Showing the exclusively race based tunnel vision, the organization set their sites on repudiating “the racism of the Tea Parties”. The leadership of this formerly useful institution, in pushing the same disastrous programs that all but destroyed the black families, had to resort to playing the race card and engaging in character assassination. Generally this is the last play of one who is unable to refute logical arguments.

We know that the government intervention has never, and will never, lift people out of poverty. Abraham Lincoln said, “You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich, you cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong, you cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down, you cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.” Yet, holding out the promise of benefits paid for by someone else is what placed these leaders in their exalted positions and what they expect to keep them in power. Therefore, the tea parties who recognize the failure of the NAACP’s traditional approach and had the audacity to point it out… much like the child who noticed the emperor had no clothes, have to go.

These people are fighting to maintain the impression of relevance, so they are calling the tea partiers, which means they are calling most of us, what they believe to be worst name in the world, which is “racist”, and this is, somehow, to make us go away. While racism is evil and disgusting, calling someone a racist doesn’t make him one… just like their calling Barack Hussein Obama a great president, doesn’t make him one. However, they have to keep up the image of taking on the functioning part of America to keep their membership fired up and paying dues.

If they were truly effective and getting the job done for the constituents, they would not be fighting the same fights and using the same rhetoric for the last fifty years. The fact is, most of our country has moved far beyond evaluating people based on the color of their skin. Unfortunately, the NAACP is stuck in the 60s and only sees things through the lens of racial conflict. In spite of the charges of racial prejudice among the tea partiers; something that has never been proven, they need to understand that we have bigger fish to fry than keeping our black brothers “in their place”.

In fact, to anyone who believes that our creator made everyone in his own image, and endowed everyone certain unalienable rights, these ideas are preposterous and offensive. However, my reading of our constitution doesn’t include a right to go through life without hurt feelings. We are not only fighting for our own families, but all families to have a more free and more prosperous life.

We, and I include myself in the tea party crowd, have been called all sorts of vile names by protectors and agents of the status quo. This is just one more attempt to discredit a movement that threatens to bring sanity back to our world. We have two choices in how we deal with this attack. The first, and the one our enemies hope we take is to hide our heads and quietly slink on back home, having been exposed by the great moral arbiters of our society. If we really believe in what we are doing this is not an option.

The second option is to just keep on keeping on. Our example went about doing good. Some people loved him, just like they do the tea partiers. Some hated him and tried to discredit him… but you can’t discredit the truth. Then some killed him. We hope the enemies of freedom won’t get that far, but doing the right thing is never wrong and if we shrink back, we are unworthy of our founding fathers.

“Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions–everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.”

I submit that a good many in America are, like Rome of old, carelessly frittering away their God-given liberties, foolishly clamoring for nothing more than government handouts and never-ending entertainment. Millions and millions of Americans (especially males) are literally intoxicated with sports. Sports are no longer a great American pastime; they are now a great American obsession.

Mind you, this writer has been a sports fan all of his life. I began playing organized basketball in the fifth grade; I was on the high school wrestling team; I played football in high school and college; and I ran track. Still today, I enjoy watching a good NFL game (yes, I’m still a Green Bay Packers fan), a good college game when the Gators are playing, a good NCAA men’s basketball game (especially during the tournament–even more so when the Hoosiers are in it), and any NBA championship series between the Celtics and Lakers (I root for Boston). And I even like to watch a round of professional golf once in a while (it helps me go to sleep when I’m trying to take a nap). But none of the above will interfere with anything that is important, and I am not going to plan my whole universe around any of it. If it is convenient, I will watch. If it’s not, I will read about it in the sports section of the newspaper. And I’m certainly not going to spend my hard-earned money following any sports team (even those I like) all over the country like some rock band groupie.

I am not talking about sports in general; I am talking about the way many American men have allowed sports to control and dominate their lives. With many, sports are not just a hobby; they are a religion. I cannot count the number of conversations between men that I overhear in restaurants, airplanes, boardrooms, and, yes, even church houses, in which every man in the circle is literally consumed with all sorts of sports facts, information, and opinions. In many such discussions, these men will talk about nothing else. To these men, there is absolutely nothing in the world more important than the latest sports score, announcement, or trade. NOTHING!

