“Even though you can’t see or hear them at all, A person’s a person, no matter how small.”
~Dr. Seuss~

Today is the annual March For Life in Washington, D.C., in protest of the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.  I am happy and amazed to report that this is also Alex’s third time to go.  He is passionate about a great many things, but one of the things that he is most passionate is the right to life.

He has traveled to the March with our youth group from St. John the Baptist Church, and one of the most exciting parts of his “pilgrimage” is that he will be attending Mass this morning celebrated by Cardinal Rigali, who was one of the religious leaders who presented the Manhattan Declaration back in November!  Then, Alex will get to serve at the special North Carolina Mass with both Bishop Jugis from our own Diocese of Charlotte and Bishop Burbidge, from the Diocese of Raleigh.

And, of course, he will get to march.  We are still free here in the United States, and we can still protest peacefully.  I am so proud of my son that he wants to participate and make his voice known, because the smallest members of our society cannot yet fight for themselves.

WooHoo!!!!  Coakley conceded, and R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N Scott Brown took over Ted Kennedy’s seat in the Senate!  It is almost too good to be true. . . I feel like I am dreaming . . .

America *is* still awake!  We are fighting back!!  Oh, I hope all those other Senators and Representatives are absolutely quaking in their boots up in their little ivory towers.  What a powerful message the voters of Massachusetts have sent tonight!  And just in time for the March For Life in D.C. this Friday (which Obama will undoubtedly ignore, since it opposes his culture of death).

Oh, I am so happy, and finally, just a tiny bit hopeful.

I am a headline news reader.  I rarely bother to read the whole story unless the headline really, really grabs me.  I think I am, sadly, typical.  But in my defense, I have to say that the headlines have been screaming doom and devastation for so long that it’s very difficult for me to summon up the courage to look past them, into the actual articles.

Tonight’s headlines on Yahoo! illustrate my point perfectly:

Haiti hit by largest earthquake in over 200 years
AP sources: Employer health mandate may be dropped
AP Exclusive: Obama wants $33 billion more for war
Cold weather and growing sales mock death of fur

Okay, I actually read the article about the earthquake in Haiti.  Those poor, poor people!  As if their very existence was not suffering enough.  My heart goes out to them.

The healthcare thing has begun to sound like a permanent droning in my ears. “Obama” wants this and that (yet they keep showing pictures of Pelosi. . . ewwww) and they keep changing their minds.  At first, I was really concerned.  Now I’m beginning to think they’re going to carry on for years, and accomplish nothing.

Obama wants more for the war.  Of course he does.  He totally lied about getting our military home.  Change?  Yeah. Sure.

Now, the “death of fur” thing is funny to me.  All of those self-righteous people who condemned others for wearing fur must have forgotten about how furs were one of the key ingredients to surviving  winters all over the globe throughout history.  And, when people get really cold, they want what works best.

So, I’ve come to the conclusion, yet again, that the world has gone mad.  I just hope everybody else can see it, too.  Sometimes it gets a little old being the only one to proclaim that the emperor has no clothes!

I have been looking at 8 inches of snow on my back deck for 12 days now.  It is *COLD* out there! I have been reading that this winter and last are the coldest on record.  People all over the globe are seeing record snows and low temperatures.  Yet, this morning I read this on AOL’s “Wallet Pop“:

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts that a typical U.S. household will spend less money on heating bills between October of this year and March of 2010 due to milder weather and lower cost of natural gas.

It is absolutely mind-boggling to me that the “experts” still can’t see what’s in front of their frozen little noses:  climate is cyclical, and “Global Warming” is on the way out!

But, I guess the real truth is that there is a tremendous amount of money and power in the propagation of the “Global Warming” myth.  If they can keep it going, then they can monitor our every move and control our industry, in the all hallowed name of saving the environment.

Let me make this VERY CLEAR:  our family does NOT have health insurance.  I would rather keep it that way than submit to anything our government is trying to push on us at this point!!

This made me cry, and I don’t even like Rap or Hip Hop.  But wow. . .it is really powerful. I am so glad blacks are sending out messages like this, because most abortion victims are black.  Tell me it’s not a racist movement . . .

Anyone who knows me very well knows that math is “not my bag, Baby!”, so I asked a friend to have her math whiz hubby double check the following numbers, just to make sure they jived.  Sadly, they do.

A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a year of gasoline.

How good a deal was that ???

