Declaration of Independence II

Many months and many crises have gone by since I started this project.  Most of this document is verbatim from the magnificent original.  I encourage you to read through the original declaration and see if the same thoughts come to you as did me.  You will be surprised by the similarity of the grievances we have in common with the founders when they wrote their historic and world-changing document.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                July 2, 2009

The Declaration of Independence II

 When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation as such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

 Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.  But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.  Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government.

The history of the current and recent Governing Bodies is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny.  To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

You have refused assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

You have forbidden legislators to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, such as would allow us to produce energy from our own abundant resources, and secure our shared borders.

You have bought or otherwise coerced others to pass laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, under threat and bribe; a tactic inestimable to tyrants only.

You have brought forth legislation at hours unusual, for expediency, and denied complete understanding of bills debated, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with your measures

You have endeavored to populate our lands by ignoring laws for naturalization of foreigners, to encourage migration hither in defiance of the people and our laws, for therein lies a multitude of constituents to extend your power over the people infinitely and indefinitely.

You have obstructed the administration of justice by appointing judges averse to complying with judicial constraints set forth by our Constitution demanding justice be blind.  Justice shall be no respecter of persons. 

You have named judges dependent on your own political whims, placing them in permanent seats to reinterpret that which is obvious.

You have erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. The EPA, DHS, FDA, FEMA, BATF, NSA, IRS and any number of other alphabet agencies are an affront to our own personal sovereignties and wealth.

You have combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving your assent to their acts of pretended legislation.  Kyoto, the United Nations, NAFTA, the Organization of American States, World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization, being a few of the egregious entanglements meant to weaken our national sovereignty.

You have quartered large bodies of illegals among us.

You have made excuses for any crimes and murders for which they should commit on any inhabitants of these states; at times persecuting those designated to protect your citizens from those same criminals.

You have blindly opened up our markets to those who don’t reciprocate, nor do they adhere to the stifling regulations imposed upon domestic businesses.

You have imposed taxes on us at every turn, for every activity or inactivity, every product and its method of production.

You have bowed to the pressures of foreign entities to place members of our volunteer armies on criminal trial for doing their sworn duty to protect the citizens and interests of these states.

You have established arbitrary government, expanding your powers so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for continuing absolute rule over the states, disregarding the Tenth Amendment meant to ensure the sovereignty of the separate states.    

You have chiseled away our most valuable laws and altering fundamentally the forms of our government. The right to own and manage ones own property as he sees fit, the right to criticize government without reproach, and the right to bear arms, are the foundations of a free society.

You have plundered our businesses, land and bank accounts and destroyed the lives of many.

You are blindly allowing large numbers of foreign jihadists to plot works of death and desolation and cruelty scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages; totally unworthy as the heads of a civilized state.

You have permitted domestic insurrections amongst us, and have endeavored to bring upon inhabitants the merciless Islamist savages whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.  A Congress, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the rulers of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in our attention to our elected officials.  We have warned them from time to time of attempts by the legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.  We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here.  We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.  They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.  We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace, friends.

We, therefore, the People of the United States of America, in general congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these states, solemnly publish and declare, that these united states are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the derelict government, and that all political connection between them and the Federal government is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right to do.  And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

Open letter to the Democrat Party

Since I posted an open letter to the Republican Party last time, I thought it only fair to post an open letter to the Democrat Party.

 I’ve never been a Democrat, so I’m not fully knowledgeable about the inner workings of the party, but I’ve been a political / current events junkie for about 25 years.  I will speak only to what I know.

 What I know is that the only hill your party would die on is the hill of abortion, or as you so affectionately misname it, choice. Nothing else in your party platform is so sacred. That you will defend so vehemently the right to kill human babies is appalling and downright evil.

 What I know is that your concern for the poor is exactly what has kept generations of people in exactly that situation. God was teaching us about ourselves when he said “One who does not work does not eat.” Your party has decided to give the fish, the hammock, cell phone, cable TV and even the house to put it all in.

