March 2010 Wrap-up

Barack Obama is opening up offshore America to oil drilling. Except where it would cost the Democratic Party its hold on the gravy train, I mean the government, like California, Oregon, Washington, and politically sensitive areas of the Atlantic and Gulf seaboards.

He's pushing nuclear power plants too. Can we change the definition of environmentalist? Yes We Can!

Meanwhile some poor stupid Christ-crazed slobs were arrested in Michigan for plotting against the government. They are accused of teaching themselves how to make bombs. That is what the U.S. Army and the Internet are for. Not to mention Burn Notice. Bet the FBI is not going to arrest the director or producers or writers of Burn Notice. That would be unamerican.

Apparently the Stone family and friends and the Feds agree on one thing: people are so angry with the government right now, just one incident might set off a violent revolution. It would be a right-wing revolution because leftists in the U.S. are mostly pacifists for gun control. Right-wingers are pretty well armed, from what I have seen. But I guarantee you, except for the Obama fans, who are centrists no matter what the Tea Party folk say, nobody is very fond of the government right now. Prosperity is the friend of incumbents; newly impoverished people are the most dangerous revolutionary element since they still have middle-class skills.

The Stone family arrests are bull, and it would be the same if any leftist were arrested on similar charges. Our Founding Farters were rebels, and they thought a government should be careful about driving people into armed rebellion. They wrote a bit into the U.S. Constitution, Article III, Section 3:

Treason against the United States shall consist only in waging War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.

Which is to say, you can't commit treason by grumbling about the government. You can't even commit treason by talking about committing treason. You have to wage war against the government to commit treason.

Of course weasels will argue that the Stones were not arrested for Treason. But of course they were. They had stockpiled weapons, yes, but 18.3% of Americans are guilty of that.

Maybe the Stones would have gone through with their plans, but 99% of the time people who are not professional criminals find an excuse for chickening out. Which is probably a good thing, unless your government is being run by Nazis. Since the Gestapo, I mean Stasi, I mean FBI had an agent in the ranks of the Stone family, they had plenty of time to see if the twits were really going to wage ware against the United States. All they had to do was say "We are Watching You" and the Stones would have crumbled like badly written iPhone code.

In fact, the militia folk did not have any explosives of their own. Those were going to be provided by a paid informer. Paid by the FBI. The informer's identity has not been released, and the Stone's defense attorney has not been allowed to question him.

Meanwhile, our non-Nazi, pseudo-environmentalist Peace Prize winning President is repeating former President Richard Nixon's Vietnam mistake in Afghanistan exactly. He thinks by sending more U.S. troops there he can pressure the Taliban (here used broadly, meaning everyone in Afghanistan who hates the U.S., which is just about everyone) into peace negotiations. Nixon believed the same thing about the North Vietnamese. The results in Afghanistan are being kept quiet, but apparently on the average day the U.S. nows has two of its gunmen killed by the Enemy, and another eight wounded. It isn't exactly the battle of Stalingrad, but it is sad and it is expensive. Whether the Taliban negotiate or not, they'll be there long after the U.S. is gone.