Earlier this month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the controversial drug Ella as “emergency contraception” (EC) to be used up to five days after sex to “prevent pregnancy.” What the FDA did not disclose is that Ella is much more expansive than contraception and actually acts as an abortifacient, resulting in the destruction of the smallest of human life.

Those marketing Ella have tried to closely associate Ella with Plan B (also known as the Morning After Pill) in an effort to quell some of the controversy and break into the EC market, not the abortion market. While ethically there is no difference between EC and abortion as both cause the destruction of life, legally and legislatively, there is a difference.

Classification as an abortifacient creates significant hurdles for the producers, marketers, and distributors of Ella. If Ella were to be labeled an abortifacient, it may not be eligible for federal tax subsidies and its chance of becoming over-the-counter (as Plan B is) is unlikely. It’s also possible that, if President Obama’s federal health care program stands in court, Ella, as EC, may be covered by health insurance plans. Additionally, the future distributors of Ella (such as Planned Parenthood) have financial incentive to refer to Ella as EC, not an abortion pill, as there are typically less objections to the term “contraception” as compared with “abortion” thus increasing the distributors’ client base and profitability.

Ella marketers would like you to believe that Ella is merely an improved version of Plan B. Plan B can also prevent an embryo from implanting in the uterine wall and causes the destruction of the embryo. If taken after the embryo has implanted, Plan B is not able to destroy the embryo. Conversely, Ella can. It is crucial that the public understand Ella’s destructive nature.

The drug that has a similar chemical makeup to Ella is not Plan B, but rather RU-486, the pill used for chemical abortions. Ella’s misclassification as EC is a clandestine method to provide funding for abortion. In its research trials, Ella was not tested for its abortive potential and therefore the unknown consequences and dangers are potentially expansive. At least six deaths as a result of RU-486 have been reported to the FDA over the past six years. Since Ella’s chemical makeup is similar to RU-486, it’s likely its complication rate will be just as tragic.

Watson Pharmaceuticals, the US company marketing Ella, says that Ella will likely be available with a prescription by the end of this year. Disguised as emergency contraception, Ella is a drug with greater destructive value than previously available. Help us spread the truth about Ella by sharing this with your friends and family.

* Victoria Cobb is President of The Family Foundation located in Richmond Va.

** Please forward this to friends and family who you think are interested in issues affecting traditional values and encourage them to sign up for alerts at www.familyfoundationblog.com/?page_id=162

While I have not seen much from Cusack lately, I am somewhat disturbed by the extreme nature of his remarks as he starred in one of my favorite films, Grosse Point Blank. Either he doesn’t understand the power of his words among the simple minded who hang on every word of People magazine and Entertainment Tonight interviews, or perhaps, he really would not be too upset if one of these followers would take his advice and actually try to harm some of these good people. It is instructive to observe Cusack’s hypocrisy in advocating violence against an organization like FoxNews because, to his convoluted thinking, it is promoting violence.

What is even more amazing is that people who make their living pretending to be someone they are not should be considered to have a high degree of astuteness. What does that tell us about the audience who would rather take advice from drug addled performers with pretty faces than find things out and think things through for themselves?

For Cusack, the mindless rant may have been a way of getting his name back in the news. We have to keep in mind that it’s hard to be famous when people don’t think about you very much. In his business, people have to want to see your movies if you are to survive. One could be cynical and chalk this up to being just an attempt to say, “hey, everybody, look at me!”… or he could really believe this malevolent nonsense, which moves him into the category of a useful idiot of the left.

In making such comments, these people show that they are not to be taken seriously, so we should not get too upset when they show their ignorance. Some people follow them, but they’re already in the leftist/progressive camp. Unfortunately, there are a few who may act on some of these detestable statements, but it’s doubtful Cusack will actually convince anyone with common sense.

All the misinformed celebrities are looking for is for someone to smile at them, pat them on the head and tell them their lives have meaning in the real world. While we cannot do this, we can pray for them, and enjoy their work, realizing they are just overpaid and overindulged children. Go out and find a copy of Grosse Point Blank, it’s great fun… or if you enjoy the more quirky cinema, try Being John Malkovich. But, don’t spend your money encouraging this kind of foolish behavior.