And there is also a very real psychological pitfall associated with a man’s intoxication with sports. I submit that an obsession with sports gives men a false sense of masculinity and actually serves to steal true manhood from them.

For example, it used to be when men stripped their shirts off and painted their faces, they were heading to the battlefield to kill the tyrant’s troops. Now they are headed off to the sports coliseum to watch a football game. A man’s ego and machismo was once used to protect his family and freedom; now it’s used to tout batting averages and box scores. The fact is, if we could get the average American male to get as exercised and energized about defending the historic principles upon which liberty and Western Civilization are built as he is in defending his favorite quarterback or NASCAR driver, our country would not be in the shape it is in today.

The sad reality is that much of today’s masculinity is experienced only vicariously through a variety of sports teams and personalities. Instead of personally flexing our muscles for God and country, freedom and liberty, or home and hearth, we punch the air and beat our chests over touchdowns and home runs (even though we had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with them ourselves). Instead of getting in the face of these would-be tyrants in Washington, D.C., who are doing everything they can to steal the American dream, we get in the face of the poor umpire who makes a bad call or the Little League coach who doesn’t play my son enough. Our happiness, well-being, and mood are not determined by anything personally achieved (or lost), but by what others accomplished (or didn’t accomplish) at the ball park. Whether our children inherit a land of liberty and freedom does not seem nearly as important as whether they make the starting lineup on the football team.

Add to an epidemic obsession with sports the demand for more and more handouts from Big Brother and the outlook for liberty is not good. Everywhere we turn, we seem to hear people clamoring for government to give them more and more. They expect government to supply their every need and meet their every demand. They then have the gall to turn around and say, “God bless America: land of the free”?

Ladies and gentlemen, one cannot have it both ways. If we expect government to be our supplier, we cannot expect that it will not become our master. Always remember this: government has nothing to give except that it first takes it from someone else. Every dollar and every job that government gives is first taken from someone else. Furthermore, every job given to government is another freedom–and another dollar–taken from the citizenry. Every government job brings with it a restriction, a prohibition, a regulation, an inspection, a fee, a tax, an assessment, etc. As government grows, freedom shrinks. As government spends, wealth shrinks. And as government hires, opportunity shrinks.

Most historians agree with Juvenal that the mighty Roman Empire collapsed from within due to a morally reckless, selfish, pleasure-crazed, sports-obsessed, bread and circus society that willingly surrendered the principles of self-government to an insatiable central government that, through perpetual wars and incessant handouts, destroyed a once-great republic.

By all appearances, the bread and circus society has reared its ugly head in America. And make no mistake about it: if the people of the United States do not quickly repent of this madness, the consequences will be just as destructive for our once-great republic as it was for Rome.

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

Long weekends are great to have friends over, go to the beach or just lounge around the house getting some much needed rest. It’s the unofficial beginning of summer, and time for cookouts, the Indy 500 and Coca Cola 600… not to mention the Turkish Gran Prix, Stanley Cup Finals and all sorts of lesser sports. In spite of the destructive efforts of our unprofitable servants in DC, we still live in the greatest country in the world.

This country, that is the envy of the world, did not just pop up out of nowhere. It about through the efforts and sacrifices of brave Americans from the fields of Lexington and Concord to the deserts and mountains of Iraq and Afghanistan. American patriots have defended this country with courage and honor… qualities we would really like to see in the rest of our government. Many served, but not all came home to their friends and families. Because these people did not shrink from danger that we enjoy this day in freedom… and, to be honest, that much of Europe can enjoy relative freedom.

General Patton told us, “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.” While it may not be possible or proper not to mourn for those we lost, we really do need to take the second half of his advice. We need to thank God that we were privileged to have such men and women among us. We should be grateful for parents who raised people of such character as to put the good of the country above their own welfare… unlike so many today who are only looking for what they can take… not what they can contribute.

It wasn’t through the efforts of people like banking queen Barney Frank or the long legged mac daddy, as one preacher is fond of calling the President. It was the guys who slogged through the mud and cruised silently beneath the sea that kept us free. This one day let’s remember why we can enjoy our burgers and family while we cheer for the likes of Danica, Tony… and yes, the Flyers!

