Category: Politics

6.3% Unemployment Rate Vs. Reality: Reality Wins.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

UnemploymentWhile Liberals attempted to spin yesterday’s 6.3% Unemployment Rate, as something spectacular, reality decided to intervene.

The local CBS affiliate in Washington, DC reports that

Despite the unemployment rate plummeting, more than 92 million Americans remain out of the labor force.

The unemployment rate dropped to 6.3 percent in April from 6.7 percent in March, the lowest it has been since September 2008 when it was 6.1 percent. The sharp drop, though, occurred because the number of people working or seeking work fell. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not count people not looking for a jobas unemployed.

The bureau noted that the civilian labor force dropped by 806,000 last month, following an increase of 503,000 in March.

The amount (not seasonally adjusted) of Americans not in the labor force in April rose to 92,594,000, almost 1 million more than the previous month. In March, 91,630,000 Americans were not in the labor force, which includes an aging population that is continuing to head into retirement.

“The labor force participation rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 62.8 percent in April. The participation rate has shown no clear trend in recent months and currently is the same as it was this past October. The employment-population ratio showed no change over the month (58.9 percent) and has changed little over the year,” the bureau said in a statement.

A little over one month ago, on April 1st, I joined the ranks of the unemployed, due to a Budget Cut.

In years past, this would have been tough. Now, it is tougher. You see, I’m 55 years old.

Being a writer, and someone to whom performing research comes as naturally as breathing in and out, I immediately performed a Google Search, on “Being Unemployed Over 50”. I found an article on the subject , posted in 2012 on forbes.com, which included this hardly-inspiring little ray of sunshine:

For older workers who lose their jobs, the statistics are not very encouraging. Though the unemployment rate for people over 55 is just 5.9%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, several points lower than the overall rate of 8.1%, when older workers lose their jobs they are out of work for a long time, according to the AARP Public Policy Institute. In May, 54.9% of job seekers over 55 had been looking for 27 weeks or more. According to the Institute, on average, unemployed people over 55 have been out of work for more than a year—56 weeks. Also, as my colleague Ashlea Ebeling wrote in May, the Urban Institute released a report showing that median monthly earnings fell 23% after an unemployment spell for reemployed workers aged 50 to 61, compared with just 11% for workers aged 25 to 34.

Yeehaw. Okay, so what should I do? I mean, I can only watch “Walker, Texas Ranger” and “In The Heat of The Night” reruns so many times. Besides, I keep remembering the mug shots of the late Howard Rollins, from the time he was arrested for Substance Abuse while wearing women’s clothing. It was not a pretty sight.

But, I digress…

The Forbes Article goes on to feature stories from  Renée Rosenberg, a career counselor who specializes in over-50 job seekers. She is the author of Achieving the Good Life After 50, and a coach with the national career coaching organization.

According to Ms. Rosenberg, and the writer of the article, Susan Adams,

Often older workers need to adjust their expectations and consider jobs outside their area of expertise. Sometimes this means swallowing a pay cut, but it can also mean taking a job that is more low key and located closer to home. One of Rosenberg’s clients, at 68, lost his finance job in a downsizing. He realized he wanted to walk to work in his New York suburb. While poking around his neighborhood he saw a help wanted sign in a storefront. He inquired, and landed a job as a dispatcher for a limousine and car service. The job isn’t glamorous but it meets his financial needs and keeps him close to home.

In other words, grab whatever you can. If I was in my late 60s, I would probably follow those ladies’ advice.

However, I am not. I am only 55. I believe that I still have a lot to offer an employer.

The only problem is, will the employers see it that way?

The impatience of a technology-driven society is very evident…even in a job search.

Employers nowadays want to know what you can do for them today, not a couple of years down the road. And, with the economy headed down the ol’ porcelain receptacle, they want you to be able to do it with a limited or non-existent budget. Additionally , if you are being interviewed by a smaller company, Health Insurance for you and your family may not be included, due to the launch of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

This ain’t our parents (or grandparents for you young whipper-snappers out there) Job Market.

My folks were members of America’s Greatest Generation. I was born when they were 40. That being said, I can remember my Mother and Father, going to work everyday, to their jobs with Sears and Roebuck.

That’s right. They both worked for the same company…for 20 years!

You see, boys and girls, back then, unlike our impatient present society, employers hired you for the long haul. These employers were adept, through face-to-face interviews, at recognizing future employes’ potential, and were willing to invest the time necessary to cultivate that employee in order to realize a Return on that Investment (ROI).

Beginning in the 1980′s, the employer/employee dynamic began to change, as older employees, seemingly overnight,  became viewed as liabilities, not assets.

Nowadays, in our impatient society, powered by an universal quest for immediate results and gratification, employers and job-seekers alike have forgotten the old adage,

Good things come to those who wait.

Employers need to realize that there are skills you can teach employees and that the job seeker who is presently interviewing with you, can be cultivated into becoming a worthwhile ROI.

And, on the job seeker’s part, young seekers, just out of college, need to realize that, while universities can teach you knowledge, they can’t teach you experience. You may have to take a lower job than you had set your hopes on, in order to achieve greater success in the future.

In today’s “microwave-version” of the job seeking/hiring process, perhaps both employers and potential employees need to slow down, move in a more deliberate fashion, and think a little more about what they want, in both an employer and in a job situation.

The reality is, with the Obama Administration more interested is the expansion of government than they are in the expansion and health of America’s economy and labor force, more Americans are choosing to drop out of the Labor Force, because they are tired of the struggle. 

All these numbers from the Obama Administration are, is an attempt to put a coat of white paint on a shotgun shack and call it “repaired”.

So, fellow job seekers…

Prepare for the long haul.

Be Flexible. Be Adaptable. 

Never Give Up. Never Surrender.

Until He Comes,

KJ

High Schoolers in Colorado Recite the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic. Why it Matters.

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

pledgeofallegianceLast Monday, someone in the student-led Cultural Arms Club at Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins, Colorado decided that it would be cool and appropriate, if they said the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic.

That’s right. Instead of saying “One Nation Under God”, these high school students in Colorado pledged that America was “One Nation Under Allah”… and evidently, did not think a thing about it.

Seriously?

Back in October, 2010, I posted a Blog titled “The Pledge and the Progressives”, about an incident of spontaneous patriotism that happened at the beginning of a candidates forum with 8th Congressional District candidates Joe Walsh, Melissa Bean and Bill Scheurer at Grayslake Central High School.

According to Illinois’ top League of Women Voters official, “phony patriotism” was driving criticism over a moderator’s reaction when she was asked if the Pledge of Allegiance would be recited before an 8th Congressional District debate.

Executive Director Jan Czarnik said what happened and the firestorm of criticism afterward, directed at moderator Kathy Tate-Bradish, was an attempt by supporters of Republican candidate Joe Walsh of McHenry and tea party members to bully the organization.

Czarnik said someone was not a better American just by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
This clueless woman said:

It’s a phony patriotism issue is what it is.  They must think it helps their campaign.

Brought in from the League of Women Voters Evanston branch because she didn’t live in the 8th Congressional District, Tate-Bradish handled the event at Grayslake Central High School that featured Democratic U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean of Barrington, the Green Party’s Bill Scheurer and Walsh.

As you heard in the video, Tate-Bradish was asked by a man in the audience whether the Pledge of Allegiance would be recited after she went over some ground rules and directed the candidates to make opening statements.

As Tate-Bradish condescendingly explained that the debate was not scheduled to start with the pledge, almost all in the crowd of more than 300 stood and enthusiastically recited it anyway.

Tate-Bradish, who joined in the pledge, issued a scolding, like a petulant schoolmarm, when the crowd finished.

