From A Wrinkle in Time to Red Dawn

As I watch the decline of our nation, I often wonder, how did we get here?  How, in my lifetime, just two short generations, did we go from a freedom loving nation to one of totally apathy?

Remember the book "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle?  The book won the Newbery Medal.  It used to be required reading.  My daughter had to read it when we were homeschooling.  So, I read it again, too.

The book describes a great evil, the evil has captured the heroine's father.  He is fighting the evil.  They arrive in the town where the father is imprisoned.  Each house is exactly the same, each child is bouncing a ball the exact same way, each mother calls in each child at the exact same time.  One child doesn't do it right and is taken away to be reprogrammed.  The heroine and company are horrified.

That evil, the one that the dad is fighting, is communism.  He won't allow his brain to succumb to the evil message of, "Just relax, we will take care of you, don't worry about anything, just let go, we know better anyway."

That book wouldn't win a Newbury Medal now!  It sounds like the current government play book!  We have actually fallen so far that the message of this book is a joke.  Many, many Americans see nothing wrong with the idea that they should just let go and that the government will take care of them.

What has happened to us?

Last night I watched the new, 2012 version of "Red Dawn."  (Yes, my husband beat me to the remote.)

It shows the total apathy of young Americans living their ordinary lives.  Then, their town is invaded by North Korea and these young people are forced to fight for their freedoms and their lives.

Many of their friends just give up and become communist.  It is so much easier, right?  The band of misfits, reluctantly, fights the North Koreans to take back their town.

One thing was noticeably missing from the film and it is missing from our lives - the reason to fight.  What makes this nation worth fighting for?

The United States of America is the greatest country the world has ever known.  She has produced more freedom, more justice, more prosperity, more equality, more wealth and more generosity, in just over 200 years than any other country on the face of this earth, ever.

Because of that, we have real enemies that hate us, hate our freedoms and want to take us over.  First, they want to lull us into a sense of comfort.  "Stop fighting, nothing is worth fighting for, sheesh, chill out, smoke some pot, don't work so hard, the government will take care of you, you deserve it."

Second, they want to demonize America and all of her successes.  The message is either, "you don't deserve all of that great stuff, you didn't earn it, so someone else should have it" or "America isn't perfect, so she isn't worth anything."

Either way, the question is then raised - is our way of life actually worth fighting for?

Finally, once we are convinced of our mediocrity and lulled into a complete sense of apathy, evil will just waltz right in the door and take over, kinda like they did in "Red Dawn."

Oh, hey!  Kinda like right now.

Hillary, you've got mail

Well, the Hillary Clinton email scandal isn't going away, yet.  I guess it is hard to claim complete ignorance when you set up a separate server at your house and then used it exclusively to conduct all state department business.

It is pretty embarrassing, considering she absolutely slammed the Bush Administration for using secret email accounts.  That is another story, but it pales in comparison to what Clinton did.

Clinton's pathetic tweet about having "state" release her email was a load of bunk.  "State" doesn't have her emails, SHE has the emails.  The only emails that the government has are the ones that she gave them.  Even a dum-dum like me can figure it out.  I am betting that lots of techie millennials can figure stuff like that out, too.

In the week since the whole email scandal hit the airwaves, I have heard numerous liberal talking heads just poo-poo the whole thing.  They say it isn't any big deal, everybody does it, etc.

Are they serious?  If a Republican went to those lengths to hide all correspondence, they would be destroyed by the liberal media.

I hear a whole lot that the Clintons play by their own rules.  Um, yeah, they do.  The Clintons definitely think that they live by a different set of standards and that the rules for, you know, the rest of us don't apply to them.  So, how can you run a presidential campaign as a champion of the little guy when everyone knows that you play by your own rules and don't care at all about anybody else?

And, talk about making up rules, what about the Obama's?!?  Who would have ever thought that someone would became a "constitutional lawyer" in order to dismantle it with surgical precision.

The Clinton scandal doesn't seem to be going away.  I am still interested to see if it will have any real impact on Hillary's presidential ambitions.

Harrison Ford's Humility

What happened to it?  Humility is such an attractive quality why has it become so hugely unpopular?

When someone is humble about his or her achievements, it makes you want to praise him or her all the more.  Doesn't it?

