Tancredo announces for Colorado Governor

The Denver Post continues its efforts to ridicule the gubernatorial candidacy of Tom Tancredo. Tom announced his candidacy officially Thursday. The headline, accompanied by a closeup photo of Tancredo's hat, was His hat's in the ring. You see, Tancredo wore a U.S. Border Patrol hat.

The Post's second page columnist continued his sarcastic belittlement of Tancredo. Instead of just Xeroxing copies of his previous columns, which have been relentlessly ridiculing Tancredo, the columnist found some new points of ridicule: Tancredo's clothing! Standing outside in 90 degree weather to announce his candidacy, Tancredo wore a blue shirt (not tucked in) and khakis, along with "leather driving moccasins" on his feet. The columnist, Mike Litwin, described the shirt as "one of those Florida/Cuban shirts that don't tuck in." Littwin described Tancredo as looking like "he was headed for the 5 o'clock special at the Country Buffet." The Country Buffet is a local restaurant chain very popular with middle class people of all ethnic groups, the very people who are going to vote for Tancredo this fall.

I have served as a delegate to the Jefferson County and Colorado Republican conventions, and I have seen the love the people have for Tancredo. No one is greeted more warmly than he at those gatherings.

The Post sent their best reporter, Karen Crummy, to cover the announcement. She correctly notes right away in the first two paragraphs that Tancredo seemed to have an agenda that was exactly the same as the GOP agenda, even though he is running as the candidate of the American Conservative Party. That is because Tancredo helped write the platform of GOP candidate Scott McCinnis, who is still running, but who has been damaged by revelations that he is a plagiarist. "Opposition to new taxes, support for education reform, and a business-friendly atmosphere, along with his signature issue of stopping illegal immigration" are what Tancredo stands for, writes Crummy.

Littwin, though, wonders if Tancredo is really serious about staying in the race, or if he is just trying to get the two GOP candidates to drop out and be replaced by a candidate who has a better chance of winning.

Our Struggle to be Free

A rousing tribute to our military and our country by Gene Simmons

One definition of recovery

from the Cook Shack

"Stop talkin about it!"

I borrowed this from Joan of Arggh at Primordial Slack.

Known best by your enemies?

Peter Boyles is the host of the morning show on KHOW radio. He is an unabashed supporter of Tom Tancredo. Boyles asks us to consider the old saying that the best thing you can know about a man is who are the man's enemies. Tom Tancredo has a long list of enemies, and none of them are people I admire or respect. So, count me as one who will be happy if Tancredo gets in the race, and who will listen to what the man has to say.

Hickenlooper rides the Denver Post train

A few days ago the Denver Post had a big photo prominently displayed of its publisher, Dean Singleton, along with his adult son, the Post CEO, and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. They were all aboard the Post train to Cheyenne, Wyoming, for the annual Frontier Days rodeo. I tried unsuccessfully to find that photo on-line. I thought it would be a perfect analogy of this year's race for Colorado governor. My headline would be Hickenlooper rides Denver Post train to victory.

The Denver Post does not like Tom Tancredo. They have been working their page two political columnist overtime (seemingly a column every day now) sarcastically trying to belittle Tancredo and make him look like a fool or a villain or anything else that will stick.

Meanwhile, Hickenlooper rides in the private car with the Post publisher and executives, hoping that will be the surest way to get to the state capitol, and also hoping to avoid any questions. It is not going to work. We the people are a bit stirred up. We ain't buying the bull anymore (to use a good rodeo term).

The press uses its power in subtle and not-so-subtle ways

Former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo has announced his candidacy for Governor of Colorado.

Today the Denver Post used a banner headline on their front page to say Tancredo thwarts GOP. That headline is designed purposely to capture the attention of the voter who is not a news junkie like us bloggers, but still votes Republican all or most of the time. That person is going to read that headline and immediately get upset at Tom Tancredo. My wife, who fits the non-news-junkie portrayal I just laid out above, read the headline and got upset at Tancredo and in a loud voice yelled out, "Why is he doing this?"

