Top three presidents since WWII were mature

Of all our presidents since World War II, the three who ranked highest among all American presidents in a 2005 survey of scholars by the Wall Street Journal were: Ronald Reagan, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower. Joe Biden says there will be an international incident soon after the election of Barack Obama to test him. Article here.

IBD/TIPP Tracking Poll: Day Twenty-One

Now it shows a 2.1 point spread?
Posted: Sunday, November 02, 2008. 46.7 to 44.6 with 8.7 undecided. It's hard to imagine anyone being undecided at this point, you can only hope they are pro-life coal miners.

"The race tightened again Sunday as independents who'd been leaning to Obama shifted to McCain to leave that key group a toss-up. McCain also pulled even in the Midwest, moved back into the lead with men, padded his gains among Protestants and Catholics, and is favored for the first time by high school graduates."

Sounds like some Christians just might be realizing that if we got 40+ million abortions with Roe v. Wade and pro-life presidents, how many more will there be when we have the one who has the most leftist record ever in the history of the nation on abortion.

Although I listen to conservative radio in the morning, the news breaks are all CNN. Today Tammy Bruce (no relation, lesbian, former president of NOW, former lefty now a conservative) was subbing for Laura Ingraham who has laryngitis. So it was a bi-polar moment when the news came on--it was all rah, rah Obama, McCain doesn't have a chance after hearing Tammy trying to rally the troops for McCain-Palin.

Update, final poll: Final IBD/TIPP Tracking Poll Shows Obama Leading McCain 51.5% to 44.3%.

pea and poop

Usually I don't worry about spelling and typos on the internet, because everyone dashes something off, and often doesn't take the time to look through. But this one on my site meter was just too cute to pass up.

"the solution to my environmental problem is people letting their pets pea and poop in other peoples yard on the sidewalk at the park and killing the grass"

Now, I don't talk about pea and poop, but I might have noted something I saw at the park that was killing the grass, and we have certainly all been stepping in it as we get closer to the election.

I'm not sure what vegetative matter (peas and poop?) and how much heat it took to make coal, but it's an essential part of the economy of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky. The article in the Dispatch today covering what Sarah Palin said about the most recent outrageous take down of our economy promised by Obama--to bankrupt the coal industry and cause higher electricity costs--with cap and trade so high no one will be able to afford it, didn't even get the quote right. I've listened to it several times and even with his trademark stammer and stutter (off teleprompter) you can clearly hear the word "bankrupt" and his intentions, but the headline is: "Palin charges Obama would cripple Ohio's coal industry." Obama promised he will bankrupt anyone who builds a coal fired plant and the CD writer tries to explain it away.

The media owners of the CD and PD, WaPo and NYT need to get some pre-1990 text books and take a look at what happened to the press after they helped bring in "reform" in Cuba in the 1950s, Russia in the early 20th century, China in the 1940s, Vietnam in the 50s, Korea in the 40s, etc. After the marxist dictator takes power, they are the first to go, next it's the buddies and cronies who still have some backbone and know where the bodies are buried. Go back and read some of those trials from the 1930s in the USSR, like Bukharin's, all those loyal revolutionaries who had sacrificed so much and shed the blood of others for the marxist dream. Then next in line are the unions. Of course, most of those governments, with the exception of North Korea which is still taking food aid for its starving people, have now come full circle and dumped their endless 5 year economic plans built on a million graves and are beating us at our own game. Pea and poop, indeed.

Allegory of Unfaithful Jerusalem

When gays sift through Scripture hunting with no avail for support for their sexual practices and marriage to each other, the big one that is skipped over is male/female and husband/wife imagery for spiritual truths that is everywhere, from the story of Creation to the final judgement. In the Old Testament a major theme is God's relationship with Israel, as husband and wife, and in the New it is Christ the loving bridegroom and the believing Church the bride.

This morning I was looking up a reference that Martin Luther had made to a passage in Ezekiel about caring for your neighbor in times of the plague (he's writing in the early 1500s when this was a big concern), and read the entire Ezekiel 16. I'm sure in conservative churches, Americans hear this passage often as an allegory of what has happened to the United States and her abandoning Christian roots, but it wouldn't happen from the pulpits and classrooms of UALC where I'm a member. Given that this is the day before we elect new leaders, throw the bums out, pass or toss bond issues, say yes or no on various issues from water rights to street lights, it's an amazing read. Take it to the polls instead of that guide your party has printed up so slick and pretty.

