Category: Politics

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

Gang-Related Violence: It Doesn’t Take a Village. It Takes a Dad.

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

Father and SonOn Resurrection Sunday afternoon, I was sitting beside my 30 year old step son watching Avatar, as my 6 year old grandson came over and crawled up between us, putting his head on his Daddy’s chest. He was worn out from attending church with us that morning, followed by a lunch of ham, au gratin potatoes, and deviled eggs, which Grandma cooked, finished off by a dessert of all the chocolate that the Easter Bunny brought. Of course, that darn rabbit had made a stop over here.

As I watched my grandson laying there, I thought about what a difference having a father makes in a boy’s life.

My father certainly made an everlasting difference in mine. He is the one who led me to Christ, counseling and supporting me, and loving me until he passed away after Christmas in 1997.

I think of him and thank God for him often.

I have had the privilege of being the step-father of 3 very different boys, now grown into young men. The first one works as an account executive with a major company. The second one is a seminary student who is planting a church in Midtown Memphis. And the last one, who I mentioned earlier, is an over the road truck driver, who is home every weekend.

I think often about all three of these young men often and pray that I have made a difference in their lives.

What got me thinking about the role that fathers play in the lives of young men, is all of the gang-related violence that is going on in our American Cities, like Chicago, Illinois.

In today’s modern culture, the stigma of having a baby out of wedlock is quite frankly no longer a stigma. In some corners, especially the Liberal ones, It is actually considered a sign of Feminine Independence.

Among a lot of the young black male population, it is a sign of prestige to be a player, or, as we used to call it, to be a ladies man.

This practice has become so popular, that now over 75 percent of America’s black population is being born out of wedlock and being raised without a father.

Grandfathers, uncles, clergy, and school coaches and principals try to fill in the gap and help these boys as they grow up, but a boy needs a man around every day of their life.

They need a consistent role model to teach them right from wrong, how to treat women, and how to be a man.

Regardless of what all of the Liberal experts say, a male father figure is essential in building a young man’s self- image.

The gang problem that the nation is facing… or ignoring… depending on your point of view, is a direct result of this lack of traditional role models in young men’s lives.

Governments, both municipal and federal, have been throwing money at the “Gang problem” for years..that is,when cities even acknowledge that they have one.

The problem is that the desire for cities to become a tourist attraction, usually outweighs their desire to acknowledge that they do have a Gang Problem.

Look at Chicago, for example. It just came out yesterday that “the Godfather”, Rahm Emmanuel, the mayor of Chicago, and his Police Superintendent, are cooking the books to make it look like the Windy City is not as violent as it actually is.

Warner Todd Huston reports for Breitbart.com that

A loud debate about crime statistics is taking place in Chicago as 2014 gets underway. The Police Department is claiming that it has helped lower crime, as statistics are down all across the board over last year. But others claim that the ultra cold and snowy Winter weather Chicago just experienced is what held crime down, not any particular efforts by the Chicago PD. More ominously, others say the police are actually cooking the stats.

Last week, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy claimed that his department was “making progress” on defeating crime and pointed to the lower rates as proof.

Not everyone is accepting McCarthy’s claims as given.

Many say the weather was the main factor, not the police. Their case is bolstered by the fact that during the first weekend of the year favored by moderate weather, violence in Chicago exploded with 35 shootings in only 36 hours.

But others see something more nefarious in the falling crime rates than just an oppressive Winter. A new investigative report by Chicago Magazine claims that Mayor Emanuel and Superintendent McCarthy are cooking the stats to make it appear that crime is falling when in fact it is not.

The magazine says that murders and violent crimes are being reported in ways that hide them from accumulated statistics.

In one case, for instance, a woman was murdered but because her corpse had so many different injuries the coroner couldn’t determine exactly which one killed her. But instead of classifying the death as a murder, the Chicago police classified the death as a “noncriminal death.” How could a clear murder be called a “noncriminal death”? According to police, it was because they coroner didn’t specify what injury killed her.

“With the stroke of a computer key, she was airbrushed out of Chicago’s homicide statistics,” Chicago Magazine notes.

In another case a man was found severely beaten. He died a few days after being taken to the hospital. Instead of classifying his death as a result of a criminal act, police classified the cause of his death as “diabetes.”

These weren’t the only cases the magazine found, either.

