The Federalist No. 45

by James Madison

Alleged Danger From the Powers of the Union to the State Governments Considered

Founding Father, James Madison

To the People of the State of New York:

HAVING shown that no one of the powers transferred to the federal government is unnecessary or improper, the next question to be considered is, whether the whole mass of them will be dangerous to the portion of authority left in the several States.

The adversaries to the plan of the convention, instead of considering in the first place what degree of power was absolutely necessary for the purposes of the federal government, have exhausted themselves in a secondary inquiry into the possible consequences of the proposed degree of power to the governments of the particular States.

Benson: No Substitute for God-ordained Family

Modern Prophets Speak, Volume I, No. 33, Benson

Excerpt from Chapter 17 of President Ezra Taft Benson’s 1974 book, “God, Family, Country.”

Ezra Taft Benson

Americans from the very inception of our nation have been lover of home. It has been our primary educational institution and the center of economic, social, and cultural interest. Our homes have been the bulwark of the nation and the most fundamental institution of society. …

Marriage, the home, and family are sacred institutions. They are not man-made, but have been established by a kind Providence for the blessing of his children. … There can be no satisfactory substitute for the home. Its foundation is as ancient as the world. Its mission is God-ordained.

Farrell: Wise, Orderly, Voluntary Charity

American Scripture with Steve Farrell

Charity we read in the Holy Scriptures, is “the pure love of Christ,” 1 and as such, when that charity is manifest via a welfare system, it ought to be a voluntary, free will offering of the heart.

It is also need be administered “in wisdom and in order.”

Consider these inspired words from Benjamin, an ancient American prophet:

And again, I say unto the poor, ye who have not and yet have sufficient, that ye remain from day to day; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye have not; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give.

Farrell: Tough Love

by Steve Farrell

Missing the Mark With Religion, Part 10 (Read parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

A close friend of mine suffers from a common human malady – the inability to give tough love.

Tough love, as most of us understand it, is having wisdom enough to withhold expected or demanded help from a friend or family member not because you fail to love them, but because you do love them.

That is to say, my permitting your suffering for sin, your lumps for misjudgment, your financial setbacks for plain bad luck, is the far more intelligent and compassionate thing to do.

Ike: Democracy Is But A Spiritual Conviction That We Are The Children of God

American Minute with Bill Federer

General Dwight D. Eisenhower

On NOVEMBER 9, 1954, President Eisenhower addressed the National Conference on the Spiritual Foundation of American Democracy at the Sheraton-Carlton Hotel, Washington D.C.:

Now Dr. Lowry said something about my having certain convictions as to a God in Heaven and an Almighty power. Well, I don’t think anyone needs a great deal of credit for believing in what seems to me to be obvious … This relationship between a spiritual faith … and our form of government is … so obvious that we should really not need to identify a man as unusual because he recognizes it.

The Federalist No. 44

by James Madison

Restrictions on the Authority of the Several States

Founding Father, James Madison

To the People of the State of New York:

A fifth class of provisions in favor of the federal authority consists of the following restrictions on the authority of the several States:

1. “No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver a legal tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts; or grant any title of nobility.”

Sam Adams: The Security of Right and Property

Liberty Letters with Steve Farrell

Volume I, Letter 15, Samuel Adams

“The security of right and property,” wrote Sam Adams, “is the great end of government; for these must stand and fall together.”

Samuel Adams (1722-1803) was a statesmen, political philosopher, and the American Founder who helped create the Committee of Correspondence, who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, who helped guide that Congress in issuing the Declaration of Independence, and who later helped draft the Articles of Confederation and the Massachusetts Constitution.

Not anything less than a key figure in the revolution Thomas Jefferson referred to him as  “truly the man of the Revolution,” and his second cousin John Adams once introduced himself in France by clarifying that he was not Samuel, “the famous Adams.”

First Amendment Victory at Tarrant County College

by Azhar Majeed

Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org

In a victory for First Amendment rights on campus, a federal district court in Texas has granted two students at Tarrant County College (TCC) a temporary restraining order prohibiting TCC from censoring an “empty holster” protest scheduled for next week.

The court’s decision to grant the order came two days after the students filed a motion requesting a temporary restraining order, arguing that by enforcing its “free speech zone” policy to quarantine next week’s protest, TCC would violate the students’ First Amendment rights. The request for a temporary restraining order accompanied a lawsuit seeking the permanent dismantling of TCC’s free speech zone, and was filed by Fort Worth attorney Karin Cagle and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas in cooperation with FIRE.

Homeland Sec. Chief Fears Muslim Backlash

Liberty Alerts, Judicial Watch

Days after an al Qaeda wannabe Army major went on a murderous rampage at the nation’s largest military base, the Secretary of Homeland Security’s biggest concern appears to be preventing a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States.

