Targeting Trig

Yesterday was a very long day.  Being an average 52 year old American male, I had to go to the Cardiologist for a Nuclear Stress Test, a Sonogram, and a Plaque Predictor.

As if I was not stressed out enough, I came home and read the following on my favorite Conservative website, hotair.com. (Hi, Ed!  Hi, AP!).  Allahpundit had found it on the outrageously Liberal website wonkette.com:

“Why just celebrate tax day today, April 18th? It’s also Trig Paxson Van Palin’s 3rd birthday. His mom went to a lot of trouble to leak amniotic fluid over 8 states to make sure that he arrived in this world somewhat alive,” writes Wonkette operative “Barbara_i,” reminding us of the occasion. “Sarah went to a whole lot of trouble to name him ‘Van Palin,’ a ‘Van Halen’ reference he will never get.” Indeed.

Enjoy yourself today, Trig. Have fun! Get drunk (on purpose this time)! We can hardly wait for 15 years from now, when you will finally be able to vote and will be sent off by your mother’s junta to fight the Union in the Great Alaska War. It’ll be quite a loss. You’re the smartest one in that family.

That strange man yelling unintelligibly at Sarah Palin? He’s merely a lowly shepherd proclaiming the birth of our savior. Today is the day we come together to celebrate the snowbilly grifter’s magical journey from Texas to Alaska to deliver to the America the great gentleman scholar Trig Palin. Is Palin his true mother? Or was Bristol? (And why is it that nobody questions who the father is? Because, either way, Todd definitely did it.) It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are privileged to live in a time when we can witness the greatest prop in world political history.

What’s he dreaming about? Nothing. He’s retarded.

The author of that waste of bandwidth, added the following to this horrific post:

UPDATE: I regret this post and using the word “retarded” in a reference to Sarah Palin’s child. It’s not nice, and is not necessary, but I take responsibility for writing it. For those who came and are offended by this post: I’m sorry, of course. But I stand by my criticism of Sarah Palin using her child as a political prop.

–Jack Stuef

When I read this classless tripe, as the father of a special 24 year old daughter, I  almost threw my computer monitor out the window.  There are certain things that writers, who have any sense of decorum at all, will not write about.  The under-age children of a political figure is one of them.  Our special or challenged Americans are another.

The Left’s defense of this garbage is the feeble argument that Sarah Palin is making political hay out of Trig and his condition.

That’s awfully hypocritical, especially since they cast the first stone.

Since Trig arrived in this world, the Left has accused him of belonging to  Sarah Palin’s daughter, Bristol.  And when they weren’t doing that, they were scurriously declaring that Palin should have aborted this sweet little child of God, embracing eugenics, similar to the way in which President Barack Hussein Obama’s Regulatory Czar, Cass Sunstein, did when he wrote the following in his 1993 book, The Partial Constitution:

A restriction on access to abortion turns women’s reproductive capacities into something to be used by fetuses. … Legal and social control of women’s sexual and reproductive capacities has been a principal historical source of sexual inequality.

Restrictions on abortion, surrogacy and free availability of pornography are troublesome,” he wrote.

I do not mean to oppose equality to liberty. … Liberty does not entail respect for all ‘choices.

Additionally, in a 2003 book review, Sunstein argued there is no moral concern regarding cloning human beings since human embryos, which develop into a baby, are “only a handful of cells.”

A handful of cells?  How elitistically simple.

My “handfull of cells” is presently in school, learning how to live on her own.  She is already trained in Microsoft Office Products, having been taught at that very same school, where she also served on the Student Council.

What Liberals do not seem to understand is that fact that special, and all other, children are not disposable handfulls of cells, nor are they targets to be attacked for political gain.

Just as I love my daughter, Sarah Palin very clearly loves Trig.  And, just like every other human being, they are fearfully and wonderfully made.


Obama’s Politically Expedient Passover

Everyone knows that for 20 yrs, President Barack Hussein Obama attended Trinity Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois, a Black Liberation Theology Church, where he sat under the teachings of Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

The following story brings up the question, once again, as to what in the world was he taught there?   More on that later in this post…

As every Jew and Christian knows, the yearly celebration of Passover recalls the bondage and suffering of Jews in Egypt and the miracle of the Exodus.

Exodus 12: 21-28 (English Standard Version)

21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. 23 For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. 24 You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. 25 And when you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. 26 And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.'” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.

28 Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

Somebody needs to explain this to President Barack Hussein Obama (peace be upon him). According to him,the glory of Passover can be seen in the recent violent Muslim uprisings in the Middle East.

For the past three years, Obama has released a message before his annual, politically-driven participation in the Passover Seder Dinner.

This year, the Leader of the Free World stated:

The story of Passover…instructs each generation to remember its past, while appreciating the beauty of freedom and the responsibility it entails. This year that ancient instruction is reflected in the daily headlines as we see modern stories of social transformation and liberation unfolding in the Middle East and North Africa.

Obama concluded his message by saying:

As Jewish families gather for this joyous celebration of freedom, let us all be thankful for the gifts that have been bestowed upon us, and let us work to alleviate the suffering, poverty, injustice, and hunger of those who are not yet free.

