Barack Hussein Obama’s latest step to divide and conquer the American people is a scheme to force religious organizations to provide for contraceptive insurance and services that are against their convictions. As with his other machinations, there is far more to to this move than first meets the eye.
It is a brilliantly conceived plan that puts the Catholic Church in the awkward position of defending a position that most Americans, including some its own members, do not support. Yet, it is their conviction, and if we really believe in religious liberty, it must be respected and supported. To many, this is a silly position to take in today’s world. Holding this position makes the Catholic Church appear to be out of step with current realities. It is designed to marginalize and the church and cause it to fall into disrepute with the less religious.
Aside from the obvious benefit of crucifying an opponent of his policies… there is something even more sinister afoot. If the church can be moved into the irrational curmudgeon category on the contraceptive issue, it damages its stand on the critical issues of abortion and homosexual marriage. It is the Alinsky tactic subjecting a opponent to ridicule and isolation to diminish its influence and serve as an example to others who would oppose the “anointed one’s” dictates.
On the heels of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), otherwise known as the “Indefinite Detention Act,” comes another draconian bill designed to give the federal government the power to turn American citizens into enemies of the state for virtually any reason it deems necessary. Stephen D. Foster, Jr. has the story.
“Congress is considering HR 3166 and S. 1698 also known as the Enemy Expatriation Act, sponsored by Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Charles Dent (R-PA). This bill would give the US government the power to strip Americans of their citizenship without being convicted of being ‘hostile’ against the United States. In other words, you can be stripped of your nationality for ‘engaging in, or purposefully and materially supporting, hostilities against the United States.’ Legally, the term ‘hostilities’ means any conflict subject to the laws of war but considering the fact that the War on Terror is a little ambiguous and encompassing, any action could be labeled as supporting terrorism.”
Foster goes on to say, “I hope I’m wrong, but it sounds to me like this is a loophole for indefinitely detaining Americans. Once again, you just have to be accused of supporting hostilities which could be defined any way the government sees fit. Then the government can strip your citizenship and apply the indefinite detention section of the NDAA without the benefit of a trial.”
Years ago when I worked at National Religious Broadcasters. The big event of the year was the annual conventions in Washington DC. Most every well known Christian voice was heard at these gatherings. The President of the United States would usually ride up Connecticut Avenue to address the assembled crowd. This was particularly exciting as this was all happening during the Reagan years.
James Dobson tugged at the heart strings, S.M. Lockridge spoke with passion. However, for me, the most memorable speaker, was Dr. Robert A. Cook from The King’s College in Briarcliff Manor, NY. – now moved to New York City. He was a delightful gentleman who had a way of putting things into perspective. He began his address by telling us that two days before, he talked to Vice President Bush, and just the day before, he talked to the President. Then, with a twinkle in his eye, he said. “But this morning… I talked to God.”
In his own, plain spoken way, the bow tied Dr. Cook showed an unusual understanding of the what was important and where the real power rests. As great a man as Ronald Reagan was, he could not walk on water or turn water into wine… and, even though this may come as a surprise to some, neither can the man who occupies his office now nor any of those seeking to replace him.
Bernanke’s press conference announcement again booted the stock and bond markets, but did nothing to boost employment.
At his January 25, 2012, press conference, Federal Reserve Bank chairman Ben Bernanke stated that he expects the Fed to continue imposing near-zero interest rates well into 2014 on short-term Treasury securities. In response, the stock market surged, despite expectations of generally lower corporate earnings and reduced consumer spending. Loose credit and low interest rates usually facilitate stock market speculation.
However gratifying this may to individual investors and pension fund managers, it does little if anything to restore production of goods and services or to raise employment. It also continues to penalize increased savings, which alone provides a stable, long-term platform for economic growth. People living on fixed incomes have had their rates of income on saving chopped around 75% since the Fed first cut interest rates.
As Austrian school economists long have observed, central bank manipulation of interest rates and government deficit spending have an uneven impact on sectors of the economy. When unemployment is high and people are yet freighted with excessive personal debt, consumer spending will be among the last sectors to increase.
“Why can’t we all just get along?” pleaded Rodney King after being beaten by Los Angeles police officers in March of 1991. Later actions showed the man to be not quite the innocent that the press painted him to be at the time. This, however, does not change the value of his question… why can’t we get along?