Walsh campaign manager Nick Provenzano still does not understand why Tate-Bradish did not appear to welcome the Pledge of Allegiance suggestion. He said it was spontaneous and not orchestrated by Walsh’s campaign.

He said:

That neutral stance (by Tate-Bradish) toward the Pledge of Allegiance is troublesome.

Not just troublesome, sir.  Borderline treasonous.

Tate-Bradish stood by her unpatriotic actions and said she had been surprised by personal attacks directed toward her on the Internet since the forum, particularly posts stating she “hates America.” ( I’m shocked, I tell you.  Shocked.)  She claims that she ran the debate in the format established by some Grayslake High students and agreed to by all three candidates, none of whom asked for the pledge in advance.

She petulantly whined:

It’s pretty patriotic to run forums in election seasons where every candidate can be heard and they’re not stomped on.

Island Lake resident Joseph Ptak, a Walsh supporter, come forward later to admit that he asked for the pledge at the debate. Provenzano said he was not certain who made the request.

Ptak, 58, a U.S. Air Force veteran, said the pledge was a proper way to begin the event that was in a high school and had student participation. He said many veterans were in the audience, and he objects to Czarnik questioning the request’s sincerity.

Ptak said:

I’m a Joe Walsh supporter, but first and foremost I’m an American.

Bean spokesman Jonathan Lipman declined to comment.

Somehow, I don’t doubt that.

Progressives are only loyal to themselves.

Growing up in the Heartland of America, starting in elementary school, every student said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, facing the American Flag in the corner of our classroom with our hands placed firmly over our hearts.

And, I can tell you from first hand experience, that act of allegiance and reverence for our country still takes place every morning in schools across this country, including those here in Mississippi.

Why is this done?

Is it some sort of arcane ritual that has no meaning in this Modern America, where our Liberal politicians preach that diversity is what makes America strong and that the “Melting Pot” image of a unified America is no longer relevant?

Liberals, all over the Internet, have been asking what difference does it make that these kids decided to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic?

I’m glad you asked, Libs.

The Pledge of Allegiance is more than just words being said to an inanimate object.

Just as America’s Founding Fathers pledged “their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor” to one another, as they fought to secure our American Freedom from the forces of tyranny, every time Americans recite our Pledge of Allegiance, we are pledging our loyalty to each other as Americans, and to our country.

This is not a pledge to be taken lightly. This is not a pledge which was designed to be said in the language of our enemies.

This is a pledge which was meant to be said sincerely and said in a way that honors the flag of our country, a symbol which brave men have fought and died for in defense of our liberty.

As I have written before, my friend Johnny McDonald once wrote that “liberty is freedom with responsibility”. Our nation’s Pledge of Allegiance is a pledge of responsibility… a responsibility to keep America “The Shining City on a Hill”… a country where legal immigrants can begin their new lives as Americans…”one nation under God with liberty and justice for all”.

Maybe those High School Students in Colorado were never properly explained the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance?  As I take my leave today, America’s Clown Prince, Mr. Richard (Red) Skelton, will explain it, so that even they might understand.  God Bless America!

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

New E-Mails Trace BenghaziGate “Video Strategy” Back to White House

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

BenghaziWhiteHouseFrom whitehouse.gov, “Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, SUBJECT: Transparency and Open Government”

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public…

Remember what happened on September 9, 2009, during President Barack Hussein Obama’s very first State of the Union Speech?

On September 10, 2009, CNN.com reported the following:

A Republican House member shouted, “You lie” during President Obama’s health care speech to Congress on Wednesday, and members of both parties condemned the heckling.

After the speech, South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson issued a statement apologizing for his outburst.

“This evening, I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the president’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill,” the statement said. “While I disagree with the president’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility.”

Wilson also called the White House to apologize and spoke with Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who accepted the apology on the president’s behalf, according to a senior administration official.

“We can disagree without being disagreeable,” Emanuel said to Wilson, according to the official. “That was the point of the president’s speech.”

The outburst came when Obama denied that proposed health care legislation would provide free health coverage for illegal immigrants. Immediately, Wilson shouted, “You lie!”

The outburst caused Obama to stop and look toward the heckler. “That’s not true,” the president responded.

Rep. Wilson had no idea.

On September 25, 2012, United States President, Barack Hussein Obama, spoke before the United Nations General Assembly, blaming an un-watched youtube.com video, for the massacre of 4 brave Americans, on the night of September 11, 2012, at the Benghazi , Libya, U.S. Embassy Compound,

…In every culture, those who love freedom for themselves must ask themselves how much they’re willing to tolerate freedom for others. And that is what we saw play out in the last two weeks, where a crude and disgusting video sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world. Now, I have made it clear that the United States government had nothing to do with this video, and I believe its message must be rejected by all who respect our common humanity. It is an insult not only to Muslims, but to America as well.

For as the city outside these walls makes clear, we are a country that has welcomed people of every race and every faith. We are home to Muslims who worship across our country. We not only respect the freedom of religion, we have laws that protect individuals from being harmed because of how they look or what they believe.

We understand why people take offense to this video because millions of our citizens are among them. I know there are some who ask why don’t we just ban such a video. The answer is enshrined in our laws. Our Constitution protects the right to practice free speech.

Let’s spring forward a little bit to the 2012 Vice-Presidential Debate, where the folllowing statements were made by the one, the only Jar Jar Biden:

MS. RADDATZ: What were you first told about the attack? Why were people talking about protests? When people in the consulate first saw armed men attacking with guns, there were no protesters. Why did that go on for weeks?

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Because that’s exactly what we were told —

MS. RADDATZ: By who?

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: — by the intelligence community. The intelligence community told us that. As they learned more facts about exactly what happened, they changed their assessment. That’s why there’s also an investigation headed by Tom Pickering, a leading diplomat in the — from the Reagan years, who is doing an investigation as to whether or not there were any lapses, what the lapses were, so that they will never happen again. But —

MS. RADDATZ: And they wanted more security there.

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, we weren’t told they wanted more security again. We did not know they wanted more security again. And by the way, at the time we were told exactly — we said exactly what the intelligence community told us that they knew. That was the assessment. And as the intelligence community changed their view, we made it clear they changed their view. That’s why I said, we will get to the bottom of this.

Biden lied, too.

Fast forward to the present, where as Conservative Pundit, Dr. Charles Krauthammer, succinctly put it, we finally have “the smoking gun” concerning this massacre, as foxnews.com reports…

Newly released emails on the Benghazi terror attack suggest a senior White House aide played a central role in preparing former U.N. ambassador Susan Rice for her controversial Sunday show appearances — where she wrongly blamed protests over an Internet video.

More than 100 pages of documents were released to the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Among them was a Sept. 14, 2012, email from Ben Rhodes, an assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for strategic communications.

The Rhodes email, with the subject line: “RE: PREP Call with Susan: Saturday at 4:00 pm ET,” was sent to a dozen members of the administration’s inner circle, including key members of the White House communications team such as Press Secretary Jay Carney.

In the email, Rhodes specifically draws attention to the anti-Islam Internet video, without distinguishing whether the Benghazi attack was different from protests elsewhere.

The email lists the following two goals, among others:

“To underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy.”

“To reinforce the President and Administration’s strength and steadiness in dealing with difficult challenges.”

The email goes on to state that the U.S. government rejected the message of the Internet video. “We find it disgusting and reprehensible. But there is absolutely no justification at all for responding to this movie with violence,” the email stated.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said the documents read like a PR strategy, not an effort to provide the best available intelligence to the American people.

