Many of cheered announcement of Senators Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan, that they would not seek re-election this year – actions brought about by declining… no make that nosediving,,, polling numbers for two men that some actually call “The Honorable” with a straight face. In a way it is good to see the rebellion of the tea party movement removing some of the worst of the worst from the Senate… with more to come. However, before we get too excited about the political demise of these dynamic Ds, lets look at this a bit closer.
As incompetent as the Democrats are in their leadership of the country, they are consummate politicians. As badly as the bungle ruling, they understand how to get elected and retain power, which is their sole purpose in life. Maybe it’s just finely tuned political instincts or prompting from the dark side, but these two dropping out of their respective races was a stroke of pure genius.
These two… with others to come… didn’t have snowball’s chance in hell of holding on to their seats. By dropping out now, they have removed the focus of public hostility for their personal corruption and incompetence, and the party now has the opportunity to run a fresh face who can lie to the public telling them that he wants nothing to do with Obama’s plans and schemes. They believe the people have such short memories and are so gullible as to believe campaign promises from the Obamessiah’s henchmen. It is our job to see that this does not happen. Read more of this article »
Ronald Reagan once said, “All great change in America begins at the dinner table.” Now is a time when we may be needing to take the lead, not just for the good of the country, but for our own survival. With our federal government borrowing like money is going out of style, we, the citizens who will be given the bill, have to not only fuss, fume and protest (which is generally ignored), but we must lead the way by example.
Credit card companies have been called by some “the grinch that stole Christmas”, and with pretty good cause at times, as too often bills from one Christmas overlap the next yule season. There have been some minor signs of restraint on the part of the consuming public, but this is just a beginning. I won’t bore you with statistics as everyone knows consumer credit has been excessive for many years, but has really gotten out of hand in recent years. The only statistics that really matter to most people are the ones on their own credit card bills. Seeing this trend, the lenders have been bumping up interest rates and fees while decreasing credit limits and rewards programs.
One TV financial consultant recommended making nice and kissing up to their representatives when you call them. This may work for a while, like a woman being nice to a rapist hoping he won’t hurt her too badly. It does not solve the problem! Read more of this article »
The morning after Christmas, I sat watching my four year old grandson play, sometimes with his new toys, sometimes with his “old” ones. His little imagination taking him to who knows where as he was blissfully unaware of the plans afoot to destroy the health care system that brought him through several severe allergy attacks, place his higher education plans at the mercy of government bureaucrats and enslave him for a year or two in compulsory government service. He doesn’t know the value of the money used to buy him food, clothing and, yes, toys, is headed toward the devaluation that comes from ill advised economic policies.
Later in the day, four more grandsons arrived along with their parents. They are older and more aware of dangers – economic and physical that we face as a nation. One is ready to enter the world of higher education and is looking into the few institutions not dedicated to inflicting the leftist agenda on those working hard to meet the financial demands they place on their students. It seems that the struggle is getting more difficult every year.
Some of us may accept the anticipated hard times in our future as the natural result of Christians failing to do their job… hiding behind church doors, with so many shunning involvement in public affairs. Too often, even strong believes, have accepted the lie that religious convictions have no place in the arena of public discourse. Read more of this article »
First congress votes to cut off funding for ACORN… but not really. It was just a temporary freeze on funding the controversial group. Now a US District Judge has ruled that cutting of funds in any way is not in the publics interest. If it has not occurred to you by now, we are not working in an environment where concepts of right and wrong, as well as honesty are of little or no importance. To the elites running the country, the end justifies the means… and often the ends they seek are not even worthy of virtuous means.
The constitution says congress makes the laws people have to live by. But now, Barack Hussein Obama’s Environmental Protective Agency head Lisa Jackson has proclaimed that if congress does not pass the desired cap and trade legislation her agency would begin their own version of the plan destined to destroy jobs and squeeze more money out of beleaguered taxpayers. Once again, the end justifies the means.
Combine this with the unwillingness of our employees… our elected representatives… to hear us when overwhelming majorities of our citizens tell them we want our borders sealed, we don’t want government tinkering with our health care, we don’t like them looking for ways to take our guns and we don’t want what is euphemistically called cap and trade. Read more of this article »
By now, virtually everyone has read and reread the copious news accounts of the terrible shooting a few weeks ago at Fort Hood, Texas. This column will not attempt to add new details to what is already a highly scrutinized tragedy. However, I do want to pose three basic questions that, to me, are extremely glaring and, for the most part, absent from the discussion.
Question 1: Why were the soldiers not armed?