Presto! The Post accomplshed exactly what it wanted to accomplish with the banner headline: cause Republican voters to be angry at Tom Tancredo! But just to be sure, the Post went on to develop another story with this headline: Tancredo's new party way out in right field. The new party is the American Constitution Party. A spokesperson for the ACP said that all of his party's beliefs are founded in the Constitution, and "indeed, each plank is proceeded by excerpts from it or other documents drafted by the Founding Fathers."

The man the Post wants to be the next governor, Democrat John Hickenlooper, will now be directly challenged by the fearless Tancredo. Tancredo will expose Hickenlooper as providing illegal immigrants with a sanctuary city to come to. The media will do its best to protect Hickenlooper by slanting headlines and stories.

A former hacker creates world-wide front page news today

What does Wikipedia have to tell us about the founder of Wikileaks, the organization that has just leaked thousands of secret military documents about the war in Afghanistan? The founder's name is Julian Assange. "Assange was born in Townsville, Queensland in 1971.[2] Assange has said that his parents ran a touring theatre company, and that he was enrolled in 37 schools and six universities in Australia over the course of his early life.[3] During his childhood years, he lived on the run with mother and half-brother. They were avoiding his half-brother's father who was believed to belong to a cult led by Anne Hamilton-Byrne.[2]" Wikipedia also tells us that Assange pled guilty to 24 counts of hacking in Australia.

37 schools? Now that is moving around!

How is your day going?

Saying one thing; doing another

Another example of the White House saying one thing and doing another?

Rationing Health Care

In order to avoid Congressional questioning, Obama recently made a recess appointment of Donald Berwick to head up the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. Berwick is a fan of Britain's National Health Service. The NHS is said by this newspaper account to be drawing up secret plans to save money by rationing care even further than they already have done.

Grandpa and Grandma in Britain will just have to live with those cataracts. We here in America better pay attention, and elect people who will pledge to repeal Obamacare!

A Post-American Presidency?

Remember who we are!

Glenn Beck is organizing a rally at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28. If you have heard his radio program, you know that he always starts every hour with the song about remembering who we are; that we the people will be the key.

Did you hear the news about the possibility that Glenn may be losing his eyesight? Please pray for him.

Which is the greater temptation: "over-repentance" or self-deception?

Ted Haggard tells Wall Street Journal reporter Stephanie Simon that he "over-repented." The article in today's WSJ tells how Haggard has built a new congregation of nearly 200 people, who are no longer meeting in his barn on Sundays, but are renting space at a Colorado Springs community center. Haggard says he now "cusses," and people freely confide in him with stories of their own troubles, something which Haggard says never happened when he was pastor of the New Life megachurch there. I can understand that last point. I agree with Mark Twain, who said something to the effect that there is nothing more insufferable than a Christian holding four aces.

Haggard says he founded the new church as an act of "humble repentance," and if it would have been out of arrogance, he would have gone to Iowa and gotten a job in a farm bureau coop somewhere, changed his name, and never be heard from again. Huh?

A fine young boy gets a little older

We celebrated son Greg's ninth birthday today. It was a near perfect day of Nerf wars and other explosions. Lots of laughter, excitement, and other assorted noises. He and brother Jon will sleep well tonight, after rising at 4:30 this morning to start unwrapping presents.

The "ruling class" versus the "country class"

We are all trying to figure out how to get our country back on track again. Rush Limbaugh has evolved some interesting theories about "the ruling class," which includes leaders of both political parties, and the "country class," which is all the rest of us. He notes, for example, that Trent Lott, who was pushed out of his Republican leadership position by relentless Democrat and media opposition, has been well-taken-care-of in his new position as a lobbyist in Washington. Lott, typical of the GOP leaders of recent years, has expressed far more concern about the Tea Party activists possibly sending conservatives to Congress in November, than he ever expressed about far-left Democrats.

