American Revival

This past Saturday, in Orlando, Glenn Beck put on a program called "American Revival." I regularly watch Glenn's show on Fox and decided to attend. It took two hours to get to Orlando and I stayed with Dawn in her hotel. She went with me for the six and a half hour program at Florida Central University. There were eight thousand people there, all the tickets had been sold. The theme of the show was: Faith, Hope and Charity. David Barton was the first speaker and he spent an hour on the faith of our founding fathers. He alleges that our schools do not teach such information and instead push the line that they did not live religious lives at all. It was amazing how he used example after example of just how religious they all were, even Jefferson and Franklin, both of whom had children out of wedlock. Our schools also teach that the Constitution is godless and secular in spite of the many references in it to god, religion or religious practices. He was most informative for me when he said that our constitution is the only one in the world that states that our rights come from God. Other countries get their rights from the king, or their legislators, or the head of their religion. Kings, parliaments or Mullahs can take rights away from the people, but in this country the rights cannot be taken away because they come from God. The second speaker, Burton Fulsom Jr. a professor of history at Hillsdale College, spoke about our economic history and how it has been changed since 1926. He has issues with the progressives about how they rewrite the history of the New Deal and the history of Reaganomics. I thought I was informed on these subjects but Fulsom has no peer in giving out the truth of these issues and citing where his information comes from. He drew a laugh from the crowd when he cited one revisionist book where the author had stated that he had dispensed with the usual scholarly footnotes in order to concentrate on getting his subject across. He spent some time on Calvin Coolidge and his contribution to American prosperity. Prior to this I had heard very little about Coolidge and was surprised to find that when Reagan got to the White House the first thing he did was to put up a picture of Coolidge in the cabinet room. We all heard, once again, how Keynesian Economics does not work, and, our attempt to use it now is doomed to failure. Here, there was big applause from the crowd, after all, nearly everybody here has a major fear of the large deficits our government is running up. The third speaker was Judge Napolitano who covered the Constitution, states rights, and the rights of the people. He drew applause when he stated that the states created the federal government and not the other way around. The commerce clause came in for some particularly harsh remarks and he stated that, just that clause alone, and the way it is being interpreted by the supreme court, it can be viewed as a completely new constitution because everything is related to commerce. The government has been moving to diminish the rights of the people and enhancing the prerogatives of the government. The light of freedom in this land is diminishing and the government likes it that way. They have completely forgotten about the tenth amendment, and do not want to be reminded about it. Glenn gave the Keynote address and it was mostly what we hear on his television show. He particularly emphasised that the disagreements with the government are no reason to be violent. He emphasised Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. as examples we must follow, non-violence. He encouraged all to work in the coming elections, whether republican or democrat, it is important to vote out all the big government people. The rate of spending is unsustainable and will bring this country down as assuredly as Greece is falling today. Glenn is going on tour with "American Revival" and if you get a chance to see it do so. History is in the making, be a part of it.

Pilosi, Speaker Without Peer

Last night Pilosi accomplished a small miracle, she got the health care bill passed. She has had her detractors (including me) but they never saw how driven she was to "get the job done." She told us she would get that bill passed and she did. She was ruthless and stated she would do whatever it would take. It is obvious she is a very good vote counter and knew where she was at all times. The position of "Speaker" is powerful and she did not flinch from using all the power at her command, or to bend the rules, or create new ones. She is to be congratulated on her accomplishment. The last Republican "Speaker", Dennis Hastert, could not hold a candle to Pilosi. (He served just before Tom Dashele.) Very little got done with Hastert on the job. Hastert looked upon himself as a gentleman and always played by the rules. As a matter of fact, he bent over backwards to accommodate Democrats and even gave some committee chairmanships to Democrats to show he was willing to work with those across the isle. Pilosi is not like that, she will not look at a Republican unless he is supporting her agenda. I do not agree with Pilosi's agenda or her tactics, but, I recognize her greatness. Obama is very lucky to have her on his team, or perhaps it could be said that he is on her team. She is an awesome producer and it will be interesting to see her in action to pass amnesty.

Learning It Late

The manner of passing the health bill has been an eye-opener to me. As more than a casual observer of the political scene and not naive about the ways of the world, I thought I understood the legislative process. Bribery, a political sin, has always been with us and we would hear about it every year or so; usually in the context of someone being indicted. This health bill has brought sunshine to the process, a clarity of understanding I had not thought would ever happen. Brazenness, boldness, lying and backroom dealing became the ordinary course of dealing with the process. Yet, we are told that it is always done this way. It can't be true, and if it is then it is necessary to change it all. All the more imperative to enact GOOOH.

