Assuming that Barack H. Obama was not talking about a new American Gestapo/KGB, it certainly sounds to me like he plans on effectively forcing American youth to participate in government-sponsored public service organizations aimed at implementing government policies. He mentioned expanding AmeriCorps to 250,000 young people, who will provide “health care and education, saving our planet and restoring our standing in the world…” (He doesn’t say how exactly these young folks are going to do those things, but when you’re a “rock star,” you don’t have to get bogged down in details. I’m sure the intellectual elite of the Left will be happy to provide marching orders.)

Obama says we are going to have an “Energy Corps to conduct renewable energy and environmental cleanup projects…” I don’t know about you, but I’m a little concerned about these “youth programs.” Nazi Germany had the Hitler Youth. The USSR had the Young Pioneers. China had the Red Guards. Those programs didn’t work out well. They all evolved into “turn in your parents and neighbors” exercises, and worse.

I really don’t think most of us would appreciate youthful “block wardens” coming around to make sure our aluminum cans and plastic bottles are in the right recycling bins. As for health care, I’m not sure home visits from government-trained “educators” would be helpful. I can imagine them saying things like, “Oh, surely you’re not listening to conservaitve talk radio, are you? That isn’t your gas-guzzling SUV in the driveway?” Another potential question: “You don’t have a gun in the house, do you? You know those things are soooo dangerous. We’d better have the police come and pick it up.”

Think I’m a little paranoid? Left-wing medical groups and “mothers’ associations” are already encouraging doctors and parents to be concerned about the gun ownership habits of American citizens. Physicians for Social Responsibility proudly helped “preserve the D.C. gun ban” in 2005. Check out the Million Moms’ website for confirmation of programs encouraging neighbors checking on neighbors.

Imagine a public/private non-profit partnership between The Joyce Foundation and an Obama Administration coordinating “education” and outreach on gun control. That could cause you to lose some sleep, Comrade!

Think! If you don’t vote, or cast an irrelevant vote, you could put BHO in the driver’s seat. “No! That’s not my car in the driveway. Honest! I don’t know how the plastic bottle got in with the aluminum cans!”

Def Mech

It’s all well and good (for them) to preach what David Horowitz aptly calls “the romance of the underdog” as they urge income redistribution to eternally support drug addicts, unwed mothers of multiple children, convicted felons, and illegal aliens.  Universal health care sounds appealing, even though rationing and waiting lists force persons in Canada and the U.K. with serious medical conditions to come to the U.S. for treatment.  Leftists seem to believe in the demonic power of guns to provoke violence, in spite of numerous scientific studies to the contrary.  They will gleefully ban 99 percent of ”evil” guns in futile attempts to keep one percent of firearms out of the hands of criminals, who by definition, do not give the south end of a northbound rat for laws and order.

Progressives, at least at some levels of the movement, seem to suffer from what I believe is the delusion that everyone on the planet thinks and reacts the same way that they do to emotional stimuli.  A case in point is a recent Denver Post article describing an anti-John McCain ad sponsored by Moveon.org and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a union with left wing connections.  (Anti-McCain ad plays up involving new generation in Iraq,” Denver Post, Denver Newspaper Agency, Denver, CO, 06-17-08, page 4A.)

An actress playing a mother with an infant addresses McCain’s comments about the need for a long term American commitment in Iraq.  She tells “him” in the ad that he can’t “have” the child, presumably for cannon fodder.  Ignoring for a moment the fact that McCain was referring to a commitment similar to the ones pursued by the U.S. in Germany, Japan, and Korea (countries where  American will and ideals prevailed over totalitarian ideologies), the ad pulls at the heartstrings of U.S. mothers, fearful of losing their offspring in presumably unjust, unending, futile wars.

While I am not advocating the Spartan mothers’ injunctions to their sons (”Come back bearing this shield, or come back on it.”), no country has ever survived when its sons (and daughters) refused to risk their lives in its defense.  The Romans lost the battle of Cannae, in part, because their upper class cavalry would not close with their Carthaginian opponents, probably due to fear of injury or death.

Somewhere in the world of radical Islam, there is another mother.  She is extolling to her sons the virtues of martyrdom and preparing them for eternal glory as suicide bombers.  Their deaths fighting “The great Satan” will bring honor to the family, as well as to the bombers, themselves.  Remember that Saddam Hussein paid $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers who killed Israeli and American citizens.

In the great clash of civilizations that has been going on for over a thousand years, who is more likely to triumph, holders of the ideology that says, “No!  My son is more important than the survival of the Western World,” or the proponents of a radical Islamic ideology that says, “Go forth and die gloriously that your religion might live.”

If the leaders of the Left do not believe their own rhetoric, then they are guilty of leading many innocent people down dangerous paths.  A disarmed society is at the mercy of criminal thugs and tyrants.  A civilization that will not defend itself is doomed.

What could be even more dangerous than deception and hypocrisy by the leadership of the far Left, is the possibility that they actually believe the things they say.  If they sweep the elections this year, the consequences could be fatal for the American experiment in government.

Def Mech

What does the British Pistol Team have to do with “assault weapons?” The English, Scots, and Irish lost their natural right to self defense from crime and tyranny one gun type at a time. The shotgunners failed to support the rifle shooters. The rifle folk did not support the pistol shooters. In the end, British gun ownership is all but dead, and the Olympic Pistol Team is not allowed to practice on their own soil.

Search on: “Power Report,” “Commonwealth shooting team,” and “petition” for information.

Search on: “BBC Sport,” and “Shooters seek handgun law change” for more information.

Search on “Countryside Alliance” and “73% oppose Olympic shooting ban” for yet more information. (Still can’t get hot links up.)

The British are subjects of the Crown. We are “free” citizens of America: however, if we do not view an attack upon any gun owner’s rights as an attack upon the rights of all gun owners, we will find ourselves to be subjects, not citizens.

Always remember that “sophisticated” Europe, which spawned two World Wars and the Holocaust, is the gold standard for American gun control fanatics. If you don’t believe that, read their books and their blogs. When they say they don’t want to take your gun, what they mean is that they don’t want to take your gun yet. Remember the British Pistol Team.

Def Mech