Much hay has been recently made out of Glenn Beck’s ill-advised comments about the term “social justice.” In the first week of March, on his popular radio and television shows, he said, “I beg you, look for the words ’social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words.” Code words, he claimed, for Marxism. The overwhelmingly condemnatory commentary regarding this quote, though understandable, has so far overlooked a critical point about social justice and Christianity—and its use by some on the statist left—that can and should be debated. There are many activists, such as Sister Diane Drufenbrock (the 1980 vice-presidential candidate for the Socialist Party USA), who have used social justice as a rallying cry in their war against hierarchy and private property, and therefore Beck’s concern about the Marxist use of the terms social and economic justice is somewhat valid. His assumption about the danger of social justice as a moral philosophy, however, is not. His mistake can be excused by his lack of education, but there is no excuse for the trained theologians who willingly distort Christian social teaching for political ends.

The modern concept of social justice incubated in the Catholic Church. In the 1840s, Father Luigi Taparelli used the phrase to criticize the major economic theories at the time for ignoring moral philosophy and for undermining the unity of society by dividing it into competing classes. Since then, the Catholic Church has been clear about its condemnation of both socialism and unrestrained capitalism. In Pope Pius XI’s 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, he praised laws that “undertake the protection of life, health, strength, family, homes, workshops, wages and labor hazards, in fine, everything which pertains to the condition of wage workers, with special concern for women and children,” but noted, “it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community.”

Social justice, from the Catholic Church’s perspective, involves the promotion of a living wage based on the dignity of the employed, as well as the protection of workers from abuse by their employers. It is immoral, the Pope argued, for an employer to harm their employees, whether it be through unreasonable wages or hazardous working conditions. However, the Church has consistently reiterated its stance that private property is a natural right given by God (as long as that right does not come into conflict with the common good) and that society is an organic unity (a body) consisting of interdependent parts. Marxism, on the other hand, is a secular ideology that argues that private property is a tool of the ownership class (the bourgeoisie), which is used to exploit the working class. That exploitation will not end until the working class overthrows the bourgeoisie, takes political power, and eliminates private property.

Unfortunately, some theologians in the 1960s and ‘70s began using social justice to bolster their arguments in favor of socialism and Marxism. This became known as “liberation theology” after Gustavo Gutierrez published his book A Theology of Liberation (1972), which incorporated Marxist ideas of class conflict into Catholic moral philosophy. While the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith praised their concern for the poor, it formally rebuked the movement for its Marxist underpinnings and its political aspirations, which, perhaps ironically, attacked the hierarchy of the Church itself. Liberation theology, according to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Pope Benedict XVI), “facilitates the fusing of the biblical horizon with the marxist idea of history, which progresses in a dialectical manner and is the real bringer of salvation,” thus replacing God with a teleological and revolutionary interpretation of history.

While it is right to be concerned over the Marxist use of religious social teaching, an attack on the teaching itself on those grounds is not justified. Christian charity, as demonstrated in the Bible by the works of Jesus Christ, had nothing to do with the state-controlled redistribution of wealth or the division of society into opposing classes. Jesus told his followers, “whatever you have done for one of these least brothers of Mine, you have done for Me,” but he also urged them, “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” Christian social justice has been and continues to be co-opted by those who wish to justify the use of government to favor one class at the expense of another, but this is a willful distortion of moral philosophy, history, and religion that should be condemned by Christians everywhere.

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Michael Kleen is the publisher of Black Oak Presents, a quarterly digital magazine of Middle American art and culture and proprietor of Black Oak Media. His columns have appeared in the Rock River Times, Daily Eastern News, World Net Daily, and Strike the Root. He is also the author of One Voice, a collection of columns regarding issues in contemporary America.

The decision by Congress to socialize medicine in the US ranks among the most draconian, most egregious, most horrific actions ever taken by the central government in Washington, D.C. This bill rocks the principles of liberty and constitutional government to the core. It changes fundamental foundations; it repudiates historical principle. Oh! The same flag may fly on our flagpoles, the same monuments may grace our landscape, and the same National Anthem may be sung during our public ceremonies, but it is not the same America. The Congress of the United States has now officially turned America into a socialist state.

