Thursday, May 27, 2010

Defense of Marriage Act Targeted in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts attorney general asked a Federal judge to strike down the Federal Defense of Marriage Act. The Federal judge has not announced when he will rule.

Since 2004, nearly 15,000 homosexual couples have wed under Massachusetts judicial mandated gay marriage law, a law that was never voted on by the public.

The state's rational: The Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) interferes in the distribution of Medicaid and other "married" couples in Massachusetts.

The Federal DOMA puts the Obama administration between a rock and a hard spot. On the one hand, Obama is the most pro-homosexual rights President in US History. On the other, his administration will be forced to defend DOMA.

Being conflicted comes as the result of being on the wrong side of an issue with God and nature.

Wanted-Historic Americans

Our nation needs a new generation of lawmakers and leaders who believe in the historic American notion that our liberties and freedoms are only preserved by limited government.

We have lost our way on this issue. Barack Obama is the poster child of this confusion.

At his inauguration, Barack Obama promised change. That change includes multiculturalism eroding common American values, political correctness, record Federal debt, insecure borders, unreasonable Federal business regulation, constriction of religious values in the public square, ana an entitlement mentality.

They all need to be rejected.

We are a nation of immigrants for the most part, arriving on these shores from distant points around the globe. However, we have glued ourselves together to form the most remarkable society in the history of the world.

However, whether intentional or not, most young Americans are not being consistently taught the civil uniqueness of America; the founding ideas which under girded our nation's birth; and, the need for each generation to believe and agree and pursue American exceptionalism.

Instead, a murk has descended. From the White House to Congress to Main Street USA, more and more Americans no longer believe in what John F. Kennedy stated, "ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country." Instead, we are following the failed path of European socialist states and the rights of entitlement. Now the mantra is what will the government do for us.

The cure: a return to those values which birthed our nation. They are limited government, liberty and justice for all, economic opportunities with reasonable government regulation, low taxes, secure borders with a reasonable path to citizenship for immigrants, etc.

On top of it all, young Americans must be taught that their success is not based on what the government will do for them but upon the sweat of their own brow.

Finally, as a nation we need to embrace and acknowledge God. Our founders knew that a moral government relied upon the maintenance of private virtue anchored in faith in the Divine.

Monday, May 24, 2010

No to Federal Bailout of Teacher Unions

Here they come.

The next great bail out will be for teacher unions around the nation.

Below is an excellent article describing the $23 billion dollar federal bailout of public education systems around the nation.

Click here.

Deemed the "Keep Our Educators Working Hard Act" this bill would provide emergency funding for financially strapped school districts around the country.

Let me say first, I love teachers. I am married to one. Both of my parents and sister were and are public school teachers.

However, there are problems galore with this most recent bailout.

First, there is a small thing known as the current Federal budget deficit, which if left unchecked will destroy this nation. We cannot afford another bailout.

Second, this money is like heroin to an addict. A quick fix is not going to solve budgetary crisis' faced by many states. In fact, these monies likely will make things worse.

The bottom line is that cuts are needed in the public school systems. You cannot have something that you cannot pay for with dollars today (something that our politicians do not understand). These tough decisions have to be made now.

Finally, kids and public school systems will survive.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Arizona Temptation for Colorado

Don't do it.

Somewhere, someplace, Governor Bill Ritter is getting pressure from his leftist coalition to knuckle under and announce a state ban on everything Arizona.

That would be a bad move.

Even though California (aka as the American "Greece") has taken the misguided lead in this exercise of futility, Colorado should have no part in it.

Last weekend, I was in Arizona attending a conference. I bought meals, beverages and as much Arizona as I possibly could. All of the Arizonians I talked to support this law as a reasonable attempt to reel in a bad situation. Frankly, if the truth be known, this law will make little or no dent in the tsunami of illegal immigration. What it may do is fire up the Obama Administration to constructively look for bipartisan solutions.

