Steeped in Tradition

The tea party participants have been taking it on the chin -- and worse -- for a year. The Left accuses them of bigotry, racism, and physical violence. The reprehensible, tendentious Rachel Maddow likens them to mass murderers in her recent MSNBC special on Timothy McVeigh.

Tea party critics never address the fundamental and solidly traditional view of the movement: A government that seeks to increase its power over the citizenry in the interests of ensuring their safety and security is no legitimate government at all but a tyranny. If the tea parties constantly bring up the Founding Fathers and the Constitution, it's because the philosophical principles of government and liberty are at the very heart of the tea party movement, and Washington's dangerous straying from those principles animates their anger and anxiety.

God's Gonna Get Ya

Comments are often the best part about reading a story on the net. Today, CNN featured a piece about a "massive fireball" over Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and other parts of the Midwest. It particularly interested me for two reasons: 1) I've lived in Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin. 2) I've seen a large meteorite burn itself out as it crashed in the sea near the Cliff House in San Francisco. But the best part of that story was the comment section. These are my two favorite comments from the many offered:

"I am a member of the Tea Party and I think God is using the fireball to punish the Midwest for being too liberal."

"I'm a liberal and I think god is using the tea party to punish America for being too dumb."

Rack 'em Up

Sarah Palin calls for her supporters to "reload." Rush Limbaugh tells his listeners to get rid of the "bastards" and "take out" the liberals. Fox "News" belittles liberals, comparing them to everything from Socialists to Fascists, making them targets for people who take their words literally. Tea Party groupies attend rallies armed with guns in holsters and others strapped to their backs. Yesterday, Heidi somebody, a blonde radio talk show host in Vegas, said there were 20,000 Tea Partiers in Harry Reid's Nevada hometown last weekend with "40,000 guns" among them. Yikes, 40,000 loaded guns in such a small area.

Of course, this Heidi person exaggerated the numbers because pictures of the event show far fewer than the number of people she boasted about. Still, thousands of guns being paraded about by people looking to eliminate liberals make for a rather frightening prospect for those who admit to being liberal, aka progressive. I'm not really scared. I don't do much to bring on the wrath of anyone. However, I do find it interesting that far right conservatives think they're the only ones with guns. We're armed, too. We just don't parade around with our guns, showing everything we have. And, unlike Palin, we don't put people in our crosshairs.

A friend, who's proud to say he's a bleeding-heart liberal, gave me a gun to protect myself and my loved ones. He has numerous guns and he knows how to use all of them. Almost all of my liberal friends have guns. With right-wing militias increasing in numbers throughout the country (are there left-wing militias?), it's best to be prepared, don't you think? Time to get that piece of steel out of its hiding place, polish it, oil it and get 'er loaded.