Mission Statement, Part 2:

Socially Liberal. Point and counterpoint. It took long enough to get here, but I will now tackle this absurdly rhetorical word play without getting carried away in some high faulting' sounding essay. "Conservative vs. Liberal" are linchpins that, by definition, appear diametrically opposed in day-to-day punditry. Since I've already explained my politically conservative agenda, I can cut straight to what I consider the obvious liberal "exceptions." I have always objected to the conventional "pigeon holing" of policy as either "Republican" or "Democrat." Unfortunately, our brief national history has not yet led us to a viable "third way." Nevertheless, idealistic and radical as I thought of myself when I was a young man, I sought to avoid the "Brand Names" and identified more with the "Libertarian" label. We've all heard the line "I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member." Google attributes the line to Groucho Marx (though I doubt it). That makes sense, and pretty well summarizes my attitude about most sub-sets of society. I accept that government is necessary, for the principals stated in the preamble to the US Constitution, the Constitution's structure itself and the Bill of Rights. That's it. Kept simple, I can live with that. We (our proxy signers) collectively agreed to defense from external threats, and certain other things. And it makes sense to combine efforts in certain other matters. Building roads, for example. Rather than have everyone in Houston build his own road to Dallas, coorporation can be a good idea. Limited coorporation, for the good of the signing neighbors, outside, for everyone's good.

Government should have no say in what I do with my property. If I found a million pounds of gold in my back yard I should have a right to defend that property from theft--including theft by the government, even if they make up a term for the theft like "taxes." If I run a lucrative business from my house, that's my business, not the business of the government. The government has no right to know if I succeed or, if so, by how much. The government has no right to the fruits of my labor. Government needs revenue, but it should be from usages and tariffs. But if we are to get into the "General Theory of Income Taxes," we open a whole nother can if worms. Starting with the newly invented "right to privacy" the hallmark of the pro-abortion lobby. Fasten your seatbelts. This can get dicey. I for one favor privacy, therefore my argument against the income tax, but it goes farther. Go way back to that bane of free men as opposed to free women and the contradictions built around right decision for the wrong reasons. Go back to a curse America has not been able to shake: prohibition. I offer a quote from Abraham Lincoln, when he was in the Illinois house in 1840. I've quoted it before, but I'm going to use it again as a springboard to my summation.

“Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.”

Abraham Lincoln

December 18, 1840.
Speech to the Illinois House of Representatives.

Let's go to the old saw that liberals (i.e. Democrats) are so good at: sloganeering. Semantics, word games. Take, for example: "Pro-Choice." How ingenious. How can one be an American, in favor of democracy and be "anti-choice?" That's obfuscation at its best. The issue is not and has never been about "a woman's right to choose." It's about "a woman's right to CHANGE HER MIND, after having made the wrong choice." I'm all for a woman being able to choose what she puts into her body, if only a man had the same right. Just as I think it is an invasion of privacy for the government to know how much money I have, I think drug tests are a violation of the Fourth Amendment against unlawful search and seizure. If I want to put powerful drugs in my body, that should be my choice. I can think of few drugs that more dramatically affect the human body that the pills women get to take that totally alter their natural reproductive processes.

Generally, I'm in favor of decriminalization of victimless crimes. I find nothing in the Bible that forbids drinking, on the contrary, Solomon has some nice things to say about certain benefits of wine. We all have been told that it is not what goes in to the mouth that defiles, but what comes out. It is, as always, the excess--gluttony to which the real sin is inexplicably attached. I believe we are placed here to enjoy what The Lord has provided, but discretion is important. There has always been one passage that has bothered me a lot. Without quoting exactly, I'm sure you know that to which I refer. It goes something like "To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." I want to tackle that in more detail at a later date. For now I want to make clear that I see far too much restriction placed by man's "legislation" regarding matters that are foolishly regulated as political matters which when left to the spiritual realm are much more "liberal" when viewed through the lens of The One who cares not one whot about our stupid papers. I realize I'm shooting broadly when I include Roe within the contexts of governmental intervention, but I think there is a valid point there. Please feel free to challenge me or prove me wrong. If you can't, perhaps at least you can give me a new slant. This was a tough entry, and already I feel I need to start reediting. I've put it off long and will no doubt revisit the issue, but that's what this is all about. I know you can't wait till I get to Christianity! OK. That's two Mission Statements out of 4. Maybe as I get healthier, my expression will become clearer. In the meantime, we bees marchin' on. Oh, and about the Libertarian matter, I'm really disappointed in what I view as missed opportunity. Unfortunately, they don't really have that much to offer. If you are interested in where they stand now, you can take a look at this.

