Cognitively Dissonant

Isn't It Amazing?

2012-01-03T09:58:00.000-08:00

This has been going around the internet, so I thought I would share it too:

ISN’T IT AMAZING?

Isn’t it amazing that, within only one week of Tiger Woods crashing his Escalade, the press found every woman with whom Tiger has had an affair during the last few years?
And, they even uncovered photos, text messages, recorded phone calls, etc.!
Furthermore, they not only know the cause of the family fight, but they even know it was a 9 iron from his golf bag that his wife used to break out the windows in the Escalade.
Not only that, they know which wedge!
And, each & every day, they were able to continue to provide America with updates on Tiger’s sex rehab stay, his wife’s divorce settlement figures, as well as the dates & tournaments in which he will play.

Now, Barack Hussein Obama has been in office for almost three years, yet this very same press:
· Cannot find any of his childhood friends or neighbors;
· Or find any of Obama’s high school or college classmates;
· Or locate any of his college papers or grades;
· Or determine how he paid for both a Columbia & a Harvard education;
· Or discover which country issued his visa to travel to Pakistan in the 1980’s;
· Or even find Michelle Obama’s Princeton thesis on racism.
They just can’t seem to uncover any of this.
Yet, the public still trusts that same press to give them the whole truth!
Don’t you find that totally amazing?

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What I find amazing is that anyone believes the mainstream media about anything anymore.

---Katie

7 Reasons Why Liberals are Incapable of Understanding the World

2011-08-23T07:33:00.000-07:00

This article caught my attention because the author points out that liberals don't necessarily pay attention to the results of their programs or legislation, but to how these things make them feel or to their good intentions in passing the legislation. Banning DDT, for example - great for the environment, but millions of people have died as a result. Of course, I might say that many liberals think that we should reduce the population of the earth, and letting malaria have its way with millions is just one way of doing that....I might say that, but then I would be mean.

7 Reasons Why Liberals Are Incapable of Understanding The World

John Hawkins Townhall.com

To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil. — Charles Krauthammer

Even liberals who've accomplished a lot in their lives and have high IQs often say things on a regular basis that are stunningly, profoundly stupid and at odds with the way the world works. Modern liberalism has become so bereft of common sense and instinctually suicidal that America can only survive over the long haul by thwarting the liberal agenda. In fact, liberalism has become such a toxic and poisonous philosophy that most liberals wouldn't behave differently if their goal were to deliberately destroy the country. So, how does liberalism cause well-meaning, intelligent liberals to get this way? Well, it starts with...

1) Liberalism creates a feedback loop. It is usually impossible for a non-liberal to change a liberal's mind about political issues because liberalism works like so: only liberals are credible sources of information. How do you know someone's liberal? He espouses liberal doctrine. So, no matter how plausible what you say may be, it will be ignored if you're not a liberal and if you are a liberal, of course, you probably agree with liberal views. This sort of close-mindedness makes liberals nearly impervious to any information that might undermine their beliefs.

2) Liberals sources of information are ever present. Conservatives are regularly exposed to the liberal viewpoint whether they want to be or not. That's not necessarily so for liberals. Imagine the average day for liberals. They get up and read their local newspaper. It has a liberal viewpoint. They take their kids to school, where the teachers are liberal. Then they go to work, listen to NPR which has a liberal viewpoint on the way home, and then turn on the nightly news which also skews leftward. From there, they turn on TV and watch shows created by liberals that lean to the left, if they have any political viewpoint at all. Unless liberals actively seek out conservative viewpoints, which is unlikely, the only conservative arguments they're probably going to hear are going to be through the heavily distorted, poorly translated, deeply skeptical lens of other liberals.

3) Liberals emphasize feeling superior, not superior results. Liberalism is all about appearances, not outcomes. What matters to liberals is how a program makes them FEEL about themselves, not whether it works or not. Thus a program like Headstart, which sounds good because it's designed to help children read, makes liberals feel good about themselves, even though the program doesn't work and wastes billions. A ban on DDT makes liberals feel good about themselves because they're "protecting the environment" even though millions of people have died as a result. For liberals, it's not what a program does in the real world; it's about whether they feel better about themselves for supporting it.

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So, click on the title for the rest!

---Katie

This Year Keep Your Kids Home from College

2011-08-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

Mike Adams describes four ways he thinks today's colleges and universities harm our children - spiritually, morally, intellectually and financially. A poster at Free Republic added psychologically (many kids leave college with psychological problems) and physically (one in four college students has an STD.)

Wouldn't it send a message to the mis-educators in our colleges and universities if we said to them that we were no longer willing to pay obscene amounts of money for them to rob our children of their faith and teach them to despise their parents' values?

If you think your child needs the "experience" of college, have you thought about what exactly that experience is, especially at a secular school? Is it worth thousands of dollars for your child to have a four year party?

Click on the title for the entire article.

---Katie

Welcome to the Department of Innovation

2011-08-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

From a new blog sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution:

Seems a long time ago, but it was only back in January when Barack Obama told us that America had reached a “Sputnik moment.” He was referring to the competition with China to be the Big Dog of the 21st century global economy, but the subtext was that the country needs an attitude adjustment, that we need to start channeling Silicon Valley, a place where people may pledge to “Do no evil” but the true religion is innovation.

It made for one fine sound bite. But it hasn’t exactly inspired a bunch of innovation rallies and bake sales. So in the spirit of banging the drum for new ideas and fresh thinking, this blog will track all things innovative, not just in science and technology, but also in how we live, how we learn, how we entertain ourselves.

The Department of Innovation is about people and ideas that likely will shape the way we will live one day. Don’t hesitate to send in suggestions of subjects we should cover.

You can learn more about me on our About page.

Now check out their logo...look very carefully at the image....

Is it any wonder we are in trouble in this country? I don't expect they will be exploring innovation in education that looks at methods outside government schooling.

---Katie

Or We Could Call Them Flash Crime Mobs....

2011-08-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

Now a new threat to retailers and the public alike has emerged – flash crime mobs.

Check out this article about how flash mobs are morphing into "flash crime mobs." What will you do if you get caught in the middle of something like this?

Click on the title!

---Katie

Flash Mobs vs. Flash Robs

2011-08-06T08:26:00.000-07:00

Last year, a new phenomenon appeared on the American landscape. Groups began gathering at malls and other places where people congregate to do something unusual, often uplifting. (Click on the title to see an example.) We called them flash mobs and enjoyed watching them on YouTube. This year, we have a new phenomenon that the media insists on calling flash mobs as well. Large groups of urban youth gather either at a retailer of some sort or at some location or event where people are trying to enjoy their leisure time. At a retailer they create a commotion and steal as much as they can before racing out of the establishment, while at other locations, they attack and abuse people of other races. I propose that we continue to call the positive, uplifting groups like the one linked in the title "flash mobs," while referring to the other, negative, racist occurrences "flash robs," since even if they are not gathering for the purpose of stealing, they are still robbing us of our sense of community, safety and well-being. If you would like to know more about "flash robs" check out this link:

---Katie

What?!? The Union Owns the Insurance Company

2011-02-21T21:05:00.000-08:00

that insures the teachers in Wisconsin? Now that makes this situation much more understandable. The union does not want to lose the right to bargain over benefits because they will lose the right to continue to soak the Wisconsin public schools with an expensive health insurance plan. I guess the adage is true - follow the money!

---Katie

Quote from the article:

WEA Trust, a union-affiliated insurance company, has an unfair advantage in Wisconsin’s public school insurance market, and uses that advantage to soak every penny possible from local school coffers.

Click on the title!

I'll Pray for You

2011-02-21T19:32:00.000-08:00

Have you heard this song?

I pray your brakes go out running down a hill
I pray a flowerpot falls from a window sill and knocks you in the
head like I'd like to
I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls
I pray you're flying high when your engine stalls
I pray all your dreams never come true
Just know wherever you are honey, I pray for you.

Our pastor used that as the springboard for a sermon about how we are supposed to pray for one another and how we are supposed to see one another, really. The congregation got a kick out of the song - we can all identify with those feelings toward people who have hurt us or whom we find difficult. But the point of our pastor's sermon was not just that we are to pray for all those difficult people in our lives. We are also to pray for ourselves - that we will come to see these difficult people as He does, as his precious children that he died for.

Peace!

Katie

Why I Changed My Mind about Unions

2011-02-21T06:20:00.000-08:00

I found this article by Michael Filozof from The American Thinker interesting because I entered adult life believing the mantra "Unions Good, Management Bad!" I can remember Andy looking at me like I was crazy when I made some positive comment about unionization. Ah, the wonders of government school indoctrination! (Parents, if your kids are in government schools, please take the time to teach them the truth about our constitution and economics!) The problem with unions today rests with the public sector unions - the government really is not likely to go bankrupt; it will keep borrowing and sticking it to the taxpayers to pay for the ever increasing costs of benefits for unionized government workers. And if we dare to try to stop the ever-accelerating spiral of spending and debt, they will engage in protests with the threat of violence to maintain that which they believe we owe them. Just look at what is happening in Wisconsin.

Here is the conclusion of the article:

As Sen. Barry Goldwater observed in Conscience of a Conservative, the First Amendment guarantees freedom of association for union members. But "[e]mployers are forbidden to act collusively for sound reasons. The same reasons [should] apply to unions...Let us henceforth make war on all monopolies -- whether corporate or union. The enemy of freedom is unrestrained power" -- whether it be unrestrained management power or unrestrained union power.

If the fiscal conservatives fail in Wisconsin, we all may be doomed to slavery to the public sector unions. We in the private sector will be on the hook for government employee six-figure pensions that they did not have to pay into like we did. We all have had to make cuts and lifestyle changes because of the economic crisis we have been facing for the last several years. Government must cut too, and that means breaking the power of the public sector unions. Watch Wisconsin...your state may be next.

Click on the title to read the entire article.

The Needless Lack of Self-Confidence of Most Home-Schooling Mothers

2011-02-09T09:04:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!
Sorry it has been so long, but I have an interesting article to share with you! Here is an excerpt:

Today, there is a generation of home-school mothers who began three decades ago, and whose grandchildren are now being home schooled by their daughters. With the new digital media, you might think that there would be dozens of detailed, step-by-step curriculum programs for sale or for free. Yet Dr. Arthur Robinson's was the first purely digital curriculum. It is delivered on CD-ROMs. He created it because his wife died unexpectedly, and he had to develop a self-taught curriculum. He was running a sheep ranch, a biological research organization, and was the publisher of the newsletter, Access to Energy. He had no time to teach his six children using the labor-intensive, mother-run programs.

So, two men without experience have developed comprehensive programs. Why men? The barrier to entry is not money. The monetary cost of creating and delivering a digits-based program is basically free.

My conclusion: home school mothers lack self-confidence.

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Needless to say, I disagree with Dr. North's assertions and e-mailed him to let him know what I thought of his article. He doesn't particularly like e-mails that disagree with him and suggested that I blog about it. So, here is his article. You know the drill, click on the title to read the entire article! And if you want to engage Dr. North in discussion, well, he doesn't like angry e-mails and he doesn't let the public comment on his website without being a paid member....

I guess we could discuss it here....

Peace,
Katie

Just Dial 911?

2010-06-28T06:02:00.000-07:00

An interesting article from The Freeman:

Just Dial 911? The Myth of Police Protection

Most Police Have No Legal Duty to Protect Citizens from Criminal Attack

Richard Stevens is a lawyer in Washington, D.C., and author of Dial 911 and Die (Mazel Freedom Press, 1999).

Underlying all “gun control” ideology is this one belief.” “Private citizens don’t need firearms because the police will protect them from crime.” That belief is both false and dangerous for two reasons.

First, the police cannot and do not protect everyone from crime. Second, the government and the police in most localities owe no legal duty to protect individuals from criminal attack. When it comes to deterring crime and defending against criminals, individuals are ultimately responsible for themselves and their loved ones. Depending solely on police emergency response means relying on the telephone as the only defensive tool. Too often, citizens in trouble dial 911 . . . and die.

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Click on the title for the entire article. He includes some sad stories of people who depended on the "system" to protect them. I want to point out that this is not an anti-police story. Police cannot be everywhere and they cannot prevent every crime *because* they cannot be everywhere!

---Katie

I think Glee should cut Finn some slack....

2010-05-27T12:55:00.000-07:00

Ok, I admit it...I'm a Gleek. I really enjoy watching Glee. It is a guilty pleasure for me, because I disagree with lots of the behavior on the show, but I realize it's a farce. It is a farce, isn't it? I mean one school with so many, well, extreme characters...never mind, it's fun, it's not real and I really enjoy the music.

Except for this week. I was really uncomfortable, irritated, indignant - and it wasn't just the Lady Gaga stuff, even though I am not a fan. In fact the only reason I know anything at all about her is because I taped a replay of the Video Music Awards last year so I could see that silly thing Kanye West did over Taylor Swift's award.

I was really angry at the way they portrayed the situation between Kurt and Finn. (Yes, I know it is fiction, just for fun, but what we watch says something about how we think....) Kurt is one of my favorite characters. He is smart, funny, talented and struggling to be himself as a gay teen. I like Finn too. He's a jock, but not one of the arrogant bully types. He tries to do the right thing, like when he stood by his girlfriend, Quinn, when she got pregnant and told him he was the father even though he had respected her wishes not to have sex - but those determined little sperms swimming around in the hot tub, they were to blame! Finn is nice but a little clueless, and I did say the show is a bit of a farce. Finn has defended Kurt more than once and Kurt unfortunately has quite the crush on him. Unfortunately, because Finn is straight, straight, straight.

Kurt lives with his dad, who is doing a great job of supporting his son. Finn lives with his mom. Kurt manages to get the two parents together; they date for a little while and then decide to combine their families by moving in together (not by getting married, I might point out, but that is very out of style on tv.) And, of course, Kurt and Finn have to share a room. Finn gets a little bent out of shape, but Kurt's dad makes it all better by giving him $300 to remodel the room, which Kurt immediately snatches out of his hand, essentially saying that he will take care of it. When he presents the remodel to Finn, Finn loses it. He dumps all over Kurt, saying how he has to change in the bathroom and how uncomfortable he is with Kurt staring at him in the locker room...then he calls some of the decor "faggy" and that is when Kurt's dad comes in and comes down on Finn like a ton of bricks. He won't have that kind of talk about his son in his house. "Not in my house. Not in my house," he says.

What I want to know is, where is Finn's house then? He is still a kid, maybe 17 years old and his mother moves in with a guy who has a gay son who is hot for him. He is expected to share a room that has been decorated like a bordello with a guy who would really like to have a romantic, sexual relationship with him and isn't shy about making that known. Why is Finn made to look like the bad guy here? He did not ask for this situation! Let's say Finn was a girl and she knew Kurt was gay, but she saw this as an opportunity to get alone with Kurt and hope he would fall in love with her...or say Kurt was straight and in love with the female Finn - would these clueless parents force them to share a room and get mad at Finn for not being more understanding of Kurt?

This show just made me uncomfortable in so many ways but mostly about the way some parents don't think about how the people they bring into their kids lives and homes will affect them. And how we parents often expect way more maturity from our kids than is reasonable. And how the writers somehow think this episode made Kurt's situation more sympathetic?

And when Finn showed up at school in his bright red Lady Gaga dress I couldn't help feeling just like I did when Sandy in Grease dressed as a, well, less than virtuous woman so that she could hang on to Danny Zuko...

But the show is a farce, just for fun...it doesn't really mean anything, right?

Right....

---Katie

America's New Culture War: Free Enterprise vs. Government Control

2010-05-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

This is the best explanation of the state of our economy I have read to date.

America's new culture war: Free enterprise vs. government control

By Arthur C. Brooks
The Washington Post
Sunday, May 23, 2010

America faces a new culture war.

This is not the culture war of the 1990s. It is not a fight over guns, gays or abortion. Those old battles have been eclipsed by a new struggle between two competing visions of the country's future. In one, America will continue to be an exceptional nation organized around the principles of free enterprise -- limited government, a reliance on entrepreneurship and rewards determined by market forces. In the other, America will move toward European-style statism grounded in expanding bureaucracies, a managed economy and large-scale income redistribution. These visions are not reconcilable. We must choose.

PLEASE click on the title and read the rest. It is worth it.

Note - statism did not start with our current administration. As much as I respect George W. Bush, he is a statist as well, and statism will ruin the prosperity we have enjoyed in our country.