Rush reminds us of the horror elitist "country club Republicans" expressed about the rise of Ronald Reagan, but there was nothing they could do about it, because Reagan just kept winning election after election, as governor, then as president. You see, in America, we the people really do have the power in the final analysis, because that is the way our founders set things up.

"Age of the Zipped Lip"

Paul Berman has written a book entitled "Flight of the Intellectuals." Berman says we are living in the "Age of the Zipped Lip," when it comes to acknowledging that Islamism is a modern, instead of ancient movement "which arose in a spirit of fraternal harmony with the fascists of Europe in the 1930s and 40s." The book is based upon genocidal quotations of Islamist leaders from the thirties to present day. Certainly not the politically correct line being emphasized by Obama, academicians, and accepted by the dominant liberal mass media establishment elites.

Some good battles!

I don't usually focus much on state issues, but Colorado's governor and U.S. senator races this year are really heating up. My fellow blogger at Kingdom Triangle, Cliff Stewart, recently skewered the GOP in this blog post. Yet, is there any better vehicle available than the GOP to achieve the economic, libertarian and social goals embraced by people in the conservative coaliton nationally and here in Colorado?

Ross Perot gave us Bill Clinton. Who will Tom Tancredo give us? He has issued a challenge to the two flawed Republican candidates running against Democrat John Hickenlooper for governor: since neither of you can defeat Mayor Hickenlooper, please announce by noon on Monday, that after the primary next month, if poll results indicate that you will lose, you will drop out of the race and let the GOP appoint a strong candidate who can win in November. He said that if they do not accept his challenge, then he will personally enter the race Monday afternoon.

Politically astute radio personality Craig Silverman speculated that Tom will function as a kingmaker, and that after the August primary some highly respected member of the GOP, such as former Senator Hank Brown or former Congressman Bill Armstrong or former Governor Bill Owens will step forward to save the day for the GOP in the governor's race.

As I have written previously, this year the most noteworthy GOP candidates nationally are women. Sarah Palin has raised huge amounts of money for herself and other GOP candidates. Sharron Angle may topple Harry Reid in Nevada. Congresswoman Michelle Bachman of Minnesota is always right out front on every major issue that comes up on the national scene.

Here in Colorado one of the senate candidates is a woman, Jane Norton. Smooth and attractive, she has a lot of experience in high-level positions in Colorado. Her opponent is the District Attorney in the geographically largest county in Colorado, rural Weld County. His name is Ken Buck. Buck has a good record fighting against illegal immigration. The largest city in Weld County is Greeley, which has mysteriously drawn L.A. gangstas bringing to Colorado illegal guns and drugs imported from Mexico.

Colorado's GOP chairman, Dick Wadhams, challenged Tancredo to go head-to-head with him on the Caplis-Silverman radio talk show. Tancredo did not accept the invitation. Instead, he was on Fox News today talking about impeaching Barack Obama. Wadhams said the gubernatorial race should not be about Barack Obama, but about the record of the current Colorado Governor, Democrat Bill Ritter. Wadhams also wants candidates who will draw distinctions between themselves and the record of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.

By talking about impeaching Obama, Tancredo can get lots of national media attention, and bring in huge amounts of money from conservatives across America who financed his run for the presidency in 2008. He also advocates legalizing marijuana, which is an issue that will subtract from liberal Hickenlooper's voter base.

Stay tuned!

"Welfare agencies boost new voters"

Rush Limbaugh referenced this article in USA Today, which shows how welfare agencies across the country sign up voters. I saw this first-hand when I used to take our foster children into the welfare agencies for visits with their biological parents or grandparents. Denver had a large table staffed by two ACORN workers, agressively inviting welfare recipients to register to vote. As the article points out, these are the voters most likely to approve of Obama and the Democrats.

"Wrong boat, wrong place, wrong time"

How is your day going?

An animated film of nuclear tests conducted between 1945 and 1998.

From 1945 to 1998 there were 2053 nuclear bombs detonated. Here is an animated depiction of where the tests were, and which country did the test. It starts slowly, but by the time of the Reagan Presidency, there was a lot of action, especially by Russia and the USA.
Via Ace of Spades

What did our founders believe?

