"When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe." … Frederic Bastiat


Evil talks about tolerance only when it’s weak. When it gains the upper hand, its vanity always requires the destruction of the good and the innocent, because the example of good and innocent lives is an ongoing witness against it. So it always has been. So it always will be. And America has no special immunity to becoming an enemy of its own founding beliefs about human freedom, human dignity, the limited power of the state, and the sovereignty of God. – Archbishop Chaput

Trader Dan's Work is NOW AVAILABLE AT WWW.TRADERDAN.NET



Sunday, June 9, 2013

Further Signs of Internal Weakening in the US

Most of you who have read this blog for any length of time are by now familiar with my common refrain that we are witnessing an America in decline. I believe the symptoms cut across the cultural, financial, political and educational aspects of the nation.

Vice is encouraged, commended or praised by elitists as traditional standards of righteousness or morality are ridiculed or even mocked. The monetary system is hopelessly corrupted as it is addicted to cheap credit. Economic "growth" depends upon various forms of stimulus and the creation of revolving bubbles moving from one sector to the next now seems to be a permanent fixture. The public education system has produced a generation which seems to have little if any understanding of history and practically no ability to deeply think (witness the proliferation of one reality TV show after another where instead of living their own lives, the viewers live the lives of others).

The thing that really troubles me however is the corruption of our political system, in particular the ever-increasing size and role of the federal government. I am watching in stunned disbelief that a government agency, the IRS, could target and harass American citizens merely because they happen to share an opposing view of government than the current administration. We watch reporters have their phones bugged and reporters doing their jobs to ferret out truth either being charged as criminals by the government or harassed in other manners. If that was not frightening enough, we now learn that phone calls and communications of our citizens are being monitored effectively destroying any privacy rights that we might have.

Additionally we have American citizens killed in Benghazi because apparently an election was upcoming and news of that nature was not conducive to the re-election efforts. We have regulatory agencies such as the EPA answering to no one who are running roughshod over the property rights of many law-abiding citizens as further evidence that the Administrative State, the 4th branch of government, no longer seems to have any constraints on its power.

I truly believe that Liberty itself is increasingly under assault in this nation and am fearful at times that it will be lost.

Take a look at the following story which gives me hope however. It comes out of northern Colorado. This is proof positive to me that liberty is alive and well in this nation, in spite of the onslaught being made against it.

Colorado counties mull forming new state, North Colorado



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/09/colorado-county-proposes-51st-state-north-colorado/#ixzz2Vk9BQXXZ

I wish these folks well in their endeavor. Quite honestly, I expect to see this becoming a trend. I used to see the division in this nation as between red states and blue states and to a certain extent that is still very true. However, more and more I am coming to the conclusion that it is not so much the former but rather a polarization between urban dwellers and rural dwellers. If you look at a map of the US broken down by county, it is almost a given that those counties comprising the big cities are predominantly blue while those counties that encompass rural areas are predominantly red. Perhaps this is how the nation will eventually rectify the deep and unbridgeable division that besets it.