Snicker…
Category: Politics
I Think Canada…
is an inconsequential country and I mean that as a compliment. Nobody much cares what Canada thinks about any issue, what it does, or how Canadian policy will affect their situation. Canadians may hate to hear that, but its true.
And I admire that.
In the US we’re all over the place, a cultural, economic, and military titan. People in little countries in Africa have to think about us and we always seem to be on someone’s horizon. The truth is there are a lot of people who wouldn’t know where Canada is if it weren’t riding our northern border.
But what a cost.
Morally, financially, in lives, energy, and just plain soul being the US is very expensive and getting more so every day. We’re everywhere and nowhere. People have to pay attention to us, and yes, fear us, but we’re getting to be more and more like a punched out fighter. We pay everyone’s bills but our own. We take care of everyone’s problems but our own. We’re on the world’s stage every minute of every day but the act is getting old.
I think Canada has it right. Live within your borders. As best you can live within your means. Be out there in the world but not in everyone’s face. Do good things when you can and be careful about picking fights. Realize it’s not always important to be number one in everything there is to be number one.
Oh, Canada is hardly perfect. Too politically correct. Given to defining themselves by how they are different from the US. Sometimes unsure or unwilling. Yet I think they’ve got something up there, at least a direction that we just south might want to look at. Eat the fruit, spit out the seeds, and not be enraptured with the idea of being a world power all the time.
It has its benefits.
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Interesting…
“Philanthropy in Byzantium was not practiced as a result of coercion on the part of State machinery or the Emperor as is sometimes the case by socialist societies today. It was a voluntary manifestation of love and human consideration. The Byzantine Empire was not a socialist state. Its welfare program did not destroy self-reliance, self-respect, or initiative. Byzantine phlanthropy did not make the poor servile and dependent, weak in charcter, resigned or parasitic….the Byzantines believed that ‘if anyone will not work, let him not eat,,” – Byzantine Philanthropy And Social Welfare; Demtrios J. Constanelos; page 203.
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A Little Political Humor…
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Worth Considering…
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On Politics…
Politics becomes fierce and divisive precisely when people trust in it as a kind of transcendence, a structure that gives overarching meaning and direction to their lives and their world. As politics replaces God its ebbs and flows gain a significance well beyond the normal transitory flow of life. There is a kind of transcendent, even eternal, aspect to it so that wins and losses are not just things that can be changed in time but rather reflect on the core of the personhood of the people who hold the political opinions. For Christians politics is always about lesser kingdoms, temporary kingdoms, and when it achieves the substance in the Christians mind of the Kingdom of God it has warped itself into something dark and even unholy no matter how good the motives may appear to be.
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Apparently, the Government…
is scouring the web looking for certain words that might indicate possible terrorist intent. In fact the word “terrorist” is one of them and so is “pork” and many others. You can read all about it here.
The first thing that strikes me is what appears to be a total lack of US media, at least of the mainstream variety, reporting this. Some of the best coverage of the US government, sadly. comes from British journalists and the linked story is one of hundreds of examples. The increasing invasion of privacy in the name of protecting us from terrorists is something Americans as a whole should discuss. The complicity of both political parties in this is something worth investigating. Yet US media seems strangely silent.
The second thing is about simple reality. There is a risk in being a free society. We risk hearing opinions we don’t share or like. We risk the possibility that others may use freedom for illegal or dangerous ends. We risk the possibility that not all of our life will be safe, simple, or without challenge. There is danger in freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of thought, and freedom of ideas.
Yet the danger is not so great as the danger of an all-encompassing state promising us security in trade for our liberties. There is risk in liberty but it’s the risk of being free, of sharing our lives with free people, and finding a path for our lives on terms of our choosing. The net designed to snare one kind of fish also ensnares anything in its way and the state that declares it must spread its net wide and far to “protect” us can and will ensnare everything in its path and if not now, will set the stage for some later use not simply for the suspected but for everyone.
What we need now is not more of the state but more personal responsibility, personal morality, and personal commitment to the greater good. People themselves need to take the initiative required of members of a free society. If we cede our freedom, our individuality, our destiny to the state we get what we deserve. If we recover our dignity, our freedom, and our willingness to see beyond our narrow personal interests we can recover what has made this country great.
Choose. Soon.
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For These Times…
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Tis the Season…
Interesting Point…
People can call me what they want; a leftist, an isolationist, none of the labels are accurate or true. I just want to live in a country that doesn’t actively seek out war, a country that is always running out of its way to sacrifice its best and its resources to solve other people’s problems. 
The Beautiful Path 