For God, Family and Republic

How any civil servant or statesmen should deal with the media.

"Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement."
—Ronald Reagan

Why we should limit the scope and power of government.

"Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty."
—Ronald Reagan

While most politicians give all the glory to the government for economic growth, wise statesmen and economists know that...

"Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States."
—Ronald Reagan

The best value of higher education is that...

"Going to college offered me the chance to play football for four more years."
—Ronald Reagan

Can you Amen something before you quote it?

"Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives."
—Ronald Reagan

Political Economy 101

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
—Ronald Reagan

A quick reality check about the federal government's bureaucracy.

"I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress."
—Ronald Reagan

Drug abuse is Anti-American.

"Let us not forget who we are. Drug abuse is a repudiation of everything America is."
—Ronald Reagan

"I have a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a sinner. I look to Him for mercy; pray for me."
—Alexander Hamilton, July 12, 1804

"What a glorious morning this is!"
—Samuel Adams to John Hancock at the Battle of Lexington, Massachusetts, 19 April 1775

Amazing Grace: The Movie is the 2007 biographical motion picture capturing the life and work of Britain's premier abolitionist who pressed for the end of the slave trade. It was released just in time for the bicentennial.

"America and Britain, two nations who are children of the same family, and brothers in the same inheritance of common liberty."
—William Wilberforce declared from House of Commons speech 19 July 1811

Profoundly inspired and influenced by her mother country Great Britain, America voted to end the slave trade no less than seven days after the British Parliament's vote in 1807. Two hundred years later, the heirs of the English common law tradition can unite to remember the legacy of abolitionist William Wilberforce and his associates. It is a time to reflect upon the need for equal justice before the law and reconciliation among disparate peoples across the world.

In 1840, a statue to the memory of Wilberforce was placed in Westminster Abbey bearing the epitaph:

"To the memory of William Wilberforce (born in Hull, August 24th 1759, died in London, July 29th 1833); for nearly half a century a member of the House of Commons, and, for six parliaments during that period, one of the two representatives for Yorkshire. In an age and country fertile in great and good men, he was among the foremost of those who fixed the character of their times; because to high and various talents, to warm benevolence, and to universal candour, he added the abiding eloquence of a Christian life. Eminent as he was in every department of public labour, and a leader in every work of charity, whether to relieve the temporal or the spiritual wants of his fellow-men, his name will ever be specially identified with those exertions which, by the blessing of God, removed from England the guilt of the African slave trade, and prepared the way for the abolition of slavery in every colony of the empire: in the prosecution of these objects he relied, not in vain, on God; but in the progress he was called to endure great obloquy and great opposition: he outlived, however, all enmity; and in the evening of his days, withdrew from public life and public observation to the bosom of his family. Yet he died not unnoticed or forgotten by his country: the Peers and Commons of England, with the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker at their head, in solemn procession from their respective houses, carried him to his fitting place among the mighty dead around, here to repose: till, through the merits of Jesus Christ, his only redeemer and saviour, (whom, in his life and in his writings he had desired to glorify,) he shall rise in the resurrection of the just."

"It was the faithful, persistent and enduring enthusiasm of...William Wilberforce...and [his] noble co-workers, that finally thawed the British heart into sympathy for the slave, and moved the strong arm of that government in mercy to put an end to his . Let no American withhold a generous recognition of this stupendous achievement. What though it was not American, but British...it was...a triumph of right over wrong, of good over evil, and a victory for the whole human race."
—Frederick Douglass

Amazing Grace Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound) That sav’d a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see. ’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears reliev’d; How precious did that grace appear, The hour I first believ’d! Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home. The Lord has promis’d good to me, His word my hope secures; He will my shield and portion be, As long as life endures. Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail, And mortal life shall cease; I shall possess, within the veil, A life of joy and peace. The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, The sun forbear to shine; But God, who call’d me here below, Will be forever mine. John New­ton, Ol­ney Hymns (Lon­don: W. Ol­i­ver, 1779)

A Brief History of Fort Sumter
In the 1827, Secretary of War John C. Calhoun had approved the construction of a new fort in the harbor. The first appropriations were made by Congress in 1828 and construction started on the harbor shoal. By November, 1834, the United States had expended roughly $200,000, and Fort Sumter was under construction.

