Lloyd Marcus: Black History Month Should Be About Black History
Published February 1, 2010 | 
I’ve often said jokingly that Black History Month should more accurately be called “white people and America suck” month. Rather than focusing on all of black history, every February the liberal media and most democrats gleefully bring up all of America’s past sins. Fine. I mean after all, it is a part of history. But what is so wrong is these race exploiters imply that current race relations in America have not come very far from the days of blacks being lynched. Thus, Black History Month in reality is the liberal democrat’s annual fund raiser and promo campaign for more entitlement programs.
The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Creates Wicca and Druidism Worship Space
Published February 1, 2010 | BeliefNet, Sunday January 31, 2010
Evidently, Wiccans form the largest non-Christian faith in the Air Force. Now they’ll have a place to call their own:
The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado will set aside a worship space for followers of “Earth-centered” religions such as Wicca and Druidism, according to an Air Force news release.
A stone circle atop a hill on the base in Colorado Springs will likely be dedicated in a ceremony March 10, according to the release, and be available to cadets and other service members who live in the area. The base already has worship spaces for Protestants, Catholics, Muslims and Buddhist, the release said.
The Air Force has been accused of allowing evangelical officers to openly proselytize and pressure cadets of other faiths. In 2005, the Air Force issued new guidelines pledging to “accommodate free exercise of religion and other personal beliefs.”
Tech. Sgt. Brandon Longcrier, who worked with academy officials to create the space, said in the news release, “there really haven’t been any obstacles for the new circle. The chaplain’s office has been 100 percent supportive.”
Longcrier, who became a pagan in 2006, said “when I first arrived here, Earth-centered cadets didn’t have anywhere to call home. Now, they meet every Monday night, they get to go on retreats, and they have a stone circle.”
http://blog.beliefnet.com/deaconsbench/2010/01/us-air-force-creates-wiccan-worship-space.html
Father John Corapi: Surrender is NOT an Option…We Are Warriors Now!
Published February 1, 2010 |
What Liberals and Radical Feminists Fear Most
Published February 1, 2010 | 
EXCERPT: ….What’s particularly stoking liberals’ fear this time is that they can feel the abortion cause slipping through their fingers. More Democrats are soft-peddling the issue and more Americans becoming pro-life. The prospect of a powerful pro-life ad during the No. 1 television event of the year has them in a tizzy . . . Worse for lefties, for the first time in decades, there’s serious talk the Supreme Court could reverse Roe v. Wade.….
ENTIRE ARTICLE FOUND BELOW…….
By David N. Bass, American Spectator, Feb. 1, 2010
Pro-Choice Anti-Choicers: They’re Pro-Choice — Except for Pam Tebow’s Choice!
Published February 1, 2010 | 
The far left Women’s Media Center put out a press release last week doing just that. The group ripped CBS for accepting a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl featuring college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam.
The ad, sponsored by the Christian group Focus on the Family, draws attention to Pam’s decision to bring her pregnancy to term despite health complications that threatened her life.
Millions of viewers will find that pro-family message a welcome relief from the typical raunchy fare aired during the nation’s top sporting event. But feminists, apparently, don’t appreciate the break from racy beer commercials. In fact, they’re enraged by it.
“An ad that uses sports to divide rather than to unite has no place in the biggest national sports event of the year,” Jemhu Greene, president of WMC, told the Associated Press.
Given the rhetorical firestorm, you’d think Tebow and his mom were using the ad to encourage Congress to enact the national “Keep Women Barefoot and in the Kitchen Act of 2010.” Instead, Pam will explain her decision to have Tim despite doctors’ advice to the contrary.
Far from pushing legislation or a political agenda, the Tebows will share their story about choice — the choice to respect the sanctity of unborn human life. Feminists think it’s more offensive than ads objectifying the female body or adulterer politicians (John Edwards and Bill Clinton, I’m looking at you).
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, makes the valid point that feminists’ worst-case scenario for the ad is that women “are exposed to an example of sacrifice for the sake of an unborn child.”
Shocking, I know, especially when viewers could be watching naked women in the shower or a woman exposing her endowments during a congressional hearing.
It’s a wonder anyone takes feminists seriously when their hypocrisy is so manifold. The duplicity is comparable to African Americans like Al Sharpton giving rich liberal white guys — Chris “shiver-my-leg” Matthews being one — a pass when they make racist remarks, but nailing conservatives to the wall for out-of-text comments that aren’t remotely racist.
While the deceit is obvious, it isn’t surprising. Abortion advocates have foisted the same nonsense for decades. And the illogic escapes the lion’s share of mainstream media pundits.
