Going, going,...?

You may have heard about Glenn Beck leaving Fox News. The blamestream media is all a-twitter and salivating like Pavlov's dog at the looming prospect (in their minds) of a Beck-free forum in which they might continue to slant or omit news that contradicts their personal agendas. Think again.

Those who bother to read this tacky little blog each week know I have used Glenn Beck as a major resource, while others may say that's precisely why they don't read it, because they automatically dismiss any reference to him (an extremely shortsighted reason). People who actually know me will readily tell you I'm a Beck fanatic. But what generally gets left out of that discussion (either way) is why I pay such respect and close attention to him.

Simply stated, no one else with the media footprint Beck has developed over the past few years seems interested in gathering the information, making the connections, or putting this information out there for the public to see. Few indeed even have the backbone to suffer the attacks and personal threats he has in doing so, and I think that risk is why most everyone else avoids the issues Glenn broaches. As a flawed human acutely aware of his flaws, Glenn lives his life with deliberation and integrity, and that characteristic is both the hallmark of his work and an example to others such as myself.

Another reason I have such great respect for him is that he makes a point of not wanting you to believe him on face value. He repeatedly advises his audience to "Do your own homework." He provides the information (and posts the sources so all can judge for themselves), and tells you how he believes certain individuals, organizations and events are interconneted. Then he lets you decide whether or not he is on the right track. His own track record is fairly consistent and accurate, so....

It is undeniable that we live in increasingly troubled times; more so than we have experienced in many years. We are, for all intents and purposes, approaching a 'nexus' of sorts, a coming together in purpose and/or effect of many bad events, triggered by many separate elements all culminating in a common outcome; the collapse of civilization as we knew it. That approaching apocalypse, if it actually occurs, will be the end for the foreseeable future of the comforts we enjoy (because everything will be much more expensive, harder to find, and of lower quality) and the freedoms we have taken for granted.

The fact is there are presently two major philisophical groups vying for control of everything (they don't call it "global governance" for nothing), Statism and Islam. Statists generally are atheistic - but only in the sense that they don't believe in a supernatural force (i.e., God), because to them, a strong central government is their focal point of worship. Islam is also a political system as much as a religious one - it merely uses a merciless, unforgiving entity as it's core of authority. That isn't to say every Muslim is evil, but very many are quietly supporting the larger movement, which is - to a rational person - undeniably evil in its methods and intent. There are very few "moderate" Muslims speaking out against mass murder, "honor" killings, gross maltreatment of women and children, sharia-instituted extortion, or other behaviors, policies and doctrines that only a few years ago (pre-PC) would have been clearly labeled as murder, rape, attempted genocide, and crimes against humanity.

Unleadership.  Once again proving himself to be the singularly least qualified, most undignified president of the United States ever (at this point, even undercutting Jimmy Carter), Usurper-in-Chief Barack Obama has once again turned his back on our troops in the current budget battle by threatening to veto legislation to fund the troops for the remainder of the year, while the rest of the Demoncrats are completely disregarding real fiscal solutions and rallying around funding for Planned Parenthood as their line in the sand. 

Does anyone else find it incredible that a group of so-called leaders would be willing to hamstring our entire government over funding for the abortion industry? How depraved and indifferent does someone designated as the people's representative have to be to circle the wagons around maintaining a private organization that derives 95% of its money from our tax dollars, an organization whose gruesome techniques caused the inhumane deaths of 332,278 infants in 2009, or one abortion every 95 seconds? But then, many of those politicians are owned by Planned Parenthood. Between their undying support for the deaths of babies and the elderly and infirm, and their abandonment of our ally Israel as Islam prepares to destroy it, under their leadership we may soon owe an apology to the the Nazis for bothering to stop them in World War 2.

On the topic of serious (but not final) solutions; when it comes to restoring fiscal responsibility to the federal government, it appears that no one has as good a grasp on the topic as Congressman Paul Ryan. He has just released his Path To Prosperity plan that would turn the projected path of government spending us into fiscal oblivion into a return to managed growth and renewed economic vigor.

Nanny Statement.  When it comes to micromanaging people's lives, Nowhere in America does "Nanny State" with as much vigor as New York City. The ruling philosophy seems to be "tax it till it bleeds" and squeeze 'em till it hurts." It began with an ever-expanding restriction on where and when people can smoke cigarettes (something I won't argue with, except for the blatant ignorance of individual rights). Then it moved to restricting trans-fats in restaurants. The latest episode in the Big Apple's current drive to turn every inhabitant into a walking stick figure is happening in the very place that is driving so many other New Yorkers to drink diet booze: the city's Health Department has issued new internal guidelines banning fried foods in its work-related meals. The new rules are so intrusive they're now telling employees to cut bagels and muffins in half - I don't know how long they have to wait before eating the other half.

