Category: Politics

It’s the End of the World As We Know It…or Something

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

DoomsdaySo, here we are, boys and girls…December 21, 2012, the day the ancient Mayans said that the world would end.

Today, at 5:00 a.m., the Mayan Calendar ran out. The Mayans date back 4,000 years. They measured time in 394-year periods known as baktuns. The 13th baktun ends around Dec. 21 — and 13 is considered a sacred number.

People are freaking out around the world, in a scene reminiscent of  Orson Welles’ famous “War of the Worlds” Radio Broadcast on Halloween Night, 1938.

Just ask NASA.

The space agency said it has been flooded with calls and emails from people asking about the purported end of the world — which, as the doomsday myth goes, is apparently set to take place on Dec. 21, 2012.

The myth might have originated with the Mayan calendar, but in the age of the Internet and social media, it proliferated online, raising questions and concerns among hundreds of people around the world who have turned to NASA for answers.

Dwayne Brown, an agency spokesman, said NASA typically receives about 90 calls or emails per week containing questions from people. In recent weeks, he said, that number has skyrocketed — from 200 to 300 people are contacting NASA per day to ask about the end of the world.

“Who’s the first agency you would call?” he said. “You’re going to call NASA.”

The questions range from myth (Will a rogue planet crash into Earth? Is the sun going to explode? Will there be three days of darkness?) to the macabre (Brown said some people have “embraced it so much” they want to hurt themselves). So, he said, NASA decided to do “everything in our power” to set the facts straight.

That effort included interviews with scientists posted online and a web page Brown said has drawn more than 4.6 million views.

It also involved a video titled, “Why the World Didn’t End Yesterday.” Though the title of the video implies a Dec. 22 release date, Brown said NASA posted the four-minute clip last week to help spread its message.

NASA suspected it might have to create such a campaign a few years ago, when the idea of the world ending began “festering,” Brown said. The apocalyptic action movie “2012,” released in 2009, didn’t help, he said.

“We kind of look ahead — we’re a look-ahead agency — and we said, ‘You know what? People are going to probably want to come to us’ ” for answers, Brown explained. “We’re doing all that we can do to let the world know that as far as NASA and science goes, Dec. 21 will be another day.”

NASA has handled high-profile events before, Brown said, including the Venus transit this year, but nothing the agency has had to “debunk” has been this big.

“It’s been a very, very busy week,” he said.

Examiner.com also assures us that we have nothing to worry about:

Will the world end on Dec. 21, 2012? Some say yes, others say no. The first clue that the world will not end on December 21 is that earlier in 2012, archeologists uncovered a cave with Mayan calendar calculations going forward 4,000 years. “The Los Angeles Times” was among those reporting the discovery in May, just in time for the non-end of the world. In fact, the Mayan date 13.0.0.0.0. is a new beginning.

The Mayans never intended their world to end on December 21; their calculations did, however, show the ending of a long cycle (“the long count”) and the beginning of a new 5125.36-year cycle that gives humanity plenty of wiggle room without apocalpses to worry about — zombie, Mayan, or otherwise.

Need more persuasion? Discovery News reported in June, 2012 that another discovery in Guatemala referred to the “end date” but did not foretell a cataclysm. The idea of the world ending on December 21 is a modern invention. Still more? At the time of writing it’s already Dec. 21 in Australia and New Zealand. No reports of their disappearance are in.

What should we, as Christians think about all of this?

Hugh Ross, an astronomer and president of the science-faith think tank Reasons to Believe in Glendora, California who posted a “Response to 2012 Prophecies” at http://www.reasons.org/2012, says the celestial events expected to unleash unprecedented disasters in 2012 – a solar maximum, Venus’s transit of the Sun, a collision of Planet’s X with the Earth and an asteroid impact – are false or blown out of proportion.

Ross says Venus’ gravity is too weak to impact the Earth, astronomers have determined with “considerable confidence” that Planet X doesn’t exist and increased solar activity in 2012 – in the worst case scenario – will only cause temporary satellite disruptions. As far as asteroids, Ross says none of the thousands NASA is tracking are expected to hit the Earth in the near future.

“The Bible makes it clear that the end cannot happen until certain things take place and none of those events, in my opinion, have occurred,” Ross says. “For example, the end will not happen until God’s people fulfill the Great Commission by taking the Good News to all the people groups of the world.”

So, there you have it. It’s just another day. 

After all, when the trump sound, we’ll be outta

Just kidding.

Until He Comes, 

KJ

Obama: Using Newtown for Political Extortion

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

obamaobliviousPresident Barack Hussein Obama has become downright shameful in his attempts to use an unspeakable tragedy to further his own political plans and schemes.  And, his ego won’t let him take “no” for an answer.

Last night on Fox News Special Report, Dr. Charles Krauthammer said:

I think the president invoking the massacre of children to essentially say the Republicans need to accept his terms of surrender in the negotiations is not just a non sequitur, I think it’s sacrilege. And it’s of a piece with the whole tone of his news conference and this is the way he conducts them generally, which is he is excessively self-righteous. He talks about the other side of being unprincipled, not interested in the national interest, slaves of ideology which he says makes no sense. And as you mention, invested in opposing him to the point they are willing to let the country suffer.

So it’s a combination of self-righteousness and narcissism. It’s just a very unpleasant tone and there is no reason he can’t either avoid that or give some credit to the other side for sincerity in just seeing a different way to approach the crisis the country has. I think that would be respectful but it’s a lot to ask of Obama and he never delivers on that.

Back on May 24th, Dr. K remarked that Obama’s narcissism would not allow him to replace VP Biden with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the remainder of his Re-election Campaign.

In an article, written in response to this statement, posted on AmericanThinker.com, June 9, 2010, titled “Narcissist in Chief?”, Eileen F. Toplansky wrote:

…His contempt for America is staggering. His haughtiness towards the American electorate and his puffery with dictators in a bid for their admiration is breathtaking.

