Category Family

Feb 26 2015

Thwart the Raider

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 529.  This bill strengthens and expands the 529 College Savings program, which many American families use to save funds for the children’s college expenses.  This was passed in the face of the President’s attempt to raid the 529 program to support his budget.  This comes on the heels of revelations that the President intends to also raid funds from the Veteran’s Choice program in his budget proposal.

Of the 529 program and H.R.529, U.S Congressman Bruce Poliquin is on record stating, “We should be doing things to ease the burden of college and its financial costs, rather than making it harder for our kids to have a successful college experience.  Also, we should never penalize our families for trying to plan ahead.”  It seems the President disagrees with Mr. Poliquin, as he is determined to steal monies from our brave veterans and then our children trying to further their education in order to cover his fiscal ineptitude.

Feb 23 2015

The Last Stand: The Bait

“If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.” This simple but poignant quote from Ronald Reagan was never more appropriate than the day and age in which we live today. Much of the liberties we have enjoyed in our past now stand alone on the precipice, teetering on the jagged edge of the deep chasm of tyranny.

It is no secret that in some corners of our society the well of tolerance towards those of Christian faith has dwindled to a small stagnant puddle or a dusty dry cistern. The teachings of love, salvation, redemption, yes, that arcane Pilgrim’s Progress towards that Celestial City, are viewed with a thinly veiled contempt or the open disdain that moral virtue is the scourge of civilization and must be removed. The American Christian now finds himself walking through the gilded streets of Bunyan’s Vanity Fair.

If Christians could just dispense with the profession of their faith and betray their convictions there would be no trouble, for this is what political and societal elites are demanding. What seems logical to the self-preservationist is unfathomable to a person of faith. This is the crux of the issue, faith, a belief in something bigger than themselves with vows and allegiances they cannot compromise; therefore, an easy target.

With a humanistic snort of disgust, the elitist feels compelled to remove or reeducate the weak-minded who cling to their obstructive convictions. Obstructive to whom and who are really the weak-minded? When did we become a Nation of such squeamish constitution and so flimsy a skeletal structure that a mere differing belief, disproval or even rebuke of ones actions somehow decimates a person’s freedom and the offender must be punished with the whole weight of the bludgeon of government?

The cry and the hue of late seems to that of liberty, yet the cry of liberty for some has been modernized to say, “Give me liberty and give them death!” Any that hold to the belief of moral absolutes are targeted for removal from influence in society. The “weakness” of conviction must bow to the “strength” of relativism; it’s the natural selection of civilization.

So just as the political rivals of the Hebrew Daniel convinced the King of Babylon to outlaw prayer knowing full well Daniel would not compromise his convictions, the trap has been set for Christians here in the United States. The traditions of procreation, marriage, are sacred within Christianity, as Christians are given a Biblical command to “raise up a Godly seed” and pass on the principles of Christ to each generation. These sacred traditions are now the bait to justify the persecution of Christians in this Country.

A recent political cartoon I happened across mocked the hypocrisy of relativism that is so prevalent in our society today. Two individuals are remarking over recent news. One tells the other that first, a hotel is refusing to have Bibles in its rooms, secondly, a mall is banning prayer, and thirdly, conservatives are complaining that Facebook is screening and blocking posts, all to which the other individual responds that these are a private businesses. It is their right.

When the first individual observes that several businesses have refused to participate in gay-marriages because of their religious beliefs, the other individual is furious and demands that the government punish these businesses. This would be humorous if not for the consequences of the hard irony. Again we have selective liberty, with just Christians targeted for denial of basic liberties and removal from the workplace of society.

Ask Barronelle Stutzman a Washington State florist, who had served a male customer, knowing he was gay, for years without discrimination. When he decided to have a gay marriage, Stutzman declined to do his floral arrangements on the basis of her beliefs, and instead referred him to another florist. This other florist provided the flowers to the man, and other florists even offered free flowers. Still the 72-year-old grandmother was sued, the Washington Courts have taken away her business, and ruled that all her personal belongings are now subject to suit…. because of her beliefs. She was targeted.

Whether you believe in the value of marriage or not, you should believe in the value of freedom. The political disposition of today despises the tenants of faith. Yes, although the tradition of heterosexual marriage is not exclusive to Christianity, Christians hold marriage as one of the fundamental rites that bind the foundation of their faith. While some will find smug satisfaction in the persecutions of Christians and their unshakable convictions, be wary that the bludgeon does not swing both ways.

As we trudge down this tired and over trodden road towards the doom of repeated history, ask yourself this: If a government can target a private business based on the religious beliefs of the proprietor, what is to keep it from targeting others for new things it deems intolerant? Beware of the other shoe! It just might drop. When we allow fools to march in and take away the decency and civility that was once the hallmark of our civilization, we have doomed liberty to die here in her last stand.

Updated:  Barronelle Stutzman has been offered a settlement by the State of Washington’s  Attorney General.  Stutzman would only have to pay a $2000.00 dollar fine and  one dollar in legal fees, but she must agree to contribute her services to gay marriages and dispense with her beliefs.  The 72 year old florist has written a letter to reject the A/G’s offer.  In the letter she states, “Your offer reveals that you don’t really understand me or what this conflict is all about. It’s about freedom, not money.  I certainly don’t relish the idea of losing my business, my home, and everything else that your lawsuit threatens to take from my family, but my freedom to honor God in doing what I do best is more important.”

