That’s cause if you allow people to kill the President just cause they want to, eventually you will become embroiled in a Civil War. And that would hurt many more people, including the family members of the Secret Service. That is why US Marines and other patriots would willingly die to protect this nation, because it is only this nation that guarantees that their families will be secure or taken care of if they should die.

That is the link between loving your family and loving your nation. That is why patriotism and being loyal to your nation are both virtues, instead of the LockStep fascist bootjacks that the Left would have everyone think it is. Obviously the Left prefers tribalism and ripping off anyone not related to you in the web of blood and power politics.

By my definition, humanitarians would owe their ultimate loyalty to all of mankind. This is an ideal situation and thus should not currently exist in reality. People might try to move their loyalties to all of mankind, but it is extremely hard and very brittle. Blood is still the strongest bond between humans, inspite of all the advances in civilization concerning “law” or “nations”.

If you saw humanity as your tribe, you might be asked in the future to sacrifice your nation so that humanity may survive and prosper. How would you make that decision? The Associated Press and the Un have obviously decided for themselves which path they will take.

At such a time, your sense of family and what you see as your tribe will be tested to see where your ultimate loyalties are at. And if your ultimate loyalty is to your nation or family, then it cannot be said that you consider your “tribe” to be all of humanity.

A person who sees all of humanity as their tribe de facto and de jure, must ultimately sacrifice many nations for the good of mankind. The sacrifice of Germany and many other nations and cities such as Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the good of not only America, but of mankind as well are never done for humanity but done to protect nations. Nations are still the largest and function “tribe” in existence. There is no “human” tribe except perhaps for American freedom fighters that fight to unify humanity’s disparate tribes.

So long as your nation’s goals and welfare are linked to humanity’s ultimate potential and welfare, then your loyalty is never in conflict. But that’s not true for everybody nor is it true all of the time.

This is why I say seeing all of humanity as your tribe is the ideal. It is the ideal that might be true, but currently it isn’t because people are divided into ideological groups, political groups, family groups, social groups, and national/ethnic groups.

The Reagan Library was wonderful to visit. Mrs. Marooned and I went back in 2001 and I wanted to go back before we left to see the Air Force One exhibit, but we never made it I’d also visited the LBJ Library many times, especially when I lived in Austin. My mother and a friend of hers took me and her friends daughter to see LBJ’s casket come off AF1 at Bergstrom AFB (now Austin’s new airport). I was too young to know what was going on, except that it was so cold that day I thought my hands were going to freeze off.

In the political science dynamic, patriotism is when a person sees his country as his tribe. Humanitarianism, true humanitarianism, is when a person sees all of humanity as his or her tribe.

When the Democrats recognize that the only virtuous loyalty you can hold are to victim groups or Democrat ideology, while kicking out people like Lieberman that disagree, what you have is not patriotism: what you have is people that recognize only their immediate family, circle of lackeys, or ideological group as being their tribe. Amoral familism also factors into things.

In the political science dynamic, patriotism is when a person sees his country as his tribe. Humanitarianism, true humanitarianism, is when a person sees all of humanity as his or her tribe.

When the Democrats recognize that the only virtuous loyalty you can hold are to victim groups or Democrat ideology, while kicking out people like Lieberman that disagree, what you have is not patriotism: what you have is people that recognize only their immediate family, circle of lackeys, or ideological group as being their tribe. Amoral familism also factors into things.

Am I kidding myself that I’m not self-righteous in being joyful every time I hear that some of the perps of 9-11 have been killed?

Feeling joy that people who hurt your family has died is a natural human reaction. A Democrat feeling joy at the idea that one of the enemies to their family, meaning tribe, might die off is also a natural human reaction. About as natural as violence and killing is, and just as reprehensible when Democrats live off the fruits of America but only extend their loyalty to their small ideological group of allies.

Obviously if you have a family, an extended family at that in your nation, that provides for you, cares for you, ensures you get educated, protects you and your children, that you owe that family your loyalty in return. This is the basic fundamental relationship dynamics for a social human being. But Democrats don’t recognize America as being their tribe or even part of their tribe. They see America as foreign, as a geographic location that holds enemy tribes such as the Republicans.

In that sense, we have been fighting tribalism for a very long time now. The Middle East should have been nothing new to us. What was new was dealing with the raw and undiluted tribalism of the Middle East, undiluted by American justice or culture or moderation.

This time of year, it’s gorgeous. I’d like to own a few hundred acres or so. Come back in a couple of months – June or July and on into the year – and I’d give my few hundred acres back in a heartbeat! It gets dry, brown, over crowded, kind of smoggy…just not a great place. The Reagan Library, however, is at the top of the hills facing seaward – cool breeze even in the hottest of weather. Terrific location.

I lived in Simi in the 1967-68 time frame. It was much smaller then…. There was Santa Susanna and Simi. Orange groves inbetween – about 5 miles worth. No freeway. Groves from about two blocks north of First St. to the hills. I used to ride in the dry riverbed – it’s not dry any more. People blame that on the groves, but that just isn’t so – there used to be ten – a hundred – times the grove acreage that there is now. I believe the water comes from the water treatment plants – they do a purify job on the sewage, then dump it into the riverbed. Now it’s all called Simi Valley, houses throughout the whole stretch. And they’re talking about permitting another 20,000 homes. I wonder where they think the water in the future is going to come from…!

“We are the Borg… Resistance is futile”!!!