There are many reasons the academic elites offer for our inability to live peacefully with each other. It doesn’t seem to matter if the conflict is with people at work, in our neighborhood, or even in our church. We see the same conflicts in our government and among nations. It seems that each of us judges ourselves by our own good intentions… and we judge others by their actions.
We see the president self-righteously declaring his concern for downtrodden. What person with a concern for his fellow man cannot help but feel for those less fortunate. Assuming the purity of his motivation, one can almost understand his recent speech where he declared that if congress would not bend to his will, he would move toward the realization of his ideal society with out them. It doesn’t seem to matter that there are other opinions, other approaches and even other directions that the country could be moving in. More importantly, it doesn’t seem to matter that the Constitution does not grant him that power.
Democrats are all in a tizzy about the announcement by Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson that he would not be seeking re-election next year. If the name sounds familiar, just think back to the battle over ObamaCare and the infamous Cornhusker Kickback.
They are wringing their hands in despair as if the retirement of a supposedly “moderate” senator held the key to the retention of power by a corrupt and unresponsive administration.
As for Senator Nelson, it appears that he has the wisdom to recognize how precarious his position really is with a disenchanted electorate. There is an old tradition among the political class when faced with certain defeat… it’s called “take the money and run”.
With all the enthusiasm for the various personalities running for the Republican nomination, it’s easy to loose sight of the issues that drive the need to replace the current White House resident. As the passions rise, so does the level of rhetoric and the hostility toward other candidates and their supporters. Passion is great, hostility toward others who should be on the same team is not. It makes it too easy to fragment ourselves in a way that makes it difficult to achieve our goal.
What are these issues? Here are some that are critical to our survival as a nation. I make no claim to omniscience, so there are probably others. However, we shall start with these for your consideration:
One of the most pressing problems our country is facing is the economic doldrums where the Federal Reserve and members of the banking community seem to be profiting nicely while the rest of the country is struggling for survival. They are continuously throwing new money in to the system as production plummets. Anyone with an understanding of non-Keynesian economics knows this will never work. The banks, even foreign banks and governments, are bailed out and the American citizen sees his dollars devalued as inflation depletes their purchasing power, and loans are still difficult to get.
A while back a Facebook friend made the comment that she was just so frustrated with the war in Afghanistan and thought we should just nuke the whole mountainous area. Someone else commented that here solution was not “socially acceptable”. Now I’m not going to get into the virtue of using nuclear weapons to root out Taliban, or any jihadists in the area, but I do want to look at the reason for rejecting the idea. We all want to be accepted socially… which is another way of saying that we have developed an, often overwhelming acquiescence to peer pressure.
However, when we see that killing unborn babies is socially acceptable and prayer is not… when we see that it is acceptable to our country’s ivory tower elites for people to sneak into our country and take jobs from out of work Americans and inflate our welfare rolls, while those trying to protect our country and culture are condemned as narrow minded racists… one wonders why anyone with any principles would concern themselves with being “socially acceptable”, or “politically correct” as it is known in academic and media circles.
This striving for social acceptance has even infected many churches as they attempt to appeal to those in the outside world. Some have removed cross from their buildings, adopted secular appearing logos and… worst of all, toned down the gospel of truth and grace so as not to offend the outside world.
Pope Benedict XVI recently told US Bishops, “The present moment can thus be seen, in positive terms, as a summons to exercise the prophetic dimension of your episcopal ministry by speaking out, humbly yet insistently, in defense of moral truth, and offering a word of hope, capable of opening hearts and minds to the truth that sets us free.”
On another occasion, he said, “No one who looks realistically at our world today could think that Christians can afford to go on with business as usual, ignoring the profound crisis of faith which has overtaken our society, or simply trusting that the patrimony of values handed down by the Christian centuries will continue to inspire and shape the future of our society,”
He was correct on both counts. His truth does not only apply to the business in the Catholic church. It applies to the Christian church as a whole. An entire industry made up of lawyers and bureaucrats is dedicated to pushing Christians in to background of irrelevance. In an attempt to be cooperative and non-confrontational, so many good men have backed away from from the role assigned to us in Matthew 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” (NIV)
The fact that Michelle Obama’s appearance at the final NASCAR race of the season did not send a Chris Matthewsesque tingle up the legs of the assembled throng should come as no surprise to anyone who understands the American sport of big time stock car racing. The fans love their country. They are proud of their country. They are a self reliant breed. Most are firm defenders of the second amendment – the one that insures all the others. They also cling to their God, not the government when times get rough.
