Defeating the Totalitarian Lie by Hilmar von Campe, 2008. ISBN 978-0-9815091-9-8.

I had read about this book last fall when it was first released and, reading about it again recently, finally bought it and read it.  I am certainly glad I did.

von Campe was forced to join the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) as an adolescent.  Not a Nazi, he nevertheless fought what he believed was a patriotic war for Germany.  After the war he came to realize the enormity of the crimes perpetrated by the German people in the name of National Socialism--and how the National Socialist Party fooled the German people into going along with it.

He became--in his words--a true Christian and joined movements for peace and reconciliation.  He worked for them for over twenty years before becoming an entrepreneur and factory owner in Mexico; now he lives in the United States.   Reading his background, one could easily believe he became a "peacenik" or some kind of radical anti-war leftist of the Code Pink variety.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

And truth is his main theme.  He faced the brutal truth of his and his country's Nazi past.  He understands the truth of Marxist socialism as well and tells us how it is simply a variety of the same totalitarianism that motivated the Nazis.  The same for radical Islam.  All are equivalent forms of totalitarianism: what Mark Levin has called "statism;" the elevation of the state over the individual.

He believes that America today is moving in the direction of totalitarianism and he shows us how and why.  It is a sobering analysis.  What can overcome this march toward socialism?  According to von Campe: only truth, embodied in moral renewal, and our love of freedom.  read more »

The problem with hate crime legislation is that it creates special classes of minorities who receive greater protection from harassment via harsher penalties for their would-be assailants.  One upshot of this approach is that groups perceived as chronically threatened because of their identity are given greater benefit of the doubt in bias-motivated crimes they commit against other groups.

If there were ever a group that U.S. law should consider shielding through hate crime legislation, it is: Americans.  The U.S. should be uniquely interested in protecting its citizens against attacks for being residents of this country, in the same way it protects its citizens against foreign attacks and its soldiers against enemies on the battleground.

If there were ever a setting in which pro-American hate crime protections should be enforced, it is in the military.  American soldiers, more than any other group, actively display dedication to pro-American ideals.

If there were ever a cultural group in modern times that has demonstrated persistent, widespread hostility toward and willingness to engage in violent attacks against Americans, especially Americans in the military, it is radical Islamists.

Naturally, army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, who adhered to extremist Islamist ideology, sought connections with Al Qaeda, and shouted “Allahu Akbar!” as he massacred 13 soldiers and wounded dozens at Fort Hood last week, is being portrayed by the mainstream media and the present administration as a guy who needs OSHA counseling.

Muslim apologists have been telling us to not jump to conclusions (except that the killings were caused by stress), that the murders weren’t related to Islam, that it’s “speculation” that the military ignored warning signs regarding Hasan.  We get clueless gems like this from the New York Times on Monday: “It is unclear what might have motivated Major Hasan.”  Wusses like Lindsey Graham don’t help by claiming that the murders were “not about his religion—the fact that this man was a Muslim.”  (Wait—isn’t that a conclusion?)  It takes a hawk like Joe Lieberman to initiate hearings into Hasan’s conduct and the military’s failure to eject him for anti-American actions in which he engaged for years.  read more »

The surest sign that Obama’s presidency is going to turn out to like Bill Clinton’s is that he is already becoming a drag on the Democratic ticket, a state of affairs Clinton took a full six years to realize.

Obama followed around Democratic candidates Jon Corzine of New Jersey and Creigh Deeds of Virginia like a puppy for months during their gubernatorial campaigns.  The President made two visits to Virginia to stump for Deeds and three to New Jersey to rally for Corzine, including stops in Newark and Camden two days before the election.  On Sunday, Obama exhorted New Jersey crowds, “I want everybody in this auditorium to make a pledge that in these next 48 hours, you will work just as hard for Jon as you worked for me.”

In yesterday’s off-year elections, both candidates were soundly defeated.

In New Jersey, Obama beat McCain by a 16% margin in 2008; this year, the Republican beat the Democrat by 5%, for a 21-point reversal.  This, despite the presence of a third-party candidate who took votes away from the Republican and a five-to-one Corzine-to-Christie spending ratio.

