Easter Sunday in the Soviet Union and in the United States

by Janet Lynn  Fifty Easters ago, I was in the USSR, a godless state. Sightseeing tours included Christian churches turned into museums. The tour guide adamantly proclaimed in the "museum" that Christianity is a "myth."  On that Easter weekend, 1970, a VIP tour of Lenin's tomb was arranged for the foreign athletes visiting to give figure skating exhibitions. At age 16, already a Christian by choice, I stood in Lenin's stone tomb in Red Square staring at the Bolshevik revolutionary's preserved body. He had been dead for decades. Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead and conquered sin and death on Easter, which was illegal to celebrate in the atheist USSR. That State was god. As history records, the socialist enactment is a cult of death. Eyewitnesses are historically recorded observing the tomb of Jesus  empty on Easter Sunday. Jesus is alive! He is Risen! Lenin is still in his tomb, deader than a door nail. The tour bus passed through the squares where the Bolshevik Revolution was fought. On either Good Friday or Easter Sunday the tour guide in the godless USSR explained that "the blood that was shed during the Bolshevik Revolution was shed to save mankind." My blood shivered and my mind quaked at her proclamation. I knew that only the Blood of Jesus Christ, the Perfect Son of God, was sacrificed and shed to save mankind. A propagandist for the USSR and its atheist system of socialism-communism captured my attention on the almost empty plane ride back to New York from Moscow. He smoothly explained that socialism-communism was the perfect system for mankind.  His propaganda swirled in my head as shiny illusions. I wanted to believe everything the nice man said. What a perfect way to live. The State provides and controls everything, and everyone will have everything they need, and everyone will be equal. He was certain that socialism-communism would one day rule the entire world, and the United States.  By the time the plane reached New York after this most profound Easter weekend, I knew the man on the plane was wrong! I had been to his nation. I had observed the poverty, the bread lines, the lack of products in common stores, the intense control of its people, the bottomless void when God is declared illegal----the severe oppression was felt physically. The faces of all the people were hardened with deep sadness---the real face of socialism-communism. I wanted to kiss the ground of the United States when I saw the American flag outside the plane window before landing in New York. I was free. The man who propagandized me was not. He did not understand liberty or its power under the principles and reverence of the Judeo-Christian God.  I was an individual created by God. The atheist Soviet Socialists were forced to live in the State collective--the herd.  I knew that churches in the United States would always remain open. Judeo-Christian God, worshiping God, and celebrating Easter would never be declared illegal. The U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly.  Half a century later, in America, my beloved land of liberty, this Easter weekend 2020 almost all churches have been ordered closed. Pastors have been threatened with arrest or permanent closure of their churches if they do not obey the State and its influential doctors. These doctors may mean well and are working from appropriate concern, but they have succeeded in acting like man-gods who can conquer all death and are terrorizing citizens. They have powerfully influenced policy to shut down an entire nation, its businesses (except the State chosen ones), schools, its churches and synagogues. The imposition of social distancing should be called inhumane social isolation.  Americans have a choice to make on Easter Sunday and in the days, weeks and months to come.  Will Americans continue to give up their liberties? Will we become a Democrat Socialist collective herd, or will we remain individuals who promote and preserve life but do not fear death under a system of liberty?  Lenin's body remains enshrined and on display in his stone cold tomb in Red Square, Moscow. Lenin is still deader than a door nail. The Marxist ideology that he spawned into being is alive with a foot in the door of America.  Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. He is alive! Will the Christian ideas that spawned liberty and the value of the individual die this Easter, 2020, and end up in a museum as only a myth? Judeo-Christian principles are enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, declared a MIRACLE by various American Founders.  One Founder of the United States declared, "Miracles do not cluster."   It is for freedom that Christ set us free! Janet Lynn is a Five-time U.S. Figure Skating Champion (1969-1973), Olympic Bronze medalist 1972 and World Silver medalist 1973. She is in the U.S. and World Figure Skating Halls of Fame and is proud to be a Homemaker. This article appeared originally in the Eagle Forum Alabama.

Notre Dame vs. European Secularism

Photo: Ileana, Christmas 2002

Notre-Dame spire

For centuries the European faithful have sacrificed to build exquisite monuments to their faith that subsequent generations would cherish as much as they did. It is a legacy that unfortunately secular Europe has been busy extinguishing for decades. The transformation has been visible to any visitor who cared to observe the change.

Secular Europeans today value venerable old churches as cash cows, to the extent that they provide millions of visitors annually who spend a lot of tourist money to marvel at and admire their remarkable history, art and architecture, and often climb (for a fee) to the rooftop for a breathtaking view of the surrounding city.  

According to the CIA World Factbook, the population of France in 2014 was approximately 66.3 million. France is mainly Catholic Christian, with 63-66% Christians, 23-28% secular people, and 7-9% Muslims. Some areas of Paris like St. Dennis are 40% populated by African Muslims.

