Scottish style Battle-Hymn of the Republic

While reading a selection on William Wallace in Scotland: The Story of a Nation last night, I stumbled across this verse.

Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has often led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to victorie...
Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow!
Let us do or die!

Somewhat stiring eh? Legend has it that this was part of the speech Robert Bruce gave to his men on the morning of June 24, 1314 just before the Battle of Bannockburn.

Free "Speech"

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. "

- Amendment I, The United States Constitution

That is the text of the First Amendment. Unfortunately, over the years, "speech" has been gradually tranformed in the national dialogue to "expression". This unjustified transformation has allowed things like pornography, sodomy, flag burning, etc to come to be protected under the umbrella of the First Amendment. This is ridiculous bullshit. It's exactly this type of idiot thinking that allows much of the societal decay we see in our culture today to go on unchecked. When an artist puts a crucifix in a jar of urine it's protected because he's expressing himself. When NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association) is permitted to exist, it's because these perverts are expressing themselves (even if that expression is through sodomizing minors). When some hippie burns the American flag in protest of war he probably knows nothing about, he's expressing his dissatisfaction with the government. My point is, there has to be a line somewhere. We have laws against public indecency. What if I decide that, to express myself, I want to stand on a busy street corner in the nude? Are the laws against public indecency then unconstitutional since I’m exercising freedom of expression? Of course not. That type of behavior is stupid. It's not hurting anyone, but it is stupid. Much the same can be said of burning the flag. Doing so doesn't hurt anyone, at least not physically (unless they're wrapped in it at the time), but that behavior is aberrant. If flag burning is going to be a protected form of expression, then beating the hell out of anyone burning the flag should be a protected form of expression as well.

In recent weeks, there have been two attempts by Congress to get amendments to the Constitution passed in the Senate and House and eventually on to the States for ratification. The first was aimed at defining marriage. It failed to even come to a vote in the Senate. The second, which failed to pass in the Senate by one vote yesterday, would have given Congress to power to make laws prohibiting the desecration of the flag. Now, while I am vehemently opposed to homosexual "marriage" and flag burning, I think it's a good thing that these proposed amendments failed. Amending the Constitution should not be taken lightly. Added to that, I don't think that these two issues even fall into the jurisdiction of the federal government. The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution states that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Nowhere in the Constitution is mention made of marriage or flag burning and thus, powers to regulate marriage and flag burning should be left to each state. It's bad enough that activist judges have played fast and loose with the Constitution. We don't need Congress messing with for issues such as these. Each state must be left to its own devices as to how to handle gay marriage and flag burning.

Palestinian leaders appear eager to sign their own death warrants

The tenuous cease fire that has held between Israel and Palestine for the last several months has been all but ended by the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier. Israel holds the Hamas-led government of Palestine responsible. Afterall, it was the military wing of Hamas that carried out the raid and kidnapping. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has threatened military action if the soldier is not returned alive to Israel post-haste. The mind-numbing stupidity of the Palestinians never ceases to amaze me. Hamas officials are doing nothing other than setting themselves up to be the targets of Israeli assassinations. Many world governments have refused to recognized the Hamas-led Palestinian government until they officially recognize Israel's right to exist and remove Israel's destruction as one of their stated party goals.

Somehow though, all of this will turn out to be Israel's fault. How dare they exist? They should roll over and let Hamas and other terrorists (read Muslims) crush them and wipe them from the face of the earth, right? Wrong. Israel should go after those responsible with an iron fist and demonstrate that they are not going to allow their people to butchered by Palestinians who, by the way, have more to thank Israel for in the last 30 years than any of the so called "concerned" Arab nations that surround them.

Finally, an answer to this burning question

I'm not sure if this guy has too much time on his hands or is some kind of comedic savant. Worth a look if you're a Monty Python fan.

Random ramblings

Food poisoning sucks. I spent all day on Memorial Day alternating between the couch and hugging the toilet. I have new respect for how Melissa dealt with four months of morning sickness. Speaking of pregnancy, we're at T-six weeks until D-Day and we're both pretty excited for the big event to happen. The last lamaze class is tomorrow night (thank God) and we'll be getting a tour of the new maternity wing at the hospital.

Church softball starts tonight and I'm starting to get that excited/nervous tickle in my stomach. I've been waiting for this all winter and spring and now that it's finally here I feel like I can hardly wait another four hours until game time.

Sometimes I wonder why people spend so much time over-intellectualizing Christianity. To me it seems pretty straight forward. The Bible says to love God, recognize the Christ died for me and love others. I'm pretty sure that if people needed to have a college degree in order to be able to fully understand the Bible, God would do something about the price of college tuition.