I can relate...

Here is a hilarious blog post by Daniel Hannan.

He is a "Euro-Skeptic" (i.e. defender of his nation's sovereignty against those seeking to turn Europe into a superstate) member of the European Parliament from England who has recently become quite a YouTube star. The opening line of this piece is:

" I have always been physically maladroit. Once, when hammering in a nail, I managed to bash, not my thumb, but my face."

At the end, there is a hilarious and priceless punchline delivered by Mr. Hannan's three-year old daughter.

It is a really funny piece. I'm in a very similar situation, though in my case, it's my father that I'm in awe of for his ability to do anything with his hands (my father-in-law is more of a bookworm like myself, only ten times smarter). As inept as I am at anything involving tools, my dad is the opposite.

I once came home to see an entire automatic transmission taken apart on the driveway - down to the o-rings. On another occasion, my dad designed an addition to our home, and began the project by cutting a hole in the house with a chainsaw (which even managed to shock my mom). Pop can also diagnose and fix any (and I mean any) piece of electronic equipment with a schematic diagram, a volt-ohm meter, and a soldering iron (though I think he does enjoy using an oscilloscope because it's just plain cool).

Back in the late 1970s, he turned an ordinary conversion van into a camper - complete with couch-bed (designed and made by hand), removable table (also designed and built by hand), insulation, wood paneling, a portable toilet in a closet, TV and VCR, stereo system, on-board ham radio shack, and a small fridge - all powered by either batteries or an external electrical system to be used at campsites. It even had a primitive (by today's standards) on-board computer that tracked various details including gas mileage, as well as cruise control and an aftermarket air conditioner.

Somehow, I missed out on every one of those "imagine it, calculate it, and build it" genes. If I can't fix something with duct tape and a stapler (I once mended the pocket of a pair of pants with the latter), I can't do it. My dad, by contrast, is like Archimedes, who upon discovering the principle of leverage, quipped: "Give me a place to stand, and I can move the world."

So, Like Daniel Hannan, I am simply awestruck.

And also like Mr. Hannan, I have a little one (a four year old boy in my case). So far, he takes after me. We were walking home from church Sunday, and he was reading a children's Bible as we walked - a dangerous practice (considering all the drivers who are on their phones and texting) that I engage in as well. Leo does like to roughhouse more than I did as a child, so maybe there is hope that he won't be quite as uncoordinated and bookish as me. When I ask him if he wants to be a pastor like daddy, he retorts that he would rather be a "yellow jumping spider."

And, for your Daniel Hannan viewing pleasure, check out this video (HT:Campaign for Liberty) in which Mr. Hannan manages to give a political speech that quotes both the film Terminator and Dr. Seuss - prompting a laughing Mrs. Hollywood to declare: "Dan Han is the Man!"

Daniel Hannan Reviews Atlas Shrugged

I concur with this review of the 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged by the Russian-born American novelist and political philosopher Ayn Rand.

The philosophy of Ayn Rand (developed during her own childhood nightmare of living through the Bolshevik Revolution) is a complete repudiation of Communism and of all forms of collectivism. Rand makes a powerful moral argument for capitalism and for individual freedom.

The downside of her philosophy (which she called Objectivism) is that it posits that all altruism is evil - even when done completely privately without government involvement or compulsion. She is also fiercely Atheistic, and denounces all religion as evil.

And yet even with these caveats (along with her followers' cultishness and her own shameful conduct of her sad personal life which does not serve to vindicate her philosophy), there is much to be learned from Rand. Her essays are better than her novels - though even Atlas Shrugged is brilliant in parts. The premise is unique and promising (the producers and thinkers of society find a way to "go on strike"), heroic (Rand's good guys and bad guys are not hard to figure out, to say the least), and the book's rhetorical device, "Who Is John Galt?", has been iconic among conservative thinkers around the world for half a century. However, as a novel, the well-conceived plot falls flat on its face. The book is far too long, and Rand's storytelling is dreadfully wooden; her characters are simply too robotic to be realistic.

Nevertheless, I recommend it.

