The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Perhaps secular ears will hear …
Not long ago a gay couple in West Hollywood hung Sarah Palin in effigy. That image will loom large in the minds of the Palin children for many years, perhaps for a lifetime. In recent days at demonstrations in Palm Springs we’ve seen gay protestors knock a cross out of the hands of a grandmother, stomp all over it, and scream in her face. She is filing charges.
We’ve seen homosexual protestors invade church services Sunday morning and rail against people, shouting threats. We’ve seen what appears to be Anthrax mailed to LDS churches. We have seen protests throughout southern California and threats of more violence and demonstrations. And we have heard LGBT leaders call blacks ignorant bigots for voting in favor of Proposition Eight in California.
All this is no way to build consensus, invite understanding, or forward the cause of mutual respect.
It appears we are incapable of engaging a rational discussion when it comes to the topic of homosexuality.
Many of us in the traditional faith community want to challenge those in the LGBT community to consider: perhaps Christians are not hate-filled homophobes but instead rational people with a legitimate point of view. Why are you so intolerant of our point of view? Why do you give yourselves permission to do violence against us?
Maybe gay marriage is unhealthy for everyone? Regardless, don’t people have a right to an opinion? Do they not have the right to vote their conscience on issues central to the organization of society?
The answer is no if we listen to contemporary gay activists.
For those more moderate in approach and sensibility, please try to understand where Christians are coming from. Quell the emotion for a time and try to come at this with hardcore objectivity and rational inquiry.
Our belief is God is very clear in his Word.
People have the freedom to accept his Word or not. Neither God nor man is forcing anyone to do, or not do, something or other. Is that plausible to you? We are simply following the dictates of our conscience. Do we have the freedom to do so? Do we have the right to do so? What does God’s Word say about homosexual behaviors and gay marriage?
Here are the most often cited passages from both Old and New Testaments. Please read carefully.
Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. – Leviticus 18:22
If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. – Leviticus 20:13
Keep in mind laws in Leviticus were laid down for the Jews at a specific time for specific reasons. Obviously as Christians we do not believe people should be put to death today. We live under an entirely new covenant and dispensation, one governed by grace and mercy and love, not the law. However, God does not change his mind about the nature of sin or move from calling something detestable to calling it blessed or sanctioned. This should be obvious.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. – Romans 1:26–27
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. – 1 Corinthians 6:9–10
… knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine – 1 Timothy 1:9–10
[The Word is convicting on purpose. The Gospel is an offense. It is supposed to be, for only by conviction of sin are we led to repentance and salvation.]
Let’s remember the Word says all have fallen short of the Glory of God, all are sinners, and no one does good, not one. As Christians, we simply believe Christ and his Word, and the Word is obviously very clear. Demanding we act in ways contrary to what we believe is to attempt to force us to deny our Lord and deny conscience. Is that so hard to understand? Does our devotion make us homophobes by default? Of course not. Nor is it appropriate for members of the LGBT community to attack us, as we’ve seen in recent days in the wake of the passage of Proposition Eight in California.
No doubt gays will come back, saying, “You are asking us to deny our conscience telling us homosexuality is sin.” Well, somebody is wrong, and somebody is right. Logic alone disallows both parties claiming truth. Perhaps the following will help explain our point of view further.
I’ve had gay friends as far back as 1972. One old friend, who is long gone, once told me gay activism was entirely misguided. He said there was no point declaring war on the larger society. (Gays comprise 3–4 percent of the population.) He said it would only cause endless turmoil for no good reason. I think he was right. It is understood that flying under the radar is anathema to many people in the homosexual world, but this is where my friend concluded the matter for himself. The fact he was a college professor may carry weight with some people.
It pains me to think homosexual friends are headed for judgment.
What is the most loving thing I can do? Accommodate their sin as they stumble into hell or try to dissuade them from following a destructive and unhealthy lifestyle that ultimately leads to eternal separation from God? The answer is obvious. If I ignore the sin of a brother and let him fall, die, and go to hell, one of two things must be true: either I do not love that brother, or I do not believe sin will visit these consequences.
If my brother’s house is on fire, do I stand on the sidewalk and wish him well and walk away, or do I rush in to save him?
It is not an act of love to silently standby and pat people on the back while they destroy themselves.
And it is not discrimination to speak the truth in love.
We have always held to the idea of community standards of morality as defined by the majority. Several states voted against gay marriage this last go around. Is there any respect for voters out there?
So far, all states have voted against gay marriage except one. If the people in that state want to codify gay marriage, so be it.
Why must the LGBT community insist the majority submit to their vision of marriage? There is a distinct tyrannical flavor to it.
Otherwise, it is astounding to hear so-called pastors ignore God’s Word, accommodate sin—which is killing people—and bow to tyrants. Lord, help us.
As always, the Lord of love shows the way.
When the religious hypocrites threw the adulterous woman at Jesus’ feet, challenging him to give the order to stone her to death, the Master waited for a teachable moment, challenged the sinners to cast the first stone, loved the woman, and told her to “sin no more.” He restored her, not by accommodating her sin, not by looking the other way, but by protecting her and leading her into the light, by his grace.
With Christ as our example we must “go and do likewise.” We should neither condemn sinners nor codify sin into law, all the while recognizing we too are all sinners, saved only by grace, and that, “not of ourselves, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:9).
Pastors who prefer accommodation to salvation lean to their own understanding, lead people to destruction, and dishonor the Lord, all in the same breath.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3: 5,6
We can no sooner force gay people to be straight than we can force Christians to be atheists. God never forces anyone to do anything. He simply invites people to enter his rest and enjoy a loving relationship with him, thereby allowing the Holy Spirit to conform us to Christ, the personification of Truth. Entering this loving relationship allows a person to enjoy the essence of true freedom.
Christians should be able to take a stand for our beliefs, and we should be able to do so in this country without being assaulted. Any objective examination of the record shows Christians do not assault members of the LGBT community.
Hopefully members of the LGBT community will try to understand Christian beliefs and confront this ludicrous idea Christians are somehow filled with hate and out to get them. It’s a lie from the pit of hell, and, somehow people know this, but they let the lie goad them to violence nonetheless.
We continue to pray for peaceful resolution, asking for an end to hostilities and an embrace of understanding, even an understanding unto salvation. Most Christians I know are willing to live and let live but cannot, as a matter of conscience, sanction gay marriage. It appears more and more LGBT people are not willing to live and let live but are pleased to fight and fight some more.
If that is the case, we are in for a long fight.
Image: Courtesy of: http://benry.deviantart.com/art/Angry-Eyes-285299531
Read more at http://clashdaily.com/2013/12/lgbt-people-hacked-christians/#7qgp4DhWrSsGxbbi.99
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A couple’s late night stroll on the Christmas-lit Downtown Mall turned to terror in the early morning hours of Friday, December 20, when they were brutally assaulted by three men in what appears to have been a random act of violence.
Even though one of the victims, Jeanne Doucette, managed to take photos that appear to show the assailants as they kicked and pummeled her boyfriend Marc Adams to unconsciousness, Charlottesville Police still do not have any suspects. Doucette says there were other witnesses to the crime, which allegedly occurred just outside the Wells Fargo building at around 1am as she and Adams walked from Miller’s to Rapture, and she is baffled as to why the police haven’t shared her images more widely with people who could have seen the suspects earlier in the evening.
“I cannot understand why they didn’t let people know what happened,” said Doucette, who still bore injuries from the assault when she met for an interview a week later. “Those pictures might have prompted some tips.”
The images she captured are blurry but nonetheless appear to corroborate her account of the night’s events, including the brutality of the beating, during which she says the assailants joked and laughed, even stopping to hug in the midst of the onslaught.
Doucette said the assault occurred after she and Adams, both 39, had met for a drink at Miller’s after Adams finished his shift as chef for a downtown food cart. They headed east up the Mall toward Rapture to end their night with music, when Adams tripped and fell in front of Derriere de Soie lingerie store, a block from Miller’s. As he was getting up, a man approached quickly, said something that Doucette couldn’t make out, and kicked Adams while he was on the ground, before being joined by his friends who beat Adams severely, breaking his ankle, cracking ribs and knocking out one of his teeth.
The grainy photos that Doucette took with her phone (posted below story) show the faces and clothing worn by the three alleged assailants, all black males. Doucette estimated the men were approximately 6’ tall and in their mid-20s or early 30s. In one photo, Adams is lying on his back on the Mall with a man looming over him. Doucette said the man was kicking Adams when she took the picture. In another picture, a large man in a black coat and light colored shirt appears to be moving towards Doucette’s camera as Adams is on his knees in the background.
While Doucette suffered bruising to her head and tearing of the cartilage in her ear, Adams bore the brunt of the men’s aggression, sustaining broken bones and a concussion that he said has robbed him of any memory of the incident and its immediate aftermath.
Flooded with fear and adrenaline, Doucette said, she reacted quickly after the assault began, confronting the first assailant.
“I came up and pushed him away and said, ‘What are you doing?’” she recalled.
The incident escalated when the man responded by striking her.
“The guy hits me repeatedly in the ear,” she said. “My earring was stabbing me in the head over and over.”
Two other men soon joined in the beating, Doucette said, and while they primarily focused on Adams, a local musician who at 5’5″ and 140 pounds was outsized and outnumbered, they would occasionally strike her.
“When he’d tell them to stop hitting me, they’d hit me twice,” said Doucette, who is 5’2″.
Doucette said she and Adams repeatedly tried to escape, but the assault continued east up the Mall and stopped in front of the Wells Fargo bank. Doucette said she threw her purse at the men, hoping that when they saw the cash inside they’d simply take the money and leave, but they had no apparent interest in robbing her. Instead, she said, they seemed to delight in the brutality.
“They were laughing, high-fiving, hugging, and then returning to kick him,” said Doucette. “There was some kind of camaraderie to it.”
The men were accompanied by a woman, who Doucette said repeatedly screamed at them to stop. The men ignored her pleas. Doucette said she had never seen the men before and there was nothing in her behavior or Adams’ that would have provoked the assault. Both victims wondered whether the episode was an example of the so-called “knock-out game,” in which assailants randomly strike an innocent passerby with the goal of rendering them unconscious. Several such assaults have resulted in the deaths of victims. Adams and Doucette checked Youtube for videos of their own assault in the days after it happened, but have found nothing. The cheerful demeanor of their attackers, however, has them wondering if they were targets of some kind of game.
“Maybe if we had played dead, they would have stopped,” said Adams. “If the point of the knockout game is to knock out, we kept getting up to help each other. We didn’t play right.”
Adams describes himself as a “passive person,” and while he said the head injury erased his memory of the attack, he doesn’t believe he could have said anything to provoke the men’s wrath.
“He’s the most non-confrontational person I know,” Doucette agreed.
The attack finally stopped after Doucette started taking pictures with her cell phone and several passersby appeared to be calling 911. By the time police arrived several minutes later, Doucette said, the assailants were gone. Adams, who had been briefly knocked unconscious, refused to be transported by ambulance to the hospital that night despite Doucette’s and emergency responders’ urgings. He also declined to be interviewed by police, although he called the next day to add his report to the information given to police by Doucette.
“My brain was messed up,” he said, repeating what Doucette has told him about his post-assault behavior. “I kept saying I wanted to go home.”
The next morning, Adams said, he did go to the hospital. In addition to the concussion and facial bruising including a black eye, x-rays confirmed his cracked ribs and fractured ankle. Nearly two weeks after the attack, the physical wounds are healing, but both Doucette and Adams are troubled by what they see as a lack of response from the Charlottesville Police Department.
According to CPD spokesperson Ronnie Roberts, investigators canvassed the Downtown area after the assault but did not find anyone matching the description of the alleged assailants. Police did not release Doucette’s pictures to the public, Roberts said, because they believed surveillance video from the bank might offer clearer images, and they hoped officers might recognize some of the men in Doucette’s photos without tipping them off that they were being sought.
Roberts said police requested the bank video on Friday, December 27, a week after the attack, and had not received it as of Sunday, December 29. On Sunday, Doucette finally posted the pictures she’d taken to her Facebook page and said she quickly received several tips that she has passed on to police. Her frustration at the lack of an investigation is palpable.
Simple Truth Church put up the sign to cover an old, rundown billboard. However the “Support Our Troops” sign is becoming quite controversial. If the church doesn’t remove the sign, it could be fined.
Most drivers CBS13 spoke with did not have a problem with the sign.
“It doesn’t bother me at all,” said one person.
But for others, it’s an eyesore. It’s for that reason someone complained to the county to have it taken down.
“It’s a little surprising. All we meant to do was beautify the area, the corner, and it’s a reminder for me — for everyone that drives by — to pray for the troops,” church member Julia Stokes said.
Bill and Julia Stokes say the sign was meant to send a positive message and the church never knew it would stir up such controversy.
“Why would you knock something that has an America flag on it that says ‘Support Our Troops?’ I have no idea; I really don’t,” said Bill.
The banner, put up three weeks ago, may be an upgrade from the faded realty sign that was there before. But, according to Nevada County officials, Simple Truth Church needed to have a permit before making the change. And, if they don’t remove it, the county may.
“If we don’t do anything, they may come out and cut the sign down. And, we would have to pay for them to cut the sign down, which seems to be pretty harsh,” said Bill.
The church is holding off on taking down the sign as long as it can. For now, church officials say it is bringing more followers to the Sunday service.
“People just drive by and love it,” said Julia. “There have been four new people come to our church because of that sign.”
The church will meet with the county sometime next week to determine exactly what will be done with the sign. In the meantime, members hope they can keep it up.
The previous realty sign stood for nearly 20 years without any permit issues.
Meanwhile, Simple Truth Church is in the process of finding a permanent home to worship.
“Guns are a lot like parachutes If you need one and don’t have one, you’ll probably never need one again”
This is the best presentation on gun control yet. Even if you don’t like guns, watch this! Should be required viewing by both sides of the issue of gun control/legislation. Although this is a spoof (The Virtual President) this man knows the constitution. Watch the faces on some Senators in the audience.
While many workers look forward to the higher pay, employers are looking for ways to absorb the big increase in labor costs. Some plan on eliminating jobs.
“We’re going to be looking at making some serious cuts,” said Cedarbrook Lodge General Manager Scott Ostrander. “We’re going to be looking at reducing employee hours, reducing benefits and eliminating some positions.”
That’s in the short term. Eventually, those jobs and more are expected to return as the Cedarbrook Lodge looks to build an addition to the hotel. The plan is to increase revenue to offset the higher labor costs.
But not every employer is being so ambitious. One has told a trade group it is going to close one of its two restaurants, eliminating 200 jobs.
The plan has also caused Han Kim — who runs Hotel Concepts, a company that owns and manages 11 hotels in Washington state — to shelve plans to build a hotel in SeaTac. The company already has three hotels in SeaTac, and Kim and a business partner were looking to build a fourth on land they own.
“Uncertainty is bad for business, and right now we’re right in that area so we’re just putting everything on hold,” Kim said.
