The American Spectator : Absolute Power

Text Size

Absolute Power

By Jeffrey Lord from the April 2012 issue

An instant classic from Mark Levin on Post-Constitutional America.

(Page 2 of 2)

What Wilson was really about, notes Levin, was a dismissal of both the Declaration of Independence as well as what Levin cites—accurately—as “the Founders’ announced purpose for American independence…the Lockean exposition on natural law, the nature of man, the social compact establishing the civil society, and the essential ingredients of constitutional republicanism…. In short, for Wilson, rights are awarded or denied the individual as determined by the government.”

Or in other words, Wilson’s attempt at a constitutional do-over was effectively and inevitably going to head a country founded on principles of liberty down that oldest of roads to that oldest of human conditions—tyranny. Levin again:

Tyranny, broadly defined, is the use of power to dehumanize the individual and delegitimize his nature. Political utopianism is tyranny disguised as a desirable, workable, and even paradisiacal governing ideology.

At the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, Pennsylvania delegate James Wilson rose to read a speech from his aging friend and colleague Benjamin Franklin. It is a speech that serves today as an effective warning, a bold “I-told-you-so” from perhaps the oldest and wisest of the Founding Fathers to the current generation of trustees of his beloved American Republic. The Constitution, cautioned Franklin, “is likely to be well administered for a Course of years, and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become corrupt as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other…”

Asks Levin: “Have we become corrupt” and therefore invited a need for “despotic government”?

Yes, he responds.

Levin cites a chilling sampling of moderns including the managing editor of Time magazine and prominent columnists for the New York Times and the Washington Post who have, in the ageless style of American utopians like Woodrow Wilson, effectively endorsed abandoning the Constitution to embrace the eternal utopian “infatuation with totalitarianism.” One advocates “changing or reinterpreting” the Constitution, while another rhapsodizes over the “great advantages” to be found in the government of the police state that is China.

Another prattles of a “fatuous infatuation” with the Constitution and specifically describes the 10th Amendment as “clearly the work of witches, wiccans, and wackos. It has nothing to do with America’s real problems and, if taken too seriously, would cause an economic and political calamity.” What does this witches brew embedded in the Constitution actually say? In its entirety, here is this heretical subversion of utopia: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States respectively, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people.”

Imagine that. Power to the people. Positively frightening, no?

Well, yes. It is if you are a utopian.

What Mark Levin has accomplished with this book is to frame in detailed, precise, and readable fashion the historical connection between the ancient dreams of utopians for absolute power and the nightmare reality of what is becoming—what is—every day real life in today’s America. He has written a succinct account of how a nation, in Lincoln’s words, “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” has slowly and at times not-so-slowly evolved into a centralized government of, by, and for a political class of “entrenched experts and administrators, whose authority is also self-perpetuating…and growing more formidable.”

In the last line of the book, Levin asks what is surely destined to be the real question of 2012—and beyond.

“So my fellow countrymen, which do we choose—Ameritopia or America?”

It is alarming to say, but the jury is still out.

Page: < 12

About the Author

Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (185) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Mike Hawk| 4.23.12 @ 7:20AM

This is a must read. It should be a school text book, but Liberals won't tolerate this kind of nuking of their ideology of paradise by tyranny.

Von Mises Jr| 4.23.12 @ 9:22AM

It is truly not only the best book of the year, but a seminal classic.
"Plato's Republic," More's "Utopia" and Marxism are the left's vision of Utopia. It involves Philosopher Kings and elitist intellectuals such as Lenin, Mao and Hitler as "Dear Leaders." This is apparently who Obama really thinks he is, not FDR, JFK or Lincoln.
The right's GOP Utopian dream is Hobbes "Leviathan." It is an all powerful statist regime of bureaucrats. Same destination, different driving directions.
To add to Mr. Lord's definition of "Tyranny," it is when any two or all three of the branches of government exist in the same hands. If the Executive and Legislative, Executive and Judicial, Legislative and Judicial or all three are in one man's hands; you have despotism and tyranny. If one person makes the law, enforces the law and judges the law, he is you SUPREME RULER.

ENOUGH ROPE| 4.23.12 @ 10:55PM

The NSA has a Big Brother supercomputer in Utah that will record every email, phone call, purchase and rental which is a totalitarian invasion of privacy. When it becomes fully functional in 2013 it will be a tool for establishing a totalitarian state. The software expert who developed the system resigned in protest and blew the whistle on them. So? Where were our Reps. and Senators when the Utah facility was funded? Are they for or against utopia?

Von Mises Jr| 4.24.12 @ 7:30AM

It is the freedom Rousseau wrote about in 1762: "If one does not bend to the General Will, he must be forced to be free."

Conservative Not Republican| 4.23.12 @ 11:20AM

Jeez, this Lord has a mancrush on Levin.

Vern Crisler| 4.23.12 @ 11:39AM

Not really. Jeffrey only gave us two pages of review rather than his usual fifty or so. I conclude therefore that he does not like Levin very much.

Todd S| 4.23.12 @ 12:02PM

You are a joke and don't have the intellectual capacity to understand Mark Levin's great work. I seem to recall you think that being a conservative is "conserving" the environment or some such mumbo jumbo.

Conservative Not Republican| 4.23.12 @ 3:31PM

Idiot, here is Conservative Philosopher Roger Scruton:
'People must be empowered to take charge of their environment, to care for it as a home, and to affirm themselves through the kind of local associations that have been the traditional goal of conservative politics. Our common future is by no means assured, but there is a path that we can take which could ensure the future safety of our planet and our species.'

Todd S| 4.23.12 @ 3:54PM

Environmentalist Not Conservative,
You are a watermelon

Conservative Not Republican| 4.23.12 @ 5:34PM

“Nothing is more conservative than conservation”

-- Russel Kirk. Founder of Modern Conservatism, but not as Smart As Todd S, the genius libertarian and Free market Absolutist.

Todd S| 4.23.12 @ 6:54PM

Conservation not wacko environmentalism like you support, there is a very big difference. Name me one conservative politician that you support?

Jack in Wi.| 4.23.12 @ 12:12PM

Mark Levin can be summed up in few words. Chickenhawk, blowhard, Israel firster who wants the goyim to fight Israel's wars forever. He wouldn't know what the Constitution was if someone slapped him in the face with a copy.

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 12:15PM

Marl Levin has forgotten more about the US Constitution than you and Ron Paul put-together have ever known.

Every once in a while, your mask comes down to reveal the Jew-hating fool underneath.

That's why I rejected your phony proclamation of "Peace" on Easter weekend; I know what you are.

loulou| 4.23.12 @ 12:32PM

Doctor, please ignore Jacksh*t. He just craves attention and giving him attention just encourages him.

Jack in Wi.| 4.23.12 @ 12:47PM

Loulou sweety: That is my honest opinion of Mark Levin and his phoney love of the Constitution.

Alan| 4.23.12 @ 1:09PM

Jack sweety, by all means go ahead and write a best seller about the constitution, your obviously much better informed about it. why? Of course because YOU say so!!! Thats credentials, yes sir, now thats some serious credentials. Oh wait, Levin's a Jew, oh now we see the problem. OK, he must be a rotten Zionist Jew so therefore he's wrong. Ok. Now hit us with the pathetic self-pious holier than thou man of peace one liners again, and then maybe another crock of shit story trip to the palistinian restuarant about the finest family in NA.

Occam's Tool| 4.23.12 @ 2:44PM

Jack, you are a tiresome antisemitic loon, like Clint and Dimitri. Even I am capable of writing about many topics other than Israel and Jews. You seem incapable.

You are not fit to be around schoolchildren, you scumbag.

Levin's work is brilliant.

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 5:07PM

You're Not Fit To Be Around Bibi's Goat Billy,Tool Job.

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 5:31PM

Gee, what a clever comeback...

Riff Raff| 4.23.12 @ 1:21PM

"Jack in Wi" sounds like a CGI character from a video game system. He writes like one too.

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 5:09PM

Riff Raff Sounds Like The Name Of That Dog Obama Ate.

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 5:32PM

Clint sounds like a guy dressed in cowboy clothes who cruises public restrooms in the East Village...

Riff Raff| 4.23.12 @ 7:53PM

woof

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 5:15PM

Chuck Baldwin, Constitution Party,

" Dr. Paul knows the Constitution. He has studied it. He has read what America's Founding Fathers and framers have written about the Constitution. He has studied the enlightenment philosophers, theologians, and teachers--you know, the same ones that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison studied. He knows that the reason America is in the mess it is in today is because the Constitution has been abandoned. And he also knows that the only way to fix it (politically) is to return to constitutional governance."

Ground Control| 4.23.12 @ 1:20PM

Jack in Wi. can be summed up in few words. Ignoramus, loudmouth, Commie-Firster who wants other people's money to fight the government's wars on freedom forever. He wouldn't know what the Constitution was if he ate it for breakfast.

Mike Hawk| 4.23.12 @ 2:58PM

Jack, stupid does not even begin to describe your comments. Constitutional Law is Mark Levin's work. If Mark Levin doesn't know the Constitution, then your hero Rube Paul is by the same token a quack.

JT| 4.23.12 @ 3:50PM

Its not about Ron Paul with the jew hater from wisconsin, its about jack, always about jack, always was about Jack, always will be about jack. Jack is the only thing that matters, Ron paul was just the politician of the moment that the jack ass can live with and now that he's toast its about jack and his soapbox. The dude wouldn't have a life if this forum was shut down, christ the idiot spews the same crap over and over day in and day out. He has an incessent need for attention, spew his crap about his fantasy life and reinforce how important he is, how much he knows, blah, blah, blah. Thats all its ever been about with this self-absorbed dufus. Every act needs an audience, no matter how bad it is. He's the act and this forum is the audience and he can't live without it.

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 5:16PM

Chuck Baldwin, Constitution Party,

karla| 4.23.12 @ 11:51PM

An accurate description of the little worm. He's just another republican blowhard who impresses his audience with his verbal "genius" while committing verbal treason against our country.

Alan Brooks| 4.23.12 @ 6:37PM

The Cheney-Rove administration trashed the Constitution.

macwell| 4.23.12 @ 8:10AM

Being a lawyer, Levin has a way of writing that can be understood by all. He makes difficult ideas a little easier to grasp. Our Congress is made up of mostly lawyers, that's wrong, it was never intended to be run by all lawyers. Congress was never intended to be anyone's career.
The founders gave us the blueprint on how to run America, citizen government, we should try it.

TLP| 4.23.12 @ 10:03AM

"Democracy is the worst form of Government, except for all the rest."

"We've given you a Republic, Madame, if you can keep it."

"What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his Immortal Soul?"

"For any of this to work, it is essential that the People be good, honest, and Hard Working, with a Strong sense of Faith in God," (I know that I'm paraphrasing, but you get the Picture.)

Machiavelli was right. There is a great preponderance foR men to do Evil.

