Tag: America

Jerry Lewis and the MDA Telethon: A Metaphor for Modern American Society

On By kingsjesterIn Entertainment, Politics15 Comments

jerry-lewisSo, here we are, September 2nd, Labor Day, 2013…and there is a huge gap in today’s television programming.

For 45 years, American families would, while spending time together, watch the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon. The telethon would begin on Sunday Evening and continue for 21 1/2 hours, ending on Monday evening at 5:00 p.m. Central. Co-hosted in later years by Ed McMahon and Norm Crosby, stars of stage, screen, and television would appear, alongside corporate executives, all there to raise money for “Jerry’s Kids”.

And, when I say “stars”, I mean STARS.

Jerry’s good friend, Sammy Davis, Jr. would come on every year, on Monday afternoon, and do a solid 30 minutes of entertaining., usually badgering Jerry, until he would come out and do a couple of songs with him, usually ending in a tap dance “challenge”.

Mr. Las Vegas himself, Wayne Newton, would come on after that and bring down the house, with several high energy numbers, wearing his huge American Eagle Belt Buckle, and “TCB” Necklace, which Elvis Presley gave him as a sign of friendship and respect.

Speaking of the King, while Elvis did not appear live every year, usually, also sometime Monday Afternoon, Ed McMahon would say,

Jerry, we just received a call from Graceland.

Which meant that Elvis. known thoughout my hometown of Memphis for his great generosity, had just phoned in a huge donation.

Perhaps, one of the most poignant moments in the history of the telethon came when  the Chairman of the Board, Francis Albert Sinatra, showed up, Frank told Jerry that he had brought a friend with him and asked him to come out. That friend was Jerry’s ex-partner, Dean Martin. The two had been estranged for years. Jerry became emotional. He hugged Dino, and, when everyone became silent, he asked,

So, you been working?

2 years ago, after 45 years of magnanimous service, raising untold millions for the MDA, the 85 year old Lewis was cruelly and unceremoniously dumped. In fact, the MDA did not even have the guts to tell Jerry Lewis that they dumped him!

Last year, Before the 2012 MDA Program, showbiz411.com posted this report about the results of the 2011 trimmed-down “telethon”,

The 2011 telethon, shrunk to six hours from 21, was ghastly. When it was over MDA trumpeted that they’d made $61 million– up 4 percent from the prior year when Lewis was at the helm. MDA boasted it did better without Jerry.

Alas, it wasn’t true. MDA has just posted its 2011 federal tax form 990 on its website and this tells a much different story. MDA was only able to collect $31 million of that much publicized amount. Without Jerry Lewis to cajole or persuade or inveigle, exactly half the amount came in that was promised by the public. Whether people simply reneged, or never actually pledged that amount at all, remains to be seen.

MDA will argue this happens every year: the tote board total is never what actually comes in. But in 2010, MDA crowed about $58 million at the end of the telethon with Jerry; $48 million came in. In 2009, the first telethon after the recession, the shortfall was about $15 million–$60 million announced, $45 million arrived.

For last year, MDA lists gross receipts from the first non Jerry Lewis telethon at $30,683,816. The charitable contribution portion was 18,059,876 . This left a gross income of $12,623,940.

A 50% shortfall is unprecedented. Because of it, the Form 990 shows a running $30 million loss or more in all categories stated on the MDA return from the beginning of 2011 to the end. Net assets and fund balances seem severely depleted.

And public support dropped overall, not just with the Telethon. In 2010, MDA claimed it received over $174 million in gifts and grants (including the telethon). In 2011, there was a big drop: the number was only $157 million.

Even more disturbing: revenue less expenses left MDA in the red for 2011 at $19 million.

MDA’s now deposed CEO, the man who got rid of Lewis, Gerald C. Weinberg, still pulled down his nearly $400K a year salary in 2011, which he’d been making fo years. The top staff at MDA all make decent six figure salaries as well. Weinberg and most of that staff are no longer working at MDA.

To be fair: MDA divides up the millions that do come in to dozens of worthy hospitals, universities, research programs, and facilities. The halved $61 million is still a sizeable chunk for these donation-starved groups. However: without the bad publicity and the controversy around Jerry Lewis, MDA might have been able to collect a higher percentage of pledges which would have benefited these groups even more.

Something happened at MDA in 2011 that’s never quite been explained. They committed a kind of hari-kari, taking an established brand and flushing it down the toilet. On Sunday night, the so-called remnants of the annual telethon are down to three hours. Almost everything is pre-taped except for local cut ins. The acts have no relationship to the history of the MDA.

Because it’s taped, there will be no drama to see if they can top last year. Of course, last year doesn’t really exist since the actually collected $31 million is far below the amounts from preceding years.

In 2012, the MDA Program was renamed the “MDA Show of Strength”. It was scaled down to a 3 hour program, featuring mostly pre-taped segments.

This year’s program, was once again referred to as a “telethon”. However, it was only a 2 hour program featuring Ryan Seacrest introducing pre-taped segments.

After MDA gave Lewis the Fickle Finger of Fate, they continued to insist

We honor Jerry Lewis, we admire the work he’s done for us, and we respect his decision to retire.

That particular quote came from Valerie Cwik, the MDA’s interim president, at the time. She replaced Gerald Weinberg, who was reportedly behind Lewis’s ouster and who stepped down as president, after 54 years with the organization.

She made the lame argument that the changes in the telethon were part of a necessary evolution in fundraising strategy, to put less emphasis on the once-a-year event.

It has to change because the American audience has changed. A 21.5-hour show doesn’t fit in a 140-character world.

Okay. I know that Lewis had a reputation as an ego-maniacal pain-in-the-rear to work with, but, these were people’s lives that the MDA was messing with. It could have, and should have, been handled differently.

It showed no respect whatsoever.

What happened to Jerry Lewis, seems to be happening to American Society in general.

This lack of respect seems to be an epidemic in this country. In the workplace, I have noticed that there sure does seem to be a lot of 20-somethings who have no respect whatsoever for decorum, their co-workers, or authority.

Now, I may just be a 54 year old fuddy-duddy Cracka, but I have no desire to see your brand new shoulder tattoo in the business office, ladies…nor your neck tattoo with Pookie’s name on it, young Skillet.

And, when older folks in your place of business try to tell you how the world works, kiddies, you had better listen to us. We’re trying to help.

This is real life. You’re not playing “World of Warcraft” or “Final Fantasy”. People’s families depend on their paycheck. And, when you do not “pull your weight” at your job, you affect everyone’s incomes.

As the MDA is learning the hard way, the “young and culturally hip” are usually not as reliable as the “experienced and professional”.

Of course, as it always has been…some folks have to learn things the hard way.

Until He Comes,

KJ

The Syria Situation: “For, I Have Promises to Keep”…

On By kingsjesterIn Politics10 Comments

michelleobama2You’re the President of the United States. Over the past few years, as part of Smart Power!, and your promised outreach to the Muslim World, you have met several times with representatives from the Muslim Brotherhood and other Radical Muslim Terrorist groups. Over course, no one will ever know that, as a judge has now ruled that the White House Visitors’ Log may remain private and sealed from view.

You recently announced that President Assad of Syria had released chemical weapons on his own people, and, in the process, he crossed the “thin red line” that you warned him about crossing, several months ago.