I'm not going to reprint the entire chapter because it is easily available on the internet. I use almost exclusively the NIV, although for "English as it was never spoken," I use NASB, because it is so literal with little attention to the beauty of our language. Regardless of the translation/paraphrase you use, the message is the same.

God's spokesman, "Son of man," begins in verse 1 with a description of a female baby of mixed ethnicity being thrown away; then God finds her in the trash still with the umbilical cord uncut, cleans her up, and says, LIVE. He then provides her with the finest of everything. She grows up and becomes beautiful. They make a covenant (marriage). But then she uses her beauty, fame, wealth, everything God gave her, and even the abundant food, to go a whoring--making sacrifices to foreign idols. This ungrateful wife even sacrifices her own children to idols, and forgets her youth when she was naked, bare and kicking about in her own blood when rescued by God. Here's the passage, however, that really struck home for me as an allegory of our country at this time.

Ez 16:32-35 " You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! 33 Every prostitute receives a fee, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors. 34 So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you."

Comments on the Berg-Obama legal standing case

American Thinker (article by Mark J. Fitzgibbons) stopped by to respond to D. who left a response here calling Mark J. Fitzgibbons an idiot (I had quoted him). The backstory is: dismissing a challenge to Obama's constitutional qualifications to run for President on grounds that a mere citizen does not have legal standing to sue. I couldn't find a photo of Mr. D., so I googled his image, finding this D shaped exit hole made by an Emerald Ash Borrer. So here's the response.

"First of all, thank you for blogging about the issues I raised in my piece in American Thinker, "Who Enforces the Constitution's Natural Born Citizen Clause?"

The comment of this person "d" neglects that my piece does in fact address and criticize Senator McCain's motion to dismiss for lack of standing.

This person "d" refers to himself as a lawyer, as in "we lawyers." "This" lawyers did address the importance of standing in my article. And I also address, without the luxury of space in that article, the fact that courts have given somewhat wider standing latitude when constitutional rights are being litigated. I know this from having written briefs in constitutional cases, including before the United States Supreme Court. I am also very much aware that the mere raising of a constitutional claim does not create standing. However, as my article does address, the court-made doctrine of standing should not preclude citizens from enforcing the Constitution in this case, and should not be assumed to be broader than the Constitution itself to the point that the Constitution may not be enforced by citizens, which certainly would be the opposite of the intent of that document.

Since I assuredly won't be asking "d" to be co-counsel in any case, I am not worried about his criticism of Mr. Berg's failure establish facts at the pleading stage in a manner consistent with evidentiary standards. Since the case was dismissed before discovery was had, we do not know whether the allegations contained in the pleadings lacked merit or not. And I know that "d," as one of "we lawyers," would be able to blog about the best evidence rule for all the people who have relied on FactCheck.org as conclusive evidence of Senator Obama's natural born citizen status.

Therefore, as you so aptly state, lawyers and judges do sometimes "use exactly the same law and/or regulation to mean the exact opposite if its intent." The Roman historian Tacitus wrote about that, and how it aided the fall of the Roman Empire. Indeed, the "inconvenience of facts," a term employed by "d," may have been avoided by resorting to judicial doctrines instead of the Constitution itself, which is why the decision in the Berg case has offended so many people."

Now if Mr. D. will just come back. I suspect he was an Obama-robo-spider, crawling the internet with pre-planned responses. Here, Spiddy, here Spiddy. Come and get it.

I revisited the original post at American Thinker and found 81 comments. I don't know if D dropped by to offer suggestions there or if he just picks on little old ladies. But the responses are well worth reading, if you have the time.

Environmental Stewardship Study Guide

The May 2008 The Lutheran features a cover topic "Stewarding God's creation," with a study guide on p. 19.


The author of the guide, Robert C. Blezard, has a MDiv from Boston University with some additional work at Lutheran seminaries at Gettysburg, PA and Philadelphia. I haven't been to seminary and I've only had enough science (4 years in high school, 1 year in college) to meet graduation requirements. But folks, this guide is not a guide, it is a political tract.

How do you write a study guide for a Christian journal that doesn't guide, doesn't encourage study, isn't Biblical, isn't accurate historically and isn't scientific? Is it any wonder ELCA is losing members to more conservative denominations who have something to say, or to agnosticism which says, I don't know?

