"Daily Motivations"
Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears. -- Gillian Anderson
"The Patriot Post"
"How could a readiness for war in time of peace be safely prohibited, unless we could prohibit, in like manner, the preparations and establishments of every hostile nation?" --James Madison
"The deficit doctors have their scalpels out all right, but they're not poised over the budget. That's as fat as ever and getting fatter. What they're ready to operate on is your wallet." -- Ronald Reagan
"There's only one grievance and Hamas is open about it. Israel's very existence. Nor does Hamas conceal its strategy. Provoke conflict. Wait for the inevitable civilian casualties. Bring down the world's opprobrium on Israel. Force it into an untenable cease-fire -- exactly as happened in Lebanon. Then, as in Lebanon, rearm, rebuild and mobilize for the next round. Perpetual war. Since its raison d'etre is the eradication of Israel, there are only two possible outcomes: the defeat of Hamas or the extinction of Israel. Israel's only response is to try to do what it failed to do after the Gaza withdrawal. The unpardonable strategic error of its architect, Ariel Sharon, was not the withdrawal itself but the failure to immediately establish a deterrence regime under which no violence would be tolerated after the removal of any and all Israeli presence -- the ostensible justification for previous Palestinian attacks. Instead, Israel allowed unceasing rocket fire, implicitly acquiescing to a state of active war and indiscriminate terror. Hamas's rejection of an extension of its often-violated six-month cease-fire (during which the rockets never stopped, just were less frequent) gave Israel a rare opportunity to establish the norm it should have insisted upon three years ago: no rockets, no mortar fire, no kidnapping, no acts of war. As the U.S. government has officially stated: a sustainable and enduring cease-fire. If this fighting ends with anything less than that, Israel will have lost yet another war. The question is whether Israel still retains the nerve -- and the moral self-assurance -- to win." -- columnist Charles Krauthammer
"The Web"
“We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others.” -- John F. Kennedy
“Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.” -- Theodore Roosevelt
“America is too great for small dreams.” -- Ronald Reagan
"Amercan Conservative Union (ACU)"
Obama Natural Born?
by Joseph Morris
Issue 123 - January 7, 2009
I have been asked to comment on a recent on-line article whose thesis is that the reason that Barack Obama is filling his administration with a Clinton, sundry Clintonites, and other Democratic Party establishment retreads is as a form of "circling the wagons" because he is afraid that the natural-born-citizenship issue will blow up.
I think that Mr. Obama is afraid, but not of the prospect that he might be found constitutionally ineligible for the Presidency. He is the son of a mother who was a United States citizen at the time of his birth; I am aware of no evidence that, at any time after he attained his majority he renounced his American citizenship; so even if all of the various allegations regarding his Kenyan nativity or the falsification of his Hawaiian birth certificate or his adoption by an Indonesian father were true, nothing in that would trump the known facts that establish that he is a natural-born citizen.
Rather, he is out of his depth when it comes to the matters that a President of the United States must handle. Responsibility for war and peace, for prosperity or destitution, are matters far beyond any pay-grade he has ever held. His meteoric political career has been a marvelous fluke; he is utterly unprepared for high office; the questions now on his plate are not questions that have seriously commanded his attention before.
So he is afraid.
But there is a difference between being ill-informed and ill-prepared, which he is, and being stupid, which decidedly he is not. He knows his limits, and from that knowledge he gains power to protect himself. In addition, he seems to be well read in political history, when many others are not. Accordingly, he is following what seems to some to be a novel, but which is in fact a time-honored, path of sharing responsibility with the Brahmins within his own party. If there is failure, he has two lines of defense: (a) No one can accuse him of failing to appoint the “best and brightest” and the most experienced hands that his party has to offer. (b) He can fire them. If there is success, it will be his alone.
From the point of view of someone suddenly thrust into high office in times that are dangerous for the office-holder, his performance thus far has been nearly flawless.
Joseph Morris is senior partner at Morris and DeLaRossa in Chicago
"Newsmax"
John Fund Blasts Speaker Pelosi on 'Reforms'
Friday, January 9, 2009 12:25 PM
By: David A. Patten
The rule changes Speaker Nancy Pelosi is steamrolling through the House of Representatives contradict President-elect Barack Obama’s bipartisan promises, and also fly in the face of Pelosi’s own pledge to “insure the rights” of the minority party.
