A Review of Rogue Justice by Karen Greenberg

Rogue Justice:
The Making of the Security State
by Karen J. Greenberg

From my reading and experience, lawyers tend to see the law in one (or more) of five ways:

1) A necessary framework for civilization, one that keeps us (all of us) from descending into barbarism. Without a consistent and rational system of justice, we might as well go back to the caves and trees.
2) A useful tool for keeping the little people in line. The law is justification for hanging some and jailing others, and a cattle prod to keep the rest moving in the right direction.
3) An obstacle to getting the real work done. The law is only for the people who aren't smart enough or powerful enough to know what really needs to happen. Those who have a more informed perspective, must be able to bypass the law or at least reinterpret it to suite their purposes as required.
4) A protective cover for what would otherwise be considered criminal behavior. With the right spin and pressure, any law can be made to say anything, and that's a good thing for people who want to be able to do anything they want while staying "within the law."
5) A game to be used for the entertainment of lawyers, a professional, high stakes sport full of word games and logic puzzles, prizes and penalties. The only real losers are those who don't know the unwritten rules.

Of course, every lawyer operates in all five paradigms. They're just people, after all, and can't be expected to be 100% consistent. Unfortunately, the only thoroughly honorable approach to law (#1), pays the lowest dividends, so the legal profession attracts and encourages people who are drawn to the other four.

The men who wrote the United States Constitution tended toward idealism and wrote it with the assumption that their successors would also be men of honor and high ideals. The Bill of Rights almost didn't pass for just that reason. It didn't work out that way. We've been on a downhill slide ever since. Today, Washington is dominated by men and women who scoff at idealism, who sneer at honor, who hold the first way anathema and the others as religious dogma. Although they give lip service to the founders' intent, not one DC lawyer in a hundred believes in anything like those original principles. They would imprison Washington, Adams, Jefferson, et al, in a third world dungeon and label the tens of thousands of non-uniformed militiamen who fought for our liberty as "enemy combatants" unworthy of the respect that one human being owes to another. They are liars, torturers, thieves, and murderers. The best thing that could happen to the United States, would be a black hole that swallowed up everything in the Capital Beltway. That would be far too kind to the legal filth who wrote and continue to support the Patriot Act and the like.

My greatest complaint against Greenberg's book is that she was far too easy on too many people. This is the softball version of the story. Greenberg seems to have assumed at least good intent on the part of those who destroyed the United States--and I'm sure many of them actually had some good intentions--and gave a complete pass to some of the worst offenders. Maybe she feared for her life if she told us how bad it really is. I would, if I were her.

(Review based on a free advanced reader copy.)

SJWs project

Liberals want gun control because they know they are unable to control themselves. Denied the use of guns, they resort to using knives and baseball bats as "political statements." Conservatives oppose gun control because they know that liberals are unable to control their violent tendencies, and all people (liberal and conservative alike) need some way besides "free speech" zones to defend themselves.

Being Listed Makes You Subhuman...Apparently

If you say that anyone on the FBI’s (or DHS, CIA, CPS, etc) watch list shouldn’t be able to buy guns, are you also prepared to demand that nobody should ever be placed on that list unless they have been found guilty of a crime? What happens when you’re put on “the list” because of an anonymous tip or just because somebody doesn’t like you?

No free person should ever be denied the right to own and carry a weapon equal to what is in common use among the world’s infantries. Anything less makes some people to be “more equal than others.”

Jacob, Esau, Yeshua, Rome, & Judah

I noticed some interesting parallels between the story of Jacob and Esau and the stories of Yeshua and the Jews. Make of them what you will. Comments are welcome.