When someone is arrogant, it makes you want to tear him or her down.

Last Thursday night, when Harrison Ford crashed his plane, the NTSB spokesman wouldn't say even one nice word about Ford's flying skills.  I am no expert, but the guy literally "threaded the needle" with his plane.  When the engine failed after lift-off, Ford flew straight to the safest, open place, the golf course.  He landed right in the middle of the fairway, injuring no one, but himself.

It was pretty amazing.  So, I was happy to see this quote from Christian Fry of the Santa Monica Airport Assocsiation, "I would say that this is an absolutely beautifully executed -- what we would call -- a forced or emergency landing, by an unbelievably well-trained pilot."

There, that is better.

Ford's skills as a pilot became well known in 2001, when he piloted a helicopter rescue mission of a Boy Scout.  You can imagine the young man's relief on being rescued and then surprised when the pilot turned around to ask how he was doing!

I am thinking about taking up hiking.

This is what the unbelievably humble Ford had to say about his foray into hero-ing, "It had to do with flying a helicopter. That's all."

This level of true expertise at something, with the accompanying humility is almost unheard of in today's arrogant, snarky world.  It is so refreshing!

It reminded me of this Bible verse:

Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips. Proverbs 27:2

Dancing with the Stars is back!

For those of you keeping your dance cards handy, you know that the season 20 premiere of Dancing with the Stars premiered last night!

Yes, the rhinestone-studded, tongue-in-cheek, never-too-proud-to-laugh-at-itself ballroom re-opened Monday night.

In a surprise move, Rumer Willis is one of the "stars" on this year's 10th anniversary season.  Is she really a star?  Ok, maybe not.  But, her parents (Demi Moore and Bruce Willis) sure as shootin' are.  And, won't people tune in just to see if they are sitting in the ballroom peanut gallery?  Who wouldn't want to see the reactions of such high profile stars to their baby girl's performances?

The producers of that show are geniuses.

But, that is not why I am inspired to pre-write about Dancing with the Stars.  Nope, I am inspired by the show's entire premise.

Take Rumer Willis.  She is a wealthy child of wildly successful Hollywood actors.  Honestly, she doesn't have to work a day in her life, ever, seriously.

But, she is going to (probably) take off a lot of clothes, put on a lot of sequins and totally risk her reputation.  She is going to have to work really hard at something she has never done before, then stand there and smile while people criticize her on live, national television.

Could you do that?  I don't know if I could.  And, why is she doing it?  She really doesn't have to do anything, ever, remember?  To me, it is inspiring.  The show's tenacious "stars" work hard, get injured and just keep on going.

That is why I am a fan of the show and will continue to be one.  Well, if Peta's pants get any smaller, I may have to rethink that.

But, for now, pop the popcorn and pour the wine.  It is time for Dancing with the Stars, season 20, the 10th anniversary season!

Cleveland Right to Life - last one!

Gordon Douglas, a pastor and comedian, was the MC for the right to life convention.

He told a story of being asked for a donation at a convention, similar to the one that we were attending.  He prayed about the donation and received this message in response, "Refrigerator!"

Baffled, he asked his wife about her thoughts on an appropriate donation.  She said that she thought maybe they should donate the money that they had been saving for a refrigerator and what did he think about that.

Well, after she picked him up off the floor, they agreed that they would do just that.  They donated the saved money, even though their refrigerator was on life support.

When they got home from the convention there was a message on the machine.  Gordon pushed the button and heard the following message,

"Hey, Gordon, it's your mom.  Your aunt is moving and wondered if you might like a brand new..."

And, we all said, "refrigerator!!!!!"

Cleveland Right to Life - Carlton Smith

"Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should therefore be slaves. Likewise, we can not survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide...There is no cause more important for preserving freedom than affirming the transcendent right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights have any meaning." Ronald Reagan

Sigh.

The thing about a right to life convention is that you meet a real cross-section of the population.  Every Christian denomination is represented, every race.  And, everyone is conservative.  It is kinda nice to be able to speak freely about basically anything and everyone agrees.  We all have the same world view, the same ideology about everything.  It all comes down to this one issue - life.

On Friday, I met a man named Carlton Smith.  Smith is a black pastor.  We talked about his experiences, my family (my step father is black, my step brother is black and works for the DNC) and my neighborhood, which is a bi-racial community.