So now, you are ready to sooth your bruised ego by launching U.S. Navy Missiles into Syria, in what you euphemistically refer to as “a surgical strike”.

In order to accomplish your goal. you sought to gather support from America’s European Allies, the UK, France, and Germany.

German told you to go jump. Then, England’s Parliament formed an Amen Chorus, backing up what Germany said, much to the chagrin of Prime Minister Cameron. That leaves you with France, who may or may not desert you.

Given their War Record, it’s even money whether they will stand by you, or drop their rifles, in the manner in which they always do..

If you are Barak Hussein Obama, you are asking yourself why you cannot get any support from America’s traditional allies.

Well, Mr. President, perhaps these other world leaders do not think that throwing over Assad to replace him with an al Qaeda-led government is  a good idea.

And, they would be right.

The problem for Obama is the fact that he has acted like a horse’s rear on the world stage. His alligator mouth has written a check that his humming bird rear end cannot cash.

You thought that you were a beloved president. Then, you saw the poll which shows that 8o % of Americans oppose your proposed attack on Libya.

That’s a bummer, because during the trips which the Radical Muslim Leaders made to the White House. you promised them “things”, such as your support for Arab Spring. of which the overthrow of Assad in Syria is simply another “show of democracy”. (*COUGH*COUGH*)

You know in your heart, that, if you take out Assad, the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda will “owe you” and therefore, be willing to come to the Negotiation Table, perhaps gaining you another Nobel Peace Prize.

So, you go on TV on Saturday, and tell the world, that you are going to let Congress decide whether to attack Syria, or not.

Even though, you are

…leaving the door open to moving ahead with a military strike on Syria even if Congress votes against it, adding to the confusion over the president’s evolving position.

…One senior State Department official, though, told Fox News that the president’s goal to take military action will indeed be carried out, regardless of whether Congress votes to approve the use of force.

Other senior administration officials said Obama is merely leaving the door open to that possibility. They say he would prefer that Congress approve a military attack on the Assad regime, in response to its alleged use of chemical weapons, and will wait to see what Congress does before making any final decisions on authorizing military force.

Yet the possibility that Obama would move ahead without the support of Congress is sure to stir confusion among lawmakers, who had – for the most part – applauded his decision to seek their input first, though others claimed he was “abdicating his responsibility” by punting to Congress. It would raise questions about why he decided to seek congressional input at all, after having moved military assets into position immediately, and then waited days and possibly weeks for a debate in Washington.

The senior State Department official told Fox News that every major player on the National Security Council – including the commander-in-chief – was in accord Friday night on the need for military action, and that the president’s decision to seek a congressional debate and vote was a surprise to most if not all of them.

However, the aide insisted the request for Congress to vote did not supplant the president’s earlier decision to use force in Syria, only delayed its implementation.

“That’s going to happen, anyway,” the source told Fox News, adding that that was why the president, in his Rose Garden remarks, was careful to establish that he believes he has the authority to launch such strikes even without congressional authorization.

Other senior administration officials, outside of the Department of State, would not confirm as much, telling reporters only that the door had been left open for the president to proceed without congressional authorization.

This is what is known as a political ploy, boys and girls. Obama does not care what Congress thinks. He has already made promises to his new “Allies” which he intends to keep.

Former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin  nailed it yesterday, as she usually does, during this post on her Facebook Page:

* We have no clear mission in Syria. There’s no explanation of what vital American interests are at stake there today amidst yet another centuries-old internal struggle between violent radical Islamists and a murderous dictatorial regime, and we have no business getting involved anywhere without one. And where’s the legal consent of the people’s representatives? Our allies in Britain have already spoken. They just said no. The American people overwhelmingly agree, and the wisdom of the people must be heeded.

* Our Nobel Peace Prize winning President needs to seek Congressional approval before taking us to war. It’s nonsense to argue that, “Well, Bush did it.” Bull. President Bush received support from both Congress and a coalition of our allies for “his wars,” ironically the same wars Obama says he vehemently opposed because of lack of proof of America’s vital interests being at stake.

* Bottom line is that this is about President Obama saving political face because of his “red line” promise regarding chemical weapons.

* As I said before, if we are dangerously uncertain of the outcome and are led into war by a Commander-in-chief who can’t recognize that this conflict is pitting Islamic extremists against an authoritarian regime with both sides shouting “Allah Akbar” at each other, then let Allah sort it out.

‘Cuda is right. America has no vital interest in inserting ourselves into a Middle Eastern Civil War, in which there are no “Good Guys”.

HOWEVER, PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA DOES.

May God protect us.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

The War Against Christianity: The Slaughter of the Coptic Christians

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics21 Comments

copticchristiansThe struggle for the control of Egypt rages on this morning.

Fox News Reports that

More than 800 people have been killed nationwide since Wednesday’s dismantling of two encampments of Morsi supporters in Cairo — an act that sparked fierce clashes.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian government has begun deliberations on whether to ban the Brotherhood, a long-outlawed organization that swept to power in the country’s first democratic elections a year ago.

Nearly 40 churches have been looted and torched, while 23 others have been attacked and heavily damaged since Wednesday, when chaos erupted after Egypt’s military-backed interim administration moved in to clear two camps packed with protesters calling for Morsi’s reinstatement, killing scores of protesters and sparking deadly clashes nationwide.

One of the world’s oldest Christian communities has generally kept a low profile, but has become more politically active since Mubarak was ousted and Christians sought to ensure fair treatment in the aftermath.

Many Morsi supporters say Christians played a disproportionately large role in the days of mass rallies, with millions demanding that he step down ahead of the coup.

Despite the violence, Egypt’s Coptic Christian church renewed its commitment to the new political order Friday, saying in a statement that it stood by the army and the police in their fight against “the armed violent groups and black terrorism.”

While the Christians of Egypt have endured attacks by extremists, they have drawn closer to moderate Muslims in some places, in a rare show of solidarity.

Hundreds from both communities thronged two monasteries in the province of Bani Suef south of Cairo to thwart what they had expected to be imminent attacks on Saturday, local activist Girgis Waheeb said. Activists reported similar examples elsewhere in regions south of Cairo, but not enough to provide effective protection of churches and monasteries.

Waheeb, other activists and victims of the latest wave of attacks blame the police as much as hard-line Islamists for what happened. The attacks, they said, coincided with assaults on police stations in provinces like Bani Suef and Minya, leaving most police pinned down to defend their stations or reinforcing others rather than rushing to the rescue of Christians under attack.

Who are the Coptic Christians? How did they come to dwell in the Land of the Pharoahs?

Coptic Christianity began in Egypt sometime around5 A.D. It is one of the five oldest Christian churches in the world, joing the Roman Catholic Church, Church of Athens (Eastern Orthodox Church), Church of Jerusalem, and Church of Antioch in its longevity.

The Coptic Christians (Copts) trace their lineage back to John Mark, one of the 72 apostles sent forth by Jesus Christ and author of the Gospel of Mark. Mark traveled with Paul and Mark’s cousin Barnabas on their first missionary journey but left them and returned to Jerusalem. Later, he also preached with Paul in Colosse and Rome. Mark ordained one bishop (Anianus) in Egypt and seven deacons, founded the school of Alexandria, and served God, until he was martyred in Egypt in 68 A.D.

