I lost my mom today.

My mom passed away this morning. I am doing ok, I think. It was not an unexpected thing, but the reality is always a shock. I will be spending the next few days planning and having her funeral, visiting with my sister who will fly in from Nevada, also with my children who will come home from college, and comforting my dad. None of us really expected to lose her first, but it became obvious in the last several months that it was a real possibility. I am sad, so sad, for my dad; they were married for 64 years - since the time he was 20 and she was 17. He cannot imagine life without her. I am happy for my mom, who has not felt well for a long time and was not happy at all being in a nursing home. What a blessing that she is now in heaven with her Savior. I am sure my brother, Mike, was there to greet her, too. What a celebration!

---Katie

Response from Solid Rock Lutherans

A Short Response to the Report and Recommendations
from the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality
by
Rev. Roy A. Harrisville III, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Solid Rock Lutherans
1/18/2005

The Task Force for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Studies on Sexuality has released a recommendation concerning the ordination of practicing homosexuals in committed relationships. Unfortunately, this may only make mattersworse and further divide an already splintered Church. The Task Force has recommended that congregations and synods not be disciplined if they ordain and call homosexuals incommitted relationships to serve as pastors. At the same time the Task Force curiously claims that it is calling for no change in the current policies for the ordained ministry.

Yet, in order for this recommendation to be implemented and practiced, it will in fact require sweeping changes in the current policy and practice. It’s like having a speed limit but never ticketing those who exceed it.

For years (and over a million dollars later) the members of the ELCA have awaited this recommendation hoping that it would reflect both the biblical faith of millions and the desire for a clear word from our Church leadership. It does neither. Instead, it weakly asserts that though the ELCA has good policies and scripture has good teachings, it shouldn’t matter if they are followed or not.

The Task Force at the same time calls for unity in the ELCA. But there can be no unity if this recommendation is actually followed by the Church. In fact, this recommendation immediately and necessarily splits the ELCA between those congregations that will and those congregations that will not ordain active homosexuals in committed relationships. There will be those congregations that follow the moral teachings of the Church and those that reject them. What could have been more divisive than a recommendation like this?

Not only will it be divisive, it will not aid in the discussions that the ELCA must now have prior to the Churchwide Assembly in August. Had the Task Force been bold enough to recommend a clear departure from Church teachings or a clear affirmation of those teachings, perhaps the upcoming Synod assemblies and congregational meetings would have been presented with clear alternatives. Such alternatives provide good ground for fruitful discussion. But this recommendation only confuses the issue further and will lead to discussions that get side-tracked on peripheral issues such as procedural questions concerning Bishops and Synod Councils. Such dialog will never address the substance of the issue, which is what this Church still needs to do.

That substance has to do with scripture and its interpretation, health, and sexual boundaries. Most of all it has to do with the transformational love of Jesus Christ. There is no warrant in scripture for following this recommendation from the Task Force. The ELCA already welcomes homosexuals into the Church as much as anyone else. But it does not welcome all behaviors because not all are healthy. Scripture is clear in its condemnation of homosexual activity. Few dispute that. The Bible is replete with praise of marriage between a man and woman, but has only negative comments on samesex behavior. Why then should anyone bless what God does not bless? Why should the Church directly contradict its own scriptures?

There are boundaries in life that should not be crossed, for a variety of reasons. For the most part, those boundaries protect life. Incest is a boundary, as is polygamy, adultery, and polyamory. When we trespass across such boundaries we find ourselves in the realms of infidelity, spiritual slavery, and cause irreparable harm to children. With this recommendation, the Task Force has stated that sexual boundaries do not matter now, if they ever did. The Africans have a saying: “Don’t tear down a fence until you know why it was put up.” Oftentimes boundaries protect us from ourselves and our selfish inclinations. If the Church follows this recommendation from the Task Force it will be tearing down a barrier that has provided protection for millennia.

