THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN FOR MAY 19, 2013 OUR DAILY BREAD BY: David C. McCasland.
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The fifth book of the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles, records the beginnings of the Christian church under the leadership of the people Jesus had appointed. Some scholars have suggested that this book could also be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit’s power supplied courage for the apostles in the face of every hardship.

Just before Jesus was taken up into heaven, He told the ones He had chosen: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). With those words, one chapter in the story of God’s work on earth ended, and a new one began. We are a part of that ongoing story.

The book of Acts describes the faithful witness of Peter, John, Barnabas, Paul, Dorcas, Lydia, and many others during the early days of the church. These ordinary people depended on God to give them strength as they spread His Word and demonstrated His love.

That story continues through us. As we trust God and obey His direction to make Jesus known, He writes through us new pages in His story of redemption.

Gracious Spirit, use my words to help and heal.
Use my actions, bold and meek, to speak for You.
May You be pleased to reveal
Your life to others through mine.

People know true faith stories when they see them.

READ: Acts 1:1-11
1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;

11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Hello Mr. Massie, I’m probably your only Fan from Uganda. You may not know it, but brave people like you fight not only for Freedom in America, but for Freedom across the globe.

Your president, Obama, took time off to comfort the family of a Gay activist in Uganda, who the international media said was murdered in a hate crime yet he was actually murdered by a prostitute for non-payment. Of all the wrong things going on in my country like theft of (donated) American tax payer’s money by corrupt local politicians, that’s what draws his attention!!! We’re talking millions of Dollars donated for HIV/Malaria research, immunization of Babies, Poverty alleviation.

As a result, our ministers are shouted down in international fora, when they try to argue for fair trade, debt relief, economic partnerships just because Uganda is ‘anti-gay’.
Laws were proposed to protect young people in my country against homosexual predators but your president was one of the people who ignorantly spoke out without reading the small print. Now young, poor, impressionable Africans who’ve never heard about homosexuality at being coerced into this un-natural act by western backed, dollar-laden ‘recruiters’. — Rubona Matthew (5/17/13)

In my March 8, 2013 article for this column, I expressed my conviction that there has been an ongoing cover-up in Washington concerning the mental state of the nation’s Chief Executive Officer, essentially since his first day in the Oval Office. While the article and posits it contained were taken seriously by virtually no one, I was very serious with respect to my assertions, which were predicated on my analysis from the perspective of my psychology knowledge base, training, expertise, and experience of the somewhat extensive and expansive information my research revealed relative to the psychological profile of the man who has assumed the name of Barack Hussein Obama.

Among the predispositions I spotlighted in that article that Obama demonstrates, per copious reportage of political and media insiders, observers, associates, reporters, and those who have known him in one way or another going back to his college days, were chronic or recurring depression, paranoia, schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder, and extreme narcissism, to name only a few. To put things in proper perspective there’s a few things that should be understood about such assertions and extrapolations. One concerns the ostensible matter of depression: while occasional, circumstantial, transient, and low-level depression is a rather common occurrence, on the other hand, chronic, conditional, long-lasting, and acute-level depression is not, and is a component and indicator of mental illness, often correlated to other forms of mental illnesses or psychological abnormalities. People who entertain and act upon such inordinately high personal aspirations and ambitions as to believe they would possess “the right stuff” to function as the top political leader of any nation, let alone the most powerful nation in the world, no matter how you classify or characterize it, are going to be people in a league comprised of a relative few. Those who would have locked away somewhere in their psyche the level of audacity and confidence required to think that “big” and have “faith” sufficient to regard such a goal as attainable, obviously have an inward constitution that separates them as far as the moon from the earth from “ordinary” or average people. Thus, such un-ordinary people are driven by a set of inward attributes that separate them from the rest of us and therefore cause many of us “others” to unduly magnify in a disapproving way such inward attributes and regard them as a bane rather than a boon.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is delineated in Section 301.81 of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), under Cluster B (dramatic, emotional, or erratic disorders) subordinated under the general category of Personality Disorders. NPD is often a subset or component of and correlated type of other specific mental disorders. The overarching point is that Narcissistic Personality Disorder is indeed a personality disorder and is an identified and defined mental disorder (abnormality), i.e., a type of mental illness. Obviously this is not the forum for a comprehensive discussion of NPD, but a good general definition is that it is “A personality disorder characterized by excessive feelings of self-importance and entitlement, a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy.”

It is my considered opinion and firm conviction that the current President of the United States of America presents signs, symptoms, and components of NPD. Just a few of the markers of NPD that Obama presents, in my opinion, include (and these are my own personal descriptions of the recognized characteristics of NPD): delusional personal grandiosity; superiority, arrogance, and condescension of others; criticism intolerance; expecting and/or demanding constant praise, admiration, and apotheosis from others; pathological prevarication (deception, lying); inordinate bilateral aggressive competitiveness; denial of responsibility, error, wrongdoing, and accountability; considering oneself to be so special and exceptional as to be “above the law”; lack of real humility; dominating and controlling of others in virtually all types of relationships; dictatorial, autocratic, and in extreme cases, tyrannical relational, management, and governing style; Machiavellian mindsets, particularly in the political arena; uncommon paranoia and personal offense at opposition or disagreement, and blame-shifting; disengagement, disconnection, dissociation from others’ emotions; an expansive range of manipulation of facts, events, circumstances, and people for self-serving and/or self-aggrandizing purposes; vindictiveness against critics and opponents. There are other markers I could address that demonstrate inordinate narcissism on the part of the President, and indeed not surprisingly, on the part of many of his close associates, advisers, cronies, Cabinet members, and other appointees.

This is why and how Senator, Presidential Candidate, and President Barack Hussein Obama (or Barry Soetoro, or Frank Davis Jr, or Barry Dunham, or Harrison J. Bounel, or whatever alias you choose) can stridently stride out before media cameras, stare into the lenses with cold-eyed manufactured pathos and a solitary tear here and there, and out-and-out lie over and over and over to the American people about every misdeed, misstep, misjudgment, act of pure stupidity, acts of treason, and commission of high-crimes without any semblance of guilt, remorse, or conscience-piercing. Such as in the case of the four (or five, depending on what you believe) nascent scandals—all attendant with an overt cover-up component—presently in the national political forefront: two attacks by Muslim terrorists on American foreign embassies resulting in the deaths of four brave, noble, and patriotic men who had given their lives in service to their country; the despicable, anti-constitutional, and criminal deeds of IRS agents and administration officials in delaying granting of exempt status of a multiplicity of political organization applicants; the systemic military sex-abuse maelstrom; and the communistic, anti-American, and Constitution-trampling AP scandal in which the DOJ seized a wide swath of unpublished, private, and personal telephone records of reporters and organization administration officials; and, in my view, there’s more the federal government has yet to be held accountable for with respect to the Boston Bombings.

But, let us not forget the scandals, maelstroms, and controversies of Obama’s previous term. One blogger has enumerated 304 scandals in just the first two years and eight months of the Obama administration, ending, for reasons unexplained, on August 11, 2011. The Political Guide lists 30 Obama Controversies,” including (titles, mine): Tony Rezko Association; Bill Ayers/Bernadine Dohrn Relationship; Rev. Jeremiah Wright 20+-year Relationship; Birth Certificate Issue; 2010 Census Hijacking; Arab Kings Bowing and Disavowing America Is A Christian Nation Tour; Beer Summit; Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor Appointment; Marxist Czar Appointments – Van Jones, Mark LLoyd, Kevin Jennings, Cass Sunstein, Donald Berwick; Congressional Ram-rodding of ObamaCare; Elena Kagan Appointment; Black Panther Election Polls Intimidation & DOJ Refusal To Prosecute Matter; $500 Million Taxpayer Money Solyndra Fiasco; Whistleblower Prosecution, You Didn’t Build This Speech; and 1.4 Billion Rounds Ammo Purchase. Add to that all the political blunders and deeds of incompetence by Obama himself and his administration officials and bureaucrats, and what the cumulative adds up to is irrefutably the most incompetent and foundation-destroying administration in the history of our nation. But, such is what you get with an ego-centric, narcissistic, vindictive, dark, and Marxism-steeped Chief Executive Officer, hell-bent on undermining and dismantling the most effective form of government in human history, and becoming the most tyrannical world dictator ever, all of whom were the quintessential embodiments of ultimate, demented narcissists.

