Tianamen Mountains ...the China you don't see on the evening news

Go here for the Power Point Slide Show presentation (be sure to click on the Full Screen icon for best results...and as it is in the case of slide shows you'll have to click on each picture frame...in this case it will allow you more time to view each picture.)

Just as spectacular is the airplanes flying through the opening in the mountain...↓↓↓

All Gave Some and Some Gave All ~ Medal of Honor recipient, SSgt Robert J. Miller

 

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Origins of the quote for Some Gave Their Lives... Although it is not clear who first made the statement it is thought to have originated from the last line of the following:

Massachusetts House of Representatives, May 10, 1776.

Resolved, as the opinion of this House, That the inhabitants of each town in this Colony ought, in full meeting warned for that purpose, to advise the person or persons who shall be chosen to represent them in the next General Court whether that, if the honourable Congress should, for the safety of said Colonies, declare them independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain, they, the said inhabitants, will solemnly engage, with their lives and fortunes, to support them in the measure.

Samuel Freeman, Speaker

The lives and fortunes verbiage shows up again in the last line of the final paragraph of the Declaration of Independence

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

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See also... Memorial Day... What does it mean to you? 

North is south and due west is, is...awe forget it!

Another amusing musing...

First Hand Look...TSA Now At Bus Stations

TSA now setting up Nazi-style “VIPER” security checkpoints at bus terminals
Ethan A. Huff Natural News December 2, 2010 

Terrorizing innocent travelers at airports is simply not enough for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The agency recently tested a new program known as VIPER (Visual Intermodal Protection and Response) which involved placing Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials at Greyhound bus stations in Tampa to pat down and grope ground travelers. The agency even brought in local police with sniff dogs to allegedly help improve overall security.

Gary Milano, the federal security director for TSA at Tampa International Airport and several surrounding airports, told reporters at a press conference that the purpose of the new measure is “to sort of invent the wheel in advance, in case … there ever is specific intelligence requiring us to be here. This way, us and our partners are ready to move in at a moment’s notice.”

In other words, there really is no legitimate — or legal — reason for TSA agents be frisking passengers at bus stops, but as long as the cited reasons include “security”, the public is simply supposed to accept the unwarranted checkpoints as a necessary evil for the sake of improved safety.efforts to the public.

“What we’re looking for are threats to national security as well as immigration law violators,” explained Steve McDonald from the U.S. Border Patrol, also trying to legitimize the

What's The Difference Between D and R

Related story here

We have no money but we can bail out foreigners. What's that you say? Ben Bernanke lie? ...no he wouldn't do that, would he

Foreign banks were among the biggest beneficiaries of the $3,300bn in emergency credit provided by the Federal Reserve during the crisis, according to new data on the extraordinary efforts of the US authorities to save the global financial system.

Under the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, the Fed on Wednesday detailed more than 21,000 transactions with banks carried out through half a dozen special financing programmes starting in 2007. They include the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF) for overnight funding of investment banks and the Term Auction Facility (TAF) for one- to three-month loans

Full story here http://video.ft.com/v/694692710001/Fed-loan-details-show-aid-to-European-banks

And remember this headline from last February 2010 (link)

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Warns Congress That The Federal Reserve Will Not “Print Money” To Pay For The Exploding U.S. National Debt

Does Ben Bernanke lie? ...fast forward to October 2010 (link)

Rampant Inflation In 2011?  The Monetary Base Is Exploding, Commodity Prices Are Skyrocketing And The Fed Wants To Print Lots More Money

December...If We Make It Through ~ (This month's featured song)

Hillary Clinton...up to her old tricks...the same old tricks!

How embarrassing are the WikiLeaks leaks? A secret cable from April 2009 that went out under Clinton's name instructed State Department officials to collect the "biometric data," including "fingerprints, facial images, DNA, and iris scans," of African leaders. Another secret cable directed American diplomats posted around the world, including the United Nations, to obtain passwords, personal encryption keys, credit card numbers, frequent flyer account numbers, and other data connected to diplomats. As the Guardian puts it, the cables "reveal how the US uses its embassies as part of a global espionage network."   ...Full Story here

Partial text of cablegram:

Information on political stability, sources of instability, and nature of challenges to effective governance. -- Government plans and efforts to respond to threats to political stability; strategies for addressing underlying discontent. -- Changes inside key ministries and security forces, including personal dynamics, tribal politics and factions. -- Details on identities, motives, influence, and relations among principal advisors. -- Biographic and biometric data, including health, opinions toward the US, training history, ethnicity (tribal and/or clan), and language skills of key and emerging political, military, intelligence, opposition, ethnic, religious, and business leaders. Data should include email addresses, telephone and fax numbers, fingerprints, facial images, DNA, and iris scans.~ Full text of cablegram here

Al Qaeda Actively Looking Out For You ...two suicide bombers on the loose

America "...destined for complete destruction."

Not too long ago I was severely chastised by someone who will remain unknown for not offering any solutions to today's problems.  The problem with solutions is the same as opinions; everybody has one!  Surely I must have a solution or two but by the same token I'm not suicidal enough to carry them out on my own.  Give me one million able bodies with like-minded minds and I could solve the problem almost overnight...me thinks!  But what about you?  Do you have a solution*?  If not, do you know where we are headed?  I've been identifying these problems since the mid 1970's  and I continue to do so with the hope that I will eventually find enough like minded souls willing to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor...many may feel the call, but few have the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing.  The following editorial clearly tells it like it is but for the ignorant fools who fail to see beyond their own selfish interests this is just one more notification that will go unheeded. ~ Norman E. Hooben

*Some solutions are suggested in the commentary "Major Economic Problems Facing the United States"
  See also Heritage Foundation summary at bottom of this page.

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1. (first of two parts)

FROM RAGS TO RICHES AND BACK TO RAGS

By J.R. Schwiesow, Ret. NewsWithViews.com

Since its inception this nation has survived a calamitous civil war, two ominous world wars, the dust bowl, the grinding poverty of a fateful depression, and a series of grievous recessions. The truth is that this Commonwealth survived these events only by the moral fiber of its people, by an unyielding belief in free enterprise, by the individual selflessness that prevailed through perversity, by the industriousness of the people, and - most importantly - by a sustaining and unshakeable belief in the Supreme Being of the Universe in whom the people placed their faith and their earthly and eternal destinies.

