political left
Tyranny at its best!
Subject:Letter By Laura Hollis Of Notre Dame
This comes from Notre Dame. What a powerful and true letter by Associate Law Professor Laura Hollis of Notre Dame.
A MUST read if you care about your country, your health and your future.
November 20, 2013
The unveiling of the dictatorial debacle that is Obamacare absolutely flabbergasts me. It is stunning on so many levels, but the most shocking aspect of it for me is watching millions of free Americans stand idly by while this man, his minions in Congress and his cheerleaders in the press systematically dismantle our Constitution, steal our money, and crush our freedoms.
The President, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (with no small help from Justice John Roberts) take away our health care – and we allow it. They take away our insurance – and we allow it. They take away our doctors – and we allow it. They charge us thousands of dollars more a year – and we allow it. They make legal products illegal – and we allow it. They cripple our businesses – and we allow it. They announce by fiat that we must ignore our most deeply held beliefs – and we allow it.
Where is your spine, America?
Yes, I know people are complaining. I read the news on the internet. I read blogs. I have a Twitter feed. So what? People in the Soviet Union complained. People in Cuba complain. People in China complain (quietly). Complaining isn’t the same thing as doing anything about it. In fact, much of the complaining that we hear sounds like resignation: Wow. This sucks. Oh well, this is the way things are. Too bad.
Perhaps you need reminding of a few important facts. Here goes:
1. The President is not a king. Barack Obama does not behave like a President, an elected official, someone who realizes that he works for us. He behaves like a king, a dictator – someone who believes that his own pronouncements have the force of law and who thinks he can dispense with the law’s enforcement when he deigns to do so. And those of us who object? How dare we? Racists!
And while he moves steadily “forward” with his plans to “fundamentally transform” the greatest country in human history, he distracts people with cheap, meaningless trivialities, like “free birth control pills”! In fact, let’s face it: this administration’s odd obsession with sex in general – Birth control! Abortion! Sterilization! Gay guys who play basketball! – is just plain weird. Since when did the leader of the free world care so much about how people have sex, who they have it with and what meds they use when they have it? Does he have nothing more important to concern himself with?
2. It isn’t just a failed software program; it is a failed philosophy. People are marveling that Healthcare.gov was such a spectacular failure. Well, if one is only interested in it as a product launch, I’ve explained some of the reasons for that here. But the larger point is that it isn’t a software failure or even a product failure; it is a philosophy failure.
I have said this before: Obama is not a centrist; he is a central planner. And this – all of it: the disastrous computer program, the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted, the lies, the manipulation of public opinion, the theft of the public’s money and property and freedom (read insurance, and premiums, and doctors) – IS what central planning looks like.
The central premise of central planning is that a handful of wunderkinds with your best interests at heart (yeah, right) know better than you what’s good for you. The failure of such a premise and the misery it causes have been clear from the dawn of humanity. Kings and congressmen, dictators and Dear Leaders, potentates, princes and presidents can all fall prey to the same imperial impulses: “we know what is good the ‘the people.’
And they are always wrong.
There is a reason that the only times communism has really been tried have been after wars, revolutions or coups d’état. You have to have complete chaos for people to be willing to accept the garbage that centralized planning produces. Take the Soviet Union for example. After two wars, famine and the collapse of the Romanov dynasty why wouldn’t people wait in line for hours to buy size 10 shoes? Or settle for the gray matter that passed for meat in the grocery stores?
But communism’s watered-down cousin, socialism, isn’t much better. Ask the Venezuelans who cannot get toilet paper. Toilet paper. Viva la Revolución!
Contrary to what so many who believe in a “living Constitution” say, the Founding Fathers absolutely understood this. That is why the Constitution was set up to limit government power. (Memo to the President: the drafters of the Constitution deliberately didn’t say “what government had to do on your behalf.”) They understood that that was the path to folly, fear, and famine.)
3. Obama is deceitful. Just as the collapse of the computer program should not surprise anyone, neither should we be shocked that the President lied about his healthcare plan. Have any of you been paying attention over the past few years? Obama has made no secret of his motivations or his methods. The philosophies which inspire him espouse deceit and other vicious tactics. (Don’t take my word for it: read Saul Alinsky.)Obama infamously told reporter Richard Wolffe, “You know, I actually believe my own bullshit.” He has refused to be forthcoming about his past (where are his academic records?). His own pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, told author Ed Klein, that Obama said to him, “You know what your problem is? You have to tell the truth.”
Did Obama lie when he said dozens of times, “If you like you plan, you can keep it. Period!”? Of course he did. That’s what he does.
4. The media is responsible. And had the media been doing their jobs, we would have known a lot of this much, much earlier.
The press is charged with the sacred responsibility of protecting the people from the excesses of government. Our press has been complicit, incompetent, or corrupt. Had they vetted this man in 2008, as they would have a Republican candidate, we would have known far more about him than we do, even now. Had they pressed for more details about Obamacare, Congress’ feet would have been held to the fire. Had they done their jobs about Eric Holder, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the IRS scandal, NSA spying – or any of the other myriad betrayals of the public trust that this administration has committed, Obama would likely have lost his 2012 reelection campaign. (A fact that even The Washington Posthas tacitly acknowledged. Well done, fellas! Happy now?)
