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The principles that rule this blog

Principles that will govern my thoughts as I express them here (from my opening statement):


  • Freedom of the individual should be as total as possible, limited only by the fact that nobody should be free to cause physical injury to another, or to deprive another person of his freedoms.
  • Government is necessary primarily to provide those services that private enterprise won't, or won't at a price that people can afford.
  • No person has a right to have his own beliefs on religious, moral, political, or other controversial issues imposed on others who do not share those beliefs.

I believe that Abraham Lincoln expressed it very well:

“The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all, or cannot
so well do, for themselves — in their separate, individual capacities.”


Comments will be invited, and I will attempt to reply to any comments that are offered in a serious and non-abusive manner. However, I will not tolerate abusive or profane language (my reasoning is that this is my blog, and so I can control it; I wouldn't interfere with your using such language on your own!)

If anyone finds an opinion that I express to be contrary to my principles, they are welcome to point this out. I hope that I can make a rational case for my comments. Because, in fact, one label I'll happily accept is rationalist.

Thursday, June 06, 2013

Appointing Susan Rice

President Obama is appointing Susan Rice as national security advisor. Many people have pointed out that she's really not very qualified; for one example, see K.T. McFarland's column on the Fox News site. But that's not too important to this president; after all, this is the president who said: “I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.” He doesn't need a national security advisor, as he sees it; he knows more about national security than anyone he appoints.

But he wants to stick it to his political opponents. He's wanted to stick it to his political opponents ever since he went into politics. And because he wanted to nominate Susan Rice — a consummate Obama loyalist, willing to lie to protect the President — as Secretary of State, but found her attacked in the U. S. Senate severely enough that he had to withdraw the nomination, he found an equally prestigious post that required no Senate confirmation. And if there is one thing that Barack Obama knows how to do, it is to use the rules (or even bend the rules, as he did with those “recess appointments” when the Senate really wasn't in recess!) to his own advantage. He doesn't know how to be a President according to the Constitution's strictures, but he knows how to do whatever it takes to accomplish what Barack Obama wants to do.

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