Smith explained to me that even though I may know lots of black people who disagree with abortion, who are against gay marriage, who are for the military, low taxes and love Walmart, they will still vote for Obama and the democrat party.

This is me - what the wha?!?!?

He said that being black trumped all of the other beliefs.

I asked, "How can that perception be changed?"

Smith said that his perspective changed when he became a Christian.  Instead of being black first, he became a child of God, first and foremost.

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28 ESV

Cleveland Right to Life - Sol Pitchon

"The encroaching culture of death shall not prevail, for we know, as we read in St. John's gospel, that 'the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it.' The darkness will never overcome that light.  Never. Never." Dr. Jack Willke, known as the father of the pro-life movement.

I was at a right to life convention this weekend.  Man, if you want to meet some happy people, hang out with people who like people.  Seriously, these are the nicest people I have ever met.

Instead of wanting to abort children and exterminate by the age of 75 (at the latest) anyone who happens to not be aborted, pro-lifers love all life.  So, they actually like living, and it shows.

One of the speakers today was Sol Pitchon.  Sol was born in Greece and is of Jewish descent.  He moved to America in 1951 and became a Christian in 1981.  He is the president and CEO of New Life Solutions.

Sol tells an amazing story of his mother, Garmaine's, survival of the Holocaust.  Garmaine, who was 16 at the time, was in the middle of being sterilized by Nazis in a concentration camp.  One ovary had already been removed.

The Nazi butcher was called away on an emergency and couldn't complete the "surgery."

Get a tissue.

"An old Jewish doctor, who performed the sterilization surgery under the threat of death, had removed one of her ovaries and made the incision but did not remove the other ovary," Sol, 63, says. "He said to her, 'When you have children, think of me.'"

What a beautiful story of kindness and redemption even in the face of pure evil.

Black lives matter - except for when they don't

Black lives matter, they really do, unless you are Jamiel Shaw II.

Have you heard his name before?  Have you seen his parents on The View?  Have you seen any athletes or rock stars with Shaw's picture on their shirts?

Me neither.

Why?  Jamiel Shaw II wasn't killed by a white police officer or a white assailant.  He was murdered, in cold blood, only because he was black, by an illegal alien.

That is why you have never heard of him, until now.

Testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on February 25, Jamiel Shaw, Sr. said, "My son, Jamiel Andre Shaw II was murdered by a DREAMer, a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipient, a child brought to this country by no fault of his own.  My family's peace and freedom was stolen by an illegal alien from Mexico.  He was brought here by his illegal alien parents and allowed to grow up as a wild animal."

This is a powerful statement from an American citizen.  How the issue of illegal aliens has ever become a black-white issue or a conservative-liberal issue is beyond my comprehension.  It is a legal vs. illegal issue.  People who are here illegally should be deported.

In other news, Darren Wilson, who fatally shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri last summer, has been cleared of all charges.  Wilson, whose ocular cavity was shattered by Brown, shot the 6'5", 289 pound teen in self defense.  All testimony and all evidence points to this fact, even from the federal DOJ investigation.

What will happen to Wilson now?  He will bear the scars of the attack both internally and externally for the rest of his life.  How will he ever make a living, pay his legal fees or even walk down the street ever again?  I can't fathom it.

I actually think that Darren Wilson's life matters.

I think that Shaw's life matters, too.  Don't you?

Song for Chris Kyle

Nothing will bring Chris Kyle back.  Every time I think or hear about Kyle, my heart goes out to his widow, Taya.  All we can offer her and all of the families of our brave men and women lost in the constant fight for freedom is comfort.

That is why, when I see the unprecedented success of the film "American Sniper" I am filled with good, old American pride.

See, the majority of this country wants for terrorists to lose.  The vast majority of Americans actually want to wipe Islamic terrorists off the face of the earth.  They want it, even if the president doesn't.

That is why it touched me with even more pride to learn that Wynonna Judd and Pete Scobell have recorded a song "Hearts I Leave Behind" in honor of Chris Kyle.

It is another heart-felt tribute to all of our military men and women.