For starters, "stewardship" isn't a "clunky term." Adding a suffix to a verb or noun is a perfectly acceptable way to create another noun--kinship, friendship, guardianship, etc. It's not clunky; it's the way our language expands on an idea. Why the author thought the word even needed explanation, I don't know--Christians have been having "stewardship Sunday" forever. And why chose the most narrow definition of steward, i.e., NOT the owner, when it means manager, agent, superviser and director?

And how does a pastor/writer ask "Who's world is it anyway? Who created it?" without offering a few Bible verses? It's unreasonable for the writer to assume the participants have been taught anything except evolution in school, everything and everyone evolved from a blob of something or a big blast, unless they were homeschooled! I attended elementary school in the 1940s and 1950s and even I only learned evolution--several shifting versions and different timelines. Here's a few suggestions for Pastor Blezard:

Gen. 1:1, Ps 90:2, Jeremiah 10:6, Isaiah 43:10, Revelation 4:11, Job 38:4-7.

Why waste limited space (it's a one page guide) with poorly constructed questions guaranteed to get a one word answer such as,

"If a steward of a plantation farms in a way that depletes the soil and jeopardizes future cultivation, is that good stewardship?"

A plantation? Hey! bring it on home--ever heard of a farm, garden or flower pot? Then he goes on to present only two models of how billions of people in thousands of cultures have viewed the earth, either

1) endless and indestructible or 2) finite and fragile.

My area of research was agricultural journals of the 19th century, and be assured there were minimally educated people with great sophistication on how to care for and improve the land (and organizations such as extension to teach those who didn't know), and in most cultures people knew enough about their local living conditions, forests, deserts, and mountains not to contaminate them.

Along with endless questions and no Biblical references, the author makes statements with no footnotes that may or may not be true, but we know he believes them.

We are now 6 billion strong and the Earth is showing great signs of strain

Larry Rasmussen says the Hebrew words are better rendered "to serve and protect." (Genesis 2:15)

Use of Earth (note the capital letter) resources, both renewable and nonrenewable, is escalating at an alarming rate, with dire consequences.

Global warming is just one consequence, along with a shrinking wildlife habitat, dwindling freshwater supplies, collapse of fisheries, species extinction, and degradation of air and water.

Scientists say these pressures imperil the capacity of the planet to sustain life.

Not a reference or footnote. And who is Larry Rasmussen? His neighbor? Cousin?

Then comes a long list of questions (Exercise 4) that just beg for a few statistics if they are going to be discussed. I write a lot about buildings, consumerism, food, applicances, etc., yet off the top of my head, if I had to discuss with fellow church members the size of houses and cars in my life time, we'd be reduced to reminiscing about the family Chevy and grandma's house.

I'm bullish on protecting Lake Erie and keeping the western states from piping our fresh water to deserts that were never intended to be agricultural land, but Exercise 5 is really weak. He seems stuck back in the 1970s when no one swam in the Great Lakes and there was no regulation of waste (or when the mid-west still had industries).

Again, he gives an either or statement:

Should human health or economic interests come first in making decisions?

When DDT was removed from the international market, was the human health of the Africans considered, or just a few Americans who wanted to run free and barefoot through the grass birdwatching? Let's define some terms here. Economics for who? Haitians? Rwandans? Maybe they'd like some of the lifestyle we denigrate as "poverty." Maybe they'd just once like the opportunity to be overweight or obese.

Since the first paragraph says,

"God gave us a perfect home, full of life and resources, and charges us to take care of it,"

I think it would be appropriate for a Lutheran pastor to mention the Fall. The world isn't perfect, Pastor, and hasn't been for thousands of years. Creation ended with God's stamp of approval and he pronounced it VERY GOOD. Not a single industry, business, government, culture or smoke stack messed it up. Man was deceived by Satan, began to doubt, then denied what God said, and then disobeyed. Deceit, doubt, denial and disobedience continue to this day, and is probably most evident in the pantheism of global warmism and worship of the environment and "Mother Earth."

God has the solution for sin, and the first paragraph would have been the perfect spot to insert the name of Jesus and his work on our behalf on the cross. I think it's good to always let your readers know where you're coming from, and Jesus' name appears no where in this guide for Lutheran Christians. So next time. . . let's put it right up front and go from there.

