Posted on 03/31/2005 9:04:20 PM PST by CHARLITE
When Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore refused a federal court order to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments from that states Supreme Court building, he became the central figure in a firestorm of criticism from the left. But his liberal critics werent alone. Conservatives also chided Moore, contending that his defiance of the order undermined the rule of law in America.
Throughout history, the law has served several functions. In a free and morally upright society, it provides a framework within which the people can safely live their lives and pursue their dreams. In a dictatorship, however, it devolves into a weapon by which the strong control the weak.
The incredible events in Florida during this past week prove that the law has ceased to serve its original purpose. As it mutates into a tool of those in authority, concepts such as corruption and abuse of power lose their meaning and fade into irrelevancy. Eventually, the only purpose served by such terms is, like the rest of the law, to be selectively invoked as a means of bludgeoning those who refuse to comply with the new order.
Unfortunately, while warning of dire impending consequences if individuals like Moore arent made to immediately comply, conservatives are reluctant to recognize or admit that lawlessness is indeed already rampant in government. The actions of George Greer, a mere Florida State Circuit Court Judge who openly defied the United States Congress and threatened the use of force against the Governor of that state, cannot honestly be construed in any other way.
No good thing can come from the standard conservative reaction to this eroding concept of justice in the United States, whereby those on the left do as they please, regularly flouting any edict that runs contrary to the pursuit of their agenda. Yet they immediately cite the rule of law in order to restrain those on the right from taking appropriate responsive action.
In the face of outlandish actions, conservatives are time and again stunned into stupefied acquiescence, attempting to lawfully deal with each ensuing situation. But if liberals are allowed to make up rules as they go, and regularly alter them to fit their agenda, and if the only reaction from conservatives is to continually try to play by those ever-changing rules, the left will ultimately prevail.
Judge Greer embodies this lawless condition into which American justice has degenerated in recent years. The specifics of the Terri Schiavo case notwithstanding, consider how Greers actions indicate an out-of-control and unaccountable wielding of power.
Immediately prior to the removal of Terris feeding tube, Senator Mike Enzi (R.-WY) subpoenaed her to appear before Congress, thus triggering a federal statute protecting her as a congressional witness. Greer simply chose to defy the law and proceed with Schiavos starvation. To date, no action is even being contemplated in response to Greers blatant contempt of Congress.
It has since been learned that, during the week after her food and water were withheld, Governor Bush had intended to send state authorities to remove her from the hospice where she was being held, in order to see that she received proper care and nourishment. In response, Greer issued an order mobilizing each and every singular sheriff of the state of Florida to prevent her removal.
Reasonable citizens may wonder just where a state circuit court judge ever acquired the power to conscript a standing army of this alarming nature. Such actions are more in keeping with the behavior of Somali warlords.
Yet Greer not only made such an assertion, he caused the governor of Florida to back down in the face of it. What eventual anarchy could arise from other circuit judges who are apparently likewise able to assemble their own armies to impose their wishes?
Sadly, the tiptoeing responses of conservatives in Florida highlight another purpose for the law. Perverse as it may be, it nonetheless provides a skirt behind which the faint-hearted can hide, in order to validate their presumed helplessness.
It would be a stretch, even for the ACLU, to claim that Moores act of defiance physically harmed anyone. In horrific contrast, an innocent life is presently being brutally and arbitrarily snuffed out as a result of Judge Greers contemptible actions.
This countrys judiciary is out of control. Thus, Americas future holds only two possibilities. It will either determine to resolutely confront and control the courts, or it will be ever more subjugated by them.
About the Writer: Christopher Adamo is a freelance writer from southeastern Wyoming, where he has been involved in grassroots political activites for several years. He maintains a website at http://www.chrisadamo.com.
Christopher receives e-mail at adamo.chronwatch@lycos.com.
Our judges seem to think they are Gods.
We have been for a while. Nothing new. It just becomes more obvious and pronounced at times like this.
