Whaddaya Think?

We have little over a week and a half until the mid-term elections. Everyone is giving you their opinions. I think it is only fitting that you should also have a say in what's going on. So, here's your chance. Do Not neglect to cast your vote, whichever way your conscience dictates. It is your duty as a citizen.  But think before you go into the booth, because so much is riding on your decision, and it should not be made lightly. Until then, hit the 'comment' button at the bottom and let me know what you're thinking about what is happening in America. Be polite, but don't be bashful...man (or woman) up, and sound off like you've got something to say, or ask your own questions.  Here are just a few suggestions to get the conversation flowing.

• President Obama recently scolded the United States Chamber of Commerce for taking money from foreign companies and political action committees. Amidst all his and other Demoncrats' bellyaching about the GOP receiving money from "unknown foreign sources," they never seem to get around to telling their audience that their party receives almost twice as much in foreign contributions as the Republicans do.  Any thoughts on the hypocrisy? Do you even see any?
• Under the heading of "Even a stopped clock is right twice a day," the president signed a law requiring new laws to be written in plain English.  A great idea? I think so, but apparently 80 Republicans didn't, because of "Senate modifications."  What were those modifications that prevented a unanimous vote for the elimination of legalese in writing our laws? And why couldn't it have been written more plainly as an example?
• Why does it always come as a shock when there is a rash of teenage suicides? When we become adults, do we forget all the lonliness, the confusion over social roles, the feeling that "no one understands me" that goes through the heads of many teenagers as they struggle to understand the changes going on inside them, and their relationships to the world around them?
• When Imam Rauf, the man pushing for the "Ground Zero mosque" complains that comments like Bill O'Reilly's "The View" statement of fact "only served to further fuel an irrational fear of Islam," is he being serious, or simply taking us for complete fools? Are we suppposed to forget the overwhelming hypocrisy of the Left when it comes to how Muslims are portrayed for public consumption?  In the words of O'Reilly; "What say you?"  And is fear truly irrational when there are literally millions of Muslims who want to kill us?
• In a story that dominated the media for part of the week, what do you think of commentator Juan Williams' firing as a contributor at NPR simply for stating in a Fox News Channel debate that sometimes he feels a little uncomfortable when flying if there are people in traditional Muslim garb on board?  Was his firing justified? Was it wise of Fox News to afterward hire him full-time? More importantly, was he fired as part of George Soros' suddenly-public massive sponsorship of NPR and other Left-leaning propaganda organs, as he openly declared war on Fox and anyone connected with it?  Does it matter that Soros is using his vast (and increasing) wealth in an attempt to be the literal "man behind the curtain," the master puppeteer of the western world? 

• Does it matter that the United States is in the midst of the steepest job decline in modern history? Or that government policies have been literally pushing manufacturing jobs overseas for decades, resulting in a higher level of unemployment than we've seen since World War 2, while simultaneously pushing us into a level of debt impossible to pay off?
• Are you upset by the continuing revelation of military secrets involving the war in Iraq by Wikileaks? If so, why? Are you more offended by the exposure of military secrets, or by the abuses that may have occurred in our name?

As you can see, there are many things going on around us, and naturally I haven't even scratched the surface here. It is so easy to become overwhelmed by the events of the day.  Most people simply tune out, while others catch the ubiquitous sound-bite which becomes all they ever really learn (or at least, hear) about the subject at hand. These media fragments - which are always carefully chosen and sometimes manipulated to produce a desired effect on the listener, then become the foundation if not the entirety of the person's understanding of the issue. 

When soundbite-itis or apathy becomes the total view of a large portion of the population - and that population makes up a republic - there is great danger on the horizon. This is true because a republic absolutely requires the due diligence of the majority; the voters who elect people to oversee their affairs. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people who seek high office are persons of low character and an incredibly exaggerated self-esteem; more interested in the power of the office and the perks it brings than the principles that should be guiding their "enlightened rule."

What principles, you inquire? I could give you all sorts of stuff to look up: the  Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, the ponderings of Frederick Bastiat (fast becoming a favorite of mine), and of course, the Holy Bible.  But perhaps that which gets the point across best and most simply is a brief list that has been making the email rounds, variously titled. For now, let's just let it answer the questions:

Which side of the fence are you on?
If a Conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn’t buy one. If a Liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.   

