Living Freedom

http://www.backwoodshome.com/blogs/ClaireWolfe/

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About Us » The Federalist Society

The Declaration of Independence

The soul of the American founding is located in the enduring political principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence. The meaning of these principles, especially equality, is decisively different than the definition given to those principles by modern progressivism.

Equality means that nature ordains no one to be the ruler of any other person. Each human being is also equal in his natural rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are inalienable and possessed simply by virtue of being human.

Equality, liberty, and natural rights require that legitimate government be republican. The truth that all human beings are born free, equal, and independent means that a just government must be based on the consent of the governed—a consent which must be expressed through ongoing elections. The political theory of the Declaration of Independence requires that government secure the natural rights of the citizens through adopting and enforcing criminal laws; adopting and enforcing civil laws regarding property, family, education, and provision for the poor; and providing for national defense.

If the regime fails to operate according to these principles, the people have a right and duty to alter or abolish the government and establish a new government which will secure rights through the consent of the governed.

The people thus play a vital role in protecting their rights. They must be educated in “religion, morality, and knowledge.” A people that is not virtuous will not be able to perpetuate free government.

Modern liberalism uses the same language of “equality” as the Declaration of Independence. Yet modern liberals mean something altogether different than what the Founders meant by those words. For the Progressives, “equality” means that government must redistribute wealth to provide equal access to resources. This idea necessitates government programs that help mankind liberate itself from its “natural limitations.”

The Declaration of Independence and modern Progressivism are fundamentally opposed to each other. The modern misunderstanding of “equality” threatens the whole of the American constitutional and moral order.

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Hillsdale.edu

The United States Constitution - "Separation of Powers - Preventing Tyranny"

Separation of powers is the central structural feature of the United States Constitution. The division of power among the three branches—legislative, executive, and judicial—is necessitated because human beings are imperfect. The imperfection of human nature means that well-structured government is necessary, though not sufficient, to prevent tyranny.

The United States Constitution is structurally designed in part to prevent tyranny. Separation of powers is the means by which power is divided and its accumulation in the hands of any single entity denied.

During the 1780s, most states had constitutions that formally divided the government’s power, yet in practice the legislatures dominated. The state constitutions required separation of powers in theory, but failed to deliver it in reality. As a result, the constitutions were little more than what Publius called “parchment barriers.”

In order for separation of powers to work, each branch of government must have the “constitutional means” to resist the encroachment of the other branches. This is what today we call “checks and balances.”

In addition to institutional checks and balances, there exist also the “personal motives” of people that will lead them to resist the encroachment of the other branches. Human nature is constant across the ages, according to Publius, and human beings are naturally ambitious. Instead of ignoring or attempting to suppress ambition, the Framers sought to channel it through the Constitution, so that it might serve the cause of liberty and justice rather than threaten it.

The Framers understood that human nature has noble characteristics that are essential to self-government, but also that it contains baser features, for which government must account. The Constitution’s structural separation of powers recognizes this truth, and in preventing tyranny makes self-government possible.

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Defining Tyranny - James Madison, Federalist No. 47:


"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judicial, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

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History of the United States Supreme Court

http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/nominations/SupremeCourt/SupremeCourtHistory.cfm

Grant-County--Oregon--The-Solution-To-Tyranny.html

Grant-County--Oregon--The-Solution-To-Tyranny.html

The Founders Created a Republic, Not a Democracy

http://youtu.be/AVsjZBy7hww

Ever Wonder What Happened to the Fifty-Six Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors,
and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army;
another had two sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or
hardships of the Revolutionary War.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes,
and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.
Eleven were merchants,
Nine were farmers and large plantation owners;
men of means, well educated,
but they signed the Declaration of Independence
knowing full well that the penalty would be death if
they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and
trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the
British Navy. He sold his home and properties to
pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British
that he was forced to move his family almost constantly.
He served in the Congress without pay, and his family
was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him,
and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer,
Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown , Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that
the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson
home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General
George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed,
and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed.
The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying.
Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill
were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests
and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and
silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.

Remember: freedom is never free!

Black Regiment

Black Regiment

FREEDOM Comes With a Price Tag

Dear President Obama....