On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the health care bill into law, and as such, this date–along with March 21–joins a list of dates that have each inflicted unconstitutional, socialistic, and sometimes even tyrannical action against the States United and have, therefore, contributed to the destruction of a free America.

April 9, 1865

This is the date when General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to U.S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Regardless of where one comes down on the subject of the Civil War, one fact is undeniable: Abraham Lincoln forever destroyed the Jeffersonian model of federalism in America. Ever since, virtually every battle that free men have fought for the principles of limited government, State sovereignty, etc., have all stemmed directly from Lincoln’s usurpation of power, which resulted in the subjugation and forced union of what used to be “Free and Independent States” (the Declaration of Independence). In fact, the philosophical battles being waged today regarding the recent health care debacle (and every other encroachment upon liberty and State power by the central government) have their roots in Lincoln’s tyranny.

July 9, 1868

This is the date when the 14th Amendment was ratified. This amendment codified into law what Lincoln had forced at bayonet point. Until then, people were only deemed citizens of their respective states. The Constitution nowhere referred to people as “US citizens.” It only recognized “the Citizens of each State.” Notice also that citizenship was only recognized among the “several States,” not among people living in non-State territories. Until the 14th Amendment, people were “Citizens of each State.” (Article. IV. Section. 2. Paragraph. 1.) The 14th Amendment created a whole new class of persons: “citizens of the United States.” This false notion of “one nation” overturned the Jeffersonian principle that our nation was a confederated republic, a voluntary union of states.

February 3, 1913

This is the date when the 16th Amendment was ratified, and the direct income tax and IRS were instituted. This was a flagrant repudiation of freedom principles! What began as a temporary measure to support the War of Northern Aggression became a permanent income revenue stream for an unconstitutional–and ever-growing–central government.

April 8, 1913

This is the date when the 17th Amendment was ratified. This amendment overturned the power of the State legislatures to elect their own senators and replaced it with a direct, popular vote. This was another serious blow against State sovereignty. The framers of the Constitution desired that the influence and power in Washington, D.C., be kept as close to the people and states as possible. For example, the number of representatives in the House of Representatives was to be decided by a limited number of voters. In the original Constitution, the ratio of “people of the several States” deciding their House member could not exceed “one for every thirty thousand.” (Article. I. Section. 2. Paragraph. 3.) And when it came to the US Senate, the framers also recognized the authority of each State legislature to select its own senators, thereby keeping power and influence from aggregating in Washington, D.C. The 17th Amendment seriously damaged the influence and power of the states by forcing them to elect their US senators by popular vote. The bigger the State, the less influence the State legislature has in determining its US senator. Senators who answered to State legislators, each answering to a limited number of voters, are much more accountable to the “citizens of the several States” than those who are elected by a large number (many times numbering into the millions) of people. For all intents and purposes (at least in the larger states), US Senators are more like “mini-Presidents” than they are representatives of sovereign states.

December 23, 1913

This is the date when the Federal Reserve Act was passed. This Act placed oversight of America’s financial matters into the hands of a cabal of private international bankers, who have completely destroyed the constitutional principles of sound money and (for the most part) free enterprise. No longer would the marketplace (private consumption, thrift, growth, etc.) be the determinant of the US economy (which is what freedom is all about), but now a private, unaccountable international banking cartel would have total power and authority to micromanage (for their own private, parochial purposes) America’s financial sector. Virtually every recession, depression, and downturn (including the one we are now experiencing) has been the direct result of the Fed’s manipulation (again, for its own purposes and with Washington’s cooperation) of the market.

June 26, 1945

This is the date when the United Nations Charter was signed and America joined the push for global government. Ever since, US forces have spilled untold amounts of blood and sacrificed thousands of lives promoting the UN’s agenda. Since the end of World War II, in virtually every war in which US military forces have been engaged, it has been at the behest of the UN. And it is also no accident that America has not fought a constitutionally declared war since we entered the UN–and neither have we won one.

