ConservativeChristianRepublican-Report - 20090611

Motivational-Inspirational-Historical-Educational-Political-Enjoyable



"My Comments"

On Friday, June 5, 2009, I lost the "Motherboard" in my computer due to an electrical burn. Due to the assistance of two individuals, I am now back on line. May I thank everyone of you for your assistance, as well as your patience! I hope you enjoy!



"Daily Motivations"

A customer is not dependent on us, we are dependent on him. A customer is not an interruption of our work, he is the purpose of it. -- Leon Leonwood ("L.L.") Bean



"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)

"Christ has really set us free." (Galatians 5:1)

Our society has tried to cleanse itself from guilt by removing the Ten Commandments from our public schools, building and courts so that no one will be reminded of breaking them. Those who sin try to rationalize all kinds of behavior by blaming it on their background, circumstances, a parent or a spouse. Furthermore, society says, "It's not your fault."

Yet psychiatrists' couches are filled up with so many guilt-ridden people. Why? Because we are all born in bondage to sin and guilt, and only God can break those bonds. Only He can break the chains of bad habits and addictions.

Nick Smith, a 17-year-old who participated in a "Right From Wrong" campaign understood this principle. By attending the meetings, he prepared himself ahead of time to make godly decisions. While he was at an out-of-town track meet, he discovered several teammates glued to a less-than-wholesome movie. He had two choices: to follow the biblical guidelines he had learned or to go along with his friends.

Not only did Nick resist the temptation, he also influenced another young man to do the same. Together, they both walked away. If you turn your temptations over to God and trust in His power, He will help you step out of that pile of chains.

Paul writes in Romans 6:22, "Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life." In Jesus we can live freely and joyfully.



"The Patriot Post"

"[J]udges, therefore, should be always men of learning and experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness, coolness, and attention. Their minds should not be distracted with jarring interests; they should not be dependent upon any man, or body of men." -- John Adams

"The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded." -- French political philosopher C. L. De Montesquieu (1689-1755)

"The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an empty head than the most superficial declamation; as a feather and a guinea fall with equal velocity in a vacuum." -- English cleric and writer Charles Colton (1780-1832)

"Why make this complicated? President Obama prefers Supreme Court justices who will violate their oath of office. And he hopes Sonia Sotomayor is the right Hispanic woman for the job." -- columnist Jonah Goldberg

"Since when did securing a Supreme Court seat become a high hurdles contest? The White House and Democrats have turned Second Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination into a personal Olympic event. Pay no attention to her jurisprudence. She grew up in a Bronx public housing project. She was diagnosed with childhood diabetes at 8. Her father died a year later. And, oh, by the way, did you hear that she was poor? It's a 'compelling personal story,' as we heard 20,956 times on Tuesday." -- columnist Michelle Malkin



"The Web"

Obama Care: Robbing From Peter to Pay Paul

By Frank S. Rosenbloom, M.D.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/obama_care_robbing_from_peter.html

President Obama is committed to fixing health care. He wants to make health care affordable for all Americans. In much the same way, Barney Frank and company wanted to make houses affordable for all Americans -- and we know how well that idea turned out. Mr. Obama has wisely offered more than $600 billion dollars as a deposit for his idea. Yes, he has frugally set aside money he does not have. He has borrowed money he can never hope to repay, perhaps printed money as well, as a deposit toward his idea, or more precisely his ideology.

Even President Obama himself admits that the debt is unsustainable. Even without further spending on remaking health care, Obamanomics will pile up almost $10 trillion in deficits over the next decade. Mr. Obama himself complained that health care costs had doubled over the preceding 8 years, rising 3.7 times faster than wages. Yet with wages decreasing by 1.8% last year, he tripled the deficit in less than 90 days in office, with a yearly rate of rise exponentially higher than that of wages.

U.S. health care costs were $2.4 trillion in 2008, or 17% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Over the next decade this is expected to rise to 20% of GDP. According to the numbers most often cited by Obama, 45 million people are without health care. Let us be clear, even if that number were correct regarding health insurance coverage, there is a difference between the number of persons without health insurance and those without health care. Emergency departments and hospitals by law must provide unreimbursed care for all comers, uninsured Americans as well as illegal aliens (in liberal speak, undocumented residents). While many people are uninsured for short periods of time, the number of chronically uninsured in reality is much lower, between 9 and 13 million. Around 17% of "uninsured" Americans lived in households with incomes above $75,000 per year and could presumably afford insurance. Additionally, 14 million of those listed as uninsured were eligible for Medicare or Medicaid, about the same number as chronically uninsured. It is worth noting that to cover only these people at Medicare rates Obama's "deposit" would last for nearly 6 years, but without the far reaching dependence on government programs he needs to further his policies. Additionally, his assertions that health care costs are a major cause of bankruptcy are an outright lie.