Janet Napolitano, the Obama official in charge of protecting the country’s safety, is most worried about a politically incorrect backlash against Muslims after the Ft. Hood massacre and says her agency is working hard with groups across the U.S. to deflect any retaliation against Muslims for one man’s fury.

Dick Morris: Obama ‘Bribed’ Pelosi Bill to Victory

Liberty Alerts, Dick Morris and Eileen McGann, NewsMax.com

Dick Morris

As the suicidal Democratic congressmen proceed to rubber-stamp the Obama healthcare reform despite the drubbing their party took in the ‘09 elections, the president trotted out the endorsements of the AMA and the AARP to stimulate support. But these – and the other endorsements – his package has received are all bought and paid for.

Here are the deals:

Paul: Government Statistics and Lies

by Ron Paul

Liberty Alerts: Texas Straight Talk

There has been a lot of talk in Washington recently about senior citizens, mostly about how various healthcare reform models would help or hurt them. But there is another critical issue that has quietly devastated seniors financially over the last few decades. It concerns how the cost of living is calculated. How does the administration justify not giving a cost of living increase to Social Security recipients this year?

According to the official Consumer Price Index calculation, life has gotten cheaper for the first time in decades. If the government can show statistically that the cost of living has gone down, not up, then they can make the case for not giving a cost of living increase to social security recipients. But does this match reality? Using older calculations of CPI, the cost of living has actually increased – by roughly 5 percent!

Caruba: Energy ABCs: Playing Americans for Fools

By Alan Caruba

I have long harbored strong doubts about the knowledge that most Americans possess regarding the sources of energy they largely take for granted. We flip a switch and the lights go on. We pull up to the gas pump and drive away. We use machines that are totally dependent on having enough electricity to power entire cities as well as rural communities.

Since all successful economies depend on abundant, affordable energy, why is the Congress preparing to pass a cap-and-trade bill, renamed to suggest “clean energy” and “national security” has anything to do with a huge tax on the use of energy by all Americans?

Obama Kills AIDS Immigration Ban

Liberty Alerts, Judicial Watch

President Obama has repealed a 16-year-old federal law he claims is “rooted in fear rather than fact” that bans immigration and travel to the U.S. by foreigners infected with AIDS.

Passed by Congress in 1993 and signed into law by Bill Clinton, the measure was designed to reduce the spread of the deadly disease in the United States. Since 1987 AIDS has appeared on the Department of Health and Human Services list of communicable diseases of public health significance. The president’s repeal essentially removes AIDS from the list, even though there’s no disputing that it is in fact a communicable disease.

We Need Strong Christians

Modern Prophets Speak, Volume I, No. 32, Christofferson

Excerpt from Elder D. Todd Christofferson’s April 2009 General Conference address, The Power of Covenants.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson

On August 15, 2007, Peru suffered a massive earthquake that all but destroyed the coastal cities of Pisco and Chincha. Like many other Church leaders and members, Wenceslao Conde, the president of the Balconcito Branch of the Church in Chincha, immediately set about helping others whose homes were damaged.

Four days after the earthquake, Elder Marcus B. Nash of the Seventy was in Chincha helping to coordinate the Church’s relief efforts there and met President Conde. As they talked about the destruction that had occurred and what was being done to help the victims, President Conde’s wife, Pamela, approached carrying one of her small children. Elder Nash asked Sister Conde how her children were. With a smile, she replied that through the goodness of God they were all safe and well. He asked about the Condes’ home.

Thanking God for the Mighty Missouri

American Minute with Bill Federer

“Ocian in view! O! the joy,” wrote William Clark in his Journal, but the next day, NOVEMBER 8, 1805, Lewis and Clark realized they were only at Gray’s Bay, still 20 miles from the Pacific.

Clark wrote: “We found the swells or waves so high that we thought it imprudent to proceed … The seas rolled and tossed the canoes in such a manner this evening that several of our party were sea sick.”

Pinned down by drenching, cold storms for 3 weeks, Lewis and Clark let the expedition decide where to build winter camp, even allowing Clark’s slave, York, and the woman Indian guide, Sacagawea, to vote.

The Federalist No. 43

by James Madison

The Powers Conferred by the Constitution Further Considered (continued)

Founding Father, James Madison

THE fourth class comprises the following miscellaneous powers:

1. A power “to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing, for a limited time, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”

The utility of this power will scarcely be questioned. The copyright of authors has been solemnly adjudged, in Great Britain, to be a right of common law. The right to useful inventions seems with equal reason to belong to the inventors. The public good fully coincides in both cases with the claims of individuals. The States cannot separately make effectual provisions for either of the cases, and most of them have anticipated the decision of this point, by laws passed at the instance of Congress.