If a Conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat. If a Liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.   

If a Conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life. If a Liberal is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.   

If a Conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation. A Liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.   

If a Conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels. Liberals demand that those they don't like be shut down.   

If a Conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church. A Liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.

If a Conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it. A Liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.   

If a Conservative reads this, he'll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh.  A Liberal will delete it because he's "offended."
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So, now that you've got the guidelines, start noticing how your typical reactions match up (or not). Travel down that road to self-discovery. I think you'll find that most of us wobble back and forth over the line, especially when a particular issue confronts us personally.  For most of us it's a matter of degree rather than a strict division of reactions and preferences. One of the most difficult things for a lot of people is to admit to ourselves that we don't always behave as purely as we think we do.  As you think about these very simple examples, I hope you will come to a deeper understanding of yourself. Perhaps you will even find yourself becoming more pronounced - or at least stable - in your own beliefs and reactions to events.

This Fox IS Guarding the Henhouse

Take a moment (surely you can spare at least one) and read this, and think. I know it's hard, but try.

Have you ever thought about what this country would be like today if there was no Fox News? Maybe you're a Kool-Aider whose never watched it and believes all the negative hype (especially by all the competition that is being buried by Fox in the ratings) without questioning their truthfulness.  But try to be objective.

There is no other major network currently willing to follow the news no one else is reporting with the capability to put it out there for the world to see. Fox doesn’t shut down debate, it encourages it. It doesn’t put forth an agenda, it brings them out into the open. It doesn’t need balance, it IS the balance against all those stacked against the American concept of freedom and responsibility on the other side.  It tells the stories the Left tries to hide.

On the other side, ABC (owned by disney), NBC (owned by GE), MSNBC (also GE), and CBS (owned by National Amusements) are all solidly in the Obama propaganda camp, not only in their news venues but also in their general programming. One reason is the corporations that own the networks.  Most are run by billionaire "progressives" who have made immense fortunes in the capitalist system they are working so hard to destroy.

When virtually all other networks, major newspapers, major news magazines, the vast majority of universities, and the entertainment media almost without exception support Barack Obama’s policies and controversial appointments; when all these organizations are pushing the socialist/ Marxist/progressive agenda, what chance would rational Americans have to expose and resist this totalitarian, nanny-state juggernaut?  If you bother see the connections in otherwise separate incidents and statements, you will see that we are on a dangerous road. Where does that road lead?  Can you say "global dictatorship?"

Fox is standing strong yet lonely in its values, even in the face of constant attacks from an increasingly hostile government and government-friendly media organizations.  What other major news organization with the capability to reach more than a hundred million Americans (and desperate truth-seekers in other nations) has had the courage to bring you stories about some of Obama's sinister plans (I strongly encourage you to check out this link and watch the segment) to "fundamentally change America?"

I believe in a Creator God who takes an active interest in His creation. I don't believe in coincidence. I believe we should seriously thank God for the Fox News network. It has consistently aired a rational opposing viewpoint against the tide of politically-induced popular opinion, and it has asked the serious questions few others are willing (or allowed by their bosses) to ask. It gives airtime for Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and others to prod for the answers to tough questions and to expose the hidden agendas of the Left to the light of day.  It is my opinion that Fox News is here, now, for just such a time as this.

Not coping in Copenhagen.  Remember the UN Global Warming Conference I told you about (OK; so you've seen it all over the news) in Denmark?  It appears that someone has thrown the entire affair into turmoil with the release of a document - the so-called "Danish text" - which is claimed to be a draft of a secret agreement, written in stultifying legalese, between the US, Britain and other western nations, designed to direct the global warming revenues (from 'carbon credits' and the like) and law-making powers away from the third world nations.  Needless to say, those folks are not happy.

