Greetings!

Thanks to all my readers who responded to my reader poll.

Our freedoms are protected not only by law, but even better by the safeguard of an aggregate of values. This way, irrespective of manipulation or abuse of due process, nothing adverse would ever be taken seriously... if we adhere faithfully to that aggregate of values. How we get into such abuses of process as our whole nation experiences today is largely by an abandonment of those safeguard values. One of them is critical thinking. (Sometimes, it leads to the realization that you don't have to take abuse.)

Today's lineup, I've chosen Dr. Laura's critical analysis article to join us. Also, Dr. Laura will be moving to XM Radio in 2011.

Newt Gingrich furnishes observations on today's safeguard value of critical thinking. Welcome, Mr. Speaker.

David Codrea turns in a report as an xample, and Gerard Valentino rounds out the concept with his analysis.

Love of Liberty,

I've written about critical thinking or critical analysis as a survival skill. It is something you must master if you expect to be independent and teach independence. It is to be armed with thought and knowledge.

Critical thinking is the ability to discern empty-headed sloganeering from truths which apply to you; it is the ability to know whether you are being treated fairly or being deceived with weasel words. It is discernment coupled with an undeterred probing for clarification and accurate understanding.

Let's use the First Amendment as an example. My generation uses the Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.'s dictum [Schenk v. United States] that you do not falsely yell "Fire!" in a crowded theatre. Some people accept this cliche as an example of exceptions to our freedom of speech, but, incomplete often, it is misleading: for, you do yell "Fire!" in a crowded theatre if the place is on fire; you are not creating a problem, you are part of the solution. Cliches have a funny habit of clinging as stiflers of critical thinking, and that stifles a spirit of independence.

[On this topic, I want to recommend a book which moves on silly maxims, cliches and slogans of leftist thought or absence of it in forming American attitudes. I recommend Poor Lenin's Almanac - Perverse leftist proverbs for modern life by liberty writer Bruce Walker. Go to Outskirtspress.com]

Another is the idea of 50% of all marriages ending in divorce. In the middle seventies, our statistics instructor pointed out how to investigate such a statement. We students then fulfilled the aassignment and discovered that the 50% figure applied to newlyweds in the first two years, and that if you survive your first two years, you can then move into another demographic which offers greater hope for your marriage. I was made to think of that class this week when Beck added that the divorce rate was largely dependent on maturity and age, too, as factors, before it was approaching anything like 50%.

Critical thinking is a safeguard of our freedoms.

Other examples of critical analysis are these: 1. You cannot lie under oath and claim free speech; 2. You cannot falsely advertise and hide behind the first amendment; 3. You can't defame others and claim freedom of speech; 4. You cannot issue public statements for the purpose of stock manipulation and claim freedom of speech ... You get the idea. You certainly can yell in a crowded theatre, if the place is really on fire. In fact, you'd better.

What does this have to do with our second amendment?

Critical analysis of why one would want to own a gun; how non-gun owners ask why anyone would falls into the trap of not immediately seeing an insightful answer and assuming the answer must be unknowable.

But the kind of adult citizen who thinks it through and elects to be armed is likely a critical thinker in other areas. And you know something: this is the kind of citizen many, many of us are as the sovereign in our system. It is not that people are thoughtful or not, it is a survival skill which can be taught.

It better be. Critical analysis finds that - unlike the First Amendment - the Second Amendment is absolute.

The health of the second amendment is the primary indicator of the overall health of the nation.

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[...] Then there are "nine others are suspected of criminal wrongdoing that includes sexual assault and theft," and "[a]t least seven officers are either suspended or on administrative duty because of an allegation of excessive use of force..."

It's no surprise for those of us who follow such things. Prince George's County law enforcers have made recurring appearances over the years in the "Only Ones" Files at my online journal, The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance. Consider these incidents: More . . .

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Four months ago, I said I was ending my terrestrial radio show at the end of the year because I wanted to regain my First Amendment rights. A lot of intellectuals snickered and said I didn't know what I was talking about - only the government can take away First Amendment rights. I was only being threatened by non-government organizations like Media Matters.

Well, where do you think fascism and censorship start?

More . . .

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This year, as part of the American Solutions Real Jobs Tour, I had the opportunity to meet with Tea Party leaders across the country. I was amazed at how many of them were leading reading and discussion groups on the Constitution and learning more about the Founding Fathers. It became clear to me that the energy and drive of the Tea Party movement was not an allergic reaction to the radicalism of the Obama administration, as it is so often dismissed in the mainstream media.

It was, in fact, a response to the huge challenges facing our nation, and evidence of the revival of an old idea: American Exceptionalism.

More . . .

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