“These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.

“The investigation’s other findings include:

*Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.

*An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.

*In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings–about 17 million square feet of space.

*Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, creating redundancy and waste. For example, 51 federal organizations and military commands, operating in 15 U.S. cities, track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks.

*Analysts who make sense of documents and conversations obtained by foreign and domestic spying share their judgment by publishing 50,000 intelligence reports each year–a volume so large that many are routinely ignored.”

On the surface, the Post report appears to be a valiant effort by a major mainstream newspaper (second in influence to only the New York Times) to expose widespread government abuse and chicanery. But don’t get too excited yet.

In Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief (July 23, 2010), Skousen writes, “The [Post] series has just enough tantalizing information to sell a lot of papers, but almost nothing that exposes the illicit side of US operations—a large portion of which is involved in recruiting, training, and running covert agents–only a small portion of which are spying on real enemies. A lot of spying targets our allies and patriotic Americans who the government worries could someday provide a source of rebellion against the growing totalitarian state.”

Skousen further charges that there is a “dark side” to “each agency of [federal] law enforcement.” This “dark side” involves “a lot of compartmentalization, front activities, hidden budgets and false stories in order to keep honest government employees and agents from knowing what’s going on behind their backs.”

Skousen continues: “What few do get a glimpse into government’s dark side are warned off with threats, some subtle and some lethal–threats which send a chilling message to others to not ‘ask too many questions.’” Skousen then quotes the Post report as saying that since 9/11, the NSA (National Security Agency) has grown to where it now consumes “1.7 billion pieces of intercepted communications every 24 hours: emails, bulletin board postings, instant messages, IP addresses, phone numbers, telephone calls and cellular conversations.”

Concerning all those government organizations and private companies working on counterterrorism projects that the Post report refers to, Skousen writes, “Once again, the series tells us nothing about the substance of what they do, much of which is unsavory and illegal.”

Skousen goes on to say, “What [the Post report] won’t tell you is that almost a third of these [NSA] operations are dedicated to black operations against Americans and other Western governments who need to be surveilled in order to control them and keep them from resisting the agenda of the New World Order. Much expense is allocated to spying on the unsavory private behavior of Congressmen, and even State officials–building compromising dossiers on people who influence the political process so they can be coerced into compliance when necessary.”

Skousen also chides the Post report for failing “to show how connected certain companies are to the mercenary contractor explosion that is growing into a force that will eventually be used to threaten individual liberties at home. The Powers That Be don’t need to hire foreign armies to clamp down on American dissidents. They are training hundreds of thousands of mercenary Americans to do it and using foreign wars to sort out who is ruthless enough or unprincipled enough to take orders without questions–similar to the way the Nazis sorted and selected those who would form the Brownshirt and SS brigades.”

See Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief at:

http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com/

See The Washington Post report at:

http://tinyurl.com/washpost-hidden-world

In short, while claiming to expose the federal government’s “hidden world,” the Post report actually does little to uncover the illegal and dark activities that Washington employs against the US citizenry, and by so doing serves more to cover up this sinister activity. Even so, do you not find it more than a little interesting just how few media sources did anything to pick up the Post report? Did you read any of this in your local paper? Did you see anything of this on CNN or Fox News? Come on, folks! You are aware that most of the media outlets (including network television) in this country obtain the vast majority of their “news” from The New York Times and The Washington Post, are you not? So, how convenient is it that this report (such as it is) was virtually ignored?

As I’ve said in speaking engagements–both large and small–all over America, We have more to fear from Washington, D.C., than from Tehran or Baghdad, or from any other foreign entity. America’s founders understood this and tried to warn the American people accordingly. For example, Daniel Webster warned, “There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence. I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men and become the instruments of their own undoing.”

The protection of the people from the totalitarian tendencies of their own central government in Washington, D.C., is why the framers of the Constitution included the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights. The Second Amendment was never about duck hunting or target shooting; it was all about the American citizenry being prepared to defend itself against its own federal government. The founders’ distrust of the central government is why they attempted to divide the power and authority of government into three separate branches. They expected the three branches to compete against each other and to hold each other in check and balance against governmental abuse. And this is also why the individual states each maintained their own sovereignty and independence when creating the central government in 1787, because, at the end of the day, it is going to be the states that form the final fortress for freedom.