As a matter of ideology, Mr. Obama wants to provide government health insurance to at least 45 million more Americans, the majority of whom do not need it. However, they will surely avail themselves of it because it will undoubtedly be less expensive, initially, than other health insurance policies. So, the people in the households earning $75,000 yearly will jump on board. Since Obama care will compete directly with private insurance, many other people in this group of the "poor" uninsured will as well.

Remember that Medicare does not provide health insurance only for poor retirees, but for wealthy ones as well. Warren Buffet is eligible for Medicare. Once Obama succeeds in starting another entitlement program and in driving private health insurance out of business, he can raise taxes to any level necessary since he will have done away with the competition. Whatever happened to the government protecting us from monopolies? Oh, yes, that did not include government monopolies.

Let's look at the cost of a Medicare or Medicaid like program for 45 million Americans. For the sake of argument, let's assume that another 15 million will join Obama care. Obama has also proposed cuts in Medicare to pay for his "Medicare II". Talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul! The taxpayer cost of Medicare was $391 billion to cover 43 million people and costs are expected to grow by nearly 8% per year. With the inclusion of out of pocket expenses, the total cost of Medicare, not counting the billions it costs each year in punitive regulations and cost shifting, was around $536.4 billion.

The same program today for 60 million people would cost $715.2 billion yearly, or 30%of the health care costs for 20% of the population. At the end of eight years, the number of years during which health care doubled as noted by Obama, costs would be $1,323.4 trillion, or nearly double. True, Medicare covers older Americans, but the cost to implement his program has not been taken into account and the growth of the program will undoubtedly be faster than projected, given the history of all other government entitlement programs.

Perhaps at some point it will include providing cars to the uninsured to enable them to get to the doctors' office and perhaps free food to help keep them healthy. Oops, I forgot, we already do that, but we certainly can expand these programs. The point is that Obama's plan will do nothing to stem the rising cost of health care because government, directly or indirectly, is the cause of much of that rising cost.

President Obama now wants to raise taxes on health insurance benefits in order to pay for health insurance benefits! He truly is robbing Peter to pay Paul. We do need to reform health care coverage. However, this can be done utilizing private health insurance in a much more affordable and sustainable way, without creating increased dependence on the federal government. The health care systems of Switzerland and Holland are interesting option[TL1] s. The Swiss system covers 99% of the population for 11.6% of GDP. Health insurance is private, but the government subsidizes the cost for those who are unable to afford the premiums. Since each citizen has some financial responsibility, there is an incentive to prevent cost escalation. Best of all, the government and hence the taxpayers pay about 25% of health care costs as opposed to over 45% in the U.S. The Dutch system is similar. Insurance companies offer a mandatory basic package with optional upgrades. No health care system is perfect, but Obama Care will be catastrophic and will bankrupt the nation.

Frank S. Rosenbloom, M.D. President of Oregon Right to Life. He blogs at summacontraprobus.blogspot.com/



Got Your Permit To Study the Bible?

by Chuck Norris

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=32098

Recently a California pastor and his wife were required by San Diego County officials to obtain a permit to hold a Bible study in their home.

"What?! Is this a joke?" I wondered as I heard the news for the first time. It was no joke. Rather, it's a First Amendment nightmare and possibly a foreshadowing of what's to come.

Are you prepared for a future in which you hear, "Got your permit to study the Bible?"
On April 10 (Good Friday), a county code enforcement officer visited the home of David and Mary Jones after receiving a complaint about their Christian gatherings. The Jones' attorney, Dean Broyles, president of The Western Center for Law & Policy, conveyed in disbelief, "The county asked (Mrs. Jones), 'Do you have a regular meeting in your home?' She said, 'Yes.' 'Do you say "amen"?' 'Yes.' 'Do you pray?' 'Yes.' 'Do you say "praise the Lord"?' 'Yes.'"

The officer then warned the family to "cease and desist" the "religious gathering" or they would face weekly fines. A few days later, the county delivered a citation claiming that the Joneses were guilty of "unlawful use of land" and mandating them to "stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit."

At first, I thought, "They must have a large congregation meeting in their home to warrant this type of citation and prompt this type of commotion, right?" Actually, according to their lawyer, the Joneses have been hosting weekly Bible studies in their home for about five years, with an average attendance of only about 15 people.