Background to the Fort Sumter Incident
Many historical texts do not present an adequate background to the Fort Sumter incident. The conventional narrative is that the southern states seceded and than intemperate fireeaters in the south opened fire on a federal fort, and it omits the exigent circumstances leading up to that incident. So, please consider these facts submitted to a candid world.

In February, southern troops began seizing federal forts, arsenals, and installations throughout the newly formed Confederacy almost as soon as their respective states had seceded. Often it was simply the case, that the sentiments of troops stationed at those forts were decisively pro-Confederate, and they simply acceded to the Confederacy without incident. That same month, South Carolina forces repulsed a supply ship trying to reach Union forces based at Fort Sumter. The ship was forced to return to New York, its supplies undelivered.

Upon taking office in late February, Confederate President Jefferson Davis immediately appointed a Peace Commission to resolve the Confederacy's differences with the Union. He did so in conformity with a resolution of the Confederate Congress. The Peace Commission was tasked to travel to Washington, D.C., and did so in March 1861, well before the bombardment of Fort Sumter. They offered to pay for any Federal Property on Southern soil as well as the Southern portion of the national debt. As the Confederate Military History (Vol. 5. Chp. 1), notes:

Able commissioners, Robert W. Barnwell, James H. Adams and James L. Orr, were elected and sent by the convention of the State to treat with the government at Washington for an amicable settlement of this important question, and other questions growing out of the new relation which South Carolina bore to the Union.

Lincoln rebuffed the Confederate delegation, and refused to meet with them.

Legally, the Union holds title to property with a State only by Consent of that State
Consider the legal and constitutional background on federal installations as per the Constitution. Article I, Section 8, Clause 18 of the U.S. Constitution provides clear instructions about how and under what circumstances the United States government may acquire title to property located within a state:

[Congress shall have the Power…] To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of Particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards and other needful Buildings. [emphasis mine]

Notice, that the procurement and building of such installations, required not only a Congressional act, but the consent of the state legislature affirming title to the land. The ordinance of secession, in the State of South Carolina, dissolved their assent to the Union, and by implication any title that the Union government may claim. Now, I submit one could argue, no settlement for compensation for those installations is even necessary because at least in theory, the southern states were taxed proportional to federal expenditures in their states. (In reality, the southern states accounted for three-quarters of federal revenues borne by confiscatory tariffs and duties, and most expenditures were made in the north.) However, the Confederate government in prudence and in interests of peace, desired to make provision and pay not only for those installations but also for the southern states' share of the national debt under the Union.

Prelude to the Bombardment of Fort Sumter
Historian Thomas DiLorenzo notes,

Lincoln had been advised by his top military commander, General Winfield Scott, and most of his cabinet, to abandon Fort Sumter. The Confederate States of America would no more tolerate a Federal fort within their borders than the Colonials would have tolerated a British fort in Boston or New York harbor, and to these advisors it wasn't worth going to war over. ¶Lincoln had promised over and over that he was not planning on reprovisioning Fort Sumter, which had almost run out of food, oil, and other provisions. He lied. He sent a naval force onstensibly to reprovision the fort, accompanied by heavily armed battleships.
(DiLorenzo, p. 119.)

When Lincoln decided to would hold all federal property, he had in mind Fort Sumter, a pentagonal brick stronghold on an island situated at the mouth of Charleston Harbor. The commanding officer was an artillery commander from Kentucky, Major Robert Anderson, who had sixty-eight soldiers under his command, and barely enough food to last a few more weeks.

On April 10, 1861, Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, in command of the Confederate forces at Charleston, South Carolina, demanded the surrender of the Union garrison of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The Union Garrison commander Robert Anderson refused.

On April 11, Confederate commander Beauregard wrote Union commander Anderson, and dispatched this correspondance:

HEADQUARTERS PROVISIONAL ARMY, C. S. A.,
Charleston, S. C., April 11, 1861.

SIR: The Government of the Confederate States has hitherto forborne from any hostile demonstration against Fort Sumter, in the hope that the Government of the United States, with a view to the amicable adjustment of all questions between the two Governments, and to avert the calamities of war, would voluntarily evacuate it.
There was reason at one time to believe that such would be the course pursued by the Government of the United .States, and under that impression my Government has refrained from making any demand for the surrender of the fort. But the Confederate States can no longer delay assuming actual possession of a fortification commanding the entrance of one of their harbors, and necessary to its defense and security.

