TAMPA, Florida – GOP hopeful Tom Voiland laid out his plan to deal with what he calls “the greatest encumbrance to the healthy growth of the American economy – too many damn taxes”. Voiland, a noted Reagan Conservative, believes that Americans are significantly overtaxed and if they simply looked at the facts and turned away from Democratic rhetoric, they would see this unfortunate truth. “The lowering of the overall tax base in this country will do two things; put a lot more money back in the pockets of those who ‘earned’ it, and force us to significantly cut the size and spending of government. The affect of this is to begin to take the surpluses produced and pay down the insane amount of debt the Democratic party has saddled us with”.
Here is the official announcement from the Voiland campaign.
On Taxes. As many young people do, I was forming various belief systems throughout college and in my early 20s. Coming out of college, a lot of us believe we’re now “know it alls”, an attitude that slowly fades away with age and wisdom. One of my omniscient attitudes coming out of school with a business degree was that almost all taxes were completely unnecessary. Then I had my ah hah moment. It was in of all places Washington, D.C. I was strolling along the National Mall and happened by the Internal Revenue Service Building. Right before I threw a rock at the place, I looked up at the frieze where it says; “Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society” (Oliver Wendell Holmes).
Yes, taxes are what we pay for a civilized society such that a central authority, in our case “government”, can have the resources to ensure we are protected as citizens (military, police, firefighters, CIA, etc.), have representative government, a thriving judiciary and social safety nets. Christ once said; “render unto Cesar……”. This was an endorsement that not only should we love our neighbors through directly assisting the poor financially as an example, but that God’s laws should be integrated into civil law. Further, that we should be respectful and subordinate to civil laws. Part of that is paying taxes which Christ’s comment directly referenced. However, Christ did not imply how much we should render. He did not imply that people should be bilked by the government to promote a socialist agenda and to cover massive spending inefficiencies.
When is enough? Well you can start by simply asking yourself; “Do I feel like government is taking too much of MY money?” Then ask, “After I pay all these various and sundry taxes, is there enough left over for me to live the American dream or do I feel like my work efforts are not being adequately rewarded because of all these taxes I pay?” Next, inquire of yourself; “When I look at D.C, my state, my county and my city, do I feel and see positive results of MY money being spent and/or being spent wisely?”
Allow me to list the taxes we all pay:
- Income taxes; Federal - let’s say the average “effective rate” (what you actually pay after you do your tax return divided by your W2 earnings) is 10%. Note that only 53% of Americans pay income taxes, the rest pay nothing – roughly about 50 to 60 million people. For the sake of argument, let’s say the average family makes $75,000 annually. Their income tax then is $7,500.
- Income taxes; State – Most of us pay state income taxes, unless you live in Florida, like I do, or a few others. Say the average here is 5%. This would equal $3,750.
- Social Security taxes – Roughly 8% of W2 earnings. That’s $6,000.
- Sales tax – Let’s say the average is 5%. If the average family is bringing home $51,750 ($75,000-$7,500 -$3,750-$6,000-another $6,000 for health care) and say pays sales taxes on 40% of that number (consumer goods purchased), that’s $1,100.
- Property taxes - Let’s just say the average is $1,500.
- All others – Estimated at 5% of take home pay (gas, alcohol, cigarettes, estate, special assessments, etc.). This equals $2,588.
So, for a family that earns $75,000 annually – clearly what’s defined as middle class – their disposable income is $47,662. Note my assumptions are very conservative so as to not inflate my position. Thus, the average middle class family has an “effective” tax rate of approximately 37%. On top of all the necessities we have to pay for, make up your owns minds as to whether your comfortable giving the government 37% of “your” money or not.
My position on taxes is simple. At the federal level they are too high and not enough Americans pay taxes so that they can exist in a civil society. No one above the poverty line should be exempt from supporting government’s basic need to facilitate the American Dream. My administration will review the current tax code, currently 71,000 pages and ascertain not only the over complexity of this monstrosity, but also close loopholes that are unfairly advantageous to the very wealth and C corporations (no “all” corporations). These two classes of tax payers should never be exempt from paying taxes ($0) unless either or both have zero cash basis net income (after net operating loss carryforwards). All individual marginal rates would be cut.
After this review, the code will be made materially simpler to understand and implement. These adjustments will include “all” Americans above the poverty line paying federal income tax of at least $500. This fair adjustment to the IRS code would generate $25 billion in additional tax revenue. Money moved offshore would be subject to taxes when reentering the American economy. Lastly, C corporation tax rates would be cut from 35% to 25%, the capital gains rate cut from 15% to 10%, and the so-called death tax abolished.
TAMPA, Florida – Tom Voiland, speaking in front of a Tea Party rally here, had some direct and strong words regarding what he calls “America’s over reliance on government domestic funding” and “the crisis we have moving away from the foundation of American Exceptionalism; self reliance”. Mr. Voiland received several standing ovations from the crowd during and after his “red meat” speech. However, after following his campaign for several weeks now, one can’t help but believe that Mr. Voiland is genuinely sincere in his beliefs and his intention to be the anti-politician.
On Government Spending. Americans have known for many, many years that federal spending has not been adequately controlled. Since 1981, our national debt has increased year over year 30 times (out of 31 years). This means that we have stood by while Washington has spent money our nation does not have. These accumulated budget deficits have added $13 trillion ($13,000,000,000,000) to our national debt. The United States has lived on a credit card for 30 years. Whose fault is this; OURS, the American voter. For a short period of time, we allowed a fiscally conservative Republican Party to control Congress and in that time (mid 1990s to 2001) deficits were decreased and the federal budget was balanced.
As President, I will make balancing the federal budget a top priority as a precursor to a Balanced Budget Amendment. However, the Executive branch of government cannot mandate such legislation. So I’m asking for your help. Let’s continue the work we started in 2010 and produce another wave election for the GOP. With a super-majority in the House and a comfortable majority in the Senate, we as Americans can begin to reverse a cycle that has led this great republic down a road of financial crisis and impending mediocrity amongst leading nations. The main point here regarding the 2012 election cycle is that we elect “conservative” Republicans, not RINOs.
Specifically, I will focus on eliminating any and all government bureaucracies that are unnecessary, e.g., Department of Education, Department of Agriculture (do you know that there are more employees in this Department than there are farmers in the U.S.!), Czars, etc., etc., etc. We will hire – not “appoint” – the best and brightest professionals from the private sector who specialize in process improvement and cost control to review and audit all government spending to uncover all wasteful spending. We will then put into effect best practices and enact laws tied to the Balanced Budget Amendment that will prohibit the bloating of any government agency or program unless these head of these entities justify such growth to a bi-partisan committee on government spending and process efficiencies.
Federal government spending (non military and entitlements) will remain at a level that supports our nation where necessary and will be adequate enough to ensure that support is “effective”. Most importantly, that spending will not be indiscriminately slashed so as to place our national security at risk.
On Entitlement Spending. America’s compassionate legislation borne in the 1930s aimed at assisting the elderly, impoverished and unemployed. In the middle of the Great Depression, this law was absolutely necessary. It also gave Franklin Roosevelt, who was very liberal, the opportunity to imbed social programs into the American lexicon. Although a noble gesture on the part of the United States’ dedication to becoming a more a civil and caring nation, the Social Security Act – along with Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society – has exploded into a federal spending nightmare. In addition, and the most devastating outcome of these programs, America has slowly and growingly become a nation that “feels entitled” to the government taking care of them should they fall upon hard times of any sort. This attitude is in complete opposition to what made America the greatest nation on earth – self reliance. Entitlement spending is out of control, there exists massive inefficiencies within its implementation and management, and yet undetermined material fraud on the part of certain American citizenry.
The moral test of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable members. The poor, infirmed and elderly have the most urgent moral claim on the conscience of our nation. We are called to look at public policy decisions in terms of how they affect these three segments of society. Every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency. The options for the poor, infirmed and elderly are an essential part of society’s effort to achieve the common good. A healthy community can be achieved only if its members give special attention to those with special needs, to those who are poor and on the margins of society.
As President, my Administration and I will review every element of entitlement spending; from Medicare to unemployment compensation to welfare programs, Medicaid, foodstamps, etc. The focus will be on ensuring those programs that are the most vital are made more efficient in their administration, free of material fraud and support their intended constituency adequately and as originally intended. Government safety nets for the poor, elderly and infirmed will be the top priority. In addition, we will concentrate on any areas of “overlap” whereby the government is supporting individuals twice or more when the intention was for a single subsidy.
Federal government entitlement programs above and beyond Social Security will be modified to ensure the focus is on moving Americans away from an entitlement attitude to one of self reliance, the spirit of the original American experience.
TAMPA, Florida – A week after announcing his intentions to seek the highest office in the land, Tom Voiland issued press releases on some very controversial and sensitive proposed policy stances. Voiland, a staunch conservative, used strong clear language when discussing how he would approach abortion and homosexual marriage. This is sure to fire up the left and may alienate independent voters. “I am not seeking the Presidency for power or political gain. I am running to reinstate American Exceptionalism and to not only return the United States to its rightful place as the de facto leader of the world economically, but to return the country to its Judeo-Christian roots and to eradicate the poisonous influence liberalism has had on our great nation.
Abortion – The single greatest issue that faces our nation culturally is the morally reprehensible act of abortion, sanctioned by the Federal government and supported by the left with the canard of “a woman’s right to choose”. Liberalism is so intrinsically morally and intellectually bankrupt that it must disguise the real truth behind this abomination. Liberals refuse to address the medical procedure which kills a completely defensive human being, sometimes painfully. The reason being is that if the country was presented with the truths about abortion on a consistent basis, ardent support would not exist.
American support of abortion – proven through the fact that Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land, along with the acceptance of contraception, promiscuity, homosexuality and divorce, I believe to be the primary reason for the decline of America socially. And has proven in great civilizations such as Rome, the moral decline of the state eventually leads to the collapse of that nation. When faced with the reality of the procedure of abortion, the vast majority of Americans are appalled and will support abolishing this hienous act. Such elimination will be enacted with careful thought, sensitivity and compassion for those women who truly believe they possess the right to choose. Our nation must learn to adopt the belief that a women’s right to choose life or death for their child does not exist in a civilized and Christian society.
The Catholic Church has always condemned abortion as a grave evil. Christian writers from the first-century author of the Didache to Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae (“The Gospel of Life”) have maintained that the Bible forbids abortion, just as it forbids murder. In 1995 Pope John Paul II declared that the Church’s teaching on abortion “is unchanged and unchangeable. Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his successors . . . I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written word of God, is transmitted by the Church’s tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal magisterium. No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church”.
I will make it a priority to have Roe v. Wade overturned and mandate abortion illegal under all circumstances, even in cases of rape and incest. The co creation of human life with God is paramount in all situations. Thus, that human life, a baby, should not have to surrender its life because of the sin of the rapist and/or incestor. Individual states will decide how to implement the new law based on their individual circumstances. However, the Federal government and judicial system will remain completely removed from the support of this issue going forward.
Homosexual Marriage – Homosexuality is an incredibly sensitive subject for most people, especially given the fact that if you are not in favor of the behavior, you are labeled as hateful and bigoted. It’s tantamount to the race card; liberals use these tactics to squelch open, honest and Truthful discussion about certain subjects so as to mandate their ideological dogma and shove it down the throats of American society.
American Exceptionalism is in question as we speak, never having been before. An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote homosexual marriage as normal and morally equivalent to heterosexual marriage. An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote homosexuals, engaged in homosexual behavior, adopting children. The ordained, by God, family unit is a man – the father, and a woman – the mother. An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote homosexuality as normal and morally equivalent to heterosexuality. Homosexuality is an abomination before God. However, homosexuals are not.
