On the Norquist Tax Pledge

So, as the fiscal cliff talks continue, some Republicans seem insistent on demonstrating that they are spineless cowards who are completely unwilling to take a stand in the name of principle.  The most recent example?  The expressed willingness by some to ignore Grover Norquist's anti-tax pledge.

Grover Norquist, or "The Overlord"

Now, this is not going to be some defense of Grover Norquist, though he most certainly has the right idea.  No, this has far more to do with the liberal obsession over him and the feckless politicians on the "right" side of the aisle who want to violate the tax pledge they took.

First, the obsession.  It is highly aggravating when people talk about Grover Norquist like he is God.  Not only is it aggravating, it is bizarre when they act like he has some sort of power over them to force them to not raise taxes.

Norquist is a man.  Nothing more, nothing less.  He is not some terrible god of thunder who will strike down politicians who stray from what he believes is right.  Neither is he important nor powerful in any meaningful way.  I don't say that to slight the man, for as I said before, he has the right idea.  However, it is shameful and embarrassing when people on both sides try to use him as a scapegoat for their feckless behavior.  Stop and own up to your actions.

Then there are the people who want to ignore the tax pledge that they have taken.  Now, one can argue about whether or not the pledge is a good idea, workable or what have you.  The problem does not lie in the pledge itself.  It lies in the fundamental character flaws that cause one to break a pledge for political expediency.

After all, let us be honest.  The Republicans who are banging the anti-Norquist drum are not doing so because they have had a legitimate change of heart.  They are doing so because it is (seemingly) politically expedient for them to dump fiscal conservatism to look like they are being "bipartisan."

Of course, the correct term is "cowards."

They are cowards for two reasons.  The first is that they are turning their backs on a principled position, as I mentioned before.  Instead of taking a stand for the right thing, as they were elected to do, they are instead more worried about their careers.

However, and perhaps more damning, is their willingness to reject the pledge.  Do their words have no meaning?  They made a promise, no matter what one thinks of its importance or wisdom.  This is not some fickle pinky swear on a schoolyard playground.  They are adults.  Their words have meaning.  And when they say they are willing to break their word for such a cheap reason, it diminishes them, their office and the political system as a whole.

They should be ashamed.

On Why Taxes are Viewed Wrong

So, with the "Fiscal Cliff" battle raging in Washington right now, I'm hearing lots of talk about taxation.  Specifically, Democrats want taxes to go up on the highest earners in any deal that averts the cliff and Republicans want to avoid raising taxes on anyone.  You can guess which one I am in favor of.

I think this debate brings up an important question: what is the proper way to view taxes?  If this seems like a confusing question, read on.

The IRS building.  Because there weren't better pictures.

Let us start off by defining the issue.  This is based off of personal observation alone, but the prevailing view of taxation today seems to be that the collected money is the "government's money."  It seems to suggest that the government is owed that money and indeed deserves it.  It assumes that the government is the only entity capable of effectively spending that money and thus should get that money no matter what.  After all, one cannot call for "tax fairness" without assuming that the money belongs to no one but the government.  It would not be unfair to anyone if it belonged only to the individual who earned it.

The real question then becomes "why is this viewpoint wrong?"

First, we need to redefine what taxes are.  It is not the government's money.  We are legally obligated to pay them to the government, but that does not mean that the government owns it or "deserves" it.  Instead, taxes should be seen as "money entrusted to the government by the people for its continued and proper function."

Taxation has now become a farce, where instead of people giving their money, understanding the necessity of and, therefore, in a way desiring it to go to the government, we now look at tax day with dread and apprehension.  We are forced to hand over our hard-earned money to an entity that absolutely refuses to be responsible with it and then spends beyond what we, as a people, give it.  I have yet to figure out what the 1+ trillion dollars of deficit spending is on.  Heck, I don't really know what the governments spends the money it actually takes in on. 

On top of that, the government spends that money on purposes ranging from frivolous, like turtle tunnels, to immoral, like Planned Parenthood.  To use the latter as an example, I am ardently pro-life (if that wasn't already obvious), yet my taxes (when I eventually pay them; the joys of unemployment) will go to this organization which primarily performs abortions.  I know there are those who say Planned Parenthood provides other services and that it can not spend federal money on abortion.  My answers?  The former is irrelevant to the fact that their chief business is abortion.  The latter is just asinine.  Who actually believes that PP partitions the money?  That would be both inefficient and difficult to track.  It also does not change the fact that tax money goes to fund America's largest abortion provider, whether or not it directly funds abortions.