“The goal of the White House was to do one thing primarily, which was to make the president look good. Blame it on the video and not [the] president’s policies,” he said.

So, in other words, United States President Barack Hussein Obama and his Administration not only lied to America, they lied to the entire world.

Americans have always been suspicious of not only Obama’s honesty in this situation, but also, as to where his loyalties fell, regarding that horrible night, and its aftermath.

Obama did nothing to allay those suspicions during the before-quoted speech at the UN General Assembly, in which he proclaimed that

…The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.

Since that night in Benghazi, the Radical Muslim-fueled violence know as “Arab Spring” has proceeded “right on schedule”.

Among the most memorable moments in President Obama’s dhimmitude happened recently, when he made speeches in support of and sent advanced weaponry to the “Syrian Rebels”, whose majority are card-carrying members of the Muslim Terrorist Group, al Qaeda, perpetrators of the largest Terrorist Attack ever on American Soil, on 9/11/01, and the attack on the Benghazi Compound.

Fortunately, Americans refused to support Obama’s mission to aid these Terrorists.

Our memories of those two faithful days, 11 years apart, and average Americans’ wish for justice for those 3,000 Americans killed on that horrific day of September 11, 2001, and those 4 Americans, savagely murdered by the “followers of the prophet”,11 years to the day later, take precedence over any trumped-up concern over any fictitious slander of the name of the Allah.

Senator Ted Cruz is calling for bi-partisan hearings to get to the bottom of this.

Personally, I would rather see Impeachment Hearings after we take back the Senate this November.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

Sterling & the NBA: Banning a Bigot or Threatening Our Freedom?

On By kingsjesterIn Entertainment, PoliticsLeave a comment

Donald SterlingBy now, you have no doubt heard that Los Angeles Clippers Basketball Team Owner, Donald Sterling, has been fined and banned for life by the National Basketball Association, due to racist comments he made in a private telephone conversation, which was recorded by his mistress, and then given to TMZ.

In this private conversation he told the girl, who is young enough to be the 81 year old Sterling’s granddaughter, that he did not want her to bring any minorities to the game. Sterling’s mistress is half-black and half-Mexican.

While the 2.5 million dollars he was fined, alone, seems to be a pretty severe punishment, the new NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, had to go ahead and hedge his bet and ban Sterling for life to prove that he will be a tough commissioner and that he is on the side of the players. Because, boys and girls, in today’s NBA, the players are running the league.

Don’t believe me? Consider this…

Do you remember several years ago, when members of the Indiana Pacers ran up into the bleachers, to catch Ron Artest,who was going after a guy in the crowd who was yelling at him?

Ron Artest, now known as Meta Worldpeace, is still playing basketball in the NBA.

Heck…I will go you one better.

Remember when Latrell Sprewell choked out his coach, PJ Carlesimo, in practice? Sprewell went on to continue his career after that.

So, now are we going to tap the phones of every single NBA player, coach, and official, to make sure that nobody says something bad about somebody?

Under Obama, this nation has become a bunch of “Pajama Boys”.

Now, I’m not arguing that what Sterling said was not reprehensible.

It was.

However, in retrospect, was it any worse than what former NBA player Larry “Grandma” Johnson said? The former New York Knickerbocker said that the black members of the NBA should form their own league.

I suppose, so they don’t have to deal with all of us crackas.

Come on, people. Racism is racism. Bigotry is bigotry

archiesammyBack in the 1970s, Liberal TV Producer Norman Lear created the classic series, “All in the Family”, which revolved around bigoted Archie Bunker, a working class stiff up in New York City. Perfectly portrayed by the great American actor Carroll O’Connor, the program followed the day-to-day life of Archie, as he dealt with his wife Edith, whom he affectionately called Dingbat, his daughter Gloria, and his son-in- law Mike, whom he called Meathead.

Lear produced the series in order to show America how stupid bigotry was. What he didn’t count on, was the fact that Americans saw a bit of themselves in the character of Archie Bunker. And, instead of Americans laughing at him about his character flaws, we laughed with him.

The character of Archie Bunker, while flawed with prejudices, turned out to have a heart of gold.

And, America fell in love with him.

Of course, back then, our skin was thicker. We handled our own problems.  

For example, there was a bully who sat behind me in 7th Grade. He was twice as big as I was, and took great glee in making fun of me and trying to intimidate me. One day, I had had enough. I reached under my desk, took hold of my 2s  (tom) drumsticks and smacked him right between his beady little eyes. We were both sent to the Assistant Principal’s Office, where I explained my actions to Mr. Norville, pur Assistant Principal. After laughing in covert approval, he told me to get back to class.

Back then, we didn’t need any government programs to tell us “how to handle bullies”. Our parents raised us to take care of them ourselves.

But, I digress…

We are all prejudiced to a certain extent. Prejudice does not have to be about race. It can be about personality, body type, political affiliation, or geographical location.

The NBA has set a dangerous precedent here.

While Donald Sterling is lower than the belly of a snake and exhibits all the class of Rosie O’Donnell at an all-you-can-eat buffet, to ban someone for life over a private conversation, threatens Freedom of Speech and the expectation of privacy which we, as Americans, hold dear.

Is this a continuation of the atmosphere that President Barack Hussein Obama has created from his use of the NSA, IRS, and unmanned drones to intrude into the private lives of Americans?

The last nation to spy on their citizens in such a manner was the Soviet Union.

Again, I’m not saying that Sterling does not deserve punishment.

However, even an immoral libertine like Sterling, has Freedom of Speech and an expectation of privacy under our Constitution.

For the NBA to ban the immoral Sterling over a private phone conversation taped by his immoral, gold-digging mistress, pulls them down into the same mud hole as the two of them.

It is an unseemly situation all the way around.

One which could set the stage for a Liberty- threatening one.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama’s Secretary of State, John Kerry, Says that Israel Will Become an “Apartheid State”, If They Don’t Give Half of Their Country to “The Palestinians”.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics1 Comment

americanisraelilapelpinYesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day on which to reflect upon the mass genocide of European Jews, carried out by the National Socialist Party, otherwise known as the NAZI Party, headed by German Chancellor Adolf Hitler.

On the very solemn day, it came out that United States Secretary of State John Kerry had recently made such a insensitive, racially-charged remark about the Jewish Homeland of Israel, that now American Leaders are calling for his “involuntary resignation”.

The Daily Beast reports that

If there’s no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict soon, Israel risks becoming “an apartheid state,” Secretary of State John Kerry told a room of influential world leaders in a closed-door meeting Friday.

Senior American officials have rarely, if ever, used the term “apartheid” in reference to Israel, and President Obama has previously rejected the idea that the word should apply to the Jewish state. Kerry’s use of the loaded term is already rankling Jewish leaders in America—and it could attract unwanted attention in Israel, as well.

It wasn’t the only controversial comment on the Middle East that Kerry made during his remarks to the Trilateral Commission, a recording of which was obtained by The Daily Beast. Kerry also repeated his warning that a failure of Middle East peace talks could lead to a resumption of Palestinian violence against Israeli citizens. He suggested that a change in either the Israeli or Palestinian leadership could make achieving a peace deal more feasible. He lashed out against Israeli settlement-building. And Kerry said that both Israeli and Palestinian leaders share the blame for the current impasse in the talks.

Kerry also said that at some point, he might unveil his own peace deal and tell both sides to “take it or leave it.”

“A two-state solution will be clearly underscored as the only real alternative. Because a unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second-class citizens—or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state,” Kerry told the group of senior officials and experts from the U.S., Western Europe, Russia, and Japan. “Once you put that frame in your mind, that reality, which is the bottom line, you understand how imperative it is to get to the two-state solution, which both leaders, even yesterday, said they remain deeply committed to.”