Whomever said that "Power Corrupts, and Absolute Power Corrupts, Absolutely" knew wherefore he spoke.

Of all the things our Founders gave us, the one little detail that they left out, is that which has brought us to the brink.

TERM LIMITS.

If those former Philosophical Warnings are true (and we know that they are) why would we not have a Cutoff Date to any would be Megalomaniac?

We saw the Shorsightedness in this with FDR's 4th Term. We see I all the time with The Supreme Court. We see it in Charlie Range, Orin Hatch, Chuck Schumer, Frank Lautenberg, Dick Lugar, Jay Rockefeller, Kent Conrad, and we saw it in Arlen Spectre. Their sense of Entitlement and Ego, put their own Self Interests above those of the People.

Cowboy Poet - Harry Land Deal Reid - has become so Imperious, that his will has now Superseeded the will of the Founding Fathers, when it comes to PASSING A BUDGET.

TLP| 4.23.12 @ 10:13AM

The Evil being done in our name by People who, long ago gave up their Immortal Soul, will consume this Nation, if Good Men continue to do nothing. Unfortunately for us, and our Children, we are way over the Legal Limit, when it comes to "Good men doing nothing".

If you get my drift.

JA| 4.23.12 @ 1:02PM

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
This is actually how it was stated by Lord Acton (1834 -1902), a British historian.
His full name is John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton.

karla| 4.23.12 @ 11:57PM

Term limits are a terrible idea and should never be enacted.

If they are such a good idea, don't you think the Founding Fathers would have instituted them? They were, after all, some of the greatest political minds in history.

elgordo| 4.23.12 @ 8:26AM

BLAME IT on WICKARD v. FILBURN

"Justice Joseph Story, in 1829 ,anticipating our present problem . Said Story, presciently:

Governments are not always overthrown by direct and open assaults. They are not always battered down by the arms of conquerors, or the successful daring of usurpers. There is often concealed the dry rot, which eats into the vitals, when all is fair and stately on the outside. And to republics this has been the more common fatal disease. The continual drippings of corruption may wear away the solid rock, when the tempest has failed to overturn it. "

The "solid rock" of America, of course, has been the Constitution.

The continual drippings of corruption has been the the misinterpretation, misuse and expansion of the "Commerce Clause"

The case that started this dripping of corruption was Wickard v. Filburn. It has virtually nullified the 10th Amendment and allowed the Federal Government to expand far in excess of what the Founding Fathers intended.

In the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, "Wickard v. Filburn must be revisited".

Mike Rogers | 4.23.12 @ 9:15AM

"Wickard v. Filburn must be revisited" Indeed it must, and we can thank God that Clarence Thomas had the fortitude to persevere through the confirmation hearings.
However, that is not the only problem, nor the beginning of the rot. The Progressives and Populists who brought us direct election of Senators, in the name of reducing corruption, severed an important link between the Senators and the states they are supposed to serve.
Woodrow Wilson knew what he was doing:
He removed the checks and balances on the Senate.
He sponsored unlimited theft from the people with which to purchase the allegiance of the supposedly sovereign states.
He set up the mechanism by which the Federal government would never run out of money, even as it debased the money held by the people.
The entire past century needs to be revisited, and a great deal of the government expansion it brought needs to be rolled back.

Peppermint Tea| 4.23.12 @ 9:05PM

I agree: The 20th century has chipped away at the constitution and shown us the evil of modernization combined with statist government. Can we have a do over?
By the way, I just finished Ameritopia this weekend and was scared and depressed by the end. Will Levin please write a book that makes me feel better?

Brian Mc| 4.23.12 @ 8:30AM

The politicization of our proud, public school system is too well-entrenched at this stage of the game for any reversal of the indoctrination process that runs rampant throughout. We could pull all of our children from its jaws this very day, never to return them to its liberal confines, and still the decay would continue unabated. Just so long as there are those willing to sacrifice their vote to supposed 'representatives' who fool them into believing that they are going off to 'fight' for the voter-and make the voter believe that this is prudent-rather than going off to defend the Constitution, the die is cast for our future destruction. It was fun while it lasted but the tumor has invaded and replaced the host. The only question worth asking at this stage is, "Where do we go from here-this last, great hope for mankind?"

Tom| 4.23.12 @ 8:37AM

"—the utopian seeks control over the individual. The individual is to be governed. Not represented." In other words, the utopian goal is absolute power"

AND

"Utopian fantasies destined always to eventually crash and burn on the hard rock of reality that is human imperfection"

That is absolute truth. All you need to know about Leftists and the self proclaimed Elite Intelligencia and what they represent is summed up in those quotes. masterfull analysis.

numbatdog| 4.23.12 @ 8:43AM

America is currently on trial. We are on trial to see whether we are still able to grasp or even understand the gift we were given by the founders.
They paid for their victory in blood and then instead of ruling like kings gave America back to the people. With the rise of modern liberalism, leftists have spent the last 100 years trying to give authority back to the kings. They have partially succeeded as the government has swelled and usurped more and more authority and now actively oppresses the people they are meant to serve.
Now we are at the brink It is patently clear that after another 4 years of Obama, the old America will be gone. In fact he has promised it.
Lets stop worrying about who Obama is. Whats more important is what we believe in and whether we are prepared to give up our rights forever because once the tyrants take over, there will be no going back.
Obama's first election was a freebee. He was largely unknown, speaks very well and sucked up up a lot of PC and wrong headed votes.
But now the choice is very clear and the current voters will either re accept the gift or give up the American experiment and take a master.

Mike Rogers | 4.23.12 @ 9:17AM

We MUST revolt at the ballot boxes while we still can. If we do not cut this Leviathan down to size, it will devour us completely.

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 8:52AM

"The Congress shall have the Power to lay and collect Taxes … to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States."

" In a nutshell, the Constitution was written and ratified to both authorize and limit the government created through it. It was designed to do the latter not through the Bill of Rights — that was an afterthought, added two years later — but through the doctrine of enumerated powers. Article I, section 8, grants the Congress only 18 powers. Nothing for education, or retirement security, or health care: Those responsibilities were left to the states or to the people, as the Tenth Amendment makes clear."

Ron Paul Talks General Welfare Clause

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOa_apVjM5Q

Mike Rogers | 4.23.12 @ 9:07AM

Finding myself in agreement here!
Elastic interpretation of the General Welfare clause, and outright perversion of the Commerce clause, have provided the excuses for overrunning the rampart of the Tenth Amendment. Now we have reached a crisis point, and we must fight on all fronts - sending people to DC who genuinely believe that it must be cut down to size, and sending people to the state legislatures who will obey their state constitutions, and refuse to accept unconstitutional acts of the Federal government.

Mike Hawk| 4.23.12 @ 10:36AM

There is no General Welfare clause. It is part of the Preamble and not part of the structure of governance, unless you are a Liberal.

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 11:07AM

CHRIS WALLACE: You talk a lot about the Constitution. You say Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid are all unconstitutional.

DR. RON PAUL: Technically, they are. … There’s no authority [in the Constitution]. Article I, Section 8 doesn’t say I can set up an insurance program for people. What part of the Constitution are you getting it from? The liberals are the ones who use this General Welfare Clause. … That is such an extreme liberal viewpoint that has been mistaught in our schools for so long and that’s what we have to reverse—that very notion that you’re presenting.

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 11:07AM

CHRIS WALLACE: You talk a lot about the Constitution. You say Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid are all unconstitutional.

Crassus| 4.23.12 @ 11:22AM

Yada, yada, yada.

Tom| 4.28.12 @ 8:55PM

Article I,
Section. 8.

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States;

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 10:09AM

Ron Paul..?

Isn't he that kooky congressman from Texas? The one who got shellacked - repeatedly - when he kept running for President?

Isn't he the one that acted like he wrote the Constitution? And all his dimwitted followers believed him?

I'm pretty sure I heard Mark Levin - the guy who this article is actually about - skewer Paul's hubris on many an occasion.

Whatever happened to Ron Paul? Are his idiot minions still singing his praises?

That's funny!

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 10:44AM

Dr.Reich's The RINO-CINO Flunkie Stooge ,Who Said He'll Vote For The Ruling Elites' RINO-CINO Frontman, Mittens Romney.

We Are Being Set Up By The RINO-CINO Flunkie Stooges For The Ruling Elites' Frontman Mittens Romney.

These Are The RINO-CINO Flunkie Stooges Who Gave Us The Serial Traitor To Conservatism, John McCain Of McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy,McCain-Lieberman,Gang Of 14, Opposing Bush Tax Cuts Of 2001 & 2003,TARP.

Now They Are Trying To Give Us RomneyCare,TARP, Cynical Flip-Flops On Abortion, Gays, Refuses to Sign Pro-Life Pledge, Illegal Immigrants, "Little Chain Saw Al" At Bain, Crony Capitalism Campaign Money Trail.....

Crassus| 4.23.12 @ 11:19AM

Yada, yada, yada.

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 4:14PM

Call Bibi.

Michael| 4.23.12 @ 6:37PM

What does call Bibi mean?
You never answered, who will you vote for, Obama or Romney?

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 11:24AM

A man is the sum-total of what he does, not what what he says.

In Clint's case, all he does is say things - dumb ones, too - so let's look at Clint's record...

1. For almost 2 years, Clint and his Paul-Bot cohorts sang the praises of phony Conservative Ron Paul, and pimped Doctor Ronnie for Prez. To accomplish this, Clint robo-posted 6 or 7 identical posts ad infinitum, all pathetic cut-n-paste jobs that he couldn't even explain to save his life.

Most annoying was Clint's attempt to attach himself to the larger Tea Party movement by signing-off his posts with silly little slogans like "The TEA PARTY steps on [insert name]'s face," when in fact, no such relationship exists. The TEA PARTY movement has never backed Ron Paul. FYI, Clint no longer uses that sign-off...

Clint was told repeatedly by those smarter and more experienced than him (admittedly, a very low bar) that Ron Paul for Prez was a "Non-Starter."

Lo and behold...We were Right, and Clint was wrong.

Ron Paul will NEVER be the President of the USA.

Smart People: 1
Clint: 0

2. After it became clear to anyone with half a rain that Ron Paul would NOT win the GOP nomination, Clint switched tactics; and thus was born...

"The brokered convention!"

Clint and his buds ( a dwindling number) were convinced that even though Ronnie Paul kept losing primaries, he was actually winning, and the fact that he was losing was proof-positive that Paul was going to win the nomination.

I know, I know...losing to win. It will make your head spin, so don't think about it too much.

But after a while, when it became obvious that there was NOT going to be a "brokered convention," Clint was proven wrong once again.

That's why, in case no one noticed, he no longer signs-off his moronic robo-posts with "The GOP is heading to a brokered convention."

FYI, Clint no longer uses that sign-off.

Smart People: 2
Clint: 0

3. Clint now spends his days threatening (Oooh! We're so worried!) to stay home on election day, or write-in his brother, Ron Paul, etc, etc.