---Katie

Home School, Sweet Home School

2010-05-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

Thank you Mr. Murchison!

Home School, Sweet Home School
By William Murchison · Tuesday, May 18, 2010

As I addressed a home school graduation exercise the other day, I thought -- more than once -- ah, good old human nature at work once more.

It's what happens when institutions fail or give the distinct impression they're about to. Customers head for the exits: not all of them, maybe just a handful. Yet those who do flee, taking their hopes and their children with them, tend to be people of sharp and quick perception; the kind you want around as much and as long as possible. Their departure evacuates the institution in considerable degree of priceless qualities -- sense of mission, dedication to task, willingness to work and to sacrifice.

The public schools can't hold such people? More shame for those schools. Once upon a time, the great majority of us attended them. In the 21st century, their widely advertised shortcomings and deficiencies are driving out, or keeping away altogether, people whose presence in the classroom every half-sensible educator should crave.

The ceremony at which I spoke featured two -- count 'em -- two young men, supported by scores of parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, fellow church members and well-wishers in general. A public high school principal might shrug at the loss of a mere two students from his rolls. Too bad. C'est la vie.

The two in question, nevertheless -- Eagles Scouts soon to take flight, accomplished debaters, tireless readers, international lawyers in the making -- are the sort who clearly adorn whatever company they keep. The public schools want more such, not fewer. Yet fewer and fewer they get, as more and more Americans express their distrust of the public schools' ability to impart an education such as was fairly common up to the '60s.

Click on the title to hear the rest...be prepared for kudos to home schoolers and, well, not kudos to government schooling!

---Katie

Hipocrisy in the Liberal Establishment

2010-05-22T06:08:00.000-07:00

The left wants us to believe that the Tea Party is made up of racist white men. Why else would their minions bet the snot out of this man?

(by Armstrong Williams)

The Tea Party movement has been front and center in the news lately. Stories abound of how they are pushing hard against establishment Democrats and Republicans alike. As the media would have you believe it, these tea party members are strong, both in will and physical stature, and virtually untouchable. But what is often not reported is the ridicule and constant assaulting these patriots receive, and how the Left’s media operation allows the perpetrators to get away with it.

One story is particularly alarming. Attending a tea party-led assembly in St. Louis last August, Mr. Kenneth Gladney was protesting a health care forum hosted by Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO), handing out Don’t Tread on Me flags and voicing his opposition. Then out of the blue, Gladney was attacked and horrifically beaten by members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). These thugs didn’t like what Gladney had to say nor why he was protesting a provision their Bosses deemed was worthy, so they hunted him down and taught him a lesson he won’t soon forget.

Was Gladney a white, redneck racist as some commentators such as MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann have characterized all tea party members? Hardly. Gladney is African American. And the SEIU thugs reminded him of his color as they beat him to a pulp, using the N word repeatedly.

Click on the title to read the rest!

I'd like to point out that the author of this article is an African American as well.

---Katie

Women and Minorities: Just CORE's Consorts!

2010-05-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

Dr. Jon Pahl is standing by his anti-CORE screed....apparently someone has pointed out to him that there are quite a few members of CORE who are not white, or male....no matter. They are just the white males' consorts!

The movement is led (largely) by white males (and their consorts) frightened of losing privilege,

Click on the title to check it out!

The title makes me giggle..."When a Theologian Enters the Fray!" Um, there have been theologians involved in this discussion for quite some time. I guess this one is more credible because he is willing to demonize his opponents....

---Katie

Y'all Do Know You Won, Don't You?

2010-05-20T19:47:00.000-07:00

I wasn't going to post this because, frankly, I have trouble getting through it without my eyes freezing crossed.....

Here is an excerpt, and you know you can click on the title for the entire article:

All in all, the core of Lutheran CORE is rotten. One can get more than a whiff of Docetism, Donatism, and Pelagianism — heresies all — in the doctrinal formulations of the various groups represented in the coalition. Lutheran CORE represents, in its demographic and historical contours, a largely white, heterosexual, male backlash against the supposedly evil changes in gender roles, sexual mores, and participatory democracy that marked the 1960s. At the same time, the leaders of the movement also ironically embrace many of the least savory aspects of the sixties rhetoric of adolescent resentment and entitlement. Most fundamentally, the leaders of Lutheran CORE have come to the brink of dividing the church in an attempt to hold onto (or to carve out) some power. (Jon Pahl, PhD)

Unfortunately this mean-spirited screed is making the rounds on the Lutheran blogs and message boards, so I thought I would at least call it to your attention. What I don't understand about Dr. Pahl's supposedly scholarly article is why he felt a need to write it and why the Journal of Lutheran Ethics thought that this article would contribute positively to the conversation. Y'all won, folks! You got what you wanted! There is no reason to keep discussing it, because, despite the wishes of some in the ELCA, the changes have little to no chance of being rolled back. The people who would push for that are leaving - the ELCA is yours to do with as you wish! Be as progressive as you want to be. There are not enough traditionalists left to stop you!

Yet, the FL/Bahamas synod council felt a need to bring a resolution to the floor of their recent assembly praising the Church Council of the ELCA for its work and encouraging it to "stay the course." And Dr. Pahl takes members and supporters of Lutheran CORE to task for not simply accepting the decision of a very politicized CWA in 2009. Is this rubbing salt in the wounds, or what? Many of us feel that we have lost our church - could we ask for a little compassion - a little patience? Many of the revisionists say they want the traditionalists to stay, but things like this convince me of the opposite. In fact, it makes me want to ask, are the traditionalists not getting out fast enough to suit you?

You won. You got the church you want. Now let people go do what they need to do.

Ummm.....

2010-05-19T19:16:00.000-07:00

AFP photo by Paul J. Richards

I am not a fashion maven by any stretch of the imagination...but who is dressing our first lady? Not only does the dress look bad, it looks like it must really hurt there under her armpit!

And, really, can we stop comparing her to Jackie Kennedy? There is just no comparison!

----Katie

Are your convictions strong enough to give up cheap electricity, LA?

2010-05-19T18:45:00.000-07:00

Text of letter from Arizona Corporation Commissioner Gary Pierce to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa after Los Angeles City Council approved boycott of Arizona because of its new immigration law:

Dear Mayor Villaraigosa,

I was dismayed to learn that the Los Angeles City Council voted to boycott Arizona and Arizona-based companies — a vote you strongly supported — to show opposition to SB 1070 (Support our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act).

You explained your support of the boycott as follows: “While we recognize that as neighbors, we share resources and ties with the State of Arizona that may be difficult to sever, our goal is not to hurt the local economy of Los Angeles, but to impact the economy of Arizona. Our intent is to use our dollars — or the withholding of our dollars — to send a message.”

I received your message; please receive mine. As a state-wide elected member of the Arizona Corporation Commission overseeing Arizona’s electric and water utilities, I too am keenly aware of the “resources and ties” we share with the City of Los Angeles. In fact, approximately twenty-five percent of the electricity consumed in Los Angeles is generated by power plants in Arizona.

If an economic boycott is truly what you desire, I will be happy to encourage Arizona utilities to renegotiate your power agreements so Los Angeles no longer receives any power from Arizona-based generation. I am confident that Arizona’s utilities would be happy to take those electrons off your hands. If, however, you find that the City Council lacks the strength of its convictions to turn off the lights in Los Angeles and boycott Arizona power, please reconsider the wisdom of attempting to harm Arizona’s economy.

People of goodwill can disagree over the merits of SB 1070. A state-wide economic boycott of Arizona is not a message sent in goodwill.

Sincerely,

Commissioner Gary Pierce

Home for Free!

2010-04-23T13:37:00.000-07:00

This is going around the 'net...might be true, might not, but it's entertaining!

Free Home offer

I was in my neighborhood restaurant this morning and was seated behind a group of jubilant individuals celebrating the successful passing of the recent health care bill. I could not finish my breakfast. This is what ensued:

They were a diverse group of several races and both sexes. I heard the young man exclaim, “Isn’t Obama like Jesus Christ? I mean, after all, he is healing the sick.” The young woman enthusiastically proclaimed, “Yeah, and he does it for free. I cannot believe anyone would think that a free market would work for health care. They are all crooks and thieves and don’t deserve all of that money.” Another said, ‘The stupid Republicans want us all to starve to death so they can inherit all of the power. Obama should be made a Saint for what he did for those of us less fortunate.” At this, I had had enough.

I arose from my seat, mustering all the restraint I could find, and approached their table. “Please excuse me; may I impose upon you for one moment?” They smiled and welcomed me to the conversation. I stood at the end of their table, smiled as best I could and began an experiment.

“I would like to give one of you my house. It will cost you no money and I will pay all of the expenses and taxes for as long as you live there. Anyone interested?” They looked at each other in astonishment. “Why would you do something like that?” asked a young man, “There isn’t anything for free in this world.” They began to laugh at me, as they did not realize this man had just made my point. “I am serious, I will give you my house for free, no money what so ever. Anyone interested?” In unison, a resounding “Hell Yeah” fills the room.

“Since there are too many of you, I will have to make a choice as to who receives this money free bargain.” I noticed an elderly couple was paying attention to the spectacle unfolding before their eyes, the old man shaking his head in apparent disgust. “I tell you what; I will give it to the one of you most willing to obey my rules.” Again, they looked at one another, an expression of bewilderment on their faces. The perky young woman asked, “What are the rules?” I smiled and said, “I don’t know. I have not yet defined them. However, it is a free home that I offer you.” They giggled amongst themselves, the youngest of which said, “What an old coot. He must be crazy to give away his home. Go take your meds, old man.” I smiled and leaned into the table a bit further. “I am serious, this is a legitimate offer.” They gaped at me for a moment.

“Hell, I’ll take it you old fool. Where are the keys?” boasted the youngest among them. “Then I presume you accept ALL of my terms then?” I asked. The elderly couple seemed amused and entertained as they watched from the privacy of their table. “Oh hell yeah! Where do I sign up?” I took a napkin and wrote, “I give this man my home, without the burden of financial obligation, so long as he accepts and abides by the terms that I shall set forth upon consummation of this transaction.” I signed it and handed it to the young man who eagerly scratched out his signature. “Where are the keys to my new house?” he asked in a mocking tone of voice. All eyes were upon us as I stepped back from the table, pulling the keys from pocket and dangling them before the excited new homeowner.

“Now that we have entered into this binding contract, witnessed by all of your friends, I have decided upon the conditions you are obligated to adhere from this point forward. You may only live in the house for one hour a day. You will not use anything inside of the home. You will obey me without question or resistance. I expect complete loyalty and admiration for this gift I bestow upon you. You will accept my commands and wishes with enthusiasm, no matter the nature. Your morals and principles shall be as mine. You will vote as I do, think as I do and do it with blind faith. These are my terms. Here are your keys.” I reached the keys forward and the young man looked at me dumbfounded.

“Are you out of your freaking mind? Who would ever agree to those ridiculous terms?” the young man appeared irritated. “You did when you signed this contract before reading it, understanding it and with the full knowledge that I would provide my conditions only after you committed to the agreement.” Was all I said. The elderly man chuckled as his wife tried to restrain him. I was looking at a now silenced and bewildered group of people. “You can shove that stupid deal up you’re a** old man, I want no part of it” exclaimed the now infuriated young man. “You have committed to the contract, as witnessed by all of your friends; you cannot get out of the deal unless I agree to it. I do not intend to let you free now that I have you ensnared. I am the power you agreed to. I am the one you blindly and without thought chose to enslave yourself to. In short, I am your Master.” At this, the table of celebrating individuals became a unified group against the unfairness of the deal.

After a few moments of unrepeatable comments and slurs, I revealed my true intent. “What I did to you is what this administration and congress did to you with the health care legislation. I easily suckered you in and then revealed the real cost of the bargain. Your folly was in the belief that you can have something you did not earn; that you are entitled to that which you did not earn; that you willingly allowed someone else to think for you. Your failure to research, study and inform yourself permitted reason to escape you. You have entered into a trap from which you cannot flee. Your only chance of freedom is if your new Master gives it to you. A freedom that is given can also be taken away; therefore, it is not freedom.” With that, I tore up the napkin and placed it before the astonished young man. “This is the nature of your new health care legislation.”

I turned away to leave these few in thought and contemplation and was surprised by applause. The elderly gentleman, who was clearly entertained, shook my hand enthusiastically and said, “Thank you Sir, these kids don’t understand Liberty these days.” He refused to allow me to pay my bill as he said, “You earned this one, it is an honor to pick up the tab.” I shook his hand in thanks, leaving the restaurant somewhat humbled, and sensing a glimmer of hope for my beloved country. Use reason,

Feel free to share.

----Katie

Global Warming Snow Job

2010-02-11T18:43:00.000-08:00

I really get frustrated with the people who keep saying things like, "Just because it is cold in some parts of the world doesn't mean we aren't experiencing global warming!" What makes me question the validity of the global warming hypothesis is how many untruths and ignored or manipulated data are involved. This editorial just points out a few of the problems.

Global Warming Snowjob

The Washington Times Editorial Staff

Record snowfall illustrates the obvious: The global warming fraud is without equal in modern science.

The fundamental problems exposed about climate-change theory undermine the very basis of scientific inquiry. Huge numbers of researchers refuse to provide their data to other scientists. Some referenced data is found not to have existed. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 report that global warming activists continually cite invented a large number of purported facts. Consider a few of the problems with the U.N. report that came to light over the past few weeks.

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Click on the title for the rest!

---Katie

Why Big Families Are Easier

2010-02-07T15:37:00.000-08:00

This article from the National Catholic Register got me to choke up a little. I miss my four kids chaos!

by Matthew Archbold Thursday, February 04, 2010

A woman said to me recently that my five children were very well behaved. It’s one of the best things I can hear so I thanked her. Then she asked me “how do you do it with so many?”

I told her that I don’t think I’d be a very good parent of one child or two. She didn’t believe my answer but honest to goodness, I sometimes think that having many children is easier than just one.

Why big families are easier:

Patience. I never have to teach patience. My children know that I can’t drop everything for them if I have a baby in my arms.

Work Ethic. My children have learned to work because there are always chores to do in a small house packed with little messy lunatics. And they all learn quickly that sometimes they have to clean up a mess even though they didn’t make it.

Humility. My children have learned it’s not always their turn. They’ve accepted they can’t always get their way because other people have to get their way sometimes. They’ve learned that some children are better at certain things than they are.

Click on the title for some laughs!

---Katie

Organizing for America Internships

2010-02-01T20:37:00.000-08:00

Hmmmm.....

In case you cannot read the image(it gets a little blurry when you zoom in):

-Organizing for America, the successor organization to Obama for America, is building on the movement that elected President Obama by empowering students across the country to help us bring about our agenda of change.
-OFA is launching a national internship program connecting students all over the country with our organization on the ground-working to make the change we fought so hard for in 2008 a reality in 2010 and beyond.
-Winter 2010 internships (dates are flexible depending on your school's schedule)
-The internship requires a commitment of 12 hours per week.
-Credit must be approved by your school ahead of time.

---Katie

I Wonder What the Obama Administration Plans to Leave to the Private Sector?

2010-01-26T07:07:00.000-08:00

The government already runs most elementary and secondary education, they want to take over health care, now they want to shut out private lenders for student loans?

Barack Obama Prepares to Drive Up the Costs of Education

Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)

Monday, January 25th at 1:00PM EST
74 Comments

When Obama takes to the podium for the State of the Union, one of the things he is allegedly going to push is a wholesale federal take over of the student loan industry.

Already, his plans are causing a lot of students, particularly of private higher ed colleges and universities, problems with getting financing for education. Obama intends to shut out the usual third party lenders and put everything within the federal government — under a program that has been shown repeatedly to be highly inefficient and burdensome for academic institutions.

More troubling, by putting everything under the Department of Education, universities and colleges will be forced to adhere to federal rules, some of which conflict with the values of sectarian institutions that presently use the third party student loan system for their students.

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Click on the title to read the rest at Red State.

Does the government have to have its finger in everything? I mean, really, we have been involved with the loan program and it is a pain in the rear to begin with, but do we really need to give the government more and more control? Especially when the program they want to move everyone into has already proven to be highly inefficient? Is i just that the government wants more say in who does and does not get an education? What am I missing?

