Essentially there are two primary ways of viewing the world around us. C.S. Lewis called it the “Great Divide”. Do we live our lives with the recognition of the supreme being, or do we consider ourselves (man) to be the supreme being? There is even a perversion of the secular humanist thinking that sees man as the supreme underbeing and Mother Earth is the deity to be worshipped… in the way that these unusual people shall specify for us.

In any case, the culture war that currently engulfs our country is one that most who would claim the God centered world view are blissfully unaware of. So many, like their secular neighbors, are absorbed in their own lives and problems. They have been distracted by the small acts of goodness they can do, and totally miss the bigger picture that shows the Christian viewpoint being shuffled off to the side. Many of us have been majoring in minors, as the saying goes… fighting over hymnbook content or carpet colors.

Many also site II Timothy 2:4 that tells us “No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs – he wants to please his commanding officer.” We are told this as they, many with sincerity, attempt to go about the business of the Lord. The problem with this thinking is that it fails to recognize that a major part of the battle has moved into the public arena and the forces of secular humanism have been winning by default. The other problem with this thinking is that many of the Lord’s “soldiers” are AWOL from the fight entirely.

Many also take Paul’s admonition to heart that we need to endure hardships and the implementation of a secular based government with no concept of the creator endowed rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is just something we will have to live with.

This all well and good except they are missing the main point: IT’S NOT ABOUT US! Our convenience and ease of life are not the issue. The issue is the millions of children going through the public schools immersed in Darwinism. The issue is the millions of babies killed in the name of convenience with no concept of consequences. The issue is the gay and lesbian clubs in the same public schools that now call Christmas Vacation a Winter Break. No, it is not about us. It’s about permitting a culture that devalues the God of the Bible and promotes the idea that our puny logic can figure out what is right and wrong based on our circumstances… and it’s about the tragic consequences to those misdirected by our culture.

An example of how one’s world view determines their actions and impact on those around them is the slavish allegiance of academic biology departments at all levels to the evolutionary thinking of Charles Darwin. They understand there are gaps in the theory, but they have faith that eventually, their knowledge will be filled. Why is this, as the facts can’t substantiate their position? To understand this, let’s go back to the basic divide in world views. One says there is a creator God and the other denies this fact.

Most academicians in their ivy covered world with inbred social and work life circles publicly proclaim that they have never been able to see or measure God, therefore, he must not exist. With this background they HAVE TO embrace Darwinism since it meshes with their world view. There is no way they can even admit Creationism is a valid alternative. They deride Intelligent Design as simply an attempt to insert religion into science.

Ben Stein showed the foolishness of this position in his film Expelled when he interviewed a distinguished professor who could accept the possibility that a superior race from another solar system could have set life in motion on earth, but could not accept that we were created by a deity. These people are people are teaching our young and we are letting them!

Books could be, and have been, written about the effect of the secular humanist philosophy on our society as a whole and on us individually. Basically it has only led to increases in crime, suicide and poverty. The secularized society has proven it is not the paradise envisioned in John Lennon’s Imagine any more than the former Soviet Union produced the workers paradise it touted around the world.

Consider your world view. Compare it to the programs and pronouncements coming out our Washington and your state capitol. Don’t just think about the impact they will have on your life. Think about what they will do to the people around you and society as a whole. Many are trying to buy you off with trinkets as they steal and corrupt the soul of our country.

People like Freeman, who I had a great deal of respect for up to this point, and mental midget, Janeane Garofalo, are brilliant examples of the way William F. Buckley saw the left. He told us, “Liberals do a great deal of talking about hearing other points of view, but it sometimes shocks them to learn that there are other points of view.” These people, who support their habits by pretending to be someone they are not, do not understand genuine disagreement with they see it. To their superficial thinking, opposition can on function on the surface of an issue, in an area that they can see and touch.

Since they are so jazzed that a black man is in our highest office, to them, it is only possible that opposition comes for the very same reason. Their enthusiasm prevents them from seeing the division and disaster he is bringing upon our country. They only see the shell of a slick lipped shyster who happens to look different than any president we’ve had in the past. They are so excited that they tend to forget that he is half white, and that half is fouling our nest just as badly as the darker skinned half.