Now with all this said, I think it is vital to eschew afresh with maximum disdain in this context the words of Hillary Clinton in Senate hearings regarding the atrocities of Benghazi embassy terrorist attacks in which four noble and heroic Americans needlessly died in service to their country, “At this point, what difference does it make!” Well, when due consideration is given to the indubitable fact that the sitting president of the most powerful nation on earth in 2013 possesses under the purview of his office, as I pointed out in the aforementioned preceding article on this topic:

“…the authority to initiate nuclear and other lethal weaponry and military operations that are of unprecedented magnitude and carry the prospect of wreaking unprecedented results both in terms of lethality and devastation. Not to mention the incalculable number of decisions the Commander-in-Chief of our military and highest ranking officer of our national government can, must, and will make that are capable of producing effects and results that may be either literally or virtually unchangeable” –

–then it makes a DIFFERENCE! and it MATTERS! that the man who wields that kind of instant authority and power inherent in the office of the President of the United States of America, presents such obvious and overt signs of what for many decades now has been recognized as a mental disorder. It is these underlying psychological abnormalities that have informed and driven many of the decisions, actions, and lack of action that have been abundantly apparent in myriad matters and concerning many issues transpiring during the presidency of one Barack Hussein Obama.

The American people deserve better, and should press their elected federal officials to bring resolution of this immense cloud hanging over this nation via impeachment procedures, not because the POTUS suffers from mental illness, but on the basis that the effects of those mental illnesses he suffers, as demonstrated in the multitude of scandals and incompetencies only cursorily mentioned herein, per our constitution, has rendered him legally and medically incapacitated to carry out the duties and responsibilities which he is sworn to carry out.

In a previous article, I identified six factors that have turned America from the land of the free into an all-consuming Beast – a Beast that will literally destroy the heart and soul of America unless we are able to slay it. Below are the six factors:

1. A complicit and ideologically driven media
2. Judges that legislate from the bench and ignore constitutional mandates
3. Crippling taxation that steals the fruits of one’s labor to give to others
4. Schools that indoctrinate students into secular hedonism instead of teaching academics
5. Political cabals that self-perpetuate through cronyism and nepotism
6. Ineffective churches that are politically correct but biblically bankrupt.

In this article I would like to discuss taking aim at #5 in the list above – dismantling the political machines that have turned into cabals that self-perpetuate through cronyism and nepotism.

The elections of 2013 may provide a more realistic opportunity to do this than most people realize. Out of 50 states, only two are having major elections: Virginia and New Jersey. This would allow the entire nation to concentrate on the elections in those two states, thus enabling us to make more of an impact than we may have believed possible.

The State of Virginia does not need the help of the rest of the nation, thereby narrowing the target down to the Blue State of New Jersey. To be perfectly blunt, NJ politics makes the Tammany Hall organization look like political neophytes. While Boss Tweed may have controlled the courts, legislature, treasury and the ballot box, NJ’s political machine controls all of the former plus the media and large donors. It is able to crush all challengers in the primaries, well before the general elections in November. How does it do this? Let me give you a prime example.

In Legislative District 13, a slate of committed Conservative Constitutionalists have organized that would earn medals of honor in other parts of the country. Leigh Ann Bellew heads the ticket in her bid for the State Senate as the only real constitutional challenger for this office. Her main problem is that the incumbent State Senator is the long time friend of our infamous Governor. It is the same State Senator that won the Republican primary’s bid to run against U.S. Senator Robert Menendez. If you notice, I haven’t mentioned his name. That is because I want you to realize that you don’t know his name – although you should. I will just refer to him as his compatriots in the State Senate refer to him “Luke Fencewalker.” Mr. Fencewalker has been in the NJ legislature for over 30 years and very few know his name. There is a good reason for that. Mr. Fencewalker has earned his nickname and has nothing to show for his years of public service except a nice fat bank account and a politically protected job.

Now you would think that such a man should be easily defeated by a strong Constitutional Conservative. You would be wrong. You see, Mr. Fencewalker has something else going for him. He’s good friends with our infamous Governor and he is part of an incredibly strong and an incredibly smart political machine.

How has this affected Mrs. Bellew and her slate of exemplary Constitutionalists?

Our all-too-powerful Governor has control of the press here in NJ. He also has control of a few well-known blogs that have been given access to many of the emails of registered Republicans – or at least those who think they’re Republican (in NJ being a Republican means whatever the Governor says it means, since it is the only state in the Union that has not adopted the Republican platform). The machine bloggers refer to themselves as political operatives but they are nothing less than extremely efficient hatchet men. Their access to statewide emails has given them the ability to get their message out – unchallenged. Their attacks against Mrs. Bellew have been merciless and unjustified. The situation is worse. Mrs. Bellew has been unable to fight back because as the attacks started, her donations dropped. Without money, it is nearly impossible to fight the well-oiled and well-funded political machines in NJ. They know this and they know how to crush any opposition and dry up the flow of donations in the process. If you read the blogs, you would think that this steadfast Christian, Conservative Constitutionalist was either the devil incarnate or a complete imbecile. I can assure you, she is neither.

Mrs. Bellew is only one example of NJ’s latest political casualties. Last year I worked with another candidate who was challenging Mr. Fencewalker in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate. The same tactics were used. The attacks were merciless and there was a media blackout – a devastating one-two punch. We were not able to get one word of ink printed out of the numerous press releases sent – although we do know Mr. Fencewalker read our press releases because he quoted some of our best lines on separate occasions. Have ever wondered why only party hacks are elected into office? I can tell you there is a good reason for it. The party hacks are brought up the ladder named play-along-to-get-along and by the time they run for any office that can make a real difference, they are completely owned by the party machine.

While your help in NJ would reclaim the primary process in this State, it would also send ripples through the establishment machine’s hierarchy, sending men like Karl Rove into a state of panic. In my book, that in-and-of-itself is a good enough reason to help.

In conclusion, I would like to say that if we can start changing NJ from blue to red, the affect around the rest of the country would be awesome. Actually, it can very well prove to be the first step in reclaiming America from the hands of would-be tyrants and power-crazed cabalists. NJ can’t do it alone but with your help we can start this liberty ball rolling. I say – let’s roll!!!

NOTE: This is not to be interpreted as an endorsement by this website or its owner. It is solely the author’s opinion and plea for help.

I have been to scores of Tea Party, Salt & Light, Black Robe Regiment and other conservative gatherings for several years. What is the one thing they all have in common? There is a lot of complaining (belly-aching) and little action items for which they can make a difference. I don’t mean to be overly critical for I have been the chief of sinners and guilty as any other. However, I have had enough!

The enemy of the republic has been the aggressor far too long. We continue to sleep in the light while the opposition advances in the dark. At best we find ourselves in the country carnival playing Wack-A-Mole until we become so exhausted we simply give up in utter frustration. Is this the game people of truth should be playing? Could it be that the strategy of our opponents is to keep us reacting to crisis after crisis, lie after lie and attack after attack? If that is their plan, it has worked up to this time.

I spent four years in military service during the end of the Viet Nam War. Like every other serviceman/woman, we were taught basic principles of combat or battlefield strategy. One principle we need to be reminded of is “momentum.” There is a time to retreat and there is a time to advance! When the adversary is at a weak point for whatever reason, we would be foolish not to take advantage. There is never a time when we should feel sorry for the enemy to the point where we let up on our advance. Our adversary has recently become weakened by the various scandals and dereliction of duty.

Scandals, lies, corruption and confusion is the present state of the enemies of truth. President Obama is either the most corrupt leader we have ever had, the most disengaged or maybe a little of both. It is not only the conservatives that are screaming about the corruption of this administration but most recently, many of our President’s allies are beginning to doubt his leadership.

