We need more LEGAL immigrants like Mayor Abed!

mayorAbedI happened to catch a few minutes of Laura Ingraham’s Show yesterday while she was speaking with the mayor of Escondido, CA, Sam Abed. Wow! This guy, himself an immigrant from Lebanon, is more patriotic than 99% of his fellow Americans – particularly those of us who were born here.
 
Like millions before him, Abed was drawn to the United States by the potential for a better life and the promise of freedom. He saw America as a place where the color of skin, who your parents were, what social class you were born into, didn’t matter. As a place where equal outcome wasn’t guaranteed – but everyone was equal under the law. He found a nation where achievement was only limited by the size of your dreams, and by the amount of hard work you were willing to do. (Bear in mind that was decades ago – before we were fundamentally transformed by hope & change.)
 
Ingraham was discussing the mayor’s recent stand-off with the ACLU against a proposed shelter for illegal immigrant children in his town ~

“Escondido has [a] 150,000 population, with a diverse community, half of our population [is] Hispanics, and half of that 75,000 are believed to be illegals” he stated. Abed also railed against the federal government for its failure to secure the border, declaring “here’s the president coming to our local, little government and saying ‘we’re going to dump this problem on your city with no solution.’ There is no solution unless we secure our border. This is really a disappointment to our country.”

Source: Breitbart

 
Here’s the full interview from yesterday’s show (you’ll have to put up with a couple ads, etc., but it’s definitely worth it!) ~

 

 

My favorite line ~

“You cannot waiver on the principles that made this country great.” ~ Sam Abed, Mayor of Escondido

 

Back when America had borders, and the rule of law was respected, Mayor Abed was exactly the kind of immigrant we welcomed to our shores. He didn’t sneak in the back door looking for free stuff. He came in the front door, ready to work hard to achieve his American dream. And he did! 🙂
 
Sam Abed – proudly “Anti-Illegal immigration!”
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Related:
Economic success story in Escondido ~ Mayor Abed backs up his positions with solid results (an interview with Roger Hedgecock). His personal success as an immigrant has been a huge boon to his adopted community.
 
Immigrant Mayor Defends His City Against Illegal Flood ~ refreshingly objective account from a website called “The Daily Democrat.”

Posted in Fruits of Their Labors, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Shake it off baby!

The latest from my man Remy (Better than Taylor Swift eh?) ~
 

 
Maybe if we just shake off reality… everything will be OK… yeah baby.

Posted in Arrested Development, Fantasyland | Leave a comment

Enviro-Nuts unwittingly refute their own assertion

 

“Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.”

 
This statement was made on October 14th by Michael Osterholm, University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (Via: Shepherd of the Gurneys). The director was specifically referring to Ebloa and the lamentable mishandling of the current outbreak by various medical governmental agencies – but his words have universal application.
 
For instance, no matter how well-intentioned our Green friends may be, nature isn’t going to cooperate with their unrealistic expectations. Some anti-coal demonstrators in Wisconsin may have just accidentally taught themselves this lesson last week. The MacIver Institute described their protest (and published the video below) in Madison ~

Demonstrators gathered outside the Public Service Commission to protest against a requested rate structure change by the local utility company, Madison Gas and Electric (MG&E). During the protest, they decried the use of “dirty coal” and called for more renewable energy. To make their point, they had a blow-up coal power plant that was running on a fan powered by wind and solar charged batteries. Before the protest was over, however, the batteries died and their solar panel could not produce enough energy to keep the power plant standing upright.

 

 
Sorry guys, reality just hasn’t caught up with your utopian dreams of a world powered by unicorn farts (and Al Gore’s hot air). Right now, we’ll just have to make do with existing energy sources ~
 
totalWorldEnergySupply
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Related:
EPA’s war on American productivity
Solutions for America: Meeting America’s Energy and Environmental Needs

Posted in Fruits of Their Labors, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Saturday Shorts – 10-18-14

sshorts11-16-13

Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:

 
First up, all things Ebola ~
 
Progressive Dark Money Group Blames GOP for Ebola Deaths ~ Because a lie told loud enough and long enough…
Democracy Alliance cofounder Erica Payne’s group says GOP is ‘directly’ responsible for thousands of deaths in attack ads.

