tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-109412282025-10-02T03:06:23.444-04:00Liberty doesn’t start with limited government and individual rights – these are the product of a specific cultural evolution having its genesis in Ancient Greece and reaching the summit of philosophical maturity in the Anglo-American Enlightenment. Today civilization is weakened by a cultural disintegration and threatened by theocratic barbarians. Only a rational reality-based philosophy can secure liberty on a proper foundation.Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.comBlogger361125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-81578799661718914172021-09-10T10:57:00.002-04:002021-09-10T10:58:44.763-04:00

Twenty years ago I approached the management of my firm, a small start-up and suggested that we should attend a conference on technology in finance. My boss balked at the fee. He argued that the speakers were advertising their products and that they would come to our office for free to do a sales pitch. I thought that I should be more assertive and push for at least one of us to attend but I

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-91455509264360123682020-08-03T11:26:00.012-04:002020-08-05T18:30:38.734-04:00

A decade ago no one would have imagined that someone could be demoted or fired for saying an inclusive statement of universal regard such as, “all lives matter.” That this statement is now considered a racist trope by the media, universities, and corporations is simply Orwellian. This absurdity has to be discussed and dismissed in no uncertain terms. Given the hysteria and the atmosphere of

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-7049396403973630312020-03-23T09:13:00.002-04:002020-03-23T09:13:49.937-04:00

I have a brief article posted today on American Thinker on the totalitarian policies put in place to fight the virus hysteria.

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-52734851340708047472019-09-11T10:47:00.000-04:002019-09-11T10:53:06.807-04:00

After reading articles on a dozen conservative websites, it appears that only one had something to say about the movement and religion that was the root cause of the attacks on 9/11. Here is the article by Brigitte Gabriel. Back in 2004 I doubted that conservatives could face the nature of a religious enemy. With a few exceptions that has become true. The left suspended its usual criticism of

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-36946329420408771402016-06-16T22:21:00.000-04:002016-06-16T22:21:22.244-04:00

Daniel Greenfield has written about how a fellow counter-jihadi blogger, Ed Cline, has been listed by ISIS as a potential target. Please read about it here. Many of us have used pseudonyms; Ed has been in the open as he has blogged and written books about the Islamic threat. Ed's landlord is now making him move and his friends have setup a fund to help him: here. If you can, consider helping Ed.

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-40449897855494359892014-12-07T10:47:00.003-05:002014-12-07T10:49:10.851-05:00

My blog has been effectively mothballed since I have been busy researching other areas. However, I noticed how hard it is today to engage in a discussion of Islam and the nature of jihad. The counter-jihadi movement has been vilified for years because of their critique of jihadism. Oddly enough, the language and even some of the analysis has been adopted by the very mainstream media that

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-61535883027663967482012-11-17T07:01:00.002-05:002012-11-17T07:01:53.739-05:00

I've written a brief article at American Thinker on Obama, the rule of law, the fiscal cliff, taxing the rich, and mob rule. Take a look (and comment there).

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-13000028456751082222012-10-18T10:13:00.002-04:002012-10-18T10:50:09.383-04:00

“Who are you voting for and why?” asked one TV reporter seeking the pulse of prospective voters in a pivotal state. Not a single person responded by citing political or ethical principles. The Romney voters didn’t point to the prospects of protecting individual rights, free markets, or the virtues of self-reliance. The Obama supporters were silent on redistribution, socialism, and the evils of

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-33947201289594335122011-09-11T18:43:00.003-04:002011-09-11T18:48:07.112-04:00

Back in 2006 I mentioned how anti-anti-Islam is like anti-anti-Communism--an attack on the critics that substitutes for a defense of the indefensible. I explore this in greater detail in my article at American Thinker. I could continue this with an inordinate fear of Islamophobia--Islamophobiaphobia--except that would dignify the anti-concept of Islamophobia. Read my article to see why.

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-28826731345792147142011-07-25T15:51:00.006-04:002014-01-15T10:40:55.253-05:00

As expected the European establishment is using the attack by Breivik to further suppress debate and criticism of the growing Islamic problem within Europe. They already deploy legal punishments for criticizing Islam (witness the trial of Geert Wilders) as well as other forms of intimidation. It is times like these that we should remember Kipling’s words: If you can bear to hear the truth you've

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-62982863995516558542010-11-14T12:34:00.009-05:002010-11-14T20:26:10.259-05:00

Rousseau famous thesis, that "peaceful primitive man" is corrupted by civilization, continues to permeate our culture and undermine our moral confidence. Anthropologist Lawrence H. Keeley demolishes this thesis in his book War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage. He shows that “prehistoric warfare was in fact more deadly, more frequent, and more ruthless than modern war.”To come

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-44277851195391490962010-08-31T21:17:00.002-04:002010-08-31T21:56:31.144-04:00

Von Steuben has some thoughts on the matter. “Americans may belong more to the West than to Asia, but they are not Europeans, they are different. Nobody expressed this better than the great Prussian officer sent by the French to instill some discipline in Washington’s ragtag troops at Valley Forge in 1775. He was Baron von Steuben: ‘The genius of this nation is not in the least to be compared

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-27228171332526146542010-07-28T10:13:00.003-04:002010-07-28T10:40:10.373-04:00

My original purpose in starting this blog was to address the cultural decay that underlies the retreat from the principles that made our country great. In the course of describing the threats our nation faces today, I found the inability to critique foreign cultures and the threats emanating from ideologies hostile to our core values wasn’t limited to the hard core left. Even many of my comrades