The reactions to this antipathy are more interesting. Both the first lady and her husband have made clear their disdain for patriotic, independent, Christian citizens like the ones who enjoy the sights and sounds of NASCAR. Mrs. Obama and Joe Biden’s wife had the audacity to show up at this event that decided the season championship. They surrounded a noble veteran who works to ease the transition of other returning veterans. Yet the race fans who paid $50, $100 or more to be there and watch their heroes battle each other on the one and a half mile Homestead Miami oval, did not take kindly to the intrusion of these two women that represent everything our country is not… at least did not used to be.
Given this oil and water mixture, the reaction could be predicted… and has been predicted. I, myself, called NASCAR, suggesting it was a mistake to have these beltway intruders take part in Sunday’s proceedings. The organization decided to honor the dishonorable and serve as a platform for the President’s re-election campaign. A campaign to destroy everything these fans hold dear.
Herman Cain has committed an unforgivable sin. He is a successful conservative black American who has risen to the point where he is a serious contender for the position of President of the United States… and he has done this without the help of the Democrat Party. He has not relied upon minority set asides or government programs that treated him as less qualified or less capable than the progressive masters whose task, they believe, is to bring all of us into their vision of equality and submission.
If one listens to their rhetoric, one never hears the words freedom or happiness. They are revealing their kinship with French revolutionaries whose motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” led them to take bloody revenge on anyone they saw as their oppressor. This is in distinct contrast to the American founders desire for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. These two approaches revealed volumes about the mind sets and motivations of the two uprisings that took place at the end of the eighteenth century. The French wanted to make their masters pay. The Americans just wanted them to go away.
Because of this desire for revenge, public beheadings were a popular pastime for a while. It was as if the pitiful peasants lot was made more bearable by seeing a perceived enemy come to a swift and violent end from a falling blade. While it may have made some of the poor feel better for a short while, it did nothing to improve his basic way of life. It was in this anger that a certain righteousness was felt that gave license to perform all sorts of atrocities.
Sunday morning as I sat in church listening to the choir singing about our unchanging God, it occurred to me why even those who say they are open to any and every new idea are so closed minded when it comes to the Christian influence on society. We live in a world where attempts to rewrite our history run rampant on almost every college campus. We have judges deciding cases based on their “new and improved” ideas rather than on the Constitution that is to be the basis of our justice and government. Traditional values are not only disregarded, they are openly scorned by the elites in media and government.
Refugees from the sixties protests have taken shelter in the academic world where they have done their best to complete the job they began fifty some years ago. In that time our real heroes have been rendered irrelevant and leaders of the their attempted revolution have been revered. The morality of the day is, in reality, no morality at all as their actions are guided not so much by doing that which feels good, as they tell us, but to show that they are free from old fashioned restraints that have been honored for centuries.
In their efforts to demonstrate their rejection of Christianity, many modern day “free thinkers” have embraced most everything else. They have even gone so far as to praise the introduction of Islam and it’s sharia law as being a welcome addition to our society. If they really looked into what they were supporting, the homosexuals among them would be unhappy with their fate in Muslim societies. Being thrown from high building tends to shorten one’s life expectancy. Those addicted to alcohol, drugs or sex, would likewise find themselves in a sad situation with these newcomers in control.
After losing $8.5 billion last year and looking at losing $10 billion this year, the folks at the US Post Office should really reconsider the business model of their organization. They have been hemorrhaging business for years. Mail volume dropped 20 percent from 2006 to 2010, and the tailspin continues. And their expenses continue. With workers under the iron hand of a powerful AFL-CIO affiliated, American Postal Workers Union, there is little desire and no ability bring costs in line with revenue.
Their push is to save the postal service. In one sense, this is a worthy goal. The post office has a long and honorable history, providing a valuable service to our expanding nation. For the longest time, the Post Office was about the only way to move documents from one place to another. It was necessary for personal communication and business operations.
Today, however, the Post Office is not the only way to communicate and move documents around the country. For those who actually need to move important papers, the Post Office has lost a major part of that corporate business to FedEx, UPS and the ubiquitous fax. Personal communication has been taken over by email and social media. Much of what the Post Office once did, is just not necessary any more, as private businesses have found ways to provide the same services with greater efficiency and dependability.