 What I know is that many in your party won’t take wisdom from God because you hate God. You’ve worked diligently, and successfully I might add, to remove so much of our Christian heritage from public discourse and especially from school curricula.  John Adams said our unique American representative republic was only fit for a moral and religious people.  Your party has been vilifying our Christian heritage for decades while you promote all types of sex sin, rebellion and godlessness. Obviously, that’s why you’re doing your damndest to change it. I’m sure there are moral, though obviously ignorant, people in your ranks, but as a party you are not moral or religious.

 What I know is that you consider yourselves to be modern day Robin Hoods that take from the rich and give to the poor, yet it is well-known that as a percentage, liberals are the least giving. You seem very willing to give someone else’s money but not your own.

 What I know is that you set out to destroy your opponents in any manner necessary to get your agenda in place.  You denigrate everything someone like me feels is good and right while calling me a hate-monger or racist or any number of other names just for doing so.  The attacks are personl not political. You won’t tolerate dissent for long.  Ask Sarah Palin or either of her daughters how personal it is. 

 What I know is that you are quite willing to weaken our national sovereignty to impose global programs through corrupt organizations like the UN.  The passage of your Cap and Trade bill is the most recent example where you are willing to shackle your own citizens for the sake of saving the earth for the rest of the world.

 So as not to pile on, I’ll stop here.  The above reasons are exactly why I’ve never been a Democrat, nor will I ever be one. 

The evils you portray as good are ruining the greatest country ever to exist. You’ve enslaved a large segment of the population and build on that daily by buying votes with my money. Once you enslave them, your power grows. And that’s the end game. Marx would be proud.  

Be it known today that there is a large and growing contingent of Patriots that are prepared to fight you to the end.  You’ll have to take us by force as we will not go quietly

 

Don’t get me wrong, the Republicans are guilty of much the same and I

Open letter to the Republican Party

As the whirlwind, or rather cyclone, known as the Obama Administration continues it’s march against most of what typical Americans consider right and good, it’s pathetic to see what the Republicans have offered in return:  whimpers and resignations. 

First Senator Ensign fails to uphold his marital vows and soon after Gov. Mark Sanford has to bow before the public to express his sorrow for the same offense.  Is this really the best we can do?  Newt Gingrich, who’s desperately trying to get out in front and act like he’s leading the fledgling Second American Revolution effort, Bob Livingston, his predecessor, Senator Larry Craig, Senator Bob Packwood, Rudy Giuliani, Mark Foley and Senator David Vitter are the most recent alumni to the scandal fraternity.  Two of those named, Newt and Giuliani, are still considered stalwarts and standard-bearers in the party that used to stand for right and against wrong. 

Am I saying that we’re to be perfect and sinless? No, that’s impossible except for one man and we’re not even close.  The fact that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God doesn’t mean we shouldn’t hold ourselves to a higher standard.  By and large I believe the Republican Party does compared to so many shameless Democrats who seem to gain in power for such offenses. But we’re stopping way short of the goal.

Just this evening, pondering as I have so often recently the fate of our country and the soul of the Party I grew up in, I came across this article at World Net Daily written by Dr. Alan Keyes, a former Republican, that sums up my feelings of what went wrong with the Republican Party.  It is entitled Sanford and the GOP: For whom tolls the bell?  

Read it for yourself, for I don’t approach the eloquence necessary to even paraphrase the words of such a man as he. 

The Party adopted the Big Tent strategy and that’s what it gave us – a large canopy full of animal dung.  You say abortion is wrong, but nobody stands in front of the tank.  With  both houses of Congress and the White House you did nothing to stop the killing of the babies. 

 For millenia marriage has meant the union of one man and one woman yet rare few will speak with conviction against proposals to extend it to same sex partners. We’re not asking you to condemn gays, just stand up for what’s right.    

What happened to the party of fiscal responsibility? The last years of the Bush Administration were an abomination.  Adding new entitlements like the Democrats and spending us into the largest deficits on record.  Yes, the Democrats had the House and Senate back due to your ineptitude, but like today you only whimpered, never roared.