To complete their hypocrisy, they refuse to accept as valid, the presence of conservative black citizens like Allen West, Herman Cain, Allen Keyes, Starr Parker or J.C. Watts, calling them all sorts of names that I will not even repeat here. These over paid and over pampered Hollywood and academic crowds believe that some people are just not capable of living in a free society. They think we all should throw some money in a pot and allow them to give it to their favored needy. Of course, when you have so much more than you need to meet your daily needs, it’s easy to say everyone should contribute more… it is a blatant disregard for the rest of the working people of our country who are struggling to keep one or two cars for their family, rather than a collection of fifteen.

Even worse, their position is a conscious devaluing of the concerns of people who disagree with the direction of our country on principle rather than because the driver looks different than them. It is so much easier to assign the motivation to baser instincts than to actually consider the reasons and respond to them. It is easier to call those wanting freedom and the ability to retain what they have earned names, rather than honestly considering the idea that objections may be valid.

I have been to many tea party events, have been an officer in the Republican party and know a great many conservative and libertarians looking so save our country from the Amateur Hour on the Potomac, and, among these freedom fighters, have yet to come across one who cares, in the least, that Obama’s skin is darker than theirs. In some cases, his is even lighter. How would they deal with that… other than to call these patriots an Uncle Tom or an Oreo. This is what passes for dialogue on the progressive left, and we just don’t have time for it with our country falling apart.

With all the trouble and strife in the world, sometimes we just need to smile a bit to keep our humanity. It is particularly satisfying when those who would do us harm unintentionally make our point for us.

Trying to mock traditional Americans, Norman Lear put words in Archie Bunker’s mouth that accidentally echoed some areas of truth. For those readers too young to have known Archie and Edith, enjoy this little introduction. They came into our homes every week with a generous dose of working class wisdom.

The phrase begins by declaring their “firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence”. We have a shorter, more concise way of expressing this… trusting God. With the plethora of problems facing our country and world today, depending on divine Providence is the only path to our brighter future. This does not mean that we sit back and twiddle our thumbs any more than our forefathers did. They put feet to their prayers for peace and freedom… with the assurance that by aligning themselves with their Creator, they would insure the success of their venture.

This is followed by “we mutually pledge to each other”. In an age run by the “me generation” and selfish ambition, working together for reciprocal interests is as powerful as it is rare. Consider that twelve men changed the world. While the first American Revolution was followed by divergent views of the Federalists and the anti-Federalists, but until victory was won, they followed Poor Richard’s advice, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” This doesn’t mean we all roll over and give up our concepts of what makes a free society. It does not mean that we don’t support our preferred standard bearer with every thing we have. It does mean that we stick to differences in policies and execution while we avoid personality based attacks.

It means that we really don’t need to trash fellow freedom fighters as many are prone to do with people like Sarah Palin. I can accept the fact that she is not everyone’s darling, but the attacks coming from those who say they support smaller government and greater individual freedom are way beyond appropriate. We need to take a tip from our previously successful opposition who rarely trash each others publicly. Behind closed doors, they may pull the rug out from each other and stab each other in the back, but then come out smiling and laughing like old friends. We have enough working against us, including a progressive press that won’t give is half a break, we do not need to air our dirty laundry before them and give them more potential to make us look bad.

They pledged their “lives”. Their lives… their physical being on earth… were something they valued less than the fruits of the victory they fought for. It was not just the possibility of ending their lives at the end of a British rope, but they gave up their comfortable homes and family lives to take on the most powerful monarch and army in the world. For the most part, they did not have to do this to insure their prosperity, they did it for the precious goal of freedom. This was more important than the quiet life they could have lived without the conflict they began – and finished. They pledged their lives, and some how, many of us have trouble pledging a couple of hours to do whatever is needed to beat back the progressive assaults on liberty.