If elected, I will spearhead legislation that defines – in absolutely clear terms – that marriage is a union between ”one man and one woman” – period. Marriage and the family unit, the foundation of all civil societies since the dawn of recorded history and created by God himself. Thus, the historical and biblical definition of marriage must be reinstituted and defended by the government of the United States in order to move America back towards our rightful position as leaders of the free world and the most exceptional nation that has ever existed.
Official Announcement
TAMPA, Florida – Standing in front of his church, Christ the King, Tom Voiland announced his intention to seek the highest office in the land. Mr. Voiland was flanked by his wife Leanne, his three children, his parents and the Pastor of Christ the King; Fr. David Toups. Mr. Voiland’s statement was relatively short and focused on his aim to bring Truth and clarity to an otherwise convoluted and as he said, “purely politically motivated” process; the primaries. An excerpt of his announcement cut right to the core of his beliefs. “America was founded and grounded on the Judeo-Christian ethic. The poison of liberalism has slowly eroded that foundation. As it is impossible for Democrats to discuss religion, especially Christianity, within their platform, the Republican Party should not be afraid to openly express our belief that Christianity is the basis for our nation’s great success and the absence of it the root of our great decline”.
Mr. Voiland went on to express his disappointment that the GOP is working from a chapter of the Democratic book that deals with “say anything to placate voters so that you can win and then reveal your true intentions”. Mr. Voiland went on to say, “The Republican candidate for the Presidency should unapologetically speak the Truth to their American sisters and brothers and let the chips fall where they may. The United States is a center-right country who is screaming for a candidate who ‘tells them like it is’, speaks the truth, means it, and does not reverse engineer his or her political policy stances just to win votes. I am that candidate”.
Move to the Right Unimaginable in 2008
When you think about it, it’s nothing short of surreal that the Republican Party has been in control of the issues at the local, state and Federal levels of politics since 2009. Why? Because beginning in 2006 and culminating in a volcano of momentum in 2008, all indicators pointed toward the beginning of a generational shift in power to the Democrats. Oh what can happen in a year under Obama and when raw liberalism is exposed to this nation.
By the fall of 2009 Chris Christie became Governor of one of the most liberal of liberal states – New Jersey. Bob McDonnell took the gubernatorial race in Virginia, a state that went blue just a “year” earlier. Then a Republican wins Ted Kennedy’s seat in the Senate! The latter is most shocking, not only because Scott Brown was the GOP candidate, not because the state is dark blue, but because history shows that the candidate running in the seat of the deceased wins from the ”sympathy vote”. Not any or all three of these realities could save Obama and the Democrats from their complete incompetence and liberal overreach. In addition, the country had moved passed Bush hatred, war fatigue, and the lie that the deep recession was all the GOP’s fault.
This is Not Your Father’s GOP
Since I’ve been following politics, Republican political candidates and Republican office holders were old, white and male. Incredible what happens when Conservatism embeds in the American psyche and the canard of liberalism runs out of steam. First, the GOP had Sarah Palin who set us on fire, although the unprecedented onslaught of media scrutiny denigrated and soiled this incredibly refreshing politician’s character. The attacks of course came from women on the left; those who sung “I am woman, watch me roar”, complained about a glass ceiling in corporate America, screamed sexual discrimination at every turn, et al. What a bunch of hypocrites! Oh yeah, they’re liberals. You know what really got under their (short) finger nails? These women hated the fact that this “woman” was Conservative, long-haired, an unapologetic mom, and hot, over and above being aggressive and not toeing the liberal line.
Now we have another woman, Michelle Bachman, who is waging a serious run at the Chief Executive position. She’s also super Conservative, outspoken, long-haired, etc. Then there is a “black American” candidate who is Conservative, a businessman and unafraid to challenge his community’s self-imposed ills, victimhood attitude and attachment to the Democratic party who has completely failed them. Rather than go on, here is some information on the serious GOP candidates for the Office of the President of the United States. An incredibly strong and “diverse” group. Wait, didn’t the left invent the word diversity?
Michele Bachmann
Michele Bachmann, the three terms Minnesota Congresswoman, is the current chair of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus. The attractive Iowan has seen her fortune plummet in recent weeks following the entry of Texas Governor, Rick Perry, into the race. The resignation of deputy campaign manager, David Polyansky, and the redeployment of campaign manager Ed Rollins into a consulting role tell us that all is not well in the Bachmann camp. Her September poll numbers, hovering between 6-8%, is just a third of her post-Ames Straw Poll victory figures barely a month ago. Pundits have long cited the risks of Bachmann’s increasing tendency to move to the right, and it now appears that she may be holding her two top strategists responsible for the shift in her campaign’s fortunes.
Bachmann’s profile and positions on the issues.
Herman Cain
Cancer survivor, YouTube sensation and former mathematician with the US Navy, Herman Cain has a résumé that demands your attention. His experience on all three major fronts of American politics – corporate, legislative and media – through his stellar career at Pillsbury, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (as chairman) and as the host of WSB’s “The Herman Cain Show” in Atlanta, guarantees that the articulate Republican will never face a question of credibility.
Cain’s profile and positions on the issues
Newt Gingrich
After a 13-year absence from mainstream politics, Newton Leroy Gingrich has announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. His campaign, which kicks off with 17-city swing, has unfortunately begun under a torrent of criticisms following his controversial statements on Medicare and a perceived attack of fellow Republican Paul Ryan. Nevertheless, Gingrich, a fighter and above all, a consummate politician, is expected to make a swift recovery and stamp his mark on the race
Gingrich’s profile and positions on the issues
Ron Paul
The former medical doctor officially announced his candidacy for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination on May 13, 2011. The 75-year old Texas Congressman will once again center his campaign on the theme of liberty, human rights and financial market reforms. With his small but vocal pockets of supporters spread all over the country, the Libertarian leaning Republican is set to be one of the most controversial characters on the campaign trail.
Paul’s profile and positions on the issues
Rick Perry
After almost two years of uncertainty, Texas Governor Rick Perry’s wall of resistance has crumbled. Perry took advantage of the publicity generated by the Ames Straw Poll and announced his entry into the Republican nomination race in Charleston, South Carolina, with a confident declaration, “I full well believe I’m going to win”. His candidacy is expected to reinvigorate the hitherto subdued Republican evangelical grassroots, and inject some excitement into the contest.
Perry’s profile and positions on the issues
Mitt Romney
The Harvard man has been comfortably leading almost every poll since then. He was knocked off his perch for about two months by Texas Governor, Rick Perry, during the summer of 2011. However, he has since recovered and has once again returned to his seat at the top of the leader board. And unless Perry, Cain, Huntsman, Bachmann and company can pull something out of their collective hats, the liberal turned conservative turned moderate former venture capitalist may just walk through the primaries. While his ideology and personal beliefs may be subject to debate, his knack for business is beyond question – and his across the board appeal makes him a dangerous opponent for President Obama.
Christ is the Ultimate Example of Love
When I sit back and think about how I’ve acted or treated people in certain situations, I often ask myself WWCD (what would Christ do?) or more accurately WWCHD (what would Christ have done?). Most of the time the answer is “not what you did Tom!”. The reason is simple; I don’t know how to approach everyone and everything with love and with patience. After all, I am only human and patience is not my virtue. There is one person, who just happens to be God – Christ Jesus – who never once was unloving, impatient or judgemental with anyone he came in contact with. Not once. Imagine that. Even the Pharisees, who were hellbent on convicting him of blasphemy so they could have him put to death, were not subject to His scorn or intolerance. And they were Jews, His chosen people and His children! You’d think He would have been so hurt, so disappointed and so angry that he would have lashed out, lost his cool, hated them. Never.
Often, when I sit at Mass and stare at the Crucifix, I am overwhelmed with emotion. Here is this man, my Lord and my God, who not only subjected Himself to being human, but willfully endured the most painful and humiliating execution known at the time; death on a cross. And He did this out of love for me, because He wanted to spend eternity in Heaven with me! He didn’t even know me? But then I remember; “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Luke 12 7. After the Jews had succeeded in convicting Him (falsely) and convinced the Romans to crucify Him, he was nailed to a tree. As He hung there in excruciating pain, tired, thirsty, separated from His Father, all alone, the first words He uttered were these; “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” Until the bitter end, he would not hate, he would not hold a grudge, His fidelity to us remained. WWCHD????? He would have Loved!
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus Christ.
We are Born from Love and Must Live to Love
“He who has seen Me has seen the Father” John 14:9. This references to God the Father from his Son, the human Jesus Christ, tells us everything about the Father. First, that God the Father is not a big, muscle-bound, white-bearded man sitting on a marble throne ready to crush us when we sin. But second, and most importantly, is that God the Father is “revealed” in and by the Son. By saying revealed by the Son means that Christ and the Father are in total union with each other (the mystery of the Trinity along with the Holy Spirit). So Christ’s message, the way He treated people, the way He acted, His lack of anger, His humility, His patience, His mercy, and ultimately His love, demonstrates what the Father is like.
God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.1 John 4 8
God is love. It’s is never referenced in Scripture or Sacred Tradition that God the Father is a “person in the flesh”. Only religious paintings depict that. I believe that God the Father is the Being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshipped as creator and ruler of the universe. As hard as it is to fathom, God is just love, a Being of perfect love; nothing more, nothing less – Love. When it is written, “let us make man in our image”, it can’t mean human likeness, because only Christ (God) was human which happened through His biological conception via the Holy Spirit. I believe “our image” means a physical being with the capacity to love, love deeply, love fully. Unfortunately, that damn apple took that away. Although our capacity to love remains, it is in no way the same as before we were cast out of paradise. Why? Sin.
God the Father is an entity of some sort, not the personification of love, but the essence of love. Here are some synonyms of essence for clarification purposes; heart, spirit, alpha and omega, center, core, embodiment, epitome, incarnation, manifestation. Since God ordains our life and creates our soul and God is love, then we are born from love, then we must live to love. To love completely, to love openly, to love deeply, to love patiently, to love without the fear that it may be unrequited. This is what it means to love, just as Christ loves us, just as the Father loves us. And given God will endure forever, so will love.
“A friend loves at all times.” Proverbs 17 17
“Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves………has fulfilled the law.” Paul to the Romans.
“Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4 8
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is [a]born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4 16
“Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” Colassions 3 14
More of the Same and More to Come
It began just one year after King Obama assumed his throne with the notion that there would be a generational shift to the left in America’s political power. Last night’s crushing defeats in New York and Nevada are further proof that the whole thing in 2008 was an anomaly and a charade based on war fatigue, Bush hatred and that Obama was a Black American. In NY 9, a Republican has not held that seat in over ninety years! However its a heavily Jewish electorate who obviously are unhappy with Obama’s cold shouldering Israel.
In November of 2009, two Republicans; Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell trounced Democrats in gubernatorial races. Christie beat a liberal in one of the most liberal states – New Jersey, and McDonnell beat Tim Kaine in Virginia which had gone to Obama in 2008. Then the shocker of all. Scott Brown, a Republican, took over Ted Kennedy’s seat in Massachusetts – of all places. Just incredible and a foreshadowing of things to come and dismissing the insane notion that the country was shifting to the left.
We all know what happened in November 2010. The Democrats were destroyed in a wave election, something no one could believe after the 2008 results. All thanks to President Obama, his progressive policies that America did not want, and a hallmark of liberal politicians - overreaching. In addition, over six hundred seats at the state and local levels switched to the GOP nationally. America had spoken. Amazingly enough even to those of us who know how lacking in common sense liberals are, Democrats are forging ahead with their agenda, undeterred. This includes President Obama. Do they want to lose another sixty seats in the House, lose the Senate and the Executive branch, over and above Governor’s Mansions and more state/local seats – we can only dream!! But it’s going to happen.