There are pockets left of the fervent faithful who are still attending church on a regular basis while the rest may attend Easter services, Christmas, weddings, baptisms, and burials.

While strolling in during service, I often noticed with regret the small crowd of worshippers and their advanced age. The young Europeans seemed to be missing among the parishioners. They were found outside, enjoying their secular existence devoid of God.

Following an alleged accidental fire, the beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral’s spire has burned completely to ashes. The stone base, the altar crucifix, the interior statuary and artwork, and some of the famous rose stained-glass windows fortunately remained intact.

President Macron and the secular French immediately proclaimed that the spire will be rebuilt better and grander, from modern materials and with a design that would be even more beautiful - a multi-faith monument that reflects France of today. Who will get to decide what alterations improve on the original? The atheists and the non-Christians?

Almost one billion dollars has been donated so far for the rebuilding project that was estimated unrealistically by the former banker now President Macron to be five years. Those of us who appreciate old churches as a place of worship, the soul of western civilization and of its Christian people, know that beautiful, masterful, and enduring construction takes a lifetime to achieve. I am not sure that the master craftsmen and stonemasons of yesteryear still exist today.

Notre Dame cathedral itself did not collapse because medieval builders knew that rib vaulting and flying buttresses were the best ways to support the massive structure to withstand the passage of time. They built for endurance, almost nine centuries of existence.

John Harwood, an architectural historian from Toronto, said, “Any rebuilding should be a reflection not of an old France, or the France that never was – a non-secular, white European France – but a reflection of the France of today, a France that is currently in the making.” He sees Notre Dame as a “reflection of the modern zeitgeist;” cathedrals are “political monuments.”

Rev. Ben Johnson disagrees vehemently – “Christians built cathedrals as earthly embassies of the kingdom of Heaven, … created as an expression of faith. Their beauty and wonder provide a foretaste of the splendor and order of eternity.” He argues that, if Notre Dame reflected who the French are today, it would be a parking lot or a concrete government building because atheism “erects no cathedrals.” What are the European values, one wonders, suicidal tolerance and failed multiculturalism?  https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/notre-dame-may-be-rebuilt-secular-monument

Architecture, art, sculpture, poetry, and literature were inspired by Christian faith and created by the West. Notre Dame was and is the symbol of Christian faith and of our collective western civilization, not just of Catholicism. Rev. Johnson argues that “The belfries of all Christendom echo its message of hope, redemption, and peace. Only those ablaze with the fiery flame of divine love can rebuild Notre Dame, or Europe, from the debris.”

The cathedral reconstruction should never be about “what modern French people want” even though it is in the center of Paris. Notre Dame, like all other cathedrals in Europe, is a monument to Christianity and part of the history of Western Civilization and must be restored as it was.

Church and State

Orthodox Church built after the fall of communism
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015

People in general do not seem to agree on much these days, split between their own confused ideas and the latest narrative promoted by the deceitful main stream media, beholden to the globalist ideology of Democrat Socialism and Cultural Marxism.

Often the thought processes of the voting masses are incoherent because their knowledge, the reality, and their basic instincts of survival and safety are perverted by the globalist agenda but they are too ignorant to realize that what they espouse is quite contradictory. So they vote into Congress frightening Millennials like Alexandria Occasio-Cortez, who will now have the power to fundamentally alter our collective future in the distorted image of her disordered and ill-informed mind.

It’s not just the political representatives who are working against the wishes of the people. The Christian clergy of all stripes are organizing on behalf of foreign invaders looking for welfare and against the best interests of the American people.  

Educators and academics are happy to shape the minds of young people in their own globalist Marxist vision. They’ve been indoctrinating us for decades that we cannot mix Church and State, we must tear down any symbol of Christianity that might offend others, while bending over backwards through threats and the courts to accommodate a few offended atheists, many offended Muslims, and other refugee “stock” as the U.N. defines them, mushrooming all over the world with help from the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR). https://www.unhcr.org/

Citizens in European countries are ahead of the curve in this indoctrination into Cultural Marxism, a world-wide phenomenon driven by controlling globalists with large pockets, aiming to erase borders and to destroy every country’s sovereignty. Ordinary people with good intentions are voting for their own demise, for the Socialist Democrats, who are short on knowledge and long on propaganda, corruption, and deceit.

Romanians fight bitterly over investment in the construction of Orthodox churches. They want instead to improve the declining education of their children, to build hospitals and roads which they were denied under Ceausescu’s bleak communist regime. Decades of communist indoctrination and terrible medical care has confused their priorities. The soul of a person or a nation cannot be healed through Marxist ideology and globalist education. Faith and church are needed.

Eastern Europeans admire the wonderful education system in Western European countries as a model of “global citizenship.” But they fail to see how morality has decayed there and how they’re losing their national identities, histories, and their borders to the demands of Angela Merkel’s EU.

