An incredible lady named Kaziah Hancock is a remarkable artist who typically would charge up to thousands of dollars for her landscape pictures. She now has a new subject that she is so very fond of painting. She paints portraits of our fallen men and women of the United States armed forces. These portraits she then sends to the family of the fallen member. She won't accept money for her beautiful work. She does it as an act of love for those that served and the families that raised them. She does this as a part of Project Compassion. May God bless her for her kindness and may He bless the heroes whom she paints and their families that they have left behind!
Thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law for sending me this link!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Four Months to Go Until the Largest Tax Hikes in U.S. History
I saw this excellent posting by Ryan Ellis at Americans for Tax Reform and thought it more than worthy of sharing.
In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011:
(N.B. This version of the document contains even more tax hikes than the original version did)
First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief
In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families. These will all expire on January 1, 2011:
Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:
- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%
- The 25% bracket rises to 28%
- The 28% bracket rises to 31%
- The 33% bracket rises to 36%
- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%
Higher taxes on marriage and family. The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level. The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.
The return of the Death Tax. This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.
Higher tax rates on savers and investors. The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011. The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.
Second Wave: Obamacare
There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include:
The Tanning Tax. This went into effect on July 1st of this year. It imposes a new, 10% excise tax on getting a tan at a tanning salon. There is no exemption for tanners making less than $250,000 per year.
The “Medicine Cabinet Tax” Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).
The HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike. This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.
Brand Name Drug Tax. Starting next year, there will be a multi-billion dollar tax assessment imposed on name-brand drug manufacturers. This tax, like all excise taxes, will raise the price of medicine, hurting everyone.
Economic Substance Doctrine. The IRS is now empowered to disallow perfectly-legal tax deductions and maneuvers merely because it judges that the deduction or action lacks “economic substance.” This is obviously an arbitrary empowerment of IRS agents.
Employer Reporting of Health Insurance Costs on a W-2. This will start for W-2s in the 2011 tax year. While not a tax increase in itself, it makes it very easy for Congress to tax employer-provided healthcare benefits later.
Third Wave: The Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax Hikes
When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they’ll be in for a nasty surprise—the AMT won’t be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired. These major items include:
The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year. According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families—rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.
Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear. Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or “depreciate”) equipment purchases up to $250,000. This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can expense half of their purchases of equipment. In January of 2011, all of it will have to be “depreciated.”
Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses. There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the “research and experimentation tax credit,” but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.
Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced. The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available. Tax credits for education will be limited. Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut. Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed. The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.
Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed. Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA. This contribution also counts toward an annual “required minimum distribution.” This ability will no longer be there.
These coming tax hikes are a forgone conclusion. Congress can help by voting to continue the Bush tax cuts, but regardless the effects of the Obamacare taxes will be economically devastating to our economy.
More change you can believe in, I suppose.
In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011:
(N.B. This version of the document contains even more tax hikes than the original version did)
First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief
In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families. These will all expire on January 1, 2011:
Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:
- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%
- The 25% bracket rises to 28%
- The 28% bracket rises to 31%
- The 33% bracket rises to 36%
- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%
Higher taxes on marriage and family. The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level. The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.
The return of the Death Tax. This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.
Higher tax rates on savers and investors. The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011. The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.
Second Wave: Obamacare
There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include:
The Tanning Tax. This went into effect on July 1st of this year. It imposes a new, 10% excise tax on getting a tan at a tanning salon. There is no exemption for tanners making less than $250,000 per year.
The “Medicine Cabinet Tax” Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).
The HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike. This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.
Brand Name Drug Tax. Starting next year, there will be a multi-billion dollar tax assessment imposed on name-brand drug manufacturers. This tax, like all excise taxes, will raise the price of medicine, hurting everyone.
Economic Substance Doctrine. The IRS is now empowered to disallow perfectly-legal tax deductions and maneuvers merely because it judges that the deduction or action lacks “economic substance.” This is obviously an arbitrary empowerment of IRS agents.
Employer Reporting of Health Insurance Costs on a W-2. This will start for W-2s in the 2011 tax year. While not a tax increase in itself, it makes it very easy for Congress to tax employer-provided healthcare benefits later.
Third Wave: The Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax Hikes
When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they’ll be in for a nasty surprise—the AMT won’t be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired. These major items include:
The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year. According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families—rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.
Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear. Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or “depreciate”) equipment purchases up to $250,000. This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can expense half of their purchases of equipment. In January of 2011, all of it will have to be “depreciated.”
Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses. There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the “research and experimentation tax credit,” but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.
Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced. The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available. Tax credits for education will be limited. Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut. Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed. The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.
Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed. Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA. This contribution also counts toward an annual “required minimum distribution.” This ability will no longer be there.
These coming tax hikes are a forgone conclusion. Congress can help by voting to continue the Bush tax cuts, but regardless the effects of the Obamacare taxes will be economically devastating to our economy.
More change you can believe in, I suppose.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Conservative Bumper Stickers
I was browsing around the internet and found this site that literally has thousands of great conservative bumper stickers. I thought I would share a few of my favorites. If you are interested in purchasing them, the web site is here. (And no, unfortunately I am not getting paid to advertise for them. I was simply amused and wanted to share.) Cheers!
The first one is scary because of the truthfulness of the often used excuse!
Can anyone imagine nearly any other president of the United States EVER doing such a thing? Nope, because none ever did!
I love the next one. It seem like a good retort to the kum ba ya "coexist" bumper sticker on the Prius's and Subaru's out there!
This next one would be funny if it weren't so true:
No comment needed on this following one:
Now HE is change I can believe in!
One for Free0352...
Sad but true....
Perhaps one of the funniest ones I saw there...
I need to get me this one!
And in response to all of those that think that my disagreeing with Obama is based on skin pigmentation instead of his Marxist policies:
And last but not least; the final warning!
Have a great weekend everybody!
Friday, August 27, 2010
Liberty Counsel's Fight to Help Mary Susan Pine in DOJ Anti-Abortion Suit
I received this email letter from an organization I strongly support; Liberty Counsel. I am fed up with attacks by our government on decent Americans. With that being the case, I figured I would post this letter in its entirety. Liberty Counsel is always in need of donations, hence the email to me. If you have a few dollars you can send to Liberty Counsel, despite the tough financial times in which we find ourselves, please do so. Thanks and may God bless! - T. PaineLiberty Counsel
Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman
8/26/2010
I have a shocking story to share with you about how the Obama administration is now turning its intimidation tactics directly against ordinary citizens like you and me. Please see below and take action with us to STOP this outrageous bullying. - Mat.