Furthermore, the president intimates that we are not capable of understanding and clarifying issues — Joe the Plumber could not possibly be accurate when he correctly asked if Obama’s ideas were, in fact, socialist. What does a guy who works with a wrench know about such things?

Obama accepts the notion that he is the messiah — that he and he alone can fix this country and, for that matter, the world. If ever there was an exaggerated achievement without commensurate accomplishment, the Nobel Peace Prize given to Obama would be it. He expects to be recognized as superior even when he has achieved nothing positive to show it. He ignores the evidence about global warming and man’s alleged interference because this simply does not comply with his demands — details be damned.

There are no substantive examples of his school achievements. His portfolio is razor-thin, and there is evidence that he did not author his own books, yet he rides on the crest of all-consuming power and privilege.

Author Rob Saar states that “people with narcissistic personalities tend … to deprecate and treat with contempt those from whom they do not expect anything (often their former idols). Their relations with others are often exploitative … Beneath a surface that is often charming and engaging, one senses coldness and ruthlessness.”

How often have we been privy to that allegedly cool demeanor of Obama’s turning into a dismissive disdain for anyone who does not agree with him and/or stands in his way? He distanced himself from his pastor of over twenty years because that relationship hurt his ends. He has knifed companies in the back that once financially supported him. He seems obsessed as he constantly bashes former President Bush and rails, yet again, against the oil companies and others. All of these entities receive derision and abuse from this man.

He can do no wrong in his own eyes, as he views “others as objects to be manipulated.” Arrogantly he dismissed a reporter’s question at a press conference that was supposed to be about the Daniel Pearl Freedom of Press Act!

He exploits all issues, making everything into a crisis, and yet when he accomplishes nothing to ameliorate the difficulty, he turns and blames it on everyone else.

Hence, his political leveraging of the horrible massacre of innocent children in Newtown, Connecticut into an attempt to force the House Republicans into bowing down, kissing his…ummm…feet, and acquiescing to his monumentally Marxist Fiscal Cliff Proposal, while simultaneously, using the same tragedy in an attempt to confiscate law-abiding citizens’ guns.

In October of 2008, on a campaign stop outside of Toledo, Ohio, Obama spoke to a plumber named Joe Wurzelbacher, who was concerned that, if elected president, Obama was going to raise taxes on small business owners, just like him. Obama told Joe:

…it’s not that I want to punish your success – I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you – that they’ve got a chance at success too.”

…I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

So, why do I say that Obama’s Fiscal Cliff Campaign and his renewed push for Gun Control Confiscation are tied together?

Almost a century ago, Marxist Revolutionary Vladimir Illyich Lenin wrote:

One of the basic conditions for the victory of socialism is the arming of the workers (Communist) and the disarming of the bourgeoisie (the middle class).

The arming of the workers…

In February of 2012, the IRS ordered 60 Remington Model 870 police 12 gauge pump action shotguns for the Criminal Investigation Unit.

…In March DHS ordered 750 million rounds of hollow point ammunition. It then turned around and ordered an additional 750 million rounds of miscellaneous bullets including some that are capable of penetrating walls.

(August, 2012) The Social Security Administration (SSA) confirms that it is purchasing 174 thousand rounds of hollow point bullets to be delivered to 41 locations in major cities across the U.S.

The disarming of the Middle Class…

From the New York Times:

President Obama declared on Wednesday that he would make gun control a “central issue” as he opens his second term, promising to submit broad new firearm proposals to Congress no later than January and to employ the full power of his office to overcome deep-seated political resistance.

Now, boys and girls, I’m not one given to tin-foil hat conspiracy theories. However, if all this information I’ve compiled in today’s Blog doesn’t make you stop and take notice, then, I suggest you go back to watching The Kardashians.

The rest of us will remain vigilant.

It’s that “enemies, foreign and domestic” thingy that has us Americans, who are paying attention, a little worried.

Until He Comes, 

KJ

Obamacare: “Soylent Green” Wasn’t So Far-Fetched

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

lifeLife is precious. That’s what every American, in the past, anyway, was raised to believe. But now, as we approach the second 4 years under a president who seems all too content to follow the lead of our European neighbors, and who has already decided that gruesome partial birth abortions are entirely acceptable medical procedures, are the following two examples what we have to look forward to?

Belgium is considering a significant change to its decade-old euthanasia law that would allow minors and Alzheimer’s sufferers to seek permission to die.

The proposed changes to the law were submitted to parliament Tuesday by the Socialist party and are likely to be approved by other parties, although no date has yet been put forward for a parliamentary debate.

“The idea is to update the law to take better account of dramatic situations and extremely harrowing cases we must find a response to,” party leader Thierry Giet said.

The draft legislation calls for “the law to be extended to minors if they are capable of discernment or affected by an incurable illness or suffering that we cannot alleviate.”

Belgium was the second country in the world after the Netherlands to legalise euthanasia in 2002 but it applies only to people over the age of 18.

Socialist Senator Philippe Mahoux, who helped draft the proposed changes, said there had been cases of adolescents who “had the capacity to decide” their future.

He said parliamentarians would also consider extended mercy-killing to people suffering from Alzheiner’s-type illnesses.

Euthanasia was allowed to an Alzheimer’s patient for the first time in the Netherlands last year.

In Belgium, some 1,133 cases — mostly for terminal cancer — were recorded in 2011, about one percent of all deaths in the country, according to official figures.

France is pushing for mercy-killings as well:

France should allow doctors to “accelerate the coming of death” for terminally ill patients, a report to President Francois Hollande recommended Tuesday.

Hollande referred the report to a national council on medical ethics which will examine the precise circumstances under which such steps could be authorised with a view to producing draft legislation by June 2013.

“The existing legislation does not meet the legitimate concerns expressed by people who are gravely and incurably ill,” Hollande said.

The report said physicians should be allowed to authorise interventions that ensure quicker deaths for terminal patients in three specific sets of circumstances.

In the first case, the patient involved would be capable of making an explicit request to that effect or have issued advance instructions in the event of him or her becoming incapable of expressing an opinion.

