Author Archive
Labor Union Accomplishments – Epilogue
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Yesterday’s post told a story of working in a unionized shop in the garment industry in the late sixties and early seventies. It may be instructive to look at where some of the actors ended in later years.
The International Ladies Garment Workers Union, from a peak of about 450,000 members in 1969 started loosing members as manufacturing left the United States for foreign shores. It seems that all the members’ money they threw at politicians was used to pursue other agendas and not keep jobs at home. Their influence dropped as membership continued to decline until, in 1995, they merged with rival Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union when their combined membership was only 250,000.
The new union was called the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) which, in 2004 merged with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) to form UNITE HERE. These mergers took place as union membership continued to fall. In fact as one looks at the union publicity, it appears that UNITE HERE seems to be a competitor to SEIU. This is not to say that they are the good guys deserving of our support, but that they, like most non-governmental unions, suffered from the loss of manufacturing jobs in our country and the realization of the American people the they neither needed nor wanted union goons fighting their battles.
The misfortunes of the ILGWU were nothing compared to what happened to two others.
Interstate Dress Carriers still exists as a shell of a corporation… no longer functioning. There was no need to carry garments produced overseas. Founder and primary stockholder, Jack Lieberman, was gunned down outside a Miami nightspot one evening. To my knowledge, no one was ever charged with the murder.
Then, there was Bob Mickus, who organized the Slate Belt Apparel Contractors. It was an association of factory owners who banded together to negotiate union contracts and acted as a clearing house for getting them work. One morning, he left his office to visit several of the shops in the group. Later that day, he was found dead in his car by the side of the road. The official story was that he had a heart attack, but my naturally cynical nature always left me wondering.
In any case whatever the positive propaganda, labor unions have a dark side that they don’t like the public to see. However, much like the current administration, they are willing to use brute force when people see through their smoke and mirrors and become obstacles in their path. As we’ve seen with SEIU, manipulating their membership, bullying others and accumulating power is the way they do business. We live in extremely dangerous times when we have these predators running free in our society, a President who says “I owe these people” and a justice department cooperatively turning a blind eye to the corruption rampant in both organizations.
Labor Union Accomplishments
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Since this is Labor Day, I thought it would be a good time to look at the roll of labor unions, not from the theoretical perspective which any honest evaluation would reveal that they function to benefit their members, when convenient, to the detriment of the rest of society, but from personal experience that, somehow, shows exactly the same thing.
As a young man I went to work in a family owned clothing manufacturing business for my new wife’s grandfather in the village of Richlandtown, PA. We made nice quality ladies blouses, a product our open trade policy has since all but destroyed our domestic production. My job included various record keeping and payroll functions along with some production supervision. Included were my periodic sessions with the union business agent as we would review the employment rolls to be certain of dues payment compliance. The business agent was a union thug, more suited for banging heads than using his. He was an amiable enough thug though and we got along reasonably well… about as well can with someone running a form of the protection racket.
The union was the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), at one time, one of the largest unions in the country. The other union in the area was the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. There was not a whole lot of difference between the two, but Amalgamated shops paid their workers ten cents an hour more, and that differential actually cost us some workers. It may not seem like much, like the seven and a half cents from Pajama Game, but in those days, late sixties and early seventies it was almost unheard of for a woman factory worker to make a hundred dollars in a week. After all, two thousand dollars could by you a pretty nice new car, six thousand would buy you a shiny new Cadillac.
The union supplied vacation and health benefits, and for some reason, the good ladies thought it came from their $4.50 monthly dues. This was not they case. According to the contract, the union received an amount equal to about ten percent of the payroll to provide the benefits and whatever else unions do with money. Sometime later this was to become a bone of contention and source of strife.
At one point, the union said did not believe they got the entire payment they were “entitled” to. My wife’s grandfather was, perhaps, even more stubborn than this writer. Besides, the consortium of manufacturers, the Slate Belt Apparel Contractors should have intervened and set things straight – which did not happen. The end result was that they called a strike and my co-workers and friends were out walking the picket line in front of the building.