For ages, students of human psychology have debated the relative impacts of nature and nurture in determining individual development. In other words, what characteristics are we born with, and which ones develop as a result of outside influences and life experiences. For decades, the American Psychological Association regarded homosexuality as an aberrant condition that could be treated and corrected.
It was long understood that boys growing up without a strong male presence, particularly those with a dominating female presence, would be more inclined toward homosexual behavior Much of the behavior was attributed to environmental factors, which led to the belief that it could be corrected.
Then came the politically correctness revolution. Springing to life in academia, this political correctness sought to minimize social and institutional offense in gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts by declaring certain ideas, language, ideas and behavior to be inappropriate and off limits in the supposedly open and tolerant world then envisioned.
Washington, DC – President Obama’s proposed “American Jobs Act” will repeal charitable tax deductions for certain taxpayers. Eliminating tax deductions would allegedly raise approximately $400 billion to support Obama’s government stimulus bill and would, in turn, significantly decrease the amount of charitable donations, while increasing government glut. Charities play a significant role in the every-day functioning and survival of Americans nationwide, and Obama is essentially seeking to replace those charities with more government.
Obama’s “jobs bill” would mean that taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes over $250,000 for married couples filing jointly (or $200,000 for single taxpayers) may deduct only 28 percent of the value of the charitable contribution. The limitation would affect itemized deductions and certain other tax expenditures that would otherwise reduce taxable income in the 36 or 39.6 percent tax brackets. A similar limitation also would apply under the alternative minimum tax. This section would be effective for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2013.
Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. Luke 11:17b (NIV)
In Federalist Number 2, John Jay makes the point that this country came together as one to defeat the most awesome power in the world to win its independence. He, like other founders, believed that divine providence brought together this unique group of people with a common world view and a common love for liberty. His point point was that most people at the time had a common set of values and this allowed them to pull together in a common direction. This also led them to see everyone as their neighbor… and they looked out for their neighbors.
This is true today, unity is the key to success in an organization as well as a nation. As flawed as they are, most Republicans try to see people as individuals and as Americans. Sometimes they find themselves in a position of telling us that what is good for corporations is good for Americans – whether it is true in the particular situation or not.
On the other hand, we have another party that seeks to maintain its prosperity by keeping segments of the American people constantly up in arms about some real or imagined sleight at the hands of society in general, or some other group of people in particular. These dividers have the erroneous view of our world with prosperity being a fixed value… that one persons good fortune is the result of another persons misfortune. This thinking is epitomized by former congressman Dick Gephart’s reference to those who are well off as “winners in the lottery of life” – the implication being that the less fortunate have nothing to do with their lot in life and they just are the losers in the “lottery of life”. Read more of this article »
As I see talking heads on the news programs, read blogs or check out a multitude of posts on Facebook, I grow so weary of so many supposed conservatives and libertarians verbally beating up on each other because they do not align exactly with their vision of the ideal leader. I’m not talking about those tearing the current president apart or even the likes of Romney or Huntsman.
However, when I see 137 reasons why Rick Perry is a liar or 92 reasons why Sarah Palin would make a horrible candidate, not to mention Michelle Bachmann’s top 40 screw ups, or someone wants to tell me about the real Herman Cain, I want to run screaming from the building with my hands over my ears. Enough already! Even if some portion of the dirt is true, take a lesson from the Leadership Institute session on handling negative information and meter it out one piece at a time. Otherwise, people like me just ignore the whole mess.
Then there are those who apparently despise Glenn Beck who is not running for office. Usually it is because he is a Mormon or they think he is just pumping the people for money. In the latter case, does not he deserve something for the good he is doing, or would it be better for him to make his living as an ambulance chasing lawyer a la John Edwards?
One of Barack Hussein Obama’s most frequent complaints is that those pesky Republicans are placing party and politics over the good of the country. In some ways he is correct. One would have to ask what he is complaining about. He got his two trillion dollar blank check and he won’t have to bamboozle congress for more until after his defeat next year. Yet, somehow it is the Republicans fault that the economy is falling apart.
Yes, many Republicans did place party discipline and allegiance over actions they knew to be good for the country when they fell for the fearful John Boehner’s attempt to look statesmanlike by “compromising” with the administration and Harry Reid and giving the President exactly what he wanted – more money to spend and no further chance to stop it until after the people render their opinion of his presidency. I find the term “compromise” a little odd when one side gives up just about everything they fought for and the other side gets exactly what they wanted. Yet the president needs someone to blame his failure on, since it could not possibly be his policies.
