ConservativeChristianRepublican-Report - 20090519

Motivational-Inspirational-Historical-Educational-Political-Enjoyable



"Daily Motivations"

Make sure you walk the talk – earn the right to hold others to high standards by meeting them yourself. -- Eric Harvey



Questioning Your Way to Better Teamwork

Like to get your group working more collaboratively together as a team? You can! And one of the best ways to do that is to ask questions … EFFECTIVE questions.

Have you ever asked, “Why can’t we all be better at teamwork?” and received blank stares, head scratching, and even some finger pointing? A question like that is ineffective – it’s non-specific, negative, and backward (what’s wrong) focused. Ineffective questions typically cause people to roll their eyes, affix blame, and “circle the wagons” in defensiveness instead of creating and testing ideas and solutions. Effective questions are much different. They’re the “right” questions – ones that encourage people to focus on what they’ve done well in the past – and to use that information to help identify strategies for achieving today’s desired results.

Effective questions can be the single-most potent tool in any leader’s toolbox. They create a mindset shift away from problem orientation and limitations – and toward solution orientation and possibilities. Here are five examples of effective questions you can ask to encourage your people to work together better. Give them a try …

What are some things we do well when we work together as a team?

What are some things that worked well on other teams of which you have been a part? What specifically caused each of those to work?

What is our vision of excellent collaboration and teamwork … what does it look like?

How would each of us benefit if we lived that vision every day?

What can we do to move closer to that vision? What are each of us willing and committed to contribute?



"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)

Closing the Door to Lust Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there...(Judges 16:1). The strongest man never conquered his tendency toward lust. On the contrary, it conquered him.

"God also bound Himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that He would never change His mind." (Hebrews 6:17)



"The Patriot Post"

"[I]t is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand....The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now, They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty." -- John Adams, letter to Zabdiel Adams, 21 June 1776

"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave." -- John Adams



The Second and Tenth Amendments

By Mark Alexander

In what amounts to a serious Second and Tenth Amendment challenge to federal authority, the Montana Legislature passed and its Democrat governor signed a law which specifies that guns which are produced, sold and maintained within the state are exempt from federal regulations.

Essentially, Montana is setting up a Tenth Amendment challenge -- as soon as the first arrest is made for purchasing a gun without the user submitting to federal mandates such as background checks, licensing and registration, the state will assert its Tenth Amendment rights under our Constitution.

Other states are preparing similar legislation, but I would suggest one of them take the Tenth Amendment challenge a major step forward.

Let's see a state pass a law requiring that any and all federal authorities who wish to carry a firearm within the boundary of said state, must be in possession of a "right to carry" permit issued and authorized by that state's governor.

And speaking of "right to carry," in my home state of Tennessee, legislators are considering a bill to allow duly authorized carry permit holders to keep their weapons on their person in restaurants which serve alcohol (not to be confused with bars), similar to surrounding states..



"Family Research Council"

Sign the Petition to Block Taxpayer-Funded Abortions Today!

https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?c=CHECKOUT&dmy=45A6D50C-0613-C00D-651668F42E2991E1&CFID=10683415&CFTOKEN=b6d677227f80bb94-F5D5D0B2-07CA-7192-7732F6F15C8CF479



May 13, 2009 | Share with Friends

With an unprecedented $3.6 trillion budget plan on the table, Americans are on the hook for 10-year deficits of $9.27 trillion. President Obama's appetite for government expansion is pushing taxpayers to the brink. But the Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration don't want to stop there. They want to put taxpayers on the hook for funding abortions as well. They want to overturn pro-life "riders" that ensure that U.S. taxpayers are not forced to hand-over their hard-earned dollars to pay for and promote abortion on demand. President Obama has already targeted prohibitions on tax dollars going to pay directly for abortions in our nation's capitol, and that is only the beginning.

Congress is already considering appropriations bills. Twenty-term Congressman David Obey (D-Wis.) is chairman of the key House Appropriations Committee, the committee that plays a key role in deciding the fate of pro-life policy.

The list of these pro-life laws, which reduce abortion and protect the conscience rights of everyone from health care personnel to taxpayers, is long and includes provisions that have stood for three decades. Even the Hyde amendment is threatened. Repealing it would open the floodgates for forced taxpayer funding of abortions on poor women targeted by "family planning" groups like Planned Parenthood.

Over 40,000 people have signed this petition. Join them and sign the petition to Chairman Obey today. As they come in, FRC will deliver the petitions to his office to express the desire of the American people not to be forced to pay for abortions. If you have already signed, forward this petition to friends and family so that they can add their names. Let's keep Congress -- and us taxpayers -- out of the abortion business.

