SHOT:

…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

CHASER:

Why are independent, strong-minded courts so important to a free society? One reason is that they – and often only they – are the ones who can stop government agencies from trampling on the rights of the citizens….

Imagine what these agencies and others would be getting away with were our judiciary someday reduced to a spirit of subservience to the executive branch of government.

-Walter Olsen (Overlawyered)

So it shows, under the rubric of “it can’t happen here in America“, that it certainly

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We’ve talked about this topic a lot – when Government gets too big to be honest and open, you can bet your bottom dollar (if Govt hasn’t taken it yet) that it has become too big for we citizens to adequately patrol it.  Which means that it is just right for those who wish to “rent seek” (obtain an advantage be it money, power, influence, or govt sponsored advantage in its marketplace) using the force of government to protect it from the free marketplace.  Here’s another definition from Praeger U:

“Capitalism is moral because it is premised on a voluntary exchange between independent parties – who agree to the deal only because it creates value for everybody. Crony capitalism is immoral because one of the parties—the government—has been bought off.”

As opposed to, for example, the insurance companies burrowing into Obamacare to capture an advantage.  We’ve seen how politicians have ripped those same companies for being greedy.  Let’s be clear, the politicians and the ideologically aligned bureaucrats are JUST as guilty – if not more.  It is the latter that feathered the nest and then invited the insurance companies in – crony capitalism is not a one way street.  The companies got money (or so they thought, given admissions of recent huge losses) but the politicians got their prize using their political power: socialized mandates.

The transcript continues:

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In what has got to be one of the most bizarre stories out of the Iowa Caucuses, Democrats actually decided ties between the Socialist and the Criminal Sanders and Clinton with a COIN TOSS.

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Since we want to both honor religious liberty and preserve the Constitution that enshrines and protects it, we have a dilemma. The assumption that is central to this dilemma — the one that Trump has stumbled on and that Washington refuses to examine — is that Islam is merely a religion. . . . But Islam is no mere religion.

As understood by the mainstream of Muslim-majority countries that are the source of immigration to America and the West, Islam is a comprehensive ideological system that governs all human affairs, from political, economic, and military matters to interpersonal relations and even hygiene. It is beyond dispute that Islam has religious tenets — the oneness of Allah, the belief that Mohammed is the final prophet, the obligation of ritual prayer. Yet these make up only a fraction of what is overwhelmingly a political ideology.

Our constitutional principle of religious liberty is derived from the Western concept that the spiritual realm should be separate from civic and political life. The concept flows from the New Testament injunction to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.  Crucially, the interpretation of Islam that is mainstream in most Muslim-majority countries does not accept a division between mosque and state. . . .

And that is the emnity between Islam and the Western worlds.  This is a primary reason that causes devout militant Muslims to attack us – our system of democracy which means we rule ourselves.  To Shariah adherents, that is anathema as we all MUST submit to Allah and his precepts.  After all, (and again) Islam means submission with the practical manner being to all tenets of Shariah Law).

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Yesterday Maggie Hassan attacked Senator Kelly Ayotte because she voted against closing the ‘supposed’ terrorist gun loophole. What Hassan failed to mention is that Ayotte wants to vote on closing this ‘supposed’ loophole but with added features like giving innocent people who find themselves on the ‘No Fly List’ or the ‘Terror Watch List’ the means to get themselves off of it.

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