OH Union activist: Tim McVeigh would be a member of the Tea Party

Happy Labor Day from the Ohio unions!

From Facebook:

Union Workers Opposed to Senate Bill 5

If Timothy McVeigh Was Alive Today, He Would Be A Member Of The Tea Party

Wall Photos

Share · 11 hours ago

• 2 people like this.
• • 
    

    [name removed] Doubtful and not a very good attempt at humor. Shame on you!
    

    4 hours ago
  • 
    

    Union Workers Opposed to Senate Bill 5 The post wasn't meant to be funny, or a one size fits all indictment. The post was shared to provoke thought. If you feel that 99% of what I post is worthwhile , then shake your head when I post something you don't agree with. If you feel ONE controversial post is a reason to berate me as childish and shameless, that is your perogative. I don't see anyone stepping up to the plate here offering to spend the 2 to 3 hours a day I spend scouring the internet and news feeds to supply this page with content. I have stated several times in the past that I would appreciate and encourage others to post relevant content but have seen little in the way of cooperation. If you feel strongly enough about particular posts, please feel free to comment..I reserve the right to ban users when they feel personal insults are the order of the day.
    

    2 hours ago
  • 
    

    Union Workers Opposed to Senate Bill 5 ‎**A Prior Comment has Been Removed**
    

    about an hour ago

    
    

    People who like this

    • 
      

      [name removed]
    • 
      

      [name removed]

    
    
    

*********************************************************************************
The "prior comment" that was removed simply said, "sick." It unleashed a tirade from the Facebook page administrator who spends "2 to 3 hours a day" inventing new ways to insult and ridicule Republicans and the Tea Party yet feels personally insulted by the word "sick" attributed to her Tim McVeigh post. The detractor has now been banned from the Facebook page.

This is the beginning of the silly season in Ohio, where the balance of power has shifted to "we the people" in way that is detrimental to the state.

Though there hasn't been much national attention given to Ohio's union reform measure - SB5 - things are beginning to heat up. Governor Kasich and the Republican-controlled legislature succeeded in passing some common-sense reforms that give local governments better control over their budgets.
While still allowing public employees to collectively bargain over their wages and some benefits, it removed or reduced their collective bargaining leverage in the areas of health insurance and pensions and requires government employees to pay a certain percentage of those benefits. It also requires that employee performance be a factor in determining compensation. See here and here for some basics.

Although there were some protests at the Ohio Statehouse, it wasn't anywhere near the scale of Wisconsin because the unions knew that when Governor Kasich signed SB5 into law this spring the fight had just begun.That's because the Ohio Constitution gives "the people" the power to call for a referendum to challenge a law they don't like. If a special interest group can get 6% of the electorate to sign a petition, they can get it on the ballot and shift the balance from a republic form of government to a pure democracy in certain cases. This process can also be used to amend the Ohio Constitution. It was used in recent years to legalize casino gambling in the state after years of failing to get it through the legislature.

In this case, the unions needed around 200,000 signature. They collected over 700,000 and instead of protests at the capitol, where citizens are lobbying their elected officials as we usually see in a republic form of government, citizens are lobbying (and bullying) their fellow citizens.


"We are Ohio," the group working to repeal the union reforms, has already begun running the typical firefighters-are-going-to-die ads. They will likely follow this with the typical your-kid's-teacher-will-have-to-eat-dog-food-if-this-thing-isn't-repealed ads.


In Wisconsin, by the time the recall elections were held, the state was already benefiting from the reforms Gov. Walker and the legislature had put in place. Unfortunately, in Ohio SB5 has been put on hold, pending the outcome of the referendum. And while the law is in a holding pattern, local and county governments have been hit hard by cuts in state funding and many have made layoffs and cut services. It hasn't made Governor Kasich or the Republicans especially popular this fall, so they are starting 4th and 20 at their own 1-yard line, to use a football analogy.


That said, the economy has been so bad for so long that those of us in the private sector are seeing our 401K's decline at an alarming pace at the same time our healthcare costs are doubling and tripling. We consider ourselves lucky if our employers contribute anything at all toward our retirement plans.


Meanwhile, the unions are complaining because they're being asked to actually pay the employee's share of their pension contribution. Currently, many of them enjoy the benefit of the state or local government paying both the employer's and the employee's share of their pension contribution. Good deal if you can get it, but it's not sustainable in this day and age.


And most of us don't think it's unreasonable that public employees are being asked to pay 15% toward their health insurance premiums, when most residents in the state pay 30% or more. Or that government employees would be compensated based (in part) on merit rather than just seniority, like those of us in the private sector are.


It remains to be seen whether Building a Better Ohio will have the resources to overcome the rhetoric and the misinformation being spread by those who oppose the reforms. The unions are fighting for their lives and they are fired up.

Stop with the inferior, mercury death bulbs, OK?

I suspect many of you are like me.  You really didn't think this light bulb thing was going to happen.  Oh, you've heard the rumors for years and have read the ominous news stories about the looming ban on incandescent bulbs, but it seemed like something in the far, distant future, like those Obama-mandated 39 MPH cars of 2016. 

Perhaps you even flirted with the curly mercury-infused spaghetti-noodled death bombs.  You thought you could save the touted $5.00 per year, per bulb because these things were supposed to last for...like...10,000 years - or hours - something, right?  Why would any Neanderthal continue to use an incandescent bulb that has changed little since the time of Edison?