 
We’ll tell you how dangerous Ebola is after the election ~ from Ann Coulter. Since the ruling class politicizes everything, we shouldn’t be surprised at their callous approach to a critical live and death issue.

If Ebola was concentrated in Finland and Norway — certainly Israel! — we’d have had a travel ban on Day One.

 
President Obama Already Has An Ebola Czar. Where Is She? ~ Our beneficent federal government specifically created a new office in the Health and Human Services Department ten years ago so that they would be prepared to effectively respond to national public health threats like… Ebola. How’s that working out?

In a world where a $12.5 billion slush fund at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is used to fight the privatization of liquor stores, perhaps we should complain more about mission creep and Progressive faith in the habitually unrealized magic of increased government funding.

 
Same story, on an International level, only goes to show that in any given crisis we can pretty much count on Central Planning to make things worse ~
World Health Organization Busy Tackling Smoking as Ebola Spreads ~

The World Health Organization is taking on the most pressing health issue facing the world today: smoking. Instead of focusing its efforts on the spread of the deadly Ebola virus, the WHO is pushing to tax cigarettes at a higher rate, according to Dan Mitchell.

 
Six Reasons to Panic ~ Well, maybe not “panic,” but a serious analysis of the facts about Ebola at least warrants a high degree of wariness.
 
Apparently Drudge agrees ~ Matt Drudge Tweets Dire Warning: “Self-Quarantine”

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And in other news ~
 
CDC: 7th U.S. Death Linked to Polio-Like Respiratory Virus ~

… at least 796 people in 46 states have been sickened with the respiratory illness that can cause paralysis from mid-August through October 16. The outbreak is likely more widespread than reported since some states are not lab testing all respiratory illnesses to confirm.

Why isn’t this story headline news?! Maybe because it would undermine Obama’s amnesty push for thousands of illegal Central American children?
 
Americans Sick of Government Regulation ~ Over-taxed, over-regulated, overwhelmed; according to a recent poll, we’ve had it big brother bossing us around.
 
Little House on the Subsidized Prairie ~ Recent immigrant to Michigan, Melissa Gilbert, is using her celebrity status to extort votes for Dem gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer ~

Gilbert wants the state to increase the subsidies it delivers to film producers from the current $50 million annual level. She also told The Daily Press & Argus that her theater company plans are dependent on her choice for governor…
 
While Gilbert lives in Michigan, she and her husband, actor Timothy Busfield, are also collecting subsidies from North Carolina to shoot an ABC-TV series in that state.

Poor little rich girl.
obamaflipsthebird 

President tells people to ‘stick it to climate change deniers’ (and other gems)
~ We always knew he was a real class act.

 

 
Franklin Graham: ‘Prince of Darkness is Grimly and Powerfully at Work in World Affairs’ ~ Not one for hyperbole, Graham certainly isn’t alone in discerning the times.
 

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An Outbreak of Federal Dysfunction

“The single biggest threat to man’s continued dominance on the planet is a virus.”
~ Nobel Laureate microbiologist Joshua Lederberg
 
The second-biggest threat: a federal culture that rewards
the delay of medical progress.

~ New York Post

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If – or more probably, when – Ebola spirals out of control, remember this story: How the feds block Ebola cures ~

We have technology to potentially control Ebola and other viral outbreaks today. But the federal bureaucracy refuses to catch up with 21st-century science.

 
redTapeUncleSam
Huh?! Exactly. Seems the FDA is so bogged down in red tape and big government ineptitude that none of the available drugs or other products can get approved for public use. There are actually several companies which ~

… could start producing Ebola vaccine/treatments tomorrow — except that the Food and Drug Administration’s insistence on randomized studies and endless demands for more data means firms have to spend millions on paperwork instead of producing medicines.

 

Furthermore, the profligate spending by federal agencies is practically criminal. On top of which, the Left has been playing politics with the Ebola scare, accusing Republicans of being stingy with CDC funding, which turns out to be an easily refuted lie.
 
