Sound Off!: December 2009

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Protecting the First Amendment

I read your column in the Spring Valley Tribune dated Wed Dec. 30, 2009. Thank you for your words protecting the first Amendment of our Constitution. I am not a lawyer but rather just a life long student. I also worry about our rights. In researching your comment I understand why you feel the forth amendment was the first to be whittled away. I am also concerned about the second amendment. I am not a radical but I am a life member of the NRA. Between the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence, I believe the second amendment was included as protection of all our other rights. Thank you for listening and for your comments. I look forward for more of your words and wit. Sincerely, Pat

Friday, December 18, 2009

Quelling the Revolution: 'Neutralizing' John Lennon

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I just wanted to send you a note and tell you how much I appreciate your blog, your point of view and the calm-reasoned voice you add to the loud and combative political landscape. You have given me reason to pause and re-think my own opinions often. Thank you- keep up the great work! Peace and blessings in 2010 . I especially liked the essay on John Lennon- my 17 year old, Berklee College of Music bound, drumming son loved it too! It really opened his eyes to the powerful force pop-music can be! -- Kevin A.

The Worst Person in the World

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John, I loved your piece. You know what I really liked? How CALM you were. You see things in perspective. Being hated for doing good, how is that not an honor. It releases you to respond rather than just react. You used it as a teachable moment, saying that one who protests other's free speech rights seems to have no trouble with his own being used to the max, including his defamatory attack on you. Kudos and what a hoot! Thanks for lightening it up and keeping it light. You help us know what to do when we get the same villification. Thanks! Bill N.

Right on John! You need to get an interview and bury this statist scumbag right on national TV. It would be awesome to see you square off against this prick. Bet he wouldn't be so high and mighty with you right in his face smacking him upside the head with logic and facts that cannot be intelligibly refuted. Keep on working brother and hopefully i'll see you on the other side in renewed and good America. God Bless and be safe, Merry Christmas! --Jason L

This reminds me of the Woody Allen movie in which he says, "pit wits with me and you won't have any wits to pit."

Bombastic small minded Oldbermann pitting wits with John Whitehead is laughable, and Oldbermann's rating (not a typo - rating) shows it. Of course he's not really pitting wits, is he? He is just doing his shtick and collecting a huge paycheck, from a "news" network allied to all things liberal; except maybe Iran, but that's another story. (Is General Electric, the parent company of NBC, doing business with Iran? And did they do business with the bin Laden family after 9/11?)

The opinions are mine, and thanks to JW and RI for all they do to help protect our right to express ours.--Bill M

Congratulations! I didn't know you were a world renown personality. You might suggest that Keith Olbermann be nominated for the calumny sinner of the year, although he may not understand sin. I have the misfortune of having representative, Carolyn Mc Carthy whose office is very well hidden in a office complex. Free Speech must be honest speech; but who is it to judge truth from half truths or down rightlies --Charles F.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Rutherford Institute Urges Congressman Perriello To Relocate Offices To Accommodate Constituents' First Amendment Rights

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I have always been impressed with your institution's strong desire to fight for our freedom of speech while remaining nonpartisan. However Mr. Whitehead's recent comments about Tom Perriello locating in the Glass Building to avoid protesters, and the suggestion that he move to better suit the protesters, is absurd. Several of these comments strike me as a political shift to the right but your institution. Please correct me if I am wrong.--Tom W

To John Whitehead, President of The Rutherford Institute

This morning I read the letter that was sent from your office to the Honorable Tom Perriello suggesting that he relocate his office in Charlottesville when his current lease expires.

I am not sure what I want to say except that it is a most unusual suggestion you are making. To expect a Congressman to relocate his office for the soul purpose of allowing the teabaggers and other groups to assemble outside his office to demonstrate in not a very good idea.

I would expect that your organization might also express some concern about the expense that is involved in having the office moved. Though it would be small in comparison to the overall financial crisis faced by our nation, it is an unnecessary expense.

Those who wish to peaceably assemble to express their ideas can certainly do so. The constitution does not guarantee that this peaceable assembly can be wherever a group wants it to be. As your letter says "private property interests must be protected."

The congressman's office location in no way restricts the right to peaceable assembly if those you represent what to do so. I would suggest that you help those you represent to focus their efforts on continuing to stand up for what they believe. There are other ways and locations in which they can accomplish this without asking Congressman Perriello to relocate his office. -- Glenn M.