After all, this is a military base; more than that, it is an Army base that emphasizes the training and equipping of frontline, combat-ready soldiers. For the most part, these were not clerks or cooks; these were combat troops. Fort Hood is home to the 1st Cavalry Division (the largest Division in the Army). Troops stationed at Fort Hood have engaged the enemy in virtually every hot theater of war to which American forces have been deployed. In recent conflicts that means Somalia, Bosnia, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Without a doubt, these are among America’s bravest and best.
So, how is it that these intensely trained, disciplined, rugged, highly qualified warriors are not allowed to carry their own weapons on base? This makes about as much sense as the policy forbidding airline pilots from carrying their own handguns on board commercial airliners, or teachers not being allowed to carry their own handguns in the classroom. After all, judges are granted the authority to carry their own firearms into the courtroom. If we can trust lawyers, we should be able to trust soldiers, airline pilots, and teachers. Read more of this article »
Yesterday marked the 45th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s ascendancy to the national stage with his pre-election speech supporting Barry Goldwater. Goldwater did not win, but the country won when they began to recognize what a fountain of wisdom was within the future president. After reviewing this video, I believed the Great Communicator could express our situation and solution better than my feeble words. Listen and enjoy.
The video runs for about half an hour, but here are a few excerpts to take away and make your own if time does not permit a full viewing:
And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest and the most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man. Read more of this article »
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies.”
I would argue that we, like our patriot forebears, have also endured “patient sufferance.” For at least a half-century, we have patiently endured the erosion and abridgment of our freedoms and liberties. We have watched the federal government become an overbearing and meddlesome Nanny State that pokes its nose and sticks its fingers in virtually everything we do. We cannot drive a car, buy a gun, or even flush a toilet without Big Brother’s permission. We are taxed, regulated, and snooped-on from the time we are born to the day we die. And then after we are dead, we are taxed again.
In the same way that Jefferson and Company patiently suffered up until that shot was fired that was heard around the world, we who love freedom today are likewise patiently suffering “a long train of abuses and usurpations.” In fact, I would even dare say that these States United have become a boiling caldron of justifiable frustration and even anger.
Accordingly, it is incumbent upon us to very seriously and thoughtfully examine those principles that we absolutely will never cede or surrender. We have already surrendered much of the freedom that was bequeathed to us by our forefathers. We are now to the point that we must define those principles that form our “line in the sand” and that we will not surrender under any circumstance. Either that, or we must admit to ourselves that there is nothing–no principle, no freedom, no matter how sacred–that we will not surrender to Big Government. Read more of this article »
It was a cold and sometimes drizzly and blustery day in central Virginia Saturday, but that didn’t mean the struggles we face take a holiday… just because it’s inconvenient or uncomfortable to be out and about, the struggles do not end. The first event of the day began with the “Can You Hear Us Now” gathering outside the Richmond NBC affiliate. I chose Channel 12 because, unlike the other two stations, this one wasn’t located in on of the “nicer” sections of town. It turned out my guess was right as, even though we had twenty or so patriots with their signs, it was the smallest of the groups.
It was, however, a great group and we carried our message to the public at least, as we got no official response from the station, granted these places have minimal staff on duty over the weekend. However, other than homeward bound traffic, we saw the more people going past the location than any other time during the week. We were under the observation and protection of three motorcycle officers across the street as the city had been notified that we would be making our case. There were a surprising number of positive responses though from the people driving by… I didn’t see any negative reactions, even though some just turned away when they read our signs. It was a good time and several thousand Richmonders saw that we were not happy with the deference NBC shows to the big government politicians.
From there, I went over to the Republican Round Up held by the House Minority Whip. As it has been for the last several years, it was a gathering of Republican faithful from Virginia’s 7th District and around the commonwealth. The weather was still inhospitable, but the barbeque was good. Read more of this article »
I guess by now, most everyone has heard the deafening silence of the state media when pro-life demonstrator, Jim Pouillon, was gunned down as he did what he had done hundreds, perhaps thousands of times before. He was known for showing pictures of the results of an abortion. This, we were told, was controversial… it caused people discomfort. Unfortunately, these same people were not put off by the procedure that created dismembered babies itself. Pictures of dead babies seem to upset people more than the fact that someone is actually responsible for their violent and painful deaths.
The same lack of concern for the demise of the innocents was shown to the death of the protester himself. The press and most pundits acted as if the man’s passing was little more than a footnote if they mentioned it at all… and if they did mention it, it was to infer that the man had most likely brought it upon himself. Barack Hussein Obama, who had a firm opinion about Professor Gates, definite thougths about Kanye West and expressed his distress when George Tiller, the man responsible for the destruction of thousands of unborn infants, was shot while ushering in his church had nothing to say, either about the act of violence or as comfort to the victim’s family. Was he unconcerned or should it be construed as implied consent?