That’s the view of Wall Street Journal columnist and author John Fund, who documented Friday how Pelosi’s tune has changed in a bid to drown out the voices of Republican minority opposition in Congress.
The recent rule changes engineered by Pelosi, for example, end term limits for committee chairmanships. This is a major reversal of GOP reforms ushered in by the 1994 ”Contract With America.”
Term limits, Fund writes in a commentary titled “Pelosi Turns Back the Clock on House Reform,” helped “inject new ideas and merit into Congress.”
Pelosi’s rule changes partially restore the old Democratic, seniority-based system of chairmanships.
“Can this really be the ‘change’ that voters wanted last November?” Fund asks rhetorically. “Wags are already joking that Democrats are really delivering ‘senility you can believe in.’”
The rule changes passed Tuesday also severely restrict the legislative maneuver called a “motion to recommit” - a century-old maneuver that the minority party uses to send bills that reach the floor back to committees, where they can be endlessly debated.
GOP representatives used the tactic 50 times in the last session, mostly to stave off hidden tax hikes buried in larger bills.
Fund points out that Pelosi’s new rules sharply contradict positions she took before Democrats came to power. In 2004, Fund says, Pelosi rolled out a "Bill of Rights" to protect the interests of the party not in power.
"When we [Democrats] are shut out, they are shutting out the great diversity of America," Pelosi warned at the time. “We want a higher standard."
Just prior to becoming Speaker, Pelosi spoke of "bipartisanship" and her plans "to ensure the rights of the minority." Now that Democrats have consolidated their power, however, things are obviously different.
One of the ironies of Pelosi’s power grab, Fund points out, is that conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats are among the losers under the new rules because they often lack seniority.
Fund quotes Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, who observes: "All those nice pro-life, gun-owning young Democrats recruited to run by Rahm Emanuel will never have any real influence now. They were useful in getting Democrats a majority, but now they'll be in the back of the bus."
"The email Bag"
Those We Treasure
One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. She then told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.
That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual. On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked me so much," were most of the comments. No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.
Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature. The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to walk by the coffin.
As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. "Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded: "yes." Then he said: "Mark talked about you a lot."
After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher. "We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it."
Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him. "Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it."
All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheep-ishly and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home." Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album." "I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary" Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. "I carry this with me at all times," Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: "I think we all saved our lists"
That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again. The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.
Gal 6:10 says, “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” Jesus tells us in John 15:12 “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” Again in 1 John 4:7 “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.”
Tell the people you love and care for that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late. Let us each make opportunities to share the love we have for one another every day. - the Elders
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven; A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck that which is planted. - Ecclesiastes 3:1
Take care of the minutes, for the hours will take care of themselves.
Lost time is never found again.
Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.
Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time.
Will you give this to my Daddy?
As a Company, Southwest Airlines is going to support 'Red Fridays.'
Last week I was in Atlanta, Georgia attending a conference. While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the greatest acts of patriotism I have ever seen.
Moving through the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camos. As they began heading to their gate, everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering.
When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and cheered for, it hit me. I'm not alone. I'm not the only red-blooded American who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families.
Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work and home without fear or reprisal.
Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our service men and women, a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one of the male soldiers. He kneeled down and said 'hi.'
The little girl then asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her.
The young soldier, who didn't look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her Daddy. Then suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek.
The mother of the little girl, who said her daughter's name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now. As the mom was explaining how much her daughter Courtney missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up.
When this temporarily single mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second. Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military-looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it.
After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, 'I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you.' He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying 'your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon.'
The mom at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet, he saluted Courtney and her mom. I was standing no more than 6 feet away from this entire event.
As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one last act of selflessness, turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.
We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it's good to be an American.
RED FRIDAYS ----- Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the 'silent majority'. We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record-breaking numbers.
We are not organized, boisterous or over-bearing. We get no liberal media coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our opinions. Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of America supports our troops.
Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday - and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that.. Every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar will wear something red.
By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers.
If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family. It will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once 'silent' majority is on their side more than ever; certainly more than the media lets on.
The first thing a soldier says when asked 'What can we do to make things better for you?' is... We need your support and your prayers.
Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example; and wear something red every Friday.
WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, ONLY BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE. THEIR BLOOD RUNS RED --- SO WEAR RED! --- MAY GOD HELP AMERICA TO BECOME ONE NATION, UNDER GOD
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