The 912 Project

How can I have missed this movement? Perhaps my mind was in free-wheeling whenever the term came up. In any case, here is a movement that is using principles and values to further their agenda. There are nine principles and twelve values. In references to the Tea Party people I think I made the mistake of assuming they were one and the same. Now I find that they are entirely different groups. The Tea Party group is now trying to determine how to influence the two political parties, where to place their support, whether to align with a party or to start a new one. The 912 Project wants their support to go to any politician that will state adherence to the nine principles and the twelve values before getting their support. It will be interesting to see how many politicians are willing to do that.

Bert

He parks in the handicap space, gets out very slowly and, without a cane, proceeds to walk toward the door at McDonald's. It takes him a long time to get there because he has one side of his body that does not respond. He pivots on his stiff leg and moves his other leg ahead. To begin, he starts out by leaning against the car, then touches the fence, then the building and eventually, with great difficulty, he opens the door. Most times someone else will open the door for him realizing his extreme distress. He moves slowly to the counter to order, pulls out his wallet and holding it with one hand, and with the same hand, pulls out some bills for payment. He cannot carry a tray, so a counter employee will carry the tray for him. Sometimes the tray gets to the table before he does. He is a pleasant man, uncomplaining, quick smile and also quick to laugh at himself. He recently had two operations on his left eye and he still cannot see out of it. The operations were important because his right eye has very poor sight. The top of his head is bald, his nose is bulbous, his skin rough and he has lost all his teeth. He enjoys our discussions and does participate, however, while putting his point of view forward there are times when he stops in mid-sentence and announces: "I don't remember what I was going to say." When reminded about the topic he is able to continue with his comment. His voice is halting as he mentally tries to formulate what he is going to say. We find it funny that there are times when we are anxiously awaiting for his slow, halting comment and he announces: "I don't remember." He always joins in the laughter, never taking it as laughing at him in a belittling way, but that he has contributed to the general merriment. Bert was in the Air Force and, as he tells it, flew airplanes. He never left the ground but would taxi them from one place to another. Yes, he got flight pay for moving the plane. He was attached to the "Strategic Air Command" and worked on planes for General Curtis LeMay. Later, as a civilian, he worked for the Air Force as a contractor in Greenland. He worked on the DEW Line. While there, his off time was devoted to scuba diving. (Yep, in the cold water.) He says he explored the coral reefs off Greenland. I did not know there were coral reefs there. He has coral and pictures to prove it. The coral is unlike the coral off the Florida coast, very weird shapes and formations. Bert invited us over to his house, he has ten acres off State Road 209. The state of repair of his 1950's style house can only be described as having extreme neglect. Inside, it is very cluttered because Bert is a collector. Collections include: corals, old coins, photo albums, toy cars, toy trains, dolls, numbered print collection, signed photos of the original astronauts (Bert was chief maintenance on one of the capsules.) some with him in the picture, original oil paintings of clowns by different artists, sets of books on myriad topics, old watches, various gold items, various brass items, etc. He still has his cold water diving suit, underwater camera, and equipment. We have been concerned about his driving even though he only drives in the daytime. He informed us that he could not pass a driver exam anymore. So, he sent away for his license to be mailed to him and they did so. He gets to McDonald's after we do so, thankfully, we are not on the road when he is. We all leave before he does, so again we are not exposed. We all value him as a friend.

Mossad

It has been reported that Mossad is responsible for the killing of a high Hamas official. Supposedly, that official was responsible for killing two Israeli soldiers. We are asked to believe that Mossad assigned twenty-one people for a hit squad to kill him. Can this be true? While I am not fond of James Bond movies, I did admire how he dispatched his target with minimal resources (not counting his technical gizmo's.) Our movies have often shown how a lone assassin is able to accomplish the job, particularly the Mafia hit men. The movies that have shown the assassination of one of our Presidents have always shown a lone wolf for the job. Can Israel really be so stupid as to put twenty-one people in jeopardy in order to avenge two soldiers? Don't those twenty-one people have anything else to do? Further, they are doing this in Dubai hotels which, I believe, are quite expensive. This story demands to be completely told. Yes, I would buy the book.