They pledged their “fortunes”. Because many of the founders had the wealth to make themselves comfortable, they also had the wherewithal to finance the men in the field. Unlike many of the present day beltway benefactors, they wrote the checks out of their own accounts and not out of money confiscated from others. They understood the meaning of putting their money where their mouth is. They believed in what they were about and put everything they had into it. I once had a pastor who would tell us you can see what a person really believes by looking in his check book. Matthew 6:21 puts it this way, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (NIV) These men and women dedicated their resources to their passion for liberty, and so many today don’t bother to write even a small check from time to time to further the cause.

Then, the last thing they pledged was their “sacred honor”. This is, perhaps, the most important of their possessions. It is what gives the other things meaning and value. It is at the core of the difference between much of the tea party movement and their progressive opposition. To many progressives, there is nothing sacred, except, perhaps, a woman’s “right” to kill her unborn child. To those of us who claim a Judeo-Christian basis for our lives, every person is sacred because of who created them in their mother’s womb. Also, the “unalienable rights” are sacred because they come from our Creator and not from any group of men who decide which freedoms we should enjoy and which we should not. Just as it is an abomination to destroy the gift of life our Creator has placed in a mother’s womb, it is also an abomination to allow the liberty He has given us to slip away, stolen by those who would seek to control our lives and misappropriate the resources He has also given us.

Then we have the concept of “honor”. Glenn Beck helped us understand the idea with his Washington, DC rally. To many, a sense of honor is as foreign as the Swahili language, and about as irrelevant. They call themselves pragmatist. They are only interested in getting the job done. This ultimately leads to the end justifies the means philosophy so prevalent in today’s culture. This means that, to many who have clawed their way into the DC power elite, that whatever they have to do to accomplish, what they believe, is good for the country or themselves, is justified.

This means lying to the public and ignoring its expressed wishes is entirely acceptable if is for a worthy cause. It means that trampling on rights the American people hold sacred is permissible if it helps the elites remake the culture in their image. It means that those to follow this path are worthy of no place in our decision making process and that our time, our effort and, yes, our treasure is rightly spent in defeating them and their schemes.

They cannot be permitted to succeed. If we don’t set aside some of the non-essentials in our lives and and concentrate on the essentials to do everything, including using our time and whatever level of fortune we have been blessed with to remain free, we are just not worthy of the Founding Fathers and the sacrifices they made to make the United States of America a great nation and leader of the world.

The Reaganite Republican

“Usually, a figure like Romney is the big shot who arrives in town to boost a little guy like Rubio. This time, it’s the other way round…”

With Marco Rubio pretty much running-away with it in Florida, all those with presidential ambitions on the Republican side are taking-note of the rapidly evolving political landscape in this country… and making hurried adjustments.

Two things have become apparent re. 2012: Better give us a small-government, Reaganite-conservative… the TEA Party movement will hold de facto veto power over the nomination.

And it won’t necessarily be the next-guy-in-line this time, either… both these developments likely sound less than ideal to professional presidential candidate Mitt Romney- the father of RomneyCare does have some explaining to do.

Toby Harnden from The Telegraph (UK) was in Florida this weekend as Mitt was actually stumping for Marco Rubio’s all-but-sealed Senate bid. But with GOP rising-star Rubio up 12 points over Orange Charlie, why was Romney even there… and who was more likely to benefit from the association?

Despite the shifting political sands of the past two years, one thing has been constant: Mitt Romney running for president.

Having spent many millions of his personal fortune being defeated in 2008, he scarcely paused for breath and just carried on with his 2012 bid. Campaigning up and down the country during the mid-terms, Romney has been endorsing candidates, holding fundraisers and building up the kind of network of goodwill that traditionally stands White House aspirants in good stead.

His message is finely honed and has resonance. Matinee Mitt will never look like that regular guy next door but he’s stopped tending to his bouffant thatch, shed his tie and loosened up a little.

Talking to several hundred fired-up Republicans crammed into Benedetto’s Italian restaurant in a strip mall in Land O’Lakes, Florida on Friday, Romney accused Obama of trying to smother “the very creed of America” with taxes, excessive regulation and the growth of what Margaret Thatcher called the nanny state.

