Author Archives: Editor

Small Business Lending Fund Update

The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) is expected to soon release the criteria small banks must meet in order to participate in the $30 billion Small Business Lending Fund (SBLF) created by the NSBA-supported Small Business Jobs and Credit Act.

Meanwhile, Sens. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La..), chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and George LeMieux (R-Fla.) recently sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, urging swift implementation of the SBLF and the State Small Business Credit Initiative, which was created by the same legislation.

NSBA echoes this call for immediate implementation. The SBLF has been on the drawing board for long enough. It is high time that it be deployed. America’s small businesses still are struggling through a destructive credit crunch and the realization of the SBLF stands to help the situation.

According to an internal poll conducted by the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), nearly a quarter (24 percent) of their 5,000 community-banks members planned to utilize the SBLF. This means 1200 community banks stand poised to increase their small-business lending.

NSBA joins Landrieu and LeMeiux in urging Treasury to expedite the realization of the SBLF and State Small Business Credit Initiative.

Source: NSBA, December 7, 2010

Islamophobic Yodeling

by Adam Turner

Austrian “hate speech” prosecutors are very busy these days. In addition to going after Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff for “prejudicial incitement,” i.e., criticizing Islam and Sharia laws at a seminar, the Austrians found the time to crack down on yet another “Islamophobic” miscreant, a 63 year old Austrian retiree.

“Helmut G. was busy on Friday afternoon, mowing his grass. ‘And because I was just in such a good mood, I yodeled along with it and sang a few songs,’ says the retiree, speaking to the Styrian Crown. That was not all right with his neighbors — believing Muslims. They had gathered in their house at prayer hour, which was also broadcast into their yard by loudspeaker… Consequently, several of them felt disturbed in their religious exercises by the grass-mowing 63-year old — and promptly reported him to the police. ‘In the statement it said that my yodeling sounded like the call of the muezzin,’ Helmut G. shook his head, bewildered. ‘It was definitely not my intention to imitate him,’ the Graz native assures us. The court did not believe him and sentenced him to a fat fine.”

In a way, I am glad that the Austrians have helped to flesh out further the debate regarding Islam and Islamism. As you know, LP works to protect the right to comment on radical Islam, terrorism and related issues without fear of legal retaliation. It is often hard to discuss such politically charged topics without knowing exactly what the rules of the debate are. At the very least, we need to determine how far we can go before violating them and/or if we are going to be violating them. So, it is probably a good thing that in the past two decades, in a piecemeal, case-by-case fashion, the elites of the European nations – and to a lesser extent, the US – have been steadily compiling and revealing the rules of discussion regarding Islam, radical Islam, and Islamist terrorism to educate ordinary folks like you and me. These rules apparently include the following:

* Thou shalt not accurately describe Sharia law. See Geert Wilders. See Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff.
* Thou shalt not criticize any Islamic doctrines. See Geert Wilders. See Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff.
* Thou shalt not report on and/or criticize the funding of terror by Islamists. See Rachel Ehrenfield.
* Thou shalt not disparage – or even depict – the Islamic Prophet Muhammed. See the Jyllands-Posten Danish Cartoons. See South Park.
* Thou shalt not criticize the appropriateness of building any mosque, anywhere. See the Ground Zero Mosque debate.
* Thou shalt not admit to any politically incorrect thought(s) about Muslims, even if you immediately disavow it (them) as “irrational” and denounce it (them) on air. See Juan Williams.
 

Violating any of these rules – in the US and in Europe – is, according to the elites, a clear sign of “Islamophobia.” Violating any of these rules – in Europe alone – is also a sign of criminality.

So, thanks to the Austrians, we now know that we should add “thou shalt not yodel along with the call of the muezzin” as another rule to be followed. And I, for one, am thankful for this addition. Who knew that “Islamophobic Yodeling” was a problem?

This article was originally published by The Legal Project on December 2, 2010.

