Memorial Day Greeting

Truthfully, I'm not being original this morning. I was impressed with a little article from Navy News about the upcoming commemoration of the Battle of Midway that captures the essence of Memorial Day and am passing it along.

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[Retired CAPT John W.] Crawford said that one of his vivid memories is being in a room with the torpedo plane pilots prior to their takeoff and the bravery of those men -- bravery that he only saw in retrospect."I've learned in the years since that they were flying very old and much slower planes than the Japanese," Crawford said. "They must have known their chances of coming back were not very high, yet they were not down about that. Such brave men, doing what they felt they were required to do."According to Crawford, of the three squadrons of torpedo planes, none of the planes in the squadron that embarked from Yorktown in the initial attack on the Japanese fleet returned, and only one Sailor survived. A similar fate also met the torpedo plane squadron from the Hornet. ("Midway Vet Recalls Historic Battle," Navy News, 5/21/09)
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Thank you to all the veterans and all who have supported them in any way. God bless you on this Memorial Day.

When Liberals Collide - Part Tres

I am seeing more liberal ideologies colliding. It is inevitable. As a result, one question to be raised is what happens when liberal special interests can no longer get along? I admit that it is fun to watch them slap each other silly. But that's just me.

This time, conflict arises between auto union interests and environmentalist interests. The article taken from The Detroit News is by Manny Lopez, auto editor. The issue is that Charles Hurley, nominee to run the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), has resigned. Writes Mr. Lopez, "His offense? Hurley in the 1990s sided with automakers over the safety impacts of downsizing vehicles to increase fuel efficiency. Unfortunately, that's tantamount to slapping someone's mother when it comes to being 'green.'" ("NHTSA nominee withdraws: Green politics is to blame," printed in The Kokomo Tribune, 5/15/09, p. A4)

Mr. Lopez goes on to provide evidence of the prudence of Mr. Hurley's stand. But that matters not to "enviroactivists" (Lopez's term). "No matter, activists want everyone to drive microcars. And they'll take out anyone who suggests otherwise. 'The administration now has an opportunity to name someone committed to both the safety and fuel economy programs that they run,' said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign. Translation: Vet all candidates through us before appointing your own people. Silly president." (ibid.)

So the power grabs are in full swing. President Obama has a lot of special interests to pay bakc, and they aren't all playing on the same team. In spite of his stated billing as the "great unifier," he has created some pretty inriguing King Kong vs Godzilla (or Alien vs Predator, for the younger mindsets) scenarios out there.

"But it sounds like [Hurley] was thrown under the bus by activists who want to run the auto industry and that doesn't bode well for the president's alleged interests in helping Detroit's car companies survive." (ibid.) Well, Mr. Lopez, I hope that you have received this news flash: "Obama plans to announce on Tuesday that he will couple pollution reduction from vehicle tailpipes with increased efficiency on the road. It would be the first time that limits on greenhouse gases were linked with federal standards for passenger cars and light trucks." (Assoc. Press, "Obama set to link m.p.g., emission standards," The Kokomo Tribune, 5/19/09, p. A1) Sounds like there will be even more qualified nominees thrown under the bus.

Wait'll you see where the liberal collision is next time!

Let the games begin!

Morality is Immoral

From el Rushbo...

"The message that President Obama delivered in his speech at Notre Dame was: morality is immoral. Pro-life is the extremist position, not a moral position. Yet we should compromise and work to reduce abortions. Where's the compromise between life and death -- and why work to reduce the number of them occurring if there's nothing wrong with them?" -Rush Limbaugh, 5/18/2009

In his commencement address, President Obama declared, "I found myself drawn not just to the work with the church; I was drawn to be in the church. It was through this service that I was brought to Christ. And at the time Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was the archbishop of Chicago. For those of you too young to have known him or known of him, he was a kind and good and wise man."

Obama was "drawn to Christ," but believes it to be perfectly OK to not merely kill human beings in the embryonic stage of life, but to mandate that they die through neglect if they are born alive following an abortion attempt. Obama as an Illinois state senator in April 2002 stating his opposition to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act: "And that essentially adding an additional doctor, who then has to be called in an emergency situation to come in and make these assessments is really designed simply to burden the original decision of the woman and the physician to induce labor and perform an abortion." On August 16, 2008, after the forum at the Saddleback Church, Obama responded to Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody, "I have said repeatedly that I would have been completely and fully in support of the federal bill that everybody supported, which was to say that you should provide assistance to any infant that was born, even if it was as a consequence of an induced abortion. That was not the bill that was presented at the state level. What that bill also was doing was trying to undermine Roe v. Wade. By the way, we also had a bill -- a law already in place in Illinois that ensured lifesaving treatment was given to infants. So for people to suggest that I and the Illinois Medical Society, so Illinois' doctors, were somehow in favor of withholding lifesaving support from an infant born alive is ridiculous."

Hmmm... Requiring an additional doctor to be called in an emergency situation is a burden on the woman and the physician who originally decided to induce labor and perform an abortion. Supporting the state bill would undermine Roe v Wade.