Consider that abortion advocates claim to support a woman’s right to make choices about her own body. To them, a child remains part of his or her mother until an undefined number of days, weeks, months, or years after birth. Until that magical — and unknown — point when human life begins, the child is just a product of conception. And until that point, the law should allow a woman to make whatever choice she deems right.
But while they’re quick to applaud a woman’s choice to abort her baby — “I Had an Abortion” t-shirts, for example — they seldom encourage the opposite decision and never celebrate it. The truth is in the numbers: for every adoption referral Planned Parenthood made in 2007, it conducted 62 abortions.
What’s particularly stoking liberals’ fear this time is that they can feel the abortion cause slipping through their fingers. More Democrats are soft-peddling the issue and more Americans becoming pro-life. The prospect of a powerful pro-life ad during the No. 1 television event of the year has them in a tizzy.
They have good reason to be afraid. They have an ally in Barack Obama, but after making lofty promises during the campaign to shore up his base, he’s pussyfooting around. Democrats have huge majorities in both chambers of Congress, but they aren’t acting, either.
Worse for lefties, for the first time in decades, there’s serious talk the Supreme Court could reverse Roe v. Wade. And the electoral purge that’s in the works for November will set back the pro-abortion agenda even more.
The Tebow ad is just another crack in a ship that’s headed for the bottom of the political and cultural ocean — and sooner rather than later.
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Executive Chaired Pro-Abortion, LGBT Rights Group
Published February 1, 2010 |
Washington, DC (02 February 2010) – A national group that promotes abortion and homosexual rights has deep ties with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, according to a report released Monday.
Top USCCB executive John Carr held simultaneous leadership roles, creating a conflict of interest, with the USCCB and the radical Center for Community Change.
“The closer we look at the Bishops’ Conference [staff and programs], the more we find a systemic pattern of cooperation with evil,” said Michael Hichborn, American Life League’s lead researcher into the USCCB scandal. “The CCC has lodged itself into the highest places of power in the USCCB while working to promote abortion and homosexuality.”
John Carr is the USCCB executive director of the Department of Justice Peace and Human Development which oversees the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). He has been employed by the USCCB since 1987.
John Carr’s relationship with the Center for Community Change goes back at least to 1983, serving in leadership roles from 1999 to 2006 – including as chairman of the board. The Reform CCHD Now report details the organization’s promotion of abortion, “reproductive rights” and homosexuality as among the CCC’s core advocacy focuses.
In 2001, while Carr served as both a USCCB exec and CCC leader, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference funneled $150,000 to the pro-abortion group. The USCCB web site currently promotes the group and officials have spoken at CCC events.
“Strangely, Carr’s leadership on the CCC’s board shows up on several bios he’s submitted for speaking engagements, but the word for word bio on the USCCB web site mysteriously omits that one detail,” Hichborn said. “Why?”
Revelations of John Carr’s involvement in the Center for Community Change come only months after members of the Reform CCHD Now coalition, including American Life League, uncovered 31 CCHD grantees partnered with the CCC.
“The CCHD claims it will immediately investigate accusations against organizations it funds yet it is silent on the CCC,” said Hichborn. “How can Carr and the USCCB possibly justify this intimate relationship with such an obvious enemy of the Church?”
The Reform CCHD Now coalition is a lay Catholic watchdog group comprised of some of the top Catholic pro-life organizations in the country including American Life League, Human Life International and Bellarmine Veritas Ministry. For a full list of all 15 coalition members see www.reformcchdnow.com.
American Life League was cofounded in 1979 by Judie Brown. It is the largest grassroots Catholic pro-life organization in the United States and is committed to the protection of all innocent human beings from the moment of creation to natural death. For more information or press inquiries, please contact Katie Walker at 540.659.4942.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
American Life League: Sleeping with the Enemy: Bishops Conference Cooperation with Pro-Abortion Organizations (01 February 2010)
http://all.org/article.php?id=12506
Bellarmine Veritas Ministry: Revisiting the Center for Community Change (01 February 2010)
http://bellarmineveritasministry.org/2010/02/01/revisiting-the-center-for-community-change/
Reform CCHD Now:
www.reformcchdnow.com
LINK: http://all.org/article.php?id=12507
Why is Obama Spending America into Oblivion?
Published February 1, 2010 | Obama unveils $3.83T budget with massive deficits
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, (AP), TownHall, February 01, 2010
The deficit for this year would surge to a record-breaking $1.56 trillion, topping last year’s then unprecedented $1.41 trillion gap. The deficit would remain above $1 trillion in 2011 although the president proposed to institute a three-year budget freeze on a variety of programs outside of the military and homeland security as well as increasing taxes on energy producers and families making more than $250,000.