A day or two later, when the Interstate Dress Carriers truck showed up with a load of fabric to be made into garments, the union driver was turned away as he would not cross their picket line. It did not take long for the issue to be resolved and soon the ladies were back happily sewing up blouses. Unfortunately, they soon ran out of work because of the incident with the truck. The workers were sent home and, of course, applied for unemployment.
Since, even at that time, an employers tax, which they euphemistically called a “contribution”, to cover unemployment compensation was based on their “experience rate”, to keep ours from skyrocketing because of the mass layoffs, we filed an objection and requested that the claims be denied. I had the dubious privilege of sitting across the table from my coworkers, with whom I had a good relationship, and explained that the layoffs were the result of union action – that we would have had work had they not turned away the truck carrying our raw materials. I made the case that unemployment compensation should not be approved, even though I knew some of the women really needed the money. I won our case, but the damage was done, and the whole episode was totally unnecessary.
Everyone went back to work and things settled back to normal until a few years later things flared up… literally. A fire destroyed the factory. It destroyed a mans life work. It also destroyed the jobs of about a hundred and ten good workers. Was it accidental? The inspector said the were three simultaneous points of origination, one at the base of the elevator shaft… no it was not an accident. The old man never would tell us exactly what went on or who was putting pressure on him, or what they wanted. We understood that one of the unions was involved, but, he would never say any more.
He may not have wanted his granddaughters husband sitting in jail for torching a union office… I don’t know. Back in those days, I was not so much into standing back and leaving vengeance in the hands of the Lord. It still is not one of my stronger points, especially when someone would harm my family. I have progressed somewhat, but still need frequent reminders, as do most of us. In any case, God apparently had other plans for me than to stick around an industry about to be sacrificed on the altar of internationalism.
I have seen first hand the destructive nature of labor unions. They, like the officials they support, do not exist to help the workers, or the country. They exist for union dues and the expansion their own power base. They will use violence and intimidation to accomplish their objectives… kind of like organized crime. We can never forget this.
Whatever Happened to the Concept of Victory
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When my fathers generation, the greatest generation, conquered the Axis powers, there was no question: the only goal was to defeat the enemy. There was no attempt to understand Adolph Hitler or work out an arrangement for coexistence. There was pretty much general agreement that we could and should emerge victorious.
Later, the concept of limited war took hold and our country was content to push the North Koreans back and keep them out of South Korea. We had a similar strategy in Vietnam. In this case, not only did it not work, but our country lost somewhere around fifty eight thousand precious men and women in the process.
Maybe it was guilt that came from using our technological advantage to end World War II with the atomic bomb. This is something that the left still regrets in spite of the fact that many times more Japanese would have died, not to mention American Gis, if they had to bring the war to a conclusion by invading the country.
People of good will can argue about the wisdom of various military adventures, but these days, there are always other considerations like the opinions of dictatorial world leaders who don’t like us anyway, multinational corporations who don’t want operations to interfere with their business, international bankers who have investments in both sides… and have contributed heavily to candidates from both parties. And it’s not just our own operations where our government willingly puts our service men and women at risk without instructing them and equipping them for the single minded task of defeating the enemy… we are expecting our fighting men who have been trained how to kill people and break things to be our diplomatic arm as well, and we are trying to hold the rest of the free world to this standard… unless they don’t want to.
We thought the best we could do in the cold war was to achieve some sort of peaceful coexistence with the Russian bear. We always approached negotiations wondering what we would have to give up to appease the Soviets, while the Soviets approached each contest with a long list of unreasonable demands… and they would come away having some of them met. This continued until President Reagan brought the “we win, they lose” philosophy to the White House. Within a few short years, the Soviet empire came crashing down. We won, they lost.