This is what happens when our elected representatives place party loyalty and submission to those in leadership positions over following the wishes of those who put them in office – their bosses. How will they fair when the citizens render an opinion on their performance? Considering the fact that generic incumbents have a re-election rate percentage in the nineties and that they will usually be running against socialistic Democrats whose moral turpitude makes them completely unsuited for any kind of responsible position. Our only hope of getting through to them is through primary challenges. Read more of this article »
Yesterday’s drop of 512 in the Dow shows the smashing success of the debt ceiling bill foisted on the American people. We were told increasing the debt limit so the national government can continue spending money on all sorts of schemes to control, rather than benefit the citizens, would eliminate the uncertainty hanging over the business world and the economy would soar out of the doldrums and go into a hiring frenzy like we’ve never seen. Oh yes, and it would user in an era of love, peace and harmony. Well, maybe not.
It’s not exactly happening like the Keynesians planned. The opening of the federal purse is almost guaranteed, they tell us, to open the wellsprings of prosperity on the huddled masses. Unfortunately, this plan has been tried recognizably since the Roosevelt administration and before, and they are still looking for their first success… as are the Europeans and the Greeks, especially the Greeks.
Pollster Scott Rasmussen reports that just 22% of the people approve of this plan that gives the President a pass on this argument until after the election. 26% of us who have no idea of what is going on have no opinion and 53% are actively opposed to the deal. As with ObamaCare and many other emanations from the banks of the Potomac, operations are in direct conflict with the desires and wisdom of the American people. Read more of this article »
The pressure of regime and media propaganda is showing as Speaker John Boehner fights to get his unpopular Plan B through the House of Representatives. It is not only unpopular with the Wicked Witch of the West and her minions on the Democrat side of the aisle, but with the true believer Tea Party types as well. On one side, they are unhappy because it is not a blank check to fund their progressive dream and on the other side because the new bill is kind of a weak sister version of the initial, less than ideal, Cut, Cap & Balance bill already passed by Mr. Boehner and company.
As I write this, the vote on the Plan B effort has been delayed – an obvious sign of dissension in the ranks that would deny the Speaker the 216 votes needed to pass this compromise with the non-functioning opposition. Even if he can twist arms, call in favors, blackmail or whatever enough of his own team to gain this legislative victory, it will most likely be of little consequence.
Harry Reid, the Majority Leader of the same Senate that has been unable to pass a budget for several years, arrogantly announced that this new proposal would be “dead on arrival” in his wing of the capitol. He, like most Democrats, is good at blocking and destroying the good our government can do for the people, instead of controlling too many aspects of their existence. Already, before Plan B is even passed, Dingy Harry has arranged for all 53 Senate Democrats to agree to scuttle the bill. It’s sort of the reverse of Nancy Plosive telling House members that they have to pass ObamaCare so they can see what is in it. This time though, they are rejection legislation before it is fully formed, let alone passed.
Years ago, Wendy’s ran a commercial emphasizing the fact that they filled the hamburger bun while others gave more bread and less burger. The public loved it and picked up on the phrase “Where’s the beef” for the next few years. They understood that substance was more important than form. They understood that giving value was the important – that keeping the promise of a delicious product in a size that satisfied the consumer was the key to success.
The little man in the White House could learn a lesson from the nice old ladies looking for some substance in their food. Even those with impaired judgment who voted for him deserve to have a leader who will lead. Jon Stewart wondered if the President quit when he pre-empted the Bachelorette from his imperial hallway and all he could do was complain that no one – not the Republicans or the Democrats could come up with a plan that satisfied his lust for taxing the “rich” and borrowing money from anyone foolish enough buy our paper.
His solution to the impasse was not to lead and show us the way out of the mess that has his fingerprints all over it. Instead of showing us what we need to do, and convincing us that it will work, he complained that people just aren’t giving him his way, and he asked his Obamazombies to call their congressman. I guess it’s the only way he can communicate with capitol hill now that that leaders in both houses have decided to go work things out for themselves. Read more of this article »
We survived the folding of Senate Minority Leader McConnell and his attempt to wash his hands of the debt ceiling battle by giving Barack Hussein Obama a blank check. Under his plan, the Republicans could register ineffective objections as he ran up even more debt to bury our grandchildren with. His idea was just to let him destroy our economy, and let him take the blame for our evening meals consisting of hot dogs and beans.
