"Returning from the farce of coronation, Captain [John] Smith set himself to work to overcome the obstacles that beset the path of the man who ruled the community with intent to set the colony in the right way. Chief and most grievous was the communistic idea upon which the [early Virginia] colony was based. The profit of all labor went to the community, and the community in turn took care of its individuals. As an inevitable consequence, the lazy men had no incentive to work, being cared for in their idleness as well as in their activity, and the burden of all fell upon those few who were willing to take it upon themselves."

The above was written in the early 1900s by historian Edwin Markham, writing in Volume IV of his beautifully written series, "The Real America in Romance." 

Some lower courts are ruling ObamaCare unconstitutional. The reason given is that it's wrong to force the individual to buy a product or service, such as health insurance.

These decisions are all well and good. But the question remains: If it's wrong for government to force people to buy health insurance, isn't it equally wrong to force people to pay for others' Medicaid and Medicare? Why is force wrong in one situation, but not in another?

Exasperated people who favor liberty and individual rights, but who also favor separation of church and state, often say to me: "Why is this our choice? Why do we have the socialist Obama on the one side, and the religiously insane Michele Bachmann on the other? Why do capitalism and freedom go hand-in-hand with religious nuttiness?"

"We've always been, and always will be, a triple-A country."

So said Barack in a pep talk after the latest financial meltdown. Nobody listened. But probably most people agree. This statement epitomizes why Obama's presidency is failing miserably, and why America's economy is like a plane spiraling into an unwanted descent.

First of all, America has not "always" been anything. A few centuries ago it was wilderness, inhabited by savages. Two centuries ago, it was a much harder place to live than Western Europe. The American Revolutionaries weren't fighting for creature comforts; they were fighting for freedom. America became the most desirable place to live because the people, over a remarkably short period of time, made it that way.