Unfortunately, we no longer have Ronald Reagan to guide our foreign policy and we are now guided by a moral ambiguity that does not permit admit that there is a concept of right and wrong, let alone identify which is which. Our leadership has repeatedly apologized for actions taken when we were acting on what we believed was right. This same leadership has failed to understand the nature of the world in general and the nature of the evil in it. As Glenn Beck told us at the Restoring Honor rally, “You can’t coexist with evil”. Our government has cozied up and caters to those who want to destroy us and shunned those who would be our friends.
Our current president is now bringing the Israeli Prime Minister and the leader of the Palestinian Authority together for negotiations. The whole plan is stacked against the Jewish state. They have nothing to gain and everything to loose. Surrounded by countries that don’t even recognize its right to exist, Israel is faced with the prospect of continuously giving and giving to meet the demands of those whose only goal is to eliminate it from the map, even if it has to be a little at a time.
They cannot negotiate with any expectation of reciprocal respect from the people on the other side of the table. It has been said by many, including El Rushbo, that the only way to achieve peace in the middle east is for one side or the other to no longer be able to fight. Our society has lost the concept of right and wrong, of victory and defeat, and lives in the gray, valueless area filled with moral equivalents. In following this path, we are assuring that the middle east will be a festering sore for as long as the eye can see.
Until we regain the concept of right and wrong, and understand that there are values we must pursue, not mildly, but with a vengeance, we will continue to drift from one crisis to another, and none of them will ever be fully resolved. In the same way, we will also find ourselves involved in one low intensity war after another which will accomplish little, but serve to enrich funeral directors and munitions suppliers. It is only when we get the determination to follow the right path, first to find it, and then to travel it that we can break this cycle. The nation of Israel needs to do the same thing. It is only through doing what is right that we put ourselves and our country in a position to be blessed by God. Part of this includes having an agreement with the living God on the land of His chosen people. It’s time for us to consider our ways.
Words Have Meaning
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Recently actor, John Cusack tweeted, “I AM FOR A SATANIC DEATH CULT CENTER AT FOX NEWS HQ AND OUTSIDE THE OFFICES ORDICK ARMEYAND NEWT GINGRICH-and all the GOP WELFARE FREAKS” While showing a break with reality and some inarticulate expression, he is just the latest in the line of celebrities who believe their status in the world of make believe qualifies them to tell the rest of us, the little people in flyover country, how we should live and what we should believe. In sharing his wisdom, he joins the likes of Sheryl Crow who thinks we should restrict ourselves to a single block of toilet paper rather than a whole string of them… or the mental giant known as Lady Gaga.
While I have not seen much from Cusack lately, I am somewhat disturbed by the extreme nature of his remarks as he starred in one of my favorite films, Grosse Point Blank. Either he doesn’t understand the power of his words among the simple minded who hang on every word of People magazine and Entertainment Tonight interviews, or perhaps, he really would not be too upset if one of these followers would take his advice and actually try to harm some of these good people. It is instructive to observe Cusack’s hypocrisy in advocating violence against an organization like FoxNews because, to his convoluted thinking, it is promoting violence.
What is even more amazing is that people who make their living pretending to be someone they are not should be considered to have a high degree of astuteness. What does that tell us about the audience who would rather take advice from drug addled performers with pretty faces than find things out and think things through for themselves?
For Cusack, the mindless rant may have been a way of getting his name back in the news. We have to keep in mind that it’s hard to be famous when people don’t think about you very much. In his business, people have to want to see your movies if you are to survive. One could be cynical and chalk this up to being just an attempt to say, “hey, everybody, look at me!”… or he could really believe this malevolent nonsense, which moves him into the category of a useful idiot of the left.
In making such comments, these people show that they are not to be taken seriously, so we should not get too upset when they show their ignorance. Some people follow them, but they’re already in the leftist/progressive camp. Unfortunately, there are a few who may act on some of these detestable statements, but it’s doubtful Cusack will actually convince anyone with common sense.