Where do you stand?

How much more of this government micromanagement must we take? Are the current powers-that-be really trying to provoke a violent reaction for the purpose of nullifying the Constitution and suspending the Bill of Rights so they can instill a true police state? I really don't know when we stopped being a country of truly free people, and became a society merely under the delusion of freedom. The majority of this generation cannot express the difference between liberty (which implies a counterbalancing personal responsibility for one's actions) and license; between self-rule and self-indulgence. Each successive generation will understand even less of the differences because each generation is taught less about what is expected of them in a free society, and taught more of what they should expect from government. They don't know the difference between capitalism and communism, so how can they be expected to defend what our nation used to stand for?

In the span of a single generation, we are reverting from history's most noble social contract to history's standard paradigm of the caste system, with its protected and privileged ruling class at the top, the tolerated merchant/artisan class in the middle, and the worker drones and poor peasants (the welfare class - those capable of work but disincentivized to look for it) at the bottom. The middle class will be allowed just enough privilege to keep them fairly content, and in turn they will see to the needs of the upper class. The lower class is controlled by the upper class and perpetually "managed" through the manipulation and induced limitations of food, energy, travel, communications, education, opportunity and reproductive rights. The workers at the low end will provide the 'mindless' labor needs of the society, working in the fields and factories, picking up the trash and cleaning the homes of the wealthy.

As long as the facade of representative government is maintained, a sufficient population of welfare-dependent poor people will be allowed to remain, to provide a sufficiently loyal voting pool. This has been the Demoncrats' modus operandi since the mid-1960s, with the  Cloward-Piven welfare strategy. I say "allowed to remain" because it is, after all, the party of eugenics. It is, after all, made up of the same group of radicals who during the early 1970s bombed and murdered across the country, and plotted the elimination of 25 million Americans who wouldn't go along with them in "reeducation centers" to be located in the Southwest (incidentally, there now are such centers waiting for occupancy).  Keep in mind that they have stuck to the rest of their plans since that time, so why discount their willingness to go that far?).  Why else are the most and largest Planned Parenthood abortion centers located in urban areas with large minority populations? Why are black babies the most frequently aborted?

Killing With Kindness

Only the severely ignorant cannot have noticed a coarsening of Western (for young victims of the public education system, I don't mean old western cowboys) culture in general, and in particular overall American society.  Of course, this isn't simply a national phenomenon; there has always been an element of uncivility - bordering on savagery - running rampant somewhere in the world at any given moment. In fact, contrary to those who believe humans are innately good, most people everywhere are pretty miserable creatures to be around, unless they have been influenced by mitigating forces such as a civilized religion or a social environment that promotes cooperation and congeniality. Simply speaking, we are not naturally inclined to be selfless, and trust can wear thin pretty early in life unless you're in a nurturing environment.  But America had been a particular bastion of self-restraint, generally speaking, until the beginning of the 1960s. And the trend has been climbing upward ever since.

In case you're wondering, I'm not just talking about the increasing occurrence of simple rudeness that is overtaking many communities, nor the overt sexual pandering used to sell products, services or programs.  I'm not even referring to the legions of young teens and pre-teens who show no respect for their elders, use language that would startle a drunken sailor on shore leave, and seem to think acting like a total jerk is somehow being mature.

No, I'm concerned about the unthinking disregard for human life itself.  There is a growing segment of brainwashed boobs who show more concern for trees, birds, and bugs than for their fellow humans. While those certainly have their place in the chain of life, and there are certainly environmental disasters to be dealt with (and prevented), let's be honest and cut through their hypocrisy; too many people have no regard for their fellow humans who don't share their particular hyper-environmentalism or (in many cases) their disdain for personal hygiene.

These decultured dolts have typically been brainwashed with rhetoric that follows roughly three generalizations:
1. humans somehow evolved from primordial pond scum, so they have no intrinsic value;
2. everything humans do is bad for the environment - although they seem only truly concerned with America and Great Britain as major environmental corrupters, and never seem concerned with the truly massive environmental travesties commited by Russia, China, India and other (generally socialist) emerging, polluting, economic powerhouses; and
3. the Earth would be better off without (Western) humans; those same humans who incidentally brought light, sanitation, advanced medicine, ease of travel and commerce, instantaneous communications, computers, plentiful food supplies, clean water technology, clean energy (hydro and nuclear power), and rules of civilized behavior based on mutual cooperation to the entire planet, along with a plan for assured independence balanced by a sense of  personal responsibility rarely experienced in world history.