Once again, Clint (and his other alter-ego, Teflon93) are deeply deluded.

The impotency of Ron Paul's more rabid supporters to sway the primaries was on vivid display; the little Emperors have NO clothes. But...don't tell them.

Now, in yet another pathetic attempt to get attention and prove how IMPORTANT they are, the Paulie-Bots want you to think that there's enough of them who will stay home on election day to prevent a Romney victory.

Ain't gonna' happen, Clint...because there's NOT enough of you dupes to sway the election one way or another.

MOST Ron Paul supporters will see the danger in an Obama re-election, and pull the lever for Romney in November. Bank on it.

Smart People: 3
Clint: 0

What will your slogan be after November, Clint?

JT| 4.23.12 @ 11:38AM

It will go something like this: Ron Paul Firster Butt Barnicle 16 Year Old Retard With No Life And No Female Contact Tea Party Of One Bund Has Left The Building Looking For Employment And Self Worth.

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 11:57AM

I couldn't have said it better, myself...

JT| 4.23.12 @ 1:17PM

Or how about:

Uh Oh,
Ex-Ron Paul Firster Ass Virus Unpaid Message Board Troll Member Of Imaginary One Man Tea Party No Life Whatsoever Heavily Calloused Right Hand Loser Bund Has Left The Building For High Paid Senoir Chef Position In Fast Food Industry To Regain Access To Mom's Basement.

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 3:18PM

That's not bad, either...

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 4:55PM

Uh Oh !

JT,The The Israel Firster Smear Bund Bibi Boy Toy, Log Cabin Republican Is In The Bus Terminal Restrooms & Reaching Under The Stall, For Dr.Reich, Again.

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 4:30PM

Oooor,
Tea Party Clint Told The Israel Firster Smear Bund BibiBoys , That This Is America & We Ain't Votin' For Bibi Or The Knesset", Traitor Bastard BibiBoy, JT.

Occam's Tool| 4.23.12 @ 2:48PM

Doctor Right:

Apparently the best steakhouse in Fargo is Redford's. Do let me know when you are in this area---Ken and Con Chef can give you my e-mail if you contact them. I owe you a steak, good sir. I prefer Fargo to the Twins.

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 3:26PM

I'm not in Fargo often...actually, I've never been there...but if I ever do go there, I'm gonna' take you up on your offer...

...you betcha'!

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 4:25PM

Well, Pseudo-Intellect Elitist Wannabe, Dr.Reich,

Tea Party Clint's November 7th,2012 Slogan.

" Told Ya RINO-CINO Romney Was McCain Redux,
Thank God We, The Great Unwashed Tea Party Patriots Won Back The Senate For The Stupid Party."

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 5:34PM

In contrast to you, I'm Einstein, Wittgenstein and Aristotle rolled into one.

And on November 7th, you'll be trying to pretend that you actually supported Romney all along.

Boar Hunter| 4.23.12 @ 9:20PM

Ron Paul is a nut.

Biggy D| 4.23.12 @ 2:43PM

Hanging up on someone, then calling him juvenile epithets, is not the same as "skewer[ing]" him.

Ron Paul will be at the Republican convention with the second-most delegates. You'll be salivating for Romney, but the real action will be among Paul supporters: unlike Romney's, they're not going away.

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 3:21PM

Watch as I dissect how dumb you are:

Of course Ron Paul will be "at the Republican convention with the second-most delegates."

That's because he's the ONLY other GOP-candidate who hasn't suspended his campaign, so he wins the "Miss Congeniality" prize by default, you jackass!

Sure, he'll be in 2nd place...by about 1,500 delegates.

I just skewered you. I called you names, too, but you had it coming.

Now thank me very much!

- click! -

Boar Hunter| 4.23.12 @ 9:22PM

The only action between the Ron Paul Supporters will be gay sex after smoking marijuana.

TLP| 4.23.12 @ 5:09PM

Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

Mike Hawk| 4.23.12 @ 10:34AM

Ron Paul is not the topic and he is no Constitutional scholar. What's up here Clint, you Paulbots hate Mark Levin and think he is a dummy.

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 10:53AM

Chuck Baldwin, Constitution Party,

Crassus| 4.23.12 @ 11:19AM

Yada, yada, yada.

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 3:56PM

Call Bibi.

Mike Hawk| 4.23.12 @ 12:30PM

Rube Paul is a Gynecologist, Mark Levin is a Constitutional lawyer. You still haven't made the case why Paul is an expert and Levin in stupid in the Paulistinian world. I quote Crassus, "Yada, yada, yada."

Biggy D| 4.23.12 @ 2:45PM

Levin won't debate a Paul supporter. Hmm... I wonder why ....

Oh, I know: Levin's stock in trade is the quick hang-up, followed by a spurt of name-calling. He doesn't actually know any history.

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 3:24PM

Levin doesn't get into debates with Ron Paul's moronic supporters because they're abrasive, obnoxious, and totally lacking in substance other than their slavish, creepy love of Dr. Ronnie.

But when he does let them speak, it doesn't take long for their Jew-hating proclivities to rise to the surface.

Debating a Ron Paul-Bot is like debating a tape-recorded message. They just keep saying the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over again...

...like Clint's dimwitted posts.

...and yours, too.

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 4:14PM

Obama Orchestrated Obamacare, And Romney Orchestrated Romneycare.

Dr.Reich's The RINO-CINO Flunkie Stooge ,Who Said He'll Vote For The Ruling Elites' RINO-CINO Frontman, Mittens Romney.

Mike Hawk| 4.23.12 @ 4:39PM

These guys are a hoot. Predict their responses and they promptly do just that. They repeat on you like eating too many cucumbers or an overload of re-fried beans. It's obvious they don't listen to Mark Levin either or they might learn something.

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 5:01PM

Whilke You're Runnin' Your RINO-CINO Mouth,

We 6th District Tea Party Patriot Dr.Ron Paul Supporters Will Be Voting In Our Pennsylvania Dr. Ron Paul Delegates, Phil Duffy, Sean Lebon And Byron Whitman Tomorrow.

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 5:36PM

Like moths to flame...

Occam's Tool| 4.23.12 @ 2:49PM

Same Fargo Steak offer for Mr. Hawk applies as to Dr. Right. I do need to repay my hours of enjoyment reading your posts.

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 4:03PM

Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha !

So Was The Alinskyite Post Colonial African Socialist, In The White House.

"Obama worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.

You're An Argument Against Yourself, Little Micky Hawklette.

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 5:37PM

Meanwhile, you're still in your mom's basement...

Boar Hunter| 4.23.12 @ 9:24PM

He has studied it and he is still a nut. Just because you study something does not mean you understand it or come to correct conclusions. Ron Paul studied the constitution and thinks it has something to do with the Israeli government conspiracy to land spaceships in LA.

albert constantine jr.| 4.23.12 @ 8:56AM

Once again, Mr. Levin has released an insightful and timely compilation of the themes he expounds upon daily. A brief review on the review seems to be in order, though.

The preferred method of ingestion for crack cocaine is smoking it. Powder cocaine is generally snorted.

It was also refreshing to see an article by Mr. Lord in only two digital pages. Good paragraphing today.

The American Hitman| 4.23.12 @ 9:03AM

The question is not, Will we become Ameritopia?

but rather,

We have been Ameritopia for two generations. How do we put an end to it and give rebirth to America?

PJ| 4.23.12 @ 9:34AM

America will probably have to hit rock-bottom tyranny before it can follow faithfully the Constitution again. Even though I believe Romney will be elected president 2012, I don't think he is strong enough to change America's course.

The American Hitman| 4.23.12 @ 11:32AM

me neither.

Michael| 4.23.12 @ 6:43PM

Hi Clint

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 3:57PM

Why?

Calling Romney weak is simply not justifiable.

The guy's personal character is unimpeachable. He doesn't drink, smoke, or fool around on his wife.

He also made his own fortune; his inheritance was donated to charity. He and his wife lived a spartan lifestyle when they were young. He understands business, the private sector, and economics.

And he has executive-level governmental experience.

Is he the perfect candidate? No, but to say he's not "strong enough" doesn't hold up.

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 4:39PM

Real Conservatives Ain't Weak Enough To Be Used As "Useful Dupes" For The RINO-CINO Ruling Elites' McCain Redux "Lesser Evil" Fop Frontman, Mittens Romney.

Dr.Reich's The RINO-CINO Flunkie Stooge ,Who Said He'll Vote For The Ruling Elites' RINO-CINO Frontman, Mittens Romney.

We Are Being Set Up By The RINO-CINO Flunkie Stooges For The Ruling Elites' Frontman Mittens Romney.

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 5:38PM

You're not a REAL Conservative.

You're not even smart enough to be considered a dupe.

You support Ron Paul - the loser - who also isn't a real Conservative.

You ARE being set up...by your own lack of intelligence. A kindergartner could get one over on you...

William R| 4.23.12 @ 7:37PM

You're too stupid to even know what conservatism means. Rest assured, you aren't one.

Michael| 4.23.12 @ 6:43PM

Clint
Will you vote for Obama or Romney?

Dr. X| 4.23.12 @ 2:52PM

This is a very serious question that must be addressed. Conservatives have become very good over the past couple of decades at pointing out the evils, errors, and contradictions of the Left, but have offered very little in the way of concrete solutions.

I do not believe that it is possible to re-create a constitutional republic as the Founders envisioned, and re-establish constitutional principles of limited government and federalism without another civil war. I don't see that happening; the Right is too disorganized. I think the Left will run this country off a cliff and destroy it first and it will fracture into pieces -- with some of those pieces, like Detroit, resembling the Third World.

The American Hitman| 4.23.12 @ 3:03PM

not happening and certainly not desirable

Alice Moore| 4.23.12 @ 9:11AM

I listened to this on AudioBooks. It should be added to the Must Read for conservatives; alongside God and Man at Yale by William F. Buckley, The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk, The Way Things Ought to Be by Rush Limbaugh.

It was enjoyable to listen to the explanations of the Utopianisms of Plato, More, and Hobbes. It encourages the reader to read these works. More's Utopia, in particular, is very chilling. It is against the very precepts of Christianity. His is a Textbook display of cognitive dissonance.

The philosophies of the Founding Fathers, Locke and Montesquieu are worthy to read.

Indy| 4.23.12 @ 9:38AM

Ameritopia is a must read, I would not send my kids to college without making sure they read it. I also bought the audio book to listen to on long car rides. I am trying to get it added to recommended reading lists for high schools. It has become a practice of mine to give books as end of year gifts to teachers, this one is definitely on the list.

Levin has a knack for releasing books at key times. Liberty and Tyranny came out just as the Tea Party was rising. He knew he had to get Ameritopia published before the November election, I'm glad he got it done, this had to take an enormous amount of time to research and write. How he condensed all of the material into a manageable read is beyond me. Levin is a gifted writer. Mr. Levin, thank you for taking on this project, it has been years since I sat in a college classroom, reading this book took me back to my college days. I rarely read fiction anymore. My thirst for knowledge has me buying books monthly, mostly history books and biographies. I need another bookcase...