Instead, they turned a blind eye, even when they knew he was lying, abusing power, disregarding the limits of the Constitution.It was only when he began to spy on them and when the lies were so blatant that the lowest of low-information voters could figure it out that they realized they had to report on it. (Even in the face of blatant, deliberate and repeated lies, The New York Times has the audacity to tell us that the President “misspoke.”) They have betrayed us, abandoned us and deceived us.
5. Ted Cruz was right. So was Sarah Palin. The computer program is a disaster. The insurance exchanges are a disaster. What’s left? The healthcare system itself. And this, of necessity, will be a disaster, too.
Millions of people have lost their individual insurance plans. In 2015, millions more will lose their employer-provided coverage (a fact which the Obama administration also knew, and admitted elsewhere).
The exorbitant additional costs that Obamacare has foisted on unsuspecting Americans are all part of a plan of wealth confiscation and redistribution. That is bad enough. But it will not end there.
When the numbers of people into the system and the corresponding demand for care vastly exceed the cost projections (and they will, make no mistake), then the rationing will start. Not only choice at that point, but quality and care itself will go down the tubes. And then will come the decisions made by the Independent Payment Advisory Board about what care will be covered (read “paid for”) and what will not.
That’s just a death panel, put politely. In fact, progressives are already greasing the wheels for acceptance of that miserable reality as well. They’re spreading the lie that it will be about the ability of the dying to refuse unwanted or unhelpful care. Don’t fall for that one, either. It will be about the deaths that inevitably result from decisions made by people other than the patients, their families, and their physicians. (Perhaps it’s helpful to think of their assurances this way: “If you like your end-of-life care, you can keep your end-of-life-care.”)
6. We are not SUBJECTS. (or, Nice Try, the Tea Party Isn’t Going Away). We have tolerated these incursions into our lives and livelihoods too long already. There is no end to the insatiable demand “progressives” have to remake us in their image. Today it is our insurance, our businesses, our doctors, our health care. Tomorrow some new crusade will be announced that enables them to take over other aspects of our formerly free lives.
I will say it again: WE ARE NOT SUBJECTS. Not only is the Tea Party right on the fiscal issues, but it appears that they are more relevant than ever. We fought a war once to prove we did not want to be the subjects of a king and the Boston Tea Party was just a taste of the larger conflict to come. If some people missed that lesson in history class we can give them a refresher.
The 2014 elections are a good place to start. Call your representative, your senator, your candidate and tell them: “We are not subjects. You work for us. And if the word “REPEAL” isn’t front and center in your campaign, we won’t vote for you. Period.”
Laura Hollis is an attorney and teaches entrepreneurship and business law at the University of Notre Dame.
WAKE UP AMERICA!!!
Flour Power: Bakers Stick to Beliefs Despite Pressure
[Reprinted by Permission]
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update
January 20, 2014
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WU14A13&f=WU14A13
Flour Power: Bakers Stick to Beliefs Despite Pressure
In a politically correct world, the costs of running a business are a lot more than dollars and cents. For Aaron and Melissa Klein, the owners of a small Oregon bakery, the price is their First Amendment rights. Their dream of opening a dessert shop near Portland, Oregon turned into a nightmare when two lesbians refused to take “no” for an answer on their request for a same-sex “wedding” cake.
Exactly one year ago, the Kleins explained that they couldn’t take the order because it would violate their faith to participate in a same-sex “marriage” ceremony. Furious, the women filed a complaint with the state. The story made national headlines, as the young couple became another face in the war on religious liberty. “We still stand by what we believe from the beginning,” Aaron told reporters. “I’m not sure what the future holds, but as far as where we’re at right now… it’s almost as if the state is hostile toward Christian businesses.”
And the state isn’t the only one. After word spread, the harassment in the liberal suburb of Portland became too much to take. The Kleins were forced to close the shop in Gresham and operate out of their home. Even there, the family was a target. Activists broke into their company truck and painted “bigot” across the side.
Now, 12 months later, the state of Oregon is weighing in — and not on the side of free speech and free exercise. Investigators from the state Bureau of Labor and Industries ruled late last week that the couple was guilty of discrimination and ordered the Kleins to settle. If they refuse, the Bureau threatens to bring “formal charges.” Herbert Grey, the bakers’ attorney, was flabbergasted. “They’re being punished by the state of Oregon for refusing to participate in an event the state of Oregon does not recognize.” Even the state constitution defines marriage the same way as Aaron and Melissa — and they’re being persecuted.
While the couple debates their next move, surrender is not an option. In a Facebook post to her 12,000 fans, Melissa thanked people for their support. “I know that your prayers are being heard. I feel such a peace with all of this that is going on. Even though there are days that are hard… we still feel that the Lord is in this. It is His fight and our situation is in His hands.”
