Liberty and 'Collective Action'

The Foundation

"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm." --James Madison

Editorial Exegesis

"Monday's inaugural address included a big dollop of 'give capitalism its due.' But it was just a spoonful of sugar to help Americans swallow their collectivist medicine. ... According to this president, 'being true to our founding documents ... does not mean we all define liberty in exactly the same way.' ... This is what we are to have in mind as we swallow the 'ask not what your country' line of Obama's address: 'preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.' In other words, there is no real liberty without big government. ... Americans, Obama said, possess 'an endless capacity for risk' and 'we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society's ills can be cured through government alone. Our celebration of initiative and enterprise, our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility -- these are constants in our character.' It's all terrific lip service to the principles of economic freedom. But it was followed by the declaration that 'we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.' Translation: We can have our fiscal cake and eat it too. Forget $16.5 trillion in national debt. Forget trillion-dollar deficits. Forget government hyper-spending's toll on the private sector. ... [Margaret] Thatcher warned that socialists 'always run out of other people's money.' The president has made it clear he is nowhere near to being finished pursuing collectivism in the name of individual freedom." --Investor's Business Daily

Upright

"'We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries,' President Obama said ... in his second inaugural address. 'We must claim its promise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure -- our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God.' ... The new 'green energy economy' that Obama has repeatedly spoken of ... has always been among the most optimistic features of his vision for America. But given that it is an economically impossible pipe dream, it is also one of the biggest flops of his presidency. ... Obama rejected calls to lower the debt, ignored unemployment and basically assumed the economy was well on the road to recovery. It's not. Economic growth is slowing, and our nation's unemployment rate is stuck at 7.8 percent. A new push by Obama's Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon is exactly what the economy, and America, does not need right now." --The Washington Examiner

"[T]his is the worst recovery in modern history going back to 1947, just barely running at 2% growth. [Obama] never mentioned growth. He never mentioned jobs. He never mentioned unemployment. ... What I heard Mr. Obama basically imply [Monday] is that the pursuit of happiness is the pursuit of equality of result. Not the equality of opportunity, but the equality of result. And that he would do what he could to use the government to make everybody more equal, in terms of their income and their life's work. And that is exactly wrong. We should be rewarding success; we should be promoting entrepreneurship; we should be promoting individual effort and opportunity, and I didn't hear that. I didn't hear an opportunity speech. I heard an income leveling speech." --economist Larry Kudlow

"President Barack Obama set a new standard ... for stupidly exploitative White House events by appearing onstage with children to unveil his gun control proposals. ... News flash: Kids don't want bad things to happen. This would be a genuinely useful insight ... if we could write public policy in crayon. The White House event smacked of the old unilateral disarmament campaigns of the 1980s when we were supposed to get rid of our nuclear weapons because they scared youngsters. We can safely assume that the kids onstage with Obama don't have a fine-grained sense of the limits of gun control or a proper regard for the Second Amendment. That's OK, though -- neither does he." --columnist Rich Lowry

"The central question as to whether gun control laws save lives or cost lives has generated many factual studies over the years. But these studies have been like the proverbial tree that falls in an empty forest, and has been heard by no one -- certainly not by zealots who have made up their minds and don't want to be confused by the facts. Most factual studies show no reduction in gun crimes, including murder, under gun control laws. A significant number of studies show higher rates of murder and other gun crimes under gun control laws." --economist Thomas Sowell

Insight

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom; it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." --British Prime Minister William Pitt (1759-1806)

"The right of the citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible." --Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey (1911-1978)

Sign the Pledge!

Join the critical push for American Patriots across this great nation to pledge: "We, the People, affirm that we will support and defend Liberty as 'endowed by our Creator,' enshrined in our Constitution and empowered by its Second Amendment, against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Please take a moment and join the 29,000 of your countrymen who answered the call. Share it with your family, friends and colleagues via social media and email, as well. Let's stay ahead of the curve.

Sign the 2A pledge!

Demo-gogues

Inaugural clippings: "[W]e have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action. ... We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms. ... Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law -- for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. ... Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm. ... [T]he oath I have sworn before you today, like the one recited by others who serve in this Capitol, was an oath to God and country, not party or faction. And we must faithfully execute that pledge during the duration of our service." --Barack Obama

Bitterly clinging: "Do not patronize the passionate supporters of your opponents by looking down your nose at them. ... A lot of these people ... all they've got is their hunting and their fishing. Or they're living in a place where they don't have much police presence. Or they've been listening to this stuff for so long that they believe it all." --Bill Clinton on why Democrats should be careful with gun control

"I think those of us in the pro-gun safety movement should accept the Heller decision and say there's a constitutional right to arms, and it's no less important than the right to free speech, the right against search and seizure. But Heller also said that there should be reasonable limitations. They're allowed reasonable limitations. I don't think that [anyone] needs an assault weapon. I don't think [anyone] needs a hundred round clip [sic]." --Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)

Not done raising taxes: "We Democrats have always intended to do a budget this year. We're going to do a budget this year and it's going to have revenues in it. And our Republican colleagues better get used to that fact." --Chuck Schumer

That's racist: "I worry a bit about 2014, when we don't have the president at the top of the ticket. We have a disproportionately number of older white guys, and frankly, being one of those types, we're the most insecure component of our society as far as I'm concerned; we're much the problem with these kinds of things." --Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA)

Great idea: "We must make gun trafficking a federal crime." --Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) (Let's start with Fast and Furious.)

