One of my favorite movies is The Matrix. There is a scene in the movie when Agent Smith is interrogating Morpheus, attempting to access the key to the Zion mainframe. One strategy that Agent Smith employees is a diatribe on his interpretation of humanity. He describes humans as a species that develops in one area and when the resources in that area are consumed, they move to consume the resources in another area. Agent Smith concludes that humans are not mammals because we don’t find an equilibrium with our environment. He then drops the bomb that we are a virus.

In my home town, the incredibly corrupt and inept government is attempting to gain access to additional tax revenue by incorporating adjacent communities. In many cases, the only reason these surrounding communities have grown is because they have become refuges for those trying to escape the burdens of the incompetent city government and move to areas that are more efficient, tax friendly, and generally more safe.

The city has now consumed the tax resources available within its own boundaries and rather than facing the fact that it needs to fix the corruption and graft, it is seeking more tax income by attacking surrounding communities.

It struck me that this is exactly the behavior described in The Matrix. It also struck me that the political right advocates for balance, while the political left agitates for dominance.

I can only conclude that Agent Smith was only partially correct. Most likely because he observed humans as a single race rather than through the lens of politics, he concluded that entire human race could be described as a virus. Because I observe humans through the lens of politics, I can more accurately describe the human race in two segments: Those among the political right can be described as mammals. Those among the political left, can indeed be described as a virus. No balance, no compromise, just a never ending hunger for more. More taxes, more rules, more control, more power.

Conversation over a few beers tonight of course evolved (devolved?) into politics, where I realized that the very intelligent and vibrant people around me understood freedom as protected by the American constitution. That while that freedom came certainly with risk, the alternative was being subservient to a ruling elite.

That of course reminded me that America’s ruling elite are only conferred their power through the willing or perhaps orchestrated submission of the masses who believe they are actually empowered, the subverted who believe they are elite, that is the liberals who sit around tables drinking the same beer, pontificating about those conservative rubes who cling to their guns and religion. All the while the power class strips away the very element that affords them the ability to pontificate at all – freedom.

How ironic that the “rubes” can clearly reality and have no fear discussing it while the “enlightened” blissfully cling to their blindness. It seems that consorting with like minded people could be characterized as a virtue for the right and a vice for the left.

Short post today because I did an 11 hour drive.

I keep an American flag in my truck. I try to monitor for veterans and active duty military stickers and show them the flag as I drive by.

Today, I did that for a disabled Vietnam veteran.

As I did so, I realized that this man went to war for freedom. He was injured for freedom.

As I waved my flag, I realized:

We are all freedom fighters now.

My wife watches The Bachelor, so of course, I do too. Watching the rose ceremonies I was struck by the tension and desperation in the faces of the women, waiting for their judgement.

It occurred to me that the rose ceremony was an excellent metaphor for big government.

Here we have a group of ladies waiting for a rose from a man who has singular power over their happiness. How sad for the women to know that they are limited to this one source for their future. Imagine how empowered they would feel if they could freely search for their own source of happiness, if they could look out at the world and see unlimited options, unlimited roses.

This is the paradigm of big government. With big government, you will get a decision, but you might not like it. And in order to get that decision you must submit to the cattle call, you must submit to judgement.

With small government you might not get a judgement, but you will arrive at the end with the knowledge that you made your own path, that you made your own rose ceremony.

In the Super Bowl pregame show today the Sandy Hook Elementary Choir sang America the Beautiful. One of the lines in that song includes the phrase, “…brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.” This, I think is the paradigm that we should return to, that is an American brotherhood.

I don’t expect everyone to get along. I expect everyone to have respect. I expect us all to understand that the reason people who think differently can live together is because America respects all points of view. Because we have a legal system that is designed to apply the law regardless of your social standing or the color of your skin.

America’s not perfect, and that’s because the people (us) who comprise America aren’t perfect.

We’re not perfect, but we are brothers.

Whether you like it or not, we are all Americans, even those you disagree with.

When you criticize America, you criticize yourself.

We need to return to that reality.

For in reality, we are all brothers.

Whenever I have to fill out a document and identify my “Race,” I’m always presented with choices like “White,” and “Black,” and “Hispanic.” Usually, there’s also the choice of “Native American.” At this point I realize how stupid race identifiers are, because I have Anglo-Saxon and Native American ancestry. Am I white? Am I Native American? No. I’m both. So why do I have to choose something that’s just not true?

In this context, I also realize how stupid race-based policies and politics are. We are truly being used as rubes by those who need us to be divided so they can continue to cultivate power and wealth. We should realize that none of us can identify as belonging purely to one race. Are we going to go back to the days of the middle ages where you needed to prove your lineage in order to find your role in society? Ludicrous.

Just because you see me walking down the street and I have white skin is no reason to hate me. You don’t know me and you don’t know my heritage. Hate based on color, or any emotion or policy based on color is a fabrication, a ruse, a lie.

Imagine asking someone, “Yeah, you’re black, but how black are you?”

Ladies and gentlemen, we live in a country where we are supposed to be equal under the law, where justice is supposed to be blind. But we all know that isn’t the case. Explicitly or tacitly, the law is applied differently based on the color of your skin, or where you live, or your education, or how much you make, or who you know.