European Union “globalist policies” (diversity, multi-culturalism, manufactured global warming, aggressive anti-fossil fuels environmentalism, border destruction, the right to unimpeded migrant movement across national borders) have destroyed smaller countries with “progressivism” that has instead regressed western civilization and allowed invaders from third world nations to take over. “While Europe slept,” Europeans lost their national independence and control over their respective nations’ monetary policies.

Romanians bemoan the fact that too many Orthodox Churches are being built, that the cost of one church could help build five badly needed kilometers of interstate.

The church was instrumental in founding universities across Europe and in the printing of books and educational materials.  The oldest universities in Europe were run and staffed by priests. And where would we be today if beautiful cathedrals were not built over the centuries by very poor and rich parishioners alike who donated to the construction funds?

Perhaps Romanians should be outraged not by the expenditures to build churches but by the 3,000 euros spent each month for every corrupt politician in Parliament, a financial waste that dwarfs any spending for the building of a church that would preserve the soul and character of the nation for generations to come.

People need both cathedrals and hospitals to care for their souls and their bodies. Churches must not be just museums for tourists, or places for baptisms, weddings, and last rites.

Additionally, the building of a school or of a library does not guarantee a proper education or the storing of real knowledge and ideas - both can be just places of indoctrination.

Why are we visiting in awe the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican, all gold-leafed and marbled with sarcophagi, religious statues, paintings, colonnades, murals, mosaics, and objects d’art, reaching sky-high to Heaven? Poor people suffered for the glory of God, the Church, and the Pope. Good or bad, it is our collective history, our collective civilization which has evolved over the centuries of human existence.

Atheists complain about megalomaniacal priests and too many churches, but who is to say what is too much? Priests have always been vectors of faith, education, and of the political class in order to steer society’s mind and soul in the desired direction. A few higher ranked priests like the current Pope have used their faith podium to dabble in the “scientific consensus” of climate change and social engineering.

Others argue that people can pray anywhere, they don’t need a golden church to do so, and money is much better spent on education. What kind of education would that be? Common Core Standards? Building a fancy library does not guarantee that people will suddenly start reading.  And what would they read and study?  “Progressive” propaganda?  Will they read the classics? Will they learn about documented and archived history or revisionist history? Will they learn civics? Will they learn national pride and to appreciate God and country?

Many former Iron Countries citizens have left their homes and are building the library of the future in other countries, influencing the spread of Cultural Marxism they call Socialist Democracy, a sad perversion of reality which naïve humans believe blindly.

Church and State have been intrinsically connected throughout history and separating them is destroying the essence of who we are. We cannot separate the influence of the church from the foundation of the state no matter how many times atheists and their corrupt lawyers sue.

 

Christmas, the Season of Faith, Family, and Charity

Caroling in Romania, 1841 Photo: Wikipedia

Christmas was my Dad bringing home proudly a scraggly fir with sparse branches - fragrant with the smell of winter, tiny icicles hanging from the branches, miniature crystal daggers, melting on my mom’s well-scrubbed parquet floor. I never knew nor asked how he could afford it from his $70 a month salary that barely covered the communist subsidized rent, utilities, and food. No matter how bare the branches of my Christmas tree were, it was magical to me.

We decorated it together with home-made paper baskets filled with hard candy, raisins, and small butter cookies, crepe paper garlands, small pretzels, an orange wrapped in fine tissue paper coming all the way from Israel, a few apples dangling from a string, and 12 red and green 3-inch candles clipped carefully away from overhanging branches that could catch on fire.

Mom’s hand-stitched table cloth made a convenient tree skirt. Two metal bars forged by hand helped Dad nail the tree to the floor at the foot of the couch where I slept in the living room that doubled as my bedroom.

I fell asleep and woke up every morning setting my eyes on the scented tree. It lasted two enchanted weeks before the dried needles fell all over the floor.

Christmas was lighting one of the 12 candles for a few minutes every night, careful not to set the tree on fire, basking in the soft glow while Daddy’s twinkly eyes were beaming with pride that he made his family happy once more. We were rich with love and God’s blessings.

Christmas was standing in shorter lines for freshly baked bread, butter, milk, cooking oil, flour, sugar, and the small pork roast mom always baked in the gas oven. Grandpa’s homemade smoked sausages with pretzels toasted on the stove top were always on the menu. Grandpa used to joke that life was so spectacularly good, even the dogs ran around with pretzels on their tails. Pretzels were sold by big bags, hard and stale, but toasting them on the stove made them taste just baked.

Christmas was Daddy opening the ceremonial bottle of red wine freshly brewed that year by cousin Mircea from Grandma Elizabeta’s vineyard grapes.

Christmas were the village carolers in hand-sewn folk costumes coming door to door, trudging through 3 ft. of snow, pulling a plough decorated with a real fir tree, singing traditional songs and snapping their whips in spite of the Communist Party moratorium, forbidding the observance of such religious traditions.