And, just to sound good, Obama ended with the Hebrew term “Chag Samayach,” which means “Have a happy holiday.”

Obama first attended a Seder during his presidential campaign in 2008, basically to endear himself to America’s Jewish population, as the polls at that time, were not in his favor. At the end of the Seder, when Jews chanted, “Next year in Jerusalem,” Obama responded, “Next year in the White House.”

The story goes, per Lauren Salkeld, writing for the epicurious.com website, that, after a campaign rally, Obama met with Eric Lesser, one of his Jewish backers. Despite the heavy campaign schedule, Lesser and two friends had organized a makeshift Seder in a hotel basement. As they began, Obama stuck his head in and asked, “Is this a Seder? Can I join?”

After achieving the Presidency, Obama held another Seder last year, complete with all of the Jewish customs, and will have one again this year in the White House’s Old Family Dining Room.

This is not unusual in itself, as Christian churches all over America hold Seder Dinners, in which they invite a Rabbi to demonstrate the dinner and explain the custom of the eating of the bitter herbs.

I know. I’ll be attending one this Friday night.

Where things get twisted, involves the adaptation of the old hymn Let My People Go by the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and the evolution of the whole Social Justice Vanguard, as exemplified by Obama’s Spiritual Adviser Jim Wallis and the non-biblical concept of Collective Salvation. The Far Left, Obama included, have twisted around the story of the Jews’ Egyptian Captivity and their Redemption by God, in order to try to make it apply to Palestinian Authority Arabs.

In Obama’s case, this is not surprising.  Per discoverthenetworks.org:

Many of [Rev. Jeremiah] Wright’s condemnations of America are echoed in his denunciations of Israel and Zionism, which he has blamed for imposing “injustice and … racism” on the Palestinians. According to Wright, Zionism contains an element of “white racism.” Likening Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to South Africa’s treatment of blacks during the apartheid era, Wright advocates divestment campaigns targeting companies that conduct business in, or with, Israel. He has referred to Israel as a “dirty word.”

…On the “Pastor’s Page” of the June 10, 2007 edition of the TUCC newsletter, was an open letter from Palestinian activist Ali Baghdadi calling Israel an “apartheid” regime that was developing an “ethnic bomb” designed to kill “blacks and Arabs.” Wrote Baghdadi:

“I must tell you that Israel was the closest ally to the white supremacists of South Africa. In fact, South Africa allowed Israel to test its nuclear weapons in the ocean off South Africa. The Israelis were given a blank check: they could test whenever they desired and did not even have to ask permission. Both worked on an ethnic bomb that kills Blacks and Arabs.”

To repeat myself, President Barack Hussein Obama sat under the teachings of this man for 20 years…and for the past 3, he has held Seder Dinners.

Ain’t political expediency wonderful?

The National Day of Silence 4/15/11: Propagandizing Our Children

In schools across America this Friday, a  National Day of Silence is going to be observed.  Not for our fallen war heroes.  Not for Civil Rights Legends.  And, of course, not for slain Christians in the Middle East.

It will be a Day of Silence in support of Gay and Lesbian Students, organized by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network.

Per their website:

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network strives to assure that each member of every school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.

We believe that such an atmosphere engenders a positive sense of self, which is the basis of educational achievement and personal growth. Since homophobia and heterosexism undermine a healthy school climate, we work to educate teachers, students and the public at large about the damaging effects these forces have on youth and adults alike. We recognize that forces such as racism and sexism have similarly adverse impacts on communities and we support schools in seeking to redress all such inequities.

GLSEN seeks to develop school climates where difference is valued for the positive contribution it makes in creating a more vibrant and diverse community. We welcome as members any and all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity/expression or occupation, who are committed to seeing this philosophy realized in K-12 schools.

K – 12?????

Founded as a local group in 1990, the Gay and Lesbian Independent School Teachers Network (GLSTN) began as a volunteer group of 70 gay and lesbian educators. At that time, there were two Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) in the nation, only one state with policy in place to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students, and a general lack of awareness of the needs of LGBT students. LGBT youth did not have a voice in the education community or in the LGBT movement. There were few, if any, resources available for teachers to discuss LGBT issues.

However, groups of concerned individuals began to establish chapters across the country, advocating locally and regionally for safe schools for students

In 1995 GLSTN became a national organization and hired it first full time staff person, GLSTN’s founder and Executive Director Kevin Jennings. In 1997, GLSTN staged its first national conference in Salt Lake City, UT to respond to the legislature’s move to ban all student groups in an effort to prevent the formation of GSAs in the state. It is also this year that GLSTN changes its name to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, in order to attract new members to the struggle for safe schools for all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/ expression.

Currently, GLSEN has registered more than 4,000 GSAs, has approximately 40 full time staff, a governing board of 20 members and two advisory committees at the national level.

Kevin Jennings…Kevin Jennings…why does that name ring a bell?   Oh, yeah…

From foxnews.com, September 23, 2009:

Conservatives are up in arms about the appointment of Kevin Jennings, Obama’s director of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, saying he is too radical for the job.