It’s the Tea Party, Those Blood Hungry Racists!
The Tea Party, not really a party but purely an American movement, is greatly responsible for telling Obama to “speak to the hand”. These are mostly blue collar Americans who just would not take anymore, and especially from a bunch of liberals. I am not a member, but a fan. And the fact is that they will all vote Republican. The Democrats have been and are foaming at the mouth, trying everything to denigrate the movement. It’s only made it stronger and made Democrats look like the intellectually dishonest adolescents that they are. Even the Democrat in last night’s New York City District 9 race was trying to win on stamping his opponent as a Tea Partier – it’s just hysterical. There is going to be an earthquake in 14 months that will move this country, politically, farther to the right. Something completely unimaginable in the fall of 2008. But like Jimmy Carter who lives vicariously through President Obama, a progressive Chief Executive that disdains our military and is a Muslim sympathizer at a time when that is off limits, has handed the mantle back to the GOP. The question is, what will Republicans do with the baton?
G.O.P. Gains House Seat Vacated by Weiner
GOP maintains stranglehold on 2nd Congressional District
GOP Wins in NY Race, Seen as Obama Rebuke
Huberis Continues for Obama
In his political game of Risk, President Obama uses the Office of the Presidency not to lead, but to attempt to further his political ideology. We’ve seen it time and time and time again, yet he continues undeterred. Has anybody out there experienced anything like this? Any (successful) leader adjusts his or her strategic and tactical plans according to the facts on the ground, as it were, and most of all does what he or she has to do to get “buy in” from the team. This President has done neither. He doesn’t care; he and his progressive entourage are omniscient as far as they’re concerned.
Not one of his 57 speeches touting his unabashed political liberalism has done anything to move the American people, that is other than to placate his liberal base for election purposes – shameful. But then again it’s a cult of personality for those folks. They are as out-of-touch as he is. In addition, zero of his policies have been supported by a majority of this country’s electorate; not Obamacare, not the Stimulus, not rescinding the Bush Tax Cuts, not the Debt Battle and not his latest attempt to bilk the country of more taxes. And why is it always “we gotta do it now!!!!” Why, Mr. President? Why can’t our elected representatives and the American people digest your proposals before stuffing them down our throats? Because you know we would repudiate them.
Keep it coming Mr. President, you’re paving the way for another wave election for the GOP. A supermajority willl cement a hard move to the right, which is what this country desperately needs.
Obama Wants to Spend More and Tax More
Obama proposes tax hikes on wealthy to pay for $447B jobs bill
Obama Pushes Jobs Plan: “Pass It Immediately”
Obama’s Plan Is Lousy Economics
Obama, the Veg-O-Matic President. Act Now!
From the Beginning there was Love
One of the best things about being an author, in this case a blogger, is having artistic or poetic license. That is, the ability to alter text or grammar, to reword something to fit a situation or improve on it to meet your particular purpose. Poetic license really shouldn’t alter the facts, though sometimes it does. I’ll use some artistic license here to show how central love is to our lives, our sheer existence from beginning to end. As Christians we know that God is love and love is God. We also believe that the Father and Son are one. So from John 1:
“In the beginning was Love, and Love was with God, and Love was God. Love was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Love, and apart from Love nothing came into being that has come into being. In Love was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
You know, all of us Catholics were taught that God the Father was this big man sitting on a throne above us with a white beard and nary a smile on his face. We were told how much He loves us, that His love is so all encompassing that its depth is incomprehensible. The problem is that the Old Testament God was depicted so negatively. A big part of the blame goes to the High Priests who illustrated the image of God in such a manner to serve their own purposes (the same ultra-dogmatic hypocrites that Jesus dealt with in His public life). Also, it was humans interpreting God’s words and actions in the context of their time, their ability to discern and their true understanding of his intentions. Fact is “God’s ways are not our ways, they are as far above us as Heaven”, so we will never truly understand His motives.
In any event, God the Father was, and still is, very misunderstood. One of Christ’s many challenges was to clear up misinterpretations of His Father and present Him differently. If we build our vision of God the Father on His Son’s portrayal, we’ll realize who the Father really is. Remember what Christ said, “He who has seen me, has seen the Father”. The reality is that God the Father is not an old mean man sitting on a marble throne. God is perfected love encompassed in a being, and His Son is perfected love incarnate in human flesh.
I’ve spent a bunch of time over the last year trying to become closer to the Father, through prayer, asking God to help me reconcile His Old Testament wrath with the reality of His love within Christ. Here’s the passage that I keep coming back to; “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3-16. In giving His only Son, He was giving Him up to suffer a horrendous death so those He created could be with Him, for those He loved; his children – us.
God Is Love and Allows Us to Make Love
As I’ve become more mature emotionally and in my faith journey, so many incredible thoughts have manifested themselves in my mind and heart. This is completely due to my beloved Catholic Church and what she has taught me over the years. One of the most astounding realizations when at Mass one Sunday with my wife and kids was this Gospel reading from Mark, 10:6; “At the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
As only he can, based on Apostolic Succession, our Priest interpreted the Gospel reading. He said something that just blew my mind. He mentioned that the “two becoming one flesh” was a direct reference to intercourse between a husband and wife wh0, at that time, are participating with God in the co-creation of life. Why do you think they call it “making love”? It was this epiphany that took me down a path towards orthodox Catholicism regarding the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. It also solidified in my mind what I knew all along about premarital sex – it’s always wrong. Not because I believe a man and woman cannot be in love outside of marriage. But because the physical union between them is not blessed by God. The Father did not say “a man will leave his father and mother and be united to a woman“, He said to his wife. The two can only become one flesh in marriage – period.
Another realization about the dangers of premarital and extramarital sex came to me through a very close Evangelical buddy of mine. Although we are not of the same denomination, we are brothers in Christ. I was preparing with him for a presentation I was to give students at St. Leo University in San Antonio, Florida. I was talking to them about my journey through life and wanted the emphasis of my talk to be the toll premarital and extramarital sex has on one’s emotional health. My buddy Ed said to me, “when you make love outside of marriage, not only is the union illicit in the eyes of God, but if that person should exit your life, a part of your soul goes with them. Because the two become one flesh. It’s impossible to separate that. Wow! As St. Paul corroborates and clarifies; “Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.”
A Heart and Soul Scared and Never to be the Same
That discussion with my friend was a final piece of the puzzle for me in a journey that began long ago. From a young child I was close to Christ and he wrote right and wrong on my heart. I always knew that I should not be intimate with a woman until I was married. Unfortunately, I gave into the sin of lust as a willing, but adolescent decision, treating sex as many, many people do; as a recreational activity – as fun. As I think of it now, I shutter. Who was I to participate in the co-creation of life with women outside of marriage – for fun, because it felt good? How could I spit on God like that? Because “life” is what he gave me through two married people. What transpired in my life after that first fateful decision has been only confusion and hurt with regard to relationships and intimacy, a just punishment from our Lord who blessed me with knowing the true meaning of love between a man and woman.
When I was in graduate school and after the break-up of a long standing relationship, I began to dedicate myself to the Church and Mass again after an off and on period. I would go to a small university church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It was there that I met a young lady who I would eventually fall madly in love with. This time it was different for me, I can’t explain it, but I had never felt like that before, it was so genuine, so intense, so pure that I was washed away by the whole experience. Here I was, 25 years old, living a dream I had always wanted; I had accepted my first professional position with Arthur Andersen, I knew the best years were in front of me, so much promise and now I meet this incredible girl “at Mass”. For me, a story right out of a romance novel.
Unfortunately, and in direct disobedience to Christ, I seduced this girl and early on. Little did I know that I had already destroyed any possibility of continuing to live this dream, because God brought me an amazing gift in this girl and I proceeded to kick Him right in the teeth. Needless to say, it ended and I was hurt in the process. The experience was so devastating that I have never truly recovered, but the encounter was the seminal event of my life; it led to the beginning of my love affair with Christ and His bride – the Catholic Church. Shortly after being left at the altar ( figuratively, not literally) I began to lay in bed each night and speak to Christ out loud, something I had never done before, but I knew he was the only friend I had who understood what I was going through. I was begging him to bring this girl back to me. Then it happened, I can’t explain it. Christ spoke to my mind and said, “Tom, I took my gift away from you because you disrespected that gift by having sex out of wedlock – My precious Sacrement; disobeying me and causing her to sin”. I wept bitterly at the Truth of it. I was never to be the same again. The happy ending is that the girl and I eventually crossed paths and reconciled, and I found my wife.
Love Defined
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails………. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians.
A Shining City Upon a Hill
In his farewell address to the nation on January 11, 1989, President Ronald Reagan used the image of “A shining city upon a hill” to describe America. Certainly, Reagan was responsible for marching that lamp back to the top after modern liberalism exploded in the late ’60s. That misguided movement focused on blowing out the candle and Jimmy Carter finished the job by kicking the lamp to the bottom with his disastrous presidency. I consider the events leading up to 1979 to be one of the most significant assaults on American greatness ever.
Of course, Reagan did not invent the saying, a shining city on a hill. The phrase is derived from the parable of Salt and Light in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:14, he tells his listeners,“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.” Our usage of the phrase entered the American lexicon early in our history, in the Puritan John Winthrop’s 1630 sermon “A Model of Christian Charity”. Still aboard the ship Arbella, Winthrop admonished the future Massachusetts Bay colonists that their new community would be a “city upon a hill”, watched by the world. Winthrop’s sermon gave rise to the widespread belief that the United States of America is God’s country because metaphorically it is a Shining City upon a Hill, an early example of American exceptionalism.
The image was used a number of times in American politics before Reagan. On January 9, 1961, President-Elect John F. Kennedy returned the phrase to prominence during an address delivered to the General Court of Massachusetts: “…I have been guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his shipmates on the flagship Arbella three hundred and thirty-one years ago, as they, too, faced the task of building a new government on a perilous frontier. ‘We must always consider’, Winthrop said,’ that we shall be as a city upon a hill—the eyes of all people are upon us”. Today the eyes of all people are truly upon us—and our governments, in every branch, at every level, national, state and local, must be as a city upon a hill — constructed and inhabited by men aware of their great trust and their great responsibilities….For of those to whom much is given, much is required…”
Clearly, President Kennedy was a moderate Conservative. Could you imagine a Democrat today making specific reference to an orthodox Christian like John Winthrop? Impossible. They would be a pariah in the party. How about “for those to whom much is given, much is required”. Invoking Christ’s words? Would never happen. Liberals and their appointed king Barack Obama are attempting to further dull the shine of America that Reagan had returned to this nation and one that began to tarnish after his departure. Are American Conservatives and moderates going to allow this to happen?
Liberalism’s Disastrous Effects on America and our Culture
As I’ve mentioned many times before, I believe modern liberalism to be the poison that is slowly sucking the lifeblood out of America (and Europe, which is probably already damaged beyond repair). Its destructive influence has, and continues to, lay ruin to our social, economic and moral fiber. The most damaging element of Liberalism is that it snowballs, feeding on itself and absorbing everything in its path. As each line it attacks is blurred, the next is set and then blurred, and so on.