For all intents and purposes, the three branches of the federal government have done nothing to prevent the massive expansion of unconstitutional governance by Washington, D.C. The passage of the Seventeenth Amendment was the beginning of the end, as far as separated power was concerned. Neither has it made much difference which political party was in power in DC. The unlawful expansion of federal power has continued under both. This means that there are only two remaining protections against absolute federal tyranny: 1) strong, independent, and defiant State governments, and, 2) a determined and fully armed citizenry.

The Washington Post report (for all its failures) should serve to remind the American people of just how vulnerable we are (and have always been) to totalitarian government, how fragile liberty and freedom are, and how necessary it is that we remain eternally vigilant to resist the machinations of power-mad Machiavellians in Washington, D.C.

For more by Chuck Baldwin, go to http://chuckbaldwinlive.com

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T’was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

The speaker was the much maligned and criticized Glenn Beck and the place was the area around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. He promised a non-political event, and he delivered a non-political event… unless one considers such values as honor, patriotism, reverence, honesty and respect to the sole property of one political party. One may be further off the mark than the other, but neither party could qualify to be the keeper of these values. He purposely kept politicians from the stage. Sarah Palin spoke, not as the political leader she is, but as the concerned and proud mother of a soldier. Another mother spoke of the son, both she and our country tragically lost, and her work with the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. For a brief moment we all felt a small portion of her pain and understood her efforts with this organization that helps the children left behind by these special people.

The program concluded it’s message of redemption and hope with Dave Roever whose life was almost destroyed when a phosphorous grenade exploded in his hand while fighting in the jungles of Vietnam. His face was grotesquely scarred for life. His message to veterans of this war that is ancient history to the younger generation was one of hope and appreciation… something he rightfully feels many need and have never received. As he concluded, people began to disburse in all directions. Those that could spent some time wandering through the various monuments to our brave service men and women who took on the hazardous task of defending our country. I enjoyed watching the many children on the mall, walking with their dads, or as whole families. They may not understand the experiences of the moment, yet as they grow older, many will look back on this special time in the nation’s capitol.

Unfortunately, this message of redemption and brotherhood was not the only one on the mall that day day. An audience of several hundred gathered at the far side of the Washington Monument, where the “real message” of Martin Luther King, Jr. was proclaimed. It was a message outlining the plight of the downtrodden and basically offered only the solution of more government programs and more redistribution of other people’s property to achieve a socialistic version of “justice”. The sad part of this thinking is that it pits one group of people against another. The message divides, rather than unites.

Across town, I saw news reports of a march led by Rev. Al Sharpton. The march was in response to his claim the Glenn Beck was hijacking the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sharpton first came on the national scene when he took up the case of Tawana Brawley who was supposedly assaulted by men should could not name and could not describe other than to say they were white. After a complete investigation, the whole story was found to be a hoax to keep the fifteen year old out of trouble for overstaying her curfew. The good Reverend’s explanation was that even though he knew the story had no merit was that he wanted to bring to light the fact that this kind of thing happened far too often with no appropriate action. Honor, and truthfulness, we heard at the Beck rally, does not do such things.

The point of Sharpton’s march was to let people know there was another view of the world than presented by the radio and television commentator. Apparently there is another view, different from the one that celebrates honor, honesty and love of country. In any case, criticism of the day’s events as being racially divided came from some who looked at the racial make up of the various audiences.

It is true that the audience at the Restoring Honor event was overwhelmingly white. However, I saw people from almost every race gathering, not to be sure God was on our side, but to be sure we were on His side. Sharpton’s followers and those at the other mall gathering were even more one sided, but in the other direction. If we are to look at reasons for this, we need to look at at least two sources, first is the formerly main stream media that repeatedly tells the unsuspecting masses that people like Beck and his followers are the reincarnation of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan, if we look at its history, was formed as the terrorist wing of the Democrat Party  whose task was to suppress black voting during reconstruction. If there was any hate floating in the air, it was directed at Beck and his followers and not at the traditional “civil rights” leadership. The other reason is that Sharpton’s efforts were specifically designed to siphon off those who may join with the larger group to hear what Dr. King’s niece had to say about harmony and unity.