Echoing the pledge in his State of the Union address to make job creation his top priority, Obama put forward a budget that included a $100 billion jobs measure that would provide tax breaks to encourage businesses to boost hiring as well as increased government spending on infrastructure and energy projects. He called for fast congressional action to speed relief to millions left unemployed in the worst recession since the 1930s. Continue reading
What’s Provocative About the Tebow Super Bowl Ad?
Published February 1, 2010 | 
February 01, 2010
Why are pro-abortion groups so up in arms about the Tim Tebow ad that CBS will run during the Super Bowl?
CONSERVATIVES, LISTEN UP! Sen.-Elect Brown Says He Supports Abortion Rights
Published February 1, 2010 | 
AP News, TownHall.com, Jan. 31, 2010Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts says he opposes federal funding for abortions, but thinks women should have the right to choose whether to have one.
Brown tells ABC’s “This Week” that he disagrees with his party’s position that the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion should be overturned.
Brown says the abortion question is one that’s best handled by a woman, her family and her doctor. He also says more effort needs to go into reducing the number of abortions in the U.S.
Brown has said the GOP shouldn’t take his vote for granted on every issue. He says he’s fiscally conservative but more moderate on social issues.
‘Obama’s Stunning Admission’: What Was ‘Snuck’ Into Democratic Health Care Legislation?
Published February 1, 2010 | “I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge.”
Obama’s Bipartisanship Scam: Will Republicans Fall For It?
Published February 1, 2010 | 
By Jed Babbin, Human Events, Feb. 2, 2010
When the Republican House leadership surprised its members with their invitation to President Obama to speak at the Republican retreat in Baltimore, many conservatives were dismayed. As the event played out on January 29th, their concerns appeared justified.
The reason for the invitation is that Republican leaders have read the polls, and are worried about the “party of no” label which the polls prove is damaging them. Their intent was to get the president to admit that they had ideas worth considering. That led to the inevitable setup by White House political advisor David Axelrod who said in a Thursday interview that “It’s time to put up or shut up. We will put the other party to the test and they will have to explain why they are standing in the way.”
The president came to the Republican meeting weakened after a year of run amok liberalism, the most polarizing president ever. According to a new Rasmussen poll, only 21% of Americans believed his State of the Union claim that taxes have been cut for 95% of them. He, more than the Republicans, needed the meeting.
There was belligerence in Obama’s opening remarks. Still campaigning against “Washington” politics, Obama chastised Republicans for party-line votes on the stimulus package, reiterated his State of the Union agenda and insisted on his form of “bipartisanship.”
The televised event did accomplish the small Republican objective, but it was lost amidst the points Obama scored. Obama ducked and dodged a bit, admitting that Republicans had ideas worthy of consideration. But – seriatim – he derided the Republican legislative book he was handed as nothing more than talking points, demanding that they flesh them out into real proposals. Then he said he’d read the bills they presented. And then he said he’d already taken the good parts of their ideas and had incorporated them in his legislation, impliedly insisting they come up with something new.
The president — as one conservative member told me after the Friday session — is tough to compete with on the national stage. In this event, it was made doubly hard by the television coverage. Flipping between CNN and Fox, I couldn’t hear much of what Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said. Pence’s microphone wasn’t working. And when members asked the president questions — tough ones from Jeb Hensarling (R-Tx), Jason Chaffetz (R-Ut) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) — the cameras never panned to show the congressmen. They showed the president and only the president.
Throughout, Obama pushed his bipartisanship scam. But he made it clear that it’s a roach motel he’s built for the Republicans willing to enter it: they’ll go in and never come out without adopting his ideas wholesale.
He chastised Republicans for their characterizations of the healthcare bill, accusing them of painting it as “a Bolshevik plot.” His smile wasn’t charming, it was combative and uncertain, like Nancy Pelosi explaining her faux ignorance of CIA waterboarding.
Obama is a statist, eager to impose government control over healthcare just as it now controls the two automakers and so much of the financial industry. It’s not Bolshevism the Republicans complain of: it’s Obama’s determination to expand government’s control over every aspect of our society.
Saying he’s not “an ideologue”, Obama defined bipartisanship in strict ideological terms. Most House Republicans (such as Mike Pence, Tom Price, Blackburn, Hensarling and others who spoke) have taken responsible conservative positions against Obama’s proposals.