---Katie

What the Healthcare Debate is Really All About

2010-01-25T18:48:00.000-08:00

Here is an excellent article from the Witherspoon Institute:

What the Health-Care Debate Is Really All About

by James C. Capretta

January 19, 2010

The choice the country faces in health-care reform is a stark one with profound ramifications: What process will best deliver affordable quality health-care to all Americans, a government-driven or market-driven one?

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The whole article is well worth reading, but what is really significant is the discussion on how well the Medicare Prescription plan has worked as a market based rather than government run program. Click on the title!

---Katie

Washington Does Hear You!

2010-01-25T15:55:00.000-08:00

I would never have thought a Republican could win in Massachusetts - I think the electorate realized for once that their votes do count!

Great Scott!

By Thomas Sowell

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Some of the most melancholy letters and e-mails that are sent to me are from people who lament that there is nothing they can do about the bad policies that they see ruining this country. They don't have any media outlet for their opinions and the letters they send to their Congressmen are either ignored or are answered by form letters with weasel words. They feel powerless.

Sometimes I remind them that the whole political establishment — both Democrats and Republicans, as well as the mainstream media — were behind amnesty for illegal immigrants, until the public opinion polls showed that the voters were not buying it. If politicians can't do anything else right, they can count votes.

It was the same story with the government's health care takeover legislation. The Democrats have such huge majorities in both houses of Congress that they could literally lock the Republicans out of the room where they were deciding what to do, set arbitrary deadlines for votes, and cut off debate in the Senate. The mainstream media was on board with this bill too. To hear the talking heads on TV, you would think it was a done deal.

Click on the title to read the rest - Thomas Sowell is always thought provoking!

---Katie

The Mini Ice Age Starts Here

2010-01-10T11:26:00.000-08:00

I think we had better start requiring MORE CO2 production!

By David Rose

The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists.

Their predictions – based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans – challenge some of the global warming orthodoxy’s most deeply cherished beliefs, such as the claim that the North Pole will be free of ice in
summer by 2013.

According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007 – and even the most committed global warming activists do not dispute this.

Click on the title to read the article.

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If it is all the same to you, I could go for a little global warming after the week we have had!

Or at least let's not destroy the economies of the industrialized countries by trying to fix a problem that is not a problem!

----Katie

Is the Healthcare Bill Unconstitutional?

2010-01-08T10:29:00.000-08:00

Do you think it is constitutional for our government to require us to carry health insurance? Liberty Counsel says no:

Washington, DC – The current healthcare bills pending in the Senate and the House are unconstitutional, because Congress lacks the authority to mandate insurance coverage for individuals or private businesses. If a bill passes that mandates individual coverage or requires private employers to provide coverage, Liberty Counsel will file suit challenging the constitutionality of the bill. Liberty University, the largest and fastest-growing Christian university in the world, with over 50,000 students, will be one of the plaintiffs in such a suit. Other plaintiffs include individuals, private nonprofit and for-profit businesses and organizations, and religious institutions.

Mathew Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, said: “Congress does not have unlimited authority to regulate private actions. If the Constitution does not give Congress the power to act, then Congress cannot act. Congress clearly lacks the constitutional authority to force individuals to have, or private businesses to provide, health insurance. Congress’s attempt to force health insurance coverage on the nation is a stunning example of what Congress cannot do.”

The Taxing and Spending Clause and the Commerce Clause are the two primary provisions of the Constitution that enable Congress to act. The healthcare bills do not fall under the Taxing and Spending Clause. Moreover, unlike some other laws Congress passes which impose requirements on states that accept federal funds, the healthcare bills impose requirements on individuals and private employers who refuse to accept the government mandate.

In order to regulate under the Commerce Clause, the activity must affect interstate commerce. Individual decisions about health insurance do not, in most cases, affect interstate commerce. Yet, the proposed bills force coverage on individuals and private employers, no matter how far removed their activities are from interstate commerce. The U.S. Supreme Court has cut back on Congress’s authority to regulate private or local matters of concern.

“If Congress had the power to force each person to have health insurance, then individual liberty would be meaningless. No matter the desires of some elected officials, there are some things Congress cannot do. No one wants the federal government or a pencil-pushing bureaucrat in Washington policing private medical decisions. The threat to liberty posed by the healthcare bills goes beyond healthcare. If Congress can get away with this expansive power grab, then individual liberty and state sovereignty will vanish. The healthcare bills are patently unconstitutional.”

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Click on the title to visit Liberty Counsel.

---Katie

After the Collectivist Winter Will Come the Spring

2010-01-03T10:18:00.000-08:00

We have to wait through a decade of winter before we see spring? Say it isn't so, Vin!

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: After the collectivist Winter will come the Spring

A great decade lies ahead. Unfortunately, it's not the next one

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ

I wish I could offer some cheery prognostications for 2010.

I'd like to predict Barack Obama will awaken some morning soon, rub his eyes, and go, "Holy cow. Do you realize we're actually letting welfare recipients vote? Talk about a conflict of interest! If we don't want this republic to descend into a collectivist slave state we've got to immediately limit the franchise to only net tax payers. And the Seventeenth Amendment, which encourages senators to collect millions in 'campaign' bribes from corporations and labor unions from here to Hong Kong, has to be repealed, restoring the states' veto power over congressional mischief. Anybody can see that.

"Meantime, I can't believe the way this federal government has been sucking the lifeblood out of our most productive citizens, till the wealthiest are actually fleeing the country with their remaining assets, the way the entrepreneurial class fled Russia in 1918.

"And we've been wondering why there's no 'job creation'? We need to repeal the death tax, the capital gains tax, and the federal income tax immediately, replacing them with nothing. And let's close down the Fed and tell Congress to get back to doing their job and setting the value of the dollar as a fixed weight of gold or silver. If all that reduces the size of the federal government by half, heck, it's a start.

"Rahm, get me Ron Paul on the phone, let's see if he'll take over Treasury."

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Yeah, right, Obama's going to do that!
Click on the title to read the whole article!

---Katie

Honduras Refuses to Be Bullied

2010-01-02T06:20:00.001-08:00

I only wish we Americans were so willing to stand up for our Constitutional rights!

The Obamites Fold Their Tents and Slink Off: Facing a Stronger Foe.
January 2, 2010, 7:47 am

By Bruce Karlson

The “stronger foe” referenced above is Honduras. As is obvious, its strength is not in force of arms, population, or economic clout. The Hondurans and their recent president, Roberto Micheletti, had spine, commitment, and principle.

Obamites, and Democrats in general, are unfamiliar with these attributes and usually simply pay obeisance to or pay off dictators of all persuasions. It should be noted that said dictators need not have their fiefdoms off shore.

Andrew Stern of the SEIU, the current head of the misnamed National Education Association (education is far down the list of interests for this bunch), the Teamsters, UAW, etc. can depend on government largesse ad infinitum from Obamites. All they need do is pay up and vote as required.

In June of last year the Honduran military, after being ordered by the Supreme Court, forced then President Manuel Zelaya out of office. He immediately left the country with the approval (encouragement?) of the military. Prior to being deposed, Zelaya attempted to hold an illegal vote that could have changed the Constitution to allow him to become president for life. After all, his new buddy, Hugo Chavez had done it, why not he? Hugo aided Zelaya as he wanted another vote in his Latin cabal and desired an alternate route to run drugs.

This perfectly legal and necessary action (there is no Constitutional provision to remove a sitting president) caused huffing and puffing around the globe. The huffing was most pronounced in Turtle Bay as unctuous UN officials denounced it as a coup and demanded that Zelaya be retuned to office. Most reasonable persons thought this odd as the presidency instantly passed to Micheletti by constitutional mandate. After even the most inept coup, the military is ALWAYS in charge.

Click on the title to read the rest...

I wonder if Obama will try the same thing. President for life - yikes! I would rather we limit them all to one term.

---Katie

Corruption in the Justice Department?

2009-12-29T06:40:00.000-08:00

A veteran Justice Department section chief has been transferred out of the DC office to the US Attorney's office in South Carolina after he recommended going forward on a civil complaint against members of the New Black Panther Party for disrupting a Pennsylvania polling place in last year's elections. The complaint was later dismissed by Obama administration political appointees in the Justice Department. I have to think that being sent from DC to SC is a serious demotion....

Is anyone worried about our freedoms yet?

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Justice Department insiders said Mr. Coates' transfer was not unexpected, despite the fact that many within the department consider the veteran prosecutor as key to efforts by Justice to apply federal civil rights laws in a fair and neutral manner.

Members of the Civil Rights Commission also have questioned whether the decision to drop the New Black Panther Party complaint constituted a departure from long-standing enforcement policy and whether the dismissal might lead to more voter intimidation.

Click on the title to read the entire article.

---Katie

Would The Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?

2009-12-28T06:44:00.000-08:00

Here a well-known Science Fiction author, a democrat, a newspaper columnist laments the state of journalism that has allowed Democrats to get away with actions that Republicans would never be allowed to get away with. And we are all suffering from their lack of oversight. How I wish everyone had heeded his message 14 months ago.

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?
By Orson Scott Card

Editor's note: Orson Scott Card is a Democrat and a newspaper columnist, and in this opinion piece he takes on both while lamenting the current state of journalism.

An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America:

I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

The goal of this rule change was to help the poor — which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house — along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.

Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of Congressmen who support increasing their budget.)

Isn't there a story here? Doesn't journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout? Aren't you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefiting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?

I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a vast scandal. "Housing-gate," no doubt. Or "Fannie-gate."

Instead, it was Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, both Democrats, who denied that there were any problems, who refused Bush administration requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting sub-prime mortgage loans almost up to the minute they failed.

Please click on the title to read the entire article. Our political leaders are willing to destroy our country to feed their own greed and lust for power. We need to wake up!

---Katie

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Is Disagreement with Obama Racism?

2009-09-30T06:13:00.000-07:00

This article is from one of my favorite writers, Walter Williams. My favorite quote from the article has to be, "For the most part, white bigots are no longer respected among whites and I look forward to the day when black bigots are no longer respected among blacks." I think the outright bigotry of some blacks toward whites it the dirty little secret that the left chooses to ignore in discussions about race. And yes, Walter Williams is black....

Is Disagreement with Obama Racism?
by Walter E. Williams

Former president Jimmy Carter said, "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man." That's from a man who earlier referred to Obama as "This black boy" on the Jim Lehrer "News Hour." New York Times social critic Maureen Dowd said, in reference to Rep. Joe Wilson's shouting "Liar" during Obama's address on health care before the joint session of Congress, "Some people just can't believe a black man is president and will never accept it." Washington Post's Howard Kurtz said he "began to suspect that race was a factor for at least some critics when I heard them shouting about 'the Constitution' and 'taking our country back.'" Kurtz asked whether the massive tea parties and other public protests reflect a "distinct discomfort with the country's first black president." House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, New York Gov. David Paterson, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, and other leftists claim that racism is behind criticism of President Obama.

(snip - click on the title to read the whole article!)

Americans should disavow and not fall prey to the racial rope-a-dope being played on us by the nation's race hustlers.

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Thank goodness for reasonable people in the media!

----Katie

This Speaks for Itself....

2009-09-28T06:56:00.001-07:00

Does Disagreeing With Obama Make You a Racist?

2009-09-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

Of course it does!

(To check out the very funny blogger that created the flow chart, click on the title!)

---Katie

Rest In Peace

2009-09-12T07:41:00.001-07:00

The photo above is of Jim Pouillon, an anti-abortion protester who was shot and killed outside Owosso High School in Owosso, Michigan, early Friday morning. Am waiting for Obama's statement.....

---Katie

Expecting your "Bound Conscience" to Be Respected?

2009-09-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

Check out this quote from a "revisionist" blog. If you think you are going to be allowed to continue objecting to sexually active, unmarried pastors (gay or straight) and rostered leaders in the ELCA, think again!

"We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal." —Karl Popper, "The Open Society and Its Enemies."

So I guess the only thing they won't tolerate is intolerance....hmmm.

Click on the title for the discussion over at Stand Firm.
Hat tip to Eric Swensson!
----Katie

A View from the Other Side

2009-09-09T09:32:00.000-07:00

I've had people ask me how the ELCA can justify their recent actions. Here is one pastor's point of view.

Dear Friends,

You have read two eloquent pastoral letters in this issue, one from Mark Hanson, the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, and one from B. Penrose Hoover, our own bishop of the Lower Susquehanna Synod. As your pastor, I feel that I also ought to share my thoughts with you about what was decided at the churchwide assembly regarding ordination of gay and lesbian persons in long-term committed same sex relationships.

In his “Prefaces to the Old Testament, “ Martin Luther said, “Here [in the Scriptures] you will find the swaddling cloths and manger in which Christ lies.” In “Preface to the Epistles of St. James and St. Jude, he said, “Whatever does not teach Christ is not yet apostolic, even though St. Peter or St. Paul does the teaching.”

No matter which side of the debate one might take, As Lutherans we see the Bible first and foremost for what it teaches us about Jesus. And I believe that what Jesus taught, preached and lived is very instructive to us in this situation.

First, Jesus never said one word about homosexuality. He did, however say a great deal about self-righteousness. In Matthew 7 we read, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?” .

Second, Jesus could, and did challenge long accepted and deeply held religious beliefs and practices. He healed on the Sabbath; in the gospel lesson for August 30 he challenges the practices of ritual washing and declared that there were no forbidden foods. In the next few verses he healed the daughter of a gentile, a foreigner.

Third, Jesus chose as his followers, tax collectors and other sinners. He accepted women as worthy of respect in a time when they were considered chattels. Indeed, in John’s gospel a woman, Mary Magdalene, was the first person to see the risen Lord on Easter Sunday.

From this we learn that Jesus was not afraid to challenge accepted practices. He was not afraid to make waves. He was not afraid to befriend those who were considered to be outcasts by the religious people of the day.

Yet, Jesus preached a high, even impossible standard of morality. He taught that all of us are liars, adulterers, and murderers, if we’ve every even thought about those things. He spoke very plainly against divorce and remarriage. He taught that we must love our enemies and forgive endlessly.

For me, what we learn first from Jesus in regard to the decisions of the churchwide assembly, is that we are all sinners, and that we are all desperately in need of God’s grace. No matter where we stand on these issues, none of us is good enough to judge those who are on the other side. Second, we are already doing things that are contrary to the literal interpretation of Scripture. It’s hard now to remember, but ordination of women was just as controversial 40 years ago as are the issues we are facing today. We also accept divorced and remarried people as members of the clergy because we believe in God’s forgiveness and grace. We can do these things because we believe that as times change, the Holy Spirit can and does speak to us in new ways.

Third, as a very practical matter, these new rulings do not change the process by which a congregation calls a pastor. Authority to call a pastor rests with the congregation. No congregation will be forced to call a pastor that they do not feel is right for them, for any reason.

You will hear many things said about these issues in the coming weeks and months. However each of us may feel about these issues, let us remember the life and teachings of or Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and struggle to act in love to God through love to neighbor, as he would have us do.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Pat

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One thing I will take the time to dispute - congregations who consistently refuse to call a openly gay pastor will face displeasure and negative consequences from their synod. Perhaps it will not be right away, but eventually synods will not tolerate that type of discrimination any more than they tolerate churches who will not call a minority or a woman.

---Katie

Confessions of a Lutheran Refugee

2009-09-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

This is a good read. I don't completely agree with the view of women's ordination, because I believe that you can find scriptural support for both sides of the issue.

Confessions of a Lutheran Refugee

Lars Walker

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (as you doubtless know) decided, last month, to bless same-sex relationships, and to allow open homosexuals (if monogamous) to serve as clergy. I'm sure this action will lead to a perceptible (possibly dramatic) exodus of conservative churches and individuals from the denomination. I approve of this, and encourage it.

Still, I can already hear the accusations coming from the ELCA liberals and homosexual activists—“This isn’t about truth! It’s about hate! You people just can’t get past your homophobia!”

And in a sense, I understand the criticism. One might reasonably ask, “Why now? Has this problem come up all of a sudden (like the unpredicted tornado that knocked the cross off the steeple of Central Lutheran Church, a convention venue, during deliberations)? Why strain out this camel, when you’ve swallowed so many camels already?”

Please click on the title to read the rest.