The critics conclusion was that America still has a long way to go, and they are right. However refusing to acknowledge that tremendous strides have been made since the bad old days is not helping anything. It recognizes no foundation to build upon. Refusing to take part in events organized by someone of another race is not going to heal the hurts from the past.

Just as the founders, when they could not come to agreement on our Constitution For the United States of America turned to prayer… not a two minute invocation… but hours of earnest, on-your-knees prayer to get the job done, we need to follow their example if we are to resolve issues such as this that tear us and our country apart. We need to do this individually and corporately. And, we need to remember, everyone is equal, and everyone is valued, at the foot of the cross.

Click here to see the entire rally.

Why do I bring this up at this time? Our country is facing the most dangerous days it has since we pushed the British occupiers from our shores or the darkest days of World War II. We need to focus on the objective of gutting this current congress and taking away the compliant and foolish congress that has given Barack Hussein Obama just about every thing he has desired. This current congress is composed of both Republicans and Democrats who have lost their love of country and replaced it with love of government and power.

The thing that bothers me most is the way we eat our own. I am one who is most comfortable working with people that share ALL my values. Many times we freedom loving people who believe in principles over personal loyalty, tend to be fairly narrow in circle of trusted associates. I often see this after primaries that can get brutal at times because we have several candidates and their followers who each believe they have the only correct answers. Fortunately we have seen a good number of tea party victories where established, machine backed candidates have met defeat at the hands of an angry electorate.

This is not a call for big tent, anything goes support for anyone that has the proper party label. It is a call to keep in mind the goal of knocking Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid out of their leadership positions. While it may not be possible to take Pelosi out at the ballot box, given the nature of her district and their disinclination to elect anyone with common sense, but depriving her of her majority would still be quite satisfying and effective. This should be motivation enough for most all of us.

And there is the Restoring Honor event coming up in Washington this weekend, that, if we all get the idea, could be the beginning of the turn around for our country. We could see several hundred thousand patriots descending the mall by the Lincoln Memorial. Glenn Beck is doing something we all need. He is calling us to step back from the battles for a moment and take a look at where we are as a country. And we see a nation lacking in vision, lacking in hope and lacking in honor. We have fallen to a point where many believe that honor having no cash value… is irrelevant.

While many of his fans love the man and believe he walks on water, I’m not ready to go quite that far. However there are naysayers who complain he is just a greedy businessman, a publicity hound, a clown, and worst of all, a Mormon. He is at least guilty of the last.

Now we have the choice – those of us who do not accept the distinctive teachings of his church – of either using it as a reason to put him down and discount his contribution or to set aside our theological disagreements and appreciate his contributions. What he is telling his audience is that the only way our country can stay the beacon on a hill is to turn back to God. He rightly explains the fallacies of liberation theology. He exposes the lie of Barack Obama’s “collective salvation”, but he doesn’t stop there. He has, on more than one occasion told us that salvation is only obtained individually by faith in Jesus Christ.

Some will say, yes, but he is still a Mormon, and I can’t say exactly what he means by those words. However, I Corinthians 12:3 says “Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.” The point is that just because I attend a solid Southern Baptist church, go to Sunday School even and, at times, pray with the pastor before the services, it does not guarantee that I have the saving relationship with the Father. It is not my membership in a religious body that insures my eternal future. Paul called all his righteous “filthy rags”. Collective salvation is the figment of the imagination of those seeking to deny individual responsibility and gain control by directing the collective. Likewise, when it is time for Glenn Beck to meet his maker, he will not be asked what church he attended, but did he have the required faith in Jesus Christ. I doubt that I shall be consulted about his fate, and most likely none of my readers will either.

All he is doing is calling us back to the faith of the founding fathers, to restore honor to our county in a way that only comes by belief in values that go beyond our own parochial interests, to recognize the divine providence that created this, the greatest and most free nation on earth, and to understand that a right relation with the Father only comes through a personal relation with the Son.