We live in a country that spent 100 years defeating slavery, then another 100 years defeating prejudice, and you still want a justice system that decides cases based on the color of your skin?! I want to live in a society where we live together knowing that even though we look different, we are all equal under the law, and thus we are equal in the fabric of society. And make no mistake, laws are the fabric of society. Without law, society cannot exist, civil society anyway. And a society of laws in which those laws are not applied equally is not civil either.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are on a precipice. We are faced with a choice. We can choose civility and harmony. Or we can choose chaos and misery.

We can choose to return to the rule of law, to equality under the law, to blind justice. No more affirmative action, no more discriminatory welfare programs, no more race-based education opportunity, no more racial identity at all.

Or we can choose to selectively enforce the law based on circumstance, to “interpret” the law, to be “sympathetic” to certain people. Though this choice might have the appearance of being “fair” or “right,” it is actually a rejection of law, a rejection of civility, a dissolution of society into chaos where being on the good side of the law is determined on a whim. Where one man determines the fate of another based on nothing but a superficial trait.

That poor black boy murdered that man because he was hungry! He needed the money to buy food! He deserves parole for good behavior!

That rich white kid murdered that man because he’s crazy! Death penalty!

Two murders. Two colors. Chaos. And misery.

I was going to do a post today about equality under the law, but I got injured today and it made me see the current gun control debate from a different perspective. In the grand scheme of things, my injury is minor. But hobbling around on crutches, having trouble carrying a glass of water or taking a shower, once again makes me thankful for my health, and makes me appreciate those who remain positive in the face of far worse limitations.

This made me consider the plight of those who, temporarily or permanently, have lost the use of some part of their body. A broken arm or leg, paralysis, amputation. These people’s lives aren’t worth any less than that of an able bodied person, yet gun control or a gun ban would much farther reduce their ability to defend themselves than mine.

Imagine the young mother with the broken ankle, hobbling along in a foot cast dragging a little boy in her wake. You think she might make a more inviting target for a mugging?

Or the college student with the broken wrist, suffered when she slipped on a spill at a party. As she walks home from a night time class, you think she might seem enticing to a rapist? It’s much more difficult to push someone off of you with only one arm.

The diabetes patient who’s lost the use of both legs. Pushing her wheelchair back from the store, purse in her lap. An easy snatch and grab.

You can dream up myriad examples of those who might need a little help to defend against harm. They can’t run away, they can’t punch or push, they can’t jump in the bushes and call 911. Do you think those people will get a special waiver from gun control initiatives? You have a broken arm? Ok, you can have a magazine with a 15 round capacity. Oh, a paraplegic? Here, fully automatic for you. Enjoy!

This is madness writ large. We’ve taken limited instances of madness wreaking havoc and allowed that madness to permeate our entire society. I’m insulted by the sophomoric spasms of rhetoric and blame.

Adding insult to injury indeed.

The current immigration “reform” conversation has me particularly upset because I have a good friend who has been in the immigration queue for many years, has spent a lot of money and time, is working for an American company and paying American taxes, yet has not been given the opportunity to become a citizen, and he very much wants to.

This man is a good man and will be a good American. I’m sure that many illegal immigrants are also good, but to think they are all good is wishful thinking.

For those who view amnesty as “fair” because illegal immigrants are simply here trying to make something of and for themselves, I ask, “All of them?” Are you absolutely certain that every single illegal immigrant is a good person who is just trying to make it in an ugly world? I would argue that to be ludicrous.

With a border as porous as ours and the lone fact that we have people here in America that came here without one single vetting, you can rest assured that there are illegals here who want nothing but the worst. They want to rob. They want to rape. They want to steal. They want to kill. It’s not xenophobic to say so. It’s reality.

Why would you ever consider amnesty if there was even the possibility that you would confer citizenship on someone who only wanted to harm other citizens? It’s ludicrous.

We need to stop illegal immigration first, then use existing, perhaps improved, immigrant processing to vet those already here. Illegal immigrants are not all good things.

It tells me things are good.

Granted, I don’t absorb information from known “left leaning” sources of information, and there is zero doubt that the next 4 years will be difficult, but when you have a situation where the left only persists through diversion, collusion, obfuscation, obstruction, and lies, the writing is on the wall: things are close to crumbling.

Oh the left holds many cards. The Presidency, the Senate, the justice system, administrative agencies, the public school system, private and public sector unions, non-profits, the media, and on, and on, and on. But even in the face of that monumental effort, the right carries on. It should be pulverized by now, but the right is still there.

And when you frame the left vs right political situation within the current gun control debate, the future looks promising. As long as you get your information from non or minimally biased sources, it is astounding that this crashing wave of anti-gun propaganda is being met with a substantially well-informed, level-headed resistance. There is no mass movement in one direction or the other. The issue is at a head, but also frozen in combat.

As a “gun nut” you can bet I’ll be watching this closely, but at the moment, it appears to me that additional gun control is a non-starter, and looking more deeply into it, I sense a burgeoning curiosity among those in “the middle” who are hearing the arguments of the pro-gun resistance and recognizing that it’s not full of lunacy, it’s full of reason, passion, and most of all a desire to do something that will actually make a difference.

We driven by emotion just like the left, but we are not driven by anger at an ideology, we are driven by love for those who were lost and those who are missing the ones they love.