The Church should not succumb to social pressures, but to our Lord, Christ. He is the one who cast aside his own wishes in order to follow the Father. He sweat blood at the Garden of Gethsemane pleading to escape the torment he knew he was to suffer. In the end, he surrendered to the only will, the only opinion, the only pressure that has any meaning: the Father’s love. For it is within the contours of that love that the horizon of freedom appears most clearly. It is within that slavery to the will of God that liberty shines most brightly. The world does not understand this, will not and cannot understand it. Only when one is touched by the fire of Christ’s love is one’s thirst quenched, hunger satisfied, and life transformed with a delight unimaginable to the human mind. That is what the Task Force should have clearly reaffirmed and recommended.

More reaction to the ELCA sexuality task force report.

Alan Wisdom from the Institute on Religion and Democracy weighs in on the conservative side....

Here is an excerpt from the rather lengthy article:

The just-released report from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) Task Force for Studies on Sexuality offers what is clearly intended to be a compromise. But its recommendations regarding same-sex blessings and homosexual ordination do not represent a true “middle way.” They represent no way at all. By letting the church’s standards on marriage and sexuality stand on paper, while gutting those standards of any practical force in the life of the church, the task force would leave the denomination with no real standards of any sort. It would detach the ELCA from everything that gives it strength and life.

If adopted, this non-solution would not bring any lasting peace to the ELCA. At most, it would lend the appearance of a truce. But the price of that temporary truce would be exceedingly high. It would be an almost total abdication of the church’s responsibility to proclaim God’s will for human sexuality. There would be no clear answer to give young Lutherans who asked, “How does my church believe that I should conduct myself sexually?” The mute ELCA would move ever closer to cultural irrelevance, unable to challenge a society in which “every man [does] what is right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6).

To read the rest of the article, click on the title above.

---Katie

Can you imagine...

...if this had been GOP staffers and Kerry campaign vans?

As it is, I don't expect a big deal will be made of it.

---Katie

5 Democrats charged in slashing of GOP tires
Chicago Tribune
January 25, 2005 Gretchen Ehlke

The sons of a first-term congresswoman and Milwaukee's former acting mayor were among five Democratic activists charged Monday with slashing the tires of vans rented by Republicans to drive voters and monitors to the polls on Election Day.

Sowande Omokunde, son of Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), and Michael Pratt, son of ex-Milwaukee acting mayor Marvin Pratt, were charged with criminal damage to property, a felony.

The activists, all employees of Sen. John Kerry's campaign, are accused of flattening the tires on 25 vehicles rented by the Wisconsin Republican Party to get out the vote and deliver poll watchers Nov. 2.

The GOP rented more than 100 vehicles that were parked in a lot adjacent to a Bush campaign office. The party planned to drive poll watchers to polling places by 7 a.m. and deliver any voters who didn't have rides.

A criminal complaint said the defendants originally planned to put up Democratic yard signs, placards and bumper stickers at the Republican office in a scheme they called Operation Elephant Takeover. But the plan was dropped when they learned a security guard was posted at the GOP office, the complaint said.

One witness told investigators the five defendants, dressed in black outfits and knit caps, left the Democratic Party headquarters at about 3 a.m. on Nov. 2, and returned about 20 minutes later, extremely excited and talking about how they had slashed the tires.

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...

Rules for Blogging

I found these rules for blogging over on Anthony Bradley's blog at worldmagblog, my number one favorite blog. I think he makes some good points. If you want to visit Anthony's blog, click on the title above. He is a genXer, graduate of Clemson (yay!), currently completing his doctorate at Westminster...and yes, I have met him. He has lots of interesting things to say.

---Katie

Rules for Blogging

(1)Here is the definition of a blog: "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer."
Since these are personal reflections of "Anthony Bradley" they should be treated as personal reflections, random thoughts, musings, babble. This is neither academic writing nor professional journalism.

(2) This is NOT serious content. Treat all content lightly.

(3) Don't take ANYTHING personally unless you are named.

(4) Don't attack the author personally unless you know him personally and have permission to do so.

(5) Direct your comments at the content of the posting instead of the person.

(6) If you take this medium too seriously you sound like an idiot.

(7) Learn the art of disagreeing and without getting personal. If you don't you sound stupid. (I'm not saying I'm perfect at this)

(8) Don't take anything out of context.

(9) Don't assume any comments are directed at you unless you are named directly (Jesse Jackson, George Bush, Michael Jackson, etc.)

(10) Use a sense of humor whenever possible.