T. Paine,
I just directed our Liberty Counsel defense team to represent a pro-life American who is one of the latest targets of the Obama Justice Department's Chicago-style intimidation.
Here's what happened...
For the past 20 years, Mary Susan Pine has counseled women about the physical and emotional tragedies of abortion. She counsels from her own personal experience. Pine never obstructs anyone and denies she has ever hindered any vehicle from having access to a "clinic" at which she is demonstrating.
In most respects, Mary is just like you and me. She represents tens of millions of pro-life Americans who respond courageously and compassionately to the tragedy of abortion.
Now, Mary is facing the full force of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).
In a politically motivated case, Attorney General Eric Holder has filed suit against Mary. Actually, Mary's case appears to be part of a "crackdown" on pro-life demonstrators promised to pro-abortion groups after Kansas late-term abortionist George Tiller was killed in 2009. Using the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) for cover, Holder alleges that Pine "obstructed" a car entering a Florida abortion clinic nearly a year ago, on November 19, 2009.
Holder's suit alleges that Pine poses an immediate threat and therefore must be fined the maximum penalty of $10,000. But it doesn't add up: If Mary's alleged offense is so egregious that it must be immediately and severely dealt with, why wait for over nine months to file a complaint?
The Obama administration is obviously sending a message to pro-life Americans - and Liberty Counsel intends to send one right back!
++Liberty Counsel is standing with Mary against the machine.
This lawsuit is politically motivated and patently frivolous. It is one of six such suits launched in the time since George Tiller's death in Wichita, Kansas. These lawsuits have one purpose - to intimidate pro-lifers and squash legitimate protests at abortuaries.
I assure you, we will NOT allow the Attorney General to push Americans around and intimidate them solely because they hold pro-life beliefs!
When Attorney General Eric Holder should be attending to far more pressing matters (prosecuting known terrorists comes to mind), he is manufacturing baseless lawsuits against law-abiding pro-life Americans.
This is the same Attorney General who recently withdrew a case against an organization engaging in blatant voter manipulation! This DOJ offensive against pro-life protestors is an abuse of power and an example of badly misplaced priorities.
That is why Liberty Counsel has agreed to represent Mary Susan Pine - and why I need your help to send as strong a message as possible from citizens across this country that we REJECT this administration's intimidation tactics!
++ Liberty Counsel is standing at the epicenter of the battle for the soul of America.
The Obama administration's attacks on freedom loving, God- fearing Americans like Mary who cherish our nation's founding values are seemingly endless. Every day Liberty Counsel's legal team works to counter unconstitutional legislation, subversive threats on our religious and civil liberties, and overt attacks on our families.
As a result, both our legal staff and our budget are stretched like few times in our history.
That's why I'm asking for your help today.
Will you prayerfully consider making a tax-deductible gift right now so our team can continue to fight for Mary (at no expense to her) and against the rise of statism, radical pro-abortion groups, and the increasing
attacks of the ACLU and other activist legal organizations? Go here:
http://www.libertyaction.org/r.asp?U=31511&CID=316&RID=26046606
++The best defense against a bully is a good offense.
There are two important lessons to learn from the Obama machine's attack on our client...
First, no one is safe from the administration's intimidation tactics. President Obama's Attorney General has invested the enormous resources of the federal government in a politically- motivated and baseless lawsuit against Mary Susan Pine, a law-abiding, respectful, and compliant American citizen.
Mary could have been you, or me, or any other patriotic American.
This leads me to the second vital lesson...
As Ben Franklin said, "We must all hang together or, assuredly, we shall all hang separately." If Mary were to stand alone against the Obama machine, she would most certainly be run over and crushed in court.
That is why I am so pleased that Liberty Counsel is able to come alongside Mary and fight against this outrageous attack. And it's why I'm asking you to stand with Liberty Counsel at the end of this eventful summer of 2010.
++Facing Obama's giants.
In the twenty-year history of Liberty Counsel, I have never witnessed a more calculated and malicious assault on our pro-liberty, pro-family, pro-life core values as has been orchestrated by this morally deficient administration.
Yet, in the midst of all of it, I see a Mighty God who is greater than the giants we face. Behind every apparent adversity there is opportunity - because, with God, all things are possible!
I firmly believe it is Liberty Counsel's duty to do everything in our power - both in the courts and the court of public opinion - to turn back these attacks against citizens like Mary. And I believe the Lord has prepared you and me to do just that!
In order to continue our vital work, our ministry relies on financial support from friends like you.
We depend of friends who give $20, $30, $50, $100 - whatever the Lord leads - so we can stay involved in these crucial battles.
Will you help at this pivotal time?
Please go here to make a tax-deductible gift:
http://www.libertyaction.org/r.asp?U=31512&CID=316&RID=26046606
"We The People" are taking a stand and rejecting the Obama machine's unconstitutional and politically
motivated attacks on our liberties!
THANK YOU for all you do as a key member of the Liberty Counsel team, and may God richly bless you!
Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel
P.S. If Mary had been forced to stand alone against the Obama machine, she could not have lasted long. Thankfully, Liberty Counsel can defend her in court. Likewise, we must stand together to oppose the many other attacks on our liberty that the Obama/Reid/Pelosi axis of power is launching. Please consider investing a generous gift in Liberty Counsel today and stand with me in Mary's defense!
Eliseo Medina, The Democratic Socialists of America, SEIU, and "Immigration Reform"
Eliseo Medina is the leader of the Democratic Socialists of America and has been for some time now. This Marxist organization has had huge influence on many unions, including one of the biggest and most powerful unions, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Mr. Medina has also served as an executive vice president for the same SEIU from 1996 until now; a position in which he has been an outspoken and stalwart champion of "immigrant rights" accordingly.
Last week, the second highest leader in the SEIU, Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger, resigned. SEIU president Mary Kay Henry therefore publicized her intention to nominate Eliseo Medina to Ms. Burger's post as second in command.