Obama plans to bankrupt Ohio's coal industry

Oh sure you can build it, but no one will come.

"So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted." B.O.

That's like telling Iowans they can't grow corn. Floridians they can't invite tourists. New Yorkers they can't borrow money. Detroit they can't build cars.

Listen to this terrifying (for Ohioans) interview

HT BizzyBlog.

A sinner saved by grace

Remember Mr. T? He was one my son's favorite TV characters. He has a nice testimony at Belief.net.

I was baptized when I was four years old. But when you’re younger you really don’t understand that stuff. Then I got rebaptized in 1977. As a Christian you forgive and you feed the hungry, and clothe the naked, and you visit the sick, and comfort the lonely. If I’m a true follower of my lord and savior Jesus Christ, I got to do the things you’re supposed to be doing. You just can’t say, "I believe in Jesus" and then don’t forgive somebody [or] hold a grudge against somebody. Don’t get me wrong--if somebody jumps me I’m gonna fight, but I don't send out hate vibes if I don’t like that person or the way that they dress. That’s negative energy. Then there is a contradiction to the God I serve, the God of love. He forgave me, and I should do good to the people who cross me.

In 1979, before I got famous, there was a contest called the Toughest Bouncer in America. I used to bodyguard for some celebrities and other people, and when I wasn’t doing that I used to work at a disco as a doorman or a bouncer. When I started training for the contest I called my pastor, Rev. Henry Hardy of Cosmopolitan Community Church [in Chicago]. I’ve been going there since 1977. I said, “Pastor Hardy, they’re having a contest, and when I win this contest I’m going to give you the money, so you can buy food and clothes for less fortunate people in the community." I won two years in a row—it was over $10,000. I didn’t have no car then, but I was blessed. So I gave the money freely, and then my blessing came back in the form of "Rocky III." A very nice interview here.

Voters to Weigh In on Ballot Initiatives on Election Day

In my opinion, if the moral leadership at the top is as deformed and stunted as Obama's, the local issues may not matter that much, but we all have local issues--school bonds, rezoning, e-regs, gambling casinos, and the ones that aren't clear--like Ohio's payday lenders. Here's a item from my husband's AIA newsletter, The Angle. I think architects must be torn. On the one hand, they are small businesses, and salaries and commissions are low. Obama's new taxes will kill the little guy, opening up more opportunities for the mid-size and larger firms to move in for the kill. On the other hand, they can't make it without the government contracts, and they are salivating over the go-green hype.

"Next Tuesday’s election has voters buzzing about the presidential candidates and the many congressional, state, and local races. However, ballot initiatives, unless they are highly controversial, tend to fly under the radar and do not receive the necessary press coverage so voters can fully understand the issues.

In this election, there are 152 initiatives on ballots across the nation.“Ballot initiatives bypass legislatures and put lawmaking power directly in the hands of the people,” notes Billie Kaumaya, manager of AIA State Relations. “For this reason, it is very important for voters to research each issue and to make an informed decision.”With that in mind, the State Relations team has compiled a chart of just some of the initiatives on the ballot next week that may impact architects and encourages members to further investigate these initiatives:

Taxation Initiative Summary

Arizona Proposition 100: Prohibits state and local governments from establishing a new tax or fee on the sale, purchase, or transfer of real property.

LiabilityInitiative Summary

Arizona Ballot Number 201: Issues a Homeowners’ Bill of Rights.
Sustainability/Energy Efficiency Initiative Summary

California Proposition 7: Requires utilities to generate 20% of their power from renewable energy by 2010, 40% by 2020, and 50% by 2025.

California Proposition 10: Provides $1.25 billion for research, development, and production of renewable energy technology and offers incentives for purchasing solar and renewable energy technology.

Florida Ballot Number 3: Authorizes the government to prohibit consideration of the installation of renewable energy source devices as a factor in property assessments for tax purposes.

Missouri Proposition C: Requires investor-owned electric utilities to generate or purchase electricity from renewable energy sources. Requires 2% of the retail sales to be from renewable sources by 2011, 5% by 2014, 10% by 2018, and 15% by 2021.

Land Use Initiative Summary

Georgia Amendment 3: Authorizes the state legislature to provide for the creation and regulation of infrastructure development districts. Allows counties and municipalities affected by these districts to approve their creation.