Instead of watching cynically from a distance, can’t we agree with the message and join in the effort to accomplish these goals? There was a scene from Robert Duvall’s movie The Apostle where he approaches a retired black preacher about using his old church for services. The old man looked at him and told him that he didn’t know if he was on the level or not, but if God was in his plans, he didn’t want to be left out. Even if you think the man is a clown, who cries at the drop of a hat for effect, I would ask, who else is proclaiming this message? If God is in any way involved in this effort, wouldn’t you want to be part of it. Even if you can’t be there, joining with your fellow Americans, as we seek restore our country, please pray for this to be a start to the badly needed national revival.

Anyone who believes that the federal government can manage anything efficiently is 8 years old, rationally challenged, or in the business of profiting from the federal government’s inefficiency. The only thing the federal government can do with precision is destroy things (and people). That is the one thing the feds can do with complete and total proficiency. Our first and greatest President, George Washington, understood this reality. He said, “Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” Amen.

A recent AP report should serve as another illustration as to the folly of trusting the federal government with the supervision and care of anything beyond those narrowly limited responsibilities defined in the US Constitution. The July 27, 2010, report said, “A U.S. audit has found that the Pentagon cannot account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraq reconstruction money, spotlighting Iraqi complaints that there is little to show for the massive funds pumped into their cash-strapped, war-ravaged nation.”

The report went on to say, “The Pentagon has repeatedly come under fire for apparent mismanagement of the reconstruction effort–as have Iraqi officials themselves.

“Seven years after the U.S.-led invasion, electricity service is spotty, with generation capacity falling far short of demand. Fuel shortages are common and unemployment remains high, a testament to the country’s inability to create new jobs or attract foreign investors.

“Complaints surfaced from the start of the war in 2003, when soldiers failed to secure banks, armories and other facilities against looters. Since then the allegations have only multiplied, including investigations of fraud, awarding of contracts without the required government bidding process and allowing contractors to charge exorbitant fees with little oversight, or oversight that came too late.”

See the report at: http://tinyurl.com/us-loses-iraqi-funds

Did you get that? “THE PENTAGON CANNOT ACCOUNT FOR OVER 95 PERCENT OF $9.1

BILLION IN IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION MONEY.” But this is the same federal government that says it can manage America’s multibillion-dollar healthcare system efficiently and with less cost. GAG!

Another report that caught my eye was this one dated August 12, 2010, and carried on My Way News. The report said, “The $700 billion U.S. bailout program launched in response to the global economic meltdown had a far greater impact overseas than other countries’ financial rescue plans did on the U.S., according to a new report from a congressional watchdog.

“Billions of dollars in U.S. rescue funds wound up in big banks in France, Germany and other nations. That was probably inevitable because of the structure of the Treasury Department’s program, the Congressional Oversight Panel says in a new report issued Thursday.

“The U.S. program aimed to stabilize the financial system by injecting money into as many banks as possible, including those with substantial operations overseas. Most other countries, by contrast, focused their efforts more narrowly on banks in their nations that usually lacked major U.S. Operations.”

I’m sure everyone is glad to hear this, Amen? Aren’t you happy to learn that your hard-earned tax dollars “had a far greater impact overseas” than in the United States? In other words, ladies and gentlemen, big foreign banks (and internationally-owned banks) were the primary beneficiaries of the taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailouts.

The report went on to say, “But the report says that if the U.S. had gotten more data on which foreign banks would benefit the most, the government might have been able to ask those countries to share some of the cost.

“‘There were no data about where this money was going,’ panel chair Elizabeth Warren said in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday. ‘The American people have a right to know where the money went.’”

See the report at:  http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100812/D9HHSM180.html

Dear Reader, are you getting this? “IF THE U.S. HAD GOTTEN MORE DATA . . . THE GOVERNMENT MIGHT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO ASK THOSE COUNTRIES TO SHARE SOME OF THE COST”?

Holy slimeballs, Batman! This is the same government that is collecting nearly 2 billion pieces of electronic correspondence (emails, text messages, cellular calls, phone calls, etc.) EVERY DAY from virtually EVERY CITIZEN in the country. This is the same government that wants to electronically take our clothes off and look at every square inch of our naked bodies every time we get on a commercial airliner. But this same government was not able to obtain the data necessary to determine which foreign banks were going to receive billions of taxpayer bailout dollars? And, “There were NO DATA ABOUT WHERE THIS MONEY WAS GOING”?

Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you, who are the morons here? These government politicians and bureaucrats (who are either the most inept, incompetent fools to ever live, or the most deceptive, duplicitous con artists on the planet), or We the People for putting up with these nincompoops?

At this point, I invite readers to listen to this brief archived audio sound bite from former President Ronald Reagan (one of my favorite quotes) at:

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?p=145

For those of you who are reading a hard copy of this column and not an online edition, and, therefore, are unable to link to the audio above, the file quotes Reagan as saying, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” Do I hear an “Amen” out there?

How, in the name of common sense, can anyone (or any State) be willing to forfeit to the federal government one additional cent or even an ounce more authority knowing that every dollar it grabs and every authority it garners is used only to increase the size of the shackles that it puts around our necks?

And you want THEM to manage healthcare?

For more by Chuck Baldwin, go to http://chuckbaldwinlive.com

While this is a sad tale, is there something we can learn from their experience? Human nature is such that we tend to quickly become discontented with whatever it is we have. After the reign of King Solomon, the people of Israel could not even get along amongst themselves. The northern tribes split from the kingdom and quickly added worship of pagan gods to their religious practices. The “more righteous” southern kingdom of Judah held on longer, but eventually succumbed to the lure of being like the surrounding peoples and adopted their multiplicity of deities.

The effect was not adding power to their practices, instead it moved them out from under the protective wing of their creator. We, in the United States, emerged from World War II as the premier superpower of the world. Our industrial capacity was intact, and our land was unscathed by the horrors of war. We were the arsenal of democracy and the leader of the free world. Our country was not perfect as the work and sacrifice of leaders like Martin Luther King Jr, Medgar Evers and a whole host of other lesser known martyrs for the cause of civil rights would attest.

Yet, in an imperfect world, we were a most blessed people. We were a nation of hard workers who could accomplish almost anything. We are still the only country that has had our astronauts walk on the moon. We were proud of our country and confident in its future. We believed in the American Dream and the promise that if we worked hard, we could be successful. This was the USA I grew up in.

Even as we enjoyed the good times there were those among us who didn’t like our individualistic and, essentially moral, culture that made our nation great. They saw European socialist countries where people did not have to extend themselves to find a living wage. The fact that they traded various freedoms for this did not bother those who heard this humanistic siren call. Sure the state had a greater presence in their lives, but to those who rejected the Judeo-Christian morality that served us so well as our country grew to greatness, this presence was far less onerous than the code of conduct that kept us on the straight and narrow.

They found the Darwinian teaching that we were simply the product of random events and that there really are no transcendent values of right or wrong liberating. At first it was a disaffected “intellectuals”. Then they infected the halls of academia, and from there generations of students and teachers. They led many in the country to give up on the values and ethics that made it great. They took away the internal guides that kept most people headed down the virtuous path.

They substituted gods of self, materialism and personal achievement for the God of the Bible and the fruit of the spirit. Greed became not only acceptable, but admired. The momentum of our economic engine kept us going for a while, but inevitably, the piper presented his bill… to which the Federal Reserve responded by printing more and more money, only digging us into a deeper hole.

Like the people of Jeremiah’s day, we have rejected the behavior that helped us succeed in the past. Like them, also, we thought we knew better. We followed the lead of less functional nations and when the blind lead the blind, we all fall in the ditch. We also have forgotten the old maxim that tells us that when we are in a hole, STOP DIGGING!

It’s natural to want to progress and to look around for new methods and ideas. Yet it is madness to go down a path that has always led to failure and disaster. This is exactly what we are doing. We may not be physically carried off to another land, but we are quickly placing ourselves in bondage to foreign lenders. Lenders who do not have our best interest at heart.

Just like the people of Judah suffered when they rejected the wisdom of their forefathers, we too will and are suffering because we, as a nation, have rejected the wisdom of founding fathers. Still there is hope. No matter what punishment the Israelites received, defeat, dispersion or genocide, God always preserved a remnant that was faithful to Him and formed the basis of restoration. Today, there is a remnant of Americans to understand and appreciate the values of our founders and the documents they passed down to us.

