Not Evil Just Wrong

For the record, I just finished screening the film, "Not Evil Just Wrong" as part of the global simultaneous film premiere event.

Report to follow. An important, beautifully executed film.

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Brenda Giguere

Ceding US Sovereignity: Video Update

With gratitude to several plugged-in citizens on Twitter, I now have a link to share so we can view Lord Christopher Monckton's recent talk.

This is it, folks- pivotal issue. If we give up our sovereignity, we'll have one hell of a time getting it back.

http://bit.ly/2tYl6w

Pass it on.

Brenda Giguere

* * *

Signing Away America?

President Poised to Cede US Sovereignty, Claims British Lord

But is anyone listening to Lord Christopher Monckton? We should be.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Hello, friends and neighbors. Something extraordinarily disturbing came to my attention this morning, and I immediately stopped what I was doing to check its veracity. I am so concerned I want share it with as many of you as possible. Its seriousness seems self-evident.

As you will find via the link below, the information that so alarmed me comes via a radio station website. But the piece itself-- the original source-- was a keynote talk given at an event at Bethel University in St. Paul on Wednesday evening [I am preparing this flier on Thursday October 15, 2009]. A friend called my attention to the talk.

Addressing the event was Lord Christopher Monckton, former science adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. I'm aware of Lord Monckton's work in debunking the global warming scare tactics of Al Gore, and these issues aren't new to me. But his take on the upcoming UN agreement, and the details he provides here, effectively bring home the urgency of our situation.

The text of his talk can be found many places online, but this link is especially useful because it includes the transcript of the talk’s Q & A session:

http://www.infowars.com/obama-poised-to-cede-us-sovereignty-claims-british-lord/

For your convenience, here is the text of Lord Monckton’s talk, questions and responses included, as posted.

Says Monckton:

At [the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in] Copenhagen, this December, weeks away, a treaty will be signed. Your president will sign it. Most of the third world countries will sign it, because they think they’re going to get money out of it. Most of the left-wing regime from the European Union will rubber stamp it. Virtually nobody won’t sign it.
I read that treaty. And what it says is this, that a world government is going to be created. The word “government” actually appears as the first of three purposes of the new entity. The second purpose is the transfer of wealth from the countries of the West to third world countries, in satisfication of what is called, coyly, “climate debt” – because we’ve been burning CO2 and they haven’t. We’ve been screwing up the climate and they haven’t. And the third purpose of this new entity, this government, is enforcement.

How many of you think that the word “election” or “democracy” or “vote” or “ballot” occurs anywhere in the 200 pages of that treaty? Quite right, it doesn’t appear once. So, at last, the communists who piled out of the Berlin Wall and into the environmental movement, who took over Greenpeace so that my friends who funded it left within a year, because [the communists] captured it – Now the apotheosis as at hand. They are about to impose a communist world government on the world. You have a president who has very strong sympathies with that point of view. He’s going to sign it. He’ll sign anything. He’s a Nobel Peace Prize [winner]; of course he’ll sign it.

[laughter]

And the trouble is this; if that treaty is signed, if your Constitution says that it takes precedence over your Constitution (sic), and you can’t resign from that treaty unless you get agreement from all the other state parties – And because you’ll be the biggest paying country, they’re not going to let you out of it.

So, thank you, America. You were the beacon of freedom to the world. It is a privilege merely to stand on this soil of freedom while it is still free. But, in the next few weeks, unless you stop it, your president will sign your freedom, your democracy, and your humanity away forever. And neither you nor any subsequent government you may elect will have any power whatsoever to take it back. That is how serious it is. I’ve read the treaty. I’ve seen this stuff about [world] government and climate debt and enforcement. They are going to do this to you whether you like it or not.

But I think it is here, here in your great nation, which I so love and I so admire – it is here that perhaps, at this eleventh hour, at the fifty-ninth minute and fifty-ninth second, you will rise up and you will stop your president from signing that dreadful treaty, that purposeless treaty. For there is no problem with climate and, even if there were, an economic treaty does nothing to [help] it.