But the star of the show was not Romney but Marco Rubio, who seems to be coasting to victory in the Florida Senate race…

America is now making a sharp turn to the right… and the next couple of years look to be quite different than the last:

The departure of his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has forced Obama to make changes in the White House before he planned to.

Precriminations for the expected Democratic drubbing are underway and Obama’s contribution has been to berate his supporters for the “inexcusable” sin of “sitting on their hands complaining”.

Usually, a figure like Romney is the big shot who arrives in town to boost a little guy like Rubio. This time, it’s the other way round. Young, bursting with energy and brimful of indignation, Rubio was the main draw in Benedetto’s. Romney appeared to be hoping for a bit of the Senate candidate’s magic to rub off on him.

Initially written off as too Right-wing and young to win in Florida, Rubio will be one of the Republican kingmakers in 2012, which is shaping up to be an election like no other.

Background/update on the Rubio-Crist-Meek Florida Senate race -here-

[Editors note: This article first appeared in The Reaganite Republican blog.]

Perhaps I should not have enjoyed the spectacle of Arlen Specters’ political demise as much as I did, yet the whole sordid drama of a man leaving a party that had been so good to him over the years and still meeting the defeat he had hoped to avoid, renewed my hope that there is still some justice in the world. Now seeing the same drama taking place in Florida gives me even more hope and confidence that the founders “firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence” was not faith misplaced.

However, as much as they relied on Divine Providence, they still had to pick up arms and drive the British army from our shores. They did, however, understand that this Divine Providence would ensure their victory, even in their darkest hours. As imperfect humans, they did their best to be sure they were on the side of their creator which gave them the rights they were defending for themselves and their fellow countrymen.

This needs to be our vision as well as we, having achieved some preliminary victories in primaries, move forward to secure the general election outcomes. The progressives of the ruling class in Washington are gleefully watching and hoping that the battle within the supposedly small government party can be fragmented by those who actually appreciate and want to solidify this heritage and those with no particular political doctrine other than that of position and power.

Having been burned by the real people who identify themselves with his party for his ill-advised comments about Christine O’Donnell, Karl Rove is now at least giving lip service to the popularly chosen candidate for the Senate in Alaska. By way of personal observation, they lacked the passion and vitriol of O’Donnells’ chastisement. He is advising, at least publicly, Lisa Murkowski against running a write in campaign to keep the seat she “inherited” from her father.

She says she is “listening to my constituents”. We can pretty well reject this out of hand as she is a member of a club where this is just never done. If we are to go by past experience, we must look for another reason. This move by Murkowski is breaking faith with the people of Alaska. By running in the primary, she submitted her fate to the voters and they chose someone else. By her actions, she is saying that what Lisa Murkowski want takes precedence over what the people want… but then, we already knew that and so did the Alaskans.

Efforts like this never succeed in anything more than siphoning off votes from the legitimate candidate for the office. Could this be her objective? Why would she do this? Why would Mike Castle, as of this writing, still not support Christine O’Donnell? Why would Charlie Crist reject of his historic party and choose to run as an independent. The answer is that these, and many others, do not want to see a small government, conservative agenda taking hold in our country… and neither do the puppet masters to whom they are really accountable.

Despite claims by Rove that he wants to see Republicans win, he, Krauthammer, and so many others are uncomfortable with principle driven candidates who do not follow their advice on going along to get along. They do not want people in their back yard who will question the propriety and constitutionality (if it matters anymore) of programs such as No Child Left Behind rather than just promote the idea that Republicans can run them more efficiently.

This appears to be just be another in a series of moves designed to thwart the will of the American people. Some party leaders would rather keep a firm grip on a minority party than let it become a true majority party accountable to the riffraff known as the American people. We cannot be blind to this.

The political process is something new to many tea partiers, most of whom are unused to operating in an environment of deceit and deception. We need to be wary of those who would befriend us… of those who tell us Rome wasn’t built in a day and we need to be patient… of those who would try to clue us in to “political realities” that we need to deal with. While there are some genuine good guys inside the beltway, those entering this arena, and those of us who have been around a while need to follow the advice we’ve been given in Matthew 10:16 “be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” (KJV) Those who mean us harm will be trapped by their own devices as their bankrupt philosophies become obvious to all.