All the misinformed celebrities are looking for is for someone to smile at them, pat them on the head and tell them their lives have meaning in the real world. While we cannot do this, we can pray for them, and enjoy their work, realizing they are just overpaid and overindulged children. Go out and find a copy of Grosse Point Blank, it’s great fun… or if you enjoy the more quirky cinema, try Being John Malkovich. But, don’t spend your money encouraging this kind of foolish behavior.
A Tale of Three Speakers
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The speaker told us the story of slave trader John Newton and his encounter with the truth about the evil he had done, and about his redemption through the work of Jesus Christ. The sound of a bagpipe playing Newton’s song, and theme of his later life, Amazing Grace, drifted across the crowd. Finally, more than half a million voices were raised with the words that told of Newton’s life, the speaker’s life, my life and the lives of everyone that has found peace with God.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
T’was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.
The speaker was the much maligned and criticized Glenn Beck and the place was the area around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. He promised a non-political event, and he delivered a non-political event… unless one considers such values as honor, patriotism, reverence, honesty and respect to the sole property of one political party. One may be further off the mark than the other, but neither party could qualify to be the keeper of these values. He purposely kept politicians from the stage. Sarah Palin spoke, not as the political leader she is, but as the concerned and proud mother of a soldier. Another mother spoke of the son, both she and our country tragically lost, and her work with the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. For a brief moment we all felt a small portion of her pain and understood her efforts with this organization that helps the children left behind by these special people.
The program concluded it’s message of redemption and hope with Dave Roever whose life was almost destroyed when a phosphorous grenade exploded in his hand while fighting in the jungles of Vietnam. His face was grotesquely scarred for life. His message to veterans of this war that is ancient history to the younger generation was one of hope and appreciation… something he rightfully feels many need and have never received. As he concluded, people began to disburse in all directions. Those that could spent some time wandering through the various monuments to our brave service men and women who took on the hazardous task of defending our country. I enjoyed watching the many children on the mall, walking with their dads, or as whole families. They may not understand the experiences of the moment, yet as they grow older, many will look back on this special time in the nation’s capitol.
Unfortunately, this message of redemption and brotherhood was not the only one on the mall that day day. An audience of several hundred gathered at the far side of the Washington Monument, where the “real message” of Martin Luther King, Jr. was proclaimed. It was a message outlining the plight of the downtrodden and basically offered only the solution of more government programs and more redistribution of other people’s property to achieve a socialistic version of “justice”. The sad part of this thinking is that it pits one group of people against another. The message divides, rather than unites.
Across town, I saw news reports of a march led by Rev. Al Sharpton. The march was in response to his claim the Glenn Beck was hijacking the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sharpton first came on the national scene when he took up the case of Tawana Brawley who was supposedly assaulted by men should could not name and could not describe other than to say they were white. After a complete investigation, the whole story was found to be a hoax to keep the fifteen year old out of trouble for overstaying her curfew. The good Reverend’s explanation was that even though he knew the story had no merit was that he wanted to bring to light the fact that this kind of thing happened far too often with no appropriate action. Honor, and truthfulness, we heard at the Beck rally, does not do such things.
The point of Sharpton’s march was to let people know there was another view of the world than presented by the radio and television commentator. Apparently there is another view, different from the one that celebrates honor, honesty and love of country. In any case, criticism of the day’s events as being racially divided came from some who looked at the racial make up of the various audiences.
It is true that the audience at the Restoring Honor event was overwhelmingly white. However, I saw people from almost every race gathering, not to be sure God was on our side, but to be sure we were on His side. Sharpton’s followers and those at the other mall gathering were even more one sided, but in the other direction. If we are to look at reasons for this, we need to look at at least two sources, first is the formerly main stream media that repeatedly tells the unsuspecting masses that people like Beck and his followers are the reincarnation of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan, if we look at its history, was formed as the terrorist wing of the Democrat Party whose task was to suppress black voting during reconstruction. If there was any hate floating in the air, it was directed at Beck and his followers and not at the traditional “civil rights” leadership. The other reason is that Sharpton’s efforts were specifically designed to siphon off those who may join with the larger group to hear what Dr. King’s niece had to say about harmony and unity.