Yep, murdering infants in and out of the womb... Sounds like Obama was really brought to Christ alright.

I can think of only one thing sadder than the statements this man makes; there are actually people who believe him.

Taking One for the Boss

I post this not to try to prove that President Obama is different than former presidents, but to demonstrate how much he is like them, no matter how much he has promised change. Without a doubt, members of former administrations have had to take one for the boss. It is no different in the Obama administration. When the heat got turned up and someone had to take the fall, it was not going to be the president.

For all his talk about change, what has changed?

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WHITE HOUSE MILITARY OFFICE CHIEF RESIGNS OVER NYC FLYOVER CONTROVERSY - FOX News Alert, 5/8/09
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Enemies of Barack

Eerie how financial wizard President Obama speaks more vehemently toward Americans who oppose his policies than he does toward enemies who threaten national security. One of many examples comes from the Chrysler financing proceedings as a group of lenders continues to oppose the plan.

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U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez overruled objections from a dissident group of Chrysler LLC lenders, who argues that the loan was too closley tied to the sale, setting Chrysler on an irreversible path to complete the deal at the lender's expense. "As the court is aware, we're concerned htat we're starting construction of a bridge that may turn out to be a pier," said Tom Lauria, an attorney for the lenders... The biggest obstacle appears to be Lauria's clients, who may be forced to disclose their identities today... The group of holdout lenders refused to take the four banks' deal and go along with the government's restructuring plan for Chrysler, and President Obama blamed them for pushing the automaker into filing for bankruptcy protection Thursday. "I've never represented a group of creditors who were called out by the president of the United States for just standing up for their rights," Lauria said. (Associated Press, Kokomo Tribune, 5/5/09, p. A5)
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Don't worry, though. President Obama will unite us yet... resistance is futile.

Quick Update on peta

I failed to include a link to an organization opposed to peta's practices: PETA Kills Animals.

When Liberals Collide - Part Deux Already

Remember the presidential campaign promise & pledge to change the way business is done in Washington? One of those promises being, in particular, to eliminate lobbying?

Turns out that the legion of lobbyists is growing during the Obama administration. After all, there is now more taxpayer money than ever floating around ready to be snagged by most favored contributors. Sheila Krumholz of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit spending-watchdog group, says it's virtually impossible to keep special interests out of the stimulus-funding equation. "The administration has the will to try to curb the influence of lobbyists," she says. "It's just not as easy as they thought." [Personal thought: How naive. BHO may lack quite a few presidential experience skills, but being well-versed in the lobbying jungle is not one of them. He was & is well aware of his deceitful game to dupe his wide-eyed fans.]

Indeed. Even the ACLU (think that they are without lobbyists in DC?) has a thought about such attempts. Following a White House memo barring lobbyists from speaking with administration officials about stimulus projects and requiring written communications to be posted online, the American League of Lobbyists (ALL) and the ACLU called the new rules "an ill-advised restriction on speech." (Reported by Parade, 5/3/09, p. 14)

Who would have predicted that BHO would be receiving an evil eye from the ACLU? Let the games begin!

When Liberals Collide

How do liberals resolve opposing issues? The case before us:

Uber-lib Oprah Winfrey recently promoted the new KFC grilled chicken as a welcome healthier alternative to the fried chicken. An Oprah endorsement is a big deal in the business marketing world (FOX News, 5/7/09).

At the same time, KFC is one of ultra-uber-lib PETAs (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) top enemies. They would like to see KFC shut down no matter what it takes to do so.

So what happens when liberal radical ideologies collide? Let the games begin!

US News & World Report, 5/6/09

College Commencement Hypocrisy

Those who disagree with or oppose the invitation of President Obama as commencement speaker at Notre Dame University have been largely dismissed as being closed minded and other such euphemisms. Critics of the invitation have been told in no uncertain terms that they need to remain open to all sides of public debate. Meanwhile, in a parallel universe not far away, University of Vermont officials dropped conservative Ben Stein as their commencement speaker because their invitation “touched off a firestorm of critical emails from people objecting to Stein's take on evolution.” (The Huffington Post, 4/6/09. Mr. Stein was invited on the basis of his lectures on economics, by the way.) How interesting. On the one hand, it is critical that a university campus ignore protests and remain open to diversity and a wide range of ideology, but on the other hand, it is critical that a university campus cave in to protests and protect its students from diversity and alternative ideology.

There is a descriptive word for this - give me just a moment. I’ve got it! It is called hypocrisy! College campuses are filled with hypocrites. As a pastor, I know all about dealing with hypocrisy. I am told often enough that “I don’t go to church because it’s full of hypocrites.” Voila! We deal with hypocrisy by avoiding those places where hypocrites gather. Colleges are full of hypocrites; therefore, we should avoid going to colleges. Somehow, though, I think that plenty of people will find ways to overcome their hypocritophobia when college football and basketball seasons roll around. Even people who express their disgust for hypocrisy will still go to and visit college campuses in spite of them being filled with hypocrites. There is a descriptive word for this, too. Amazingly, it is the same word I used above - hypocrisy. See you in church.