The second scenario envisages medical teams withdrawing treatment and/or nourishment on the basis of a request by the family of a dying patient who is no longer conscious and has not made any instructions.

The third would apply to cases where treatment is serving only to sustain life artificially.

The author of the report, Professor Didier Sicard, stressed that he did not support any measures which “suddenly and prematurely end life.”

“We are radically opposed to inscribing euthanasia in law,” Sicard told a press conference.

He also stressed that he was not advocating Swiss-style clinics where people are provided with lethal medication to enable them to end their own lives.

Dr. Mark G. Neerhof, in an article written in October for cnsnews.com, summarized the Independent Patient Advisory Board, a feature of Obamacare,  as follows:

IPAB is a board consisting of 15 unelected, appointed bureaucrats whose task it is to cut the growth of Medicare spending, and the cuts they are mandated to make will be deep.

The decisions IPAB makes behind closed doors can only be overturned by a supermajority of Congress, something almost impossible to achieve.

So, the politicians have set up a system where they can say to seniors, “It was those bureaucrats that cut your Medicare, not me.”

How does IPAB achieve these cuts? The supporters of the law say, “It says right in the statute IPAB cannot ration.” But what IPAB can do, and in fact is their only option for controlling costs, is to cut reimbursement rates to doctors and hospitals. They decide what procedures are important, not your doctor, and they decide what Medicare will pay for them.

When services are no longer available to seniors because reimbursements for those procedures have been drastically cut, that’s rationing.

You have also been promised that “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”

As a physician, I have watched reimbursement rates fall below cost and more and more of my colleagues are refusing to take on new Medicare patients, or they are getting out of medicine altogether. Seniors complain, and then Congress runs in with a temporary “doctor fix.”

But, with IPAB, there is no “doctor fix.” Physician reimbursements will be slashed to unsustainable levels. It is a simple fact that no doctor or hospital can offer services below cost and stay in business.

When government takes over health care, you become a budget item.

Medical decisions are made based upon the amount of money available – not on what is best for patients.

Beginning in 2013, the Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will determine in particular years the projected per capita growth rate for Medicare for a multi-year period ending in the second year thereafter (the “implementation year”). If the projection exceeds a target growth rate, IPAB must develop a proposal to reduce Medicare spending in the implementation year by a specified amount. If it is required to develop a proposal, the Board must submit that proposal in January of the year before the implementation year; thus, the first proposal could be submitted in January 2014 to take effect in 2015.

palin-newsweekOn August 7th, 2010,  Sarah Palin posted the following on her Facebook page:

The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Health care by definition involves life and death decisions. Human rights and human dignity must be at the center of any health care discussion.

At the time, all the Liberals and the GOP Elite, as well,  laughed at Gov. Palin.

 I believe they owe her an apology. And, don’t forget…

Is America Self-Destructing?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics6 Comments

American ChristianityAm I insane? (Don’t answer that.) Or, have you noticed that, as soon as the election was over, the doors of decency and Old Fashioned American Values began coming off at the hinges?

The internet is abuzz with the left’s banshee scream for Gun Control in the aftermath of the mass murder of children, committed by  a psychopath, the “puff-puff Libertarians” renewed cries for Marijuana Legalization and all of their drug-addled naivete-laden arguments in favor of it, and the whining and strawman arguments associated with the push to change the definition of the word “marriage”, so that Adam and Steve may be viewed as “normal”, and live, as least for a couple or years, as “husband” and…err…umm…”husband”.

All this mayhem continues to bust out, just  one week from Christmas Eve, when Americans will be gathering to celebrate the birth of the Son of God.

Yet, with the re-election of, as I called him Sunday, “an anti-American, Muslim-sympathizing, political-pandering, class warfare-preaching, card-carrying Communist”, coinciding with all this mayhem busting loose in the greatest country on God’s green Earth, it seems that God has taken his hand of providence and protection off this country, right now.

A man, who would be considered a cornball by the standards of today’s “puff-puff Libertarians” and “Fiscal Conservatives”, wrote a prophetic analysis of today’s current events.

This speech was broadcast by legendary ABC Radio commentator Paul Harvey on April 3, 1965:

If I were the Devil . . . I mean, if I were the Prince of Darkness, I would of course, want to engulf the whole earth in darkness. I would have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, so I should set about however necessary to take over the United States. I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: “Do as you please.” “Do as you please.” To the young, I would whisper, “The Bible is a myth.” I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what is bad is good, and what is good is “square”. In the ears of the young marrieds, I would whisper that work is debasing, that cocktail parties are good for you. I would caution them not to be extreme in religion, in patriotism, in moral conduct. And the old, I would teach to pray. I would teach them to say after me: “Our Father, which art in Washington” . . .

If I were the devil, I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull an uninteresting. I’d threaten T.V. with dirtier movies and vice versa. And then, if I were the devil, I’d get organized. I’d infiltrate unions and urge more loafing and less work, because idle hands usually work for me. I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. And I’d tranquilize the rest with pills. If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects but neglect to discipline emotions . . . let those run wild. I would designate an atheist to front for me before the highest courts in the land and I would get preachers to say “she’s right.” With flattery and promises of power, I could get the courts to rule what I construe as against God and in favor of pornography, and thus, I would evict God from the courthouse, and then from the school house, and then from the houses of Congress and then, in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and I would deify science because that way men would become smart enough to create super weapons but not wise enough to control them.

If I were Satan, I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg, and the symbol of Christmas, a bottle. If I were the devil, I would take from those who have and I would give to those who wanted, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And then, my police state would force everybody back to work. Then, I could separate families, putting children in uniform, women in coal mines, and objectors in slave camps. In other words, if I were Satan, I’d just keep on doing what he’s doing.

Paul Harvey, Good Day.