While the world has gleefully taken full advantage of all these offerings (except the last), a cadre of dedicated elitist dismalists have continuously attacked us on every front because of that very precious gift of personal liberty which threatens their insatiable yearning for privilege, control and conquest.

By this point you'd probably like some examples of what has me so bothered.  Very well. It was an interview with a popular woman pundit in formerly-Great Britain. During a recent talk-show panel discussion, respected (?) advice columnist Virginia Ironside replied to the question, "Can abortion be a kindness?" by answering, "If a baby's going to be born severely disabled or totally unwanted, surely an abortion is the act of a loving mother."  I could almost (uh...nah) allow her weakly-feigned compassion excuse, except for the "unwanted" remark, along with another claiming no concern over killing "a couple of cells."  She is essentially saying that her own subjective sense of "horror" is more important than a baby's existence.  This woman has somehow made it through sixty years of life without a clue of what life actually is.

Many if not most of those on the Left have a similar low view of human life. They will protest the cutting of lumber or a butterfly's habitat as loudly as they will lash out against any attempt to curtail Planned Parenthood's grotesque revenue stream. In their hypocrisy, they never seem to consider that, if humans are so terrible, and they are human, why don't they simply commit suicide? Their one-sided argument isn't really much different from the Islamic mullahs who coax immature or brainwashed Muslims to blow themselves up, but never seem to get around to martyring themselves. I guess someone has to ruthlessly rule the survivors.
Not that you're interested, but here is my own 3-point thought on human life:
1. We are not an accident of nature, we are a conscious creation by God.
2. We have a purpose in life (although most of us will never fully realize what part we play in His Great Plan). Therefore, we have intrinsic value, at least until we prove ourselves otherwise by our actions and choices. And related to this point,
3. We bear responsibility for our actions, and may suffer consequences for our choices.

In case you think I'm being vague, I'm not in favor of abortion, especially when it is done purely for reasons of personal choice, and when it is paid for by our taxes. Now, I don't want to see a girl or woman suffer from a rape or rape-associated pregnancy, but such cases are never the fault of the baby. And the vast majority of abortions are done not because of rape, but for "convenience."

Abortion advocates gained an early victory by their clever use of language. By constantly using the term "choice" rather than "abortion," they have implanted the idea in many people's minds that this is a debate about personal freedom. However, they never want to talk about their denial of the baby's most basic freedom - life itself. And they never want to confront the fact that to allow a child to be born is also a "choice."  So, yes; I am pro-choice. But my choice happens to involved a breathing baby with incredible future potential.

Public education in America and around the world has increasingly focused on promoting a tacit acceptance of abortion, homosexuality, unrestricted sexuality and other less-than-practical social conditions that are wrought with dangers. Each year, the agenda is pushed toward ever-younger target audiences of children held captive in centers that have become more indoctrinational than educational.

Indoctrination isn't limited to sexual matters, of course. And there is a sinister and all-inclusive agenda in play by the progressives (or you may call them liberals, socialists, marxists, radical Leftists, etc. The upcoming mid-term election may well be the last one in which the people have any say in how our government is run, and frankly, we've been being slowly cut out of the process for a very long time. Every generation is getting less educated in American civics. We're distracted by meaningless sports, mindless and demeaning comedy, and drama designed to change our thinking toward accepting their worldview - or at least, the worldview they want us to accept.

America has allowed itself to be co-opted by people with a globalist, elitist view; people with very little actual real-world experience or 'sweat equity'; people who have generally led sheltered lives where they had too much time on their hands, and too much exposure to corrupting influences (like most universities).  We have been weakened morally, economically and militarily - we may have the best toys, but the upper command has seemingly lost its primary duty - the protection of America and our people.

We can stand around and wonder what tomorrow will bring, or what our great-grandchildren will think of what we did to ruin their lives, or we can each do whatever great or small thing we're able to influence that future for the better. Who knows; perhaps something we say or do will ignite the flame that saves the world from another Dark Age or Holocaust. Or, by our silence, we may provide the key to Pandora's box, inviting a vision of Hell that mankind has yet to see and will eternally regret.

The World Turned Upside-Down

I can't be the only one noticing how the Obama malAdministration is working overtime and at warp speed to turn our entire concept of reality inside-out.

Example: The entire month of June has now been officially designated (somehow I don't think "Christened" is the appropriate term here) as LGBT Month. This, just a couple of weeks after the president all but blew off the National Day of Prayer. He claimed to be a Christian during the campaign (with 20 years under Rev. Wright's tutelage), yet in a live interview inadvertently refers to "my Muslim faith." When he decided against public commemoration of Prayer Day, Obama professed that it is his practice to "pray every day." I wonder which way he faces when he does so. Hey, if he is Muslim, that's his choice. However, that is not how he presented himself to the American voters, and one has to wonder at what agenda his faith promotes.