While I am compassionate to the plight of illegal immigrants, I want the law enforced. I want these immigrants to do it legally and not sneak here in the dead of night. I want them to get in line and become either U.S. citizens or be a part of ta guest worker program.

Arizona has done what any state would do to protect its sovereignty. Phoenix alone has almost 500,000 illegals!

Resist the urge Mr. Governor and keep Colorado out of the boycott Arizona madness.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Wear the American Flag

The United States is not a province of Mexico, France or Canada.

Yet, some folks living here seem to have forgotten that fact.

Here's the story.

The answer to this one is really common sense which seems to be lacking in some politically-correct quarters.

Here it is:

I have no problem with Mexican-Americans celebrating Cinco de Mayo or Irish-Americans celebrating St. Patrick's Day. Americans come from all over the earth and our nation is made richer because of these heritages.

But, we are all Americans, at least we should be or should be in the process of becoming one. America has always been an immigrant melting pot. But, let's remember that our greatness is not defined by our ethnicity's but by our common ground and shared values, language, flag and customs.

The American flag unifies us as a nation. There is no other flag that should be on equal footing in our country.

Friday, May 07, 2010

Fort Logan, Freedom of Speech and the Westboro Church of Kansas

Later today (Friday), Pastor Fred Phelps and his hate-mongering followers will be exercising their constitutionally protected rights of freedom of speech.

Their location: Fort Logan National Military Cemetery here in Denver. Their target: the funeral of a soldier recently killed in Afghanistan.

Pastor Fred Phelps and his Kansas based church are traveling the country promoting a message that espouses that God hates homosexuals and that God hates America because we have gays and thus, God allows our troops to be killed on foreign soil....

Awful, right? Baloney. Do they have a right to say these things? Yes.

Here's the challenge. Phelps and his crew have a right to free speech as Americans. But what they don't have a right too in my view is to disturb a private funeral and a grieving family. At some point, freedom of speech has a waterline.

Just as you cannot yell "fire" in a crowded theater, disturbing a private funeral is unconscienciable too...

Thanks Mom!

Thanks Mom!

I had a great mom. Like everyone else, she had her flaws but she was still a great woman.

She passed away 13 years ago, way too early. But, it was her time as cancer wracked her body.

In her memory and to all other great mom's out there, I thank God for you

PS-Here is some more info that you may not know about the origins of Mother's Day.

As it was earlier "Mother's Day" in the U.S. was mostly marked by women's peace groups.[1] A common early activity was the meeting of groups of mothers whose sons had fought or died on opposite sides of the American Civil War. There were several local celebrations in the 1870s and the 1880s, but none achieved resonance beyond the local level.[2]

In 1868 Ann Jarvis created a committee to establish a "Mother's Friendship Day" whose purpose was "to reunite families that had been divided during the Civil War", and she wanted to expand it into an annual memorial for mothers, but she died in 1905 before the celebration became popular.[3][2] (Her daughter Anna Jarvis would continue her mother's effort shortly later, see below.)

In New York City, Julia Ward Howe led a "Mother's Day" anti-war observance in 2nd June, 1872[1][4][2], which was accompanied by a Mother's Day Proclamation. The observance continued in Boston for about 10 years under Howe's personal sponsorship, then it died out.[5]

Several years later, a Mother's Day observance on May 13, 1877 was held in Albion, Michigan, over a dispute related to the temperance movement.[6] According to local legend, Albion pioneer, Juliet Calhoun Blakeley, stepped up to complete the sermon of the Rev. Myron Daughterty, who was distraught because an anti-temperance group had forced his son and two other temperance advocates to spend the night in a saloon and become publicly drunk. In the pulpit, Blakeley called on other mothers to join her. Blakeley's two sons, both traveling salesmen, were so moved that they vowed to return each year to pay tribute to her and embarked on a campaign to urge their business contacts to do likewise. At their urging, in the early 1880s, the Methodist Episcopal Church in Albion set aside the second Sunday in May to recognize the special contributions of mothers.

Frank E. Hering, President of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, made the first known public plea for "a national day to honor our mothers" in 1904.[