Von Mises Jr| 4.23.12 @ 11:02AM

And the other value in the book is that conservatives like to read Locke, Burke, Montesquieu, Founding Fathers, Cato's Letters and Ayn Rand.
I did not read the "Utopian" works Levin analyzed in the book since it is nonsense. I knew enough about the books to not need to plow through them. So Indy is correct, that you and your children "must" read this seminal work.

Occam's Tool| 4.23.12 @ 2:50PM

Rand's Libertarian to a large degree, not Conservative.

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 3:53PM

Ronald Reagan,
" If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals–if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.

Now, I can’t say that I will agree with all the things that the present group who call themselves Libertarians in the sense of a party say, because I think that like in any political movement there are shades, and there are libertarians who are almost over at the point of wanting no government at all or anarchy. I believe there are legitimate government functions. There is a legitimate need in an orderly society for some government to maintain freedom or we will have tyranny by individuals. The strongest man on the block will run the neighborhood. We have government to insure that we don’t each one of us have to carry a club to defend ourselves. But again, I stand on my statement that I think that libertarianism and conservatism are traveling the same path."

Boar Hunter| 4.23.12 @ 9:30PM

You have posted that tripe about a hundred times that I am aware of and it simply isn't worth the effort to rebut your inane, out of context blather.

Ron Paul in 2016!...2020! or as long as we can keep propping his wrinkled ass up on a podium. The man is a menace and a threat to America. He is insane and you are a lost cause.

Von Mises Jr| 4.23.12 @ 4:16PM

Oscam, your socialist friends have perverted the meaning of words. Liberal in the classic sense as Mises and Hayek understood means the opposite of today.
Classical Conservative means to reject "change." It is why Hayek referred to himself as an "Old Whig."
Progressive means to progress forward holding onto morals and traditions accepting minor positive good. But today's so-called progressives are regressive Utopians.
Your friends on the left call for revolution. That is anarchist, not liberal or progressive.
And since you bring up Rand like your fellow troll Perp, why don't you take a crack at explaining "Objectivism." You did read the book, right? Otherwise you would keep your mouth shut about things you don't understand?

Todd S| 4.23.12 @ 9:25PM

Easy VMJ, Occam's is one of the good guys here. His point is Rand is not really a conservative and she says as much herself. That is not to put her down as she makes a great defense for free markets and against socialism that conservatives can appreciate but her disdain for Christianity does put her at odds with classic conservatism. I have read her books and really enjoyed them but I don't accept her whole philosophy as the answer for everything. She is not really libertarian in the same way as Ron Paul since they are not very objective in their beliefs as we see regarding Israel and self defense.

Todd S| 4.23.12 @ 12:18PM

Try a Kindle, it will save you space and you will have all your books in the palm of your hand. Plus you can never lose them or have them fall apart. Also you can get a free library of the classics easily downloadable. I still buy some physical books, mostly used ones when they are cheaper but it seems foolish to me to spend $20-30 on a new book when you can buy a digital copy for half that.

Indy| 4.23.12 @ 12:41PM

Todd, I'm a little old fashioned (although I do not think of myself as old) when it comes to books, I like to hold them in my hands. I am selective about the ones I buy, for books like Levin's, Thomas Sowell and other select authors, I want a hard copy.

Maybe one day, I'll opt for a kindle but I've got plenty of reading material without it. I do appreciate your suggestion.

Von Mises Jr| 4.23.12 @ 1:26PM

My friend Indy, keep buying the books. I went to find the name and news of Bob Bae who was one of the scientific team that had Salazar falsify their report on the BP oil spill. It was what the moratorium was justified from.
The web search produced almost no reference to Bob Bae. They can scrub the internet and make kindle books hard to find in the future. But they will have to have a modern day burning of the library at Alexandria to rid the world of Austrian Economics and conservative thinkers.
And think of the multiple copies in all our possession?

Indy| 4.23.12 @ 2:08PM

You touched on a point that I didn't include in my comments. Yes, I am concerned about scrubbing the internet and updating books, i.e. rewrite history, without readers aware...

My kids have used the books I have for schoolwork. I will never buy a history book without references. I read Breitbart's book this weekend and was glad to see his citations for each chapter, I had forgotten about some of the things he cited...good read if you haven't had a chance yet. I have never missed someone I didn't know, he was a warrior and will have his place in the history books.

Multiple copies indeed, I look for used copies for just that purpose. Certain books I want my kids to have in their library, even if they are not big readers (at least not yet).

Todd S| 4.23.12 @ 2:06PM

I think it is worth it just for the free classics that you can download. It is nice to have a hard copy if you trade books between family and friends.

Ken (Old Texican)| 4.23.12 @ 12:40PM

Get hooked up with Kindle, (amazon.com) for your computer...you will save hugundous space in your library. (smile)
I now have 360 books in my kindle library.

Occam's Tool| 4.23.12 @ 2:51PM

Yeah. The best way to think of Kindle is as a bookshelf. I've got well over 1000 books in my Kindle library, and the really good stuff can be bought for 99 cents.

KennesawJack| 4.24.12 @ 1:56AM

Working very late tonight but had to stop for this. Guys, I don't have a Kindle, don't want a Kindle, ain't gonna buy a Kindle. Occam, you know I love you like a brother but who ever heard of curling up with a good Kindle? Agh! Enough! Some things are simply sancrosanct (like the physical presence of a BOOK!).

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 9:44AM

Dr.Ron Paul,
" The insurance mandate clearly exceeds the federal government’s powers under the interstate commerce clause found in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. This is patently obvious: the power to “regulate” commerce cannot include the power to compel commerce! Those who claim otherwise simply ignore the plain meaning of the Constitution because they don’t want to limit federal power in any way.

The commerce clause was intended simply to give Congress the power to regulate foreign trade, and also to prevent states from imposing tariffs on interstate goods. In Federalist Paper No. 22, Alexander Hamilton makes it clear the simple intent behind the clause was to prevent states from placing tolls or tariffs on goods as they passed through each state– a practice that had proven particularly destructive across the many principalities of the German empire.

But the Supreme Court has utterly abused the commerce clause for decades, at least since the infamous 1942 case of Wickard v. Filburn. In that instance the Court decided that a farmer growing wheat for purely personal use still affected interstate commerce–presumably by not participating in it! As economist Thomas Sowell explains in a recent article, the Wickard case marked the final death of federalism: if the federal government can regulate “anything with any potential effect on interstate commerce, the 10th Amendment’s limitations on the power of the federal government virtually disappeared.”

Boar Hunter| 4.23.12 @ 9:33PM

Ron Paul is a nut.

Tom| 4.23.12 @ 9:49AM

Its also worth noting that the "high priests" of utopianism in all its past and present day forms and those who preach it never seem practice what they seek to impose on the proles. The joys of freedom of choice, luxery, wealth, and ownership of land and property, etc. are "perks" to be the reward for only those who tirelessly work for the cause. That always covers the hypocracy and self-guilt angle for them nicely. Of course the proles know these priests simply as what they in reality are, the tyrannical ruling class!

BarocheDique | 4.23.12 @ 10:26AM

By whatever means necessary....21st Century Minutemen

JohnInFlorida| 4.23.12 @ 10:27AM

The founders gave us the blueprint on how to run America, citizen government, we should try it.

The continual drippings of corruption has been the the misinterpretation, misuse and expansion of the "Commerce Clause"

... nullified the 10th Amendment and allowed the Federal Government to expand far in excess of what the Founding Fathers intended.

Wickard v. Filburn must be revisited" Indeed it must ...

The Progressives and Populists who brought us direct election of Senators ... severed an important link between the Senators and the states they are SUPPOSED (emphasis mine) to serve.

We MUST revolt at the ballot boxes while we still can. If we do not cut this Leviathan down to size, it will devour us completely.

... but through the doctrine of enumerated powers. Article I, section 8, grants the Congress only 18 powers.

Elastic interpretation of the General Welfare clause, and outright perversion of the Commerce clause, have provided the excuses for overrunning the rampart of the Tenth Amendment.

We have been Ameritopia for two generations. How do we put an end to it and give rebirth to America?

All of the above are quotes from commenters to Mr. Lord's article ... and while we can say "It was fun while it lasted but the tumor has invaded and replaced the host. The only question worth asking at this stage is, "Where do we go from here-this last, great hope for mankind?" (another commenter quote) ... I fear, no I believe, that we are already Wile E. Coyote. We have run off the cliff and are hanging suspended in mid-air, with that patented look of astonishment on our faces, awaiting the plummeting fall to our inevitable crash on the desert floor below.

JohnInFlorida| 4.23.12 @ 10:35AM

Yikes! Talk about depressing ... ;(

WalkingHorse | 4.23.12 @ 1:13PM

This not depressing, but a sober assessment of reality. One cannot undertake right action without a proper assessment of the facts on the ground.

We have allowed the political equivalent of the ebola virus into our culture, in the form of Utopian Tyranny. It cannot be expunged completely, given that we are Fallen creatures, but it must be driven back into the margins, and we must be vigilant to forcefully remove future outbreaks.

Occam's Tool| 4.23.12 @ 2:53PM

Wickard v. Filburn was a wartime decision done during the greatest war the US ever pursued. Like Lincoln suspending habeas corpus, it is highly unlikely that such a decision would have been decided that way in, say, the mid 1970s.

nathan| 4.23.12 @ 11:05AM

Levin is interesting is he not? Hard to listen to. Screams more than talks for the three hours a night? I often wish he would be conversational?

I'll pose these questions for those who do listen to him since I seldom do. Newt said there should be no more mosques built in this country until Saudi Arabia allows Christian missionaries to open act there. Does Mark agree with this position?

Second, did Mark agree with Bush administration's position on "enhanced" interrogation? Did he have any problem with waterboarding detainees? Did he have any problems sending detainees to countries like Morocco where they would be tortured? Did he have any problems with other enhanced methods like keeping detainees in positions of intense pain for hour after hour? When the stories of Abu Ghraib came out, how did he respond?

Did he have any problems with throwing predator missiles at Americans not indicted much less convicted of any crimes and not on a battlefield at the time they were executed? Did he support or opposed that action on the part of the Obama administration? What was his position regarding the treatment of detainees in general like Padilla who was held in Charleston without be charged for over two years?

Did he oppose or support the language in the NDAA which allows the goverment to detain people in this country indefinitely without every being brought before a judge, which more or less eliminates Fifth Amendment protections for people in this country?

I honestly don't know the answers since I rarely listen to him. (The screaming turns me off.)

The answers to these questions tells you a lot about how he really feels about the Constitution, his brilliant writing notwithstanding.