In Virginia, Obama beat McCain by 6% in 2008; this year, the Republican beat the Democrat by 18%, for a 24-point reversal.  In both Virginia and New Jersey, independents—who voted heavily for Obama and other Democratic candidates in 2008—voted for the Republican candidate in 2009 by a 2-to-1 margin.

Meanwhile, Obama never showed his face in upstate New York’s 23rd congressional district, where Democratic candidate Bill Owens squeaked past Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman with a victory in Tuesday’s special election.  Obama didn’t directly endorse liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava, but she received heavily publicized support from ACORN, Obama’s pet community organization, which helped solidify her lack of popularity and set in motion events that led to her withdrawal the weekend before the election.  read more »

The early 21st century stands as a period of profound moral confusion. On the one hand, mothers and doctors are permitted to crack open the skulls and suck out the brains of nearly-born babies with government sanction under the banner of partial birth abortion. Should these very same people hike into the woods and crack open a bald eagle egg, they could face serious prison time.

It would therefore seem that contemporary society is marked by two seemingly contradictory extremes --- that of extreme license and that of excessive control. However, upon closer inspection it could be concluded that these conditions are not as contradictory as the situation might originally appear. Rather, it would seem each is the result of the systematic removal of the ethical balance provided within the Judeo-Christian tradition with its emphasis upon transcendent standards provided by an infinitely just and loving God.

With the increasing complexity of knowledge and technology, those trained in the acquisition and use of this complex body of thought (those broadly referred to as “intellectuals”) have taken on increased levels of influence and responsibility throughout society. No longer does agriculture or manufacturing dominate society to the degree it once did.

Futurists from Alvin Toffler to Newt Gingrich have characterized the current sociological epoch as information-based, with those manipulating this information from government bureaucrats to Hollywood producers exercising unfathomable power over the composition of the contemporary mind. Therefore, it must be remembered, as Lord Acton is believed to have said, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  read more »

A North Carolina church plans to have a Halloween Bible and book burning.

This might get me branded as a flaming liberal by some, but unless a publication contains blatant smut, there is no excuse to burn books.

Even if translations such as the NIV or New Living Translations are deficient, that is still no excuse to burn them as many of these still possess the power of God unto salvation.

And even if Billy Graham and Rick Warren are deficient theologically, shouldn't we study their works to learn for ourselves where these thinkers have gone astray rather than blindly accept the word of someone that destroys the evidence before we have the chance to judge for ourselves?

If one feels so moved by the Spirit to dispose of a work that one feels has compromised ones conscience, there are ways to part with the offending text that don't draw attention. What one is actually saying at a public book burning is that no one else should be allowed to read the book either.

Unless one's faith is anchored in the Savior rather than the church, this outrage is almost enough to make one to want to leave Christianity.

by Frederick Meekins

Congress is considering authorization of a tax deduction for pet expenses of up to $3500. Frankly, if you can’t afford to pay for your pet, you have no business owning a pet. Why should the rest of us have to pick up the tab for this? And unlike children, other than not deliberately running over it, I have no grand moral obligation to your pets. This is going to end up causing crazy cat people, who hardly pay any taxes anyway because of their near unemployability, to end up paying no taxes at all.

Van Jones is not only a professed Communist but also a high-ranking occultist as well. In an episode of PID radio, broadcasters Derek Gilbert and Doctor Future pointed out that Obama’s former special advisor for green jobs is also a fellow at the Institute For Noetic Sciences, a New Age think tank that researches “extended human capacities”, “integral health”, and “emerging worldviews”. These categories include psychic abilities, the survival of consciousness after death, and earth-worshipping pantheism.