----Katie

Damage at Central Lutheran

2009-08-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

Here is the article from Central Lutheran's website and pictures of the damage:

Tornadic winds do damage at Central

Historic steeple damaged; Outdoor food venues destroyed

A rare downtown tornado passed close enough to Central this afternoon to completely destroy the two outdoor food venues set up for the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, The Carillon Cafe and Pub Central. The winds came quickly and swiftly at about 2:00 p.m. today. There were no public events in session at Central when the tornado passed. The Assembly was in legislative session across the street at the Minneapolis Convention Center. There were about 75 persons inside Central when the storm struck. They were all ushered safely to the Lower Narthex by Central's security team. There were no injuries.

The Carillon Cafe had served nearly 800 persons the last two days and Pub Central was full last evening for its opening day. Those hospitality offerings to guests of the Assembly are canceled. The Great Lutheran "Potluck Favorites" Supper, scheduled for Thursday, previously to be served from the North Plaza, will now take place at the Minneapolis Convention Center beginning at 5:30 p.m. The supper immediately precedes the National Lutheran Choir Hymn Festival at Central, beginning at 8:00 p.m. All other Assembly week events at Central will go ahead as planned.

The Lutherans Concerned North America Eucharist will take place as scheduled tonight at 7:30 p.m.

"We give thanks to God that no one was injured by today's tornado," said the Rev. Rick Nelson, Central's senior pastor. "I also thank God for the extreme talent and seemingly endless energies of our magnificent staff, particularly all related to events, security, and maintenance around this place; and also the Convention Center catering staff who’ve been scrambling outside to make for safe and clean passage. All of them are wonderful servants of God, and faithful practitioners of grace."

Photos by Joe Bjordal

---Katie

This Does Make Me Ponder....

2009-08-19T20:35:00.001-07:00

I have been watching the ELCA Churchwide Assembly proceedings via live feed at elca.org. Today a tornado touched down in the area of the convention center. As voting members were discussing an amendment to the sexuality social statement which would have strengthened and supported wording regarding marriage, family and children, an amendment which was defeated, unfortunately, the winds knocked the cross off the steeple of nearby Central Lutheran Church, a church which has been ardent in its support of changing ministry standards and would be the location of the Goodsoil event that evening. Apparently part of the roof of the convention center was damaged as well.

I am a right wing nut for seeing any correlation between these events.

yeah

---Katie

Whole Foods CEO Ticks off the Liberals

2009-08-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

How dare he suggest free market solutions to the healthcare "crisis" when we are so close to getting government control of the whole thing!!!!

Check it out by clicking on the title....and shop at Whole Foods!

---Katie

Can you "Come Out" more than once?

2009-08-19T05:40:00.000-07:00

I guess so....

Ninety-five Lutherans come out during ELCA vote on gay pastors

by Andy Birkey

As the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) meets in Minneapolis to vote on the inclusion of openly gay and lesbian clergy, proponents are making sure the stories of gay and lesbian pastors are heard. Advocates are distributing a document in which 95 members of the Lutheran clergy — a number that references Martin Luther’s 95 Theses — announce that they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. The booklet, “One Table, Many Blessings” (pdf), shares how the ban on openly gay clergy has affected their lives.

Click on the title to read the entire article.

The Goodsoil folks did this at the last assembly as well. I can't say that the same people are in the two booklets because I don't have a copy from last time, but come on, folks, it is old news that Anita Hill is gay. Jen Nagel's ordination was in the news a lot last year. I think the press treating this as, "Oh, wow, look at all these pastors' coming out!" is a little, well, dramatic, if not disingenuous.

---Katie

ELCA Getting Noticed

2009-08-19T05:31:00.000-07:00

I've been keeping up with the ELCA Churchwide Assembly via the live feed at ELCA.org, twitter (#CWA09), and over at ALPB, where Richard Johnson is doing his usual excellent job. I thought rather than just post his stuff here, I'd post things I found outside the usual channels. Here is an article from the Get Religion blog:

Let's Get Ready to Rumble

Posted by Mollie

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America is having it’s biennial convention this week and we’re seeing coverage about the most politically exciting topic that will be debated — homosexuality.

There have already been a couple of good stories. It may seem like such a minor thing but I’m impressed that Patrick Condon of the Associated Press had an anecdotal lede with someone opposed to changing the church’s teaching on whether clergy who are in same-sex relationships should be on the church roster. Here it is:

FRIDLEY, Minn. — The Rev. Dave Glesne stood before the members of Redeemer Lutheran Church a few weeks ago and told them there might be some painful decisions in the near future.

Glesne is against letting people in same-sex relationships serve as pastors of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, and he says his congregation is behind him. They’re worried this suburban Minneapolis church could find itself on the losing side as leaders of the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination vote on whether to take that step at their biennial national convention, which starts Monday in Minneapolis.

“Of course the question was asked: What will we do, Pastor Dave, if this goes?” Glesne said. “The conversation we had left me no doubt that we will definitely have a discussion about leaving the ELCA.”

I’m just so used to seeing the heartbreaking stories from the other perspective and only from the other perspective that it’s a refreshing change and reminds us that there will be heartbreak and loss no matter who wins the theological debate. In fact, that’s a major theme of the story and includes some great quotes from people on opposing sides.

Click on the title to read the entire article.

---Katie

And we want government controlled healthcare...

2009-08-05T06:49:00.001-07:00

Three of the four words on this sign are misspelled.

Picture of Obama

2009-08-03T18:18:00.000-07:00

This picture shows Obama not bothering to help his "friend" Henry Louis Gates, while the man Obama and Gates called "racist," Crowley, assists the frail Gates down the steps. As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.....

---Katie

Look! A Taxpayer!

2009-07-10T11:07:00.001-07:00

I stole this...if I knew where it came from I'd give credit...
---Katie

Cap and Trade Carbongate?

2009-06-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

The House just passed the Waxman Cap and Trade Bill which will increase energy costs for everyone....is it all based on faulty information?

Climate Change: A suppressed EPA study says old U.N. data ignore the decline in global temperatures and other inconvenient truths. Was the report kept under wraps to influence the vote on the cap-and-trade bill?

Read more in this editorial from IBDeditorials.com - click on the title!

And if your congresscritter voted for that thing, vote the s*b out!

----Katie

Speaking of Bombs....

2009-05-26T06:16:00.000-07:00

Were you aware that a series of small bombs have been detonated in NY? Neither was I...

Small Bomb Goes Off Outside Upper East Side Starbucks
New York Daily News ^ | Barry Paddock and Jonathan Lemire

A small improvised explosive device detonated outside an Upper East Side Starbucks early Monday morning, shattering the coffee shop's windows and raising fears of terrorism.

The bomb tore a hole in a wooden bench outside the coffee chain's outpost at Third Ave. and E. 92nd St. when it exploded at 3:30 a.m.

No one was injured in the blast, but it terrified residents who had been fast asleep early on Memorial Day.

"I heard a giant noise -- a big, giant noise, like a crash -- and there was a flash," said Jordan Kovnot, 26, a law student who lives above the Starbucks. "It made me jump up."

"It felt like an earthquake," said Adrianna Ebans, 28, who was among more than a dozen residents evacuated from the apartments above the Starbucks. "We were all really scared."

Scores of detectives are crawling over the blast site, looking for surveillance video and trying to determine the nature of the low-grade explosive device, which investigators believe was either placed on or taped to the bench.

"We don't know the motive. Obviously it's a cause for concern," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. "We're going to do an in-depth investigation."

No one had claimed credit for the blast, nor was it called in ahead of time, said Kelly.

Kelly -- who noted that Starbucks branches have been victimized in other cities by protestors angry at the chain's global reach -- said investigators were also exploring whether this morning's blast was connected to other previous small explosions in the city.

Click on the title....

Move along folks, nothing to see here....

---Katie

Homegrown Islamic Jihad in the Bronx: Now We Are All Israelis

2009-05-26T05:47:00.000-07:00

From the Chesler Chronicles:

Riverdale, in the Bronx, is a gloriously leafy, hilly, and peaceful suburb. I have visited its extraordinary gardens and gracious homes which overlook the Hudson river. More often, I’ve visited a close friend and her family who live there. I have studied, dined, and prayed with them. I have attended lectures at Riverdale synagogues. Riverdale is as close to me, both personally, psychologically, and geographically, as was the World Trade Center.

In response to a gruesome series of Islamic-Palestinian synagogue bombings in Europe, police officers guarded Europe’s synagogues and Jewish Centers. Now, synagogues all over New York City, tend to have barricades or some kind of police presence outside. We are now all Israelis: Not just the Jews, but the world’s civilians.

And thus, four African-American converts to Islam, all of whom converted to Islam in prison, have been arrested by the FBI just as they attempted to bomb two Riverdale synagogues, (the Riverdale Jewish Center and the Riverdale Temple), in the Bronx and a New York National Guard air base in Newburgh, New York where they lived and attended a mosque.

Click on the title to read the rest of the article by Phyllis Chesler.
------------

This is pretty ominous. African-Americans who converted to Islam in prison plotted to bomb synagogues in New York. Most media reports of this incident did not include the race or religion of the suspects. The article goes on to quote statistics of prison conversions to Islam, to note that the funding for this recruitment comes from the Saudis, and to suggest that we "reform our prison system, including a reform of our drug laws, so that we jail fewer inmates and do not provide such a fertile breeding ground for anti-American and anti-Jewish Islamic terrorism."

One item I found interesting is that Islam is possibly presented to inmates as a "religion of many colors, as especially friendly to men of African descent with jihad presented as a way to overcome oppression." It is probably not presented that Islamic leaders were instrumentally involved in the African slave trade to America and even today keep slaves and persecute black Africans (Christians and Animists?) in Darfur.

Quite an informative article.

---Katie

Switched at Birth

2009-05-11T19:20:00.000-07:00

How weird would this be....

HEPPNER, Ore. — Two baby girls switched at birth 56 years ago have finally found out about the mistake.

DeeAnn Angell of Fossil and Kay Rene Reed of Condon learned about the mistake from an 86-year-old woman who was a former neighbor.

The former neighbor said that one of the girls' mothers, Marjorie Angell, insisted back in 1953 that she had been given the wrong baby after nurses returned from bathing them.

But her concerns were brushed off.

With both sets of parents dead, the Reed and Angell siblings compared notes and family stories, learning that rumors of a mix-up had been around for years.

Kay Rene Reed decided to get some DNA testing done, and that confirmed the mistake.

But she and DeeAnn say there just have to move forward with their lives now, and they celebrated their latest birthday together earlier this month.

----
Wow.

---Katie

Charlie Crist for Senate?

2009-05-11T06:34:00.000-07:00

I sure hope not, but it looks like he is running. Conservatives need to get behind someone else, perhaps former House Speaker Marco Rubio who looks like he will be Crist's conservative challenger for the nomination. It is still early in the game, but we don't need another RINO representing Florida! Crist is not a real conservative and does not support limiting government power and spending. Please note that he campaigned in FL for passage of Obama's stimulus package. Enough said.

Massacre Prevented by Armed Citizen

2009-05-07T05:55:00.000-07:00

Wonder how much press this will get - not nearly as much as it would have if the thugs had not been prevented from proceeding with what they apparently intended to do!

Click on the title for the entire article.

A group of college students were in an apartment when two armed intruders burst in through a patio door, separated the men and women, and demanded everyone's cell phones and wallets. They they started counting bullets (cartridges for the gun informed). One thug asked the other how many bullets he had - the answer was he had enough.

At that point, one of the students grabbed a gun out of his backpack and shot at the thug who was watching the men, who then ran out of the apartment. The student then ran to the room where the other thug was preparing to rape the student's girlfriend. He told the girls to get down and started shooting. The thug jumped out the window and expired shortly thereafter, near his own apartment.

We have had several tragedies recently where multiple people were killed by a gunman. Here we have a massacre prevented by an armed citizen. I wish this would get as much press as the other incidents, but since it advances the idea that people can and should be able to defend themselves with deadly force, we probably won't hear much about it.

Perhaps 20/20 could do an expose on everything that this young man did wrong and why he should not have been armed....

---Katie

How Others Think.... (ELCA)

2009-05-06T04:48:00.000-07:00

There are some interesting insights in this piece for anyone who has ever asked, "How can these people think this is a good idea?"

How others think . . .

by Rev. Frederick W. Baltz, WordAlone board member, Galena, Ill.

When people in the churches hear what is coming before the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Churchwide Assembly in August they often ask: "How can anyone believe we should make such a change when the Bible is clear?"

Allow me to offer an opinion about that, after wondering myself for a long time now.

First, if we assume those who would change our ministry standards are completely unbiblical in their approach, we are mistaken. Listen and you will often hear them talk about being prophetic, and about "justice issues." Their biblical platform is to a large extent the Old Testament prophets. Not the Isaiahs or Jeremiahs as much as the Amoses and the Hoseas. Making the huge mistake of believing anyone can be called to the prophetic ministry by desire, rather than by call, they have set out to be prophets, and prophets as they understand them must have someone evil to oppose. That would be us.

There is another understanding of the prophetic ministry that makes it above all the proclamation of the Gospel. In that respect we are all prophets, as Joel 2:28-32 put it, followed by Peter in Acts 2:17-21, "I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy."(Acts 2.18b) But "the prophetic" for many in the ELCA now seems to mean "the political."

Another biblical contact point for those who would change the ministry standards is their criticism of Pharisees. Pharisees are understood by them as any people who quote some tradition of the elders and oppose the changes Jesus would surely want to make. Pharisees are said to be hypocritical and not to be respected for their different points of view. They would say that you can spot Pharisees; they are always the ones against change. Again, that would be us.

Why do I so often sense a judgmental anger among people whom I know want the ministry standards changed? How do people who are at least nominally Lutherans have such little difficulty condemning others as sinners whose beliefs about homosexuality don't match their own? I truly believe a substantial number of people in ELCA leadership circles believe the denomination would be far better off without its conservatives, or, to them, Pharisees. If so, they are not particularly concerned that the ELCA might split this summer. In fact, they may hope it does! The Pharisees would be gone!

It is important to try to understand how others think. Only in that way can we work out differences and reach agreement. If others in the ELCA think about us as I'm afraid they do, reaching agreement doesn't look promising.

(This came from the Word Alone Network mailing list. For more information and articles on ELCA topics, click on the title!)

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Hmmm. I think I remember being called a Pharisee from the pulpit once...or twice.

---Katie

20/20 Anti-Gun Hit Piece Was Rigged

2009-04-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

No big surprise here....

From the article:
* The victim wore a helmet and bulky gloves. Obviously there was a safety issue, so the helmet is understandable. But why the gloves? They appeared too large. They certainly made drawing and firing a handgun far more difficult than it should be. I've run through scenarios similar to this and never wore gloves. Hits sting, but they don't hurt.
* The victim carried an unfamiliar gun and holster. Is that the gun he would have actually carried? Is that the holster he would have used? The video showed the holster placed in an awkward position and at a difficult angle, not likely the way the young man would have carried the gun in real life.
* The victim had to draw from concealment under a long shirt. Is this the shirt he would really wear? Did he receive any instruction on drawing from a holster, with gloves, from that oddly placed holster, from beneath that long shirt? We'll never know, but the video didn't show any training beyond a little ordinary target practice at short range.
* The shooter knew there was an armed student in the classroom. This is a big error in the experiment. What mass shooter would enter a room where he knew there was someone with a gun to shoot back?
* The shooter shot the lecturer first, then turned directly to the young man and began firing. How convenient it was for the shooter to know who was armed and where he was sitting so he could quickly take out the one and only threat in the room.
* The shooter knew he could be fired at, but showed no surprise at the sight of a gun. The experiment was repeated with other "victims" under the same circumstances and not once did the shooter react in surprise. In real life, a shooter won't expect any resistance and is likely to react when shot at.
* The shooter was a professional firearm instructor and a good shot under stress. Not exactly realistic, since real mass murderers are usually just insane people with guns.

Also from the article:

Did Sawyer talk to anyone who thought carrying a gun was a good idea? No. Did she consider any statistics about how often ordinary people defend themselves with a gun? No. Did she get a statement from the NRA, a police officer, an instructor, or a citizen with even a hint that a gun might possibly give you an advantage? No. She didn't even bother to talk to John Stossel, a fellow reporter whose office is down the hall at ABC, reports for 20/20, and has debunked anti-gun propaganda on many occasions.

-----
Click on the title to read the entire article at the Buckeye Firearms Association site.

