Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

July 14, 2008

To the surprise of nobody who has followed the meltdown of our financial system, the federal government has stepped in to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored enterprises that either own or guarantee more than half of all American mortgage loans.

Fannie and Freddie were instrumental in the creation of the Federal Reserve?s housing and mortgage bubble. By 2003 it became clear that the people running Fannie and Freddie had boosted profits through corrupt accounting methods ? a much bigger version of the same racket that led to convictions in the Enron scandal.

Together Fannie and Freddie have liabilities totaling roughly five trillion dollars. If they collapse outright, they may take the world financial system down with them. Bailing them out will mean a huge increase in consumer inflation -- as a prelude to the inevitable collapse.

Either way, Americans must gird ourselves for another government assault on our standard of living.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

July 11, 2008

Fifty years ago, the Air Force compiled a study entitled ?Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions from Air Force Prisoners of War.? That document examined the use of torture against U.S. servicemen captured by Communist forces during the Korean War.

Chinese interrogators used sleep deprivation, stress positions, and exposure to severe temperatures to break the resistance of American captives, who were compelled to confess to the use of germ warfare and other non-existent atrocities.

In 2002, the same manual ? renamed ?Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance? ? was used to train U.S. interrogators employed at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay.

Bear in mind that those techniques had been used by Communist interrogators to extract false confessions, not reliable intelligence.

The use of Communist torture methods has done nothing to make our country more secure. But it has made the government ruling us more of a menace to our own liberties.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

July 10, 2008

Ross and Micah Curtis, who own 55 acres of land near Big Sur, California, had to take quick action when a range fire threatened their property. Thanks to a computer model, the state fire protection agency didn?t even attempt to save the Curtis?s land, focusing on saving the village below.

With friends and family helping, the Curtis brothers cleared firebreaks, hauling away 150 truckloads of brush. They used hoses, buckets, and water from a swimming pool to extinguish flames. Finally, with no other option left, they lit three backfires to divert the blaze. This is a dangerous and risky procedure, but it worked, saving the Curtis property and helping save the village below.

The same fire officials who refused to help the Curtis brothers save their land had one of them arrested, and issued a warrant for the other ? for the supposed crime of protecting their property after the government had abandoned them.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

July 9, 2008

John Adams acknowledged that his patriotic service was inspired by his family obligations. In a 1780 letter to his wife Abigail, Adams explained that he studied and practiced politics so that their children would be free to develop their God-given talents.

For Adams, a true patriot?s priorities are God, family, and country ? in that order.

In a Parade magazine essay published during Independence Day weekend, presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain offered a different view:

?Patriotism is deeper than ? sentiments about place and kinship?. It is putting the country first, before party or personal ambition, before anything.?

Any worthy attachment that is elevated above one?s responsibility to God becomes a form of idolatry. Patriotism, the natural and indispensable attachment to one?s country, is particularly vulnerable in this respect, since it is easily corrupted into an unnatural and unhealthy loyalty to the State, which seeks constantly to destroy the family and usurp the sovereignty of God.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

July 8, 2008

While agribusiness giant Archer-Daniels-Midland feasts at the taxpayer trough, the Third World starves.

Archer-Daniels Midland, or ADM, is the chief producer of ethanol, a supposedly eco-friendly fuel additive. In fact, producing ethanol ? a form of distilled grain alcohol made from corn ? actually consumes more energy than it produces. It involves massive use of nitrous oxide fertilizer, with toxic consequences for both air and water.

Yet for reasons of mutual political advantage, federal and state ethanol subsidies amount to more than a dollar a gallon. According to a study by the Cato Institute, 43% of ADM?s profits come directly from taxpayer subsidies.

An even more damaging result of those subsidies has been to redirect resources into growing corn for ethanol production. This has helped boost the prices of other grains. According to a World Bank study, the ethanol subsidy accounts for 75 percent of the recent increase in global food prices.