An example is in the entertainment field; think about it. If you’re old enough to remember, there was a time when television, radio, movies and magazines actually adhered to a moral code that was based on common sense. If there were nudity and sex, it was not on TV, only in R rated movies. The same with foul language, violence, homosexuality, etc. Pornographic magazines were only found in seedy stores and the radio had not one station where you could hear four letter words six times in a sentence and women referred to as “bitches” on a regular basis. This liberal cultural shift has openly exposed adult themed programs and expressions to children, ill-equipped to process it correctly.
In the name of personal expression, so-called progressiveness, political correctness, this cultural shift has produced an onslaught of immodest, unChristian, secular progressive crap to the general public. It’s removed most family oriented programming from TV which now has 1,000 channels, most of which stream with liberal bilge (Jersey Shore? Real Housewives? The REAL World – MTV, etc, etc) that inundates us with sinful content. You simply can’t get away from it no matter how aggressively you work the remote control or your radio dial. The leaders of the moral destruction of the city upon the hill are liberals in entertainment, the media – print and TV/cable, and academics. The sickening thing is that liberals account for about 21% of the population. The math doesn’t work! That is unless you add up the dollars at work and the fact that the power structure in these segments is completely liberal. In other words, the game is rigged.
The greatest disappointment, however, is the lack of a concerted effort on the part of Christians to boycott all this trash versus accepting it to a certain extent, The attitude of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” pervades a lot of the Christian community. More specifically, and painfully so, the lion’s share of the liberal buy in is within the Catholic Church versus Evangelicals. Just check the polls and see how many Catholics voted for Obama; shameful. A lot of the most liberal states in the Union have very high populations of Catholics; Maryland (named for our Lady), Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut. We should be ashamed of ourselves. If you’re not an orthodox Catholic, you’re a CINO, plain and simple. If you find that offensive and judgmental, so be it. Read my post Call Yourself Catholic? Vote Like One! and read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. And we wonder why separated Christians, who by and large are much more Conservative than Catholics, look down on us?
Economic Destruction that we Saw Coming and Did Nothing About
The effects of modern liberalism on America’s fiscal and economic health are all too apparent as I write this post. The nanny state, whose genesis lies in the New Deal of perhaps the most liberal President of all time, FDR, is killing America from within. The Great Society; LBJ’s contribution to a growing entitlement attitude by throngs of Americans, exploded the “I need or want mine” culture. Painfully, George Bush and the RINOs that ran Congress in the early part of the last decade did much to expand government. Now, there’s Barack Obama, a quasi-Socialist, who may have put the final bullet in the ailing body of the American economy. We saw this coming years ago, but did nothing about it as voters and concerned citizens, we just kept on with our lives.
Barack Obama and the Democrats have added more to our National Debt then had been accumulated in the first 217 years of American history. Think about this now. Our national debt is $15 trillion ($15,000,000,000,000). When the Democrats took over Congress in 2006, it was $8 trillion, still a respectable 50% of GDP, $4.4 trillion added since Obama took office. We are now at 100% of GDP, and this lunatic wants to raise the debt ceiling to $18 trillion! Although I am not part of the movement, it seems the nation is ready to do something about our government overspending and the entitlement culture. Enter the Tea Party..
Liberals are Welcome, Liberalism is Not
One of the central themes of Christ’s earthly ministry was to love; love God, love thy neighbor, love your enemy – simply love. Often ascribed to Jesus, the phrase; “with love for mankind and hatred of sins” was actually first spoken by St. Augustine in a 424 A.D. letter (made more famous by Mahatma Gandhi with “love the sinner, hate the sin”). So although Jesus didn’t say it himself, the Church did which is one in the same. Thus, Christ mandated that we love each other, period. However, he never said we had to love other’s actions, lifestyle choices, their ideology, the prevailing social and cultural norms of the day, etc. As Catholics, we are allowed to hate sin, to abhor it. Doesn’t this make sense; given sin is the barrier between us and God?
So my example of Christ’s mandate is that we must love liberals and hate liberalism. We must pray that liberals will reconsider their ideology and belief systems. We must pray for those who really never had a chance to lead a Conservative life because their upbringing may be scared by the poison of liberalism; divorced parents, an abortion, lack of discipline, etc. Thus, liberals must always be welcomed as any others; we’re all the same, we’re God’s children. But liberalism is not welcome because its components are so counter to Christ’s words and Catholic doctrine. Liberalism is especially not welcome at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This ideology is the antithesis of what transpires at a Catholic Mass. Thus, it needs to be rooted out, led first by the Church itself in an unapologetic fashion from the pulpit and in Rome’s mandated changes, and second by orthodox Catholics who have had enough, strongly voicing their opinions on the subject.
There’s no doubt that the effects of modern liberalism has propagated sin in this country. There’s birth control, abortion, divorce, the acceptance, and sometimes promotion, of homosexuality, promiscuity, the explosion of plastic surgery, so called “body art” all over the place, the list goes on. As much as we may detest these things – and we should – we cannot throw the baby out with the proverbial bathwater. I’ll be perfectly honest with you; I am the biggest offender of disliking the sin and the sinner because of viscerally despising liberalism. This is totally wrong and unChrist-like, but I’m getting better, much better. The difference is my deepening Catholic faith and a concentration on being non-judgmental, which Jesus demanded we do. I now look upon people who carry the signs of liberalism and try to consider circumstance in their past or present that have caused them to adopt this completely misguided ideology. Perhaps they’ve never known better? Maybe early childhood circumstances lead them to embrace it. But I just refuse to believe that God incarnated any of us to naturally embrace actions and lifestyles that are inherently sinful.
Just as Presidents, like Bill Clinton (Monica Lewinsky) and Barack Obama, can’t diminish the “Office of the Presidency of the U.S.” that has been built over centuries now, so shouldn’t liberalism soil American Exceptionalism. But it is. Are we going to stand by and watch the light upon the hill be extinguished? God help us if it does.
This post dedicated to my brother Bobby who helped me deepen my Catholic Faith; love ya dude.
The Mass is to be Completely Respected by All Participants
I’ve been attending Mass, well, since almost the day I was born. Growing up in Brooklyn and attending a Gothic style church just after Vatican II, I remember the palpable feeling of holiness within St. Marks. At Mass; before, during, and after, there was almost complete silence (except for the occasional cry of a child) because this was a Catholic church, a place of prayer, reflection and reverence, with God in the Tabernacle. Parishioners dressed with reverence, entered the Narthex with reverence, entered the Nave with reverence, spoke with reverence, prayed with reverence, approached the altar with reverence, received Communion with reverence, and left the church with reverence. We were to venerate the Holy Eucharist and completely respect the Sanctuary. The real presence of Christ in the Tabernacle, as unbelievable as it may sound to atheists, agnostics, separated Christians and some Catholics, is a fact to the Church. This grand mystery is hard to fathom, but through Apostolic Succession, Sacred Tradition and Scripture, we know this to be true.
When we moved to Florida (early ’70s), even though our church was not as grand as St. Marks, its holiness was protected by the examples of the priests and the edict of the Pastor. But as the years have gone by, with Vatican II implemented in a liberal fashion and with Americans becoming increasingly liberal – more or less, including Catholics, irreverence at Mass is rampant and alarming. A Catholic church is simply not a place where you act any way you want. You carry yourself with absolute reverence “in God’s actual presence”.
Reverence of God’s Presence Well Documented
An example of the tradition of unconditional adoration of God can be found in Exodus when Moses approached the Burning Bush. God was actually present and told Moses to take off his sandals and not come any closer because “he was standing on holy ground”. Another example is the Temple in Jerusalem. The most sacred part of the Temple was the Sanctuary. The first hall was called the Holy Place. No one was allowed to enter it, except priests twice a day. Beyond the Holy Place was a smaller room called the Holy of Holies. This room originally contained the Ark of the Covenant: a large box covered in gold that held the bones of Joseph (Jacob’s son) and the tablets of the Ten Commandments. God was believed to be invisibly present in the Ark, as if it were “sitting on his throne”. The Holy of Holies could only be entered once a year by the High Priest, on Yom Kippur.
The Jews venerated something, the Temple, with incredible humility and respect. Jesus called it “His Father’s House”. Jews could not imagine defiling the Sanctuary in any way, shape or form, because it was God’s place. So why do Catholics so easily disrespect the Sanctuary, where God is present in the consecrated hosts, during the Sacrifice of the Mass? The answer is obvious; the lack of reverence at Mass is emblematic of liberalism’s effect on our society, including Catholics and the Clergy. The sad fact is that most Catholic Pastors are more interested in “shepherding the flock” no matter how wild the flock is, as long as the flock fill the baskets, instead of protecting the sanctity of the church and the Tabernacle.
Reestablishing the Veneration of the Mass
The Catholic Church must reestablish the absolute expectation that those who enter the Nave and participate in Mass do so with complete reverence. Sadly, what we get now in most churches is noise, distractions, insipid preaching, and maybe even “entertainment.” But we don’t get the Mass as the Church wants us to get it. Instead, we get:
- Popular music rather than sacred music—syrupy folk songs or even drums and electric guitars instead of chant and hymns that normal people can actually sing.
- Adult women and young girls who look like they are preparing for a night of club hopping, openly displaying the “junk in their trunks”, cleavage, tramp-stamps and t-backs versus covering up as a sign of humility and virtue.
- An atmosphere so lacking in reverence that private prayer before or after Mass is difficult because of all the chattering (by people who enter movie theaters in perfect silence).
- Extraordinary ministers who are so numerous that one begins to wonder if the word extraordinary has had its meaning reversed by some governmental commission.
- Priests who bow at the altar of political correctness by substituting “people”, ”persons” “brothers and sisters” in place of the written Word in Scripture that refers to the masculine “man”, “brothers”, etc.
- Catholics so devoid of doctrinal knowledge that they don’t touch the Holy Water font on entering the Nave, don’t know how to genuflect – or don’t at all – don’t know how to properly recieve our Lord in the Eucharist and don’t even make the sign of the cross when called to do so.
Sadly, the list of liturgical and sacramental abuses goes on and on. The “sense of sacred” and the mystery of the Mass have been tragically lost in many Catholic parishes these days—precisely because the liturgy isn’t being celebrated correctly. As a result, millions of Catholics—and especially our Catholic children—are growing up without a proper understanding of the holy sacrifice and what it could and should mean in their daily lives.
There’s an old Latin saying—“Lex orandi, lex credendi”—which, loosely translated, means “the way you pray affects the way you believe.” So if the Mass is celebrated in a casual, lackadaisical, worldly, “people-pleasing” way, it stands to reason that there will be a weaker understanding of what the Mass really is—and thus a weakening of people’s faith, particularly their belief in the Real Presence.
Thank God for Pope Benedict VXI
The Man!
Pope Benedict is on a mission to restore the “sacred” to the sacred liturgy—and thus restore the faith of the people. In his brand-new apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (“The Sacrament of Love”), the Pope lays out his plan to revive the proper celebration of the Eucharist, which, as he points out, is “at the root of every form of holiness” and “the source and summit of the Church’s life.”
Along those lines, the Pope lists everything he wants to see fixed, changed, and improved upon in how the Mass is celebrated in parishes around the world. Specifically, he deals with:
- Why Catholic politicians and leaders must publicly express their faith—especially those beliefs that are not negotiable, including defense of life from conception to natural death, family built around one man and one woman, freedom to educate one’s children, and the promotion of the common good. Moreover, why bishops must strongly reaffirm these values!
- Why Catholics should more frequently go to confession in order to receive Holy Communion worthily.
- Why priestly celibacy is so important as a pure imitation of Christ.
- Why divorced and remarried Catholics are not allowed to partake of the Eucharist (that is unless the marriage is properly annulled by the Church), but how they can participate in other ways at Mas.
- The proper way to bring the faithful to participate in the liturgy.
