A very sad day for the BSA

Boy Scouts of America was incorporated more than 100 years ago; Feb. 8th, 1910. The new organization was the U.S. version of a movement begun in England by Sir Robert Baden-Powell two years earlier. Yesterday BSA’s leaders effectively voted to commit suicide: Family groups on Boy Scouts’ vote: “Expect a mass exodus” ~

Changes are in the wind for the BSA, as the organization has voted to change its century-old tradition of being morally straight. Meeting in Grapevine, Texas, Boys Scout delegates on Thursday voted – by a wide margin – in favor of a proposed policy to allow open homosexuals as members but not as Scout leaders. Homosexual activists on hand in Grapevine said that would be their next project: to pressure the organization to permit homosexual leaders.

 From WorldMag.com ~

John Stemberger, founder of OnMyHonor.Net, a group opposed to the change, said he felt “sadness and deep disappointment” that the “most influential youth program in America has turned a tragic corner. The vote today to allow open and avowed homosexuality into Scouting will completely transform it into an unprincipled and risky proposition for parents. It is truly a sad day for Scouting.”

 
No doubt President Obama is just thrilled by the news. After all, it’s a celebration of “diversity” (moral relativity), “tolerance,” “equality” and a whole bunch of other words that used to mean something. Tragically, the BSA decision is just another reminder of how far down the path of moral decay America has traveled.
 
By way of contrast, here is a former president’s reflection on what the Boy Scouts (used to) represent to America ~

“The boy on becoming a scout binds himself on his honor to do his best… ‘To do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the scout law… To help other people at all times… To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight’…
Members must promise to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent… It would be a perfect world if everyone exemplified these virtues in daily life…
 
Those who attempt to live in opposition to these standards … become slaves of their own evil doing, realizing the Scriptural assertion that they who sin are the servants of sin and that the wages of sin is death. …
 
The three fundamentals of scouthood are reverence for nature … reverence for law … and reverence for God. It is hard to see how a great man can be an atheist. Doubters do not achieve. Faith is the great motive power, and no man realizes his full possibilities unless he has the deep conviction that life is eternally important, and that his work, well done, is part of an unending plan.”
 
~ President Calvin Coolidge ~

Source: Patriot Post

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In a 1917 pamphlet “Scouting & Christianity,” Sir Baden-Powell wrote: “Scouting is nothing less than applied Christianity.”

 
Sadly, May 23, 2013 will be remembered as the beginning of the rapid demise of the Boy Scouts of America. Scouting will soon become another casualty of contemporary culture, nothing more than applied immorality.

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Related:
Letter to an Eagle Scout ~ Mark Alexander’s tribute to a once-honorable organization
From February, some unheeded advice ~ Canada’s Boy Scouts Warn BSA Of Homosexual Infiltration.
The First Word in BSA Now Stands for Betrayal
Homosexual Motto: ‘BoyScoutsRus’
 

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

Team Obama Issues Drone Alert

“Urgent! *** Take action immediately! ***
Save the Planet from your Crazy Uncle Harry!”

 
OK – that’s not really the title of the recent email issued by Obama’s “Organizing for Action” group, but it may as well have been. Paul Bedard, who writes a column at the Washington Examiner called “Washington Secrets,” shared the following memo to the minions sent out earlier this month from Jim Messina, the president’s re-election campaign manager ~

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Friend ?–
 
Take a look at these statements on climate change — give ’em a good read through and see what you think:
 
“Global warming has become a religion for many back here in Washington. To this crowd, there are no greater or more urgent problems anywhere. They worship at the alter [sic] of carbon generation and reduction.” [Gaia & Green Religion]
 
“Nobody really knows the cause … the earth cools, the earth warms … It could be caused by carbon dioxide or methane. Maybe we should kill the cows to stop the methane, or stop breathing to stop the CO2 … Thousands of people die every year of cold, so if we had global warming it would save lives … We ought to look out for people. The earth can take care of itself.” [Anti-Human Mindset Of Environmentalists]
 
“I’m also old enough to remember when the same left-wing part of our society was creating a global cooling scare in order to generate funds for their pet projects. So 30-some years ago the big scare was global cooling, and once they drained that [topic], they shifted to global warming.” [1970′s Global Cooling Compilation]
 
“[Scientists] are making up their facts to fit their conclusions. They’ve already caught them doing this.” [East Anglia & Climategate] [Medieval warming and the Hockey Stick Myth]
 
Sounds like things your crazy uncle would say at Thanksgiving dinner, right?
 