Opponents of the $15 minimum wage did score a legal victory late last week when a King County, Wash., judge ruled that it does not apply to any of the workers at the SeaTac airport. Superior Court Judge Andrea Darvas ruled only the Port of Seattle can set wage and other work rules at the airport. That eliminates 4,700 workers from the successful ballot initiative.
Backers of the $15 minimum wage vow to appeal the ruling up the state Supreme Court. One of the biggest supporters is Kshama Sawant, a socialist who also won her election to the Seattle City Council. She plans on making Seattle the next city to have a $15 minimum wage.
“There may be a few jobs lost here and there, but the fact is, if we don’t fight for this, then the race to the bottom will continue,” Sawant said.
Sawant is skeptical that the higher minimum wage will lead to mass layoffs. But the American Car Rental Association estimates 5 percent of low-wage jobs will be cut; and another 5-10 percent of those workers will be replaced by more experienced workers.
The owner of Dollar Rental Cars told Fox News she’ll outsource some functions, change schedules and cut some staff in response to the new policy.
Dan Springer joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in August 2001 as a Seattle-based correspondent.
One night before Christmas, a Hawaii-vacation-bound President Barack Obama “encouraged” American families to eschew usual yuletide meanderings around “holiday” trees in favor of donning Swee’Pea footie-pajamas while surfing Healthcare.gov.Follow Joe For America on Facebook!
Of course, his eponymous Obamacare law, that neither protects patients nor allows affordable acts of care, MANDATES such forays on the government’s insecure website lest one have any refund due from his anti-tea partier-IRS withheld.
The results of one family’s Merry Christmas dialogue appear below:
Dear Mr. Presdient,
I am currently typing this blog post as I sit on hold with the Healthcare.gov marketplace help line. I am doing everything I possibly can to sign up for health insurance (which is required by law) so that my family can have the care that they need next year now that our current plan has been taken away from us.
Despite repeated attempts since October (no less than a dozen, including roughly four alone last week) to submit an application and select a plan, I have run into a myriad of different issues.
While simply signing up has been extremely frustrating and still needs to be resolved, a much more pressing problem that I am having with this process is that according to my recently received eligibility notice from healthcare.gov, my kids (ages 1 and 3) are not eligible to buy health insurance through the exchange.
What is confusing about this is that my wife and I are eligible.
Not only is my oldest son not able to receive insurance through the exchange, he is not eligible for ANY other government program according to my official eligibility requirement.
Here is a screenshot of the eligibility notice that I received:
Notice that my wife and I are eligible. Calls to healthcare.gov confirmed this, but they could not do anything to help me or answer our questions about his eligibility. Why is he not eligible when we meet all of the requirements (income level, no employer provided insurance, etc)?
Here is my problem:
I have spent many hours on the phone help line with different healthcare representatives and not a single one can give me an answer. Each one of the representatives has said that this eligibility status is “weird” and they have all wondered aloud why my oldest son is not eligible for anything.
One even exclaimed, “That’s not right!”
Each one told me that I could appeal the decision and that to appeal I should check the page on the healthcare.gov site that gives instructions about how I should go about appealing. However, they also made it clear that because this process takes two weeks, either way, we will not have insurance on January 1 if we don’t sign up by today.
If I do not receive a favorable judgment in my appeal, I will have no choice but to buy health insurance at full price for my boys (one of which desperately needs surgery on his ears).
Again, my question is: Why are they not eligible when we meet all of the requirements?
Having previously purchased private insurance I am completely willing to do this, but after taking an initial look at premiums and deductibles I am going to be paying much more than ever for health insurance, with WORSE COVERAGE. Here is a screenshot of the first quotes that I have received after checking in the last couple of hours.
Also, this is a quote for only one of my boys; I would have to buy another plan for my other son.
THIS IS NOT DOABLE for us financially.
What I am asking:
I do not spend a lot of time voicing my political opinion and have been extremely patient (see my detailed experience here) in giving the government time to fix the website and system, but since you have failed to meet the goals that you set for us and for yourself, I am simply holding the government accountable to the promise that was made to not deny anyone affordable healthcare coverage.
At the very least, I feel that it is not unreasonable for me to ask for an explanation about why my son has not been allowed to sign up.
I am not throwing stones or doing this to rebel against the governmental authority that is over me, I am simply writing to you on behalf of my boys who have been denied what you think they should be required to have.
I am also asking anyone who comes across this letter to send it on and share it to bring awareness to the situation.
Thank you –
Zack Langford and Family
JoeForAmerica encourages Americans to let their voice be heard in the offices of Congressmen that voted for, or subsequently supported, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Many on this list have already been discharged from elected office, but for President Obama and the ones that remain, we would like to ask, “Why did you ignore the majority of Americans and make this travesty a law?”
HOUSE
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SENATE
Akaka (D-HI) Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Begich (D-AK) Bennet (D-CO) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Burris (D-IL) Byrd (D-WV) Cantwell (D-WA) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Conrad (D-ND) Dodd (D-CT) Dorgan (D-ND) Durbin (D-IL) Feingold (D-WI) Feinstein (D-CA) Franken (D-MN) Gillibrand (D-NY) Hagan (D-NC) Harkin (D-IA) Inouye (D-HI) Johnson (D-SD) Kaufman (D-DE) Kerry (D-MA) Kirk (D-MA) Klobuchar (D-MN) Kohl (D-WI) Landrieu (D-LA) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Lieberman (ID-CT) Lincoln (D-AR) Manchin (D-WV) McCaskill (D-MO) Menendez (D-NJ) Merkley (D-OR) Mikulski (D-MD) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Pryor (D-AR) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Rockefeller (D-WV) Sanders (I-VT) Schumer (D-NY) Shaheen (D-NH) Specter (D-PA) Stabenow (D-MI) Tester (D-MT) Udall (D-CO) Udall (D-NM) Warner (D-VA) Webb (D-VA) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wyden (D-OR)
The Boy Scouts of America will accept openly gay youths starting New Year’s Day, marking a historic shift that spells major changes to policies on tentmates and showers.
Yet despite their be-prepared approach, BSA leaders are rooting for the change to be a non-event, comparable to another New Year’s Day in 2000 when widespread fears of digital-clock chaos to start the new millennium proved unfounded.
‘My hope is there will be the same effect this Jan. 1 as the Y2K scare,’ said Brad Haddock, a BSA national executive board member who chairs the policy implementation committee. ‘It’s business as usual, nothing happens and we move forward.’
Some churches are dropping their sponsorship of Scout units because of the new policy and some families are switching to a new conservative alternative called Trail Life USA. But massive defections haven’t materialized and most major sponsors, including the Roman Catholic and Mormon churches, are maintaining ties.
‘There hasn’t been a whole lot of fallout,’ said Haddock, a lawyer from Wichita, Kan. ‘If a church said they wouldn’t work with us, we’d have a church right down the street say, `We’ll take the troop.’‘
The new inclusive policy was approved in May, with support from 60 per cent of the 1,400 voting members of the BSA’s National Council. The vote followed acrimonious nationwide debate, and was accompanied by an announcement that the BSA would continue to exclude openly gay adults from leadership positions.
Under the new membership policy, youths can no longer be barred from the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts or coed Venturers program solely on the basis of sexual orientation. However, gay Scouts will face some limitations.
‘Any sexual conduct, whether heterosexual or homosexual, by youth of Scouting age is contrary to the virtues of Scouting,’ says one BSA document. ‘No member may use Scouting to promote or advance any social or political position or agenda, including on the matter of sexual orientation.’
Trying to anticipate potential friction, the BSA has distributed extensive explanations and question-and-answer documents related to the policy.
PUBLISHED: 14:32 EST, 28 December 2013
A former Minneapolis, Minnesota mayoral candidate was mercilessly beaten up by two teenage girls after having his cellphone stolen at a Mall of America Starbucks.
Mark Andrew came in second to Betsy Hodges in the most competitive mayoral race Minneapolis has seen in a generation.
The former Hennepin County Commissioner had just hung up the phone and was in the middle of writing his New Year’s resolutions Thursday evening when a young man came up and swiped his iPhone 4S off the cafe table.
‘I was targeted because the phone was out and I’m 63 years old, and I’m sure they thought that I was easy pickins,’ he told the Star Tribune.
Scroll down for video
Before and after: Former Minneapolis mayoral candidate Mark Andrew was beaten up by two teenage girls after their male accomplice stole his phone in a Mall of America Starbucks
Not one to sit ideally by while a wrong is committed, Andrew got up and chased after the man but was stopped by his two teenage girl friends.
Arrested: Police arrested 18-year-old Letaija Shapree Cutler-Cain and her 17-year-old female friend for assaulting Mr Andrew. The young man who stole his phone fled the mall and has not been caught
‘If somebody is gonna do that to me or somebody else, I’m not a bystander by nature I’ll go in and fight,’ he told CBS Minnesota.
The women, one of them armed with a billy club, didn’t let Mr Andrew get away and mercilessly beat him over the head until he started bleeding profusely.
When Mr Andrew fought back, one of the women,18-year-old Letaija Shapree Cutler-Cain from Brooklyn Park, gouged his face with her fingernails and said: ‘I’m going to kill you! Let me go or I’m going to kill you’.
Mr Andrew says it took about five minutes for police to arrive and that hundreds of shoppers witnessed the incident, but no one intervened because ‘they were too afraid’ and he called that a ‘sad commentary’.
When police arrived they took both of the women into custody. At first the women said Mr Andrews attacked them first, but a witness inside the restaurant stepped in to validate Mr Andrew’s story.
Police were not able to find the man who originally stole the phone after he fled the mall.
Shoppers saw him drop the phone and were able to return it to Mr Andrew.
Cutler-Cain was taken to Hennepin County Jail where she was charged with one count second-degree assault and two counts of first-degree aggravated robbery. Her first court hearing is set for Monday.
Police have not released the name of her 17-year-old accomplice since she is a minor. The deadline to file charges against the 17-year-old girl have been extended to Monday at noon.
According to the criminal complaint, Cutler-Cain told police that she and her accomplices cased the Starbucks throughout the day to see if it was a ‘sweet’ spot to steal from customers.
Chased: Mr Andrew was sitting at a table in this Mall of America Starbucks when the young man came up and snapped his iPhone 4S sitting on the table and he proceeded to chase the man out of the store
‘People ought to be able to sit and have a cup of coffee without fear of assault,’ said Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman in a statement. Freeman is a longtime ally of Andrew’s and he endorsed him for mayor.
‘These two will be charged and prosecuted to the absolute fullest extent of the law.’
After the incident, Mr Andrew was taken to Fairview Southdale Hospital where he received nine stitches to mend the large gash on his head. Police say he also had bruises and abrasions on his face.
‘These kids are damaged’: The two women beat Mr Andrew over the head with a bill club, which later required nine stitches. Mr Andrew says he will continue to stay involved in the case against his two attackers
Mr Andrew was released from the hospital the same night and returned to his home in South Minnesapolis where he was welcomed by his adult children.
In an interview with the Star Tribune, Mr Andrew says he walked into his home and lifted his fist in the air and said: ‘We won’.
He says he’s going to continue to stay involved in the case against the two women who beat him up.
‘In my estimation, these kids are damaged,’ he told TwinCities.com. ‘They have to be held accountable. The juvenile may be too far gone. She was extremely violent. I believe she was trying to kill me, and her actions supported her statement. She was swinging as hard as she could’
They created a gi-normous list of blacklisted words. (Whoopsie! 
“Blacklisted” became the first offensive words to be b****listed because it implied a racist belief). The thin-skinned ones also created a rather short list of acceptable, non-offensive words. They became the “Word Gestapos,” and roamed the land to ensure that seldom was heard a discouraging . . . or offensive word.
Then someone pointed out that words were not the problem. In fact, they had never, ever been the problem. Words were nothing more than proof positive of beliefs held by the person speaking the words. Therefore, in order to eliminate offensive words, it would be necessary to change the offensive beliefs that had caused them to be spoken.
And so, the thin-skinned and much-too-sensitive folks re-branded themselves as The “Belief Vigilantes,” and launched a national campaign to guarantee correct and non-offensive beliefs. 
They enlisted Hollywood celebrities, film industry moguls, and left-stream media and lobbied for mandatory “belief correction” classes and rehab programs (covered by government-approved health insurance) for everyone over the age of 6.
Next, the Belief Vigilantes launched a massive PR campaign focused on correct beliefs regarding racism, sexism, feminism, same-sex marriage, birth and climate control, Judeo/Christian beliefs, the obsolete Constitution, home schooling, red or white wine, etc., etc., etc.
But, drats and darn (the only approved words to describe disappointment), citizens continued to live their lives, using the b***klisted words, unaware of and unaffected by the Vigilantes’ correct-belief campaign.
In became obvious that in order to capture national attention to their cause, the Belief Vigilantes needed a scapegoat.
Shazam! Along came a magazine interview with the perfect candidate: a bearded, self-made millionaire, reality TV star, and straight-talking founder from the Duck Kingdom. 
When a reporter had asked for an opinion, the Bearded One responded by expressing his beliefs regarding sexual preference and various body parts.
Whoopie Ki Yea! The Belief Vigilantes sprang into action, screaming and yelling about how his Neanderthal comments had offended them. The brouhaha became a breaking-and-non-stop story across the country. Millions of citizens, for the first time, began discussions about how, when, where, and “IF” it was appropriate to express deeply held beliefs that might differ from deeply held beliefs of others.
The Belief Vigilantes jumped up and down in celebration and clicked together the heels of their all-natural, handmade hemp sandals. “At last, citizens are beginning to understand the importance of correct beliefs (which we determine) and correct speech (which we also determine).”
Empowered by the prospect of a national referendum on correct beliefs, the Vigilantes lobbied the network to demand a public apology and command the Bearded One to shut the heck up and accept suspension until it was decided if he could/would/should return to his own reality show.
However, attempts to shame and quiet the Bearded One ran off him like water on a duck’s back. He stood tall and acknowledged that he was entitled to express his beliefs whenever, wherever, and however he wanted to, and he affirmed that same right for everyone.
Then, an unexpected phenomenon occurred. Millions of good and decent people spoke up. “You don’t want people to express beliefs that are different from yours? Well, tough beans! We have freedom of belief and freedom of speech in this country and we’ll speak our truths whether you trolls like it or not!”
The Belief Vigilantes whined, “Your comments have offended us.”
Pissed-off citizens responded with, “Who the duck cares?”
And then, in a show 
of support for the Bearded One and his right to speak his beliefs, millions of moms and dads and grandmothers and grandfathers and uncles and aunts bought Duck Kingdom products and began to wear camouflage hats, scarves, and fake beards.
A duck kazoo song-and-dance routine became wildly popular, went viral and was performed spontaneously in shopping malls around the country.
Supporters of freedom of belief and speech had won. Broken hearted and dispirited, Belief Vigilantes suspended their activities. Many of them enrolled in de-sensitivity training. Others received thick-skin transplants (covered by government-mandated health insurance). 99% of the former Vigilantes graduated from rehab and lived happily, happily, happily ever after as productive members of society.