President Obama’s “safe schools czar” is a former schoolteacher who has advocated promoting homosexuality in schools, written about his past drug abuse, expressed his contempt for religion and detailed an incident in which he did not report an underage student who told him he was having sex with older men.

Jennings was appointed to the position largely because of his longtime record of working to end bullying and discrimination in schools. In 1990, as a teacher in Massachusetts, he founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which now has over 40 chapters at schools nationwide. He has also published six books on gay rights and education, including one that describes his own experiences as a closeted gay student.

The OSDFS was created by the Bush administration in 2002. According to its Web site, one of its primary functions is to “provide financial assistance for drug and violence prevention activities and activities that promote the health and well being of students in elementary and secondary schools, and institutions of higher education.”

Per David Horowitz’s discoverthenetworks.org:

…GLSEN is funded by many corporate sponsors (including the Turner Broadcasting System) and a number of large foundations: the Ford Foundation, the Tides Foundation’s “Kicking Assets” program, the National Education Association, the California Community Foundation, California Teachers Association, the Gill Foundation, the Glickenhaus Foundation, the Human Rights Campaign, the Human Civil Rights Organization of America, the Johnson Family Foundation, the Overbrook Foundation, the Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation, and the Turner Broadcasting System.

…Pushes its agenda through “anti-bullying” legislation

There are anti-bullying posters in schools everywhere.

…Promotes instruction about sexually explicit acts to grade-school children.

…At a 2001 GLSEN conference, activist leaders passed out “fisting kits” to the students and teachers in attendance. Provided by Planned Parenthood representatives, each kit consisted of a plastic glove, a package of K-Y lubricant, and instructions on how to make a “dental dam” out of the material (for purposes of oral sex).

Horowitz relays information that Gateway Pundit found out about the content of those text books, but sensitivity forbids me from publishing it in this post.  Please follow the earlier link, if you wish to read more.

The purpose of this post is not to be hateful.  As a 52 year old, I have gone to school with, worked with, attended church with, and even had family members who were homosexuals.  I have  worked side-by-side with them, prayed for them, and in the case of family members, loved them and continue to love them, with all my heart.

As is the case with each and every one of us, they will have to stand before God one day.

What I object to, is the propagandizing and instruction of innocent schoolchildren through the normalization of the Homosexual lifestyle and the introduction of what is nothing less than Homosexual pornography to those who will be imprinted by it.

This blatant political propaganda has no place in America’s schools, especially in the lower grades.  This Administration should be ashamed of themselves.

But, they aren’t.

There’s Got to be a Morning After…

Remember the theme song from the original Poseidon Adventure with Gene Hackman?  There’s Got to be a Morning After was the the name of the song.

This is the morning after. Boehner compromised.  Planned Parenthood got its blood money…our money.  Let’s examine Planned Parenthood on this morning after,  in order to understand just what the Republicans compromised on.

Per the Planned Parenthood website:

Planned Parenthood is rooted in the courage and tenacity of American women and men willing to fight for women’s health, rights, and equality. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, is one of the movement’s great heroes. Sanger’s early efforts remain the hallmark of Planned Parenthood’s mission:

providing contraception and other health services to women and men

funding research on birth control and educating specialists and the public about the results

advancing access to family planning in the United States and around the world

Women’s progress in recent decades — in education, in the workplace, in political and economic power — can be directly linked to Sanger’s crusade and women’s ability to control their own fertility.

Okay.  So, who is Margaret Sanger?

Margaret Sanger (1879 – 1966) was a nurse. While working with poor women on the Lower East Side of New York, she decided that birth control was the way to avoid being punished with a baby.  She was influenced by watching as her mother tried to cope with her 11 children.

In 1912, Sanger devoted herself full-time to the distribution of birth control information.  The problem was, the Comstock Act of 1873 forbade distribution of birth control devices and information.  So, she wrote articles on health for the Socialist Party paper, The Call, and collected and published articles as What Every Girl Should Know (1916) and What Every Mother Should Know (1917).

In 1913, she went to Europe for inspiration and/or orders. Retuning from Europe, She started a newspaper, Woman Rebel. That resulted in a indictment for “mailing obscenities.,” She hightailed it to Europe, resulting in the indictment being withdrawn.

In 1914, she began the National Birth Control League. It was run by Mary Ware Dennett and others while Sanger was in Europe.

In 1916 (1917 according to some), Sanger set up the first birth control clinic in the United States and, the following year, was sent to the workhouse for “creating a public nuisance.”

In 1927 Sanger worked with others to organize the first World Population Conference in Geneva. In 1942, after several organizational mergers and name changes, the Planned Parenthood Federation came into being.

As  the late, great Paul Harvey would say:

And now, you’re going to hear, the rest of the story:

From the website, blackgenocide.org:

At a March 1925 international birth control gathering in New York City, a speaker warned of the menace posed by the “black” and “yellow” peril. The man was not a Nazi or Klansman; he was Dr. S. Adolphus Knopf, a member of Margaret Sanger’s American Birth Control League (ABCL), which along with other groups eventually became known as Planned Parenthood.