The critics conclusion was that America still has a long way to go, and they are right. However refusing to acknowledge that tremendous strides have been made since the bad old days is not helping anything. It recognizes no foundation to build upon. Refusing to take part in events organized by someone of another race is not going to heal the hurts from the past.
Just as the founders, when they could not come to agreement on our Constitution For the United States of America turned to prayer… not a two minute invocation… but hours of earnest, on-your-knees prayer to get the job done, we need to follow their example if we are to resolve issues such as this that tear us and our country apart. We need to do this individually and corporately. And, we need to remember, everyone is equal, and everyone is valued, at the foot of the cross.
Click here to see the entire rally.
Can’t We Work Together?
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I have a friend who was kind of negative on most things that did not originate with him. Some thought it gave him a little prickly personality at times. He believed his “gift” was to see what was wrong with most anything, and then tell people about it. A few years ago, he came to the conclusion that this “gift” really was not a gift at all, but simple negativism. We all mellow with age and experience and his revelation helped, not only my friend, but me as well… since I had (and at times still have) that “gift”.
Why do I bring this up at this time? Our country is facing the most dangerous days it has since we pushed the British occupiers from our shores or the darkest days of World War II. We need to focus on the objective of gutting this current congress and taking away the compliant and foolish congress that has given Barack Hussein Obama just about every thing he has desired. This current congress is composed of both Republicans and Democrats who have lost their love of country and replaced it with love of government and power.
The thing that bothers me most is the way we eat our own. I am one who is most comfortable working with people that share ALL my values. Many times we freedom loving people who believe in principles over personal loyalty, tend to be fairly narrow in circle of trusted associates. I often see this after primaries that can get brutal at times because we have several candidates and their followers who each believe they have the only correct answers. Fortunately we have seen a good number of tea party victories where established, machine backed candidates have met defeat at the hands of an angry electorate.
This is not a call for big tent, anything goes support for anyone that has the proper party label. It is a call to keep in mind the goal of knocking Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid out of their leadership positions. While it may not be possible to take Pelosi out at the ballot box, given the nature of her district and their disinclination to elect anyone with common sense, but depriving her of her majority would still be quite satisfying and effective. This should be motivation enough for most all of us.
And there is the Restoring Honor event coming up in Washington this weekend, that, if we all get the idea, could be the beginning of the turn around for our country. We could see several hundred thousand patriots descending the mall by the Lincoln Memorial. Glenn Beck is doing something we all need. He is calling us to step back from the battles for a moment and take a look at where we are as a country. And we see a nation lacking in vision, lacking in hope and lacking in honor. We have fallen to a point where many believe that honor having no cash value… is irrelevant.
While many of his fans love the man and believe he walks on water, I’m not ready to go quite that far. However there are naysayers who complain he is just a greedy businessman, a publicity hound, a clown, and worst of all, a Mormon. He is at least guilty of the last.
Now we have the choice – those of us who do not accept the distinctive teachings of his church – of either using it as a reason to put him down and discount his contribution or to set aside our theological disagreements and appreciate his contributions. What he is telling his audience is that the only way our country can stay the beacon on a hill is to turn back to God. He rightly explains the fallacies of liberation theology. He exposes the lie of Barack Obama’s “collective salvation”, but he doesn’t stop there. He has, on more than one occasion told us that salvation is only obtained individually by faith in Jesus Christ.
Some will say, yes, but he is still a Mormon, and I can’t say exactly what he means by those words. However, I Corinthians 12:3 says “Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.” The point is that just because I attend a solid Southern Baptist church, go to Sunday School even and, at times, pray with the pastor before the services, it does not guarantee that I have the saving relationship with the Father. It is not my membership in a religious body that insures my eternal future. Paul called all his righteous “filthy rags”. Collective salvation is the figment of the imagination of those seeking to deny individual responsibility and gain control by directing the collective. Likewise, when it is time for Glenn Beck to meet his maker, he will not be asked what church he attended, but did he have the required faith in Jesus Christ. I doubt that I shall be consulted about his fate, and most likely none of my readers will either.