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-86775264591191610712009-01-26T21:06:00.013-05:002009-03-05T08:49:53.601-05:00

Geert Wilders, an outspoken critic of Islam, is facing criminal charges by the Dutch government for expressing his opinion. We must come to the aid of this great patriot. We owe it to Geert, to Holland, and to ourselves.Holland was once the home to liberty's founders and defenders. In the 17th century Hugo Grotius advocated religious tolerance and natural law. Holland gave haven to Spinoza’s

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-1146875935162453632008-10-06T15:40:00.002-04:002008-10-06T17:00:57.441-04:00

Prior to the United States constitution each state was essentially a nation unto itself. Most state governments were overwhelmingly dominated by the legislature. Democracy was unrestrained or if the state constitution had a bill of rights is was what Madison called a “parchment barrier” that was easily ignored when inconvenient. The will of the people was unfettered and impassioned.In New England

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-44878849602321303542008-09-29T21:54:00.013-04:002008-10-02T10:49:49.374-04:00

Sometimes others just say it better:Dick Armey on voting no to the bailout.Thomas Sowell on bailout politicians.Alex Epstein on bailouts without reform.Robert Bidinotto on the bailout and the crisis.Martin Masse on the bailout as socialism.Yaron Brook: stop the bailouts.Edward Cline on the history of bailouts, etc.Jeff Perren comments on several aspects of the problem.John Allison against helping

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-40384734741723764492008-09-11T01:39:00.000-04:002008-09-11T09:17:40.637-04:00

One the seventh anniversary of 9/11 I have to sadly report that this day will not live in infamy—not if today’s historians are any indication. Historians will one day argue that we brought death and destruction to Afghanistan and Pakistan for dishonorable reasons. There will be no reference to the WTC attack or the 3000 deaths.Hard to imagine?This past weekend, PBS presented a biography of the

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-84877992115416430962008-08-13T09:41:00.006-04:002008-08-20T10:24:45.079-04:00

I have finished my review of the conflict with aboriginal Americans during the first 50 years of our nation’s history. This history is lost and buried; it has been obscured by contemporary multi-cultural sensibilities. Nevertheless, I have endeavored to extract this history from a combination of contemporary and classic secondary histories of the period because I’ve found no one source that does

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-66883936275035731212008-06-30T20:31:00.001-04:002008-08-20T10:14:50.833-04:00

At our country’s founding, the most pressing military problem facing the first administration of our “more prefect union” was not the imperialistic Europeans across the ocean but the aboriginal tribes forming the Indian nations west of the Appalachians. Henry Knox, our first Secretary of War, was the major architect of our Indian policy. In which was to be considered a controversial policy, he

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-948855507402961672008-06-29T06:35:00.002-04:002008-08-20T10:16:37.620-04:00

Two hundred years ago we responded to savage attacks on civilization in a very different way. It is worth looking at the war on terrorism during the early days of our republic and the nation's response to the 9/11 of its day. Below I describe the Fort Mims Massacre and our immediate response. I'll continue to describe the changes in policy that followed in future articles.

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-13731821685764925942008-06-28T15:39:00.000-04:002008-08-20T10:14:02.899-04:00

When Andrew Jackson arrived in Nashville in October of 1788 it was a frontier town with a few stores, several taverns, two churches and a distillery. Warring among Creeks, Shawnee, and Choctaws, had left this fertile land uninhabited until arrival of settlers a decade before. Now a small town of a few hundred inhabitants it was continually terrorized by Indians. The settlements “lost a man, woman

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-51697957619852313062008-06-27T23:01:00.001-04:002009-04-06T11:54:40.219-04:00

To understand Andrew Jackson’s Indian policy it is necessary to understand his view of the proper role of the federal government, the constitution, and the rights of the states. Jackson’s self-proclaimed political philosophy was anti-federalist in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson. He was a strict constitutionalist, as the term is currently used. He was an ardent defender of the Union as the only

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-2319813849941324282008-06-25T22:59:00.000-04:002008-08-20T10:09:18.427-04:00

Jackson’s life spanned the early years of our nation's history from a loose association of rebellious colonies that hugged the Atlantic coast, to the emergence of a major continental power about to extend its reach to the Pacific. He lived to see the election of James Polk (“Young Hickory”) but not Polk's incorporation of Oregon, California, and the vast South West. Physically the nation matured

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-84055790530583969692008-06-24T07:50:00.000-04:002008-08-20T10:10:19.590-04:00

Washington and Jackson viewed westward expansion as necessary to the growth of the country. Both knew the frontier firsthand where the expansion of civilization was challenged by the savagery of the aboriginal inhabitants. When Washington was President and Jackson a young man the frontier lay beyond the Allegany and included the western parts of the great states of Pennsylvania, Virginia, North

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10941228.post-20599897192412379462008-06-23T23:13:00.007-04:002008-08-20T10:10:58.547-04:00

Jackson’s racked-up victory after victory: Talladega, Horseshoe Bend, Pensacola, Mobile, and finally New Orleans in 1815, where the spectacular defeat of the British is a legendary triumph in American military history. Even though it technically occurred after the Treaty of Ghent, it was a morale boost for the nation and career boost for Jackson.With hindsight, one can argue that the War of 1812,

Jason Pappashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233796281520274898noreply@blogger.com