This increase in power for Mr. Medina will likely help to consolidate and intensify the Democratic Socialists of America's influence in their unceasing push for what they characterize as "immigration reform" in America. The ultimate goal of this is to try and bring about "comprehensive" immigration reform in the context of amnesty and a "path to citizenship" for illegal immigrants in the hope of attracting somewhere between eight to twelve million more Democratic voters.
As I, and many others have proclaimed all along, this fight for immigration reform as far as progressives were concerned, was never about human rights as much as it was about the consolidation of power in support of a political agenda. In this case, the agenda is anti-capitalist, anti-freedom, and anti-American. Listen to Mr. Medina's words yourself in the attached video.
Last week, the second highest leader in the SEIU, Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger, resigned. SEIU president Mary Kay Henry therefore publicized her intention to nominate Eliseo Medina to Ms. Burger's post as second in command.
This increase in power for Mr. Medina will likely help to consolidate and intensify the Democratic Socialists of America's influence in their unceasing push for what they characterize as "immigration reform" in America. The ultimate goal of this is to try and bring about "comprehensive" immigration reform in the context of amnesty and a "path to citizenship" for illegal immigrants in the hope of attracting somewhere between eight to twelve million more Democratic voters.
As I, and many others have proclaimed all along, this fight for immigration reform as far as progressives were concerned, was never about human rights as much as it was about the consolidation of power in support of a political agenda. In this case, the agenda is anti-capitalist, anti-freedom, and anti-American. Listen to Mr. Medina's words yourself in the attached video.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Archbishop Chaput: Living Within the Truth
Living Within the Truth
Religious liberty and Catholic mission in the new order of the world.
Spisske Podhradie, Slovakia, August 24, 2010
by Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of Denver
Tertullian once famously said that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church. History has proven that to be true. And Slovakia is the perfect place for us to revisit his words today. Here, and throughout central and eastern Europe, Catholics suffered through 50 years of Nazi and Soviet murder regimes. So they know the real cost of Christian witness from bitter experience – and also, unfortunately, the cost of cowardice, collaboration and self-delusion in the face of evil.
I want to begin by suggesting that many Catholics in the United States and Western Europe today simply don’t understand those costs. Nor do they seem to care. As a result, many are indifferent to the process in our countries that social scientists like to call “secularization” – but which, in practice, involves repudiating the Christian roots and soul of our civilization.
American Catholics have no experience of the systematic repression so familiar to your Churches. It’s true that anti-Catholic prejudice has always played a role in American life. This bigotry came first from my country’s dominant Protestant culture, and now from its “post-Christian” leadership classes. But this is quite different from deliberate persecution. In general, Catholics have thrived in the United States. The reason is simple. America has always had a broadly Christian and religion-friendly moral foundation, and our public institutions were established as non-sectarian, not anti-religious.
At the heart of the American experience is an instinctive “biblical realism.” From our Protestant inheritance we have always – at least until now – understood that sin is real, and men and women can be corrupted by power and prosperity. Americans have often been tempted to see our nation as uniquely destined, or specially anointed by God. But in the habits of daily life, we have always known that the “city of God” is something very distinct from the “city of man.” And we are wary of confusing the two.
Alexis de Tocqueville, in his Democracy in America, wrote: “Despotism can do without faith, but liberty cannot.” Therefore, “What is to be done with a people that is its own master, if it is not obedient to God?”
America’s founders were a diverse group of practicing Christians and Enlightenment deists. But nearly all were friendly to religious faith. They believed a free people cannot remain free without religious faith and the virtues that it fosters. They sought to keep Church and state separate and autonomous. But their motives were very different from the revolutionary agenda in Europe. The American founders did not confuse the state with civil society. They had no desire for a radically secularized public life. They had no intent to lock religion away from public affairs. On the contrary, they wanted to guarantee citizens the freedom to live their faith publicly and vigorously, and to bring their religious convictions to bear on the building of a just society.
Obviously, we need to remember that other big differences do exist between the American and European experiences. Europe has suffered some of the worst wars and violent regimes in human history. The United States has not seen a war on its soil in 150 years. Americans have no experience of bombed-out cities or social collapse, and little experience of poverty, ideological politics or hunger. As a result, the past has left many Europeans with a worldliness and a pessimism that seem very different from the optimism that marks American society. But these and other differences don’t change the fact that our paths into the future are now converging. Today, in an era of global interconnection, the challenges that confront Catholics in America are much the same as in Europe: We face an aggressively secular political vision and a consumerist economic model that result – in practice, if not in explicit intent – in a new kind of state-encouraged atheism.
To put it another way: The Enlightenment-derived worldview that gave rise to the great murder ideologies of the last century remains very much alive. Its language is softer, its intentions seem kinder, and its face is friendlier. But its underlying impulse hasn’t changed – i.e., the dream of building a society apart from God; a world where men and women might live wholly sufficient unto themselves, satisfying their needs and desires through their own ingenuity.
This vision presumes a frankly “post-Christian” world ruled by rationality, technology and good social engineering. Religion has a place in this worldview, but only as an individual lifestyle accessory. People are free to worship and believe whatever they want, so long as they keep their beliefs to themselves and do not presume to intrude their religious idiosyncrasies on the workings of government, the economy, or culture.
Now, at first hearing, this might sound like a reasonable way to organize a modern society that includes a wide range of ethnic, religious and cultural traditions, different philosophies of life and approaches to living.
But we’re immediately struck by two unpleasant details.
First, “freedom of worship” is not at all the same thing as “freedom of religion.” Religious freedom includes the right to preach, teach, assemble, organize, and to engage society and its issues publicly, both as individuals and joined together as communities of faith. This is the classic understanding of a citizen’s right to the “free exercise” of his or her religion in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It’s also clearly implied in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In contrast, freedom of worship is a much smaller and more restrictive idea.
Second, how does the rhetoric of enlightened, secular tolerance square with the actual experience of faithful Catholics in Europe and North America in recent years?
In the United States, a nation that is still 80 percent Christian with a high degree of religious practice, government agencies now increasingly seek to dictate how Church ministries should operate, and to force them into practices that would destroy their Catholic identity. Efforts have been made to discourage or criminalize the expression of certain Catholic beliefs as “hate speech.” Our courts and legislatures now routinely take actions that undermine marriage and family life, and seek to scrub our public life of Christian symbolism and signs of influence.