All he is doing is calling us back to the faith of the founding fathers, to restore honor to our county in a way that only comes by belief in values that go beyond our own parochial interests, to recognize the divine providence that created this, the greatest and most free nation on earth, and to understand that a right relation with the Father only comes through a personal relation with the Son.
Instead of watching cynically from a distance, can’t we agree with the message and join in the effort to accomplish these goals? There was a scene from Robert Duvall’s movie The Apostle where he approaches a retired black preacher about using his old church for services. The old man looked at him and told him that he didn’t know if he was on the level or not, but if God was in his plans, he didn’t want to be left out. Even if you think the man is a clown, who cries at the drop of a hat for effect, I would ask, who else is proclaiming this message? If God is in any way involved in this effort, wouldn’t you want to be part of it. Even if you can’t be there, joining with your fellow Americans, as we seek restore our country, please pray for this to be a start to the badly needed national revival.
A Faithful Remnant
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In the book of Jeremiah, the prophet talks about God asking why His people turned away from him to idols made of wood and stone who could neither hear, answer nor even care about the people The comparison is made between the times when the people sought after Him and when they went off in other directions. At one time, the people lived in the land of prosperity and then the land of captivity. The people of Judah, not content with the God of Abraham, that had led them out of Egypt into the promised land, left their heritage and pursued the gods of the surrounding neighbors, who, being only pieces of stone or wood, had no power to help them at all… and finally they were led as captives to a foreign land.
While this is a sad tale, is there something we can learn from their experience? Human nature is such that we tend to quickly become discontented with whatever it is we have. After the reign of King Solomon, the people of Israel could not even get along amongst themselves. The northern tribes split from the kingdom and quickly added worship of pagan gods to their religious practices. The “more righteous” southern kingdom of Judah held on longer, but eventually succumbed to the lure of being like the surrounding peoples and adopted their multiplicity of deities.
The effect was not adding power to their practices, instead it moved them out from under the protective wing of their creator. We, in the United States, emerged from World War II as the premier superpower of the world. Our industrial capacity was intact, and our land was unscathed by the horrors of war. We were the arsenal of democracy and the leader of the free world. Our country was not perfect as the work and sacrifice of leaders like Martin Luther King Jr, Medgar Evers and a whole host of other lesser known martyrs for the cause of civil rights would attest.
Yet, in an imperfect world, we were a most blessed people. We were a nation of hard workers who could accomplish almost anything. We are still the only country that has had our astronauts walk on the moon. We were proud of our country and confident in its future. We believed in the American Dream and the promise that if we worked hard, we could be successful. This was the USA I grew up in.
Even as we enjoyed the good times there were those among us who didn’t like our individualistic and, essentially moral, culture that made our nation great. They saw European socialist countries where people did not have to extend themselves to find a living wage. The fact that they traded various freedoms for this did not bother those who heard this humanistic siren call. Sure the state had a greater presence in their lives, but to those who rejected the Judeo-Christian morality that served us so well as our country grew to greatness, this presence was far less onerous than the code of conduct that kept us on the straight and narrow.
They found the Darwinian teaching that we were simply the product of random events and that there really are no transcendent values of right or wrong liberating. At first it was a disaffected “intellectuals”. Then they infected the halls of academia, and from there generations of students and teachers. They led many in the country to give up on the values and ethics that made it great. They took away the internal guides that kept most people headed down the virtuous path.
They substituted gods of self, materialism and personal achievement for the God of the Bible and the fruit of the spirit. Greed became not only acceptable, but admired. The momentum of our economic engine kept us going for a while, but inevitably, the piper presented his bill… to which the Federal Reserve responded by printing more and more money, only digging us into a deeper hole.