According to the 1998 Rome Statute, the “crime of apartheid” is defined as “inhumane acts… committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.” The term is most often used in reference to the system of racial segregation and oppression that governed South Africa from 1948 until 1994.

Senator Ted Cruz responded to Secretary Kerry’s statement on his Facebook Page, yesterday:

Secretary Kerry has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to countenance a world where Israel is made a pariah because it will not sacrifice its security to his diplomatic initiatives.

It is my belief that Secretary Kerry has proven himself unsuitable for his position and that before any further harm is done to our alliance with Israel, he should offer President Obama his resignation, and the President should accept it.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen, Senator.

Kerry is simply doing the bidding of his President, Barack Hussein Obama.

They want Israel to give half of their country to the “Palestinians”, which would retun their nation to basically a strip of land, as it was before the Six Day War.

Who exactly are “The Palestinians”?

According to disoverthenetworks.org,

Since the Six Day War of 1967, the Arab world’s most powerful leaders — in Egypt, Libya, Arabia, Syria, and Iraq prior to Saddam Hussein’s demise — have waged a war of words against Israel. Having failed to defeat Israel by means of naked military aggression, these leaders and their advisors decided, sometime between the end of the war and the Khartoum Conference of August-September 1967, to bring about the destruction of Israel by means of a relentless terror war.

To justify to the world their ruthless murder of Israeli civilians and their undying hatred of the West, these leaders needed to invent a narrative depicting Israel as a racist, war-mongering, oppressive, apartheid state that was illegally occupying Arab land and carrying out the genocide of an indigenous people that had a stronger claim to the land of Israel than did Israel itself.

Thus the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), under the tutelage of the Soviet KGB, invented “The Palestinian People” who allegedly had been forced to wage a war of national liberation against imperialism.

To justify this notion, Yasser Arafat, shortly after taking over as leader of the PLO, sent his adjutant, Abu Jihad (later the leader of the PLO’s military operations), to North Vietnam to study the strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare in the hopes that the PLO could emulate Ho Chi Minh’s success with left-wing sympathizers in the United States and Europe. Ho’s chief strategist, General Giap, offered advice that changed the PLO’s identity and future:

“Stop talking about annihilating Israel and instead turn your terror war into a struggle for human rights. Then you will have the American people eating out of your hand.”

Giap’s counsel was simple but profound: the PLO needed to work in a way that concealed its real goals, permitted strategic deception, and gave the appearance of moderation. And the key to all this was creating an image that would help Arafat manipulate the American and Western news media.

Arafat developed the images of the “illegal occupation” and “Palestinian national self-determination,” both of which lent his terrorism the mantle of a legitimate peoples’ resistance. After the Six Day War, Muhammad Yazid, who had been minister of information in two Algerian wartime governments (1958-1962), imparted to Arafat some wisdom that echoed the lessons he had learned in North Vietnam:

“Wipe out the argument that Israel is a small state whose existence is threatened by the Arab states, or the reduction of the Palestinian problem to a question of refugees; instead, present the Palestinian struggle as a struggle for liberation like the others. Wipe out the impression . . . that in the struggle between the Palestinians and the Zionists, the Zionist is the underdog. Now it is the Arab who is oppressed and victimized in his existence because he is not only facing the Zionists but also world imperialism.”

So, why would an American Administration and their fellow Liberals, including American Jews,  join with our nation’s sworn enemies in their Jihad against our staunchest ally, Israel?

In an  article, posted on June 2, 2011, on americanthinker.com, Why Does the Left Hate Israel?,  Richard Baehr attempts to answer that very question…

…I have been to several of the left wing Israel hate fests. They are scary. There is real passion in the air. There is something about Israel that gets the juices going. Anti—Semitism is a part of it. There are a lot of people who are envious of Jews, on the left as well as the right. Patrick Buchanan thinks Jews have hijacked the conservative movement. But on the left, particularly in the academy, and in journalism, I am certain there is professional envy of the many Jewish faces and what better way to get even, and get back for sometimes losing the competitive battle, than by picking on the Jewish state as a surrogate. Leftist Jews sometimes lead the assault against Israel in these venues, thereby giving the attacks, whatever their reason, greater moral authority. Few Jews will stand up for Israel in these environments, because of the great pressure on the left to conform to the group think in the institutions they control.

…The evidence I believe is clear today that Israel faces far greater threats from the left than the right. The left is reflexively anti—Israel and has established important beachheads in significant American institutions— academia, the media, and the old line Protestant ‘high’ churches, as well as in the very seats of government power in many Western European countries, and their intelligentsia. It is not surprising that Israel seems unable to get a fair shake from college professors, the BBC, Reuters, NPR, or liberal churches. Being anti—Israel has become part of their religion.

As a Christian American, I know who I support:  God’s Chosen People. 

You see, I’ve read The Book.  I know the ending.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama Condemns Donald Sterling, Bemoans America’s “Legacy of Race and Slavery and Segregation”…Fails to Give a “Shout Out” to Rev. Jeremiah Wright

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

Donald SterlingThe top story in the National News involved a conversation between the NBA’s LA Clippers Owner Donald Sterling and his much younger “girlfriend”, V. Stiviano, who is half-Black and half-Mexican, “not to bring any Black people with her to the games”.

Needless to say, it has caused a firestorm among the NBA Players and the Main Stream Media is fanning the flames.

The President made the following remarks when asked about the matter during a Joint Press Conference yesterday with the Prime Minister of Malaysia:

(Transcript courtesy of whitehouse.gov)

With respect to the statements by the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers — for our Malaysian audience, this is a sports team, basketball team in the United States. The owner is reported to have said some incredibly offensive racist statements that were published. I don’t think I have to interpret those statements for you; they kind of speak for themselves. When people — when ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance you don’t really have to do anything, you just let them talk. And that’s what happened here.

I am confident that the NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver, a good man, will address this. Obviously, the NBA is a league that is beloved by fans all across the country. It’s got an awful lot of African American players. It’s steeped in African American culture. And I suspect that the NBA is going to be deeply concerned in resolving this.

I will make just one larger comment about this. The United States continues to wrestle with a legacy of race and slavery and segregation that’s still there — the vestiges of discrimination. We’ve made enormous strides, but you’re going to continue to see this percolate up every so often. And I think that we just have to be clear and steady in denouncing it, teaching our children differently, but also remaining hopeful that part of why some statements like this stand out so much is because there had been — there has been this shift in how we view ourselves.

And like Malaysia, we constantly have to be on guard against racial attitudes that divide us rather than embracing our diversity as a strength. And I know that the people of Malaysia are committed to wrestling with those issues as well. We have to make sure that we stay on top of it — and we will.

Barack Obama, Jeremiah WrightPoint of Order, Mr. President.  About this RAAACIIISM Thingy…for 20 years you sat under the former American Black Muslim Rev. Jeremiah Wright, at the Trinity Church of Christ, a “Black Liberation Theology” Church.

What is “Black Liberation Theology”? I’m glad you asked.

The chief architect of black liberation theology was James Cone, author of Black Theology and Black Power. One of the tasks of this movement, according to Cone, is to analyze the nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ in light of the experience of blacks who have long been victimized by white oppressors. According to black liberation theology, the inherent racism of white people precludes them from being able to recognize the humanity of nonwhites; moreover, their white supremacist orientation allegedly results in the establishment of a “white theology” that is irrevocably disconnected from the black experience. Consequently, liberation theologians contend that blacks need their own, race-specific theology to affirm their identity and their worth.