What about the 1% who dropped out of rehab and retained their thin-skinned attitudes? Determined to live in a country dominated by belief control, they immigrated to North Korea and lived unhappily ever after.
The end.
THIS JUST IN: Friday PM: A&E has bowed in deference to commerce and are allowing Phil to return to filming which begins in the spring. Hmmmm.
Molli Nickell, a commentator for TheBlaze, posts additional fables at her webside: www.grannyguerrillas.com. To look inside her book, “Uncle SCAM’S Book of Politically Incorrect Fables, CLICK HERE. This quick-read, 96-page book will entertain, educate, and amuse the patriots as well as the low-information voters in your personal universe. Pass it around! Save 25% off the cover price of $7.95 when you order through createspace (the e-commerce division of Amazon.com). Use discount code TG4NRPFB.
In 2005, the Los Angeles Times ran a story by Stephanie Simon entitled “Offering Abortion, Rebirth.”
Simon interviewed an abortion provider named Dr. William F. Harrison and observed abortions at his clinic. Harrison died in 2010, after closing down his clinic because of health reasons.
The article quotes Harrison saying, “I am destroying life.”
Simon described witnessing an abortion on an 18-year-old girl. The author says the girl had not told her parents about her pregnancy. The unborn baby was 13 weeks along. At 13 weeks, the child has fingers, complete with fingernails. If female, the child has a uterus of her own. He or she can respond to touch and has both a heartbeat and brain waves. He can also suck his thumb. (See ultrasound pictures of 13-week-old babies here.)
According to the author:
Harrison glances at an ultrasound screen frozen with an image of the fetus taken moments before. Against the fuzzy black-and-white screen, he sees the curve of a head, the bend of an elbow, the ball of a fist.
“You may feel some cramping while we suction everything out,” Harrison tells the patient.
A moment later, he says: “You’re going to hear a sucking sound.”
The abortion takes two minutes. The patient lies still and quiet, her eyes closed, a few tears rolling down her cheeks. The friend who has accompanied her stands at her side, mutely stroking her arm.
When he’s done, Harrison performs another ultrasound. The screen this time is blank but for the contours of the uterus. “We’ve gotten everything out of there,” he says.
Right after her abortion, the teenager said:
“There’s things wrong with abortion,” she says. “But I want to have a good life. And provide a good life for my child.” To keep this baby now, she says, when she’s single, broke and about to start college, “would be unfair.”
The article also profiled several other women coming in for abortions.
A high school volleyball player says she doesn’t want to give up her body for nine months. “I realize just from the first three months how it changes everything,” she says.
Kim, a single mother of three, says she couldn’t bear to give away a child and have to wonder every day if he were loved. Ending the pregnancy seemed easier, she says – as long as she doesn’t let herself think about “what could have been.”
Many pro-lifers find it hard to understand why some women would rather abort than put the baby up for adoption – pro-lifers tend to think it would be better to adopt out a child than to kill that child. But often the thought of giving up a baby is painful for women, and many women have heard the message over and over again that abortion is not killing.
The article also describes:
Amanda, a 20-year-old administrative assistant, says it’s not the obstacles that surprise her – it’s how normal and unashamed she feels as she prepares to end her first pregnancy.
“It’s an everyday occurrence,” she says as she waits for her 2:30 p.m. abortion. “It’s not like this is a rare thing.”
Amanda was 15 weeks pregnant and has not told her boyfriend about his child. Amanda also says:
I’ve been praying a lot and that’s been a real source of strength for me. I really believe God has a plan for us all. I have a choice, and that’s part of my plan.
As much as pro-lifers don’t like to admit it, many religious people get abortions. There are some churches that support abortion. In a recent Facebook post, Abby Johnson mentioned that a member of her Episcopalian church told her to leave after she became involved in the “antichoice” movement. One study says that many women who have abortions claim to be Christian and that one out of five women coming in is a self-identified born-again or evangelical Christian (1).
Later in the article, two other women give their reasons for having abortions.
His first patient of the day, Sarah, 23, says it never occurred to her to use birth control, though she has been sexually active for six years. When she became pregnant this fall, Sarah, who works in real estate, was in the midst of planning her wedding. “I don’t think my dress would have fit with a baby in there,” she says.
The last patient of the day, a 32-year-old college student named Stephanie, has had four abortions in the last 12 years. She keeps forgetting to take her birth control pills. Abortion “is a bummer,” she says, “but no big stress.”
People on both sides of the abortion debate often say that abortion is an agonizing decision for women. They say that women do not take abortion lightly. Many pro-lifers view women as the second victims of abortion. Although this is often true, it is the sad case that some women do use abortion as birth control.
The clinic that Dr. Harrison works at makes an effort to shield women from guilt. In the abortionists’ own words, “we try to make sure she doesn’t ever feel guilty … for what she feels she has to do.”
The article goes on to say:
For the few women who arrive ambivalent or beset by guilt, Harrison’s nurse has posted statistics on the exam-room mirror: One out of every four pregnant women in the US chooses abortion. A third of all women in this country will have at least one abortion by the time they’re 45.
“You think there’s room in hell for all those women?” the nurse will ask.
If the woman remains troubled, the nurse tells her to go home and think it over.
“If they truly feel they’re killing a baby, we’re not going to do an abortion for them,” says the nurse, who asked not to be identified for fear protesters would target her.
This sounds all well and good, but right after this statement, the article goes on to quote this very same nurse saying to a teenager who is 5 weeks pregnant:
“It’s completely formed about nine weeks,” the nurse tells her. “Yours is more like a chicken yolk.”
According to The Biology of Prenatal Development:
Between 4 and 5 weeks, the brain continues its rapid growth and divides into 5 distinct sections.
The cerebral hemispheres appear, gradually becoming the largest parts of the brain.
Functions eventually controlled by the cerebral hemispheres include thought, learning, memory, speech, vision, hearing, voluntary movement, and problem-solving.
You can watch the heart of a 4-week-old unborn baby beating at this link. The baby, even at 5 weeks, is hardly an egg yolk.
Although Dr. Harrison admits that what he’s doing is killing, he contradicts himself later by saying, “It’s not a baby to me until the mother tells me it’s a baby.”
As of 2005, Dr. Harrison had performed over 20,000 abortions. He left practice in 2010 and died shortly afterward. When Harrison left practice, his abortion clinic closed its doors. He was unable to find another doctor willing to perform abortions at his clinic.
1. Barbara Vobejda “Abortion Reaches Wide Cross Section of Women; Study of U.S. Patients Seeking Procedure Finds Many Belong to Religious Groups That Oppose It” The Washington Post August 8, 1996
LifeNews.com Note: Sarah Terzo is a pro-life liberal who runs ClinicQuotes.com, a web site devoted to exposing the abortion industry. She is a member of the pro-life groups PLAGAL and Secular Pro-Life. This originally appeared at Live Action News.
Even while listing those attributes, he warns that “…the progress of collectivism and its inherently centralistic tendencies are progressively destroying” this exceptional heritage. He cautions against centralized planning of business, industry, education, health care, and other systems that are necessary for our way of life. He readily admits that a system such as we have we had for the first 125 years of our union’s life is sometimes slow and awkward. But the trade off is that we have freedom to “pursue happiness.”
Obama didn’t start all of this. This began with Woodrow Wilson, and Wilson’s inspiration, we are told, was a little book named Philip Dru Administrator: A Story of Tomorrow 1920-1935 by Edward Mandell House. (I’ll be writing more about this book and the author’s relationship with President Wilson later.) If you have never read this book, do so. It is available from Amazon.com in the Kindle edition for a pittance. It will send cold chills up your back. If you have read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, you will perhaps see some of the genesis of that huge novel. I don’t know whether Ms Rand knew about Philip Dru Administrator, but she was a well read person. I would guess that she knew about it.
We are witnessing today the streamlining of our country’s processes for achievement. Congress takes too long to pass laws. So we get a Presidential Executive Directives and Orders to get things done. Some of our laws, indeed many of our laws, date back to the twentieth century and even further back and sections of them have become antiquated. So we have a Department of Justice that advises the administration that it can ignore certain laws or certain sections of laws. Sometimes my wife accuses me of selective hearing. Well, I accuse the DOD of selectively cherry picking our laws, and that includes the Constitution.
At one time we proudly would say that we are a nation of laws and not of men. We can now say that we are a nation of decrees and regulations and not of laws. The citizens of the United States have been shuffled down and over to one side and ignored. Our congressmen, with a few exceptions, are like sheep being led to the slaughter. They talk a good talk, but they do not walk a good walk. When it comes right down to it, they are more afraid of the colleagues in leadership positions in the House and Senate and of the president himself than they are of the people who bestowed upon them the honor of representing them. Even the nine grave men and women who wear the black robes and sit in supreme judgment of lesser courts–with a couple of notable exceptions–have kowtowed to the president and his lackeys.
Oh, and by the way, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to y’all from deep in the heart of South Georgia. Drop in and see us sometime, ya hear?
Oklahoma legislators, fighting against political correctness and initiating a battle for traditional American values, will consider various bills implementing a shift toward those traditional values when they return to the Capitol on Feb. 3.
One bill offered by Republican Sen. Rob Standridge of Norman, would require Oklahoma’s public elementary schools to recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day. The bill would also allow students opposed to doing so to be exempted. Another requirement of Standridge’s bill would be the requirement that every public school own and display a U.S. flag.
Another bill, from Sen. Eddie Fields, (R-Wynona), would allow the State Board of Education to separate from the K-12 Common Core State Standards, requiring the Board to adopt changes to the state’s current English, language arts, and mathematics requirements. The bill would make the Board ask the U.S. Department of Education to change the agreement and sever federal funding from the implementation of the Common Core standards.
Two different bills from Rep. Ken Walker, (R-Tulsa) and Rep. Bobby Cleveland, (R-Slaughterville), would allow schools the freedom to show religious scenes or symbols, as long as the display also included a companion scene from another religion and embraces both a religious and secular symbol. Another requirement would be the inclusion of a traditional winter celebration.
“(That) display shall not include a message that endorses, favors, disfavors or encourages adherence to a particular religious or nonreligious faith, belief or perspective,” according to the bill.
The legislators are challenging the spin Governor Mary Fallin attempted in December, when she tried to head off the firestorm of criticism surrounding the implementation of national Common Core Standards, signing an executive order that seemed to assert Oklahoma’s independence from those standards. Oklahoma is one of 45 states to accept the national standards.
Fallin said, “We certainly don’t want Washington telling us how to teach our students. Unfortunately, Washington doesn’t always get that message.” She was echoed by Robert Sommers, the Secretary of Education, who said, “We’re being preemptive. Even though Common Core isn’t federal, what our worry is that we’ve seen that federal creep in the past.”
But Jenni White, president of Restore Oklahoma Public Education, was not convinced, saying, “It sounds to me like this is just something they threw together in order to kind of quiet public dissent.”
A couple of nights ago on his program, Morgan criticized Phil Robertson’s recent anti-gay remarks as “repulsive” and claimed that he should be fired. Apparently, that’s Morgan’s way of handling opposing viewpoints from major celebrity figures.
On his program last night, he decided to invite a Biblical scholar, Dr. Michael Brown, on the show so that he could trap him into admitting that Jesus did not, in fact, condemn homosexuality.
That trap was not set properly.
When Morgan asked Brown to cite just one instance of Jesus condemning homosexuality, he probably thought that he had already won the debate. But alas, he was hoisted on his own petard.
Brown cited not one, but three instances of Jesus condemning homosexuality.
Next, Brown cited Matthew 15 in which Jesus states that all sexual acts committed outside of marriage defile a human being.
Finally, Brown cited Matthew 19 in which Jesus said that marriage, as God intended it, is the union of one man and one woman.
Game, set, and match. Brown.
Have a look at the video below.
This kid will blow you away, make sure to watch till the end to see what he does with the gifts he is offered.
The Toranto Star reports:
Pedophilia has been widely viewed as a psychological disorder triggered by early childhood trauma.
Now, many experts see it as a biologically rooted condition that does not change — like a sexual orientation — thanks largely to a decade of research by Dr. James Cantor at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Cantor’s team has found that pedophiles share a number of physical characteristics, including differences in brain wiring. It’s now thought that about 1 to 5 per cent of men are pedophiles, meaning they are primarily attracted to children.
These findings have been widely accepted among scientists, but have had little impact on social attitudes or law. However, we are left with the alarming question: if some men are born pedophiles, what should society do with them?
Well, what do you suppose those who have kept their pedophilia under control to some extent, at least keeping it only in their thoughts? They are doing the same thing the homosexuals are doing: calling for societal acceptance, and a cry for special rights will soon be accompanying this demand.
Let me say that I realize all of us face different temptations. Some are weaker in areas that others are not. For those that fight against their temptations, whether homosexuality, pedophilia, fornication, pornography, adultery or a myriad of other sins, let me say “thank you.” Thank you for not justifying your lusts and thank you for seeking to keep them under control. The Bible commands us to repent of these lusts, as well as any action based on them, and Jesus Christ is a Savior of sinners from sin.
However, to accept that this is biological in nature is to miss the aspect of sin. After all, even these that are claiming this is from birth cannot prove it. As my friend Shea Bernard wrote, concerning homosexuality, “Dr. Francis S. Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, along with his team of over 150 of the top geneticists in the world, who sequenced and decoded the human genome, three years ahead of schedule, have emphatically said, ad nauseam, that there is NO gay gene.” To that I would add that there was no discovery of a “pedophilia” gene either. It may come as a surprise, but there are no “thieve” genes, “murderer” genes, or “liar” genes. This is a spiritual issue and deals with the mind.
However, Cantor wants us to believe it is biological. Cantor says of pedophilia: ”It’s either purely biological or a mix of biological and experiential.”
Cantor and his former colleague, Michael Seto, are careful to differentiate between pedophiles and sex offenders. The first, obviously has to do with the mental part and the second is the criminal action part.
So, how are they seeking to help those in the first category? A website, of course. Enter Virtuous Pedophiles. It’s a website for pedophiles who have never molested children, but do have an attraction for them.
One individual that was pointed to in the article in the Star was a man by the name of Ethan Edwards, who at the age of 50 found he could no longer suppress his desires and simply look at young girls in a protective manner. Edwards is the co-founder of Virtuous Pedophiles.
“I realized that young girls certainly took my breath away, more than grown-ups are usually charmed by kids,” Edwards said.
Edwards claims that his site desires to prevent child abuse, by reducing the stigma against non-offending pedophiles. “We do not choose to be attracted to children, and we cannot make that attraction go away. But we can resist the temptation to abuse children sexually, and many of us present no danger to children whatsoever. Yet we are despised for having a sexual attraction that we did not choose, cannot change, and successfully resist.”
While I’m happy to hear that Edwards and others acknowledge their problem, see it as a problem and seek to keep it from being a problem for young children, it is those like Cantor and Seto that seek to justify the mental state and actions by claiming people are just “born this way” that concern me even more. This is the same argument being used by the militant homosexuals to advance their agenda in this country.
