A friendly Reminder

SUPREME COURT IS THE WIZARD OF OZ by Michael Peroutka Recently, arguments were made before the Supreme Court both for and against the Constitutionality of what is known as “ObamaCare” You probably heard a lot of the screeching and shouting surrounding this topic in the news coverage. But I would like you to think about something that you probably didn’t hear about, and maybe haven’t thought about concerning this issue – and other issues – that come before the Supreme Court. N

THE WORD OF GOD IS LEGAL  by Michael Peroutka In the American View of law and government, when God created the world, He created our rights at the very same time.  It was somewhat later, after the flood that he instituted civil government (what we now call the State) for the purpose of defending those rights that He had previously given. Later still, as part of His redemptive plan for a fallen and sinful mankind, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and fully God Himself, instituted

STAY TUNED FOR A TRAGIC PERFORMANCE BY ROMNEY AND RYAN by Michael Peroutka  A new cast member has just entered the national election scene—supposedly from stage right.  His name is Paul Ryan.  Republican hopeful Mitt Romney has selected this dashing young talent to dazzle the audience. A glance at the playbill reveals that Ryan’s experience includes some major roles in the welfare state fantasy.  He has played prominent supporting roles in: 1) Mr. Bush’s Part-D Prescription

THE CASE AGAINST CASE LAW by Michael Peroutka Most Americans assume that rulings and decisions handed down in cases that come before American courts are based on, and consistent with, the “rule of law”. But, regrettably, this is not true. In American Courtrooms today, court rulings are not based on real law.  Rather, they are based on an imitation system which is commonly called “case law” or “the case law method”. This phony “case law” method of understanding what law is an

by Michael Peroutka Do you ever just yearn for the good old days.  When I was a kid things were way more simple. For example, you didn’t need to remember two mascot names for the teams in St. Louis, or New York.  They were the Cardinals and the Giants.  The New York baseball Giants moved to San Francisco when I was just six years old, but I remember asking my dad how they could do that.  It just seemed so wrong to me. The St. Louis football Cardinals pulled up stakes after th

STUMBLING OVER THE TRUTH by Michael Peroutka   Winston Churchill is credited with saying that “men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry on as if nothing ever happened”.   This got me to thinking about the whole idea of truth.    What is the essence of truth?  What is “the truth”?  Where does the truth come from and how do you know it when it is told to you? For example, many scientists that receive government funding say that glo

THE WORD OF GOD IS LEGAL by Michael Peroutka In the American View of law and government, when God created the world, He created our rights at the very same time.  It was somewhat later, after the flood that he instituted civil government (what we sometimes call the State) for the purpose of defending those rights that He had previously given. Later still, as part of His redemptive plan for a fallen and sinful mankind, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and fully God Himself, insti

WHAT MAKES A “LAW” VALID? by Michael Peroutka Americans are generally lost when it comes to understanding what constitutes law – and what doesn’t. Generally, in order for some action of the legislature, or the executive, or the courts to be valid and enforceable, it needs to favorably pass two tests. First, it must not violate what our founders called “The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”  Briefly stated, it must be moral. Secondly, it must not violate the Constitution o

MURDER IN PAKISTAN by Michael  Peroutka  On Sunday evening, May 1, 2011, Barak Obama approached the television cameras in the East Room of the White House and proudly announced that he was a murderer.  He asked for and was granted special network time to announce his crime of conspiracy in the premeditated killing of a non US citizen in Pakistan. I use the term murder because the victim had not been officially charged with any crime by the United States government.  In fact,

FINAL ESSAY  LIVING AND LEARNING LIBERTY by Michael Peroutka   For the last few years it has been my great pleasure to bring you these commentaries on The American View of law and government.  Today’s commentary will be the final one I will be bringing to you…at least for now. But I’m not retiring or stopping or even slowing down in any way.  At the Institute on the Constitution, I plan to continue producing brief commentaries in video form which you can access through our