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=JVAhr4hZDJE&vq=medium#t=19

Government Stupidity - The desperate situation every American needs to be aware of now

http://www.thedailycrux.com/content/6888/Government_Stupidity/eml

Freedom, What A Beautiful Word

Freedom, how do you define it? The dictionary says, Freedom is "the condition of being free; independence." So, can you hold it in your hand? Can you taste it in your mouth? Can you feel it in your heart? How many people will never experience it? How many people long for it and are willing to die for it? How many have already died for it? Our American soldiers, of course, by the millions, who travelled to faraway lands and never came back. Our own Founders who willingly knew, when they took the quill in hand, they were signing away their lives when they penned their signatures on the Declaration of Independence. How I miss those men. Right here, on our own soil, we had brother against brother, righting an agregious wrong; slavery. Millions, black and white, died fighting in this bloodiest of battles, called the Civil War. "Free"dom is a heavenly gift, given, by the Almighty, with no strings attached, to all humankind. So, then just who gave tyrants, governments, dictators and thugs the right to curb it, censor it or eradicate it? Answer: No one. How many in Congress so bloated with their own arrogance and self-serving interests could care less about signing away our freedoms? I'd say there are many. Another example of a brave people willing to put everything on the line are the Iranian freedom fighters. They took to the streets to protest the outcome of an election and were simply gunned down. They resisted an authoritarian government and a heartless Dictator and paid the ultimate price. My heart goes out to them. I know in my heart that the resistance goes on and I can only hope and pray that it grows stronger. Could what happened there happen here? How about the thousands, maybe in the millions, (will we ever know?) of North Koreans who are cruelly under the boot of Kim Jong-IL? How many have died by his hand who just want to be free, to live their lives away from his death camps, starvation and torture? You represent a threat to the government as you are brave enough to challenge their 'authority', ask questions, stir the pot. And the price you pay? Death. Is Freedom something to be feared? Is Freedom something to be controlled? Is Freedom something to be contained? Is Freedom something to be regulated? The answer is yes but only when it becomes apparent that freedom is going to get in the way of some one's insidious agenda. And if you're paying attention to what is currently happening here in the U.S., you can see how government is slowly tightening the noose around our necks, how we are slowly losing our freedoms. The freedom to own a home; the freedom to get a job (there aren't anymore); the freedom to get a loan (banks aren't lending); the freedom to worship who and where we want is being challenged; the freedom to mourn openly for a loved one because a certain Church group has a demonic curse come over them; the freedom to cast a vote in some parts of the country being threatened because of certain groups openly intimidating and brazenly standing in the way of voters. And witness what the President and Mr. Locke just proposed...why they would like to track all of us who blog, comment, do online transactions and visit our favorite websites. Government wants to issue us with their very own (gee I'm so excited) government I.D. I can hardly wait. We already have TSA (TOTALLY SENSELESS ASSES)and now we're supposed to just go along with being personally I.D.'d by a government who has admitted #1they don't see any drug cartels or drug smuggling; the murdering of American citizens, or any other mayhem going on along the border; #2 they can't figure out how to deal with it (okay, maybe I can help on this one ...CALL IN THE MARINES, YOU MORONS); #3 can't or won't deal with it because it's not a big issue (huh???) and #4 heck, the situation can't be controlled anyway. So I'm supposed to let some government bureaucrat stamp me on the forehead with my own personalized I.D. number? Don't think so. We're being tracked, bagged and tagged. Haven't you had enough? This is called Totalitarianism. Please look it up. It is sinister. We now have these Totalitarian guys running all over the place. They specifically like government jobs. They want what you want. They want what you have. They want to take away your freedoms. And they're getting away with it because we're letting them. It was a start to see some common sense make its way down the aisles of Congress in November but we still have a loooooong way to go. So, if we are aware of this new government I.D. that is on the table, then what about all the "other" stuff that's been done, behind our backs, without our knowledge or consent? And I'm talking former administrations also, not just the current one. It's far, far, far into the night, folks and We The People need to grab the reins and grip them firmly in both hands before we lose more stuff. There is that old saying, once something is lost you can never get it back. Lost Horizons, Lost in Space, All is Lost, Loss of Freedom. Think about it. From here on we need to make the right choices: For freedom's sake; for country's sake, which BTW enables us our freedoms in the first place, through the United States Constitution, and for our sake, the sake of our children and our grandchildren. Or, we'll find ourselves hurtling down the road, at breakneck speed, furtively glancing in the rear view mirror at a country we once knew but is now disappearing in a cloud of dust. Maybe we're already there. I hope not. For then it's too bad for me, too bad for you. And what will we be facing? Answer: what we brought down upon our heads. What Brave New World lies ahead for a bunch who didn't give a damn and could care less about a country who had given them so much? I'd say a good whoopin. But, too late. Look to the signs for they are there. I hope the Almighty has some room to spare.

