Michael Tennant's Columns
An Open Letter to a Conservative Christian
"Conservative Christians today, rather than recognizing the state as the greatest temporal enemy of the faith and of human freedom, have thrown in their lot with a political party which betrays them and the teachings of their Savior at every turn and with a president who, while claiming to be a Christian, violates those same teachings...." Column by Michael Tennant.
Destroying Life in Order to Save It
"Which system is more moral: the one that coerces an arbitrarily determined payment irrespective of one’s satisfaction with the product or service provided (if any is provided at all), or the one that offers a choice of whether or not to pay a price agreed upon by both buyer and seller on condition that one is satisfied with the product or service provided? It’s no contest." Column by Michael Tennant.
"Today President Bush offers the same 'mend it, but don’t end it' approach to federally mandated intergenerational theft, a.k.a. Social Security; and, as might be expected, the party affiliation of the president uttering the slogan makes all the difference in the world." Column by Michael Tennant.
"Was
the Third Reich established by God? Was
the
Pouring Gasoline on the Fire of High Fuel Prices
"No one should be astonished that some people use government to obtain by force what they cannot obtain by peaceful exchange. This is, after all, the central function of government. By its very nature it takes the lives, liberty, and property of its citizens and puts them to its own uses, either to enrich the government and its functionaries directly or to reward those who contribute cash and/or votes to keep the same people in charge year after year." Column by Michael Tennant.
Care for Some Blood with Your Omelet?
"The problem arises when one begins to believe that one’s objective is indeed so vital that ordinary rules of right and wrong can be suspended in order to bring about a better world in the end." Column by Michael Tennant.
The First Amendment: Too Much of a Good Thing?
"...the overwhelming majority of Americans have been educated in government schools. If you were in charge of shaping the minds of future generations, would you teach them how to defeat you and your grand designs for the future? Well, neither would the government; and since it has a near monopoly on shaping the minds of future generations, it’s only natural that most people haven’t a clue as to what their constitutional rights are nor how they should be exercised and defended." Column by Michael Tennant.
"If you know that bad, unexpected things are going to happen—and we know, for example, that there will always be death and destruction in a war, not all of it necessarily intended—then maybe you shouldn’t undertake the war at all....The law of unintended consequences applies just as much to government’s wars as it does to its domestic programs. Sure, your intention may be, as you put it, to 'remov[e] a dictator from power and . . . help achieve democracy,' but there is no way you can be certain that any of this will happen, let alone that it will happen without adverse consequences." Column by Michael Tennant.
"Conventional thinking would expect the Somalia of 2004 to be vastly worse off than the Somalia of 1991, when the period of anarchy began, with crime and poverty running rampant, necessities such as water and electricity in short supply, and a market economy all but impossible in the absence of a stabilizing authority. Conventional thinking, of course, would be wrong." Column by Michael Tennant.
"George
W. Bush, for example, declared war on illiteracy.
Ironically, his tour to promote this phony war, which included his
reading the now-famous My Pet Goat to
a group of grade-schoolers in
One Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest
"Thus,
not only did government regulators not discover the problem, but when they were
alerted to it, they actually exacerbated the shortage for no other reason than
to show that they were in charge. Some
guardians of the people!
It's My Party, and They'll Lie (and Kill) if They Want To
"On
the other hand, since conservatives perceive—and rightly so—the
"In short, the government is one big protection racket, differing from a Mafia protection racket only in that government’s protection racket is legal (since the government makes it so by fiat). If anything, it’s worse than a Mafia protection racket because if a Mob boss went around collecting protection money from businesses and then had those same businesses shot up—or allowed them to be shot up—anyway, the business owners would, quite sensibly, stop paying the protection money. With government’s protection racket, on the other hand, people are stuck paying the protection money whether or not they are actually protected—and paying more of it, in fact, when they are not protected." Column by Michael Tennant.
A Remarkable Record of (Big Government) Achievement
"A president elected as an avowed conservative has asked to be retained for another four years on the basis that he has betrayed nearly every principle on which he ran for office the first time." Column by Michael Tennant.
"[Iraq]
is ruled by a man with no compunction about killing innocent people—a man who
restricts free speech in the name of national security and the war on terror,
who determines who shall be arrested and who shall be given a trial, who can
freeze the assets of anyone he decides is in any way connected with terrorists,
and who may be able to delay or cancel elections in the interest of national
security. Its police forces
routinely terrorize and disarm its citizens.
Christians and sellers of undesirable substances are persecuted.