To my fertile mind, this has all the ingredients of a "Mission Impossible" plot.  Let's say you're part of a relatively small group who actually wants to destroy -- or take over -- American and Western European economic and political power.  You've got this great opportunity as the world's elite leftists and travelling idiots gather to develop a plan where all the nations theoretically share in the role of leadership - a kind of mega-UN. But there's friction, and the great powers are holding out.  What to do? 

What if your little cabal forges a fake 'document' which conveniently implicates those very governments in a scheme to undercut the "other players".  It would raise the ire of all the little nations and their populations, garnering a massive quantity of popular resentment.

With the great nations already reeling under a constant barrage of orchestrated negativism, they might be made to feel guilty enough to forego all resistance to the global consensus. All the time, however, your cabal is working behind the scenes to move things in a direction where they would be the ones to reap the harvest - monetarily and politically.  Who could manage such a thing?  The Russians (who may have been behind the "Climategate" hacking)?  The Chinese (who essentially own the US debt and are feverishly buying up all the global resources they can)? George Soros (who practically destroyed the British economy years ago, and is the major player behind Obama and the Chicago Mob in Washington)?  Hmmm.

Don't breathe.  Were you aware that the Environmental Protection Agency is about to prove it is one of the most dangerous agencies in the country, and is staffed with lunatics?  The EPA is planning to declare carbon dioxide a public danger.  Of course, millions of people have been conditioned to swoon at the merest mention of a government decree that supports their specious belief that mankind is the mortal enemy of the same huge ball of dirt and rock floating in space that we depend upon for our very survival.

Let's see if I have this right: every time I exhale (carbon dioxide), I'm a public danger?  And I thought it was just bad breath.  I wonder why these nitwits never bring up that little inconvenient truth that plants require the CO2 we breathe out, and that they use it use it (and sunlight) to produce oxygen, and that the slight rise in CO2 and slight average temperature rise would mean increased crop production if governments would just get out of the way.  But then, perhaps feeding all the world's people isn't on the Left's agenda.
Maybe there just aren't enough plants at the EPA offices, and all their brains are starved for oxygen. God help us; the lunatics really are running the asylum.

I will say it again, and again; this whole Leftist agenda with all its subdivisions (i.e., global warming, climate change, healthcare, abortion, gay marriage, etc.) and arguments have nothing to do with making the world a better place for (insert favorite group here); it's all about control and the acquisition of power and wealth, and the domination of those people considered to be "lesser beings."  A relative few are in on the secret; the rest are but minions; the 'useful idiots' of Lenin's schemology.

White House Grinches.  The Obamas, who spent twenty years in Rev.Jeremiah Wright's Church of Hateful Leftist Rhetoric, have chosen to join the full-frontal "cultural" assault on American heritage, tradition and values by cancelling Christmas in the White House.  No nativity scene, and no mention of Christmas in the "Season's Greetings" cards being issued from the mansion. Wouldn't want to offend anyone except Christians, after all.  One has to wonder what "season" they're celebrating. Even at this most dangerous time, the president has been steadily chipping away at traditional American institutions and values. It isn't just his minimalization of our (not necessarily his) Christian heritage, or his gross misunderstanding of our military or his dramatic and ominous restructuring of our government.  It's also the despicable ways he, his cronies, and his mindless followers try to insinuate their personality cult and skewed idealism on our children.

Virtually everything he has done or attempted to do so far has been antithetical to all that has made this country the refuge and breadbasket of the world for at least two centuries. And while many in the world are gloating over our largely self-induced troubles, there will be a global mourning when we become like the rest of the world, and there will no longer be a place of safety and rebirth to escape to.  The phrase, "Be careful what you wish for..." comes to mind.

Some history is worth repeating.  In 1914, amid the smoke, battle and death of World War I, a peculiar event occurred.  On Christmas Eve, while thousands of British and German troops faced each other in the trenches, a German soldier began singing Christmas carols. Soon his comrades joined in, and the sound rolled across the battlefield.  Then the Brits began raising their voices as well, and the chorus was said to be truly beautiful to hear, especially in light of the circumstances.  But it didn't end there; a German carrying a short "Christmas tree" crossed the battle lines to the British trenches in a peace gesture. Before long other troops were crossing the field, and soldiers from both sides shared a night of singing, gift-sharing and friendship-making.  In the history of warfare, it was nothing short of a miracle; civility rising above savagery.
 