It’s always smart to prepare for the worst – especially when “the worst” could be very very bad indeed.
One Wall Street advisor is recommending investors put together a “bug-out bag” that includes food, gun, and ammo in case the financial system melts down and a full blown social collapse occurs.
A top financial advisor, worried that Obamacare, the NSA spying scandal and spiraling national debt is increasing the chances for a fiscal and social disaster, is recommending that Americans prepare a “bug-out bag” that includes food, a gun and ammo to help them stay alive.
David John Marotta, a Wall Street expert and financial advisor and Forbes contributor, said in a note to investors, “Firearms are the last item on the list, but they are on the list. There are some terrible people in this world. And you are safer when your trusted neighbors have firearms.”
His memo is part of a series addressing the potential for a “financial apocalypse.” His view, however, is that the problems plaguing the country won’t result in armageddon. “There is the possibility of a precipitous decline, although a long and drawn out malaise is much more likely,” said the Charlottesville, Va.-based president of Marotta Wealth Management.
Marotta said that many clients fear an end-of-the-world scenario. He doesn’t agree with that outcome, but does with much of what has people worried.
“I, along with many other economists, agree with many of the concerns expressed in these dire warnings. The growing debt and deficit spending is a tax on those holding dollars. The devaluation in the U.S. dollar risks the dollar’s status as the reserve currency of the world. Obamacare was the worst legislation in the past 75 years. Socialism is on the rise and the NSA really is abrogating vast portions of the Constitution. I don’t disagree with their concerns,” he wrote.
In his latest note, he said that Americans should have a survival kit to take in case of a financial or natural disaster. It should be filled with items that will help them stay alive for the first 72-hours of a crisis, including firearms.
There are some economists who believe a collapse is inevitable. They make a convincing case, but fail in one, important measure; when theory meets reality, the theory usually collapses.
Governments have gotten away with kicking the debt and deficit can down the road, hoping something will turn up to reverse the process. So far, nothing has. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be reversed, or that the consequences won’t be as bad as many are predicting. There are so many unforeseen factors at work that predictability goes out the window when reality intrudes.
What is driving governments in times of crisis is fear of the unknown. The TARP bailout was presented as the only alternative to depression. Same for the auto bailout. Were they right? We’ll never know for sure, but I suspect that if the banks had not been “too big to fail,” we would have gotten something far less than 1929 and perhaps a little worse than what happened in 2008.
When you think about it, how much worse could it have been? We’re 5 years on still suffering from high unemployment and sluggish growth. It’s hard to imagine a depression causing much more hardship than Obama’s policies have already done.
A financial collapse would be very bad, but would actually lead to neighbor turning on neighbor, and roving gangs of thugs looking to steal food and fuel? No one knows, which makes a “bug out bag” a good investment.
The retired American military commander who earlier said in a statement released to WND that Americans need to confront Barack Obama’s tyranny now is recommending the Egyptian model through which to do that.
The Egyptian model, Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely explained on a podcast of an Internet radio show, was that 33 million people stood up to their government and told officials no.
The result was that the Egyptian Muslim Brother was removed from power and then-President Mohammed Morsi was removed from office, Vallely explained.
His call for a massive march on Washington came recently on the WBTM (We Become The Media) show.
He was asked whether America can be restored as the shining light on the hill for freedom when the electoral process, which resulted in two presidencies for Obama in 2008 and 2012, “are known to be corrupt.”
Vallely said the absence of leadership in the White House and Congress makes it difficult, and he said, “I’m not even sure our traditional process will straighten our government out in time to save us.”
And he said processes like impeachment simply won’t happen.
Then he suggested the Egyptian model, and he said millions of Americans need to “stand up” to Washington “within the next 12 months.”
He said doing nothing is not an option, because Washington won’t fix itself and “hope is not a strategy.”
“We need something … a no confidence vote,” he suggested. And perhaps legislation that could create a national recall process.
“We need to get off our derrieres, march at the state capitol, march in Washington,” he said. “Make citizens arrests.”
He said when there are those who are “conducting treason … violating the Constitution, violating our laws,” it should not be overlooked.
“When you have a president and his team who don’t care about the Constitution, they will do anything they can to win,” he said.
Vallely has been immensely popular among tea party organizations that are seeking a way to restore the rule of law to Washington.
Among other things, they cite the Obamacare law, and the 15 or more times Obama has changed the law – without consulting Congress.
In a statement earlier to WND, Vallely said a vote of no confidence could be used.
The founder of Stand Up America, an organization that provides education resources for leaders and activists based on the values of the Founding Fathers, said:
“Clearly America has lost confidence and no longer trusts those in power at a most critical time in our history,” Vallely said. “It is true that not all who ply the halls of power fit under that broad brush, but most of them are guilty of many egregious acts and we say it is time to hold a vote of no confidence. It’s time for a ‘recall.’”
Vallely believes the “credibility of our current leadership is gone.”
Now, he said, “we listen to their excuses, finger-pointing, lies and all manner of chicanery.”
He admitted there is no legal authority in a vote of no confidence, but he argued it will “take back the power of discourse.”
“What else is our nation to do now that the ‘rule-of-law’ has effectively been thrown out the window by the Obama administration? How are we to trust our government anymore, now that lying and fraud are acceptable practices?” he asked.
Vallely believes impeachment likely wouldn’t lead to conviction and doesn’t solve the problem, anyway.
“Harry Reid still controls the Senate, so like in Clinton’s day, forget about a finding of guilty,” he wrote. “Incidentally, if Obama was found guilty and removed from office, Joe Biden would step in, Valerie Jarrett still wields all the power, and likely we get more of the same.”
The Constitution can be amended without going through Congress, he pointed out, but it would take too much time, “a luxury we just do not have it we are going to save our republic.”
Sign the petition urging Congress to pursue impeachment right away!
“That brings us to the other word no one wants to utter, revolution. In our opinion, this is the least palatable option. … Others talk about the military taking over as we saw in Egypt; again, we do not support this route,” he said.
Vallely listed a sampling of Obama’s broken promises and lies, crediting Peter Wehner at Commentary Magazine:
“It is time to recall the reprobates and reclaim the power of the people,” Vallely said. “We need to start with the White House and all of Obama’s appointees, especially Eric Holder. … Then on to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi – the architects who shoved Obamacare down our throats. We also cannot forget John Boehner and company who openly castigate the tea-party caucus which are only doing that which they campaigned upon.”
Vallely quoted commentator Andrew C. McCarthy, who said that “absent the political will to remove the president, he will remain president no matter how many high crimes and misdemeanors he stacks up. … and absent the removal of the president, the United States will be fundamentally transformed.”
Vallely noted that while the U.S. Constitution lacks a provision for a “recall” at the federal level, “there is nothing to prevent its use as a comprehensive de facto indictment and conviction for contempt of Congress, violations of oath of office and of the Constitution itself – for all the reasons stated in such a resolution.”
He warned of growing “tyrannical centralized rule” without action.
There may be advances in the 2014 elections, but will that be a solution?
“Obama is still the president, and his Cabinet and appointees still remain in power. … Obama will just continue to subvert the Constitution he took an oath to faithfully protect. His track record shows us that no matter what the make-up of Congress is, he will twist his way around it with a pen and secure even more power reminiscent of a dictator,” Vallely said.
“When that does not work, he will manipulate the courts and law enforcement will be run by fiat, choosing winners and losers.”
Congress already is addressing charges that Obama is violating the Constitution.
WND reported when Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said Obama’s actions have reached “an unprecedented level, and we’ve got to do something about it.
“Assume that a statute said you had to provide two forms of ID to vote. Can the president require three forms? Can the president require one form? Can you suspend all requirements? If not, why not?” he said. “If you can turn off certain categories of law, do you not also have the power to turn off all categories of law?”
Gowdy cited Obama’s decisions to ignore certain immigration laws, even though Congress did not approve the changes. He also cited arbitrary changes to the Obamacare law and Obama’s “recess appointments” of judges even though the U.S. Senate was not in recess.
His proposal is for Congress to take the White House to court over the president’s actions, through a resolution proposed by Rep. Tom Rice, R-Ga., that would authorize the House to sue the Obama administration. It has 30 co-sponsors.
Rice said that because of “this disregard of our country’s checks and balances, many of you have asked me to bring legal action against the president.”
“After carefully researching the standing the House of Representatives has and what action we can take, I have introduced a resolution to stop the president’s clear overreach,” he said.
A Fox News interviewer asked Gowdy if Obama could refuse to enforce election laws.
“Why not?” asked Gowdy, “If you can turn off immigration laws, if you can turn off the mandatory minimum in our drug statutes, if you can turn off the so-called Affordable Care Act – why not election laws?”
Gowdy noted that a liberal law professor, Jonathan Turley, agrees.
WND reported Turley’s concerns earlier this month.
Turley has represented members of Congress in a lawsuit over the Libyan war, represented workers at the secret Area 51 military base and served as counsel on national security cases. He now says Obama is a danger to the U.S. Constitution.
He was addressing a House Judiciary Committee hearing Dec. 4. Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., asked him: “Professor Turley, the Constitution, the system of separated powers is not simply about stopping one branch of government from usurping another. It’s about protecting the liberty of Americans from the dangers of concentrated government power. How does the president’s unilateral modification of act[s] of Congress affect both the balance of power between the political branches and the liberty interests of the American people?”
Turley replied: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The danger is quite severe. The problem with what the president is doing is that he’s not simply posing a danger to the constitutional system. He’s becoming the very danger the Constitution was designed to avoid. That is the concentration of power.”
Turley explained that the “Newtonian orbit that the three branches exist in is a delicate one but it is designed to prevent this type of concentration.”
“There are two trends going on which should be of equal concern to all members of Congress,” he said. “One is that we have had the radical expansion of presidential powers under both President Bush and President Obama. We have what many once called an imperial presidency model of largely unchecked authority. And with that trend we also have the continued rise of this fourth branch. We have agencies that are quite large that issue regulations. The Supreme Court said recently that agencies could actually define their own or interpret their own jurisdiction.”
Turley was appointed in 1998 to the prestigious Shapiro Chair for Public Interest at Georgetown. He has handled a wide range of precedent-setting and headline-making cases, including the successful defense of Petty Officer Daniel King, who faced the death penalty for alleged spying for Russia.
Turley also has served as the legal expert in the review of polygamy laws in the British Columbia Supreme Court. He’s been a consultant on homeland security, and his articles appear regularly in national publications such as the New York Times and USA Today.
WND reported that it was at the same hearing that Michael Cannon, director of Health Policy Studies for the Cato Institute, said there is “one last thing to which the people can resort if the government does not respect the restraints that the Constitution places of the government.”
“Abraham Lincoln talked about our right to alter our government or our revolutionary right to overthrow it,” he said.
“That is certainly something that no one wants to contemplate. If the people come to believe that the government is no longer constrained by the laws, then they will conclude that neither are they.”
Cannon said it is “very dangerous” for the president to “wantonly ignore the laws, to try to impose obligations upon people that the legislature did not approve.”
Several members of Congress also contributed their opinions in an interview with talk-show host Sean Hannity.
See the Hannity segment:
Vallely explained that a “no confidence” vote now “would also tell the world that we recognize the mess this administration has wrought upon the world and we do not support his actions. Despite what supporters of Obama say about our standing in the world, the world is laughing at us. We are not pleased!”
Without that action, he writes, “Obama will just continue to subvert the Constitution he took an oath to faithfully protect.”
Think the war on poverty is working? Think government is the solution to poverty in America? Think throwing more government money at poverty will make it go away? If you or anyone you know believes any of these things, just spend five minutes watching these videos to get a totally new perspective on poverty and how you can actually make a difference.Act on Poverty is a non profit organization that seeks to elevate the discussion surrounding poverty in America. They promote meaningful solutions through new ideas, resources and personal involvement. Watch as these young entrepreneurs change your views on poverty forever.
First watch as they totally demolish myths about solving poverty in only 2:26.
“If instead of having government programs for the poor we simply offered cash payments to the poor, we could lift all Americans out of poverty at a savings of over 2,000 per family” 0:35
Finally watch how you and your community can successfully fight poverty in America without relying on the federal government.
Join Act on Poverty’s fight at www.ActOnPoverty.org
Just in time for Christmas, President Obama signed an executive order on Monday giving a 1 percent pay raise for federal employees. The raise follows a four year hiatus from salary increases for federal workers, although most federal employees have apparently seen their pay increase via promotion or performance. The first increased paycheck will kick in on January 1.
President Obama’s reward to the federal workforce follows his longstanding belief that government work ought to be a first option for Americans. Nonetheless, Obama’s decision to raise federal pay only widens the income inequality gap between federal workers and private sector employees;
Furthermore, the gap between Washington, D.C. culture and the rest of the country is growing ever larger.
But Washington, D.C. remains completely dichotomous, with the percentage of residents living 50% below the poverty line increasing 1% during that period.
President Obama’s Christmas present to his federal friends will amount to nothing more than another lump of coal in the rest of America’s stocking.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013). He is also Editor-in-Chief of TruthRevolt.org. Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro.
“For many Americans opting out of Obamacare is the best decision they can make, but it’s important that they do it the right way—just refusing to buy health insurance and not having another way to pay for catastrophic medical expenses is a mistake,” Sean Parnell, author of the newly-released The Self-Pay Patient, told Breitbart News. “People who want to opt out should be looking at alternatives to conventional health insurance, such as joining a health care sharing ministry or purchasing a fixed benefits policy.”
Parnell also strongly advises Americans against opting out and simply paying the “list” price for medical visits and prescription drugs without shopping around, or by relying solely on the local hospital emergency room for routine medical care.
“This approach leaves people who opt out vulnerable to sky-high medical expenses at inflated ‘list’ or ‘chargemaster’ rates, and can result in an inability to obtain needed care because of cost,” Parnell writes on his blog, selfpaypatient.com.
Instead, Parnell recommends the following eight options for those who have opted out of ObamaCare:
1. Join a health care sharing ministry, which are voluntary, charitable membership organizations that share medical expenses among the membership.
Parnell states that Samaritan Ministries, Christian Healthcare Ministries, and Christian Care Ministry are open to practicing Christians, while Liberty HealthShare is open to those who are committed to religious liberty.
Healthcare sharing ministries “operate entirely outside of ObamaCare’s regulations, and typically offer benefits for about half the cost of similar health insurance,” says Parnell. “Members are also exempt from having to pay the tax for being uninsured.”
2. Purchase a short-term health insurance policy.
“These policies usually last between one and 11 months and are not regulated under ObamaCare, and, therefore, don’t offer the same high level of benefits that can drive up costs,” writes Parnell.
3. Buy alternative insurance plans such as fixed-benefit, critical illness, or accident insurance.
“These policies pay cash in the event you are diagnosed with cancer, spend a night in the hospital, or need some other medical treatment,” Parnell says. “They cost a fraction of what health insurance costs under ObamaCare, and by giving you cash directly you aren’t locked in to any particular provider network.”