Furthermore, it is America’s involvement in the United Nations that has spearheaded this draconian push for a New World Order that George H. W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, Tony Blair, Walter Cronkite, et al., have talked so much about. The United Nations is an evil institution that has completely co-opted our US State Department and much of our Defense Department. It is an anti-American institution that works aggressively and constantly against the interests and principles of the United States. But it is an institution that is ensconced in the American political infrastructure. Like a cancer, the UN eats away at our liberties and values, and both major political parties in Washington, D.C., are culpable in allowing it to exert so much influence upon our country.

June 25, 1962, and June 17, 1963

These are the dates when the US Supreme Court removed prayer (’62) and Bible reading (’63) from public schools. At this point, these two Supreme Court decisions were the most serious affront to the First Amendment in US history. Think of it: from before a union of states was established in 1787, children had been free to pray and read the Scriptures in school. We’re talking about a period of more than 300 years! Of course, the various State legislatures–and myriad city and county governmental meetings–still open their sessions in prayer, as do the US House and Senate, and even the US Supreme Court. But this same liberty is denied the children of America. There is no question that America has not recovered from these two horrific Supreme Court decisions. In effect, the federal government has expelled God not only from our public schools, but also from our public life! And America has not been the same since.

October 22, 1968

This is the date when President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Gun Control Act of 1968. Before this Act, the 2nd Amendment was alive and well in the United States. The Gun Control Act of 1968 turned a right into a privilege and forever forced the American people to bow to the altar of government when seeking to arm themselves. Interestingly enough, this Gun Control Act mirrored Nazi Germany’s Gun Control Act of 1938. In fact, the Gun Control Act of 1968 is almost a verbatim copy of Hitler’s Gun Control Act of 1938.

Our Founding Fathers could never have imagined that governments within the “several States” would ever be allowed to deny the people’s right to keep and bear arms. In fact, it was the attempted confiscation of the firearms stored at Concord, Massachusetts, that triggered the War of Independence in 1775. That the people of Massachusetts would be denied their right to keep and bear arms, as they are today, could not have been foreseen–and would never have been tolerated–by America’s founders.

Yet, most of the hundreds of draconian gun control laws that have been inflicted upon the American people have all come about as a result of the Gun Control Act of 1968.

January 22, 1973

This is the date when the US Supreme Court issued the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions, which, in effect, legalized abortion-on-demand. These two decisions expunged the Jeffersonian principle that all men are endowed by their Creator with the unalienable right to life (Declaration). Since then, more than 50 million unborn babies have been legally murdered in their mothers’ wombs. Abortion is, without a doubt, America’s national holocaust. It has opened the door to a host of Big Government programs and policies that have resulted in the wanton destruction of human life both in the United States and overseas. It has created an entire industry whose express purpose for existing is the destruction of human life. It has desensitized the conscience and soul of America. Furthermore, it has forced men of decency and good will to finance–with their tax dollars–the unconscionable act of killing unborn children.

And once again, another Jeffersonian principle was eviscerated. He said, “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” The Roe and Doe decisions violate this principle in the most egregious manner possible.

October 26, 2001

This is the date when President George W. Bush signed the USA Patriot Act, and the federal government’s war against individual liberty began in earnest. Most of the unconstitutional eavesdropping, snooping, wiretapping, phone call intercepting, email reading, prying, financial records tracking, travel watching, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, by federal police agencies began with the implementation of the Patriot Act. The Department of Homeland Security and the “war on terrorism,” which have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people worldwide, and the usurpation of federal power at home, have all come about as an outgrowth of the Patriot Act. The USA Patriot Act has forever shifted the focus of American law and jurisprudence against constitutional government and individual liberty, toward a police-state mentality. The Patriot Act is even turning our local and State law enforcement agencies into military-style “Jackboots,” where police officers see themselves not necessarily as guardians of the citizenry, but, as often as not, as adversaries, where citizens are deemed to be the “enemy.”

October 17, 2006, and October 9, 2009

These are the dates when President G.W. Bush signed and re-signed the Military Commissions Act. This Act is the outgrowth of the Patriot Act but has, in effect, terminated the fundamental protections of individual liberty, which are found in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. For all intents and purposes, the Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act eviscerated the 4th and 5th Amendments, and do serious injury to several others. The Military Commissions Act also expunges the constitutional right of Habeas Corpus.