The reaction of the state media should not be surprising considering that those inside the media bubble believe Tiller was indeed the hero for helping women rid themselves of their troublesome offspring, and people like Pouillon were gnat-like nuisances in implementing their elitist, narcissistic vision of utopia. Most modern “journalists” fail to see these children as gifts from God, and have no problem with someone zapping them out of earthly existence if they are personally inconvenient.
Spokesmen Catholic and evangelical church groups were quick to honor Jim Pouillon as a martyr for the pro-life cause, yet this were not the the only “religious” view. For instance, the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita KS, not only failed to take a stand against the the brutality of late term abortions, but actually permitted Dr. Tiller to represent them as an usher the Sunday of his death. Read more of this article »
When Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” during Barack Hussein Obama’s big speech, he spoke for many people in flyover country who have had their fill of the misinformation and disrespect coming out of the White House. He has since become a folk hero to the millions who are just waiting to see someone in Washington speak for them. It was kind of like the boy who told the assembled crowd that “the emperor has no clothes”. Many know this, but are afraid to speak up about it.
For those who appear to be so concerned about the decorum of their club, it would appear that a president telling congress and the American people things that are provably untrue if one were to read the bill coming out of the House of Representatives is a even greater affront to decorum. Everyone in that room has pledged to work for the good of the citizens of the US. However, in a victory for form over substance, they ignore the misleading words, and criticize the one who has the audacity point them out, and hope they get noticed. It’s almost like the folks from ACORN criticizing methodology of the two budding journalists who figured out how to prove they were corrupt.
Displaying the understanding of the people and political strategy that led to his second place finish in last years presidential election, John McCain, said, “There is no place for it in that setting, or any other…” News reports tell of numerous party insiders aghast at Wilson’s display of honesty. Many would rather have their ruling club undisturbed by such intrusions of support for the opinion of the riff raff back home. This Republican leadership, on one hand, has a difficult time dealing with such principled stands. On the other hand, they understand that they need the votes and support of this “fringe” as they call it. They are looking for the support of this “fringe” yet are giving none in return. Read more of this article »
Recently, I sent my mom a video link depicting an encounter between a policeman and a protester. My mother’s response was a natural one for a sweet, Christian woman in her seventies. ‘Isn’t this just scary? Where is it going to end?” She’s right, you know. It IS scary. And to those of us who have never witnessed or experienced personally an out-of-order policeman or been face to face with an angry protester, we also wonder, “where or when will it end?”
What is the answer to that question? Perhaps we must define “it” before the question has an answer. When my mother asked the question, I believe she meant that “it” is the fighting, the bickering, and the belligerent exchanges between people of differing views. She also meant the demands placed on ordinary people who must state their views publicly at rallies, tea parties, and protests, behavior that is the antipathy of their normal workaday lives usually filled with work, family, and more “peaceful” activities.
Since the mortgage and banking meltdown last Fall, Americans have been overwhelmed by the activity in Washington, D.C. We witnessed an unpleasant election process, and then a new administration putting forward an expensive agenda. Alarmed by a complex, costly, and wasteful stimulus bill and an omnibus budget bill that also appeared deceptive and wasteful, Americans jammed Congressional phones and flooded legislative email accounts with demands for “No” votes and clearer explanations. Read more of this article »
Many years ago, after returning to college with a number of years experience in the real world, I sat through a class named “Man In God’s World”. As it turned out, this class had more impact on my world view than any before or since. Reviewing some of the things I learned may help the reader understand why being a Christian is not a Sunday morning thing… but it colors, or should color, our view and approach to everything around us, including our interactions with society.
Using Jesus as our model, we find a life that was filled with pointing everyone to the Father and teaching spiritual values and lessons. But he did not stop there. He healed the sick, restored sight to the blind and raised the dead. He rescued a woman about to be stoned by an angry mob. He taught us how to get along with our neighbors, how to handle our money and how to relate to our government. His life and actions showed concern for every area of life, not just the afterlife.
Some Christians believe that if they go to church on Sunday and get their ticket punched, what they do the rest of the week doesn’t make that much difference… as long as it’s nothing too bad. If they don’t kill anyone, or throw widows out of their homes… they will be alright. Is this the case? Are there rules for life? Do they apply to everyone, everywhere? Read more of this article »
A few weeks ago, actions by the US Navy to restrict a forum by Christian mothers made the news as they were told they could not statements of their faith were not welcome. However, someone spoke up and the decision was overruled. Check it out… Navy Removes Restrictions on Navy Moms’ Religious Speech
Washington, DC – The Navy has announced new Community Guidelines, removing its restrictions on religious speech on its Navy for Moms website. This change is in response to a letter Liberty Counsel sent to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, demanding an end to religious discrimination and reinstatement of users’ free speech rights on the website. In its response letter to Liberty Counsel, Navy Admiral J. F. Kilkenny wrote, “I have instructed my staff to remove the current restrictions on religious and political debate. The goal of the revised guidelines is to allow for more open discussion without compromising the purpose of the website….”