“We identified 10 people… who were beaten, burned, suffocated, or shot to death in 2013 and whose cases were reclassified as death investigations, downgraded to more minor crimes, or even closed as noncriminal incidents—all for illogical or, at best, unclear reasons,” the article says.

The authors also found the same “troubling practice” in the reporting of other crimes, “including serious felonies such as robberies, burglaries, and assaults, that were misclassified, downgraded to wrist-slap offenses, or made to vanish altogether.”

It was all a “betrayal of public trust,” the authors wrote.

Superintendent McCarthy called the article “patently false” and he said the reliance on anonymous sources discredits the findings. “I’m troubled by it because it hurts our credibility while we’re trying to build our credibility,” Chicago’s top cop said.

So, what’s the answer?

A song that Elton John came out with during his comeback in the 1980s goes,

Mama don’t want you
Daddy don’t want you
Give it up baby, baby
Mama can’t buy you love

Municipal and Federal Governments can throw as much money at the problem of gang-related violence as they want to, but, until this Cycle of Irresponsibility, i.e., irresponsible parents creating irresponsible kids, somehow gets broken, through prayer, education, and community/church involvement, crime will continue to escalate in America’s Cities.

Because, if the parents do not want to love, care for, and raise their children in the way that they should go, the gangs sure will.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Petition Circulating to Keep Moochelle From Speaking At High School Graduation

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

Michelle ObamaI remember my High School Graduation. It took place in our school gym, which had two-story bleachers on each side and held 2,500. Our class was 360 strong, so, it was a lengthy ceremony, to say the least.

Right after the ceremony began, our Principal, (who in reality, was a wonderful man and a great Principal) decided that the air conditioner was too loud. So, on that hot Memphis in May night in 1976, in a jam-packed gymnasium of over 2,5000, he turned the air conditioner off.

But, hey, I would suffer through that again…because it would be better than having to sit there and listen to Michelle Obama deliver the keynote address.

The New York Daily News reports that

…A furor over what the Topeka school district considers an honor has erupted after plans were announced for Obama to address a combined graduation ceremony for five area high schools next month at an 8,000-seat arena. For some, it was the prospect of a tight limit on the number of seats allotted to each graduate. For others, it was the notion that Obama’s speech, tied to the 60th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education outlawing segregation in schools, would overshadow the student’s big day.

“I’m a single mother who has raised him for 18 years by myself,” said Tina Hernandez, parent of Topeka High School senior Dauby Knight. “I’ve told him education is the only way out. This is one of the biggest days of their lives. They’ve taken the glory and shine from the children and put on Mrs. Obama. She doesn’t know our kids.”

Hernandez was among the parents and students who spoke Thursday at a school board meeting and urged district officials to reconsider their decision to invite Obama. Ron Harbaugh, spokesman for the Topeka school district, said Friday discussions were under way to work out the logistics and planning for the event, including how many tickets each family would be allotted.

“We will have a clearer picture of what’s going on,” Harbaugh said.

Harbaugh said officials asked the president or first lady to speak at graduation as a tie-in with the anniversary of the Brown decision, which outlawed school segregation. The district plans to place a priority on seating students and their families, and could broadcast the event to an overflow room at a hotel adjacent to the graduation arena for those unable to find a seat inside.

That’s not good enough for Taylor Gifford, 18, who started an online petition Thursday evening to urge the district to reconsider its plans. She and the more than 1,200 people who had signed it expressed concern that Obama’s visit would limit the seating options for family and friends.

“I really would like it to have a peaceful solution, but there is so much misinformation going on,” Gifford said.

Gifford said her initial reaction to the news was excitement, saying she was “freaking out” about the prospect of the first lady speaking at graduation. When rumors of limited tickets surfaced, Gifford felt like the focus was being shifted from the students to Obama.

“People think it’s a great opportunity, but it’s the graduates’ time. They are getting that diploma that they worked so hard for,” Gifford said. “Families are feeling that they are being cheated out of the loved ones special day.”

Abbey Rubottom, 18, a Topeka High senior, described herself as a “die-hard Democrat” but doesn’t like the idea of Obama sharing the stage with graduates.

“No disrespect for the first lady, and it’s amazing that she wants to come speak, I just think it doesn’t belong at graduation,” Rubottom said.

Rubottom suggested separate ceremonies with Obama speaking at one and the address being replayed at the other.

Some people have said bringing in the first lady politicizes the graduation. Others have suggested that if she wants to mark the Brown anniversary, she could just visit the historic site that commemorates the decision, which is just few blocks from the graduation venue.