So I end by saying to you the words that Winston Churchill addressed to your president in the darkest hour before the dawn of freedom in the Second World War. He quoted from your great poet Longfellow:

Sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!

Lord Monckton received a standing ovation and took a series of questions from members of the audience. Among those questions were these relevant to the forthcoming Copenhagen treaty:

Question: The current administration and the Democratic majority in Congress has shown little regard for the will of the people. They’re trying to pass a serious government agenda, and serious taxation and burdens on future generations. And there seems to be little to stop them. How do you propose we stop Obama from doing this, because I see no way to stop him from signing anything in Copenhagen. I believe that’s his agenda and he’ll do it.

I don’t minimize the difficulty. But on this subject – I don’t really do politics, because it’s not right. In the end, your politics is for you. The correct procedure is for you to get onto your representatives, both in the US Senate where the bill has yet to go through (you can try and stop that) and in [the House], and get them to demand their right of audience (which they all have) with the president and tell him about this treaty. There are many very powerful people in this room, wealthy people, influential people. Get onto the media, tell them about this treaty. If they go to www.wattsupwiththat.com, they will find (if they look carefully enough) a copy of that treaty, because I arranged for it to be posted there not so long ago. Let them read it, and let the press tell the people that their democracy is about to be taken away for no good purpose, at least [with] no scientific basis [in reference to climate change]. Tell the press to say this. Tell the press to say that, even if there is a problem [with climate change], you don’t want your democracy taken away. It really is as simple as that.

Question: Is it really irrevocable if that treaty is signed? Suppose it’s signed by someone who does not have the authority, as I – I have some, a high degree of skepticism that we do have a valid president there because I -

I know at least one judge who shares your opinion, sir, yes.

I don’t believe it until I see it. … Would [Obama's potential illegitimacy as president] give us a reasonable cause to nullify whatever treaty that he does sign as president?

I would be very careful not to rely on things like that. Although there is a certain amount of doubt whether or not he was born in Hawaii, my fear is it would be very difficult to prove he wasn’t born in Hawaii and therefore we might not be able to get anywhere with that. Besides, once he’s signed that treaty, whether or not he signed it validly, once he’s signed it and ratified it – your Senate ratifies it – you’re bound by it. But I will say one thing; they know, in the White House, that they won’t be able to get the 67 votes in the Senate, the two-thirds majority that your Constitution has stipulated must be achieved in order to ratify a treaty of this kind. However, what they’ve worked out is this – and they actually let it slip during the election campaign, which is how I know about it. They plan to enact that Copenhagen treaty into legislation by a simple majority of both houses. That they can do. But the virtue of that – and here you have a point – is that is, thank God, reversible. So I want you to pray tonight, and pray hard for your Senate that they utterly refuse to ratify the [new] Treaty of Copenhagen, because if they refuse to ratify it and [Obama] has to push it through as domestic legislation, you can repeal it.

Regardless of whether global warming is taking place or caused to any degree by human activity, we do not want a global government empowered to tax Americans without elected representation or anything analogous to constitutional protections. The Founding Fathers would roll over in their graves if they knew their progeny allowed a foreign power such authority, effectively undoing their every effort in an act of Anti-American Revolution. If that is our imminent course, we need to put all else on hold and focus on stopping it. If American sovereignty is ceded, all other debate is irrelevant.

Edited to add @ 8:31 am:

Skimming through the treaty, I [radio host] came across verification of Monckton’s assessment of the new entity’s purpose:

38. The scheme for the new institutional arrangement under the Convention will be based on three basic pillars: government; facilitative mechanism; and financial mechanism, and the basic organization of which will include the following:
World Government (heading added)

(a) The government will be ruled by the COP with the support of a new subsidiary body on adaptation, and of an Executive Board responsible for the management of the new funds and the related facilitative processes and bodies. The current Convention secretariat will operate as such, as appropriate.