NavyForMoms.com was set up by the United States Navy to provide support and a means of communication for mothers and other loved ones of current and potential sailors. Read more of this article »
First of all, let’s make it clear that this is not a commercial for Nike. In fact you can wear almost any kind of footwear and take advantage of the ideas discussed here. However, as the phrase tells us, there are times when you just have to set aside personal hang ups, fears and lack of confidence and quit waiting for someone else to get things done. In the Richmond area this weekend we saw the folks that pulled off the Richmond Tea Party put together an event that attracted up to two thousand people who love their country and are looking to see how they can help.
Most of these people were either never politically active or had dropped out of the effort sometime in years past. They were not professional organizers, political, community or otherwise. Yet they pulled together representatives from around fifteen organizations, attract a couple thousand people and television coverage. They filled the Chesterfield County Fairgrounds with organizational displays, food vendors, games for the children and even a couple of dunking booths for the older children.
These average citizens found themselves pulled form their yard work, honey do lists, even time from their jobs and businesses. What pulled them away from the more mundane tasks that occupy most of us? Most likely it was the same thing that thing that caused you to begin reading this post… a recognition that things are not right in our wonderful country, and a desire to set them so. Read more of this article »
Yesterday afternoon, I watched the shuttle Endeavour blasting off into space. It had been a while since I paid much attention to the space program. Like most Americans, in spite of the few tragic failures, we take for granted the flawless perfection of a NASA operation. After all, they are a bunch of rocket scientists. The whole thing was most impressive… four million pounds lifting off the earth and seconds later traveling at well over 11,000 miles per hour. I was thinking John Force, eat your heart out. Anyone not impressed by both the brute force of six million pounds of thrust and the split-second precision of this take off is just not paying attention.
It got me thinking back to that day in May of 1961 when we filed into the junior high school auditorium to watch Alan Shepard take that first brief wild ride on the top of a rocket into space. Now it does not seem like much, but then, without the experience and technology of 2009 it was quite a feat. No American had ever done this before and it was less than a month since Russian, Yuri Gagarin had become the first man in space.
September 12 of the next year saw President Kennedy tell the people of the world that there would be an American standing on the moon by the end of the decade. July 20, 1969 my wife and I brought our second child home from the hospital and that night saw grainy pictures of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin plant an American flag and leave American footprints on the surface of the moon. Read more of this article »
“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” (Matt. 5:13 KJV)
Jesus said that salt without savor is “good for nothing.” Savor is the ingredient, the character that gives salt its quality–and its value. When salt is as it should be, it is a most precious commodity. Not only is it used as a seasoning; it is, more importantly, a preservative. As most everyone knows, salt was the primary source of food preservation before the days of refrigeration. Salt has been deemed to be so valuable at times that wars have actually been waged over it. During times of unusual deprivation, salt can be even more valuable than precious metals. But when salt loses its saltiness, it is absolutely worthless; it is “good for nothing.”
Jesus plainly proclaimed that He viewed His disciples as being the salt of society. In other words, when believers have the character they should have, they provide the preservation of the land. They hold back and retard the putrefying properties of spoilage and decay. But when Christians lose their character, when they lose the internal resistance to decay, they become “good for nothing” and the result is, the land is “trodden under foot of men.”
It grieves me to say that, for the most part, the modern Christian, the modern pastor, and the modern church have lost their savor. Taken as a whole, we have lost our inner character: the ability to resist decay and preserve the land has long departed, and America is fast being “trodden under foot of men.” Read more of this article »
There are almost as many answers to this question of what it will take to the our country back on track as there are people who try to answer it. There is an answer that has worked in the past but is being practiced by far to few. II Chronicles 7:14 tells us, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” Many of us, myself included, spend far too much time plotting, scheming and complaining and not enough following this advice.
Christians have had a hand in the creation of the mess as we tend to stay wrapped up in our own little world, not actively working to make our country a better place to live for everyone. The blame is not ours alone, but we can be the ones to set things straight. The founding fathers recognized the need for divine guidance and protection as they broke away from Great Britain to start a new nation based on rights given by our creator rather than granted by a monarch.
The Declaration of Independence declares: “We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States…” Read more of this article »
A recent Rasmussen poll tells us the half all Americans believe hate is growing in our country. This is based, in large part, on recent killing of a notorious abortionist, an American soldier at a recruiting station and the attack on the holocaust museum in Washington. Thirty five percent consider them to be isolated incidents. The rest, just don’t know if or what to think. While it’s difficult to generalize from three incidents, many people are busy doing just that.
