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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (64343)	12/31/1999 8:08:00 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 67261

This guy should be the winner of the Newsmax "Most Trustworthy Journalist" poll. Charley Reese is the only one honest enough to file a conflict of interest statement: Like it or not, this is where I'm coming from in the year 2000 Well, it's the end of the year, and I despise restrospectives, year-end reviews and laughable lists of this or that. As a result, I've always used this end-of-the-year column to file a conflict-of-interest statement with my readers. So far as I know, though I've been doing it for years, I'm still the only journalist who does. My only source of income is from the sale of my columns. The only stock I own are shares of the company I work for, which are given to us in some sort of retirement plan. I do rent a house I'm buying in anticipation of retirement. I drive a '96 Thunderbird, which I dearly wish I could have afforded at age 18, when it might have done something more for me than move me around. I'm registered as a Democrat. Yes, I know that most Democrats are socialists or Marxists or some other brand of crackpot. Well, it pleases me to be the only conservative Southern Democrat extant. Besides, it greatly annoys the feminists and abortion-boosters when they hear about it. The more I learn about the War Between the States, the less appealing the Republican Party becomes. It was born in sin, and it has committed the lion's share of the sins against the Constitution and the American people, though Democrats run a close second in the sin department. Philosophically, I am a traditional conservative. That means that I believe in the original Constitution and the original republic of sovereign states. I believe, as James Madison said, that states should do 95 percent of the governing and that the federal government should be strictly limited to those powers and duties explicitly spelled out in the Constitution. I doubt that I will ever see such a republic, but because I am of Celtic ancestry, it never occurs to me to approve of something just because it exists or is powerful or is likely to prevail. I am what the global-baloney peddlers are pleased to call an isolationist. Of course, I define that the same way George Washington did. We should have commerce with all, entangling alliances with none. We should neither favor a foreign country nor exhibit a hostile attitude toward one. What they do in their own countries and to each other is their business. The American government should concentrate solely on protecting and wisely governing the American people. I believe, as Marine Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler believed, that imperial wars are a racket fought by poor boys for the benefit of rich corporations. I am powerfully opposed to involving American troops in any hostilities without a declaration of war by Congress, as the Constitution requires. Nor do I think we should ever declare war on any country unless it has attacked, or is about to attack, our country. I would not only withdraw from the United Nations, I would evict the organization from its New York headquarters, if I had my druthers. As you can see, I'm clearly an anachronism and proud of it. I belong to only three organizations -- the National Rifle Association, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the League of the South. I'm proud to be a part of all three organizations. I believe that if Americans are dumb enough to give up their Second Amendment right to keep and bear firearms, they will get exactly what they deserve -- a fascist dictatorship, American-style. They may get one anyway because Tom Jefferson was surely right when he said that anybody who expects to be free and ignorant expects what never was and never will be. Far too many Americans, brilliant in some areas, are ignorant of their nation's history. Well, that's about it. My purpose in writing is to provoke people into thinking. I don't really care if people agree with me or not. I'm not running for office or selling anything. I just can't stand apathy. Published in The Orlando Sentinel on December 30, 1999. orlandosentinel.com