ISI Conference Part Three: More British Than the British!

November 16, 2009 | Filed Under Britain, Christianity, Conservatives, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Government, Corruption, History, Liberals, Patriotism, President, Religion, Rights, Society/Culture, State Government, The Law, Warner Todd Huston, Western Civilization | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is the final installment my three part report on the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s one day conference on The Roots of American Order. So here is part two of mine titled Lift a Glass to the Past: America Rooted in Tradition or a New Covenant? (Click for parts one and two)

After a break for lunch, Mark C. Henrie took up America’s Britishness. Henrie wrote the ISI’s A Student’s Guide to the Core Curriculum that explains the value of a traditional core of studies in Western civilization and his session reflected that study.

Capitalizing on Birzer’s citation of Edmund Burke who praised the colonist’s essential Britishness, Henrie made the point that America is best understood not as a break from tradition but as the culmination of a long series of continuous ideals that range back through Western history, specifically through England.

Henrie says that we get four essentials from England.

  • The English language and literature
  • The common law and a respect for the rule of law
  • A desire for self government
  • Manners and a social order

One of the questions that researchers have often wondered is why American English and British English are essentially the same? Why didn’t America reinvent English for its own purposes in the same way the Dutch altered German, for instance? Henrie says that the reason is that the focal point of language in the colonies was contained in the King James Bible and that pervasive reliance on a single source of language arrested any development of a widely diverging American version of English. We Americans inherited the English language through the Bible.
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ISI Conference Part Two: Christ in Our Soul

November 16, 2009 | Filed Under Britain, Christianity, Conservatives, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Freedom, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Patriotism, President, Religion, Rights, Society/Culture, State Government, The Law, Warner Todd Huston, Western Civilization | 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is part two of my three part report on the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s one day conference on The Roots of American Order. So here is part two of mine titled Lift a Glass to the Past: America Rooted in Tradition or a New Covenant? (Part one can be seen here)

The second speaker of the day was Brad Birzer who regaled us on America’s Judeo-Christian History.

Bizer began his session by noting that historian Donald Lutz discovered that the founders used Christian references in their pre-war writing far more than any other source. St. Paul was the most referenced New Testament figure with Micah 4:4 being the most referenced Old Testament verse.

But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.

On this Lutz quotation, though, I want to clarify something. Many have bandied about the claim that Donald Lutz said that 34 percent of the founder’s writing contain direct Biblical citations. This claim is not altogether true. On the other hand, it is not something to quickly dismiss as fans of the Enlightenment influence want to do, either.
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Lift a Glass to the Past: America Rooted in Tradition or a New Covenant?

November 16, 2009 | Filed Under Britain, Chicago, Christianity, Conservatives, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Government, Corruption, History, Liberals, Patriotism, Religion, Rights, Society/Culture, The Law, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston, Western Civilization | 8 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Is the United States a grand experiment, a new covenant invented out of whole cloth by the fertile minds of the founders from never before seen ideas or is it a nation spawned from deeply rooted traditions of western thought? This was the question posited in a one-day-long conference on classicism in America’s founding sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) and held in Skokie, Illinois, a near northern suburb of Chicago.

The short answer is that the liberal mindset that holds that we should invent the USA anew with each succeeding generation is an erroneous conception of what the United States was meant to be when it was founded. Sure America has some ideas never before seen by political man, but at heart, America is rationalism informed by tradition, not some amorphous mélange of constantly changing ideas.

The founders created a new nation based heavily on Western ideas through British tradition, not one based solely on rationalist thinking. As they struggled to set their new nation on its new Constitutional course, for instance, the words of Founder John Dickinson of Delaware served as their benchmark.

Let experience be our only guide. Reason may lead us astray.

An intimate crowd of 60 some participants enjoyed four separate addresses by lecturers associated with ISI. Appearing behind the lectern were Bruce Thornton, Professor of Classics at Fresno State University; Brad Birzer, Professor of History at Hillsdale College; Mark C. Henrie, Senior VP and Chief Academic Officer of ISI; and E. Christian Kopff, Professor of Classics at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

In these three installments, I will lay out what we talked about at this interesting one-day conference.

Part One: How it all Began
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Who would you rather have with you as a back-up in that dark alley?

November 5, 2009 | Filed Under Ann "Babe" Huggett, Britain, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Europe, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Socialism, Society/Culture | No Comments

-By Ann “Babe” Huggett

London’s flamboyant, bike-commuting mayor, Boris Johnson, did something rather extraordinary earlier this week in that criminal paradise known as the UK where self-defense and “have-a-go heroes” face prosecution for stopping crimes before the police can get there purposely too late in order to just have to fill out paperwork. In the UK, where everyone basically quails before the whims of the violent, Boris Johnson confronted a gang of teenage girls (one armed with an iron bar), who were threatening an older woman.