This begins my 10th day home alone with no Cheryl, and the loneliness and boredom are reaching new levels. There's no telling how much longer she is going to be hospitalized. Her blood pressure remains dangerously low. Her grand kids, Marcus, Demetrius, Robert and Rozzi come by around 5PM-6PM daily to see that I have plenty of water, and something to eat. One of the kids will microwave me a dinner. Marcus is the eldest boy at 13. Rozzi is about 16 and comes with them sometimes. Turkey and cheese sandwiches serve as a mid-afternoon holdover. Cheryl's daughters, Kita and Deloris, have also been helpful. Deloris has changed my bandage twice, to my great appreciation, though that is something foreign to her. Still, without her I don't know what I'd do. After many weeks of calling so-called health care agencies, I seem to have found one that will help. I had in house interviews yesterday and today, and I signed lots of papers. They offer in home help 11AM-3PM, Monday thru Saturday to feed me, clean me, clean the apartment, change linens, do laundry and shop. And all of that with no cost to me! It sounds great, but there's no word on when the service will begin. I hope it comes through by the time Cheryl gets home.

I've always been a solitary sort of guy (waiting 51 years to marry), but I am experiencing a new level of isolation now. I've managed to occupy some chunks of time on the phone seeking solutions to the home care problem, but I'm not accustomed to this degree of helplessness. I'll spend time online, watch TV, and get very bored. I nap a lot, and no matter how early I go to bed, or what pills I take (of the pain or Valium variety), I wake up after midnight and can't find anything worth watching, reading or writing. At least, last weekend, I had my blog book project, but with that completed, I am starved for something new to do. Oh, yeah, there are all the original Star Trek episodes available online at any time, but I generally watch only one a day--maybe two. And I'm smoking way too many cigarettes. After I figure my income taxes, later, I may actually try my hand at resuming one of my discarded fiction files. Incidentally, if you'd like to see how far I got with posting my si-fi novella, look to the left of this page below the Archives and click on A Journeyman's Rite. I'm not happy that the indentations didn't transfer, and I still have some "sidebar" work to do, but, HEY! It wasn't easy. The next time I arrive fresh at this site I will try to make good on a brief essay about the second part of my "Mission Statement." "Socially Liberal" should require a certain amount of sober objectivity. I have several points I want to make, so maybe I should start honing my writing skills with a little fiction.

I am happy to report that my wife, Cheryl's, surgeries both went well this week. Monday was cardiovascular in preparation for yesterday's removal of a spinal tumor--reportedly, thank God, benign. I must also thank my niece Misty Faircloth for her heartfelt support and all the additional prayers during this grueling week. I never spent so many hours in a wheelchair. My heart goes out to all those who suffer so much more than I. I certainly reached my mobility limit this week. I was also happy to learn that while Memorial Hermann's IT department claims to not have Wi-Fi (they say they are working on it), it is there. That helped a lot with the waiting time. Cheryl's family has been very supportive in keeping me supplied with food and water, but I've been unable to find anyone to help change my bandage. I've tried every so-called charity organization and several churches. They always wished me the best of luck.

Though I've fallen behind in what I'd hoped to be a blogging discussion of things philosophical and controversial, I have found a new avenue of pursuit using Blogger's setup. It sounds simple to begin with; I wanted to get more of a Website experience from the available formats, and I seem to have found one. It began with my desire to publish an old sci-fi story of mine, but I figured I'd need a genuine Website to host the text and link to that. That ain't necessarily so. Blogger isn't designed to publish books, but there is a way. The initial instructions seem simple enough (there is even a sample template), but it is much, much more complicated than it first appears. I've invested about 20 hours this week exploring the potential and have suffered lots of frustration. Sometimes you just have to improvise, and sometimes you have to take leaps of faith in tinkering with the provided HTML. Fortunately I have 15 chapters to work with. I have 3 down and 12 to go. Each chapter is a post, so by project's end I'll have the basics figured out. Getting rid of the timestamps was tricky. Then there's the cross-links between chapters and the table of contents. The author of the how-to article makes a big deal about permalinks. Permalinks are written about everywhere, but I still don't grok 'em. I get the eebie-geebies every time I delete a line of code, and totally don't get it when I do that and nothing changes. Sometimes you get lucky. I got lucky tonight. I'm excited about the possibility of linking several Blogger modifications into a true Website. Btw, the novella I'm attempting to publish is no great shakes, but it's a good chunk of material to practice with. Oh, and one more thing about HTML, in case you didn't know, or are just curious. Right click on any Website and go down to and select "View Source" That is the raw data version of what the page looks like. Tim Berners-Lee, take a bow.