We know how Judge Napolitano feels on these questions since he's written more than one book covering these subjects. The judge is eminently readable too. I urge one and all to read him and see what you think about his take on the questions I pose above. And the nice thing about the judge is the decibels are lower. LOL

The American Hitman| 4.23.12 @ 11:36AM

I like the Judge too and miss his nightly show. It was a welcome break from the twiddle-dums and twiddle-dees otherwise airing on Fox and the other cable commentary networks.

Mike Hawk| 4.23.12 @ 12:23PM

Mark does not scream. He gets passionate sometimes, but he doesn't scream.

Todd S| 4.23.12 @ 12:30PM

What does that have to do with his book? Let me guess, you are a Ron Paul supporter correct? Your characterization of him screaming for 3 hours is way off base and he is the best by far of explaining "conversationally" the complex issues of the day and the destruction the statist are inflicting on our Constitutional Republic.

And why are you so concerned about the rights of terrorist scumbags? Does the fact we waterboarded the proven mastermind of 9/11 KSM for vital information to protect national security really bother you? Do you really think George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would be outraged by that?

nathan| 4.23.12 @ 2:12PM

I think he screams but maybe he is just passionate. Screaming is in the "ear" of the beholder like beauty is? LOL

Would George Washington have been outraged by the mistreatment of detainees? Yes sir. He was on record as insisting on proper treatment for POW's despite the mistreatment of our own at the hands of the British.

I went through this with someone else. We courtmartialed American soldiers who waterboarded Filipinos during the Philippine Insurrection. We did the same during Vietnam. It was named in some of the bills of indictment against Japanese war criminals. We have over 100 years of precedents showing that it is against our own laws and is a war crime. When you defend it, whatever the good intentions here, you are defending criminal behavior on our part according to over 100 years of legal precedents. And no, good intentions do allow for bad behavior. After all when liberals talk about their good intentions with regards to things like gun control and health care, what pray tell is your response to that? You tell them that they have to play by the rules. Same thing goes here folks.

And what did Tom Paine say. To protect our rights we have to protect the rights of those we hate. You see the problem with conservatives and liberals alike is they love the Constitution until they don't love it. Until it gets in the way of something THEY want to do. In this case, the pesky Eighth Amendment protections (yeah it binds all federal actors anywhere in the world) against abusing people under their control. Go figure.

In a book on Japanese atrocities, a Kempetai officer was interviewed. They almost never talk. Now he discussed waterboarding American and British POW's. He didn't describe it as "enhanced" interrogation. He called it the torture that it was. And I guarantee you the men he waterboarded called it torture too.

We cannot, we cannot condemn our own men for doing this, we cannot condemn others in international tribunals like we did with the Japanese and then turn around and say, oh it's okay because WE ARE THE GOOD GUYS WE'RE DOING IT FOR THE BEST OF INTENTIONS. You want to play hypocrit here, BE MY GUEST. But we can't do that. A hundred years of legal precedents supports me and says you are wrong. And don't throw unlawful combatants at me. All "irregular" forces can be considered "unlawful" including the our own militia at Lexington and Concord. We had no army at that time and the British could have argued that they were not subject to any protection. Likewise the Jewish forces in Palestine prior to statehood, how "legal" were they? And remember the JAG's almost to a man disagreed with Bybee and Yoo here. I'm not the only one who had concerns about this. The Judge wasn't crazy about any of this either.

Occam's Tool| 4.23.12 @ 3:03PM

Torture is permanent injury. Waterboarding, done the way we do it, isn't that.

Japanese prisoners in WWII had an atrocious casualty rate, much much higher than under the Nazis.

The murder of Jews by Arabs before WWII in Palestine was quietly aided by the British.

Please, what we do is nothing compared to what those scum in Gitmo deserve.

nathan| 4.23.12 @ 3:46PM

Respectly you're wrong. There is no, repeat no "civilized" way to waterboard. Let's talk about what this "enhanced" means of getting information is. What is does is induce in the detainee a sense of drowning. Anyone who has ever been in the water, been held under by a brother or anyone else and felt like they were going to drown knows that there is nothing "benign" about this sir. And it doesn't matter whether that Kempetai agent was doing it or the inquisitors were doing it or our member of the armed forces in the Philippines were doing it, it's still torture.

Bybee and Yoo tried to make the same argument you make that if it doesn't leave permanent marks, the it's not torture. First, many if not most of the JAG's disagreed with that and case law doesn't support it. Let someone put you in a position where your muscles are stretched to cause horrible pain for hour after hour. No marks are left. Have you been tortured? Of course. Same thing with waterboarding. If you sir were subjected to an hour of the sensation of drowning and asked to describe it, what would you or anyone call it? If you were then brought back into that room again for say two hours then another two hours then another two hours . . .

No sir, no expert on this subject agrees with what you said. I'm sorry. At the end people being subject to the feeling of drowning will give the names of their school teachers, high school friends, you name it. Torture is highly unreliable according to who? The Pentagon itself which categorically prohibits it.

Todd, you cannot compare waterboarding in training with no doubt "safe words" to waterboarding with your hated enemy doing it with the very real risk of death by drowning. There were credible stories that some of the people we waterboarded did die. Sorry. Next.

Mr. Jenkins thank you are correct. Again Tom Paine said you have to support the rights of those you hate if you are to secure your own. Thanks sir.

Boar Hunter| 4.23.12 @ 9:36PM

Great, another educated idiot.

jonaz| 4.24.12 @ 12:32AM

The only similarity between the water torture you're talking about and waterboarding is the element of water on a supine subject. Even wikipedia tells the difference.

The patriot act has been falsely characterized in its power against non-citizens, foreign and domestic, which have no claim to the rights of this country. And if rendition was good enough for the great empathizer Clinton it may be the best legal solution against the most violently-hardened enemies of civilization. Though you and I both prefer the effective method of kindness and respect that is the standard practice at Gitmo.

Todd S| 4.23.12 @ 3:06PM

You seem to forget one key difference between POW's and terrorist scum like KSM. Can you tell me what that is Nathan? So you would rather have thousands of civilians killed because we refuse to use any coercive interrogation techniques because we don't "torture"? And it is clear to any rational observer that the water boarding we used is not torture under the Geneva Convention whatever you think. Do I need to mention that KSM sawed the head off of WSJ reporter Daniel Pearl on video and you are concerned about some water going up his nose? We use the exact same waterboarding to train soldiers in the military so classifying it as torture is ridiculous really. Cutting off fingers and pulling out fingernails like you do throughout the Middle East is torture. I call you on your pussy bullcrap.

Judge Napalitano is a bore really and Mark Levin is way more entertaining and informative. The ratings tell the story there.

Jenkins| 4.23.12 @ 2:25PM

Anyone who truly believes in the Constitution and limited government should be concerned about the rights of everyone (even terrorist scumbags). Discarding the Constitution as soon as it becomes inconvenient is exactly how we've come to "post constitution" America.

Cpm| 4.23.12 @ 4:15PM

Re: the Constitution. I'm concerned about the rights of Americans, as that's who the U.S. Constitution was written for. It isn't The Universal Rights of Man. Americans that treasonously betray their country by taking up arms against it have effectively disavowed their citizenship.

Biggy D| 4.23.12 @ 2:49PM

The assumption you make is that everyone who is accused is guilty. In America, prior to the War on Terror, everyone who was accused was presumed innocent. That's the difference between the Founders' America and W/Obama's America.

loulou| 4.23.12 @ 12:34PM

Nathan is a pantywaist.
I listen to Levin and have never heard him scream.

Nathan can go listen to AirAmerica.

Chalkdust| 4.23.12 @ 12:47PM

"Screaming turns me off". My goodness, what a hot-house flower we have here. If we Americans refuse to listen carefully to what he has to say, screaming or no, your progeny will hear a lot more behind the walls of a gulag.
Judge Napolitano (also a screamer) is a delightful man to listen to, a law scholar of the first order, it must be remembered he is a Libertarian and as such, sometimes ignores common sense.

Jeff1000| 4.23.12 @ 1:51PM

Levin raises his voice for emphasis like a singer might sing louder during the chorus, or a writer might use italics or capital letters for emphasis. Simply, the man is a master of language, oral and written.

kwan| 4.23.12 @ 11:08AM

The problem with achieving the left's utopian paradise-on-earth is that freedom must be eradicated. For it's only with an all-powerful central government that the left's vision can be achieved. History has shown us that eventually these Marxist Totalitarian Utopias devolve into a paranoid central government that is at war with its own people's natural human desire for freedom.

Jeff1000| 4.23.12 @ 11:19AM

The tyranny of Uptopianism is in not trying to understand man's true nature, instead, it only seeks the means of wielding control over man.

Tom Kyba| 4.23.12 @ 12:53PM

People like Nathan enjoy setting up standards for people like Levin that he could never achieve and then critcizing them for it. Classic self-serving straw man arguement.

nathan| 4.23.12 @ 2:25PM

The book review was about what he wrote about the Constitution was it not? The questions aren't that hard are they? I listen to him some but not a lot. Individual rights and the limits of government to abuse individuals as incorporated in the Bill of Rights is the heart and soul of the Constitution is it not? I was asking his position on certain key issues regarding his position on individual rights? The NDAA language is dangerous and can be viewed as taking the Fifth Amendment out of the Consitution. How did he react to that? Did he support the extention of the Patriot Act which many viewed as grossly unconstitutional? The 1866 Supreme Court said categorically that war not an excuse for throwing the Constitution under the bus. That you had to obey no matter what. They were absolutely right. The Founders routinely talked about the dangers of war as an excuse to take away freedoms. We all know Franklin's quote right, sacrificing essential liberties for a little safety . . .? Did we not see a lot of that during the Bush years? Are we not seeing that now with the NDAA language? And what I asked is book aside, how does Mark react on his show to all this? Those y0u who listen, well I raised specific instances, Padilla, the non judicial executions of Americans abroad, his positions on these things tells you a lot about how he feels about the document. It really does. Are you all prepared to sacrifice essential liberties for a little safety or even a lot of safety? Was he?

Todd S| 4.23.12 @ 4:12PM

The Constitution is not a suicide pact. You want to pretend we don't have enemy cells in our country determined to cause as much destruction as possible and that just using a law enforcement strategy is good enough. That is what in essence what we were doing prior to 9/11 and it turned out disastrously. You want to act like detaining Padilla was some crime against humanity when he clearly intended to carry out a terrorist plot. If we listen to people like you screaming that we have to respect the "constitutional rights" of guys like KSM and Padilla and that we cannot have any government surveillance of terrorist suspects, we put our society at real risk not the pretend ones you scream about. If we listen to extremist libertarians like yourself, it would only be a matter of time before a major US city disappears in a mushroom cloud because no one will do what is necessary to prevent it. The major function of our government is to protect its citizens from death against its foreign and internal enemies period.

Ken (Old Texican)| 4.23.12 @ 1:04PM

Thank goodness for Mark Levin...and Rush. They have their role in keeping the candle of freedom lit.