But then the buyer's remorse set in.  After you got over the sticker shock, you realized that they didn't work in your dimmers, they didn't work in your 3-way lights, they looked goofy in your chandelier, and if you're over 40, you needed to turn on two lamps just to read the newspaper. And they gave everyone in your family an eerie greenish tint.  Well, at least you were saving money!

Or not.  It turns out the advertised longevity claim is bogus if you abuse your CFL bulbs.....like if you are really mean to them and turn them on and off regularly.  Or if you put them in fixtures they don't like.  Or they aren't kept as cool as they prefer.  The New York Times reports, "experts" blame the Feds:

"Some experts who study the issue blame the government for the quality problems, saying an intensive federal push to lower the price essentially backfired by encouraging manufacturers to use cheap components

“In the pursuit of the holy grail, we stepped on the consumer,” said Michael Siminovitch, director of a lighting center at the University of California, Davis"

Other "experts" say consumers are the problem:

" Experts and bulb manufacturers say that consumers need to play a role in solving the problems by learning more about the limitations of compact fluorescent bulbs. The Federal Trade Commission has begun to study whether it should force improvements in the labels of the bulbs."

In other words, consumers' standards are just too high.  Once we learn the "limitations about compact fluorescent bulbs" we can then lower our expectations and we won't be so disappointed when they fail miserably.  Why get our hopes up?  Better labeling will prepare us for these new, lower standards in lighting.  

And then there's the pesky problem of what to do with all that mercury once they burn out or...gasp...are broken!  In Minnesota, it's expected that very soon, the deposits of  CFL bulbs will overwhelm recycling programs.  In a survey asking Minnesotans how the state should deal with disposal of these bulbs, 

"...55% of surveyed citizens said they’d prefer to do it through an increase in the price of the bulbs. Another 30% would prefer to pay through recycling fees. An increase of 50 cents in the price of bulbs would still leave 80% recycling the bulbs, but a $1.50 recycling cost would cut that rate to 52%."

Great.  So we're going to have to pay on the other end of these bulbs as well.  

Virginia Postrel at Bloomberg gives as a brief history of how we got the bulb ban, which will go into effect nationwide at the end of the year (FYI, California got a head start and started this month). 

"So the activists offended by the public’s presumed wastefulness took a more direct approach. They joined forces with the big bulb producers, who had an interest in replacing low-margin commodities with high-margin specialty wares, and, with help from Congress and President George W. Bush, banned the bulbs people prefer.

It was an inside job. Neither ordinary consumers nor even organized interior designers had a say. Lawmakers buried the ban in the 300-plus pages of the 2007 energy bill, and very few talked about it in public. It was crony capitalism with a touch of green.

Of such deals are Tea Parties born."

She's absolutely right. If ever there was an issue that was symbolic of the Nanny State and its attack on our individual liberty, this is it.  The Tea Party would find many comrades in a battle against this obscene bulb ban.

And a Congressman or candidate who was looking for a populist issue that affects every American household and irritates a high percentage of them would be smart to take up this cause. 

Check out the video below for more:

Tea Party Targets Schools for 'Constitution Week'...Oooh...Scary!

Oh no!!  Is the Tea Party targeting schools with those guns they're so fond of clinging to?  Are they calling in bomb threats?  Sending anthrax laced sick notes to the principal?  Are they staging violent protests outside the school?  Surely it must be something seriously awful for this to be the TOP STORY on the Huffington Post site - and in 1749-point bold font, no less!

Never mind....it's just a bunch of moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas asking their local schools to follow the federal law requiring a day - one day out of the school year - to include instruction about the Constitution of the United States.  

Riot police shield Obama from Tea Party Grandmas

This terrifies the professional left:

"The Tea Party Patriots, Georgia-based but claiming 1,000 chapters nationally, are instructing members to remind teachers that a 2004 federal law requires public schools to teach Constitution lessons the week of Sept. 17, commemorating the day the document was signed. And they'd like the teachers to use material from the Malta, Idaho-based National Center for Constitutional Studies, which promotes the Constitution as a divinely-inspired document."

I know, right?  How dare they?  


Now, to be fair, the founder of the National Center for Constitutional Studies, Cleon Skouson, had some views that were out of the mainstream. He was a "John Bircher" and   even his Mormon church considered him to be too far out.  However, his most celebrated work, The 5000 Year Leap: Principles of Freedom 101,  doesn't venture into any of those areas.  It's an excellent book that uses mostly primary source quotes from the Founders and their contemporaries.  President Reagan said, "The National Center for Constitutional Studies...is doing a fine public service in educating Americans about the principles of the Constitution."   

"It's indoctrination, not education," said Doug Kendall, director of the Constitutional Accountability Center in Washington, D.C. "They're so far from the mainstream of constitutional thought that they are completely indefensible."

You can see a few of the lessons for yourself here and download the study guide here.  WARNING!!  If you're a person who doesn't believe in Natural Law (even though there is undeniable proof that our Constitution and Declaration of Independence were based upon it) and you don't like that DeTocqueville went on and on about how religions the fledgling United States was (because....well...it was), you'll probably hate it. 