March 21 and 23, 2010

These are the dates when Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” the so-called “health care reform” bill that we spoke about at the beginning of this column. While Social Security and various Welfare programs have toyed with socialism in the United States, this bill is the largest and most expansive endorsement of socialism in American history. This bill socializes some 18% of the US economy by socializing the health care industry in America. The fallout and ramifications of this bill are going to be horrific.

When future historians review the demise of our once-great republic, they will observe that the above dates, including March 21 and March 23, 2010, were the dates that destroyed America. The American people have been far too tolerant for far too long.

People concerned about the future of freedom and prosperity in America should line up quickly and demand that their respective State legislatures and governors resist this new health care bill, even to the point of refusing to implement it in their states. More than 30 states are threatening to take the health care bill to court. But states must do more than that. They must follow the lead of the State of Virginia and pass legislation refusing to comply with it. Yes, I’m saying it: it is time for another State rebellion! If states do not stand up and draw their lines in the sand now, it will be forever too late.

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

With racing season in full swing, I thought it would be helpful to provide some advice for the few Democrats brave enough to read this blog.  For those of you intelligent enough not to fall into this category, you may find tips on how to help your less perceptive friends navigate among real Americans.  Watch and enjoy!

Each may each seem small, but they indicate a pattern of tightening the screws on the American people. But then, our entire tax systems is geared to having us distracted by scratching and digging for dollars by the hundred while the political class and their friends take it by the millions, billions and trillions.

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and Health care Spending Accounts (HSAs), two of the tools we can use to take control of our own health care decisions are beginning to be drawn down. They start in 2011 by eliminating bandages, aspirins, over-the-counter drugs and the like from reimbursement leaving only prescription drugs and insulin. Penalties for unqualified distributions will be doubled from 10% to 20% and more importantly, contributions to FSAs are dropping from the current $5000 to $2500.

Presently, to receive a deduction for medical expenses, they need to exceed 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income. As we move into the 2013-2016 period, such expenses will have to exceed 10% of your AGI to be of value… making it even more difficult to make use of the deduction. From the statist perspective, this strategy raises revenue without the nasty publicity surrounding a “tax increase”.

However, to show that they are not totally averse to increasing their take of our revenue, they are increasing the employee share of Medicare tax from1.45% to 2.35% for income over $200,000. The even applies to the onerous self-employment tax on small businessmen and women. Who could fuss about this… taking from those who are obviously rich to take care of old people. Additionally, the evil rich will be hit with a new 3.8% tax on net investment income.

Beginning in 2014, those too irresponsible, or poor to buy government approved insurance plan will pay a tax, starting at $95 and rising to the the greater of $750 or 2% or ones income in 2016. To soften the blow on favored groups, the bill provides tax credits to negate the financial impact.

Businesses are not forgotten. Qualified small employers, defined as having less than 25 employees or a payroll of under $50,000… yeah, I know it looks like a misprint qualify for a special credit as do small 501(c) organizations.

Mixing health and revenue generation, beginning August of this year, there will be a 10% tax on those who defy governmental wisdom and use cancer causing tanning salons. Then they wrap it all up with a 40% tax on those who want to take care of their families with what they call, “Cadillac plans”. It’s a way of smacking achievers down to the level their government has decided is appropriate for it’s subjects. I guess we can at least be glad they kept the reference to an American company instead of calling them Mercedes plans… even though it is an Obama Motors car.

So… this is just a taste of things to come in a bill that no one admitted to knowing anything about. It appears that they want us to believe that that the thing appeared on Nancy Pelosi’s doorstep one morning and it absolutely had to be passed so we could see what was inside.

These are just a few details, with more to come. We just need to keep fighting the progressive vision of health care utopia… our lives could depend on it.

As we live in a world of milquetoast political leaders, we need to look back on a man who was not afraid to ruffle feathers and speak the truth. So many in office today are dwarfed by this man who could tell us the truth, help us love our country and guide us in the paths of freedom. Today’s political class is populated by moral midgets who have more concern for the next election than for the welfare of their constituents.

From time to time, it is good to not only read the words of Ronald Reagan, but to see the man and look him in the eye as we are called to greatness. Read, listen and grow… then act!