You’d be wrong. These are all statements made by current elected officials in Congress, folks whose votes have the power to make an actual difference on this issue. These climate deniers need to be called out — and you’re the only ones who can do it.
 
Add your name to join the team that’s going to hold these deniers accountable.
 
OFA will be out there making sure that the people saying these things are called out — and the people who sidestep the facts are forced to step up and say what they actually believe is going on with our climate.
 
Look, our crazy uncles aren’t the problem. But these members of Congress are using these far-fetched conspiracy theories as an excuse for not taking action on an issue that affects our environment, our economy, and yes, the planet our children and grandchildren inherit.
 
Climate change is real, and we’re not going to get anywhere on the issue until these guys admit that.
 
If you and I don’t say anything, nothing will change in Washington.
 
Help climate deniers in Congress see the light and take a step toward progress. Say you’ll help hold them accountable: http://my.barackobama.com/Hold-Climate-Deniers-Accountable
Thanks,
Jim Messina, Chair – Organizing for Action
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

Stunning isn’t it?
No attempt to use facts, logic or scientific reasoning. They’re counting on the fact that their drones have been sufficiently programmed so as not to question directives. Or think for themselves.
 
The truth is – “Crazy Uncle’s” statements are mostly accurate – and demonstrably so, if the drones actually cared to educate themselves.
 
But they don’t. And OFA is obviously just another insidious propaganda arm for the administration.
 
Chilling really. Especially when you consider that German authorities seem to be practicing the same brand of thought control (again?!). Last week that country’s version of the EPA issued an alarmist pamphlet ~
 
 
The publication attacks prominent global climate change skeptics, assuming the entire debate is over.

“Climate deniers” are “spreaders of half-truths and misinformation.”

[Sounds like Jim Messina huh?]

 

German law professor, Thorsten Koch is leery of the state’s authoritative position ~

Strange however that a government office is attempting to bindingly specify the state of knowledge in a scientific question. That is the job of a scientist. Even more it is neither scientifically or legally appropriate if scientific truths – and thus ultimately only the current state of the error – are announced with official authority.
 
Deciding scientific controversies is no duty of the state.

 

Repeating the same lie over and over, while at the same time demonizing the opposition is a time-honored Leftist tradition. (After all, homosexuals are born that way, life begins whenever the progressives say it begins and DDT will destroy the planet.)
 
After a while the drones just nod… and follow directives.
 
Sounds like Germany in the 1930’s…
Just sayin.
 

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

“Religion of Peace” strikes again

Hey! Doesn’t London have a machete ban?
 
UK Daily Mail headline:

‘We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you’: What man holding bloody cleaver said after ‘hacking soldier in Help For Heroes T-shirt to death just yards from Woolwich barracks’

 

Dare we suggest a radical Islamist ban?
 

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Seriously – isn’t it about time to rethink this whole diversity-for-the-sake-of-diversity nonsense?? How do we co-exist with crazed machete-wielding lunatics?
 

Steven Crowder, for one, isn’t shy about pointing out the obvious differences between Jesus (& civil society) – and Mohammed. Here’s his latest video ~
 

Uh-oh. That’s gonna leave a mark.

 

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Helping Tornado Victims

“Our prayers are with all of those who are suffering because of this massive storm,” Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham said. “We are going to stand by them and do everything we can to help them recover physically, emotionally and spiritually.”
 

 
You can help Samaritan’s Purse in their effort with your prayers and donations.

Please pray for the people impacted by the storms. Pray that God will lead us to people that most need our help, and that storm victims will see the love of Christ as we work in Texas and Oklahoma.

 

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Supplanting Free Speech With “Official Truth”

Front Page Mag published a very insightful article by Caroline Glick (columnist – Jerusalem Post) last Friday: Obama and the ‘Official Truth’. I believe I’ll subtitle it; “All opposition must be silenced” ~

With the flood of scandals now inundating the White House many are wondering if there is a connection between the cover-up of Benghazi, the IRS’s prejudicial treatment of non-leftist non-profit organizations and political donors, the Environmental Protection Agency’s prejudicial treatment of non-liberal organizations, and the Justice Department’s subpoenaing of phone records of up to a hundred reporters and editors from the Associated Press.
 
On the surface, they seem like unrelated events. But they are not. They expose the modus operandi of the Obama administration: To establish an “official truth” about all issues and events, and use the powers of the federal government to punish all those who question or expose the fraudulence of that “official truth.”
 