Sanger’s other colleagues included avowed and sophisticated racists. One, Lothrop Stoddard, was a Harvard graduate and the author of The Rising Tide of Color against White Supremacy. Stoddard was something of a Nazi enthusiast who described the eugenic practices of the Third Reich as “scientific” and “humanitarian.” And Dr. Harry Laughlin, another Sanger associate and board member for her group, spoke of purifying America’s human “breeding stock” and purging America’s “bad strains.” These “strains” included the “shiftless, ignorant, and worthless class of antisocial whites of the South.”

Not to be outdone by her followers, Margaret Sanger spoke of sterilizing those she designated as “unfit,” a plan she said would be the “salvation of American civilization.: And she also spike of those who were “irresponsible and reckless,” among whom she included those ” whose religious scruples prevent their exercising control over their numbers.” She further contended that “there is no doubt in the minds of all thinking people that the procreation of this group should be stopped.” That many Americans of African origin constituted a segment of Sanger considered “unfit” cannot be easily refuted.

Part of the GOP’s side of the compromise is for the Democratic Party-controlled Senate to hold a vote on continuing to federally fund Planned Parenthood.  So-called “Fiscal” Conservatives (aka, Moderates, or Squishes) are applauding Boehner for this clause, because it will put on record those who support PP.

Big, hairy whoop.  We already know who they are.

The funding of Planned Parenthood is not only  a fiscal matter, but a constitutional one, as well.  PP is a private organization being funded with our tax money, whose primary purpose is the ending of a human life.

The Stawman argument being given concerning the federal funding of PP focuses cancer screenings and other women’s services supposedly provided at the clinics. 

That dog don’t hunt.

State-run clinics, helping the uninsured, which refer women to OB/Gyn’s who will work with those who need to be seen, already handle that.

Scarlett Johansen is currently appearing in an ad for Planned Parenthood which talks about the services they provide, curiously leaves out their main purpose:  providing abortion services.

For an organization that is seemingly so proud about ending human lives, why are they not promoting it?

And, by the way, GOP, would you please tell me how much a human life is worth…in budgetary terms?

Christian Persecution in the Middle East: Hidden Atrocities

By now, I’m sure you’ve all heard about Florida Pastor Terry Jones burning a Koran and the resulting outcry from fanatical Muslims and their Dhimmi Accomplices, the American Left.

What you’re not hearing about is vividly retold by Kenneth Lewis on christiannewstoday.com:

In Afghanistan where they protested Pastor Terry Jones for threatening to burn the Koran, Bibles are confiscated and burned like pieces of garbage. Anyone who acknowledges faith in Christ experiences intense persecution, including death. Persecution in Afghanistan normally comes from family members and local villagers, while Muslim police officers and government officials turn a blind eye and do nothing.

According to The Voice of the Martyrs, (VOM) a young man became a Christian and was banned from his family’s house. Local Radicals in Afghanistan beat another man severely when they found he was sharing Christ with others. Both of these two men remain firm in their faith.

An evangelist who was formerly Muslim was attacked by al Qaeda assassins, but they were unable to kill him. The attackers were later arrested by police. This same brother is still receiving death threats, but he boldly continues to evangelize.

Another believer led several friends to Christ, and two of them were killed for their conversion shortly afterward.

Persecution of Christians in Muslim nations are real. Missionaries put their lives on the line daily in the front lines in order to share the eternal life saving gospel to the lost souls in Afghanistan where the Muslim religion is distorted by al Qaeda assassins and local radicals.

And none of us have heard this news, from cns.com:

While the Obama administration cited human rights atrocities in Libya as part of the reason for U.S. and U.N. military intervention there, neither the State Department nor the United Nations have apparently condemned an outbreak of violence in western Ethiopia, led by Muslim radicals. Since early March two Christians have reportedly been killed, more than 3,000 displaced and at least 69 churches destroyed.

Also, leading human rights organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First appear not to have publicly condemned the attacks.

“Extremist Muslims killed two Christians, burnt 69 Christian churches, and destroyed 30 homes, leaving between 4,000 to 10,000 Christians displaced,” Jeremy Lim, International Christian Concern (ICC)’s regional manager for Southeast Asia, told CNSNews.com. ICC is a human rights group promoting religious freedom and assisting Christian victims of persecution.

According to Compass Direct News, which focuses on religious freedom issues, “38 of the churches burnt belonged to the Ethiopian Kale Hiwot, its Bible school building and two church office buildings, while 12 were Mekane Yesus buildings; six were Seventh-day Adventist structures; two were Muluwongel church buildings, and another belonged to a ‘Jesus Only’ congregation.” Kale Hiwot, Mekane Yesus and Muluwongel are evangelical denominations.

But the Main Stream Media made sure we heard about this:

At least eleven people were killed, including some United Nations officials, today in Afghanistan, apparently in response to Florida pastor Terry Jones burning the Koran last month, Afghan police and U.N. officials said.

The deaths followed a protest march in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif today against the Koran burning last month in which Jones supervised while another pastor, Wayne Sapp, soaked the Koran in kerosene and burned it after finding it “guilty” in a mock trial.

