The Best Energy Policy is No Energy Policy

By David Linton

I would hate to count the number of times I have heard over the course of the past year how we need to develop a national energy policy to insure our national energy security.  Sure, this sounds great.  Today the primary sources of our energy are those entities that hate America and its way of life.  We do need to move to a posture in our nation that seeks secure domestic sources of energy so as to prevent constraints to the flow of energy by those who hate us.

We have vast amounts of energy resources: coal, oil, natural gas, petroleum, wind, and solar.  We have been discovering surprising new sources of energy over the past few years.   It is far past time to move in a direction to develop these resources.  What policy should we implement?  What energy sources should we develop?  How should we go about developing them? 

While we talk about developing a coherent national energy policy, we should be clear that we do have a national energy policy now.  It may be haphazard.  It may be a patchwork.  But there is a national energy policy.  Our national energy policy is being forced on us by a restrictive national government.  EPA is threatening power generation with stringent emission limits.  The global warming pseudo science would ban the use of coal.  We subsidize many forms of green power.  The national government is prohibiting the development of the Keystone Pipeline.  Regulations and threatened regulations discourage energy development all across the nation.  Like it or not, this is a national energy policy.

Certainly, there are many voices that champion new energy policies.  The Republican Party is pushing the Keystone Pipeline.  There are those in Oklahoma and in the Dakotas that are encouraging gas development in those regions.  Wind power is making gains in the mid-west.  So which of these policies do we embrace?

I hope in this last question you see the circular reasoning of the whole fallacy of a “national energy policy.”  Any “national energy policy” suggests a policy set by our national regulators.  Discussing a “national energy policy” inherently suggests giving the power to make the call on what to pursue to those who regulate us.  We should have learned the lesson by now that those that regulate our lives do not make the best calls.  Our constitutional republic, for good or ill, is not designed to develop a good consistent policy on anything.  Our system is designed through power checks and balances to guard the liberty of the citizens against the power of the central government.

If we are to achieve a good energy policy that will insure national energy security, we must adopt the goal of having no energy policy at all.  We must approach the problem in a manner that is consistent with the way our system is designed.  We must handle it though government guarding liberty and not the policy developed within the interests of the regulators.  We must remove the regulatory shackles that restrict industry and the ingenuity of a free market place.  Our slave masters in Washington, D.C. are driven by control and reelection.  Our private industries are driven by profit.  Profit motive in this context is a good thing.  Allowing each individual entrepreneur assess the profit potential for each energy source in this nation will be the quickest way to energy independence.  By the very nature of the free market, each entrepreneur will seek to develop the most beneficial, efficient, and profitable form of energy available.   This is the best energy policy and will bring us energy security.

Call to Immediately Fire Jackie Bemboom!

From:  Kerry K. Messer,   www.MissouriFamilyNetwork.net

Call to Immediately Fire Jackie Bemboom!

The Department of Revenue is headed by a Director (Brian Long, since 12/13/2012, and Alana Barragan-Scott (who has worked for Nixon since 1993) Director for the bulk of the scandal timeframe, http://governor.mo.gov/newsroom/2009/Alana_Scott ).  Below the Director is the Deputy Director John Mollenkamp.  From there the Department is subdivided into four (4) Divisions, including Jackie Bemboom, Director of the Motor Vehicle and Driver Licensing Division.

Of all the people (and now other agencies) involved in the rogue DOR scandal – Jackie Bemboom has played the most central part.  At every turn it is her name and direct oversight

that bears the highest connectivity to the many unlawful actions related to this growing scandal.  If there is one key player who has the most involvement it is Jackie Bemboom. 

Her fingerprints are on more documents and details than everyone else combined!

Recap:

·         DOR violates the Driver’s Protection Act which prohibits the collection of personally identifying information.  Scanning citizen’s documents and creating a new database of information violates privacy rights.  Jackie Bemboom created and coordinated the implementation of this new licensing system!

·         DOR violates the State’s anti-Real ID Act which prohibits implementation of Real ID.  Using funds from Homeland Security, they work covertly to create driver licenses that are “compatible” to Real ID knowing the DHS defines “compatible” as the same as “compliant” with Real ID.  Jackie Bemboom was directly responsible for the administration of Homeland Security grants that were ‘hidden’ from the public and the Legislature!

