Wednesday, October 31, 2007

High Noon in Texas

Alex Jones gives me the creeps. And yet, I spent the night watching a number of his "End Game" segments of about 10 minutes each. I have dismissed him, scoffed at his extremism - but something keeps pulling me back to listen to him. I started tonight watching Part 8, on the history of the eugenics movement, and cannot find fault with his presentation, in light of what I had already learned of the elitist's fascination and obsession with population control. More on that this week.

But when I watched Part 6, I decided to post this...watch it or not - It stacks up with what I've learned. That's enough for me. I have other posts on the Trans-Texas Corridor here, here, and here. No one will be spared the onslaught of this beast engulfing us.

I wonder how many people here in the United States even give a damn anymore?

Friday, October 26, 2007

99 Bottles of Beer On The Wall...

I first got wind of Ryan Horsley's nightmare with the BATF on The War On Guns website. It goes like the old refrain kids (used to) sing from the backseat when they're heading home from a weekend at Grandma's:

"Same song, 10th verse,
could be better,
but it's gonna be worse...
The government has been harassing Ryan Horsley for the past 5 or 6 years. It's way past time for them to back off. They will use any little chicken-shit excuse to come down on him, and no doubt, others who are just trying to make an honest buck. How Mr. Horsley manages to keep his composure during all this crap from the BATF - all because they don't have their act together - is beyond me.

BATF rebuked for attacks on gun dealers
Agency tried to revoke licenses for paperwork mistakes

Posted: October 26, 2007

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Red's manager Ryan Horsley

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has been given a rebuke by Congress for its aggressive attacks on firearms dealers who may have paperwork errors in their record-keeping.

The citation in the 2008 Appropriations Bill was pointed out by Ryan Horsley, who manages the historic Red's Trading Post in Twin Falls, Idaho, and blogs about 2nd Amendment issues.

As WND has reported, his company is in a court fight now with the federal agency over paperwork errors that largely involved insignificant issues, such as a missing poster or a purchaser failing to provide a county of residence to accompany and street and city address.

Inspectors for the BATFE have been visiting his business regularly in search of records mistakes, he said.

WND also reported earlier how the store appears to be caught up in a new campaign for gun control, focusing on the elimination of retail outlets through technical rules infractions.

"We have documented our experiences in hopes of showing what the ATF is doing to legitimate businesses and how they disregard our senators and congressman," Horsley said. " I try not to take it personal and have found solace in my faith but it is still difficult when this agency has made every attempt to destroy what your family worked so hard to build, what is even more concerning is how the ATF is single handedly destroying our 2nd Amendment."

The 2008 appropriations bill is for the Commerce and Justice departments and related agencies, and contains a recommended "discretionary budget" of $53.5 billion for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2008.

While discussing the billion dollars that the ATF is recommended to get, lawmakers noted more than $6 million is to go to the Firearms Trafficking/Gun Runner Program. Then it delivers an admonishment:

"The committee has heard reports that ATF has pursued license revocations and denials against firearms dealers based on violations that consist largely of recordkeeping errors of various types that are unlikely to impede tracing investigations or prosecution of individuals who use firearms in crime," the members of Congress said. "The Committee encourages ATF to consider lesser gradation of sanctions for recordkeeping errors."

Horsley said the advisory "sounds great."

But he also noted that the agency had been told to correct its activities in 2004, and the attacks are continuing.

"If you have not already contacted your senators, then I encourage you to do so," he wrote on his blog. "Their agenda to shut down our 2nd Amendment [rights] to justify their own existence has to stop."

A 25-year law enforcement officer, who wished to remain anonymous, told Horsley that the 2nd Amendment, "is a guarantee secured by the blood of our ancestors and Founding Fathers. We cannot, we must not ignore the United States Constitution which is the very handbook for freedom which has set the standard of liberty across the world.

"Anyone who deprives the people of these liberties, regardless of the motive, has assailed the very principles upon which this great nation was forged," he said.

Horsley's own battle centers around records mistakes, and now is pending in federal court. He installed a complex computerized records system at the behest of the federal agency, which most recently has said it still is dissatisfied with those results.

But if records are the bar by which gun dealers are measured, at least one expert says the ATF itself may have difficulty.

A gun manufacturer who specializes in legal reproductions of historic weaponry told WND a recent audit of the business found no discrepancies in his records, but it did reveal mistakes in the ATF records.

"What was of particular interest to me was that the NFRTR [BATFE's bound book of machineguns, etc] was off by four machineguns," Len Savage, of Historic Arms LLC, said.

"It is so bad [the BATFE own record keeping] that the inspectors have a form for correcting it using dealers records," he said. He submitted a Freedom of Information Act request and discovered that the federal agency "is very quietly trying to fix their own inept record keeping by using our [store and business] records to fill in the gaps."

An ATF inspector, Herbert Blount, told Savage that when the agency moved to a new building, officials "lost/misplaced" records for more than 500 businesses and replacements were being sought.

"As we are all human and errors do occur, I was more than happy to help him out. What really bothered me was that seven days later he called and explain he 'misplaced' the records I had just sent him a week previous," Savage said.

Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America told WND that as recently as 15 or 20 years ago, there were 250,000 licensed gun dealers in the United States. The federal government confirms there are only about 108,000 now.

The saga with Red's began when the ATF inspection in 2000 discovered various paperwork violations, Horsley said, just shortly after he arrived to take over the store, mistakes such as a customer failing to write down the county in which he lived.

In 2001, "they couldn't find any violations," he told WND. A few other minor problems were found later, including a failure to put up a poster.

"I wasn't alarmed because this agent … had told us we were one of the best small gun shops he'd ever seen," Horsley told WND.

Then early in 2006, "We get a letter that 'We're [ATF] revoking your license,'" Horsley said. "I just came unglued. I couldn't believe it."

After an expensive appeal process within ATF, he ended up with the same result, and sought out a lawyer for the federal court challenge, a challenge which now is pending.

............................................

Having recently acquired some guns myself, I know how diligent these FFL dealers are in keeping everything on the up-and-up. They have to be. It's their livelihood. No doubt there are some gutless bureaucrats, doing what they can to "save the world", by busting & harrassing legal weapons dealers.

But you know what? The system works very well on the business side of selling guns, thank you very much. Of course, there are lots of people selling guns illegally. The FFL dealers are not those shady guys. We shouldn't even have to have FFL licenses in the first place.

The hopeless Left think they can re-write the US Constitution to suit their deluded socialistic view of America. It is every true American's job to see that they don't do that.

