“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.”
~ St. Paul, 1st century
Philippians 4:8 ~
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in
heavenly places.”
~ Ephesians 6:12 ~
"Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: 'Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'"
~ Ephesians 5:11-14 ~
"Blessed is that man who makes the LORD his trust, and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies."
~ Psalm 40:4 ~
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables."
Here’s another short yet thought-provoking video from Redshift Media, the same people who created “Edgar the Exploiter.” “George Ought to Help” is a simple yet very effective illustration of the ultimate immorality of coercive “entitlement” programs ~
One caveat ~ the video’s proposed alternative to statism – “Stateless Society” – isn’t going to work. Its underlying worldview is atheism, which presupposes self-interest and generates no altruistic tendencies. It provides no philosophical basis for philanthropic activities.
Might I suggest a much more appropriate/effective worldview?
Rather than “non-agression,” “voluntaryism,” or “libertarianism,” Christianity has a good term for helping the “Olivers” of the world – it’s called “charity.” And it actually used to work pretty well… when we were a Christian nation.
On February 28th, 1854, opponents of slavery met met in Ripon, Wisconsin and agreed to form a new political group which later became the Democrat Republican Party.*
It all started with people who opposed slavery. They were common, everyday people who bristled at the notion that men had any right to oppress their fellow man. In the early 1850’s, these anti-slavery activists found commonality with rugged individuals looking to settle in western lands, free of government charges.
“Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men,” went the slogan. And it was thus in joint opposition to human enslavement and government tyranny that an enterprising people gave birth to the Republican Party.
John Charles Frémont, a colorful, controversial character was the first Republican presidential candidate ~
“Free Soil, Free Men, and Frémont”
Frémont lost to James Buchanan in the 1856 election. But four years later, the party put its first president in the White House, a country lawyer and state legislator from Illinois: Abraham Lincoln.
Unbelievable. As Ed Morrissey at Hot Air points out it didn’t even occur to the Washington Post in this Post-Pew poll last week that the Senate Democrats could possibly bear any responsibility for the stalled negotiations over sequestration ~
And naturally, who do the leftie sheeple pin the blame on?
If the Post actually considered printing the truth, their readers would learn that it was the Dems – and their fearless feckless leader – who really precipitated the entire sequestration crisis. The Democrat-controlled Senate has failed to pass a budget for almost four years; “an egregious dereliction of duty on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D–NV) watch.”
By the way, if the Senate had followed the law and produced normal-order budgets, we wouldn’t have the sequestration at all. The budget resolutions of both chambers would have gone to conference committee, which would have hashed out the differences. Obama would have signed the budgets, and we would have avoided nearly four years of crisis funding for the federal government.
Reid and Obama haven’t used normal order because they want to keep using continuing resolutions as a means to keep the inflated FY2010 spending levels as the baseline going forward, and especially because they want to keep House Republicans from having a real voice on spending and budgeting.
“Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence
of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the
public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the
profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people,
in order to betray them.”
~ Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833
I’d really like to stay in denial about this perversion, but it’s becoming impossible; Culture of Death #1. Ugh.
… the Lavender Mafia, a network of priests formed through the seminaries who achieve position and office and then promote their friends to higher positions and office, thus turning the Church into a liberal playpen and support of corruption inside and out.
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It’s tempting to think that this video from Michael Voris [Church Militant TV] is just the latest conspiracy theory bouncing around the internet – but hear him out. The existence of an “homosexual underground” within the Catholic Church would certainly help account for the decades of pedophilia and ongoing cover-ups that have plagued the institution. That whole disgusting scandal starts to sound plausible if the Vatican’s Secretary of State is correct;
“… the Catholic Church has a problem with homosexuals rather than pedophiles.” ~ Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone
[In other words, one sexual sin leads to another; pedophiles are typically homosexuals first.*]
If you’re a Catholic, you can pretend this isn’t really happening…
OR, you can PRAY. And help get the word out by passing this along to your friends and family.
“The more we know, the more we can do.”
~ Fr. Dariusz Oko, Ph.D.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.
~ Ephesians 6:12 ~
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We should first expose the common lie presented by the media. They keep talking about paedophilia among clergymen, while it is most often the case that the problem is ephebophilia, which is a perversion consisting in adult homosexual men being attracted not to children, but to pubescent and adolescent boys. It is a typical deviation related to homosexuality. Basic knowledge about that reality includes the fact that more than 80 percent of cases involving sexual abuse by clergymen reported in the U.S.A. were cases of ephebophilia, not paedophilia[4]! That fact has been carefully hidden and ignored, as it reveals particularly well the hypocrisy of the homolobby in both the world and the Church. It is all the more important that it be exposed.
In other countries, the situation is similar, it is therefore important to note that scandals involving sexual abuse which have shaken the global Church were mostly the work of homosexual clergymen. The Church has paid a very painful price for the tremendous offences which have been exposed, losing much of its credibility.
“How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism.”
~ James Monroe ~
Among the benefits that DOD will now give to same-sex “domestic partners” but not heterosexual domestic partners are: joint duty assignments, legal assistance, disability and death compensation, child care, space-available travel on DOD aircraft, payments to missing persons, commissary privileges, exchange privileges, welfare and recreation programs, emergency leave, and youth programs.
Shut Up or I’ll Kill You ~ Excellent article by Michael Ledeen at PJ Media. “It’s worth reminding ourselves that free speech around the world is still a rarity, and seems to be becoming even rarer.”