 

To establish their “official truth” they must suppress free speech. And we have ever-mounting evidence that that’s exactly what they’re doing ~
 
DOJ ~ Better referred to these days as Eric Holder’s Department of INjustice. Strong arm tactics started early with the failure to prosecute the New Black Panthers for voter intimidation in the ’08 election, followed up with the Fast & Furious debacle and subsequent cover-up, and continue with the determined effort to deport German homeschoolers.
 
EPA ~ Preferential treatment for Green groups. They get a pass on FOIA(Freedom of information Act) requests; everyone else gets to pay full freight. “EPA’s practice is to take care of its friends and impose ridiculous obstacles to deny problematic parties’ requests for information.”
 
DHS ~ The Department of Homeland Security has been demonizing conservatives since 2009:

Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.

The agency’s primary responsibilities – national preparedness and security – are apparently secondary to providing cover for Islamic extremists: Homeland Security guidelines advise deference to pro-Shariah Muslim supremacists
 
Spying on the Press ~ Obama Justice Department Secretly Monitored AP Reporters’ Phone Records. And of course they wouldn’t leave out Fox News.
“The Obama-Holder Justice Department is now prepared to treat the ordinary newsgathering actives of reporters to seek information from government officials as a possible crime.” ~ Brit Hume
 
IRS targets ~ Seems like we hear of a new one daily…
Tea Party
Pro-life & pro-family organizations
True-the-Vote – a non-profit promoting fair and honest elections
Christian charities
Pro-Israel Groups
 
Glick’s article continues ~

By targeting (Israel’s supporters), the Obama administration completes the circle of an overall modus operandi of punishing those who oppose and expose the failures of his policies – domestic and foreign. The underlying theme that connects Benghazi to the Tea Party, to the subpoenaing of AP phone records, to Z Street, to Nakoula is that they all have challenged the administration’s “official truth.”

 
Can we trust anything coming out of the Obama White House? Probably not.
 

One can only hope that Obama’s thuggish creation and corrupt defense of his “official truth” will anger, disgust – and frighten – all Americans.

 
Yes, hope. And praying would be really good too. Pray that the country can survive almost four more years of deception, lies and tyranny…
 

Posted in Good vs.Evil, Mendacity, Unvarnished | 1 Comment

May 20th – 86th Anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s Atlantic Crossing

Lindbergh left Long Island in his Spirit of St.Louis on the morning of May 20th, 1927 – fuel-heavy – sans radio or parachute. 33 ½ hours later he landed the tiny craft at Le Bourget Field, just outside of Paris.
 

I was astonished at the effect my successful landing in France
had on the nations of the world.
To me, it was like a match lighting a bonfire.

 
~ Charles A. Lindbergh ~

 
 

Lindbergh’s courage and determination thrilled people the world over. Today the Spirit of St. Louis hangs in the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.. It is still hard to believe he managed to cross the Atlantic alone in such a fragile craft. It may have been the most daring flight ever.

[Source: The American Patriot’s Almanac – Bennett & Cribb]

 

Related: Charles Lindbergh ~ An American Aviator
 

Posted in Comfort & Joy, Fruits of Their Labors | Leave a comment

Civil Society Under Attack

The following editorial was published at Investor’s Business Daily on May 16th. I’m posting it in its entirety because I totally concur – and couldn’t have said it any better ~
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IRS Attack Against Tea Party Assaulted Civility

 

The IRS targeting of Tea Party groups is mind-boggling not only for its abuse of government power. It’s also disturbing for what it intended to do: destroy civil society, opening a door for tyranny.
 
The formation in 2009 of hundreds of Tea Party groups at the rallying cry of CNBC news editor Rick Santelli, from places as diverse as Lowell, Mass., Pleasanton, Calif., Asheville, N.C., Yuma, Ariz., and Lincoln, Neb., among hundreds of others, was a spontaneous reaction by ordinary American citizens to an overspending, oversized government whose overreach called into question its constitutionality.
 
Yet it was these very Tea Parties that were specially targeted by the IRS in its outrageously intrusive efforts to learn their every secret, to leak those secrets to a hostile, slanderous media, and to delay beyond justification their approvals as tax-free institutions in an effort to suppress them — while granting those permissions easily to leftist ones.
 
As an agency that favored expanding its own power, the IRS and its political masters naturally felt threatened by Tea Party success, seen in the rallies of millions in February and then April 2009, as well as the proliferation of groups across the country.
 
 
But they weren’t threats to anyone except tyrants, because they were civil society groups with deep roots in the American experience. They were the sort of organizations first observed by French writer Alexis De Tocqueville in his “Democracy in America.”
 