Our rights as land owners you’ve allowed to be stripped away piece by piece by not standing against environmental and other illegal federal regulations. Often you’re  co-sponsors.

Our first, second and tenth amendment rights, arguably the most powerful of the amendments to our truly amazing and God-breathed Constitution are trampled under the feet of bureaucracy and you’ve stood by or marched along.

It makes me furious to read about  the demise of the Republican Party by those on the left, but you, and by complicity we, asked for it.  We were sucked into the lesser of two evils mentality and America is paying the price. Perhaps even all free peoples the world over.  Ronald Reagan, the man that so many of you hide behind but aren’t worthy of dusting his shoes, said 

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children through the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

Is the final demise of the Party imminent or unavaoidable? At this point many of us in the newly-coined “Liberty Movement” (scary in itself that it has to be a movement and not the normal way of life) don’t really care.  Prove you’re worth our money and sweat and we’ll fight for you.  Fail us, deceive us or continue to throw us bones in election cycles and we’ll find your replacement.  We’re quickly choosing which hills to die on.  You have a very short time to choose if they coincide with yours.

Roger Titkemeyer
Batavia, Ohio USA

‘Powers that Be’ Nix Democrat Conyers probe of ACORN

And who might be that power? Perhaps the President himself? 

ACORN, thoroughly immersed in scandal and fraud while annually receiving hundreds of millions in walking around money under the guise of social and economic “justice,”   is one of his favorite entities. Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now – the ultimate Organized Community for which the Prez is indebted to for their huge impact on his election.

This organization uses  tax dollars to feed it’s ever-growing lust for more of our tax dollars.  Only during this past election had we even heard of this organization.  Where are the watchdogs of good government?  Where were the hapless Republicans all these years that they allowed such a corrupt organization to receive so much tax money?  This is “machine politics” at it’s finest – perfectly suited for a thug politician from Chicago.  I’m sure any critic that stood in their way would be deemed a racist and their reputations smashed. 

ACORN’s sole existence is to buy votes with our money in order to get more money to buy more votes.  This has to stop, but lo, “the powers that be” say “leave it alone.” Or else?  Now the corrupt organization is set to do the census in 2010. The census drives the apportionment of funds to the states. What kind of dirty tricks do they have up their sleeves for this?

For a look into ACORN’s attitude toward America, here’s a quote off the front page of an allied organization, social policy.org (emphasis mine) -“SOCIAL POLICY asks what is to be done to secure basic structural changes in American society. Its pages will provide a meeting ground — and battleground — where ideas, tactics and strategies for radical reconstruction of American institutions can be expressed and exchanged, tested and debated, expanded and deepened.”  

Read that again. Guess whose mug is prominently on the cover? You guessed it – the Community Organizer -in-chief.

Who stopped the inquiry is a question that needs to be answered. In the meantime, with 14 lawsuits against them, it’s time to at least temporarily pull the funding plug on ACORN.

Here are excerpts from the story in the Washington Times: emphasis mine

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. has backed off his plan to investigate purported wrongdoing by the liberal activist group ACORN, saying ?powers that be? put the kibosh on the idea.

Mr. Conyers, Michigan Democrat, earlier bucked his party leaders by calling for hearings on accusations the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now (ACORN) has committed crimes ranging from voter fraud to a mob-style “protection” racket. (True Chicago style)

“The powers that be decided against it,” Mr. Conyers told The Washington Times as he left the House chambers Wednesday.

[...]

“Chairman Conyers has a responsibility to explain who is blocking this investigation, and why. Is it Speaker Pelosi? Others in the Democratic leadership? Who in Congress is covering up ACORN’s corruption?” said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.

[...]

Capitol Hill had bristled at the prospect of hearings because it threatened to rekindle criticism of the financial ties and close cooperation between President Obama’s campaign and ACORN and its sister organizations Citizens Services Inc. and Project Vote.

[...]