Oh, gross! Several new studies claim that conservatives are more prone to squeamishness and disgust. According to the article, Prof. David Pizarro of Cornell University concludes from the study he participated in that "disgust is evolution's way of protecting us from disease.

Unfortunately, in his view, disgust is now used to make moral judgments." Wow; now there's a profundity! Can you imagine making moral judgments without a sense of repugnance when deserved? (Oh, was that a moral judgment?) And if disgust was to protect us from disease, why are so many homosexuals so enthralled with having unprotected anal sex, even when they are aware of all the sexually-transmitted diseases out there? It would seem to me that evolution failed another test. So much for 'accidental creation.'

Pizarro continues, "Liberals...are more likely to base judgments on whether an action or a thing causes actual harm." Hmmm. Does this explain why most (real) conservatives are disgusted by abortion, while liberals seem undisturbed by the absolute barbarity and bloodshed of it? Or why liberals have such vitriolic hatred of conservatives who simply want respect for God, innocent human life, and our constitutional liberties?

Oh,...good? But before you right-wingers decide to end your miserable, disgusting lives, yet another study (government apparently has a huge daily quota for meaningless studies at public expense) from the National (Junk) Science Foundation indicates that "Individuals with conservative ideologies are happier than liberal-leaners." Great news, eh? Not so much, in their interpretation. According to the currently ruling scientific elite, "Conservatives rationalize social and economic inequalities." Damn this conservative happiness!

What do we make of all this? Well, to begin with, if you're a liberal science writer you get to infer whatever conclusions best fit your own mindset. This means if you're a liberal it's OK to be miserable because you're only worried about the inequalities of life. And if you're a mean old conservative, you're happy because you don't care about the misery of others. Are you following all this?

OK; now for a dose of reality. Liberals are inclined toward blaming conservatives for all the things they themselves are guilty of; also known as guilt transferance. For example: libs' internal guilt over their support for abortion - killing the innocent - redirects their self-resentment toward conservatives who can see the logic of, for instance, shooting someone in self-defense. Similarly, their willingness to steal from those who labor is offset by their willingness to give part of those proceeds to those who will not labor (but they are so often very stingy when it comes to giving from their own largesse). In this scenario, theft occurs via taxation; government serves as the 'enforcer,' absolving them of guilt for the legalized theft.

Conservatives, on the other hand, may be happier (47% compared to 28% of libs) because they are willing to give of their own charity, perhaps because they realize that doing the right - but sometimes difficult - thing pleases God. This may explain why so many conservatives cheerfully give to charities which actually help people, while liberals generally are not so generous in opening their own pockets (except to political causes; go figure). After all, it is a human trait to be willing to share with those you love, including the God who made us and has promised to save us.

The Greater Risk

If you have children, or know someone who does (which pretty much means everyone) you should check out this report about American teens newest rage: exchanging sex for just about anything. According to the report, for instance, oral sex is considered by many teens and pre-teens as the equivalent of a 'goodnight kiss,' and prostitution is just another way of bartering for what they want.

Sharlene Azam, the woman reporter who was able to get kids to open up to her over a four-year period, told ABC News, "If you talk to teens [about oral sex] they'll tell you it's not a big deal. In fact, they don't consider it sex. They don't consider a lot of things sex."

This disturbing trend - in which it is believed more than half of all teens aged 15 to 19 - also may reveal a reason for the explosion in sexually transmitted diseases among pre-teens and teens. Apparently, not only are too many parents failing to set a good example and maintain behavioral standards for their kids, the media and school messages about AIDS/HIV and other STDs aren't getting as much promotion as the "anything goes" culture of sexuality. Even with all the other worries, this trend is going to present some long-lasting, tragic consequences for the entire nation. A CDC report on sexual trends will open your eyes to what has become a secret subculture which has long-term ramifications.

I urge you to pass the report on to those you care about. After spending untold millions of tax dollars, public school sex education has presented a mixed message at best, and millions of kids are putting themselves at risk in ways they cannot comprehend at their stage of life. It is up to those who actually love these kids to step up and get the point across in a way they can understand.

How the mighty have fallen. Irony of ironies...a recent article in Pravda, of all places, tells the truth about what is happening to America. For those who may be too young to know, Pravda was the premiere official propaganda organ of the Soviet Union. For them to be chastising us for chasing communism is the ultimate, albeit (in this case) honest indictment of what we've allowed to happen to us. How long will it be before the Obama-voters' euphoria finally succumbs to their chagrin for choosing the instrument of our destruction as a world leader? More accurately, perhaps, how many will discover the intellectual honesty to accept their gross mistake in judgment?

