana constitution is exactly the same today as it was in 1884."

Furthermore, the Montana resolution says, "There is no question that the contract into which Montana entered for statehood was predicated upon an understanding that the people of Montana would benefit from an individual and personal right to bear arms, protected from governmental interference by both the federal and Montana constitutions. That was the clear intent of the parties to the contract."

The resolution ended by stating sternly, "A collective rights holding in Heller would not only open the Pandora's box of unilaterally morphing contracts, it would also poise Montana to claim appropriate and historically entrenched remedies for contract violation."

In other words, representatives and senators in the State of Montana unequivocally put Washington, D.C., on notice that it would not tolerate the infringement of its citizens' right to keep and bear arms. I don't think I'm reading anything into the resolution by assuming that they were implying that they would secede before they let the federal government trample their Second Amendment liberties. (Plus, I've just been told that New Hampshire may also be preparing to propose such a resolution.)

Montana has it exactly right!

Police Harrass Store Owners, Arrest Priest

They say there are always two sides to every story, but I just can't imagine what the cops' side of this story might be:

On the evening of his arrest, at around 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 19, Father Manship walked into My Country Store, a convenience store in East Haven run by Ecuadorians. Inside, the police were removing over 60 expired license plates that had been hung as decorations in the store. The license plates were government property, the officers had said, and they were confiscating them.

Manship entered the shop, took out a digital camera, and began videotaping the East Haven police officers who were removing license plates from a wall in the rear of the store.

The officers immediately ordered Manship to stop videotaping, seized his camera and put him under arrest, according to Manship. Within minutes of his arrival, everyone in the store fell silent as Father Manship was led out in handcuffs. He was charged with interfering with a police officer and creating a public disturbance.

Read the full account here.

As a rule, I never give the benefit of the doubt to those who carry guns on behalf of the government and are charged with enforcing the interests of the state.

How an Economy Grows and Why It Doesn't

How an Economy Grows and Why It Doesn't - Irwin Schiff

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Business eBooks Business-Economics economics austrian s

Bush-Style Scare-Mongering

From CNN:

Iran likely has enough material to make a nuclear weapon, Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen told CNN's John King Sunday.

“We think they do, quite frankly," Mullen said on State of The Union with John King. "Iran having a nuclear weapon, I believe, for a long time, is a very, very bad outcome for the region and for the world."

I suppose we can look forward to another "mushroom cloud" speech in the near future.