Sign the Petition to Block Taxpayer-Funded Abortions Today!

https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?c=CHECKOUT&dmy=45A6D50C-0613-C00D-651668F42E2991E1&CFID=10683415&CFTOKEN=b6d677227f80bb94-F5D5D0B2-07CA-7192-7732F6F15C8CF479

Sincerely,

Tony Perkins
President

P.S. Please forward this email to at least one friend.



"The Web"

Ten Ways to Avoid the Flu

How can you avoid the flu? Read on...

Flu prevention is an important thing to consider when you're trying to stay healthy —especially during flu season. Common sense tells us that flu prevention should be easy as 1-2-3. So how can you prevent the flu? Read on for some great flu prevention tips.

Get a flu shot, particularly if you are 50 or over or have a chronic illness. In addition, consider a flu shot if you are in regular contact with many people, especially if you live in a dormitory or work in an open-plan office, where hundreds of people are coughing and sneezing in a common area.

Discuss with your pediatrician whether to immunize your youngsters in daycare. One recent study found that families whose children in daycare were immunized had 42% fewer infections with fever than those whose children weren't immunized.

Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly. A quick rinse won't do the trick. To kill germs, communicative disease experts recommend washing with soap for 15 to 30 seconds-about as long as it takes to hum a rollicking verse of "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

Keep your hands away from your face to reduce the chance of delivering viruses directly to your eyes or nose. One study found that people typically touched their face fifteen times in an hour.

Make certain you're getting your RDA for vitamin E and other antioxidants including A, C and B-complex vitamins and minerals. These have properties that enhance immune response. Studies on older mice have shown that those with reduced levels of vitamin E were more susceptible to flu infection.

Don't smoke. Smoke paralyzes the cilia, the hairlike cells lining the nose and airways that sweep incoming viruses away before they can infect.

Use tissues, not cloth handkerchiefs, to reduce spread of infection.

Reduce stress. Research has shown that immune responses are compromised by stress.

Get seven to nine hours of sleep a night. Chronic sleep deprivation can reduce your immune response.

Reduce alcohol consumption. Chronic heavy drinkers suffer from more colds and flu-and their complications-than others do, and even regular moderate use of alcohol can compromise immune response.



Obama’s Debt Gamble

Posted May 18th, 2009 at 10:30am in Ongoing Priorities.

http://blog.heritage.org/2009/05/18/obamas-debt-gamble/#more-6924

The Washington Post’s Robert Samuelson writes:

From 2010 to 2019, Obama projects annual deficits totaling $7.1 trillion; that’s atop the $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009. By 2019, the ratio of publicly held federal debt to gross domestic product (GDP, or the economy) would reach 70 percent, up from 41 percent in 2008. That would be the highest since 1950 (80 percent). The Congressional Budget Office, using less optimistic economic forecasts, raises these estimates. The 2010-19 deficits would total $9.3 trillion; the debt-to-GDP ratio in 2019 would be 82 percent.

But wait: Even these totals may be understated. By various estimates, Obama’s health plan might cost $1.2 trillion over a decade; Obama has budgeted only $635 billion. Next, the huge deficits occur despite a pronounced squeeze of defense spending. From 2008 to 2019, total federal spending would rise 75 percent, but defense spending would increase only 17 percent. Unless foreign threats recede, military spending and deficits might both grow.
…
At worst, the burgeoning debt could trigger a future financial crisis. The danger is that “we won’t be able to sell [Treasury debt] at reasonable interest rates,” says economist Rudy Penner, head of the CBO from 1983 to 1987. In today’s anxious climate, this hasn’t happened. American and foreign investors have favored “safe” U.S. Treasurys. But a glut of bonds, fears of inflation — or something else — might one day shatter confidence. Bond prices might fall sharply; interest rates would rise. The consequences could be worldwide because foreigners own half of U.S. Treasury debt.

The Obama budgets flirt with deferred distress, though we can’t know what form it might take or when it might occur. Present gain comes with the risk of future pain. As the present economic crisis shows, imprudent policies ultimately backfire, even if the reversal’s timing and nature are unpredictable.



Indiana Says 'No Thanks' to Cap and Trade

No honest person thinks this will make a dent in climate change.

By MITCH DANIELS

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124234844782222081.html

This week Congress is set to release the details of the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act, a bill that purports to combat global warming by setting strict limits on carbon emissions. I'm not a candidate for any office -- now or ever again -- and I've approached the "climate change" debate with an open-mind. But it's clear to me that the nation, and in particular Indiana, my home state, will be terribly disserved by this cap-and-trade policy on the verge of passage in the House.