I'm feeling like the Irishman who walks into the bar during a brawl, and asks: "Is this a private fight, or can anyone join in?"

If we don't fight for our freedom, who will?

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Is Our Military Barking Up The Wrong Tree?

Joe Galloway on the McCaffrey Report

19 October 07

Michael Yon notes:

I have just wrapped up a very interesting trip with British soldiers in southern Iraq. We spent much time in mine fields near the Iranian border. The area looked like a stairwell to hell. Numerous dispatches about the Brits and southern Iraq are on the way. Am currently back with American combat forces in Baghdad.

Joe Galloway sends another column. Though I sharply disagree with much of what Joe writes, I always read his opinions:


By Joseph L. Galloway
October 17, 2007
McClatchy Newspapers

One of America’s more thoughtful military strategists, retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, a veteran of ground combat in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf, says that our “defense strategy is unbalanced, incoherent and underfunded.”

McCaffrey made his comments and recommendations in a six-page analysis addressed to professors at West Point, where he’s an adjunct professor of international relations.

For someone who spent his entire career in Army green, from West Point to four stars, McCaffrey found that U.S. defense modernization dollars and manpower resources are being poured into a rat-hole, or as he put it, “the ground combat meat-grinder,” of the war in Iraq at the rate of $12 billion a month.

What’s being sacrificed, the general wrote, is future control of the vital air and sea-lanes and operational maneuver areas surrounding regional Pacific allies such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, as well as the Alaskan sea frontier.

McCaffrey said the greatest challenge to America’s national security and foreign policy in the next 15 years will come with “the certain emergence of the People’s Republic of China as a global economic and political power with the military muscle to challenge and neutralize the deterrence capacity of the U.S. Navy and Air Force in the broad reaches of the Pacific maritime frontier.”

He added that China will soon have the military capacity to pose a survival threat to American defensive capabilities, as well as to our ability to project power along the Pacific littoral.

By 2020, the general wrote, we’ll also be facing a resurgence of the military power projection capabilities of the Russian Federation and the emergence of other regional maritime and air powers –India, Iran, Pakistan and Japan.

McCaffrey said he fears that as the Iraq disaster unwinds over the next 36 months, “We may swing from the eerie immaturity of the Rumsfeld era focus on the magic of technology as the sole determinant of national security to an equally disastrous concentration on building a ground combat force which could have won Iraq from the start — absent the bad judgment of the Rumsfeld Pentagon and compliant generals.”

“We should create a U.S. National Security policy based principally on the deterrence capabilities of a dominant global Air Force and Naval presence,” McCaffrey wrote, adding that the money to do this with can’t be squeezed out of the current defense budget, which comprises only 4 percent of America’s GNP.

The Air Force in particular is badly underfunded, McCaffrey noted, adding that Air Force manpower is shrinking and that its aging strike, airlift and aerial tanker fleets are being ground down by non-stop global operations.

“The U.S. Air Force is our primary national strategic force . . . yet it is too small, has inadequate numbers of aging aircraft, has been marginalized in the current strategic debate and has mortgaged its modernization program to allow diversion of funds to prosecute” under-funded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

McCaffrey said the next administration must fix all these funding shortfalls for the Air Force “or we will place the American people in enormous peril.”

The general’s focus in his report was on the Air Force, but he argued that the U.S. Army, with a total active duty force of more than 500,000 troops, is far too small and should be rebuilt to 800,000 troops. He noted that the Army National Guard has critical equipment shortages; ammunition and equipment reserves have been drawn down and used up in Iraq; the special operations forces are stretched to the breaking point; and training for the full range of possible combat missions has been halted for three years.

When McCaffrey sounds the alarm, it’s time to begin paying attention. He doesn’t scare easily, and he doesn’t cry wolf unless one is chewing on his leg.

If anyone besides George W. Bush and Dick Cheney still thinks that invading Iraq was a good idea, consider that to date it’s cost our nation $600 billion and that hidden future costs could bring that to as much as $2 trillion even if the war ended tomorrow.

That’s money that might have been better spent on a host of domestic priorities, including reinforcing and re-equipping a military force capable of defending America and its allies now and in an uncertain future, one that’s been made far more dangerous by the mistakes of a bunch of incompetent amateurs.

Notice that Michael Yon, whose insightful reportage on the battle-ground is unparalleled - doesn't disagree with McCaffrey on this issue of future military preparedness.

And from HPR Online, the online site of the Harvard political review,

Tomorrow’s Wars

The experience garnered from the war on terror will likely prove useful, as future conflicts may well resemble the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ryan [Brig. Gen. Kevin Ryan (Ret.), a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs] predicts that the military will fight guerrillas instead of conventional armies, and wars will tend to be smaller and more regional than in the past. The majority of future conflicts will take place in lesser developed countries that have not benefited much from globalization. The Middle East and Africa are perhaps most susceptible to violent regional conflicts that could draw in the U.S. military.

Is it possible the DOD is simply short-sighted in its quest for a much larger training ground in the Piñon Canyon Expansion Project? If McCaffrey is right, and focus should be on re-building our Navy and Air Force, what the hell do they need with a 1000 square mile semi-desert training ground, when they don't even use the 368 square miles they already own? Ah, but then there's the old oxymoron, 'military intelligence'. Don't look for the Army to cut down on its bid for power and resources.

Still, it's a selling point for the Colorado government in denying money to be spent on this project. Maybe by the time this all gets sorted out, the DOD will have other priorities, like re-tooling our aging Air Force and Navy military capabilities.

Maybe.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Army Re-Groups, Plans to Push Ahead with Piñon Canyon Expansion

Now we will find out what kind of stuff the Colorado legislature is made of.

THE GAZETTE
October 21, 2007

Fort Carson creating department to manage Pinon canyon site

By TOM ROEDER


Fort Carson will move its environmental services under another entity while creating a new department to spearhead management and possible growth of the Piñon Canyon training site.

The post’s Directorate of Environmental Compliance and Management will cease to exist next month, while a new and still unnamed office will take on the Piñon Canyon controversy and other issues. The new office will fall under Tom Warren, Fort Carson’s top environmental officer.

The organizational shake-up makes it clear that the Army is not giving up on its controversial proposal to expand the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in southeast Colorado.

Warren said the changes will put extra emphasis on Piñon Canyon issues, including the Army’s plan to add 418,000 acres to the 235,000 southeast Colorado site, while ensuring that the post’s other environmental and wildlife issues get handled.