Why is the government funding something like that?  Non-abortion services aside, it still performs abortions, which a good number of people find abhorrent.  Yet, they are forced by law to help an organization that makes millions per year slaughtering hundreds of thousands of children like they are cattle.

Before you argue that I want to burn the government down (or something equally stupid), I genuinely can not think of a single person who actually thinks that the government should not get some kind of financing, smears against fiscal conservatives aside. The problem is when the government demands our money of us so it can spend more on God-knows-what (and I'm pretty sure only God knows).

If the American people knew their Constitution (and there are a good many who do, don't get me wrong), they would realize that the federal government's top priority, as dictated by the Constitution, is the civil defense and international treaties and interaction.  Nowhere is the government supposed to provide us entitlements or pet projects for our districts and states.

I would be comfortable giving the government my taxes if it spent that money on its priorities first and then spent the surplus on whatever it deems necessary/useful.

Like debt reduction.

Perhaps when people start seeing taxed money as their money, as opposed to the government's, they may start caring about it more.

On Being Thankful

Word to the wise: This is going to be a pretty personal piece, so if you're looking for political commentary, you're not going to get any.  Also, there will be lots of contractions.

So, it's that time of year again, where we set aside time to be with family and friends.  That time when we gorge ourselves on heinously large foul.  That time we prepare ourselves to be trampled while we try to enter a department store.  Incidentally, speaking of Black Friday, why is it becoming Black Thursday?  Don't get me wrong, businesses can do whatever they want; if there's a way to draw customers earlier, so be it.  All the same, is nothing sacred anymore?  Can't we have one or two days a year where family and God are the focus, without people trampling each other for a blender?  Sure, we have Christmas, but Thanksgiving is one of those days, too.

Anyway, I digress.

So, what am I thankful for this year?  Well, are you ready for a bit of a story?

First, some background.

So, as I mentioned in a previous blog post, I'm a born-again, evangelical Christian.  I have been since I was thirteen and it kept me from ever becoming a liberal.  Now, my opinions took time to develop, no doubt.  Learning in the public school system meant I was bombarded constantly with ideas in direct opposition to the Bible.  Being young, untested, and horrifically inarticulate, it was mostly a matter of keeping my head down and my opinions to myself.

Fast forward to university, following tests of faith and other events that are not relevant to my tale.  In college...I made a mistake.  No, I didn't do cocaine, become a communist or knock up a chick at a frat party on November 11, 2009 at approximately 12:05 AM.  However, I did make a mistake.  One that turned me into a ticking time bomb of emotion that, combined with bad scheduling decisions in my senior year, detonated.

That bomb was crippling and it shook my faith severely.  It seemed that God had abandoned me when I needed Him most.  It left me depressed and drifting for the past two years.

Then Hurricane Sandy hit and knocked out our power.

Now, let me preface this tale with the situation I'm currently in.  My parents haven't been particularly well off for years and I myself am unemployed and, thus, am unable to help them or move out. Considering this, the last thing we really needed was a power outage.  Yet, a power outage we got, days spent not doing anything vaguely productive (though I did finally read "The War of the Worlds;" I can see why it's a classic).

Personally, I found this maddening and got incredibly frustrated.  It seemed like the last thing I should have been doing in my situation was nothing, considering how little I do to begin with.  Outside of blogging and staying informed, my day are unfortunately slim on worthwhile activity.  I was cold, in the dark and had disturbingly little patience for it.

The third evening, while I was waiting to get tired enough to fall asleep, however, I had a revelation.  God told me, in essence, that I had not been trusting in Him or His plan for my life.  He made me realize I had been trusting in myself instead of looking to Him first and foremost.  So I put my faith in God and declared that night would be the last night we would be in the dark and the cold.  I believed (and still do) God had put us in that situation to teach me to depend on Him with a full heart and a clear mind again.

The next day, I got this...feeling telling me to go outside.  It was just an odd inkling to take pictures of the storm damage (which I still haven't uploaded, actually).  Sure enough, when I did, I discovered that a power company worker was assessing our situation and preparing to call the crews in.  Three hours later, not long after nightfall, our lights came back on and our prayers had been answered.

Oh, wait, here's one of those pictures.

