Just a short note to explain why I’m substituting an opinion piece from the Washington Times for my usual scribbling this week. First, Mr. Whitehead accurately sums-up the fears of most U.S. citizens today in his first paragraph, and I share those concerns. With the election of Barack Obama to the office of chief executive and Commander in Chief our fundamental constitutional rights are disintegrating as never before. I agree we have now become a nation of men instead of laws. Government agencies ignore the demands of Congress, Congress ignores the demands of “we the people”, and the Supreme Court, ignoring the clearest Constitutional demands, does whatever it pleases by rewriting the Constitution. Certainly, Obama will appoint two new justices to the Supreme Court during the next three years. The traditional moral norms of the nation are disappearing. America’s very identity is up for grabs. As never before, we are a nation of special interests, unions, financial institutions, and radical Leftists. The conservative will of the people is forgotten.

We are among the lucky few in feeling secure in our county and city. Beyond this, I worry for the less fortunate others.

Our enemies smile at the sight of the Political Correctness which has destabilized military organization and preparedness. Our military has been utterly corrupted from the top down (the only possible way). Only catastrophic military defeat will correct this deviance, if we survive it.

With those happy thoughts, here’s Mr. Whitehead:

OPINION: From a Nation of Laws to a Nation of Men
How a cozy police state tempts a distracted republic

Written By John W. Whitehead

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” — Abraham Lincoln

With each passing day, America is inching further down the slippery slope toward a police state. While police clashes with protesters, small farmers and other so-called “lawbreakers” vividly illustrate the limits placed on our freedoms, the boundaries of a police state extend far beyond the actions of law enforcement. In fact, a police state is characterized by bureaucracy, secrecy, perpetual wars, a nation of suspects, militarization, surveillance, widespread police presence, and a citizenry with little recourse against government actions, to name just a few.

Sound familiar? If it does it is only because the signs of an emerging police state are all around us. In Orwellian fashion, it has infiltrated all aspects of our lives, from the mundane to reality-television shows to the downright oppressive.

We were once... http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/3/from-a-nation-of-laws-to-...