The expansion plans are on hold after Colorado lawmakers worked to block Army spending on the proposal.

“The importance of Piñon Canyon to the Army and to Fort Carson, Colorado, is an imperative in my mind,” said Warren, who has led efforts to convince lawmakers and landowners that changing Army tactics and growth at the Colorado Springs post justify the massive land acquisition proposal.

Warren will also have responsibility over how the existing Piñon Canyon land is used, to ensure that training exercises don’t cause environmental damage.

The organizational change was mandated by an Army-wide move to ensure that all its installations had the same management structure.

The bulk of the post’s environmental work, from cleaning up toxic sites to managing endangered and threatened species in training areas, will fall to the post’s public works office, which will absorb the bulk of employees from Warren’s old agency. The rest will go over to the new office with responsibility for Piñon Canyon.

The management changes are unlikely to make a fiscal impact on the post’s budget. Warren said the changes are not expected to add or cut payroll.

“It’s a zero-sum solution,” he said.


*In game theory, zero-sum describes a situation in which a participant's gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participant(s). It is so named because when the total gains of the participants are added up, and the total losses are subtracted, they will sum to zero.

Zero-sum solution? Not so fast, Jack. This is supposed to be a Democracy. Remember Lincoln's word at the Gettysburg Address?

"that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
The Army has time on their side.

The problem with letting the environmental impact issue become too prominent, is that it lets the camel's nose under the tent. They would love to break the Expansion Project down into smaller pieces, divisive issues. They are doing it already by creating a need which is only on paper. It is not based on real need. The need being put forward is nothing but a sham. The real intent is to destroy the notion of private land ownership. It's being done all over America now.

Forget all the yada-yada about game theory, and all the bullshit about environmental responsibility. The only tenable position for Colorado to take is: No, you can't have the land. Period. Make do with what you have. Or go somewhere else. That's an option, too.

Otherwise, the Army will continue to test the waters, look for vulnerabilities. It's like the schoolyard bully. If you don't get in his face right away, he will continue to hound you.

The BLM did the same thing on the Roan Plateau.


Understand this: rights must be fought for, or we will lose them. People have a hard time getting their heads around the scope of the deception of the US Government. At the current rate of acquisition of public and private land, in 50 years there won't be even the notion of sovereignty.

If Coloradans don't unite on this thing, the Army US Government will win.

You better let the politicians know you mean business. Either that, or else get ready to vacate the premises for the new landlord - OUR GOVERNMENT.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Colorado Under Attack by US Government

click on map to enlarge
Posted from Las Animas, Colorado

Since I decided back in April to move to Colorado, I began to take a look at what has been happening to the good State of Colorado. What I've found is alarmingly similar to recent BLM tactics in Wyoming. **[
Even though the school children here are under a moral attack, I will hold off on that for another post. Suffice it to say that the cultural relativists are having their way with the indoctrination of our children here, as is happening most everywhere in America. More on that soon.]

Today I want to point out how the government is grossly undermining state sovereignty, and denying individual property rights. I have already written two posts on the subject which all Colorado residents should read:

Sacrificing the Roan Plateau

and

Raping the Land


Today the focus is on the US Army's proposed expansion of the Piñon Canyon Project.




Rocky Mountain News

Littwin: Ranchers defend land, life against Army's maneuvers
"If you take out 400,000 acres, it would devastate the area," he says. "If they take the 418,000 acres . . . it might affect 30 to 40 people. That's the direct effect. But if they take that 418,000 acres out of production, La Junta disappears.

"Not tomorrow morning, but in four to five years. What you're doing is taking away a whole culture, a whole region, by just making a little change, by throwing a little curve there. The economy is that fragile. It's much like the land."


Piñon Canyon Expansion

The US Army wants a new playground - a huge new playground. The justification for the expansion of the Piñon Canyon Playground? They might need it at some future time, for big, future wars. Sound shaky? The ranchers and farmers who have been eking out a living on this unforgiving land for generations think so. Senator Salazar thinks so, too - and he has been trying to put the skids on this project. Especially in light of the fact that the present Army lands already seized by eminent domain in 1983 are sorely under-utilized: the 368 square miles has been used about once a year since the 1980's.

Lt. Colonel Rice, Army's pointman for the DOD's intended land grab, has convinced no one, except apparently Sen. Allard(R), that the expansion is necessary and justified. Under Sen Salazar, the project has been put on hold for one year. Sen. Allard has been
braying voicing his opinion that the time-out is un-necessary, that the Army has already provided ample justification for the expansion project, which would bring the Army's playground to a total of 1000 square miles. Apparently, only he and Lt. Col Rice are in agreement on that score.

They would both like to see everybody lie down on the tracks on this one, and just let the train run over everybody:

September 6th, 2007 - WASHINGTON, D.C.

U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) responded today to Senate passage of an amendment to prevent the Army from spending any funds on the proposed expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver site (PCMS) in Southeastern Colorado.

Says Sen. Allard:

“Senator Salazar and I agree that the Army needs to justify any possible expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver site in Southeastern Colorado,” said Allard. “Where we differed today is on how we should approach this issue. I believe this amendment will unnecessarily tie the hands of the Army and actually prevents the Army from collecting important information. The language is so restrictive that it will prohibit them from providing information, handouts to the public, holding community meetings to find common ground or conducting a needed Environmental Impact Statement. The closeness of today’s vote represents the concern many members of the Senate feel regarding the precedent set by this measure.”

“I will continue to work with my colleague Senator Salazar, and the other members of the Colorado delegation, to ensure that property rights are protected, the economic concerns of local communities are addressed and the public is fully apprised of the Army’s intentions regarding the proposed expansion of Pinon Canyon,” continued Allard.

“I also believe that upon receiving a report from the Army that adequately justifies their need for additional training space at Pinon Canyon, the Colorado delegation has an obligation to address the training space needs for the more than 10,000 new soldiers that will be coming to Fort Carson over the next couple of years,” concluded Allard.

In other words, for Sen Allard it is a foregone conclusion that the Army needs, and will get the land they say they need. Forget individual property rights. Forget the regional needs and way of life. And make no mistake, the DOD has already proven they will play hardball. They proved that in 1983, when farmers and ranchers were forced off their land, and without fair compensation.

The current landowners are still smarting over the Army's 1983 land grab which resulted in the formation of the Pinon Canyon Maneuvering Site (PCMS), associated with Fort Carson. of some 368 Square miles. In recent years, the US military has indicated that it is planning a major expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuvering Grounds: a total of perhaps as many as 2.5 million acres.