Over the course of time the vagaries of successive generations has undergone a metamorphic transition, the previously described sterling character of the people has been replaced with a new morality, ethical codes have changed, and the bounds of propriety have disappeared. Old generations have been replaced with a new generation of doped up, immersed in dumbness, indolent creatures of little initiative, malformed character, and no faith. A generation acclimated to lives of luxury and decadence, indoctrinated in Godless socialism, nurtured in greed and avarice, and grounded in selfishness. All of this is not happenstance, but was rather engineered by the conscienceless elite, illuminati if you will, in an incremental and cunningly patient quest for a one-world arrangement of demonic design.

So skilled in deception were these agents of the dark domain that even the elect were deceived into believing that such changes were normal and acceptable, that they were cyclical events that always presage a return to normalcy, integrity, and resurgent moral soundness. This was, they said, inevitable. The cold, hard, dank truth is that there will be no return to wholeness or wholesomeness. This nation is treading a treacherous seamless linear plain that will inevitably lead to its total destruction.

THE LAW AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE LAW

“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.” -Isaiah 10:1-2

Much has been made recently of the venality and corruptness of government on all levels. One has to wonder what the catalyst was for such seemingly sudden introspection given the fact that government corruption in these United States has been prevalent and systemic for half a century and longer. I note that just lately the sheep are becoming increasingly restive about the tyrannical machinations of the Transportation Safety Administration and that agency’s intrusion upon the intimate privacy of those who avail themselves of air travel. There seems to be in addition to a prevailing governmental tyranny an increasing voyeuristic predisposition among the personnel of that agency that manifests itself in the fondling of the person, the groping of the genitals, and the glimpsing of the nakedness of hapless passengers. When queried about these aberrational excesses Home Land Security Director, Janet Napolitano said if the public does not like it too bad, they should not fly. I think that she is right; if the flying public would absolutely quit this mode of transportation you can bet that there would be a swift solution to the incursions upon the privacy of those who fly.

Such intrusions and invasions upon intimate and supposedly inviolate privacies are predicated upon - as they always are when the government perpetrates dictatorial excesses - an entirely subjective government position on what is necessary to ensure the public safety. It is in fact about power over individual prerogatives and a mechanism that the various levels of government in this nation have used to effectively subvert and avert the Constitutional guarantees of protection against the nullification of individual rights.

How is it when governments entrap the public with a virtual minefield of traffic light cameras, altered signal light timings, embedded speed strips, mandatory seat belt use and the host of other cute gimmicks that are used to empty the pockets of hapless victims to the tune of millions of dollars that it always about safety?

If such inventiveness in regard to justification fails there is always the law, have you noticed dear reader that whenever government officials are queried in regard to these tyrannical encroachments they will respond with, “It’s the law?” How providential for these that such incursion upon Constitutional rights can be written into the law. The people in this nation have had this corrupted rule of law theme pounded into them ad nauseam. 

The rule of law , which was intended by the founders to be connoted upon the Constitution, is now what some activist judge says it is, what some legislative body decrees it to be, and what thousands of unelected unrighteous bureaucrats set out in administrative rulings. The law has, in this nation, has become a tool to enhance unfettered totalitarian rule over the people and as an instrument to enable the curtailment of individual rights.

THE REPUBLICANS WILL SAVE US

Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. -Psalms 146:3-5

In a previous piece I wrote that this nation is soon to go to its grave in the most ignoble collapse since the Roman Empire breathed its last, and that the unwitting instrument of its now inevitable death is the Republican Party. As the nation treads a tortuous path to the end the people cast about wildly for a savior among men. They switch their allegiance from one party to another in desperate hope for deliverance from what they now perceive as an inevitable crash and burn scenario.

During the last few decades the Democrat Party has demonstrated that it is a party of moral weakness, corruption, and social perversion. It is the Democrats who celebrate and endorse communist ideology, and it was the Democrats that initiated the now prevalent internal loathing of the foundations and wonderments of the Republic. This would, on the surface, seem to be a logical argument in favor of the opposition Republican Party, but for the Democrats to have achieved such monumental success in bastardizing and corrupting this nation it was necessary that they have the aid and support of an enabler, and that enabler was the Republican Party.

The Democrats have achieved nearly every inimical social perversion that they have pursued, and they achieved the same by the acquiescence of Republicans who kissed the behinds of their political enemies of the Democrat Party and fawned all over them to the point of embarrassment.

Under that rogue George W. Bush the Republican Party handed the Democrats the biggest political endowment in history, thirty million illiterate aliens who were trained like chimpanzees to pull the lever for Democrats. They may be illiterate but they understood quite clearly that it was Democrats who were willing to bankrupt the nation to provide them with the necessities of life, such as food, schooling, lodging and medical care. The complaisance of the Republican Party in this loose border chicanery and the illegal immigration fiasco was shameful, and remains shameful to this day.

There will be those who write to complain that I have laid the putrid state of the nation solely at the feet of the Republicans, and that by doing so I have been too hard on the darlings. Someone should be hard on them they have frittered away every opportunity to coral the unconstitutional excesses of the Democrats and move this country back to constitutional governance. They have completely alienated the conservative base of their party and taken to their bosom socialistic causes once thought to be the sole province of liberal Democrats. 

If the people are waiting for the Republicans to pull them out of the current slide into oblivion they are going to have a long wait, it isn’t going to happen.

A SHAPING OF THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE

Recently a local jeweler, whom I respect, lamented that the spectacular rise in the price of gold was ruinous to his business and seriously jeopardizing his livelihood. He stated that the price of a modest gold ring had appreciated nearly two hundred percent in a relatively short time, thus placing it out of the reach of the middle-income earners of modest means who comprise the majority of his customers. This precipitous rise in the price of precious metals portends financial ruin for him and those like him.

Not concerned about jewelers and the sellers of luxury items, you say. How about your local bakers, butchers, food merchants, hardware merchants, dry goods sellers, and appliance and automobile dealers? Thanks to the Federal Reserve and its weak-minded chairman, Ben Bernanke, along with the Obama Administration’s dim-witted treasury secretary Timothy Geithner, and the fat-cat speculators in commodities and durable goods all of the aforementioned main street dealers in goods and services are in serious jeopardy. The price of gold is simply a leading indicator of a precipitous decline of the dollar in value and purchasing power. Who wants to invest in the future by hoarding bank notes or dollar-bound equivalents of no intrinsic value? Gold they believe is the way to go.