We have our role. Hammering the nails of the structure of freedom.
Finally...remember ...timing is everything. Let's keep our "hammers" in our pockets as long as we can.
It is no coincidence that the sales of "hammers and nails" have exploded in the last two years.

200 million Americans are now armed to the teeth... that's a lot of snipers prepared to defend the Constitution when push comes to shove.

"Dub" Holston| 4.23.12 @ 2:30PM

Funny, though, isn't it, that the period of our greatest power and widespread prosperity as a nation came after Wilson was president. The warped lens through which your editors, contributors and readers (well, most of them) views our history continues to amaze.

Biggy D| 4.23.12 @ 2:51PM

"Post hoc, ergo propter hoc" is a logical fallacy.

"Dub" Holston| 4.23.12 @ 3:28PM

I wasn't suggesting that the country got stronger and more prosperous after Wilson BECAUSE of Wilson. Just saying that it did, which is true, and that it's interesing, given that the author and the reviewer seem to be saying a national decline began with Wilson. Whom shall we credit for America's supremacy in the latter two-thirds of the 20th Century? Harding? Coolidge? Hoover? Our country got vastly freer for many citizens in the years thereafter, despite resistence from people whose objections remind me of the people wailing about the beseiged Constitution now.

Occam's Tool| 4.23.12 @ 3:04PM

The 1920s were prosperous under Republican limited government types: Harding, Coolidge.

Wilson was worthless.

Indy| 4.23.12 @ 5:49PM

Coolidge in his own words, we should have listened to him, just think of where we would be. H/T Left Coast Rebel -

The five tenets of Coolidgeism:

1. Constitutional Government
2. Individual Enterprise
3. Economy in Public Expenditures
4. Reduction and Reform of Taxation
5. Opposition to Aggressive War

http://www.leftcoastrebel.com/.....dency.html

Wilson? Anyone who has studied progressivism knows how evil this man was.

"Dub" Holston| 4.25.12 @ 12:03PM

The economy boomed and then crashed in the wake of those presidents' policies, but hey, that Depression just what we needed. Thinned the herd, killed off losers and poor people.

albert constantine jr.| 4.23.12 @ 3:21PM

Wilson was actually President during the deadly influenza pandemic. In your view, Dub, is he responsible for that?

Leonard Gilbert| 4.23.12 @ 2:30PM

Associate Supreme Court Justice anticipating this problem as far back as 1829 was paraphrased by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushev in the early 60's....when, after touring U.S. factories, universities, and farms at the invitation of JFK, he admitted that the USSR would never be successful against America in the event a war broke out. He proudly proclaimed however that the communists would defeat us...from the inside out.....and, here we are.

Petronius| 4.23.12 @ 2:44PM

The day is here when all who swore to uphold, protect, and defend the Constitution do precisely that or surrender to the statist dictators of the Wilsonian ruling class. It's them or Us.

Rhoetus| 4.23.12 @ 2:45PM

Only when the Federal government has become despotic and fraudulent to the point that it has lost all its moral authority, then and only then, will be able to restore our liberty under the Constitution.

PattyMor| 4.23.12 @ 2:54PM

Burrowing from within. It was their strategy and it has worked all too well. Instead of an opposition party, we often have them working in tandem, albeit sometimes at different rates.

Its the tyranny of the elites. Think TSA grabbing and groping citizens. Or dictatorial powers of the IRS and seizure laws. Can you imagine what the founders would think about the EPA usurping your property rights or the Kelo decision. Abortion and gay marriage as federal issues? How about importing thugs and illiterates from the third world.

Or federal social security, medicare, medicaid, school lunches, agriculture subsidies, school loans, crop insurance, flood insurance, FDIC, food stamps, unemployment insurance, and the "best" federal housing complexes which are usually dens of criminals.

The federal leviathian tells you what kind of light bulbs and toilets you are allowed to have. What's next? Fema camp for reeducation or the barrel of a gun for those who refuse?

loulou| 4.23.12 @ 3:22PM

Excellent post, PattyMor.

Schools now have medical clinics on site and serve breakfast, lunch AND dinner!

SetOurChildrenFree | 4.23.12 @ 3:32PM

I'm absolutely convinced that the root of all utopianism is atheism. If you don't believe in God, you don't believe there's a creation and a purpose for everything created. If you believe we're all just one gigantic cosmic accident, you will believe you must create utopia NOW, at any cost, since there won't be any afterlife. And you'll also believe that since nobody has everything under control, that the delicate balance we see today must be controlled by force if necessary. If you believe this way, I feel sorry for you. I won't force my beliefs on you, so don't you do the same to me.

"Dub" Holston| 4.23.12 @ 3:37PM

I have to confess I feel pretty free these days. Indeed, I can't recall a time in recent years when I felt seriously encroached upon by laws or regulations. But I'm seeing comment after comment in this space from fellow Americans who clearly believe we're on the road the tyranny. So consider this an open invitation. Tell me what it is I'm not seeing. Set me straight. What would you love to be doing if the government wasn't barring your way?

Jeff1000| 4.23.12 @ 4:05PM

The government is indirectly barring me from flying since I'm a citizen that has self-respect and I won't subject myself to TSA groping and/or x-ray radiation and having my naked body exposed.

Living in Massachusetts I'm being forced to have health insurance whether I want it or not or pay a fine.

For the first time in my life I'm being audited every year by the IRS since becoming an outspoken Tea Party backer. Coincidence?

My local government has threatened to auction off my home for being late one quarter on my property taxes. I'm a vocal republican in a vast majority liberal city in Massachusetts.

I'm being punished for smoking and buying gasoline and heating oil.

I can't escape Obama whether I'm watching TV, on the Internet, or even attending a Red Sox game.

I see my hard earned tax dollars being squandered by an out-of-control corrupt government and being used to buy votes for the democratic party.

My intelligence and mental peace is attacked daily by lies, and obfuscations by the Obama administration.

I worry about the safety of my job and my investments.

My dollar is purchasing less and less because of the destruction of the dollar.

I could go on and on but it all seems pretty obvious to me and other sane Americans I'm sure.

"Dub" Holston| 4.24.12 @ 12:07PM

Did all these things bother you before Obama was elected, or only after? How far back do your grievances go? Just curious.

Jobe| 4.23.12 @ 4:11PM

"Dub" Holston: If you have read the comments above and below, you should have no trouble understanding that people here work, want to spend their earnings on their chosen purposes, have raised and educated their children and do not want to be compelled to educate those of deadbeats, pay their own mortgages and don't want to have to carry others who refuse to pay their own way. If we own our own restaurants and bars, WE want to determine whether smoking will be allowed or not. I could run through many other encroachments on personal freedom, but I think you get the idea..

Cynthia Lauren Thorpe| 4.23.12 @ 7:46PM

Thanks, Dub. Glad you asked. Here's praying you'll have 'eyes to see' what I'd love back in America.

1. Honor of GOD, our Creator.
2. His 10 Commandments back in the classrooms of America to serve as an example that we honor Him first, in society's 'heart' - because there IS a 'right' and there IS a 'wrong' way of doing everything, plain an' simple.

3. I'd like the freedom (which flows from the above) to teach our children HOW to think - rather than WHAT to think. For, we are making robots/obots/and pseudo-intellectuals because Man's Ego (read that toxic cocktail of Freud and Marx) has gotten drunk on itself.

4. I'd like to see more INDIVIDUALS and less 'group think' and the striving for consensus - consensus being 'with the sensuous', but - I'm certain your aware of the dialectic - aren't you?

5. I'd like to 'see' Fathers respected in their homes once again - without government intrusion or manipulation of the feminine - as happens in all of our marketing.

Heck - I'd even like to have a young single mom (recently turned Christian) to be able to take her only child to University Hospital in downtown Cleveland, Ohio - to get his heel stitched up after he'd fallen - as kids do - and not get HARASSED by plain clothed social service guys - only two weeks later - telling her (read: ME) that the 'reason' why he was there - was because Christians say: 'Spare the rod - spoil the child.' ((silly me, I didn't know that my 'conversion' only a few weeks before accredited me with KNOWING 'everything' that Christians believed)) But, I assure you, 'Dub' - that I 'was TOLD' that I was 'more suspect' than a Muslim - a Hindu - a Buddist - because of my 'being a Christian' and Mr. Social Services in....what was that....hmmm...in 1990 - had the (supposed) 'right' to take my child away from me - if he 'deemed it necessary'.

So - I'd ALSO very much like to have other young single mothers not live in FEAR of taking their children to a hospital, because of encroaching nanny governmental nonsense.

Hey. Would our government - with all the 'freedoms' they languish in - actually ALLOW US TO PRAY together, Dub???

Maybe we could 'pray'. You an' me. Do ya wanna?
We don't 'need' crosses to be taken down from anywhere - would we...? Would ya just humble yourself for ONE FRIKKIN MOMENT - and kneel with me in an honest 'free' prayer?

Geez, Dub. You can't PROVIDE that stuff for me. The GOVERNMENT can't provide that stuff for me - only GOD can provide that stuff for me - and I'm wise enough now (55 this November) to finally 'get' that.

Let's 'agree in prayer', Dub. 'Cause GOD says that wherever two or more are 'gathered together' on certain issues - that He'll 'hear us'. So - I urge you - to PRAY with me. The real rubber meeting the road - would be if you'd be willing to kneel down with me and ask that GOD grant us the courage to stand once again - a City on a Hill - shining HIS LIGHT - rather than our willfulness and selfishness and love of our own intellects & mother nature - over HIM, our Creator.

Wanna pray, Dub? Will our government allow us to do that? Wanna pray with me? For, I bow my knee to NO OTHER Authority - because all Authority is God-Given - NOT 'man given'.

Man enough to try it, Dub? I promise it'd bless us both - as long as we 'both' feel soooo... liberated?

Waiting and Praying - for your reply.
C.L. Thorpe
Your Fellow 'Lover of Freedom'

"Dub" Holston| 4.24.12 @ 1:21PM

I pray whenever I feel like it, regardless of where I am. It's a right the Constitution guarantees me. What the Constitution doesn't guarantee me -- and I'm fine with this -- is the right to make other people pray along with me or to put them in a position of discomfort for not going along with my religious practice. I'm a Christian, but I understand and accept that this country encompassed and protected many religions -- and atheism -- from its earliest days. I also understand and accept the reality that religious diversity in America continues to grow and expand. If I wanted to live in a country with a state religion, I'd move to Iran.

Vic| 4.24.12 @ 3:44PM

No need, any expression of belief in the public square must have a "secular" purpose. Lemmon basically established secular humanism as the state religion.

Todd S| 4.23.12 @ 9:36PM

You clearly haven't tried to operate a business in states like New York, you wouldn't say nonsense like that if you knew all the government interference involved. Do you know the powers OSHA holds over business with their myriad of regulations that are practically impossible to comply with? Whether you feel free or not, our government is leading us to the brink of disaster with the insane levels of spending and regulations. In a decade at these levels of spending and debt, interest payments will reach around one trillion dollars per year. Let that sink in your consciousness while you pretend you are free.