Christmas was sneaking at midnight to the village Orthodox Church with aunt Leana, the singing deacon, lighting candles and praying, surrounding the building when the crowd overflowed its tiny confines into the yard and the cemetery. The cold chilled us to the bone but the inside eventually warmed from our bodies, the candles, and the excitement of prayers and closeness to God.

Christmas was eating with my Mom and Dad, feeling full, happy, and loved in our tiny apartment, sometimes sharing meals with family members who had traveled far to be with us. The spare wool comforter aunt Nicuta had woven, a blanket, and set of sheets painstakingly hand washed would make cozy beds on the floor for the tired traveler – no fire place to light up, just the coils of steam heat which the government generously made sufficiently hot during Christmas to make up for the cold misery during the winter.

Christmas was peering in the shop windows at the glass ornaments we could not afford but I wished I had. They were made in Poland, whimsical fairy tale characters, no religious symbols of any kind, they were “verboten.”

Every Christmas I longed to have the same doll in the window at Omnia department store, dressed with miniature detailed  clothes, real curly hair, blue eyes, and eyelashes. I never asked my Dad because Mom said it cost three months of his salary. I still had my raggedy cloth doll aunt Stella, the village seamstress, had made for me when I was two years old. When my first child was born, Dad mailed her a large doll similar to the one I had longed for. The doll was so big, it stayed in a corner untouched. My spoiled children had too many other toys to play with and never appreciated the sacrifice their Granddad had made in sending such a gift of love.

On Saint Nicholas Day, December 6, I would put my boots outside the door, hoping that they would be filled with candy in the morning and not coals. Grandpa had a wicked sense of humor – he would sometimes fill one boot with switches and another with candy and a chocolate bar. Chocolate was always in short supply and hard to find.

Grandpa never bought a blue spruce - we cut a fir tree from the woods. We were careful not to cut down a tree that had bird nests in it. We decorated it with garlands made from shiny and multi-colored construction paper. We cut strips, glued them in an interlocking pattern and voila, we had our garland. For ornaments we used walnuts and shriveled apples from his cellar, tied with Grandma’s red knitting wool.

The warm adobe style fireplace built from mud bricks mixed with straw cast a dancing glow on the tree decked with  tokens of food, something our heathen Roman ancestors did during the celebration of Saturnalia. On December 17, the polytheistic Romans celebrated Saturnus, the god of seed and sowing, for an entire week. As Christians, we celebrated the birth of Christ and the religious traditions in our Orthodox faith, in spite of the communist regime forcing the transformation of Christmas into a secular holiday.

On Christmas Eve, after we ate Grandma’s traditional Christmas supper, roasted pork, sarmale (stuffed cabbage rolls with ground meat and rice), and mamaliga (corn mush with butter cooked in a cast iron pot), we went to the midnight service at the Orthodox Church not far from her house. Sometimes it was a sloshy trek and other times it was icy and slippery. If we got lucky, a heavy snow would turn our walk into a winter wonderland with dancing snowflakes shining in the weak street lights. We had to bundle up well – the church was not heated and we circled it three times during the procession with burning candles in our hands. I always wore my flannel pajamas under many layers of warm clothes. To this day, pajamas are my favorite garment – cozy and comfortable, keeping my body warm.

When my children were born, Christmas became a tradition of toys and happiness seen through squeals of innocence and twinkly eyes when unwrapping a favorite game, book, toy, stuffed animal, or bike. I taught my children to be charitable and to share with other children who were less fortunate than we.

I decorate my Douglas fir with beautiful lights and shiny ornaments now. My heart fills with loving and longing memories of glowing Christmases past and of family members lost who made our Christian traditions so special.

I hope and pray that American Christmas traditions will be passed on to future generations to light up the season of faith, family, and charity.

 

"The Extras on Life's Stage"

As I sit at lunch across from young people in their early thirties, discussing the reasons why Americans have lost patriotism and respect for their own country, I am reminded of Dr. Savage’s monologue describing the average American in New York City who goes about his daily business as “extras on life’s stage,” not unlike the average Roman who only cared about, according to a quote from Cato the Elder, “the pebble in his shoe.”

The young thirty-somethings’ opinions were rather interesting and I have paraphrased or directly quoted their statements as closely as possible to their original thoughts.

We have reached the tipping point where there are more America-hating voters who have been brain-washed by the school system for the last five decades than there are patriotic Americans.

Politics are so corrupt that nobody has any faith left in the rigged political system and its viability as separation of powers governance.

People realized that they are being slowly outnumbered and colonized by illegal aliens, who are flooding the country, brought in by our own government to vote Democrat in perpetuity.

We are losing our Christian faith in this country while experiencing a soft communist revolution and it seems futile to fight when people are going about their daily activities, watching sports, and the bread and circuses of “reality TV.”