I am ordered by the Government of the Confederate States to demand the evacuation of Fort Sumter. My aides, Colonel Chesnut and Captain Lee, are authorized to make such demand of you. All proper facilities will be afforded for the removal of yourself and command, together with company arms and property, and all private property, to any post in the United States which you may select. The flag which you have upheld so long and with so much fortitude, under the most trying circumstances, may be saluted by you on taking it down. Colonel Chesnut and Captain Lee will for a reasonable time, await your answer.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
G. T. BEAUREGARD,
Brigadier-General, Commanding.

On April 18, Robert Anderson wrote the command back in Washington:

STEAMSHIP BALTIC, OFF SANDY HOOK,
April 18, 1861--10.30 a. m.--via New York.

Having defended Fort Sumter for thirty-four hours, until the quarters were entirely burned, the main gates destroyed by fire, the gorge walls seriously injured, the magazine surrounded by flames, and its door closed from the effects of heat, four barrels and three cartridges of powder only being available, and no provisions remaining but pork, I accepted terms of evacuation offered by General Beauregard, being the same offered by him on the 11th instant, prior to the commencement of hostilities, and marched out of the fort Sunday afternoon, the 14th instant, with colors flying and drums beating, bringing away company and private property, and saluting my flag with fifty guns.

ROBERT ANDERSON,
Major, First Artillery, Commanding.

References:
DiLorenzo, Thomas. The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War. Roseville, CA: Prima Publishing, 2002. p. 119.

By R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

Most of us recognize that patience is one of the cardinal Christian virtues – we’re just in no hurry to obtain it. Others just define patience as a delay in getting what we want. As Margaret Thatcher once famously remarked: “I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.” In today’s fast-paced society and self-centered culture, patience is quickly disappearing, even among Christians.

Patience is not optional for the Christian. The apostle Paul repeatedly commanded Christians to demonstrate patience to each other. In fact, this is a critical test of Christian authenticity. True Christian character, the very evidence of regeneration, is seen in authentic patience.

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul instructed the Ephesian Christians to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Eph.4:1-3)

In a similar context, the apostle called the Christians in Colosse to “put on” the virtues of “compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” (Col. 3:12). Again, Paul illustrates the necessity of patience by pointing to conflict in the Christian community. According to Paul, i f one Christian has a complaint against another; he is to respond with patience, willing to suffer loss rather than to injure the reputation of the church.

To the Thessalonian Christians, Paul’s instruction was absolutely clear: “Be at peace among yourselves.” (1 Thess. 5:13). In order to achieve this peace, Paul instructed the Thessalonians to “be patient with them all.” (1 Thess. 5:14). This is no small challenge.

Most importantly, patience must mark the Christian leader. Writing to Timothy, his young protégé in ministry, Paul set the example: “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.” (2 Tim. 2:24-25).

The Bible’s understanding of patience as a Christian virtue is rooted in the totality of Christian truth. Patience begins with the affirmation that God is sovereign and in control of human history, working in human lives. With eternity on the horizon, time takes on an entirely new significance. The Christian understands that full satisfaction will never be achieved in this life, but he looks to the consummation of all things in the age to come. Furthermore, we know that our sanctification will be incomplete in this life, and thus Christians must look to each other as fellow sinners saved by grace, in whom the Holy Spirit is at work calling us unto Christlikeness.

When we consider the scriptural command to be patient with one another, we should be reminded of several aspects of patience revealed in God’s Word that are vital for Christian understanding. First, we must understand that patience is both a command and a gift of God. As with all Christian virtues, we are obligated under the command of God to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit, of which patience is a vital part. The biblical portrait of patience is not that of mere acquiescence or of facile biding the time, much less is patience seen inexcusable action. To the contrary, patience is a vibrant and virile Christian virtue, which is deeply rooted in the Christian’s absolute confidence in the sovereignty of God and God’s promise to bring all things to completion in a way that most fully demonstrates His glory.

As a command, patience arrives at the Christian conscience as a matter of accountability. At the same time, patience is a divine gift. Christians are not able, in and of themselves, to demonstrate true patience as fruit of the Spirit. Augustine, the great bishop of the fourth century, warned that Christians must avoid the “false patience of the proud.” Augustine castigated those who attribute patience merely “to the strength of the human will.” We must indeed will to be patient, but patience as a genuine virtue comes only to those who have been redeemed by Christ and in whom the Holy Spirit is calling forth the fruit of the Spirit.