Well, for myself, I don’t feel the need to have someone to blame for me eating beanie weanies every night. I DON’T WANT TO EAT BEANIE WEANIES EVERY NIGHT! I would rather not have it happen and if it does, I will not feel better because I can curse Obama for my plight. I would rather have it not happen in the first place. If leaders are to have our support they need to be working for our good, not just shift the blame to someone so they look good.
There are two major forces competing for control of the world. The first is, obviously, militant Islam that wants to bring us all into a world wide caliphate. The people of the world must be brought into submission to the teachings of Mohammed. Their dedication to this cause reaches the suicidal as they reach for global domination. The second is the the push by globalist elites for dominance of the rich and powerful. Their most visible manifestations are the Bilderbergs, Trilateral Commission and the Colonel House created, Council on Foreign Relations. The most common face of this movement is Obama and Clinton idol George Soros.
At this point, the fate of the United States is in play as we are experiencing an influx of Muslim immigrants determined to maintain the type of culture from whence they came. Areas around Detroit have suffered more than most as police in those sections, and others around the country, have abdicated the enforcement of American laws in deference to the sharia laws desired by the recent arrivals.
Economically, we are finding ourselves increasingly at the mercy of banking interests. Many decisions, such as where we live, what schools our children go to, the car we drive and the vacations we take are determined by the availability and cost of credit as our society is increasingly pulled to the to buy now, pay later mentality. We fail to realize that continual debt and obligation to the financial community is a form of slavery.
I was chatting recently with a friend in the Republican Party about some of the people looking for the presidential nomination. Although I like and respect the gentleman, it was a meeting of the two kinds of Republicans – one a party person and the other an issue person. We both agreed that the pretender to the presidency was taking us in the wrong direction.
Our solutions, though, would take us in two different directions. The traditional Republican approach is to use conflicts with the Democrats to try to work out a compromise. The idea is to get concessions from the other side – for instance, in giving them a debt ceiling increase in exchange for significant cuts in spending. This traditional approach makes the assumption that they are 1) dealing with people you can trust to keep their word and 2) that we, in our already bankrupt condition, can afford to go even further into debt.
This thinking, I believe, is a result of the normalcy bias that prevents people from seeing the real dangers that present themselves, particularly because they never have been present in the past. It is same normalcy bias that led World Trade Center workers to return to their offices to turn off computers and lights rather than get themselves out of the building as quickly as they could. Some died because of this delay. Read more of this article »
The news this morning reported some Republican senators, John Cornyn and John McCain in particular, have indicated they would be agreeable to some government revenue increases. This is why the Republicans find it difficult to push through any kind of smaller government agenda. There are always those in their number who want to appear reasonable and not rock the boat too much.
The nasty secret is that too many Republicans just don’t subscribe to the smaller government thinking that our founders handed down to us. Unfortunately we have been unfaithful keepers of our heritage and have allowed smooth talkers in fancy suits to convince us that they are on our side then go back to DC and vote for more spending and more borrowing. They point to the President’s willingness to talk about spending reductions as indications that a deal is possible.
Yes, he has talked about billions in reduction in such things as Medicare and other such programs. First, he is talking about programs many people benefit from and arbitrary cuts would infuriate them… hopefully at the Republicans. He totally ignores all the governmental waste that only benefits the chosen few… the unions, foreign dictators, and academic hair brains and their esoteric experiments like treadmills for sea creatures. Read more of this article »
I couldn’t count how many times I’ve heard a sincere Christian say to me, “Chuck, all we have to do is elect more Christians to public office.” I wish it was only that easy! The fact is we have been electing “Christians” to public office for decades. In fact, when is the last time you voted for someone who did NOT proclaim to be a Christian? Most everyone in public office claims to be a Christian. In my whole life, I never remember a candidate for public office saying, “Vote for me; I’m an atheist.” Do you?
Richard Nixon claimed to be a Christian; Gerald Ford claimed to be a Christian; Jimmy Carter claimed to be a Christian (he even taught Sunday School and took alcohol out of the White House); Ronald Reagan claimed to be a Christian; Bill Clinton claimed to be a Christian (how many times did we see Clinton on his way to church with his giant-print Bible under his arm?); George Bush I and II claimed to be a Christian. Bush II held prayer meetings in the White House we are told. Even Barack Obama claims to be a Christian. Ditto for virtually every congressman and senator ever elected. Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, men and women, whites and blacks: they all claim to be Christians. If electing “Christians” was all we needed to do, we should be in the Millennial Kingdom by now!