Buckeye Institute Announces Pretigious New Fellowship Program For Ohio College Students

In honor of William A. Diehl, former President of Defiance Milk Products/Diehl Inc., the Diehl Family Foundation has partnered with the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions to create a year-long fellowship program designed to expose college students to the leaders and readings that can provide insight into making Ohio prosperous again. The Buckeye Institute will use a competitive process to identify up to 25 of Ohio’s best students annually for this program.

The application period for the 2011 class runs from December 2, 2010, to January 31, 2011. The first class will occur in March 2011. Each class will begin at 6:00pm on a Thursday with an informal dinner and the viewing of a thematic movie. On Friday, the fellows will discuss the assigned readings and their relevance to Ohio, listen to an Ohio business leader share his or her experience, and tour a company to get a hands-on appreciation for how business works. The Buckeye Institute will provide all reading materials and will cover all hotel and food costs.

The topics include American exceptionalism, freedom & the rule of law, basic economics, the power of government, transparency & corruption, economic freedom & competitiveness, entrepreneurship, building a business, the regulatory world, the power of innovation, understanding politics, and overcoming big obstacles.

To graduate, each fellow must write a report on an economic issue facing Ohio and a proposed solution. A panel of experts will judge the reports, and the top three will receive cash awards of $3,000, $2,000, and $1,000.

Matt A. Mayer, President of the Buckeye Institute, stated, “If we want tomorrow’s leaders to carry the heavy weight of rebuilding our great state, they will need a practical and conceptual understanding of our nation’s founding, its economic system, and the relationship between business and government. William Diehl fundamentally understood the critical link between a vibrant and prosperous private sector and limited, but effective government.”

Details about the Diehl Fellows Program and the Application can be viewed at www.buckeyeinstitute.org/diehl or obtained by calling 614-224-4422.

2011 Anthropographia Award For Human Rights Call For Entries

Anthropographia is a volunteer-run non-profit organization that generates awareness of under publicized human rights issues through visual story telling. The volunteer board of directors and advisors consist journalists, photo journalists, professors of photography, and leaders in the multimedia industry.

The Anthropographia Award for Human Rights gives photojournalists working in various communities and cultures opportunity to share their story or stories of witnessed human rights issues with an international audience.

The Call for Entries for the 2011 Anthropographia Award for Human Rights is now open. This competition, which is free to all, offers an opportunity for photographers to exhibit their work and demonstrate their commitment to human rights issues.

Submission deadline: December 31, 2010
Notification of selected photos & multimedia projects: February 1, 2011

For the 2011 edition of the Anthropographia Call for Entries, we will be selecting 16 photo-essays and 8 multimedia projects out of the entries submitted. These will be selected by a team of curators, including Matthieu Rytz, Founder of Anthropographia, and two guest curators that Anthropographia has identified as definitive in their field. From the selected photo-essays and multimedia projects, two awards will be granted by the team of curators that recognizes the particular achievements of two photographers in representing human rights issues.

These awards are:
The Anthropographia Award for Photography and Human Rights
The Anthropographia Award for Multimedia and Human Rights

For more info, visit the Anthropographia website.

Bird Songs, Medical Therapy and Bird Brains

My dad always said we kids were a bunch of bird brains. I never knew exactly what he meant until now.

A news article by Natural News reveals that children who listen to recordings of bird songs behave more calmly when receiving medical treatment, according to those behind a new project at the Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool, England.

Recordings of birdsong, rain and wind — made by hospital children along with sound recording artist Chris Watson in Springfield Park — are now being played throughout the children’s ward to calm patients during injections, surgery and other stressful procedures. The birds singing include blackbirds, greenfinches, robins and songthrushes.

“We have seen tangible benefits for patients in bringing the natural world into hospitals,” said Laura Sillers, Artistic Program Director of the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology. “We also installed it in the corridors and there have been numerous requests for the Bird Song chorus to be reproduced on CD which patients then play at home. This research will be groundbreaking in demonstrating the role art can play in delivering health benefits.”

Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson attributes humans’ love of birdsong to our intrinsic “biophilia,” or an inborn need to connect with nature and other living beings, according to Natural News.

Even Genesis expresses soulish kinship of birds and homo sapiens. Hence, the justification for the paternal quip “bird brain.”

More startling is the wisdom saying of nearby college history professor: “May the bird of paradise fly up your nose.” To the uninitiated, the professor was saying may God’s spirit get into your brain. By implication, it meant God’s will is for us to be spirit filled bird brains. Connecting the divine authored songs of birds with the presence of the divine would naturally engender peace and tranquility.

To read the entire article, go to the Natural News website.

Pro-Life Terrorism

What is terrorism? Based on statements by pro-choice advocates, it is acts of violence aimed the goal of which is to end the policy and/or practice of abortion or, in this case, the legal practice of opposing abortion.

The following is a news story about abortionist attempting to terrorize a pro-life leader with the stated goal of changing his and his organization’s “ideas” and subsequent practice.

Joe Scheidler is a name pro-life advocates know because he has been one of the leaders of the pro-life movement for decades. Scheidler has become a frequent target of pro-abortion activist and now his home has been vandalized.

His home was attacked in the middle of the night, at approximately 2:00 a.m., with an abortion advocate throwing bricks of asphalt through two front windows.

One of them contained a threatening note making it clear the source of the vandalism supports legalized abortions.

“We are crazy feminist bi***** who will destroy your sexist ideas,” a note, containing an anarchist sign and scrawled in a child-like writing, said.

“P.S. I’ve had an abortion and no laws could ever stop me,” the note continued. “You can’t make Queen Anne’s lace illegal, a******.”

Troy Newman, the president of Operation Rescue, praised his longtime friend in an email to LifeNews.com as someone who has always had the best interests of the pro-life movement at heart and who has been selfless in trying to protect women and unborn children.

“We denounce in the strongest terms the cowardly violence that shattered the peace of the Scheidler home last night,” Newman said after learning of the attack.

He urged the Obama administration to investigate the attack in the same way it has assertively looked into incidents at abortion facilities and the shooting death of late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller.

“We demand that Attorney General Eric Holder order the Justice Department to launch an immediate investigation into this violent hate crime and to provide the same protections to Joseph and Ann Scheidler as they have in the past for unthreatened abortionists,” he said.

Newman is concerned about the rising levels of violence against pro-life advocates, as this attack on Scheidlers’ home comes after multiple other incidents of vandalism and after pro-life protester Jim Pouillon was shot and killed outside a local high school in Owosso, Michigan because his killer Harlan Drake didn’t like him using graphic pictures of babies victimized by abortions.

Operation Rescue’s headquarters in Wichita, Kansas, has been repeatedly vandalized, and staff threatened in recent months. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, sidewalk counselors were threatened by a man at gunpoint and police later discovered a cache of weapons in the man’s vehicle, he indicated.

Looking at hand written note displayed with the LifeNews.com article , the printed words cause doubt about whether they were written by a emotional youth or possibly by a relatively uneducated adult. The writing might reflect a highly emotional person and potentially dangerous. However, other domestic and foreign terrorist have mostly been either college educated or from highly educated families. One would think such a person would have display a more articulate message and refined hand writing. Of course, emotionally disturbed uneducated person could be just as dangerous as a emotionally-calculating educated person.

Women Uninformed About Medical Dangers of Birth Control Pill

Human Life International America released a new national poll surveying teenaged and adult women showing widespread usage of the birth control pill despite women not knowing much about potential harmful effects.

The poll, conducted by professional firm the polling company/WomenTrend surveyed more than 800 women aged 15?44 in the United States.

Once learning that the birth control pill can raise the risk of contracting breast cancer, about 40 percent of women in the poll were more deterred from using it than before.

Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, a New jersey-based breast cancer surgeon, is a presenter at the HLI conference and she says women need to know more about the potential problems.

“The most egregious omission affecting a young woman’s life is the fact that in 2005, the International Agency on Research of Cancer listed oral contraceptives as Group I carcinogens for breast, cervical and liver cancer,” she says. “You’ll find cigarettes and asbestos in the same group as risks for lung cancer.”

The poll found 78 percent of women have used the birth control pill and a 35% began using it under the age of 18. Thirty?five percent of women aged 15?44 who were surveyed said that they currently take oral contraceptives, while an additional 43% said that they had in the past but no longer do.

Fewer than one?in?five (19%) said they had never used oral contraceptives.

Three-fifths of women said they began taking the Pill to prevent pregnancy, and nearly two?thirds said that is the reason why they are still on it. This was the top reason across all demographic groups. Regulation of menstruation was the second?most common reason why women began oral contraceptives and remain on it

Women were less likely to have used another form of hormonal birth control — like contraceptive shots or patches – as two-thirds said they had never done so; 11% said they currently do, and 19%
said they did at one point.

Three?in?five women said they took the Pill (or used another form of hormonal birth control) after becoming sexually?active for the first time.

The survey found a majority of women don’t know the side effects of the pill and were more likely to share those sides effects than information about significant medical problems the pill caused.

All women surveyed – regardless of contraceptive use – said that knowing “there is new evidence to suggest that taking hormonal contraceptives may increase the risk of breast cancer” would give them serious pause; 44% concluded they would be less likely to take them, and 3% would be more likely. Still, 44% said such research made no difference to them.

While 49% of women were warned by a friend or physician about weight gain and 23% of headaches, only 40% were told of blood clots and the risk of stroke and 19% of increased risks of breast cancer.

In a second question, 54% of women said that use of the Pill for pregnancy prevention would not be worth it if further research shows that there is a definitive link between use of hormonal birth control and cancer; 32% said the risk would be worth the benefits of pregnancy prevention.

Ultimately, the poll found women generally believe the birth control pill has had a positive effect on them, their families, and society. By margins of at least 6?to?1, the impact of birth control was deemed more positive than negative on society, marriages, and relationships in the U.S.

Source: LifeNews.com, December 3, 2010

Restoring Constitutional Governanace in America?

On 1 December 2010, the Supreme Court of the United States entered the following orders:

Case 10-446
KERCHNER, CHARLES, ET AL. V. OBAMA,
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., ET AL.

The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.
Case 10-560
SCHULZ, ROBERT L. V. FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM, ET AL

The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.

Both cases were controversies involving subject matter critical to the primary governmental functions and intent of law set forth in the Constitution for the United States.

Kerchner was defending his individual Right to a President that is a natural born citizen.

Schulz was defending his individual Right to a government that does not give or lend public funds to private corporations for definitively private purposes (i.e., the $700 billion AIG and TARP financial bailouts), a power not inherent in the People, much less transferable or granted by the People to the Government.

The Judicial Article III of the Constitution guarantees Kerchner and Schulz that the merits of their cases would be heard by the independent, federal courts (“the judicial Power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution ..”).

However, the lower courts violated Article III, summarily dismissing the cases for “lack of standing,” on the (erroneous) ground that because the injuries to Kerchner and Schulz were no different from the injuries suffered by the rest of the people in the country, neither Schulz nor Kerchner’s Petitions to cure constitutional torts could proceed. By dismissing the cases on “lack of standing”, the courts essentially suggest that Kerchner and Schulz should have directed their Grievances to Congress – as if the issues raised were political questions and America was a pure democracy with rights granted by the will of the majority, rather than a Republic with unalienable, individual, Natural Rights, guaranteed by written Constitutions, enforceable through an independent Judiciary.