More importantly, my faith had been reaffirmed.  I learned that I had been depending too much on myself and the world and not enough on the Lord.  Even now, I'm beginning to see subtle shifts on the employment front.  I also believe that this blog will have something to do with my future as will the people I have met on Twitter.  Seeing what I can do with both, I believe God has a plan for my life involving both.

So, what's my point with this tale?  I'm am thankful for the saving grace of Jesus.  I am thankful for the Lord's forgiveness that brings me, for without second chances, I would have been doomed long before now.  And I'm thankful that the Lord reminded me of this very important and eternal truth when I need Him more than ever.

One last note: I'm thankful for your readership and hope to continue to have it in the future.  If it weren't for you, I'd have given up on this venture by now, I'm sure.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

On Supporting Israel

So, as you, my reader, may recall, I had a rather long rant on what is wrong with people who oppose Israel.  It can sometimes be truly maddening, if not frightening, to see how an argument that starts with ignorance on who the instigator is can quickly degenerate into anti-Semitic rants against Israel and Jews in general.  However, I got my fill of complaining about them last week.

Instead, I want to talk about why it is important and morally right to support Israel.

First of all, Israel has a right to the land for two reasons.  The first is that Israel has been internationally recognized as a sovereign nation.  That alone means that the land is rightfully theirs, no matter who says what.  In addition to that, historically, the land of Israel was the Jewish homeland for centuries.  The only thing they have done in establishing themselves in Israel is return to that homeland by the millions since 1948.

The land of Israel, on the other hand, is the homeland of no other group that continues to exist to this day.  Prior to the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the area known as Palestine was a blighted, barren wasteland.  Its population was sparse and it produced nothing of value.  Consequently, with no native population, there is no such thing as a Palestinian people.

Palestine, in fact, got its modern name from the Roman Empire.  The land of Judea (the name of modern day Israel under Roman rule) was renamed "Syria Palestina" in an attempt to erase the Jewish history of the land after Jewish rebellions were crushed in 70 and 135 AD.  As such, the land is not actually named after an ethnic group.  Today's "Palestinians" are merely of Arabian, Egyptian and other descent, many of whom have been displaced by the repeated wars waged against Israel in the past sixty years.

Of course, history is not the only reason to support Israel.  After all, this is the only free, stable, democratic nation in the Middle East.  In a region where military dictatorships and violent, Islamist theocracies are the norm, the fact that any nation that reflects western values exists there is positively miraculous.  In a region where women are stoned for being the victims of rape and gays are executed for existing, Israel should have the world's full support.

Then there is the fact that Israel is routinely demonized by the international community for defending itself.  Granted, the appeal of this point is purely emotional, but is one worth considering regardless.  After spending years having lukewarm feelings on Israel, I eventually learned the truth about Israel's situation.  I learned it was the victim, not the perpetrator, of terror.  I learned it was, time and again, invaded by its neighbors and won each time, despite seemingly insurmountable odds.  Yet, it is still treated as evil by nations and organizations that should be supporting it.

Indeed, Israel has made it clear, time and again, that it is the party that seeks peace.  In demonstrating its willingness to trade land for peace, Israel has been shown to be the only side seeking peace in this conflict.  In withdrawing from the Gaza strip, the nation was rewarded with thousands of rockets wantonly fired into its territory.  Yet somehow, it is the great villain of the world, demonized and censured more than any other nation on the planet, save for a select few.

The final reason, and the biggest for me, is that the Jews are God's chosen people and Israel is the apple of His eye.  The Jews are proof, above all else, of God's existence.  Despite being dispersed as a people and scattered around the world for nearly 2000 years, they were still able to come back together in 1948 and form a nation of their own.  His promise to them still stands, no matter how much other people may hate it.  Thus, anyone who stands against Israel stands in direct opposition to the will of God almighty.

In the end, there is little excuse not to support Israel.  Now, one can most certainly disagree with the tactics the Israeli people use or the course they take.  However, there is no equivalence between them and their brutal, murderous enemies.  To even attempt to draw a comparison is evidence of either astonishing ignorance or moral bankruptcy.

On the State of Israel

As I start writing this, I am seeing for the first time (at least personally) a story on the situation in Israel on Fox News Channel.  Thank goodness we have that conservative media outlet dutifully reporting on events in Israel like it should be, right?  You know, showing us on television the full story of events over there, just like any conservative media outlet would, right?  Showing us what was happening when it started shortly after the election...right?