"...Yet they immediately cite the rule of law in order to restrain those on the right from taking appropriate responsive action...."
We need to remember THE SPIRIT OF '76 which included a willingness to regard certain laws as "intolerable".
Be careful what you say. The big brother is always watching. BTW, the Founders were willing to put everything in line for their action - "...and with this we pledge our life, liberty and sacred honor.(Or something like that)"
Yes Big Brother is watching including posts on FR. But the death of this young woman pushes me toward being a bit more daring. I wish I could have done something for her and not just sit here and type opinions. I feel sick about this whole case. Little kids were arrested while I did nothing.
What is bothering you is called conscience. If you are willing to be a politician, you need to let that go. Too bad she died in 2005. If this was 1004 or 06, she would be alive. The only solution I propose to you is push for smaller govt so you would be less and less dependent on the govt. Trust me if the govt didn't control every aspect of our lives then it wouldn't be able to get away with such an outrage like this. The govt knows we will bend over and accept it because we are too dependent on them to do anything about it.
We needed our executive branch to stick its neck out and riegn in the judicial tyrants. It did not, fearing public disapproval. Terri was not worth it to the Bushes.
Paging Henry Bowman...paging Henry Bowman
Theresa: from the Greek, meaning "harvester, farmer"
Strong's Concordance:.
2326 therismos {ther-is-mos'}
from 2325; TDNT - 3:133,332; n m
AV - harvest 13; 13
1) harvest, the act of reaping
1a) fig. of the gathering of men into the kingdom of God
1b) referring to time of reaping, the final judgment, when the
righteous are gathered into the kingdom of God and the wicked
are cast into hell for ever
from 2325
2325 therizo {ther-id'-zo}
from 2330 (in the sense of the crop); TDNT - 3:132,332; v
AV - reap 21; 21
1) to reap, harvest
2) proverbial expression for sowing and reaping
3) cut off, destroy
3a) as crops are cut down with a sickle
(3/24/2005)
By Joseph Dolman, Newsday
At the moment, Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas and Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee must feel like geniuses. The Republican brain-trust has managed to trot out a weapon in the culture wars that leaves the sad-sack Democrats thoroughly baffled. While half of me admires the creative deviousness of the trick, the other half is repulsed.
By daring to play tug-of-war with Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, the GOP has promised to turn life into a living hell for some of the more thoughtful Democrats on the planet.
The Democrats' mission now is to find an effective way to fight back - before they get caught in new and still more outrageous traps. For all the evil genius of Frist and DeLay, I think there might be a way ultimately to beat their cynical tactics.
That's because Congress' escapade last weekend will prove disastrous.
Never mind that the GOP now appears to endorse as a matter of policy government meddling in a family's private matters. And never mind the wacky spectacle of our whole elected government hurrying back to Washington to vote on a much-litigated medical issue that affects one - and only one - unfortunate Florida woman.
At bottom this episode was about something else. It was a sop to the religious right. It was meant to showcase the awe that Republicans supposedly harbor deep within their hearts for a "culture of life."
The congressional maneuver left Democrats with one of two choices. They could go along with the show like a roomful of sullen hostages. (Almost half of them did just that when the House voted early Monday morning.) Or they could take the route of Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and inveigh with eloquence (and futility) against Congress' intrusion into Schiavo's case.
There's just one catch here. It just so happens that Nadler represents Manhattan's Upper West Side - a swath of ancient liberalism that has somehow survived the ruins of time like the contents of Tutankhamen's tomb. No 2006 challenger is likely to make Nadler explain why he voted for a "culture of death" over a "culture of life."
But other Democrats who voted against DeLay and Frist won't be so lucky. As Frist and DeLay well know, the complex answers to questions like this are impossible to address in a sound bite. All their guy has to do is say that he's for life while the other guy must fight his way out of a swamp: What is life? What is death? When is it right to pull out feeding tubes? Long story short: Gotcha! At least that's one story.
