tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post7098103700361041659..comments2023-06-15T09:13:45.467-04:00Comments on Liberty's Torch: DisaffiliationsFrancis W. Porrettohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-63183405260602346112015-08-12T15:29:57.383-04:002015-08-12T15:29:57.383-04:00It occurs to me that history is filled with exampl...It occurs to me that history is filled with examples of nations suddenly at war, and only when tested by a real enemy do they discover that their peacetime officer corps were utterly incompetent. Hasty promotions, often several of them, must occur before men fit for the task can be found. Very often it meant generals with lofty reputations and star power being replaced by lower ranked unknowns. The Union army during the Civil War experienced this. The British experienced it in North Africa. The Russians experienced it on the Eastern Front. Eventually they discovered the talents of Grant, Montgomery, and Chuikov. Add your own favorite examples.<br /><br />That is how I feel about the Republican Party now. They're the established but incompetent General. They either cannot or will not take the fight to the enemy. They've been given ample opportunity to learn from their failures and make corrective actions, but refuse to do so. They must be sacked, and replaced by a new General. This may give the enemy a short term advantage while the new General learns his craft, but it's the necessary cost of cultivating competence. The alternative is to stick with the known quantity, and to continue suffering predictable defeat after predictable defeat.square.wavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18043191714623975110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-72638284391425923572015-08-12T12:47:03.607-04:002015-08-12T12:47:03.607-04:00There's so much I want to say about this post,...There's so much I want to say about this post, but my thoughts are not as firm and lucid as Fran's (as usual) or the bloggers he quotes (who also impressed me).<br /><br />I've been reading Spooner, Kenneth Royce, L. Neil Smith, and the Anti-Federalists a lot lately. They're not an encouraging bunch. But their writings, coupled with current events, lead me to believe: 1) this ain't getting better anytime soon, and 2) we ain't voting our way out.<br /><br />The despair that the American Experiment is pretty much over runs as deep as the horses' bridles in some places, and my heart is among them. I used to think-- as short a time ago as 2007-- that a return to freedom might be in store for the US of A. No longer. <br /><br />While in some ways, we have gained freedoms-- in arms, particularly, as some states (like my own Sweet Home Alabama) are telling the Federal government to fribble off. In most other areas of concern-- taxes, property, and regulations-- we have lost massive amounts of freedom under King Obama. And we won't get them back until the Federal government falls.<br /><br />When that happy event will occur, I don't know, nor does anyone this side of Heaven, I suspect. Nor do I pretend to know what comes after the US of A Federal government collapses. Chaos, for sure. Totalitarianism? I'm skeptical; I don't think what happened in Russia and China can be replicated here and now. Freedom? Not for awhile, though some places (the South, Texas, the Intermountain West) may indeed be meccas of freedom, in a relative way.<br /><br />We can only pray, prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. Backwoods Engineerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13666984602233967254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-65633165936006841592015-08-12T04:23:53.842-04:002015-08-12T04:23:53.842-04:00Thanks for the concise treatise on why letting it ...Thanks for the concise treatise on why letting it burn makes sense at this point. I was having difficulty articulating it, though I know in my heart that it is now the only viable expectation to hold. Not in joy at the coming misfortune of her would-be pirates, for theirs is their own reward; nor even in the hope of a rebirth of liberty in some new paper wrapper to come; but simply in the acceptance that she has been poisoned - treated to a slow, ugly death by those who could never have loved her, not even in her prime. This is my lament for America. <br /><br />Such is the season I find myself in, and as seasons have no remedy for their affectation other than simple acceptance, thus do I find myself compelled...<br /><br />LET IT BURNVeritas Engineerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09714280835783182087noreply@blogger.com