Parnell also recommends maxing out medical and uninsured/underinsured driver coverage amounts under an auto insurance policy, which can help pay for medical bills in the event of injury in an auto accident.
Once major medical insurance is arranged, Parnell suggests shopping around for health care providers and services.
4. Visit cash-only doctors and retail health clinics for primary care. If you usually visit a doctor more than a couple times per year, consider joining a direct primary care practice which will give you access to nearly unlimited primary care for a modest monthly fee.
5. Sign up for a telemedicine service—lower-cost options in which doctors treat relatively simple medical issues via phone calls, email, or a video connection. Telemedicine especially works well, Parnell says, for common injuries, conditions, and illnesses.
6. Use generic prescription drugs whenever possible, and compare prices between pharmacies. Less expensive options are sometimes available at large chain pharmacies such as Walmart and CVS, and online sites such as GoodRx.com and WeRx.org allow patients to view the best deals on medications.
7. For surgery, Parnell recommends going to a facility that offers up-front “package” prices for self-pay patients, such as the Surgery Center of Oklahoma and Regency Healthcare, where prices are typically much less than what is charged at most hospitals. In addition, sites such as MediBid, where doctors bid on providing your surgery or treatment, will often yield substantially less expensive costs coupled with high quality medical care. Yet another option is to become a medical tourist.
8. When a hospital visit becomes necessary, Parnell suggests working with a medical bill negotiation service to get the best price available rather than accept the wildly inflated “chargemaster” prices, usually three to five times more than what insurers pay for the same service or treatment. Patients who wish to negotiate on their own will likely need to put in a significant amount of time and effort, but can use the Healthcare Blue Book or Pricing Healthcare as a starting point to help them find out what insurers are paying for medical services.
“Many Americans say they would prefer free market healthcare, and they don’t have to wait for Congress to repeal, replace, or reform Obamacare to have that,” Parnell told Breitbart News.
“Simply by opting out and doing things like visiting cash-only doctors, becoming a medical tourist, shopping around for the best prices on prescription drugs, and obtaining an alternative type of coverage they can enjoy all the benefits of free market healthcare today including access to affordable, quality care and getting government and insurance company bureaucrats out of the doctor-patient relationship.”
U.S. Africa Command said the Marines were deployed from Morón Air Base in Spain to the U.S. base in Djibouti, Camp Lemonnier, so they could better guard against potential threats to U.S. personnel and facilities in South Sudan.
“By positioning these forces forward, we are able to more quickly respond to crisis in the region, if required,” an AFRICOM spokesman said in a statement.“One of the lessons learned from the tragic events in Benghazi was that we needed to be better postured, in order to respond to developing or crisis situations, if needed. These precautionary movements will allow us to do just that.”
Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. planned to introduce an emergency Security Council resolution Monday afternoon that would allow the deployment of up to 5,000 additional international peacekeeping troops. Those tropes would primarily come from neighboring peacekeeping missions.
Spokespeople for the State Department and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power did not respond to request for comment.
AFRICOM said that Marine deployment to Djibouti was made with full knowledge and cooperation of the Djibouti government.
Roughly 380 Americans and 300 citizens from other countries were evacuated from Bor, South Sudan, on Sunday in an operation coordinated with the United Nations.
Four U.S. service members were injured in an attempted evacuation mission in Bor on Saturday when three U.S. V-22 Ospreys were fired on.
A senior administration official said the State Department was still trying to track down any remaining U.S. citizens in South Sudan, a number that was fluid.
The United Nations has asked for an increase of peacekeeping troops in South Sudan amid growing violence that the U.N. hopes will not escalate into a full civil war.
Donald Booth, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, met with South Sudan President Salva Kiir in the capital of Juba on Monday.
Booth told reporters that Kiir said he was ready to begin talks with rebel leader Riek Machar.
Machar told Reuters that he would be willing to sit down with Kiir if his political allies in detention were released.
This post updated at 6:09 p.m.
Could what is universally observed to be one of the more beautiful songs written in the last generation actually be made better? Yes, yes it can.
Check out this viral hit of Hallelujah with the lyrics changed to celebrate our Savior’s birth and all of the beauty that birth brought to us.
“A Hallelujah Christmas” by Cloverton from Ross Wooten on Vimeo.
Merry Christmas from all of us.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
The Real Christmas Story
All Scripture References are from the New International Version
John 1:1-3; 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
(After the fall of man); Gen 3:14-15; 14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Gen 49:10; The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. Num 24:17; “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth.
Isa 7:14; … the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. 9:6-7; 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this. Mic 5:2; “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Dan 9:25-26; 25 “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.
Luke 1:26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”
56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.
Matt 1:18-25; 18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”-which means, “God with us.”
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he had no union with her …..
Luke 2:1-20; 2:1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to his own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
John 3:16-21; 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”
John 1: 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. …. 9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.'” 16 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
Heb 2: 9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. 10 In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. …. 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil- 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (1 John 3:8b; The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.)
16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
1 Peter 1:19-21; 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
Rom 10:8-13; 9 …. if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile-the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
1 John 1; That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
1 John 2:1-2; My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense-Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 Tim 3:16: “…. He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.”
“‘Twas the Night Before Jesus Came”
Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house
not a creature was praying, not one in the house.
Their Bibles were laid on the shelf without care,
in hopes that Jesus would not come there.
The children were dressing to crawl into bed,
no one ever kneeling or bowing a head.
And mom in her rocker and baby in her lap,
were watching the late show while I took a nap.
When out of the East there rose such a clatter,
I sprang to my feet to see what was the mater.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
tore open the window and threw up the sash.
When what to me wondering eyes should appear,
but Angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.
With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray,
I knew in a moment this must be the day.
The light in His face made me cover my head,
it was Jesus returning just like He said.
And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth,
I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself.
In the Book of Life which He held in His hand,
was written the name of every saved man.
He spoke not a word as He searched for my name,
when He said, “It’s not here.” My head hung in shame.
The peoples whose names had been written with love,
He gathered to take to His Father above.
With those who were ready, He rose without a sound,
while the rest were left standing around.
I feel to my knees, but it was too late,
I waited too long and thus sealed my fate.
I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight,
Oh, if only I had been ready tonight.
In the words of this poem the meaning is clear,
the coming of Jesus is drawing near.
There’s only one life and when comes the last call,
we’ll find that the Bible was true after all.
Author Unknown
Name one government program that has ever collapsed because it cost too much. Naïve statements like this show out of touch some people are with how out of control the federal government is. Check it out:
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) had dire predictions for the existence of ObamaCare without fixes on CNN’s “State Of The Union”
So what is the anal jihadist to do?
This is what the Islamist murderers have come to. Someone recently discovered a video that was posted to YouTube last year where a distress fanatical Muslim who wanted to take part in jihad was wondering if his local cleric was taking things just a bit too far. See, his local religious leader was suggesting this young man allow another congregant sodomize him for a period of time so that the explosive device would fit more readily. This guy knew that the Koran did not look too keenly on sodomy, so he sought out a second opinion. Sadly for him, the second opinion was as bad as the first.
Following are excerpts from an address by London-based Shiite cleric Abdallah Al-Khilaf.
Abdallah Al-Khilaf: First, we’d like to show you a fatwa, which appeared on the Lions of Sunna Internet forum. One Wahhabi wrote: “Dear Sheik, may Allah grant you martyrdom and black-eyed virgins in Paradise, I wanted to commit a martyrdom operation. I turned to Sheik Abu Dimaa Al-Qassab, who told me that they had invented a new and unprecedented form of martyrdom operations – explosive capsules are inserted into your anus.
“In order to train for this method of Jihad, you must consent to being sodomized for a period of time, so that your anus becomes wider, making room for the explosives.
“My question is whether I am permitted to allow one of the mujahideen access to my anus, if my intentions are honorable, and the purpose is to train for Jihad by widening my anus.”
The sheik praised Allah and said: “In principle, sodomy is forbidden. However, Jihad is more important. It is the pinnacle of Islam. If sodomy is the only way to reach this pinnacle of Islam, then there is no harm in it.
“The rule is that necessity makes the forbidden permissible. Something that is required in order to perform a duty becomes a duty in and of itself. No duty takes precedence over Jihad.
“Therefore, you must be sodomized… After you have been sodomized, you must ask Allah for forgiveness.
I could just see this poor guy at home going, “Oh no. I was so sure he was going to say that sodomy was always bad. Now I have to let (name redacted for PC purposes) get in that uncomfortable place, and no I don’t mean the back seat of a Volkswagon.”
The fact that these monsters would take part in activity that their religion deems disgusting and worthy of death, just so they could more easily murder other people should tell you all you need to know about their twisted beliefs. At least we can take some solace in the fact that they are putting themselves through some pretty intense “training” as they try to kill us. It’s a bit of comfort, at least…
In a recent radio interview with on 1130 AM WEBY on December 20, 2013, former Black Panther Party member Larry Pinkney told Carl Gallups that he considers Barack Obama to be a fraud, but he didn’t stop at just using the term “fraud.”
Pinkney started his comments off by saying that he didn’t consider Barack Obama to be a president. “I consider him to be fraudulent; fraudulent in the sense that he pretends to be something he’s not.”
(The hear the interview, click on the image below)
The former Black Panther Party member went on to expound that he was “not talking about where he was born and all that nonsense.”
Pinkney then went on to describe what he meant be fraudulent. He told Gallups that Obama:
Pinkney said that “Barack Obama doesn’t even know the definition of truth. Barack Obama does not know what truth means.”
“Barack Obama only knows what Barack Obama means,” Pinkney added. “What that means to him is that any way and anything that he can bamboozle or hoodwink the people.”
Gallups said that he believes Obama has “some real, deep, psychological problems,” is a “narcissist to the nth degree,” and cannot tell the truth. He added that this includes all of the shrouding of who Obama is and nuances surrounding him, as well as the lies told about Benghazi and other scandals in his administration. Gallups continued further back pointing out the lies of his background and specifically pointed out that lies in his book “Dreams from my Father.”
During Gallups’ comments, Pinkney could be heard agreeing, “Right.”
Recent claims by Obama’s half-brother that Obama has been lying about his past were also brought up.
Pinkney said that wherever Obama was born, he was not born in the bosom of this people who struggle here. His point was to say that Obama had not grown up among blacks, does not know their struggles and instead led a privileged life.
A caller to the show asked Pinkney when he began to understand that this government was out to divide us as a people, not unite us.
Pinkney said that he began to realize it in the late 1990s, when he read his own FBI file. He said that in his FBI file it was listed that since he was working to unite blacks and whites, he needed to be “neutralized.” As the years have gone on, he says that he sees it increasing and claims this is the reason for bringing “this Obamatron” in.
“He does their job for them,” Pinkney said, referencing the puppet masters who pull Obama’s strings. “He represents them.”
Larry Pinkney has been speaking out against Obama for some time now. He has written numerous articles exposing Barack Obama. Why will people not listen?
Many thousands of years ago, Jews made an exodus out of Egypt into the Holy Land. Now it appears there is an exodus of Christians out of that land. As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ, it is of particular concern to me that Christians may one day no longer be able to celebrate His birth in His birthplace.As Prince Charles recently articulated, there is a purging of Christians in the Middle East. This segment from 60 Minutes attempted to blame the exodus of Christians from Bethlehem on Israeli “occupation.” I would humbly ask you to watch the segment, as former Israeli Ambassador to the United States, the Honorable Michael Oren, calls out reporter Bob Simon for trying to do a hatchet piece on Israel. I hold Ambassador Oren in high regard, and having had a few meetings with him can confirm he tells the truth like none other.
Angela and I traveled to the Holy Land of Israel back in August of 2011. We were part of a Congressional delegation and educational trip. We will never forget the day we were to visit Bethlehem when our Jewish tour guide and bus driver were ordered off the bus and replaced by an Arab driver — at least our tour guide was a Christian priest. We found out that Jews were not allowed into Bethlehem. How interesting — going to the place where Jesus Christ, a Jew, was born, and Jews were not allowed.
That was something 60 Minutes conveniently left out. And attempting to blame the Christian exodus on Israel is typical progressive socialist propaganda seeking to create a chasm between Jews and Christians — another Alinsky tactic of the liberal left.
The wall around Bethlehem was built because of Islamic Palestinian terrorism and is a matter of survival for the State of Israel. It is also clear to me that Muslim immigration into Bethlehem is driving Christians out. Given the evidence of what Muslims consider “coexistence,” I would rather have the Holy Lands under Israeli control.
So as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and honor our Judeo-Christian faith heritage — ask yourself, could there be a day in the near future when Christians will not live, nor be able to visit the beautiful place where Jesus was born?
Merry Christmas to my Christian brothers and sisters living in the Holy Land — I got your back!
A woman was out Christmas shopping with her two children. After many hours of looking at row after row of toys and everything else imaginable; and after hours of hearing both her children asking for everything they saw on those many shelves, she finally made it to the elevator with her two kids.
She was feeling what so many feel during the holiday season time of the year – overwhelming pressure to go to every party, every housewarming, taste all the holiday food and treats, getting that perfect gift for every single person on our shopping list, making sure we don’t forget anyone on our card list, and the pressure of making sure we respond to everyone who sent us a card.
Finally the elevator doors opened, and there was already a crowd in the car. She pushed her way into the car and dragged her two kids in with her and all the bags of stuff. When the doors closed, she couldn’t take it anymore and she stated, “Whoever started this whole Christmas thing should be found, strung up and shot.”
From the back of the car, everyone heard a quiet, calm voice respond, “Don’t worry, we already crucified Him.” For the rest of the trip down in the elevator, it was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.
This year, don’t forget to keep “the One who started this whole Christmas thing” in your every thought, deed and words. If we all do that, just think of how different our actions will be during THIS Christmas season.
So ask yourself what’s important, truly important, then find the true Peace of Christmas by sharing the reason for the true Joy of Christmas.
God bless you all!
Anyone who reads my books and my articles understands that I’m a very simple man. I look at something and just write down what I see. I don’t try to complicate it. I am amazed at how confused the Christian community is about homosexuality. So let’s break it down to its simplest essence. Homosexuality is a sin. Why do I say that? It’s not me saying it. It’s God. You remember Him? The guy who made all life, the one who keeps the world spinning, the one who came down to earth to die for our sins? Yeah. That guy.
Here’s what the Bible says about homosexuality:
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
(NIV, 1st Corinthians 6:9-11)
That seems clear to me. According to the Bible there won’t be any practicing homosexuals in heaven. There may be repentant homosexuals, those who have given up that lifestyle in order to pursue a relationship with God, but it is clear to me that Tom cannot be a Christian while he is boinking Fred’s brains out. In the Bible God says homosexuality is unnatural and an abomination. Those are mighty strong words. The point is this: sin separates us from God. In order for us to be pals with the Almighty, we have to get rid of that sin. We can’t do it on our own because we sin everyday. That’s why the Son of God (Jesus Christ) shed his blood in payment for all our sins.