Police told ABC News the protest started peacefully but took a violent turn after a radical leader told those gathered that multiple Korans had been burned. In a fury, the people marched on the nearby U.N. compound despite police firing AK-47s into the air in hopes of subduing them.

Police eventually turned their weapons on the protestors, killing at least four, police said, before they were overtaken and had their guns stolen. Using the police weapons, the protestors killed four U.N. guards from Nepal and then three foreign workers in the U.N. building — a Norwegian, a Romanian and a Swede. An Afghan official said one man has been arrested for his role in allegedly masterminding the attack along with 19 others, according to a report by the Associated Press.

I would not have burned a Koran, and neither would most of you.  However, to blame any deaths on the burning of a Koran, is to negate any personal responsibility by Muslim Fanatics for the murders that they have committed.

Have Americans killed any Muslims for burning Bibles?

Heck, our own military burned a bunch of them in Afghanistan, so that our soldiers would not offend anyone by handing them a Bible.

It seems to me that it’s time for President Barack Hussein Obama and his State Department, run by Secretary Hillary Clinton, to replace their spines of Jello with those of steel.

Mr. President, you’ve  been shouting from the mountaintops, that you’re American, and a Christian,  through and through, and all of these theories that you are not an American, or a Christian, are just that.

Prove it.  Speak out against the atrocities being committed against Christians in Africa and the Middle East.

America’s waiting.

Elvis, Bad Dog, and Larry

What is it about a person that makes him/her popular?  Is it money?  No, that comes and goes.  Is is talent?  Well, that may be a part of it.  But, in the Mid-South alone, there are a lot of extremely talented unknowns.  Last night, as I was tossing and turning, I asked myself, what was it about Elvis Presley, John “Bad Dog McCormack”, and Larry Finch that made them so beloved by their hometown of Memphis, Tennessee and beyond?

As always, now that I’m older and, hopefully wiser, I returned to the place where I know that I can find the answer:

1 Corinthians 13:

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Have you ever been around someone who lights up a room the moment they enter?  My Daddy (Southern colloquialism for male parental unit) was like that.  So were these extraordinary men.

I had the privilege of attending one of Elvis’ Concerts , seated in the top row of the Mid-South Coliseum with my late step-sister in the early 70s.  Elvis was wearing one of his blue jumpsuits.  Even from the 35th row, I was touched by the genuine love that he had for his fans and the ease by which he communicated with them.  At one point in the concert, Elvis said:

Since I’m home, and y’all are all home folk, I’m gonna try a new song out on ya.

He proceeded to grab some sheet music and sang from it, without missing a beat.  Here’s an example of Elvis’ talent:

I had the privilege of talking to Bad Dog McCormack in the late 80s, while I was working at Memphis Cablevision.  He, Tim Spencer, and Bev Hart were there, taping commercials for a promotion that their radio station, Rock 103, was running with Coca-Cola.  The spots were called Coke Breaks.  He was such a naturally nice guy.  After that, I listened to the Wake-up Crew every morning, until Clear Channel broke them up when they bought the station.  After that, I listed to Bad Dog until he passed away from leukemia last month.  Here is a message that he recorded right before he worked his last Ronald McDonald House Radiothon for the kids of St. Jude Hospital.  He found out that he was out of remission, right before the Radiothon, but he refused to miss it, telling everyone that he had to do it for the kids.

And, of course, there was Larry Finch, who bridged a racially divided city like no one else has since.  Here are highlights from the Tiger’s 1973 loss in the NCAA Basketball Championship to UCLA.

Memphis was once known as The City of Good Abode.  It can be again. However, it will take singular men like these.  And love.

My Friend, Coach Larry O. Finch 1951 – 2011

Everyone who knows me will tell you that I bleed University of Memphis Tiger Blue.  There’s a reason for that.

The year is 1972.  A skinny, undersized asthmatic kid, new to Wooddale Junior High, is about to be annihilated in a game called Bombardment, a rather sadistic game thought up by the 9th grade P.E. coach for his personal amusement.  Resembling the movie “Dodgeball” on steroids,  two teams (usually the delinquents on one side and their victims on the other), would line up against both sides of the bleachers waiting for the coach’s whistle.  Then the massacre would ensue.

Sure that I was about to breathe my last, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and a kind voice telling me to stand beside him.  I looked up to see the smiling face of Larry Finch, Senior shooting guard on the Memphis State University Tigers Basketball Team.  He had just taken an Internship at my school!

Of course, that was the year that they lost the NCAA Championship to Bill Walton and the UCLA Bruins.  I don’t think that anyone in the nation hollered at their television set louder that night than I did.

Over the semester, we became friends.  I became a Tiger fan for life, eventually receiving my degree there  in 1980 in Radio, TV, and Film.  While there, I had the privilege of calling radio play-by-play for the Women’s Basketball and Men’s Baseball teams.

Larry is also the reason that I went on to play and coach basketball, a 4th grade team and a church team, respectively.  My coaching record is 25 – 4.

But, I digress…

Anyway, I’m writing this story because my friend, the Memphis Legend, Coach Larry O. Finch, has passed away at the age of 60.

From the Commercial Appeal:

Finch, the University of Memphis’ winningest basketball coach with 220 victories, had been in poor health since suffering the first of multiple strokes in 2001. He was 60. He had also had a heart attack.