ACORN and its affiliates are currently the target of at least 14 lawsuits related to voter fraud in the 2008 election and a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act complaint filed by former ACORN members.

[...]

ACORN also provided liberal causes with protest-for-hire services and coerced donations from targets of demonstrations through a shakedown it called the “muscle for the money” program, said Ms. Heidelbaugh, a member of the executive board of the Republican National Lawyers Association.
 –end–

Just think of it.  Our own tax dollars used to shake us down for more tax dollars.  What a gig.

Grassroots growing deep

In my last post, I spoke of stepping up and walking the talk.  Here I wish to share some of the fruits of that effort.

The Flag Day Rally For Freedom held recently in the quaint rivertown of New Richmond, Ohio, just to the east of Cincinnati, was the culmination of a lot of hard work by those in the 912 Project and the Cincinnati Tea Party. Most of us are new at this and had lots to learn as we went along. 

I have to say, I’m glad to be counted among such a fine goup of people, like Tom from City BBQ who took a chance on the event and brought his whole setup out to provide awesome brisket sandwiches and huge hot dogs .  When asked how it went, he said he did OK, but was just glad to be there because of the great people he met.  He donated a percentage to the cause.  Thank you, Tom!  The Dan Henning Band was the house band for the event and they ROCKED! And they did it for no charge – even supplying the PA system for all the speakers to use.  Thank you, Dan and band! Laura, who was the event coordinator, Mike from the Tea Party, Karen from 912, Deb from 912, and so many other volunteers.  Special mention and thanks go to Bill and Melanie for their tireless effort to make it happen in their hometown. Thousands of their own dollars were invested in the event. 

One thing about events like these – you won’t be embarassed like so many filthy events put on by the Left.  Profanity was nowhere, just good people discussing their disgust and anger at where Congress is taking the country we all love. 

Since I was busy with “things” (like trying to keep 1500 cups of UDF Homemade Ice Cream frozen in hot, humid weather- thank you, John from UDF!) I didn’t get to hear many of the great speakers.  Varied in style, but with much the same message, these fine people came from points far and wide to support the grassroots effort here in Cincinnati.  The message was loud and clear that America has succumbed to the parties- Republican and Democrat – and we are no longer party people.  Candidates will have to earn our votes, not by placing a letter behind their name. 

We really believe the Second American Revolution has begun and Cincinnati is on the frontline.

Here are some links to the organizations whose representatives spoke or had information booths.

Bob Basso of Thomas Paine YouTube fame
Tim Cox of Get Out Of Our House (goooh.com) came all the way from Texas.  
Kristine Cassady of the Independence Caucus  
Mike Wilson, Founder of the Cincinnati Tea Party
And my new friend, Karen Best, Founder of the 912 Project in Cincinnati.

If you think a major thunderstorm and subsequent loss of electricity that occurred right after Thomas Paine spoke his rallying words urging us to take this revolution to a new level, you would be mistaken.  The strong remnant of the crowd moved up under the domed cover of the bandstand and finished the rest of speakers for well over an hour.  That, my friends, was the defining moment of the event.  Just like the old days in the town square,  Patriots were discussing their options for improving the state of their nation.  Those of us involved in running the event were busy drying things off and packing things up and I for one wished I could have been in that group of new revolutionaries. 

Here are a few pictures I took as Thomas Paine gave his rallying cry.

   

Join the thousands who attended this event in declaring your independence from the parties and declare your commitment to the ideals of the Founding Fathers. Their wisdom has warned us and now guides us.  Time is short - join the battle.

Conservatives, join the fight or stop complaining.

The left/ Progressives are decades ahead of us in the action arena, but we’re the smart and productive ones.  We’re motivated by freedom and they are motivated by lust for power, so we’re on the side of righteousness.  Justice and equal opportunity should be the standard, not chosen by the elite.  We are lovers of life and they are the purveyors of death. We are the people who want decency and they’re selling social pornography.  We want to live our own lives and they want to force us to live the way of their choosing. We believe in God and trust in His Providence and they mock and scorn us for it, preferring to play god themselves. 

