The World According to Oatney: 03/29/2009

Saturday, April 04, 2009

Why We Fight

Why must these people be opposed?

Labels: Conservatism, Democrats, Duh, Economy, Elections, Federal politics, Presidential Election

Rolling In Their Graves

The reality of how things are-welcome to the administration from Hell.

(Hat Tip: Adam Graham)

Labels: Conservatism, Federal politics, Humor, Music

Friday, April 03, 2009

Things Are As They Are, Not As They Should Be

It is not exactly a secret that The World supports Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey for Governor in 2010, but Ramsey isn't exactly demonstrating smart political acumen of late:

Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey says he's considering trying to change a state law that prevents him from raising funds for his gubernatorial campaign while the legislature is in session.The Blountville Republican said Thursday that the law is unfair because his GOP rivals for governor — a congressman, a former Knoxville mayor and a district attorney — don't have the same restriction.

"It's unfair ... because it doesn't limit what a mayor can do, what a congressman can do, or a district attorney," Ramsey said. "So I think there needs to be some changes."

Governor Ramsey is right, of course. These rules are unfair because they were put in place to prevent bribery and corruption from lobbyists upon politicians, but they only apply to members of the General Assembly. As the laws of our fair State are presently written, one would think that mayors, aldermen, county commissioners, sheriffs, or district attorneys are exempt from the political influence of money, while members of the General Assembly are the only people liable to be corrupted. The law should be changed to apply to all Tennessee public officials or to none at all. Because the law does not apply to everyone equally, it might even make for a good court case.

While Governor Ramsey certainly has a point, the problem is that he himself brought the issue up-as a member of the General Assembly who happens to be running for Governor. Yes, it is not fair in the least that his primary opponents-all of whom (at this point) are Tennessee elected officials, have an advantage over him for no other reason than that he is a member of the General Assembly while they hold other offices. The situation should be rectified for the future, but for Ramsey to bring it up now (as opposed to say, two years ago) looks like sour grapes. Ron Ramsey knew that he would be at this disadvantage going in, but decided to run for Governor anyway.

For now, he must deal with the situation as it is.

Labels: Elections, Republican Party, Tennessee politics

Thursday, April 02, 2009

We Shall Never Surrender

Leftist blogger Ilissa Gold now believes that conservatives are a dangerous lot from whom liberals must protect themselves:

The violent rhetoric from the right about rising up and overthrowing the government is growing. Republican leaders are actively calling for a “revolution”. Militia activity has been on the rise in the last few years, and is expected to increase with Obama’s presidency.

And while you’d rather think of people like Jim Adkisson shooting up a Unitarian church in Knoxville as an evil aberration, you do have to wonder how many others like him are out there, whose minds have been so poisoned by the violent right-wing rhetoric that they could snap at any moment, and look to take out those whom, again, they perceive as “weaker”.

Our friends on the other side know, of course, that it is intellectually dishonest to compare someone like Mr. Adkisson to any real conservative. Adkisson was using the whole "I need to shoot up a liberal church" excuse to explain his own criminal behavior and lack of a moral compass. Listening to conservative talk radio and television-something that I do with great frequency-in no way gives me a burning desire to walk into a heterodox house of worship and play shoot 'em up with the politically misguided congregants who may be there, and I am a gun owner (As an aside, I know of a few Unitarians who are political conservatives anyway).

For a person to engage in unmerited violent behavior, something else has to be misfiring in the brain aside from merely listening to Rush Limbaugh.

Instead, it would seem that what our liberal friends are afraid of is the reality that conservatives will not take lying down the destruction of our country at the hands of Mr. Obama. While our liberal friends live for their beliefs, we will die for ours should the need arise. The great issue of our time in dealing with the current administration is the reality that while previous presidents of both parties engaged in irresponsible fiscal behavior and social policies, the present occupant of the White House simply does not care in the least about the consequences of playing the CEO to corporations and using taxpayer money to spend the country into oblivion. A ten trillion dollar deficit and a spending spree that will require the printing of literally trillions of dollars in cash that would not be needed if not for the President's insistence upon unneeded spending will likely result in a rate of inflation that will make the 1970's look like the Roaring '20's.