But homosexuality is a special sin because it is also a lifestyle. It’s not like “Oops, in a weak moment I succumbed to the sexual advances of my secretary and I slept with her. Now I feel guilty and I won’t do it again.” It’s more like “Oops, I don’t give a damn what the Bible says about it. This is what I want. This is what I’m going to do. And I’ll do it as often as I want. And I will destroy anyone who opposes me.”
Let’s face it. Homosexuals have come a long way. Back in the sixties when I was a kid, people called homosexuals things like “fudge-packers”, “homos”, “queers” and “faggots”. Now everyone calls them “gay”. That’s a brilliant piece of public relations work. Take an abomination and re-label it into something happy. Not only that, but they’ve convinced Christians to use the word “gay” as well. After all, how can you oppose something that sounds so happy?
But here’s the rub, folks. God isn’t gay and he ain’t happy.
I can look at my dog all day long and say, “You are such a nice cat.” But that won’t change the fact that he’s a dog. But these days I see Christians, even pastors, looking at homosexuality and saying, “This is a good thing. The romantic love between a man and a man is a good thing and should be treated like any other.”
But isn’t it possible that God gave man a penis for a reason, that he gave woman a vagina for a reason? Is it just coincidence that the two fit perfectly and bring us so much joy? How is it that after decades of a massive PR campaign, social acceptance, and media fawning, less than two percent of the population are actually converted to homosexuality?
Why haven’t more of us embraced this lifestyle? Here’s an obvious thought: “Because it’s yucky and repulsive.”
After reading one of my books, a homosexual called me up to scold me on the negative way I portrayed homosexuality. In a fit of rage, he said, “Just admit it, you’ll just never get past the mechanics of what we do to each other!”
I admit it. A man putting his penis inside another man’s rectum makes me want to vomit, and I’ll never get past it.
So why do they have to destroy any and all opposition to their lifestyle? It’s because they are defending a fragile fortress with walls of glass. This is so simple even a boy with a slingshot could bring the whole thing down. Therefore, the only way homosexuals can defend this indefensible position is to attack so ferociously that no one dares to come against them.
So how should Christians treat homosexuals? That’s easy. The same way Jesus would. Be their friends. Love them. Yes, it’s true that the homosexual act is a wicked sin. But then again, so is greed, adultery, and drunkenness.
Isn’t it ironic that the only way to defeat homosexuality is to love homosexuals?
For some of us that means we have to get past the “yuck” factor. It’s okay to hug a homosexual. You won’t catch anything. But it’s also good to shine the light of Truth on homosexuality. Jesus accepted and loved the adulteress, but he also told her to go and sin no more. You can love someone and still speak out against their lifestyle.
Image: Courtesy of: http://satisfyingretirement.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html
So A&E decided that Phil Robertson’s speaking the truth about sin wasn’t for them. Some have cheered it and others have jeered it (as have I). And while the incident alone might not seem like a big deal, in the bigger picture it is a fitting event that demonstrates how the nation has become the United States of Sodom.
Some have sneered at the outrage over the A&E reaction to Robertson. “Don’t strict Constitutionalists understand the First Amendment allows A&E to fire its employees?” they have asked. Of course we do. We also understand that the First Amendment allows us to jeer A&E and their idiot supporters.
At the same time, does anyone really think that society would tolerate an employer firing a sin-supporting employee? Of course it wouldn’t. In fact, society flat-out hates Christianity.
A judge recently ruled that a Christian baker must do business with sodomites who wish to pretend to marry. This Christian baker could go to jail if he refuses.
In other words, an employer can fire an employee for his Christian beliefs but a Christian business owner isn’t allowed to choose with whom he wishes to conduct business.
The one-way application of the First Amendment doesn’t stop here.
The federal government is so obsessed with promoting sin that it forced the armed forces to accept those who engage in sodomy. The Obama regime gleefully did this and it even is reinstating / re-accessing those who were discharged for breaking the former law . . . all the while it cuts law-abiding troops in order to shrink the overall size of the armed forces.
And the government wants to go further than this. It wants to make it illegal for anyone in the private sector to oppose Big Sodomy. Barack Obama wrote a piece for The Huffington Post in November insisting that, “Congress Needs to Pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.” Rabbi Aryeh Spero at CNSNews.com (“Senate Gay Rights Legislation is Bad Law,” December 20) explains just what this Orwellian-sounding legislation would do if it becomes law:
With the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), the heavy hand of government would come down on those small business owners. Government lawyers would give them the following choice: Surrender your beliefs or we will sue you into financial oblivion. The courts have done this, and worse. In Denver last week, a Colorado judge ordered the baker to pay a fine, each time, or go to jail; and in New Mexico, a judge, back in August, ordered similar for the photographer. (Reminds one how Pharaoh jailed the baker and bartender).
We have seen this strong arm tactic countless times before. In the name of someone demanding what he labels his civil rights, others are forced to give up their fundamental rights and, worse, forced to actively do what they cannot in good conscience do. Many of the cases government or trial-lawyers deliberately pursue in the name of civil rights are but concocted and imagined rights, while the fundamental right of religious liberty or the right of conscience against government coercion is ignored. Basic and fundamental Constitutional rights, indeed actual First Amendment pillars, are assigned irrelevant status by liberal activists when pitched against the zeal of certain groups wishing to impose their will over others.
Pennsylvania is one of the latest battlegrounds for the sin lobby at the state level. Republican Governor Tom Corbett announced that he wants to make it illegal for employers to fire anyone who pretends to be of the opposite sex. And Pennsylvania State Senator Daylin Leach is proposing legislation that would make it illegal for religious schools to fire people who are utterly anti-Christian. Pennsylvania also is the focus of media attention because the media wants to make a martyr out of defrocked United Methodist pastor Frank Schaeffer. Schaeffer believes he has the right to rewrite UMC rules and God’s law so that sodomy is righteous.
But perhaps the best way to illustrate how far the nation has fallen into evil is to think of all that the everyday American accepts with barely a shrug of his shoulders even as the rulers of society swiftly meted out punishment on Phil Robertson for supporting Christianity.
Barack Obama’s regime supports al-Qaeda and its affiliates in Syria, secretly negotiates with Hezbollah, continues negotiating with the Taliban for U.S. surrender in Afghanistan, continues jihading throughout the rest of the world, actively works with Mexican drug cartels in human trafficking, threatens international relations with the promotion of sodomy throughout the world, normalizes sexual immorality in the United States, sanctifies abortion, advances Marxism, and commits other unspeakable acts of evil.
America has completed its transformation into a God-hating nation. We are now the United States of Sodom.
Image: Courtesy of: http://cnx.org/content/m42945/latest/?collection=col11407/latest
Paul Hair honorably served in the U.S. Army Reserve as a non-commissioned officer; he is veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has worked as a civilian in both the government and private sectors. His writings have appeared at various websites. Paul now runs The Security and Culture Intelligencer website (http://scintelligencer.blogspot.com/) and is an independent consultant for Wikistrat, a strategic analysis and forecasting network. Connect with him at the S&CI website and on Twitter at @PaulHair1.
In what has to be one of the cruelest Christmas season gestures that America’s veteran families could ever expect, U.S. Senate Democrats traded veterans service for illegal immigrant payday. This is exactly what Democrats did when they sided with giving Illegal aliens continued access to welfare payments over giving veterans cost of living benefits to the tune of $6.2 billion dollars.
This was done over the clear protests of many veteran groups as well as Republican Senators like Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions who strongly objected to the immoral veteran benefits cuts, according to Fox News. The fact that this so-called budget remedy was even suggested in the joint agreement arrived at by Congressman Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, defies commonsense.
How could either of the two legislative leaders even come to the conclusion that veteran benefits, especially those of wounded and disabled veterans, should even be on the table for negotiation is more than an oversight. According to Fox News, Sessions was disappointed and wanted a “legislative fix,” that would have provided a more balanced approach to the alleged budget deal.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid ignored the repair to the affront to America’s veterans and continued to allow the provision of improper and illegal tax credits to go to illegal aliens. The fact that these criminals on U.S. soil are receiving, according to the Internal Revenue Service watchdog, an estimated $4.2 billion annually in refundable credits, or $40 billion plus over a ten year period, is itself criminal.
To add insult to injury, the veterans who have returned back home after service have seen the Obama administration Veteran’s Affairs Department substantially increase their waiting time to receive the benefits returning veterans are legally entitled to. According to the Center for Investigative Reporting, veterans have seen the wait time for justified benefits balloon to 273 days, and even as long as 327 days.
It gets dramatically worse. For, American veterans who had to wait to receive benefits for longer than a year, have seen their ranks swell from 11,000 in Obama’s first year as president in 2009 to 245,000 in December of 2012, suggests the Center for Investigative Reporting.
So where is the hue and cry for the nation’s heroes that placed their lives on the line to protect the lives and freedoms of Americans? Certainly there is no hue and cry coming from the White House. Instead there have been complaints by Obama about how unfair it has been to allow illegal aliens to have to be subjected to America’s laws about being a citizen before they can take advantage of college education, welfare benefits, voting, driver’s licenses, etc. ; privileges Americans have and enjoy.
So this Christmas season there is no feel good spirit in the homes of millions of American veterans that have yet again seen their sacrifice and service reduced to insulting and compassionless treatment by senate Democrats and a president who sees nothing wrong in shafting heroes at home or leaving them defenseless on the field of battle abroad or in Benghazi.
Some Merry Christmas, indeed!
Image: Courtesy of: http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2012/05/mia-us-army-capt-charles-barnes-will-be.html
It is amazing that Leftist hero and Obama buddy Louis Farrakhan can talk about beheading and stoning gays to death and you won’t hear a word from the media.
The silence is telling and very predictable.
On Thursday, a town hall meeting hosted by Al Sharpton and the National Action Network to address gun violence exploded into a revolt against “Chicago Machine” politics, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and the aldermen in City Hall, with panel and audience members calling to vote out their elected officials.
One 82-year-old preacher even called for “Tea Party” style meetings in some of Chicago’s south side communities such as Altgeld Gardens and Trumbull Park.
“This was a historic event,” Paul McKinley of V.O.T.E. (Voices of the Ex-Offender) and former 2nd Congressional District GOP nominee to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr. told Breitbart News. “Not because of Al Sharpton coming to town,” he continued. “This was first time since electing Mayor Harold Washington in the eighties that all of these grassroots groups and community organizers have come together under one roof to talk about the problems plaguing our community.”
While the stated goal for Sharpton was to bring the many different groups together to discuss solutions to the city’s violence epidemic, he may not have gotten the types of responses he was looking for. Calls for more gun control laws and getting guns off the streets were nonexistent and not mentioned by residents throughout the session.
Instead, attendees offered solutions addressing the problems facing their community as a whole rather than just taking on “gun violence” itself. Audience members addressed the need for jobs and solving the foreclosure crisis plaguing Chicago’s south and west sides. Perhaps the loudest message—and one that Reverend Al or the Chicago media have yet to report on—echoed by several different people in attendance as well as panel members was that it is time for the black community to start voting differently.
“The manner in which we have been voting needs to change,” Wendy Pearson, an activist against Chicago school closings, told the room. “I’m here to say to you that we have been trained to vote in a specific manner… we need to start looking at the manner in which our elected officials have been voting… if they have not voted in a manner that is beneficial to you, yours, and your community, then you need to start voting them out.”
McKinley told the room, “Stop blaming just anybody for the violence in the city of Chicago. Blame the right people, not just white people, but the right people. Because it’s not just white folks a part of this, but it is on the fifth floor. The fifth floor took your schools, the fifth floor just took your jobs that he said that he gave to the ex-offender… and every single alderman was a part of this criminal process.”
McKinley called on President Obama to help the grassroots by discontinuing aid and government grants that go through Chicago’s political machine to “name-brand-blue-ribbon-negro-organizations” such as the NAACP and Urban League. McKinley told Breitbart News those groups “are poverty pimps, and are part of the problem and not the solution.”
Honest. Straight forward, unfiltered view of the Robertson family. It takes some time to view, but I know you will enjoy this. JB
By Julia Marsh
December 18, 2013 | 5:44pm
A married, heterosexual gym teacher at a tony Upper West Side private school was fired because his lesbian supervisor disapproved of his “traditional family status,” the canned teacher claims in a new Manhattan lawsuit.
Gregory Kenney, 50, taught gym at the Trinity School on W. 91st St. for 16 years before he was let go in June 2012.
Kenney, who lives with his wife and three young children in LI, says he was a well-liked employee at the elite institution that counts Truman Capote, Ivanka Trump and Eric Schneiderman as alumni, until a gay athletic director named Pat Krieger took over in 2009.
Krieger allegedly forced him to coach three sports, even though his contract only required him to join two teams, according to his reverse discrimination suit.
When he complained that the extra responsibilities interfered with his family obligations Krieger allegedly told him, “We all make choices,” the suit says.
After Kenney told Krieger that he couldn’t keep working nights and weekends, she reported him to the headmaster “while a single, female teacher faced no scrutiny when she refused to coach a third season.”
Kenney claims the allegedly biased athletic director “routinely favored other single, younger females without children and discriminated against [him] because of his gender, sexual orientation, ‘traditional family status,’ and age.”
“He felt ostracized because of his family,” Kenney’s attorney, Steven Morelli told The Post in an interview.
“He had been doing this for so many years and he certainly did the job well or they would have gotten rid of him a long time ago,” Morelli added.
Kenney coached soccer, basketball and golf at Trinity, where tuition costs as much as $41,370 a year.
“On at least one occasion Kenney was dissuaded from attending social events with his peers because he was a heterosexual, married male with children, who wouldn’t fit in with [Krieger’s] ‘culture.’”
He says three other married coaches with young children were also sacked. Kenney was replaced by a gay female, according to court papers.
Kenney, who has 7-year-old twins and a 9-year-old, is still looking for a new job.
He’s seeking unspecified damages in the suit.
A spokesman for Trinity did not immediately comment.
I was going to say there are no words… but three come to mine… We’re so screwed…
(Photo:Facebook/Saddleback Church)
Star of ‘Duck Dynasty’ Phil Robertson preaching at Saddleback Church in California on July 21, 2013.
On their website the family thanked fans – thousands of whom on Thursday took to social media and online petitions to decry the suspension – for their “prayer and support” and reiterated a strong commitment to their Christian faith.
“We want you to know that first and foremost we are a family rooted in our faith in God and our belief that the Bible is His word,” read the statement.
While the family acknowledged that Phil’s comments were “unfiltered” and “coarse,” it defended them as “grounded in the teachings of the Bible.”
When asked to define what was sinful, Robertson said it started “with homosexual behavior and just [morphed] out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men.”
“Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers – they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right,” he added.
The Robertson family’s statement also defended Phil as a strong Christian and said he “is a Godly man who follows what the Bible says are the greatest commandments ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’.”
The Robertsons also hinted that the future of the show – with a fifth season set to premiere in January 2014 –could be in jeopardy if A&E goes through with its indefinite suspension.