Meanwhile, same-sex “marriage” isn’t legal in Illinois until June 1st, but business owners are already bracing for it. Jim Walder hasn’t allowed a civil union ceremony at Timber Creek Bed & Breakfast since its inception — and he doesn’t plan on changing that policy any time soon. “As long as I own Timber Creek, there will never be a gay marriage at this venue,” he said. Like the Kleins, he’s been staring down the state’s Human Rights Commission after a homosexual couple filed a grievance in 2011 for Walder’s refusal to host their “wedding.”
Like most states with same-sex “marriage” laws, Illinois’s failed to protect business owners with moral objections. “I totally support exemptions for everyone doing business in the wedding industry regarding civil unions or gay marriage,” Walder said. “Our current legal predicament could be the predicament of other businesses in Paxton” — like caterers, photographers, cake bakers, or wedding planners. State Rep. Josh Harms (R), who voted against same-sex “marriage” in Illinois is horrified that businesses will have to participate in same-sex marriage “even if their religion forbids it.” He’s working on legislation to exempt churches and religiously-affiliated organizations and schools, but thinks a business exemption would be a tough sell.
Tough sell or no, the Thomas More Society thinks it’s time to go to bat for religious freedom. Tom Brejcha, who is on standby to file a suit the second an Illinois employer is punished for their marriage views, shakes his head at how backwards America has become. “The idea that free people can be ‘compelled by law to compromise the very religious beliefs that inspire their lives’ as the ‘price of citizenship’ is a chilling and unprecedented attack on freedom,” he told reporters. For his part, Walder is ready to stand for truth — no matter what the outcome. Sure, the complaint caused them to lose a few weddings, but “that’s OK,” he explained. “Overall, our business is up substantially since the [couple] filed their complaint. We hosted 26 weddings last year.”
[Article reprinted by permission]
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update
January 20, 2014
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WU14A13&f=WU14A13
Family Research Council www.frc.org
801 G Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
1-800-225-4008
America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U. S. President
I’m sick and tired of listening to liberal lemmings exclaim that President Obama is a Christian. I guess it’s not surprising. Many of them have deceived themselves into believing he’s a great president, too. He is neither. He is a devil in disguise. No president in our history has been more determined to eradicate Christianity from our society than Obama.
Article by David Barton – 12/20/2013
1. Acts of hostility toward people of Biblical faith:
- June 2013 – The Obama Department of Justice defunds a Young Marines chapter in Louisiana because their oath mentioned God, and another youth program because it permits a voluntary student-led prayer. [1]
- February 2013 – The Obama Administration announces that the rights of religious conscience for individuals will not be protected under the Affordable Care Act. [2]
- January 2013 – Pastor Louie Giglio is pressured to remove himself from praying at the inauguration after it is discovered he once preached a sermon supporting the Biblical definition of marriage. [3]
- February 2012 – The Obama administration forgives student loans in exchange for public service, but announces it will no longer forgive student loans if the public service is related to religion. [4]
- January 2012 – The Obama administration argues that the First Amendment provides no protection for churches and synagogues in hiring their pastors and rabbis. [5]
- December 2011 – The Obama administration denigrates other countries’ religious beliefs as an obstacle to radical homosexual rights. [6]
- November 2011 – President Obama opposes inclusion of President Franklin Roosevelt’s famous D-Day Prayer in the WWII Memorial. [7]
- November 2011 – Unlike previous presidents, Obama studiously avoids any religious references in his Thanksgiving speech. [8]
- August 2011 – The Obama administration releases its new health care rules that override religious conscience protections for medical workers in the areas of abortion and contraception. [9]
- April 2011 – For the first time in American history, Obama urges passage of a non-discrimination law that does not contain hiring protections for religious groups, forcing religious organizations to hire according to federal mandates without regard to the dictates of their own faith, thus eliminating conscience protection in hiring. [10]
- February 2011 – Although he filled posts in the State Department, for more than two years Obama did not fill the post of religious freedom ambassador, an official that works against religious persecution across the world; he filled it only after heavy pressure from the public and from Congress. [11]
- January 2011 – After a federal law was passed to transfer a WWI Memorial in the Mojave Desert to private ownership, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that the cross in the memorial could continue to stand, but the Obama administration refused to allow the land to be transferred as required by law, and refused to allow the cross to be re-erected as ordered by the Court. [12]
- November 2010 – Obama misquotes the National Motto, saying it is “E pluribus unum” rather than “In God We Trust” as established by federal law. [13]