To Redistribute Wealth (heading added)

b) The Convention’s financial mechanism will include a multilateral climate change fund including five windows: (a) an Adaptation window, (b) a Compensation window, to address loss and damage from climate change impacts [read: the "climate debt" Monckton refers to], including insurance, rehabilitation and compensatory components, © a Technology window; (d) a Mitigation window; and (e) a REDD window, to support a multi-phases process for positive forest incentives relating to REDD actions.
With Enforcement Authority (heading added)

The Convention’s facilitative mechanism will include: (a) work programmes for adaptation and mitigation; (b) a long-term REDD process; © a short-term technology action plan; (d) an expert group on adaptation established by the subsidiary body on adaptation, and expert groups on mitigation, technologies and on monitoring, reporting and verification; and (e) an international registry for the monitoring, reporting and verification of compliance of emission reduction commitments, and the transfer of technical and financial resources from developed countries to developing countries. The secretariat will provide technical and administrative support, including a new centre for information exchange [read; enforcement].

END OF TRANSCRIPT of Lord Monckton’s talk and subsequent Q&A

Regardless of our affiliations or levels of civic involvement, we have to be careful what news and sources to take seriously. But with indisputable deterioration in objective mainstream news reporting, it’s no longer adequate to rely blindly on these outlets for the stringent and unbiased reporting (not to mention analysis) we need to evaluate current events.

I believe the above quotes to be accurate, and Monckton’s assessment to be valid. As more information about that evening's talk becomes available, I'll try to post links here so we can follow this story together.

It surely must be obvious that the pending signing of the aforementioned global agreement is extremely dangerous, requiring attention from of all of us. This issue needs to be at the top of the stack.


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Brenda Giguere

Gilad Shalit Twitter Campaign

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On August 28th, 2009, kidnapped Israeli Defense Force soldier Gilad Shalit will celebrate his 23rd birthday. But for the fourth year in a row, it appears he will most likely celebrate this important milestone far away from his home in Israel. Shalit was kidnapped by Hamas in the summer of 2006 and has remained in captivity since. Negotiations for his release are ongoing.

‘Tweet4Shalit’ is a virtual grassroots movement inspired by the struggle Gilad Shalit must endure daily as a prisoner of war and as a victim of Islamic extremism.

For more information, see this link. Thank you.

Gilad Shalit Twitter Campaign!

Posted using ShareThis

* * *

Something "fishy": A U.S. citizen who is against Obamacare because of verifiable facts

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Dear White House:

I am most strenuously against government taking over our health care in this country. I want to be very clear about this.

Whenever possible, I do try to share with others my belief that the proposed health care legislation is a very bad choice. I don't have to lie or make things up to do this, either; all I need to do is present verifiable facts in a calm and logical manner. I am a working American, a voter, non-violent and reasonable, just a regular person exercising my right to free speech.

It is deeply disturbing that our government is now apparently calling on people to report citizens for exercising their Constitutional rights, merely because they do not agree with the government on this issue and dare to iterate those beliefs in writing. I saw this solicitation with my own eyes on the White House website this morning, but could scarcely believe it.

What are we to make of this? What possible virtue, what possible justification is there in gathering names of dissenters?

This is not the America I know.

Sincerely and respectfully submitted,



Brenda Cox Giguere


* * *

Endeavor touches down safely to earth

* * *
Congratulations to the incredible team behind the Endeavor, and the brave crew.

Here's a link to the NASA site to catch the latest updates:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Again, I am honored to live in an era that saw the dawn of manned space flight. It is my deep wish that our time in space is only just beginning.

Regards,

bg

* * *

* * *

The old diary with the cracked white vinyl cover is somewhere in my garage; this I know. I've run across it since moving here. It's not something I'd ever throw away primarily because in it I wrote about the first moon walk while it was happening.

My hope was to find that diary in time to scan my multi-page entry for July 20, 1969 and share it here in Future World.

No such luck, but I guess I've been busy. We live in strange, rapidly-evolving times with too many earthbound dangers and no moon quest to dazzle us.

Coming to grips with a time span like forty years seems like the first order of business, but it's unnerving to face head on. At first I try to reason with those memories, hold them up to the light like so many glass cat eye marbles, but instead it all comes at me achingly and at once. That one night could be refracted into a long meditation, but I'll discipline it into a cluster of fragments.