We the people tell the government what it is allowed to do.

Man is not free unless government is limited.

As government expands, liberty contracts.

America is freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare.

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

God bless America!

And an added note… we need to be certain that America is blessable.

I just watched a two and a half million dollar frittering away of taxpayer dollars in the form of a Super Bowl commercial. The idea was to encourage people fill out their census forms so Big Brother would know that much more about us… and something the law requires. The commercial was populated by sort-of celebrities whose faces you may recognize, but whose names you may not know.

While the price tag is chump change compared to the other waste of our dollars, the Chinese dollars, our children’s dollars and our grandchildren’s dollars. I somehow was not feeling like we were getting our money’s worth. Yet with all the nonsense coming from inside the beltway, it’s not just the money, but the lack of respect, it’s as if our government is rubbing their ability to waste our resources in our face.

Later, Audi, drinking the green kool aid, ran a spot about “green police” arresting people for getting plastic bags at the supermarket and installing incandescent bulbs. Some thought they were mocking the green movement until it turned out they were promoting a “green” car. I tended to find little humor in acting out what some of the ecowhackos would really like to do. It may be that those who may buy their vehicles are definitely of a different demographic than myself. They may not have heard about the crumbling of the global warming mythology.

The commercial that caused the most stir was the one featuring Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and his mother reinforcing the value of family. It certainly was not the social scandal that leftist womans groups fussed and fumed about. In fact, it was rather tepid. Perhaps this was because the makers thought the public could not handle the truth… or perhaps the crafty Dr. Dobson understood the value of selling the sizzle instead of the steak. I’m sure he sat back and watched in amusement the foolish antics of the biddies that could not abide the idea that someone, especially a man, could advocate the idea that a woman could actually choose to let her baby live.

As a result of their banshee screams, the simple commercial attracted far more attention than it really deserved. Anyone who cared about the death and dismemberment of unborn children was alerted to watch for it… otherwise it may have slipped quietly off into the ozone with all the other television signals we are beaming in and out of space. The women’s groups speaking for the lunatic fringe were outsmarted on this one, which is really not that hard to do.

Oh yes, there was a football game too. The New Orleans Saints and Drew Brees won a well deserved victory, in some minds, an upset victory at that. It’s nice to see something good happening to the city on the delta. On the other side, Peyton Manning played well, but it was not to be. Over the years, he has secured his position as a worthy successor to Johnny Unitas – the gold standard of Colts quarterbacks. Even Johnny U didn’t win all his games.

Football is seen by some as a distraction to those fighting the battles to preserve our wonderful country. They feel it is waste of time and attention. They don’t understand that even the creator took a day off from his work after giving us a beautiful world to live in. Our bodies, and even more so, our minds were not created to battle continuously without respite. Today the country took a breather from all the bad news coming out of DC. There is nothing wrong with that, so long as we don’t completely drop our guard and we keep a keen eye out for anything else the scoundrels in the capital may pass in the dead of night when we are looking the other way. We can’t let ourselves be dull, humorless workaholics because if we do, when we win, there will be nothing to celebrate.

So now, football season is over, still we need an occasional break from the stress of the struggle. There are many other ways to take a break. Only one week after football season ends, we are treated to the Daytona 500 and the beginning of the racing season. We can cheer the helmeted gladiators for a few hours on Sunday as we renew or strengths, dedication and our spirits.

January, one year ago I did decide to commit to step up, and dedicate my free time to make a difference. Well, as it has turned out, it has taken way more than my free time. I will also say, I would have it no other way.

My journey began, trying to get educated on the task that would lie ahead. As someone, who really did not desire to read a lot, I found myself reading a lot. My first commitment to join others with a like minded spirit, that I felt I would fall in line with, were the patriots I met at the first 9.12 We Surround Them event at the Village Grill in Chester, VA. This is where I first met men like Ralph Carter, and his wife, Millette, and family. They have been an inspiration to us all. I also met Mike, Freddie, Marion, and Celeste, all of whom now are a huge part of the Chester Patriots, organized by Ralph. Carter. I began to immediately become involved in planning and activities this group had to offer. I was beginning to feel like I had made the right choice to “stand up for Freedom.”