·         DOR violates explicit Statutory prohibition against using biometric cameras.  Under oath it was Jackie Bemboom who had to admit that she had the option of using basic digital cameras, but chose voluntarily to contract (at higher prices) the use of illegal biometric cameras!

·         DOR violates Missouri’s Concealed Carry Weapons law which prohibits the disclosure of endorsees private identification to anyone other than law enforcement on an individual case by case bases.  Utilizing a private vendor for “central issuance” and by creating a database assessable by fee office agents (currently discontinued) violates this provision on two fronts. Jackie Bemboom agreed to the details and signed the contract with the French company Safran’s subsidiary MorphoTrust USA, giving them, and possibly DHS, Missourians CCW status!

·         DOR violates the State Disposition of State Property laws.  Having originally misled everyone to believe the old license processing equipment was only leased, DOR now says that equipment was purchased with taxpayers money.  If this story is the true one (?) DOR has violated State Statutes regarding disposition of State property by allowing the new private vendor to take  possession and destroy that equipment.  Jackie Bemboom signed the contract allowing MorphoTrust USA to take possession of State property for the purpose of destroying it, in direct violation of the law!  

·         DOR violated strict privacy protection laws by releasing the entire list of 163,000 Missouri citizen’s with CCW endorsements!  Jackie Benboom is the immediate Director over the division that had maintenance and responsibility for the confidentiality of this protected list, yet she allowed it to be released!

Jackie Bemboom, who holds a BS in Criminal Justice Administration, has no excuse for playing dumb about her role in this massive muli-year scandal and cover-up.  She has been involved in virtually every step of the conversion from our old and effective licensing process system, to today. She has never once taken the opportunity to speak up!  With multiple violations of State Statutes, she has time and again agreed to conspire against the citizens of Missouri and the elected members of the General Assembly!

Jackie Bemboom serves voluntarily as a director of the AAMVA, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.  This is the national group responsible for producing the “AAMVA DL/ID Security Framework, A Package of Decisions Based on Best Practices, Standards, Specifications and Recommendations to Enhanced Driver’s License Administration and Identification Security”.   While organized as a “private” entity, the AAMVA is a foreign international effort working from federal funding to develop, among other things, biometric technology for all of North America!

To complicate Jackie Bemboom’s conflicts of interest and subterfuge as an active leader within AAMVA while serving as Director of the Licensing Division of DOR – AAMVA was involved in

laying the groundwork development and promotion of the passage of the federal Real ID Act!  Certainly her position with both the State of Missouri and AAMVA is a direct conflict of interest!  

(visit: www.aamva.org for evidence and documentation of details in this message.)

Jackie Bemboom was fully aware of the 2011 Region III Information Exchange between states, with a Jurisdictional Showcase on Missouri DMV.  The PowerPoint presentation at that time 10/4/2011) included a “Real ID Communication Plan” including the “12-month timeline”.  Followed by a discussion of the challenges of “sending the right messages to the citizens of Missouri since we are prohibited from changing procedures to be REAL ID compliant”!

Jackie Benboom must be fired immediately! 

Contact your House and Senate members in Jefferson City to express your concern that Jackie Bemboom must be fired today! 

Call on Director Brian Long to fire her immediately! 

Call Governor Nixon and demand that she be fired now!

The Blackstone Initiative – Declaring the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God

 

 Q.         Who was Sir William Blackstone?

Sir William Blackstone was a renown English barrister, law professor, jurist, legislator, lecturer, and commentator.  But his most notable achievement was the writing of his Commentaries on the Laws of England.  The Commentaries, first publish in 1765, were cited and quoted by the Founding Fathers and by the early American courts more than any English or American authority.  They are, therefore, foundational to any understanding of the American constitutional and legal system.

Q.         What did the Commentaries say about the law?

Blackstone wrote about the Law of Nature, “This law of nature, being coeval with mankind and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other - It is binding over all the globe in all countries, and at all times; no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this: and such of them as are valid derive all their force, and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original.

He also wrote about the Law of Revelation, “The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the holy scriptures.  These precepts, when revealed, are found upon comparison to be really a part of the riginal law of nature, as they tend in all their consequences to man's felicity.”