My sixteenth birthday was two months away.

Summers in my home town were always hot, and my memory of that night merges in that respect with countless others: the barest tease of coolness arriving only well after the last rays of that day’s sun. If it had been any other night and we'd wanted to cool off, we'd drive to get icy mugs of car-hop root beer, or go to the library.

On this particular night we are all at home, of course: Mama, Daddy, my sister, and me. Every person I knew would be in their homes as well, all of us excited and waiting around the curved glass screens of heavy television sets.

The room is dark. I have a can of Shasta soda half finished and warming in my hand, and we’re waiting. In his corner chair, my father has a camera ready to take pictures of the television’s images.

What first strikes me now, beyond the sharp melancholy for that all but forgotten shared sense of pride, and wonder, and endless possibility, is that we could achieve so much with so little, and what that said about us, and how that has changed. Our technology was most certainly crude by today's standards, making a mission to the moon all the more heroic, a collective effort that spoke volumes about who we were, and proof of our rich, vast sense of possibility and even grandeur.

As we sat together that hot July night, the sleeping moon of Aristotle and Shakespeare and a million children's drawings had finally been prodded, transformed into ghostly dust under an astronaut's boot, and a brilliant slice of white on countless cathode ray tubes. The jumble of ideas it seemed to suggest was intoxicating. I couldn’t shake the realization that we’d crawled out of our caves, organized our activities in such a way that it culminated in this breathtaking moment.

After the first footsteps and the moving words I'll always feel proud of, when it felt like the world would never be the same again, I slipped outside, alone. The street, usually filled with summer restlessness, was quieter than I had ever known. I looked up and stared.

Once back in the house, the images were still being transmitted. The acute joy of it made me feel inexplicably sad, and in the midst of all that, I recall wondering how many times I would recall that night in the years ahead.

By the light of the televised moon, I wrote in my diary, It is beyond belief. It still is.

* * *

Smoking gun: President caught in huge health care lie

* * *

Democrats Refuse to Let Americans Keep the Insurance They Have and Like

2 out of 3 will lose their health insurance

Democrats voted against an amendment offered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) to strike the government-run plan.

When speaking before the American Medical Association, President Obama stated that, “If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.”

However, the Democrats government-run plan breaks this promise.

According to two independent studies: The government-run plan will result in more than 100 million Americans losing their current private health coverage.

This amendment to let Americans keep the insurance they like by striking the government-run plan was defeated, 25-15

* * *

This nightmare scenario is really happening, my friends- socialist utopians are intent on dismantling our health care system and subsitute one like the disastrous plans of Canada and the UK-- plans that put bureacrats in charge of health care and cause deadly rationing and delays... plans that shift health care away from the elderly and those who pay into the system in order to address a mere 3% of the population-- many of whom aren't even U. S. citizens.

Unless we demand our representatives stop it.

Begin by writing a letter to your family doctor right away.

For more information, try the following links (will be adding to this list; check back):

http://smartgirlpolitics.ning.com/

Time is of the essence.

* * *

One Giant Leap for Mankind

Independence Day

* * *

Like so many of us, I'm taking the occasion of our nation's birthday to express my gratitude. What better way to show our appreciation for our freedom than by heading outdoors and relaxing with friends and family, maybe gathering to watch fireworks.

It's been a rough year, but Americans are a positive people. We make the best of both gray and sunny days.

Our founding fathers probably did too good of a job in securing freedom for us. They forged the most significant national documents in the history of civilization, laying the groundwork for the United States of America to arise and lead the world in strength, freedom, and opportunity. We have always taken these documents seriously, and built our nation upon them.

Not that we didn’t have some painful lessons to learn along the way. We would falter painfully. We weren’t always kind and tolerant of one another, and still are not fully beyond these problems. But we learn from our mistakes, seek with earnest enthusiasm to right our wrongs, and with this philosophy firmly in place have slowly but surely assumed our legitimate place as the world’s beacon of hope.

