Obama, "By the people", and the social contract

President Obama recently declared that the military removal of Manuel Zelaya, the president of Honduras, was illegal. This despite the fact that Zelaya violated the Honduran constitution, ignored a court order to stand down, led a mob to break into the place where ballots were held for a referendum, began distributing them, and was arrested by the military, whose leader was acting under a court order and in accordance with the law and constitution of Honduras. The congress of Honduras has also asserted as much.

Fox News: Obama: Ouster of Honduras President Was an Illegal Coup
WSJ: Honduras Defends Its Democracy

What does this tell us about President Obama's view of the law? In this case, it would appear that he considers a government official to be above the social contract. The governments of the United States, Honduras, and many other countries exist under contract with their people. These contracts are the Constitutions of these lands. If President Obama respected this basic principle of governing free peoples, he would not support Zelaya after he acted clearly outside his authority and in direct opposition to the document which grants him that authority.

In Honduras, the people have the guts to stand up and resist the president's actions. Fortunately, the military leader acted in accordance with the law and submitted himself to its jurisdiction. This was not a coup, it was the proper and legal removal of a criminal official.

Here in the United States, we are not nearly as gutsy. Go read the Tenth Amendment, then tell me what we should be doing.

Wait what?

I just started reading a book on assembly language. It's free under the GFDL. This will confuse most of my RIT friends (outside of IV) and most of my Sidney friends. The book, on one of the more arcane topics in computing, included a Veggie Tales reference. I did a double take, but it's there.

Soft Music By Hard Bands

Some of the best slow, heart-wrenching songs are done by bands best known for hard, heavy rock and metal. I put together this play list for some examples. Bookmark this page, I'll be updating this playlist.

Interesting Perspective On Homosexuality

I have a co-worker at FXCM who is Islamic. He was not raised this way, but converted into this religion. We had an interesting conversation after he happened upon an article about homosexuality in animals.

"Oh my," quoth he, "LGBT will be all over this." (mocking tone) "It's natural!"

Yes, we can all be assured that yet again, the militant LGBT lobby will attempt to persuade all of us that we have no reason nor right to consider any of their activities as perversions, since this behavior is evident in the animal world. My friends take on that perspective came out in an eloquent and explosive statement:

Non-P.C. content follows, be advised.

 

"Dogs lick their balls, does that mean I should too?"

His point is well taken. The behaviors of the animal world are not models nor justifications for any human behavior. Animals are promiscuous, they eat many foul things, they fight brutally over food, they indulge in social behaviors which are perfectly natural to them but vulgar to us. Animal homosexuality can easily be classed in this category. Please, argue on something more substantive.

Adobe Flash 10?

I can't be the only one wondering about this, but after Adobe did a pre-release of their 64 bit flash plugin for Linux in February, they seemed to have dropped 64 bit support in the release. This is annoying, because now that Flash 10 is actually released, some sites (looking at you Facebook) won't let me play videos without it. However, I'm not about to hassle with getting the 32 bit version working under nspluginwrapper.

So the subway is good for something...

Seen on the J train as part of Columbia's "Train of Thought" series:

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the need for thought.

I'm sure there is an originator, but I'm a bit too lazy to look up who it is right now.

Lecrae

Every once in a while, there are songs that send a little thrill down my spine when I listen to them. Usually I've heard the songs before, but their full impact strikes me and I get an urge to listen to them. This happened to me with two songs involving the Christian rapper Lecrae.

I hate rap. I can't stand it. It's not just that most secular rap delves into the deep, dark hellholes of human depravity, I don't like the style. My feelings for message sometimes transcending my feelings for music, however, I happen to like some Christian rap. Two songs in particular:

These songs go to the heart of what it means to be a committed Christian.

A Terrible Tragedy

A terrible thing happened today. A man with the blood of untold numbers of innocent, helpless children on his hands was killed.

"Such insensitive sarcasm!" I hear the voices of my friends, Christian and non-Christian alike. Surely we should all mourn the tragedy of this senseless violence?

My title was not, indeed, sarcastic, though my first explication of it may have been. There was a tragic situation that ended Sunday, May 30, 2009. This man was serving in a church. Not just attending, he was serving as an usher.

No wonder the Christian church is no longer effective. We preach love for all men, while allowing a man who slaughters children for a living to serve in a respected position in our midst. We refuse to take an absolute stand and denounce this man for what he is, a murderer deserving of death. Over the next few days, you will hear almost everyone denouncing this "senseless act of violence."

The senseless violence goes on every day as babies are murdered in the name of liberty. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal (except the unborn), that they are endowed by their Creator with certain and inalienable rights, and that among these are life (unless they are unborn), liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Think about it. The worst mass murder in history is happening here in the United States. "Do you possess the constitution, the depth of faith, to go as far as is needed?"