De Tocqueville considered these “intermediary groups” controlled by neither the state nor the family to be the essential element in America’s success with representative democracy — the linchpin to what enabled individuals to be citizens instead of subjects.
 
“Intermediary institutions (clubs, local political organizations, community activities, churches, etc.) tie us — really oblige us — to our neighbors. They train us to recognize the ways we can satisfy our various needs without turning to (the state) to provide the goods we require,” Montclair University Professor Brian Smith told the Evangelical Christian Society.
 
De Tocqueville “says these associations teach the art of being free and living responsibly. Without them, we will fall out of our practice of self government,” he said.
 
And that’s why the IRS attack on the Tea Parties is so disturbing. It has implications for our democracy.
 
As perspective, while De Tocqueville considers civil associations indispensable for democracy, the world’s leading communist tyrants and their philosophers have long sought to destroy them as “bourgeois institutions.”
 
Karl Marx considered civil society groups “a reflection of the egotistical interests of society” that would be better off run as a collective under a supreme leader, while Lenin considered them an obstacle to his “dictatorship of the proletariat.”
 
 
Italian communist theoretician Antonio Gramsci in particular considered them an obstacle even worse than overthrowing the state.
 
“The state was just a forward trench,” he wrote in his Prison Notebooks. “Behind it stood a succession of sturdy fortresses and emplacements.” That is, civil society.
 
Gramsci advocated establishing something he called “civil hegemony” as a means of subverting independent civil society groups and then merging them with the state as means of making the state supreme.
 
The 1960s radicals called this “the long march through the institutions.”
 
They knew that without true civil society organizations to promote self-government, such as the Tea Party, all that’s left is an all-powerful state that citizens must face alone.
 
The fact that the IRS tried and may have succeeded in destroying some Tea Party and other groups is a sign that the broader agenda wasn’t just suppression of political dissent, but imposition of the kind of tyranny found in places like Cuba, where law-abiding civil society has been replaced by fanatical government-directed mobs.
 
That’s what De Tocqueville warned about. These IRS transgressions ought to be treated as what they are — a fundamental attack on our democracy.

 

 

Posted in Timeless Principles, Unvarnished | 2 Comments

Sunday Funny

 
Or not so funny. 🙁
 

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Saturday Shorts – 5-18-13

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

 
IRS accused of hiding existence of Tea Party-targeting documents ~
Yeah, cause it was all really just a coincidence…

“Either IRS Headquarters was entirely incompetent in maintaining awareness of prominent policies and documents within the IRS, or it deliberately covered up the existence of anti-conservative IRS policies. Either is terrifying,” Maurice Thompson, Executive Director of the 1851 Center, said in a statement. “Legal action is necessary to ensure that the IRS does not lie to taxpayers in this manner in the future.”

 
But wait – there’s more; IRS Expedited Tax Exemption for Obama Foundation While Stiffing Tea Party ~ Oops! How did that happen? (Barack H. Obama Foundation – founder and chairman is Abon’go Malik Obama, President’s 1/2 brother)
“O’s” bro gets a pass!

And more; Report: EPA followed double standard for conservative groups too? Greenies got fast-tracked 92% of the time.

Not to mention; the anti-conservative bias in Homeland Security guidelines.
 
BUT, give Barack a break ~ Obama just found out Friday that the IRS was targeting conservatives 😯

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 
Americans Are Wasting Their Time And Money On College ~ Some advice for this year’s crop of high school grads, from a career expert. Up to 85% of them should probably rethink college and focus on internships. (T)he knowledge economy has made information — and more opportunities — accessible to anyone.
And there’s always the indoctrination factor to consider.
 

4th Annual Abortion ‘Bowl-a-thon’ Breaks Fundraising Record, Raises $500K to Help Poor Women, Girls Buy Abortions ~
“Thank-you for your support! Now we can murder more unborn babies!”
Another one of those stories that just leaves me speechless ~

NNAF says “one of the best things” about the Bowl-a-Thon is the “brilliant names” people come up with for their teams. Last year they included titles like “If Only Limbaugh’s Mom Used Birth Control,” and “The Dude Aborts.”
 
This year was no exception, with names such as “Abortion Robot Squad,” “Back Alley Ballbusters,” and “fetus daddies.”
 
“The Terminators,” who raised $881, said they joined the Bowl-a-Thon because abortion is a “matter of basic fairness.”
 
“Every woman deserves to choose when and if to become a mother, regardless of the size of her paycheck,” the team said.