Louisiana Amendment 6: Removes certain restrictions for the taking of blighted property when property is taken for the removal of a threat to public health or safety caused by the existing use or disuse of the property.

Nevada Question 2: Prohibits the government from occupying property taken in an eminent domain action until the government provides all property appraisals. Requires the government to prove that property taken in an eminent domain action be taken for “public use.” Provides that just compensation be at the highest assessed value. (Nevada law requires constitutional amendments to pass in 2 consecutive elections. This also passed in November 2006).

Rhode Island Question 2: Authorizes a $2.5 million bond to purchase or protect conservation easements and public recreation easements, greenways and other open space, recreation lands, agriculture lands, forested lands, and state parks.

Water Infrastructure Initiative Summary

Maine Question 3: Authorizes the state to issue a $3.4 million bond to raise funds for drinking water and wastewater programs, including the construction of such facilities.

Missouri Constitutional Amendment 4: Limits the availability of grants and loans to public water and sewer districts only. Removes the limits on the amount of funds available.

Ohio Issue 3 Protects: private-property rights for owners of land with underlying groundwater or non-navigable waters located on or flowing through the property.

Pennsylvania Bond Question: Authorizes the state to borrow $400 million for grants and loans for the acquisition, construction, improvement, expansion, extension, repair or rehabilitation of drinking water system, storm water and no-point source projects, nutrient credits, and wastewater treatment system projects.

Building Permits Initiative Summary

Oregon Measure 63: Exempts owners of residential or farm property from building, plumbing, electrical, and mechanical permits and inspections when making certain changes or those totaling less than $35,000 in one year.

To view all of the ballot initiatives in your state, please visit your state’s election page."

Sarah Palin will appear at Road to Victory Rallies in Canton, Marietta, Columbus and Owensville today!

Road to Victory Rally with Sarah Palin-Canton, OH

McKinley Senior High School

Canton Memorial Fieldhouse

1735 Harrison AvenueCanton, OH 44708

Sunday, November 2ndDoors Open: 9am

Road to Victory Rally with Sarah Palin-Marietta, OH

Marietta College Dyson Baudo Recreation Center

215 Fifth Street Marietta, OH 45750

Sunday, November 2nd Doors Open: 11:30am

Road to Victory Rally with Sarah Palin-Columbus, OH

Lane Aviation - Rickenbacker International Airport

2295 John Circle DriveColumbus, OH 43217

November 2nd

Doors Open: 2pm

And November 3rd, tomorrow at

Road to Victory Rally with Sarah Palin-Lakewood, OH

Lakewood Park14532 Lake Avenue(at Belle Avenue)

Lakewood, Ohio 44107

Monday, November 3rd

Doors Open: 6:30am

It's your money

This is a composite of two ads that have come to the house--don't know if they are on TV because I don't watch it much. The guy in the middle is Tony Rezko, whom you may remember is under the bus with grandma, Rev. Wright, and Father Phleger until the pardon comes through. A dear Friend and Fundraiser. The one on the right looks a little like Bill Ayers, unrepentent terrorist, but is actually Allison Davis, who got a $20 million piece of pork. Davis and Rezko were partners, but the connection to Obama goes further back--Obama used to work for him (a lawyer). The Sun Times says Davis' father was the University of Chicago's first African-American professor, and maybe so, but in the photo he's lighter than I am. When I worked at OSU our minority recruiter told me you only needed to be 1/32 minority to qualify for a scholarship or aid, and I think Davis misses that by at least one generation.

The man on the left is Kenny Smith, a campaign volunteer, who got a $100,000 grant and is being investigated (as of 9/25/08). Now it's small potatoes compared to the credit card fraud to raise campaign money, and the Tony Rezko deal, but I think those of you from Illinois ought to peek under the kickback rug of his Illinois campaign to see what other pots are calling the kettle black.

A $100,000 state of Illinois grant for a botanic garden in Englewood was awarded by Obama in 2001 to a group headed by a onetime campaign volunteer, Kenny Smith. It was never built, plus according to the Sun-Times, $65,000 of the grant money went to his wife. Kenny B. Smith, heads the Chicago Better Housing Association, which was in charge of the project for the blighted South Side neighborhood. He was a volunteer in the Illinois congressional campaign. Smith wrote another $20,000 in grant-related checks to K.D. Contractors, a construction company that his wife, Karen D. Smith, created five months after work on the garden was supposed to have begun, records show. K.D. is no longer in business. Well, what a surprise. Condensed a bit from the Sun Times story.

