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Name: Aaron Miller
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dreams tempered with wisdom

Posted by Aaron Miller on Monday, July 06, 2009 12:00:00 PM
Austin Hill reprinted the email he received from President Obama on the 4th of July this year. Within that letter is the following:

"And as America comes ever closer to achieving the perfect Union our founders dreamed"

Right there is a fundamental misunderstanding, or (more likely) a willful misinterpretation, of America's founding.

The Founders did not dream of Utopia. They did not believe they were setting the groundwork for a "perfect Union". They certainly did not believe the Constitution was merely a set of guidelines from which America would begin, as Obama's actions clearly demonstrate he believes.

No, our Founders were Christians who believed in the Fall of Man and realists who acknowledged that humanity will always be flawed. They believed that all governments, including the one they began, have a natural tendency to drift toward either dictatorship or anarchy. Read The 5,000 Year Leap and you'll see this in their own words.

The U.S. Constitution was written in response to tyranny... which is to say that it was written in response to the natural and inevitable corruption of the human heart and our limited wisdom. It was also written with hope and faith in the inherent beauty of human beings. Its authors were plainly aware, as evidenced through their own words, that neither corruption and foolishness nor beauty and wisdom can ever be completely struck from individuals or from the social systems those individuals comprise.

Furthermore, America's Founders believed that what progress which could be made would be made apart from government, not through it. They expressly asserted that government must be limited to only protection of the most basic individual rights and the facilitation of states' rights. They perceived government as a necessary burden with which one should never be comfortable.

In his actions, Barack Obama proves to be the antithesis of America's founding principles. The longer he, his fellow liberals, big-government Republicans and other cowardly politicians remain in power, the farther we will drift from the Founders' true dream... a dream in which America is defined by its individuals and its culture, rather than by its government.
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California hasn't changed

Posted by Aaron Miller on Thursday, May 21, 2009 7:00:00 PM
Much is being made by some commentators of the recent referendums in California. Even though little more than 20% of eligible voters participated, according to Glenn Beck, voters overwhelmingly voted against raising taxes or giving the state government more money.

This does not mean that Californians are fed up with spending gone wild. That's a possibility, but I doubt it. The more likely scenario is that Californians are not willing to pay for the programs and services they demand.

Let's face it -- affordability is rarely mentioned by politicians when they ask us what we want.

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bring terrorists home

Posted by Aaron Miller on Thursday, May 21, 2009 12:00:00 PM
This is the reason it matters whether captured terrorists are jailed on our own soil or at Guantanamo.

A hundred years of history has taught us that organized crime members in prisons can communicate with members outside.

Far more history has taught us that the people we put in prisons have a cultural effect on their fellow prisoners. Criminals tend to come out of prison more corrupt and more knowledgeable than when they entered. The last thing we need is for terrorists to be spreading their culture and knowledge among our prison populations.

It's not about those foreign terrorists roaming our streets. It's about those foreign terrorists encouraging homegrown terrorism exponentially. That's why we can never allow Al Qaeda veterans to be imprisoned on U.S. soil.

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clarity with Notre Dame

Posted by Aaron Miller on Sunday, May 17, 2009 11:00:00 AM
This controversy with Notre Dame can be made much clearer than it has been in mainstream media reports and interviews.

The Church believes that abortion is the killing of human children. President Obama supports the killing of millions of children. Notre Dame cannot honestly claim to represent the Church's teachings while awarding an honor to someone participating in such extreme evil.

That's it. It's that simple. By simply understanding that the Church perceives Obama as a powerful supporter of infanticide on a massive scale, it becomes obvious that Notre Dame cannot honor Obama without rejecting its Catholic identity.
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abortion wordplay

Posted by Aaron Miller on Saturday, May 16, 2009 1:00:00 PM
The pro-life movement does itself no favors by letting liberals frame the discussion in their own terms.

We need to stop talking about "fetuses" and start talking about "unborn children". The word "fetus" is a scientific term which distances us from sympathy. It's like talking about "males and females" instead of "men and women", or "progeny" instead of "kids". Science is indeed vital to good arguments against abortion, but the considerations of "what is humanity?" should not be separated from considerations of "what is a person?".