Tea Party Patriots and their chapters across the country are encouraging members to contact schools in their area to remind them of the Federal law that requires teaching of the Constitution at all schools receiving Federal funds.  Public Law 108-447 Sec. 110(b), enacted in 2004 states:

"Each educational institution that receives Federal funds
for a fiscal year shall hold an educational program on the United
States Constitution on September 17 of such year for the students
served by the educational institution."

The plan for the Tea Party Patriots is to contact as many schools as possible to make sure they're abiding by this Federal law:

"Patriots across the country are justifiably concerned that students in the public schools are not being taught about the founding documents which created our nation. In 2004, Congress passed a law which requires an educational program on the Constitution be taught in all public schools during Constitution Week...Patriots should not have to remind schools to teach the history of the most important document in our country. That we have to do so is an indication of how awful the public school system has become with regard to teaching U.S. history...We have designed a simple plan to achieve this goal. It will be most effective if we can launch a national campaign in all 50 states."

The Medina Tea Party Patriots describes the plan:

This "Adopt-a-School” initiative is a simple three-step program that helps encourage schools to fulfill the federal mandate through our grassroots effort. We are encouraging parents to take part in this program by:

1) Adopting a school.

2) Sending three letters.

3) Helping the school implement the program.

Very subversive, isn't it?  A huge threat to our freedoms, according to the HuffPo.  One of the critics cited in their hit piece is The Center for Center for Civic Education which describes itself this way:

"The principal goals of the Center’s programs are to help students develop...an increased understanding of the institutions of constitutional democracy and the fundamental principals and values upon which they are founded..."

Oh, so they help students understand the constitutional democracies of Germany and the UK?  Because we have NO SUCH THING HERE!  Our Founders gave us a Constitutional republic, which provided for limited government, a balance of powers, and a system in which mere majority rule is tempered.  


Here we have Exhibit A for the need to teach each and every school child about the Constitution.  In a letter to George Wythe, August 13, 1786, commonly called "A Crusade Against Ignorance,"  Thomas Jefferson linked freedom to an educated citizenry:

"I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowlege among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised, for the preservation of freedom and happiness...Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils, and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests & nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance."

My favorite blogger (and friend whom I've not actually met) and now author, Dan Phillips, likes to say that if the Founding Fathers were to come back here they would say, "When were you conquered and by whom?"  I think they'd also ask, "When did you get a new Constitution?"  We need to get busy!

April 20, 2011

We hear very little about international law in the U.S. these days, but we need to take a good look at what's happening in Europe and learn from it.  There are many in this country who would have us sign on to any and every treaty, agreement, and convention set forth by the U.N. and other intentional agencies.  The end-game is ultimately, a loss of our national sovereignty 


Will Britain Defy the European Court of Human Rights?

 "In a blatant attempt to overrule Britain’s Parliament, judges at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on April 12 that Britain must reverse its 140-year-old ban on prisoners voting. The ruling is leading to a showdown between the British government and the echr over who really runs the country. The court gave Britain six months to change its voting laws. This comes two months after members of Parliament voted not to remove the ban—234 votes to 22...

...Britain’s Daily Mail reports that backbench Conservative MPs are pushing for the government to simply ignore the court’s ruling. A leaked government document says the court has no legal powers to force the government to pay compensation to prisoners denied a vote. Other countries have ignored 8,000 ECHR rulings...

...The ECHR is a thorn in Britain’s side. Analyst Dr. Lee Rotherham estimates that Britain spends around £2.1 billion [around $3.4 billion U.S.] a year complying with ECHR judgements—with a total cost to date of £17.3 billion [$28.3 billion U.S.]. He also estimates that the “compensation culture” fostered by the courts costs a further £7.1 billion a year [$11.6 billion U.S.]. That comes to just under £150 [$245 U.S.] per person in the UK per year...

...But perhaps the bigger cost is Britain having to comply with absurd ECHR rulings. Even soldiers on the battlefield have to change their behavior because of the court. For example, soldiers are told not to fire on an insurgent after he has thrown a hand grenade. They can shoot him before that point, but once he has thrown it, he is unarmed and must not be shot."

~~~~~

Protests | Rebel Pundit: 

"These protesters at the Madison, Wisconsin Tea Party Protest featuring Andrew Breitbart and Sarah Palin unleashed a furious message in the following video. Unfortunately, we have absolutely no idea what this message means…

I've watched this several times and I can't stop laughing at it!

~~~~~

And then we have the Public School Employees of Washington and the SEIU staging a flash mob at a Target store. And a very unfortunate-looking flash mob it is.  In fact, I've been forever scarred by it.  Do they really think the average shopper at Target is standing in solidarity with the SEIU, considering that unionization of stores like Target and Walmart would necessarily  raise prices?  There's a reason these shoppers are purchasing the Isaac Mizrahi brand at Target rather than Versace on Rodeo Drive.  Message to SEIU:  Target shoppers WANT Target to succeed and stay open and keep their prices low.   