Proceeds from "Hearts I Leave Behind," now available on iTunes, benefit the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation.  The foundation funds programs for service members, first responders and their families.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/hear-wynonna-and-pete-scobell-bands-song-for-late-american-sniper-chris-kyle-20150226#ixzz3TL0c56y6
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I am a woman, so vote for me!

Yep, that is Hillary's latest battle cry.  I mean, come on, don't you want to see a woman president?  Let's not look at the track record.  Let's not look at the improper funding of the Clinton foundation.  Let's not look at the fact that Clinton had a secret server installed in her house to conceal ALL of her correspondence while Secretary of State.  Let's not look at character, morality or, like, the truth.

She is a woman.  So, vote for her.

How totally sexist and demeaning can you possibly get?

And, by the way, didn't we already do this?  We elected a black president with no leadership experience, no discernible talent (except being cool) and no actual jobs on his resume all because he was black?

How is that turning out?

The idea that we should have a lower standard for black people and women is the most racist, backwards and demeaning philosophy that I have ever witnessed.  Shockingly, this position is championed by liberals, the people who are supposed to be the least "ist" of all.

They are actually the most "ist" of anyone!

Using this ridiculous notion, that black people and women are so incompetent, are so much less, that they need to be propped up by the government is going to have a weird consequence.

When only white men have to comply with society's rules, you know, like telling the truth and obeying the law, they might just take over the world.

The speech

Well, I wasn't wearing kitten heels and a Kasper pants suit.  I was wearing Hobbit slippers and sweats.  But, that didn't stop me from jumping up and cheering about 40 times during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to the joint sessions of congress on Tuesday.

Much was made about the 57 members of congress who chose to boycott the speech.  Not a single member of the Obama administration had the decency to show up.

And, really why?

What has gone so wrong with this country that people can't give respect to our ally and listen to him?  Were they afraid of what he would say?  The truth?

It was simple, really.  Netanyahu called out evil for what is it, evil.  And he, wisely, believes that we should stand together and fight against evil.

Why is that so hard for this administration to understand?  Who could possibly be against fighting evil?  Yes, there are all sorts of lame excuses about the election and about how we need to be careful with Iran.  But, like Bibi said, if Iran doesn't cooperate, we should walk away.  "They need the deal more than you do!"

After the speech I went to the library.  The library printer was spewing page after page of documents, all in Hebrew.  A Jewish man with a long, gray beard, wearing a yamulke walked up and started shuffling through his papers.  I asked him if he had listened to the speech.  He said that he thought it was later.  I told him that he had missed it, how good it was and to look it up online.

Then I asked, "How can anyone be against fighting terrorists who want to kill us?"

He rolled his hand with the palm up and said, "Eh, I don't know.  It is common sense."

And, unless you are totally meshuggah, it is common sense.  Strong leaders, like Benjamin Netanyahu, fight evil.  Our leaders should, too.

"Clean" spending bill

Who came up with this idea?  Who came up with the terminology that sending a bill to the president's desk that is stuffed full of pork (you know it is) and is chock full of more outrageous government spending is called a "clean" bill.

Snort.  It is ludicrous.

You know what else defies all logic?  Our spineless Republican leaders caved AGAIN to Obama's lawless, executive overreach and funded amnesty for illegal aliens!

Why???  Pat Caddell, a DEMOCRAT, can't even figure it out.  He said, "If you came here from Mars, you would think that DEMOCRATS won a landslide victory in November.

But, that didn't happen, remember?  Cool heads prevailed and the American people voted GOP from sea to shining sea in every locality, state and overwhelmingly in the house and senate.

Why don't Republican lawmakers act like it?  I even heard one call the passage of this bill "a return to sanity."  Are you kidding me?  Funding our bloated government despite all of its waste and lawlessness is a "return to sanity?"

Members of congress make a minimum of $176,000 a year.  A return to sanity would be them trying to live on the average American household income of $50,000 a year.  A return to sanity would be the government not spending more than they take in.

Here is some sanity, I would love it if lawmakers tried an Obamacare high deductible plan.  "Sorry, honey, I know your arm is green and puffy, but it would cost us $7,000 to take you to the emergency room.  So, we have to wait and see how big it gets and what colors it turns.  Thank you, Obama!"

Do the will of the people, Republicans.  Stop Obama's lawless amnesty for illegal aliens.  Stop his abuse of power.  Now, or you all are going to be out of jobs.