It has had a profound effect on American conservatism and libertarianism. It is a work of literature of the same genre as 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and Brave New World. It forces us to rethink our premises about the "common good" and the role of government. Even Christian conservatives and/or libertarians can draw from Rand - in spite of the bad storytelling and the hard edges to her philosophy. And I agree with Hannan that a film version might be just what the doctor ordered to clean up Rand's sloppiness and verbosity.

And as an aside, I find it a breath of fresh air to find a politician like Daniel Hannan, a thinking conservative who can truly write, witty, brilliant, at times fiercely independent, and unashamed to mix Latin, French, and American slang in a well-crafted book review.

If more Congresses and Parliaments around the world had more men like Daniel Hannan, perhaps we could afford to ignore Ayn Rand and not heed the warnings in books like Atlas Shrugged.

Jesus in the European Parliament

The freedom-fighting "Euroskeptic"member of the European parliament (MEP) Daniel Hannan is an orator that is as out of place in this century as his reference to our Blessed Lord. And both are a delight to observe in the above clip.

Not too many modern politicians out there would ever end his speeches with: "Pactio Olisipiensis censenda est!"

They just don't make them like Dan Hannan anymore.

Europe to be "Gone With the Wind?"

Back in the 1990s, I was heavily active in the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and I did a good bit of speaking and writing regarding the principles of self-government and the rights of states to secede from federal unions as not only a right under the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but also part of the human rights articulated by Jefferson in the Declaration and, oddly enough by a Congressman from Illinois named Lincoln.

I remember many times expressing the hope that the Europeans - who were creating a Union of their own - would explicitly include the right to secede from the Union as part of any Union of states. They should not assume that their status of being sovereign states would guarantee their right to withdraw from the EU. I was genuinely concerned that they would repeat the mistakes of our own history, and create a Leviathan that would hold them hostage at bayonet point.

It is interesting to see the way things are playing out: the heavy-handed and fascistic approach of the EU leadership as they use every means of contorted political rhetoric and parliamentary shenanigans to suck the nations of Europe into a superstate that they can never get back out of.

The unification of Europe was rolling along like a freight train until Ireland put on the brakes by virtue of a referendum in which the people of Ireland said "No" to surrendering their sovereignty to a bunch of bureaucrats hundreds of miles away - thus overturning the proposed constitution (which must be unanimously accepted by all member states). Most of the member states that have ratified the treaty did so by parliamentary votes - even though in many cases, the people of the member states are firmly opposed to a European superstate. But Ireland's vote by referendum ended the dream of a ratified Lisbon Treaty.

Instead of regrouping and returning to its principles of a loose confederation focused on a common market, the Eurocrats continued the ratification process, and are basically ignoring the fact that the Irish killed the treaty!

This evil and illegal action has been protested by many members of the European Parliament across national lines. In fact, in this clip, you see Englishmen actually wearing green and calling for Ireland's sovereignty to be respected. You see another British diplomat (Mr. Hannan) calling for a referendum in Latin, just as Cato the Elder ended every one of his speeches in calling for the destruction of Carthage in the days of the Roman Republic. You also see the "states rights" members of parliament being called "fascists" by the centralizers (the real fascists) who want to strip the states of their sovereignty and turn a union into a consolidated nation.

Isn't that rich? And history indeed repeats itself. I'm with MEP Daniel Hannan: "The Lisbon Treaty must be put to a vote" (Pactio Olisipiensis censenda est). Ironically, in the name of democracy, the bureaucratic heads of Europe fear nothing more than allowing the member states to vote on the treaty.

Even the rules of the Parliament were ignored as the president was given the power to censor remarks of members of those in parliament who oppose the Lisbon Treaty! If left unchecked, this new nation will be yet another monstrous tyranny like Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia.

If the Eurocrats get their way, there will most certainly be a secession crisis and a so-called civil war in Europe at some point in the future (and probably not that far distant, either) - the very thing a union is supposed to prevent.

Speech of the Year

MEP Daniel Hannan makes me wish we could elect a foreign national as president of the United States. Oh, wait! "Yes, we can!"

"You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt."
--- Daniel Hannan

A 60 Second Economics Lesson with Dan Hannan