It seems those that tend to feel more vulnerable and insecure see greater generalized hatred… women (57%)… unmarried (62%). They seem to be responding more on emotion than actually looking at the details of each incidents. Each killing is unfortunate, the ending of one life and ruination of another… not to mention the families involved. However, was an irrational hatred the driving factor in each case?
It seems that today, we have a difficult time thinking about and overusing the word “hate”. For instance, homosexuals believe that they are the victims of hate crimes whenever anyone opposes them or their goals. If a preacher tells his congregation about the sinful nature of their actions, they say he is preaching hate. They may be disingenuously playing the part of a victim, having realized a little sympathy when they are supposedly harassed by someone who simply disagrees with them or their agenda. In some ways believing that your adversaries irrationally despise you is less damaging to the ego than accepting that they may have good reasons that may actually be correct.
In the case of Dr. Tiller, without getting in the head of the shooter, it’s kind of hard to understand the details of his motivation. However, automatically assigning Scott Roeder’s motive to a blind hatred of Dr. Tiller ignores the fact that, to him, it may well have been just a logical response to a situation where he saw the courts repeatedly thwarting the will of the people and their elected legislatures. We have the situation aptly described by Frederic Bastiat when he said, “When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law. These two evils are of equal consequence, and it would be difficult for a person to choose between them.” Read more of this article »
It’s easy to watch the news and get frustrated as we see our freedoms restricted, one by one. Then we see the DC elites making more plans for more things to do with our grandchildren’s money. And on top of that, we see people who hold traditional American values are called threats to the government and potential domestic terrorists. It’s enough to make you wonder when someone is going to do something about it.
I have been told that God doesn’t make junk and everyone of God’s children is a somebody. Hmmmmm. Usually what people mean when they think somebody should do something, is that they really mean somebody else should do something. Part of this mindset is that our society is one of many spectators and few actors. We watch our favorite ball teams or race drivers go out and do their thing for obscene amounts of money. We cheer for them as if their victories somehow enhanced the lives of ourselves and our families. We support some who run for office… sometimes we may even work with one of their campaigns. At best, though, most of us just hang around the periphery of the action.
We do this because somewhere deep inside we’ve been conditioned to believe that it is our lot in life to be one of the masses while the changes in the world come about because of big people, special people… somebody else.
Here is a radical thought: to your neighbor down the street, you are somebody else. To your high school classmates, you are somebody else. To the people you work with, you are somebody else. To the people in your church, you are somebody else. I hope you are starting to get the picture. Read more of this article »
Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public square; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech:
How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you. But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you, when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. Proverbs 1: 20-27
I am fed up with our government and our, so called representatives on the national scene. Why is it that no one wants to stand up for what is right. Republicans, you should be irate over what we are getting in return from Washington for our vote. Get out of your SUV’s and your million dollar homes and put up a fight for the citizens who elected you. This is not about racism, this is about AMERICA!
The silence of our party over this entire garbage, that this, and the past administrations have put this country in, is disgusting, and they should not have the right to call themselves Americans. You may laugh and you may joke, and think it is no big deal.
Americans live by the Constitution!
Americans lift up there fellow man!
Americans lookout for its citizens!
America believes in God!
Americans, you have to decide, are you going to sit in your houses and look from the window, or are you proud enough of the principles that this nation was founded under, that you are willing to take to the streets for your survival?
Washington politicians you have never been in a battle like you are about to be in. Your own greed, and thievery towards all of the American people, is about to pounce on you like a panther in the night.
Republicans and Democrats alike! You have put this country in a corner, and as Americans we have been pressed far enough, and we are coming out! As Americans, we have given you the opportunity to do the right business for the people of this great country, and you chose not to! Shame on you.
We will fight for our freedoms, and our constitution that this land was founded under!
America, we will win! Freedom is not free, and if it has to be on our homeland because of the tyranny and oppression that is being put on us, we, Americans of strong will and determination will stand up!
In 1927, just days before Andrew Kehoe detonated bombs that killed 45 people in Bath Township, Mich., he left an ominous sign on his fence that read, “Criminals are made, not born.” The problems that plagued Kehoe are familiar to us today: tax increases, overwhelming debt and property foreclosure. Unfortunately, his choice of “expression” is also familiar.
This March, a gunman drove through southern Alabama murdering 10 people before being killed in a shootout with police. In East Oakland, Calif., a man killed four police officers before being similarly gunned down. Later that same month, another man went on a rampage at a North Carolina nursing home where his ex-girlfriend was employed, killing eight. Around the same time, a husband in Santa Clara, Calif., murdered five members of his own family before turning the gun on himself.