Obama’s circle of advisors continues to grow more creepy and Nazi-like. Obama’s regulatory czar, who will play a pivotal role in overseeing how laws and policies are implemented, believes organs should be harvested from the terminally ill without their permission. WorldNetDaily reports Sustein as writing. “the state owns the rights to the body parts of people who are dead or in certain hopeless conditions.” Before this is all over with and these tyrants driven from office, one of those “certain hopeless conditions” will no doubt be disagreeing with the Obama regime.  read more »

Shortly before the 2008 presidential election, candidate Barack Obama proclaimed before a cheering crowd of supporters, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming America.”  That statement raises several immediate questions. First, does America need to be “fundamentally transformed”? Next, why does America need to be “fundamentally transformed”? And thirdly, what does Obama want to transform America into? To answer those three questions one must first know the answer to the more basic question, “what is America?” America has a relatively short history when compared to the longevity of other nations. Many nations have indeed been “fundamentally transformed” over the years. Coups and revolutions occur with frequency across the globe. In fact, the nation of the United States of America was created following a revolution. In the late 18th century America was transformed from a colony of the British Empire into an independent democratic republic – an improbable, noble, and unique experiment in a government “under God”, a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people…” (see Gettysburg address). More than anything, America is an idea. America is an idea founded on the belief that man’s fundamental rights come from God – not from government. The rights bestowed upon man from God are many but the most fundamental of these rights, as clearly spelled out in the Declaration of Independence, are “…Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”  read more »

Thanks to fierce lobbying by Congressional Democrats, the Senate Finance Committee’s version of the health care bill just passed on Tuesday with bipartisan support from (1) liberal senators, represented by Olympia Snowe from Maine, and (2) ultraliberal senators, represented by all 13 Democrats on the committee.

On Wednesday morning, GOP senator Susan Collins also announced that she was open to health care reform along the lines of the committee’s proposal.

Impressive as this Republican sweep is, you may recall how Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package received even broader bipartisan support last spring, inasmuch as it attracted the votes of no fewer than three Republican senators, including Snowe, Collins, and Arlen Specter, which means that the failure of the stimulus bill to do what it was supposed to lies equally with Democrats and Republicans.  Of course, Specter became a Democrat five minutes later, but right up until that moment he was firmly on the other side of the aisle.

Snowe, like Collins, Specter, John McCain, and other liberal Senators, has a reputation for magnanimously cooperating with the opposition party (the ultraliberals) in passing legislation that might otherwise be seen as abridging our liberty and taking over our lives.  Legislators such as Snowe (L-ME) serve the important function of watering down such legislation to make its impact marginally less onerous on average Americans.

For example, Snowe opposes a “public option” in the health care reform bill—that is, unless private insurance companies don’t live up to arbitrary standards issued by the Secretary of Health and Human Services that will ensure such companies don’t get away with swindles like “earning a profit,” at which point the public option will kick in faster than you can say “single payer.”  read more »

Travelers often grumble about security measures at airports requiring them to remove belts and shoes as precautions to detect explosives. Such inconveniences may seem like something from the quaint past in light of a new strategy developed by Al Qaeda. An attack was carried out against the Saudi head of counterterrorism operations by concealing nearly a pound of explosives inside a bomber's rectum. The device was detonated by cell phone. It is believed instructions on how to carry out such an attack will soon be posted online.

Representative Joe Wilson was right after all. Obama is a liar. The healthcare legislation being considered in Congress will not require immigrants to produce legitimate photo identification to qualify for benefits. But I bet you, American citizens will have to lay bare all their documents (including birth certificates like those Il Duce refuses to show anyone) to qualify for even the most basic of medical care.

The stage at U2’s Washington concert cost nearly $40 million. By what right has Bono then to lecture the rest of us about poverty and Westerners having too much? During the concert, the Irish crooner declared that his quartet had transcended band status and are more akin to a global force like a nation states. Apparently he’s every bit the arrogant piece of human dreck South Park made him out to be.

Hollywood and secular elites around the world have endorsed child molestation. The likes of Whoopi Goldberg, Woody Allen, and the French government have gone on the record that Roman Polanski should be set free since his drugging of a thirteen year old girl and the carnal knowledge he gained of her while in such a state was so long ago and really wasn’t rape anyway. One wonders if they’ll go as easy on Catholic priests accused of such things often on the grounds of nothing more than the word of the alleged victim.  read more »