Traditional Marriage and Equal Rights

The institution of marriage has worked well over the centuries in spite of challenges. Marriage is never easy, it is not just about love and companionship, it is an obligation and a covenant. Pope Francis declared the definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Justice Anthony Kennedy reasoned that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was passed in 1996 by 342 members of the House, 85 Senators, and President Bill Clinton as an anti-gay move, to “disparage,” “injure,” “degrade,” “demean,” and “humiliate” a certain group of Americans.

Most Americans believe that redefining marriage for the majority of Americans in order to include a minority who feels discriminated against is certainly a convoluted and destructive way to give Americans the same access to insurance, inheritance, civil unions, hospital visitations, and other perks that a traditional married couple enjoys, including divorce and higher taxes.

The existence of orderly society is based on reproduction resulting from the union of a man and a woman. The resulting children need both a man and woman in order to be successful, well protected, cared for, loved, and for society to survive over time and grow independent of government.

Marriage predates government but the government conveniently recognizes, protects, and promotes marriage in order to insure its survivability and the survivability of our species.

When marriage is promoted and protected, other relationships are not banned. There are common-law couples, heterosexual couples who never marry, homosexual couples, and single individuals who choose not to be in a relationship. The government does not force these adults to make the choice of marriage and thus no one should have the right to redefine marriage for everyone else.

Ryan T. Anderson said, “Redefining marriage would legislate a new principle that marriage is whatever emotional bond the government says it is.” (The Heritage Foundation, March 11, 2013)

Marriage is not about having a party, a wedding cake, distributing legal property, insurance, or the right to divorce. Marriage is about survival of the species, “monogamy, exclusivity, and permanence.” If you redefine marriage, the so-called “marriage equality,” you open the Pandora’s Box of other ills. If same sex couples “marry” why not have polygamy, marriages to animals, and marriages to cousins, polyamorous relationships, and pedophilia sanctioned by the state?

Anderson argues that there is no such thing as “parenting,” there is “mothering” and there is “fathering;” each has an important and irreplaceable individual role in the upbringing of a healthy child who will grow into a healthy adult.

Marriage has been recognized as the union of a man and a woman in Jewish and Christian traditions, in philosophy, in ancient Greek and Roman law, even in primitive cultures that had no concept of sexual orientation.

Recently, “Marriage has been weakened by a revisionist view of marriage that is more about adults’ desires than children’s needs.” By breaking down marriage, civil society is weakened and limited government will explode into government control. Ryan T. Anderson of the Heritage Foundation cites numerous studies that show that man-woman relationships and their marriage promotes economic well-being because society does not need to care for children who are born out of wedlock.  One of the studies by Professor W. Bradford Wilcox of the University of Virginia’s National Marriage Project summarized, “The core message…is that the wealth of nations depends in no small part on the health of the family.” http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/03/marriage-what-it-is-why-it-matters-and-the-consequences-of-redefining-it

“Government can treat people equally – and leave them free to live and love as they choose – without redefining marriage.” There is no ban on the same-sex love, there is freedom to have same sex unions, to live together, to buy a house together, own property, worship in churches that bless same sex union, and work in places that offer joint benefits.

“Redefining marriage threatens religious liberty.” Religious groups will stop running adoption agencies if they have to violate their religious principles. Under the directives of Putin, Russians have suspended adoptions for same-sex couples from the United States. Americans who refused services related to same-sex marriages were successfully sued in court. Their religious beliefs were trampled by the wishes of a minority who sought to redefine marriage and won.

Nonie Darwish, author, spoke with Silvio Canto Jr. recently about the marriage redefinition. She discussed her recent article, “Marriage is an obligation, not a right.” Born a Muslim in Egypt, she lived as a child under Islamic Law which encourages polygamy. She moved to the United States where she became a Christian and embraced monogamy because “respect of the Christian marriage is the only way to have peace, stability, and civilization.”

www.blogtalkradio.com/cantotalk/2013/07/05/todays-message

Nonie Darwish described the premise of marriage under Islamic Law where men don’t promise loyalty to their wives but the wives pledge loyalty to their husband. Muslim women live together and Muslim men live together. This creates a gender-segregated society. Darwish wondered if we are going to have a gender-segregated society with lesbian couples and homosexual couples. She mentioned the Australian lesbian activist who said that the purpose of gay marriage is to destroy the institution of marriage.

When children are brought up by gay couples, society will change. Such unions are based on artificial and false premises of inheritance, hospital visitations, employment benefits, things that do not define a family. Such unions can never produce a biological child without the help of a third party.