April has hardly begun, and already there have been three high-profile incidents. April 3, 15 people, including the gunman, were killed in a mass shooting in Binghamton, N.Y. Not a day after that tragedy, three police officers were killed in a shootout in Pittsburgh, and a father murdered five of his own children in a trailer park in Graham, Wash., before killing himself.
Fifty-four dead in 30 days in just these incidents alone. That’s more than our combined casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan for the same period. These killings cross demographic lines. The perpetrators have been middle class, poor, black, white, immigrant, and from all areas of the country. Read more of this article »
It’s easy to think about Captain Robert Phillips of the Maersk Alabama as a hero… and he is. Despite his denials, he fits our normal perception of heroic behavior. A contestant in a beauty pageant is usually not in a position to do much more than look pretty and give verbal encouragement to world peace. Carrie Prejean’s situation was different. Everyone picked her to be the next Miss USA – she led in all the components. Her big opportunity came… answer the question properly and she would be home free.
Her question came from a judge whose agenda outweighed a desire to pick the best Miss USA… although, in his puny but prejudiced mind, Perez Hilton thought he was helping to pick the best Miss USA… one who would not be so stupid as to actually believe marriage should be between one man and one woman. To this openly homosexual gossip hound, having a different opinion made this woman, who was qualified in every other respect, completely unsuitable to hold the title. Whatever made the pageant organizers think this person of questionable lifestyle and non-productive profession could “judge” a good woman is totally beyond me.
To Carrie, the question from a judge who publicly advocates a different set of values than the ones she grew up with, as did most of us, stood between her and the goal she worked so hard to gain. She could have rolled over and given the politically correct answer… and most likely won the contest. Instead, she gave an answer straight from her heart. Her ingrained beliefs came out just as ours should when challenged, publicly or privately.
This time it cost her. This should be no surprise as nowhere is it written that standing by Christian values would not carry a price. In view of what it cost Jesus, it should be considered normal that we would have obstacles and challenges. As Ms. Prejean commented later “God was testing my faith.” She passed with flying colors as she came up against a secular society populated by those with an ever increasing hostility to traditional values and the one behind them. Read more of this article »
April 15th is the day the government has decided we should have our tax dollars in to their nefarious clutches. Tax day, 2009 is the day citizens have decided to gather to protest both the amount taken from them and the irresponsible manner in which it is spent. This is the day when citizen’s of today can join in spirit with our country’s giants of the past… names like Adams, Madison, Henry, Jefferson and Washington come to mind.
These men along with others named Lee, Franklin, and many more decided that they had been abused by Great Britain long enough and lifted their voices to demand an end to it. Today it is not a foreign government or colonial master confiscating the fruits of our labor, but our own government in Washington, DC.
It is essential that everyone who can possibly attend, be at one. For those who have voted for this unprecedented overreach of our government, it may put the fear of the voters in them. For those who have consistently stood strong against this financial madness, it will help give them courage to continue knowing they are not alone.
Beyond this, parts of Homeland Security have labeled those of us who would speak up at these rallies, a potential threat. We have truly come to a time when good is being called evil and evil, good. There is safety in numbers. Those who would be our masters can easily contain and control a few vocal malcontents… but they can’t contain the throngs of freedom loving Americans who want to stand together in hundreds of rallies throughout the nation.
A few of us can be ignored. Many of us may make those mad with power inside the beltway take the Biblical advice to “Consider your ways.”
If you don’t know where your local party is to be held, go to http://taxdayteaparty.com for complete information. As Arthur Fonzerelli would say, “Be there or be square”. Or, as I would say, be there or don’t complain when your country is turned upside and you, your children and grandchildren, are handed the bill.
As we dig deeper into the governments’ suspicions of American citizens, we see the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) was not the only body looking askance at our everyday activities. We see another coming from the cradle of our liberty, Virginia! In a manual titled “Terrorism & Security Awareness Orientation for State Employees” the public servants were told that along with racist and hate groups, psychopated animal rights advocates and street gangs they should be watchful of people who stood up for property rights and religious extremists. No made mention of Islamofascists… just religions in general. I guess they thought, or hoped others would think, that followers of Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson were just as likely to kill their neighbors in large numbers as those trained in Al Qaeda camps in the mountains of Afghanistan.
In a further indication that they are grasping at straws and don’t really know how to identify the bad guys, state employees were told to watch for people carrying such dangerous weapons as: cameras, small tape recorders, maps, notebooks, SCUBA gear and disguises. Now, other than the disguises, it sounds like many of us going on vacation. Anyone who as been to the capitol that Mr. Jefferson designed in Richmond or any of the other historic buildings and monuments knows that some of these things are almost obligatory for tourists walking the city streets. Then they have the gall to watch for groups that want to “influence government or social policy”… as if anyone of would want to do that. Oh yes, that’s what political parties, corporations and public service groups do all the time.
