FaithWalkers
The FaithWalker’s Daily is a quick review of key news stories of the day from the perspective of a conservative Christ-follower living in, but not of, the world.
NOTE: There is a special guest post on my site today from my friends at Wallbuilders: America’s Founders on Gun Control and the Evil at Sandy Hook
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President Obama Launches Gun Control Wednesday
The Basics —
President Obama will present his proposals for new gun-control legislation today and up to 19 executive actions he is considering taking without Congressional consent. He will present his proposals surrounded by children as a backdrop.
Dig Deeper:
- More Via FoxNews: Key graph: “Yet in the wake of a school massacre last month in Connecticut that left 20 first-graders dead, as well as six educators, the president has stressed that children’s lives could be on the line.” [emphasis mine]
- New York expanded some of the most restrictive — some say oppressive — gun laws in the nation that have already resulted in such craziness as this: “Tennessee tourist Meredith Graves said she was trying to obey a “No Guns” sign at Ground Zero when she tried to check her .32-caliber pistol at the National September 11 Memorial, but was arrested instead. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor weapons-possession charge.”
- Senator Rand Paul, via Human Events, says we fought a Revolution so we wouldn’t have a king.
- Via CBS Baltimore, kids are already paying for the insanity as two six-year-olds get suspended for “finger guns.”
- Gun sales continue to skyrocket as people can hardly walk out from gun shows with all their purchases. Key quote from one man sums it up: “I don’t know what Obama is going to do and I am a little worried about our constitution and those guys back in Washington trashing it,” said Marc Phillips.
A Few Thoughts…
If children’s lives were what Obama was worried about, he’d be going for handguns here and not assault rifles. Conservative Ben Shapiro nailed it when he asked Piers Morgan why children in Sandy Hook matter more than children in Chicago. Of course, it’s not really about the kids. It’s about taking political advantage of a crisis. If it were about children, we’d be cutting our national debt. Obama knows he can’t take handguns, at least not yet. But let’s face it, handguns offer very little resistance to the tyrrany that the Second Amendment had in mind. And it’s that ever-present threat of tyranny that conservatives should focus on now before it’s too late.
Never let a crisis go to waste. Where have we heard that before?
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Supreme Court to Hear Decades-Old Florida Wetlands Dispute
The Basics —
A 1970s land dispute has finally landed in the Supreme Court long after the original owner has died. The case involved 15 acres of land. The owner offered to give the state 11 acres in exchange for using only 4. The state refused and they’ve been in court ever since — over four acres.
Dig Deeper:
- Via Fox News, a good summary of the two sides to this story follows:
Though Koontz Jr. and his legal team felt confident following the arguments Tuesday, they had to acknowledge the tough questions from Justice Antonin Scalia. Arguably one of the court’s most conservative justices, he seemed unconvinced that the government’s actions violated the Fifth Amendment.
“I can’t see where there’s a taking here,” Scalia said, adding, “Nothing’s been taken.”
But his colleague, Justice Anthony Kennedy, seemed to think the Koontz case is the classic example of an unlawful, unconstitutional taking, asking why the government can “force you, as a condition to using your property to its highest and best use, to pay them money?”
Koontz Jr. says he never considered dropping the fight.
“It is important for anyone to understand that the government can at times be a creeping blob, absorbing your rights, and hopefully this will at least put a halt to that,” Koontz Jr. said as he stood on the plaza in front of the Supreme Court.
A Few Thoughts…
Speaking of gun control, that creeping blob imagery seems just about right. Anyone who has ever dealt with wetlands legislation knows the nightmare that the owners are facing. Preserving God’s created world and the ecosystem is important, but at what cost? A common tactic in many states is to try to blackmail the land owners into buying land for the state elsewhere in exchange for permission to use the land they originally owned. Having dealt with some of these issues up close, I know that it is often the result of bureaucratic power run amok. And I don’t mean the wetlands kind of muck.
Want to use your property? We’ve got some choice swampland in Florida that might interest you.
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“Liberal Tax” on Smoothies in Utah Shop
The Basics —
The conservative owner of a Utah healthy snack shop charges self-professed liberals an extra dollar tax in hopes of making a point and starting a conversation about the cost of liberal policies on all of us. The money is donated to conservative causes.
Dig Deeper:
- Via KSL TV Utah, “
We have a fiscal problem in this country. We’ve got to deal with it or we don’t have a country, so to kind of help make that point, just a little bit, I charge (liberals) just a little bit more.”
–George Burnett, owner of I Love Drilling Juice & Smoothie Bar - Apparently, there are only a handful of liberals in the town, but that hasn’t stopped some from claiming “offense.” How long until it’s labeled a hate crime?
- To show the price of liberal policies, the above chart via The Weekly Standard shows an 80% increase in welfare spending is on the way.
A Few Thoughts…
Talk about intolerant! I’m expecting the ACLU to arrive shortly. The shop owner seems to be taking a good-natured approach in making his point. And I suspect the “tax” is technically voluntary. But the conversation needs to take place. And I applaud this guys guts to make the point. Conservatives need to be more courageous about speaking up. In spite of what the media tries to say, the problem is not that conservatives are too vocal, but that they are not vocal enough. Speaking the truth in love is the most effective tool we have to help people.
I’ll have the gun control smoothie with a little wetlands regulation – but hold the fracking!
A Few More Stories You Might Hear About Today
- Because it involves a shooting on Gun Control Wednesday, this story about a shooting at a Kentucky college might get some air time.
- 18 heads found at O’Hare airport — but all seems well. Except for it being really creepy.
- Ohio rape case defense asks for a change of venue: Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla ,”If God from heaven came down right now and said there’s no cover-up, some would still say there was,” he said. “We had a crime scene investigator in here from Day 1.”
- A principal is suspended for appearing in a Terminator spoof video that was shown to students. Not the wisest move of his career, I suspect.
A Little Something to Grow Your Faith….
Only virtue can supply the self-restraint that is an indispensable requirement for liberty. Unrestrained freedom undermines freedom, but any other form of restraint on freedom eventually becomes a contradiction of freedom. ~ Os Guinness
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