- October 19, 2010 – Obama begins deliberately omitting the phrase about “the Creator” when quoting the Declaration of Independence – an omission he has made on no less than seven occasions. [14]
- May 2009 – Obama declines to host services for the National Prayer Day (a day established by federal law) at the White House. [15]
- April 2009 – When speaking at Georgetown University, Obama orders that a monogram symbolizing Jesus’ name be covered when he is making his speech. [16]
- April 2009 – In a deliberate act of disrespect, Obama nominated three pro-abortion ambassadors to the Vatican; of course, the pro-life Vatican rejected all three. [17]
- February 2009 – Obama announces plans to revoke conscience protection for health workers who refuse to participate in medical activities that go against their beliefs, and fully implements the plan in February 2011. [18]
- April 2008 – Obama speaks disrespectfully of Christians, saying they “cling to guns or religion” and have an “antipathy to people who aren’t like them.” [19]
2. Acts of hostility from the Obama-led military toward people of Biblical faith:
- December 2013 – A naval facility required that two nativity scenes — scenes depicting the event that caused Christmas to be declared a national federal holiday — be removed from the base dining hall and be confined to the base chapel, thus disallowing the open public acknowledgment of this national federal holiday. [20]
- December 2013 – An Air Force base that allowed various public displays ordered the removal of one simply because it contained religious content. [21]
- October 2013 – A counter-intelligence briefing at Fort Hood tells soldiers that evangelical Christians are a threat to Americans and that for a soldier to donate to such a group “was punishable under military regulations.” [22]
- October 2013 – Catholic priests hired to serve as military chaplains are prohibited from performing Mass services at base chapels during the government financial shutdown. When they offered to freely do Mass for soldiers, without regard to whether or not the chaplains were receiving pay, they are still denied permission to do so. [23]
- August 2013 – A Department of Defense military training manual teaches soldiers that people who talk about “individual liberties, states’ rights, and how to make the world a better place” are “extremists.” It also lists the Founding Fathers — those “colonists who sought to free themselves from British rule” — as examples of those involved in “extremist ideologies and movements.” [24]
- August 2013 – A Senior Master Sergeant was removed from his position and reassigned because he told his openly lesbian squadron commander that she should not punish a staff sergeant who expressed his views in favor of traditional marriage. [25]
- August 2013 – The military does not provide heterosexual couples specific paid leave to travel to a state just for the purpose of being married, but it did extend these benefits to homosexual couples who want to marry, thus giving them preferential treatment not available to heterosexuals. [26]
- August 2013 – The Air Force, in the midst of having launched a series of attacks against those expressing traditional religious or moral views, invited a drag queen group to perform at a base. [27]
- July 2013 – When an Air Force sergeant with years of military service questioned a same-sex marriage ceremony performed at the Air Force Academy’s chapel, he received a letter of reprimand telling him that if he disagreed, he needed to get out of the military. His current six-year reenlistment was then reduced to only one-year, with the notification that he “be prepared to retire at the end of this year.” [28]
- July 2013 – An Air Force chaplain who posted a website article on the importance of faith and the origin of the phrase “There are no atheists in foxholes” was officially ordered to remove his post because some were offended by the use of that famous World War II phrase. [29]
- June 2013 – The U. S. Air Force, in consultation with the Pentagon, removed an inspirational painting that for years has been hanging at Mountain Home Air Force Base because its title was “Blessed Are The Peacemakers” — a phrase from Matthew 5:9 in the Bible. [30]
- June 2013 – The Obama administration “strongly objects” to a Defense Authorization amendment to protect the constitutionally-guaranteed religious rights of soldiers and chaplains, claiming that it would have an “adverse effect on good order, discipline, morale, and mission accomplishment.” [31]
- June 2013 – At a joint base in New Jersey, a video was made, based on a Super Bowl commercial, to honor First Sergeants. It stated: “On the eighth day, God looked down on His creation and said, ‘I need someone who will take care of the Airmen.’ So God created a First Sergeant.” Because the video mentioned the word “God,” the Air Force required that it be taken down. [32]
- June 2013 – An Army Master Sergeant is reprimanded, threatened with judicial action, and given a bad efficiency report, being told he was “no longer a team player,” because he voiced his support of traditional marriage at his own promotion party. [33]
- May 2013 – The Pentagon announces that “Air Force members are free to express their personal religious beliefs as long as it does not make others uncomfortable. “Proselytizing (inducing someone to convert to one’s faith) goes over that line,” [34] affirming if a sharing of faith makes someone feel uncomfortable that it could be a court-marital offense [35] — the military equivalent of a civil felony.