Conservatives will not allow the Left to undermine our sovereignty, ruin our economy, and destroy the last shreds of constitutional government in America. Our friends complain of the evils of the Bush years. We readily acknowledge that the previous President began the disastrous spending trends under which we now labor, but the response of the party opposite seems to be that Bush spending policies were horrible, and so their plan will be to engage in the same sort of policies of federal corporatism and pseudo-socialism multiplied 100 times. Either the party opposite's abilities to make policy are hampered by the reality that the White House is now filled with cabinet and staff whose abilities are akin to amateur hour, or these people really are just that stupid. We can only pray for all of our sakes that the former circumstance is the predominant one.

The survivial of our federal republic is more important than putting on some stadium show, speaking rosy words, and drumming up chants of "yes we can." Winning an election gives no administration, regardless of its political affiliation, a license to destroy the very foundations upon which our forefathers built this country. Conservatives will not allow Mr. Obama, his minions, or his legions to bring this nation to constitutional collapse, and we will use whatever means are necessary to prevent national ruin.

If the Left is afraid that we will not put up with what they are doing to our country and that we will not rest one solitary second until these wicked policies are brought to an end, they have just cause to be very afraid indeed. Every time Mr. Obama so much as opens his mouth, the revolution grows.

We shall never surrender, and we will fight for the right will every fiber of our very beings.

Labels: Conservatism, Democrats, Federal politics, Republican Party

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Obama May See the Light

Highly placed confidential sources within the White House have confirmed to The World that President Barack Obama may change course in his economic policy. "The President was extremely embarrassed that he would be criticized for his economic policies by the Red Chinese," the source said, "I mean, the French are one thing, they always run their mouths and find something to complain about without doing anything much of anything, but the Chinese?" Obama is apparently concerned that the economy may collapse under the weight of increasing debt that will be magnified by his planned spending programs because "the damn Chinese won't buy our bonds."

In addition, the President has reportedly grown increasingly concerned in recent days over the fate of his immortal soul. "He now believes that he is in serious trouble with the Almighty because he lied to some of the people who voted for him when he promised a tax cut. It was clear when the President promised this that he would never be able to give a tax cut given his spending goals," said an anonymous White House aide. Further, President Obama has apparently been contemplating a religious conversion. A Catholic priest has been seen quietly making his way into the Oval Office very early in the mornings. This development has given rise to speculation that President Obama may soon be received into the Catholic Church, a major development since House Speaker Newt Gingrich announced Monday that he would be received into the Church during the Easter Vigil April 11, and rumors are flying in Catholic circles that former President George W. Bush, whose brother Jeb is Catholic, will be next.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs adamantly denied today that the President is converting to Catholicism, but said that Obama is covering his spiritual bases. "With the final squandering of all of our collective national wealth, the public lying, and total indifference to the issue of aborticide in America, the President merely wants to be certain he can somehow make things right with God," said Gibbs, "the President does not want to be eternally consigned to Hell, where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched. He is in the midst of contemplating his previous errors."

Labels: Aborticide, Democrats, Federal politics, Humor

Supreme Court Rules Death Penalty Is "Badass"

(Explicit Language Warning)

Labels: Federal Courts, Federal politics, Humor

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Let Tennessee Lead the Fight for Sovereignty

While it may seem like empty words to some, Tennessee House Joint Resolution 108 may be one of the most important pieces of legislation to come before the House, and it slated to be heard before the Civil Practice and Procedure Subcommittee of Judiciary today (it doesn't appear that it will be, owing in part to next week's Judicial Selection hearings).

The federal government has used the several States as whipping boys, foisting their mandates upon our people, often unfunded and always at great cost to us, for years. This infringement upon the sovereignty of our States has come at the hands of presidents and Congresses controlled by both parties, who have been equal opportunity violators of the Constitution.