The largest scientific and economic questions are being addressed by others, so I will confine myself to reporting about how all this looks from the receiving end of the taxes, restrictions and mandates Congress is now proposing.

Quite simply, it looks like imperialism. This bill would impose enormous taxes and restrictions on free commerce by wealthy but faltering powers -- California, Massachusetts and New York -- seeking to exploit politically weaker colonies in order to prop up their own decaying economies. Because proceeds from their new taxes, levied mostly on us, will be spent on their social programs while negatively impacting our economy, we Hoosiers decline to submit meekly.

The Waxman-Markey legislation would more than double electricity bills in Indiana. Years of reform in taxation, regulation and infrastructure-building would be largely erased at a stroke. In recent years, Indiana has led the nation in capturing international investment, repatriating dollars spent on foreign goods or oil and employing Americans with them. Waxman-Markey seems designed to reverse that flow. "Closed: Gone to China" signs would cover Indiana's stores and factories.

Our state's share of national income has been slipping for decades, but it is offset in part by living costs some 8% lower than the national average. Doubled utility bills for low-income Hoosiers would be an especially cruel consequence of the Waxman bill. Forgive us for not being impressed at danglings of welfare-like repayments to some of those still employed, with some fraction of the dollars extracted from our state.

And for what? No honest estimate pretends to suggest that a U.S. cap-and-trade regime will move the world's thermometer by so much as a tenth of a degree a half century from now. My fellow citizens are being ordered to accept impoverishment for a policy that won't save a single polar bear.

We are told that although China, India and others show no signs of joining in this dismal process, we will eventually induce their participation by "setting an example." Watching the impending indigence of the Midwest, and the flow of jobs from our shores to theirs, our friends in Asia and the Third World are far more likely to choose any other path but ours.

Politicians in Washington speak of a reawakened appreciation for manufacturing and American competitiveness. But under their policy, those who make real products will suffer.

Already we observe the piranha swarm of green lobbyists wangling special exemptions, subsidies and side deals. The ordinary Hoosier was not invited to this party, and can expect at most only table scraps at the service entrance.

No one in Indiana is arguing for the status quo: Hoosiers have been eager to pursue a new energy future. We rocketed from nowhere to national leadership in biofuels production in the last four years. We were the No. 1 state in the growth of wind power in 2008. And we have embarked on an aggressive energy-conservation program, indubitably the most cost-effective means of limiting CO2.

Most importantly, we are out to be the world leader in making clean coal -- including the potential for carbon capture and sequestration. The world's first commercial-scale clean coal power plant is under construction in our state, and the first modern coal-to-natural gas plant is coming right behind it. We eagerly accept the responsibility to develop alternatives to the punitive, inequitable taxation of cap and trade.

Our president has commendably committed himself to "government that works." But his imperial climate-change policy is government that cannot work, and we humble colonials out here in the provinces have no choice but to petition for relief from the Crown's impositions.

Mr. Daniels, a Republican, is the governor of Indiana



One Nation Without God?

http://www.cfif.org:80/podcasts/05/Quin-Hillyer.html

In a break from his predecessor, President Barack Obama last week chose to forgo the Bush White House tradition of hosting prayer events in recognition of National Prayer Day. The President instead simply opted to issue a Day of Prayer proclamation.

Couple that with Obama’s recent comment before the Turkish parliament that, “We are not a Christian nation,” and it is understandable why many Americans feel our president has joined the ranks of Congress and the courts in turning his back on our nation’s religious heritage. Quin Hillyer, senior editorial writer at the Washington Times and senior editor and columnist at the American Spector, goes so far as to inquire: “Is Christianity still legal in America?”

In a recent radio interview with CFIF’s Renee Giachino, Mr. Hillyer discusses the current anti-Christian, anti-prayer trend in America and Establishment Clause cases currently winding their way through our nation’s courts. Mr. Hillyer further highlights the list of Obama’s actions that show “a disdain for tradition, for limits, for moderation, and for empirical information that doesn’t fit his ideological predilections.”