Never let abortion advocates ignore that we're talking about the lives of people and not mere lab experiments.
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modern guilds

Posted by Aaron Miller on Wednesday, May 13, 2009 5:00:00 PM
Have you ever thought about how similar organizations like the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association are to the guilds of Medieval times and fantasy novels?  They're essentially the same.

Even though they're technically not government organizations, they are governmental by default. A lawyer cannot practice his trade unless he is licensed by the ABA, and the ABA has the power to revoke that license. Doctors similarly can't practice without the AMA's permission.

I think these modern guilds will play an essential role in moving America away from democracy toward dictatorship. Most are dominated by liberals sympathetic to Obama and Pelosi. I bet we'll be reading articles within the next few years of people losing their licenses to practice their trade because they rejected liberal policies.
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Air Force One photo-op

Posted by Aaron Miller on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 8:00:00 PM
What's especially sad about the recent photo-op fiasco is that a teenager could have accomplished the same marketing effect with only Photoshop and a few old pictures off the internet.
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America's homogenous journalism

Posted by Aaron Miller on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 3:00:00 PM
Another great observation from Mark Steyn: If the New York Times fails, journalism in this country will likely improve.

I first realized how dependent other news agencies are on the NYT when John Stossel talked about his ABC news editor handing his reporters clippings of the paper's stories each day. The book is called Give Me a Break, if you're interested.

Let if fall
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fascism on the rise everywhere

Posted by Aaron Miller on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 12:00:00 AM
This article on censorship and diversity policing in Britain is insane!  If half this stuff is true, I fear for my British friends. I've read about similar things happening in Canada and Australia over recent years, but the stories in the article are particularly bad. The same movement has been occurring here in the States, of course, but we're not so far down that road.

Censorship of this kind rises through social rules and business regulations before it becomes law. In the U.S., making a joke at work about a college team or about sailors or something might get you a disapproving look, but making a gay joke will get you fired. If a white guy gets into a bar brawl with another white guy, it's an assault charge at most. But if it's a white guy and a black or gay guy, then it's a hate crime. Fascism seems to be on the rise all over the world. In the West, it's liberal fascism.

You know, Hitler was involved in public service projects, too. He commissioned the Germany's highway system, the Autobahns. He employed people and created activities for the youth. Fascism often gets associated with right-wing ideologies these days, but many dictators have been of a liberal bent. Hell, Hitler was a painter, and we all know how artists tend to be.

When I see Obama being more than civil to people like Hugo Chavez, it doesn't give me hope for America's future.
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torture and word games

Posted by Aaron Miller on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 8:00:00 PM
According to Brit Hume today, stuff like waterboarding and banging heads against a wall... "Some people, including Senator John McCain, consider this stuff torture."

Well... duh?

It's bad enough that liberals and media constantly play word games, undercutting rational debate. Must conservatives do it, too?

Torture is the deliberate causing of pain or discomfort. Whether it's as severe as cutting someone with knives or as mild as blaring annoying music, whether the intent is masochism or extracting life-or-death information, whether it takes months or mere moments, whether it's done by a psychotic maniac or by a considerate, upright military interrogator... it's still torture. The word is attached to all sorts of terrible images of evil in popular perception, but we accomplish nothing by calling the morally justified military and espionage uses by any name other than simple "torture".

Say it with me: torture can be alright. It's not "torture" only when the use is evil or unnecessary.


And while we're on the subject, I might as well call attention to another aspect of the torture debate: hedonism.

Yes, hedonism. Too many laws and practices in our "post-modern" society are founded in a hedonistic worldview... an obsession with the body and all that is physical. Many modern Americans and Europeans believe that physical harm is categorically worse and more reprehensible than psychological harm. If you're like most people, you've probably never given it much thought. Well, now's your chance.

It is because of this obsessive protection of the body, without balance alongside the mind and soul, that so many believe torture (the deliberate causing of pain/discomfort) can never be acceptable -- that an absence of pain is more valuable than life itself. It is because of this obsession that people believe a weeks-long injury resulting in a scar is less humane than locking someone up in jail for half their life. It's because of this obsession that mild spankings are now labeled child abuse by many.