If you have visited the local food merchants lately you will have picked up on the subtle indicators which signal that we are headed for an economic crisis. Even huge chains such as Wal-Mart are having trouble maintaining a perpetual inventory. This can only mean that such interruptions in the flow of commodities and goods are the result of shortages of supply and a vicious international competition for supplies on hands.

In order to cope with the rising costs of materials and the declining value of the dollar the manufacturers of processed foods and periphery grocery items are resorting to chicanery and deceitful pricing practices in regard to their products. Toilet paper and other paper items are shrinking in width, length, and thickness in an attempt to obfuscate price increases. Deceptive innovative packaging that contains smaller quantities at the same price, and inventive pricing gimmicks do not fool discerning customers. The handwriting is on the wall, the dollar is crashing and inflation is on the march.

All of this means that you dear reader may all too soon find yourself in circumstances similar to the Biblical Lazarus and Rich man didacticism delivered by Jesus. If, or when, the complete economic collapse comes you may find yourselves under rich men’s tables begging for scraps. Whether or not they favor you with a tidbit from their ill-gotten largesse will depend entirely upon your slavering acquiescence to their control over your lives and circumstances.

One final thought here before I move on. For those who are hoarding gold and laughing up their sleeves, I hearken them back to the days of the great depression when that old socialist despot Franklin Delano Roosevelt reorganized the banks, confiscated the gold in the hands of the citizens, and devalued the dollar. This was government theft of a monumental dimension and would most certainly be repeated by the despots who rule over us these days.

They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity. -Ezekiel 7:19

THE END, THE INEVITABLE END

Biblical prophecy warns that in the last days - these times – there will be a turn to preponderant immorality of a bestial nature, and that the people will give themselves up to perversions precisely such as those that were pursued and acted on in Sodom and Gomorrah and their surrounding environs. Scripture makes clear that these perversions were taught by demons and that these very despicable and filthy practices will be institutionalized by governing authority and endorsed and sanctified by an apostate church in the latter days.

No one can deny that in this nation and in these days that these predictions have come to pass. Sodomy is pursued with militant aggressiveness. Activist judges - many of them sodomites - unfettered by ethics, scruples, morality or the Constitution are by-passing the people and legislative prerogatives with judicial decrees that are rapidly institutionalizing sodomy.

A majority of the denominational churches now condone, support, and encourage sodomy and the co-occurring spin off of same sex marriage, this even to the point of ordaining sodomite pastors and uniting same sex couples in marriage. That they would pervert the sacrament of marriage and deny the authority of God’s word thusly speaks to the depth of apostasy to which they have descended. Those that use Jesus, the very author of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, as justification for their despicable and impious religious dictums in regard to sodomy have reserved unto themselves the punishment of eternal fire.

”Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.” -Jude 1:11

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2. (part two)

"This country is well beyond being salvageable.  It is in fact destined for complete destruction."

FROM THIS TIME FORWARD

"Despite the seamless calamities that descend steadily upon this nation there has been not the slightest discernable lessening or reversal of the deformed moral character of the people. It is popular to blame the putrid immorality of our society upon the courts and the politicians, but the truth is that no inimical legislation is passed, no immoral law is upheld, and no vice is encouraged or protected without the collective approval and commendation of the people."  

By J. R. Schwiesow NewsWithViews.com

“I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there were none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.” -Isaiah 63:3

From this time forward the people of this nation will not know a day of peace, there will be no good news, each bad day will fade into another equally bad day, and the black and ghostly apparitions of the former will blend with the grim and ghastly tidings of the new. The Lord has departed from a people that have departed from Him and prostituted themselves before heathen gods, a people who will in the coming days loathe themselves for the evils that they have committed in all of their abominations. They will surely know that He is the Sovereign God who will carry out His word to do evil unto them that defy His word and deny His Lordship over all of creation.

The great spiritual sickness that has settled across this land has progressed beyond the limits of a cure; a pagan people have spurned the divine corrective persuasions visited upon a sinful nation, and the loving God who sent them has been disdained and blasphemed. The day of reckoning is at hand.

GOD VERSUS MAN -

Thinking themselves to be gods men have, they believe, gathered to themselves the wisdom to control their own destiny. They profess to have discerned the knowledge to control their environment, yet floods continue, hurricanes persist, tornadoes demolish, tidal waves devastate, volcanoes seethe, fires rage, hail destroys, drought endures, and earthquakes rend the earth and swallow cities.

Medical scientists claim to have the key to the mysteries of the human body and the ability to heal. Yet disease-causing bacterium thrive, cancers kill, MS cripples, ALS paralyses, kidneys fail, brains atrophy, limbs whither, and hearts falter and stop. If the victims of such afflictions do not perish from the maladies upon them they succumb from the treatments rendered. This despite the billions of dollars bilked from people through the years by various organizations to fund the research to conquer all of the aforementioned killers of men, women, and children, all to no avail. Is it money misspent or is it, in fact, that healing comes only from God and men have not the power of healing within them.

For men to think that their teensy little brains are on a level with the mind of the Lord God of all creation is in itself a profanation.

Unless the defending hand of God abides with men and provides security from the adversity of the elements, delivers upon them the life-sustaining constituents, and guides them in their endeavors they will perish. Men cannot exist apart from the God who created them. Without the maintaining presence of God all endeavors of men will fail. They are as helpless as a newborn baby without the nurturing hand of a parent. It is a foolish man indeed that despises the power that gives him breath and scorns a presence with absolute ascendancy over the universe of which man is an exceedingly infinitesimal part.

“WE HAVE HAD OUR LAST CHANCE”

“If we will not devise some greater and equitable system, our Armageddon will be at the door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence, an improvement in human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, and literature, and all material and cultural developments of the past 2,000 years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.” -Gen Douglas MacArthur

Our last chance is now encapsulated within the past; this nation has progressed from bad to intensely filthy to demoniacally evil. The Lord has given us up to our own devices and our powers are woefully inadequate to solve the problems that confront us. 

Dear reader if one is startled or surprised at the alarmingly portentous trend of the events upon this nation it would have to be that this person is not truly committed to, or a believer in, the Lord Jesus Christ. The occurrences that we are witnessing are in fact the birth pangs associated with the Day of the Lord. Those who are conversant with His word and believe in its inerrancy are not in the dark. They recognize that the world and this nation are traversing the final leg of the road to perdition.