Via Invincible Armor

Reset the regimen, Mr. President!

Victor Davis Hansen offers a "ten-step healing program for our president in the spirit of our therapeutic age."

Speaking truth to power

This morning, as usual, I listened to Glenn Beck. He mentioned this July 4th sermon by Dr. Charles Stanley. Then, Mr. Beck asked his listeners to ask their own rabbis, pastors and ministers to address the issues of individual freedom and unity of believers in God. God definitely has a sense of humor. He is using a Mormon, Glenn Beck, to speak the truth, even to smug evangelicals who look down on Mormonism. I don't mean to imply that Dr. Stanley is a smug evangelical. He is one of the men Mr. Beck holds up as a man who is speaking truth to power.

White House tosses NASA administrator under the bus

If you do not want to listen to the whole press conference, begin listening at about 18 minutes into the conference.

Another update on the thieves who stole the trailer of the 82-year-old man

No criminal charges have been filed, but they have both been referred to I.C.E. So the strategy is to get them out of town and keep the charges against the 82-year-old man.

A Loving Father

Because of my father, it was easy for me to understand the concept of a loving God. It is easy for me to understand that when things go wrong, after a short period of self pity, I can realize that the person who sinned and fell short of the expectations of a loving God, is the one I am looking at in the mirror.

Although we attended the local Methodist church every Sunday, and Dad was an usher there, I don't think he ever heard the Gospel until I returned home from my first year of school at Hardin-Simmons University, and shared with my loving father what I had learned in the Baptist church I attended while going to school.

For those of you who are children of alcoholic fathers, it must not have been so easy to accept the truth of the Gospel. Neither of my parents drank. I have one great memory in this regard. My father's sister lived in Seattle. One year we went out to visit her. There was some kind of regatta going on in the Puget Sound. We were guests on the boat of some doctor friend of my aunt. Alcohol was being served to the guests. I was a young teen or tween, and my Dad was sitting next to me at the back of the boat, and he decided to have some fun. He told me to watch him closely. Drink after drink was served to him. Soon other people began to comment on "how well he holds his liquor." What only he and I knew was that he was only pretending to drink the stuff, and when others were not looking, he was dumping the drinks into the Puget Sound! That was an unspoken lesson to me that drinking to excess is ridiculous, that people can have fun at parties without having a drop of alcohol in their bloodstreams.

I was obsessed with the game of golf as a teen, and got pretty good at it. Dad would drive me to tournaments. One day, before the start of a Sunday tournament, I felt the need to sharpen up a bit by hitting practice balls, while my Dad retrieved them and brought them back to me to hit some more. When I was a little boy he hung a hoop in our tiny basement, so I could play basketball all throughout Iowa's bitter cold winters. He often played the foil, allowing me to drive around him for a score.

He was a very hard worker, and a wonderfully sincere man. As a teen I loved nothing better than to sit with him on the couch at night watching the Johnny Carson, George Gobel, or Perry Como shows. When I was younger, the whole family would gather around the radio, eat popcorn, and listen to the Jack Benny radio show. We did not get t.v. until Howdy Doody came into my life when I was about ten years old. Even then, though, my heroes were Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Tom Mix, The Lone Ranger, and The Shadow. The Shadow knew! All of these figures were wonderful role models for a young boy.

But none of them were needed to show me the way to manhood. I had a loving father who did that.

Psychology and Advertising

Are you intrigued by psychology? Are you thinking of majoring in psychology in college? What will you do with a degreee in psychology? Remember when the CEOs of the major tobacco companies testified before Congress that they had no clue that nicotine is addictive? Well, if you have few morals and a knowledge of psychology, you could really help them sell their products! Let me give you some examples. You know how guys fear being called fags? Yes, it seems to be the number one fear of young teenage guys. Well, you could capitalize on that fear by emphasizing how manly it would be for a guy to smoke or chew tobacco.