- May 2013 – An Air Force officer was actually made to remove a personal Bible from his own desk because it “might” appear that he was condoning the particular religion to which he belonged. [36]
- April 2013 – Officials briefing U.S. Army soldiers placed “Evangelical Christianity” and “Catholicism” in a list that also included Al-Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood, and Hamas as examples of “religious extremism.” [37]
- April 2013 – The U.S. Army directs troops to scratch off and paint over tiny Scripture verse references that for decades had been forged into weapon scopes. [38]
- April 2013 – The Air Force creates a “religious tolerance” policy but consults only a militant atheist group to do so — a group whose leader has described military personnel who are religious as ‘spiritual rapists’ and ‘human monsters’ [39] and who also says that soldiers who proselytize are guilty of treason and sedition and should be punished to hold back a “tidal wave of fundamentalists.” [40]
- January 2013 – President Obama announced his opposition to a provision in the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act protecting the rights of conscience for military chaplains. [41]
- June 2012 – Bibles for the American military have been printed in every conflict since the American Revolution, but the Obama Administration revokes the long-standing U. S. policy of allowing military service emblems to be placed on those military Bibles. [42]
- May 2012 – The Obama administration opposed legislation to protect the rights of conscience for military chaplains who do not wish to perform same-sex marriages in violation of their strongly-held religious beliefs. [43]
- April 2012 – A checklist for Air Force Inns will no longer include ensuring that a Bible is available in rooms for those who want to use them. [44]
- February 2012 – The U. S. Military Academy at West Point disinvites three star Army general and decorated war hero Lieutenant General William G. (“Jerry”) Boykin (retired) from speaking at an event because he is an outspoken Christian. [45]
- February 2012 – The Air Force removes “God” from the patch of Rapid Capabilities Office (the word on the patch was in Latin: Dei). [46]
- February 2012 – The Army ordered Catholic chaplains not to read a letter to parishioners that their archbishop asked them to read. [47]
- November 2011 – The Air Force Academy rescinds support for Operation Christmas Child, a program to send holiday gifts to impoverished children across the world, because the program is run by a Christian charity. [48]
- November 2011 – President Obama opposes inclusion of President Franklin Roosevelt’s famous D-Day Prayer in the WWII Memorial. [49]
- November 2011 – Even while restricting and disapprobating Christian religious expressions, the Air Force Academy pays $80,000 to add a Stonehenge-like worship center for pagans, druids, witches and Wiccans at the Air Force Academy. [50]
- September 2011 – Air Force Chief of Staff prohibits commanders from notifying airmen of programs and services available to them from chaplains. [51]
- September 2011 – The Army issues guidelines for Walter Reed Medical Center stipulating that “No religious items (i.e. Bibles, reading materials and/or facts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit.” [52]
- August 2011 – The Air Force stops teaching the Just War theory to officers in California because the course is taught by chaplains and is based on a philosophy introduced by St. Augustine in the third century AD – a theory long taught by civilized nations across the world (except now, America). [53]
- June 2011 – The Department of Veterans Affairs forbids references to God and Jesus during burial ceremonies at Houston National Cemetery. [54]
- January 2010 – Because of “concerns” raised by the Department of Defense, tiny Bible verse references that had appeared for decades on scopes and gunsights were removed. [55]
3. Acts of hostility toward Biblical values:
- August 2013 – Non-profit charitable hospitals, especially faith-based ones, will face large fines or lose their tax-exempt status if they don’t comply with new strangling paperwork requirements related to giving free treatment to poor clients who do not have Obamacare insurance coverage. [56] Ironically, the first hospital in America was founded as a charitable institution in 1751 by Benjamin Franklin, and its logo was the Good Samaritan, with Luke 10:35 inscribed below him: “Take care of him, and I will repay thee,” being designed specifically to offer free medical care to the poor. [57] Benjamin Franklin’s hospital would likely be fined unless he placed more resources and funds into paperwork rather than helping the poor under the new faith-hostile policy of the Obama administration.
- August 2013 – USAID, a federal government agency, shut down a conference in South Korea the night before it was scheduled to take place because some of the presentations were not pro-abortion but instead presented information on abortion complications, including the problems of “preterm births, mental health issues, and maternal mortality” among women giving birth who had previous abortions. [58]
- June 2013 – The Obama Administration finalizes requirements that under the Obamacare insurance program, employers must make available abortion-causing drugs, regardless of the religious conscience objections of many employers and even despite the directive of several federal courts to protect the religious conscience of employers. [59]
- April 2013 – The United States Agency for Internal Development (USAID), an official foreign policy agency of the U.S. government, begins a program to train homosexual activists in various countries around the world to overturn traditional marriage and anti-sodomy laws, targeting first those countries with strong Catholic influences, including Ecuador, Honduras, and Guatemala. [60]
- December 2012 – Despite having campaigned to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, President Obama once again suspends the provisions of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 which requires the United States to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to move the American Embassy there. [61]
- July 2012 – The Pentagon, for the first time, allows service members to wear their uniforms while marching in a parade – specifically, a gay pride parade in San Diego. [62]
- October 2011 – The Obama administration eliminates federal grants to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for their extensive programs that aid victims of human trafficking because the Catholic Church is anti-abortion. [63]
- September 2011 – The Pentagon directs that military chaplains may perform same-sex marriages at military facilities in violation of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. [64]
- July 2011 – Obama allows homosexuals to serve openly in the military, reversing a policy originally instituted by George Washington in March 1778. [65]
- March 2011 – The Obama administration refuses to investigate videos showing Planned Parenthood helping alleged sex traffickers get abortions for victimized underage girls. [66]
- February 2011 – Obama directs the Justice Department to stop defending the federal Defense of Marriage Act. [67]
- September 2010 – The Obama administration tells researchers to ignore a judge’s decision striking down federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. [68]