- Why vestments, furnishings, art, and liturgical texts—even church architecture—are so important to a proper celebration of the Eucharist.
- Why the music at Mass should never undermine the meaning of the liturgy—and why Gregorian chant should be preferred.
- Why homilies need to be improved and made more catechetical—avoiding the generic and abstract homilies that seem to be so popular today.
- Why the presentation of the gifts and the sign of peace need to be done reverently.
- Why non-Catholics cannot receive the Eucharist.
- Why Latin should be used more frequently in the Mass—especially in the music.
- Why outward signs of reverence for the Eucharist are so important—particularly the gestures of genuflecting and kneeling.
- Why the location of the tabernacle is so important—and where it really should be.
- Why the Sunday obligation must be reaffirmed.
- How the Eucharist can combat today’s secularization and the marginalization of the Christian faith.
- Why priests should celebrate Mass regularly—even if the faithful aren’t present.
All this—and much more—is coming to a church near you! Its “Sacramentum Caritatis” starring Pope Benedict XVI and all Catholics in tow. Nuns, dust off your habits, Priests grow a spine, Catholic men “man up” and lead, and Catholic women leave the Jersylicious wardrobe at home. The Church is turning to the right and Thank God.
Responding to the Debt Ceiling Debate
The following is a response by a reader “Freeman” regarding the debt ceiling debate and its false foundational elements in his view. Although my readers can review his reply in the comment section of my post; “President and Democrats Demagogue, GOP Stays Focused on November 2010 Mandate”, the response deserves it’s own place in this blog whether believed or not. Anyone who is this passionate about their beliefs about what is ailing this great Republic deserves to be heard. Check it out.
Federal Reserve and Big Banks Play Games with America’s Future
The entire debt ceiling debate that is being covered religiously by the corporate controlled media and is nothing more than a fraud surrounded by false ideologies on both sides of this phony political spectrum. This problem is very simple to solve and it defies logic that not one single person in the corporate controlled media or in government appears willing to discuss a legitimate solution. The Debt Ceiling is a hoax, a political scam according to some. Instead, the politicians and the corporate controlled media propagandists prefer to offer fake solutions that keep the current debt based monetary system in place.
The argument is primarily focused around Democrats demanding so-called revenue increases with spending cuts, where as the Republicans are demanding no tax increases combined with slightly more aggressive spending cuts. Although it is true that government spending is wildly out of control and should be drastically cut, neither of these proposals come anywhere close to offering real reform. They are merely proposals designed to keep the current system in place when the system itself is the real problem. Currently, there are many sovereign countries that find themselves in an enormous amount of debt. The reason for this is because of the myriad of central banking systems that operate in conjunction with these nations. These systems operate off of the concept that all money is debt.
Deficit Spending is a Game that Feeds the Animal
In the case of the United States whenever the government needs to deficit spend they borrow it from the Federal Reserve at interest. The Federal Reserve provides the United States Treasury Federal Reserve Notes that they create out of nothing in exchange for bonds or debt. As these Federal Reserve Notes circulate in the economy and get stored in banks, these banks can loan out many times the amount of money that they have on hand.
For many years banks could loan out ten times the amount of cash on hand. In other words, these banks could simply create additional Federal Reserve Notes out of nothing and force the borrower to pay interest on it based off of the amount of reserves at their disposal. In this system, all money is debt and the people are taxed so that the government can pay back interest on the debt that originated from the funds that the Federal Reserve simply created out of nothing. It is nothing more than a scam designed to ensure that the people are enslaved to a system of debt that the government can never pay back.
As a result, the debate surrounding the debt ceiling, spending cuts and the like is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. There is no real debate going on as it is just staged theatre between two factions of a one party system. There is zero difference between both the Republican and Democrat parties as for decades they have continued supporting this phony monetary system that has bankrupted the nation and made the American people debt slaves.
U.S. Should Issue its Own Currency
As a sovereign entity the United States Treasury could simply issue its own currency free from the burden of debt or interest payments and use that to pay off its debts. Abraham Lincoln did this by financing the Civil War through the issuance of Greenbacks.
To reiterate, a sovereign entity does not need to borrow from the Federal Reserve or any other lending institution when it can issue its own currency. The fact that not one politician or one media pundit has brought up this fact shows that nobody is interested in truly resolving this crisis and are only interested in continuing the status quo.
The only way this debt problem will ever be truly resolved is if the debt based monetary system that is facilitated through the Federal Reserve is phased out and replaced with a non-debt based monetary system. Additionally, gold and silver coins should be brought back into active circulation with the U.S. Mint stamping out silver coins with a $50 face value and gold coins with a $2,000 face value. The reason why they do not circulate now is because the face value of the coins is far less than the actual melt value of the coins. If a piece of paper can be worth $100 just by the fact that it says $100 on it, there is no reason why the U.S. Mint can’t do the same thing with the coins. If these two ideas were implemented, the debt crisis would soon no longer exist, there would be no reason for excessive taxation and the U.S. government would be able to finance a myriad of programs for the benefit of the American people.
It is hard to say how this manufactured crisis is going to end but with nobody offering any real solutions, it is quite possible this is just another way for the establishment to further weaken the U.S. economy and make the prospect of global government all the more possible.
Either way, it should be very interesting to watch this disgusting circus unfold over the next few days as the politicians and talking heads continue to argue over their fake solutions.
President and Democrats Continue to Fail, Yet They Remain Obstinate
President Barack Obama is still taking his victory lap from 2008, even though he’s run into a tree on the way. Since March of 2009, the American’s support of his agenda and leadership have steadily declined. Why? Because as if he were a monarch, he stares down his nose at the American people, arrogantly pressing forward with ideological policy decisions that America does not support and quite honestly lying to us. You can take the Stimulus Package – passed in record time along party lines without giving Congress two seconds to read it. The verdict; a waste of $1 trillion ($1,000,000,000,000) that we borrowed. No material effect on the economy or jobs. Proof Keynesian economics is a canard.
President Obama claimed there were “shovel ready” projects all over the country that would create jobs and keep unemployment from skyrocketing, going no higher than 8.8%. The outcome? Unemployment going into the 10%s, dropping no lower than the higher 8%s before moving back up. Regarding shovel ready projects? They either didn’t exist in substance, maybe form, or they were already work in process. The President in his all-too-familiar arrogance stated in a public forum, with a smile on his face no less, “We’ll I guess there weren’t as many shovel ready projects as we thought!” Intellectually dishonest and patronizing to his core.
Next is Obamacare, something Obama and his cronies in Congress thought they could pass as quickly as the Stimulus, with plenty of support. One year later, with back room deals and political extortion (Sen. Ben Nelson and the “Cornhusker Kickback”), they passed the bill. Here’s the kicker; Obamacare is the only piece of major US legislation in our country’s history that did not receive one vote from the opposing party. As a matter of fact, about 40 Democrats voted against it. Worse yet, this socialistic piece of garbage was so voluminous and convoluted, most of Congress did not read the final bill, because they didn’t have time after the Democrats brought it out of the cellar; sound familiar? The economic outcome of Obamacare is all negative. In the face of its unknown costs to business, companies are simply not hiring at the pace we need to grow the economy, thus no increased revenues to the federal and state governments. In addition, huge corporations are threatening to drop their plans all together. Lastly, premiums are actually increasing, not decreasing. Utter failure.
In the lame duck session of 2010, snakes Obama and Democrats pushed through many pieces of legislation, an unprecedented move when the House was changing parties after a general election. What was one of their attempted policy moves? Allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire. Thank God the GOP put a stop to that, but the damage was done. Small businesses, already dealing with Obamacare are now holding back on hiring because of tax policy uncertainty.
As Debt Crisis Portends Global Economic Calamity, President and Democrats Remain in Perpetual Campaign Mode
Now there’s the Debt Ceiling issue. If you’ve followed the news around this battle of ideologies, you’d be completely astounded at the President and liberal Democrat’s arrogance. These out-of-touch panderers to the left are actually fighting tooth and nail to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion ($4,000,000,000,000) to accomodate their senseless spending habits and impenetrable embrace of big government. The GOP, on the other hand, are pushing forward with policy that is whole-heartedly supported by the American people (see Democrat ass kicking in November 2010); check the polls.
In the aftermath of Obamacare and the failed Stimulus, voters summarily threw the Democrats out the door, and at all levels of federal and state government. How do President Obama and the Democrats react? They lead the charge to kill the Ryan budget that would trim $6 trillion from the Federal budget over 10 years even after Obama and the Democrats fail to pass a budget in the fall of 2010 - can you believe it? Now, he is fighting tooth and nail to push the nation towards a government shut-down and possible default on our debt. All because he and his liberal cohorts in Congress demand tax increases on the wealthy. How do they define wealthy? No one knows.
Here’s the problem other than the President’s ideology; liberalism – a baseless, formless, irrational, morally bankrupt fabrication of reality, Barack Obama has never left the campaign stump. Everything, I mean “all” of his decisions, is intended to placate his voting base; liberals. Remember all the promises about bringing civility to Washington? His pledge to bring the country together? To work with Republicans? Bipartisanship? All deceptions that suckered voters who wanted to move on from the Bush years. This President, and liberal Democrats may I add, are scrambling to keep their voting base because everyone else have left them. They remain in nonstop campaign mode, spending more time raising money and working the main-stream press for leverage than they do leading.
That’s the main issue with this President; he’s never led, he’s never transformed himself from a candidate to being Presidential. He can’t lead, he doesn’t know how. It’s impossible to lead when you’re beholden to outside influences and your decision making comes from management by committee, especially when that committee will help you keep your job; liberals and Democrat voters.
America is Finally Fed Up. Who Would Have Ever Known that King Obama Would be Responsible?
No matter what happens with the Debt Limit zero hour, a few things are set in stone. First, this President has over and over shown that he cannot lead and he cannot be Presidential. Two, Democrats believe that government should take care of its constituency and that more government solves everything. Thus, they continue to push for more government, and in order to finance that growth, demand higher taxes that (they think) will provide the revenues to grow the government that in turn will take care of us. Third, the majority of Americans do not subscribe to number two, that’s why every time Democrats overreach on these issue they are shown the doors of the halls of Congress. Lastly, America is “finally” tired of the government spending, spending, spending money we don’t have. Although we always talked about our aversion to deficits and climbing national debt, we were all too busy riding the crest of the past two decades to really pay attention. Then thanks to idiotic spending by a so-called Conservative; George Bush, and the completely mindless economic policies of this administration, our national debt has skyrocketed to $14 trillion ($14,000,000,000,000), approaching a one-to-one ratio with America’s GDP. Unthinkable to Americans just a decade ago.
America has had it. All the rhetoric that we heard from politicians; “we can’t keep spending our children’s and grandchildren’s future”, “Social Security is going broke”, “we should welcome with open arms – and open pockets – our undocumented immigrant brothers and sisters (aka, illegals - future Democrat voters of course)”, just to name a few, is no longer being tolerated. Why are U.S. citizens fed up? Because for the first time in our lives, the real possibility exists that America will not be the preeminent economic powerhouse it once was. With that comes the real fear that America will no longer be a place of total security along with the pride that comes from being a country that “earned” its way to the top via the blood, sweat and treasure of those who came before us. After all, we are the United States, the leaders of the free world, a shining city on top of a hill that the rest of the world envied. Is that light about to go out?