With his reputation as an out-of-control rugby player still hanging around him like a miasma, big, burly Johnson sped up on his bike to help the founder of the environmentalist 10:10 campaign and film director, Franny Armstrong (The Age of Stupid) as the wolf pack of girls descended on her. The girls, not used to meeting resistance from anyone, dropped their weapon and fled.

Armstrong, who was a supporter of Johnson’s mayoral rival, “Red” Ken Livingston, was clearly impressed when she said, “If you find yourself down a dark alleyway and in trouble, I think Boris would be of more use than Ken.”
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Don’t Copy Europe’s Mistakes: Less Government Is the Right Way to Fix Healthcare

November 3, 2009 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Britain, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Europe, Government, Corruption, Health, House of Representatives, Liberals, President, Senate, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

In this Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation video, Eline van den Broek explains that government interference is driving up healthcare costs in America and warns that European style health “reform” will make the situation even worse. Based on what has happened in Europe, she explains that universal health coverage is not the same as universal healthcare, that insurance mandates mean more government control, and that price controls simply do not work. More Information: www.freedomandprosperity.org

Obamacare: Punishing 85% to Help 15%

October 17, 2009 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Britain, Capitalism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Europe, GOP, Government, Corruption, Health, House of Representatives, Liberals, President, Republicans, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Representative Mike Rogers (R, Mich.) made some great points in his opening statements against Obamacare as the debate heats up in D.C. He began by asking why we are punishing 85% of America because of the problems of 15%? He also told us of how bad the survival rate for cancer in the U.K. is compared to the U.S. but that Obamacare will make our survival rate as bad as England’s.

Great stuff, Mr. Rogers, great stuff.
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IMF Warns Britain to Dump ‘Free’ Healthcare to Avoid Financial Crisis

October 2, 2009 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Britain, Budget, Capitalism, Communism, Cook County, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Europe, Government, Corruption, Health, Liberals, Socialism, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Britain’s vaunted nationalized healthcare system is bankrupting the nation and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is warning that if the UK doesn’t start charging for healthcare and raise the retirement age above 65 the country will not be able to get out from under the widening fiscal disaster.

The IMF is telling the British government that she must instigate a wholesale revamping of its pensioner and healthcare system to “help keep a lid on the debt.”

Treasury officials admitted recently that the deficit is expected to rise “£200billion this year - £25billion more than the Chancellor predicted in the Budget.”

That is the equivalent of £3,257 of debt for every man, woman and child, or £9,457 for the average family.

It should be pointed out that Britain’s deficit is no where near the Obama deficit in the U.S. and his $1 debt doesn’t even count any nationalized healthcare plan like the one Congress is desperately trying to pass.
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Drugged Out Of One’s Gourd

October 1, 2009 | Filed Under Ann "Babe" Huggett, Barack Obama, Britain, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Humor, Journalism, Liberals, Media Bias, Socialism, Society/Culture | No Comments

-By Ann “Babe” Huggett

Poor Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the UK has been the subject of some scurrilous web rumors lately that he is “self-medicating” by popping pills in order to “get himself through” his high pressure/low respect days. Who could blame Brown, if he took to at least the bottle after not only being snubbed five times in a row to get a bilateral conference with US President Barack Obama but ended up disgracing himself and his country over the Lockerbie bomber release-for-oil fiasco earlier on? Brown strikes me as a scotch and soda sort of fellow, who drinks in private but that old adage about never drinking alone because, if discovered, it will only arouse pity comes to mind here.

Normally, web rumors are just that and usually go no further especially in a country where the media works hand-in-hand with the government. The pro-Labour BBC is solidly leftist these days so Brown was not expecting the sucker punch live interview question on BBC TV by UK political presenter, Andrew Marr, when Andrew asked point blank, “…something everybody has been talking about in the Westminster village… A lot of people in this country use prescription painkillers and pills to help them get through. Are you one of them?”

Brown, of course, reacted in outrage because the insinuation carries behind it the acknowledgment that Labour has lost the approval of the media. Earlier in the week the UK’s political Rasputin of the Left, Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, commented that he could easily work with the Tories should have let everyone know that Labour’s days in power are numbered.