He concluded, therefore, “Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these.”

Q.       What is the Blackstone Initiative?

The Blackstone Initiative is a public policy organization devoted to this principle that upon these two foundations the law of nature and the law of Scripture depend all human law and that no human laws shall be suffered to contradict these.

Q.       What further principles is the Blackstone Initiative founded upon?

All subsequent and subordinate principles derive from the original principle.  For the present, the Blackstone Initiative proposes the following subordinate principles:

1.        The United States federal government is subservient to the state governments except in those limited enumerated powers granted to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution.

2.       The U.S. Constitution has a fixed meaning as originally written and ratified by the original thirteen colonies.  Any effort to make the U.S. Constitution a “living document” vacates it of all meaning and, ironically, destroying it in its very purpose, causes it to die.

3.       The word “federal,” being in meaning “covenantal,” the federal government was and is a product of a binding covenant between the states, the people and God, namely the U.S. Constitution, and failure of the federal government to be faithful to said covenant makes it null and void.

4.       Education is the process of inculcating a God loving culture in one generation by the prior generation and, therefore, education is not within the authority of the government except and only insofar as it fosters a legal climate in which education can be accomplished by individual families and the church.

5.       God’s primary tool of cultural change is the covenant renewal worship of His people.

Q.       How will these principles be pursued?

1.     By publication of substantive statements of position,

2.    By instruction on the foundational principles of this nation, and

3.    Interaction with Missouri legislators on Scriptural principles pertaining to legislation, and

4.    Dialogue with churches regarding these principles.

Q.       How can you help?

Jesus is "the Supreme Ruler of the Universe"

An excerpt from my speech to the Consent of the Governed Rally, January 4, 2012:

It is refreshing to read the preamble of the Missouri state constitution. It shows the wisdom of the men and women who formed our government. It provides their view of the justification for government. The preamble of the constitution reads as follows: “We the people of Missouri, with profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, and grateful for His goodness, do establish this constitution for the better government of the state.” The foundation for the government of the state of Missouri is reverence for the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. Who is this Supreme Ruler? I would like to address that question, but before I do I would like to discuss one possible objection.


Someone may ask whether this preamble violates the separation of church and state. I suspect that most of you are aware that the language of separation of church and state is nowhere to be found in the constitution of the United States. That language was first applied to the federal government through the First Amendment in 1878 by the U.S. Supreme Court and later applied to the states in 1947 by that same august body. The language itself comes from Thomas Jefferson in a letter he wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802. Jefferson was not even in the country during the debate of the First Amendment. It is a complete mystery to me how his words could be taken as an interpretation of the First Amendment when he was not present for the debate. To now allow that language to be used as a mantra to rid the nation of its Christian heritage is a travesty. And Missouri’s constitution is evidence of that travesty.

Rather than quoting someone who was not present during the debate on the First Amendment, I would prefer to quote someone who WAS there. This man said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” This command, we know as the Great Commission, is worthy of your reflection in this New Year. Consider it in this election year. What does it mean for our state and our nation?

I would like to make several points regarding this pronouncement. My comments will not be exhaustive. Many of you will have to flesh it out in the days to come. But I do have some preliminary comments. First, Jesus is the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. Note that he claims all authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto him. This is no hollow claim, and it is no hollow recognition by the framers of the Missouri Constitution that they hold reverence to the Supreme Ruler o f the Universe as the foundation of Missouri’s government. Therefore, the Missouri constitution is a covenant between God and the people to conduct themselves in accordance with that relationship, to be in subjection to him.

Second, and likely most importantly, Jesus came to make disciples of nations. Notice that he did not say, go and have people ask for me into their hearts. He did not say I have come to create a new philosophy for you. He commanded much more. He came to change the world by making disciples of all nations. He came to create a new world to follow him. The unfortunate thing about speaking of “Christianity” is that it can be portrayed as a philosophy, as simply a matter of the heart. If post-modern culture is successful in portraying the faith of Christ as simply a philosophy it may put Christianity on the shelf with all of the other post-modern philosophies and relegate it to irrelevancy. Jesus did not come to start a new philosophy. He came to change the world by changing nations.