"Dub" Holston| 4.24.12 @ 12:37PM

I'm all for reforming government agencies such as OSHA and making them leaner and more effective, but I also understand that most, if not all, of them were established in response to real, specific abuses in the private sector. Eliminating regulations wholesale is not going to give rise to some sort of "honor system" in the business world. If government needs watchdogging -- and it does -- so does private enterprise. As for the national debt, of course it's alarming and we have to start paying it down. But I grasp the fact that severe austerity measures right now would undercut our potential for economic recovery and be ruinous to millions of people who are barely getting by as it is. Perhaps the biggest difference between me and many of you Spectator readers is that I believe a reasonable amount of government is necessary and beneficial, and I don't mind paying my share. Nor do I, as a Christian, mind having some of my tax dollars go to helping fellow citizens. Jesus didn't instruct us to help only the poor and downtrodden who deserve it. He never advocated "means testing."

Vic| 4.24.12 @ 3:59PM

Jesus never instructed his followers to petition Caesar to tax the rich so he could help out the poor.

As many of these "regulations" were set up to protect select merchants from the rigors of market competition as were set up for some "abuses of the private sector".

So we should all be subjected to your Marxist visions for us or we are devoid of any empathy for our fellow man. Typical Marxist rant.

"Dub" Holston| 4.25.12 @ 11:56AM

A Marxist rant? This is why I get so exasperated with guys like you. I've worked for a living for 40 years. I not only like making money, I like being able to earn more by working harder or smarter. But being a beneficiary of the capitalist system doesn't make me blind to its drawbacks. Acknowledging the imperfection of capitalism no more makes me a Marxist or socialist than criticizing my country's foreign efforts makes me unpatriotic or having doubts about my Christian faith makes me an atheist.

Leonard Gilbert| 4.26.12 @ 8:16AM

Driving MY automobile without a seatbelt on.
It's the little things that accrue to.."get us".. Dub.

Jobe| 4.23.12 @ 4:05PM

I am teaching Madeline L'Engle's polemic, A WRINKLE IN TIME and I have told the students that what happened in Nazi Germany was a lesson in what happens when people give up their individual freedoms for the sake of security. I explain that people supported Hitler even though he was actively persecuting the Jews, murdering political opponents, and violating the rights of anyone with whom he disagreed. However, these "good Germans" were OK with these things because they weren't Jewish, didn't actively oppose Hitler politically, and didn't strongly disagree with him. Needless to say, they see no parallel with what our government is doing.

Peppermint Tea| 4.23.12 @ 9:08PM

Sad.
That is what Levin means when he asks if America is corrupt. Not "on the take," but willing to tolerate injustice for the sake of the party and getting along.

Osamas Pajamas| 4.23.12 @ 4:33PM

Not all of my intellectual heroes are Jews --- but a great many of them are --- Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, Milton Friedman, Mark Levin, Israel Kirzner, and more. They hew to the classical conservative line that "Ideas have consequences." So do their enemies --- which explains their yearning for censorship --- and failing that --- they work long and hard at the task of character assassination.

Peppermint Tea| 4.23.12 @ 9:09PM

Not to mention: Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, St. John, St. Paul.

CopyKatnj| 4.23.12 @ 4:54PM

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Martin Niemöller

JohnInFlorida| 4.23.12 @ 5:04PM

Dub ...

The way I feel "least free" is that I can no longer trust what ANYONE says (excluding those closest to me, and that's a VERY short list). Everyone colors things according to his/her agenda and the truth be damned!

I am frugal with my money and yet it becomes less and less every day, thru no fault of my own.

Those in power, the ones who are tasked with defending the Constitution from "ALL enemies", are the biggest enemies of the Constitution and violate it at will - while those on the other side of the aisle do nothing - and I'm convinced they do nothing because they want their turn at the trough during the next cycle.

I understand that "words have meaning" and yet I watch the ruling class twist the meanings of words to fit their agendas and they have no shame regarding what they are doing.

If John Adams was correct in that ... "Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." ... then I am convinced that the Republic is toast, as we no longer are that "religious and moral people" and will never again be such.

So Dub, yes, you can whistle your way past that nasty ole graveyard and say you are free ... but your days as a sovereign citizen are gone and the only thing you are free to be is a subject of the statists.

Pat| 4.23.12 @ 5:57PM

To the author: Good analogy here; America on crack and believing we’re a shining example of clean living, demi-gods of health and sobriety. But did you ever notice this constant publishing of “America – the Final Days” doesn’t seem to stop the impending train wreck, it doesn’t even slow the locomotive?

And Americans who buy these Final Days books will vigorously nod along with each author’s indictments and dire predictions. But other Americans refuse to buy these books, happily vote for their next savior in a three piece suit and then go back to sleep for another two or four years.

Some folks see earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and plagues coming from God to a theatre near us soon – and in just retribution for our evil ways. Some read the Constitution literally and then spit at those who prefer a Living Constitution - or as the Supreme Court fondly calls it: Our Job Security. Others see American Exceptionalism as the holy cross preventing the vampire of history from fanging our necks – we can’t possibly go the way of all flesh and every single one of those past “eternal empires” – which are now mere footnotes in a history book.

But how about a tell all book on what our next government system will be like – sort of life after the fall? Will we vote like we do now or be ruled by a handful of evil men with powerful friends sporting even more powerful weapons (or maybe the difference is moot)? Do we still suffer through endless political campaigns or is it POTUS for life or until assassination, whichever comes first?

And taxes? Will we still pay taxes or does the government give us all that we need? “The Hunger Games”, the books and the movie, portray one possible grim future but as much as we’d rather believe in a happy after-life for our country, it looks like we’re simply stuck with more of the dreary same, petty corruption without end and who cut the cheese in the Senate cloakroom just now?

Ken (Old Texican)| 4.23.12 @ 6:22PM

You Guys,
save me a lot of typing. (smile)
Dub
is an arsehole.
He is busy playing pollyanna while the government keeps taking bigger and bigger bites out of all our butts....and all of our freedoms.

Maybe his mom's basement is "safe and government-free."
Let's ask his mom what she thinks.

"Dub" Holston| 4.24.12 @ 12:16PM

Ken: I ask a simple, honest question -- politely, I thought -- and instead of offering me any constructive arguement that might sway me, you call me a name. I did learn something, however, so thanks. -- Dub

Cincinnatius| 4.23.12 @ 8:39PM

I'm on my fourth reading of this remarkable work and plan on several more in an attempt to provide myself with rebuttals for my liberal friends. Levin is an excellent source of ammunition! Now, IF he just had the guts to use his intellect (and love of the Constitution?) to address the eligibility questions that swirl around Obama!? Why is he absent on this issue... IF he truly is an advocate and supporter of the Constitution?

Cynthia Lauren Thorpe| 4.23.12 @ 8:51PM

To the author of this piece:

The 'solid rock' of America is NOT the Constitution - for, as 'all the world can see' - it has become 'just another document to be shredded by man's opinion'.

The only Rock which America laid claim to was and still IS the Rock of The Christ, America's Savior. With Him - she stood and STILL stands on solid ground - as He was and 'is' her 'Foundation' and example.

(As the obedient son of the Father - Jesus said that anyone who chose His Way rather than their own way - would be a builder with his foundations laid upon ROCK and not 'shifting sand'). That's Truth - thousands of years ago, and it's STILL Truth - today.

I've got a 'really interesting' TRUE story - read, 'experiential' - so that you pseudo-intellectual dialectics can 'feel' my issue - rather than merely 'take it by faith'. Enjoy it - and learn from this 'parable' of The Tree:

In 1974, while on our 'family vacation' in Banff, Canada - I was struck down (across my back, as it was) by a 2.5 ton lodge pole pine.

It's 'bark' was 'firmly intact' - but, it's 'guts' if you will - had been 'consumed' by the 'real' dry-rot you spoke of - only this 'rot' was physical - not in the least bit - spiritual.

The moment that the tree hit my right shoulder (me being within our 8 man tent, pumping up my air mattress with a bicycle pump when I heard the 'CRACK' which sounded like a 1000 gun rifle report directly at my side) I blacked out - only to be awoken by the repeated thuds of my mother's hand on my right 'cheek' - as she wailed: MY CHILDREN, MY CHILDREN.

The weight of said tree, while being 2.5 tons - told to me by the Banff ranger who was among the many who came to my rescue - was hampered by by the Hand of God - alone, as our tent was several feet across from a cement based picnic table and one single bow of the pine - which perforated the tent (about 8 inches to my left) - and dug almost completely into the ground underneath. (Yes, splinters were abounding - but, the 'weight' between my shoulder blades and lower back - amounted to only...say...200 lbs? Thus - it was the work of the men in the surrounding area - to extricate me, for - GOD indeed 'uses' the hands of men, as well.

My point, Jeffery, (forgive me, but for OBVIOUS reasons - conscience doesn't permit me to address you as 'Mr. Lord') is that GOD ALONE saved this soul from being cut into 3 pieces - not some 'man-made' tarp which - most likely was the same width of the paper of America's Constitution.

God USES men - 'commands leaders hearts as if they were rivers' as it were, Jeffery. And, no 'man-made' document - will ever be 'perfect' - but, GOD - ALONE, is.

I hope my 'true to life' story about the pine tree suffices - because it was at that time - I wrote about that 'tree' being JUST LIKE the inward decay I was seeing in my country. For - GOD doesn't have 'a thing' about America, dear - GOD 'has a thing' about 'Americans, and Australians' and all of His other 'kids' across this globe.

And, it's by the acknowledgement of His Ways - which are NOT 'our man-made ways' - that He alone saves us from ourselves, as it were.

Cynthia Lauren
Christian Patriot in the Coastal Outback

PS - wanna know something else REALLY COOL, Jeffery? Several weeks after that incident where the 'pine hugged me' - I not 'ever' being a tree hugger', myself . I lay in Dr. Hazel's orthodontics chair - in Pepper Pike, Ohio - getting my braces tightened.

He gasped as I opened my mouth. (I know, I know - many have since then as well - but, he was gasping out of true astonishment, understand...)
He looked into my mouth and exclaimed: 'Cindy! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR BITE??? IT HAS COMPLETELY IMPROVED!!!"

Yes, Jeffery. Totally True. And, that's 'why' this Christian isn't 'looking to the Constitution' to save her Nation - but, to America's GOD - to do so - for, truly 'His Ways ARE pure Perfection', indeed.

(Selah on THAT one - my Brothers and Sisters - for it IS TRUTH.)
*I still have a little bit of that tree, too - in my scrapbook - JUST to remember His Faithfulness.
Warmest of Peaceful and Truthful smiles to you, as AMERICA is gonna be 'just fine' - because her God is THE GOD.