I’ve decide enough talking and complaining and have gotten involved in a couple local groups in Cincinnati that are working hard to be in position to affect the next election cycle.  The Cincinnati Tea Party, the 912 Project, and in a very limited way, the Campaign for Liberty, the John Birch Society and Ohio Freedom Alliance.  Thus I haven’t been posting except mostly on my Facebook page. If you care to join me there, search for Roger Titkemeyer.  I don’t post going to the store or mowing the grass, just  much like you’d find here only in shorter versions as FB has word limits.  

Please, find somewhere to plug in and get active.  The midterm elections are coming way faster than we want to believe.  We CAN and MUST make a difference or I’m afraid this Grand Experiment will join the rest in the history books.

Our grandchildren may not know what it was like to live as we have – free to prosper or to fail, free to live where we choose, drive what we choose and choose what we do for a living.

Ronald Reagan: (several more available here in the archives.)

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children through the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

The Obama spell doesn’t seem to work anywhere but here.

So Obama was what the world awaited?  Perhaps, but not for what he and his sycophantic media friends were selling during the election and everyday since.  The real truth is that the marginal players on the world stage wanted a weak President to capitalize on.  The weaker the U.S., the easier it is to make gains on their own homefronts.  With all that’s transpired in Washington since about day two of this administration, the World Apology Tour and the incredible amount of debt he’s piled onto an already precarious financial situation, the enemies of the free world are making huge strides. 

Look at it like the new administration has viewed our financial crisis, not one to let go to waste.  As Obama has grovelled for our enemies’ approval (of his narcissistic self – not America), they smell the weakness like sharks in the water.   Two of the emerging threats have been flexing muscle like there’s no tomorrow and if one of them, Iran, has it’s way, that just might be the case if we don’t take them seriously. They’ve been prediciting it for a couple years now. 

Sadly, I believe the rest of the Western world, France, the UK, etc. have given up.  They hated that George Bush made them come out of hiding to take a stand against a real threat to their way of life.  Their hope was that Obama would do just as he’s doing, not taking a position of strength, but one of going along to get along. 

Iran and North Korea are two of the most tyrannical and despotic regimes on the planet.  If they’re allowed to continue unchecked, what are the next “wanna-bes” planning?  Russia, certainly a wanna-be before their Olympic Games opening day attack on Georgia, is watching and playing.  We also know whose side they’d be on in a conflict.

China, the brutal communist dictatorship, is in the catbird seat and watching with glee as they may be replacing the US as the world’s only superpower.  Sad, but true.

But we were told that there would be a new day for the world when he would treat everyone as a potential ally rather than adversary.  Could it be we’ve been snookered?  I guess his puppetmasters, Soros and whoever else runs the show, might have overestimated the reactions of those that hate us, our religion and our success as a nation rather than just the President in charge at the time.  They hate Obama just as much as GW Bush.  The ideologues are too vain to see it.  Rose-colored glasses are not meant for these unstable times.

From Fox News

Iran thumbs nose at the Apologist-in-Chief twice.  First the launch of a missile capable of hitting Europe and now sending it’s Navy into an internationally sensitive area to strengthen “territorial integrity.”

Obama had better hurry with those unconditional talks with the terrorist Iranian thuggocracy.  They’re running out of ways to flip us off. 

         Iran has sent six warships into international waters in a move security experts are calling a “muscle flexing” show of defiance         following missile tests last week.  

 

“Iran has dispatched six … warships to international waters and the Gulf of Aden region in a historically unprecedented move by the Iranian Navy,” Iranian Adm. Habibollah Sayyari told a gathering of armed forces officials, Reuters reported.

Sayyari said the ships were moved to preserve Iran’s territorial integrity in its southern waters, but foreign policy experts are calling it an aggressive move targeted at a Western audience as much as for regional powers like rival Saudi Arabia.

The deployment is “a signal of military strength, resolve and continued defiance to U.S. and U.N. Security Council efforts to end the impasse over Iran’s nuclear program,” said Jim Phillips, senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Heritage Institute.