HEADLINES: GOVERNMENT REGULATORS DOWNPLAY ENVIRONMENTSL IMPACT OF OIL SPILL – OBAMA ORDERS BP TO STOP SPILL

Just when I think that I have plumbed the depth of the foolishness that is abroad in this country something, such as these headlines, comes along to disabuse me of that thought. Certainly such silliness as this puts to rest Darwin’s theory that an intelligent species morphed from that lovesick amoeba that supposedly oozed from a primordial soup and ultimately became man.

Why, I ask do these cretins continually refer to this disaster as a spill? What we have is a gusher of crude oil emanating at high pressure through a hole in the earth’s crust from a huge reservoir of crude in the bowels of the earth, and this a mile down on the floor of the Gulf waters. This is no less than a manmade catastrophe, but to hear Mr. Obama and his government regulators tell it one might think that Paul Bunyon kicked over bucket of crude and that we will wipe it up with a rag.

BPAnd if it were not for some truthful caring and sharing independent engineers the entire population would still be in the dark as to the dire magnitude of this man caused eruption that has the potential to turn into a worldwide cataclysm, and most likely will.

Of course we need not be apprehensive any more now that President Obama has ordered that the “spill” be stopped. Since “We will change the world” Obama deems himself to be our savior one wonders why he hasn’t just gone to the gulf, parted the waters, and plugged the leak. I am sure that all those who have put their faith in this novitiate’s campaign messiah rhetoric will certainly rest easy knowing that the people’s savior has now ordered that the “spill” be stopped.

PRIDE GOES BEFORE A FALL

For well over a decade this nation has been continually assailed by cataclysmic events, the circumstances of which have cost billions and destroyed lives, property, and peace of mind. At no time through this series of catastrophes have I observed a stiff-necked people turn to Almighty God in repentance and ask his forgiveness of our national sin. I have witnessed a remorseful response to the losses that were incurred, but remorse for the sins of the nation is conspicuously absent. Not a single politician has kneeled in the presence of God in humble subjection and appealed, in the name of Jesus, for mercy and forgiveness. To do so in these times would ensure the defeat of that politician by his, or her, constituency. In this nation and in this time the false gods of heathen religions are accepted and protected by the people, the courts, and the political system, but the one true God is rejected and despised.

THE CONTINUING LAWLESSNESS OF A SINFUL NATION

Despite the seamless calamities that descend steadily upon this nation there has been not the slightest discernable lessening or reversal of the deformed moral character of the people. It is popular to blame the putrid immorality of our society upon the courts and the politicians, but the truth is that no inimical legislation is passed, no immoral law is upheld, and no vice is encouraged or protected without the collective approval and commendation of the people.

Infanticide continues at a steady pace in this nation, murdering medical practitioners have exterminated some sixty-one million babies. It is an abhorrence of monumental and cold-blooded savagery. If sixty-one million puppies were similarly systematically annihilated the population would be howling for the heads of those doing the killings. Such is our twisted sense of morality and justness. This nation is stained with the blood of these infants, and their blood cries out for justice, and justice for these little creatures of God will not be denied. 

The minds and bodies of our youth continue to be corrupted and defiled by indoctrination by the schools, the government, and the social institutions of this nation in the filthy practice of sodomy and the encouragement of same sex marriages. These perverse practices are promoted and accepted by the media, the legislative bodies, the courts, and the majority of the denominational churches. A solid majority of the people deems them normal and acceptable even though the Bible condemns such as abominations.

Surely repentance is not going to emanate from the bulk of the church pulpits in this society. Too many preachers have not the faith of a gnat or the integrity of an ant when it comes to upholding scriptural instruction. They ignore the Gospel and evade the teachings of Christ and His disciples in order to preach social justice and universal salvation. Many embrace the false doctrine of universalism as an alternate to Christ’s teaching that no one comes to the Father except by Him. By their evasion of scriptural admonitions against destructive behavior they encourage degenerate and unbiblical practices. And then they have the temerity to call themselves ministers of God.

In spite all of the foregoing we have the audacity to ask God to bless this country. Every time I hear a politician close a speech or an address with God Bless America I cringe for that person in abject shame before the sovereign God.

AND THE END OF THE STORY

There are some hard learners who think yet that the nation can be rescued by correct political leaders and a return to constitutional principles. They still seek a restoration by and of men. They fail to take into account that the perverse in this nation far outnumber the honest and honorable. But, more importantly they fail to recognize that it is a spiritual disease that afflicts our society and saps the life’s blood from a once blessed republic. We are under condemnation by the Lord God for our national sins.

There are no saviors among men; one would think that after one year of Obama that lesson would have been brought home. Still we know that men rely upon men, and we also know that this will continue until the people of the entire world turn their lives over to the antichrist and slip completely into the evil grasp of Satan, the enemy of God and man.

This country is well beyond being salvageable. It is in fact destined for complete destruction. This is what happens when one shuns his creator and rests his faith in corruptible men. We are staring disaster in the face. Our national debt now exceeds thirteen trillion dollars, and will soon be greater that the entire national economy. Nothing is going to stave off an economic collapse. Continuing disasters of one kind or another coupled with the desperate and dumb endeavors of the government and the Federal Reserve serve to deepen the crisis and hasten the coming breakup of the economy. When that collapse comes it will be a catalyst that sets into motion a rolling series of events that will bring this nation rapidly to its knees.

The mestizo hoards that the political dimwits and social liberals have encouraged to pour across our borders have seriously disrupted social order and social cohesion, they have dissipated local economies and siphoned off monies earmarked for the native indigent and elderly, they have escalated crime and threatened the personal safety of individual American citizens, and they have resurrected and spread diseases had been nearly eliminated in the United States. They have inflicted no less injury to the nation than the barbarian Huns, Goths and Visigoths visited upon an equally stupid Roman Empire.

When social unrest reaches a volatile point and social wars are ignited these will join with the subversive Muslim elements that we have, in our limited wisdom, allowed to infiltrate the society to propagate their kill the infidel agenda. This country is destined to experience an internal turmoil that will so weaken our ability to fend off foreign belligerents that we will be attacked and destroyed. In plain blunt language this nation is toast.

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” -Matthew 7:13-14

Dear readers you can escape destruction: “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Seek the narrow gate.