John Adams, the second President of these United States, delivered the following message to the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massacusetts on October 11, 1798:

Gentleman,

While our country remains untainted with the principles and manners which are now producing desolation in so many parts of the world; while she continues sincere, and incapable of insidious and impious policy, we shall have the strongest reason to rejoice in the local destination assigned us by Providence. But should the people of America once become capable of that deep simulation towards one another, and towards foreign nations, which assumes the language of justice and moderation while it is practising iniquity and extravagance, and displays I have received from Major-General Hull and Brigadier, General Walker your unanimous address from Lexington, animated with a martial spirit, and expressed with a military dignity becoming your character and the memorable plains on which it was adopted. In the most captivating manner the charming pictures of candor, frankness, and sincerity, while it is rioting in rapine and insolence, this country will be the most miserable habitation in the World; because we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Were these two great Americans speaking about the situation we find our country in on December 18, 2012?

Do you see it? Or, is it just me?

Until He Comes,

KJ

Newtown: Obama, Progressives Gear Up to Take Our Guns

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

gun rights

You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.

– Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago. IL, Former Obama Administration Chief of Staff

Yesterday, President Barack Hussein Obama spoke at a Memorial Service in Newtown, CT…and, of course, the cameras were rolling.

“I am very mindful that mere words cannot match the depth of your sorrow, nor can they heal your wounded hearts,” Obama said at an evening vigil in the grieving community of Newtown, Conn. “I can only hope that it helps for you to know that you are not alone in your grief.”

The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary on Friday elicited horror around the world, soul-searching in the United States, fresh political debate about gun control and questions about the incomprehensible – what drove the suspect to act.

It also left a newly re-elected president openly grappling for bigger answers. Obama said that in the coming weeks, he would use “whatever power this office holds” to engage with law enforcement, mental health professionals, parents and educators in an effort to prevent more tragedies like Newtown.

“Can say that we’re truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose? I’ve been reflecting on this the last few days,” Obama said, somber and steady as some in the audience wept.

“If we’re honest without ourselves, the answer is no. And we will have to change.”

He promised to lead a national effort, but left unclear was what it would be, and how much it would address the explosive issue of gun control.

“What choice do we have?” Obama said. “Are we really prepared to say that we’re powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard?

Sounds to me like the Progressive-in Chief  wants to come take our guns away, Americans.

And, if that’s not blatant enough for you, boys and girls…check out this editorial being pushed as a news story, from abcnews.go.com.

Groups and lawmakers in favor of stricter gun laws haven’t wasted any time speaking out following the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., but the pro-gun National Rifle Association has been silent.

The NRA, which frequently communicates through social media, hasn’t tweeted since before the shooting and its Facebook page has been taken down, a day after the group boasted of reaching 1.7 million “likes.”.

On Thursday, a tweet went out from the NRA’s official account saying: “@NRA “Did you hear? Our #facebook page reached 1.7 million “likes” today! Thanks for being a friend!”

The NRA couldn’t be reached for comment regarding whether the deactivation of its facebook page was connected to Friday’s mass shooting.

The debate over the nation’s gun laws took center stage today, when California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said she intends to introduce an assault weapons ban on the first day of the next Congress.

Connecticut Shooting: Churches Services Honor Victims Watch Video

Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster .223 semi-automatic rifle at close range to kill children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday.

Two handguns were also found at the scene, but law enforcement officials described the Bushmaster as the Lanza’s primary weapon. A fourth weapon was found nearby. The weapons discovered at the school apparently belonged to a family member, possibly his mother, according to authorities.

The NRA was a trending topic on Twitter Sunday with thousands showing their support and distaste for the gun lobbying organization, which plays a significant role in American Politics. That role was denied by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in his appearance today on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”

“The NRA’s number one objective this time was to defeat Barack Obama for a second term. Last time I checked the election results, he won and he won comfortably,” Bloomberg said. “This myth that the NRA can destroy political careers is just not true.”

A number of the Sunday news talk shows including, ABC’s “This Week” invited an NRA representative on to their shows to discuss gun control. But the programs received a statement from the NRA declining to comment because details of the investigation into the shooting were still pending.

Evidently, Obama, his Administration, and all of his minions haven’t been paying attention to places where they’ve already taken away law-abiding citizens’ guns:

From dailymail.co.uk, October 27, 2009:

Gun crime has almost doubled since Labour came to power as a culture of extreme gang violence has taken hold.

The latest Government figures show that the total number of firearm offences in England and Wales has increased from 5,209 in 1998/99 to 9,865 last year – a rise of 89 per cent.

In some parts of the country, the number of offences has increased more than five-fold.

In eighteen police areas, gun crime at least doubled.

The statistic will fuel fears that the police are struggling to contain gang-related violence, in which the carrying of a firearm has become increasingly common place.

If they outlaw guns…

All of us average Americans will be helpless against enemies, foreign and domestic.

And, that seems to be the way Obama and the Progressives want it.

Until He Comes, 

KJ

My 1,000th Post: Whodathunkit?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Entertainment, Politics19 Comments

Christian America Fish LogoI am an anachronism.

I was told that, in no uncertain terms, the other day, by a bunch of young “Libertarians”, on a Facebook Page I had posted and commented on the last few years, created for Conservatives and Libertarians.

My crime? I refused to be in favor of legalizing marijuana, and I had the nerve to say that I felt that it was more dangerous than alcohol. What’s more, I refused to say that there was a moral equivalency between them.

But, that’s a discussion for another day.

Dictionary.com defines an anachronism as

something or someone that is not in its correct historical or chronological time, especially a thing or person that belongs to an earlier time.

I suppose that’s me.

I started this Blog as a way to vent my frustrations with the ever-evolving “societal norms” and political mayhem around me. A lot of things just grated on my nerves. They still do.

I was “reared” (as we say in Dixie) by a Mother and Daddy (Southern colloquialism for a Male Parental Unit) who were members of the Greatest Generation. In fact, I was born 3 days before my mother’s 40th brithday. To this day, I believe that they were going to name me “Oops”.