Third, when Jesus pronounced this command, he made it to his eleven disciples. He made it to those who would found his new Church. He made it to the Church. The institutional Church has authority in this world to execute the change that Christ initiated. I am not claiming that the Church should exert some ruling authority over the state. But I am claiming that there is a place for the institutional Church to reassert its role in the dialogue of the proper authority of the church and of the state. For example, the state has no authority in providing charity to the poor. When the state takes responsibility for charity, it does so by law, and charity dies because it becomes legal obligation and no longer charity. The state exists to execute justice. When the state takes the property of some in order to redistribute it to others, it is doing the exact opposite of what it is supposed to do, execute justice. It is unjustly confiscating the lives of its people. Charity is the role of the church and the church should say so.

Likewise, the Church should reengage in its role in education. Education is the process whereby culture is transferred from one generation to the next. Education is by its very nature religious and cultural. It forms the way the next generation looks at the world. It forms the way we say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. It informs what we occupy, whether Wall Street, our own homes, jobs and churches. The Church has its very existence in cultural formation as Jesus claimed. And it is time for the Church to say so.

Fourth, YOU have an obligation as well. When you speak to your elected officials, you must remember that you are not seeking your will but the will of Jesus. This requires wisdom. You must keep several things in mind. You are not speaking for yourself. You are speaking for another. You must know his thoughts and desires.

You must also remember that your elected official is ordained by God to his or her position. It is a position of honor that God has given that elected official, and the position must be respected.

There is great honor in being an elected official in the state of Missouri, but there is also great obligation. Jesus expects the nations to bend the knee to his kingship. He expects them to be disciples. That is an awful position to be in as an elected official. How does an elected official carry out that responsibility? Certainly, there are consequences that flow from a proper or an improper execution of that task. Your job is to assist your elected official to fulfill that obligation if they so choose.

In closing, I say I am slow to speak of Christianity. What Christ gave us is not a philosophy. He gave us a culture. We must pass that culture on to the next generation. I prefer to speak of Christendom, the new culture Christ gave us. And I am optimistic about the role of Christendom in the future. Consider the Great Commission once again. Jesus claimed to have all authority in heaven and on earth. He also commanded his church to make disciples of all nations. If he commands us to so act and he has all authority to bring our actions to success, what can possibly keeping him from completing that task?

A Christmas Wish for Our Nation

O. Palmer Robertson, in the fourteenth chapter of his book Christ of the Prophets, makes the point that the core theme of the Prophets of the Old Testament is the working of exile and restoration. Exile and restoration are never completely inseparable.

As we read the Old Testament Prophets, it is often hard to make specific applications to our lives. These prophets wrote to a community long ago, to a culture as foreign to ours as any can possibly be, separated by time and history. What we learn from the Old Testament Prophets is an understanding of how Yahweh thinks and acts, particularly how He acts through His covenant. If we read the prophets in the context of the entire Old Covenant, the concepts of exile and restoration are one particular aspect of the blessings and curses of His covenantal dealings with His people.

If we review the blessings and curses in Deuteronomy, we find that the blessings of the covenant are always given in conjunction with the curses of the covenant. Blessing and cursing virtually always work together. Genesis 1-3 provides a key understanding of how this works out in our labor. Labor or work is simultaneously a blessing and a curse. Ecclesiastes portrays this reality in poetic form.

In the Prophets, Yahweh, the covenant God, executes the blessings and curses in exile and restoration. In some cases, curses are the precursor to blessings. In some cases, the curses to one people are blessings to others. In all cases, curses bring about a radical reorientation in people, nations or the world that allow Yahweh to create something completely new.

The pinnacle of His working of His covenantal blessings and curses is the incarnation of His eternal Son in the person of the Lord Jesus. Jesus submitted to the covenantal curse of the cross and in doing so permitted His Father to create something new. The Father, through His Son, created a new reality, a God-man who was suitable to rule all of creation at the right hand of His Father. He is now seated there with all authority in heaven and earth.

This nation and the entire world have been going through a time of cursing. I am not going to speculate on the extent or length of this cursing. However, as we go through this Christmas season, let us remember that cursing is not without result. Cursing brings blessing in some shape or form, all under His care and supervision. The important thing to do is to remember that Yahweh is sovereign. While we work to change our nation for the better, remember not to give into despair. Be willing to submit to the workings of Yahweh. He is creating something new.