Of course, I can hear many Christians now saying under their breath, “But we need REAL Christians in public office.” And, of course, the people saying this are the ones who are qualified to know which ones are REAL Christians and which ones aren’t. Right? Read more of this article »
I’ve just watched a tape of an Islamic spokesman telling us that the 9/11 attacks were a show by the Jews to make the Muslims look bad. We have witnessed Anthony Wiener admit that he lied about his Twitter account being hacked. We see the President and his surrogates explaining that we really have no inflation and that the economy is on the upswing when we see all around us evidence to the contrary.
Who can we believe? Are we happy about this? Do we believe that the administration is really trying to create private sector jobs? Do we really believe the administration is concerned about the welfare of all Americans and not just the special interests that supplied the votes to put them in power? Our eyes and ears tell us that the unions are being supported and protected… especially the public sector unions. We see the administration saying there is nowhere to cut the budget. The say we can poke around the edges of what they call “discretionary spending”, but can go no further.
Entitlements, they say, cannot be touched. Let’s think about this a moment. Beltway insiders have another term for these payouts of tax dollars. The call them “transfer payments”, meaning they are transferring money from those who worked for it and earned it to those who did not. If they actually used this term and people understood it, how many of our friends and neighbors would be cheering wildly for for them to continue… except for those on the receiving end. The separation of entitlements and discretionary spending is, in itself a lie. The truth is, IT’S ALL DISCRETIONARY! We cannot permit those in control to control the discussion by using deceptive terminology, no matter which party they say they belong to. Read more of this article »
William Wilberforce is a hero in the eyes of most of us in the pro-life movement. He’s an inspiration to all of us.
However, his work against slavery in Britain is often cited (by incrementalists) as proof that “incrementalism works.” This claim not only mistakes the lesson we should take from his astonishing life, but also denigrates the true values that he held dear – those based upon a conviction in the God-given Rights to Life and Freedom.
The growing Personhood Wing of the pro-life movement holds that “any law which says ‘do this, and then you can kill the baby (or own the slave)’” is an evil regulation Christians should never support. Did Wilberforce support such laws during his nearly half-century of crusading? Yes. Have many sincere pro-lifers done so, even those who now support Personhood? Yes. The problem is not the person – it’s the naive, emotional position they hold for a time. Read more of this article »
Even Barack Obama has come to realize the impossibility of Israel accepting his decree to return to the 1967 borders. Had he considered the proposal before reading it from the teleprompter, it is doubtful the words would have crossed his lips. Unfortunately our public schools have produced several generations of geographically illiterate citizens who don’t know Jerusalem from Jersey City or Jamaica. Because of this, many Americans don’t comprehend why this proposal is such a problem.
Israel has universal service in the IDF, and I’m not sure I would be in favor of in our country, but I must say that most of our young soldiers I come in contact with are polite, intelligent and a credit to our country as well as their uniform. Simply adding an ROTC course or two to high school curricula would help people understand that, among other things, an adequate defense involves more than simply having expensive, high-tech weapons. The public would understand that there is geographic component. Read more of this article »
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With all the enthusiasm for the various personalities running for the Republican nomination, it’s easy to loose sight of the issues that drive the need to replace the current White House resident. As the passions rise, so does the level of rhetoric and the hostility toward other candidates and their supporters. Passion is great, hostility toward others who should be on the same team is not. It makes it too easy to fragment ourselves in a way that makes it difficult to achieve our goal.
A while back a Facebook friend made the comment that she was just so frustrated with the war in Afghanistan and thought we should just nuke the whole mountainous area. Someone else commented that here solution was not “socially acceptable”. Now I’m not going to get into the virtue of using nuclear weapons to root out Taliban, or any jihadists in the area, but I do want to look at the reason for rejecting the idea. We all want to be accepted socially… which is another way of saying that we have developed an, often overwhelming acquiescence to peer pressure.
Pope Benedict XVI recently told US Bishops, “The present moment can thus be seen, in positive terms, as a summons to exercise the prophetic dimension of your episcopal ministry by speaking out, humbly yet insistently, in defense of moral truth, and offering a word of hope, capable of opening hearts and minds to the truth that sets us free.”