Torah	Jacob and Esau	Parallels
Genesis 25:21-23	Esau was older and stronger, but Jacob would rule over him.	The nations are older and stronger, but Israel will rule over them.
Genesis 25:27	Esau was a hunter, but Jacob was a man of the tents.	Messiah ben David is a conqueror, but Messiah ben Yosef is a teacher and servant. Rome was a conqueror, but Israel was a teacher and bearer of God's promises and laws.
Genesis 25:29-30	Esau was famished and demanded Jacob's "red stuff".	The world needed a savior and demanded the blood of Yeshua.
Genesis 25:31	Jacob demanded Esau's birthright in exchange for the stew.	The world must humble itself, surrender its own birthright, and submit to Israel's king in order to be covered by his blood.
Genesis 25:32	Esau asked what good was a birthright to someone going to die anyway.	What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet loses his soul?
Genesis 25:34	Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew (red stuff).	Israel gave the body and blood of their Messiah to save the whole world. Yeshua told us to remember his sacrifice whenever we eat of the bread and wine of Passover.
Genesis 25:34	Esau rose and went away.	The body and blood of Yeshua enables either our or our condemnation, depending on the state of our hearts.
Genesis 25:34	Esau despised his birthright.	We must despise our false heritage before we can receive a new one. (Just be careful not to despise the heritage of Israel.)
Genesis 27:15	Jacob wore the best garments of Esau.	Yeshua wore the purple robes of a Roman emperor.
Genesis 27:16	Jacob wore the skins of two young goats, reminiscent of Yom Kippur through which the sins of Israel are atoned.	Yeshua is our atoning sacrifice through which the sins of the whole world are atoned.
Genesis 27:18	Isaac expected Esau, but received Jacob whom he didn't recognize.	Israel expected a conqueror, but received a servant whom they didn't recognize.
Genesis 27:35-41	Esau resented Jacob and plotted to kill him.	The Pharisees resented Yeshua and plotted to kill him. Rome resented the Jews and plotted to kill them.
Genesis 27:42-43	Rebekah warned Jacob to flee Esau's vengeance.	Yeshua warned the Jews to flee Rome's vengeance.
Genesis 28	Jacob went into exile from the Promised Land.	The Jews went into exile from the Promised land.
Genesis 29-30	Jacob prospered and grew despite Laban's attempts to cheat and assimilate him.	The Jews prosper and multiply despite the world's attempts to assimilate and destroy them.
Genesis 31	Jacob returns from exile to the Land.	Jews are returning from exile to the Land.
Genesis 32	Jacob fears Esau and wrestles with the Angel.	Jews fear their enemies in the world and wrestle with their role and the identity of Messiah.
Genesis 33	Jacob and Esau reunite in the Promised Land.	Jews and grafted-in, former gentiles unite in the Promised Land.
Genesis 33:17	Jacob lives at Sukkot (tabernacles).	Messiah returns to tabernacle among his people.
Genesis 33:20	Jacob builds an altar called "God, the God of Israel".	Messiah cleanses the Temple and resumes the daily offerings on the altar.

Only One Answer

We are a nation of prideful sloths, gluttons, liars, thieves, gossipers, & enviers. Our electoral system amplifies our evil inclinations. It even lets us pretend we're actually "doing something" to fix our problems & help the less fortunate, while we actually only make everything worse.

There's only one answer, and it's not Trump, Cruz, Clinton, or Sanders.

Super Tuesday Reflections

Trump's supporters are attracted by two defining traits of his rhetoric: anti-immigration & anti-establishment. That's it. No one comes close to him on those issues or at least no one appears to. Any talk about liberal vs conservative, Christian vs hedonist, Republican vs Democrat, etc., is irrelevant. It completely misses the point. 

The same factors work for Cruz but to a much smaller degree. He's too respectable, too mild, too closely tied to the GOP & financial establishment. If Cruz had been more abrasive, relentless, and believable on those two issues a month ago, he might be close to tied with Trump. 

But he didn't and he's not and most likely never will be.

The Marching Sanders Morons

I just heard the most idiotic thing from an Occupy Wall Street proponent. He suggested that we should have two separate economies: the "easy stuff" economy and a "sports" economy.

The easy stuff economy would provide the basic necessities of life to all people for free. This includes food, shelter, clothing, and basic healthcare. You know. The "easy" stuff that we can do with little to no effort and our eyes closed.

The sports economy would be for the rich and elite to play with entertainment, gadgets, and other non-essential stuff. We can contain all the evil capitalists there so they can't take unfair advantage of the helpless masses.

This is so mind-numbingly idiotic, that I find it difficult to believe that this guy somehow manages to get dressed in the morning.

Who is going to pay for the easy stuff? Who's going to grow the food, harvest it, process it into food-like substances suitable for consumption by Wall Street Occupiers? Who's going to transport it, store it, stock it, serve it? All that stuff just happens magically? Or maybe he thinks we should raid Africa and build a new slave economy.

Who decides what is the easy stuff? What will be grown, where, and how? I'll tell you: Monsanto. The military industrial complex. The evil capitalist cabal that wants to starve all the poor people. That's who. (Sarcasm? Sort of.)

Seriously, it won't be you and me who makes these decisions, and I guarantee you, 100% absolutely, that somebody will be making them. All of this would have to be controlled by a central bureaucracy, which means rich people. Who controls the food-related bureaucracies now? Monsanto & company. Who will control the food-related bureaucracies in OWS Boy's rainbow utopia? Monsanto & company. This means there will be no food on the shelves. There will only be food-like substances, genetically modified, and heavily dosed with subtly toxic chemicals, because that's the "easy" way. At first, you'll be able to buy better food if you really want, but before long, that will become illegal. It's already largely illegal. Just try to buy raw milk from a local farmer. Those companies do not care about you. They do not care about your health, about the environment, or about social justice. They care about profit and control, and that's all they care about.

OWS Boy is typical of Bernie Sanders lemmings. They are easily manipulated pawns with the long-term, critical thinking skills of a mosquito. Promise them free rainbows and they'll gleefully castrate themselves and put bullets in the heads of anyone who uses unapproved language on Facebook.