Jim Schwiesow is a retired sheriff with 46 years of law enforcement service. He served with the Unites States Army with the occupation forces in post war Berlin, Germany, and has a total of nine years of military service, which includes six years in the U.S. Army Reserve.

His law enforcement service includes: three years in the military police, fifteen years as an Iowa municipal police officer, and twenty-eight years as the duly elected sheriff of Sioux County, Iowa.

Jim has written a number of articles, which have been published in various professional law enforcement journals.

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The following from: The Heritage Foundation

Majorities of Americans believe that:

• America is an exceptional nation worth preserving and defending, and the best way to do so is through military strength;
• America’s virtues are such that, when an immigrant settles here, he should embrace our culture, values, and heritage rather than become isolated in the culture, heritage, and language of his country of origin;
• The government has too much power, wastes too much money, and cannot be trusted to pursue the right priorities; therefore it should be smaller in size and more limited in scope;
• The closer a government is to the citizen, the more effectively it will spend the citizen’s tax dollars; i.e., the federal government wastes the most, state governments somewhat less, and local governments waste the smallest portion of each tax dollar;
• Government regulations usually backfire and generate unintended consequences, whether it be in lowering the quality and increasing the cost of our health care or negatively affecting businesses in other policy areas;
• The best way to promote job creation and economic growth is by exerting a lighter regulatory touch, which includes lightening the burden of environmental regulations;
• Government should not use its power to pick winners and losers, whether it be policies that grant preferences to unions, certain racial groups, trial lawyers, corporate subsidy-seekers, or other politically connected entities;
• Welfare recipients should be required to work in exchange for their benefits; and
• Judges should make decisions based on what is written in the Constitution or clearly delineated in the law, and not on the basis of their own viewpoints and feelings.

A policy agenda faithful to these sentiments will both win the support of the American people and restore American greatness in a manner consistent with our nation’s founding principles.
What follows in these pages is a comprehensive policy agenda compiled by a team of Heritage experts. They identify the nature and scope of our most pressing problems in 23 discrete policy areas, and recommend 128 specific policy prescriptions for Congress to consider.
These recommendations may strike some as being too ambitious or unrealistic. But bear in mind that seldom, if ever, has our nation faced challenges as profound as those described above. Now is not the time for tepid proposals or “small think.” Our nation is on an unsustainable trajectory.
Robust and ambitious policies are required to revive America.
Highlights:

• Place a firm cap on overall federal spending, and limit future year-to-year growth to inflation plus population growth. Federal spending is on an unsustainable trajectory because we lack a mechanism that forces Congress to live within agreed upon spending limits. A binding cap will force lawmakers to make the tough decisions required to get us back to fiscal sanity.
• Require the Big Three entitlement programs—Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—to live within firm, congressionally approved budgets. If Congress is ever to control spending, it must end the era of open-ended entitlements. Currently, Big Three spending is on autopilot—increasing automatically year after year. Entitlement spending must be brought into the congressional budgetary process. Lawmakers should establish a five-year budget for these programs and include protective mechanisms, such as triggers, that will automatically keep spending within the congressionally approved limits.
• Revive federalism. The federal government has usurped the states’ traditional role in areas such as transportation, education, health (especially Medicaid), homeland security, and law enforcement. Washington must cede vast swatches of its policymaking authority—and the funding that goes with it—to states willing to reassume leadership in these areas.
• Limit the unsustainable growth of welfare spending, and require recipients to give something back. Aggregate welfare spending now approaches $1 trillion annually and does more harm than good. Congress must treat all 71 means-tested welfare programs holistically, as a discrete category of federal spending, and cap annual year-to-year welfare spending growth at inflation. This will force Congress to consider new approaches that could actually help the poor surmount poverty. To this end, Congress should require able-bodied adults to treat a portion of certain welfare benefits as loans to be repaid rather than as an open-ended grant from taxpayers.
• Pay federal workers wages and benefits comparable to what their counterparts earn in the private sector. Federal employee compensation is far too generous. Total compensation—hourly wages plus benefits—is 30–40% above that of comparable private sector workers. By bringing federal compensation in line with market rates, Congress would save taxpayers approximately $47 billion a year.
• Do no harm. Tax increases, especially those loaded on small-business owners (our most productive and entrepreneurial individuals), are counterproductive at any time. To raise taxes during a recession is a recipe for crippling economic growth and job creation. Maintaining the tax burden at its current level is the least Congress should do.
• Encourage investment and job creation. Reduce the top tax rate on corporate earnings—currently the second highest among all industrial nations—and let businesses immediately deduct investments in new plant and equipment. These two changes to the tax code will unleash the most productive investment and create the most private sector jobs. Specifically, lawmakers should align the top rate on corporate earnings to those that prevail in our 30 largest trading partners—approximately 25%.
• Liberate employed seniors from payroll taxes. As part of the broader effort to reform entitlement programs, seniors who wish to work beyond retirement age should be freed from the burden of paying Social Security payroll taxes. Employers willing to retain or hire these older workers also should be exempt from paying the employer share of the FICA tax.
• Invest in peace through strength. A robust military is the surest way to deter aggression and reinforce U.S. diplomacy. To accomplish this, the Pentagon procurement holiday must end. Congress must refurbish our armed forces, especially our depleted Navy fleet and vital missile defenses.

Perilous times necessitate bold action. America is at a tipping point. To continue on the current path of ever-expanding central government will plunge us into a statist abyss of lost liberties, vanishing opportunity, and dying prospects of a better tomorrow. But our nation can just as well correct course, as she has so often in the past.

Who the hell do you think you are? ... Shouldn't this be directed at Obama and company?

For Prime Minister inject "President" For England inject "America" ...sound familar?

Exactly what is going on in America...only this is Gordon Brown getting it rammed back up his New World Order arse...

The Police State Cometh...and Willie Nelson goeth...to jail

Rawesome Foods raw milk co-op raid conducted by criminal elements of local, state and federal law enforcement

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
(NaturalNews) On June 30, 2010, a group of armed government agents from local, state, federal and even the Canadian government illegally trespassed on private property and raided Rawesome Foods, a private food buying club in Venice, California. With guns drawn, these agents tore through the property stealing computers, raw dairy products and honey, all while holding some of the volunteer workers hostage for several hours. When the agents finally left, they took with them thousands of dollars in private property as well as the surveillance footage of their armed rampage.