Report shows Pinon Canyon hosts about one big exercise each year


BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 17, 2007

PUEBLO - Military reports show the Army has conducted large-scale training exercises at its Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site an average of about once a year, prompting opponents to again question the need to nearly triple the size of the 368-square-mile site.

The documents show Pinon Canyon has been used for about 30 big exercises since 1985, the Pueblo Chieftain reported in its Wednesday editions.

The after-action reports, compiled after the exercises were over, were obtained by the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition through the Freedom of Information Act.

The Army wants to expand the site to about 1,000 square miles, citing an influx of 8,000 additional soldiers at Fort Carson by 2011.

Some nearby ranch owners fear the expansion would force them to sell property that has been in their families for generations. They say losing so much land from agricultural production will hurt the region's economy, and they argue the Army isn't making good use of the space it already has.

Lt. Col. Jim Rice, who has been overseeing expansion planning, said the site has been used by 200,000 soldiers since 1997, including many smaller exercises by company-size and smaller units.

The Army has also said it needs the additional space to train on modern weapons and tactics.

"When I was in Iraq as deputy commander of the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, we were responsible for an area of about 30,000 square miles," Rice said.

The reports show the site has been used only once since 2003. Rice said that's because Fort Carson soldiers have been fighting in Iraq.

"Since 2001, we really haven't used Pinon Canyon because all of our units based at Fort Carson have been in the fight," he said. "All wars eventually will end and we aren't looking at expanding Pinon Canyon for this war, but for the future training needs of the Army."

Lon Robertson, a rancher from Kim who leads an opposition group, said the Army hasn't used the current site enough.

"So now we're supposed to give up our land because they say they will use it more often in the future? My answer is, our families need the land right now, absolutely, positively," he said.

Rice said the Army has no plans to duplicate the exercises done at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., because it would be too expensive.

The California site has a permanent garrison of troops who play the enemy during training, and commanders are able to watch individual soldiers during exercises using cameras set up on the large desert ranges.

Oh, it'll be different now, says Col Rice (yes, yes, brays Sen Allard) - bigger army, more wars to be fought. Go America!

Um huh. How 'bout this: Go capture a rocky, desert-like island somewhere (no, not Australia) - maybe, like off the coast of Africa. Hey, I can understand the US Army wanting new, powerful toys and wanting to blow up things. That's what armies do. Have a ball. Just don't run these poor, hapless Americans off their land to do it. Because it's not just these unfortunates who stand helplessly by while the government decides how it will carve up the American Pie.

We all lose.


What kind of nation have we become? I'll tell you what kind of nation we have become: one in which private land ownership is rapidly being overturned in favor of government ownership and control. One in which individual rights suck hind tit to a socialistic definition of state ownership and governance in every area of our lives. One in which the right to bear arms in defense of home and family is fervently despised by the Left. One in which parental rights are being ignored and thwarted in favor of child's rights - which the (Nanny) state will define and enforce.

Better wake up, Americans. This is happening on our watch, and it is a freight train that cannot be stopped by peaceful means. The US Government already has too much power, far too much power to a stopped by rational discourse.
“It is illogical for the DOD to expand a military training site in the landscape of southeastern Colorado when modern day warfare takes place in desert terrains, with emphasis on urban tactics. CICA does not believe the PCMS expansion plan is a prudent use of taxpayer dollars or resources.

“With the mounting national debt, rising oil prices and the exploding trade deficit, it is illogical for the U.S. government to spend millions of dollars to expand a military maneuvers site that threatens our rural communities, schools, our very homes and livelihoods. America can no longer tolerate the erosion of independent landowners and our agricultural industry. Therefore, CICA adamantly opposes the PCMS expansion plan, and we urge Colorado's elected delegation to join us in opposition.”

Colorado Independent CattleGrower's Association Secretary:

"The Army and The Nature Conservancy have become partners and are planning to take this huge "land grab" as a military taking, when in reality it is really an environmental land and water grab! The first two years of the proposed expansion do nothing more than set up buffer zones along the waterways. TNC wants this area and has for many years. So, what better way to get it by letting the Army do the taking and they sit back and watch. TNC has memorandum of understandings with most govt. agencies and are sitting back waiting for it all to come true.

TNC is a billion dollar "land grabbing leach" that not only wants to own all the water and land, it must also have control of them. The Dept. of Defense doesn't need more land as they already have 25 million acres. Our country cannot afford this taking of private property. The rural counties cannot afford to lose the tax base either. I hope that our politicians wake up before it is too late."

This crisis is happening not just in Colorado. It's happening all over America. Clinton grabbed up huge tracts of land, supported by Bush all the way. It will continue as. long. as. we. allow. it. to. happen.

If you think that it matters which color party lands in the Big White House, then perhaps you could share a little of that fairy dust with me.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

A Time of War

Public schools are not salvageable. It is the reason I plug home-schooling so often. Here is an example of what we can look forward to. See my earlier post on the background leading up to this latest debacle. For more background on the un-American, shameful degradation of our public schools, read these posts: here, here, here, and here.

WND Exclusive


BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS

Ban on 'Mom' and 'Dad' sparks call for exodus
'Public districts no longer are safe environment for children'

Posted: October 16, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


A call is being issued to Christians who have been engaged in the culture wars in California's schools to abandon the system, after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a ban on "discriminatory bias" against homosexuals and others with alternative sexual lifestyles.

"We're calling upon every California parent to pull their child out of California's public school system," Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, told WND.

"The so-called 'public schools' are no longer a safe emotional environment for children. Under the new law, schoolchildren as young as kindergarten will be sexually indoctrinated and introduced to homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality, over the protests of parents, teachers and even school districts," he said.

The law at issue went through the California legislature as SB 777, and now bans in school texts and activities any discriminatory bias against those who have chosen alternative sexual lifestyles, Meredith Turney, legislative liaison for Capitol Resource Institute, said.

There are no similar protections for students with traditional or conservative lifestyles and beliefs, however. Offenders will face the wrath of the state Department of Education, up to and including lawsuits.

"SB 777 will result in reverse discrimination against students with religious and traditional family values. These students have lost their voice as the direct result of Gov. Schwarzenegger's unbelievable decision. The terms 'mom and dad' or 'husband and wife' could promote discrimination against homosexuals if a same-sex couple is not also featured. read the rest


To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

-- Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

I believe it's time to go to war. We cannot win, fighting by their rules.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Orthodox Campus

New York Sun
Date:Oct 4, 2007
Section:Editorial & Opinion


Orthodox Campus


JOHN McWHORTER


What was I doing badly shaven and red-eyed on the “Today” Show back in 1996?