Now, however, we are faced with a President who would impose upon us a European-style welfare state based upon the belief that he can completely run around the States and ignore the federal system put in place by our forefathers. Barack Obama is different than previous occupants of the White House. Other presidents understood that they must at least pretend that State sovereignty mattered, but Obama believes himself so far above the law that he makes no pretence of respecting it, nor any public show about the love of liberty. Other nations in similar economic straits who have adopted plans similar to Mr. Obama's are having the International Monetary Fund called in on them because their economies have since become so devalued that their own leaders can do nothing to help-Britain is the latest to be threatened with the possibility of near-total ruination. Further, in addition to his deciding that the government should just take over entire industries and decide their fate of its own accord, rather than allowing the free market to do so, Obama is being lectured by the French and the Red Chinese on how to run an economy. The shocking part of all of that is that the French and the Chinese are the ones who are right. The federal government faces a crisis of confidence never before seen in the history of this nation.

There has never been a time in the modern era of American politics that would be better for the several States to let the federal government know that they have had enough of their rights being infringed upon while the federal government uses them to pay for its irresponsible and wasteful incompetence. Let Tennessee, the State that signaled resistence from the very day of the election of this gang of thieves, take the lead

Labels: Federal politics, Tennessee politics

Monday, March 30, 2009

Democrats and Gun Bills

The Tennessean is once again engaging in a game of political pretend, this time the paper pretends as though measures loosening gun restrictions in Tennessee have no Democratic support in the General Assembly:

The state legislature is on the verge of passing a series of bills this year that would greatly expand the number of places where people who hold licenses to carry loaded handguns can take their weapons. Democratic leadership in the General Assembly had stymied such efforts for years, but that has changed with Republicans now holding a slim majority.

Taken together, the measures would be the biggest liberalization of the state's gun laws since the passage of the carry permit law 15 years ago. It also could be a major step toward an even greater loosening of the restrictions on handgun owners, activists on both sides of the issue say.

Jimmy Naifeh and other members of the previous Democratic Leadership in the Tennessee House always held up serious gun legislation because their political money was coming from the anti-gun lobby. Firearms liberalization bills couldn't be brought to a vote because many Democratic legislators-especially those from suburban and rural areas-had told their constituents that they support expanded firearms freedoms, but that position is at odds with the one espoused by those who often supply Democrats with the cash needed to win elections. The simple solution for Tennessee Democrats was to bury gun legislation deep within committee to avoid going on record with a public floor vote.

The "slim Republican majority" will now bring many of the gun bills which had been bottled up or buried to the floor. Kent Williams will be forced to vote for them (he likely would anyway) because he cannot afford to be seen as being in any way anti-gun to his constituents. In addition, Williams doesn't want to do anything that could undermine his chances at being re-elected to the House, since he will be unable to run as a Republican in 2010.

Many of the Democrats who had told their constituents how pro-gun they are will be forced to go on the record. For some, it will be a kind of liberation from their old leaders and they will be free to do what they've always wanted to on this question. For some others, the floor vote will be as though they are being dragged unto their execution, forced to vote on a matter that they would simply rather leave alone.

Either way, many Democrats will go along with the so-called "Republican" gun measures. Expect some of them to pass with 55 (and in some cases 60) votes or more.

Labels: Democrats, Republican Party, Tennessee politics

Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Grain of Wheat

John 12:20-33

Now there were certain Gentiles among them, who came up to adore on the festival day.

These therefore came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying: Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh, and telleth Andrew. Again Andrew and Philip told Jesus. But Jesus answered them, saying: The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Amen, amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, Itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal.

If any man minister to me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall my minister be. If any man minister to me, him will my Father honour. Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause I came unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. A voice therefore came from heaven: I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The multitude therefore that stood and heard, said that it thundered. Others said: An angel spoke to him. Jesus answered, and said: This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.

Now is the judgment of the world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself. (Now this he said, signifying what death he should die.)

Labels: Faith, Holy Mother Church