We’d like to think that maybe the Centers for Disease Contol would prudently focus on medical facility preparedness for emergency situations like, oh – viral outbreaks. Or maybe they could lobby the FDA to speed up the approval of promising new drugs and technologies…
 
Instead, our tax dollars are being wasted on sophomoric crap like this -> Beyond bizarre! CDC has a Zombie Apocalypse training manual ~
 
CDC-Zombiepocalyse
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Related:
For a rational assessment of the Ebola situation, along with a huge dose of sarcasm for some levity, check out this great blog by an ER nurse: Shepherd Of The Gurneys

Posted in Fruits of Their Labors, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Night Flight ~ Aurora Borealis

Relax for a few minutes and enjoy God’s own light show ~
 
The first video is from Ken Scott Photography ~

Glimpses of the Northern Lights over my favorite county in Michigan (that would be Leelanau; NE lower penninsula) from the ‘storm’ on the night of October 1-2, 2013

 


 
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This one is a time lapse sequence of photographs taken from the International Space Station (August to October, 2011). Cool stuff! ~
 

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Houston mayor’s “grotesque abuse of power”

Great to see Senator Cruz taking the lead in this: Ted Cruz: City of Houston’s Subpoenas of Pastors ‘Shocking & Shameful’ ~

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Senator Ted Cruz has weighed in regarding the controversial subpoenas that the City of Houston sent to several Houston area pastors, demanding copies of their sermons and speeches, as well as communications with church members […]
 
“I’m proud to stand with the pastors,” said Cruz. “Religious liberty is the very first protection in the Bill of Rights, the foundation of all our liberties. The City of Houston’s subpoenas demanding that pastors provide the government with copies of their sermons is both shocking and shameful. For far too long, the federal government has led an assault against religious liberty, and now, sadly, my hometown of Houston is joining the fight. This is wrong. It’s unbefitting of Texans, and it’s un-American.”

 
Amen!

Posted in Good vs.Evil, Timeless Principles, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

The World’s War on Christendom – Latest Dispatch from the Front

noChristiansJohn15
 

Did you catch the latest on the religious persecution front from Texas? ~ City of Houston demands pastors turn over sermons ~

The city of Houston has issued subpoenas demanding a group of pastors turn over any sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or Annise Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor. And those ministers who fail to comply could be held in contempt of court.
 

 
‘The city’s subpoena of sermons and other pastoral communications is both needless and unprecedented,” Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Christina Holcomb said in a statement. “The city council and its attorneys are engaging in an inquisition designed to stifle any critique of its actions.’
 
ADF, a nationally-known law firm specializing in religious liberty cases, is representing five Houston pastors. They filed a motion in Harris County court to stop the subpoenas arguing they are “overbroad, unduly burdensome, harassing, and vexatious.”
“Political and social commentary is not a crime,” Holcomb said. “It is protected by the First Amendment.”

 
Are you *#?%#! kidding me?! Is this country turning into Nazi Germany?! And no, that’s not hyperbole. Hitler’s National Socialist Party sought to hijack as many of the German churches as possible, using the iron fist of the law to preach their twisted ideology ~

In other words, the National Reich Church serves the state and focuses on blood and race over all else. The Bible is replaced with Mein Kampf. The Christianity imported to Germany around 800ad is to be abolished, presumably in favor of the pagan religions that existed in what is now Germany at that time. Baptism and communion are eliminated as well as the Christian doctrine of forgiveness of sin. Gone is the cross, in is the swastika. Does this sound like a Christian church in any way? It is quite clear the National Socialists sought to keep the title of church as little more than a name.

Source: Nazi’s National Reich Church Anything But Christian

 
Tony Perkins (head of the Family Research Council) called on pastors around the nation to rally around the Houston ministers ~

“The state is breaching the wall of separation between church and state,” Perkins told me. ‘Pastors need to step forward and challenge this across the country. I’d like to see literally thousands of pastors after they read this story begin to challenge government authorities – to dare them to come into their churches and demand their sermons.”
 
Perkins called the actions by Houston’s mayor “obscene” and said they “should not be tolerated.”
 
“This is a shot across the bow of the church,” he said.
 
This is the moment I wrote about in my book, “God Less America.” I predicted that the government would one day try to silence American pastors. I warned that under the guise of “tolerance and diversity” elected officials would attempt to deconstruct religious liberty.

 

Pray that these neo-fascists don’t become as ruthless as the Nazis were (There are no “allies” left to save US.) ~

Those Germans who were truly Christians and did not wish to participate in this new religion were banned from participating in truly Christian Churches. Those believers did leave the National Reich Church, creating the Confessing Church. The National Socialists murdered thousands of pastors and believers from the Confessing Church. There was to be no protestant church in National Socialist Germany but the Reich Church.