Coptic tradition holds that Mark was tied to a horse with a rope and dragged to death by a mob of pagans on Easter, 68 A.D., in Alexandria. Coptic Christians refer to John Mark as the first of their chain of 118 patriarchs or “popes”.

John Mark began a school in Alexandria to teach orthodox Christianity. By 180 A.D., this school had grown to become both am established thological and spirital center of learning and, a center for secular learing, as well. It remained as the cornerstone of Coptic teaching for four centuries. One of its leaders was Athanasius, who created the Athanasian Creed, still recited in Christian churches today.

Abba Pacomius (292-346) is credited as founding the first cenobitic, or community monastery at Tabennesi in Egypt. He also wrote a set of rules for monks. By his death there were nine monasteries for men and two for women.

The Roman empire persecuted the Coptic Church during the third and fourth centuries. Around 302 A.D., Emperor Diocletian martyred 800,000 men, women and children in Egypt who followed Jesus Christ.

And, now, the barbarians of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization supported by AMERICAN TAX DOLLARS, through the patronage of United States President Barack Hussein Obama, has picked up where the Roman Empire left off, destroying beautiful centuries-old churches, while slaughtering and maiming followers of Jesus Christ.

Back on September 14, 2012, Breitbart.com’s Big Government’s Scott Katz, posted the following…

In his now-infamous apology speech in Cairo on June 4th, 2009, the President said the following as part of his prepared remarks to the Muslim world.

I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

Included live and in person in the crowd that day, as “insisted” by the Obama Administration, were at least 10 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, known worldwide for their principles of justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings.

The President continued; “As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam. It was Islam – at places like Al-Azhar University – that carried the light of learning through so many centuries… and throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”

The President must have missed a few history classes, as the Brotherhood was no stranger to anyone paying attention to international terrorist organizations for the past 50 years. Religious tolerance and racial equality were not part of their platform.

Founded in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood had links to the Nazis during the Second World War, involving agitation against the British, espionage and sabotage, as well as support for terrorist activities.

The Brotherhood disseminated Hitler’s Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion throughout the Arab world, helping to deepen and extend hostile views about Jews and Western societies in general, and they have continued their campaign of terrorism ever since.

In February of 2011, then-FBI Director Robert Mueller told the House Select Committee on Intelligence of the litany of terrorism both here and abroad supported by the Muslim Brotherhood. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper ad other witnesses spelled out a variety of threats, highlighting the Brotherhood’s ties in the United States.

The President continued, “Part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience. I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims.”

Perhaps this explains the President’s naïve worldview, where our foreign policy means taking every Arab country out for an ice cream cone rather than sending enough Marines to protect duty-bound Americans and our interests abroad.

I have to disagree with Mr. Katz. Obama’s not naive. He is a servant of radical Islam. He is a dhimmi.

Last Thursday, Obama, in prepared remarks about the situation in Egypt, said,

The United States strongly condemns the steps that have been taken by Egypt’s interim government and security forces. We deplore violence against civilians. We support universal rights essential to human dignity, including the right to peaceful protest. We oppose the pursuit of martial law, which denies those rights to citizens under the principle that security trumps individual freedom, or that might makes right. And today the United States extends its condolences to the families of those who were killed and those who were wounded.

And given the depths of our partnership with Egypt, our national security interests in this pivotal part of the world and our belief that engagement can support a transition back to a democratically elected civilian government, we’ve sustained our commitment to Egypt and its people. But while we want to sustain our relationship with Egypt, our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back.

As a result, this morning we notified the Egyptian government that we are canceling our biannual joint military exercise which was scheduled for next month. Going forward I’ve asked my national security team to assess the implications of the actions taken by the interim government and further steps that we may take as necessary with respect to the U.S.-Egyptian relationship.

Let me say that the Egyptian people deserve better than what we’ve seen over the last several days. And to the Egyptian people, let me say the cycle of violence and escalation needs to stop. We call on the Egyptian authorities to respect the universal rights of the people. We call on those who are protesting to do so peacefully and condemn the attacks that we’ve seen by protesters, including on churches. We believe that the state of emergency should be lifted, that a process of national reconciliation should begin, that all parties need to have a voice in Egypt’s future, that the rights of women and religious minorities should be respected, and that commitments must be kept to pursue transparent reforms of the constitution and democratic elections of a parliament and a President.

Nowhere did he mention the Muslim Brotherhood by name, or call on them, specifically, to quit slaughtering Coptic Christians.

Through the Leader of the Free World’s dhimmitude, he is passively allowing the barbarians to continue their rampage.

If you think, as Americans, that Obama thought that the MB would stop, simply because he told them to, then I want to sell you singing lessons taught by Roseanne Barr.

Obama knows exactly what is going on.

Please pray for our Egyptian brothers and sisters in Christ.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Riot Like an Egyptian

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

Egypt2On July 15, 2009, Secretary of State HIllary Rodham Clinton, spoke before the Council on Foreign Relations, outlining the Obama Administrations Foreign Policy, which they described as “Smart Power!”

But they [the challenges that face us] are not reason to despair about the future. The same forces that compound our problems – economic interdependence, open borders, and the speedy movement of information, capital, goods, services and people – are also part of the solution. And with more states facing common challenges, we have the chance, and a profound responsibility, to exercise American leadership to solve problems in concert with others. That is the heart of America’s mission in the world today.

Now, some see the rise of other nations and our economic troubles here at home as signs that American power has waned. Others simply don’t trust us to lead; they view America as an unaccountable power, too quick to impose its will at the expense of their interests and our principles. But they are wrong.

The question is not whether our nation can or should lead, but how it will lead in the 21st century. Rigid ideologies and old formulas don’t apply. We need a new mindset about how America will use its power to safeguard our nation, expand shared prosperity, and help more people in more places live up to their God-given potential.

…And to these foes and would-be foes, let me say our focus on diplomacy and development is not an alternative to our national security arsenal. Our willingness to talk is not a sign of weakness to be exploited. We will not hesitate to defend our friends, our interests, and above all, our people vigorously and when necessary with the world’s strongest military. This is not an option we seek nor is it a threat; it is a promise to all Americans.

Building the architecture of global cooperation requires us to devise the right policies and use the right tools. I speak often of smart power because it is so central to our thinking and our decision-making. It means the intelligent use of all means at our disposal, including our ability to convene and connect. It means our economic and military strength; our capacity for entrepreneurship and innovation; and the ability and credibility of our new President and his team. It also means the application of old-fashioned common sense in policymaking. It’s a blend of principle and pragmatism.

Smart power translates into specific policy approaches in five areas. First, we intend to update and create vehicles for cooperation with our partners; second, we will pursue principled engagement with those who disagree with us; third, we will elevate development as a core pillar of American power; fourth, we will integrate civilian and military action in conflict areas; and fifth, we will leverage key sources of American power, including our economic strength and the power of our example.

Fast forward to today. The Obama Administration, through their outreach to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Godfather of Islamic Terrorist Organizations, and their backing of them in Egypt’s last Presidential Election, helped to fbring about a very unstable…and dangerous…situation in the Land of the Pharoahs.

In Egypt’s bloodiest day since the Arab Spring began, riot police Wednesday smashed two protest camps of supporters of the deposed Islamist president, touching off street violence that officials said killed nearly 300 people and forced the military-backed interim leaders to impose a state of emergency and curfew.