“What we need,” says Cone, “is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of Black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.” Observing that America was founded for white people, Cone calls for “the destruction of whiteness, which is the source of human misery in the world.” He advocates the use of Marxism as a tool of social analysis to help Christians to see “how things really are.”

Another prominent exponent of black liberation theology is the Ivy League professor Cornel West, who calls for “a serious dialogue between Black theologians and Marxist thinkers” — a dialogue that centers on the possibility of “mutually arrived-at political action.”

In the past, Obama has credited a sermon of Mr. Wright’s, “The Audacity of Hope,” with drawing him to what he identified back in 2008 as, “Christianity”.

On Page 293 of his first book,  “Dreams for My Father,” Obama recounts Wright’s “The Audacity of Hope” sermon.

Obama quotes this passage:

It is this world, a world where cruise ships throw away more food in a day than most residents of Port-au-Prince see in a year, where white folks’ greed runs a world in need, apartheid in one hemisphere, apathy in another hemisphere…That’s the world! On which hope sits!

In fact, Wright had so influenced the young Illinois Senator that Obama made the phrase “The Audacity of Hope” the title of his second book.

However, right before he announced his presidential campaign, Obama started to put distance between himself and his pastor of 20 years, cancelling plans for him to deliver the convocation prayer at the campaign’s formal announcement.

The president has been physically distancing himself from Rev. Wright ever since.

Can you say hypocrisy, boys and girls? Sure you can.

Oh, and another thing…have you heard the MSM mention that Donald Sterling is a Democrat?

The DailyCaller.com reports that

According to records obtained by the independent data research tool Littlesis.org – maintained by the Public Accountability Initiative – the owner of the LA Clippers embroiled in controversy has only donated to Democratic candidates.

Between 1990 and 1992 Donald Sterling made a $2,000 donations to the former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley, a $1000 donation to current Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, as well as a $1000 donation to the recalled former governor of California Gray Davis. Despite having a 100% track record of donating to Democrats, Littlesis.org has no records of him donating to either of President Barack Obama’s election campaigns.

Of course, racism and the Democrat Party have had a close relationship for well over a century, featuring such famous poster boys as KKK Grand Dragon Robert Byrd and Former Alabama Governor George Wallace, just to mention a couple.

It turns out that the man who was billed as our first “Post-Racial President” has done nothing but divide the races even further.

And, that’s not what any nation’s leader does…much less an AMERICAN PRESIDENT…unless…it is intentional.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

 

The Tale of the Tennessee Imam: Of Hate Speech and Holy Wars

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

QadhiA news story hit over the weekend that an Islamic Preacher (Imam) in my hometown of Memphis, TN preaches that

Jews and Christians are filthy. Their lives and property can be taken in Jihad by the Muslims.

…I have been commanded to fight the people until they testify la illaha illa Allah [there is no god but Allah].

So…who is this Muslim Hatemonger?

Yasir Qadhi is not only a Memphis Imam, but is is also the Dean of Academic Affairs at the Al-Maghrib Institute. He is a hafiz (has memorized the Qur’an) and he has an M.A. in the Islamic Creed and a B.A. in Islamic Sciences from Islamic University of Medina, as well as a master’s and a doctorate in Islamic Studies from Yale. During a lecture on Shirk, or polytheism, Yasir Qadhi said that Jews and Christians are mushrikoon, or polytheists, because they have made partners with Allah. From Yasir Qadhi’s perspective, only Muslims are monotheists.

Let’s look a little deeper at the Al-Maghrib Institute, shall we?

Per David Horowitz’s discoverthenetworks.org:

The Michigan-based Al-Maghrib Institute is a college-level religious education program whose mission is to help its students “gain a deeper understanding of Islam”; to “build sincere, dedicated and brilliant students … who will go on to become leaders, bringing their communities to new heights”; and to “make people better Muslims and bring people closer to Allah.” The Institute seeks to achieve these objectives by offering “trademark double-weekend [six-day] university-style seminars carrying students toward a bachelor’s degree in the Islamic Studies.”

Al-Maghrib’s classes are given at mosques in at least thirteen North American cities: College Park, Maryland; Fairfax, Virginia; Houston, Texas; New Brunswick, New Jersey; San Francisco Bay area, California; Seattle, Washington; Memphis, Tennessee; Sacramento, California; Detroit, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois; Ottawa, Canada; Montreal, Canada; and Toronto, Canada. Al-Maghrib also ran onsite seminars in Columbus, Ohio during 2006.

Characterized by Wahhabi-influenced extremism, rabid anti-Semitism, Holocaust denials, and the preaching of militaristic jihad, Al-Maghrib’s courses are accredited by American Open University (AOU), which in turn is accredited by Al-Azhar University in Cairo — the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest and largest radical Islamic organization in the world.

A review of the course summary for Al-Maghrib’s Islamic Studies degree program shows that the required reading list is dominated by the works of Muslim Brotherhood and Wahhabi theologians and theorists. In particular, the program requires students to read Sayyid Qutb’s In the Shade of the Quran. Qutb, the Muslim Brotherhood thinker who was executed by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1960s, was influential in justifying terrorism and jihad, and in laying down the theoretical principles upon which al Qaeda was built.

Another Muslim Brotherhood theorist prominent in the Al-Maghrib curriculum is Sayyid Sabiq, who wrote his book Fiqh-us-Sunnah at the request of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna. The two volumes of Sabiq’s work are the only texts for Al-Maghrib’s “Fiqh of Worship” course.

The Al-Maghrib reading list also features the works of Bilal Phillips, who in January 2007 gained notoriety as one of the radical preachers secretly videotaped for the Undercover Mosque investigative program aired on Britain’s Channel Four. In that program, Phillips was shown lecturing in favor of forced Islamic marriages for prepubescent girls.

The justification of jihad and a call for Islamic dominance are promoted in the Al-Maghrib course titled “Islam Invulnerable: The Making of the Modern Muslim World.” Tracing the rise of Islam as a global force from the initial Islamic invasions and occupations of the Near East, North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, this class glories in the triumphs of the Ottoman, Safavid, Qajar and Mughal Empires. The Crusades are denounced, as are European “imperialist” and “colonialist” efforts in recent centuries, while Islamic conquests undergo “narrative reinterpretation” to explain how they differ from Western exploits. Moreover, the present-day Arab-Israeli conflict is blamed entirely on the “Zionists.”

And, what about the Tennessee Imam?

…Yasir Qadhi, who graduated from the Islamic University of Medina, draws from the anti-Semitic fogery, Protocols of the Elders of Zion, to explain that Jews are not racially Semitic and therefore have no right to make a claim on the Holy Land. A Holocaust denier, Qadhi has stated: “Hitler never intended to mass-destroy the Jews.” In August 2006 Qadhi revealed that he was on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s terrorist watch list.

To quote the late , great Claude Rains from “Casablanca”:

I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

Almost one year ago, Tennessee Attorney General warned Americans against “hate speech” against Muslims. I wrote about it in a Blog titled, “US Attorney Warns Against Talking Mean About Muslims on the Internet”

Here’s the story from tullahomanews.com:

A special meeting has been scheduled for the stated purpose of increasing awareness and understanding that American Muslims are not the terrorists some have made them out to be in social media and other circles.

“Public Disclosure in a Diverse Society” will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 4, at the Manchester-Coffee County Conference Center, 147 Hospitality Blvd.

Special speakers for the event will be Bill Killian, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, and Kenneth Moore, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Knoxville Division.

Sponsor of the event is the American Muslim Advisory Council of Tennessee — a 15-member board formed two years ago when the General Assembly was considering passing legislation that would restrict those who worship Sharia Law, which is followed by Muslims.