 

Deserve to “choose?” Do any of them even “deserve” to be mothers?!
(Well OK – I’m not totally speechless)


Bread & Circuses ~
Amid scandals, White House announces star-studded concert in East Room
~ May 28th event will honor singer/songwriter Carole King. We the sheeple can vicariously share in the festivities by tuning into our local PBS stations.
Let us eat cake!

 
Risky Religion ~ As I mentioned, this past week Congressional House Members have called on the Pentagon to ensure freedom of religion for service members, but concerns remain over military’s treatment of soldiers who share their faith.
 

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Vindication. Smells like Tea!

Rep. Mike Kelly(R-PA) was awesome yesterday at the House Ways & Means Committee hearing, lecturing to doofus IRS Commissioner Shulman (who, by the way, looks – and acts – like he should have been a regular on The Sopranos) ~
 

 

“Chilling.”
“(the IRS) can do almost anything they want –
to anybody they want –
anytime they want!”

 
As a follow-up, here’s Jenny Beth Martin (Leader, Tea Party Patriots) speaking at a press conference on Thursday. She mentions specific examples of IRS intimidation ~
 

[Hat-tip: Bobo]

The IRS has been used as a weapon to silence free speech –
and perhaps sway elections.
 
It must be audited – independently.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 
The Tea Party has been vindicated. Our whole raison d’être was to expose the out-of-control growth of government,the threat it represented to American’s liberty, and to restore the Constitutional Republic established by our Founders.
 
As Michelle Bachmann states at the end of the 2nd video:

We believe that we are Taxed Enough Already.
We believe that the government should not spend more than it takes in.
We believe that the American government should follow the U.S. Constitution.

 

If anything comes of this scandal let it be that enough of the sheeple wake up, start to care, and do something about it!
 

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

The Big Benghazi Question for Barack

Up-date: 5-20-13

White House continues to stonewall: “‘Irrelevant’ Where Obama Was During Benghazi Attacks”
 
It’s only irrelevant if he’s not the commander-in-chief! Why does this administration think they can have it both ways? Oh, never mind; because the msm lets them get away with it.
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Original 5-17-13 post ~

What’s been lost in this week’s one-scandal-after-another news cycle is still the elephant in the room. The unasked (except by conservatives), critically important question about Benghazi – and ultimately, about the leadership of America – is ~
 

What in the hell was President Barack Hussein Obama
doing on the evening of September 11, 2012 as our
diplomatic outpost in Libya was under assault?

 
 
Back in February, five months after the attack, the White House did finally reveal; Obama made no phone calls on night of Benghazi attack.
OK…
What did he do???
 
And at what point does his inaction become egregious dereliction of duty?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 
Give a quick listen to this clip from Hugh Hewitt’s radio show last Thursday (here’s the transcript) – he’s speaking with Mark Steyn about last week’s Benghazi hearing.
While they don’t directly address the mystery of just what Obama was up to while the attack was underway, I totally share Steyn’s righteous indignation over the administration’s mishandling of the crisis ~
 

Up-dated: 7-26-13 ~ Audio clip no longer accessible…
It’s still posted here ➡ Audio source: The Daily Caller

Chris Stevens is in fact the poster boy for the Obama-Clinton view of the Arab Spring. He’s one of their guys. I mean, as chaps like me look on it, he was in large part deluded about the nature of the Arab Spring, that he was a personally courageous and brave man who was on the front line of the Obama-Clinton narrative about the Arab Spring. And they let him die, and then told lies over his coffin…
 
They did that to one of their own…
 
…In a sense, he not only died for the Obama-Clinton fiction, he was sacrificed to the Obama-Clinton fiction of the Arab Spring. This is absolutely disgraceful. I cannot conceive of how empty and dead you have to be inside to put Ambassador Stevens through that, then leave him to die…

 

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Remember how the media was all over George W. Bush in the immediate aftermath of 9-11? Where was he? What was he doing? Was he in hiding?
 

Eleven years later, why aren’t they demanding to know what his successor was doing while the Benghazi disaster was unfolding? America deserves answers.
 

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“We still don’t know what the president of the United States
was doing the night of the attack and who he was talking to.
We know who he wasn’t talking to.”

 
~ Sen. John McCain, Feb. 2013 ~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Related:
Michelle Malkin has a few more questions for the White House. Starting with; when are we going to find the murderers and see justice done? ~ Obama’s emptiest Benghazi talking point
 

Posted in Fruits of Their Labors, Unvarnished | 2 Comments

Founding Wisdom – [Flouted by the Foolish]

“Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.”
 
~ Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 1801 ~
 

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