Coming soon: Another Holocaust? Amid all the other chaos it is spewing, the Obama malAdministration has left us wondering once again whether it is geopolitically clueless or actively working for the destruction of Western civilization. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was recently told by our government that we (the U.S.) "will not allow a Netanyahu government to hurt their efforts of rehabilitating U.S. relations with the Arab and Islamic world, which is a high priority of Obama." Abbas' senior political advisor was told that Obama has no problem with Jerusalem becoming the capital of a Palestinian state.

I'm curious; has President Obama ever heard of genocide? Because the Palestinians have no intention of living peacefully side-by-side with whatever is left of Israel after the Islamic world is finished literally slicing and dicing it and the Israeli people. If nothing else, his ready abandonment of our most trusted Middle Eastern ally is de facto evidence that his sympathies do not lie with Christianity (remember, he claimed to be a Christian during the campaign, but slipped up in an interview), but with Islam, the religion in which his formative years were spent. He is also apparently willing to throw US security out the window.

Speaking of holocaust... Dr. George Tiller was shot dead shot dead in his Wichita, Kansas church during Sunday service. Dr. Tiller, who was recently acquitted of doing illegal abortions, made a long career out of doing the procedures, even the particularly reprehensible (and they all are) late-term variety known as partial-birth abortions. I'm torn on this one. I find it abhorrent that he would be murdered in his own church (which presumably supported his vocation, since he was not only an active member, he was serving as an usher when he was shot), and it shouldn't have been committed by another citizen.

In my humble opinion, it is the government that has shirked its duty; it should not be allowing abortion to be a legally sanctioned growth (cynically speaking) industry in the first place. If government had followed its mandate to protect the innocent, and Dr. Tiller had then broken the law to commit the heinous acts, government should have prosecuted, and perhaps executed him for the murder of thousands of pre-birth babies (for the non-Christians, the Bible gives the government the sword for justice, even as it implies limits to its power. And his Reformation Lutheran Church, which sanctioned such an obviously unrepentant person, should come clean and admit that it is apostate and that it rejects the foundational theology of the Christian faith. To continue to delude people that it is a Christian church is a lie and a crime against God. That's my opinion and I'm welcome to it.

The real danger of this episode is aptly laid out by David Kupelian, the VP and managing editor of WorldNetDaily and Whistleblower magazine, and the author of his must-read expose' The Marketing of Evil. He points out that all it will take is a convenient event like Tiller's murder to open the door to full-blown despotism and a locked-down police state. I have no doubt that Obama -- aided by his trusted Oberleutnant Rahm Emanuel -- would love nothing more than an excuse to pull out all the stops (as if he isn't doing that now) in his power grab frenzy.

The push is already on to open the witchhunts against any perceived anti-abortion "terrorist" even though virtually all pro-life proponents have condemned the violent act, as pro-abortion activists who don't even know who the real fascists are continue to rev up their hate-filled rhetoric. There is already the expected rush by all things liberal to slam Fox News and anyone even remotely conservative for the actions of one lone individual. It's indicative of the twisted ruling mentality that violent acts by politically favored groups such as homosexuals and racists (depending upon who is 'in favor' at the moment) are minimized or even studiously ignored by the liberal media, who are among the most ardent supporters of fascism.

As I've noted before, I worry increasingly that the modern equivalent of Kristallnacht is about to hit America, and that conservatives and Christians are the new Jews in the crosshairs. However, while not generally going out of their way to rile others, American conservatives in particular are not known for passivism, and are not likely to go quietly into the darkness of persecution.

America's accelerating DIS-integration

The changes in American government and society are accelerating at a dizzying pace. After two hundred and thirty-three years of fighting, dying, building, and overcoming mistakes, the nation that changed the world is now seemingly in a headlong rush to become the disaster so many have worked and sacrificed to avoid.

President Obama, who either has no clear understanding of what abortion is all about or the harm it does to the nation, followed Bill Clinton's example and repealed the "Mexico City Policy" that had prevented public money from funding pro-abortion groups around the world.

As an American, it is incredible to watch the moral fabric of this nation being intentionally unraveled, with no consideration of the end result. As pro-abortion factions such as Planned Parenthood and the ACLU seek to remove all roadblocks to the slaughter of the innocents, including forcing doctors to perform the perfidious act against conscience. Also, the FDA is allowing human trials of embryonic stem cell research, despite the abundance of evidence that adult stem cells show more promise without the destruction of donor embryos.