By the way, note that these union members arrived by SCHOOL BUS. 

~~~~~

Many people have seen the video of a 6-year-old girl being fondled by TSA agents in an airport.  The uniformed agent runs her fingers through the little girl's hair, up and down her legs and back side, and sticks her hands inside her pants to search for contraband:

The little girl's mother has asked how she is supposed to teach her daughter about strangers and inappropriate touch when a uniformed stranger is permitted to manhandle her on demand in an airport. 

Slightly less offensive, but nonetheless troubling this week, was the frisking of  Phil Johnson, of  Pyromaniacs blog fame.  For those who aren't acquainted with Phil Johnson,  he's the Executive Director of Grace to You,  John MacArthur's radio ministry, and edits MacArthur's books.  Author and  Johnson's Team Pyro blog-mate Dan Philips expressed his outrage that this fine man who poses absolutely no threat to airline travelers would be subjected to the groping hands of TSA "handlers."  He shared a copy of Phil's TSA complaint form. Disgusting.  Johnson said, 

"After having to wait fully 10 minutes for an agent, the "patdown" (more like a rubdown) he gave me was unnecessarily invasive.  He put virtually his whole hand into my waistband. And he lingered far too long when he reached the crotch area. "

Because the agent (who was already wearing gloves when he first approached Johnson) found something on the swab he ran over the gloves, Johnson was taken to a private room for another "enhanced patdown."

"His patdown was not as invasive as Agent #1; he didn't reach as far into my waistband as the first guy did (and he made a point of putting on fresh gloves); but I still thought his fondling of my private parts was unnecessarily "personal," and he gave me the distinct impression he enjoyed it."

Phillips summarize his feelings:

 "Let me put it to you: Phil is not a private, unknown quantity. There is zero percent chance that he poses a threat to national security or anything the TSA is supposed to care about. Yet he is singled out for this sort of punishing sexual molestation. Do you feel safer now? As you tuck your children in tonight, are you comforted by the thought that folks like Phil (and housewives and children and your wife and grandmother) are being felt-up for no rational reason, with the State's smiling approval?"

Well, have no fear my dear fellow citizens!  The TSA has responded to the plight of this poor six-year-old girl and the outrage it has sparked around the world.  In a blog post last week the official blogger of the TSA said, 

"A video taken of one of our officers patting down a six year-old has attracted quite a bit of attention. Some folks are asking if the proper procedures were followed. Yes. TSA has reviewed the incident and the security officer in the video followed the current standard operating procedures."

That's right...our government says it's completely appropriate for uniformed government agents to stick their hands down the pants of little girls who have done nothing wrong. 

This TSA blog is a story in itself.   When I first started reading I thought it was satire.  Surely our government would not have a blog post titled "TSA Space Alien Detection Officers," right?  Wrong!

"New intelligence suggests that space aliens with invisibility cloaks have been going through our checkpoints for years. We know they’ve been observing flight operations at some of our busiest airports, but we had no idea they were coming in.

It’s not entirely clear what their intentions are, but they need to be screened just like anybody else. We don’t mind space aliens visiting our airports. In fact we think it’s kind of cool. However, they need to go through security just like everybody else."

OK, haha, April Fool's! This is the TSA blog that has an official .gov address and is linked directly from the front page of the official TSA website.  Not only is something like this  in  unprofessional and in very poor taste, it also undermines the credibility of an agency that already has lost a great deal of respect in the eyes of the American people.  As I said, I thought it was a satirical site and didn't take it seriously.  I actually took several extra steps to verify this was a legitimate TSA-sponsored blog.  You can't make this stuff up.  


Another disturbing aspect of this whole issue with the TSA and the patdowns is we can be certain that a percentage of the "patters" are looking at pornography in their spare time:


TSA Officer Admits Plot to Post Porn on Christian Site – Patriot Update: 

"On April 10, Bob Seashols, a Coordination Center Officer for the Transportation and Security Administration (TSA) at the Richmond International Airport (RIC) and an administrator for Atheists United’s Facebook page, took part in a coordinated effort to populate pornographic images, extreme profanity, and sexually explicit anti-Christian hate-speech on the Facebook page of Ken Ham, an internationally known Christian ministry leader who serves as president of Answers in Genesis-U.S (AiG) and the popular Creation Museum, located near Cincinnati, Ohio.

Sunday afternoon visitors to Mr. Ham’s “public person” Facebook site found pages of sexually explicit commentary aimed at mocking him and deriding Jesus Christ and the Christian faith. The Internet-based Facebook assault, directed from four different Facebook accounts, involved pornographic and sadomasochistic imagery."

We know that anyone with a cell phone with internet access is only a few clicks away from the most vile, violent, disgusting  pornography, including child pornography.  Pornographers rake in billions of dollars in revenues every year because it's such a popular pastime.   And some of their customers are touching our grandmothers and our little girls and boys. 

April 13, 2011

Did a Michigan Town Ban Tea Party Signs in Public Parks? | The Blaze: 

"The Common Sense Patriots of Branch County–a tea party group–has filed a lawsuit in federal court objecting to the city of Coldwater’s ordinance prohibiting the posting of signs in a public park."

"A federal lawsuit claims a Branch County tea party group was denied the right to display banners and signs at a tea party rally at a public park in Coldwater because it was “too political” and “too controversial.” The Coldwater City Council then passed a resolution banning all banners and signs in that park.