And what were those values? Patrick Henry told us. “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.” If we do not lose heart, we too shall form the basis of the restoration of our country to the shining city on a hill, and once again be the beacon of freedom.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli responded to a request from fellow patriot, Delegate Bob Marshall about the legality of regulating abortion clinics. Del. Marshall publicized this historic opion in the following press release.

VIRGINIA CAN REGULATE ABORTION CLINICS TO PROTECT WOMEN

Virginia’s Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli issued an opinion that “the Commonwealth has the authority to promulgate regulations for facilities in which first trimester abortions are performed, as well as for providers of first trimester abortions, so long as the regulations adhere to constitutional limitations.”

“This is a victory for women and children across Virginia,” said Delegate Bob Marshall. It is my hope that the Governor will issue health regulations as soon as possible.”

Delegate Marshall had asked for the Attorney General’s opinion earlier this year. Virginia’s Department of Health had regulated abortion clinics until Chuck Robb became Governor and ended the practice.

“We should do everything possible to ensure that every woman’s life and health and their future pregnancies are protected by the Commonwealth of Virginia. To do otherwise is to shirk from government’s first responsibility,” Delegate Marshall explained.

Delegate Marshall added, “The National Library of Medicine has hundreds and hundreds of peer review medical articles documenting the immediate dangers of first trimester legal abortion to women and subsequent pregnancies.”

Marshall concluded, “I have asked that Governor McDonnell issue regulations identical to those approved by the Fourth Federal Circuit Court in Richmond upholding South Carolina’s medical and safety regulations for first trimester abortion providers as referenced by the Attorney General in his opinion.”

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This shows the importance of having the right people in office. We need to pay attention who we, the people – not the party insiders, nominate, then make sure they get elected. But even then, we need to make sure they, not only talk the talk, but that they walk the walk. Fortunately here in Virgina, we have a winner… a man who promises a lot, then delivers! Listen to his acceptance speech, use it as a comparison to the candidates we normally find on the ballot. America deserves better than what we have been getting. As Neil Cavuto says, “Demand it!”

Kirsten Powers is a liberal contributor to Fox News and she was interviewed by AOL’s Matt Lewis this week. Matt asked Kirsten how her faith has shaped her politics. Fair question. Her answer was the quintessential foundation of modern-day liberalism: “I also now see humanity as totally interconnected and am completely anti-individualism. It’s sad that Americans believe that individualism is so great, because I really do believe we would be a better country if we held the concept of community as a higher value.” Yes. That warm, fuzzy feeling that sends “tingling sensations” up the legs of Chris Matthews, the concept of ‘we are one’. Now, on the surface it does sound utopian and wonderful. Who wouldn’t want to be in a country where everyone is stress free and happy? Reality is a female dog though. This kind of society can’t work. Ask Cuba, Venezuela, The Soviet Union, or North Korea how their extreme anti-individual, collectivist society is working or worked out.

It’s no secret that liberals loathe the individual and worship collectivism. Barack Obama claimed he wanted to “spread the wealth around” so “everyone has a fair shot“. Hillary Clinton has a couple famous quotes regarding collectivism such as: “It takes a village to raise a child.” and “We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.” Nanci Pelosi on spending tax dollars on the ‘poor’: “Stock market windfall profits taxes could go a long way to guarantee these [poor] people the standard of living they would like to have as ‘Americans.” – Of course. We must guarantee people who are too lazy or too incompetent to provide their own standard of living some sort of assurances that they will be taken care of by Big Brother. But, the most famous anti-individual in the last couple of centuries is the father of modern Communism himself, Karl Marx: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” This is just one glaringly obvious similarity between the thought process of liberals and Karl Marx.