The crackdown drew widespread condemnation from the Muslim world and the West, including the U.S., and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei resigned as the interim vice president in protest – a blow to the new leadership’s credibility with the pro-reform movement.

“Today was a difficult day,” interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said in a televised address to the nation. While he regretted the bloodshed, he offered no apologies for moving against the supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, saying they were given ample warnings to leave and he had tried foreign mediation efforts.

The leaders of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood called it a “massacre.” Several of them were detained as police swept through the two sit-in sites, scores of other Islamists were taken into custody, and the future of the once-banned movement was uncertain.

Backed by helicopters, police fired tear gas and used armored bulldozers to plow into the barricades at the two protest camps in different sections of Cairo where the Morsi supporters had been camped since before he was ousted by the military July 3.

Army troops did not take part in the two operations, which began shortly after 7 a.m. (0500 GMT – 1 a.m. EDT), although they provided security at the locations.

The smaller camp – near Cairo University in Giza – was cleared of protesters relatively quickly, most taking refuge in the nearby Orman botanical gardens, on the campus of Cairo University and the zoo.

But it took about 12 hours for police to take control of the main sit-in site near the Rabaah al-Adawiya Mosque in Nasr City that has served as the epicenter of the pro-Morsi campaign and had drawn chanting throngs of men, women and children only days earlier.

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1981. Before he died, Sadat warned Egyptians about the consequences of a takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood:

These Islamic Brotherhood groups, so we would be aware of them. The most dangerous thing about them are the ideas that they put into the minds of the kids (our youth) and also for the other parties (political) that help them to see what they preach or even those who are trying to draw near to them, need to see the extent of the criminality that is perpetrated against the up and coming generations and against Egypt.

What and how do those people think? These people talk of something called the Domineering Hegemony (Al-Hakemiyah – which basically decrees that the business) of governance is according only to the commands that Allah pronounced and refusing any of the civil legal guidelines.

(Regarding) Violence the conviction that there is such an inevitable clash with the infidel authorities and the primitive pre-Islamic (meaning pagan and evil) rest of society and to eradicate both.

Then comes the most dangerously radical part of their ideology which was planted by the Islamic Brotherhood. The Mandated requirement to pledge allegiance to the religious commander of the group (The Emir) and to uphold the rule of conditional loyalty and obedience to him under all circumstances.

Which basically means, that these people don’t require such level of loyalty to God Almighty who rightfully is worthy of such loyalty and adherence without arguing, but instead they apply that kind of following to the commander of the group (The Emir) and after that, just to remain in the realm of that notion, they forbid ascribing or even hearing any exegesis of the Koran or the Sunnah (Religious tradition of legally binding precedents based on the life and words of the Prophet Mohammed) and the total reliance on the exposition given by the commander of the group (The Emir) of the Koran’s verses and the Prophetic (Mohammed’s) words of the Hadeeth.

Now that he attained the allegiance and the obedience of the entire group this notion was instituted by Sheikh (Islamic term for Elder) Hassan El-Banna, God rest his soul, and I if you remember or know that I was a contemporary with Sheikh Hassan when we collaborated together and worked hand in hand during the bygone days of the secret resistance movement against the British (occupying force) the King (pre-revolution ruler of Egypt) and the parties (other groups), but I can’t say that I have worked against Egypt and I have God to thank for that, I only work for Egypt.

So this level of allegiance and obedience creates a robotic machine out of a human being, and so you have the commentary of the Koran to be said only by the commander of the group (The Emir), this commander/Amir person is a mere student, or the chief commanding Emir amongst other commanders could be this young graduate fresh out of college with his graduate degree at the age of 23 or 24.

And, that is what the people of Egypt have finally realized.

Which begs the question: Why is OUR President and his Administration courting and supporting Islamic Terrorists?

Scary.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Egypt, America, and the Muslim Brotherhood

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

obamaegypt7613With all of our Middle Eastern Embassies shut down for at least a week, the Senate’s own “Sunshine Boys”, Juan McAmnesty and Tiddie Graham are presently over in Egypt,

…on behalf of President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm).

Sens. John McCain, Arizona,and Lindsey Graham, South Carolina, arrived Monday in the capital of Cairo to meet with interim leaders including President Adly Mansour and Defense Minister Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

They arrived amid a roughly 30-day standoff between Egypt’s military-backed government and protesters who support ousted President Mohammed Morsi — a member of the Muslim Brotherhood political party.

Clashes between the rival groups have already resulted in the deaths of more than 250 Egyptians.

Thousands of Morsi supporters remain camped out in downtown Cairo, demanding the Islamist leader’s reinstatement as the interim government repeatedly tells them to disperse before security forces move in — setting the stage for potentially more violent showdowns.

Neither senator has so far publicly commented on the unannounced trip, though both are experienced in foreign policy and diplomacy.

McCain, a retired Navy officer and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in late spring made a surprise trip to Syria, where opponents are trying to overthrow the regime of President Bashar Hafez al-Assad.

In a recent interview, McCain said his and Graham’s positions as elected leaders have forged relationships with many Egyptians.

Graham is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former Air Force lawyer.

They arrived with the U.S. Embassy in Egypt closed amid a terror threat and more than 1,000 pro-Morsi supporters marching Monday through Cairo.

Meanwhile, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns also is in Egypt as part of U.S. mediation efforts.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said McCain and Graham are representing “the United States Congress” while Burns represents the administration.

While the two Vichy Republicans are over there, perhaps they could get our weapons back.

Jihadists in Egypt’s lawless Sinai Peninsula are using U.S. weapons to carry out attacks against the temporary government in the wake of the military’s ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, according to the embattled nation’s Interior Ministry.

The government office posted an official statement on its Facebook page along with images of an exploded missile that hit the third floor of a building in the city of el-Arish last week. The post said terrorist forces targeted the North Sinai Security Directorate office with a ballistic missile that struck the third floor facade of the building, leaving three soldiers injured. While attacks in the Sinai, which borders Gaza and is a haven for terrorist activity, have become commonplace, the prospect that militants have U.S. weapons typically fired from helicopters at their disposal is especially alarming.

Three photos of the missile posted by the government agency shows that it appears to be an AGM-114F with a label written in English and the letters “U.S.” stenciled on the side.

“If, and that is a big if, it was a AGM-114, as in the report, that’s not a ballistic missile, which conjures Cold War images of something massive and long range, but a Hellfire, which is of the type carried on helicopters,” Peter Singer, of the Brookings Institute’s Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, told FoxNews.com.

Egyptian security forces apprehended three suspects at the scene, including one Palestinian citizen.

A request for comment to the U.S. Department of Defense was not immediately returned.

Reports of U.S.-made weapons turning up in the Sinai date back to at least January, when six U.S.-made missiles were found in a cache of weapons bound for Gaza. And in February, FoxNews.com reported exclusively that weapons left over from the revolution in Libya were being sold at clandestine auctions is the Sinai Peninsula. The U.S. has repeatedly denied arming the Libyan rebels, though it did assist them in other ways with the overthrow of longtime Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi.

“Weapons left over from the Revolution in Lbya”? Tell me…are they stamped “Property of the U.S. Embassy Annex, Benghazi, Libya”?