The Brown site is housed in a former all-black school where the lead plaintiff’s daughter and another plaintiff’s child in the desegregation case were students. It tells the story of the 1954 Supreme Court decision.

Messages seeking comment from the first lady’s office in Washington were not immediately returned Friday.

Mooch? Attention-seeking? Race-dividing? Why, where did they every get those ideas?

I’m glad you asked.

In 1985, the future First Lady of the United States of America, who is presently represented our nation is one of the most powerful Communist Countries in the world, wrote her master’s thesis at Princeton University. The title was “Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Communities” by Michelle LaVaughn Robinson.

In a 66 page thesis which comes off more like a personal diary, the Future First Lady spoke about her personal experiences at Princeton University and her race-based reflections of her experience there. She wrote,

Earlier in my college career there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would utilize all of my present and future resources to benefit this community first and foremost. My experiences at Princeton have made me for more aware of my “Blackness” than ever before. I have found that at Princeton no matter how little Liberal and open minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be towards me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus as if I really don’t belong. Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with White at Princeton it often seems as if to them always be Black first and a student second.

These experiences have made it apparent to me that the path I have chosen to follow by attending Princeton will likely lead to my full integration and/or assimilation into a White cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant. This realization has presently,made my goals to actively utilize my resources to benefit the Black community more desirable.

At the same time, however. it is conceivable that my four years of exposure to a predominantly white Ivy League university has instilled within me certain conservative values.

What Mooch referred to as “conservative values” was  a love of status, power, and money.

And, as fare as her ethnocentric, “put-upon” point-of-view, it remains with her, to this very day.

In the March 10th, 2008 edition of The New Yorker, a 10 page article titled The Other Obama,  covering the future First Lady was published.  Here’s an excerpt:

Obama begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and life is not good: we’re a divided country, we’re a country that is “just downright mean,” we are “guided by fear,” we’re a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. “We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day,” she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. “Folks are just jammed up, and it’s gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I’m young. Forty-four!”

Now, for the life of me, I just can’t figure out how we peons in the Heartland ever came up with the notion that the First Lady of the United States of America is an “angry black woman”.  Can you?

I don’t blame the parents and kids who have signed that petition. I would not want that racist, self-serving, Anti-American heifer speaking at my High School Graduation, either. A graduation ceremony is supposed to be about the accomplishments of the graduates.

And, whenever Michelle Obama speaks, it’s all about her.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

America: The Day Before Resurrection Day 2014…the Darkness Before the Dawn

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

American FreedomThis morning, as I lay in bed, having spent the night alone, due to my bride going on an overnight trip with a friend and her two nieces, The Lord, as He usually does, had me thinking about Him.These thoughts were about what today, the day between Good Friday and Resurrection Day, must have been like.

Pretend for a moment, that you are an average citizen living at the time of Christ.

[For the past three years, you have seen this charismatic young man speak about the love and mercy of God, and how His Grace and Forgiveness is freely given, IF…

And, there’s the catch…

According to this carpenter’s son from Nazareth, you have to confess your sins, and ask the Great I am, for forgiveness.

Whoa! Wait a minute. Who is this guy? A radical? Ask Yahweh for forgiveness. And, what’s that he said? You will then have a personal relationship with His Father?

How can that be? This is the Great I am. This is the Deity of Vengeance who destroyed those escaped slaves from Egypt for throwing a party, while Moses was up on a mountain, and building and worshiping a Golden Calf.

And, remember what happened to King Nebuchadnezzar? Daniel interpreted a dream for him, explaining that his kingdom would be ruled over by Gentiles until God sent His King. Ol’ Nebby got mad, because he couldn’t rule over the Israelites and over the whole world unless God allowed him to do so. He forgot that, and became very proud. He tried to make the people think that he was very wonderful, and that they should worship him. He didn’t trust God as some of the kings of the Israelites did, but had the very foolish idea that he could be a wise and wonderful king without any help from God.

So, what do you suppose occurred?

Why, the king had another dream, and when he found out what it meant it was really terrible. In this dream God told him that he would lose his mind and would go out in the field and eat grass just like the cattle for seven years. And Nebuchadnezzar actually did this, too. Can you imagine a mighty king, as he thought himself to be, crawling around on the ground eating grass? The Bible tells us that his hair grew long and coarse and looked like bird feathers, and his fingernails became like the claws of animals.