Take chewing tobacco, for example. Evoke manly images by naming your tobacco Kodiak, Grizzly, Longhorn, or Timber Wolf. Even though the pesky government tries to ruin your fun by requiring you to admit that your product may cause cancer, you can rest assured that just by putting a picture of a growling Wolf, Grizzly, or Husky on your can, guys will go for it.

That same pesky government may say that you can no longer label your cigarettes "Light," "Ultra Light," or "Smooth." You can stay one step ahead of the feds by calling your cigarettes "Gold" or "Silver," commodities that hold or increase their value (so the user can see herself as increasing in value).

Speaking of females, you could design "Slim" cigarrettes, because you know females are always conscious of being overweight and they think they need to slim down. Your art work on the packages could use pretty pastels, curving upward toward Heaven in the shape of a flame. On the side of your package, you could say "Please don't litter," because you know how easy it is to make females feel guilty.

Back to the guys. Don't forget the Marlboro Man, the last cowboy, riding in on his stallion. Put two stallions on your package! Have them standing tall on their hind legs, facing off against each other. On your pipe tobacco you could put a drawing of an old schooner, evoking memories of the adventurous first settlers of America from Europe. You know how men always like to be right? Well, you could use this for your logo: "Always the Right Choice!" Put mountains on your package, so the guys could pretend they are man enough to climb the highest mountains!

Oh, wait, the industry has already done all these things.

A breath of fresh air

Webutante linked to this article in Human Events on Independence Day (Defiance Day) by Ted Nugent. I confess I do not know anything about Mr. Nugent's music, but I have heard him interviewed on various radio talk shows, and I find him to be a tremendous breath of fresh air.

Update on thieves who stole trailer from 82-year-old man, who shot one of them as they fled

Here is a video news report on Denver Fox Channel 31 televison station on the 82-year-old Wheat Ridge, Colorado man who faces criminal charges for firing two shots from his revolver at two thieves who were driving away after hooking up his flat-bed trailer to their pick-up truck.

I understand that one of the thieves is now in the custody of I.C.E. The other man may still be in treatment for bullet wounds in his face.

It is okay to intimidate voters?

The head of New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia and another man block the entrance to polling places in Philadelphia on election day 2008. The Bush attorney general files charges. The New Black Panthers do not even bother to show up in court to answer the charges. Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, drops the charges. These men are free to continue intimidating people in the next election and in all the days leading up to the elections.


Bill O' Reilly just cannot bring himself to believe that Barack Obama is behind the decison to drop the charges. The civil rights attorney O'Relly interviews believes it, and I agree with everything this lawyer says in this video. Like him, I fought against the racism that prevailed in this country until Martin Luther King had a dream, and LBJ and Everett Dirkson finally succeeded in making the words of the founders ("all men are created equal") become law of the land.

In the next video, Glenn Beck shows some video of the same head of the Philadephia New Black Panther Party raging at fellow blacks who are mixing with whites at a festival.


Glenn Beck plans to hold a rally on the mall in Washington on the anniversary of the MLK "I have a dream" speech in August. The New Black Panthers say they will be there.

Of course, Martin Luther King fought for people to be recognized for the content of their character, not for the hate that spewed forth from their mouths. I think it is despicable that Obama/Holder decided to drop the charges against these thugs. This lawyer is absolutely right that they dropped the charges for political reasons, in order to allow the ACORN and New Black Panther types to continue to harass voters.

Rationing health care

Below I posted a video of Dr. Donald Berwick praising England's socialized medicine model. I have listened to an audio tape of Dr. Berwick in which he said, "The question is not whether we will ration care; the question is whether we will ration with our eyes open." Anybody know what that means? I'd sure like him to explain. Because Obama appointed Berwick when the Senate was in recess, no Senator got the chance to ask him to explain what he meant by that statement prior to his being appointed.

The man Obama has picked to run Obamacare

Donald Berwick, President Obama's recess appointment to head the $800 billion CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) in a 2008 speech in England applauding their Marxist socialized medicine program.