Andrew Marr’s question is also interesting on a different level because, quite frankly, it needs to be asked of all the world’s current leaders. Drugs, booze, decadent excess, jet lag and plain old mental instability would go a long way in explaining why we’re all in this hand basket and where we are all going.
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Brit Hasn’t a Clue About U.S. Politics

September 18, 2009 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Britain, Business, Capitalism, Christianity, Congress, Conservatives, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Education, Europe, Free Trade, Freedom, Government, Corruption, Journalism, Liberals, Media Bias, Military, President, Race, Religion, Republicans, Security/Safety, Socialism, Society/Culture, Taxes, Terrorism, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Many elitist American leftists like to go about claiming that it is only Americans that are dunces on foreign matters. There is some truth to the accusation that Americans are not knowledgeable about the rest of the world but if a column in the UK Telegraph is any indication it isn’t much better for Britain’s understanding of American politics. Worse, it is plain that even a British journalist hasn’t a clue what he’s on about when attempting to discuss the differences between a Democrat and Republican in today’s climate.

At issue is the incredibly garbled take on American Democrats and Republicans as posted by U.K. Telegraph writer David Lindsay, who claims himself to be a “freelance writer and tutor at Durham University.” One wonders why he doesn’t get a real job.

In “Why real American conservatives should register as Democrats,” Lindsay’s main point seems to be that Republicans really support what the Democratic Party supports and so GOP voters should resign from their party and join the left side of the aisle. But Lindsay’s reasons prove that he doesn’t know a thing about what he’s talking about.
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Talk Show Host Michael Savage’s Website Attacked by Hackers

September 17, 2009 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Britain, Democrats/Leftists, Foreign Policy, Freedom, Government, Corruption, Journalism, Liberals, Media Bias, Selwyn Duke, Society/Culture | No Comments

-By Selwyn Duke

A little while back, talk show host Michael Savage had to endure an attack on his character when the British government associated him with terrorists and other criminals and banned him from traveling to the U.K. But on Saturday, August 22 the attack — or at least an attack — was brought to his own shores when a computer hacker damaged his website by sneaking into its server through a feedback portal, forcing technicians to shut it down for nearly an hour.

The attack came on the heels of sharp criticism leveled at the U.K. by Savage over its release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, prompting the host to speculate that the British government might have ordered the hacking effort in retaliation. Drew Zahn writes of Savage’s suspicions at WorldNetDaily.com:

“Why on the day of the worldwide furor over the release of the Lockerbie Bomber by [British Prime Minister] Gordon Brown would Michael Savage’s website be hacked?” the radio host posited. “We cannot say who did this, but would it not be a possibility that the Brits themselves ordered this hack-attack?

“Why?” Savage asked WND. “Because the evidence that they placed me on this list with real murderers and terrorists was a political favor to some Islamic nation can be found in the recently discovered e-mails, hidden until now by the Gordon Brown government. Their own e-mail chain on banning Savage states, ‘There is no evidence of Savage advocating or inciting violence,’ yet, by including Savage on this banned list it would ‘help provide a balance of types of exclusion cases,’ in other words, the list would not only contain radical Muslims but also a white male conservative.”

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Shattered Lives: Victims of Government Healthcare

September 13, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Britain, Budget, Capitalism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Europe, Freedom, Government, Corruption, Health, Liberals, President, Security/Safety, Socialism, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The National Center for Public Policy (nationalcenter.org) has assembled a compendium of horror stories of the “shattered lives” of 100 victims of government healthcare from all over the western world. This book serves as a warning to every advocate of the “free” healthcare that Obama is trying to sell like snake-oil from a traveling case. If government gets control of our healthcare, our entire system will be worse off for it.

In “Shattered Lives: One Hundred Victims of Government Health Care,” author Amy Ridenour presents us with 100 heartwrenching stories of healthcare victims from Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Japan and other western nations, stories that should serve as a warning against our blundering down the destructive path of nationalized healthcare.

Ridenour regales us with tales of self-dentistry because government healthcare refuses service, deaths over canceled operations or long-delayed treatment, and citizens that had to flee their own country to find lifesaving healthcare in other lands. There are tales of babies born in home toilets because government healthcare refused to see a pregnant mother, diseases undiagnosed, and restrictive and ill-conceived rationing to services causing blindness and other ailments.
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Absurdity: Media Re-Brand Obama as Kennedy-Like With Photo

September 3, 2009 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Britain, Democrats/Leftists, Journalism, Liberals, Media Bias, President, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Perhaps it is the Brit’s unseemly penchant to slobber over royals, but a recent photo of President Obama has elicited that ever-so-common, shop-worn, knee-jerk royalesque response in the media over there. (Yes, it’s a words-with-dashes sort of day)

The photo of the president at his Oval Office desk while daughter Sasha playfully spies on him from behind a couch has caused the Brit media to raise comparisons to the famous photo of J.F.K at his desk as little John, John plays under it.