Killian and Moore will provide input on how civil rights can be violated by those who post inflammatory documents targeted at Muslims on social media.

“This is an educational effort with civil rights laws as they play into freedom of religion and exercising freedom of religion,” Killian told The News Monday. “This is also to inform the public what federal laws are in effect and what the consequences are.”

Killian said the presentation will also focus on Muslim culture and how, that although terrorist acts have been committed by some in the faith, they are no different from those in other religions.

He referred to the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing in which Timothy McVeigh, an American terrorist, detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. Commonly referred to as the Oklahoma City Bombing, the attack killed 168 people and injured more than 800.

…Killian [also] referred to a Facebook posting made by Coffee County Commissioner Barry West that showed a picture of a man pointing a double-barreled shotgun at a camera lens with the caption saying, “How to Wink at a Muslim.”

Killian said he and Moore had discussed the issue.

“If a Muslim had posted ‘How to Wink at a Christian,’ could you imagine what would have happened?” he said. “We need to educate people about Muslims and their civil rights, and as long as we’re here, they’re going to be protected.”

Killian said Internet postings that violate civil rights are subject to federal jurisdiction.

“That’s what everybody needs to understand,” he said.

Killian said slide show presentations will be made.

Zak Mohyuddin, a Muslim Advisory Council member, said a shortened version of a documentary called “Welcome to Shelbyville” will also be featured.

The documentary, produced by the Public Broadcasting Service, spotlights recent demographic changes in nearby Shelbyville, with a focus on the growing number of immigrants from Latin America and Somalia with many Somalis from the Bantu minority ethnic group which practices Islam.

Mohyuddin said Muslims across the nation consistently issue press releases condemning terrorist acts, but the media usually does not pick up the information. He added that the apparent silence leaves the impression that Muslims do not condemn such acts.

Like Killian, Mohyuddin said word needs to be spread so more people understand the Muslim culture.

“It is in the self-interest of Muslims in the United States to counter violent extremism, because we and our children do not want to be viewed with suspicion,” Mohyuddin said. “The Muslim community is a vital resource in the fight against terrorism.”

Killian said he has made other presentations in the state about Muslim culture and civil rights laws, and the Muslims he’s become acquainted with are outstanding citizens.

“Some of the finest people I’ve met are Muslims,” he said, adding later: “We want to inform everybody about what the law is, but more importantly, we want to provide what the law means to Muslims, Hindus and every other religion in the country.

“It’s why we came here in the first place. In England, they were using Christianity to further their power in government. That’s why the First Amendment is there.”

Evidently, the First Amendment protects the Tennessee Imam’s hateful, treat-filled diatribes.

Okay…well…

I have a couple of objections for Attorney Killian and his friends…

First off…while I have met some very nice American Muslims, I have also delivered audio/visual equipment to a mosque where I was looked at as if they wanted to take a scimitar to my neck.

If Moderate Muslims are not behind their radical brethren’s eternal jihad against us infidels, they need to get their mugs in front of the cable news networks’ TV cameras and say so…because all I see representing them when I turn on the news, are the abrasive members of CAIR, blaming America for all the world’s troubles .

Secondly, about the First Amendment to the Constitution to the United States…

It protects my rights, also!!!

The most basic component of freedom of expression is the right of freedom of speech. The right to freedom of speech allows American citizens to express themselves without interference or constraint by the government.

If Mr. Killian were to bring a case before the Supreme Court concerning a blogger being mean to Muslims, the court would require him to provide substantial justification for the interference with the right of free speech in his attempt to regulate the content of the speech.

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America reads as follows…

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

You know what’s so great about our country? Our American Freedom. Earlier this week, we remembered those who fought and died, so that we could remain free.

It is that same American Spirit which fuels a lot of Conservative Bloggers, Mr. Killian. Including me.

If I write that it was a bunch of cowardly Saudi Arabian Radical Muslim Terrorists, who killed over 3,000 Americans, in the biggest Terrorist Attack ever on American soil, on September 11th, in the Year of  Our Lord Jesus Christ, 2001, my freedom of speech would protect me for making that statement, because it has been proven to be the truth.

And, if I then write that, I hope that, when they arrived at their ultimate destination, they became extra crispy and were immediately surrounded by their 72 virgins, who all looked like Nancy Pelosi and sang like Roseanne Barr, then that would be my opinion, and would still be covered by my Constitutional Right to Freedom of Speech. 

The Constitutional Right to Freedom of Speech, as specified in the First Amendment, is unalterable and not subject to Political Correctness or Expediency.

It is that same First Amendment which allowed Presidential Candidate Barack Hussein Obama to call Americans “Bitter Clingers”.

Our First President, George Washington, said,

If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

So, this American, born of the Greatest Generation, intends to keep speaking his mind concerning those Radical Followers of Islam who want to kill us.

You see…I’m rather fond of my head. And, I intend to keep it.

What’s good for the Imam is good for the “Infidel”.

Until He Comes,

KJ

My 1,500th Blog: To God Be the Glory. To Liberals, the Shame

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics1 Comment

Christian America Fish LogoI began writing my own Blog in April of 2010, after being a contributor on other Conservative Blogs and Facebook Pages.

I started writing as a way to share my Faith, my love for my country, and to vent ( because after all, punching holes in the wall is expensive…and painful).

Every now and then, I am asked what I believe.  So, on the occasion of this milestone, I’m asking you to gather ’round ol’ Uncle KJ, boys and girls, as I lay it on the line, and write from my heart…as usual.

FIRST THINGS FIRST…

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth;
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord:
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;*
the third day he rose from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead… – The Apostles Creed

I believe that there is no way to the Father, except through His Son, and the most important possession you can have in this life, is a Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ, Our Savior and Our Redeemer.

Grace, Forgiveness, and Redemption are available to everyone. However, it is up to you to ask for them.

I BELIEVE THAT AMERICA IS  STILL THAT “SHINING CITY ON A HILL”.

When our Founding Fathers made their treacherous journey to an unknown land full of danger, they sacrificed their homes, their wealth, and their prestige, in order to be able to worship God in the way they chose.

And, when the King of England decided to tax these brave men and women, who had sacrificed all to build a better life for themselves, in a punitive and unbearable manner, to the point of poverty, they decided that it was time to fight this tyranny, no matter what the cost.

So, to each other, they pledged “their lives, their fortunes, and their Sacred Honor”.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness…

And, thus began the Greatest Country on the Face of the Earth.

Yes, there have been mistakes made. Yes, there have been “growing pains”.  However, what makes the difference between us and other countries, is the fact that we remain a nation of exceptional people.

What is it that makes Americans exceptional? Is it simply a matter of the blessing of an American Birth?

No, if that were the case, you could consider the Communist Slackers of the OWS movement or other self-centered Mom’s Basement Dwellers, “exceptional”.  No, it’s way more than the privilege of being born a nephew of our Uncle Sam.

What has separated our nation from all others is THE AMERICAN SPIRIT…a spirit comprised of FAITH, COURAGE, SACRIFICE, CHARITY, AND INGENUITY.

While others have RUN AWAY, Americans have always RUN TO.

Why is that?

As my Brother-in-Christ Johnny McDonald once wrote, “Liberty is Freedom…with Responsibility”.

Ronald Reagan said,

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

Was Ronaldus Magnus speaking about our Freedom as a nation? Or, the freedom of the individual?

The answer is “Yes. Both.”

President Reagan knew how fragile this precious thing called Freedom is. So did Dr. Benjamin Franklin.

Dr. Franklin, along with our other Founding Fathers, pledged his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor in pursuit of it.