The body is good. Pain is bad. But life, my friends, is a bit more complicated that that. The end doesn't justify the means. But let us also consider that a people can recover from pain, and regularly do.
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the will to believe

Posted by Aaron Miller on Thursday, April 09, 2009 9:00:00 PM
Fascism will rise in America because so many believe we are immune. We will fall the sickness because we will not acknowledge it.

Such things don't just happen "over there". No society will ever be immune from the baser impulses of human nature. No society will ever be immune from evil men and evil ideas.

America is not invincible. We are losing our home. If we can't convince our fellow Americans of that, then all we can do is wait for tyranny to strike and practice civil disobedience. Decide now how you would face the greater horrors of the past.

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Obama and North Korea

Posted by Aaron Miller on Wednesday, April 08, 2009 11:00:00 PM
As I responded to Kathleen Parker's recent article, Obama is not the big dog who needn't bare his teeth. The general perception of Obama is that he is a European-style leader. European leaders are notorious for empty threats and a willingness to accept peace under any circumstances.

When Russia militarily expanded into South Ossetia, Western Europe said "No, no, no!" and wagged its little finger. And that's it. Months later, all is forgotten. History is repeating itself, and Obama has yet to prove he is not Chamberlain.

I don't claim to know how Obama should respond to North Korea's missile test. But we can be sure that our enemies, even the insensible ones, are familiar enough with history to know that military potential does not equal a threat. Yes, America has the world's greatest military might, but the willingness to employ that might and the circumstances under which we will do so changes from age to age and from politician to politician.

This far into Obama's presidency, there is nothing to suggest that we will not join the United Nations in their belief of peace at any cost. There is nothing to suggest we will not accept peace without justice or that we will support our allies. America's commitments and resolve must be reasserted with each new administration. That doesn't mean entering war. But it does mean, at the least, blunt and direct diplomacy... leaving no room to question our commitments.

Make no mistake... Obama has yet to be truly tested. Russia will seize more territory. Their flights from Cuba will come mockingly close to our airspace. And our many enemies worldwide are strengthening their alliances. A storm is coming, and just how bad that storm is when it arrives will depend largely on how much time we give it to strengthen.
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the bow

Posted by Aaron Miller on Wednesday, April 08, 2009 5:00:00 PM
It's astounding to me that Obama would deny bowing to Saudi leader when he knows video clearly shows him doing so (from multiple angles, no less). The White House apparently claims he was just leaning down to shake the hand of a shorter man, but King Abdullah certainly ain't that short. And Obama's is facing the ground when he grabs the king's hand, not facing the king. It's obviously, undeniably a bow.

Honestly, the bow by itself doesn't mean much. Any Christian knows he or she should be the humble servant of every fellow human being.
If Obama bowed to all foreign leaders, I would consider it noble and right. To do so would not suggest that the President does not recognize his responsibility to protect our nation's sovereignty. One can be both a dutiful politican and a humble servant of God.

But Obama didn't bow to everyone. He bowed to a single leader: the Saudi King.

So the very reasonable question is: Why bow to him, specifically? What did Obama consider special about King Abdullah? I've heard speculation, but the hard truth is that nobody knows. No matter what the reason, though, it's a valid cause for concern.

And that Obama denies the event event took place should make reasonable people question his motivation for hiding the truth.

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permanent takeover

Posted by Aaron Miller on Wednesday, April 01, 2009 1:00:00 PM
It's now being said on some talk shows that Obama's administration is selecting new board members for General Motors.

Do you understand the full significance of that? It means the government's takeover of the company is permanent. By firing the company's top decision-makers and choosing the replacements, Obama is ensuring that he will maintain control of the company even if the government officially returns it to private operation.

Now, there can be no return to the GM of old. The company belongs to liberal politicians. The change is permanent.

Our democracy is dying.

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a forgiving market

Posted by Aaron Miller on Monday, March 23, 2009 2:00:00 PM
So, today the market is rallying behind the news that the government will spend still more taxpayer money to pay for toxic assets.  I'm confused. We're trusting the government now?

People, we've heard this before. The government signed a 700-billion-dollar check for the expressed purpose of buying toxic assets, and then the money was spent elsewhere. Now the government's signing an even bigger check with the same promise, and we're happy about it?

I'm not predicting will see the same scenario. It's possible, but I doubt it. Honestly, I don't know how I feel about this market reaction, but it seems a little strange.
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