(11) Lighten up. If a blog gets you all upset it's an indication that you need something more meaningful in your life. This is sad.

(12) Getting all upset at a "personal journal with reflections [and] comments" is a waste of time and reveals that perhaps your vision for why you exist may be too small. Something legitmate to get upset about would be kids being forced into prostitution. Get mad at that.

(13) Again, it's just dumb to take a blog all that seriously. C'mon people.

Can the democrats look any more stupid?

Hey, it is ok with me if they want to make fools of themselves in front of the American public. I want them out of power for good and this makes 2006 look better and better. Condi Rice is the nominee for Secretary of State. She is also black. She is also Republican. Former KKK member Robert Byrd, a democrat, is threatening to hold up her nomination. You know, the party that supports blacks in leadership, only not this one. I wonder if he will wear his sheets to the debate tomorrow.

Read the entire article at newsmax by clicking on the title above.

Go Condi!!

---Katie

Why is the ELCA losing members?

Some folks would blame the sexuality study, but Kay Syvrud of the Forum thinks that the study is just a symptom of the actual problem which is:

"I submit that these losses are not due to the "sexuality studies" or the
affiliation with the Episcopal Church or any other minor factor; rather, the
ELCA in its merger in 1987, dropped the historic Lutheran confession of the
"inerrancy and infallibility of scripture." When you do not believe that
God's word is inerrant or infallible but choose a "smorgasbord" approach to
the Bible, picking what you like and discarding what you don't like, the
result is spiritual deadness in your seminary, your hierarchy and
eventually, in your members."

I have always struggled with the whole infallible and inerrant argument regarding scripture. Who decides what part of scripture is fallible and in error?

I am not providing a link to the article because In Forum requires registration and I don't want to register...If you would like to do so, go to this link http://www.in-forum.com/account/index.cfm?user=login&return_page=/articles/index.cfm?id%3D80780%26section%3Dcolumnists%26columnist%3DBob%2520Lind

Your other choice is to sign up for the Yahoo group where I found the article. You can do that by sending a message to Kairos_News-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Rev. Hershman puts a lot of articles on the list that are of interest to Lutherans. He is the only one who is permitted to post, so there is no discussion. It is an excellent list.

---Katie

The deficit is shrinking.

I guess it would be unreasonable for the mainstream media to report this:

Remeber all those stories about the Bush spending spree and the huge deficit crisis it was creating? Well, that deficit is now shrinking rapidly. And, while you're not likely to find out about this from the MSM, Lawrence Kudlow has the story in the Washington Times.

Kudlow points out that since the end of last September, tax collections have grown at 10.5 percent, while federal cash outlays have risen only 6.1 percent. At this rate, the 2005 deficit would drop to $355 billion from $413 in 2004. As a fraction of projected gross domestic product the deficit would fall to 2.9 percent from last year's 3.6 percent.

It appears, then, that the Bush deficits were product of the recession he inhertied and the slowdown caused by 9/11. Similarly, it appears that the Bush tax cuts, by stimulating the economy, has produced an explosion in tax revenues that is causing the deficit to narrow significantly. But, again, don't expect to hear this from the MSM.

In a sense, it isn't news that tax cuts have led to growth, which has produced revenue, which has shrunk the deficit. This is how it always seems to work. Still, it would be nice if the MSM briefly acknowledged the recurrence of this phenomenon before turning to the latest "crises" of Bush economics -- the trade deficit and the decline of the dollar.

Thanks to Powerline blog for this story...the same Powerline that broke the Rathergate story. I guess if we want the truth we will have to report it ourselves.

---Katie

E.L.C.A.!!! It's fun to be in the E.L.C.A.!!

OK, I will probably regret this, but I am going to print it anyway because it is funny, and because my friend Susan sent it to me, and because it was written by a FReeper. (someone who posts at www.freerepublic.com) I don't exactly appreciate the potshot at women pastors, but the rest of it is cute, if not seriously politically incorrect and insensitive. Charlie Hendrickson is a pastor in the LCMS. (I'm sorry, ok? I'm sorry!!)

---Katie


E.L.C.A.
Tune: "Y.M.C.A."
"Luth'ran" doesn't mean quite the same
As what you've been taught to know by that name.
We're removin' all the scandal and shame
Of a church that stands for something.