When he made that now-famous quote to Mrs. Powel, he was expressing his worry that seceding generations, having attained their freedom so easily, might grow lackadaisical and so spoiled by it, that they would squander it through self-indulgence. Franklin was, in fact, so leery of losing this new republic, that he said,

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

He was afraid that Americans would rely and trust those in power over them to the extent that they would surrender their freedom to them.

And, that brings me to my third belief:

I BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF THE INDIVIDUAL.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. – Phillippians 14:3 – NKJV

Our American Freedom allows us to be whatever we want to be, in this life. All it takes it perspiration, strength of will, and God’s Blessings.

And, that is why Liberalism/Progressiveness/Marxism fails.

Like any tyranny, they sublimate the power of the individual for the good (i.e., avarice and political ambitions) of the Collective (mindless sheep, kept in economic and ideological slavery, by an all-powerful Central Government).

The strength and vitality of America does not come from the benevolence of a Nanny-state Federal Government.

As the greatest American President of our lifetime, Ronald Reagan said:

The nine words you never want to hear are:  I’m from the Government and I’m here to help.

Being enslaved to the Government Dole steals one’s ambition.  It takes away any impetus or desire to create a better life for yourself and your family, to challenge yourself to pick yourself up by your bootstraps and pursue the American Dream.  It makes you reliant on a politically-motivated spider’s web full of government bureaucrats who view you and your family as job security.

While working at the County Jobs Center, I watched American citizens trapped in this web of government bureaucracy,  so numbed of any initiative that they once had, that they seemed offended that they actually had to prove that they inquired about three jobs that week in order to keep their “benefits”.  Others seemed puzzled that they had to search through the state data base and pick out a job that they wanted to talk to an interviewer about receiving a referral to, and weren’t just simply handed a job when they walked through the door.

Reliance on an out-of-control, ever-expanding Central Government, who controls every moment of a citizen’s everyday life, limits the potential of the individual.

And, for that reason, especially, Liberals should be ashamed.

I look at my own life, and I thank God that I was blessed by Him to be born an American.

If you would have told me as a child/teenager, during one of the many times that I was laying under an Oxygen Tent in St. Joseph Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, that God would give me the opportunity to sing to His Glory for 30 years, from Centenary United Methodist Church on McLemore Avenue in Downtown Memphis to a Baptist Church in Stratford-on-Avon, England, in between wheezing, I would have told you that you were a couple of fries short of a Happy Meal.

If you would have told me that, in my professional life, I would have had the to work with Americans from all walks of life, from the Surgeon General of the United States, to world-renowned physicians, to cotton farmers on the Mississippi Delta, I would have said, “Who…me?”

And, if you would have told me that I would write 1,500 Blogs, which have been read by people in countries all over the world, and that something I wrote would be read daily via e-mail by approximately 300 Americans , including United States Senators and Congresspeople, I would have told you, “NO WAY!”.

However, Gentle Readers,

WITH GOD, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.

May God Bless each and every one of you.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

Liberal Clergy, Including a Muslim Cleric, Protest Film About Al Qaeda Being Shown at 911 Museum

On By kingsjesterIn Politics1 Comment

twintowers911A bunch of Liberal Clergy Members, including a Muslim Cleric, are upset that the 911 Museum in New York City plans to show a film about the Muslim Terrorist Organization responsible for the massacre of almost 3,000 Americans, on September 11, 2001.

Foxnews.com reports that

An interfaith advisory group of clergy members in New York is raising concerns over a documentary that will be shown at the National September 11 Memorial Museum when it opens next month, arguing the film is offensive to Muslims.

The film, “The Rise of Al Qaeda” refers to the 9/11 terrorists as Islamists and uses the term jihad, which has panel members worried the film will leave museum visitors with a prejudiced view of Islam, The New York Times reported.

“The screening of this film in its present state would greatly offend our local Muslim believers as well as any foreign Muslim visitor to the museum,” Sheik Mostafa Elazabawy, the imam of Masjid Manhattan and member of the interfaith group, wrote in a letter to the museum’s director.

“Unsophisticated visitors who do not understand the difference between Al Qaeda and Muslims may come away with a prejudiced view of Islam, leading to antagonism and even confrontation toward Muslim believers near the site.”

According to The New York Times, the seven-minute film explains the historical roots of the attacks and the ideology of the terrorists. The film, which has been showed to several groups, features images of terrorist training camps other attacks.

Peter Gudaitis, who brought the panel together as the chief executive of an interfaith group, told the newspaper the museum rejected certain suggestions from the panel, such as making clear that the majority of Muslims are peaceful.

Museum officials defended the film, which was vetted past several scholars.

“From the very beginning, we had a very heavy responsibility to be true to the facts, to be objective, and in no way smear an entire religion when we are talking about a terrorist group,” Joseph C. Daniels, president of the organization overseeing the memorial and museum, told The New York Times.

Despite the panel’s concerns about the film, the group was pleased to see that the museum’s exhibit space included photographs of Muslims who were among the attack’s victims, mourners and recovery workers, according to the report.

The museum is scheduled to open May 21.

Guess what, gentlemen? It wasn’t Southern Baptists who committed the largest act of terrorism ever perpetrated on American Soil.

It was RADICAL MUSLIMS.

Let’s review, shall we?

Court documents in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, the 20th hijacker from 9/11/2001, outline how the three main leaders in Florida — Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah — arrived there in the summer of 2000. Interviews and media accounts fill many of the gaps left by the FBI.

Atta, al-Shehhi and Jarrah had attended Technical University in Hamburg, Germany, in the late 1990s. They had been roommates there, part of an Islamic student group that hated Western ways. Atta signed a “will” in 1996, pledging to die in a “holy war” against the infidels.

The federal indictment against Moussaoui told how more than $114,000 from the United Arab Emirates was distributed that summer to Atta and al-Shehhi through SunTrust bank accounts in Florida. Much more would come later from the al-Qaida terrorist network. The cost of the operation was nearly $500,000.

The indictment said Atta and al-Shehhi took flying lessons from July to December at Huffman Aviation, a flight school in Venice.

Jarrah showed up that summer in Venice also, taking piloting classes at a neighboring flight school.

When Atta and al-Shehhi got their commercial pilots licenses in December 2000, Florida was still pre-occupied with the close election that put George W. Bush in the White House.

A few days later, Atta and al-Shehhi moved over to Florida’s east coast, in Opa-Locka, where each paid $1,500 cash for three hours in a Boeing 727 simulator.

During the spring and summer of 2001, eight additional hijackers came to the United States and settled in Florida. Nine opened SunTrust bank accounts. Three others arrived in San Diego,completing the five-man team based in California.

That spring and summer, the Florida terrorist group made itself at home in South Florida, renting apartments and condos, attending gyms, and going to restaurants. They were seen a lot, hsanging around Hollywood and Delray Beach.

These terrorists assimilated into American Society,excuse the expression, flying under the radar, only to strike on September 11th, 2001, killing 2,819 in the word Terrorist attack ever on American soil.

I have a question for you, gentle reader.  How many well-known practitioners/leaders of Islam can you remember speaking out after the horrible events of  September 11th, 2001?

I’m waiting.

Not too many, huh.  If you can remember any at all, you can count them on one hand.  One that remains at the forefront of opposition to Radical Islam to this day is Dr. M. Juhdi Jasser.  I’m sure you’ve seen him in his appearances on Fox News as a contributor.