Guns and ammo are selling at unheard of rates, most likely because we have an administration and congress who would love to restrict the rights of individuals to purchase, own and carry firearms as much as possible. Nancy Pelosi has stated that she does not want to take firearms away, she just wants them registered. Historically, registration is usually followed by confiscation. The media will continue to try to scare us into demonizing and restricting firearm ownership and use. Let's not let them fool us into giving up our right to defend ourselves against criminals and, frankly, oppressive government. That's why we have the second amendment, you know, not so we can protect ourselves against criminals or go hunting - it is there so that we can defend ourselves against tyrannical government. That's really why the left is so against guns.

---Katie

He Lives!

2009-04-11T17:04:00.001-07:00

The Truth about PETA

2009-04-11T16:34:00.000-07:00

If you think PETA cares for helpless animals, think again:

Public Records: PETA Found Adoptive Homes for Less than 1 out of 300 Animals

Animal lovers worldwide now have access to more than a decade’s worth of proof that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) kills thousands of defenseless pets at its Norfolk, Virginia headquarters. Since 1998, PETA has opted to “put down” 21,339 adoptable dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens instead of finding homes for them.

PETA’s “Animal Record” report for 2008, filed with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, shows that the animal rights group killed 95 percent of the dogs and cats in its care last year. During all of 2008, PETA found adoptive homes for just seven pets.

Just seven animals -- out of the 2,216 it took in. PETA just broke its own record.

Click on the title for the entire article.

---Katie

Coal in the Easter Basket

2009-03-26T07:39:00.000-07:00

Chuck Colson
The Christian Post

Western Christians, both Protestants and Catholics, are currently observing Lent, the 40-day season preceding Easter. Through self-denial, alms-giving, and prayer, many Christians prepare themselves to properly commemorate our Lord’s passion and resurrection.

Lenten self-denial traditionally includes giving something up we enjoy, like a particular food or pleasurable activity. Well, this year, clergy in Britain are asking their dwindling flocks to give up coal for Lent.

Well, sort of. The Anglican bishops of Liverpool and London have called for a “carbon fast” this Lent. Instead of giving up, say, chocolate or meat, people should reduce the amount of greenhouse gases they produce.

Thus, preparing for Good Friday and Easter consists of actions such as the following: “avoiding plastic bags”; “giving the dishwasher a day off”; “insulating the hot water tank”; and “checking the house for drafts.” I’m serious.

Perhaps the bishops were aware of how, well, silly this sounds because they had to cloak it in language like this: It is “individual and collective action” on behalf of the poor. According to the Bishop of Liverpool, “it is the poor who are already suffering the effects of climate change,” and “to carry on regardless of their plight is to fly in the face of Christian teaching.”

It’s true that “carrying on” while ignoring the plight of the poor violates Christian teaching. What’s not so clear is how giving your dishwasher a day off or using paper instead of plastic fulfills your Christian duty to the poor.

Then again, as Frank Furedi of the University of Kent reminds us, the religion being appealed to here isn’t Christianity but, instead, “environmentalism [as] a caricature of a religion.” He calls the carbon fast a “morally illiterate attempt to recycle” Christian practices “as a form of environmentally correct behavior.”

In this caricature, according to Furedi, “original sin has been reinvented as a wicked act of ‘carbon emission.’” Instead of the Seven Deadly Sins, we have “everyday behaviors,” including your morning latte, turned into an offense against the planet and, oh yes, the poor.

Of course, recycling and conserving energy, however sensible, won’t make any difference whatsoever in the lives of the poor. And it certainly shouldn’t be passed off as a “sacrifice” for their sake. Its only beneficiaries will be westerners who will feel better about their own lives, even as the lives of the supposed beneficiaries remain untouched.

The saddest part about this “carbon fast” business is that our preparation for Good Friday and Easter ought to include an examination of our assumptions about what constitutes the “good life.” The global recession is a painful reminder of the dangers of laying up our treasures where moths, rust, and thieves—including those in expensive suits—can take them from us. This will be the subject of tomorrow's broadcast.

God may be calling us to live more simply—but it ought to be as an expression of our trust in Him, not fear of an environmental doomsday. This, in turn, will enable our concern for the least of our brethren to go beyond choosing paper over plastic.

-------------------

"...environmentalism as a caricature of a religion." An apt description, I think.

---Katie

The Lamentable Republican Civil War

2009-03-19T06:54:00.000-07:00

I always appreciate Thomas Sowell's writing. I'm not so sure I agree with him about Republicans' fighting amongst themselves being a bad thing. It seems to me that conservatives either need to take control of the party or form another party that is able to articulate conservative principles to groups beyond the traditional constituency of the Republicans. Click on the title to read the entire article from the Philadelphia Bulletin!

The Lamentable Republican Civil War

By Thomas Sowell, For The Bulletin
Thursday, March 19, 2009

As if it is not enough that they have been decimated by the Democrats in the past couple of elections, the Republican survivors are now turning their guns on each other.

At the heart of these internal battles have been attacks on Rush Limbaugh by Republicans who imagine themselves to be so much more sophisticated because they are so much more in step with the political fashions of the time.

New Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele’s cheap shot at Rush’s program as “ugly” set off the latest round of in-fighting. That is the kind of thing that is usually said by liberals who have never listened to the program.

Regular listeners to the Rush Limbaugh program or subscribers to the Limbaugh newsletter know that both contain far more factual information and in-depth analysis than in the programs or writings of pundits with more of a ponderous tone or intellectual airs.

-------- snip

There is certainly a lot to be said for inviting wider segments of the population to join you, by explaining how your principles benefit the country in general, and those segments in particular. But that is fundamentally different from abandoning your principles in hopes of attracting new votes with opportunism.

No segment of the population has lost more by the agendas of the liberal constituencies of the Democratic Party than the black population.

The teachers’ unions, environmental fanatics and the ACLU are just some of the groups to whose interests blacks have been sacrificed wholesale. Lousy education and high crime rates in the ghettos, and unaffordable housing elsewhere with building restrictions, are devastating prices to pay for liberalism.

Yet the Republicans have never articulated that argument, and their opportunism in trying to get black votes by becoming imitation Democrats has failed miserably for decades on end.

-----------end

It seems to me that the recent election proved that being "Democrat Lite" has failed the Republicans miserably. It is time to encourage those Republicans who think we need to be more like the Democrats to gain votes to just go ahead and become Democrats. Let the Republican party stand for conservative ideals and articulate them clearly instead of being embarrassed by those who do.

---Katie

The Coming Storm

2009-03-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in the recommendations of the sexuality study task force in the ELCA as well as the proposed social statement on sexuality, please check it out at www.elca.org. The recommendations related to homosexuality and the church are basically a local option type of recommendation, which means there will not be one standard for the whole church. I personally would prefer they choose one side or the other and go with it.

Here is one pastor's reaction (I do have permission to print it.):

The Coming Storm
by John S. McKenzie

For many years, there has been a movement within the ELCA to normalize same-sex practice. In the last ten years, this has taken the form of a push to ordain practicing homosexuals and lesbians into the public ministry.

Scripture is not ambiguous about same-sex relations. It is clearly against them. The moral tradition of the Church is not ambiguous about same-sex relations. It is clearly against them. As far as God’s will can be discerned from Scripture and the Great Tradition, God’s will is not ambiguous about same-sex relations. It is clearly against them.

In 2005, revisionists approached the national convention with a proposal to change discipline and allow practicing homosexuals to engage in the public ministry of the Church. The national assembly said “No”, but allowed for a task force on a social statement on sexuality to address the question in their report. The task force has now reported back with its recommendations. They recommend a variation on local option. If a synod wants to ordain practicing homosexuals, it should be allowed to do so. To borrow a phrase from Elijah, we would limp about with two opinions regarding the will of God for those engaged in the public ministry of the church.

Homosexual behavior should not be singled out among sins. All of us are all guilty of private sin. Martin Luther insisted that private sins be dealt with by confession and absolution which is what we do every week. Luther, however insisted that public sin of which one refused to repent was to be dealt with by excommunication until public repentance could happen. That is because a church that continues in fellowship with those who sin publicly and refuse to repent is undermined. We look to all the world as hypocrites who do not believe what we claim to believe.

It is for this reason that ongoing, public and unrepentant sin among persons involved in the public ministry of the church is such a problem. It says to all the world, “God thinks one thing, but we think something else.” This is true whether the sin is pride, envy, anger, covetousness, sloth, gluttony, or lust. It is not that clergy do not commit all of these sins early and often. They do and they repent and they try to do better. The problem is when clergy refuse to repent saying, “That which I do is not really sin. I do not need to repent.” This is what the denomination is preparing to affirm in August: The sin of homosexual behavior committed by clergy in life-long committed relationship is not sin.

If any of the task force’s four propositions passes in August, the ELCA will be officially post-Christian. That is to say, without ambiguity, we deliberately chose to believe and act outside the revealed will of God. If anyone ever asks you what Unitarians believe, give them a copy of the four propositions. In the 1800s influential leaders in Christian congregations disagreed with the Great Tradition on the nature of God. The solution was to respect every member’s bound conscience and hold all truths as relative. The Unitarians embraced a different gospel. The Gospel of the redemption of sinners was replaced by the gospel of inclusion: It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you come to a Unitarian church to believe it. The Unitarians became post-Christian.

Look at some of the post-Christian implications contained in the four propositions forwarded by the task force:
“If we disagree, then God has no opinion.”
“It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere.”
“My conscience trumps the will of God revealed in Scripture and the Great Tradition.”
“It is more important that everyone feel welcomed and included than that we be obedient to God.”
“You can hold to a truth as long as you don’t express it in a way that offends or limits another person’s truth.”
“In the end, everything is relative: the will of God is a wax nose that we can shape any way we want.”

The point of participation in any denomination is that it provide a connecting link with the one holy catholic and apostolic Church. At one time, I believed the ELCA might be the fullest expression of that Church. Now I am bitterly disappointed with what the ELCA has become. Rather than the vineyard of the Lord, it has become a playground for groups with agendas. Here is the question that drives me out: Why would a Christian remain in a denomination that had intentionally severed its connection with the one holy catholic and apostolic Church in order to appease special interests?

Let me take an aside here. I have long thought and prayed about the motives of the revisionists. They see themselves as compassionate people defending poor beleaguered homosexuals from the ravages of evil hetero hate-speaking homophobes, and as advocating for justice.

Yet this self-perception is not a necessary and sufficient explanation for why they are willing to undermine Scripture and Tradition, change gospels, and take the ELCA out of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church. This is something that has kept me puzzled for a long time.

Here is my answer. Whenever you establish a special class within an organization for whatever reason, there is a temptation for the members of that class to see themselves as an elite. We have a class of pastors, academics and professional church bureaucrats in the ELCA. They feel great solidarity with one another and with the elites in politics, in the media, in liberal denominations, and in academe. Our elites have become elitists. They see themselves as the intellectuals—the ones who should be doing the thinking for all the rest of us. Elitists love to call the shots and create movement in an organization. They crave progress which other elitists can recognize and applaud. They need both for themselves and for others, demonstrations of their power and authority. The presenting issue of the normalization of homosexual behavior in the public ministry of the denomination is something of a Trojan horse. The real point is that the elites establish themselves and their “bound consciences”, rather than the revealed will of God in Scripture and Tradition, as the final authority in this organization. This is why they can never accept “No” as an answer. This is why they have turned the church upside down in the last ten years. The game is not over until they win.

The four propositions look like a formula for peace extended in the spirit of compromise. But beware elitists offering peace. They do so in true Stalinist fashion. This will be temporary peace. Since this has little to do with sex and mostly to do with control, the resistance will gradually be mopped up, the evil hetero hate-speaking homophobes will be pushed out or isolated, and the revolution will continue. More demonstrations of their power must come. The only thing ruling elites ever wanted was more control. The vote in August is about taking the Church away from the Holy Spirit so that the smartest people in the room might increase their control.

--------------

---Katie

Armed Citizens as First Responders

2009-03-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

What would happen in our country if more responsible people were licensed for concealed carry and actually were present at potential mass shootings? This article makes a case for more responsible citizens being armed to increase the chances that someone armed could stop a mass tragedy in its tracks.

Armed Citizens as First Responders

Daniel White

In the field of medicine, the Golden Hour refers to the period of time immediately following a traumatic injury and the idea that the ultimate outcome of the injury is determined by the treatment the patient receives during that time, which can range from a few minutes to a few hours. It is often the first responders, preferably paramedics, who have the greatest impact on a victim's survival.

The clearest illustration of this principle can be seen when considering the scenario of a heart attack. If a person suffers a heart attack in a hospital, help is moments away. Treatment begins immediately, and a person stands the best chance of survival. However, if a person is hiking in a remote area and help takes three hours to make it to the scene, that person has a greatly reduced chance of a positive outcome.

Think, then, to a situation where a lunatic goes on a shooting spree in a shopping mall. Average police response time to a high priority call within city limits can range from 5-10 minutes. Add additional time to access the building, assess the situation, locate and neutralize the shooter, and you're looking at a minimum of 20 minutes. A shooter can get off several hundred rounds in that time and a lot of deaths can occur before the police can stop the attack. The scenario changes drastically if an armed citizen is already on the scene and can appropriately respond.

Click on the title to read the rest from the Cleveland Gun Rights Examiner.

---Katie

Orders We Will Not Obey

2009-03-18T06:05:00.000-07:00

I have often wondered what it would take for the United States to become a totalitarian society. It could happen if our police forces were federalized and our military was used within our borders to quell dissent from states or individuals. An organization called Oath Keepers is asking police and members of the military to think about the possibilities and pledge not to turn on the American people by promising not to follow certain orders.

Here are the "Orders We Will Not Obey:"

1) We will not obey orders to disarm the American people.

2) We will not obey orders to conduct warrantless searches of the American people.

3) We will not obey orders to detain American citizens as "unlawful enemy combatants" or subject them to military tribunal.

4) We will not obey orders to impose martial law or a "state of emergency" on a state. (I believe this is qualified with "without the invitation of the governor or state legislature.")

5) We will not obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.

6) We will not obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.

7) We will not obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.

8) We will not obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on US soil against the American people to "keep the peace" or "maintain control."

9) We will not obey orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies.

10) We will not obey orders which infringe on the rights of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.

Do we need this? Could this happen in the United States of America? Read your history. Look at what happened in Germany and the USSR. Look at how politicians use emergencies, real or manufactured, to increase their power over the institutions and people of a country. Are you concerned that the powers we gave our government after 9/11 are now in the hands of leaders who are essentially Marxist and would like to change our whole economic and governmental system?

Of course, we could solve this whole issue if we could get our politicians to sign the above list, changing the beginning of each statement to "I will not give orders..." Or we could insist that our leaders obey the constitution and only vote for those politicians who promised to do so.

Click on the title to learn more about Oath Keepers and to see the entire declaration.

---Katie

Gun Control

2009-03-08T10:44:00.000-07:00

Protecting Conscience

2009-03-03T12:49:00.000-08:00

You may not have heard that the Obama administration is considering rewriting the rules that protect medical providers from violating their consciences by providing treatment that would be against their religious beliefs. The following article is from Chuck Colson's Breakpoint:

An Obstacle to Tyranny

Last week, what the Washington Post characterized as a “terse posting on a federal Web site” set the stage for a debate on just how seriously our society takes freedom of conscience.

The posting announced that the Obama administration was planning to rescind “job protections for health workers who refuse to provide care they find objectionable.” These explicit protections were issued in the last few months of the Bush administration.

Under the current provisions, health care providers can lose federal funds if they don’t accommodate health-care workers “who refuse to participate in care they feel violates their . . . moral or religious beliefs.” The regulations covered “state and local governments, hospitals, health plans, clinics and other entities.”

Health-care providers and “abortion rights” advocates were quick to attack the Bush administration for promulgating the regulations. Groups like the American Medical Association said they opposed the regulations because, as they put it, “health-care providers have an obligation” to advise patients “of the options despite their own beliefs.”

At the same time, they said that the regulations were unnecessary because “there are already laws [that protect] health-care professionals” who refuse to provide care for personal reasons.

Well, not so fast. The rules were established in response to what the Catholic Health Association called “a variety of efforts to force Catholic and other health care providers to perform or refer for abortions and sterilizations.”

In a country that treasures freedom, what could possibly justify compelling people to violate their consciences? There is a long tradition established in the law and court cases not to do this, as in the case of conscientious objectors not being compelled to serve in the military.