Luth'ran, no, you're not misinformed,
Yes, it's true now, we commune the Reformed.
No forced union made us bow or conform,
Just a warm and fuzzy feeling.

It's fun to be in the E.L.C.A.
It's fun to be in the E.L.C.A.
We have women in black,
Now there's no turning back
To the hang ups of dead white guys.
It's fun to be in the E.L.C.A.
It's fun to be in the E.L.C.A.
You can set yourself free
From dead orthodoxy,
You can do whatever you please.

Luth'ran, won't you please come along
To the E.L.C.A, where's there's no right or wrong.
In the E.L.C.A, heretics can belong,
They can teach at seminary.

"Luth'ran," but our fingers were crossed,
All our doctrine has been totally lost.
All that's Luth'ran is what we have embossed
On our cards and stationery.

It's fun to be in the E.L.C.A.
It's fun to be in the E.L.C.A.
We have women in black,
Now there's no turning back
To the hang ups of dead white guys.
It's fun to be in the E.L.C.A.
It's fun to be in the E.L.C.A.
You can set yourself free
From dead orthodoxy,
You can do whatever you please.

E.L.C.A, where it's very uncouth
And unwelcome to say you have the truth
And where seldom is a word ever heard
To discourage sin or error.

E.L.C.A, where it's all shades of gray,
I said, E.L.C.A, where it's hip to be gay.
Our umbrella is as big as a tent,
There's no need for you to repent.

It's fun to be in the E.L.C.A.
It's fun to be in the E.L.C.A.
We have women in black,
Now there's no turning back
To the hang ups of dead white guys.
It's fun to be in the E.L.C.A.
It's fun to be in the E.L.C.A.
You can set yourself free
From dead orthodoxy,
You can do whatever you please.

Charlie Henrickson

Should our conscience be our guide?

There has been a lot of talk about conscience in the the release of the ELCA sexuality task force's report and recommendations. Here is a quote from another Lutheran blog, Balaam's Ass:

It is official (kind of): certain people in the ELCA think a person's conscience should be the authority in life. I don't trust my fallen conscience. Scripture is the sole norm and authority in the church.

Do you agree or disagree? If our consience is the ultimate guide, where does that place scripture in our lives?

---Katie

If you violate V & E, then you are imitating Martin Luther!

Below is a excerpt from a Washington Times article about the ELCA sexuality task force report. Apparently, churches who choose to call a homosexual pastor or lay leader who is in violation of the Visions and Expectations document (which requires people not in a one man/one woman marriage to be chaste) are following their consciences, just like Martin Luther did during the Reformation. Click on the title above to read the article and Paul McCain's take on it plus comments at worldmag.blog.com. There is an interesting picture there as well.

---Katie



Among Lutherans, "we found no consensus in the church on this matter," said New England Synod Bishop Margaret Payne, chairman of the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality. She cited a 2004 poll of 28,000 Lutherans, in which 38 percent opposed the blessing of same-sex unions and hiring homosexual clergy; 18 percent approved it; 14 percent said homosexuals should be welcomed as parishioners, but not hired as clergy nor should their unions be blessed; 12 percent were undecided; and the others gave mixed responses.

Thus, she added, the task force decided to treat ordination of homosexual pastors as valid dissent.

"It acknowledges the validity of conscientious objection and honors that," she said. "Because of that, discipline will not be enforced. It's a new dimension of respect ... based on individual conscience."

The task force cited Martin Luther, the founder of the denomination, as the paragon of individual conscience because of his statement at the Diet of Worms in 1521. The church reformer told the Diet -- a church court -- that he was bound in conscience to the Bible and that "it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience."

Avalanche!

There was an avalanche at Park City, Utah, today and my son is skiing at...yes, Park City, Utah. This caused not a little panic amongst some of us moms today, but we have heard from our children and they and everyone else in our church group are safe. They were never in any danger because the area of the avalanche was out of bounds and the skiers there were there at their own risk. Let's hope they are found safely. Thank you, Lord, for keeping our children and the adults with them safe. Please continue to protect them and keep them from running into any trees. ;-)

---Katie

It looks like the other side is unhappy, too.