Kerchner and Schulz had Petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States to overrule and reverse the “no standing” rulings of the lower courts and send the cases back to the lower courts for a hearing on the merits of the constitutional challenges. In denying both Petitions for Certiorari and avoiding a judicial examination of the merits for no other discernable reason than political eagerness, the Supreme Court added a ruthless sneer to the Grievances.

About all that can be said about the Kerchner and Schulz cases is we can add “presidential eligibility” and “corporate welfare” to the dung heap of other desecrations of our sacred Charters of Freedom, including but by no means limited to violations of the war, money, taxes, privacy, property, immigration, petition and sovereignty clauses — all of which have been the subject of repeated Petitions and court challenges that have been either ignored by government officials or tersely dismissed by abuses of one judicial doctrine or another.

Unfortunately, this leaves us – the People – with but one irrefutable conclusion: the Constitution is NOT now serving any meaningful purpose. The rule of law has been replaced by the rule of man and whim. The Constitution has become a mere menu of words, phrases and ideas which the government may choose to define or ignore at its sole will and discretion.

The way the system is working is in sharp contrast to the way it was designed to work. Ignoring Article V’s prescriptions for orderly change, our elected and appointed officials are now doing whatever they think best, literally unrestrained by either the written words of the Law itself or the intent behind those words – i.e., the set of principles, prohibitions and mandates proclaimed to govern them – the Constitution for the United States, the Supreme Law of the Land.

Rather than three independent, co-equal branches of a highly-limited federal Government, each designed to be a check and balance on the other two, keeping them in their constitutional places, with the People possessing the ultimate Power, we now suffer the branches cooperating in decisions to deny the People their creator-endowed, unalienable Rights to life, Liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness.

OPTIONS, PLEASE!

The following question is for those among us who know that the Constitution is a set of principles to govern the government and is all that stands between the People and oppression, who know what the Constitution has to say about such current events as war, money, taxes, privacy, property, illegal immigration, and sovereignty.

What should a free People do when faced with the realization that their Constitution is being dishonored and disobeyed by their elected officials and judges, and that their creator-endowed Rights have been whittled away by elected servants who are taking over the house that the Founding Fathers designed “with reliance upon Divine Providence”?

We The People Foundation wants to hold a Liberty Summit in January for an open discussion with opinion leaders and others passionate about the Constitution about how to restore constitutional governance. It is hoped the Summit results in a plan of action agreeable to all.

To learn more, visit We the People Foundation webiste.

Secretary of Defense Gates and Admiral Mullen Willing to Sacrifice Military Effectiveness to Fulfill Obama Campaign Promise

One message was loud and clear from the Senate Armed Services Committee’s two-day hearing on the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) law: Secretary of Defense Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mullen care very little about what our combat troops think about the repeal of the law or its immediate harm to our national defense.

The actual survey numbers of the Pentagon study show that allowing gays to openly serve in the military would be a national security disaster. According to the survey and study, titled “Report of the Comprehensive Review of the Issues Associated with a Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (Report):

* Nearly 60% of those in the Marine and Army combat units thought repealing the DADT law would harm their unit’s ability to fight on the battlefield.

* Up to a half-million service members may not reenlist should the ban be repealed (A disaster for our all–volunteer army that would require re-institution of the Draft).

* 91% would reject homosexual leaders.

* 71% would not share showers with homosexuals.

Senator John McCain spoke out on behalf of our combat service members. He continued his strong opposition to repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, and questioned Gates and Mullen on why they were not paying more attention to the negative impact a repeal of DADT would have on our combat troops.

Three Reasons Not to Repeal DADT

1) Senior Military Leaders are Opposed to Repeal

During today’s hearing, three of the four major service chiefs — Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos, Army Chief General George W. Casey, and Air Force Chief Norton Schwartz — informed the Senate Armed Services Committee that their best military advice was to keep the ban in place. Earlier in the year, General Casey told the Senate Committee that he had serious concerns about the impact of the repeal on a force engaged in two wars.