Do you remember  few years ago, when those 6 Imams behaved suspiciously on an airplane, resulting in their arrest?  After Dr. Jasser spoke out about the incident, he appeared on Mark Levin’s radio show and told him about the Muslim world’s reaction to his speaking out, which included being pulled from a 2007 PBS series which featured an episode titled Islam vs. Islamists:

The producers had seen my work and followed our travails with the moderates here, with what we’re doing against the fundamentalists locally. They came and spent the week with me and looked at all of our activities, the interfaith community, and spent time interviewing some of the imams locally [Arizona] and others… It is sort of a microcosm of what happened. People say, “Where are the moderates, why aren’t they speaking up?”

The movie looks at some of the response and how I’ve been demonized. I’ve been labeled as a false Muslim. I’ve been told that even though I’m proud to raise my kids Muslim and I pray and I fast that really I’m imposing a secular separation of religion and politics in our faith and for me to try to get the imams to stop talking politics in their sermons is to impose something false into our faith…

All I’ve tried to do is open the debate. The important thing this documentary did was to begin the debate and to say that certainly the fundamentalists are able to express what they want in our free speech but they shouldn’t suppress what I have to say. They should allow us to bring this debate into the Muslim community.

The preceding information came from a post I wrote on September 12, 2010, titles “A Growing Resentment”. At the time, I also wrote this:

The oppression of the Politically Correct Elite, including those now in positions of power over us, has created a backlash.  In their zeal to forcibly unite a nation created on Judeo-Christian principles with a political ideology masquerading as a religion, Progressives have become responsible for the public demonstrations of dissent that they claimed were so “patriotic” during the Bush administration.  Unfortunately for the “smartest people in the room”, they did not realize how deeply Americans would resent being apologized for to those who view us as infidels.

The thing is , proud Muslim Americans, like Dr. Jasser, are not only accepted, but admired by average Americans. They are our neighbors, our teachers, our physicians, and our friends.

However, those who not only will not admit the reality of the burden of responsibilty for that massacre on that horrible day of September 11, 2001, do not deserve our acceptance, nor our support.

Both Radical Muslims, like the murderous al Qaeda, and their apologists, deserve nothing…but our disdain.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

What is Happening to the Soul of Our Nation?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

WashingtonPrayingI am fed up with “Social Liberals”, whether they consider themselves “Fiscal Conservatives”, “l”ibertarians or full-blown Liberals, telling me that their irresponsibility is actually nobility. And, that their amorality is actually “True Conservatism”.

It is not just their callousness as to the responsibility that they have to those around them that bothers me. It is their obvious oblivious nature, and lack of regret, as to the consequences of their actions.

And, I am very afraid that this irresponsible callousness, with the help of those who would benefit from it, is spreading across our nation at a rapid rate.

While reading The Drudge Report yesterday afternoon, I almost cried and threw up, all the same time.

I was reading the following two reports, which are perfect examples of what I was just relating to you.

The first report is from lifesitenews.com:

The British Columbia Health Ministry has admitted that the remains of babies destroyed by abortion in B.C. facilities are ending up in a waste-to-power facility in the United States, providing electricity for residents of Oregon.

The province’s Health Ministry said in an email to the B.C. Catholic that “biomedical waste” shipped to the U.S. to be incinerated includes “human tissue, such as surgically removed cancerous tissue, amputated limbs, and fetal tissue.”

“The ministry understands that some is transferred to Oregon. There it is incinerated in a waste-to-energy plant,” the email stated.

The ministry said that contractors handling the province’s “biomedical waste” follow “health and safety protocols, as well as federal, provincial, and local regulations.”

Kristan Mitchell, executive director of the Oregon Refuse and Recycling Association, told the B.C. Catholic that the “biomedical waste” likely ends up at the Covanta Marion waste-to-energy facility in Oregon since it is the only facility that uses waste to power the grid. The facility confirmed that it still receives and incinerates B.C. medical waste.

The power facility, located in Brookes just off the I-5, burns waste in two massive boilers at a temperature of about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat transfers into water tubes, which creates steam to drive turbines. The turbines generate electricity.

A 2007 article about the Marion waste-to-energy facility that appeared in the Willamette Live — ironically titled “Burn, Baby, Burn” — stated that at the time the incinerator burned about 800 tons (1,764,000 pounds) of medical waste per year.

“Medical waste is brought to the facility in sealed boxes and is carried to the furnace on a conveyor belt which layers it with the rest of the solid waste being processed,” the article states.

Locals at the time protested the “importation and burning of medical waste,” expressing concern about breathing “toxic emissions.”

The news comes one month after the remains of more than 15,000 aborted babies were found to have been incinerated, along with other “medical waste,” to heat and generate power for British hospitals.

The second report comes from abcnews.go.com:

Two Colorado fourth graders were busted for selling marijuana at their elementary school, prompting officials today to urge adults to keep their weed locked away from kids.

School officials said a 10-year-old fourth grade boy brought a small quantity of leafy marijuana to Monfort Elementary School in Greeley, Colorado, on Monday.

“He sold it to three other fourth graders on the school playground, which resulted in a profit to the young man of $11,” John Gates, director of safety and security for the Greeley-Evans School District, told ABC News.

The next day, Gates said one of the three young buyers brought a marijuana edible to school and gave it to the boy who sold the pot on Monday. That boy took a bite, but did not suffer any ill effects, Gates said.

Both boys apparently got the weed from relatives, according to Gates.

“Both of these kids took the marijuana without the consent of their grandparents,” said Gates.

Gates said the four students involved will be suspended for a “significant” number of days, but declined to say exactly how long the punishment would be. Initially police were called, but officials have determined the incident will not he handled as a criminal matter, he said.

“We hope to send a good message here without ruining anybody’s lives. The message we really want to get out here to the adults is, ‘for crying out loud, secure it,’” Gates said.

Adults 21 and older have been able to buy recreational marijuana legally in Colorado since Jan. 1.

In a letter sent home to parents, Monfort Elementary School Principal Jennifer Sheldon said no student was injured.

“We know that many adults have greater access to marijuana since the change in the drug’s legal status in Colorado,” Sheldon wrote. “We urge all parents, grandparents and anyone who cares for children to treat marijuana as you would prescription drugs, alcohol or even firearms. This drug is potentially lethal to children, and should always be kept under lock and key, away from young people.”

The side effects of edible marijuana – which can be far more potent than smoking a joint – have been raising new concerns after two recent deaths in Colorado. In one, a 19-year old college student died when he jumped off a hotel balcony after eating a marijuana-laced cookie. In the second, Richard Kirk, 47, was charged with shooting and killing his wife while she called 9-1-1, telling police her husband had consumed pot-infused candy.

What is happening to the soul of our nation?

Are the Liberal Pundits we see appearing on the Main Stream Media and the “push” polls they are presenting, correct?

Have the majority of Americans become so insensitive and so self- centered, that social issues like these, which are tearing at the very fabric of our society, really do not matter to them?

“Issues” like using the bodies of dead babies for heating fuel?

Has our nation become as uncaring as those “good” Germans, who watched as families of European Jews were loaded on the boxcars bound for the Concentration Camps?

Has Americans’ quest for personal gratification, i.e., the so-called “right” to smoke “harmless” marijuana, made them impervious to the fact that these were 4th graders, selling their parents’ dope to their classmates?

Forbid it, Almighty God.

This nation was founded by Christian men who came here to be able to practice their faith as they chose.

However, they knew that with their new freedom came responsibility.

A responsibility to each other.

That is why they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their Sacred Honor to one another and the Cause of Liberty.

Our American Freedom, which we now enjoy, was given to us by the Grace of God and by acts of courage by selfless men.

Our nation has never been a selfish one. Our people have never been self-centered.

And, those who believe that selfishness and irresponsibility are what America is all about, haven’t got a clue.

Until He Comes,

KJ