“We have had a successful working relationship with A&E but as a family, we cannot imagine the show going forward without our patriarch at the helm. We are in discussions with A&E to see what this means for the future of Duck Dynasty,” it said.
“Phil would never incite or encourage hate. We are disappointed that Phil has been placed on hiatus for expressing his faith, which is his constitutionally protected right.”
The Robertson Family’s statement can be read in full below:
We want to thank all of you for your prayers and support. The family has spent much time in prayer since learning of A&E’s decision. We want you to know that first and foremost we are a family rooted in our faith in God and our belief that the Bible is His word. While some of Phil’s unfiltered comments to the reporter were coarse, his beliefs are grounded in the teachings of the Bible. Phil is a Godly man who follows what the Bible says are the greatest commandments: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Phil would never incite or encourage hate.We are disappointed that Phil has been placed on hiatus for expressing his faith, which is his constitutionally protected right.We have had a successful working relationship with A&E but, as a family, we cannot imagine the show going forward without our patriarch at the helm. We are in discussions with A&E to see what that means for the future of Duck Dynasty. Again, thank you for your continued support of our family.
Communism is generally understood, at the very least, to be a system of economics in which government controls all aspects of a societies production. This is purported to ensure equality and fairness among the masses. Communist regimes have historically claimed that a utopian, egalitarian paradise awaited the masses that would simply surrender their rights and let government have the necessary power. Others believe communism to be a system of absolute atheism, where the belief in a God other than the state was absolutely forbidden as people who worshipped a God would not offer total subservience to the governing powers. While these descriptions may give someone a basic understanding of what communism is, they are not totally accurate. Communism was actually created for the very purpose of destroying religion and being the anti thesis to western capitalism. Communism itself is a Hegelian dialectic created to cause conflict between two world views, religion and anti religion, which would eventually see the rise of what many people recognize as the New World Order.
In order to gain a better understanding we have to look at Karl Marx, the man who was understood to be the founder of socialism/communism. Though there is reason to believe that Marx was simply financed by others to create this system, it is generally understood that he was an atheist and his lack of religion is what motivated him to create what has become known as the most oppressive governing system known to man. Karl Marx was not an atheist; he was at one point in his life a devout Christian whose knowledge of scripture and Biblical principles were well rounded. In fact the following quote was written by Marx when he was young. “Union with Christ could give an inner elevation, comfort in sorrow, calm trust, and a heart susceptible to human love, to everything noble and great, not for the sake of ambition and glory, but only for the sake of Christ”. http://www.cuttingedge.org/pages/seminar2/MARXPASS.htm
This certainly doesn’t sound like the ramblings of someone who hated or didn’t believe in God. The truth is, at some point in the life of Karl Marx, he became very angry and turned on God. Karl Marx became a Satanist. Why this happened remains unknown but the later of writings of Marx confirmed that he had indeed turned his back on God and became one with God’s adversary. The following quote illustrates this. “…Yet I have power within my youthful arms
To clench and crush you (i.e., personified humanity)
with tempestuous force,
While for us both the abyss yawns in darkness.
You will sink down and I shall follow laughing,
Whispering in your ears ‘Descend,
come with me, friend’”.
For some reason, that again remains unknown, Karl Marx became a man filled with hatred towards God and this is what motivated him to create communism. Though as stated above there is reason to believe that others from a group commonly known as the Illuminati actually paid Marx to create it. Take this quote for example from cuttingedge.org. “We know that, in 1848, a highly select body of secret initiates who called themselves the League of Twelve Just Men of the Illuminati, financed Karl Marx to write the Communist Manifesto.”
This puts our understanding of communism into a different perspective, doesn’t it?
The essential understanding that should be taken from this is that communism wasn’t created as an economic system to create total equality; it was created as a system of governance to be run by Satan in an effort to destroy humanity and mans divine connection to God. That is why it was created as an “Anti-Thesis” to western capitalism. The ideas behind capitalism, liberty, the free market and every other value that made America great all revolve around one spiritual absolute, and that is that man was created with free will. What does socialism and communism always do? They create populations of non thinking people who become totally helpless and dependent on government. Would this happen if they retained their belief in God and operated from the notion they were born with free will? This is why communism seeks to destroy religion, or as Marx described it in The Communist Manifesto “Destroy God in the minds of men.” The purpose wasn’t to create a system full of atheists but to create the conditions that would enable the creation of Satan’s new order. Creating atheism was but a means to an end in the quest to defeat God.
To further illustrate this let’s examine our current presidents continuous assault upon the economy that does little but destroy opportunity, and create dependence. The economy has become so bad we have more people living on welfare than working. This does nothing but enslaves, and destroys an individual’s initiative. Soon, people forget how to care for themselves and they will forego their principles and vote for whomever guarantees to maintain their lifestyle of dependence. By removing opportunities to live self sufficient lives, the Marxists create a system of slavery and convince everyone that it was done in the name of fairness. It’s the same story every time. The question is; can Marxism prevail in the Land of the free? Or, do we still have the moral, intestinal fortitude to stop it?
Like the Warren Commission report on the JFK assassination, the 9/11 Report assembled by a Congressional investigation is unraveling and being revealed for what it really is – nothing more than a cover story.
This is no longer a conspiracy theory… it’s conspiracy fact.
After the 9/11 attacks, the public was told al Qaeda acted alone, with no state sponsors.
But the White House never let it see an entire section of Congress’ investigative report on 9/11 dealing with “specific sources of foreign support” for the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi nationals.
It was kept secret and remains so today.
President Bush inexplicably censored 28 full pages of the 800-page report. Text isn’t just blacked-out here and there in this critical-yet-missing middle section. The pages are completely blank, except for dotted lines where an estimated 7,200 words once stoodA pair of lawmakers who recently read the redacted portion say they are “absolutely shocked” at the level of foreign state involvement in the attacks.
…
Some information already has leaked from the classified section, which is based on both CIA and FBI documents, and it points back to Saudi Arabia, a presumed ally.
The Saudis deny any role in 9/11, but the CIA in one memo reportedly found “incontrovertible evidence” that Saudi government officials — not just wealthy Saudi hardliners, but high-level diplomats and intelligence officers employed by the kingdom — helped the hijackers both financially and logistically. The intelligence files cited in the report directly implicate the Saudi embassy in Washington and consulate in Los Angeles in the attacks, making 9/11 not just an act of terrorism, but an act of war.
The New York Post investigation reveals that Saudi agents, officials and operatives in Virginia, Florida, California and D.C. provided direct support by way funding or intelligence to those involved in bringing down the towers.
Karl Denninger at the Market Ticker succinctly argues that this was, in fact, an act of war:
It’s obvious given what happened, the logistical and funding requirements and where the hijackers came from along with inexplicable actions immediately following the attacks – unless our government explicitly let certain people flee.
Yet we went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan while helping the Saudis — the very people who attacked us.
And Obama, to this day, kisses the Saudi King.
Over three thousands Americans are dead – yet President Obama bows to Saudi King Abdullah, whose government had direct ties to 9/11 hijackers:
It makes a very convincing case that the Saudi Government was involved in an act of war against the United States. Not simply terrorism — remember, the Pentagon, a military target, was one of the locations hit. The other intended target for the plane that went down in PA was the Capitol.
You awake yet America?
You damn well should be.
It’s about damn time that the mainstream media started talking about this — you’re only a decade late, *******s. And no, people like myself who have been saying this all along are not nuts.
We’re right.
In addition to this startling, yet unsurprising, revelation is even more evidence that those within the Saudi government knew what was coming. Somebody made a ton of money shorting airline stocks by positioning themselves for stock prices to crash in the aftermath of 9/11 and according to Infowars, that may well have been the Chief of Saudi Intelligence and other government officials. Moreover, after all flights within the continental United States were grounded there was one – just one – airplane that was allowed to fly over U.S. soil to, you guessed it, Saudi Arabia. On board that plane were – and this has been confirmed by an official Freedom of Information request – the members of Osama Bin Laden’s extended family.
And these are but a few of the hundreds of inconsistencies surrounding the September 11th, 2001 attacks.
As it turns out, the “conspiracy theorists” are the ones who accurately detailed the series of events and those involved in the attacks. The “official story” itself, it seems, is the “conspiracy theory.”
They’ve spent hundreds of billions of dollars on securing the United States and preventing another act of terror on U.S. soil. They’ve turned their massive surveillance infrastructure inwards on the American people under the pretext of preserving our safety. They’ve identified hundreds of thousands of Americans and included them on watch lists that restrict their travel or flag them as potential threats to national security.
Yet the real threat, the one that has been validated by scores of reports and investigations, is being redacted and ignored by our government.
We know that there is more to 9/11 than the official story.
It doesn’t just involve the Saudis. America’s air defense, for example, were seemingly disarmed minutes before the attack occurred. Moreover, intelligence agents from Israel were reportedly spotted in New York on the day of, arrested by NYPD, and then released under suspicious circumstances.
All of this is highly suspect, especially that a mainstream news source like the New York Post would start releasing these details to the general public. As with 9/11, most people couldn’t make sense of it or why. A decade on we have a better perspective because we’ve seen the implementation of initiatives all across America as a result of what happened that day.
Call it a conspiracy, call it whatever you like, but look around.
If they lied – yes, lied – about the assassination of a President of the United States, or about Benghazi, or Fast and Furious, or the benefits of new health care laws, then what else are they hiding from us?
How much do you trust your government?
How much do you trust the official narrative peddled by the establishment?
How much do you trust that the powers that be have our best interests at heart?
If al Qaeda had support from foreign governments during 9/11, should the public know about it? Many Americans are demanding it, especially those who lost loved ones. Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) and Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) said they were “absolutely shocked” at the level of foreign state involvement in the attacks after reading the classified section of the 9/11 report.
Rep. Jones and Rep Lynch introduced H. Res. 428 this month that asks President Obama to declassify the entire 2002 report, “Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.”
Piers Morgan from CNN asked Rep. Lynch about his resolution in the video below.
The New York Post published an article this week stating that some information from this report already has leaked from the classified section, which is based on both CIA and FBI documents, and points back to Saudi Arabia, a presumed ally.
Paul Sperry states, “The Saudis deny any role in 9/11, but the CIA in one memo reportedly found “incontrovertible evidence” that Saudi government officials — not just wealthy Saudi hardliners, but high-level diplomats and intelligence officers employed by the kingdom — helped the hijackers both financially and logistically. The intelligence files cited in the report directly implicate the Saudi embassy in Washington and consulate in Los Angeles in the attacks, making 9/11 not just an act of terrorism, but an act of war.”
Currently the resolution to declassify the 28 pages of the report was referred to the House Committee on Intelligence on Dec. 2nd, but will it gain support from other members in the House?
I asked Congressman Jeff Duncan (R-SC): “Will you support H. Res. 428 that declassifies the 28 pages in the 9/11 report?”
“There are a lot of classified documents in our government regarding war and those things should remain classified” said Duncan.
Many Americans, however, want to know what the government knows regarding 9/11. One mother on Facebook writes, “I’ve been fighting for 12 years to get these pages and both Congressman have told us they were “just shocked” to see what was in those pages. I want to see those pages. My son was murdered and I want to know what happened and what the government knows.”
Joan, one of the members of the 9/11 families told me, “We need these 28 pages to help us pass Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (S. 1535), which was introduced in the Senate on Sep 19, 2013. We believe these 28 pages will say what we have been saying all along.”
“9/11 families are not going away no matter what Congress thinks or what people think. My son’s death certificate says homicide on it, they all do. This was definitely funded. These hijackers were sponsored,” said Joan.
“My son was a fireman who died in the towers. He was only 32 years old and my only son. He left behind a 2 year old daughter and a 21 day old son. And I miss him every day. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss him. Not an hour goes by that I don’t think about him.”
Rep. Jones states, “Twelve years after the United States suffered a horrendous attack on our own soil, the families of the victims deserve to know all the facts concerning that tragic day,” said Congressman Jones. “Furthermore, the information contained in the redacted pages is critical to our foreign policy moving forward and should thus be available to the American public. If the 9/11 hijackers had outside help – particularly from one or more foreign governments – the press and the public have a right to know what our government has or has not done to bring justice to all of the perpetrators.”
Editor’s Note: It seems that many of the congressmen are just coming around to what many of us have said all along about 9/11. While it’s been over a decade in waiting, welcome aboard.
Published December 18, 2013
FoxNews.com
Kardashians who? The Robertsons are America’s new favorite TV family. Let’s take a look at some of the moments that made them so easy to love.
By this time you have heard of the story that broke yesterday regarding Phil Robertson and his interview with CQ (printed in full at the end). The following is from FOX NEWS who broke the original story yesterday, December 18. As you read the article you will see my commentary. I have wanted to write these things for a long time, and this controversy has given me the opportunity to express those thoughts.
I am a Bible Student. I proudly proclaim that I have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and am filled with His Spirit. My stinking thinking is in the process of being renewed to His thinking day by day. I testify to that so you know where my perspective comes from.- JB
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“Duck Dynasty” dad Phil Robertson responded to his critics, who have been slamming the A&E star for very graphic statements he made about his preference for heterosexual sex over homosexual sex.
“I myself am a product of the 60s; I centered my life around sex, drugs and rock and roll until I hit rock bottom and accepted Jesus as my Savior,” he said in a statement sent to FOX411. “My mission today is to go forth and tell people about why I follow Christ and also what the bible teaches, and part of that teaching is that women and men are meant to be together. However, I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all created by the Almighty and like Him, I love all of humanity. We would all be better off if we loved God and loved each other.”
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The Liberal Left brag about being tolerant whole preaching that Conservatives, Republicans, Tea Party members, committed Christian people and anyone else who disagrees with their theology, political perspectives, and sociological engineered religious beliefs, ARE NOT TOLERANT. Thus, they are 100% INTOLERANT of anything we say, do, practice, believe or breath.
As a result whenever anyone not following along in lockstep are demonized by not speaking what the “STATE” dictated. Jesus explained their conduct recorded in the Bible, the Book of John, Chapter 3 starting at verse 19; “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” (NIV)
Because of their love of the darkness they lack the ability to listen to the truth. Yet, we are taught in the Book of Romans Chapter One, starting at verse 18 we read; “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.’
21 “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.’
24 “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen.’
26 “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.’
28 “Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.’ (NIV)
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Meanwhile, A&E has remained mum on Robertson’s controversial comments, and the network did not respond to FOX411’s inquiries about whether or not his comments could impact the future of the series.
In a wide-ranging interview with GQ, Robertson didn’t hold back when sharing his thoughts about homosexuality and sinning. “Everything is blurred on what’s right and what’s wrong… Sin becomes fine,” he said. “Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men.”
Paraphrasing Corinthians he added: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”
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That is a correct quote and theologically sound. As already stated, because of the “Darkness” Crowds embrace of the darkness, this ray of truth hurts. It reminds them of what they really already know.