C.L. Thorpe

POST American| 4.24.12 @ 2:21AM

---AS we, just moments ago, discover
a whole new seam of capstone EUGENICS
'soft-kill' well underway in the form of
nano-tainting our crops and foods
(--CHECK IT OUT!)---
in this, the UNDENIABLE 11th hour
of the Globalist CFR---RED China
handover, TREASON, OCCUPATION,
and FINAL, LETHAL EUGENICS OP,
we'd say Levin's about a decade and a half
behind the game.

A dangerously anachronistic mis-fire
to say the least.

"When the Globalists are FINALLY
brought toi justice, history will look
back on this period as the greatest
covert genocide mankind has ever
seen--"
-ALEX JONES

--------------HUAC/ Nuremberg 2012-----------------

TeaPartyPatriot4ever| 4.24.12 @ 2:59AM

The forces of anti-American, anti-Constitutional liberal socialist-marxism and liberal progressive Republicanism is all around us, as they constantly incessantly together beat down the Patriotic Constitutional Conservative Tea Party folks and movement that represents the American Individual, along Individual Freedom and Liberty, that is embodied in the US Constitution itself.

This is reality, not some historical incident that once happened long ago.. We the people are now in the struggle and fight of our very existence and our future generation's very existence. So the wise men of our time like Mark Levin, are warning American people of this, but will they listen and heed the warnings, or will they not.. Just like the ancient Greeks who did not listen to Socrates, or the ancient Romans who did not listen toMarcus Tullius Cicero.. Will the American people submit to govt statist utopian slavery, over Constitutional Freedom and Liberty, and relinquish their hold as the higher power in the Nation.

Well only time will tell, but it does not look good, as the election of Romney is telling us..

Mr Mass. Liberal Progressive RINO's record as Mass Gov. clearly shows that Romney supported gun control, gay rights, liberal activist judges, inferior substandard socialized state medicine, tax hikes, every asinine kooky global warming cap and trade policy, and just about every other stupid, budget busting liberal progressive idea that came down the Mass pike. For all intents and purposes, Romney should be Obama's running mate.

It's now very clear that this country is definitely headed in the wrong direction, from both sides of the political aisle. But ultimately, it is the people who share in this responsibility in a democratically elected Republic like ours, as they must also be responsible for their own actions as the people who elected these politicians- ie; Obama and or Romney, into power and office in the first place. Unfortunately, there are far too many liberal GOP establishment progressive RINO's, than there are Reagan Conservatives. That is why we must replace as many of them as possible in every area of elected offices as possible.

Thus this is now about the people’s ability, or inability, to discern the differences, problems, and issues at hand, facing what we are now faced with, and then adequately make the right decisions at the ballot box.

If the mass populace of America is determined to go into a state of constant delusional denial, and keep running into the same brick wall of stupidity, apathy, and indifference, just like their choosing of Obama in 2008, a radical progressive liberal, they now choose instead a moderate progressive liberal GOP Republican establishment RINO elitist, aka Obama lite Mitt Romney, then the Constitutional Republic Nation of America is in more peril than we thought, as no Nation can stay Free and Independent when both sides of the political coin are liberally destructive. The left is a cancerous toxic ideology, and as history has shown, can and will completely destroy a civilized society of Freedom, Liberty, Democracy, and the Truth, in a blink of an eye.

That’s their choice, but in so doing will unfortunately continue the same old destructive liberal dead end brick wall policies of the past 3 and a half years, which means the continued rapid decline of America as a force of Freedom, Liberty, and Democracy is an assured prospect, and not just inside America, but the free world as a whole is affected as well, as our US National Security is also the world’s international security against the forces of evil, tyranny, and oppression.

TeaPartyPatriot4ever| 4.24.12 @ 2:59AM

Well only time will tell, but it does not look good, as the election of Romney is telling us..

kerry| 4.24.12 @ 11:06PM

Mr. Wiseman Levin has very clearly and consistently IGNORED the tea party candidate running for U.S. Senate Jamie Radtke, and instead has backed George Allen, who lost his reelection bid back in 2006 to Webb here in Va. What a shame, that someone who claims to be disgusted with the hijinks in D.C. is using the power of his talk radio show to support the very thing he disdains, a died in tbe wool establishment republican. Radtke knows what she is about and I feel very confident that if she goes to D.C. come November she will not be voting for higher debt ceilings and expansikn of government. I am very disappointed in Mr.Levin, to not even acknowledge tbe exciting race going on in his own state, where there are over 50 tea parties and serious activism is underway. I do commend him for his books and impact that he makes otherwise.

boogalie| 4.24.12 @ 1:17PM

One item to add to Mr. Lord's piece ( a very good framwork of Mr. Levin's book/truly a wonderful read): Mr. Levin also brings up his view (mine as well) that there now is a 4th branch of government...the 'administrative state'. As more and more government employees become unionized, the greater the strength of the 'administrative state'. THIS, is a clear a present danger as well. Semper Fi.

"Dub" Holston| 4.26.12 @ 10:37AM

Help yourself to some red meat, my friends. And when I say red, I mean red as Alabama on a FNC political map. This is from today's E.J. Dionne column in the Washington Post column, a commentary about Mitt Romney's sincere, "uptopian" belief in the unerring efficacy of an unchained free market: "Romney is right in saying he has 'a very different vision' from Obama’s, and this is where the magic comes in. He envisions 'an America driven by freedom, where free people, pursuing happiness in their own unique ways, create free enterprises that employ more and more Americans. And because there are so many enterprises that are succeeding, the competition for hardworking, educated, skilled employees is intense, so wages and salaries rise.'
"Just like that," Dionne continues, "all would be well — as if we never needed the trust-busting of the Progressive Era, the social legislation of the New Deal, the health programs of the Great Society and the coordinated action of the world’s governments in 2008 and 2009 to keep the Great Recession from becoming something far worse." Have at it.

Latest Headlines

The Inoperative Jay Carney

Jeffrey Lord|100 comments

Lerner’s Plea

Ray V. Hartwell, III|112 comments

Eugenic Abortion 2.0

Daniel Allott|48 comments

Holding AWOL Obama Accountable

Betsy McCaughey|16 comments

What Are the Risks of Syria Involvement?

Christopher Orlet|16 comments

Obama’s Imbroglios

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.|31 comments

Obama’s Drone War

Jed Babbin|14 comments

Catholic Culture In America

G. Tracy Mehan, III|25 comments

The Spectacle Blog

Bill Would Ban All Abortions After 20 Weeks

Jordan Gonzalez | 4:15PM

Harry Reid Pushes for the Nuclear Option

Claire Healey | 1:11PM

Weiner: More Photos of My Junk Might Surface

Kyle Peterson | 12:55PM

#FreeKate? Movement to Normalize Pedophilia Finds Its Poster Girl

Robert Stacy McCain | 10:09AM

Morning Round-Up 5-23

Patrick Ryan | 10:06AM

I Agree With Andy McCarthy: No Special Counsel

Ross Kaminsky | 9:16AM

Sorry, You Can’t Delegate Responsibility

Ray V. Hartwell, III | 9:10AM

Issa Recovers

Ross Kaminsky | 5.22.13

FLASHBACK TO: 1995

Pope Culture

By George Sim Johnston

A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck

By P.J. O'Rourke

Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
Dames at Sea

By John Corry
In the Absence of Guns

By Mark Steyn

In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
The Metaphysical Martini

By Werner J. Dannhauser
Counting the Costs of Clintonism

By Robert H. Bork

The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
Chuck McHagel

By George Neumayr

It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted

By Douglas Bartholomew
It’s the Best Time of the Year

By Mark Steyn

The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
The Bush Crack-Up

By Brit Hume

Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?

The American Spectator

Buy the Book

Absolute Power

About the Author

Letter to the Editor View all comments (185) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Mike Hawk| 4.23.12 @ 7:20AM

Von Mises Jr| 4.23.12 @ 9:22AM

ENOUGH ROPE| 4.23.12 @ 10:55PM

Von Mises Jr| 4.24.12 @ 7:30AM

Conservative Not Republican| 4.23.12 @ 11:20AM

Vern Crisler| 4.23.12 @ 11:39AM

Todd S| 4.23.12 @ 12:02PM

Conservative Not Republican| 4.23.12 @ 3:31PM

Todd S| 4.23.12 @ 3:54PM

Conservative Not Republican| 4.23.12 @ 5:34PM

Todd S| 4.23.12 @ 6:54PM

Jack in Wi.| 4.23.12 @ 12:12PM

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 12:15PM

loulou| 4.23.12 @ 12:32PM

Jack in Wi.| 4.23.12 @ 12:47PM

Alan| 4.23.12 @ 1:09PM

Occam's Tool| 4.23.12 @ 2:44PM

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 5:07PM

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 5:31PM

Riff Raff| 4.23.12 @ 1:21PM

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 5:09PM

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 5:32PM

Riff Raff| 4.23.12 @ 7:53PM

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 5:15PM

Ground Control| 4.23.12 @ 1:20PM

Mike Hawk| 4.23.12 @ 2:58PM

JT| 4.23.12 @ 3:50PM

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 5:16PM

karla| 4.23.12 @ 11:51PM

Alan Brooks| 4.23.12 @ 6:37PM

macwell| 4.23.12 @ 8:10AM

TLP| 4.23.12 @ 10:03AM

TLP| 4.23.12 @ 10:13AM

JA| 4.23.12 @ 1:02PM

karla| 4.23.12 @ 11:57PM

elgordo| 4.23.12 @ 8:26AM

Mike Rogers | 4.23.12 @ 9:15AM

Peppermint Tea| 4.23.12 @ 9:05PM

Brian Mc| 4.23.12 @ 8:30AM

Tom| 4.23.12 @ 8:37AM

numbatdog| 4.23.12 @ 8:43AM

Mike Rogers | 4.23.12 @ 9:17AM

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 8:52AM

Mike Rogers | 4.23.12 @ 9:07AM

Mike Hawk| 4.23.12 @ 10:36AM

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 11:07AM

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 11:07AM

Crassus| 4.23.12 @ 11:22AM

Tom| 4.28.12 @ 8:55PM

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 10:09AM

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 10:44AM

Crassus| 4.23.12 @ 11:19AM

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 4:14PM

Michael| 4.23.12 @ 6:37PM

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 11:24AM

JT| 4.23.12 @ 11:38AM

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 11:57AM

JT| 4.23.12 @ 1:17PM

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 3:18PM

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 4:55PM

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 4:30PM

Occam's Tool| 4.23.12 @ 2:48PM

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 3:26PM

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 4:25PM

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 5:34PM

Boar Hunter| 4.23.12 @ 9:20PM

Biggy D| 4.23.12 @ 2:43PM

Doctor Right| 4.23.12 @ 3:21PM

Boar Hunter| 4.23.12 @ 9:22PM

TLP| 4.23.12 @ 5:09PM

Mike Hawk| 4.23.12 @ 10:34AM

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 10:53AM

Crassus| 4.23.12 @ 11:19AM

Clint| 4.23.12 @ 3:56PM

Mike Hawk| 4.23.12 @ 12:30PM