Americans have full bellies and there are no shortages of food and basic staples; they are not experiencing despair and hunger like people in Venezuela or North Korea.

“We are now under total surveillance and police control and the military has been reduced to a dangerous point by those in power in Washington.”

The country is run by liberals in the classroom, in universities, in the publishing empires, in Congress, Hollywood, movies, television, press, the main stream media, that is who educates Americans into mediocrity, compliance and acceptance of progressivism, stifling of free speech through political correctness.

Have the media and Hollywood perverted reality to such an extent that the pop culture voters believe everything? Can we really have a country without borders? If we give away our sovereignty we no longer have a country, we are becoming a U.N. dependent pawn.

We are giving away our manufacturing sector through the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP); we will be left with a service economy. In that case, the best of America will be behind us. We are no longer a force to be reckoned with; we are now a force for good, at the beck and call of the U.N.

America has been fundamentally transformed into a soft tyranny. The border control laws are not being enforced, much less other laws in the country. A nation without laws and borders is not a nation. It invites all terrorists and illiterates, the “flotsam and jetsam of the world.”

We are run by crony capitalists and a handful of oligarchs who control Congress and issue legislation to benefit their cronies to the detriment of the American people.

We have created a permanent underclass of welfare recipients who no longer want to produce, to contribute to society, they just vote or protest as rent-a-mobs for a living. They drain resources while staying home and watching reality television all day and drinking beer or smoking pot.

The economy has shrunk to such a degree due to the EPA and other government-run organizations regulations that destroyed jobs. Other jobs were outsourced overseas. The green movement failed to create the promised jobs. Entry level jobs are scarce due to Obamacare costs and demands for a living minimum wage. Americans must now compete with illegal aliens for entry-level jobs and professional IT jobs. So people are sitting idle at home, or hiring themselves as rent-a-mobs for various progressive causes that aim to create civil and racial unrest.  

Millennials see these socialist romanticized countries in Europe as functioning well; they don’t know the level of debt, welfare, and unemployment; they want America to be the same.

Millennials regurgitate “news” from Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart, two comedians, while belittling and calling Donald Trump names, a successful billionaire businessman. Wild Bill said in a recent video that “Donald Trump is America’s middle finger” to corrupt establishment politicians.

Liberal academia brainwashes Millennials that America is shamefully ethnocentric, scared of the outside world, and demonize anyone who is patriotic. They tell us that we must fundamentally change and people clap and are robotically compliant. The social media, the MSM, Hollywood, and professors tell us that we must change and Millennials don’t ask if the change is good for them or the country. We are told we are backwards, still clinging to our guns, Bibles, and the Founding Fathers, but the same liberals support Islam that still functions by 7^th century theocratic rules. Hypocritical feminists say, let’s let women wear burkas because it’s their choice. We are supposed to be the savior of the world but labeled “ethnocentric” selfish people who don’t understand the rest of the world.

Why is it America’s responsibility to fix the bad economies in the tin pot dictatorships all these illegal aliens fled from? Why are we supposed to take care of them financially while they stay home and keep having “anchor babies” who immediately become Americans, claiming the extended very large families as permanent residents? Why is the American taxpayers’ responsibility to support with welfare each of the four wives of a “Muslim refugee” from Somalia in Michigan?

Liberals counter with such feigned passion that we are “lucky” to have been born in this country and who are we to deny the economic poor of the world to come here? But it was not luck; it was hard work and rejecting dictators. If other nations from whence these illegals come would fix their countries and replace tyranny with relative freedom, they could make a success in their countries. Instead, they come here to reap the fruits of our hard labor while they hate our country and make no efforts to assimilate, to make America better, adapt to our laws, or become part of its fabric.

There is an insane, senseless leftist adulation of primitive cultures that are supposed to be better than us and wonderful, yet entire tribes in Africa are being raped, enslaved, tortured, killed, wiped out off the face of the earth by the religionists of peace and the MSM is generally silent about it because it does not fit their narrative of “primitive cultures are superior to ours.” “Westboro Baptist, as bad as they are, does not behead people.”

People are ignorant as to what change means. We’ve been cultured since childhood that stagnancy is bad, you get nowhere in life without change. Same with the economy but it does not work the same way.

Certain wheels that have been set in motion by our Founding Fathers still work just fine today as long as the law applies equally to everyone.

We are demonizing police officers. Soon nobody is going to want to go to police academy. We’ll have that national police force, springing all the criminals out of jail as recruits.

We have a mob mentality and go after people’s jobs.  Why give so much power to mob rule? Pressuring a person into a corner without any facts is irrational. Arguments are not based on logic; they are based on ad hominem attacks and accusations of racism and bigotry, devoid of logic.