The Thomas More Law Center law firm filed its lawsuit last week in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. Attorney Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center alleged that Coldwater City Manager Jeff Budd objected because the Common Sense Patriots of Branch County were “too political” and “too controversial.”

Coldwater, MI is about 30 miles west of Hillsdale, where my son attends college.  Nothing against the good folks in Coldwater, but we spent a couple terrifying nights in a Super 8 Motel there.  The hotel we originally booked had some sort of "mechanical problems" so they moved us to the Super 8.  When we arrived,  they didn't have us on "the list" and had no rooms.  No worries,  the front desk clerk walked down the hall to "look in a few rooms to see if any were empty. " I am not making this up!  She found a room for us and the next day we returned to the hotel to find that the room below us had been sealed by the police - apparently it was a meth lab. When my key card didn't work in our room, the nice tattooed and pierced desk clerk was happy to re-program it for me, no name or ID required,  I simply told him what room number I wished to enter.   At the breakfast "buffet" there was a sign that said (all caps),  "ONLY ONE DOUGHNUT PER PERSON!!"   Apparently, someone didn't heed the sign, as there were no doughnuts at all when we arrived.  In fact there was no food whatsoever.  Or coffee.   Our room also featured a toilet that leaked onto the bathroom floor and a security lock that was broken, as if someone had broken the door down from the outside.  


On the plus side,  Coldwater does have a mighty fine BW3's and a fantastic thrift store.   I hope these Tea Party folks prevail in their fight for free speech in a public park.  


While we're in the netherlands of Michigan,  Roll Call had a nice story about Hillsdale's College and it's new Kirby Center for Constitutional studies in D.C.:


‘Conservative Citadel’ Comes to Capitol Hill : Roll Call Around the Hill: 

"The Michigan college that National Review once touted as a “citadel of American conservatism” is making its mark on Capitol Hill...

...Late last year, the private college opened the Allan P. Kirby Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship at 227 Massachusetts Ave. NE, a stone’s throw from the Capitol, to hold classes for students in its internship program and host public events and lectures....

... The Hill is already turning to the center as a resource, [Kirby Center Director David J.] Bobb said, thanks to the newfound fervor for the Constitution. With the reading of the document at the start of the 112th Congress and the new Constitutional Authority Statement required for bills in the House, Bobb said Hillsdale is looking forward to using its D.C. location to engage with Members.

“This is precisely what we exist to do — to foster debate and to make an argument that the Constitution means something,” Bobb said. “There’s a tendency for some Members to say that you have to be an attorney or a judge to weigh in on the Constitution, and we think that is contrary to the understanding the founders had and what we ought to have today.”...

 ...According to Hillsdale spokesman Joe Cella, about 20 alumni work on the Hill in positions ranging from legislative assistant to chief of staff.

They bring with them an education steeped constitutional principles, limited government and individual liberty — a decidedly conservative take on the typical liberal arts education. 

In keeping with its mission, the college operates completely without federal or state funding. Students take a core curriculum modeled on a classical liberal arts education with a required course on the Constitution, keeping with its mission statement of “maintaining inheritance from the Judeo-Christian faith and Greco-Roman culture....

...[Bentley] Graves, a 2005 graduate who studied political economy and moved to D.C. for a Heritage Foundation internship before joining King’s team, said he credits Hillsdale with developing his political ideology. He noted, however, that the college’s educational experience focuses on the intellectual side of conservatism rather than a political agenda.

“One thing that people always think about when they hear conservative college is Republican factory, but honestly, over my time there I became much more conservative than I was knee-jerk Republican,” Graves said. “And I think a lot of kids come out of Hillsdale that way, with a much greater appreciation for what it means to be a limited government, constitutional conservative and more motivated by that than pure politics.” 

Economic Liberty and the Constitution
Hillsdale College's Allen P. Kirby Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship will be hosting an Online Constitution Town Hall on "Economic Liberty and the Constitution" on Saturday, April 16, 2011.  It's FREE, FREE, FREE!!  All you have to do is register online to watch the event live (it will also be archived on the website a few days after the event if you miss it).  Most of us won't have the opportunity to attend Hillsdale College, but these online events give us a chance to learn from Hillsdale professors and scholars and experience what the students hear each and every day in their classes.   Here is the schedule for the event:
   
Saturday, April 16, 2011        
10 - 10:15 a.m. (EDT) 'Choosing Liberty': Welcome and Introduction
The Honorable Mike Pence
U.S. Representative, Sixth District of Indiana
Today citizens must choose whether they will live as citizens, or subjects.


10:15 - 11: 15 a.m. (EDT) 'How Our Economic Liberty Has Been Diminished'
Dr. Paul Moreno
Grewcock Chair in Constitutional History, Hillsdale College
Economic liberty was revered by the Founding Fathers, who enshrined its principles in the Constitution. A hundred years ago, those tenets were attacked by the Progressives, who saw property rights as the protection of special interests, and our Constitution's structure as an impediment to progress as they defined it.

11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (EDT) 'How Our Economic Liberty Can Be Restored'
Dr. Larry P. Arnn, President, Hillsdale College
Economic liberty can be restored as decisively as it has been lost, but a restoration of constitutional principles cannot happen without citizen understanding and vigilant defense of the principles of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.


David Cameron brands 'all white' Oxford University a disgrace - Telegraph: 

"On a visit to the north of England, the Prime Minister singled out Oxford for criticism when he accused elite institutions of having a 'terrible record' of enrolling teenagers from state schools.