Marriage is not a right guaranteed by the state. Some heterosexuals never marry because it is a big responsibility to marry and divorce rates are high. Arranged marriages still take place in many cultures and are not based on love – some learn to love each other, some never do. “The marriage institution was not created to regulate love. Marriage developed naturally out of the need to raise the next generation.” Nonie Darwish concluded that, in spite of the liberal media bombardment with shows promoting the happy gay lifestyle, “just because it is legal, it is not normal.”

My favorite department store just celebrated June as gay “pride month.” Upon entering the store, a large board was quoting one of its employees, urging shoppers to “Be Inspired.” I am certain that I will be inspired to stop shopping in this store - I don’t like to buy my clothes in any place that engages in politics. This is the same store selling “sustainable shoes.”

 

 

 

 

Silvio Canto Jr. Week in Review July 8, 2013

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cantotalk/2013/07/08/todays-message

How Much Do You Like Your Electricity?

“I pledge allegiance to the Earth and all its sacred parts. Its water, land, and living things and all its human hearts.”

-Global Education Associates, The Earth Pledge

If you like your electricity, refrigeration, and air conditioning, you should pay careful attention. Most readers are by now familiar with Smart Meters that read electricity, gas, and water consumption from a remote location. They are mandated and forced upon us by the United Nations Agenda 21 through its octopus arms of the EPA, the federal government, NGOs, and local and state governments in the name of saving the planet. The Utility Mother Ship can turn off your power during peak consumption, very hot or cold days, and adjust your thermostats and appliances from far away.

Most readers are also familiar with this administration’s war on coal and their intent to bankrupt the coal industry and replace our electricity derived from coal (49%) with its underperforming and expensive cousin, electricity derived from green and renewable energy. Most know that this energy cannot deliver all the electricity that our large economy needs, hence rationing of electricity will have to take place. How will that be accomplished? The power companies will have the power and authority, with or without your expressed consent, but the blessing of our government, to cut off your power whenever they deem necessary.

Is this happening because our government really cares about the planet and alleged global warming? No. Is it happening because they want to transfer your wealth to poorer countries in the name of social justice, reduce your consumption deliberately, and control your health, travel, where you live, and what you do in your everyday life? Yes.

My grocery store advertises their Sustainability plan with a huge globe logo as 16 million pounds of food donated to food banks that did not have to go into landfills, 103 million pounds of cardboard and office paper recycled, saving 530,000 trees, and 1 reusable shopping bag eliminating over 160 million plastic bags (I have not verified the veracity of these claims). I have no problem with any of these savings because they are voluntary, people understanding that we share in keeping a clean environment and donating to those in need at the same time.

What I do have a problem with is forced government re-distribution of wealth to third world nations and rationing of our energy and electricity, bankrupting our economy in the process, making life so miserable unnecessarily, all in the name of saving the planet from an alleged global warming based on “consensus” and a climate change that varies anyway independently of man-made activity.

The latest assault on our freedom is the Environmental Protection Agency’s “optional” requirement for customers to connect refrigerators and freezers to a “smart grid” utility provider. The utility will regulate appliances power consumption, “including curtailing operations during more expensive peak-demand times.” An easy translation, your appliances will be cut off and your food and medicine stored therein will spoil.

Manufacturers of appliances are “encouraged” to add this connectivity feature; if they do, the bribery is a credit towards meeting the Energy Star efficiency requirements. How far of a stretch is it that in the very near future, an executive order will make it mandatory to connect everything to a smart meter and a smart grid?  An IBD editorial is quoting former EPA director Carol Browner who told U.S. News and World Report in 2009, “Eventually, we can get to a system when an electric company will be able to hold back some of the power so that maybe your air-conditioner won’t operate to its peak.”  http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/070513-662691-epa-pushes-refrigerator-smart-grid-connections.htm#ixzz2YDp3VXL2

Proponents of Sustainable Development, the keystone of U.N. Agenda 21, are worried that Americans are finally understanding that daily controls over land development/grab and energy policy are rooted in the global governance policy called U.N. Agenda 21 ratified in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio with the blessing of President George Bush Sr. and subsequently advanced through legislation and executive orders by Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

Supporters of U.N. Agenda 21 dismiss the truth by saying that this document has no teeth, is 20 years old, and has no enforcement power. The American Planning Association, the EPA, the Club of Rome, Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund, Green Cross International, World Watch Institute, Environmental Defense Fund, Planetary Citizens, Global Alliance for Transforming Education, Earth First, Sierra Club, ICLEI, and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) say that they have “no connection to U.N. Agenda 21 and no hidden agenda.” There are thousands of statements, documents, quotes, and videos on the web that confirm their true agenda and connection to U.N. Agenda 21.