Source: Nazi’s National Reich Church Anything But Christian

 
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Related:
Don’t let the Leftists destroy our freedom of religion

Posted in Cultural Erosion, Good vs.Evil, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Don’t panic yet but…

• Barbaric ISIS forces seem intent on eliminating all traces of civilization in the middle east…
• Thanks to a federal government that is almost criminally negligent, the Ebola virus now has a foothold in the U.S. with the potential for widespread outbreak …
• (Not to mention the other diseases that the illegal children from Central America are sharing with the rest of us…)
• The Catholic church seems unable or unwilling to recognize true evil in our day and stand in opposition to it…

• In the video below, conservative entrepreneur Monty Morton discusses two other pending disasters still looming in the background…
 

Video via The Glazov Gang

 
… and now the Pentagon – the United States military leadership, tasked with defending the country from all enemies foreign and domestic has (along with our feckless Secretary of State) severed all ties with reality: Pentagon Signals Security Risks of Climate Change ~

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Monday released a report asserting decisively that climate change poses an immediate threat to national security, with increased risks from terrorism, infectious disease, global poverty and food shortages. It also predicted rising demand for military disaster responses as extreme weather creates more global humanitarian crises.
 
The report lays out a road map to show how the military will adapt to rising sea levels, more violent storms and widespread droughts. The Defense Department will begin by integrating plans for climate change risks across all of its operations, from war games and strategic military planning situations to a rethinking of the movement of supplies.

 

God save us from these dishonest tyrants!

Posted in Good vs.Evil, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

The Late Great Country of America

I hate to be such a downer on a Monday morning but truth is truth and this piece from Pat Archbold (Creative Minority) last week is too significant not to share ~
 

The U.S. Is Over, Get Used To It
 
Many people are understandably dismayed by the the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear several gay marriage cases effectively codifying gay marriage in several states.
 
While it is certainly disappointing, it isn’t really unexpected.
 
I hate to break this news to you, especially if you are one of these people who think that this country, a country founded with limited government, separation of powers, and federalism, is still recoverable by normal means, it isn’t.
 
cryingangel-blue2 
The U.S. as we knew it and understood it is gone and it isn’t coming back, at least not by regular constitutional means. Nope.
 
Federalism, limited government, checks and balances, all gone. We now have a rapidly increasing federal behemoth with unlimited powers granted to itself rapidly centralizing power in the person of the president (I don’t say office, but person). All of which is hell bent on running every part of your life including your morality, all aided and abetted by an unelected black-robed oligarchy.
 
You can elect all the Republicans you want, do you really think they will change anything? Not a chance.
 
Nope the U.S. is done. And you know what? That may be a good thing. Such government, even one founded on the principles of limited constitutional powers and federalism, can only work for a people for whom Christ is their King. That isn’t us.
 
I don’t know where we go from here, but I suspect that it is bad. I continue to believe I have a moral obligation to behave in a lawful way, but I no longer consider myself bound in loyalty to a government that has has moved beyond the powers granted to it. Morality, decency, and legitimate freedom will not be restored to Americans through election, it will take other means. I believe the world will undergo a crisis incomprehensible to most and what will emerge from the other side is a different people. That different people will choose a different government.
 
Until then, we have chosen tyranny and tyranny is what we will get.

 

For more doom and gloom – aka – The New Reality, read Ann Barnhardt on a regular basis. And not just for the doom and gloom. Remember, as she regularly points out; our faith and eternal hope, is rooted in heavenly – not earthly – things.
 
Jesus-HolyLand-smlest
 
 

These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
~ John 16:33 ~

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Just realized that this post seems rather odd coming on the heels of my last piece. But we can’t lose sight of the fact that, while as Christians, we may not be OF the world, as long as we’re still IN it we must continue to stand against evil wherever we find it.

Posted in Good vs.Evil, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Don’t let the Leftists destroy our freedom of religion

Our religious freedom is under relentless attack from the secular Left. As this video makes clear, if we don’t soon stand up and fight back, it’s a freedom we’re going to lose in the not too distant future ~
 


 
A full one hour documentary is available for viewing HERE; free for a limited time. It’s well worth viewing -and sharing with friends and family who don’t yet realize what’s really at stake.