In a possibly-related story…

Back on January 9th, IsraelNationalNews.com reported

An Egyptian magazine has claimed that six American Islamist activists who work with the Obama administration are Muslim Brotherhood operatives who enjoy strong influence over U.S. policy.

The December 22 story was published in Egypt’s Rose El-Youssef magazine and was translated into English for the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT). The story suggests the six turned the White House “from a position hostile to Islamic groups and organizations in the world to the largest and most important supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The story is largely unsourced, but its publication is considered significant in raising the issue to Egyptian readers, IPT said.

The six named people include: Arif Alikhan, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for policy development; Mohammed Elibiary, a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council; Rashad Hussain, the U.S. special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference; Salam al-Marayati, co-founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC); Imam Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA); and Eboo Patel, a member of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships.

I think they left out someone…Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s “Number One”, Huma Abedin.

Her father, Syed Z. Abedin, was a professor in Saudi Arabia who founded the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs, an organization supported by the Muslim World League, a Brotherhood organization. Her mother, Saleha Mahmoud Abedin, is a member of the Muslim Sisterhood, the Brotherhood’s adjunct organization for women. The Brotherhood itself is in its own words, according to a captured internal document, dedicated to “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house.”

So, basically, in Egypt, we have a very strange situation.  The United State Administration, aided by the Vichy Republicans, are, through a Machiavellian political strategy, backing up from their pro-Muslim Brotherhood Foreign Policy, and pretending to be “the Good Guys” instructing Egypt in the principles of Democracy. Their problem is the fact that the Egyptian People are not fooled that easily. They know a double-dealer when they see one.

In fact, they have even come up with a belly dance in Obama’s “honor”, making fun of him for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.

Meanwhile, back home, The Muslim Brotherhood, the Godfather of Muslim Terrorists organizations, have infiltrated our Administration.

Not since the days of Sadat have Americans and Egyptians agreed on much of anything. However, we both agree that the Muslim Brotherhood must go.

And, they can take all of their backers in America, including President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), with them.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama Pushes 40% Tax Rate on Small Businesses. Karl Marx Smiles.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

obamabiggovernmentPresident Obama delivered another speech in his Economic Campaign Tour on Tuesday, where he continued “playing his greatest hits”….or misses, depending on your point-of-view.

The Weekly Standard posted yesterday that,

The New York Times reports that President Obama is reviving an old proposal to lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent (and 25 percent for manufacturers). Obama’s push to lower the corporate tax rate to 28 percent comes less than a year after he raised the top individual income tax rate, paid by many small businesses, to 39.6 percent.

In a speech delivered Tuesday afternoon, Obama did not explain why he thinks it’s a sound economic idea to raise the top marginal tax rate on small businesses but lower it for corporations.

“Right now, our tax code is so riddled with wasteful loopholes that many companies doing the right thing and investing in America pay 35%, while the corporations with the best accountants stash their money abroad and pay little or nothing at all,” Obama said, according to the text of his prepared remarks. “I’m willing to simplify our tax code in a way that closes those loopholes, ends incentives to ship jobs overseas, and lowers rates for businesses that create jobs right here in America.”

Neither Obama’s Tuesday speech nor his February 2012 corporate tax reform plan explained in detail which loopholes would be closed. During the 2012 presidential campaign, the Obama campaign hammered Mitt Romney for not saying which loopholes he would close to pay for a proposed reduction in individual income tax rates.

Obama was singing a different tune last November, as thehill.com reported.

President Obama and his daughters visited an independent bookstore on Saturday to participate in “Small Business Saturday.”

Obama is urging Americans to shop at neighborhood stores as an alternative to big Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales by national chains. He also dispatched top White House aides to do holiday shopping at local small businesses on Saturday.

Obama has made a tradition of marking Small Business Saturday by visiting a non-franchise bookstore with Sasha and Malia. Last year, the president and his two daughters visited Kramerbooks & Afterwards Café in Dupont Circle.

This year, the trio visited One More Page Books in Arlington, Va., a short trip across the river from Washington, D.C. They stayed in the bookstore for just over half an hour, according to a White House pool report, and immediately returned to the White House.

Despite a lack of browsing, the president bought 15 children’s books during the stop. The White House reported the purchases will be given as gifts to family this year for Christmas. Obama explained that he prepared ahead, apparently consulting a Christmas shopping list on his BlackBerry.

“Preparation,” the president told shop owner Eileen McGervey, according to the report. “That’s how I shop.”

The federal government is offering stores free Small Business Saturday marketing materials and promoting the event on social and paid media in a partnership with American Express.

“From the mom-and-pop storefront shops that anchor Main Street to the high-tech startups that keep America on the cutting edge, small businesses are the backbone of our economy and the cornerstones of our nation’s promise,” Obama said in a statement Friday. “Through events such as Small Business Saturday, we keep our local economies strong and help maintain an American economy that can compete and win in the 21st century.”

As a matter of fact, Obama was on the side of Small Business Owners, as late as last February…

During the 2013 State of the Union Address on February 12th, Obama said,

Now is our best chance for bipartisan, comprehensive tax reform that encourages job creation and helps bring down the deficit. (Applause.) We can get this done. The American people deserve a tax code that helps small businesses spend less time filling out complicated forms, and more time expanding and hiring — a tax code that ensures billionaires with high-powered accountants can’t work the system and pay a lower rate than their hardworking secretaries; a tax code that lowers incentives to move jobs overseas, and lowers tax rates for businesses and manufacturers that are creating jobs right here in the United States of America. That’s what tax reform can deliver. That’s what we can do together.

We know that all of Obama’s promises have expiration dates. However, in a horrible economy, why is Obama trying to tax America’s Small Business Owners out of business?

You remember them…the people who actually create jobs for you and me.

That’s not the only problem America’s Entrepreneurs are facing.

Adding to Small Business Owners’ Burden will be ObamaCare, and the penalties for non-compliance.

Cato.otg explains,

If our small-business owner has 50 or more employees — or fewer full-time employees and lots of part-timers — he faces the prospect of tens of thousands of dollars in penalties under ObamaCare’s employer mandate if he does not provide “adequate” coverage to his workers.

The worst part is that these penalties will be triggered by factors that are unpredictable, unobservable, and totally beyond the control of our small-business owner. He could get hit with those penalties simply because a worker’s spouse loses or changes jobs. Or if a worker’s spouse moves out or dies. Or if an employee’s parents move in.

This creates so much uncertainty that a small-business owner with 55 employees may have to fire six of them just to eliminate that potential liability.

But if he splits his 60-employee small business into two 25-employee businesses, then the federal government — maybe the IRS — will start snooping around to determine whether he did so for legitimate business reasons or just to avoid the mandate.

Why is he doing this to the Backbone of Our Economy? I have a theory. (I know. You’re shocked.)

Remember the Obama-Biden Tax Plan?

The 40% tax rate on Small Businesses, which the Weekly Standard is referring to, was a part of that original plan, which Obama got passed during the Congressional negotiations over raising taxes on America’s “Wealthy”, the other folks who hire Americans.

Our Petulant President, like a little kid throwing a temper tantrum was determined to get what he wants. And, it appears that, what he wanted, was to tax America’s Small Business Owners out of existence…and replace them with those who he can control through Government Grants.