Here is the letter I received from Soulforce today:
(Check out their website and see what they have planned for the ELCA assembly in August.)
---Katie

Open Letter to ELCA, January 14, 2005

The people of Soulforce stand in solidarity with our Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender friends and allies in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

We share the anger and the grief they must feel today with the release of the ELCA Task Force for Studies on Sexuality.

We too had hoped that their denomination with its historic roots in justice and truth would finally end the policies that discriminate against the ordination and marriage of lesbian and gay people.

Instead, for the sake of “unity” they kept in place the policies that demean our relationships and deny our call to Christian ministry.

Whether the bishops enforce this terrible decision or not, the Task Force Report has tragic consequences in the lives of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Lutherans their families and friends.

The Task Force seems to hope that if the ELCA ignores injustice it will go away. In fact, justice cannot be done until the policies are revoked and the Church repents and reforms.
Unfortunately, this decision to discriminate is no surprise. The ELCA is now firmly aligned with the Roman Catholic Church and every Protestant denomination (except the United Church of Christ) in their determination to make outcasts of God’s Gay children.

Worse, these same religious leaders have now gained enough political and legal clout to superimpose their anti-homosexual views on the entire nation.

However, we will not despair. Even on this day when the Task Force deals death to our hopes and dreams for the ELCA, LGBT Lutherans and their allies (who have been made outcast by their denomination) are hard at work creating new life, new hopes, and new dreams.
We salute the Extraordinary Candidacy Program (ECP) for providing a roster of qualified Lesbian and Gay candidates for ELCA ministry.

We salute the Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries (LLGM) for founding and supporting this option for LGBT people of faith who feel God’s call to ministry and refuse to remain closeted in order to heed that call.

We salute the local ELCA congregations who are hiring Lesbian and Gay people who are called by God to minister even if that same congregation is persecuted and even rejected by their denomination for their courageous stand.

We salute the Lutheran Alliance for Full Participation, GLBT Lutherans and their allies who refuse to leave the Church and insist on bearing witness to truth in spite of the policies that discriminate against them.

There is bad news today. But there will be good news tomorrow, because there are courageous and committed Lutherans who are standing for truth and justice whatever the cost. May we all learn from their example.

Mel White, Executive Director, Soulforce, Inc.

www.soulforce.org

Soulforce is a national interfaith organization committed to ending spiritual violence perpetuated by religious policies and teachings against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. Soulforce teaches and employs the nonviolent principles of Gandhi and King to the liberation of sexual and gender minorities. www.soulforce.org

Yankee or Dixie?

You have got to take this test. I took it with a little trepidation because, well, after living in Florida for 26 years, I thought I might have crossed over to...the other side. Thankfully, I scored 81% Dixie...and the site asked me if I had any Confederate ancestors. The answer is yes. My mother actually lived part of her childhood in the same house as her grandfather who went off to war at the end of the Civil War when he was only 14 years old.

Click on the title above and see where you place...


---Katie

Reform Movement Leaders call ELCA sexuality task force report misleading

Leaders of the WordAlone Network in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) said today that a task force majority report on ordaining people in same-sex relationships or blessing such relationships is an attempt to hoodwink “the people in the pews” into believing its recommendations won’t bring change to ELCA practices.

Read the entire article by clicking on the title above.

What do you think? Do you think if the Churchwide Assembly approves the idea of not disiplining those in violation of Visions and Expectations we will see changes in the local church?

For my situation, I worry more about what will happen at events sponsored by synods. I already do not allow my children to attend ELCA sponsored events because of the pro-homosexual indoctrination that is so common at these events. That is in addition to other politically correct silliness. I can imagine what will be allowed or even encouraged if we decide to wink at violations of what we say our standards are.

---Katie

Only 15 Percent?

According to Rev. Christopher Hershman, only 15 percent of the respondents to the Sexuality Study are in favor of changing current policy regarding ordination of non-celebate homosexuals in the ELCA. It seems to me that would be a mandate to leave things as they are rather than to recommend we not discipline those in violation of Visions and Expectations. Unless, of course, those in leadership have a different goal in mind. Click on the title to read Rev. Hershman's article on Rev. Paul McCain's blog.