Tom DeWeese, one of more active speakers around the country against U.N. Agenda 21, found an article/commentary by Robert Odland, “How Sustainable is Our Planning” (Northern News, April 1994). Paragraph 5 was most revealing - “Vice President Gore’s book, Earth in the Balance addressed many of the general issues of sustainability. Within the past year, the President’s Council on Sustainable Development has been organized to develop recommendations for incorporating sustainability into the federal government. Also, various groups have been formed to implement U.N. Agenda 21, a comprehensive blueprint for sustainable development that was adopted at the recent UNCED conference in Rio de Janeiro.” (The Earth Summit) According to Tom DeWeese, this one paragraph ties together The American Planning Association, U.N. Agenda 21, UN’s Earth Summit, Al Gore, Sustainable Development, the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, NGO groups, and the “comprehensive Blueprint” for Sustainable planning.   http://americanpolicy.org/2013/06/05/here-it-is-the-smoking-gun/#sthash.uEu4usay.UqCdIShE.dpuf

All these NGOs, APA, and the EPA are pushing sustainability because they believe “planning should be a tool for allocating resources… and eliminating the great inequalities of wealth and power in our society… because the free market has proven incapable of doing this.” The exact quote is found in the PlannersNetwork.org of which APA is a member. http://www.plannersnetwork.org/about/statement-of-principles/

We have to be careful stewards of our planet. We have been wasteful at times with our natural resources and we have affected knowingly and unknowingly biodiversity along the way. We fixed some problems and nature took care of others. It is easy to see how people would be duped into believing the environmental groups that are calling for a “green revolution.” But is this really their true intent, “greening the planet?” Here are two quotes of environmentalists that should give us all pause.

“We must make this an insecure and inhospitable place for capitalists and their projects. We must reclaim the roads and plowed lands, halt dam construction, tear down existing dams, free shackled rivers and return to wilderness millions of acres of presently settled land.” (David Foreman, co-founder of Earth First) http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/quotes.html

 “The extinction of Homo Sapiens would mean survival for millions, if not billions, of Earth-dwelling species. Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on Earth – social and environmental.” (Ingrid Newkirk, former President of PETA) Newkirk, Ingrid, as quoted in Eco-terrorism: radical environmental and animal liberation movements by Don Liddick) http://books.google.com/books?id=kV4umgkiilcC

 

 

The Stars and Stripes of Glory

We are flying our American flag today in honor of our country’s 237 years of independence from British tyranny.

Our flag celebrates my husband’s 27 years of devoted service to our country and the sacrifice of millions of faceless and unknown Americans before him who gave their all to preserve liberty.

Our flag honors millions of legal immigrants who had sailed to the New York harbor in unspeakable conditions and waited out the quarantine at Ellis Island to come to the new world.

Our flag honors the 4 million legal immigrants who are waiting patiently in their countries for the resolution of visas to come to America, the land of opportunity, the “shining city on the hill.”

So many love America and what it stood for all these years. So many nations owe their freedom to Americans. So many hate America but secretly wish and dream they could live here.

We have a flag on our wall, carefully folded and mounted in a shadow box with a dedication to me – it had been flown over Iraq and Afghanistan. It honors my husband’s service in the “overseas contingency operations” against the “workplace violence” enemy.

On our multi-national street, two families with foreign nationals who are naturalized citizens fly the American flag, our family and an Ethiopian family. Only two American born families fly the American flag. The rest of the street enjoys the freedom in the privacy of their shuttered homes.

My local Wal-Mart was teeming yesterday with a Tower of Babel, non-English speaking shoppers, filling their carts with food bounty from America’s horn of plenty, paying with SNAP and EBT cards, compliments of the federal government, generous with other people’s money and eager to attract any illegals from anywhere as long as they vote the right way.

Are illegals smart enough to realize that Americans have built this abundant nation with hard work, not through government largesse? Do they understand that the government exists because “we the people” have paid taxes and allowed it to exist through our vote? Do they know or care that voting in our country carries a grave responsibility to our future generations? Do they understand that breaking our law, crossing the border illegally, and voting for the same hellhole they’ve escaped from, fundamentally alters the fabric of our society, potentially putting an end to the abundance the illegals are so eager to obtain?

My neighborhood Wal-Mart is a microcosm of what is happening to our country stealthily from within.  The BMW and Mercedes driving bureaucrats who work in D.C. but live in the suburbs do not shop at Wal-Mart, they shop at Costco. They push and vote for illegal immigration amnesty and cheap labor but they hide in gated communities and attend elite cocktail parties.