For that, they earned Obama’s contempt. He said, “…we’ve got to close the gap a little bit between the rhetoric and the reality. I’m not suggesting that we’re going to agree on everything, whether it’s on health care or energy or what have you, but if the way these issues are being presented by the Republicans is that this is some wild-eyed plot to impose huge government in every aspect of our lives, what happens is you guys then don’t have a lot of room to negotiate with me.”
Obama added, “I mean, the fact of the matter is, is that many of you, if you voted with the administration on something, are politically vulnerable in your own base, in your own party. You’ve given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan fashion because what you’ve been telling your constituents is, this guy is doing all kinds of crazy stuff that’s going to destroy America.”
This is the central element of Obama’s bipartisanship scam. He demands that Republicans let him set the terms of the debate and adopt his theory of government in order to be “bipartisan.”
To accept his terms, Obama demands that Republicans agree with his misstatements of fact.
Case in point: Jeb Hensarling said, “You are soon to submit a new budget, Mr. President. Will that new budget, like your old budget, triple the national debt and continue to take us down the path of increasing the cost of government to almost 25 percent of our economy?”
In response, Obama accused Hensarling of asking a question formulated as a campaign talking point, and then said Hensarling lied: “So when you say that suddenly I’ve got a monthly budget that is higher than the — a monthly deficit that’s higher than the annual deficit left by the Republicans, that’s factually just not true, and you know it’s not true.”
But of course, Hensarling didn’t lie: Obama did.
According to a June 2009 report by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office the federal deficit would rise from its 2008 level of $5.803 trillion to $17.126 trillion in 2019, which is 2.95 times larger than the 2008 level. (Even Obama’s Office of Management and Budget admits the deficit would be multiplied by a factor of 2.76.)
Obama’s bipartisanship scam is akin to the “legitimacy” scam that Kofi Annan ran when he was UN Secretary General. Annan insisted that international action — especially military action — couldn’t be legitimate unless the UN blessed it. Under Obama’s formulation, bipartisanship only exists when Republicans debate his ideas using his words and characterizations of the policies he prescribes. It’s Obama’s way of preparing the political battlefield so that only his statist ideas can be debated.
“This guy” — President Obama — is doing a lot of crazy stuff that endangers our economy, our national security and our future. If Republicans fall for Obama’s bipartisanship scam, they will have surrendered their ability to make big gains in November.
Calif. Quietly Shifts Fruitless Embryo Research Funds to Adult Stem Cells
Published February 1, 2010 | …Investors knock waste on useless research…
LOS ANGELES, California – California’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine came into being five years ago, fueled by a conviction that the Bush administration’s restriction on embryo-destructive research in the National Institutes of Health was stifling the progress of science.
But after years of fruitless work, the Institute has now quietly diverted funds from embryonic stem cell research (ESCr) to adult stem cell research – which has already produced dozens of treatments and all-out cures for maladies ranging from spinal cord injury, to Alzheimer’s, to type I diabetes.
The California government – which is again teetering on the brink of bankruptcy – in 2004 passed the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, or Proposition 71. The initiative pumped $3 billion into research seeking some medical use for stem cells harvested from human embryos, which are killed in the process.
But an editorial in the Los Angeles-based Investor’s Business Daily magazine January 12 pointed out the abysmal failure of the state’s massive investment in research that has procured no effective treatments to date.
“Five years after a budget-busting $3 billion was allocated to embryonic stem cell research, there have been no cures, no therapies and little progress,” notes the IBD editors.
“ESCR has failed to deliver and backers of Prop 71 are admitting failure.” Continue reading
Founder’s Quote Daily
Published February 1, 2010 | 
“[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.”
–Samuel Adams, essay in The Public Advertiser, 1749
TODAY’S GOSPEL
Published February 1, 2010 | 1. And they went across the strait of the sea into the region of the Gerasenes.
2. And as he was departing from the boat, he was immediately met, from among the tombs, by a man with an unclean spirit,
3. who had his dwelling place with the tombs; neither had anyone been able to bind him, even with chains.
4. For having been bound often with shackles and chains, he had broken the chains and smashed the shackles; and no one had been able to tame him.
5. And he was always, day and night, among the tombs, or in the mountains, crying out and cutting himself with stones.
6. And seeing Jesus from afar, he ran and adored him.
7. And crying out with a loud voice, he said: “What am I to you, Jesus, the Son of the Most High God? I beseech you by God, that you not torment me.”