Senior officials at the university described the figure as 'highly misleading' as it related only to British students who described themselves as black Caribbean. They said Oxford admitted another 27 students who described themselves as black African and another 14 who were mixed race."

Oxford defended itself, saying that only 452 black students across the country had met it's rigorous admissions standards.  So should Oxford lower its standards?

"Graham Stuart, the Conservative chairman of the Commons education select committee, suggested that the Government's approach was wrong. 'The problem we have with various minority groups in this country who don't get into the best universities is that they don't receive a sufficiently good education in the first place,' he said.

'You don't solve that by forcing institutions with high standards to lower their intakes, you deal with it by improving the standards of state education for all. That's the betrayal and the scandal here – we don't provide good enough education in our schools. 

'We let down the poorest and those from ethnic minorities and that's what we have got to put right, not blame Oxford for the situation we've got ourselves into."

The larger issue seems to be the state of "state schools" in the country:

"The Prime Minister, who studied at Brasenose College, Oxford, said leading universities did not have a good record when it came to admitting state school pupils, claiming the numbers had gone down in the past 20 years. “That is a terrible record,” he said. 

An Oxford spokesman said the university was “fully committed” to admitting the most able students regardless of background. “The fact remains that there is a real issue around attainment in schools,” she said."

Britain has a fledgling school choice movement and is now experimenting with "Free Schools" in response to parental demands. 

"Free Schools are all-ability state-funded schools set up in response to what local people say they want and need in order to improve education for children in their community."

As of September 2010, only 16 free schools had won approval from the government.  

  "The group behind the King's Science Academy, a free school due to open in Bradford, is driven by a vision of liberating inner city children from 'ghettoisation'. Sajid Hussain, a science teacher and assistant head who hopes to lead the new secondary school, said: 'We hope to teach good manners. We're looking at a sense of responsibility, social conduct, sitting down and dining. Independent schools are quite good at this kind of stuff.'...

...James Turner, projects and policy director of the trust, said the group was aiming for a school which is 'very academically focused' and encouraged pupils to apply for elite universities.

'We want to be clear that coming from a poor background does not preclude success – students from these areas can get good qualifications in valued subjects and gain access to top universities. We're addressing the inverse snobbery which says that 'people like you' don't go to certain universities or follow certain career paths or achieve at the highest levels.'"

Of course,  the teacher's unions and education establishment types are all for these innovative schools because they'll go to any lengths to raise student achievement.

Ha! You didn't fall for that, did you?

 "The new schools, many more of which are expected to be approved in coming years, could also pose a challenge to the teaching unions because they emphasise raising standards through longer hours and more flexible teaching. Both methods could prove contentious."

 The approval process is now getting bogged down in building codes and disagreements about whether profits should be permitted.  


As an aside, I think the whole concept of counting people by their skin color is offensive.  As a Christian, I believe we are all "one blood," descended from Adam.:

"And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth" (Acts 17:26).

 The rest is just variations in pigment and melanin. 

March 26, 2011

Rand Paul on Libyan rebels: Who are these people? - National Review Online

“Some people can debate and caterwaul and say that a no-fly zone is not war, but there will not be many people, in and around the country, who believe that putting U.S. troops on the ground is not war,” Paul says. “I can tell you, absolutely, that I will demand a declaration of war on the Senate floor before any troops set foot in Libya.”

Beyond his constitutional concerns, Paul argues that the Libyan conflict is being waged to support a mostly unknown rebel force. “The question is, who are these people?” he asks. “We know how bad the guy in power is, but do we know that these people are not in favor of radical sharia law? Do we know that they do not think that Israel should be wiped off the map? I am always concerned when we are in favor of people who we know nothing about.” George Will, Pat Buchanan, and Sen. Dick Lugar (R., Ind.), he says, have all raised this important point."

Top 10 names Obama didn't give Libyan action | Washington Examiner: (HT: Dan Phillips) 


10.Operation Nine Months In The Senate Didn't Prepare Me For This

9. Operation Organizing for Libya

8. Operation Double Standard

7. Operation FINE! I'll Do Something

6. Operation Enduring Narcissism

5. Operation So That's What the Red Button Does

4. Operation France Backed Me Into A Corner

3. Operation Start Without Me

2. Operation Unlike Bush Wars This One Is Justified Because Hey Look A Squirrel

1. Operation Aimless Fury


From the "religion of peace"....


 Thousands of Christians Displaced in Ethiopia After Muslim Extremists Torch Churches, Homes - FoxNews.com: 

"Thousands of Christians have been forced to flee their homes in Western Ethiopia after Muslim extremists set fire to roughly 50 churches and dozens of Christian homes.

At least one Christian has been killed, many more have been injured and anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 have been displaced in the attacks that began March 2 after a Christian in the community of Asendabo was accused of desecrating the Koran."

 FreedomWorks launches ‘Diverse Tea’ | The Daily Caller :

"Former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks organization rolled out its Diverse Tea campaign Monday at diverse-tea.com.