Finch is perhaps the most beloved figure in the history of Memphis’ basketball program, leading the 1973 team to the national championship game and coaching the Tigers from 1986 to 1997.

Larry was born in the Orange Mound section of Memphis and went on to play for Melrose High School.  He and his fellow high school teammate, 6’9″  “Big Cat” Ronnie  Robinson, decided to play for Coach Gene Bartow at Memphis State University.

This was during the height of racial unrest in Memphis.  Larry had been advised not to go to Memphis State, but he loved his hometown and his hometown university.  He and Ronnie turned out to be 2 of the finest bridge builders Memphis has ever seen.  He graduated as the all-time leading scorer in school history and is presently still in second place on that list.

Larry went on to play professionally with the Memphis TAMs, the Memphis Sounds, the Baltimore Hustlers, and the Baltimore Claws.

Per biographicon.com:

In the 1980s, Finch was an assistant coach for Dana Kirk at Memphis State. Kirk was forced to leave Memphis State after violating NCAA regulations, and Finch was made head coach in 1986 in order to restore order to the program. Finch was head coach from 1986 until 1997.

Finch’s tenure at Memphis State/University of Memphis was successful. He posted 10 out of 11 winning seasons, and seven 20+ win seasons. He recruited and developed such players as Elliot Perry, Penny Hardaway, and Lorenzen Wright. His 1991-92 team led by Hardaway and David Vaughn went to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament.

As a player, Finch was known for his shooting prowess, and his skills remained intact throughout his coaching days; he would routinely win games of H-O-R-S-E against his players (including the great Keith Lee, among others) and against assistant coaches in long distance shooting contests after road game practices.

In the company of such renowned coaches as Gene Bartow and John Calipari, Larry Finch remains in second-place for all-time wins in University of Memphis history (behind only Calipari).

In 2002, Larry suffered a stroke, which left him paralyzed and affected his speech.  Later that year, at halftime of the Memphis Grizzlies’ annual Martin Luther King Day game, NBA Legend Bill Russell grabbed the handles of Larry Finch’s wheelchair and wheeled him across a spotlight-lit basketball court.

The entire arena cheered and cried at the same time.

And now, this Memphis Legend is gone.

You’re probably thinking to yourself, how can you consider yourself a friend of Larry Finch?  You only knew him for a short time.

In the early 80s, while Larry was an Assistant Coach under Dana Kirk, I was working at Memphis Cablevision.  I was passing through a front office packed with customers, there to pay their bill.  All of the sudden, I heard a familiar voice shouting my last name at the top of his lungs.  It was Coach Finch!

He grinned that big ol’ grin at me, and hugged me until I thought my ribs would bust.  Then he asked me how I was doing, eager to hear about my life, and we talked as if there was no one else in that lobby.

And now, almost 30 years later, I’m sitting here, trying to write this post with tears in my eyes.

That’s how I know.

A “Punishment” Gladly Taken

Sitting here on this Lord’s Day morning, I was thinking about my 3 year old grandson, Robert.  I was recently informed by my bride, that Grandma and I will be keeping him Friday night.

I began thinking about the miracle of my own special daughter, who will be 24 in July, and Robert, whom we almost lost, due to his mother’s diabetes, which almost ended my daughter-in-law’s life as well.

I have trouble wrapping my head around the thought processes of those who do not understand the sanctity of human life.  Like, for instance, President Barack Hussein Obama and his Science Czar, John Holdren.

Remember this little heartfelt speech?

Holdren holds similar views.

Holdren’s official title is Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Holdren co-wrote a 1973 book, Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions, with infamous population control advocate Paul Ehrlich.

On page 235 in the book in chapter 8, titled “Population Limitation”, Holdren and his partner wrote:

To a biologist the question of when life begins for a human child is almost meaningless. To most biologists, an embryo (unborn child during the first two or three months of development) or a fetus is no more a complete human being than a blueprint is a building.

…The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being. Where any of these essential elements is lacking, the resultant individual will be deficient in some respect.

Obama’s Science Czar also wrote that legal scholars don’t view unborn children as human under the U.S. Constitution until “it is born”.

From this point of view, a fetus is only a potential human being

Historically, the law has dated most rights and privileges from the moment of birth, and legal scholars generally agree that a fetus is not a ‘person’ within the meaning of the United States Constitution until it is born and living independent of its mother’s body.

Holdren co-wrote another book with Ehrlich in 1977, Ecoscience. 

In it, they argued that

Human values and institutions have set mankind on a collision course with the laws of nature. Human beings cling jealously to their prerogative to reproduce as they please—and they please to make each new generation larger than the last—yet endless multiplication on a finite planet is impossible. Most humans aspire to greater material prosperity, but the number of people that can be supported on Earth if everyone is rich is even smaller than if everyone is poor.

Also, in Ecoscience, Holdren and Ehrlich argue that America should be de-developed. In other words,countries like the U.S. should have their economies destroyed and their wealth redistributed to the poor at home and abroad.

Sound familiar?

He and Ehrlich go on to say that

The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being.

