Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

March 17, 2008

At the end of the trading day on March 14, Bear Stearns investment bank was valued at more than three and a half billion dollars. Over the weekend, JP Morgan Chase bought out Bear Stearns for a mere $236 million dollars, paying just $2 a share ? ninety-three percent less than the bank?s stock commanded just two days earlier.

Bear Stearns, the nation?s fifth largest investment bank, was essentially bankrupt, its stock basically worthless. How many other major banks are in the same condition? Market analyst Chris Whalen predicts that bank failures will ?go all the way up the chain.?

According to economist James Howard Kunstler: "The US faces a pretty stark choice right now: it can let the losers take their losses ? or, in an effort to let these losers off the hook we can wreck the whole machinery of capital by making our medium-of-exchange worthless."

The Federal Reserve has chosen the second course. Is your family prepared for the coming hyperinflation?

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

March 13, 2008

In early March, Spain dropped its request to extradite Jamil-el-Banna and Omar Deghayes, who were suspected of involvement with an al-Qaeda cell in Madrid.

As the Guardian of London notes, Spanish officials concluded that ?the torture [the suspects] suffered during five years of American custody had left them too weak to stand trial.?

When he vetoed a bill banning torture last week, President Bush insisted that removing torture from the interrogation toolkit would undermine efforts to protect our nation from terrorism. The case of el-Banna and Deghayes indicates that the opposite is true.

In addition to being utterly immoral, torture is entirely impractical, since it sabotages sound efforts to obtain reliable information and prosecute terrorist suspects.

Mr. Bush would have us believe that America would be helpless unless our government employed the same abominable methods used by the Axis powers in World War II. Those who genuinely love our country know better.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

March 12, 2008

Financial analyst John Williams tracks and reports the so-called US Government ?shadow statistics? -- figures about public spending and economic health Washington would like us to ignore.

According to Williams, if the Federal Reserve hadn?t intervened to pump money into investment markets, ?we might [already] be contemplating a collapsed U.S. banking system and a looming deflationary great depression that could have dwarfed the bad times of the 1930s.?

That?s the good news, such as it is. The bad news, Williams continues, is that ?the Fed is locking in a hyperinflationary great depression in the decade ahead, with the turmoil possibly breaking by 2010 or earlier."

According to the Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin, Williams is too optimistic. That widely respected investor journal predicts that the turmoil will erupt by ?the end of the third quarter of 2008? ? that is, late September.

Whether in September, next year, or a little later, we?ll soon face the consequences of decades of domestic profligacy and international imperialism.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

March 11, 2008

Last November, hundreds of children were herded into a Maryland courthouse at gunpoint. There, surrounded by riot police and guard dogs, they were forcibly vaccinated. Their parents had been threatened with criminal charges, despite the fact that state law didn?t require childhood vaccination.

The case of nine-year-old Georgia resident Hannah Poling helps explain why some parents object to mandatory childhood vaccination.

Hannah suffers from autism as a result of a vaccination administered during a home visit by a social worker. Two of the shots contained thimerosal, a toxic mercury additive.

While insisting that there is no proven link between childhood vaccinations and autism, federal officials have made Hannah and her family eligible for payments from a vaccine injury fund.

Government officials insist that Hannah?s tragic situation is not typical, and that childhood vaccination offers huge public health benefits. They may be right on both counts. But Hannah?s experience underscores the need to defer to parental judgment regarding childhood vaccinations.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

March 10, 2008

The government ruling us will occasionally stand unveiled in its full malignant majesty. A recent California appeals court decision offered such an opportunity.

The court ruled that "parents do not have a constitutional right to home-school their children.? Parents who teach their own children without state-recognized credentials, the court continued, ?may be subject to a criminal complaint against them? and various penalties, including the loss of custody over their children.

The court observed that the ?primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in ? loyalty to the state and the nation?."

The Ten Commandments, the foundational document of our civilization, is silent regarding loyalty to any government, but it commands children to honor and obey their parents. The primacy of the family over the state was recognized by British philosopher of liberty John Locke, and by the founders of our republic. But the proto-totalitarian government ruling us now can permit no contending loyalties.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

March 7, 2008

Scholar George H. Smith, a professed atheist, has written an essay for the Acton Institute celebrating Christianity?s central role in defining and defending individual liberty.