Flattery: "This man has already done an absolutely remarkable job. I want you to know something else about this guy Barack Obama -- he's just getting started." --Joe Biden (Which is what we're afraid of.)

Joe being Joe: "I'm proud to be president of the United States." --Vice President Joe Biden at the Iowa State Society inauguration ball

Dezinformatsia

Nuts on guns: "I think [the Second Amendment] was limited to muskets myself, but the Supreme Court differs on this." --Politico's Evan Thomas

"The only civilians who 'need' an AR-15 assault rifle are those who want to commit mass murder. That's what they do." --CNN's Piers Morgan

Horrible analogy: "[W]hat happened in Newtown was probably the worst day in this country's history since 9/11. We found Osama bin Laden. We tracked him down. We changed the way that we dealt with that problem. Surely, finding Osama bin Laden; surely, passing civil rights legislation, as Lyndon Johnson was able to do; and before that, surely, defeating the Nazis, was a much more formidable task than taking on the gun lobby." --CBS's Bob Schieffer

The same, only the opposite: "[The current gun debate] reminds me a lot of what happened in the South in the 1960s during the civil rights movement. ... And now a lot of people who I know who grew up during that time have deep regrets about not speaking out." --Ex-NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw (Except this time, he's advocating taking away Liberty.)

More abortion: "[O]n the state level, there is this consistent erosion in terms of access to abortion, in terms of abortion rights, and I think young people if, you know, polls are to be believed and they voted for Democrats and they believe that abortion should be legal, I think feminist groups and pro-abortion groups have to find a way to engage them and educate them because they're going to be the ones that are on these grassroots levels and at the state levels." --Washington Post's Nia-Malika Henderson on Sanctity of Life Day

Newspulper Headlines:

Because He Had a Really Effective Turnout Operation: "Why Is Obama Being Sworn In Twice?" --CBSNews.com

Shortest Books Ever Written: "The Significance of Obama's Inaugural Address" --Commentary website

Out on a Limb: "Analysis: Budget Constraints Limit Obama's Second-Term Agenda" --Reuters

News You Can Use: "You Are Going to Die" --New York Times website

Breaking News From 1492: "Police Looking for Missing Columbus Man" --WTVM-TV website (Columbus, GA)

'You Can't Fight in Here! This Is the War Room.': "Obama Declares War on Violence" --New York Post

We Blame Global Warming: "U.S. Sees Hazy Threat From Mali Militants" --The New York Times

Bottom Story of the Day: "Al Gore 'Sorry to See' NYT Close Environmental Desk" --Politico.com

(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto)

Village Idiots

Clueless -- or evil: "I've been duck hunting since I was 10-years-old. I love to hunt and I love to be able to share that joy with my kids. But for the life of me, I don't know why the hell people have to have an assault weapon." --Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta

Distraction: "There is nothing the president proposed ... that would result, if enacted, in anyone -- any law-abiding citizen in America losing a gun. The president made clear ... his full support for the Second Amendment and the Second Amendment rights of American citizens. He also made clear that we have an obligation, and American citizens, including our most vulnerable, youngest American citizens, have rights, too. And we have an obligation to uphold those rights, including the rights of seven-year-olds to live without the fear of being gunned down in their own school." --White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

Getting it backwards: "I don't know if you know the genesis of the right to bear arms. The Second Amendment comes from the right to protect themselves from slave revolts, and from uprisings by Native Americans." --actor Danny Glover (Actually, that's the genesis of gun control.)

See Ben Franklin's warning about this: "I think the nation is very divided on gun control, but I think the majority of us feel strongly -- even the majority of gun owners feel strongly -- that we need to make some sacrifice to our freedoms, if that's the way to put it. We need to make some sacrifices to what we might want to have, in order to safeguard our children. I think there's a limit to how much -- I think the founding fathers wanted us to be able to arm ourselves, but I don't think that they would have agreed that we should have the capacity to do the damage that we do have." --singer-songwriter James Taylor

Short Cuts

"President Obama said this week that he wants to find a 'pathway for citizenship' for immigrants in the United States. Don't we have that? It's called the Rio Grande river." --comedian Jay Leno

"CBS News star Bob Schieffer compared President Obama's battle with the NRA to the effort to defeat Hitler. It's a new low for the media. It just poured salt on the wound the next day when CBS apologized to the surviving members of the Hitler family." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"A new study shows that 60% of young Americans plan to buy firearms. The other 40% were confused, saying they thought they were free under Obamacare." --Fred Thompson

"Oh man, am I glad Obama's 2nd inauguration is over. That period between the election and the start of the 2nd term was the absolute worst. I was like, 'Oh, this is so awful... and we haven't even started the 2nd term! We're not even half way through this yet!' But now the inauguration is over with and we're on the countdown to the end of this." --humorist Frank J. Fleming

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team