But the original plans for this Englewood garden goes further back and awarding state money, back to Obama's failed congressional race. Obama vowed to "work tirelessly" to raise $1.1 million to help Smith's organization turn the City of Chicago-owned lot into an oasis of trees and paths. But Obama lost that race, no more money was raised, and today the garden site is a mess of weeds, chunks of concrete and garbage. The only noticeable improvement is a gazebo. Try, try again. He still owed Kenny and Karen.

The AG of Illinois, Lisa Madigan, is a Democrat, and just like our Jennifer Brunner in Ohio she's really had a struggle figuring out if there's been any hanky panky. (It almost makes me wonder if women should have been given the vote--weren't they going to do things differently, dump the good-ol-boy stuff?) The article I found was over a month ago, and I don't recall any outrage about this like what exploded over Joe the Plumber's small tax lein in Ohio and giving his middle name. His story made international news overnight with the help of someone "plumbing" the computer records of the State of Ohio's computers. What is it with Illinois' AG--doesn't anyone know how to hack the records?

What's for dinner?

Lots of bloggers write about the facts of life things--menus, cleaning, health tips, auto-repair, etc. I need to once in awhile because of my unrelenting Obama-Bashing during the campaign. I mean you could go crazy looking at all the Obama lies and mess ups. Today after church in the narthex, a blog reader came up to me and said, "Norma, why don't you just say what you mean, speak your mind?" Being funny of course.

So for dinner today:

baked, wild caught salmon
baked red skin potatoes
tossed salad with cherry tomatoes, broccoli, mushrooms and shredded carrots
sugar free banana chocolate pudding topped with fresh raspberries

Best campaign video I've seen

Also the best quality and the most informative. Great voice-over. Watch the whole thing. What I like is the theme, "words matter. I don't know who you are."

Who could support such a heinous crime?

Barack Obama does.

"This Act may be cited as the "Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003"

SEC. 2 FINDINGS

The Congress finds and declares the following:

(1) A moral, medical, and ethical consensus exists that the practice of performing a partial-birth abortion -- an abortion in which a physician delivers an unborn child's body until only the head remains inside the womb, punctures the back of the child's skull with a Sharp instrument, and sucks the child's brains out before completing deliveryof the dead infant -- is a gruesome and inhumane procedure that is never medically necessaryand should be prohibited.

(2) Rather than being an abortion procedurethat is embraced by the medical community, particularly among physicians who routinely perform other abortion procedures, partial-birth abortion remains a disfavored procedure that is not only unnecessary to preserve the health of the mother, but in fact poses serious risks to the long-term health of women and in some circumstances, their lives. As a result, at least 27 States banned the procedure as did the United States Congress which voted to ban the procedure during the 104th, 105th, and 106th Congresses." . . . "
(N) Implicitly approving such a brutal and inhumane procedure by choosing not to prohibit it will further coarsen society to the humanity of not only newborns, but all vulnerable and innocent human life, making it increasingly difficult to protect such life. Thus, Congress has a compelling interest in acting -- indeed it must act -- to prohibit this inhumane procedure."

Obama is the most radical proponent of abortion to have ever been elected to the U.S. Congress. As the Act states, his beliefs have further coarsened our society to all vulnerable and innocent human life, lives like Sarah Palin's child, who pro-abortion forces would have preferred to be killed because of an extra chromosome. Barack Obama gets a 100% rating from NARAL. Abortion is at genocide levels in the black community. This man has a lot of hate and fear--for his father's race. Look how he's treated his own family.

"Abortion is an evil the scope of which and depths of which very few people in our culture feel. The magnitude of it’s just horrific. . . 12 million black babies dead since 1973. I don’t think Barack Obama will touch that with a ten foot pole. And he should. . . He’s the most radical abortion proponent in the United States Congress, and that’s tragic.” John Piper, who has one of the best messages I've ever heard for panicked Christians on both sides on the sovereignty of God and what Christians are to be doing.

No one will investigate if he wins

Now we now how he was able to beat the Clinton machine, don't we? Look out Democrats. You're next.

"On the grubby little racket of his online credit card fraud, Senator Obama merely has to run out the clock now. If it's not exposed before Tuesday, no one is going to have any appetite for investigating it once he's won."