As time would go by, I attended rallies, like the April 15th Tax Day Tea Party in Richmond, VA, with an estimated 6000 citizens in attendance. On May 8th, had the privilege to lead a group of 30 citizens, concerned about their country, in delivering a “Petition for Redress of Grievances”, to our local U.S. House of Representatives, and U.S. Senators offices. Time went by, no response from any of our elected officials.

I’ve attended rallies on Health Care, Cap & Trade, Audit the Fed, and rally after rally. Even held my own one man rally one day at Sen. Mark Warner’s office about the health care issues, and my friend Larry and I, on another occasion. Wondering all along, am I making a difference. I also got involved in the local GOP in Chesterfield, VA, wanting and searching for more education on all of this that I was giving so much of my time for. Got so involved that on Election Day 2009, I served as a Precinct Captain, and got to see and feel first hand the enthusiasm that seemed to be growing all through the year.

Back to the petition that my new friends and I delivered. Finally, after more than a month and a half had passed, I began to really feel that as a citizen, I was being ignored, and became increasingly aggravated at this fact. I wrote a letter to our U.S. House of Representative, J. Randy Forbes. This letter was professional, but not real nice, and I will leave it at that. Within thirty minutes, I received a phone call from his chief of staff, quite taken back at my response. As we talked, and began to iron out the frustration of the moment, we began the process to have the congressman come to Chesterfield for a Public Forum, in which it was an honor to moderate.

Again, another moment of education of the process that I had started out looking for back in January. Still wondering am I making a difference.

This past year I have been to Washington, DC on no less than five occasions for rallies. On July 4th, the March for Liberty Rally, September 12th at the 9.12 National Tea Party Rally, and on December 15th the Code Red Rally. On two occasions myself and others, delivered petitions, or tried to at least to our U. S. Senate offices, and were denied. Yes, temperature went up a bit. I had not been to Washington D. C. five times in the last thirty years. Still wondering am I making a difference.

As a common sense conservative, I consider myself a huge grassroots activist if you want to call me that. I used every chance I could, to be involved and be educated about the issues at hand. I had an idea to help educate citizens about these same issues. I wanted to hear from the citizens from our great nation. With this idea, I created the “Citizens Roundtable.” I ventured out to ask others in the area to be a part of this commitment to hearing from the people, and educating them to have confidence to come out and rally for what they believe. This endeavor would not be today, if not for the dedication and extremely hard work of my friend, Julie Ranson, and others who have participated along the way. Julie is truly the glue that holds this together. All this, and still wondering am I making a difference.

From TV stations, to parking lots, to downtown streets, interviews on the radio, WRVA, TV-6, CNN, and local newspapers. How much more will it take. I even jumped on board and created my Facebook page, and from then on I have really felt like I was in a war, with many battles at hand. Winning them one by one, knowing another one was ahead to fight, all along making friends all across this great land.

Through all the elections, which I certainly was proud that I had the opportunity to volunteer and be a part of. All the activities I participated in, speaking at a coffee house in Cullman, AL, while on a trip set up by my new patriot friend Nan Austin. Moderating the Lobbying 101 Seminar with a coalition of local patriot groups and all the work put in by another new patriot friend Carol Stopps. To be followed up by an awesome Lobby Day at our State Capitol, here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in which an estimated crowd of 2400 came from all over our great state. Still wondering have I made a difference.

Well, let me tell you, “WE THE PEOPLE” have made the difference. This war is not won on the backs of one American, but on the backs of many. Everything I have done this past year has been because of “WE THE PEOPLE.” A man told me many years ago, that if you are not willing to change, it will change you. I have felt a change this past twelve months that I took upon myself to do. Just ask those who know me, my family, and my friends. Why? Because I love America, and the Freedom it stands for, and I will not sit back and watch our country be mandated, and force onto the citizens changes that are in direct conflict with the Constitution, The Bill of Rights, and The Declarartion of Independence, our forefathers founded this country on.

Grassroots; Yes, you are making a difference, and I am proud to stand beside you in this war as we take on every battle that comes our way. After seeing what just happened in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, I know I am making a difference. Remember, a mighty river is made up of tiny little raindrops, your raindrop counts, and never let anyone convince you otherwise!