- August 2010 – The Obama administration Cuts funding for 176 abstinence education programs. [69]
- July 2010 – The Obama administration uses federal funds in violation of federal law to get Kenya to change its constitution to include abortion. [70]
- September 16, 2009 – The Obama administration appoints as EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum, who asserts that society should “not tolerate” any “private beliefs,” including religious beliefs, if they may negatively affect homosexual “equality.” [71]
- July 2009 – The Obama administration illegally extends federal benefits to same-sex partners of Foreign Service and Executive Branch employees, in direction violation of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. [72]
- May 2009 – Obama officials assemble a terrorism dictionary calling pro-life advocates violent and charging that they use racism in their “criminal” activities. [75]
- March 2009 – The Obama administration shut out pro-life groups from attending a White House-sponsored health care summit. [76]
- March 2009 – Obama orders taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research. [77]
- March 2009 – Obama gave $50 million for the UNFPA, the UN population agency that promotes abortion and works closely with Chinese population control officials who use forced abortions and involuntary sterilizations. [78]
- January 2009 – Obama lifts restrictions on U.S. government funding for groups that provide abortion services or counseling abroad, forcing taxpayers to fund pro-abortion groups that either promote or perform abortions in other nations. [79]
- January 2009 – President Obama’s nominee for deputy secretary of state asserts that American taxpayers are required to pay for abortions and that limits on abortion funding are unconstitutional. [80]
4. Acts of preferentialism for Islam:
- October 2011 – Obama’s Muslim advisers block Middle Eastern Christians’ access to the White House. [83]
- August 2010 – Obama speaks with great praise of Islam and condescendingly of Christianity. [84]
- August 2010 – Obama went to great lengths to speak out on multiple occasions on behalf of building an Islamic mosque at Ground Zero, while at the same time he was silent about a Christian church being denied permission to rebuild at that location. [85]
- April 2010 – Christian leader Franklin Graham is disinvited from the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer Event because of complaints from the Muslim community. [86]
- April 2010 – The Obama administration requires rewriting of government documents and a change in administration vocabulary to remove terms that are deemed offensive to Muslims, including jihad, jihadists, terrorists, radical Islamic, etc. [87]
- May 2009 – While Obama does not host any National Day of Prayer event at the White House, he does host White House Iftar dinners in honor of Ramadan. [88]
- 2010 – While every White House traditionally issues hundreds of official proclamations and statements on numerous occasions, this White House avoids traditional Biblical holidays and events but regularly recognizes major Muslim holidays, as evidenced by its 2010 statements on Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Hajj, and Eid-ul-Adha. [89]
Many of these actions are literally unprecedented – this is the first time they have happened in four centuries of American history. The hostility of President Obama toward Biblical faith and values is without equal from any previous American president.
Discrimination isn’t always such a bad thing
The following article was originally posted at: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3945628.html
Reprinted with permission.
Editor’s Note: Adam Ch’ng resides Melbourne, Australia. The political left is the same everywhere.
12 APRIL 2012
Having attended a Catholic high school, I quite reasonably assumed that my teachers were themselves, well, Catholic.
Similarly, it would be slightly inappropriate if the staffer employed by my local Liberal parliamentarian was a card-carrying member of the ALP.
It therefore strikes me as passing strange that there are calls to prohibit religious schools from being able to refuse employment to someone whose religion, sexual orientation or marital status is inconsistent with the school’s religious belief. In short, it is an attempt to restrict the right to discriminate.
As it stands, the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act prohibits discrimination against persons with an ‘attribute’ – such as sexual orientation, religious belief or disability – in the course of employment, education, and other activities.
However, there are approximately 44 exceptions to the rule. One such exception is found in section 83 which provides that religious schools may discriminate on the basis of a person’s religion, sexual orientation or marital status, where the discrimination:
“… conforms with their religious doctrines; or is reasonably necessary to avoid injury to the sensitivities of the religious adherents.”
Section 83, it is proposed, should be repealed.
Now let’s get something straight: ‘discrimination’ in itself is not a bad thing. If the hysteria perpetuated by the bleeding hearts is to be believed, mere mention of the word is morally offensive and should be legally sanctioned.
The reality is we all discriminate, every moment of every day. Whether we are deciding what health insurer to sign up with or what school to send our children to, we make choices favouring one party over another. Our legal system rightly discriminates against aspiring lawyers who are not ‘fit and proper’ persons and our armed forces appropriately discriminate against aspiring soldiers who fail to meet the physical fitness requirements.
So let’s not immediately assume that discrimination is the moral evil it’s made out to be. In fact, discrimination is indispensible to our ability to make moral choices between good and bad, right and wrong, and of course Liberal and Labor. It is our right to discriminate.
The question then is not whether religious schools should have the right to discriminate. Instead, it is whether that discrimination is unjustified. And insofar as it is justified, the law should protect and not restrict that right.
So is a religious school’s right to discriminate unjustified? Melissa Matheson certainly thinksso:
“If religious schools are willing to accept funding from the government, they should have to play by the rules like everyone else – and that includes equal opportunity.”
At first blush, this sounds perfectly reasonable. After all, if ‘everyone else’ can’t discriminate, why should religious schools get special treatment? All Matheson is proposing is that religious schools be brought into line with ‘everyone else’. But who exactly is ‘everyone else’? And do they all actually ‘play by the rules’?
As it happens, government-funded organisations of all stripes can discriminate on a whole range of matters. The act permits political parties to discriminate against prospective employees on the basis of their political belief or activity. Schools are allowed to discriminate against students through age-based admission schemes and quotas. And single-sex, age-specific and minority culture clubs can exclude from membership people who are not of the same sex, age or culture.