Worse than we thought. Well, it does make us look pretty silly for exporting democracy, doesn't it?

Two-thirds of the record-breaking haul Obama raised for the final stretch of the campaign comes from a racket set up to facilitate fake names, phony addresses and untraceable cards.

With Obama, the end justifies the means. It always does for marxists.

Watching the movie Face in the Crowd tonight. Very instructive.

. . .Lonesome Rhodes, small time hick crook, becomes the national TV spokesman for Vitajex, an innocuous dietary supplement. A frenetic montage of Rhodes's hyperbolic ads for Vitajex is one of the film's most memorable sequences, highlighting the presumed gullibility of the American public to a persuasive con-artist. In the tradition of classical tragedy, Rhodes is undone by his thirst for power and by Marcia Jeffries who, despite building his stardom, becomes so fed up that she allows him to expose his contempt for his fans on the air.

As a "Cracker Barrel" broadcast ends, Rhodes is shown, with sound off and an announcer doing a voiceover, smiling and waving to the camera as he speaks contemptuously of his audience. In the control room, Marcia and the technical staff hear him continue to mock his viewers as "idiots," "morons," "guinea pigs." Fed up with Rhodes's betrayal, aware she helped create the monster, Jeffries pushes slide switches that throw Rhodes's comments on the air. In minutes, furious, betrayed fans who heard the remarks are calling the network. In a symbolic moment, an unaware Rhodes's popularity is shown plummeting as he rides an elevator down following the show. The film ends with a meltdown. . . On the street, Marcia falters when she hears Lonesome screaming for her, but Mel bolsters her by stating that although they were all taken in by Lonesome's allure, their strength lies in the fact that they can now discern fantasy from reality.

Tax Attack

Someone show this to Senator Obama.



"Declaring that the "Corporate Tax Must Come Down," Andrew Patterson of Edmond, Oklahoma won the first prize of $5,000 in the Tax Foundation's CompeteUSA YouTube Contest with a video called "Tax Attack." The contest was part of the CompeteUSA campaign which aims at raising awareness of America's high business tax rates and how those taxes have an impact on our competitiveness, wages, and living standards.

In "Tax Attack," Patterson highlights that businesses make everyday decisions based on corporate tax systems and that our high business taxes are making American corporations look internationally for their offices, banking, labor and operations. Patterson, who lives in Edmond, Oklahoma, is a business owner himself, providing film and postproduction services to companies including retailers, business firms, nonprofit organizations and natural gas companies."

Seems we're already doing a lot of that wealth redistribution Mr. Obama likes so much, but how's he going to get American companies to come home? Force them so he can tax them more?

Cory the well driller

writes to Senator Obama. He's Joe the Plumber a few years later. Started with nothing, borrowed money, spent his own sweat, expanded, created jobs, provided a service, and became successful. I won't post the letter here, but I have gone to Cory's web site and he is exactly who he says he is. Cory Miller's letter to Senator Obama.It's quite long--go to the link and read the whole thing.

"You see, Mr. Obama, I’m the guy you intend to raise taxes on. I’m the guy who has spent 25 years toiling and sweating, fretting and fighting, stressing and risking, to build a business and get ahead. I’m the guy who has been on the very edge of bankruptcy more than a dozen times over the last 25 years, and all the while creating more and more jobs for East Texans who didn’t want to take a risk, and wouldn’t demand from themselves what I have demanded from myself. I’m the guy you characterize as “the Americans who can afford it the most” that you believe should be taxed more to provide income redistribution “to spread the wealth” to those who have never toiled, sweated, fretted, fought, stressed, or risked anything. You want to characterize me as someone who has enjoyed a life of privilege and who needs to pay a higher percentage of my income than those who have bought into your entitlement culture. I resent you, Mr. Obama, as I resent all who want to use class warfare as a tool to advance their political career. What’s worse, each year more Americans buy into your liberal entitlement culture, and turn to the government for their hope of a better life instead of themselves. Liberals are succeeding through more than 40 years of collaborative effort between the predominant liberal media, and liberal indoctrination programs in the public school systems across our land. . . Mr. Obama, your political philosophies represent everything that is wrong with our country."

Today is All Saints Day

Tomorrow, All Saints Sunday, in church at the 8:15 service on Lytham Road (Upper Arlington Lutheran Church) the names of our loved ones in heaven will be read during the service.