That brings us to the real truth here. The “Darkness” Crowd rage whenever they are reminded of their Stinking Thinking. Such truth hurts the consciousness because it reminds them of God’s righteousness and the result of denying that truth produces. Eternal Death.
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The gay and lesbian rights group GLAAD was quick to criticize Robertson for his comments and they called on A&E to take action.
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Do I really need to comment here? As stated above, the “Darkness“ crowd cries foul every time someone insults one of their false gods by expressing the truth. The “Darkness” Crowd never wants any truth spoken in public. They will not be satisfied until we all are kept under locked structures only able to communicate with one another. Their translation of “Free Speech” is mindlessly quoting the mantra of the Religion of Darkness written by the Liberal Left, with influences of the Socialist Marxist.
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“Phil and his family claim to be Christian, but Phil’s lies about an entire community fly in the face of what true Christians believe,” said GLAAD rep Wilson Cruz. “He clearly knows nothing about gay people or the majority of Louisianans – and Americans – who support legal recognition for loving and committed gay and lesbian couples. Phil’s decision to push vile and extreme stereotypes is a stain on A&E and his sponsors who now need to reexamine their ties to someone with such public disdain for LGBT people and families.”
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Robertson also told GQ his family has lost their privacy since they were thrust into the limelight as the stars of the hit show, but it was well worth it because the series has given him a platform to spread his religious beliefs.
“For the sake of the Gospel, it was worth it… All you have to do is look at any society where there is no Jesus. I’ll give you four: Nazis, no Jesus. Look at their record. Uh, Shintos? They started this thing in Pearl Harbor. Any Jesus among them? None. Communists? None. Islamists? Zero. That’s 80 years of ideologies that have popped up where no Jesus was allowed among those four groups. Just look at the records as far as murder goes among those four groups.”
Still, he doesn’t expect his fame to last forever. “Let’s face it, three, four, five years, we’re out of here. You know what I’m saying? It’s a TV show. This thing ain’t gonna last forever. No way.” And he may be right. Back in 2007, A&E halted production “Dog the Bounty Hunter” when it was revealed that Duane Chapman had used racial slurs. The series returned after several months but was later canceled.
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No matter the laws the “Darkness” Crowd tries to pass to silence the truth, the truth will go marching on.
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http://www.gq.com/entertainment/television/201401/duck-dynasty-phil-robertson#ixzz2nxhUv3pA
By Drew Magary
Photograph by Jeff Riedel
January 2014
Let’s start with the crossbow, because the crossbow is huge. I’m sitting in the passenger seat of a camo-painted ATV, rumbling through the northern Louisiana backwoods with Phil Robertson, founder of the Duck Commander company, patriarch at the heart of A&E’s smash reality hit Duck Dynasty, and my tour guide for the afternoon. There are seat belts in this ATV, but it doesn’t look like they’ve ever been used. Phil is not wearing one. I am not wearing one, because I don’t want Phil to think I’m a pussy. (Too late!) The crossbow—a Barnett model equipped with a steel-tipped four-blade broadhead arrow—is perched on the dash between us. It looks like you could shoot through a goddamn mountain with it.
“That’ll bury up in you and kill you dead,” Phil says.
The bow is cocked and loaded, just in case a deer stumbles in front of us and we need to do a redneck drive-by on the poor bastard, but the safety is on. SAFETY FIRST. Still, Phil warns me, “You don’t want to be bumping that.”
As we drive out into the woods, past a sign that reads parish maintenance ends, Phil is telling me all about the land around us and how the animals are a glorious gift from God and how blowing their heads off is part of His plan for us.
“Look at this,” he says, gesturing to the surrounding wilderness. “The Almighty gave us this. Genesis 9 is where the animals went wild, and God gave them wildness. After the flood, that’s when he made animals wild. Up until that time, everybody was vegetarian. After the flood, he said, ‘I’m giving you everything now. Animals are wild.’”
There’s a fly parked on Phil’s long beard. It’s been there the whole ride, and I desperately want to pluck it out, but I decide against it. Along with the crossbow, there’s a loaded .22-caliber rifle rattling around in the footwell. And yet, much like the 14 million Americans who Nielsen says tune in to Duck Dynasty every week—over 2 million more than the audience for the Breaking Bad finale—I am comfortable here in these woods with Phil and his small cache of deadly weaponry. He is welcoming and gracious. He is a man who preaches the gospel of the outdoors and, to my great envy, practices what he preaches. He spends most of his time out here, daydreaming about what he calls a “pristine earth”: a world where nothing gets in the way of nature or the hunters who lovingly maintain it. No cities. No buildings. No highways.
Oh, and no sinners, too. So here’s where things get a bit uncomfortable. Phil calls himself a Bible-thumper, and holy shit, he thumps that Bible hard enough to ring the bell at a county-fair test of strength. If you watch Duck Dynasty, you can hear plenty of it in the nondenominational supper-table prayer the family recites at the end of every episode, and in the show’s no-cussing, no-blaspheming tone. But there are more things Phil would like to say—“controversial” things, as he puts it to me—that don’t make the cut. (This March, for instance, he told the Christian-oriented Sports Spectrum magazine that he didn’t approve of A&E editing out “in Jesus” from a family prayer scene, even though A&E says that the phrase has been uttered in at least seventeen episodes.)
Out here in these woods, without any cameras around, Phil is free to say what he wants. Maybe a little too free. He’s got lots of thoughts on modern immorality, and there’s no stopping them from rushing out. Like this one:
“It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”
Perhaps we’ll be needing that seat belt after all.
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The Duck Dynasty origin story is the mighty river from which all other Robertson-family stories flow. And it is an awesome story, one that improves the more it is told, so here is my stab at it: Phil Robertson grew up bone poor in the northwest corner of this state—a place where Cajun redneck culture and Ozark redneck culture intersect—to a manic-depressive mother and a roughneck father. He was a star quarterback in high school and earned a scholarship to play at Louisiana Tech, but quit after one season because football interfered with duck-hunting season. The guy who took his roster spot at Tech was Terry Bradshaw, because that’s how these kinds of stories go.
Phil On Growing Up in Pre-Civil-Rights-Era Louisiana “I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field…. They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!… Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”
According to Phil’s autobiography—a ghostwritten book he says he has never read—he spent his days after Tech doing odd jobs and his evenings getting drunk, chasing tail, and swallowing diet pills and black mollies, a form of medicinal speed. In his midtwenties, already married with three sons, a piss-drunk Robertson kicked his family out of the house. “I’m sick of you,” he told his wife, Kay. But Robertson soon realized the error of his ways, begged Kay to come back, and turned over his life to Jesus Christ.
In 1972, with Jesus at the wheel, Robertson founded the Duck Commander company, which sold a line of custom-made duck-hunting calls that quickly became popular among avid hunters for their uncanny accuracy in replicating the sound of a real duck. He eventually sold half the company to his son Willie, now 41, and together they made a DVD series about the family’s duck hunts, which led to a show on the Outdoor Channel, which led to Duck Dynasty on A&E, which led to everything blowing right the fuck up.
The show—a reality sitcom showcasing the semiscripted high jinks of Phil, his brother “Uncle Si,” his four sons, Alan, Willie, Jase, and Jep, and the perpetually exasperated but always perfectly accessorized Robertson-family ladies—has become the biggest reality-TV hit in the history of cable television, reportedly earning the family a holy shit–worthy $200,000-an-episode paycheck. It’s a funny, family-friendly show, with “skits that we come up with,” as Phil describes the writing process. They plunder beehives. They blow up beaver dams. And when the Robertson-family ladies go up to a rooftop in a hydraulic lift, you just know that lift will “accidentally” get stuck and strand them.
But the show, whose fifth season premieres on January 15, is just one part of the family’s pop-cultural dominance. In 2013 four books written (kind of!) by Robertson family members made the top ten on the New York Times nonfiction best-seller list. Another book—penned by Jase Robertson and detailing his Christian rebirth at age 14, his struggle to forgive his father’s past behavior, and his young daughter’s struggle through five facial-reconstruction surgeries to overcome a severe cleft lip and palate—is forthcoming and destined to make it five best-sellers. There’s also a book of devotionals somewhere in there, along with Duck Dynasty–themed birthday cards, bobblehead dolls, camo apparel (pink camo for the ladies), Cajun-spice seasoning, car fresheners, iPhone games (from the press release: “As players successfully complete the challenges, their beards grow to epic proportions and they start to transform from a yuppie into a full-blown redneck!”), and presumably some sort of camou flage home-pregnancy test.
It’s easy to see the appeal. The Robertsons are immensely likable. They’re funny. They look cool. They’re “smarter than they look,” says sportswriter Mark Schlabach, who co-writes the family’s books. And they are remarkably honest both with one another and with the viewing audience: Phil’s old hell-raising, Si’s traumatic stint in Vietnam, the intervention that the family staged for Jep when he was boozing and doing drugs in college (Phil placed him under house arrest for three months)—all of it is out in the open. The more they reveal, the more people feel connected to them.
And then, of course, there is their faith, which plays no small role here. During the family’s initial negotiations about the show with A&E, Jase told me, “the three no-compromises were faith, betrayal of family members, and duck season.” That refusal to betray their faith or one another has been a staple of every media article about the Robertson family. It’s their elevator pitch, and it has made them into ideal Christian icons: beloved for staking out a bit of holy ground within the mostly secular, often downright sinful, pop culture of America.
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Phil Robertson’s house is located in the sticks about twenty miles outside the city of Monroe (pronounce it mun-roe). It’s a rather small house—the kind of place its owner would proudly call “humble.” The kitchen table is covered with big plastic tubs of cinnamon rolls and mini muffins. There are candy dishes filled to the brim, bricks of softening butter, and packages of jerky made from unknown animals, sent by unnamed fans. (I tried some, and it was awesome.) Just inside the front door, a giant flat-screen TV shows Fox News on mute at all times, and a bunch of big squishy sofas are arranged in a rectangle around it.
Si Robertson is sitting on the couch facing the TV. Jep Robertson, age 35, the youngest son, curls up in a recliner in the corner with a pistol strapped to his waist. He barely speaks, like a countrified Silent Bob. Jase, 44, and Willie share a love seat while Phil lounges barefoot on a camo-patterned recliner in the far corner of the room. Two dogs share the recliner’s footrest with Phil’s heavily callused bare feet. He has severe bunions, so his big toes jut in at forty-five-degree angles. The main TV room is cluttered with mismatched furniture and photos hung haphazardly on the walls. And Phil looks like part of the clutter himself, as if he’d been wedged into that recliner a while back by some absentminded homeowner who didn’t know where else to put him.
By: Ann Coulter 12/18/2013 05:01 PM
Instead of always taking incoming fire, how about Republicans start sending some back? It’s great that they stopped HillaryCare, but if they had actually fixed health care by forcing health insurance plans to be sold in a competitive free market, there would have been no opportunity for shyster Democrats to foist Obamacare on us.
It’s fantastic that we caught the Boston Marathon bombers, but why don’t Republicans fix an immigration system that brings foreign terrorists and mass murderers to our country? Let the Democrats explain why we couldn’t make room for a Danish surgeon because we needed another Chechnyan terrorist.
And it’s terrific that Republicans have managed to block sweeping gun bans after every mass shooting over the past few years — opposition to new gun restrictions has more than doubled since Newtown — but how about they actually do something to stop the next mass murder?
All these shootings are united by one clear thread: They all were committed by visibly crazy people, known to be nuts but not institutionalized.
Mental illness was blindingly clear in the cases of Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech), Maj. Nidal Hasan (Fort Hood), Jared Loughner (Arizona shopping mall), James Holmes (Colorado movie theater), and a dozen other mass shootings in the past few decades.
But in every instance, Democrats’ response was: Let’s ban high-capacity magazines! Let’s limit private gun sales! Let’s publish the names of everyone who owns a registered gun!
Mass shootings don’t correlate with any of these things. They correlate with not locking up crazy people. We’re not worried about school kids being systematically gunned down by angry husbands, gang members or antique gun collectors. We’re worried about a psychotic showing up in a public place and shooting everyone in sight.
There’s absolutely no point in making it more difficult to buy firearms at gun shows — unless gun dealers have no trouble getting files on the mentally ill. Until we do that, we’re wasting our time.
Fixating on guns after a crazy person commits mass murder is like draining the ocean to find a ring you dropped.
Liberals can take the position that crazy people living on the street and filling up our prisons and homeless shelters are a necessary evil that is a consequence of their idee fixe. But then, when one of their pet victims shoots up a movie theater, they don’t get to blame it on guns.
In every one of these mass shootings, there was someone in a position to say before the attack, “Trust me, this person is a psycho.” Try getting Jared Loughner or James Holmes through any mental illness hearing in which they’re required to speak. (Though both might end up being offered their own shows on MSNBC.)
If someone was brought back from the 1950s to today, he’d tell us: “I couldn’t help but notice that all the people who committed mass shootings were batsh*t crazy. Why were they not locked up or forced to take medication?”
We’d have to say, “Because some people — we call them ‘liberals’ — get a warm feeling of self-righteousness by defending the right of the deranged to crap in a shoebox, carefully label it and put it in a closet.”
Democrats absolutely will not address the one thing that was screaming out from all of the mass shootings: a crazy person committing the crime. We can’t medicate them and we can’t lock them up because the ACLU has handcuffed society’s ability to deal rationally with the mentally disturbed.
Not only will Democrats refuse to address the problem of the mentally ill on their own, but they will fight to the last ditch to protect any crazy person’s right not to take his medication.
At some point in the 1980s, not being “judgmental” became the highest form of virtue — although the left is plenty judgmental about things they don’t like, such as white males, smokers, Christianity, Wal-Mart, Fox News, talk radio and NASCAR.
Liberals are so determined not to stigmatize anybody that their solution is always to make all of society suffer instead:
– To avoid hurting Muslims’ feelings, everyone has to strip to his underwear at the airport.
– So no one feels excluded, we’re not allowed to say “Merry Christmas!”
– To avoid singling out gays, the government and media lied to Americans for a decade about the coming explosion of heterosexual AIDS. (We’re still waiting.)
– To stop people from noticing patterns, the media bend over backward to avoid telling us the race of dangerous criminals on the loose.
– To prevent hurt feelings, everybody gets an “A.”
And to avoid “stigmatizing” the mentally ill, society has to live with the occasional mass murder.
These anti-stigmatization rules don’t even help the people they claim to be protecting. But defending ridiculous rules that ruin things for everyone else makes liberals feel heroic.
Rather than constantly playing defense on gun rights, why don’t Republicans force Democrats into taking uncomfortable positions for once? Make them choose between ticking off the ACLU or ticking off soccer moms — as well as all of sane America. (Don’t kid yourself: The non-insane are still a potent voting bloc in this country.)
Republicans should say, “We owe it to the memory of these kids to unclog the regulations that prevent us from forcing psychotics to take their medication.”
Ann Coulter is author of the new book, Never Trust a Liberal Over Three – Especially a Republican (Regnery 2013).
What Did You Say? 
Written
on December 27, 2013