Each of these groups has a legitimate core philosophy that defines their very reason for existence. To adapt Justice Sachs’ words in Christian Education South Africa v Minister of Education, the state should seek to avoid putting people to extremely painful and intensely burdensome choices of either being true to their faith or philosophy, or else respectful of the law.
The simple truth is, religious schools are already playing by the rules like ‘everyone else’. If the equal opportunity crusaders really want a level playing field, why don’t they lodge a complaint against the university womyn’s group for discriminating against men?
I suspect that the real issue at play has nothing to do with equal opportunity legislation, education policy or even discrimination law. If it did, surely the other exceptions under the act would be targeted for repeal and other non-Christian interest groups would be similarly attacked.
Instead, it seems to me that this has far more to do with a rather evangelical crusade against the Christian church. Matheson would do well to note that the right to discriminate she fervently preaches against is similarly enjoyed by Jews, Muslims and Buddhists, the very people she calls Christians to repent of excluding.
Whether it is same-sex marriage or equal opportunity, the knives are out for the Christian church.
Such calls to restrict our right to discriminate should send chills down all our spines. What appears to promote greater freedom and equality actually extends the reach of government regulation into our homes, churches and community groups.
We all have the right to discriminate but the equal opportunity crusaders will stop at nothing to set political correctness in statutory stone.
Adam Ch’ng is a graduate at a law firm in Melbourne where he principally practices employment and workplace relations law. The views expressed here are those solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of his employer or any other organisation. View his full profile here.
Non-offensive Christmas greetings
[No group is more outraged and offended by anything or everything than liberals. Here’s a non-offensive Christmas greeting that even a liberal might accept]
To Whom it May Concern….
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
In addition, please also accept our best wishes for a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make this country great (not to imply that this country is necessarily greater than any other country or area of choice), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual orientation of the wishers.
This wish is limited to the customary and usual good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first. “Holiday” is not intended to, nor shall it be considered, limited to the usual Judeo-Christian celebrations or observances, or to such activities of any organized or ad hoc religious community, group, individual or belief (or lack thereof).
Note: By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher at any time, for any reason or for no reason at all. This greeting is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. This greeting implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for the wisher her/himself or others, or responsibility for the consequences which may arise from the implementation or non- implementation of it.
This greeting is void where prohibited by law.
We don’t have a spending problem
“Democrat Senator Tom Harkin’s statement should send a chill of reality down the spine of every American… He stated from his perch on the Senate Finance Committee Chair that we do not have a spending problem. We have a mis-allocation of wealth problem. There can be no further doubt that today’s Democrat party has fully embraced socialist ideals and principles of governance. The top 25% of wage earners in America contribute nearly 90% of tax revenues. Hey America, Benjamin Franklin appropriately mused, sometimes you get the government you want, other times you get the government you deserve. Hat tip to the uninformed, low information, and politically illiterate segments of the American electorate who voted on style, not substance in 2012.” -Allen West.
Avatar
Film Review of Avatar
by Wayne Dyrness
Details:
2009 movie by Director James Cameron and distributed by 20th Century Fox World Wide box office receipts exceed 2.7 billion dollars!!!
Review:
Avatar is visually stunning and technologically creative. However, it has major problems. It is a great evangelistic piece for animism, i.e. the belief that all creatures and objects — even ones science regards as “inanimate” — possess a soul or personality; the belief that all things are alive in some sense.
In a very real sense, it’s also a propaganda piece for eastern mysticism, that “God” (i.e. mother earth) dwells and is in all things, i.e. “so above, so below.” In other words, the “God within.” James Cameron states that “the Na’vi represent something that is our higher selves, or our aspirational selves, what we would like to think we are.”
Metaphorically, the film also presents mankind (along with its’ military complex) as “the” problem. Here is a planet “connected” in some way with all living entities, beautiful, living in harmony. Along comes “man” and destroys that which is good, that which is connected.
Does this theme sound familiar? Yes – it is the message of the ‘environmentalists.’ In other words, if only man weren’t here or didn’t come, there would be no problem.
The other major theme is a slam against the military and corporations, both presented as the bad guys. In regard to corporations, they are greedy and wicked, that could care less about the damage they will cause to the eco-system, let alone the needless deaths of the indigenous peoples. Only profit is important.
The military is presented as callous and cruel, mindless, only wishing to inflict as much damage and chaos possible, without care or consequence. James Cameron acknowledges that he is highly critical of how Bush handled the Iraq war and the impersonal nature of mechanized warfare in general. Note reference to phrase “shock and awe” that is used in the movie.
These two entities, corporations and military, are contrasted against the thoughtful, caring, sensitive, and “enlightened” and “educated” men and women of science; whose only goal and wish is to protect “mother earth.”
At its core, Avatar is a propaganda piece for the politically extreme left (which is really now the left in general), and its many factions. It paints an unrealistic and untrue picture of corporations and military. However, it mirrors exactly the message the political left is expounding today, i.e. corporations are the enemy; the military is evil and invades foreign lands without regard to the people who live there.