Back in the 80’s I found myself in the battle against pornography. I was advised by people who were leaders in that battle to be willing to “jump in the mud and sludge with the enemy in order to win the fight.” Well, it worked! I got well acquainted with all the wicked facts and anecdotes that made even the most callous heart react squeamishly, sending chills up their spine. In other words, we need to call it like it is. We need to use words like “liar,” “corruption,” “sleaze,” “fraudulent,” and “impeachment.” However, we better be able to support our claims with facts, not suspicions or innuendo. This tactic will immediately place you on the offensive and you will eventually overcome your opponent in any debate.
Another approach we must pursue with all tenacity is the “courts.” We have the legal advocacy organizations and the financial backing where we should bring our opponent before the judges and juries at every turn. We need to sue and sue and sue some more! We need to tie up the advisory in so much litigation that they will begin to be the one in the country carnival at the Wack-A-Mole game which will force them to cease their aggressive attacks on the good people of our country. I called the ACLJ and they assured me they were doing all they can but that is not enough. We need to press similar organizations, victims of our enemy’s oppression and anyone who will hamstring the foe in litigation.

“Fear” is also a great approach when facing the enemy. I am not speaking about being afraid of them but causing them to fear us and our message. Truth has a way of shedding light on the morning cockroaches. To the political leaders of our communities we can let them know we will oppose them in the upcoming election if they continue to ignore our concerns. To the School Board member, we will publically oppose them if they continue to ignore our Judeo-Christian values and convictions. To our state and national leaders, we need to send the message that we will not only vote against their re-election but we will write, speak, protest and march upon their state houses.

Fear is a powerful foe or a wonderful tool. If need be we must place the “tool” in hand. When Gideon attacked the Midianites, he had but 300 men! The Lord had the Israelites break their clay pitchers and shout as loud as they could, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” The enemy of tens of thousands fled for their lives and placed in utter confusion because they thought they were vastly out numbered!

Above all the above tactics, “prayer” is the greatest weapon we have in our arsenal. “The devil flees when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees.” As E.M. Bounds said it, “Prayer moves the hand that moves the world!” Paul declared, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” You know the verse, “If My people will humble themselves and pray…” This is the only weapon we have that the enemy of truth and righteousness does not have. We also need to pray and ask God how we can be most useful in this battle for our republic.

No single word and/or theory is more important in the vernacular of today’s higher education than “diversity.” In the Spring Edition of City Journal, Heather MacDonald writes a revealing (if you’re a liberal or if you’ve been living on another planet) article pursuant to the millions the budget-strapped University of California squanders “on mindless diversity programs.”

I recommend your reading Heather’s excellent work. That said, I’m sure as friends of many years, she won’t mind my using her essay as a spring board to reinforce a position I’ve argued since 1972. Heather wrote:
“It’s impossible to overstate the extent to which the diversity ideology has encroached upon UC’s collective psyche and mission. No administrator, no regent, no academic dean or chair can open his mouth for long without professing fealty to diversity. It is the one constant in every university endeavor; it impinges on hiring, distorts the curriculum, and sucks up vast amounts of faculty time and taxpayer resources. The university’s budget problems have not touched it. In September 2012, for instance, as the university system faced the threat of another $250 million in state funding cuts on top of the $1 billion lost since 2007, UC San Diego hired its first vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion. This new diversocrat would pull in a starting salary of $250,000, plus a relocation allowance of $60,000, a temporary housing allowance of $13,500, and the reimbursement of all moving expenses. (A pricey but appropriately “diverse” female-owned executive search firm had found this latest diversity accretion.) In May 2011, UCLA named a professional bureaucrat with a master’s degree in student-affairs administration as its first assistant dean for “campus climate,” tasked with “maintaining the campus as a safe, welcoming, respectful place,” in the words of UCLA’s assistant vice chancellor and dean of students. In December 2010, UC San Francisco appointed its first vice chancellor of diversity and outreach—with a starting salary of $270,000—to create a “diverse and inclusive environment,” announced UC San Francisco chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann. Each of these new posts is wildly redundant with the armies of diversity functionaries already larding UC’s bloated bureaucracy.”

Heather goes on to dot each “i” and cross every “t” in meticulous detail. But my consternation (Read contempt) for the idea of forced diversity goes beyond just what it costs us as taxpayers. I’m concerned with what it does to the psyche of those assignated as needful of being singled out as different. In my opinion, what it costs the individual pursuant to meritocracy and self-worth is far more devastating than the cost burden to taxpayers.

I argue that manipulated diversity has done nothing to improve the landscape of America’s institutions of higher learning. Unless having few more colors than a rival institutions is point worthy.

The creation of degree programs in African-American studies does nothing to prepare a student for real-world employment. Specific to that point, how does the creation of a panacea of hybrid, color-coded specialty courses and curriculums prepare a student for anything more than a copycat image of the instructor from which he/she learned to blather racial ignorance?

Diversity is code for multi-colored, but despite the intentions and/or what we they want us to believe diversity doesn’t mean inclusion or assimilation when it comes to black students. Black students still self-segregate in dining areas, and they still immediately form or join the black student union, or whatever other black-only groups there are on campus. Thus, instead of true assimilation, blacks treat themselves as color-coded islands unto themselves. Inclusion as such is only accomplished when the black student joins another black group. And of course there is the obligatory complaint that the faculty isn’t black enough, etc., blah, blah.

Diversity, as we are supposed to believe, doesn’t bridge our differences — it further exacerbates them. I argue without apology that it is not our differences we should be celebrating — it is those things that we share in common that draw us together as a nation.

I argue that the campus diversity craze does harm to the psyche of the so-called minority, i.e., black students, in ways unimagined and unaddressed. Diversity sends a clear and transpicuous message that demonstrates the individual is different based on skin color. It says they are inferior, unable to excel at anything that does not require run, punt, pass, kick, and/or shoot.

Diversity infuses into the mind of the so-called minority that they should be rewarded based on the color of their skin, not the value of their work. And not that only, but diversity also devalues the incentive to master said academics or skill requisite to compete on a level playing field. After all, why should a person work as hard if they know they are walking through the door with an edge based on color of skin?

Diversity undermines the confidence of a so-called minority because the color of their skin is always paramount in their minds. This contributes massively, and not coincidentally, to the level of disparity that exists in the country, and that is used (I say intentionally) to divide.

Meritocracy not only forces one to push themselves to excel, but it also engenders a community of accomplishment based on skill and performance, juxtaposed to breeding color-coded districts filled with resentment and antipathy because of the inculcated perception that one’s color is holding them back.

I’m not convinced the idea of diversity as defined can ever be made to work as intended in the absence of meritocracy. Because in the absence of meritocracy, the idea that you aren’t good enough without someone else’s (Read white liberal) help is the transcendent message.

I would argue that which I have articulated above is why we have witnessed the behaviors, dress, and gangster rap reach the extremes so prevalent in color-coded communities. They are cries for attention that point to an ability to do something definable as successful without the help of those who preach that success is not possible without them and their skewed theorizations of inclusiveness and community.

Here’s a question for you. What do the Obamas have in common with the boot-strappin’ Appalachians and the bearded hillbilly “Backyard Oilmen” of the Discovery Channel reality series set in south central Kentucky?

The answer is nothing. The Appalachian and hillbilly Backyard Oilmen worked to get where they are; they love America; they’re honest, God-fearing men, and they respect one another. None of those attributes describe the Obamas.

Here’s another question for you. Why are these same Appalachian and hillbilly oilmen savvier than the majority of voters? The reason? Because those Backyard Oilmen are savvy enough to know that if a hole comes up dry the first time you drill it – you don’t keep redrilling the same hole expecting to strike oil.

Which brings me to my point. I have been telling voters since 2002 that “the only things politicians want from us are our money and our votes. And the difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats, unlike the Republican hierarchy, do not hide it.”