I drove through neighboring communities and saw on other streets flags of Mexico, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, and Columbia, flown proudly on modest rental homes. The occupants were having barbeques; their children were playing in the yard, or taking a dip in above-ground pools, celebrating. Were they celebrating America? Do they know its history? Do they care and are they here to assimilate, learn English, and make the country better? Or are they here just for the welfare benefits, off-the-books jobs, and the abundant lifestyle?

The Roman Empire was envied by many invading hordes who just wanted the Roman lifestyle and property in the Roman Empire. They were not interested in becoming Roman citizens, assimilating, or speaking Latin. The Romans allowed them in, did not require them to speak Latin, but denied them property. The hordes eventually succeeded in taking over the empire. No need for salvos to bring a successful empire/nation to its knees, just infiltration and erosion from within.

One home was flying the Gadsden flag.  Colonel Christopher Gadsden submitted a design for a yellow flag with a green coiled snake to the Provincial Congress in South Carolina with the words, “Don’t tread on me.” (c. 1775)

Our Star-Spangled Banner, our Old Glory, is not just a symbol of freedom to us; it is who we are in our hearts and souls, law-abiding citizens of a nation blessed by God, “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820) metaphorically described our Old Glory in his 1819 poem, The American Flag:

“When Freedom from her mountain height,

Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night.
And set the stars of glory there.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Divergent Opinions No Longer Polite Discourse

Polite debate is no longer the accepted norm in our society. The liberal left is not tolerating divergent opinions, they want them eliminated. Outrageous labels, personal threats, and even violence have escalated during what used to be polite discourse and disagreements of opinion.

We provide evidence that UN Agenda 21 does exist, yet we are “agenders.” We cite the document called Agenda 21, 40 chapters long, and the UN Agenda 21 Constitution called DICED, but that is too much evidence for the globalist crowd to digest. It is easier to attack the messenger.

We have sufficient scientific evidence that global warming is a hoax, it has been debunked many times, yet we are “climate deniers” and “flat-earthers.” We do not deny climate change and the earth is not flat.

Climate has changed constantly since recorded history and before, just ask the dinosaurs. We don’t think the much maligned CO2 is the culprit nor do we believe that we are dealing with a “man-made disaster.” We happen to believe that we are in a period of global cooling, as evidenced by lower overall global temperatures in the last 17 years as recorded by more than 30,000 temperature probes around the earth. Self-labeled progressives can’t let incontrovertible truth get in the way of power, money, and control.

Because we are fiscally conservative and believe in government accountability, we are “right wing nuts.”

Because we think that government control and surveillance violate our Constitutional rights and have gotten out of control, we are “tin foil hatters” and “conspiracy theorists.”

Since we believe that we have been taxed enough and we take to the streets to peacefully protest the excessive taxation which supports permanent welfare recipients and illegal aliens, we are “tea baggers,” a derogatory term which has nothing to do with our belief in moderate taxation or with the fact that 49 percent of Americans pay no income tax.

When we stress and argue that politicians have become Machiavellian opportunists who push amnesty for 11 million illegal aliens who have broken our laws, yet lawmakers think it must be done right away so corporations can hire cheap labor, Democrats gain new voters, and the church new converts, we are “racists” and “xenophobes.”

If we don’t believe Obamacare is the magical solution to health insurance problems, and we see clearly a disaster in the making that will ultimately change our stellar healthcare system into “Castro care,” we are “hate mongers” who don’t want other people to have health care.

If we don’t believe that Sharia Law can “coexist” with our Constitution and our legal system based on Roman law, we are “islamophobes.”

If a white person admits using racially insensitive and insulting words thirty years ago, his/her career is over and they are crucified by the MSM and big business. They become instant “pariahs” or at best “persona-non-grata.” When a black person uses the same racially charged epithets, whether addressed to a white or to a black person, it becomes career enhancement. We even throw in extra accolades and prizes for their role in the moral and verbal degradation of our youth.

If we teach our children how to hunt and kill animals to feed a family, not for sport, we are rednecks “clinging to our guns.” Yet nobody bats an eye when millions of babies are aborted and killed each year, even when born alive, it is a liberal “choice.” I sure am glad my mother did not consider my life in her womb a “choice.”

If we pray, believe in God, and attend church regularly, “we cling to our Bibles” and our religion. Belief in Mother Earth, Gaia, is highly praised, recommended, and indoctrinated in schools and by the PC police. Accommodations are made for other religions, but our soldiers cannot carry a Bible for comfort.