Sounds like a scene out of a horror movie, right? Except this actually happened, though unless you're tuned in to the health freedom movement, you've probably heard nothing about it. Most of the mainstream media outlets would never touch a story like this because it exposes just how tyrannical and out of control our government has become on issues like raw milk and food freedom.

[Editor's note: The reason we took so long to publish this story is because we were waiting on some promised video footage of the raid -- footage that never materialized. It is not yet clear whether this footage was confiscated by police or simply lost, but there is reportedly additional footage of this raid that nobody has seen yet. I regret that we have so far been unable to obtain it for you.]

It all started back in 2005 when, according to a Rawesome member, an under-cover agent was able to trick workers and get into the club without a proper membership. The agent allegedly purchased some items there, and authorities used this as an excuse to come back and raid the club. They claimed that the club was engaging in commerce without a proper permit.

But Rawesome immediately notified the agents that the cooperative is a private buying club that doesn't sell to the public. Therefore, it's completely outside the scope of government jurisdiction. In other words, government agents have no right to come on Rawesome's property uninvited, unless they have a valid search warrant and a lawful reason to show up.

Rawesome submitted all the necessary legal documents to authorities after the first raid, showing that the club is a legitimate, private membership co-op, but that didn't stop the same agents from performing another illegal raid five years later. Except this time, the agents had already been warned that such harassment is illegal and unwarranted, so they knowingly trespassed on private property without a legitimate reason.

The idea behind private buying clubs

Before going any further, let me explain why private buying clubs exist. In order for most Americans to get food that's untainted, unprocessed and unpasteurized, they have to form legal buying clubs that operate outside the mandates of local health departments and departments of agriculture.

These mandates include things like requiring all dairy products to be pasteurized, requiring that certain toxic chemicals be used to clean processing equipment, and so on. So people that want clean, unadulterated food either have to grow it themselves or buy it directly from farmers that hold their same philosophies about growing and raising food.

But to purchase things like raw milk, for example, members have to sign agreements with farmers in which they literally purchase a portion of a cow or goat in order to legally gain access to the raw product from the animal. So members basically own a portion of an animal and go to Rawesome to pick up the milk from their own animal. This arrangement is often called "cow sharing" or "goat sharing."

In California, clubs like Rawesome are perfectly legal -- they're basically nothing more than a group of private individuals who collectively share products from the animals and farms in which they own shares. There's nothing criminal or illegal about it; it's what individuals are free to do in the United States of America (although in some other states, cow and goat sharing has been outlawed, if you can believe that).

But in Rawesome's case, the Feds ignored the fact that the club was operating legally and lawfully, and decided to raid the club on false grounds, apparently for intimidation purposes. The whole idea appears to be to send a message to other raw food operations that if they try to sell raw milk, they will be raided at gunpoint too!

False felony charges and missing warrant pages

Following a NaturalNews investigation into this case, there are several things I want to point out that deserve critical attention. First, agents conducted this raid on Rawesome under the false pretense that they were addressing felony crime charges.

But Matthew, a member of Rawesome, explained during an interview with NaturalNews reporter Ethan Huff that many of the agents who were there during the raid had no idea what they were even raiding, or why they were raiding it. (The following quotes are from Ethan Huff's conversations with Rawesome members.)

"Most of the local policemen who were there, they thought they were there serving felony warrants. And they weren't really told what they were serving them for," he explained. "One of the cop's mother shopped at Rawesome, so he was pretty upset when he found out that that's where they were raiding."

The agents were simply following the orders that had been passed down to them from higher-ups, even though these agents didn't really understand what they were being ordered to do, or the fact that their raid was technically illegal.

So what happened after they arrived?

"A SWAT team came initially, they ... took all the cameras, from what I understand they took financial data ... everybody's membership information, computers ... they took all the security footage that would have shown what the cops were doing."

"One guy was there with a camera, and they took his camera away and erased it, and they even made all the workers and employees stand up, and took pictures and profiles of everyone that was there. These are all Ron Paul type people ... so they were pretty vocal when all this was happening," explained Matthew.

Creating the appearance of guilt

You would think that with an armed SWAT team present, there was some sort of drug or terrorist activity going on, right? On the contrary, there was nothing criminal at all going on except by those conducting the raid in the first place.

According to the warrant that James, the operator of Rawesome, received from the agents, the supposed felony charges for which the raid was conducted were not felony charges at all. Every charge visible on the warrant was a misdemeanor.

Even worse, the warrant only permitted the agents to take "vial" samples of Rawesome products. But instead, the agents decided to just take everything they possibly could.

"They came in and stole ... 17 coolers worth of product, when on their search warrant it authorized the taking of vials of samples, which of course would have fit under your underarm in a soft-sided cooler. So ... why were they armed with 17 coolers when that was a violation of their own protocols on their search warrant?"

The agents not only confiscated thousands of dollars worth of food products, but they tagged most of the other food as "evidence" and ordered Rawesome workers not to "sell" any more of it to members. From about 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., the agents remained on Rawesome's premises until they finally decided to leave.

Rawesome attends mandatory hearing the day after raid, gets no answers

As agents left the day of the raid, they informed James that he had to attend a mandatory hearing the following day, July 1, at the Baldwin Park, Cal. location of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). So James complied in good faith, bringing with him Tony Blain, an attorney and member of Rawesome, as well as another member.

Sitting around a conference room table at HHS were representatives from the FDA, the FBI, the local health department and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Tony verbally challenged the group's jurisdiction in conducting the raid, and informed them that the issue had already been resolved several years prior when Rawesome submitted all the necessary information to officials.

But after giving this testimony and questioning the agents repeatedly about why the raid even occurred -- while receiving no valid explanation -- Rawesome' crew decided to leave. They literally got up and left and haven't heard anything from those specific agencies since that day.

Rawesome didn't even receive a complete warrant

An interesting aspect to the Rawesome case is the fact that the agents didn't even serve Rawesome a complete warrant.

"The search warrant says, of the four pages we got ... "four of 16", so where are the other 12 pages," James stressed during a phone interview.

Sharon Palmer, a nearby farmer who raises club members' goats, has also been raided four times in the last year-and-a-half, explained James, and in the most recent raid, she didn't receive a complete warrant either.

"She only has three of 12 pages while we have four of 16 pages, so she called the DA (district attorney), who refused to give her any information, which of course would seem illegal is he's the man that was the person who signed [as the] authority, and then got a judge to sign the search warrant."