Last week my friend and I were talking about the Tea Party groups and why their brand had been compromised. Saturday afternoon as a guest on a talk show, I was asked the same question.

I explained to the program host as I had to my friend – the Tea Party brand was compromised because egocentric and nefarious individuals tried to transmogrify the tea parties from a movement of the people into a Party. Individuals driven by their thirst for recognition and misguided belief that a conference call from a politician made them insiders undermined one of the most successful movements of the people in decades.

The success of the tea parties in 2010 was that they belonged to the people. We the People didn’t listen to nor seek the approval of the Republican hierarchy. We didn’t ask for nor accept advice from Karl Rove, et al. Our determined individuality resulted in the most lopsided reclamation of Congress in 70 plus years.

But, it has become apparent, that which is led by one person more often than not falls prey to the ego of said individual. We the People must become resolute in our belief that the same mentality we applied to raise our families, purchase homes, send our children to college, make sound retirement plans, open and operate businesses, save and plan vacations, ad nauseum, will serve us well if we allow it when it comes to voting for the right candidates.

It is appalling to witness otherwise intelligent, self-reliant people, who are capable decision-makers abandon all semblance of common sense to blindly go along with whatever the political hierarchy claims is necessary. Democrats, regardless of their professed intentions, are anarchists at best and Neo-Leninists at worst who believe – contrary to the intent of our Founding Fathers – that government is the deity to whom we should turn for our daily bread. And today’s Republican establishment is no different.

The tea party was effective when it was a movement of the people, but the averous of certain men and the determination of the Republican hierarchy to deny us the right to choose the candidates of our choice quickly eroded the movement. We have witnessed Republican operatives (Read Karl Rove) sabotage candidates like Herman Cain. We have witnessed the so-called Republican leadership cast stinging aspersions against Sarah Palin and other candidates We the People supported. We multiple times daily hear so-called conservative pundits blather the hierarchy talking points pursuant to the tea party. These same pundits more often than not play a shell game of pretending to build up one candidate while waiting to tear them down in favor of the likes of McCain and/or Romney.

We the People must come to the realization that we are the power and our votes do count. We cannot continue to reward failed politicians with reelection after they blatantly and repeatedly betray our interests.

They are politicians, not rocket scientists. I know garage mechanics that have more common sense and a better grasp of what the nation needs than politicians. I know persons who own and operate lawn-care businesses who are financially more astute than politicians.

We the People must come to the realization that we are capable of thinking for ourselves. We must also come to the realization that campaigns and the establishment are paying image-makers enormous sums to create a candidate’s public persona. We must realize that little we see from the outside is real pursuant to those candidates whom party leadership tries to force upon us.

We need a movement of the people not a party. We must stop abdicating our common sense in favor of those whose only design is to have us do their bidding. Because as every “Backyard Oilman” knows you can’t get oil from a dry hole.

Jerry Zeifman authored a book in 2006 entitled Hillary’s Pursuit of Power.  It’s difficult to pigeonhole and smear Zeifman the way Hillary’s henchmen Sid Blumenthal et al., have done so many times in the past because Zeifman is a lifelong Democrat, and not just any Democrat.  He was a counsel and Chief of Staff of the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate hearings.

During the hearings, Zeifman fired a 27 year old staff lawyer for stealing and hiding vital files, writing a contorted and deranged legal opinion the hidden files repudiated, and seeking to deny President Nixon legal counsel.  According to Zeifman, the attorney was “a liar, unethical, and dishonest”, and one of only three people with whom he ever worked that he refused a letter of recommendation.  Maybe you’ve heard of this serial perjurer.  She is Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In January she ( Hillary Clinton) copped a haughty persona replete with schoolmarm glasses, waddled to the hot seat for what was to be a serious inquisition, and in a head-spinning turn of events proceeded to scold the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, flapping her paws wildly between turns of sneering, smugness, and unmitigated flippancy in an epic display of denial and dissembling, hearkening Colonel Nathan Jessup, the character played by Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men.  And, she lied repeatedly.

Rational and objective people know that Hillary Clinton is maniacal, imbalanced, and suffers from an intense allergy to facts, approaching them only occasionally the way a hummingbird floats near a flower before bolting to another destination.  Traveling to New Zealand as First Lady, she stated emphatically that she was named for Sir Edmund Hillary after he conquered Mt. Everest, though he was an unknown beekeeper at the time of her birth and did not achieve notoriety until she was seven years old.  During the horrors of the radical Islamic kamikaze attacks of 9/11/01 she lied about her daughter jogging near the World Trade Center, and yet another time lied in detail how she ducked a fusillade in Sarajevo.  Madam Secretary:  a fusillade is what killed four heroes in Benghazi because you ordered a Code Pink.

We must remain vigilant and ever-mindful that this administration and its media apparatus use dissimulation like a dense fog to create mayhem and confusion.  Jay Carney does so daily with impunity.  The president did it repeatedly without aplomb when he continued to perpetrate at the UN the lie about a video, and still cannot bring himself to utter the phrase “radical Islamic terrorists”, thus raising ongoing concerns about his ability to understand his job description or presidential oath.

It’s now known that Susan Rice lied.  Did she lie knowingly as part of a quid pro quo arrangement to be nominated for Secretary of State, was she exploited only to be discarded like a used napkin, and was she even qualified in the first place?  Let’s not forget Obama’s playground posturing when flak started flying and Rice was the target.  The president puffed and said “bring it on to me” with all the bravado of Barney Fife.  Well, now it looks like Congress will be forced to bring it to you, Sir, and what’s your plan going to be? Are you going to leave Hillary hanging out to dry, for if you do you will find out exactly what the Clinton machine’s dirty tricks department still has up its sleeve, and it will redefine your understanding of civil war.

Lying is a career-long affliction with respect to Hillary specifically and to The Regime in general.   They are all literally hard-wired in that respect, so questions now should no longer center on their genetic tendencies but instead toward what prompted an unprecedented and coordinated avalanche of blatant and pre-meditated misrepresentations.  Clearly, there was a plot, and indications are that it not only was illegal but was conceived with utter recklessness, as if a favor of some sort was owed to the Saudis in its opposition toward Russia’s stance on Syria.  While Assad is a creep of long standing he is a known commodity, like Mubarak and Khadafi.  Obama’s disconcerting policy is no longer camouflaged and it is to advance the cause of radical Islam, as he did in Libya and Egypt, and now again, as he tried an unsuccessful, illegal arms running operation to Syrian rebels, using the spurious ruse that Benghazi was an embassy.  He, Hillary, and other co-conspirators are fast and furiously trying to put toothpaste back in the tube, AGAIN, though neither Punch nor Judy possessed the international contacts or sophistication to surreptitiously pull of a caper of that magnitude.  This less-than-subtle pro-Arab, pro-Islam canoodling is intensely disturbing and weakens our country and the interests of our allies, provided we have any allies remaining.   Battle plans, marketing plans, and sales plans share commonality.  The constructs within such plans require a stated goal, a practical and detailed means of obtaining that goal, a contingency plan as well as a back-up plan for the contingency , and an exit strategy, although that’s like advanced algebra to the ideological dreamers in this cabal of criminals.

There is something significant to hide and now that the pattern of lies has been exposed by video and witnesses it is imperative to find out what has caused so many people to prostitute themselves and delude themselves into believing that if they band together and sweep everything under the rug that nobody will ever look beneath it.  There is a palpable level of desperation, supporters falling on proverbial grenades, and a concerted effort marked by panic, intent on concealing the nature of the mission in Benghazi now that Hillary is essentially treed.

Think about the paucity of what this administration tried to pawn off on Americans and the world.  It had all the cultured organization of a hooligan riot, and in an appropriately ironic twist they are now the ones in the crosshairs and aside from the usual suspects, nobody is coming to their aid, either.

We’re not supposed to have “secret” allies, we’re supposed to keep those considerations public and nurture them, yet what has Obama done?  He’s lined the bottom of his bird cage with the likes of Great Britain and Israel, still refuses to identify the enemy, and is in dire need of getting something else at the top of the news cycle ala Clinton’s unilateral attack on the Serbs the day of the Lewinsky “interview.”

If I was a Lapland reindeer shepherd named Toivo and living in the northern reaches of Finland, I’d be worried about a drone strike right about now.

THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN FOR MAY 12, 2013, OUR DAILY BREAD BY: Herbert Vander Lugt
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I was a pastor, I served many women who were moms. I called on them in the hospital and rejoiced with them for their precious babies who had come into the world. I counseled with anxious mothers and tried to assure them that God was watching over their rebellious teenagers. I stood with mothers at the bedside of injured or ill children and felt their pain. And I cried with them in their grief when their son or daughter died.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, also experienced times of joy and sorrow. What joy she must have felt when the Christ-child was born! (Luke 2:7). What excitement when the shepherds and later the wise men came to worship Him (vv.8-20; Matt. 2:1-12). What uneasiness when Simeon prophesied that a sword would pierce her soul (Luke 2:35). And what heart-wrenching grief as Mary watched her Son dying on the cross! (John 19:25-30). But her seasons of being a mother didn’t end with that terrible scene. She rejoiced that He rose from the grave.

Mothers, and all of us for that matter, experience many great joys and intense sorrows. But when we submit our lives to the Lord, every season of life can serve His eternal purposes.

Thank You, Lord, for motherhood
With all its vale of tears,
For happy moments never dimmed
Through all the many years. —Strecker

Being a mom is a sacred partnership with God.

READ: Luke 2:6-7; 25-35:
6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luke 2:25-35:
25 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.

26 And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law,

28 Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,

29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:

30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;

32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

33 And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him.

34 And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;

35 (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

I’VE CHOSEN THE FOLLOWING FOR THE COMMENT OF THE WEEK. THE PERSON’S NAME HAS BEEN WITHHELD TO PROTECT THEM.
*********************
Sirs/Ma’am,

Just read your article entitled “Deceitful Response To Military Injustice” and thought I’d let you know what pressures we have on us due to this change of policy. Since the change, we’ve tried to get the local homosexual bath houses on the Military’s Off Limits listing, unfortunately it’s not going to happen. The fear factor on anything “gay” is so high that nothing can be pushed thru; not thru medical channels, not thru Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board, not even thru chaplain channels. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago I overheard our Chaplain and Mental Health personnel were discussing PTSD and the training we in Military Medicine give on this subject and how we can help the soldier and present it in a way to avoid conflict with the current political correctness cloud that currently controls the military. This is what’s happening in our military today. Very sad times.

Last evening I attended a sports clinic for children under the age of thirteen. The week before such outings always highlight for me a number of observations concerning human propensities, politely put, most of which would be unsuitable for any essay column. Of the few that are, space and prudence allows mention only of the top three.

First, under the influence of the indwelling Spirit I can certainly see and rejoice in the factuality of the Biblical statement that “children are a gift from the Lord!” and how precious those innocent souls are. When I look at them—in their young, still undeveloped fleshly containers—my heart floods with both the tenderest of pure love and also the strongest of pathos of which I am capable as I ponder the potentialities for both good and not good yet ahead of them in their futures.

Second, I am again freshly impacted with the strong wish that children were birthed with an “Operations Manual” shrink-wrapped to their backs, as I observe how chronologically young, immature, inexperienced, naïve, and, in many ways (though I don’t mean it pejoratively), ignorant the so-called “parents” of these precious gifts from God typically are. In public outings such as this I’m always literally STUNNED, and frankly, frightened by how dadgum YOUNG many of these moms and dads appear and actually are! It always engenders momentary sentiments of feeling sorry for the whole darn “family.”

Third, as the brief, microcosmic snippet of interaction between children and parent(s) unfolds in public view, I am also always struck with the undeniable and obvious reality of the astonishingly high percentage of simply “bad”—to put it kindly—parents that exists! I speak this not in a judgmental or critical but merely factual way. I realize my present mid-sexagenarian viewpoint to some degree factors in to my perceptions, nevertheless, basic parenting acumen as a whole in American society, without any doubt, has diminished exponentially during my lifespan. Not that I am in any way comparing my own parents to parents today, or the whole generation of “Boomer” parents to the present generation of parents and saying the former were better than the latter; I’m not. I love, honor, and respect my parents, but they themselves admitted many times, they weren’t anything close to being “good parents.” Indeed, personally, I totally subscribe to the belief that by the time a person is mature enough to be parents; they’re too old biologically to reproduce, for the most part, barring the anomalistic.

Personally, the older I get, the older I believe couples should be before they’re allowed to reproduce, and only after they’ve passed an exam and obtained a reproduction license—say, around 35 or so. I mean, if a license is required to operate an automobile on public roadways, one should certainly be required for parenting; after all, there’s a lot more at stake with the producing, overseeing, guarding, protecting, and guiding of another human life. Automobiles are replaceable; human lives are not. The ability for do-overs and redesigns exist with automobiles; not so with human lives.

In America, we have set aside one day annually to honor and thank our mothers for everything they are doing and have done in their quest to fulfill the responsibilities, tasks, and role inherent in the attribution, “Mother.” That is a good thing. Tragically, it is a very good thing in a nation that has tacitly approved the abortion of more than 50 million children over four decades since the Supreme Court ruled it legal. The 300 million people comprising America’s current population should thank God and their mother that they were not one of those other 50 million aborted and thus prevented from experiencing the vast cornucopia of elements indigenous to natural life in this world on this planet.

Of all the requisites of motherhood—”good mothering,” in particular—and they are many, in my mind one stands out above the rest, and that one attribute is: sacrifice! Good mothers are sacrificial. They hold the lives and futures of their children above their own, and will do anything they can to see to it that their children have everything required to have an opportunity to engineer a good and productive life; hopefully many times better than their own. I speak not of financial or material advantage, but the psychological and other foundations for a quality and fruitful life.

When I think of this kind of innate and instinctive motherly attributes, I think of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, who was Israel’s greatest and longest living prophet and spiritual advisor to a long line of kings and priests. Hannah suffered the nearly unendurable “curse,” as it was considered in those days, of barrenness for much of the entire span of her normal child-bearing years. But, she so desperately desired to bear a child that she became “greatly distressed.” “Year after year” the Bible says Hannah wept “bitterly,” and for long periods of time “would not eat.” Then one year—the year when her husband, Elkanah, who was a priest, was to perform the yearly priestly duties—Eli, the high priest was standing outside the door of the Temple, and Hannah, in her exceedingly sorrowful state of mind over her continued barrenness, prostrated herself before Eli, and loudly “prayed to the Lord” and “made a vow”:

“O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life…” (1 Sa. 1:11).

Subsequently, Hannah continued to pray so earnestly and desperately, though silently with her lips moving ,that Eli thought she was drunk and rebuked her, telling her to put away the wine from her.

“But Hannah replied, ‘No, my lord, I am a woman oppressed in spirit; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the LORD. Do not consider your maidservant as a worthless woman, for I have spoken until now out of my great concern and provocation.’ Then Eli answered and said, ‘Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him.’ She said, ‘Let your maidservant find favor in your sight.’ So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.” (1 Sam. 1:15-18)

Hannah, whose name in Hebrew (Channah) means favor or grace, finally, by the favor/grace of the Lord, a little more than nine months later, bore a son, whom she named, Samuel, which means, “requested of the Lord” in Hebrew. Hannah dedicated her firstborn son, Samuel, to the Lord, pursuant to the solemn vow she had prayed before the high priest, to such an extent that when he was only three years old, she took him to Eli to live with him, to be sanctified in service to the Lord. In so doing, she was sacrificing her own desires for her son and giving Him back to God, who had endowed her with this bountiful gift of a son.

God instructs that children be reared in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4), and that parents “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Pro. 22:6). Hannah did just that, dedicating her firstborn son back to God in return for the blessings of favor and grace He showed toward her in opening up her womb to bear a child. Subsequently, she bore three additional sons and two daughters, and Samuel lived to be an old man, and served Jehovah God all the days of his life as the greatest of all the prophets of Israel.

The formerly barren and social outcast, Hannah, became a Biblical model of sacrificial mothers who out of an overriding selfless love give back to God the priceless gift of the children God entrusts to their care and nurture by dedicating them to God and His purposes and plans for their lives.  God grant us a myriad of Hannahs in this day of self-absorbed, narcissistic mothers who care more about how their children can boost their own image and record than they do about what they can do to bless the lives and futures of their children.

This Sunday is “Mother’s Day,” the day in America we’ve designated to give tribute to and honor the millions of mothers in our nation, for all they have done and do in the vital role as mothers to and for us all. Everyone has a natural mother, though, sadly, some individuals, through various circumstances, were deprived of a relationship with their mother, or even knowing who their mother is or was. Nevertheless, a person cannot be born into this world without a mother. We all were conceived in the womb of a mother. Mothers are vital to our lives, in innumerable ways, and we are all born with a God-placed love in our hearts for our mothers—that’s why we’ve set this one day aside in our nation to honor and express to them in various ways how much we love and appreciate them and all they’ve done for us.

On this Mother’s Day 2013, may we all pray for God’s blessings upon all mothers everywhere, and if possible, express our gratitude to the mothers who made the many requisite sacrifices to bear and rear their children, particularly those who made the additional sacrifices requisite to rearing their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Let us happily and joyfully honor our fathers and mothers—”which is the first commandment with a promise”—a promise of a long and productive life (Eph. 6:2; Exo. 20:12)

My friends and many of my readers know that I do not do compromise nor do I capitulate. I don’t bargain with the enemy nor make deals with them. And under no circumstances do I allow myself to be dissuaded to go along with something I know or believe to be wrong. Recently a friend for whom I have a tremendous amount of respect learned a bitter lesson pursuant to my reasoning for same.

My friend is a school board member, and two years ago complained to the rest of the school board that a certain teacher was having his students engage in material that had serious sexual overtones to it. My friend wanted the teacher fired at that time, but the administrators and other board members ignored his warnings.

Fast forwarding to the present, the same teacher whose behavior the school board ignored and permitted to continue teaching in the same school district has now been arrested and “charged with 22 offenses including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and indecent assault of a victim under age 16, sexual assault, corruption of a minor and reckless endangerment.”

My friend is devastated that he didn’t persevere and force the school district to get rid of the teacher. He has reminded the school board that he warned them about the homosexual pedophile teacher. The obvious tragic truth is my friend tried warn these feckless board members, but they elected to do nothing until a child was brutally and repeatedly violated by the teacher.

The school board’s behavior is analogous to the politicians who have been elected and reelected. My friend’s experience should be a first person example of why we should not capitulate to the will of politicians.

Let me for the record make it absolutely clear that my friend is no shrinking violet. My friend is a hard-nose conservative and a principled individual. Which is why I was surprised when they told me what happened.

It is imperative that we stand up to politicians and refuse to back down. We owe it to our Founding Fathers and to our children and grandchildren. We owe it to our fellow Americans who do not see the danger and/or those who are easily persuaded to go along with what is obviously not good for America.

I have been warning about Benghazi. And my friend’s experience is an example of why we must demand Obama and Hillary Clinton pay for their misdeeds pursuant to the murder of Ambassador Stevens, Tyrone Woods, Sean Smith, and Glen Doherty.

The thing that matters in this hearing is not the cover-up as such. Going down that rabbit hole will result in obfuscation, misdirection, and the resignation of low-level bureaucrats who resign with their pensions and severance packages intact.

What matters is that Obama and Hillary Clinton allowed four brave Americans to be brutally sodomized and murdered when they could have intervened to rescue them in a moment’s notice. And then they enlisted Susan Rice to go on talk shows and knowingly spread a lie.

Pursuing the cover-up alone is setting the stage for someone else to take the fall for the actions of Obama and Clinton. We have seen this kind of dog-and-pony show before. It is what politicians do when they want to make a show of pretending to be hard at work on behalf of the nation when in reality what they are doing is theater and amounts to nothing.

As I have been saying, we’ve seen this act before — it was called the hearings held for Fast and Furious. When politicians are serious about making the right people pay for their misdeeds, we see Watergate-type hearings and Clinton impeachment-type hearings.

In my opinion, it’s not the cover-up it’s the murders. They not only could have been prevented but also there is credible reason to believe Obama watched our fallen heroes murdered in real time.

Regret for allowing themself to be silenced will be my friend’s companion for a long time to come. The school board members will in no way feel the same sense of failed responsibility my friend will experience knowing that they failed a child they could have protected.

Politicians involved in the Benghazi cover-up hearings will be no different from those school board members. The school board members will rationalize their refusal to listen to my friend under the cloak of we didn’t have enough information, etc., etc. The politicians involved in the cover-up hearings, if they do anything at all, will boast of their pontifications and possibly having a scapegoat take the fall.

It is imperative that we not allow talk news programs, talking heads, and political talking points to prevent us from demanding the right people (read Obama and Clinton) be made to pay for the murders of Woods, Stevens, Doherty, and Smith. If we allow this theater to distract us from what is truly important then, unlike my friend, our guilt will not be that we didn’t persevere rather it will be that we didn’t even bother to object.

I received the following letter from a reader who had written to voice his condemnation of the anti-God Pentagon initiative that Obama has sanctioned which penalizes (including court-martial) military persons for sharing their faith.

D.W.,
Your accusation of censorship reveals an incredibly shallow, possibly nonexistent, understanding of the meaning of the word or its relevance in regards to our rights guaranteed by the 1st amendment. If you have ever voted, I’m sure your aware that campaigning within close proximity of polling places is prohibited. Time, place, and manner restrictions on our 1st amendment rights exist for a reason. These restriction are very often due to co mpeting claims of individual rights.

As a Christian (Episcopalian in fact) supporter of MRFF, I truly enjoy efforts to proselytize the Christian faith to everyone here at MRFF. In this private non-governmental setting it is both appropriate and appreciated. I have the freedom (as do you) to demonstrably agree with a proselytized message, disagree or totally ignore with no chance of repercussions. If on the other hand the proselytized message was being delivered to me in a government controlled situation where your official capacity was superior and mine subordinate, your message becomes immediately oppressive due to the loss of my freedoms as listed above.

Let me use the words of another in further explanation:

No one will be prosecuted simply for sharing one’s faith in the military. Sharing your faith – in a non-official context – is fine. What’s wrong is when it is in a mandatory, official, or any other context in which the power dynamic between the individuals is out of balance (e.g., a commander recommending church attendance to subordinates).

Finally, you should also be aware that MRFF fully supports the military chaplaincy role in its passive (i.e. without proselytization) ministrations to the religious needs of all U.S. Service Members.

Peace be with you,

Andy Kasehagen

Thanks to Clinton and Obama appointees the Pentagon is doing its best to have our armed forces imitate a homosexual club “fed” complete with epaulettes, medals, shiny shoes, muscles, crew cuts, group showers, and retirement pay.

Applying Kasehagen’s logic for making the sharing of your faith a criminal offense under military law is as he puts it necessary because: “If on the other hand the proselytized message was being delivered to me in a government controlled situation where your official capacity was superior and mine subordinate, your message becomes immediately oppressive due to the loss of my freedoms as listed above.”

Let’s turn his concerns around. What happens if a big boy (read homosexual) with higher rank comes up to a guy of lesser rank and propositions him? Wouldn’t his analogy of “official capacity was superior and mine subordinate” mean the subordinate would feel threatened? Following Kasehagen’s logic, wouldn’t that situation “immediately [become] oppressive due to the loss of [his] freedoms” as Kasehagen listed them?

Or are we to believe homosexuals wouldn’t do that? Kasehagen and those like him are trying to convince the public that the sharing of one’s faith is more dangerous to individuals than having unchecked homosexuality endorsed and advocated in military settings.

This would be laughable if it were not such foolishness that has been mandated into existence.

I have another question for this Kasehagen person. What happens if a lesbian commanding officer repeatedly comes on to a woman of lesser rank who confides to her boyfriend or husband that said is taking place and the boyfriend or husband takes offense (as they should)? Continuing with this analogy, what happens if the officers hearing the complaint against her superior officer are themselves homosexual and one or more of them decide to make the subordinate’s life miserable in ways she can never prove? Or are we to believe there’s no chance that could ever happen?

Of course, to believe that would never happen means we would have to dismiss the instances, specifically in California, where homosexual judges overturned valid and legal ballot initiatives rejecting same-sex marriage.

It’s not someone sharing their faith on a military base we need to be concerned about; it’s those Obama has approved to deprive men and women in the military of hearing the word of God in the skewed belief that if God cannot be shared no one will be able to disapprove of homosexuality in military settings.

And one final thought that shows Kasehagen’s duplicitous double standards and dishonesty. His claiming membership in the Episcopal Church is a specious and deceitful declarative used to anchor his support of censoring God in the military. Because for those who are unaware, the Episcopal Church split over the issue of homosexuality.

Parishes across the nation have left the church’s national body in recent years specifically because the leadership of those churches leaving the national body is committed to following the word of God not the homosexual agenda. Maybe Kasehagen would care to tell us which part of the church he belongs to or should we guess?

In just two days our last of seven children will be graduating college!  We are both sad and glad.  As you can imagine our emotions are all over the place.  My wife was in sackcloth and ashes when our first child went off to college; what will be our state of mind when the last child receives her diploma in the college auditorium?  In addition to all that, she will be united in holy matrimony at the end of this summer!

We’re truly happy she was directed by God to a young man who loves the Lord and has an amazing job with the D.O.D.  Our daughter will continue her education in order to be a nurse within two years.  We sometimes wonder if we did much good in raising our seven children.  We made many mistakes but hopefully made some good lasting impressions.  They’re all doing well and seem to have faith in God and direction for their young lives.

My wife and I do not worry about their ability to make it in life but we are concerned about the society they will live in and the world their child will be born into.  It was different just 22 years ago.  When our seventh child was born the world was a different place.  The future was promising, communism had fallen, the political condition of the world was somewhat calm, the economy was beginning to thrive and the Church of Christ was impacting our country with movements like Promise Keepers and the emerging mega church movement.  Those indeed were the “glory days” for many reasons!

We live in a different world today.  Very few believe that the future has any promise, communism/totalitarianism is once again rearing its head, the economy is on the verge of collapse, the world is about to erupt in widespread war and the Church is in decline!  I try not to be so pessimistic but I am also a realist and the above outlook is unfortunately true.  What kind of world is my daughter and her soon to be husband going to be facing?

Twenty-two years ago when my daughter was born, we were liberating Kuwait from the invasion of Saddam’s army.  Today we are allowing the terrorist to systematically overrun and take control of several countries in the Middle East.  By “leading from behind,” we have not only allowed the Muslim Brotherhood (a terrorist organization) to take control of Egypt, we also give them $2 billion in aid, sell them F-16’s and pretend they have good intensions with all these blessings from the U.S.

Twenty-two years ago, President Reagan’s supply-side economics and the emergence of the tech revolution were beginning to result in the greatest economic growth this country has ever seen.  The stock market was soaring with 70% of our nation invested by the late 90’s.  President Bush and later President Clinton were able to work out differences with the Democrats and Republicans which resulted in rapid economic growth.  Welfare reform was instituted, the unemployment rate was at a record low and graduating college students had a tremendous choice of jobs before them.

Today, we are facing an economic disaster!  Our government is spending money we do not have on things we do not need to please people and things we do not like.  The “drug addiction” of previous generations is now the plague of Washington.  They never have enough!  They are out of control and don’t want to admit it.  Partisan politics is grid-locking Congress at the expense of a disillusioned American public.

We have a president who does not know how to unite a hurting country; he divides Washington by his arrogance and the entire nation with his class warfare.  We have more people on welfare today that at any other time.  The “entitlement mentality” is encouraged by this administration in order to secure their vote in coming elections.  We have leaders who have become habitual liars to the people they have been called to serve.  This very week we have seen how our nation’s highest elected and appointed officials have lied and lied again to cover-up lies!

Today, we see that the Church and church attendance is in decline.  Pastors are afraid to boldly address the issues that are paralyzing our moral and spiritual condition as a once God-fearing nation.  We see the homosexual agenda spreading its debaucheries in all areas of society.  To put it plainly; we have lost our salt!

With all the negativity in the above observations, I remain an eternal optimist in a pessimistic world.  The reason this is true is because my faith is not in this evil world system we find ourselves.  My children and grandchildren also have a faith that cannot be shaken.  We “look for a city whose builder and maker is God.”  We desire to make a difference in this declining society and, who knows, maybe there will be a drastic shift back to “the good old days,” but whatever the case, our faith remains steadfast and sure.

There is a verse in Micah 6:8 that gives all of us some brief guidance for each day: “He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you; but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God!”  My daughter knows this verse; therefore I need not worry about her future.  She and her new husband will do just fine!

To my surprise, this article was intended to speak about the ghoulish Dr. Gosnell, but as the reality that Gosnell was only the symptom of an increasingly amoral America became apparent, this piece took a different turn.

Years ago Ruth Graham, wife of Billy Graham, made a statement that I thought was a bit over the top.  She said, “If God doesn’t soon bring judgment upon America, He’ll have to go back and apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!”  Back when Mrs. Graham made this statement, I hardly winced.  After all, no one was knocking on my door to have sexual relations with any of my attractive visitors.  However, the handwriting was on the wall.  We were well on our way to becoming as arrogant, hedonistic, and morally defunct as Sodom – we just didn’t know it.

How did this happen to America?  The truth is we may have always been a noble nation but we were never perfect.  Our history reeks of evil doings, such as the Salem Witch Trials where many an innocent citizen was brutally murdered, and of course who can deny the atrocity of slavery?  Historically there were always voices willing to stand against evil.  In the case of the Civil War, there were those who were willing to die to free others.  Today there are also voices that speak against ungodliness but while these messages resonate for a minute or two, our attention is quickly diverted to the next atrocity or crisis and the ungodliness escalates as it continues to be unchecked. And the voice that needs to speak the loudest – that of the church – barely utters a whimper.

There were many indicators that we would produce monsters like Gosnell but we failed to embrace them as we should have.  Dr. Francis Schaeffer correctly predicted in his work Whatever Happened to the Human Race that first trimester abortions would give way to long term abortions, which would give way to infanticide, and then progress to Euthanasia. Once again, I hardly winced.

Again, how did this happen to America?

Several things happened to America.  The first was the Johnson Amendment of 1954.  Lyndon B.’s 1948 election to the Senate was thought to be fraudulent by many. Two non-profit anti-Communist groups in Texas came out strongly against him for his re-election in 1954.  In order to silence them, he inserted language into the IRS codes that prohibited non-profits (including churches) from endorsing or opposing political candidates.

This gave rise to the many misconceptions regarding the separation of church and state that have impacted subsequent court rulings.  In 1962 in Engel v. Vitale, the New York Supreme Court ruled against a non-denomination prayer being said in public schools.  At the same time, Murray O’Hair was bringing a similar suit in Maryland.  In 1963, the United States Supreme Court consolidated the cases and ruled 8-1 that prayer in public schools was unconstitutional. It became a court precedent that there was a wall of separation between church and state, known as the Establishment Clause.  Although this was a gross misinterpretation of the First Amendment, the Establishment Clause has been one of the main progenitors of our godless culture. It provided the courts with a precedent to eliminate God from the public arena at every turn.

What did the church say about this? Nothing.  Perhaps they were concerned about losing their tax-exempt status.

Occurrences in 1964 went virtually unnoticed but it was as destructive a year as 1954, 1962 and 1963.  In 1964 SEICUS (Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States) was founded by Dr. Mary S. Calderone, former Medical Director for the Planned Parenthood Federation.  It set the foundation for what would become known as sex education in government-run schools.

It is hard to determine an exact date when sex education was introduced into the government school system, but once the foundation was laid in 1964 by SEICUS, it exploded at an exponential rate in the 1970s.  The sexual revolution hit the twenty-somethings but our schools along with the world of entertainment would prove to be the twin sisters of immorality.  We then had the perfect storm for immorality to thrive in.  We took away the political voice of our churches and took prayer out of our schools.  Then we began eroticizing our children under the cover of educating them sexually.  I remember asking back then, how did we ever survive as a human race without sex ed.  Of course I was being facetious.

The 1960s may have been known as the time when America’s youth turned against the establishment, but the 1970s saw the sexual revolution that was undergirded by Roe v. Wade. To make matters worse, in 1970 Governor Ronald Regan signed the country’s first no-fault divorce laws, which were instituted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia by 1985. Not only was the stage set for the perfect storm but the once strict divorce laws now gave way to government liberals and the decline of the family fanned the winds of destruction in the good old USA.  We would never be the same again.

The church didn’t speak up about divorce back then, and now is it any wonder that people don’t listen when they speak up about marriage today?

All of this would have been bad enough but in 1974, President Jimmy Carter signed the Department of Education Organization Act.  This may have very well yielded the silent death blow to the vulnerable country. The federal government not only took the voice of God out of government, eroticized our children, helped to destroy our families but now granted themselves the ability to continually try to control the education of our children without regard to the enumerated powers cited in the Constitution. And every day we grow more and more like Sodom in every way.

While parents are becoming aware of the new kid on the government’s block, Common Core Education, CCE is only the most recent bully in the school yard.  Its insidious assault to disassemble local school boards and place all power with the Department of Education has been discovered by many an outraged parent.  CCE has enticed 46 states to take their money in exchange for teaching their radical globalist agenda.  Little did these states know that they would be responsible for the millions and millions of dollars to institute CCE in their states, but they also would have to fund a $16 billion reimbursement to the feds – what a deal! The State of Alabama (God bless Alabama) has taken the lead in fighting this atrocity, as it had taken the lead back in the 1990s against Goals 2000, another government program designed to dumb-down our children and turn them into globalist robots.  Last month the Republican National Committee (RNC), who seldom show any signs of having a backbone,  unanimously adopted a resolution slamming Common Core as “an inappropriate overreach to standardize and control the education of our children.”

That may seem like good news – like we are making progress in fighting back against the government indoctrination of our children, but SEICUS still lurks in the background and is growing stronger every day.  Many balked at allegations exposed on Fox News about Senator Obama’s stance on sex ed, believing no one could possibly support such radical ideas.  However, Senator Obama’s stance on education came straight off the pages of SEICUS.

When I first heard about SEICUS back in the late 1990s, it was easy to find their guidelines on the worldwide web.  Today, it is much more difficult.  That in and of itself should tell you something.  However, not all is lost.  Many have managed to store and preserve the guidelines in their own systems and they can still be found if you look hard enough. Below are the guidelines for children ages 5 to 8.  Remember as you read them that they are for children 5 to 8 years old! Read them and weep – or throw something if you must, but please, if you have school age children or grandchildren, take them out of government-run schools as soon as possible.

Finally, in a 7-2 decision written by Justice Brennan in 1987, the Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s “Creationism Act” because it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. After removing prayer from our classrooms, now the classrooms not only became a den of iniquity, they also were able to insinuate through the clever use of censorship that God is just a mythical creature. If you would like to know what the Bible says about those who worship the creation instead of the Creator, read Romans 1:18ff and tell me if the Bible isn’t accurately describing America today?

And once again, the church remained silent.

Let’s recap:

1954                          The Johnson Amendment was passed

1962                        Prayer was taken out of schools in NY

1963                        Prayer was taken out of schools nationwide

1964                        SEICUS was founded

1970                        The first no-fault divorce laws were passed

1972                        Abortions became legal

1979                        The Department of Education was established

1987            Government-run schools censored creationism – reducing God to a mythological creature.

Back in her day, Mrs. Graham may have been exaggerating a bit when she said “If God doesn’t soon bring judgment upon America, He’ll have to go back and apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!”   But since those words were spoken, it seems that our government has been doing everything within its power (and everything beyond its power) to resurrect Sodom right here in America.

In 2013 America is looking more like Sodom than we ever imagined possible. If this continues, the next generation will make Sodom look like a bunch of prudes – that is if God doesn’t bring His judgment down upon us first.

When it comes to stirring the caldron of racial animus directed at whites, there are those who will go to any lengths to keep flames burning under said kettle.

As Booker T. Washington brilliantly observed, “There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public.” And when there is a verifiable absence of wrongdoing being directed at blacks by whites enter the likes of Mel Watt, D-NC, to do all he can to ensure racial strife is stirred up where none exists.

Or perhaps it is better said that Obama is seizing every opportunity to foment racial discord by putting in place rabid racialists not least of which is now Watt whom he has appointed to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

In 2005, during a Washington hearing held by the National Commission on the Voting Rights Acts, Watt said, “There would be a substantial majority of white voters who would say that under no circumstances would they vote for an African America.”

In a Constitutionally proper United States, the truth is that no American would vote for an “African-American” because African preceding the hyphen in front of American, properly applied, would mean the candidate would have been born in Africa. But let’s not confuse this issue with common sense.

Mel Watt made that claim at a time his own district which was/is 63 percent white elected and reelected him to office. Maybe someone should suggest Watt revisit his earlier diatribe and force him to point out that after a disastrous first term – arguably the worst president in history, thus far, won 51.1 percent of the votes.

Of the 51.1 percent who voted for Obama, the demographics were 56 percent white, 24 percent black, 14 percent Latino, 4 percent Asian, and 2 percent other. Interesting numbers, wouldn’t you say? John Lewis, another “color” who has been successfully reelected several times, won 80 percent of the white vote in his district in Atlanta, Georgia.

Speaking of no white people voting for black candidates, even the notorious race-monger and former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney of Atlanta won her last election as a Democrat with 63 percent of the white vote, as I recall.

This isn’t about whether or not Mel Watt is qualified to head the FHFA. He isn’t. This is about Obama placing a rabid racialist in a key position where Watt will be able to manage in ways that are unfair toward a certain demographic based on the color of their skin.

And before the Neo-Leninists start to tear their clothes, call me names, and ridicule me, let me point out Eric Holder who is on record telling the Justice Department Civil Rights Division that he wouldn’t prosecute any cases in which the victims weren’t black. This is the same Attorney General Holder who refused to prosecute the New Black Panther Party members for voter intimidation. The same Attorney General Holder who refused to prosecute the New Black Panther Party members for raising money across state lines to offer as a reward to the person or persons who harm George Zimmerman.

Perhaps Watt would have had more ground to stand on if he had said that voters won’t vote for the likes of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, or something that looks like it just stepped off a CD cover from South Central. Which Charles Rangel, D-NY, agrees with.

Rangel has stated, “It generally takes a different kind of black politician to win in a majority or largely white district than in a majority black district.” (America In Black And White; Stephan Thernstrom, Abigail Thernstrom; Pg. 300; Ppg 3) Albeit, I suspect Rangel was politely calling certain candidates he disapproves of Uncle Toms.

Watt also said black voters, unlike whites, don’t have “an absolute commitment” to voting for a candidate based on race. “Black people have not had the luxury of being able to say, ‘Under no circumstances will I vote for a white candidate.’” (Mel Watt: Majority of Whites Won’t Vote For Black Candidate; Patrick Howley; The Daily Caller; 5/1/13)

Watt also stated that white voters “need to be factored out of the equation, I’ve got no use for them in the Democratic process.”

Watt is a liar because even if he pretends not to know it the majority of Americans know that most blacks won’t buy a car if it’s white, much less vote for a white candidate.

The Voting Rights Acts was intended to end racial apartheid not create a new level based on the vision of Obama and Watt. That said, I want a liberal to tell me which white politician could say the same thing and not be run out of Washington on a rail.