What follows is the interview originally heard on "Your Turn - Meeting Nonsense With Commonsense" on WEBY 1330 AM, Northwest Florida's talk radio…[Listen to the interview here.] http://www.cfif..org/podcasts/05/Quin-Hillyer.mp3



Persecuting Christians in Gaza

By Ken Blackwell on 5.11.09 @ 6:08AM

Does Secretary Hillary Clinton read the reports issued by her own State Department? It's a fair question. She recently argued passionately at a summit at the Egyptian resort center of Sharm el-Sheikh for increased Western and Arab financial aid to an entity called the Palestinian Authority. To show the Obama administration is taking the lead, she pledged $900 million in U.S. taxpayer funds to jump start the re-building of Gaza and to underscore American commitment to the "two-state (Israel and Palestine) solution."

The most recent State Department report on religious freedom in the Palestinian Authority-administered (PA) areas includes these from Bethlehem, on the West Bank of the Jordan River. "The PA did not take sufficient action… to remedy past harassment and intimidation of Christian residents of Bethlehem by the city's Muslim majority. The PA judiciary failed to adjudicate numbers cases of seizures of Christian-owned land in the Bethlehem area by criminal gangs. PA officials appear to have been complicit in property extortion of Palestinian Christian residents, [emphasis added] as there were reports of PA security forces and judicial officials collude[ing] with gang members in property extortion schemes. Several attacks against Christians in Bethlehem went unaddressed by the PA…"

In Gaza, which we are paying to rebuild, Muslims attacked Christians with impunity. The Lighthouse Baptist School in Gaza City has been attacked repeatedly, as has the YMCA. Rami Khader Ayyad was abducted on the way home from work at the Baptist Holy Bible Association and murdered and the association offices were bombed.

Remember, Secretary Clinton is sending $900 million of your tax money to the people who pulled off these attacks, or who failed to investigate the attacks, or who were complicit in these attacks.

That's the Christians. How about the Jews? The Palestinian Media Watch, run by Arab-speaking Israeli Itamar Marcus tells a jarring story. The new 12th grade Palestinian schoolbooks urge youngsters on to jihad and to "the ribat for Allah." Students who kill Israelis are "worthy of a great reward from Allah." It's part of their Islamic Education texts.

Those texts are interesting. They have no Israel in their maps. But the United States is there; we are identified as "enemy of the Palestinians and the Arabs."

Eight of their schools are named "Al Khansah," the Mother of Martyrs School. The Mother of Martyrs is a woman who expressed joy that her four sons had died in jihad. We may assume they are not charm schools.

Another school is actually named for Saddam Hussein. This man killed 400,000 Arabs and Kurds, most of them Muslim. Can anything good from funding such a school?

Daniel Patrick Moynihan once ridiculed the U.S. Supreme Court for its church-state rulings. The high court said state aid could go to religious schools to purchase books, but not maps. "What about Atlases," Moynihan asked with a twinkle: "They are books of maps." U.S. taxpayer money can now go to pay for Atlases -- but over there, in Gaza, where Israel has been eradicated, and the U.S. is vilified.

All of this has been documented, again and again. Our State Department has been filing Religious Freedom reports on the Palestinian Authority for a decade. And just as long, it has been ignoring them. Secretary Clinton is ignoring them now.

The Palestinian Authority, of course, has no authority. Where the locals get to vote, they willingly choose Hamas, the terrorist outfit.

Is this the new diplomacy? Is this the new direction of U.S. foreign policy? We're supposed to cheer when our new leader bows low before the Saudi king. Of all people! The report on religious freedom in Saudi Arabia could be written on one side of a postcard: there is none. (Save the postage.)

Can anything good come from Nazareth? Or from a policy that pays the people who have turned the hometown of the Prince of Peace into a war zone?



"The e-mail Bag"

I was diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D.

Recently, I was diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D. - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.

This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing. As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mailbox earlier. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full. So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my checkbook off the table and see that there is only one check left. My extra checks are in my desk in the study so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Coke I'd been drinking. I'm going to look for my checks but first I need to push the Coke aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over.

The Coke is getting warm so I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye—they need water. I put the Coke on the counter and discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water, and suddenly spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV I'll be looking for the remote but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.

I pour some water in the flowers but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back on the table and get some towels and wipe up the spill. Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day the car isn't washed. The bills aren't paid. There is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter. The flowers don't have enough water. There is still only 1 check in my checkbook. I can't find the remote. I can't find my glasses and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all damn day, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem and I'll try to get some help for it but first I'll check my e-mail.

Do me a favor. Forward this message to everyone you know because I don't remember who the hell I've sent it to.

Don't laugh -- if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!!



On the first day, God created the dog and said:

'Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.'

The dog said: 'That's a long time to be barking How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?'

So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said:

'Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span.'

The monkey said: 'Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?'

And God agreed.