I was in a segment on the then raging controversy over “Ebonics.” The press had contacted me simply because I was the black linguist working closest to Oakland. The segment aired live at 7:30 a.m. Eastern Time, and so for me it was 4:30 a.m., and I had stayed up all night to do the show on a feed.

The question was whether black students’ reading scores lag behind white ones’ because the difference between Black English and standard English confuses them. That is, does a boy who says dem get thrown by the written word them? Does isn’t look foreign to someone raised on ain’t? I doubt many readers will be surprised that I said no. I knew there were some people who had argued otherwise, but I thought that the simple facts were such that my opinion was, at the very least, one that would be considered valid by linguists and educators specializing in Black English.

Whoops. This was, in fact, the beginning of a new phase in my life as a controversial apostate. I was the sole black linguist in America who just said no. Every single other one asserted that Black English was an African language, or at least so different from standard English that black students were being denied “their rights” to have their speech “acknowledged in the classroom.”

This was my first experience with the problem the Manhattan Institute’s Center for the American University addressed at a conference yesterday, the ingrained sense on university campuses that enlightening people to leftist points of view is the soul of higher education.

Unbeknownst to me, I had broken ranks. It had been assumed that the new black professor was with the program, devoted not to learning and thinking in itself, but to refining and promoting the basic tenet that life isn’t fair. As such, when the “Ebonics” issue came up I was supposed to paint black students as bilinguals — even if it meant bending facts or outright lying.

The “Ebonics in the Classroom” idea has been taught and discussed on campuses for decades. There is a school of thought in education schools decrying standard English as a “gatekeeper” unfairly established as the variety everyone must know how to use. Black English is, under this analysis, spoken by victims, subject to, as one august figure of this sort is fond of putting it, “linguistic profiling.”

Of course, it isn’t that there is nothing at all to the left’s take on Black English. For example, there is indeed such a thing as linguistic profiling. It is hardly unknown for a person with what I call a black-cent to be told there are no apartments available when there are some.

However, most will agree that when we get to the point of pretending that black students are done in by the difference between west and wes’ when bad teachers, disconnected administrators, discipline problems, and homes with few books are so plainly more worthy of address, we have tilted from empiricism into ideology.

Of course, to leftists, only conservatives have “ideology,” while liberals are bearers of truth. In this, it is missing the point to paint people like this as a cadre of sinister totalitarians. The leftist orthodoxy on college campuses is peopled mostly by pleasant, rational people who have not had the opportunity to consider that what they have been taught is truth could possibly, often, not be.

Humans seek patterns. There is nothing surprising about a point of view in which all events are interpreted through a wariness of power, especially when this perspective is hardly devoid of merit, and lends a sense of moral self-affirmation in the bargain.

However, an education that gives the left pride of place in this fashion is not an education at all. An education teaches one to assess both sides of an issue and come to one’s own conclusions. Many think they are imparting this by dissing Republicans and showing how some people are born more fortunate than others. They mean well. However, they discourage reflection. They are advocates. Universities should have teachers.

The Center for the American University is not devoted to making campuses havens for the right. What it will advocate is that students be exposed to intelligent conservative arguments as well as intelligent liberal ones.

It should not be considered big news for a conservative to get a job in a Political Science department. Education students should be taught that drill-based reading instruction was shown to work for poor black kids by Siegfried Engelmann 40 years ago. It’s okay for students to read Ehrenreich and Achebe — but a truly educated student will have read Von Hayek and Eliot as well.

Von Hayek and Eliot are dead and they were indeed pale. Those worried about that might consider that in the history of what has made poor people’s lives better, people who know how to engage the world as it is have a lot more victories to point to than utopianists.

Mr. McWhorter is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Mercury Dangers of Compact Flourescent Light Bulbs

NewsBusters

More on Mercury Dangers of Gore’s Carbon Footprint Reducing Light Bulb

By Jeff Poor | October 8, 2007


Perhaps it would be appropriate for Al Gore’s Web site to display a disclaimer warning you about the dangers of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), but he doesn’t.

According to the Washington Post’s Eco Wise columnist Eviana Hartman, “they contain a small amount of mercury, a potent neurotoxin.”

“If you toss the bulbs in the trash, they're likely to break, potentially exposing workers to mercury or releasing it into groundwater and soil from landfills,” Hartman wrote in the October 7 Washington Post.

There have been instances where these bulbs have broken and posed dangers. A WorldNetDaily story reported a Maine woman’s home was contaminated when one of the bulbs broke and will cost her $2,000 to have it cleaned up. The (Nashville) Tennessean reported of a woman who broke the bulb and without knowing the consequences vacuumed it up and spread the contaminants throughout her home.

“Everybody is throwing all this mercury into the garbage. No one knows this. This should be in bold print on the packaging,” Elizabeth Doermann said to the April 14 Tennessean.

But a government official told the April 2 Waste News, a trade publication that focuses on issues pertaining to waste products and the environment, reported there has been little discussion about the environmental hazards because of the hype surrounding global warming hysteria:

“But warning consumers that they have to dispose of compact fluorescents with care may not be in the best interest of those trying to sell them, she [Ann Moore, recycling coordinator for Burlington County, NJ] said. Along with the additional expense and performance concerns, having to deal with disposing of the bulbs could give consumers another excuse not to buy them, she said.

‘You probably don’t want to do that because you’d hate to wreck the momentum,’ Moore said. ‘And that could kill the movement.’”

Just about everybody's got them. I had a couple of them myself, until the base of one of them just came loose from the twisty glass part. Of course, I just threw it out with the recyclables. It was one of the less expensive ones from the dollar store. Who knew?

I read about this woman's experience in WND. As I recall, she was putting it in a ceiling fixture of her daughter's bedroom, and as she was screwing it into the socket, it slipped and broke on the carpeted floor. She called, got advice, had some kind of hazmat team come in, give an estimate to clean the carpet.

The bill: $2000usd...

According to WND,

In fact, practically the whole world – fearing global warming – is getting ready to ban the incandescent light bulb. It started in Cuba, moved to Venezuela, then Australia, Canada and the European Union. Now individual states in the U.S., including California, Connecticut, North Carolina and Rhode Island, are all in the process of legislating an end to Edison's greatest invention. Even local towns and cities are getting into the act.