My view of the world around me was shaped and nurtured by my Daddy, a Christian American, and the finest man I’ve ever known, who served with an Army Engineering Unit, as a Master Sergeant, in World War II, and who jumped off of a perfectly good boat into a hail of gunfire to join his American Brothers in the tide-turning American Victory known as “D-Day”.

Between him and my Mother, they taught me what it was to be a hard-working, Middle Class Christian American Conservative….and, to be proud of it.

But now, at 54 years old, having just seen an anti-American, Muslim-sympathizing, political-pandering, class warfare-preaching, card-carrying Communist, get re-hired for a job in which, if he were in the private section, his butt would have gotten canned  within the first 3 months, I’m beginning to feel like I’m beating my dadgum head against the wall until it’s bloody, and for no cotton-pickin’ reason at all.

Why am I feelng that way?

Well, there are several reasons.

1. This country re-elected an idiot. Now, I realize that’s been done before. But, they all paled in comparison to this guy. I believe that “Scooter”, my pet name for Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmm), burnt up the vast majority of his gray matter during his “Choom Gang” days in Hawaii, and now, as an old friend, a former Meth-head, who, sadly, later committed suicide this time of year, used to tell me, he has “2 brain cells left and they’re fighting to the death”. I pray we survive the next 4 years.

2.  Evidently, Americans, at least the majority of the ones that actually got up off the couch (Pookie, included) to vote on November 6th, want the Federal Government to take care of them, cradle to grave. Rush Limbaugh labelled this symptom, “The Baracky Claus Effect”.  I pray, that, just as the Proletariat eventually figured out in the old Soviet Union, Americans are going to wake up one day, to find that mega-dependence on The State to run your life, leads to the loss of personal freedom. And those, who believe that they are “the most enlightened people in the room”, will be the first ones hollering, when they discover that their freedom has been taken away.

3. America seems to be devolving into a collection of Libertines. Notice, I did not say “Libertarians”, although, both descriptive words come from the same root word. A Libertine is, per Merriam-Webster.com,

a person who is unrestrained by convention or morality: one leading a dissolute (lacking moral restraint) life

Being a Libertarian used to mean you wanted less Government in your life and less restrictions on your personal happiness. Notice I said used to mean. Now, Libertine and Libertarian both seem to mean the same thing to the majority of posters self-identifying as members of the latter group on Internet chat boards.

Caligula’s Horse approves.

I suppose I could pontificate on the fallen nature of Man at this point, but, that’s fairly self-evident…and, as the late Freddie Prinze used to say, “Ees not my yob, man.”

4. Finally, I was told the other day, during the before-mentioned “discussion” on that Facebook Page, that my blog was considered a “joke”. I allowed this to hurt me very deeply. You see, since April of 2010, I have devoted a lot of time and effort to putting my ideas, however old-fashioned and cornball they are, down on paper. I truly enjoy doing it. I must. I haven’t made a dadgum dime off of it. Although, as I’ve previously written, it did help me land my present job.

So, where do I go from here? Do I run away, with my tail between my legs, and live out the rest of my days in quiet desperation?

To any of you who repled, “yes”…you don’t know me very well.

Greater is He who is in me, than he who is in the world.

My Creator, while endowing me with certain inalienable rights, also endowed me with an indomitable will. Then, somewhere along my journey, He gave me the gift of being able to express my thoughts and feelings on this computer keyboard.

I will not give up. I will not surrender my Christianity, my love of the greatest nation on God’s green Earth, or my Conservatism, to appease those who wish everybody would just get in line and acquiesce to the prevailing “societal norms”.  I follow another set of guidelines, written a long time ago, but which remain as relevant as the moment in which the Hand of God guided those who wrote them down.

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, – Colossians 3:23 (ESV)

In conclusion, there are people I wish to thank, who have invested a lot of time in me and my blogging.

First, I wish to thank my dear friend, Gene Hoyas, aka Col. Manly Rash/The Bulldog Pundit, who allowed me to be a regular contributor to any Blog in which he was involved, and whose guidance and writing tips were such a help.

I thank my lovely bride (I married up), who, since April of 2010, has put up with losing me to this endeavor every evening at 9:00 p.m.

I thank the rest of my family, my extended family of friends and faithful readers, and those of you who just drop in from time to time to check out what my latest rant is.

I thank my Earthly Father, who made me all that I am, and led me, in The Way in which I should go.

Finally, but most importantly, I thank my Heavenly Father, from Whom all blessings flow. Without Him, I would be nothing at all.

May God Bless you all.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Newtown: An American Tragedy, Not a Political Opportunity

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics7 Comments

American flag half mastAfter engaging with my bride and some friends in a Quixotic quest to view what turned out to be few and far between Christmas Lights, thanks to Obamanomics, I turned on the television in an attempt to catch the last 30 minutes of Blue Bloods.

What I found myself watching instead, was a CBS Special Report on the horrific massacre of precious innocents in the previously quiet little town of Newtown, Connecticut. What struck me immediately was the foghorn-like obvious nature of CBS’s editorial push for gun control.

From the moment I tuned in, CBS was announcing how imperative Gun Control was, while accusing Speaker of the House John Boehner of ducking the issue. They immediately  followed this observation up with interviews of  precious little ones, who had seen their playmates murdered at school.

Adding to CBS’ editorial narrative was a review of the sensationally horrible Columbine School Massacre, with numerous survivor interviews attached.

Richard Schlesinger wrapped up the CBS Special Report with more interviews of the surviving schoolchildren, trotted in front of the unblinking camera, in a manner reminiscent of P.T. Barnum exhibiting Freaks of Nature to a curious public for sensationalism’s sake.

Also, earlier in the day, hastily-organized professional demonstrators marched back in forth of the White House clamoring for gun control.

Are you beginning to see a pattern here?

What do we know about the horrific slaughter of these precious children?

Per the CBS affiliate in New York City:

While the families of victims were notified, authorities on Friday night were still in the process of positively identifying those killed.

While officials had been briefing the public on the situation throughout the day, local officials were still looking at various angles as they continued their “massive investigation” in coordination with the FBI and ATF.

While authorities have still not officially identified the gunman who opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School, law enforcement sources have named him as 20-year-old Adam Lanza.

Lanza’s mother, Nancy Lanza, was found dead Friday inside her Newtown home, CBS News reported. After Lanza allegedly shot and killed his mother, he drove her car to the school, where he opened fire on adults and children, 1010 WINS’ Al Jones reported.

State Police Lt. Paul Vance said 18 children and six adults, including the school’s principal Dawn Hochsprung, were pronounced dead at that scene. Two other children later died at the hospital. One other person was injured, Vance said.

“Evil visited this community today and it’s too early to speak of recovery,” Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy said.

Indeed. And, unfortunately, not only are we seeing tragedies like this more often, but, I guarantee you, there will be more on the horizon.

Why? The Liberals will tell you that it’s the guns’ fault and Americans own too many of them.

Well, first off, Americans have owned guns since this nation was born.

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads,

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

This Amendment was written by our forefathers to protect Americans from not only foreign enemies and despots, but, internal ones, as well.

And, that is what makes Liberals nervous.

You see, without that Second Amendment, and the protection that it provides American citizens, an out-of-control president could, through executive orders, take away our personal freedoms.

Not to mention the fact, that “If guns are outlawed, only Outlaws will have guns”.

Ask the people of Norway about that.

On Friday, July 22, 2011, a Norwegian gunman, disguised as a police officer beckoned his victims closer before shooting them one by one, claiming at least 84 lives, in a horrific killing spree on an idyllic island teeming with youths that left that peaceful Nordic nation in mourning.

The island tragedy unfolded hours after a massive explosion ripped through a high-rise building housing the prime minister’s office, killing seven people in a scene some likened to the aftermath of 9/11.

Per The Guardian, there was a reason that Breivik was able to kill so many innocent people:

The massacre on the island of Utøya is certain to lead to a security review, with particular stress on how Anders Behring Breivik obtained his weapons. Norway already has some of the toughest gun laws in the world, but they were apparently easily circumvented by the killer.

A licence is required to own a gun, and the owner must provide a written statement saying why he or she wants one. Many categories of guns, including automatics and some powerful handguns, are banned from sale altogether.

Hunting and outdoor sports are popular in Norway. But the laws are strict in these areas, too. Shotguns and rifles must be stored in a secure place, typically a specially designed gun safe, as must ammunition. Police have the right to inspect an owner’s home to ensure the law is being followed.

Transporting a weapon to a public place is also covered by legislation. The owner must have a good reason for carrying a weapon, must ensure it is unloaded and concealed from view, but not worn on the body, and must keep the weapon under constant supervision.

Under the Firearm Weapons Act, only “sober and responsible” persons over the age of 18 may obtain a gun licence. For handguns, the age requirement is 21. In 2009, additional legislation was introduced, further tightening Norway’s gun laws.

Perhaps because the laws are already so strict and gun crime is relatively rare, gun control is not generally considered a political issue in Norway, unlike countries such as the US where a citizen’s right to bear arms is guaranteed by the constitution and fiercely defended.

Perhaps, ladies and gentleman, the burden of responsibility in the aftermath of a senseless massacre such as the one yesterday, needs to be singularly placed on the individual who planned and committed the heinous act, instead of the focus being placed upon the instrument he used.

After all, when have you ever witnessed, or even heard of, a gun pulling its own trigger?

Heavenly Father, may you comfort the families and friends of all those who died so senselessly yesterday, even as you welcome those precious little ones into your loving embrace. In Christ’s name I pray…Amen.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Rice Seeks to Avoid Questioning By Dropping Out

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

susanriceThe Beltway has been buzzing, concerning the announcement that Dr. Susan Rice, the “face” of Benghazigate, has withdrawn from the candidate list for Secretary of State.

Fox News reports

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice has removed her name from consideration for secretary of state, saying she does not want to put the administration through a “lengthy, disruptive and costly” confirmation process.

The move followed weeks of controversy on Capitol Hill over the possibility of her nomination, with Republicans threatening to block Rice from the post over concerns about her September comments on the Libya terror attack. Some lawmakers continue to charge that Rice misled the American people when she said on Sept. 16 that the attack was the result of a “spontaneous” demonstration spun out of control.

President Obama, in a written statement Thursday, called those claims “unfair and misleading” but said he accepts her decision.

“Her decision demonstrates the strength of her character, and an admirable commitment to rise above the politics of the moment to put our national interests first,” Obama said.

Rice, in a letter to Obama on Thursday, said she remains “fully confident” she could have served as an effective secretary of state but suggested the confirmation process would have hurt the administration.

“That trade-off is simply not worth it to our country,” Rice wrote. She went on to say “I am saddened that we have reached this point, even before you have decided whom to nominate.”

Some of Rice’s biggest critics, in response, said they would continue to probe the Benghazi attacks — even if Rice may not come before them to answer questions in a confirmation hearing.

“When it comes to Benghazi I am determined to find out what happened — before, during and after the attack,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a statement.

Given Sen. Graham’s legendary reach-across-the-aisle squishiness, excuse me if  I take his pronouncement with a grain of salt.

About that letter to the Preezy…Dr. Rice also wrote,

When discussing Benghazi, I relied on fully cleared, unclassified points provided by the intelligence community, which encapsulated their best current assessment. These unclassified points were consistent with the classified assessments I received as a senior policymaker. It would have been irresponsible for me to substitute any personal judgment for our government’s and wrong to reveal classified material. I made clear in each interview that the information I was providing was preliminary and that ongoing investigations would give us definitive answers. I have tremendous appreciation for our intelligence professionals, who work hard to provide their best assessments based on the information available. Long experience shows that our first accounts of terrorist attacks and other tragedies often evolve over time. The intelligence community did its job in good faith. And so did I.

