From the Right
/Politics
FISA and Freedom
"We may even cheer on those who ask us to ... forfeit our personal freedoms. Of course, this is no new story. Even the ancients warned that democracies can degenerate toward autocracy in the face of fear. ... And rule by indefinite emergency edict risks leaving all of us with a shell of a democracy and civil liberties just as hollow."
-- ...Read more
The Feds and Their Copycats
The federal government recently revealed that at least 50 U.S. government personnel working in 10 foreign countries have had their mobile devices hacked by unknown persons who employed software known as "zero-click." The zero-click product, called Pegasus, is manufactured by an Israeli high-tech company, called NSO Group.
Pegasus enables the ...Read more
The Constitution, Congress and Government Debt
What would you do if you were driving a vehicle and came upon a traffic light that had both red and green lights on? Most rational folks would stop. After all, the red means "stop and stay stopped until the red light goes off," and the green means "you may proceed with caution."
An analogous dilemma faces President Joe Biden today as he ...Read more
Does Government Believe in the Constitution?
Last week, FBI officials boasted that in 2022 their agents had spied on only 120,000 Americans without search warrants! Under the Constitution, that number should be ZERO.
This revelation is supposed to give members of Congress comfort that the folks we have hired to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution are in fact doing so. In reality...Read more
Fighting Putin for Empire
The empire-building debacle of the nearly 20-year American occupation of Afghanistan is a lesson unlearned by the government.
This disaster began when President George W. Bush -- stung deeply by the intelligence that he failed to heed, thus enabling the attacks of 9/11 to take place unimpeded -- convinced the American people and Congress and ...Read more
Secrecy Versus Truth
The arrest last week of 21-year-old air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira on charges of espionage has sparked a debate in the intelligence community and elsewhere about whether his behavior is criminal or heroic. He apparently shared top-secret intelligence and military briefings -- to which he had lawful access -- with folks in his chatroom, at ...Read more
The Pentagon Papers, Again
Does the government work for us or do we work for the government? Can the government morally steal data about allies and enemies and then make it a crime to reveal that data, even when the revelation shows that the government has been lying about killing? What to do about high-ranking government officials who lie about war? When the First ...Read more
To Believe in Jesus is To Take Easter Seriously!
That God, which ever lives and loves,
One God, one law, one element,
And one far-off divine event
To which the whole creation moves.
-- Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)
When American colonists were oppressed by British governance, the word most frequently uttered in pamphlets, editorials and sermons was not...Read more
Trump Can Be His Own Worst Enemy
After processing what he heard on cable television, former President Donald Trump publicly announced two weeks ago that on Tuesday, March 21, he would be arrested by the New York Police Department. That day came and went, with no arrest.
Trump is currently the subject of four criminal investigations: one by the Manhattan district attorney for ...Read more
What Happens When the Firemen Are the Arsonists?
In the past week, two top-20 American banks failed. A bank failure occurs when government regulators determine that the current and likely demand for a return of deposits cannot be met. When this determination is made, the feds enter the picture and declare the bank insolvent, order it to close, and go running to the Treasury Department and the ...Read more
What Happens When the Government Breaks Its Own Laws?
Five members of the Proud Boys are currently on trial for sedition in federal court in Washington, D.C. Sedition is a conspiracy to overthrow the federal government by the use of force. This case stems from the events of Jan. 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol. During the trial, an FBI agent inadvertently admitted that she was asked to doctor and to ...Read more
Spying In Plain Sight
Last week, the Biden administration asked Congress to permit its agents to continue to spy on Americans without search warrants. The actual request was to re-authorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. FISA requires warrants from the FISA Court for all domestic spying. Section 702 is a 2008 amendment to FISA. It ...Read more
Enemies of All Mankind
Last week in a federal courtroom at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an American physician hired by the Pentagon testified about the CIA's use of rectal "feeding" tubes on prisoners it detained and tortured in Thailand from 2001 to 2006.
The physician, Sondra S. Crosby, M.D., an expert on tortures and other trauma, described the ...Read more