As Told by Jen

Why America is the greatest country on earth

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:14:17 -0500

Is Ben Shapiro single? Can I marry him?

I had another post all lined up for Friday's holiday, but I think this is far more fitting, and so I'll let it stand through the Fourth.

I whole-heartedly and enthusiastically agree with every one of Mr. Shapiro's words and sentiments.

(Oh, and Mello -- the paragraph concerning traditional moral values? Yeah, that perfectly addresses (for me) what we were PMing about a few weeks ago.)

Why America is the Greatest Country on Earth
(By Ben Shapiro, July 2, 2008, Townhall.com)

I was sitting at lunch with a colleague a few weeks back, and he mentioned that he did not understand the general media hubbub over Michelle Obama's unpatriotic statements.

"So she said that she hadn't been proud of America in her adult life," he said. "So what?"

I answered that many Americans, rightly, were offended at the idea that a prospective First Lady of the United States was not proud of her country. "If you don't believe this is the best country on earth, don't live here," I said.

"That's 'love it or leave it,'" he answered. "I don't have to love everything about this country."

"That's right, you don't," I stated. "But if you don't believe in the essential goodness of America's founding principles -- if you don't believe that those principles constitute the greatest set of essential values ever instituted on a national scale -- then you don't belong here."

He was insulted. The typical liberal talking point states that patriotism is jingoism because America's founding principles are so much claptrap -- that modern values trump those old-fashioned ideas. But that should be an automatic disqualifier for political victory in this country. Disavowing the thoughts underlying the Declaration of Independence and Constitution is a tragic surrender to nihilism, a surrender to the barbarism of the French Revolution.

Liberals often ask for a definition of American values.

Let's begin with what such values are not. They are not the "evolving standards of decency" of Justice Anthony Kennedy. And they are certainly not the vague prescriptions of Barack Obama, who preaches unity but never explains precisely which Americans values are supposed to unify us.

They are the values held in common by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. They are the values shared by James Madison, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. Here are some of those values:

Free enterprise allows every American the opportunity to succeed. Encroachment on free enterprise by government violates the basic right to pursuit of happiness.

Freedom of political speech is a vital component for a functioning republic. Such freedom must not be disturbed by complaints about fairness or whining about the "tenor" of modern campaigning. The hurly-burly of politics allows truth to rise to the surface.

Traditional moral values must be the basis of the republic. Freedom without any societal moral compass leaves the nation adrift in a relativistic sea. The same sea that swamps traditional morality sinks the ship of state.

America must be defended and her liberties spread abroad when possible. Kowtowing to international multiculturalism promotes tyranny.

The left disagrees with these values. Free enterprise is to be opposed in order to rectify inequality. Free speech is to be contained to quash the extremism of political discourse. Traditional morality is intolerant and therefore to be jettisoned. And defending American values demonstrates bigoted ethnocentrism.

There are certain countries in which the founding philosophy is deeply flawed. America is not one of them. There are certain countries for which patriotism should be a sin. America is not one of them. American history, in all of its most glorious permutations, represents the outgrowth of our founding philosophy. Only by accepting the greatness of America's founding philosophy can we hope to ensure that freedom flourishes at home and around the globe.

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Happy Day of Deliverance!

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:52:55 -0500

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not.—I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States.—Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.
-- John Adams in a letter to wife Dolly

We commemorate our independence from the tyrannical King George on July 4, because July 4, 1776, is when the Continental Congress publicly announced it had voted to do so.

But the vote actually took place 232 years ago today. The 13 colonies met and voted 12-0 (with New York abstaining) to revolt.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

While you're enjoying your Fourth of July barbecues and baseball games and picnics and fireworks, take a moment to remember why, exactly, we celebrate this occasion and how truly poignant, pivotal and profound a day it is.

Better yet, stop in at the Heritage Foundation and order your own pocket-sized copy of the Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution. It's totally free and every American who claims to love his country should have one on hand.

I can't read either without getting chills.

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Patriotism

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:25:11 -0500

If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under." -- President Ronald Wilson Reagan

I was hoping Vox would introduce a Fourth of July theme in time for Independence Day, but that apparently isn't the case.