Video of “For All the Saints” comes from a worship service at Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church in Arlington, Virginia. One of my favorite hymns.

All Saints is Allhallows. So Halloween (which is not a Christian festival) is the Eve of Allhallows. The first general observance of All Saints' Day was ordered by Pope Gregory IV in 837.

Obama's marxism a bit dated

It's no wonder I recognized it from my college courses--he's apparently stuck back in the 1960s and 1970s with Bill Ayers and friends, while Europe and Asia struggle to release themselves from his type of chains. Here's a summary about marxism in Asia at the Irish Left Review.

From Marx to the Market
Not so long ago, there seemed to be a very different light shining from the East. It’s barely thirty years since the final defeat of the South Vietnamese regime set the seal on the most humiliating defeat the USA has suffered since appointing itself as the world’s policeman after 1945. The victory of the Vietnamese Communists was one by-product of a curious fact: the Communist International, founded by the Bolsheviks with the primary goal of spreading revolution in Western Europe, had its greatest impact in East Asia. Nobody would have found that more surprising than the Bolsheviks themselves.

Communist parties were able to take power under their own steam in China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The Korean Communists had the benefit of support from the Red Army but still had a strong domestic base when they took over the north of their country. There were also long-running Communist insurgencies in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, while Indonesia was once home to the largest non-ruling Communist party in the world.

A quick glance at the regional scene will tell you that the challenge once posed by Asian Communism to the capitalist order has been almost entirely eclipsed. The Indonesia CP was smashed by Suharto’s bloody coup in the 1960s, while the Communist guerrillas in Thailand and Malaysia have long since been defeated. The Filipino CPP/NPA survives, but is a much diminished force. The turnaround is most striking, though, in the states where Communist parties or their descendents are still in power.

China’s great leap forward has grounded itself on the embrace of private enterprise (although not, it should be said, the dogma of the Washington Consensus). . . and much more."

The author neglects to mention the millions of deaths of our South Vietnamese allies caused by the shameful exit of the U.S. at the end of the war; or the millions and millions of Chinese who met their early deaths on the road to restoring the economy of China before it scambled on their bodies to capitalism. Oh well.

Yes, Theresa, it is a single issue election

Character. The sum of those distinctive mental and moral qualities, and those traits instilled by nature, education religion and habit. Theresa Hogan has a long article on the Op-Ed page of the Dispatch today, claiming some Republicans are voting a single issue, ABORTION. Well, that would be enough for me, but the single issue for me is the man Barack Obama. I don't care if he is a Christian, Muslim or Buddhist. He must be a man of character.

• His Supreme Court and lower court nominees.
  
• Who will be rubber stamped because he'll have a filibuster-proof Congress.
  
• Who will decide critical cases based on their personal feelings and beliefs rather than the Constitution.
  
• Which Obama sees as a mere list of negatives.
  
• His tax plan and rescinding the Bush tax cuts.
  
• Taxes imposed because of his idea of fairness, not need.
  
• Which will destroy our economy with the same heavy hand that FDR used in the 1930s to extend and expand the Great Depression another 10 years after he took office.
  
• His disregard for our security and the military.
  
• A flaw so large that even his enemies have sensed it sending warnings through Joe Biden.
  
• His willingness to run out on our allies, regardless of the circumstances that took us into the war, or what will get us out.
  
• His unwillingness to face the serious charge of being a socialist by joking about sharing in grade school but never answering the charge.
  
• His prancing around Europe like he was an elected leader, claiming to be a citizen of the world. Posing with symbols of fascism.
  
• His address to the nation (infomercial) before he has been elected.
  
• His choice of friends and associates, known terrorists, crooks and race baiters, while at the same time showing complete disregard for the living conditions and feelings of his blood relatives, white and black.
  
• His inability to identify with or respect rural and working people and their values.
  
• His lying about his position as "professor" when he was only a "lecturer," then using his attack troops in the press to go after Joe the Plumber because he hadn't passed his apprenticeship, and used his middle name (Obama doesn't like to use his).
  
• The same lackey press who have been unable to find a thing askew in Obama's college record, employment history, his friendships, or his family.
  
• His lack of experience--well, Theresa, dear heart, that's as wispy and dangerous as the web of the recluse spider (shy, lonely and sedentary, weaving its web in high and dark corners).