Think about it…if the Administration  can get rid of those Business Owners who are not obliged to them, say, those who vote Republican, and replace them with those who are indebted to Uncle Sugar for giving them the money to start their business, isn’t that, basically, creating a new voting bloc for Obama and the Democrats?

Just thinking out of the box, you understand…

And now, with his “Middle Out” Economic strategy failing miserably, because he’s taxing the Middle Class out of existence, he’s talking about lowering the Corporate Tax Rate, in order to get Corporations who have left the country due to the tax burden he and his fellow Democrats placed on them, to move back home, and bail him and his Political Party out.

Will expatriated American Businesses tell him to take his “Bargain” and shove it?

Does Moochelle like lobster?

Until He Comes,

KJ

Anti-American Creative Director of 9/11 Memorial/Museum was an Anti-Vietnam War Activist at Harvard.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics11 Comments

According to the official website of the 911 Memorial and Museum,  911memorial.org…

911firefightersThe National September 11 Memorial Museum will open as the country’s principal institution concerned with exploring the implications of the events of 9/11, documenting the impact of those events and exploring 9/11’s continuing significance.

However, the iconic photograph, which accompanies this post, was almost left off the museum’s collection…and you are not going to believe the reason why…

Michael Shulan, the museum’s creative director, was among staffers who considered the Tom Franklin photograph too kitschy and “rah-rah America,” according to “Battle for Ground Zero” (St. Martin’s Press) by Elizabeth Greenspan, out next month.

“I really believe that the way America will look best, the way we can really do best, is to not be Americans so vigilantly and so vehemently,” Shulan said.

Shulan had worked on a popular post-9/11 photography exhibit called “Here is New York” in Soho when he was hired by Alice Greenwald, director of the museum, for his “unique approach.”

Eventually, chief curator Jan Ramirez proposed a compromise, Greenspan writes. The Franklin shot was minimized in favor of three different photos via three different angles of the flag-raising scene.

“Several images undercut the myth of ‘one iconic moment,’ Ramirez said, and suggest instead an event from multiple points of view, like the attacks more broadly,” the book says.

“Shulan didn’t like three photographs more than he liked one, but he went along with it.”

Shulan told The Post he didn’t know that the way Greenspan described the discussion about the photographs “is the way that I would have.”

“My concern, as it always was, is that we not reduce [9/11] down to something that was too simple, and in its simplicity would actually distort the complexity of the event, the meaning of the event,” he said.

Shulan was living in Soho on Sept. 11, 2011. He helped organize the “Here is New York” exhibit shortly after the attack, and it grew to include thousands of photographs taken by professionals and ordinary New Yorkers. The collection was later donated to the New-York Historical Society.

Being me, I began to research Mr. Shulan’s background. As the article explains, his claim to fame  is the collection of striking photographs of the Big Apple, which he took in the aftermath of the horrific events of September 11, 2001. So…why was he named Creative Director of the museum? On his artistic ability alone?

Au contraire, mon frere.

It was his political ideology which got him the job.

Posted at the online version of the Harvard University Student Newspaper, thecrimson.org, I found the following article titled, “Freshmen Discuss Action in Case Congress Ends Student Deferments”, dated March 10, 1971…

Nearly 200 Harvard freshmen met in the Freshman Union Monday night to discuss possible ways of counteracting President Nixon’s proposed abolition of H-S deferments granted after April 23, 1970.

The freshmen agreed to meet again next Monday in the Union Lounge to focus on specific proposals, including suggestions for a letter campaign to Congressmen and civil disobedience at Boston draft boards.

Monday night’s meeting grew out of a series of discussions among several members of the freshman class about the now-imminent threat of the draft. Nixon asked Congress on April 23, 1970, for the abolition of all student deferments granted after that date, and Washington sources expect passage of the proposal this spring.

“The important thing that came out of the discussions was a really strong feeling of togetherness.” said Mark Hunter ’74, one of the participants.

At the Monday meeting, a large group favored political action to fight for retention of II-S deferments, but others claimed that the problem was greater than just the question of student deferments.

Michael Shulan ’74, one of the members of the original discussion group, said, “We got scared into thinking about the draft, but now that we’ve started thinking it doesn’t much matter whether they take away the II-S.”

One freshman proposed financing an antiwar, antidraft drive through a 10 per cent surcharge on all dope dealing. “It would provide antiwar revenue and a moral justification for smoking,” he said.

Mmmm…a Far Left Activist and a Hahvahd Graduate…mmmm…isn’t President Barack Hussain Obama a Hahvahd Graduate? And wasn’t he a Far Left Political Activist, also? Small World,  Huh, y’all?

Why would a former Collegiate Anti-American Far Left Activist be appointed the Creative Director for a Museum memorializing the worst ever Terrorist Attack on American Soil?

It is all a part of Obama and the rest of the “Progressives’ quest to “radically change” America. They do not believe in America Exceptionalism, American Patriotism, and Love of God and Country.

To them, America is just another nation, and to them, we “had it coming” on 9/11/01. Somehow, in their feeble little minds, they believe that America slighted or aggrieved the Muslim World so horribly, that they were driven to attack us.

The ungrateful ignorance that Liberals, or Progressives, demonstrate, through their damaging Machiavellian schemes to bring down this “shining city of a hill”, proves to me that they just don’t understand the cost that our fellow countrymen have had to pay to defend and preserve our American Freedom, whatsoever.

So, why have these Progressives failed, so far, to bring down this nation?

The answer is simple.  Allow me to present a very special teacher to explain it to you, gentle reader:

Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High School in Little Rock, did something not to be forgotten.  On the first day of school, with the permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she removed all of the desks out of her classroom.

When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there were no desks.

‘Ms. Cothren, where’re our desks?’

She   replied, ‘You can’t have a desk until you tell me how you earn the right to sit at a desk.

They thought, ’Well, maybe it’s our grades.’

‘No,’ she said.

‘Maybe it’s our behavior.’

She told them, ’No, it’s not even your behavior.’

And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third period. Still no desks in the classroom

By early afternoon television news crews had started gathering in Ms. Cothren’s classroom to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.

The final period of the  day came and as the puzzled  students found seats on the floor of the desk less classroom, Martha Cothren said, ‘Throughout the day no one  has been able  to tell me just what he/she has done to earn the  right  to sit at the desks that are  ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell you.’

At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it.

Twenty-seven (27) U.S. Veterans, all in uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall. By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned.

Martha said, ‘You didn’t earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you. Now, it’s up to you to sit in them.  It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education. Don’t ever forget it.’

By the way, this is a true story. And this teacher was awarded Teacher of the Year for the state of Arkansas in 2006.

Most Americans understand the Cost of Freedom.  Freedom is not free. 

Never forget September 11, 2001.

Until He Comes, 

KJ

July 4, 2013: Through the Night With a Light From Above.

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

WashingtonPrayingMy country tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died!

Land of the Pilgrim’s pride!

From every mountain side,

Let freedom ring!

Like many of you, I have been watching events unfold halfway across the globe in the streets of Egypt.  Egypt’s President Morsi, and his fellow travelers in the Muslim Brotherhood, have been tossed out on their ears by their opposition in the last election, aided by the Egyptian Military. The world witnessed a remarkable scene the other day, as one third of that ancient nation took to the streets to march for their freedom from oppression, in a scene reminiscent of Moses leading the Jewish people out of bondage, all those centuries ago.

