OK, this is getting boring: it's Egypt again, obviously. Doesn't take a whole lot of expertise to tell you that this is actually something that matters (at the very least, to the Egyptians) and not some fluff that the cable networks are pushing on us.
Other than that, I'll mention the House GOP efforts to put together their continuing resolution for the remainder of 2011. I don't think anything that's happening at CPAC is lasting, at least not that I heard. But there's always things going on that don't make the front page, especially when the front page is as full as it's been this week: what else do you think mattered?
Saturday, February 12, 2011
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Egypt, because it provides further evidence that "the moral force of nonviolence", as President Obama called it, is as universal and as universally effective a method of social/political change as we have.
ReplyDeleteOne way to think of it is as the final repudiation of the neoconservative view of the world that "violence is the only thing these Commies, Arabs, Africans, etc. understand"---a repudiation that began with the nonviolent revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe.
Since World War II, every region in the world has witnessed mass nonviolent movements against repressive regimes, and every region has witnessed examples of those movements successfully overthrowing repressive regimes.
P.S. In a related note, Gene Sharp's 1993 essay "From Dictatorship to Democracy"---a how-to manual for nonviolently overthrowing dictatorships of any ideology---soars to the top of the "Political Essays Dictators Don't Want Translated Into Their Language(s)" list.
Patriot Act Fail.
ReplyDeleteMight prove to be some common ground between liberals and Tea Party after all.
Agree with massappeal - esp. about the nonviolence. Whoever those people were making sure no arms came into the square and it stayed non-violent were absolutely brilliant. I want to know more about them.
ReplyDeleteThe fissures in the House Republicans are important.
Under most of the radar: the lengths BofA and the USCoC are willing to go to to silence their critics by hiring security firms to hack computers and slander family members.
As far as I can tell, all that's really happened is that the Egyptians have exchanged a dictator for a military oligarchy, so lets not dance in the aisles yet.
ReplyDelete"What is human?" GOD's paradigm answer...
ReplyDeleteKeven J. Hasson, President of the Becket Fund, recently stated, "...the American and Soviet systems...offered differing visions of freedom and human nature." The missing element in every human 'solution' is an accurate definition of the creature.
In the Bible, God's Word has accurately defined the human being as 'the earth creature endowed with the ability to choose.' His natural Rights, therefore, are merely an extension and application of natural human endowments, which all humans - everywhere in the world - possess. Even as goldfish, canaries, and puppy dogs require an environment based on their natural features, so humans require external freedom to fulfill their natural internal abilities of decision, choice, selection, election, and consent. Uniquely, America was founded on this definitive paradigm in human nature. All nations should reject foundational human opinion that teaches otherwise.
Further, God's gift of criteria for choosing between alternatives supplies us with superior standards for successful visionary choice-making. Humans cannot invent (or replace) criteria greater than self, ACLU to the contrary.
Defining 'human' accurately is the first step in establishing accurate and successful environments, institutions, and creative relationships for earth's Choicemaker. Middle East governments, and all leaders, would do well to pay attention: nature and nature's Creator speak with an authoritative voice. Psalms 25:12 119:30, 173 Joel 3:14 Selah
No one is smarter than their criteria.
Jim Baxter Sgt. USMC WWII & Korean War semper fidelis http://www.choicemaker.net/
CONTEMPORARY COMMENTS
ReplyDelete"I should think that if there is one thing that man has learned about
himself it is that he is a creature of choice." Richard M. Weaver
"Man is a being capable of subduing his emotions and impulses; he can
rationalize his behavior. He arranges his wishes into a scale, he chooses;
in short, he acts. What distinguishes man from beasts is precisely that he
adjusts his behavior deliberately." Ludwig von Mises
"To make any sense of the idea of morality, it must be presumed that the
human being is responsible for his actions and responsibility cannot be
understood apart from the presumption of freedom of choice." John
Chamberlain
"The advocate of liberty believes that it is complementary of the orderly
laws of cause and effect, of probability and of chance, of which man is not
completely informed. It is complementary of them because it rests in part
upon the faith that each individual is endowed by his Creator with the power
of individual choice." Wendell J. Brown
"These examples demonstrate a basic truth -- that human dignity is embodied
in the free choice of individuals." Condoleeza Rice
"Our Founding Fathers believed that we live in an ordered universe. They
believed themselves to be a part of the universal order of things. Stated
another way, they believed in God. They believed that every man must find
his own place in a world where a place has been made for him. They sought
independence for their nation but, more importantly, they sought freedom for
individuals to think and act for themselves. They established a republic
dedicated to one purpose above all others - the preservation of individual
liberty..." Ralph W. Husted
"We have the gift of an inner liberty so far-reaching that we can choose
either to accept or reject the God who gave it to us, and it would seem to
follow that the Author of a liberty so radical wills that we should be
equally free in our relationships with other men. Spiritual liberty
logically demands conditions of outer and social freedom for its
completion." Edmund A. Opitz
"Above all I see an ability to choose the better from the worse that has
made possible life's progress." Charles Lindbergh
"Freedom is the Right to Choose, the Right to create for oneself the
alternatives of Choice. Without the possibility of Choice, and the exercise
of Choice, a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing." Thomas
Jefferson
The Republicans at the CPAC can talk about how Obama is weak on Terrorism. However, when it comes to the events like this, they ignore it.
ReplyDeleteSince things have changed so much beyond belief, they have refused to take that great information into their minds. I don't think they want to believe that powerful people can successfully carry out a protest in a peaceful way.