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America ’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government can not pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America ’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”
Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006
Please Read What Others are Saying
Debt Limit Battle Clarifies Choice for Voters
An Ideologue in the Oval Office
Wynn Slams Obama On Business: “Responsible For Fear In America”
This White House Not Serious About Cutting Spending
Why we’ll have 10% unemployment soon
Unsustainable Spending Threatens America’s Future
Out of the Way, Please, Mr. President
Real Change Possible When Obama Is Gone
Obama ‘Unpresidential,’ ‘Petulant’ ‘Dividing Us’
Obama’s in Trouble as America Doesn’t Like Losers
Job Growth 10-Fold Higher Before ObamaCare
Obama’s scare tactics reek of falsiness
Obama Refuses to Take Any Responsibility
Four Marks of the Church
The Four Marks of the Church: “One Holy Catholic and Apostolic” is of course derived from the Catholic Profession of Faith, also called the Nicene Creed. The Creed was adopted at the First Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., with the Four Marks added in 381 A.D. at the First Council of Constantinople. The ideas behind the Four Marks have been in the Church since early times (pre 325 A.D.). Allusions to the Marks can be found in the writings of 2nd century early Church Father and bishop, Ignatius of Antioch who coined the term “Catholic” Church – meaning Universal – early in that century. The very earliest stage of Christianity is called the Apostolic Age whereby the Apostles of Christ were physically spreading the Gospel and converting Jews and Gentiles to the Church. Thus, the connection of Christ’s works and Word from the Apostles to the early Church Fathers, like Ignatius, to the time when the Church codified its beliefs (the Nicene Creed) in response to certain heresies and misconceptions, is direct and unquestionable historically. This is why it is so perplexing to so many Catholics that our separated Christian brothers and sisters don’t recognize the preeminence of the Church.
Coming Home
I was born Catholic, raised by two devoted Catholics, my grandparents went to Mass everyday, I have several clergy in my extended family and went to Catholic school through 12th grade. What’s the point? Well, by the time I began to think for myself in college, I knew nothing else but Catholic Christianity. While in college, as most kids at that time do, I started to challenge my beliefs, my Christianity, Catholic doctrine and ”what it was all about”. I questioned whether I learned my faith via upbringing versus obtaining faith through prayer and a genuine understanding of Catholicism. I started to think more rationally and logically about everything, again, I was in college. It was an extremely frightening period because up to that point, in my mind, the Christian God and Jesus always existed. I had always felt like I had Jesus there as the ultimate comfort when I was troubled. However, now, for the first time, I doubted whether all I had learned to believe was true.
Sometime in late 1985 or early 1986, I was home from college and of course I went to Church not wanting to upset my parents. While sitting at Mass and listening to the priest’s homily, I gazed at the mosaic of the risen Christ on the wall. All of a sudden I thought to myself; “I really don’t genuinely believe all this”. I left Mass and ran home to my parents for help. I was freaking out. I confided in them about what just happened and all I was pondering in my mind at school. That not only was I doubting the supremacy of the Catholic Church, but the relevance of Christianity in total. As always, they calmed my fears with confident and reassuring words about Christ and the Catholic faith. What did they say? “Tom, Christ was a real person, a human being who was also God and actually walked the earth! He left us a Church and the Sacraments, and those continue unbroken until today. There’s only one God and one Church”. An immediate calmness came over me and I knew I had come back home to the Church. It made sense to me now, but not as a child needing comfort or a crutch, but as a thoughtful adult who had really all along had Christ in my heart and believed in the supremacy of the Church.
One
What my parents did was speak to history, to the facts about Christianity and the Catholic Church. They spoke to my growing want and need to believe in absolute truths versus blind faith and revisionist history that came from separated Christians who either opposed the Church or were simply ignorant of Her. Little did I realize it was Christ speaking through them, appealing to my mind, connecting it to what was already written on my heart all along; that He was real and that the Church He established was where the absolute and fullness of the Truth was found; the Catholic Church. I thought about what I had learned about my faith over all those years and realized I was learning the Truth, the historical facts, which made believing much easier (I am named after St. Thomas, after all). The fact is that Christ provided an enormous amount of evidence that He was God, from His innumerable miracles to the ultimate evidence; His resurrection from the dead. And history shows without a shadow of a doubt, even if you don’t believe Christ was divine, that Jesus established one Church.
There is but one God, one Adam, one father-in-faith; Abraham, one chosen people; the Israelites, one Savior; Jesus - the one Son of God, one Vicar of Christ; Peter (the Papacy) and one Church; the Catholic Church. As God the Father is the one and only God, the one and only ultimate authority, and His Son the one and only incarnation of the Father’s Word, the Catholic Church is the one and only fiduciary of that Word. There has to be an ultimate authority on earth to protect the Word. This is why the Protestant Reformation has grown into over 30,000 denominations. Because every person that calls themselves a pastor believes their version or interpretation of Scripture is the “right and accurate one”. Really, for all Christians, it should be intuitively obvious that this makes no sense and thus understand the preeminence of the Catholic Church. “There is one body and one spirit,” Paul wrote, “just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all” (Eph. 4:4-5). Paul linked this primitive unity to the Church’s common Eucharistic bread: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17). Jesus had promised at the outset that “there would be one flock, one shepherd” (John 10:16).
Holy
The Catholic Church is Holy. The word holy means set apart for a special purpose by and for God and that it had the all-holy God Himself as author. The term does not infer that all Catholics have ceased to be sinners and have themselves become all-holy. Nor does it mean that the “institution of the Church” cannot sin. We’ve seen all too often throughout history the institutional Church’s imperfection. The priest homosexual scandal of the past couple decades being the most recent example. The Church from the beginning, on Her human side, has been composed of sinners: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15)”. The Church was founded for no other reason than to continue Christ’s redemptive and sanctifying work with sinners in the world.
One of the things implicit in the appellation “holy” as applied to the Church, then, is that the Church from the beginning has been endowed with the sacramental means to help make holy the sinners who are found in Her ranks. The Church has been given the Sacraments along with the absolute and complete responsibility to protect and interpret the Word (the Magisterium) precisely in order to be able to help make sinners holy. It was in this sense that Paul was able to write, “Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for Her, that He might sanctify Her, having cleansed Her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present the Church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that She might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25-27).
Catholic
The term Catholic, derived from the Greek word katholikos, which means “universal” or “general”, was first used to describe the Church in the early 2nd century by St. Ignatius of Antioch. The term katholikos is equivalent to katholou means ”according to the whole.” Thus the full name Catholic Church means “universal” or “whole” church. Based on the promises of Christ in the Gospels, the Church believes that it is continually guided by the Holy Spirit and so protected infallibly from falling into doctrinal error. The Catholic Church teaches that the Holy Spirit reveals God’s truth through Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium.
Sacred Scripture, codified by the Catholic Church at the Synod of Hippo in 393 A.D. consists of 73 books; 46 found in the ancient Greek version of the Old Testament — known as the Septuagint and 27 New Testament writings first found in the Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209, the oldest extant manuscripts of the Greek Bible (Old and New Testament, named for the residence in the Vatican Library where it has been stored since at least the 15th century. It is written on 759 leaves of vellum in uncial letters, and has been dated palaeographically to the 4th century). Sacred Tradition consists of those teachings handed down since the time of the Apostles. After all, Christ Himself did not have a scribe – almost unheard of for a prophet of His time, and given the Canon was not officially created until 393 A.D., it’s intuitively obvious that all the teachings that existed “officially” before the Bible were Sacred Tradition. Scripture and Sacred Tradition are collectively known as the “deposit of faith” (depositum fidei). These are in turn interpreted by the Magisterium, the Church’s supreme teaching authority, which is exercised by the Pope and the College of Bishops in union with the Pope who is the bishop of Rome.
Apostolic
Finally, the Church that was created by Christ on Peter – the Rock, was necessarily apostolic. Christ founded the Church upon the apostles and in no other way: “Did I not choose you, the twelve?” he asked them (John 6:70). The apostles, of all people, understood perfectly well that they did not set themselves up in their own little community, as we sometimes today see gospel churches set up in store fronts or in the suburbs. The New Testament teaches, “One does not take the honor upon himself” (Heb. 5:4).
Nothing is clearer, then, that the Catholic Church started out as “apostolic.” The question is whether the apostles had the power and authority to pass on to others what they had received from Christ. They very definitely did have this power and authority; the New Testament evidence is clear about that. The subsequent historical evidence is equally clear that they did pass it on to successors – the bishops. There are many references in the New Testament itself to the appointment of bishops by the Apostles, as well as to the appointment of further bishops by them (Titus 1:5-9). When we ask where this apostolic Church which the New Testament tells us Christ founded is to be found, we have to reformulate the question to ask: What Church, if any, descends in an unbroken line from Jesus to the apostles to the bishop through to this very moment? The Catholic Church.
Christ said nothing more solemnly and categorically than the words He speaks in the New Testament in which he declares that the Apostles and their successors would speak for Him in the serious business of gathering in and sanctifying His people and leading them toward the salvation he offers. Mark 3:13-15, “And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons.” and Matthew 28:16-20,“ But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”
Jesus intended that the fullness of his grace should come to his people in a Church that, from the beginning, was what the Creed still calls it today: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.
A Shining City Upon a Hill
I am the last of five children born to parents who are first generation Americans and who are part of the Greatest Generation, as Tom Brokaw wrote. To my grandparents America was much more than just another country or merely an opportunity to better themselves. They believed that the United States was an extraordinary place - a fantastical destination - that held the promise of liberty for all and whose physical and spiritual substance could allow people to become “the best version of themselves”. This dreamland could not be found anywhere else on earth. They were right. America was an extraordinary place mainly due to the Founders framework, our Judeo-Christian ethic, and the American people who embraced and embodied that foundation and built the American culture. That culture – the traditions and philosophies of the United States – eventually made us exceptional, and thus the birth of American Exceptionalism. To quote the great Ronald Reagan, “America is a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere.”
In recent weeks there have been a host of media types who have pontificated on American Exceptionalism. Most of what I read was focused on disputing American Exceptionalism as either never having existed, ill defined, or inconsistent with the New World Order that liberals/progressives so ardently support and dream of. But then again, these folks don’t get the concept in the first place because what made America exceptional is diametrically opposed to the core of their being; pathological individualism. Of course my initial reaction to these articles, interviews, etc. calling into question America’s Greatness was a fierce defense of it. However, as I pondered the reality of American Exceptionalism, I took pause and asked myself; “Is the United States still Exceptional?” I didn’t like the answers I heard in my head and now faced a painful and sad truth about the greatest civilization ever to exist. I have written about and defended this concept many times and now wonder if I was speaking the Truth?
Being Exceptional Begins with Being Selfless and Morally Superior
American Exceptionalism refers to the idea that the United States occupies a special niche among the nations of the world in terms of its national credo, historical evolution, political and religious institutions, selfless defense of liberty, and its culture and history of spending blood, sweat and treasure to stamp out tyranny and serve the less fortunate around the world. We were the chosen and de facto leaders of the world because of our moral superiority in total not necessarily in every individual situation (case in point is the treatment of Black Americans in the south).
The underlying foundation that “allowed” America to be exceptional is that our nation was founded and grounded in Christianity and the moral compass that Christ and Scripture provided us. We were, at one time, a nation completely unafraid to wear our Christianity on our sleeves, and demonstrate our allegiance to Christ in the public square. But then came the poison of liberalism, working through the judicial system to effectively strip America of its public demonstrations of our Christian roots and beliefs. Pop culture, the media, Democrats and academia – all bastions of liberalism – finished off the job by working together to ensure that America was seen as agnostic and progressive. Now we even have a President who openly equates Islam with Christianity. What more can I say?