237 years ago today, our forefathers declared their freedom from oppression, too.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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.

Freedom. What a unique, yet, misunderstood word. What is Freedom? It is the ability to do whatever one wishes, regardless of the consequences to those around us, including family and friends?

NO. That would be licentiousness, debauchery, or simply being a libertine.

So, how do we define our American Freedom?

I believe our American Freedom is a unique gift from God.

Our forefathers braved harsh ocean voyages, only to then have to endure miserable living conditions, including savage Indians, exposure to the elements, and disease, in order to secure Freedom to worship God as they wished.

Our Freedom, or Liberty, if you will, springs not from self-centered lustful desires, but a desire to make a better life for ourselves, our family, and those who follow behind us. Our Liberty is an expression of our human hearts which springs from a Divine Origin.

Our Founders understood the dangers they faced when the set out to this sacred land. Their’s was a voyage of faith, a journey of hope, full of joyous anticipation at what their new home would be like and what their new life would be like.

When they got here and began to forge their new lives, they soon found themselves to still be under the oppressive rule of King George III.

They choice they made to declare their independence was not an easy one, and the war to achieve their freedom cost many lives and much sacrifice.

Personal Sacrifice was accepted by these Freedom Fighters with no questions asked.  Sacrifices were made to secure their freedom…and ours.

Those citizen soldiers understood that with Freedom comes Responsibility…a responsibility to the idea of Freedom, to their fellow “Americans”, and to prosperity. They knew this was a serious decision. They also knew by Whom’s Grace they would gain their freedom…

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Present-day America is in the middle of our own struggle for freedom. Our present Administration has been attacking the freedoms which our forefathers promised us in our nation’s Constitution, precious freedoms which our nations Best and Brightest have fought and died to protect.

Licentiousness and self-centerness revolving around relative morality and situational ethics are our nation’s cultural norms. Or, at least that is what our Administration and their sycophants in the Main Stream Media try to sell us every day.

Some of our citizens will tell you that as long as your behavior “doesn’t hurt anybody”, you can do whatever you want, in the name of Liberty, redefining the meaning of a word which our Founders pledged their sacred honor to defend to the death.

America’s populace is still struggling through the worst economic situation our country has seen since the Great Depression.  Approximately 20% of our countrymen are unemployed, underemployed, or have just plain given up.  One-sixth of our nation has to rely on assistance from our government just to have food on the table, while remaining under the governance of a president who worships a Far Left political ideology steeped in the redistribution of wealth teachings of Karl Marx and Saul Alinsky.

Americans have watched, feeling helpless, as he and his self-centered minions in Congress took our tax dollars and spent all of it and then some, as if there was no tomorrow, leaving our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren with a debt that this shining city on a hill may never recover from.

Meanwhile, those whom we have elected to serve us, are serving themselves, by trying to create new voters from those who have entered our country illegally.

While, at the same time, Americans are protesting to keep their perceived “right” to murder the unborn, denying them the chance to vote…and to live, while shouting “Hail Satan!” and “Jesus should have been aborted”.

We have watched, with our mouths hanging wide open, as the President of the United States and his State Department, have reached out to embrace and fund the very barbarians that want to murder each and every one of us, while at the same time, criticizing and alienating our closest allies.

For example, yesterday, the “Leader of the Free World” pledged his continued support for the ousted Egyptian President and the Grandfather of Islamic Terrorist Organizations, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Now, I’m just spitballin’ here…but, shouldn’t the President of the United States of America be standing for Freedom, not for Oppression?

Shouldn’t he be protecting us from our sworn enemies, not inviting them to OUR White House and hugging their necks?

Shouldn’t we be allowed in OUR OWN HOUSE?

Our nation is experiencing a very dark time.

In such a dark time as this, the words of the great, classic Patriot Anthem, written by the legendary Irving Berlin, which made the late, great songstress, Kate Smith famous, shine through as a beacon of hope…and a fervent prayer to Our Creator…

While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,

Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free.

Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,

As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer:

God bless america, land that I love,

Stand beside her and guide her

Through the night with a light from above.

From the mountains, to the prairies,

To the oceans white with foam,

God bless america,

My home sweet home.

Happy 4th of July, Americans!

God bless us…everyone!

Until He Comes,

KJ

Gay Wednesday, or, How to Change the Fabric of American Society in One Fell Swoop

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

gay marriageIn my post yesterday, I warned that what the Supreme Court was about to do, could possibly change the fabric of our society.

God in Heaven, I hate it when I’m right.

The robed ones yesterday destroyed the uniqueness of the marriage bed between man and wife, and the sovereignty of a state’s voters, all in one fell swoop.

First, the Court ruled that the part of the Defense of Marriage Act denying equal benefits to homosexual “married” couples was “unconstitutional” in their eyes, so they struck down that codicil.

Now, homosexual couples who have been “married” in states which allow that doppelganger of a “sacrament”, are entitled to all the governmental benefits that normal married couples enjoy.

In the second ruling of the day, the highest court in the land ruled that the ruling by a Gay Appeals Judge, which negated the results of a popular vote on the  California Referendum on Proposition 8, would stand, basically pulling a Pontius Pilate, killing the sovereignty of Californians to decide their own fate, in regards as to whether or not to allow Homosexual Marriage in their state.

You see, the good citizens of California stood up on their hind legs and voted against allowing homosexuals to imitate the oldest sacred ceremony known to mankind.

And, Lord knows , we can’t allow Americans to decide for themselves, can we? If you think I’m joking, remember Chief Justice “Benedict Arnold” Roberts’ ruling on Obamacare?

Of course, the Prevaricator-in-Chief thought that yesterday was the most wonderful thing  he had heard, since his next door neighborhood Frank Marshall Davis used to regale him with tales of his pedophiliac conquests.

In fact, he called a homosexual couple to congratulate them on live TV.

Funny…just 18 months ago, ol’ Scooter was saying,

I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them.

So, was Obama lying then, or is he lying now?

Yes.

Now, there are those who will argue that these are just small steps and what happened yesterday is no big hairy deal. There are also those who believe that yesterday was the greatest day in the history of the world.

Side note: It wasn’t. That day will be when we hear a trumpet sound above us…and, it won’t be Doc Severenson. But, I digress…

Normalization of this deviant behavior has already happened to our Brightest and Best, with the overturning of DADT.

Just the other day, the four-star idiots in the Pentagon declared that our country is now safer with openly gay members in our military.

Safer from what? Inter-service pregnancies?

Now that homosexual activists know that they can overturn the will of the people of a state, if the Liberal State Government does not support their citizens in a legal defense of sovereignty, all bets are off.

Like Gov. Moonbean (Jerry Brown) of California, all it takes is one Liberal weasel of a State Governor to overturn an anti-Homosexual Marriage Vote in any state in the Union, if the state’s gay activists are willing to take their action all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary.

Here is another thing that makes me wanna hurl, cry, and bang my head against the wall, all at the same time:

The National Cathedral in Washington, DC rang its steeple bells in celebration when the rulings were announced.

What part of God’s Word do they believe supports Homosexual Marriage? What book of the Bible is that found? 1st Babylonians?