"So she called the judge, who then hung up on her. And then she went downtown to get her copy of the rest of the pages and was told that it's sealed."

But according to the few pages of the search warrants that both James and Sharon received, it was specified plainly that the entire warrant had to be served, so how could it legally be sealed?

"It's sinister, corrupt behavior," retorted James. "You would think that they're the ones that are way more corrupt than anyone else."

What's really clear from all this is that law enforcement officials simply make up the law as they go, abiding by nothing resembling due process. As we've seen so often before in the nutritional supplements industry, members of law enforcement will even falsify information in order to create fictitious warrants that give them an excuse to raid any establishment they wish. Read the history of raids on the Life Extension Foundation (www.LEF.org) if you really want to see some fascinating information about what goes on.

Check out this story I wrote in 2007 called Tyranny in the USA: The true history of FDA raids on healers, vitamin shops and supplement companies at:
http://www.naturalnews.com/021791.html

Building and safety code officials illegally raid and assault Rawesome just two weeks later

If it's not bad enough that an armed SWAT team unlawfully raided a private buying club and stole thousands of dollars of private property, consider the fact that just two weeks after the first raid, local building and safety code officials showed up and conducted their own mini-raid.

These building and safety code officials were not present during the first raid, but mysteriously decided to show up unannounced, and search the property to check for code violations. And in doing so, they broke the law and their own protocol by failing to give proper notice.

"The building and safety code people have their own protocols, which we've gone online to read," explained James. "If they want to enter a property in order to see if there's any code violations ... they are supposed to contact the owners of the property, in writing, and give us 30 days to get an appointment [set up] to come on the property."

"They did none of that, and decided to enter the property after they were even informed ... that it was private property and they were not allowed there."

According to James, these officials ignored warnings that they were trespassing, and proceeded to force their way into the building, physically shoving one of the Rawesome crew to the ground on the way in. So not only did the officials violate the law by entering illegally, but they assaulted a member of the club in the process.

What does the Canadian government have to do with all this, anyway?

Perhaps the strangest fact about the Rawesome raid is the fact that the Canadian government was involved in conducting it. Since when does the Canadian government have any lawful jurisdiction over local affairs in the U.S.? What law gives them permission to violate private American property?

The answer, of course, is that there's absolutely no justifiable reason for the Canadian government to be involved in any civil affairs here in the U.S. And nobody at Rawesome seems to know why they were there, either.

"I had no idea why Canadian anything would be involved," expressed James. "I have no clue."

Rawesome to press charges against the government for illegal harassment and theft

Rawesome operates as part of the larger organization called Right to Choose Healthy Food (RTCHF) (www.Rawmilk.org), which is a non-profit trust association with local food buying clubs like Rawesome located all across the country. A few members of the organization are located in Canada, which is perhaps the alleged justification for the Canadian government's involvement in the raid.

Dr Aajonus Vonderplanitz, president of RTCHF, legally represents both Rawesome and RTCHF, and is working on filing suit against officials for their crimes against the club. And according to both James and Matthew, practically every Rawesome member has indicated that they're onboard with the suit.

NaturalNews obtained a copy of the letter Aajonus sent to these officials back in 2005, and it's more than clear that the agencies involved in the raid flat out ignored the letter. If they had read it and taken it seriously, there would not have been another raid (unless, of course, these agencies have a different agenda that operates outside the law).

Private buying clubs do not involve interstate commerce

Regardless of what happened to prompt the first raid, there's no legitimate reason for government agents to raid a private buying club, especially if those agents deliberately planned a scheme to trick the club into selling to a non-member (entrapment, anyone?).

There was no terrorist activity, no prostitution, no drug dealing -- none of the outlandish things you would expect to have been taking place to justify an armed raid. This was just a regular group of folks pursuing healthy living through clean, whole, raw foods.

The whole things is really just another classic case of escalating government tyranny over private enterprise here in the U.S., and it's happening all across the country to many different co-ops and buying clubs. Our Founding Fathers must be rolling in their graves over the gross abuse of authority that today's government is criminally imposing over individual, sovereign citizens, especially on issues of basic food freedoms.

You can't sell fresh milk from a cow? Are you kidding? America was raised on raw milk from cows!

Federal tyranny escalates

The Feds have been raiding buying clubs all over the country recently, including clubs in Ohio (http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=84445) and Wisconsin (http://wholefoodusa.wordpress.com/2...). And Massachusetts legislators recently tried to prohibit buying clubs via legislation (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david...).

A lot of time and effort -- and taxpayer money -- is being spent bullying and intimidating innocent people who simply want to eat healthy food without government intrusion.

If the public really knew about all this -- and how much it's costing them in taxpayer dollars -- they would be outraged.

"If the public got wind of the fact that they're spending possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars while they're laying off firemen, policemen, schoolteachers ... the cities are broke and the counties and states are broke, and they're spending public taxpayer funds on raiding private membership clubs which have nothing to do with the public, wouldn't you think the public would be in outrage?" James explained, referencing a conversation he had with Sharon, a raw goat milk supplier.

He was also sure to note that it's most likely a few bureaucrats at the top who are driving this agenda; most of the people actually carrying out these raids don't even know that what they're doing is wrong. Cops are trained to just follow orders and not question them.

"I believe that 99 percent of all the agents and all the agencies are just ignorant. They're just doing their job. They don't know any better. They're trained to do something and follow orders," he emphasized. "I don't have any beef with any of those people. The only beef I have is with the few people, wherever they are ... writing all these ridiculous, insane, unfair, unjust laws."

But that doesn't justify the behavior of these agents, no matter who they are. They are still responsible for stealing private property, causing undue harm and trespassing illegally. When the cops become the criminals, stealing raw milk while intimidating those who are trying to preserve the availability of real food for health-conscious consumers, you know something has gone horribly wrong with law enforcement.

If you'd like to learn more about Right to Choose Healthy Food (RTCHF) or to find out what's happening with this case, visit: http://www.rawmilk.org to learn more.

NaturalNews wishes to thank reporter Ethan Huff for his investigative contributions to this story. If you find this story interesting, please forward this web page link to others who you think need to know.