It is important to note that Gates and Mullen have muzzled other combat commanders from publicly expressing their opinion opposing repeal of the ban. Both Gates and Mullen publicly reprimanded three-star General Benjamin Mixon, Commander of the U.S. Army Pacific, for publicly expressing his objection to repeal.

To overcome these constraints on active duty senior officers to honestly express their opinion, 1,167 retired flag and general officers, 51 of them former four stars, signed an open letter to President Obama and Congress expressing great concern about the impact that a repeal would have on morale, discipline, unit cohesion and overall military readiness.

2) Health Risks are Perilous

AIDS would increase in the military once homosexuals were openly admitted into the military and restraints on their sexual behavior are removed. Heterosexual service members would be more likely to contract AIDS through injuries and battlefield transfusions. Drug abuse and suicides would increase as well, resulting in a dramatic increase in medical care costs. Ironically, the repeal would come at a time when Secretary Gates is seeking to cut and contain health costs in military.

3) A Radical anti-Christian Policy

To go along with repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, the Department of Defense recommended elimination of longstanding military laws prohibiting consensual sodomy and adultery.

An overwhelming majority of America’s Armed Forces are Christian. Yet the Report brushed aside the religious and moral objections to homosexuality by service members. Admitting that a large number of military chaplains believe that homosexuality is a sin and an abomination, and are required by God to condemn it as such, the Report argues that their objections can be overcome by education and training (brainwashing?).

Source: Thomas More Law Center, December 3, 2010

Economic Liberty, Minimum Wage, and Socialism

Jacob Hornberger, founder of The Future of Freedom Foundation, published a series of essays by the title “Economic Liberty and the Constitution” The last essay explains how the Minimum Wage became law with the help of the Supreme Court.

Hornberger points out that the Courts consistently ruled that Minimum Wage laws were unconstitutional on the grounds that that they violated the liberty of contract as guaranteed by the Due Process clause of 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Under threat of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s of packing the Supreme Court with younger justices more sympathetic to his socialist policies, five of the four justices rule in favor of upholding Washington State’s minimum wage law in the case of West Coast Hotel v. Parrish.

The era of economic liberty in America came to end in the 1937 case of West Coast Hotel v. Parrish.

The Court’s reversal of previous constitutional precedence unleashed a torrent of socialist welfare programs and state regulatory paternalism that has yet to be stopped.

It’s safe to say that most Americans don’t even know the extent of the economic revolution that took place in their country during the 1930s. They continue to believe that the Great Depression was caused by natural forces and that FDR “saved” freedom and free enterprise with his new system of welfare and regulation, according to Hornberger.

In addition to Hornberger’s essay, economic freedom must be seen as is a moral matter that requires either self-regulation of its practitioners or societal sanctions against unjust practices.

Capitalism is the best political economy possible only when governed by moral principles. Self-interested pursuit of wealth alone cannot make it a just system, only its practitioners can. The myth of the capitalist market is that it, not government bureaucrats, biggest and most influential corporations, wealthy self-interested elites, or the lying traders of goods or services, mysteriously regulate itself to the benefit of all.

Adam Smith didn’t even believe that. He was a rotten egalitarian when it came to public policy of business. He knew big corporations were quasi-government organization with potentially dominating power requiring regulatory oversight to protect the small business concerns. After all, corporations are created and given person (citizen) status by government through incorporation law. Because the corporation was to serve the common good of its community, getting and maintaining licensing was tied to the fulfillment of stated goals of local benefit. With the rise of national corporations like the railroads, local accountability and benefit ended. Today, national monopoly laws have effectively ended for the good of international corporate competitiveness. That is why a few multi-national corporations dominate 80% of nearly all of their respective markets. It is called globalism. The mystery is how it is connected to socialism.

Jacob Hornberger’s essays on “Economic Liberty and the Constitution” are accessible at The Future of Freedom Foundation website.