Broyles appropriately responded, "If the county thinks they can shut down groups of 10 or 15 Christians meeting in a home, what about people who meet regularly at home for poker night? What about people who meet for Tupperware parties? What about people who are meeting to watch baseball games on a regular basis and support the Chargers?"

Well, this past weekend, barraged by hundreds of complaints after WorldNetDaily broke the news to the international community, San Diego County officials informed the world that they'd backed down from requiring the Joneses to obtain a permit. Despite their retraction (based solely upon public pressure, I might add), however, I am appalled at how far the county's enforcement and encroachment crossed the constitutional line and became a flagrant disregard for Americans' right to exercise their religious faiths. And I'm concerned that we will see far more of these overreaching governmental actions in years to come.

As Mary Jones shared with Fox News: "The implications are great because it's not only us that's involved. There are thousands and thousands of Bible studies that are held all across the country. What we're interested in is setting a precedent here -- before it goes any further -- and that we have it settled for the future."

I'm not expecting county officials to be constitutional lawyers, but they should be aware of these basic precepts of America's makeup. For example, prior to the San Diego officials' recanting their position regarding the Joneses' Bible study, Chandra Waller, the general manager of the county's Land Use and Environment Group, declared, "The Bible studies are one that's probably in a very gray area."

"Very gray area"? Is there anything "very gray" about the First Amendment?

I agree again with Broyles, who explained further to Fox News: "The government may not prohibit the free exercise of religion. I believe that our Founding Fathers would roll over in their grave if they saw that here in the year 2009, a pastor and his wife are being told that they cannot hold a simple Bible study in their own home."

Part of the genius of America's Founding Fathers was to provide and secure a foundation for our freedom of religious belief. The First Amendment simply reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Could it be any clearer that government may not prohibit "the free exercise thereof"?

Now more than ever, we need to be like the Joneses! Fight for the First Amendment and your freedom to exercise your religion.



The National Republican Senatorial Committee's Dishonest Endorsement

Written by CHQ Staff

If there ever was a paradigm for the GOP's post-Bush administration identity problem, the Florida Republican primary for Senate is it. In the primary race to fill the seat being vacated by Republican Mel Martinez, moderate/liberal Republican Governor Charlie Crist is running against young, politically successful Hispanic conservative Marco Rubio.

However, to the chagrin of conservatives across America, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC)—a national committee that helps elect Republicans to the Senate—endorsed Crist.

NRSC Chairman Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) has a lot of explaining to do.

For an organization that supposedly champions curbing spending, lowering taxes and controlling debt, the endorsement of Crist, who among many controversial moves hailed President Barack Obama's disastrous stimulus plan, is hypocritical and dishonest. Rather than staying out of the race as it traditionally does in races without a Republican incumbent, the NRSC is taking money from conservative donors to fund a moderate/liberal candidate running against a conservative.

Rubio's record as Florida Speaker of the House is one of a conservative working to limit the size and influence of government. Conversely, Crist's time as governor is marred by what Club for Growth spokesman Andy Roth calls a "liberal record on fiscal issues," which is so bad the Club for Growth believes Crist "could easily become the new Specter."

But, the NRSC missed this bit of irony when endorsing Crist. In fact, if you've visited the NRSC homepage recently, you're immediately presented with a solicitation to "Support the NRSC and Stand Up Against Former Republican Arlen Specter."

Why would conservatives want to help an organization take down one moderate/liberal while it seeks to replace him with another? I doubt many conservatives expected their donations to be used to defeat a fellow conservative, yet that is exactly what is occurring.

Instead of taking a step towards rebuilding the shattered image of the GOP from years of unprincipled leadership, Cornyn's NRSC—with conservatives' donor contributions—is helping a moderate/liberal defeat a proven conservative and an exciting candidate.

As conservatives, we have nothing to loose and everything to gain by working to change the Republican leaders and replacing them with principled conservatives. And we can do this by withholding financial support from all national GOP committees, and withholding financial support from most state committees.



ACORN Counters Voter Fraud Charges

By: Dave Eberhart

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/acorn_voter_fraud_case/2009/06/03/221060.html?s=al&promo_code=80E9-1

ACORN officials are denying that they ever used quotas and are telling authorities that they pointed out the fraudulent names and addresses on voter registration cards that resulted in criminal charges being mounted against former employees, according to a report in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Taking the offensive with a new PR blitz as criminal court hearings loom for its employees facing charges, ACORN argued that any evidence of voter registration fraud was pro-actively uncovered by the organization’s own crack internal quality control system, according to the Pittsburg Tribune-Review.