Holdren seems to be in agreement with the Princeton University “ethicist” (and nutjob) Peter Singer, that infants up to the age of two or so are not really human beings, and so can be aborted post-natal.

My hands are shaking as I post the following garbage from the mind of Peter Singer.  He was asked:  Would you kill a disabled baby?

Yes, if that was in the best interests of the baby and of the family as a whole. Many people find this shocking, yet they support a woman’s right to have an abortion. One point on which I agree with opponents of abortion is that, from the point of view of ethics rather than the law, there is no sharp distinction between the foetus and the newborn baby.

Human babies are not born self-aware or capable of grasping their lives over time. They are not persons. Hence their lives would seem to be no more worthy of protection than the life of a fetus.

About killing a baby with Down Syndrome, he said:

We may not want a child to start on life’s uncertain voyage if the prospects are clouded. When this can be known at a very early stage in the voyage, we may still have a chance to make a fresh start. This means detaching ourselves from the infant who has been born, cutting ourselves free before the ties that have already begun to bind us to our child have become irresistible. Instead of going forward and putting all our effort into making the best of the situation, we can still say no, and start again from the beginning.

Charming, isn’t he? 

It should be noted that Holdren now disavows everything that he co-wrote with Paul Ehrlich in those two books. 

Notwithstanding Holdren’s denial of his long-published opinions, the fact that Obama chose this man to be in his Administration speaks volumes.

Psalm 139:13-14:

13  For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.

Requiem for a Bad Dog: John McCormack 1955-2011

If, when we’re standing before God, the amount of good we do with our lives, and the amount of joy and happiness that we are able to bring to this world of pain is brought up, then, Thursday afternoon, the Pearly Gates shook with the infectious laughter of one giant of a man.

John “Bad Dog” McCormack lost his long battle with AML late Thursday Afternoon at Methodist University Hospital in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.  Bad Dog was an on-air personality for 22 years at WEGR Rock 103, a Classic Rock Station.

Bad Dog began as a part of the Wake-up Crew with Tim Spencer and Bev Hart.  Dog was basically a 14-year-old kid in a man’s body.  He was a natural-born prankster, and became known for his creation of “The Twilight Phone”, an anonymous prank call he would make to unsuspecting citizens. 

In one memorable call, he impersonated an Apartment Manager, calling a guy who dumped his fiance’s dead pet Piranhas into the apartment lake, claiming that they came back to life and the poor sap had to reimburse the apartment $2,8000 for draining and restocking the lake.  And then, there was Bad Dog”s possibly most famous call, where he talked to an older gentleman named Mr. Lannum, impersonating a collector attempting to collect on a  past-due cable bill.  Mr. Lannum went ballistic, cussing a blue streak that is still talked of in hushed tones to this day, 20 tears later:

When he finally clued the individuals in to whom they had been talking to, each one of them eventually forgave him, because, after all, it was Bad Dog.

Another routine that Bad Dog came up with, was remarkable.  In a city known for racial polarization, he came up with the idea of numbering their show’s Black listeners, thinking that actual black listeners would be few and far between.  Well, Bad Dog received a big surprise.

The routine became very popular among Memphis’  Black Community, as people called in to talk to Bad Dog.  He would make up a hilarious “oath” for the listener to say, and from then on, whenever this individual would call in to talk about the subject of the day, they would self-identify as Black Listener Number So-and-So.  Everyone loved Bad Dog.

However, the most incredible thing that this man accomplished during his time with us started when he, Spencer, and Hart decided to begin a yearly Radiothon in support of St. Jude Hospital’s Ronald McDonald House.

Over the last 20 years, Bad Dog and his co-workers have raised over $7 million dollars to help build and maintain the refuge for cancer-stricken kids and their families, so they could have some semblance of normal life while they undergo treatment at St. Jude. 

Bad Dog McCormack was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia in late October 2009.  He was still working mornings, though his new partner was Ric Chetter.  Clear Channel Communications, in their infinite wisdom, had split up the popular Wake Up Crew in November of 2006, firing Newsperson Bev Hart, and, eventually moving Rock 103 Program Director Tim Spencer to Mid-days.

Bad Dog continued to work as he underwent treatment, as he felt that this was the best medicine for him and what God had called him to do.  His courage in the face of his own mortality was an inspiration to the entire Mid-South, as his barrel-house laugh continued to reverberate through the car speakers of the Mid-South every morning.  He also continued to work the annual Rock103 Radiothon, letting nothing stand in his way of helping the kids.

Bad Dog underwent a bone marrow transplant in November of 2010.  He seemed to be doing better, and, in December, an online poll of Memphians voted him The Most Noteworthy Memphian of the Year.

On February 10-11th, Bad Dog was at the mic, around the clock, for the 20th Annual Rock103 Radiothon.  When it was over, he announced that more Leukemia had been found.  He remained upbeat, and said that this was just par for the course.

Meanwhile, Clear Channel Communications, again in its infinite wisdom, fired Ric Chetter, and moved Bad Dog and Tim Spencer to afternoons, while bringing in a morning show named Free Beer and Hot Wings, 5 guys syndicated out of the Great White North, whose humor about hockey games is about as relevant to the Mid-South as hunting moose.