Smith notes that ?Christian obedience [to the government] was always conditional.?

Origen, an early Christian apologist, wrote that believers will ?never consent to obey the laws of sin.? In words that resonate with our Declaration of Independence, Origen taught that the Christian?s first allegiance is to ?the law of nature, that is, the law of God.? This is why, according to Origen, Christians cannot always support the wars waged by their rulers.

Tertullian, another father of the Church, pointed out that everything done by government bears the taint of coercion and violence. He stressed that this is contrary to the Christian way of life, which is based on peaceful voluntary cooperation.

The epistle of James calls the teachings of Christ ?the perfect law of liberty.? Let us work to establish that law, thereby taking back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

March 6, 2008

Without congressional approval or widespread media coverage, a significant military accord was signed by the US and Canada on February 14.

The agreement, called the Civil Assistance Plan, ?paves the way for the militaries of either nation to send troops across each other?s borders during an emergency,? observed the Ottawa Citizen.

Stuart Tew, a spokesman for a group called the Council of Canadians, is concerned that the agreement will militarize responses to emergencies best handled by civilian authorities. He also notes that the military personnel might well be foreign troops not accountable to Canadian authorities.

Americans should understand that those well-founded concerns apply in reverse, as well.

No treaty legitimizing this integration of US and Canadian militaries has passed the Senate or been signed by the president. But those behind this development aren?t interested in the Constitution; they?re quietly pursuing a design to consolidate the US with Canada and Mexico into a European-style North American Union.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

March 5, 2008

The case of Veronica Rodriguez, a 27-year-old Oregon resident imprisoned for hugging a teenager, helps illustrate why our country has the largest prison population in the world.

Two years ago, as a counselor at a local Boys & Girls Club, Veronica took an interest in a troubled 13-year-old boy from a broken home. She spent a lot of time with both the boy and his family. Rumors flew of an illicit romance, but no solid evidence substantiated those suspicions.

On one occasion, Veronica was seen giving the youngster a hug in front of dozens of people. This wasn?t a good idea. It also wasn?t a crime. Nonetheless, she was charged with and convicted of felony sexual assault. Originally sentenced to sixteen months in prison, Veronica may serve five additional years under a draconian mandatory minimum sentencing law.

Would this type of thing occur in a society that is free in any reasonable sense of the word?

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

March 4, 2008

During his nearly 20-year tenure as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan did everything in his considerable power to ruin the value of the dollar.

The so-called ?dot-com? bubble, which burst in 2000, was a product of Greenspan?s inflationary monetary policy. The ongoing collapse of the housing and mortgage market is also his handiwork. And new chapters are being written in Greenspan?s legacy as the greenback digs its way into record lows against the euro and other currencies.

For decades, Washington has been able to export inflation abroad: The central banks of other nations have followed the Federal Reserve?s lead, inflating their currencies to buy our Treasury notes. But other nations are becoming reluctant to prop up the dollar.

Amazingly, during a recent investment forum in Saudi Arabia, Greenspan encouraged oil-producing states to remove their support for the dollar. After all, the inflated dollar is essentially worthless ? as Greenspan would certainly know.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

March 3, 2008

A Bear Lake County, Idaho jury convicted former policeman Kevin Buttars of assault -- only to see the verdict undermined by an inexcusably lenient sentence.

In March 2007, Officer Buttars became aggravated with a suspect named Jared Finley. According to a criminal complaint, Buttars beat Finley, slammed his head into the wall, choked him, and committed an act of simulated sodomy.

Had these acts been committed by a private citizen, the offender would face multiple felony counts. But Idaho law defines ?unnecessary assault by a police officer? as a misdemeanor; the maximum penalty is a year in jail and a $5000 fine.

Buttars, however, faces a mere 15 days in jail, court costs of about $75, and a $500 fine. His former chief, who tried to cover up the crime, was fired and faces his own trial.

Officer Kenny Yellen testified against Buttars and should be commended for risking his career in defense of the rule of law.

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