According to Snopes.com, the following was a letter written by Lou Pritchett, former Vice President of Procter & Gamble, whose 36 year career with that company ended in 1989 when he retired.

By all means, do check the validity of this letter.  And when you are done, please read it again, very slowly, and ponder his points.  They are excellent, and I couldn’t agree with him more.  Especially with his last point.  If Obama gets re-elected, I too will be scared, scared to voice my opinions, to write any of the political posts I have written in this blog. And I will be scared, most of all, for my children and grandchildren.  And yours.  But I will probably be in prison already, by then. Or worse.  And for some reason, I don’t think Amnesty International will care.

TRUE – CHECK:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/youscareme.asp

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don’t understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and ‘class’, always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the ‘blame America ‘ crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer ‘wind mills’ to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use ‘extortion’ tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O’Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett

This is from Catholic Online.  I think it’s excellent.

Dear Mr. Obama: An American Mom Writes President Obama
By Jennifer Hartline
8/14/2009

Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) – I have in front of me a letter I received from you in response to a letter I wrote to you regarding abortion in the U.S. You thanked me politely for taking the time to share my views on abortion and said, “This is a heart-wrenching issue.”
I just haven’t been able to get one little question out of my mind since reading your letter. Why?

Why is it heart-wrenching? Why would my heart be rent by making a perfectly legal and morally acceptable choice to have an abortion? Why should anyone’s heart be torn by this choice? The highest law of our land says that there is nothing wrong with choosing abortion. If no law is being broken, why should my heart or anyone’s heart be troubled?

In the short time you’ve been President, you have strategically worked to expand abortion access around the country. In fact, you promised in your campaign that your first task upon taking office would be to sign into law the Freedom of Choice Act, which would eliminate virtually every existing restriction on abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy, and even lift the ban on partial-birth abortion. (You said you considered that one a legitimate medical procedure.)

I’m trying to understand, Mr. Obama, but it just doesn’t make any sense. Why would you work so methodically to increase the occurrence of something so heart-wrenching?
As a woman, I can testify to the fact that when I make decisions to protect my privacy or the autonomy of my body, there’s nothing heart-wrenching about it. I am not the least bit torn or conflicted about defending myself in those ways. Indeed, it is my body – the one God gave me and the one He expects me to care for wisely and honorably. My body – like yours – was made to be holy.

If the choice to “terminate a pregnancy” through abortion is merely about a woman’s right to privacy and autonomy, there should be nothing difficult about it at all. If there are no grounds to declare it illegal, inhumane, or morally wrong, then indeed there should be no conflict of the heart whatsoever.

But you and I both know that is not the case, because you and I both know quite well that there is something very, very morally wrong with abortion.

No one can pretend the other person in this equation doesn’t exist. No one – not even you – can deny that abortion ends a human life. Whether the medical profession classifies that person as an embryo, a fetus, or a newborn, the indisputable fact is we’re talking about a new human being. Not an eggplant or a seahorse. This person is not an extension of her mother’s body, but a distinct, separate individual with her own body and soul.

Abortion does not tear the mother’s body limb from limb, or burn her body with chemicals, or suction her body into a vacuum, or stab a hole in her skull and suction out her brains. Abortion does all these hideous things to another human being. That is the reality of this wretched “choice.”

No thinking, civilized person can deny it. We all know in our hearts, in the depths of our souls that abortion kills a human person. There is a very strange and powerful sort of delusion going on, then, for that is the only way to explain how so many people can stubbornly, arrogantly and blindly cling to the notion that abortion is legitimate “reproductive health care” and a “right” of all women.

I ask you again: what is so heart-wrenching about availing myself of legitimate reproductive health care?

Those who demand abortion rights must constantly prop up the illusion in their minds that they’re not hurting anyone or doing anything wrong. It helps their cause to use more palatable language, like “terminating a pregnancy” rather than killing a baby. (Mr. President, I’ve been pregnant four times and I can assure you that every single time, I was pregnant with a baby. The only way to terminate a pregnancy is to terminate the baby.)

Ah, the baby… could that be the source of all the heart-wrenching? But we’ve already decided we’re not going to even acknowledge the humanity of the baby, so what’s the problem? Just get rid of the unwanted tissue already and be done with it.