Robert Reich, former Clinton Labor Secretary and now economic advisor to Obama, recently opined to a congressional panel that, "I am concerned, as I'm sure many of you are, that these jobs not simply go to high skilled people who are already professionals or to white male construction workers," apparently unaware of just how dependent our infrastructure is on people who actually know how to do the job and have the incentive to do it right. But then, wouldn't you rather drive over a bridge built by a semi-literate immigrant or high school dropout who gets a check just for showing up, rather than someone with years of training and experience and a mortgage to pay? Ya gotta love these social engineers (no, not really), who haven't a clue as to how their world really operates.

In case you haven't heard (what cave do you live in, anyway?) President Obama has barred intelligence agencies from using harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation, and signed an executive order prepping the way to close Gitmo, even though he hasn't yet decided what to do with all those enemies of America. When it was suggested that John Murtha's (who has been an outspoken critic of the facility, the war, and the defense of America in general) district take them in, he essentially said, "Why not?" I guess we can rest easy that the blockheads in his district that keep this guy in office won't mind taking care of men who have dedicated themselves to the mass murder of Americans. Incidentally, one of those poor misunderstood souls recently released from Gitmo has returned to his terrorist ways, becoming the number 2 al-Qaeda man in Yemen.

In a lighter vein, did anyone else notice the UFO that seemingly buzzed the Obama coronation? The short video shows some sort of object flying past the Washington Monument, over the crowd. Perhaps Obama really is an alien, after all.

On another, more tragic note, a psychopath wielding an 8 inch knife entered a daycare center in Belgium, stabbing to death two infants and a worker, and slashing several other children. When he was captured, he had the addresses of three other daycare centers and several other weapons. He wasn't particularly hard to find, since he was wearing face makeup to look like the Joker character in the latest Batman movie.

While the late Heath Ledger's performance as a psycho was as powerful as it was chilling, it also shows that in today's schizoid culture, stripped of morality and common sense, the monstrosities thought up in the media do influence some of the weaker and demented minds. It's also worth noting that there has been an increase in the number of similar attacks on defenseless gatherings of people. Churches, schools, daycare centers and home invasions are becoming more frequent, and the ferocity of the attacks has become more horrific. The truth behind the old axiom "We are what we eat" is becoming more and more evident; and it isn't relegated to merely our food.

The Dying Dream

Our race to national suicide continues. Have you ever noticed that when things roll downhill, they tend to pick up speed as they go? That is what seems to be happening to the United States, our homeland, in recent months. Those who have actually been paying attention have known for decades that things were going the wrong way, but recently we seem to be rocketing toward the bottom. And in this case, the bottom is murky at best, and a flaming tar pit at worst.

Our recent, current and pending leadership shows all indications of a progressive (in both senses of the word) 'stupid' gene run amok. The wisdom we once looked for and depended upon has all but disappeared. What we have saddled ourselves with on every level of government is an army of self-centered, egotistical, ideologically challenged idiots whose sole (but formidable) talent is the acquisition and consolidation of their own political power. To paraphrase what the greatest voice ever heard once sadly lamented, "They know not what they do." But what is worse, is that they don't even seem to care what damage they're doing to the nation and its people.

It doesn't seem to matter to them that they are selling us and future generations into debt slavery and turning the greatest economic engine in history into a shambles, or that they are turning our children into self-absorbed, soulless, intellectually lazy, schizophrenic robots who -- like Pavlov's dogs -- practically begin drooling on command at the least hint of "crisis" announced by the sychophantic mainstream press. Today's kids in public schools are not taught about the greatness (or former greatness) of this country; they are not taught the positives of the largely Christian values that made America the envy of the world; although they may hear famous names, they aren't encouraged to emulate the greatest Americans, like the honor and integrity of George Washington, the thoughtful and decisive (but not always popular) leadership of Abraham Lincoln; the hard work and ingenuity of George Washington Carver or Tom Edison, the intellectual wisdom of James Madison or Tom Jefferson, or the fiery intellectualism of Patrick Henry or John Adams. They certainly aren't being taught the tenets of Jesus Christ, the very Author of the 'operator's manual' for the human species.

What they are being taught in the schools and the media is that they have "rights" to everything and responsibility for nothing; that life is not sacred and worthy of respect, but merely something to exploit. They know next to nothing that's useful about the real world they live on but are fully briefed on the latest political ploy being passed along as pseudo-science. A typical high-schooler can tell you how to apply a condom, where to get an abortion, how to score drugs, or how to use meaningless gestures to save the planet from all the wrong things, but can't point to where he lives on a map of his state or tell you what even the first two (and arguably the most important) constitutional rights are. All this makes for a very politically-pliable electorate that has to be told what choices to make, because they'll be too stupid to realize the choices they have, and too timid or lazy to make the tough choices they need to thrive.