I have never sought in any way, shape or form to mislead the American people. To do so would run counter to my character and my life of public service. But in recent weeks, new lines of attack have been raised to malign my character and my career. Even before I was nominated for any new position, a steady drip of manufactured charges painted a wholly false picture of me. This has interfered increasingly with my work on behalf of the United States at the United Nations and with America’s agenda.

I grew up in Washington, D.C., and I’ve seen plenty of battles over politics and policy. But a national security appointment, much less a potential one, should never be turned into a political football. There are far bigger issues at stake. So I concluded this distraction has to stop.

Translation: “Not only we’re they going to make me tell the truth about Benghazi, they would also find out my history of being a Muslim sympathizer.”

While Dr. Rice was working at the Brookings Institute, she co-authored a paper published in 2005, titled Can “Freedom Only” Secure Our Future? In this paper, she wrote,

…Some scholars argue that the absence of political freedoms, rather than lack of educational opportunity, motivate young men to join terrorist networks.

…Others hold that poverty and under-development create breeding grounds for terrorist foot soldiers.

…More significant is poverty’s contribution to fueling civil conflict and state weakness that terrorist networks and other predators can exploit.

…Absent conflict, low levels of income and development, particularly in countries with significant, but not necessarily majority Muslim populations may also facilitate terrorist operations.

…Promoting both development and democracy in faraway countries is a 21st century security imperative. We need a dual strategy. We must combine effective formulas for fostering freedom through building civil society and transparent democratic institutions with a determination to “make poverty history”.

Notice the terms “Jihad” or Radical Islamic Ideology are never mentioned.

Now, if she remains as UN Ambassador, as Obama expressed in his reaction to her announcement, that’s one thing. However, there is a serious rumor going around that she will be the next National Security Adviser.

The NSA is not a cabinet-level post, and those who fill it are neither appointed nor confirmed by Congress. The only constraints on the National Security Adviser are budgetary; there are very few statutes or laws regarding the position. In terms of a job description for the position of National Security Adviser, the reality seems to be: Whatever the president wants it to be.

So, this woman who lied to the nation, and the world, concerning the truth about the murders of four Americans, including an Ambassador, could be given a position answerable only to her buddy, the “Preezy”.

Now, doesn’t that make you feel safe and secure?

Until He comes,

KJ

Pelosi: Christmas = “Bonding Ritual”

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

pelosiwitchYesterday, from the Floor of the House of Representatives, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the following:

Is there not an appreciation for the Jewish holidays? The Christmas holiday? Kwanzaa? All the other things that families come together around? Bonding rituals important to the strength of our society? Do we not care about that? Well, the American people do. And they want to shop for it.

Where to begin?

Kwanzaa?

From discoverthenetworks.org:

Kwanzaa is a week-long festival celebrated mainly in the U.S. from December 26 through January 1 each year. It was established in 1966 by the socialist and black nationalist Maulana Karenga, who promoted the holiday as a black alternative to Christmas. Karenga’s idea was to celebrate the end of what he considered the Christmas-season exploitation of African Americans.

According to the official Kwanzaa website, the celebration was originally designed to foster “conditions that would enhance the revolutionary social change for the masses of Black Americans,” and to provide a “reassessment, reclaiming, recommitment, remembrance, retrieval, resumption, resurrection and rejuvenation of those principles (Way of Life) utilized by Black Americans’ ancestors.”

Karenga postulated seven major principles to be emphasized during Kwanzaa, identifying each by its Swahili name:

Unity (Umoja)

Self-Determination (Kujichaguila)

Collective Work and Responsibility (Ujima)

Cooperative Economics (Ujamaa)

Purpose (Nia)

Creativity (Kuumba)

Faith (Imani)

Ironically, these seven principles as a whole mirror precisely the principles that were embraced by the Symbionese Liberation Army, a pro-Marxist, revolutionary terrorist group of the 1970s.

The symbol most identified with Kwanzaa consists of seven colored candles placed in a menorah-like candelabrum. These candles borrow their color scheme from Marcus Garvey’s old black nationalist ensign. The lone black candle represents the so-called “black race.” The three red candles evoke images of socialist realism with bloody red banners waving to rally the oppressed for the overthrow of the established order. And the three green candles are meant to recall the splendor of Africa’s landscapes.

When Karenga first established Kwanzaa, he and his votaries also crafted a flag of black nationalism and a pledge: “We pledge allegiance to the red, black, and green, our flag, the symbol of our eternal struggle, and to the land we must obtain; one nation of black people, with one G-d of us all, totally united in the struggle, for black love, black freedom, and black self-determination.”

The philosophy underlying Kwanzaa is known as Kawaida, a variation of classical Marxism that also includes enmity toward white people. Practitioners of Kawaida believe that one’s racial identity “determines life conditions, life chances, and self-understanding” — just as Marxists identify class as the determining factor of one’s life conditions.

“Bonding Rituals”?

Gosh, Nancy. We used to call that “The Dinner Table”.

Christmas is not “a Bonding Ritual”. It is the celebration of the birth of the Savior.

I thought you were supposed to be Catholic?

The fact that the Former Speaker of the House calls such an important day of worship and celebration, a “Bonding Ritual”, says a lot. That kind of stupid, convoluted Liberal thinking helps to explain this:

The Navy directed service members serving in Bahrain to cancel and dismantle a “Live Nativity” after receiving a complaint from a military atheist group who said the manger scene endangered Americans serving in a Muslim country and violated the U .S. Constitution.

The chaplain at Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bahrain confirmed to Fox News the nativity scene was cancelled – but referred any further comments to the NSA’s public information officer.

The “Live Nativity” was a long-standing tradition at NSA Bahrain that featured the children of military personnel dressed as shepherds, wise men, along with Mary and Joseph. It was part of a larger festival that included a tree lighting, Christmas music and photographs with Santa Claus and a camel.

But the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers objected to the Nativity and filed a complaint with the Navy’s Inspector General. They argued the Nativity promoted “Christianity as the official religion of the base.”

The atheist group also worried that the Nativity put service members in danger.

