Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 15, 2009

Michigan native Chris Arendt was 17 when he joined the military after the 9-11 attacks. A few months later he found himself guarding prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

According to the Bush administration, the inmates at Gitmo were the ?worst of the worst,? Arendt was more alarmed by what he called the ?psychotic? behavior of some of the guards, who ?saw it as a chance to go free-range and hog-wild about their fantasy of killing a `raghead? ? so they made the environment as violent as they could.?

Similar testimony is offered by Sgt. Heather Cerveny, a Marine Sergeant who blew the whistle on beatings and other abuse of prisoners at Gitmo in 2006. Her account was initially dismissed, and Sgt. Cerveny was censured by her superiors. However, newly released documents have validated her charges.

Gitmo will be in operation for at least another year. It should be shut down immediately.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 14, 2009

Two years ago, Herb Quintero opened a bait and tackle shop in Clearwater, Florida. He spent a half-million dollars for renovations to the property, which included hiring an artist to paint a mural depicting a fish on the side of the building.

Ever ready to make life needlessly difficult for honest business owners, the local code enforcement department began issuing citations to Quintero, claiming the mural was an impermissible advertisement instead of a work of art, as the shop owner insisted.

After extracting nearly $700 from Quintero, the code department threatened to impose daily fines of $130 if he didn?t cover it up. In a genuinely inspired gesture, Quintero covered the mural with a large banner containing the text of the First Amendment.

The municipal government, acting with predictable malice, is looking for some way to punish the admirably defiant business owner for an unauthorized display of that properly revered text.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 13, 2009

The Wall Street Journal recently published a feature story lamenting the fact that the economic downturn has prompted Americans to reduce their household expenditures radically and save their money, rather than spending it.

That story bore the astounding headline, ?Hard-Hit Families Finally Start Saving, Aggravating Nation?s Economic Woes.? That headline typifies the misinformation our public is being fed.

According to the Journal, ?Usually, frugality is good for individuals and for the economy. Savings serve as a reservoir of capital that can be used to finance investment, which helps raise a nation's standard of living. But in a recession, increased saving -- or its flip side, decreased spending -- can exacerbate the economy's woes."

Actually, both individual and national prosperity can only be built on productivity and genuine savings, rather than profligacy and debt. Our political, media, and academic elites disdain such notions, which helps explain how we found ourselves in our present mess.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 12, 2009

This year?s estimated federal budget deficit will be at least $1.2 trillion dollars ? an ominous landmark on the road to national ruin.

With the outgoing Bush administration and incoming Obama administration in agreement that the key to restoring national prosperity is unrestrained federal spending, that deficit will expand radically, perhaps even doubling very quickly.

Our economy and society simply cannot survive profligacy of this magnitude. The foreign banks and governments that buy our Treasury bonds will not continue to underwrite it. It is no exaggeration to say that we confront the prospect of literal national bankruptcy unless drastic action is taken.

Ironically, there is a simple treatment for our budget woes: Congress should immediately repeal the Troubled Assets Relief Program, which facilitated the Wall Street Bailout. And it should immediately end our foreign military deployments and all foreign aid immediately. These two acts alone would radically close the budget gap and reinvigorate our dying economy.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 9, 2008

In offering advice to elected officials who are too eager to follow it, New York Times economic columnist Paul Krugman constantly invokes FDR?s New Deal as the epitome of economic wisdom.

Thus it?s noteworthy when Krugman recently wrote that ?the New Deal wasn?t as successful in the short run as it was in the long run.? The reason for this, Krugman asserted, was that FDR was ?too cautious? regarding government spending and regimentation.

Krugman is still distorting the truth. Numerous economic studies ? such as one published in the August 2004 Journal of Political Economy by UCLA professors Harold Cole and Lee Ohanian ? document that the New Deal prolonged the depression by nearly a decade. What restored our economic health was radical post-war reductions in government spending.

The beginning of economic wisdom is to ignore everything said or written by Paul Krugman and his ilk.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 8, 2009

Bernard Madoff, former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange, allegedly operated a $50 billion pyramid scheme that victimized many of the wealthiest people and institutions in the world.

Many supposed economic experts insist that Madoff?s con game is an indictment of unrestricted free-market capitalism. But fraud of this kind is the predictable result of a Federal Reserve-engineered speculative bubble, in which money is loose, credit is cheap, and politically motivated regulators ignore fraud and corruption.

Writing in the New York Times, analysts Michael Lewis and David Einhorn point out that investment counselor Harry Markopolos tried for nearly a decade to warn the Securities and Exchange Commission that Madoff was running an immense con game. The SEC ignored Markopolos?s documentation and gave Madoff a clean bill of health.

Rather than indicting the free market, Madoff? swindle underscores the need to abolish the Fed and de-politicize the investment markets.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 7, 2009

Many common criminals commit offenses against people and property yet are never punished. Does this mean that their unpunished criminal acts are to be considered legal?

Under the reasoning employed by Vice President Cheney to defend the Bush administration?s anti-constitutional crime spree, the answer would be ?yes.?

In a farewell interview on the CBS program Face the Nation, Cheney discussed the legality of warrantless wiretaps, torture, and other administration measures that violated criminal statutes and Constitutional protections.

Asked by host Bob Schieffer if anything done during wartime was legal, Cheney referred to Lincoln?s suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War. When Schieffer pointed out that ?nobody thinks that was legal,? Cheney responded: ?It certainly was in the sense that he wasn?t impeached.?

Apparently, as long as high crimes against the Constitution don?t result in criminal prosecution or impeachment, those acts are to be considered legal. Professional criminals in the private sector would eagerly concur with Cheney?s reasoning.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 6, 2008

It is a familiar scene from countless World War II movies: A train comes to an unscheduled stop and is boarded by a party of armed, grim-faced men. Passengers are ordered to show their identity papers and submit their personal effects for inspection.
Such scenes of Fascist-style intimidation are becoming quite common in the USA.

Journalist J.D. Tuccille shares the experience of an Arizona legislator whose family was rudely awakened at 5:30 am during a trip by Amtrak from California to Arizona. Armed Border Patrol Agents clambered aboard and proceeded to inspect every cabin and passenger without a warrant or probable cause.

When he inquired what was happening, the legislator was told that ?We can stop any person, vehicle, or aircraft any time for any anywhere within 100 miles of the border.? That territory amounts to what has been called a ?Constitution-free zone? encompassing most of the American population.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 5, 2009

If the Rev. Pat Robertson is correct, God approves of Keynesian socialism.

Rev. Robertson has reported a New Year?s revelation urging Americans to ?cast off the gloom and doom, because things are getting ready to turn around? due to the trillions of dollars being pumped out by Washington and the Federal Reserve.

Robertson was also told that "The people will welcome socialism in order to relieve their pain. Nothing will stand in the way of a plan by Obama to restructure the economy in the same fashion as the New Deal in the '30s." Robertson has described himself as ?remarkably pleased? with the prospect of an Obama presidency.

If what Robertson predicts is true, there?s no reason to celebrate ? first of all because New Deal-style socialism is rooted in theft, and secondly because it will prolong and deepen our economic misery.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

The Griggs are expecting a new baby in January or Feb. of next year who will need to be delivered by C-Section.

Since the Griggs do not presently have health insurance, donations toward the delivery of the new baby can be sent to:

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