If we believe in traditional family and marriage defined as the union between a man and a woman, we are “homophobes.” We thus need re-educating. We must be bombarded with everything homosexual, LBGT parades, parties, Hollywood movies, sitcoms, Broadway productions, training at work to become more sensitive, classes for children on homosexual love, and workshops on how to cater to a small minority so that everybody really understands what they do behind closed doors.

When we engage in political discourse and our liberal opponents have lost the argument, they turn to anger, shouting, and hurling personally insulting epithets. When the disagreements happen to be outdoors, fights ensue which often do not end well for non-liberals. At best, cars with conservative bumper stickers are keyed from end to end. At worst, windows are smashed, owners are ruffed up, escaping with black eyes and bruised limbs, but alive.

Civility has been replaced by class warfare stoked by politicians and race-baters who make a lucrative living at keeping class division alive and the concept of “black slavery” current as if we owe perennial reparations for what has been done in the past. During history, many groups, black and white, have been abused and enslaved – perhaps we should all ask for reparations and special treatment to atone for past wrong-doings. Slavery is still practiced in some Muslim countries today yet liberals are mum about it. Progressives have yet to “free Tibet,” “coexist” with people who think and live differently, and address the genocide of non-Muslims in Darfur and the killings of Coptic Christians in Egypt.

When we disagree with the liberal/progressive ideals, we are ridiculed by the Political Correctness police, we are attacked, banned, boycotted, fired, and discredited professionally. If we dare to criticize, we are accused of “hate speech” no matter what the topic. How long before we are fined, re-educated, and/or jailed for our diverging views and opinions? Isn’t political correctness the stifling of free speech and coercive censorship?

 

 

Blogtalk Radio with Silvio Canto Jr. July 1, 2013 The U.S. Economy in Review

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cantotalk/2013/07/01/the-us-economy-with-dr-ileana-johnson-paugh

Virginia is for Food and Farm Freedom Lovers

Virginians are not taking lightly the NGOs environmentalist assaults on their land and the right to farm. They are fighting back with the Virginia Small Farm and Food Freedom Resolution in support of the Farm and Food Freedom Act. (www.vafarmandfoodfreedom.com)

Many Virginians testified in Richmond in support of HB1430, The Right to Farm Act, better known as the Boneta Bill, which passed the House of Delegates 77-22 in February 2013 but was blocked by the Senate Agricultural Committee by a vote of 11-4. Delegate Scott Lingamfelter promised to reintroduce the bill next year.

Virginians have vowed to continue the fight. Chairman Mike Thomas and his committee of 12 proposed a resolution on May 4, 2013 to be included and published on the Republican Party of Virginia website with a link on the home page.

It remains to be seen if any of the parties and members of Congress represent the wishes of the majority of the people anymore. Would lawmakers continue to pass laws just to protect the loudest minorities, the illegals, those on welfare, and the elites in power?

The Resolution calls on the Republican Party of Virginia to “support state legislation and local ordinances consistent with each farmer’s right to determine what best constitutes farming, farm life, the best uses of his/her own farm land, respect for their neighbors,” market pay for their labor, and to repeal state laws and ordinances inconsistent with the Resolution.

The Governor and the General Assembly have a duty to advance legislation in 2014 that respects the rights of citizens to pursue their self-interests as protected by the Constitution of the United States, the vision of the Founding Fathers, and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Farmers engage in more than just production agriculture, they have the right to commerce, the right to enjoyment of their land, assembly on their property, the right to exercise religious freedom on their lands, the right to grow, eat, sell their locally produced foods without burdensome local and state government regulations or dictates from environmental groups sponsored by international groups and entities, including the United Nations ICLEI.

Government should not use laws, regulations, zoning ordinances, or cumbersome and expensive permits to violate or trespass on the farmers’ rights and freedom to farm under the guise that they know what is best for farming in general or one farmer in particular.

Government agencies or subdivisions that violate farmers’ rights and trespass on their property should be made accountable for their deeds. Americans should not be treated as guilty until proven innocent while giving environmental groups unlimited power without much redress for small farmers who do not have the means to fight back and must shut down their farming operations and farm stores as was the case of Martha Boneta in Virginia and many others across the country.

Less than three percent of American labor feeds 306 million Americans yet the government is making it harder and harder for small farms to operate and bring wholesome foods to the market. Why should farmers be subjected to “annual property monitoring visits and inspections” by environmental groups funded by U.N. Agenda 21 agencies and pursued by groups beholden to ICLEI and other environmental councils who have no idea how their food gets to the table nor do they care? Are “penny loafer farmers” and their horses the only Americans protected under the law? Don’t real farmers deserve the same protection under the supreme law that guarantees all Americans unalienable rights such as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?”