In short,
When the Personal Becomes Political
"The Left told us that the personal is the political, and now even the mainstream Right believes it; and once someone has bought into this idea, he is useless in the fight against intrusive, all-encompassing government. Both sides of the political spectrum are only now beginning to discover that the weapon they used yesterday against personal and private choices of which they disapprove can be turned on them today in ways they never imagined it could." Column by Michael Tennant.
"The day is coming when wars will literally be brought into our homes as they happen, not in government-approved 'embedded' reports but in all their gory detail. Perhaps then Americans will once and for all become fed up with the lies, abuses, and murders their government foists upon them in the name of wars for 'freedom and democracy'." Column by Michael Tennant.
"It
is unfortunate that
"However,
a closer examination of some of the provisions of the constitution makes it
clear that this is more a document for a modern total state, on the model of
"As
one of the framers of the Constitution,
"After all, if I, a lowly taxpayer in Pittsburgh, could know with relative certainty well before the war that there were no weapons, weapons programs, or al-Qaeda connections, how is it that the most powerful man in the world, who has access to the most sophisticated intelligence apparatus ever devised, could continue to believe such obvious falsehoods?" Column by Michael Tennant.
"Now that Bush has established himself as not only a liar but also a damage controller on par with Clinton, it is about time someone asked, 'Where’s the outrage?' Bush’s lies have cost the lives of thousands of foreigners and hundreds of Americans, destroyed the infrastructure of an entire country, upended the lives of thousands more within that country and among the U. S. military, and bogged our country down in an occupation that threatens to last for decades and cost many more lives and many more billions of dollars." Column by Michael Tennant.
"Frankly, if I had my choice between dealing with the real Mafia and dealing with the organized criminals in government, I think I’d choose the Mafia. They can only control a small area, they don’t pretend to be victimizing me for my own good, and I might actually be able to convince my fellow citizens to help me rise up against them." Column by Michael Tennant.
Freedom's Defenders or Politicians' Pawns?
"... instead of taking the occasion of Veterans’ Day or Memorial Day to rehash the hackneyed platitudes about how we owe all our freedom to the veterans of all the wars in which our country has been involved, would it not be better to consider that we wouldn’t need either of these days if our despicable leaders did not insist on involving us in endless conflicts?" Column by Michael Tennant.
"What really has Heatwole in hot water, then, is not his supposed crimes of smuggling 'dangerous' items onto commercial jetliners. No, what really has him in trouble is that he made the feds look bad (not that that’s very hard) and then taunted them with notes in the bags of contraband. The government can tolerate almost any amount of lawbreaking—witness how many criminals are granted immunity if they’ll squeal on the folks the government really wants to nail—but it will not tolerate being shown up in public." Column by Michael Tennant.
"Even more important is to be able to see clearly before the war becomes inevitable—to recognize that the War Party has interests of its own which are diametrically opposed to the interests of the average American; that the War Party has consistently deceived the public into wars for over a century; that, with almost 100 percent certainty, you will end up with egg on your face when, in the aftermath of the war, the lies are exposed; and that, instead of mere embarrassment, other people will have died because you fell for the same old trick again." Column by Michael Tennant.
Finally, a Drug That Should Be Banned
"If only oddballs would keep taking a drug whose risks far outweighed its benefits, why is it that those who would discard government are considered oddballs, while those who wish to retain it, if only for a sense of security, are considered sensible and responsible? Apparently, government is a highly addictive drug—in a sane world, the only one that would be banned." Column by Michael Tennant.
Neoconservatism Made Kristol Clear
"[Irving
Kristol] recently wrote a piece for
The Weekly Standard in which he spelled out exactly what neoconservatism is.
What’s worse is that ol’ Irv’s description of neoconservatism
proves that it is everything its critics have said it is—and worse.
Forgive Me, For I Have Joined the War Party
"Having been a vociferous opponent of the war on Iraq, and having spent many hours trying to convince friends and acquaintances that said war was a very bad idea for both Iraqis and Americans, I find—I am sad to report—that I have joined the War Party." Column by Michael Tennant.
"The pattern continues to this day for all of humanity. Most people have tremendous faith in kings, presidents, legislatures, armed forces, and even abstractions like 'democracy' to bring them security and, in a sense, a vicarious feeling of power. Of course, the history of government shows that precisely the opposite is the result—that, as Samuel warned, the people so exalting a human ruler would become his slaves. Those who take note of this and suggest minimizing or even eliminating government are treated as kooks who don’t understand that government is needed to protect and provide for the common man. But let’s be honest: In whom would you rather place your faith, God or man? I, for one, prefer to be a worshiper of God, not of the idol of government." Column by new Root Striker Michael Tennant.