8. For he said to him, “Depart from the man, you unclean spirit.”
9. And he questioned him: “What is your name?” And he said to him, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”
10. And he entreated him greatly, so that he would not expel him from the region.
11. And in that place, near the mountain, there was a great herd of swine, feeding.
12. And the spirits entreated him, saying: “Send us into the swine, so that we may enter into them.”
13. And Jesus promptly gave them permission. And the unclean spirits, departing, entered into the swine. And the herd of about two thousand rushed down with great force into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea.
14. Then those who pastured them fled, and they reported it in the city and in the countryside. And they all went out to see what was happening.
15. And they came to Jesus. And they saw the man who had been troubled by the demon, sitting, clothed and with a sane mind, and they were afraid.
16. And those who had seen it explained to them how he had dealt with the man who had the demon, and about the swine.
17. And they began to petition him, so that he would withdraw from their borders.
18. And as he was climbing into the boat, the man who had been troubled by the demons began to beg him, so that he might be with him.
19. And he did not permit him, but he said to him, “Go to your own people, in your own house, and announce to them how great are the things that Lord has done for you, and how he has taken pity on you.”
20. And he went away and began to preach in the Ten Cities, how great were the things that Jesus had done for him. And everyone wondered.
ST. BRIGID OF IRELAND
Published February 1, 2010 |
Often called the Mary of the Gael. At about 453 AD, a child was born out of wedlock between Dubhtach and one of his Christian slaves named Brocessa. The slave girl was sent to a cabin at the foot of the Cooley Mountains near Dundalk, Co Louth, to have the child. The baby was a healthy girl, which was no great joy to Dubhtach who wanted a son. The mother was sold to a Chieftain in Connaught, and the child was given to a Druid to be raised and educated.
In keeping with the life planned for her, she became a vestal virgin in service to the Goddess Brid, and eventually high priestess at the Kil Dara (the temple of the oak), a pagan sanctuary built from the wood of a tree sacred to the Druids. There she and her companions kept a perpetual ritual fire, in honor of Brid.
The exact circumstance of her conversion to Christianity are unknown, though it is certain that her Christian mother was a guiding influence.
Brigid changed the pagan sanctuary of Kil Dara into a Christian shrine, which gave its name to the present County Kildare. She extinguished the ritual fire of the Druids, and lit a flame dedicated to Christ.
Brigid’s wisdom and generosity became legend, and people traveled from all over the country to share her wisdom. Her monastery at Kildare became one of the greatest centers of learning in Europe. She continued her holy and charitable work until her death in 525 AD, when she was laid to rest in a jeweled casket at Kil Dara. In 835, her remains were moved to protect them from Norse invaders, and interred in the same grave that holds the remains of St Patrick and St Columcille at Downpatrick.
Conservatism vs. Ideologues
The Patriot Post, Brief, Monday, February 1, 2010
The Gipper
“Conservatism is the antithesis of the kind of ideological fanaticism that has brought so much horror and destruction to the world. The common sense and common decency of ordinary men and women, working out their own lives in their own way — this is the heart of American conservatism today. Conservative wisdom and principles are derived from willingness to learn, not just from what is going on now, but from what has happened before.”
–Ronald Reagan
The Last Word
“Obama is addicted to utilizing language that he has carefully tailored or perverted to obfuscate the truth. In other words, he uses double talk on a routine basis. In order to understand what Obama truly tells us when he speaks to us, it is necessary to grab our Little Orphan Annie Decoder Ring and decipher precisely what he means when he uses his pet phrases. This, then, is a list of his favorite linguistic flourishes — and just what he means when he uses them:
‘Hope and change’: Socialism at home, surrender abroad. …
‘False choice’: A very real choice Obama wants to pretend doesn’t exist. …
‘Deficit reduction’: Deficit increases. Obama suggests that he will cut the rate at which the deficit is growing — something he has never actually achieved — and acts as though this is actual deficit reduction. …
‘Let me be clear’: Let me lie to you. ‘Make no mistake’: See ‘let me be clear.’ …
‘This isn’t about me’: This is completely about me. … ‘
Reaching out to the other side of the aisle’: Totally rejecting all ideas from anyone outside the Obama-approved bubble. Then suggesting that subsequent political impasses are their fault, and that they ought to bend down and grab their ankles to establish a new tone in Washington.
‘Failed policies of the past’: Don’t blame me! Blame Bush! …
‘Tax cut’: Redistribution of money from those who pay a disproportionate amount of taxes to those who pay none. …
Watch for these phrases while marveling at Obama’s supposed rhetorical brilliance. They shouldn’t be taken at face value, because Obama isn’t a master of pure artistry of the English language — he’s a master at manipulation above all.”
–columnist Ben Shapiro
http://patriotpost.us/edition/2010/02/01/brief/