From the Czech Republic

“The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president."

"The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince."

Sound Advice that Needs to Be Reinstated Today

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people...
for they are the only sure reliance for the
preservation of our liberty - Thomas Jefferson

"The Holocaust and the Lessons of Appeasement" with Jeane Kirkpatrick (1993)

The Center for Security Policy, Frank Gaffney
Securefreedom Archival Series, January 20, 2010
http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/p18290.xml

Restore the Republic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAVTTGkHEeU

America - Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, or Was It Just A Trial Run?

By: Kitty Werthmann (An Austrian who witnessed what took place under Hitler)

What I am about to tell you is something you’ve probably never heard or read in history books.
I am an eyewitness to history. I can tell you that Hitler did not take Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history. We elected him by a landslide – 98% of the vote. I’ve never read that in any American publications. Everyone thinks Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.
In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25% inflation and 25% bank loan interest rates. Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that they didn’t want to work; there simply weren’t any jobs. My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need. Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people – about 30 daily.
The Communist Party and the National Socialist Party were fighting each other. Blocks and blocks of cities like Vienna , Linz , and Graz were destroyed. The people became desperate and petitioned the government to let them decide what kind of government they wanted.
We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany , where Hitler had been in power since 1933. We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living. Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group -- Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone was happy. We wanted the same way of life in Austria . We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back. Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.
We were overjoyed, and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed.
After the election, German officials were appointed, and like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order. Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.
Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women. Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home. An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn’t support his family. Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been required to give up for marriage.

Hitler Targets Education–Eliminates Religious Instruction for Children:
Our education was nationalized. I attended a very good public school.. The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler’s picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn’t pray or have religion anymore. Instead, we sang “Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles,” and had physical education.
Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum. They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail. The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination. The rest of the day we had sports. As time went along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free. We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had.
My mother was very unhappy. When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent. I told her she couldn’t do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful. There was a very good curriculum, but hardly any fun – no sports, and no political indoctrination. I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it. Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home. I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing. Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to me. They lived without religion. By that time unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler. It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn’t exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.

"Equal Rights Hits Home:"
In 1939, the war started and a food bank was established. All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn’t work, you didn’t get a ration card, and if you didn’t have a card, you starved to death. Women who stayed home to raise their families didn’t have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men.
Soon after this, the draft was implemented. It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps. During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys. They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps. After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines. When I go back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat. Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack. I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service.

Hitler Restructured the Family Through Daycare:
When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers. You could take your children ages 4 weeks to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, 7 days a week, under the total care of the government. The state raised a whole generation of children. There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology. By this time, no one talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had.

Health Care and Small Business Suffer Under Government Controls:
Before Hitler, we had very good medical care. Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna .. After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone. Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything. When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full. If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries.
As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80% of our income. Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for families. All day care and education were free. High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized. Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing.
We had another agency designed to monitor business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables. Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn’t meet all the demands. Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control.
We had consumer protection. We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers. The agents would go to the farms, count the live-stock, and then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.

“Mercy Killing” Redefined:
In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps . The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated. So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded. When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work. I knew one, named Vincent, very well. He was a janitor of the school. One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van. I asked my superior where they were going. She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write. The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months. They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness.
As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers were not fooled. We suspected what was happening. Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia.

The Final Steps - Gun Laws:
Next came gun registration. People were getting injured by guns. Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most citizens were law abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms. Not long after-wards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily.
No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away. We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up.
Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly; it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria. Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.
After World War II, Russian troops occupied Austria. Women were raped, preteen to elderly. The press never wrote about this either. When the Soviets left in 1955, they took everything that they could, dismantling whole factories in the process. They sawed down whole orchards of fruit, and what they couldn’t destroy, they burned. We called it The Burned Earth. Most of the population barricaded themselves in their houses. Women hid in their cellars for 6 weeks as the troops mobilized. Those who couldn’t; paid the price. There is a monument in Vienna today, dedicated to those women who were massacred by the Russians. This is an eye witness account.
“It’s true….those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity. America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don’t Let Freedom Slip Away.