Finally, though, Nebuchadnezzar’s reason returned to him, and when he found out what he had done he was very much ashamed of himself. However, he learned by this experience that he was not as wise and powerful as he had thought. Learning this, he gave praise to God for allowing him to be the ruler.

This is the God that the guy from Nazareth is telling us that we can have a personal relationship with?

Strange indeed.

I have noticed that while he is hanging there the guards and some of the townspeople there are mocking Jesus, telling him that if he is the Son of God, to”jump down off of that cross”. Meanwhile,  some of the centurions are casting lots over his robe.

All except this one centurion, who is just watching Him, as if he is waiting for something to happen…]

The despair being felt by the average citizens of Rome, at the time, is not unlike the situation which we, as average Christian Americans, find ourselves in today.

We, too, are in the darkness before the dawn.

Our American culture is crumbling before our very eyes, as sin, depravity, and personal irresponsibility are being lauded by “the smartest people in the room” as normal, and values to be embraced…a Golden Calf to be worshiped by those who have turned their backs of the Almighty, because He will not give them the worldly gratification they seek…and because they erroneously believe that they are smarter than God, and can interpret and ignore  His Holy Word to mean whatever they want to, in order to assuage their own consciousness, in an attempt to stifle that “Still Small Voice” within them, Who is reminding them of their sin and the consequences of it.

However, there is still HOPE FOR OUR NATION.

On April 2, 1983, United States President Ronald Wilson Reagan spoke the following words, as part of an Easter/Passover Address:

This week as American families draw together in worship, we join with millions upon millions of others around the world also celebrating the traditions of their faiths. During these days, at least, regardless of nationality, religion, or race, we are united by faith in God, and the barriers between us seem less significant.

Observing the rites of Passover and Easter, we’re linked in time to the ancient origins of our values and to the unborn generations who will still celebrate them long after we’re gone. As Paul explained in his Epistle to the Ephesians, “He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. So then you were no longer strangers and aliens, but you were fellow citizens of God’s household.”

This is a time of hope and peace, when our spirits are filled and lifted. It’s a time when we give thanks for our blessings-chief among them, freedom, peace, and the promise of eternal life.

This week Jewish families and friends have been celebrating Passover, a tradition rich in symbolism and meaning. Its observance reminds all of us that the struggle for freedom and the battle against oppression waged by Jews since ancient times is one shared by people everywhere. And Christians have been commemorating the last momentous days leading to the crucifixion of Jesus 1,950 years ago. Tomorrow, as morning spreads around the planet, we’ll celebrate the triumph of life over death, the Resurrection of Jesus. Both observances tell of sacrifice and pain but also of hope and triumph.

As we look around us today, we still find human pain and suffering, but we also see it answered with individual courage and spirit, strengthened by faith. For example, the brave Polish people, despite the oppression of a godless tyranny, still cling to their faith and their belief in freedom. Shortly after Palm Sunday Mass this week, Lech Walesa faced a cheering crowd of workers outside a Gdansk church. He held his hand up in a sign of victory and predicted, “The time will come when we will win.”

This great AMERICAN PRESIDENT also once said,

We are never defeated unless we give up on God.

Fellow Christian Americans….my message to you on this day before Resurrection Day 2014 is

DO NOT GIVE UP ON GOD. DON’T NOT GIVE UP ON THE FOUNDING FATHERS’ HOPE, WHICH BECAME AMERICA.

As the old country Preacher’s wife always told him,

Hold on to your fork, Hon. Dessert is on it’s way.

The final chapter of the amazing story of our Blessed Land has not been written  yet. It is up to each and every one of us to write it, strengthened by the Grace of God.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

From a Reagan Conservative to the “Fiscal Conservative” Millenials: “It Just Doesn’t Matter”

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

Bill Murray Meatballs SpeechThere is a lot of buzz going on in political circles these days about the fact that the young people, known as Millenials, are disenchanted with the Republicans Party, as is.

Welll, duhhhh. Who isn’t? 

This 55 year old Christian American Conservative is fed up with them, too.

The New York Times reported the following on March 10, 2014:

While much attention has been devoted to the split between the establishment and the Tea Party, the growing divide along generational lines among Republicans could cause a significant a rift. Younger conservatives are more firmly staking out a libertarian orientation on social issues in a way that will shape the 2016 presidential primary as candidates seek to appeal to activists who are in the party because of social issues and to younger voters who see some aspects of cultural conservatism as intolerant.