Okay, that's out of my system.

So, for those of you who are not up to speed, for the past week, Hamas, terrorists and elected rulers of the Gaza Strip, have been bombarding Israel with mortars and rockets.  As radical Islamist terrorists like to do, they have targeted towns and cities in the regions surrounding Gaza.  In response, Israel killed Ahmed Jabari, one of Hamas' top military chiefs.   Declaring that "the gates of Hell" have been opened, the terrorists have initiated a sustained rocket barrage on Israeli civilians, forcing Israel to respond with airstrikes and now it appears that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) is massing troops for a ground invasion of Gaza.

Despite the "Iron Dome" Missile Shield, hundreds of rockets have rained on Israel's cities.

These events have brought out two types of (often overlapping) people: the ignorant and the anti-Semitic.

I will start with the ignorant.  These are the people who think that Israel is the aggressor.  They believe that Israel attacks first and targets civilians intentionally.  They believe that Israel is some sort of genocidal, apartheid state that wishes to annihilate all Palestinians and/or Arabs.  Worst of all, these are often the people who absolutely refuse to believe anything else regarding Israel, no matter what they are told contrary to those viewpoints.

And those people tend to overlap with people who just hate Israel and Jews in general.  There is nothing more disgusting than logging into Twitter in the morning and seeing people I follow retweet that hatred, to show the world those heinous and morally bankrupt feelings.  After all, nothing is more unsettling than people wishing the Jewish state be wiped out and all the Jews be killed.  It is equally disturbing seeing those who call out such bigotry getting called epithets like "Jew slut."

You may have noticed that I am writing this without any hint of irony or amusement.  It's largely because these are issues that just are not funny.  And I certainly am not amused by them right now.  I'm just thoroughly disgusted with the dishonesty, hatred and lies directed at the Israeli people.

Let me go back and take those arguments from ignorance one at a time.  First, this inane notion that Israel is the aggressor state.  As I pointed out in this situation (and throughout history), military action taken by Israel is reactionary.  The Israelis know half the world hates them and know better than to be reckless in their reactions.  When Israel does act, it is fully justified, whether its a defense against foreign invasion or to protect its people from hundreds of rocket strikes in the course of a year.  Indeed, it is indicative of incredible self-restraint that the Israelis did not strike Gaza sooner, despite over 700 rockets landing in Israel this year prior to this week.

Now imagine this was the US or any other western nation. 

Then there are these accusations that Israel attack civilians intentionally.  What Israel's critics never seem to understand, or even care to know for that matter, is that Israel's enemies are the ones committing war crimes.  It is horrifying enough that the terrorists attack civilians every chance they get; they compound those crimes by hiding among civilians, forcing Israel into difficult choices.  Do they risk killing civilians to eliminate a mortar/rocket position or allow the terrorists to continue firing randomly into Israel's cities?

The IDF often takes a sort of "middle road" when faced by such choices.  They will drop leaflets warning of impending bombardment, ruining both the element of surprise and the chances of eliminating a target. However, it is completely unreasonable to expect the people of Israel to accept daily bombardment by Hamas merely because the terrorists (that the people of Gaza voted into power) hide among the civilian population.  No other country would accept such limitations on its ability to protect itself and neither should Israel.

And then there is the accusations of genocide and apartheid.  Can we all just agree that the former is idiotic?  Israel has had ample opportunity to try and wipe out the Arab people around it.  It has not.  This takes on disturbing subtext when one realizes that only seventy years ago, the Jews were subjected to the Holocaust.  Accusations of apartheid are equally stupid.  One million Arabs/Muslims  live in Israel and are not oppressed.  Assuming they do not try to blow up shopping centers or drop mortars on children, they are accepted in Israeli society and allowed to vote and live free lives in the only stable, democratic nation in the region. 

So ultimately, the point of this post is this: who are the real victims: the Arabs harboring murderous extremists or the Israelis who are attacked for merely existing?  Who are the real ignoramuses: the people who recognize Israel's challenges in a hostile world or the one's who defend Hamas and want to "free Gaza" (from a country that withdrew six years ago)?  Who are the real racists: Israelis under siege from rockets or the people all around the world who see Zionism as a great evil and applaud the idea of the six million Jews in Israel getting wiped out?

You decide.