At least three British news sources and one Australian outlet absurdly claimed that the Obama photo “invoked” the comparison to J.F.K. to which one can only say, stuff and nonsense. (The Telegraph, SkyNews, The Mail, and the Australian.)

There is no “invoking,” no provoking, no revoking, prevoking or postvoking. There’s no voking at all, but one does wonder what the Brits are toking.
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The Diminishing Returns of National Healthcare

August 24, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Britain, Budget, Business, Canada, Communism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Europe, Foreign Policy, Government, Corruption, Health, Liberals, President, Socialism, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Now even The New York Times is admitting that Obamacare means rationing and also means a cutting back of Medicare proving that fears of America’s elderly are “not entirely irrational.” The Times is admitting that the original guarantee that Medicare is forever and that the government won’t interfere between patient and doctor is fading fast.

Again, as we’ve said in the past, one of the chief ways we can judge if we should allow Obama and his Democrats succeed in forcing a government takeover of our healthcare is to look to see how government controlled healthcare works in other countries — or doesn’t, as the case may be. We’ve had many examples already of how badly nationalized healthcare works in England and Canada, and here are two more.

Let’s start with our northern neighbors who, it seems, flood across the border seemingly on a monthly basis to get their healthcare here in the U.S. because they can’t get it in a timely manner in their own country.
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Fashion Police In UK Impose Burkinis On Non-Muslims

August 20, 2009 | Filed Under Ann "Babe" Huggett, Anti-Americanism, Britain, Communism, Democrats/Leftists, Fashion, Feminism, Foreign Policy, Freedom, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Society/Culture | No Comments

-By Ann “Babe” Huggett

Summer 2009 may be half way over but there’s still time to work on that tan down by the public swimming pool. Unless, of course, you happen to live in the UK and then sunburn and tan lines will be the least of your worries. It turns out that non-Muslim recreational swimmers must adhere to sharia approved swim wear or be turned away from taxpayer funded municipal pools and state schools. It’s the UK’s latest move to accommodate its increasingly demanding, never-satisfied, always-probing-for-weaknesses Islamic community.

With such blatant favoritism guaranteed to stir up even greater antipathy towards Muslims than already exists, the politically correct pool fool administrators across the country are now insisting on sex-segregated access, that men, yes men, “…cover themselves from the navel to the knee…” and that women show only their faces, hands and feet. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t Muslim; you either wear “modest” Muslim approved dress during the days or hours designated for Muslim swimmers or you don’t so much as dip your big toe in the water.

Large, baggy swim wear for men has been a regrettable sportswear staple for years and even topping those trunks off with a tee shirt won’t impede the swimmer too much. However, on the distaff side of the equation, form fitting wet suits aren’t modest enough and Doctor Denton jammies are right out because they have drop door rear ends. So it’s the burkini for you, baby, or else!
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Brit Hospital Manager Warns Against Obamacare

August 18, 2009 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Britain, Budget, Business, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Europe, Free Trade, Government, Corruption, Health, Journalism, Liberals, Media Bias, President, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Who better to inform us of how wonderful a socialistic healthcare system is than one who ran the very hospitals enmeshed in such a system? Well, the Wall Street Journal gave some space to just such a fellow in its August 12 edition.

Alan B. Miller’s piece in the Journal is enlightening and a bit scary, honestly. He assures us that “we don’t want to go the government route” and be foolish enough to institute Obamacare. And Miller should know, too, as he is the chairman and CEO of Universal Health Services Inc., a company responsible for running some of Britain’s hospitals. As we know, Britain has a nationalized healthcare system and has since just after WWII.

A single-payer system may appear attractive to some. But as someone with more than 30 years of experience running a leading hospital company with international operations, I have firsthand knowledge of the hidden costs.

Miller reminds us that Medicare does not fully reimburse hospitals for costs incurred by its patients leave 7 cents on every dollar unpaid. He then says that the reason Medicare “works” to the degree it does — while still a failing concern — is because the hospitals rely on those with private insurance to make up the loss incurred by Medicare. But if the whole system becomes a government owned enterprise we will have major problems; chiefly rationing and cuts in service.

If hospitals had to rely solely on Medicare reimbursements for operating revenue, as would occur under a single-payer system, many hospitals would be forced to eliminate services, cut investments in advanced medical technology, reduce the number of nurses and other employees, and provide less care for the patients they serve. And with the government in control, Americans eventually will see rationing, the denial of high-priced drugs and sophisticated procedures, and long waits for care.

Miller then points to his experience of precisely that situation in England.

He warns us not to emulate the mess that has happened in Canada and England. Let’s hope people are listening to actual experience.
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Help the Soldiers!



"Governments are instituted among men,deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776




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