Like the people of Jeremiah’s day, we have rejected the behavior that helped us succeed in the past. Like them, also, we thought we knew better. We followed the lead of less functional nations and when the blind lead the blind, we all fall in the ditch. We also have forgotten the old maxim that tells us that when we are in a hole, STOP DIGGING!
It’s natural to want to progress and to look around for new methods and ideas. Yet it is madness to go down a path that has always led to failure and disaster. This is exactly what we are doing. We may not be physically carried off to another land, but we are quickly placing ourselves in bondage to foreign lenders. Lenders who do not have our best interest at heart.
Just like the people of Judah suffered when they rejected the wisdom of their forefathers, we too will and are suffering because we, as a nation, have rejected the wisdom of founding fathers. Still there is hope. No matter what punishment the Israelites received, defeat, dispersion or genocide, God always preserved a remnant that was faithful to Him and formed the basis of restoration. Today, there is a remnant of Americans to understand and appreciate the values of our founders and the documents they passed down to us.
And what were those values? Patrick Henry told us. “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.” If we do not lose heart, we too shall form the basis of the restoration of our country to the shining city on a hill, and once again be the beacon of freedom.
Virginia Patriot Speaks Again
Posted by: | CommentsVirginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli responded to a request from fellow patriot, Delegate Bob Marshall about the legality of regulating abortion clinics. Del. Marshall publicized this historic opion in the following press release.
VIRGINIA CAN REGULATE ABORTION CLINICS TO PROTECT WOMEN
Virginia’s Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli issued an opinion that “the Commonwealth has the authority to promulgate regulations for facilities in which first trimester abortions are performed, as well as for providers of first trimester abortions, so long as the regulations adhere to constitutional limitations.”
“This is a victory for women and children across Virginia,” said Delegate Bob Marshall. It is my hope that the Governor will issue health regulations as soon as possible.”
Delegate Marshall had asked for the Attorney General’s opinion earlier this year. Virginia’s Department of Health had regulated abortion clinics until Chuck Robb became Governor and ended the practice.
“We should do everything possible to ensure that every woman’s life and health and their future pregnancies are protected by the Commonwealth of Virginia. To do otherwise is to shirk from government’s first responsibility,” Delegate Marshall explained.
Delegate Marshall added, “The National Library of Medicine has hundreds and hundreds of peer review medical articles documenting the immediate dangers of first trimester legal abortion to women and subsequent pregnancies.”
Marshall concluded, “I have asked that Governor McDonnell issue regulations identical to those approved by the Fourth Federal Circuit Court in Richmond upholding South Carolina’s medical and safety regulations for first trimester abortion providers as referenced by the Attorney General in his opinion.”
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This shows the importance of having the right people in office. We need to pay attention who we, the people – not the party insiders, nominate, then make sure they get elected. But even then, we need to make sure they, not only talk the talk, but that they walk the walk. Fortunately here in Virgina, we have a winner… a man who promises a lot, then delivers! Listen to his acceptance speech, use it as a comparison to the candidates we normally find on the ballot. America deserves better than what we have been getting. As Neil Cavuto says, “Demand it!”
Marco Rubio Shows Why He Is The Man
Posted by: | CommentsI came across this video and had to share it. Listen to what Marco Rubio has to say. He gets it and should be a model for other candidates who are afraid of their own shadow. If you haven’t seen much of him, now is a great time to watch and learn. America is still the greatest place to live… let’s keep it that way.
Christian Charity
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I received a comment on one of my blog posts that read, in part, “He also tells us to love our enemies, do good to those who persecute us, be kind,patient,never keep account of wrongs done to you, plus a few other things like love one another so the world will see what it means to be a christian. I honestly do not see any of these qualities in any of those promoting what you are promoting.” I considered his words for a while and noted that the writer shows a very narrow view of what it means to live a Christian life. The rest of the note showed that he was apparently infected with teachings known variously as “social gospel” or “liberation theology”. While there are minor variations, both are nothing more than Marxism dressed up in Christian terminology.