Socialism for the rich means starvation for the poor.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

July 7, 2008

Former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi is the author of the most controversial book most Americans have never heard of: It?s entitled The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder.

Bugliosi is a best-selling author. Yet every significant publishing house turned down his manuscript, two law professors refused even to look at it, and the book has yet to be reviewed by a major newspaper.

The thesis of the book is simple: By deliberately misleading our nation into an unnecessary war in Iraq, George W. Bush committed the premeditated murder of every U.S. serviceman who has perished in the conflict. Because those killed come from every state, any state Attorney General could seek an indictment.

Criminal intent on Bush?s part is established by the deliberate deception he and his handlers employed to instigate the war. This was not a mistake: It was a crime. And if unjust war isn?t murder, then what is?

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

July 4, 2008

Were the Signers of the Declaration of Independence to visit us today, how would they react?

Would they be more astonished by our technology, or by the docility with which we submit to government regimentation of our lives?
They would be amazed by the growth of the United States, and horrified by our government?s eagerness to intervene in the affairs of other nations.

Jefferson and Franklin would be flattered to see their likenesses circulated on small handbills ? and mortified to learn that those notes are accepted as if they were real money.

Coming from an era in which the concept of a ?billion? was largely unknown, the concept of a nine trillion dollar National Debt would leave them utterly speechless.

The Founders fought a distant government whose agents searched homes and inspected correspondence without warrants, imprisoned people without trial, and sometimes employed torture. After seeing the same despotic practices in place today, the Founders might wonder if their labors were in vain. That?s a question all of us could profitably ponder on this Independence Day.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

July 3, 2008

A unanimous three-judge federal panel, led by a conservative Reagan appointee, has overturned the Bush administration?s designation of Guantanamo detainee Huzaifa Parhat as an ?enemy combatant.?

Mr. Parhat is one of 17 members of the Uighur [WHEE-gur] Muslim population in western China held at Gitmo, some of whom were tortured by U.S. personnel in order to compel cooperation with Chinese interrogators. Parhat has been imprisoned there for six years without specific charges.

In its ruling the D.C. Court of Appeals panel pointed out that the only evidence against Parhat consists of unsupported assertions repeated in three classified documents. In defending its detention of Parhat, the court pointed out, the administration ?comes perilously close to suggesting that whatever the government says must be treated as true.?

Incidentally, Parhat and other supposed Uighur terrorists direct their hostility at the Beijing Regime, which has inflicted forced abortions and other totalitarian policies on the Muslim minority.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

July 2, 2008

For those who have forgotten the horrors of Communism, the violence, misery, and poverty afflicting the African nation Zimbabwe offers suitable refresher course.

When it was known as Rhodesia, the country was the most prosperous on the continent. However, it was ruled by a white minority that limited the political rights of the black population.

Thus Rhodesia became the focus of international ostracism and diplomatic pressure in the late 1970s, when it was also under assault by Soviet-backed terrorists. This campaign culminated in the ascent to power of Robert Mugabe in 1980.

Today, at 84, Mugabe rules through terror. Armed mobs of Mugabe?s supporters murder and mutilate his critics and their families. Farms and businesses have been seized and ruined. The government?s debauchery of the currency has created an inflation rate estimated at nine million percent annually.

The horrors unfolding in Zimbabwe tragically illustrate what happens when the State is freed from the restraints of the law.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

July 1, 2008

Gun rights advocates celebrated the recent Supreme Court ruling District of Columbia v. Heller, which decreed that the Second Amendment forbids ?the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home.? Such celebrations are premature, or even misguided.

Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia acknowledged the self-evident truth that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to armed self-defense. He further pointed out that while that right is historically connected to militia service, it does not depend on it.

Yet Scalia endorsed the idea that legislative bodies can limit the kinds of firearms civilians can own, the places where they can be carried, and the purposes to which that right can be applied.

When government grants a liberty and then restricts the manner in which it can be used, the result is not a right, but a limited, conditional license. Accordingly, far from vindicating the Second Amendment, the Heller decision may fatally undermine it.

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