Of course, his view of the world requires him to see no value in the tea partiers that have been arroused by, not just the socialism of the President and his party, but by patriot pretenders as himself. He sees Americans as irresolute as himself. Lindsey Graham is so wrapped up in his position that he cannot comprehend that the American people would inconvenience themselves and turn off Dancing With The Stars long enough to throw charlatans like himself into the unemployment line… or to those of his elevated stature, into the brotherhood of overpaid lobbyists. Graham avers that “The problem with the Tea Party, I think it’s just unsustainable because they can never come up with a coherent vision for governing the country. It will die out.”

The man lives in the same fantasy world as the Democratic majority he is so fond of working with in the destruction of our country. He thinks, “If you look at the Republicans who are likely to come into the Senate in 2010, they’re gonna be more like me, not less like me.” If this is the case, it is our fault. We cannot let this happen.

He asks the tea partiers. “What do you want to do? You take back your country — and do what with it?” This shows his perverse thinking that assumes we want to do something with it… big government thinking. We don’t want to do anything with it. We want to be left alone… and have the government stick to it’s legitimate functions of keeping us safe, and doing things that we really cannot do for ourselves and are necessary for our survival.

In a world crying out for another Ronald Reagan, Graham says, “We don’t have a lot of Reagan-type leaders in our party. Remember Ronald Reagan Democrats? I want a Republican that can attract Democrats.” Once more showing a disconnect from the core of the Republican Party he declares, “Ronald Reagan would have a hard time getting elected as a Republican today.”

This man, who many Republicans still see as one of their own, is seeking to win over Democrats by being one of them. Ronaldus Magnus won them over by making the case for conservative values and demonstrating the wisdom of their implementation. Reagan won the victory in the battle of ideas. Graham chooses to surrender to the oppositions failed schemes.

Lest one believe that this is just an attack on one senator out of step with the pleasant southern state he represents, consider that this is a warning that we need to be aware of others who just find it convenient to side with enemies of the republic. We can’t just blindly follow the dictates of party leaders who share his disdain for the common folks who make up the tea party movement, but are just not quite so honest. They are more than happy to have our efforts and our votes, but just don’t relish our ideas.

The tea partiers are being used, in many cases, by big government progressives within the party that claims to believe in smaller, less intrusive government. This is backwards. It is time the tea partiers to throw out the professional politicians and use the party apparatus to move us toward more freedom, not less.

While we haven’t identified him or her yet, we need to keep on looking for one with the courage and understanding to conclude another speech with something like “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! – I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” Then we need to the wisdom and courage to follow them.

This kind of thinking lets Republicans believe they have a majority when they can never really get them to act like a majority. It is the thinking that populates their caucuses with the likes of Lindsey Graham and Olympia Snowe, who can be relied upon to help the party snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at regular intervals. They become like “that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces a man’s hand and wounds him if he leans on it!” as II Kings 18:21 describes it.

Working for the victory of just anyone who calls themselves a Republican puts the party in a position where being named as one means nothing in reality. I could call myself a table… but that would not make me one. When Newt Gingrich and the National Republican Congressional Committee endorsed Dede Scozzafava, they joined the New York State United Teachers, the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local #2, the Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence Central Trades and Labor Council, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 910 (can anyone say ‘card check’), Senator Susan Collins, ACORN, and the Daily Kos!

Beyond this, what else would make one think that Scozzafava is not worthy of Republican organizational support? She is in favor of homosexual marriage and abortion.  She is not opposed to tax increases… she has refused to sign a no tax hike pledge, she supports bailouts, stimulus bills, card-check, earmarks and the like. Even the Democrats call her a tax-hiking liberal… and they know tax-hiking liberals! After supporting such a candidate, how can Republican leadership come to the people and present themselves as the answer to the Obamination? What is the point?

Many conservative and libertarian voters have long since recognized the folly of letting party affiliation determine their vote. Along with Chuck Baldwin they will tell you that “Voting for the lesser of two evils is still evil”. Only this time, the Republican may actually be the greater of the two evils in spite of her NRA endorsement… an endorsement that illustrates the danger of being a single issue voter and ignoring the big picture.