“Pro-Choice” advocates must continually shout the mantra of “women’s rights” in order to keep from thinking about the mangled little body lying on the instrument table after the “procedure.” If they stop for even a moment to consider the actual results of abortion, all arguments for its legality would necessarily collapse in a heap around them. No one with an ounce of humanity could stomach this gruesome brand of “medicine” without the protection of narcissistic and evil delusions of choice and rights.

The enemy of every human soul has deceived and deluded us into rationalizing the unjustifiable murder of our own children. You are being deceived, Mr. President, by the father of lies. The prince of darkness has persuaded many of us to reject our natural instinct to protect our young. He has convinced too many women that they can simply destroy their own child and walk away unscathed. It is not so. Abortion leaves only a trail of death and despair. It is not freedom for women; it is bondage to brokenness.

You now stand in a position to set in motion changes to our nation that may last for decades or longer. You can either use the power in your hands for life or for death. I grieve to think that you will persist in your path of death for our country; that my children will inherit the destructive fruits of all that you seem intent on pursuing. I beg you to hear the truth, to hear the cry of the voiceless little ones. I beg you to choose life.

Do not include abortion funding in your health care reform. The purposeful death of a human being can never be considered health care. Do not continue to demand that our nation’s collective tax dollars be spent on the mass-killing of the unborn. The truth is laid out before you in the purest light; without shadows, without doubt. “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him.” Deuteronomy 30:19-20

There is nothing heart-wrenching about choosing life, Mr. President. No shame, no regrets, nothing lost. Only blessings gained. I continue to pray for you, that you will have the courage to protect all human life, especially the weakest and most defenseless. I pray that you will use your position of power to bring life – not death – to our nation. I pray that the Lord of Life and Prince of Peace will bless you and guide you and that you will welcome His revealing light. Choose life, Mr. President. It is the only way we will survive.

——

Jennifer Hartline is a Catholic Army wife and stay-at-home mother of three precious kids who writes frequently on topics of Catholic faith and daily living. She is a contributing writer for Catholic Online

I am a fishy American.  I absolutely think that Obama’s Healthcare plan is G-A-R-B-A-G-E.

The White House wants us to go tattle on anyone who might be spreading “false” “rumors” about the proposed healthcare plan.  Since when in this country, the greatest country in the world, Land of the Brave and Home of the Free, do we spy on each other and report to Big Brother?????

I am sure that there are those of you who don’t believe me.  Check out the White House Blog for yourselves:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care.  These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation.  Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Senator John Conryn (R-TX) brings up an interesting point.  He has this to say, directly to Obama:

“Do your own past statements qualify as ‘disinformation’? For example, is it ‘disinformation’ to note that in 2003 you said: “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care plan”?

Yeah. . . Obama didn’t count on Americans actually thinking for themselves, and why should he?  They sure as heck didn’t when they voted last November!

Make no mistake:  if the White House is asking Americans to out each other over a health care plan, there is more to come. The White House is already compiling an “Enemies List”.  Wonder if my liberal family members and friends will come see me in prison???

Okay, I do not smoke.  But I am very alarmed about the way the taxes on cigarettes has risen exponentially in the past year!!  And, smoking is being outlawed everywhere.  I know that there are a lot of self-righteous non-smokers out there who think this is a good thing, but beware!  This is exactly how Hitler started de-sensitizing the Germans.  Consider the following quote:

“In Germany, the Nazis first came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist.  Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.  Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.  Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.  Then they came for me, and by that time, there was no one left to speak for me.”  by the Rev. Martin Niemoeller, arrested by the Gestapo in 1938 and sent to Dachau concentration camp until freed by the Allies in 1945

So, before you decide that it’s no big deal about cigarattes and smokers, please consider that you are quite likely on the list of those who will become singled out for something that the government will no longer tolerate.  It might be because you are a Christian, a Catholic, a Jew.  Or maybe because you are “Pro-Life” instead of “Pro-Choice”.  Perhaps because you homeschool. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Once again, it is “Independence Day”, and our family will, like we have so many years before, drive down the road to celebrate our Freedom with our friends by eating lots of wonderful food and setting off a ton of fireworks.  But this year, for some reason, it seems more important, more meaningful, perhaps because our Freedom is more endangered now than ever before.

I have been reading headline news, and feel sick.  Honestly, I couldn’t care less if Sarah Palin just resigned as governor of Alaska.  And I think it’s stupid that Obama and McCain are still being compared to one another. (“Obama, McCain Invoke Nation’s Founders in Dueling Independence Day Speeches“).  I personally don’t care what either of them has to say, and am quite convinced that neither of them has any insight or understanding, whatsoever, about our “Founders”.  Well, I suppose that if McCain had been alive at the time he would have been at those secret meetings of the Sons of Liberty, but he would have been the one they would have been worried about blowing their cover, due to his fiery temper!