“Millennials are driving the problem, they are dumb, they are entitled, they are going to college to get a classics degree in Latin or in Social justice, or Study of…, and they are the ones on television. They are privileged and whiny, the squeakiest wheels. They do not understand the ramifications of what they are fighting for. They don’t get the power and money it takes to implement what the president proposes.”

“Taking money away from the military, why would you do that, why would you weaken our national defense? The borders need to be secured now more than ever. Every incident in America happened when we had a weak military. Look what happened after the drawdown in Iraq. If you leave a vacuum behind, someone is going to step in to fill it.”

Hollywood is now sponsoring ads that say, making a deal with Iran, giving them the power to make a nuclear bomb, is going to make us safe. On what planet and with what logic does that happen when Iran threatens constantly to wipe Israel off the map and the “Great Satan” U.S.? They’ve been chanting “death to America” in the streets for decades now. Nobody knows what is in this deal but Hollywood knows it’s good. Secretary Kerry testified that he has not read the agreement personally, he has been briefed.

We are worried about someone’s sex change operation and women want equal entry in the military even when they cannot perform physically on the same difficulty level as men; standards then must be lowered. Political correctness stifles our freedom of speech and divergent opinions are immediately labeled into silence. That is how progressives vilify and marginalize people, putting them in a corner on the defensive; the rationale of the discussion is lost.

We worry about NSA spying on all citizens but we voluntarily give up information on social sites, releasing every personal demographic and activity, giving them permission to track you every moment of the day.

“We are going to have a hippie, pot smoking, trust everybody until they screw you over generation.” Is progressivism good, or is it communism? This is not our problem, it is happening somewhere else. It is not the “pebble in my shoe.” Millennials have no memory of bad things happening. They were five years old when 9-11 happened. “

“Young people are so ignorant, technology has dumbed them down, they can’t think for themselves, they can’t function; they are tethered to a device. They are told by people like Michael Moore that government did it, or Bush did it, we bombed our own country. One chick said it was the Jews. Never mind that a large percentage of the people who worked in the World Trade Center were Jewish, it’s New York City. Academia is blaming the church as a whole for the Holocaust. Millennials rely on pseudo-facts and backing someone into a corner, typical Saul Alinsky's rules for radicals’ tactic.”

Religion is passé; atheism is in, worshipping Gaia. Communism is a religion, climate change is a religion. It is trendy to be anti-Christianity, to be a Holocaust denier, to trash your country’s treatment of slaves even though Islamic countries around the world keep slaves now and sex slaves exist.

Millennials worry about sex change in the military. They don’t see any urgency; they see social issues because they are low information voters. They do not see the big picture; they see the small picture, what is important to them such as getting abortions. They are totally in agreement with infanticide and the selling of baby body parts but organize to stop tribal whaling, or the hunting of sharks, or the tribal killing of seals, or protection of a tiny minnow to the detriment of crops and our vegetable and fruit crops failing for lack of water because the minnow must live at all costs.

Oxford, MS just voted to take down the Mississippi flag at the courthouse for fear that it would offend progressives, race baiters, and atheists. History is being revised and changed at an alarming rate.

Detrimental change is happening at such an accelerated pace that, if nobody is standing up for our country, its borders, and its history, we will soon live under a dictatorship ruled by progressive mobs funded by billionaire oligarchs. And people will be going to jail for expressing divergent opinions, sent there by the thought police.

There was a German song, “Die Gedanken sind frei,” (thoughts are free) but I am not so sure anymore this is true, given the current NSA spying technology that Americans like Jeb Bush think it does not go far enough. Somehow humans will adapt and accept their fate.  Those who refuse to apologize for being white will be demonized and punished.

Perceived or real privilege is hard work, thousands of study hours, learning, taking the opportunity given in a free market and turning it into success instead of a perennial welfare mentality.

 

 

Rep. Frank Wolf Is Passionate About Benghazi

Rep. Frank Wolf (10^th district of VA) gave a 30 minute speech last night to a packed crowd of Tea Party patriots in Fair Lakes, Va. He addressed primarily the issues of Benghazi, with references to Republicans stance on defunding Obamacare, taking questions afterwards.

Serving his 17^th term in Congress, Congressman Wolf is the most senior of the 11 members of the House of Representatives from Virginia. He sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, is chairman of the Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee, and serves on the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Foreign Operations subcommittees. He is co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bi-partisan organization.

Rep. Wolf explained that the Republican Party should state their goals clearly, not just the stance on repealing Obamacare. However, shutting down government would be a big mistake because it would jeopardize keeping the House of Representatives and losing seats in the Senate.

Challenged that the government was shut down in 1995, Rep. Wolf noted that in 1995 certain things such as defense had already been funded before the shutdown took effect but this time, nothing has been funded, and a shutdown would bring the blame squarely on the Republican shoulders. He suggested that a better route would be to draw up a Republican bill and pass it “the way we want it.” There are good signs, “some Democrats are beginning to vote with us, we must change the Senate.”