Genesis 2:21-25 states:

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

We’ve come a long way, baby…and, it appears that our country is beginning a descent down the ol’ porcelain receptacle, a societal voyage not unlike the one Ancient Rome experienced.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, Chapter 1, Verses 24-27, he writes, concerning the Roman Empire’s depravity,

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

That is where we stand, Americans.

Grab those who matter to you and hold them tight. I am afraid that there are dark times ahead…and we are well on the way to finding out why America is not mentioned in the Book of  Revelation.

Until He comes,

KJ

The Brandenburg Gate: A Tale of Two Speeches

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

reaganThe following remarks are an excerpt from the “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” speech given at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Germany on June 12, 1987 by President Ronald Wilson Reagan…

In these four decades, as I have said, you Berliners have built a great city. You’ve done so in spite of threats–the Soviet attempts to impose the East-mark, the blockade. Today the city thrives in spite of the challenges implicit in the very presence of this wall. What keeps you here?

Certainly there’s a great deal to be said for your fortitude, for your defiant courage. But I believe there’s something deeper, something that involves Berlin’s whole look and feel and way of life– not mere sentiment. No one could live long in Berlin without being completely disabused of illusions. Something instead, that has seen the difficulties of life in Berlin but chose to accept them, that continues to build this good and proud city in contrast to a surrounding totalitarian presence that refuses to release human energies or aspirations. Something that speaks with a powerful voice of affirmation, that says yes to this city, yes to the future, yes to freedom. In a word, I would submit that what keeps you in Berlin is love–love both profound and abiding.

Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between East and West. The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront. Years ago, before the East Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure: the television tower at Alexander Platz. Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the tower’s one major flaw, treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind. Yet even today when the Sun strikes that sphere–that sphere that towers over all Berlin– the light makes the sign of the cross. There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed. As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner, “This wall will fall.

Beliefs become reality.” Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.

And I would like, before I close, to say one word. I have read, and I have been questioned since I’ve been here about certain demonstrations against my coming. And I would like to say just one thing, and to those who demonstrate so. I wonder if they have ever asked themselves that if they should have the kind of government they apparently seek, no one would ever be able to do what they’re doing again.

Thank you and God bless you all.

Yesterday, our current president spoke at the same location, before a sparse crowd of 4,500. During his world-wide campaign to become United States President in 2008, he spoke before an adoring throng of 200,000.

I do believe that, like the majority of Americans, Europeans have caught on to our Prevaricator-in Chief.

Compare the following excerpt of Obama’s speech, to President Reagan’s.

Peace with justice means pursuing the security of a world without nuclear weapons, no matter how distant that dream may be. And so as president, I’ve strengthened our efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and reduce the number and role of America’s nuclear weapons. Because of the New START Treaty, we’re on track to cut American and Russian deployed nuclear warheads to their lowest levels since the 1950s.

But we have more work to do. So today, I’m announcing additional steps forward. After a comprehensive review, I’ve determined that we can ensure the security of America and our allies-and maintain a strong and credible strategic deterrent-while reducing our deployed strategic nuclear weapons by up to one-third. And I intend to seek negotiated cuts with Russia to move beyond Cold War nuclear postures.

At the same time, we’ll work with our NATO allies to seek bold reductions in U.S. and Russian tactical weapons in Europe. And we can forge a new international framework for peaceful nuclear power, reject the nuclear weaponization that North Korea and Iran may be seeking.

America will host a summit in 2016 to continue our efforts to secure nuclear materials around the world, and we will work to build support in the United States to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and call on all nations to begin negotiations on a treaty that ends the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons.

These are steps we can take to create a world of peace with justice.

Peace with justice means refusing to condemn our children to a harsher, less hospitable planet. The efforts to slow climate change requires bold action, and on this, Germany and Europe have led. In the United States, we have recently doubled our renewable energy from clean sources, like wind and solar power. We’re doubling fuel efficiency on our cars. Our dangerous carbon emissions have come down, but we know we have to do more. And we will do more.

With a global middle class consuming more energy every day, this must now be an effort of all nations, not just some, for the grim alternative affects all nations: more severe storms, more famine and floods, new waves of refugees, coast lines that vanish, oceans that rise.

This is the future we must avert. This is the global threat of our time. And for the sake of future generations, our generation must move toward a global compact to confront a changing climate before it is too late. That is our job. That is our task.

We have to get to work.

Peace with justice means meeting our moral obligations. And we have a moral obligation and a profound interest in helping lift the impoverished corners of the world by promoting growth so we spare a child born today a lifetime of extreme poverty; by investing in agriculture, so we aren’t just sending food, but also teaching farmers to grow food; by strengthening public health so we’re not just sending medicine, but training doctors and nurses who will help end the outrage of children dying from preventable diseases; making sure that we do everything we can to realize the promise, an achievable promise of the first AIDs-free generation. That is something that is possible if we feel a sufficient sense of urgency.

Our efforts have to be about more than just charity. They’re about new models of empowering people, to build institutions, to abandon the rot of corruption, to-create ties of trade, not just aid, both with the West and among the nations that are seeking to rise and increase their capacity. Because when they succeed, we will be more successful as well. Our fates are linked. We cannot ignore those who are yearning, not only for freedom, but also prosperity.

And, finally, let’s remember that peace with justice depends on our ability to sustain both the security of our societies and the openness that defines them. Now, threats to freedom don’t merely come from the outside. They can emerge from within, from our own fears, from the disengagement of our citizens. For over a decade, America’s been at war. Yet much has now changed over the five years since I last spoke here in Berlin. The Iraq war is now over. The Afghan war is coming to an end. Osama bin Laden is no more. Our efforts against Al Qaida…

… are evolving. And, given these changes, last month I spoke about America’s efforts against terrorism. And I drew inspiration from one of our founding fathers, James Madison, who wrote, “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” James Madison is right, which is why even as we remain vigilant about the threat of terrorism, we must move beyond the mind-set of perpetual war.

And in America, that means redoubling our efforts to close the prison at Guantanamo.

During that speech, Obama quoted President Kennedy, who said, during his  “Ich bin ein Berliner” Speech,

Let me ask you to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today and beyond the freedom of merely this city. Look to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind.

Translation:

Pay no attention to that Muslim with the bomb strapped around his waist. We’ll just talk nicely to him, and he’ll stop. Or, we’ll arrest him and give him a fair trial by a jury of his peers. We are the world. We are the people. It’s true we make a better place…just you and me.

Obama’s Pollyanna b.s. aside, why does this Kenyan Kaiser have to run down America, every place he speaks? Why does he have to insult us? Is he embarrassed by American Exceptionalism?

It is only through American Exceptionalism, (and his anonymous puppet masters) that his less-that-brilliant rear got to attend Harvard, where he became the only Editor of the Harvard Law Review never to publish a single paper.

Regarding his sketchy history and “record of achievement”…he didn’t build that.

Reagan spoke of America as “a Shining City on a Hill”. Obama speaks of us as “just another country”.

Reagan spoke of courage, freedom, the power of the individual, and liberty. Obama speaks about “shared sacrifice”.

Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” …and he did it. Obama said, “I’m going to close down Gitmo!” And, it remains open.

Reagan loved his country. Obama loves the rest of the world more.

And, that is why he is failing as the President of the greatest country on the face of God’s green Earth.

Until He Comes,

KJ