Our “Founders” were brave men, Patriots, one and all, who were not only willing to give their lives for FREEDOM, but DID give their lives! They did not sell us out to other countries.  They would have died before bowing down to a Muslim leader!!!!!!!  They fought hard, soaking our fields and filling our rivers with their blood, that we might have the freedom to sit here today and kill unborn babies, promote special interest groups above the greater good of the rest of the country, that we might give away our wealth to lazy, no-good losers who have no intention of ever getting a job or to illegal immigrants who would be more than happy to work, but no longer have to. Today, we are taking the coward’s way of closing our eyes, and hoping it will all be okay in the end.  Our “Founders” knew better!

Our “Founders” fought for freedom, for states’ rights, for God.  They believed in prayer, and lots of it.  Not prayer to Allah, either, or to the ‘goddess’.  But prayer to the Almighty God of the Bible.  They went to church, and they protected their families.  They had integrity and dignity.  They were men (and women!) of strong moral character.  Please do not talk to me about  un-American men like Obama on the day we celebrate the freedom that he is working so very hard to destroy.

Today I will remember our Founders, and I will remember that they died for our freedom.  And I will pray, very hard, for our country, and for everyone who thinks freedom means being able to do whatever they want with no accountability.  Freedom is anything but “Free”, and our Founders understood that very well.

Beginning tomorrow, on the Feast Day of St. Thomas More, OneNationUnderGod is launching a prayer campaign for “Catholic” politicians, who claim to be Catholic, but whose voting records are very much in opposition to that claim. So, OneNationUnderGod is asking for prayer pledges.  What that means is that you sign up to pray for a politician, on a week-to-week basis, for their conversion.

From their website, explaining the campaign:

In a spirit of hope and Christian charity, OneNationUnderGod is launching a prayer campaign specifically focused on the conversion of Catholic politicians to further foster a Culture of Life in our country.

This effort will commence on June 22, 2009–the feast day of St. Thomas More, whom Pope John Paul II proclaimed the patron saint of statesmen and politicians. A 16th-century English chancellor who refused to accept King Henry VIII as the head of the Church of England, St. Thomas More held a passion for the truth that enlightened his conscience and led him to know that, just as man must be one with God, so politics must be with morality.

Many Catholic politicians support policies that reject a fundamental right to life.  Although these policy makers have been indelibly configured to Christ and the Church through Baptism, by denying these basic human rights, they stand outside full communion with the Church.

In the 1995 encyclical Evangelium vitae, John Paul II reiterates what the Catholic Church has always taught: that lawmakers have a grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that contradicts humanity’s fundamental right to life.

Months ago, we discovered that 50 percent of Catholic politicians currently serving in the 111th Congress have accepted large donations from pro-abortion lobby groups while reinforcing their support for abortion rights legislation.  These elected officials are deeply confused about Catholic teaching on the morality of abortion.

Catholic legislators who support abortion rights fail to recognize that legitimate social policy must be guided by absolute truth.  Many of these legislators cite “primacy of conscience” to justify their support for abortion rights, embryonic stem cell research and euthanasia.  However, a properly formed conscience recognizes the essential truth of Catholic teaching—that human life is sacred and inviolable from the moment of conception until natural death.

Over the past few weeks, we have contacted bishops of these pro-abortion Catholic members of Congress, to shed light on the politicians’ pro-abortion voting records and the money they have received from abortion lobbyists. We have respectfully asked that they continue to minister to these lawmakers.  Their spiritual direction gives invaluable insight to our Catholic legislators, reaffirming “that life is entrusted to man’s responsibility.”

Please, it only takes a few moments a day to pray for our politicians!  Even if you’re not Catholic, you can commit to pray for our leaders!  You can click here to make a prayer pledge.

This little movie, that came out in 1948, is almost 10 minutes long, but worth every second. For those of us who grew up on Bugs Bunny, you’ll enjoy the format! Back in the 1940’s, folks were a lot more focused and clear-headed than we are today, it would seem.  Let me know what you think.

Props to Matt Archbold over at Creative Minority Report for his incredible parody of Lord of the Rings!

Click this link to read it:Lord of the Czars

Absolutely brilliant!