There are a lot of parallels you can associate between sports and political or economic philosophies. In sports, the goal is to win. However, wins are not simply guaranteed. One must put in the amount of effort necessary to put themselves in a better position than their opponent for victory. In life, a comfortable standard of living, or even riches is not guaranteed. Unless of course you are born into royalty which is a percentage of people so small it is basically meaningless. One must put in the necessary amount of effort between education and hard work in order to achieve his or her desired outcome. Now take for example the idea of collectivism where “nobody loses”, and apply it to sports. How boring would it be to watch? If you are not allowed to win, or allowed to lose, what purpose does it serve to even compete? Let alone practice. Athletes would have zero incentive to participate and you would eventually end up with no sports at all.

Switch directions. Now apply collectivism to a society. Everything is going to be great. Everyone will have a comfortable standard of living, nobody will be poor, nobody will go hungry, everyone will have a place to live, and the beer will never run out. Utopia! Well, wait a second, who is going to supply the services necessary for this type of environment? If everyone is guaranteed a place to live, who is going to put in the necessary work to build you a house or develop the materials necessary to construct one? Who’s going to put in the necessary hours to harvest crops in order to provide food? Who’s going to go through med school so they can treat diseases? Who’s going to develop new vehicles so people will have something to drive? Who’s going to develop new technologies that make life easier? Most of all, who’s going to pay for all of this? Who would want to provide a service if someone can guarantee you the exact same thing? If everyone is guaranteed a certain standard of living, there is no incentive for anyone to achieve or create anything.

Now, apply individualism to a society: If you work hard enough and smart enough, your success will be limitless. If you choose to be lazy, your poor standard of living will be of nobody’s fault but your own. Individualism is competition which is capitalism. Take cell phones for an example. This has been one of the most competitive markets of the 21st century. Apple seems to come out with a new iphone every couple of years. Why do they keep creating new products? Because there are numerous other companies who are developing the same technology at the same time. All of these companies want the same thing: To have the best technology available to their customers. The customers (you and I) benefit greatly from this. How? With so many options to choose from (iphone, Droid, Blackberry, MyTouch…etc), the overall cost of these advanced products are cheaper because of high supply, and you are able to hold more computing power in the palm of your hand than NASA had at their disposal during the Apollo launches – all in 40 years time. Now, what if the cell phone industry was based on collectivism? There would be one company (government) with one product so everyone would have the same thing. What incentive would there be to advance the technology if there is no threat of losing your customer base?

Liberals think of capitalism as a dog-eat-dog, cutthroat, and cruel-to-the-poor way of living. Capitalism is the only way for the poor to make it out of poverty. In liberalism, socialism, statism, Marxism, or whatever you want to call it, the poor have no shot at a better life. Take  Ben Carson for example. He was born into poverty in Detroit. Ben graduated from high school with honors, was able to attend Yale, and went through med school at the University of Michigan. At the wizened age of 33, he became the director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at John Hopkins Hospital. Let’s just say this guy isn’t hurting for money. The best part is, you can find story after story of someone in America who went from rags to riches through hard work. Not only did Ben Carson become wealthy in the process, but his genius in neurosurgery has saved countless amounts of lives. This is the by-product of competition. He grew tired of being picked on at school at an early age for being a failure. He outworked his classmates to become an amazing success story.

America was founded on the principles of individualism. The Declaration of Independence states that “..all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” You cannot have liberty in a collectivist society. You cannot have the pursuit of happiness in a collectivist society. Why? Liberty is tied to individualism. The pursuit of happiness is tied to individualism. In collectivism, happiness is determined by the state, not by the individual. Liberals believe that government knows what is best for society and should therefore dictate the needs of the people on the basis of the “common good”. We conservatives believe that the individual knows what is best for him or her. It is the individual that created Microsoft. It is the individual that created Google. It is the individual that created Apple. It is the individual that created Wal Mart. It is the individual that created the car. It is the individual that created the plane. It is the individual that created the light bulb. America must maintain its competitive edge which allows the individual to become successful on his or her own merits if it wants to still be the world’s beacon of freedom and prosperity. The implementation of collectivism would only lead to America’s demise.

This article was first published in the Atlee Appeal blog.

I came across this video and had to share it. Listen to what Marco Rubio has to say.  He gets it and should be a model for other candidates who are afraid of their own shadow.  If you haven’t seen much of him, now is a great time to watch and learn.  America is still the greatest place to live… let’s keep it that way.