So I figured going the camo route was the next best thing, since I firmly equate patriotism and love of country with our esteemed military.

As for my new tagline? Well, I took something dripping with the derision, disdain and elitist condescension Senator Obama assigned it and dubbed it a badge of honor.

Political cartoon by Michael Ramirez, Townhall.com

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Vox Hunt: Oh Canada!

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:52:42 -0500

In honor of Canada Day, show us your favorite Canadian.

It would definitely have to be the awesome Mark Steyn, whose own country has thrown him under the bus for gasp! speaking the truth.

Free Mark Steyn!

Mark Steyn

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Book mania

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:12:42 -0500

Every once in a while I tend to go a bit manic with my library's reserve online option. Of course, all of the books are usually read to be picked up right around the same time and then I've got a stack of books all due back by the same due date.

That has happened again. I've got six books at home, three more ready to be picked up tomorrow, and five more that should be ready by the end of the week or the middle of next week.

Plus the three non-library books I have to read and give back to my mother and sister (I insisted I read faster than they do and so that's why I should get them first).

And then there's the matter of wanting to re-read Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse before Breaking Dawn comes out August 2.

Good thing it's summer. I read at breakfast, lunch and dinner (if I'm by myself) and I've recently started reading for an hour before bed.

Hopefully I'll be able to get through all of these books without having to renew any of the library offerings.

Here's what's on the reading agenda:

Culture Warrior (Bill O'Reilly)
The Appeal (John Grisham)
Where Are You Now? (Mary Higgins Clark)
Fearless Fourteen (Janet Evanovich)
Chasing Harry Winston (Lauren Weisberger)
A Song for Summer (Eva Ibbotson)
Gods and Generals (Jeff Shaara)
How Now Shall We Live? (Chuck Colson)
The Monster of Florence (Douglas Preston/Mario Spezi)
Fleeced: How Barack Obama, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want to Kill Talk Radio, The Do-Nothing Congress, Companies That Help Iran and Washington Lobbyists for Foreign Governments Are Scamming Us...and What to Do About It (Dick Morris)
The Real America: Messages from the Heart and Heartland (Glenn Beck)
An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems (Glenn Beck)
Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives (Laura Schlessinger)
Who's Looking Out For You? (Bill O'Reilly)
How Could You Do That? The Abdication of Character, Courage and Conscience (Laura Schlessinger)
Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right (Ann Coulter)
Stop Whining and Start Living (Laura Schlessinger)

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Changes

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 11:46:16 -0500

So there's a lot of really great stuff happening to me right now and it is taking up more and more of my time.

I find that I don't really want to blog that much about movies and TV shows and stuff like that -- at least not to the degree that I have in the past. I'm sure I'll still update here and there -- let's face it, I can't foresee the day I'll ever get tired of talking about Twilight -- but looking at the amount I posted in the past months and especially last year, yeah, I just don't think I'll be able to devote that much time to the inner workings of Damon Lindelof's brain. (Not that that wouldn't be an utterly fascinating post.)

Anyway, I'm excited about what's going on and what that will develop into and have actually been blogging about it a lot. Just on my other blog. The one that is entirely dedicated to these particular events and basically who I am as a person and not my hobbies, as this one more or less is.

Who thought I'd ever reach the day where I'm interested in learning more about John Piper than John Krasinski?

Yeah, me neither.

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Colorado makes free speech illegal

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:30:00 -0500

Unbelievable. Just...ugh.

Go ahead. Arrest me.

(Janet L. Folger, June 24, 2008)

Censorship. Book burning. The Criminalization of Christianity. It's here and it's now the law in the state of Colorado.

The Ku Klux Klan can march. The Nazis can hand out brochures. Skinheads can do whatever it is that Skinheads do. But in the state of Colorado, the only group who is NOT allowed to be heard is … the Christians. They're the ones who disagree with same-sex marriage, cohabitation, and believe the biblical view that homosexuality is a sin. But if they voice that objection from now on, it had better be inside the four walls of a church. If not, they'll be staring at the four walls of a prison cell … for up to a year.

No kidding.

Tobin Kerns was planning his own Columbine-like mass murder. But they caught him and convicted him of conspiracy to commit murder and threatening to use deadly weapons in 2006, sentencing him to a whopping … 10 months.