In Europe, we see similar trends, although marked by a more open contempt for Christianity. Church leaders have been reviled in the media and even in the courts for simply expressing Catholic teaching. Some years ago, as many of you may recall, one of the leading Catholic politicians of our generation, Rocco Buttiglione, was denied a leadership post in the European Union because of his Catholic beliefs.
Earlier this summer we witnessed the kind of vindictive thuggery not seen on this continent since the days of Nazi and Soviet police methods: the Archbishop’s palace in Brussels raided by agents; bishops detained and interrogated for nine hours without due process; their private computers, cell phones, and files seized. Even the graves of the Church’s dead were violated in the raid. For most Americans, this sort of calculated, public humiliation of religious leaders would be an outrage and an abuse of state power. And this is not because of the virtues or the sins of any specific religious leaders involved, since we all have a duty to obey just laws. Rather, it’s an outrage because the civil authority, by its harshness, shows contempt for the beliefs and the believers whom the leaders represent.
My point is this: These are not the actions of governments that see the Catholic Church as a valued partner in their plans for the 21st century. Quite the opposite. These events suggest an emerging, systematic discrimination against the Church that now seems inevitable.
Today’s secularizers have learned from the past. They are more adroit in their bigotry; more elegant in their public relations; more intelligent in their work to exclude the Church and individual believers from influencing the moral life of society. Over the next several decades, Christianity will become a faith that can speak in the public square less and less freely. A society where faith is prevented from vigorous public expression is a society that has fashioned the state into an idol. And when the state becomes an idol, men and women become the sacrificial offering.
Cardinal Henri de Lubac once wrote that “It is not true … that man cannot organize the world without God. What is true, is that without God, [man] can ultimately only organize it against man. Exclusive humanism is inhuman humanism.”
The West is now steadily moving in the direction of that new “inhuman humanism.” And if the Church is to respond faithfully, we need to draw upon the lessons that your Churches learned under totalitarianism.
A Catholicism of resistance must be based on trust in Christ’s words: “The truth will make you free” (John 8:32). This trust gave you insight into the nature of totalitarian regimes. It helped you articulate new ways of discipleship. Rereading the words of the Czech leader Václav Havel to prepare for this talk, I was struck by the profound Christian humanism of his idea of “living within the truth.” Catholics today need to see their discipleship and mission as precisely that: “living within the truth.”
Living within the truth means living according to Jesus Christ and God’s Word in Sacred Scripture. It means proclaiming the truth of the Christian Gospel, not only by our words but by our example. It means living every day and every moment from the unshakeable conviction that God lives, and that his love is the motive force of human history and the engine of every authentic human life. It means believing that the truths of the Creed are worth suffering and dying for.
Living within the truth also means telling the truth and calling things by their right names. And that means exposing the lies by which some men try to force others to live.
Two of the biggest lies in the world today are these: first, that Christianity was of relatively minor importance in the development of the West; and second, that Western values and institutions can be sustained without a grounding in Christian moral principles.
Before I talk about these two falsehoods, we should pause a moment to think about the meaning of history.
History is not simply about learning facts. History is a form of memory, and memory is a foundation stone of self-identity. Facts are useless without a context of meaning. The unique genius and meaning of Western civilization cannot be understood without the 20 centuries of Christian context in which they developed. A people who do not know their history, do not know themselves. They are a people doomed to repeat the mistakes of their past because they cannot see what the present – which always flowers out of the past – requires of them.
People who forget who they are can be much more easily manipulated. This was dramatized famously in Orwell’s image of the “memory hole” in his novel 1984. Today, the history of the Church and the legacy of Western Christianity are being pushed down the memory hole. This is the first lie that we need to face.
Downplaying the West’s Christian past is sometimes done with the best intentions, from a desire to promote peaceful co-existence in a pluralistic society. But more frequently it’s done to marginalize Christians and to neutralize the Church’s public witness.
The Church needs to name and fight this lie. To be a European or an American is to be heir to a profound Christian synthesis of Greek philosophy and art, Roman law, and biblical truth. This synthesis gave rise to the Christian humanism that undergirds all of Western civilization.
On this point, we might remember the German Lutheran scholar and pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He wrote these words in the months leading up to his arrest by the Gestapo in 1943: “The unity of the West is not an idea but a historical reality, of which the sole foundation is Christ.”
Our societies in the West are Christian by birth, and their survival depends on the endurance of Christian values. Our core principles and political institutions are based, in large measure, on the morality of the Gospel and the Christian vision of man and government. We are talking here not only about Christian theology or religious ideas. We are talking about the moorings of our societies – representative government and the separation of powers; freedom of religion and conscience; and most importantly, the dignity of the human person.
This truth about the essential unity of the West has a corollary, as Bonhoeffer also observed: Take away Christ and you remove the only reliable foundation for our values, institutions and way of life.
That means we cannot dispense with our history out of some superficial concern over offending our non-Christian neighbors. Notwithstanding the chatter of the “new atheists,” there is no risk that Christianity will ever be forced upon people anywhere in the West. The only “confessional states” in the world today are those ruled by Islamist or atheist dictatorships – regimes that have rejected the Christian West’s belief in individual rights and the balance of powers.
I would argue that the defense of Western ideals is the only protection that we and our neighbors have against a descent into new forms of repression – whether it might be at the hands of extremist Islam or secularist technocrats.
But indifference to our Christian past contributes to indifference about defending our values and institutions in the present. And this brings me to the second big lie by which we live today – the lie that there is no unchanging truth.
Relativism is now the civil religion and public philosophy of the West. Again, the arguments made for this viewpoint can seem persuasive. Given the pluralism of the modern world, it might seem to make sense that society should want to affirm that no one individual or group has a monopoly on truth; that what one person considers to be good and desirable another may not; and that all cultures and religions should be respected as equally valid.
In practice, however, we see that without a belief in fixed moral principles and transcendent truths, our political institutions and language become instruments in the service of a new barbarism. In the name of tolerance we come to tolerate the cruelest intolerance; respect for other cultures comes to dictate disparagement of our own; the teaching of “live and let live” justifies the strong living at the expense of the weak.
This diagnosis helps us understand one of the foundational injustices in the West today – the crime of abortion.