Much of the rest of the world limps along under varying levels of tyranny, or stagnates under various forms of statism, and shivers fearfully under the watchful eye of restrictive government. But here, we can still speak out, we can still assemble. We have had dark moments, but we have never seen our streets bloodied like Tehran has recently seen. We do not drive tanks over citizens or gun them down in churches, or strap bombs to children. While the UN gets together for wine and cheese and tsk-tsks nations for breeches of human rights, we’ve stepped up and helped people around the world with manpower, money, goods, leadership, and military help. We've done this again and again.

Here in the US, we champion anyone who wants to make something of himself, so much so that it is a key element of our national identity. Success stories abound across race and gender, and we assume our children will have at least the opportunities we did.

This is why it is hard for many Americans to see just how bad things are getting. We know the situation is grim, but somehow can’t believe an economic downturn can be any worse than anything we’ve endured in the past. We speak of pendulums swinging, of tough times and recoveries, of periodic shifts from liberal to conservative leadership. We think despite some serious setbacks, everything is eventually-- automatically-- going to be just fine. We don't quite see how the very ground is slipping away under our feet. It seems impossible that the leaders of the free world aren't acting in our best interest and upholding our most precious documents.

But never has it been truer than it now is: freedom is never free.

You are good, honest, trusting people.

But if someone you know and love is urging you to look at how bad things are getting, give them an ear. Thoughtful citizens are seeing some alarming unprecedented choices being made right under our noses.

The people sounding the alarm go to work every day (or are looking for work) and are keeping up their homes, just like you are. In their spare time, they’re digging to find accurate news information so they can piece together the truth- a truth that's hard to face. They're writing letters, signing petitions, calling Congressmen and women, writing blogs, handing out fliers- even the quiet introverts (like me) who would far rather be doing something else entirely.

They're not trying for sainthood or trying to be better than anyone else. They're just trying to keep misguided and deadly forces right here on our own soil from ruining our country.

They’re not trying to ruin your day. Please give them a listen.

* * *

Everyone please enjoy the blessings of our independence this Independence Day.

Regards,

bg


* * *

The day after it began

Rain woke me up early.

It was still dark out, and one of those times when I couldn't quite decide if I was really awake for good. I finally stepped into my slippers and moved towards caffeine and my computer, even though it was only about 4:30.

* * *

Coffee in hand, a new day in the land of the free begins with a pale wash of light through my office window. Other than exclamations from a few noisy birds, my neighborhood is quiet and peaceful.

One of many things now buzzing through my head-- so many issues to choose from!-- as I get my premature start on today is the post-election situation unfolding in Iran.

First, I hope nobody concludes I'm a Mousavi fan, because I'm not. Even from my inexpert perspective I know he's not a friend, and Iran's leadership is now-- and will probably still be in the foreseeable future-- a threat to the free world. It's sad, but they have a long way to go, and I think we'd all do well to remember that.

It's possible the ruthlessness of that country's longstanding power base would merely have a better outward appearance.

Media producer and journalist Roger L. Simon, a self-described agnostic Jew, was surprised to find that Ahmadinejad in person emanated a palpable, overpowering, unforgettable evil, an evil with theological implications. Simon was left quite shaken by the experience. (text of Simon's article about the Durban II Conference is here). Unlike Simon, I didn't have a personal encounter with the diminutive dictator (and for that matter, I'm not Jewish); still, I must say Ahmadinejad's agenda and persona have always frightened me and filled me with dread.

In some ways Iran would be going from one bad situation to another in changing leaders, but I'm grateful to see people's outrage against a tyrant and an apparently rigged election. The Iranian people aren't all suddenly going to be our best friends, but something in me is always encouraged, on some gut level, by social expressions of the desire for justice and freedom; most Americans are eager to share this concept with the world and cheer it on. It's movement in the right direction and in that sense, exhilarating to see. Still, it's appalling and heartbreaking to see a government hunting down its own people in cold blood.

Another reminder that freedom isn't free.

* * *



http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/ June 16 post
* * *

Iran election protests unfold online in real time

Health care stretched thin... and then you die

* * *

National health care.

Health care for everyone sounds wonderful, right? Most people in this country have access to good medical care, arguably the best in the world, but a portion are without it. Some of these uninsured folks are here illegally, some legally.