Plan a Columbine-like mass murder and you'll do 10 months in jail. Say homosexual "marriage" is a sin (in a state where same-sex marriage is illegal), and you'll be doing a year behind bars.

You see, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law SB 200 and turned public restrooms and locker rooms into a predator paradise where men can enter (and shower in) any female public facility in the state. You'd think that would be as bad as it gets – but wait: Section 8 of that same bill claims to trump the First Amendment:

Section 8. 24-34-701. Publishing of discriminative matter forbidden. No person, being the owner, lessee, proprietor, manager, superintendent, agent, or employee of any place of public accomodation... shall publish, issue, circulate, send, distribute, give away, or display in any way, manner, or shape or by any means or method, except as provided in this section, any communication, paper, poster, folder, manuscript, book, pamphlet, writing, print, letter, notice, or advertisement of any kind, nature, or description that is intended or calculated to discriminate or actually discriminates against ... SEXUAL ORIENTATION, marital status ... in the matter of furnishing or neglecting or refusing to furnish to them or any one of them any lodging, housing, schooling, or tuition or any accommodation, right [marriage], privilege [adoption], advantage, or convenience ... on account of ... SEXUAL ORIENTATION, marital status ... [which] is unwelcome or objectionable or not acceptable, desired, or solicited.

Forget the public library display of "banned books week" – its "banned books week" all year round in the entire state of Colorado – if those books, paper, posters, folders, manuscripts, pamphlet, writing, print, letter, notice, advertisement, or crayon drawing is said to be calculated, intended, or thought to discriminate against homosexual behavior, or the agenda to rewrite marriage and adoption laws.

I predicted it three years ago. And a lot of people said I was crazy. But my book, "The Criminalization of Christianity," subtitle: "Read this Before it Becomes Illegal" just became … illegal. And it's no longer just in Sweden, Europe, and Canada; it's right here in what used to be known as the "land of the free."

A week from today I'm flying to Denver and attending a press conference with Colorado pastors and state leaders to … break the law. We are handing out my book, "The Criminalization of Christianity," and waiting for arrest. It may be that next week's column will be written from a jail cell. I tend to think that would be a stupid move on the government's part. I predict they will lay low and peg off the less vocal types first. Wait for the cement in the law to become solid before chaining it to the feet of Christians who dare speak out.

Forget my book. Another far more important book just got banned in Colorado: the Bible. Don't believe me? Take a look at Leviticus 18, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6 and 1 Timothy 1. There's a bunch more verses, and they all just became illegal.

Thankfully, our rights don't come from the elected officials in Colorado. They don't even come from the U.S. Supreme Court. We are "endowed with" our rights from "our Creator." And the good news is, our Founding Fathers were smart enough to write them down in a document known as the U.S. Constitution. And if we read that document, we find something called the First Amendment. And you know what? It trumps Colorado SB 200, Gov. Bill Ritter and the homosexual agenda.

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I guess Kennedy was tired of trampling the Constitution

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:33:17 -0500

I was all set for yet another 5-4 decision from the Supreme Court this morning in regards to Washington, DC's 32-year ban on handguns.

And it was a 5-4 decision.

But instead of siding with radical lunatics Breyer, Bader-Ginsberg, Souter and Stevens as he normally does, "swing vote" justice Anthony Kennedy (who yesterday decided child rapists deserved more consideration than their victims and earlier this month decided terrorists deserve the rights of American citizens) agreed with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas that the DC ban violated the Second Amendment.

The Court ruled that, in keeping with the Constitution, Americans have every right to own guns for self-defense and hunting and was the Court's first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

You'd think if hell froze over, it'd make the news.

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Horrifying.

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:47:07 -0500

I should really stop watching the news. It alternately depresses me or sends my blood pressure sky-rocketing.

I wonder how our esteemed Founding Fathers would react to the downward spiral the country they sacrificed to establish is undergoing.

The death of the First Amendment
The left in this country are quick to tout freedom of speech regarding pornography; the conspiracy theorist rantings of Rosie O'Donnell that, frankly, border on treason in my opinion; Bill Maher's stating that he hoped Vice President Cheney was assassinated; etc., etc. and yet, hypocritically (shocker) they are all rallying to re-institute the so-called Fairness Doctrine, which will all but kill free speech.