I realize that the abortion license is a matter of current law in almost every nation in the West. In some cases, this license reflects the will of the majority and is enforced through legal and democratic means. And I’m aware that many people, even in the Church, find it strange that we Catholics in America still make the sanctity of unborn life so central to our public witness.
Let me tell you why I believe abortion is the crucial issue of our age.
First, because abortion, too, is about living within the truth. The right to life is the foundation of every other human right. If that right is not inviolate, then no right can be guaranteed.
Or to put it more bluntly: Homicide is homicide, no matter how small the victim.
Here’s another truth that many persons in the Church have not yet fully reckoned: The defense of newborn and preborn life has been a central element of Catholic identity since the Apostolic Age.
I’ll say that again: From the earliest days of the Church, to be Catholic has meant refusing in any way to participate in the crime of abortion – either by seeking an abortion, performing one, or making this crime possible through actions or inactions in the political or judicial realm. More than that, being Catholic has meant crying out against all that offends the sanctity and dignity of life as it has been revealed by Jesus Christ.
The evidence can be found in the earliest documents of Church history. In our day – when the sanctity of life is threatened not only by abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, but also by embryonic research and eugenic temptations to eliminate the weak, the disabled and the infirm elderly – this aspect of Catholic identity becomes even more vital to our discipleship.
My point in mentioning abortion is this: Its widespread acceptance in the West shows us that without a grounding in God or a higher truth, our democratic institutions can very easily become weapons against our own human dignity.
Our most cherished values cannot be defended by reason alone, or simply for their own sake. They have no self-sustaining or “internal” justification.
There is no inherently logical or utilitarian reason why society should respect the rights of the human person. There is even less reason for recognizing the rights of those whose lives impose burdens on others, as is the case with the child in the womb, the terminally ill, or the physically or mentally disabled.
If human rights do not come from God, then they devolve to the arbitrary conventions of men and women. The state exists to defend the rights of man and to promote his flourishing. The state can never be the source of those rights. When the state arrogates to itself that power, even a democracy can become totalitarian.
What is legalized abortion but a form of intimate violence that clothes itself in democracy? The will to power of the strong is given the force of law to kill the weak.
That is where we are heading in the West today. And we’ve been there before. Slovaks and many other central and eastern Europeans have lived through it.
I suggested earlier that the Church’s religious liberty is under assault today in ways not seen since the Nazi and Communist eras. I believe we are now in the position to better understand why.
Writing in the 1960s, Richard Weaver, an American scholar and social philosopher, said: “I am absolutely convinced that relativism must eventually lead to a regime of force.”
He was right. There is a kind of “inner logic” that leads relativism to repression.
This explains the paradox of how Western societies can preach tolerance and diversity while aggressively undermining and penalizing Catholic life. The dogma of tolerance cannot tolerate the Church’s belief that some ideas and behaviors should not be tolerated because they dehumanize us. The dogma that all truths are relative cannot allow the thought that some truths might not be.
The Catholic beliefs that most deeply irritate the orthodoxies of the West are those concerning abortion, sexuality and the marriage of man and woman. This is no accident. These Christian beliefs express the truth about human fertility, meaning and destiny.
These truths are subversive in a world that would have us believe that God is not necessary and that human life has no inherent nature or purpose. Thus the Church must be punished because, despite all the sins and weaknesses of her people, she is still the bride of Jesus Christ; still a source of beauty, meaning and hope that refuses to die – and still the most compelling and dangerous heretic of the world’s new order.
Let me sum up what I’ve been saying.
My first point is this: Ideas have consequences. And bad ideas have bad consequences. Today we are living in a world that is under the sway of some very destructive ideas, the worst being that men and women can live as if God does not matter and as if the Son of God never walked this earth. As a result of these bad ideas, the Church’s freedom to exercise her mission is under attack. We need to understand why that is, and we need to do something about it.
My second point is simply this: We can no longer afford to treat the debate over secularization – which really means cauterizing Christianity out of our cultural memory – as if it’s a problem for Church professionals. The emergence of a “new Europe” and a “next America” rooted in something other than the real facts of our Christian-shaped history will have damaging consequences for every serious believer.
We need not and should not abandon the hard work of honest dialogue. Far from it. The Church always needs to seek friendships, areas of agreement, and ways to make positive, reasoned arguments in the public square. But it’s foolish to expect gratitude or even respect from our governing and cultural leadership classes today. Naïve imprudence is not an evangelical virtue.
The temptation in every age of the Church is to try to get along with Caesar. And it’s very true: Scripture tells us to respect and pray for our leaders. We need to have a healthy love for the countries we call home. But we can never render unto Caesar what belongs to God. We need to obey God first; the obligations of political authority always come second. We cannot collaborate with evil without gradually becoming evil ourselves. This is one of the most vividly harsh lessons of the 20th century. And it’s a lesson that I hope we have learned.
That brings me to my third and final point today: We live in a time when the Church is called to be a believing community of resistance. We need to call things by their true names. We need to fight the evils we see. And most importantly, we must not delude ourselves into thinking that by going along with the voices of secularism and de-Christianization we can somehow mitigate or change things. Only the Truth can set men free. We need to be apostles of Jesus Christ and the Truth he incarnates.
So what does this mean for us as individual disciples? Let me offer a few suggestions by way of a conclusion.
My first suggestion comes again from the great witness against the paganism of the Third Reich, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “The renewal of the Western world lies solely in the divine renewal of the Church, which leads her to the fellowship of the risen and living Jesus Christ.”
The world urgently needs a re-awakening of the Church in our actions and in our public and private witness. The world needs each of us to come to a deeper experience of our Risen Lord in the company of our fellow believers. The renewal of the West depends overwhelmingly on our faithfulness to Jesus Christ and his Church.
We need to really believe what we say we believe. Then we need to prove it by the witness of our lives. We need to be so convinced of the truths of the Creed that we are on fire to live by these truths, to love by these truths, and to defend these truths, even to the point of our own discomfort and suffering.
We are ambassadors of the living God to a world that is on the verge of forgetting him. Our work is to make God real; to be the face of his love; to propose once more to the men and women of our day, the dialogue of salvation.
The lesson of the 20th century is that there is no cheap grace. This God whom we believe in, this God who loved the world so much that he sent his only Son to suffer and die for it, demands that we live the same bold, sacrificial pattern of life shown to us by Jesus Christ.