But I digress. Our leaders are presently in a mad rush to see how quickly they can sell out the American people. The bailout fallout is only beginning to sprinkle from the clouds of Congress and the rain shows no signs of ending soon. The states are now getting in line, looking to fill their coffers (which they largely squandered) from the federal taxpayer's pockets (keep in mind that while they are printing bogus money and seeking loans from our enemies, the bill collector's hand will ultimately land in our wallet). Now even the porn 'industry' is throwing a half-serious hook into the waters, seeking their cut of the public pie.

Pending-President Obama's healthcare plan is designed to destroy the system we currently have, weakening existing plans and eventually pushing everyone into a nationalized healthcare system that will ultimately be neither healthy nor caring.

As the Democrats continue to consolidate power, a frightening phenomenon is occurring, at least by American standards: the politicians are increasingly and brazenly ignoring the wishes and demands of the citizens. In Massachusetts, for example, lawmakers are reacting to tough fiscal times by cutting budgets nearly everywhere. Everywhere, that is, except in the prosyletizing of students into the homosexual deathstyle. We've already seen how Prop 8 in California has incensed homosexual activists and their plants in the halls of government.

This perverse trend in leadership isn't limited to government, though. Feminism has, since the misguided1960s bra-burners, been doing its best to destroy the nuclear family, to pull women down from their Christianity-built pedestle and force them into making decisions they never should have to make (like whether to have their baby dismembered in their womb). Among the presumeably unintended consequences has been the decimation of the female gender worldwide.

Meanwhile, animal activists and environmental nutcases are doing their utmost to save the world at the expense of the human race. If and when these people get their wish, and the human race becomes extinct, I wonder who will be around to actually appreciate "Mother Nature."

Looking forward, downward, upward

I hope you had a Merry Christmas, and avoided that current intolerable intolerance of all things Christian. But now we must again look forward, especially in light of a new administration about to take over the reign --uh, reins -- of government.

The Bush Administration is about to exit, with one more instance of egg on its face with the revocation of the presidential pardon of Isaac Toussie for a real estate scam among a flurry of clemency for drug dealers, counterfeiters and other criminals. Yet as of this writing, two loyal Border Patrolmen -- Ramos and Compean -- remain behind federal bars for doing their job. Not so incidentally, an article recently appeared that exposes how timid currently serving border guards have become, refusing to return fire when attacked at our southern border for fear of ending up in prison like their brethren. I had long been a supporter (and still support his views on the Middle East wars) until he began his obeisance to the Mexican government. I can support him no longer. While our southern border explodes in kidnappings, crime and violence, George Bush has been acting as though he's campaigning to move into the Mexican version of the White House.

The bailout continues to bankrupt our nation by trying to bouy up corporations that are sinking themselves (with the help of the unions, of course). More companies "just too big to fail" are begging at the federal teat (i.e., our wallets), and a report out this morning opined that by next Christmas a lot of familiar company names apparently not too big to fail may no longer be around. You can expect states to follow, and several, including our own perpetually overtaxed New York State, have already put in their applications.

On Fox News today, a scary scenario is emerging, whereby at least 19 states are ready to close courthouses for extended periods to save money . While this may not sound very important, here's the point: delaying criminal (i.e., felony) trials for extended periods is a breach of the constitutional right to a speedy trial. As Fox's own Judge Napolitano warned, it could mean localities and states being forced to set criminals free, partly in order to avoid even more costly infringement lawsuits. And should we not mention further weakening the Constitution?

The bailout and the California court (regarding Prop 8) have showed us that government no longer responds to the will of the people, and the PC police continue to run roughshod over us. Here in New York, the governor is proposing to put a high(er) tax on such items as non-diet sodas and other sugared foods. So we can't consume sweets or fats; what's next?

Besides the what-should-be-obvious fact that higher taxes only limit what poorer folks can buy, drive out those who can afford to move, and put an increasing burden on those forced to remain, it illustrates that when the people are removed from the mechanism and oversight of government, government naturally tends to increase its power over the people, and in its greed and avarice will eventually go beyond the point where it can even manage the power it grabs, to the point of utter collapse of the entire society.

If allowed to dictate which foods you can eat, what other limits to credulity will it try to stretch? In only a generation, government has severely restricted your right to use tobacco (as much as I hate the stuff, you should still have the right to abuse it if it doesn't affect others) and alcohol, has severely limited your right to defend yourself, has put an excessive tax (call it 'extortion by government') on your money if you try to take it out of the country, has heavily taxed the medical industry (which accounts for a sizeable portion of medical expenses), taxes virtually anything that does or doesn't move, continuously calls for taking more money from those who are successful (thereby limiting their willingness or ability to produce jobs for others), and has allowed a largely unregulated abortion industry to kill off millions of future workers (which also would have been known as taxpayers). Have I missed anything? Oh, yeah, the increasing marginalization and persecution of Christians who have struggled to restore some semblance of sanity and balance.