Some people automatically think socializing medicine is a good idea because then everyone can access medical care. And we all live happily ever after.

Maybe it sounds good if you don't look at it too closely. Setting aside for the moment the basic philosophy of what and how much of any endeavor should be run by a federal bureaucracy, and who on our soil should receive such care and who pays for it, I suggest we remove our rose-colored glasses and take a look.

What will socialized medicine really mean? Universal health care isn't an untested concept; we have only to take an unblinking look at Canada or the UK.

The subject is a very complex one, and this blog post doesn't pretend to address all the practical, legal, political, and ethical aspects of this issue. I'm not an expert by any means, but rather am a concerned citizen-- as you should be-- gathering pertinent information. Concerned probably isn't strong enough of a word; more accurately, I am alarmed. And I don't alarm too easily.

Let's start with some basic facts. The bottom line is, there are a finite number of doctors and nurses out there. Extending health care to everyone means stretching this finite resource. As Thomas Sowell so often reminds us in another context, it's all about choices. Everything has a price.

We can't wave a magic wand and create a medical professional work force overnight.

And to compound the problem, are your doctor and his/her associates going to quit their practices in disgust when, under such a system, they can no longer provide the quality of care their conscience allows? Some doctors have already made this very promise.

And what happens to medical research?

Remember, when costs are cut, this means income is cut for health care professionals-- hardly an enticement to enter the field.

Do you really want to allow our federal government to deliver health care coverage? The claim is it won't replace private care, but this is the deadly lie. Simply put, private health care will be run out of business. But don't take my word for it:

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/ (scroll down to June 5 blog post)

These choices carry a predictable end result that no amount of wishful thinking can mitigate.

I'm sorry, sir. We can't do anything about your wife's colon cancer.

Here's something else I've found on the subject. The video quality is a bit imperfect, but this gentleman brings up several valid points, including the irreversible nature of this entitlement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qp8JdeSHlk

Just something to think about, but don't take too long. Like the colon cancer that kills far more people in Canada than it does here in the US-- for reasons seemingly related only to health care services-- the clock is ticking.

I know we're all worried about a dozen other serious issues right now, but this one is coming right at us in the upcoming weeks.

If we allow this utopian fantasy to unfold, health care will ultimately become a matter of bureaucrats deciding who lives and dies. Is this how our great country will end up? There are already serious discussions in the UK about which people will need to be taken off of medical support.

And our own postmodern civil servants mull it over too.

This is an actual interview with direct quotes:

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2009/04/obama-endorses-government-mandated.html

Is this really happening here?

Respectfully submitted,

b. giguere

* * *

Update: I just found a highly detailed and well-written discussion of this subject by someone with a humbling direct knowledge and experience, published on June 1 at a site called The Liberty Tree Lantern. Well worth reading.

http://tinyurl.com/mgyhem

And finally, the Wall Street Journal:

http://tinyurl.com/m2f8gt

* * *

Homegrown Jihad: Murder in Little Rock

Rest in peace, William Long.

On Balance

* * *

There's a legitimate sense of being on red alert lately. So many things are in disarray, so much is outrageously and dangerously wrong, it's become difficult to carry on in a relaxed fashion with my normal activities.

It's not logical, but the feeling is there: How can I go into my studio and work on something like costume jewelry or doll couture when Washington is spending trillions of our dollars and growing into something unrecognizable? How can I spend a morning planting a fern garden in my side yard if our president-- a man with questionable abilities and loyalties-- is apologizing and appeasing our dangerous enemies? How can I sit and work on my novel when Israel is in such danger, and Jews and Christians are brutally persecuted around the world? How can I repaint my bathroom cabinets when personal liberties are being eroded from one hour to the next? How can I relax in a hot bubblebath when leaders in Pakistan and Iran can't wait to go nuclear, the UK is increasingly accepting of Sharia law, and the free world all but ignores countless ghastly "honor killings"? When an out-of-control party and administration is sending our nation into economic ruin?

We're in this for the long haul.

Worrying, in and of itself, is not constructive, but rather, a call to action. Despite never enjoying civic involvement, and being a peaceful and non-confrontational person, I now force myself to determine what needs my action and involvement, and work on these tasks during a specified time slot each day.

With so much at stake, it's essential that concerned citizens involve themselves in judicious reading, emailing, and appropriate civic action on an ongoing basis. The job of bringing back our country is a serious call to action. But without balance, there's a risk of our becoming overwhelmed. Ultimately, this works against our effectiveness, and invites resignation.

It's not as if we can actually spend all twenty-four hours a day actively making things better. When I'm sleeping, I want to sleep... not grind my teeth.

These are dangerous times, and we must act effectively every single day. But we must also find ways to be healthy, to carry on with our daily lives. When we're working to make things better, we must do so with great resolve... nothing is more important. But when we're with our families, or doing our jobs, making our way through our tasks and hobbies and daily activities, I think it's important to be fully appreciative within those activities.

When I listen to music, I want to do this in a full and complete way. The creek behind my house is home to egrets and herons, and there are hummingbirds at my backyard feeder; should these daily miracles go unappreciated? I need to remain as positive and helpful as I can when interacting with friends and family. And I need to continue to work on those projects large and small that make me who I am.

Life and freedom are precious, and what better ongoing motivation is there for defending those things we love than to deeply appreciate them ?

If not, we've already lost some of what we're fighting for.

respectfully submitted,

b. giguere

* * *

Saint Pelosi

JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED THIS IN YOUR CHURCH BULLETIN... Nancy Pelosi is now a Saint.

On a Saturday afternoon, in Washington, D. C., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's aide visited the Cardinal of the Catholic cathedral.

He told the Cardinal that Nancy Pelosi would be attending the next day's sermon, and he asked if the Cardinal would kindly point out Pelosi to the congregation and say a few words that would include calling Pelosi a saint.

The Cardinal replied, "No. I don't really like the woman, and there are issues of conflict with the Catholic Church over certain of Pelosi's views."

Pelosi's aide then said, "Look. I'll write a check here and now for a donation of $100,000 to your church if you'll just tell the congregation you see Pelosi as a saint."

The Cardinal thought about it and said, "Well, the church can use the money, so I'll work your request into tomorrow's sermon."

As Pelosi's aide promised, House Speaker Pelosi appeared for the Sunday sermon and seated herself prominently at the edge of the main aisle.

And, during the sermon, as promised, the Cardinal pointed out that House Speaker Pelosi was present.

Then the Cardinal went on to explain to the congregation, "While Speaker Pelosi's presence is probably an honor to some, she is not my favorite person. Some of her views are contrary to those of the church, and she tends to flip-flop on many other views. Nancy Pelosi is a petty, self-absorbed hypocrite, a thumb sucker, and a nit-wit. Nancy Pelosi is also a serial liar, a cheat, and a thief. Nancy Pelosi is the worst example of a Catholic I have ever personally witnessed. She married for money and is using it to lie to the American people. She also has a reputation for shirking her Representative obligations both in Washington, and in California . She simply is not to be trusted."

The Cardinal completed his view of Pelosi with, "But, when compared to Senators Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, and John Kerry, House Speaker Pelosi is a saint."

* * *

The preceding arrived in my in-box this morning and is my hands-down favorite of today's various email humor pieces. Author unknown. Thank you, whoever you are.

* * *

Does aid to Africa make things worse?

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Fiction writing is taking most of my waking hours of late, but I'd like to get in the habit of sharing interesting and relevant pieces my thoughtful friends might otherwise miss.

To that end: This articulate book review, linked immediately below, asks us to look carefully at the way aid actually affects those we are trying to help:

http://tinyurl.com/adohaq


Regards,
bg

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Short radio piece: conservatism speaks

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Now and then we run into surprising jewels of wisdom.

My friend Larrey and his wife Eileen have written an unusual piece of a patriotic nature and shared it on national radio today. Now I want to share it with you.

If you are curious about that kind of passion, I invite you to go here, download, and listen to this short work. Then share the link if you find it on point.

Thank you, Larrey and Eileen.

http://www.mikechurch.com/mikes_audio/real_cpac/Lady_conservatism_speaks_022709.mp3
regards,
b. giguere

2076-- Can America Make It? by Howie Rich

This post comes to us from an outside author, Howie Rich, presented here with permission, in its entirety.


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More than perhaps any other nation in human history, the United States of America needs to brush up on its own history.

After all, a Republic founded 233 years ago in defiance of fiscal tyranny has once again succumbed to it – only this time we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Worse still, a frightening paradigm shift has completely overtaken the thinking of our nation's "leaders" in both political parties.

No longer is there any real debate as to whether the federal government should grow into new and undefined roles at the expense of our liberties (and our wallets) – the question has become how fast and how much of our individual and economic freedom these "leaders" should be permitted to deprive us of.

So let's dispense with the meaningless partisan sniping of our modern-day, 24-hour news cycle for a moment, because that's frankly the last place we're going to find the sort of wisdom we need to deal with these issues.

Let's dig a little deeper, shall we?

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes," wrote Thomas Jefferson, one of many "wise and frugal" governing principles he committed to posterity.

Sadly, our country is now $13 trillion away from realizing his goal, thanks to a problem he predicted.

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government," Jefferson added, a reminder to adhere to the basic limitations set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights – limitations on government that now no longer exist.

Obviously, the road to complete and total abandonment of America's founding fiscal and governmental ideals was a long one, and – to hear revisionist historians tell it – a necessary one.
Sort of like all of the trillions in recent federal interventionism was "necessary," according to Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

In fact, Obama went so far as to say that our current national recession would be "irreversible" unless his bailout boondoggle was passed.

Interestingly enough, it was a creative definition of the "necessary and proper" clause – made infamous in the 1812 McCulloch v. Maryland ruling – that first enabled government to assume powers far beyond those originally enumerated by its founding documents.

What powers, you may ask? Whatever powers it deemed "necessary and proper," obviously.
Paired with the Commerce clause – sixteen little words that have also been interpreted as giving the federal government near-unlimited power to do whatever it pleases – the slippery slope toward future excesses was well-oiled.

After the Civil War came the Interstate Commerce Act, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and "stream of commerce" doctrine - all of which radically enhanced the federal government's authority at the expense of the states.

Then came the first "New Deal," which firmly centralized national power under a federal welfare state, but according to Franklin D. Roosevelt's own Treasury Secretary only made matters worse economically.

"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work," said Henry Morganthau. "I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … And an enormous debt to boot!"

Mark those words … because you very well may hear them again after eight years of Obama's "New Deal 2.0."

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them," Jefferson wrote.

At every turn along the way, America has failed to heed that advice.

All that remains to be seen is if we ever will.

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Howie Rich

The author is Chairman of Americans for Limited Government, and this piece can be found at The Daily Grind. The author invites bloggers to distribute this piece.

http://alg31blog.timberlakepublishing.com/default.asp?Display=976

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Pure madness: disregard for safety in time of War

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Greetings, and welcome to 2009. I guess I can't keep pretending this isn't happening.

My friends, please take a look at this brief article over at Newsmax. I agree with Cheney's assessment of the riskiness of leaving behind the Bush anti-terrorism policies that have kept us safe.

Sorry to make my first post of the new blog site such a fearful one, but this is too important to dismiss.

Recently I've been very busy working on the last section of a lengthy work of fiction, and am also doing the outline and research for an article. Between that and my fresh commitment to streamlining my household, the result is a neglected blog. But I'll be back here in earnest as soon as possible.

In the meantime, I'm trying to keep up with my favorite sources for important news and commentary. Uppermost in my mind (and probably yours too) are two huge national issues: security and the economy.

Frankly speaking, only misguided moonbats believe you can achieve peace by pretending you're not at war. And only a liberal can actually believe you help the economy by pouring billions of our hard-earned dollars into pet projects... but that's a subject for another day.

Anyway, here's the link:

http://www.newsmax.com/index.html

Dick Cheney / terrorism / Bush policies

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Be well, everyone.

Respectfully submitted,

b. giguere

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