Obama's goals for America's space program

Obama's NASA Director tells Al Jazeera what Obama wants him to do with NASA.

Deciphering today's top story

Today the big news is that the Obama administration has filed a lawsuit against Arizona, which passed a law designed to aid the feds in enforcing their own laws! Rush Limbaugh brilliantly notes two things. One is that the media seems unable to just say "the Arizona law." They always say the "controversial" Arizona law. That, of course, is designed to manipulate us, the readers and listeners and viewers of the dominant liberal establishment media, that there must be something wrong with the Arizona law. The thing that is supposedly wrong about the Arizona law is that it allegedly will encourage racial profiling. Yet, Rush brilliantly notes that the feds' lawsuit does not mention racial profiling!

That leads me to conclude that this lawsuit, and the accompanying media coverage of the story, is really all about pandering to the ever-growing Latino population, in hopes that their votes will enable the Democrats to stay in power.

Hubris run rampant

This is our new ram, Hubris.
It is our hope that Hubris will breed Nora, shown here with her newest baby, Humility.

Manipulation

Are we conservatives guilty of going to excess sometimes in our use of words? For example, here in Colorado there are three ballot proposals to try to cut government spending. One is Amendment 61. It has provisions to prohibit state borrowing and limit local governments to borrowing for only ten years and only with voter approval. This amendment, say opponents, would disallow the state to replace structurally deficient bridges, and we won't be able to build modern facilities at our colleges.

To do that construction work, the state issues bonds. Not once is the word bonding used in the wording of the ammendment; however seven times it uses the word "borrowing." Another example of the choice of words to manipulate us; this time, though, it is coming from the right, not the left. As an independent American, I don't want to be manipulated by either side.

I am glad I have not been prohibited from borrowing. I certainly would not be living in this home, or the one before this, or the one before that. Why should I expect the state to pay cash for big ticket items, when I don't? Sounds kind of hypocritical.

The power of words

In my last post I used the phrase "foreign invaders" to describe the two would-be thieves who tried to steal an 80-year-old man's trailer. It seemed more appropriate to the facts of the story than to call them "undocumented immigrants," as the dominant liberal establishment press refers to them.

I got this idea after listening to Joe Thompson, a Richmond, Va. talk radio host, who was subbing for Glenn Beck yesterday. We really should pay closer attention to the words used by people trying to manipulate us to see things the way they see them.

80-year-old man shoots foreign invaders attempting to steal his trailer.

Denver radio talk show host Peter Boyles has a new fight on radio station KHOW. He is supporting 80-year-old Wheat Ridge, Colorado citizen Bobby Wallace. Mr. Wallace saw two men (both in America illegally) backing their pick-up truck up to his trailer to attempt to steal the trailer. (The two men had previous criminal records for doing the same thing in other places, once attempting to steal a backhoe)! Mr. Wallace shouted to them to get away from his trailer. The two men tried to run over him with their pickup truck. He opened fire, shooting one of the two foreign invaders. That man is now confined to a wheel chair.

No charges were filed against the thieves. The American taxpayers are on the hook for their medical expenses, which run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The foreign invaders plan to sue Mr. Wallace for all his earthly possessions.

Mr. Wallace was charged with reckless endangerment. His trial begins next week. Mr. Boyles is planning to mobilize his listeners in support of Mr. Wallace. He will be providing more details in the days ahead, including the extensive criminal records of the foreign invaders. I will pass on to my readers those details.

Updates on the Al Gore sexual assault investigation

It appears that if we want to follow what is happening in the case of the first victim to speak out against Al Gore, we are going to have to choose the longest line in the supermarket, so we can read the National Enquirer. Remember how the Enquirer was the one media outlet that broke story after story in the O.J. Simpson murder trial and the John Edwards outings? Well, the Enquirer is beating every other media outlet once again. Here's what they have new this week.

The police in ultraliberal Portland did not even go to the Hotel Lucia to check the video tapes of the many security cameras.

