Thursday, June 28, 2018

Robert Bork: In His Own Words

On February. 18, 1988, Congress approved unanimously the nomination of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy 97-0. However, Kennedy would never have become a Justice if President Reagan's first nomination Robert Bork hadn't been rejected after a fiery speech from Senator Ted Kennedy.

Senator Kennedy took to the floor to condemn Bork. He accused Bork by saying:

'Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is—and is often the only—protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy ... President Reagan is still our president. But he should not be able to reach out from the muck of Irangate, reach into the muck of Watergate and impose his reactionary vision of the Constitution on the Supreme Court and the next generation of Americans. No justice would be better than this injustice.'

Bork replied to the accusation with one sentence,  "There was not a line in that speech that was accurate."

The Reagan administration was shocked by the speech. 


Here are Bork's views in his own words during an interview with CSPAN






About the Author
Robert H. Bork
was an American judge, government official, and legal scholar. He is known for his advocacy of the judicial philosophy of Originalism. He is the author of many books among them his bestseller Slouching Towards Gomorrah 

The End of the "Kennedy Court"


On June. 27th, In the Year of Our Lord 2018, Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy announced his retirement from the highest court in the land. Kennedy says he plans to retire this summer, creating a vacancy that allows President Donald J. Trump a chance to change the scope of the court for years to come. Kennedy, a republican, was appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1988, after the rejected nomination of Robert Bork. Kennedy was often seen as a moderate on the court and often a "swing" vote. His vote decided some pretty major issues; especially gay rights and abortion, which can be seen by the Time magazine cover to the right.

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As expected, Justice Kennedy's announcement has sparked fear and outrage amongst The Left, as can be read here and has brought cheers and thunderous applause among conservatives, as can be read here.

As a conservative, I can understand the cheers from other conservatives. Kennedy hasn't exactly been a great justice when it comes to conservative issues. However, the fact that this much attention and focus is being given to this announcement is a sign that we have put entirely too much power in the Judicial Branch. There were many decisions that the court heard recently that should never have even reached that level in the first place. Chief among them is the "gay marriage" ruling. As conservatives, we should be wary of a day when we will become ruled by 9 "unelected oligarchs".

President Trump has already begun his search for a replacement, although the democrats have expressed that they will not hear anything until after the mid-term elections, obviously citing the same reasons that Senator Mitch McConnell used in 2016.

What happens next will be interesting to watch and see where it goes.

What are your thoughts on this issue? Please leave a thoughtful and constructive comment below. 



About the Author
Ernest D'Agrosa Jr.
is an independent, self-trained artist, illustrator, and designer by trade. An Army veteran of the Iraq War. Devoted Christian, and practicing Roman Catholic. Bibliophile. Devotee of Great Books. Tolkienist. Traditionalist, and defender of the Permanent Things. 

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

George Washington's 'Rules for Civility"

By the time he was sixteen years old, George Washington had copied a 16th century manual for etiquette written by French Jesuits called 110 Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversations.

It's easy to call these rules silly and outdated, but they show something that today we find is in short supply. They focus on others rather than the self. These rules are a fly in the face of everything our current "culture of narcissism" holds sacred.

Perhaps it's time we revisit these rules and bring them back into fashion. Our society desperately needs some civility again. Perhaps a new movement is in order. Indeed, a new 'hashtag'; #maca Make America Civil Again!

That is why over the course of several videos on GCTV, (our YouTube channel) I'll be discussing the 'Rules of Civility" that young Washington once copied. It is and always will be the mission of this publication to exercise civility and proper behavior. The current state of discourse today is disgusting. Level, reasoned heads are needed badly. rediscovering the old virtues and building character is needed more than ever.

Stay tuned for this series, but for now, check out the original rules for yourself here.

A Poet's Advice to His Son.


Originally published in Rewards and Faeries, a historical fantasy by English writer Rudyard Kipling in 1910. If is a poem that embodies the Victorian-era stoicism of the day, and that is written in the form of a father's advice to his son. 

If you can keep your head when all about you
 Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
 But make allowance for their doubting too.
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
 Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
 And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
 If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster,
 And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
 Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
 And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make a heap of all your winnings
 And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
 And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
 To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
 Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
 Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
 If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
 With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
 And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!