The fact that Michelle Obama’s appearance at the final NASCAR race of the season did not send a Chris Matthewsesque tingle up the legs of the assembled throng should come as no surprise to anyone who understands the American sport of big time stock car racing. The fans love their country. They are proud of their country. They are a self reliant breed. Most are firm defenders of the second amendment – the one that insures all the others. They also cling to their God, not the government when times get rough.
Herman Cain has committed an unforgivable sin. He is a successful conservative black American who has risen to the point where he is a serious contender for the position of President of the United States… and he has done this without the help of the Democrat Party. He has not relied upon minority set asides or government programs that treated him as less qualified or less capable than the progressive masters whose task, they believe, is to bring all of us into their vision of equality and submission.
Sunday morning as I sat in church listening to the choir singing about our unchanging God, it occurred to me why even those who say they are open to any and every new idea are so closed minded when it comes to the Christian influence on society. We live in a world where attempts to rewrite our history run rampant on almost every college campus. We have judges deciding cases based on their “new and improved” ideas rather than on the Constitution that is to be the basis of our justice and government. Traditional values are not only disregarded, they are openly scorned by the elites in media and government.
After losing $8.5 billion last year and looking at losing $10 billion this year, the folks at the US Post Office should really reconsider the business model of their organization. They have been hemorrhaging business for years. Mail volume dropped 20 percent from 2006 to 2010, and the tailspin continues. And their expenses continue. With workers under the iron hand of a powerful AFL-CIO affiliated, American Postal Workers Union, there is little desire and no ability bring costs in line with revenue.
For ages, students of human psychology have debated the relative impacts of nature and nurture in determining individual development. In other words, what characteristics are we born with, and which ones develop as a result of outside influences and life experiences. For decades, the 
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Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. Luke 11:17b (NIV)
As I see talking heads on the news programs, read blogs or check out a multitude of posts on Facebook, I grow so weary of so many supposed conservatives and libertarians verbally beating up on each other because they do not align exactly with their vision of the ideal leader. I’m not talking about those tearing the current president apart or even the likes of Romney or Huntsman.
One of Barack Hussein Obama’s most frequent complaints is that those pesky Republicans are placing party and politics over the good of the country. In some ways he is correct. One would have to ask what he is complaining about. He got his two trillion dollar blank check and he won’t have to bamboozle congress for more until after his defeat next year. Yet, somehow it is the Republicans fault that the economy is falling apart.
Yesterday’s drop of 512 in the Dow shows the smashing success of the debt ceiling bill foisted on the American people. We were told increasing the debt limit so the national government can continue spending money on all sorts of schemes to control, rather than benefit the citizens, would eliminate the uncertainty hanging over the business world and the economy would soar out of the doldrums and go into a hiring frenzy like we’ve never seen. Oh yes, and it would user in an era of love, peace and harmony. Well, maybe not.
The pressure of regime and media propaganda is showing as Speaker John Boehner fights to get his unpopular Plan B through the House of Representatives. It is not only unpopular with the Wicked Witch of the West and her minions on the Democrat side of the aisle, but with the true believer Tea Party types as well. On one side, they are unhappy because it is not a blank check to fund their progressive dream and on the other side because the new bill is kind of a weak sister version of the initial, less than ideal, Cut, Cap & Balance bill already passed by Mr. Boehner and company.
There are two major forces competing for control of the world. The first is, obviously, militant Islam that wants to bring us all into a world wide caliphate. The people of the world must be brought into submission to the teachings of Mohammed. Their dedication to this cause reaches the suicidal as they reach for global domination. The second is the the push by globalist elites for dominance of the rich and powerful. Their most visible manifestations are the Bilderbergs, Trilateral Commission and the Colonel House created, Council on Foreign Relations. The most common face of this movement is Obama and Clinton idol George Soros.
I was chatting recently with a friend in the Republican Party about some of the people looking for the presidential nomination. Although I like and respect the gentleman, it was a meeting of the 
I’ve just watched a tape of an Islamic spokesman telling us that the 9/11 attacks were a show by the Jews to make the Muslims look bad. We have witnessed Anthony Wiener admit that he lied about his Twitter account being hacked. We see the President and his surrogates explaining that we really have no inflation and that the economy is on the upswing when we see all around us evidence to the contrary.
by Bob Kyffin