Back in the days of the Clinton Administration, the Phoenix office of the FBI issued a flier called “Freedom in the 21st Century” which told police to watch for such depravity as defending our constitution against the US government and the UN or not being particularly social.
In fairness to law enforcement, there is usually a pattern of behavior that accompanies criminal or terrorist actions. The only problem is that effective terrorists blend into their surroundings and usually don’t call attention to themselves by open opposition to the system. Read more of this article »
February 12, 2009
I was in Charlottesville, VA when I was awakened at 4:35 AM by an intense howling wind. I could not fall back to sleep and then realized the Lord wanted to speak to me through the wind. I sat up and recorded what He spoke to my heart.
THE WINDS OF CHANGE
The winds of change are blowing. I’m sweeping across the land and bringing my ways before a people who will bow to me. To those who will submit to Me, their boughs will not snap or be destroyed but will bend and move where I lead.
I am opening paths where there were none before. I’m clearing ways that obstructed my people before. Just like I parted the Red Sea, I will open up a path that will lead to the abundant life I promise My people. The transfer is coming for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.
I am placing mighty treasures in the hands of my anointed ones… the ones who are sensitive to my Spirit. To the ones that hear Me howling in the wind. I’m coming through with such power that there will be no doubt it is the great I Am. Read more of this article »
With the entire Republican delegation finally standing firm against the most recent ‘bailout’ (read ‘pork barrel’) package one has to wonder if backbone has finally returned to the party of low taxes, smaller government and limited spending. For some this represents no change at all. These have been the voices crying out in the wilderness that it is immoral to try to spend our way to prosperity by expecting our children and grandchildren to foot the bill.
For others, honorable men and women, I’m sure, it was the opportunity to vote their conscience rather than playing the role of a good partisan by supporting the party or the president. Still others, the true political types, sensed that opposing this piece of legislation was the best way for them to survive politically since the massive transfer of wealth was now proposed by the rival party and was thus, fair game.
Parties play an important role in our political system by allowing supposedly like minded people to get together and promote shared values… at least that is the theory. Our system of government is set up to operate with a two party system, which is why it is extremely difficult for any other group to attain a major status. We can’t expect this to change under either party leadership.
What happens when party leadership starts taking the entire structure in a new direction – one neither espoused nor supported by the rank and file party membership? Among other things, it reveals the priorities of their members. Do they value party over principle or principle over party? It gets even more complicated when we factor in tradeoffs people make. That is, conceding a point that is not so critical to accomplish something more important. This is supposed to be the essence of politics. Read more of this article »
Our country has just inaugurated a president who believes the ability of a woman to kill her offspring is more important than the child’s right to live. This president also believes that a small group of people with a deviant lifestyle should be able to redefine the marriage relationship, if not the ‘official’ definition, created by God. He also thinks he is making us safer by closing a prison designed to keep those who want to destroy us and our families from doing so. I could go on… but you get the point. Things look pretty bad.
The Bible tells us we are to pray for those in authority… and we should. We should pray that they govern with the fear of God in their hearts. This, we know, is the beginning of wisdom. We are also told to submit to ruling authorities and as much as possible live at peace with everyone.
We are particularly blessed to live in a country where, at least for the time being, we can speak up about wrongs and injustices. This opportunity carries with it, the responsibility to do so. Sometimes we have to do more. We would do well to look into the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor, who saw such evil in Nazi Germany that he had to resist… he had to set aside blind obedience to do what was right. He helped Jews escape. He spoke the word of truth about Hitler’s government. Was there a price to following his conscience? He was hanged shortly before the end war.
Will we have to pay a price for standing up for what is right? Maybe, but the alternative is to stand by and let the land our children and grand children will grow up in turn into a godless perversion of Ronald Reagan’s Shining City on a Hill.
Fortunately, the price for most of us, is setting aside time to get involved in issues and politics. Yes, it is that important! If you are convinced that all politicians are crooks, then get involved and change that. If there is an issue
you feel strongly about, speak up, find others who think the same way and work together. DON’T JUST SIT AND DO NOTHING! Your grand children will thank you… so will others who were simply given the chance to live and play in the summer sun.
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Many of cheered announcement of Senators Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan, that they would not seek re-election this year – actions brought about by declining… no make that nosediving,,, polling numbers for two men that some actually call “The Honorable” with a straight face. In a way it is good to see the rebellion of the tea party movement removing some of the worst of the worst from the Senate… with more to come. However, before we get too excited about the political demise of these dynamic Ds, lets look at this a bit closer.