Second, the Christian virtue of patience is rooted in our knowledge of ourselves as redeemed sinners. Knowing our own frailty, and all too aware of our own faults, we must deal with other Christians out of humility rather than pride. The Christian has no excuse for responding to fellow believers in a spirit of arrogance, haughtiness, or superiority. Instead, we are to be instructed by the example of Christ, and respond in true humility both to God and to fellow Christians.

Patience presents the Christian with a critical test of character, rooted in the simple acknowledgement that we might be wrong. Our error may be in character rather than in conviction. When Christians engage in disputes, it is possible to be wrong while being right. That is a good reminder, even as we must contend for the faith once-for-all delivered to the saints.

Third, the Christian understanding of patience is grounded in our understanding of others as those in whom God is potentially at work. As Paul instructed Timothy, the Lord’s servant is to be kind to everyone, demonstrating patience even in correcting opponents, because “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” (2 Tim. 2:24-26).

This remarkably strong language indicates that Paul is talking about serious matters of Christian disagreement. When he speaks of correcting those who have been captured by the devil to do his will, we can be assured that Paul is speaking of very serious matters indeed.

Paul grounds the virtue of patience in the clear affirmation that God may be at work in those with whom we experience disagreement and conflict. Here again, the biblical doctrine of sanctification helps us to understand that growth into Christian maturity. This comes as a process, through which God forms a redeemed sinner into the image of Christ.

With this in mind, we must respond to fellow believers as those who, like ourselves, are sinners saved by grace. Thus, we must show grace to one another, and the integrity of our Christian professions must be demonstrated by true patience. Even as we seek to convince, to instruct, and even to correct, we must remember that only God can reach the human heart, and we must maintain the confidence that God is at work in those who are fellow partakers of His grace.

Fourth, the Christian virtue of patience is rooted in our understanding of time and eternity. We do not expect to achieve our greatest satisfactions in this life. Relating to our fellow believers, we know that they, like ourselves, will experience full sanctification and glorification only in the age to come. As John Calvin remarked, immortality is “the mother of patience.” This is a good and healthy reminder, for even as Christians are called to common embrace of all truth, we understand that we will achieve full unity only when Christ claims His Church and we are gathered before the throne of God throughout eternity.

Patience must be one of the hallmarks of the Christian home, as each member of the family shows patience in dealing with others. Husbands and wives must be patient with each other, even as parents must be patient with children. In the household of faith, patience, often that rarest of virtues, becomes a test of authenticity and a necessity for the right ordering of the home, the church, and Christian fellowship.

That said, the church must obey the command of God and seek to demonstrate authentic Christian patience – and fast.

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and serves as the editor-in-chief of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology.

Reprinted from SingleVision Ministries, which has open reprint policy.

These are some good training videos from the Gracie Academy of Jujitsu.



The above video is my all-time favorite submission move, the Americana from the mount position. If this were a real self-defense situation to counter an assault, the party in submission would cease resistance because of pain. Otherwise, they face the risk of injury, and at worst, a broken arm. It's not very pleasant feeling to resist, but quite painful. Take it from someone too stubborn to tap out in time's past— IT HURTS!!

The below video is affectionately known as Taking the Back, which is essentially a preliminary move that sets the stage for a choke. In my humble opinion, it's a little harder to execute than the Americana. If it is not swiftly and well-executed enough, then one's opponent can quickly counter it. It works best when performed quickly and in haste, so as to catch an opponent off guard.


Perhaps I can renew enrollment in Jujitsu and Muay Thai kickboxing classes in the future. I haven't taken any classes since my college years, and I much prefer those disciplines to the Karate I took in my youth. Kickboxing is a good cardio workout if anything else. Jujitsu is good way to learn self-defense. Most fights are over in less than two minutes anyway, and usually goto the ground, turn to grappling and submission, and frankly that's where I would prefer to fight anyway. Jujitsu is the great leveler because a well-studied, well-trained student of this art can take on a larger, more sizable opponent and prevail. While weight is always advantageous in a fight, Jujitsu is more about leverage, being adept at anticipating and responding to the move of an opponent, and countering that move with a move that leads ultimately to submission. Jujitsu allows the dominant disciplined fighter to bring an undisciplined fighter to submission and actually minimize the risk of injury to that opponent because well-executed submission moves can quickly put an end to resistance, and compel compliance.

Admittedly, I am rusty, and hope perhaps to get back in the game in training in a structured environment. I need a little more money to do that. We will see in the future about it.