Basically what the Fairness Doctrine, which was originally put into motion in 1949 but repealed in 1987, will do is nationalize the airwaves. All radio programs will be monitored (shades of the KGB and Nazis, anyone?) closely and stations will be mandated to structure their lineups in order to give equal time to both sides of any issue. Hugo Chavez, Robert Mugabe and Vladimir Putin love the Fairness Doctrine.

In Canada, Mark Steyn is currently on trial because his well-researched and accurate (and fascinating, albeit chillingly so) book, America Alone, reports the ever-burgeoning Muslim influence on "enlightened" Europe. Apparently a contingent of peace-loving Muslims were offended and so Steyn was hauled before a Human Rights tribunal.

In England, author Ian McEwan could possibly face a lawsuit of his own because he stated, on record, that he despised Islam. (And yet Christian evangelicals were told if they entered an all-Muslim neighborhood, they faced physical harm to their persons. For merely talking about God.)

Pregnancy is cool!
Seventeen teenage girls in one high school -- and I believe all but one are under the age of 16, the age of consent in Massachusetts -- are pregnant as a result of an alleged pregnancy pact. They took their pregnancy tests in the nurse's office on school property and reportedly high-fived each other when they got their results.

The one "consenting" party and her 21-year-old boyfriend were on Good Morning America yesterday and they were all smiles. They didn't act concerned or distraught or anything of the sort, and why should they? They get rewarded with a free vacation to New York City and a national television spot.

Yeah, let's keep up the moral relativism that's running rampant in our public school system. It's working so well.

Cruel and unusual?
Once again Justice Anthony Kennedy, that bastion of intelligence, sided with the radical activists on the Supreme Court and not only demonstrated that liberals are more interested in the rights of criminals than the victims, but they continued to thumb their nose at the Constitution and in the face of state's rights when they handed down their 5-4 decision that awarding the death penalty to child rapists was "cruel and unusual punishment."

Right. And ripping the insides out of a little boy or a girl and condemning them to a hell from which they will never recover isn't?

Way to continue to look out for the evil in our society, libs.

War inevitable?
More and more seem to feel that Israel attacking Iran is inevitable, and the timeline indicates it will be before the presidential elections. Shocking? Not really. Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons and I have lost count how many times that madman Ahmadinejad has stated that he will wipe Israel off the map, that Israel will "be no more," and other similar threats. Is he a madman? Absolutely. But the scariest thing of all is that he fully believes that his actions will usher in the coming of the 12th Imam and therefore he has nothing to lose.

Is the predicted timeline surprising? Are you kidding? With the election of Obama looking possible, if not probable, it's not shocking at all. Obama has already stated that he wants to sit down with dictators like Ahmadinejad (with no pre-conditions) and thinks that diplomacy is the way to go. Plus he pays lip-service to supporting Israel but continues to object to the country's right to defend itself against annihilation.

Does anyone actually read the Bible anymore? There's no way I would be anywhere but on Israel's side when conflict erupts. (And I say 'when,' not 'if,' because it is inevitable, even if the 'when' is in question.)

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You're like a pop-up book from hell

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:50:23 -0500

I love ABC Family.

Well, except for the fact that with shows like Greek and new "family" drama The Secret Life of an American Teenager, which is all about a nice little 14-year-old girl who gets pregnant, I'm not sure how they can keep calling themselves ABC Family without choking on the irony. (And uh-oh, I just said something derogatory. Good thing I don't live in Canada or England, or I might be hauled in front of a Human Rights tribunal and sued for hate speak.)

Come to think of it, the only time ABC Family is even on around here is when I'm watching Gilmore Girls reruns.

Anyway.

Gilmore Girls repeats twice a day, and I'm currently watching "Like Mother, Like Daughter," which is from Season 2. I think anyone who follows this blog (and seriously, don't you have something better to do with your time?) knows how I feel about the demise of GG, which started, in my opinion, in Season 5 but became pretty intolerable by the sixth season and downright unwatchable by the seventh.

But I'd forgotten how solidly awesome the writing was in those early days.

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