“What’s very important here is the timing of this move — and this naval muscle flexing comes after Iran’s missile test earlier this week, which was saber rattling that was meant to send the same signal as this naval dispatch.”

Phillips said Ahmadinejad was using the opportunity to thumb his nose at the U.S. and U.N. to advance his own popularity in Iran ahead of the country’s hotly contested June 12 election.

Iran’s naval access stretches along the Gulf of Aden, the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman. Iran has threatened to block the strait, through which about 40 percent of the world’s traded oil is shipped, if it were attacked over its nuclear program.

Nearly 20,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden each year, heading to and from the Suez Canal, Reuters noted. Seven percent of world oil consumption passed through the Gulf of Aden in 2007, according to Lloyd’s Marine Intelligence Unit.

Offending the Barbarians

Got this from JihadWatch.  Story from CNN

(CNN) – Military personnel threw away, and ultimately burned, confiscated Bibles that were printed in the two most common Afghan languages amid concern they would be used to try to convert Afghans, a Defense Department spokesman said Tuesday.

Troops at posts in war zones are required to burn their trash, Wright said.

The Bibles were written in the languages Pashto and Dari.

This decision came to light recently, after the Al Jazeera English network aired video of a group prayer service and chapel sermon that a reporter said suggested U.S. troops were being encouraged to spread Christianity.

This decision came to light recently, after the Al Jazeera English network aired video of a group prayer service and chapel sermon that a reporter said suggested U.S. troops were being encouraged to spread Christianity.

The military denied that earlier this month, saying much in the video was taken out of context.

“This was irresponsible and dangerous journalism sensationalizing year-old footage of a religious service for U.S. soldiers on a U.S. base and inferring that troops are evangelizing to Afghans,” Col. Gregory Julian said.

The military says a soldier at Bagram received the Bibles and didn’t realize he wasn’t allowed to hand them out. In the Al Jazeera video, which shows the Bibles at the prayer service, an unnamed soldier says members of his church raised money for them.

The chaplain later corrected the soldier and confiscated the Bibles, Wright said.

Military officers considered sending the Bibles back to the church, he said, but they worried the church would turn around and send them to another organization in Afghanistan — giving the impression that they had been distributed by the U.S. government.

That could lead to violence against troops or U.S. civilians, Wright said.

Al Jazeera English, a Qatar-based international news service, said its reporters tried to get a response from military officials for its story but were unable to do so.

The U.S. military air base at Bagram is home to thousands of troops from all branches of the U.S. military. The vast majority of the troops do not leave the base and are in various support roles for U.S. troops across Afghanistan.

CNN loves to make news out of a story like this.

Makes total sense that we burn Bibles over in that hellhole we call the Middle East. Why, Muslims are so tolerant they MAY even let you live if you’re a Christian in one of their countries and they find out.  They rejoiced in the streets on 9 / 11 and are longing for the day that shariah law rules the world, preaching hatred and subversion of our laws right from their mosques here in America.  Yet we can’t invite them to read the Bible. Obviously to those barbarians the Bible is more offensive than sawing off heads and blowing up innocent women and children which they do on a daily basis. 

This world has definitely gone mad.  America, I’m so gonna miss you.

California failure – the look of America under Obama

I posted months ago on the direction of America and how it is so similar to that of our largest failed state – California.

Here’s the bulk of it for those loathe to click on the link.

The “progressive” state is facing a budgetary shortfall of $42 BILLION this fiscal year and is just about out of cash to pay for employees and services.  But before we write this off as their problem, we all need think about what got California in the mess they’re in.  And more importantly, as it relates to the road the new administration is rapidly taking the rest of us down.

States are required to balance their budgets. Why the Feds are not required, well, ask your Senators and Representatives.  Good luck with that.  Since states have to balance, there are ebbs and flows of surplus and deficit and the governors that do it right put money away for the rainy days.

California is not one of those.  The nation’s largest state prefers to spend and expand when times are good. Then when the money slows they cry out in distress.  There needs to be “sacrifice” by the people and not from the government itself. 