---Katie

Is It OK to be Gay in the ELCA?

Actually, the real question is "Is it ok to be unrepentantly gay in the ELCA if you are a pastor or rostered lay person?" Pastor Paul McCain has an interesting analysis of the ELCA Sexuality Task Force's report and recommendations. He says:

What is happening is clear. ELCA leadership is, for the most part, in favor of embracing homosexuality as an appropriate lifestyle choice for Christians, as well as for its rostered pastors and other church workers. Throughout ELCA seminaries there is a very strong and active pro-homosexual agenda at work. However ELCA leadership recognizes that they can not push this agenda on the ELCA at this point in time without wholescale rebellion from many corners. So, what has happened is that they have stepped back just a bit from a highly aggresive effort and instead now are settling back into a slow campaign of incrementalism. We saw this a few months ago with the ELCA Council changed the rules on how matters of this importance are to be voted on at the General Assembly this summer. Rather than letting them be decided by majority vote, they have changed the rules to require a 2/3 majority.

My sources indicate that there is no question that top leadership of the ELCA wants very much to follow the example of the Episcopalian Church USA and tolerate. condone and actively encourage actively homosexual clergy in its ranks. At ELCA headquarters in Chicago there was, last time I checked, a female pastor and another rostered ELCA woman church worker in a lesbian relationship, very openly known, to the point that the "couple" sent out announcements in the building regarding "their" child's baptism, etc. When ELCA leadership was pressed to explain how this is so, in direct violation of "formal policy," the response was that this is a matter for the local ELCA Synod bishop to deal with, not the national leadership, and then nothing happened. The person who raised the concern was rebuked for being unloving and legalistic when he challenged the situation.

To read the entire article, click on the title above.

Do people really think that as we relax our standards and "compassionately" allow non-celibate homosexuals to be ordained, people who support traditional morality will be afforded the same respect and standing within the church hierarchy as those who are more "progressive?" How do we coexist with such different views of what the Bible says? Would it not be better for those who are in the minority and are dissatisfied with standards as they are to form their own denomination?

---Katie

ELCA Sexuality Task Force releases its recommendations

As you may or may not know, the Evangelical Church in America has been engaged in a study process to determine if they should ordain non-celibate homosexuals and if they should perform blessings for same-sex couples. Over the last year or so churches and church members have been encouraged to participate in a study developed by the task force to help with the discernment process. I helped lead one of those studies at my church last spring. Participants were encouraged to give feedback to the task force which would be included in their report.

To read the ELCA News Service summary of the report, click on the title of this article. To read the entire report, go to www.elca.org and click on "Report and Recommendations."

I am disappointed in the recommendations, but not surprised. The task force recommends no changes in the "Visions and Expectations" for rostered personnel, but gives bishops the option to not discipline those who are in violation of the standards. I say, let's not have standards we are not willing to enforce. This is typical ELCA fence straddling.

I will post more articles and comments on this issue as I can and as I have time to read the entire report.

---Katie

Go Shopping on January 20th!!

In case you did not know, January 20th, Inauguration Day, is also "Not One Damn Dime Day," a day on which those who oppose what is being done in Iraq in our name can show their displeasure by shutting down our economy for the day by not spending any money. I say, save all your shopping for January 20 and shop, shop, shop until you drop, drop, drop!!

---Katie

So what is it? Ban fossil fuels or encourage them?

You probably already know from a previous post that I am not a big believer in the myth that man is causing catostophic global warming by burning fossil fuels. Obviously we are experiencing climate change, but the evidence just is not there to prove that man is causing it or even could cause it if he wanted to. Frankly, if we can manipulate the climate, I wish we could have done something to blow those four hurricanes that hit Florida out to sea.....

Now, a group of scientists are saying that if we cut fossil fuel burning, it could cause global warming to accelerate catastrophically and leave Europe a desert by 2100. Apparently, "fossil fuel by-products like sulfur dioxide particles reflect the sun's rays, "dimming" temperatures and almost canceling out the greenhouse effect. "

Do we really know as much as we think we know, or do we just like to live in a state of fear???