The form of the Church, and the form of every Christian life, is the form of the cross. Our lives must become a liturgy, a self-offering that embodies the love of God and the renewal of the world.
The great Slovak martyrs of the past knew this. And they kept this truth alive when the bitter weight of hatred and totalitarianism pressed upon your people. I’m thinking especially right now of your heroic bishops, Blessed Vasil Hopko and Pavel Gojdic, and the heroic sister, Blessed Zdenka Schelingová.
We need to keep this beautiful mandate of Sister Zdenka close to our hearts:
“My sacrifice, my holy Mass, begins in daily life. From the altar of the Lord I go to the altar of my work. I must be able to continue the sacrifice of the altar in every situation. It is Christ whom we must proclaim through our lives, to him we offer the sacrifice of our own will.”?
Let us preach Jesus Christ with all the energy of our lives. And let us support each other – whatever the cost – so that when we make our accounting to the Lord, we will be numbered among the faithful and courageous, and not the cowardly or the evasive, or those who compromised until there was nothing left of their convictions; or those who were silent when they should have spoken the right word at the right time. Thank you. And God bless all of you.
__________
REFERENCES
– Alexis de Tocqueville, "Democracy in America," New York: Library of America, 2004.
– Henri de Lubac, "The Drama of Atheist Humanism," San Francisco: Ignatius, 1998.
– Václav Havel, “The Power of the Powerless” (1978), in "Open Letters: Selected Writings 1965–1990," New York: Knopf, 1991.
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Ethics," London: SCM, 1983.
– Richard Weaver, “Relativism and the Crisis of our Times” (1961), in "In Defense of Tradition: Collected Shorter Writings of Richard M. Weaver, 1929–1963," Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2001.
– “Novena to the Blessed Zdenka Schelingová,” at www.holycrosssisters.org/s_zdenka.html.
Israel's "Occupation" of Muslim Land
Despite the fact that the map above inaccurately labels this region of the Middle East as "Arab land", the area the map depicts is indeed overwhelmingly Muslim (if not necessarily Arab). I find it interesting that a people can be so demonized and persecuted for wanting to preserve and defend their Biblical homeland that dates back for many millennia to the Jewish people. It certainly helps to put things in perspective, I thought.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Rush on SEC Action Against New Jersey for Fraud
The hypocrisy of the Democratic Party is absolutely amazing. (Not that the foolish Republicans are any shining example of how things should be governed either!)
Monday, August 23, 2010
Piers Corbyn; Science Behind Global Warming is Short-sighted Nonsense
Piers Corbyn, a renowned astrophysicist and solar weather forecaster, is one of the leading skeptics and critics of "global warming science". This interview conducted on Russia Today is very informative and helps to frame the debate in a far more scientific perspective.
Mr. Corbyn is quoted as saying, "Solar, lunar magnetic patterns allow weather prediction." Further, the "Science behind global warming is short-sighted nonsense." Lastly he stated that the, "Impact of human life on climate is trivial compared to nature."
He gives perspective and sound reasoning for his conclusions within the interview. It is a little long at over 12 minutes, but considering the foolishness from the "global warming is real" proponents that this is settled science, this helps to put a little common sense back into the debate. After all, who would have suspected that the sun has a huge impact on our earth's climate?
Mr. Corbyn is quoted as saying, "Solar, lunar magnetic patterns allow weather prediction." Further, the "Science behind global warming is short-sighted nonsense." Lastly he stated that the, "Impact of human life on climate is trivial compared to nature."
He gives perspective and sound reasoning for his conclusions within the interview. It is a little long at over 12 minutes, but considering the foolishness from the "global warming is real" proponents that this is settled science, this helps to put a little common sense back into the debate. After all, who would have suspected that the sun has a huge impact on our earth's climate?
Presidential Honors on Our American Currency
George Washington, our nation's first president and leader of the American Revolution!
Abraham Lincoln, honorable leader who pulled our nation through its darkest time!
Alexander Hamilton, founding father, first secretary of the treasury and leader of the constitutional convention!
Andrew Jackson, "Old Hickory " fought the British in New Orleans !
Ulysses Grant, Union army general; lead the North through the Civil War and saved the Union!
Benjamin Franklin, genius inventor, political theorist, and founding father.
Finally, we have someone to put on the food stamp! Barack Hussein Obama. President Obama's policies have put more people on welfare than any president before him since the Great Depression, so this placement is most appropriate. Unlike the Nobel Peace Prize, for which he did nothing, this is an "honor" he richly deserves!
Abraham Lincoln, honorable leader who pulled our nation through its darkest time!
Alexander Hamilton, founding father, first secretary of the treasury and leader of the constitutional convention!
Andrew Jackson, "Old Hickory " fought the British in New Orleans !
Ulysses Grant, Union army general; lead the North through the Civil War and saved the Union!
Benjamin Franklin, genius inventor, political theorist, and founding father.
Finally, we have someone to put on the food stamp! Barack Hussein Obama. President Obama's policies have put more people on welfare than any president before him since the Great Depression, so this placement is most appropriate. Unlike the Nobel Peace Prize, for which he did nothing, this is an "honor" he richly deserves!
Business is Booming!
At this point it’s doing really well so far.
He says Prophets are going through the roof!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
9th Circuit Court of Appeals Overturns "Stolen Valor Act"
In this case, on Tuesday 8/17/2010, A three judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2 to1 decision overturned a federal law, the aptly named Stolen Valor Act, that makes it a crime to falsely claim to have received a medal from the United States armed forces as being unconstitutional. Never mind that this law sailed through congress in late 2006 and even was unanimously approved in the Senate. Never mind, as the lone dissenting judge noted, that the majority of the panel refused to follow clear Supreme Court precedent that false statements of fact are not entitled to First Amendment protection.
The particular case in question involves Xavier Alvarez of Pomona, Calif., a water district board member who said at a public meeting in 2007 that he was a retired Marine who received the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration.
Alvarez was indicted in 2007. He pleaded guilty on condition that he be allowed to appeal on First Amendment grounds. He was sentenced under the Stolen Valor Act to more than 400 hours of community service at a veterans hospital and fined $5,000. This actually strikes me to have been a just sentence for this "gentleman". Unfortunately the panel agreed with Alvarez that the law was a violation of his free-speech rights.