What is California currently doing? They are shortening work weeks for government employees.  They are talking about raising taxes and they issued an IOU for tax refunds that were to be going out about now.  Oh, and I left out the most insidious and infuriating part, they’re asking for a bailout.  Don’t think the leftists/socialists in Congress don’t know the value of California’s electoral votes.  They’re too big to fail.

California, known for their care for the illegals and indigents with free education and health care, housing subsidies, their severe environmental regulations and high tax rates is a microcosm of the Obama plan.

Amnesty/ immigration reform and all the costs involved in giving 12-20 million people welfare, housing and food allowances is a large piece of the puzzle.  Universal health care is another. The liberals/ progressives / socialists are building their base for eternal power to cement America’s wheels on the road of socialism, which left unfettered, leads to communism. The same goes with the “disenfranchised” in the sprawling cities.  The more you offer, the more people take.  The more you give, the more votes you receive.  It is a dangerous cycle and America is in it big time!

Since the Feds don’t have to balance their budget, with a crisis at hand, they will spend whatever they have to make sure everyone is taken care of.  Fine, deluded and evil as it is.  What happens when the value of the dollar the Fed is printing at an unprecedented pace collapses and it now takes two dollars to sustain the programs instead of one?  Print it faster? To the typical Obama that may seem like an option.  To thinkers, we know that’s a bad thing for all of us.

Since they can’t print money ad infinitum to keep up, there will have to be cutbacks.  With millions of new recipients receiving federal money, “free” health care, and more that means a larger pool of disgruntled constituents.  They have been promised this money.  The money that we have will buy less and less, so the poorest, whom this whole scheme is purported to help, will be hit the hardest. 

Sadly, we are not the same people we were a hundred years ago, or even 75 years ago.  What will happen when those that have never had to work hard to earn what they have don’t get what they’re expecting?  On the other hand, what will be the reaction of the people who work hard, pay their bills and live responsibly have more-to-most of their money taken away to pay for all this?  A scary scenario indeed.

Update starts here:

California – The state that begs illegals and indigents to come partake of their largesse;  the state that practically brags about having the most stringent environmental regulations; the state more than happy to give a legal vote to anything that moves;  the state that has some of the highest tax rates in the country; the state that’s losing more people to other states than any other; the state that embraces every type of morally deviant behavior. 

California’s too big to fail, what with all their Democrat electoral votes and potential illegal immigrant votes once comprehensive immigration reform has been implemented.  Sounds a lot like all the others we’ve bailed out – the irresponsible – “underwater” homeowners, over-leveraged banks, legacy laden auto manufacturers and coming soon – the mouthpiece of the Marxist asault on America, Big Newspaper.

The “green” state has gone RED!  Too bad it’s only the color of the ink in their budget.

Score one for free speech! Miss California to stay.

Just listened to the press conference in which The Donald defended Carrie Prejean’s answer to the set-up by Perez Hilton.  She will remain in her position of Miss California.  Free speech prevails.

It’s refreshing to hear someone speak from the heart, without malice and with dignity regardless of the “political correctness” that abounds in our “tolerant” society. Don’t often get that from the other side.

Tolerance has become a one way street where mainstream thought is stifled so as not to offend even the most offensive.   Perhaps this is the start of the reversal of that trend.   Hers was not an attack on a lifestyle she sees as deviant.  It was an answer to a question asking her opinion on a controversial, high profile issue.  Especially in a state where a solid majority continues to vote that said activity is not to become law. 

We cannot all agree on all things or even most things, but we have to agree that a person has the right to an opinion and to state that opinion.  The personal attacks that the homosexual (special) rights / Hollywood crowd level at anyone anywhere that dares express an opinion contrary to theirs  is absolutely unacceptable and quite hypocritical. 

If we don’t speak against what we believe to be wrong and don’t stand up for what is right, we will continue down the path of moral relativism (situational ethics)that has gotten us into the moral mess most of the world is in.