Some may ask why this is a problem. The problem is that Marxism is a totally humanistic, materialistic, world view that presents a mechanistic picture of humanity and sees man only in terms of his economic and physical needs. It sees him as incapable and unworthy of functioning with out an overpowering state to meed his needs and direct his activities. He then becomes enslaved to those who provide for him what they prevent him from providing for himself.
Because of this, if we truly believe that each of us is a unique creation, endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights we have to reject the sameness and regimentation promoted by those who believe economic redistribution is the way to heaven on earth. The systems that try to accomplish this only succeed in stifling the unique and beautiful spirit in each of us as they try to fit each one into a one size fits all mold.
This thinking leads to the type of “collective salvation” that Barack Obama says he believes cannot be achieved without redressing societal ills as he sees them. The trouble with this mindset is that the individual salvation Christ died to give each one of us by faith is superseded by a works based system. My Bible still tells me “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” Ephesians 2:8 (NIV).
Proponents of the social gospel tell us it is our responsibility to help the less fortunate, even to the point of making up for the sins of past generations. To some extent, this is true, but it is an individual responsibility discharged by individual acts of charity… not by enforced corporate confiscation of another’s goods… which profits the victims, who loose their property, or the recipients, who become enslaved by dependency, nothing. Beyond this, it does nothing for those who appropriate other people property, they see little good beyond some temporary power and control. It is as King David told Araunah who wanted to give him oxen for a sacrifice, “I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” (II Samuel 24:24 NIV)
If the criticism comes as a result of standing against an open borders immigration policy, again, it is a narrow view held by those who are only looking at life from the perspective of someone wanting to bypass our laws and sneak into the country for their own purposes… or someone willing to let them… for their own purposes. This view is totally lacking a panoramic view of a dynamic situation.
I would suggest that if someone knocked on my door in need, I would help them to the extent of my ability. However, if someone were to break into my home to rob me, or possibly harm my family, they would be doing so at their own risk… not because I would be acting selfishly, but because I would be fulfilling my responsibility to look after the welfare of those in my household.
Two recent high profile cases involving those who are among us illegally have given us new reasons to consider our irresponsible ways. One story was about a fourteen year old girl who died when she was shot in the back by a young man who should never have been in this country. The other saw a Virginia nun killed and two companions seriously injured when their car was struck by an intoxicated, undocumented Democrat who already had two DUIs and was scheduled for deportation, but somehow was released. This does not even take into account the statistic, recently released, that illegal aliens make up more than three quarters of all the open murder arrest warrants in Los Angeles county, or the danger our porous border poses to all of us as we do little to prevent terrorists, who hate us just because of who we are, from slipping across the border unmolested, carrying who knows what kind of weapons.
Facts like these are blissfully ignored by those with innocent blood on their hands who want us to believe that our undocumented guests are simply looking for a better life on our side of the border. While this is true in many cases, in far too many it is not. We cannot permit the Biblical mandate to “turn the other cheek” to be twisted orinterpreted as turning a blind eye to the path of destruction some of their number leave in their wake, the crippling social services costs that are bankrupting states with high concentrations of them, and the good paying jobs lost as unscrupulous employers replace American workers with others who are paid cash under the table with no taxes or benefits. Such employers happily accept the lower costs to themselves and the higher costs passed on to the general taxpaying population.
For these reasons, it is my view that we need to take the big picture outlook… seeing the overall impact on our friends and neighbors (see the story of the Good Samaritan about who our neighbor is) and not let those with other agendas tell us what proper Christian charity and behavior should be. We need only look to the story of Eve and the serpent to see what listening to the wrong people will do.
Of course we need to be charitable, but my experience has shown that those of us who are characterized as heartless, because we do not want to have the government rob one set of neighbors to benefit another set of neighbors, give many times the paltry sums contributed to charity by our professional do-gooder elites who seek to shame us into doing things their way… a way that never has worked, and never will.