---Katie

Cat torture devices

If you ever just said to yourself, "I really need a costume for my cat," this link is for you. Of course, I can't figure out how they got the model to be still for the pictures...I wonder if that is just a stuffed cat. Click on the title...thanks to Dave Barry's blog for the link.

---Katie

Do you own your property? Really?

Have you ever heard of eminent domain? That is the process by which the government can condemn your property and take it for public use. Traditionally, it is used for things like roads, post offices, and the like, but governments have discovered that they can use eminent domain to enhance their tax revenues. This is a boon to developers who can go to a local government and ask them to condemn a property, then sell it to them at the price they would like to pay instead of the price the property owner is asking. It gives the developer what they want to develop; it gives the government what it wants - more taxes; and it basically screws the property owner who might have wanted to continue to live in the house he grew up in or who might have wanted to take advantage of the increase in value of the property because of its commercial potential.

A number of these eminent domain cases have popped up around the country. Apparently WalMart is fond of getting local governments to steal someone's property so they can build a new store and improve the local tax base. Finally, one of these cases has made its way to the Supreme Court. Let's hope the property owners win this one, or we all will need to understand that our property is only ours as long as the government does not find a better use for it.

Click on the title above to read the article.

---Katie

Collectivism vs. Individualism

Click on the title above for lots of interesting discussion about collectivism, statism, individualism, racism....lots of good stuff.

---Katie

Are We a Republic or a Democracy?

Forgive me for just copying this whole thing, but I can't say it better than Walter Williams.

---Katie

We often hear the claim that our nation is a democracy. That wasn't the vision of the founders. They saw democracy as another form of tyranny. If we've become a democracy, I guarantee you that the founders would be deeply disappointed by our betrayal of their vision. The founders intended, and laid out the ground rules, for our nation to be a republic.
The word democracy appears nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution -- two most fundamental documents of our nation. Instead of a democracy, the Constitution's Article IV, Section 4, guarantees "to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government." Moreover, let's ask ourselves: Does our pledge of allegiance to the flag say to "the democracy for which it stands," or does it say to "the republic for which it stands"? Or do we sing "The Battle Hymn of the Democracy" or "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"?

So what's the difference between republican and democratic forms of government? John Adams captured the essence of the difference when he said, "You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe." Nothing in our Constitution suggests that government is a grantor of rights. Instead, government is a protector of rights.

In recognition that it's Congress that poses the greatest threat to our liberties, the framers used negative phrases against Congress throughout the Constitution such as: shall not abridge, infringe, deny, disparage, and shall not be violated, nor be denied. In a republican form of government, there is rule of law. All citizens, including government officials, are accountable to the same laws. Government power is limited and decentralized through a system of checks and balances. Government intervenes in civil society to protect its citizens against force and fraud but does not intervene in the cases of peaceable, voluntary exchange.

Contrast the framers' vision of a republic with that of a democracy. In a democracy, the majority rules either directly or through its elected representatives. As in a monarchy, the law is whatever the government determines it to be. Laws do not represent reason. They represent power. The restraint is upon the individual instead of government. Unlike that envisioned under a republican form of government, rights are seen as privileges and permissions that are granted by government and can be rescinded by government.

How about a few quotations demonstrating the disdain our founders held for democracy? James Madison, Federalist Paper No. 10: In a pure democracy, "there is nothing to check the inducement to sacrifice the weaker party or the obnoxious individual." At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Edmund Randolph said, " ... that in tracing these evils to their origin every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy." John Adams said, "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." Chief Justice John Marshall observed, "Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos." In a word or two, the founders knew that a democracy would lead to the same kind of tyranny the colonies suffered under King George III.

The framers gave us a Constitution that is replete with undemocratic mechanisms. One that has come in for recent criticism and calls for its elimination is the Electoral College. In their wisdom, the framers gave us the Electoral College so that in presidential elections large, heavily populated states couldn't democratically run roughshod over small, sparsely populated states.

Here's my question. Do Americans share the republican values laid out by our founders, and is it simply a matter of our being unschooled about the differences between a republic and a democracy? Or is it a matter of preference and we now want the kind of tyranny feared by the founders where Congress can do anything it can muster a majority vote to do? I fear it's the latter.