"After America, there is No Place else to Go!"
http://www.resistnet.com/forum/topics/wake-up-call-to-american

Obama's Secret Executive Order Signs Away Your Legal Protections

http://www.westernjournalism.com/?p=5142

soule: How much more damage will we Americans allow this administration to get away with? When we wake up one cold Winter morning and find that our kitchen cabinets are completely empty, because the local grocery stores have all closed down because the trucking companies have gone under, that we have no gas or oil to heat our homes, because we didn't "drill here, drill now", and we frantically open our wallets and look at our bank accounts and find out that there is no more money? Or quite possibly could we find ourselves imprisoned behind a barbed wire fence because we dared speak out in defiance of what we see this President and his administration doing? Wake up folks. This is not a dream, this is a real possibility. You know when you see the signs that something is wrong, it generally is. Mr. Obama and his administration are on a one-way mission - the utter destruction of this country.

SAY IT LIKE IT IS.

So, I did.

Listen to the people who have lived under tyranny. People from the former Soviet Union, Poland, Cuba, the Czech Republic, et. al. They came here to escape from exactly what this administration is now trying to do to us.

Do you for one moment think that this country can remain a strong and free nation if we embrace Mr. Obama's Marxist/Totalitarian Change that he touted on the campaign trail?

We need to speak up, get involved in stopping this dark descent into hell and most importantly, for G-d Sake, get out and vote. And this time, let's do it right.

We have a decision to make. Submit to Obamaism or remain a free people, a free nation. We can't have it both ways.

Someone wins, someone loses. It's up to us.

And time is running out.

Words to Ponder......

Patriotic Resistance
I have noted that many elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans, called upon America to unite behind Obama.
Well, I want to make it clear to all who will listen that I "AM NOT" uniting behind Obama. However, I promise to give our country the devoted loyalty of a patriot.
I will respect the Office which he holds, and I will acknowledge his abilities as an orator and wordsmith and pray for him, BUT that is it.
I have begun today to see what I can do to make sure he is a one-term President!
Why am I doing this? It is because I do not share Obama's vision or value system for America;
I do not share his Abortion beliefs;
I do not share his radical Marxist's concept of re-distributing wealth;
I do not share his stated views on raising taxes on those who make $150,000+ (the ceiling has been changed three times since August);
I do not share his view that America is arrogrant;
I do not share his view that America is not a Christian Nation;
I do not share his view that the military should be reduced by 25%;
I do not share his view of amnesty and giving more to illegals than American Citizens who need help;
I do not share his views on homosexuality and his definition of marriage;
I do not share his views that Radical Islam is our friend and Israel is our enemy who should give up any land;
I do not share his spiritual beliefs (at least the ones he has made public);
I do not share his beliefs on how to re-work the healthcare system in America;
I do not share his Strategic views of the Middle East, and certainly do not share his plan to sit down with terrorist regimes such as Iran.
Bottom line, my America is vastly different from Obama's, and I have a higher obligation to my Country and my God to do what is right!
For eight (8) years, the Liberals in our Society, led by numerous entertainers who would have no platform and no real credibility, but for their celebrity status, have attacked President Bush, his family, and his spiritual beliefs!
They have not moved toward the center in their beliefs and their philosophies, and they never came together nor compromised their personal beliefs for the betterment of our Country! They have portrayed my America as a land where everything is tolerated except being intolerant!
They have been a vocal and irreverent minority for years;
They have mocked and attacked the very core values so important to the founding and growth of our Country;
They have made every effort to remove the name of God or Jesus Christ from our Society;
They have challenged capital punishment, the right to bear firearms, and the most basic principles of our criminal code;
They have attacked one of the most fundamental of all Freedoms, the right of free speech!
Unite behind Obama? Never!
I am sure many of you who read this think that I am going overboard, but I refuse to retreat one more inch in favor of those whom I believe are the embodiment of Evil!
PRESIDENT BUSH made many mistakes during his Presidency, and I am not sure how history will judge him. However, I believe he weighed his decisions in light of the long established Judeo-Christian principles of our Founding Fathers!!!
Majority rules in America, and I will honor the concept; however, I will fight with all of my power to be a voice in opposition to Obama and "his goals for America ."
I am going to be a thorn in the side of those who, if left unchecked, will destroy our country! Any more compromise is more defeat!
I pray that the results of this election will wake up many who have sat on the sidelines and allowed the Socialist-Marxist anti-God crowd to slowly change so much of what has been good in America !

"Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat
it." Thomas Jefferson

Soule: A question has been raised as to whether Dr. Sowell actually wrote this article as I was led to believe. After making further inquiries, the question of whether Dr. Sowell is/is not the author of this article still is unresolved. I, therefore, am removing Dr. Sowell's name from this post but the article remains. My apology to Dr. Sowell if this was in error as it was not my intention to do so.