A poignant music video with a collage of pictures from that event gives evidence that soldiers aren't necessarily barbarians; at least, in what remains of western culture.  It's a reminder that politicians start wars, but soldiers have to do the fighting, killing and dying. Pray that there would be no more need for men to leave hearth and home for the purpose of taking those same things from others, possibly never to return to their own.

Unanswered Questions

This is going to be a special edition of In My Right Mind. Even if you don't think I am in my right mind, at least give me the benefit of the doubt and check out the information I pass along. After all, I don't do this for an ego trip (anyone who knows me should realize that), and I'm sure not getting paid to do it. I do it because I don't want to see this country go up in flames -- perhaps literally -- and I don't want to see us, and those who come after us, lose our freedoms, even though we take them too much for granted and may not even deserve them anymore because we fail to realize what those freedoms actually cost.

This edition is all about Glenn Beck's recent week-long special, "The New Republic: America's Future." A lot of people blow off Glenn Beck for a number of reasons, most of which are unjustified. If you haven't watched his Fox News show (5 pm EDT) during the past week, you've missed a lot of information, backed up by evidence. He has really outdone himself with this monumental effort to dig out the truth about what is happening to America. Beck also asked a number of very important questions of this malAdministration, none of which have been answered yet. But this picture he's presenting is so much bigger than just Barack Obama, and it includes not only the radical Left and the Democrats, it also includes the Republicans as well.

Rather than respond to his thoughtful and legitimate questions, he gets attacked and ridiculed by the Left and ignored by too many regular folks who would rather bury their heads in the sand or believe the hateful rhetoric that the mainstream media promotes. Perhaps the most important question he asks is, why aren't the mainstream media news organizations asking these questions?

On Monday, Glenn began asking reasonable questions for unreasonable times, and began mapping out the intricate web of interconnections between the government, certain megacorporations, unions and community organizations. He also took a close look at the phenomenal national debt. For example, did you know your personal share of the national debt was more than $38,000 per citizen - on Monday (and it's growing by the second)? He believes that a new organizational structure of greater intricacy than any other in history is quietly being built to supplant and replace our constitutional form of government. And if they are successful, freedom will be the next word banned from the marketplace of ideas. He also gave us a glimpse of Obama's so-called "green czar", Van Jones.

On Tuesday, he continued his investigation, including Cass Sunstein, one of the most radical of Obama's czars and his agenda, and reminded us that during the campaign the president admits his goal is to "transform" America, not fix it. Check out the evidence to get an idea what he wants to transform it into. Clue: have you read Orwell's "1984" lately?

Rush Limbaugh joined Glenn via phone on Wednesday to discuss the imminent threat to free speech and the radical agenda of the new FCC Chief.

Thursday's show may be the most disturbing yet, as it outlined the Obama malAdministration's attempts to raise "a civilian national security force" that is "as strong, as powerful and as well-funded as the military." This may be the scariest aspect of the Obama plan to reconstruct America. Into what, exactly? This sounds ominously like Obama wants to raise an army that is personally answerable to him, and not subject to the Constitution. Could this be the latest incarnation of the 'Brownshirts' of Nazi Germany? There is so much being attempted now that weakens our constitutional freedoms, bypasses the traditional safeguards, and is overwhelming in its scope. The opportunity to stop it is passing with each day of our silence and passivity.

On Friday, Glenn capped off a week of questions with some potential solutions. As he notes, repeated inquiries to the White House have not yielded any answers. The only response has been to demand that Beck not call Obama's advisors 'czars.' OK, then; let's call them by a more accurate title: commisars. But answer the questions.

If you don't have the time or inclination to view all the video clips, Beck has also provided the entire week's highlights in printed form on his website. But I urge you to give him a chance. He has been the strongest media watchdog defending your rights. He's hired more research, done more homework, risked more of his own health, money and his life (he's under continual risk from death threats to him and his family) than anyone else, including Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage or Levin. But he's not God, and he cannot save America; he's only doing the best he can to wake the rest of us up before he is silenced.