I have nothing but loathing and disrespect for the cowardly blowhards that would attribute such awards to themselves that they had not honestly received. By claiming to be the recipient of such un-earned valor, these frauds do indeed steal the honor and valor of those that were justly awarded such medals; medals that are often times awarded posthumously to our heroes in uniform.
This is not a case of 1st Amendment free-speech rights. It is a demonstrable case of fraud and deception. For once, congress got this one right when they passed this law. As is typical, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not! Hopefully, an appeal will be made to the Supreme Court of the United States so that this egregious ruling can be overturned, like so many other decisions coming out of the 9th Circus Court have been. Our heroes deserve this respect, as does our Constitution!
Friday, August 20, 2010
The Cowboy's Dream
That being the case, I ran across this classic piece of old cowboy poetry in a collection of such that was compiled by Howard "Jack" Thorp in Songs of the Cowboys. Mr. Thorp claims that this particular poem was given to him by Wait Roberts, Double Diamond Ranch, White Mountains in 1898. The authorship of the poem was ascribed to the father of Captain Roberts, of the Texas Rangers.
The Cowboy's Dream
Last night, as I lay on the prairie,
And looked at the stars in the sky,
I wondered if ever a cowboy
Would drift to that sweet by and by.
I hear there's to be a grand round-up
Where cowboys with others must stand,
To be cut out by the riders of judgment
Who are posted and know all the brands.
The trail to that great mystic region
Is narrow and dim, so they say;
While the one that leads down to perdition
Is posted and blazed all the way.
Whose fault is it, then, that so many
Go astray, on this wild range fail,
Who might have been rich and had plenty
Had they known of the dim, narrow trail?
I wonder if at the last day some cowboy
Unbranded and unclaimed should stand,
Would he be mavericked by those riders of judgment
Who are posted and know all the brands?
I wonder if ever a cowboy
Stood ready for that Judgment Day,
And could say to the Boss of the Riders,
"I'm ready, come, drive me away"?
For they, like the cows that are locoed,
Stampede at the sight of a hand,
Are dragged with a rope to the round-up,
Or get marked with some crooked man's brand.
And I'm scared that I'll be a stray yearling,
A maverick, unbranded on high,
And get cut in the bunch with the "rusties"
When the Boss of the Riders goes by.
For they tell of another big owner
Who's ne'er overstocked, so they say,
But who always makes room for the sinner
Who drifts from the straight, narrow way.
They say he will never forget you,
That he knows every action and look;
So for safety you'd better get branded,
Have your name in the great Tally Book.
My wish for all cowboys is this:
That we may meet at that grand final sale;
Be cut out by the riders of judgment
And shoved up the dim, narrow trail.
For The Love of Beer
"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel shamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver." ~ Jack Handy
"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day. " ~Frank Sinatra
"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." ~ Henny Youngman
"24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not." ~ Stephen Wright
"When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. Sooooo, let's all get drunk and go to heaven!" ~ Brian O'Rourke
"Beer is proof that God loves us & wants us to be happy." ~ Benjamin Franklin
"Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza." ~ Dave Barry
Remember "I" before "E", except in Budweiser.
To some it's a six-pack, to me it's a Support Group. Salvation in a can!
And saving the best for last, as explained by Cliff Clavin, of Cheers. One afternoon at Cheers, Cliff Clavin was explaining the Buffalo Theory to his buddy Norm. Here's how it went:
"Well, ya see, Norm, it's like this ... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."
Have a cold one or two and a great weekend, my friends! Cheers!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
WWII Master Chief Harold Estes' Letter to President Obama
Dear President Obama,
My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don't believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.
I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos'n Mate. Now I live in a "rest home" located on the western end of Pearl Harbor , allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.
One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man.
So here goes.
I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish. I can't figure out what country you are the president of. You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:
" We're no longer a Christian nation"
" America is arrogant"
(Your wife even announced to the world," America is mean-spirited. " Please tell her to try preaching
that nonsense to 23 generations of our war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.)
I'd say shame on the both of you, but I don't think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.
After 9/11 you said," America hasn't lived up to her ideals."
Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British? Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War? I hope you didn't mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.
I don't think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.
Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.
Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don't, I'll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue . You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.
And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don't want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts , who was putting up a fight? You don't mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don't want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.
One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you're the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you're not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you're thinking of.
You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president.
You're not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That's not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now. And I sure as hell don't want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle...
Sincerely,
Harold B. Estes
There is a reason why Mr. Estes and his peers are called "The Greatest Generation". It is a damned shame that many of the Baby Boomers and those of our President's generation not only fail to realize those blessings of liberty that preceding generations passed down to us through their sacrifices, but they do indeed seem hell bent on eradicating those very freedoms from our nation.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Fraud in the First-time Home Buyers Tax Credit Program
Do you recall the $8000 tax credit that we tax-payers funded for first-time home buyers that artificially improved the 2009 economic numbers, especially in housing starts? Well, according to a CNN report $28 million of those tax payer dollars were “improperly” spent. Now $28 million is not even a drop in the bucket when compared to our nearly $14 trillion dollar deficit, but it is symptomatic of the problem of every single government program in existence. It typifies the fraud, waste, and inefficiencies of the federal government. It is especially infuriating when such tax-payer money is spent on programs that the government has absolutely no constitutional basis in which to justify their involvement.To make matters even worse, $9 million out of that $28 million dollars of improperly allocated tax payer money went to help prison inmates with their first-time home buying credits. 241 of these inmates were incarcerated and serving life sentences. It would seem that originally there was no requirement for providing even basic documentation to the federal government that the $8000 dollar credit was ACTUALLY used to purchase a home.
The “problem” was corrected towards the end of the tax credit program when the government developed Form 5405 accordingly in January of this year. According to Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Mundaca the, “IRS has already begun to take additional steps to prevent fraud in the program.” The program ended in May of 2010.
Care to make any bets that the government will be on top of any “fraud” and “improperly allocated” money that will be spent with our wonderful new health care system?
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
You've Lost America, Mr. President
Arnold Ahlert wrote this excellent article in Jewish World Review and I thought it most worthy of sharing!