Although I have tried hard to push off the conspiracy theories I had entertained in years past, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the evidence that there is, if not a conspiracy, certainly an unsettling consensus of ideology diametrically opposed to all the good that has been produced in western culture over the past two hundred-plus years (for example; didn't George Soros -- the major contributor for leftist causes -- and others help to collapse the British pound in 1992?). Because of a Marxist/Darwinist ideology that has slowly been inculcated throughout the culture (although "culture" is becoming more of a misnomer by the day) through the media and the educational system, we have a population that cannot discern the difference between right and wrong, and cannot differentiate between good and bad except where it concerns personal selfish motives.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of such bad tidings, especially at a time when most of us try to be upbeat. But until we pull our collective heads out of our nether regions, things are going to get worse. Much worse. And the worse things become, the louder the cry will go out for someone to 'save' us. Unfortunately, without the personal ability of discernment (which requires actually trying to understand how things work), we will continue to look for help in all the wrong places; and as the saying goes, we will get the kind of government we deserve.

I'd like to believe the incoming Obama Administration will discover quickly how wrong its campaign promises were (and they are already backtracking on many of them, to the ire of the liberals and useful idiots who elected him), but I fear there will be a lot of intentional and circumstantial missteps that are going to further divide and weaken this nation.

Frankly, though I hate to say it and don't want to see it happen, we deserve to be taken down. For decades, America has been on a slow course of national suicide, but the pace has dramatically increased in only the past few months. Our Founders instituted a government that requires the overwatch and participation of the population. Instead, we've become a populace too lazy to actually pay attention to our leaders, and only weakly and briefly protest when those leaders slowly remove our rights and impose ever-growing taxes on us. Most voters continue to pull the lever for the one who will seem to do the most for them individually, rather than collectively. Such a self-centered mindset is not in the best interest of the nation.

I now see the wisdom of the Founders original design which only allowed landowners to vote, because when parasites become the eventual majority of the electorate, chaos naturally follows. Those few who still try to argue for a return to sanity and responsbility are shouted down as 'hate-mongers' and dividers. In fact, have you ever noticed that virtually every accusation thrown at conservatives (especially Christians) is the same thing they themselves have done? It's an old and frankly juvenile ploy of blaming the good guy for the sins of the bad guy, and yet, so many folks are willing to believe the lies instead of actually checking for themselves. As Hitler once said, tell a lie often and loud enough and the people will believe anything.

We still allow the murder of more than a million children each year in this country alone by the abortion industry, and Obama indicates he will do all he can to remove the few restraints presently in place. While he claims to oppose single-sex marriage, he owes the overly-loud and increasingly violent homosexual activist segment of the culture, which has been allowed to exercise an influence greatly in excess of its numbers (even as it continues to actively recruit to its deathstyle in the schools and media). Obama will be pressed to give even more opportunity and influence to radical homosexuals who have shown little restraint or regard for that segment of society that actually reproduces.

And now that I've sown so much misery, allow me to switch into reverse.

Yesterday was Christmas. While the evidence indicates that Jesus was not born on December 25th, it is the day we celebrate His birth. Outside of a very small circle of people including His parents, the Magi, the shepherds in the fields and the prophets who foretold His coming, few realized Who that baby in a manger was, or that He would suffer beyond our understanding in order to save us from the sins resulting from that very lack of understanding. Even today, with the propagation of thousands of ministries spreading the Good News throughout the world, with increasing physical and historical evidence pointing to the truth of the Holy Bible, many still don't seek Him, nor understand why we need Him so desperately. Many people throughout history have literally thrived on ignorance, either their own, that of those around them, or (usually) both. In a world of unreasoning and increasing hatred and selfishness, I can only echo the old lament, "O Lord, thy sea is so great, and my boat is so small."

I am utterly convinced that if we, as individuals and as a nation, began to look to Him and returned to the word of God as our instruction manual for life, He would bring us out of this deepening mess we're diving into. Of course, as a nation we probably won't do the right thing because we keep choosing the wrong leaders and refuse to listen to sound advice. But if we each would personally repent (i.e., renounce, turn away from) our sins - and each and every one of us have sinned against God and one another - and returned His laws into our own personal code of conduct, He would save us from our enemies and our own faults. It should be obvious by now that we cannot save ourselves, because we cannot get out of our own way. Our salvation, both personal and national, must come from above.