FreedomWorks President and CEO Matt Kibbe told The Daily Caller that the program is meant to showcase diversity in the Tea Party movement. The first four members of Diverse Tea highlighted are the Rev. C.L. Bryant, Deneen Borelli, Tito Munoz and Ryan Hecker."

This is an unnecessary distraction from Freedom Works' mission of fiscal responsibility.  The sooner we cease talking about racial divisions and obsessing about skin color, the sooner we will have a color-blind society.  Continuing to focus on it is just feeding the beast of the politics of race and giving fodder to the race baiters. 

Rep. Randy Forbes on our country's Judeo-Christian heritage.  ACLU types are running to their therapists to deal with the trauma of this 4-minute speech that mentions God dozens of times:

 Poll: Most in U.S., except evangelicals, see no divine sign in disasters - USATODAY.com: 

"Nearly six in 10 evangelicals believe God can use natural disasters to send messages — nearly twice the number of Catholics (31%) or mainline Protestants (34%). Evangelicals (53%) are also more than twice as likely as the one in five Catholics or mainline Protestants to believe God punishes nations for the sins of some citizens.

The poll found that a majority (56%) of Americans believe God is in control of the earth, but the idea of God employing Mother Nature to dispense judgment (38% of all Americans) or God punishing entire nations for the sins of a few (29%) has less support..

...Nearly half of Americans (44%) say the increased severity of recent natural disasters is evidence of biblical 'end times,' but a larger share (58%) believe it is evidence of climate change. The only religious group more likely to see natural disasters as evidence of 'end times' (67%) than climate change (52%) is white evangelicals...

The article includes this very wise insight:

...This is tragic, but if you ask (why God allows) earthquakes, you have to ask it anytime that people die. We would have to be prophets of God to know that.'

This is such a great point.  Often, when faced with a tragedy of the proportions we see in Japan, we fail to remember that (according to some estimates), 150,000 people die every single day - dwarfing the number killed in the tsunami in Japan.  So the question is not "Why did God send/allow/cause the earthquake?" but "Why do people die?"  The Bible tells us that it started with the first man, Adam: 

"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned" (Romans 5:12).

This discussion brought to mind a couple of videos I saw last month (HT: Justin Taylor).  Zac Miller went home to be with the Lord in May, 2010 after a short battle with cancer. He made a video about his journey before he died. His wife followed up with a video of her own journey after his death:

The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

A Story | Tears of Hope from Adam Kring on Vimeo.

And finally, the inspirational story of a one-legged wrestler who won the national championship:

March 17, 2011

Mandle Company - Candles for Men: 
Looking for a gift for the man in your life? This family-owned company in Michigan makes handmade "candles on testosterone." 

"No matter how strange it may be, every man has a favorite smell. So take a look around and chances are, we have what you’re looking for from football candles to down and dirty candles."

Scents include bacon, auto shop, grass, gunpowder, meat and potatoes, rawhide, and wood shop.  Don't see a scent you like?  You can suggest a stench! 


I saw the video below a while back and I'm pretty sure it's not associated with the Mandle Company.  But I wonder if this is where they got the idea?  

Now on to some more serious matters...

Chuck Schumer to John Boehner: Ditch Tea Party  
The Daily Caller

“Speaker Boehner wouldn’t have been able to pass this short-term measure without Democratic votes, and he won’t be able to pass a long-term one without Democratic votes either,” Schumer said in a statement. “It’s time for him to abandon the Tea Party, and forge a bipartisan compromise.”

"Fifty-four House Republicans, many of them Tea Party-backed freshman, voted against a stopgap measure Tuesday that would fund the government for three weeks while the parties negotiate a long-term deal. The proposal included $6 billion in cuts, but did not touch funding for the health care law and other programs that some in the caucus said needed to be included to get their approval.

"...Schumer said Monday that Boehner “should consider leaving the Tea Party behind” because they “are unwilling to accept anything short of the extreme cuts in the House budget, even if it risks a shutdown."

Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, explained his decision to vote against the three week Continuing Resolution:

“Americans sent us here to deal with big problems in bold ways.  We’re borrowing billions of dollars a day, yet Senate Democrats have done little more than wring their hands for the last month.  With the federal government facing record deficits and a mammoth debt hanging over our economy and our future, we must do more than cut spending in bite-sized pieces.

“Democrats control both the Senate and the White House, and it’s time they stopped dithering.  We need swift action to deal with spending for the rest of this year.  We need to stop sending taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood, and we need to defund ObamaCare.  And we need to start tackling next year’s budget, the debt-ceiling, and other challenges standing in the way of job creation.  We've made some solid first downs on spending.  Now it's time to look to the end zone.”

Freshman Congressman Marco Rubio was even more direct in a RedState editorial:

"All this has led to a very predictable outcome: Washington politicians of both parties scrambling to put together two and three week plans to keep funding the government, while not fundamentally changing the behavior that has gotten us into this mess to begin with. 

Running our government on the fumes of borrowed spending is unacceptable, short-sighted and dangerous. I commend the efforts of House and Senate Republican leaders to deal with this, but I did not come to the U.S. Senate to be part of some absurd political theatre. 

I will no longer support short-term budget plans. While attempts at new spending reductions are commendable, we simply can no longer afford to nickel-and-dime our way out of the dangerous debt America has amassed. It is time our leaders in Washington wake up and realize that we are headed for a debt disaster."

John McCain s daughter wants Romney—not Palin—for president
The Marietta Daily Journal