Posted in Good vs.Evil, Timeless Principles | 3 Comments

Saturday Shorts – 10-11-14

sshorts10-11-14

Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:

 
How Liberals Dominate the Public Debate ~ The Left is much too adept at lulling the sheeple into a stupor through language manipulation. This article points out some of the specific tricks they use to trap the unsuspecting.

 
They Are Coming for Your Children; Teacup totalitarians target Connecticut home-schoolers ~ Because the Sandy Hook psycho-killer Adam Lanza was home-schooled for about 5 minutes – and only as a last resort – the Progressives bullies in Connecticut are now pushing the narrative that home-schooling creates monsters. 🙄 Which of course necessitates vigilant scrutiny of children educated at home.
What’s their real motivation? ~

The Left’s organizing principle is control, and the possibility that children might commonly be raised outside of its control matrix is an existential threat from the progressive point of view. Institutions such as free markets and free speech terrify progressives, because they are the result of arrangements in which nobody is in control […]
 
If people discover that they can live without overseers in the matter of education, who knows in which other of life’s endeavors they might be inclined to go their own way?

 
Without Fracking, Oil Prices Would be at Record Highs ~ Well, here’s one bright spot in this otherwise depressing economy. Right now prices here in Michigan are lower than they’ve been in years; just paid under $3.00/gallon 🙂

“What the EIA Administrator is telling us is without fracking in the United States we’d be paying well over $4-a-gallon for gasoline and our economy would truly be in the tank,” said Daniel Kish, senior vice president of policy at the Institute for Energy Research, a non-profit research group that advocates for expansion of domestic oil production. “All oil and gas production in the United States is done with fracking and has been for decades.”

Furthermore; The Science Is Settled: Fracking Is Safe

“[t]hese results appear to rule out the migration of methane up into drinking water aquifers from depth because of horizontal drilling or hydraulic fracturing.” That is to say, in the rare cases where it occurs, gases are entering the water supply from outside the borehead as a result of faulty well construction or poor cementing, both of which are manageable problems.

 
Shortage in protective gear (polyethyelene) as Ebola spreads ~ Oh look! Evil petroleum is suddenly indispensible. If the enviro-obsessed would stop to consider the vast number of everyday products derived from oil (starting with everything made from plastic) they might actually realize that modern civilization would be impossible without it.

 
The Challenge: Pornography Pandemic ~ Porn is so pervasive on the internet it’s almost impossible to prevent even young kids from being exposed. And the results are pretty troubling ~

… research reveals that pornography consumption by children is associated with the following trends (just to name a few):
 
• Developing tolerance toward sexually explicit material, thereby requiring more novel or bizarre material to achieve the same level of arousal or interest.
• Overestimating the prevalence of less common, harmful sexual practices (such as group sex, bestiality and sadomasochistic activity.)
• Perceiving promiscuity as a normal state of interaction
• Developing cynical attitudes about love
• Developing a negative body image, especially for girls.

 
The article introduces the Initiative for porn-free Wi-Fi, which currently has a campaign aimed at getting McDonalds and Starbucks to take the lead in filtering their free Wi-Fi.

 
Mexican Gov’t Paying to Help Shield Illegal Immigrants in the U.S. from Deportation ~ OK. This one just might make my head explode. 😡

 
Religion: a looming mental health crisis ~ Seriously. This kind of ties in with the home-schooling story from Connecticut. We no longer live in a civil society where ideas can be discussed and debated in the marketplace of ideas. If you don’t go along with the Left’s intolerant ideology, you must be nuts.

“Christians, and those rejecting the me-generation liberal dogma of ‘if it feels good do it,’ are no longer tolerable by the intellectual and cultural elite,” says (Robert) George, 59, director of the James Madison program at Princeton University. Citing the political witch hunt that forced Brendan Eich’s departure as CEO of Mozilla for a small contribution to a conservative political cause, George said politically correct mobs “threaten us with consequences if we refuse to call what is good evil, and what is evil, good. They command us to confirm our thinking to their orthodoxy, or else say nothing at all.”

 
The Romans threw the Christians to the lions; the “Progressives” will throw us in a psych ward.
 
 

Evil talks about tolerance only when it’s weak. When it gains the
upper hand, its vanity always requires the destruction of the good
and the innocent, because the example of good and innocent lives is
an ongoing witness against it.
So it always has been. So it always will be.

 
~ Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput

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