Reportedly, some officials believe that protecting health-care workers’ consciences creates a “major obstacle to providing many health services” and even interferes with “scientific research.”

It is difficult to imagine what “scientific research” they have in mind—a pro-life researcher is not likely to choose a specialty where the destruction of unborn human life is a pre-requisite.

And by “many health services,” what’s really meant is “pharmacists.” One of the groups leading the charge for rescinding the rule is the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. Its members have joined with Planned Parenthood to force pharmacists to dispense prescriptions that violate their religious beliefs, even when the prescription can be filled elsewhere.

In other words, the government is considering undermining religious freedom and freedom of conscience for the sake of convenience. They can’t even argue it’s necessary. If someone objects, for conscience’ sake, to facilitate abortion, anybody is free to go to another doctor or druggist.

Remember—freedom of conscience is the first freedom. And people who can be compelled to act in violation of their most deeply held convictions are not free in any meaningful sense.

The good news is that this appears to be a “trial balloon” of sorts. Administration officials are expecting lots of comments on the proposed change. And we shouldn’t disappoint them. Let them know that we value freedom of conscience too highly to let it be sacrificed, especially to those driven by ideology and profit.

Because what government officials are regarding as an “obstacle” is, in fact, the very foundation of our freedom—and the first defense against tyranny.

Click on the title to visit the Breakpoint website.

I have read elsewhere that Catholic hospitals would likely shut down rather than provide abortion services.

---Katie

Tuesday is Square Root Day!

2009-03-02T20:30:00.000-08:00

03/03/09

A date like that happens only nine times in a century. Can you figure out what is special about it?

Click on the title to read the AP article.

---Katie

What a Wonderful Tribute!

2009-02-22T15:22:00.000-08:00

We had a celebration at St. John today. We honored the man who has been a lay minister of the congregation for about 34 years. He turns ninety years old in August and is still going strong in ministry. It was just great to hear how many people he has touched. In addition to ministering to St. John's members (shut-in, hospitalized, grieving, and others), Ed led worship out at Disney every six weeks, worked closely with Great Oaks Village (a local children's home/shelter), worked with the Christian Service Center (homeless shelter, "soup kitchen") and I'm sure much, much more....I only wish I had his energy and drive!

Disney gave Ed a Mouscar, their answer to an Oscar, and had a representative there to present it to him. Orange County and the City of Orlando each had a representative there to read a proclamation from his respective municipality. One, I think it was Orange County, declared today to be Ed Soistman Day!

The church was packed. There were people from many years of St. John's life. I so enjoyed seeing folks I have not seen in years as well as people who are still friends living in the area. I know it must have meant a lot to Ed to see that so many people love him and care enough to come out and honor him in such a way.

Of course, nothing goes without a glitch...we arrived at church to find that the bathrooms, all of them, were out of order. Thank goodness they worked at the two houses the church owns across the street! Of course, with over 400 guests, lines got long!

My one negative comment - seeing all the love poured out on Ed today, seeing how important he has been to the community, not just St. John, it really made the FL-Bahamas Synod look small and petty for way they have treated him. I'm proud of Ed for sticking to his principles and and standing up for those who were being mistreated at St. John. He paid a price, but he did the right thing.

Thanks Ed! God bless you!

---Katie

Presidency is a Step Down For Obama

2009-02-21T05:32:00.000-08:00

This just leaves me speechless....

"Nightline" co-anchor Terry Moran gave an interview on Friday to the Media Bistro's "Morning Media Menu" podcast and compared Barack Obama to George Washington. Talking to host and editor Steve Krakauer, Moran gushed, "I like to say that, in some ways, Barack Obama is the first President since George Washington to be taking a step down into the Oval Office." (For those who have forgotten, George Washington defeated the strongest military power in the world. Barack Obama was a community organizer.)

Moran continued, "I mean, from visionary leader of a giant movement, now he's got an executive position that he has to perform in, in a way."

On his Twitter page later, the ABC journalist attempted to explain his over-the-top comparison. Moran, who can be seen in the above file photo, contended, "I said like only Washington, Obama came to office as more than a politician, a visionary leader for many. Now 's he's got a job."

And while Moran seemed to link Obama to Washington, a man that many consider the greatest president ever, he still found time to critique other journalists. Speaking of Matt Lauer's pre-Super Bowl interview with the President, he described the NBC host's tone as "kind of, 'Hey, it must be neat to be president.'" Moran derided, "Which to me struck kind of an off-note, because you know, now he is President, and there is a necessary bit of distance there, which I detected."

Co-host Glynnis MacNicol, also an editor at Media Bistro, asked the "Nightline" anchor about journalists who have gone to work for the Obama administration and whether they're in the pocket of the Obama. Moran admitted, "I don't think its any secret, and it hasn't been for 30 plus years, that journalists in their personal views at the national level tend to be more liberal than the rest of America. And I think that every poll has basically shown that."

Moran then added that he didn't think this bias skewed coverage in the President's favor. Predictably, he offered up a common journalist canard about the Iraq war: "Many people said that the coverage of the run-up to the Iraq war was skewed to the right, rather than the left." In fact, as a study by the Media Research Center found, the media, and ABC in particular, was extremely negative and critical of the Bush's motives for going to war in Iraq.

----
Um...ok....
Click on the title for the article at NewsBusters.

---Katie

A View of Things to Come

2009-02-13T05:46:00.000-08:00

I found this interesting in general, but specifically because Anderson is my mom's hometown, also close to where I went to college and close to my husband's hometown! This is in South Carolina.

Protest at Anderson fire station construction site enters second day

ANDERSON — Civil unrest escalated Thursday while protesters stood outside the Anderson construction site of a city fire station and said the workers on the project were not documented as legal United States residents.

Chad Summerall, the owner of Summerall Masonry Inc. in Anderson, organized the protest on Simpson Road and asked a half-dozen people to hold up signs. He is frustrated because he thinks companies have been relying on illegal immigrants to push bids so low his company cannot compete.

Officials for the fire station project have said that the workers are documented as legal residents.

Summerall said that two truckloads of Hispanics drove by protesters on Thursday and angrily asked the protesters to meet them down the street.

He also said that a plumber working on the fire station site told the protesters to “go to McDonald’s and get a job.”

“I will be out here until I get a job,” Summerall said.

More than 40 residents have also signed a petition from protesters stating they were concerned about social justice and the hiring of legal workers. The petition will eventually be presented to city of Anderson officials, Summerall said.

--------------
Click on the title to read the entire article.

I think as economic times get tougher and people find it harder to get jobs and get contracts, there is going to be much less tolerance of companies that cut costs by hiring illegals.

---Katie

Racial Divide Continues....

2009-01-21T06:07:00.000-08:00

I know it is a risk to address racial issues...but I'm going to try anyway.

If you thought that electing an African American as our 44th president would prove that the United States is not a racist country, think again. It is not in the interest of the folks who make a living crying racism to let the issue die. Am I the only person incensed at the following "benediction" at the inaugural by James Lowery?

"Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around...when yellow will be mellow... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right."

Now come on, I remember "separate but equal," but most of my life has been spent in the age of affirmative action and equal opportunity. When was the last time "black was asked to get in the back?" Prayers like that do not serve to unite us, only to perpetuate the divisions that hold all of us back.

I guess I am not the only one unhappy with Lowery.

---Katie

People are getting tired....

2009-01-10T07:12:00.000-08:00

....of being bullied by criminals.

From today's Sentinel:

Gunfire at a South Orange Blossom Trail carwash Friday left a suspected robber dead at the hands of his intended victim, Orange County deputies said.

The attack took place about 6:40 p.m. when two men, one armed with a sawed-off shotgun, walked up to a customer inside a carwash bay at 5101 S. Orange Blossom Trail. They tried to rob the patron, but he pulled out a handgun and fired, striking one of his attackers, Cmdr. Paul "Spike" Hopkins said.

"The bad guy was killed, and this guy [the customer] is safe tonight," Hopkins said. Investigators did not release the names of those involved. The second suspect ran off and had not been found early today.

Friday's shooting was the second time in four days that a customer at an Orange County business shot and killed a robbery suspect.

-----

Read more by clicking on the title!

While I don't rejoice at the death of anyone, I am glad that it is becoming riskier to be a crook. I am glad that responsible people are getting concealed carry permits and are willing to stop violent crime. The police can't be everywhere and apparently we can't keep these violent criminals off the streets.

---Katie

Have you read "The Shack?"

2008-11-07T21:19:00.000-08:00

I haven't...I tried but I could not get into it. I ordered it from the library after a woman at the bookstore told me how life changing it was. The first few pages did not catch my interest and I have so many books in the pile waiting for me to read them, I gave up. After reading this review, perhaps it is just as well. From Hank Hanegraaff, The Bible Answer Man:

Over the last few months I've been hearing more and more about a book titled The Shack by William Young, who goes by his middle name, Paul. Some, like my mother, are profoundly disturbed by the content of this book. Others are saying that it is the best book they have ever read. In fact Eugene Peterson says "This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress did for his. It's that good."

After reading a front page article in the Life section of USA Today and hearing a comment by a colleague, I decided to open the door on The Shack. Here's the deal: I have to confess that Young's stereotypical characterization of the Father as a large, beaming African-American woman, the Son is a Jew with a large nose, and the Holy Spirit is a mysterious Asian female makes me more than just a little queasy.

Furthermore, virtually every theological heresy begins with a misconception of the nature of God and The Shack is no exception. After chiding those he believes to have misconceptions about the Trinity Young proceeds to compromise, confuse and outright contradict biblical orthodoxy.

For example, he pictures the Father bearing crucifixion scars as well as being incarnated in tandem with the Holy Spirit. Not only so, but he pontificates that Jesus has never drawn upon His nature as God to do anything. Of course those who have read the Bible even once will immediately recognize the falsity of that statement, particularly with respect to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

One more point. Young has Jesus - the Jew with the big nose - declaring "I am not a Christian and I have no desire to make them" - and the them is Buddhists, Mormons, Muslims, etc. - "Christians." Indeed, Young describes Christians as religious fanatics and part of a sinful world system. Of course in sharp distinction the followers of Christ adopted the word "Christian" in the midst of suffering and persecution. You can see examples of that in the Book of Acts written by Luke or by Peter, such as 1 Peter 4:16.

The fact that The Shack is now being touted by those who take the sacred name of Jesus Christ upon their lips is, to me, a sad commentary on Christian discernment. Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle said it best: "If you haven't read The Shack, don't." I suppose in the end it is books like this that make the need for discernment ministry ever more necessary.

Click on the title to visit Equip.org., The Christian Research Institute.

---Katie

Now It is Time to Destroy Sarah Palin....

2008-11-06T10:36:00.000-08:00

so she never comes back. This is disgusting.

Strains Between McCain and Palin Aides Go Public

Report: Palin's Wardrobe Is to Be Audited by GOP

By KATE SNOW

Nov. 6, 2008

Now that the defeated team of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin have gone their separate ways, the knives are out and Palin is the one who is getting filleted.

Revelations from anonymous critics from within the McCain-Palin campaign suggest a number of complaints about the Alaskan governor:

Fox News reports that Palin didn't know Africa was a continent and did not know the member nations of the North American Free Trade Agreement -- the United States, Mexico and Canada -- when she was picked for vice president.

Click on the title for the rest.

Do you honestly believe that someone who has two school teachers as parents and finished a four year degree does not know that Africa is a continent? Why aren't we making a big deal about Obama's 57 states? Oh, right, he's a liberal - he gets a pass.

What the media and liberal Republicans both want to prevent is Sarah Palin's having anything to do with the resurgence of conservatism in the Republican party. Thus, we must continue to slash away at her so she becomes so damaged that she will not be in the running in 2012. She was the bright spot in the campaign for me and many other folks. Sad to think that she is to be the scapegoat for the GOP's incompetence.

---Katie

The Time to Gloat

2008-11-05T07:27:00.000-08:00

What I have been saying our problem is all along....

Bob Parks - Black and Right

Shortly after the left-lurching Democrats were beaten back by the American people in 1994, Republicans and conservatives were instructed not to gloat. Shortly after Republicans attained all three branches of government in 2000, we were instructed not to gloat. Beginning last night the Democrat gloating had begun, but we Republicans also have a reason to gloat.

The Republicans-in-name-only are officially dead.

As is their ability to do so, Democrats will now go on a search-and-destroy mission of all things that have been a thorn in their side for all these years. They will attempt to silence talk radio, internet conservatives, Republican activists, and to a small extent, we have it coming. We have been too tolerant.

We have allowed RINOs to take over the Republican Party. Those who sought to reach out to Democrats, while a noble gesture, are the ones who brought the Barack Obama juggernaut down around us. When Bill Clinton was first elected with a Democrat house and senate, no overtures were demanded by the media, and none was offered by the left. When John McCain found media refuge in bashing his own party in 2000, he believed it was the ticket to political success. When George W. Bush was elected, his “New Tone” was not embraced, and should Rahm Emanuel become Obama’s chief of staff, no new tone will even be considered.

They will seek to crush their opposition while they have the opportunity; something we could have done in 1994 and in 2000, but Republicans listened to and obeyed the demands of our political enemy. We left them alone.

While millions of Americans took to the streets in Third World-style jubilation, celebrating the end of all things racist, sexist, homophobic, intolerant, Republicans who stayed at home last night should reflect on why they didn’t come out for John McCain and Republicans.

Our elected national leaders decided it was more important to be liked by our enemies, and took our votes for granted. Our elected leaders decided it was more important to water down our principles, spurn the base that put them in power, and reach out to those who consider us lower than Satan’s bile.

Click on the title to read the rest...

---Katie

Mini Sarah Palin

2008-11-02T11:01:00.000-08:00

Click on the title. This is too cute!

---Katie

Don't Give Up! Get Out and Vote!

2008-10-31T12:18:00.000-07:00

This is well worth reading the whole article! But here is what should motivate you to go vote if you have not:

I’m going to let you in on a few secrets here, and this is not because I enjoy the gossip or the attention directed my way. I’m doing this because I doubt much of you know the true weaknesses of Obama. Another reason for my doing this is that I am lost faith in this campaign, and feel that this choice has been forced on many people in this country. Put simply, you are being manipulated. That was and is our job – to manipulate you (the electorate) and the media (we already had them months ago). Our goal is to create chaos with the other side, not hope. I’ve come to the realization (as the campaign already has) that if this comes to the issues, Barack Obama doesn’t have a chance. His only chance is to foster disorganization, chaos, despair, and a sense of inevitability among the Republicans. It has worked up until now. Joe the Plumber has put the focus on the issues again, and this scares us more than anything. Being in a position to know these things, I will rate what the Obama campaign already knows are their weak links from the most important on down.

Click on the title to go over to RedState and read the whole thing.

---Katie

Pro-America YouTube Video

2008-10-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

A regular reader of this blog makes it to YouTube! St. John folks, see if you recognize anyone singing in this video!

Click on the title!

---Katie

Peaceful Islam - by population increase

2008-10-30T07:36:00.000-07:00

I was having a conversation recently about whether or not Islam is generally peaceful and I wanted to share this information with my friend with whom I was talking. I just did not know where to find it - it turned up again on FreeRepublic, so I thought I would post it here for anyone who is interested.
Katie

Friday, 21 March 2008
What Muslim Population Increase Brings

Don Morris writes at Doc’s Talk (thanks to Janet Levy):

...As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped for their colorful uniqueness:

United States — Muslim 1.0%
Australia — Muslim 1.5%
Canada — Muslim 1.9%
China — Muslim 1%-2%
Italy — Muslim 1.5%
Norway — Muslim 1.8%

At 2% and 3% they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs:

Denmark — Muslim 2%
Germany — Muslim 3.7%
United Kingdom — Muslim 2. 7%
Spain — Muslim 4%
Thailand — Muslim 4.6%

From 5% on they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population.

They will push for the introduction of halaal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature it on their shelves — along with threats for failure to comply. (United States).

France — Muslim 8%
Philippines — Muslim 5%
Sweden — Muslim 5%
Switzerland — Muslim 4.3%
The Netherlands — Muslim 5.5%
Trinidad & Tobago — Muslim 5.8%

At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves under Sharia, the Islamic Law. The ultimate goal of Islam is not to convert the world but to establish Sharia law over the entire world.