The tie between being exceptional and morally superior can be seen throughout history in those individuals that have left the most lasting impressions on the world. Of course the first that comes to mind is Jesus Christ, the most morally superior person to ever live. Then there’s people like Abraham Lincoln, Joan of Arc, Billy Graham, Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, just to name a few. All these people were leaders, some of them given the mantle of leadership, but all earning the right to lead because of the exceptional ethical and virtuous way they lived their lives. It is part of human nature to be attracted to and revere people with a higher moral standard. The United States was (or is based on your opinion) a macrocosm of these leader’s example.
Modern Liberalism and the Entitlement Culture has Damaged America’s Exceptional Leadership
I’ve said it many times before. The infamous effects of the 1960′s liberal and liberation agendas are primarily responsible for the lion’s share of the dramatic cultural, political and economic problems we face today, and really have faced for since the 1970s. It’s just become progressively worse. Ultimately, liberal economic and political policies and most of all the immoral social changes that they have proudly championed has led to American Exceptionalism being now seriously in question. Liberals like to toil in detail so they can confuse people and muddy the substance of an argument or issue. However, in this case let me give their “intentions” some credence because I can hear them saying; “Tom is oversimplifying the issues related to America’s problems and their genesis; typical of a dumb Conservative”.
The issues liberals claim to have championed; civil rights, entitlements for the elderly and less fortunate, women’s rights, environmental protection to name a few were and are substantive problems. However, two huge problems exist with what liberals did with their intentions when it came time to implement change, and this is why their good intentions failed miserably. First, they did not use as the foundation of their progressive agenda, discernment of Christ’s Word and subordination to His supremacy. Thus, they did not utilize the architect of American Exceptionalism to light the way to the improvement of the American culture. Second, they overreached. By definition, liberalism has no bounds because it has no real foundation. Thus, the implementation of change can never be efficiently or effectively managed. The change just feeds on itself, aimlessly wandering forward, left, right, backwards, upside down, etc. until it fails to resemble it’s initial intention or meaning. In every single case, good liberal intentions went way beyond the point where they remained valuable and an improvement to American society.
The Progressive Deterioration of American Exceptionalism
One of worst parts of having to listen to liberal bilge is seeing how deceitful they are at their core and watching them reinvent history. Liberals are the authors of revisionist history. The one area that particularly burns my rump is when they attempt to claim the founders were not Christian and that the founders did not intend to build the future of America upon the Judeo-Christian ethic. Not only were the founders Christians, they were orthodox Christians. Liberals – as Jeff Spicoli would say – “are stoned”. The reason the founders predicated the country’s framework on Christianity is because they knew this was the only way America could become exceptional. Here are a few quotes by some of the founders. Make your own mind up.
“The great pillars of all government and of social life [are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible.” Patrick Henry
“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.” John Adams
“In the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior. The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.” John Quincy Adams
“The great, vital, and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and the divine truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Congress
“While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.” George Washington
Liberalism is the Cancer that is Killing America and its Chance to be Exceptional Once Again
And so why do I call America’s moniker of Exceptionalism into question? Well, let’s start from the beginning and look at what liberalism has done to this once “moral leader of world”.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote birth control. God commands that we “openly accept children (life) into our marriages and we don’t encumber that process artificially”.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote sexual relationships outside of marriage (living together as “partners”). Marriage is a Sacrament blessed by God Himself and the only union where a man and a woman can express their love sexually.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote having children outside of marriage. The family unit is built with the bonds of marriage, not outside it.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less protect a woman’s choice to abort an unborn child. Abortions kill the most defenseless among us. It is the single most egregious and abominable act and sin a man and/or woman can be party to.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote sexual promiscuity. Sexual relationships are a gift from God whereby a man and woman, within the bonds of marriage, express their love for one another and openly accept the responsibility as co creators of life with God. Men are not to drop their seed with just anyone, at anytime and for purely selfish reasons – for amusement. Women are not to open their wombs to any man and any time for purely self reasons – for recreational purposes.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote homosexuality as normal and morally equivalent to heterosexuality. Homosexuality is an abomination before God. However, homosexuals are not.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote homosexual marriage as normal and morally equivalent to heterosexual marriage.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote homosexuals, engaged in homosexual behavior, adopting children. The ordained, by God, family unit is a man – the father, and a woman – the mother.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote overindulgence of drugs and alcohol.
- An exceptional society does not openly accept divorce as such a simple means to end marriage. “What God has brought together, man cannot separate”.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote individualism.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote materialism.
- An exceptional society does not legislate against a parent’s divine right to discipline their children.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote their children living the lives of adults. Kids are promiscuous, overindulgent of alcohol, disrespectful of authority, tatooed, etc.
- An exceptional society does not throw God out of the public square. “If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you to my Father”.
- An exceptional society does not remove Christianity from public education.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote the government creating a nanny state. Social programs are now greater than 50% of the federal budget.
- An exceptional society does not bankrupt itself by recklessly expanding government programs that destroy self reliance.
- An exceptional society is not lead (voted into office) by a President who seeks to make America agnostic as to religion.
And an exceptional society does not separate itself from Christ and its Christian roots. If it does, it ceases to be Exceptional. Are we there?
America Prevails as it Always Has
The events of September 11, 2001 were so shocking, so surreal, and so anger provoking that to this day I still can’t watch footage of what happened. All the more awful was it for me because I’m from New York City and because the deep feelings I had for revenge, the latter obviously not part of living an authentically Catholic life. And so as the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death is announced, I really do not want to spend my time and energy reading and watching the inordinate amount of news coverage that will surely ensue. As far as I’m concerned, Bin Laden was made irrelevant shortly after his murder of 3,000 people by the United States Military lead by George W. Bush. That same President Bush said many times, “we’ll find you, it may take time, but we’ll find you.” Well, Bush was right, America prevails as she always does. I, for one, don’t want to make that big a deal of it. Bin Laden was just a bug that we stepped on; it’s over.
An Anti-War Liberal President with a One-Letter-Different-Name Orders the Kill Shot – Remarkable
There are too many ironies here to list, but the most satisfying one for me is that this cockroach Osama Bin Laden had his head blown off – literally – through an order by an American President with almost exactly the same name and an absolute soft spot for Muslims and Islam. Further, this President’s party, who are unashamedly anti-war and with vigor and pride barbequed the then President Bush for his ardent focus on the War on Terror, now are saddled with the fact that they planned and executed the kill shot. What in God’s green earth will people like Nancy Pelosi and Bernie Sanders say now? Will they protest their party’s leader’s actions? Hell no. Because liberal Democrats are disingenuous, intellectually dishonest and confused political opportunists. Like my old man says; “they won’t know whether to crap or wind their wrist watches”. But never-the-less, could anybody have imagined that an American President named “Obama would kill Osama?”
Let the People Speak
Here’s my tribute to all those Americans who have been affected by a lunatic Muslim through zero fault of their own. Many, many people have been waiting for this day and so let them speak.
Obama owes thanks, and an apology, to CIA interrogators
Rumsfeld: Those Who Deny Waterboarding Helped Aren’t “Facing The Truth
Hersh, Olbermann Called Bin Laden SEAL Team “Assassination Ring” In 2009
Rep. Peter King: Waterboarding Led Us To Bin Laden
Bin Laden Death Marks Turn in U.S. History
US official: Bin Laden skull blown apart
Osama bin Laden killed after tip-offs from Guantanamo
Veterans say elite military force works with lethal precision
The Ultimate Sacrifice was the Ultimate Demonstration of Love
When I was a young child in Brooklyn, my parents and I watched the movie The Greatest Story Ever Told. The affect the Passion and Crucifixion scenes had on me, as I understand now, was life changing. I remember weeping, sobbing to my parents; “Why did they do this to Jesus?” I was devastated that the world had treated this wonderful person; my God, so savagely. The visual of Him dragging the Cross and then hanging there – bloody and in so much physical and emotional pain – just crushed me. I knew right then and there two things; how much I loved Him and how much He loved me.
Christ made the ultimate sacrifice when He endured the most humiliating and painful death possible at the time. Crucifixion was reserved for the worst criminals, the dregs of society. Roman citizens could not be sentenced to this type of execution. Christ chose Crucifixion to document for the ages His fidelity to His Father’s will and the lengths He would go to prove His for love of us. Jesus’ self-imposed execution was a fundamental demonstration of love for His children. Not simply because he suffered an agonizing and shameful death, but because he willingly did so AND because he didn’t have to – He was God!
“For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” John 10: 17-18
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
It is this incredible display of love, willed and ordained by the Father and carried out by the Son, that freed mankind from sin and opened the gates of Heaven again. Christ’s death allowed for His Resurrection, the victory over death once and for all. This is why the crucified Jesus is so central to the Catholic Church; Christ’s legacy on earth. This is why Christ hangs on the Cross in our churches, around our necks and in our homes. Because we want this reminder of Christ’s love for us, we want to understand why we’re called to suffer with Christ; to “carry our Cross”. Because we want to have the greatest example possible of what someone will do for love, for love of his neighbor. It is not that we want to subordinate Easter Sunday to Good Friday; the Resurrection to the Crucifixion. Catholics want to live both the suffering and victory of Christ, simply because we have been called to do so by Him in Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Let us never forget, and be constantly mindful of, our Lord’s completely unselfish giving of Himself on the Cross for us; his friends.
“We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 1 John 3:16
Christ Had to Die for Us to be Saved
Many of my separated Christian brothers and sisters do not pay enough attention to the event of Christ’s death; the Crucifixion. Of course they recognize it, understand what Jesus went through, and are grateful for it. But in their absolute focus on the Resurrection as the central event in Christian history, they really don’t live a complete Christian life, at least in my opinion. First, they believe that if we are “reborn” that we are “once saved always saved”. And so second, that living a Christian life that entails too much focus on suffering and the Crucified Christ is unnecessary. Why, because Christ already suffered for us all; that event is over. He is risen and once reborn we are to live in complete confidence of our salvation. What room does this leave for suffering?
This is a big difference between living a genuine Catholic life or not. Many separated Christians do not want to live the suffering piece. This is why they seem much more joyous in their prayers and in speaking of their Christianity. Why their services are more gregarious, louder and more expressive and the Catholic Mass and Sacraments are more subdued and reverent. Because we are showing proper respect for the living Christ in the Tabernacle, while always being mindful of the price he paid for our sins and access once again to Paradise.
Christ’s Resurrection is Proof of His Divinity and Solidifies His Faithfulness to His Children
Could you imagine what Jesus’ disciples felt like, especially the Apostles, when this man who they believed was God meekly – and without much self-defense, allowed Himself to be murdered? Again, by way of crucifixion. Can you imagine their disappointment and sorrow? What was He doing? He was God, wasn’t He? Can you fathom their let down when most thought that Christ was about to lead them in battle against the Roman occupiers? That He was to be King of the Jews? Jews must have been extremely confident they could liberate themselves with Jesus in the lead. After all, He made the blind see, the lame walk and the dead live. But it was not to be. It seems that most of Christ’s disciples let His talk of being raised on the third day go in one ear and out the other.
Jesus promised His disciples, and most certainly spoke to His Apostles in detail, that He was going to die and rise from the dead in glory. Christ has never not kept a promise to His children, and His promise to return to His disciples was no different. Jesus said He would and He did. Christ’s fidelity to His Word and His Children demonstrates something really incredible. That although we may lose faith in Him at times, He never loses faith in us – never has and never will. The Apostles, these men who were with Jesus every step of the way for three years, who witnessed all His miracles, His Transfiguration, etc. and were made aware that He had to die in order to rise in glory, even they lost faith in Jesus Word. When Christ appeared in the room where the Apostles were in fear of the Jews and said “Peace be with you”, His divinity was never to be in doubt again and He proved once and for all that He keeps His promises to us.