The rap against the incandescent is that it uses more energy to produce light. Advocates of CFLs say they save money and energy by producing more light over more time for less money and less energy. They prefer to minimize concerns about cleanup and disposal, usually saying more needs to be done in the area of recycling.

But recycling experts say the solutions are at least five years away. Meanwhile, millions of consumers and green activists are being persuaded to make the switch.

EPA currently doesn't provide a unified message to the public on what to do with fluorescent lamps once they are no longer used," admits a draft announcing plans for a pilot project by the agency.

Yet, the EPA's Energy Star program is one of the major forces behind the push for CFLs.

I might have been tempted to dump the carpet. But then it ends up in landfill. Thirty years down the road, it'll be like Jersey City and the chromium superfund sites - except it'll be all over the US, and it will be much more dispersed than would be the case at a superfund site, potentially ending up in our water supplies. Remember, this will be a hard-sell marketing ploy. The image here is the one they want you to remember: [(1=9 simple math)]. How great is that? Don't worry about a little bit of mercury, folks. There's a ton of money to be made.

Perhaps they will bring out an Al Carbon-Offset Gore "mercury super-fllter", designed to protect us from mercury-laden drinking water. Or maybe he'll get into the hazmat business - seems like a natural.

Anyway, Al Gore's pushing it, and that's reason enough to blow the whistle. Gore has never had a taste of real power, so it's no wonder he's resisting a run for the While House. Lotsa money to be made if he plays his cards right. Besides, I think he's decided he doesn't like showing up for work every day in a shirt and tie.

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Lack of Educational Freedom in US

New Film Exposes Apparent Lack of Academic Freedom in US
By Kevin Mooney
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
October 08, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - Critics who question the need for race-based affirmative action programs, among other politically controversial issues, are prominently featured in a new documentary that looks at academia's treatment of dissenting views.

Although most of America's institutions of higher learning were designed to foster debate and mold students into critical thinkers, a two-and-a-half-year investigation shows that a repressive political climate has taken hold in recent years - a climate where dissent is silenced and free speech is jeopardized, according to Evan Coyne Maloney, who made the documentary "Indoctrinate U."

The film was screened last week at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and audience members, many of them students, expressed empathy for the people in the film who were often on the receiving end of politically correct harassment.

"The very people who invoke the name of tolerance are shown to be quite intolerant themselves," Josiah Ryan, a graduate of Hillsdale College, told Cybercast News Service. "Free speech is about a rich exchange of ideas. It's not about having everyone in agreement. The very notion of tolerance has been turned upside down."

While the documentary focuses on individuals who successfully pushed back against harassment and censorship, it is important to note that there are many students and professors who have had their academic careers damaged and even ruined, Maloney told the audience after the screening.

The film also touches on the dramatic ideological imbalance that currently exists among college professors and administrators.

Studies show conservative-minded academics to be vastly outnumbered in comparison to their liberal counterparts. But Maloney cautions against assuming that people on the right would not succumb to some of the same practices highlighted in the film, if the situation were reversed...(read the rest)

I first got wind of this film, Indocrinate U, six months ago. Filmmaker Evan Coyne Maloney has been working hard to get an audience to view and critique this important film.

Go here for the website and trailer of the film by Maloney and On the Fence Films.

CNS has the breaking story on the history on their efforts here.

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Karma And You


After a week of reading about the chicanery of the left, and watching the political cess-pool known as Capitol Hill, I find the whole business unbearably shallow, and I can't bear to write about any of it. So I need a break. In one sense I've said just about all I have to say about what is happening in America, to America, by Americans. Of course, this feeling will pass, and I'll be back doing my job, as one of the watchmen who try to wake Americans up to the fact that if they do not start to fight for our nation, others will define and shape it for us.


In the Heart of Freedom, in Chains
by Myron Magnet
City Journal


...Critical reason’s task is to peer through the cultural web in which we are enmeshed to perceive clearly the reality that actually exists, including the man-made reality of the social order, whose terms give our lives meaning. We have to question our culturally created assumptions to clear away attitudinizing or propaganda or superstitious prejudice. But the professors sidestep this challenge, simplifying and flattening these complex truths about culture and consciousness. They reach the false conclusion that all descriptions of society and our nature are not just colored or refracted by our cultural assumptions but are mere propaganda, aimed at convincing others that the world is as our class or subgroup wishes it to be. Moreover, since the profs believe that not just the social order but also what we take to be “human nature” is man-made, whoever wins the propaganda battle gets to mold society and human nature—human reality itself—into the shape he chooses....

It is happening now, today - the law of the land is being usurped by those who despise America, and think they can do God's job better than He can. The perfecting of man is best left to the higher spiritual laws. This effort at globalization by the atheist, secular humanists will come apart like a cheap suit, based as it is on untruth and misunderstanding of immutable laws. But not before they manage to create world-wide confusion and misery - mainly because we have allowed them to control the money.

Today I want to share some thoughts about a spiritual law, a more fundamental law, universal in it's application...and that is, the law of karma, seen through a Christian's eyes.

What is described in the essay below, is really a description of the law of karma, and the law of sanskāra, which are are simply two ways of looking at the same process - of the transmigration of the soul. In Sanskrit, karma means action. Sanskāra can be thought of as seeds, impressions stored in the mind and heart (known in Sanskrit as citta (pronounced, chitta) as a result of one's actions, including thoughts. These impressions will give rise to further actions, and will have consequences, depending on the nature and quality (godly or demonic) of the impressions. Understanding the law of karma helps us to understand how to come out from under the yoke of identifying with the ego.

In Sanskrit the word, ahamkāra [ahamkāra = aham, I am + kāra, something to which I become attached, and identify with - as myself], translates roughly as ego. This can be seen more readily in others...heh.

I AM is Consciousness - then the process of identification begins, I am a Christian, I am a Jew, I am a Muslim, I am Hindu - I am a saintly liberal, conservative, handsome, ugly, fat, beautiful, hungry, angry, etc. Identification with the body is the chief obstacle to realizing our true nature. There are other obstacles, to be sure, but constantly identifying with the body limits our understanding of our higher nature. It is a process we must all go through, by elimination, until we arrive at the truth, I AM. It's gonna take a while...but what's the rush?

C.S. Lewis put it simply: You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.

The process is both linear, in the sense that one's actions and their results play out in the field of time and space - and non-linear, in the sense that one's being is ultimately timeless, time being a concept valid only in the world of forms.