When Muslims reach 10% of the population, they will increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions (Paris — car-burnings). Any non-Muslim action that offends Islam will result in uprisings and threats (Amsterdam — Mohammed cartoons).

Guyana — Muslim 10%
India — Muslim 13.4%
Israel — Muslim 16%
Kenya — Muslim 10%
Russia — Muslim 10-15%

After reaching 20% expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings and church and synagogue burning:

Ethiopia — Muslim 32.8%

At 40% you will find widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks and ongoing militia warfare:

Bosnia — Muslim 40%
Chad — Muslim 53.1%
Lebanon — Muslim 59.7%

From 60% you may expect unfettered persecution of non-believers and other religions, sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon and Jizya, the tax placed on infidels:

Albania — Muslim 70%
Malaysia — Muslim 60.4%
Qatar — Muslim 77.5%
Sudan — Muslim 70%

After 80% expect State run ethnic cleansing and genocide:

Bangladesh — Muslim 83%
Egypt — Muslim 90%
Gaza — Muslim 98.7%
Indonesia — Muslim 86.1%
Iran — Muslim 98%
Iraq — Muslim 97%
Jordan — Muslim 92%
Morocco — Muslim 98.7%
Pakistan — Muslim 97%
Palestine — Muslim 99%
Syria — Muslim 90%
Tajikistan — Muslim 90%
Turkey — Muslim 99.8%
United Arab Emirates — Muslim 96%

100% will usher in the peace of “Dar-es-Salaam” — the Islamic House of Peace — there’s supposed to be peace because everybody is a Muslim:

Afghanistan — Muslim 100%
Saudi Arabia — Muslim 100%
Somalia — Muslim 100%
Yemen — Muslim 99.9%

Of course, that’s not the case. To satisfy their blood lust, Muslims then start killing each other for a variety of reasons.

“Before I was nine I had learned the basic canon of Arab life. It was me against my brother; me and my brother against our father; my family against my cousins and the clan; the clan against the tribe; and the tribe against the world. And all of us against the infidel. — Leon Uris, “The Haj”...

Adapted from Dr. Peter Hammond’s book: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat

Vote Against Obama

2008-10-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

This is circulating the internet. The writer makes some good points.

Dear Mr. Obama,

It is August 30, 2008. My name is Mark Gregg. I am a 50 something
conservative white male. I have followed your campaign closely,
including the speeches you and others made at the democratic national
convention. I am respectfully providing you with seven simple (probably
shallow) reasons why I could never vote for you. I believe my opinion is
shared by many people. While there may not be quite enough to prevent
you from becoming president of this nation, I do think there is an
awakening to the fact that you are not a (the) messiah that the media
and liberal Hollywood entertainers are trying to portray you.

1. I hear your mantra of change, change, change. Yet, you picked a long
term, liberal, Washington insider (Joe Biden) to be your running mate.
This is NOT change. It is a move that hypocritically refutes the very
thing you supposedly stand for. Your campaign then slammed McCain for
picking Sarah Palin, apparently, because she is NOT a Washington
insider. She is a maverick who cleaned-up Alaska's quagmire of political
scandals. Which way is it, Barack? Is it okay for you to pick a
Washington insider under the mantra of 'change', but not okay for John
McCain to pick a smart, aggressive, reformer?

2. You have the single most liberal voting record in the senate. This
indicates to me and others like me that you may very well be an angry
black man seeking to punish our country for sins of a different
generation. I am not racist. I have some biases just like you and every
other human alive. Unlike the democratic party who claims to be for the
minority (but their record heavily refutes this), I will give any person
who truly needs help, help. I married a 'minority' girl 35 years ago
(she is Hispanic) and have seen the evils of prejudice first hand.
However, I have also seen my wife and my children and others in her
family throw off the veil of self imposed prejudicial bondage and move
ahead. They love our country and do not view themselves any different
than I view myself as a citizen of this country. Your lovely wife so
disappointed people like me during this campaign when she stated it was
the first time she had ever been proud of this country. She apparently
never noticed the massive aid we give dozens of other countries. She
apparently never noticed the sacrifice of literally millions of veterans
who helped make this country a free nation and helped liberate other
nations from brutal dictators such as Adolf Hitler. She apparently does
not remember that she attended ivy league universities with scholarship
money that ultimately (at least some of it) was paid for by our taxes.
This troubles me more than you know. She is an angry black woman who
appears to not like her country very much. I don't want her representing
me to the rest of the world.

3. You claim Christianity but apparently do not realize that the Bible
teaches that he who does not work, does not eat. The Bible does not say
or even suggest that he who CANNOT work, should not eat. Yet, your
liberal policies reward people who are capable of working, but choose to
not do so. This bothers me. I know that if you are elected our taxes
will spiral upwards. You should heed the words of Winston Churchill: 'We
contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a
man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.'
If I like anything about you, it is your campaign promise to balance the
federal budget. Unfortunately, we have heard this a huge number of times
from a number of different politicians and we realize that when you
energize the very liberal Nancy Pelosi, Robert Byrd, Ted Kennedy, etc,
etc, and the many other democrats like them, a balanced budget will
never, ever happen on your watch.

4. During your question and answer session with Rick Warren of
Saddleback Church your answer concerning the question of where does life
begin, stunned me: 'Above your pay grade?' Does this mean when something
bad happens as President of this nation that you are going to look at
your salary to determine if you can respond? I am sorry, but this was
the most serious gaffe I have seen you make. Frankly, it shows me that
you are pandering in the most obvious manner. You will choose your words
not from your heart, but from an agenda that I believe is still hidden
from the American people.

5. If anything stands out about you it is probably your appeasement
mentality. In this era of rampant, radical Islamic extremism and with
the latest stunt pulled by the re-energized Russian government, I am not
sure appeasement is healthy. I again revert to the words of Winston
Churchill: 'An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat
him last.'

6. You and your party tacitly believe that a 13 or 14 year old girl must
have the parents approval to have the school nurse provide them with a
Tylenol when they have a headache at school. Yet, this same girl can
become pregnant and the school can skirt her off to a clinic and abort the child in her body without the parents knowing or being notified. This scares the hell out of me. You have two little girls. Would you be upset if this happened to them and you were not informed? Then why do you stand for this? It makes no sense to me.

7. My seventh and final point (for now) is your supporters. I have
watched the Hollywood entertainers that support you, systematically
embrace Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and others like him. I see the
continuous smut and garbage produced by Hollywood, the very people who
promote you the most vigorously. It is not a positive point to me and
others like me to see these over-paid, bizarre, poor examples of human
existence fawn over you and push you and your liberal agenda as hard as
they do. The way I see it; When the devil is for you, we should question
whether or not we should be against you.In closing, I just want you to
know that you scare me. I cannot vote for you. It is not because of your
skin color. It is because these items I've listed and many, many others
like them. Do not claim that my dislike for you is race based. It is
because I do not feel you have the best interests of this nation at heart.

Respectfully,

Mark A. Gregg

---Katie

Obama and the Left

2008-10-24T22:50:00.000-07:00

Thomas Sowell makes some excellent points about Obama's relationship with left wing extremists:

Although Senator Barack Obama has been allied with a succession of far left individuals over the years, that is only half the story. There are, after all, some honest and decent people on the left. But these have not been the ones that Obama has been allied with— allied, not merely "associated" with.

ACORN is not just an organization on the left. In addition to the voter frauds that ACORN has been involved in over the years, it is an organization with a history of thuggery, including going to bankers' homes to harass them and their families, in order to force banks to lend to people with low credit ratings.

Nor was Barack Obama's relationship with ACORN just a matter of once being their attorney long ago. More recently, he has directed hundreds of thousands of dollars their way. Money talks— and what it says is more important than a politician's rhetoric in an election year.

Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger are not just people with left-wing opinions. They are reckless demagogues preaching hatred of the lowest sort— and both are recipients of money from Obama.

Bill Ayers is not just "an education professor" who has some left-wing views. He is a confessed and unrepentant terrorist, who more recently has put his message of resentment into the schools— an effort using money from a foundation that Obama headed.

Nor has the help all been one way. During the last debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, Senator McCain mentioned that Senator Obama's political campaign began in Bill Ayers' home. Obama immediately denied it and McCain had no real follow-up.

It was not this year's political campaign that Obama began in Bill Ayers' home but an earlier campaign for the Illinois state legislature. Barack Obama can match Bill Clinton in slickness at parsing words to evade accusations.

That is one way to get to the White House. But slickness with words is not going to help a president deal with either domestic economic crises or the looming dangers of a nuclear Iran.

People who think that talking points on this or that problem constitute "the real issues" that we should be talking about, instead of Obama's track record, ignore a very fundamental fact about representative government.

Click on the title to read the rest.

---Katie

Why I Can't Vote for Obama

2008-10-24T07:18:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine wrote this and sent it to me today. I posted it here with her permission.

Dear Friends & Family,

Who can’t help but like Barak Obama? He is handsome and charming with a message of hope! What a great speaker!

How I wish that my mother could be here to see the first black man on the presidential ballot. She would be so excited. My mother was passionate about Civil Rights before it was popular or politically correct. I share her enthusiasm and long to see a world that is color blind. That is why it saddens me to admit that I am unable in good conscience to vote for Obama.

Would you take time right now from your busy schedule and allow me to share these reasons with you. Please prayerfully consider them.

1. Obama talks about lowering taxes for the middle class, but in looking at his voting record, I am unable to find a single time that he has voted to ease the tax burden on the middle class. Although, I want to believe his promise, I have to look at his track record. His track record is one of voting to raise taxes. Please see his voting record at this site: http://votesmart.org/index.htm and especially see Tax and budget issues: http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=9490&type=category&category=10&go.x=17&go.y=16 .

2. I’m tired of high gas prices. Even though they are going down at the moment, they are still too high. In fact, I don’t want to buy oil from foreign nations anymore. Obama stated in his third debate that “oil companies have to drill on their land or lose it.” What did he mean by that? Who would they lose the land to? The Federal Government? Are we talking about nationalized oil companies? I certainly hope not, but Obama is very vague and that scares me. Nationalized oil companies are something I DON’T want! Does Obama want socialized, nationalized oil companies? Isn’t America still a Free Market nation? Oil companies have excessive regulations and restrictions on them that make it nearly impossible to drill. I would like these restrictions eased, while still protecting our beautiful land and oceans. But, I want to drill the Gulf. I want to drill Alaska. I want to drill North Dakota and anywhere else there is oil in our nation.

3. Unfortunately, though Obama declares his support of Israel, I am unable to believe him because of his ties to Arab terrorists. Israel is our strongest ally in the Middle East. I want the USA to stand beside her, not undermine her by secret deals with her sworn enemies. When Obama talks about sitting down with no preconditions with countries and leaders that desire to wipe Israel off the face of the map, I am concerned…greatly concerned.

4. Obama uses the term “distribution of wealth” quite frequently in his speeches and in the debates. I have read The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and recognize that term from this book. Although Biden uses the term “let’s be fair,” this team is putting forward as their platform the principles in this book. Since I am not a Marxist/Communist, I find this rather frightening. In fact, haven’t the countries that have tried communism found that it doesn’t work? Didn’t we win the “Cold War?” Why are we trying something that is a failed theory???? I challenge you to read The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx with Obama’s own campaign platform from his own website and compare the two. You will be shocked to find all the similarities. Obama’s platform: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/ Here is a place you can download the book for free as a pdf file: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm

5. In the last debate, Obama mentioned that we have to “win the trust” of countries that have “lost faith” in us. His plan to “win their trust,” he went on to explain was to give them EVEN MORE foreign aid. That was very frustrating to me. I am tired of giving away billions of dollars to countries that burn our flags, insult us, and undermine our foreign policies. I certainly don’t want to give these countries MORE aid. In fact, I want to give them LESS aid or none at all.

6. When talking about health care, Obama promised in the second debate that uninsured Americans would be insured by “the same company that insures our senators and congressman.” Something struck me as odd and the next day I investigated to find out just who that “insurance company” was. I was surprised and shocked to find out that the “company” was a federal agency. This “company” is called “Federal Employees Health Benefits Program,” and is not like any company I’ve ever seen. Get on their site and investigate. They talk about selection and choice, but no other companies are ever mentioned. Hmm. At least 70% of the “premium” is paid by the federal government. Yes, they may “subcontract” with other companies, but this “company” Obama wants to have us be insured by is the federal government. See their website: http://opm.gov/insure/health/about/fehb.asp Try to find some proof that this is a real company. After investigating, I felt that I had been deceived by Obama’s rhetoric. I don’t want socialized medicine. I think socialized medicine is foolish and a drain on the economy. I would like tax cuts to purchase my own insurance and laws putting a check on greed in the insurance companies. I would like more, not less, competition. Socialized medicine is not the way I want to go. Please, give me more money in my pocket, so that I can choose my own plan.

7. Obama has talked about bringing soldiers home from Iraq. But when I listened to him in the second and third debate, I heard him wanting to send our troops all over the place. In fact, he wanted to increase, not decrease, our involvement in other nation’s problems, including Darfur. All I could think about was how much it would all cost. Shouldn’t we finish the job we started in Iraq and then come home with our heads held high? I don’t want to leave before the job is finished, like we did in Vietnam.

8. Business and corruption don’t have to go hand in hand. There is an old saying that “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” I agree with that statement. It is true of people in government. It is true of people in business. The government and businesses should be separate entities. No more government subsidies, no more government bail-outs, and no more of the government micromanaging business decisions. Let’s require government to have a limited amount of laws and regulations that keep businesses in check. John McCain and Sarah Palin both have experience in cleaning up corruption. But let’s leave business to private citizens. The government simply makes a mess of business (and other things too!)! Let’s let government govern and businesses conduct business. In the end, everyone will be better off.

9. I have concerns about the company that Obama keeps. You can tell a lot about a man or woman by the people that surround them. That is why it concerns me that Obama has ties to ACORN and William Ayers. One of ACORN’s less fraudulent schemes (but dangerous!) was coercing banks into giving loans to those who could not afford to pay them back. They played their own role in the current banking disaster! William Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist. The Hamas leader, Ahmed Yousef, and other terrorist leaders have endorsed Obama. Why is Obama so popular with people who support terror? Why is Obama so popular with people who hate Israel? Why is Obama so popular with people who hate the United States of America? That concerns me. Warren Buffet, the richest man in the world and a big giver to and supporter of Abortion, is funding Barak Obama. Has Obama promised him a role of power? Can wealth buy power? I hope not.

10. Though Americans are divided with some being Pro-Life and others Pro-Abortion, most Americans find partial birth abortions distasteful and morally reprehensible. I was shocked and saddened by Obama’s reaction in the third debate to the question of partial birth abortion. He stood firmly in support of abortion, even if the method was barbaric, inflicting torture upon unborn babies. When babies are born alive from botched late-term abortions, he voted to outlaw giving those children care. He wants to leave those babies to die. Please explain that to me? There are many people in this land who would gladly adopt these children. I am of the conviction that you cannot treat life with contemptuous disregard and expect the blessing of God on your nation.

11. Yes, I know I said ten reasons, but this last reason is more subjective, so I don’t want to count it as one of the ten. I may be completely wrong here, but I don’t sense in Obama a love for this nation. Would he lay down his life for the USA or for the Americans he wants to lead? I can’t answer that question for him. I don’t see that love for our nation in him like I do in John McCain. There is confidence in my heart that John McCain would gladly give his life, his reputation, and the outcome of this election for his beloved United States of America. I want someone leading this nation who loves her. I will vote for someone who puts America first and thinks that she, though flawed, is the most wonderful nation in the world.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. May God bless you in every way!

MLC

---Katie

Scary Words from the Obama Camp

2008-10-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

Michelle Obama in a speech in California:

"Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zone . . . Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual - uninvolved, uninformed."

So we are going to be required, ie. forced, to do what, exactly? What happened to the right to be left alone? Do we want to have the government telling us how we must live? Who the h*ll is Barak Obama to tell me how to live, much less how to think?! (And why does this woman irritate me so much?)

Joe Biden:

"Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

David Rockefeller:

"We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis..."

A crisis generated by leftists to achieve leftist goals? Does this make you nervous at all?

Barak Obama:

“If we are going into war, then all of us go, not just some.”

"I will call on a new generation of Americans to join our military.... I will expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots, and make that increased service a vehicle to meet national goals like providing health care and education, saving our planet and restoring our standing in the world, so that citizens see their efforts connected to a common purpose."