An excerpt from the article:
"As I wrote in my previous column, the true intentions of the mosque builders were revealed when they turned down NY Governor David Patterson's offer of state land in return for re-locating the mosque away from Ground Zero. They refused. That this "factoid" was seemingly irrelevant to the president speaks volumes.
It is worth remembering this is the same president who belittled ordinary Americans for "clinging" to religion. I guess Muslims "clinging" to a location that infuriates the overwhelming majority of Americans is perfectly fine, even after it's been revealed for the rankly provocative plan it truly is."
Once again, a hat tip to Carrie for forwarding this! Thanks!
An excerpt from the article:
"As I wrote in my previous column, the true intentions of the mosque builders were revealed when they turned down NY Governor David Patterson's offer of state land in return for re-locating the mosque away from Ground Zero. They refused. That this "factoid" was seemingly irrelevant to the president speaks volumes.
It is worth remembering this is the same president who belittled ordinary Americans for "clinging" to religion. I guess Muslims "clinging" to a location that infuriates the overwhelming majority of Americans is perfectly fine, even after it's been revealed for the rankly provocative plan it truly is."
Once again, a hat tip to Carrie for forwarding this! Thanks!
Ronal Reagan; "Those Voices Don't Speak for the Rest of Us"
H/T to New Zeal for this excellent video of the last great president in my life time!
Monday, August 16, 2010
God and Dog by Wendy J. Francisco
I was feeling a little perturbed this morning and saw this posting I had done back in September of last year. It made me smile so I figured I'd post it once again for those that may have missed it.
Rush, Foreign Mosques, and Obama's Indifference to Christianity
It is rather ironic that President Obama cancelled the White House ceremony for the national day of prayer this year and yet his state department has seen fit to spend tax payer money to send forth the "ground zero mosque" imam to the Middle East as a goodwill ambassador to promote understanding of our Western society with all of Islam. To make matters worse, evidently U.S. dollars have been spent in restoring mosques in Africa while our economy is on the verge of collapse.
Why the dichotomy between the seeming ambivalence at best towards Christianity by our president and yet the cheerleading and support he gives towards all things Islamic?
The nonsensical and farcical ruling by a U.S. District Court Judge when she declared our national day of prayer as un-Constitutional recently stated, "It goes beyond mere 'acknowledgment' of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context," wrote Judge Barbara Crabb, who said the Day of Prayer violates the First Amendment's establishment clause, which bans the creation of a "law respecting an establishment of religion" in the Constitution.
President Obama seems to heed this in regards to Christian functions and yet he held the annual iftar dinner that celebrates the breaking of the fast for Islam's Ramadan at the White House last Friday 8/13/2010. Further, wouldn't spending tax payers dollars in building mosques (especially foreign mosques) violate that same "respecting an establishment of religion" upon which Judge Crabb wrote her opinion?
The nonchalance or even thinly-veiled hostility towards Christianity while supporting and spending tax payer money to promote Islam, even outside America is unconscionable. Either support equally the religious freedoms and rituals of all Americans or no Americans, Mr. President. And regardless of which path you choose to proceed down in this regards, do NOT spend our tax dollars supporting religious institutions of any type in foreign nations. The double standard is quite infuriating. And even though you have chosen not to acknowledge this fact, Mr. President, our Christian nation is indeed perturbed at your less than Christian behavior, sir.
Why the dichotomy between the seeming ambivalence at best towards Christianity by our president and yet the cheerleading and support he gives towards all things Islamic?
The nonsensical and farcical ruling by a U.S. District Court Judge when she declared our national day of prayer as un-Constitutional recently stated, "It goes beyond mere 'acknowledgment' of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context," wrote Judge Barbara Crabb, who said the Day of Prayer violates the First Amendment's establishment clause, which bans the creation of a "law respecting an establishment of religion" in the Constitution.
President Obama seems to heed this in regards to Christian functions and yet he held the annual iftar dinner that celebrates the breaking of the fast for Islam's Ramadan at the White House last Friday 8/13/2010. Further, wouldn't spending tax payers dollars in building mosques (especially foreign mosques) violate that same "respecting an establishment of religion" upon which Judge Crabb wrote her opinion?
The nonchalance or even thinly-veiled hostility towards Christianity while supporting and spending tax payer money to promote Islam, even outside America is unconscionable. Either support equally the religious freedoms and rituals of all Americans or no Americans, Mr. President. And regardless of which path you choose to proceed down in this regards, do NOT spend our tax dollars supporting religious institutions of any type in foreign nations. The double standard is quite infuriating. And even though you have chosen not to acknowledge this fact, Mr. President, our Christian nation is indeed perturbed at your less than Christian behavior, sir.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Lt. Brian Brennan and Currahee
Lt. Brian Brennan was severely injured and lost both of his legs and suffered what was thought to be a life-changing brain injury while three other fellow soldiers lost their lives in a roadside bomb attack. It was assumed by doctors that Lt. Brennan would never recover. His intrinsic sense of honor and duty said otherwise and it was triggered by the word "CURRAHEE" when spoken by General David Petraeus. See this short video for the amazing story!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
I Want Your Money!
I saw this on Matt's blog over at St. Blogustine. (Thanks Matt!) This looks like an informative and entertaining movie for the masses, soon to be released, regarding our current national situation.. Hopefully it will be released in wide distribution prior to the November elections, accordingly!
Obama's Lies of My Father
President Obama stated in a campaign speech back in September of 2008 that, "My father served in World War Two. And when he came home, he got the services he needed." The problem with that is the fact that Barack Obama Senior was born in 1936 and would have been nine years old at the end of WWII.
Perhaps, President Obama was referring to his step-father, Lolo Soetoro, you say? Nope. He was born in 1935 and thus would have been only ten at the end of WWII.
I guess one can add this to the long list of falsehoods that our president spoke in the hopes of getting elected or to pass otherwise unpopular legislation. In this regard, President Obama has truly become Clintonesque in all of the worst senses of the term.
Perhaps, President Obama was referring to his step-father, Lolo Soetoro, you say? Nope. He was born in 1935 and thus would have been only ten at the end of WWII.
I guess one can add this to the long list of falsehoods that our president spoke in the hopes of getting elected or to pass otherwise unpopular legislation. In this regard, President Obama has truly become Clintonesque in all of the worst senses of the term.
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