Spiritual laws operate with or without our understanding. As well as karma and sanskāra, we have the law of grace, which like the sun, is always shining upon us. Life is all about preparing us to receive that grace - grace which comes, ultimately from God, but it also comes from books, our teachers, and from special influences which help us make the leap from belief in God, to faith in God, until we begin to arrive at knowledge of God - not full knowledge, but one's own knowledge, never-the-less, which goes beyond mere faith.

Today we live in an age of awakening, and it's painful. Reason can take us far, but not far enough. Realize that God exists. God cannot be compared to anything, but understanding our relation to God precedes any real progress the soul can make in it's journey. The religions of today have usurped the concept of worshiping God. If that works for you, fine. But formal concepts aside, God is everyone's secret. He lives within us. It's okay to say 'hello' to Him in the morning, or whenever. Try it.

The greatest law is the law of LOVE. Separating ourselves from that love, denying ourselves that love, is giving rise to most of our pain today. We settle too cheaply, and must learn to ask for what we really want.

I don't know what you think of all this. I'm passing on what I was taught, with observations from my own personal experience.

The following essay, written over sixty years ago by a Christian, applies to Christians and non-Christians alike.

"About Your Karma"

( Originally Published 1941 )

INQUISITIVENESS IS A valuable faculty. Properly used it leads to the acquisition of much knowledge. To want to know, and to insist upon knowing, is carrying into effect the law "Seek, and ye shall find." Inquisitiveness is always decried by self-satisfied people who have reached the period when they lock the brakes on their thinking machinery for fear that a new thought might enter, and they skid along on old ideas. But it has been a real moving force in all advancement, in spite of all opposition. He who is satisfied that things are, without caring to know the whys and the hows, never gets anywhere. But the child who wants to know what makes the wheels go round is on the road to a liberal education and a deep understanding of things. Such a one will progress and discover wonders where others see nothing remarkable.

It was this spirit that led me to take up scientific work. Your true scientist is imbued with inquisitiveness. He always wants to know why, how, and what next. A real scientist is an active seeker after the truth of things. He cares not how he gets it nor how long it takes him. That is why we have made such great advances in the last few years. My own following of this method of thought opened the way to much useful knowledge; best of all, it gave me an understanding of the omnipresence of God that I could never have got otherwise. My inquisitiveness opened up a trail that led straight to God as all there is. Scientifically, we see that the presence of intelligence everywhere is the only possible explanation of the universe. There is nothing remarkable in this conclusion; I merely followed a certain definite, fundamental law to its logical conclusion, while working back to the beginning of things.

The first fact impressed deeply on us as students was that nothing ever happens without a cause, and that a certain cause will always produce a certain result. This is the law of cause and effect, which is fixed and unchangeable. Many human ideas that are pure superstitions would be avoided if this principle could be definitely borne in mind at all times. The laws of the Medes and Persians were supposed to be absolute and unalterable, but they have disappeared from among us, while the law of cause and effect is still in force, just as it always has been and always will be.

It is a law of God, of Principle, while the others were man-made.

When we were students, we found by observation and experiment, both of which are methods of getting answers to questions, that this law is absolute and dependable. The old saw "There is no smoke without fire" is a popular way of expressing this truth. All scientific work is based upon recognition of the immutability of this law. We learned to seek the cause of every action, then to start causes working in order to get certain results.

If by chance the latter did not come out exactly as we expected, the problem then was to find the cause of the variation; for we knew that since the law never fails, there must be one.

Later we learned, also through observation, that our understanding of this law required an addition. The effect of one cause may of itself be the cause of another effect. This again may start something else, and so on indefinitely. The law of cause and effect works out as an endless chain of events, each being at once the result of that which preceded it and the cause of results to come. The old rhyme of the lost horseshoe nail expresses this chainlike working of the law in a forcible manner. While we began working with this law in the material realm, we discovered that it applies in the mental field with the same force. For everything that happens begins in the mind.

Many years after leaving college I became interested in metaphysics, and I soon saw that every-thing that exists is formed first in the realm of Spirit, and then comes forth into the material form. This being so, the law of cause and effect is just as active in that kingdom as in the lower. In fact, if it were not a universal law of creation in the invisible, it could not be an absolute law.

In following this lead logically, we go straight back to God as the one cause of all things, for there must be a first cause. We also discover that He works through this law.

Now, I know that you are asking how all this can possibly concern your life. It has everything to do with the conditions in which you now find yourself. The law, being absolute, works on every plane of your being. You have been using it all the time, but you have not used it wisely, so you may not be pleased with the results of what you started. If you put a cause in operation in the mental realm it will work out in the material.

That is really the only way we ever accomplish anything in the so-called material world. We start it in the mental realm, and the law does the rest. "As he [man] thinketh within himself, so is he" is an ancient expression of this fact. Thought is a definite cause. The more firmly we concentrate on it, the more powerfully it acts. The character of the result that comes from this process will depend entirely on the kind of thought held and will correspond to it. An idea of imperfection will bring forth trouble in the body or affairs. A thought of good brings forth good just as surely as lighting a lamp dispels the darkness.

About the time that I reached these conclusions I came across an Oriental package, wrapped in mystery and tied up with the string of secrecy. It was labeled "karma," and it was supposed to be some strange law, unknown to us Westerners, that wields a terrible power over man in spite of all that he can do. My inquisitiveness being still active, I boldly ripped the bundle open, and found, under the strange name, our old friend the law of cause and effect working in our life.

That was all that the package contained, and that is the law of karma that seems to frighten so many people. The only difference is that the Oriental philosophers gave deeds, acts, as the beginning of karma. Now, we know that every act is first a thought, so we must go further back than they did right into the realm of ideas. Then we see that the law is true.

Having discovered this law that rules us and having found that it is absolute, those ancient sages concluded that man is bound by it, with no chance of escape. Consequently he can expect no change in conditions, because the law must work itself out to the very finish. That is, a line of thought, once started, must continue to the end, whether it raises man to sublime heights or destroys him. It is true that most people accept it in this way, and if things do not suit them, they claim that it is their karma working and that they can do nothing about it. If this were true, man would be a very helpless being. But we know that it is not so, although the law is unchangeable. Every law is subject to modification if it cannot be broken, and a law may be applied in more than one way.

Now let us study the working of this law, and we shall see how we can bring about changes with-out attempting to break it. At some time in your life you concentrated on a thought, which produced its effect. This was the first link in the chain. Your reaction to this effect caused you to hold the same thought or one like it. This produced a similar effect, but a more powerful one! This was the second link. The process continued, the chain becoming heavier and stronger all the time as you established this line of thinking. Now it is working out in your life for good or bad, according to the character of the original thought. This may extend very far back. The chain now holding you may have originated during childhood. If reincarnation is a fact, it may have been started in some previous existence, and it is still working because you have continued to add similar links. This idea is very far from being impossible.