Feb 1 2014

Gut Punch

 

 

Everyone has been there.  We all should empathize.  It’s that feeling when you’ve been betrayed, you are cornered with no recourse and there is no possible way to win.  At one time or another, we have all felt that way.

That’s why I am uncomfortable with the name-calling that has issued from the conservative side of the political divide as all the dire predictions concerning this President have come to fruition.  Frustration at those who voted for this experiment in socialized medicine has boiled over and, as the price tag hits the American main street, it’s easy to shout, “You voted for it, now how do you like it?!!!” or “You get what you deserve!!”  I have been as guilty as others of making snide, perhaps tasteless, but certainly sarcastic remarks at peoples’ unfortunate circumstances. Now, I have come to understand and be reminded – these are my fellow Americans.  No matter who or what they voted for, they now face a future of despair.  Hope and Change has decimated their own hope of a better future for themselves and those they love.

I recently saw a news report that documented the reaction of workers in an urban auto body shop.  The expression of despair on these blue-collar workers’ as they looked at their new premiums under Obamacare was heart wrenching to watch. There was no space to gloat.  No desire to say, “I told you so”.  Just the wish that I, a fellow American, could have some power to make everything right again and takes us back to when things seemed more sane.

Who knows what these workers’ political ideology is?  I don’t!  And I don’t care.  I have felt that same sick feeling of despair in the pit of my stomach.  That same feeling when it seems the perfect storm of calamity is upon you and it can’t possibly get worse.  Then, it does.

It feels like a gut punch, the feeling that the control of your future has been taken out of your hands.  It’s like watching every dream evaporate and you are bound and helpless to prevent it.  That’s what I saw in those, my fellow Americans, eyes.

Much has been said about the great divide within our Nation.  Perhaps the disaster that has been this Presidency can have one positive effect.  Maybe, it can unify us.

Let us remember that one size does not fit all Americans because we are so diverse.  Let us return to the standards that celebrated individuals and that our differences are what make up all the great pieces to this great engine of the United States.  But most of all, let’s show compassion to our fellow Americans who have been betrayed by this President.

Deepening the divide will not help us. It will destroy us.  This President has proven what a majority of us knew all along; the government cannot help us.  So, let’s do what Americans have always done.  We can stand together again. Together we can rise from the ashes of this disaster the same way we have risen from every other disaster.  But we must choose to stand.

Aug 9 2013

Redunculous

 

No, it is not a spelling error…really.  And, no, it’s not a word… yet.  It’s just one of my specialty.  A word coined to help find the appropriate emotion to attach to a situation.  This, the latest of my installments to the Webster’s dictionary, is the combination of the words redundant and ridiculous. I did this all by myself.  For some reason, Webster keeps sending back my offerings of literary coinage and asked that I please stop, as it has caused the great patriarch of the book, Noah Webster himself, to turn incessantly in his grave.  I guess that would be rather unsettling.

But I like the word.  It has an essence to it, the essence of economy.  Oh yes, I economized.  We all have to nowadays.  I took the two most prevalent manifestations of the liberal mind, redundant and ridiculous behavior. I combined them into one word and, now, I can respond to them both at once.  I….I….feel so focused.

And quite timely, I might add, because we have had a slew of redunculous behavior swirling around the State of Maine.  We just had the Senate President, Justin Alfond, make a speech assuring State workers an increase in the pensions and wages, while the those in private sector, who pay for those wages and pensions with their taxes, can barely put food on the table for their families.  This was a follow up to his speech attacking private schools.  The Senate President doesn’t seem to be fond of the private sector.

Mr. Alfond suffers from the liberal illusion that Maine people have an unlimited supply of revenue and that we work at our jobs simply to give it to him to disperse amongst his government allies.  I have to agree with the great conservative apologist Thomas Sowell who asked, “…why it is ‘greed’ to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take someone else’s money.”  Alas, I fear Alfond and his allies think its good policy; that is, if you look at the budget they passed. Tax increases to pay for those government employee raises.

Strange, Maine is looking at a $58 million surplus for the closing fiscal year, before these tax increases.  So, why, Mr. Alfond, would you want to increase taxes on a struggling economy when you don’t need to?  Oh, is that my “greedy” old self, wanting to keep my money in my wallet for my family to use.  I’m just so greedy that way.

That leads me to another issue to be resolved.  Recently, I criticized those activists, who seem bent on telling people what to do in their own backyards.  I feel very strongly about the sanctity and privacy of a person’s private lands.  I have been rebuked by some of those activists, saying that if I don’t want anyone to tell me what to do in my backyard then I shouldn’t criticize public government officials.

Let me try to help and clarify the issue.  There is a huge difference between private and public issues.  I do not criticize any official on what he does in his private home and on his private lands.  I have, and will continue to do so, criticized public officials on the actions or inactions in the public tax funded sector.  It is the taxpayer’s job, since our dollars fund their public decisions, to critique the exercise of their representative duties.

Secondly, I have been admonished that, because I am a Christian, I should not publicly criticize or rebuke public officials.  This individual obviously did not read the story of Jesus cleansing the Temple, nor has he read the accounts of Paul the Apostle rebuking Roman leaders to their very face, also of rebuking Peter to his face.  The idea that I should abdicate my God-given liberties for the sake of some contrived sense of propriety and allow myself to be relegated to the doormat of society as a reflection of my faith has no intellectual, Constitutional or, for that matter, Biblical merit.  The very conception of such an idea is utterly and unequivocally redunculous.