”For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16.
Ardent and Ongoing Defense of Islam by Americans is Mind-Boggling and Dangerous
The response by some high profile government officials and the liberal media to the slaughter of innocent people in Afghanistan by Muslims is astonishing, but not surprising. As has been the case for too long now, the reaction by the U.S. government and liberal elites to Muslims’ continued killing in the name of Islam is unAmerican, lacks leadership, and is completely slanted toward placating the Muslim community. The rationale for the slaughter? Terry Jones’ burning of a single Koran; the Islamic Bible. One idiot’s stunt, someone who holds zero influence in America with a following of twenty-odd pseudo Christians, and the reaction by Muslims in Afghanistan is to kill thirty innocent people?
The reaction by the press and the “blame America first crowd”? America (a Christian nation keep in mind) who is the primary target of radical Islamic aggression, should know better. After all, we are to be hypersensitive to all things Muslim, including showing complete and total respect to the Koran. We must understand Muslim’s reaction to the Koran burning. We are obligated to Muslims to equate Islam with Christianity in the (liberal) spirit of relativism. That basically we shouldn’t be surprised if Muslims kill people because one moron burned one Koran. We ought to be absolutely culturally relative and understand – to the point of rationalizing murder – that Muslims are going to do what it is they need to do to protect their religiosity when such crimes are perpetrated upon them.
The “blame America first” doctrine associated with the Muslim community and borne of political correctness is nothing short of surreal, and dangerous to the national security of our country. Moreover, it is an affront to “our” religious foundation, our religious belief system; Christianity! In light of all that the United States has dealt with over the past thirty years relating to Islam and the Mid East, how can this anti-American dogma stand? After 9/11? After all the attacks on the West by Muslims for two decades prior? It defies logic that this liberal doctrine remains even as radical Muslims continue to murder in the name of Allah, their extremist Islamic supporters continue pumping their fists in the air calling for “death to the U.S.”, and Americans are still dieing in the sands of Arabia.
More Appeasement and No Genuine Anger Over Muslims’ Continued Actions and Inaction
Here are examples of some high profile Americans’ responses to these completely indefensible murders.
Noted in the Wall Street Journal, Gen. David Petraeus, who heads the U.S.-led international forces in Afghanistan said,“Burning the Muslim holy book “was hateful, it was intolerant and it was extremely disrespectful and again, we condemn it in the strongest manner possible”. U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry said in a statement that, “Americans respect the Quran and all religious texts and deplore any action that shows disrespect to any religious faith.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says congressional lawmakers are discussing taking some action in response to the Koran burnings that led to killings at the U.N. facility in Afghanistan and sparked protests across the Middle East, Politico reports. “Ten to 20 people have been killed,” Reid said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation, “We’ll take a look at this of course. As to whether we need hearings or not, I don’t know.”
Not one word about the horrific nature of the slaughter, not one word about the fact that these acts are a continuation of years of Muslim hatred of the west. Not one word that these events are not isolated; Muslims all over the world, including in the United States (e.g., Ft. Hood), have been killing Americans, Jews and anyone else who isn’t faithful to Islam, in the name of Allah for decades now. Not one word that Americans are sick and tired of the non radical Muslim community remaining silent and not overtly, and with vigor, standing up against their own and demanding they stop. Where is the balance? When will America assert its right to articulate loudly and clearly FIRST that Muslim aggression and murder will not be tolerated, THEN communicate to the world that we are sensitive to Muslims, Islam, the Koran, etc, etc. This is the proper order, this is the “official” attitude we should have in this country.
When is the United States, who has spent countless treasure and blood defending itself against the hyper theological – and sometimes extreme – elements of Islam (see attacks beginning in the early 1980s and culminating on 9/11) going to realize that radical Muslims will use “any” excuse to harm the west; we are the great Satan. Thus, it’s impossible for America to develop a formal and effective communication protocol, or do’s and don’ts of Islam, or an American guide to political correctness as it relates to Muslims, or whatever, that will stop their aggression and killing. Muslims are called to Jihad in the Koran. There is literally nothing we can do to stop their overt and covert theologically driven appetite for world domination; it’s part and parcel to their religious identity which totally defines who and what they are. Please get the facts on Islam, the Koran, Jihad, etc. (Islam and Muslims), educate yourself to the realities we’re facing and the ever increasing danger we – as a Christian nation – are facing.
Official Communication is Important, But Our Attitude is Paramount
Look, I’m not stupid, I understand General Petraeus has to say these things because he’s dealing with a very delicate situation and a culture whose every decision is driven by its religious ideology. For all I know, when he wakes up in the morning he says to himself, “Man, I’d love to turn this entire region into a plate of glass.” But what is so irritating to a lot of Americans is that we have to continually placate Muslims – who again obviously cannot police themselves – so that we don’t piss them off and risk their extremist factions going ballistic and killing people. I for one am sick of it. I understand that our diplomats in D.C. have to be very careful in how they communicate the country’s official response to the ongoing events like this one in Afghanistan. However, I do not understand why we haven’t developed a communication strategy over time in reaction to Muslim’s continued aggression that is based on “supporting America first and placating Muslims second”. After all this time, the United States is completely within its right to say “enough is enough”. But as long as we’ve got a liberal dominated press, liberals in Congress, and certainly a Muslim sensitive President, fat chance this is going to happen.
The fact is that the authentically American reaction to September 11, 2001, where we – as a nation – did not categorically condemn all Muslims for the murder of nearly three thousand people has since been hijacked by liberals and the mainstream media to further their infatuation with the blame American first doctrine. Liberals now refuse to condemn Muslims for anything. Americans are made to some how feeling guilty as if Muslims are the victims here. As if somehow America brought upon itself all that we’ve endured over the past thirty years concerning Muslim aggression, culminating in 9/11. That is utter nonsense and completely disrespectful to the great and benevolent nation. This is certainly what the world used to expect of us. Let’s hope and pray that in November 2012 we elect a President that is unafraid – and less thin-skinned to Islam (for whatever reason) - to discontinue the blame America first doctrine. For this ill advised dogma does nothing less than disrespect over two hundreds years of American history, blood, sweat and treasure built on the backs of those who came before us and who would never never support a weak-willed defense of our great Republic against anyone who would seek to hurt her.
The Koran is a Just a Book. Christ Said “Love Thy Neighbor” not “Love Thy Neighbor’s Religious Texts”
Terry Jones burning of a Koran is the stuff of a completely radical, unChristian, disrespectful lamebrain. Even if you believe that the Koran is just a book – like I do, as a Catholic Christian I cannot support such actions which deeply offend my neighbor; Muslims. It does not matter to me that Muslims mistakenly believe that every Koran is the verbatim word of God, as if God Himself reached down out of Heaven and physically penned each one, and because of that, the desecration of the Koran is met with death to the perpetrator. What matters is that I know Christ would not want me to – with premeditation and hatred – hurt my brothers and sisters feelings. This is the sin of Terry Jones, not burning a book. Christians, on the other hand, believe that the Bible “contains” the inspired Word of God; every syllable. But the Words contained in Holy Scripture are Living in the form of the Catholic Church which has been entrusted to work with God throughout Earth’s history, now, and in the future, to continually reveal the full meaning of the Word whom, as St. John says, is Christ. Of course Christians respect the physical Scripture; the Bible. But the book does not supplant the Word that pours forth from it and lives among us.
As a Christian I have been directed by Christ himself to first “love God with everything I have – mind, heart, soul and strength”, and “love my neighbor as myself” – in this order. I am to simply love without reservation. Needless to say this includes my Muslim brothers and sisters. However, I am first to love God with an all encompassing passion. This includes a love of the Truth, and the fact is that Truth dictates that I do not equate Allah, Islam and the Koran with God the Father, my Catholic Christianity, Holy Scripture and Sacred Tradition. This would be to minimize the Truth, putting it kindly, and I will not do it. What I must do is bring the Gospel to Muslims, bring them the Truth and work tirelessly to help them see the Light.
Be Proud to Be Catholic, to Be Christian, to be An American
Too often, and keeping in line with political correctness, the media and liberal politician’s line is that “Islam is one of the world’s great religions”. I will not provide Islam equivalence to Catholicism. It is one of the world’s religions; that where it ends. I will only say that one thing we have in common is that we “may” worship the same God; God the Father. However, Catholic’s revelation of the Father’s will, thoughts, directives, laws, etc, is perfect because it was delivered by He Himself through the incarnation of his Son Jesus and has been stainlessly guarded by His Church; the Catholic Church. The supposed revelation of the Father’s mind to prophet Mohammad as represented in the Koran is seriously flawed. The Koran denies that Christ is God’s son, denies the Trinity, and denies Christ’s divine nature for starters and advocates many things that are completely incongruent with the Truth.
The time is long past for America to push aside political correctness, the liberal utopia of a one world order, and our ongoing attempt to placate Muslims. If not for our sake and for our children, out of respect for all those Americans who came before us who would be abhorred by our sheepish attitude towards an entire section of the globe that seek to do us harm. However, the time is even longer past that so called “moderate Muslims” stand up and lead the attempt to wipe out the extreme factions of Islam so that Conservative Americans can begin to believe that all Muslims are not extreme; overtly and covertly. This is the doctrine we should adopt. Leaders don’t stand on the fence.
GOP Candidate Voiland Talks Jobs
TAMPA, Florida- In a speech before the Chamber of Commerce, Tom Voiland touted his plan to create jobs and vilified President Obama and Democrats for making a bad situation worse. “When President Obama took office, the country was in the midst of an employment crisis. Mr. Obama had the chance to stop the bleeding and return the United States labor force to health. He did neither and we continue to battle very high unemployment.” Mr. Voiland is an accomplished businessman and believes the key issue holding companies back from hiring is uncertainty. “Businesses are not comfortable expanding and investing in their labor pools with a liberal President and Administration who believe, incredibly, that government spending will create the jobs we need to get American workers back on their feet. Government doesn’t create jobs – unless bureaucracy is being expanded, lower taxes, less regulation and D.C. getting the hell out of the way helps companies gain confidence and thus creates jobs.”
On Jobs. America needs not only to create work opportunities for the unemployed, but must do it quickly. Too many Americans have been out of work for too long. The Obama Administration is an abject failure regarding pulling our country out of the Great Recession. President Obama has only exacerbated the national debt crisis with the so-called “Stimulus” package that did nothing to positively affect the economy, and is directly responsible for business’ caution to hire with Obamacare. The fact is that the Federal government does create jobs. It does so by getting the hell out of the way. An excess of regulations and high business’ taxes are job killers. Under my administration, these drags on the American economy will be dealt with quickly, relieving the private sector of the incredible uncertainty that is crippling hiring and investment.
The American economy does not need government handouts to stimulate growth. It needs tax relief and government support accomplished through getting out of the business of business. We will cut payroll taxes in half until such time that the economy is well within a period of strong economic growth. Cutting taxes across the board immediately will put more of American’s money back in their pockets which they will gladly spend once economic uncertainly is removed from consumer’s psyche. American companies are holding onto a historic amount of cash that they refuse to invest until they feel the business risk associated with liberal executive leadership. We will remove all this uncertainty and get the American economy back on its feet again.
As President, I will assemble the best and brightest minds in the business community, providing these entrepreneurial men and women to serve their country. Together we will lead the of placing America back in its rightful position in the world; the preeminent economic leader. Unfortunately, the current administration is fraught with government bureaucrats and inexperienced businesspeople that don’t have a clue, beginning and ending with the President himself.
Hide Sites