“Also of concern is the likelihood that the predominantly Muslim local population will see the U.S. military as a Christian force rather than a secular military support U.S. – but not necessarily Christian values in their Muslim country,” the MAAF wrote in their complaint. “This even threatens U.S. security and violates the Constitution as well as command policy.”

“It’s unconstitutional, it’s bad for the military and in a Muslim country it’s dangerous,” MAAF spokesman Jason Torpy told Fox News.

“Upon further review, the CRP (Command Religious Program) will be removing the Living Nativity Program from the general base secular holiday festivities and co-locating it more appropriately with some of our other private religious and faith-based observances at the chapel at a separate time,” read a statement the Navy reportedly sent the NAAF.

Some service members in Bahrain told Fox News called the cancellation heartbreaking and children who were supposed to act in the Nativity were devastated.

“It was horrible,” said one officer who asked not to be identified. “It was devastating. Here we are serving in the Middle East, defending our country and other people’s religions and we couldn’t understand why we can’t enjoy our own religious freedoms.”

It’s simple, sir/madam.  The Liberals in charge of our country don’t view the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, as an exercise of our religious freedom, anymore.

They view it as nothing but a “Bonding Ritual”.

Obama Certain Boehner Will Cave

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

titanicIs the good ship, U.S.S. America, about to take an economic plunge into the Obama Abysss, which we may never recover from?

ABCnews.go.com has the story:

As the clock ticks toward a tax hike on all Americans in 20 days, President Obama predicted Republicans would join Democrats to extend current rates for 98 percent of earners before the end of the year.

“I’m pretty confident that Republicans would not hold middle class taxes hostage to trying to protect tax cuts for high-income individuals,” Obama said today in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Barbara Walters.

“I don’t think they’ll do that,” he said of Republicans forcing tax-rate increases for families earning $250,000 a year or less.

The sign of optimism follows weeks of tense negotiations and public posturing to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff,” an economically toxic package of $6 trillion in across-the-board tax hikes and $1.2 trillion in deep spending cuts that could begin in early 2013.

The White House and House Speaker John Boehner have exchanged new, competing deficit-reduction plans over the last 24 hours, sources say, but there is little indication of real progress toward a deal.

Obama has taken a hard line against extending current, lower tax rates on income over $250,000, which would affect the top 2 percent of income-earners. Republicans have said those rates should be extended.

The standoff threatens higher rates for everyone unless a broad “cliff” deal is reached, or the middle-income rates are extended on their own.

“I remain optimistic,” Obama told Walters. “I’d like to see a big package. But the most important thing we can do is make sure that middle class taxes do not go up on Jan. 1.”

Obama met privately with Boehner at the White House on Sunday for their second face-to-face session on the fiscal negotiations, signaling potential progress toward an agreement. But neither side presented specific details about the outcome of the meeting.

“I think the tone was good,” Obama told Walters. “I believe that both Speaker Boehner and myself and the other leaders want to see a deal happen. And the question now is can we get it done. The outlines, the framework of what a deal should look like are pretty straightforward.”

Basically, Scooter believes that he’s got Boehner and his Merry Band of Moderate Republicans right where he wants them. In the non-political world, this is called extortion. Obama simply calls it “political manuvering”.

Brilliant Economist Dr. Thomas Sowell wrote the following for Townhall.com:

Amid all the political and media hoopla about the “fiscal cliff” crisis, there are a few facts that are worth noting.

First of all, despite all the melodrama about raising taxes on “the rich,” even if that is done it will scarcely make a dent in the government’s financial problems. Raising the tax rates on everybody in the top two percent will not get enough additional tax revenue to run the government for ten days.

And what will the government do to pay for the other 355 days in the year?

All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting “the rich” to pay “their fair share” is part of a big charade. This is not about economics, it is about politics. Taxing “the rich” will produce a drop in the bucket when compared to the staggering and unprecedented deficits of the Obama administration.

No previous administration in the entire history of the nation ever finished the year with a trillion dollar deficit. The Obama administration has done so every single year. Yet political and media discussions of the financial crisis have been focused overwhelmingly on how to get more tax revenue to pay for past and future spending.

The very catchwords and phrases used by the Obama administration betray how phony this all is. For example, “We are just asking the rich to pay a little more.”

This is an insult to our intelligence. The government doesn’t “ask” anybody to pay anything. It orders you to pay the taxes they impose and you can go to prison if you don’t.

…What about “investing in the industries of the future”? Does the White House come equipped with a crystal ball? Calling government spending “investment” does not make it investment any more than calling spending “stimulus” makes it stimulate anything.

What in the world would lead anyone to think that politicians have some magic way of knowing what the industries of the future are? Thus far the Obama administration has repeatedly “invested” in the bankruptcies of the present, such as Solyndra.

Using lofty words to obscure tawdry realities extends beyond the White House. Referring to the Federal Reserve System’s creation of hundreds of billions of new dollars out of thin air as “quantitative easing” makes it seem as if this is some soothing and esoteric process, rather than amounting essentially to nothing more than printing more money.

Debasing the value of money by creating more of it is nothing new or esoteric. Irresponsible governments have done this, not just for centuries, but for thousands of years.

It is a way to take people’s wealth from them without having to openly raise taxes. Inflation is the most universal tax of all.

All the pretty talk about how tax rates will be raised only on “the rich” hides the ugly fact that the poorest people in the country will see the value of their money decline, just like everybody else, and at the same rate as everybody else, when the government creates more money and spends it.

If you have $100 and, after inflation follows from “quantitative easing,” that $100 dollars will only buy what $80 bought before, then that is the same economically as if the government had taxed away one-fifth of your money and spent it.

But it is not the same politically, so long as gullible people don’t look beyond words to the reality that inflation taxes everybody, the poorest as well as the richest.

So, the old political chestnut, 

We’re all in this together.

is very appropriate.

Just as it was on the Titanic.

Is that “Nearer My God to Thee” I hear in the background?

Until He comes,

KJ