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Politically Incorrect- Oct 3 2014 (made with Spreaker)
Source: http://www.spreaker.com/user/radiomarkowitz/politically-incorrect-oct-3-2014 Lets look at the world and the events of the day and discuss them withou...

By: Warren Markowitz

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Politically Incorrect- Oct 3 2014 (made with Spreaker) - Video

I sometimes fear I am coming of age in a dying republic. Everywhere I turn the foundational values of America open discourse, constitutional integrity, restricted government seem to be eroding.

Elite universities have become repressively hostile toward speakers like Condoleezza Rice and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, whose politically incorrect views make students uncomfortable. Influential thinkers like Louis Seidman, Andrew Burstein and Donna Brazile advocate overhauling the Constitution to serve their partisan agendas. Even the nation's highest officials don't seem to play by the nation's rules: President Obama looks poised to bypass Congress to impose immigration reform. His Justice Department sidesteps laws of which it disapproves. The IRS appears to have systematically persecuted conservative dissenters.

What's a young constitutionalist to do? I study ancient history, so I know nothing lasts forever: Republics have fallen before. But when they do, republicans like me have to fight back. That fight matters even if it's destined to fail. I know that too, because when the ancient Roman Republic was dying, one man's doomed defense of it transformed history. His name was Marcus Cicero, and he helped build America.

Cicero was a nerdy kid from a podunk town who became known, according to his biographer, Plutarch, as the best orator ... of the Romans. He was a true republican, dedicated to preserving Rome's representative government. When Julius Caesar invited him to join a backroom political coalition, Cicero refused. He worried that conspiratorial demagogues were undermining the republic.

He was right. The republic was dying. Poverty and civil bloodshed were rampant. The government was bloated and corrupt. The people wanted peace and reform; they wanted relief from their crippling debt. Julius Caesar offered all those things in return, he wanted unalloyed power. The senate consented: Caesar would become dictator for life.

Alone and defeated, Cicero retreated from politics to literary pursuits. He wrote his treatise On the Republic to defend his ideal of an elected government in three branches. He tried to fight for that government again, but in 43 BC, Antony and Octavian had Cicero beheaded for defying their new regime. With that, the lights went out on the Roman Republic.

As everyone knows, the lights came up on a new republic centuries later, in Philadelphia. What's less well known is that decades before that, a Massachusetts schoolboy picked up a book that, according to David McCullough's biography, became one of his earliest, proudest possessions. The book was Cicero's Orations. The boy was John Adams.

Adams idolized Cicero he pored over the little book until it was yellowed and dogeared. Gradually, he learned to imitate the force and flair of Cicero's rhetorical genius. For guidance, he read aloud from the orations, admiring the sweetness and grandeur of Cicero's words.

In July 1776, Adams rose to what may have been the occasion he was born for. After prolonged deliberation, the 13 colonies had to decide whether to declare independence. With British forces descending on New York, Adams delivered a two-hour tour de force proclamation declaring that Britain's encroachment on God-given freedoms could not stand.

Thomas Jefferson later wrote that Adams' power of thought and expression ... moved us from our seats. Adams' compelling rhetoric won the day for independence. It was a triumph in the name of liberty.

Read more from the original source:
Paying liberty forward: Thinkers and writers can transcend millenniums

It's politically incorrect to ever compare sports to war, however, when it comes to successful, intangible attributes such as chemistry, leadership and sacrifice the comparisons to professional hockey teams seem fair.

Those are just some of the qualities that Panthers owner Vinnie Viola hopes his players absorb as they begin three days of team-bonding exercises Sunday at the prestigious U.S. Military Academy in West Point.

"I wanted to get the team in an environment that I believe represents everything the team should strive to achieve in terms of esprit, camaraderie and sacrifice for each other because that's what that place is all about,'' said Viola, a West Point graduate who served in the 101st Airborne Division and went on to conceive the Combating Terrorism Center on campus.

"The idea that you will make the ultimate sacrifice to protect your brother to your right and left to accomplish the mission and that from day one you're taught the mission is bigger than the individual.''

Viola has brought in several West Point graduates to the Panthers such as Eric Joyce, assistant to General Manager Dale Tallon in hockey operations and J.B. Spisso, a motivational consultant.

The team began their stay at West Point participating in a series of field problems that tested their mental and physical strength, some traits they could've used in a winless preseason (0-4-2) that ended in a 4-1 loss to the Lightning Saturday night.

Some of the team's lack of cohesiveness was expected due to seven new faces in the lineup as well as an overhauled coaching staff.

"Obviously, there's been a lot of changes,'' said Panthers defenseman Willie Mitchell, an offseason free-agent signing who won two Stanley Cup rings in the last three seasons with the Los Angeles Kings.

"The coaching staff is all new and not everyone is familiar with each other out there and right through the lineup. That was one of our better games, actually, but saying that it's not acceptable, it's a loss. I know it's exhibition but you want to start the season off on the right foot.

"I've never been to West Point but from what I know about it, it'll be a good learning experience as far as what it takes to be a winner, to go above and beyond in work ethic and sacrifice. If we want to get to the playoffs that's how we're going to have to play as a group collectively so I hope those are some of the things we take out of that and learn to take us to the next level.''

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Revamped Panthers hope to grow closer at West Point