I think it's also possible that Frist and DeLay have seriously misread their Red State base. For one thing, the pollsters and political scientists I know say the Schiavo case is unusual. Even in the South, voters could ultimately resent the intrusion of zealots into family affairs.
"The issue is a risky one," says Utica-based pollster John Zogby. "Who emerges the winner?" Just seeing the matter debated makes most people cringe. And though the Schiavo case might rev the religious right into spasms of political fervor, I can't imagine it creating waves of excitement beyond that.
I base this notion in part on personal experience. I grew up in the piney woods of East Texas - where the political conservatism runs about as deep as the red-clay soil.
Yet in the Jacksonville Daily Progress of Cherokee County, my former home, last Sunday is an editorial that lambastes the Congress for the Schiavo mess.
"Government has no business legislating the relationship between a husband and wife," wrote managing editor Larry Krantz in an unsigned piece. He went on to say that the "right to death with dignity is something everyone should be afforded when that time comes. If anything, the state should protect that right, rather than forcing a family to stay in the present when it's clearly time for her husband and the families involved to move on."
Oh, yeah. There's also an ABC poll, out Monday, that shows Americans support the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube by a margin of 63 percent to 28 percent. Bottom line: I know it's tough, Democrats. But come out of your bunkers. You haven't lost this one yet.
(3/24/2005)
By Joseph Dolman, Newsday
This week's Coulter column pretty well slams this line of Democlap thinking. Ann was on her game Wednesday.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
http://www.ilanamercer.com/As%20She%20Lay%20Dying%20WND.htm
Excerpt:
If the case of poor Terry Schiavo has taught me anything it is how utterly loathsome liberals are. In their ever-so progressive zeal for euthanasia, theyve discovered principles for which theyve hitherto had nothing but contempt. In the liberal vernacular, States Rights are synonyms for discrimination, that is, until Ms. Schiavo. Now Democrats shriek louder than Dixiecrats ever did that the intervention by a federal court in a so-called state (or personal) matter undermines this cherished principle. (So they know about the 10th Amendment?)
The only kind of marriage liberals had ever glorified is the gay kind. But thanks to Michael Schiavo, the sanctity of marriage is fast becoming a liberal sacrament, with the proviso it has to involve mercy killing. It took Michael Schiavos devoted efforts to starve and dehydrate his wife to restore liberal faith in the institution. As we know, liberals, inexplicably, have insisted over and over again that Terry Schiavos husband is his helpless wifes sole and indisputable guardian. Furthermore, to liberals, males have always been the guilty party in just about any heterosexual interaction. Michaels monstrous single-mindedness has changed all that.
We are a nation of laws is the latestnot lastin liberal two-facedness. The law, after due process, has sentenced Ms. Schiavo to death, therefore die she must. Illegal aliens are trampling the rule of law and States Rights as we speak. Show me a Democrat wholl support the right of State residents to refuse to teach or medically treat these lawbreakers.
Consider the liberals let nature take its course chant. They generally believe nature, the animal kingdom in particular, is the appropriate metaphor for civilization. It would apparently do humans a whole lot of good to imbibe even more animal ethics than we already practice.
What distinguishes civilized beings from animals, primitive societies, and liberals is that they dont see nature as an exemplar of all that is fine and good. To the contrary: the civilized dont abandon the burdensome or the enfeebled to nature. When some of us do, others will always strive to rescue them.
The tragedy of Terry is a testament to how irreconcilable certain liberal leanings are with civilization itself.
©2005 Ilana Mercer
Thanks.
Sending you a FREEPMAIL.
As the disabled, lesbian democrat said, 'based on my disability status, I feel more comfortable with the Religious Right in power than, you know, the moderates, any time, any place.'
Or maybe they just aren't strong enough to actually act when necessary. I cannot imagine Truman, Eisenhower or Kennedy backing down to Judge Dreer, or is it Greer.
Roger That!! The courts take an inherently police state approach to issues. The legislative branch relies on compromise.
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