The debt and deficit are very serious problems that must be addressed. “Our country is in deep, deep trouble. America has entered the state of decline in manufacturing and a lot of other issues.” As chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee, Rep. Wolf funds the Justice Department, the FBI, Commerce, the Weather Service, NASA, and the National Science Foundation. His committee made $17 billion in cuts.

Along with other subcommittee cuts, discretionary money has been slashed. However, he believes that entitlements must be reformed, namely raising the Social Security retirement age per Simpson-Bowles Plan (cut spending, raise taxes). A person 18 years old would have to work two additional years before retirement, 40 years olds would work six extra months, 50 year olds would work one additional month and 51 years old and older would not be affected. Rep. Wolf warned that if entitlements are not reformed, discretionary spending will be squeezed further.

Describing his experience with Watergate during the Nixon administration, Rep. Wolf recapped the Benghazi failures of leadership, response, and responsibility that resulted in the death of four Americans and the many hidden casualties.

Recalling the fabricated video scenario, the presidential apology tours at the U.N., Ambassador Susan Rice’s 5 cable TV appearances blaming a video nobody had seen, Hillary Clinton’s assurances to victims’ parents that the videographer will be brought to justice, the absence of leadership, the stand down orders, who gave them, Rep. Wolf emphasized the need for a special committee on Benghazi. “We met the threshold to have a committee on Benghazi, we have 166 members.” Speaker Boehner had been asked to push for the appointment of a special prosecutor and for public hearings. “We have to be united; it is the only way to find out the truth.”

He continued that there are many unanswered questions in the chain of events. It is strange that with the hunt of Bin Laden we had minute by minute accounts, he said, while with Benghazi, we have a cover up of events.

-          Weapons were probably moved, bought for the Libyans, moved into Turkey, going to Syria

-          He was told that when Navy seals got a call from the Consulate, had they gone in first, they would have saved Ambassador Stevens; they were told to stand down twice, the third time they disobeyed the order

-          The airplanes that picked up the wounded were Libyan planes commandeered by our people; “Gen. Hamm testified in a closed door session on the hill that he did not send the plane in because he knew at that time that Ambassador Stevens was probably a hostage or maybe dead.”

-          “What about the annex? The annex was only one and a half mile away; they could have sent an F-16 over there to the annex. It could have scared the light out of the remaining men there. Who gave the order not to go?”

-          Two of the survivors from the annex have signed a $2 million book deal. “Maybe we’ll find out in 2014 when the book comes out.”

-          People were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements  

-          Tunisia did not give us access to people who participated in and/or were witnesses of the attack in spite of the fact that we give Tunisia millions of dollars in aid

-          Nobody from the FBI would cooperate and risk their careers to testify

-          Egypt had another person in custody who had first-hand knowledge of the attack but the Morsi government did not cooperate

A gentleman pointed out the obvious, “If you have 166 people, why do you still have Boehner as speaker of the House? These same 166 people who want to investigate Benghazi should also sign a petition to oust Boehner.”

When asked if fear kept him from action, Rep. Wolf answered, “I am not afraid to push on this, I am 74 years old, I am closer to the end of my life than I am to the beginning, I am not afraid. We’ve urged the speaker; we’ve reached the bar and have made the case for a select committee. The speaker must have heard that two Benghazi survivors were called in and polygraphed.”

Rep. Wolf expressed his outrage that while the country is in trouble and Benghazi has not been investigated, Panetta signed a $3 million book deal, as head of CIA he flew home almost every weekend to Carmel, California on taxpayer dime, Hillary Clinton makes $200,000 a speech, cable TV is doing a series on Hillary, Susan Rice is now National Security Advisor, and Jack Lew, the former Chief of Staff is now Treasury Secretary. “The unfairness of it all is outrageous.”

One gentleman expressed his concern that two-thirds of economic growth is outside of U.S. and we must bring back innovation in order to grow our economy, repatriate corporations and lower their domestic corporate taxes. He questioned the CEOs patriotism.

A retired businessman challenged Rep. Wolf loudly that corporations go to China and overseas because Congress passed laws to make it easy for their exodus. Steve Jobs went to China to get around the regulations in the U.S. He could get a brand new glass for his iPhone in three months instead of three years, the businessman concluded.

Rep. Wolf replied, “They are going there for cheap labor.” It was greed that took corporations to China in spite of the fact that they are cyber-hacked all the time.  He continued, “Steve Jobs was not worried that there are 40 Catholic bishops under house arrest in China. There are hundreds of Protestant pastors imprisoned. Buddhists monks have set themselves on fire.”

The businessman was not happy with Rep. Wolf’s explanation and responded that it is not greed, “it is called profit, it is called capitalism, that’s America. It is not a businessman’s mission to take care of politics in China.”