The Uniter vs. The Divider

Peggy Noonan last week in her op ‘Ed “The Divider vs. the Thinker” in the Wall Street Journal, asked the question, what is the glue that has held America together for the past 200 years that now appears to be cracking, threatening to allow the many divisions in our nation to drive us to destruction? Ms. Noonan’s answer:

A love of country based on a shared knowledge of how and why it began; a broad feeling among our citizens that there was something providential in our beginnings; a gratitude that left us with a sense that we should comport ourselves in a way unlike the other nations of the world, that more was expected of us, and not unjustly— "To whom much is given much is expected"; a general understanding that we were something new in history, a nation founded on ideals and aspirations—liberty, equality—and not mere grunting tribal wants. We were from Europe but would not be European: No formal class structure here, no limits, from the time you touched ground all roads would lead forward. You would be treated not as your father was but as you deserved. That's from "The Killer Angels," a historical novel about the Civil War fought to right a wrong the Founders didn't right. We did in time, and at great cost. What a country.

Ms. Noonan is on to something, but what she is on to remains remotely hidden in the background, hidden behind the word “providential.” There is much good in Ms. Noonan’s piece, much worthy in the way of good advice. However, unless what remains in the background is brought forth, her proposition ironically will simply add to the decline. Ms. Noonan has adequately expressed in her piece the modern day, American secular gospel, something that has come to be known as American exceptionalism. But this secular gospel is a cheap, superficial imitation of the true source of social unity.

At the founding of our nation, there was a common consensus that the God of the Bible was the king of the universe. The world and the nation were ruled by a king that had given himself to die for the sins of all those who sought to subject themselves to him. This God of mercy and grace not only made a way for a sinner to obtain a right relationship with God and with his fellow man. He taught his subjects how to conduct themselves in society. Our founding fathers established this nation on the proposition that its people would act as Christians, in the same character of mercy and grace as their heavenly father. John Adams claimed that, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that, “The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.” Patrick Henry proclaimed, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians not on religionists, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity and freedom of worship here.”

Scripture is replete with declarations that a man or woman will take on the characteristics of his god. If we are being divided, it is only because we have taken on the characteristic of our god. The secular gospel, American exceptionalism, and the Federal Government have become our god. Who do we turn to for security in our employment? The Federal Government. Who do we turn to for security in our old age? The Federal Government. Who do we turn to for the security in our healthcare? The Federal Government. The Federal Government has become our god. Is it any wonder that we are being divided?

Government as god inculcates the character of litigation. In government, there is no room for mercy or compassion. There is only law. Law begets demands of right and obligation. When confiscation through tax policy becomes law, confiscation becomes justice, greed becomes institutionalized.

The core character of government today is divisiveness. White House advisors recommend that the victor in the White House should reap the spoils of his victory for his followers. The media echoes this refrain. Democrats seek to structure tax policy to take away blessings from the rich. Republicans seek to give tax benefits to select mercantile interests. If an interest can obtain 51% of the vote of the elected legislative body, government can legislate a solution and declare more rights and obligations. With each declaration of rights and obligations, we become more and more slaves to our governments.

Occupy Wall Street is a perfect example of how we have taken on the characteristic of our god the Federal Government. Those who occupy Wall Street have some apparent claim that they are entitled to some interest in Wall Street. However, they refuse to share what they have with the less privileged. They occupy but they do not bless. They claim and commit acts of violence. This attitude is far from the attitude embraced by our founders: “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. (Eph 4:28 ESV)”

America is exceptional. It is exceptional because it was founded upon two millennia of a growing and developing Christian heritage. To look to America without looking through America to that heritage will reinforce the American idolatry that is making us a divisive nation. It is better to look through America to the God that gave it liberty in the first place. Benjamin Franklin, no evangelical apologist, observed, “The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?” Better than depending on American exceptionalism is the praying the third verse of the old hymn of Henry Harbaugh:

Let our rulers ever be
Men that love and honor Thee;
Let the powers by Thee ordained
Be in righteousness maintained;
In the people's hearts increase
Love of piety and peace;
Thus united we shall stand
One wide, free, and happy land.