On the other hand, we see people who have a history of standing for the freedoms that Republicans tell us they stand for backing an independent candidate Doug Hoffman. The man is not as connected to the party leadership and interests that would like to see one more liberal tinkering with our lives, but he is carrying the banner for all those in the district, and perhaps around the country, who believe in the good of the country over blind party loyalty.

Sarah Palin’s recently publicized endorsement of Hoffman is only the latest of those with impeccable Republican pedigrees… including former Majority Leader Dick Armey, Senator Rick Santorum, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Congressman Todd Tiahrt… and the Eagle Forum. Other than Armey, most of Hoffman’s supporters are part of a new face of the Republican Party. They harken back to a time when people could look at a party label and have a pretty good idea of who would be the big government redistributionist and who would stand against them.

If the Republican Party is to survive as force to actually accomplish something of value it cannot continue to permit people who share little of the values of the rank and file supporters to carry the banner and purport to represent the people. The old thinking of “our team” verses “their team” has to give way to looking at what is good for the country. The conniving and abandonment of principle that has given rise to the distaste many have for the party label has to be replaced by a respect for the values of the people and replaced by an absolute respect for the difference between right and wrong… or Republican victories will mean merely a slower form of national suicide than under the Democrats.

Copyright ©2009 Angel Loupe

Editors note: We took a little different approach today by including a poem by a young lady from middle Tennessee. It gives us some things to consider. Read, think and enjoy!

It is reported that Israeli ambassador Michael Oren was summoned to the State Department.* He was told that a building project being developed by an American investor in east Jerusalem must not go forward as it interfered with their plans for regional peace. The State Department sought to forbid any Jewish development on captured lands in an attempt to draw boundaries more satisfactory to the Palestinians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the attempted land use demand by commenting, “I can only imagine what would happen if someone suggested Jews could not live in certain neighborhoods in New York, London, Paris or Rome. There would certainly be a major international outcry.” This new construction is part of his plan for a unified Jerusalem. It is surprising that he took no public offense at the treatment of his ambassador as some lackey from a client state… however, it appears that he is focused on what is best for his country and not on petty one upsmanship.

Meanwhile, former first lady and current Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was hearing from India’s environment minister, Jairam Ramesh,** that his country had no interest in signing on to environmental demands of the Obama administration and Europeans who have bought into the man-made climate change hysteria. Even though she dangled technical partnerships in front of him, Ramesh did not bite.

Mrs. Clinton was not able to convince him that the fate of the world hung on their decision and that only by working together can we overcome all the evil, planet warming pollution that the reprobate western corporations have been spewing for years. Not only did she apologize for the west, and US in particular, for gunking up the planet but she offered to help them fix our errors. The minister was not impressed. India, along with China as well, have chosen not to, lemming like, follow the US and our slick lipped shyster down the path to economic suicide.

It appears that foreign leaders do not fall under the same teleprompter induced spell that hypnotizes many in the slack jawed segment of our electorate. They seem to be more able to see through the soaring rhetoric to the harsh economic realities that underlie the awesomely proposed plans of our fearless leader. They see the destruction that lies down the path we, as a nation, have chosen. The man has made his pitch, but they are not buying.

Perhaps they are understanding that there is more form than substance to this administration, it’s rhetoric and it’s plans. On the other hand, they just may not have the emotional attachment to the president who wants to solve all our problems by sticking it to the rich… or they may not have given any thought at all to the President of the United States.

It is possible that they just looked at the plans in both cases and rejected them because the simply were bad ideas. I had a friend who, when he was training to be a camp counselor for middle age children, was told that for them to follow and respect him, he not only had to be right, but he had to appear to be right. Unfortunately Barack Hussein Obama has neither of these going for him.

* Israel Rejects US Call to Halt Jerusalem Project http://tinyurl.com/ljbhz3
** India Rebuffs US Carbon Demands http://tinyurl.com/nugzw2

More information: http://tinyurl.com/mbvac3