A person of faith (in particular, Christian) should be disturbed by the message this film presents, i.e. eastern mysticism (now known as New Age or Emergent) and animism is acceptable and true. This form of “soft subtle” persuasion (evangelism) is effective in that it is pushed as entertainment, and as such the normal mental filters one would use to process, evaluate, and reject this form of propaganda is bypassed. It is a direct attack against discernment and critical thinking, neither which seem very present in today’s society, or church. James Cameron states that “the Na’vi represent something that is our higher selves, or our aspirational selves, what we would like to think we are”
My son would be the first to say, “Dad, it’s just a movie! Why don’t you just sit there and enjoy the film rather than over-analyze it!” The discerning person knows that every film has an agenda. To ignore that truth demonstrates that you are exactly the person this film is meant to target, i.e. the ones who will “just sit there” and not “think” about the message it gives.
Most people like to think of themselves as intelligent enough that they would not fall in to the trap of buying into propaganda or subtle brainwashing. The reality is most people today have not been taught to be discerning or critical thinkers. As a result, they do fall into this trap. The message from the left or from left-leaning education is “don’t question,” “be a team player, a team builder” “be part of the village,” “your leaders are much better educated and more enlightened than you,” or “who are you to question our motives? Just sit there and be quiet.”
So what is the message or agenda of this film to you, the viewer? There’s a few I think that stand out. First, spiritual: the church at large needs to abandon their idea that their message is unique, or even necessary. The church at large needs to realize that we are all spiritually connected, one with another, and one with nature. Abandoning doctrine brings unity. Unity is all important. Those that stand against this “unity” (i.e. cling to their doctrine) will be demonized and charged/jailed by violating new equality laws.
Second, political: much like spiritual, we are all connected together as one world family, a large community, and dependent upon each other. We need to break down the walls, the artificial boundaries that divide us. Again, ‘unity’ is the message.
How then do we achieve this unity, this one-world government? We focus not on the individual’s achievements or abilities, but rather on the collective or corporate. This is taking the phrase, “it takes a village to raise a child” to the extreme. This is Socialism in action (which our current administration (Obama) and Congress is now trying to cram down your throats). Over 22 countries use the Euro as their currency, having abandoned their own.
There is movement in America to create a North American Union with Mexico and Canada and to begin using a new
coin called the ‘Amero,’ in place of our respective countries currency due to the plummeting value of the U.S. dollar.
The Treasury continues to flood the world with more worthless dollars (with nothing of value to back it up) each day. Many countries want to dump the dollar in place of the Euro. The move toward accepting the “Amero” sets the stage to accepting a world currency.
Russia’s President Medvedev in a recent G8 conference presented a sample of what could be a new world currency. Written on one side of the coins is “Unity in Diversity.
How does one go about achieving control over the individual in favor of the corporate, or unity?
Our current administration/congress has taken over private banks, insurance companies, auto companies, etc. all in the name of “protecting the individual.” Yet, it was the administration/congress that created the problems to begin with in order to give justification of their acts of unconstitutional seizure. Who did they assess the blame on? Of course, the evil corporations. Who now has control over many of these formally private businesses? The government.
Just a few weeks ago on December 17th, 2009 President Obama issued an executive order that allows INTERPOL to have jurisdiction in the U.S.
What does this mean? It means that we have an international police force authorized to act within the United States that is no longer subject to 4th Amendment Search and Seizure. The “property and assets of [INTERPOL], wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, unless such immunity be expressly waived, and from confiscation.”
INTERPOL, an international criminal police organization, is now poised to reside above the United States Constitution – in a place of sanctity beyond our FBI, CIA, DIA, and all other criminal investigative domestic organizations.
President Obama has just placed our Constitutional rights under international law. It won’t be long before our entire country is ceded under the control of an international government (i.e. One World Government).
By now, if you have read this far, you be asking, “Why include all of this peripheral information in your review of the movie Avatar?”
Whether you like it or not, whether you are aware of it or not, there is a concerted effort behind the scene to move us toward a world government. I’m sure many of you reading this were totally unaware of Obama’s Dec. 17th Executive Order. In order to accomplish this goal of one world government, your current beliefs, values, etc. need to be changed so as to embrace this move rather than reject it. Change takes time. That requires that all areas of your life (political beliefs, social perspective, religious values, educational training, etc.) needs to be “adjusted” (perhaps a better word is desensitized).
Movies, TV, newspaper, etc. only serve as one tool in the overall arsenal to adjust your thinking. If you know that a movie like Avatar, for example, has an agenda (as does any marketing tool), you are more likely to exercise discernment or critical thinking skills when exposed to them and see them for what they really are, i.e. subtle propaganda tools designed to change the way you think and feel about formally held beliefs/doctrines, to condition you, to conform to the world-wide community mindset, and to accept the changes that you will be asked to embrace in the future.
If you didn’t see Avatar for what it truly is, you need to wake up and know that you are being manipulated. Start exercising critical thinking skills. Stop being a lemming that someday wakes up and says, “how did we get to this state of affairs,” and then has no power, will, or freedom to change things.