Libertarian Vegan

The Missouri Department of Public Safety issued an apology on Monday to Ron Paul, Bob Barr, and Chuck Baldwin after the backlash from a report from the Missouri Information Analysis Center that listed supporters of the three as potential domestic terrorists.

In the formal apology, Dept. of Public Safety Director John Britt said:

Portions of that report may be easily construed by readers as offensive to supporters of certain political candidates or to those candidates themselves. I regret that those comments were ultimately included in the final report issued by the MIAC.

Unfortunately, in the course of preparing this report, some regrettable information was included in the report on militia groups in Missouri.  While the intent of the report was only to identify certain traits that are sometimes shared by members of militia organizations, this report is too easily misinterpreted as suggesting that militia members may be identified by no other indicator than support for a particular candidate or political organization.

I have ordered that the offending report be edited to excise all reference to Ron Paul, Bob Barr or Chuck Baldwin.

The three former Presidential candidates had sent a joint letter to Missouri officials requesting the information be removed, and hinting at legal action if it was not.

Hooray! I’m no longer a potential domestic terrorist for supporting politicians who believe the Constitution is actually the law of the land!  Rejoice friends of freedom, rejoice.

Read the whole apology HERE .

As people watch the inauguration of Barack Obama, reports on the final cost for the spectacle hover somewhere around the $150-170 million mark.

Numerous donors gave $50,000 each for the pageantry, and as it is their money they can do whatever they want with it, but if Obama truly believed all that he preaches, why doesn’t he ask these donors to do something more productive with this cash?

Especially when the economy is in dire shape, couldn’t money be much more useful in the hands of,  for example, food pantries?

I would love to see Obama throw a news conference where he says something on the order of, “Thank you for your generous donations to throw me a big party.  But as much as I appreciate it, I would rather see you use the money to help your friends and neighbors who are in trouble. They need this money much more than I do.”

Somehow I don’t see that happening.

On top of it, Bush declared a state of “emergency” in D.C. because of the number of people expected to show up for the inauguration.  Why do such a thing?  With such a state declared, it opens up the possibility of more federal funding for the event - which means more taxpayer dollars for a silly spectacle.   Last year $15 million was allocated to D.C. and so Bush’s declaration could bring additional cash from FEMA.

Perhaps we should look to an example set by Thomas Jefferson on his inauguration of March 4, 1801.  By all accounts it was a relatively simple “little parade” intended to make a political statement.

Washington and Adams before him rode to their inaugurations in elaborate coaches with a good deal of pomp and pageantry.   Biographer Joseph J. Ellis summed up the impact, “Simplicity and austerity…were the messages of his inaugural march.  It was a minimalist statement about a purging of excess and a recovery of essence.”

Some highlights from his address -

“though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression”

“I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government can not be strong, that this Government is not strong enough; but would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the world’s best hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve itself? I trust not.”

“Still one thing more, fellow-citizens—a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.”

Amen.

Sources: Joseph J. Ellis. American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson. Vintage Books, 1998.

Associated Content - Obama Inauguration to Cost $170 Million January 19, 2009

CBS News - Bush Declares “Emergency” For Inauguration January 13, 2009

No matter your religious stripe, history, biblical evidence, and science shows us that no part of the Jesus story adheres to him actually being born on December 25.

Recently, Austrailian astronomer Dave Reneke, editor of Sky and Space magazine  used complex computer software to chart the precise positions of all celestial bodies as they would have appeared over the Holy Land some 2,000 years ago.

He did actually find a very bright star appeared over Bethlehem, but he pinpointed it to June 17, not December 25.  Scientists generally believe this “Christmas star” was most likely a fantastic conjunction of Venus and Jupiter.  As they were so close together, the result was an unusually bright “beacon of light.”

Reneke stated, “We have software that can recreate the night sky exactly as it was at any point in the last several thousand years.  Venus and Jupiter became very close in the the year 2BC and they would have appeared to be one bright beacon of light.

We are not saying this was definitely the Christmas star - but it is the strongest explanation for it of any I have seen so far. Astronomy is such a precise science, we can plot exactly where the planets were, and it certainly seems this is the fabled Christmas star. There’s no other explanation that so closely matches the facts we have from the time.”

 Source - Daily Mail - Cancel Christmas - Jesus was born June 17, says scientists December 8, 2008

So why celebrate his birthday December 25?  It’s those damn pagans again! Yes, pagans celebrated the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, on December 21.  Following that, December 25 is the first day when it was clear that days were getting longer and the sun returned for more of the day.  Thus, if the Christians could install a new holiday it would be easier for them to convert the heathens.

While I’m all for any season that focuses on peace, love and kindness to others, if you are going to call someone your savior, shouldn’t you be want to be as accurate as possible?  Then again, somehow Christians who proclaim to be followers of Jesus’ message of peace and love often then to be the ones leading the calls for war and destruction.  Funny that.

This author was raised Catholic, and while is no longer a “believer,” does believe and practice the message of love and kindness to all beings.  All he wants is people to back up their words with actions, and their theories with facts.

Merry Christmas.

that being established -

I am a twenty-six year old libertarian atheist vegan with a degree in political science.  The aim the future writings of this blog shall examine issues and current events from what I feel is the unique viewpoint I have of the world.

The majority will most likely disagree with a great deal of what I have to say, but it will always be honest, rational, and logical (which will also most likely be in contention).  All critical viewpoints are welcome, as long as they are also honest, rational, and logical.  Debate is a healthy and wonderful thing.  There is no idea so powerful that it has to be hidden away.  If it is given proper dissection and has enough merit it will rise to the top.  However, if it is shunned simply for being a possibility (such as the idea that man is NOT causing global warming) then everyone loses.

Thank you for your time.  Let this begin.