"'My personal favorite right now is Mitt Romney,' she said. 'I like that he's not so radical. I like that he has really, really played his cards right, almost perfectly since the last election.'"

 As if I needed another reason not to vote for Romney!  Miss Meghan has made herself semi-famous by bashing conservatives, including Sarah Palin, on Twitter and in her book, "Dirty, Sexy Politics," in which she tries to make the case that social conservatism is a political dinosaur that must be retired if the Republicans are ever to win anything again. 

"Criminal justice major Deanna Pucci, 20, of Woodstock, is also a fan. "I absolutely love her," Pucci said. "I'm not really that much into politics, and I follow her on Twitter a lot, but she's just so funny and down to earth, and I think she's a good role model for younger generations.'"

An endorsement by Ms. McCain, a social liberal, will do nothing to convince conservatives that Romney shares their values. But maybe he'll be able to rouse some of the uninformed, 20-something celebrity stalkers, who are notorious non-voters.

2 ex-top Oakland County Dems arraigned in tea party ballot flap
Detroit Free Press
Two top Democrats from Michigan were indicted for getting "fake' Tea Party candidates on the ballot last fall:

“A scheme was devised by a party leader in Lansing to put people on the ballot on the Tea Party ticket,” Bouchard said. “It may not be ethical, but it’s not illegal. But some folks were placed on the ballot without their knowledge and that’s the criminal side.”

The indictment alleges that the two tried to put two county commissioner candidates and a state  senate candidate on the ballot without their knowledge by forging signatures and notarized documents.  Ultimately, the plot was discovered and the Michigan Supreme Court blocked the candidates from appearing on the ballot.  If convicted on the forgery charges, they could face 14 years in prison.  Is anyone else shocked that it's not illegal to put people on the ballot using a fake party affiliation?  


Concerned With Muslims, Gay Activists Cancel Parade in England 
Greg Gutfeld, Big Hollywood

 "So over in England (a country), some gay activists want to cancel a gay pride parade because it will cause “community tension,” between gays and Muslims.The march was a response to anti-gay stickers placed around town, but some worry this event could hurt Muslim feelings. 

Here’s part of a letter from a group of concerned types, who claim the march will “oppress other marginalized groups.”

“We want both homophobia and Islamophobia addressed as a collective problem and not feed one against the other, we do not recognise these as distinct categories.

"So, let’s rewind: homophobia and Islamophobia are the same thing. 

Okay..I gotta ask: do you think they would also group homophobia and anti-Christian attacks as one and the same? Do they see crude jokes aimed at Mormons as no different than anti-gay jokes? 

No way. So why are they embracing Muslims as marginalized brethren – and not others? 

Well, for one, it’s HARDER to protest around people who “really” hate you.So better to stay out of Islam’s way, and target the gentler dissenters, like white pudgy Christians – the people who remind you of dad, and don’t want you dead.And so here we have fear, masked as tolerance, forcing gays into contortions even circus performers wouldn’t try. 

I mean, how can the gay left defend a religion whose practitioners want gays punished? They’re joining hands with folks who, in other more extreme lands, might cut off theirs..."

Baptist Press - In Japan: Baptists struggle to reach disaster zone:
I've read a lot of accounts of the disaster in Japan,  but for some reason, I have not seen many reports of what it's actually like in the midst of the worst hit areas.  Baptist Press shares the accounts of Baptist missionaries and relief workers:

 "Across the upper half of Japan, life is either in tatters or at a standstill. With some roads impassable and fuel almost nonexistent in the north, relief and rescue workers have struggled to reach the areas where they are needed most... 

"Some 70,000 people had already been evacuated from a 12-mile radius; about 140,000 remain in the new 30-mile warning zone, according to news reports. More than 500,000 people have been made homeless by the quake and tsunami. Many endured snow and freezing temperatures Wednesday, as government supplies began to reach the worst affected areas... 

"A four-member team from the Japan Baptist Convention and Japanese Baptist Union was forced to turn around when they tried to enter the disaster zone to check on the 21 churches affiliated with the two entities. Special government permits are needed to travel the expressway and to enter disaster zones. Another main route to the earthquake- and tsunami-affected areas goes through radiation evacuation zones. Back roads are open, but fuel is scarce so traveling long distances is almost impossible...

"We went for search and rescue, but quickly realized the Japanese government had that under control,' Frazier said. The government has deployed 100,000 troops to lead the aid effort. 'So, we drove around evaluating the damage and found an evacuation center... 

"Around 400 people had taken refuge in the center. Frazier said there was no electricity or gas in the area. When the Rescue 24 team arrived, the evacuation center was low on food... 

"All they had was a half of a box of bananas and a half of a box of oranges for 400 people,' Frazier said... 

"The Baptist team went from store to store, trying to find food to help. Frazier said the line just to get into the local 7-Eleven store numbered around 200. They finally came across a truck unloading groceries at the back of a store and convinced them to sell more than the 'rationing' amount so they could feed the 400 people... 

"'We stuffed our van with as much food as it would hold,' Frazier said.
"Survivors in the shelters in the earthquake and tsunami areas said they are short of food and water, according to news reports. The Japanese army is using helicopters to bring in basic supplies. With the country's power supply depleted by the damaged nuclear plants, many shelters have no heat. Frazier concurred that the ongoing nuclear crisis makes it hard to get much aid or relief work done at the moment."

Pray for the Japanese people and for aid workers and missionaries who are facing brutally cold temperatures on top of the other unthinkable circumstances in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami.