Passionate Driving & A Reason for Pride

When “So You Think You Can Dance?” first came out I avoided it. One more reality show where people sign up to get their fifteen minutes of fame, do we really need it?

I try not to miss an episode now, especially after the top 20 were picked. What drives these dancers, how did they make it to the top?

Technique is part of it, as is the ability and willingness to learn multiple dancing genres. The judges, however, place passion at the top of the list.

Passion is what made the dancers the top in the nation, it’s what drives their willingness to learn from multiple choreographers, and listen intently to the advice of the judges.

I’ve allowed my passion to flounder of late. Many a subject scream to be written here, but I reign them in and they lose their voice, never to be heard.

How sad is that?

If that continues, then my passion will leave me. Like a loyal pet, if it’s not fed, it will find another owner who will feed it.

Time to feed my passions.

This morning my husband, son and I went to the city’s Independence Day parade. My 18-month-old spent most of the time flirting with the women, young and old, and running after people who brought along their dogs.

My favorite part of the parade was the National Guard. It wasn’t the big truck with the boat on the trailer, or even the articulated guns swiveling about on its base in every direction imaginable (I want one of those). What struck me is how every single person stood, clapped and screamed out “Thank you” and “We love you!”

Thomas Jefferson once said: “God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. … And what country can preserve its liberties, if it’s rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”

My thanks go to every member of our 100% volunteer armed forces who are willing to feed the tree of liberty with their blood and bones. My thanks to those who take every opportunity to show their gratitude.

As for the rest of Jefferson’s warning, I need not say more.

Let us never forget the importance of our liberties and freedoms, on this day and all others.

And Life Goes On . . .

With the election now three months past, taxes paid, Spring in the air, our thoughts have turned away from the mind-numbing antics in Washington, and we are now focused on our day-to-day living.

For most of us anyway.

Me included, which is why I haven’t written an entry here in so long. It’s not that I don’t care, but in the grand scheme of things, it matters little. My life overall has yet to change.

That’s not to say it won’t, but when I notice our certifiable leaders implementing more policy that defies explanation and logic, I will rant about them.

In the meantime, enjoy your family and the rejuvenation of life in the great outdoors. It’s God’s way of saying, “Relax, enjoy, and have a smile on me. Life’s too short to stress about it.”

For Sale: Brick Wall

No matter where I go, whether it be the internet, radio or television, all I hear is how Obama is doing this, or doing that. No one but the intelligent investor is seeing it what it is: the utter destruction of the free market system. How does a deficit (ie. over and above the national debt) of $3.84 trillion encourage the American public who’ll will have to pay for it for generations to come?

Consider the “stimulus package” that was supposed to be the dam against the free-fall of the stock market, jobs, and property values. Instead we’ve seen the opposite with over $3 trillion in total loss, more people are losing their jobs, and people are having to sell their homes because they can’t afford to make the payments. That’s in less than one year!

Instead of stimulating the economy with tax cuts (ie. making sure those who work get to keep what they earn), it’s full of over 9000 earmarks such as contraceptives for Planned Parenthood, and socializing healthcare (that’s right. No longer will your doctor determine if you need a life-saving procedure, but some bureaucrat using cost/benefit analysis tables. We wouldn’t want anyone to continue to live a good life if they can’t “pay society back” in some way now would we?).

It also contains tax hikes to the successful. That includes your employer my dear friends. Forget a raise in the foreseeable future, and good luck keeping your job as well. As an employee of a small corporation, I include myself in case you’re wondering.

Both my husband and I wrote letters to our representatives in Washington, and we received nice letters that invariably said, “Sorry. We know what’s better for you than you do. We (excluding your representatives, of course) all need to make sacrifices. Suck it up and quit complaining.”

That’s why I want to sell the brick wall I’ve banged my head against since 2007 when the election season began. It’s done me no good except cause headaches and deepen the dent in my forehead.

Call me if you’re interested. Free or best offer. Shipping is included.

Obama the Antichrist?

As a member of the Christian Writers Guild, I receive occasional updates on when Jerry B. Jenkins (owner of the guild and coauthor of the “Left Behind” book series) will appear on television or radio. Tonight along with the other coauthor of the series, Tim LaHaye will be interviewed on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow’s show to debunk the idea that Obama is the Antichrist.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

*wipes away tears*

Good Lord, we hear this every year. No matter who’s president, he’s the Antichrist. George H.W. Bush was the Antichrist, as was his son. Even Clinton was accused of being the Antichrist.

I’m no biblical scholar and I know even less about biblical prophesy.

However, I do know enough that Obama is not the Antichrist. For one, according to Scripture, the real Antichrist will be European (if memory serves correctly). He will be beloved by nearly the entire world (Obama sort of falls into that category, but I believe his current ‘can do no wrong’ status will be short lived), and will be expected to solve the world’s problems.

You could say Obama falls under that category as well, but the timing is wrong. Before we discover who the Antichrist really is, the world has to fall under such turmoil as none of us have ever seen.