RIGHT V. RIGHT by Michael Peroutka Does it seem to you like no matter what candidate you vote for and no matter who gets elected, nothing ever changes for the good? In fact, doesn’t it seem like no matter if we elect Republicans or Democrats, or liberals or conservatives, or right wingers or left wingers, socialism becomes more entrenched – the welfare state continues to grow exponentially – liberty further diminishes – property rights disappear – the economy weakens – the v

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT? by Michael Peroutka I think it is fair to say that we are reeling from the effects of out-of-control, bloated government. But, what would a government that is “under control” look like? Asked another way, “What is the proper, legal purpose of government?” As I listen to most of the Republican candidates promote what they call “limited, conservative” government, their view continues to include welfare and warfare and phony, fiat money.  To

WHOSE SIDE ARE WE ON? by Michael Peroutka   You are the new football coach and I am one of your more talented players.  After practicing hard all week you put me in as your starting quarterback.  On the very first series of downs, I throw a pass directly to the middle linebacker who intercepts and takes the ball to the end zone.   Well, now we are down seven to zip, but you pat me on the back and encourage me as I trot back out to the huddle. On first and ten from our own 20

UNLAWFUL ACTS OF CONGRESS ARE NOT BINDING ON THE STATES by Michael Peroutka   When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Federal Government and against the State of Florida regarding the imposition of Obamacare many people seemed very surprised. But should it really surprise us when the Supreme Court (or any federal court) sides with the Federal government…especially when the question at stake is the authority of the federal government? Isn’t this like a baseball game wher

NO JESUS, NO RIGHTS by Michael Peroutka   Imagine you were playing football against a very determined opponent and a new rule was introduced.  According to this new rule of play, your team could actually never have possession of the football.    Everytime you either received a kick-off or recovered a fumble or intercepted a pass or even when you took over on downs, play would stop immediately and possession of the ball would be returned to the other team.   In this scenario

LOOKING FOR A LAW ABIDING GOVERNOR by Michael Peroutka     Unless Mr. Brian Murphy can pull an upset against former governor Bob Ehrlich in the upcoming republican primary, the track records of the presumptive major party candidates for Mary land Governor present a dismal picture for lawful government in Maryland.       The highest law that governs Maryland is, of course, God’s Law. Neither Mr. O’Malley nor Mr. Ehrlich, however, have obeyed Biblical limits on civil governmen

GOVERNMENT AUTHORIZED CHILD ABUSE by Michael Peroutka For years now, the sodomite lobby in Annapolis has been desperately seeking to redefine the God-given and God-ordained institution of marriage.  Now the people of Maryland will cast their votes to approve or to disapprove of this foolishness. During this entire time, the sodomite strategy is to appeal to your sense of fairness.  “Why can’t we just treat sodomites fairly and let them have social benefits that real married

“IT JUST AIN’T SO” by Michael Peroutka A man known as Josh Billings, one of the leading American humorists during the second half of the nineteenth century, once said this: “It ain’t what a man don’t know that makes him a fool…It’s all the things he does know…that just ain’t so.” I think we can heartily agree that it’s a problem when a man or woman takes actions based on beliefs that are flawed.  It’s really a recipe for disaster. The same is true for a culture and its gov

ACTORS ROMNEY AND RYAN by Michael Peroutka   In a recent commentary, I labeled Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan as “actors” because they are selling the illusion that they have a different political philosophy than the current regime in the White House. In support of this, I pointed out that Paul Ryan has voted for a long list of “welfare state” programs that violate the Constitution. And I pointed out that his running mate, Mr. Romney, has been cited as the virtual inventor of Obam

How Shall We Vote? #1 by Michael Peroutka We’ve been talking now for a few weeks about THE AMERICAN VIEW of law and government.  We’ve been trying to understand the principles and precepts that undergird our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.  We can see clearly that our federal and state governments have in many cases abandoned these principles.  And we are anxious to do whatever we can to restore the Republic.   Oftentimes we feel troubled, sometimes angry an