Bad Dog took this change in his usual good-natured stride, happy to be back with his old partner-in-crime, Tim.

Then, last Thursday, Bad Dog took a turn for the worse.  He was rushed to Methodist University Hospital in Downtown Memphis, where he passed away from an aneurysm, brought about by his Leukemia.

In an interview with the Commercial Appeal, Bad Dog made this comment about his battle against Leukemia and his love for the kids at St. Jude:

When I see what they are going through, I have no reason to complain. They are so young and have so much pain. I’ve lived a blessed life. If I died tomorrow, I’d go with a smile on my face.

He also, in his usual big-hearted, gentle way, left a statement to be released after his death:

I have gone to be with God and he is holding me tightly and I am surrounded by many of the Ronald McDonald’s House kids. Do not say you have lost a friend… One is only lost when you don’t know where they are… you know where I am. I thank each and every one of you for your support and prayers. I love all of you and that will never go away. When you are having a bad day… think of my laugh or a Twilight phone or the time we met. None of us is guaranteed tomorrow, make every day great, be the spiritual leader of your family. May peace be with you. Your friend, Bad Dog.

John”Bad Dog” McCormack, 55,  leaves behind his two sons, Buck and Tucker, a huge family, and thousands of fans.

As one of those fans, please allow me to say thank you, Bad Dog, for brightening up a lot of dreary mornings. 

A sign currently on display outside  a local jewelry store says it all:

BAD DOG MADE MEMPHIS A BETTER PLACE.

Priorities….

While the Middle East continues to implode, gas prices in our country continue to skyrocket, our Best and Brightest remain in hard’s way in hostile countries, and 1/6th of our population remain on Food Stamps, President Barack Hussein Obama spent Saturday working on his number one priority: 

HIS GOLF GAME .

Well, I mean, you really can’t blame him, can you?  The weather in D.C. was over 60 degress and beautiful.  And he had his usual buds with him:  Ben Finkenbinder of the press office, Marvin Nicholson, the president’s trip director and David Katz, a Dept of Energy staffer.

This is the president’s 60th time golfing as president, meaning Obama has spent two months of his presidency on the golf course.

These golf outings usually take about five hours, including travel time for the 10-vehicle Presidential motorcade to travel to the course and back to the people’s house.

CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller reports that Obama played 30 rounds in 2010, 28 rounds in 2009, and two this year, including yesterday.

I can hear the Libs whining now:   Boooosh played golf, too!

Well, yeah, he did…24 times.

President Bush stopped golfing in 2003.  He explained why in an interview with politico.com in 2003:

I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf.  I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.

Evidently, the present occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue doesn’t have that problem with his conscience.

On the other hand, Obama has attended church 6 times since becoming President.  The last time was last September, when he and his family went to St. John’s Episcopal in D.C. 

For you that are mathmatically-challenged out there, this means that Scooter plays golf 9 times for every time that he goes to church.

It is no wonder then, when Time magazine conducted a poll last August that the Abt SRBI survey of 1,002 adults revealed that 24 percent think the president is a Muslim.

The poll was taken after Obama made remarks in support of the right of Muslims to build a mosque at Ground Zero in New York City, where the Twin Towers fell and 3,000 Americans were killed on September 11, 2001.

Right now, the Libs are screaming:  But…but…he went to Reverend Wright’s Church for 20 years.

About that…from my post, The Great Disconnect, Part 2:  Columbia, Community Organizing, and “Hahvard”:

From 1985 – 1988, Obama was a Community Organizer in Chicago. What does a Community Organizer do? I’m glad you asked.

Per Byron York in an article found at nationalreview.com:

Community organizing is most identified with the left-wing Chicago activist Saul Alinsky (1909-72), who pretty much defined the profession. In his classic book, Rules for Radicals, Alinsky wrote that a successful organizer should be “an abrasive agent to rub raw the resentments of the people of the community; to fan latent hostilities of many of the people to the point of overt expressions.” Once such hostilities were “whipped up to a fighting pitch,” Alinsky continued, the organizer steered his group toward confrontation, in the form of picketing, demonstrating, and general hell-raising.

Obama was hired by Jerry Kellman, a New Yorker who had gotten into organizing in the 1960s. Kellman was trying to help laid-off factory workers on the far South Side of Chicago, in a nearly 100% black community. He led a group, the Calumet Community Religious Conference, that had been created by several local Catholic churches in the industrial community. Kellman was advised to hire a black organizer for a new spinoff from CCRC. They called it the Developing Communities Project, designed to focus solely on the Chicago part of the area.

One of Obama’s projects while he was there, was to try to build an alliance of white and black churches and enlist them in the cause of social justice. Obama had a problem, though. He didn’t go to church himself. And that, brothers and sisters, is how Obama, drawn to the preaching of Rev. Jeremiah Wright (and a political opportunity), joined Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street.

It was simply a matter of political expediency.

This being Sunday morning, I’m about to go wake up my beloved bride to get ready to attend our church.  It’s something that I and millions of other Americans will be doing this morning, because He is our priority…and our Rock.