Do I think Obama is dangerous? Yes, to the extent he will continue to chip away at American’s freedoms and prosperity that started in the 1930s with FDR (some would go back even further), and weakening the United States’ military strength enough to bolster the courage of her and Israel’s enemies — all with the eager help of the voter and our government representatives.

I also believe Obama and the rest of our leadership are helping to build the circumstances predicted in Revelations.

Then again, so did every other American president, every leader of every other country, and people who invented the technologies that will be used as tools to track and control the world populous to name a few.

In other words, every one of us past, present and future, and our sinful nature blazed the road to the End of Days. We are all responsible and can blame none of it on a single man, Antichrist or not.

We can change none of it, but we can be aware and encourage others to accept Jesus’ love and sacrifice before it’s too late.

Although the future may be frightening, we can be assured that God wins in the end.

Does all this make me sound like a kook?

I hope I’m wrong, to be sure, but I don’t expect to be.

A Matter of Perspective?

It should come as no surprise to anybody one of President Obama’s first acts is to reinstate federal funding to ”groups that provide abortion services.”
( http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090123/pl_nm/us_obama_abortion_3 )

Other than the immorality of abortion, a few other aspects of this bother me.

For one, I’d rather my hard-earned money went to my own child or sent to groups that counsel women “in trouble” about other options available. I wonder, is any of this money going to fund these other groups? Me thinketh not, because most of these are religious.

How is this any different from liberals screaming at GWB for spending money on two wars that send our troops into harm’s way?

Why is the life of a soldier – one who chose to defend this country with his or her own life – more important than a child in the womb whose only crime is an inconvenience to the mother?

Caveat: I could add “rape and incest aside,” but still, the fact a child is a product of a terrible crime does not make it automatically unworthy of life. It after all did not decide how it came to exist, just as the rest of us had no choice in who our parents were, or how we came to be.

Some of you might be thinking, “Until you’ve been raped, you can’t say anything.” I say bullshit. Life is life. Sure I would be devastated (at first) if a pregnancy resulted from being raped, but that doesn’t mean I will hold the baby growing within responsible for that crime. Should any of us pay the price if our parents commit a crime, no matter how heinous?

But that’s a tish off subject. I’m talking about the hypocrisy here: Why do liberals consider one life worthy of saving and not another? Who are we to claim, “this is a human being, and this is not?”

Did you know after a mere eight weeks from conception a fetus has everything it needs to survive? How is that not a human being?

From the moment of conception its DNA says it’s human. Compare that to any other DNA strand of any human on the planet regardless of age, and no one could discern whether it’s still in the womb, learning geometry in school, or sitting in a rocking chair and telling stories to grandchildren.

Who are we to think we can decide when a fetus becomes less a lump of tissue and a human with limitless potential? Is that not pretending to be God?

What is that if not arrogant?

So, just like the liberals not appreciating their tax dollars going to fund a war they don’t agree with, I despise my money going to fund the murder of innocents who will never know their first breath.

I know I’m not the only one.

What can we do about it? We help those who are contemplating abortion and give them better options. If we convince enough people the wrongness of abortion – and give them real choices – then it doesn’t matter how much we fund those who do them. The clinics will simply cease to exist.

My Hope Is in Jesus

All this talk about how we must all set our values, our concerns, fears and support our new President, and hope for his success is a bit disheartening.

Why, I ask. Why must I give up who I am and what I believe simply to make one man’s life a little more comfortable?

I could argue how my president is not my country. I could continue to pound into your head that although a leader has recited an oath to support and defend our Constitution doesn’t mean he will always keep that promise. I could spend pages and pages describing all my concerns about our country’s future both small and large.

I likely won’t stop, but at the same time, I will neither place all my hope in President Obama, my congressman or senators — to either succeed or to fail. To do so will invariably result in a profound disappointment. No matter how smart, ambitious, well-spoken, well-dressed or talented a person is, he or she is just as prone to making mistakes as the rest of us.

I therefore place my hope in Jesus. He may not fix the economy, or guarantee I will always have a job or a house to live in. He promised none of us an easy life. He will, however, always give us the strength and wisdom to walk through those dark valleys. Because he is God, and perfect in every way, he lives up to his promises, and will never make excuses as to why something could not be done.

It’s possible the United States of America has reached the end of her greatness. We may become a land of the chained instead of the land of the free.

In the end it matters naught. Just as none of us leaves this world alive, the same is true for every nation. I will continue to speak out and write my representatives when they violate the Constitution, but at the same time, even as my country crumbles around me, I rejoice that we will someday see God face to face in a world without pain, fear and despair.

Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.

Psalms 25:5

Go Ahead, Call Me A Racist

Curious.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr said in his famous speech:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Many believe that because we elected our first black president, Dr King’s dream has come true.

I don’t agree.

With the inauguration a mere two days away, all I hear is how proud most Democrats are, and how the world is now our best friend again because we elected Mr Obama — a black man.