Ian Phillips, state coordinator for ACORN, told reporters that the organization turned over 216 suspect voter registration cards to county officials last year. That key evidence resulted in seven canvassers being charged with violating election laws in Pittsburgh.

“We fully cooperated. We basically sent them 216 'kick me' cards,” Phillips said in an interview with the Tribune Review.

Five of the former ACORN employees confronted preliminary hearings on charges including forgery and illegally working under a quota system, District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. said. He added that evidence apparently shows that workers had to collect 20 registrations a day to get paid during ACORN’s massive get-out-the-vote effort last year.

Zappala announced last month that he was convinced there was a quota system in place, a violation of state law. “We’re comfortable from the evidence that we can show there was a quota system,” he said.

But Phillips rejoined that ACORN was the victim of employees who simply wanted to get paid for work they didn’t do. He added that all employees had undergone training and were advised that they would be prosecuted if involved in any fraudulent activity.

He also said that ACORN had in place no quota system where employees were required to turn in 20 or more voter registration cards each day.



Irreversible Moral Decline?

by Michael Medved
Issue 133

http://www.acuf.org/issues/issue133/090605cul.asp

Those who insist on the definitive moral collapse of the United States as an article of faith need to consider a shocking report in the New York Times in November 2007: “New York City is on track to have fewer than 500 homicides this year, by far the lowest number in a 12-month period since reliable Police Department statistics became available in 1963.” The trend did hold up: throughout 2007 a total of 494 murders were committed in New York City.

The stunning enhancement of public safety in America’s largest city represents a stinging rebuke to those who persist in viewing the nation as a victim of ongoing moral breakdown and spreading anarchy. The change could hardly be more dramatic: New York recorded its greatest number of killings in a single year in 1990, with 2,245. Seventeen years later, the city’s murder rate had fallen by more than three-fourths.

Other major cities may boast less spectacular progress than New York, but they all show less violent and property crimes from their peaks some twenty years ago. The criminal ethos regularly associated with social chaos and moral disorder has retreated across the country, and other indicators show a nation struggling to improve its spiritual cultural health.

As Peter Wehner and Yuval Levin report in Commentary:

Teenage drug use, which moved relentlessly upward throughout the 1990s, declined thereafter by an impressive 23 percent, and for a number of specific drugs it has fallen still lower. Thus, the use of Ecstasy and LSD has dropped by over 50 percent, of methamphetamine by almost as much, and of steroids by over 20 percent. . . Teen use of alcohol has also fallen sharply since 1996—anywhere from 10 to 35 percent, depending on the grade in school—and binge drinking has dropped to the lowest levels ever recorded.

In July 2007, the National Center for Health Statistics released more encouraging numbers involving the next generation of Americans. Despite lurid publicity about a new “hookup culture” of casual sex among young people, the actual incidence of intercourse has markedly declined. The center’s study revealed that in 1991, 54 percent of high school students reported having sexual intercourse, but by 2005, that number had dropped to 47 percent.

The Guttmacher Institute, affiliated with Planned Parenthood, acknowledges that abortion rate rates peaked in 1981, just as our most outspokenly pro-life president, Ronald Reagan, entered the White House. In that year, doctors performed 29.3 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44. Twenty years later, after tireless efforts by pro-life activists and educators, that number had dropped steadily, year by year, all the way to 21.1, a reduction of nearly 30 percent.

In April 2008 the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report showing that between 1990 and 2004, the estimated abortion rate declined by a full 24 percent. In no single year did the rate even inch upward. Among the most vulnerable teenage mothers between the ages of fifteen and seventeen, the abortion rate fell a staggering 55 percent.

Common assumptions about the breakdown of marriage bear little connection to current realities. Professors Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers of the University of Pennsylvania write in the New York Times: “The great myth about divorce is that marital breakup is an increasing threat to American families, with each generation finding their marriage less stable than those of their parents. . . . In fact, the divorce rate had been falling continually over the past quarter century, and is now at its lowest level since 1970.”

In their helpful book, The First Measured Century, scholars from the American Enterprise Institute point out that “the most authoritative study of American sexual practices,” the 1992 National Health and Social Life Survey, reveals “an unmistakable decline in extramarital sexual activity during the latter part of the century, especially among married men.”

The claim that the nation faces irreversible moral decline can’t survive the incontrovertible evidence that some of the decay of previous decades has already been reversed. The effort to “remoralize” America after the disruptions of the 1960s has met with some success, and its future will depend to a great extent on the continued vitality of traditional religious faith.

Reprinted from Salvo Magazine, Spring 2009 (www.salvomag.com), which was adapted and abridged from The 10 Big Lies About America by Michael Medved, Crown Forum, 2008, p. 243ff., with permission.