Some people say that the idea of karma is not Christian, but Paul called attention to this law in no uncertain terms when he said, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." It is true. If you sow thoughts of thistles you will reap thistles, which will tear your fingers and cause you real sorrow. But if you sow thoughts of sweet peas, you will reap beauty and fragrance in your affairs, which will give you pleasure.

When Jesus advised us to do unto others as we would have them do to us, He was pointing out an application of this law. If you send a thought of love or of dislike to another, or if you express the thought in some act toward him, you have put in operation a cause that will bring back to you just what you gave out. It may not come from this person directly, but it will come in some way; for Jesus affirmed that the law is sure and unchangeable, and every investigation bears this out.

The law of cause and effect, karma, is absolute.

Now here is the situation. You are living and working under this unchangeable law. It is a very important factor in your search for happiness. If things don't suit you, what are you going to do about it? There are two ways open to you. If the fact that the law cannot be broken frightens you, you will undoubtedly follow the lead of the Eastern fatalists and do nothing but bemoan your lot, thinking that it cannot be changed. You will have many companions to share your misery; for this idea is not confined to the Orient by any means, it is quite widespread among our people.

This is far from being the best way, however, and the time will come when you will be obliged to take the other road. Why not do it now?

If you choose to take the best way, begin by giving thanks that the law is absolute. If it were uncertain in its action, you could not depend on getting definite results. Being unalterable, you can rely on it, and you must do this; for you are going to use the law instead of letting it use you.

Don't think that this is impossible. Just consider. You are adding links to the chain every day, every instant, in fact; but no person or power can compel you continually to add the same variety. You have the power of choosing the kind of thoughts you build into your mental structure, and since the law is absolute, you may know in advance what kind of results you will get. If you have been forging around your neck an iron chain of sickness, sorrow, and hard luck, stop it. Change your materials. Forge golden links of love, health, happiness, and success. Use these instead of the old ones, and you will create for yourself a nice new karma that will bring you the joy that the old one kept away from you.

Freedom is better than fetters.

Cease being the slave of karma. Be the master craftsman, making the law produce the definite, good results that you desire. You may doubt your ability or your right to do this. God created the law, and He uses it as a method of work. You are a child of God and you have in you the power of using His laws. It only requires that you know your sonship. Until you do know this, you are under the law, a slave to it. But the minute you know yourself as His child you become free, and this freedom gives you the power to make use of the law. From this time, if you remain subservient to it, it is your own fault.

There is another law that helps to bring freedom. This is the law of grace or free forgiveness, as Jesus announced it. Forgive yourself all the mistakes of the past, then you will be free to take right hold of your karma and make it what it should be. The law of forgiveness will release you from bondage to the chain of the past, it is true; but you must immediately begin to construct the new chain you de-sire, or the old one will come right back. "Sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee." If you repeat the old thoughts, you will recreate the old karma and it will be heavier, because it will contain all the old links as well as the new. But if you forgive these old thoughts and let them go while you create the good, you will find that everything will work out as you desire. You see, the law of grace does not annul the law of karma. It modifies it, wiping out the errors and giving you a chance to make a new start. Now is the time to do this.

Here is where care is necessary. To think a golden thought in the morning and then follow it with iron, brass, and lead throughout the day will not be productive of good results. Your lone golden link will be outweighed and the day's chain will resemble the duller, heavier links. Continual watch-fulness is the word. You must pick every thought with care. Should a negative idea creep in, nullify it at once by a strong affirmation of the good. Get in the habit of doing this if you wish to keep your freedom and have a good karma.

You have a strong ally in this work. Christ in you is the lord of karma. Turn to Him and claim His power. Claim your true identity in His name as I AM, and assert it. In the consciousness of I AM there is freedom and power. Here you can, with His help, throw off instantly the old rusty iron links that have been holding you, and begin to create the golden chain of All-Good to which you are entitled. And still the law will not be broken.

Christ does not break the law, although He is its master. He does not come to you to destroy it, but to use it. He fills it so full of good that only good can result from its action. And that is what you really desire. But you must ask Him to take charge. Ask Him to keep you steadfast in the right way. Then you will have no trouble with this law; for it is a perfect servant when you are master, because it is absolute.

No, the law can never be broken, but it can be made productive of good. God never fails, consequently the law through which He works cannot fail. This point cannot be made too strong. I have heard people say that the law does not work for them. Their expressed doubt is what is holding them in bondage to the infallible law. It is pre-venting them from demonstrating their mastery of it. When you say, "I cannot fail because Christ in me cannot fail," you have made a start in the right direction. You have begun the golden chain of success, which must work out as you hold to the law. What would you have? All good? It is all yours now if you become master of the law of cause and effect and work with it, using it as a magnificent tool. But the law must be followed consistently and continually, or you will sink back into the old conditions and be obliged to start all over again. Choose to be master, claim your unity with God, and let your Christ consciousness keep the law working for your good. This is what you should do with your karma.

In Christ I am free from bondage. I am not a slave to the law, I am its master, and I use the law to make my life perfect.

"For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage."

Monday, October 01, 2007

No darkness but Ignorance


from Armed Females of America

School shootings, workplace violence and guns.

Something has changed and it's not the guns.

by T. Stephen Eggleston


I went to school in a different time, the late 1950's and 1960's. It was a semi-rural area, and most people in the area had guns. I was also a nerd before there was such a thing as a nerd. If I were in school today, I would have been labeled ADD and drugged into complacency. As it was, I was bored to tears because school was not a challenge. I was a target for every bully in the school from grades 1-12, including the teachers. One classmate expected me to show up every morning and accept my beating. I did it.

I looked at every school-day morning as a death-row prisoner must look at their last day on Earth, except I knew I'd have to repeat it tomorrow. Like many other kids in my school, I had easy access to guns.

If any kid ever had motive, means and opportunity to blow away their teachers and classmates, I did.

The LAST THING I would have dreamed of, however, would have been to shoot someone. I watched Elmer Fudd point a shotgun, point-blank at Buggs Bunny and pull the trigger. All that happened to Buggs was a soot-covered face. Somehow, however, I knew you didn't point a shotgun at a person.

I knew you didn't kill. (read the rest)

Zero Tolerance Laws - from the Eggman


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