That young people, regardless of party, prefer a live-and-let-live approach on social issues is nothing new. In 2012, President Obama defeated Mitt Romney by 23 points among 18- to 29-year-olds in part because of the president’s more liberal cultural views. But what is increasingly alarming to some cultural conservatives is that it is not just young Democrats who share those views — and that this youthful libertarianism is not fading when the Republicans of tomorrow graduate from college.

In a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, 56 percent of Republicans under age 45 indicated support for same-sex marriage rights, compared with just 29 percent among older Republicans. That split was on display at CPAC, an annual conclave of some of the party’s most conservative activists. The split did not take place among the high-profile presidential candidates, who largely avoided divisive social issues or mentioned them only to praise their party’s big-tent tolerance, but the conversation was easy to find elsewhere.

“This is the civil rights issue of the 21st century,” Alexander McCobin, 27, the head of a libertarian student group, said about same-sex marriage during a panel titled “Can Libertarians and Social Conservatives Ever Get Along?” Mr. McCobin’s statement elicited both applause and a smattering of groans.

“I think it was very much a generational difference, too,” he said later, adding a warning to Republicans: “They need to start embracing libertarian issues or it’s going to start really hurting them in elections.”

He said it was time for social conservatives to recognize a shifting society. “People can be socially conservative in their private activities without trying to impose their views on other people,” said Mr. McCobin, who leads Students for Liberty.

If I told you what I really thought of these representatives of “the young and dumb”, I might be in danger of losing my witness on this Holy Weekend.

These clowns, in my estimation, are no different than a bunch of Liberal Democrats.

They say that we Christian Conservatives here in the Heartland need to keep our faith to ourselves and put in in a box to take out on Sunday mornings.

They even have the nerve to attempt to identify themselves as “Conservatives”.

In  reality, these kids are Liberals or, at least libertarians with a small “l”.

Liberals know how to count money, too.

To you Millennials, who want me and my brothers and sisters, here in the Heartland, to sit down and shut up, while you and the rest of the RINOs, turn the GOP into a Pale Pastel Version of the Grand Old Party, I have a little allegorical story to share with your young minds full of mush…

Have you ever seen, or heard of, the classic speech from the great Bill Murray’s Breakout Film, Meatballs?

Murray played Tripper, the Senior Counselor at a Summer Camp in the North Woods. They are an average summer camp, whose campers are average middle class kids. Every year, they participate in an “Olympiad” with Camp Northstar, where all the rich kids and athletes go.

This year, so far, they’re losing, as usual. Surrounded by dejected and downtrodden kids and counselors whom he cares about, Tripper, in an inspirational…and maniacal moment, delivers the following motivational speech…which is still remembered to this day.

Morty (Camp Owner): Hey, gang, come on! Look it, just `cause we’re losing doesn’t mean it’s all over.

Phil (Counselor): Cut the crap, Morty. I mean, the Mohawks have beaten us the last twelve years, they’re gonna beat us again.

Tripper: That’s just the attitude we don’t need. Sure, Mohawk has beaten us twelve years in a row. Sure, they’re terrific athletes. They’ve got the best equipment that money can buy. Hell, every team they’re sending over here has their own personal masseuse, not masseur, masseuse. But it doesn’t matter. Do you know that every Mohawk competitor has an electrocardiogram, blood and urine tests every 48 hours to see if there’s any change in his physical condition? Do you know that they use the most sophisticated training methods from the Soviet Union, East and West Germany, and the newest Olympic power Trinidad-Tobago? But it doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t matter. IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER. I tell you, IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER! IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER! IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER!

The group: IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER! IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER…

Tripper: And even, and even if we win, if we win, HAH! Even if we win! Even if we play so far over our heads that our noses bleed for a week to ten days. Even if God in Heaven above comes down and points his hand at our side of the field. Even if every man, woman and child held hands together and prayed for us to win, it just wouldn’t matter, because all the really good looking girls would still go out with the guys from Mohawk cause they’ve got all the money! It just doesn’t matter if we win or we lose. IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER!

The group: IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER! IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER…

That’s right, kids. Your opinion just doesn’t matter.

My Faith and my Responsibility to The One Who Made Me, matters a lot more to me than your petty political opinion.

Until He Comes,

KJ