Sounds like he is proposing some type of a draft - perhaps a service requirement for everyone, with a choice between civilian and military service. It also sounds like there is going to be pressure to have common goals, leftist goals of course.

Barak Obama:

“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

Bill Ayers:
“Yes, I think there ought to be a draft into public service, no exceptions—maybe every 10 yrs from the age of 18 we should give a year to what WE determine in a democratic process to be the COMMON GOOD.”

Who determines it? Who will be telling us what to do?

Do you value freedom? The left says they do, but they are the ones who are talking about required service. Our freedom is going to be curtailed if this man is elected. Please don't do it.

Again, do you value freedom? Really? Or do you just want "change?"

---Katie

Barak Obama Tells People what They Want to Hear

2008-10-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

What does Barak Obama have to say about Israel? It sounds kind of like "It depends on what the meaning of "is" is...

Click on the title to see what Obama is saying...or not saying.

---Katie

A Picture is Worth.....

2008-10-17T19:13:00.000-07:00

What Kind of America Do You Want?

2008-10-16T07:37:00.000-07:00

Here is an excerpt of an article from the Witherspoon Institute about Obama's extreme views regarding abortion. It is a long article, but it is well worth reading. Abortion is not the only thing I consider when evaluating a candidate, but I admit that I would have a hard time voting for someone who believes the right to unrestricted abortion is paramount. I absolutely could never vote for someone with views on abortion like Obama. Click on the title for the entire article which gives the specifics on Obama's views on the rights of the most helpless among us.

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What kind of America do we want our beloved nation to be? Barack Obama's America is one in which being human just isn't enough to warrant care and protection. It is an America where the unborn may legitimately be killed without legal restriction, even by the grisly practice of partial-birth abortion. It is an America where a baby who survives abortion is not even entitled to comfort care as she dies on a stainless steel table or in a soiled linen bin. It is a nation in which some members of the human family are regarded as inferior and others superior in fundamental dignity and rights. In Obama's America, public policy would make a mockery of the great constitutional principle of the equal protection of the law. In perhaps the most telling comment made by any candidate in either party in this election year, Senator Obama, when asked by Rick Warren when a baby gets human rights, replied: ''that question is above my pay grade.'' It was a profoundly disingenuous answer: For even at a state senator's pay grade, Obama presumed to answer that question with blind certainty. His unspoken answer then, as now, is chilling: human beings have no rights until infancy - and if they are unwanted survivors of attempted abortions, not even then.

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Hat tip to Pastor Rob for alerting me to this excellent article!

---Katie

Obama Wants to Spread the Wealth Around

2008-10-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

Your wealth of course....

From Fox News:

Barack Obama told a tax-burdened plumber over the weekend that his economic philosophy is to "spread the wealth around" -- a comment that may only draw fire from riled-up John McCain supporters who have taken to calling Obama a "socialist" at the Republican's rallies.

Obama made the remark, caught on camera, after fielding some tough questions from the plumber Sunday in Ohio, where the Democratic candidate canvassed neighborhoods and encouraged residents to vote early.

"Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the plumber asked, complaining that he was being taxed "more and more for fulfilling the American dream."

"It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success too," Obama responded. "My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody ... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

Click on the title for the entire article.

Are we really going to put this guy in the White House?

---Katie

Senator McCain, It is Time to Get Serious about This Campaign!

2008-10-05T14:20:00.001-07:00

Sarracuda is serious about exposing the real Obama! How about you?

“The last four weeks of this election will be about whether the American people are willing to turn our economy and national security over to Barack Obama, a man with little record, questionable judgment, and ties to radical figures like unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers. Americans need to ask themselves if they’ve ever befriended an unrepentant terrorist, or had a convicted felon help them buy their house — because those aren’t smears, those are true facts about Barack Obama.” —Tucker Bounds, spokesman McCain-Palin 2008

---Katie

If Obama Loses, American Voters are Racist

2008-09-23T06:59:00.001-07:00

Well, actually, only some American voters are racist. Republicans are going to vote Republican anyway. Democrats, on the other hand, must vote for their candidate or be labeled racist. After all, what other reason could a Democrat have not to vote for Obama? It couldn't be because he is a raging leftist with no experience and a pile of shady associations? Nah, they're just racist....

---Katie

Palin Cartoon

2008-09-14T16:11:00.000-07:00

Vote Early! or even better - Absentee!

2008-09-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

If you want to help out the GOP this year, you can do a lot by requesting an absentee ballot and sending it in right away. This benefits you in one very pleasant way - it reduces the calls and mailings you get from candidates. Not only do you get that benefit, the GOP saves money and time by being able to concentrate on the people who have not yet voted and might be undecided. Most campaigns get weekly updates listing who has voted already. If you don't vote absentee, then take advantage of early voting! All indications point to a big turnout and you don't want to get stuck in line at the voting booth on election day. (Well, maybe you do, but I know I don't! We have already requested our absentee ballots!)

---Katie

Pig reference is plaguing Obama's campaign

2008-09-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

So what do you think? Was Obama referring to Sarah Palin when he said, "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig?" The way the crowd reacted, they certainly thought so. The more Obama tries to explain what he meant, the worse it gets for him. And MSNBC helps out by writing in the midst of a hit piece on Palin, "Palin could be heard nearly squealing with delight in the front of the plane at the sight of three of her children at the foot of the stairs, and according to several aides, refused to stay inside the plane." Squealing? Yikes! What timing!

Shhh! Don't tell the media that their constant attacks on Palin are making her look better and better!

Maverick/Barracuda 2008!

---Katie

Just in case you missed it....

2008-09-04T10:39:00.000-07:00

Click on the title to see a YouTube video of what Piper Palin was doing while her mom was speaking last night. Priceless!

---Katie

Wow. What a choice.

2008-09-01T14:05:00.000-07:00

I have always said that I am pro-choice, but that I think the choice should be for preserving the life of an innocent, unborn child. I wish that the thought of killing a child in its mother's womb was so abhorrent that it would be a choice that was made in only the most extreme circumstances.

We have quite the choice this year for president and vice-president. On the Democrat side, we have Barrak Obama who says he would not want to punish his daughters with a baby. He would not even support legislation to protect infants born alive as a result of botched abortions. His Catholic running mate has supported all pro-abortion bills placed before him.

On the Republican ticket we have a vice-presidential candidate who not only talks the talk, but she walks the walk as well. Instead of aborting her Downs syndrome son, as is done in about seventy-five percent of cases, she gave birth and welcomed him into the family. Today we hear that Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol is five months pregnant. (I guess she really can't be baby Trig's real mom, can she, you left wing loonies?) She is going to give birth and, apparently, marry the father of her child. They are walking the walk that I have watched a number of my Christian, homeschooling friends walk in recent years. I applaud them for loving and supporting their daughter. Not to leave out the presidential candidate - McCain was actually handed his adopted daughter by Mother Teresa! (If I am wrong on this let me know...)

We have a choice this election between a culture of death and a culture of life. I am so happy to be able to vote for someone who supports life with actions, not just words. I believe that we will become a country that supports life not through laws, but through people who do what is right.

---Katie

They're Right about Palin....

2008-08-31T15:02:00.000-07:00

From HotAir (Click on the title)...I wish I had written it!

I lifted and partially rewrote this from Damiano in another thread. He gets the credit, not me. Nevertheless, let the truth be told:

Palin is completely inexperienced and utterly incapable.

You heard me. The initial euphoria over the idea of a naughty librarian on the TV news each night for the next 4 to 8 years has worn off. Now, it back to hard, pragmatic reality and the reality is that she has no place in Washington, DC.

Want proof? Consider the following:

Only an amateur would speak off the cuff, as she usually does. Experienced politicians avoid speaking extemporaneously whenever possible. Otherwise, the electorate might find out what they really think.

If Palin had meaningful experience, she would have known that the job of Ethics Commissioner is SUPPOSED to be corrupt, thus saving her the trouble of resigning in protest and then running for the highest office in the state.

Only an amateur would attain political office by actually defeating opposing candidates at the ballot box. An experienced politician would have eliminated opposition candidates by protesting technical glitches in their nominating petitions or petitioning to change the party rules on how votes are counted in primary elections or hiring groups like ACORN to register 14 people who all, coincidentally, have the same names and reside at the same abandoned and boarded-up restaurant. Did she not once consider taking lessons from the Chicago political machine that got Obama elected? Sheesh.

Any experienced politician knows that upon assuming high office, you are supposed to demand a larger plane; not sell the useless behemoth that was recently purchased by your predecessor.

Only an amateur would implement a comprehensive energy and conservation policy shortly after taking office. A more experienced politician would have avoided the issue outright for at least 30 years while demonizing oil companies, then banning any voting on the topic followed by a recess vacation through the next election

Any experienced politician knows that once elected, you are not supposed to spend your first 20 months in office actually doing the job you were elected to do. You should be campaigning for another office – as Obama could have told her.

Sarah Palin was only supposed to TALK about government reform and utter platitudes about exiling corrupt, entrenched politicians – not actually do anything about it. She demonstrated her naivete by creating a smooth running government that included representatives of other political parties, thereby making it impossible for her to find a scapegoat if anything goes wrong.

Only a political greenhorn would thumb their nose at the environmental lobby by hunting and actually shooting moose and caribou. Worse yet, she foolishly told the truth: the proposed oil drilling site in ANWR is NOT the secret location of Eden but is, in fact, a barren wasteland.

What Sarah Palin does not seem to understand is that here in the 21st century, chief executives do not negotiate beneficial business deals for their states with foreign nations or take time to actually hang out with soldiers in Iraq. That time is better spent preening for the cameras in Berlin – something else a more seasoned and experienced politician such as Obama could have told her.

Holding oil companies accountable and successfully negotiating mutually productive agreements with them proves she does not understand their true purpose: if you work with them to the benefit of your state, you will no longer have a faceless villain to scare people into voting for you.

By creating new jobs instead of demonizing capitalism, Sarah foolishly enabled people to become more reliant on themselves and less reliant on government, hereby diminishing the dependant voter base – a classic newbie mistake. After all, if people have jobs, they will not have much need for the government and will be too busy enjoying their lives to protest the U.S., its corporations and, of course, opposing candidates.

Worse yet, Palin created a budget surplus and mailed it back to the taxpayers. Doesn’t she know that if the government generates a surplus, it’s doing something wrong? An experienced leader like Obama or Biden knows that taxpayer money belongs to the government – not to the people.

In another rankly amateurish move, she cooperated completely with government officials investigating accusations made against her. Experienced politicians know that you are supposed to stonewall, obfuscate, pressure libraries to expunge any record of unsavory political associations and ship potential witnesses off to Caribbean islands – another good reason not to sell the executive jet.

Yup, she is hopelessly inexperienced.

That is why I ♥ SARAH’CUDA and why I am voting McCain/Palin ‘08

Me too...
---Katie

Hillary Clinton Supporters are excited over Palin

2008-08-29T14:50:00.000-07:00

Click on the title to visit the Hillary Clinton Forum. I'm not really sure what to think about their reaction.

---Katie

Defending Against the First Attacks on Sarah Palin

2008-08-29T13:44:00.000-07:00

Gov. Palin's nomination has created quite a furor in the blogosphere; here is an interesting article from the American Thinker on how to answer some of the criticisms:

Defending Against the First Attacks on Sarah Palin

By Patrick J. Casey

As John McCain has shocked pretty much everybody with his pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, it's important to prepare for the attacks on her that will be launched, starting this afternoon, by the Democrats and the media. For attack they will, relentlessly. And they'll start with these three things:

First - "Palin has no experience". That's an easy one to dismiss. Sarah Palin has had more executive experience, meaning experience in running either a business or a government, than either Barack Obama or his running mate, Joe Biden. She has more executive experience than even her running mate, John McCain. Governor Palin served as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska from 1999 to 2002. She was elected as President of the Alaska Conference of Mayors. She was elected as Governor of Alaska in 2006. And she has quite a few concrete achievements, considering the amount of time she's been in office.

Click on the title for the rest of the article which goes on to address the scandal that the opposition keeps trying to create regarding her firing of Alaskan Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

---Katie

Palin Pic Two

2008-08-29T13:39:00.001-07:00

Yay, they look like regular people from "flyover country!" And I think my teenager would have that same look in that situation!

---Katie

Palin Pic

2008-08-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

Is it Palin?

2008-08-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

I have gotten used to the idea of McCain as our candidate for president - it does not make me happy, but I would rather have him than Obama. My dread has been about who he might choose as his running mate. The Republicans aren't called "the stupid party" for no reason! I think McCain has a decent chance of beating Obama, but he cannot afford to alienate conservatives any further by choosing someone like Lieberman for his VP.

This morning Fox is all abuzz because Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, flew into Dayton, OH, last night. In about an hour and a half, that is where McCain will be announcing his VP. Could it be that he will choose a conservative as a running mate?

Here is what C. Edmund Wright of The American Thinker says Palin brings to the table:

Is it Sarah Palin for Vice President? It is beginning to look like the Alaskan Governor has re-emerged as a serious candidate to be John McCain's running mate. If this is the case, there are some risks involved of course, but there is a big upside to this pick.

A: Energy: Sarah Palin is right on the energy issues. When you are the governor of Alaska, that's a big deal. She is way ahead of Obama, Biden and in fact McCain on this issue. She also wants to take McCain to ANWR and show him how ugly the area is that would be set aside for drilling. That's a bold stance.

B: Hillary: At the risk of being condescending to women voters, you have to think that the disaffected Hillary Clinton vote would be very interested in the pick of Palin. At least some of the Hillary vote is the "sisterhood of the travelling pant-suit" mindset, and this is a group that will focus on the gender of the candidate.

C: Can't hit the girl: Joe Biden's debate style could be described as offensive under any circumstances, but he would be thrown off stride by having to go head to head with Palin. Even Hillary Clinton, in no way as "girlish" as Palin is, gained traction on this very issue with her debates in New York while running for Senate.

D: Andrea Mitchell: The prospect of McCain's naming of Palin was extremely upsetting to this worn-out NBC liberal. That's a good thing. When Republicans start to make a smart move, it is always upsetting to folks like Mitchell. Mitchell tried to make the case that naming Palin brings the ethical problems of Alaskan politics into the fray and thus a bad move for McCain. Uh Andrea, Palin was elected precisely because she is not part of that. She is not Ted Stevens or Frank Murkowski. That's the point.

E: Conservative Base: Palin will thrill the base. She is a conservative reformer. She is pro-life and with five kids, has cred on this issue. She is pro energy production. She is not a big government type. She is the one pick who can excite the base with no collateral damage to other potential voters.

F: Central Casting: Quite frankly, Palin is very attractive. A liberal pundit a few weeks ago even referred to her as "naughty school teacher hot." It was meant as a compliment. Few women politicians in the Democrat Party have ever been accused of that by the way. But in addition to that, she is a hunter, likes to fish and has a bit of the tough outdoorsy Alaskan independence to her. For crying out loud, shows about Alaska are all the rage now on cable.

The names are bouncing around like crazy today. They run the spectrum from Lieberman to Palin. And of course, it could be a name not discussed. But if it is Palin, there is a classic risk-reward equation in play. The potential rewards are very interesting.

Click on the title for the article.

CNN just stated at 10:35 am that they have gotten inside confirmation that Sarah Palin is the nominee....

---Katie

Sheesh

2008-08-28T10:44:00.000-07:00

Vote for me! Vote for me!

2008-08-23T14:33:00.000-07:00

As I said in an earlier post, I was surprised to find myself on the ballot for this Tuesday. I am running against two other women to serve as precinct committeewoman for precinct 522 in Orange County, FL. I volunteered for the position, not realizing that I might face an election. This has been kind of fun, just seeing my name on a ballot. Today another exciting thing happened - I got a phone call from the Republican Victory Committee (or was it the Republican Committee for Victory? oh well) telling me to vote for me! Wow - that was cool.

The reason that local Republicans asked people like me to volunteer to be on the Orange County Republican Executive Committee is that Ron Paul supporters are working to remake the Republican Executive Committees throughout Florida. They want to move the Republicans back to Ronald Reagan style Republicanism, which might not be a bad thing. I know I have not been happy with establishment Republicanism myself lately. I think that is a general trend, looking at what has been happening politically in the last several years. Perhaps it is time to shake things up. I hope I get to be a part of it!

---Katie (vote for me)