Now if we were truly the colorblind society these people keep spouting, the color of his skin would not be an issue — positive or negative. We shouldn’t be looking at his skin color at all, just as we didn’t care what color eyes and hair all previous presidents had.

Isn’t the fact we keep pointing it out by definition racist? It’s as though we don’t care a whit about the man, his beliefs — the content of his character  as it were — just that he’s black.

Why didn’t these same people dance in the streets when Clarance Thomas was appointed the US Supreme Court, or when (4-star) General Colin Powell and Condolezza Rice made Secretary of State? And what of the millions of other blacks who succeeded in achieving their dreams — dreams that were impossible a mere 40-50 years ago?

What’s worse is the opponents of his policies — mostly Republicans and many conservatives — are either remaining silent or slobbering behind Obama like starved little puppies.

The only reason I think they’re doing that is because they don’t want people to call them racist. I want to know how disagreeing with someone’s political opinions — ones that will affect the entire world — is racist.

So guess what. I admit to vehemently disagreeing with many of Obama’s opinions and political objectives. In fact, they scare the hell out of me.

If you believe that makes me racist, fine, then call me a racist.

Even if it isn’t true. I’m tired of arguing about it.

A Difficult Road – But Climbable

Please read this blog post by Andrew Claven: Why We Fight.

If nothing else it will decrease fears that conservatism is dead. It’ll be a long, tough road to travel, but if we continue to hold onto our conservative values and speak out whenever we can — especially to our children — we will reach the top.

Oh my God it’s GOD!

Atheists want God stricken from inaugural oath

Something like this happens at least once every year it seems, and I wonder two things.

Do these atheists have nothing better to do? I mean, come on. We live in a country – a world even – full of religious folk. They pray all the time both publicly and privately and it interferes with the life of disbelievers not a bit. What about prayer is so threatening anyway? It’s a mere conversation between an individual or group and a deity. If you don’t want to participate, no one says you have to (there are exceptions, but those situations don’t exist in the United States of America).

Why do a few atheists feel so threatened by the idea of God? Why should they fear something that they don’t believe in anyway? Using their logic it’s like wanting to kill off all mention of the tooth fairy. And why do they only want the Hebrew/Christian God and Jesus stricken from the public square, and not Budda, a Hindu god or Mother Earth?

Saying a prayer during a presidential inauguration infringes on not a single person’s rights. No one has to show up to the thing, watch it on television, or listen to it on the radio. Certainly the police aren’t going to watch the many thousands who will show up and arrest them for not bowing their heads during the prayer.

Don’t like it, you have the right to simply ignore it.

In fact, for Michael Newdow to sue for religious silence is infringing on Obama’s rights to a prayer on his behalf to God.

This isn’t about religious freedom. These atheists want a world without any expression of a power higher than themselves. Why? Because if God does exist, than we humans are accountable to him, and we are not the great power in the world and universe we sometimes consider ourselves.

To believe in God requires humility and the acknowledgment that we are not in control.

And that’s a scary realization.

We The People – Blind Little Sheep

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081210/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_interview

According to the article above, Obama wants to “reboot America’s image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular.”

Excuse me?

Why do we Americans have to change our image according to the wants and expectations of others? Do Muslims concern themselves with how others perceive them? Do Europeans, Russians, or Saudi Arabians give a hoot about other country’s opinions?

For most people junior high and high school was a time in Hell. Cliques formed, and if we didn’t dress or act in a specific way, forget about making new friends, and good luck keeping existing ones sometimes.

I tried to meet other people’s expectations, and it almost killed me. I attempted to suppress what made me unique, and morph into something I wasn’t.

I lost who God intended me to be, and I ended up in a dark and lonely place. Even after I graduated high school, I still tried to be what others wanted — even when those expectations contradicted each other.

I soon entered into a relationship with a man who I allowed to mold me into someone he wanted, even when it scraped against the grain of who I wanted and needed to be.

That almost killed me in a literal sense.

It took me years to change my mindset and accept and love who I am and was born to be. Now that I’m comfortable in my own skin, I’m content, happy, and even successful whereas before I merely survived.

The world stage is not junior high or high school. We don’t need to seek out popularity and acceptance. To try means we’ll destroy who we are as a nation, and a people. We will lose our identity, and end up lonely and miserable.

For Obama and other liberal politicians who complain about how other nations hate us means they also hate who America is. That’s insulting to say the least.

And I don’t trust any leader who does not love this country as it is, her people and founding principals.

Another part of the article bothered me as well, and clearly shows another example of Obama’s arrogance:

Obama said he set up a “sort of prayer circle across the country” of pastors who would pray for him every morning on a conference call. Obama said he sometimes joined the call, which involved leaders from various Christian denominations and other religious faiths.

While I agree we must pray for our leaders, for him to set it up himself shows that being President is all about him, not the people he serves.

What’s lacking in him and too many of our politicians is humility.

I place only part of the blame on them. Like blind, stupid little sheep, We The People keep voting for them.