Ronald Reagan once said, “All great change in America begins at the dinner table.” Now is a time when we may be needing to take the lead, not just for the good of the country, but for our own survival. With our federal government borrowing like money is going out of style, we, the citizens who will be given the bill, have to not only fuss, fume and protest (which is generally ignored), but we must lead the way by example.
The morning after Christmas, I sat watching my four year old grandson play, sometimes with his new toys, sometimes with his “old” ones. His little imagination taking him to who knows where as he was blissfully unaware of the plans afoot to destroy the health care system that brought him through several severe allergy attacks, place his higher education plans at the mercy of government bureaucrats and enslave him for a year or two in compulsory government service. He doesn’t know the value of the money used to buy him food, clothing and, yes, toys, is headed toward the devaluation that comes from ill advised economic policies.
First congress votes to cut off funding for ACORN… but not really. It was just a temporary freeze on funding the controversial group. Now a US District Judge has ruled that cutting of funds in any way is not in the publics interest. If it has not occurred to you by now, we are not working in an environment where concepts of right and wrong, as well as honesty are of little or no importance. To the elites running the country, the end justifies the means… and often the ends they seek are not even worthy of virtuous means.
By now, virtually everyone has read and reread the copious news accounts of the terrible shooting a few weeks ago at Fort Hood, Texas. This column will not attempt to add new details to what is already a highly scrutinized tragedy. However, I do want to pose three basic questions that, to me, are extremely glaring and, for the most part, absent from the discussion.
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies.”
It was a cold and sometimes drizzly and blustery day in central Virginia Saturday, but that didn’t mean the struggles we face take a holiday… just because it’s inconvenient or uncomfortable to be out and about, the struggles do not end. The first event of the day began with the “Can You Hear Us Now” gathering outside the Richmond NBC affiliate. I chose Channel 12 because, unlike the other two stations, this one wasn’t located in on of the “nicer” sections of town. It turned out my guess was right as, even though we had twenty or so patriots with their signs, it was the smallest of the groups.
I guess by now, most everyone has heard the deafening silence of the state media when pro-life demonstrator, Jim Pouillon, was gunned down as he did what he had done hundreds, perhaps thousands of times before. He was known for showing pictures of the results of an abortion. This, we were told, was controversial… it caused people discomfort. Unfortunately, these same people were not put off by the procedure that created dismembered babies itself. Pictures of dead babies seem to upset people more than the fact that someone is actually responsible for their violent and painful deaths.
When Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” during Barack Hussein Obama’s big speech, he spoke for many people in flyover country who have had their fill of the misinformation and disrespect coming out of the White House. He has since become a folk hero to the millions who are just waiting to see someone in Washington speak for them. It was kind of like the boy who told the assembled crowd that “the emperor has no clothes”. Many know this, but are afraid to speak up about it.
Many years ago, after returning to college with a number of years experience in the real world, I sat through a class named “Man In God’s World”. As it turned out, this class had more impact on my world view than any before or since. Reviewing some of the things I learned may help the reader understand why being a Christian is not a Sunday morning thing… but it colors, or should color, our view and approach to everything around us, including our interactions with society.
A few weeks ago, actions by the US Navy to restrict a forum by Christian mothers made the news as they were told they could not statements of their faith were not welcome. However, someone spoke up and the decision was overruled. Check it out…
First of all, let’s make it clear that this is not a commercial for Nike. In fact you can wear almost any kind of footwear and take advantage of the ideas discussed here. However, as the phrase tells us, there are times when you just have to set aside personal hang ups, fears and lack of confidence and quit waiting for someone else to get things done. In the Richmond area this weekend we saw the folks that pulled off the Richmond Tea Party put together an event that attracted up to two thousand people who love their country and are looking to see how they can help.
“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” (Matt. 5:13 KJV)
There are almost as many answers to this question of what it will take to the our country back on track as there are people who try to answer it. There is an answer that has worked in the past but is being practiced by far to few. II Chronicles 7:14 tells us, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” Many of us, myself included, spend far too much time plotting, scheming and complaining and not enough following this advice.
A recent Rasmussen poll tells us the half all Americans believe hate is growing in our country. This is based, in large part, on recent killing of a notorious abortionist, an American soldier at a recruiting station and the attack on the holocaust museum in Washington. Thirty five percent consider them to be isolated incidents. The rest, just don’t know if or what to think. While it’s difficult to generalize from three incidents, many people are busy doing just that.
It’s easy to watch the news and get frustrated as we see our freedoms restricted, one by one. Then we see the DC elites making more plans for more things to do with our grandchildren’s money. And on top of that, we see people who hold traditional American values are called threats to the government and potential domestic terrorists. It’s enough to make you wonder when someone is going to do something about it.