Keith Olbermann Names Attorney John W. Whitehead 'Worst Person in the World'

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Olbermann's "Worst Person's" are usually guilty of a little more than what Whitehead did. I'd suggest he was more in violation of being the lamest protester of the world. Olbermann's points were dead on and then he followed it up beautifully by
pointing out the myth about the liberal press. Enjoy your fifteen minutes.--Jeff

John: Don't sweat it. I would consider that an honor. Olbermann is simply a flunkie of the rabid liberals driving our country to bankruptcy and violating the Constitution at every turn. -- John D.

Congratulations to Mr. Rutherford! That's high praise from the has-been sports anchor :)--OP

Congratulations! How ironic that a person who makes their living in a media that depends for its very existence on the liberties enshrined in the First Amendment is so ignorant of the issues and what it means to have "Free Speech" as a constitutional right.
Keep up the good work and have a Merry Christmas. It's a pleasure to work with and for the Rutherford Institute. -- Art S .

Monday, December 14, 2009

Commentary: Is Christmas a Dirty Word?

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Christmas rules are OK; but I think you missed the Target. We all should be celebrating Christmas day Dec/25 for the Christian we celebrate a human birth which is imbued with the power of the Almighty. Jesus tells us how we should live, personally and within our [American] society. All those, not of the same belief, should celebrate the birth of "'The" philosopher, whose philosophy has formed the bases of individual freedoms as well as the very roots of the constitution. [Doubts? Check out our founders in the history books.] --Charles F.

Monday, December 07, 2009

Commentary: Children of the Twilight Zone: 10 Best Episodes

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I enjoyed reading your article on the Twilight Zone. Try www.the original twilight Zone episode guide.com. Third season "The Hunt" 1-26-62 one of my favorites. It's about a man and his dog ( Rip ) raccoon hunting. Thought provoking.--Thanks, Mark C.

Commentary: Is Obama a Peacemaker or a Warmonger?

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Once again, an excellent commentary. The cost of war is what got our
economy into the current mess. Thanks.--Donald M.

Wow; nauseatingly true. I blog and post with similar rhetoric all day, yet reading this poignant article makes me want to throw up still. Disgusting; America is really lost. --PW

SO EASY to criticize a course of action when you are fancy free and have no responsibility for a country's safety. You'd get respect (maybe) if you explained YOUR plan that's better than Obama's plan. Certainly not hard to have a better plan than his. Do you? Or do you just bitch to get paid?--Rey

So the war is a big machine all trumped up for profits? Do you want to lay down right away and let the Islamists take over now? How do you think the Rutherford Institute will fare in an Islamic regime? --Bob Z.

I like your circumspect thinking on modern issues, your downpayments made for both future and present historians and the common man to ponder. Just the pondering of them in a circumspect manner is itself worthy. Your writings are a catalyst for examining one's own thinking, and an expression of your own. --Bill H.

One of your finest articles- You know better then to tell who's behind it all, the rockeffler - T.C. & C.F.R. ! The big question is, how do you destroy them ?--Gordon S.

I'm as frustrated as you are with our two wars, sir, but let's be honest. President Obama inherited those two actions, he did not start them. He HAS put Iraq on a path where we will be out of there unless we are invited to stay.

In Afghanistan, he faces an almost unsolvable dilemma: the people, generally speaking, want democracy while the strongest people in the country do not. If we leave, the strongest will have their way and the country will revert to Taliban control—the state it was in on 9/11.

If you were president, would you like to make the decision to pull out and then possibly suffer another attack a couple years hence? We Americans have decided we want to engage these enemies on their soil, not ours.

In this column, you stated:

In a bitter stroke of irony, Barack Obama, the 2009 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has set America on the road to endless war—and, it must be said, endless death. All the while, Obama has essentially anointed himself, in the words of a Spiegel commentator, the "Nobel War Prize laureate."

I'm sorry, sir, but Obama did not put us on the road to endless war; WE DID by allowing President Bush to go into Iraq without just cause. We say on our ballots in the 2004 election and now we're paying the price for not getting Bush out of office when we had the chance.

As for President Obama, he hasn't "annointed" himself anything. To me, that kind of statement is purely inflamatory because it is simply not true. Nobel winners do not nominate themselves.--Joe J.