Rep. Wolf concluded his remarks by saying that when “China folds, we are going to find that many companies are selling equipment to China to control and spy on their people. There has to be morality. We killed an American with a drone. The President wants to close down Guantanamo although 30% of the freed detainees go back to fight.”

The enthusiastic crowd thanked Rep. Wolf for this unwavering support of persecuted Christians across the globe.  He reminded the audience that “You may very well see a priest or a rabbi in this country sentenced for their faith on hate speech. We may see same persecution of those of faith as in other countries.”

A sheet was handed to him with attendee’s signatures, urging him to defund Obamacare.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

It's A Great Day in America

“It’s a great day in America.” The atheist left is rejoicing that an NBA player is out of the closet and Tim Tebow, “the often-polarizing quarterback,” as the Washington Post describes him, (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2013/04/29/tim-tebow-released-by-jets/)

is gone. Sport analysts and other NFL teams did not think he was good enough as a pro quarterback but he was a very popular player. His overt Christianity was offensive and annoying to the liberal PC police.

We are living in the “Great Diversion” era, one unresolved real or manufactured crisis after another and a disastrous economy, yet an NBA player’s sexual orientation, which should be nobody’s business, demands accolades and public speeches.

The word “courage,” which MSM uses loosely to describe such public disclosure, has lost its meaning entirely. Courage is fighting in battle when everyone else retreats, saving another human being from peril when the rest are cowards, and sacrificing heroically and bravely to the betterment of mankind.

No wonder people are turning away from the ugly and terrible reality to the “pane et circenses” (bread and circuses) reality TV, not just any reality TV, but Duck Dynasty.

Duck Dynasty is the most popular reality show on A&E, the formerly artsy elitist channel which must irritate and drive to distraction the New York opera crowd. Why do people watch and love Duck Dynasty? What is it that attracts people to the reality show and its Louisiana cast of beautiful real women and their bearded husbands who make duck calls for a living?

Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the clan, gave up his promising football career to make duck calls for hunters. The show ends each time with a prayer around the dinner table of extended family and friends. It is something America longs for, a return to family values and Christianity.

The Robertsons love and care for their family, believe in God and country, hunt, fish, and teach their grandchildren to carry, use, and handle guns responsibly. Through comedic situations, they emphasize the value of work and respect for elders. Most of them, with the exception of Willie, the CEO, live, dress, and eat simply in spite of their vast fortune.

The sage brother Jase and the Jack-of-all trades Vietnam War vet uncle Si delivers witty one-liners while sipping his ever present glass of iced tea, a southern tradition.

Miss Kay, the matriarch of the clan, is the sweet and doting mother, wife, mother-in-law, and grandma, who uses humor and southern wit to teach her teenage grandchildren how to handle dating and abstinence from sex. This must irritate liberals who encourage sex, out of wedlock pregnancies, co-habitation, and abortion.

Americans love the Robertsons because they long for a return to family tradition, respect, and interaction with meaningful, clean language, and dialog. The back to nature, outdoorsy life is appealing to many Americans who love the simple, witty ways of the Robertsons. The innocence of their daily lives is lost in our troubled country.

The clan is made up of ordinary Americans, who, in spite of their wealth, have not changed their family values, traditions, and faith, all deeply rooted in the American pioneer spirit and exceptionalism.

One episode pokes fun at fancy coffee shops patronized by liberals who drink strange and expensive concoctions of the caffeinated brew. Another makes fun of the southern love of donuts. Jase runs into trouble with the communistic Home Owners Association staffed by community volunteers who like to control other people’s lives. Jase had chickens in his yard and burned leaves on his property. He was told that he signed a contract in order to live in that neighborhood and thus had to abide by the rules the HOA saw fit.

Avid hunters, camouflage wearing, gun toting, blowing up beaver dams on their property, eating squirrels, frogs, and other critters, the Robertson men must have inflamed PETA and animal rights activists.

Duck Dynasty is a show about southern culture, about family, about values unaffected by wealth earned through entrepreneurship and hard work, a show about what liberals call “rednecks with money” who live normal lives. It is a show about American nostalgia for a time and innocence lost.

The Robertsons embody the myth of what America used to be, the America in which the family did not fight, did not use profanity, mom and dad did not divorce, people respected each other and their elders, traditional marriage was important in raising kids into healthy adults, and children did not move far away from their roots, values, and from mom and dad. 

Severing ties from family and God has fundamentally changed our formerly cohesive society. The massive dependency on government welfare as the daddy of all out of wedlock newborns further eroded the American family. The Planned Parenthood abortion mill, the “social justice” indoctrination in school, the lack of morality, glamorizing the drug infested Hollywood lifestyle, and attacks on the Christian faith exacerbated the damage done to traditional marriage and family.  

We should be celebrating the Robertsons and their lifestyle. It is what made America great. Their family values are shared by the core majority of our country. If we are to succeed, we have to return to those healthy principles and celebrate Tebow for his character.