Elkhart, Indiana – as any camper worth his s’mores can tell you- is the RV Capital of the world. Approximately half of all recreational vehicles in the U.S. are manufactured there.
Which means, when America’s middle class starts feeling the economic pinch, so does Elkhart. Unfortunately, recreation tends to become a “luxury” during tough times ~
In a weak economy, sales of RVs suffer disproportionately, due to the high cost of purchase and the high cost of gas to run them. The RV industry is a primary beneficiary of “trickle down” economics in which people who can afford to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on an RV create manufacturing jobs. This leads to a boom and bust economy. Source: [William A. Jacobson – Legal Insurrection]
But hey, look on the bright side. When you have the highest unemployment rate in the country (20.3% in 2009) chances are good that Emperor Obama will grace you with his presence so he can use your out-of-work citizens as props for his latest redistribution scheme. In this case, his “Porkulus Spending Plan.”
As PJ Media reported back in February ’09 when the prez blew through town, recreational vehicles – Elkhart’s economic lifeblood – weren’t selling…
… largely because of the policies of President Obama and his Democratic Party cronies…
… Sales have dropped 75% since 2007, with the bottom dropping out of the market in 2008, when gasoline prices spiked towards $5 a gallon.
If Elkhart banks its future on the RV industry, then Obama’s plans will cause more pain; targeting the “rich” for higher taxes means less money to purchase RVs. Restricting oil drilling and taxing gasoline-using conduct in the name of lessening global warming means fewer people using RVs. Infrastructure projects won’t change this dynamic, because once the projects are over, there still won’t be jobs.
The answers for Elkhart seem to be diversification of the local economy, and a growing national economy in which people keep more of their income and RV use is not punished. The “stimulus” plan and Obama’s economic policies will make things worse, not better.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
But now for the good news part of the story; things are looking up in the RV Capital. Instead of the posting the highest unemployment rate in the country, Elkhart can now boast the 3rd fastest rate of job growth. And, despite the Left’s fiscal policies, it’s thanks mostly to Indiana’s Right-to-Work Law, as this video from the Mackinac Center explains ~
The cornerstone for the Washington Monument was laid in 1848. Still the tallest structure in D.C., at the time of its completion, it was the tallest building in the world. Construction took several decades and was interrupted due to funding issues and during the Civil War.
The Monument was officially dedicated on February 21, 1885. It is still the tallest stone structure in the world.
Inscribed on the east face of the capstone are the Latin words “Laus Deo” ~ “Praise be to God.” Amen.
Pardon me, but didn’t John “I-served-in-Viet-Nam” Kerry just replace old Hillary as Secretary of State? Do you suppose he thought they meant Climate Control Czar? Considering the speech he gave yesterday at the University of Virginia, there seems to be some confusion. He sounded like he was channeling Al Gore: Kerry Gives First Foreign Policy Speech … on Climate Change.
Now historically, the Secretary of State has primarily been concerned with international affairs. The operative word in the job description for the position is “foreign”. Traditionally, the SOC;
• Organizes and supervises the entire United States Department of State and the United States Foreign Service.
• Advises the President on matters relating to U.S. foreign policy, including the appointment of diplomatic representatives to other nations, and on the acceptance or dismissal of representatives from other nations.
• Participates in high-level negotiations with other countries, either bilaterally or as part of an international conference or organization, or appoints representatives to do so. This includes the negotiation of international treaties and other foreign agreements.
Oddly enough, nothing in Lurch’s Kerry’s speech yesterday seemed to fall within any of those functions;
“We as a nation must have the foresight and courage to make the investments necessary to safeguard the most sacred trust we keep for our children and grandchildren: an environment not ravaged by rising seas, deadly superstorms, devastating droughts, and the other hallmarks of a dramatically changing climate…
… “Because if we don’t rise to meet it, rising temperatures and rising sea levels will surely lead to rising costs down the road. If we waste this opportunity, it may be the only thing our generations are remembered for.”
[Yo Kerry – the only thing “rising” around here is a bunch of hot air! ]
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Perhaps under the Obama administration, the Secretary of State position has been totally redefined. Guess that would explain Benghazi. Life-threatening terrorist attacks on Americans in foreign countries are really trivial occurrences when “there are unprecedented changes happening on our planet” that need to be addressed by the gods on the Potomac.
Your yard may not get enough snow to build a snowman this winter, but you can “build” these yummy treats any time. They’re the February cookie-of-the-month at our house 🙂 ~
Frosted Snowmen
1 ½ cups butter (no substitutes) softened
2 ¼ cups sugar
1 egg
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
72 pretzel sticks (halved – use a serrated knife to carefully “saw” these in half)
1 can (16 oz.) vanilla frosting (or make your own buttercream frosting like I do)
Blue & red decorating icing (we use cinnamon red hots for eyes)
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Gradually beat in egg and vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder; add to creamed mixture. Shape dough into 1-inch, 5/8-inch and 1/4-inch balls. For each snowman, line up one of each size ball to form body – on ungreased cookie sheets. Press halved pretzel sticks into middle ball for arms. Place snowmen about 2 inches apart.
Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Cool for one minute before moving to wire racks. (Note – I rarely mess with wire racks – just move to waxed paper sheets) Frost and decorate.
Yield: about 6 dozen
Store in airtight container – they’ll keep for a couple weeks in the fridge. That is – if they last that long!
“How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism.”
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