NaturalNews, by the way, has a long history of covering illegal raids on food freedom champions. See my related story, Raw Foodists Arrested for Trafficking Chocolate; Interrogated for "Cacao Crimes" at: http://www.naturalnews.com/024304.html

And this from the Los Angeles Times

Raw-food raid highlights a hunger

Some people balk at restrictions on selling unprocessed milk and other foods. 'How can we not have the freedom to choose what we eat?' one says. Regulators say the rules exist for safety and fairness.

July 25, 2010|By P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times

With no warning one weekday morning, investigators entered an organic grocery with a search warrant and ordered the hemp-clad workers to put down their buckets of mashed coconut cream and to step away from the nuts.
Then, guns drawn, four officers fanned out across Rawesome Foods in Venice. Skirting past the arugula and peering under crates of zucchini, they found the raid's target inside a walk-in refrigerator: unmarked jugs of raw milk.

And this from cryptogon.com

SWAT Team Conducts Food Raid in Rural Ohio
December 6th, 2008

Via: Crossroad:
On Monday, December 1, a SWAT team with semi-automatic rifles entered the private home of the Stowers family in LaGrange, Ohio, herded the family onto the couches in the living room, and kept guns trained on parents, children, infants and toddlers, from approximately 11 AM to 8 PM. The team was aggressive and belligerent. The children were quite traumatized. At some point, the “bad cop” SWAT team was relieved by another team, a “good cop” team that tried to befriend the family. The Stowers family has run a very large, well-known food cooperative called Manna Storehouse on the western side of the greater Cleveland area for many years.
…
Presumably Manna Storehouse might eventually be charged with running a retail establishment without a license. Why then the Gestapo-type interrogation for a 3rd degree misdemeanor charge? This incident has raised the ominous specter of a restrictive new era in State regulation and enforcement over the nation’s private food supply.

And...  Do you seriously think Willie Nelson is going to harm anyone?

Willie Nelson pot possession charge shows ludicrousness of marijuana prohibition

(NaturalNews) Marijuana prohibition is the cornerstone of the U.S. police state. It gives cops a reason to search vehicles and keeps DEA employees on the payroll while filling the prisons with literally millions of people who have harmed no one except themselves.

Country singer superstar Willie Nelson is the latest victim of this police state marijuana prohibition. His vehicle was stopped at an immigration checkpoint (yes, immigration) in Sierra Blanca, Texas, where an officer claimed he smelled pot. A search of the vehicle turned up six ounces of marijuana for which Willie Nelson was arrested along with two other people.

For the record, Willie Nelson is 77 years old. The whole point of arresting people and sending them to prison is to isolate violent, dangerous people from the rest of the public in order to protect public safety. Does anybody seriously believe that Willie Nelson is a threat to public safety? He's practically the most harmless guy on the planet.

Immigration checkpoints used against U.S. citizens

The other important point here is that all this took place at an immigration checkpoint. This is supposed to be a place where U.S. officials look for vehicles full of people illegally entering the United States from Mexico. Did Willie Nelson look like an illegal alien? Of course not. He's obviously a U.S. citizen (and a well-known celebrity on top of that), yet that didn't stop this immigration checkpoint officer from searching his vehicle.

You see, there's something that all the people who support tighter illegal immigration fences, walls and checkpoints haven't yet realized: All that security is going to be used against YOU, too! Border Patrol officers and U.S. feds aren't just looking for illegal aliens, you see: They're also looking to arrest people who are obviously U.S. citizens -- and they will arrest you for things that have nothing to do with immigration.

Are you carrying some fertilizer in your truck? Ah, now you're a terrorist with "bomb making materials." Have some duct tape in your vehicle? Now you have materials that can be used "to bind the hands of kidnapping victims." And if you're smoking a joint, God forbid, now you're going to be hauled off to jail by these immigration checkpoint officers who apparently have nothing important to do.

Why marijuana prohibition makes no sense

For the record, I'm not a marijuana smoker, and I would never encourage any individual to take up such a habit unless they had a legitimate medical need for pain relief. However, I am totally against the continued persecution of individuals who buy, possess or consume this medicinal herb. They harm no one but themselves, and smoking marijuana produces side effects that are far milder than drinking alcohol.

In fact, in America today it's perfectly legal to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and even drug your own kids with "speed" in the form of prescription amphetamines for ADHD. And yet marijuana -- which makes people feel lazy and hungry -- remains illegal. You have to wonder: Why?

Why is marijuana criminalized in America? The answer is simply that marijuana prohibition is the cornerstone of the American police state. Keeping this herb illegal keeps millions of people employed in law enforcement who otherwise wouldn't have jobs. It keeps the prison industry strong and gives cops a reason to search vehicles.

It even gives law enforcement officers yet another excuse to hold "terrorism drills." Seriously: A recent terrorism drill in Northern California imagined pot heads taking over Shasta Dam and blowing up vehicles (http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle...). These cops must have a lot of free time on their hands to dream up these wild (and highly improbable) scenarios. But keeping marijuana criminalized allows them to spend more taxpayer money running these useless drills that, after all, keep them all well paid.

At the same time, it causes billions of dollars a year to flow into the underground black market economy -- money that would otherwise be used to raise tax revenues for states. (http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy...)

The "War on Drugs" has been a complete and utter failure (http://drugpolicy.org/drugwar/). It's also a huge waste of law enforcement resources. I'd much rather see cops going after real criminals like the CEOs and executives of drug companies, Monsanto and Wall Street banksters.

Legalizing and taxing marijuana would end the illegal drug trafficking in marijuana and deny revenues to drug gangs and drug dealers. It would raise billions of dollars for states and eliminate the huge costs of incarcerating marijuana "criminals." It would free up resources throughout the court system and give cops the time to go after violent criminals such as murderers and rapists.

And it would end this moronic system that arrests a harmless 77-year-old country western singer for marijuana possession at an immigration checkpoint.

Learn more about ending the criminalization of marijuana possession

Here's some additional information:

www.Norml.org
www.DrugPolicy.org
www.StopTheDrugWar.org
www.FlexYourRights.com

Editor's note: Do not interpret this article as a "pro-marijuana" position. I am not pro-marijuana, I don't consume this herb personally and I don't advocate consumption of this herb. I do, however, advocate freedom and liberty for individuals, and I believe that individuals have the right to make their own decisions about what they choose to eat, drink or smoke. The argument that government must "protect" people from marijuana just doesn't hold water: That same government openly allows people to kill themselves with cigarettes, alcohol and FDA-approved prescription drugs that are far more dangerous than marijuana.