"The e-mail Bag"

Southern Women

Southern women appreciate their natural assets:

Clean skin.
A winning smile.
That unforgettable Southern drawl.

Southern women know their manners:

"Yes, ma'am..."
"Yes, sir."
"Why, no, Billy!"

Southern women have a distinct way with fond expressions :

"Y'all come back!"
"Well, bless your heart."
"Drop by when you can."
"How's your Momma?"

Southern women know their summer weather report:

Humidity
Humidity
Humidity

Southern women know their vacation spots:

The beach
The rivuh
The crick

Southern women know the joys of June, July, and August:

Colorful hi-heel sandals
Strapless sun dresses
Iced sweet tea with mint

Southern women know everybody's first name:

Honey
Darlin'
Shugah

Southern women know the movies that speak to their hearts:

Fried Green Tomatoes
Driving Miss Daisy
Steel Magnolias
Gone With The Wind

Southern women know their religions:

Baptist
Methodist
Football

Southern women know their country breakfasts:

Red-eye gravy
Grits
Eggs
Country ham
Mouth-watering homemade biscuits with momma's homemade jelly

Southern women know their cities dripping with Southern charm:

Chawl'stn Sharlut
S'vanah N'awlins
Addlanna Foat Wuth

Southern women know their elegant gentlemen:

Men in uniform
Men in tuxedos
Rhett Butler

Southern girls know their prime real estate:

The Mall
The Country Club
The Beauty Salon

Southern girls know the 3 deadly sins:

Having bad hair and nails
Having bad manners
Cooking bad food

More Suthen-ism's:

Only a Southerner knows the difference between a "hissie fit" and a "conniption fit", and that you don't "HAVE" them, you "PITCH" them.

Only a Southerner knows how many fish, collard greens, turnip greens, peas, beans, etc., make up "a mess".

Only a Southerner can show or point out to you the general direction of "yonder".

Only a Southerner knows exactly how long "directly" is, as in: "Going to town, be back directly."

Even Southern babies know that "Gimme some sugar" is not a request for the white, granular sweet substance that sits in a pretty little bowl in the middle of the table.

All Southerners know exactly when "by and by" is. They might not use the term, but they know the concept well...

Only a Southerner knows instinctively that the best gesture of solace for a neighbor who's got trouble is a plate of hot fried chicken and a big bowl of cold potato salad. If the neighbor's trouble is a real crisis, they also know to add a large banana puddin!

Only Southerners grow up knowing the difference between "right near" and "a right far piece.." They also know that "just down the road" can be 1 mile or 20.

Only a Southerner, both knows and understands, the difference between a "redneck", a "good ol' boy", and "po' white trash".

No true Southerner would ever assume that the car with the flashing turn signal is actually going to make a turn.

A Southerner knows that "fixin" can be used as a noun, a verb, or an adverb.

Only Southerners make friends while standing in lines, .... and when we're "in line,"... we talk to everybody!

Put 100 Southerners in a room and half of them will discover they're related, even if only by marriage.

In the South, "y'all" is singular, "all y'all" is plural.

Southerners know grits come from corn and how to eat them.

Every Southerner knows tomatoes with eggs, bacon, grits, and coffee are perfectly wonderful; that red eye gravy is a breakfast food; and that fried green tomatoes are not a breakfast food.

When you hear someone say, "Well, I caught myself lookin'" , you know you are in the presence of a genuine Southerner!

Only true Southerners say "sweet tea" and "sweet milk"..." Sweet tea" indicates the need for sugar and lots of it -- we do not like our tea unsweetened. "Sweet milk" means you don't want buttermilk.

And a true Southerner knows you don't scream obscenities at little old ladies who drive 30 MPH on the freeway. You just say,"Bless her heart" ... and go your own way.

To those of you who are still a little embarrassed by your Southerness: Take two tent revivals and a dose of sausage gravy and call me in the morning. Bless your heart!

And to those of you who are still having a hard time understanding all this Southern stuff, ... well bless your hearts, I hear they are fixin' to have classes on Southernness as a second language!

And for those who are not from the South but have lived here for a long time, all y'all need a sign to hang on y'alls front porch that reads "I ain't from the South, but I got here as fast as I could."

Southern girls know men may come and go, but friends are fahevah !

Now...... Shugah, send this to someone who was raised in the South or wish they had been! If you're a Northern transplant, bless your little pea picken heart, fake it. We know you got here as fast as you could.

da

Stan Craddock
stanc1942@verizon.net