Using the Right Tool in America

A confluence of events has come together that make it apparent that our governing officials do not know how to use the proper tools in the cultural tool belt. Is it useful to use a hammer on a bolt? Is it effective to drive in a nail with a screw driver? Our carpenters know what tools are useful to build a house but our legislators are not so astute.

Consider that the U.S. government is now in debt in excess of $14 trillion. Social Security is in a shambles. Hurricane relief in New Orleans was a fiasco. More recently, Senators Blunt and McCaskill have complained about relief funds being diverted from Joplin to the east coast. Finally, our state officials have debated whether millions of dollars of tax credits should be given to private enterprises to induce them to make a hub in St. Louis, commonly known as the China Hub or Aerotropolis. Our elected officials have determined that they can do all of these things and they are not doing any of them well.

Western Civilization has, at least until the last century, held a common consensus that there are three cultural tools in the world’s tool box: the family, the church and the magistrate. Each of these institutions has been identified with a recognizable symbol. The family is represented by the rod as described in Proverbs. The rod is a symbol for discipline, discipleship and education. The church has been given the symbol of the keys of the kingdom as Christ gave the keys of the kingdom to the disciples in Matthew 16:19. The keys of the kingdom symbolize spiritual, emotional and physical wellbeing. The magistrate or the state has been given the symbol of the sword as described in Romans 13. More particularly, in America, we have taken on the symbol of lady justice, blindfolded, holding the scales of justice. These two symbols communicate protection of the nation and an impartial judgment of right and wrong.

However, in the past century we have seen the federal government and now the states more and more taking the rod and the keys of the kingdom. Simultaneously, we have seen it and the states relinquish the sword and the scales of justice. What have these efforts obtained? In their taking up of the keys of the kingdom, our federal and state governments have created a social security system that is bankrupt. They have obtained our children’s children being saddled with $14 trillion of debt. They have produced low income housing at a cost in excess of $200,000 per unit. In their usurpation of the rod, our state officials have produced an educational system that is dysfunctional, bordering on a culture of crime. By proselytizing our young minds to be good workers for the state, they have enculturated good little wards of the state. All the while, our borders are breached, our defenses are compromised and our citizens must pay the price by invasions of privacy from laws such as the Patriot Act.

It is interesting to compare two recent events. First, both of Missouri’s U.S. Senators decry the recent diversion of relief funds from Joplin to the east coast to remedy disasters. Second, the Missouri Senate has debated the propriety of giving tax credits to private enterprise to induce the Chinese to create jobs in Missouri. The Senate debate is complex. On the one side, liberals decry the possible reduction in benefits to the needy for the benefit of the industrial class of our culture. In many ways, this is parallel to diversion of funds from Joplin to the east coast. Who is to say who is more deserving? On the other side of the Aerotropolis debate, you have some conservatives claiming that we need to make better investments with taxpayers’ money. But how can a government make investments with a sword and its eyes blindfolded? The common wisdom holds true. If you do that, someone will lose an eye.

In America today, governments love to throw money around to accomplish their social designs. Governments only obtain their money from taxation. Frederic Bastiat referred to taxation for such purposes as “legal plunder.” We, as a nation, have embraced such legal plunder. It is our life blood. Without it, even conservatives believe our culture will collapse. However, the flaw in legal plunder can be seen in the recent events of the east coast hurricane and Aerotropolis. Once you give in to “legal plunder” you must accept the directives that control the legal plunder. You may not like where the planners send your money, but having accepted it to begin with you must abide their decisions. If you accept legal plunder for Joplin, you must accept it when Joplin is plundered for the east coast. If you accept legal plunder for the poor, you must accept it when the poor are plundered for Chinese businessmen. Wouldn’t it be better to let the church and the local community attend to the truly needy and let business tend to itself?

A screw driven by a hammer is ineffective and usually destructive of quality workmanship. Compassion driven by law is messy and destructive of human dignity. It is time for our federal and state governments to reassess their roles and their function. It is time for our elected officials to seriously contemplate what they can do well with a sword and a blindfold on and quit pocking people in the eyes.