The 54-year-old masseuse saved her black pants that were stained ala Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton. Monica's blue dress put The Drudge Report on everyone's must check out list, even if it did not bring down the President.

Before the masseuse went to do the massage, she called a friend and told him how excited she was to be asked to give a massage to Mr. Gore. She called the same friend at 4 a.m. and tearfully related to him what happened. The Portland police did not even interview this outcry witness, who remembers the date, because it was his birthday!

The police transcript is 72 pages long.

Even weeds can look pretty, from a distance!

This photo was taken just a few miles from where we live. Click on the photo to enlarge.

Growing up

Yes, the boys are really growing up. I spent a little time with them the other day down at the local pond, looking for turtles or frogs, but settling for swatting dragon flies.

Once again, Happy Independence Day!

Every year daughter Kim outdoes herself in creating an Independence Day cake.

Dreams (individual and national)

Today, while reading portions of the Declaration of Independence to my kids, as they sat on the floor by me and my laptop, we had a great discussion of what our country is about. We covered the Laws of Nature and Nature's God, freedom, democracy and republicanism, elections and the electoral college.

Sara asked if a woman could be elected President. I said, yes, and asked her if she wants to be president. She said no, she wants to be in the "lodge." Puzzled, I asked her what that meant. She quickly changed her story and said no, she wants to be in the army. I told her I was glad to hear that, because as soon as she is of age, we will be enrolling her in the Young Marines. She fell back on her backpack and sighed.

The "Laws of Nature and Nature's God"

The skies are cloudy today, and thunderstorms are in the forecast. The first sentence of the Declaration of Independence refers to the "Laws of "Nature and Nature's God." If there is thunder and lightning tonight, we will see how the Laws of Nature and Nature's God dwarf the best fireworks displays mankind can muster.

A family that encourages reading

Yesterday I met a family worth writing about. The little girl (eleven, going into the 6th grade this fall) was buying a book about five inches thick. I asked her if she was really going to read it. She replied that she had just finished reading a thicker one that only took her two days to read! Then the parents told me that each of their four children had read at least ten books so far this summer. The little girl, though, proudly assured me that she was the bookworm of the family.

I asked the children if they realized what great parents they have. Oh, yes, they did. I then asked the parents if they homeschooled the children. The mom asked, "Is it that obvious?" Yes, it was.

Isn't it fun to find blogs (and the people who write them) who speak out with clarity and power?

I have made acquaintence with a man this year who happens to be a PhD and retired Lt. Col. He invited me to read his blog. So I went to woolymammoth.org and found this piece he had written about what Obama is doing to our military. I think it is appropriate to read on this Independence Day, and I also found this guest post there on being independent versus being unaffiliated.

Happy Independence Day

Are you ready to hear a 7-year-old belt out the Star Spangled Banner? Go over to The Cook Shack blog, where you will also find this:

Do you know what happened to some of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if
they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, winnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

So, take a few minutes silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.

Remember: Freedom is never Free!

Who understands liberals?

I am thinking a lot about what makes a liberal in America today. Liberal Democrats and liberal Republicans do not want Sarah Palin to run for President. The criticisms of her, Michele Bachmann, and Sharron Angle are visceral, much more vehement than the criticisms we are used to hearing about politicians.

What is that all about? Are liberals in rebellion against their mothers? Is it about the belief that a woman's place is only in the home, and they should not venture out into the world of politics? What all three have in common is that they are moms! Angle took a stand against the use of psychotropic drugs in schools. Bachmann was an anti-abortion protester. Palin was against putting lipstick on a pig. They are each Christian believers.

I think their pro-life views must be one of the reasons they are so hated by liberals. If any of you purport to understand liberals, please help me understand.

The women are coming on strong.

Sharron Angle is the woman running against Harry Reid for the U.S. Senate seat in Nevada. Here is her background. I am impressed with her. It seems that the strongest voices in this year's Republican campaigns are those of women (Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and Sharon Angle).